Media Junkie

AMC Best Picture Showcase 2012 - Day Two Recap

With the Oscars looming just hours away tonight, AMC's annual Best Picture Showcase wrapped up last night with the final five nominees.  Some cities also hosted a 24-hour marathon of all nine films, though my market was not one of them. 

Day Two was a day filled with surprises.  I wasn't looking forward to the majority of films on the schedule, but was pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed most of them more than I thought I would.

AMC Best Picture Showcase 2012 - Day One Recap

It's that time of year again!  The time when film fanatics quibble over Oscar nominations and gather at their local AMC Theater for their annual Best Picture Showcase, a two-day event that gives attendees a chance to see all the films nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Picture.

Last year's event was the first time I'd attended, and despite a few problems with the quality of the prints shown, it was such a blast that it is now a yearly tradition for my friend Chris and I.  The AMCBPS is an awesome event for movie buffs, even if we don't agree with the Academy's choices. 

Unlike last year, I hadn't seen a single one of the nine pictures nominated for Best Picture.  This not only made me more anxious to see everything for the first time, but it levels the playing field a bit since I haven't had weeks or months to digest a particular film and develop a bias towards it. Sadly, part of the reason I haven't seen any of the films nominated is that I had no interest in half of them to begin with, but you never know when a surprise - good or bad - might be in store when it comes to movies.

Required Viewing: Take Shelter

Take Shelter
Sony Pictures Classics
121 minutes
2011
R

Oscar nominations are always controversial.  There are always films, directors, actors, and actresses that get snubbed.  It comes with the territory when there are so many films that come out in a given year.  There is, perhaps, no greater injustice at this year's Oscars than overlooking Michael Shannon for his performance in Take Shelter.  Probably best known for his work as Agent Nelson van Alden in HBO's Boardwalk Empire, Shannon gives a tour de force performance as psychologically troubled everyman, Curtis LaForche, in this gripping character drama.
 
Take Shelter is only the second feature film from director Jeff Nichols, but it has garnered much critical acclaim.  It's an odd film in many ways, being both incredibly slow but also incredibly interesting.  Not a moment passed where I found myself anything less than completely invested.  It defies many genre classifications.  It's most certainly a drama, but there are elements of horror and psychological thriller films.  There's a strong family element, and an apocalyptic theme.  I'll spare myself the trouble of identifying it by genre and simply call it spellbinding.

Required Viewing: We Need To Talk About Kevin

We Need To Talk About Kevin
Artifical Eye
112 minutes
2011 (Cannes Premiere)/2012 (Limited Release)
R

Upon concluding my first viewing of director Lynne Ramsay's We Need To Talk About Kevin, based on the book of the same name, there was only one thought in my head: What in the world is wrong with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences?!  How this film did not get nominated for Best Picture is beyond all logic and comprehension.  I understand that all art and entertainment is subjective, and I may not be a professional film critic - just a guy who has seen a lot of movies - but my knowledge of what it takes to make a good film is, I like to think, not inconsiderable.
 
How can it be that a picture with such amazingly haunting performances, incredible cinematography, and even brilliant use of licensed music went completely unnoticed?  I understand how the Academy works when it votes on Best Picture.  I know the logistics of how the nominees are chosen, but what I don't understand is how the hell this movie didn't make it on more members' lists.  Was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that much better in the eyes of the people who vote, despite the fact it received a lukewarm response from professional critics?
 
What we have here is a travesty.  We Need To Talk About Kevin is one of the most disturbing, gut-wrenching films I've ever seen.  It's a horror film for people who don't like horror films - not loaded with blood and gore or supernatural entities, but a truly terrifying, cold-blooded monster with seemingly no remorse: a teenage boy.

Required Viewing: The Ides of March

The Ides of March
Columbia Pictures
R
101 minutes
2011

It's not uncommon for political thrillers to come out around election season.  With politics and a potential shift in leadership on the minds of the American people, it makes films like The Ides of March that much more relevant.

The Ides of March is a film about the dirty game that is politics, and what it requires to play.  It mainly follows the story of campaign managers working for prospective Presidential candidates and features an ensemble cast, comprised of some of the most supremely talented veterans in the business, any of whom are capable of carrying a picture on their own. 

Required Viewing: Drive

Drive
FilmDistrict
R
100 minutes
2011

Now that this year's Oscar nominations are out, the dissenting can begin.  The discussion over which films were snubbed is in full swing, and if there's one film that deserves to be on every list, it's Drive.
 
Originally imagined as a blockbuster, Drive is instead an indepedent, extremely stylish noir picture that borrows elements of classic heist films, car chase flicks, violent action movies, and character-driven dramas and melds them together into something completely unique.  Drive is a deceptively complex film with multi-layered characters, and a technical marvel in the hands of director Nicolas Winding Refn and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel.  An equal amount of credit must be doled out to screenwriter Hossein Amini, and of course, the cast who bring the characters to life.