Zombie Room

This year there has been some pretty amazing performances by great actors this year and I would like to talk about them a little bit. Some of these people are more known than others, some allready familiar to the Oscar game, some are making a comeback and some we have lost…

The movie that got the most nominations in acting categories was Doubt, written and directed by John Patrick Shanley. The movie is based on his play by the same name, so it is obvious that there were going to be long scenes in static sets with only two (or maybe three) actors. This is usually a great format for an actor to shine. Well did they shine? Meryl Streep plays a nun who doubts that a priest played by Philip Seymour Hoffman has abused a black child in their school. The nun is convinced of this all though there are no real proof of it. But she just keeps on going and doesn´t stop at anything. Streep plays this charecter with such convictions that is is almost unbelievable, and she is the perfect casting for the role. In fact the whole movie is cast very well, Philip Seymour Hoffman is also (once again) brilliant in playing a little bit radical priest that everyone likes, but maybe has a secret. But the real supriser is Amy Adams who plays a young and innocent (and a bit naive) nun, who goes along with Meryl Streeps acusations against her own better judgement. Amy Adams looks almost doped up in the film, like she is high on God, but then later gives in on doubt and gossip. Viola Davis is also very good, but is the performance Oscar worthy? I don´t think so. That being said her character does give the story depth and shakes the core of the plot totally, even if she only gets like 20 minutes os so of screen time in total.

Then we have The Wrestler with two niminations. It is said to be Mickey Rourkes big come-back (and indeed it is), but I just want to remind everyone that he was also totally amazing in Spun and Sin City. But the fact remains that Rourke gives the performance of his lifetime playing a wrestler called Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson, who is way past his glory days and is trying to resurrect his career, because that is all he has left. I don´t think there is any question who should get the Oscar for best leading role this year. Marisa Tomei was also honored with a Oscar nomination and she plays a stripper in the film, who is Rams only connection to the real life. She brings her own unique tenderness to the charceter and she is perfectly cast for the role.

That being said I thought Sean penn was also absolutely brilliant (and beyond perfect) in Milk and he definitey deserves an Oscar nomination and maybe if he was nominated for this some other year, he would have had a strong chance of winning. The same could be said about Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon, and even about Brad Pitt. Also a great performance in Milk was by Josh Brolin. Probably the best of his career. And if Heath Ledger wouldn´t be up for an Oscar I would give it to him in a second. Josh Brolin was definitely one my favorites this year, but also top marks for Robert Downey Jr. who went all out in Tropic Thunder portraying an Australian actor portraying a black man. That can´t be easy. It is also a nice gesture from The Academy to give deserved attention also to comedy and genre films. Also I wouldn´t want to be in the category of best performance by an actor in a supporting role this year, because everyone knows that Heath Ledger will win the Oscar, so no body else has a change. And even if you would win, everybody would hate you for it.

Also The Curious Case of Benjamin Button got two nominations. Brad Pitt for a performance by an actor in a leading role and Taraji P. Henson supporting. I think it was obvious that Brad Pitt got nominated, because the role has Oscar written all over it. And because I thouhgt he did a great job portraying Benjamin Button, a man who ages the wrong way. He gave the charecter loveble characteristic, but the movie still rased more questions than it could answer. But never the less, I think Pitt was perfect for the role. Taraji P. Henson plays a women who takes Benjamin in a raises him like he was her own son. I thought she was very good in the role, but I don´t know what´s all the fuzz about. Personaly, I think that Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, totally kick her ass. Cruz played Maria Elena, a neurotic and passionate artist and when she is was on screen, she filled it up complitely.

The problem with this years Oscars is that we all reday have such strong pre-favorites, that it is almost like the results were already announced. Like for instance with Kate Winslet, who is most likely to win this year. Unfortunately I haven´t seen The Reader so I don´t really have an opinion on her performance, but I´m eager to see it. In any case my bet is with Kate. Angelina Jolie was very good in Chageling, all though she over shadowed all of the other cast members (exluding John Malkovich). Anne Hathaway was nominated for Rachel Getting Married and yes it was the best performance of her career, but not enough to compeet with the likes of Meryl Streep or Angelina Jolie.

So this year the competition is pretty tight and we will just have to wait and see what happens… Tomorrow is the big day or night in my case. If you live in Finland the Osacrs are on live at 1.00 am on Sunday night (or should I say Monday morning), but here is a tip. You might want to get up 3.00 am, because the first two hours are about the red carpet (sonds good, but isn´t) and at 3.00 am the gala starts. That is what I do every year.

Tomorrow I will reveille mine and Timos picks for the winners, so stay tuned. And also we will be twitting away all night!!!

Essi

On this entry, I wanted to talk about two films – Changeling by Clint Eastwood and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by David Fincher. I just couldn’t find anything interesting to say about Benjamin Button, although I liked the film quite a lot, so I’ll just focus on bashing Changeling.

(Some spoilers ahead, so…)

Changeling is based on real events (as much as American “based on” -films usually are…), and starts out with a very interesting setup: a young kid is gone missing, and her mother (played by Angelina Jolie) starts looking for him. When the kid is finally found, the woman doesn’t believe the kid is her’s, but the police refuses to believe her claims because they know they’ve fucked up, stating she just wants to run away from her responsibilities. A great premise, and a nice, haunting subject to work on. Then, as the story moves on, a huge police corruption story starts to unfold, along with a serial killer thriller and a court drama – suddenly, we find ourselves following 4-5 different plots, and the main character is pushed out of the picture and this once so brave and strong woman is now merely standing in the corner, sulking under her bell hat and watching as men take care of their businesses.

The turbofed script has some great moments, but mostly there’s just too many stories ongoing at the same time. It’s not very surprising, given the fact that the story is written by a TV screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski, known previously for his work on such TV serieses as Babylon 5 and Jeremiah. But what really surprises me is the unbalanced quality of actors – Angelina Jolie received the nomination for Oscars, and by all means, she does a great job, but most of the other roles (excluding, obviously, John Malkovich) are played by actors who don’t seem to have any clue on acting or on the story.

Changeling is like a spandex metal song from the 80′s – it just doesn’t end. Every time you think  that Clint is wrapping up, a new segment begins. All together, coming from Clint Eastwood, Changeling is suprisingly unbalanced and almost amateuristic movie. Mr. Eastwood seems to be a busy man nowadays, and it almost feels like he didn’t have the time to focus on the film other than with the beginning and pretty strong ending – everything in between is a big, unbalanced mess unable to decide what kind of a film it wants to be.

Timo

Now it is time to talk about The Dark Knight. There has been a lot of talk around (obviously) Heath Ledger, but also about the fact that should the movie have been nominated for Best Picture. There are loads of angry Dark Knight fans who are furious at the Academy for discarding the movie like this.

The funny thing is that The Dark Knight actually got 8 Oscar nominations all together, which makes it the third most nominated film this year (also Milk got 8 nominations). It is almost a shame that the other awards aren´t as highly respected as the best picture or directing is. The Dark Knight was nominated for art direction, cinematography, film editing, makeup, sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects and of course  performance by an actor in a supporting role for Heath Ledger. In my opinion it is worthy of an Oscar in all those categories and it will probably even win a couple of them.

Well, did The Dark Knight deserve a Best picture nomination or not? Some say definitely yes (like me) and others are totally agents it (like Timo). There are a lot of reasons supporting why it was one of the best movies of the year, but also just as many reasons why it wasn´t. First of all Heath Ledger gave not only the performance of his (too short) life as Joker, but also the best performance of the year. This is a a very strong reason for nominating a film at least for directing, because a lot of the credit belongs to director Christopher Nolan. The cast was pretty ok all together, but they were all totally over shadowed by Ledger, and this can be debated wether or not this was a good thing for the movie as a whole. The cinematography was perfect (for this particular film) in my opinion, as well as all the other departments nominated for Academy award. But there were some negatives as well, mainly focusing on the Batman´s character. I have always been a huge Christian Bale fan, but let´s face it, in this movie he was nothing but an extra.

In any case this movie is in my top-5 of 2008, so by saying that I think it should have been nominated for Best picture and also directing. But The Wrestler is also in my top-5 and we don´t see that nominated either. It is also good to remember that there have been some pretty average (border-line crappy) and totally overrated movies nominated for Best picture in the past, so I don´t see why The Dark Knight couldn´t have been excepted in these categories (not saying that it was crap though). Well at least The Directors Guild of America nominated The Dark Knight for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, but it didn´t win. But winning isn´t everything. Right?

But look at it this way, perhaps this a beginning of an era where we will be seeing a lot more genre films in the Oscars. Hope so. Know so.

Why so serious?

Only 4 days left to the Oscars,

Essi Suomela

The Oscars are only a week away and I´m starting a countdown to the Oscars here at Zombie Room. I will be writing about most (the most interesting ones that is) of the films and obviously telling you my opinions on who the winners should be etc. I will also be talking about the biggest oversights of the Academy this year and of course giving my point of view on the hottest topics surrounding the Oscars. It is obvious that this year the the buzz is on Heath Ledger´s interpretation of Joker in The Dark Knight and also the one-on-one battle between The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire. And also will Kate Winslet get her Oscar?  So here… we… go…

May I just start by saying that The Wrestler, with only two nominations, is the most undervalued film in the whole competition this year. Mickey Rourke does the best leading role of the year and he will definitely win. If I could have my way, I would have nominated it also for Best Picture, Best Directing, and most importantly Original song for Bruce Springsteens song The Wrestler. I absolutely love that song and I think it is almost a crime that the Academy discarded it totally, especially when they gave two nominations for Slumdog Millionaire. So I feel like there would have been room for it anyway. But let´s face it, the Academy has a pretty bad track record in this category, and by that I mean they have a unique ability to pick the crappiest songs from the past year and just slap them with a nomination. Don´t get me wrong, I think the soundtrack from Slumdog Millionaire is absolutely brilliant (and Oscar worthy), but if you look at some of the past nomination (or wins for that matter) you will find some messed up songs. Of course there there are exceptions like last year when the surprise winner was “Falling Slowly” from Once. The song wasn´t anything that special (very good but not great), but the film was a small budget production, the kind that don´t usually get the Academy´s attention.

Then we have WALL-E, which could have easily been the best animation feature in the history of animation, if they just would have  had the courage to the tell the story with only the machines. I do think that WALL-E is definitely the Best animated feature of the year, but it would have been perfect if they wouldn´t have added the people in it. Just imagine a movie with no real dialogue and the most adorable characters known to man. Now that would have been the movie sensation of the decade. WALL-E is nominated for 6 Oscars in total (which is allot for a animation), Best animated feature film, Original score, Original song – “Down to Earth”, Sound editing, Sound mixing and Original screenplay. It will probably win Best animated feature and Original song (and maybe even the script). I really like Down to Earth, but I also think that Slumdog Millionaire´s soundtrack is off the hook!

The Best original screenplay is also quite interesting this year, because it is almost impossible to guess who will win. The nominees are  Frozen River (written by Courtney Hunt), Happy-Go-Lucky (written by Mike Leigh), In Bruges (written by Martin McDonagh), Milk (written by Dustin Lance Black) and of course WALL-E (screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter). For me the real surpriser of the year is definitely In Bruges. It is a brilliant film written and directed by Martin McDonagh. Also Happy-Go-Lucky is yet again a wonderful film from the great Mike Leigh, but I wouldn´t say it has the best screenplay of the year. I just saw Milk yesterday and it was very good, all though a bit too melodramatic and it was also the most mainstream film from Gus Van Sant to date, but I really liked the message and again the writing was good, but not the best of the year. The only film I haven´t seen is Frozen River, so I don´t have an opinion on that yet. So the battle (at least in my opinion) should be between In Bruges and WALL-E (I´m guessing the WALL-E will win…).

Ok, so that´s it for today but stay tuned, because I still have allot to say on the subject.

Later!

Essi Suomela