"Underwhelmed" is the word I used to describe how I felt about the Robert Redford, 2014 Academy Award Nominated* film All Is Lost. It concerned one of our most beloved actors, one of the icons of the medium, surely one of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of American actors* whose face is the only one that appears in the film, a face that carried with it the entirety of the struggle of life and death and the toll it takes on a man. Robert Redford is a titan in the world of cinema, everything he touches turns to gold, for the most part, and will certainly add to his legacy with this film and his performance in it. However, the first word that came to mind once the credits roll, once that hand plunges into the ocean to grab him, was "Finally." It wasn't the worst way to spend two hours, I've seen worse films, hell, I probably saw worse films that week, but my enjoyment did not live up to the hype and I was glad to be getting on with my day. There was something about a rich, old, white man that looks like the Sundance Kid enjoying his retirement on a boat that cost more than my parents house that just didn't resonate with me. A craggy, all-American man facing certain death and looking mortality in the eye and persevering and rising above the odds and all the other things a man can do and must do in a movie like this didn't equate to greatness for me. That being said, it was a perfectly fine movie. I admire its originality and its different focus but I feel that having a movie with no dialog and only one actor in the entire thing was a gamble. However, it looks like the gamble paid off for Redford, the director JC Chandor, and the studio because I'm positive that it will win numerous awards in the next few months.
What I'm saying is, for a film that will be a certain Oscar lock, as well as a crowd favorite was underwhelming, in my opinion. I've seen many more less memorable movies before and since but this one stuck with me. I've thought about it and tried to like it more than I initially did but I didn't budge. In the long run, who gives a shit if I liked this movie or not? The answer is, nobody. Including me. However, I enjoy this time of year because a lot of quality films are released in an attempt to qualify for Academy Awards and I will see or at least try to see most of them. I like being able to talk knowledgeably about all these films when the time comes around to talk about the Oscars but this years slate has been unimpressive so far. I usually hate those people that say the movies are shitty every year** and I'm pretty sure this year will redeem itself for me, but so far, the contenders aren't living up to their potential. Gravity was excellent, however, it's grandeur and attention to detail will be lost if I ever try to watch it again on a television. This was yet another case of a film with not much plot and not much dialog relying on the performance of one of the most beloved actors of our time talking to herself and cursing and doing a lot of face acting. A lot of floating around in both films. I had no interest in seeing The Butler. Blue Jasmine was pretty good, although not as funny, not as interesting, not as good as other recent Woody Allen films. Today I watched Dallas Buyers Club which featured an emaciated, gaunt, pale and scabby Matthew McConaughey in yet another Academy Award nominated* performance for Best Actor. In this case, I am underwhelmed for a different reason. DBC is the true story of someone facing certain death and looking mortality in the eye and persevering and rising above the odds...sound familiar? As with the handful of other films that have garnered early awards recognition, Fruitvale Station, The Butler, Rush, Captain Phillips, 12 Years A Slave, Lone Survivor to name a few, it is recognized that if you make a somber, important movie about a somber, important event and dramatize it to it's full Oscar potential, you're good. Unfortunately, Matthew McConaughey's best film this year was Mud which will probably get overlooked because it's a smaller film, a smaller story and more noticeably a fictional story. This falls in line with the other movies I was more excited about this year so far and to come, Her, American Hustle, and Nebraska to name a few.
But in the end, it doesn't matter. I love movies and even if there were 100 absolutely awful movies released this year, I will just come back next year to see what else is out there. I'm not all that worried about not liking what I'm supposed to like and appreciate because of its importance. For some reason, I have never been too fond of biographies, documentaries and films "based on a true story." I like fiction because you can come in as a fan completely unbiased, completely free of that anchor that "films based on a true story" always carry with them because naturally someone will have heard the "real story" on NPR or read an article about it online somewhere and go "Psshh, well you know, that's not what really happened" or the opposite, and watch Tom Hanks be heroic when in real life, his crew is suing him for ignoring orders and putting them in danger with the threat of pirates looming for them in the open seas. I have always enjoyed fiction more, possibly because my life is unexciting and I enjoy diving into a completely new, original world as opposed to being beat on the head and reminded of how horrible some event in history was and made to watch a two and a half hour dramatization of it. With Mud, which will probably end up being in my top ten of the year, I got a movie about friendship, hero worship, love and adventure all wrapped up in an awesome small genre film without being burdened about its real-world implications. No doubt, Ron Woodruff is a real life hero, his struggle inspired and helped a lot of people, but reading the story, you can't help but think how perfect it would be as a movie. Hopefully the engravers of the Oscar statues know how to spell "McConaughey".
*Projected (Stay tuned for the LDB,BL Oscar Predictions post, coming soon, I'm sure.)
**Last year, while watching the Oscars telecast, some guy sitting next to me at my friends house, right when Argo won for Best Picture, said, "That's so fucking stupid, that's the one that won?" I asked what he thought should've won and he said, "Well...I didn't see any of the other ones but they look better than Argo." I asked, "Did you see Argo?" He, of course, said "No." So that's why I rarely trust anybody's opinion on movies.
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