Gus Van Sant is one weird director. It seems like only he would make an Oscar nominated film like "Good Will Hunting," and then use his new found fame to do a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (shot by shot mind you). Since then he's made lots of films, mostly art house films that audiences just didn't connect to (his turn at directing "Gerry" alianated many people). When I heard of "Milk" earlier this year I felt it would have Oscar written all over it. I was right, though the film wasn't quite the masterpiece I was expecting. What surprised me most was how subdued it felt for a Van Sant film. With the exception of a few choice shots, most of the direction was very straight-forward and predictable. Anyone could have made this film, which is not something I usually get when watching a movie from him. I left it on the Oscar list though, simply for a lack of better films to list.
Well, all that's changed now. More movies have been released. "Milk" seems to be losing it's grip on the "lock" it had for an Oscar. Worst of all, Van Sant has been outdirected by Ron Howard, Mike Leigh, Steven Soderberg, Danny Boyle, etc, etc...you get the point. This basically means his shot at Best Director is looking more slim. So while I'm not going to remove "Milk" from the BP lineup yet, I'm going to remove Van Sant from Best Director. I think his direction is fairly weak, and the actors make most of the movie work anyway.
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