Recent Release Short Takes

Amelia: A beautiful looking film, featuring amazing production design adn cinematography, yet featuring a flat unoriginal story and barely passable performances for Ewan MacGregor, Richard Gere and especially Hillary Swank. While it could still find itself in the hunt for technical nominations, anything else is a longshot, including a Best Actress nod for Swank. Just a boring film.

The Last Station: A period biopic drama like Amelia, yet completely engaging and interesting throughout, thanks mostly to the quadratic formula of performances for Helen Mirren (absolutely wonderful) James McAvoy (ditto) Paul Giamatti (Very good, reminding me slightly of his performance in The Illusionist) and Christopher Plummer (A career nod, shall he seek?). Like Amelia the film has great production values all around and could be a hit Oscar wise in the tech categories. However, I feel it's best chances lie on the performances of Helen Mirren, who just won a Best Actress prize in Rome for her lively work, Christopher Plummer, who will most likely get a career best supporting actor nod in this, and possibly James McAvoy, who continues to consantly impress and could be a darkhorse contender for Best Actor. The one problem I forsee for the film campaign wise is that Giamatti, McAvoy, Mirren and Plummer are all basically leads, and the decision over where to campaign may cause confusion and by result snubs.

A Serious Man: I saw the Coen's latest in Toronto and loved it then. Seeing it for the second time last night, I remain convinced that the film is their most brilliant work yet, featuring an amazing screenplay, great direction, editing, cinematography, costume design, ect., ect. The acting is top notch for stage vet Michael Stuhlbarg whose character Larry is run through the gamut, as well as supporting players Richard Kind, Fred Melamud, Aaron Wolff and the rest of the cast. The film's ending is one of the best I've seen all year, and I firmly believe that it will play great among Academy members despite being a very philosophical work with a great deal of Jewish themes. I loved it.

Where The Wild Things Are: A suprisingly poignant effort from Spike Jonze, Wild Things is one of the better films to be released this year. It treats it's audience with respect, giving us a mature, emotionally honest adaptation of a beloved childrens story. The cinematography and score are it's best attributes, but the performances from Max records, James Gandolfini and Catherine Keener are also fantastic. I feel it will probably make it into the Best Picture category as well as a few of the tech awards. Just a top notch film despite pacing issues at certain points.