Mumbai Over New Orleans
Issues of quality and artistic merit aside, my Ray Walston Martian antennae readings are telling me that in terms of emotional mob-approval signals, Danny Boyle 's Slumdog Millionaire is beating out David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in the Best Picture contest as it currently stands. I'm just talking about a snapshot on a moving train, mind. Ten minutes from now we could be looking at different scenery.
But it's fair, right now, to make a spitball call and say that Millionaire might be taking over the front-runner position. No, it is taking over. A lot of folks are applauding, loving it (Real Geezers included) and telling their friends, and that's the bottom line in this game.
I'm saying this based on the various meh reactions to Button that have been flying around for the last couple of weeks. The first high-profile, big-crowd Button screening happens tonight at L.A.'s DGA theatre, and the first big New York screening happens next Monday night so it's obviously a little early to be making any firm calls. But so far I'm just not detecting any kind of "wow, blown away" reactions to the Fincher flick, although I've been told that one former big-time journalist is a huge fan. I'm sure there are others. I may be one as of next Monday evening.
I know that older, seemingly more thoughtful early-bird viewers have posted admiring comments about Button, and I'm certainly not writing it off. (Please understand that!) But the general rule-of-thumb is that any presumed Best Picture favorite has to have a detectable wave of emotional enthusiasm behind it, and for whatever reason -- so far, at least -- the middle-aged-men-getting-all-teary reactions to Button that were passed along a few weeks back haven't manifested with the smarty-pants know-it-alls. Reactions have basically been "good but not great, no crying at the end, great technical achievement, beautiful photography, fine film," etc.
And reactions like that are basically an "almost but no cigar." A Best Picture winner has to be a manifestation of someone's idea of a great, drop-dead, grand-or-penetrating-theme art film or it has to get people emotionally in a big way. Sorry, but them's the rules.
I'm not even mentioning the measured reaction to Button that Oprah Winfrey conveyed when her Brad Pitt-Cate Blanchette Button special aired yesterday. Say what you will about Winfrey but she's thought to be a kind of emotional geiger counter regarding the penetration power of certain movies and books, and a friend who caught the show thought it was significant that she used the words "fascinating" and "interesting" more than once to describe her reactions to Button. Make of this what you will.
In a way, it's good for Button to be out of the font-runner slot. Now it doesn't have anything to prove. Now it can sink or swim or soar based on what it is or isn't, and what people are saying to each other on a day-by-day, screening-by-screening basis. And that's fine.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 20, 2008 at 11:01 AM
comment #1
Dzayson
says ...
I was very meh on Benjamin Button. Good movie, sure, but it certainly didn't knock my socks off. Revolutionary Road, on the other hand, is going to catch on fire in the next month, I think. A movie this good can't NOT succeed with the Academy. And in a perfect world, Che would be up for all the major awards as well.
Posted by Dzayson
at November 20, 2008 12:45 PM
comment #2
actionman
says ...
Button is easily my #1 film to see for the rest of the year. Slumdog is right behind it.
Posted by actionman
at November 20, 2008 12:46 PM
comment #3
Breedlove
says ...
Saw 'Slumdog' the other day...nice movie, entertaining, would be a very weak Best Pic winner. The only other Best Pic contender I've seen is 'Dark Knight,' which is light years better, as I expect 'Benjamin Button' to be. I wouldn't get too excited for 'Slumdog.' It's pretty and goes down easy but it's fluff. I doubt it will make my year-end Top 10.
Posted by Breedlove
at November 20, 2008 12:56 PM
comment #4
actionman
says ...
Nice to hear from you, Breedlove. It's been too long since I last saw a post from you.
Posted by actionman
at November 20, 2008 1:01 PM
comment #5
NC Gary
says ...
I've watched the BUTTON trailer twice. The movie looks long and boring. That probably means it's a lock for Best Picture. LAST EMPEROR, OUT OF AFRICA, DANCES WITH WOLVES, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, etc.
Posted by NC Gary
at November 20, 2008 2:05 PM
comment #6
snackyx
says ...
Someone at Paramount had better get in contact with the advertising department at Hollywood Elsewhere and make a holiday buy for the "Platinum Banner Package" or this could get ugly.
Posted by snackyx
at November 20, 2008 2:10 PM
comment #7
aspiringcrackaddict
says ...
Slumdog stands a chance of winning because it has poor kids standing head to toe in shit (Poor them).
I admire the effort that went into it, but I was done with it after the first 40 or so minutes.
A little too overdone for my taste.
I actually hope Button doesn't stand a chance of Winning. Most Oscar films are good for one viewing then two years later you realize it was just the spirit of the mob that swept you up.
I hope button is the type of film that will last and those films;
Raging Bull, The Insider, Goodfellas, Citizen Kane, usually don't get the statue.
So my congrats to who ever made the most geriatric piece of shit that can sweep the mob of it's feet, please don't let it be button.
Posted by aspiringcrackaddict
at November 20, 2008 2:17 PM
comment #8
berg
says ...
... everybody knows that D'Artagnan in the fourth musketeer, right?
Posted by berg
at November 20, 2008 2:27 PM
comment #9
qwiggles
says ...
Slumdog's second half has the emotional complexity of Aladdin and the subtlety of Michael Moore. If the film did not go to such great pains to explain that Jamal was such an outstanding person -- "It is written!" -- I would say he was the most dramatically inert protagonist to frontline any best picture contender since Chocolat.
Anyway, since my least favourite of the nominees has won 8 of the past 10 years, expect it to follow suit and sweep.
Posted by qwiggles
at November 20, 2008 3:10 PM
comment #10
Chase Kahn
says ...
I enjoyed SLUMDOG immensely -- very good movie, but I didn't walk out thinking it was a best picture winner, not at all.
THE WRESTLER, on the other hand, is amazing -- and right now, WALL-E and THE WRESTLER are the two best movies that I've seen this year...
Posted by Chase Kahn
at November 20, 2008 3:56 PM
comment #11
Luke Y. Thompson
says ...
I just saw Slumdog last night. Thought it was cute, a crowd-pleaser for art-house fans, and a decent date movie...but Oscar-worthy? Not even.
When it comes to stories about unfortunate kids in India, Deepa Mehta wipes the floor with Danny Boyle.
Posted by Luke Y. Thompson
at November 20, 2008 4:11 PM
comment #12
pchu
says ...
Wall-E, Dark Knight, Slumdog should all be there at Oscar time. And if they release The Hurt Locker this year, that should be there too.
Posted by pchu
at November 20, 2008 4:17 PM
comment #13
Ryansi51
says ...
Goddamn, was anybody else as BORED by Wall*E as I was.
It was okay but my god all the critical acclaim?? one more "Wall-e!!" out of that girl robot i was gonna strangle someone.
Posted by Ryansi51
at November 20, 2008 4:37 PM
comment #14
Chase Kahn
says ...
No, WALL-E is like Jeff said, "some kind of masterpiece"...it's incredible, in my opinion. I really didn't like RATATOUILLE all that much.
Posted by Chase Kahn
at November 20, 2008 5:28 PM
comment #15
lazarus
says ...
Wells: "But the general rule-of-thumb is that any presumed Best Picture favorite has to have a detectable wave of emotional enthusiasm behind it..."
As a rule-of-thumb, yeah. But I don't think you could say that about the last two BP winners. The Departed and No Country were both brilliantly-executed thrillers by cinematic masters, but emotional enthusiasm? The Coens' film left you with something to ponder but it didn't leave people sobbing out the door with tears of joy or sorrow.
Posted by lazarus
at November 20, 2008 6:47 PM
comment #16
Yuval
says ...
Yes, Wall-E is boring and childish. It deals with REAL issues, but does it in a boring and chilidish way.
Posted by Yuval
at November 20, 2008 8:25 PM
comment #17
janee
says ...
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Posted by janee
at May 19, 2011 1:41 AM