10 Word Reviews: Maids, Apes, Robots
Monday, August 8, 2011 at 1:20PM A few movies we haven't yet said much about. In the interest of saying something -- more will definitely follow in the case of The Help and The Rise of the Planet of the Apes both of which I suspect we'll be talking about thru Oscar season -- here's two handfuls of words for each.
2011... the year of the put upon maid?
The Housemaid (Im Sang-Soo)
in which a nanny/maid contemplates her own Fatal Attraction
10WR: South Korea continues its Actressy roll. Classy/Trashy, expertly shaped. B+
The Help (Tate Taylor)
Maids in the South tell their provoactive stories to a feisty young writer
10WR: Ungainly in telling yet super compelling. Well seasoned cornpone acting. B
UPDATE: FULL REVIEW
Transformers Dark of the Moon (Michael Bay)
giant fucking robots return so that visual f/x may occur and billions may be made
10WR: Surprisingly coherent explosiveness. But debris clears immediately (i.e. totes forgettable) C+
Cars 2 (John Lasseter & Brad Lewis)
in which Mater the tow truck, the Jar Jar Binks of Pixar, travels the world.
10WR: Noisy unfunny lemon stuck in traffic jam of easy gags. D-
Septien (Michael Tully)
in which..., no, I don't know what happens. Something about three abused backwoods brothers.
10WR: Incomprehensible indie auteurism. Masturbatory but at least someone's getting off. D
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Wyatt)
a science experiment gone awry has deadly simian consequences
10WR: Overly familiar beastie, schocked back to life by superb staging. B+
10 Word Bonus Thought: As new directors go, we suspect Rupert Wyatt could "A"
COMING SOON: I know that everyone is already talking about Andy Serkis's killer work as "Cesar" in terms of its Oscar battles to come. But I want to let the film settle before I sound off. Anyway, I already suspect this conversation will make me crazy because it'll end up being a "supporting" discussion and "Cesar" is the lead of the film. James Franco's stardom is a red herring ;)
Reader Comments (12)
Honestly, Andy Serkis' battle for Oscar recognition is going to be such an uphill climb that I'm inclined to ease my hard-line stance against category fraud this one time.
Totally with Robert on this one.
And since I'm sure this uphill battle cannot be won, I think the best solution is Kris Tapley's.
The Academy needs to get the Special Achievement award out again, and recognize Serkis for all his performances in motion capture.
As much as I was not a fan of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, there's really no denying how great the effects work in this movie is. I'm less sure about this push to award an Oscar nom to Andy Serkis, since I'm still not sure how much we can attribute to WETA and how much we can attribute to Serkis. But it would be a cool Oscar moment, so might as well.
What about Viola Davis' and Octavia Spencer's Oscar chances? Who's better? Are they good enough?
Cornpone acting? That's a tacky thing to say.
Does Rise of the Planet of the Apes have the V FX Oscar locked up? I'm inclined to think so at this point. A nomination is a done deal.
Len -- cornpone is a plot point in the movie.
John -- i think so but then it's sometimes hard to know what they're looking for in nominations in that category.
ooh, the Housemaid! the trailer said it was 'tawdry', which drew me in immediately. I loved it even if the last 10 minutes sent the movie off the rails and into 'um, what?' territory.
Plus, that mother and I need to meet up to have a weekly bitch brunch because i totally enjoyed every minute she was on screen. Same for the veteran housekeeper. Yay for actressin'!
"Anyway, I already suspect this conversation will make me crazy because it'll end up being a "supporting" discussion and "Cesar" is the lead of the film. James Franco's stardom is a red herring ;) "
Same here! I've seen blurbs about Serkis getting a Supporting Actor campaign, and while watching the movie all I could think was "But... Caesar's the lead character! I'd better not see Fox pull a Hailee Steinfeld [I guess 'pull a Tatum O'Neal' works better for nostalgia's sake] with Serkis!"
I think Rise of the Planet of the Apes will almsot certainly take the Visual Effects Oscar despite everyone thinking less than a month ago that Harry Potter had it locked up. In fact, I think Apes has stolen a lot of the summer blockbuster buzz from Potter, and I'm no longer even sure that Deathly Hallows will walk away with a single award, much to the dismay of all the people who think it deserves some sort of consolation prize for the whole series. The only one that seems like a good bet is Art Direction, but even that could easily change. I'm telling you, the buzz on that died out pretty quickly.
Anyway, about Andy Serkis, I don't think the buzz will remain strong enough come Oscar season. Even if the studio decides to push him for Supporting Actor, I don't see it happening. Maybe a BAFTA nomination, since they have already nominated him twice before. Otherwise, I highly doubt it. However, I do think that the good will towards this performance and general "please let's recognize this guy" sentiment could possibly carry over into a nomination for one of the Hobbit films. But only if he surpasses or at least equals the effect of his character from the last time he played it.
Random trivia question: has an actor ever been nominated for reprising a role for which they were not nominated the first time they played it?
Wait, I just thought of an answer to my own question. Sigourney Weaver was nominated for reprising the role of Ripley in Aliens despite not being nominated the first time she played the role in Alien. I think that's probably the only time that's happened though. So Andy Serkis will have to knock it out of the park in The Hobbit.
The Housemaid was overall meh, IMO, but it was amazingly gorgeous