Sometimes I Watch Movies

One of my kids once asked me, "Ms. Hoag, don't you have a TV?" I said yes. She said, "Then why do you read so much?" Perhaps it's true that the amount of reading I do belies a life in which any other medium represents itself. But I squeeze other things in, sometimes.

As it happens, this year I managed to watch every single movie with an acting or directing nomination for tonight's Academy Awards. I have never endeavored to do this, usually because there are at least a few movies that I have no desire to see, and because by the time they announce the nominees in January there's only about a month to get caught up. Since I don't go to the movies on a regular basis, that's not enough time. But this year, my friend Sarah told me about a movie theater that was hosting a Best Picture Showcase, during which all five Best Picture nominees would be screened in a row on a single day, the day before the Oscars. I hadn't seen any of these movies, and since four of the five had acting nominations as well, I thought, this might be a great way to watch the Oscars more well-informed. I always enjoy watching the ceremony and I'm usually rooting for the two or three performances I actually managed to see; I figured it would be nice to expand my repertoire and really know who I thought should win each award. I didn't necessarily set out to see all the other movies, but somewhere along the line, I did. So here, with great pomp and ceremony, are my choices for the Academy Awards tonight.


Actor in a Leading Role

Richard Jenkins - The Visitor: This was the only movie I could not remember reading about among the list of major nominations. So I was intrigued to see whether it was any good and why Jenkins had been nominated for the first time. The movie is about a man who is alone after the death of his wife, and who returns to his Manhattan apartment to find a couple of immigrant squatters living there. He's lonely, so he allows them to stay, and ultimately gets tangled up in their lives. It's a quiet movie; it doesn't shove its politics in the viewer's face, which I appreciate because that's rarely true of the more bombastic Best Picture noms. Jenkins is more than adequate, playing out his loneliness in the lines of his face and pouring his heart into learning to play the djembe. His chaste relationship with the mother of one of the squatters speaks volumes about love and loss. 3 stars.

Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon: I'm not sure that I'd heard of Langella prior to his Tony-winning role as Richard Nixon in the stage version of this movie. He's never been nominated for an Oscar. I'm curious, actually, what those who were alive during Nixon's resignation think of his performance, because I found myself wondering throughout the movie how close to home Langella hits. My guess, though, considering his lack of physical resemblance with Nixon, is that he was going for an interpretation more than an imitation. In this he succeeds; his Nixon is equal parts charisma, arrogance, and manipulation, and Langella knows when to hold back and when to bite. His performance made me simultaneously cheer and cringe when he reached his moment of humiliation at the end. 4 stars.

Sean Penn - Milk: Penn is a fantastic actor, deserving of his four nominations and one win (for Mystic River in 2003). His performance in Milk as Harvey Milk, San Francisco's first openly gay city supervisor, is stunning, radiating joy and charisma. He utterly creates and embodies the character, and never once does he step outside of it. Sometimes I find myself watching actors and trying to figure out if they're merely playing a variation on themselves or whether they're really acting; it's never a question with Penn. You forget about him. You're watching Harvey Milk. 4 stars.

Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: This movie, about a man who ages backward, was a letdown (see my Best Picture comments below), and I feel that Pitt rose to the material, meaning his performance was also less than stellar. He's an adequate actor, nominated once before, and this role gives him an opportunity to display his skills. That's the problem, though, I was always aware of Brad Pitt The Actor rather than Benjamin Button the character. Certainly it was a challenge to play someone at nearly all ages, but the CG effects used to make Pitt look old are obvious to the point of distraction, and don't give him much of a chance to act. He looks hidden inside his face, so that his voice is disconnected. And by the time the character is the same age as the actor, Brad Pitt The Incredibly Good-Looking Guy becomes the distraction - he's too gorgeous to be real, and all the effects piled on him before are that much more noticeable in their absence. Pitt affects a Southern drawl and widens his eyes a lot, but that's about it. 2 stars.

Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler: It was hard not to go into The Wrestler with expectations since everyone and their mom has been hailing it as Rourke's Great Comeback. I've never seen a movie with Rourke in it that I know of, since I was in elementary school during his heyday, but I have read multiple magazine articles on his on-set behavior during that time. As a complete outsider, I think Rourke gives an exquisite performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a washed-up wrestler with very little going for him in his personal life. His emotion is real, and his mixture of toughness and charm give the character enormous appeal. Two things prevent me from handing him the statue myself: One, knowing what I know about his situation, it's hard not to think he's just playing himself, broken and forgotten but ready to prove himself. That's not to say he doesn't act, but in that sense the character wasn't much of a stretch. Two, he has screwed over a lot of people in Hollywood. If any of them are in the Academy, they may not be able to get past their vendettas enough to vote for him. That said, 4 stars.

And the Oscar goes to ... Sean Penn. Unless the industry is ready to forgive Mickey Rourke, who I hope will not squander that obvious extension of goodwill.


Actor in a Supporting Role

Josh Brolin - Milk: I have a lot of respect for Josh Brolin in taking on this role. See my Best Picture notes on Milk for more, but there are a lot of heavy-handed politics in the movie, and Brolin is the only believable character representing the other side. He plays Dan White, the city supervisor who assassinated Harvey Milk, and you can see the intense frustration constantly below the surface. It's no surprise when he kills Milk and Governor George Moscone, not simply because the viewer knows the end from the beginning, but because Brolin helps us understand why. I only wish he'd had more scenes, because any movie that accuses a character of murder owes it to that character to give him a decent fleshing-out. See The Reader for a look at how that's done superbly. 3 stars.

Robert Downey, Jr. - Tropic Thunder: One-time nominee Downey, Jr. is another actor poised for a comeback, and after his performance in Iron Man this summer it seemed inevitable that he would soon be taking on a role worthy of major acting awards. Tropic Thunder as a movie didn't hold my attention; it's a guy movie with lots of explosions and battle scenes. I couldn't escape the feeling that Ben Stiller was just getting off on a lot of boyhood fantasies. Still, it's a worthy satire of the entertainment industry, and while I'm sure those on the inside could appreciate the jokes more than the rest of us, I enjoyed the movie-within-a-movie conceit. Downey, Jr. is far and away the movie's bright spot. As an Australian actor who puts on blackface to play an African American soldier, he is unrecognizable and utterly convincing as both. Certainly deserving of the nomination. 3 stars.

Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt: I feel sorry for Doubt. FOUR acting nominations and Best Adapted Screenplay, and the Academy couldn't put it up for Best Picture? What is a movie if not its acting and its writing? I can't say I'm completely surprised, though, because the story is a little short on action to be a Best Pic contender. Still, the acting is superb, and a lesser cast would have made the movie a total bore. Hoffman, lately beloved of the Academy in both the lead and supporting actor categories, plays a priest accused of molesting a young boy with a skilled mixture of frustration and distance. The whole premise of the movie is to make the viewer - wait for it - DOUBT the innocence of each of the major players. Hoffman serves the script well, never disclosing too much but still endowing his character with a great deal of sympathy. I didn't want to doubt him, which I suppose is a credit to the performance. 3 stars.

Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight: Obviously, this is a buzzy performance. Ledger had just wrapped this film when he was found dead of a drug overdose in a Soho apartment building last January. It was six months before the movie's premiere, which gave it plenty of time to generate hype. To Ledger's credit, he lived up to it. I hate hype, and ignore it whenever possible, but this time there was truth in it. His Joker seethes with anger and hilarity, teetering on the edge of insanity but always maintaining enough control not to go over. This is saying something: he leaves Jack Nicholson's Joker in the dust. I thought Ledger was robbed when he didn't win for Brokeback Mountain, and I really hope that this, his last nominated performance, will finally win him the acclaim he deserves. 5 stars.

Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road: I did not like this movie, and I'm glad it wasn't nominated for Best Picture. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are both very fine actors, but this movie was much too over-the-top to be worthy of their talents. Every frame pulsed with emotion, and I was exhausted by the end. Shannon is rightly the only nominated actor; his performance as a mentally unstable man who says what everyone else is thinking is electric. He faces off with DiCaprio more than once, and steals those scenes with a flourish. I was glad his character was there; he was the only one in the movie who seemed to have his head on straight. 4 stars.

And the Oscar goes to ... Heath Ledger. Not because he's dead, but because his performance was the best of the five. This is a longshot, but I really hope Michelle Williams is there to accept it.


Actress in a Leading Role

Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married: Other than my choice for Best Pic, this is by far my favorite movie of this awards season. I LOVED Rachel Getting Married. My main lament is that it only received this one nomination, so I have to cram all my praise into this section. This movie is a classic indie, with quick cuts, unpolished music (most provided by onscreen musicians) and handheld cameras, but it serves the story beautifully. Rachel is, in fact, getting married, and her sister Kym (Hathaway) is returning from rehab to attend. The family is so broken, and so joyful, and the combination was one of the best I've seen in a long time. They love each other deeply, but they've also hurt each other deeply, and their attempts to come to terms with those things are very real and heartfelt. The best scene in the movie is between Rachel and Kym, whose love for each other fights through the ways they cause each other pain. Hathaway is a superb Kym. She longs to be accepted by the family that forgives her for more than she can forgive herself, and her face radiates her emotion. A masterpiece movie, and a crackerjack performance. 5 stars.

Angelina Jolie - Changeling: Jolie is another dynamic actress trapped in a movie unworthy of her talents. Overall, I thought Changeling was overwrought and depressing, but Jolie is mesmerizing as a woman whose son has been kidnapped and replaced by the LAPD with another child. She plays her as caught in a situation she can't explain or fix, but with a streak of ferocity. She's saddled with a sappy last scene that will probably cost her the award, because her work up till that point is so powerful and then it degenerates quickly into schmaltz. But strong work all around. 4 stars.

Melissa Leo - Frozen River: I remember reading about this movie back in the spring; it was a festival darling and Leo's performance was heralded as gritty and heartbreaking. It is. She plays an impoverished woman living in western New York, supporting two sons on her wages at the dollar store and trying to purchase a double-wide. She justifies herself before the viewer by virtue of her desperation. In addition, Leo is a real woman - she has wrinkles and crow's feet and her hair is frizzy. She also has tattoos and a bellybutton ring, which are sad monuments to a more free time that has passed. In those ways, she wears this role better than most actors, and it infuses the movie with realism. She does a lot with a little. I also happened to like the end of the movie. It was good storytelling. 3 stars.

Meryl Streep - Doubt: Streep is the most-nominated actress of all-time, but she hasn't won since Sophie's Choice. She's a workhorse of an actress, but she always seems to be upstaged by someone in a riskier, more challenging role. I'm afraid that's going to happen this year, too, either by Hathaway or Kate Winslet. Which is not to say that Streep's performance isn't dynamite. As a nun who suspects a priest (Hoffman) of molestation, she is relentless in her pursuit of the truth, or rather, her version of the truth. It's a variation on her Devil Wears Prada role, down to the subtle cracking at the end. The cracking is a little less subtle here, though, which I blame the story for. Performance, 4 stars.

Kate Winslet - The Reader: Poor Kate Winslet. This is her sixth nomination, and she's never won. She is similar to Streep in that her performances tend to be overlooked in favor of ones that are a little more attention-grabbing. But in The Reader, she is absolute dynamite. She plays a former Nazi prison guard who has an affair with a teenager and then later stands trial for war crimes. I don't know of another actress that could actually have garnered sympathy for this character, but Winslet does so in droves. If there are excuses for what this woman did, Winselt manages to convey them in her face and her voice, and my heart broke for her. 5 stars.

And the Oscar goes to ... Anne Hathaway. I want to cave and give it to Winslet, but she is a phenomenal actress and I have no doubt she'll continue to turn out Oscar-worthy performances. Hathaway showed such brilliance in her Rachel role, though, that she gets the prize.


Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams - Doubt: I mostly know Amy Adams's work from things like The Office and Enchanted, so I was a little skeptical when she was nominated for a drama. Like her costars, though, Adams is more than capable, and the fact that her performance shines so brightly in the company of Streep and Hoffman is saying something. She holds her own comfortably in her scenes with them. As a nun who wants to believe the best of everyone involved in the situation, her innocence is palpable, but she also blisters with emotion when its called for. And, she is in way more scenes than any of the other supporting actresses. If it weren't for Streep, this would have been a Best Actress-caliber performance. 4 stars.

Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona: Well, I hated this movie. Woody Allen is a good filmmaker but he grows more and more self-indulgent as the years go by. His characters follow, and these are some of the most selfish I've ever seen. They have zero regard for anything other than their immediate wants, and I kept wishing they would just grow up. Cruz, however, is worth watching in her small role as the estranged wife of a painter. She has fits of anger and tantrum that would have been way overplayed by another actress. She manages to infuse them with just enough restraint to keep me from hating this character as much as the others. 3 stars.

Viola Davis - Doubt: As I said, this movie received more acting nominations than any other, and with good reason. The cast elevates the story, giving it more weight than it would have had on its own. Davis is in only a couple scenes, as the mother of the boy suspected of being molested, but she fills the screen. You can see how conflicted she is, and how desperate to keep the peace. She isn't given much to do, but the fact that she nearly steals a scene right out from under Streep is an achievement. 3 stars.

Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Henson was by far my favorite thing about this movie. She plays her mid 20th-century southern black woman like Gone With the Wind-level camp, and yet she has so much heart that it works beautifully. This is an actress we need to see more of. 4 stars.

Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler: Tomei is a severely underrated actress; despite having won an Oscar 17 years ago and nominated once more since then, she keeps ending up in movies like Anger Management. For that reason, I'm glad to see her with a juicier role here. She spends the first part of the movie mostly naked, due to her character's job as a stripper, but she carries it off with a quiet dignity. In her more emotional scenes with Rourke, she is fearless. My only complaint is that she wasn't given very much to do. There was a lot more in that character that I felt I didn't get to see. 3 stars.

And the Oscar goes to ... Amy Adams. Just by virtue of screen time. She is given better lines to chew on and more worthy opponents to spar with. But that's not meant as an insult of her as an actress. She is absolutely deserving of an award, and now is as good a time as any.


Best Director/Picture

Frost/Nixon, directed by Ron Howard - I wish this hadn't been the last movie I saw during the Showcase yesterday, because it's an extraordinarily capable film considering the subject matter, but I was so tired by the time we got to it it was hard to stay awake. I credit director Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan for injecting so much life into what is essentially a series of interviews between TV personality David Frost and Richard Nixon. The final interview is as suspenseful as any classic onscreen confrontation. I thought the supporting cast was brilliant: Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Matthew McFadyen, Kevin Bacon were each essential to the story (in fact, as it turns out, Rockwell's character is really to be credited for Frost's victory). Michael Sheen should have been nominated for supporting actor; he was at least as good as Downey, Jr. His Frost is a master of the pasted-on smile, but when he starts to crumble, I couldn't help but sweat along with him. In one of the final scenes, Nixon shakes Frost's hand and says, "You were a worthy opponent." It seemed as if the actor was saying that as much as the character; Sheen more than held his own in scenes opposite Langella. In general, the movie just made me sad about politics. Too much of the Frost/Nixon interviews smacked of things that Clinton and W. Bush said in defending their own actions; the movie ended with me just hoping maybe we have an honest man in office for a change. 3 stars.

Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant - Van Sant won't win Best Director for this, but he hasn't put together a bad film. Penn makes it infinitely more watchable than it would have been otherwise. It feels like a documentary, with footage from the '70s cut seamlessly with reenactments. This isn't a bad thing, but the cast was so good that I wanted to see more interactions among them. My main quibble with the movie was that it was too political. I realize that it's about a political figure, but Van Sant's opinions come through more clearly than the characters'. He barely gives a voice to the other side, which is why Brolin's performance is so valuable to the movie as a whole. After Milk is shot, the camera lingers on a close-up of him in profile for a good thirty seconds. He looks uncannily like Abraham Lincoln. The implication is MORE than clear. I appreciate the fact that important public figures who won civil rights battles are recognized on film, but I just think the material speaks for itself, especially with a cast like this. No need to preach. As far as the "gay movie" genre goes, this one is a good entry point for those frightened off by the explicit sex of Brokeback Mountain. However, I thought Brokeback was a better movie, so I hope this one doesn't win just because the Academy has suddenly decided it's ready. 3 stars.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, directed by David Fincher - This movie is too long. That is its biggest fault. It tries too hard to be both Big Fish and Forrest Gump, but doesn't manage to achieve the epic scope or fresh mix of humor and pathos that those movies had. In fact, why wasn't Big Fish nominated for Best Picture? What a great movie. But I digress. I just thought that Button was a gigantic undertaking and that the result did not live up to the task. The story dragged, although I'll admit to being pretty stunned by one scene where Button is describing how the woman he loves got into an accident. He tells it as a series of events that, if they hadn't happened, would have prevented the accident, and it's a compelling angle. That is the only part of the movie that held my attention, though. I wasn't that impressed with Pitt, and though I thought Henson was wonderful, the rest of the supporting cast didn't really come through. Cate Blanchett, though beautiful and so a good match for Pitt, was disappointingly one-note. And the worst part of this movie was the framing device; Blanchett's character is telling the story of Benjamin Button to her daughter from her death bed. Hurricane Katrina rages outside the hospital. Why? It's unclear. No doubt because Pitt has a producing credit and felt the need to inject that particular agenda. But in terms of the story it's useless, and since this movie is based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, I hardly think it needed the update. 2 stars.

The Reader, directed by Stephen Daldry - As a vehicle for Kate Winslet, The Reader is superb. In the hands of a lesser actress, the part may not have come off, but fortunately it does. David Kross plays her young lover, and I was as impressed with him as anyone else in the movie. His vulnerability is evident in his every movement, and it's not hard to understand why he takes up with Winslet's character. They spend much of the first part of the movie naked, which is not a distraction but rather communicates the physical intimacy that they have while underscoring the lack of emotional intimacy. They don't even learn each other's names until the third or fourth time they're together. All the characters in this movie are walled off, and Ralph Fiennes is effective as a grown-up version of Kross, layering resistance over the same vulnerability in service of maturity. The story itself is a heartbreaker, and no one involved in the production pulls away at the difficult moments, which heightens the impact. The best drama of the bunch by a longshot. 4 stars.

Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle - I am definitely not alone in initially being shocked that this movie was nominated for Best Picture. It seems very unlikely - a movie based on a game show that takes place in the slums of India ... okay. But this is an absolutely phenomenal film. The story, about Jamal, a young man who is on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire while searching for the woman he loves, is exquisitely told. There are a few gaps, but they are glossed over smoothly. The young Indian actors who play the main characters during their childhoods are astounding. They pop off the screen. I hope the producers of this movie bought those kids some nice houses that are not in the slums. As the older Jamal, Dev Patel doesn't have much to do beyond look terrified, but he does a very handsome job of it. Boyle directs this movie almost as if it were a music video, with loud, raucous music, popping colors, and quick cuts. But, and this shocked me, it WORKS. Visually, the movie is delightful, and when that combines with the story, it's a masterpiece. I was on the edge of my seat till the end. It's romantic comedy-esque in the sense that the ending was always a foregone conclusion, but there is so much originality to this movie that you hardly notice you've heard the story before. And the Bollywood dance over the closing credits just made the smile I already had get bigger. Slumdog Millionaire is the best feel-good move in recent memory.

And the Oscar goes to ... Boyle for directing, and Slumdog for Best Picture. It's a bit of a dark horse since the other movies are more substantial and feature big-name actors, but I'm hoping Slumdog has enough of a cult following that the Academy will recognize it for what it is. Besides, it's fitting - in these economic times, what better movie to take home the big prize than one that takes place in an economy far worse than ours, but in which the main character becomes a millionaire? Everybody wins!