[Al's Movies for the Week] Oscar: Best Picture

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Mar 12, 2010, 2:52:09 PM3/12/10

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Best Picture: In Chronological Order!
Monday: Casablanca: (1944)

If you haven't seen this, you aren't one who loves film. "Here's lookin' at you, kid." They don't make 'em better.
Tuesday: All About Eve: (1951)

One of the earliest and most pointed comments on not only the Hollywood game, but life in general. The generation that follows always overtakes the generation that preceeded it.
Wednesday: In the Heat of the Night: (1968)

This...it's Sidney Poitier at his best. It won FIVE academy awards. The call me Mister Tibbs!
Thursday: Annie Hall: (1979)

One of the only comedies to even be nominated, much less win. You can see the ground it laid in current films like 500 Days of Summer and its ilk--but no one can touch this.
Friday: The Silence of the Lambs: (1992)

Horror is the most consistent and predictable genre in Hollywood (and marketed towards teenage girls, FYI). But it rarely transitions into Academy territory (just like Sci-fi and comedy). Anthony Hopkins is brilliant, and this movie is wonderful.
Saturday: American Beauty: (2000)

A most poignant satire of the American middle class. This film explores it all: romanticism, sexuality, materialism, family, what it means to be free, love, and, of course, beauty. This made me want to watch True Blood, which screenwriter Alan Ball heads. He does have an eye for pretty.
Sunday: The Hurt Locker: (2010)

A truly ground breaking film. Wonderful direction. Great acting. And an amazingly political story in its non-political take on war. Rather than focusing on the whys of war, we're asked to look at what war does to people. The psychology of war, rather than the machinations that surround it. If we humanized the efforts in this way, I think we wouldn't enter into war so lightly.