Flashback: Wallace & Gromit, Argo, Iron Lady, The Help, and more

It's been a while since I've done any kind of anthology or flashback and it seems like a good time before this year's Oscar nominations are released.

Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers, Best Animated Short Film, 1993 and A Close Shave, Best Animated Short, 1995

I love Wallace & Gromit, Wallace is like Mr. Magoo meets Rube Goldberg, and Gromit is his trusty sidekick who always seems to make everything okay, no matter how much Wallace screws it up. In The Wrong Trousers, want-to-be inventor, Wallace, creates a pair of robotic trousers that can take Gromit for a walk. Things are turned topsy-turvy when a criminal penguin rents a room from Wallace. That's really all I'm going to tell you, and it's all you need to check out the video (both are available on a single DVD from the library). A Close Shave has our intrepid duo and a new window washing enterprise, but they fall into the path of sheep wranglers, very dangerous wranglers, at that. Gromit performs some very impressive aviation maneuvers to save the sheep. All of this is funny and fun to watch, made even more so when you realize the work it takes to make the stop-motion animation happen; on the DVD I had there some behind the scenes footage with Nick Park and how he creates. There is a lot to entertain kids, but adults will enjoy these as well. I'm not responsible if you start grinning maniacally and crave cheese.

Zero Dark Thirty, Best Sound Editing, 2012

If you have not seen this movie, you should add it to your list. I remember when my friend and I watched it in the theater, we were just speechless when it ended. Kathryn Bigelow does a great job of pacing the film and taking you on the ups and downs of the main protagonist, CIA Agent Maya, played by Jessica Chastain. If you have not seen the movie a very high level recap, without giving anything away, is that this follows Maya on her very single-minded quest to find Osama bin Laden and the mission that was based on her analysis. Chastain was compelling to watch, as she goes from naive agent to driven and obsessed and not afraid to throw around a  few f-bombs to her bosses. She was nominated for Best Actress and lost out to Jennifer Lawrence; Chastain got my unofficial vote, I thought her character had a lot more work to do in the film since a lot of characters came in and out of the film, versus Lawrence working closely with the other actors. They were both great, though. There are scenes early on of torture, and they are hard to watch, and that's where we meet Maya. There are probably more than a few literary licenses taken, and I think I have mentioned before, unless it's a documentary, some things probably need to be changed to simplify filming or smooth out the story-telling process, and I don't have a problem with that unless we're led to believe it's 100% accurate; so there were criticisms of the movie. I say, watch it and judge for yourself. Jessica Chastain is going to be one of those actresses that we see a lot of in the future (Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams are two others who jump to mind).

Argo, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, 2012

I saw this movie with my little brother and it was so funny because he did not believe that it was real, and like several movies lately, I actually remember when this happened. And while I enjoyed seeing silly, animated, kids' movies with him, it was nice to see a grown-up movie that we could talk about after it was over (and I didn't fall asleep which used to irritate him). Argo dramatizes the story of CIA operative Tony Mendez and the successful extraction of six Americans stuck in Iran during the Iranian Revolution. Much-maligned Ben Affleck directed and starred as Mendez and whatever you think about Ben Affleck if you've seen Gigli or Daredevil, should be erased from the movie watching part of your brain. His direction is balanced, suspenseful, restrained where necessary, and as Mendez, he plays it cool, but with authority. The basic premise (not giving anything away here) is to get the Americans out of Iran he needs a cover story, so he and John Goodman as John Chambers, a Hollywood insider, come up with the idea to make a movie in Iran, and they need to scope out some locations, etc. They go to great lengths to substantiate the story so it will withstand any scrutiny. Goodman teams up with Alan Arkin as Lester Siegel, a producer, to form the creative brains, and they provide a lot of the comic relief, and have great chemistry together. The actors who play the six Americans demonstrate palpable claustrophobia representing their circumstances. Until almost the very last moment, you don't know what's going to happen, even though the outcome is public record. 2012 was a great year for movies, and if you have not seen Argo, add that to your list. If I didn't have so many movies to review and watch, I would watch it again. Watching Ben Affleck made me think he might be able to pull off Batman.

The Iron Lady, Best Actress, Best Makeup, 2011

I should probably track how many movies I have watched with Meryl Streep in the past few months, it's probably been a lot, and I have really liked most of them. Even so many months after watching The Iron Lady I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I really wanted to like it, but there was something that just kept bugging me. I think it was the use of the dream/memory sequences; I think I really wanted a biographical movie, not the biography mixed with dreams. I also did not think that this was the Best Actress performance; I was hoping for Viola Davis in The Help or Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs, two powerful performances. The Iron Lady of the title refers to Margaret Thatcher, the first, and so far, only female Prime Minister of Great Britain (and still one of the few female leaders even in the 21st century). Her conservative politics were polarizing and she was an incredibly strong personality, and you liked her or you didn't; in the US, she was closely associated with President Reagan. The movie uses flashbacks and the aforementioned dream sequences (or hallucinations). I don't know, it's okay, I guess, but check out the other movies first.

The Help, Best Supporting Actress, 2011

The Help made me laugh, made me cry and pissed me off. In other words, the complete movie experience. It was an ensemble piece if there ever was one, a great cast, including Octavia Spencer who won the Best Supporting Actress, Viola Davis (nominated for Best Actress), Jessica Chastain (Best Supporting Actress), Emma Stone, Allison Janney (who is chameleon-like in the roles she plays) and more. The movie is set in the south in the early 1960s in the early days of the Civil Rights movement, and focuses on the relationship between the black maids and the white families that hire them, and the tension that often bubbles just under the surface. Viola Davis is Aibileen and one of the main characters, her friend, Minny (Octavia Jackson) who hasn't learned quite how to edit herself (and thank goodness for that) and their friendship with Skeeter (Emma Stone) a white young lady who has known these women, but only through their 'working' relationship. Skeeter sets out to change that and tell the maids' stories. The journey to that point is Act I if you will, and the resulting furor from the publication of the stories is Act II. Viola Davis handles the various situations that are tossed at her with a strong, quiet dignity, she does not like to let anyone too close, but she is a loyal and true friend. If you have not seen this movie, yeah, you know the drill, add it to your list.  Here's one of those interesting connections: Viola Davis and Meryl Streep were antagonists in Doubt.

Black Swan, Best Actress, 2010

Natalie Portman won for Best Actress in Black Swan for her role as the prima ballerina in the Swan Lake. I can't really tell you more than that because the movie creeped me out; I didn't want to watch in the first place except for this damned list. I really liked Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei, but this was not even similar. I was really weirded out and couldn't sleep after watching it. If that makes me a wimp, so be it. If you like 'psychological thrillers' have at it; if you have a weak constitution, skip it.

I think that's enough for now. There are more movies I want to write about before the awards, so check back.