OSCARS 2009 PREVIEW: "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button"

*Thank you ABS-CBN for inviting me to your special advanced screening

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is a film which you will either hate or like. As for me...uhm...(pause)...uhm...(pause)...ok...LIKE!

It was a well crafted film. But since it got the most number of Golben Globe nominations (tied with FROST/NIXON), I was expecting an award winning, stellar execution which, unfortunately, I wasn't able to see.

BENJAMIN BUTTON is like watching a patchy version of FORREST GUMP, plus a bit of ENGLISH PATIENT (minus the plum), plus a bit of Joel Lamangan's 2006 MMFF entry (yup, yup) BLUE MOON. Throw in a bit of MOULIN ROUGE as well, for those cool funny lightning snippets. I.e. Expect to see a lot of flashbacks, historical interstitials, diary reading, sick patients, twists and surprises (especially for the diary reader)

The film has a super solid backbone: a very unique story - a man aging backwards. But if you disect the film further, you will realize that the "story" is the only thing that is holding the film. Everything is else is typical, normal, plain and bland.

Thanks to good story telling, the film was able to stand on its own.

The lack of tension dragged the film. The only tension I can recall was when Benjamin had a child, which made him more of a playmate to his daughter than a father. Aside from that, it would just be a story a man looking for love. For me, 3-hours was just too long to see a man love and fail, then love and fail again. Sometimes I need to pinch myself to stay awake.

BENJAMIN BUTTON had difficulties in closing the itself - the downside of a "predictable" story (you know Benjamin will go younger and younger...then die). I think they had around 5 attempts to end the story...and it didn't help in extending my patience after 2 and a half hours. But the film was able to redeem itself through a dramatic montage before the credits. That sequence was a winner!

But there were several brilliant moments in the film worthy to be applauded: the Paris accident flashback, the reverse clock unveiling, the diary "discovery" (which part made me a bit teary) and the nice ending that closed all hanging stories properly. But because of the length of the film, they were not able to extend these "pockets of brilliance" throughout the 3-hours.

The acting was superb. Cate Blanchett is an expert (Oscars? Possible). Suprisingly, Brad Pit was great in the film.

Overall, good film. The material is fresh and the execution was ok. But with the Oscar buzz going around, the expectations for the film was lifted so high and in a sudden....it appeared mediocre.

FROST/NIXON will beat BENJAMIN BUTTON.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD: This Is How An Epic Should Be Made

Cinemanyak Rating: 9.0/10
IMDB Rating: 8.8/10
Tomatometer: 91%
Rotten Tomatoes Critics' Rating: 8.3/10
What's your rating? Post a comment below.

Awards and Accomplishments:
Nominated for Best Picture, 2008 Oscar Awards
Nominated for Best Direction, 2008 Oscar Awards
Best Actor (Daniel Day Lewis), 2008 Oscar Awards
Best Cinematography, 2008 Oscar Awards
Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, 2008 Oscar Awards
Nominated for Best Picture, Berlin Film Festival
Nominated for Best Picture, 2008 Golden Globes
Best Actor, 2008 Golden Globes
Best Actor, 2008 Screen Actors Guild Awards

2 hours and 45 minutes. Extreme production design. Heavy screenplay. Eye candy cinematography. World class acting -- all the ingredients for an epic are in There Will Be Blood. The great thing with the movie is that they have just put in the right amount of each: not too sweet yet not to sour.

Touching a very timely and sensitive topic -- Oil -- the film brilliantly showed how people fight for black gold in the 19th century. Paul Thomas Anderson intriguingly held information during the film that it keeps you guessing and awake the whole time. "How will this film end?". This is how an epic should be done. Dramatic, yet interesting. Heavy, yet fulfilling at the end. Critics say that this is the best film of the year, or even a decade. I seem to agree, by not abosolutely.

Daniel Day Lewis is amazing! He was able to hold his character from beginning til end, and was able to manage the drastic tansformations of "Daniel Plainview" in the middle -- from the charismatic oil-man to a repentant christian, from a good father to a cold-hearted dad, from a businessman in the right mind to a tycoon murderer.

"Set in the early 20th century, the film follows the rise to power of Daniel Plainview -- a charismatic and ruthless oil prospector, driven to succeed by his intense hatred of others and psychological need to see any and all competitors fail. When he learns of oil-rich land in California that can be bought cheaply, he moves his operation there and begins manipulating and exploiting the local landowners into selling him their property. Using his young adopted son H.W. to project the image of a caring family man, Plainview gains the cooperation of almost all the locals with lofty promises to build schools and cultivate the land to make their community flourish. Over time, Plainview's gradual accumulation of wealth and power causes his true self to surface, and he begins to slowly alienate himself from everyone in his life." (written by Denny Gibbons)

An Oscar favourite, There Will Be Blood got the most nominations this year.

JUNO: MY BEST PICTURE PICK

Cinemanyak Rating: 9.0/10
IMDB Rating: 8.2/10
Tomatometer: 93%
Rotten Tomatoes Critics' Rating: 8.0/10
What's your rating? Post a comment below.

Awards and Accomplishments:
Nominated for Best Picture, 2008 Oscar Awards
Nominated for Best Direction, 2008 Oscar Awards
Nominated for Best Actress, 2008 Oscar Awards
Best Original Screenplay, 2008 Oscar Awards
Nominated for Best Picture, 2008 Golden Globes
Nominated for Best Actress, 2008 Golden Globes
Nominated for Best Original Screenplay, 2008 Golden Globes
Best Actress, 2008 Screen Actors Guild Awards

JUNO started with a chair...and from there, everything was just brilliant.

Juno MacGuff (played Ellen Page), finds herself pregnant, knocked up by her best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) on their first attempt at sex. Juno, with the help of her best friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), takes it upon herself to find some adoptive parents. Courtesy of the local Penny Saver, she soon finds childless couple Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner).

The power of this teenage pregnancy feature is just overwhelming. The story is very clever. The screenplay is not pretentious. The emotions were real. It definitely placed a spin on how pregnancy is presented in movies. Aside from the well-awarded screenplay. Ellen Page's acting kept us glued to the movie. It's like she's telling you "Watch what will happen to me". And true indeed, she held our hands as we go through the flat but very colorful life of a confused pregnant teenager. She would definitely be a force to face in tomorrow's Oscars.

The director, Jason Reitman, knows how to treat black comedy with respect. He was able to make people laugh in the theater without destroying the somber mood of the whole film. He deserves his Oscar nomination, yet he's too weak to compete with the epic experts in the race.

But all-in-all, JUNO has the elements of what a great movie should have. With that, I wouldn't be surprised if I see Jason with an Oscar tomorrow for Best Picture.