2/5/14 Despicable Me 2, nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song 2013
Um, I can't believe they are planning to make another Despicable Me and a standalone movie with the minions. It is entirely possible that my inner child was sent away to the naughty mat and hasn't been released yet, but I really didn't care about this movie. There were parts that were mildly amusing, and maybe they would have been better off as shorts, but they tried to make a story where I don't think there really was one. I don't think there were any technology or animation breakthroughs here, the story wasn't particularly deep, and I'm not sure why it was nominated aside form being a blockbuster. I have not yet seen Frozen or The Wind Rises, but I am thinking The Wind Rises will win (so far based only on the trailer I saw yesterday). Kids may be entertained by the minions, and it's harmless enough, but it's no Oscar-winner for me.
2/8/14 Nominated Live Action Shorts 2013
I was lucky enough to see all the live action shorts packaged up in one presentation, because otherwise they are hard to find, or you can't see them for years until they appear on a compilation. The nice thing about this presentation was that between each short, Oscar-nominated or Oscar-winning directors, writers and producers of shorts gave their insights on the importance of shorts as a learning tool, but also as a great way to focus on the narrative of a movie instead of peripheral characters, plot twists, etc., and I totally agree, you don't have a lot of time to get lost in the backstory or diversions, you have to focus. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, but I have found most of the shorts I've watched interesting if not really good. That's true for the following five shorts.
Helium, Denmark
You kind of knew this was not going to be a happy-go-lucky short when it opened with a little boy in a hospital. We don't know what is wrong with Alfred, but he is a very sick little boy and he's already been told (or overheard) his parents say that he will be going to heaven. He doesn't want to go. Then he meets Enzo, a new orderly at the hospital who connects with Alfred and tells him the story of Helium, a place different from heaven, but fun and wonderful. This helps Alfred be a little less frightened. It may not be a 'happy' movie, but it's not as hard to watch as you might think.
The Voorman Problem, United Kingdom
Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, television's Sherlock Holmes) is a psychiatrist sent to an English prison to interview and diagnose Voorman (Tom Hollander) who claims to be God and that he created the world nine days prior. The doctor does not believe it and Voorman offers to prove it by making Belgium disappear. The doctor opens a book and Belgium is gone, so what conclusion can you draw? It's a dark comedy head-scratcher, that's for sure.
Avant que de tout le perdre (Just before losing everything), France
The story here unfolds slowly and things aren't what they seem to be, and the ending leaves you wondering what might happen next. We see Julien heading off to school, except he's going the wrong way and we find out he needs to get cigarettes for his mom, and then he is hiding in a tunnel. A horn honks and he goes out to a car, and it's his mother, Miriam. They then pick up Julien's sister, Josephine, who is older, perhaps high school age, and they drive off to the store where Miriam works. It becomes evident that the three are on the run from Antoine, their father and husband. It's very taut and suspenseful as we don't know exactly what will happen next, will they be caught, will they make it out, will Antoine get violent in the store. Even as it ended, I still wasn't sure what would have happened if the movie lasted another ten minutes.
Aquel no era yo (That wasn't me), Spain
This movie packs a punch and I felt like someone kicked me in the stomach. It's about child soldiers in an unnamed African country. Two Spanish doctors and their driver are trying to leave a country but they are captured and accused of trying to convince the child soldiers to leave the fighting behind. The male doctor and the driver are killed by two of the child soldiers, leaving behind the female doctor. It's a brutal exchange and I found myself looking away and cringing. There is an attack on the compound by the President's forces and the woman escapes and she brings one of her child captors with her, telling him she will take him to a place where he will be safe and go to school, it's as if she needs to salvage something from this nightmare. Between the action, the film is narrated by an older version of this boy. The movie was made in collaboration with several organizations including Amnesty International and Save the Children.
This was my favorite. I knew it was going to be funny when Sini (the female lead) answers the alarm clock thinking it's the phone. And pretty much the day goes downhill from there. Sini tries to round up her husband and two little girls because they have a wedding to attend. Nothing goes right: she can't find the wedding present, the girls cannot find their dresses, husband, Jokke, spills coffee on his shirt (well, I think Sini may have hit his elbow). Throughout this chaos, Sini asks if she has to do it all herself, she probably doesn't, but she's determined that she will. This was the shortest of the shorts, at 7 minutes, but it was packed with laughs; we laughed because it was funny, but also because the events of the day could happen to anyone. This was the last short in the running order, right after That wasn't me, and my friend and I were both so happy that we ended on this note. It probably won't win, because there are 'heavier', 'weightier' shorts that are more socially important, but I would like to see it win because the ending was joyous.
As my friend and I were taking a break between movies, she asked if shorts have to be so serious and heavy; clearly they don't, but this selection definitely was. They were well done and all different in their own way; different storytelling methods, different messages. That's what I love about the shorts categories, so much variety packed into 90 minutes; I mean if you don't like something, you know it will usually be over in less than 45 minutes. After a brief repast, we headed back to the theater for The Invisible Woman.
2/8/14, The Invisible Woman, nominated for Best Costume Design, 2013
I had not heard of this movie until it appeared on the list after the Oscar nominations were announced. It certainly seemed like a movie I would like, historical film about Charles Dickens and an aspect of his life about which I knew nothing, his mistress. Ralph Fiennes plays Dickens and Felicity Jones is Ellen (Nelly) Ternan and the film is told in flashback, starting out in Margate at the school that Nelly runs with her husband, and then back to when Dickens and Nelly meet. Ralph Fiennes also directs, and perhaps he should have just stuck with Dickens here; the movie just seemed uneven and it was hard to really connect with either Dickens (who fluctuates between a loving, caring father, doting lover, and self-centered child) or Nelly who doesn't ever really seem to be in love with Dickens, although she is definitely an ardent admirer of him. Nelly often walks alone along the seaside, and seems in perpetual mourning and sulky. Dickens and Nelly begin a relationship and I got the sense that it was with the tacit understanding of her protective, but ambitious mother (Kristen Scott Thomas). They keep the affair as secret as possible, but the viewer hears that there is gossip around London about it. Dickens's wife, Catherine (Joanna Scanlan) suffers the humiliation of the affair and asks that Dickens end it, which he refuses. The movie is based on a book which is based on historical events, so you can read more about the relationship if you like. I kind of thought I might, but at this time, I don't care. The movie was nominated for the costume design, and they are very good (to my untrained eye), but there really aren't any 'big' pieces, like in some of the scenes from The Great Gatsby, or wow moments like some of the dresses that Amy Adams or Jennifer Lawrence wore in American Hustle, so I would be surprised if it won. I'm disappointed I didn't like this movie better, I love Dickens and his storytelling and I don't think there have been any movies about his life, and I really like Ralph Fiennes, so my hopes were high. But, I'm a Cleveland fan, so I'm used to disappointment.
