Darren Aronofsky’s (Black Swan, The Fountain) The Wrestler was my most anticipated movie of 2008. Professional wrestling is my guilty pleasure. I don’t watch it every week, and I never order a pay-per-view (okay, maybe Wrestlemania now and then), but I know what is happening. I also have a few compilation DVDs of some of my favorite wrestlers. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) really is a soap opera in an alternative form. When I first heard a movie coming out called The Wrestler, I figured it would be some lame comedy that made fun of the world of professional wrestling. When I heard that it was not, but was being referred to as not just one of the top 10 movies of the year but the performance of Mickey Rourke’s (A Prayer For The Dying, 9 1/2 Weeks ) career, I knew it was a movie I would see just as quickly as I could. The main problem was that I had to wait forever to see it. It was only filmed in cities like New York and Los Angeles for the longest period. Once it came closer to Washington DC, it was still in just one theater which was not very close to my house. Finally, some two months after dying to see the movie, I got my wish when it came to our local artsy theater. By then, the film could not live up to its hype.
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Category Archives: Academy Award Nominees
Moneyball (2011)
Moneyball is the true story of Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane. In 2001, the Athletics advanced to the Major League Baseball American League Division Championship Game, where their opening day payroll of $33,000,000 was facing the New York Yankees and their opening day payroll of $109,000,000 in an elimination game for the right to advance to the conference championship. Instead, the Athletics lose the game and the series. It is a foregone conclusion that the team will lose its three marquee players, who are free to sign wherever they want, to bigger market cities because the team doesn’t have the money to sign the players to the massive contracts they have demanded with great statistical seasons.
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The Descendants (2011)
With some of his performances, George Clooney has been known for hitting the ball out of the ballpark. A two-time Academy Award Nominee for Best Actor in a Leading Performance (2007’s Michael Clayton, 2009’s Up In The Air), Clooney is poised for his third nomination with 2011’s The Descendants. Successful as both a supporting actor (Academy Award Winner – 2005’s Syriana) as for as work behind the camera (Academy Award Nominee for Best Director – 2005’s Good Night and Good Luck), Clooney is at his best when the movie revolves around his performance as a leading man. This is precisely what happens in this movie. Continue reading The Descendants (2011)
Revolutionary Road (2008)
Leonardo DiCaprio (Gangs of New York, The Departed) and Kate Winslet (The Reader, Little Children) reunite for the first time since they smashed the box office record as Jack and Rose in 1997’s Titanic. Revolutionary Road is also a love story, but it’s about a couple falling out of love rather than falling in love. Both are superb in this movie. It is easy to identify with each of their characters. And while Winslet and especially DiCaprio are at the top of their game, they are overshadowed by two scene-stealing scenes involving Michael Shannon (Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, Take Shelter). Shannon plays the mentally unstable son of their real estate agent, friend Helen (Kathy Bates – Misery, Dolores Claiborne), and her husband. Michael has no filter between his brain and his mouth and thus tells anyone and everyone exactly what he is thinking at any given moment. This is not a good thing, as Michael’s outlook on life and people, in general, is as pessimistic as one can be. It creates moments of intensified drama resulting in unfiltered anger. Rightfully so, Shannon was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award (the award went to Heath Ledger for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight), even though he was on the screen for fewer than 15 minutes.
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Hud (1963)
What a great actor Paul Newman is. An eight-time Oscar nominee for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Newman finally won for 1986’s The Color of Money. During 11 years between 1958-1969, Newman received an Oscar nomination an astonishing six times. We have all seen the first two of these (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Hustler) movies. His third nomination was as the title role of the slightly less recognized Hud.