Word: oscars
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...office numbers show that Ray more closely resonated with American audiences, grossing about $30 million more than Neverland. But Taylor Hackford’s film, despite Jamie Foxx’s soon-to-be-Oscar-winning performance, offers an easy way out. It mixes clichés of cultural nostalgia with the classic American tale of rags-to-riches. Comforting, perhaps, but somewhat trite in an age of wholesale corporate layoffs and a widening divide between bourgeois and blue-collar. If anything, the film offers a longing glimpse into a world we no longer possess: many have noted that...
This leaves Sideways and Million Dollar Baby, the year’s requisite realist duo. Both feature a raw, devastating naturalism; they are far and away the most mature offerings on the Oscar docket. But while Ray and Neverland stay too distant from the viewer, these pictures cut too close to the bone. Sideways is an apt parable of its time, a tale of failure, loss, and botched hedonism. That mix is a bit too real in the era of outsourcing and Dennis Kozlowski. And for Academy voters in Hollywood, the casual alcoholism and bungled love affairs could seem more...
...with Gangs of New York, Scorsese tacks on 30 minutes too much material, leaving a bloated finished product. But its mix of celebrity obsession, glamour-tinged nostalgia, and anti-government undertones is the perfect concoction for the Academy voter of 2005. Eastwood has already won an Oscar; so far, Scorsese’s been snubbed. This year it’s Marty’s turn to shine...
...Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was visceral, virtuoso filmmaking, a visual trip that delighted the senses while ruminating on the deepest human themes of love, loss and memory. Charlie Kaufman picked up his second original screenplay nomination for this gem, whose late spring release date crippled its chances of Oscar success. Tape the awards and pick this one up on DVD; as he did with the masterpiece Adaptation, Kaufman questioned our assumptions of what film can accomplish, technically and emotionally...
Some problematic trends have emerged—or perhaps re-emerged—during this year’s Oscar season. For one, the Foreign Language Film situation has turned into an abysmal nightmare. Each country can submit only one film to be “considered,” and the nomination process is comparable to a police manual, with strange rules about the nationality of the creative talent, where the film was shot, and when and where it opened. Because the submission process is so labyrinthine, films like Almodovar’s Bad Education, Kar-Wai Wong?...