Moonlight

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... La La L-sorry, Moonlight!

Original image located here. Accessed 22nd November 2024

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 89 (2016)

I have spoken many times how I doubt the movie-going public will ever forgive Shakespeare in Love for winning Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan. So how does said public feel about Moonlight winning over La La Land? Granted the circumstances of that victory were different but it isn't much of a stretch to imagine at least some bitterness.
But in a way, perhaps it was fitting that Moonlight won instead of La La Land as it represented a change of the times: The musical - a genre that has been a tried and tested Oscar winner - lost out to something different and radical.

I said last week that the 2010s represented a time when message movies were gaining traction at the Oscars and this is no different. It shows the life of a gay black man, from childhood to adulthood. Granted such experiences are completely foreign to my own but I was still very impressed with this movie. It certainly has a sense of solemnity to it that is akin to being in church and it is fascinating to see life play out in such a manner. It is also compelling to see one's choices in life and, at the end of the movie, the offering of the question of what one would do differently.

Really this movie is a triumph of taking very little and doing a lot with it. Indeed, there's something to be learned from that..

My Fair Lady

   And this week's Friday night movie has been... My Fair Lady!

Original image located here. Accessed 17th May 2024

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 37 (1964)

I believe that the movie-going public will never forgive Shakespeare in Love for winning Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan....
...and yet no one is bitter that this won Best Picture over Dr. Strangelove.

It would seem that time has not been kind to this movie. Sure the costumes are superb (Those hats!) and Audrey Hepburn has a magnetic presence but there are some parts of this movie that haven't aged well. There is a misogynistic streak throughout, the length is exhausting, the elitism is particularly uncomfortable, the last five minutes severely hinder this movie, and Rex Harrison can't sing to save himself.

I mean, where can we go from this? *checks schedule*...........Oh no............

How Green Was My Valley

And this week's Friday night movie has been... How Green Was My Valley!

Original image located here. Accessed 9th February 2024

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 14 (1941)

I'm over a month into this year-long undertaking and already something has become clear: The Best Picture Oscars are not necessarily awarded to the best movies, more what was popular at the time.
Having said that I will never understand the hate that Shakespeare in Love gets. Are people really salty that it achieved an upset victory over Saving Private Ryan? And going by that logic, do people hate Moonlight for winning over La La Land?
So what has the above got to do with this movie? Well folks, it's the one that beat out Citizen Kane for the Best Picture Oscar.

Sadly this one didn't do much for me. The trials and tribulations of a Welsh mining town may sound like potential for a compelling narrative but it simply didn't connect with me. Maybe it's because the movie is showing it's age, or maybe the portrayal of the Welsh as singing drunks or maybe it's how depressing life as a Welsh miner really is.
Am I missing something here?
Oh well...

Saving Private Ryan

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Saving Private Ryan!

Original image located here. Accessed 25th March 2022

Well it's Oscar season so now would be a good time as any to address a movie that was a hot favourite for Best Picture but got pipped at the post.
I remember this movie being a big deal back in 1998 but I never got around to seeing it (at least until now). And I also remember a lot of anger that Saving Private Ryan lost the Best Picture Oscar to Shakespeare in Love. But conversely, i wasn't angered: I thought very highly of Shakespeare in Love - and still do - so i was delighted by the win. Sure it puts me in a minority position and yes it has since been revealed that grade-A douchebag Harvey Weinstein made an aggressive push to secure the Best Picture Oscar to Shakespeare in Love but I regret nothing.
Which in turn places me in an interesting position to approach Saving Private Ryan.

When it comes to Spielberg I have found he only makes two types of films: Light Entertainment (ie ET, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones) and "Take me Seriously Dammit!". And Saving Private Ryan does indeed belong in the latter category. Much has been written about the opening half hour and how it has set a new standard for portraying war scenes in movies but what i got out of it was just how brutal Spielberg's approach is: It's not just the violence but the shaky cam and the grimness of the whole thing. Clearly this was an attempt to show the war as it really was and the plonk the viewer straight in the middle of it. And the gamble paid off.
So yeah, as stated above, this movie was indeed a big deal and, it would appear, for very good reason.