Last night, the Mrs. and myself took in Precious. Today, we took in A Serious Man, The Hurt Locker and An Education. With these four movies, we have seen all 10 Best Picture nominees for 2009. As promised, here is my ranking of them, in order of enjoyment:
1. Avatar
2. Up
3. Up In The Air
4. Inglorious Basterds
5. An Education
6t. District 9
6t. Precious
8. A Serious Man
9. The Hurt Locker
10. The Blind Side
For the record, my wife's top three were Up, Inglorious Basterds and An Education.
I suppose the surprise here is that my enjoyment of The Hurt Locker doesn't seem to match up with critics. To me, the movie could have been much shorter. To me, the lessons we learned in the end, that Sanborn wanted a child and that James just wanted to keep diffusing bombs, could have been dropped on us much sooner, and we would have enjoyed the movie just the same. And the third main character, Eldridge, is the same character the entire movie. We never learn anything about him other than that he doesn't want to die, which is such an unique character in a military movie. I can't imagine how they thought that up! Also, for a movie where the objectives are to diffuse bombs, I wasn't really on the edge of my seat for any of it. James may have appeared psychotic to his two subordinates, but he also always seemed to know what he was doing. When he tells the superior officer that he had successfully diffused 873 bombs, it seemed that from that point on there was little to no danger of him dying. Odds are if you were going to die from a bomb going off, it would have happened before the 873rd time. Crazy, I know. In any case, it's a good movie, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the others.
This weekend we also took in Precious. On the surface, Precious and District 9 are incredibly different movies, but for me they share a couple of similarities. Like District 9, Precious is likely a movie that will continually be on the cusp of my favorite 100 movies of all-time. Like District 9, it will likely always be on the outside of that list due to it's lack of rewatchability. Precious was a thoroughly moving piece of cinema, and I think that people that focus on the fact that pictures move or that the dream sequences weren't believable - side note, duh, that's why they're called "dreams" - are missing the point. The movie's central strength was its heart, and no amount of camera tricks or flashiness should be able to confuse that point.
A cautionary tale where things turn out mostly all right in the end, An Education struck just the right chord. As a viewer, you are initially hesitant of David, but as time goes by he becomes more and more convincing, and when he asks Jenny to marry him, you think to yourself, 'Well, this is it. He's going to do right by her now.' And when he still turns out to be a bad guy, it's a bit of a punch in the stomach. The blow is dulled only by the fact that she is so young and that she still has her future in front of her if he she wants to fight for it. I initially had this one ranked seventh, but the more I think about it the more I like it. It moved briskly, and it was a rare romantic movie that you wouldn't call a "chick flick."
A Serious Man was in the Coen Brothers signature to be sure. And while it was slow in parts, that agonizing for Larry is what makes the film great. You have to simmer and stew along with him as he slowly loses his mind, house and family, and I think many of us can relate to feeling more decisive in our dreams or in our imagination than we are in real life. In the end though, I can't shake the feeling that Larry was a little too helpless. I mean, no one can be a door mat like that at home and be an almost-tenured professor at the same time, right? I don't know, maybe they can. In any case, I think I'll enjoy A Serious Man more upon repeated viewings, and I feel like The Hurt Locker and The Blind Side will annoy me more on repeated viewings, so that's why I ranked A Serious Man where I did.
Now, please don't mistake my preferences for what I think will happen tomorrow. It seems as though there are only two movies with a chance of winning - Avatar and The Hurt Locker - and as much as I enjoyed Avatar, I really don't see it winning Best Picture. Which leaves The Hurt Locker. It certainly wouldn't be the worst Best Picture winner ever, but I don't think it would get my vote if I voted for such things. In the end though, the real winner is the Academy. I can say without a doubt that I would not have bothered to see all ten of these movies if they weren't nominated, and I think that probably is true, if not more true, for a lot of people. The question then becomes, will diluting the prestige of being a Best Picture nominee be balanced by the potential for greater box office receipts be worth it? I don't think it's a question that can be answered this year, but it's certainly something to ponder.
1. Avatar
2. Up
3. Up In The Air
4. Inglorious Basterds
5. An Education
6t. District 9
6t. Precious
8. A Serious Man
9. The Hurt Locker
10. The Blind Side
For the record, my wife's top three were Up, Inglorious Basterds and An Education.
I suppose the surprise here is that my enjoyment of The Hurt Locker doesn't seem to match up with critics. To me, the movie could have been much shorter. To me, the lessons we learned in the end, that Sanborn wanted a child and that James just wanted to keep diffusing bombs, could have been dropped on us much sooner, and we would have enjoyed the movie just the same. And the third main character, Eldridge, is the same character the entire movie. We never learn anything about him other than that he doesn't want to die, which is such an unique character in a military movie. I can't imagine how they thought that up! Also, for a movie where the objectives are to diffuse bombs, I wasn't really on the edge of my seat for any of it. James may have appeared psychotic to his two subordinates, but he also always seemed to know what he was doing. When he tells the superior officer that he had successfully diffused 873 bombs, it seemed that from that point on there was little to no danger of him dying. Odds are if you were going to die from a bomb going off, it would have happened before the 873rd time. Crazy, I know. In any case, it's a good movie, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the others.
This weekend we also took in Precious. On the surface, Precious and District 9 are incredibly different movies, but for me they share a couple of similarities. Like District 9, Precious is likely a movie that will continually be on the cusp of my favorite 100 movies of all-time. Like District 9, it will likely always be on the outside of that list due to it's lack of rewatchability. Precious was a thoroughly moving piece of cinema, and I think that people that focus on the fact that pictures move or that the dream sequences weren't believable - side note, duh, that's why they're called "dreams" - are missing the point. The movie's central strength was its heart, and no amount of camera tricks or flashiness should be able to confuse that point.
A cautionary tale where things turn out mostly all right in the end, An Education struck just the right chord. As a viewer, you are initially hesitant of David, but as time goes by he becomes more and more convincing, and when he asks Jenny to marry him, you think to yourself, 'Well, this is it. He's going to do right by her now.' And when he still turns out to be a bad guy, it's a bit of a punch in the stomach. The blow is dulled only by the fact that she is so young and that she still has her future in front of her if he she wants to fight for it. I initially had this one ranked seventh, but the more I think about it the more I like it. It moved briskly, and it was a rare romantic movie that you wouldn't call a "chick flick."
A Serious Man was in the Coen Brothers signature to be sure. And while it was slow in parts, that agonizing for Larry is what makes the film great. You have to simmer and stew along with him as he slowly loses his mind, house and family, and I think many of us can relate to feeling more decisive in our dreams or in our imagination than we are in real life. In the end though, I can't shake the feeling that Larry was a little too helpless. I mean, no one can be a door mat like that at home and be an almost-tenured professor at the same time, right? I don't know, maybe they can. In any case, I think I'll enjoy A Serious Man more upon repeated viewings, and I feel like The Hurt Locker and The Blind Side will annoy me more on repeated viewings, so that's why I ranked A Serious Man where I did.
Now, please don't mistake my preferences for what I think will happen tomorrow. It seems as though there are only two movies with a chance of winning - Avatar and The Hurt Locker - and as much as I enjoyed Avatar, I really don't see it winning Best Picture. Which leaves The Hurt Locker. It certainly wouldn't be the worst Best Picture winner ever, but I don't think it would get my vote if I voted for such things. In the end though, the real winner is the Academy. I can say without a doubt that I would not have bothered to see all ten of these movies if they weren't nominated, and I think that probably is true, if not more true, for a lot of people. The question then becomes, will diluting the prestige of being a Best Picture nominee be balanced by the potential for greater box office receipts be worth it? I don't think it's a question that can be answered this year, but it's certainly something to ponder.
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