"Rachel Getting Married" is a good film, but they seemed to be going for that wedding video look and I found it really annoying. I haven't really like the handheld style since "Homicide: Life on the Street". I find the moving camera style to be totally overrated. It just gives me a headache.
But maybe that's what director Jonathan Demme hoped to achieve, as the characters themselves were going through troubled states of minds. This film was well cast. I wouldn't have had a problem with any of them getting an Oscar nomination or any kind of recognition. I don't actually pay attention much to that stuff, so I don't know if they actually did, but I don't think so.
Meanwhile, Marisa Tomei was nominated for "The Wrestler". It was a fine performance, but had it been a different actress, I wonder if anyone would have noticed. I think this was simply a surprise factor. People were shocked when they realized that she can pretty much kind of sort of act.
Penelope Cruz was also nominated for her role in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (the same year as above, I believe). I like her, and she has a great body of work (if you know what I mean), but I didn't see anything Oscar-worthy in this film. She should have gotten a nomination for "Volver" though. I don't know if she did or not. And "Spanglish". Wait, was that her in "Spanglish"?
Angelina Jolie was nominated for "Changeling". Again, I think this was because she was doing something different than an action film. Surprise. Revelation. Mind blowing. This film was worth watching but I don't think it was all that great.
Kate Winslet won that year I think. 2008, was it? I still don't understand it. She was definitely excellent in "Little Children" though. What was all the hype with "The Reader"? Am I just me, or wasn't that film a tad overrated. Why don't you just read the book?
And "Revolutionary Road"? There was nothing revolutionary about it. The fifties sucked, I get it. Didn't Todd Haynes already cover this in "Far From Heaven"? Julianne Moore did a much better job relating what her character was going through in that film. But did she get nominated? No. She wasn't in "Titanic".
I found Vicky Christina Barcelona very dissapointing...or perhaps not so much since I had just previously seen...Melissa Melissa, maybe? and found out I can no longer tolerate some aspects of woody allen. I found VCB empty, soulless, full of plastic characters for whom I don't give a F. it felt like watching a movie about spoiled brats, or like watching 90210 or orange county or those "aspirational" things...but with "existential" problems. Ifelt the acting was incredibly stiff too.
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