It’s easy to think of at least a few films and performances that got robbed at Oscar nominations time. The Dark Knight for picture and director come to mind, as does WAll-E for the same,Cate Blanchett for Benjamin Button, Michelle Williams for Wendy and Lucy, and Debra Winger for Rachel Getting Married all were conspicuous. [...]
Mickey Rourke’s face – puffed, spongy, semi-mobile, is like a relief map of failure in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, a sports drama that struggles semi-successfully to transcend it’s genre. To the degree that it succeeds Rourke, Marisa Tomei, and Aronofsky deserve the credit for sharply grounding the film in reality. Likewise, it’s shortcomings are again [...]
At the screening of Milk I attended a number of people walked out during scenes in which Sean Penn and James Franco were kissing. I had to wonder whether these folks thought they were going to see a film about beverage consumption. Did they not know this was a film about a gay man? On [...]
Slumdog Millionaire is unusual in that it’s a fairytale built on a core of the real misery and struggle that exists in cities like Mumbai. Then again, maybe it’s not so unusual – the Grimm’s fairtytales had some extremely disturbing elements and at a time before urban sprawl and centralized law and order staying out [...]
Rachel Getting Married is a film that, by description, promises studio indie cliché by the boatload. Big name director (Jonathan Demme) and a big star (Anne Hatahway) looking to show her Oscar chops in a drama set around a big dysfunctional family gathering. Plus, the star plays an obnoxious off-putting sourpuss. Cue Noah Baumbach’s Margot [...]
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