Tag Archives: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Babel (2006)

If Babel is a story about communication and the distance between people, cultures and behavior it should have worked harder at conveying this than suggesting audiences do the work instead. Foreign films often force us to make choices that we are not used to or familiar with and this can be rewarding in and of itself. Babel blurs this line but instead of expanding on the idea with an effort to challenge domestic and international sensibilities, it loses momentum with the result more akin to mixing water and oil – one wins out for a little while before the other returns to start the whole process over again. Continue reading

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The 2011 Academy Awards – Who Gets The Gold And Why

I think it is relatively straight forward as to who will be taking home an Oscar this year. In some cases there will be multiple Oscars, others no Oscars at all for our favorite films and filmmakers. In many of the categories, the choices can quickly be whittled away by removing the least likely candidates from the list. While this seems like an odd proposition, one must consider the countless decisions that go into the nomination process and consequently things we never hear about. We want to believe the award is based on merit and talent alone but we know other factors weigh in as well and it would be impossible to deny that personal agendas and preferential treatment finds a way to the ballot box. Continue reading

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21 Grams (2003)

21 Grams takes the very comfortable expectations of traditional, narrative story telling and shatters it. Alejandro González Iñárritu mines every fragment, juxtaposing them side by side in often inexact patterns, and ultimately arrives at a film that is every bit as much about catharsis as a commentary on the marriage between the frivolity and consequence of action. Watch it and then watch it again. Continue reading

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