Whip It 4 starsMaybe in the Top 10 of the year. There were sneak previews all over LA on Saturday night and I went to the one at The Arclight. I'm very glad I did since hey there's Ellen Page introducing the film! She was really cool and did this nice bit about please refrain from using your cell phones and texting during the film. She even said, "If you don't like it... I am so sorry." Seriously might be in love with her. The movie itself is front to back great. It could've been some broad farce about beauty pageants and small Texas towns but it's a real movie about real characters with tons of heart. I think it's better than Juno, and E.Page is even better here as Bliss Cavendar, an outsider who finds the passion of her life doing Roller Derby.
The Roller Derby action is a whole lot of fun and of all the hipsters movies I've seen recently, this is the one that made me want to be one. Late nights in Austin with your "tribe", although my innate preppiness will not allow me to join. Bliss's teammates are all memorable (Kristen Wiig gives a nice subtle performance), the coach (lesser known Wilson brother Andrew) is bearded funny, and particularly well done is Bliss's relationship with her parents. It's much more complex than the usual teen fare and it's very touching. I was surprised how good the movie was at weaving its underlying themes. It's actually about something and is so in a really great way.
Give a lot of credit to director Drew Barrymore, who at no time directs like a first timer. The movie looks fantastic (Wes Anderson's cinematographer Robert Yeoman makes roller skating oh so cool), the script is strong with good dialogue, the soundtrack is killer, and there's a pulse of warm energy all the way through. Nice small supporting roles by Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), Jimmy Fallon, Marcia Gay Harden, and Daniel Stern as Bliss's dad. It's a couple days later, and I want to see it again. A definite see for all us outsiders.
So what are you like alternative now? Alternative to what?
Check out the trailer with that great Weezer track.
The Informant!3 1/2 starsMatt Damon is pretty hysterical as true life whistle blower Mark Whitacre who really was one of the biggest corporate informants of the 20th century. He was also a lot of other things too. The trailer makes the film seem much more slapstick than it really is. If anything, it reminded me of the first 30 minutes of Fight Club with the very funny wall to wall voice-over and an overall examination of an office worker's lifestyle. It starts as one thing and then becomes something else in a great way. It's very well-written and I laughed a lot. With this and The Girlfriend Experience, Soderbergh's having a great year. Unbelievable!
The Brothers Bloom2 1/2 starsWriter/Director Rian Johnson directed a phenomenal film called Brick about 4 years ago. I spread the word on that one hard. I loved it. This is his follow-up and it is a big disappointment. He definitely has loads of talent, but things just don't come together. I think it's miscast. Mark Ruffalo is a fine actor, but he's all wrong as this Clooney-esque charismatic con man and Brody is too old to be playing this lovelorn young man. Even Rachel Weisz can't keep her eccentric character interesting. Everything's a con in this movie so at some point who cares and too many scenes are too much like Wes Anderson. But...
There is Japanese explosives expert Bang Bang played by Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) who absolutely steals the show with one of the coolest characters I have ever seen in any movie. She's actually silent through most of it, but man is she ridiculously awesome. Every movement, every mannerism, every facial expression is wonderfully choreographed and despite everything else happening in the frame, I always wanted to see what she was doing. It's a monster achievement both by Rinko and Rian Johnson. I dare say rent it just so you can see what she does. In all seriousness, one of the coolest characters ever.
Monsters vs. Aliens 3 starsA bit of a slow start, then the monsters show up. Hugh Laurie(House), Will Arnett(Gob!) and best of all Seth Rogen who voices the extremely lovable Bob (Bicarbonate Ostylezene Benzoate). I wished the whole movie could be about Bob the Blob. Every time he's on screen the movie gets better. Also memorable is Insectosaurus who I believe is Totoro's weird cousin. The action is exciting, the animation is very cool, and I actually cared a lot about The Missing Link, Ginormica, and Dr. Cockroach PhD. It's not Pixar, but it's pretty dang good.
Away We Go 1 starSam Mendes should stick to domestic dramas since his comedies are not funny. Jarhead is forgettable and Away We Go is a pain to sit through. Why is everyone in this movie from a different planet? There is not one normal character including the leads played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. They all say odd things and no one reacts like any sane person would. It's all played on this heightened level of slightly weird which gives the viewer nothing to relate to or care about. I don't care about these parents and their children. And I sadly don't care about this couple or where they plan to raise their own. Away I go.
Observe and Report2 1/2 stars.I don't really like broad broad characters and Observe and Report is full of them. No one seems real, including the bizarre overweight Asian twins. Anna Faris once again plays a woman from Mars and the concept of a blue collar worker taking his job way too seriously has been done to death. It's Taxi Driver as a bad comedy.
The Girlfriend Experience 4 starsThe second time around and it's still strong. What I noticed more this time is how great the film looks. HD isn't film but it can have its own kind of beauty(Zodiac, Benjamin Button). And learning that the movie was more than half improvised with 40 minute takes is very impressive. The audio commentary by Soderbergh and star Sasha Grey is fantastic.
Valentino: The Last Emperor 1 1/2 stars.Underwhelming. From the start you can tell that Valentino regrets allowing the documentary cameras even near him. There is some nice behind the scenes action of dresses being designed and a couple of celebrities make small cameos, but it isn't very insightful or stimulating. I'm sure there's a good movie to be made about Valentino, but this one isn't it.
Planet B-Boy 3 stars.The documentary as a whole isn't that great, but the dancing is sick sick sick. I personally don't care for b-boys, but watching them perform is another thing. Just fast forward through the content and get to the dances. They are insane.
Ronin 3 1/2 stars.De Niro is probably my favorite actor and this was his last really good film. Sorry 2000s. It's old-fashioned, no CGI, no blue screen, just cars driving really fast. Most of the chases are done with Euro right side steering wheels while the actor sat on the left side with the false steering wheel. It may sound lame, but that means every actor was in every car during every stunt. Very cool. Not to mention the stellar international cast: Jean Reno(always great), Stellan Skarsgaard, Natasha McElhone(a beauty), Jonathan Pryce, and Sean Bean. And although credited to pseudonym Richard Wiesz, it was written by the maestro David Mamet. That ambush with a cup of coffee and the scene at the hotel taking the photographs is Mamet all the way. Phenomenal dialogue. You ever kill anybody? I hurt somebody's feelings once. You worried about saving your own skin? Yeah I am. It covers my body. It's in my collection. Rent it again.
DVDs Watched this Week: The Good: Monsters vs. Aliens, The Girlfriend Experience, Ronin, Varsity Blues, Baby Boy, Awakenings, Michel Gondry Videos Vol. 2, Star Trek: Generations, The Buddy Holly Story The Bad: Observe and Report, Flawless, Angels in the Outfield, Just Friends The Ugly: Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek: Nemesis, Rage
Trips to the Theater: The Informant! Actors of the Week: Sasha Grey, Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Scott Caan Directors of the Week: Steven Soderbergh, Jonathan Frakes
DVDs Watched this Week: The Good: The Usual Suspects, Planet B-Boy, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Office Season 5 The Bad: Valentino: The Last Emperor, End of Days, Parks and Recreation Season 1, The Informers The Ugly: Wolverine
Trips to the Theater: None Actors of the Week: Liev Schreiber, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey Directors of the Week: 90s Bryan Singer Where'd They Go?: Kevin Pollak?
4 stars.Having recently taken in 82 episodes of In Treatment, I'm doing a Gabriel Byrne run. I even rented End of Days which wasn't as bad as I remembered, mostly because Gabriel Byrne makes a good Satan. But the Schwarzenegger line where he shouts, "You're a choir boy compared to me! A choir boy!" still causes belly laughter. So after I think at least a couple of years, I popped in The Usual Suspects.
I remember seeing it back in '96 on VHS. Kevin Spacey had just made a big impact with his first big role in Se7en, but the rest of the cast had been rather quiet. Benicio Del Toro was virtually unknown and Chazz Palminteri was just starting out. Needless to say, it was enormously impressive and thankfully it was just as this time around.
I was so taken by the look of it. Bryan Singer and DP New Thomas Sigel made this $5 million film look like $50 million. The lighting is gorgeous, compositions are strong, and it feels like a crime epic. New York to LA, that great sequence in the underground car park, the moody scene with Kobayashi in the pool room. The big lineup scene wouldn't be half as effective without those white flood lights blasting the suspects. What a great scene that is btw. Evidently the actors couldn't stop laughing during filming and the editor ended up using the footage to the betterment of the film. I always thought it was perfect. It's a big f you to the cops.
The dialogue is also stellar. The long interrogation between Verbal and Dave Kujan, "Well I believe in God, but the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze", "Why don't you make your point? Because you're making me tired all over." Christopher McQuarrie poured his talent into this screenplay and no wonder it won the Oscar. It's one of those films like Pulp Fiction or Clerks where you can enjoy just by listening to it. Particularly fantastic is Kevin Pollak as Todd Hockney who "didn't give a f___ about anybody." Those line readings are killer. "Is it Friday already?" He's unfortunately played variations on that character post, but in this movie, his performance is near perfect.
Spacey is wonderful as the less than quick Verbal, Gabriel Byrne is completely perfect as Dean Keaton, and Stephen Baldwin gives the best performance he will ever give in any movie. "Oswald was a fag." Brilliant.
Now the ending. The revelation is fantastic, but the way it is revealed is key. That audio montage by editor John Ottman (which was done on reel to reel audio if you can believe it) is a magnificent piece of work. It feel likes thoughts going through someone's head. It's not confusing or repetitive, it's so totally satisfying. Even if you've seen it before, it still works. "I mean Orca fat", "...picking beans in Guatemala", "When I was in that barber shop quartet in Skokie IL". But this time I did see that it could mean something else. It is the truth, it isn't, but maybe that doesn't matter. Keyser Soze may be Keyser Soze, but his story really felt entirely like fiction which kind of makes the whole thing pretty great.
Rent it again or just buy it (why is it not in your collection already?) "And like that, he's gone."
1 starWolverine is a flaccid mess. I am very pleased that I did not see it in the theater. I personally think it's worse than the mediocre X3 since I at least cared about Kitty Pryde (maybe since Ellen Page was playing her) and Kelsey Grammer was a pretty good Beast. But this one grows more and more painful.
Everything seems off. The opening sequence in the 1800s flies by too quickly and the significant moment has no significance since I do not care about this kid with bone claws and I don't care who his father is or isn't. The opening credit montage is fairly cool with Wolverine and his brother Sabretooth slicing their way through the American wars, but it doesn't have any real emotional impact nor any real meaning since we don't learn anything about them.
For an origin story, the origin is the least informative. No idea how he got his powers. No scene where he discovers his powers. No idea how this affected who he was other than the fact that he can take a cannon to the chest and still walk away. No idea about anything really about his character. It's still the same sweaty, hairy Logan but now since the film makes his brother the real badass, it makes Wolverine pale in comparison. If anything it makes him less powerful and much less interesting.
Hugh Jackman gives it the college try (he apparently lived in the gym for months), but he still seems too much older than he did in X-Men 1 and the script gives him nothing to do other than brood. None of his dialogue has any wit (remember when he was funny), and his relationship with his mountain woman will be added to my most boring movie couples ever list. Who cares about her? What is his real problem that she is helping with? Why are they living out in Canada so he can be a lumberjack? Why? Why? Why? Isn't this the prequel? Isn't this supposed to explain things? It explains nothing we already didn't know including the painfully underwhelming sequence where he gets the adamantium laid onto his skeleton. The motivation feels weak and the sequence itself does not live up to the tease premonition that he has never gone through anything like this. Btw, how many movie wives, how many girlfriends have sacrificed their lives so that the hero can have an emotional reason to do something? It's lazy writing.
What about the mutants? Asian Agent Zero apparently has gun wielding powers (how is that a genetic mutation?), Ryan Reynolds spins his swords in the same exact motions over and over again for his big sequence, and Charlie from Lost touches his finger to his head. And not having read the books, I don't know much about Gambit, but I'm fairly certain fans will be let down since his big moments are already highlighted in the first trailer. But he does get to be an airplane chauffeur to Wolverine so I guess that's something. I like Taylor Kitsch from Friday Night Lights, but he doesn't feel Euro enough for the role.
The whole thing feels like a Jason Statham film that happens to be about mutants. It evidently was budgeted at $150 million but strangely it feels like the cheapest X-Men movie. Everything is in the woods, no one is around, and the big helicopter sequence seems much more impressive in the trailer. Added to which, the action is cut way too fast, the final battle is a snore, and the bizarre cameos from Cyclops and Storm are laughable. The only one that comes out well is Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth. He's mad and mean and memorable. Wolverine is a pussy cat. 20th Century Fox makes another bad film.
1. The opening moment of the opening sequence is a complete homage to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly which is Tarantino's favorite film. Instead of The Bad riding up on a horse, it's Nazis on Motorcyles. 2. I love that David Bowie song. Somehow it seems perfectly natural although it is objectively absurd. "Putting out the fire with gasoline". As if it was written for the film.
3. Despite my Christianity, I was very happy to see new father Sgt. Wilhelm die. If your son was just born, why aren't you with him, why are you there getting drunk, and why are you ruining everything!
4. Most of the score is made up of samples of Ennio Morricone who composed Leone's great spaghetti westerns. "Un Amico", the song played during the climactic scene between Shosanna and Frederic Zoller is currently my ringtone. I've listened to it on my iPod maybe 100 times.
5. Shosanna Dreyfuss's "outcome" was heartbreaking. It killed me. I was shocked at how invested I was in her. And who doesn't love a French girl who loves the cinema and smokes in a cafe? Godard lives!
6. I'm surprised no one has complained about all of the subtitles.
7. The Bear Jew Donnie Donowitz was originally supposed to be played by Adam Sandler. He had a conflict with shooting Funny People and couldn't accept the role. I think it could've worked. 8. Cinematographer Robert Richardson(Kill Bill, most of Oliver Stone, Casino) is probably my favorite. He loves those strong shafts of hard light. The tavern scene in particular is exceptionally lit. 9. Wasn't it great to see a personal, individual film? Everything is so big and pop music these days. No one else in the world could've made this one. It is front to back a Tarantino.
10. "...I think this just might be my masterpiece." How could anyone not applaud.
DVDs Watched this Week: The Good: In Treatment Season 1(all 47 episodes), State of Play, Ronin, Homicide The Bad: None The Ugly: None
Trips to the Theater: None Actors of the Week: Gabriel Byrne, Michelle Forbes, Alison Pill, Joe Mantegna Directors of the Week: The directors of In Treatment Where'd They Go?:William H. Macy?
DVDs Watched this Week: The Good: Valley Girl, The King of Kong, Yes Man, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Kill Bill Vol. 1 The Bad: None The Ugly: Billy Mitchell
Trips to the Theater: Inglourious Basterds(2nd Time) Actors of the Week: Melanie Laurent, Sonny Chiba Directors of the Week: Seth Gordon Where'd They Go?:Orlando Bloom
TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week: The Men Who Stare at Goats.
Whip It 4 stars Maybe in the Top 10 of the year. There were sneak previews all over LA on Saturday night and I went to the one at The Arclight. I'm very glad I did since hey there's Ellen Page introducing the film! She was really cool and did this nice bit about please refrain from using your cell phones and texting during the film. She even said, "If you don't like it... I am so sorry." Seriously might be in love with her. The movie itself is front to back great. It could've been some broad farce about beauty pageants and small Texas towns but it's a real movie about real characters with tons of heart. I think it's better than Juno, and E.Page is even better here as Bliss Cavendar, an outsider who finds the passion of her life doing Roller Derby.
