Imagination

On Sunday the Academy Awards winners will be announced. This is one of the few award shows that I actually watch. I watch the Toni awards because I LOVE musicals and if I am going to pay 80 bucks for show I want to know something about it. I watch the Grammys but I only watch the performances. I don’t watch who actually won. I do watch the Oscars every year. I don’t watch the Red Carpet or Barbara Walters or all that other non-sense. I could care less about who is wearing what. I just like movies and I see a lot of them. This year I saw everything nominated in a major category plus all of the short films that were nominated. The big change in the format was increasing the list of best picture nominees from 5 to 10. I was fortunate enough (or crazy enough) to see all of the nominees. Here is what I thought of the movies nominated for best picture this year. I will also mention what films I think should win in the other categories.

NOTE: I am not going to discuss specific plot details of these movies but I am going to give you my conclusions so read at your own risk. I wouldn’t want to ruin anyone’s element of surprise.


District 9

Lots of people HATED this movie. Honestly I can see why they did. It is a very slow pace especially in the beginning. On the surface in look likes a sci-fi movie with ugly aliens and unflattering scenery. The handheld camera documentary look is also uncomfortable to some people. This movie also does not have any "A" list movie stars. The actors in this film to must American s are unfamiliar at best. Once you get passed all that, this movie was really good. First, the actual movie making was spectacular. It does not get the credit I think it deserves because the technology is so subtle. The effects are so well blended into the movie that you may not even notice them at first. The fact that you just accept what you are seeing as real is the triumph of the visual part of this movie. The story is very interesting. It is suppose to be a parallel of South Africa during the Apartheid government. One of the best things about science fiction is that it can use alien races and sci-fi tech stuff to make you consider the other side of an equation. This movie does that very well. If you are not thinking carefully you could find yourself rooting for the good guys I, I mean the bad guys.


Up

I am a big fan of Pixar. I am big fan of their creativity as well as their technical innovation. I do not think I have seen a bad Pixar movie. “Up” is the story of an old man who takes a trip to South America. It is a typical Disney story where he meets many cute friends and talking dogs along the way. There were 2 aspects of this story that I found very interesting. The first is how this movie deals with the idea of regret. What we want to accomplish when we are kids vs. our adult expectations are very often different. How reconcile those differences is important. It is often difficult but worthwhile to realize what we have actually accomplished vs. what we have not. If one is not careful they can find themselves regretting what they did not do instead of celebrating what they have done. The other theme I found interesting was the perceptions we have as children and how they change as we move into adult hood (I AM ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT A SPECIFIC PART IN THE PLOT OF THIS MOVIE). In this movie the main character’s childhood idle turns out to be the villain of the movie. How the main character looks at the world as a child vs. what he sees as adult turn out to be very different. This also highlights how we perceive people in the media. Sometimes we do not realize that the media image of a person we see is quite different from the reality of who this person actually is. I believe this movie is one of Pixar’s better efforts.


A Serious Man

I ABSOLUTLY HATED THIS MOVIE. Sorry but I just didn’t get it. I like the Cohen brothers but this movie did nothing for me. It is the story of a sub-urban Jewish family in the 1970’s. This family has there own set of weird personalities and its on set of problems. I like the situations that the characters find them selves in but there is just not enough for me. I found the “chapters” and the choices to divide the story telling effort not worth the time I needed to invest in the movie. The prologue of the movie had no tie in or if it did I missed it. At the end of the movie I was left with the feeling “What did I just do for the last two hours?” I can appreciate the moving making skill of this movie but not the actual movie.


The Blind Side

I read this book a few years ago. Michael Lewis is one of my favorite sports authors. I would suggest that every football fan should read "Everybody’s All Americans" by Sally Jenkins and "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis. The Blind Side is a football strategy book about the evolution of the Left tackle position. More accurately it is about how changes in offensive and defensive strategy have impacted the left tackle making it one of the highest paid positions in sports. The author uses the Michael Oher back-story as a framing for this strategic analysis. The movie itself focuses on the Tuohy family and Michael Oher a homeless kid who is given a chance to excel at football. I was saddened when I think of the potential that we will never have a chance to see developed because I believe there are many gifted people who will never get the opportunity to succeed at something. This movie and this story are an example of what can be accomplished when some people are simply given a chance.


An Education

I liked this movie a lot. I love the acting. I love the pace of this movie. While the story was very, very, creepy I was still completely sucked into it. Having said that, this movie pissed me off more than any other movie this year!!! This movie is about an older man who has an affair with a 16 year old girl. The thing that pissed me off was not this relationship (although it was very very VERY creepy) but the views expressed about women in general specifically the idea of education in the lives of women in 1960s England. The main character in the movie is confronted with the question “Why should I work to go to Oxford if in the end I am just going to be a housewife or teach kindergarten”. The role that women were expected to play in the 1950s-and 60s to me is absolutely revolting. I like to believe that we have come much farther than that. I believe that there is much more work to be done in the feminist arena as long as Women are 50% of the population and 66% of the workforce yet they own ONE PERCENT OF THE WORLD’S ASSETS. As long as that statistic is accurate out entire society is doing us a disservice. Some would argue that there are biological reasons for this reality. I would contend that we will never really know as long as there are economic and education inequalities that are infused in the fabric of our society. I believe that education is essential for any individual to have a chance at upward mobility.


Up In the Air

I really liked this movie. I am not really a George Clooney fan. To me he will always be the goofy stock boy with the long hair on “The Facts of Life”. I was not expecting to like this movie as much as I did. The main character in this movie is a man whose job is to go around the country and fire people. In this movie, when a big firm has to lay off a bunch of people they hire George Clooney to “drop the hammer” on their employees that they are planning to layoff. The subplot of this movie also deals with the characters personal life. It raises questions about the role that our jobs play in our lives and asks the question “How much do we sacrifice for our jobs?” What are the ramifications when we sacrifice our relationships for material possessions? One cannot question the timeliness of this movie. If this movie were made 10 years ago it would not be nearly as effective. It also very possible that that this movie was more effective to me because of what stage I am in my life. I am not sure if I would be as moved by this movie if I saw it 10 years ago or 10 years from now.


Precious

This was by far one of the most disturbing movies I have ever seen. It tells the story of an inner city teen named Precious and the many things that happen in her young life. I do not believe this movie is typical of the inner city. I do believe that this movie highlights the many challenges that people in the inner city face. I believe that the success or failure of a person is ultimately determined by the individual. I do not think it is helpful to blame others for the problems in your life. I do think that we must acknowledge that there are people who are born into circumstances (through no fault of their own) that can effect there life outcomes. I think that we must realize that there are people that are born into circumstances that will make it harder to succeed. There are several barriers that are put up that can block the path of an individual to success. I believe that we as a society must do a better job of realizing these barriers exist and must work to remove the machinery that creates these barriers.


Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite story tellers. Reservoir Dogs is one of the best movies ever. The Movie Inglorious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s latest film.
This movie was a great blend of suspense, humor, and gratuitous violence. The core of this movie plays on our desire to see wrongs righted and to see a happy ending. This movie takes place in occupied France during the Second World War. It is a great historical juxtaposition of the Native American Apache Resistance and the Nazi Campaign in France. The movie is centered on an American Commando Unit charged with performing paramilitary action and eventually takes part in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. This movie blurs the line between heroes and terrorist while the humor and violence can make you question your own sanity for liking it.


The Hurt Locker

This movie was at the Philadelphia film fest last year. It tells the story of a U.S. Army unit in Iraq charged with diffusing bombs. On the news, we hear statistics of people who died in the Iraqi theater. Many times the small number of casualties may seem acceptable to us until you consider that each one of those people is an individual. Each one of those numbers is a person with a family and a life to put on hold to do a very dangerous job. This movie shows how people cope in a very dangerous situation. It also portrays the human side of these events as well as being a good action movie that will make your heart race in places.


Avatar

I thought this was the best film of the year. This movie could completely change my expectations for science fiction movies. I now want to see every science fiction movie in 3D IMAX. The technological leap in movie making is also pretty remarkable. The fact that 2 Sci-fi movies were nominated for best picture made my little geek heart happy. This movie looks amazing. I think the story is just as impressive as the actual movie making. I love movies that put my position on the wrong side of the movie. When you consider the role that America has had in the destruction of indigenous populations as well as the way we have exploited resources it makes the message of this movie very powerful. I do not believe it is intended as a guilt trip but I think it makes us ask some very important questions about what it means to be American. It makes us ask what level of exploitation is acceptable to support our lifestyle. I am not going to ride a bike to work or get rid of my cell phone but I have to think about the consequences of that choice. Do we have a responsibility as Americans to use some (not all) of the wealth that this country has taken from others to make the world a better place? This move finds a clever way to do this while making you look at 10 foot tall blue people and glow in the dark trees.


In a 2008 Harvard Commencement speech, the author J.K. Rolling defined imagination. She said “It the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.” Perhaps that is the biggest power the movies have. I have never lived under Apartheid. I have never been homeless. I have never been told education is a worthless endeavor because I am female. I have never had to diffuse a bomb while under sniper fire. The ability to make a person think about someone else’s point of view if only for a few hours is a worthwhile endeavor. This is only the first part of the power of movies. There is also the possibility of movies like other art forms can not only allow us to empathize but to prompt us to take action. The informative power of movies when coupled with their entertainment value can be something very special and will probably keep me going to the theater for a very long time.

These are my picks. They are who I think should win. I have gotten more picks “right” than “wrong” only one time in the last three years.

Best Picture – Avatar
Best Actor – Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Best Actress – Carey Mulligan – An Education
Best Supporting Actor – Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Best Supporting Actress – Anna Kendrick – Up In the Air
Best Director – James Cameron – Avatar
Best Original Screenplay – Inglorious Basterds
Best Adapted Screenplay – Up In the Air

On another note the animated shorts this year were all AMAZING. They are usually released on DVD. I highly recommend trying to find them. I think the best of these is called Logorama.