Oscar nominees Bening and Sorkin share common past: 'The American President'

By Sarah Sluis

I saw Annette Bening in two films last year, as a parent traumatized by loss in Mother & Child and as a wine-swilling lesbian mother in The Kids Are All Right. While Bening performed admirably in both the roles, I was reminded of how well she does comedy in her latter role. Her first post-Oscar nomination project, The Third Act, will team her up with Rob Reiner, who directed her in one of the few movies I'm guaranteed to stop on while flipping through cable channels, The American President. And it just so happens that Aaron Sorkin, nominated for an Oscar this year for The Social Network, wrote the screenplay.

Before this year's Oscar nomination and four years before he created "The West Wing," Sorkin made one of the best late-century romantic comedies out there. Roger Ebert admired the movie for combining romance, comedy, and politics: "It is hard to make a good love story, harder to make a good comedy and harder still to make an intelligent film about politics," he praised in his four-star review (I knew I wasn't the only one who liked this movie!). Perhaps politics was the special something that made this movie go over the top. After all, the combination of romance and comedy tends toward the unfunny and unromantic these days. Or maybe it's that Michael Douglas and Bening got along well on set, if you believe what she said about him at an AFI event.

Whatever the reason, The American President is a charming movie and it's no surprise that both Sorkin and Bening are nominated this year at the Oscars. What's more surprising is that this gem with a level of feel-good on par with The King's Speech didn't get any Oscar love. How did this movie, rated four stars by Ebert, fare at the Academy Awards? It received one nomination, for Best Original Score. As a recent post by Kevin Lally on overlooked performances shows, the Oscars have missed crowning some of the best movie moments. Let's hope both Bening and Sorkin get their due, even if it's not for whatever film will eventually be considered their best.

A friendly discussion of 'The Social Network'

By Sarah Sluis

In case you haven't heard, "that Facebook movie" is coming out in two days. It seems like every critic is raving about the movie, currently rated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and every magazine has a Mark Zuckerberg story on its cover, but my advice is this: If you want to enjoy a good movie (not a great movie, mind you, a good movie), don't believe the hype.

While The Social Network is a perfectly competent and enjoyable film, it didn't awe me as much as I expected. When I watch a movie, I expect to be taken on an emotional roller coaster, but this one had the highs and lows and emotional arc of a television show. I was entertained, but not stunned. When I start hearing "Best Picture at the Oscars," my expectations get raised. When I see an awesome trailer, I expect the film to deliver. While living up to those kinds of predictions can be hard, there are definitely films (like Avatar) that live up the buzz.

The Social Network goes by very fast, but doesn't really ever rest on anything. Citizen Kane (which people are unfortunately comparing this movie to) also covered a lot, but it didn't feel rushed the way this does. One technique I didn't think added much was cross-cutting between Zuckerberg's Facebook-related lawsuits and the rise of Facebook. There wasn't a significant difference between Zuckerberg the rising star and Zuckerberg the defendant. If they were going for that stark contrast that you get with a "before/after he was behind bars" kind of movie, they failed.

The writer (Aaron Sorkin), director (David Fincher), and producer (Scott Rudin) of this film are immensely talented, and all have works on my "best" list. I saw bits and pieces of their trademark strengths, but everything didn't add up. Fincher was at his best at showing off Harvard's in-groups, creepiness, excess and conspiracy, hearkening back to his work on Fight Club, Se7en and Zodiac. I loved Sorkin's use of technical dialogue (hello, he is an offspring of Howard Hawks, although I prefer him when he's channeling the geekiness of Ball of Fire, not that His Girl Friday opening sequence).

I'll gladly see the movie again to find out if the Emperor really is wearing clothes, but in the meantime I'll keep my lonely position and set my sights on another film for Best Picture--True Grit.