Five. Ten. Sliding Scale. These are the terms folks in Awards blogosphere use to describe the Academy’s choices for Best Picture. The Academy recently had a meeting to decide upon what they want to go with and whatever they pick is sure to cause much discussion. I’ve been thinking about the concept of Best Picture a lot since the Academy expanded the field then went to this bs sliding scale.
I have tried to craft an interesting opening paragraph for this review of It Follows for a long time. I’ve gone through about 10 opening sentences and around 5 combinations of commentary afterwards. My brain is as scrambled trying to figure out how to write about this movie as it was trying to keep up with the film itself. The only real thing I can attempt to formulate about It Follows is that while it provides much to discuss after seeing it, most of that conversation will be centered around anger at the film’s lack of conviction, missed opportunities and over the top antics that ruin an interesting premise.
I must make a confession before we get to far into talking about Cinderella, the wonderful new Disney film directed by Kenneth Branagh. The confession is that I don’t much care about Cinderella. I have never found the tale all that enchanting, Cinderella and Prince Charming are so boring, and it didn’t contain songs at the level of other Disney films. So why then did I thoroughly enjoy this version? Well chalk it up to some wonderful direction, lived in performances, and just a little bit of magic.
Well everyone, the Oscars are finally over and with it most of the discussions about the film year of 2014. I don’t know about you all, but I am so tired from this awards season and the beginning of 2015 that I need a palate cleanser. Enter in the year 1979!