The lesson for this year's Oscar nominations? Don't be an R-rated film!

For a list of the complete nominations, go HERE.  As always, click on the movies with links for the original theatrical review.  I write a lot about the inexplicable trend of how the various year-end awards groups only consider 'appropriate' movies to be considered awards-material.  There is and always has been a certain disdain for populist entertainment, a trend that's only gotten worse as the independent film movement exploded in the early 1990s and the year-end Oscar bait-calender got more jam-packed over the last five weeks of the year.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II may have received almost unanimously rave reviews (96% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), but it doesn't count because it was a big-budget fantasy drama that is considered 'popular' entertainment.  Bridesmaids may have been one of the most successful R-rated comedies of recent years, a well-reviewed (90% on Rotten Tomatoes) comedy that may have been a game-changer in terms of how mass-market female-driven entertainments are viewed in terms of their commercial potential.  But no, it's not a character-driven dramedy that's one of the best films of the year, it's just that 'women shit in a sink' movie, so it's not worthy.  But a drama with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock that's gasp... about 9/11?!  That's EXACTLY the kind of film that is supposed to be among the year's best, right?  And so it is that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a film with a 48% positive ranking on Rotten Tomatoes and a 46% score on Metacritic is now considering by the Academy to be one of the nine best films of the year.

On the inherent darkness and pessimism of Steven Spielberg's body of work, and why he is more than just ET: The Extra Terrestrial.

This essay has been slightly updated since the 2011 Oscar nominations were announced.

In the aftermath of the Oscar nominations (analysis HERE), there has been much hand-wringing over the notion that the Academy has embraced 'feel-good' entertainment over darker and more introspective work.  The prime example of this false argument (which insists that you ignore the relatively downbeat finales of The Help and Moneyball, among others) is the Best Picture nomination for Steven Spielberg's War Horse (review).  Many of the reviews, especially the negative ones, for Steven Spielberg's War Horse have emphasized the melodramatic 'boy and his horse' narrative, accusing the film of wallowing in sentimentality.  Moreover, they basically accuse the picture of being 'conventional Spielberg', again citing the classic meme that Steven Spielberg isn't capable of truly playing in on the dark side.  Both arguments are hogwash.  For as long as I can remember (early-80s, natch), Steven Spielberg has had a reputation as the "Mr. Mass Audience", the guy who, film-making chops aside, was looked down upon because of his reputation as a purveyor of mainstream feel-good sentiment.  He was the guy who made general audiences tear-up on cue, but still walk out feeling good.  But looking over his filmography, not only are his 'dark and adult' pictures more frequent than you might realize, his entire reputation as a softy basically stems from one single incredibly popular (and critically-acclaimed) film that he made in 1982.  On a film-by-film basis, Spielberg is far more likely to scare you or deeply disturb you than leave you with a nasty case of the warm-and-fuzzies.  

Review: The Adventures of Tintin (2011) delivers terrific animation, moments of brilliant action, but little else.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
2011
105 minutes
rated PG

by Scott Mendelson

I've written before about the recent quasi-trend of filmmakers spending time, effort, and money merely to concoct glorified homages to the films of yesteryear.  Most of these films contain little to no relevancy or ideas and exist merely as an exercise in nostalgia.  But The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is a curious variation on this sub-genre.  Not only is it a pure homage to the old-fashioned adventure films best represented by the Indiana Jones series (and the serials and pulp novels such as this series that inspired them), it is a homage directed by the man who helped create that defining series in the first place.  On the surface it is an adaption of the Georges Rémi comic book series that ran from 1929 to 1976.  But while the film certainly exists in that world, with a faithfulness that I cannot attest to one way or the other (I've been told it's quite faithful), it basically amounts to director Steven Spielberg (and producer Peter Jackson) using the motion-capture animation technique pioneered by Robert Zemeckis to craft a homage to the theoretical Steven Spielberg adventure film.  With these new crayons to play with, it's a darn shame that Spielberg couldn't think of anything better to draw than what often feels, intentional or not, like a self-administered pat-on-the-back.

The Adventures of Tintin gets a dynamite domestic trailer and moody poster.

The poster came from Drew McWeeny's HitFix (click to 'embiggen'), so credit where credit is due.  What's best about this trailer, aside from the overall quality of what is shown, is the implication that Steven Spielberg and Paramount are in fact holding back the really good stuff for actual ticket-buyers.  I'm not one to speak about 'American Exceptionalism' and/or 'Manifest Destiny', but I do take great umbrage at Paramount's decision to open this one in Europe two months before we Americans get to sample it.  I get the concept.  The characters are far more popular in Europe and other foreign markets than they are in America, so Paramount wants to use the likely overseas success to build word of mouth and positive reviews.  But skimming the rave reviews that have already come out while knowing we still have two months to wait is the rare sort of thing to make me openly whine about 'America First!' and all that silliness.  We're Americans after all, so we expect instant gratification!  Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's The Adventures of Tintin: We want it NOW!

Scott Mendelson  

Steven Spielberg's Adventures of Tintin gets another exciting trailer.

I haven't been keeping up with the Adventures of Tintin trailers, but this continues to look like a rather thrilling old-school adventure movie.  The cast (Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Cary Elwes, etc) seems game and the action sequences seem worth seeing on the biggest possible screen.  That zipline gag that closes out the teaser looks sublime...

Scott Mendelson