Ah, the Oscars - for a movie critic and fan, the greatest love-hate spectacle of them all. For so many of us, the Oscars represent an incredibly important award ceremony gone sour; a Hall of Fame riddled with problems of popularity and politics, scarred by a ridiculous and short-sighted approach to daring works of cinema and fundamentally undone by the always problematic "make-up award" (meaning awards given to industry figures not for the merit of their current work, but for the Academy's failure to recognize previous accomplishments). But for reasons I wish I didn't understand, I still find myself glued to my television set every Spring, waiting on the announcements - and even worse, checking the Internet daily for the scoops, skinnies and leads on nominees and winners. So, what's the big deal? The big deal is: movies are amazing. They capture us with amazing, escapist ease, and yet they hold within themselves the power to make truly moving and important artistic statements. To say they are the dramas of our time, the cinema house our century's Shakespearean stage is to deny the originality that, I believe, makes movies so special: they are a NEW art, an NEW medium, and when all the pieces fit, the way they are able to speak and to move...well, it's amazing. So, I'm for efforts, no matter how flawed, to reward the many, many people who make this amazing, collaborative art what it has the potential to be (well, not Golden Globe-flawed...). I'm an Oscar fan, dammit, and I will stand and applaud the spare handful of moments this Sunday night when that statuette goes to the man or woman that most deserves it, popularity or box office or politics be damned. If it keeps artists interested in using the popularity of their medium to draw attention to the things art is all about, I say bring on the red carpet.
Now, on with my picks for this year's awards:
BEST ACTOR - Forrest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland
This is a good place to start. Although a few people I liked got left off the list, Forrest turned a magnificent performance, and he has all but run the ticket in the other award ceremonies thus far. Consider him all but a lock. If there's a dark horse, I would say it's Peter O'Toole, who has the whole "lifetime achievement" thing going for him.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
I didn't see Dreamgirls and I have no regrets about it, but from what I hear, Murphy has two big things going for him: 1) he channels the R&B greats almost as well as he channeled those spirits in Haunted Mansion, and 2) his long career in Hollywood. I loathe that type of prestige - it deters people from actually recognizing performances - but it seems it will be enough to get Murphy to the podium, despite Eddie's campaigning against himself this past month with Norbit.
BEST ACTRESS - Helen Mirren - The Queen
I saw The Queen and honestly didn't think that much of it, but Mirren's performance is spot-on, and in a year that was a bit down for female parts. This is definitely the single most iron-clad lock of the evening, and a miss here would be, well, disastrous for my chances of winning twenty bucks off my friends...
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
This is traditionally the category where the Academy goes the most crazy, often throwing the "safe choice" to the wind to honor sometimes the most bizarre of token nominees - however, this year, the relative mediocrity of Hudson's competition would make any attempt to dislodge the season favorite seem like an intentional slight - something the Academy, recently celebrated for its diversity, would not want. Hudson is a lock, but if you're looking for a dark horse, my pick is Abigail Breslin, who could pull that cute-kid-wearing-a-fat-suit crap and sucker grandparent voters. Is there anyone I didn't offend at least a little with this post?
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - Little Miss Sunshine
Of course, if Breslin doesn't nap the supporting actress statue, the Academy still has to throw a bone somewhere to the little comedy that could this year, and my guess is that it will be in the screenplay category. The writing is fine, to be sure, and I really liked the movie, but I think this is a cheap win, and there were several more interesting and more provocative scripts out there. In any case, look for the yellow VW bus to make its way up at about the two hour mark for Original Screenplay.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY - The Departed
This pick is a little bit dicey, but I think the movie has the buzz recently to pull it off. Although the screenplay William Monohan adapts The Departed from is already pretty damn good - Hong Kong's Infernal Affairs - the translation not only of language, but intent - and then the removal of the action to Boston and its accompanying social environment - is pretty astounding, and my heart is in this pick as much as my wallet is.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - Children of Men
This will be CoM's lone award this year, and that's a shame - the flick is downright sensational - but its a good pick up, as the film's staggering visual command not only helps the viewer to feel right at home in the 2030s (after all, Spielberg already did that in Minority Report, didn't he?), but it also makes those "oh my God" moments of action feel downright visceral. Violence in this film is shockingly close, and it is the camera-work in particular that makes the documentary realism of the film work so well. A good win.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - An Inconvenient Truth
This is another no-brainer - has anyone even heard of any of the other nominees? Has any documentary ever had such a large impact on our world? Hold your tongue, Fahrenheit 9/11 supporters! You can't gloat if you didn't change the outcome of an election - and by God, An Inconvenient Truth might actually get somebody into the 2008 race. Pretty impressive, whether you consider yourself someone who believes 200 years of industrial growth is behind the well-documented and scientifically verified changes in our global environment, of if you are still tacking melting ice caps up to the anger of Apollo as he is being pulled across the sky in a mighty chariot. I'm sure you're both a little right, so, you know, whichever.
BEST FOREIGN FILM - Pan's Labyrinth
Oh, I love this category. Few categories goes as right as this category does most every year, and when Guillermo del Toro takes the stage Sunday night and accepts an Oscar for what is without a doubt one of the year's most ambitious and successful films, I, for one, will be absolutely ecstatic. Pan's Labyrinth is marvelous, and if you still have it in your town, please, please, please go see it.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM - Cars
...and as much as I love the foreign film category, I hate this one. Although it seemed like a good idea when we were getting half a dozen solid animated films each year (when was that, exactly? 1995?), now this category has turned into a race to find the tallest man to walk on the moon (the point being, there aren't many candidates). In any case, if Pixar runs, Pixar wins, no matter how mediocre Pixar's entry into the contest might be. So Cars it is, even if Monster House, which never did find an audience, is the far superior picture.
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - The Queen
I usually like this category, but I couldn't care less this year. The best music I heard was the Kronos Quartet's work in The Fountain, but nobody else saw the movie, it seems, so it got left out. I thought Clint Eastwood's work in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima was awfully nice, but nobody cares about that, either. So, sure, go with The Queen. It's won all the other awards so far.
BEST ORIGINAL SONG - Dreamgirls
Again, I don't care. Dreamgirls wins this, so just mark it down and send more mean letters to Robert Redford for creating this category with that stupid song in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
SOUND MIXING - Dreamgirls
People sing, people dance - it sounds fresh, it sounds period - honestly, I don't really know what this category even means.
SOUND EDITING - Letters from Iwo Jima
Hey, at least it will take home an Oscar. Good try, Clint - maybe next time you should come up with a more original or meaningful idea than retelling the story of one of the most grisly and important battles of the 20th century's most significant global conflict from the respective points of view of each side, making a dramatic statement for peace in a war-torn time, over the course of two ambitious and largely successful motion pictures. Sound editing is what you get, pal. Now go make more indulgent, operatic nonsense like Mystic River so we can reward you properly.
ANIMATED SHORT FILM - Matchgirl
Never heard of it. Picking this name at random.
LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM - West Bank Story
Never heard of it. Picking this name at random.
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT - Blood
Never heard of it. But it has that "Holocaust documentary - Oscar gold" feel to it, doesn't it?
VISUAL EFFECTS - Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
Seems like a crappy movie always wins this category. Here's to hoping I'm right and it ends up being this one.
COSTUMES - Dreamgirls
Period costumes, bright lights, lots of dancing and singing: dark horse = Marie Antoinette.
MAKE-UP - Pan's Labyrinth
I actually care about this award sometimes, especially times like this year, when the winner will actually deserve recognition for doing something special that advances the scope of the field. Hooray.
FILM EDITING - The Departed
How do you make a two-and-a-half hour police thriller overwhelm you with speed and action? I have no idea, but The Departed did just that, and I can't imagine anyone seeing the movie and feeling otherwise - an accomplishment, of an editorial sort, I imagine. Your dark horse is Babel.
BEST DIRECTOR - Martin Scorsese - The Departed
Do you see what I did here? I started with interesting categories, then went through all the boring ones, and I saved two of the most interesting categories for last. How's that for pacing and rhythm? In any case, this is the night's big story, with Martin Scorsese, five-time Oscar nominee and a director already enshrined in the Hollywood pantheon, finally receiving the little gold statuette that will solidify the significance of his film career, post 1980. The Academy has been trying to give him this award for some time, but the movies haven't been up to snuff: Gangs of New York, The Aviator. But this year, Marty's got the movie, he's got the box office, he's got the buzz, he's got it all - and Sunday night, this will be the speech to watch. Congratulations, and consider this category wrapped up.
BEST PICTURE - Babel
I almost chickened out here - this year's Best Picture race is as close as it gets, with no clear favorites out of the entire pack. An argument can be made for any of the five films nominated, and although I feel incredibly shaky about this pick, especially since I'm arguing that Best Picture will be Babel's only Oscar win, the bottom line is: Babel has the award credentials, it has the director, it has the performances, it has the dramatic subject matter - it has everything it needs to win Best Picture, and maybe even to rinse our palates of the filthy stench of Crash from a year ago. If you want to rank the other contenders, I think The Departed is still poised to sweep, Little Miss Sunshine is the legitimate dark horse, The Queen has 'safe choice' pedigree, and even Letters from Iwo Jima has Clint Eastwood as its director, and you can never, ever count Clint out of an Oscar race.
So, there you have it. My guess: I'll nab 19/24 - that would be the average over my last three years guessing this thing. Even if I don't win the twenty bucks from my friends, I think these picks are good enough to keep you in the running of any office pools you might be a part of, and hey, them's braggin' rights, buddy. If there's nothing else to say (I hope there's not...), then best of luck everyone - tune in this Sunday night and we can all see what happens together. It's a crazy time of year, to be sure - one that wrecks the yearly movie calendar with reckless abandon, one that inflates Hollywood's already substantial ego to the absolute bursting point - but recognizing achievement is what this society is all about (for better or worse). I know I won't be able to look away.
KMC
Friday, February 23, 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007
Top Ten Madness
Top Ten Movies of 2006
*I will be fleshing this out in the coming days - keep checking back for more mini-reviews for the films listed!
10: Little Miss Sunshine - ***1/2 out of ****
Ah, what would we do without our yearly indie darlings? Try as I could, I could not dislike this movie - I went into the theater hoping to come out with a "meh" response that would allow me to stay smug and ignore the Independent Spirit Awards this year, but the damn movie wouldn't let me do it. In the end, it's the character work these actors do that lift this movie above its script and its concept - underneath the easy jokes about family disfunctionality (didn't we get enough of that with "Cheaper by the Dozen"?) lie some downright brutal scenes that push past the immediate laughs and reveal how anger and distrust and disappointment within a family can eat away at the bonds that we all know in our heads are so meaningful and important for, well, our sanity. You sense the reality of the scars underneath the cheap jabs these people take at one another, and not only do you end up hurting with them, you find yourself rooting for them on as a family because, as cheesy as it may sound, you think they deserve at least a minute's happiness. Getting that message across in a genre film as formulaic as this one was no easy task, and the cast and director deserve all the praise they get for pulling it off.
9: Borat - ***1/2 out of ****
This review needs to be kept brief, if only to keep me from quoting the movie so extensively that it might take away from your need - yes, need - to see it. Put simply, "Borat" is really, really funny. The humor is sharp and satirical, the laughs feel fresh and original, and the concept - to take a Daily Show-type faux-reporter and use him to expose the ignorance and prejudice of others - is one that, for better or worse, speaks intimately to the current generation. In fact, the movie ends up working so well as a comedy that much of its substantive agenda is easily overlooked in the first few viewings; it's hard to remember that even if "Borat" creator Sacha Baron Cohen isn't actually a Kazakh, he's not an American, either, and his journey through the heartland is significant not just for the laughs it brings, but also for what his outsider's perspective really does illuminate about who we really are in this country. Certainly, as an instructor and Ph.D. student at the University of South Carolina, I was affected and embarrassed by the way a handful of U.S.C. frat guys behaved in the movie, and to see "Borat," at least to me, was to see a movie that exposed our biases and prejudices in very real way. To use examples from the film, I may not buy a Hummer so I can use it to run over gypsies, but I might buy one for the factory-standard "pussy magnet" Borat insists must be hidden inside the glove compartment. Ouch, right? It's an odd thing to say "I laughed until I cried" and mean it, sincerely.
8: Letters from Iwo Jima - ***1/2 out of ****
7: Babel - ***1/2 out of ****
6: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - ***1/2 out of ****
5: Children of Men - ***1/2 out of ****
4: Apocalypto - **** out of ****
"Apocalypto" represents an astounding piece of kinetic filmmaking. Mel Gibson seems to embrace the challenges inherent not only in telling a story in a foreign language, but in making nearly all of the voices, moods and affective techniques of American cinema work in both a tongue and world that can best be described as entirely alien to an American audience. Specifically, "Apocalypto," using almost no dialogue, finds a way to make us laugh, empathize and fear for the lives of the characters we are watching simply through the careful control of camera, movement, color and rhythm: the movie is a case study on the active use of a film camera, and should be recognized and rewarded as such. Additionally, "Apocalypto" features several very fine performances and an attention to the graphic and gruesome that seems in some ways to be an appeal for Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" - "I understand the roles violence and gore can play in a film," he seems to be saying, "and by using them for alternately comedic, dramatic and horrific effect here, my intentions in 'Passion' should be re-read as deliberate and meaningful." Not that I would ever put my words in a director's mouth (especially Gibson's).
3: Pan's Labyrinth - **** out of ****
2: The Departed - **** out of ****
1: United 93 - **** out of ****
*I will be fleshing this out in the coming days - keep checking back for more mini-reviews for the films listed!
10: Little Miss Sunshine - ***1/2 out of ****
Ah, what would we do without our yearly indie darlings? Try as I could, I could not dislike this movie - I went into the theater hoping to come out with a "meh" response that would allow me to stay smug and ignore the Independent Spirit Awards this year, but the damn movie wouldn't let me do it. In the end, it's the character work these actors do that lift this movie above its script and its concept - underneath the easy jokes about family disfunctionality (didn't we get enough of that with "Cheaper by the Dozen"?) lie some downright brutal scenes that push past the immediate laughs and reveal how anger and distrust and disappointment within a family can eat away at the bonds that we all know in our heads are so meaningful and important for, well, our sanity. You sense the reality of the scars underneath the cheap jabs these people take at one another, and not only do you end up hurting with them, you find yourself rooting for them on as a family because, as cheesy as it may sound, you think they deserve at least a minute's happiness. Getting that message across in a genre film as formulaic as this one was no easy task, and the cast and director deserve all the praise they get for pulling it off.
9: Borat - ***1/2 out of ****
This review needs to be kept brief, if only to keep me from quoting the movie so extensively that it might take away from your need - yes, need - to see it. Put simply, "Borat" is really, really funny. The humor is sharp and satirical, the laughs feel fresh and original, and the concept - to take a Daily Show-type faux-reporter and use him to expose the ignorance and prejudice of others - is one that, for better or worse, speaks intimately to the current generation. In fact, the movie ends up working so well as a comedy that much of its substantive agenda is easily overlooked in the first few viewings; it's hard to remember that even if "Borat" creator Sacha Baron Cohen isn't actually a Kazakh, he's not an American, either, and his journey through the heartland is significant not just for the laughs it brings, but also for what his outsider's perspective really does illuminate about who we really are in this country. Certainly, as an instructor and Ph.D. student at the University of South Carolina, I was affected and embarrassed by the way a handful of U.S.C. frat guys behaved in the movie, and to see "Borat," at least to me, was to see a movie that exposed our biases and prejudices in very real way. To use examples from the film, I may not buy a Hummer so I can use it to run over gypsies, but I might buy one for the factory-standard "pussy magnet" Borat insists must be hidden inside the glove compartment. Ouch, right? It's an odd thing to say "I laughed until I cried" and mean it, sincerely.
8: Letters from Iwo Jima - ***1/2 out of ****
7: Babel - ***1/2 out of ****
6: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - ***1/2 out of ****
5: Children of Men - ***1/2 out of ****
4: Apocalypto - **** out of ****
"Apocalypto" represents an astounding piece of kinetic filmmaking. Mel Gibson seems to embrace the challenges inherent not only in telling a story in a foreign language, but in making nearly all of the voices, moods and affective techniques of American cinema work in both a tongue and world that can best be described as entirely alien to an American audience. Specifically, "Apocalypto," using almost no dialogue, finds a way to make us laugh, empathize and fear for the lives of the characters we are watching simply through the careful control of camera, movement, color and rhythm: the movie is a case study on the active use of a film camera, and should be recognized and rewarded as such. Additionally, "Apocalypto" features several very fine performances and an attention to the graphic and gruesome that seems in some ways to be an appeal for Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" - "I understand the roles violence and gore can play in a film," he seems to be saying, "and by using them for alternately comedic, dramatic and horrific effect here, my intentions in 'Passion' should be re-read as deliberate and meaningful." Not that I would ever put my words in a director's mouth (especially Gibson's).
3: Pan's Labyrinth - **** out of ****
2: The Departed - **** out of ****
1: United 93 - **** out of ****
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Long Break
Wow, so here we go again...
I apologize for the incredibly long absence - there are no good excuses, but I will say I have had quite a bit of difficulty adjusting to my schedule this semester - there seems to be quite a bit of free time, but never at the same times there used to be. In any case, now that things are settling somewhat, I plan on making a more concentrated effort on posting. Speaking of, I have a few posts that are in the works for some time this weekend/early next week:
1) My end-of-the-year movie lists - I've almost seen everything "important" that I set out for myself to see, and I shall report back on this shortly. In brief, I would like to strongly recommend "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Children of Men" - they are both excellent, excellent films playing right now, and you should see them before they disappear from the local cinema. These movies are big-screen experiences and deserve the extra time/attention. You'll thank me, I promise.
2) More posts from The Paterson Project!!! Several, several poems and songs are in the works and should see the light of day soon. Additionally, Conversely and I are planning a trip to the town of Paterson, New Jersey at the very beginning of March. We will certainly keep any and all interested parties informed about this experience.
3) Music reviews: I'm currently digesting the new Explosions in the Sky record, the new Shins, the new Andrew Bird (to be released in April!), the new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! and many others. I'm not much for musical top tens, but I think I might at least put up my personal favorite 5 or 6 records from last year and the ones I'm most looking forward to in 2007.
4) Oscar picks! This is where the money is. If you have an office pool, you need to keep checking back here until this goes up. I have won Oscar pools with my friends three years running and I am also the reigning champion at both the Dutch Square Mall Waldenbooks AND the Harbison Blvd. Best Buy. I am an Oscar betting machine. Get in on this while the getting is good.
5) Braves, Braves, Braves. The greatest of all games is soon to start again, and I will have to share my thoughts, hopes, dreams, etc. with the blog-o-sphere at large as soon as possible. My hope is that Conversely will engage in a similar project...
So, with all of this on the horizon, I once again feel daunted. Thanks for nothing, Internet.
Talk to you soon,
T. Az
I apologize for the incredibly long absence - there are no good excuses, but I will say I have had quite a bit of difficulty adjusting to my schedule this semester - there seems to be quite a bit of free time, but never at the same times there used to be. In any case, now that things are settling somewhat, I plan on making a more concentrated effort on posting. Speaking of, I have a few posts that are in the works for some time this weekend/early next week:
1) My end-of-the-year movie lists - I've almost seen everything "important" that I set out for myself to see, and I shall report back on this shortly. In brief, I would like to strongly recommend "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Children of Men" - they are both excellent, excellent films playing right now, and you should see them before they disappear from the local cinema. These movies are big-screen experiences and deserve the extra time/attention. You'll thank me, I promise.
2) More posts from The Paterson Project!!! Several, several poems and songs are in the works and should see the light of day soon. Additionally, Conversely and I are planning a trip to the town of Paterson, New Jersey at the very beginning of March. We will certainly keep any and all interested parties informed about this experience.
3) Music reviews: I'm currently digesting the new Explosions in the Sky record, the new Shins, the new Andrew Bird (to be released in April!), the new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! and many others. I'm not much for musical top tens, but I think I might at least put up my personal favorite 5 or 6 records from last year and the ones I'm most looking forward to in 2007.
4) Oscar picks! This is where the money is. If you have an office pool, you need to keep checking back here until this goes up. I have won Oscar pools with my friends three years running and I am also the reigning champion at both the Dutch Square Mall Waldenbooks AND the Harbison Blvd. Best Buy. I am an Oscar betting machine. Get in on this while the getting is good.
5) Braves, Braves, Braves. The greatest of all games is soon to start again, and I will have to share my thoughts, hopes, dreams, etc. with the blog-o-sphere at large as soon as possible. My hope is that Conversely will engage in a similar project...
So, with all of this on the horizon, I once again feel daunted. Thanks for nothing, Internet.
Talk to you soon,
T. Az
Friday, September 22, 2006
Another Side Project
For anyone out there with the guts to read another blog:
"Conversely" of "Upper Limit Music; Lower Limit Speech" has joined forces with me in starting up a new blog titled "The Paterson Project." The blog is an ongoing journal where he and I will work together on an album of music/poetry based on Chapter III of William Carlos Williams' "Paterson: Book Four." Sound totally rad to you, too? Well, you should check it out, then. The web address should be linked above, but if you need it, it is:
http://patersonproject.blogspot.com
Posts should be coming frequently over there - we have a lot of work to do. As for "Atom Smashing," it's still up and running, even if the entries have slowed down since the Fall term started. I'll do my best to get back on schedule over here.
As the Magician said to Frosty the Snowman: "Busy, busy, busy!"
"Conversely" of "Upper Limit Music; Lower Limit Speech" has joined forces with me in starting up a new blog titled "The Paterson Project." The blog is an ongoing journal where he and I will work together on an album of music/poetry based on Chapter III of William Carlos Williams' "Paterson: Book Four." Sound totally rad to you, too? Well, you should check it out, then. The web address should be linked above, but if you need it, it is:
http://patersonproject.blogspot.com
Posts should be coming frequently over there - we have a lot of work to do. As for "Atom Smashing," it's still up and running, even if the entries have slowed down since the Fall term started. I'll do my best to get back on schedule over here.
As the Magician said to Frosty the Snowman: "Busy, busy, busy!"
Monday, September 11, 2006
GENERAL.
In honor of today's anniversary, please forgive me for saying a few more words:
Five years ago today, most of us watched on television as far too many of the nation's policemen, firemen and rescue workers went back into a burning building to save the victims of a tragedy they too would ultimately become victims of. Their shared belief that the worst was over, documented in interview after interview in the months that followed the morning of September 11, echoes far too loudly now, in a time when no situation can begin before its most disastrous outcome is anticipated. We have resolved ourselves, those of us who are here, to never again experience the shock of that morning, that sweeping sense of disbelief at the sheer magnitude of an event that paralyzed so many of us at a time of such desparate need. And in this preparation, we have shed more than our perceived vulnerability.
As the son and brother of firemen, I thank those who have and continue to help others. I would like to remember, in whatever small way I can, those who were lost in the attacks of September 11 and those who have been lost in the conflicts resulting from that day. And I also hold out hope, foolish as it may be, for a time when the belief that good can still be done again outweighs the fear and darkness of a violent act.
In honor of today's anniversary, please forgive me for saying a few more words:
Five years ago today, most of us watched on television as far too many of the nation's policemen, firemen and rescue workers went back into a burning building to save the victims of a tragedy they too would ultimately become victims of. Their shared belief that the worst was over, documented in interview after interview in the months that followed the morning of September 11, echoes far too loudly now, in a time when no situation can begin before its most disastrous outcome is anticipated. We have resolved ourselves, those of us who are here, to never again experience the shock of that morning, that sweeping sense of disbelief at the sheer magnitude of an event that paralyzed so many of us at a time of such desparate need. And in this preparation, we have shed more than our perceived vulnerability.
As the son and brother of firemen, I thank those who have and continue to help others. I would like to remember, in whatever small way I can, those who were lost in the attacks of September 11 and those who have been lost in the conflicts resulting from that day. And I also hold out hope, foolish as it may be, for a time when the belief that good can still be done again outweighs the fear and darkness of a violent act.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
The "Mid-Year" Top Ten, #5 - #1
MOVIES.
5. BUBBLE (dir. Steven Soderbergh)
***1/2 out of ****
Steven Soderbergh has made a career out of rotation. Rising into the Hollywood limelight in 1989 with the small-market indie SEX, LIES & VIDEOTAPE, Soderbergh has spent the majority of his career attempting to balance big-budget projects like the Danny Ocean films and 2000's TRAFFIC with smaller, more personal films financed through his own production company that, as he admits, are designed to "keep him true to his roots." Whether or not this process works is debatable - certainly, OCEAN'S 13 feels like a paycheck movie - but it has also led to some of Soderbergh's strongest work, including 1996's SCHIZOPOLIS, the ERIN BROKOVICH follow-up, SOLARIS, and now the blink-and-you'll-miss-it BUBBLE. The idea behind BUBBLE is simple: write the bare bones of a script about three co-workers in blue collar America, cast non-actors in the main parts, rely on improvisation for 90% of the film's dialogue and let the essential low-budget independent movie unspool in front of you. Yet even more impressive than the guts behind this experiment is the strange and humbling film that this apparent stunt produces; BUBBLE is a shockingly well-realized movie with a tight and meaninglful plot, strong visual direction and startlingly good performances. The result of this collective effort excels not only as an efficient "purge" for its Hollywood crew, but also as a moving statement about the drama that fuels human lives - and the genuine horror of a cause-and-effect situation that entangles the film's three main characters in a way that feels as fated and unavoidable as the jobs and lives they each possess. Released simultaneously in theaters and on DVD, I recommend checking this one out - unfortunately, you won't see anything else like it this year.
4. MONSTER HOUSE (dir. Gil Kenan)
***1/2 out of ****
Alright, for those of you who are throwing out my credibility right about...now, I offer the following items for my defense: THE PRINCESS BRIDE. THE GOONIES. STAND BY ME. For those of you who turn your noses up at the notion of celebrating a "kids" movie, just take this moment to look back at your own childhood and the movies that shaped it, and now tell me with a straight face that there wasn't something special and united in the movies you remember. Maybe it was a sense of daring, a seemingly-unnecessary curse word, the sight of something gross or scary or mean-spirited that at the time seemed so delightfully out of place in the movie you were watching. For me, I think about two things: the faces melting in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and the dead body in STAND BY ME. I'll never shake how much seeing those two images made me feel like I had finally grown out of Saturday morning cartoons and moved into an infinitely more tantalizing and taboo adulthood. Now, is MONSTER HOUSE one of those films? In a way, yes - there are dead bodies, murders, suicides, even a snaggle-toothed Jason Lee drinking and pissing on an old man's lawn. But more importantly, MONSTER HOUSE is a movie about those kinds of films, and particularly, those kinds of moments - and when it comes to mixing the shock of the macabre with the curious delight of childhood, Kenan's very-solid animated film delivers on both fronts. And it should also be noted that it has one helluva monster house. Don't say I didn't warn you.
3. V FOR VENDETTA (dir. James McTeigue)
***1/2 out of ****
Often unfairly compared to the MATRIX films, McTeigue (who directed exactly none of the Matrix movies) gives us a film that relies on style, sure, but one that also tries awfully hard to have something more to say by the time the credits roll than "Whoa." VENDETTA, which uses a dystopian London as an obvious stand-in for contemporary America, does its best to not only critique a global power system that seems to slant ever-dramatically toward authoritarianism, but also indicts quite harshly those truly responsible in any democratic state: the masses. The moves within the film to this extreme - the masked anyman and everyman, V, the tempered rebel Evey (played very well by Natalie Portman), the pattern of social injustices aimed not at individuals but transparent types - all work incredibly well, and by the time the film reaches its climax, it has not only braved the question of terrorism, it has moved through it and past it to a conclusion that feels frighteningly right - and that is by far any film of this nature's greatest strength and accomplishment.
2. THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA (dir. Tommy Lee Jones)
***1/2 out of ****
It is surprisingly difficult for me to sum up my thoughts on this movie. Jones's film, which weaves in and out of a variety of flashbacks to tell the story of a Border Patrol agent (Barry Pepper) who accidentally kills a Mexican man only to face the vengeance of that man's best friend, American cowboy, Pete (director Jones), works less as a film narrative and more as a film experience. To clarify this awfully fuzzy distinction, let me talk about Pete: Pete is that rarest of movie characters - a man of marginal intelligence played both convincingly and without condescension. For Pete, Melquiades's death is an absurdity, something almost entirely incomprehensible. The Mexican man, whom Pete hired and worked with on a small Texas farm, means so much more to the cowboy than even a traditional Hollywood notion of love encompasses - he was, simply put, Pete's best friend, and for his life to be taken in an act of allegedly instigated violence goes against everything Pete understands about his world. All that follows this initial act - Pete's kidnapping of the Border Patrol agent, the disastrous journey - with corpse in tow - to Melquiades hometown in Mexico - is still tied deeply to Pete's own grieving process, and this beautiful and tragic fulfilment, paced literally to the steps of Pete's understanding, works not only as an enjoyable and moving film experience, but also as a singularly unfolding depiction of cause and effect as it might exist when removed from linear constraints. Okay, fair enough - you say that's impossible. But watch the movie. Then tell me what you would call this trick Jones's film does so, so well.
1. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (dir. Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris)
***1/2 out of ****
So, the top of the list. What can I say? I've bought into this year's indie darling, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. I knew this was going to happen. I saw it coming, slowly from town to town, in releases larger and more widespread, and I tried to brace myself for its stream of adulation, its wave of both gotta-see-it love and don't-buy-the-hype cynicism that would, inevitably, shape my own view of the film. But this last Saturday, as I walked out of the theater, I couldn't shake this amazing smile that, if only for a moment, kept me from thinking along the lines of any of the dozen reviews and articles I'd read since SUNSHINE debuted at Cannes last spring. Instead, all I could focus on was just how good the movie I just saw was. I don't know exactly what I can say to defend this position; sure, the plot worked alright, the characters were all unique and enjoyable, the big point of the whole thing felt good and unforced, but there was something else in this movie that really clicked with me, and it wasn't until I was half way home from the theater that I realized just what it was: I really, really dig unironic symbolism. There was something so downright pleasant about the metaphorical family vehicle that was that bizarro family's yellow VW van - this immediately-available and sincere image of a totally misfit family sticking together simply because they couldn't get anywhere alone. From the moment that van's clutch went out and I saw Steve Carell's suicidal homosexual Frank pushing alongside eight-year-old beauty contestant Olive, the Nietzche-obsessed misanthrope Dwayne and their ridiculously self-help obsessed father, Richard, I knew this was an image I wouldn't shake - and sometimes, that's perfect. You can complain about coincidence all you like, but there's no attempt here at realism - this is a movie about a wacked-out family driving 70o miles to deliver their bespectacled daughter to a beauty pageant she's a fish-out-of-water at - but its shooting at something both accepting and cohesive about the way we interact with each other - and if a movie can do that and make me laugh out loud - well, I have to say, it's on to something wonderful.
So, there we go: the Mid-Year Top Ten. Are there some big holes here? Well, yep, there's not denying it. But believe me, we could do worse than those top few movies - and with any luck, these next four months will bring a lot of movies that are even better. I know I've got my picks for the fall season, as I'm sure you do (that's a whole different list), but for now, these ten will have to do - and warts and all, these are movies we owe it to ourselves to remember before that Oscar rush sweeps all us movie-lovers up in an awards-crazy wave that each and every year leaves a special handful of movies from the previous spring and summer behind - unless, of course, we take the time to "list" them. After all, what could be more debatable than that?
Until December, enjoy yourselves everyone.
KMC
5. BUBBLE (dir. Steven Soderbergh)
***1/2 out of ****
Steven Soderbergh has made a career out of rotation. Rising into the Hollywood limelight in 1989 with the small-market indie SEX, LIES & VIDEOTAPE, Soderbergh has spent the majority of his career attempting to balance big-budget projects like the Danny Ocean films and 2000's TRAFFIC with smaller, more personal films financed through his own production company that, as he admits, are designed to "keep him true to his roots." Whether or not this process works is debatable - certainly, OCEAN'S 13 feels like a paycheck movie - but it has also led to some of Soderbergh's strongest work, including 1996's SCHIZOPOLIS, the ERIN BROKOVICH follow-up, SOLARIS, and now the blink-and-you'll-miss-it BUBBLE. The idea behind BUBBLE is simple: write the bare bones of a script about three co-workers in blue collar America, cast non-actors in the main parts, rely on improvisation for 90% of the film's dialogue and let the essential low-budget independent movie unspool in front of you. Yet even more impressive than the guts behind this experiment is the strange and humbling film that this apparent stunt produces; BUBBLE is a shockingly well-realized movie with a tight and meaninglful plot, strong visual direction and startlingly good performances. The result of this collective effort excels not only as an efficient "purge" for its Hollywood crew, but also as a moving statement about the drama that fuels human lives - and the genuine horror of a cause-and-effect situation that entangles the film's three main characters in a way that feels as fated and unavoidable as the jobs and lives they each possess. Released simultaneously in theaters and on DVD, I recommend checking this one out - unfortunately, you won't see anything else like it this year.
4. MONSTER HOUSE (dir. Gil Kenan)
***1/2 out of ****
Alright, for those of you who are throwing out my credibility right about...now, I offer the following items for my defense: THE PRINCESS BRIDE. THE GOONIES. STAND BY ME. For those of you who turn your noses up at the notion of celebrating a "kids" movie, just take this moment to look back at your own childhood and the movies that shaped it, and now tell me with a straight face that there wasn't something special and united in the movies you remember. Maybe it was a sense of daring, a seemingly-unnecessary curse word, the sight of something gross or scary or mean-spirited that at the time seemed so delightfully out of place in the movie you were watching. For me, I think about two things: the faces melting in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and the dead body in STAND BY ME. I'll never shake how much seeing those two images made me feel like I had finally grown out of Saturday morning cartoons and moved into an infinitely more tantalizing and taboo adulthood. Now, is MONSTER HOUSE one of those films? In a way, yes - there are dead bodies, murders, suicides, even a snaggle-toothed Jason Lee drinking and pissing on an old man's lawn. But more importantly, MONSTER HOUSE is a movie about those kinds of films, and particularly, those kinds of moments - and when it comes to mixing the shock of the macabre with the curious delight of childhood, Kenan's very-solid animated film delivers on both fronts. And it should also be noted that it has one helluva monster house. Don't say I didn't warn you.
3. V FOR VENDETTA (dir. James McTeigue)
***1/2 out of ****
Often unfairly compared to the MATRIX films, McTeigue (who directed exactly none of the Matrix movies) gives us a film that relies on style, sure, but one that also tries awfully hard to have something more to say by the time the credits roll than "Whoa." VENDETTA, which uses a dystopian London as an obvious stand-in for contemporary America, does its best to not only critique a global power system that seems to slant ever-dramatically toward authoritarianism, but also indicts quite harshly those truly responsible in any democratic state: the masses. The moves within the film to this extreme - the masked anyman and everyman, V, the tempered rebel Evey (played very well by Natalie Portman), the pattern of social injustices aimed not at individuals but transparent types - all work incredibly well, and by the time the film reaches its climax, it has not only braved the question of terrorism, it has moved through it and past it to a conclusion that feels frighteningly right - and that is by far any film of this nature's greatest strength and accomplishment.
2. THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA (dir. Tommy Lee Jones)
***1/2 out of ****
It is surprisingly difficult for me to sum up my thoughts on this movie. Jones's film, which weaves in and out of a variety of flashbacks to tell the story of a Border Patrol agent (Barry Pepper) who accidentally kills a Mexican man only to face the vengeance of that man's best friend, American cowboy, Pete (director Jones), works less as a film narrative and more as a film experience. To clarify this awfully fuzzy distinction, let me talk about Pete: Pete is that rarest of movie characters - a man of marginal intelligence played both convincingly and without condescension. For Pete, Melquiades's death is an absurdity, something almost entirely incomprehensible. The Mexican man, whom Pete hired and worked with on a small Texas farm, means so much more to the cowboy than even a traditional Hollywood notion of love encompasses - he was, simply put, Pete's best friend, and for his life to be taken in an act of allegedly instigated violence goes against everything Pete understands about his world. All that follows this initial act - Pete's kidnapping of the Border Patrol agent, the disastrous journey - with corpse in tow - to Melquiades hometown in Mexico - is still tied deeply to Pete's own grieving process, and this beautiful and tragic fulfilment, paced literally to the steps of Pete's understanding, works not only as an enjoyable and moving film experience, but also as a singularly unfolding depiction of cause and effect as it might exist when removed from linear constraints. Okay, fair enough - you say that's impossible. But watch the movie. Then tell me what you would call this trick Jones's film does so, so well.
1. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (dir. Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris)
***1/2 out of ****
So, the top of the list. What can I say? I've bought into this year's indie darling, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. I knew this was going to happen. I saw it coming, slowly from town to town, in releases larger and more widespread, and I tried to brace myself for its stream of adulation, its wave of both gotta-see-it love and don't-buy-the-hype cynicism that would, inevitably, shape my own view of the film. But this last Saturday, as I walked out of the theater, I couldn't shake this amazing smile that, if only for a moment, kept me from thinking along the lines of any of the dozen reviews and articles I'd read since SUNSHINE debuted at Cannes last spring. Instead, all I could focus on was just how good the movie I just saw was. I don't know exactly what I can say to defend this position; sure, the plot worked alright, the characters were all unique and enjoyable, the big point of the whole thing felt good and unforced, but there was something else in this movie that really clicked with me, and it wasn't until I was half way home from the theater that I realized just what it was: I really, really dig unironic symbolism. There was something so downright pleasant about the metaphorical family vehicle that was that bizarro family's yellow VW van - this immediately-available and sincere image of a totally misfit family sticking together simply because they couldn't get anywhere alone. From the moment that van's clutch went out and I saw Steve Carell's suicidal homosexual Frank pushing alongside eight-year-old beauty contestant Olive, the Nietzche-obsessed misanthrope Dwayne and their ridiculously self-help obsessed father, Richard, I knew this was an image I wouldn't shake - and sometimes, that's perfect. You can complain about coincidence all you like, but there's no attempt here at realism - this is a movie about a wacked-out family driving 70o miles to deliver their bespectacled daughter to a beauty pageant she's a fish-out-of-water at - but its shooting at something both accepting and cohesive about the way we interact with each other - and if a movie can do that and make me laugh out loud - well, I have to say, it's on to something wonderful.
So, there we go: the Mid-Year Top Ten. Are there some big holes here? Well, yep, there's not denying it. But believe me, we could do worse than those top few movies - and with any luck, these next four months will bring a lot of movies that are even better. I know I've got my picks for the fall season, as I'm sure you do (that's a whole different list), but for now, these ten will have to do - and warts and all, these are movies we owe it to ourselves to remember before that Oscar rush sweeps all us movie-lovers up in an awards-crazy wave that each and every year leaves a special handful of movies from the previous spring and summer behind - unless, of course, we take the time to "list" them. After all, what could be more debatable than that?
Until December, enjoy yourselves everyone.
KMC
Monday, September 04, 2006
The "Mid-Year" Top Ten, #10 - #6
MOVIES.
Alright Ladies and Gentlemen, it's that time again. August is over, we're into the last four months of the year, and now (at long last), the marketing-driven enigma that is Hollywood will start that slow-ebb building to a dam-burst of quality film releases that will push its way through limited releases from now until the true end of the movie year - the 2007 Oscars. So what, you say? So it's time to put together a modest Best Of - the greatest of all Lists - for the year thus far, of course. But aren't the best movies of each year held back until the Fall? For the most part, you know it! And doesn't that mean the pickings are slim? You bet! But every year, you can count on a handful of films - small indies, odd little studio experiments, and occassionally that rarest of rare species, the good summer blockbuster - to be found amidst the endless schlock horror flicks and THX-fueled action spectaculars (such an odd term, don't you agree?) of the first eight months of the year. So without further ado, here are my picks for the best ten flicks this year released between January 1, 2006 and the up-to-the-minute present. Interested?
10. CLERKS II (dir. Kevin Smith)
*** out of ****
Kevin Smith's return to the Quick Stop, made famous in 1994's slacker-comedy for the townie set, CLERKS, is a pretty pleasant one, especially for those with a healthy respect for Smith's small town Jersey-film universe. The jokes work a fair amount of the time, the raunchiness and audacity are both welcome and used in controlled doses, and most importantly, the storylines for our returning heroes - perpetual fall guy Dante Hicks and indulgent smart-ass Randal Graves - feel natural; it doesn't seem out of place for the two to still be working in service industry jobs - in fact, it feels more appropriate than the first film's "maybe-college" ending did. Although the plot itself has a few rough patches - most notably the absurd notion that Rosario Dawson would ever be interested in the very Jersey-looking (and -sounding) Dante Hicks - the ending is not only strong for its interests within the film, it reminds us of the cultural relevance the first film had; what is out there for twenty-somethings that either couldn't or chose not to go down the bachelor's degree path? It's a good question, I think, and I'm glad Smith chooses to ask it - especially this time of year, even if the jokes that were smart twelve years ago (STAR WARS) are only a source of embarassment now (STAR WARS).
9. A SCANNER DARKLY (dir. Richard Linklater)
*** out of ****
Ah, A SCANNER DARKLY. Rarely has the convoluted nature of a film's title so accurately predicted the movie that follows it. Linklater's take on the Philip K. Dick short story makes for an excellent study of the art of adaptation, particularly as it treats the director's interpretation of Dick's dystopian view of law enforcement and its cultural concerns, but despite a handful of revelatory moments, the overall film here falls a bit flat (especially at the end). The strengths of the film that deserve fair credit lie mostly in the performances of several of the leads, most notably Robert Downey Jr., whose performance somehow slips around (or perhaps through?) a winking treatment of his own past with drug abuse to a much more moving and affective look at the strange reality of paranoia. Where this film works best is in its depiction of its titular "scanner's" home life, where he wastes time away with friends and sporadic doses of the mystery drug, "D." Linklater's decision to show the joys and pleasures of addiction in addition to the costs of drug use - most clearly expressed in a scene in which Keanu Reeve's scanner is forced to watch a friend skirt death from a monitoring station - work to question the viewer rather than lead him or her, resulting in an approach that allows us to buy SCANNER's closing dedication to "those who were punished far too severely for their crimes" much more than a more straightforward take on the original short story might have.
8. MIAMI VICE (dir. Michael Mann)
*** out of ****
I've got to say, this is a movie that disappointed me. You see, Michael Mann was the director I picked up off waivers in the Hollywood Fantasy Draft, and I've always relied heavily on him to deliver surprisingly good movies on what seem like cookie-cutter premeses. Curious about my success? See LAST OF THE MOHICANS, THE INSIDER or COLLATERAL. Every time, Mann delivers the goods, at least to the point of making the movie far better than it really has any right to be. But with MIAMI VICE, perhaps I wanted to much. I went in looking for another HEAT, and instead I got another MANHUNTER (the first in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, if one wanted to know). And that isn't necessarily an all-bad thing - both films work in a specific way, but they aren't what you want, dammit - I can't put it a better way than that. MIAMI VICE has a goal: it wants to drop you deep undercover in as realistic and emotional a way as possible. But it chooses perhaps a too-real way to do that - the film opens without any credits, without a studio logo, without anything: you're in the middle of a club, looking through a crowd at Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrel, and you can't understand a word they're saying. And that doesn't change. The entire film is an exercise in picking up on a conversation, trying to slip by unnoticed, being undercover, but as clever as this strategy is, it's still a movie, for pete's sake. There's still a booming soundtrack, a series of quick-cuts to reveal the gunshot wound from the most cinematic angle possible. The movie has its moments - a shoot-out in a trailer park, a final gunfight - and there is no denying the aesthetic joy of watching Mann shoot a movie, but in the end, you need more than the circumstantial evidence this movie gives you, and although the effort is a uniformly interesting one, its just not enough to really secure the verdict I think Mann is looking for. (Take that, punny Gene Shalitt!)
7. WORLD TRADE CENTER (dir. Oliver Stone)
*** out of ****
Oh wow, I'm not sure what to say about this movie. It floored me. That I should get out of the way. I wept in the theater, I wept on my way home and if I think about the wrong scene as I'm typing here, I might break down over the keyboard. But I can also say firmly that Oliver Stone's film deserves only a small part of the credit for this reaction. As a film, WORLD TRADE CENTER manages a handful of impressive ideas, but it ties itself so closely to a format clearly designed to honor its subject without asking unsettling questions that it never really gives us any exceptional moments. It is raw, and perhaps most impressively, it uses our knowledge of the events of September 11, 2001 to establish seemingly-undirected foreshadowing; what I mean is, we don't get set-ups or visual cues to impending disaster - no "this thing's gonna collapse!" lines - but instead we are forced to watch the characters behave with absolute innocence, and that is, quite deliberately, the film's most horrible aspect. But once the Towers fall, we're left with a rescue story. That's it. We see our lost policemen in the dark, talking about each others' families, struggling to stay alive; we intercut these dark scenes with mourning wives and mothers, people waiting by telephones, rescue workers frantically searching for one thing or another they have to get right this second...but we know they will. It's not a question, there's no doubt - just as we knew the World Trade Center would get hit, that the buildings would collapse, that it was a deliberate act of international terrorism. The result is a film that teeters on individual relevance - Maggie Gylenhal's performance is a beautiful study of how to grieve for someone you don't know is dead, Nicholas Cage's reliance on his wife to stay awake and alive in the rubble is half-realized as more than a cliche - but in the end, WORLD TRADE CENTER settles for playing on the pre-existing relevance of its topic rather than its own artistic efforts. The result is a film that moves you deeply not by opening your eyes to something you haven't seen but to something you have - and have wanted to close them to ever since. Whether or not that's admirable is up for debate, but if the question is whether or not it works; for better or worse, it does.
6. PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (dir. Robert Altman)
*** out of ****
This is a simpler review. Altman's PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION is exactly what it seems to be at first glance: a charmingly simple film wrapped around the last night of a semi-fictitious radio show. What's so beautiful about this set-up comes from that appeal: the ease of Altman's script, written in part by Prairie Home mainstay, Garrison Keilor, both teases out the artifice of Keilor's radio show's "old-timey" affectation and imbues it with a much more sincere warmth. At the film's end, it's not so much that we want Tommy Lee Jones's "Axe Man" to be stopped from cancelling the show as it is that we hope he changes his mind; for all the silliness of the songs and jokes and biscuit advertisements Companion plays, its the show's community that wins our hearts - and we sincerely hope it will win his in the end, too. Of course, such a premise is right down the fairway for Altman, whose notoriety as an "ensemble director" is well known. I've wondered before (and I am wondering now) if this play on community that PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION focuses so much on is a wink to those of us in the audience who wonder if Altman is capable of doing anything else - maybe a show about an ensemble makes singular what his movies so often make plural, not unlike putting enough fish together leaves you, in the end, with a school - but then again, that man is aaawwfully crafty, and if nostalgia has taught me anything, it's that old men always have a trick (or a false set of dentures) in their pockets for any kids who spend too much time nosing about. To that extent, I'll be happy with what he has left us: a fine, sweet film about pretty downright nice people, mixed with juust enough metaphorical (and allegorical) whispering to keep your brain working on the drive home - and of course, if we're in the Midwest, that could be a long trip indeed.
THE "MID-YEAR" TOP TEN, #5 - #1 COMING SOON.
Alright Ladies and Gentlemen, it's that time again. August is over, we're into the last four months of the year, and now (at long last), the marketing-driven enigma that is Hollywood will start that slow-ebb building to a dam-burst of quality film releases that will push its way through limited releases from now until the true end of the movie year - the 2007 Oscars. So what, you say? So it's time to put together a modest Best Of - the greatest of all Lists - for the year thus far, of course. But aren't the best movies of each year held back until the Fall? For the most part, you know it! And doesn't that mean the pickings are slim? You bet! But every year, you can count on a handful of films - small indies, odd little studio experiments, and occassionally that rarest of rare species, the good summer blockbuster - to be found amidst the endless schlock horror flicks and THX-fueled action spectaculars (such an odd term, don't you agree?) of the first eight months of the year. So without further ado, here are my picks for the best ten flicks this year released between January 1, 2006 and the up-to-the-minute present. Interested?
10. CLERKS II (dir. Kevin Smith)
*** out of ****
Kevin Smith's return to the Quick Stop, made famous in 1994's slacker-comedy for the townie set, CLERKS, is a pretty pleasant one, especially for those with a healthy respect for Smith's small town Jersey-film universe. The jokes work a fair amount of the time, the raunchiness and audacity are both welcome and used in controlled doses, and most importantly, the storylines for our returning heroes - perpetual fall guy Dante Hicks and indulgent smart-ass Randal Graves - feel natural; it doesn't seem out of place for the two to still be working in service industry jobs - in fact, it feels more appropriate than the first film's "maybe-college" ending did. Although the plot itself has a few rough patches - most notably the absurd notion that Rosario Dawson would ever be interested in the very Jersey-looking (and -sounding) Dante Hicks - the ending is not only strong for its interests within the film, it reminds us of the cultural relevance the first film had; what is out there for twenty-somethings that either couldn't or chose not to go down the bachelor's degree path? It's a good question, I think, and I'm glad Smith chooses to ask it - especially this time of year, even if the jokes that were smart twelve years ago (STAR WARS) are only a source of embarassment now (STAR WARS).
9. A SCANNER DARKLY (dir. Richard Linklater)
*** out of ****
Ah, A SCANNER DARKLY. Rarely has the convoluted nature of a film's title so accurately predicted the movie that follows it. Linklater's take on the Philip K. Dick short story makes for an excellent study of the art of adaptation, particularly as it treats the director's interpretation of Dick's dystopian view of law enforcement and its cultural concerns, but despite a handful of revelatory moments, the overall film here falls a bit flat (especially at the end). The strengths of the film that deserve fair credit lie mostly in the performances of several of the leads, most notably Robert Downey Jr., whose performance somehow slips around (or perhaps through?) a winking treatment of his own past with drug abuse to a much more moving and affective look at the strange reality of paranoia. Where this film works best is in its depiction of its titular "scanner's" home life, where he wastes time away with friends and sporadic doses of the mystery drug, "D." Linklater's decision to show the joys and pleasures of addiction in addition to the costs of drug use - most clearly expressed in a scene in which Keanu Reeve's scanner is forced to watch a friend skirt death from a monitoring station - work to question the viewer rather than lead him or her, resulting in an approach that allows us to buy SCANNER's closing dedication to "those who were punished far too severely for their crimes" much more than a more straightforward take on the original short story might have.
8. MIAMI VICE (dir. Michael Mann)
*** out of ****
I've got to say, this is a movie that disappointed me. You see, Michael Mann was the director I picked up off waivers in the Hollywood Fantasy Draft, and I've always relied heavily on him to deliver surprisingly good movies on what seem like cookie-cutter premeses. Curious about my success? See LAST OF THE MOHICANS, THE INSIDER or COLLATERAL. Every time, Mann delivers the goods, at least to the point of making the movie far better than it really has any right to be. But with MIAMI VICE, perhaps I wanted to much. I went in looking for another HEAT, and instead I got another MANHUNTER (the first in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, if one wanted to know). And that isn't necessarily an all-bad thing - both films work in a specific way, but they aren't what you want, dammit - I can't put it a better way than that. MIAMI VICE has a goal: it wants to drop you deep undercover in as realistic and emotional a way as possible. But it chooses perhaps a too-real way to do that - the film opens without any credits, without a studio logo, without anything: you're in the middle of a club, looking through a crowd at Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrel, and you can't understand a word they're saying. And that doesn't change. The entire film is an exercise in picking up on a conversation, trying to slip by unnoticed, being undercover, but as clever as this strategy is, it's still a movie, for pete's sake. There's still a booming soundtrack, a series of quick-cuts to reveal the gunshot wound from the most cinematic angle possible. The movie has its moments - a shoot-out in a trailer park, a final gunfight - and there is no denying the aesthetic joy of watching Mann shoot a movie, but in the end, you need more than the circumstantial evidence this movie gives you, and although the effort is a uniformly interesting one, its just not enough to really secure the verdict I think Mann is looking for. (Take that, punny Gene Shalitt!)
7. WORLD TRADE CENTER (dir. Oliver Stone)
*** out of ****
Oh wow, I'm not sure what to say about this movie. It floored me. That I should get out of the way. I wept in the theater, I wept on my way home and if I think about the wrong scene as I'm typing here, I might break down over the keyboard. But I can also say firmly that Oliver Stone's film deserves only a small part of the credit for this reaction. As a film, WORLD TRADE CENTER manages a handful of impressive ideas, but it ties itself so closely to a format clearly designed to honor its subject without asking unsettling questions that it never really gives us any exceptional moments. It is raw, and perhaps most impressively, it uses our knowledge of the events of September 11, 2001 to establish seemingly-undirected foreshadowing; what I mean is, we don't get set-ups or visual cues to impending disaster - no "this thing's gonna collapse!" lines - but instead we are forced to watch the characters behave with absolute innocence, and that is, quite deliberately, the film's most horrible aspect. But once the Towers fall, we're left with a rescue story. That's it. We see our lost policemen in the dark, talking about each others' families, struggling to stay alive; we intercut these dark scenes with mourning wives and mothers, people waiting by telephones, rescue workers frantically searching for one thing or another they have to get right this second...but we know they will. It's not a question, there's no doubt - just as we knew the World Trade Center would get hit, that the buildings would collapse, that it was a deliberate act of international terrorism. The result is a film that teeters on individual relevance - Maggie Gylenhal's performance is a beautiful study of how to grieve for someone you don't know is dead, Nicholas Cage's reliance on his wife to stay awake and alive in the rubble is half-realized as more than a cliche - but in the end, WORLD TRADE CENTER settles for playing on the pre-existing relevance of its topic rather than its own artistic efforts. The result is a film that moves you deeply not by opening your eyes to something you haven't seen but to something you have - and have wanted to close them to ever since. Whether or not that's admirable is up for debate, but if the question is whether or not it works; for better or worse, it does.
6. PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (dir. Robert Altman)
*** out of ****
This is a simpler review. Altman's PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION is exactly what it seems to be at first glance: a charmingly simple film wrapped around the last night of a semi-fictitious radio show. What's so beautiful about this set-up comes from that appeal: the ease of Altman's script, written in part by Prairie Home mainstay, Garrison Keilor, both teases out the artifice of Keilor's radio show's "old-timey" affectation and imbues it with a much more sincere warmth. At the film's end, it's not so much that we want Tommy Lee Jones's "Axe Man" to be stopped from cancelling the show as it is that we hope he changes his mind; for all the silliness of the songs and jokes and biscuit advertisements Companion plays, its the show's community that wins our hearts - and we sincerely hope it will win his in the end, too. Of course, such a premise is right down the fairway for Altman, whose notoriety as an "ensemble director" is well known. I've wondered before (and I am wondering now) if this play on community that PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION focuses so much on is a wink to those of us in the audience who wonder if Altman is capable of doing anything else - maybe a show about an ensemble makes singular what his movies so often make plural, not unlike putting enough fish together leaves you, in the end, with a school - but then again, that man is aaawwfully crafty, and if nostalgia has taught me anything, it's that old men always have a trick (or a false set of dentures) in their pockets for any kids who spend too much time nosing about. To that extent, I'll be happy with what he has left us: a fine, sweet film about pretty downright nice people, mixed with juust enough metaphorical (and allegorical) whispering to keep your brain working on the drive home - and of course, if we're in the Midwest, that could be a long trip indeed.
THE "MID-YEAR" TOP TEN, #5 - #1 COMING SOON.
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