Charlie Wilson's War

This movie was better than I expected, but overall still just okay. A very interesting story about the legendary but not well known role of the US in the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan in the late '80s, it timely cautionary tale for our current times. Sadly, I don't think anyone learned anything from the earlier experience in Afghanistan, and we will go on paying the price for "fucking up the end game", as Charlie Wilson himself said. Best performance in this film goes to Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the CIA agent. For the other leads, there were some strange elements that never seemed to gel for me in their characters. For Charlie Wilson, the party animal persona that is supposed to be exemplified in the opening hot tub scene never really works for me; I never got the sense that he was reckless in his social life, and felt that the Las Vegas scene was included only to make the pending indictment later in the story make sense. For Joanne Herring, her relationship with Charlie Wilson was confusing - did somebody love somebody? was there real sadness when she married someone else? - and her role in the story similarly undefined; I found her condemnation of Charlie's office staff as "sluts" in the bar celebration scene to be very strange, as it did not fit in with either her role or their position. Despite appearances, Charlie's staff of buxom women were all smart, assertive go-getters, and whether he had them around for his own enjoyment or not, it appears from the story that he gave opportunities for women to be players on Capitol Hill at a time when it would have been challenging for women (especially beautiful ones) to get in the door legitimately. The best feature of this film is the screenplay and dialogue, and at the closing credits I was not at all surprised to see Aaron Sorkin as the responsible party. The smart, witty and fast dialogue is reminiscent of his previous work on West Wing and on The American President, and he shines again on this film.

Last minute memo to the Academy

Although prospects for the Oscars are looking grim, given the demise of the Golden Globes this past week, hopefully Academy members (include the writers) are still taking their responsibilities seriously and conscientiously completing and mailing in their nominations for awards. For those who have left it to the last minute (Sean Penn and Meryl Streep, you know who you are), here are some reminders of things worthy of consideration:

• What a great year for American films. The pool of contenders this year is fairly full of films from the good ole USA, with few of the esoteric foreign language films or English period pieces taking up space in theatres. Not that Americans come across as particularly nice in No Country for Old Men or There Will Be Blood (indeed, the Oscars may actually need an R rating to show clips from some of these), but there should be minimal whining this year about number of American films eligible for nomination and promising as contenders.
• Just because Denzel Washington had 2 films of note this year does not mean he has to be nominated for Best Actor.
• Just because Daniel Day-Lewis had 1 film of note this year does not mean he has to be nominated for Best Actor. He should be nominated for Best Actor because he is scary good - just the trailer gives me the willies.
• Speaking of scary, nominate Javier Bardem or he might get mad. Ditto Viggo Mortensen. Maybe they can have a fight on stage at the awards show, a true Alien vs. Predator.
• Like last year, the actress catagory is flush with good choices, so have at it here.
• Juno was a fantastic film that likely no one thought would be as good, popular or entertaining as it is. Particularly in the screenplay category, this film is extremely worthy.
• Similarly, Julie Christie made Away From Her incredibly powerful and poignant, and the cinematography of the Great White North perfectly reflected the bereft husband's feelings of loss and loneliness.
• If you saw Across the Universe and liked it, give it a nod. Julie Taymor deserves at least a nomination for being brave enough to tackle the Beatles and for being so damn good at creating visual spectacles with minimal silliness.
  

Now go make your nominations!