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| This is an urgent message. If anyone is reading this, please do not be fooled by the Academy awarding the film The Artist with several of its highest honors this past Sunday. It is about ten minutes of cuteness, and 90 minutes of boring, pointless, predictable filler. Those old white men are trying to trick us again. AGAIN! | | |
| previous reviews here. The Devil's Double (2011) - based on the true story of Saddam Hussein's lunatic son's body double. Dominic Cooper plays both roles, the son Uday and the double. predictable caricature of the dictator's asshole son that never really gets any deeper than a bad foreign tv drama. even if the content is all 100% true, the movie never tried to convince me that it's not some over-the-top bullshit, that it is actually true. it just rested on the nasty reputation of the actual Husseins to create an assumption that the drama is real. but to me it all just looked like poop. 1 star.
Attack the Block (2011) - very nice surprise film, definitely one of the best i saw in 2011. aliens invade the ghettos of London, and the street toughs who live there are willing to fight back. sounds so silly -- and it is -- but it is completely aware of the pitfalls and deftly sidesteps them. it's not too campy, not too crass, not too melodramatic and not too self-important. it's just unexpectedly good fun that strikes a nice balance between humor and thrills, while also carefully layering in commentary about race and community. but nevermind all that foofy stuff. alien monsters invade! 4 stars.
Submarine (2010) - Kind of a British version of Rushmore, except with a gobs of unnecessary voice over narration. 3 stars. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) - unexpected fun despite a few pretty heavy shortcomings. this is an origins prequel to the iconic Planet of the Apes series that started in the 70's. a brilliant scientist played by James Franco (first head scratching moment) is crazily working on a promising cure for alzheimers. the apes get smart, and people suck. forget his stoner roles and 127 Hours and James Franco's prolific career is filled with him mis-cast as someone intelligent. now i'm not saying he, himself, is not smart, but he definitely cannot convincingly play one in front of a camera. the beautiful Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) is made of 100% styrofoam in her role as his gf, and the talented Brian Cox (second head scratching moment) is totally wasted here as one of several human villains so completely inept, arrogant and mean that they are rendered total buffoons. Draco Malfoy apparently speaks perfectly American English and behaves the same in a primate zoo as he does at Hogwort's. can you say "typecast forever"? yet despite all that craptastica, this movie was fairly fun! the predictable transformation of Caesar, the intelligent ape, from childlike imp to warrior king is addictive to watch, and worth the price of admission... again, despite the huge flaws. 3 stars.
Midnight in Paris (2011) - cute! Woody Allen film about Owen Wilson in a crappy marriage with Rachel McAdams (can that be possible?) when weird shit starts to happen in Paris and i can't say anymore because i don't want to ruin anything. 3.5 stars. Poetry (2011) - Lee Chang Dong's latest film about a grandmother taking care of her grandson in a changing world of brutality and indifference. One of my favorite filmmakers. 4 stars Megamind (2011) - Overlooked animated film with Will Farrell and Tina Fey about a sensitive villain who tries to create a new hero to battle after he kills his original arch-nemesis. Totally cute and funny movie. I wonder why no one talks about this. 3.5 stars Drive (2011) - Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan. He's a quiet and isolated getaway driver who recently befriended his neighbor (Mulligan) and her son before trouble comes. The music and vibe are totally 80s like Miami Vice and To Live and Die in LA and that's what you're here to see in this film. The story and character development are all a bit flimsy, but that stylish and slowly building tense atmosphere, sharp bursts of violence, and a surprisingly evil turn by the normally goofy Albert Brooks all make this movie fun and worth seeing. (Unfortunately Carey Mulligan's formidable acting chops are wasted here on a non-descript character.) 4 stars.
Jennifer's Body (2009) - Diablo Cody's (Juno) sophomore script about the class hottie who gets sexually assaulted one night then turns into a vampiric murderer of boys. I think I read before that it's all a metaphor for teenage feminism, but it strikes me more as a statement about the damage teenagers can do with their powerful, but as yet misunderstood, sexuality. Or maybe it's just not serious at all, and is just a teenage horror movie with the always hot Megan Fox and the always great Amanda Seyfried. 3 stars. Jane Eyre (2011) - Mia Wasikowski (serious up-and-comer) and Michael Fassbender. (is there a movie he WASN'T in this year?!) you know the story. it's a good one, and this is a good version of it. 3.5 stars. Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011) - documentary about Conan and his live tour he went on while waiting for his show on TBS to start. Sort of candid look at Conan and his addiction to performing. There's a great shot of him backstage basically being a totally rude and unfunny asshole to Jack MacBrayer (30 Rock) who is simply stunned that Conan would be such a dick. But Conan O'Brien can't stop! 3 stars.
Hanna (2011) - Saorse Ronan and Eric Bana in a very meh film about a tiny girl assassin unleashed on the world with vengeance in mind. 2 stars.50/50 (2011) - Joseph Gordon Levitt either is a master at picking great roles for himself (Cobra Commander aside) or he makes everything he's in better. (G.I. Joe aside) Here he's a young adult diagnosed with cancer. Good times. It should be a pretty formulaic and banal film about stuff you're familiar with, but he makes a pretty interesting attempt at bringing rounded humanity to the struggle, not just pity and tears. 3 stars.
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) - Elizabeth Olson (sister to twins Mary Kate and Ashley) is simply mesmerizing here as the psychologically wounded escapee of a small cult. I can't explain. I couldn't take my eyes off her and I was carefully listening to every word she spoke. Her presence simply sucked up all the oxygen from everything around it and lit her up. Aside from that though, it was a decent but flawed movie. Imo, there wasn't enough development for her character and the suspenseful drama towards the end didn't really hit its mark. I could watch it a hundred times more though just to watch the bewitching Elizabeth Olson. 3 stars. Bridesmaids (2011) - NOT The Hangover for girls. It's actually smarter with better characters, but one scene in particular might make it just as raunchy. I also love Kristen Wiig. 3.5 stars.
The Third Man (1949) - Orson Wells stars in a film on many people's "best of " lists. I don't see it. 2 stars. Buck (2011) - documentary about this guy who is the real life horse whisperer. (in fact, he was a consultant on that film.) horses are great, and so are nice old cowboys. not sure there's a whole lot more than that though. 2.5 stars. Midnight Cowboy (1969) - Jon Voight is a redneck rube come to NYC to make his fortune as a gigolo, and Dustin Hoffman is the NYC gutter native who happens to cross his path. there's a buddy film theme and a fish-out-of-water theme intertwined here. multi-layered film with plenty of NYC debauchery, but also some unexpectedly human characters and a big heart. 3.5 stars.
Super 8 (2011) - throwback film. fun! kids accidentally film a train derailment and then the shit hits the fan. elements of a bunch of different films here like E.T., The Goonies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and that's no accident since JJ Abrams meant this as an homage to Spielberg's great early films. some people say this film only has throwback value, and is useless to anyone not familiar with those earlier films, but I disagree. I think it should be good fun for anyone, especially since the kid actors are all pretty cute and engaging. 4 stars.
Like Crazy (2011) - two college kids in love with each other are separated by circumstances (of their own making). a bittersweet kind of movie, which is usually a good thing with me, but i couldn't let go of that feeling that these two kids are kind of annoying and irresponsible. it definitely has its sweet moments though. 3 stars.
Shame (2011) - Michael Fassbender is a sex addict. It's kind of hard to think that this currently hot commodity sex symbol could be taken seriously as an emotionally stunted, self-destructive addict of sex, but he pulls it off straight to the very bottom of the barrel. 3.5 stars.
The Guard (2011) - Brendan Gleeson as an Archie Bunker type rude, crude, police officer in a small town investigating an infiltration of organized criminals. Funny. with Don Cheadle and Mark Strong, who also seems to be in every movie lately. 3.5 stars.
Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol (2011) - the more I think about this one, the less I like it. Perfectly entertaining in a bland nonsense kind of way, but it tries to get emotional and ends up being a caricature of itself. it has at least two "dramatic" scenes that had me cringing in embarrassment for everyone involved. That sky-scarper scene is pretty awesome though. especially in IMAX. 2.5 stars.
Margin Call (2011) - historical fiction about the recent financial crisis. Zachary Quinto is a low-level risk analyst at a huge bank, and he unwraps the mystery of his bank's exposure to risky assets. this movie is an "eve of destruction" snapshot before the market takes a nosedive into the abyss, trying to get a handle on all the emotions and motivations involved in the boardrooms and directors' offices. as a drama, i think it was very successful to start with, but the drama gets lost under its own preachy wet blanket by the end. and that head fake is pretty much the only reason why i didn't like it more. overall though, it's perfectly serviceable as a film. 3 stars.
Tiny Furniture (2011) - Lena Dunham stars in this film she made pretty much about herself, though under a different name. it even co-stars her sister as her sister. she's an out of work recent film school graduate living with her mother and sister. she's just trying to figure shit out in her own mumblecore way, making mistakes and presumably growing from them. she's not shy about being a little brutal with herself though since this isn't a very flattering picture she paints of herself, and that makes this a little bit endearing. this movie got a lot of press out of the festivals, and landed her a Judd Apatow produced HBO series this year called Girls, which looks great, judging by its trailer. 3 stars.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) - Disappointing because of its sloppy story-telling. What happened to who what how now? For a complicated story, a little too much was assumed and not enough was laid out in a logical way. There's certainly enough to grab hold of, but I was just left with too many procedural questions at the end. I did enjoy the whole production of it though. It looked great, and I enjoyed the mood it produced even if I didn't get all that was going on. I also liked seeing Gary Oldman in a role that didn't involve his usual spazzing out. 2.5 stars.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) - better than the Swedish original. I have problems with the mystery element of the story that sticks out from the rest of it, as well as some of the development of the main character Mikhael Blomkvist. Presented as an honest and righteous character, he seems a little too morally compromised to go unnoticed. This whole story also seems like some sexual fantasy for middle-aged males, which makes me feel like a creep when I think about it. This movie is undeniably Fincher though, who made his bones with grinding, dark films sometimes involving crazy people. (Seven, Zodiac, The Social Network) In his hands, the seemingly weak underlying story and characters are given a pace and tone that are too entertaining to overlook. Rooney Mara (who is apparently from the Maras of the NY Giants? you know.. .THOSE Maras!) will deservedly get tons of attention for her embrace of the brutally raging waif Lisbeth Salander, but Fincher brings this one home. Scenes all carry a properly ominous mood and even the boring exposition is made to look exciting and eventful. 3.5 stars.
The Ides of March (2011) - George Clooney directed this film about a young political operative's (Ryan Gosling) turn of fortune when he's presented with a little hardball on a presidential campaign. Smart and intriguing, and not idealistic in the slightest. co-stars George Clooney, Marisa Tomei, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and Evan Rachel Wood. 4 stars.
The Notebook (2004) - I can't believe this is what all the hype is about. Seriously, people? 2 stars.
Moneyball (2011) - Brad Pitt is baseball manager Billy Beane in this narrative film based on true events in the Oakland A's organization not too long ago. Billy Beane wants to introduce number-crunching analysis into the old-school world of baseball and its intangibles. New guy versus old system movie you're familiar with already, but done fairly well with a good ear for dialogue. co-stars Jonah Hill who is mysteriously nominated for an Oscar for his role. not sure wtf is up with that. 3.5 stars.
Contagion (2011) - Steven Soderbergh's pandemic film that was pretty much the most frightening thing I saw all year. It's Outbreak except it doesn't star Cuba Gooding Jr., and doesn't suck. Building tension and fear dominate most of this film before a slight drop-off for the easy landing at the end. co-stars a shit ton of people you know. 3.5 stars.
Point Blank (2010) - French film about a male nurse whose life is kidnapped by murderous events. This is a perfectly able, if not heart-pounding, action thriller about a good man caught up in a bad situation. 3 stars.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010) - Stereotypes and bigotry are the overt stars of this satire about two rednecks whose country vacation is interrupted by vacationing college kids and their suspicions of evil. I thought it was funny and cute. 3 stars.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) - Humphrey Bogart is one of three companions on a solitary mountain trip to find buried treasure. What could go wrong? Surely not greed or paranoia. 3.5 stars.
Narc (2002) - Jason Patric is a former undercover narc investigating the murder of, fellow cop, Ray Liotta's partner. Early 2000s style makes it look a little dated, but the drama is all there for good consumption. Everyone is stressed out, each with his own demons and baggage. 3.5 stars.
The Searchers (1958) - John Wayne film that everyone talks about as a less clownish John Wayne film, but I'm not sold. He still seems clownish to me. 2.5 stars.
North by Northwest (1959) - Alfred Hitchcock's classic film about a businessman caught up in a case of mistaken identity. I was very tired while watching this... 3 stars.
Hall Pass (2011) - Owen Wilson is a middle-aged hornball given a "hall pass" to cheat on his wife for a week. predictable, with a few funny moments. might be ok for cable, but don't go look for this one. 2.5 stars.
And do you watch Community on NBC? It's on hiatus now, but I friggin love it. So funny and cute and good natured. Community! | | |
| previous reviews here.
Robin Hood (2010) - Russel Crowe, Cate Blanchett. the Robin Hood origin story. this is not the traditional Robin Hood story about the guy who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, but is rather the story of how an English soldier returning from the Crusades became the Robin Hood legend that we know about. the movie ends where we usually start hearing about him. i'm all for taking something silly and getting serious and violent with it, but really, i'd like it much better if i hadn't already seen it years ago when it was called Braveheart. actually maybe i wouldn't since this iteration of the freedom-fighter story is littered with way too many instances of me wondering "... but why did...?" and "... how come... ?" it's not very well written, and, like i said, is far too similar to Braveheart to go unnoticed. 2 stars.
The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009) - a grim, heist-like tale, except the two guys aren't robbing a bank, they're kidnapping some poor woman named Alice Creed for ransom. do these things ever happen according to plan? this one has the obligatory twists and turns that means, no, these things never go according to plan. the gripping feeling of the crime is there, making this a perfectly capable example of the genre. 3 stars.
Inside Job (2010) - oscar winner for best doc. can't say this film revealed anything i didn't already know about the financial crisis. quite the opposite, it took pains to show just one side of the story, and by doing so gave up any semblance of credibility. the second half of the movie is littered with the filmmaker injecting himself in his film by badgering the interviewees with his pre-formed ideas. it's like a Michael Moore film except this film doesn't have any of Moore's goofy entertainment value. 1.5 star.
Get Low (2010) - Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, Lucas Black. duvall is a crotchety old recluse with a nasty reputation who decides to hold his own funeral party -- while he's still alive. bill murray and lucas black are the funeral home employees and accomplices in this ruse, while sissy spacek is his ex-lover and one of the only witnesses to the man he once was. careful not to reveal too much at once, the film layout resembles a trail of breadcrumbs, each crumb explaining why and how this perfectly able and once charming man became a reviled shut-in. duvall is strong. he's always a strong presence. bill murray, ditto. 3 stars. Dogtooth (2010) - greek nominee for best foreign language film. a mother and father completely isolate their adult children since birth from the outside world rendering them childlike and ignorant. the only world they've ever known is the inside of their house and have only really interacted with each other until the father brings home a girl he pays to have sex with his man son. the film is a painfully uncomfortable yet fascinating spectacle of authority vs human spirit. 3.5 stars.
Source Code (2011) - jake gyllenhaal, michelle monaghan. a new technology allows someone to relive the last eight seconds of someone else's life. a soldier uses this technology to discover who plants a bomb on a chicago commuter train. this film completely fails to achieve suspension of disbelief, a sacrosanct requirement for any sci-fi film. it also loses its momentum after about an hour and is left twisting for the remaining final act. the only reason why this isn't one star is because the first half hour or so was kind of entertaining. too bad it never delivers on the promise of its beginning. 2 stars.
The Fighter (2010) - mark wahlburg, christian bale, amy adams, melissa leo. biopic about the boxer Mickey Ward and his crackhead brother. despite the typical sports movie ending, this movie is really about the rocky, love/hate relationship between Mickey Ward and his brother. worth watching but not exactly sure i'd seek it out. 3 stars.
Let Me In (2010) - US adaptation of one of my favorite films from the last few years, Let the Right One In. this film hits more on the horror/thriller aspects of this vampire film, but overall isn't too far from the high mark set by its predecessor. if you're going to bother watching this, i suggest you take the extra step and just watch the original. it has more heart, it's better and it's the original! 3 stars.
Four Lions (2010) - controversial british comedy about four bumbling, doofus muslim extremists on a mission to "kill the infidels". it was actually pretty funny at parts and was definitely a unique subject for a comedy but i have to agree with some of the detractors. i have no problem with using taboo subjects for comedy, but the overall theme, and it does have one, as the ending gets a bit serious, doesn't seem to disagree with muslim extremists, just how they might become extremists. 3 stars.
Catfish (2010) - documentary about a young artist from nyc who strikes up a facebook friendship with a young fan and her older sister. the artist, his brother and their friend take a road trip to meet the friends in person with surprising results. there's some debate about the veracity of this film. if you take it at face value, though, it turns out to be pretty interesting. 3 stars. Secret Reunion - korean film about an unlikely friendship between a North Korean spy and a South Korean spy hunter. starring the ubiquitous Song Kang Ho. kind of slapstickish humor, that Song Kang Ho is so good at. not very memorable beyond that. 3 stars.
Breathless - korean film "DdongPaRi". literally every other word in this film is directly or some variation of the word "sheebal", the general, all-purpose korean curse word. the film is about a an older asshole gangster debt collector and his friendship with a strong-willed high school girl. on the surface, this film just looks like a potpouri of cursing and fighting, but underneath all that, it takes some pains to create several real and fleshed out characters that should be hated, and are to some degree, but draw some sympathy. 3.5 stars.
The Hedgehog - french film about a depressed young girl and her observations of the people in her building, especially the budding friendship between the ugly and overlooked janitor and the kind, attentive and handsome older foreigner. 3 stars.
Armadillo - Danish documentary on soldiers in Afghanistan. 3 stars. The Recipe (DwenJang) - korean film. typical korean pap. 2 stars.
Actresses - korean film. real actresses play themselves in this mockumentary about the shared lives of several generations of actresses in Korea. interesting especially if you watch korean stuff and are familiar with the actresses already since they play off their public images. 3.5 stars.
Outrage - Beat Takeshi. lots of gory violence, but not much in the middle. 2.5 stars.
Circumstance - life in Iran sucks for a gay teenager with dreams. really? apparently so. huh. 2.5 stars.
Thor (2011) - this film can be split into two halves: good and bad. the Asgard half was great. Anthony Hopkins as Odin, the head honcho Asgardian god, pretty much commanded every scene he was in including a climactic bitch-fit when he expels Thor from Asgard. and new guy Tom Hiddleston as Loki made a surprisingly able villain. no match for Thor in a fist-fight, he makes up for it with cunning, manipulation, trickery and just a creepy meanness. i even really enjoyed the Frost Giant king Laufy. Thor on earth with Natalie Portman, though? pffffft. crap. 3.5 stars. Cyrus (2010) - Jonah Hill is the clingy live-in grown-up son of Marisa Tomei. he's trying to sabotage her relationship with John C Reilly. not bad. Marisa Tomei is awesome, and gorgeous as always, and it's not a bad movie at all, but i just couldn't get over the creepiness of Jonah Hill's attachment to his mother. 3 stars.
Gasland (2010) - documentary about the harmful, but unmentioned effects of drilling for natural gas. basically the process of extracting natural gas from the ground seems to be polluting the land and water in serious Erin Brokovich fashion. this movie has the now-famous scene of the guy lighting his tap water on fire. crazy ass shit. this movie turned me against natural gas as an alternative energy source. natural gas is not the answer. not if this movie is even half true. 3 stars. Insomnia (1997) - Stellan Skarsgard in the original before Christopher Nolan's forgotten remake that starred Robin Williams. originals are always better. 3 stars. 127 Hours (2010) - Danny Boyle's biopic about the dude who cut his own arm off after being stuck under a bolder for days in the wilderness. definitely interesting, especially the way Boyle was able to translate images of pain into actual discomfort for me, the viewer. when i first thought about this i didn't really think it was a good topic for a movie. i mean some guy is stuck under a rock then cuts his arm off? is it just going to be torture porn-ish? where's the character arc? where's the interaction? where's the chemistry? but that's why Danny Boyle is a great filmmaker. he told a complete story and made it fun to watch. 3.5 stars. 13 Assassins (2011) - Miike's extremely overrated samurai film. just a bunch of b-movie crap. i think read one review saying this movie challenges some of the best samurai movies out there. what a jackass statement. 2 stars.
Rabbit Hole (2010) - Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart are mourning their son who was killed in an accident. Eckhart is trying to move on while Kidman is pretty much wallowing in mourning. but there's more than that and i don't want to give away one twist here. it sounds like a typical movie about loss, but it's done well. 3.5 stars.
Meeks' Cutoff (2011) - not your typical western by a long shot. if you're a simple dude back in the days of cowboys and indians and you wanted to wagon west, you didn't have Google and highways and highway patrol and AAA and all that. you had "experts" like this guy Meeks here who was hired by a wagon train to guide them on their journey. maybe take out an indian or two. only maybe the obstacle isn't the murderous indians but actually the simple fact that life was fucking HARD back then. this movie makes a visceral experience out of that hard life and uncertainty. it's also really slow and has very little dialogue. definitely more in the art house category than western. 3 stars.
The Tree of Life (2011) - Terrence Malick. definitely not for uninitiated. if you've seen A Thin Red Line or The New World, then you know what Malick is all about. he tells stories by assembling collages of images, often to the annoyance of people expecting a normal, dynamic film. this one in particular has a spiritual theme so is twice not for the average movie-watching dude. Tree of Life seems to be Malick's thesis on God and our relationship with Him. to me, a Christian, it felt very Christian with specific references to biblical stories. it takes some work to get through, but i can't say i wasn't thinking about a 100 different things when it ended. 3 stars.
Days of Heaven (1978) - Terrence Malick again and again the biblical references. a couple masquerading as brother and sister dupe a rich guy into marrying the woman. then what happens? i'll tell you what happens. hell fire happens, that's what. 2 stars.
X-Men: First Class (2011) - really? all that love for this simple trinket of a movie? this thing that had not one but two musical montages? thanks to Michael Fassbender it wasn't bad, but relative to the hype? meh. 3 stars.
The Town (2010) - Ben Affleck directed and starred. Jeremy Renner. heist film set in Boston. nothing special, nothing terrible. disappointing sophomore effort after the very entertaining Gone Baby Gone. 3 stars. Buried (2010) - Ryan Reynolds is locked in a box. serves its purpose, nothing more. 3 stars.Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999) - couldn't finish this. they all just annoyed me so badly. 1 star. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) - wow how the mighty have fallen. i was a fan of the original Wall Street. this movie, though, just feels like a patchwork quilt thrown together to make cheese. i don't even know that that means, and i don't care. kind of like how Oliver Stone made this movie. 1.5 stars. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010) - running running running. Hermione is so cute. the end. 3 stars.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) - as someone who has only seen four of the previous films and read none of the books, i was left pretty confused about some points in this film. i do enjoy the dark turn it took though. "Nigiri, kill!" did he just announce killer sushi? because nom nom nom. 3.5 stars. Biutiful (2010) - Javier Bardem is a low level criminal who finds out he has a few months to live. redemption is hard to come by, son, especially the late kind. 2.5 stars. Gallipoli (1981) - a young Mel Gibson. friends in useless war. can anything good happen? 3.5 starsThe Lion in Winter (1968) - Peter O'toole, Katherin Hepburn in her Oscar winning role, and Anthony Hopkins' first movie role. it's based on a play, so you know it's going to be all yip-yappy. King Henry II has to decide which of his three sons to bequeath his kingdom to. a hard enough decision before the plotting queen gets involved with her fangs bared. if you enjoy characters that scheme, this is for you. all schemey and plotting-y. 4 stars. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) - scrawny but tough aspiring soldier Steve Rogers is selected for an army experiment to create the super soldier on a cellular level. he carries a shield and engages in fisticuffs with nazis. not only is the setting a throwback, but so is everything else about this superhero movie. good guys are good. bad guys are bad, and there's really no in between. reserve this for the saturday afternoon crowd with no expectation to ever go beyond the classic hero tale, and no one should be disappointed. it's all good fun. 3 stars. State of Play (2003, original British broadcast mini-series) - only six episodes and makes the remake with Russel Crowe completely irrelevant. a rising young politician's aide kills herself setting two journalists following the string straight to awesome conspiracy-land. oh those dastardly politicians with their secret meetings and punchable faces... an interesting facet of this investigation story is the gray line between the sometimes conflicting interests of the press and the police. 4 stars.
Breaking Bad Seasons 1-3 - easily one of my favorite shows of all time. a nerdy, underachieving high school chemistry teacher is diagnosed with cancer, and starts worrying about how his family will make do after he's gone. solution? put that education to use! he starts cooking meth with a half-baked former student of his. what could go wrong? surely nothing, i say. nothing at all. superior acting (no kidding here. the two stars have four Emmy awards between them and it's only in its fourth season.) and the unending watchability of putting regular, real characters into extreme and stressful situations make this one of the best. 5 stars.
Weeds Season 1 - i've loved Mary Louise Parker ever since she kicked ass as the smart wise ass Amy Gardner on West Wing, and it's no different here. i mean who can't fall in love with those giant doe eyes? she's like a walking, talking Bambi for reals. as a show overall though? interesting enough to pass the time with, but not something i'm going to seek out until i've exhausted all other shows like... 3 stars.
Friday Night Lights Seasons 2 , 3 and 4 - i've been watching this non-stop for a few weeks now. i saw 17 episodes over July 4th weekend. considering all the dark and demented shit i watch and love, it's refreshing to love a show with nothing but really decent and good people. my addiction is kind of like when i watch all those addictive Korean soap operas except all the melodrama in FNL is perfectly acceptable and it doesn't teach absurd values like poor girls should behave well so they can marry a rich grump. (who turns out to be her brother but doesn't matter because she's going to die of cancer in three hours anyway.) anyway back to FNL, i just want to reach through the screen and hug these people. the two main characters in the show are my ideal of how a great marriage should be. i find myself wanting to be like Coach Taylor, and i want to marry a woman like Tami Taylor. season 4 starts going off the rails a little, but by then i was fully vested anyway, so it didn't make much difference. 4 stars.
Game of Thrones - wowzers. i was not expecting this total awesomeness from HBO. it's been a while since The Sopranos and The Wire, you know? but damn i totally got sucked in to this one over the summer. set in a swords-and-horses fictional place a long time ago, where magic and dragons once ruled but are now treated more like superstition. now it's all about these warring families and basically how they hate each other and want to take over the throne. the plot complexity and number of speaking characters is reminiscent of The Wire. it's also completely irreverent to norms and expectations proven by the scientific fact that i was yelling stuff like "No Fucking Way!" to my tv screen. seriously, if you haven't heard of it and plan on watching it, don't read anything online and don't talk about it with friends. there's just too much to ruin by finding out about things beforehand. Winter is coming, bitches. 4.5 stars.
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| righty-o. i'll be updating all night, so stay tuned!
some starting thoughts. this wasn't a very strong year, imo. lots of B+ films. not many A's if any. Inception gets an A, and personally i really enjoyed Winter's Bone, Animal Kingdom, Never Let Me Go and Blue Valentine to varying degrees. The Social Network and The King's Speech both seem to be the favorites for best picture. i'm not very high on either of those. meh gawd, man. what is it about those two films? why does everyone love them so much? it's beyond me, man. True Grit? i'd accept that for best pic. Natalie Portman seems a lock for best actress. i'd put money on Colin Firth for best actor too. i haven't seen The Fighter but Christian Bale's performance has been described to me as the easiest lock of the night. Melissa Leo, also from The Fighter, for best supporting actress? perhaps. Tom Hooper and David Fincher seem to be favorites for Best Director but i'd keep my eye on Aronofsky to swoop in for a dark horse win.
7:32 - marisa tomei is looking elegant and gorgeous. i simply love that woman. oooh. a critic is dishing some dirt. apparently melissa leo was the favorite for best supporting actress but she took out ads promoting her own nomination, and now the mood has soured on her and Hailee Steinfeld (who was the indisputable star, not supporting actress, of True Grit) might sneak in for the win, which would be really cool. she was great in True Grit and i vehemently disagree with Helena Bonham Carter's nom for King's Speech. total overreach. how fucking tacky is melissa leo taking out her own ads?
7:37 - Scarlett Jo is wearing a form-fitting dress that is fucking smashingly flattering her curvy figure. damn that's a nice dress. i even love that color.
7:44 - Anne Hathaway is standing there with the designer Valentino, and all this fucker Tim Gunn can do is talk to Valentino about designing pretty much ignoring Anne Hathaway. i am now remembering that this ABC red carpet team were simply awful interviewers. i've already seen several very awkward moments from each of the three interviewers. someone pull the plug on these fucking jokers please. oh now Tim Gunn is talking to Anne Hathway, finally. she's wearing SO much makeup. it looks jarring close up.
7:55 - robert downey jr is a handsome man. i'm very comfortable saying that because it's just an obvious fact. his wife is wearing earrings designed by angelina jolie apparently. is there anything she doesn't do? i wouldn't be surprised if i heard that she won a rib-eating contest in texas then built an airplane the next day that she used to fly to the south pole. oh hey! look at this. it's a trailer for Source Code, the next film by Duncan Jones, the filmmaker of Moon, one of my favorites from last year. looking forward to this.
8:00 - holy crap. jennifer hudson lost a million pounds! now she's all teeth. Natalie Portman does not look pregnant. not in her face anyway. definitely in her cleavage though. purple seems to be the color of the night. is it true the father of her baby was living with his gf when he and natalie shacked up? so she's a bit of a homewrecker! James Franco has come so far since Freaks and Geeks. it's pretty awesome.
8:08 - a film critic says Colin Firth is the strongest lock of the evening. he even said it's like the green bay packers playing a high school team. Firth being the packers, obviously. he's also saying momentum, which went from The Social Network to The King's Speech, might be swinging back to The Social Network.
8:15 - wow, i'm so used to seeing Christian Bale in american roles that i forget he's a brit. heavy cockney accent! sounds like he's acting when he speaks in his natural accent. and Mila Kunis looks like.. omg. she's so hot to begin with but this dress is just ridiculous. it's totally sexy but it's elegant too. she's so hot she hurts my eyeballs. wow, look at this. there are pics up her up already. dude, check this shit out.
*sigh* she's so beautiful.
8:30 - this opening montage of Anne Hathaway and James Franco in all the best pic noms is fucking hilarious!
8:52 - Kirk Douglas is presenting and he looks unrecognizable. he had a wicked stroke, i think, a while back, and he's also really really old. he's severely slurring his speech and his face looks a little deformed. that mutherfucker was Spartacus! he can barely speak but apparently all his mental faculties are all there because he's talking how hot Anne Hathaway is. so Best Supporting Actress is up. the new Melissa Leo news makes this the most controversial category, imo. Kirk Douglas is stretching this out, not announcing the winner, purely torturing the nominees. funny. and hey waddya know. Melissa Leo won and she said "fucking"!
9:07 - Toy Story 3 wins best animated feature. which pretty much wipes out whatever tiny chance it had at winning best picture. Pixar cannot be stopped.
9:13 - Best Screenplay oscars. paying close attention here. these are the really good films of the year. The Social Network wins its first major award of the night. Best Adapted Screenplay. The King's Speech wins Best Original Screenplay, as i quietly boo in my apartment. i thought the script was one of the WEAK points of The King's Speech, not a strength. it was formulaic and contrived. Colin Firth and director Tom Hooper really worked hard to overcome the script's weakness to ultimately make a good film.
9:24 - Anne Hathaway sings a variation of On My Own from Les Miserables, a song i love, and she can really fucking sing! i love her a little more now.
9:27 - Best Foreign Language goes to In A Better World from Denmark.
9:30 - Best Supporting Actor. Christian Bale wins for The Fighter. first nomination and first win. he was due for something like this, i think. listen to this cockney fool now. he just said "dickhead" on tv! hahaa. actually he was saying dickhedlund.com. say that fast.
9:40 - Best Score. i loved the Inception score. if it doesn't win here, i think it's going to be shut out all night. Trent Reznor's The Social Network score wins. you've come a long way from Head Like a Hole "i want to fuck you like an animal" it was a decent score though, i have to admit.
9:47 - Best Sound and Sound Editing. Inception wins! possibly its only wins of the evening. oh wait.. Wally Pfister won for Inception's cinematography. i take that back. that's a pretty big one.
9:54 - Marisa Tomei is fucking pretty. James Franco seems a bit stiff as the host. Anne Hathaway on the other hand is a natural. and wtf is Cate Blanchett wearing? it's like a battle armor of a jungle war tribe or something.
10:02 - Randy Newman always gets nominated for best song and performs his nominated song at the oscars every year. and it's always so very very boring to me. is this good music? are you fucking nuts? and hey look at that. Zachary Levi who plays Chuck on NBC's Chuck, can really sing well. who knew.
10:07 - did i just miss something? why the hell did they just show a clip of Senator Carl Levin at a senate committee hearing? wtf does that have to do with the Oscars?
10:12 - Amy Adams is pretty enough in the face, but is so charismatic, because i think a genuinely happy and effervescent personality shines through. i'd love to spend some time with her. doesn't she just seem like a genuinely good and happy person?
10:16 - the winner of the Best Short has a crazy fro. it's awesome. Anne Hathaway just did a great shimmy in a silver dress with lots of tassle-type shits hanging off it. that was... pretty incredible. note to self: look for a clip of that on the interwebs somewhere tomorrow.
10:20 - Oprah (?!) is presenting for Best Doco. Inside Job wins. have to see that. the doc is about the financial crisis. the winner just noted in his speech that three years after the financial crisis caused by massive fraud, not a single financial executive went to jail. i guess the movie makes the case that the crisis was caused by maliciousness, and not simple incompetence? interesting.
10:35 - Inception just won another technical award: Best Visual Effects. The Social Network wins best editing. i always considered writing the unsung contribution to a great film, but editing is truly unsung and undeservedly so. i was involved with a few small video projects a while back and saw that the editing process is simply magical. before editing, it's nothing. it's footage. it's components. and those components are not ready made to fit like pieces in a puzzle. and also unlike a puzzle there is no finished image to work towards. they have nothing, but they create the finished product. it's really an amazing process i'm very happy to have seen up close even if it was on a small scale like that.
10:42 - AR Rahman and Florence from Florence and the Machine performing the song from 127 Hours. Florence is very... orange. and now Gwenyth Paltrow is singing her song from that country movie. all these songs are so friggin boring. what was that one song from that awful movie Once? that was a great movie song. (found it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoSL_qayMCc) awful awful movie though. Randy Newman wins Best Song for his exceptionally unexceptional song from Toy Story 3.
10:53 - the montage of death where they scroll through all the people who passed away this year. i always get nervous during this part because the crowd starts clapping for popular dead people, and i feel bad for the families of the people who don't get any clapping. no clapping this year though. maybe they finally told them not to clap. or maybe the people who died this year were all unpopular or unliked. haha.
11:03 - Best Director. Tom Hooper wins for The King's Speech. i wasn't nuts about the film, but if it's good at all it's because of that man and Colin Firth, so it's deserved, imo. i still can't believe Christopher Nolan wasn't nominated for best director. i was silently hoping Black Swan would swoop in and take Best Director or Best Pic. unlikely, but i still hoped. def not happening now.
11:12 - Jeff Bridges is presenting Best Actress. Annette Benning has not aged well. so happy to see Winter's Bone and Blue Valentine get recognition, but Natalie Portman is not walking away from this a loser. ... waiting... see? Natalie Portman wins. it's pretty amazing how well she did in Black Swan, especially considering how wooden and lackluster she's been in nearly all of her adult career. seriously. after The Professional, she's just been a pretty face, but Black Swan was different. anyway, if you're single, go see Blue Valentine. married people shouldn't see that, but you should.
11:20 - Sandra Bullock presents Best Actor. Jeff Bridges and Jesse Eisenberg do not belong here. Ryan Gosling should have gotten a nom for Blue Valentine. anyway, even if he were nominated, he'd still lose to Colin Firth. Firth started the momentum that is clearly rolling in The King's Speech's favor right now. Colin Firth wins. *yawn* surprise us, Academy!
11:32 - Spielberg presenting Best Pic makes a great point that some of the awesomest films in history have been Best Picture losers. now it's a montage of the ten best pic noms. i love these montages. surprise me, please! oh how great it would be if they pulled some shit out their ass like Inception or Black Swan for best pic... but of course it won't happen. it will be The King's Speech. and... The King's Speech wins. i liked it, but best picture? really? ugh.
11:39 - they flew in schoolkids from Staten Island to sing a finale, which is new. and i have to say this is pretty fucking cool. they sound great and they're singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. a perfect song to celebrate these dreamy things called movies.
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