Scene and heard

I admit I haven’t seen too many of the nominated films. We haven’t been to the ‘depressing’ films, such as Revolutionary Road and The Reader. We did see Milk yesterday and it was everything that the critics say: A superb film with 2 excellent acting performances. Sean Penn was brilliant and would surely have won the Oscar almost any other year; and Josh Brolin also put in an award quality performance that will not get the nod.

But as good as the film and Penn’s performance were, I think both are very narrowly second best. I found Slumdog Millionaire to be a little more complete. Honestly, there was so little between these films in terms of quality, I could easily see why someone would go with Milk instead.

And Mickey Rourke’s performance in The Wrestler was as good as any in years. Truly monumental. He gets some emotional votes, of course, but for purely acting, I think he beats the superb Penn.

I must confess that I haven’t seen Benjamin Button. I will probably enjoy it when it comes onto Netflix, but I do tend to shy away from the mega films. Could it be better than Milk or Slumdog? Could Pitt’s performance be better than those of Penn and Rourke? I suppose so, but the bar is pretty high.

Labels: Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt, Josh Brolin, Mickey Rourke, Milk, Sean Penn, Slumdog Millionaire, The Oscars