Kinematoscope

1. District 9- Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell (both 0 for 0)

"To everyone's surprise, the ship didn't come to a stop over Manhattan or Washington or Chicago,but instead it costed to a halt directly over the city of Johannesburg. The doors didn't open for 3 months. It just hovered there. Nobody could get in."

An interesting choice for adapted screenplay, considering much of the dialogue was improvised. The merging of the Frontline retrospective with a rock-solid sci-fi action movie proves too memorable to pass up.


2. An Education- Nick Hornby (0 for 0)

JENNY: "So you’re telling me to be bored, and then bored, and then finally bored again, this time for the rest of my life. This whole stupid country is bored. There’s no life in it, or colour in it, or fun in it. It’s probably just as well that the Russians are going to drop a nuclear bomb on us any day now."

The striaghtforward but compelling script for An Education takes a backseat to the performances, but does a great job making an ill-advised cradle robbing seem less unsettlingly predatory.


3. In The Loop- Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche (all 0 for 0)

TOBY: "Simon, I am sorry, but it's not like I threw up in there, is it?"
SIMON: No, you're right, I'm being unfair. I should be thanking you for not throwing up. Well done, you're a star. You didn't wet yourself, did you? You're in the right city. You didn't say anything overtly racist. You didn't pull your cock out and start plucking it and shouting "Willy Banjo". No, I'm being really unfair. You'd got so much right, without actually being there in the beginning of one of the most important moments of my career. Thanks, you're a legend."

Cannot believe this got nominated. Such a great script that you just cross your fingers that they release the original four plus hour long cut on DVD.


4. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire- Geoffrey Fletcher (0 for 0)

PRECIOUS: "Some folks has a lot of things around them that shines for other peoples. I think that maybe some of them was in tunnels. And in that tunnel, the only light they had, was inside of them. And then long after they escape that tunnel, they still be shining for everybody else."

I haven't read it, but I imagine a lot of credit is due to Fletcher for Precious's sucess, as the novel is written in a stream-of-consciousness style that progresses in literacy along with the character.

5. Up in the Air- Jason Reitman (0 for 1), Sheldon Turner (0 for 0)

RYAN (V.O.): "Tonight, most people will be welcomed home by jumping dogs and squealing kids. Their spouses will ask about their day, and tonight they'll sleep. The stars will wheel forth from their daytime hiding places, crowning their neighborhood with lights. And one of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over."

The sure winner, Reitman and Turner will get up to awkwardly divide speechtime once more on Sunday. Having read the book long ago, it seems like a real plot transformation took place on the journey to the screen, but the themes of isolation were never lost. It was just waiting for the unemployment crisis to make it more timely.

A ten part series on the Best Picture nominees, structured around four basic questions.

Was It Any Good?

I'd give it a solid three stars. A remarkable ensemble cast gets lots of mileage from Nick Hornby's script- a script that's decidely unhornbian, really.

Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams, Peter Saarsgard, Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike all put in memorable turns around Carey Mulligan's powerful lead performance. Emma Thompson even pops up for three scenes as the school headmistress.

Lone Sherfig's direction is solid, if not visually memorable. I did enjoy the score by the appropriately-named Paul Englishby.

Would I See It Again?

Probably not, though I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to avoid it. That's not necessarily a knock against the film- well realized coming of age stories just don't make up a large part of my dvd library, except for the Harry Potter series.

Maybe if I were more of an Anglophile I'd want a copy of it for the period setting, the vintage cars and old teacups and school uniforms. There's a certain Londonness to it that you have to admire- constant rain, a grey palette, a longing for Paris that everyone seems to share (or at least everyone we're supposed to like).

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What Did It Acheive?

Primarily it launched Carey Mulligan to stardom, and perhaps elevated Nick Hornby to legit screenwriter status, but the latter was seemingly inevitable. And fans of "Bleak House" tell me so was the former.

It also snuck into the Best Picture race, of course, thanks to the new Rule of Ten, giving it three nominations and the ability to slap it on the DVD case in deceiving font sizes (e. g. "3 Academy Award nominations including BEST PICTURE").

Will I Remember It Years From Now?

A vague sense, I'm sure- though exact quotes are already slipping from my mind. I'm probably being unfair to how straight it was played: Nick Hornby is an idol of mine, and his work led to certain witty expectations.

One of the things I liked best about it sort of hurts it in this regard- it seemed real. The girl and her parents, the mature way people dealt with each other- even late film revelations are handled with a minimum of dramatic "Oscar scene" moments. Which is great, but not earth shattering. As much as I resent plot twists and "For Your Consideration" freakouts for the sake of themselves, they do stick in the mind a little better than things that could actually happen to people. Does that make any sense?