My wife took me to see Hotel Rowanda last night as part of my B'day night out and I cannot believe it was not nominated for Best Picture. I've seen four of the five nominees (all but Neverland) and Rowanda certainly blew away both Aviator and Sideways. I personally think Million Dollar Baby should win, but I expect Ray to. Not having seen Neverland I can't comment there.
But back to Rowanda...wow! What a powerful and moving film. Well acted, not schmaltzy or politically preachy...just an interesting account of events.
How historically accurate was it? Who knows? I wasn't there so I can't say
(nor can anyone else who wasn't there). I'm just reviewing it as a piece of movie making and by that standard it was incredible.
I can't see what all the hype is about "Sideways". I'm typically love quirky,
under the radar, arthouse flicks and while Sideways was a decent road movie and was not overly impressed. I went in thinking I was going to see the best movie of the year and I left thinking...I've seen this done a thousand times before...and often better. I thought of it as a high brow "Dumb and Dumber".
Aviator is the typical big budget, hi profile biopic about a famous figure in history over coming so called "obstacles". I think Scorcese should have seen "Rowanda", "Ray" or even "...Baby" first so he could have had some perspective. It's hard to believe Scorcese used to be my favorite director. The last decent movie he directed was "Cape Fear" and that one was only "decent". I think of the classics he made between Mean Streets('73) and After Hours('89?) and I wondered what the heck happened to him?
Soooooo....based on what I've seen Rowanda is the Best Pic this year, based on what's nominated Million Dollar Baby, based on who I think will win...looks like it will be Ray(the acadamy just can't seem to get past the sympathy vote stigma). Apologies to Neverland!
