Oscar Season

I love the movies. I love going to the movies. I love renting movies. I love talking to people about movies. I love talking at people about movies. Basically, give me an existence with just a bunch of DVD's and I am sorted! How sad is that?

Anyways... Come award season when it's all about the big race between the underdog movie, the ashes to glory movie, the dark horse movie, the special effects reinvented movie, the heart of gold movie, etc, etc, I have my own thoughts and analysis which come into play and two lists - my list of 'the adored who should win' and another list of winners based on trends and forecasts. Sometimes, they actually match. It's official business, this!

I've said my piece about 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', undoubtedly the hot favorites this season. I loved them both and for different reasons. I am torn between the two but they remain my two top movies this season, after having watched 'Milk', 'Doubt', 'Revolutionary Road', 'The Changeling', 'Frost/Nixon' and the thoroughly entertaining 'Vicky Christina Barcelona'.

While 'Milk' was extremely well made and the performances by Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and James Franco were truly very superior, it was Emile Hirsche who stole my heart. I wonder if this role came to him after Penn directed him in 'Into The Wild' which was a very interesting and a very moving film. Sean Penn is, of course, the master of his art. His role as Harvey Milk just made me want to give him a peck on the cheek. Many well deserved nominations for this movie, but I felt like it would be way more appreciated by the people whom it was focusing on and extend to perhaps San Francisco lovers, or to the liberal United States public. But it left me watching a movie as opposed to having an experience. I think that is probably because the subject isn't close to my heart. Sometimes, you see pain and suffering and resolve, but it's never as good as when you experience it first hand. Kudos to the torch bearers though!

Now 'Doubt' on the other hand was totally my cup of tea. It seemed to me like an excellent movie adaptation of a play, and then as it turned out, it was! A Pulitzer winner too! Excellent performances and fantastic dialogues made this a thought provoking film that really made me 'feel' the subject. My brain whirred on and on as I watched this somber yet compelling film that engulfed me in a state of tenseness thanks to it's riveting storyline and backdrop to match. The colours and locations all seem to convey a certain sense of gloom and the atmosphere is detatched and cold. Everything comes together to convey Meryl Streep's closed mind and obstinate refusal to acknowledge uncertainty until she is forced to in the end. The actual thing that is doubted is not the point, it is the doubt itself that holds the entire film together. A treat for an agnostic like me and for anyone who enjoys good dialogue!

Watch Revolutionary Road only if you can handle a little depression. The film explores the lives of a couple in American suburbia trying to come to terms with just how similar and just how different they are from the others. You really feel for Kate Winslet initially as she portrays a willful and spirited April, but towards the end you can't help but sympathise with the practical yet confused Frank, played by Leonardo Di Caprio, who starts off wanting to be anything but this father, only to realize that he's not as different as he thought he was. The stillness of the backdrop with its perfect home, well pruned backyard, white picket fence and clean everything juxtaposes brilliantly against the turmoil the couple is going through. One of the final scenes in which a bleeding April stains the carpet seems to represent a kind of shift... The outside has been 'spoilt' but the inside is freed or relieved in some way of the weight it carries. If you are undaunted by gloom, watch the movie for its art direction and intense scenes.

More thoughts as and when they surface...