By doing nothing, Baumbach does quite a lot in his latest, Greenberg

“I’m trying not to do anything,” Roger Greenberg, with a seeming shrug, informs each person who inquires what he’s doing with his life  on his dreary visit to hazy Los Angeles.  A bitter ex-musician visiting his well-off and trendy brother — who’s taking his family  on vacation to Vietnam of all places — Greenberg is a staunch New York carpenter just coming off of an indeterminate stay at a mental hospital. He’s defiantly proud and strangely unembarrassed by this declaration of the dismal state of his life, fiercely brandishing it like a sword whenever accosted by those he deems threats to his preferred aimlessness: the caustically cool twenty-somethings who carelessly consume cocktails of coke, pills, and booze and  take spontaneous trips to hip locales just to ensure their own hipness; the estranged and sad-eyed best friend who has grown up and apart from him, even as Greenberg himself stubbornly refuses to age and mature; the idolized ex-girlfriend who has married, divorced, and so moved on and beyond him that she, in one of the film’s most uncomfortably agonizing scenes, cannot manage to recall a single moment from their history together that he so clearly treasures; and finally, the younger, charmingly irresolute assistant, who genuinely — and quite bafflingly — likes  him despite his best and most intense efforts to make her feel otherwise.

Greenberg is writer-director Noah Baumbach’s latest in his patented string of highly intellectual meanderings full of difficult characters expressing their personal pain by violently thrusting it upon others while feigning self-deprecation. Sisters savagely squabble and cruelly manipulate each other in Margot at the Wedding and in The Squid and the Whale, his most acutely painful and darkly droll work, we experience a bitter and painful divorce through the perspectives of two damaged sons (Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline) who startlingly mirror their parents’ aggressive pretensions and sharply cruel wit. While none of his films could ever be mistaken as plot-driven, Baumbach loosens his grip on his characters even more so than usual in Greenberg, lovingly allowing Roger to digressively funnel his unfocused energy into hilariously articulate complaint letters to American Airlines and Starbucks (its “attempt to manufacture culture out of fast-food coffee…sucks”) and  Florence, Roger’s young and listless love interest, to drift quietly from art gallery opening to open mic night to one-night stand.

As Greenberg, a low-key (and totally fantastic) Ben Stiller casually slings the sharpest of insults when (he believes himself to be) provoked, but mostly, this keen disdain is meant for himself, and the self-awareness that Stiller infuses into the zingers is painfully obvious and remarkably acute. But it’s those moments sans dialogue that Stiller nails Greenberg’s so-slight-you-could-miss-it-if-you-blink vulnerability: surrounded by joyful children at a party, he awkwardly shuffles his feet and aloofly looks to the sky for fear of connection, or when he struggles to stay afloat whilst pathetically dog-paddling across his brother’s pool. Despite these super-brief moments and Greenberg’s signature defense that “hurt people hurt people,” Baumbach still doesn’t fully expect u

s sympathize with this outwardly selfish man-child who only confesses affection when assisted with a little cocaine courage. So in the final moments, what was building rather slowly toward the harsh realization that we simply must accept that life never turns out the way we expect it to, the film veers suddenly

into rom-com territory. It’s only when Greenberg finally gets a clue and makes a mad dash for happiness that we realize that, despite all of his contemptuousness, intentional belittling, and self-imposed isolation, we’d actually been rooting for him along. Churlish behavior and seemingly indifferent assertions a

side, Roger Greenberg was never really not doing anything; he was simply learning — in his own painstakingly guarded and grudging way — to embrace the unexpected life. In Greenberg, Noah Baumbach has once again created a hard-to-love character that we can’t help but love.

Kander without Ebb (kinda): The Scottsboro Boys

Perhaps we sometimes forget that Kander and Ebb, that famous musical duo, were actually Kander and Ebb and Masteroff. Or Kander and Ebb and Fosse. Or as is the case with The Scottsboro Boys, Kander and Ebb and Thompson. In that wonderfully old-school musical theatre tradition, Kander and Ebb were a brilliantly matched composer and lyricist team that rarely wrote without the other, but always brought on a third party to shape the story.

These days, whether the reason is economic, artistic, or simply a control issue — the role of the lyricist is nearly always combined with that of the composer (Stephen Sondheim, Jason Robert Brown, and Adam Guettel all come to mind), or less often, the bookwriter (Brian Yorkey, Michael Korie). The reason for the former’s success rate can probably be explained by a composers’ inherent sense of musical rhythm  that naturally extends to words, and as composers already musically tell the story, it makes sense that they would be the best bet to verbally tell it as well through lyric poetry.

But Kander and Ebb seemingly worked as one, and perhaps because of that other most famous of musical pairings, Rodgers (music) and Hammerstein (book/lyrics), we often think of them as working alone, as a steadfast pair. So when Ebb passed away in 2004, maybe we excused the failings of the two “Kander and Ebb”  musicals produced since, wistfully believing that had Ebb been around, with his abundant and particular artistry, we would have two very different — and better — shows.

But that’s not necessarily true.

Maybe the lyrics would’ve been crisper — more pointed, a bit less sentimental — had Ebb been able to complete his work on Curtains and The Scottsboro Boys (for each of these musicals, Kander and the respective show’s bookwriter completed the lyrics). But the crux of both of these shows’ problems  does not lie in the music, nor in the lyric (though neither show includes Kander or Ebb’s finest work); the problems lie vastly in the books. While Rupert Holmes’s Curtains is light and airy and entirely insubstantial, David Thompson’s work on The Scottsboro Boys is erratically dark and acute and earnest and sentimental — and regrettably, rather insubstantial as well (not unlike his work on Steel Pier and that other huge debacle, Thou Shalt Not) .

In its off-Broadway premiere at the Vineyard Theatre, The Scottsboro Boys depicts the true story of American racism in the South: in Alabama, two white women accuse nine African American boys of rape, and the musical follows the boys as they go through trial after trial after trial attempting to prove their innocence. Of the boys’ innocence, there is no doubt  – neither in history nor in this musical re-telling of that history.  As Thompson portrays them, though, they are so innocent that little else matters — including who they are beyond Wrongfully Accused Black Men.

These two-dimensional innocents would work, though, if the creators had stuck with what is an inspired concept: telling the story of the Scottsboro boys as a minstrel show. The opening and closing numbers are pure minstrelsy, with John Cullum’s white Interlocutor directing the colorfully adorned, eerily happy Mr. Bones and Mr. Tambo (the deliciously spot-on Colman Domingo and Forrest McClendon) in the telling of the tragic story as dark comedy. There are totally inappropriate and blatantly scripted jokes that earn guilty laughs, soft-shoeing with large grins painfully plastered across faces, and of course, Kander’s signature musical jubilance ominously highlighting the wrongness of it all. The minstrelsy pops up sporadically throughout the rest of the show, notably in Susan Stroman’s most cleverly choreographed sequences, such as a disturbing tap-dancing number, “Electric Chair,” in which the boys imagine the terrifying possibilities of their fate.

The remainder of the musical consists of incredibly earnest tragedy in which the boys teach each other to spell (in one particularly poorly-written scene), endlessly lament the unfairness of it all, and of course, ultimately and  angrily declare “You Can’t Do Me” like that in the big, showy, and entirely moving 11 o’clock number. The cast is terrifically talented and game, making the best of what they’re given to work with (especially Brandon Victor Dixon’s angry Haywood Patterson), but even they can’t over come the erraticisms of a show that includes a manipulative, cheap symbolic character (the only female character, largely mute, bookends the show while sitting on a bus — one guess who she represents) that is more than reminiscent of a similar use of character in Rob Ashford’s recent production of Parade. Speaking of which, the similarities between the stories of these two musicals — racism, rape, and wrongful accusations in the South — are too obvious to ignore (see more on Parade here), and unluckily for Kander and Ebb, the comparisons won’t be in their favor, and few will remember that a man named David Thompson was involved at all. But as for their part in The Scottsboro Boys, the beloved musical duo didn’t fail to provide  their signature eye-poppin’ musical sequences cleverly peppered with social commentary. Kander and Ebb, the last of our “Golden Age” musical theatre teams, will most certainly be missed.

Post-Oscar Wrap-up: 2010

With only a few minor surprises last night — Precious‘s winning Best Adapted Screenplay (excuse me?) and The Hurt Locker sweeping those sound awards (Sorry, Avatar!) – everything else went off according to plan. Hooray for Hollywood! Let’s break down the evening’s festivities, shall we?

THE TALLY

Which films earned the most — and the least — little gold men.

6
THE HURT LOCKER

3
AVATAR

2
PRECIOUS , CRAZY HEART, UP

1
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, THE BLIND SIDE, THE YOUNG VICTORIA, STAR TREK

0
UP IN THE AIR, A SERIOUS MAN, AN EDUCATION, THE LAST STATION, INVICTUS, A SINGLE MAN, THE MESSENGER, JULIE & JULIA,  THE LOVELY BONES, NINE, THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS, DISTRICT 9, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, CORALINE, THE SECRET OF KELLS, THE PRINCESS & THE FROG

Since the awards failed to excite, let’s check out what did manage to thrill / appall us. And by ‘us’ I mean me.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Sandy‘s speech (adorable). And that dress (gorgeous Marchesa).
Also: turning to hug Meryl, apparently changes her mind and does a 180, leaving The Streep with empty, outstretched arms (priceless).

2. Ben Stiller, dressed as an Avatar despite the fact that Avatar was not nominated for Best Makeup (genius). Also brilliant: when plaintively states, “I want to plug in my tail.”

3. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin’s paranormal activity. Totes brills, and the only amusing moment the uber-awkward hosting duo offers all night.

4. The lovely John Hughes tribute:

When you grow up, your heart dies.
So, who cares?
I care.

5. The mysteriously included horror film tribute. Not sure why it was there, but sure glad it was.
Jaws! The Exorcist! Nightmare on Elm Street! Psycho! Nosferatu! Twilight! – wait, what?

5. Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win Best Director. Too bad cameras fail to catch ex James “I’m king of the world!” Cameron’s glower as she accepts her golden guy.

6. Fantastically inspired, the League of Extraordinary Dancers interprets each of the nominated scores. It felt like the Tony Awards. But in the best possible way.

Skip the dreadful Zimmer score and go straight to the delightful Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up sequences.

LOWLIGHTS (slash highlights):

1.Neil Patrick Harris’ opening song and dance was totally awkward and unfunny. We love you NPH, but no. Just no.

2. Charlize Theron’s cinnabons.

2. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin “banter” as the most painfully torpid and unfunny co-hosts ever by simply insulting everyone in the room. It was like that year Chris Rock hosted. Except not funny.

3. George Clooney’s sourpuss mug throughout the entire ceremony. Why so angry, George? Was it part of the dreadfully unamusing act? Or did you finally realize that Up in the Air just isn’t very good?

4. Christopher Plummer, who appeared in three of this year’s nominated films, still has no Oscar to call his own (no other actor this year appeared in more than one nominated film). Shame on you, Academy. Shame. On. You.

5. Miley Cyrus’s posture. We realize your boobs will pop out of that golden gown if you stand up straight, but perhaps you’re not a size 0 after all. Just sayin’.

6. James Cameron’s sloppy look: in Joan Rivers’s immortal words, “He looks like a lesbian.”
There’s no better words to end the night with. Thanks, Joanie.

I had a blast seeing all the nominees this year — 43 features and 15 shorts in all. Thanks for reading. Until next year!

Next Up: The Tony Awards

Oscars 2010: Best Director + Best Picture

Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to least accomplished, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners appear in orange.

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Kathryn Bigelow
The Hurt Locker

1. Quentin Tarantino
Inglourious Basterds

3. James Cameron
Avatar

4. Jason Reitman
Up in the Air

5. Lee Daniels
Precious

What I believed would become my favorite film of the year, Up in the Air, is decidedly low on my list, and that’s due to Jason Reitman’s slick, gimmicky direction (could we possibly show Clooney’s Bingham precisely and efficiently packing a suitcase one more time? We get it, we get it). What should have been emotionally striking (reactions of “real” people to their sudden unemployment) was not; instead, focus was on clever camera angles and the earnest indie soundtrack. I wanted to love this film, and the screenplay seems to indicate that that was a real possibility. Unfortunately, Reitman’s direction left me rather indifferent to it all.

Quentin Tarantino’s directorial choices matched the boldness of his historical rewrites in Inglourious Basterds, and Lee Daniels did the best he could with messy screenplay of Precious, churning out some of the year’s finest performances; in fact, if there was a “Best Ensemble” category, I’d vote for Precious without hesitation.

Admittedly, James Cameron took on the most tremendous task in his directing of the epic Avatar, and the film, regardless of its horrible screenplay and oft-times cringe-worthy performances, is striking to behold largely thanks to his helming. But let’s be honest: Kathryn Bigelow deserves this one. In the Academy Awards’ 82 years, only four women have been nominated in for Best Director, and it’s time to make some history. Just like Jeff Bridges, Bigelow deserves it. The woman made a super-tense, fantastically acted film about an incredibly difficult subject; how many other Iraq-war films can we actually say that about? (Bonus: sweet, sweet revenge of the Ex)

BEST PICTURE

1. The Hurt Locker

2. District 9

3. Up

4. Inglourious Basterds

5. An Education

6. Up in the Air

7. Precious

8. The Blind Side

9. Avatar

10. A Serious Man

Remember the simpler days of yore when voters cast their ballots for one film and the film with the most votes triumphed? This is no longer, my friends.

With the new 10-nominee craziness, there’s a chance that a film with only 11% of the vote could win if we played by the old rules. So now we’ve got a brand-spankin’ new system that makes everything a bit more complicated. Voters will now rank the films from 1 to 10. All the #1 votes will be counted and if no film has more than 50% of the votes (which will probably be the case), the last-place film will be eliminated (see ya, A Serious Man), and the voters who cast their ballots for that film will have their #2 selections counted instead. That process will continue until one film has a majority of votes. This means that the film with the most #1 votes may not actually win. (Al Gore would certainly sympathize.)

Whew.

While an upset would be fantastic – all signs point towards my #2 + #5s not garnering a single award, so wouldn’t it be ridiculously fun if either won the Big One? – it’s clear that this race is solely between the The Billion Dollar Green Screen Epic and the Little Indie War Movie That Could. Each has won approximately the same number of awards up until now, but usually the Best Picture goes hand-in-hand with Best Director, and most everyone has their money on Bigelow. But that certainly doesn’t mean you should count out Avatar just yet: remember that just 5 years ago Crash took home the gold even after Brokeback Mountain’s Ang Lee earned Best Director. As whack as that possibility is, it truly is anyone’s game.

Next Up: Oscars 2010 Postmortem

Oscars 2010: Best Actor + Actress in a Leading Role

Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to least accomplished, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners appear in orange.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

1. Helen Mirren
The Last Station

1. Sandra Bullock
The Blind Side

3. Carey Mulligan
An Education

4. Meryl Streep
Julie and Julia

5. Gabourey Sidibe
Precious

This is a surprisingly difficult category for me to order, as all of these women are tremendous. The slight one exception is Gabourey Sidibe as Precious, the severely obese and abused Harlem teen. With a face so round and full that her eyes always form unintentional slits difficult to read, Sidibe, while certainly impressive as a first-time actor, left me slightly underwhelmed in the wake of Mo’Nique’s insanely powerful performance.

I’m not sure one can argue “it’s time” for Sandra Bullock, but I’m happy to go along with it, as I’ve always possessed a great deal of affection for the down-to-earth and warm comedic actress. Sandy has of course shown us her dramatic chops before, if only in the smallest of roles (Crash), but The Blind Side is the perfect showcase for both her humor and dramatic capabilities as the no-nonsense, loving wealthy suburban mom who nurtures a troubled African American teen. Voters love the underdog, and let’s face it: if Julia Roberts can walk away with the biggie for Erin Brokovich, Sandy’s pretty much got this one in the bag.

Of course Bullock’s major competition is Meryl Streep, and the media has certainly made a huge to-do about these two women going head-to-head. No one compares to The Streep, but the formidable actress is always sensational, and while she goes above and beyond a simple imitation of the iconic cook in Julie and Julia, her Julia Childs is surely not amongst her most impressive performances.

That leaves just Mulligan and Mirren: the ingénue and the ol’ pro. Carey Mulligan plays a young schoolgirl seduced by a charming and much older man, and she does it with striking maturity and self-awareness, so strongly holding her own with accomplished actors Alfred Molina and Peter Sarsgaard, that you actually can’t fathom that this is her first major role. We’ve come to expect amazing self-assuredness and brilliance at every turn from the superfluously talented Helen Mirren, and she has absolutely no problem delivering in the romantic historical drama, The Last Station. As the self-ostracized and comically paranoid wife of famous literary icon, Leo Tolstoy, Mirren carefully reveals the heartbreak behind the bombast, fully engaging all of her character’s complexities, no matter how unattractive, vulnerable, or harsh. Her brightest moments are the smallest: in an intimate scene, she carefully unveils Sofya Tolstoy’s strong love for her husband as as she quietly coerces him into bed with delightfully silly pet names and amorous humor. That the performance doesn’t delve into complete hysteria (as it so easily could have) is due to Mirren’s sensitive portrayal of a woman who feels profoundly abandoned by the man she most intensely worships, respects, and adores. Mirren manages to channel our own agonizing heartbreaks within Sofya’s, and as she passionately loves and bitterly detests, and then finally, grieves for her love, so do we.

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

1. Jeff Bridges
Crazy Heart

2. Colin Firth
A Single Man

3. Jeremy Renner
The Hurt Locker

4. Morgan Freeman
Invictus

5. George Clooney
Up in the Air

Of all the categories, this contains the year’s most solid – and entirely worthy – set of nominees, and quite frankly, I adore them all: newcomer Jeremy Renner mixes a dangerous amount of self-confidence and precision in his performance as the adrenaline-junkie bomb defuser in The Hurt Locker; Morgan Freeman’s natural calm and grace perfectly suits South African president Nelson Mandela; and while George Clooney’s restlessly affable corporate terminator is too subtle and nuanced to make him a frontrunner, the seeming effortlessness of the performance is precisely why he was nominated in the first place.

And then there’s Colin Firth. Known primarily for a penchant for British romantic comedies, Firth’s quiet and delicate performance as a gay man in the ‘60s grieving his lover’s sudden death is a surprising choice for the actor. But what’s not surprising is the talented Firth’s refined and delicate portrayal of a man fully and painfully aware in every moment of every day – you can see it in the small tremor of his hand, even, as he removes his glasses – that nothing – nothing – will be good, ever again. The Academy could certainly do worse than surprise us all by rewarding this heartrending and essentially perfect performance.

But let’s be honest: if it’s Sandy’s time, it’d damned well better be Jeff Bridges’s. With four previous nominations under his belt and the love of critics and audiences alike, Bridges will finally go home with that golden statue that most agree should’ve been The Dude’s twelve years ago. But this isn’t simply a “let’s make up for past mistakes” vote (ie Denzel Washington in Training Day); Bridges actually deserves the Oscar for this performance. As the scruffy boozehound of a country-western bad boy singer, Bad Blake, Bridges’s gravelly voice and hangdog demeanor charms even as it repels, and we can’t help but root for his uderdog to make the comeback we’re not sure he deserves. As for Bridges – well, that’s one we’re sure about.

Next up: Best Director and Best Picture

Oscars 2010: Foreign Language, Animated, + Documentary Films

Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to least accomplished, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners appear in orange.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

1. The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)

1. A Prophet (France)

3. Ajami (Israel)

4. El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)

5. The White Ribbon (Germany)

I honestly have no idea what will win this category. If you believe “serious” critical sources like the New York Times or Roger Ebert, the big prize will go to that severe (and severely painful) commentary on fascism, The White Ribbon (I’ve already said once why it shouldn’t win). If you have more faith in your Average Blogger or popular ‘zine (Entertainment Weekly, perhaps?), the decades-spanning crime drama El Secreto de Sus Ojos may very well be the evening’s big spoiler. I’m putting my money on the latter; with its universal themes of love and retribution, it’s as decent a prediction as any despite its penchant for overly-romanticized cinematography and cheesetastic lines like the following: “A guy can change anything: his face, his home, his family, his girlfriend, his religion,his God. But there’s one thing he can’t change. He can’t change his passion.” However, it does pack one solid gut-punch of an ending.

But don’t entirely discount A Prophet. Another crime drama, but this one is more The Godfather than The Fugitive with its graphic violence and mafia obsessions. A young Arab (the stunning Tahar Rahim) serves a six-year sentence for a petty crime, and  finds himself ensnared in a dangerous world of warring criminal factions. A gritty and entirely gripping prison drama, this fantastic French film offers some solid competition to the pretentious (The White Ribbon) and the popular (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) choices. And while the ambitious and beautifully acted Ajami convincingly depicts the volatile relationship between Arabs and Jews in Israel across multiple story lines which are expertly woven together (its structure is reminiscent of Slumdog Millionare), the film is over-long and stumbles into some clichés.

The one nominee that’s sure to be overlooked, however, is arguably the year’s most fascinating film – foreign or otherwise. The Milk of Sorrow is beautifully shot: single pearls drop with acute promise into a bowl, daunting dessert staircases spiral upward endlessly, and an old woman in intimate close-up sings emotionlessly about brutalities we’d dare not imagine. Along with these stunning images comes a fierce allegory of Peru’s sexually violent and political history: a timid young woman suffers from “the milk of sorrow,” a psychologically damaging disease causing her to take drastic measures to maintain her personal and emotional safety. Harrowing and gorgeously compelling, The Milk of Sorrow is the year’s finest film that Academy voters never saw.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1. Up

2. Fantastic Mr. Fox

3. The Princess and the Frog

4. Coraline

5. The Secret of Kells

There’s always this moment: when something – a film, a band, a novel – earns raves, the hype consequently builds, and it becomes so extraordinarily popular and beloved by both critics and audiences alike that the backlash is inevitable. All of a sudden something that was so fantastic isn’t nearly so fantastic anymore simply because everyone loves it. Somehow it loses its appeal. Somehow, suddenly, the popular thing is to not like it, and to throw support to the “underdog.”

It’s not very cool to love Up anymore. The trendy thing is to dig the argyle-lovin’ Fantastic Mr. Fox with its hipster soundtrack and clever dialogue (and oh, how I do totally dig it).

Wait, that’s so five minutes ago.

Now it’s really all about the flat, abstract illustration of a young Irish chap as he rebels against his monk-father and befriends a wolf-fairy-girl in – a rather dry – pursuit of the legendary book in The Secret of Kells. And while practically everyone suffers from mommy/daddy issues that will always keep us in deep sympathy with the pale goth-girl Coraline as she battles her creepy button-eyed Other-Mother, Tim Burton dark ‘toon has the added misfortune of arriving on the scene before that CGIed tale of the soaring senior, which immediately took all the wind for its own balloon-sails. And the erratically charming The Princess and the Frog arrived terribly late to the game with its outrageously belated first African American princess, tired Randy Newman ‘tunes, and lazy hand-drawn animation. Clearly Disney didn’t want to steal any of its own thunder.

Despite all the backlash, no one can argue that Up (read my full review here) is a sure bet on Oscar night. All you need to do is rewatch that brilliantly calibrated opening montage of love and loss and you’ll laugh, weep, and then laugh and weep again – all within ten wordless minutes sensitively underscored by Giacchino.  How quickly you’ll forget all about those foxes and frogs, and long to take the journey Up all over again.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1. The Cove

2. Food, Inc.

3. Which Way Home

4. The Most Dangerous Man in America:
Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

5. Burma VJ

Note: This is a quick update to my list, as I just watched Which Way Home this afternoon (3/7/10).

It’s been a year of seemingly endless affliction (as these nominees and others would lead you to believe). The freshly filmed and nicely polished-looking Food, Inc., for example, offers us the comforting knowledge – rather redundantly if you’ve read the novel or seen the cinematic adaptation of Fast Food Nation, that this doc is based on – that everything we eat is terrible for us; and it all goes back, way back, to the inhumane treatment of farm animals and the horrible working conditions within our factories. New information? Not exactly. Perfect blend of the personal, the facts, and smooth filmmaking? Definitely.

The other three docs aren’t nearly as refined as Food, Inc. but The Most Dangerous Man in America is definitely more interesting – at least if you’re anything like me and are solely lacking in the knowledge of this highly historical moment. A well-told story of the one super-smart Everyman who smuggled thousands of Pentagon documents and leaked them to the press, uncovering top-secret governmental policies regarding Vietnam, this documentary simultaneously personalizes and historicizes the essential, vital argument for free press and freedom of speech.

The simple act of filming Burma VJ is an incredible and harrowing achievement. Governed by a repressive military regime, the people of Burma are forbidden to film or photograph anything, and the filmmakers literally risked life and limb to smuggle this film to outside sources. After the initial shock wears off of the uber-necessary stealthy filming techniques and the typical daily treatment of citizens (not to mention the jailing of monks), the doc loses power and yet trucks right along, capturing footage after footage of much the same.

Which Way Home is an interesting doc, but one that seems to sympathize with its subjects more than question them. About children migrating illegally over the Mexican-US border, the kids’ courage and ambitions to better their families lives by finding the “American Dream” is both endearing and frustrating, and their parents’ knowledge of the extreme dangers that they are facing in crossing the border  (and allowing them to take the risk anyway) is infuriating.

It’s strange how a film that is so flawed (and for which I had strong remarks for in my full review) ended up topping my list.  The Cove’s largely personal, highly emotional – and to mention thrilling – mission to uncover the needless and horrifically violent yearly dolphin slaughterings in a cove off of Japan, is by far the most mesmerizing and the most effectual. Sure, the facts are skewed for emotional effect, and the film’s main human subject, a Flipper-trainer-turned-activist, is obviously on a mission of self-redemption, but this personal journey actually ups the stakes – for both the subjects and for us. Revealing passion – even passion that is at times misguided – doesn’t discredit the film, but actually heightens its effect: as enraged as I was at some of the factual shortcomings, I was even more so at the acts of violence being perpetuated. If filmmaking inspires movement and change from its audience, then perhaps the other nominees should take a passionate cue from The Cove.

Next up: Best Actor + Actress

Oscars 2010: Best Supporting Actors

With the exception of a couple strange choices, the 2009 supporting acting categories are full of solid and engrossing  performances – and one extraordinary powerhouse.

Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to least accomplished, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners appear in orange.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1. Mo’Nique
Precious

1. Maggie Gyllenhaal
Crazy Heart

3. Vera Farmiga
Up in the Air

4. Anna Kendrick
Up in the Air

5. Penélope Cruz
Nine

Just as there’s little point in discussing who’ll take home the prize for Best Special Effects, there’s no discussion needed here. You spend almost the entire length of the film thinking the performance is solid, but small, and not exactly earth-shattering. And then, it happens: the most heart-wrenching and horrifying monologue of the year…and it pours ferociously out of the mouth of the star of such critically-acclaimed films as Phat Girlz and Beerfest. The fact that we don’t expect it must make Mo’Nique’s scarily volatile and surprisingly vulnerable performance as the abusive mother of an obese teen in Harlem all the more fiercely compelling. Sure, the monstrously stereotyped character ,  and especially that final astounding monologue, are unabashedly crafted to manipulate us to feel the extremes of sympathy and disgust simultaneously, but it wouldn’t succeed without Mo’Nique’s astonishingly acute ability to complicate the cliché and reveal nuanced emotional details that most certainly don’t exist on the page. There’s absolutely no question: this is Mo’Nique’s year.

Despite Mo’Nique’s sure win, the other nominees offer subtler, but no less detailed, performances. Maggie Gyllenhaal is emotionally honest as a single mom in love with a troubled and much older man, and both Farmiga and Kendrick are stellar as strong women with startlingly vulnerable sides.  It’s only Penélope Cruz that is out of place here: playing a coquettish mistress to Daniel Day Lewis’s Guido, she is boring and silly (which actually matches the silliness and tedium of the entire film), making me want to slap her around a bit – and not in a good way.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. Christopher Plummer
The Last Station

1. Christoph Waltz
Inglourious Baterds

3. Woody Harrelson
The Messenger

4. Matt Damon
Invictus

5. Stanley Tucci
The Lovely Bones

I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t care. If critic after critic (including the likes of you and me) can declare that “it’s time” to honor an actor, regardless if this is the performance s/he deserves to be rewarded for – we’ll get to you later, Jeff – I can certainly proffer my lowly vote to one of the most wonderful and underappreciated actors of our time. The fact that Christopher Plummer is 80 years old (!) and has hundreds of films under his belt (!), and this is his first nomination (?!?!), well, it’s ridiculous. TEAM PLUMMER all the way, I say. Want a critically hailed Sherlock Holmes? Don’t look to that Downey and Ritchie debacle, check out Plummer’s stellar performance in 1979’s Murder by Decree. Need a singing, anti-Nazi Austrian? Plummer. How about an iconic journalist (The Insider)? A creepily rational yet empathetic psychologist (A Beautiful Mind)? An aging man spiraling into madness? Yep, Plummer does Shakespeare too, and on the stage, to boot (one of the most thrilling theatrical experiences of my life was experiencing his Lear in Stratford, Ontario).  Pointing out his past achievements is not to declare his performance in The Last Station as the famous Russian literary icon Leo Tolstoy as less than worthy; it’s entirely the opposite.  As usual, Plummer fully and joyfully supports his cast and film. He does not clamor for the spotlight; instead, he graciously offers it to his brilliant on-screen partner (and fictional wife), Helen Mirren. No matter the film, no matter the character, Plummer’s work appears effortless, smooth, and totally of the moment. His decades of experience beyond those of his fellow nominees produces an expertly graceful, relaxed, and heartbreakingly pitch-perfect portrayal of an idealistic dying philosophizer.

It’s Plummer’s time.

But it’s not Woody Harrelson’s. Despite what many critics would have you believe, Harrelson’s turn as an alcoholic mentoring a younger military man in the emotional and clinical complexities of delivering news of death to soldiers’ families, Harrelson succeeds in soldierly stoicism, but never seems to crack that shield to fully reveal the man beneath the uniform (his emotional catharsis at the end of the film feels oddly empty).

As for the other nominees, Stanley Tucci never gets beyond the cliché of his molester mustache as the child-killer in Peter Jackson’s horribly misguided The Lovely Bones, and Matt Damon seems to have gotten lost, as I’m not at all sure what he’s doing here.

In the end, if the Academy refuses to acknowledge Plummer’s time (as it undoubtedly will), it’ll surely recognize Christoph Waltz’s impressive turn as a sadistic SS colonel who wins us over with his intellect and yes, his uncanny and entirely creepy charm. Portrayed by a lesser talent, Hans Landa would’ve been a horribly cartoonish and incredibly easy-to-hate villain; in Waltz’s capable hands, Landa seduces with a smile even as he entraps and kills dozens of Jews, in the most intelligent performance of the year.

Next Up: Best Foreign, Animated, + Documentary Films

Oscars 2010: Best Screenplays

The screenplay categories are easily my favorites. They almost always include at least one of the super-literate, lots-of-talk-little-action, quirkily humored indie films that I live to adore (ex: Before Sunset (2005)The Squid and the Whale (2006), Little Miss Sunshine (2007), Juno (2008)). This year’s nominees are slightly different – where’s (500) Days of Summer? – but nevertheless, the Academy has not failed to honor two of the year’s films that I most highly regard.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1. Up in the Air
Jason Reitman + Sheldon Turner

1. District 9
Neill Blomkamp + Terri Tatchell

3. An Education
Nick Hornby

4. In the Loop
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, + Tony Roche

5. Precious
Geoffrey Fletcher

Reitman and Turner’s depiction of a “career transition” counselor who contentedly flies the friendly skies from one American city to the next, firing Average Joes and Janes so that the big corporate figurehead doesn’t have to do it himself, is beyond relevant. Up in the Air is hard-hitting in these dire economic times, and Walter Kirn’s novel has been adapted adroitly into a smoothly structured screenplay that subtly captures the loneliness of one man and the heartache of an entire country. This is the type of work that will be appreciated more upon repeated viewings (the first time through you’re just too damn busy watching Clooney and Farmiga to really catch the textual nuances), and because so many voters know it doesn’t have a shred of a chance of winning Best Picture, they’re going to show their affection for the film right here.

If Up in the Air’s charm is subtle and smooth storytelling, District 9’s is the clear opposite: obvious and chaotic, this tale of Man vs. Prawn pulls no punches in its in-your-face exploration of race, class, and government corruption. While dramaturgically flawed in its scientific details, District 9 ups the stakes for all alien flicks to come by integrating serious social commentary and compelling characters with classic sci-fi tropes and thrills.

Two of the remaining nominees, An Education and In the Loop are worthy but unassuming contenders: a quietly compelling coming-of-age story about a young girl in 1960s England and how her life changes upon meeting a sophisticated man double her age and the ballsy British dramedy about a US President and the UK Prime Minister who fancy a war, yet can’t quite convince their respective camps that that’s a good thing. Lacking any real campaigning and not nearly as structurally interesting as either Up in the Air or District 9, these two barely register in the race. Precious, on the other hand, while powerful in its subject of an obese and outrageously abused African American teenager, flounders in its reliance on clichés to emotionally manipulate its audiences.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1. Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino

1. The Hurt Locker
Mark Boal

3. Up
Bob Peterson + Pete Docter

4. The Messenger
Alessandro Amon + Oren Moverman

5. A Serious Man
Joel + Ethan Coen

Only Quentin Tarantino would have the audacity to rewrite WWII. That he does so with such expert transitioning between the multiple story lines he’s concocted –Nazi-scalping Jewish avengers, film star spies, and sadistically charming, scary-smart Nazis – is what places Inglourious Basterds above the rest. Each character’s role and motivations are so specific and so carefully woven into the overall narrative that the signature giddy Tarantino bloodbaths and self-conscious sarcasm are just desserts. Voters will want to reward the writer-director’s gustiness, and offering him the trophy for best original screenplay is the surest way to do it.

Tarantino does have some stiff competition, though, because if The Hurt Locker has any kind of sweep after the Big Blue People are through miningour penchant for show over substance, Mark Boal may just take this one home for his point-blank portrayal of soldier addicted to the adrenaline rush of war. And wouldn’t it be a delightful coup if the animated Up, which adventurously follows a curmudgeonly octogenarian as he discovers how to move on from a devastating loss, took home the gold? As for those other two nominees, Amon and Moverman’s The Messenger lacks any kind of punch when disregarding its star performance by Woody Harrelson, and A Serious Man is seriously confusing for us gentiles. This race is decidedly between the two tighter and more affecting of the three war-related stories: Inglourious Basterds and The Hurt Locker.

Next Up: Best Supporting Actor + Actress

Oscars 2010: Cinematography + Editing

How a film is shot and cut creates the mood and feel of a piece, and is  also essential to the effectiveness of the overall story and its development. So let’s explore the merits of some of the year’s best storytellers via the cinematography and film editing categories.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

1. Avatar

2. The White Ribbon

3. Inglourious Basterds

4. The Hurt Locker

5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

cin·e·ma·tog·ra·phy
n.
The art or technique of movie photography, including both the shooting and development of the film. Involves the composition of a scene, lighting of the set and actors, choice of cameras, camera angle, and integration of special effects to achieve the photographic images desired by the director. Cinematography focuses on relations between the individual shots and groups of shots that make up a scene to produce a film’s effect.

Working from the above definition (whether flawed or not, it covers the core elements of cinematography), I’m not sure anyone could not vote for Avatar. It’s beautifully shot, the special effects are fully integrated and essential to the overall effectiveness of the film, and the fact that on top of all its lush, detailed pictures, it was also crafted (perfectly) for 3-D, places Mauro Fiore’s work high above the competition. Of course, I wouldn’t mind an upset, particularly if it was in favor of the artsy, über-German The White Ribbon. While I detested this film about strange, horrible events that occur in a small German village on the eve of WWI (talk about ritual punishment…), Christian Berger’s use of black and white film makes the story’s bizarre events all the more gruesome and striking. Truth be told, I find all of the nominees worthy of a trophy, not the least of which, Inglourious Basterds, is vibrantly filmed in what one can only describe is the old-school classic Hollywood style.

FILM EDITING

1. The Hurt Locker

2. District 9

3. Avatar

4. Inglourious Basterds

5. Precious

Let’s mix it up a little and award the little-war-movie-that-could instead of the big and bad CGI-fest, shall we?  It’s true that Avatar does have a real shot at this one (especially if it wins many of the other smaller categories), but I think voters will (and should) note how much the suspenseful The Hurt Locker’s success rides on the tightness of its expert editing to create such an enormously tense film. Though its ludicrous to believe District 9 possesses a better chance of winning than Avatar in this category, Julian Clarke’s editing is no less essential to the story it tells : the choppiness of the film, as it veers from media coverage to disturbing views of African slums to chaotic interactions between man and “prawn,” fantastically establishes the atmosphere of chaos and desperation. On a less positive note, Precious’s editing was messy and manipulative, and the film’s creators shouldn’t expect any awards outside of the acting categories.

Next up: Best Original + Adapted Screenplays

Oscars 2010: Visual Design

Basically, I’m going to offer up to you what was both inspiring and beautiful and what looked cheap and ineffectual. And then you’re going to tell me it doesn’t matter because Avatar is going to win it all.

Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners will be in orange.

MAKEUP

1. Il Divo

2. Star Trek

3. The Young Victoria

A little lackluster this year, the Academy was making a definite stretch with its third nominee, The Young Victoria. There’s no exceptional quality to the face paint in that film – it’s your typical royal blush accented with a decent wig, but what do I know? As for that seemingly obvious choice, Star Trek is a bit underwhelming (and not just in regards to its makeup); a few pointy ears and some temporary face tats and you, too, can earn an Oscar-nom! I wish there had been more visual stimulation onboard the Enterprise and less of pretty-boy Chris Pine attempting to look badass.

The most stunning makeup of the three nominees comes from that little Italian movie you’ve never heard of. In Paolo Sorrentino’s super-stylish Il Divo, the distinguished-looking actor Toni Servillo is physically transformed into the jowly, wrinkled, and incredibly hunchbacked Giulio Andreotti. The seven-time Italian Prime Minister Andreottti was tried for Mafia ties as well as for murder, was acquitted for both, and remains a senator for life to this day. Within a fascinating story that is fashionably told with creatively tongue-in-check cinematography and an intriguing score that often consists of staccato notes from a single flute, the makeup is actually the least impressive of the film’s visual qualities. In the end, though, it doesn’t really matter: those flashy and uber-popular Romulans are sure to take home the golden statue.

COSTUME DESIGN

1. Bright Star

2. The Young Victoria

3. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

4. Coco before Chanel

5. Nine

Janet Patterson’s gorgeously detailed period designs have garnered her three nominations in the past (Oscar and Lucinda, The Portrait of a Lady, and The Piano), but never a win; here’s hoping that Bright Star’s refreshingly inventive and vibrantly-hued frocks (all those fabulous flowered and feathered hats! And ruffled collars! And lacy petticoats!) put some gold on her mantle. In the film, John Keats’s love, Fanny Brawne, is an accomplished designer, and so Patterson’s designs are all the more thoughtful, adhering to Fanny’s simultaneously fierce femininity and strength as both a designer and a woman in love. Unfortunately, there’s also a royal in the running for the coveted Oscar: The Young Victoria’s designer, Sandy Powell, has seven nominations and two wins (for Shakespeare in Love and The Aviator) under her belt. The odds are certainly in her favor as Victoria presents another selection of her richly-crafted and resplendent gowns, bejeweled crowns, and sharply adorned soldier uniforms.

Neither Patterson nor Powell need worry about the competition, however: Nine’s glorified – read: tacky, much like the entire film – except for you, Marion Cotillard. You are as gorgeous and classy as ever – lingerie-designs certainly aren’t a threat to either’s chances, and though The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’s costumes offer the only actual imaginative aspect of the entire film, the film’s general wretchedness makes one forget them almost entirely. And while one would think a film about a designer would offer the most impressive set of costumes, the Coco before Chanel ends just where it should begin, with Coco embracing her artistry – no one cares what happened before Chanel, even if charming Audrey Tautou’s the one selling it.

ART DIRECTION

1. Avatar

2. Sherlock Holmes

3. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

4. The Young Victoria

5. Nine

Why even bother to nominate five films? Why not just give Best Art Direction to Avatar right now? The answer to this is simple: purists – those old school chaps who think computer-created design doesn’t quite count (sound familiar, Disney-Pixar?) – are most likely giving their votes to Sherlock Holmes for its grimy, washed-out Victorian vision of London-town. Of course, there’s also the question of distinguishing Art Direction from Special Effects, as Avatar blurs the line so completely that one wonders why there’s not a single award – or even why we don’t just hand over the entire lot of 2010 golden statues to Cameron and crew right now (I’m only slightly kidding when I express my surprise that they didn’t figure out a way to twist the makeup category into a version that would allow for rewarding Avatar just one more time).

VISUAL EFFECTS

1. Avatar

2. District 9

3. Star Trek

I want so desperately to award the inventive  District 9 with something, anything, that I nearly put it at the top of my visual effects list. I of course realize the futility (and utter ridiculousness) of that gesture, and so even I must admit that Avatar will not only conquer this category, but deservedly so with its breathtaking visuals, startling detail, and sheer innovation. But District 9: I salute you and your South African alien slums; perhaps if you had been released just a year earlier or later…

Next up: Cinematography and Film Editing