ViewGuide

Best Picture assessment

• Avatar – Biggest movie ever due to formulaic perfection, a beautifully realized cinematic vision, and fashionable America the Ugly politics. I stand by my original assessment: “little more than technical triumph.” Best Picture? Hardly deserving.
• The Blind Side – Heartwarming, yes. Powerful, absolutely. Best Picture? Nope. (Disclosure: Didn’t see it, but I trust Brian.)
• District 9 – Escapist politics as well as they’ve ever been done, perhaps. Best Picture? Nominee certainly. Winner. Nope.
• An Education – Carey? Best Actress nominee, yes. Best Picture? No.
• The Hurt Locker – Important more for being the first USA friendly Iraq War movie than for being a legitimate Best Picture. Hell, as great as The Hurt Locker is, and it is Great, let’s hope that once the dust has settled, it’s not even the greatest Iraq War movie.
• Inglorious Basterds – A Perfect movie. That ain’t chopped liver, especially from major auteur Tarantino working with Big Brad Pitt. Still, its National Lampoon sensibilities render it less than Best Picture worthy.
• Precious – Didn’t see it, though it’s almost certainly not in the running for the statuette.
• A Serious Man – Great, but misses Best Picturehood by crossing the ludicrous line. Lucky that the BP nominee list doubled to ten this year.
• UP – Yes. Justice would be served if UP won Best Picture. Movies get no better. Still, whatever the outcome, it’s not the Best Picture this year.
• Up In The Air – Great American Movies are even more rare than Great American Novels. Capturing the zeitgeist when it’s full of angst, while still delivering a zinger of a sex comedy: that’s Best Picture stuff. Whether it wins or not, Up In The Air was the best picture of an angst filled ’09.