Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Oscar Watch - Tomatoes Weigh In

2008’s Best Picture – Slumdog Millionaire (93% - #32)

2009 Best Picture Nominees:

Up (98% - #4 - The characterizations are fairly coarse cartoons, in contrast to the emotionally rich cartoons that have become Pixar's hallmark. They're more schematic than organic, and that applies to the plotting as well, Joe Morgenstern of WSJ)

Hurt Locker (97% - #7- It’s only a movie about men at work in war. Yet it seems like a definitive war movie, Jonathan Kiefer of Sacramento News & Review)

An Education (95% - #18 - You may think you know where the film is going, but its ecstasy and heartbreak will stick with you afterward. It's one of the year's best, Christy Lemire of AP)

Precious (91% - #45 - There is a thin line between compassion and voyeurism; soul-searing drama and overwrought melodrama; opera and Oprah. This film tramples all over it, Christopher Tookey of Daily Mail (UK))

District 9 (90% - #51 - You don’t feel bamboozled, fooled, or patronized by District 9, as you did by most of the summer blockbusters. You feel winded, shaken, and shamed, Anthony Lane of New Yorker)

Up in the Air (90% - #52 - There's nothing too profound here, and yet it works well as a smart, light cosmopolitan comedy: it's a snack, rather than a meal, but expertly made, Peter Bradshaw of Guardian [UK])

Inglourious Basterds (89% - #59 - Quentin Tarantino seems to be hanging on to a lost world of moviemaking. He may be nuts. But he's a nut who cares, Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com)

A Serious Man (87% - #72 - it feels nasty and pointlessly vindictive. There's a hole in the middle of this movie, where a modicum of empathy and humanity ought to be, Tookey strikes again)

Avatar (82% - didn’t rank - Alternates between a slurry of Franz Marc expressionism and the most elaborate Thundercats episode ever made, Fernando F. Croce of CinePassion)

Blind Side (69% - didn’t rank - The so-called "feel-good" film functioning as a well-timed balm for the conflicted soul of white America, Kimberley Gaddette of Indie Movies Online)

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