Having writ all that award show ‘warning’ below (disclaimer I was ‘Gervaised’ before there ever was a Gervais- and then this guy gets me even more depressed by creating that series The Office, thanks Ricky)- award shows are fun to watch.
What’s remarkable looking down that entire list of nominees tonight? There isn’t a single film that couldn’t be recommended in its category/s (I’ve only missed a couple of docs, shorts and a couple of the foreign. We try;) So great to see Stallone up there- that guy has worked so hard and got so jeered and maligned and not just for mumbling over the years.
The doc about Amy Winehouse breaks one’s heart that such talent couldn’t find more happiness. Cartel Land’s (doc) correscatingly remarkable interviews and footage shows both sides of the Mexican border problem. Nor should Joshua Oppenheimer’s Look of Silence and The Act of Killing be missed by anyone interested in the real world. None of these films will do much to cheer us all up though. Ex-Machina –very under-rated film of last year with Alicia Vikander gorgeously terrifying as the world’s robotic nemesis.
Just mankind’s flickering shadows up there on that screen. Yet, documentaries about fascinating little old men (and women) in some remote part of the world and they never see any of those shadows. And seem so much more normal than us city dwellers. To quote the Oz poet Les Murray: does all mankind need legends of some sort “else they will die of strangeness".
