Oscar Predictions 2012

So the whole getting all my reviews online thing did not happen. Expect Actresses Galore, Screenplay Nominees, and Best Picture Overview to come online sometime in the next week. And not like last year when I said the reviews would be online soon; this year I really really mean it.

Text in red will be my post-show observations!

Best Picture: Midnight in Paris is a good movie, one I would recommend, but too slight to belong here. Moneyball, too: OK movie, doesn’t belong here. War Horse is the one I did not get a chance to see; I heard differing reviews of it. Some said Hallmarky malarkey; some said legitimately touching. I can’t say. Didn’t see it. Finally, The Help. A terribly uneven movie buoyed by its excellent performances and a message of racial equality that is touching, despite being muddled in its telling.

To me, there are four real contenders: The Descendants, Hugo, The Tree of Life, and The Artist. I liked Hugo; it was bright and energetic and visually interesting, but it was all in service to a story that is inherently pretty shallow. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have The Descendants, a totally grounded story about one of the most serious events that befall average people in their brief lives: a death in the family. This movie is a bit slow and flat, well-acted but depressing, and not in an enjoyable way. I did not like The Tree of Life. But it was one of those movies, one of those artistic, important-type movies that come out sometimes. I know enough about movies to know that buried underneath all the hype and bravado, there’s something there. I also know that if a movie doesn’t give me some semblance of a narrative through-line I am out, which is a personal preference that does not indicate quality but which does negate any chance for my enjoyment in an art film. As for The Artist, it is not unlike last year’s big winner, The King’s Speech, in that it is patently predictable at every moment, but well-put-together and charming as all get-out. More so that The King’s Speech even, because: dancing.

Prediction: The Artist

Preference: Better nominees in the future. The Artist.

Got this one right.

Best Director: Terrence Malick is a spoiler here, where he was excluded at the Golden Globes. There, Scorsese took it easily. Here, he has Malick to contend with. Like Scorsese, Malick is now an elder statesman of the cinema. However, he’s not nearly as prolific as Marty—who puts out a watchable movie every two years or so, to Malick’s unwatchable movies every ten years or so—and Malick’s never won this award. Again, I really didn’t care for this movie, but I think it deserves more attention than it got. Hazanavicius has a shot as well, though, because his film is on a major winning streak. The Artist is not directorially very interesting—and if this was a straight-up Olympic race to see who could revolutionize filmmaking the fastest, Malick (or Scorsese) would take it—but again, Tom Hooper took this award for The King’s Speech last year, so that proves that innovation is not a requirement. I think Hazanavicius takes it.

Prediction: Michel Hazanavicius

Preference: Terrence Malick

Got it right.

Best Actress: When I post my review of The Iron Lady, I’ll have a lot to say about Meryl Streep’s performance as Margaret Thatcher. She’s on an upswing after the BAFTAs, but I think either Viola Davis or Michelle Williams would be more worthy winners. I loved Rooney Mara in Dragon Tattoo, too, but she’s young and dour and has probably not done much promotion for herself. If the trilogy shapes up, she’ll get two more chances to impress people. Glenn Close might’ve had a chance if Albert Nobbs had done better at the box office or with critics, but it seems to be basically fifth in everybody’s mind these days.

Prediction: Meryl Streep

Preference: Michelle Williams

As soon as I saw Meryl all dressed in gold, I knew she knew she had it sewn up. She did.

Best Actor: Demian Bichir was terrific, but he can’t compete with these big names. Gary Oldman might be in line for a Career Oscar, although he was excellent in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. But so far the earlier awards have been spread pretty evenly amongst The Artist‘s Jean Dujardin, George Clooney, and Brad Pitt. I liked all three of those performances—surprisingly, I found Brad Pitt’s the most nuanced and interesting.

Prediction: George Clooney

Preference: Brad Pitt

Missed this one! I should never have underestimated the Harvey Weinstein Publicity Machine. You can’t hate Jean Dujardin, who said, among other things, “Formidable!” One of my favorite French expressions.

Best Supporting Actress: Bejo is adorable, but her character might as well have been named Ingenue Starlet. Nothing special there. I skipped Albert Nobbs, but I’m sure Janet McTeer did great work. Whatever, nobody’s winning anything for that movie. Melissa McCarthy built a pretty amazing character in Bridesmaids, being loud and proud with basically zero percent vanity, and that’s great, but comedy doesn’t serve here. I expect one of the ladies from The Help to take this one, and though I thought Jessica Chastain was excellent as a sad, stupid trophy wife, Octavia Spencer was, to use a hacky term, a force of nature.

Prediction: Octavia Spencer

Preference: Octavia Spencer

Got this one.

Best Supporting Actor: This is no contest. This will be the least-surprising win of the night.

Prediction: Christopher Plummer

Preference: Christopher Plummer

Got this one.

Best Original Screenplay: The Artist wrote itself. It may (MAY) win this category but it won’t deserve it. It’s A Star is Born with a dog. It’s Singin’ in the Rain without sound. Every line, every beat is 100% predictable. I liked Margin Call, but it didn’t make as many waves as I think the filmmakers expected it to, and that will hurt it. On the other hand, you’ve got Bridesmaids, a movie that I’m sure nobody expected to be a multiple-Oscar nominee. I watched it again this week, and you know what? That’s a tight story. It does a lot of things right. Still, it’s up against two more pedigreed nominees: Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, ‘nuff said) and A Separation, a heartbreaking story that makes universal a deeply personal story about an Iranian family facing down a crisis.

Prediction: Midnight in Paris

Preference: A Separation

Got this one.

Best Adapted Screenplay: I haven’t read any of these original texts. I thought The Ides of March was good but standard; Hugo had some startlingly awkward storytelling which I can write more about later. I liked Moneyball and especially Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. As an all-around film, The Descendants had problems, but I don’t think the script was one of them. Also, it’s likely going to lose Best Picture, so it may get this as the consolation prize.

Prediction: The Descendants

Preference: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

What do you know, I predicted this one, too.

Best Cinematography: You might not know much about this category, but unlike many, it’s packed with worthy candidates. The Artist: not everybody can make black and white look that good. Dragon Tattoo: this movie was sharp, icy, Nordic, beautiful (and chilly) to look at. Hugo: This was another visual pleasure in a completely different way: warm, bright colors, constant motion on screen. The Tree of Life: every frame of this movie could be a beautiful still photo. The photo would be more interesting than the movie itself. War Horse: I didn’t see this movie, but Kaminski is a leader in the field (2 Oscars already for Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler’s List).

Prediction: no idea really, so War Horse

Preference: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Hugo took this one. Told you I had no idea.

Best Art Direction: Didn’t see War Horse, but I’m still not quite sure why it’s here. Aren’t all war movies stark and brown? Harry Potter and Hugo are more artistic acts of whismy, which I like. Midnight in Paris and The Artist were both more based in reality, but still rich and vibrant-looking. They could really go in a lot of directions here.

Prediction: The Artist

Preference: Hugo

Surprisingly, The Artist‘s sweep did not extend to most of the technical categories, where Hugo was a big winner, as it was here.

Best Visual Effects: I only saw one of these movies, Hugo. I saw it in 3D so I have no idea how good the effects were or weren’t. Basically everything looked fake to me: it was in 3D. I don’t think this movie has a shot at this award, anyway; other movies stretched way farther into the fantasy realm, and that tends to take this category.

Prediction: we will soon be saying “Oscar winner Transformers: Dark of the Moon”!

Preference: Harry Potter is so much more respectable

Hugo took the award here, too. Wrong for me.

Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing: I don’t know anything about these categories. Well wishes to the winners and the ten seconds, respectively, they will get to thank their families.

Hugo, and Hugo, respectively.

Best Editing: Editing is a slippery thing. Even when I can tell that something is well-edited or poorly-edited, I don’t tend to remember that in my overall impression of the movie. I do know that Thelma Schoonmaker has already got three of these things for Scorsese movies she’s worked on, so she’s a pretty good guess.

Prediction: Hugo

Preference: Hugo

Weirdly, this one did not go to Hugo, but to the team from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Best Score: There’s a bit of a renaissance happening in film scores right now. Popular(-ish) bands have started scoring full films. Last year’s Blue Valentine was done by Grizzly Bear; Hanna was done by the Chemical Brothers. This is an awesome development for movies, because you get these great musicians with really distinctive sounds that establish a personality for a movie in a way that a conventional score will not necessarily do. Erstwhile Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has been making a name for himself here, too. He won the Oscar last year (with co-composer Atticus Ross) for music from The Social Network. They did another excellent score this year, for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but apparently it was one and done for them, because they didn’t make the cut. The Oscar chose to go retro this year by nominating Old Standbys Howard Shore (Hugo) and John Williams (TWICE for The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse) and their sweeping, orchestral yawnfests. Williams could split his own vote here. If he does, my guess is the award goes to Bource in an Artist sweep. Personally, I liked Alberto Iglesias’s music for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for being unsettling, evocative of the period, and not the same old thing.

Prediction: The Artist

Preference: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Got this one right.

Best Makeup: I gave Albert Nobbs a wide berth. It looked terrible! Terrible, you guys. I had nightmares about this movie. Anyway, I think the nomination is stupid because nobody should be rewarded for making Glenn Close look like that. I haven’t seen any of the Harry Potter movies, but I know they made Ralph Fiennes noseless, so that’s impressive. I want to give this one to the team from The Iron Lady, however. Meryl Streep spends the majority of this movie in OldFace and she actually looks quite convincing: receded hairline, papery skin, pouchy eyes. I assume the makeup team put that gap in her teeth as well. They did a good job.

Prediction: Harry Potter

Preference: The Iron Lady

Got this one wrong, though my preference was right.

Best Costume Design: Strange category here. They are all period pieces—that’s pretty standard (although Girl With a Dragon Tattoo could have fit here; that was such a specific and interesting look on Lisbeth, and I can’t count how many people I’ve heard comment that she looked exactly as they pictured when they read the book)—but it must have been a weak year for period, because so many of these are from really boring eras. Anonymous is Elizabethan—dirty, scroungy era if you weren’t Elizabeth herself. Nobody wore underwear. Jane Eyre, in the book, describes herself as a “plain, quakerish governess.” She wears blue or grey, no frills, hair pulled straight back. Chaaaaarming. Hugo was 1920s era, but the characters in the movie were all good, middle-class folk, no flappers. (There was some lovely costuming in the recreations of Melies’ films, though, so don’t discount it.) The Artist is also the 1920s, and W.E. is the 1930s, and both take place in glamorous worlds (Hollywood and British high society). In my opinion, these two will duke it out to a bloody end.

Prediction: The Artist (I’m telling you, this thing is going to sweep)

Preference: I already gave the award away, in my head, when I watched The Artist. Award the man who designed this dress!

This one I got. The nominee clip did not show enough of this dress, preferring to show Jean Dujardin in a seemingly basic tuxedo.

 

Best Foreign Language: I only saw one of these movies, the only one that came to Cleveland in time for the actual Oscars show. I loved it, so I both hope and expect that it will win.

Prediction: A Separation

Preference: A Separation

Got this one. Hopefully this movie gets a nice publicity bump from this.

Best Animated: Didn’t see any of these, but I’m hearing great things about Rango. It’s the one I’m most likely to see on purpose, later. Chico & Rita is, unusually, an adult animated film, so they might go for that for the novelty factor.

Prediction: Rango

Preference: Rango

Got this, too.

Best Documentary: I didn’t see any of these although two of them are streaming on Netflix right now: Hell and Back Again (a soldier-in-combat thing) and If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (about militant greenies). Paradise Lost 3 has been getting great notices, as has Pina. Undefeated (about a football team) has been struggling to promote itself enough so that people realize it’s not The Undefeated (that movie about Sarah Palin).

Predicted: Hell and Back Again

Preference: they’re all the same to me

Could not have been wronger here. Undefeated, which I had heard almost nothing about, vanquished the more serious subject matter of its competition. All day people will be making puns on “undefeated.”

Best Documentary Short/Best Animated Short/Best Live Action Short: I meant to watch these at the Capitol. But I didn’t.

Best Song: You can give an Oscar to the Muppets, or you can not give an Oscar to the Muppets. Which call would you make?

Prediction: “Man or Muppet”

Preference: “Man or Muppet”

My prediction was correct, but we all lost out by not getting a Muppet performance.

Overall: out of 19 guesses, I made 12 correct ones. The technical categories killed me.

Golden Globes Reflections

Best Picture Drama: The Descendants

This was a weird category; looking at it, I can’t help but feel like, “There were definitely better dramatic movies than this.” I would pit Take Shelter against any of these six movies. It was heartbreaking and effective and serious as a heart attack. For that matter, where is The Tree of Life? I thought that was gold-plated awards bait. I didn’t like it, but it’s the kind of movie that critics and I tend to part ways on. It wasn’t enjoyable for me, but it had artistry to spare. It was absolutely choking on it.

I guess of the six movies that actually made the cut, I can buy that The Descendants was the best. It was a little messy, but it was heartfelt, well-acted all around.

Best Picture Musical or Comedy: The Artist

Seeing this movie this afternoon. I love the trailer; it looks like an amalgam of A Star is Born, Singin’ in the Rain, and a Chaplin tragicomedy all by way of France. All four other movies in contention were enjoyable, but I don’t have trouble believing The Artist had them fairly beat.

Best Actress Musical or Comedy: Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

There are some arguments to be made here: My Week With Marilyn is not a comedy, at least not as far as the character of Marilyn is concerned. (When Kenneth Branagh as Olivier is onscreen, it is definitely funny.) I’ve heard arguments for the movie as a musical, because Marilyn sings as least one song, in a movie which other characters are watching. But let’s be honest here–somebody just wanted to stack this deck for Williams, maybe because come Oscar time her impersonation will be competing against Streep’s impersonation (of Margaret Thatcher) and Glenn Close’s impersonation (of a man). Anyway, I’m glad for Williams; she’s an excellent actress, but also she always seems so sad. Like a real tortured artist.

But I would have given it to Charlize Theron for Young Adult.

Best Actress Drama: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

I haven’t seen this movie yet; nor am I particularly interested in seeing this movie. It looks terrible, and unlike most political high dramas, it doesn’t have a lot of pedigree behind the camera. (From the director of Mamma Mia? Really?) This is probably not going to be Meryl’s The Queen. Except it might be, because she won last night. And it’s hard to deny Streep an award, both because she’s brilliant but also because she’s such a daffy, adorable presence on stage. I didn’t really have a horse in this race either; I’ve only seen Rooney Mara’s performance so far, which is wonderful. I’m sure Tilda Swinton is divine as usual, I’m sure Viola Davis is as good as everybody says. If everybody is deserving, it’s a little harder to get bent out of shape about who wins.

Best Actor Comedy: Jean Dujardin, The Artist

I haven’t seen The Artist yet, although I probably will later today. I like this guy, though. He is the main draw for me for this movie, after having seen the trailer a couple of times. He dances, he makes adorable broad silent film actor gestures, he gets despairing, and he does it all with a sort of French Gene Kelly energy that I am eager to see in action. I wish Joseph Gordon-Levitt had received more attention for 50/50, but what can you do?

Best Actor Drama: George Clooney, The Descendants

In last week’s Entertainment Weekly, Clooney and Viola Davis were interviewed (together, as they are close friends IRL apparently), and they are talking about The Help and Bridesmaids and successful women-centered films in general. And Clooney says “When a man hits 40 is when roles just begin to happen. And for women it doesn’t happen. I find that to be a very concerning issue.” (Muddled grammar is all his.) This isn’t a unique insight, people like Streep and like Susan Sarandon have been talking about this for years. I think it’s interesting because Clooney is on the opposite side of this equation–he’s the man in his 40s who, additionally, just keeps getting better and better looking. He could easily coast for the next twenty-five years, and I think it’s very cool of him that he doesn’t. He almost always appears in interesting, complicated movies, and he directs some of them, too. Plus he’s all running around the Sudan trying to fix things there, too. Did you see Cloons during the show breaks last night? He was always running up to somebody, shaking hands, chatting in that intense-friendly way that charming people do. He knows how to dial that down, though; he did in both The Ides of March and in The Descendants. In short, I think he’s a great actor, who works really hard, and so is deserving of any praise that he gets. And I thought it was hilarious the way he gave Michael Fassbender his due for Shame by way of a dirty joke. (But how did they feel about it in the morning?)

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help

Octavia Spencer’s IMDb page is quite entertaining. She has played at least ten roles that are identified as “Nurse.” Apparently, to casting directors she looks like a standard-issue large sassy black nurse. She’s getting attention for a role where she got to play a character who is more fully-rounded (or so I hear; haven’t seen The Help yet) and that’s a great thing for her. I think her only real competition for the Oscars will be Jessica Chastain, who could be nominated for any of three movies she gave excellent performances in this year: The Help, Take Shelter, or The Tree of Life. Maybe she’ll split her own vote; it happens. I don’t think Berenice Bejo or Shailene Woodley have enough presence to sneak in there. Janet McTeer has been nominated before, but I’m hoping everybody’s going to forget Albert Nobbs before Oscar noms come out. (Have I mentioned how little interest I have in that movie?)

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners

This was my one real “Yay!” of the night. For real, Plummer is so good in this movie. I like Albert Brooks, I like Viggo Mortenson (and as I said in my previous entry, he looks like he’s chewing that scenery up in A Dangerous Method). Branagh was highly entertaining as Laurence Olivier in My Week With Marilyn. But Plummer was everything: strong and vulnerable, sick but full of life, old but energetic. His part is played entirely in flashback; when the movie opens his character has died. The scenes that he is in make the scenes that he is absent from all the sadder because we miss him. (He actually had a great year; he gives quite a striking supporting performance in Dragon Tattoo as well.) Time to give this elder statesman of Hollywood an Oscar already.

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Hugo

The Ides of March was a bit rote, The Descendants was tonally all over the place. Midnight in Paris was an enjoyable little romantic comedy, but maybe a bit too straightforward to really get any attention, especially when any award-giving organization knows that they can give Woody Allen the Best Screenplay as compensation. So the two contenders here were Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist and Scorsese. In other words, sorry, Newcomer. We’ll see if the Oscars does the same.

Best Screenplay: Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

At the Oscars, young upstarts have managed to take the screenplay category: see Diablo Cody for Juno (2008) and Dustin Lance Black for Milk (2009). The Golden Globes tends to skew a bit more towards the tried-and-true. So Will Reiser of 50/50 fame wasn’t even nominated. Nor the writer-directors of Martha Marcy May Marlene or Take Shelter or Another Earth or a zillion other impressive, original movies that came out this year. The Oscars, by separating Original and Adapted Screenplays, gets to branch out a little bit, and I look forward to that. And I hope one of the upstarts beats Allen over there. It’s a much clearer field than Adapted, which is will be majorly clogged with The Descendants (book), The Help (book), Hugo (book), The Ides of March (play), Moneyball (book), War Horse (play), My Week With Marilyn (book), Carnage (play), Albert Nobbs (play, I think), The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (book), and We Need to Talk About Kevin (book) all in pretty serious contention for 5 slots.

Best International/Foreign Language Film: A Separation

Critics have been saying that if this film was not a foreign language picture from Iran that it would be in contention for Best Picture full-stop. It’s at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and 94 on Metacritic. Best Foreign Language film is good compensation. It’s probably a lock.

Best Animated Feature: The Adventures of Tintin

I had no interest in any of these animated movies, and I don’t think the HFP did either. “Eh, just give it to Spielberg. Next.”

Best Song: “Masterpiece,” W.E.

Good for Madonna. Lovely dress.

Best Score: Ludovic Bource, The Artist

I wanted Reznor & Ross for this one (they did The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). The music in that movie, like the score they did for The Social Network, is dark and cold and lonely, and it evokes emotion without using hackneyed sweeps and key changes. Still, being a silent film, The Artist will have used music in a different way than every other film on the screens this year. So I can assume that it did that well.

Movie Trailer Burnout

As a result of my (Presumptive) Oscar racing, I’ve been seeing a lot of theater movies lately. And one hazard of this—which I always forget—is that you are forced to sit through the same trailers over and over and over again. Sometimes I’ll see two or three movies in one day and each will be prefaced by the same trailers and advertisements.

Here’s what I’d be happy to never have to sit through again.

Trailer for A Dangerous Method – When is this movie coming out, for real? I feel like I’ve been seeing this trailer since the summer. Fassbender all nerded up as Jung. Keira Knightley screaming and throwing herself about and playing in the mud. Sexual perversion. Dramatic music. Vincent Cassel looking bushy-haired. Viggo Mortenson looking delightful as a cigar-chomping Freud. If I see this movie it will be 100% because Mortenson as Freud seems delightful.

Trailer for Albert Nobbs – Why does Glenn Close look like that? Why does she make such an ugly man? I find her literally abhorrent to look at. Janet McTeer, also in male drag, does not look so atrociously ugly. She’s kind of cute in a sporty kind of way. Also, this movie (as represented by the trailer) makes no sense. Why would “Albert” propose to a young woman? Does he/she think he/she can marry a woman and have her never be the wiser? WTF? Why would anybody want to see this movie? It better not get nominated for any Oscars. (It totally will.)

Interviews with the stars of Hugo – Ben Kingsley is funny and charming in his ten seconds, but that Chloe Moretz is insufferable, describing how she fooled everybody with her flawless British accent and that even “Marty” couldn’t tell. Shut up, Preteen McQueen.

Trailer for Shame – Fassbender again, mostly putting on nicely-cut coats and walking around on New York streets. Carey Mulligan in a bad wig. Fassbender walking around. Flashes of nakedness. Crying, dramatic music, Fassbender looking empty and alone. Trailer ultimately gives the impression that these are the only four minutes in the entire film that are not so full of nudity and sex that they are unfit for the trailer. Shame, the clean version: face coat singing New York emptiness done.

The music video for some country bumpkin’s cover of the Footloose theme – My exhaustion with this should be self-explanatory. But here is a short play to illustrate the amusement it offered at my viewing last night.

Footloose video begins.

Some guy, loud enough for the entire theater to hear: WHAT, THEY’RE REMAKING FOOTLOOSE NOW?

Everyone else in the theater: It already came out.

Same guy: AND IT’S GOT JENNIFER ANISTON IN IT?

Everyone else in the theater: That’s not Jennifer Aniston.

Same guy: ISN’T SHE GETTING A BIT LONG IN THE TOOTH FOR ROLES LIKE THAT?

Everyone else in the theater: It’s not Jennifer Aniston.

Close-up of Julianne Hough in the video.

Same guy: OH THAT’S NOT JENNIFER ANISTON. WHO IS SHE, SOME NOBODY?

Everyone else in the theater: [done talking to him]

Same guy: I BET NONE OF THEM EVEN DO THEIR OWN DANCING, IT’S ALL CGI THESE DAYS ANYHOW.

One person: Shut up, dude.

Video ends.

Movie Reviews: AFI’s 10 of 10, Part One

Hey, I managed to finish another movie list!

This time I made it all the way through the AFI’s 10 Top 10 (that’s the ten best movies in the ten favorite genres).  I didn’t document anywhere what my percentage-seen was before or after the Summer Movie Watch, so I don’t know how much ground I’ve covered since then.  I was almost certainly past 50% (had seen more than half of them, I mean) after the Summer Movie Watch because there was a lot of cross-over.  Anyway, without much concentrated effort (until the last six weeks or so, when I noticed that I had just a handful left) I have exhausted all ten movies in all ten genres.

I’m not going to review every movie, obviously; just this bunch that I watched in the last few months or so.  Because that’s still a big pile of movies, I’m going to split the reviews into two entries.

Today’s five genres: Animation, Fantasy, Sports, Science Fiction, Romantic Comedy

Movie Reviews: Crime in Our Time

Zodiac (2007)

One of my absolute favorites.  Though it could still be called a “crime film,” it’s more accurately an investigation story, or a detective story.  What’s brilliant about it is that the investigative element of the movie is the most thrilling part of it.  There are a couple heart-stopping scenes of the serial killer at work, but my favorite moments in the movie are when the characters who are reporters and detectives sit around and discuss the possibilities.  I love how incredibly complicated the movie was unfraid to be; it upsets what we have come to believe is the natural order of things (the CSI way, you might call it) in which the investigation takes a single, direct path and ends conclusively with an arrest.  The real-life crimes of the Zodiac killer occurred all over the state of California, in multiple jurisdictions, and the movie dramatizes the difficulties of sharing information and case files in a pre-digital world.  In just over two hours of run time the movie also zeroes in on at least three different suspects, convincing the audience that this time they’ve definitely got their man, only to scrap everything—not necessarily because they’ve proved someone innocent, but just because the evidence is inadequate.  Finally—and this is seriously a narrative accomplishment—despite the fact that no one has ever been prosecuted for the murder, the movie manages to close its story out in a satisfactory way.  It feels closed.  It has incredible period music (“Hurdy Gurdy Man”!), dynamic direction by David Fincher, and some unexpected humor mostly courtesy of Robert Downey Jr.  Also stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo, and about a billion “Hey, it’s that guy”s.

Gangs of New York (2002)

I really think this movie would have made more of an impression on me if I had seen it when it first came out (before The Departed, instead of after).  Doesn’t it seem that Scorsese was repeating himself just a little bit?  You’ve got Daniel Day-Lewis playing the Jack Nicholson role, Leonardo DiCaprio playing the Leonardo DiCaprio role, Cameron Diaz pointlessly playing the pointless Vera Farmiga role.  You’ve got the mole plot, the young man who engages in a mentorship with someone he intends ultimately to take down.  The woman who is only there to sleep with both of them and complicate things.  I love The Departed, frankly, and it’s too bad for Gangs of New York that I didn’t see it first, because I might have loved Gangs instead.

What I did really like about this is the historical angle: the immigrant life, the warring factions all trying to build a society out of lawlessness and gain power out of poverty.  The opening fight scene was pretty incredible, as were the sets, like the underground catacombs where the Irishmen hung out and plotted.  And Daniel Day-Lewis is pretty much always a barn-burner, preferable even (dare I say it?) to Nicholson.  Also, the closing shot (which time-lapses into present-day New York) is amazing.