2012 Best Picture Nominees, part 1
Every year I try to watch all of the movies nominated for Best Picture before the Oscars. I’ve caught every one but Hugo so far this year (damn you for not leaking!) so I might have to get to the theater in the next few days.
Anyway, I’ll give you my thoughts, in no particular order. Remember, I’m a movie fan, which means I hate at least 95% of movies. Your mileage may vary.
Moneyball (7/10)
Moneyball wasn’t, by any means, a bad movie. It’s a faithful adaptation of Michael Lewis’s recount of Billy Beane’s introduction of sabermetrics to the world of professional baseball. If you read the book (and you should) you know what you’re getting.
The acting was pretty good. The storytelling was pretty good. Everything about the movie was pretty good.
But nothing was great. I don’t feel this movie was at all Best Picture-worthy. It was just kind of there. I won’t say I want my 2 hours back, but I also could have missed it, but then I’ve read the book.
Midnight In Paris (8.5/10)
I love Woody Allen, and this is Woody at his finest. Midnight in Paris fell somewhere in between Woody Allen’s more serious films (think Match Point) and his comedies. It’s a serious film, but a light-hearted, whimsical often funny one. It reminds me most of Purple Rose of Cairo.
I’m generally not a big Owen Wilson fan because he pretty much plays the same schmucky, good-hearted, down-on-his-luck guy in every movie, and he reprises that role here. But it works well in Midnight.
If you like Woody, you’ll like this, and if you don’t (and you’re crazy) you won’t).
The Tree of Life (5/10)
This might have been my least favorite of the nominees. Admittedly, I’m not a Terrence Malick fan. I realize a lot of critics like it because it at least tried to do something original. It did, and I gave it five points just for that. Still though, I think it failed. It’s the sort of movie that makes movie buffs feel like they’re supposed to like it, but not actually like it.
It has a non-linear narrative, but unlike Magnolia or Pulp Fiction I don’t feel it added to the movie. It just ended up a disjointed rambling piece of nonsense, even worse than The Thin Red Line. At least The Thin Red Line didn’t have random dinosaurs.
Overall it was pretentious but insubstantial. It wasn’t enjoyable, it wasn’t meaningful. It was original, but not good. I won’t say it was the worst movie I’ve seen this year (that honor goes to Drive, and if you say you liked that I will punch you) but it was bad.
The Help (8/10)
I actually didn’t think I was going to like The Help. A civil rights movie has just so much room to become a feel-good cliché. It’s a hard topic to cover from a unique angle.
They kind of pulled it off though. Three actresses got nominated for it, and I think Emma Stone may have gotten robbed.
Is it worthy of Best Picture? I don’t know. Maybe not because even though it avoids being too cliché, it’s still far from original. But it was enjoyable and well worth watching.
War Horse (6/10)
This is another movie I didn’t expect to like because I don’t like Spielberg and I don’t like horses. It didn’t really surprise me, though it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. It’s just kind of boring and uninspired.
It probably deserves an award for cinematography. Maybe also sound editing or some other such category that nobody outside of Los Angeles even knows exists. But Best Picture? No way.
