Saluting the unsung
The new calendar is up, the air is brisk, and The Rock’s latest picture has just opened in theaters. Must be time for the Oscars!
This year’s list of nominees arrives with a stacked bill of 10 best picture nominees, led by Kathryn Bigelow’s sobering Iraq picture, The Hurt Locker, and former husband James Cameron’s intergalactic amusement park, Avatar. However, before the scorecards come out, let us pay homage to the greatest 2009 victims of Oscar.
No. 1: Anthony Dod Mantle – Cinematography – Antichrist
Lars Von Trier’s artful masterpiece of grief, delusion, and genital mutilation is the rough equivalent of gonorrhea to Academy sensibilities. Still, the complete rejection of the film’s spellbindingly creative, horrific photography is nothing short of appalling. Where most cinematographers illuminate or darken, Mantle fills his spaces with silent screams, literally making the stones and the grass writhe in agony.
No. 2: Sam Rockwell – Actor – Moon
After a solid, honorable career of playing modest parts, Rockwell finally explodes on screen with his brilliant, schizophrenic turn in Duncan Jones’ Moon. The film itself may be too cerebral for Hollywood interests, but Rockwell’s performance is the stuff Best Actor nominations are made of: layered, agonized, humored, and finally, showy. His snub suggests the most shameful kind of industry elitism.
No. 3: Charlotte Gainsbourg – Actress – Antichrist
Operating in a realm that few actors would dare to venture, Gainsbourg delivers a performance in Antichrist that is terrifyingly realized, and unspeakably courageous. Not only is Gainsboug asked to inhabit perhaps one of the most disgusting, polarizing characters in cinema history, but she does so with nuanced fury, despair, and vulnerability. Thankfully, the Cannes jury was clear-headed enough recognize her astonishing feat.
No. 4: Michael Haneke – Best Director – The White Ribbon
If Fernando Meirelles could grab a nomination for City of God seven years ago, throwing Haneke out of the running is inexcusable. For over a decade, Haneke has been three steps ahead of Hollywood in his understanding of media, societal glaciation, and violence. His new film is a chilling subversion of a beloved period piece, contemplating the origins of terrorism, and sinking all other nominees for relevancy, atmosphere and effect.
No. 5: Anthony Mackie – Best Supporting Actor – The Hurt Locker
Jeremy Renner may have grabbed the spotlight, but Mackie’s equally compelling portrayal of the bomb squad’s sanest (and therefore most tortured) member is the emotional backbone of Kathryn Bigelow’s film. Pitch perfect throughout, Mackie delivers a heartbreakingly empathic performance, and resounds as the strongest cry that war and humanism are wholly incompatible.