Oscars revisited for the first time

Finally.

Ron Howard, a director often derided for being a very “commercial” filmmaker (somewhat unfairly, I think), makes the David Frost–Richard Nixon post-Watergate interview into a compelling piece of historical fiction. The film is two-thirds build up and one third interview, but the characters are fully realised and the film avoids pigeonholing Nixon as a buffoon and Frost as a nimble Brit. Both are has-beens-to-be and in equal need of something to make a lasting impression on history, and the interview is it, as it culminates in one of the most fascinating moments in American history. Even more fascinating is an apparently fictitious phone call between Nixon and Frost shortly before the interview, a conversation that deftly reveals a lot about both speaker and listener.

“Slumdog Millionaire” is Danny Boyle’s Oscar little-engine-that-could, an Indian fantasy originally intended for DVD that ended up making millions and winning numerous top awards. The film is well made if over edited; the film seems a bit too audience friendly and formulaic – and if anyone says it’s not formulaic but “strikingly original”, they’re dead wrong. It’s a good movie with potentially star making turns for Dev Patel and Freida Pinto, but hardly worthy of the heap of acclaim it’s gathered.

Watching the first act of David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, a more meditative spin on “Forrest Gump”, I thought I was watching one of the most meticulously crafted, well structured and simply magical films in recent memory. That impression lasted more or less in tact until the third act, which takes the story of Benjamin Button and does very little that’s impressive with it. Kudos to the special effects and make-up teams, as well as to the luminous females of the film: Cate Blanchett as Button’s primary love interest; Tilda Swinton, who has one of the film’s best scenes; and Taraji P. Henson as Button’s guardian. Of the three nominees mentioned in this entry, this is the film that most deserved the Best Picture Oscar.