Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 401-402: A Musical Revival

Back on Day 290 of the Oscar Challenge I looked at the last live action musical that was nominated for an Academy Award, that being All that Jazz. Since then the only musical film to bother the Best Picture category has been the animated Disney classic Beauty and The Beast. However, in the early 21st Century, the musical suddenly became cool again although the first entry into this double bill would hardly be recognisable to fans of the classic movie musical.

That film was Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge which received eight nominations at the 2002 Academy Awards. It's no surprise that Moulin Rouge's two wins were in the production and costume design categories as it's a film that's been styled within an inch of its life. Lurhmann's aim was to recreate what it felt like to be in the titular French venue during the late 1890s. To do so he used a cavalcade of contemporary pop tunes and framed the majority of the film's numbers so they looked like music videos. With a variety of recognisable songs littered throughout Moulin Rouge, Lurhmann spent almost two years securing the rights to the soundtrack which included a tango version of The Police's 'Roxanne' and a high-kicking musical imagining of Madonna's 'Like a Virgin'. As with the majority of the musicals I've covered on this blog, Moulin Rouge's story is very slight indeed. It's told from the point-of-view of penniless writer Christian who is reflecting on his brief romance with the Moulin Rouge's star turn Satine. Satine and Christian fall in love over one night as he convinces her to star in a musical which is very much based around their own story. Standing in the way of the young couple's romance is a pompous duke who wishes to be Satine in order to give the Moulin Rouge's owner Howard Zidler the funding to turn his club into a theatre. Although it features plenty of plush musical scenes, the content of Moulin Rouge is quite dark as it deals with themes of prostitution, rape and terminal illness. The final twenty minutes, all based around the show within a show, are a dazzling treat for both the ears and the eyes and sort of distract from the film's many minor problems.

Moulin Rouge is definitely an enjoyable movie and you can't help but like a film that plays around with the very idea of the musical itself. Every scene, costume and character is well-designed with Donald M. McAlpine's cinematography varying throughout the piece. Nicole Kidman's performance as Satine was the only turn in the film to be nominated for an Oscar and I think it was more than deserved. Kidman's balanced Satine's on-stage persona brilliantly with the more fragile elements of the character's personality and she really made me care about her deteriorating health. As Harold Zidler, I found Jim Broadbent to be utterly magnificent as at times his character was very dark and at other times provided some great comic moments. Similarly great was John Leguizamo as Toulouse-Letrec; the character who the 1950s film version of Moulin Rouge was based upon. On the other hand I didn't think Ewan McGregor had the requisite amount of passion to play Christian and I don't believe he and Kidman sparkled on screen as much as they could. The biggest issue though was the character of The Count who felt like something out of a pantomime whilst actor Richard Roxbrough didn't just chew the scenery but devoured it as a three course meal. However I don't think this ultimately mattered in a film that is so joyous and basically reintroduced the musical for a modern audience. If Moulin Rouge hadn't been as successful as it was I don't believe that recent film musicals would've made such a big impact at the box office. But thankfully Luhrmann's vision struck a chord with movie-going audiences around the world and this montage of music videos strung together by a loose plot became one of the best films of the year.

Even with Moulin Rouge's success I don't think many would've predicted that a musical would win Best Picture the following year. Rather than another film crafted in the same postmodern style of Moulin Rouge, it was a rather traditional musical that ended up claiming the big prize at the 2003 awards. The film in question was a screen adaptation of popular Broadway show Chicago; which was actually the show that Roy Scheider's director was working on in All that Jazz. Though it's structure is very much in the style of an old-fashioned musical, Chicago does share similarities with Moulin Rouge in the way that it lays out it's numbers. Each performance is laid out as if the characters were singing directly to an audience and are strung together by introductions by Taye Diggs' piano player. In fact Diggs' supporting turn put me in mind of Joel Grey's Emcee in Cabaret as both serve a similar purpose. However, each performance in the film is intertwined with characters acting out the plot whether it be a press conference or a murder trial. The basic plot of Chicago revolves around Roxie Hart; a naive Chicago residence who dreams of being a star and who kills her lover after he insults her lack of talent. Roxie's subsequent arrest puts her in Cook County Prison alongside her idol and fellow murderess Velma Kelly. The rest of the film then becomes a power struggle between Roxie and Velma as both try to garner the interest of the press ahead of their respective trials. Playing both women against each other is slick lawyer Billy Flynn, whose titular 'Razzle Dazzle' style is the focus of one of the musical's more famous tunes. Just like Moulin Rouge, Chicago uses its stylish musical numbers to cover up rather dark subject matter in this case infidelity and murder. However, in my opinion, Chicago doesn't really warm the heart in the way that Moulin Rouge does.

I feel part of the reason for this is due to Renee Zellweger's central turn as Roxie as I never really cared about her in the way I did Kidman's Satine. In fact Chicago suffers from a lack of sympathetic characters with the only person who deserved any sort of sympathy being Roxie's cuckolded husband Amos. The ubiquitous John C Reilly was absolutely great as the almost invisible Amos and particularly shone during his character's 'Mr. Cellophane' number. Earning the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in the film, Catherine Zeta-Jones gave a deliberately over-the-top turn as the pampered Velma. Zeta-Jones at least went for it full throttle though in a way that I don't think Zellweger ever did. Meanwhile Queen Latifah added a bit of musical depth as Cook County's matron Mama Morton and Richard Gere looked like he was enjoying himself as Billy Flynn. Whilst some of the musical numbers most notably 'The Cell Block Tango' and the finale hit the mark others did nothing for me. I did however like the way that each number was introduced and found that director Rob Marshall laid everything out perfectly. But Chicago's ultimate problem was that there wasn't a lot going on beneath the surface and this was a film whose only purpose seemed to be to entertain. I certainly don't think the film has taken on classic status since its release and it never screamed out Best Picture winner to me when I watched it at the cinema the first time round. That's not a knock against a very fun and enjoyable musical but instead against the Academy who felt that this was more deserving of the big prize than some of the better films that were released in the same year.

Next time we look at a film which contains one of the most famous movie twists of all time.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 389-390: A Double Soderbergh

It's very rare that a director gets two films entered into the Best Picture category in the same year, although we've seen it several times throughout the challenge. However, it's even rarer when that person competes against themselves in the Best Director category. This event did occur at the 2001 ceremony when Steven Soderbergh was nominated for directing Best Picture nominees Erin Brockovich and Traffic. Not only did he go on to win the award for directing, his films brought in five Oscars between the two of them.
Erin Brockovich only got one of these five wins however it was in a pretty prestigious category, that of Best Actress. The recipient of this award was Julia Roberts who, after years of being viewed primarily as a multi-million dollar movie star, redeemed herself in the eyes of the audience by playing the brassy single mother of the title. Erin Brockovich resembles several other movies that have won their leading actress the top prize, most notably Norma Rae. Just like Norma Rae, Erin Brockovich was a character who fought for what she believed in even if she was a small fish in a big pond. Initially barging her way into a job at a legal firm at which she had previously been a client, Erin soon takes interest in a family whose have had an offer made on their house by Pacific Gas and Electric. As Erin begins to investigate the case further, she learns that the company had been using chromium in the water in a plant just outside Hinkley, California. As a result, the surrounding residents had gradually begun to develop various illnesses, with a few suffering from cancer. Whilst Erin takes on this crusade her neighbour, and later lover, George takes on the kids but finds it hard playing mum. Eventually, Erin and lawyer Ed gain the attention of PG&E and the two sides fight to get their cases heard in court. Although Erin Brockovich is definitely a legal drama of sorts it's one that focuses on the effects the outcome of the case will have on the characters rather than the courtroom battles themselves.

Despite the themes of underdogs taking on the big corporations being a rather cliched topic; Erin Brockovich feels fresh for the most part even if it does give in to stereotypes from time to time. The one stereotype that I wasn't a fan of was the way that writer Susannah Grant demonstrated Erin's coarse nature by having her swear every five minutes. The promiscuous clothing that Roberts wore was similarly tactless although her ample cleavage did provide one of the film's most memorable scenes. However I felt where the film was successful was in making these characters feel real and how Grant was able to set up the story rather nimbly. Before the first half hour was out I felt I knew Ed, Erin and George all really well and that's a testament to both Grant and Soderbergh. Additionally I felt that the cast succeeded in fleshing out their characters with Roberts giving some extra weight to the character of Erin. She was able to portray her character's steely nature and combine it with a fear of being left to raise three children with no money. As harassed small-town lawyer Ed, I found Albert Finney to be equally strong and played the perfect foil to Roberts' Erin. Meanwhile I found Aaron Eckhart to make the most of his role as sensitive biker George who found playing second fiddle to Erin's law work just a bit too much to handle. After an intriguing first half as we, along with Erin, learn about the problems in Hinkley, the second half drags a little as we sit through one interview after another. The final scenes, where Erin reveals how much money the people of Hinkley are going to receive, is a little underwhelming but thankfully so much has been done to make us care about the characters that this is simply a minor quibble. Ultimately Erin Brockovich is a character drama first and foremost and thanks to the Oscar-winning Roberts, Soderbergh and Grant it succeeds at presenting a sympathetic protagonist who we root for throughout.
I've always found Soderbergh to be a rather eclectic director as two of his films are rarely the same unless of course they're sequels. So, in the same year that he made the rather mainstream underdog drama Erin Brockovich, he also directed the multi-layered drug epic Traffic. Based on the 1980s Channel 4 miniseries of the same name; Traffic saw Soderbergh tackle the war on drugs by telling three interconnected stories. The first and most powerful story followed police officer Javier Rodriguez, a mild-mannered enforcer who was hoping to clear up the drug problem in Tijuana. However, Rodriguez's recruitment by the seemingly good-natured General Salazar later proved to be an almost fatal mistake as he found himself caught between two rival gangs. Meanwhile, in America, Judge Robert Wakefield is tasked with heading up the president's Office of National Drug Policy. Inspired by Salazar's phony efforts to clean up Mexico, Wakefield hopes to employ similar methods in the USA. However, Wakefield's problems are closer to home when it appears that his straight A-student daughter Caroline is becoming more and more dependent on drugs. Caroline's problems get so bad that eventually Robert decides that he can't fight a war against his own family. The weakest story for me saw the arrest and trial of Carlos Ayala, a drug lord working for the cartel that Salazar was trying to bring down in America. The problem with this story was that it was told from the eyes of Carlos' trophy wife Helena, who struggled to cope after her husband's arrest. This story was also the one that ran out of steam quickest and proved that not everybody could be brought to justice.

Traffic won four awards at the 2001 ceremony including Best Director for Steven Soderbergh, Best Screenplay for Stephen Gagan and Best Editing. Additionally, the wonderful Benicio Del Toro won Best Supporting Actor for his powerful portrayal of Javier Rodriguez; whose story arc is possibly Traffic's most compelling. Del Toro's gritty performance felt realistic in tone and his final facial expression when he saw the local kids playing baseball provided the perfect end to the story. I also enjoyed the performance Michael Douglas gave as the increasingly desperate Wakefield, a man who was forced to juggle working for the President with looking for his drug-addled daughter. Although I found Douglas' performance to be gripping, I found this story a little hard to take a times. I found Gagan struggled to write believable dialogue for Caroline her boyfriend Josh; whose conversations didn't feel like they were coming from the mouths of teenagers. In addition I felt that Caroline went from casual drug user to thieving prostitute rather quickly and I had to suspend my disbelief quite substantially in order to get on board with her downfall. Meanwhile, I felt that Catherine Zeta Jones was miscast as Helena and the scene in which she tried to do a drug deal was just laughable. However there were more hits than misses in a film which is a real testament to Soderbergh as he ties all three stories together perfectly. I personally loved the way in which all three stories are shot differently with a colour representing different areas. So for example the Mexico scenes were given a grainy feel, the Wakefield plot was given a blueish tinge and Carlos and Helena's world was richly produced. Although I could've done without some of the scenes involving Zeta-Jones' Helena, Traffic was definitely a film that grew on me thanks to Soderbergh's deft directorial flair. Whilst I do believe he's made better films, Traffic is definitely his most ambitious and therefore its right that it's the one he received his Oscar for.