1) BREACH - a stellar performance by Chris Cooper as the real-life spy Robert Hanssen makes Billy Ray's latest expose on the dark side of Washington's power brokers (he did the compelling "Shattered Glass") a must-see. D.C. never looked so ... SNOWY! (It was filmed in Canada, except for some scenes with Laura Linney in the DC Metro). And the actress playing Ryan Phillippe's East-German hottie of a wife is a revelation, especially when you realize she is the very North American actress Caroline Dhavernas, star of Fox's all too-brief series 'Wonderland.'
2) ZODIAC -- another compelling film for intelligent filmgoers: more about the obsessiveness of solving a puzzle (in the great tradition of both 'All the President's Men' and 'J.F.K.') than about the real-life events that surround the story. As in "Breach," the film is propelled forward by a trio of riveting performances: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr. -- and actor who by all measures is at the top of his game. True to his previous films, David Fincher ("Se7en") films the Zodiac murders in agonizing, excruciating detail.
It is nice to see a movie that devotes so much attention to period details (from 1969-71): from the clothes to the music to the overhead shot of the downtown San Francisco construction site that was to become the Transamerica Tower. If the movie ends without resolution for any of the characters ... hey, reality bites!
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Two movies in 2007
TWO! That is all I've had time to see so far this year, what with seeing all the Oscar movies in January, and now catching up on the 2006 Foreign Films that are now in wide release. (I will devote a future post to them), and the usual glut of slasher flicks this time of year.
1. "Factory Girl" -- Sienna Miller is brilliant! She really 'burns up the screen' and is utterly convincing. It is unfortunate that the movie around her doesn't live up to her performance. Sure, Guy Pearce is an eerily-accurate Andy Warhol (right down to his skin -- which makes him look like a burn victim); and the movie pulls no punches depicting his behavior in a negative light. But consider this:
Problem #1: Casting. As in Jimmy Fallon, as Edie's gay, blue-blooded sidekick. He's still Jimmy Fallon, (ready to mug for the camera as if he's on SNL) and he's got no business being in the Sixties, hangin' out at the factory!
Problem #2: Casting, As in "WTF is Hayden Christiansen doing in this movie??" I know what he is trying to do (God love him) -- but he is completely unequipped to carry it off. His scenes make you cringe.
Problem #3: The director (George Hickenlooper): he is a documentarian, and he makes up for his lack of imagination by digging up every camera trick from 'Easy Rider' to denote drug use and the Swinging Sixties. Forty years ago, it was cool. Now it is lame.
2. "Puccini for Beginners" -- I had to love this movie because it is an indie, filmed in Manhattan, with a good cast and lots of witty, intellectual banter, with a passing reference to Opera! And coincidentally, I saw a movie last year at the Houston Film Festival fitting that description exactly (the clever, but shoe-string budgeted and a bit amateurish "I Will Avenge You, Iago!").
"Puccini" is a better movie, but still light as a feather. And don't be fooled, Opera lovers: the references to opera are very fleeting--it's the mark of a lazy screenwriter to make the lead an opera fan (so she must be sensitive) yet drop the conceit after one scene. And if I criticize 'Factory Girl' for reverting to 'Easy Rider'-era imagery, then it's only fair to call this film out for its repeated Annie Hall references: the 'strangers who join in on the conversation' trick works two of the ten times it is employed here.
The movie uses the streets of the Villages as its backgound -- the bookstores, movie theaters, and cafes-- and savvy Manhattanites (like me) can pinpoint exactly where they filmed (Greenwich Village Cinema on W. 12th!).
The cast is first-rate: I confess to being a huge Elizabeth Reaser fan (she was in "Stay" "The Family Stone" and last year's ISA winner "The Sweet Land"--a prize for you if you've seen even ONE of these! If you haven't, she has a four-episode 'arc' on Grey's Anatomy this season), stage actor Justin Kirk, and the hard-working, never successful Gretchen Mol. What sets this movie apart is having an openly bisexual protagonist who (shock!) has an active and fulfilling sex life! Instead of pandering to what it thinks a straight audience will accept by stripping the gay character of any sexual desires (Hollywood), or relegating him/her to a sex-obsessed comic relief sidekick (Hollywood again).
Sure, we've seen the lesbian romantic comedy before--"Kissing Jessica Stein"--but that was rather chaste, as I recall. And the genre can use another one or two--it has a lot of catching up to do.
1. "Factory Girl" -- Sienna Miller is brilliant! She really 'burns up the screen' and is utterly convincing. It is unfortunate that the movie around her doesn't live up to her performance. Sure, Guy Pearce is an eerily-accurate Andy Warhol (right down to his skin -- which makes him look like a burn victim); and the movie pulls no punches depicting his behavior in a negative light. But consider this:
Problem #1: Casting. As in Jimmy Fallon, as Edie's gay, blue-blooded sidekick. He's still Jimmy Fallon, (ready to mug for the camera as if he's on SNL) and he's got no business being in the Sixties, hangin' out at the factory!
Problem #2: Casting, As in "WTF is Hayden Christiansen doing in this movie??" I know what he is trying to do (God love him) -- but he is completely unequipped to carry it off. His scenes make you cringe.
Problem #3: The director (George Hickenlooper): he is a documentarian, and he makes up for his lack of imagination by digging up every camera trick from 'Easy Rider' to denote drug use and the Swinging Sixties. Forty years ago, it was cool. Now it is lame.
2. "Puccini for Beginners" -- I had to love this movie because it is an indie, filmed in Manhattan, with a good cast and lots of witty, intellectual banter, with a passing reference to Opera! And coincidentally, I saw a movie last year at the Houston Film Festival fitting that description exactly (the clever, but shoe-string budgeted and a bit amateurish "I Will Avenge You, Iago!").
"Puccini" is a better movie, but still light as a feather. And don't be fooled, Opera lovers: the references to opera are very fleeting--it's the mark of a lazy screenwriter to make the lead an opera fan (so she must be sensitive) yet drop the conceit after one scene. And if I criticize 'Factory Girl' for reverting to 'Easy Rider'-era imagery, then it's only fair to call this film out for its repeated Annie Hall references: the 'strangers who join in on the conversation' trick works two of the ten times it is employed here.
The movie uses the streets of the Villages as its backgound -- the bookstores, movie theaters, and cafes-- and savvy Manhattanites (like me) can pinpoint exactly where they filmed (Greenwich Village Cinema on W. 12th!).
The cast is first-rate: I confess to being a huge Elizabeth Reaser fan (she was in "Stay" "The Family Stone" and last year's ISA winner "The Sweet Land"--a prize for you if you've seen even ONE of these! If you haven't, she has a four-episode 'arc' on Grey's Anatomy this season), stage actor Justin Kirk, and the hard-working, never successful Gretchen Mol. What sets this movie apart is having an openly bisexual protagonist who (shock!) has an active and fulfilling sex life! Instead of pandering to what it thinks a straight audience will accept by stripping the gay character of any sexual desires (Hollywood), or relegating him/her to a sex-obsessed comic relief sidekick (Hollywood again).
Sure, we've seen the lesbian romantic comedy before--"Kissing Jessica Stein"--but that was rather chaste, as I recall. And the genre can use another one or two--it has a lot of catching up to do.
Elizabeth Reaser
Monday, March 05, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
OSCAR Want / Think
Category* / Want (to win) / Think (will win) / Winner
[* excluding the 3 shorts categories, since I didn't see any of them.]
Make-Up: Pan's Labyrinth / Pan's Labyrinth / Pan's L.
Visual Effects: [none] / Pirates of the Caribbean 2 / Pirates2
Costume Design: Dreamgirls / Dreamgirls / Marie Antoinette
Sound Mixing: Flags of our Fathers / Dreamgirls / D-girls
Sound Editing: Flags of our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima / Letters
Film Editing: Children of Men / The Departed / Departed
Cinematography: Children of Men / Children-Men / Pan's L.
Art Direction: Pan's Labyrinth / Pan's Labyrinth / Pan's L.
Original Score*: The Queen / The Queen / Babel
* best category: all nominees deserving
Original Song: "Love You I Do" (Dreamgirls) / "Listen" (Dreamgirls) / An Inconvenient Truth
Original Screenplay: The Queen / Little Miss Sunshine / LMS
Adapted Screenplay: Notes on a Scandal / The Departed / Departed
Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth/ Iraq in Fragments/ Truth
Animated Film: Happy Feet / Cars / Happy Feet
Foreign Film: Pan's Labyrinth / Pan's L / The Lives of Others
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese / Martin Scorsese / Marty
SUPP. ACTRESS: Rinko Kikuchi / Jennifer Hudson / J.Hud
SUPP. ACTOR: Jackie Earle Haley / Alan Arkin / A.Ark.
ACTRESS: Helen Mirren / Helen Mirren / Helen Mirren
ACTOR: Forest Whitaker / Forest Whitaker / Forest Whitaker
PICTURE: The Queen / Little Miss Sunshine / The Departed
Score: 13 (out of 21)
[* excluding the 3 shorts categories, since I didn't see any of them.]
Make-Up: Pan's Labyrinth / Pan's Labyrinth / Pan's L.
Visual Effects: [none] / Pirates of the Caribbean 2 / Pirates2
Costume Design: Dreamgirls / Dreamgirls / Marie Antoinette
Sound Mixing: Flags of our Fathers / Dreamgirls / D-girls
Sound Editing: Flags of our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima / Letters
Film Editing: Children of Men / The Departed / Departed
Cinematography: Children of Men / Children-Men / Pan's L.
Art Direction: Pan's Labyrinth / Pan's Labyrinth / Pan's L.
Original Score*: The Queen / The Queen / Babel
* best category: all nominees deserving
Original Song: "Love You I Do" (Dreamgirls) / "Listen" (Dreamgirls) / An Inconvenient Truth
Original Screenplay: The Queen / Little Miss Sunshine / LMS
Adapted Screenplay: Notes on a Scandal / The Departed / Departed
Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth/ Iraq in Fragments/ Truth
Animated Film: Happy Feet / Cars / Happy Feet
Foreign Film: Pan's Labyrinth / Pan's L / The Lives of Others
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese / Martin Scorsese / Marty
SUPP. ACTRESS: Rinko Kikuchi / Jennifer Hudson / J.Hud
SUPP. ACTOR: Jackie Earle Haley / Alan Arkin / A.Ark.
ACTRESS: Helen Mirren / Helen Mirren / Helen Mirren
ACTOR: Forest Whitaker / Forest Whitaker / Forest Whitaker
PICTURE: The Queen / Little Miss Sunshine / The Departed
Score: 13 (out of 21)
Friday, February 23, 2007
OSCAR tidbits
To whet your appetite for the Big Night (1996) here is a list of your favorites stars (and mine) who will be presenting awards during Sunday's telecast:
"The list of presenters includes Ben Affleck, Jessica Biel, Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Kirsten Dunst, Will Ferrell, Jodie Foster, Eva Green, Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Diane Keaton, Nicole Kidman, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Lopez, Tobey Maguire, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, John Travolta, Rachel Weisz, Kate Winslet, and Reese Witherspoon. As per the above list, no one who began working in films prior to 1970 will be giving out any awards. The veteran-est of the presenters is Diane Keaton, whose first film, Lovers and Other Strangers, came out in 1970."
And to help you fill-out those Oscar ballots, two IMPORTANT awards were handed out recently, news that may have flown under your radar:
1)
"Mexican-born Emmanuel Lubezki, one of filmdom’s top cinematographers, became the third non-American in a row to win the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) feature-film award for his work in the Anglo-American production Children of Men.
According to Variety, Lubezki’s win "further establish[es] the internationalization of a body that started doling out its own kudos partly in response to the large number of overseas cinematographers, many British, who were winning Oscars."
The trade magazine also names Mexico "as a hotbed of cinematic talent." Both Rodrigo Prieto (whose work on Babel has been highly praised) and Guillermo Navarro (who’s up for an Academy Award, along with Lubezki, for El Laberinto del fauno / Pan’s Labyrinth) also hail from Mexico."
¡Que Viva México! (1932)
2)
"This past Sunday, the American Cinema Editors (ACE) picked two films — it was a tie — to receive the Eddie Award in the dramatic feature film category: Babel (Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise) and The Departed (Thelma Schoonmaker – her fourth Eddie). [Both are nominated for Oscars.]
Way to go, Thelma! ... & Louise (1991)
"The list of presenters includes Ben Affleck, Jessica Biel, Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Kirsten Dunst, Will Ferrell, Jodie Foster, Eva Green, Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Diane Keaton, Nicole Kidman, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Lopez, Tobey Maguire, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, John Travolta, Rachel Weisz, Kate Winslet, and Reese Witherspoon. As per the above list, no one who began working in films prior to 1970 will be giving out any awards. The veteran-est of the presenters is Diane Keaton, whose first film, Lovers and Other Strangers, came out in 1970."
And to help you fill-out those Oscar ballots, two IMPORTANT awards were handed out recently, news that may have flown under your radar:
1)
"Mexican-born Emmanuel Lubezki, one of filmdom’s top cinematographers, became the third non-American in a row to win the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) feature-film award for his work in the Anglo-American production Children of Men.
According to Variety, Lubezki’s win "further establish[es] the internationalization of a body that started doling out its own kudos partly in response to the large number of overseas cinematographers, many British, who were winning Oscars."
The trade magazine also names Mexico "as a hotbed of cinematic talent." Both Rodrigo Prieto (whose work on Babel has been highly praised) and Guillermo Navarro (who’s up for an Academy Award, along with Lubezki, for El Laberinto del fauno / Pan’s Labyrinth) also hail from Mexico."
¡Que Viva México! (1932)
2)
"This past Sunday, the American Cinema Editors (ACE) picked two films — it was a tie — to receive the Eddie Award in the dramatic feature film category: Babel (Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise) and The Departed (Thelma Schoonmaker – her fourth Eddie). [Both are nominated for Oscars.]
Way to go, Thelma! ... & Louise (1991)
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Hey! AFI!
The American Film Institute recently sent out new ballots to 1,500 film critics (and others--I think Bill Clinton got to vote the last time), for “AFI’s 100 Years ... 100 Movies — 10th Anniversary Edition,” but I still haven't gotten my ballot! What gives?
Someone has to make sure that crap like Forrest Gump doesn't make the cut this time, as it did in your ill-conceived, flawed, and lame effort produced in 1997 ('Best Years of our Lives' #37? 'Tootsie' 'Dances with Wolves' and 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' on the list at all?). For an excellent skewering of the original list, as well as an interesting alternate list, read Jonathan Rosenbaum.
If I did have a ballot in front of me, which ten would I chose? [Apparently, AFI compiles the list from everyone's Top Ten.] Well, I certainly wouldn't waste my votes on the ten 'automatics' that should and will appear on any list of this kind: Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, for starters; a representative example from directors such as A. Hitchcock, John Ford ("Grapes of Wrath"), Frank Capra, Billy Wilder ("Sunset Boulevard"), Scorsese ("Raging Bull" or "Taxi Driver"), Kubrick ("2001:A Space Odyssey" or "Dr. Strangelove"). And I would definitely make room for The Godfather and Chinatown, the two masterpieces of the Seventies. Those are all safe, as are other certifiable classics like The African Queen, Singin' in the Rain, and The Wizard of Oz. [I deliberately excluded Lawrence of Arabia, which was #5 for AFI: a great classic, but no one will convince me that it is in any way 'American.']
No, I would think more broadly, to save from obscurity some soon-to-be forgotten masterpieces -- forgotten by these young critics who are too lazy to look past their own navels to seek out (with "NetFlix" they don't even have to look past their navels, or get off their couches!) How else did "Star Wars" crack the Top 15 and "E.T". make it to #25? Tellingly, Spielberg must have more films on the list than any other director. Raiders of the Lost Ark came in one spot ahead of Vertigo for crying out loud!
My picks fall into three categories:
Black and white classics:
Notorious
Hud
The Last Picture Show
A Streetcar Named Desire
(I also have a soft spot for Bogart classics like "The Big Sleep" and "To Have and Have Not")
More 'recent' films
(everything is relative when you are in your forties)
The Conversation (Coppola)
Nashville (Altman)
Blue Velvet (Lynch)
Silents ... which were shamefully neglected the first time (except for 'Birth of a Nation' and two Chaplin classics):
Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith)
The General (Buster Keaton)
Sunrise (F.W. Murnau)
Of all these movies, only one even made AFI's original list in 1997! ("Streetcar" at a too low #45). The foregoing discussion is moot, of course -- not because I don't have a ballot -- but because AFI 'self-selected' a list of 400 movies for critics to choose from! I don't need no stinkin' list, AFI! I can choose my OWN top 100 without your "suggestions"!
I'm sure half of my list didn't even make AFI's cut of 400. Take a look at some of the 'new classics' they have added (they are so desperate for attention they go to these lengths to skew the vote to attract current moviegoers and to court controversy -- which corresponds to more 'ink' -- the real reason behind this exercise in stupidity):
A Beautiful Mind
American Beauty
Crash
Million Dollar Baby
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Spiderman 2
I'll say this right now: if TWO Paul Haggis films crack the Top 100 (he wrote the screenplay to Million Dollar Baby), I am burning my AFI card, and sending them back the ashes!! (it expired in 2005, but they won't know that).
The new list will be announced in June (no doubt with a CBS Special). The way I see it, AFI has already blown their second chance to fix their mistakes.
Someone has to make sure that crap like Forrest Gump doesn't make the cut this time, as it did in your ill-conceived, flawed, and lame effort produced in 1997 ('Best Years of our Lives' #37? 'Tootsie' 'Dances with Wolves' and 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' on the list at all?). For an excellent skewering of the original list, as well as an interesting alternate list, read Jonathan Rosenbaum.
If I did have a ballot in front of me, which ten would I chose? [Apparently, AFI compiles the list from everyone's Top Ten.] Well, I certainly wouldn't waste my votes on the ten 'automatics' that should and will appear on any list of this kind: Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, for starters; a representative example from directors such as A. Hitchcock, John Ford ("Grapes of Wrath"), Frank Capra, Billy Wilder ("Sunset Boulevard"), Scorsese ("Raging Bull" or "Taxi Driver"), Kubrick ("2001:A Space Odyssey" or "Dr. Strangelove"). And I would definitely make room for The Godfather and Chinatown, the two masterpieces of the Seventies. Those are all safe, as are other certifiable classics like The African Queen, Singin' in the Rain, and The Wizard of Oz. [I deliberately excluded Lawrence of Arabia, which was #5 for AFI: a great classic, but no one will convince me that it is in any way 'American.']
No, I would think more broadly, to save from obscurity some soon-to-be forgotten masterpieces -- forgotten by these young critics who are too lazy to look past their own navels to seek out (with "NetFlix" they don't even have to look past their navels, or get off their couches!) How else did "Star Wars" crack the Top 15 and "E.T". make it to #25? Tellingly, Spielberg must have more films on the list than any other director. Raiders of the Lost Ark came in one spot ahead of Vertigo for crying out loud!
My picks fall into three categories:
Black and white classics:
Notorious
Hud
The Last Picture Show
A Streetcar Named Desire
(I also have a soft spot for Bogart classics like "The Big Sleep" and "To Have and Have Not")
More 'recent' films
(everything is relative when you are in your forties)
The Conversation (Coppola)
Nashville (Altman)
Blue Velvet (Lynch)
Silents ... which were shamefully neglected the first time (except for 'Birth of a Nation' and two Chaplin classics):
Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith)
The General (Buster Keaton)
Sunrise (F.W. Murnau)
Of all these movies, only one even made AFI's original list in 1997! ("Streetcar" at a too low #45). The foregoing discussion is moot, of course -- not because I don't have a ballot -- but because AFI 'self-selected' a list of 400 movies for critics to choose from! I don't need no stinkin' list, AFI! I can choose my OWN top 100 without your "suggestions"!
I'm sure half of my list didn't even make AFI's cut of 400. Take a look at some of the 'new classics' they have added (they are so desperate for attention they go to these lengths to skew the vote to attract current moviegoers and to court controversy -- which corresponds to more 'ink' -- the real reason behind this exercise in stupidity):
A Beautiful Mind
American Beauty
Crash
Million Dollar Baby
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Spiderman 2
I'll say this right now: if TWO Paul Haggis films crack the Top 100 (he wrote the screenplay to Million Dollar Baby), I am burning my AFI card, and sending them back the ashes!! (it expired in 2005, but they won't know that).
The new list will be announced in June (no doubt with a CBS Special). The way I see it, AFI has already blown their second chance to fix their mistakes.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
WORST OF 2006
There are so many movies I could put in this category for this particular year, I have to break it down into sub-categories:
First, the 'ehhh....' (as in 'what's all the fuss about?')
BLOOD DIAMOND (did anyone else feel like the moviemakers were using the tragedy of Sierra Leone as just another exotic backdrop for their action/adventure tale?)
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
HALF NELSON
VENUS
Second, the 'ambitious failures' (it tried, it had its merits, but it failed):
BABEL
FUR
MARIE ANTOINETTE
Next, the merely BAD:
The Black Dahlia
The DaVinci Code
Down in the Valley
Thank You For Smoking
Finally, the aggressively HORRIBLE movies:
6. Apocalypto
5. (tie) two documentaries that prove a good subject does not guarantee a good doc
- Stolen (about the famous Boston art heist of 1976)
- I'm Your Man (a tribute to Leonard Cohen)
4. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 -- lowest-common-denominator Hollywood 'product' at its worst; leave it to suits to ruin a franchise.
3. Clerks 2 (I'd rank it higher, but I don't want to give Kevin Smith the satisfaction. He wants viewers like me to be offended by his pushing the boundaries of taste. But I'm not offended by the subject matter: I'm offended because it's NOT FUNNY -- but rather a pathetic attempt by an aging sell-out to recapture the original spirit of his indie youth. Sad, really.
2. Art School Confidential - bad acting only compounds the misery of sitting through this cynical, misanthropic view of human nature ... and the 'art' that makes the protagonist famous? IT'S CRAP!! When you cannot even get that detail right -- GIVE UP!!
and the WORST MOVIE of the YEAR:
1. THE LOST CITY (aka "Andy Garcia's vanity pic")
Oh, what a misguided, amateurish effort! No doubt good intentions by all parties involved paved the way to this 'labor of love'; but make no mistake: by the end of these 140-interminable minutes, the road we have taken is to movie hell. If you last that long ... I admit I did not (and I never walk out on a movie!) But at the point where any competent movie-maker would be rolling the credits, Garcia needlessly switches the action to New York, and brings the ill-conceived Bill Murray character with him -- that's when I gave up. (Murray plays a character named "The Writer" -- 'nuff said).
Here is how New York Times critic Stephen Holden describes the filmmaking: 'clumsy' 'pulpy grandiosity' 'buffoonish parodies of Communists' and political discussion that doesn't rise above 'junior high level.' The same could be said of the director: you'd think Garcia would have learned more from the great directors he's worked with -- like, "don't steal other people's shots!" It's as if he thought every shot had to be 'iconic.' In the hands of an amateur, however -- the ripped-off Godfather 'drying sheets on a line' shot, or the black and white shot (except for the woman wearing the Cuban flag as a dress) for example -- the results are laughable. Like the acting.
First, the 'ehhh....' (as in 'what's all the fuss about?')
BLOOD DIAMOND (did anyone else feel like the moviemakers were using the tragedy of Sierra Leone as just another exotic backdrop for their action/adventure tale?)
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
HALF NELSON
VENUS
Second, the 'ambitious failures' (it tried, it had its merits, but it failed):
BABEL
FUR
MARIE ANTOINETTE
Next, the merely BAD:
The Black Dahlia
The DaVinci Code
Down in the Valley
Thank You For Smoking
Finally, the aggressively HORRIBLE movies:
6. Apocalypto
5. (tie) two documentaries that prove a good subject does not guarantee a good doc
- Stolen (about the famous Boston art heist of 1976)
- I'm Your Man (a tribute to Leonard Cohen)
4. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 -- lowest-common-denominator Hollywood 'product' at its worst; leave it to suits to ruin a franchise.
3. Clerks 2 (I'd rank it higher, but I don't want to give Kevin Smith the satisfaction. He wants viewers like me to be offended by his pushing the boundaries of taste. But I'm not offended by the subject matter: I'm offended because it's NOT FUNNY -- but rather a pathetic attempt by an aging sell-out to recapture the original spirit of his indie youth. Sad, really.
2. Art School Confidential - bad acting only compounds the misery of sitting through this cynical, misanthropic view of human nature ... and the 'art' that makes the protagonist famous? IT'S CRAP!! When you cannot even get that detail right -- GIVE UP!!
and the WORST MOVIE of the YEAR:
1. THE LOST CITY (aka "Andy Garcia's vanity pic")
Oh, what a misguided, amateurish effort! No doubt good intentions by all parties involved paved the way to this 'labor of love'; but make no mistake: by the end of these 140-interminable minutes, the road we have taken is to movie hell. If you last that long ... I admit I did not (and I never walk out on a movie!) But at the point where any competent movie-maker would be rolling the credits, Garcia needlessly switches the action to New York, and brings the ill-conceived Bill Murray character with him -- that's when I gave up. (Murray plays a character named "The Writer" -- 'nuff said).
Here is how New York Times critic Stephen Holden describes the filmmaking: 'clumsy' 'pulpy grandiosity' 'buffoonish parodies of Communists' and political discussion that doesn't rise above 'junior high level.' The same could be said of the director: you'd think Garcia would have learned more from the great directors he's worked with -- like, "don't steal other people's shots!" It's as if he thought every shot had to be 'iconic.' In the hands of an amateur, however -- the ripped-off Godfather 'drying sheets on a line' shot, or the black and white shot (except for the woman wearing the Cuban flag as a dress) for example -- the results are laughable. Like the acting.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
BEST OF 2006
At last . . .
My previous observation about 2006 being a weak year for movies has held true through the end of the movie season, so I am forced to break with tradition and combine my Top Ten List with my Best Foreign Films list, to bring you my TOP 15 MOVIE LIST. It is top-heavy with foreign films, but that's not my fault!
Only one movie this year earned the title of "Best Film of the Year," and that film is . . . . . .
1. PAN'S LABYRINTH (Mexico) - amazing and unforgettable
the rest:
2. THE QUEEN (UK)
3. TSOTSI (South Africa 2005)
4. VOLVER (Spain)
5. Cache (France)
6. The Departed
7. Stranger Than Fiction
8. La Moustache (France)
9. Running With Scissors
10. Children of Men
11. Inside Man
12. Little Children
13. The Painted Veil
14. Notes On A Scandal
15. Flags of our Fathers
Honorable mention (alpha):
Brick
Casino Royale
The Good Shepherd
Hollywoodland
Letters From Iwo Jima
Miss Potter
Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story
V for Vendetta
Saw & Enjoyed:
All the King's Men
The Good German
The Illusionist
The Lake House
The Last King of Scotland
Mission: Impossible: 3
A Prairie Home Companion
World Trade Center
Significant film missed: United 93
Notable documentaries:
1. An Inconvenient Truth
2. Wordplay
3. The Bridge
Coming soon: Worst Movies of 2006 !
My previous observation about 2006 being a weak year for movies has held true through the end of the movie season, so I am forced to break with tradition and combine my Top Ten List with my Best Foreign Films list, to bring you my TOP 15 MOVIE LIST. It is top-heavy with foreign films, but that's not my fault!
Only one movie this year earned the title of "Best Film of the Year," and that film is . . . . . .
1. PAN'S LABYRINTH (Mexico) - amazing and unforgettable
the rest:
2. THE QUEEN (UK)
3. TSOTSI (South Africa 2005)
4. VOLVER (Spain)
5. Cache (France)
6. The Departed
7. Stranger Than Fiction
8. La Moustache (France)
9. Running With Scissors
10. Children of Men
11. Inside Man
12. Little Children
13. The Painted Veil
14. Notes On A Scandal
15. Flags of our Fathers
Honorable mention (alpha):
Brick
Casino Royale
The Good Shepherd
Hollywoodland
Letters From Iwo Jima
Miss Potter
Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story
V for Vendetta
Saw & Enjoyed:
All the King's Men
The Good German
The Illusionist
The Lake House
The Last King of Scotland
Mission: Impossible: 3
A Prairie Home Companion
World Trade Center
Significant film missed: United 93
Notable documentaries:
1. An Inconvenient Truth
2. Wordplay
3. The Bridge
Coming soon: Worst Movies of 2006 !
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Carping on the critics
[an occasional series where I take issue with something I've read.]
1) DAVID DENBY's blurb for "Dreamgirls" reads (breathlessly): "A Great Movie Musical Has Been Made At Last!"
AT LAST!?!? Where have you been, pal? Not one, but TWO movie musicals released in the past five years can legitimately lay claim to the title of 'Reinventing the Movie Musical,' and Dreamgirls is not in either's league. The two, Rob Marshall's Chicago (2002) and Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge (2001) had originality and vision in every frame, sadly lacking in the lumbering "Dreamgirls." Instead, Bill Condon relies on every hackneyed convention of the stale, old movie musical.
Talk about a 'throwback': it is as if he deliberately ignored the last two decades of film history. And don't try to tell me he was "being true to the time in which it was set (1960's-early 70's) or debuted on Broadway (1980s)." Fidelity to time and place went out the window as soon as he staged that ill-conceived disco dance number involving rows of leather-clad, Village People-esque male dancers, when the time period surrounding that sequence (the clothes, hair, etc.) was clearly early Seventies, not Donna Summer disco late-Seventies!
Condon fails virtually every other time he shifts from dialogue to musical number: compare the clunky and stilted way the early number about "Family" begins (they all end up on a stage in a group hug) with ANY of the seamless transitions in Chicago. Every number is a bit too obviously pre-recorded, and poor Jamie Foxx is ill-served by his director: the hapless actor is reduced to standing in place while being sung to for long stretches of film time.
Many of my problems with the film can be blamed on the source material (that second act must be brutal to sit through in a theater), so why bother if you aren't bringing something new to it? Bill Condon is obviously talented -- remember Gods & Monsters? -- but his talents clearly DO NOT extend to movie musicals.
1) DAVID DENBY's blurb for "Dreamgirls" reads (breathlessly): "A Great Movie Musical Has Been Made At Last!"
AT LAST!?!? Where have you been, pal? Not one, but TWO movie musicals released in the past five years can legitimately lay claim to the title of 'Reinventing the Movie Musical,' and Dreamgirls is not in either's league. The two, Rob Marshall's Chicago (2002) and Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge (2001) had originality and vision in every frame, sadly lacking in the lumbering "Dreamgirls." Instead, Bill Condon relies on every hackneyed convention of the stale, old movie musical.
Talk about a 'throwback': it is as if he deliberately ignored the last two decades of film history. And don't try to tell me he was "being true to the time in which it was set (1960's-early 70's) or debuted on Broadway (1980s)." Fidelity to time and place went out the window as soon as he staged that ill-conceived disco dance number involving rows of leather-clad, Village People-esque male dancers, when the time period surrounding that sequence (the clothes, hair, etc.) was clearly early Seventies, not Donna Summer disco late-Seventies!
Condon fails virtually every other time he shifts from dialogue to musical number: compare the clunky and stilted way the early number about "Family" begins (they all end up on a stage in a group hug) with ANY of the seamless transitions in Chicago. Every number is a bit too obviously pre-recorded, and poor Jamie Foxx is ill-served by his director: the hapless actor is reduced to standing in place while being sung to for long stretches of film time.
Many of my problems with the film can be blamed on the source material (that second act must be brutal to sit through in a theater), so why bother if you aren't bringing something new to it? Bill Condon is obviously talented -- remember Gods & Monsters? -- but his talents clearly DO NOT extend to movie musicals.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
THE OUTRAGE !!
* aka 'My annual reaction to the Academy Award nominations'
I say that every year, but aside from a handful of glaring omissions, the nominations have few surprises; they are becoming as predictable as the winners eventually turn out to be.
As befits my nom de plume, I will start with Best Foreign Film: of the record 61 submissions in this category, surely Volver from Spain was one of the five best (it is clearly one of the best foreign films I've seen this year); and it did make the short-list of nine announced a week ago (in a new twist by the Academy). Of the five that made the cut, I have only seen 'Water' from Canada, and let me say 1) it's not as good as Volver; and 2) "IT'S NOT CANADIAN!" Set in India, filmed in Sri Lanka, in Hindi, with an all-South Asian cast! I'm sure it was financed in Canada, and the director may be a Canadian citizen, but come on! If Canada wants to horn-in on this category (you don't see Britain or Australia pulling this trick!) they should stick to nominating those Quebecois films in French that get routinely ignored.
Obviously, the nominators failed to read my "Memo to the Academy" (alas) since they ignored 8 of my 10 suggestions -- Hollywoodland, Stranger Than Fiction, Running with Scissors = ZERO nominations! (Mark Wahlberg and Jackie Earle Haley for Best Supp. Actor they got right).
But at least in the Original Score category, they spared us the perennial overblown bombast from these usual suspects: Danny Elfman, James Horner, Howard Shore, and -- the king of bombast -- John Williams!! I won't even begrudge Randy Newman his annual spot in the Original Song loser's circle, because at least his songs are integrated into the story, and not tacked-on during the closing credits to gain airplay and free publicity on MTV2 (case in point: the totally inappropriate 'Blood Diamond rap' that closes that film). My early favorite for Original Score is Frenchman Alexandre Desplat, as much for his lush and tragic (and tragically-overlooked, except by the Globes) score to The Painted Veil as for his nominated The Queen.
That leads to my Big Outrage #1: Michael Sheen in The Queen was NOT nominated for Best Supporting Actor! (he played Tony Blair to a 'T' in what was likely THE best performance in a supporting role for the year!) Also, aside from Markie-Mark, how could they ignore the great ensemble work by everyone else in The Departed?
And which nominees stole their spots? I could go either way on this one: Alan Arkin has been playing that same "irascible old coot" in films for ages, but since Little Miss Sunshine is an industry darling (there's nothing like making back your investment!) I'll skewer the other popular choice: Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond. YES! I know, I know what you're thinking: "but he's so strong and black and handsome... he's good in everything." That's because he plays the same character in everything!! You know: the proud but angry black man standing up for his _____ (freedom, family, diamonds). That role was already perfected by Denzel Washington's Oscar-winning turn in Glory. But that was 1989, for gosh sakes! From the same director (Edward Zwick). Talk about dipping to that well too many times -- I'll bet he'd have written that stock character into The Last Samurai had black people been able to travel to China in the 1870s.
Big Outrage #2:
In the Best 'Adapted' Screenplay category appears ... Borat! Borat?
I have two questions:
1) Adapted from WHAT, exactly???
2) When are these writing groups going to get off their kick for celebrating improvisation? Love it or hate it (mark me in the latter category), improvisational comedy is by definition not written down! Where's the Screenplay? Half of the work is done either by the actors or the unwitting stooges they play off of. You might as well nominate those two South Carolina frat-boys in Borat while you're at it.
I'm so sick of comedies where you are forced to sit an WAIT while actors strain to work through their characters to get to something funny, in the hope that they will eventually make you laugh. I want to yell "Show me the finished product, AFTER you've workshopped this bit!" With all these accolades heaped on this type of 'writing,' audiences are condemned to suffer through another "For Your Consideration" by the supremely INSUFFERABLE no-talent Christopher Guest. You have been duly warned.
I say that every year, but aside from a handful of glaring omissions, the nominations have few surprises; they are becoming as predictable as the winners eventually turn out to be.
As befits my nom de plume, I will start with Best Foreign Film: of the record 61 submissions in this category, surely Volver from Spain was one of the five best (it is clearly one of the best foreign films I've seen this year); and it did make the short-list of nine announced a week ago (in a new twist by the Academy). Of the five that made the cut, I have only seen 'Water' from Canada, and let me say 1) it's not as good as Volver; and 2) "IT'S NOT CANADIAN!" Set in India, filmed in Sri Lanka, in Hindi, with an all-South Asian cast! I'm sure it was financed in Canada, and the director may be a Canadian citizen, but come on! If Canada wants to horn-in on this category (you don't see Britain or Australia pulling this trick!) they should stick to nominating those Quebecois films in French that get routinely ignored.
Obviously, the nominators failed to read my "Memo to the Academy" (alas) since they ignored 8 of my 10 suggestions -- Hollywoodland, Stranger Than Fiction, Running with Scissors = ZERO nominations! (Mark Wahlberg and Jackie Earle Haley for Best Supp. Actor they got right).
But at least in the Original Score category, they spared us the perennial overblown bombast from these usual suspects: Danny Elfman, James Horner, Howard Shore, and -- the king of bombast -- John Williams!! I won't even begrudge Randy Newman his annual spot in the Original Song loser's circle, because at least his songs are integrated into the story, and not tacked-on during the closing credits to gain airplay and free publicity on MTV2 (case in point: the totally inappropriate 'Blood Diamond rap' that closes that film). My early favorite for Original Score is Frenchman Alexandre Desplat, as much for his lush and tragic (and tragically-overlooked, except by the Globes) score to The Painted Veil as for his nominated The Queen.
That leads to my Big Outrage #1: Michael Sheen in The Queen was NOT nominated for Best Supporting Actor! (he played Tony Blair to a 'T' in what was likely THE best performance in a supporting role for the year!) Also, aside from Markie-Mark, how could they ignore the great ensemble work by everyone else in The Departed?
And which nominees stole their spots? I could go either way on this one: Alan Arkin has been playing that same "irascible old coot" in films for ages, but since Little Miss Sunshine is an industry darling (there's nothing like making back your investment!) I'll skewer the other popular choice: Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond. YES! I know, I know what you're thinking: "but he's so strong and black and handsome... he's good in everything." That's because he plays the same character in everything!! You know: the proud but angry black man standing up for his _____ (freedom, family, diamonds). That role was already perfected by Denzel Washington's Oscar-winning turn in Glory. But that was 1989, for gosh sakes! From the same director (Edward Zwick). Talk about dipping to that well too many times -- I'll bet he'd have written that stock character into The Last Samurai had black people been able to travel to China in the 1870s.
Big Outrage #2:
In the Best 'Adapted' Screenplay category appears ... Borat! Borat?
I have two questions:
1) Adapted from WHAT, exactly???
2) When are these writing groups going to get off their kick for celebrating improvisation? Love it or hate it (mark me in the latter category), improvisational comedy is by definition not written down! Where's the Screenplay? Half of the work is done either by the actors or the unwitting stooges they play off of. You might as well nominate those two South Carolina frat-boys in Borat while you're at it.
I'm so sick of comedies where you are forced to sit an WAIT while actors strain to work through their characters to get to something funny, in the hope that they will eventually make you laugh. I want to yell "Show me the finished product, AFTER you've workshopped this bit!" With all these accolades heaped on this type of 'writing,' audiences are condemned to suffer through another "For Your Consideration" by the supremely INSUFFERABLE no-talent Christopher Guest. You have been duly warned.
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