DVDs Watched this Week: The Good: 2001:A Space Odyssey, Oldboy, All About Eve, Jackie Brown, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Music and Lyrics, Body of Lies, Alpha Dog, 13 Going on 30, Two Weeks Notice, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Donnie Brasco, Thief, Alien, 2010:The Year We Make Contact, About a Boy, Falling Down, Friday Night Lights Season 3 The Bad: A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Killshot The Ugly: New in Town
Trips to the Theater: None Actors of the Week: Hugh Grant(absolutely one of my favorites), Kristin Scott Thomas, Aimee Teegarden Directors of the Week: Stanley Kubrick, Mike Newell(Harry Potter 4, Four Weddings, Donnie Brasco) Where'd They Go?: Michael Madsen? Good: Bad Lieutenant red band promo trailer. "Shoot him again. His soul is dancing!" Bad: Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel, Alien reboot (NOOOO!) ?: Eminem cameo in Funny People?
You probably don't know them, but screenwriters are the people who write the movies you watch. If the movie ends up being bad, most if not all of the time, it's because of a bad script. The same goes the other way. One of my favorite screenwriters is Richard Curtis. He's British and he writes dialogue of which I'm always jealous of. Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually, and The Girl in the Cafe. You probably haven't heard of that last one, but it was a HBO movie and one of my favorites of the last decade. He also helped co-create the Mr. Bean series, which is definitely surprising.
The movies in that list are of a certain type. Primarily romantic comedies, primarily about upper-middle class educated Brits, and they are laced with sentimentality and happy endings, the former of which I detest. I guess that goes to show how good he is since I'm won over by anything he writes. It's easy to write detached and cynical. It's crazy difficult to write genuine and sweet without igniting the gag reflexes of every person in the audience.
He's also very strong with concept. Four Weddings and a Funeral. That's what the movie is. No scenes at someone's job or doing anything else but getting ready for and being at four weddings and a funeral. Whether or not you like Notting Hill, it has a genius concept. It's a romantic comedy for guys. It's a fantasy, some beautiful Hollywood movie star somehow falling in love with our nice guy normality. That scene where Hugh Grant brings her to dinner with her friends is the epitome. What if you showed up to a get together with I don't know, Natalie Portman as your date? I am amazed no other movie ever capitalized on that. It's so simple. Then again, most romantic comedies are about the women not the men, so there you go.
There is a lot more comedy than romance in his movies and it's certainly my kind of comedy. Very verbal, very smart.
Daniel Cleaver: First, have some more wine, and then tell me the story about practicing French kissing with the art girls at school, because it's a very good story.
Bridget: It wasn't French kissing.
Daniel Cleaver: Don't care, make it up.
[after rehearsing a scene from a bad script]
Anna: What do you think?
Will: Gripping. You know it's not Jane Austen, it's not Henry James, but it's... gripping.
Anna: You think I should do Henry James instead?
Will: Well, I think you would be brilliant in Henry James.
Anna: Well, you never get anyone in Wings of the Dove saying, "Inform the Pentagon we need Black Star cover."
Max: You haven't slept with her, have you?
Will: That is a cheap question and the answer is of course no comment.
Max: No comment means yes.
Will: No it doesn't.
Max: Do you ever masturbate?
Will: Definitely no comment.
Max: You see, it means yes.
And even if you don't like the romance, the friends and the friendships he writes are impossible not to like. They're the kind of friends you only wish you had. Witty and loving. There's a scene toward the end of Four Weddings where they go to a park, sit around a bench, and have danish and coffee before one of their weddings. I don't know what it is, but there is such warmth in it that you just want to step into that scene and be there. And don't forget Bridget's friends when they eat her blue soup.
[regarding the blue soup]
Bridget: How's it look?
Mark: Uh, great. It's, um, blue.
Bridget: Blue?
Mark: No, but, blue is good. If you ask me there isn't enough blue food.
There's also a ridiculously good scene in Four Weddings where one of the friends admits to Hugh Grant that she's been in love with him for a long time. She knows it won't happen, he cares about her but doesn't feel that way. The way the scene is written is flawless. The pauses, the things they don't say. It's phenomenal.
Actors don't just make up what they say. Directors don't dictate where the story is going. Someone has to write it. Richard Curtis's next film is The Boat That Rocked. It comes out in August.
Taken 3 stars.Despite reservations going in (I think the French directors doing movies like The Transporter are bad Luc Besson students), this turned out to be a lot of fun. Well fun in that 6'4 Liam Neeson breaks a lot of arms and kills a lot of guys. The first 30 minutes are awful. The divorced parents fighting over the high school daughter, the old CIA friends come over for a BBQ to make sure that audience knows Liam Neeson was in the CIA, all bad. But then the daughter is in fact taken and the movie gets rolling. A lot of credit must go to fight choreographer Mick Gould who worked with Michael Mann on both Heat and Collateral. He's ex-British SAS and this martial arts style he's created is my kind of cinematic martial arts. Swift, lots of hands and brutal take downs. The happy ending is ridiculous, but all the time spent with Liam Neeson killing Albanian criminals and hassling the French police is worth the rental.
Valkyrie 2 1/2 stars.Maybe a little better on DVD. All the actors are effective, including Cruise, despite using his regular accent. This is a Tom Cruise role. Think of his most famous: Top Gun, A Few Good Men, Mission:Impossible. He's maybe the best at playing a guy who is driven. He has a mission and he's going to complete it. That's who Stuaffenberg is. We don't know anything about him other than a scene where he hugs his children(man is that a lame cliche), he's just a man on a mission. One real problem is that we get no real sense of Germany's hatred of Hitler. There are the thriller parts but there's no attempt to really flesh out why they were personally doing this. With Valkyrie and Superman Returns, Bryan Singer is on a bit of a down turn. Nothing has been as strong as The Usual Suspects and I wonder if it ever will be. He was a whiz kid director in his late 20s. Let's see if he can be one in his 40s.
Fanboys 2 stars.I am a Star Wars geek fan. I think I can possibly quote the entire film. And as a geek fan, I hate this movie. It's just more mega-geeks doing stupid things, on yet another road trip(road trips should be banned from all comedies), and for whatever reason a pretty girl is along for the ride. I felt bad for Kristen Bell(Veronica Mars) all throughout this thing. Why is she friends with any of these guys? I don't want to spend 2 hours with them ever again. It captures nothing of the truth about what it means to really be a geek fan. It's just stupid.
He's Just Not That Into You 3 stars.I like a good romantic comedy. I don't mind the fantasy romantic comedy, something like Notting Hill, which does contain human beings, but is obviously not supposed to be taken as anything more than a movie. This one's sin is that it thinks it has something to say. Ginnifer Goodwin(Big Love) plays possibly one of the most annoying female characters ever put on screen. How does she function when all she thinks about is dating? Apparently she has no other interests. She is ridiculous and delusional and needs to be stopped. Her big speech about falling in love is nonsense. That being said, there is one bright spot with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston's relationship coming close to something actual. It helps that they are so likable to begin with. And I was very happy to see Jennifer Connelly in a comedy. She even smiled a couple of times and was funny. But then her character becomes the sad Jennifer Connelly character as she is in a A Beautiful Mind(which I renamed A Beautiful Wife), House of Sand and Fog, Requiem for a Dream, etc. She's even sad in Ang Lee's Hulk. C'mon Jenn. You are an enormously talented actress. It's okay to play happy once in a while.
DVDs Watched this Week: The Good: Heat, Amelie, Oldboy, Starsky and Hutch, Miami Vice, Futurama Seasons 3/4
The Bad: Outlander, Yonkers Joe, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, He's Just Not That Into You (the Affleck/Aniston storyline is actually good though)
The Ugly: Fanboys
Trips to the Theater: None
Actors of the Week: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Audrey Tautou
Directors of the Week: Michael Mann, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Good: Toy Story 3, Mad Max 4, Inglorious Basterds premieres at Cannes
Bad: Peter Berg directing a movie based on the board game Battleship, everything I've read about Lars Von Trier's Anti-Christ
?: Ghostbusters 3?
DVDs Watched this Week: The Good: Taken(surprised me), Valkyrie(although not without its flaws), The Boxer, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, Sabrina(1954), Star Trek II, IV VI, Futurama Season 2 The Bad: Red Cliff Part 1, The Deal The Ugly: Star Trek III
Trips to the Theater: Star Trek(2nd time) Actors of the Week: Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban, Liam Neeson Directors of the Week: JJ Abrams, Billy Wilder Where'd They Go?: Chow Yun Fat?
DVD of the Week:The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 2-Disc Criterion Edition with its exhaustive 3-hour documentary on the making of the film. It covers everything from the development of the first script back in 1991 to the final release. Lots of footage of hyper-meticulous, hyper-intelligent Fincher at work. Good: Flight of the Conchords Season 2 releases on 8/4, I Love You Phillip Morris with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor finally gets a distributor, Frieda Pinto in Woody Allen's next movie, Scorsese directing Sinatra biopic Bad: Common may be B.A. Baracus, The Brothers Bloom still seems bad, Cliffhanger remake ?: Can they stop being so damn secretive about James Cameron's next film Avatar?
TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week: Nine. I like director Rob Marshall(Chicago) even if Memoirs of a Geisha was a disappointment. This trailer is impressive, with a huge cast and Daniel Day-Lewis starring in a musical, playing an Italian.
Cate Blanchett is hands down the finest actress working today. She's the heavyweight champion. Some might say Meryl Streep, which is very valid, but I say it's Cate. So in honor of her 40th birthday, here we go.
I've come to realize, strangely enough, that people don't seem to care if an actress is actually a good actress. The girls/women I talk to, all they seem to care about: Is the the actress pretty? Do I like them? Both questions have nothing to do with what is really important, can they act and how well can they do it. Both questions also have a lot to say about these women in that maybe all they are concerned about is being pretty and liked and not actually being good at what they do. But I digress.
One thing I've been paying a lot of attention to lately is behavior. Good acting in film is not just about the big moments of crying or screaming. A real character is created by behavior. How someone sits in a room, how they walk, do they touch their face occasionally like real people do. Physicality is difference between the okay and the greats. Watch Elizabeth again. Watch the young girl running around in the fields and then watch her transform into the still and powerful Queen of England. Watch her in The Aviator. Look how she walks around the golf course with her legs way in front of the rest of her body. Look at how vulnerable she gets in the bathroom talking to Howard Hughes about not letting the press get to him. Her body wilts and she can't look him directly in the eye. Then look at her play Bob Dylan, completely carrying herself like a man, her center of gravity going down to her stomach and using her hands and fingers to punctuate things as she speaks as many of us men do.
Watch other actors. Male or female, they don't even consider such things. They just want to be "natural" but they end up being naturally the same from role to role. No risk, no variety. In Benjamin Button she plays Daisy from 17 to 86. (she did the voice of young Daisy as well) At no point do we not believe that the character is that age at that time. I mean, how dull could it be watching an elderly woman laying in a hospital bed? And how fake could it all be? It's not just the fine make-up job, it's how she's decided to breathe and how she's always trying to make fists with her hands, grabbing at air. These are choices. These are thought through. They didn't just happen by accident.
All of these things may seem technical, and maybe no one notices, but you will feel it when it's not there. Something's wrong, you're not sure what it is, but the actor is not acting well. It's not just about delivering lines. It's creating the illusion that this character is a complete person.
Film acting I think is more and more about the moments when the actors do not talk. It's a reaction to something they see or something the other character said. There's a shot in Benjamin Button when Benjamin is leaving early in the morning. We then cut to a shot of Daisy's face, realizing he is leaving, possibly for good. It's maybe a couple of seconds. But look at her face. Look at the confusion/horror/helplessness she feels in that single moment. She isn't in hysterics. It's all in her one still reaction. It's a monster piece of acting.
Lastly it's the choices. The Lord of the Rings, The Aviator, The Life Aquatic, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Babel, Indiana Jones. I can't find a common denominator among any of those movies. She's American, she's English, she's Russian, she's Elvish. Look at the range. And like any great actor, she has no problem playing supporting roles. Those are sometimes the best parts. Alec Baldwin is in The Departed for maybe 10 minutes of screen time but no one forgets how great he was in it.
Other favorite actresses include Kate Winslet, Helena Bonham Carter, and Natalie Portman(still amazed she did Cold Mountain, Garden State, and Closer all in the same year) But the best is still Blanchett. She's the best, she's my favorite, she's so good, her name should be an adjective.
4 starsTrekkie, not a Trekkie, hate sci-fi, full out geek, it doesn't matter. This Star Trek is fantastic.
I think I should start with everyone's fears because Star Trek, as long as it has existed, has never been cool. It's the antithesis, it's the conversation topic that ends romance. But this isn't that. This is a $150 million dollar muscular summer popcorn movie that is a lot of fun, exceptionally put together, and a lot of the time, very exciting. I mean, what was the last film you saw where exciting scenes that were actually exciting? A couple times it felt like my heart stopped.
I'm biased sure, I love big ships shooting at each other in space, but I don't think they could've went about this better. JJ Abrams co-created Lost (great) he made a mediocre movie in M:I3 (bad), but somehow it all clicks right. Especially the casting which I imagine would be the hardest thing about this project. Chris Pine, Chris Pine, Chris Pine. He's Captain Kirk, and he's a f'ng movie star. He had a tiny role as the leader of those crazy brothers in Smokin' Aces, and here he's the hero you want him to be. He's the hero I wanted him to be. I'm tired of the Shia LeBeoufs and the Tobey Maguires. Chris Pine's the real deal and I don't know how they found him, but he's great. Surprisingly, Uhura is bumped up to a major player and is nicely played by Zoe Saldana (The Terminal). Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heroes) is fine as Spock, John Cho (Korean playing a Japanese guy. Who cares, he's great) and Anton Yelchin get a lot of nice moments as Sulu and Chekov, but the real standout is Karl Urban who is outstanding as Dr. "Bones" McCoy. Where did this performance come from? He was in LOTR, he was in that terrible Doom movie, he's a New Zealander playing a guy from Mississippi, he's spot on. I was the most skeptical about him going in, I was the most pleased coming out. "I don't need a doctor, dammit I am a doctor!" Great choice to have Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) as Scotty and Bruce Greenwood is very good as Captain Pike. Most of all, everyone gets their time. No one seems short changed, which in and of itself is an admirable accomplishment. The look of the film is stunning. I'm going to see it again just to see it again. Cinematographer Dan Mindel (Enemy of the State, Spy Game) is one of Tony Scott's favorites and he brings everything he has. All of those lens flares and color changes and reflections are glorious. My love for aesthetics was so fed. It gives the movie a ridiculous amount of texture and visual life. It doesn't feel CG, it feels alive. I doubt I'll see a better looking movie this year. Also of note is the sound design which may not seem like a big deal, but it's a big deal when you see it in a good theater. Well done. And the score by Michael Giacchino (Lost) is very strong. Music is so important in these types of movies. It can get your blood going or make everything miserable. Thankfully it's the former. And how did they get the best costume designer in the world Michael Kaplan (Fight Club, Blade Runner) to do the costumes?
I do have some hang-ups. Eric Bana isn't as good as I had hoped (in fact the character as a whole is a let down), the techno jargon hasn't gotten any better over the years, some of the aliens are downright silly, and Spock's "relationship" with a certain crew member is out nowhere.
Still, all in all, go see it. Go see it in a big theater with good sound. JJ Abrams has made a lot of bold choices (never thought I'd hear a Beastie Boys song in a Star Trek movie) and so many of them pay off. The story is entertaining(credit Damon Lindelof show runner of Lost for the last rewrite), the dialogue is good (the first bridge confrontation between Spock, Bones and Kirk is particularly memorable) and I was emotionally invested more than I thought I would be. It's not the heady Star Trek I love, but it didn't need to be.
As the movie was heading toward its climax, I remember thinking, "Oh no, the movie's going to end soon." That's a wonderful and terrible thing to feel.
DVDs Watched this Week: The Good:The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(still gorgeous), Bull Durham, Galaxy Quest, Internal Affairs (Richard Gere is amazing in this one), Glass: A Portrait of Philip in 12 Parts, The Rocker, State of Play Series 1(fantastic), The Simpsons Season 6, The Simpsons Season 9, Futurama Season 1 The Bad: Billy Elliot, Last Chance Harvey, Street Kings, The Heartbreak Kid The Ugly: Personal Effects (straight to video with Michelle Pfeiffer and Ashton Kutcher) Trips to the Theater: Star Trek Actors of the Week: Brad Pitt, Richard Gere, Bill Nighy, Jason Flemyng Directors of the Week: David Fincher, Mike Figgis Where'd They Go?: Nancy Travis
Good: De Niro and Edward Norton will star in the indie thriller "Stone", Jackie Earle Haley(Rorschach) will be Freddie Krueger, Knight Rider is canceled. Bad: G.I. Joe trailer, Transformers 2 trailer, Taking Woodstock trailer, no one seems to like Wolverine ?: Dazed and Confused sequel? TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week: Tetro. Francis Ford Coppola's latest. I'm sure no one saw Youth Without Youth, his film with Tim Roth that was his first film since The Rainmaker. It was beautiful but dull, which this one could possibly be. But the trailer is worth checking out.
Bruno. Sascha Baron Cohen's follow up to Borat. He's going even further on this one. Beware this trailer is very R. Bloodsport Mentos. In case you've never seen this. This clip is genius. Look how well it cuts together.
I can't understand people who say they only like movies with happy endings. That's like saying you only like cheery songs. How painful would that be? Without emotional truth, there can be no catharsis. Somehow it got ingrained that movies are fantasies and therefore should fulfill them. Movies with princesses and knights and the big kiss and then fade out. As if everyone should've lived at the end of Saving Private Ryan, Braveheart should've re-written history and ended with William Wallace living to be an old man, or E.T. should've just stayed on Earth.
David Mamet on happy endings:
In these false dramas we indulge a desire to feel superior to events, to history, to the natural order. The hero will come in and save the girl. We wanted, like the adolescent, to indulge ourselves in a fantasy of power over the adult world. We did so and for the brief moment of the adventure it made us feel powerful.
But as soon as “our” victory is proclaimed, the anxiety reasserts itself. We knew it was a false struggle, and we now must cast about for another opponent/another villain/another action film/another oppressed people to free, so we can reassure ourselves, again, of what we know to be untrue: that we are superior to circumstance (that we are, in effect, God).
Great movies with "unhappy" endings: The Godfather, The Dark Knight, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Departed, Braveheart, Unforgiven, Seven, Moulin Rouge, the list goes on.
If you are a happy endings only person, do us a favor and never talk about movies to anyone.
The Soloist2 1/2 stars. Something's missing. The actors are good, the music is good, LA is shot very well, but something's missing. It doesn't really come together in a strong emotional way which is what this movie is supposed to be. The examination of the homeless problem feels skin deep and sadly the relationship between the two main characters isn't particularly memorable. Downey Jr. is good as usual, and Jamie Foxx is strong as Nathaniel Ayers, but the combo of the two is letdown by a weak script. I think director Joe Wright has a lot of talent. I didn't feel it so much with Pride and Prejudice, but Atonement is a very good film. He definitely has an eye, and a rapport with actors. Still, this one falls flat.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 3 1/2 stars. I know I mentioned this one before, but I wanted to say how much more I enjoyed it the second time around. All of my hang-ups about it being so foreign to Fincher’s other films(Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac) went away and I really saw it for what it is. There are no painful sentimental scenes or big weepy moments, it’s too good for that. It’s a very special film about the brevity of everything. Brad Pitt is not getting enough credit for his performance of a complete life from birth to death. It's probably the only movie he'll ever do where he believably gets rejected by a woman. Haha. And I love Cate Blanchett. She's the best actress working today. Her talent just shocks me every time. She made this, Indy 4, and the Bob Dylan movie all within the same year. Who else could possibly have done that? Comes out on DVD Tues 5/5.
Last Chance Harvey 2 1/2 stars.This could have been an older person Before Sunrise, but it's not. It's too smiley and cute, and not particularly engaging. Strangely things like the wedding reception and the uninteresting supporting characters only hurt the film as it goes along. We just want to spend time with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson but the script doesn't let us. Then there's the detour to the hospital which was infuriating. Two great actors, one lousy script.
*There's yet another variation of the Pretty Woman trying on clothes scene in this movie. You'd think after Dumb and Dumber mocked it with Harry and Lloyd we'd be done with it. But no. Cue the fun music and start the dressing room montage. Ugh.
What Doesn't Kill You 2 stars.A South Boston neighborhood crime film with Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke. You probably haven't heard of it, probably because it's not very good. This is based on the writer/director's life, but so what. There's nothing new to say about Boston, crime, or friendship. Goodfellas isn't good because Scorsese grew up in Little Italy. It's good because he's the best director out there. Rent Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, or The Departed instead of this one.
Nothing but the Truth 2 stars. Another come and went with Kate Beckinsale and Matt Dillon. I liked director Rod Lurie's first film The Contender, but every one post has been preachy and sentimental. The Last Castle, Resurrecting the Champ, and this one. For a former film critic, he sure likes to spread out the schmaltz. Sunset scenes with mothers hugging their children. Mleh.
(photo from Ridley Scott's upcoming Robin Hood with R.Crowe and Cate Blanchett) DVDs Watched this Week: The Good:Frost/Nixon, The Visitor(still excellent), Collateral, The Untouchables(a classic) The Bad: What Doesn't Kill You, Nothing but the Truth, The Go-Getter, House of Saddam The Ugly: Best of the Best 2. The amazing thing was the DVD was packed with features. And audio commentary I did not listen to and a retrospective documentary. Trips to the Theater: State of Play, The Soloist (will post review soon) Actors of the Week: Russell Crowe, Jason Bateman, Tom Cruise Directors of the Week: Michael Mann, Kevin Macdonald Where'd They Go?: Chuck Norris
TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week: The Boat that Rocked. There aren't that many screenwriters I admire, but Richard Curtis is one of them. Notting Hill, Four Weddings, Bridget Jones' Diary. I had problems with Love Actually, but there's still a lot of great stuff in it. You might not like the kind of films he writes, but he is the best at that kind. The film he wrote for HBO, The Girl in the Cafe, is one of my favorites of the last decade. I want to live in his films and know those people. He's a great writer. Paper Heart. This one was sent to me by a friend, who I thank for her loyalty to the blog, and after watching it a couple of times, I'm still not entirely sure what it is. It's certainly not a real documentary but what is it then? Did it start out as one? Was there a plan here? I'm still pretty tired of awkward conversations between teenagers, but Charlyne Yi from Knocked Up is too sweet to not love. The Untouchables. It's 20 years old, some things are dated, but Connery and De Niro's performances are fantastic. Andy Garcia and Kevin Costner are so young you might not recognize them, and director Brian De Palma(Scarface, Carlito's Way, M:I 1) is at peak form. From the classic baby carriage sequence to the great scene at 1634 Racine.
(I don't watch House, but that's a great poster)
