Continuing where I left off, I have so far reviewed two movies i.e. The Social Network & The King's Speech which means I have three more movies to scrutinize before i complete the customary 5 nominee shortlist to be considered for Best Picture in the upcoming Academy Awards. I find that by afternoon, my British accent is slowly diminishing and I am slowly reverting to my old self. And the list of nominees continue....
Inception
Written & Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Actors: Leonardo di Caprio, Joseph Gordan Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, Micheal Caine
Achievements so far: 3 wins and 25 nominations. Nominated for 4 Golden Globes but failed to win any.Nominated for 9 awards in the upcoming BAFTA.
What is great about this movie:
This movie is the perfect example of a perfect blockbuster. Big budget, big cast (this movie features a huge number of Hollywood A-listers and a multi-racial casts to boot), big set, big score (the most prominent sounds you hear on the score are the big horns) and most importantly an enormous ambition to be more than just a summer blockbuster. This is a summer blockbuster with brains.This movie pushes genre boundaries, it is at once a thriller-espionage, sci-fi-fantasy, action and drama all rolled into one. One can easily get lost in the labyrinth of stories within stories but the director's careful direction allows you to sit back, relax and just enjoy the show. Director Christopher Nolan waited patiently until right at the end of the movie to drop the biggest bomb which kept people talking months after the movie was shown: Did Dom (Leonardo) really made it back to the real world? Did they succeed in their mission? Will the top finally stop spinning? This is the stuff that makes a movie a cult: allowing the audience to keep guessing, discussing, debating on the movie years and years after its release but never giving a definite answer, allowing space for formation of theories, speculations and predictions. To create the amazing effects you see in this movie, the director decided to dish CGI for conventional camerawork and went all the way to design a rotating sound stage for the famous anti-gravity hotel scene. I strongly feel that any respectable award shows should be celebrating these kind of amazing feats in movie making and not simply rule out Inception as another summer blockbuster which deserves recognition only for technical achievements but unworthy of other major recognitions including Best Picture and Best Director. The movie features excellent performance by the casts as a whole but lacks any outstanding performance for it to be considered for any acting recognition. I do feel that Hans Zimmer deserves better recognition for his work on the movie's score rather than the couple who clinched the globe for Best Original Score for their work in The Social Network.
Black Swan
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
Written by: Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz
Actors: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel
Achievements so far: 4 wins and 33 nominations. Natalie Portman won her first Globe this year for her brilliant portrayal of a ballerina at the verge of a nervous breakdown. This movie is up for 12 nominations in the upcoming BAFTA.
What is great about this movie:
I've reviewed this movie in my blog before and I gave it an 8 (but very close to 9) which makes it one of my favorite movie of 2010. This movie uses the background of a ballet theater to showcase the destructive power of neurosis fueled by jealousy, insecurity and an unrealistic desire to be perfect in any way possible even when it means sacrificing your own sanity and in the end your life. This is perhaps one of the most beautiful psycho-thriller i have ever seen: acted by beautiful people (Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis), beautiful camerawork (including liberal use of CGI to enhance the visual hallucination experienced by the lead), beautiful make-up and wardrobe and a hauntingly beautiful score which effectively captures the mood of the movie. Natalie Portman definitely deserves the accolades she got for her wonderful performance in this movie. It is very disappointing that the soundtrack by Clint Mansell was not even considered for competition since it was ruled ineligible (containing excerpts from the original Swan Lake).
The list of nominees continue....
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