Best Picture Showcase, Part 1

Last Saturday, I attended Day 1 of the Best Picture Showcase at AMC. Every year, AMC puts on a Saturday (or, in the case of this year, two) where they play all of the nominees for that year's Best Picture Academy Award. This is one of my favorite events of the year. Today, just before the Oscars, will be Day 2. There are two days this year because there are 10 nominees - the first time since 1943. Below, you will find a mini-review and mini-synopsis (I'll try to keep the spoilers out of this one) of each movie played last Saturday, as well as a verdict on who I think should win the award so far.


Avatar

This is the big-ticket picture this year, the one most debated about, most praised, and most criticized. What is it? It's a sci-fi love story about a man who comes to another planet, one rich in mineral deposits and natural life, and uses an alien body (an avatar) that they had grown in test tubes to walk around amongst the Na'vi, the native peoples of that world. His mission is to make a bond with them, and then convince them to leave their home, so that us greedy humans can get the deposits of "unobtanium" underneath.

Now, I know I said no spoilers, but I have to admit, you've heard this story before. It's fairly predictable.I won't give it away, but you can guess, I'm sure. The amazing part of this film is the visual effects. The characters and scenery are almost all CG, and the 3D version is very well done. The 3D doesn't invade your world or throw things at the screen the way that most 3D movies do. This one just makes the world immersive and enhances the scenery.

My favorite part of this movie is Sigourney Weaver in her role as Grace, the hard-nosed, cigarette-smoking, sarcastic, compassionate head scientist of the film. She's full of so much character, and everything she does is very true-to-character. To me, she is the immersive part of the cast.


Up in the Air

Up in the Air is like a biopic of a fictional character, named Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a workaholic whose job it is to fire people for other companies by flying out to them. In fact, he travels so much that an airport is like home to him, and he has few personal connections to people and things besides that. His boss decides that it's time to switch over to the new, and implements a program where employees fire people via an internet video chat. Ryan tries to explain to them that this is impersonal and makes the transition harder on the now ex-employee. His boss gives him the chance to explain it more fully by letting him take a young hotshot, Natalie (Anna Kendrick), along with him on some of his firing trips.

This movie ends up somehow being both funny and depressing. George Clooney is stellar, as are the two female leads (Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga - who are both nominated for best supporting actress). The most interesting bit of trivia that I learned about this film is that all of the people that Ryan fires are actually people who had been recently laid off in real life. These people were simply told to react in the way that they had wanted to react to whoever fired them. This made for such a genuine bisection of today's working atmosphere. I was shocked, and newly grateful to be employed.


Precious

I know I just said that I was shocked by the unemployed in Up in the Air, but Precious was a whole different kind of shock. It seemed to me that everyone in the theater was struck dumb after this film. This is the story of a young woman who is struggling in school and pregnant with her second child by her father. Go ahead and read that again. It's not a pretty sentence. Her mother throws things at her and abuses her because she is jealous that her boyfriend is more interested in her daughter than he is in her. This is the story of how she comes out of that situation.

I talked with several people in depth after the film. Precious is not a happy movie, and it isn't fun to watch, but I think that it is important. At first, I thought that I didn't enjoy the movie. The truth is that it wasn't fun, it wasn't feel-good, and the ending is both happy and sad, so no purely happy ending. But, by God, is this film important and amazing. You feel it. This is possibly one of the greatest movies I have ever seen: a true eye-opener. I hope to write more in-depth about it in a separate post.


The Blind Side

I have absolutely no idea why this movie is nominated for Best Picture. None at all. It's a mediocre, boring feel-good movie about a white woman and her family who take in a poor, young, black man and help him to succeed. In football. Whoop-de-freaking-do. My friend Michael commented that this movie might have worked if it had been placed in the '60s. I agree. But, nope, it's placed firmly in the landscape of today, where it simply seems racist. How kind of the white folks to help out the black folks. You can't see me, but I'm rolling my eyes.

Hopefully more on this one later too. As you can see, I haven't finished my rant yet.


Inglorious Basterds

Nope, not spelled wrong. This is a film about a fictional group of radical American Nazi-killers during WWII. Or it's a film about a young Jewish woman who got away from an insane Nazi colonel (played by the amazing Christoph Waltz [nominated for best supporting actor]), and is now seeking revenge. Take your pick. It's both. This film is marvelous, and was a breath of fresh air after The Blind Side. It was funny, and mildly violent (it is Quentin Tarantino, after all), and Brad Pitt as the head Basterd was amazing. What a character! I truly think he was snubbed by not getting an Oscar nom.

But why did I think this movie was not quite right? There wasn't enough Nazi-killing! All of the trailers lead the viewer to believe that this is a film about a fictional group of radical American Nazi-killers. More than half the movie is focused on this young Jewish woman, and it totally screws up the flow of the film.


The Verdict

No, there wasn't a sixth film called "The Verdict." Here's what I think so far, and I'm off to see the rest of the nominations today, so I'll let you know. So far, I think Avatar will win, I think Precious deserves to win, and I think I liked Up in the Air the best. I also am rooting for Christoph Waltz to win best supporting actor for Inglorious Basterds, and Mo'nique (yes, believe it or not) to win best supporting actress for Precious.

See you soon with more exciting news on this year's Best Picture nominees.