movies

Recent films

Slumdog Millionaire – I’ve already gone off on this film plenty of times (see: here) , and I saw at least 20 films last year that were better and more deserving of a title such as Best Picture. It’s not bad, and it qualifies as cute, but I don’t understand the rapturous orgasm that accompanied this film.

Newer Films

Elegy – This is a small film based on a novel by Philip Roth about a professor (Ben Kinglsey) having an affair with a grad student (Penélope Cruz). Elegy is strong until about halfway through, and then it falls into mushy sentimentality. The acting from the two leads in excellent, and there are really great supporting turns from Patricia Clarkson and Dennis Hopper. Beware of the small part played by Peter Sarsgaard, one of the worst actors working today for my money.  How does the man keep getting work?

With the Oscars only hours away, I wanted to fill some of the empty cracks that I left in my film reviews from the past 5 months. Three of the five films nominated for best picture I have already reviewed in full, which I link to below. The other two I wasn’t able to see until a while after their release date, so I didn’t feel it was entirely relevant. But now that they are vying for best picture this Sunday, I felt it fit to do some write-ups on them. I threw in my predictions for this Sunday at the end.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Frost/Nixon