Lexington, KY - Movies with serious Oscar ambitions tend to bunch up toward the end of the year. For the first time, the Academy will nominate 10 films this year for best picture honors, which gives long shots a chance at making the cut. Here are some fall releases that generated some early buzz.
Where the Wild Things Are
The beloved children's book by Maurice Sendak is a testament to the imagination. For all those parents who read "Where the Wild Things Are" over and over to their kids, as I did to my daughter, there was ample opportunity to embellish as you read. With only 10 sentences in the book, you could linger over the rich artwork and add all your own growls and gnashings of teeth to the story.
And therein lies the challenge for any filmmaker who would dare to take on this tiny classic -
how to embellish the barebones story into a full-length movie and still stay true to its essence.
For the most part, director Spike Jonze and writer Dave Eggers have pulled it off. Sure, there are times when their imaginings don't quite match yours, but that's to be expected. They have still captured the spirit of Sendak, which is, let's face it, slightly subversive.
"Wild Things" explores what it's like to be a kid, a time in your life when imagination is unbounded, energy is unlimited and, yes, things get broken. It's a time when the search to find yourself can get a bit selfish and obnoxious, and uninhibited fun can be followed the next moment by sadness and loneliness.
Most of us have long ago "put away childish things," so there's a lot in "Wild Things" that makes no sense. When Max (expertly portrayed by Max Records, yes, his real name) tells the wild things about his plans for the fort they will build, it's a vivid glimpse into the mind of a child. To our ears, it sounds like total nonsense, but it's a level of creativity that children understand.
The world eventually teaches children their "place." But in the kingdom of the Wild Things, children have something to teach us, too -
that a total wild rumpus can be a good thing, uncensored imagination can be liberating, and love is your mom serving you a warm bowl of soup.
Bright Star
In the little village of Hampstead in 1818 England, a young woman named Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) falls under the spell of the local dreamy poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw). Despite many obstacles, including Keats' meddlesome roommate (Paul Schneider), true love prevails and the two begin a romance for the history books.
At least that's the snippet of history on which "Bright Star" is based. True to its poetic pedigree, the film, written and directed by Jane Campion, is an artistically crafted, spare and sparse ode to another era. Cornish's portrayal of young Fanny is enchanting. And yet "Bright Star," which has gotten enough rave reviews and love from audiences at Sundance and Toronto to whip up Oscar buzz, ultimately drags and bogs.
Campion shows great respect for Keats' work, and much of the dialogue centers around the poetry itself. But it certainly doesn't help that the densely delivered British accents produce the distinct impression you're watching a foreign language film. Not good for a movie about poets and their masterful and evocative use of language.
Plus, the film takes a minimalist approach to plot. Without much background about these people or some explanation of their random comings and goings, we feel very little emotional investment in the couple as they trek down the road to tragic romance town.
It's quite a slog, with not nearly the heartfelt payoff that this ambitious little film promises.
Inglourious Basterds
There's a clue at the very beginning of "Inglourious Basterds" that things are not as they seem. This is a World War II action picture, yet we hear the 1960 theme music from "The Alamo" by classic spaghetti western composer Ennio Morricone.
It's vintage Quentin Tarantino. The geeky former video-store cashier is fond of taking one movie genre and throwing in references to other genres he loves, no matter how incongruent. It also lets us know that Tarantino is about to play fast and loose with history.
His skewed vision of WWII involves a band of Jewish-American commandoes waging guerilla warfare on Nazis behind the lines in France. And, in a separate storyline, a vengeful young Jewish woman runs a Paris movie house that's been picked to premiere a Nazi propaganda film.
Each of the film's five chapters is a suspenseful nail-biter, staged in claustrophobic settings such as a farmhouse, a basement bar or a theatre. It's reminiscent of "No Country for Old Men" with ruthless bad guys and equally ruthless good guys, ominous things about to happen and painfully drawn-out preludes to violence.
Brad Pitt is a crack-up as a former Tennessee moonshiner in charge of the commandoes, and MÈlanie Laurent and Diane Kruger stand out as steely resistance fighters who are just as tough as the men. But the real revelation is Christoph Waltz as the chief Nazi bad guy. He ranks right up there with legendary villains who combine oily charm with vicious sadism.
You should know that "Basterds" is an outlandishly violent and bloody film. Tarantino stages his action scenes with a jaunty lack of restraint. And he takes grand poetic license with actual history. Still, despite plenty of cringe-inducing moments, the two-and-a-half-hour running time flew by for me.
Critical and audience reactions to "Basterds" were mixed, but Tarantino's impact is always hard to ignore. It's clearly a long shot as a best film nominee, but an acting nomination for Waltz is as close as you get to a sure thing.