philosoraptor42 | A Rather Less Explosive Oscars This Year...

I've actually found the build-up to the Oscars to be pretty exciting for the last couple of years. In both 2010 and 2011 there's been a personal favourite, a dreadful film expected to win and eventual success for the deserving underdog. During the 2010 Oscars I wanted A Serious Man to win, I was worried that Avatar would win and breathed a sigh of relief when The Hurt Locker won. During the 2011 Oscars I wanted Black Swan to win, I was worried that The Social Network would win and breathed a sigh of relief when The King's Speech won.

This year, I haven't seen any of the nominations at all. The film expected to win is The Artist, and that along with The Descendants are probably the only Best Picture nominees I'm at all interested in seeing. Below are my comments on all the nominees. Since these are mostly films I haven't seen and know rather little about, I'll probably regret these comments based purely on first impressions. Nonetheless, the following comments represent how I feel right now....

First of all, I've never even heard of Albert Nobbs (with it's rather odd title). Apparently it's only just reached cinemas in the states and, for now, there don't appear to be any plans to screen it in the UK. I'm all for Glenn Close showing off her acting talent (as she was fantastic in Season Four of "The Shield"), but on the other hand this appears to be a movie that the studios themselves aren't expecting to do well.

Outside of the Best Animated Feature award nominees, the only film I'd already seen out of the main categories was "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". Coming from the director of the wonderful "Let The Right One In" and featuring some of my favourite actors, expectations were pretty high. It wasn't what I expected and I don't think it was quite the masterpiece I'd hoped. However, it was very good all the same, the performances were wonderful and there were some fantastic moments. I'm keen to see this one again on DVD (though it was memorable enough that I already think I've pieced the story together and I'm really interested to see if there's anything I missed).

I'd seen Rango and Kung Fu Panda 2. Rango was pretty good (though it was far from perfect), but I absolutely loved Kung Fu Panda 2. It tied in very nicely with the first movie and the scenes with the baby panda were just cuteness-overload.

The other Best Animated Feature nominees includes Chico and Rita, which I've seen and really didn't like. It felt like you really need to be a fan of the music and its whole culture in order to enjoy it. Since I'm not, I found the characters rather under-developed with the musical numbers holding back the pacing. There's also A Cat In Paris which I haven't heard of.

Last but not least is Puss In Boots, which I actually really want to see. Sure it's essentially "Shrek 8", but with Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek reunited it also feels like a fourth "El Mariachi" movie. I absolutely loved "Desperado" and "Once Upon A Time In Mexico", so the opportunity to see a fourth, even if it's randomly set in fairytale land (or perhaps BECAUSE it's set in fairytale land), is something that actually really excites me.

There's ten other films not nominated for Best Picture which I haven't seen. The one I'm least interested in seeing is The Iron Lady. A film about possibly the most controversial Prime Minister of recent decades and apparently it's "empowering". Glossing over Thatcher's politics and making it entirely about women's rights is not doing anyone any favours... asides from Meryl Streep, who gets a chance to show off her Thatcher impression and plead for an Oscar. Oh goody. (Not to take anything away from Streep. I hear that her performance is actually very impressive. However, the film is supposed to be recounting Margaret Thatcher's life. It's not just a platform for impressionists.)

So far I'm hearing that Beginners is quirky and contrived. I must admit that I don't know much about this one though. A Better Life is the latest from Chris Weitz, the director who brought us "The Golden Compass" and "Twilight: New Moon", so I'm really not expecting much from that either. Bridesmaids brings women firmly into the field of overrated gross-out comedies that I've hated for all these years. Apparently they can do it just as well as the men can. Oh joy.

I was pretty excited about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and fully expected to be seeing it in cinemas, but when the reviews came out it didn't sound like it had solved any of the problems with the original Swedish version, seeming more like a remake of the Swedish movie rather than an alternate interpretation of the books (which I loved). It sounds like the main thing they've changed is extending the length of the rape scene. I haven't really enjoyed a David Fincher movie since "Fight Club" and that was a long time ago. I'll probably check this out on DVD.

Margin Call could be worth seeing, but I'm not exactly hearing great things. It's always going to be challenging making an engaging movie about economics and from what I hear they make a pretty good stab. My Week With Marilyn looks pretty sweet (I'm imagining it being in a similar vein to "Me and Orson Welles") and The Ides Of March seemed to get a fairly positive response when it was released.

In spite of the horrendous trailer, Warrior is apparently a really good film. I can't help but feel that, as much as I'd like it to live up to the level of quality set by "The Fighter", I'm probably going to feel pretty underwhelmed. Still, Tom Hardy's performance might well elevate the (seemingly) cliched material and with some decent action in the fight scenes this could make for a highly entertaining evening's viewing.

A Separation is an Iranian movie which has entered several top tens for last year. It looks pretty intriguing and I'm quite interested to watch it.

The Nine Main Nominees:

The Help:
Oh, the racist movie. Okay, moving on...

War Horse:
Spielberg apparently at his most gushingly over-sentimental in a movie about how awful WWI was for talking horses (as opposed to, y'know, the thousands of meaningless deaths of human beings). Sorry if I seem like a heartless animal-hater, but I actually find the whole premise of this film offensive.

Moneyball:
A film about sport statistics with such high lofty praise as: "not quite as good as The Social Network". Yeah, colour me unimpressed.

Midnight in Paris:
I'm not sure I understand how Woody Allen's movies are ranked to be honest. I loved Annie Hall, but I didn't find Manhattan very impressive at all. I saw Curse of the Jade Scorpion on a plane and it looked more like a cheesy extra-long sketch made-for-tv rather than a full feature film. Of Woody Allen's most recent movies the one that seems to get the most praise is Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Having failed to watch Vicky Cristina Barcelona all the way through, my parents who had recorded it off the TV suggested I give it another try. We searched for the bit I'd reached before and let it run. Within about ten minutes my dad became fairly convinced that he must have fallen asleep through it when he saw it before and entirely sympathised with my disdain. I still haven't seen the whole thing.

Everything I've heard about "Midnight In Paris" sounds like it is very much up its own arse. A vision of Paris as you'd expect to find in an advert for Eurostar, populated by all the French figures that Woody Allen likes. On top of that, while Midnight In Paris could be the exception to the rule, I haven't got much hope that Owen Wilson can successfully carry a comedy film.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:

On the one hand, I have absolutely no idea what this film is about. On the other hand, the film critics seem to hate it and it is apparently cashing in (surely far too late) on the aftermath of the 9/11 attack on New York. Who knows, perhaps it's an underrated masterpiece. Or perhaps not...

I've just checked out the figures for this and it actually did less well than Drive on its opening weekend. Is this mainly nominated because Tom Hanks is in it? Seriously, why the hell is Drive being snubbed?

Update- Tree Of Life:
I can't believe I missed this one out before. Looks massively pretentious. A movie incorporating the actions of one family into the history of the universe, including dinosaurs. Might have to see "Badlands" before I presume that the director is a good enough reason to see it.

Hugo:
I'll come clean here and say that I'm not a big fan of Scorsese. I thought Goodfellas was pretty dull, I was annoyed by the two equally unlikeable central characters in Casino, and both Taxi Driver and Mean Streets left me cold. It wasn't really until The Aviator (which was also where I first realised that Leonardo Di Caprio is actually a really good actor) that I properly enjoyed any of Scorsese's films (and yeah, that's pretty much the only one).

So here Scorsese tries to do a children's movie, but apparently it doesn't really appeal to children because it's more aimed at people who love early cinema. He's also cast Borat as the comedy bad guy. I can't really say I'm a big fan of super-early cinema and I've found that Sacha Baron Cohen's humour runs dry after a pretty short period of time. I'm not alone in thinking that the trailer looked absolutely dire but, while it's good to know that the actual movie is rather different, this leaves me rather uncertain as to what the end product will actually be like. I kinda want to see this one, but I'm a little reluctant too.

The Descendants:
Film I know nothing about starring George Clooney. Let's see.... Widower tries to connect with his two daughters. Well, it seems to be pretty well received. IMDB score is 7.9 right now and the RT score is 90%. Could be good!

The Artist:
I'm not sure about the idea of a brand spanking new silent movie. Silent movies I've tried before have tended to send me to sleep. Out of Nosferatu, Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse it was only the last of that list where I was able to stay entirely conscious from beginning to end (and even then I was pretty drowsy at points). Still, I must say I'm intrigued by the great press this is getting and it could well offer the same sweet and satisfying experience that The King's Speech did.