How does a film with impressive turns by both Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx ultimately underwhelm? At first I thought the failing might have been making Foxx’s character, the Julliard musician turned mentally ill street performer Nathaniel Ayers, too quirky and flamboyant. 
But this is film based on real people, and the disc’s interview with the real Ayers and reporter Steve Lopez (Downey’s character) proved that indeed, Ayers is a man drawn to both costume and hyperbole. But given Ayers’ natural embodiment of caricature, perhaps the challenge was treading lightly with the movie’s message, or messages. The most obvious of which is to raise awareness of homelessness, and it’s underlying causes. Los Angeles has a staggering 80,000 homeless population.
There are several secondary messages, though. The Soloist address the homelessness issue through a wider lens of humanity and art, which is why we are treated to occasional aerial shots of L.A. traffic that summon works like Koyaanisqatsi. Combined with the occasional non sequitur wisdom from Ayers, we’re meant to ponder whether the vast pool of urban humanity has irreparably thrown life out of balance, marginalizing both people and art. And if that isn’t enough for one film to tackle, we also are force to psychoanalyze the Steve Lopez character, the filmmakers haven apparently taken large artistic license by re-imagining the L.A. Times columnist as an egocentric divorcee who discovers a real human connection for the first time while exploiting the story of Ayers’ path toward marginalization. That’s the part of the film that bears the most foul odor of a Hollywood pitch, feeling the need to have two talented actors embody characters who must compete for the film’s attention. Perhaps that’s why the real life interviews are now more prominent in my mind than the film’s dramatic resolution. Some stories, perhaps, don’t need a polished re-write.
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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