The Wolf Song (1929)

I’m straight, but I know damn well that Gary Cooper’s beautiful. You can’t miss his beauty in The Wolf Song, a film that places him: lithe, lanky, and naked, by the side of a stream; obscured by blades of grass. Cooper’s outdoorsman, Sam Lash, has decided to wash up. He’s smitten by a girl in Taos, the town where he’s staying, and bathing seems like the right thing to do, since Sam expects to get laid. He will.

Old San Francisco (1927)

The only thing I wanted to see in Old San Francisco was the earthquake. I was prepared to wait nearly 80 minutes for that scene; prepared to sit through whatever melodramatic junk that preceded it, letting curiosity sustain me through this empty-vessel of a movie. What I got in the end were buildings of plywood and glue, rattling and buckling inward like the knees of an old drunk; then the onscreen death, via crushing, of Anna May Wong.

Not good, not good at all.

And Everything Is Going Fine (2010)

(A talkie, courtesy of TIFF Bell Lightbox, in Toronto)

And Everything is Going Fine is about the life of Spalding Gray; a man who wrote and performed monologues on that same subject. “I can’t always tell when I’m making things up” he tells his dad, in one of the film’s many clips. “I can’t tell either,” says the elder Gray, who has since died.

A Screaming Man (Un Homme qui crie) (2010)

(A talkie, courtesy of TIFF Bell Lightbox, in Toronto)

“The pool is my life,” says Adam, moments before it’s taken from him. He implores his boss, hotelier Mrs. Wang, to understand. He has tended her hotel pool for years; before that, he was a great swimmer, so renowned that people still address him as ‘Champion.’ It’s not a title spoken with awe, but with warmth and familiarity. Adam (Youssouf Djaoro) practically lived in pools as a young man; now he makes his living maintaining this one. And his beloved son, Abdel, works alongside him. He’s fulfilled.

An Oscar Post... in which I make no predictions, but opine a lot

I don’t know which film is going to be crowned Best Picture on Sunday night, though I have my suspicions. My favourites never win anyway, so I don’t sweat it. Plus, it was AMPAS, not me, that once declared Gladiator the best film of the year. It takes more than one good pick to make up for that. What you’ll read below is simply my ranking, from one to ten, from first to last, from best to worst, of this year’s nominees.

The views expressed are mine, but I’d love to hear yours.


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1. Winter’s Bone
Director: Debra Granik

The bleakest nominee is also the best. Winter’s Bone is a movie without any obvious message, despite an Ozark setting that seems composed of social ills, from poverty to illiteracy to domestic violence; mental illness, drug abuse and organized crime. At the centre of this insanity is a remarkably sane teenage girl named Ree, possessed of great interior strength. She’s searching for her missing father; not out of longing, but out of necessity. If he doesn’t stand trial, they’ll lose the house.

Ree’s less interested in learning the truth than in doing what’s needed to keep her family fed. Her practicality and courage press her forward even as her quest grows dangerous. We care for her, but we admire her even more.

In a year when the woes of a New York City ballerina, a king, and a billionaire-to-be seem dominant in peoples’ minds, I’m far more compelled by this woman, blessed with more power and purpose than the three of them combined. Maybe that’s unfair. But I know that if Ree loses her house, at least four human beings will starve, for real. And she’ll be one of them, though for her, that would never be the point.