Andy Stuckey and Ryan Maddux
Although already out on DVD, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to review two more films, The Hurt Locker and A Serious Man that scored Oscar nominations for Best Picture.
In The Hurt Locker (R), Jeremy Renner stars as a member of a United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team that is assigned with diffusing bombs during the Iraqi War. Kathryn Bigelow directs.
Ryan: The Hurt Locker’s nine nominations are completely justified as it is one of the best films of the 2009 calendar year. Part action film, part military thriller and part character study, The Hurt Locker flawlessly combines these genres into an unforgettable movie. Movies about the current war on terrorism have almost all failed to resonate with moviegoers (mainly because they haven’t been very good) but The Hurt Locker succeeds - in one regard - because it plays it straight with its subject matter. It doesn’t get bogged down with a political slant (either way).
Andy: The Hurt Locker, perhaps more than any other movie I saw from 2009, lingers with you after you see it. The intensity and destruction of war are made to fee very real for the audience, as we follow an elite bomb squad through Iraq during the early stages of the Iraq War. Perhaps the film’s greatest achievement is how it illustrates what makes this war different from previous wars the U.S. has fought. At one point a character sarcastically comments on all the tanks the army has parked there, just in case the Russians come down to Iraq for a tank battle. The definitive war movie of the last decade is most definitely The Hurt Locker.
Ryan: I was extremely pleased to see Jeremy Renner score a nomination for Best Actor. His chances of winning are not good (with stiff competition from Clooney and Bridges) but the nomination in itself will give him some much deserved recognition. His performance (and I don’t use this term lightly) is Steve McQueen-esque. Renner’s performance ascribed to the less-is-more variety and it was a part that demanded a genuine physicality that Renner delivered in a big way.
Andy: The bottom line is, for all the good things The Hurt Locker does, it would not work at all without the right lead performer in place. Renner is able to portray a character that is terrifyingly reckless, but so competent that you are glad he’s on your side. He is almost completely unlikeable, yet you are rooting for him throughout the movie. The challenges such a performance presents are formidable, but Renner nails it.
Bolstered by a great leading performance by Renner and a flawless and overdue tale of the Iraq war, The Hurt Locker earns an A-.
A Serious Man, directed by the legendary Coen Brothers stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a struggling mathematics professor in the late - 60’s whose life is uncontrollably falling apart.
Ryan: A Serious Man is a borderline Best Picture Oscar contender. If I was putting together a list of the 10 best movies of the 2009 calendar year A Serious Man wouldn’t make the cut, but it’s still a noteworthy film. With the Coen Brothers’ usual style and a solid leading performance by Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man is a solid enough movie that resonates after viewing.
Andy: Like many of the Coen’s efforts, A Serious Man is a creeper. After watching it, I wasn’t sure how I felt. Initially I agree with Ryan’s assessment that it would not quite crack my top ten of 2009, but I have the feeling that a month from now it may continue to resonate in ways I hadn’t expected. It is such an ordinary tale of a man’s life slowly crumbling. There are not scenes of intense drama or action (although dramatic, intense things do happen, generally off screen); but the movie is still captivating throughout.
Ryan: On the surface A Serous Man has the appearance of a bland movie. But as is the case with the Coen Brother's other memorable comedies the movie works better reading it at multiple levels of understanding. In this case the biblical Book of Job provides the framework for the movie in regard to the lead character’s dilemma in trying to understand why bad things keep happening to him. Of course this drama plays out in typical Coen Brothers fashion albeit in an unconventional and quirky manner.
Andy: Some of the criticism of this movie has centered around the how the movie handles Judaism. The characters are almost entirely Jewish, upper-Midwest suburbanites, and their faith is central to the action of the story. Ultimately, this aspect of the movie plays as both a character study of how things were for a certain culture at a certain time. But more interestingly, it delves into how we allow our faith to help us through difficult times, a theme that can be authentically transposed to almost anyone’s life.
A Serious Man is a very good movie, but it lacks the extra push needed to take it to greatness. Final grade: B+.
