Like Kathryn Bigelow, recipient of the Oscar for Best Director, I’m utterly speechless. Last night the Academy decided, under pressure from the big moneymakers and unique genre films, to select the best-made film for best picture. Going into this, I was almost certain that it was going to be Kathryn Bigelow for Best Director and Avatar for Best Film. I am so glad that I was wrong.
"Hurt Locker" Director Kathryn Bigelow
Co-head New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis just gave an interview with Jezebel, and she held little, if anything, back. “Let’s acknowledge,” she says right off the bat, “That the Oscars are bullshit and we hate them. But they are important commercially… I’ve learned to never underestimate the academy’s bad taste. Crash as best picture? What the fuck.” (more…)
(Adam Hirsch’s review of Avatar can be found here.)
Avatar, dir. James Cameron (2009)
I can only imagine how much fun James Cameron had designing every aspect of Pandora. Its luminescent landscape, shiny-coated animal life, and floating islands all convey the sense of wonder Cameron himself must have felt in the face of his technological toys. The film’s 3D is barely noticeable, which I consider a victory. 3D has always been a distraction; in Avatar it seems—ironically—natural. (more…)
Avatar (Dir. James Cameron, 2009)
All right, I’ll say it.
Avatar might very well be the most deeply racist film made in Hollywood since World War II. The film functions on the basis of James Cameron’s fetishization of the native and never breaks from that original persuasion. This is nothing new; the West has long objectified and idealized aboriginal and indigenous populations. Avatar, however, might be the first major piece of Orientalism put out in the last forty years by an author (read: filmmaker) completely, it seems, unawares. It’s also, at $230 million dollars, the most expensive film ever made. (more…)
This is the time of the year when the big passion-projects come out–films that either soar (Lord of the Rings, Million Dollar Baby) or sorely disappoint (All the Pretty Horses, Ali, Alexander). It’s Oscar season, but you wouldn’t know it from the year-end mainstream releases, many of which hope to be THE hit Christmas movie. Don’t believe the hype: Sherlock Holmes will be mostly air, It’s Complicated won’t work out (just stop, Nancy Meyers) and were you actually going to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel? There won’t be much to see for a while besides Avatar, unless you live in a town with an independent cinema, until some of the indies start to expand.
Here are a half dozen movies I GUARANTEE are worth seeking out: (more…)
