Dogs Bark

Duke’s Picks - - The Oscars 2012 - - 23 Feb 2010

Once again, sloth and a bloated list of noms did me in.  But I was pleased this year again at the overall quality of the movies in all categories. My picks were delightfully diversified. Missing The Master and The Life Of Pi was my principal shortcoming but why did it take so long for the first to get to DVD? It opened in September. Oh that’s right! This is money, for Pete’s sake, isn't it Mr. Mayer?

Best Actor in a Starring Role  - - Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln - - The four performances I did see were superb, all deserving of the little gold guy. My inclination is to always reward the big stretch. That would be the Londoner who plays the ultimate American icon. This is his third unique American voice; the guy’s amazing.

Best Actress in a Starring Role - - Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Lining Playbook - - Incredibly close, if you leave off Naomi Watts, whom I did not see, between Ms. Lawrence and Jessica Chastain. And nothing against Quvenzhané Wallis or Emmanuelle Riva who between them have 56, sorry 57, years of movie experience. Jenn had the harder part so she gets the prize.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - - Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln - - Chris Waltz and Alan Arkin were wonderful but they have played the same roles before and already got Oscars for them. Bobby DeNiro turned in the best performance in many years; however, I thought Tommy Lee Jones was better than them all by a small margin and gets my vote.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role - - Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables - - I am so sorry to be slighting Amy Adams in this category; Helen can take care of herself. From the rest, it’s very tough. Sally Fields and Jacki Weaver were excellent but Anne Hathaway was breathtaking as Fantine.

Best Original Screenplay - - Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola, Moonlight Kingdom - - I had problems, script problems, with both Flight and Amour; however the remaining three were all well written. Moonrise Kingdom was the most original for me, a higher level than previous Andersonia.

Best Adapted Screenplay - -  Chris Terrio, Argo - - This is hard because I am unfamiliar with all of the original works. The four movies I saw were good but I am going with Argo by just a flicker because of the way the story was dramatically enhanced over the true events. The guy’s a damn good liar!

Best Cinematography - - Seamus McGarvey, Anna Karenina - - I thought Seamus McGarvey, Robert Richardson and Janusz Kamiński should have won numerous times that they didn’t. Deakins has been nominated for ten brilliant efforts. Claudio Morada already won a BAFTA for The Life Of Pi and seems like he’ll repeat. The pictures were one of the few good things about Anna Karenina so let’s give it to Seamus.

Best Direction - - David O Russell, Silver Lining Playbook - - So were was Ben? Argo was brilliantly directed. Amour was not and Spielberg blew the ending of Lincoln. I didn’t see Pi but I’ve never been an Ang Lee fan anyway. Give it to David.

Best Picture - - Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Les Misérables – - First off, didn’t like Amour, didn’t like the ending of Lincoln and didn’t see Pi. The remaining films are all damn good but only one of them made me cry like a little girl. I know, that’s unfair but life is unfair and the movie that did the most to champion fairness is my choice

And so it goes . . . as some of you know Meg and I did the splitsville thing last year after she realized that I was more trouble and just a bit less fiscally comfortable than Dennis Quaid. Courtney Love is no longer taking my calls and that bastard Sheen has the entire Desert Diva Escort Service on 24-hour alert. So I don’t have a date. Since Peter Griffin is the MC, maybe I’ll just shack up in a motel with Lois. I always wanted to nail a ‘toon . . .

Merciless - - Amour (2012) - -22 February 2013

Not recommended. Being one who firmly believes that our society does not prepare people adequately for old age, sickness and death, I feel a bit conflicted not recommending Amour. I could care less that I disagree with every other critic in Christendom but my quarrel with the film is its title. Although director Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon) and his wonderful cast well convey the love between the dying woman (Emmanuelle Riva) and her husband (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and even the crippled love of the woman’s daughter (Isabelle Huppert), there’s no love here for the viewer. We get an end game, without grace or compassion, no relief in the endless suffering and no redemption, no answer to the plaintive moans of the dying wife. The husband gets no final word or glance from his beloved. Amour is pointlessly cruel. We are all headed to this terrifying place. Throw us a line.

Boo Yah! - - Argo (2012) - - 21 February 2013

Recommended. Argo is the dramatization of a real CIA operation during the 1980 Iranian embassy take-over. It arrives after another embassy incident that has caused some second guessing. Unlike Jimmy Carter, President Obama survived, possibly because as Argo shows, real counter-terrorism is no longer a good vehicle for right-wing politics. Ben Affleck as director and actor, takes an ego vacation playing a damaged career operative who works every trick and self-effacement to complete his mission and save lives. The bravado is supplied by Oscar nom Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) as a Hollywood producer and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) as Afflick’s boss. This movie is like the little brother of Zero Dark Thirty, more tense that spectacular. Perhaps this made Argo a little too passionless for my taste and not really deserving of BAFTA and Golden Globe Best Picture awards but regardless . . . it’s a very good film.

Grounded For Repairs - - Flight (2012) - - 20 February 2013

Recommended. No argument that Robert Zemeckis (Cast Away) knows how to crash planes. Not sure he understands how to land them. His movies start well but consistently end with a lack of depth, although he obviously tries hard. The first hour of Flight is compelling seat glue, with spectacular visual acrobatics but the last hour and twenty minutes is not. Denzel Washington (Glory) has never had these problems, especially when he’s playing rotten characters that win our half-hearts. No one does that better. As the alcoholic pilot in Flight, he’s slippery as an eel, even more so than Alonzo Harris. Sadly, all of that slime becomes tacky in the ending, when Flight turns into an AA training day. A great, albeit downer, story would result from a more plausible ending. I’m recommending this movie for Washington and the plane . . . but they both were broken by the direction.

Be A Queen, Not A Drag - - Queen Christina (1933) - - 16 February 2013

An essential. At the queer culture table, Queen Christina has a deservedly beloved place. Without question, the historical Christina, along with Greta Garbo (Anna Karenina), enjoyed the favors of both sexes. The queen was more gender fluid than Ms. Garbo but neither woman had much interest in marriage. Only pre-Code Hollywood could have candidly folded all such erotic ambiguity into a mainstream film. An on-screen sexual kiss between women is risqué even today. This was also the last hurrah of Garbo’s silent co-star and sometimes lover, John Gilbert (Flesh and the Devil). The movie was directed by Rouben Mamoulian (Blood and Sand) and shot by the legendary William H. Daniels (Anna Christie). Daniels B&W camera work is astonishingly beautiful, richly expressioned lights and shadows.  He gave his Queen some memorable shots, none more famous than the final one. That incomparable, impenetrable face, against the wind . . . alone, in art and life.

The Owl And The Pussycat - - Moonlight Kingdom (2012) - - 10 February 2013

Strongly recommended.  Wes Anderson’s Moonlight Kingdom follows in a line of movies about child couples setting off on Edward Lear adventures. Recently there was Hugo (2011) and there are several others. Most are set in the 60’s and most have a boy and a slightly more mature, very pretty girl. What is the meaning of this? Lost innocence or Mad Men nostalgia?  Moonrise Kingdom is one of the few that directly takes on the confused sexuality that hits before or during this age. In a wonderful scene, Suzy (luminous newcomer, Kara Hayward) and Sam (Jared Gilman) awkwardly dance to a Françoise Hardy pop tune, dissolving into a much less awkward slow dance and a kiss.  Using this sliding scale of intimacy, the scene enters their romance without voyeuristic guilt.  Hayward is amazing and Gilman more than adequate.  The rest of the cast, particular the surprising Bruce Willis, are also wonderful.

It’s A Date! - - Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) - - 1 February 2013

An essential. It’s interesting that the same man, Vincente Minnelli, Judy’s husband and Liza’s father, that made Meet Me In St. Louis also made the cynical Some Came Running. I guess that’s what fourteen years in Hollywood does to you. The plot, such as it is, follows a rather loony family through a year preceding the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition, aka the World’s Fair. The story is only another prop for some memorable song and dance numbers and Margaret O’Brien’s endearing pranks as the youngest child, Tootie. Her minstrel show with Garland is one of the iconic moments of musical theater history. The movie also boasts The Trolley Song (“Clang, Clang, Clang”), the title song, and my favorite Christmas song, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. Despite the schmaltz - - and because of the off-beat humor and music - - this is a one of the most successful celebrations of Midwesternism and a classic.