Silver Linings Playbook and Django Unchained

I didn't plan on seeing Django Unchained but there it was, actually a nominee for best picture, so in the interest of balanced reporting I had to suck it up. Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave emancipated at gunpoint by  German bounty hunter Dr. Schultz, (Christoph Waltz) who seeks his assistance in capturing a few notorious heads, (those on the shoulders of the three Brittle Brothers) for which endeavor Django would be the 'spotter'. For his trouble, Dr Schultz promises to help Django free his wife from her owner,Calvin Candie and his plantation named Candyland. Like most Tarantino films, Django was violent in a way that dulled one's senses, subverting natural aversion into numbness.The busiest man on set must have been the blood splatter master - no matter how far away the target was in the scene, we were treated to explosive blood-works which were curious in their excess. Alongside this almost cartoonish physical violence was the considerable and palpable emotional violence, of which as it turns out, Dr Schultz is a victim. Django, for his part, manages to hold himself together despite his anger, revulsion and fear, aided by his unswerving resolve to find his wife and keep his cover intact. The unexpected reversal was interesting. Dr Schultz is used to killing people for a reward, but discovers that he has no stomach for the brutality of slavery. I loved the cinematography - part Marlboro Man, part Attack of the Zombies and the soundtrack - part seventies pop, part nineties gangsta rap. This movie is a study in opposites that manages to synthesize something noteworthy in the middle and I suspect that's why it's staring down the barrel of a best picture nomination.

Silver Linings Playbook was my second great favorite of this Awards season (watched it twice). It's the portrait of a dysfunctional family, an OCD father Patricio (Robert De Niro), an insecure competitive brother, and a hand-wringing mother (Jackie Weaver). The crown jewel is the bipolar Patricio Junior (Bradley Cooper) who, as the movie opens is serving time in a mental institution for the assault on his wife's lover which occurred in Pat's own bathroom shower.
Pat gets out of the mental institution and tries to make a fresh start and rescue his marriage from the restraining order put on him since the assault He is deliriously optimistic, we might say pathologically so. He sees silver linings everywhere, even in the disingenuous platitudes of those who have written him off. 'Silver developments' abound and where they obviously do not (as in the ending of the novel 'A Farewell to Arms') he becomes enraged. Bradley Cooper stretches here - and I like to see actors stretch.
The cast (DeNiro,Weaver and Jennifer Lawrence with an entertaining appearance by Chris Tucker) congeals nicely around this character - everyone bringing something to the table. The only flaw I found in this movie was some sloppy editing, forgivable because of the engaging story, cast and acting.