#1 Hurt Locker defeats #3 District 9, 18-6
#3 (500) Days of Summer defeats #9 I Love You, Man 22-0 (goodbye, Cinderella!)
#3 A Serious Man defeats #1 Up in the Air, 18-10 (hello, upset!)
#1 Fantastic Mr. Fox defeats #3 Drag Me to Hell, 18-6
Surprised? I am. But, aside from A Serious Man and I Love You Man, which none of us had pegged Final Four contenders when the tourney began, these films were all designated by at least one of us as a top-four film (according to the secret pre-tourney rankings).
The Final Four matchups are:
#1 HURT LOCKER vs. #3 (500) DAYS OF SUMMER
Storylines: Bombs versus bombshells. The trenches of war versus the trenches of love. The battle of up and coming stars Renner and Gordon-Levitt. Days left in rotation versus days left in relations.
and
#1 FANTASTIC MR. FOX vs. #3 A SERIOUS MAN
Storylines: Upper versus downer. Whimsy versus whimpering. A mesmerized possum versus a neck-cyst drainer. Clooney faces off with Stuhlbarg (again, this time in voice only)!
I expect these games to be shootouts. Leave your decisions in the comments to this post. Make 'em count.
6 comments:
The Hurt Locker: Like "Apocalypse Now" and "Saving Private Ryan" I feel that THL will be remembered for years to come as an unflinching, nerve-wracking, war time thriller. Can you think of a better war film made in the past decade? I can't.
(500) Days of Summer: I am overjoyed (500) DOS made it this far, but like Tom and Summer's relationship my devotion towards it has unfortunately come to an end. I would like to give it just one more mark of praise. It took this film's soundtrack for me to discover how big a fan of The Smiths, The Pixies, and even Hall & Oats that I have become. Can we still be friends?
As for "Fox" and "Serious Man" I have no problem with the quality of either and love them both equally for completely different reasons, and yet having shot down my top two picks I really don't care which one moves ahead. I guess since I am a glass is half empty kind of guy that can never seem to catch a break I can relate more to Larry Gopnik. He seems to be the underdog here anyway.
The Hurt Locker +6
A Serious Man +6
Ok, so I can't comment on the second pairing - even if I don't agree with the outcomes I can agree that most of these films are of good if not great quality.
OK, so that leaves the first pairing.
Hmmmm.... any guesses on what I'm gonna say.
(500) DOS was a good film. Entertaining, with a great portrayal of the everyguy by JGL. A character that many of us can sympathize with (or at least think we can). Funny interweaving of allusions (the Bergman homage probably the best). It's cute, it's fun.
But it tried too hard at points, it didn't know when to rein itself in, and Deschanel - what seemed like a smart casting choice was, well, a bitter aftertaste. And it's hard to forgive writers Neustadter and Weber for the arrival of Autumn (even if she was so much hotter than Summer).
The Hurt Locker, on the other hand, I find is increasing in its resonance with time. A startling film, really putting things right up front. There were places where Bigelow and team could have fleshed out a bit more - particularly with Eldridge and his conflicts. Still, Will James is a role that I suspect will linger with time, maybe not as recognizable as Travis Bickle, but with as much depth. What is particularly strong is the honest unabashedness with which Bigelow closes the film. No heavy-handed explanation of a childhood tragedy, no convolutions which explain why James is the way he is. No. A solid, existential explanation by the man himself that is enough.
Hurt Locker, +6, all the way (and I suspect our eventual winner).
Whereas I wouldn't compare The Hurt Locker with Apocalypse Now or Saving Private Ryan, because both of those films are epic in scope, I would compare it to Born on the Fourth of July or Platoon, among other more personal war films. It doesn't so much carry a message as it portrays a hard to understand, yet true-to-life character, and it is in exploring this character that Bigelow orchestrates one fantastic suspense sequence after another. These suspense sequences will be what the film is remembered for.
500 Days of Summer, while equally pleasurable in many different ways, and benefiting largely from the appeal of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, still lives in the realm of the romantic comedy, which is not my forte.
+6 The Hurt Locker
As for A Serious Man and The Fantastic Mr. Fox... A Serious Man has been growing on me, and there are mysteries in it that I have not solved. It is an incomparable pleasure to watch a film that I know is aimed at an intellectual target and not reduced for mass appeal. This film is slick, surreal, frustrating, and hilarious, and three of those four qualities also describe The Fantastic Mr. Fox, along with eye-popping and addictive. I think I'm going to have to side with Mr. Fox, although I'm right on the edge with this. Both films are so much fun, but Mr. Fox wins over, once again, because it appears so handmade, and it deserves credit for its technique.
+6 Fantastic Mr. Fox
Three sixes means the Hurt Locker is in the Finals, so that means I can go ahead and . . . Nevermind, +6 Hurt Locker. I would like to pick 500 Days here, and since I've seen it much more recently than Locker, it's fresh on my mind. I need to see it again before I make my mind up on the finals.
As for the other matchup, again, I've seen A Serious Man more recently than Mr. Fox, so I'm leaning towards it. But on the other hand, I think Mr. Fox is the more complete film (humor, drama, novelty), though Serious Man is far more fascinating. I'm torn, but +6 for Mr. Fox.
+6 A Serious Man.
+2 500 Days.
Hurt Locker finishes off 500 Days, but we have a TIE in the final four. Nilay will have to resolve it. The only thing I can say is that my decision was extremely hard -- I still feel unsure about my decision to pick Fox over Serious Man, so take that for what it's worth.
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