A confession: Out of Entertainment Weekly's "25 Movies You Need to See Before Oscar Night," I've seen ... seven. Not a good record. The good news is that with studios re-releasing films to pump up their Oscar buzz and DVD releases getting earlier and earlier, I've got a good shot at half by the big night, including all five of the Best Picture noms. Anyway, here's what I've seen so far:
Babel: A suspenseful movie in that I spent most of it squirming in my seat wondering who was going to make what bad decision next. Great acting turns as well.
The Queen: No question, a great performance by Helen Mirren; she's so good that I forgot I was watching an actress and became completely absorbed in the film -- even though in real life she doesn't look that much like the queen.
Letters From Iwo Jima: A great film. Clint Eastwood does a masterful job of seamlessly weaving the personal stories together with the historical big picture. That you know how it will end just makes it all the more heartbreaking. Great performance by Ken Watanabe as well.
Notes on a Scandal: A great role for Judi Dench, deserving of a nomination. But if you require a sympathetic character to root for in your films, you won't find one here.
Last King of Scotland: Forest Whitaker deserves all the awards he's been getting, and the film -- the Ugandan dictator as seen through the eyes of his Scottish doctor -- stands up as well.
Borat: You'll laugh, you'll squirm. But all in all, very funny stuff. Not for everyone though.
Thank You for Smoking: I saw this almost a year ago, but I remember it as wickedly funny.
On my must-see list the next two weekends: The Departed and Dreamgirls in the theater, Little Miss Sunshine and United 93 via Netflix. Then, if I have time: Pursuit of Happyness and Children of Men. We'll see.
What's on your still-must-see list? Here's your options:
In theaters now (at least here in the Twin Cities): The Departed, Dreamgirls, Babel, The Queen, Letters From Iwo Jima, Notes on a Scandal, Last King of Scotland, A Night at the Museum (just kidding), Little Children, Borat, Blood Diamond, Volver, The Pursuit of Happyness, Venus, Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth
On DVD now: Little Miss Sunshine, United 93, Flags of Our Fathers, The Devil Wears Prada, An Inconvenient Truth, Thank You for Smoking
Coming soon to DVD: The Departed, Half Nelson, Marie Antoinette (Feb. 13); Babel, The Prestige, For Your Consideration (Feb. 20)
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3 comments:
My must-see vote goes to "Little Children," the dark suburban drama about stay-at-home dads and moms who, uhm, make the most of afternoon naptime. It was a hugely satisfying movie that at the same time had us running out at the end to call the babysitter and check on our own children...
"Little Children" is with Kate Winslet, right? That's going on my Netflix list.
I started off much like you did, having not seen many Oscar movies and having to catch up quickly. Luckily, many of the ones in limited release in late 2006 went wide in January & February.
From EW's 25 Must-See list, I've gotten up to 15, three of which I caught on video (Little Miss Sunshine, United 93, and Half Nelson). In the end, I've seen all the movies that got Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Screenplay nominations.
To catch up that quickly, I started my Oscar-buzz marathon a few weeks ago with a quadruple-header one Saturday. Starting at 11:00AM, I saw The Queen, Dreamgirls, and Children of Men back-to-back and then Pan's Labyrinth after a slight break. A few weeks later I did a double-header of Volver and Notes on a Scandal.
I enjoyed watching so many movies in a short amount of time, but I ran out of steam and didn't have it in me to finally see Blood Diamond.
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