The Academy Awards went off pretty well despite being the lowest rated year ever. Despite that, last year was a great one for films. The Best Picture category was full of fantastic films, and barring nominations for Norbit and Transformers didn't recognize terrible filmmaking for the most part.
My one problem is that the awards are turning into a ceremony that rewards its great filmmakers retroactively. The last two Best Picture and Director awards have gone to filmmakers that made better films in the past and seemed to be getting rewarded for their career achievements instead of their current films. Sure, Scorcese and the Coens are fantastic, but I would've rather seen them in the category of great directors never to win (like Kubrick, Hitchcock, Altman, etc.) than given a makeup Oscar.
The Oscars should reward original filmmaking that attempts to progress the art of cinema, instead of looking back into a rear view mirror. Yes, some films are able to take what has been made and perfect it (like No Country or Unforgiven, I would argue) but this year the most original and forward-thinking film was clearly There Will Be Blood. That film just has never been made before, and the emotion of Daniel Day-Lewis inhabiting Daniel Plainview in Paul Thomas Anderson's masterful script was just incredible. In the future, I'd like to see this kind of filmmaking rewarded, instead of simply nominated and passed over for career recognition. It is possible for a director to amass a body of work that is staggering without making the standout film of any one year.
I'll end on a comedic note, sticking with There Will Be Blood. I enjoy film parodies, a lot, and this video I saw a few days ago has to be one of the best little trailers I've ever seen. It goes all-out to parody TWBB, check it out. My favorite is how they deal with the bowling alley during the milkshake/bong rip.
I've got finals this week, but then I'll return to posting a ton of new music...I've been busy getting some of this year's potential best albums.
No comments:
Post a Comment