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WORLD FOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN ENTERTAINMENT INSPIRATION ENLIGHTENMENT HUMANITY FOR ETERNITY AWARDS BEST PICTURE.

WPCNR  CINEMARAMA. Movie Review by John F. Bailey. February 11, 2023:

It’s the week when the entertainment world is abuzz and movie fans of the stars and the directors and the filmmakers are talking Oscars and Best Pictures and Directors and Writers.

But there is no contest.

No motion picture among those nominated for Best Picture comes close to the Iliad, the Odyssey of cinema artistry  I saw with Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst at San Simeon last night in Mr. Hearst’s personal theatre in Mr. Hearst’s Castle on the Coast

I am pleased to announce the WPCNR  WORLD FOUNDATION FOR  EXCELLENCE IN ENTERTAINMENT  INSPIRATION, ENLIGHTENMENT FOR HUMANITY FOR  ETERNITY  HAS AWARDED

The envelope please….

 AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER BEST PICTURE,

The distinguished panel of the WPCNR Foundation  awards, and the winner for BEST PICTURE IS…

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER “THE BAILEY” FOR BEST PICTURE AND JAMES CAMERON BEST DIRECTOR .

This is more than a movie, it’s not a movie, it a cinematic Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey  that gives you what Mr. Cameron’s Titanic gave you years ago — only better!

It is an upclose intensely realistic, (set in another world), superbly written with meaningful dialogue, reasoned arguments between characters bringing to light aspects of human relationships that relate and interpret so well to the reasons as old as time that make different groups hate another because of the way others look and act. The movie is an action adventure movie that is not a cartoon, (common recent slang in the dialogue excluded, using the world “bro” for example to pander to the younger generation no matter what Generation Letter you are).

Mr. Cameron’s actors in their relationships to their families and the colonizing army from Earth attempting to take over Pandora for its resources is an allegorical parallel and the actors who are all equals in delivering an ensemble filled with interactive character development of the challenges they face from a ruthless Earth Army with no respect for human life, are so real,relevant compared to the suffering happening in real life in Russia’s new Holodomor in Ukraine.

Cameron’s The Way of Water delivers a message—a verdict on the manifest destiny era that took land from the American Indian; slavery culture , Civil War; the Spanish American War, exploitation of the Middle East for oil for a century by promoting oil corporation  interests,  and the costly loss of committed American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, who still deplore our withdrawal from that country that left them to the mercy of the Taliban.

Mr. Cameron’s unflinching cinematic fluency and fascinating script displays  the legacy of greed that so many wars inflict across time in this profound action epic depicting the ruthlessness of conquest.

Mr. Cameron builds how trust is won  from people who are different than you when a Pandora fugitive from the colonizing army from Earth, Jack Scully is banished to a community The Metkayinay living in the ocean region of Pandora.  The Na’Vi first reject him and his wife and kids, but eventually accepts them in a series of quiet interactions and successes at winning the new community friendship and respect. It is so sweetly and beautifully acted and perfect-pitch this transformation from outcasts to community members for all members of the family especially the children.

The special effects depicting the ocean creatures are beautiful,so good that you think you’re watching them in Marineland.

The WPCNR Foundation also awards “The Bailey” as The Best Actor to PAYKAN —the Rin-Tin-Tin of the sea who rescues one of Jack’s sons and spoiler alert—no I won’t surprise you. We are constructing a special tank for a private presentation to this giant Tulkan of the screen world.

There is violence in this movie lots of it. But they are the best sequences I have seen since Cameron’s first Avatar movie

But the distinguished guests at the Foundation screening of all ages were transfixed for three shortesthours I have ever experienced watching a movie. You cared about these characters. You are watching bluehued people reacting real and changing attitudes in realistic dialogue not comic strip balloon dialogue. The writers on this film all deserve The Bailey for Best Screen Writing Team.

This sequence in the middle of this  epic may appear tedious but it lays the premise of the movie, if people care about others they will fight for the community rights and freedom and survival more than any other reason against incredible odds. When the Earth Army  captures a young descendent of Jack’s original  community it is a link that brings the Earth Army into the Way of Water Tribe whose villages the burn—a shocking reminder of massacres  of the past and present.. This sets up the suspensful  45 minute final battle sequence reminiscent of the Titanic special effects.

This is what Best Movies are: Unboring, instantly interesting. They involve you right away. Characters are developed (even though they are blue and do not look like you and me) with the way they act and show emotion in their faces, and the way the ensemble reacts in this movie is what keeps you on the edge of your seat and caring about them for three hours.

This is what a Best Movie is: more than what it appears to be. Grappling with the mysteries of human behavior: greed, anger, hatred, love, compassion, caring, loving and heroism in the face of danger, grief, loss, responsibility, and of course being able to stand up to right and wrong with guts. All the conflict that is the nature of the human condition, and most of all the ability to grow and change.

Homer would have loved it.

Best Picture.

No contest.

It is an epic.