Argo

In 1979, Iranian revolutionaries storm into the US embassy, taking many hostages.  However, six Americans escape and find refuge in the Canadian embassy.  The CIA is given the task of getting them safely out of Iran, but there seemed to be no good ideas.  The best of these bad ideas comes to Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck, who also directs) from his son’s love of sci-fi movies: claim that the six are part of a film crew in Iran to scout out locations.  To pull this off, Mendez will need help from Hollywood, the president, the media and lots of luck to make them look like a real Canadian film crew.

Before you scoff at the absurdity of Hollywood aiding the CIA, remember that this is based on true accounts.  Mendez was a real CIA agent, who was later awarded for his efforts in this mission and the whole operation was deemed classified until the late nineties.

Alan Arkin plays Lester Seigel, a seasoned film producer helping Mendez make his fake movie look real.  He comes across as cantankerous old man, comfortable with himself, knows the ins and outs of the film industry with a hidden heart of gold.  While I love Arkin’s performances, this one didn’t scream Oscar status to me.  Sure, he does it well, but it doesn’t feel like anything new or exciting.  However, he does deliver the best lines in the film, like always.

What the film excels at, and shows off at the end, is how accurate the film’s setting and characters are.  It seems that a lot of attention was given to making the characters on screen look nearly identical to their real life counterparts over thirty years ago.  Iconic photographs of the time are recreated in the film, including the moment the embassy wall was breached, a man hanging from a construction crane and the deteriorated Hollywood sign.  However, the Hollywood sign was reconstructed in 1978, a year before this film’s setting begins, but I see Affleck’s idea incorporating that image to show how the film industry had lost its golden age luster and in need of reinventing.

While I appreciate this film and think that it was done to a high standard, I didn’t find myself connecting with it well.  It was taught, smart, visually compelling and kept me wondering how they would pull off the next round without getting caught.  There was just something missing that left me emotionally disconnected.  Perhaps the film didn’t get us close enough to the six hostages, or Mendez himself.  Or maybe that disconnection comes between the safe, pretend world of Hollywood and the harsh, volatile world of revolutionary Iran.  Bringing the two together is so jarring, and blurs boundaries.

Argo is nominated for seven Oscars.  While the film has a large following, I would not bet on it winning Best Picture.  Lately the film that wins Best Picture also wins best director, and sadly (leaving much of film community shocked) Ben Affleck was left out of that race.  But hey, this could break that long standing curse.

“Bad news, bad news. Even when it’s good news, it’s bad news.  John Wayne in the ground six months and this is what is left of America.”

Life of Pi

Based from the book by Yann Martel, Life of Pi tells the story of a sixteen year old boy lost at sea with a tiger.  The film mixes a good amount of at-sea thrills with survival scenes and still gives our hero a rich and full-bodied background.

From a present day adult Pi (Irrfan Khan), we get his story from the beginning.  He gives us an enthralling explanation of his full name and the ridicule it caused him at school.  As a young boy, Pi (Ayush Tandon) is interested in many religions and very open to multiple ideas of God.  Most importantly, his family owned a zoo in Pondicherry, India.  Being the younger son of the zookeeper was both magical and came with some harsh lessons, the most important of them involving his future companion at sea, Richard Parker, the tiger.

When his family decides to move their zoo to Canada in his teens, Pi’s world seems even less magical.  His young love is broken and his family and all their animals are crammed aboard a ship with no one that understands their culture.  The powerful storm that sends the ship sinking is an intense and scary moment.  Like Pi (Suraj Sharma), we don’t realize it’s power until it is too late.

While a majority of the film is spent with Pi alone at sea with Richard Parker, their adventures never grow stale.  Right away, Pi has to figure out how to protect himself from becoming the tiger’s last meal, but also realizes he can’t kill his threatening companion.  Fascinated, we watch Pi’s ingenuity keep himself safe and both of them nourished.  As they drift across the ocean, they encounter amazing things; luminescent jellyfish lighting up the night, a swarm of flying fish to feast on and places no one has ever lived to document.  But the elements and unforgiving sea push Pi and Richard to their limits in some of the harshest ways.

Throughout the film is theme about faith and believing in God, but it is never laid on very thick.  Before the older, present Pi begins his story, it is described as a tale to make you believe in God, but that’s about as preachy as the film gets.  With Pi’s childhood filled with respect for all religions and his in-between years less unquestioning, his time lost at sea is surely a metaphor for his fate resting in God’s hands.  However, the ending can make us question everything and how we interpret the film rests on what we want to believe.  With some of those astoundingly beautiful images Lee gives us, how can we not see something divine?

Ang Lee’s Life of Pi may be the most beautiful film to see this year.  Visually, the images are nothing short of amazing and can feel as soul quenching as Pi’s story of survival.  Its eleven Oscar nominations are spread wide across the board, from the tech awards to music, screenplay, cinematography, director and best picture.  It all but confirms that Life of Pi is one of the overall best films of the year.  I can honestly say it is like no other film I have ever seen before and I loved it.

“Richard Parker, come out you have to see this!  It’s beautiful!”

Brave

Pixar’s time in the film spotlight has never produced a movie quite like Brave.  This new venture may be a celebration of their committed relationship with Disney: a film about a princess.  But this is like no other princess-centric film before.  There’s no romantic love story.  She’s not happy about having to dress up, ever. And it’s more of a legend than fairy tale.

Princess Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) is a wild and free Scottish girl who hates being a princess.  All the lessons and traditions her mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) pushes onto her are boring and not at all what she wants in life.  She lives for days where she can ride her horse, Angus, through the glen, shooting arrows at targets she’s hung from trees and climbing steep cliffs to drink from mythical waterfalls.  Yeah, she’s pretty awesome.  In a prideful attempt to stop her betrothal, Merida accidentally offends the three clans who have traveled from afar to win her hand.

Rather than talk to her mother and explain that she’s not ready for marriage, she tries to take matters into her own hands.  She is led by the wisps (little blue spirits that look like flames) to a witch (who looks like a stock image Pixar character, remember the guy who fixes up Woody in Toy Story 2? or that old man in a short who plays chess for his own teeth?  She looks like that, with less teeth, different hair and a little waddling hunchback.) She asks for a spell that will change her mother, surely that will change her fate.

I think the team at Pixar has been studying the old Disney princess movies, taken that basic formula and turned it into something better than ever before.  For the first time, we have a rough and tough princess who doesn’t want anything to do with love, romance or marriage.  She still has something she wants to break free from, but she sees her main obstacle as her mother.  This is a perfect flaw, every mother-daughter relationship has some strain, especially daughters who’d rather not follow their mother’s lead.  Mix in some magic, mo’ magic leads to mo’ problems, and by the end, mother and daughter have grown closer and mended the kingdom.

Besides Merida, her mother and a jiggly woman who screams, we have a cast of two dimensional manly men.  Entire tribes can be described with grunting, cheering with spears in the air, and bagpipes blaring.  The three little brothers are silent helpers and comedic mischief makers.  Merida’s father, King Fergus (Billy Connolly), shows more emotion and love for his family in his core, but still has a tough exterior made mostly of excess testosterone and tales of how he lost his leg to a legendary bear.  We get the idea that nothing but a pissing contest gets done without a woman around.

Over the summer, I made a few Oscar predictions for Brave.  From the start, I believed it was an obvious contender for best animated feature and up until last week was sure Touch the Sky would be up for original song.  Only half my predictions came true and I still believe Brave has a good chance of winning animated feature, as Pixar has only lost the award once.  But who knows, Wreck-It Ralph and Frankenweenie are fantastic films, some of the best ever put out by Disney without the aid of Pixar.

Overall, Brave is a great princess movie, but not the best Pixar movie.  It certainly outdoes anything Disney ever tried on their own, but seems to sell itself short on originality and colorful characters, (but not nearly as short as Cars 2).  Still, Pixar has set the highest bar for animated films and they are still doing what they do well.  Brave is a fun, smart movie full of girl power, spunk and bravery.  It makes for the perfect mother-daughter film.

“I don’t want to get married, I want to stay single and let my hair flow in the wind as I ride through the glen firing arrows into the sunset!”

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has got to be one of the most innocent, pure and beautiful experiences in all of film.  It was the birth of a new kind of feature film and an insurmountable risk for Walt Disney and his studio.  I grew up with a VHS tape of the movie, and as I watched the film last weekend for the first time in nearly ten years, it was like visiting an old friend.  I knew every minute of it, could quote many lines with my favorite characters, but was happily surprised at the things I noticed and cherished that my eyes had never really caught in childhood.  Like the similarities between Dopey and Harpo Marx or beautiful panning shots that were an amazing feat in animation.  Had I not watching hundreds of great movies in the past couple years, they might be moments I would still never notice.

Snow White is about as perfect as an animated fairy tale can get.  Our princess, Snow White, is a completely innocent and vulnerable young girl.  She romantically meets a young prince, complete with Romeo and Juliet style balcony singing.  Her stepmother, is an evil queen with a magic mirror who informs her that she is no longer fairest in the land, but Snow White is.  The queen orders her huntsman to murder the girl out of jealousy, but he cannot do it.  Scared and running for her life, Snow White befriends some woodland creatures who lead her to a little cottage.  It’s the home of the seven dwarfs, who kindly let Snow White stay with them and vow to protect her from the evil queen.  But with her magic mirror, the queen can find out where Snow White is and with black magic she hatches a scheme to get back her title as fairest in the land.

The film and story itself is very lean.  I’ve heard in different commentaries that Walt Disney was a ruthless editor and worried that a full length animated feature would not hold the audience’s attention.  Because of that, nothing that was not essential to the story, or furthered character development was cut.  There are tales of a scene where the dwarfs build Snow White a bed and eat soup to song that just didn’t make it in.

One scene, that I personally feel pushed some dramatic boundaries that animation had not yet, is where the queen visits Snow White in disguise.  We watch with our knowledge of her evil plan and our dread grows as the queen slowly tricks Snow White into believing that her poisoned apple is a magic wishing apple.  Meanwhile, the woodland creatures and dwarfs are desperately trying to run back to the cottage in time to save Snow White.  The music is loud, fast and they fearlessly leap across ravines on the backs of the deer.  The scene cuts between the slow treachery in the cottage and the dwarfs hurrying back to rescue Snow White to create amazing tension in the juxtaposition.  Even the queen can feel it, watching Snow White take her sweet time with her wish, “Fine, fine! Now take a bite.”  By the time the scene has reached it’s climax, our adrenaline is already up and ready for the dwarfs to chase the queen.

Before Snow White, most of the animated characters that came out of Disney’s studios were not human, nor very realistic.  There was a lot of concern with Disney and his animators about making sure Snow White, the queen, the prince and the huntsman looked real and carried as much dramatic weight as an actor in a live action film.  Because animators did not feel strongly about their ability to make him more lifelike, the prince is used to his absolute minimum.  The scene with the huntsman was meticulously designed to give his character a malicious kind of weight that audiences could believe in.  In the scene where the dwarfs are crying around Snow White in their cottage, special care was taken to make sure any movement by the dwarfs reflected sorrow.  The moment where Grumpy buries his face in his hand, turns away and sobs is such a powerful moment in early animation, no one had imagined these cute cartoons could conjure such powerful emotion.

My favorite character in the film has always been Grumpy.  Growing up, my rebellious side that would rather watch horror movies than kids-stuff cartoons worked very much like he did.  The scowl and crossed arms were always just a front to hide how much we both really loved what was happening around us, “Ha! Mush.”  As I learned more about the making of this film and all the worries Disney had about it, Grumpy is an ingenious character to create.  He represents all the cynics and critics who Disney feared would look down their noses at the idea of an animated film.  But who could not fall for something as wonderful as Snow White?  Before we know it, Grumpy and the rest of us cynics find ourselves swooning, leading the rescue effort, crying our eyes out and dancing with joy.

Happily, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was not overlooked by The Academy.  In the year of its release, it was nominated for best musical score.  However, what people remember most of its Oscar history is how in the following year, Walt Disney was presented with a unique award.  To honor his great achievement of bringing the world its first full length animated feature that broke box office records, he received one Oscar and seven miniature ones.

Whether you’re a film buff or just trying to find a good movie for the kids, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a perfect film for everybody.  There is a perfect mix of cute and sweet with dramatic and scary.  The characters are lively, beautifully animated with both hilarious gags and tender emotion.  Best of all, it’s a classic fairy tale that doesn’t pander to children or leave adults isolated on the jokes.  This is a must see for people of all ages.

“I chased a polecat up a tree, way out upon a limb.  And when he got the best of me, I got the worst of him.”

A Separation

I remember one of the first times I encountered a foreign film.  Flipping through channels, I landed on something black and white, in an old mansion with a girl running.  The look on her face told me she was scared and I was hooked.  It turned out to be a French version of Beauty and the Beast, complete with white subtitles and someone in a beastly costume that reminded me of Sweetums from The Muppets.  After a while, my mom came in, probably curious of the French she could hear from the next room.  One look at French-Beast-Sweetums led her to question what on earth her child was watching.  To this day, I love to find movies that bring people out of their comfort zones, foreign or otherwise.

A Separation is the latest Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film.  From Iran and directed by Asghar Farhadi, it tells the story of a family falling apart.  Simin (Leila Hatami) wants to divorce from her husband Nader (Peyman Moadi) and travel abroad with their only child Termeh (Sarina Farhadi), so that she can have more opportunities for a better life.  Nader agrees to divorce, but refuses to let their daughter go.  Instead, he wants to stay in Iran to take care of his father, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.  After Simin leaves and moves in with her parents, he hires a caretaker to stay with his father during the day, Somayeh (Kimia Hosseini), who brings her little daughter with her.  She’s a very conservative Muslim woman, not quite sure how to handle some moments with the grandfather.  When an accident happens, lives are changed, legal action is taken and both families can ruin the other.

The film opens perfectly.  Simin and Nader are in chairs, facing and talking straight at the camera.  They discuss with a legal authority their situation and grounds for divorce.  The man, off camera, is unflinching and unsympathetic, especially toward Simin.  He tells her she cannot divorce over every little thing.  The final verdict is that she cannot take their daughter abroad without Nader’s permission.  Even those unfamiliar with Iranian culture can sense women have very little control.  The camera does not cut throughout the entire conversation.  When the scene ends, we are intrigued in the couple’s situation and already have a sense of equally stubborn characters.

As the plot thickens, stakes get higher.  More is at risk here than just a divorce and where the daughter goes.  I do not want to give anything away, watching it unfold is captivating and pulls emotional chords you would never expect.  The similarities and differences between the two families add even more depth and cultural understanding.  By the end, I was in awe and in completely understood the film’s nomination for original screenplay

While watching A Separation, I was reminded what originally drew me to foreign films.  There are situations that speak universally, no matter the culture or language barriers.  Just like I could see the fear on that French girls face years ago, I could see the hurt, struggle and despair in every character in A Separation.  Simin is strong and determined but never turns her back on family.  Nadar is growing weary, his eyes always red and tired, but goes on, determined to keeps his family together in Iran.  With Somayeh, covered in her black veil, we can only see her face at most times, but that is all we need.  Her grief is written all over it.  When Termeh falls to her knees, our heart sinks.  And that moment toward the end, where the two daughters of equally torn families look at each other, so young and sullen, is one of the most telling moments in the film.  Though the situation is unique, you could watch without subtitles and understand each character’s emotions.  If foreign films are outside your normal comfort zone, branch out and see A Separation.

“-Didn’t you say it’s not serious?  –It got serious.”

East of Eden

Based off the second half of John Steinbeck’s novel and directed by Elia Kazan, East of Eden is a retelling of Cain and Abel set around the beginning of World War I.  The biblical references are easy to notice; Cal and Aron are sons of Adam, competing for their father’s love.  What is surprising, and rather fitting, is where Eve plays in this scheme.

Cal (James Dean) believes that he and his twin brother Aron (Richard Davalos) are opposites, good and bad.  Aron is the obvious good one, always winning his father’s love and going steady with a sweet girl, Abra (Julie Harris).  Cal is self loathing and fixated on the bad he sees in himself.  His father, Adam (Raymond Massey), is the most well loved, righteous Christian men in town.  Cal concludes that all the bad within him must have come from his mother, who died after giving birth, so he and Aron were told.  In his troubled wanderings, Cal finds a businesswoman (Jo Van Fleet), who he finds far too much in common with.  His yearning to find where he comes from and win his father’s approval may destroy his family.

Dean portrays a troubled teen perfectly, with plenty of passion and no cliche.  He shows curiosity, confusion and self loathing in a way that helps us connect with Cal.  He turns Cal into a very sympathetic character, always bringing the audience in, even when it feels like he is pushing away from everything.  He brings the pain of feeling unloved by his father to a heartbreaking climax.  It’s a role Dean similar to his later film, Rebel Without a Cause, yet Dean not at all the same.  Sadly, East of Eden was Dean’s only major film released before his death.  His nomination for best lead actor was the Academy’s first posthumous nomination.

Along with Dean’s Oscar nomination were three others for East of Eden.  Elia Kazan was nominated for best director and Paul Osborn for best adapted screenplay.  Jo Van Fleet won the award for best supporting actress in her role as the secretive business woman who turns out to have quite an impact on Cal’s life.

East of Eden is an essential film of the 1950s.  To think that it lost a best picture nomination to Picnic saddens me.  The story is compelling and thought provoking.  The acting is riveting and the cast works beautifully together.  Kazan’s direction is at the same amazing level as his best picture nominated films.  When discussing James Dean, it’s a shame not to mention his performance here.

“Man has a choice and it’s a choice that makes him a man.”

And the Oscar went to…

With The Academy Awards ceremony last night, my Oscar predictions were busted.  While I was rooting for Hugo the whole time (and for a while things were looking good for Scorsese and the gang), I’m very happy for The Artist and all those involved with our new Best Picture winner.

Anyway, let’s do a quick wrap-up on where my predictions went wrong:

While Viola Davis had all the hype in the running for Best Actress, it was finally Meryl Streep’s time to shine again.  It had nearly been 30 years since her win, as lead actress in Sophie’s Choice.  With 13 Oscar nominations between then and now, the win is well overdue.

Hugo took both sound categories.  Looking back, that feels like the obvious choice.  I’d like to say my eyes were too engrossed to let my ears realize the Oscar quality.

Film editing went to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which seemed to surprise everyone, including the recipients.

For both Director and Picture, I went against the hype and with my heart on Scorsese and his film, Hugo.  That was also a way to play it safe, for 6 years now Director and Picture have gone to the same film, and I was not expecting the Academy to really pick a foreign and independent film.  Nonetheless, I’m happy to see Michel Hazanavicius win Best Director and The Artist win Best Picture.

But wait, not only has a black and white, silent film from France just won Best Picture, but this is the first time since 1986 that The Academy Awards have agreed with The Independent Spirit Awards.  Indie films have been making headway for years, especially in the past decade at the Oscars.  Perhaps a change in the wind is coming in Hollywood.  I look forward to seeing what surprises lie ahead.

Oscar Predictions

No matter how much you study The Academy Awards, making Oscar predictions is never going to be perfect (unless this one is).  To some extent, it will always be a guessing game.  Anyway, here are my predictions, educated and otherwise.  Enjoy!

Best Actor:

Though I have not seen Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or A Better Life, I believe the race here narrows down to Clooney and Dujarden.  George is terrific in The Descendants, but considering how Jean has already won more awards for his role, I would bet on him.  And I think The Academy would like to see him win with that big, infectious smile on his face.

Best Actress:  

Poor Streep has so many nominations, but so few wins.  I doubt that will change this year, because Viola Davis as just stunning in The Help.

Supporting Actor:

There has been so much buzz over Christopher Plummer’s performance in The Beginners that I have to agree with the hype.  I’m dying to see that movie.

Supporting Actress:

I really believe this will go to Octavia Spencer.  Have I mentioned how great the acting is all throughout The Help?

Director:

Honestly, this category feels very close.  Each nominee has great reason to win and should be proud of the work they have produced.  While Michel Hazanavicius feels like a favorite, I’m convinced that Martin Scorsese should win for Hugo.

Original Screenplay:  

The fluidity of Midnight in Paris has me convinced that Woody Allen will win this award.

Adapted Screenplay:

I feel this is a close one between Hugo and The Descendants.  After mulling it over, going back and forth, I think this will go to The Descendants.

Cinematography:  

Don’t laugh, but part of me thinks The Tree of Life really deserves this one.  However, my gut wants to go with Hugo.

Art Direction:

This should go to the one movie that kept my eyes completely astounded (and not just because of it’s wonderful use of 3D), Hugo!

Sound Mixing:  

Honestly, I feel like I just guess at the sound categories.  The nominee that stands out the most here to me is War Horse.  I’m a sucker for vintage explosions and thunderous galloping.

Sound editing:  

Again, War Horse.

Film Editing:  

Hmm, tricky dance routines and a dog that I’m sure did not always behave, I’ll have to pick The Artist.

Original Score:  

Did I not make this clear in my review?  The Artist!

Animated Feature:

Rango!

Best Picture:

The big kahuna.  This year, I believe this only comes down to two films of similar theme and idea: Hugo and The Artist.  While The Artist has all the hype propelling it forward, I cannot forget Hugo and how it was one of the best films I had seen in years.  Honestly, I feel that Hugo has more merit, but The Academy would love to award a simple silent film.  I do feel this is a tossup between the two, and if any other film is awarded, I will be very shocked.  Going with my heart here, I want Hugo to win.

Have a great Oscar night, everyone!

The Help

I try to avoid other opinions of a movie until I have seen it myself, but it is much harder to avoid the advertisements.  By just glancing at commercials and posters for The Help, I got the idea that it would be a slightly quirky film about women, for women with some laughs and a lesson about racism.  When I finally saw it, I was shocked at what a great movie it was.  The drama and issues brought up were a lot heavier than that yellow poster can let on.

The film is set in Jackson Mississippi in the 1960s.  When Skeeter (Emma Stone), an aspiring writer, returns home from college, she notices more and more tension between white women and their black hired help.  She can tell that her ill mother (Allison Janney) is lying about their old maid, Constantine (Cicely Tyson), who raised Skeeter.  The girls she grew up with are all now married with their own help and finding new ways to deal with “the colored situation.”  Not realizing the full danger at first, Skeeter tries to recruit the black maids to provide testimonials about what it is like to work for these white women.  As Skeeter gets deeper into writing the book, racial tensions rise across Jackson, and the country.

The strongest things in this film are the acting, variety of full bodied characters and how they fit together.  Viola Davis provides a strong lead as Aibileen.  As an older woman, who has raised many white children, but hardly had time for her only son, now dead, she has become bitter.  That bitterness and loss helps her find the strength to tell her story to Skeeter.  Viola’s best friend is Minny (Octavia Spencer), a bold maid whose sassy mouth and defiant attitude gets her fired by Hilly Holbrook.  Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) is the queen bee of the white young women in Jackson.  What Hilly does, the rest do, which includes adding new outside toilets for the help, believing in racist propaganda about disease carried by black people, and shunning Celia Foote.  Celia (Jessica Chastain) is a sweet, ditzie young woman who lives outside of Jackson, whom all the white women think is white trash.  When she hires Minny as her first maid, boundaries are broken and big secrets are revealed.

There is a funny thing I have noticed about The Help, that I am not sure if it hinders or hurts the main idea about how real racism was within homes in the 1960s.  When characters like Hilly talk about ideas that the audience knows are backwards and outwardly racist, we tend to laugh at how absurd these women sound.  Thing is, Hilly is completely serious about “the colored situation” and other ignorant ideas.  To some degree I feel like she is being a comic character, a bit like George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove.  When she says, “They carry different diseases than we do. That’s why I’ve drafted the Home Health Sanitation Initiative.” we could compare it to when Scott says, “Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!”  On some level, that works fine since we are in a future perspective where her traits are laughable.  We clearly hear something that can be funny, but other characters in the film may not.  And later, some of the things that happen to Hilly are outright hilarious, so much so that I do not want to spoil the fun.  While we see Hilly as comical, she is still an obvious threat to our heroines.  Laughing at a villain can be a dangerous thing to do in film.

The Help is nominated for four Oscars.  Of those, three of them are well deserved acting nominations for Viola Davis for Lead Actress, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain for Supporting Actress.   The other is for Best Picture.

I have seen The Help twice, simply because I enjoyed it so much the first time I knew I needed to see it again.  All the acting is wonderful, the whole cast creates a great ensemble.  While this is mainly a drama focusing on heavy racial issues from a perspective many of us may not have considered before, there are some wildly funny moments that help lighten the whole film.  And in the end, it feels like an inspiring film full of bravery and a heart of gold, without getting at all sappy.

“Minny don’t burn fried chicken.”

If the Academy wants to award a film with a perfect blend of drama, laughs and uplifting revolution, The Help will win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids was easily one of the funniest films of 2011 and surprisingly well done all around.  It has earned Oscar nominations in Original Screenplay and for Mellisa McCarthy’s performance.  However, some people feel inclined to count McCarthy out of the acting race because her role is on a different level than the other nominees.  As a fellow tomboy and former bridesmaid, I feel compelled to defend Melissa McCarthy’s Supporting Actress nomination.

There is much more to this role than being the chubby, gross-out queen of the bridesmaids.  Megan is the sister of the groom, so she already does not quite fit in with the rest of the girl-friends.  I feel there would be a level of guilt if the bride had not asked Megan to stand up in the wedding.  She seems to be the kind of girl who was always outside of the clique and isn’t as petty or catty as the rest of the group.  Thankfully, she has a strong sense of who she is already and is wonderfully confident in just being herself.  Even if that includes some weird sexual stuff, being proud of that falling off a cruise ship story and owning up to her farts.

Thing is, we see a level past the superficial with Megan that the rest of the gals do not bring.  When Annie has become the pariah of the group, Megan is the only one willing to talk to her.  And it is not the usual fake girl talk, “Oh, it’ll be alright.”  Megan gets real with Annie, while keeping to her intense, butch attitude.  “I’m life Annie, and I’m biting you in the ass!”

What Melissa McCarthy has dared to do with this role was create a unique female character that feels more genuine and memorable than anyone else in the film.  Burping, farting, having a real deal-with-it conversation is not something Hollywood shows women doing without sounding like a cure-that-feminine-itch commercial.  Even though Megan comes off immediately as gross, McCarthy can make her surprisingly refreshing.

Whether she was shitting in a sink or driving a van full of puppies, Melissa McCarthy was spot on and made me laugh until I cried.  It is nice to see an unusual comedy role get some well deserved recognition.

“I want to apologize.  I’m not even confident on which end that came out of.”