Noah | The Movie Rat

2014 BAM Award Considerations – April

Posted on April 30, 2014 by bernardovillela

I decided that with the plethora of BAM Awards-related post towards the end of 2013 and the start of this year it was best to wait to the end of this month before officially recommencing the process.

I will post these lists towards the end of the month to allow for minimal updates. By creating a new post monthly, and creating massive combo files offline, it should make the process easier for me and more user-friendly for you, the esteemed reader. Enjoy.

Eligible Titles

Forgetting the Girl
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Heaven is for Real
Stranger by the Lake
Hillsborough
Joe
The Little Rascals Save the Day
Oculus
A Birder’s Guide to Everything
Bad Words
A Haunted House 2
How We Got Away With It
Bears
Bad Boys
Maradona ’86
The Opposition
WNUF Halloween Special
The Quiet Ones
A Long Way Off

Best Picture

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Joe
Oculus
A Birder’s Guide to Everything

Best Foreign Film

Best Documentary

Hillsborough
Bears
The Opposition

Most Overlooked Film

As intimated in my Most Underrated announcement this year, I’ve decided to make a change here. Rather than get caught up in me vs. the world nonsense and what a film’s rating is on an aggregate site, the IMDb or anywhere else, I want to champion smaller, lesser-known films. In 2011 with the selection of Toast this move was really in the offing. The nominees from this past year echo that fact. So here, regardless of how well-received something is by those who’ve seen it, I’ll be championing indies and foreign films, and the occasional financial flop from a bigger entity.

Best Director

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Joe
Oculus
A Birder’s Guide to Everything

Best Actress

Lindsay Beamish Forgetting the Girl
Karen Gillan Oculus

Best Actor

Christopher Denham Forgetting the Girl
Nicolas Cage Joe
Brenton Thwaites Oculus
Kodi Smit-McPhee A Birder’s Guide to Everything
Jarred Harris The Quiet Ones

Best Supporting Actress

Scarlett Johansson Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Best Supporting Actor

Robert Redford Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Patrick d’Assumçao Stranger by the Lake
Tye Sheridan Joe
Ben Kingsley A Birder’s Guide to Everything

Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Leading Role

Annalise Basso Oculus
Katie Chang A Birder’s Guide to Everything

Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Leading Role

Jet Jurgensmeyer The Little Rascals Save the Day
Garrett Ryan Oculus
Kodi Smit-McPhee A Birder’s Guide to Everything

Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Supporting Role

Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Supporting Role

Tye Sheridan Joe
Drew Justice The Little Rascals Save the Day
Alex Wolff A Birder’s Guide to Everything
Steele Stebbins A Haunted House 2
Aldo Maland The Quiet Ones

Best Cast

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Joe
Oculus
A Birder’s Guide to Everything

Best Youth Ensemble

The Little Rascals Save the Day
A Birder’s Guide to Everything

Best Original Screenplay

Forgetting the Girl
Oculus
A Birder’s Guide to Everything

Best Adapted Screenplay

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Joe

Best Score

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Joe
Oculus

Best Editing

Forgetting the Girl
Joe
Oculus
A Birder’s Guide to Everything
The Opposition

Best Sound Editing/Mixing

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Joe
Oculus
The Quiet Ones

Best Cinematography

Forgetting the Girl
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Joe
Oculus
A Birder’s Guide to Everything
Bears
The Quiet Ones

Best Art Direction

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Joe
Oculus

Best Costume Design

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Joe
The Quiet Ones

Best Makeup

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Oculus

Best Visual Effects

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Oculus

Best (Original) Song

Joe
The Little Rascals Save the Day

Films Losing the Religious, One Way or Another

Posted on April 18, 2014 by bernardovillela

Is there any winning with Hollywood and religious-themed fare? Many times, especially in recent examples, it feels like there isn’t. Frequently the film industry is pilloried for its content, as if visual fictions shape the lives of young people more than scripture. However, then when religion comes back in vogue on film (as almost everything does at some point) then that too creates issues. This year has been one of those years.

Noah was the first title to come under a lot of fire for its Biblical inaccuracy.

However, some of the issues that come to light when those complaints are registered is that the complaints themselves are inaccurate. As highlighted in this piece on The Daily Show.

It’s not an uncommon case at its core. It essentially boils down to selective reading and remembering of the Bible. Yes, the Bible does state that Noah is nude and drunk after the waters have receded and he’s cultivated wine. So one thing that Noah does do well is fill in the blanks wherein Noah is conflicted about his duty and where God is silent he has Noah wonder if he’s following His intent correctly.

Following test screenings where religious viewers had bad feedback Paramount returned with some humorous advertising.

I agree with their stand that their film about Noah need not be a model of Biblical accuracy. I am fine with most of the decisions made in the film. My main issue with Noah is a filmic one not a dogmatic one inasmuch as I feel many of the conflicts and suspenseful scenarios are somewhat old hat and strung out far past their effectiveness.

The fact that the Bible does not cite Ham as deprived a wife or that Tubal-Cain tried to storm the ark is not a concern to me, in cinematic parlance motivations and conflicts were necessary. For after the flood there is a diaspora of Noah’s children to repopulate the Earth. Some additional incentive in that regard is not a bad thing.

While I can’t say I walked away pleased, I can say I appreciated Noah not being treated as a well-meaning buffoon as he was in The Bible: In the Beginning… And piggybacking on the Jon Stewart comment about the Old Testament, that may well be true, it’s a more dour, wrathful section so why make it Hollywood? Conversely, that and effects work may be why there’s never been a big budget rendition of Revelations. However, Noah did underscore that focused Biblical tales have a better chance of succeeding than sprawling pastiches.

In seeing that Daily Show piece I myself was stunned. I knew that in liking Son of God in spite of some of its sketchiness, incessant gravitas and occasional bouts of television, I would be in a minority. However, I could not predict that the casting of Diogo Morgado as Jesus would prove an issue to some.

The curious thing about this is that it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s Portuguese and occasionally had accent lapses, or even that he’s too Caucasian in appearance, but rather that he’s too attractive. This is even more surprising considering that I didn’t really hear much of this complaint when The Bible, the mini-series from which this feature was spliced, aired initially.

I don’t feel I need to belabor the point that an actor is an actor. He is playing a role. In fact, in an upcoming project on the CW he will be playing the devil – so his look is clearly malleable. I can’t say I haven’t been guilty of over-scrutinizing the appearance of an actor playing Jesus, but I’ve moved past such immature notions and it shouldn’t influence an overall impression of a film.

I’ve seen plenty of films that earned accolades from religious and family-based organizations that were downright awful. There can be a convergence of quality cinema and doctrinally palatable material, but they are not mutually exclusive and a decision needs to be made on both sides. For the filmmaker and consumer story decisions need to take precedent, and for the viewer only interested in faith-based stories they need to decide whether they’d prefer being ignored or slightly misrepresented. For the latter at least creates a talking point. In seeing trailers for Noah I knew it took liberties with the story. I may not have liked all of the decision or some of the techniques, but I definitely appreciated the intent.

For Son of God its tonality and casting of main parts were its strengths, but its trying to be too inclusive in the narrative created some issues. In the most recent film Heaven is For Real I was surprised to find debate and grappling with belief all over the place and thought. I have yet to hear if these doubts also made people uncomfortable but, in this recent rash of religious fare, it may be the best albeit not based in Scripture. Ultimately, films have to treat Scripture as source material, be it blasphemy or not. Essentially the same rules that apply to adapting other works to screen. The Word is still there untouched. The film is just another rendition thereof. Godspell is not any less powerful to me just because Jesus didn’t really have a fro or striped pants.