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Do IT this week: Layering
Many movies not nominated this year are worthy of praise
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Sunday, Feb 24, 2008
Tonight's a big showcase for the movie industry. And for some movies.
But not all movies. Certainly not all good movies.
Culled from hundreds of candidates, the list of Oscar-nominated movies contains fewer than 60 titles, and that includes short films. Narrow it to full-length features, and you're looking at 44. And the winners' list tonight shorter than that.
The Oscars have a complicated approach to nominating and awarding, not only in the sometimes Byzantine rules process, but in an overarching sense of what should and shouldn't be nominated.
How, for example, did Josh Brolin appear in three movies that got some Oscar attention (No Country for Old Men, American Gangster and In the Valley of Elah) without someone saying this guy needs to be on an awards list?
Like any organization honoring its own members' work, the motion picture academy takes a Chamber of Commerce approach to awards. That is, what makes it look good and respectable as a group?
Often, that means honoring the high-toned over the commercial. Of Box Office Mojo's list of the 10 top-grossing films of 2007, seven received no Oscar nominations at all. Those that did — Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and The Bourne Ultimatum — were confined to minor categories.
Not that I would argue that all the big commercial hits are Oscar-worthy. Or that some of the nominees are unworthy; I very much like Juno, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. But it's always interesting to see what Oscar overlooks.
So in addition to considering the nominees, which will get their highlight-reel moments in tonight's ceremony, I looked at the list of eligible feature films and came up with some movies that deserve your attention. And possibly some video purchases or rentals, since everything here is either on DVD or coming soon.
Call it my Josh Brolin list. As in, ''Hey, didn't this deserve something?'' Or, in those cases, where Oscar threw it a nominating bone, ''Hey, didn't this deserve a lot more?''
In alphabetical order:
Black Snake Moan. In looking at the Oscar-eligible list, I was struck more than once by the roller coaster some filmmakers ride. If the academy nodded before to Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson, why was it
indifferent this year to their engrossing Margot at the Wedding and The Darjeeling Limited, respectively?
And if writer-director Craig Brewer stirred things up with Hustle & Flow (nominated for best actor, Cleveland's Terrence Howard, and a winner for best song), shouldn't there have been some attention to his wild, gritty Black Snake Moan? Besides its sweat-drenched tale of sex, redemption and the blues, it had no-holds-barred performances from Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci.
Enchanted. (Due on DVD March 18.) It has three of the five nominations in the best song category. (The other two went to Once, discussed below, and August Rush.) And it was tuneful. But I keep thinking about Amy Adams' performance as a fairy-tale princess in the real world, an acting job that was willing to push things so far that it made the character far more fascinating and the movie that much better.
Hairspray. Even if you reduce John Travolta's performance to a costuming gimmick, what about Christopher Walken? Or the charming Nikki Blonsky? Yes, it gets jammed on song nominations because the movie's best moments were from the Broadway musical. But considering the hair in the movie, not even a nomination for makeup?
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Both a commercial and critical hit and probably the best of the Potter movies to date, it could have demonstrated that the Oscar voters have some regard for the public. If, that is, it had been nominated for anything.
In the Valley of Elah. This drama about the effect of the Iraq war on young soldiers got one nomination, for best actor, for Tommy Lee Jones. He deserves it. But the movie deserves more. Yes, the ending is a bit ham-fisted, but there are many good things before it. The movie was probably a victim of bad timing — Oscar and the viewing public have for the most part shunned such films — and maybe of a backlash against writer-director Paul Haggis. There's still a lot of grumbling over his Crash beating Brokeback Mountain for the best picture Oscar in 2006.
King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. This documentary about a duel between a long-time champion at the Donkey Kong arcade game and a new rival was as full of schemes and twists as, well, Michael Clayton. And it's a better movie.
Knocked Up. It made $149 million at the North American box office. It had a 90 percent positive rating from the Rotten Tomatoes Web site's collection of reviews. It made Seth Rogen a leading man and gave Katherine Heigl a chance to shine outside the small screen. It was often gross but funny and warm-hearted. And by honoring it, the academy could have paid tribute to the empire of producer Judd Apatow, home also to the outrageously funny Superbad.
The Lookout. If you still think of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun, rent this movie. He plays a brain-damaged young man who gets drawn into a dangerous scheme, with plenty of thrills and surprises along the way. Not many people saw this movie — it only made about $4.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo — but I'd rather see it again than Atonement.
Once. It's nominated for best song, for the haunting Falling Slowly. But, in a year without Juno, I'd like to think that this sweet, smart account of the relationship between an Irish musician (Glen Hansard) and his new, Czech collaborator (Marketa Irglova) might have gotten some of Oscar's carefully distributed admiration for charming, smaller films. See the movie, then get the soundtrack.
Rescue Dawn. Christian Bale's work as a prisoner in a Vietnam war camp is stirring on its own, and more than deserving of an Oscar nomination. But the movie overall — written and directed by Werner Herzog — is powerful, too.
The Simpsons Movie. As I have said before, I like this considerably better on DVD than I did sitting in a theater, where the draggy spots were more noticeable. But audiences and critics were generally favorable ($183 million in North American grosses, 89 percent rating from Rotten Tomatoes). And considering there are only three nominees for best animated movie — Ratatouille, Persepolis and Surf's Up — room could have been made.
Talk to Me. This little film starring Don Cheadle as radio star Petey Greene is just the latest example of a great performance from Cheadle, who I think suffers from making consistently strong performances look too easy. The movie itself is a meaty meditation on race and class. And there's standout work from actress Taraji P. Henson.
Things We Lost in the Fire. (On DVD March 4.) It had two previous Oscar winners as its leads, Benicio Del Toro and Cleveland's Halle Berry. Allan Loeb's script and Susanne Bier's direction made us confront not only the nature of grief but how a loving couple could still have lives apart from each other.
Waitress. There is some patness to this little film about a pregnant waitress (Keri Russell). But there are good performances from Russell, Jeremy Sisto, Andy Griffith and others. And, since Oscar honors are sometimes given for reasons that have nothing to do with what's onscreen, Waitress is of note as the last work by writer-director Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered before the movie premiered.
Year of the Dog. Another heart-tugger, but a remarkably clear-eyed one. It follows the journey of Peggy (Molly Shannon, another Northeast Ohio presence in this list) after her beloved dog dies. It's a trip that takes her into some new relationships with people and with animals, and to an understanding of what her life should be.
Now, I have other movies from the Oscar period that I want to look at, or I'm still thinking about. And you may have a list of your own. The point here is that the Oscars are a narrow view of what the movies have to offer. There are plenty of joys outside the shadow of the movie industry's statuette.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in a blog at http://www.ohio.com. Contact him at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
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