MORE END OF YEAR OSCAR MUSINGS - THE AVIATOR FALLS

Like the Hughes plane that crash lands in the Los Angeles area, THE AVIATOR i s beginning to lose altitude. Maybe it's my reaction to its getting ll nominations, but there is no way this film compares to MEAN STREETS, TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL, GOODFELLAS, or even KING OF COMEDY or ITALIAN-AMERICAN. The love of Hollywood comes through and the Technicolar palette recreation is astonishing, as is Cate Blanchett's recreation of Katharine Hepburn. But although DiCaprio is decent, neither in his acting nor in the writing is there any sense of the man as a whole. A myth maybe, but not a man. The Freudian stuff at the beginning doesn't do the work. It's good, glossy entertainment like the other non-rigorous Scorcese hit, THE COLOR OF MONEY. For a director of vision making a film about a man of vision, we ought to have had more.

There are still some end of year films for me to see. Certainly, CLOSER, and if any director would be interesting for his stage to screen adaptations, Mike Nichols of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF Iwith more than a little help from Haskell Wexler) and ANGELS IN AMERICA, is certainly a must. In spite of my having loved CENTRAL STATION, I've avoided Walter Salles' MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, partly because of its alleged sanitized portrait of Che. And I suppose I have to see BEING JULIA, if only to prepare for the championship rematch with Hilary Swank. Once I've dne this, I'll probably post my ten best ist among the Oscar nominees, and a corresponding l0 best list of films that were not nominated.