The Hurt Locker

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... The Hurt Locker!

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 82 (2009)

As previously mentioned, I am convinced that the movie going public will never forgive Shakespeare in Love for it's upset Best Picture victory. So the question is raised: How do people feel about The Hurt Locker's upset win?
It seems to me that this movie is in the same boat as Shakespeare in Love as it both beat some stiff competition and became something of a watershed for the Best Picture Oscars: It beat out Up and Avatar. It was the lowest grossing nominee. It was a low budget/small scale movie triumphing over the bigger budget movies. It's director, Kathryn Bigelow, was the first female to win Best Director (and who also beat out her former husband James Cameron). It was the first movie since Mrs Miniver to be about a war that was then in progress. 
An impressive legacy to be sure but what of the movie itself?

It certainly is compelling in it's depiction of working in a bomb disposal unit. The setting, Iraq, is also handled convincingly as well as the distrust the troops get from the locals. I don't doubt the realistic manner of the situations and how they are handled but I do question the reckless behaviour of some of the grunts: I may not be a military expert but I'm pretty sure you don't go acting like a tool when the dangerous task of bomb disposal is in progress,
Still I won't fault this movie for it's incredible use of tension and the sense that one is put right into the action. Many war movies can claim to do that but this one, I feel, actually pulls it off.
Looks like we have winner.

Slumdog Millionaire

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Slumdog Millionaire!

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 81 (2008)

Part of the reason I am doing this year long undertaking is that I am approaching these movies with fresh eyes, divorced from trends, politics and passage of time. Indeed, there's something to be said for watching a movie as just that: a movie.

However by watching this movie, it did occur to me that it's cut from the same cloth as fellow Best Picture winner The Last Emperor: Both are movies made with a non-white cast, telling a non-white story which is handled by a white director who is anything but an Oscar favourite. And, racial politics aside, both films come across as unique entrants in the history of Best Picture Oscars. 

On paper, this movie sounds awful: A movie that tells a story where Who Wants to be a Millionaire is utilised as a framework? Come off it. And the questions facing the protagonists are built around his life experiences? Are you joking?
And yet this movie works: It is well crafted, compelling and there are numerous nods to Bollywood (least not the dance sequence at the end). The cast is great and it is never once dull.

So yeah, it's a superb movie although I have to wonder that if it wasn't for this movie, Lion wouldn't exist...

Million Dollar Baby

  And this week's Friday night movie has been... Million Dollar Baby!

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 77 (2004)

This one has been a long time coming. 
I guess comparisons to Rocky are inevitable as both are built around boxing and tells the story of an underdog giving it their all. The difference this time however is Clint Eastwood is in the director's chair and he is, for me, a favourite: This is due to the fact that Clint has proven time and time again he can eschew flashiness for taking what he has and doing a lot with it. 

Actually, I feel there this is one important similarity between Million Dollar Baby and Rocky: Both resemble a boxing movie but they aren't really about boxing. And that is the case here: Sure it's a compelling watch but it's only in the final half hour that it shows it's hand. I won't give too much away but throughout the movie there are meditations on poverty, striving to obtain a better life, knowing one can do better than their current situation, and dealing with those who try to disparage - and leech off of - one's success. 
It's a compelling watch with great acting all around, superb direction and a punch-in-the-gut finale. 

Truly a well-deserved winner of Best Picture.

Chicago

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... Chicago!

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 75 (2002)

Because of this year-long undertaking, I have found myself watching more musicals than previous years. So why not add one more to the pile?
Still, I didn't have to look far for this one as Kiera had on her DVD shelf. 

Last week, I mentioned how the unlikely victory of Shakespeare in Love has changed the Oscar for Best Picture. But there is another reason: It announced Grade-A scumbag Harvey Weinstein as the figurehead for a new era. So from here on, expect to see a lot more Miramax films. 

But ultimately this was a lot of fun. It's big, colourful, inventive and the songs are great. And it proves what can accomplished as a screen musical. 
It could be argued that this movie wouldn't exist without the success of Moulin Rouge. But I say bugger Moulin Rouge - give me this any day. 

A Beautiful Mind

And this week's Friday night movie has been... A Beautiful Mind!

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 74 (2001)

Yep, we're skipping over the 1990s simply because I have already seen them all. 
But in a way, perhaps it is fitting that I'm going straight from the 1980s to the 2000s. Why? Well, both decades share parallels: They both follow two heavyweight decades and, with the passage of time, look very pale compared to previous Best Picture winners. 
Still the eighties ending up surprising me so it would be interesting to see if something similar happens with the 2000s....

At time of writing, I am two thirds of the way through this year long undertaking. And it is at this point that I have come to recognise some recurring elements that appear in the Best Picture Oscar winners. Of course, it is not willingly but this notion of Oscar Bait seems to have up in the past two decades. 
Mind you, this is a post-Shakespeare in Love world we live in and now having a movie that has no other purpose other than to score big at the Oscars are now going to be more frequent. Indeed, I suspect that in the weeks ahead, I'm going to see Harvey Weinstein's name a lot....

But if this movie is a product of a post-Shakespeare in Love world, I would argue it owes it's existence more to Forrest Gump: It tells the story of a man of extraordinary ability and of a life lived. 
Personally, I found this movie very long and with some dull moments - seriously you could shave off twenty minutes and no one would've noticed - but the real strength of this movie is it's use of mathematics and it's portrayal of schizophrenia.
And hey: who wouldn't want Paul Bettany as their roommate? 

The Last Emperor

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... The Last Emperor!

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 60 (1987)

If the 1980s was the 'forgotten' decade of Best Picture Oscar winners then this must surely be the forgotten movie of the ten.
I will say this though: From the outset this has to be the most unique Best Picture Oscar winner: An all-Asian cast of no big names. A director who has hardly an Oscar favourite. An Asian story, told by Asian people in an Asian location. The sole Oscar winner in the cast playing a white man who disappears halfway through the movie. And an epic where the lead character is a passive one.

But much like it's fellow epics, this is staggering in its scale. The onsite footage of the Forgotten City as astonishing and the amount of extras used for particular scenes is unbelievable. Such visuals are worth the price of admission alone but what is of particular note is the narrative of a boy who is in command, for reasons he can't comprehend, over a region that has no purpose to exist. Thus the tragedy hits like a brick when our protagonist tries to assert some control over his life, well into adulthood, but is outdone at every turn. 

All in all, a triumph. So why is this forgotten? Buggered if I know.

And so, with that, we leave the 1980s behind. So what shall come next week....?

Platoon

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Platoon!

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 59 (1986)

There seems to be a 'Big Four' of Vietnam War movies: Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter and this: Platoon. Of particular note is that the latter two have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Which is quite a feat as the Vietnam was regarded as a very unpopular war. 

Compared to the other Big Four, Platoon has the unique advantage of being director by an actual Vietnam veteran. For this I don't doubt this movie's realism, nor do I doubt it's message on the brutality and futility on the conflict. More than any other movie, this is the view from the grunt's perspective, facing death, mayhem, conflicting COs, uncertainty as to what they're doing there and struggling to keep it all together.

Okay I admit it: I'm struggling to get the words together but perhaps that is a testament to this movie's power.
I mean, any film that opens with Barber's Adagio for Strings isn't messing around...

Amadeus

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... Amadeus!

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 57 (1984)

Didn't have to look far for this one: It was sitting on the shelf with the rest of Kiera's DVDs.

I've heard some bad things about this movie - all of them related to the historical inaccuracies. But I, being the stickler for realism, am willing to forgive such matters. Why? Because this movie was utterly brilliant. I could commend the use of music (which is a no-brainer as this is about Mozart). I could praise the art direction and lavishness of the production. I could gush about the acting.
I could all of that but what I'll do instead is talk about the fact that this is a movie of two creative minds, the conflict between them and the creative process that wills something into being. It is fascinating to see two conflicting personalities and their work ethic along with the triumphs and failures that come with it. Indeed, the best part of the movie happens towards the end when these two personalities meet. 

Seems the Best Pictures of the eighties weren't as disappointing as I thought....

Alien: Romulus

This evening I went and saw Alien: Romulus.

So we have a new entrant to this franchise. A sceptic would think that this franchise has no purpose being a franchise, with a reasoning of longevity, the lessening of impact of the original, the dilution of the horror and lack of something new to say. So what can we take away from this latest instalment?

Yes it may be a rehash of the first one but that can be hardly surprising given the sizable impact the first one made. Yes there are reminders sprinkled throughout of other (and, cynically, better) Alien movies. 
But I can't hate this movie. It recognises the strengths of the franchise and works with them: The suspense, the world-building, the claustrophobia and knowing that it's what you don't see is terrifying. Get past the dull first half hour and the movie works a treat.

It does however raise the question of what is going to happen next with this franchise...

Terms of Endearment

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... Terms of Endearment!

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 56 (1983)

And now I face another case of a movie with a fearsome reputation: Seems this is one of the undisputed weepies ever made. And it came from one of the people who got the Simpsons made: James L Brooks. Still I am willing to give it a shot...

So what I found is that this is a movie about a mother/daughter relationship. Granted such a scenario is completely out of my field of expertise but I was still able connect with this movie. Certainly the humour works and the emotional parts of it hit like a truck, as befitting this movie's reputation, but for me this movie works as an example of a parent/child relationship (particularly as I limp through middle age). That this movie goes against various trends is better still. 

It's a movie with red, raw heart.

Gandhi

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Gandhi!

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 55 (1982)

Now this was a movie I was keen on watching: When I was in high school I read about Mahatma Gandhi and was struck by how a humble man changed the world and won independence for India from the British through non-violent methods. It was an inspiring story and I hoped to do something world-changing in my own right.....

One would think that the story of Gandhi would be well-suited for an epic movie. And Richard Attenborough thought so too, trying multiple times to get this film made over two decades. 
The end result? Attenborough went all out crafting a three hour epic, utilising thousands of extras and clearly not settling for anything less. But hey, dream projects tend to attract the most effort.
However in spite of all the historical inaccuracies and Attenborough's approach to filmmaking, this is all Ben Kingsley's show, delivering a performance that is quietly charismatic, genuine in it's approach and effectively resurrecting Mahatma himself. 

Deadpool and Wolverine

 Recently I went and saw Deadpool and Wolverine.

With Disney purchasing Fox, it's a no-brainer that Deadpool will be integrated into the MCU. It is equally a no-brainer that this means that the makers of the Deadpool movies will have access to some bigger toys to play with.

As for the movie itself, it's the same joke told yet again but strangely enough it has yet to grow stale. Part of the appeal for this movie is that this is pretty much an endpoint for the Fox-era of the MCU. As such, there are numerous nods to it and they work a treat.
But the real ace in the hole is of course Wolverine. Hugh Jackman slips back into the role like he never left and both Wolverine and Deadpool are fun to watch with these two personalities bouncing off one another. 

Once again, much like it's predecessors, there is a real love and real care put into this movie. That said movie is about a complete jerk is the icing on the cake.

Ordinary People

  And this week's Friday night movie has been... Ordinary People!

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 53 (1980)

And now we enter the eighties.
I can't say I was looking forward to this decade as it seems to have gone down in history as one of, if not the weakest decade of Oscar Best Picture winners. Granted it is sandwiched between two heavyweight decades, the 1970s and 1990s, but between them, they have plenty of standouts - the 1980s not so much. Furthermore, it appears that if there have been complaints about the disconnect between what was popular at the box office and what was popular with the Academy voters then the 1980s may have been the starting point of it (a problem that still persists to this day).
Still I did this year long undertaking to see movies I wouldn't have normally seen and am willing to be surprised so best foot forward...

So we have Ordinary People: A film that was Robert Redford's directorial debut and which, famously, beat out Raging Bull for Best Picture. But I will argue that time has been kind to this movie for it's representation of mental illness. In recent years, mental health has become a talking point like never before and such concerns do echo those raised in this movie. Redford shows a capable hand with his directing and shows his subjects in a manner that is sympathetic & far removed from soap opera melodrama. Great acting all round too, especially from the late great Donald Sutherland.

Perhaps it is fitting that this should follow Kramer vs Kramer as both films show a collapse of the traditional family unit. Seems the era of New Hollywood wasn't prepared to leave just yet...