An American in Paris

I don't know about you, but I just can't get enough Gershwin or Kelly or even enough classic movie musicals.  I'm a big fan of all the individual elements that make up An American in Paris, so why, oh why, did I not enjoy the film?
Now don't get me wrong, it's not a bad picture.  It's of course got great music and dancing.   It has great sets and art work.  It's not even a terribly bad story, but from the awkward title drop and "no, that's not me" gag in the first few scenes to the less than satisfactory wrap up with our supporting cast at the end, I just felt that, for a Best Picture winner, this film was certainly lacking.  I would have a hard time justifying An American in Paris as the best film of the year when I see it standing next to classics like The African Queen, A Streetcar named Desire, Show Boat, Strangers on a Train, and even The Day the Earth Stood Still and Alice in Wonderland.  I get why it won, but it just goes to show that getting a Best Picture doesn't have any direct relation to whether it's actually the picture that stands the test of time (Vertigo wasn't even nominated for a best picture and it's considered one of the best films of all time).
So, here's my take on An American in Paris: it won because it had style.  It showcased art in a way that really hadn't been done before, and really hasn't been done since.  It (though not actually filmed in Paris) captured the feel of Paris and the art scene as it was pumped full of fresh blood and fresh ideas after the war.  It painted a world where even the most out of luck artists and performers can make the big time, and find true love all at the same time (we know the academy just can't resist a story about young artists struggling to make it).  It certainly was a work of art visually, which I won't deny.  My concern is that there's pretty terrible writing to back up the performance.
The story is fair at best, and the plot seems to be designed to move from song to song rather than the songs naturally fitting into the story.  Our classical musician that argues that jazz can't compare to the classics so that we can sing "By Strauss!" is found throughout the rest of the film to be singing the Gershwin classics with everyone else.  An English lesson leads to "I Got Rhythm".  We even use a dream sequence to randomly throw in a concerto piece.  It's a challenge when writing a film for already written music, but Kelly's next big film, Singing in the Rain (which didn't even get a best picture nomination at all), does a much better job with fitting in everything with the story (though admittedly, there are still issues).
So, my recommendation would be to take the opportunity to watch An American in Paris if it presents itself, if you're a big classic musical fan, you may even opt to buy it, but I wouldn't pay full price if I can avoid it.  I would spend a little time reviewing the featured artists from the film before watching, because the finale just isn't the same without a little back ground.  If you want the same experience without a trip to your local art school, watch Singing in the Rain, then listen to the Best of Gershwin afterwards.  You'll be spared the struggles of the film and left whistling the same tune, plus you'll get a little more Rhapsody in Blue, so, win-win.

Arrival

It's not everyday that a sci-fi film gets nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, so I had to check out Arrival to see what made it so special.  Sure enough, it was excellent, with a great production design, fabulous cinematography, a trio of top of the line actors, clever non-linear story telling (which ties nicely into the plot, but if you haven't seen it yet, I won't say more than that), and, above all, a story that is as relatable as they come, despite being about communicating with aliens to prevent the world tearing itself apart.
For those of you that don't know, Arrival explores one of the most overlooked facets of space travel - communication.  Most science fiction takes place in a galaxy with universal translators or babel fish or where there's been enough space travel that everyone's adopted a universal language or, my favorite, when the aliens go all Pocahontas and become fluent in English after just moments of exposure to the language.  I've always enjoyed episodes like Darmok from Star Trek TNG that explore the difficulty of communicating with an alien race, but I also understand that isn't usually practical.  Can you imagine if every episode of Star Trek was a two parter, with the first part being just trying to understand the local language and the second part telling the actual story.  More realistic, probably.  More entertaining, certainly not.
So, it's nice when we're treated to a more in depth exploration of what communication between two alien species might look like.  Especially interesting is the fact that the two species in Arrival (humans and heptapods) can't physically make the sounds that are required to communicate verbally, so they're forced to resort to writing.  The heptapods writing looks like a ring left by a paper cup that you accidently set in some ink, and includes a complete thought in each character, rather than a single sound or word like earth languages.  It's visually captivating and surprisingly gripping trying to follow the processes of drawing out understanding of earth writing and translating the new language, but beneath it all, Arrival is setting up the audience to ask some of the most serious questions of humanity.
As with many sci-fi film, we get to see that humanity is far less trusting of the unknown than we'd probably like to be.  Several franchises have suggested that an alien visit would unite humanity, but Arrival suggests that each country will want to be the one that takes the right action, so, though we may attempt to cooperate at first, it may not take long before every one has decided their approach is best and shut themselves off from the rest of the world.  The most interesting question however, relates to flashes we receive of our main character struggling with the death of her daughter.  The central question of the film is, if you could see all the pain that will be part of you future, would you change anything to avoid it if you could also see all the joy?  The films makes the case that we would still choose to live the hardest moments of our life if we knew the trade off was losing the most joyous moments of our life.  What do you think, would you be willing to suffer the worst of your life if you could relive the best?  I know I would.
Well, to sum up, Arrival is a thought provoking and visually rich film which definitely merits a viewing.  I'll leave it up to you whether you purchase it, as it's not necessarily something you'll want to watch over and over again, but it will be a film that sticks with you, so even one viewing should certainly be worthwhile.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.