Review of A Night at the Opera (1935) by Jonathan W — 31 Jan 2006

Nothing much new to report. The oscar nominations were announced today. I've seen far fewer movies from 2005 than I did in 2004 and thus have seen very few of the nominated films so right now I don't have much of an opinion on who should win. I'll just say I'm disappointed that Joan Allen and Kevin Costner were forgotten in the 10 months since The Upside of Anger was released. They both did some of the best work of their careers in that film. The first thing that jumped out at me when I read the nominees list (aside from Crash getting 6 nods, totally didn't see that coming) was, where was Pride and Prejudice? Kiera Knightley got a best actress nomination, which I was fine with, and it predictably got a best costume design nomination as well, but HOW DID IT GET PASSED UP FOR BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY??? That was the best part of the film. If it had gotten only one nomination that should have been the category for it, and I think Kaci will back me up on that if nobody else does. People complain every year about which actor or movie got passed over, but I think some of the biggest slights every year happen in the cinematography category. Unbreakable should have been nominated for it in 2000 but it was also snubbed. Those are just a couple of examples I can think of.

Even though I haven't seen any of the nominated Best Animated Feature films (Wallace and Gromit, Howl's Moving Castle, and The Corpse Bride), I am glad that the voters didn't just pick the big moneymakers and go with crap like Robots or the forgettable Madagascar. That category has definitely had up and down years. When Shrek beat out the far superior Monsters, Inc. 4 years ago I was very upset and so I don't pay much attention to the winner of that category anymore.

Over the weekend I went to a friend's house and a group of us watched the Marx brothers' movie A Night at the Opera. It was only the 2nd Marx brothers movie I'd seen, and I'm anxious to see more of them. While it provided several big laughs, it dragged in several places, and the 90 minute running time was spotted by a handful of drawn-out and boring musical sequences, many of which had a poor sound quality and I couldn't make out the words the actors were singing. These movies work best when at least one of the brothers is onscreen and this movie's problem is there are some long stretches where they're nowhere to be found and that makes the time pass a lot slower. I rate it this high because of the quality of its better parts, but IMO it's nowhere close to the inspired, chaotic brilliance that was their masterpiece Duck Soup. After watching A Night at the Opera I think I realize why Duck Soup is widely thought of as their best work. The pacing is much better, the movie is an economical 65 minutes or so, the only significant stretch without any of the Marx brothers onscreen is the first 4 or 5 minutes of the movie, but after that at least one of them is in almost every frame of the film. And overall the jokes are just funnier and the one-liners hit harder than most of what Groucho says in Night at the Opera.

Super Bowl Sunday is coming up, and like last year, I don't care at all who wins. I'll pull for the Seahawks just because I don't want Pittsburgh to have 5 Super Bowl trophies. And I'll hope the commercials are better than last year's crop. Also I'll be watching this week to see who gets elected to the Football Hall of Fame, or more accurately, which Dallas Cowboys are unjustly snubbed once again. 3 have made the list of 15 finalists, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, and Rayfield Wright. Aikman won 3 Super Bowls as the Cowboys quarterback in the 90s, and he should get in this time. Irvin was among the best receivers in the game as Aikman's favorite target on those teams. He fell a few votes short last year and time will tell if he gets in or not. Wright should have been voted in many years ago. He was snubbed a couple of years back but the seniors committee nominated him this year. He is the ONLY member of the NFL's 1970's All-Decade team to not be inducted into the Hall. The Pittsburgh Steelers won 4 Super Bowls and for that they have something like 16 hall of famers, the Cowboys have won more playoff games than any other team, have appeared in 8 Super Bowls, winning 5, and yet they have a grand total of 5 hall of famers. Something is wrong with this picture. We'll know by the end of this week if the Hall of Fame's anti-Cowboys bias continues. I'll be very surprised (and very happy) if by some chance all 3 of them get in this year.