Hello fellow film buffs! I am pleased to announced that after a lengthy hiatus,
The Celluloidian is back! And what better time to revamp this little blog than at the start of the 2012 awards season! So, let me begin this comeback with my reviews of 3 films nominated for awards this year.
Midnight in Paris
Midnight in Paris is an absolute gem of a movie. Whimsical, smart, funny and romantic, this film is nominated for several Golden Globe awards and recently won Best Original Screenplay at the Critic's Choice Awards. Set in Paris, the film is a tale about Gil (Owen Wilson), a man coming to terms with his life, his view of love, and his writing. Walking along the streets of Paris at midnight, he is transported back to the 1920s to mingle with the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Writer and Director Woody Allen creates this shift between eras so effortlessly and with such confidence that the audience never questions it; the ride is the most important part, not the logic behind it. Furthermore, what makes this film so special is that it rids itself of perversity and controversy and presents itself simply and beautifully. Co-starring Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, and Kathy Bates (to name a few),
Midnight in Paris is a delightful film that is well deserving of its accolades.
Moneyball
Directed by Bennett Miller, this film is deservedly up for several Golden Globe awards this year. Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin (remember
The Social Network?), and Stan Chervin recently won the Critic's Choice award for Best Adapted Screenplay for this film. Starring Brad Pitt,
Moneyball chronicles the historic 2002 season of the Oakland A's baseball team under the management of Billy Beane. While it can easily be categorized as a film about baseball, I actually see it more as a film about a man who happens to be in the business of baseball. It's an intelligent character study that is so tightly focused on Pitt's Billy Beane, a baseball-inept layman like myself can still get caught up in the statistical jargon and follow along effortlessly. This film is smartly crafted, emotionally gripping, and well cast (Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright). I highly recommend this wonderful movie.
The Tree of Life
It is rare for me to be unable to finish a movie. But, sadly, after the first 45 minutes I could not handle
The Tree of Life any longer. Expecting beautiful cinematography coupled with powerhouse performances from Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn, what I found myself watching was Terrence Malick's over-the-top montage of images about life...or crisis...or maybe God...? (It's a seemingly endless montage about
something.) Though the cinematography was, in fact, beautiful (it recently won the Critic's Choice Award), there were so
many images that the film felt more like a final project for an editing student than a cohesive film with a centralized plot. It's no wonder some American movie theaters were forced to display a disclaimer about the confusing construction of this film after numerous walk-outs and refund requests (source: imdb.com). And believe me, I am generally a fan of non-linear structure and original storytelling technique. But
Tree of Life essentially has no story. It is one man's (Malick) pretentious artistic expression of nature versus faith. Oh, and there are dinosaurs.
