Oscars up your ass!!!

Over the past five days, I have managed to catch not one but two Academy Award contender films…well, the Valentine’s Day season is generally a hot ticket for move releases locally. 

If you want the usual Hollywood product, you’ve got Jumper and The Spiderwick Chronicles…but if local fare’s more to your liking, go help yourself with what could be the world’s longest shampoo commercial - oops, I mean My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend (BFGF).  Dunno…must’ve been the somewhat negative reviews (especially for the first) that steered me toward the direction of Juno and There Will Be Blood. 

Juno

Is it me or did my initial cynicism on the overwhelming online hype about this film evaporate upon viewing it on the big screen?  Well, credit goes to the wonderful cast, particularly Ellen Page, who portrays Juno McGuff with such amazing conviction that couldn’t possibly be expected of a girl her age (note to myself: ask for a copy of Hard Candy from my DVD dealer).   Notable among the supporting cast are Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as the suburban couple who wind up adopting Juno’s baby…I especially love the way the couple seemed to unravel even when their raison d’etre appeared to be on their way. 

Bonus points here to Diablo Cody’s screenplay, with an abundance of quotable lines destined to be nicked by bloggers and social networkers for the rest of the year…ah yeah, mea culpa.  Likewise worth commending is Jason Reitman’s direction, which avoids cheap sentiment and happy-ever-after endings but instead conveys a story effortlessly and makes the central characters relatable and accessible.     

Check out cameos from an “Office” guy as a quippy  convenience-store clerk, an ex-Jurassic 5 beatmaster as a chemistry teacher (that shouldn’t be hard to figure out)….oh wait, what’s a Moldy Peach doing as a maternity ward attendant???

There Will Be Blood

Yes, there is blood…but if in case I digress, it did not feel as long as it seemed to be.  Paul Thomas Anderson’s anti-valentine to human avarice and greed does go down from your eyes to your stomach like the visual equivalent of absinthe laced with Bailey’s.   

Upton Sinclair’s political novel “Oil!” is adapted here by director Paul Thomas Anderson, who deflects the narrative focus of the original work to focus on the father, rechristened here as Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis).  Mr. Plainview is a widower who practically raises his son right at the perilous environment of his oil rigs.  When his son, H.W. gets struck deaf as a result of an accident, that sets the catalyst for Plainview’s determination to push through with his pipeline…not to mention his eventual estrangement from his son (whose narrative made up the bulk of the source novel) 

As in Anderson’s previous work, “Magnolia”, religious eccentricity takes to the stage here, in the form of Paul Dano’s revivalist preacher Eli Sunday (what a stretch…from the autistic Dwayne Hoover in “Little Miss Sunshine” to this).   Nevertheless, the actors involved here - particularly Day-Lewis - make it a point not to chew the scenery with their performances. 

Also worthy noting is the sparse but rhythm-heavy musical score provided by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood (love those African tribal drums in the rig-explosion scene).   

Speaking of Africa…writer Upton Sinclair, who is best known for “The Jungle“, also wrote a children’s fantasy book which was adapted in 1967 by Walt Disney Pictures - The Gnome-Mobile. 

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