2 Weeks in Review(s)

It's been almost two weeks since my last post.  (That sort of sounds like the opening words of an AA meeting, doesn't it?)  I've been focusing more on my other blog lately, but I've also been slacking off pretty severely in my movie-watching endeavors.  Anyway, here's a brief rundown of most of the films I've watched over the past couple weeks.  I'll try my best to stay more up to date going forward.

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Changeling

Watched this movie a couple nights before the Oscars.  It's less-than-great, to put it kindly.  Bits and pieces were compelling and thought-provoking, but at 142 minutes, the strong bits are too few and too far between to make the movie as a whole enjoyable.

Chop Shop

If you know my very well (or read my Wackness blog), I'm a big fan of New York City.  But given my financial shortcomings, I've only been able to spend a cumulative 15 days in the city.  So anytime I find a movie which shows me a side of the place I've never seen before, I eat it up.  Chop Shop is one of those movies.

The movie is about Alejandro, a 12-year old street kid, apparently orphaned, who works (and lives) in a Queens auto shop.  He struggles to make some sort of life for himself, and the results are decidedly mixed.  But it's a gritty slice of life story, and it feels real without being exploitative.  Check it out.

Baby Mama

I saw this movie in New York, FYI.  I'd been looking forward to it for a while, so when it hit theatres I had to check it out.  I was disappointed.  I watched it again last week because my sister and brother-in-law got it from NetFlix.  They fell asleep while we watched.

The movie wants to be funny, but its jokes only work every sixth try or so.  And there's nothing sadder than watching people trying to get laughs and failing.  I'm sure it would have been much funnier and more watchable if Tina Fey had written it instead of just acting in it.

It's not a terrible movie, by any means, it just feels forced.  To its credit, I think I found more good jokes in it the second time around.  But not enough to change my prevailing opinion.

Stop-Loss

There are a number of good documentaries about the Iraq War, but I have yet to see a good narrative film dealing with it.  Stop-Loss is no exception.  I remember deciding not to see it while it was in theatres.  But I eventually learned that not only is the very capable Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the film, it was also directed by Kimberly Peirce (of Boys Don't Cry fame).  I had to at least give it the benefit of the doubt, right?

Wrong, apparently.  Almost everyone involved with this movie seemed to be phoning it in.  Stop-Loss possesses none of the art or grit which Peirce lent to Boys Don't Cry.  And Gordon-Levitt's performance is remarkably one-dimensional.  In fact, only Victor Rasuk's turn as Pvt. Rico Rodriguez is worthy of note.  (And it is worthy.  He is injured by an RPG during the film's opening sequence and is paid a visit later in the film; blind, multiple amputations...very impressive acting.)

But on the whole, Stop-Loss is a pretty disappointing exploration of the great injustice of the titular institution.  Stop-loss is serious business.  If you're going to make a movie about it, the least you can do is make it a decent, believable one.

In sum: Changeling, Baby Mama, and Stop-Loss all have their redeeming qualities, but all are definitely skippable.  Chop Shop, on the other hand, deserves a look by everyone.

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[I hope you'll forgive any poor grammar and ugly wording.  It's way past my bedtime and I really wanted to get this post up tonight.]

Starting over, catching up.

So Film Year 2008 is officially wrapped. Two months after the year itself came to a close. For the past three or so years, I've regarded the Oscars both as my Film Year capstone and my cue to compile and reflect upon the best films of the previous year. It's a pretty goofy deal, I guess, but its fun for me.

The post-Oscar period is notorious for being the time of the year when all the crap movies are rolled out by the studios. There are a couple movies in theatres I'd like to see right now: Coraline and The International. But beside those two, I have only Watchmen to look forward to in the next few weeks. And I'll be honest, I'm still fretting over the potential for severe disappoint that movie holds for me. I'll still go see it in IMAX, if I can help it.

I'm sure there are a few good limited releases coming up on the next few Fridays, but Savannah is a pretty small film market. We get the mainstream stuff pretty promptly, but the good small-budget and foreign stuff pretty much stays away. Woe is me.

There is a bright side to the big-screen drought, of course. It gives me a chance to catch up on my backlog of DVD movies. And, perhaps unwisely, I'll be spending a bit of time re-watching some of my favorites from last year--Flight of the Red Balloon, The Wackness, and Paranoid Park are near the top of my NetFlix queue, The Band's Visit has already been delivered. I guess all my blabbering about my favorite films only made me want to see them all over again.

I'll also be catching up on the movies I missed last year. I feel pretty darn good about the quantity and variety of movies I was able to see in 2008, but that doesn't mean I saw every film I'd hoped to. Which 2008 films am I still working on? To name a few:

• Ballast
• Trouble the Water
• Che
• Chop Shop
• My Winnipeg
• Role Models
• Cadillac Records

And that's just a taste. Ugh. I've got my work cut out for me. But the uphill battle is nothing new. New, interesting films come out far faster than anyone can hope to watch them. But am I gonna complain about a glut of (potentially) good movies? No way. If my biggest problem is too much of my favorite thing, I think I'm doing all right.

[Quick note about the future of this blog. I'll keep posting as frequently as I can muster anything interesting to say. You can probably expect to find some brief notes about whatever I've been watching, a recommendation or two, perhaps the occasional slam, and a couple of heated rants and raves, no doubt. Whatever happens, I'll try to keep it consistent and fun. I hope you'll keep reading. Thanks.]

Final score: 19 out of 24

That's right, folks. Either I am more of an Oscar prediction expert than I thought, or the awards were just that predictable. I'd err on the side of the latter.

My five missteps were in the following categories:

• DOCUMENTARY FEATURE. I gambled on Trouble the Water and lost. Obviously, I should have trusted my head and gone with the favorite (and, ultimately, the winner), Man on Wire. But goddamn it, I had a hunch! I knew the Academy would have at least a couple of surprises up their sleeves and I really thought this would be one of 'em! But hey, like I've already said at least twice before, Man on Wire is a great movie and deserved the win.
• SOUND MIXING. Okay, I knew Slumdog was (unfortunately and wrongly) the prohibitive favorite in essentially every category it was nominated, but I genuinely believed Sound Mixing would be one of the categories to elude its manic grasp. I was even more convinced that another movie would win Sound Mixing once The Dark Knight took down the Sound Editing award, thus killing any chance of a sweep by Slumdog (big-ups, TDK). But lo and behold, "the Oscar for Sound Mixing goes to...Slumdog Millionaire!" BOO! Ben Burtt and the rest of the WALL-E sound team had to create an entire environment and lend audible emotion to a host of non-human characters. And Slumdog wins for recording the sounds of Mumbai streets? Nonsense.
• ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY. I was surprised enough when Dustin Lance Black took home the Best First Screenplay prize at the Spirit Awards the day before the Oscars. So when he beat out WALL-E, Happy-Go-Lucky, Frozen River, and In Bruges on Sunday, I was absolutely shocked. I maintain that WALL-E ought to have won, but I don't have a big problem with Black taking home the statue. The guy gave a good, important speech about the great, important film he wrote (he gave an even better one at the Spirit Awards), and since Milk had little to no chance at any other award beside Best Actor, I'm happy it was recognized here.
• FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM. Wow. Biggest shock of my night, by far. Either Departures is incredible, or the Academy made a big mistake. Waltz with Bashir is a great movie, with an extremely important story to tell. I thought it was a lock for the win. I'll reserve judgment until I've seen Departures, but I'm afraid my dad may have been right; the Academy might not be open-minded enough to give an otherwise indispensable film its due just because it's animated.
• SUPPORTING ACTRESS. Okay, so I started reading a few days before the awards that Penelope Cruz was favored to win this award for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Which I found incomprehensible; she didn't even deserve a nom, in my mind. VCB is not a good movie. And, though Cruz is a good actress, her performance in this film was equally lackluster. Taraji P. Henson was the cream of this category, but any of the other nominees were more deserving than Cruz. The award went to the worst of the five. Disgusting.

All in all, though I wasn't surprised by many of the winners, I was disappointed by the results of this year's Oscars. Only five of 24 categories went to the nominee I thought they ought to have gone to. (To wit, Sean Penn for LEADING ACTOR; Heath Ledger for SUPPORTING ACTOR; WALL-E for ANIMATED FEATURE; Man on Wire for DOCUMENTARY FEATURE; and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for VISUAL EFFECTS.) It almost goes without saying that I don't think much of Slumdog Millionaire. It is a decent film, at best, and even that minimal commendation deserves qualification. Suffice it say that I have fundamental problems with the movie. I promised myself I wouldn't rant about it here, but if you're really curious, it likely wouldn't take much prodding to get a rise out of me.

Thankfully, the ceremony as a whole was one of the best I've ever seen. I'd heard rumors that they had some new and unconventional ideas for this year's broadcast, and it was a bit different, but I loved it. I thought the way they moved from pre-production to principal photography to post-production, giving away the relevant awards as they went, was a wonderful way to structure the show. The award presentation for the acting awards was maybe a bit cumbersome and slow, but I think it probably meant a lot to the nominees.

And maybe I was just in a good mood, but I found myself laughing out loud on numerous occasions. Tina Fey and Steve Martin were great, naturally. The Judd Apatow spin on Pineapple Express was hilarious, but I thought it even funnier when James Franco butchered the pronunciation of Spielzeugland only to have Seth Rogen crack up in a fit of embarrassed laughter. But my absolute no-contest highlight of the show was Japanese animator Kunio Kato's acceptance speech after winning the Oscar for ANIMATED SHORT, in which he thanked a number of people and things (including his pencil) and ended by saying, "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto." All with a heavy accent that turned every "th" into an "s". Hilarious. Genius.

Anyway, I'm bummed that the next Oscars are another year away. Even when the awards don't fall the way I want them to, I still love to watch. And if it was the recession which prompted the Academy to put on a cool new show like yesterday's, then I hope the economy continues to suck for a while. But next year, let's shoot for just the one song-and-dance number, okay?

The envelope(s(s)), please.

Finally, my Oscar predictions! There's a little more going on here than straight-up prognostication, but it's all pretty cut-and-dried.

All 24 Oscar categories are listed below. For each category, I've made three entries. First and foremost is the person or film which most deserves to win that award. Second is the most deserving candidate from each list of nominees. And third is my actual prediction; that is, the nominee I actually expect to take the award home.

I'll be keeping track of how accurate my predictions are over the course of the show and will report back with a final tally once all is said and done. Seeing as many of my personal picks conflict with my predictions, here's hoping I don't score too many points. If you've filled out a ballot of your own, leave me a comment to let me know how you fare!

Happy viewing, everyone!


BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Ought to win: Philip Seymour Hoffman - Synecdoche, New York / Sean Penn - Milk
Ought to win (of those nominated): Sean Penn - Milk
WILL win: Sean Penn - Milk

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Ought to win: Tom Cruise - Tropic Thunder / Emile Hirsch - Milk / Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Ought to win (of those nominated): Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
WILL win: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Ought to win: Juliette Binoche - Flight of the Red Balloon / Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married / Meryl Streep - Doubt
Ought to win (of those nominated): Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married / Meryl Streep - Doubt
WILL win: Kate Winslet - The Reader

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Ought to win: Samantha Morton - Synecdoche, New York
Ought to win (of those nominated): Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
WILL win: Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
[If Penelope Cruz wins for her unimpressive turn in the unimpressive Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I'll turn the TV off right then and there. Okay, I won't really, but I'll want to.]

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Ought to win: WALL-E
Ought to win (of those nominated): WALL-E
WILL win: WALL-E

BEST ART DIRECTION
Ought to win: Synecdoche, New York
Ought to win (of those nominated): The Dark Knight
WILL win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ought to win: Flight of the Red Balloon
Ought to win (of those nominated): Take your pick. All are decent, none extraordinary.
WILL win: Slumdog Millionaire

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Ought to win: Don't know, don't care.
Ought to win (of those nominated): It's like I said; I don't know, and I don't care.
WILL win: The Duchess

BEST DIRECTING
Ought to win: Charlie Kaufman - Synecdoche, New York
Ought to win (of those nominated): Gus Van Sant - Milk
WILL win: Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Ought to win: Man on Wire / Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains / Waltz with Bashir
Ought to win (of those nominated): Man on Wire
WILL win: Trouble the Water
[I still haven't been able to see Trouble the Water (hence its absence from the first two slots), but I'm not afraid to call the upset in its favor.]

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Ought to win: I wish I knew.
Ought to win (of those nominated): See above.
WILL win: Smile Pinki

BEST FILM EDITING
Ought to win: Rachel Getting Married
Ought to win (of those nominated): Milk
WILL win: Slumdog Millionaire

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Ought to win: Flight of the Red Balloon
Ought to win (of those nominated): Waltz with Bashir
WILL win: Waltz with Bashir

BEST MAKEUP
Ought to win: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Ought to win (of those nominated): Hellboy II: The Golden Army
WILL win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Ought to win: Synecdoche, New York
Ought to win (of those nominated): WALL-E
WILL win: Slumdog Millionaire
[Jon Brion (Synecdoche, New York) is, hands-down, the world's best active film composer. He'll probably never win an Oscar. Shame on the Academy.]

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Ought to win: "Little Person" - Synecdoche, New York
Ought to win (of those nominated): "Down to Earth" - WALL-E
WILL win: "Jai Ho" - Slumdog Millionaire

BEST PICTURE
Ought to win: Synecdoche, New York
Ought to win (of those nominated): Milk
WILL win: Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Ought to win: The "Puzz & Toosh" City Arts spot that ran before a number of SIFF movies. Pure genius.
Ought to win (of those nominated): Presto is fun and clever. But I haven't seen any of the others, so...
WILL win: La Maison en Petits Cubes

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Ought to win: I have seen exactly zero Live Action Shorts this year. I miss you, Varsity.
Ought to win (of those nominated): ???
WILL win: Spielzeugland

BEST SOUND EDITING
Ought to win: WALL-E
Ought to win (of those nominated): WALL-E
WILL win: The Dark Knight

BEST SOUND MIXING
Ought to win: WALL-E
Ought to win (of those nominated): WALL-E
WILL win: WALL-E
[Ben Burtt deserves this one. Here's hoping the Academy gets it right.]

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Ought to win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ought to win (of those nominated): The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
WILL win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Ought to win: Doubt
Ought to win (of those nominated): Doubt
WILL win: Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Ought to win: Synecdoche, New York
Ought to win (of those nominated): WALL-E
WILL win: WALL-E

#1 - SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK

I first saw Synecdoche, New York last November at the Lucas Theatre in downtown Savannah, GA. Only one screening was scheduled, at 11:30am, and--despite my general distaste for waking up earlier than noon--I made a point of being there. It was playing as part of the Savannah Film Festival and was, by far, the most important screening of the week to me.

I watched the film with great interest and attention. As the directorial debut of Charlie Kaufman (for my money, the best and most provocative screenwriter working today), I knew going in that Synecdoche promised to be, for lack of a better word, complex. I left the Lucas two hours later feeling emotionally overwhelmed, mentally exhausted, and oddly satisfied. The scope and vision was even greater than I'd expected; it seemed too much to absorb in one sitting. (Such is sometimes the problem with Kaufman's films: trying to make sense of what you're seeing and hearing can ultimately prove futile.) My mild discombobulation notwithstanding, I liked the film very much and thought it an extremely impressive cinematic achievement. I began recommending it to friends and family immediately.

A little more than a month later, I was back in Seattle where I saw Synecdoche for a second time at the Guild 45th. Again, I was awed by the territory explored and, again, felt a deep connection and satisfaction with the movie. But, even after two viewings, the entire weight of the movie had yet to fully set in. I knew by now that it was the best film I'd seen all year by leaps and bounds, but I could also feel that there was something more hidden beneath the surface; some sort of further emotional punch which could not be forced or even coaxed, but would reveal itself if given the opportunity.

Fast-forward six weeks or so. Shortly after arriving in Georgia, I signed up to receive emails from the Coligny Theatre on Hilton Head Island, SC. Toward the end of January, I received an announcement that Synecdoche would begin a one-week run at the Coligny that Friday. So the next week, after working for eight hours, I drove straight up to Hilton Head for the 7pm show.

Roger Ebert starts his review of Synecdoche with these words: "I think you have to see Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York twice." Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Ebert has been doing this movie-watching thing a lot longer than I have, but I needed three times. Upon leaving the Coligny Theatre after Round 3 of Synecdoche, I could hardly separate my own life from that of the film's protagonist. I had become Caden Cotard and Caden Cotard had become me. His life and my life were the same life. (And if you just took the two previous sentences literally, you'll likely need to watch Synecdoche ten times or more before it clicks.)

Great art and literature serve their highest purpose when they act as a mirror for the viewer. If you see a painting or read a book or watch a film and, from that, are able to reflect on some part of your own life, then greatness has been achieved. Synecdoche, New York is possibly the greatest artistic mirror I have ever viewed. The whole film is a reflection on human life; any human life, every human life, ALL human life.

When talking with people who have yet to see Synecdoche, I'm often asked what the movie is about. Never have I experienced such difficulties in describing a film.

A very brief description of what happens in Synedoche, New York:
A modestly successful theatre director, Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), seems to have slipped into a semi-surreal version of his life. He lives out the last half of his life in this surreality--being abandoned by his wife and child, carrying on dysfunctional relationships with other women, directing a theatre piece of ridiculous proportions--and we, the viewer, are taken along for the ride.

But while the events of Synecdoche are certainly important, they in no way provide an understanding of what the movie is about. The closest I've come to accurately describing the film is this: one man tries to sort out the details and meaning and truth of his life. Seriously, that's the best I can do. See it for yourself and try to come up with something better.

For almost five years, Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blue has occupied the top slot on my All-Time Best Films list (which, admittedly, exists primarily in my mind). I've seen some great films in the past five years, but nothing has even come close to Blue. Until now. I'm not ready to crown Synecdoche as my new Favorite Film but I'd be doing it a disservice if I failed to note that the matter is under consideration.

Synecdoche, New York is a film without parallel, the most complete document of the human experience I have ever witnessed, bar none. I don't know what more I can say.