Erika and I are still catching up on recent releases. This past week was devoted to catching some Academy Award nominees.
I had been reluctant to see The Hurt Locker despite its rave reviews, but decided I should give it a chance after Roger Ebert claimed (accurately, as it turns out) that Kathryn Bigelow was a shoe-in for best director. I enjoyed it quite a bit--definitely more than any other movies about the Iraq War--and I can see why Bigelow won the Oscar. Every aspect of the film is very well-done. I like the choice of lesser-known actors in the lead roles, and I think they bring a lot of depth to the characters. The suspense is very effective without being overblown or melodramatic (mostly), and the visuals are very appealing. I don't really have anything to complain about, except that it's a bit unrealistic that the soldiers would see this much combat action in such a short span of time. I have to admit I enjoyed it quite a bit. Still, I feel it's just lacking something. When I was thinking about it and evaluating it afterward, the question that came to my mind was, "So what?" This is a well-done movie about some soldiers in Iraq, but there's not really anything else that makes it special. It doesn't have any new insight into war or international relations. And although well-done there's nothing about the movie that is going to make me come back to it again.
I didn't have a chance to see A Serious Man, the latest film from my favorite directing duo, in the theater, and I put off renting it because I knew I would just buy it eventually to put it alongside the rest of my Coen brothers' DVDs (and I wasn't about to pay full price for something I can get used a few months from now). I decided last week that I wanted to see it before the Oscars, though, so I bucked up and bought a new copy. Honestly, I'm still not really sure what to think of it. This one is going to need a second viewing. I like the premise of a Jewish man lost in a sea of troubles and searching for answers from his religion. The characters are interesting and there's plenty of the Coens' subtly dark humor here. I gathered fairly early on that the protagonist would not find any answers because things are never that simple (and it's comedically obvious that his rabbis are not going to be any help). Still, I was baffled by the ending. When I saw No Country For Old Men in the theater I laughed at the guy who yelled, "What he hell?!" when the credits rolled (I had already been warned about the non-ending). Well, this time I was the sucker yelling exactly the same thing. It's not just that there was no resolution, but that...well, I don't want to give it away, but it's just an extremely unexpected place to end the film. That, combined with the apparently unrelated prologue, makes me wonder if the Coens are purposely screwing with the audience. At this point I don't think I would put A Serious Man among the top 50% of the Coen brothers' films. Who knows, though? I could change my mind after repeated viewings.
Extract was obviously not nominated for an Academy Award, but we decided to go with a short, light-hearted film one night this week because Erika had some work to do. This is from Mike Judge, creator of a number of funny TV and movies, including most notably the workplace comedy Office Space. Extract can be seen as kind of a counterpoint to that cult classic, this time told from the point of view of an employer and boss. Jason Bateman plays the owner of an extract factory who is beset by a host of problems in his business and his marriage. He has an injured employee who plans to sue the company on the advice of a beautiful con artist and a wife who cheats on him with a man that the husband hired to sleep with her (it's complicated). Like Judge's other movies, it's a funny premise with lots of good jokes throughout, but the resolution is lacking. The main problem with the company is wrapped up a bit too neatly and quickly, but I realize this may have been to avoid dragging it out any longer. Extract won't enjoy the cult status of Office Space, but it's not a bad way to spend an evening.
I think I enjoyed Inglourious Basterds more than any other movie Quentin Tarantino has done since Pulp Fiction. No kidding. I've been putting off watching it because, knowing Tarantino and the subject matter, I was expecting it to be just unbearably bloody and painful to watch. To my surprise, it was much less graphic than I had imagined. There's plenty of violence, but those scenes are relatively few and far-between. Inglourious Basterds is very dialogue-heavy, which shouldn't be that surprising, I suppose. What really impresses me about Tarantino is that the man can write such extremely long scenes of just people talking, but every moment is not only engaging but downright suspenseful. I think the opening sequence, which is almost entirely a dialogue between a Nazi SS officer and a French dairy farmer, runs for over 20 tense minutes, gradually building in suspense until its inevitable conclusion. Then there are the Basterds of the film's title, a group of Jewish-American soldiers dedicated to repaying the Nazis for their inhumanity with a bit of terrible brutality of their own. Typically this stuff makes me wince, but since Tarantino began with a gruesome reminder of the Nazis' atrocities it's actually thrilling to see them reap the brutality they've sown. This movie is smart, exciting, well-written and well-directed, and it's topped off with the kind of unrealistic and anachronistic ending everyone wants to see in a World War II movie.
Finally, we rounded off our week of movies with Up In The Air. For me this one was the most disappointing. I enjoyed his first two movies, but this one was just not very interesting. A man who constantly travels for his job has severed all meaningful relationships in his life and is living happily until he falls in love with a woman who appears to be a kindred spirit and is forced to travel with a young coworker. His worldview is challenged and he realizes he doesn't like being alone. The whole premise seems like a tired Hollywood cliche. Despite this, the characters are pretty good, and the actors play them well. There are some very funny scenes and smart dialogue when the three meet up. I will also say that the movie ends fairly well, avoiding the obvious sappy lessons it could go for and seeking out a more static resolution for the main character. Ultimately, though, I'm afraid it makes for a pretty forgettable movie.
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