Just a quick note about the Oscars:
This was one of the more disappointing years for film that I can remember. Unlike last year, when I saw at least a dozen films I liked, I had a series of frustrating and bewildering movie-going experiences over the past few months. Highly-touted films like “Borat”, “Babel”, “Little Children”, and “The Departed” all left me decidedly underwhelmed. Though each featured marvelous individual performances, the overall quality of these celebrated pictures struck me as considerably less than the sum of their parts.
Hands down, the best film I saw all year was “Pan’s Labyrinth”, with “The Queen” taking runner-up and “Little Miss Sunshine” taking third. (Of all the major nominated films, I’ve seen each and every one save for “Half Nelson” and “Letters from Iwo Jima.”) Though at times it’s difficult to watch, “Pan’s Labyrinth” was mesmerizing. It ought to have earned a nod in the best picture category.
If I had been giving out awards last night, and could have nominated whomever I liked, I’d have given these in the major categories:
Best Director: Guillermo Del Toro, “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Best Supporting Actor: Leslie Phillips, “Venus” (nipping Jackie Earle Haley by a hair.)
Best Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza, “Babel”
Best Actor: Will Smith, “The Pursuit of Happyness” (nipping Whitaker by a nose)
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, “The Queen” (the only award given I agreed with utterly, though Penelope Cruz takes my breath away)
Best Picture: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Did you happen to see ‘children of men’? It, along side Pan’s, LMS, and Iwo Jima all blew me away this year. Children of Men was hands down the best film I saw all year, and probably the best since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Was hard picking against it in all it’s categories, despite it deserving cinematography by yard, even in the face of the brilliant Pan’s.
No, I haven’t seen it. I’ve spent the last few weeks frantically seeing the films nominated in the major categories, and Children of Men is one of the several from other categories I have yet to see.
That’s how I spent my last week (cramming Iwo, Pan’s, all the nominated shorts, departed and–had blockbuster been more friendly–babel). I lucked out and didn’t really hit a dud (though I didn’t think departed deserved the nod), but children of men still reigns as the best movie i’ve seen in ages. It’s getting a bit of flack from conservative critics who are claiming it waters down the apparently overtly religious messages in the novel its based on. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment directly, but I still felt a great deal of the general hope-in-dire-times that I think was the main aim of both book and movie.
I second that suggestion for “Children of Men’. A flawed film, to be sure, but some of the most beautiful handheld camera handling I have ever seen. As much as I liked Pan’s Labyrinth, Children of Men was robbed of the Best Cinematography award.