A friend of mine emailed me today complaining that there have been no blog posts in a few weeks. Truth be told, tight money and a fairly routine life haven't been sparking the desire to write about Japan. However, being a self proclaimed expert on movies (Movie Snob) I thought I would write a short diatribe about this years oscars.
No Country for Old Men?
Did anyone seriously like this bag of dog shit? The movie was semi entertaining for 2 hours, but seemed to end without an actually ending. It was like driving to Manitoba. Javier Bardem can be commended on his performance (though not better than Tom Wilkinsons), but I think best picture and especially best director is going a bit too far. The Cohen bros did nothing to get me interested in this story, or make me care about any of the characters. As far as Im concerned they got owned by rookie Sarah Polley who wasn't even nominated. She got as much out of Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsett ( I mean seriously, Gordon Pinsett for god sakes) as I have seen any Director get out of his/her actors.
Best Actor
There will be Blood was not Daniel Day Lewis's best performance ever. This catagory could have gone just about any which way, the most notable oversight being Tommy Lee Jones for Valley of Elah. (I'll get more into that later). It seems to me the oscars take a lot of weird shit into consideration when deciding who gets the oscars. It's almost as though they want to project the appearance of being unbaissed instead of actually awarding people for individual work. Javier Bardem and Marion Collitard being a good example. They want the oscars to seem american but not too American. Daniel Day Lewis should have won for Gangs of New York a few years back. That year it went to Denzel Washington for Training Day. Denzel should have got it the year before for the Hurricane. My point is that this show would be a lot more interesting, and respectable if they would just hand out the awards based on individual performances, not previous bodies of work or Politics.
Tilda Swinton
This is about the only oscar that went right. Swinton has had a solid career. She did a good job in Michael Clayton playing a Company Exec, trying so hard to do a good job that finds herself ordering certain people murdered. Her role was layered and intense. The extra pudge she put on worked well and show what a good actor can do when dedicated to her craft.
The Big F***ing glaring oversight
I think the best, if not most important movie of the year got 1 nomination and no wins. Paul Haggis's In the Valley of Elah. How this movie could be so ignored is not really a mystery to me. It tells the story by way of murder mystery of the mental condition American Troops are returning home from Iraq in. It is truthful, brilliantly written, complex and human. It occurs to me that Americans may not be ready to examine the Iraq war yet, as it still going on. Which is unfortunate because the time to think about these things is now. But I supposed Oliver Stone had to wait 12 years before he could make Platoon.
Wow, that felt good. Maybe tomorrow I'll write something about Barrack and Hilary.
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