Should be a lot of The King's Speech this year, but The Social Network could win some key categories. The one I hope for above all is Fincher for Best Director. There could be some upsets like Best Supporting Actress which Melissa Leo has won for everything up until now, but I think Hailee Steinfeld will grab the Oscar. I'm looking forward to Anne Hathaway and Franco as the hosts so hopefully it won't be as stuffy a telecast as it can be. Here are some predictions and personal picks.
Best Picture 127 Hrs Black Swan The Fighter Inception The Kids are All Right The King's Speech - Will win The Social Network Toy Story 3 True Grit Winter's Bone I don't really have a personal pick. None of these were in my Top 5 for 2010. For some reason I do want The Social Network to beat The King's Speech though. I think it's just because of my loyalty to Fincher.
Best Actor Javier Bardem, Biutiful Jeff Bridges, True Grit Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network Colin Firth, The King's Speech - Will win James Franco, 127 Hrs - My personal pick
Best Actress Annette Bening, The Kids are All Right Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone Natalie Portman, Black Swan - Will win Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine Haven't seen Rabbit Hole, Black Swan, or Blue Valentine
Best Supporting Actor Christian Bale, The Fighter - Will win. Also my personal pick John Hawkes, Winter's Bone Jeremy Renner, The Town Mark Ruffalo, The Kids are All Right Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
Best Supporting Actress Amy Adams, The Fighter Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech Melisse Leo, The Fighter Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit - Will win. Also my personal pick Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Best Director Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan Ethan and Joel Coen, True Grit David Fincher, The Social Network - Will win. Also my personal pick Tom Hooper, The King's Speech David O. Russell, The Fighter
Best Adapted Screenplay Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy, 127 Hrs Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network - Will win. Also my personal pick Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, Toy Story 3 Ethan and Joel Coen, True Grit Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, Winter's Bone
Best Original Screenplay Mike Leigh, Another Year Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Keith Dorrington, The Fighter Christopher Nolan, Inception - My personal pick Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg, The Kids are All Right David Seidler, The King's Speech - Will win
Watched this Week: The Good: Fish Tank, 127 Hrs, Summer Wars, Carrie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Forget Paris, Gilmore Girls The Bad:Due Date, Michael Jordan to the Max, When Billie Beat Bobby The Ugly:The Tourist Trips to the Theater: None Actors of the Week: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Sissy Spacek Directors of the Week: Brian De Palma, Andrea Arnold
Trailers/Clips of the Week: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Won the Palme D'or at Cannes last year.
Fish Tank3 ½ stars Fish Tank from director Andrea Arnold is to Essex, England as Boyz N the Hood or Menace II Society was to South Central and Compton. It feels just as real and true. But it's not about gangbanger life in America, it's about lower class English life that we don't think of when we see footage of the Queen and Kate Middleton (who I strangely find very attractive btw).
Mia is an angry 15 year-old girl who is growing up one of these housing projects with apartments stacked upon each other, no room, every home seemingly having a fight. It's not necessarily a rough life. There are no guns in the movie and no one is killed, but it is rather hopeless. Her friends who have a little dance group have ostracized her and without them she has no one to spend time with (There is an element of hip hop dancing throughout the movie that feels genuine and works). Her single mother is so young we assume she had Mia when she was Mia's age and her younger sister is obviously from a different father. She doesn't have much to do other than walk around and try to fill up time. A highlight is when she breaks into an empty apartment and practices dance movies by herself, hoping possibly for a promising career at a strip club.
Something definitely different happens when her mother's very handsome new boyfriend (Michael Fassbender from Inglourious Basterds) runs into Mia in the morning after spending a night with her mom. She acts pissy and annoyed but she is seriously attracted to him, and whenever he's over she makes a point to talk to him. And a lot of the movie involves this tension between a 15 year-old girl, her crush on an older man, and what it feels like for her when he does give her such attention and encouragement. He's probably the nicest man she's ever met and it doesn't hurt that he looks pretty good with his shirt off.
I won't give anymore away but believe me the movie didn't go in the direction I expected it to. It's not about secrets and confrontations, it's about this young girl trying to figure what her future could be. What options does she have. The movie is told and felt from her perspective and she doesn't exactly know what she wants and we don't either.
Katie Jarvis is unbelievable as Mia. She apparently was discovered on the street by the casting director when she was having an argument with her boyfriend. She is Essex, that is her real accent and everything rings true. I hope she continues to act because the camera wants her to. She is a natural. With Basterds and Hunger, this is the only other film I've seen with Michael Fassbender. With the upcoming X-Men First Class I think he's someone America is going to see a lot more of. He is that strong Clive Owen-esque leading man and we understand Mia's attraction to him immediately. It's sometimes a harsh film, but it's authentic to its core. A great debut from Andrea Arnold who won an Oscar for a short film she did back in 2009.
The Tourist1 star Don't rent it. Don't do it. You'll see it on Netflix, you'll see it at Blockbuster but don't. But Johnny Depp + Angelina Jolie, of course I want to see that. I think that was the general idea with the executives who put this mathematical formula down on paper. Like Duplicity with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen (on my worst 10 that year), this star combo is DOA. It's a stinker. First, it's yet another in this failure filled sub-genre of the regular person who meets a spy and then is suddenly thrust into this crazy world of guns, terrorists, and the CIA and blah. Knight and Day didn't work, that movie Killers with Ashton Kutcher. Boo! Johnny Depp is miscast as Frank the tourist. I don't want to see Johnny Depp bounce around as the coward with for some reason this semi-homeless man look. If it's supposed to be this glamorous romance, shouldn't he actually look good? Angelina Jolie puts it on auto-pilot with another confident sphinx who has secrets and the only reason to want to know those secrets is because she is so attractive. Also Paul Bettany runs around in a suit trying to get to her boss and I don't care. Venice is shot poorly, the action is dull, everything is dull. Not as bad as Salt, but terrible all the same. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (can't you shorten your name!) directed the Oscar winning German film The Lives of Others but he is out of his depth here. It's not charming, it's not fun, it's just bad.
Due Date1 star There was nothing to hold my attention. It's a pale version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles minus any kind of laughter. With definitely none of that movie's heart. Robert Downey Jr. needs to get back to his wife because she's about to give birth but he gets saddled up with Zach Galifianakis who is not funny in this movie he's just supremely irritating. Of course things go wrong, of course cars break down and obstacles get in their way. At some point Jamie Foxx shows up but doesn't have much to do. This follow up to The Hangover from director Todd Phillips is a dud. I don't like road trip movies, and I don't like this movie.
Thelma & Louise3 ½ stars It's the movie everyone knows about but I don't think they really go back and watch it. People just think about the ending, which was a big deal at the time, but they movie as a whole is still very good. What I really noticed this time is how funny the movie is. There's so much natural, hilarious comedy in Thelma & Louise. Geena Davis's husband Daryl is hysterical with his tank tops and 80s porn star mustache. Even Brad Pitt's role is pretty funny especially when he's being interrogated by Harvey Keitel and gets smacked around with his own cowboy hat. It was the movie that launched Brad Pitt into the cinema stratosphere and deservedly so. The whole supporting male cast is so good. Keitel, Pitt, Michael Madsen, they have meaty characters to work with. And of course Geena Davis as Thelma and Susan Sarandon as Louise. It's hard to imagine it was once Jodie Foster and Michelle Pfeiffer in those roles. They are very good in the movie and their chemistry can't be faked. I can't remember too many great female friendships in film and this has got to be one of the best. Looking back now, it's hard to imagine what the big controversy was. I mean they were on the cover of Time Magazine having to address the film's feminist statements. When I watch it now I just see a good movie, beautifully shot by Ridley Scott, and packed with great characters with very good dialogue. A great script by Callie Khouri (who won the Oscar) and I'm glad I watched it again.
Watched this Week: The Good: Waiting for Superman, The Winning Season, The Sunset Limited, Get Low, Thelma & Louise, The Long Kiss Goodnight, 25th Hour, Miracle, The Princess Diaries, The Expendables, Unstoppable, Cop Land, The King's Speech The Bad:You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Passengers The Ugly:None Blu-rays Bought: All the President's Men
Trips to the Theater: None Actors of the Week: Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Geena Davis, Sam Rockwell Directors of the Week: Davis Guggenheim, Renny Harlin
Trailers/Clips of the Week: Arthur. Doesn't look bad.
Win Win. From Tom McCarthy, the director of The Station Agent and The Visitor. That's all I need to know.
The Winning Season 3 stars This one almost went by me. The Winning Season was apparently a hit at Sundance in 2009 but then it vanished off the radar, rarely to be seen again. Sam Rockwell is a loser. Well, he himself is not a loser but along with William H. Macy, he is one of the best at playing them. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Snow Angels, The Green Mile, even Iron Man 2. Losers! He is a fearless actor with little or no vanity and that's always to be admired. In The Winning Season, Coach Bill begins the movie working as a busboy at a family restaurant when his high school buddy, who is now principal of Plainview High, asks him to coach the girls varsity basketball team. Bill was a high school superstar but didn't play college ball and hasn't made anything of his life. He's divorced and his daughter hates him.
The team is actually only made up of 6 girls and they're not very good. He is a surprisingly good coach though despite his drinking and laziness and general disrespect for female athletes and they do start to win. The team has two movie stars in Emma Roberts who is once again glowing and sweet. She has the biggest role and becomes the closest to Bill. She asks advice from him when her boyfriend (the varsity point guard) starts flaking out and he is surprisingly helpful. The best thing though is that Rockwell refuses to play any sentimentality. He does soften up to the girls but not much. He is foul and profane and this hilariously interests them more. There's a great scene where the girls finally meet his daughter and see how estranged he is to her. After the game, they huddle near him on the bus and try to tenderly convince him to go to counseling since it helped them with their dads. This doesn't sound funny at all, but the way the scene is played with their genuine concern and his angry grunts is making me laugh right now. There is also another scene where he tells them to watch out for the big girl during a timeout and the girls start in on him. What do you mean big girl? You calling her fat? Just because she's big doesn't mean she's fat. That's the kind of attitude that causes eating disorders. LOL. The team is so smart and likable and thankfully not bratty. The other movie star on the team is Rooney Mara from The Social Network. She's fine in the movie but she isn't that much of a standout. Fincher must've saw something in her auditions as she's in two of his films, being all of 23.
The basketball is ok. It is what high school girls basketball looks like. There is no flashy camera angles or editing. It's mostly two handed shots from the chest but you can't help but root for this team. And for Rockwell who at some point dresses up as the school mascot in full red body paint and a blue afro. Again, this is making me laugh right now. This is the Bad News Bears with girls basketball and the formula works. Go Fight Win!
The Sunset Limited3 stars Samuel L. Jackson, despite a recent run of bad movies, is still one of my favorite actors. I think he is one of the best we have, particularly when it comes to language. He has a verbal dexterity that is incredibly enjoyable and this is one of his best roles in a long time. He plays Black, a regular blue collar guy who one day saves Tommy Lee Jones' character the professor when the professor tries to throw himself in front of The Sunset Limited (a subway train in NYC). This has all happened before the movie has started. It really begins in Black's apartment, just the two of them, and the movie remains there for the next 90 minutes. It is a 2 role play, written by novelist Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men, The Road) and from regular conversation, the men start talking more and more about why the professor did what he did. How did he come to a point where the only option was suicide? Black is an evangelical Christian and is trying to get through.
Their dialogue is wonderful. It's intelligent and metered, it is some very good writing. They might have different educational backgrounds, but both characters are very smart, experienced and they like each other in a sort of anthropological way. That being said, I do have problems with one room movies. It probably would work better as a play, with the two actors right there in front of you as opposed to filmed with cameras. You couldn't get 2 better actors in these roles and Tommy Lee Jones has directed their performances well, but I think the movie is better to listen to than to watch. There is a lingering question of not only how convicted are you of your beliefs but how well can you articulate them? The end though, Black's final few sentences, they hit home. I was taken aback by how moved I was. Still playing on HBO.
The Long Kiss Goodnight3 ½ stars Shane Black knows how to write dialogue. One of the best dialogue movies is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which he wrote and directed in 2006. A movie that no one thinks about though is The Long Kiss Goodnight, which was dismissed as a silly action movie at a time when female action movies weren't accepted and unrealistic action was thought of as uncool. It is the action comedy version of The Bourne Identity, despite it coming out 9 years earlier. Geena Davis is a happy housewife who completely lost her memory 8 years ago. She had hired Samuel L. Jackson, a cheap private detective, to find out who she was and he one day he finds a clue. She is not Samantha Kane but Charlene Baltimore, an assassin for the CIA. This all sounds like some serious thriller, but when Davis and Jackson hit the road to figure out more about her past, things really get fun. They're given so many good things to say Charlie: I'm leaving the country, Mitch. I need a fake passport and I need money, lots of it. Mitch: Well why didn't you say so? Hold on a minute while I pull that outta my ass.
Mitch: Oh, s--t! Ah, that hurt like s--t! Samantha: I know. That's why I distracted you first. Same principle as deflowering virgins. Mitch: Huh? What? Virgin - ? What? Samantha: Read it in this Harold Robbins book. Guy bites her on the ear. Distracts from the pain. Ever try that? Mitch: No, no, I sock 'em in the jaw and yell, "Pop goes the weasel."
Samantha Caine: What, are you a Mormon? Mitch Henessey: Yes, I'm a Mormon. That's why I just smoked a pack of Newport and drank three vodka tonics.
This is maybe my favorite Sam Jackson character. Mitch Henessey is hysterical. A down and out private investigator who is put together first with this housewife, then with her assassin alter ego, and he always has great things to say. Sam Jackson knows exactly the right inflection and rhythm each sentence needs. I love him in this movie. There is one scene where Davis literally kicks him out of the car that I have watched maybe 100 times. I find it so funny.
The action is well directed by Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) with a lot of good shootouts and some impressive explosions toward the end. It's just a lot of bloody 90s fun. This was Geena Davis' last starring role I can think of and Brian Cox shows up for a little bit too with some great lines. Shane Black also wrote the original Lethal Weapon and he may be doing the third Iron Man. I think he's one of the best writers of dialogue I've ever heard.
Waiting for Superman 3 ½ stars Heartbreaking. I just didn't know how bad it was out there. I have a lot of teacher friends, and my respect for them has gone up a lot. I went to good schools growing up, and I don't know anyone who dropped out. I even knew a couple valedictorians. Getting good grades is just what everyone did. It was the Asian thing to do. I didn't think there would be places where 400 out of 450 drop out of high school after the first year or where 10th graders aren't even reading at a 5th grade level.
I worried that Waiting for Superman was only going to be about depressing statistics and low income hopelessness but thankfully it's not. We get a thorough and sometimes jaw-dropping look at the public school system, but the movie also focuses on a handful of kids who are exceptional. They want to learn, they love school, it's just the schools around them are so bad and seemingly unwilling to change. We also learn a lot about charter schools, special school programs with limited numbers of kids and every year they have a random lottery where families place their names in a bowl and hope for the best. It is nuts, this idea of stronger educational opportunities reduced to a Bingo game. Also, a lot of time is spent dissecting the teachers unions that apparently can't do anything with bad teachers. Once you're in, are you really in for life? Good or bad, you still get paid and aren't rewarded for your effort or punished for your lack of effort.
I'm thankful for the education I received, particularly an Advanced Studies Program I was in during Elem/Jr High which emphasized things which I find invaluable today like brainstorming, free writing, and analytical discussions. And this started in the fourth grade. David Guggenheim directed An Inconvenient Truth, which is a miraculously watchable film about Al Gore and a slide show about environment. Here again with just the facts (told through various methods including animation) he has created another fascinating documentary. If you're a parent, you should probably watch this.
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger1 star I still admire Woody Allen a great deal but this has to be one of his limpest films. Multiple storylines with multiple fine actors and yet it feels like a first draft. Things have weak beginnings and weak ends, and the middles aren't very interesting. It's mostly about couples and either the man or the woman finding someone else but there isn't any thoughtful insight nor is the movie funny. I mean not at all. Anthony Hopkins is woefully miscast as an older man with an end-life crisis who gets divorced and starts dating a younger woman. He is one of the greatest actors ever, but I don't really think of him as a funny guy. The scenes where he has to deal with his crazy gold digger wife aren't funny, they're just painful. He's completely real and serious and you don't want to laugh. Naomi Watts wants to be with her boss Antonio Banderas, Frieda Pinto from Slumdog Millionaire somehow wants to be with Josh Brolin who is a terrible failing fat writer, and there's a subplot about a fortune teller that goes absolutely nowhere. Seriously, what is going on here? What a waste.
Get Low 3 starsGet Low is a good movie. Duvall is good, it's always great to see Bill Murray in a movie, any movie, and the basic story works. Felix is a hermit, has lived alone and separate from the world for 40 years, and now he wants to have a funeral. A funeral party to be exact. He will be there, and he wants anyone who has a story about him to come and tell it. Underneath this, he has the story to tell. Secrets about his past, some answers to why he has chosen to live like this. That basic concept is intriguing and Bill Murray as a Midwestern salesman put in this backwoods rural town is a great combo. His scenes are the best in the movie. Also nice seeing Sissy Spacek again. Ultimately the movie isn't very deep or meaningful, it's just a story like any other. That doesn't make it bad but it doesn't really make it special. That is a great title though. We all gotta get low.
Pleasantville 4 stars It came out 13 years ago in 1998 and I still love Pleasantville. It seemed like such a special effects novelty when it came out, the idea of black and white characters in a fictional 50s sitcom suddenly bursting into color. But Pleasantville is a lot deeper and I think it's one of the best movies I've seen that makes a statement about non-conformity and embracing things that are new and different. A shockingly young Tobey Maguire is the lead as David, or Bud as he becomes when he and his sister (Reese Witherspoon) get sucked into the TV and become black and white characters along with the rest of Pleasantville. It is a wholesome TV show, with mom cooking enormous breakfasts and handsome white people like Paul Walker saying things like gee whiz Mary Sue.
Tobey and Reese try to blend in and try to find a way out, but their presence causes problems. Things start to change, people start to change and when characters find their passions, they do change into color. The visual effect still works, but it's the emotional effect that really struck me. These people start living full color lives with vibrancy and urgency while the old people and the scared people remain in black and white. They fear change so much. It's not specifically because of things like art or women going to work, it's the change itself. They're secure only if they know how things will go every day and what their place is among it. You start changing things and what is their worth anymore.
On Blu-ray it is a sight to see. Not only with the beautiful color/b&w effects but also the compositions and camera angles which are very strong. They create a surprising feeling of menace that we don't usually associate with the 50s. People think of it as an idyllic time but I think of the closed-mindedness and the racism and the prison of suburbia. The movie has a strong cast with William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, JT Walsh(possibly the greatest character actor ever), and Marley Shelton as a cheerleader who falls in love with Bud when she should really be baking cookies for Whitey. Whitey? Really? What a nickname. It's a great film I'm proud to have in my collection.
He Got Game3 ½ stars At the time I remember the guys wanting The Godfather of basketball movies. That it would all be about sick basketball moves and the glory of being a high school superstar. Spike Lee didn't make that movie he made this one, and whenever I watch it, I'm glad he didn't. Jesus Shuttlesworth (Ray Allen) is the #1 high school prospect in the country and he has about a week left to decide which college he intends to go to. His father Jake (Denzel) is in prison, having accidentally killed his wife, Jesus' mother. He shoved her, she fell awkwardly and the worst possible thing happened. Jake is given a leave from prison for one week as the Governor wants Jesus to go his Alma mater Big State and will reduce Jake's sentence if he can somehow persuade his son to go there.
I think it's a great setup and I'm glad the movie isn't about rich life in the NBA or about college ball. It's really about looking forward as a 17 year-old to so much possibility. And a lot of danger. The most important decision of his life comes at the end of his senior year, not when he's 30 or 50. It's also a great way for Spike to talk about basketball life, the temptations, the lifestyle and all of the terrible leeches. Jesus visits a college and random white girls freely offer themselves to him within minutes. Everyone is offering him money and cars and clothes as some sort of down payment on a future reward. An agent has a phenomenal scene where he tries to sell Jesus on going straight to the NBA. His hard sell is so good it's difficult not to be convinced. I think some were disappointed that there wasn't more basketball or hip hop music or that there wasn't a big championship game but we've seen that already. This perspective on the sport is much more interesting. At least to me, someone who admittedly hasn't watched a game in a long time.
Ray Allen is surprisingly good as Jesus. He isn't an actor, but he has a natural presence on screen. He has some good scenes with a young Rosario Dawson, his girlfriend LaLa (love that name). Denzel is almost unrecognizable, mostly because the character is so different from the others he's played. The movie's about basketball, but it's much more about the two of them, father and son. I rarely like father/son relationships in films but this has got to be one of the strongest. After all these years apart, and all that has happened, what do they feel and what they will forgive? I think it's one of Spike Lee's best films with rich characters and very good filmmaking. A couple montage sequences highlighting Jesus on the court are particularly well edited. Lastly, it was nice to see a movie that's actually about something. So many movies are about nothing, and this movie has something to say about examining the choices we are about to make. And it certainly has something to say about the value of forgiveness. That it's worth more than anything the world has to offer.
Watched this Week: The Good: It's Kind of a Funny Story, Wild Target, The Majestic, Broadcast News, I'll Do Anything, My First Mister, A History of Violence, The Twilight Zone Seasons 1-2 The Bad: None The Ugly: None Blu-rays Bought: Pleasantville
Trips to the Theater: None
Actors of the Week: Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, Emma Roberts Directors of the Week: James L. Brooks, the directors of The Twilight Zone
Trailers/Clips of the Week: X-Men: First Class
Trust. A good trailer. From director David Schwimmer? Ross!
It’s Kind of a Funny Story 3 stars The geeky guy coming of age movie is becoming a terrible sub-genre. This is a generation of insecure men and they are making a lot of bad movies. However, even the most tiresome genre (horror, rom-com) can produce good versions and here’s one I surprisingly enjoyed. Craig (Keir Gilchrist) is a high school student going through a lot of stress and academic pressure and starts to think about suicide. It doesn’t seem that serious, more that he just doesn't want to deal with his parents and his future and an application to some prestigious summer school program. He goes to a hospital one night to get some quick help, but he ends up being admitted into the adult psychiatric ward for a week. This is not a great setup. In fact it’s forced placing a high school kid into a psych ward with adults (the teen section is being remodeled). Like Cuckoo’s Nest there are the cast of crazies, but they aren’t all that serious or dangerous. They’re more like safe eccentric movie characters, the leader of whom is Zach Galifianakis (Bobby) who befriends Craig and shows him the ropes.
All this being said, the movie is still likable, particularly its two leads Keir Gilchrist as Craig and Emma Roberts as Noelle. As geek guy/take initiative girl relationships go, this is a sweet one. I had seen Emma Roberts (Julia’s niece) in a couple movies before, but with a good role she stands out. Mostly because she is very pretty and likable (every uninteresting girl’s life goal), but still. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck directed Half Nelson a few years ago so the movie doesn’t wander into conventional Hollywood territory, but it isn’t necessarily that unconventional. Craig’s trajectory is fairly set and the emotional revelations are not all that revelatory. Although sometimes heart and good energy are enough to make a movie okay. There are a lot of attempts at visual moments like subjective flashbacks and a fantasy sequence where everyone sings Under Pressure by Queen in full sequined costumes, but sadly I think the movie fails on these levels. What it works best at are the one on one scenes between either Craig and Noelle or Craig and Bobby. They feel the most real, sometimes hitting on some honesty, and Galifianakis is good in a semi-serious role. Despite its bad, wordy title, I think it’s worth watching. Music by Broken Social Scene.
Wild Target3 stars Bet you’ve never heard of this Brit comedy with one of my favorite actors Bill Nighy (Love Actually) starring as aging hitman Victor Maynard who is hired to kill a young thief (Emily Blunt, I love you). Through circumstances he ends up saving her from other assassins, they add on Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint along for the ride as Victor’s apprentice, and they have to go on the run from other killers, police, and the usual underworld suspects. From those sentences you would assume it’s a bad movie (as hitmen are inherently boring), but those elements in a comedy, a witty comedy, it ain’t half bad. It isn’t the circumstances (car chases, shootouts), it’s the stuff in between. The dialogue exchanges and the dry humor and three nice characters to spend time with. Well, they aren’t all that nice as Blunt is playing a vapid bitch for some of the movie, but nice as in nicely written. The pace is light and swift, and it does feel like London hasn’t been shot quite like this before. It doesn’t seem touristy but it does have a new coat of polish.
Rocky 4 starsWatching it again, it’s so much more a character piece than any of the sequels. The sequels are mostly about long training montages and ludicrous (but fun) boxing bouts where every big punch lands and Rocky has to fight a big blond Russian with a flattop. They are so 80s, but it’s hard to criticize. They are such a product of their time. Especially IV which is the equivalent of someone from Afghanistan coming over here to box, he kills Christian Bale in the ring, and Mark Wahlberg goes over to the Middle East to fight him. I don’t know how we accepted it but we did.
Anyway, the first and best movie is just about this guy from Philadelphia. He bums around as a loan shark, occasionally fights, and he's given this Cinderella dream shot to fight against the Heavyweight Champion because his name sounded good. "The Italian Stallion Rocky Balboa". Not bad. It is about Rocky and his life in Philly and has very little to do with boxing. It’s much more to do with his romance with Adrian, a painfully shy pet store worker who finds real love with this street guy with a crooked hat. I think this classic movie relationship ruined a lot of real relationships as men across America went after shy women that don’t find them half as charming as Rocky Balboa. And the girl doesn’t suddenly blossom into a new person when you take her glasses off. Burgess Meredith as Mickey has a heartbreaking scene where he asks to train Rocky, Carl Weathers is Apollo Creed and has some brief but strong scenes, but the real star is Stallone who wrote and starred in a great movie with a great story that he created himself. There are powerful moments of sadness and vulnerability and it’s strange how this character is so kind and funny while most of Stallone’s later characters were serious boring brooders. It’s still the best of the series, with a lot to say about taking opportunities to change your life, no matter how improbable that may seem. Overall I’d rank Rocky Balboa the next best. Then II, III, IV, and V. Once you watch one, it’s hard not to watch them all. All except V which is f---ing awful. Boo Tommy Gunn!
Rocky, the character, is a legend. He’s as important as any of the great movie characters. An absolute original, the guy everyone in the world loves. Every time I hear those trumpets I want to go to the gym.
Watched this Week: The Good: Let Me In, Conviction, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Out of Sight, Ali, Presumed Innocent, The Visitor The Bad: A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop, Man on the Moon The Ugly: None Blu-rays Bought: Let Me In, Eternal Sunshine, Out of Sight
Trips to the Theater: None
Actors of the Week: Chloe Moretz, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kate Winslet, Jim Carrey Directors of the Week: Matt Reeves, Michel Gondry
Trailers/Clips of the Week: Polyphonic Spree - Light and Day Music Video
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 4 starsFinally out on Blu-ray and I got it. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is still a ecstatic mind trip. A dazzling display of cinema as much from the creativity of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman as it is from director Michel Gondry, who takes this material and launches it into the stratosphere. If you possibly don't know, Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) were in a long term relationship, they broke up, and Joel discovers soon after that she has had some sort of procedure that has erased him completely from her memory. She has no recollection of them dating or of him at all. Heartbroken and angry, he decides to have the procedure himself and the film begins taking us through his mind, through memories of love and hurt as we witness what happened between the two of them. They really did love each other but they also annoyed each other a lot.
However, the Joel and Clementine inside of his head become aware of this and they don't want to be erased. They try to escape, going into other parts of his memory, to his childhood, to moments of hilarious humiliation. All the while we get to know the two of them as a couple more and more. It sounds confusing I know, but the complexity makes sense when you're watching the film. It isn't just a heady mind trip. At its core and what the movie understands so well, is this idea of how we perceive our memories, what they mean to us, good or bad. By the end when Joel is on a train looking out the window at scenes of happiness with Clementine and friends, you can't help but think of your own memories and how painful it would be to forget them.
Jim Carrey is so good in this movie, completely not a Jim Carrey character. The body language, the behavior. He's this painfully shy guy who is attracted to this girl because she's so not those things. I think it's the most honest he's ever been on film, and his performance really got to me. Particularly at the end when he wants her to stay and he's just saying, "I don't know, just wait." I just think of this guy Joel Barish and not at all about Ace Ventura. Winslet is also pretty awesome, miles away from her corset dramas. She created a unique character, f-d up and sometimes hateful and sometimes loving and exciting. The two of them are an odd movie pair, but they are great together. That last scene when they decide and are just laughing, it still gets to me. The movie also happens to have a very high caliber supporting cast: Tom Wilkinson, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, and Kirsten Dunst in one of the few non-Spider-man roles I can remember her in. Also Kaufman won the Oscar for his screenplay and he deserved it.
To me though the real star is director Michel Gondry who pulled out everything he had and poured it into the film. The transitions, the in camera effects, it is a stunner from start to finish. It's bold and wild and I still don't know how he accomplished half the things he did. The fact that it is all understandable to us, that must've taken hundreds of hours of brainpower to make that happen. It is one of the most visual films ever and strangely one of the most hopeful about people and love.
And one of the best lines ever: "My crotch is still here, just as you remembered it."
Meet me in Montauk.
Picture Me3 stars I can’t believe I’ve never seen a movie about modeling? Models Inc. does not count. Sara Ziff started modeling at 19 and she and her boyfriend (a film major) decided to film much of her experience using mostly video handycams, but what they got was a very personal, intimate look at what her life was when she became a model. There are the expected comments from models about how badly they are treated and how expendable they are, but I enjoyed the smaller moments like when Sara gets her first big paycheck ($80,000 for a couple days work) or months later when she has a vulnerable moment with her boyfriend and she asks him if he could pay for things every once in a while. Imagine if you started making more in 3 days than your partner will in 2 years? Despite her beauty, Sara is a down to earth girl who has the intelligence to step back and observe what is going even when she is in the thick of it. The models job is to only look good and walk down a straight line. One thing that was a shocker to me is that being underage doesn’t mean much to the modeling world. 13, 14 year-old girls are plucked from small towns in Eastern Europe and they are in the magazines we read today. They don't look like girls in junior high. They are working 16 hour days and partying with much older men at night. It is eye opening stuff. Sara thankfully is a sweet, likable girl and following her around for 90 minutes was a nice thing to do. We get to hear her parents thoughts, her friends, and other smart models who can see what it all really is. I’m not interested in fashion shows or supermodels, but I was interested in this movie.
Conviction 3 starsIt's hard to knock a true story of real love and determination so I won't. Conviction is the true story of Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank) who spent 20 years trying to get her brother exonerated for a crime he didn't commit. She had never finished high school and started by getting her GED, then applying to college, then law school, as well bartending and being the mother of two. As a real story, this is crazy stuff, but somehow as a film, it doesn't pack that much dramatic power. Film is sometimes a lot more about how you tell a story than the story itself and despite the actual facts and events, the presentation could've been stronger. Sam Rockwell is the brother, and he is not a simple, good guy. He's a troubled person who has had problems with the law, and it makes this the film thankfully more complex and less black and white. Hilary Swank is good at playing determined characters and here's another one. Unfortunately, everyone's using the Boston accents again, which is a sound I am growing increasingly tired of. I think if you want to see it, see it, but maybe this is a case of real life being better than the movies. I was never as moved as I should've been.
Reversal of Fortune4 stars I don't think anyone around my age knows about Claus Von Bulow, but in the 80s, the case was as big as OJ. Wealthy socialite Claus Von Bulow was accused of attempted murder of his wife Sunny with an injection of insulin. She was diabetic and it was attempted because she did not die, but remained in a coma for many years. The movie begins after he has been convicted in his first trial and he reaches out to Alan Dershowitz to handle his appeal. To me, the movie is as much about what may have happened between Claus and his wife as it is about lawyers at work. There are so many lawyer TV shows on right now, but this is still the best depiction to me of lawyers doing their job. Dershowitz gathers a huge team of ex-students and colleagues and they attack the case against Von Bulow from all ends. Medical evidence, dissecting testimony, all the while Alan is planning strategy. The movie isn't about the courtroom, it's about these highly intelligent people trying to win.
Ron Silver as Dershowitz is amazing and it's possibly the only depiction of a lawyer that makes me think it might be appealing to be one. He is as sharp and street smart as they come, and his scenes with Claus, who has only known money and cocktail parties and mistresses, are something to see. He is not impressed by his money and yet fascinated by Claus's detachment from real life. Claus isn't a snob, and he is smart enough to know that this Jewish guy who teaches at Harvard is the man to listen to. I've never been interested in the uber rich but that's what Claus is. Can you imagine never having a job? He just married into money and from what I see, lived a life of leisure that was derailed by this "incident". The movie is wonderful in those scenes where two classes clash. It is a constantly watchable movie, one I take great pleasure in popping in every year. The dialogue is so good, so dry and witty, and Jeremy Irons is fantastic as Von Bulow, the role that won him the Oscar. I hope you can find it and rent it.
Panic Room 3 ½ stars Panic Room is one of those thrillers that you probably forgot about, but it’s time to watch it again. Remember those great opening credits over New York? Jodie Foster is recently divorced and has moved into this 4 story New York townhouse with her daughter (a very young looking Kristen Stewart). On their very first night, three men break in. Foster and Stewart enter a panic room (an impenetrable place to stay safe), and what the men want is in that room. Watching it again, I noticed I cared less about the mother/daughter surviving and just wanted these guys to get in. The guys are played by Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakam and they are three fantastic characters with great dialogue and surprising depth considering the movie takes place in one night, in one home. They are a memorable trio, particularly Yoakam as Raoul, who is freaking scary even with that ski mask on for most of the film. When he lets loose with violence things really get hairy. Actors try to be menacing all the time, but he really gets under my skin. There are also great set pieces of suspense, with Fincher sometimes going to ultra high speed slow motion that is just beautiful. The whole movie is beautiful with exquisite camera work, wonderful near pitch black lighting, and as always with Fincher, precision editing. It may be his most showy film. As for the story, I think most of the logical holes are filled up and David Koepp’s script is lean and mean. And the last scenes involving a sledge hammer are an adrenaline punch. It’s not on Blu-ray yet, but even on standard disc, it’s outstanding.
Should be a lot of The King's Speech this year, but The Social Network could win some key categories. The one I hope for above all is Fincher for Best Director. There could be some upsets like Best Supporting Actress which Melissa Leo has won for everything up until now, but I think Hailee Steinfeld will grab the Oscar. I'm looking forward to Anne Hathaway and Franco as the hosts so hopefully it won't be as stuffy a telecast as it can be. Here are some predictions and personal picks.
