Capsule Reviews of Olderish Films I've Recently Watched

Welcome back to my blog. I typically take a two-three month hiatus after the New Year and now I'm back with some new content. 

Here are some films that I've recently watched that are at least a couple or more years old:

The Reader (2008)-It's difficult to separate this from the knowledge that it's inclusion as a best picture nominee got everyone in a tizzy and led to the expanded Best Picture field. I had a friend in film school in 2008 who said on Facebook "guys, Reader is the best film of the year!" so I know it had at least one educated fan and I tried to like this film and not think about how it bumped out other films for BP (I didn't even love Dark Knight anyway), but the film just didn't do itself any favors. I love a good courtroom drama as much as the next guy but the film tried to combine three or four Oscar baity genres in one. I still love Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet in anything.

The Kids are All Right (2010)-The high expectations of knowing it was a best picture nominee made me feel a little disappointed. Other character-based dramedies that have gotten BP noms like Lost in Translation or Juno have richer and more defined characters whereas Annette Bening and the younger kid was a bit stereotypical as characters. On the other hand, there was something admirable in the script about being unapologetic about the characters. Bening's character on the outside was a bit unpleasant and phony but Julianne Moore's character loved her for who she was.

Certain character relations weren't developed enough to be impactful. Did the overachieving daughter over achieve because of her family conditions? Because of a nature vs. nurture thing. Moore's attraction to Ruffalo's character wasn't delved into much either. She was confronted and had an explanation for it, but I would have liked to be shown more than told. Julianne Moore's speech at the end tied up loose plot threads extremely well.

A Dangerous Method (2011)-My favorite of this recent batch of films. The film centers around the life of psychiatrist Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and his relationship to two foils during a make-or-break-it phase of his career (as well as the future of psychiatry, supposedly): Kiera Knightley plays the trifecta of lover, patient and intellectual peer Sabina Spielman and Viggo Mortensen plays mentor Sigmund Freud (who you might know from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures as well as, you know, actual history). The film is tightly-scripted, demonstrates a clear interest in its subjects, and has some character work that puts nearly everything else on this list to shame.

Black Snake Moan (2008)-A bit of a bizarre film and one that probably is lightyears away from today's standards of political correctness. As long as it's interesting and can keep the mood and tone engaging, I don't mind a film that's a bit outside the norm and this film certainly qualified. Christina Ricci gives one of those "I didn't know she can act" performances for me. The film is made by film maker Craig Brewer who established himself as a distinctive new voice in 2005 with Hustle and Flow and some of that vision is still there, but his career (which has yet to flourish as far as the general public is concerned) could have used a better sophomore effort.

Cocoon (1985)-A reminder that in the 1980s, comedies had an easier time getting greenlit. I doubt you could get any bizarre idea you want greenlit today if your name isn't Todd Phillips, Judd Apatow, Edgar Wright, or Adam McKay. It was pleasant enough, some of it was very weird in a way that's specific to the 80s: Extraterrestrial fascination and subsequent extraterrestrial kissing/sex, a strong desire for a happy ending, clueless protagonist characters moddled after Ted McGinley, etc. The idea of Wilford Brimley acting rather than being an internet meme of geriatric humor is pretty funny in retrospect. Even funnier, Don Ameche won a freaking Academy Aawrd for best supporting actor. His screen time in this film is close to nil.

Bridges of Madison County (1995)-Very emotional and moving film. Romantic films aren't necessarily my genre, but Clint Eastwood gives the film a sort of masculine touch. Meryl Streep kills it and half the reason I watched it was to see her play an alluring Italian ingenue. Clint Eastwood said that this role was the closest to his real-life self, but I have a feeling "Play Misty for Me" hits the mark better. In that film, he sleeps with Jessica Walters then tries to get rid of her so he can move onto a cuter woman and well, I imagine Sandra Locke would agree that that's what Clint Eastwood did to her.

Battle of Shaker Heights (2003)-From the point of view of someone who never watched the season of Project Greenlight that resulted in this film, it seems like a fine film with good front-loading of the action. Shia LaBeouf plays an interesting kind of antihero and there's a certain Wes Anderson theme underlying the film where this is just an outkast trying to belong. The reviews were hard on this because they watched the Project Greenlight Season and felt the director messed up or was arrogant or probably had too noble a vision. Watching it in a vacuum has its advantages

Waitress (2007)-A very sweet film. This and another 2007 film, August Rush, was Keri Russell's big one-two punch to try to get her back on the acting scene to reinvent herself post-Felicity. Tragically the director Adrienne Shelly (one of the few female directors in Hollywood, too) was murdered. Maybe Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings can avenge her.

The Apt Pupil (1998)-One of the rare instances in which I've seen Ian McKellen act not as a superhero or gay pride icon and he doesn't disappoint (not that he was any less impressive in Gods and Monsters which came out the same year). McKellen plays an ex-Nazi riddled with the preoccupations of being super-old and Brad Renfro plays his neighbor Todd. Todd is struggling in school and full of adolescent angst and blackmails his Nazi neighbor into a variety of activities that can best be described as weird. The two form a makeshift relationship marked by a foreboding tension that you can easily identify because it's backed by the same kind of orchestral swelling that marked late 90's young adult films like Cruel Intentions, Teaching Mrs Tingle, and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Because it's adapted from a Stephen King book, this is a film that feels more adult and the best thing I can say about this failure of a film is that at least it treats its central character as an adult rather than a high school stereotype. Other than that it's not something that's particularly well-translated to screen.

Blast from the Past: Breakout Stars of 2007

Here's a sample of a piece I submitted to a humor website back in 2008 involving the break-out stars of that year:  Casey Affleck, Ellen Page, Seth Rogen, Tilda Swinton, Marie Courtillard, Jonah Hill, Jason Bateman, Shia LeBouf, Michael Cera, Keri Russell, Emile Hirsch and Nikki Blonsky

Jonah Hill:
Before 2007: Jonah Hill was a walking contradiction to the old Hollywood adage that you have to be at least moderately attractive if you want to be a movie star. Despite looking more like an amorphous blob of playdough than Cary Grant, Hill had managed to find work upon arriving to L.A. in small roles starting with bit roles in I Heart Huckabees, Click, and The 40-Year Old Virgin culminating in the Justin Long comedy Accepted, where Hill started to get major screen time as a portly sidekick who's benefit to Justin Long's character is a naive willingness to follow him along on his crazy schemes (think of the Zach-Screech relationship on Saved by the Bell).

In 2007, Hill had a great year playing the portly sidekick designed for comic relief, once again, in Knocked Up  before transitioning to starring in his own film in Superbad. This was not only a major step up for Hill in terms of screen time, but also, in Superbad, he gets to play a character who doesn't completely repulse women. He even gets a love interest and while she didn't respond favorably when he tried to kiss her when he was drunk at a party, she didn't slap him and scream "Ewwwww, get away from me, fatso!" which is what would have previously happened in a scene with a Jonah Hill character. On top of that, Hill managed to score some extra cash and provide comic relief for playing a suck-up assistant in "Evan Almighty."

What does Hill's future look like? Because Hill has had the fortune of appearing in two very funny movies, the public is temporarily forgetting about how he doesn't exactly look like Cary Grant or even Jason Alexander but they are bound to come to their senses eventually. Hill, is playing it smart, however, by working on a screenplay however and the general rule of that in Hollywood is that if you write the screenplay you can cast yourself in it, regardless of how ugly you are, so Hill's career should be able to stay afloat through at least one more movie.

Ellen Page:
Before 2007: This spunky Canadian had her first gig in the Canadian TV series "Pit Pony" (your guess is as good as mine) and dabbled in the Canadian film industry (the Canadian film industry consists of approximately 7 people in Halifax with hand-held cameras looking to fill their spare time since being cut from the club hockey team) before being cast as Shadowcat in X-Men 3. Being somewhere around the 11th most important character in a very, very crowded story, Page
didn't get a whole lot of notice and they probably couldn't even find a seat for her at the premiere. 

2007: Paired up with a screenwriter who matches her spunk, Ellen Page becomes the star of the year's biggest Indie hit "Juno." Critics are won over because, in all honesty, they don't comprehend what the characters are saying and decide to just give the film a good review for fear of looking stupid and Page goes onto win a prestigious Oscar nomination.

What's her future looking like? Page's biggest obstacle to becoming filthy rich and being in lots of movies is that she seems to be somewhat picky. According to her imdb profile, Page "Considers herself to be a Feminist and tries to steer clear of the 'stereotypical roles for teenage girls' because she finds them to be 'sexist'" which disqualifies her for 98% of what Hollywood has to offer, so unless she wants to make Juno 2 there might not be too much work for her.


Casey Affleck:

Before 2007: Casey was best known as Ben’s little brother. Ben even managed to score Casey apart in Good Will Hunting and gave a shout-out to him in his Oscar acceptance speech.  Casey’s greatest accomplishment aside from sharing a set of parents with Ben has been appearing in the Ocean’s 11 series. If you’re going to respond to this last sentence with, “Huh? I had no idea that Casey Affleck was in the Ocean’s 11 trilogy and I’ve seen all the films,” don’t worry about it. I’m sure Brad Pitt and George Clooney were too busy giving charming and witty interviews and admiring themselves in the mirror to even learn the names of their costars as well. But after 2007, not only will Pitt and Clooney know Affleck’s name but they might even be willing to invite him into their trailers because………

In 2007: Affleck became a movie star. How did he accomplish this? Sheer nepotism. Ben Affleck made his directing debut which he used as a chance to help little brother out with a starring role in Gone Baby Gone. You know, however, that you've made it when someone who isn't related to you casts you in a movie as was the case with The Assassination of Jesse James where Affleck received an oscar nomination.

What's the forecast for Affleck's future? Let's just see that when Ocean's 14 comes around, Pitt, Clooney, and Damon will be carrying Casey's luggage on the film's press tour. In all seriousness, however, Affleck should be able to use his Oscar nomination to land more film roles because in Hollywood, the promotion department always wants to be able to put "Starring Oscar nominee" in front of an actor's name as long as he doesn't make the mistake of dating J-Lo or doing movies with Michael Bay.

Tilda Swinton:

Before 2007: Tilda Swinton was not really anyone. She had a few lines in Adaptation and played the wicked witch (or possibly the good or mild-tempered witch, I didn't see it) in Chronic-what!-cles of Narnia Part I. In 2006, I would have probably had an easier time getting a cab than Tilda Swinton.

In 2007: Tilda Swinton has an Oscar, bitches. Even better, she got out without having to suck up to Paula Abdul or weather verbal abuse from Simon Cowell, like last year's Supporting Actress winner Jennifer Hudson. She did have to effusively compliment George Clooney on the press circuit and do a weird scene in a mirror where she stared at herself while running her finger along the outside of her bra.

What's the forecast for Swinton's future? Swinton will be competing on American Idol in hopes of getting 7th place. No but in all seriousness, Swinton is next appearing in a dramatic movie by the writer of Forest Gump where Brad Pitt ages backwards in time and falls in love with Cate Blanchett who's aging forwards, so at both ends of the timeline, one of them will be a pedophile. Not sure what Swinton's role is but let's hope she's not going to be having to have sex with any old people or babies.

Jason Bateman:

Before 2007:  Bateman was the brother of one of Michael J Fox's sisters on "Family Ties" who broke out in Arrested Development which lasted three seasons because goddamnit, no one else was watching it. Also, Bateman decided to use his newfound fame to give his sister an acting gig on Arrested Development that included his sister trying to make out with him. Weird.

In 2007: Bateman seems to be on track to being a character actor and will just show up to any film as long as they have a craft table whether it's "Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium" or "The Kingdom." His big breakout role was Juno where he acted alongside his Arrested Development son and gave some pretty hilarious interviews. 

What's the forecast for Bateman's future? Bateman will continue his quest to randomly show up in as many films as possible and endlessly talk about Arrested Development's possible return to torture the 6-10 people who watched the show on the first run.

Every Film Ive seen in 2007 II: Films 23-44

This is a continuation of a lengthy exercise in which I ranked every single film I saw in 2007 from best to worst. Here's Part I.

23. National Treasure 2-If you buy the ridiculous premise that another archaeological gold mine that would fall into Ben Gates's lap, then this is a reasonably entertaining film with some top rate action scenes and lots more fun with history. Otherwise, it's the kind of film that makes plot hole enthusiasts' heads explode with possibilities. The president can easily be kidnapped, Buckingham Palace has laxer security than your local library, and you can break as many laws as you want as long as you want as long as it's in the name of a dead relative who passed away 150 years ago. Helen Mirren joins the cast which is always fun and Ty Burrell (before "Modern Family") can be spotted here like Where's Waldo,

24. Transformers - While there certainly wasn't enough creative juice to merit a good sequel to this film and the film was highly Michael Bayish in its love of explosions, superficial human interaction, hot girls, and general coolness, there was a Spielbergian element in the middle of all of it too (common themes: boy needs a friend, boy needs a daddy figure, girl and boy unite over lack of respective daddy figures) that made the film charming at times. 

25. My Brother -A small independent film screened at a film festival I attended, this film tells the story of an African-American kid who watches over his disabled brother as a grown-up. It's highlighted by a great performance by Vanessa Williams and Tatum O'Neal who slum it in the indie world but get some good results.

26. Music and Lyrics-Hugh Grant straddles a thin line between charming and boring and has failed to carry many a film, but he succeeds here because, like Blades of Glory, this is a film that doesn't aim particularly high and delivered on lower ambitions. One caveat: The whole film does rely on you buying the premise that a reasonably intelligent professional songwriter can't string basic rhymes out of words and has never heard of a thesaurus.

27. Ocean's 13-Ocean's 12 was such a self-indulgent mess that in press conferences preceding the film, cast members (Matt Damon on Inside the Actor's Studio comes to mind) were saying that while the cast was enjoying each other's company and the exotic locations, they were being professional and working. And the funny thing is they weren't even being asked: They just volunteered this information as if anyone would doubt that actors would do anything but act on a film set. With the disaster behind them, the Ocean's 13 crew had a respectable third outing in that it had a coherent plot but trying to lower the yelp rating (oops, excuse me, diamond rating) of a casino is not as exciting as a classic heist and I found the franchise's choice to reduce the stakes rather then up the level of excitement baffling. On the upside: Ellen Barkin, David Paymer and Al Pacino were all inspired casting choices.

28. The Hoax-For such a grand premise (a guy fooling the world into thinking he's a biographer of Howard Hughes), The Hoax was moderately uneventful which made the film feel a little pretentious. On the positive, it had some nice character moments here and there.

29. Lucky You-Curtis Hanson is a great director (LA Confidential, Wonderboys, In Her Shoes, 8 Mile) and this film has his trademarks of quiet moments, self-reflexive characters, immersion in a subculture, but this film felt a little dreary and the plot lacked forward movement. Wasn't necessarily a bad film but not Hanson's best work

30. Evan Almighty-If you're wondering why this ridiculously tenously connected sequel exists the answer is twofold: 1) Bruce Almighty grossed north of $200 million. For a comedy, that's pretty damn good, and even if it came with a neatly packaged ending, Hollywood economics supercede story: A sequel had to be made 2) Jim Carrey didn't want to do it and, fortunately, Steve Carell had became a star in the interim. Because they built an elaborate ark (fun fact: the ark was constructed and shot in Virginia, a casting call went out to my college and a couple friends were extras) , this was technically the most expensive comedy to date. Some critics ripped on the film for unwisely spending all that money for a superfluous ark but I think they missed the point: plus or minus an ark, the entire film was a grand piece of superfluousness. Evan was a one-note villain who only merited a film of his own unless you sweep it all under the rug and retcon him as a deeper character. If you can get past all that, then it's an, at times, moderately decent comedy.

31. Walk Hard-The best parodies tend to be more subtle. Walk Hard tended to hit you over the head with a grand announcement that it was a parody.

32. Charlie Barrett-I find it interesting that Iron Man was touted as Rob Downey Jr's comeback when here he was in a film the year before. Not one that anyone saw, but still. This film is a high school dramedy about a new transfer (Anton Yelchin) who goes from selling his adderroll to becoming the unofficial school psychologist and sports star. It's kind of a thin plot but has its moments.

33. Fantastic Four Part II-I can't tell whether Fantastic Four came along at an earlier point in the development of comic books or it was the movie's fault but this quartet of superheroes seems oddly one-dimensional: You have the womanizer who won't settle down, the big lug of a tough guy, the dweeby scientist and Jessica Alba's invisible heroines who is, surprisingly, the only character who feels like more than one-and-a-half dimensions. The best I can come up with for a compliment to this film is not awful.

34. Shrek 3-I have literally no memory of this film. How often does that happen five years later that you can't recall a single detail of a film? I clearly remember the Shrek universe and distinctly remember the plots of the first and second installments but this must have been a very unremarkable film. On the other hand, a truly awful film gets burnt on my memory which is why this doesn't have lower placement.

35. Invasion-A remake of the 1950's sci-fi classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" or possibly a remake of the 1976 Donald Sutherland-Brooke Adams remake, who can really keep track of this unorigiality anymore? The film felt uninspired (because it was) but made for a halfway decent action film.

36. Mr Magoriums Wonder Emporium-After so many remakes and sequels, I'm glad to finally get to an entry on the list that's original. Zach Helm, who wrote the screenplay to the highly inventive "Stranger than Fiction", approaches this film with the same sense of whimsy but it still feels like a second rate version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with an admirably odd turn by Dustin Hoffman as a Wonkaesque stand-in.

37. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry-Adam Sandler's usual mixture of heartfelt emotion and juvenile humor barely worked in its favor in this slightly misguided but ultimately tolerable take on the gay marriage debate. The film was met with some criticism for being outwardly homophobic. Like all Adam Sandler films, the film treats its subjects with underlying warmth but tackles human complexities (in this case, a delicate subject such as sexual orientation) with the emotional maturity of an eight year old, which is what Adam Sandler essentially is. It's not his fault: When he first broke out his guitar and started singing as a prepubsecent boy on SNL, we encouraged it, and enabled him to never grow up emotionally or comically.

38. No Country for Old Men-Cinematography was top-notch but was there a point to this film? I'm sure someone out there could watch this film and read some thematically coherent message from it, but I'm guessing most of the film's fans (including the Oscar voters for some odd reason) just liked it because it included a cool weapon, a villain with a weird haircut and dialogue so vague he became interesting, and a couple cool action scenes. I love some of the films by the Coen brothers but when they don't resonate with you, they feel like you're presented with a series of superficial objects and tricks with nothing beneath the surface.

39. Golden Compass-Rule #1 when delving into heavily complex mythological tale: Make it interesting. Otherwise, it feels like you're just reading the rule book to some complicated board game.

40. Pirates of the Caribbean III-Once upon a time, Disney brilliantly revived the pirate genre with a film that was a little bit long-winded but ultimately a lot of fun. Then, in attempting to stretch the series into a trilogy, some terrible decisions were made: Rather than simplify the mythology (this is, after all, a film based on a ride) they added entirely new plots on top of unresolved ones. If you remember, the first film ends with Depp an outlaw and Bloom trying to clear his name. That would be a good movie in itself, but they decided to add some entirely new mythic octopus on top of everything that kind of nullified the first film (Why would Jack care about fighting for control of the Black Pearl if both the souls of he and Barbosa were owned by a giant octopus anyway?). The second film ends with no resolution to the first film and Johnny Depp being taken prisoner by the octopus. The third film bloated things into a gigantic mess by conveniently introducing the fact that the tertiary character played by Tia Dalma happends to be enormously powerful and brings some dangerous spell of her own. Oh and Chow Yung-Fat is some Asian sea captain who imprisons Elizabeth and Keith Richards shows up because, why not at this point?

41. Nancy Drew-I saw this film with a couple younger cousins and while I get that the film appeals primarily to kids, there's no harm in making it presentable to an older demographic. This film suffered because there was a clear need to dumb down and simplify basic plot elements to be digestible. On the bright side, this film is responsible for keeping former Mango/Antonio Banderas SNL stalwart Chris Kattan employed for the year of 2007.

42. License to Wed-Imagine a romantic comedy starring Jim from The Office in full smugness mode without the endearing romantic backstory that made the Jim-Pam relationship work and you're only at the start of the list of problems with this poorly thought-out disaster. See, faux-Jim is engaged to an annoyingly cheery woman (Mandy Moore) and must get permission from pastor Robin Williams to proceed with marraige. Only, Robin Williams is a troublesome creep who seeks to sabatoge him. Or maybe he isn't and faux-Jim's overly suspicious. It doesn't really matter because by the third act, both these plots are bafflingly forgotten and everyone celebrates matrimony on the beach. It's one of the most abrupt endings I've ever seen. If that's not bad enough, the movie features Brian Bumgartener playing an even dumber guy than Kevin Malone and easily the most cringeworthy line of dialogue of 2007: When Mandy Moore suggests they abstain before the wedding, faux-Jim responds "but I want to play tickle my pickle with my girlfriend." Oh the horror.

43. Superbad-Yes, I got the memo that this film became somewhat of a classic. Still, the general populance gets things wrong sometimes. This film is crass, sophomoric, and worst of all, uneventful. I don't mind a film being low-brow if it goes somewhere but it appears that they set the record for number of f-words in a film for no other reason than it sounded cool. Yes, two high school senior boys on an average Saturday night are gonna be thinking about sex a lot and they're going to stumble their way through a party or two in search of it, but that doesn't mean it's an interesting thing to put on film.

44. 1408-I probably made a mistake by watching this one as horror really isn't my genre. Not getting the appeal of the film before I begin the viewing experience isn't a good place to start. 1408 felt like an ameteurish b-movie.

Ranking Every Film in 2007 1-44: Part I

Here's a series I'm starting where I look at a year (Boxofficemojo and idbm provide yearly lists. It provides a good measure on your movie-viewing habits) and every film I've seen in that year and rank them. 2007 was possibly my most prolific year as a movie watcher at 43 1/2 films due to the fact that I was working a strenuous job at a crowded movie theater and would regularly plop into a movie after working a long shift. It was also a spectacularly awful and disappointing year overcrowded with sequels that failed to deliver (the tail-end of the three biggest moneymaking trilogies of the decade-Spiderman, Shrek, and Pirates all landed with a resounding thud), a slew of ambitious war films that were quickly forgotten (anyone remember The Kingdom? The Kite Runner? Can you tell the difference between Redacted or Rendition?), the sudden emergence of Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow as kings of a new brand of schlubby comedy, an overpopulation of Office cast members in films and a mistaken belief in the range of Michael Cera. I'm going to have a little fun with the credits so bear with me.
So here we go:

1. 3:10 to Yuma dir. James Mangold, starring Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Ben Foster, Alan Tudyk, Gretchen "Where I" Mol, Logan "Before he was America's favorite indie goth kid" Lerman-It was just a remake, but I thought the dialogue was Shakespearean, the acting was top-notch and the action was raw and authentic in a way that few films in this CGI Age are. 
2. Lars and the Real Girl, starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul "I couldn't cut the mustard on Parks and Rec" Schneider, Patricia "redheads can act too" Clarkson, Kelli "Never heard of her before but had to look her up because she's awesome" Garner-In seven words or less: Entirely original in concept, sweet, unconventional, inspiring.
3. There Will be Blood, dir. Paul T. Anderson (middle initial included because coincidentally one of the worst directors in Hollywood also has that name), starring Daniel "Super Annoying  Method Man" Day-Lewis, Paul Dano-I only saw about 60% of this film but could recognize its originality and perfection. The film's soundscape and visual detail are both striking. 
4. Michael Clayton, directed and written by Tony Gileroy, starring George "I'm an attention whore, want to hear more about my Italian Villa?" Clooney, Tilda "Ice queen" Stinton, Tom "That vaguely British guy" Wilkinson, Sydney "Also a famous director" Pollock-Well-deserving of a best picture nomination. A complex tightly-paced thriller that makes tackling corporate corruption seem sexy and exciting. The film was topical and asked questions to which there were no easy answers.
5. Sicko dir. Michael Moore, I generally don't find the movies to be the best way to expose myself to non-fiction, thus, I tend to judge them by entertainment value. Michael Moore has that in spades and he also (for lack of a better word [seriously, thesaurus, you're giving me nothing here]) arouses passion from his audience. 
6. The Great Debaters dir. Denzel Washington, starring Denzel Washington, Forrest "Hot off his Oscar win" Whitaker, and (I'm not kidding here) Denzel "If Forrest and Denzel had a love child" Whitaker, Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett-Bell-Without even knowing the history behind the story, you can tell there's a little Disneyesque truth stretching to fit the neatly told story arc of an underdog beating the odds (i.e. Did they debate Harvard? nope, just USC). Still, I found the film delicate and nuanced with an unusually strong performance from Forrest Whitaker and the film's delving into the civil rights movement, feminism on a college campus and the intellectual struggle of undergraduate life all resonated for me.
7. Darjeeling Limited dir. Wes Anderson, written by Wes Anderson and Roman "I can never remember how many p's and l's go in that last name and have to look it up , uggh!" Coppola starring Owen "This was made right after his suicide attempt" Wilson, Adrian "Won an Oscar, Kissed Halle Berry, Haven't Done Much Since" Brody, Jason "The Nerdy Guy from Rushmore" Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston, Amara Karan, cameo by Bill Murray-I happen to think it's as profound and enjoyable of a film as the rest ofWes Anderson's output  and I challenge you to watch this film as if you've never seen his other films and tell me that the originality of Anderson's vision doesn't strike you here too.
8. Hairspray dir. Adam Shankman, starring Nikki "Lived on the same street as my cousins" Blonsky, John "Channeling his Inner Woman" Travolta, Christopher "No, seriously, the guy can act, dance and sing" Walken, Zac "American Teendom's Favorite Boytoy circa 2006" Efron, James "The Guy From X-Men Who's Not as Popular as Wolverine"  Marsden, Queen Latifah, Amanda Byrnes, Brittany Snow, Michelle "Seriously? I thought she was dead" Pfeiffer, Allison Janey, Elijah Kelley-An absolutely excellent piece of ensemble work with swinging music. I wanted to gag when they called the group of teens the "Nicest Kids in Town" but at least they were self-conscious enough to call Marsden's character "Corny Collins."
9. Juno, dir. Jason Reitman, written by Diablo "Ex-stripper" Cody, starring Ellen "Too short to be considered hot?" Page, Michael "One-Note" Cera, Jason "Justine's Brother" Bateman, Jennifer Garner, JK "The Deadpan King" Simmons, Allison Janney, Olivia "Damn you and your complicated last name" Thirlby-If you were around in 2007, you would be convinced that Diablo Cody was the second coming of the messiah for screenwriters. She's not all that, but Juno is a sharply acerbic, regionally specific, and bitingly funny script. 
10. Lions for Lambs, dir. Robert Redford, starring Tom Cruise, Meryl "I lost to Catherine Zeta-Jones at the Oscars" Streep, Robert Redford, Derek Luke, Michael Pena, and Andrew "Before he was famous" Garfield-It wasn't a very cinematic film as it took place in three mostly static locations in real time. It rates so highly with me because I found it thought-provoking and one of the few pieces of art I was exposed to that had something original to say about the war in Iraq and said it well. 
11. Charlie Wilson's War dir. Mike "Did you know he was once known as a comedian?" Nichols, starring Tom "Everyman" Hanks, Julia "Not as good as her brother" Roberts, Amy Adams, Philip "Damn you, I can never remember how many l's are in your name and always have to look it up" Seymour Hoffman, a cameo by Emily Blunt who does little other than stand on a balcony with her clothes off-If you go back in time to 2007, you'll see that this film had a lot of pre-release buzz and was touted as an Oscar contender. It didn't quite live up to that, but it was an interesting take on the American political hero and even the American dream. The apologetically sleazy congressman got a piece of legislation through that saved lives in Afghanistan. In the second piece of irony, it would lead to the Taliban, but who's counting? There was a definite sense of fun to the film. 
12. King of California, starring Michael Douglas, Evan "Definitely not a dude" Rachel Wood-Just watched this yesterday (which is what got me thinking about 2007). The deadbeat dad is a tired convention but not many movies are focused so solely on a father-daughter dynamic. There wasn't a separate plot with a love interest or any conclusion for the character other than her resolution of her feelings toward her dad. 
13. Bee Movie, produced by Jerry Seinfeld, starring Jerry Seinfeld, Matthew Broderick, Renee Zellweger, Patrick Warburton, Chris Rock, cameo by Ray Liotta-I might be alone but I don't think it was such a bad start for Seinfeld's foray into animation. The bee-on-human sexual undertones made me a little uncomfortable, but I thought the jokes were sharp as was the overall comic plot. It harkened to the days of Pixar's first films like Monster's Inc. and Toy Story that were permeated by an adventurous attitude of fully exploring the comic possibilities of a familiar-yet-foreign world. 
14. Spiderman 3, dir. Sam Raimi, starring Tobey "Who will always look 23" MaGuire, Kirsten Dunst, Bryce "My sister met her at summer camp once!" Dallas Howard, J.K. Simmons, Rosemary Harris, Topher "Amazing" Grace, Thomas Haden "Get me to the" Church "On time", Cliff "Won an Oscar in 1968" Robertson-We're only on #14 and getting to the films I wouldn't enthusiastically recommend. I never found Spiderman as colorful as some of the other superhero series with its obvious symbolism: The girl next door is literally the girl who lived next door, and James Franco is so broody and blatant he virtually was walking around with a "Future token villain" name tag. Then again, the Spiderman series showed it could have fun with stock characters. J.K. Simmons's newspaper editor was also very much a stock stereotype, but he was undeniably entertaining. So while the Spiderman series is flawed on the whole, the third installment was able to both have fun within its rigidly thought-out universe AND end in an emotionally satisfying coda. 
15. Elizabeth The Golden Age, dir. by Shepac Kapur, starring Cate Blanchett, Clive "Handsome" Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton, Abbie Cornish, Jordi "My name requires not one but two spanish accent marks" Molla-This film is insanely high in terms of historic attention to detail. Even if it isn't and it turns out that the production team's research department was completely wrong about everything, it wouldn't matter because the atmosphere of the film felt so real and was so mesmerizing. The film is a more subtle than dynamic study of politics, war, sexual repression, idolatry (the kind where you look up to a person rather than the religious kind), and class. Look closely, it's all there. 
16. Eastern Promises, dir. by David Cronenberg, starring Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel A thriller intense enough that I can literally remember my heart beating from watching this movie 4 1/2 years ago. Something I can't remember years later is the plot which is what makes for a memorable thriller. I'm also not giving the film too many points for its most memorable set piece: A nude knife fight scene in a spa's steam room which felt a little self-indulgent to me. Still, it's kind of a weak year, so it's up in 16. Plus Naomi Watts always kills it. 
17. Waitress, starring Keri "Felicity Forever" Russell, Nathan "King of the Comic Con Geeks" Fillion-A charming story with a nuanced performance by Russell that echoed the depressed housewife performance by Jennifer Anniston in "Good Girl."
18. Knocked Up, dir. Judd Appatow, starring Seth Rogen, Leslie "I'm sleeping with the director but I can act too damnit" Mann, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Jonah "Cameoing in every movie I can" Hill, Kristen Wiig, Bill "Don't be a Player" Hader, Craig Robinson and nearly everyone from the Office and SNL in cameo roles-I tend to find Apatow a little overrated and think he's produced as many duds as he has genuinely enjoyable films. His films often are raunchy just for the sake of being raunchy and contain plots that meander off course. Knocked Up, however, was enjoyable on all levels and its winding plot was one of its biggest strengths. Hard to buy Seth Rogen as a suitable romantic match for Katherine Heigl but, then again, I'm not the first one to point that out. 
19. Across the Universe, dir. Julie Taymor, starring Jim Sturgess, Evan "Again, not a dude, see the middle name" Rachel Wood-Some of the appeal of the film depends on how much of a Beatlemaniac you are, and some of it depends on the beauty of the visuals and vocals. While the visuals and musical numbers are stunning and the efforts to encapsulate the entirety of the 60's within a few characters is admirable, most of the film's main characters (I'd be content never seeing another film with Sturgess in it) are bland and uninspiring. Some are expys of famous people with none of the charisma. Taken as a series of disparate scenes (like Fantasia), the film is highly enjoyable.
20. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead dir. Sidney Lumet, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan "Handsome" Hawke, Amy Ryan, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney-This film barely registers with me five years later. The premise is excellent, the ending was powerful, and it's always a delight to see Albert Finney in a film, but something about it didn't resonate that well
21. Bourne Ultimatum, dir. Paul Greengrass, starring Matt Damon, Joan "Amazing in  Pleasantville" Allen, Julia "What the heck is she doing here?" Stiles, David Strathairn-The Bourne series has never been interesting to me as anything beyond a series of well-executed action scenes. Why do I care about this character? Despite Damon's general awesomeness as both a leading and character actor, there just isn't enough pathos (yeah, I used a fancy word, deal with it) behind Jason Bourne to make a series. But then again, that action was hard to discount. Like Spiderman 3, Bourne Ultimatum ended on a high note with an emotionally satisfying conclusion. 
22. Blades of Glory starring Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Jenna "From the Office" Fischer, Jon Heder, Craig T. Nelson By no means, a memorable or ambitious film but one that was pleasant, funny, and delivered at its level of ambition. 
Part II where I mercilessly make fun of the bottom half of 2007

Random Movie Review: The Invasion (2007)

Nicole Kidman stars as a doctor who is trying to save her son, as well as the entire planet from an invasion of microscopic aliens, in this remake of the 1956 classic sci-film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Like the Jonathan Demme thriller "Manchurian Candidate", the Ashton Kutcher-Bernie Mac comedy "Guess Who?" (based on the 1967 film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner") or the Adam Sandler comedy "Mr. Deeds" (Based on Frank Capra's 1936 film "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town"); "The Invasion" belongs to a class of remakes that is created out of a desire to reintroduce modern audiences to the classics. I find these films far preferable to the class of remakes like The Italian Job (2003), The Shaggy Dog (2006), and Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) that are created out of a desire to improve on a film that never resonated with audiences in the first place. Too often, the films in the second group feel like an excuse for a writer not being able to come up with original material of his own.

 

In the case of the original "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers," the film was not only considered to be one of the high points of 1950's science-fiction film-making, but in its day, the film was read as a metaphor for the dangers of passivity in the McCarthy era (although Director Sam Peckinpaugh never admitted the film was anything more than a film about aliens). The 2007 remake, however, leaves out any preachy subtext and simply tries to recapture the excitement and feel of 1950's science fiction through updated techniques.

The result is an interesting blend of outlandish scientific absurdity with elements of the modern thriller. Science-fiction from the 1950's and earlier came from an age where modern science was at much earlier stages of deciphering the mysteries of outer space and the human body, so the science-fiction stories of the time was usually built around more fantasical plots that didn't need scientific explanations. In another recent remake of a 1950's sci-film, War of the Worlds, Stephen Spielberg didn't even try to explain the scientific absurdity of having aliens spring up from underneath the streets and just turned the film into a tight-paced thriller. Although without the craftsmanship of Spielberg to guide them, the camera-work and editing feel a little overambitious without in some scenes, but Invasion still feels like a thriller of the same caliber. Like Spielberg's "War of the Worlds," the struggles of the entire planet in the wake of an alien invasion are played out through the race of a single parent trying to protect themselves and their offspring from attack.

"Invasion," however, is a little more science-heavy. In "War of the Worlds," Tom Cruise spends the film outrunning the alien invasion, but since he knows practically nothing about where they came from or where else they're located, one is tempted to ask "Where exactly is he running to?" In "Invasion," issues like these are well-thought: she's running to a lab that will cure her. Of course, with this outdated plot, you have all sorts of stretches like Nicole Kidman's misguided belief that by drinking lots of mountain dew and taking pills she can stay awake forever, but Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig (who plays her boyfriend and colleague) and Jeffery Craig (playing her colleague) are such consummate professionals and they take the material so seriously, that the plot holes seem that much smaller. The film's attention to detail can be enjoyed in the same way a Tom Clancy or a Michael Crichton novel can.

7 Reasons why 2008 was better than 2007 in movies

The Oscars come this Saturday which means that's the close of 2008 in film. I know that we're 7 weeks into the new year, but we're still in 2008 mode. Most of the films in theaters worth watching are 2008 vintage and as the year comes to a close I'm seeing a lot of negativity with respect to this year.

I've been reading comments everywhere from filmbabble.blogspot.com, to the film experience that proclaim 2008 to not be nearly as good as 2007.

I completely disagree. If you look at the history of my blog posts, I barely was blogging towards the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008. This is because 2007 was so bad that it turned me off movies and the only reason that my blog posts have increased as of late is because I've seen the quality of moviemaking go up this year to the point where I have more to write about.

It's hard to compare one year to another, but let me try to construct a well-detailed argument as to why the cinematic output of 2007 was an abomination of man and should be purged from history and why 2008's output was godlike. Here are my reasons:
1. 2007 was the year that sequels lost their artistic credibility:
Just look to May of 2007, the 3 most profitable sequels of all time, Shrek 2 (#3 film all time at the time of its release), Spiderman 2 (#8 film all time), and Pirates of the Carribean 2 (#6 film all time) made way to the three largely incoherent and dissapointing films that screamed out to the audience: "The reason we were created was for easy money" and easy money those films did make. The most memorable sequel of 2008 "Dark Knight" raised the bar for "The Dark Knight"
2. In 2007, Judd Apatow was declared the smartest man in film business by Entertainment Weekly:
Whether Judd Apatow is smart or not, he certainly made America DUMBER (or those who chose to watch his films). Apatow has only been doing what box office analysts have noted for years and what filmmakers hoping to pursue art over commerce have been trying to avoid: that the box office is controlled by adolescent boys and therefore the ideal comedy should have a lot of perverse sexual humor, four-letter words and references to drugs and laziness. Is this really that revolutionary? Apatow caters to the 13-16 year old crowd and somehow adults have latched onto it. Knocked Up was pretty funny, I will admit, but Superbad was rediculously sophomoric and had no innovation whatsoever to it. You could attach a camera to any two underachieving college students at a party school on a Friday night, and get the same level of entertainment as Superbad. In 2008, the force of Apatow was greatly subdued with
Forgetting Sarah Marshall in the Spring and Pineapple Express in the late summer.
3. There were a lot of quality films other than Judd Apatow
Comedies outside of Judd Apatow fell completely by the wayside. Juno was a big word-of-mouth buzzer, I'll admit, and there was Lars and the Real Girl, but a tremendous amount of summer comedies fell flat including Evan Allmighty, Shrek 3, Mr. Woodock, Rush Hour 3, Liscence to Wed, and later Dan in Real Life.
In 2008, we had a number of diverse successes which were all innovative and had something to offer: Tropic Thunder generated buzz through some incredibly creative casting, Pineapple Express dared to cross two opposite genres in the pot film and the action film, popular HBO host took a shot at being Borat (I haven't seen the film, to be fair), Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly teamed up again (which I can't help but love), the Coen Brothers produced their best screwball comedy in Burn After Reading, and Jack Black, Mos Def and Michael Gondry teamed up for a metacinematical wonder in Be Kind Rewind. In addition, two comedies made their way to the best original screenplay final five, In Bruges and Happy-Go-Lucky, not be filling in the quirky dramedy slot, but by being originals. In short, something to love for everyone on the comedy front.
4. Wall-E transcends the animated film genre
Did Pixar's Ratatouille top critics' lists far and wide as the #1 film of the year by critics ranging from Time Magainze to the AV Club to Entertainment Weekly to the LA and Chicago Film Critics Association and it was on many more lists as well. Ratatouille did not transcend the animated film genre like Wall-E did.
5.2007 was an overflow of war films that didn't resonate. 2008 approached current events in a more fitting way
Rendition, Lions for Lambs (which I personally liked), The Kingdom, Redacted, and Charlie Wilson's War (which I liked somewhat) all fizzled out. These films might have been relevant in 2003 when we made the ill-fitted decision to go to war or a couple years down the road when the situation was turning worse. By 2007, it was old news. 2008's big films were surprisingly relevant. Milk came out right after the controvoursey over Proposition 8. I now that was unanticipated, but could you have asked for better luck? How about Slumdog Millionaire and the Obama's rise to power? The Reader and Dick Cheney's attempts to defend his cohorts from war crimes? Frost/Nixon and the growing awareness with each upcoming election cycle that how candidates far in debates affects everything? And all these 4 were nominated for best picutre.
6.Many of the good films were forgotten anyway in 2007
In the Valley of Ellah, Great Debaters, Away from Her, Persopolis, Gone Baby Gone, Once, Atonement, Zodiac, Eastern Promises and especially Assassination of Jess James were all underpromoted, underbuzzed, and not seen by very many people. I'm not sure if there were fewer masterpieces in 2008 but the films that received high levels of buzz all got their due among audiences. Smaller dialogue-heavy films like Happy Go Lucky, In Bruges, Vicky Christina Barcelona, and Burn After Reading all got their recognition in the independent screenplay category or the Golden Globe comedy category and other than the 5 nominees, Wall-E, Iron Man and Dark Knight got tremendous buzz and won many film critics awards. Revolutionary Road become sufficiently high-profile, Doubt got 4 acting noms, and the Wrestler had a very ample fan base.
7. 2007's main awards seasons successes were unusually dark and depressing.
The year's feel good story "Into the Wild" was about a guy who went off to Alaska and died at age 21. Just the read the title of There Will be Blood. Michael Clayton is supposed to be a run-of-the-mill legal thriller but it injects Hitchkock-like murder plots. Sweeny Todd is basically a darkly perverted version of the American musical. Eastern Promises is darker than films of its genre. The Assassination of Jesse James also lets you know how that story is going to end up. And the best picture Oscar, No Country for Old Men, is basically a story that goes nowhere that works more as a study of death.



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A delayed (almost) top 10

A month and nine days after the year originally ended, I still haven't really been able to compile ten films (I've now seen 30) I enthusiastically recommend without any reservations, but i'm pretty close. Here it goes, and watch out because I'll be using a lot of fancy words:

1. Frost/Nixon, directed by Ron Howard, starring Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon: Frost/Nixon is an excellent political thriller. It's kinetic, fast-paced, energetic, and more importantly, it is profoundly relevant to our times: Power is determined by who can make themselves look best in front of a camera. I also admire the film for creating a battle of wits with an indistinguishable line between who's the protagonist and the villain, yet taking time to humanize the "villain" at the film's end. Frank Langella has an incredibly difficult role to play as a former president and he doesn't even bother going to the original source to pull off his interpretation. I found Langella's Nixon (an the whole movie, for that matter) to be reminiscent of Citizen Kane in that Citizen Kane was powerful and wealthy beyond anyone's wildest dreams, but he never felt truly loved by the people and that was the film's big reveal.

2. Gran Torino, directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, Ahney Hor-The story about a grumpy and somewhat bigoted veteran of the Korean War who copes with the changing makeup of his decaying town and his faith as he enters old age sounds more like a film one would see in Sundance due to its character-centered plot. If it hadn't been for an A-list star like Cliint Eastwood the film might not have ever reached a wide release which is a shame because this is among the most profound and moving pictures in years. Gran Torino is a sweeping exploration at shell-scock, culture clash, urban decay and especially ageism. In this film, Eastwood clearly looks like a shadow of his former self, but he plays a hero with the resolve, grit, and firepower of Dirty Harry or the "Man with No Name." When he befriends his neighbors and takes on the gang that threatens their safety, you've never seen an 80-year old hero on screen like this before and that's a tribute to Eastwood as an actor.

3. Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle, starring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal: Although it's set in India and directed by a Brit, Slumdog Millionaire is the most American of stories. It's the classic rags-to-riches dream of a boy working his way to riches and it's set in the country whose notoriously rigid class system makes it harder than anywhere else to get out of poverty. In this setting, uneducated slum boy Jamal Malek uses his life experience to try to win a fortune on the Indian rip-off of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" Shot on location, the film is such an engrossing visual experience that you can almost taste, smell and touch the Bombay slums. What's more, the film is also an amazing love story between Jamal and the love of his life who he'd give anything to get out of harm's way.

4. Wall-E, directed by Andrew Staunton: Some might call the first 30 minutes a Chaplainesque comedy and classify the film accordingly while I see Wall-E as a Dystopian fantasy of two star-crossed robots who inadvertently save a disenfranchised human race. Whether you see it as a comedy, science-fiction, an unconventional romance, or a moral parable, it's a winner either way. To even suggest making an animated film about two robots who can't talk is bold enough, but to make us care about these two inanimate objects is a feat for the ages. It's also safe to say from all the critical reception that Wall-E is far more than a cartoon, and has transcended the complement of "a good animated film." The Pixar studio has been fawned over for it's innovation so it must feel good for those folks to have one of their films be praised so highly on an adult level, for the first time.

5. Doubt, directed by John Patrick Shanley, starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Viola Davis: I haven't seen this film, but what the heck, I only feel enthusiastic about 9 of the films I've seen so far, and of all the films I haven't seen, this seems like it has potential to be great. I've started to get more and more fascinated by it after watching interviews with the cast and seeing all four of it's stars get nominated for Oscars. Other contenders for films that look great are Australia, Religulous, and Frozen River. Why haven't I seen it? Last time I went to the movie theater, we were 15 minutes too late and saw Rachel Getting Married instead and now I can't afford to see a movie again, unless you donate to the site or buy DVDs from my site. (see "Reasons Why You Should Donate Money to Me #41")

6. Burn After Reading, dir. by the Coen Brothers, starring John Malkovitch, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, JK Simmons, Richard Jenkins, Frances McDormand: I personally find the work of Joel and Ethan Coen to be uneven but I couldn't resist the brilliance of the storyline and the brothers' ability to manipulate its various threads. The film resembles a British comedy of errors where characters exist in varying degrees of being in the dark as to what's going on, except it's taken to extremes. The characters are all hilariously inept and the comedy builds to an explosive climax as the circumstances become more and more outrageous. The Coen brothers usually have a strong sense of place in their films and as a Washingtonian, I got a special thrill out of saying the the Coen Brothers so cleverly lampoon the inefficient and bloated bureaucracy that plagues every corner of life in this city. It's truly an unforgettable film.

7. Be Kind Rewind, dir. by Michael Gondry, starring Jack Black, Muriel Hemmingway, Mos Def, Danny Glover-When the videotapes are accidentally erased of their content in an ailing video store, two friends try to save the store from foreclosure by creating their own homemade versions of the store's films. The film also stars Danny Glover as the store owner. The fun of watching Mos Def and Jack Black attempt to recreate low budget versions of Driving Miss Daisy, Rush Hour 2, King Kong and Ghostbusters is worth the price of admission alone but the film also has deeper themes about the way we consume and create art and the joy of the process.

8. Encounters at the End of the World, dir. by Warner Herzog-How about adding a documentary to the list? I don't normally spring for docs but I saw three this year and I felt this was a really great film in the mold of escapism. If a film's job is to take you out of the mundane and into a brand new world, where else can you go but the metaphorical world's end? A filmmaker goes to Antarctica and not only shows you how otherworldly the flora and fauna are, but how quirky the land's inhabitants are as well. If I had to make a complaint, Warner Herzog could have used a narrator other than himself, considering his accent is a little distracting.

9. In Bruges, dir. by Martin McDonaugh, starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleason, Ralph Feinnes-It's kind of funny because I spoke so highly of this film to my parents and they went to watch it and hated it because it has so many bad words, but if you look a little past that, you'll see some very interesting dialogue and very interesting characters. The film just won best screenplay at the British version of the Oscars (the BAFTAs) and it is nominated for best screenplay at this month's Oscars, so I can't be the only one to think that the film is doing something right. The film isn't just a slightly dark comedy. It plunges all the way into the dark side. At one point, a guy is risking life and limb to save someone who insists on wanting to commit suicide anyways.



10. Quantum of Solace, dir. by Marc Forrester, starring Daniel Craig, Matthieu Almaric, Gemma Arterton, Judi Dench, Jeffery Wright, Olga Krulyenko-I felt the series' reboot was justified not by Casino Royale, but by its follow-up, Quantum of Solacae. The action scenes and visuals were amazing, Craig is even more comfortable in his groove, but more importantly, Bond finally seems human. Yes, the trend started in Casino Royale, but this was the first time that a Bond film actually surprised me. Bond not shooting a villain or bedding a girl just because those are filmic conventions is something truly novel.

Buy some of these films:


To recap, during my last two years as a columnist for D.C. Scene, I submitted two top ten lists to them. Here they are:
2007:
1. 3:10 to Yuma, James Mangold
2. There Will be Blood, PT Anderson
3. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Sidney Lumet
4. Michael Clayton, Tony Gileroy
5. Charlie Wilson's War, Mike Nicholls
6. Sicko, Michael Moore
7. Great Debaters, Denzel Washington
8. Juno, Jason Reitman
9. Lions for Lambs, Robert Redford
10. Darjeeling Limited, Wes Anderson

2006:
1. Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood
2. Little Miss Sunshine, A pair of unknown directors whose names I can't remember
3. Departed, Martin Scorsese
4. Babel, Alejandro Inarritu Gonzalu
5. Blood Diamond, Ed Zwick
6. Prairie Home Companion, Rob Altman
7. Dreamgirls, Bill Condon
8. Bobby, Emilio Estevez
9. Hollywoodland, Allan Coulter
10. Cars, John Lassiter

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The best of 2007 from a guest blogger

Guest blogger Brian, a University of Minnesota freshman and cinematic studies major, had these rankings on the best of 07. I am going to make comments in addition to Brian's picks, but that's only for the chance for some point-counterpoint and to encourage further discussion. Credit for the post is all Brian, though:



Tops in the last Oscar Year:
Actor:
Tommy Lee Jones (in No Country For Old Men): Jones’ performance in the Best Picture Winner Film, has been totally overlooked, and should have at least gotten more attention with in the Cinematic Community. Jones’ performance is simple, yet chillingly haunting, providing the foundation for the film’s now famous ending.
Daniel Day-Lewis (in There Will Be Blood): Lewis definitely deserved the Best Actor award: I can’t think of another actor that deserved the award as much as he did. His performance in There Will Be Blood may very well have been the most amazing performance I have seen in years. From beginning to end, Lewis’ acting filled the screen and sent shivers down my spine. His performance during the famous baptism scene will forever be remembered as masterfully powerful.
Johnny Depp (in Sweeny Todd): Depp provided an extremely intense performance of the infamous musical star. And who knew that Depp could sing?? His singing provided an even deeper depth to his already intense performance.
Glen Hansard (in Once): From this “little film that could”, which even won Best Original Song at the Oscars, came his amazing performance. Hansard’s simple, yet powerful performance is extremely natural and life-like, and, like Depp in Sweeny Todd, provides intensely beautiful singing to his character. From his trademark “t’anks” to his trademark costume of jacket, scarf, and short beard, Glen Hansard will always be remembered as “The Guy” (The name as it is stated in the credits). Unfortunately, Glen Hansard has publicly stated that he is going to concentrate on his music career rather than his acting career.
Jonah Hill (in Superbad): Despite the fact that Superbad is anything but a cinematic masterpiece, Jonah Hill’s performance was what made the film so enjoyable to watch. Hill’s acting, albeit mostly improvised, is hilarious. It was the improvisational style to his acting that really brought out the humor in the script of the film. For a film like Superbad, you need someone who can really act out a funny script and ad-lib at the same time; and Jonah Hill was that man.
My opinion: Tommy Lee Jones is my #2 for best supporting actor behind Tom Wilkinson, so aside from a different category placement, I am pretty much in agreement on that. "Chilling" is indeed a good word to describe Jones' stoic style and blank stares into space as he seemed so consumed by the threat of Anton Chirgurh. I agree as well on Day-Lewis: Samuel L. Jackson once said that Oscars (for acting at least) are won not by movies but by moments, and the baptism scene is the clincher for Day-Lewis.

I'm pretty much on the other side of the fence on Hill, mainly because I didn't find Superbad particularly enjoyable because he's right, it takes a great actor to rescue a mediocre comedic script and bring those jokes to life (think Tom Hanks with Ladykillers or Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels with Dumb and Dumber), and at the end of the day, it still felt like a mediocre script to me. I basically have Superbad as hovering around 2 1/2 stars which in other words, is a mixed bag. I thought the dialogue wasn't particularly anything of note despite setting the record for most 4-letter words per minute (according to the claims of writer Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg) and it's saving grace was the turn of events in the storyline and its larger themes.


Actress:
Ellen Page (in Juno): Ellen Page is Juno. She was perfectly cast as the part. Page’s performance was way beyond her years, and was definitely worthy of the Oscar nod, and most likely should have won the award, despite the fact that she is so young and that this was her first widely successful film. Her performance was so lifelike that I thought I was watching one of my friends in real life. Page’s acting style is such that she seems to take the script and make it her own and in doing so, she lights up the screen. I was smiling throughout the whole movie (with the exception of the crying scene of course) because it was so enjoyable to see her act.
Evan Rachel Wood (in Across the Universe): Similar to Johnny Depp and Glen Hansard, I am huge fan of the singing-performance. I believe that if you can sing on screen or stage, then you can most likely act as well. This is certainly true of Evan Rachel Wood in Across the Universe. Wood’s singing provides a beautiful backing for her beautiful performance. Her acting reminds me of a stage performance, which, in some cases can be construed as more authentic acting, since stage acting is non-stop on stage (whereas films stop for each take).
My take: I have another Oscar nominee, Cate Blanchett from Elizabeth and the Golden Age as my #1, followed by Evan Rachel Wood (so we're on the same page there), Naiomi Watts from Eastern Promises, and then Page, so we differ a little there. I agree that Paige was perfectly cast in the part, but than in that case, doesn't that significantly lower the degree of difficulty? Although Oscars aren't supposed to be a body of work, it will be interesting to see Paige on screen with words not written by Diablo Cody coming out of her mouth. I do agree, Wood stole the show and gave a performance I will remember for years to come.


Supporting Actor:
Javier Bardem (in No Country For Old Men): Obviously, Bardem’s performance will be forever remember as the new perfect villain. His performance was hauntingly perfect in every sense of the word, even down to his now trademark coin flip.
Paul Dano (in There Will Be Blood): Dano’s performance in There Will Be Blood was unforgettable. The acting of this charismatic clergyman was hauntingly masterful for being so young and in relatively few films.
My comments: Whether Bardem was the perfect villain is a whole other discussion but I agree that Bardem nailed the part and had a certain rhythm and consistency in style to his character that made it come to life. It was such a competitive year for this category that I had to put Tom Wilkinson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tommy Lee Jones and Forrest Whitaker from the Great Debaters before Bardem, and I was almost considering Ben Foster who I feel was able to paint a portrait of an equally intriguing villain with few words. From the 85 minutes of There Will Be Blood that I saw, Paul Dano showed quite a bit of versatility in this role as opposed to his role in Little Miss Sunshine last year. It's almost as if he grew up.
Supporting Actress:
Helena Bonham Carter (in Sweeny Todd): Carter’s performance in Sweeny Todd was perfect. It was so enjoyable to watch. There is just something about her acting that makes movie watching so much fun. It must be the juxtaposition of her facial expressions and her hilarious comments in that British accent.
My comments: Unfortunately, being only a part-time film critic I don't see every movie to come out, and Sweeny Todd wasn't something I had the fortune of catching.


Director:
Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood): There Will Be Blood was without a doubt a cinematic masterpiece and would not have been so amazing with a different director or cinematographer for that matter. Any viewer can see the amount of work that Anderson put into making the film.
Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men): No Country is this Oscar year’s other cinematic masterpiece. From the start to its anti-conventional ending, the film screams amazing directing, which is nothing but understandable from two of our generation’s best filmmakers.
My comments: Interesting fact about Brian: He went to the same high schol as the Coen Brothers in Minnesota. I agree from what I saw of There Will Be Blood and what I know of the storyline that Anderson deserved a best director title over Coen. It was a more ambitious project that acheived its potential


Picture:
Once: The music alone from this film is amazing, but this anti-conventional love story is a beautiful reconnection to the French New Wave style of filmmaking.
There Will Be Blood: A hauntingly beautiful, epic, difficult cinematic work of art.
No Country For Old Men: A genius film with exciting action and a brilliant ending, but a surprising film coming from two amazing (usually comedic) directors.
Sweeny Todd: A sinister masterpiece from the dark mind of Tim Burton, which encompasses all that is great about the Musical/Film hybrid world.
Across The Universe: The best and worst film ever made. A genius idea to create a new narrative with Beatles’ music, however, it seemed too forced at times. On the other hand, the other large majority of the film has some of the most beautifully photographed scenes I have ever seen, where the visuals matched the music perfectly and sent shivers down my spine.

My comments: Whole-heartedly agree with the Across the Universe comment. The idea was genius while the execution was sloppy

Review of The Hoax (2007)

“The Hoax” might be termed a feel-good story about the Watergate Era with Cliff Irving making a surprisingly likeable antihero.
Gere plays Clifford Irving, a down-on-his-luck author who nearly got away with the scam of the century as he authored a best-selling tell-all biography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes whom he had never in fact met.
I found the film to be n oddly sublime marriage of director and material: Lasse Hollstrom’s penchant for rich storylines that veer towards happy endings is combined with characters that add a certain satirical element to the film. Hollstrom asserted in an interview with Scott Hollerean of box office mojo that Cliff Irving was symbolic of the anti-establishment attitudes of the era. When asked for what motivated Cliff Irving, Hollstrom said, “And I think it was a part of the early Seventies—which was all about finding a cool way of needling the Establishment, of questioning the Establishment.”
The film makes Gere’s Irving a character to root for and encourages its audience to push our reservations about Irving’s morals into the back of our minds. Irving is portrayed as a shade of grey, through most of the story and he is also in conflict with his own morals. He had an affair but struggled with himself for it, as he tried insisting that the mistress divorce him and get married. The film asks, more importantly, was Cliff Irving really that bad of a guy when neither of the two big figures in the film were honest?
Backed by Gere’s likeable anti-hero who gives us someone to root for and Alfred Molina supplying an odd couple dynamic with Gere, the film is an enjoyable ride.

No Country for Old Men isn't going to strike everyone the same way

OK, let me lay it out for you, film buffs and oscar enthusiasts because I'm already beginning to sense this humongous divide:

Annointing "No Country for Old Men" as the film of the year is going to come off a slap in the face to ordinary movie going Americans who don't watch movies as a hobby like you do.

Basically whenever all the critics' groups anoint the picture or pictures of the year, it's your way of telling them that if they perfer staying within the safe confines of National Treasure 2 and I Am Legend, this holiday season then they're cultural buffoons for missing the truly rich and cinematically enduring works in the form of whatever you pick, and in the case of No Country for Old Men, you're sending them to a very unconventional and sparse film that will leave them scratching their heads at the end and complaining to their spouse, "This is what you dragged me to instead of National Treasure? All because you wanted to be culturally enlightened?"

Bottom line: No Country for Old Men will have film students salivating at its masterwork, but it will have regular filmgoers scratching their heads, and if you can't anticipate that regular filmgoers might not particularly enjoy it, then you can reach two conclusions: 1) regular filmgoers are stupid and 2) you're out of touch with regular filmgoers. Both conclusions are correct, but don't just ignore conclusion #2.

I certainly wouldn't recommend people waste 10 dollars and 2 hours of their time on No Country for Old Men on non-film buff friends of mine, because it's not a particularly lifechanging or englightening experience if you're not thoroughly engrossed in the art of film.

I just watched No Country for Old Men so you don't have to

The pull of the awards season can be enormous. You might see a trailer or read a synopsis of a film that doesn't look that good but you figure, well it's won so many awards so far, it must be good. This is the case with the Coen Brothers' latest film "No Country for Old Men." Over the holidays, you'll make the routine trips to the movie theater with your family and watch fare like National Treasure, I am Legend, or Fred Claus, but there'll be a voice in your head taunting you with the notion that you're watching easy escapist fare and encouraging fluff and that if you really want to truly experience cinema in all its grandeur, you'll spend those $10 on No Country for Old Men. "But I want to see Nicholas Cage solve mysteries and wisecracking Justin Bartha," you might protest, but the side of you that wants to be more cultured argues "But the New York, Toronto, Boston, Washington and Chicago Film Critics Societies' all voted for No Country for Old Men."



Film critics sometimes fail to grasp, that people aren't always going to drop everything every time someone tells them a film is the must see film of the year. They generally have a limited number of times they can get away to a movie theater, even in a packed holiday season such as this and based on box office figures this past holiday season, those trips might be taken up by films that might not be as cinematic ally rich but which assure the viewer of a good time, like I Am Legend or National Treasure, and God Forbid, they'll miss the film everyone's telling them to go see.


Well, American public, if you chose something over "No Country for Old Men," didn't get a chance to see that and probably won't get to it by the time it's out of theaters, not to worry, it's not the life changing experience they make it out to be. Don't let the critics guilt you into thinking you were a cultural buffoon for missing it.


In reality, the film is one that would make every film student's jaw drop in amazement at the fluidity in editing and economy of tone. For average Joe moviegoer, it's not too much of a life changing experience, however. In fact, it's little more than a run-of-the-mill action flick with a little bit of a higher ambition to be a homage to the Western. There's almost no character development and very little subtext or content.



Am I the only one who feels that it would be a drastic mistake that the critical community anointed this the best film of the year in their quest to keep cinema from being overrun by the action genre with crap like Rush Hour, Die Hard, and yes, Bourne Identity (not saying it's crap but it's low on character) from reproducing into sequel upon sequels with clones like Shoot 'em Up and Shooter popping into the theater each year? Am I the only one who feels that a picture that wins best picture should have a little more than well-choreographed action scenes to it? French Connection was the one exception i'm willing to live with because it was novel at the time, not anymore, especially when last year's winner was an action winner. Now, i'm rooting for There Will Be Blood (or Charlie Wilson's War if it makes the cut).

Can't get into Into the Wild

You know what? If this will keep me out of being in the upper echelons of film critics so be it, but I have a nasty habit: I usually won't watch a film just because it's important, or because i should see it or because I'll only be in a position to comment on the Oscar race if i watch it, and it's tempting to watch that film just so i can participate in Oscar discussions and have respectable opinions, if a film doesn't appeal to me, it jsut doesn't appeal to me, and that's 2 hours and 11 dollars wasted in an otherwise busy life. That's why i haven't seen Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Brokeback Mountain, History of Violence, The Hours, Into the Bedroom, The Pianist, The Quiet American, Cinderella Man, or Frida.

Currently, there are a lot of films that I have yet to see and the other night at my hotel I had an opportunity to watch something at the hotel through pay-per-view. I sized up the choices: Into the Wild, Ocean's 13, Mr. Brooks, Waitress, Ratatouille, and 3:10 to Yuma again (because it's so great).

I really felt an obligation to watch Into the Wild: a film about a guy about my age who comes to a revelation that he shouldn't be living a materialistic life so he donates all his money to charity, hitchhikes to Canada, and dies shortly thereafter. I really felt like watching Mr. Brooks or Ocean's 13, but the film critic conscience inside me told me it was wrong to watch these films that had no chance of being nominated and therefore couldn't have possibly entered the national pop culture discussion in the upcoming weeks and therefore I should watch Into the Wild, but i just couldn't bring myself to watch Into the Wild even though it was my duty as someone commenting on the best films of the year to know what I'm talking about.

So for a while, I didn't watch anything because i couldn't bring myself to select either. Ultimately, Dreamgirls came on HBO, one of the few big films from last year I hadn't seen, and I decided I'd watch that instead. It was a great film, and I've now revised my top 10 list of 2006 to:
1. Little Miss Sunshine, Dayton & Harris
2. Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood
3. Departed, Martin Scorsesee
4. Babel, Alejandro Inarritu Gonzalu
5. Blood Diamond, Ed Zwick
6. Prairie Home Companion, Rob Altman
7. Hollywoodland, Allan Coulter
8. Dreamgirls, Bill Condon
9. Bobby, Emilio Estevez
10. Cars, John Lasseter


I did have one other thought, however:
I think the problem with Into the Wild is that it's marketed as a movie about a guy who goes off and dies. Why don't they just market it as a movie about a guy who goes off and does incredible things and donates his money to charity.
The advantages:
1. It would sound less depressing
2. It wouldn't give away any spoilers
3. The film is made by Sean Penn which makes reason #1 even more relevant when you consider that Penn (despite playing fun-loving surferboy Jeff Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High") is known for his extreme seriousness at all times and lack of humor, so it's not far-fetched to think that his artistic sensibilities have nothing to do with entertainment, and they might draw him to a depressing film about a guy who goes off and dies instead.

Updates on Matt and Ben

I feel that even though I'm happy that Ben Affleck is getting great reviews for directing Gone Baby Gone, I feel there's a negative side to this in that the backlash from Gigli, Jersey Girl and Pearl Harbor have cornered him so that doing an art picture sparingly like Hollywoodland and getting behind the camera are the only options for him. Affleck is a very self-deprecating and eternally affable character, and the public has no real reason to dislike him, but to keep moving forward, Affleck is going to naturally say "Oh, I'm getting tired of starring in action movies, you guys were right and I was wrong. I want to only do meaningful art films and direct" when what he really means is "I've concluded (or rather Hollywood has concluded for him) that being at the helm of a film with any sizable budget is too risky for me careerwise so I'm only going to take small roles in pictures like Hollywoodland and direct. That way if the film bombs, it's a) not my responsibility since I'm not the star and b) probably no big deal because you guys will have never heard of it."

In other words: What Affleck is projecting to us as taking bold risks by taking a supporting role in Hollywoodland and directing, is really playing it safe and cowardly. If Affleck really wanted to be brave, he wouldn't cater to a wishy-washy American public. He'd stand up and say "Yeah, that's right, I made Pearl Harbor, Armegeddon, and Daredevil, they were kickass films, and I'm proud of them," so as not to hurt their DVD marketability. He'd continue to take leading roles as he saw fit and he'd take another superhero role and make it work, American moviegoers be damned!
Being nominated for his second Oscar with Gone Baby Gone is a copout. If Affleck wanted to be brave, he'd take Daredevil 2 into an Oscar winning performance.


Meanwhile, I can't help but notice that Matt Damon is being proclaimed the most popular star by Entertainment Weekly Magazine, the sexiest person on Earth by People Magazine, and the most bankable star by Forbes Magazine in a year where he did VIRTUALLY NOTHING AT ALL.

A short review: Matt Damon did two sequels, one of which he was merely one part of a 14-person ensemble and one one which he carried to a respectable $200 million threshold. Bourne Ultimatum was only the 6th highest grossing film of the summer. His last film that he actually starred in Good Shephard (in 2006, not 2007) got a couple decent reviews but completely wilted at the box office.

Why didn't you reward Matt Damon in the year where he did Syriana or even Good Shephard. Those were films that weren't sequels and actually required some original thought. All Matt Damon had to do in 2007 was pal around with Clooney, Pitt, and Cheadle on screen in one film, and look serious and shoot guns in the other.

I've previously written on Ben in: http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2007/10/i-liked-daredevil-goddamnit.html

I've previously written on Matt in http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2007/08/overgeneralizing-on-matt-damon-and-box.html

Lions for Lambs review (2007)

Lions for Lambs is a cinematically sparse film, with so little effort toward presenting a polished cinematic package, that the viewer might find it a little jarring. Three parrallel stories occur over a period of one hour.

A journalist (Meryl Streep) conducts a one-on-one interview with Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise) over his new initiative in Iraq. Irving, played with all the cockiness that some of us liken to the Tom Cruise persona (and mistakenly Tom Cruise himself) is forceful in trying to get Streep to see a certain point of view and borderline bullies her into accepting his line of thinking that this new strategy is going to work and is worth the human cost. If you replaced Matt Lauer with Meryl Streep, it would practically be a dramatic reenactment of Cruise's famous tirade on The Today Show arguing against prescription medicine. My point here is Cruise is perfectly cast, and I think Redford was very aware of Cruise's recently damaged likeability rating at this point in time.

The second piece of the puzzle is two bright students who volunteered for the army to prove that they were pro-active citizens, against the urging of their professor. These characters are more likeable in the flashback scenes because in the present day military conflict their foolishness (in the name of chivalry) stretches plot credibility a little thin.

The third story arc and the one which I found most compelling was between a college professor (the same college professor who discouraged his two former students in plotline #2 from enetring the war) and his most promising student during a one-hour advising session. The student (Andrew Garfield) was once a catalyst for some of the class's most most interesting discussions and showed great intelligence, but lately he is becoming more interested in fraternity life and girls and doesn't believe politics are worth it because "they're all crooked." The student is the apothyoses of disengaged undergraduates today and credit goes not just to the actor (it would be easy for a young person to portray a stereotypical member of today's college youth) but to the 40 year old Matthew Carnahan for capturing his language reasonably well. Redford has the most presence on screen out of anyone of the film as the professor.

This is a good and bad thing because I can understand people seeing Redfordt's a blatantly transparent method of getting his political message across that Redford casts himself as the professor and provides the most intelligent source of discourse. This is likely to draw hostility from audiences and be seen as arrogant. I remember they responded that way when M. Night Shamylan cast himself as the writer who would later be the savior to humanity in Lady in the Water. One criticism I might agree with is that rather than making this film, Redford could just as easily go around the country making personal appearances and speaking about these issues (although the answer would be: that would be far more time consuming), but for a filmmaker who has something to say, I can't think of many films (except a Michael Moore documentary) that are so that are so effective at saying it. Redford's film speaks so directly to our generation and the current situation.

Cinematically, Lions for Lambs is not the best film out there. It feels less like a serious and concerted effort on Redford's part to make a good narrative film than it should. But at the same
time, I think it says things that haven't been said before, and whether you agree or disagree with his finer points, it's surely an eye-opening experience. It' the larger theme about how this generation deals with the alienation from pointless wars and crooked politics that resonates.