Since the Oscars are tonight, I would repeat what I said back in my January 3 post, The Hurt Locker was the best film of last year. I would add here that Kathryn Bigelow should get best director, and I would give best actor to Jeremy Renner, although I won't be upset if Jeff Bridges wins, as everyone expects.
I went out Friday and saw Alice in Wonderland, in 3D, but not in IMAX. I was disappointed. Instead of a Tim Burton film, it is 1/2 a Tim Burton Film and 1/2 a Disney film. Not that I have anything against Disney, but if you go to a Tim Burton film that is what you want to see. I suspect the Disney know this, because all of the trailers and clips that I saw before the release were scenes from the Tim Burton half. The Disney half includes a huge battle scene with Alice turned into a warrior princes. This does not fit at all with the tone of the original story, but I guess it had to be added for the sake 3D. To quote from Anthony Lane's article in the current New Yorker, "Third Way: The Rise of 3-D":
Lewis Carroll’s tale is as brisk and bright as the Victorian child at its heart, more anecdotal than plotted, and Burton, spotting this, overcompensates by trading the domestic for the apocalyptic.
As far as 3D goes, I don't like the fact that you have to wear those sunglasses that dull all the color in the film. I think I would have preferred 2D with full color.
Of course, both Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter gave great performances. Anne Hathaway, as the White Queen, could have been channeling Glenda, the good with of the North, which seemed a bit amateur to me.
As far as fantasy films go, I much preferred Terry Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. This is the film that Heath Ledger was in the middle of when he died. Three other actors had to finish the filming of his role, but if you did not know otherwise you might think it was planned this way from the beginning. Much like Alice in Wonderland, part of Imaginarium takes place in the real world, and part on the other side of a mirror. Ledger had filmed the real world segments of the film, and the other actors filled in for the behind the mirror scenes. It is fairly complicated, and I think I need to see it again to fully appreciate it. I liked it a lot, but not as much as Brazil, which is my favorite Terry Gilliam film.
I also saw "Inglorious Basterds" on DVD. I had not seen it in the theaters, because I was afraid that I would not like it. I actually liked it much more than I thought I would. Quentin Tarantino is not one of my favorite directors, but I think I have learned that you just cannot take his films too seriously. The entire premise of this movie is implausible, but if you get over that, it is easier to appreciate the film. The opening scene, with Christopher Waltz as a Nazi official hunting for Jews on a rural farm, is probably one of the best scenes of the year. I did a have problem with Brad Pitt's performance. I don't know if his southern accent was really as bad as I thought, or if I just could not accept it coming out of his mouth. To quote Michael Sragow from the Balimore Sun, Pitt seemed to be doing a "Foghorn Leghorn" imitation. I was most impressed with the performances of the two main female characters in the film, Mélanie Laurent, playing a cinema owner plotting to burn the entire Nazi high command as revenge for the death of her family, and Diane Kruger, playing a German actress running a separate plot to do in the Nazis.
Finally, I saw Fish Tank. This is a British film that will not do much business in the United States. It is like a Mike Leigh film without the humor. This is not a criticism, but it is a pretty heavy film. The acting in it is all outstanding. You could say it is Precious light. Like Precious it is about a young girl in a bad situation, but the situation in Fish Tank is not quite as bleak.
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