Oscar Nominations

Posted by Anonymous On 1:52 AM

The Oscar nominations are out, and as I must warn you, I'm not nuts about the Oscars. But I must say that this year there are a pair of encouraging things worth noting.

First is that Dreamgirls failed to get nominations for direction, picture, and actor/actress in a leading role. It had none of those things. Whew.

Second is that Peter O'Toole is nominated and seems to stand a pretty good chance. It's not that his role in Venus is his best or anything; it's just that the Oscars are a big enough of a sham that they usually don't reward the best performance of the year. Instead they reward the person they should have rewarded years ago or else they reward the person/s that make the best story. (In other words, they're a crock.) So since O'Toole has never won, he's a shoe-in this year. (No, the honorary Oscar doesn't count. They just gave that to him because they were afraid he'd die before he could be nominated again.)

But until he actually wins the tally will remain: Peter O'Toole - 0, Three 6 Mafia - 1.

Now, a while back, some of you requested that I begin making recommendations of film that is both substantively and artistically worthwhile. I'll call this Cach Recommends. My first recommendation is that you all run to the theatre now to see Pan's Labyrinth. It is one of the finest films I've seen in years. I warn you that it is a bit graphic, but needfully so. See, here's the thing, (And I'm primarily speaking to Christians and those with delicate sensibilities about film here): you can't evaluate a movie by how many body parts or bad words are in it. You can't disqualify a movie because of its rating. Certainly the inverse isn't true - that any movie with a certain rating is automatically viewable. A movie's content, in context, and its artistic merit are the metrics. And also how much truth there is to it. Truth isn't always pretty.

Pan's Labyrinth isn't pretty. It takes place shortly after the end of the Spanish Civil War under Franco's regime in Spain. The main character, a little girl, has fashioned an imaginary world to take her away from the horror of her real one. In that imagination are all manner of grotesque and vile things, but they don't scare the little girl. She isn't wowed or afraid of them. They can't touch how bad her reality is. That reality includes a new step-father who only cares about her mother so far as the fact that she is carrying his child. He might be the scariest film villain since Ralph Fiennes' character in Schindler's List.

Artistically, it is brilliantly directed, beautifully filmed, marvelously acted, and it tells a true and human story. It's a crime that it wasn't nominated for Best Picture.Well worth watching. I give it 4 out of 5 Cachinnations.

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6 Cachinnations

  1. Red Said,

    Love the review, but I'm too cheap to go to the theater. I'll check it out when it comes out on DVD.

    Posted on 2/05/2007

     
  2. Anonymous Said,

    I gave it four out of five stars, too. And I would strongly recommend watching it on the big screen, if you can. There are some scenes, especially the fantasy sequences involving the frog and the pale man, that need to be seen on a big screen.

    Posted on 2/05/2007

     
  3. Seth Ward Said,

    Agreed on the Pan's. Just wanted a little more of the fantasy world. She pretty much showed up, ate a grape and left.

    But then again I'm a LOTR nerd. The pan Character was off the charts cool and I can practically draw from memory some of the scenes because they are still in my head.

    About the violence, there was only one time that I thought the violence was over the top, (the face bashing in with a bottle) It definitely set us up for the evil of the guy, but it was right on the verge of too much of the image. Some things are even more effective left to the imagination. Tarenteno pulls that kind of thing off nicely. In a way, that image was worse than any tarenteno violence. Just downright Shocking. But the director is such a genius that I doubt he didn't know the shock value or carefully time it to his liking. (wow this is turning out to be a long one)

    Also, thankful that dreamgirls didn't get those nominations. I think it would have if all the critics wouldn't have been saying "its good, doesn't deserve it, but the academy is dumb and biased so it will get everything"

    If Beyonce, (who I like less and less and less every time she opens her mouth in an attempt at speaking or acting) got the nomination, I was going to jab an ink pen in my eye and never watch the academy awards again.

    Posted on 2/05/2007

     
  4. Chaotic Hammer Said,

    Thanks for the movie recommendation. I think I'll take my wife to see it this weekend -- I'll let you know how we like it afterwards.

    As far as the Academy Awards, that stuff might as well be happening in an alternate universe as far as I'm concerned. I long ago reached the saturation point for cynicism with such things, and pretty much have to ignore their existence, as there's not a single, solitary positive thought or emotion I can conjure up in relation to them.

    Posted on 2/06/2007

     
  5. Seth Ward Said,

    c-hammer! Where the heck have you been???

    Posted on 2/06/2007

     
  6. Chaotic Hammer Said,

    Seth - I think you mean that question in the cyber sense. Because physically, I'm still in the same place. :-)

    I've had a very busy several weeks, managed to meet a tough deadline on getting a data center set up here in Nashvegas, and just haven't had the extra few minutes necessary to be a blog commenter lately.

    But I've continued to read all my usual favorite blogs (including yours), I just haven't had the time to comment. But maybe things are letting up a little and I'll be back for a bit.

    Posted on 2/06/2007