November, December, and January are my three favorite months, movie-wise. Why? Because this is the season when directors and producers push to have potential Oscar contenders released. It's a three-month party of (generally) better-than-average films!
This does not mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that I love all Oscar-winning films. I found the last two films to win Best Picture--The Artist and The King's Speech--to be cute and pleasant. Was my mind blown and world shaken by them? No. In fact, since I like lists, here is a list of all the Best Picture winners that I can say I truly love or made a difference in my life:
Casablanca (1943)
Annie Hall (1977)
Amadeus (1984)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Titanic* (1997)
American Beauty** (1999)
The Departed (2006)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
*I realize this isn't the greatest movie ever, but it did make a huge impact on me in middle school.
**Ditto
Point is, even though not all Oscar-winning or -nominated movies are great, Oscar season itself is peppered with many indie gems, old-school epics and musicals, costume period pieces, and many other films vying for that top spot. And this delights me.
Two movies I've seen lately will most definitely be up for some awards come January and February. Lincoln is an intimate historical piece that, rather than attempt to cram all of the 16th president's life into two hours, focuses mostly on January of 1865, as Lincoln struggles to pass the 13th amendment abolishing slavery before the end of the Civil War.
Daniel Day-Lewis carries the burden of such an inspiring and legendary historical figure on his 6' 1" shoulders more than capably. Day-Lewis is, I think, one of the only actors who could so totally inhabit this role--both in spirit and physical presence--that the actor himself becomes invisible. We are watching Lincoln, complete with his reedy, high-pitched voice, stooped posture, and predilection for telling amusing stories at the drop of a (stovepipe) hat. This isn't a surprise to me, since Day-Lewis has made a career out of obliterating any trace of Day-Lewis as he disappears into his intense and difficult roles.
The myriad other actors in Lincoln are just as impressive (and sometimes just as "invisible" behind feature-masking facial hair and makeup). Pretty much everyone in Hollywood is in this film (just check out the cast list on IMDB), but a particular standout is Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, a woman who weeps and gnashes her teeth in agony at her husband's feet in one scene and makes a witty and cutting remark at a party the next. It's believed that Mrs. Lincoln suffered from bipolar disorder, and she was most certainly severely depressed for years after two of her sons died in childhood. Mrs. Lincoln was a woman who might be described as "difficult", but Field portrays her as a sympathetic (and, at times, funny) woman with some serious grit to her, in addition to an endless sea of rage and sadness.
Another standout performance is Tommy Lee Jones as radical abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens. Stevens, much like TMJ himself, is an old grump. He heckles and sneers at the congressmen who disagree--even a little--with him. He gets one of the best burns in movie history during a climatic scene where he is asked to explain his views on race equality.
Other wonderful performances include Lee Pace as Fernando Wood, a congressman firmly against abolition, Jared Harris (best know as Lane Pryce on Mad Men) as Ulysses S. Grant, and James Spader as W.N. Bilbo, the leader of a group of men Lincoln sends out to convince congressmen to vote for the amendment--whether it means promising them a job, appealing to their good Christian character, or something more shady.
Lincoln delighted me because I learned so much from it--not only in the theatre, but afterwards when I went home and immediately started Googling to find out answers to questions I had during the film. It's a historical film that intellectually challenges the viewer rather than spoon-feeding us a Hollywoodized version of history.
In sum, Lincoln deserves any and all accolades it receives. It's an excellent movie and bears watching multiple times to catch the details you missed the first time.
4.5 out of 5 stars
***
I also watched Silver Linings Playbook recently. SLP is a film than defies genre. It's definitely both a drama and a comedy, but it's also a bit of a sports movie and a romance. It's about broken, but genuinely good people.
Bradley Cooper--an actor I have much disdain for, but who was excellent in this movie--stars as Pat Solatano, a man recently released from a mental institution after beating the crap out of his wife's lover after catching them in the shower together. Pat can't get his act together. He goes home to live with his loving, but passive mother (Jacki Weaver) and obsessive-compulsive Philadelphia Eagles fan of a dad (Robert De Niro). Pat has delusions of getting back together with his wife and spends his time exercising and reading the books she teaches in her high school English class. These pursuits aren't enough to occupy Pat and he continues to live an emotionally destructive life. Then he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a young widow with a depressive streak herself. Both Tiffany and Pat have no filter and screwed up social skills. Tiffany blatantly propositions Pat a couple hours after they first meet. Pat attempts to manipulate Tiffany into contacting his wife. Etc, etc.
Silver Linings Playbook is notable because it portrays mental illness in a sympathetic and light-hearted manner without making a total cartoon out of it. The film really does walk a fine line between hilarity and gut-wrenching emotion--often in the same scene. In a few scenes, Bradley Cooper cries in a way that is utterly unselfconscious and cringe-inducing because of how REAL it sounds. Yet, his performance is not melodramatic in the least (especially given that Pat is diagnosed as bipolar. Hey, Mrs. Lincoln, you have a friend down here!)
Silver Linings Playbook is an odd little film that is garnering a surprising amount of Oscar buzz. It's definitely not your typical Oscar bait, and I highly recommend checking it out.
4.5 out of 5 stars
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