Movie Recommendations, Rants and Ruminations
If you’re going to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a romantic movie tonight, I recommend the magical romance The Artist.
Although they are excellent films, tonight I would avoid the two films of marital breakdown, The Descendants and A Separation. You don’t want to kill the mood.
Or you could stream Franco Zefferelli’s 1968 Romeo and Juliet, with its ultra romantic score by Nino Rota. It’s an exceptionally beautiful film, which won Oscars for cinematography and costume design.
Farewell to actor Ben Gazzara, dead at 81. Cinephiles point to Gazzara’s work in groundbreaking two John Cassavetes films, Husbands and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Most Baby Boomers first saw him as the star of the 60s TV series Run for Your Life. Along the way he was married to Janice Rule and had an affair with Audrey Hepburn.
Although I’m a big fan of Gazzara in Chinese Bookie and Peter Bogdanovich’s Saint Jack, I immediately thought of the Coolest Movie Character Ever, John Russo in Peter Bogdanovich’s They All Laughed. Despite being a middle-aged guy with a receding hairline, John Russo is a streetwise private detective who is adored by his tween daughters and can disarm any woman with a glance and a smile. For my money, John Russo is right up there with Bogart’s Rick Blaine and the coolest Mitchum and Clooney characters.
And here’s a tidbit about his performance in They All Laughed. According to the New York Times, Gazzara “I was in a depression during the whole shooting, and I was terrific in that film,” he said. “And I don’t remember doing it.”
Imagine if Michael Moore directed a profile of Mitt Romney’s career as co-founder of Bain Capital. Well, the 28-minute short film When Mitt Romney Comes to Town is an even more devastating critique of Romney than a Moore film would be.
The storyline of When Mitt Romney Comes to Town is essentially 1) you are happily living in Middle America, working in a factory and paying your mortgage and your taxes; 2) Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital buys and then loots your company; 3) you lose your job and then your home; and 4) repeat several times.
Amazingly, the film was directed by Jason Killian Meath, a Republican media consultant and culture warrior. It is being shilled by a Newt Gingrich-friendly SuperPAC.
Meath’s film is heavy-handed and manipulative (as a Michael Moore film would be). Meath doesn’t have Moore’s sense of humor, but also doesn’t have Moore’s abrasiveness and self-righteousness, which makes his film smoother, more broadly accessible and ultimately more persuausive. In an appeal to Republican primary voters, Meath uses Reaganesque “Morning in America” music and imagery, and I don’t think that it’s an accident that most of Bain Capital’s victims in the film are White.
The oddest thing about When Mitt Romney Comes to Town is that it is not just an attack on Mitt Romney, but against the type of Vulture Capitalism tolerated or even promoted by all four of the current Republican presidential candidates. It’s sure to constitute a major thread of the Obama narrative against Romney or any other GOP candidate.
Here’s the entire 28-minute movie.
The Oscar nominations are out, and there are few of the head scratching inclusions and omissions that we frequently see. Of the Best Picture nominations, The Artist, The Descendants, Hugo and Midnight in Paris all made my Best Movies of 2011. Although they didn’t make my Best of the Year list, War Horse and Moneyball are very good movies that I recommend. I haven’t yet seen The Help, which is, by all accounts, a fine film. Although I hated The Tree of Life, it was the biggest art film of the year and much praised by mainstream critics. The one jaw dropper is the critically scorned Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which exploits 9/11 in the pursuit of a three hankie weeper.
My biggest disappointments were the snubbing of Michael Shannon’s performance in Take Shelter and the innovative screenplay by Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman for Young Adult.
The acting categories seem a little light to me this year with the exception of Best Actress, with two performances for the ages by Michele Williams in My Week with Marilyn and Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady.
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?
The smart action movie: a welcome trend, indeed.
What are 2011’s most overlooked films? The Guard and Take Shelter are on some Top Ten lists, including mine, but they still haven’t gotten the buzz that they deserve. These are two of the very best films of the year and are not to be missed.
Kill the Irishman is a gritty crime drama with a charismatic lead performance by Ray Stevenson.
Terri is something completely new in a teen mifit movie.
As in most films by the master director-writer-editor John Sayles, the historical drama Amigo intertwines the stories of a large ensemble cast while keeping each character recognizable, distinct and textured.
For a guilty pleasure, I will go with TrollHunter, a hilariously deadpan Norwegian take on the horror genre.
1. I haven’t seen Killer Joe, Restless and Tyrannosaur becuase they haven’t been released where I live. And I haven’t seen Oslo August 3, The Kid on the Bike, Paul Williams Still Alive, Natural Selection, Polisse and Little White Lies because – as far as I know – they haven’t yet been released in the US. You can read descriptions and watch trailers of these films as Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
2. Meek’s Cutoff is an unfortunate misfire by the excellent director Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy).
3. Le Quattro Volte is supposed to be a lyrical contemplation on the Circle of Life, but you’ll find yourself checking your watch during the interminable hacking of an aged goatherd. If the geezer had taken Robitussin DM, there would be no story at all.
4. The bewildering, pompous mess that is The Tree of Life . It does contain a fine 90-minute family drama about a boy growing up in 1950s Waco (a superb Hunter McCracken) and the friction with his caring but brutishly domineering father (Brad Pitt). Unfortunately, there is another 60 minutes in the movie.
That additional 60 minutes is a self-important muddle that tries to lift the story to an exploration of life itself – from creation through afterlife. There are beautiful shots of clouds and waterfalls, with unintelligible whisperings from cast members. There are Bible verses, the Big Bang and dinosaurs (yes, dinosaurs). And, in case you don’t get how seriously the movie takes itself, there is an overbearingly pretentious score.
5. The Hangover Part II. I really enjoyed The Hangover, but the sequel was just lame.
6. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is by no means a bad film, but I expected more from the winner of the Palm d’Or.
7. David Gordon Green, director of All the Real Girls, Undertow, Snow Angels and Pineapple Express, showed up this year with The Sitter. Say it ain’t so, Dave.
8. HBO’s take on the financial meltdown, Too Big To Fail, failed in spite of an excellent cast. It wasn’t nearly as good as last year’s great documentary Inside Job or this year’s fictional Margin Call.
9. James Franco co-hosting the Academy Awards. Lay off the weed, Jimmy!
10. After watching the jaw droppingly awful trailer, I was hoping that Nicholas Cage’s Season of the Witch would be deliciously and entertainingly laugh out loud bad. But it was just bad.
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.
The Winner: 3 Backyards. This unbearably pretentious and self-indulgent wannabe art film presents us with a petty meltdown, Elias Koteas furrowing his brow, a random mystical white poodle and caterpillars. Did I mention the masturbating dog killer? I hated this movie – and it is still pissing me off.
The Worst Trend: People sitting in front of me texting and checking their email, flashing their screens and taking me out of the film.
Note: I don’t have a Worst Ten Movie list because, unlike professional critics, I don’t have to see every movie. I do see 75-100 new movies each year, but I try REALLY, REALLY HARD to avoid the bad movies. So my worst movie going experience is always either 1) on an airline flight when I see a movie that I normally wouldn’t; 2) a hyped art film that disastrously falls on its face and/or really pisses me off (The White Ribbon); or 3) something I find on cable TV while channel surfing (Paul Blart: Mall Cop). But usually, the culprit finds its way aboard a long airline flight. Not this year.
Here’s my list of the best films of 2011: 1) Incendies, 2) Take Shelter, 3) The Artist, 4) The Descendants, 5) Poetry, 6) Midnight in Paris, 7) Beginners, 8) Source Code, 9) Young Adult, and 10) (tie) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Drive.
Continuing with my list of 2011’s best films, here are my honorable mentions: The Guard, Project Nim, Buck, Tabloid, The Adjustment Bureau, Carancho, and Potiche.
(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.)