Order of Things
The shorthand take on Button is that it’s a technical knockout, atmospherically sublime, emotionally poignant, and yet — a key distinction — fundamentally a Gump thing. Artier, more elegant and far less mawkish and chewy than what Robert Zemeckis delivered 14 years ago, but essentially drawn from the Gumpian well. It is therefore not, in my head, as fully fresh and stand-alone bold as Steven Soderbergh‘s Che — a film that doesn’t play the movie game but is stellar and studly in that it owes nothing to anyone or anything else, and the fact that it is all muscle and fat-free.
Che is still and will remain my Best Film of ’08 choice, and if the will of the Movie Gods carried any kind of clout with the mortals scrambling around on terra firma it would be at the top of a lot more lists. The hell with “emotional delivery” in this instance. The hell with “movie moments.” No film has the balls, the clarity and the take-it-or-leave-it honesty of Che.
As I wrote last week, “Soderbergh’s lack of interest in even beginning to attempt to ‘entertain’ the popcorn-munchers is not a plus sign in and of itself, but critics and smart industry viewers should at least be able to see what’s going on here and at least give credit where due. Che is the pure and even made majestic, the telling of a two-act story that could only have been lessened by being shaped into ‘drama.’ It is naturalism in the rough, unpretentious verite magnificence, poetry in the details, a form of truth both literal and eternal.”
Revolutionary Road is my #2 for ’08. A movie about a glum situation and doomed characters that isn’t itself glum or doomed, but tight and true and searing. A film that reflects some aspect of the real grit out there. A film that says “this could be about you” and in fact is about you, suckah. The strongest heavyweight drama I’ve seen all year so far. A corrosive and heartbreaking masterwork.
My third-place favorite is Benjamin Button, fourth is Doubt and fifth is Slumdog Millionaire, followed by Milk, Frost/Nixon, The Visitor, The Wrestler and Nothing But the Truth. Forget The Dark Knight as far as the Academy is concerned — it’s not gonna happen.
I wish everyone would forget The Dark Knight, period. Over fucking rated.
There are so many movies from this year that I am dying to see. The waiting game is so annoying.
I noticed the THE READER isn’t anywhere near that list…
Jeff could you care to elaborate more about the performances in Button?
DK was entertaining, but underneath was philosophically juvenile. Everything it did is present in the TV show Battlestar Galactica but in a less sophisticated way. In short, very very watchable and well made, but fundamentally flawed. That’s not a ding, just the way it is.
I wouldn’t discount the box-office factor when it comes to Best Picture. The giant-piece-of-dung otherwise known as Titanic carried off Best Picture despite a plethora of much better films that year (Boogie Nights, L.A. Confidential, In the Company of Men, etc.). LOTR 3 also won best picture based in large part on the financial success of the trilogy.
That’s not very fair, Pinko. BSG gets 10-12 hours a season to unfold it’s story. TDK gets 2 and a half. It’s a whole lot easier to be more “sophisticated” when you’re sporting 4X the run length.
Jeff, please stop beating around the bush and tell us what you really think about Che.
Did you like the film or not?
The suspense is killing me.
Che will not win Best Picture solely because of its running time, no matter how good it may be.
Oh and Rev. Road is too much of a downer to win BP.
TDK would’ve worked better, if it didn’t try to balance out so many sub-plots. It was also trying to be Burton-esque in attitude and tone, but it suffers from being more preachy, predictable, and showy than the ’89 and ’92 flicks. I didn’t think “awesome” when I saw it as much as, “Enough with all the slow camera-shots and multiple sets already!” To me, TDK represents what people hated about Matrix Reloaded. But the latter film actually took more chances, while TDK was more like “Aww, fuggit, let’s just push the PG-13 rating with cheap deaths, and people will take it seriously.”
Jeff,
If The Dark Knight gets nominated for Best Picture, can you boil your shoe and eat it, record said eating and post it on YouTube?
Jeff, why are you bringing in the Academy (and its perceived taste) into a list that lists your PERSONAL favorite films of the year? It’s truly irrelevant.
D.Z., that’s one of the more asinine posts from you in a long time. There wasn’t any slow-motion in TDK that I can recall. Multiple sets? This is 2008, what fucking film doesn’t use multiple sets (D.Z.-like version – “when they re-make ‘Rope,’ we can talk”)? Given the deaths of two major characters, It was one of the most UNpredictable summer tentpoles I have seen in years. And really, is it even possible to be more showy than the ’89 “Batman?”
P.S. If it was truly “Burton-like,” the film really would have had The Joker on-screen for longer than Batman, and would have opened with a prologue showing he *really* got the scars early in his childhood.
I haven’t seen the film, so I’m just thinking out loud here, but how many Forrest Gump comparisons would there be had BB not been written by Eric Roth?
CitizenKane: I didn’t say slow-motion. I said slow camera shots, as in panning. And you *knew* one of the deaths was predictable, because they effing leaked Eckhart’s “after” photo. Also, the ’89 Batman didn’t have a pointless bike chase scene or some lengthy multiple-hostage situation with little action, thus making it less showy.
So The Dark Knight is more showy because it has MORE pointless action (i.e. the bike scene) and LESS pointless action (i.e. the multiple-hostage situation). Okay, Daniel….you win….damn, you make a lot of sense…..
I think you also just argued that the movie itself was “predictable” because you looked at a “spoiler” from a website before the movie was released. Do you ever read what you type before posting, dude? Honestly.
Actually, I thought most of the action was pointless-just an excuse for stupid debates on morality than something exciting. And no, I didn’t look at any spoilers, actually. I’m just too familiar with the series by now to be impressed with “dark” endings. Though maybe if they got the writers of Return of the Joker for TDK, *then* we’d be cooking.
If you’re not impressed with “dark” endings, then where exactly is this fanboy hard-on for RotJ coming from?
Look, I love Paul Dini and Bruce Timm as much as the next Batman nerd, but let’s be honest: any live-action adaptation of the character would be really far outside their animated/video-game wheelhouse. I’m sorry the writer of Memento is not good enough for you but Rotten Tomatoes says you’re in the 6% minority in holding that opinion.
Enjoy yourself this Thanksgiving.
I liked ROTJ, because it reminded me of the old show, before they killed it off with those lame character designs and that sci-fi spin-off. TAS was great, because it focused on the relationship between the characters, and it came up with creative approaches to crime-fighting and action in a medium which was increasingly being stifled in the U.S. And considering that Dini and Timm were the gold standard during the Schumacher years, I’m still not sure why they couldn’t have written for the live-action version-especially since TAS was considered better than most live-action action flicks.
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