Oscar Polishing

I've now seen all of the Best Picture nominations I can "legally" see before February 22nd. Benjamin Button, Frost / Nixon, Slumdog Millionaire and Milk down; just The Reader to go. Unfortunately due to the fools who schedule release dates in New Zealand, I'll have to wait until the end of April to see The Reader. Grrr.

The verdict so far: of the 4 I've seen, Milk is the better film , with Frost/Nixon a distant second. So many of Gus van Sant's projects have been hit and miss in the past, but here he delivers with a biopic of the 1970s Gay Rights activist, Harvey Milk. Not only is Sean Penn a joy to watch but his co-stars James Franco and Josh Brolin also deserve a mention, and the film - and Milk's passion - effectively does for San Fransisco what Woody Allen did for New York.

In Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, Michael Sheen and Frank Langella dazzle in front of a stellar cast. Not to everybody's taste (a 2-hour film about an interview), the only criticism I have of the film is that the talking-head sections - where the supporting characters explain away their motives - feels as unnecessary as Harrison Ford's voiceover in Blade Runner.

Although Benjamin Button is a great film, it is in no-way Oscar-material and not a patch on Fincher's previous film, Zodiac - completely ignored by the Oscars last year (probably due to an early release more than anything else). I still find it difficult to accept that Benjamin Button and David Fincher received Best Picture and Best Directing nominations whilst The Dark Knight and Christopher Nolan were snubbed.

Slumdog Millionaire - while as visually stunning as all Danny Boyle's work - is the victim of a forced, childlike narrative. It's worth watching just to see the transition between Boyle's previous film and this. The very fact that this director can effortlessly go from Sunshine, one of the finest British science-fiction films ever, to a feelgood knockabout drama set in Mumbai should see him earn the directing award at the very least.

I found it amusing that Indians apparently don't pronounce the penultimate syllable in the word 'millionaire', so when the guy playing the presenter of the game show kept saying the word, it sounded like a Frenchman saying the word 'milliner'. Bizarrely, this made the game show sound like "Who wants to be a Hat Maker".

All of this is in sharp contrast to a film I watched last week - Wanted, starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freeeman and Angelina Jolie. Although it's always nice to see Terence Stamp, even his appearance couldn't save this film - a mixture of Matrix-style sci-fi, Star Wars-style mythology and LOUD MUSIC. Bad? It plumbed new depths of shit. Can we please have no more films - ever - where the lead character is 'the one', 'the chosen one', or some other such calling? I'll take the shot of Angelina Jolie in a state of undress though. Always.