So I have seen 3 of this year's "Oscar movies", although one of them was severely slept on and only got one nomination.
So first, the 2 Best Picture nominees that I feel, without having to see any of the others, represent the polar opposites of the category. The best, and the worst. Not that the worst is bad, but it just doesn't compare. It's like saying License to Ill is the worst Beastie Boys album. A classic, indeed. But trumped time after time with every new album.
Anyways, these 2 movies are No Country For Old Men and Juno.
No Country For Old Men is, hands down, the best movie to come out last year and probably years before that. It is uncharted territory. It requires multiple viewings, and at the risk of sounding like a total braggadocious douchebag, I have seen it 5 times. It is just that good, and just that deep. You could choose not to read into it, walk away with an opinion, and never watch it again. But it deserves to be studied.
Michael Clayton and Atonement seem all well and good, but I don't even have to watch them to know they don't walk on the same ground No Country does. There Will Be Blood, on the other hand, I cannot speak for. It probably embodies the same scorchingly original filmmaking that No Country does. It is P.T. Anderson, after all. I just hope they don't cancel each other out.
On the other hand, you have Juno. It is a great movie. But it just doesn't deserve to be nominated for Best Picture. OK, deserve is a sketchy word. But when you look at the movies that didn't get it, something doesn't add up. It got the token indie-comedy-nomination. The Little Miss Sunshine nomination, if you will.
One of the movies that got the shaft so Juno could...no, wait...Juno DID get the shaft! Ohhhh! Thank you, I will be here all week.
Anyways, the movie that got robbed is Into The Wild. Sean Penn didn't even get an adapted screenplay nom! We just saw it the other night, and it was powerful and haunting, among many other things. The one nomination it did get, is Hal Holbrook for Best Supporting Actor. It will be tough for anyone to beat Javier Bardem in No Country, but I am thinking Mr. Holbrook deserves a second look. If only because he enters the movie at its' most pivotal point, and is the most important character that Chris McCandless crosses paths with.
You know why this movie got ignored? Because it stands for everything that Hollywood is not. It tells them that their tuxedos and red carpets are illusion, and anyone that desires such material excess is living anything but truth.
Oh, and Enchanted gets 3 out of 5 nominations for Original Song?! Once gets ONE, and Eddie Vedder gets NONE for Into The Wild!? Bullcrap!
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