OSCAR (Best Picture)

It's that time of year again.  The 84th Academy Awards are almost here.  While I have become somewhat lax in blogging about the movies I have seen, I have now seen all the movies that have a chance to win Best Picture.  

Even though there are nine entries this year in the Best Picture category several of them have 0 chance of winning.  Why?  Because the likelihood of one of the movies winning Best Picture that didn't have it's Director nominated for Best Director are very slim.  It's nice that the Academy decided to shorten the field by one this year from the ten nominees last year, but they could cut the field down even more.  

Let's be honest here  War Horse, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, and  Moneyball probably don't have a chance at winning in this category, because none of these films' directors were nominated for Best Director.  

Since I am being honest, I must confess that I have not seen War Horse or Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.  Rightly or wrongly I dismissed them from contention once the Academy released this year's nominees. Both films just didn't capture my attention like the others.  I admittedly wanted to see War Horse until I heard of the saccharin sentimentality of this film and then I lost interest. With Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close I had no interest in returning to 2001 for another cryathon.  Been there and done that enough already.     

I did however very much like the The Help as well as Moneyball.  Being an ex-baseball player, I really enjoyed Brad Pitt's  idiosyncratic character Billy Beane. Also, if there is one movie that might sneak up this year and garner a ton of awards it is The Help.  Strong performances and important subject matter make this movie a must see.      

Of the movies that were also nominated for Best Director, I must immediately remove The Tree of Life from contention.  This is a film and not a movie, because no average joe would  knowingly shell out money for something as emotionally cerebral and artistic as this.  The closest movie I can compare this to is The Fountain. A movie I really wanted to see.  Each of these films suffered from a disconnect from the thread of actually telling a coherent story.  They each require multiple viewings and loads of caffeine to fully grasp the filmmakers intent, and I have a novel to deliver to people, so... next.

That leaves us with the creme de la creme.  These four movies are the real contenders for Best Picture and I thoroughly enjoyed each of them for different reasons.  (I will mention each movie in the order in which I saw them.)

The Descendants:  I was really looking forward to this movie and went to see it on Christmas Day.  I won't go see just anything on Christmas, so that should tell you my hopes were very high.  The trailers made it out to be a comedy.  While there were moments of near-uproarious laughter, this is a quirky dramedy.  

Clooney is a clueless father and husband who cares more about money than his family.  That all changes when his wife is sent into a comma after a water skiing accident.  This forces Clooney to be a real father to his distant eldest daughter and his foul-mouthed youngest daughter.  Payne does a brilliant job at balancing the comedic moments with the necessary moments of heartbreak that go along with losing a loved one.  In the end, Clooney's character has changed so dramatically that he makes choices based not on money but on what is right for his girls.  

Hugo:  I used my secret santa gift card to go see this.  When I heard Scorsese was breaking new ground by making a movie that his children could see, I was all in.  What a visual and imaginative treat this was.  Hugo is an orphaned child whose loving and creative father died in a horrible accident and left Hugo with only the mysterious automaton that the two of them had been working with before his father's untimely demise.  

Hugo goes to live with a drunken relative inside a Paris train station, where he uses his tinkering skills to maintain the station's clocks. All the while he tries to fix the automaton, believing if he can fix it then he might be able to fix himself.  He repairs the automaton, though it wont work without "the Key."  I won't give the rest of the story away,  but the brilliant Ben Kingsley and rising young star Chloe Moretz assist Hugo in his efforts, while Sacha Baron Cohen plays the clumsy yet persistent guard who chases Hugo around the train station.  Kids and adults alike will fall in love with Hugo.

The Artist:  When I heard about this film back in the summer of 2011, I was thinking that this would be just some artsy fartsy movie that I would go see just to say that I had seen it. But soon after its release the positive buzz around this film began to snow ball.  I went to see this with a friend, and I must say right off the bat that I have never had to remain so quiet in a movie before.  It was a show in itself trying to keep my straw from making any noise.  "Errrr...!"  "Oh geez, shhh straw."  That alone made the viewing of this film unique from the others.  But it was the film itself that was incredible.  

Black and White is a truly lost pallete in film making.  Some movies try to use it to capture an era and fail, while the Artist is a triumph in all facets.  The acting was sublime, especially Jean Dujardin and his canine companion.  The dog almost stole the show and actually got a rightfully deserved credit in the movie.  Without sound, except for the music score, brilliant dream sequence and a bit of talking towards the end, you had to focus on the actors faces, their bodies and the script.  All of which suck you in.  You feel for the silent actor whose career fades because he is unwilling to adapt and work in the "talkies," while the girl he gave her break to goes on to super stardom.  I can't say enough about this movie.  Brilliant.  Go see it, but be careful that your straws, popcorn and candy will create enough noise to be a minor distraction.    

Midnight in Paris:  Woody Allen does it again.  Just when you think he has disappeared into the sunset never to be heard of again.  Whamo!  Another great film.  I had more fun with this film than all the others.  Not because it was a better film than the others.  It was because I could relate to Owen Wilson's character.  A writer in Paris. I would love to do some writing on the streets of Paris once more.  The fact that Owen's character was working on his first novel after having worked on screenplays for years really struck a cord as well. That his character has an affinity for the roaring twenties is something else we have in common.  

This whole movie was like a "what if" dream of my own.  Top it all off with the fact that he is engaged to none other than my favorite actress Rachel McAdams and I swear that Woody Allen must have tapped into my subconscious to make this film.  I would have been as torn as Owen's character, having to chose between Rachel and going back into the 20s to party with some of the greatest artists in all of history.  Tough call.  Because this movie hit so many cords with me, I think I enjoyed it the most.  To top it all off, when Owen's character talks to Luis Bunuel about arguably one of my favorite films of all time The Exterminating Angel, I absolutely fell in love with this movie.  If you are anything like me, you too will fall in love with Midnight in Paris.  

To give my prediction for Best Picture I must separate myself from all the wonderful coincidences I shared with Owen Wilson's character in Midnight in Paris and think about all four of these incredible films in relation to the general public.  While I would like to see Midnight in Paris win, I do not think it will.  

The Descendants and The Artist are the front runners.  In going by my expectations for each film before I went to see them, The Descendants fell short of the mark I had hoped it might hit as far as comedy.  While there were moments, it did not make me remember those moments as I had hoped it would.  The Artist on the other hand, met my expectations and exceeded it in the brilliance of the story telling and execution.  The Artist is this year's King's Speech.  It just exceeds the others in story, craft and execution.  

One more week until Oscar!   

-aap