Sunday, April 23, 2006

Our own Oscars

DW and I have worked our way through this past year's best picture nominees on DVD. We added one film to the mix that should have been nominated but wasn't. Of course, all of these films have their own strengths and weaknesses, and comparing and contrasting is a game of apples and oranges. I dig social, political, and historical themes, so this was a pretty good year for me. I need to give "Crash" another chance; I haven't been able to make myself watch it all the way through yet. Comments? Suggestions?

Randy's rankings:
1. A History of Violence
2. Capote
3. Brokeback Mountain
4. Good Night, and Good Luck
5. Walk the Line
6. Crash

DW's rankings:
1. Good Night, and Good Luck
2. Capote
3. Walk the Line
4. A History of Violence
5. Brokeback Mountain
6. Crash

8 comments:

Mike D. said...

funny the you both had crash, the winner, at the bottom of your lists. i didn't think that it was picture of the year material myself.

Ann said...

I haven't seen one single one of those movies. I really want to see Good Night and Good Luck and Walk the Line.

Craig said...

Well, I've only seen Brokeback, and I didn't think it was all that good, so point for DW there. However, despite not having seen Walk the Line, I am suspicious of any media that appears to piggyback off of the popularity of its subject, so point for you there.

I heard a good review of a History of Violence on NPR, so point to the blogger. But I read an interesting article relating to Good Night, and Good Luck in the New York (I think).

With that, the tie remains tied. You have the same No. 2s, and from there, everything equals out.

Refuge said...

I take it only American movies qualify for this list?

Randy said...

I think the Academy only considers English-language movies for best picture, whether they are American, British, Australian, Canadian, or whatever. Technically, I think A History of Violence might qualify as Canadian. Certainly there are great films in other languages; I just didn't see any that came out this past year.

Prof. Ormsbee said...

I think you have the five nominees wrong--you're missing Munich (check out my blog for my review, which includes my take on Crash, which I did not like). I haven't watched History of Violence yet, but it's in my DVD player as we speak!

Of the five nominated, I would put them in this order:

1. Brokeback
2. Capote
3. Good Night, and Good Luck
4. Munich
87. Crash

Last night, I watched Paradise Now and was blown away. Too bad it was "foreign language", because it was easily one of the best films of 2005, a subtle, compassionate and morally complex examination of the last two days in the lives of two Palestinian suicide bombers. Brilliant.

I also watched The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio over the weekend. Juliane Moore is brilliant (I might even give up guys for a woman like her!) as always, and it's a sweet little film.

Randy said...

Oh, yeah, Munich! I do want to see that one. Thanks, Todd. You'll dig A History of Violence. Even the special features are pretty cool.

Prof. Ormsbee said...

oh yeah, the top four are all brilliant and it is really difficult to rank them for me.