Oscar nominated Berenice Bejo in (and married in real life to the Oscar nominated director of) THE ARTIST
It’s Oscar Weekend, your chance to catch up with the magical silent romance The Artist, Director Alexander Payne’s (Sideways) family drama The Descendants with George Clooney, Martin Scorsese’s revelatory 3D tale Hugo, the rockem sockem thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the searing and brilliantly constructed Iranian drama A Separation.
Safe House is a fine paranoid action spy thriller with Denzel Washington and the director’s pedal jammed to the floor. Thin Ice is a Fargo Lite diversion.
I have also commented onSteven Spielberg’s War Horse, the sex addiction drama Shame, the biopic The Iron Lady, the very odd fable Albert Nobbs, the feminist action thriller Haywire and Ralph Fiennes’ contemporary adaption of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.
I haven’t yet seen the Woody Harrelson police corruption thriller Rampart, which opens this weekend. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD pick of (last) week is Drive starring Ryan Gosling, a stylishly violent noir tale unfolding on a brilliantly filmed canvas.
George Clooney and Shailene Woodley in THE DESCENDANTS
The best films in theaters are the magical silent romance The Artist, Director Alexander Payne’s (Sideways) family drama The Descendants with George Clooney, Martin Scorsese’s revelatory 3D tale Hugo, the rockem sockem thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the searing and brilliantly constructed Iranian drama A Separation.
I have also commented onSteven Spielberg’s War Horse, the sex addiction drama Shame, the biopic The Iron Lady, the very odd fable Albert Nobbs, the feminist action thriller Haywire and Ralph Fiennes’ contemporary adaption of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.
Drive is a movie that you haven’t seen before – a stylishly violent noir tale unfolding on a brilliantly filmed canvas.
Ryan Gosling stars as a stunt driver by day, criminal getaway driver by night. He hardly talks and doesn’t emote. Indeed, his character is listed in the credits as “Driver” and sometimes referred to in the dialogue as “The Kid”. He is motivated only by his pursuit of adrenaline rushes and the opportunity to do something good for a vulnerable mom (Carey Mulligan). Indeed, Gosling is superb.
But the real star of Drive is its Danish writer-director, Nicolas Winding Refn. The film has a noir plot but Refn eschews the shadowy black and white of traditional noir for especially vivid scenes of Los Angeles. For example, early in the film, Gosling enters a convenience store and the screen is filled with the garish colors of junk food packaging. It’s one of the most artfully lit and photographed scenes in the last year.
Drive abounds in nice touches. While being hunted by the cops, Gosling’s driver is listening to both the police scanner and a radio broadcast of the Lakers game; unexpectedly, it turns out that there is an essential reason that he’s listening to the Lakers.
This movie contains some extreme violence – violence that is intentionally extreme for its effect.
The cast is excellent, with especially memorable turns by Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) and Oscar Isaac.
(I admired Refn’s 2008 Bronson, the story of a Britain’s “most dangerous convict” who parlayed a seven-year sentence into 34 years (30 of them in solitary) by repeatedly taking hostages and beating up the SWAT teams that rescue them. Roger Ebert called Bronson “92 minutes of rage”.)
Drive has been nominated for the Sound Editing Oscar (but is up against some tough competition).
These days, explosions and chases in movies have become indicators of dumb and dumber. But, this year, we’re seeing a welcome rebirth of the smart action film.
Like last year’s Inception, Source Code, The Adjustment Bureau, Drive and even Hannah, brought some originality to the genre. Drive was the most visually interesting, but Source Code combined great production values with a great hook in Ben Ripley’s screenplay: Supersoldier Jake Gyllenhaal can inhabit the brain of a terrorism victim for the same 8 minutes – over and over again. Each time, he has 8 minutes to seek more clues. Can he build the clues into a solution and prevent the terrorist atrocity?
One of the most rewarding aspects of watching movies is seeing the emergence of new talent. Here are some pleasant surprises from the past year.
1. Denis Villenueve: Because Incendies is anything but stagey, you can’t tell that this little known French-Canadian director adapted the screenplay from a play. In fact, he created the most gripping film of the year.
2. Jessica Chastain: She’s on everybody’s “breakthrough” list for a damn good reason. First, she delivered a fine performance as an enabling 1950s mom in the most coherent part of The Tree of Life. She followed that with a riveting performance as a 1960s Mossad agent (the younger version of Helen Mirren’s character) in the thriller The Debt. In Take Shelter, she plays a well-grounded housewife who must deal with a mentally disintegrating husband. She won critical praise for the trashy but aspiring housewife in a film I haven’t seen – The Help. She’s a tough cop in The Texas Killing Fields. And then she’s in Ralph Fiennes’ adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.
Six movies in six months – that’s quite a way to start a career. And she’s at the top of her game in all of them, playing soft and tough, brittle and sexy, action and romance.
3. Nicholas Winding Refn: With apologies to Ryan Gosling, Refn is the real star of the vivid and compelling Drive. He has a great eye and a great sense of pacing, and could produce a masterpiece with the right material.
4. Michel Hazanavicius: He came out of nowhere to strike gold with The Artist. Who would think to make a silent film today? Everyone will want to see what he can come up with next.
5. Shailene Woodley: Her performance is absolutely essential to the success of The Descendants. It’s not just that she perfectly plays a bratty teenager, but that we can see that some of her brattiness is hormonal and some of it is entirely voluntary and manipulative. Woodley had to convincingly play a character who is at times self-centered and shallow, but who can rally and reach within herself to serve as the family glue and support her dad and little sister.
6. Ben Ripley: The key to Source Code is a breakthrough screenplay by Ben Ripley. In a year with at least some smart action films, Ripley’s is the smartest. He came up with the scifi premise that supersoldier Jake Gyllenhaal can inhabit the brain of a terrorism victim for the same 8 minutes – over and over again. Each time, he has 8 minutes to seek more clues. Can he build the clues into a solution and prevent the terrorist atrocity? Ripley had us on the edge of our seats.
7. Ryan Gosling: He has already established himself as one of our best actors (Half Nelson, All Good Things, Blue Valentine), so why is he on this list? Because this year he has broken out of quirky roles in indies and has carried more mainstream films. He proved that he can play an action star (Drive) and also be the funniest guy in a Steve Carell comedy (Stupid Crazy Love). And he proved that he can carry a George Clooney movie as the male lead holding his own with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti (The Ides of March). He could be looking at a Clooney/Hanks/Nicholson career.
(Note: I’m saving room for some films that I haven’t yet seen, especially Roman Polanski’s Carnage and Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus.)
You can watch the trailers and see my comments on all these films at Best Movies of 2011.
According to Metacritic, all of my picks (except The Adjustment Bureau) were highly rated by prominent critics. I did disdain some art films, most notably The Tree of Life, which made lots of critics’ end-of-year lists. See 2011 in Movies: biggest disappointments, which I’m posting on Tuesday.
(Further Note: Incendies was nominated for the 2010 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but was widely released in the US in 2011. A Separation, which I and most folks won’t be able to see until after January 27, will contend on my 2012 list.)
Drive is a movie that you haven’t seen before – a stylishly violent noir tale unfolding on a brilliantly filmed canvas.
Ryan Gosling stars as a stunt driver by day, criminal getaway driver by night. He hardly talks and doesn’t emote. Indeed, his character is listed in the credits as “Driver” and sometimes referred to in the dialogue as “The Kid”. He is motivated only by his pursuit of adrenaline rushes and the opportunity to do something good for a vulnerable mom (Carey Mulligan). Indeed, Gosling is superb.
But the real star of Drive is its Danish writer-director, Nicolas Winding Refn. The film has a noir plot but Refn eschews the shadowy black and white of traditional noir for especially vivid scenes of Los Angeles. For example, early in the film, Gosling enters a convenience store and the screen is filled with the garish colors of junk food packaging. It’s one of the most artfully lit and photographed scenes in the last year.
Drive abounds in nice touches. While being hunted by the cops, Gosling’s driver is listening to both the police scanner and a radio broadcast of the Lakers game; unexpectedly, it turns out that there is an essential reason that he’s listening to the Lakers.
This movie contains some extreme violence – violence that is intentionally extreme for its effect.
The cast is excellent, with especially memorable turns by Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) and Oscar Isaac.
(I admired Refn’s 2008 Bronson, the story of a Britain’s “most dangerous convict” who parlayed a seven-year sentence into 34 years (30 of them in solitary) by repeatedly taking hostages and beating up the SWAT teams that rescue them. Roger Ebert called Bronson “92 minutes of rage”.)
There are some good choices on the long holiday weekend. Like Crazy is a romance, pure and not so simple.
J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood’s interesting take on J. Edgar Hoover’s twisted psyche has some fine performances, but draaaaags. In contrast, Margin Call is a taut financial meltdown drama with superb performances by Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany and Stanley Tucci. Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In is a beautiful and disturbing thriller – Out There as only Almodovar can do. The Ides of March is a fine political drama with Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and George Clooney. Drive is a stylishly arty and ultraviolent action film, also with Ryan Gosling.
On the lighter side, 50/50 is an engaging cancer comedy with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen. The raunchy comedy A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas is filled with lots of jokes and hilarious cameos by Neil Patrick Harris and Danny Trejo.
PBS is featuring the top rate British spy drama Page Eight on this week’s Masterpiece Contemporary.
If you can still find it, don’t miss Take Shelter, Jeff Nichols’ brilliant tale of a psychotic breakdown with Oscar-worthy performances by Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. One of the Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.
I haven’t yet seenthe The Descendants or Into the Abyss, which open soon. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones being romantic in the romance LIKE CRAZY
As we go deeper into autumn, we’re getting quite the menu of movie choices. Like Crazy is a romance, pure and not so simple.
PBS is featuring the top rate British spy drama Page Eight on this week’s Masterpiece Contemporary.
J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood’s interesting take on J. Edgar Hoover’s twisted psyche has some fine performances, but draaaaags. In contrast, Margin Call is a taut financial meltdown drama with superb performances by Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany and Stanley Tucci. Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In is a beautiful and disturbing thriller – Out There as only Almodovar can do. The Ides of March is a fine political drama with Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and George Clooney. Drive is a stylishly arty and ultraviolent action film, also with Ryan Gosling.
On the lighter side, 50/50 is an engaging cancer comedy with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen. The raunchy comedy A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas is filled with lots of jokes and hilarious cameos by Neil Patrick Harris and Danny Trejo.
If you can still find it, don’t miss Take Shelter, Jeff Nichols’ brilliant tale of a psychotic breakdown with Oscar-worthy performances by Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. One of the Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.
I haven’t yet seenthe psychological thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD of the Week is the wonderfully sweet Beginners, with Ewan MacGregor and Christopher Plummer. Other recent DVD picks have been Incendies (the year’s best movie so far), Errol Morris’ gutbustingly funny documentary Tabloid, the Jenna Fischer dramedy A Little Help , the heartwarming documentary Buck, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy (1979).
George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ryan Gosling in THE IDES OF MARCH
50/50 is an engaging cancer comedy with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen. Margin Call is a taut financial meltdown drama with superb performances by Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany and Stanley Tucci. Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In is a beautiful and disturbing thriller – Out There as only Almodovar can do. The Ides of March is a fine political drama with Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and George Clooney. Drive is a stylishly arty and ultraviolent action film with Ryan Gosling.
If you can still find it, don’t miss Take Shelter, Jeff Nichols’ brilliant tale of a psychotic breakdown with Oscar-worthy performances by Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. One of the Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.
I haven’t yet seen J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood’s biopic of J. Edgar Hoover, or the raunchy comedy A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas or the psychological thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
