Oscar Celebrates the Movies

 

Check out the Academy Awards’ gallery of “Celebrate the Movies” images in anticipation of the 84th Academy Awards February 26.

 

TV Shows Are Movies Too!

We live in an age where television is no longer the most hated form of technology.  We have texting and Facebook for that now.  Heck, I’m sure parents would love to see their kids watching a television screen playing educational or thought-provoking programming instead of their cell phone screens.

Sure, there’s mindless junk on television.  We live in the age of the reality show, so that’s a given.  But there are also so many quality programs that really beg to be compared to cinema.  The style and substance of film has been brought to the small screen, and although I believe in preserving the integrity of the big screen format, I love that so many shows nowadays tackle ambitious subject matter with cinematic ferocity.

Turn on AMC or any of the premium channels (and often the big networks) these days, and you’ll see high-quality stories being played out on shows with impressive production values and daring techniques.  Watching a TV series nowadays is like watching a hundred-hour-long movie broken into parts.

One of the most obvious examples of this trend in recent years is Mad Men.  The decision to make an hour-long drama series set in 1960s New York was really extraordinary.  It’s something recent shows like The Playboy Club and Pan Am tried to imitate – without much luck.  What makes Mad Men work is its authenticity.  It does its best to truly recreate that world, brick by brick, cigarette by cigarette.  Sure, some things are exaggerated and stylized, but the show creates another world for itself in a way that very few shows manage.  The difference in appearance that manifests itself when the actors step out in everyday clothes and makeup shows just how immersed as viewers we become in the world of Mad Men.  Jon Hamm and Don Draper are two completely separate entities.  That’s the kind of delineation you get all the time when you watch a movie, but not very often when you watch a television show.  TV actors tend to become tied to their alter egos so much so that it’s hard for viewers to differentiate between them.

The cast of Mad Men

Let’s face it, the entire line-up of AMC original programming has revolutionized what a television show is.  The channel devoted to and named after movies brings original programming that wows its viewers like the movies it shows.  The Walking Dead has captivated people like any horror movie would, its effects keeping viewers on the edges of their seats.  Hell on Wheels has become a new favorite of mine.  It beautifully recreates the atmosphere of the American West, and its storytelling is rich with relevant themes.  I’m not a usually a fan of Westerns, but I’m a fan of that show.

Common and Anson Mount in Hell on Wheels

Even comedies have adopted the qualities of popular comedic films.  The mockumentary style has taken the TV world by storm in recent years, as series like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Modern Family use handheld camerawork and talking heads to imply the documentary form, like the Christopher Guest-penned films before them (This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, etc.).

The cast of The Office

Those who claim television is wasteful need only look at a tasteful, high brow series like Downton Abbey to see that television shows, in Britain and the United States, are becoming just as artistic and thematic as critically acclaimed films.  Film took a long time to become respected as an art form and not just a pop spectacle, and I hope that television doesn’t take too long to catch up.  In truth, for every Keeping Up With the Kardashians, there is a Mad Men.  But that doesn’t mean I won’t watch both.  I’m only human.

Image sources: BuzzSugar, AMC, BuzzSugar

No Refunds For Disappointment at the Movies

It was recently reported that viewers in England demanded a refund after discovering that The Artist has no dialogue.  This story arrives hot on the heels of reports that a woman filed a lawsuit complaining that the trailer for Drive implied that the film would be similar to The Fast and the Furious.  Her expectations were apparently let down upon seeing the film.

Is this really what the movie-going public thinks is acceptable?  Have we started taking the film-going experience so much for granted that we can no longer accept what audiences have been accepting for over a century — that when going to see a movie you risk not enjoying it?  Do you ask for a refund at an art museum if a Van Gogh painting isn’t what you imagined it to be or you found the sculptures unappealing?  Unlike buying a physical object, when you get a refund after viewing art, you don’t give up the thing you’re getting your money back for.  You can’t return the experience of seeing the movie.  Film viewing, and the opinions formed as a result, are subjective.  That’s most of the reason you have arguments with your friends about the merits of certain films, why critics can be so divided over a movie, and why most people can’t say they’ve enjoyed every movie they’ve seen.

First we can’t get to movies on time.  Then we text or allow our phones to ring during the showing.  Then we kick each other’s seats and block each other’s views.  Now we can’t accept that sometimes we won’t like a film?  If so, we are a spoiled society indeed. 

Trailers cannot be to blame.  While editing certainly achieves a specific effect and tone — as it’s meant to — a trailer merely strings together images and dialogue from the film in question, while perhaps adding voiceover or text here and there.  Can you really accuse a trailer of false advertisement?

Granted, there are absolutely occasions when I believe refunds are warranted.  Technical difficulties, such as an out-of-focus projection, (unintentional) lack of sound, or large fragments missing, which are not immediately remedied, affect the experience of the film as it was intended, and asking for one’s money back is not a ridiculous request.

What boggles my mind is how audiences in England were unaware that The Artist is a silent film.  Its trailer contains no dialogue, and whenever it’s mentioned in a review or news story, it’s described as a silent film.  If moviegoers went into the theater without having read about the movie or seen a trailer, it’s certainly not the theater’s fault if they were unaware of a basic and intentional aspect of the film.

It’s time we started appreciating the film-going experience and showing the art form some respect.  Get to your movies on time.  Turn off your cell phones and devote your focus to the experience at hand.  Accept the fact that you’re not going to absolutely love every movie you see.  If you can’t handle these simple rules, stick to rentals.

Take a risk!  See a movie!  And maybe do two minutes of research before heading out to the theater.

Review: Carnage

If the above trailer doesn’t make you want to see Carnage, I don’t know what will.

Roman Polanski’s newest film, based on the play God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, finds two couples (Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly, and Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) meeting one chilly afternoon in New York City to discuss a schoolyard fight between their sons. What starts out as a civil conversation between four adults rapidly spirals out of control as the characters bicker, drink, and act more childish than their children.

Winslet and Waltz try to leave, but a subtle insult or question pulls them back into the apartment, and everything begins all over again. The characters — and the audience — begin to forget the reason for this meeting, as everything from animal abuse to damaged art books provokes the couples into engaging in vicious and often absurd verbal warfare.

The film occurs in real time in the span of about an hour and twenty minutes. A short runtime, but so full of memorable hilarity. The film’s limited physical space makes the audience feel as trapped and uncomfortable as the characters, and yet no one seems to want to leave.

This is a film driven by its performances, especially Winslet’s and Foster’s. Their delivery runs the gamut from feigned civility to sarcasm to all-out hysteria. The subtle ways the film creates alliances — within couples, between genders — and then breaks them is like a beautifully choreographed dance.

I will say that the trailer pretty much sums up the entire film, and there is little more to it than what is depicted in those two minutes, save for the context to a number of the featured outbursts, as well as one key event which I won’t give away to preserve the shock value.

Carnage is a great film choice to fulfill a quick need for sharp, twisted comedy. It’s a shame neither Winslet nor Foster was recognized with an Academy Award nomination.

Let’s Talk About the Oscar Nominations…

The 84th Academy Award nominations were announced this morning by Academy president Tom Sherak and last year’s Best Actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence.  They were full of out-of-left-field choices and some shocking snubs.  It seems that, more than years past, the Oscars veered away from the choices at the Golden Globes, which might be telling when the winners must be determined.  Perhaps it’s because 2011 was such a weird year for film.  The nominees this year are certainly varied, from artsy independents to epic blockbusters to films somewhere in between.

The first surprise came when Melissa McCarthy was announced as a nominee for Best Supporting Actress.  While she was certainly always a possibility, I wasn’t convinced she’d get a nomination.  It bugs me, because I so disliked her vulgar character in Bridesmaids.  It’s disappointing that McCarthy’s been recognized for such a cringe-worthy role when I know she has so much more worthy talent up her sleeve.  More on Bridesmaids in a minute.

Another surprise came when the Best Supporting Actor nominees were announced.  Nick Nolte received a nod for his role in the unbuzzed-about Warrior.  Max von Sydow received his second career nomination for his work in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a film that didn’t receive much attention at The Golden Globes, but which the Academy seems to have embraced.

Gary Oldman’s nomination for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was shocking, not only because he hadn’t received any other major award recognition, but because his surprise inclusion, along with foreigner Demián Bichir for A Better Life, snubbed favorite Leonardo DiCaprio for J. Edgar.  Will this man ever get an Oscar?

What about Rooney Mara’s surprising nod for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo?  Possible nominee Charlize Theron was nowhere to be found, as were both Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster, who received Golden Globe recognition for Carnage.

The Best Animated Feature category nominated two foreign films, which goes to show what a lackluster year it was for American animation, which usually dominates the category.  No nod for Cars 2, which is pretty much unheard of for a Disney-Pixar collaboration.

What happened to the rest of the Best Original Song category?  There are only two nominees.

John Williams received two nods for best score, for The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse.

Now for the writing categories.  Oh, dear.  Margin Call was out of the blue, as was Bridesmaids, whose screenplay is in my opinion totally unworthy of the category, and stole the spot from any number of more deserving screenplays, Beginners, 50/50, and Win Win being three.  Read more about what I think about Bridesmaids here.  Adapted Screenplay is pretty straightforward, although Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy might be considered a surprise.

Best Director is full of big names, as it usually is.  Alexander Payne, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Terrence Malick all received nods, as well as French director Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist.

Best Picture turned out to have nine nominees.  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was the most surprising choice, since the film received a myriad of negative reviews, and which The Huffington Post reported this morning is the worst reviewed film of the past decade to receive a nomination for Best Picture.  The Tree of Life, a film which many (myself included) either couldn’t get through or didn’t understand, received a nod.  Woody Allen’s newest comedy Midnight in Paris holds the spot of the “quirky favorite” a la Lost in Translation, Little Miss Sunshine, and Juno.  It’ll be a battle between The Artist and The Descendants, but I predict The Artist will come out a winner.

Don’t forget to watch the 84th Academy Awards on ABC February 26 to find out who wins.

Image source: PopSugar