Carnage

On paper I think "Carnage," taken from Yasmina Reza's "God of Carnage," sounds pretty interesting: a real-time, devolving argument between two couples who fight each other verbally rather than physically and who begin to see how really screwed up their marriages are. However, Roman Polanski follows up his excellent "The Ghost Writer" with one of the thinnest and least necessary motion pictures of the year. Superficial, monotonous, and strung together, "Carnage" is a tired, flat film almost entirely limited to an apartment that's supposed to be in New York (though with Polanski's house arrest, it wasn't shot there). As a result of that, it's pretty thematically limited as well, and the only kicks one can expect to get out of this come via the occasionally funny script.

Zachary whacks Ethan in the face with a stick in a park, and the parents want to sort things out. Ethan's, Penelope and Michael (Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly), invite Zachary's, Nancy and Alan (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz), over to settle matters and what seems to be a simple chat to set up positive interaction between the boys turns into much more as the guests stay to eat apparently horrific cobbler, drink coffee, spew bile, drink, and, to the annoyance of everybody, answer countless phone calls.

Sure, some of the satire works at times, and the performances are decent, but it's not really worth it. Whit Stillman does this sort of thing better. "Carnage" is certainly not worth spending a bunch of money on, especially if you're someone who doesn't see a ton of movies. C

Ten Worst Oscar Snubs - 2010

The third edition of this annual feature. This time, I've limited it only to films (and aspects of films) that appeared on the longlists for Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, Best Foreign Film, and Best Documentary Feature. So that means no ineligible films on this list, like "Fish Tank," "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," or "White Material." Also, as has always been the case, one spot per snubbed film. Not that I thought all of these people/films would be nominated, but still. Finally, if a film has already gotten a certain amount of attention, I don't go apeshit if it doesn't get more (i.e. "Exit Through the Gift Shop," which I think is the year's best film, got its due in the Best Documentary Feature category and since documentaries don't usually get nominated for Best Picture and all that, I'm satisfied). Influenced by other Oscar pieces including the one on The Film Experience.

10. Robert Richardson, Shutter Island (Best Cinematography)

9. TIE Christopher Nolan, Inception AND Ben Affleck, The Town (Best Director)

8. Andrew Garfield, The Social Network (Best Supporting Actor)

7. Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right (Best Actress)

6. Eric Gautier, Wild Grass (Best Cinematography)

5. Barbara Hershey, Mila Kunis, and Vincent Cassel, Black Swan (Best Supporting Actress/Actor)

4. Ben Mendelsohn, Animal Kingdom (Best Supporting Actor)

3. Ben Stiller, Rhys Ifans, and Noah Baumbach, Greenberg (Best Actor/Supporting Actor/Director)

2. Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer (Best Director)

1. Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine (Best Actor)

More Oscar coverage coming soon.