The End

And this folks is where my Oscar Challenge ends....

With three films that are not readily available to me, I must call this the end. Burma VJ, Most Dangerous Man, & Which Way Home (all documentaries), will not be viewed this year. However, once they become available I will provide my thoughts.

Either tonight or tomorrow morning, I will be providing my predictions of the Oscars and following the Oscars, I will be offering my thoughts on the winners.

I will be continuing this blog beyond the challenge as a reviewing station for all media that I absorb, films, television, books, etc. I hope that my insights can help you to further or mind and absorb media that you may not normally give a chance. I thank you, anyone that has been following me through the last month of reviews.

Enjoy your Oscar weekend.

The White Ribbon (Das Weiss Band)

THE WHITE RIBBON

Up For:
Best Achievement in Cinematography
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Though not viewing any of the other foreign language films this year, I still believe this film is strong enough to win.

The White Ribbon never feels like a foreign language film. Though a period piece set in black and white, the film could just as easily take place at anytime, any place (at times this film felt very much older).

The eeriness of the film is the a huge component in keeping the viewer absorbed. Two hours of subtitles and black & white could easily bore a person to death, but the film had so much more going for it to keep a person's interest intact.

The story was complex and twisting, keeping you in the middle a mystery the entire film, even through the end, where there are few answers given, simply assumptions made by the viewer from the information that was given.

Never have I seen so many wonderfully amazing performances by so many children. The young children could break your heart. The girls were gorgeous and could melt your heart, or they could be cold and concise. The boys were rascals one moment, but vigilantes the next. The children, by far, out-acted the adults in the film.

With no expectations going into the film, finding that the story was so dark, I was reminded of stories like Children of the Corn and Tommyknockers, without the supernatural feel. I felt as though anything and everything could happen in the film's plot, with deaths and injuries inflicted around every corner.

The film was subtle, never over the top, but never anti-climatic. There was a new relationship, or new cruel twist that derived to keep the German town it portrayed in constant array. By the end, you feel as though you lived in that town for years.

The costumes of the film were spot-on, the acting was unexpected, and the cinematography earned its nomination, almost seeing the color in the black & white, particularly the cut scenes of nature, where the swaying wheat or the trees almost seemed to pop out of the screen with such brilliance.

By far, from what the film was on paper, I did not expect to enjoy the film as much as I did and will cause me to see more from this director. I suggest that if you enjoy films like The Orphanage and Pan's Labrynth, along with the edginess of Children of the Corn, this is a great film to indulge yourself with.

(3 FILMS TO GO)

Il Divo

IL DIVO

Up For: Best Achievement in Makeup

Il Divo proved to be a very odd film. The makeup nomination, from my analysis must come from the formation of the main character, Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. A small, hunched-back, droopy eared man is the basis of this Italian political film.

Not sure it quite compares with the complexity and sheer abundance of makeup in both Star Trek & Young Victoria, but contributes to the film none-the-less.

My favorite portion of the film: the title sequences introducing characters, which take on a 3-D quality, in particular two back to back "lower thirds" used in the introduction of the film during a montage of deaths, a man hanging under a bridge and another man choking at a table.

The hardest part of this film was putting names with faces. Many different names and titles are used and with the language barrier, the film proved challenging to follow.

Not sure, even at the end of the film, that I got all I could from it and it may take another viewing to put it all together, but the style of the film is unlike any film I have viewed before with the constant spiking of the lens, and odd humor.

In the end, this is an odd nomination to go with an odd film. Period.

(4 FILMS TO GO)