Over the holidays I often check the muggle pulse beat by throwing down some movies with my family. My mother, in particular, can be counted upon to be a good indicator of a screener’s success or failure. For instance, she loved but was slightly disturbed by The Departed. At the end she said what everyone had been telling me all year, “no way can it win Best Picture because of the ending.” But I wasn’t as interested in her prediction. After all, a muggle’s prediction must be taken with a grain of salt, always. But their pure reaction can be mostly trusted.
Of the films in the pile, the one that was most moving and enjoyed by far was Invictus. The reason being that it was “about something.” Invictus improves on screener-tv because it doesn’t rely, necessarily, on the big screen to infuse it with power. It also takes down some of the overly-sentimental stuff a notch.
Invictus would get my mother’s muggle vote for sure. Crazy Heart, An Education, Precious and Up in the Air also give good screener-TV. The Hurt Locker and Avatar are better suited to the big screen. One doesn’t get as much of a sense of Kathryn Bigelow’s visual genius, which is why it’s so important that the screenplay be rock solid, which it is.
I did not get the Weinstein dvds in time so I can’t say whether my mother would like Inglourious Basterds or not. She couldn’t make it through The Dark Knight last year.
As for Avatar, yes, it definitely needs to be seen on the big screen. Hopefully most Academy members are finding a way to see it big, even if not on 3-D. Other films I think will do well on screener – District 9 (its story is just so good), In the Loop (I watched it three times on a little airplane screen on the seatback and it was great), The Blind Side (really doesn’t need the big screen at all to get its point across). Up is good enough on screener, better on the big screen.