Oscar 2012 - Best Picture

Finally we got this year too at the last entry in the Oscar series, and I hope I'll finish to write in fast enough to still have sense to read it before the awards :) (I'm gettin' slow with this "live" writing lately ... even if I usually do it on the run). Considering the expectations had regarding my available time and the 8 postings on 9 categories I made (including the current one) I can declare myself pleased at least with the quantity (anyway smaller than last year with 10, respectively 12). But probably counting this doesn't interest anybody, so let's get to the movies:

"The Artist" - the small French production that ended up a big success is quite predictable also the winning option we have here ( statistically until last year I didn't screwed up with this prevision since "Chicago", maybe I won't do it twice in a row :) ). About the story, which for me is a bit too simplistic, I'll let the clip below to say some stuff. About the rest, as an impression I'll risk saying that we have something like the "Avatar effect" no matter how weird this sounds :) Meaning ... the movie managed to catch the audience especially due to the difference on what you can usually see in the cinemas. Silent, black-and-white, frame dimensions and visual filters to look like in the 20s, etc. In other words, keeping the proportions, it was something as "new" as "Avatar". The difference is a major one in what's left besides the technical part though = if "Avatar" has a script targeted for an IQ of 60, "The Artist" although quite simple as said, still it's much better, and you also have the actors who though not speaking they do play and they do it extremely well (what makes me wonder if "Avatar" wouldn't have been better if it was silent). Still, the fact that "The Artist" is (probably, didn't check) the favorite on bets, comes mostly due to the lack of competition. If the last year was the best in the latest 10 considering the nominees value, if you do an average this year you come up with exactly the opposite. What would be interesting is to take some silent movies from the beginning of last century, hypothetically remade these days, and compare. And I believe (still hypothetically :) ) that we'll get the chance to reach the conclusion that you should send the Oscar back in time ;)



"The Descendants" - is the movie that I'd like to break my previous prediction. I wrote enough on other occasions to get as long as I did above (you can check the blog entry from January). Shortly, the movie is the one that had the most powerful impact as feeling for me, in a positive way (because there is a title somewhere below that's slightly in a different register). I kept telling about the location and about how well is used the Hawaii setting. What I don't remember is if I wrote about the fact that it gives some chance at some point to build a sort of relation between the comic of the issues there with what problems you might have in your own life ( especially if these come close to the level of weirdness of the ones in the movie :) ), stuff that at least temporarily has the chance to make you feel better. And that's because the movie is warm enough (and that's not about Hawaii :) although this helps) to draw you out from a chilly state (and that's not about the winter :) although it happened to be like this).



"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" - is I guess statistically speaking the lowest-rated film nominated here since '95 (and that's because my memory doesn't help me beyond that date). Fact that confirms the level of this year. I wonder why they set nine nominees instead of ten ? ... although to be fair there are movies that could fill the spot. Well, getting back to EL & IC, I was expecting, due to the critics, to be much worse than it was. That doesn't make it the opposite. The story has a sort of potential - shortly, we have a boy, apparently suffering from Asperger, who passes through the trauma of losing his father on the 9/11. The part with the potential comes from a "quest" that the kid builds to find out the lock for a key, apparently left by the one who passed away. Well, I don't know how clear that was, but the movie will bring you more info. The first issue comes from the tragedy style that's a bit exaggerated, starting with the script, following with the acting and others. The second issue comes from action threads that are left hanging, situations that are not very credible although this is wanted, and other stuff like that ... Conclusion: it's probably the safest bet for something like: who do you think that won't get an Oscar this year ?



"The Help" - it's another movie that, with the risk to sound insensitive, is a bit too "tear-jerking" especially towards the end, but at the same time is at a completely different level from the one above. I think it's the production that I liked the most (as far as I remember) from any movie I've ever seen centered around racial segregation & stuff like that. The action is set in the '60s in Jackson, Mississippi where a young journalist woman more open (and normal) minded than the white community of which she's part of, decides to write a book about the black maids condition. Despite the subject the movie is really fun to watch, you don't feel at all the almost two and a half hours it has, and for the acting (since I've skipped the categorie) is I guess pretty much the only title that gets to the same level with the cast in "The Artist".



"Hugo" - is the movie having the most nominations this year, and that makes it somehow the main pretender to the Oscar after "The Artist". On the other hand if we consider for example "True Grit" from last year having also 10 nominations and getting 0 awards the things look different (well, I should count anyway, that last year's nominees looked different too). If I should compare it, the story from "Hugo" is not much more complex than the one in "The Artist". But, as I was saying, even if here we have the 3D - "the Avatar effect" moved in the other direction towards something more original at this moment. Since due to the number of nominations, I ended up writing every time this year about "Hugo", I'm gonna short it now and leave the trailer to do the summary of the story which is after all mostly about Georges Melies (I'm just realizing .. it's funny that the movie + the book have a name + even the trailer it's a bit missing it and finally the main point is the life of somebody else).



"Midnight in Paris" - is the I don't know which episode from the "Woody Allen reloaded" series. What to say more than what I already said when I wrote about directing and art direction ... I really don't know. I'll do a "reload" too :) : it's the story of an aspiring writer who went to Paris where he discovers a "teleporter" in the shape of an old car that each midnight transports him somewhere at the beginning of the XX-th century in the middle of the American literature classics, and not only them. Everything in a pure Woody Allen style = the same type of dialogues and social comic about which seemingly the critic never has enough since 20 years ago (even the fonts on the credits are the same ... I've recently watched "Hannah & her Sisters" from .. '86 ! no change). Anyway .. the result is still something decent to watch before you go to sleep ...



"Moneyball" - we had to have a sports related movie, and if it's not boxing is baseball. I don't know if I haven't said it already but the main thing to note here is Brad Pitt's performance, which I'm gonna risk saying is the best of what I've seen (a bit on top of "Army of the 12 Monkeys"). I have no idea how is really the team manager, who accepted to to introduce the statistic theory as instrument for creating the teams in the American Baseball (this is the subject of the movie - more or less) but Pitt carries on an exceptional part. Probably he won't get the Oscarul (there's still "The Artist" around, with Jean Dujardin in great form), but anyway he did rise at least in my eyes as acting talent. The rest is in the trailer ...



"The Tree of Life" - is probably the most "deep" movie from what we got nominated here, and actually it's not probably, I think it is the only one (with "The Descendants" having a slight tendency of hidden philosophy behind what you can directly get, just a slight one). I won't try to analyze "The Tree of Life" now. It's the type of movie that deserves left to each viewer to "chew" on it how he/she is able to. There isn't much of a subject - bits'n pieces from the life of a boy having an authoritarian father (again Brad Pitt, but not really at the same level as above). What keeps you near the screen is the way it's made, and once again a plus for Malick as director and one even bigger for Lubecki as cinematographer. It's a movie that took Palme d'Or at Cannes and was completely ignored at BAFTA. Two reasons for which I didn't expect much - I always found Cannes more like a "critic snobbery" than real value + even now I can't really say that I like Malick as director - I'm waiting to get confirmed this wasn't an accident. If I were to judge objectively after what I've seen among the nominees, this is probably the most entitled film to get here. I'm still keeping my preference for "Descendants" but I can't ignore the superiority this one has in some areas where there you have almost nothing, like the cinematography for example which matters a lot. And because of this I can include "The Tree of Life" besides the one above and "Hugo" on the list of possible surprise this year on the final announcement of "And the Oscar goes to ...".



"War Horse" - wraps alphabetically the list of this year. Too much to say besides what I've commented on other categories I don't have. In other years (as other titles here) this movie wouldn't have got with the nominees that far. To be short, it competes with "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" for the exaggerated tear-jerking style and in Spielberg's list of directed movies is probably on the bottom quarter (it seems the first World War doesn't fit him as well as the second). Still, and I think I've actually said it before ... it's a movie that as a story is watchable = sufficiently wide as temporal space so it won't seem artificially stretched and with enough in-depth content too so it won't seem too simple. But is definitely not to "deep" either ...



So .. since it seems we have a French domination at the Oscars de this year, I can say a "c'est fini" :) up until the next February. About the awards stuff of cours, next week back to the usual movie entries ;)