Although the film was completely ignored by the Academy, the Golden Globes, and most U.S. American year-end lists, I am delighted to see that Matt Reeves’ Cloverfield was selected by the venerable French film magazine, Cahiers du Cinema, as one of the 10 Best Films of 2008.For the record, the Academy’s nominations for the Best Picture of 2008 are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (yawn), Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire. I daresay Cloverfield – with its carefully and cleverly limited point of view – was more formally interesting than any of them.
Seems like we still have to contend with the same genre prejudices (A monster film? No way!) that have plagued American film critics and the organizations that reflect their attitudes since Year One. God Bless the French.
Other notable Oscar snubs: Synecdoche, New York and Vicky Cristina Barcelona for Best Original Screenplay. Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino) for Best Actor. Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) for Best Actress.
[Thanks to Cinematical for the Cahiers heads-up.]
9 comments:
Je suis d'accord. Cloverleaf est tres bon! (I don't really speak the language despite the fact that I live in Canada.)
Well, those French can't be wrong, BUT, I found it unbearably annoying -- Those kids were the kind of kids I avoid being at parties with - "We can't leave without Jennifer" or whatever her name was. Jesus Christ, it's behavior like that which gets so many rescue workers needlessly killed. Morality and guilt overriding common sense and basic survival skills. On the other hand it is always nice to see New York destroyed.
Erich -
I didn't identify with the kids so much as the situation they were in. It really captured the tone of certain nightmares I've had. Panic and disorder with some kind of vague but terrifying menace threatening from just beyond the edges of the frame (so to speak).
At least the Academy is honoring Jerry Lewis this year, although for the wrong reason.
I for one am damn happy to see that I'm not the only one with Cloverfield on my "Best Films of 2008" list.
Damn, if you and the awesome Cinebeatnik Kimberly BOTH like it, then I know I gotta be wrong. I may have to re-examine the evidence.
I enjoyed Vicky but the silly, mannered voiceover certainly disqualified that from a Screenplay nod.
Cloverfield made me nauseous - I'd like to be clever and say it was the proto-yuppie kids that did it (though they didn't help) but it was really the camerawork. When I left the theater there was one of those yellow signs propped up over a big puddle of puke (not mine; I managed to hold it in, though I endured much of the film with an increasing migraine).
On the note of Jerry Lewis, Erich, you should do another entry in your forgotten or overlooked femme series on Stella Stevens in The Nutty Professor. I had never seen it until recently and goddamn...
Interesting, Movieman - I had that nausea reaction to Blair Witch Project and, possibly even more so, to United 93, but not to this film. Maybe the camerawork was more controlled. It helped that the film was short.
Likewise, had no problem with the VCB voiceover. Didn't find it any more mannered than, say, the voiceover in Barry Lyndon. But I am a fan of voiceovers generally.
It wasn't the mannerism that bothered me, so much as the pedestrian silliness of the narrator (whose prose T.S. does an excellent job mocking in a recent Screen Savour post). Imagine Kubrick's narrator saying, "Barry was very ambitious to get ahead in the world. He spent the summer travelling around Europe trying to soothe his soul." That said, I liked the movie and loved Penelope Cruz in it.
Post a Comment