Catching Up

Through the use of a Landmark Theatres gift pass, I finally caught up with the performance that should have won the Supporting Actor Oscar this year, Jackie Earle Haley in "Little Children". Haley reminded me a bit of Sean Penn in "Dead Man Walking"... another performance that should have won the Oscar but didn't. The similarities being that both actors took a thoroughly despicable character doing horrible things and never at any point made you LIKE him, or even try to do that... but nevertheless made you see life through his eyes and empathize with his plight. And any actor who can do that has accomplished something pretty amazing. The film as a whole is pretty good, but not as impressive as Haley. His performance, though... well, in a better, more just world, he would have been giving an acceptance speach last Sunday.

Also, I finally caught up with "Babel" on $1.00 Tuesday at a local second-run discount house last night. An absolutely amazing film. It reminded me of "Crash" (controversial as that film is among many, it was my favorite of 2005) in that it is also about the stupid, pointless things that needlessly divide us when we have so much more in common than we realize, and the way we too often feel no need to communicate and see common ground with anyone who's in any way different from us. Just imagine "Crash" taking place over several continents instead of only in L.A.
It also has much to say about how the pointless violence that adults start all too casually far too often catches innocent children in the crossfire. I realize that many people, including some of my best friends, look askance at stories that place children in danger. I totally respect their feelings about this, and in fact share them when this is done for exploitation's sake. But the world we live in often isn't kind to the young, and the young often get their minds poisoned by the thoughtless behaviour of their adult role models, with tragic results. It seems to me that this is the point of the children's roles in a film that, as far as I am concerned, should have won the Original Screenplay Oscar instead of "Little Miss Sunshine", and possibly even "Best Picture" as well instead of "The Departed" (much as I liked "The Departed" and as pleased as I was to see Scorsese get Best Director for that film). It was interesting to walk out of the film and overhear other moviegoers talk about how unimpressed they were, and mention other films they didn't really care for but thought were "at least better than BABEL". Most of them appeared to really have loved LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. Guess that's one consequence of seeing movies like this in a regular commercial theater instead of the art houses they open up in. Well, what can you say? There are also people who voted for George W. Bush and thought they were doing the right thing...