Academy Award Nominations

First of all... Sorry I haven't posted recently, but I was extremely busy helping Sean Price film his first real movie for UNO. I was the director of photography and it was a really fun experience.

Now... the Academy Award nominations came out today. There were very few surprises, but the surprises that were there were either not interesting or simply stupid. For instance:

BLIND SIDE got a best picture nom!

We all knew that Sandra Bullock was going to be nominated for best actress (and strangely enough she seems to be the front runner, which still perplexes me), but Blind Side for best picture? I don't get it. This was not a highly acclaimed film, and yet all of the support for Sandra Bullock's performance appears to have snowballed into a massive awards season mindfuck.

Other surprises included Maggie Gylenhaal being nominated for Best Supporting Actress and
The Messenger being nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Shocking, right?

Here are a list of things I would have liked to have seen from the Academy Award nominations

1. The Fantastic Mr. Fox nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay
How can I say this? The Fantastic Mr. Fox is simply the BEST animated film I've seen in years. Not only is it visually dazzling, but it is almost incomprehensibly clever and funny.

2. Gabby Sidibe being given the Best Actress Award in advance
I know this is an unrealistic request, but I'm just not prepared to see either Meryl Streep or Sandra Bullock win for their coy, possibly stupid performances. Admittedly, I haven't actually seen either of these performances, but could they really be better than Gabby Sidible's raw, vulnerable and emotionally devastating turn as Precious?

3. Better nominees for best director
Other than Kathryn Bigelow and Lee Daniels, whom I both thought directed wonderful films, I thought the best director category could have been much stronger, although I'm inclined to give Quentin Tarantino a break here since I did think that Inglourious Basterds was one of his most visually interesting film in years. And James Cameron for Avatar? Although on an effects level, Avatar was superb, Cameron's direction itself was not as outstanding. And Jason Reitman's direction in Up in the Air was nothing more than the pinnacle of above-average competence. What about Wes Anderson, or Ramin Bahrin's poignant work in Goodbye, Solo?

Decade Awards con't - Good Movies with Bad Endings

Let me preface by saying that there will clearly be SPOILERS in this post.

Good Movies with Bad Endings

5. Frailty (2001, dir. Bill Paxton)

This might be a controversial choice, because Bill Paxton's debut film has many defenders... including myself. I happen to think that Frailty is a very interesting and well-made horror film, but it has one of the most ham-handed twist endings in recent memory. In the film, Matthew McConaughey plays Fenton Meiks, a small town ne'er-do-well who tells FBI Agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) that his brother, Adam, is the prolific God's Hands killer. Fenton then proceeds to explain that he when he and his brother were children their father told them that he had received divine instructions to be a "demon" killer. According to Fenton, he and Adam were forced to aid their father in killing numerous "demon"s, although as far as Fenton was concerned they were simply regular people they were murdering. Now years later, Fenton believes that Adam has taken up his father's mantle. Fenton takes Agent Doyle to the rose garden where he believes his brother has been hiding his victims. While there, Doyle remarks that something about Fenton's story doesn't make sense, to which Fenton replies, "It does if the person standing in front of you is Adam Meiks." What the fuck? You mean the person guiding the audience through this narrative wasn't Fenton, but Adam? I've never seen that kind of twist before!! I've also never seen that twist executed so haphazardly. Imagine watching the Usual Suspects and at the end of Agent Kujan's interrogation of Verbal Kint, Verbal says, "Wouldn't it blow your mind if I was Keyser Soze?!" Yeah, that would have been awesome.

4. Night Watch (2004, dir. Timur Bekmambetov)

Timur Bekmambetov's record-breaking Russian film is an imperfect but highly cinematic experience. Unfortunately, it falters under the weight of an impossibly convoluted narrative and its attempts to craft a horror ensemble film. The film begins with a deceptively simple premise: the forces of light and dark are locked in an age-old truce, but it is prophecized that a human child will shift the balance of power. From here, however, the film becomes embroiled in a clusterfuck of occult minutaie and dizzying action sequences, all leading up to a truly confusing, what-the-fuck ending, and not in a good way. In the film's climactic last scenes, the main characters rush to... do something to a... vortex, or a portal, or something? Honestly, I still don't know exactly what it was, or how it connected to the narrative.

3. Matchstick Men (2003, dir. Ridley Scott)

Its ending not withstanding, I was never a huge fan of this film to begin with. However, in addition to solid supporting roles by Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman, this film presented a rare occurence for cinema in the 21st century: Nicholas Cage actually trying to give a good performance. Did he succeed? Yes and no. Playing Roy Waller, an obsessive-compulsive con man who finds out he has a teen aged daughter, Cage's performance occasionally steps into vastly overdone territory, but it is to Cage's credit that the character never fully succumbs to caricature. Rather, Cage adds layers of disconnection to Roy that are both poignant and tragic. Unfortunately, Ridley Scott wouldn't allow this film to simply be an engaging character story; it had to be a con artist movie. And so, like almost every con artist movie, it ends with the obligatory "everything was a con" twist. Put simply... during the course of the film, Roy develops an unexpected relationship with his estranged teen aged daughter and eventually involves her in a major con. Of course, the con goes terribly wrong and Roy's daughter has to go into hiding. He gives her everything he has ever earned as a con man, only to find out later... the con was on him. Big surprise? Only to anyone whose never seen a con movie.

2. Unbreakable (2000, dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

It's strange to think that M. Night Shyamalan's films used to be highly anticipated because we thought they would be good. However, I think that officially ended after Lady in the Water. Despite the fact that his reputation has diminished recently because of a string of laughably, utterly bad films, it should be said that he does have a few good movies to his credit, including this potently atmospheric tale of a ordinary man who seemingly can't be harmed. After emerging unscathed from a catastrophic train accident, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) meets Elijah Price, a comic book enthusiast with a rare condition that makes his bones extremely fragile. Elijah believes David to be a superhero of sorts, a fact that David think is crazy. Over the course of the film, however, he comes to accept his special abilities and their potential to help people. For most of the film, Shyamalan demonstrates an impressive visual and tonal command. Unfortunately, in the film's ending Shyamalan lets his more ridiculous side get the better of him. In Unbreakable's final scene, David finds out that Elijah not only purposefully caused the train accident that revealed David's abilities, but he was also responsible for numerous other disasters. This twist is actually quite effective, but what happens after is not. First, Elijah senselessly babbles on about knowing one's place in the world and how to spot the archvillian in a comic book? What? Then, as David stalks away, Elijah calls out to him, "I should have known way back when. You know why, David? Because of the kids! They called me Mr. Glass!" Finally, a title scroll appears, explaining that David would later lead police to Elijah and that he would be admitted to a mental institution for the criminally insane. And with that, what had been a darkly realistic take on a superhero story turned into Shyamalan farce.

1. High Tension (2003, dir. Alexandre Aja)

This is not only the best film on the list, but it is also, possibly, the most frustratingly inartful with its ending. The film follows Marie and Alex, two college girls who come to the country house of Alex's family to study for their upcoming exams. All is well until a mysterious psychopath invades the family's home, murdering Alex's mother, father, and brother, and kidnapping Alex. Marie escapes death by hiding in the house, but she goes after the killer to rescue Alex. This leads to a thrilling climax in which Marie, harnessing all her primal energy, turns the tables on the crazed murderer, eventually killing him. End of story, right? No. Although if that had been the end, I probably would have thought that High Tension was the best pure horror film of the 21st century. Unfortunately, High Tension made a classic mistake: it over thought itself into oblivion. Flashback to the beginning of the film: Marie dreams she's being violently chased through the woods. When Alex asks who was chasing her, Marie replies that she was chasing herself. When I first saw this scene in theaters, I said to myself, "Is this going to be another ridiculous multiple personality movie?" Well... sure enough, at the end of the film after Marie has killed the psychopath, she frees Alex. But Alex recoils from Marie, completely terrified. This is when it comes all too apparent to the audience what is happening: Marie was the killer all along. Seriously? Yes, seriously. It wasn't cool.

Decade Awards con't - Most Memorable "Mini-role"

This is a particularly fun category, because sometimes the richest and most interesting performances in a film are those with such little screen time. You know what I'm talking about... those little roles that pop in for one or two scenes but can still leave you completely stunned.

Most Memorable Mini-roles

5. Christopher McDonald in Requiem for a Dream (2000)


via videosift.com

Possibly the best role of Christopher McDonald's unheralded career is his brief turn as Tabby Tibbons, an infomercial personality in Requiem for a Dream. Except for a terrifying halucination, Tabby never appears as anything but a character in Sara Goldfarb's television and yet his presence in the film is unmistakable, funny, and always captivating.

4. William Sadler in Kinsey (2004)

William Sadler's truly unsettling performance in Kinsey is such a mini-role that I couldn't find any video of it or even his image in the film, but this is a great one-scene performance from a character actor who has excelled in supporting roles. In the film, Sadler plays Kenneth Braun, a mousy, sickeningly self-satisfied sexual deviant who claims to have had sex with hundreds of adolescent boys and girls. He attempts to share his "research" with Professor Kinsey, but he does it with such unrepentant glee that one of the Kinsey's assistant refuses to participate in the interview. Sadler imbues the character with both a clinical coldness and a sociopathic lack of guilt and self-consciousness that is remarkably effective.

3. William Baldwin in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)



William Baldwin may have reached the peak of his career in the mid 1990's when he was the go-to actor for sexually charged thrillers like Sliver and Fair Game (OK, so this isn't exactly a sexually charged thriller, but he bangs Cindy Crawford in it). Recently, however, Baldwin seems to have recognized his talent for comedy, both as Ivan the tennis instructor with a penchant for calling everyone "brother" in The Squid and the Whale and as the actor who plays Detective Hunter Rush in the fictional tv series Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The audience only gets a few glimses of this show in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but each moment William Baldwin graces the screen as Detective Rush is comedy magic. I really wish the filmmakers had actually shot an episode of Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime for the dvd special features.

2. Bill Murray in Zombieland (2009)



One of the most rewarding sequences in Zombieland is when the main characters visit the seemingly abandoned mansion of Bill Murray. While searching through the actor's palatial home, they encounter what looks like zombie Bill Murray, but is really just Bill Murray acting like a zombie to fool the other zombies. For some reason, Bill Murray acting like Bill Murray post-Zombie apocalypse is spectacularly funny, and Murray himself gives one of the most entertaining supporting performances of his career.

1. Ralph Fiennes in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Casting the luminous Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort was one of the best decisions the Harry Potter filmmakers ever made. If someone else had assumed this role, someone less capable of conveying the character's preternatural malice and dark command, then the fourth film would have failed. It is this climactic scene where Harry Potter confronts Voldemort in human form for the first time that makes the film so compelling. Ralph Fiennes has less than ten minutes of screen time, but his full-forced immersion into the role of Lord Voldemort was worthy of an Academy Award nomination. Every aspect of his performance, his rangy, idiosyncratic movement, the dominant inflections of his eyes, is beautifully and frighteningly pronounced.

Decade Awards con't - Special Categories

I was giving it some thought and I realized that when it comes to "Decade Awards" the traditional nomination categories don't really cover everything, which is why I'm extending the awards with some slightly different categories.

The first category is...

Most Intellectually Offensive

Honorable Mention: Rules of Engagement (2000, dir. William Friedkin): William Friedkin's post-seventies career is a model of inconsistency and supreme artistic laziness, but with this 2000 thriller Friedkin crossed the boundary of mediocrity into the putrid realm of war crimes justification. In the hopelessly A Few Good Men-like Rules of Engagement, Samuel L. Jackson plays Terry Childers, a marine colonel who orders his troops to open fire on a crowd in Yemen when evacuating a US embassy and is subsequently charged with war crimes. Ultimately he is acquitted and the audience is made to understand that his brutal tactics stem only from the concern he has for his troops' safety. In a particularly reprehensible sequence, Childers flashes back to an incident in the Vietnam War in which he murdered a prisoner-of-war while his unit was under attack. And this too, we are urged to believe, was a merely a case of the ends justifying the means.

5. The Patriot (2000, dir. Roland Emmerich)

In all honesty, I think The Patriot is a very entertaining film, but that's because I don't analyze it that deeply, which is good because The Patriot doesn't stand up well to historical or intellectual scrutiny. In particular, the film's treatment of race in the thirteen colonies during the Revolutionary War is disgustingly inaccurate to the point of marginalizing the tragedy of slavery. In the film, Mel Gibson plays a Southern planter, Benjamin Martin, whose moral lapses stem only from his dark, war-like past, not from the fact that he participates in the slave trade: because he doesn't. The African laborers on his farm work the land as "freed men". In addition, there is the character of Occam, a slave who is conscripted to fight in Benjamin's militia. At the end of the film, Occam finds out that his service in the militia has guaranteed his freedom, which I suppose is symbolic of the promise of freedom for all slaves, but instead plays as a tasteless joke. Rather than treating the issue of slavery honestly, this film anesthetizes it to the point of cruel triviality.

4. Inglourious Basterds (2009, dir. Quentin Tarantino)

My problems with Inglourious Basterds extend beyond points of ideology, but I can't let the film get away with a few things: one is Quentin Tarantino's earnest belief that barbaric violence necessarily leads to military victory, which he made perfectly clear in a Cannes press conference where he said that if the 'Basterds' had existed in World War 2 they would have "changed the course of the war." Secondly, the film's cavalier distortion of history made me very uncomfortable. In my first blog response to the film, I wrote:

"I sat in the theater watching the beautifully violent and expressive deaths of Adolph Hitler and other war criminals with my mouth wide open with incredulity, not understanding completely how everyone was so entertained by this half-baked fever dream. Certainly I felt some level of self-righteous glee at seeing the world's most notorious mass murderer exploded with bullets, but I couldn't help but think that it was both morally and intellectually dishonest."

This alternative retelling of World War 2 seems to satisfy a base need for socio-historical catharsis, but does it do so at the expense of accepting the darker realities of our collective pasts, all so that Quentin Tarantino can fetishize violence in World War 2?

3. The Last Samurai (2003, dir. Edward Zwick)

Whether or not someone enjoys this film most likely hinges on two factors: the first being whether one can genuinely respect a Dances With Wolves knock-off; and the second being whether one believes dying in a unnecessary blaze of glory is noble. As for myself, I tend not love Dances With Wolves knock-offs, and I generally think that dying in a blaze of glory for the sake of dying in a blaze of glory is psychotic, which is precisely what happens in this film. Simply put, a samurai leader (Ken Watanabe) struggling against Japanese modernization attacks the emperor's new, technologically superior army in a sure-to-be-doomed offensive. This fact does not humble the main characters, but rather their willingness to engage themselves in a glorified suicide mission becomes a point of pride.

2. Charlie Wilson's War (2007, dir. Mike Nichols)

I don't necessarily think that the United States' covert involvement in the Russian/Afghanistan war was a bad thing, but this film not only explicitly glorifies the CIA's secret operation in that conflict, but it also implicitly suggests that the US's anti-communist activities in Latin America and South America was justified, or the film simply doesn't acknowledge the devastating cost of those actions. In addition, the film's assertion that the Russian/Afghanistan war was the sole cause of the end of the Soviet Union is myopic.

1. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006, dir. Gabriele Muccino)

Apparently, I was the only one who found this story of a single father trying to acquire a stock broker's position in order to support his son to be anything but uplifting. Why? Because he essentially gambles his son's future on a million to one shot, and because he miraculously achieved it, it's seen as a triumph of the spirit. I see it, on the other hand, as a feat of remarkable, disaster-avoiding luck--not to mention a free market conservative's hysteric wet dream.

Alex's Decade Awards

I'm going to do something slightly different with today's blog. Instead of simply making a top ten or twenty for the decade, I'm going to present an entire awards edition.

Best Ensemble Film of the Decade
The Departed (2006)
The Contender (2000)
I Heart Huckabees (2004)
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Traffic (2000)

Best Film Score of the Decade
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
I Heart Huckabees (2004)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Sunshine (2007)

Best Film Editing
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Constant Gardener (2005)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
The Departed (2006)
Traffic (2000)

Best Cinematography
Gangs of New York (2002)
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
The Prestige (2006)
City of God (2003)

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Departed (2006)
Children of Men (2006)
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Traffic (2000)
In the Bedroom (2001)

Best Original Screenplay
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
The Edge of Heaven (2008)
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

Best Supporting Actress
Maria Bello, A History of Violence (2005)
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton (2007)
Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale (2005)
Hiam Abbas, The Visitor (2008)

Best Supporting Actor
Gary Oldman, The Contender (2000)
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (2008)
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children (2006)
Peter Saarsgaard, Shattered Glass (2003)
Benecio Del Toro, Traffic (2000)

Best Actress
Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich (2000)
Sissy Spacek, In the Bedroom (2001)
Charlize Theron, Monster (2003)
Laura Linney, You Can Count on Me (2000)

Best Actor
Ralph Fiennes, The Constant Gardener (2005)
Christian Bale, American Psycho (2000)
Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom (2001)
Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood (2007)

Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron, Children of Men (2006)
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Martin Scorcese, The Departed (2006)
Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Uli Edel, Der Baader Meinhof Complex (2009)

Best Film
Children of Men (2006)
The Departed (2006)
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
In the Bedroom (2001)
Der Baader Meinhof Complex (2009)

Top Ten Albums and Songs of 2009

10. Passion Pit, Manners
This collection of bouyant, shimmering gems is the best example of indie electronic this year.

9. Antlers, Hospice
Combining ambient textures with dark, propulsive anthems, this is certainly one of the best albums of the year. Complex and deeply cinematic.

8. Sunset Rubdown, Dragon Slayer
With this latest album, Sunset Rubdown reaffirms why they are one of the most ambitious, moving, and powerfully idiosyncratic bands of the 21st century.

7. Handsome Furs, Face Control
With this newest release from his Wolf Parade side project Handsome Furs, Dan Boeckner again produces a fantastic album full of gritty, rousing electronic indie rock.

6. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Phoenix's brand of sleek, electro-pop was a major winner this year with this outstanding album, in which seemingly every song is a single.

5. Foreign Born, Person to Person
This album of pristine, scintillating indie rock is the second stunner from the California based Foreign Born; the first being their extraordinary debut, On the Wing Now.

4. WHY?, Eskimo Snow
Not only is the only one of the most sorely underrated albums of the year, but in my opinion it is also one of the best. It shows the band in their intimate and emotionally affecting light.

3. The Middle East, Recordings of the Middle East
Although this is technically only an EP, it's seven songs are as hauntingly beautiful as anything I've heard in a long time.

2. Neko Case, Middle Cyclone
This album represents the pinnacle of Neko Case's career in my opinion. At least for now. The songs here are more lush and penetratingly beautiful than anything she's ever done.

1. Dappled Cities, Zounds
This oft-underlooked Australian band releases the best album of their career with this soaring collection of big, bold, emotive indie rock songs.

Top Ten Songs of 2009

10. We Were Promised Jetpacks, Quiet Little Voices

9. The Horrors, Primary Colours


8. Phoenix, Big Sun


7. WHY?, Eskimo Snow


6. John Vanderslice, Too Much Time


5. Handsome Furs, Radio Kaliningrad


4. Neko Case, I'm an Animal


3. Passion Pit, Moth Wings


2. The Middle East, Blood


1. Julian Plenti, Only if You Run

Up in the Air... and Top Ten Films of the Year

There are still plenty of films I want to see before I my top ten is truly complete, but this is what I have so far:

10. Bruno
I'm perfectly comfortable knowing that I'm one of the few who believes this film is better than Borat. Just to be clear, both are spectacularly funny, abrasive comedies, but in my opinion Bruno reaches nearly unprecedented heights of subversive comedy. This Sascha Baron Cohen vehicle satirizes America's homophobic, celebrity-obsessed culture more saliently and bracingly than any other film in recent memory.

9. Up in the Air
This may be Jason Reitman's most self-conscious effort to date. The film, following a corporate job termination specialist's assiduously disconnected lifestyle, doles out heavy-handed lessons on the importance of family. Despite its maudlin predictability and occasional triteness, Jason Reitman's third film is at times deeply moving and always exceptionally well-crafted. In particular, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick are wonderful.

8. Zombieland
While this film doesn't utterly reinvent the zombie movie, it does add a refreshingly spirited and full-fisted spin. Anchored by muscular direction , a surprisingly perceptive script, and great performances from Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson, it's one of the most fun films of the year.

7. Adventureland
Greg Mottolla's follow-up to Superbad is a funny, moving, cringingly honest portrayl of confused youth.

6. Moon
Sam Rockwell delivers a bravura performance in this tale of a Moon miner awaiting relocation back to Earth.

5. District 9
Much has been made of this film as an allegory for South African apartheid, but with it's narrative of a multi-national's domination over an "alien community" this film is truly an indictment of the post-modern marginalization of the third world by international corporatism.

4. (500) Days of Summer
Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordan Levitt both shine in this rich, innovative romantic comedy.

3. Observe and Report
Many found this film to be uncomfortably perverse... I agree with them, but that's what this film is: a portrait of a somewhat disturbed, alienated individual, Ronnie. I consider it a great tribute to Jody Hill and Seth Rogen that I found the treatment of Ronnie to be so vulnerable, disturbing, and hilarious.

2. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Wes Anderson's most recent film is also one of his best. Not only is it staggeringly beautiful, but is also one of the funniest films in recent memory.

1. Der Baader Meinhof Complex
Uli Edel's rivetting examination of Germany's radical 1970s group the Red Army Faction is one of the most powerful and incisive studies of terrorism.