The Aviator is definitely a film that soars and sparkles Chris.
Good choice of words there- the film is probably more glitzy than the real events.



Leonardo DiCaprio seemed very comfortable playing Howard Hughes; he did his homework. He might get an oscar nod. He's believable enough as Hughes. Great point about the Charles Foster Kane echoes. I was thinking about Welles a lot during this movie.

I saw this film yesterday at a sold-out screening (everybody must have been dying to get out of the house) and it is definitely in the top 3 of best films of the year.

The best thing about the movie is the camerawork. Robert Richardson's photography and lighting are so pleasing to my eye that I would watch this film silent and feel no loss. The man behind the look of Bringing Out The Dead & Kill Bill is already an industry legend if you ask me. Check out Bob's resume on the imdb- dude's got some FILMS under his belt...

Some scenes I loved:

-The golf game between Howard and Katherine Hepburn- a fine lifetime achievement award clip for Cate Blanchett.

-The premiere of Hell's Angels. Leo arrives with Gwen Stafani (holy dogshit is she hot!) and "talks" to the press.
Awesome scene; very brief, very odd, but it's such great cinema

-The sfx for the flying scenes. First rate.
I don't know about you, but I found it easy to believe Leo is test-flying airplanes. The shots of him in the cockpits seem damn real....
The crashes seemed real, the Spruce Goose seemed real,
Marty, you got your money's worth in special effects. Let's hope AMPAS fucking notice that fact.

A few things that bugged me but had nothing to do with the movie:

The scene where Kate Hepburn is telling Howard about the theatre and seeing an Ibsen play had some people sitting near all a-titter. I'm guessing they were theatre actors or patrons because they seemed to want the whole theatre to know that they were cultured- "oh, I love Ibsen!" "Yeah, he's right up there with George Bernard Shaw..."

I wanted to smack them. Who cares that you know who Ibsen and Shaw are? Fuck off with your pretentious, egomanical attitudes!
Beware! There are many socially inept people out there who THINK they are worldly. And they want you to know it. So my advice if you run into someone like the above, butt into their conversation and be even more pretentious than they are:

"Oh, you like Ibsen? Well you must like Genet then! Don't you love the ending to THE BALCONY? Running into the alley, the machine-gun fire, the mildness, the unction, the absolute rapture!Do tell of the exquisite emotions you feel when you see a fine production of Henrik's.....


Ugh. I love art and all that, but Jesus, somebody must stop the art-snobs. You would think people who claim to be intelligent would be able to take stock of their own projections...

Sorry, what were we discussing? The Aviator. Right.
Great film.
SCORSESE DESERVES A LOT OF GOLD THIS YEAR AMPAS...