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Inception, The Social Network, TS3 Get Oscar Noms
Among the Best Picture nominations this year are Inception, The Social Network and Toy Story 3. In addition to TS3, the Animation category has How to Train Your Dragon and The Illusionist. Also getting a nod in documentary was Exit Through the Gift Shop, which is worth your time if you are into that sort of thing. You'll have to wait a month to find out who the winners are... and to find out what the stars will wear on the red carpet. Or to play the Oscar speech drinking game.
the King's Speech. I think most people here will relate to it.
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As a fan of animation and kid's movies, I think How to Train Your Dragon was hugely underrated. It is one of those movies that even a 2 year old can sit through and comprehend, which is a rarity for a full-length movie. But the subtlety of the characters is great and the emotions were well acted and realistic. The main character also appeals to the inner geek. There is certainly nothing mind-blowing in it, and the CG is average. But if you like this style of movie and have never seen it I highly recommend it.
BSG won a Peabody which is FAR more prestigous than any Emmy nomination.
I haven't seen Black Swan or The King's Speech yet. Let's assume most of the movies nominated were worth all the buzz. That doesn't change the fact that Inception is a masterfully crafted movie.
The beginning of the movie is chaotic with no explanation, and Nolan very slowly unravels his tale while interspersing action sequences without making them feel obligatory. He also edits between multiple layers cleanly. He tells a complex story without overt exposition. This is far harder than most people realize. He gets great performances from a number of actors, and pushes the visual barrier as well.
In the age of CGI and mammoth budgets, finding a way to show people something on film they've never seen is becoming harder and harder.
If that wasn't one of the five best directing perforances this year, then I don't know what to say.
For my money, Nolan is one of the best directors working today (along with Aranofsky, Boyle, Soderberg, and Spielberg) and this may have been his finest movie to date, and his most impressive directing work specifically.
And before someone goes screaming about the brilliance of the Cohen Brothers, or Clint Eastwood, or Polanski or anything like that, those guys can put together a fine drama. But their overall directorial acumen does pale compared to someone like Nolan.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Respectfully, I don't think you understood Inception... let me try to explain:
Inception opens with a shot of children building a castle on the beach. This is a biblical reference to Matthew 7.24 and the parable of the wise and foolish builders. The film closes when Cobb's real children tell us they are building a castle “on the cliff”. So we start and end with a biblical story about how getting to heaven requires faith in God. This encourages us to read Inception as an allegorical journey towards redemption through faith, not an action film. Having failed to “buy his way” to heaven, Cobb gets there by taking a “leap of faith”.
If you are confused by the spinning top or self-referential nature of the movie (films are also dreams, and who is to say what message the audience will find in the safe?), that's because you aren't thinking critically about what you saw. People who argue about the spinning top for instance miss the point. The ending of the film is a heaven sequence depicting Cobb’s reunion with God. We have the forgiveness of sins (immigration), the family reunion and the return to the heavenly garden. In order to get there Cobb simply needs to forgive himself (for his complicity in his wife's death) and sacrifice his own life to rescue Saito from limbo. The point of the spinning top is that Cobb ignores it -- he has faith.
One more paragraph because in case you still think that this is a stretch, consider that Michael Caine plays a master architect (creator). Or consider the scene where Cobb stops by Paris to ask his father for guidance. After being chided for his worldliness and corruption (“I never taught you to steal”), Cobb argues he is doing the best he can in a fallen world. But when he asks for help, help is given in the form of a woman whose mythological name suggests her role is guide Cobb out of the maze that is the mortal world (“all dreams are mazes”).
Given that the film has lines like "you have to die to wake-up" I don't think Nolan can be accused of subtly. But if he's made a film that goes over the heads of most filmgoers, it can only be because people have been trained out of having any expectations from movies by the very sorts of films you criticize. So whatever you want to say about Inception go ahead, but calling it a logically inconsistent film with mundane action sequences is about as far off-mark as you can get. This is a film about ideas (it doesn't always give answers -- where does Cobb get the "genesis" of the idea of salvation). If you watch it with the right mindset, I think you'll have a lot more fun and realize how much better it is than anything else released this year!
Not only are they available, but checking their main page, http://www.mattracks.com/ they are advertizing their role in Inception. I wonder which direction that relationship came from. Did the director want the tracks, or does Mattracks actively court films trying to get some product placement in there?
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