AltPreHistHugo
Jonathan McCalmont has just posted his Alternative Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form to accompany the Actual Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. It will not surprise long term readers of McCalmont to discover that his shortlist is dominated by horror and topped by Let The Right One In. That film is finally out in this country this month after what seems like an eternity of hype. As always such hype is a double-edge sword but I am still looking forward to it (and I will also check out Jar City).
Personally, I am quiet happy with the actual shortlist, it is certainly much stronger than last year and I’m not sure what I would want to add to it. I’m not really bothered about quibbles over whether superhero films and, in particular, The Dark Knight are science fiction or not but it is a shortlist of meaty, enjoyable films that happens to include the best science fiction film of the last five years. As McCalmont says:
As a surprisingly delicate and intelligent work of traditional SF, I would be genuinely shocked if WALL-E did not go home with the Hugo.
Jar City is a pretty decent film, but SF? Like fuck it is. It’s a detective story, is all. And the book is better, naturally; I’m a big fan of Arnaldur Indridason.
Nick
2 April 2009 at 16:27
Yeah, I’ve belatedly gotten round to watching this and it isn’t “chock full of SFnal elements” at all. It is a decent enough thriller but I think it gets a lot of its impact simply by being Icelandic and therefore novel.
Martin
6 November 2009 at 12:59