"In five years time everyone will remember Avatar and many will remember Basterds. The Hurt Locker is one of those Oscar winners where people will ask, 'How the hell did this win?' and those of us around at the time will say, 'Well, it had a woman director, we were at war at the time, it was all very political.' It stinks."
- Posted by Agumen on Mar. 8, 2010
Well, I think "Agumen" was primarily complaining about The Hurt Locker stealing Avatar's thunder. I really couldn't care less about which half of that divorcee couple walked away with the Oscar last night; I just think District 9 really got snubbed.
I suppose it's a combination of 1) timing -- D9 is halfway around the world as far as Oscar's concerned by now; and 2) genre -- There was only room in His Golden Generosity to flaunt so many CG creatures in one season, and most of it went to That Movie With the Blue Native Americans and the Mustache Twirling Rovian Villain.
But District 9 is a prime example of what I consider to be the best potential in Hollywood filmmaking: A strong, pertinent message in a clever, sellable storyline; good characterization; and the ability to take something utterly unreal and make it relatable. Because that movie's not really about space-lobsters hanging around Johannesburg too long, is it? Granted, it may have gone a little action-heavy in the third act, but how many times in a year does a movie put a grin on your face like that without making you feel like you're watching a guilty pleasure?
Those are the kinds of movies I want to make. Movies like Children of Men, which similarly got no love in 2007, despite that film's groundbreaking cinematic techniques and amazing technical artistry. Even without the compelling premise, the super-taut script, the pitch-perfect performances, or the visionary directing, Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men was near-perfect on just about every technical level. Man, I love that movie.
All I'm sayin' is, District 9 deserved to be nominated in a category that it didn't have to share with Michael Bay's Big, Wet, Explosive Robot Dream.
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