Have I mentioned yet today how much I love Oscar season? Because I do.
A lot.
Too many in recent weeks to do any sort of proper reviewing, but in short, my theatrical adventures have been as follows:
King Kong - Outstanding. Mind you, I was near tears for about two of its three hours, but man, that's just a testament to Peter Jackson's greatness. I would love to be all cool and not-gushing-fan-girl about it, but it really was just awesome. I'm a sucker for adventure movie, and he totally does it up right in this one. Everything from the original is lovingly acknowledged and then improved upon. The script contains surprising depth, and the casting and acting were excellent on all fronts (including a well-toned turn by Jack Black that demonstrates a great deal of range on his part and endeared him to me forever, despite the almost villainous character). It is a film that is exciting, and scary, and funny. And at times, it is a heartbreaking film of quiet beauty. This isn't just another holiday blockbuster, despite what the previews would have you believe. Yes, it is a great adventure, but it's the richness of character and clear love for the story that sets it a cut above the rest and puts it in the category of other modern classics like the Indiana Jones series, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which is vastly under-appreciated, at present, but will be shown down the line as a truly revolutionary piece of work in the world of film. The end of 2005 has produced a number of excellent films, and this one might just make my top five for the year.
Syriana - What can I say? It was like Traffic, but less whimsical. This is another very fine film, albeit one that is great for entirely different reasons. The plot as labyrinthine as one would expect from Steven Gaghan, but the ensemble cast exibits strong performances that serve it well towards distinguishing its many characters. Particularly notable are performances by Matt Damon (whose character undergoes a fascinating transition, and delivers an awesome little monologue that would have been even more impressive, had it not been from an even better one by Tim Blake Nelson) and George Clooney (as an aging assassin in a changing world). This film also does something pretty remarkable for a film in recent times in that it actually doesn't spell everything out in crayon for the viewer. Do not go into this film looking for escapist fantasy (that's what King Kong is for!). But if you don't mind a little bit of thinkin', this is an excellent movie, and one I look forward to seeing again.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - The Chronicles of Narnia is really the first series of books I can remember loving as a child. With the recreation of Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter books, I had been secretly holding onto a hope to see the Lewis classic on the big screen. There are some images in the film that feel like snapshots taken straight from my brain, snapshots cemented in place no fewer than two decades ago. Those alone make the film worth seeing. But at the same time, as is to be expected, there's also a lot that is lost. Maybe my memories have romanticized the original source to be more complicated than it was (time will tell; I'm still on my re-read of The Magician's Nephew), but the film seems to have cut out the entire glorious adventure of the book's middle, going directly from the initial mystery of the place to the war at the end. With so little time to linger on Narnia as a place, the climax is robbed of a great deal of its impact.
Munich - And for the flip side to Syriana's open nature, Steven Spielberg gives us a film with a very definite stance. It might not be as black and white as the stance some of his characters take, but his feelings about the issues in his film are evident with its every move. For that reason, it becomes a very personal film, and as such, a very powerful film. Going into it, especially after just seeing Syriana, I wasn't expecting that, but was pleasantly surprised by it. The story is engaging, well-performed, and beautifully filmed (of course) in muted tones by the endlessly wonderful Janusz Kaminski. This one is high on this year's list as well.
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