Strutting On Red...

Social Studies exam tomorrow morning. Geography sucks like nothing else.

More importantly, the 82^nd Academy Awards will roll magnificently tomorrow. Too much brouhaha about ‘em this time around. Justified. Some outstanding films this year alone. But the big tussle remains in the two most pretentious categories—Best Picture, Best Director. Here I compile a list of all those remarkable artists who deserve to walk away with the golden men (yes, they’re actually men, not ladies!). Not that the others don’t, but if I were a single-man jury, I’d wholeheartedly, with complete appreciation hand the following candidates the awards in the various categories concerned. However, I haven’t put up any such assessments for a few ‘Who-cares?’ categories. I value your time. Here we go:-

Best Visual Effects:-

Avatar, shall we say? Yeah, we’re agreed on that?!

Best Film Editing:-

The Hurt Locker is slickly edited. Among the nominated films, this one deserves it most.

Best Cinematography:-

Tough one. With the access to such superior technology these days, every film of stupendous magnitude is certain to advertise state-of-the-art cameras. Yet, Avatar.

Best Art Direction:-

Close call between Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. But I’d have to say, Avatar. Sometimes, you cannot bet against obvious eventualities.

Best Original Song:-

I See You from Avatar though it isn’t in the nominees!

Best Original Score:-

Up and Avatar boast of very moving soundtracks. But I’d stick my neck out for Avatar. With the challenges James Horner had to tackle given the demand of making every track synonymous to surreal worlds, must say he’s done pretty well.

Best Adapted Screenplay:-

Must go to Up In The Air. Very tight screenplay indeed. Never bores a second. Tough to recreate the magic of books onto celluloid. Jason Reitman deserves credit too.

Best Original Screenplay:-

Quentin Tarantino’s films are beyond uniqueness. They can, at best, be equated to the Tarantino genre of cinema. If there ever was originality, Tarantino embodies it. Inglourious Basterds, it shall be.

Best Supporting Actor:-

Sorry Matty. I’m sure you’d have done a Matt Damon in Invictus. This year belongs to Christoph Waltz for arguably one of THE best supporting actor performances in a very long time. Spruces up Inglourious Basterds whenever he’s on screen, whenever he’s not too. Marvellous.

Best Actor:-

I haven’t seen Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. Excluding his contention, the award must definitely go to Jeremy Renner as the casual, streetsmart EOD expert in The Hurt Locker. Renner slips in easily into the character’s clothes and makes watching him on screen pure joy. Sometimes, it’s sense to reward entertainment. And gee, Renner was Sgt. William James in every frame.

Best Director:-

Four of the five nominees COMPLETELY DESERVE this award. Why have an award for this category? Why not split the Oscar among Jason Reitman, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow? The films these four folks have made this year will rank in the top 20 of the decade. Outstanding films, all of them in their own right. Cameron gave a decade of his life for Avatar alone, Tarantino told the world Inglourious Basterds will be a masterpiece before its release, Bigelow showed chivalry taking her crew to Jordan and shooting a war film, Reitman is charming with his refreshing treatment of Up In The Air. Such a close race for one award—Unfair. I’ll take the emotional quotient into consideration here. Kathryn Bigelow, not for reasons as naïve as being a ‘woman directing a war film…WOW!’ but genuinely brilliant direction. She gives the war sequences a new Avatar— the gravel rising, the ground shaking, the suspense she constructs all by herself around otherwise drab sequences—this is a landmark directorial outing.

Best Picture:-

Ten nominees? Overaction. 4 of them in genuine contention. Jason Reitman’s Up In The Air is a candidly heartwarming, charming take on a very pragmatic issue we’re faced with in current times (Rating—****). Meritorious. Fun too. Inglourious Basterds is a bloody good film. Mind numbingly creative, it is an unstoppable juggernaut of a pure genius (Rating— ****1/2). The Hurt Locker is a brilliant film too. But the problem I have with it is its pro-War outlook. American troops sniper-ing down locals while local Iraqi women and children look on haplessly in shock from their balconies, the ending sequence of the film—are all pretty contentious. Moreover, it is a film Americans can connect with better. A controversial issue too. I do not agree with the stand the film takes on the Iraq issue. However gratuitous the film might be toward real American soldiers battling in Iraq, its central theme and intentions do not emotionally and sensibly strike a chord with everybody, not with me either. Besides, the experience wasn’t really as edge-of-the-seat as promised. Also began to get boring after a while. Entertainment factor therefore, pretty low. Nonetheless, it is a well made film (Rating-- ***1/2). But if there’s one reason why every ‘What-do-you-think?-I-am-a-Hollywood-geek’ will remember 2009, it is for James Cameron’s larger than life magnum-opus. Contrary to wide spread critic belief, the film isn’t just an arts exhibition. It has a story; simply because the story isn’t as complex as a sci-fi flick like 2001 : A Space Odyssey or any other sci-fi film with an indecipherable plot, one cannot dismiss Avatar as a film devoid of a tale. The story is shallow, yes. The story has no twists and turns, yes. But it is a noble story with a meaningful message to its viewers. Contrary to The Hurt Locker, Avatar takes a pronounced anti-War as well as a Bio-friendly stand. The experience one has watching Avatar is nothing that can be felt ever again, it is out-of-the-world. And the ‘experience’ value must be a criterion for judgment too. That is why we go to the movies. To have a nice time, enjoy ourselves. Once in a lifetime, when a film like this comes by, it must get its credit for the unprecedented thresholds of conventional cinema it has transcended. Avatar, very emphatically.

The Academy has as much of a history of committing unpardonable goof-ups as it has of rewarding worthy candidates. I have a funny feeling we’re headed for the former tomorrow.