Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

Not as hilarious as expected but very funny. Warmth in “can they do that?” raunch.

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True Grit is my pick for Best Picture of the past Oscar year.

Those Coen brothers sure know filmmaking.

It is interesting that the classically Coen traits of quirkiness and dark comedy are less noticeably different within a Western.

The HBO TV series Deadwood already used interesting cadences and presentations of language within a Western, and the strange characters of this True Grit could have fit right into any Sergio Leone landscape, but the Coens string it all together. The characters are lively and our investments in each of them changes as the movie goes forth.

The acting is right on form from all the parties involved, and the classically Western shots of horses galloping across a vast landscape are just as breathtaking as they ought to be.

For all that though, there is just one sequence that clinched the movie’s longevity for me. Much like the now-legendary montage in Pixar’s Up, I continue to think about these few minutes and allow them to haunt me.

Like sci-fi, Westerns are so prime for the exploration of larger themes, and while I certainly can do that, the wonderful thing about this movie is that it can stand as great even if we probe no deeper than the surface.

One last note about acting. Two years ago, Colin Firth should have taken home the top acting prize for his amazing work in A Single Man, highly recommended. Instead, Jeff Bridges got the nod. This past year, Colin Firth got a make-up for A King’s Speech, when it really should have gone to Jeff Bridges for his portrayal here. It all evens out in the end, I suppose, but it really is no fun when people win for the wrong parts. The fans of the future lose out.

If I Picked the Oscars 2011 (in order of my vote)

Best Picture:

• True Grit
• Black Swan
• Toy Story 3
• Inception
• Winter’s Bone
• The Social Network
• 127 Hours
• The Fighter
• The King’s Speech
• The Kids Are All Right

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
• James Franco (127 Hours)
• Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
• Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
• Javier Bardem (Biutiful) have not seen

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Everyone knows the story of 127 Hours. Aron Ralston goes hiking alone. His arm gets stuck and he has to cut it off to escape.

I knew the story. I just had no idea how they were going to tell it as a movie.

It was a huge surprise to actually spend the majority of the film with Aron (and his arm) stuck immobile within a narrow crevice barely his body width. It took some guts for director Danny Boyle to go with this approach. A feature-length movie about one guy in one unchanging position? Yeah, I wouldn’t have bought that.

There is an opening section that brings Aron to the hike and tells us the type of guy he is. With James Franco at the helm, we learn that Ralston is a smart, capable guy with complete trust in himself. But still, he comes across as just a pretty normal guy that we could very well know in our own lives.

So once the accident happens and the film sticks us in this location with him, we’re in. It is not that hard to imagine ourselves there.

When the world is reduced to the length and width of your body’s reach, a lot of things become very focused. This really comes across. Huge victories are achieved in simply not dropping an object. Major set backs come when a bird doesn’t fly over.

The movie does reasonably well in making us feel the passage of time without letting things lag. But, I feel that we’re not allowed to suffer enough in the solitude. Five days is a long-time to contemplate one’s helplessness and impending demise. The film doesn’t reach close to what that must have been like.

But boy, when the time comes to do the arm severing, you better not be eating anything. Talk about a five-inch wide action scene.

Before watching 127 Hours, I doubt I would have had the courage to take Aron Ralston‘s course of action. After it though, I’m considering that I might be be able to at least consider it. This shift in my attitude tells me that Danny Boyle and James Franco certainly achieved some of their filmmaking goals for this movie. I’m disappointed that Danny Boyle didn’t get a Best Director nomination for executing his bold choices.

If I Picked the Oscars 2011 (in order of my vote)

Best Picture:

• True Grit
• Black Swan
• Toy Story 3
• Inception
• Winter’s Bone
• The Social Network
• 127 Hours
• The Fighter
• The King’s Speech
• The Kids Are All Right

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
• James Franco (127 Hours)
• Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
• Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
• Javier Bardem (Biutiful) have not seen

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