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Done and done

Ray was beautifully shot, incredibly quick-paced for a near three hour biopic, and would have been in contention as my Best Picture choice had I not watched the second half of the movie. We broke the movie up into two nights after starting it too late on Wednesday, and I enjoyed the shit out of what I saw that first night. I loved the music, I loved the way the colours were cranked up in the flashback scenes, and I thought Jamie Foxx was brilliant. Then on night two, things went suddenly awful starting with the Gidget-like scene of white kids dancing in tandem to What’d I Say (which drove Sarah wild-eyed crazy—and I wasn’t overly fond of either).

Things got back to normal after this and I had no major complaints for the next hour. I was getting ready to forgive the Beach Blanket Bingo bit, but then Ray finished rehab and went into the worst flashback sequence I have ever seen. It was a terrible Hollywood ending where he imagines that he can see and his dead mother absolves him for the death of this brother, and it’s just a big lovely pile of horseshit. This may have actually happened; he may have actually had that dream or hallucination at some point in his life. I don’t care. It’s like back in Creative Writing, when someone would turn in a brutal story and fight back against an avalanche of criticism by saying, “But this really happened to me!” Well that’s a tragedy—but it doesn’t stop your story from being fucking awful.

After that, the movie moves on to a two minute scene where the state of Georgia apologizes for being a dick (or something like that), and Georgia on My Mind becomes the state song. That’s fine and a good ending, but I felt like my DVD player had skipped about eight scenes. Ray’s in rehab –bzzzzrrt- bullshit absolution flashback –bzzzzrrt- Georgia hangs its head and pushes some dirt around with its foot –bzzzzrrt- the end.

Now that I’ve seen those five movies, here are my picks. I’m only choosing from the films I’ve seen, so the Clive Owens and Imelda Stauntons are probably getting the shaft here.

Actor: Jamie Foxx (would be happy with Leo)
Supporting Actor: Morgan Freeman
Actress: Kate Winslet (so very lovely)
Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett (suspect Natalie was quite good but never got to see that one)
Director: Marty
Adapted Screenplay: Million Dollar Baby
Original Screenplay: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Movie: The Aviator

P.S. On a semi-related note, I can't recommend this site enough.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I agree with you about Ray somewhat. Although I think the "beach blanket bingo" scene is actually reminiscent of the marketing at the time.

The absolution scene was something that wasn't new to me. I can't remember if I read that he said that in an interview a while back, or if it was just you talking about your problems being a womaizing heroin addict.

What disappointed me was that the extended edition allows you to watch scenes, but they are in a different aspect ratio and have slightly different audio quality.

WTF?

You'd think that they would have done a better job on that.

However, Jamie Foxx was good (odd scenes notwithstanding) and the woman that played his mother was awesome.

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