Children of Men

While it was all fine and good for so many Mexican directors and filmakers to be nominated for so many Oscars this year, as we read the news back here in Guanajuato we felt as though the veil was finally being lifted from our eyes.

I had previously thought that the best picture of the year would actually receive a nomination for Best Picture. Sure some politics usually get in the way and a lesser movie actually wins, but the deserving film would at least be nominated.

Not in 2007. How could a relatively mediocre movie like Babel receive so many nominations, and a devastatingly well-made movie like Children of Men receive so few? The tale of a future gone bad, where humanity has lost al hope in the face of worldwide sterility and a neverending war on terror is quite probably the greatest movie I have, or could hope to have, seen in my life.

The entire cast, lead by Clive Owen, puts out a powerful performance, and the possible future the movie creates for us is terrifingly real, with threads of terror and government abuse, as well as the slow collapse of global civilization. Can a movie whose best scene is when Brad Pitt cries on the phone really beat a movie where British tanks open fire on an apartment building full of innocent families in the name of fear and loathing?

Apparently it has.

Selma Hayek is right to be proud I guess, but she needs to calm down.