Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Ranking the 2012 Best Picture Nominees

9. War Horse

Any enthusiasm I had for War Horse unceremoniously disappeared a mere 10 minutes into the film, when I came to the devastating realization that the movie’s equine protagonist was either unwilling or unable to talk. If The Blind Side taught us anything, it was that making a movie in which the main character never says a word is rarely a good idea. War Horse does its best to make up for its silent star, but the film remains painfully boring at times, and its focus on the horses prevents us from getting to know any of the underdeveloped human characters in depth. It seems director Stephen Spielberg couldn’t decide whether he was making a war movie or a children’s movie, and unwisely tried to make War Horse a hybrid of both.

8. The Descendants

Nearly every character in The Descendants is a walking cliche: from the misbehaving teenage daughter and her ludicrously idiotic meathead boyfriend to the evil developers hell-bent on building a hotel over pristine wilderness. Even the main protagonist Matt King (played by a criminally overrated George Clooney) is also by-the-book, as a lawyer too caught up in his professional life to notice his wife is having an affair. At least they are more dynamic characters than Matt’s wife, who gets far too much screen time considering she is literally in a coma for most of the movie (incidentally, this same critique could be applied to every character Mark Ruffalo has ever played). There is a glaring lack of any real curveballs to interrupt the predictability of The Descendants, and its beautiful Hawaiian setting can’t hide the fact that it is a generic film.

7. Moneyball

I hate to pick on The Blind Side again — wait, no I don’t. People need to stop making Michael Lewis books into movies. Although Moneyball is a much better film than The Blind Side, its stakes were so low that there was no real drama. A scene in which Billy Beane (Brad Pitt, in a much less impressive performance than his role in The Tree of Life) yells at his team for horsing around in the locker room after a loss serves as a microcosm of how I see the film: If the players don’t even care if the team is winning, why should the audience? Beane keeps talking about how badly he wants to “change the game,” but the reasons behind this desire are unconvincing, and it’s unclear whom these changes would benefit. The real-life situation upon which Moneyball is based was not interesting enough to merit a film, and the script largely avoided taking any sorely-needed dramatic license.

6. The Help

The Help was entertaining and at times inspiring, but I could never quite shake the feeling that the movie was playing it way too safe in its portrayal of race relations in 1960s Mississippi. We are shown an almost offensive lack of nuance: Most of the racism is blatantly overt, and the overarching subtle racism that actually pervaded Southern society at that time is mostly ignored. The film’s main antagonist (Bryce Dallas Howard, in the most embarrassingly over-the-top portrayal of a Southern lady since Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side) is one-dimensionally evil, while Emma Stone’s heroic Skeeter is improbably virtuous. I don’t buy that the racism which seemingly has infected everyone around Skeeter has somehow completely passed her by. That said, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were both superb as two stoically struggling maids, and The Help earned its satisfying happy ending.

5. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close received only 46 percent positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, a shockingly low figure for a Best Picture nominee. But nearly every negative review I’ve read refuses to judge the movie at face value based on its merits as a film, complaining unconvincingly instead about how the film disrespects or even exploits the memory of 9/11 victims. I would argue that films like World Trade Center and United 93, which caused much less of an outcry than Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, were much more exploitative of 9/11, as they were essentially 9/11 reenactments rather than creative attempts to tell the story in a new light from a fresh perspective. If the main character’s father in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close had died in a car accident instead of on 9/11, the overall story arc and sentiment would only be marginally different, and the naysayers would be able to see the film for what it always was: masterfully acted, sufficiently engaging and emotionally spot-on.

4. Hugo

Um, what was the deal with the random explosion that killed Hugo’s dad near the beginning of the film? He was just kind of walking around one day, and then BOOM, he got brutally fireballed! Completely out of the blue!  I can’t find any satisfying explanation on the Internet, and most people seem just as confused as I was. But if you allow yourself to move past this bizarre mystery, as any reasonable person should be able to do, you’ll probably love Hugo as much as I should have loved it. Martin Scorsese’s masterful use of 3D imagery should put to bed any last complaints that people still have about the recent 3D resurgence. The film was charming, though not terribly complex, and it is ultimately a kid’s movie that doesn’t quite have what it takes to hold its own among the year’s top, more mature films.

3. The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life was the last of the nine nominees I watched, and an hour in, I had already decided I was going to rank it No. 1 on this list. But then the film stopped being experimental and spent the next hour focusing on a relatively pedestrian plotline. I was expecting it to become clear why the film stopped for 20 amazing minutes during the first hour to walk us through the history of the universe, but it didn’t, and notoriously reclusive writer-director Terrence Malick refuses to give interviews explaining his motives. The film wisely returned to its dream-like abstract nature near the end, but the mundane hour in the middle was a huge disappointment. Despite first-time child actor Hunter McCracken’s transcendent performance (he was much better than the young lead actors in Hugo andExtremely Loud and Incredibly Close), the film as a whole came up a bit short of true greatness.

2. The Artist

It will be an absolute travesty if George Clooney wins Best Actor for his role in The Descendants (which many people are predicting he will), when Jean Dujardin’s profoundly charismatic performance in The Artist was easily the best acting I saw this year. The Artist lovingly recreated the style and feel of 1930s silent films, and the impressive novelty of watching a well-made 21st century silent movie never really wore off. Also, a Best Supporting Actor nod for Uggie, the show-stealing Jack Russell terrier, wouldn’t be so far-fetched (pun intended). The film, however, didn’t do a great job of mixing drama and comedy, to the extent that its most serious and most overtly humorous moments generally felt out of place. This strange dichotomy cost The Artist the top place on my list.

1. Midnight in Paris

I’m admittedly a sucker for Woody Allen, so take it with a grain of salt when I tell you that Midnight in Paris is the only one of the nominees without any noteworthy flaws. The casting of Owen Wilson was somehow a stroke of genius, and Corey Stoll should be given a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his delightful portrayal of Ernest Hemingway. Woody milked every last drop out of the film’s inspired premise, and it’s comforting to see that he hasn’t yet lost a beat. But while Midnight in Paris was definitely a great film, the 2011 Best Picture field is the weakest in recent memory. This is my third consecutive year ranking the nominees for the guide, and had Midnight in Paris been in the field for 2009 or 2010, it wouldn’t have cracked my top three either year.

Leave a Comment
Donate to The Hoya

Your donation will support the student journalists of Georgetown University. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to The Hoya

Comments (0)

All The Hoya Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *