Explosions followed by robots and aliens and cartoons and then some more explosions not your thing? Can’t say I blame you. If you’re not overwhelmed with the urge to run to the cineplex and for summer blockbuster season, or if you do, but you like a little more balance in your viewing diet, now is an excellent time to consider catching up on last year’s Oscar contenders out on DVD and Blu-Ray. 2008′s main Oscar categories are filled with drama and misery sure to take your mind off all that good weather and vacation time.
Changeling. Starring Angelina Jolie and her pillow lips as a 1920′s single mom screwed by the LAPD when her son is kidnapped by a seriously jacked up old timey serial killer. Enjoy Clint Eastwood’s penchant for a muted color palette. Happiness!
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Brad Pitt is born as a miniature old man who miraculously ages backwards and then has the tragedy of getting too young to date Cate Blanchett, which I think we all can agree is a tragedy. This one got major backlash, but I liked it better than I thought I would. Maybe that is because I watched it on a plane, which skews all my brain power.
Doubt. Meryl Streep and Amy Adams go toe-to-toe against Philip Seymour Hoffman as the possibly molesting priest in a 1960s Catholic school where they wear freaky nun habits that make me think they’re secretly extremely stern Quakers. I saw the trailer to this one so many times in the theater I wanted to shoot myself in the face, but the movie was still good.
Frost/Nixon. Could anything seem more boring than a movie about reliving hours of mostly unsuccessful journalistic interviews? Somehow, screenwriter Peter Morgan totally pulls it off and manages to infuse quite a bit of drama, thank God. Plus, Nixon gets loaded and drunk dials people, which we all know is fun.
Frozen River. Financial hardship and desperation on the icy New York/Canada border! Misery! Drug smuggling! Displaced Native Americans! Yay! This one is truly tiny, so if you see it, pat yourself on the back for supporting indie film.
Milk. Sean Penn transforms himself utterly to portray slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk. I have a hard time being funny about this one because even the trailer made me cry. I will throw down with anyone who thinks Mickey Rourke should have won the Oscar instead.
Rachel Getting Married. My favorite Anne Hathaway sports a short, streaky hair cut, which obviously shows that she is a very difficult-to-love recovering addict who comes home for her sister’s wedding and fucks everything up. Now featuring a 17-hour-long pointless musical interlude full of white people wearing saris at their wedding in some sort of unbearable shrine to their multi-culti perfection.
The Reader. Kate Winslet grows out her body hair and wears orthopedic shoes to play an ex-Nazi who has a lusty affair with a teenager in post-WWII Germany. Spicy – until the age make up. Oh, the terrible, terrible age make up.
Revolutionary Road. Hey! Kate Winslet again! As the first angry and repressed ’50s housewife to truly realize that the suburbs suck, and how to effectively make it hard for Leonardo DiCaprio to keep it in his pants. Maybe she’s not the first to do that.
Slumdog Millionaire. Indian waifs eat garbage and live in misery, and then one goes on their version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire as an adult to reconnect with his childhood love? What? You’ve heard of this one? The surprise sleeper hit of the year? Well, there is about zero percent chance it can live up to the hype, but it is good.
The Visitor. An unhappy college professor discovers illegal immigrants have inadvertently taken over his NYC apartment and then befriends them and finds himself. Well, this one is pretty interesting. Plus, you’ll learn words like, ‘djembe’ and ‘habibi.’
The Wrestler. Mickey Rourke resurrects his career figuratively and literally as a sad, past-his-prime professional wrestler who can’t give up the ring. Worth watching for the chance to gape at the crazy wrestling clothes and Rourke’s terrifying plastic surgery alone.
Mickey Rourke should have won the Oscar
I agree with you Heather…. Sean Penn was amazing… I recently watched a documentary and Harvey Milk and he nailed the mannerisms… Mickey’s role was pretty amazing and heartbreaking too, but I feel he was playing a character that was very close to himself.