"Speak as you might to a small child or golden retriever"
Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 3:43PM
NATHANIEL R in Best Picture, Fandor, Margin Call, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Oscars (11), Screenplays, Shame

This past week I've become concerned with the awards prospects of Shame (is Carey Mulligan going to win anything?) and Martha Marcy May Marlene (which I loved) on account of its loss of every breakthrough actress and best first film contests thus far (in the admittedly young awards season.)

I began to wonder if the problem wasn't the constant withholding of the comfort food that is exposition. So I put in my screener to Margin Call, which keeps beating MMMM to prizes and while I enjoyed the film, I was immediately struck at the ginormous difference in verbosity. One movie tells you everything through it's play-like dialogue. The other tells you only so much and nearly always through its visuals.

So I wrote about ambiguity vs. directness in my Oscar column for Fandor.

There's even an infographic! Apparently I believe in both showing AND telling.

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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