Monday, January 14, 2008

Barber-ism

You may have missed it if you happened to blink while reading / watching the news this morning, but the Golden Globes were announced last night.

Reading through the list of winners and nominees, I was struck by how I'd seen virtually every film in the Musical / Comedy category (with the exception of Hairspray) but almost nothing in the Drama category (except for No Country for Old Men). Talk about flashes of self-insight.

As a consequence, I have no opinion on the results in the Drama category. I am, however, amused and somewhat bewildered that Sweeney Todd won. Personally, I thought it was an extremely ordinary film, standard issue Hollywood entertainer complete with phony special effects and fake atmosphere, made bearable only by the sheer joy of Sondheim's lyrics. As for Johnny Depp's performance - look, no one loves Depp more than I do, but this is far from his best work. For half the film he seems to be channeling Christopher Walken, and the best thing you can say about his singing is that it's, well, courageous. All three of the other nominees that I've seen (Juno, Charlie Wilson's War and Across the Universe) deserve the award more.

I also think it's a shame that Diablo Cody didn't win for her screenplay of Juno. I suppose that's what happens when you mix original screenplays and adaptations of novels in the same category. I dare say No Country for Old Men is a better script, but it's a better script because it's 90% Cormac McCarthy.

I'm happy about Ratatouille winning best animation feature, and Diving Bell and Butterfly winning foreign language film (though I haven't seen 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days yet); and Bardem for best supporting actor and Blanchett for best supporting actress just seemed inevitable.

Sigh. I suppose I should get around to reviewing all the films I watched over the holidays. And watching There Will Be Blood. So much to do, so little time.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yippee!!! Finally!!! Finally!!!! Finally!!!!! With liberal use of Exclamation Marks and with Joyous Heart, O let us proclaim that we have actually watched more (MORE!)GG Drama movies than Falsie. Though with said heart slowly turning to lead, we know our Time of Repentance is near for by the time the Oscars are announced, Falsie will, with Bardemesque precision, have efficiently erased this tiny sliver of our superiority as he proceeds to watch every single movie, including Atonement. And review them in 23 grammatically-correct paragraphs. Each. With poetry.

But for now, we are happy. (Bring on Ye Olde Exclamation Marks!)!!!! And therefore will recommend "There Will be Blood" as Goode Nightly Entertaynmente.

n!

NB: are you game to watch "4 months..."? Lemme know.

Supremus said...

I think Atonement was rightly the deserving winner. Beautifully adapted to screen I must say...

Falstaff said...

n!: Nah, little risk of that I think - the reason I haven't watched any of the drama movies is because, frankly, none of them struck me as particularly interesting. So your advantage is safe.

And...errr.. would love to watch 4 months...but how is the deed to be done? As far as I know the thing isn't playing in Philly at all. Methinks I shall have to travel to Manhattan.

Meanwhile, have you seen Diva?

supremus: I'll take your word for it.

Anonymous said...

Well, its coming to the Ritz, so shall wait.

n!

Anonymous said...

You MUST watch "There Will Be Blood."

Absolute must!

And then post about it. ;-)

Anita =)

Alok said...

but 90% of Sweeny Todd is already Lyrics. And about being phony and fake, one surely doesn't expect Burton to make the throat-slashings and meatpies with that special ingredient "believable" or real in any ordinary way... When I read that Depp sang his own songs I was a little apprehensive but I was pleasantly surprised when I heard it. I love that first song about London and also "the worst pies in London" one and yeah can't forget Pirelli!

I enjoyed it thoroughly (much more than other acclaimed movies of the season like No Country..which I found pretentious) but also felt it was an opportunity wasted. It could have tackled many serious subjects, socio-political issues, problems of class, justice, violence, revenge, tragedy etc but instead stayed clear of these most of the time. but then if it had done that I might have called it pretentious!

btw, did you see Zodiac? I thought it was best written-directed-shot film of the year with the best ensemble acting too. I don't see it anywhere in the awards season though it did very well in the critics poll.

Falstaff said...

n!: Yes.

Anita: See new post

Alok: Oh, I agree Depp was very good in some of the more flamboyant bits. I thought he was very good at being gleefully evil. It was the more tortured, silent bits where he didn't work for me. Somehow I couldn't get myself to believe in his whole back-story, couldn't see him as a man haunted by the loss of his wife and daughter. All that just seemed like a shallow excuse for general blood-thirstiness. Plus the whole young lovers side story bored me stiff.

And it was entertaining, all right, I'm not denying that - just not particularly impressive. Though I'm grateful it stayed away from social issues. I have serious doubts about Tim Burton's ability to pull that off. I probably enjoyed The Savages more than I enjoyed Sweeney Todd.

And no, I missed Zodiac. Though I've heard good things about it. Need to get hold of the DVD at some point.