In Widescreen

The Wallys: The Best Directors and Performances of 2011

2012-01-15T21:54:00.011-05:00

With all of Hollywood gathered for one of the biggest spectacles of navel gazing known to man – the Golden Globes – tonight seemed like an appropriate time to hand out a few kudos of my own. Each year, I fill out my own hypothetical Oscar ballot, and this year I decided to give these unbestowed honors a name: The Wallys honor the cream of the 2011 crop.

We'll start with the directors who left their stamp on cinema this year and the actors who created people, not just characters, onscreen. Each of the categories is listed in roughly descending order of preference.

In case you missed it, my top twenty films was posted last week. Technical categories, such as screenplay and cinematography, will come later this week.

BEST DIRECTOR
“Biutiful” incorporates all of the ingredients – fatherhood, globalization, addiction, mental illness, death – ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ INARRITU has worked into all of his previous explorations of human frailty. This time, he perfected the recipe. Whether the jettison of frequent collaborator Guillermo Arriaga or a natural evolution is responsible for this film’s success is irrelevant. Here, Inarritu deftly extracts some of the most natural performances of his career, particularly from the non-actors who play Javier Bardem’s children. All of the subplots – about migrant workers struggling in the slums of Madrid – billow organically from a simple, poignant story of a dying father doing what he can to ensure his children have a better life.

LEE CHANG-DONG has always had a light touch with empathy to spare. It’s a rare attribute he demonstrated with the somewhat unfocused “Secret Sunshine” last year, and again this year with “Poetry.” The film, about a woman coping with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease while raising an ungrateful grandson, bears more than a slight resemblance to Ozu’s morality plays. Like those films, Lee deals with some potentially incendiary plot points with grace and understatement. Where Hollywood would have played to the cheap seats, Lee uses the film’s central tragedy to further explore his protagonist. You feel the weight of the decision she must make, and you wonder if you’d be able to do the same.

Who knew MARTIN SCORSESE had a kid’s movie in him? Of course, “Hugo” is not your standard issue four-quadrant holiday movie. Every frame is suffused with a love of filmmaking and the early pioneers like Méliès, who were equal parts magicians and task masters. The central character is an boy who keeps the clocks of Montparnasse station running while eluding the watchman bent on sending him off to an orphanage. But Scorses isn’t concerned by the mechanics of plot, but rather the soul, as his camera explores the characters who inhabit the boy’s world. “Hugo” is a landmark film, the first to effectively use 3-D to create the kind of immersive experience that thrilled the first moviegoers a century ago.

ELIA SULEIMAN channels the physical humor of Buster Keaten and the warmth of Charlie Chaplin with “The Time That Remains.” That would seem to be an odd way to approach the Palestinian experience in the West Bank, but it works. Surreal sequences involving a pageant at an Israeli-run school and a man taking out the trash illustrate his family’s experience without delving into divisive politics. Suleiman’s sardonic humor bolsters, rather than undercuts, the harsher indignities and human-scale tragedies inherent in the conflict.

The plot and cinematography of “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” are austere, but it’s an intoxicating experience just the same. Using a story written by the head of a Buddhist temple as inspiration, APICHATPONG “JOE” WEERASETHAKUL creates a beautiful film about death, redemption and renewal. The film demands multiple viewings to absorb its odd pleasures, to lose oneself in its dark jungles and luminescent caves. It’s difficult to describe the film in words, but this film about a man whose imminent death attracts visitors from all walks of life and afterlife is pure magic.

Other helmers of note include: Im Sang-soo ("The Housemaid"), Abbas Kiarostami ("Certified Copy"), Terrence Malick ("The Tree of Life"), Jeff Nichols ("Take Shelter") and Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive").

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

MICHAEL SHANNON, no stranger to mad men (see: "Bug," "Revolutionary Road"), has created perhaps the most realistic descent into madness yet in "Take Shelter." His family man takes all the logical steps – he sees a shrink and considers medication to stop the vicious dreams and phantom pains – but the fear of an impending apocalypse wells inside him. But in this age of 60-degree Decembers, outsourcing and corporate personhood and outsourcing, who isn't standing at the precipice?

Existential dread bubbles beneath the surface for JAVIER BARDEM in "Biutiful." GARY OLDMAN is appropriately inscrutable and world-weary in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." For the first time in decades, ROBERT DE NIRO has fully inhabited a character, this time a resentful parole officer in "Stone." BRAD PITT fills the quiet moments – listening to his daughter's CD on the Expressway – with heart in "Moneyball."

Other lead actors of note include: Antonio Banderas ("The Skin I Live In"), Ryan Gosling ("Blue Valentine" and "Drive"), Ewan McGregor ("Beginners") and William Shimell ("Certified Copy").

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

It's easy to empathize with YOON JEONG-HEE's Mi-ja in "Poetry." She maintains a sunny disposition while raising an ungrateful grandson, tending a lustful stroke victim for meager pay and facing the onset of something more insidious than simple forgetfulness. Thanks to Yoon's carefully modulated performance, Mi-ja's moments of doubt and hope are equally palpable. Her future is uncertain, but Mi-ja faces it with dignity and grace.

Is JULIETTE BINOCHE a bitter spouse or a playful stranger in "Certified Copy"? It's hard to tell, because she's convincing as both. It would have been easy for her "Blue Valentine" character to come across as shrill, but MICHELLE WILLIAMS is stunning as the put-upon wife of a perpetual adolescent. VIOLA DAVIS instills an underdeveloped character, who happens to be a maid, with an internal dignity and strength in "The Help." ROONEY MARA infuses hacker extraordinaire Lisbeth Salander with a vulnerability that the previous incarnation of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" sorely lacked.

Other lead actresses of note include: Isabelle Huppert ("White Material"), Brit Marling ("Another Earth") and Amy Ryan ("Win Win").

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

BRAD PITT is an ocean of contradictions as Mr. O’Brien in “The Tree of Life.” He bullies his children in the hopes of toughening them for a world he sees a cruel and unforgiving. Even if his intentions are sound, his methods are not, and Pitt’s O’Brien seems to register this. His jabs and taunts mask insecurity, as O'Brien's business ventures fall short of his own lofty expectations and his boys seem to favor their mother. Pitt communicates all this, the anxiety and the regret and the rage, through rationed words and subtle gestures.

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER captures the thrill of rekindled passion as a newly out octogenarian in "Beginners." The flesh and hair may just be pixels, but Caesar's soul is all ANDY SERKIS in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." JEREMY IRONS' Shakespearean diction and biting wit is put to good use as a Wall Street executive in "Margin Call." Bernie Rose isn't too different from the kind of character ALBERT BROOKS has always played, but the blood lust is a refreshing change of pace in "Drive."

Other supporting actors of note include: Kevin Spacey ("Margin Call"), Corey Stoll ("Midnight in Paris") and Mark Strong ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy").

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

LESLEY MANVILLE hits upon some basic – but often elusive – facts about depression in “Another Year.” Nearing 50, Mary is searching for anything – and anyone – to fill the emptiness of her life. She skitters over the edge at her best friends’ home, breaking down into self-pitying tears before passing out, inebriated. At work, she feels put-upon even as she muddles through. She pines for the love of her life, an old philanderer who stayed with his wife, and lusts after the young man she once pushed on a swing set. Meanwhile, she pushes away suitors who are genuine in their affections. Manville brings refreshing levity to the role, but also a genuine understanding of the myriad ways depression warps a person’s perspective on the world.

A quirk of scheduling meant JESSICA CHASTAIN had three incredible – and several more competent but less impressive – performances released in 2011. Interestingly, all of them (in “The Help,” “Take Shelter,” and “The Tree of Life”) are variations on the familiar suffering housewife character, but Chastain managed to make each of these broadly-written characters distinct and memorable. In a few brief scenes, FRANCES CONROY burns the house down (possibly literally?) in “Stone” as an abused and neglected wife on the verge of lashing out. YOON YEO-JEONG brings much-needed comic relief to “The Housemaid,” but also serves as the lone moral compass in an otherwise amoral cast of sociopaths. As written, OCTAVIA SPENCER’s Minny in “The Help” hews dangerously close to a number of unsavory stereotypes about black women. But Spencer never allows the comic relief to supersede the real pain that necessitated it.

Other supporting actresses of note include: Maricel Alvarez ("Biutiful"), Melanie Laurent ("Beginners"), Demi Moore ("Margin Call"), Cicely Tyson ("The Help") and Carice van Houten ("Black Death").

BEST ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE

That director J.C. Chandor was able to assemble an all-star cast for his $1.5 million debut "MARGIN CALL" isn't so miraculous. His lead actor, Zachary Quinto, doubled as producer and most of the cast are a decade or more past their respective box office heydays. This film is proof their talents have not dimmed along with their star wattage. But the true measure of an ensemble are the little character moments: Demi Moore's sacrificed executive taking in the view from her corner office, Stanley Tucci's laid-off risk manager grimly accepting a payoff, Kevin Spacey's veteran floor manager summoning his game face one last time. "Margin Call" has these moments in spades.

"MIDNIGHT IN PARIS" is stunt casting at its finest, with the likes of Kathy Bates and Adrien Brody embodying Gertrude Stein and Salvador Dali. The performances in "UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES" are so unremarkable as to feel completely natural, like these creatures and characters have coexisted this way forever. "ANOTHER YEAR," too, benefits from actors who inhabit their characters’ world completely. An odd mix of actors – veterans and novices, ingenues and character players – gamely tackles the off-kilter melodrama of "THE HOUSEMAID."

Other ensembles of note include the casts of: "13 Assassins" and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy."

Top 20 Films of 2011

2012-01-09T23:42:00.005-05:00

And so another year has passed at the cinema. Here are, by my imprecise measure, the best films of 2011:

SO Random

2011-03-29T19:06:00.002-04:00

via: The Film Experience

First Look: Brave

2011-03-28T21:09:00.006-04:00

Entertainment Weekly has a first look at Pixar's latest flick, the mystical Scottish fairy tale Brave. It's been on my radar for several years now, since it was The Bear and the Bow. Never a studio to rest on its laurels (well, aside from the so-so Cars and its presumably so-so sequel), this one sounds like a neat change of pace and an interesting twist on the familiar Disney fairy tale template.

The film is Pixar's first with a female co-director (The Prince of Egypt's Brenda Chapman), first foray into the fairy tale and, realistically, their first with a strong female character. The case has been made for Eve, but (a) she's a non-sexual entity, a robot, and (b) Wall·E is the real star of the show, even if Eve is the heroic no-nonsense type. In Brave, Kelly Macdonald (Trainspotting, No Country for Old Men, the under-seen gem Merry Gentleman) will voice Merida, a tomboy princess who embarks on a journey to right a (currently vague) wrong.

I've been a fan of Macdonald's ever since No Country for Old Men. Interestingly, she tends to get cast as either Scottish or Irish a lot (she's also great in HBO's Boardwalk Empire), even though she did a bang-up job with an American accent for the Coen brothers. To me, her performance as Carla Jean, the only character with an actual arc, was deserving of Oscar recognition.

Here, Macdonald replaces Reese Witherspoon, which is a welcome switch even if it means she's once again been type-casted. Witherspoon isn't a bad actress, per se, but it's hard to think of her as a warrior princess. Macdonald, however, has the chops to pull it off.

'Trump has what it takes'

2011-03-27T19:10:00.001-04:00

Who's ready for tea?

2011-03-27T18:37:00.003-04:00

Again, I try to separate my work from my extracurriculars as much as possible, but I thought I'd share an article I put some degree of effort into. Whatever your own views of the Tea Party may be, it's easy to understand why many adherents get defensive when it comes to their coverage in the media. As with many subjects that become fodder for the big, bad media machine, things get simplified for the masses and, through that process, various factions and issues get conflated and come to be identified as one and the same. I tried, at very least, to be fair.

Photo credit: Richard Holden.

First Look: Carnage

2011-03-26T12:35:00.002-04:00

Empire Magazine has posted a first look at Carnage, Roman Polanski's next film and an adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Yasmina Reza play about a meeting between two sets of parents that devolves into a Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf-style shit storm. I'm usually not into these types of melodramas, but the cast is populated with fantastic actors who aren't known for over-doing it. Plus, the play (adapted from the original French by Reza and Polanski) is supposed to be quite funny in a biting, backhanded way.

In it, Jodie Foster and the perpetually under-rated John C. Reilly play Penelope and Michael, the more provincial of the two couples. Based on the Wikipedia plot synopsis (and assuming the film sticks to the original play despite changing a few of the names), Michael is an upwardly-mobile wholesaler and Penelope is a writer. Nancy (Kate Winslet) and Alan (Christoph Waltz), meanwhile, are more comfortable flouting their wealth and power. Alan is a cell phone-addicted attorney and Nancy's made a career of managing her husband's wealth.

I tend to run hot and cold with Polanski, both as a person and a filmmaker. I can relate to his troubles (Holocaust survivor, the Tate murder), but can't excuse his very selfish, short-sighted behavior, both in 1977 and today. Likewise, he's made some of my favorite films (Chinatown, Knife in the Water, Rosemary's Baby), yet some of the films that have garnered him enormous praise leave me completely cold. Cinematography and art direction aside, I didn't get all the love for the merely serviceable thriller The Ghost Writer. And cult-favorites Repulsion and Cul-de-sac are a little too self-aware to be anything other than documents of their time.

These days, I get the impression that Polanski is just happy to still be working and striving to make the best films he can. The inflated ego that was the root of his troubles has evaporated with age (I hope anyway). With this cast and more workmanlike Polanski, I've developed high hopes for Carnage. Maybe they'll pay off.

More Explosions in the Sky

2011-03-25T19:25:00.002-04:00

Explosions in the Sky, who have been and always will be awesome in my book, have a new album coming out. And, like all the cool bands these days, they are passing out free samples. Admittedly, the tune being shared, called "Trembling Hands" isn't playing in the same emotional sandbox as their other albums have, but there's enough there to pique my interest.

If you've yet to be initiated, give their last album, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, or their soundtrack for the show Friday Night Lights, a spin. Utterly beautiful stuff.

Richard Leacock, 1921-2011

2011-03-24T22:40:00.004-04:00

Richard Leacock, the British cameraman and documentarian behind some of the most influential films of the last century, including Louisiana Story, Monterey Pop and the JFK/Humphrey showdown Primary, has died. He's one of those people who've made a lasting impact on our culture, as a key purveyor of cinéma vérité or "fly on the wall" cinema, but never developed a strong following or recognizable name. His camera work was simple and clean, focused on the characters and their surroundings as they were. That's not to say his films aren't beautifully framed, but he was a great at capturing the beauty and significance of ordinary and extraordinary lives.

Louisiana Story, which was directed by Robert J. Flaherty (of Nanook of the North), is one of my favorite films, period. Leacock's camera goes into the heart of the bayou and out onto oil derricks, to places that few films documentary or feature (Story straddles that line) have gone before or since. Some of the shots he achieves with just a handful of actors, an outboard and a camera have to be seen to be believed. It's available on Netflix Instant, so if you've never heard of it (or Leacock), please check it out.

Obviously, there's also the sad news of Elizabeth Taylor's passing, but I don't feel the same connection to her work. I don't doubt her potency as a star and her skill as an actress, but for me Taylor is still most closely tied to the awful perfumes she hocked and her photo-ops at pal Michael Jackson's creepy Neverland Ranch. But now is as good a time as any to revisit her more substantial work.

Pigeon-toed Orange Peel

2011-03-22T08:42:00.000-04:00

For some reason, YouTube uncoolly prohibits embedding of this awesome clip from the 1968 Don Siegel-Clint Eastwood flick Coogan's Bluff. But do yourself a favor and check it out anyway. And while you're at it, go see the movie, too. It's one of the films from that era, together with Our Man Flint and Cactus Flower, that becomes hip by its sheer insistence on not being hip.

Like those other films, it has some interesting ideas about what the hippie scene was like. Those happen to include evil bohemians, fluorescent neon dance floors and naked, body-painted dancers who slide into Clint Eastwood's arms from roof-mounted zip lines. I'm sure Clint got a kick out of that.

A roadmap to the world of sci-fi

2011-03-20T13:57:00.004-04:00

A fascinating graphic tracing the evolution of science fiction has cropped up via one of my favorite blogs, Strange Maps. Throughout my life I've gone through phases with specific sci-fi authors (Poe, Wells, Lovecraft, Bradbury), but never really with the genre as a whole. This map, however, does a fascinating job placing some of the familiar names and classic works in their cultural context. Through its Jules Verne-ish tentacles, it traces the separate threads of art, mythology, philosophy and science and how developments in each played into the growth of the literature (and, as a consequence, film as well). You could spend an hour or more poring over the map and still find interesting new avenues and intersections. If nothing else, it provides a cheat sheet of necessary reading.

Never Too Late: Things We Lost in the Fire

2011-03-19T21:44:00.005-04:00

Watching Things We Lost in the Fire, I was confident that the screenplay had been adapted from a novel or a play, or possibly a foreign film (its director is Susanne Bier, the Danish auteur behind Brothers and this year’s Foreign Oscar winner In a Better World). It’s not that the film itself is literary or stagey, starched by its devotion to some exterior source material. The cinematography is actually quite striking and the sets are fluid and deliberately assembled. The simple fact is that few movies get made like this anymore. It’s a very simple film whose sole concern is its characters, in the same vein as classics like The Best Years of Our Lives or Friendly Persuasion or The Sundowners.

The film is so observant of its characters, so focused on the beats and nuances of human life, so assured that the story it’s telling is the right one, that it doesn’t seem possible that it could be an “original” idea. In truth, Things We Lost in the Fire is a spec script from Allan Loeb, an unknown at the time the film was made in 2007 who is now just about everywhere. (Everywhere, unfortunately, includes such clunkers as 21, The Switch, The Dilemma and the Adam Sandler vehicle Just Go with It. His descent into schlock is inexplicable, but at least he’s working.)

Recently widowed by a sudden, violent act, Audrey Burke (Halle Berry) invites her husband Brian’s (David Duchovny) heroin-addict childhood friend Jerry (Benicio Del Toro) into her home. Once he’s there, the pair walk a delicate tightrope. Audrey is uncomfortable with how easily Jerry assimilates into the family, including her two young children, Harper and Dory. Jerry is uncomfortable with the burgeoning sexual attraction between he and Audrey and with the instability that’s a byproduct of Audrey’s grief (in one scene, she asks him what shooting heroin is like, telling him she wants to “escape”).

The overarching plot is actually a bit thin, but like a good novel the devil is in the details. Loeb and Bier reward attentive viewers by meting out insights into the characters. The screenplay is interested in the little white lies characters tell themselves and others. To get Jerry into her home, Audrey tells him she has a mortgage to pay and his eventual rent payments will make that easier to bear. We later find out that her deceased husband has left his family comfortably well-off. Meanwhile, Brian co-opted one of Jerry’s sage pieces of advice and Jerry has co-opted Brian’s two kids as his own, interestingly to avoid a romantic advance.

Supporting characters are similarly well-drawn. John Carroll Lynch (the creepy squirrel-keeper in Zodiac) plays an affable neighbor, quietly hating his domineering wife. Alison Lohman (Drag Me to Hell) is a former addict who has gotten her shit together and hopes to help Jerry do the same, although she has some ulterior motives herself. Audrey’s family, including Omar Benson Miller (Spike Lee’s gentle giant in Miracle at St. Anna) and Paula Newsome (a familiar face but unknown name from various TV shows), are at once supportive and stifling.

Also important are the complex issues that are, just like life, left to drift away from the character’s grasps. The film doesn’t try to answer all the questions for us and doesn’t apologize for not doing so, either.

The most important character arc is Audrey’s and Halle Berry does a magnificent job as a woman blindsided by grief but holding it together for her children. In quiet moments with Jerry, away from the prying eyes of family and neighbors and her own children, she reveals the turmoil roiling underneath. Finally, after it’s clear that her children are progressing through their own grief, Audrey breaks down. But even then Berry doesn’t over-do it. Her performance is wrenching but never melodramatic.

Del Toro gets the showier role in the film, but he exercises a similar restraint. Every step of the way, his character is confused about his place in his adoptive family. He takes pains not to overstep his bounds, and yet he still crosses them. Later, when the audience is let in on the physical pains he goes through withdrawing from heroin, Del Toro's suffering is very real. I’ve never witnessed the process myself, thankfully, but it seems like a good approximation. He’s enthralling and yet not a sideshow.

It’s unfortunate that Things We Lost in the Fire didn’t get the attention it richly deserved back in 2007, when it was dumped into theaters with little fanfare. Since then, Bier has gone back to her native Denmark and made award-winning films, content to avoid the Hollywood system that tossed her a bone and then kicked her back to the curb. Halle Berry took a long hiatus and gave the Oscars another go with the multiple-personality drama Frankie & Alice. I haven’t seen it, but it seems like a move made out of desperation. Del Toro spent a year in the jungle with Steven Soderbergh on Che and picked up a kudos from Cannes for his effort, although little else. The Wolfman, his first real attempt at a blockbuster, blew up in his face last year. The next place to you can see the work of Allan Loeb, who showed such promise here, will be So Undercover, a Miley Cyrus sorority comedy. Angels cry.

Three of them should be a lot farther in their (Hollywood) careers given the tour de force that is Things We Lost in the Fire. Alas, they only get a thumbs up from me, nearly four years after the fact.

Starry, starry Midnight in Paris

2011-03-17T23:09:00.005-04:00

The teaser poster for Woody Allen's latest European vacation project, Midnight in Paris, has arrived and it steals from the best. Although the reference material, Vincent Van Gogh's iconic 1889 painting "The Starry Night," is less than inspired, it's a beautiful, evocative poster.

I've had a feeling since the first time I read about the fully formed project that this might be one of Woody's keepers. It's been a few years (and a few duds) since his last, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and a long time since a certified Grade-A classic (for me, that's 1989's Crimes and Misdemeanors, followed by 1987's criminally under-rated Radio Days).

I don't really know what the plot is (I'm guessing a breezy romance romp), but the film is composed of some of the nicest, warmest, most charming actors on the planet: Kathy Bates (ok, so sometimes she's a psychopath, ala Misery, but what about About Schmidt?), Rachel McAdams (Ms. Bay Breeze from Red Eye), Michael Sheen (the unloveable Brit from 30 Rock) and Owen Wilson (goofy in everything). Adrien Brody and Marion Cotillard are admittedly pretty aloof screen presences, but you need to balance all the golden sunshine, don't you?

And, finally, the title had me sold from the get-go. Full of mystery of cosmopolitan hijinx.

Check out the full poster at Awards Daily, who are apparently not so high on the starry night theme.

Whole Lotta Tree of Life

2011-03-14T18:56:00.008-04:00

Collider, via the crafty Russian (don't they manage to get everything?) site Kinopoisk, has a selection of some of the 70 Tree of Life stills that surfaced today. The images have mysteriously vanished from Kinopoisk, so if you're interested in getting a sneak peak of Terrence Malick's new film, you should probably act fast.

Moreso than Malick, it's cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men, The New World) that has me eagerly awaiting this one. The man is a master with light and, from these stills, he clearly hasn't lost his touch. There's a very distinct Edward Hopper-feel to the stills, particularly the one above, that I like. Even though Hopper was painting for a good five or so decades, his work always feels like the '50s to me. I'd relish the film that finally takes advantage of that association (even if it's only me that makes it).

3D for the masses?

2011-03-13T18:03:00.002-04:00

First, a programming note. Internet difficulties have prevented me from posting most of this week. Take note: Verizon tech support (like most tech support) sucks.

I wanted to pass along this article I stumbled across about two Estonian brothers who've developed a relatively inexpensive 3-D camera system. By inexpensive, we're talking about $88,000 USD. You won't be filming Timmy's birthday party in 3-D anytime soon, but when you compare it to the tens of millions James Cameron sank into his Avatar technology, it's impressive.

No reliable word on the image quality yet, but I imagine this could open 3D up to indie filmmakers, which could be a very good or bad thing depending on your view of the technology. In my eyes, some films lend themselves to 3D and some don't. There's no justifiable reason (except financially) to retroactively 3D-ify a film like Clash of the Titans or splurge on a third dimension for a concert film or run-of-the-mill comedy. But it would've been interesting to see a film like Enter the Void with that extra dimension.

To no one's surprise, James Cameron is reportedly the first buyer of one of these 3D-in-one-camera set-ups and Werner Herzog already used the technology (rented) for Cave of Forgotten Dreams, his 3D documentary of the Chauvet caves in southern France.

Ten Films to Watch in 2011

2011-03-07T17:46:00.008-05:00

This is about the time each year when a film buff's dance card begins to fill up with the hum of most anticipated-this, awards contender-that. Hype aside, here are some of the films I'm keeping an eye on, and think you should, too. Inevitably some will disappoint and others will shine for posterity. The fun is in predicting which ones are which.

I purposefully avoided the films that are already well-anticipated. There's no need for me to join in the chorus trumpeting Terence Malick's long-awaited Tree of Life. Similarly, it's unnecessary for me to go through the latest from Cronenberg (the Jung/Freud face-off A Dangerous Method), Fincher (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake), Scorsese (the kid-friendly epic Hugo Cabret) and the double-dips from Soderbergh (Contagion and Haywire) and Spielberg (Tintin and War Horse). Never mind that I just did, but here's the off-the-radar films I'm looking forward to in 2011:

The Assassin (Taiwan, dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien)

The Taiwanese director has been a regular at Cannes and has consistently produced films that are at once epic and intimate (A City of Sadness, The Puppetmaster). His latest follows a female assassin who was kidnapped as a child and trained to kill ruthlessly. Even though the hit[wo]man-in-existential-crisis genre has worn out its welcome somewhat, I'm a sucker for a good one and this one might be it.

The Deep Blue Sea (U.K., dir. Terence Davies)

Based on a 1952 British play, The Deep Blue Sea stars Rachel Weisz as the suicidal wife of an alcoholic former R.A.F. pilot who strikes up a friendship with another social outcast. The plot sounds a bit stuffy (it was previously adapted as a 1955 Vivien Leigh-Kenneth More film), but Weisz is an actress who always bring a natural warmth to her roles. She's made a few clunkers recently, particularly The Lovely Bones, but she's a welcome screen presence.

Detachment (U.S., dir. Tony Kaye)

Tony Kaye has had a rough time of it since 1998's American History X, a heartwrenching film about broken families and intolerance and a personal favorite. Films were held up in legal battles, found new directors or simply didn't get much attention. The plot for this one — a chronicle of teachers and administrators' struggles in an inner-city school — doesn't inspire much confidence. But the director and the cast, including Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston, Marcia Gay Harden and Mad Men's Christina Hendricks, do.

Melancholia (Denmark, dir. Lars von Trier)

No slight against her as an actress, but the presence of Kirsten Dunst is the only thing that gives me pause about this one. It’s probably a function of her affinity toward difficult, niche audience films (Marie Antoinette, How to Lose Friends, All Good Things), but they always seem to have troubled productions that delay release for several years. This one, from self-conscious provocateur Lars von Trier (the abominable Antichrist), takes a ground-level view of a When Worlds Collide-style apocalypse. Seems right up Trier’s alley. As long as there’s no genital mutilation or self-martyrdom, I’m up for it.

Now (U.S., dir. Andrew Niccol)

Since producing his sci-fi masterpiece Gattaca, Niccol has had a slew of long-gestating, problematic or just plain failed productions. S1m0ne and Lord of War had a lot of good qualities, but both felt undercooked. His Salvatore Dali biopic never got off the ground and he’s been attached to every project imaginable, including a non-Twilight Stephanie Meyer adaptation. With a very young cast, including Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake, he seems to be shooting for Meyer’s audience. But the plot — about a future where everyone is immortal and time is traded as currency — is fascinating.

Poetry (South Korea, dir. Lee Chang-dong)

If the reviews out of last year’s Cannes Film Festival are to be believed, Poetry should be as richly textured as Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine, which finally made it stateside last year. Lee, a novelist and former South Korean Minister of Culture and Tourism, just has a way with heartbroken characters. He doesn’t coddle them or his audience, but the compassion just oozes off the screen. In this one, a lonely old woman rediscovers beauty through poetry.

Retreat (U.S./U.K., dir. Carl Tibbets)

Info about first-time director Carl Tibbets and co-writer Janice Hallett is hard to come by, but the cast and plot description for Retreat are tantalizing. Cillian Murphy and Thandie Newton play a couple who escape to an remote island to patch up their failing relationship. With the sudden arrival of a lone soldier, Jamie Bell, they learn news of a pandemic that’s threatening the rest of humanity. Sounds like an episode of "The Twilight Zone" or "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," but I like that. The cast, all three promising actors with apparently very lazy agents, should make for a good time.

Shame (U.K., dir. Steve McQueen)

Hunger was one of the best films I saw in 2009 and probably one of the best ever made. It's a sparse film that lays all of its cards out on the table one by one. It's subtle and unpretentious and has a lot to offer the patient viewer. I'm trying to temper my expectations for McQueen's sophomore film, about a freewheeling bachelor (Michael Fassbender) whose wayward sister (Carey Mulligan) comes to live with him. Haven't had much luck with that.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (U.K./France, dir. Tomas Alfredson)

This latest adaptation of John le Carré's Cold War spy novel replaces Alec Guinness with the perpetually under-utilized Gary Oldman. Colin Firth, Tom Hardy and Ciarán Hinds, meanwhile, are on hand in supporting roles. To top it all off, Let the Right One In author-director Tomas Alfredson is in the director's chair. I'm not as big a spy-fan as I am a hitman-fan, but this has the makings of an awesome film.

We Need to Talk about Kevin (U.K., dir. Lynne Ramsay)

She hasn't gotten nearly as much attention from audiences, or critics for that matter, as she should, but Lynne Ramsay is already among the modern maestros of film. Ratcatcher was a cruel and beautiful look at death and poverty through the eyes of a young boy. Morvern Callar, meanwhile, defies an easy description. It's been nine years since those films, which is an awfully long time to wait. Hopefully this one, about the mother (played by Tilda Swinton) of a teenaged mass murderer, will break through despite similarly difficult subject matter.

All of the seizures

2011-03-06T19:59:00.002-05:00

Not to rag on what is a pretty neat video or to imply that only Gaspar Noé is allowed to do the strobe typography thing, but Hype Williams owes the guy at least half his pay check for this one. Also, it's not included in the Daily Motion version, but I think the seizure disclaimer on Vevo is kind of awesome... and helpful.

Herzog back in the Subarctic

2011-03-04T18:19:00.005-05:00

Here's something I've heard nothing about previously, but it looks potentially awesome. As if Werner Herzog didn't have enough on his plate this year with a 3D cave documentary, he's narrated and re-edited a Russian doc about several hunters in the Taiga, or remote tundra and boreal forests of the Subarctic. For Happy People, he slashes Dmitry Vasyukov's original four-hour TV documentary down to 96 minutes and writes his own voice over. Admittedly, it reads like something of a bitch-slap to the original director, but it's not all that surprising coming from Herzog (of Grizzly Man and the similarly awesome Encounters at the End of the World). Besides, he's the best at narration. I could listen to him ramble all day. In fact, I might even pay him to narrate my life for a few days. Or not.

The Return of Chen Zhen

2011-03-03T08:53:00.000-05:00

Apple has posted the U.S. trailer for Legend of the Fist, Donnie Yen's first go at the Chen Zhen character. For background, the fictional martial artist has been around since 1972 (!!!) and has been played by the likes of Bruce Lee and Jet Li. This one actually looks pretty good and the trailer packs in the action. It comes to our shores April 22 (probably in limited release).

Uncle Boonmee welcomes you to an "odd and beautiful world"

2011-03-02T20:11:00.004-05:00

The N.Y. Times has an exclusive video clip and an A.O. Scott review of Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul's upcoming Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. I generally don't give too much creedence to individual reviews, but Scott does a beautiful job of capturing the (presumed) magical realism of the film. More than even the trailer, which I previously posted, his review has me psyched to see the film.

Blunt comments and Libyan crackpots

2011-03-02T19:58:00.004-05:00

Reuters has an interesting analysis of the most likely countries to experience an uprising similar to those that have effectively ousted the despotic regimes of Egypt and Tunisia, and is threatening to unseat Libyan crackpot Muammar Gaddafi. I've been following the situation pretty closely and I honestly have little to add to the discussion. My only observation is how ineffectual the U.S. and the "developed" world itself has been in the whole affair. We're sending aid to the opposition and making "blunt comments" about the dictators, but what were we doing 5, 10, 20 years ago? Revolutions can only originate from within a country, true; but we certainly had no business propping up or tolerating some of these dictators for as long as we did.

All about the Elba

2011-03-01T23:19:00.004-05:00

Lately, I've been playing catch up with some of the "meh" movies that I skipped last year. It's a common thing this time of year, when the most interesting Oscar bait has already been seen and the new releases include such gems as Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son. Because there's nothing funnier than a family of cross-dressers and a 13-year-old documenting his life story.

One such leftover is Takers, which is actually a pretty cool flick. And not just because of the familiar blue and orange color scheme and the Rat Pack fedoras. Of course, the PG-13 rating means some pretty awkward tip-toeing around sensitive topics, such as drug addiction, and bloodless gun battles. The script is a little daft, too, with logic very often thrown to the wind.

What it does have is Idris fuckin' Elba.

I'm honestly not sure what else he has to do to get his own action series, a la Jason Statham's Transporter. So far, he's played post-apocalyptic nanny (28 Weeks Later), put up with biblical mumbo jumbo (The Reaping), occupied the same room as Denzel Washington for 30 seconds (American Gangster) and played a character named "Mumbles" (RocknRolla). At least he got to play it cool with crazy Beyonce and crazy Ali Larter in the "meh" Obsessed.

Is there no justice in the world? How is Stringer Bell not kicking ass and pulling in seven figures?

In Takers, he's not asked do a whole lot except be cool. And he has cool to spare. Even being surrounded by a decidedly uncool crew, including wife beater Chris Brown, Sinatra wannabe Hayden Christensen and shifty-eyed Michael Ealy, doesn't diminish it. Gunplay doesn't faze him. Neither does explosions. Or *spoiler* a backstabbing T.I. Not even a heist-foiling, drug addict sister (Without a Trace's Marianne Jean-Baptiste) throws him off his game.

Hollywood, you're on notice. Idris Elba needs a Steve McQueen-quality film, sans the poser entourage. Pronto.

Jane Russell, 1921-2011

2011-03-01T22:57:00.006-05:00

Jane Russell, the buxom brunette who was plucked from doctor's office obscurity by Howard Hughes for the censor-provoking The Outlaw, died of respiratory failure today. She was 89.

In my mind, she wasn't a particularly good actress, but she was a more than adequate foil for Robert Mitchum in His Kind of Woman, one of my favorite not-quite noirs. (Too bad there aren't many good clips to choose from, but the one above is as good as any.) In that film, as well as two other early '50s noirs The Las Vegas Story and Macao (again with Mitchum), she held the camera's attention. Interestingly, Vincent Price showed up in two of those three (Woman and Vegas), as well.

There's an easy confidence to her performances that I have a feeling was all Russell. She is a big reason why these low-rent pictures are fun to watch. Her chemistry with Mitchum, in particular, is knowing and playful in ways that Bogie/Bacall could never be, given how doctored the scripts for those bigger budget flicks were.

Loretta Devine has a real dead love for Tyler Perry now

2011-02-27T13:20:00.004-05:00

For Colored Girls is more interesting as an artistic statement than an actual work of art. For better or worse, Tyler Perry is the modern-day Douglas Sirk. He brings a very particular (read: peculiar) world view to every project, even, apparently, his adaptations. He perplexes film critics today, but I have a feeling that in 50 years he’ll have the same cult following that Sirk has posthumously enjoyed.

That said, how do I feel about Colored Girls? Remember that particular world view I was talking about? Even as a white twenty-something male, I can safely assume the black female experience is far removed from Perry’s conception of it. It’s not that anything that happens in his film is beyond belief. Iraq War veterans do abuse their wives and children; and they sometimes kill them, too. Promising young dancers do sometimes go to back-alley abortionists. And some black, male professionals do lead alternate lives “on the down low.”

It’s not that what happens in Perry’s film is so ridiculous. The problem is the way Perry stages his high drama and the pat catharsis he strives for. Everything that happens fits neatly inside his Southern Baptist sensibilities. Yes, all these bad things happen, but if the women can come together, stop being promiscuous, and take their own share of the blame, all will be good again. Finally, Perry’s daytime TV conception of city life and the “ghetto” is about as enlightened as a very special episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s.

All those issues aside, the impressive cast strives valiantly to breathe life into Perry’s stilted dialogue. The opportunity to see Loretta Devine, Kimberly Elise, Phylicia Rashad and Kerry Washington — four of the most criminally under-utilized black actresses working today — shine in one film is golden. And, in a limited role as a broken down abortionist, Macy Gray packs a punch, too.

How could Perry produce such utter crap given such a talented cast? Short answer: He’s a true auteur. He couldn’t do it any other way.

Biutiful a frank exploration of death

2011-02-26T20:37:00.005-05:00

Biutiful feels like the film director Alejandro González Iñárritu has been trying to make all along.

It's downbeat to the point of sending some film critics running for their medicine cabinets. It features carefully choreographed scenes in which the camera weaves amidst and above the Barcelona crowds. It's conscious of the intricate ways various cultures interact in our globalized economy. And it deals in the currency of intention and inadvertent consequence.

The film is Iñárritu's first without screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, as well as his first without a rigid, time-warping narrative structure. It's also his first masterpiece.

Uxbal (Javier Bardem) eeks out a living as a middle-man between illegal immigrants and nominally legitimate businessmen, putting Chinese to work on construction sites and overseeing a team Senegalese street vendors. On the side, he moonlights as a psychic for families of the recently deceased. His estranged wife Marambra (Maricel Álvarez) cycles in and out of his life, making promises to their two children, Ana and Mateo, that she lacks the ability or willpower to keep. She makes her problems — untreated bipolar disorder and alcoholism — Uxbal's.

And then Uxbal learns the groin pains he's ignored for months are the final signal flares of prostate cancer. As he worked to raise Ana and Mateo on his own and keep his various schemes running, the disease metastasized to his bones and liver. He has mere months to get his affairs in order.

Because it's Iñárritu, there are myriad subplots weaving their way through the film. Unlike his previous attempts, however, these threads all become relevant parts of the whole. They also ratchet up the tension for Uxbal, who valiantly fights through it. He has to reconcile himself to the same premature death that met his father. But mostly, he's scared for his children.

It would've been easy for Iñárritu to martyr Uxbal. He's done it to other characters in his films. Here, we watch as Uxbal does thoughtless and sometimes despicable things out of desperation and frustration. And Bardem goes at it full steam ahead, his face a perfect conduit for the anguish and fear and a million other emotions of a dying man. He does a fantastic job bringing the cause-and-effect nature of the script to life — Uxbal feels X, therefore he does Y — without it seeming robotic or simplistic. Álvarez, too, never fumbles with her tricky character. Marambra understands why her family's drawn away from her and she doesn't. She holds on for dear life.

Finally, Biutiful is a very human film. In his previous outings, particularly 21 Grams and Babel, Iñárritu's characters felt like rag dolls blown by the winds of cruel fate. The tragedies of Biutiful aren't the point of or reason for the film. They are simple facts of life. They instigate change. They force characters to grapple with their past and their future. The film earns its emotional pay-off the old fashioned way and the audience feels (or should feel) the full weight of what's transpired.

There are no BIG scenes in Biutiful, just a lot of little ones that metastasize in your brain through the film's 148 minutes. It left me devastated in a way no other film in recent memory has. Granted, I have a very personal connection to the the material, but it's possibly the most realistically affecting treatment of death committed to celluloid.

We're not lost, just finding our way

2011-02-26T00:28:00.004-05:00

Fresh on the heels of one of the best movie posters to come along in a long while, Apple has an HD trailer for Kelly Reichardt's Oregon Trail drama Meek's Cutoff. Given Reichardt's track record (Wendy and Lucy, also with Michelle Williams), this one's probably thin on plot and high on atmosphere, but that's o.k. The trailer strikes some ominous notes, with Bruce Greenwood's Meek leading the wagon train into the desert and a pit of uncertainty. It looks handsomely shot and seems to have more on its mind than your typical latter-day western (i.e. it's more Assassination of Jesse James, less Appaloosa). Count me in.

Red Bandits

2011-02-24T22:58:00.004-05:00

It's always difficult to judge a comedy based on its trailer since they tend to pack in the best punchlines (particularly the red band ones). Bad Teacher, however, looks pretty great. Phyllis Smith gets all the best laugh lines in this one. She's awesomely deadpan. I managed to compose myself pretty well, until this one:

Diaz: If I got a new pair of tits, he'd be all over me. But they're really expensive, you know, per tit.

Phyllis: Yeah, and you've got to get two of them.

Not ground-breaking humor, but it had me cracking up.

Oh, and the trailer for Paul, with Seth Rogen as a big-testacled fugitive alien, is also out. Meh. The editor clearly didn't strain him or herself cramming the laugh lines in. A bad trailer doesn't necessarily mean a bad movie, but this one didn't do anything for me.

The Movies Are Dead; Long Live the Movies!

2011-02-24T08:55:00.005-05:00

Just in time to fill the annual movie "sky is falling" quota, GQ (ever the bastion for high culture) has published an article assaying the death of the movies. It's impressive for the author's ability to extract quotes from various industry luminaries, but on the whole it's just a warmed over helping of panic. At various points, Mark Harris points the finger at filmgoers, studio executives and, oddly, the burgeoning film industries in Italy and Japan, for the sorry state of summer tentpoles and the recent, alleged dearth of quality adult-oriented dramas.

But really, there is nothing new about any of the theories he presents (except for the Japanese kamikaze thing; never heard of that before).

I happen to agree that a lot of what passes for blockbuster is utter crap these days. A couple weeks ago, I tried to watch Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and gave up halfway through. I almost never do that. Even bad movies usually have some redeeming qualities, or bring a certain goofy gallows humor to the table. Not the Prince.

I'm not sure who gave Harris the idea that thriving overseas film industries are a bad thing, but if you're looking for the kinds of films Hollywood used to make, that's where you should be looking. Last year, seven of my top ten were foreign films and most of them share striking similarities to the American classics Harris seems to mourn. Animal Kingdom has been compared (somewhat daftly) to Goodfellas by critics. A Prophet pulls more than a few pages from the gangster flicks of the 1930's. Tokyo Sonata has a script that Frank Capra would be proud of. And Mother is, by my estimation, the only film that actually earns the "Hitchcockian" label that was foisted upon it by its marketing.

There's also the simple fact that American cinema doesn't actually need the defibillation that Harris feels compelled to give it (how noble of him). It's true: the studios dump a lot of crap on the market. But, then again, they always have. Even in this era of cinema-via-focus-group, it was largely the studios that produced the watershed year that was 2007. That year, American films dominated my personal top five (including Warner Bros.' The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Miramax/Paramount's No Country for Old Men, Pixar's Ratatouille, Paramount Vantage's There Will Be Blood and Paramount's Zodiac). And as the article begrudgingly points out, there've been some quality tentpoles (2008's Iron Man and The Dark Knight and last summer's Inception), too.

Honestly, I think any movie fan who can't find anything satisfactory out there is just lazy or stubborn, or both. It's a wide world out there — it's time to leave the familiar behind and go explore.

Best Picture Reimagined

2011-02-21T20:55:00.003-05:00

As part of their annual awards shindig, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) commissioned artwork for its Best Film category (via In Contention). The results are all interesting representations of the films they commemorate. I'm fond of the Inception poster myself. Check out the whole lineup on their website.

Fatal Friendship in Born to Kill

2011-02-20T12:35:00.007-05:00

This is a contribution to the For Love of Film (Noir) blogathon hosted by Ferdy on Film and Self-Styled Siren. Now in its second year, the blogathon aims to raise money for the Film Noir Foundation, which preserves the original nitrate prints of these classic films. Please consider donating to them if you can, as they do vital work.

A lot of ink has been spilled already about Claire Trevor's conniving psuedo-femme fatale, her masochistic obsession with psychopathic killer Lawrence Tierney and the class warfare that pervades Robert Wise's fantastic "Born to Kill." But more than the two scorching leads, I've always been struck by two noir regulars, Elisha Cook Jr. (Harry Jones in "The Big Sleep") and Esther Howard ("Detour," "Murder, My Sweet") in character roles.

Several classic noirs have touched upon the lengths people will go for friendship (Thelma Ritter's fantastic scene in Simon Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" springs to mind), but few have done it so effectively as "Born to Kill." Neither Cook nor Howard stray from their usual types, the mousy guy out of his depth and the brassy lush. But the script gives them excellent material to work with and their presence adds a depth that the plot may not have had otherwise.

As Mrs. Kraft, Howard is a hoot. She lives vicariously through her young, promiscuous landlord Laury Palmer. It's not clear how the two became such fast friends, but they're cut from the same cloth. You can imagine that Laury would eventually become Mrs. Kraft had she not met the business end of Tierney's knife.

But their relationship is about more than two kindred spirits coming together at different points on the same sad continuum of alcoholism. Even before Laury's murder, Kraft seems to have maternal instincts toward the younger woman, suggesting she "get some meat on her bones." Afterward, she hires an attorney and jaunts out to San Francisco to track down Laury's killer.

In one of my favorite scenes in the film, in which Kraft first meets Cook's Marty 'Mart' Waterman, Howard lays all her cards on the table. After sizing Waterman up for the loser he is ("I'm a bad boy," Cook intones. To this, Howard lets out a knowing cackle.), she tells all there is to know about where Kraft is coming from.

"I've reached the tail end of my life and all I had was Laury—Laury and the bottle. Well, there's nothing I can do for the bottle, but I'm sure not going to let Laury down."

On the page, it reads like lazy screenwriting, but it works wonderfully on screen. Interestingly enough, the most outwardly repulsive character is the only one with pure motives in the entire film. She has the self-awareness that comes with age. At the same time, she lacks the will to change herself, so she's looking for redemption by finding Laury's killer.

Cook's Mart is a thoroughly ambiguous character. The only thing the film reveals about his connection to Tierney's Sam Wild is that they'd lived together for five years and were roommates in Reno. Based on the amount of tail that Wild gets, wants to get, or induces into marriage, it's clear that the two weren't together in the Biblical sense. So, were they in prison? Were they running a con together? And what keeps them together now that Wild has married into wealth?

The film doesn't tell much of anything about their past, but the balance of power in the relationship was always with Wild. There's a strange dynamic here, in which Wild goes wild and Mart tries to talk him down and clean up the wreckage. He tries his damnedest to throw Kraft off the trail, and then unsuccessfully co-opts Wild's cold methods. Mart's willing to do just about anything for his friend.

Just like Mrs. Kraft, that dedication places Mart in harm's way. Despite being Wild's only true friend, Mart ends up in the psychopath's crosshairs. "You're crazy, Sam," Mart says, but it's no revelation. Mart knew it all along and still stood by his friend.

Instant Awesome: Still Bill

2011-02-20T03:40:00.004-05:00

As a documentary, Still Bill is problematic at best, but as a catching-up with one of the best soul singers of the early '70s, the film (newly available on Netflix Instant) is golden. After a series of classic songs that crossed over into the mainstream ("Ain't No Sunshine," "Lean on Me," "Use Me") and prior to some latter-day cult hits ("Grandma's Hands" via Blackstreet's "No Diggity" and "Who Is He and What Is He to You" via Jackie Brown), Bill Withers bowed out of the music industry in 1985. He's held onto the mystique of the homegrown hit-maker ever since, never once capitalizing on the nostalgia he's left behind.

Not once during the course of Still Bill does Withers question his decision to leave the spotlight and focus on his family. He comes across as a down-to-earth guy, the kind of person that most people aspire to be. He's comfortable in his own skin, remaining cool in what must've been an incredibly awkward interview with Cornel West and Tavis Smiley. The two self-important jackasses ask him about "selling out." "We're all entrepreneurs," Withers responds, not taking their all-too-obvious bait.

Despite the documentary's heavy-handed attempts at easy emotion, you get a sense for the life Withers has lived and the events that shaped his outlook. He grew up in a West Virginia coal town and struggled with a stutter until he was in his 20's. It wasn't until he was 32 that he broke through as a musician. Without any professional training, he was an unlikely star and his fame brought some ridiculous propositions — one producer suggested he cover Elvis Presley's hokey "In the Ghetto."

Withers transcends the pat generalizations that his documentarians foist upon him at every turn. After the "selling out" crap, Withers side-steps more bunk about racism and still more B.S. about career regrets. Amid all the preconceived notions directors Damani Baker and Alex Vlack seem to have, Withers comes out with some gems of wisdom. "Do you know how unhappy you'd be if you thought you weren't (living) the right way?" He says early in the film. "I started out that way; I'm not going to end that way." Later, he says he told his children that on their way to wonderful, they'll pass through all right. "Stop and take a look around," he says. "Because that's where you may be staying." There's also some genuine emotion, such as moments where he joins his daughter in song and talks with young stutterers about his own childhood.

It's a shame Withers never continued churning out solid gold soul, and that he was saddled with a couple nincompoops for this latter-day documentary, but he isn't fazed. This film is worth a watch to see how cool cool really can be.

The Black Keys are Howlin' for You

2011-02-18T12:04:00.003-05:00

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

2011-02-16T20:25:00.004-05:00

From all indications, Thai director Apichatpong Joe's latest "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives," which took home last year's Palm d'Or at Cannes, defies easy explanation. But, from the trailer that popped up on iTunes, it looks like a beautiful, fascinating trip.

The Dark End of the Street

2011-02-16T08:48:00.004-05:00

Aside from a few songs ("A Long December," "Mr. Jones") that formed the soundtrack of my middle school experience, I don't count myself as a Counting Crows fan. Mostly, I haven't paid them any attention. Even at the peak of their popularity, when I was about 12, I mistook their ubiquitous songs for the latest from the Gin Blossoms or Collective Soul.

All that said (methinks I protest too much), I thought it was worth passing along some acoustic recordings by Crows frontman Adam Duritz (via I Am Fuel). What grabbed my attention was his cover of "The Dark End of the Street," one of my favorite songs by the indomitable James Carr.

Duritz:
The Dark End Of The Street by CaptFantastic

Carr:

Widescreen Awards: The Winners

2011-02-15T21:00:00.005-05:00

And here they are: my favorite performances and technical achievements of the year. Click on the images for the full-write ups. The nominees are presented in list format at the bottom of this post with a slightly amended (including one addition and one upgrade) Top 20 from the one I started out with.

The Top Twenty Films of 2010

20. "Cairo Time" (Canada, dir. Ruba Nadda)

19. "Black Swan" (USA, dir. Darren Aronofsky)

18. "Toy Story 3" (USA, dir. Lee Unkrich)

17. "Salt" (USA, dir. Phillip Noyce)

16. “The Fighter” (USA, dir. David O. Russell)

15. "Inception" (USA, dir. Christopher Nolan)

14. "The Chaser" (South Korea, dir. Na Hong-jin)

13. "Night Catches Us" (USA, dir. Tanya Hamilton)

12. "True Grit" (USA, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)

11. "Splice" (Canada, dir. Vincenzo Natali)

10. "I Am Love" (Italy, dir. Luca Guadagnino)

9. "Restrepo" (USA, dir. Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger)

8. "Animal Kingdom" (Australia, dir. David Michôd)

7. "A Prophet" (France, dir. Jacques Audiard)

6. "That Evening Sun" (USA, dir. Scott Teems)

5. "Secret Sunshine" (South Korea, dir. Lee Chang-dong)

4. "Enter the Void" (France/Germany/Italy, dir. Gaspar Noé)

3. "Tokyo Sonata" (Japan, dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

2. "Mother" (South Korea, dir. Bong Joon-ho)

1. "The Social Network" (USA, dir. David Fincher)

Best Director

Bong Joon-ho (Mother)

David Fincher (The Social Network)

Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Tokyo Sonata)

Gaspar Noé (Enter the Void)

Best Actor

Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)

Hal Holbrook (That Evening Sun)

Teruyuki Kagawa (Tokyo Sonata)

Tahar Rahim (A Prophet)

Édgar Ramírez (Carlos)

Best Actress

Jeon Do-yeon (Secret Sunshine)

Kim Hye-ja (Mother)

Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)

Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Tilda Swinton (I Am Love)

Best Supporting Actor

Neils Arestrup (A Prophet)

Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Michael Fassbender (Fish Tank)

John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)

Ray McKinnon (That Evening Sun)

Best Supporting Actress

Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Carrie Preston (That Evening Sun)

Charlotte Rampling (Life During Wartime)

Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

Best Ensemble Performance

Shirley Henderson, Allison Janney, Ally Sheedy, Ciarán Hinds, Dylan Riley Snyder, Michael Lerner, Charlotte Rampling, Michael K. Williams, Paul Reubens, Rich Pecci (Life During Wartime)

Hal Holbrook, Raymond McKinnon, Carrie Preston, Mia Wasikowska, Walton Goggins, Barry Corbin, Dixie Carter (That Evening Sun)

Katie Jarvis, Kierston Wareing, Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Griffiths (Fish Tank)

Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyôko Koizumi, Yû Koyanagi, Kai Inowaki, Haruka Igawa and Kanji Tsuda (Tokyo Sonata)

Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Jamara Griffin, Wendell Pierce, Jamie Hector and Amari Cheatom (Night Catches Us)

Best Original Screenplay

Bong Joon-ho and Park Eun-kyo (Mother)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Max Mannix and Sachiko Tanaka (Tokyo Sonata)

David Michôd (Animal Kingdom)

Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor (Splice)

Todd Solondz (Life During Wartime)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

Peter Craig, Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard (The Town)

John Curran (The Killer Inside Me)

Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)

Scott Teems (That Evening Sun)

Best Cinematography

Jeff Cronenweth (The Social Network)

Benoît Debie (Enter the Void)

Hong Kyeong-pyo (Mother)

Yorick Le Saux (I Am Love)

Martin Ruhe (The American)

Best Editing

Stuart Baird and John Gilroy (Salt)

Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall (The Social Network)

Marc Boucrot and Gaspar Noé (Enter the Void)

Lee Smith (Inception)

Juliette Welfling (A Prophet)

Best Art Direction

Roshelle Berliner and Matteo De Cosmo (Life During Wartime)

Thérèse DePrez, David Stein and Tora Peterson (Black Swan)

Guy Dyas, Frank Walsh and Larry Dias (Agora)

Jess Gonchor, Christina Ann Wilson and Nancy Haigh (True Grit)

Albrecht Konrad, David Scheunemann and Bernhard Henrich (The Ghost Writer)

Best Musical Score

John Adams (I Am Love)

Lee Byung-woo (Mother)

Clint Mansell (Black Swan)

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network)

Hans Zimmer (Inception)

Best Sound Design

~ Enter the Void
~ Inception
~ The Social Network

Best Visual Effects

~ Enter the Void
~ Inception
~ The Social Network

Widescreen Awards: Director

2011-02-14T08:31:00.004-05:00

For the second time in his relatively short career, Bong Joon-ho has taken a familiar genre and crafted a masterpiece (the other being 2005's serial killer drama "Memories of Murder"). Everything that he could possibly get right with Mother, he gets right. He even makes watching spilled water creep across the floor suspenseful. Bong is successful at balancing all the ingredients of his Hitchcockian stew — including truly funny character detail and a heartbreaking mother-son relationship — together for one of the most satisfying and unsettling films of 2010.

More than any film this year, The Social Network feels like it was conceived as one perfect whole. That's due in no small part to David Fincher. Many of his films have been flawlessly executed. Here, you can sense Fincher's fingerprints over every inch of film stock (or megapixel); and that's a good thing. It's one thing to have ratatattat dialogue (courtesy Aaron Sorkin); it's another to translate that into good cinema. All the while, Fincher holds onto the human element inside his story. It's not just about the birth of a new social network, but the new generation of people supporting that network.

Before I Am Love, Luca Guadagnino was a virtual unknown. As best I can tell, none of his previous films and documentaries have received U.S. distribution. Therefore, it's impossible to tell what he brought to the table previously, but "I Am Love" feels like the opening scene in a long and fruitful career. It's so full of life and vitality, and Guadagnino manages to extract natural performances from his actors while surrounding them in a preternaturally beautiful world.

Known foremost for his horror films ("Cure," "Pulse" and 2006's chilling "Retribution"), Kiyoshi Kurosawa has created one of the warmest, most rewarding films of the year with Tokyo Sonata. He's out-Capra'd Capra, but his happy ending is modulated by all the confusion and suffering that came before it. It's the kind of morality tale that only a horror director could conjure. And it works mostly because of how real the family at its center feels. The performances are so uniformly good that, by the time the melodrama kicks into high gear, the audience is too invested to question the strangeness of the film's final act. Finally, Kurosawa gets extra points for the piano recital, which sums up the point of the story with no words.

Eight years after his reprehensible (but awe-inspiring) "Irreversible," Gaspar Noé has returned to do the same thing all over again. This time, however, he (thankfully) upped the humanity quotient. Noé is a cinematic wizard. With Enter the Void, he stretches the bounds of what's possible in film while telling a captivating story. The audience is thrown into the worlds of both the living and the dead; and, like its main character, the viewer has no road map.

Honorable mention to Lee Chang-dong for the subtle beauty and compassion of Secret Sunshine; David Michôd for assembling an unexpectedly complex crime family in Animal Kingdom; and Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger for putting their camera and their audience in the middle of the fight for Korengal Valley in Restrepo.

Tomorrow look for the Widescreen Awards wrap-up, with the winners announcement and links to some of the great films available on Netflix Instant.

Widescreen Award: Actor

2011-02-12T17:48:00.006-05:00

Jesse Eisenberg had a lot of things to factor into his performance as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, the least of which was Mark Zuckerberg. Regardless of how closely hewn the fictional character is from its real-life counterpart, Eisenberg has crafted something for the ages. He's the self-made man who realizes too late (if you can call 26 "too late") all that he's lost. But it cuts deeper than the Jay Gatsby archetype. Eisenberg manages to convey obliviousness and self-awareness in equal measure; something that's characteristic of most twenty-somethings today. We bathe ourselves in ironies and yet very often miss what's signified.

Now in his 80s, Hal Holbrook is turning in some of the best performances of his six-decade-long career. First in 2007's "Into the Wild," last year in That Evening Sun and very likely (if the adaptation takes its cues from the novel's treatment of his character) in this year's "Water for Elephants." As Abner Meecham, Holbrook tackles a lot of weighty issues, from grief to obsolescence to the onset of senility, with grace. He paints a full picture of a man full of rage, regret and remorse. It would be easy to feel one way or the other about Abner, but Holbrook always keeps it in the grey.

Teruyuki Kagawa's performance in Tokyo Sonata feels so unlike a performance, that it's easy to miss how well he communicates the weariness of laid off office drone Ryūhei. So much of his character is wrapped up in body language. How the man carries himself reveals a great deal about his mental state, indeed, far more than the platitudes and lies that leave his lips. He also has an amazing sense of timing. Kurosawa uses physical humor — watch how Ryūhei picks himself up out of the gutter — to lighten what could've been an overwhelmingly melancholy story. Kagawa is more than up for the challenge.

The evolution of Malik from a vulnerable Arab convict to a mob don is at first inexplicable. It's only after the film is over that it dawns on you how far he's come. Tahar Rahim handles that transition — which is integral to A Prophet — beautifully, instilling a quiet intelligence in his character. Malik, and Rahim, know not to let one hand know what the other is doing. At the same time, Rahim lets the audience in enough that the character remains sympathetic amidst his brutality and cunning.

Édgar Ramírez's Carlos the Jackal is a consummate professional. Olivier Assayas' epic take on the terrorist/freedom fighter doesn't definitively answer the question of his loyalties, but one thing is clear from Ramírez's tightly-controlled performance. Carlos' first priority is himself. It's the through line in the performance, from a young, quick-witted charmer to an cruel, old has-been. Ramírez has to balance a lot of changes over the course of the film, but his focus is never lost.

Credit is also due Kim Yoon-seok who brings honesty and humor to his role as a pimp chasing down the serial killer who's been targeting his hookers in The Chaser. Alexander Siddig turns in a sensitive performance as Patricia Clarkson's escort-turned-love interest in Cairo Time. Once again, Song Kang-ho manages to be both charming and creepy as Jeon Do-yeon's unlikely lighthouse through the storm of Secret Sunshine.

An elephant by the Sea is waiting patiently

2011-02-12T09:27:00.003-05:00

I will not, as a general rule, link to my own articles very often on this blog. But it's an interesting story about a 65-foot-tall elephant, and my first A1 package for The Press, so I thought it was worth sharing.

Photo credit: Anthony Smedile/The Press of Atlantic City.

Widescreen Award: Actress

2011-02-11T00:21:00.009-05:00

Shin-ae's pain never feels like an actor's approximation. Even as the character spins off into concentric circles of grief -- first at the death of her husband and, later, her son -- Jeon Do-yeon never treats her performance in Secret Sunshine like a master's class. Even when Shin-ae truly becomes unmoored in her search for solace, Jeon never devolves into histrionics. Despite the strange places the film takes Shin-ae, it's still a very real depiction of the confusion that comes with such loss.

I've read that Bong Joon-ho picked Kim Hye-ja for the titular Mother because of her television persona as something of a June Cleaver. Not having that cultural context, the irony was lost on me. What wasn't lost in translation are the dark bonds between mother and son. Kim's face is so expressive; it tells you all that's to be said. Watch her face in the train station in the final minutes of the film. The walls all come crashing down and, yet, she's too strong to let them sit in ruin for long.

In Winter's Bone, Jennifer Lawrence disposes of precocious affectation right off the bat. Ree Dolly is deadly serious about finding her no-good father because she knows how daunting she and her young siblings' situation is. She's a force to be reckoned with, but Lawrence also tempers that determination with genuine fear. She is, after all, a kid. It's a delicate balance and the young actress pulls it off.

Even before the psychological torment overtakes Nina, Natalie Portman is a bundle of nerves in Black Swan. You can sense the gears grinding away in her head through cold stares and puffy eyes. The ambition, fear, jealousy, repression and weariness are all there long before the mirrors start summoning her inner demons out into the open. All she needed was that extra push -- a high-pressure role of a lifetime -- to send the whole roiling caldron bubbling to the surface.

Out of all the performances last year, Tilda Swinton's Emma in I Am Love has perhaps the most interesting arc. She starts the film as cold steel, too lost in the goings on of her home to register as a human being with emotions. And then the floodgates open. It'd be very easy to lose the performance among all the beauty of Luca Guadgnino's film. But Swinton is too good an actress to play window dressing. When her character feels pleasure, as in the prawn sampling, her whole body joins in the rapture. At the same time, there's a great continuity between Emma at the beginning and at the end. She's the same person, now set free.

And finally, a shout-out to some of the wonderful performances that couldn't possibly fit into five slots in such a rich year for lead actresses. Annette Bening and Julianne Moore have a natural chemistry in The Kids Are All Right that transcends sexual orientation. Geena Davis' potty-mouthed divorcee was one of the saving graces of the uneven Accidents Happen. Kyōko Koizumi brings tremendous warmth to Tokyo Sonata, standing strong for her sons as the world disintegrates around her. Sarah Polley, known for her subtle touch, is all ablaze with the spirit of discovery in Splice. As stupidly provocative as the film tries to be, Noomi Rapace is fearless and fascinating in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Widescreen Awards: Supporting Actor

2011-02-10T00:53:00.004-05:00

As prison-bound mob boss Cesar Luciani, Niels Arestrup starts off as an untouchable. He ends A Prophet, in true gangster flick form, as an empty shell of a man, deprived of all his power. Arestrup fills the space in between with a richness that's rarely found in this type of character. He's cold and remorseless, yet capable of trust. He's an unapologetic bigot, yet his protege and only true confidant is a "dirty Arab." It's a complex performance that never once feels forced.

Until the real Dicky Eklund shows up over the end credits, you're apt to think Christian Bale's performance is all bluster and bombast. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the genuine article is just as nutty as the carbon copy. Even so, Bale is the heart and soul of The Fighter. He's the main source of conflict in the film, but he's also the only source of redemption. Beyond the impressive external performance (the gaunt appearance and involuntary tics of a junkie), Bale fills his Eklund with a rich internal life, as well.

Make no mistake: Michael Fassbender's Connor, in Fish Tank, has been and always will be a monster. Fassbender seduces the audience along with his 15-year-old Lolita, and he does so while pretending to be a good, well-meaning guy. Even after his secret life -- behind a picket fence, no less -- is revealed, you can't help but think of him only as a pitiful misguided fool. It's a performance within a performance within a performance, and a stunning one at that.

In Winter's Bone, John Hawkes successfully keeps the audience guessing about Teardrop. Even after he pulls through for Ree, there's a sense that he may not be so admirable a second time. In addition to that tightrope walk, Hawkes' characterization seems so specific to the time and place, you couldn't imagine him existing in any other movie.

Lonzo Choate confuses providing for his family materially with being a good man. He always seems to have the best intentions, but his alcoholism and its root insecurities confront him at every turn. In That Evening Sun, Ray McKinnon manages to make Lonzo sympathetic even as he lashes out over and over again. He brings a lived-in quality to the character, even as he does the heavy lifting of reconciling the man's flaws and aspirations.

Gone baby, gone baby, don't be long

2011-02-09T20:05:00.003-05:00

Not sure if it's the official video, but a hypnotic Erykah Badu song gets a hypnotic video (via ChromeMusic).

Widescreen Awards: Supporting Actress

2011-02-09T00:28:00.005-05:00

Although her performance skirts a little too close to the precipice that is the cliched monster mom, Melissa Leo strikes the right balance for The Fighter. It helps that you can see where Christian Bale's Dicky Eklund gets his dysfunction from. And, by the end of the movie, you're left convinced of Alice Ward's (often misplaced) love for her sons. She'd do anything for them, true, but it's seldom the right thing.

Perhaps best known as Clive Owen's Appletini-loving mark in "Duplicity," Carrie Preston turns in a quiet but captivating performance in That Evening Sun. Pushed aside in her alcoholic husband's escalating dispute with an elderly man, Ludie Choate's pain and uncertainty shines through in momentary glances. But there's still enough chemistry between her and the drunken lout Lonzo to understand why she stays.

In just two scenes, Charlotte Rampling paints a nuanced picture of an aging barfly. The smell of thick perfume seems to waft off screen in Life During Wartime, in addition to the foul odor of desperation and self-pity. She's aggressive in the pursuit of her conquests, but at Jacqueline's core is a deeply insecure woman. "I'm a monster," she says, with no expectation to hear differently. It's as brutally honest and heartbreakingly funny as any film last year got.

It's true that Hailee Steinfeld's Mattie Ross is closer to a lead than a supporting player in True Grit, but as Scott Rudin, the film's producer, pointed out, she doesn't exactly have an arc. Nor does she need one. Steinfeld nails this single-minded character, never seeming too precocious even while sparring with impetuous adults. It's a testament to Steinfeld that, even once we meet the woman (played by Elizabeth Marvel) she becomes, she's instantly recognizable. Aside from a lost limb, she hasn't changed a bit.

When we finally catch a glimpse of the facade that is Jacki Weaver's crime family matriarch Smurf Cody in Animal Kingdom, it's a revelatory moment. She's easily one of the best villains of the year, with her maternal hugs and broad smiles. At the same time she's scheming against her grandson, she's doing her damndest to protect her own troubled brood against the corrupt police. Can you blame her? (Well, yes, but still...)

Widescreen Awards: Ensemble Performance

2011-02-08T08:35:00.006-05:00

The major awards bodies don't seem to get what an ensemble is. They tend to award films with the highest number of nominate-able performances (The King's Speech) or the most familiar faces (Black Swan) or both (The Fighter).

An ensemble is more about the collective. Although there can be, and often are, actors who stand out for one reason or another, very little of that is attributable to the filmmaker placing greater importance on one character or performance. In an ensemble, the entire cast works together for the betterment of the whole production and actors tend to have more uniform screen time.

The argument could be made that some of my choices stretch the boundaries this definition (Fish Tank and That Evening Sun have very distinct protagonists), but they still find the time for strong supporting characters and interesting subplots.

Fish Tank: Katie Jarvis, Kierston Wareing, Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Griffiths, Harry Treadaway

The oppressive world of Mia, the 15-year-old aspiring dancer at the heart of Fish Tank, is due in no small part to its cast. If they weren't comfortable diving headfirst into the uncomfortable, the film would've come across as stilted. As it is, the dysfunction feels organic to the situation. And, even at that, its tempered by real human compassion.

Life During Wartime: Shirley Henderson, Allison Janney, Ally Sheedly, Ciarán Hinds, Dylan Riley Snyder, Michael Lerner, Charlotte Rampling, Michael K. Williams, Paul Reubens and Rich Pecci

Life During Wartime is a veritable smorgasbord of compact yet wonderful performances. With a cast so large, Solondz's camera doesn't spend too much time aimed at any one actor. From Paul Reubens jilted figment of Shirley Henderson's imagination to Rich Pecci's China-obsessed, socially inept shut-in, they all make the best of it and they all contribute to the overarching story.

Night Catches Us: Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Jamara Griffin, Wendell Pierce, Jamie Hector and Amari Cheatom

Recruiting two of its main supporting actors from the ranks of “The Wire,” Night Catches Us features some of the best casting of any film this year. There are no stand-outs, but they all pull their weight like a true ensemble. Jamara Griffin, in particular, turns in a realistically grounded performance as Kerry Washington’s inquisitive young daughter. For once, a movie child that looks and acts like a child, sans the capital-M maturity and sentimentality that adult filmmakers like to project onto them.

That Evening Sun: Hal Holbrook, Ray McKinnon, Carrie Preston, Mia Wasikowska, Walton Goggins, Barry Corbin and Dixie Carter

That Evening Sun offers stellar performances by a number of underappreciated familiar faces. Ray McKinnon and Carrie Preston, as the rent-to-buy tenants of Hal Holbrook’s old farm, work wonders with what could have been stock characters. “That Evening Sun” is lent even greater poignancy by the late Dixie Carter, an ethereal presence in the film and Holbrook’s wife onscreen and off,

Tokyo Sonata: Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyôko Koizumi, Yû Koyanagi, Kai Inowaki, Haruka Igawa and Kanji Tsuda

The cast of Tokyo Sonata does an almost miraculous thing. The family in the film feels like a real family coping with all the trials and tribulations real families do. There's little melodrama here; just a turning point in the life of a family that's at once universal and distinctly Japanese.

Widescreen Awards: Original Screenplay

2011-02-07T19:36:00.005-05:00

Bong Joon-ho and Park Eun-kyo’s Mother is full of the kind of rich characterizations and subtly humorous dialogue that transcends language barriers. Even through the warped perception of subtitles, the film translates as a quietly human drama with the promise of new discoveries upon future viewings.

Originally penned by an Australian, Max Mannix, and reworked by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Sachiko Tanaka, Tokyo Sonata never feels like cinema-by-committee. It tells a familiar story — fired businessman fakes employment — with novel specificity. The characters come fully formed, their actions — even one incredible final-act aberration — springing organically from their situation.

Every word and action in David Michôd’s (pictured) crime saga Animal Kingdom amplifies and contorts the conventions of the genre. The viewer gradually forms a picture of this crime family that is not only unglamorous, but downright ugly. Everyone, including the outwardly unfazed matriarch, is just running scared.

Splice is a nifty take on the “Frankenstein” mythos, with Adrien Brody taking the part of a complicit Elizabeth, the unwilling participant-turned-victim. Even if it takes a frighteningly negative position on the role of science, the screenplay — by director Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor — makes entertaining and provocative film fodder.

In revisiting the characters from 1998’s “Happiness,” Life During Wartime writer-director Todd Solondz has crafted a poignant rumination on forgiveness. Its characters veer around the blind curves of grief and shame with reckless abandon and a dry wit that’s as refreshing as it is heartbreaking.

The Spielberg Special

2011-02-06T23:15:00.004-05:00

Just in case you weren't watching the Super Bowl, check out this very Spielberg-y Super 8 trailer. Rubbery CGI aside (especially the crinkling rail car door), it looks like an interesting flick.

Dystopia Today: Shock a smile on your kid's face

2011-02-06T10:25:00.008-05:00

The world just gets weirder and weirder. A device conceived straight out of "Brave New World," some evil genius in Japan brings you the solution to a mopey, tantrum-prone child. Just strap this contraption on the kid's jaw and, with the push of a button, they'll be smiling in seconds flat. Perfect for picture day at school now that Photoshop can easily erase the baby-blue torture device.

Courtesy Geeky Gadgets.

Widescreen Awards: Adapted Screenplay

2011-02-05T23:35:00.005-05:00

Joel and Ethan Coen exercise a light touch in adapting Charles Portis' novel True Grit. In doing so, they preserve some of the best dialogue I’ve ever heard in a western. It all rings true. It all speaks volumes about the characters through word choice alone.

The Town doesn’t seem as authentic as it would seem. For one thing, “The Town” — as the film is quick to say in a disclaimer — of today has been the benefactor or victim of urban renewal. For another, the dialogue seems to benefit from actors well-versed in the Boston accent. Where the film succeeds, however, is in its old-fashioned, tightly-written heist film script, penned by Peter Craig, Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard.

Full disclosure. The Killer Inside Me, a first-person depiction of a Texas sheriff's deputy's descent into full-on psychosis, is one of my favorite pulp fiction novels. The film, particularly the ending, leave something to be desired. But John Curran’s script, with its regionally-specific dialogue and some beneficial plot tweaking, is not the problem.

Much has been said already about Aaron Sorkin’s (pictured) rapid-fire dialogue in The Social Network. It is impressive, but that kind of dialogue is only worthwhile if it’s handled effectively by the director and the actors. (It is.) The real strength of Sorkin’s screenplay is its delicate handling of a complicated story, its multiple perspectives and the broader impact Facebook has had on its creators and the rest of us.

Writer-director Scott Teems keeps the motivations of his characters always clear — though sometimes cloaked in several layers of self-deception — in That Evening Sun, an adaption of William Gay’s short story, “I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down.” Teems never loses sight of the characters' humanity and, when the tension is ratcheted up, you feel for both sides in the property dispute.

Widescreen Awards: Cinematography

2011-02-05T10:43:00.004-05:00

All of David Fincher’s films have had a distinct visual style, whether he’s working with Darius Khondji (“Se7en”) or Harris Savides (“Zodiac”). The same can be said of The Social Network, but Jeff Cronenweth has tempered the Fincher-isms with a real sense of the technocentric world we’re living in. From the orange gaze of Connecticut streetlights to the white-out offices of Facebook’s California headquarters, the cinematography adds to both the drama and the reality of what’s on screen.

Benoît Debie unleashes some truly awe-inspiring images in Enter the Void. Long, seamless tracking shots follow characters down stairwells and through Tokyo streets, and tiny apartments illuminated by vivid, pulsing neon lights. Although some of the most impressive shots in the film are the work of computer programmers and graphic artists, everything between the pixels is no less fantastic.

Hong Kyeong-pyo does a great job providing the requisite deep, dark shadows, but he's equally adept at capturing Mother's human drama. The surreal moments that bookend the film's central mystery — both of the protagonist dancing away her pain — are critical to the success of the film. The first, a meticulously framed and lit scene through a field of tall grass, and the second, a chaotic shot that loses its character amidst the other dancers, are executed perfectly.

It's one thing to capture beauty on film. It's another to have that beauty stand for something. In I Am Love, Yorick Le Saux uses everything in his toolbox to craft breathtaking scenes of rekindled passion. The impassive sculptures of industrial Milan serve as a striking counterpoint to the glowing warmth of Antonio's food and the source of his inspiration, the Italian countryside. There are two types of beauty in "I Am Love;" one that inspires and one that stifles. Le Saux expertly captures both.

Beyond the threadbare plot and low-key acting, the true star of The American is Martin Ruhe's cinematography. The film, very much like director Anton Corbijn's previous "Control" (also lensed by Ruhe), feels as if it were conceived as a series of still photographs. No surprise then that Corbijn started his career as a photographer. There's a depth and breadth to the imagery here that's difficult to top and, most importantly, contributes to the atmosphere Corbijn's tried to cultivate.

A long trip somewhere else

2011-02-04T18:12:00.003-05:00

What happens when you move to a new place and don't have the Internet set up in advance? You use the Internet a whole lot less.

Goodbye Delaware

2011-02-01T13:46:00.004-05:00

A ferry on a foggy winter's day would be a great setting for a horror movie. There's the rocking of the boat, the noise of the engines, the blankness outside the windows and limited places to hide or run to. On top of all that, most people are zonked out on the two-hour ferry ride to Jersey, lost in sleep, a book or television. If someone else doesn't get on this, I might have to do it myself someday.

If today is the day you want to be bad

2011-02-01T00:22:00.001-05:00

Apple has posted the trailer for Elektra Luxx (embedded below), director Sebastien Gutierrez's sequel to the soft-core anthology "Women in Trouble." In spite of the ridiculous plot and some incredibly clunky dialogue, the latter is an improbably good film. I've always liked Carla Gugino, although she's often relegated to cameos and thankless girlfriend roles (see: "American Gangster," "Sin City" and "Watchmen"). But she gives her all as a jaded porn star who, in the first film, learns that she's pregnant. Not earth shattering work, but worth the 95 minutes (it's on Instant Netflix, also a plus).

There's no evidence on hand that "Electra Luxx" will live up to its prequel, but that high profile cast (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Julianne Moore and Timothy Olyphant) must've been drawn to it for some reason. Or maybe, like the rest of us, they like seeing Gugino in a Girl Scout uniform.

Widescreen Awards: Film Editing

2011-01-31T00:41:00.001-05:00

Editing is quite possibly the most difficult aspect of film to judge, particularly from the perspective of a viewer. A good editor can pick up the slack from a bad director, who came into a project with a shaky vision. A bad editor can hack a good director's work unscrupulously. And, it would seem, editors are always at the mercy of the material they're given. If the production crew didn't shoot enough material, the editor will have a difficult time creating a rhythm or even choosing the best shots.

But here are the films that are, in my mind, the most smoothly "edited." Whether that's because of or despite the best or worst efforts of their editors, I will never know.

Angelina Jolie does a whole lot of running, jumping, leaping and tumbling in Salt, but the editing team of Stuart Baird and John Gilroy manage to keep the action sequences coherent. You always have a good idea where Jolie's super spy is going and how she's getting there.

The Social Network sustains a meticulously-crafted rhythm across a continent and its two-hour length. I have to imagine Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall had something to do with that, although with the reportedly OCD David Fincher in the director's chair, you can never be sure.

There are no wasted sequences in Enter the Void, which was edited by Marc Boucrot, with director Gaspar Noé doing double duty. Even the lulls in the plot, including one doozy of a trip, contribute to the whole. The editors knows when to look away, when to hold on a shot and how integrate the various special effects into the frame.

Christopher Nolan's new favorite editor Lee Smith (pictured) — they've been working together since 2005's "Batman Begins" — helps the master illusionist keep a lot of balls in the air in Inception. The final "kicks" sequence is as tightly constructed as any film this year.

Juliette Welfling, in her third collaboration with A Prophet director Jacques Audiard, achieves a measured pace across a number of years in the life of an burgeoning mafia kingpin. It's a testament to her skill at pacing and structure that so many great moments stay in your memory long after the 155 minutes are over.

Widescreen Awards: Art Direction

2011-01-30T09:34:00.000-05:00

Film is an artificial medium. When I first started watching movies — for the record, the first theater experience I can remember is Jurassic Park when I was five or six years old
— that never crossed my mind. It's not that I believed everything on screen was really happening, but it's just not something you think about for a long time.

But decisions go into everything, from the color of the protagonist's car to which pen he uses and how he signs his name. There are seemingly infinite possibilities when it comes to these things, but the best films use these choices to say something about the character or the scene. These films, in my opinion, have done that the best.

Briefly, some useful film vocab: A production designer is responsible for the overall visual appearance of a film.
A set designer or decorator is in charge of translating the production designer's vision, choosing furnishings and other items seen on a given set.
An art director oversees the workers who actually build the sets. Lower budget films, such as Life During Wartime, sometimes forgo either the set designer or art director.

Agora realistically recreates Roman Alexandria, in the process resurrecting the style of the 1950s sword-and-sandal epic. The attention to detail in the film is awe-inspiring. And, what's most impressive, is how (almost) seamlessly practical effects and sets integrate with CGI backdrops.

Production design — Guy Dyas
Art direction — Frank Walsh
Set design — Larry Dias

Black Swan is a textbook example of a film where every decision was consciously made to contribute to the overall atmosphere. The Sayers' apartment, the ballet company and even Nina's casting party are all precisely designed to contribute to that mounting sense of dread.

Production design — Thérèse DePrez

Art direction — David Stein

Set design — Tora Peterson

The Ghost Writer's production design makes up for what's lacking in the script. So much of the tension in the film is drawn from the foreboding sets. Highlights include a post-modern Martha's Vineyard retreat, an empty ferry terminal and a claustrophobic London book release party.

Production design — Albrecht Konrad
Art direction — David Scheunemann
Set design — Bernhard Henrich and Ulli Isfort

Life During Wartime uses its sun-kissed Florida setting for a surreal backdrop to the often desperate and sometimes despicable acts its characters perpetrate. As a counterpoint to the very sobering themes on display, the garish condominiums and McMansions and strip mall restaurants work their magic.

Production design — Roshelle Berliner
Art direction — Matteo De Cosmo

True Grit captures the grit of the old west without the usual embellishments. Mattie Ross doesn't frequent any saloons, but the places she does visit in her efforts to bring closure to her father's death — particularly Rooster Cogburn's back room abode — all exude an authenticity that's hard to fake.

Production design — Jess Gonchor

Art direction — Christina Ann Wilson

Set design — Nancy Haigh

Widescreen Awards: Musical Score

2011-01-29T12:43:00.000-05:00

Cobbled together from the back catalog of American minimalist composer John Adams, the score for I Am Love feels tailored to fit this story of reignited passion. The music lends a giddy anticipation to the film's early scenes that rises to soaring heights of ecstasy and dizzying lows of uncertainty over the course of the film.

Lee Byung-woo's score for Mother is an eclectic mix of different styles. But it's the main theme, which is most effective during Bong Joon-ho's emotional punch of an ending, that stays with you. Its ingratiating guitar seems right at home on a Thank-You-Parents bus tour, but when the twang of regret kicks in, you too will be reaching for the acupuncture needles.

Taking its cues from Tchaikovsky's ballet, Clint Mansell's score for Black Swan is perfect accompaniment for the unraveling of Nina Sayer. The themes are all familiar, even if you've never seen "Swan Lake," but Mansell finds and accentuates the melodrama and terror behind the sheet music.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' score for The Social Network does what every good score should. It complements the emotional undercurrents of the film, sets the tempo for the plot and, most importantly, stays out the way. The first time I saw the film, I paid almost no attention to the score. It was almost as if it didn't exist. You only recognize Reznor's work if you're looking for it, but it contributes immeasurably to what Fincher was trying to accomplish.

It almost feels like cheating, calling attention to Hans Zimmer's already universally-recognizable Inception score. But there's so much more there beyond foghorn blasts that have rattled subwoofers all over the world. Despite a plot that always felt too structured (very much like a video game, right down to the "dream levels"), the film has a lot of complex emotion wrapped up in its subplot of a man coping with his own subconscious. Zimmer's score helps flesh that out, as well.

Hip-Hop Saturday Morning Cartoon

2011-01-29T08:41:00.000-05:00

It's chock full of hip-hop music video stereotypes — the slow-mo door opening, the random close-ups, ADD cutting with dissolves, the decked-out mansion — but the looong, cartoon-ish intro to this new Nicki Minaj video is something to behold. Saturday morning awesome.

Widescreen Awards: Sound Design

2011-01-27T22:14:00.001-05:00

Sound design tends to be a difficult thing to wrap your head around. The Oscars split it into two categories — sound editing and sound mixing — but even the experts don't seem to really understand what they're rewarding. Sound editing, as I understand it, refers to the creation of sounds from scratch. Sound mixing refers to the assembling of many different sounds into a cohesive whole. Basically, the sound editors collect the sounds and the mixers put it all together. But so often it seems to come down to which films are either the loudest or which ones are Best Picture hopefuls looking to up their nomination tally.

With the caveat that I'm not an expert in what makes good sound editing or mixing, these are — to my ears — the best "designed" soundscapes of the year, with no attention paid to the differences between editing and mixing.

Spoilers, especially for Enter the Void, follow.

For a long stretch of Enter the Void, the viewer is trapped inside the skull of its expatriate protagonist. When his blood pressure spikes, we hear the thump of his pulse. When it plummets, we hear the ringing in his ears. But even after the camera leaves Oscar's body, the impressive soundscapes aren't over. As the camera glides over clouds and through buildings, the ambient sounds of the city and the silence are ever-present, with the low rattle and hum of Thomas Bangalter's (of Daft Punk) score just beneath the surface.

There's nothing altogether unique about the sound design in Inception, but it gets points for juggling so many different types of aural input without sacrificing clarity. The dream sounds are all heightened versions of real life — hear that exploding Paris street — that immerse your ears in the action. And the score, one of the most distinct features of the film, never completely overwhelms the soundtrack. Given the power of Hans Zimmer's bass, that's a feat in itself.

From the violinist on the Harvard commons to the thundering techno music of a San Francisco nightclub, The Social Network recreates a realistically stereophonic world. But what's most impressive is how crisp screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's dialogue is amid the chaos. Characters speak to, at and over each other in this film, and yet there's never any confusion about what's going on. There's an honesty to the staged conversations that would've been edited down to mush in anyone else's hands.

Widescreen Awards: Visual Effects

2011-01-26T19:56:00.001-05:00

Now that Oscar has had his way with the wide world of cinema, it's my turn. For the next week or so, I'll be offering up what I viewed as the best performances in front, behind and inside the camera. Starting out, here are the best achievements in visual effects.

The striking visuals of Enter the Void play a very cunning game. When you're immersed within the film, all of it feels real. It's only after you think back — to the ghostly, wall-breaching camera and the soaring shots of the city — that you realize just how much trickery is involved. The real Tokyo beneath those glowing phosphorescent skies bears only passing resemblance to the one depicted here, but the film's purpose is not to present Tokyo as it really is. Nowhere seems normal when you're as detached — mentally, physically and metaphorically — as the drug-dealing protagonist Oscar is. BUF, the company behind the visual effects, has posted an impressive making-of gallery.

Inception, on the other hand, is playing a different game entirely. Dreams are fantastical shades of real life, complete with surreal, wondrous spectacles that can only be make-believe. The visual spectacles here — mirrored walls, an exploding fortress and a cascading city by the sea — are awe-inspiring. But, what separates them from other effects excesses (such as the Laws-of-Physics-defying ones in "Iron Man 2"), is that they all operate under their own strict rules of logic. It may all be a dream, but the effects here never feel like a put-on.

If anyone knows how to use CGI, it's David Fincher. All of his films have made extensive use of it, but he never goes too far. What's so impressive about a film like The Social Network (and "Zodiac," which came before it) is how transparent the effects are. Unless you've seen the FX reels or read about Fincher's exploits elsewhere, you would never know that one of the Winklevii is actually an otherworldly doppleganger, the face of one actor transposed onto the body of another. Sure, it's not as boldly impressive as the reverse aging of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," but then again this flick has 10 times the heart of that syrupy confection.

A Tale of Two Housemaids

2011-01-25T19:58:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure how long it's been available for free on MUBI, but since it is, there's no reason not to check out the original 1960 version of "The Housemaid." It's not as sleek or as capital-L lurid as the trailer (embedded below) for Im Sang-soo's remake, but for my money there's no femme fatale quite as unhinged Myong-ja (apart, perhaps, from Ann Savage's Vera in Detour).

What makes her even creepier than your garden variety Glenn Close or Alicia Silverstone obsessive female is how unknowable the character is. She creeps around outside in the rain. She hammers away at her master's piano. She does all these unnerving things, but it's not simply a case of love gone awry. There's a fire burning in Myong-ja that goes much deeper than that of a jilted lover or fed-up outcast. Her character earns that fourth-wall shattering disclaimer that follows the proper ending of the film. Philanderers, be warned: Mess around with the housemaid at your own peril.

Here's hoping Im Sang-soo (not Lee Chang-dong, as I mistakenly wrote in a previous post) captured some measure of that mysterious quality in Jeon Do-yeon, who plays the modern-day temptress.

Top 20 Films of 2010

2011-01-23T22:55:00.000-05:00

With the year well and truly put to rest and Oscar nominations a scant day away, now is as good a time as any to count down what I saw as the best the cinema had to offer in 2010.

First, a note on inclusiveness. As ravenously as I devour films — by my count I watched 61 last year — it's simply impossible to see them all.

I tend to avoid films I know will be horrendously bad. A high school English teacher once told me life is too short to read bad books, and I believe the same applies to the movies. My "bottom 10" list would probably include innocuously mediocre fare such as "Shutter Island" and "Ondine," as well as absurdly entertaining stuff like the South Korean disaster epic "Tidal Wave." I have no qualms about recommending any of those films to the right person in the right mood to enjoy them. (FYI: "Tidal Wave" is available on Instant Netflix. Check it out.)

Because I don't live in an urban area, there are a lot of films each year that are impossible to find. If I would have had to hop a flight out to L.A. to see the movie, it's not going to show up here. I am, after all, a broke print journalist of the ol' Chevrolet Set.

But that also means films that were seen by the tastemakers last year — and one from as far back as 2007 — are fair game. Similarly, I don't exclude direct-to-video releases or documentaries. If the film fired the right synapses, it doesn't matter how it was created or where I saw it.

In brief, 2010 presented an embarrassment of riches, ranging from surprising summer blockbusters ("Inception," "Salt") to homegrown indies ("Night Catches Us", "That Evening Sun") and what very well may be the crest of the Korean New Wave. I'm not sure if any such movement actually exists in real life, but that country has presented a plethora of talented directors in the past decade, from almost-household-names Bong Joon-ho ("Memories of Murder," "The Host" and lastyear's "Mother") and Park Chan-wook ("Oldboy") to rising workmen Lee Chang-dong (last year's "Secret Sunshine" and the forthcoming "Poetry") and Kim Ji-woon ("A Tale of Two Sisters").

Before launching into the cream of the crop, here are some honorable mentions that just missed the cut: "The American" (USA, dir. Anton Corbijn); "Carlos" (France/Germany, dir. Olivier Assayas); "Fish Tank" (UK, dir. Andrea Arnold); "Life During Wartime" (USA, dir. Todd Solondz); and "The Town" (USA, dir. Ben Affleck).

For those keeping tally, the top 20 are as follows:

20. "Triangle" (UK/Australia, dir. Christopher Smith)

19. "Cairo Time" (Canada, dir. Ruba Nadda)

18. "Black Swan" (USA, dir. Darren Aronofsky)

17. "Toy Story 3" (USA, dir. Lee Unkrich)

16. "Salt" (USA, dir. Phillip Noyce)

15. "Inception" (USA, dir. Christopher Nolan)

14. "The Chaser" (South Korea, dir. Na Hong-jin)

13. "Night Catches Us" (USA, dir. Tanya Hamilton)

12. "True Grit" (USA, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)

11. "I Am Love" (Italy, dir. Luca Guadagnino)

10. "Restrepo" (USA, dir. Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger)

9. "Splice" (Canada, dir. Vincenzo Natali)

8. "Animal Kingdom" (Australia, dir. David Michôd)

7. "A Prophet" (France, dir. Jacques Audiard)

6. "That Evening Sun" (USA, dir. Scott Teems)

5. "Secret Sunshine" (South Korea, dir. Lee Chang-dong)

4. "Enter the Void" (France/Germany/Italy, dir. Gaspar Noé)

3. "Tokyo Sonata" (Japan, dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

2. "Mother" (South Korea, dir. Bong Joon-ho)

1. "The Social Network" (USA, dir. David Fincher)

My Ballot: Best Original or Song Score

2010-02-07T14:35:00.000-05:00

It's that time of the year, when some of the best films of the year make it to my neck of the woods. Better late than never, I figured I'd resurrect In Widescreen in order to share what I think are some of the best films of 2009. I'll kick off my ballot with a nod to the composers (and other music gurus) who stirred the soul with the perfect aural accompaniment.

Nathan Johnson for The Brothers Bloom

The Brothers Johnson like to keep it in the family, but it works. Nathan's variations on a simple melody -- sometimes jovial and sometimes melancholy -- match perfectly with Rian's bittersweet odyssey of a film.

Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders and John Bissell for The Hurt Locker

For once, the Academy got it right. It's easy to lose track of the musical soundscape underneath the human drama and intense visuals, but it plays an integral part of the film's suspense.

Marvin Hamlisch for The Informant!

Hamlisch's retro-tinged score serves as the glue that holds this uneven film together. Had Soderbergh been able to commit to the semi-ironic tone set by its music, the film might've been a more effective satire. Samples from this score seem to be impossible to find online.

Clint Mansell for Moon

The always-fantastic Mansell captures the emptiness of space, as well as the loneliness and paranoia of the film's protagonist. The score threatened to overwhelm the film at times, but it accurately portrays the mounting urgency of Sam Bell's situation.

Michael Giacchino for Up

Giacchino's work is always a thing of wonder. Not only does he hit all the right notes in this high-flying adventure, but he also reflects the time-burnished melancholy of Carl Fredricksen in the film's central theme, "Married Life."

Under the Parthenon

2009-06-20T19:50:00.000-04:00

Add this to the list of reasons to vacation in Greece, right next to nude beaches, free-flowing booze, birthplace of democracy, and so on:

A new museum of glass and concrete opened today at the base of the Acropolis, under the gaze of the limestone and marble Parthenon. It contains 226,000 square feet of antiquities: the statues and sculptures and papyrus that constitute the legacy left by the Greek civilization.

Conspicuously absent are the Elgin Marbles that were spirited away by a pompous aristocrat/wannabe archaeologist to the British Museum. There they have remained, since the British have claimed Greece is too politically unstable and too economically ill-equipped to maintain the looted freezes and statues. The museum's curators hope the new $200 million facility will shoot holes in that argument for once and for all. Here's hoping the British Museum is willing to part with at least some of its pilfered treasures.

In the meantime, check out some beautiful photos of the new museum.

Reach into your pockets...

2009-06-16T16:30:00.000-04:00

Although his guerrilla tactics make him the antithesis of a competent, objective journalist, Michael Moore tends to get a pass from liberals because he's a mouthpiece for the "right" side of most arguments. Sure, he harasses aging, sickly movie stars. And, yes, he picks some of the most ridiculous examples to illustrate his points. But, the War in Iraq was wrong. And guns do kill. And so on.

I can't say I'm eagerly awaiting this New Film by Michael Moore, the teaser for which just showed up on Yahoo Movies, but there's something to be said for his blunt force rhetoric. After dealing with the absurdity of having PR spokesmen deliver prepared comments full of ill-conceived talking points (on behalf of so-and-so senator and such-and-such company), I can understand and almost admire his firebrand approach to reporting.

Images from a Day of Reckoning

2009-06-15T20:45:00.000-04:00

Here are just a few of the most affecting photos posted of the Iranian protests posted today by a photographer named mousavi1388 on Flickr. They display visually what a million words could not convey.

I've always thought that if a people want something enough, they will put everything on the line for it and the Iranian people clearly have. I don't know what the solution should or will be, but my heart and mind is with the people of Iran. Hopefully, they will receive the kind of government they demand. Hopefully, they will not have to shed any more blood for that. Hopefully, their sacrifice won't be ignored and their will won't be beaten down (as it has been in Burma/Myanmar).

Review: Angels & Demons

2009-06-15T17:54:00.000-04:00

It's an angel! It's a demon! It's the camerlengo flying a CG helicopter!

Like the trite Dan Brown novel it was based upon, Angels & Demons has a lot of important-sounding things to say but very little in the way of real insight. It wants to sound profound. It wants to bridge the gap between science and religion. It wants to show that belief and logic are just two sides of the same coin. Most of all, it wants the audience to think that it wants all these things. The only thing Brown and director Ron Howard want are the up-front salaries and back-end deals.

Despite giving Tom Hanks' Robert Langdon a more conservative haircut and making the female lead—at least superficially—more intelligent and headstrong, Angels & Demons is actually more ridiculous than it's cinematic predecessor, The Da Vinci Code.

The CG visual effects, the true barometer of a good summer popcorn flick, are terrible. It seems the closer we come to virtual perfection, the more unreal it all seems. Call it the uncanny valley of digital imaging. St. Peter's Square looks good enough, populated with a mix of real human extras and digital fascimiles, but it doesn't have the gravity of the real thing. It looks a little distant, a little warped, like a meticulously constructed 1/16 scale model. The same can be said for all of the familiar landmarks that Tom Hanks didn't have permission to dash through, but does so anyway with a little movie magic.

Thematically, the film is a mess. And not a good, moral-ambiguity-explored-artfully mess. Early on, it presents a character who espouses the virtues of both science and religion. It is time, he says, for the two warring philosophies to unite. And then, after his breathless proselytizing, he calls science the "younger brother" of religion. Another priest is steadfastly against science while quietly campaigning for his chance to become the new pope. Which one is the ideal man of faith and which one is the villain who's scheming to bring down the Vatican? The answer isn't all that surprising.

The acting, on all fronts, is actually an improvement on The Da Vinci Code, where the performances were either wooden or overwrought with little middle ground. Ewan McGregor gets a lot of mileage out of the Camerlengo McKenna; right up until a last-minute plot twist robs his character of any realistically human motivation. Armin Mueller-Stahl succeeds as a cardinal whose self-interest is thoroughly realistic. I get the feeling that there's a lot of depth yet to be mined in Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer (Eric Bana's wife in Munich). The screenplay asks only that she say stupid things ("Isn't it cold in here?") smartly, but she brings more emotion to her scenes than are dictated by the vapid dialogue she's forced to recite. Tom Hanks is...Tom Hanks, and you can't really argue against that.

The Vatican was right to ignore this thoroughly unincendiary film. The audience will leave the multiplex with nothing more or less than what they came in with. Well, except 138 minutes they can never retrieve.

Rating: 3 / 10

Review: The Hangover

2009-06-14T20:54:00.000-04:00

Although I spent the weekend away from the web (with limited wireless access, I didn't even try), I did catch three recent popcorn flicks at the movieplex—an admitted rarity for me. Here's some thoughts on the first of the three... Spoilers follow.

The Hangover is what it is. If you've seen the trailer, you know precisely what you're in for. Two frat guys and an oddball brother-in-law take their friend on a bachelor party in Sin City. Bad shit happens. None of the survivors of the bender can remember what they did when they wake up the next morning to a chicken, a tiger and no sign of the would-be groom. It's a story told at backyard barbecues and reenacted on sitcoms that you suspect has never actually happened.

The jokes come so fast and loose that the duds don't really factor. Ed Helms' Stu is a variation on Andy Bernard: cuckolded by his fiancee and repressed by his middle-class life. Bradley Cooper is a little too convincing as douchebag Phil. Zach Galifianakis (from the short-lived Comedy Central show "Dog Bites Man") is particularly well-suited to the role of an infantile pedophile, Alan, who doesn't know the difference between Ecstasy and Rufinol. Despite some truly disturbing "quirks," Galifianakis manages to make Alan seem harmless. He just wants to be one of the guys, after all.

There's never any real suspense in The Hangover. In a different film—not necessarily better, but more serious-minded—Alan's desperation for acceptance, his naivete and his hinted-at pedophilia would lead to something worse than short-term amnesia. Going in, the audience knows nothing truly dire will happen to these guys. Tiger maulings, run-ins with sociopathic drug dealers and heat stroke won't be fatal events here.

In that sense, The Hangover falls neatly into the fantasy Las Vegas of the ad campaigns. Bad things may happen to you there but, as a tourist, you can expect to leave relatively unscathed and with a really awesome story to tell your friends. The Hangover's conclusion falls right in line with the endings of Indecent Proposal, Vegas Vacation or last year's 21. As refreshing as it would be to see this familiar story get a perverse twist—imagine if the groom died after 2 days of exposure to the wild temperature fluctuations of the desert city—the film was never meant to be anything other than a funny retread of a familiar story.

On it's own relatively modest terms, The Hangover works. It's the funniest straight comedy I've seen in a long time. Watch it with a few of your bros and make sure to stay for the credits.

Rating: 7 / 10

Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying

2009-06-12T00:23:00.000-04:00

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The Set Up: One Punch Away...

2009-06-11T20:32:00.000-04:00

One of my regular reads, the always engaging Noir of the Week, recently posted a commentary on one of my favorite noirs, Robert Wise's The Set Up. Although their write-up veers a little too close to verbatim summary, it also gives some good insight into the film's backstory. Probably the most memorable aspect of the film, 60 years later, is that it was filmed in (more or less) real time. That aspect works pretty well in building suspense and providing a semblance of reality, although I have to admit, the protagonist boxer Stoker Thompson (Robert Ryan) spends an excruciating amount of time changing into his shorts and gloves.

An example of Robert Wise's use of real-time and the long shot.

I figured I'd add some of my own thoughts to the mix, but, if you haven't seen the film yet: Beware. Spoilers ahead.

For Thompson, redemption is always just one punch away. He repeats that mantra to his wife, his manager, his cornerman and himself, as if sheer repetition will make it true. Like the amateur criminals that dwell in the shadows of film noir, Stoker yearns for something more than the sweat-stained towels of second-rate stadiums. With a measure of brute force, skill and dumb luck, he hopes to have one last shot at the title and the $500 it promises. The boxer, as portrayed in The Set-Up, becomes another tragic film noir protagonist who, despite having only tenuous links to criminal activity, falls prey to blind ambition.

Professional athletes aren't obvious candidates for the Walter Neff treatment. We've become accustomed to seeing them survive scandal and navigate the legal system with ease. Although shady women may scramble to spend one night in a basketball player's bed, seldom does it lead to anything more than an embarassing press conference and the ensuing tabloid feeding frenzy. Ask Kobe Bryant. Even athletes of the washed-up variety have Viagra commercials and used car lots to turn to. While the cliches surrounding private eyes and insurance salesmen typically involve back alleys and broken hearts, athletes are rarely subject to such fatalism.

While a baseball game could never serve as the backdrop to the real-time suspense of The Set-Up, an inherent tension present in boxing lends itself to such treatment. The prize fight consists of four rounds of equal time. When one fighter is laid flat on the mat, there is the countdown to the knockout and the inevitable—at least in cinema—last-minute resurrection. Time itself also imposes its own tension on the proceedings. At some point, a prize fighter will be too old to continue challenging fresh-faced upstarts.

There is immediacy to a boxing match that few sports can rival. Like many of the crimes perpetrated in film noir, boxing is an endeavor that rewards aggression. Even spectators are swept into the action: timid middle-aged women become hecklers and mild-mannered husbands beat the air with their fists. The fighters need to be able to both give and take a punch, to size up their opponents quickly and act with little concern for the consequences. Stoker pushes himself to the limit every night, despite the fact that he’s “blown 100 fights” according to his manager Tiny. Mrs. Dietrichson of Double Indemnity continues to kill in order to attain her goals; Stoker continues to take a beating in order to keep his dream alive.

The crowd is frothing with testosterone as Stoker Thompson looks on at the fight. He knows he will soon be on the other side; from a spectator to an an actor.

Before the audience gets a glimpse of Stoker, we know he has crossed that invisible divide between experienced boxer and aging has-been. After the camera passes a middle-aged man exclaims that he remembers seeing Stoker in the ring as a kid, Stoker’s ever-supportive wife entreats her husband to give up his foolhardy passion and open a cigarette stand. “I remember the first time you told me that,” she says, her back turned. “You were just one punch away from the title shot then.” This time, Stoker insists, is different. “They’re building this guy up,” he says of his 23-year-old opponent Tiger Nelson, “feeding him a lot of pushovers.” Deluded by the promise of glory, Stoker fails to see himself amongst those aforementioned pushovers. With no sense of irony, he presents Julie with a variation on the old chestnut: “if I could belt him solid just once…”

Even after learning that he must throw the fight, Stoker continues against seemingly insurmountable odds. “It’s better to play it safe and go the distance,” Tiny says, “than to get your head knocked off.” The closest people in his life are pleading with him to follow the safe road toward a safe life eking out a safe living. Stoker’s rebellion cements his position as a film noir hero. While the others play for the easy money and the comfortable life, Stoker dreams of the big score. Although his delusions aren’t as literal as Gunboat’s—believing he is Frankie Manilla, the underdog middle-weight champion of the world—they are no less potent in their influence and disastrous in their consequences. With little concern for what Little Boy will do, he continues to fight for his pride, his masculinity and the title run. To fail now, so close to the big score, would be the ultimate defeat.

Another element that aligns boxers with the noir hero is isolation. Whether they leave the ring victorious or require smelling salts to walk away under their own power, both boxers are alone in the ring. The Set-Up plays up this aspect of the sport through low-angle shots of the ring with no audience members in the frame. It’s just two men approaching the point of total exertion, trying to land that one solid punch that will fell the opponent.

For Stoker, the world recedes into darkness after the fight, as well. Tiny and Red abandon him as soon as Tiger Nelson hits the floor. The spectators immediately file out of stands. Gus and his assistant blow with one word from Danny. The lights are out in his hotel room—his wife isn’t with him and she isn’t waiting up for him. She may be picking up sandwiches, deciding to stand by her husband as he faces a slow descent, but Stoker doesn’t know that. With fear supplanting single-minded ambition, he dashes through the darkened arena, from door to door. He’s trapped inside the arena, forced to face whatever grisly end awaits.

Consumed by an impossible dream of personal glory and a shot at the big time that has escaped him, Stoker Thompson blinds himself to the trap he falls into. His solidarity with the film noir protagonist springs from this desperation and the tragic end it expedites. Although he never actively pursues a life of crime as a path to his dreams, the character flaws at his core leave him vulnerable to defeat. In some alternate movie universe, in which Stoker lost in the third round, the boxer is one punch away from returning to Julie a vegetable. And he, too, is a tragic hero in search of a film noir.

Sundown

2009-06-11T19:53:00.001-04:00

On The Road

2009-06-11T18:51:00.000-04:00

Somehow I missed the trailer for The Road that showed up on Yahoo last month, so this is news to me if not to anyone else. Apple has just posted some HD trailers for this Cormac McCarthy adaptation from John Hillcoat, the director of the bloody Outback oater The Proposition (highly recommended).

Although the trailer itself follows the tired convention of the television broadcast narration (exhibit A: Blindness), it's the one film this year I'm anticipating the most. The novel was thoroughly deserving of the Pulitzer Prize McCarthy walked away with in 2007, although placement in the Oprah Book Club was probably an unwarranted punishment.

Like Proposition, The Road will feature a score composed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis--the team responsible for the beautiful music of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Guy Pearce, who played the bedraggled outlaw in Hillcoat's last film, is back in a bit role here. And Viggo Mortensen seems entirely suited the role of "The Man."

Also interesting to note, a lot of the film was shot in south central Pennsylvania, around the Harrisburg area. Specifically, the highway tunnel is part of an abandoned segment of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I saw it when I was a kid and it is eerie in real life, too. Or at least it was then. The Road was also filmed in Louisiana. Unfortunately, the location scouts probably had no difficulty finding abandoned highways and devastated buildings there. For an interesting short article about the filming from last year, check out Filmmaker Magazine.

After a lot of release date shuffles, The Road will hit theatres on Oct. 16.

Cut that man's hair!

2009-06-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

Good stuff.

You'll never leave this island...

2009-06-10T22:03:00.000-04:00

Even with a brilliant director and a richly talented cast, Shutter Island—the trailer of which just premiered on Apple—is a tough sell for me. Everything about the film seems like a plus. Joining Scorsese's new old stand-by DiCaprio, the cast is filled out by Mark Ruffalo (the realistically world-weary David Toschi in Zodiac), Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow and, a personal favorite, Patricia Clarkson. The fact that Clarkson features so prominently in the trailer is almost enough to make me cautiously optimistic. Add to this Scorsese's company of old-pros behind the camera (d.p. Richardson, editor Schoonmaker and production designer Dante Ferretti) and all should be right with the world.

Unfortunately, Scorsese's latest is based on the worst of the three Dennis Lehane novels I've read. I can't elaborate without (potentially) spoiling the plot of the film, but those who've read the book know where I'm coming from. Screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis retained the anagram character names. Not good. The trailer telegraphs the same plot twists found in the novel. Not good. And, finally, check out the video game-quality CG imagery. Not good.

Really, Scorsese. That's the best you could do? I'd rather to see him go the old school route of using matte paintings instead of falling back on bargain-basement CGI. I miss the matte paintings and process shots of Vertigo, Citizen Kane or Black Narcissus. There was a real art to seamlessly blending the world of the cinema and the world of the still frame. Comparatively, the CGI backdrops found nearly everywhere today are mere window dressing.

I guess this is a long way of saying I'm apprehensive about Shutter Island and the trailer didn't do a thing to dispel that feeling. Also, welcome to In Widescreen. I don't have any real idea where I'll be taking this blog, but it gives me a place to relax and write about the things that interest me. I promise I won't be this grumpy all the time. After all, everything's better in widescreen (har har har).