THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)
Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven – Best Picture
It was quite a feat for the late Heath Ledger to score a posthumous Best Supporting Actor trophy from his mesmerizing performance as The Joker, but that and the film’s many technical nominations weren’t enough to make up for a massive oversight: Best Picture. Grossing over a billion dollars worldwide and receiving spectacular reviews wasn’t enough luster to loosen the genre-unfriendly Academy to give The Dark Knight the nomination it deserved. As it is, Nolan’s film plays less like a superhero film and more like a crime movie in the Michael Mann mold, making the snub all the more ridiculous.
WATCHMEN (2009)
Larry Fong – Best Cinematography
Another Alan Moore adaption took the author’s groundbreaking work of superhero deconstructionism and brought it to bold life. Arguably any filmed version of the Citizen Kane of graphic novels was bound for harsh criticism, but Zack Snyder got it mostly right by using Dave Gibbons’ precise illustrations as templates for Larry Fong’s gorgeous camera work. It even captures the grain and lighting of a movie from the late ’70s/early ’80s while maintaining that satiric spark that many readers fail to recognize. Whatever the filmmakers got right or wrong, this is unquestionably one of the most gorgeous, visually dense works in the genre.
Head to page 5 for a film that criticizes geek culture and another that fully embraces it!
