I was over reading Jim Emerson’s blog, Scanners, this weekend and he had an interesting article on Quinten Tarantino where he stated he wanted to get Inglorious Basterds out quickly because he wanted to have a masterpiece out before the end of the decade. That got me thinking, is Basterds a masterpiece? I’m not sure. To be honest I’m not even sure it is best picture Oscar worthy. Not to say Basterds isn’t enjoyable to watch, because it is. But rewatching the film recently I’ve come to opinion that I am completely at odds with film critics and fans alike. Tarantino doesn’t make great films, he makes great scenes. Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds are collections of great scenes with wonderfully quotable dialog, but they lack a cohesiveness that allows the scenes to flow together into a whole. His movies tend to be disjointed with scenes all being stand alone and jumbled together out of linear time line for their kinetic impact. Visually exciting but I prefer Steven Spielberg and Kevin Smith.
Even though I pretty much picked every Oscar win completely wrong, I’m going to go ahead and shoot out some predictions for this year’s Academy Awards.
Best Picture–The Hurt Locker
Best Actor–Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
Best Actress–Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Best Supporting Actor–Christopher Waltz in Inglorious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress–Mo’Nique in Precious
Best Director–Katheryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
Best Animated Film–The Princess and the Frog
Best Documentary–Food, Inc.
Best Song–Almost There from The Princess and the Frog
Best Score–James Horner for Avatar
Best Screen Play–Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker
Best Adapted Screen Play–Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious
I’m an idiot! It was not page 197, it was page 106, thanks to CC for pointing out my error. Ironically, I had just gotten to that part of the book last night and the first thought I had was “Well crap! I just put up a post that makes me look even more ignorant than usual”. “Low self esteem? No. Why do ask?” Oh well, life goes on right?
