This year's best picture nominees should not be accompanied by lattes or skim chais. These are whiskey-knocking, goat-milk-guzzling, tequila-shooting films about vengeance (minus the one with blue slushies). Having finally completed my Best Picture marathon, I am sad to report Hollywood's confirmation of our country's anxiety and despair.
We are presented with three films (Michael Clayton, Blood, and No Country) without character archs. The lead males begin as loners, outlaws, or psychotic villains and continue on that trajectory in spite of attempts to knock them out of inertia (the usually effective gravitational pull of women, children, and social obligation). Sure, there are twists on this theme. This year's best pic directors infuse their films with their own auteur style (the Coen brothers' penchant for throw-away scenes showcasing awkward and pathetic interaction with service professionals, Paul Thomas Anderson's passion for powerful scoring). But fundamentally, the symbolism is apparent, these films reveal that our world is in peril. Example: Daniel Plainview in Blood (Daniel Day Lewis) watching his oil rig blaze with flames, after his son has been knocked unconscious/with burst ear drums, cackling "There's a whole ocean of oil under our feet! No one can get at it except for me!" Oil, son, greed, machismo, bad health care...the parallels are oh so apparent.
So what film should win the golden guy?
-Not Michael Clayton--this is an extended plea for a Best Actor Oscar for Clooney (with a miraculous performance by corporate white witch Twilda Swinton)...not a lasting piece of American cinema.
-Not Atonement--a film which would usually be lost post-Golden Globe season, after the buzz wore off or better films surfaced...a good book, oddly adapted, and visually reminiscent of Pearl Harbor (maybe that's just me)
-Not Juno--though I loved it. It's a sitcom/stage play with a great soundtrack. If you are going to have a best picture that is a quirky character drama, it must have some epic quality (See American Beauty--magical realism in American suburbia). In addition to dynamic interpersonal relationships, it needs a dynamic relationship with the camera. You should not be able to watch this on your tiny iphone screen and feel satisfied.
-This leaves No Country and Blood. I think I might move to Canada.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment