Change Your Image
Nick-286
Reviews
The Wash (2001)
Beautiful Insight into the Plight of the Inner City
The Wash is perhaps one of the most prolific and poignant films of modern times. It takes a serious, uncensored look into the difficulty of urban life. Through its nuanced and subtle character representations we can see the difficulties facing minorities in this country. I am ashamed to read many of the critical reviews of this film and I think they are missing the more important context of the film. To truly appreciate this cinematic work of art it is necessary to think of the context of the film through the lens of someone trying to survive in the jungle of the "bling-bling" mentality. What does it really mean to "pay the rent" as it were, or to "wash one's car?" These issues are brought to the forefront of consciousness through the beautifully shot and edited film. I dare any critic to give this film a second chance and not come away thinking "Wow." It is almost impossible to view this film without it touching you on an ethereal level.
Gladiator (2000)
Mediocre
There is no doubt that `Gladiator' was a fine film. However, when deciding which movie should be the golden child of the Oscars for 2000, one should be able to use easily think of better adjectives than simply `fine'. Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix both gave very good performances, but, in my humble opinion, they were not quite Oscar worthy. If this movie had come out in 1999, then such a discussion would be completely unnecessary since there were so many fine movies that year (at least relative to 2000). But, because of the overall poor pool last year, a mediocre film such as Gladiator has risen to the top of many peoples' Oscar A-lists. Well, move it to the top of your B-list. Granted there were not many excellent films this year, but there were some. Films such as `Traffic', `Castaway', and `Unbreakable' all had better writing, better acting, and most importantly, more originality. `Gladiator' was a very basic, and at sometimes tedious, storyline, which we have seen countless times. Man gets wronged, he seeks revenge. There was nothing new here, except that the director learned he could shake a camera during fight scenes. The computer generated Rome was of extremely poor quality, and the muddy earth-toned scenery was depressing.
To reiterate, it's a fine story, a good action film. But until the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences creates a category `Best Mediocre Film', then there should be no discussion of "Gladiator" as an Oscar contender.