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.

In all four acting categories, I managed to see four out of five performances. So I can actually sort of speak with authority, which is little consolation: the winners were all decided long ago, for the most part.


1. Penélope Cruz (1 for 2) for Nine

"There is a lot of chaos on a movie set, which Nine is a lot about. Nine is about the chaos of creating and the crisis of a director. So, it’s been very interesting for me. The whole year has been about movies that were an homage to cinema." -collider

This is of course the one I didn't see, but the consensus is that the academy nominated Cruz for the wrong film- her role in Almodovar's Broken Embraces was a leading one, but less over-the-top and lost-in-the-crowd. But maybe they discounted the lingerie factor?


2. Vera Farmiga (0 for 0) for Up in the Air

"It was cool to see female desire portrayed in such a masculine way. And that was an interesting take on female desire -- you know, something that was kind of demanding and wanton and unapologetic ... and yet treading that line of femininity and softness; and being appealing; and not frightening people; and having dignity -- not having the character being bereft of dignity, but giving her self-esteem." -moviefone

Watching Up In The Air a second time (with certain late revelations about Farmiga's character in mind), you appreciate the fact that this character has an entire, Clooney-less life of her own- we never get to see it, but too often movies just sort of assume it isn't there.


3. Maggie Gyllenhaal (0 for 0) for Crazy Heart

"She seems like a real person to me -- someone who is strong in some ways and yet knows she is weak in others, and that’s what I look for in the people I play – that they feel real. That appealed tremendously to me." -moviesonline

The surprise inclusion to the field, Gyllenhaal brings as much heart and pathos to Crazy Heart as Bridges, and squashes potential complaints about unrealistic May-December romances by making the whole thing seem, well, real.


4. Anna Kendrick (0 for 0) for Up in the Air

"Natalie and I are both people who like to maintain a level of control. But I think being out of our element makes us react very differently. I tend to get progressively more awkward and fall apart more. And she sort of clings to her rigidity. And her physical appearance has a lot to do with that. Her posture and her voice and her hair and her wardrobe is all about clinging to a sense of order, and if she can get her ponytail a little bit tighter, maybe things won't feel like they're falling apart." -moviefone

Probably the best scene of Up In The Air is one in which George Clooney barely speaks- Anna Kendrick gets to cut loose and pepper Farmiga with questions about what the future will hold, as a fellow career-woman. One plays baffled desperation, the other wise acceptance as the ostensibly star of the film just smiles and nods.


5. Mo'Nique (0 for 0) for Precious

"I think that all of us know Mary. I had to put her shoes on. If I were that person, I would want forgiveness. You do feel sorry for her because you begin to understand she’s mentally ill. She ain’t just being a bitch. She’s sick, and the society that we’re in, they threw her away. Nobody asked any questions, nobody got involved. That illness doesn’t just start. People know for years. We wanted to bring that world and put it right in your face." -spout

Mo'Nique has seemingly had this wrapped up since Precious, then known as Push, premiered at Sundance. Her performance is moving, powerful, and stems from real-life abuse- there's really no word against it and no stopping her at this point.

Here's a fun category- the next best indicator to director of how well put-together a picture is made. Up In The Air likely saw missing the cut as the final nail in the coffin, while Precious and District 9 must have been a little surprised to make it.

It can be a surefire indicator of how the night will end (like Crash winning it and little else), or sometimes it can go to a popular movie with impressive work like The Bourne Ultimatum. This year? Probably the former, but we'll see.

1. Avatar- Stephen E. Rivkin (0 for 0), John Refoua (0 for 0), James Cameron (3 for 3)

The word is that Cameron and co. had to basically edit during shooting, watching "mintutelies" instead of dailies and structuring the film on the fly. That's great for them, but the finished product is what counts, and said product cut a very sleepy pace indeed.

2. District 9- Julian Clarke (0 for 0)

Fun fact: Julian Clarke's previous most recognizable credit is Uwe Boll's Postal. The counterpoint to Avatar, District 9 uses a faux-documentary style to get any backstory right out of the way, and thrills non-stop to the end.

3. The Hurt Locker- Bob Murawski (0 for 0), Chris Innis (0 for 0)

The likely winners and the ones that deserve it, to my mind. An epic 2:10 run-time combines a half-dozen odd bombs scares with about as many various character scenes without ever losing steam, and individual standout sequences abound.

4. Inglourious Basterds- Sally Menke (0 for 1)

Longtime Tarantino editor Menke is the only previous nominee (besides Cameron) in the race, for Pulp Fiction. Basterds is certainly a well tuned film, and it's got a knack for cutting the scene right after a punchline. I'd say this is just as much of a potential spoiler as Avatar, slim though the chance may be.

5. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire- Joe Klotz (0 for 0)

An unexpected nominee, but a fair one: witness the pastiche terror-flashback scenes in Precious that play like Lynch on fast-forward. It's fun work, but gimmicky.


The Hurt Locker all the way. And so end the tech awards. We've got two more BP previews and Animated Feature to discuss, then it's time for the money categories.

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

Was It Any Good?

It was certainly quite the acting showcase, if nothing else. Gabourey Sidibe more than earns a lead actress nomination, and nearly every scene Mo'Nique is in leads to one of those patented Oscar Moments that pave the way to an unstoppable awards run.

Lee Daniels sets a sort of frenetic early pace that really makes it seem like the second half of the film is dragging, but I can see why Precious: Based on that film "Push" that had Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning earned an editing nomination over Up In The Air.

The story itself is almot pathologically relentless- it got to the point where (spoiler) after the late revelation that Precious also has AIDS I was kind of throwing up my hands. What is this, "RENT"? It might have been less of an extreme pile-up if Daniels hadn't made the travails of the beginning so thoroughly in our faces. Between the fluttering images, rapid Requiem For A Dream-style edits, and horror-film flashbacks, it's hard to have anything left for the home stretch.

Would I See It Again?

I'm going to abstain- even the dramas that leave me utterly speechless are things I'm unlikely to watch again. I'm glad I watched it, but I don't think I missed much the first time around.

The thing is, Precious: Based on the "Push" Sign Often Seen On Doors wants to have it several ways at once: powerful character drama, light-hearted coming of age story, and wry social commentary (Precious has several fantasy sequences of being a model or movie star that jar with the rest of the movie).



What Did It Acheive?

A best picture nomination is no small feat for an indie movie about uncomfortable subjects (and we all know that Precious: Based on the song "Push" by Matchbox Twenty is one of the five "real" nominees).

Time will tell if it launches careers, but it certainly has one Oscar in the bag as of yesterday.

Will I Remember It Years From Now?

I'll certainly carry the viewing experience longer than most other films, and I'm always happy with clunky titles.

I mean, Precious: Based on a Tie in the Game Of Blackjack is the best title since The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford!

One more note: Paula Patton plays a pretty standard heart-of-gold teacher very well, but the real supporting turn I was impressed with? Mariah Carey summons up a gravelly voice and an odd wig and puts in a few great scenes as a prickly social worker. She wasn't all that likeable, but she seemed like a real person that wanted to help. The movie ends with a key confrontation scene between the two leads, but Carey's mediating presence in that scene is important.

Guess what? We're going to take a weekly look at the reviews by Entertainment Weekly's increasingly befuddled and impossible to predict movie critic, Owen Glieberman. Recently, he gave A Christmas Carol an A while giving The Men Who Stare At Goats an F, though both films received middle-of-the-road reviews.

Fantastic Mr. Fox: A

OG claims to be "not a big fan of Anderson's work," but that the clay-mation medium was exactly what he needed to stomach the "virtuoso tomfoolery" and "arch self-possession" in all of the director's films. He sums it up thusly:

"Before, he twisted reality into a permanent ironic pose. Now, in the infectiously primitive talking-animal world of Fantastic Mr. Fox, he's become an ironic realist."

Points for the construction, Gliebs, but I really don't see how one who twists reality into an ironic pose isn't already an ironic realist.

Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire: A

He loves this one as much as everyone else, but I present the following passage about Mo'Nique's character:

"Her Mary is raging and defeated, a woman who treats Precious as a slave — and I don't use the word lightly, since part of the film's power is its perception that these two are living out patterns of cruelty that go back for generations. Their agony has roots."

It has ROOTS, get it? Like the show? Those italics are all original Glieberman, by the way. He also pontificates near the end: "Precious is a film that makes you think, 'There but for the grace of God go I.'" Somehow I doubt that young Owen, reviewing movies in the student rag at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, was just a little bit of God's grace away from being exploited for welfare benefits by his parents.

A look at the taglines for this week's major releases. How do studios try to hook us when they only have a sentence?

2012 has such a rich amount of ridiculous tags, we're going to handle them one by one.

Actual tagline: We Were Warned. (Alternate version: Mankind's earliest civilization warned us this day would come...)

I wonder what people did before the internet? Did they just vaguely wonder if disaster films were full of baloney but just sort of shrug and move on? Casual research reveals that the Mayans, who were not the earliest civilization by any reasonable measure, had a calendar much different than our own that reaches the end of its thirteenth "baktun" (around 394 years) on December 21st (or 23rd), 2012.

That's it. Occasional historical conjecture arises that claims some Mayans thought there'd be some doom, but it's mostly just a common misconception, turned into a $200 Million budget.

OR: Who will be left behind?

Judging by the wanton destruction and seeming intent to flee in spaceships in the trailer, no one at all. Or is this a thinly veiled rapture reference?

OR: The end is just the beginning.

Indeed, because the Mayan calendar is cyclical- meaning nothing will happen at all?

OR: First, the Mayan calendar predicted it...Now, science has confirmed it...but we never imagined it could really happen.

Okay- granting that in the film whatever they call "science" confirms the impending disaster: at that point, they still "never imagined" it would happen? What else would it take?




Actual tagline: On air. Off shore. Out of control.

OR: 1 Boat. 8 DJs. No Morals.

These taglines do no bother me, well done, et cetera, but WHY did we need the title changed for American audiences? Are we that dumb? This used to be called The Boat That Rocked, as you can see from the poster, but that was too many words for us Yankees.

It's a radio station on a boat! It's not that crazy that we can't take a little wordplay. Why not just give it the full treatment and call it Radio Station On A Boat, and then Samuel L. Jackson can cameo, and so on.




Actual tagline: Life is hard. Life is short. Life is painful. Life is rich. Life is....Precious.

It seems unfortunate to me that this film, which by all accounts is fantastic, had to change its title because it was recently the title of a Chris Pine/Dakota Fanning B Movie.

And can we call a moratorium on the lame ellipses before using a movie title in a tag? You may as well simultaneously be winking at me and nudging me in the ribs while saying the word as if had quotes around it. No subtlety at all.