Indulging in "Uncoupled"

I was under the mistaken impression that "Uncoupled" was a feature film, but the new Netflix series is only the length of two feature films, with eight half-hour episodes.  Created by Darren Star and Jeffrey Richman, we are back in a very "Sex in the City" version of New York, this time looking at the breakup of Michael (Neil Patrick Harris) and Colin (Tuc Watkins), a gay couple who have been together for seventeen years.  Michael is initially mystified by the split, and spends the early episodes trying frantically to repair the relationship before facing the unappetizing reality of being single and in his forties.

"Uncoupled" wants very much to present the state of modern romance from an LGBT point of view, celebrating the community and the new opportunities afforded by technology and cultural improvements.  At the same time, it wants to show off how good Neil Patrick Harris and other members of the cast looks shirtless, and indulge in a familiar, fantasy version of New York.  This is definitely a rom-com universe, where nearly everyone is handsome and rich, or at least witty and refined.  Michael is a real estate agent, who with his business partner Suzanne (Tisha Campbell), spends several episodes touring ungodly expensive New York real estate, and trying to stay in the good graces of a demanding client played by Marcia Gay Harden.  Michael's friend group includes playboy weatherman Billy (Emeson Brooks) and gallery owner Stanley (Brooks Ashmanskas), both also perpetually single and gay.  Suzanne is both the only straight and the only woman in their circle, and Tisha Campbell is more than able to hold her own.  

This is actually the first piece of media I've seen Neil Patrick Harris in in some time, because I skipped out on "How I Met Your Mother" and most of the "Harold and Kumar" movies.  He's extremely charming here, and good at playing someone who is simultaneously very lovable and full of obvious, exasperating faults.  Though we spend a lot of time watching Michael struggle to get back into the dating scene, with some success, I appreciate that "Uncoupled" really is about Michael and Colin's relationship all the way through.  Even when Colin disappears for several episodes, getting on with his own post-breakup life, his presence looms large.  Also, I like that the breakup isn't anybody's fault, and Colin is never really in the wrong.  He's positioned as an antagonist a few times, naturally, but usually because of miscommunications and Michael projecting his own insecurities.  It's very satisfying to watch Michael move through all the different stages of a breakup, and see how it impacts subsequent relationships.

I am very impressed with how well written the show is.  The show functions like a sitcom, constantly coming up with little dilemmas and new faces that only last an episode or two.  Its ongoing storylines, however, all tend to move quickly and never stagnate.  Marcia Gay Harden's difficult client keeps coming back into Michael's life for different reasons, and by the end of the season she's been repositioned as a more casual acquaintance, still on her own journey of self-discovery.  Colin and Michael mostly avoid each other, but when they do intersect, it doesn't feel manufactured.  When Michael's mother (Stephanie Faracy) has an accident, of course Colin drops by to see her because he's developed his own relationship with her over the course of his and Michael's relationship.  

As the series goes on, "Uncoupled" slowly morphs into an ensemble series.  If the show gets additional seasons, I hope that it leans into this.  Michael's friend group becomes his most important emotional support, and the personalities are a good mix of fun types.  A lot of good character actors show up for smaller roles, including Andre de Shields as Michael's elderly neighbor.  The last episode, involving a big wedding, shamelessly sets up a bunch of different cliffhangers and loose plot threads for everyone - including Colin, who is not out of the picture yet.  It's easy to point to "Uncoupled" as a gay "Sex and the City" wannabe, but I don't see how anyone could object to a gay "Sex and the City" wannabe that offers this much easy, watchable fun.   

Oh, and content warnings for sexual content, though it's fairly tame for 2022.  There's a whole episode devoted to talking about dick pics, but only fleeting glimpses of actual nudity. 

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"Cha Cha Real Smooth" and "Dinner in America"

There's been some buzz around the recent Sundance film "Cha Cha Real Smooth," a contemporary coming of age picture.  Cooper Raiff directs and stars as Andrew, an aimless post-grad who has moved back in with his mother and stepfather (Leslie Mann, Brad Garrett), while figuring out his next steps.  While taking his younger brother David (Evan Assante) to a Bar Mitzvah, he meets an autistic girl named Lola (Vanessa Burghardt) and her mother Domino (Dakota Johnson).  Andrew's efforts to impress Domino and Lola result in him getting work as a party starter, and occasionally as Lola's babysitter.

"Cha Cha" occasionally feels like it's in conversation with older films like "The Graduate," specifically in the way that the protagonist faces a prospective romance with an older woman, and struggles to navigate the expectations of everyone around him.  However, Andrew is more empathetic and aware of the damage he can cause, and the universe he inhabits is gentler and less cynical.  Youthful rebellion and sexual transgressions are tempting, but Andrew quickly learns that the consequences aren't worth it.  As coming-of-age films go, "Cha Cha" comes across as well-meaning but toothless.  Andrew often feels like he's operating on the sidelines of a more interesting movie, and the other characters are a little too conveniently constructed to teach him life lessons - Domino in particular.     

Cooper Raiff is an appealing screen presence, and I admire his ability to bring suburban anomie of a specific cultural context to the screen.  I have never been to a Bar Mitzvah, but I know the awkward party atmosphere and the clusters of gossiping, hovering parents all too well.  However, there's little about "Cha Cha Real Smooth" that helps it to stand out from so many other indie films about awkward twenty-somethings learning how to adult.  Dependable actors like Dakota Johnson and Leslie Mann are barely given anything to work with, and Raiff frankly wears out his welcome long before the film is finished.  I like the intentions behind the story, and the filmmaking is promising, but this one is a miss.

Meanwhile, a Sundance 2020 premiere has emerged at last, to make the case that punk is not dead.  Kyle Gallner plays a young reprobate named Simon, who goes on the run after a potential love connection goes wrong.  He ends up hiding out with Patty (Emily Skeggs), a former classmate with a non-specified intellectual disability.  She lives with a stifling (but easily manipulated) family, and her only escape is the punk music of the band PSYOPS, fronted by the mysterious masked lead singer, John Q, who Patty writes love letters to.  She's desperate to get to a concert where they're playing in a few days, and Simon sees this as an opportunity.

Torrents of foul language and casual antisocial behavior initially put me off, but "Dinner in America" has a raw energy and a subversive attitude that is infectious, and it's clear from very early on that the filmmakers aren't just here to make us all outraged and uncomfortable.  Soon enough scummy Simon turns out to have both a heart and a conscience, and Patty has even more surprises in store.  Their romance is genuinely sweet and it's a blast to watch these two outsiders do battle against the mundane suburbia that keeps them down.  Written and directed by Adam Carter Rehmeir, "Dinner in America" takes aim at unhappy homes and small-minded bullies.  There's a great recurring motif of torturous family meals that act as a microcosm of everyone's terrible family dynamics.

I've seen a few youthful rebellion movies in the same vein as "Dinner in America," and some have worked and some haven't.  I think the reason why this one works is that the couple stay underdogs the whole way through, anarchic but always at a clear disadvantage.   And while Simon embodies the image of the antisocial punk that we're all familiar with, equal narrative weight is given over to Patty, a mild-mannered, average-looking girl who's even more oppressed by cruel social expectations than Simon is.  We end up rooting for Simon to bridge the gap between them, help Patty break out of her shell and embrace her wild side.  In short, "Dinner in America" gives us a good reminder of what the punks are rebelling against, and finds room for a little heart and sympathy amidst all the violence and aggression.

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"The Old Man" and "The Gray Man"

I wouldn't normally pair reviews for a feature film and an ongoing series together, but with these titles, I couldn't resist.  "The Old Man" is an FX spy show starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow, who haven't been in anything together before, and get to play off each other as old friends and old spies in some satisfying ways.  Bridges plays Dan Chase, a former CIA operative who has managed to exist off the grid for a few decades, but forces from the past return, and he goes on the run.  Eventually he picks up a traveling companion, a woman named Zoe (Amy Brenneman).  Chase is also being hunted by a hitman named Julian Carson (Gbenga Akinnagbe), an old colleague, who is now high up in the FBI, Harold Harper (Lithgow), and Harper's protege Angela Adams (Alia Shawkat).

"The Old Man" is an unusual series in that it really pushes the characters and their relationships to the forefront, and derives most of the story's twists and turns from those relationships, rather than the usual intrigues of spycraft.  In that sense it feels rather old fashioned, with many of the key scenes coming down to fiery confrontations and heated conversations.  There's still plenty of action in the show, and it's beautifully staged - helping us all pretend that the aging Jeff Bridges is capable of being a world class badass.  However, what it's especially good at is upending the status quo from episode to episode, and constantly making the viewer question their own assumptions about who these characters are.  Zoe, for instance, starts out as something of an unfortunate bystander, and a few episodes later her relationship to Chase has changed completely, and she's revealed herself to be capable of taking control of the situation in a way that's surprising and refreshing.

At the same time, the many shocking revelations and paradigm shifts don't all work, and I expect that those looking for a more traditional kind of spy story might become frustrated by the amount of melodrama.  "The Old Man" wouldn't be as enjoyable if it weren't for the stellar cast helping to smooth over some of the more ridiculous dialogue.  Alia Shawkat feigning indignation during a particularly wild conversation between Adams and Harper struck me as a bridge too far, and it wasn't the last time that happened.  The weakest segments of the show involve flashbacks to a younger Chase (Kenneth Mitchell) during the Soviet-Afghan War, which are too many and too tedious.  Still, when it's Bridges or Lithgow  onscreen, it's so good to see them have the opportunity to play interesting characters.  I had no trouble finishing the seven episode season, which infuriatingly ends on a big cliffhanger.

"The Gray Man," one of Netflix's more pricey action spectacles, is much slicker, more disposable entertainment.  The Russo brothers direct and Ryan Gosling stars as Sierra Six, a felon recruited to be a secret CIA assassin.  He has a target put on his back when he acquires a particular asset from a fellow assassin that's full of incriminating CIA secrets.  His panicking supervisors send a sadistic killjoy contractor named Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) after him, target his original recruiter Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), and even kidnap Fitzroy's young niece Claire (Julia Butters) to get him to cooperate.  Six's only ally is CIA agent Dani Miranda (Ana De Armas), who had the bad luck of partnering with him on the mission where he acquired the asset, putting her in danger too.  Alfre Woodard, Jessica Henwick, Rege Jean Page, Dhanoush, and Wagner Moura are also involved as various operatives and handlers.

Ryan Gosling is excellent as an action star, and the Russos essentially turn him into a world-weary Bruce Willis figure here, having him deliver wry one-liners between the action set-pieces, and progressively get more and more beat-up as the movie goes on.  When he gets punched, or stabbed, or lands badly, you wince, and it happens a lot.  The villain is Chris Evans in full dirtbag mode as evil psycho, Lloyd.  He's fun to watch and easy to root against, but never gets to let loose as much as you can tell he wants to.  "The Gray Man," in spite of the relentless amount of destruction, is a very PG-13 action film.  A significant amount of time is spent trying to endear us to Claire, an annoying twelve-year-old who Six gets attached to, and ends up being the major MacGuffin in the movie, because the plot here is totally beside the point.              

    

Compared to other Netflix action movies like "Red Notice" and "6 Underground," "The Gray Man"  isn't bad at all.  However, the film is so generic that it seems an awful shame to have wasted the talents of the Russos, Gosling, Evans, De Armas, and all the rest on it.  The high price tag means that the action is suitably grand scale, and I'm sure plenty of viewers will have a good time with it, but I was hoping for more.       

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My Favorite Henri-Georges Clouzot Film

It's easy to describe Henri-Georges Clouzot as the French Alfred Hitchcock.  Clouzot was most famous for his thrillers, and once even beat Hitchcock to adapting material he was interested in.  This  resulted in the classic "Diabolique," which would go on to inspire "Psycho."  However, Clouzot was equally proficient in other genres, directing the historical romance "Manon," the comedy "Miquette," and the astonishing documentary, "The Mystery of Picasso," which I was very tempted to write this entry about.  And unlike Hitch, Clouzot wrote or co-wrote most of his films.

Still, when I think of Clouzot, I inevitably always come back to "The Wages of Fear," a taut action thriller from the '50s that would be remade in the '70s by William Friedkin as "Sorcerer."  It has some of the greatest suspense sequences ever filmed, following a group of men in South America who have been hired to transport nitroglycerin through rough country on a pair of trucks.  Too much jostling could set off the unstable explosives, killing whoever is close by, so every roadblock becomes a life-or-death situation - boulders in the road, rotting bridges over plunging precipices, oil spills, sharp turns, and worse.  

The film runs over 150 minutes, and nearly the first hour is spent setting up the four men hired to do the job,  and the enormity of the risk they are taking.  Once the actual journey begins, however, their chatter falls away, the spectacular sound design takes over, and the tension becomes unrelenting.  Little by little the danger grows and escalates.  The trucks are sometimes forced to inch their way forward, up a mountain, trying to avoid almost certain disaster.  Every narrow escape just makes the men more paranoid.  The smallest setbacks are magnified to feel insurmountable, and basic car trouble has never seemed more harrowing.  During my first viewing, I hardly noticed the length of the film because I was so absorbed by the suspense.           

I didn't appreciate the themes of "The Wages of Fear" until after multiple viewings.  Clouzot famously considered the film to be about courage.  The four men engaged for the journey have been thrown together by fate, all European expats stuck in a dead-end town, trying to make enough money to escape.  Initially, the job is seen as a windfall, as opportunities are few and far between.   Inevitably, however, the tension becomes too much and they start to lose their nerve.   The filmmaking is bleak and impartial, as the men come to realize that no matter how they struggle, their fates will be decided by luck more than skill.  Where they come from and who they are don't matter in the face of danger.   Our lead, played by Yves Montand, is shown to be an unpleasant brute, but his worst actions are committed out of fear and panic rather than malice or greed.  Acts of bravery seem to be born of instinctual self preservation.  It's a remarkably cynical outlook, one I can't imagine would play well to broader audiences today.  

Then there are the political messages.  For ages, the film could only be accessed in the United States in heavily edited form.  The oil company that hires the desperate men is an American outfit, and clearly an exploitative, unethical one.  They treat the men as expendable, forgoing safer delivery options so that the nitroglycerin can be transported more quickly.  This was deemed too political, and potentially anti-American, so roughly thirty-five minutes of early scenes were deleted from the U.S. version.  Ironically, this is the least successful part of the film, and I suspect that the shorter version plays better because it gets us into the thick of the action faster.

The angry, cynical  tone of the film reflects a filmmaker who was often described as angry and short-tempered on set, with a penchant for nihilistic, misanthropic material.  He was criticized in his time for being pessimistic and morbid, but Clouzot was passionate about his work.   He would go on to further success but his popularity was fairly short-lived and he didn't direct many more films after "Wages of Fear" and "Diabolique."  His most prolific period ended with the death of his wife, Vera, who appeared in three of his films, including "Wages of Fear."  The lone female character, Montand's girlfriend, was created for her by Clouzot.    

What I've Seen - Henri-Georges Clouzot

The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942)
Le Corbeau (1943)
Quai des Orfèvres (1947)
Manon (1949)
The Wages of Fear (1953)
Les Diaboliques (1955)
The Mystery of Picasso (1956)
Les Espions (1957)
La Vérité (1960)

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"Stranger Things," Year Four (With Spoilers)

Spoilers for the full series ahead.

                                       

As much as I might complain about weaker plotting or too many characters getting too little time, the Duffers have consistently figured out how to keep "Stranger Things" very engaging and very exciting to watch.  The basic mechanics of scrappy kids fighting monsters has always been rock solid, and there were multiple moments during this year where I got to cheer for the heroes and hiss at the villains in a way that I genuinely haven't in ages.  Not everything pays off, but when something does, it's usually immensely satisfying.  The big Vecna reveal with Nancy was great.  Eleven confronting Bremmer and blowing up the helicopter was great.  Hopper going after demodogs with a sword, and Murray with a flamethrower were great.  Everybody got a little moment to shine, even if it was something as simple as Erica getting to clobber a jock, or Robin talking her way into the sanitarium.  I understand the frustration with certain plotlines getting dragged out, but when those things finally pay off in Season Five, I expect it'll be worth the wait too.

Jamie Campbell Bower is one of the season's MVPs, because he was apparently in that full body Vecna suit during many important scenes.  His introduction as 001/Henry feels a little overdue, and some of the series mythology has clearly been retconned to accommodate him.  However, a Freddy Krueger style villain operating on the same level as Eleven is such a nice change of pace from the demogorgons and mindflayers and assorted moist blobs.  Vecna's confrontation scene with Max was the clear highlight of the year.  I've always appreciated "Stranger Things" for embracing the kind of squishy, tactile, Cronenbergian horror that I grew up on, and not relying so much on CGI.  When the show does use CGI, however, it's perfect.  It took me a while to catch on that the flashbacks to the original Hawkins lab featured a de-aged Millie Bobby Brown, because it's been so long since the first season.  It absolutely blows everything I've seen from the latest Marvel and "Star Wars" shows out of the water, though it's probably not fair to be comparing very different kinds of shows.  

There's been some chatter that the oversized cast should have been pruned down this year, but the Duffers have made it clear that "Stranger Things" is not "Game of Thrones" and we should not be holding our breaths for a high body count.  It's a little disturbing that the fandoms for these franchises have an element that's been so bloodthirsty.  I like all of these characters enough that I don't want to see anybody die.  I like that the Duffers have staunchly refused to give up on the John Hughes elements of the show, and there were significant chunks of the screen time devoted to Robin pining after Vickie (Amybeth McNulty), Steve and Nancy getting closer, and setting up how Eddie and Chrissy (Grace Van Dien) were developing a connection.  And then you have Will failing to confess to Mike and being supported by Jonathan.  And Dustin and Eddie becoming best bros, and Dustin having to break the news to Eddie's uncle.  Max became a lot of people's favorite character this year, because there were real stakes to her story, and "Dear Billy" was this long, intense build-up to her presumed demise - that I hope we all realized that we didn't want to see happen.  

Most of my real complaints about this season come down to the Duffers being given too much leeway and refusing to kill some of their darlings.  The 150 minute finale really was too much of everything, and I can't help wondering if they re-edited the climax to add Kate Bush in response to "Running Up That Hill" going viral.  The downbeat epilogue really should have been a separate episode, given how different the pacing was, and frankly this season could have easily been twelve or thirteen episodes instead of nine.  Several characters and storylines could have used more closure, such as Eleven's bullies, the other basketball guys, Dr. Owen, the military, and Enzo (Tom Wlaschiha).  At least there was proper setup for the fifth season, and we've got plenty of cliffhangers to chew over until it gets here.  I really hope it doesn't take another three years, but if that's what the Duffers need to make a good season of "Stranger Things," I say let them have it.

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"Stranger Things," Year Four (Without Spoilers)

It's been three years since the third season of "Stranger Things," and the Duffer Brothers and their collaborators have made good use of the time.  In a year where we've seen such a crush of prestige streaming series, and Disney+ has been pushing high priced Marvel and "Star Wars" properties, "Stranger Things" is far and away the most impressive series on any platform.  The production rivals anything currently playing in theaters, and totally outclasses any imitator on streaming.  It feels like this is one of the only pieces of media of its kind - a true longform series told with all the resources of blockbuster filmmaking.

There have been debates on the relative merits of the last few seasons, but this year of "Stranger Things" feels like a significant step up.  All the kids except Erica are now in high school.  The adults are almost totally absent - Joyce and Murray spend the whole season traveling to Russia to rescue Hopper from a Soviet prison camp, while the kids are split up between Hawkins and California.  Satanic panic finally reaches Hawkins, as a series of murders puts the high school DnD group, the Hellfire Club, in the crosshairs, with its leader Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) as the prime suspect.  The actual culprit is a new villain from the Upside Down that the kids dub Vecna.  Preying on troubled kids, Vecna can psychically murder his victims and seems unstoppable.    

This season's biggest stumbling block is that there are too many characters.  Joyce, Hopper, and Murray are joined by "Game of Thrones" alum Tom Wlaschiha for a very self-contained storyline that is honestly fine as typical action movie fodder.  It's the least impressive part of this season, but it's better material than what these characters have usually had to work with.  The California crew consist of the Byers brothers, Jonathan's new stoner pizza delivery pal Argyle (Eduardo Franco), a visiting Mike, and Eleven - who is quickly whisked away to a secret lab by Sam Owens (Paul Reiser) to try and get her powers back.  The boys get some hijinks and eventually a road trip, but not much else.  The show has been dancing around Will possibly being gay, and Jonathan's relationship troubles with Nancy for two seasons now, probably because it doesn't know what else to do with them. 

Back in Hawkins, the older teenagers - Nancy, Steve, and Robin - mostly have romance on their minds as they help the others delve into the secrets of Vecna and local maniac Victor Creel (Robert Englund).  Eleven, Lucas, and Max are the major characters who become the focus of the season, and actually get full character arcs.  Lucas has joined the basketball team, under the leadership of bullying jock Jason Carver (Mason Dye), and is being pressured to turn his back on his nerdier friends.  Max is still struggling with the aftermath of Season Three spoilers, and becomes one of Vecna's targets.  And then there's Eleven, who gets a chance to confront parts of her past as she tries to reboot herself.  Dustin and Eddie are also pretty prominent, eventually getting a subplot during the big finale all to themselves.

All the actors are as good as they've ever been, but the villains this year are especially vital, creating palpable threats to everybody in the show.  The horror elements in "Stranger Things" have always been great, and now they Duffers are tapping into the slasher side of the genre, specifically the gruesome Freddy Krueger energy that so many '80s horror flicks had.  The nightmare imagery of the Upside Down is more expensive looking, and more varied, giving us new locations and new things to be scared of.  The effects crew really outdid themselves, and as a result "Stranger Things" has never been more exciting or fun to watch as pure spectacle.   As teen drama - well, your mileage will likely vary.  The creators get away with a lot of messy and uneven writing this year, because it's clearly setting up for Season Five, which will reportedly be the last.  

It's clear that the Duffers and Shawn Levy are starting to get too indulgent.  While I generally support variable episode lengths, there was no reason that the finale had to be two and a half hours long, riddled with unnecessary slo-mo shots, and so haphazardly edited.  Splitting the season up into two volumes was smart because it generated a lot more chatter and momentum for the second half, but I think the audience would have been much happier if those two episodes were either much shorter, or just reworked into four episodes.    

More on specific story issues and Vecna next time, with spoilers… 

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Rank 'Em: The Best Picture Winners of the '80s

Decade by decade, I'm ranking the winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture.  From greatest to least great, here's the '80s.  And I warn you that it's been a long while since I've seen a lot of these films.

Amadeus (1984) - This was an easy choice because "Amadeus" is one of my cinematic touchstones.  I've written about it before, so I'll just say here that my appreciation of the film has only grown with time, especially the performances and the use of Mozart's music.  Also, I prefer the original theatrical cut to the Special Edition, and it galls me that it's so much harder to find that version these days.  Other notable nominees of these Oscars included "The Killing Fields" and David Lean's "A Passage to India."

Rain Man (1988) - Dustin Hoffman had an almost miraculous run of great roles, and I always thought that Raymond Babbitt was in many ways the last.  Hoffman did plenty of great work later, but he peaked with Raymond, a savant who is simultaneously both endearing and utterly infuriating.  With Tom Cruise delivering one of his better, truly underappreciated performances, the two have undeniable comedy chemistry, and emotional rapport.  And this fuels a buddy road movie of unusual poignancy and joy.  

Gandhi (1982) - Thank goodness Richard Attenborough cast Ben Kingsley as Mahatma Gandhi over a bigger name.  I cannot conceive of how this movie could have worked otherwise.  "Gandhi" is mostly remembered as a feat of epic filmmaking, with a cast of thousands.  What it really is, even more than it is a biopic, is a country's founding myth.  The Gandhi depicted in the film is not the historical figure, but a human ideal intended to awe and inspire.  Let's face it though.  "E.T." really should have won.

The Last Emperor (1987) - I have to make the disclaimer that nostalgia plays a significant part in how I ranked this film, as it was a big deal in my community to have a film depict this period of Chinese history.  And a massive epic directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, was an especially validating thing to see.  In retrospect, like "Gandhi," this is a simplified and often inaccurate historical biopic.  As spectacle, however, it's cinematic catnip.  And I'm still furious that none of the actors were nominated.

Terms of Endearment (1983) - The beloved James L. Brooks weepie features one of the great onscreen mother/daughter relationships of all time, with stellar performances from Shirley Maclaine and Debra Winger.  I tend to remember this one as a cancer movie more than anything else, with some particularly gutting hospital scenes, and am always presently surprised by the appearance of Jack Nicholson.  However, it's not one of my favorites, and probably wouldn't have won in a more competitive year.

Platoon (1986) - The reputation of "Platoon" boils down to the fact that it's a Vietnam War movie made by a director who actually served and experienced the carnage.  I don't think it's as good as "Apocalypse Now" or "The Deer Hunter," but "Platoon" is undeniably authentic and deeply personal.  It  would also catapult Oliver Stone into the spotlight, and into the right position where he could make better films.  It's a very deserving winner, though I'd argue that Roland Jaffe's "The Mission" is just as good.  

Driving Miss Daisy (1989) - This is a nice, pleasant, feel-good  film, and I bear it no ill will.  The performances are good and the production is solid on every front.  Unfortunately, it reflects a certain attitude from Hollywood about depictions of race relations that has stuck around for way, way too long.  More on that when we get to "Green Book."  I probably would have picked "Born on the Fourth of July" for this year, though "My Left Foot" and "Field of Dreams" were also strong contenders.

Out of Africa (1985) - I have beef with "Out of Africa," because it seems obvious to me that "The Color Purple" should have won Best Picture, with "Witness" in second place.  Lovely cinematography and the John Barry score aside, I don't see how Meryl on her farm in Africa, having a love affair, rates higher.  Maybe I saw this at the wrong time in my life, when I was younger and too impatient, but the romantic colonialist notions and the gallant doomed pilot just failed to hold any interest for me.     

Chariots of Fire (1981) - The Vangelis instrumental is great, but this British sports drama is a bore.  You've got a movie about Olympic runners and anti-Semitism, and it's an unbearable drag.  I barely remember anything positive, and it doesn't surprise me that it's the most notable thing that anyone involved with its creation has made.  Frankly, I'm stumped as to how this beat out heavy hitters like "Reds" and "On Golden Pond."  Even "Raiders of the Lost Ark" would have at least been a memorable choice.   

Ordinary People (1980) - Finally, I hesitate to call this one of the worst Best Picture winners because it's a well-intentioned film about mental health that was pretty daring for its time.  However, it's aged terribly, especially in the way that it demonizes Mary Tyler Moore's character.  It's also one of those unfortunate winners where literally any of the other nominees would have been a better pick.  "Raging Bull" should have won, and if not "Raging Bull," then "The Elephant Man" or "Coal Miner's Daughter."

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