Wednesday, August 5, 2009

A movie review: Up

After seeing a number of cartoons and not enjoying them at all (Monsters vs. Aliens, as an example), I was wondering if I’d gotten too old to enjoy cartoons. That fear was tossed to the side after seeing Up. This movie is brilliant from the very start. It starts off by pulling at your heart strings and then sends you off wanting to do good. (Even the short cartoon was brilliant – of course, for Pixar, those usually are.) The first five minutes or so of the movie has to be one of the more beautifully crafted cinematic expressions of a lifetime of love. The middle is an enjoyable (though admittedly somewhat predictable) romp through South America

The coda shows how great emotional despair doesn’t need to create long-term depression. With the Academy now expanding the best picture race to the top 10 (which I don’t fully agree with), I think this movie is a shoe-in for a nomination. And if it isn’t, then it becomes obvious that expanding the nomination to 10 is a mistake and that it should get reduced back to five.

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