Panned

The nominations for this year's Academy Awards were announced earlier this week. The film Pan's Labyrinth earned 6 nominations, including best foreign language film, makeup, art direction, music, original screenplay, and cinematography. And probably for the first time since Return of the King, I'm rooting for a movie at the Oscars.

I never really root for anything at the Oscars, since most of the time, the Academy Awards are just a display of "it's the best movie made this year because we said it is." I've never been much for being told what I should and shouldn't like. The American public has already pretty much decided what the best movie of the year is - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The movie made over $400 million in the United States, and totaled over $1 billion worldwide. Does that make it the best movie made last year? No, but it does tell me that it was good enough to keep people coming back again and again to see it. But Dead Man's Chest was only nominated in the technical categories. Other movies, many some of you may never even heard of, were nominated as the best movie of the year.

The Academy Awards also seem to be an exercise in peer pressure. The "popular" movies - that is, popular to critics - almost always seem to win. Sure, there's the "upset" and the "snub" here and there, but for the most part, where most critics go, the others will surely follow. Almost as if to say, "if I don't vote for Movie Y, the others will think I'm a wuss!" In the end, I always follow a quote from William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist. He said, "if a film is liked by the critics and the audience, it's probably a great film. If a film is liked by the audience, it's still probably a great film. If a movie is only liked by the critics, it's a piece of crap."

Moving on to Pan's Labyrinth, it's just not widespread enough to find a large audience. But from what I've seen, the audience that has found it has enjoyed it, and critics seem to agree. Don't let whatever ads or trailers you might have seen fool you. This is no fantasy film. It's set in 1944 Spain, and it's subtitled. The story follows a girl whose mother marries a Captain in the Spanish Army, and moves to a mill in the mountains near a large labyrinth. As the war story unfolds around her, the girl follows a series of quests to reclaim her birthright as princess of the underworld. Is it real? Or is this just a Spanish version of Calvin & Hobbes set in World War II? You be the judge. All I can say is that this was a very engrossing film, and for those able to see it, I recommend it. All this from the director of films like Blade II, Mimic, and Hellboy! Just be wary that the movie is rated R, and features some brutal, often hard to watch, violence (unless you enjoy watching people do their own stitches on their faces).

This is one movie I'll be rooting for come February 25!