Closing Ceremony

I am calling this challenge finished. 59 days in with 45 films and no way in hell I am going to be able to get around to watching enough to catch up, and stay caught up, I am calling it over.

Does this mean that the blog is done? No. Not by a long shot. There are a lot of movies I want to talk about here that just did not fit into the blog's format. What this will be is instead of going for X movies in a specific time frame it will be a more detailed look at only the films I think deserve close attention. This will include movies I have already scene, and even some repeat viewings of films already covered in the blog (Most importantly The Hurt Locker and Oldboy).

It will also mean longer articles, and possibly a read over before I post something (which is something I need to do but I don't).

It has been a fun challenge. Lets spend more time focused on a single work instead of trying to cram 100 years of film down my throat.

Tokyo!

Day 53

Film 45

Tokyo! is the collection of three short films set inside the city by three acclaimed directors, Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho. Each of the films is unlike anything else I have seen, and each of them is a flawed piece of art. This is the kind of film I adore, so lets get to it:

Interior Design (Gondry)

This is the story of a couple new to Tokyo. It is a subtle story ending on a twist that makes you have to think. It looks at an aspiring artist and their significant other. It defines both, although the ending becomes a bittersweet as the artist grows to create more things and the girl becomes more a tool than person.

It is endlessly strange, and is a good start as the rest of the short films because the others are even more strange.

Merde (Carax)

Definately the strangest of the bunch Merde looks at what it is to be a monster, a terrorist and to be a human being. Merde, the name of a man who is part madman, part monster, part misunderstood race, hops onto the screen in a green coat, with a strange sideways beard and a foggy eye and just starts beating up Japaneese people. It is comical and horrific. It also makes no sense in the conclusion, in a sort of sideways Jesus effect, but I cannot speak much more on that.

Shaking Tokyo (Joon-ho)

Shaking Tokyo follows a man who has spent the last ten years of his life walled off from the world by his own will. The wonder of the first half is in the meticulous set design and the regimented way the man leads his life (Very Stranger than Fiction like.) Catapulted from eye contact with a robot pizza delivery woman the shut in leaves his isolation world to find her. It is sweet and fun film with a hint of darkness hidden in its happy ending.

Die Hard

Day 53

Film 44

Die Hard joins the ranks of big flashy fun movies that does not try and push itself beyond that. It aims to be a popcorn flick and it succeeds.

Die Hard follows Bruce Willis' fight against a racial hodgepodge of international terrorists/robbers. The plot is not that complex going from the intro directly into a sticky hostage situation and then having another one and a half hours of Bruce Willis kicking ass. The most interesting thing is that Rickman plays the villain, and he does it very well. My problem is I cannot get over the fact that Bruce Willis is in an epic battle between Severus Snape, the robot from Hitchhikers Guide and the spock ripoff in galaxy quest all balled into one psudoeuropean douche bag.

The movie is fun, and really grabs you and keeps you interested because beyond the explosions the characters have heart.

Possibly the worst movie ever. It's a good thing

Evil Dead 2

Day 52

Film 43

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Written by: Sam Raimi and Scott Spiegel

Starring: Bruce Campbell

This movie is terrible. It is so horrendously bad you cannot put it into words. Raimi built it Evil Dead 2 into the worst, most over the top horror movie you could possibly have and he pulls it off with shining colors. It is not terrifying (although some of the undead things try to pull at unconscious fears) the most it can do is make you jump or roll on the floor with laughter. It is a good movie because it understands what it is, a B movie, and laughs at itself for its own horribleness.

That and can you ever REALLY pass down Bruce Campbell beating the crap out of rubber masked monsters for an hour and a half. That's right, no you can not.

Rant Time: The Best Picture 2010

So, this is a very strange break from the usual film of the day. Since it is awards season, the time where all of the best films of the previous year juggle awards around ending in the only award people care about. Yes, that is right the Academy Awards (Who would have guessed?) and their little golden man (you can take that any way you want.)

After finishing The Hurt Locker, the last of the serious candidates for the best picture, I thought I would give you a little run down of the best picture hopefuls and give you my two cents (based on absolutely no prior knowledge of the issue.)

So, lets run down the list of the big four:

Avatar

The Hurt Locker

Inglorious Basterds

Up in the Air

These are the serious contenders, films like Precious and An Education are just a step below these four in the race. that and I have not seen them, so I cannot make a full judgement on them.

Now, each of these films has a list of pros and cons, some that most Academy followers could hone in at a second. But since I am not one of these types I am going to just aim in the dark, one at a time.

Avatar:

Oh man, Avatar. This movie is as terrible as it is spectacular. This movie is the Jurassic Park for a new generation. The paper thin story is stretched tight over a hundreds of millions of dollars budget and shiny new effects.

Avatar does so many things wrong, the Dances with Wolves ripoff the most apparent, but in the end Cameron made a fun thoughtless film.

Pros: Advances Tech another step, made HUGE amounts of money, and has a loyal fan base that are only seconded by the Twilight crazies.

Cons: The story sucked, the message is about as old as any other now a days in film, Cameron is an ass, and it really needed to only be two hours (Go go editors)

The Hurt Locker:

This film is a very relevant film for this time. Unlike the other Iraq films bubbling up from the conflict it nails the war perfectly. It humanizes both sides and offers no answers only questions. It is a daring work and should be respected.

Pros: Topical, above anything else yet released about Iraq, spectacular critical success

Cons: Bigelow is female, people do not like talking about the war, marginal box office success

Inglorious Basterds:

Quentin Tarantino has been honing his craft for the last fifteen years and Inglorious Basterds is possibly his best work. It takes the traditional war movie and laughs at it. It is fun stacked on daring with a dash of vision.

What I love about this film is that it does not try to make a standard war film, those are just too riddled with troublesome facts. Tarantino threw the history book out the window and finished WWII as it should have ended, with Hitler getting shot up by a Jewish American and then exploded.

Pros: Changes everything about WWII movies, brilliantly written and directed

Cons: It's Tarantino, revisionist history does not fly with everyone, it's Tarantino

Up in the Air:

This movie hits home in the same way The Hurt Locker does as its timing is spot on. It is a character study hidden inside a movie about the impacts of the economic downturn. Reitman does a good job juggling this along side Clooney's spectacular performance. Overall it is just a good movie about what it is to be human through the eyes of a man who tries his best to not.

Pros: Almost perfect movie, timely, carried by many spectacular performances

Cons: Not as flashy as the other 3, limited commercial success

So, now that I have ranted a bit about the movies in question you must be asking yourselves (assuming you are still awake) "Yes I already know this, what do you think is the best film of the year?"

Well that is a little trickier than the summary, because these movies are all very good. So, lets start with the one thing I am most sure about:

AVATAR should not win.

Now, put down your blue makeup and smurf-cat porn and stop writing your hate mail. Look at Avatar, for all of its good and its bad, does it deserve the award. No. Avatar is the king of all popcorn movies chocked full of overused cliches, carried fully on its technology. In ten years Avatar will not be a good movie. Avatar will only be remembered by studios trying to reproduce its box office success. The tech will get better. Better film makers will put it to better use. Avatar will no longer be important, while every other film on this list will endure as a spectacular work of art.

What Avatar is is a money grab, using the same storyline of a dozen previous works, the same message found in countless movies (about the environment, the industrial military complex and human's lust for resources) that have done it better that is needlessly long. It had all the potential in the world but instead it falls back on the same rehashed tricks.

Having just scared away all of the Avatar fan boys, that must mean that the rest of you are more level headed. Right? Good.

The other three movies are about equal in my heart at this time. They are each wildly different and each have their own reasons for being on the list.

For me I have to throw The Hurt Locker off of my list, because Up in the Air and Basterds are films that I just like more. They play with characters and people's expectations in film. Reitman does it in a very human and subtle way and Tarantino throws the rules out the window like it is job. I will get back to the Hurt Locker in a bit.

Narrowing down the list to these two, I have to choose Basterds. Up in the Air is possibly the better movie. It is nears perfection, which is respectable, but in doing so it loses everything that art is about. Art is messy, just as humanity is messy. Basterds is a messy, imperfect stab at something different. I cannot help but respect that. It is a daring, fun movie choking on its depth. I have to go with it.

My circuitous logic aside the best picture, in my mind, should be Inglorious Basterds.

But I am not done. The Academy Awards are just as much about politics as they are about good movies (maybe more so) and as much as I would want Inglorious Basterds to win if I was going to submit a ballet I would not choose Basterds. I would throw my vote away to The Hurt Locker in a second because it is just as worthy as Basterds or Up in the Air are for the award, and stand at the exact same level in my mind as a work of art. I just really do not want Avatar to win, and the best bet is The Hurt Locker for dethroning Cameron's big blue leviathan.

Yes, I am a backstabbing bastard (or basterd?) I am tired of this stupid smurf buzz ruining my time at the movies. That and I have faith in The Hurt Locker winning the big award in March.

So, just in case you did not want to read this little rant thing...

A SUMMARY:

My Personal Pick: Inglorious Basterds

Who Will Win? : The Hurt Locker

Is that a bomb in your pants or are you just happy to see me?

The Hurt Locker

Day 51

Film 42

Directed by: Katheryn Bigelow

Written by: Mark Boal

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty

The Hurt Locker is the film that everyone is pitting against Avatar for this year's Best Picture. It seems that way around the blagoblag. It is understandable, as it is a spectacular and timely movie. It has about as much importance in timing as Up in the Air does, although at this point a lot of people are just flat out ignoring the American wars (me included.) The image of the war makes even less sense once living a month in Bravo company's shoes. This is a running theme in anti-war movies, and although The Hurt Locker is not as loud as All Quiet on the Western Front about it you can feel it.

The Hurt Locker is not a fun movie, it will leave you shaken with an entirely new view of the war. You should see it.

SHH!

All Quiet on the Western Front

Day 51

Film 41

Directed by: Lewis Milestone

Written by: Erich Maria Remarque (Novel)

Walking into this film I thought it would be like a bad John Wayne war flick, filled with American pride. I was very wrong on this, because it is far from a pro war movie, it was the first big budget anti war movie and what it does to World War One is make transform it from a gaudy glamourous war into the shit hole it was.

This film attacks war from every concievable level, going so far as to make the Germans portrayed and make them speak like good old American boys. This makes the horror that the characters experience hit the Americans head on. It also creates a universal look at the war from every angle. It is spectacular film making.

All Quiet on the Western Front is such a complex piece of cinema I can only scratch the surface of it. Watch it, think about it, then get back to me.