Superlative Sunday :: looking back over 5 of the most recent Best Picture Oscar triumphs that surprise me

Because sometimes I think about these things for no reason other than I watch movies that really should have won, all right?  And “recent” is a relative term, really.

5. 2002: Chicago beats Gangs of New York
I mean, I love Chicago.  Hence the junior high school Chicago-themed birthday party.  And I am all for musicals, which is also an obvious fact.  In a different year, I’d be comfortable in retrospect with Chicago‘s glitz and glam winning out over most things.  But up against Gangs Of New York?  Which is a historical epic with a brilliant script and incredible attention to detail?  It seems a bit odd.

4. 1998: Shakespeare in Love beats Saving Private Ryan
I’ve only really seen Saving Private Ryan through the whole way once.  I’ve seen pieces other times, but.  I’m not generally a big war epic kind of person.  Honestly, the only “war movie” I class as a favorite is Inglourious Basterds, and that doesn’t even really probably count.  I am sometimes a philistine, but I can recognize movies that are very, very good, and Saving Private Ryan is one.  On the other hand, Shakespeare in Love is… well.  I am not anti-romance, but I am also not the person who should accurately judge romantic films.  But Saving Private Ryanit ain’t.

3. 1997: Titanic beats L.A. Confidential
Thoughts already discussed.

2, 1. 1994: Forrest Gump beats Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption
Partially a surprise because goddamn, I love Pulp Fiction and still find it shocking that Quentin Tarantino has not won Best Picture before, partially a surprise because… really?  Forrest Gump is a good movie, and a bunch of kids I went to high school with walked around quoting it all the time.  It referenced many historical events and was clever and well-made and emotional.  But The Shawshank Redmption is another one of those movies that, yeah, it’s not ever going to be one of my favorites, but damn, I can recognize it is really fantastic.  I dunno.  It just seems like Forrest Gump is a less-likely choice of the bunch.

–your fangirl heroine.

Film Friday :: and finally, an analysis of some of “the most romantic movies of all time”

Specifically, comparing Time Out New York’s list and a list by realityviews on blogspot.  I was originally going to analyze the Time Out New York list by itself, but I was commenting to myself about Titanic‘s being 29 (still higher than I’d put it, but lower than many would put it) and about the absence of The Notebook, and I decided to see where that piece of sap ranked for others.

This led to reading the series of comments on Time Out New York’s list, and a fairly valid comment about these films; also an observation that the list doesn’t include hardly any films featuring nonwhite characters, and that’s unfortunately true, but this… is an interesting comment on how Hollywood’s romantic films tend to be cast, too.  Another rant for another day.

It also led to the other list, and there, The Notebook was one, and Titanic a close second.  These other lists are opinions, and I give them that.  And maybe I don’t really like romantic movies, so maybe I’m not the one qualified to discuss this, but hey.

The blogger’s list did put 10 Things I Hate About You at three, and I do enjoy that movie.  Not necessarily as a romance, but just because it’s so ridiculous and 90s (also, baby Joseph Gordon Levitt).  They also included Amelie and You’ve Got Mail, both of which I approve of, and Forrest Gump and The Reader, which are movies I… appreciate, if not as romances necessarily.

The only movie featured on both lists that I agree with is Edward Scissorhands.  It’s just… it’s my kind of romance.  Dark and morbid and pseudo-vintage.  Yes.

Time Out New York’s list had Brokeback Mountain and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for me to approve of as romances and Vertigo, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Say Anything, The Graduate, and Harold and Maude for me to approve as films.  Not… heinous.  But as I’ve said over and over this week, the vast majority of the romances featured in the romance films I like here are not functional.  This could be because functionality is considered less interesting.  And sometimes, I understand this.

But sometimes it’s plenty interesting.  Sometimes I just want to shake characters and tell them to stop going back and forth and back and forth and just make up their mind to have a stable relationship already.  Sometimes stable relationships are sweet and charming.  And even dysfunction is only interesting to me if the script and the plot are… something.  If I could say what, it would help me figure it out and probably also make me sound like a snarky bitch.  C’est la vie.

–your fangirl heroine.