The Weekly Roundup

This week, in lieu of the 86^th Academy Awards, I have decided to theme my Weekly Roundup around movies that have won or been nominated for the coveted golden statue.

Only very special movies qualify… right? It's not like a bad film could be in recipient of an Oscar now, is it?

This Week's Watches

The Help

Starring: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain & Bryce Dallas Howard

Directed by: Tate Taylor

Rating: ★★½

Nominated For: 

Best Picture, Best Actress (Davis) & Best Supporting Actress (Chastain)

Won:

Best Supporting Actress (Spencer)

A movie about a white woman enabling black women by helping them to ‘help’ themselves is always going to be controversial.

And in The Help, Eugenia (Stone) compiles a book about the black maids who spend more time raising the white rich children they look after then their own parents do.

Based on a popular book of the same name, The Help was both critically and commercially successful- it was seen a surprise hit as no one predicted it would do as well as it did.

And in all fairness, The Help is a good film. There are some powerful moments, and it does have a strong and important message to it. But I have to say that I agree with some of the criticism of the film: that the story focuses mainly on the white protagonist, and the success of the black maids is dependent on her saving them.

All of the central women are strong actresses who give excellent performances, particularly Davis, Chastain and a scene stealing Howard. The Oscar may have gone to Spenser, who is good, but I really feel like one of the other women deserved it more. Regardless of this, you care about all of the characters and they are good enough that the unfocused and muddled narrative doesn’t completely destroy the movie.

Ultimately, The Help may be eye opening and involving, but it isn’t historically accurate or wholly right that the black women are still all supporting characters. It’s sad that black women can only get roles as, and receive praise for, stereotypical parts such as mammies and slaves, something that this year’s Oscar ceremony once again proves.

Hugo

Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz & Ben Kingsley

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Rating: ½

Nominated For: 

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Costume Designer, Best Filming Editing

Won: 

Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing & Best Sound Editing

Hugo has to be one of the most undeservingly overrated movies I have ever seen.

For some reason, it was nominated for 11 Oscars. Clearly, it was a very poor, very slow year- and this was proven because The Artist ended up winning Best Picture. What the hell were they thinking?

Not only is Hugoboring, poorly written, badly constructed and terribly acted, it just doesn’t work. It is a film that film critics only like because they ‘get it’- and this is due to the fact that the non-main main story is about film making darling.

Hugo is an ode to cinema, and yet punishes the audience for watching the movie as it is essentially a very tedious history lesson. It seems like its raison d’etre is for pretentious film critics to sit in the cinema, stroking their chins and slobbering over the technical wizardry of a film that has absolutely no substance or style. And horrendous child leads.

Martin Scorsese obviously had a brain haemorrhage during production, because the film isn’t even well directed. I struggle to understand how or why it was nominated for and won so many Oscars, and was chosen for many movie critics’ best film list. It really is an awful, uninteresting, film with a terrible subplot that becomes the main story and a horribly tacky happy ending.

Ironically, just like the autonom in the movie, Hugo is a rigid, soulless, mechanical machine that is broken beyond repair.

There Will Be Blood

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano & Dillon Freasier

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson

Rating: ★★

Nominated For: 

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing

Won:

Best Actor, Best Cinematography

What a stupid movie.

I don’t care what anyone else says- There Will Be Blood is just a pretentious pile of puke.

Sure, the first 20 minutes is excellent, and the cinematography and directing is sublime. Even Daniel Day-Lewis is fantastic. But the film goes from a slow burning psychological drama to an insane melodramatic farce- thus ruining the entire movie.

There is no denying that Daniel Day-Lewis is flawless, and his performance deserving of that Oscar. But, when I talk about bludgeoning the audience to death- which happens both literally and figuratively- I really mean it. In the last 20 minutes, subtlety is left back in 1921 for an over the top emotionally explosive ending that seems completely tagged on and unrelated to the rest of the film.

The worst thing about There Will Be Blood apart from the ending is the fact that there is no blood. Well, there’s just a little bit, but for such a strong title, I was expecting a Western style shoot-out finale. But instead we get an insane man beating someone to death with a bowling pin.

It ruins the movie!

Ultimately, The Will Be Blood is a slow, tedious film that no amount of wonderful shots can save. It cycles between great drama and transparent schlock, with good storylines being buried beneath hideous ones. There isn’t a cohesive narrative or focus, and for a film that has the same soundtrack as Insidious, it takes itself way too seriously.

There Will Be Blood is a ham fisted film that could have been amazing but isn’t- and this is because Hollywood doesn’t do subtly or allow the audience to think for themselves. Instead it pins us up against a wall and beats us to death with the point. And yes, Paul Thomas Anderson- we get it.

 

Frost/Nixon

Starring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, Matthew Macfadyen & Rebecca Hall

Directed by: Ron Howard

Rating: ★★½

Nominated For: 

Best Picture, Best Actor (Langella), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, Best Editing

Won:

None

Frost/Nixon is a silly, disposable thriller that humanises the villainous Nixon but takes a lot of liberties with the ‘truth’- thus manipulating the audience. I find this odd, especially when you can watch the original interview on You Tube, and can see that the real discussion wasn’t at all a cat and mouse game of battling wills. In fact, the original thing is pretty dull. But Frost/Nixon isn’t.

The film is very well directed, and the acting is great, but in the end it is just a very good fictional retelling of something that actually happened.

Howard cleverly directs the film in a documentary style that makes it seem more real, thus influencing the audiences’ reactions and emotional responses.

Frost/Nixon is interesting, but I don’t think I really like the whole premise- that this is a duel between them and they are willfully fighting against one another with cunning and wit. It just seems a bit too gimmicky to make the film a genuine thriller.

It’s cleverly made, especially since it makes an interview seem ‘sexy’ and appealing to watch, but I honestly think that if it wasn’t trying to portray itself as ‘truthful’ and was instead just an entirely fictional story not based on real people, it would be better, mainly because I just kept questioning how valid the film was compared to the genuine ‘truth’.

My Pick of the Week

Despicable Me 2

Starring: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig & Benjamin Bratt

Directed by: Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud

Rating: ★★★

Nominated for: 

Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song (‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams)

Won:

None

Gru and Lucy bond over an undercover assignment...

Despicable Me 2 does exactly what the audience wants it to- it gives us more Gru (Carell), more heart and an awful lot more minions.

This year it deservingly lost out to Frozen for Best Animated Feature, but was undeservingly beaten for Best Song- Happy by Pharrell Williams- a single that has been number one three times non-consecutively in the UK music chart and reached number one in over 15 countries. To be honest, the soundtrack is one of the main reasons why I liked this film and the first one…

Even though I prefer the original to the sequel, Despicable Me 2 is an entertaining, enjoyable film that has action adventure, lots of jokes and millions of minions. This time round there is a love interest for Gru, and an even more despicable villain.

Some might wonder how this film beat off the other more critically acclaimed Academy Award winning movies for my Pick of the Week. Well, in all honesty, I don’t think that Despicable Me 2 is a great movie, but it is far more enjoyable and entertaining than any of the other films I saw- and I wouldn’t mind watching it again: a sure sign that a film is actually good.

Despicable Me 2has broken the record for being the most profitable movie ever for Universal Studios, as it was the third highest grossing movie of last year. Because of its success, there will be another sequel and a minions spinoff movie, guaranteed to make the masses incredibly ‘happy’.