The Week in Film: Oscar Bait

Why, hello, folks! Another week means another week closer to December, which means it’s another week closer to Oscar bait movies. Aren’t you curious? I know you are, so let’s begin!

First up, we have 2012. It’s one of those natural disaster movies, but this time, on a global scale. The whole thing is based on the end of the world that in turn is based on the Mayan calendar. Expect super visual effects in the likes of things blowing up, giant tsunamis, raining meteors, skyscrapers collapsing, and Godzilla. Oh wait, scratch that last one.

Okay, sure this isn’t Oscar bait. But still, if you’re feeling like July in November, go for it! Oh, yeah, 2012 stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oliver Platt, and Amanda Peet.

The second of the two wide releases this week is Pirate Radio. In the 1960s, a bunch of DJs went on a boat, sailed out to the middle of the Atlantic, and broke British law by broadcasting Rock and Roll music. Just so you know, these aren’t just any regular DJs – they are rogue DJs. And if I look at the title, I imagine they are considered pirates too. So what does that make them? That’s right: Rogue Pirates. Talk about being redundantly redundant.

These rebellious Rogue Pirate DJs are led by The Count, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. I personally love anything Hoffman does, even Doubt. But this looks a lot lighter, and when I say “a lot”, I mean the polar opposite of Doubt. With music from The Beatles, Smokey Robinson, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and yes, even the Beach Boys (and many more), it’s got quite a song list.

The first movie in limited release this week is Fantastic Mr. Fox. This adaptation is directed by Wes Anderson, so you know it’s going to be weird and quirky. But with a premise including a territorial battle between angry famers and foxes because the farmers don’t want to share chickens with foxes anymore, the quirky, cutesy factor is already in the mid-range.

Ever since the trailers for this came out a while back, my impression is that the visuals were very polarizing - some people loved it, some despised it. I’m somewhere in between. From what I’ve seen, it feels stilted and weird in a bad way. But it does look unique in its own way, so I’m feeling on-the-fence right now.

Fox boasts quite a voice cast: George Clooney (man, he’s in everything this year. He still has Up in the Air coming out), Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray.

And if the end of the world, DJ pirates, and animated foxes isn’t your thing, you can search out a theater near you, if you’re in the chosen “selected” cities, for some documentaries. One of them is The End of Poverty? It’s a documentary about rainbows and unicorns. Oh, sorry, I meant it’s about Global Poverty. I capitalized Global and Poverty, so you know it’s serious.

The two other docs out this week include Four Seasons Lodge, about Holocaust survivors, and The Good Soldier, which follows five vets through their process of signing up, going to battle, and how each of them changed their minds about what it means to be a good soldier. These two films came out on Wednesday.