Naomi & Nicole

March 11, 2009 --
Musings about my two favorite Aussies:

The International (2009)

Dir: Tom Tykwer

If one didn't know it beforehand, it would soon dawn on any foreign-film-goer watching the latest Naomi Watts flick that you were watching a Tom Tykwer film. This German director first came prominence with the frenetic "Run Lola Run." In every one of his subsequent films that I have seen, he has revealed a meticulous reverence for urban architecture. Even after you lose interest in his characters, (which often happens in his films) the slow pan of his camera, shooting straight down on an urban landscape, is captivating. His latest is no exception: it is like a travelogue of some of the great cities of the Western World: from its first scene at Berlin's Hauptbanhof, to quick stops in Lyon, France (I didn't know it was the headquarters of Interpol), New York, Milan, an finally, a climactic scene on the rooftops of Istanbul (with a great view!), you have to give Tykwer credit for getting the most out of his travel budget.

The plot is topical, if nothing else ("Banks are evil.") Don't expect a Bourne-style shoot em up: this film is more thoughtful, less non-stop action. As Manhattan ADA Eleanor "Ellie" Mitchell, Naomi isn't called on to do much more than the ever-changing parade of ADAs of "Law & Order" do from week to week, but she looks fabulous doing it ... jet-setting from one European city to another, tossing a stylish gray scarf around her neck (in lieu of luggage). There is no sexual tension or chemistry with her co-star Clive Owen, but there is none in the script either (she's happily-married, now that's a twist!).

The rooftop climax is somewhat unsatisfying, perhaps because of the tour-de-force set-piece that precedes it: a shoot-out at the Guggenheim. I hope the musuem was insured, althought the exhibit on display in the film got what was coming to it (everybody's a critic!). As the unsuspecting patrons realize when the bullets fly, there are no corners to cower in at the Guggenheim!

The Golden Compass (2007)

Dir: Chris Weitz

I re-watched this movie Sunday night, and I have to tell you, I 'saw & enjoyed' it even more the second time. (I do not recommend it on the small screen -- the fight scenes were in almost total darkness). I still feel the film's mythology is a weak step-child to Lord of the Rings-Harry Potter-Narnia, but as long as it has talking animals, I'm happy!

I watched it again because I have heard criticisms of Nicole Kidman's performance--her face, specifically: (as in "her surgical enhancements have rendered it frozen: without line, wrinkle or expression.") I must object most-strenuously! In fact, her performance as the evil "Mrs. Coulter" is the center of the whole movie, and she nails it. The role demands her to be cold and emotionless. She plays the ultimate Ice Princess (her first name is Marisa, not Ann, for those of you hoping for a satisfying life-imitates-art coincidence). This is what makes her so mysterious and frightening to young Lyra (the Harry Potter of the story). I chalk up Kidman's flawless face to good make-up and CGI special effects (much like those computer-enhanced abs on the Greek warriors in '300' ). Of course, I suppose I will have to see "Australia" now, to see how that face holds up in the Outback for three-plus hours. But if she has gotten work done, it hasn't turned out as bad as some I've seen.

As for the rest of the movie, in Phillip Pullman's world, every person has a cute little animal spirit by his side, a physical embodiment of his soul, usually causing trouble (like a cat). It is quite a clever conceit: the animal/soul acts as the character's talking subconscious. The acting talent they hired to voice these animals makes you think they were planning for a blockbuster trilogy (Kathy Bates, Ian McShane, LOTR-alum Ian McKellan, an unrecognizable Kristen-Scott Thomas playing a leopard!!)

All these characters are just begging to be fleshed-out (I haven't even mentioned the talking Polar Bears!) Alas, a sequel does not appear to be in the works, going on two years after the original. There is no way they can get all these actors to re-commit -- not to mention the child stars are probably teenagers already. To top it off, the director is currently shooting "Twilight 2" (Oh, the horror....).

It's a shame, because the heroine of this story is the spunky, independent Lyra, played winningly by Dakota Blue Richards (think "Hermoine goes to Narnia" and you get an idea of the plot.) The role of the ethereal, otherworldly beauty that is de rigeuer for the teenage boy target-audience (and moi!) in these films is capably filled by the French beauty Eva Green. If you thought her character name in Casino Royale was exotic and odd (Vesper Lynd) how about "Serafina Pekkala"!?! Since when does a witch have a last name!?!

Aside: The other films cast as its spirit-babes Cate Blanchett (LOTR) and Tilda Swinton (Narnia). Notice there is no such character in Harry Potter? No doubt because it was written by a woman!

Best OSCAR Show Ever??

February 25, 2009 --

Yes! After watching every Oscar telecast since I can remember (ffg never reveals his age), I can say this show was the Best EVER!

Why? Two simple reasons:
1. No Louis J. Horvitz directing it -- and cutting off all spontaneity and life from the four-hour slog to Best Picture (stay home and polish your undeserved Emmy, cuz you ain't gettin' another one, Horvitz!);
2. NO BILL CONTI! You know him: the musical director who boorishly started playing-off every winner in mid-acceptance speech (as if we were going to miss a precious second of another Horvitz-directed mess). He's the guy whose last (and only) hit was "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky! That's Rocky I !! I defy you to listen to that song today all the way through without cringing.

The new blood the Academy injected for this show was spot-on: I cannot even criticize the bloated production number that brought the show to a halt halfway through -- because it was directed by Baz Luhrmann (props to Australia!)

Hugh Jackman was awesome. Anne Hathaway bravely took part in the opening number--and pulled it off...live! Steve Martin & Tina Fey killed! The five past acting winners paying homage to the new nominees was inspired and inspiring (but will it work next year?) The other presenters were, for the most part, brilliant. Exceptions: Zach Efron/Alicia Keys? Who and Why? Ben Stiller's riff on Joaquin Phoenix wasn't as funny as it could have been... and it was a rip-off from the previous night's Independent Spirit Awards! (That show teamed a comic Phoenix with a Christian Bale in an Adam West Batman get-up! Now that was funny!) Of course, the red carpet special was tortured and unnecessary (everybody watches E! nowadays, don't they?)

For the record, I scored 15 points, missing only the Best Actor of the Top 6 categories (I had a last-minute conversion to Mickey Roarke--his dog died!)
I miss you, too, Loki.
Biggest shock of the night: Best Foreign Film (Departures, Japan).

Lastly, my annual, totally-biased list of who looked and dressed the best! (No Renee Zellweger this year, and Amy Adams looked cute except for that coral reef attached to her neck, so I'll have to settle for the following):

7. In a nod to Milk, I start with Daniel Craig (the dude looks good in a tux!)
6. Marisa Tomei (for sentimental reasons)
5. (tie) Evan Rachel Wood / Freida Pinto
4. Penelope Cruz
3. Diane Lane (classy!)
2. Anne Hathaway

1. Natalie Portman

#2 (just like in the Best Actress race)

TOP TEN LIST

February 3, 2009 --

I don't know what meds Roger Ebert is taking these days, but when he proclaims 2008 to be such a good year that he had to make a Top 20 List -- and an alphabetical one at that (the ultimate critical cop-out) -- I have to wonder. It took me 13 months (and 3 days) to fill-out my Top Ten List this year, and even then it was a struggle. [Ebert's list contains the 'blink-and-you-missed-it' "The Fall", directed by Tarsem, hence my concern about his pharmaceuticals.]

More troubling is the fact that foreignfilmguy's Foreign Film List has been reduced to 3. Tres! Trois! (and tre, in a nod to two of the entries). So, without further griping (and no cop-outs), here are, in order ....

Top 3 Foreign Films of 2008

1. REPRISE (Norway)
2. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Sweden)
3. I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG (France)

TOP TEN MOVIES OF 2008

1. MILK
2. THE READER
3. THE DARK KNIGHT
4. FROZEN RIVER
5. RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
6. FROST / NIXON

7. HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
8. VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA
9. TRANSSIBERIAN

10. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*

Honorable mention:
Changeling
Slumdog Millionaire*

Tropic Thunder
U2: 3D
The Visitor
The Wrestler

"Saw & enjoyed"
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Choke
Doubt *
The Duchess
Funny Games (starring the lovely Naomi Watts, who can be seen in The International, opening February 13th!)
In Bruges

There you have it: now it's on to the Oscars, where none of what I just wrote matters one whit!

One-second movie reviews

(because I am lazy)

Doubt
(Dir: John Patrick Shanley)

Meryl Streep once again takes a chance! Meryl Streep once again misfires!

Instead of reprising the Anna Wintour-whisper she used in Prada, this time she goes in the opposite direction: using some kind of flat, Brooklyn housewife-accent to portray the nun at the center of Doubt. It doesn't help the movie or her co-stars, who all acquit themselves nicely, as if they had to act around her. Shanley's attempts to expand his play beyond the stage are transparent and ineffective.

Slumdog Millionaire
(Dir: Danny Boyle)

The soundtrack is the best thing in this movie, but trust me, Score, Song and Cinematography are the only Oscars this movie deserves. (I'll give it film editing, too). The screenplay is laughable. I've never liked how Danny Boyle portrays children (remember that awful movie "Millions"?) Subtlety is not in his vocabulary. Here again the kids are lying, cheating, thieving little rapscallions. (but oh so loveable--yeah, right!) And the Mumbai police have no greater crimes to deal with than cheating game-show contestants? Bad timing.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
(Dir: David Fincher)

Forget Forrest Gump (the movie this Eric Roth-penned marathon is most often compared to): this movie reminds me more of Titanic. First and foremost, the movie is anchored by a horribly aged old lady (the unrecognizable Cate Blanchett). Under all that make-up, though, Cate can still act. (That old lady in Titanic could neither act, nor wash off the age spots). Like Titanic, the movie is a triumph of production values, yet it is always teetering on the edge of sinking under a woefully inadequate script. Fincher may not be 'King of the World,' but he still can dazzle with some amazing set pieces. The Make-up, visual effects, and Sound Mixing are top-notch, Academy voters.

OSCAR slights

January 22, 2009 --

SALLY HAWKINS* WAS ROBBED!!

* Best Actress, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
(she was ignored by the SAGs, too, so I blame those 'dumb' actors)

'The Boss' Bruce Springsteen was likewise snubbed (I don't know who to blame for that).

Complete list of nominees


Check out MY TOP TEN LIST, to be announced here by the end of the month!!

Quick Movie Takes: pre-Golden Globes

The Golden Globe awards are this Sunday (!) and I still haven't seen any of the movies nominated for BEST PICTURE (DRAMA), so I will have to limit my critique to the TV nominations:

Yea! "In Treatment" (HBO) got recognition for its fine supporting cast: Blair Underwood and the especially fine Melissa George (remember her in 'Alias'?).
"John Adams" (HBO) got its requisite nods, but I predict the Foreign Press won't be so enamored of American History as the lame Emmy voters were; look for an upset by the cast of "Bernard & Doris" (also HBO). [I was wrong--ffg]. I'm also pulling for Laura Dern's dead-on hilarious take of Katherine Harris in "Recount" (HBO again).

On the movie side, I can only predict one shoe-in (if there is any justice) [and there is!--ffg] : Brit Sally Hawkins in

"Happy Go Lucky"

(D: Mike Leigh)

She is brilliant in this gem of a movie. It is a character-study of a single personality-type: the relentless optimist. Leigh's genius is in proving that their lives are as deserving of exploration as anyone else. But 'Poppy' (Hawkins' character, appropriately an elementary school teacher) is no Candide: she recognizes the injustices, indifference, frustrations and anger that is ever-present in the society around her: she simply chooses not to let it affect her present mood or her long-term outlook on life. It sounds simple, but in Leigh's London -- populated by a dazzling array of 'kooks' -- it is a subversive triumph.

A couple of scenes are worth noting, for opposite reasons: 1) Poppy attends a beginner's Flamenco class with a co-worker, taught by a stern Spanish woman who is absolutely hilarious; 2) the one scene in the movie that doesn't work involves a deranged homeless man that is at once strained, unnecessary, and totally pointless (you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it). Cut that scene out and I'd rate this movie even higher in my Top Ten.

"Changeling"

(D: Clint Eastwood)

Angelina Jolie gets more ink as a real life Mom than she does as an actress, but her last two 'serious' roles proves that her real life has elevated her screen life to new heights. She was convincing as both wife and mother Marianne Pearl in the maligned "A Mighty Heart" " last year, and she shows added depth as a single mother in this other true life story (based on actual events involving the L.A.P.D in the 1920s--is there no end to the seediness of that police department?).

One woman's struggle for justice against this corrupt (all-male, naturally) machine is courageous to the point of unbelievability, but it really happened! Eastwood is faithful TO A FAULT to her ordeal: the scenes in the county mental hospital are straight out of "The SnakePit" that "Frances" was sent (the poor actresses playing the nurses act like there heart is not in it: Where's Nurse Ratched when you need her?. And Eastwood insists on dragging the movie out until the last creaky turn of the wheel of justice, when a simple end-crawl would have sufficed.

I give him credit for his precise casting: the movie is filled with great faces from the 1920s, all creating a convincing milieu (notably, detectives Jeffrey Donovan and Michael Kelly, and bad-guy Jason Butler Harner). Props to the character actors!!

Quick takes pre-awards season

I want to post these brief reviews before a) the onslaught of end-of-year blockbusters; and b) my annual critique of the Golden Globe nominations.

Let's start with two foreign films:

I've Loved You So Long

(FRANCE)

This film is dominated by an award-worthy performance by Kristin Scott-Thomas as a just-released convicted murderer who goes to live with her estranged younger sister and her multi-cultural family: sis and her husband adopted two Vietnamese girls--I don't know why I note that fact, except that the two girls are quite annoying. [The title, apparently, comes from a French lullaby.] Scott-Thomas completely drains herself of all charm, beauty and emotion to inhabit this role -- quite fearless for an actress who (in my eyes) always appears charming and beautiful, if a bit cool emotionally. See The English Patient. But it is not a scenery-chewing role. You have to wait until the end for a big emotional outburst; in the meantime, the characters and the lives they inhabit are so real that you come to care about what happens to them.

Just as good as Scott-Thomas is Elsa Zylberstein as younger sis Lea. She brings just barely to the surface all the conflicting feelings of a sibling who is both trying hard to reconnect with a sister she still looks up to, while still harboring resentment for her abandonment. Other actresses would try to out-act her co-star; Elsa reveals her character in the small moments that make it all the more powerful.

Let the Right One In
(SWEDEN)

Consider this vampire movie the "anti-Twilight." First, the two leads are quite ordinary-looking tweeners, not the tabloid-ready, pretty faces of the Twilight teens. Second, this movie reminds you that feasting on human blood to survive is very messy business. Grisly and gruesome, too. Finally, it takes place among the working class denizens of stark apartment blocks, cold cafes, and frozen streets of urban Sweden (I didn't catch in which city it takes place). Not something Bergman ever showed us.

Sounds rather bleak, doesn't it? Still, I walked out afterwards both impressed by the filmmaker's technique and moved by the story. Except for a couple of cheap special effects, the scenes are artfully filmed (if you aren't turned off by throat-slitting, decapitation, and a pack of angry cats!) I was very pleased with the performance of the cats in this film: most of these movies use pets only as quick snacks for a thirsty vampire. Here, the cats -- with the aid of some discreet animation -- are the aggressors against the undead. They mean business, too!

The story involves a lonely boy with divorced parents who is the victim of bullying at school. He forms a friendship with the at-first reluctant neighbor who is a loner like him, but unlike him, she can take care of herself and instills in him the courage to do the same. They form a trusting and accepting friendship that leads to an inevitable conclusion. As a side story, the sad sack adults who unwittingly get caught up in all of this violence do not fare well at all: one-by-one they get murdered or bitten, yet they show a strange reluctance to seek the aid of the Police! Unwitting and witless, perhaps, but you still feel sorry for them.

Next up:
Changeling (Dir: Clint Eastwood)
Happy-Go-Lucky (Dir: Mike Leigh)

Vera Farmiga

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Dir: Mark Herman (2008)

I will go to see Vera Farmiga in just about anything.* She is destined for Cate Blanchett-like greatness. I even plan to rent her first breakout role in the indie "Down to the Bone." I say this to explain what would make me go to this troubling concept film: an adaptation of a children's novel that deals with the Holocaust from the point of view of a privileged German child. Touchy material, to say the least. I myself am very wary of any depictions of World War II atrocities in the context of an 'entertainment' (see, or better yet, don't see, Miracle at St. Anna). And I cannot argue with people who find this movie morally reprehensible -- except for those critics who feel so high and mighty they break the cardinal rule of movie-reviewing by revealing the ending!! (Don't worry, I gave the NY Times' Manohla Dargis a piece of my mind!) But I am not one of those people -- I found it powerful and moving.

I am using the proper British title, per IMDB, because this is a veddy British production down to its core: all the Germans speak with British accents which, once you resign yourself to this anachronism, isn't as distracting as I would have thought (at least all the accents are consistently British). And the story moves down a conventional path: family of Nazi officer leaves their secluded life in Berlin to move next door to a concentration camp, and predictably lose their illusions about the world they live in. (It takes them a surprisingly long time, considering they moved next to a CONCENTRATION CAMP!!) True, this is a story told from the point-of-view of an eight-year-old, but at times you want to tell the kid to "wise-up already!!"

He does eventually wise up, but the payoff is so emotionally powerful and gut-wrenching ... while at the same time doing justice to the unspeakable horror of the millions of victims this movie had previously ignored ... that I do not feel bad recommending it for its small contribution to our collective memory.

This is the film that made Vera famous!

* I make an exception for "Joshua," because I am so sick of movies about creepy & evil little boys... The Omen, The Omen: II, Damian: Omen III....enough already!

Brad Pitt's two most recent movies reviewed

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Dir: Andrew Dominik (2007)

I am kicking myself for not seeing this film the year it was released (I caught it last night on Cinemax). It would definitely have made my Top Ten. It is an evocative, moody period piece that takes its place alongside other notable 'modern' Westerns that revitalized the genre: from Unforgiven to Deadwood. My one sentence synopsis would be "Deadwood, starring Brad Pitt!"

I don't mean that as a slight, either. Brad Pitt is amazing as the iconic Jesse James--another tormented anti-hero who has reached a level of notoriety where he mistrusts everyone. (If it reminds you of Keith Carradine's excellent turn as Wild Bill Hickock in Deadwood, it should: the movie captures the same zeitgeist perfectly). Also like that HBO series, the film's supporting cast is without flaw -- a who's who of indie character actors: starting with memorable Deadwood alum Garret Dillahunt; Sam Rockwell (Choke); Paul Schneider (Lars & the Real Girl); a sadly-wasted Mary Louise Parker as Mrs. Jesse James; and Sam Shepard in a cameo as older brother Frank.

It is a shame Casey Affleck turned in his performance of a lifetime the same year as Javier Bardem's Anton Chigura in No Country: he inhabits the character even more than he did in his other breakthrough performance in last year's Gone Baby Gone. And kudos to the director, an obscure New Zealander who brought Eric Bana to these shores in Chopper. I wish I had been on board this movie from the start.

Burn After Reading

Dirs: Joel & Ethan Coen (2008)

For every Big Lebowski there has to be a Barton Fink.

That is the immutable rule of the Coen Brothers comic universe: you stomach the bad (Fink) in anticipation of the classic (Lebowski). For one Raising Arizona, Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, you have to sit through the dreck of The Ladykillers and Burn Without Reading. In spite of its A-list cast (George Clooney and Frances McDormand are comic masters--Tilda Swinton cannot do much with a one-note role), Burn is just that: another mean-spirited look at a collection of losers who are not so much funny as pathetic. That doesn't stop the Coens from holding them up to ridicule and then pulling the rug out from under the audience for sympathizing with them.

For a supposed comedy, I didn't laugh out loud once until the very end of the movie, where character-actor par excellence J.K. Simmons delivers some hilarious lines at CIA headquarters. That and the authentic DC locales (where I used to jog in George Clooney's footsteps! ... or his in mine, more accurately) are the only redeemable features.

But this post is about Brad Pitt, so I have to comment on his performance. I took alot of heat in some quarters for saying this about a long-forgotten Matt Dillon role, but I think it applies even more to Mr. Pitt: He is too smart an actor to play dumb. He is!! He doesn't give a bad performance so much as an unconvincing one (like he's trying too hard). I can only hope he proves my point with an award-worthy performance in the much-anticipated Benjamin Button.

Honestly, doesn't he strike a more iconic, larger than life, movie star pose in the picture at the left than the one on the right? (I'm just saying .... )

Rachel Getting Married

Dir: Jonathan Demme (2008)

It is hard to describe the premise of this movie without making you think of a dozen other movies: main character returns home for a big family get together, and all hell breaks loose as past resentments and buried dysfunctions come to the surface. It's usually a holiday (Thanksgiving--Home for the Holidays; Christmas--The Family Stone, just to name two), but a wedding works just as well: remember "Margot at the Wedding"? Of course you don't--NO ONE saw it!! (despite my glowing review).

RGM is a better movie than Margot, because it has a heart. Nicole Kidman gave a brave, uncompromising performance as a selfish, uncaring sister in the latter, but Anne Hathaway is even better...as a selfish, uncaring, but damaged sister Kym to Rachel. It is her Best Performance since "Becoming Jane." Seriously! She is totally believable as an addict recently released from rehab. In a revealing scene at the rehearsal dinner, everyone toasts the bride and groom--except Kim, whose toast is all about herself. Who hasn't had that happen at a family gathering? (foreignfilmguy is naming no names.)

The movie is filled with a multi-cultural stew of relatives, friends, entertainers and wedding traditions. That is refreshing -- up to a point. The movie never explains why this inter-racial marriage of a white, suburban Connecticut bride to an African-American groom had a Hindi wedding ceremony. And don't get me started on the reception! They hired enough entertainers for 5 receptions! Jamaican singers, jazz, samba dancers, even Robyn Hitchcock shows up, for Pete's sake! (I thought that dude was dead.) The family is all upset when the estranged mother (played by a radiant Debra Winger) decides to skip out. I'm thinking "I'm with you, Deb!"

A note on casting: Bill Irwin--Great as the Dad who is the emotional, nurturing core of the family (another refreshing surprise); Rosemarie Dewitt--Great as Rachel (and the spitting image of a young Debra Winger!); in fact, the only bland character at this shindig proves to be the Groom. Sydney is a real Dud.

But the positives far outweigh my negatives. Jonathan Demme has fashioned one of the Ten Best Movies of the Year. Go see it.

Anne Hathaway did NOT wear this to Rachel's wedding (thank goodness!)