What I'm Watching September Update: Lost Symbol, AP Bio, Only Murders in the Building, The Premise review

 

Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol (Peacock):  Dan Brown has pretty much the exact plot in every book with different details. But the devil’s in the details and he has some extremely thorough details and those details are his hook.

The thing is that Dan Brown has to invent an awful lot of dues-ex-machina situations in order to manufacture situation in which a stuffy Harvard intellectual (no matter how good looking) like Robert Langdon is called upon to save the world. I say “thing” and not “problem”, mind you, because the suspension of disbelief is a price we’ll gladly pay for the mind-blowing historical nuggets wrapped up in a James Bond-style adventure.

So with that said, this show will never earn points for originality or excellent screenwriting but it’s extremely comfortable as popcorn entertainment and I plan on gobbling it up. The cliffhangers also help and this adventure appears to be set (or at least) start in my hometown of Washington D.C. so I’m excited so far.

Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)-The best part of the show is the press interviews between the odd trio of Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. Unfortunately, that’s not part of the show itself which is surprisingly mediocre.

It’s a shame because Martin Short and Steve Martin are generally can’t-miss propositions and the idea of three amateur podcasters solving a murder plot involves a healthy degree of serialization.

So why is this so boring? For one, the actual murder isn’t something that’s particularly engaging.  The idea is that one of the three members (Gomez) of this makeshift sleuthing team was a childhood friend of the murder victim but the show only commits to that angle half-heartedly.

Another problem with the show is that it feels awfully insiderish. “Only Murders in the Building” is set in a pretty insular Manhattan world and two of the three characters are aging showbiz archetypes. I’m on record as feeling pretty sated by sitcom characters who are in show business so this isn’t drawing me any closer. The show tries to mine pathos from Martin and Short’s characters as two old men looking back on their lives from the perspective of their twilights but there are character arcs are pretty predictable.

As for reasons to keep watching, Amy Ryan plays a love interest to Steve Martin and the chemistry is genuinely sweet between these two. Additionally, there’s a very high probability that Steve Martin or Amy Ryan will do something funny considering that’s what they’ve been doing for most of their lives.

What We Do in the Shadows (FX)-This has been reviewed previously, but this show continues to fire on all cylinders. At its best, you have home run episodes like The Casino or the one where Nandoor picks up the same girl in the gym three times. 

 

 

The Premise (FX)-BJ Novak’s anthology series is an attempt to dramatize hot button issues through scenarios in which characters have to make difficult choices. Through the first three episodes, the series has been a little tonally inconsistent and hasn’t always been rewarding but the general nuts and bolts of a good idea is there.

In the first episode, a socially conscious white person (Ben Platt) has to humiliate himself in court to free a black person from an unlawful arrest. It’s a direct nod to George Floyd or Michael Brown or all that.  It successfully puts a character in a tight spot though it probably splits viewers along where you stand on the degree to which white allies need to be tested on their allyship.  Either way it’s provocative.

The second episode features a new hire (Jon Bernthal) for an expy of the National Rifle Association. He seems like a loyal foot soldier to the cause but he might or might not be secretly wanting to blow up the place. This is more of a guessing game (the character already knows what they’re going to do) than a provocative morality tale.

The third episode is about a pop star (Lucas Hedges) who wants to inspire his high school alma mata (and perhaps do a little performance art) by offering to sleep with the valedictorian. It’s a fine commentary on the commodification of sex in society. Beside one jarring scene in which two of the candidates exposition the hell out of what the audience is supposed to think, this is the best of the three.

AP Bio (Peacock): Show runner Michael Patrick O’Brien has done such a fantastic job world-building over the first three seasons, that I can’t imagine myself ever getting bored with this show. As I’ve written about plenty of times before, this is a brilliant and endlessly fun show about a high school teacher who initially goes out of his way to be beyond redeemable before his better angels win out (often before each episode’s conclusion) and features an extremely deep bench of quirky students, fellow teachers, and one helluva needy prinicipal (Patton Oswalt).

The problem is the actress who plays Jack’s love interest Lynette got another gig that paid her more than the recurring guest star credit. It’s hard to hold that against the show, but they handle the transition poorly.

Lynette and Jack are vibing one episode, and the next, she’s being put on a bus. And to pour salt in the wound, Jack is dating someone else so fast? I understand the need to make sure good romantic plot lines are unused, but Elizabeth was uniquely twisted. The most twisted thing about the new love interest (Hayley Marie Norman) is that she has problems sabotaging her own relationships. But, make no mistake, she’s nowhere in Lynette’s league in terms of juvenile fun. Alderfer could sell you with her sly smile.

The show still has a great penchant for experimentation with a great Marcus episode in there.

 

Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu)-This is a pretty dark anthology adapted from a novel that I wouldn’t be surprised is far better.

The cast features lots of heavy hitters including Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Nicole Kidman, Bobby Cannavale, and---wait, is that Jason Mendoza form “The Good Place”? Let me tell you, this show is pretty eerie by design, but seeing Manny Jacinto under the sex spell of Nicole Kidman is a new level of bizarre.

The story is about some wealthy clientele who go to a healing resort where their anxieties are treated to some unorthodox methods. It’s not too far off from the far superior “White Lotus” anthology series on in its “Vacation is Hell” theme. So yeah, watch “White Lotus” instead.

Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail (TBS)-Previously reviewed last month. It’s not the best season of this anthology but it is still worthwhile.

 The show gathered a little coherence by the end but it rarely had a stand-out episode. At times when the show was attempting to mine humor out of today’s commentary (using Todd’s alliance with Benny’s outlaw daughter as a stand-in for Trumpism), there was no subtlety. When the show didn’t approach hot-button issues from a perpendicular angle, there was a lot of breathing room for Simon Rich’s brilliance to shine through. When Prudence and Todd encounter the 19^th Century version of hipsters, there’s a lot that works because the show mixes up anachronisms between our modern lens and historical realities.

What I've seen so far and what I'm expecting to see...

The Brothers Bloom, dir. Rian Johnson-The film had some very good elements:
It's hard to cover this film without spoiling much of it
-The visual look was terrific. I wasn't sure if it was a period piece or it was set in the late 2000's, because there was a definite lack of cell phones and other modern day apparatuses in the frame. It was very retro, yet very much in the present
-Rachel Weicz was such a fascinating character. How could a woman that beautiful and rich be so lonely? Weicz manages to pull it off. An absolutely amazing performance and kudos to her for learning all those talents (apparently she had to learn all those talents)
-Some of the dialogue was exceptional. Penelope's speech about reinventing her life and refusing to see her loneliness as a weakness was definitely thought-provoking.

At the same time, the film on the whole didn't make any sense. It was too many twists to the point where you just didn't care what was going on screen because none of it was real and there wasn't much suspense to convince you that the film might have been heading in any other direction.


Wolverine, dir. Gavin Hood
Simply put, I've never seen such a promising franchise be squandered so poorly. The story, before being put to screen, had a lot of potential. Here's what I grasped from what the film was really about: Wolverine had some sort of internal ying and yang battle between his animalistic urges and his sense of humanity. Whenever something happened, his immediate reaction was to go berserk (full disclaimer: Wolverine goes berserk a lot) because that was his animistic nature. When he was able to control himself more, Wolverine showed empathy towards others and did the right thing. Sabretooth, on the other hand, was just purely irrational. Wolverine's journey is partially what's in the plot but it's also from differentiating himself with Sabretooth.

Anyway, because I'm an X-Men fan that I would have seen the film anyway, but it was a massive disappointment. It was overly Ramboish and the special effects were distractingly excessive. I wrote more here


Angels and Demons, directed by Ron Howard:
I know that the original had a hard time pleasing people, so if I liked the original a lot and I also liked A&D, I know that's not going to count as a highly-touted recommendation. What I can say is that A&D is similar in tone to the first film but with quicker pacing. It's much more of a thriller although it doesn't have as much of the buzz and controversy that the first one carried with it. That takes away some of the gravity. As someone who has read the book, I think the adaptation made some very smart decisions as to where the film should depart from the book and there is enough to be surprised in that department. You also have to hand it to the film for really showing Rome in all its glory and there's a lot of great scenery to like in the film as well.

Land of the Lost, directed by Brad Silberling:
It wasn't the absolute worst film I have ever seen but it was close to it. I am someone who tend to think anything starring Will Ferrell, including Step Brothers and Blades of Glory, were good films. This, however, was a major misstep on Ferrell's part that will definitely make me second-guess going to a film just because Ferrell is on the marquis. The film just wandered without much of a plot and didn't have enough laughs to keep us invested along the way. I know it was a homage to a TV show with notoriously low production values, but that was a kid's film.

Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrahams:
Most of what's already been said about Star Trek are my sentiments. It's a truly exciting film that does a flawless job of walking the fine line between reinventing characters and altering them to fit a new generation or storyline. The actors and forces behind them did a great job of interpreting these iconic roles and that's what made the film tick so well. The special effects and visuals were amazing as well. It's hard to truly awe in audience when one out of every films released in the summer boasts a $100 million budget for special effects, but Star Trek was out there. One little complaint: The plot was somewhat confusing and ultimately, meaningless. It wouldn't have hurt to give us a plot worth caring about.

12 storylines of Movies in 2006

If you look at these posts, you'll see that on top of each of my top 10 lists is a summary of the major trends of the year, and I noticed that I didn't have one for 2006. I also thought this was a unique way of characterizing what happened in films rather than just listing my favorites or whatever. Here are 2003 and 2004, and I might put up 2005 at some point
http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2006/12/top-10-films-of-2003.html
http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2006/12/top-10-films-of-2004.html

12 Storylines of 2006:
1. The Year of the African picture
Possibly due to the influence of Bono’s awareness campaign and the G8 conference, the movie industry this year also focused their efforts on telling stories from the African continent. Catch a Fire was set during the apartheid era in South Africa, Blood Diamond told the story of the diamond-funded civil wars in Sierra Leone, and Last King of Scotland focused on Idi Amin’s reign in Uganda. Part of the Oscar-nominated Babel took place in Morocco and even some of the Bond film Casino Royale took place in Madagascar.
2. Scorsesee finally makes an Oscar-winning picture
After two hard-fought attempts this decade, the long-suffering Martin Scorsesee finally got his due with the Boston crime thriller “The Departed.” “The Departed” branched away from Scorsese’s grandiose efforts to court Oscar voters and showed us Scorsesee getting back to what he does best. The film also featured an all-star cast at its best. It made Mark Wahlberg the year’s breakout star, and raised the profiles of Matt Damon and Leo DiCaprio who each had another notable performance in Good Shepherd and Blood Diamond respectively.
3. Clint Eastwood does it again
At a time when we thought there was nothing left to say about World War II, Eastwood gained rave reviews for “Flags of Our Fathers” and then in a truly innovative stroke told the story of the same battle from the other side’s point of view in “Letters of Iwo Jima” to capture the National Board of Review’s picture of the year earning him his 3rd Oscar Nomination in 4 years.
4. Playing franchise musical chairs
Two commercial directors, Bryan Singer and Brett Rattner took over each other’s projects in a surprising switcheroo. Rattner (Rush Hour, Red Dragon) was considered for the Warner Brothers’ new Superman project but Singer was ultimately offered the project. He jumped ship from the already-in production X-Men 3 to take the opportunity to direct Superman. Meanwhile, Rattner knew that the opportunity to direct franchise pictures of this caliber are few and far between, so he lobbied hard for the now-vacated X3 slot and got it.
5. Borat

No film might have become a bigger cultural phenomenon this past year than Borat, the improvisational work of Sacha Baron Cohen who interacted with of unknowing American passers by under the guise as a buffoonish foreign reporter to expose their prejudices. At times, it was lewd and nasty, at times hilarious, but it was always shockingly revealing. Cohen took improvisation and reality TV to a whole new level. Cohen also stretched his comedy chops with the masters of improvisational comedy: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilley and Adam McKay in Talladega Nights, a follow-up to Anchorman.

6. Book Adaptations sputter and soar
The most hyped film of the year was The Da Vinci Code, based on the controversial historical fiction thriller that had been sitting at the top of the New York Best seller column for 2 years. Set up to open the summer season with lofty box office expectations, the Ron Howard’s film had a hard time pleasing audiences and living up to an audience’s expectations that already read the book. The film still hit the benchmark for domestic success by surpassing $200 million but just barely. The adaptation of the chick lit novel Devil Wears Prada, however, was hailed by critics and audiences alike and earned an Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep. Lastly, one of the great cultural tomes of our time, the expose “Fast Food Nation,” was adapted into a fictional narrative (somewhat of a stretch) that earned a few admirers but mostly passed into and out of theaters quietly eclipsed by Oscar season contenders.
7. Documentaries
No documentary really stormed the box office like Fahrenheit 911 or March of the Penguins, but a few had a lasting impact in the pop culture landscape, including Spellbound and Shut up and Sing. One even might have saved the planet and by that I’m referring to Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth which won him an Oscar.
8. Pirates II
Despite being inferior and more confusing than its predecessor, Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest shattered box office records left and right to become the commercial success of the year. It shattered the opening weekend record and became one of only seven films to cross the $400 million mark domestically.
9. Mexican Amigos
Three up-and-coming Mexican directors each had their biggest and most widely released successes to date with Babel (Alejandro Inirratu Gonzalu, previously known for 21 Grams and Amores Perros), Pan’s Labrynth (Guillermo del Toro, previously known for Hellboy), and Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, previously known for Y Tu Mama Tambien and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). The three are close friends and collaborators and their three films were all in contention for Oscars this year in every which category.

10. Altman says goodbye
The legendary director Robert Altman came out with his long-awaited Prairie Home Companion. The lightweight meditative film with allusions to death was considered one of Altman’s better efforts in the last few years and brought back some of his trademarks. Little did audiences know that the allusions to death in the picture was Altman’s way of telling us this was his final swan song. He died of a heart attack later in the year after hiding from the public for over a year and a half his chronic heart condition.

11. Frat pack breaks up
The Frat Pack (consisting of Jack Black, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Steve Carrell, Will Ferrell, and Vince Vaughn) remained conspicuously detached from each other this year as they all engaged in solo projects. Black conspired with Jared Hess for Nacho Libre, Ben Stiller had another Christmas blockbuster in Night at the Museum, Luke starred opposite Uma Thurman in My Super Ex Girlfriend, Owen teamed up with Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon in You, Me and Dupree, Will Ferrell went back to Adam McKay for an Anchorman follow-up in Talladega Nights, Carrell went dramatic in Little Miss Sunshine, and Vaughn went back to Swinger’s costar Jon Favreau for The Breakup.
12. Long enough to go back to 9/11
For years, America felt that it was too soon to approach the subject of 9/11 in movies and film, but this year, America was ready to explore the events of the day in two films: Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” centering around two workers trapped at Ground Zero, and Paul Greengrass’s United 93, which centered on the actions aboard the rogue flight that never reached its destination.

the first 30 pictures i saw this year: brief reviews

I wrote this on my facebook "blog" so the writing is casual

Da Vinci Code-I didn’t really buy many of the negative reviews, because most people were just comparing it to the book. It was a pretty damned-if-you-do damned-if-you-don’t situation for Ron Howard because everyone was complaining about opposite things like “oh, I expected the heroine to be more assertive”, “the heroine was too assertive” “it stuck too closely to the book”, “it didn’t stick closely enough”, etc., etc. etc. In the end it was a good movie

Poseidon-I like this film because it knows it has nothing to offer in the way of good acting or plot, and just admits it up front: It wastes no more than 8 minutes getting to the action and explosions and it plays out pretty fun, and is a curious case of lifeboat ethics.

X-Men 3-Not that bad. I mean, seriously, there are sequels that are so much worse than this. (see Pirates of the Carribean)

Superman Returns: The mistake of this movie is thinking that a hyperrealistic setting like the ones used for X-Men and Spiderman could work for Superman, but come on, this is a guy with a cape who flies around the city and other than a pair of glasses makes no attempts whatsoever to conceal his identity? I mean no one in the office of top-notch journalists would find it suspicious that Superman and Clark Kent return on the same day? Good special effects, though, but story put me to sleep

Cars-People were comparing it to Toy Story 2 or Finding Nemo, who cares. Those films are in the past. This is a good film now. Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, and Larry the Cable Guy were all great and I loved how they really went all the way with it.

Lady in the Water: My first M. Night Shamylan film, so I was pretty impressed by how daring and original he was. It is really a very absurd story looking back, but when you’re in the theater you’re pretty entrenched and there’s a lot of subtle beauty to it. A really memorable score and Paul Giamatti has a good performance

Prairie Home Companion: Awesome, awesome film but people make the mistake of thinking it’s a movie about Garrison Kiellor: In truth, it’s about the director and it’s autobiographical. A very interesting, slow meditative piece with a talented cast and a the breezy music that goes along with it is great

You, Me and Dupree: Better than the trailer makes it look. Owen Wilson’s actually better in this than the Wedding Crashers, I thought. In fact, I think Owen Wilson starts out as his Wedding Crasher persona: a womanizing jerk, but he shows at the movie goes on that he really is a very sincere guy.

Click: Worst film of the year. Terrible. Even by Adam Sandler standards. Random humor doesn’t equal funniness. Am I the only one who thinks Adam Sandler is the least deserving movie star ever to emerge from SNL, in contrast…

Talladega Nights-A great follow-up to Anchorman. Not as funny as Anchorman but has more heart (especially with the father/son relationship), and it still has its moments. Remember the scene where the dad scotch tapes cereal to the bottom of his son’s car and as a driving lesson tells him he has crack under the seat and a 10-minute head start on the cops? Plus, it’s hard not to like John C. Riley there.

Devil Wears Prada-Don’t be fooled. It’s very much a chick flick even though it’s getting a lot of year-end rewards. It’s kind of relatable about a recent college grad trying to make it in the world. However for all the cynicism she has about the irrelavent fashion world she’s entering, she ends up on the dark side and the movie tells us to cheer along with her and glorify the fashion industry and looking pretty. By the time we see a montages of Anne Hathaway playing dress up over girl-power music, it cements the movie’s fate.

Pirates of the Carribean 2: It made A LOT of money, but bottom line: If I can’t understand the story and have no clue what the hell is going on, it hurts my movie experience just a little. I still love the first one, I did think Jonny Depp was as awesome as ever and I liked the two main swordfight scenes.

World Trade Center-I’m sick of all the post-9/11 analysis and reflection. It was a tragic event but it’s been in the media so much, why would anyone sit through 2 hours more of it. Well, for me it was free, and I thought it was fairly good. It escaped all the political hooplah and just got down to the story and when you got two people buried under rubble waiting out their last hours to what would probably be their deaths with a rescue mission to save them, then wherever you set it, it’s got the makings of suspense. Also, the two cops were really boring. I met some New York Fire Department members who were there at 911 recently, and they were a lot more colorful than that.

Invincible-Like World Trade Center, they really do those Northeastern accents pretty heavily. I’m not a football person but I ended up liking the movie, because it wasn’t too bombastic or anything.

Little Miss Sunshine-Best picture of the year (or close to it). It’s got such great moments of joy and sorrow, it’s hilarious, and the cast really fleshes out their characters. It’s more than a Steve Carrell picture, I’ll tell you that. It’s a cast that’s 6 people deep.

Employee of the Month-It’s the sign of the apocolypse that not one but two of the lead actors are there to promote other careers. Dane Cook is there to promote himself as a stand-up artist and Jessica Simpson is there to promote herself as a singer and neither can act. Simpson nearly ruins every scene she’s in. The rest of the cast is pretty good and it’s not that bad other than the two main actors. (Memorable line from my gutting team leader Luke (for a day): “well, I’m just here to promote myself as a stud”)

Accepted-A pretty funny movie. Justin Long is a little too geeky to pull off the Ferris Bueller part but I liked his “screw the adult world” attitude. Too bad, it came out before I even went to college or I might have had some ideas of my own.

The Departed-Exciting, thrilling, got a lot of good actors and effective use of “cross-cutting” as us film experts like to call it. What can I say: It’s Scorsesee’s return to form. DiCaprio is really good and so is Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin.

All the King’s Men: It’s got a lot of good actors trying really hard to get an oscar nomination on the basis that they learned a new accent. Kind of confusing and ambigious. I did write a good review of it because I was separating my review into the pros and cons and by the time I got done with the pros, I was out of wordspace so I just sent it in cause I was under a deadline.

Hollywoodland-Awesome. It’s like a film noir movie and one of the few that works at that. Adrien Brody, you rule!

The Black Dahlia-The opposite of everything I just said about Hollywoodland

Catch a Fire-By the time this movie started to get good, it ended. How weird. Tim Robbins is good, Derek Luke yells a lot.

Déjà vu-Let’s see: Out of Time, Man on Fire, Inside Man. Could Hollywood show a little creative effort to not put Denzel Washington in the EXACT same movie role over and over and over again? It’s actually a movie about time traveling and stuff, but the best possible title for this movie “Out of Time” was taken (see sentence one). It’s in New Orleans though and I knew two extras from the movie.

Borat-Kind of gross and borderline offensive to Southerners and the Romanian villagers he completely ripped off, but it’s hilarious. Marginal thumps up.

Bobby-Pretty good. There are a lot of stars in this film and an ensemble/multi-storyline kind of thing going. Some of the stories are worthwhile to tell and some aren’t but more often then not, they are. It’s pretty powerful too. The filmmaker’s love and admiration for Bobby Kennedy is really visible.

For Your Consideration-A rare Christopher Guest and co. miss

Stranger than Fiction-Big announcement: Funnyman is going serious to expand dramatic range! Go to yellow alert! Seriously, why is Will Ferrell in this? An attempt to copy Jim Carrey in the Truman Show? Dustin Hoffman’s pretty good. It has a cool concept behind it and the movie juggles the fine line between a mundane setting and an abstract concept you have to completely suspend your disbelief for. I liked it.

The Good Shephard-Kind of long and hard to follow but a cool movie. I didn’t really get what made Matt Damon’s character tick. It’s better than the Good German, I’m guessing.

Blood Diamond-Great performances, great action, greet scenery, great story. On-location shooting makes a big difference and there’s a lot of action but it’s really a movie about some very grave issues. It did have a little bit of tragedy.

Da Vinci Code

Critics so far are giving Da Vinci code mixed reviews but when you're making a film based on a book that apparently has sold more copies than any book since the Bible (as Roger Ebert notes: "good thing it had a different ending") the expectations are going to be hard to live up to. The other mistake critics are making is that they're judging the film along the lines of how controversial it is, and are lampooning the usually middle-of-the-road Ron Howard for once again playing it too safe. That makes no sense to me: a movie has to have picketers at its premiere to be considered successful? The fact is that Howard is in a damned-if-you-do damned-if-you-don't situation with the material and he skirted the controversy smartly by just focusing on making a good movie and even if by sticking to the book he won't get the credit for the great story, that's still exactly what he did.

For those of you that didn't read the book, The Da Vinci Code is an intelligent thriller that starts out with a murder at an art museum in France, and a Harvard professor of symbology, Robert Langdon (Hanks) is called upon to help decipher the victim's dying message. Making their way into the story at intersecting points and building up the suspense level are a French cryptologist and granddaughter of the victim, a police chief with a vendetta (Reno), a bishop who heads a controversial sect of Christianity (Molina), a murderous albino monk (Bettany) and an obsessive British aristocrat (McKellan). The story is filled with cliffhangers and surprises at every turn and the film pretty much follows that same pace, being careful not to cut out too much of the interesting tidbits that made the book so interesting in the first place. The story's genius, after all, comes from playing with familiar historical events suggesting they didn't happen exactly the way we thought they did.

For those of you who have read the book, don't worry, it's not by any means an exact copy of the book. Things are cut and moved around and at least a couple of key elements are changed for the better. For example, Bezu Fache, the policeman, is a member of Opus Dei in the film, which makes for more sensible character motives, and Robert Langdon is a religious man which makes for a slightly more open-ended approach to the religious controvoursey. What really makes the movie work, however, is the casting. Audrey Tatou, Paul Bettany, and Ian McKellan are all vastly underrated actors who give Tom Hanks great support and enhance the movie. McKellan's devious scholar seems to comes straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, and Paul Bettany makes Silas the albino monk sufficiently scary but surprisingly human at the same time.

My friend has a review at:
http://zerogrizzly.blogspot.com/

Summer Movie Awards

Best Picture-
Little Miss Sunshine-One of the few movies in which the phrase, "You'll cry, you'll laugh, you'll jump for joy" isn't just a movie cliche. Coming from Sundance Film Festival, the movie opened at 1.4 million dollars but broke into the top 10 two weekends later and stayed there for 7 weeks for a reason: it's just that good and word got around. Within the structure of a typical road trip movie, Little Miss Sunshine is an emotionally resonant film that contains some very dark moments en route to higher highs.

Runner-Up: Prairie Home Companion-The biggest misconception about Prairie Home Companion was that it was a film about Garrison Kiellor, but that's also it's greatest strength. Those familiar with the director know that Rob Altman uses the film as a springboard for meditations on art, life, and death. On top of a great soundtrack, humor and color come from all sorts of colorful characters (Maya Rudolph as the frustrated stagehand, Kevin Kline as the bumbling private eye or Meryl Streep and Lilly Tomlin and the chatty Johnson sisters, etc.) within a great ensemble

Best Pure Comedy: Talladega Nights-From the comedic team that bought us Anchorman (writer/director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell) comes a solid follow-up that certainly has its funny moments. The primary thing that distinguishes Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby from regular comedic outings of the frat pack is assembling a great cast of comedic talent that can surround Will Ferrell and keep up with him line-for-line as he veers off what's written in the script (if there's one at all). Might have been a little less funny than Anchorman but it makes up for it with heart in the endearing father-son relationship between Ferrell and Gary Cole.

Best Popcorn Movie: Da Vinci Code-The fact was that Ron Howard was in a damned-if-you-do damned-if-you-don't position in adapting the most popular book of the day, and all things considered, whether it was too close to or too far away from the book, it made for good entertainment if nothing else. Ian McKellan, Paul Bettany, and Jean Reno added interest to the movie with parts that support Tom Hanks, and considering how many well-liked French actresses there are to chose from, landing Audrey Tatou was a steal. Howard's picture works as a carefully-paced thriller and the controvoursey behind it all provided some good water cooler talk if nothing else
Runner-Up: X-Men 3-Another movie with high standards to live up to coming in, X-Men 3 was an admirable third leg of a very solid trilogy with the stakes of life and death being raised up a little (characters actually died, that's not supposed to happen in superhero movies?!), good special effects, and I liked the intergenerational theme of the new cast of characters (Iceman, Kitty Pride, etc.) having to step up when the time was right for them

Best Actor:
Paul Giamatti, Lady in the Water-Some people would insist on giving Giamatti the best actor award for everything he does and I'm not approaching the role from that angle. Still, with the stutter and everything, I actually thought Giamatti stuck out strongly as a beacon of well-constructed character acting amid a very bizarre world and cast of characters that M. Night Shamylan created.
Runners-Up:
Greg Kinnear, Little Miss Sunshine-All the actors in the movie were very good, but he has great comic instincts, look at the scene where Kinnear is about to be busted by a cop but saved by porn magazines for what i'm talking about
Jonny Depp, Pirates 2-The movie was mediocre but Depp might have been even more electric in this film than the first. His physical movements and control over his body is a throwback to the great silent comedians and he shines in every scene he's in.

Best Supporting Actor:
John C. Riley, Talladega Nights-It's hard to compare a pure comedy role to a dramatic role like Robbins but more props to him for keeping up with Ferrell laugh-for-laugh at making up his own lines. Besides, is there any truer definition of supporting than Riley's role?
Runners Up:
Ian McKellan and Paul Bettany, Da Vinci Code-Da Vinci Code worked for me, at least, on the strength of the supporting players. McKellan made a very nuanced and sophisticated villain that reminds me of someone who could easily fit into an Indiana Jones or James Bond movie. Despite the fact that he had to show his backside naked (something I could've done without), Bettany imbued the role with a little more of a fragile side than his counterpart in the book had.

Best Actress:
Toni Collette, Little Miss Sunshine-I saw Collette as the glue that held the whole dysfunctional family together. She played the straight woman to everyone else's comic hijinx and hopefully Little Miss Sunshine will get the neccessary exposure this talented actress deserves.

Best Supporting Actress:
Meryl Streep-Prairie Home Companion-Now this was a Meryl Streep performance I really, really liked. With her interactions with Garrison Kiellor, you felt like there was a lot more to her than was being shown, and you really grew to love her character in a sort of "I wish she was my mom, too" way. I loved her non-stop babblings with her sister and loved her singing even more.
Runner-Up: Emily Blunt, Devil Wears Prada-The attention has gone to Streep for the movie and she's even receiving early Oscar buzz but I personally thought that Blunt proved slightly more adept at the acerbic one-liners that the movie is most memorable for.

Best Special Effects:
X-Men 3-Superman saving a flaming plane from gravity and ability to deflect bullets is all well and good but it's hard to top the playground of possibilities special effects special effects you can have when playing with characters who can control ice, fire, metal, and the weather. Highlights include, Wolverine's rampage through the jungle, Jean Grey stopping an army of guns firing at her, and ice and pyro using their powers in a dead heat

Best Animated Film:
Cars-Cars was without a doubt better than....wait, it was the only animated film I saw this summer, but, hey, none of the other ones looked intriguing enough to watch (except Over the Hedge, I do regret seeing possibly the only time that Avril Lavigne, Steve Carrell, and William Shatner will star in the same movie together). Nevertheless, Cars was a fine picture with a relatively bold theme about the importance of community, taking the sceninc route and the need to preserve the finer things in life. Bonnie Hunt, Owen Wilson, and Larry the Cable Guy all had great chemistry with each other.

Best Movie I didn't see:
Unlike most critic wannabes, I am not ashamed to say that I did not see every movie that came out this summer. Akeelah and the Bee, about a talented young girl who is too afraid to show that she's smart for being unpopular and starring the usually underrated Lawrence Fishburne, sounded like a worthwhile film I will regret not seeing.

Best end credits:
Clerks II-As an usher in the movie theater, I did see the end credits of many movies while I was cleaning up and Clerks II never dissapointed. Kevin Smith thanks everyone he's ever met for all sorts of things (i.e. He thanks his parents for having sex) as well as people he's never met. He lists 10,000 of his myspace friends in the end credits. Finally, he has a disclaimer that he spends way too much time on the internet

Best Song:
Route 66, John Mayer-A great cover by John Mayer, who while having a reputation as a boy bandish pop singer, is actually a devoted student of past guitar greats and he pays ample tribute to Chuck Berry adding a little more spice along the way
Runner-Ups:
My Minnesota Home-Prairie Home Companion
Bad Jokes-Prairie Home Companion
This Land-Sujfan Stevens

Best Score:
Lady in the Water-The haunting score lingers in your memory long after the film does. M. Night Shamylan's last film picked up an oscar nod for best score, so it might be likely that Lady in the Water follows suit.