Movies

New Movies to See Right Now

by
Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes in Winter's Bone

Charles Ferguson’s brilliant documentary Inside Job may be the most important movie of the year.  It is a harsh but fair explanation of the misdeeds that led to the recent near-collapse of the global financial system.  Unexpectedly, the film begins in Iceland, setting the stage for the collapse and kicking off the easily understandable explanations of the various  tricks and bamboozles that have hidden behind their own complexity.

Hereafter: For the first time, Clint Eastwood and screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon, The Damned United) venture into the supernatural with the story of three people and their individual experiences with death.   The most skeptical, nonspiritual viewer (me) finds this to be a compelling film.

The question of What Comes Next is unanswered, and less interesting than the film’s observations of what happens on this Earth to living humans.  Eastwood’s genius is in delivering moments of complete truthfulness, one after the other, across a wide range of settings, from intimate human encounters to the big CGI-enhanced action sequence at the beginning of the film.  Eastwood is an actor’s director, and star Matt Damon leads a set of excellent performances, especially by Bryce Dallas Howard, Frankie McLaren, Cecile de France and Richard Kind.

The Social Network:   The birth story of Facebook is a riveting tale of college sophomores that are brilliant, ambitious, immature, self-absorbed and disloyal – and about to become zillionaires.  It’s a triumph for actor Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland, Zombieland and Solitary Man), director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing, Charlie Wilson’s War).  It’s already on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

Howl has a fine performance by James Franco, but is marred by an unsuccessful animation.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

I have not yet seen The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, which opens this week. You can see the trailer at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD of the Week is Winter’s Bone, the best American indie film of the year.  For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include  Freaks and Downhill Racer on TCM.

Robert Redford in Downhill Racer

DVD of the Week: Winter's Bone

by

My pick for 2010’s best movie to date is Winter’s Bone, which is just now available on DVD.  A 17-year-old Ozarks girl is determined to save the family home by tracking down her meth dealer dad – dead or alive.  The girl’s journey through a series of nasty and nastier Southern Missouri crank cookers is riveting – without any explosions, gunfights or chase scenes.  Every moment of this film seems completely real.  Winter’s Bone won the screenwriting and grand jury prizes at Sundance.

With just her second feature, Debra Granik has emerged as an important filmmaker to watch.  She presents an unflinching look at this subculture without ever resorting to stereotype.  Granik hits a home run with every artistic choice, from the locations to the spare soundtrack to the pacing to the casting.  I’ll be watching for her next film.

As the protagonist, 20-year-old Jennifer Lawrence is in every scene.  With a minimum of dialogue, she creates a lead character of rarely seen determination.

Dale Dickey is exceptional as a criminal matriarch.  John Hawkes (the kind Sol Star in Deadwood)  also gives a tremendous performance as the ready-to-explode Uncle Teardrop.

For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.  Winter’s Bone is on my lists of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far and 5 Great Hillbilly Movies.

Coming up on TV: The Americanization of Emily

by

 

Julie Andrews and James Garner in The Americanization of Emily

 

One  of my Overlooked Masterworks plays on TCM on October 25th.  Set in England just before the D-Day invasion, The Americanization of Emily (1964) is a biting satire and one of the great anti-war movies. James Garner plays an admiral’s staff officer charged with locating luxury goods and willing English women for the brass.  Julie Andrews plays an English driver who has lost her husband and other male family members in the War.  She resists emotional entanglements with other servicemen whose lives may be put at risk, but falls for Garner’s “practicing coward”, a man who is under no illusions about the glory of war and is determined to stay as far from combat as possible.

Unfortunately, Garner’s boss (Melvyn Douglas) has fits of derangement and becomes obsessed with the hope that the first American killed on the beach at D-Day be from the Navy.   Accordingly, he orders Garner to lead a suicide mission to land ahead of the D-Day landing, ostensibly to film it.  Fellow officer James Coburn must guarantee Garner’s martyrdom.

It’s a brilliant screenplay from Paddy Chayefsky, who won screenwriting Oscars for Marty, The Hospital and Network.

Today, Americanization holds up as least as well as its contemporary Dr. Strangelove and much better than Failsafe.

Reportedly, both Andrews and Garner have tagged this as their favorite film.

One of the “Three Nameless Broads” bedded by the Coburn character is played by Judy Carne, later of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

Updated Movies To See Right Now

by
James Coburn and James Garner in The Americanization of Emily

The best movie to see is still The Social Network.   The birth story of Facebook is a riveting tale of college sophomores that are brilliant, ambitious, immature, self-absorbed and disloyal – and about to become zillionaires.  It’s a triumph for actor Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland, Zombieland and Solitary Man), director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing, Charlie Wilson’s War).  It’s already on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

Howl has a fine performance by James Franco, but is marred by an unsuccessful animation.  Without strongly recommending it, I can say that The Town is a satisfying Hollywood thriller.  You can skip Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger.  For trailers and other choices, see  Movies to See Right Now.

I have not yet seen Inside Job or Hereafter, which open this week.  You can see their trailers at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD of the Week is still The Day of the Jackal.  For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include  The Americanization of Emily (more on that tomorrow) and The Black Stallion, all coming up on TCM.

Movies I'm Looking Forward To – Late October Edition

by

I’ve updated the Movies I’m Looking Forward To page to add trailers and descriptions of some key late October releases.  First, we have two romps, the sex comedy Tamara Drewe and the tongue-in-cheek actioner RED this weekend.  Then we step up in class on October 22 with the Wall Street documentary Inside Job and Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter.  And October 29 brings us the eagerly awaited (at least by me)  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

The early buzz is that Inside Job may be this year’s best documentary and one of the year’s best films.  Here’s the trailer.

This week's Movies to See Right Now

by

 

Rooney Mara and Jesse Eisenberg open The Social Network

 

The Social Network is still the top choice in theaters this week. The birth story of Facebook is a riveting tale of college sophomores that are brilliant, ambitious, immature, self-absorbed and disloyal – and about to become zillionaires.  It’s a triumph for actor Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland, Zombieland and Solitary Man), director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing, Charlie Wilson’s War).  It’s already on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

Howl has a fine performance by James Franco, but is marred by an unsuccessful animation.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story is a light and wry coming-of-age comedy set in a locked psychiatric facility.  It’s good-hearted fluff with a few chuckles and an unexpectedly restrained and  heartfelt performance by Zach Galifianakis.

Without strongly recommending it, I can say that The Town is a satisfying Hollywood thriller.  You can skip Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVD of the Week is The Day of the Jackal, like The American, the tale of an international master assassin – only fact-based and even better.  For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include  Mister Roberts, Repo Man and Arsenic and Old Lace, all coming up on TCM.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story

by

This is a light and wry coming-of-age comedy set in a locked psychiatric facility by Directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Half Nelson, Sugar).  It’s hard for me to find humor in psych wards, but this good-hearted fluff had a few chuckles.  Keir Gilchrist and Emma Roberts star as the teens.  But the film is more of a showcase for Zach Galifianakis’ restrained and textured performance, less Wild Man and more  heartfelt – who knew?

A great movie on TV you haven't seen

by

The Earrings of Madame de… (1953):   This is one of the great movies that you have NOT seen, having just been released on DVD in 2009.  Max Ophuls directed what is perhaps the most visually evocative romance ever in black and white. It’s worth seeing for the ballroom scene alone.  The shallow and privileged wife of a stick-in-the-mud general takes a lover, but the earrings she pawned reveal the affair and consequences ensue. Great Italian director Vittorio De Sica plays the impossibly handsome lover.   TCM 10/6

This week's Movies To See

by
Mademoiselle Chambon

Mademoiselle Chambon is the year’s best romance, and very worth seeking out;  The lovers are beautifully acted by Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlaine in two of the very finest performances of the year.  I’m still pushing the hardhitting documentary The Tillman Story. There’s also the George Clooney arty thriller The American. If you can still find them, there are also two excellent crime dramas –  Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Animal Kingdom.  For a date movie, there is the charming and relatively smart romantic comedy Going the Distance.

Without strongly recommending them, I can say that The Town is a satisfying Hollywood thriller and the silly A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop has its moments.  You can skip Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVD of the Week is one of the year’s best so far:  The Ghost Writer.  Don’t miss another of the year’s best, The Secret in Their Eyes either.   For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include lots of good choices:  Seven Days in May, Badlands, Boxcar Bertha, Leave Her to Heaven, Twentieth Century and The Earrings of Madame de…, all coming up on TCM.

If you’re a baseball fan, there’s Ken Burns’ The Tenth Inning on PBS.

New Movies to See Right Now

by
Mademoiselle Chambon

Mademoiselle Chambon is the year’s best romance, and very worth seeking out in the next two weeks.  The lovers are beautifully acted by Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlaine in two of the very finest performances of the year.

I’m still recommending the hardhitting documentary The Tillman Story, the George Clooney arty thriller The American and the two gritty crime dramas –  Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Animal Kingdom.  For a date movie, there is the charming and relatively smart romantic comedy Going the Distance.

Without strongly recommending them, I can say that The Town is a satisfying Hollywood thriller and the silly A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop has its moments.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVD of the Week is one of the year’s best so far:   The Secret in Their Eyes.  For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include Sunset Boulevard, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? and The Searchers, all coming up on TCM.