Not nominated, but pretty damn good, is The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, another fine thriller from that franchise, with another amazing performance by Jennifer Lawrence. I also admire the compelling French drama The Past. And I also like the Mumblecore romance Drinking Buddies, now available on VOD.
I haven’t yet seen the Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts, but I’m gonna because they’re always good.
I’m not a fan of Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks (sentimental and predictable) or the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis (about an unlovable loser – and I didn’t love the movie, either).
My DVD/Stream of the Week features Philip Seymour Hoffman in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Hulu.
Turner Classic Movies has launched its wonderful annual 31 Days of Oscar – filling the entire month with Oscar-nominated movies. This week I recommend two wickedly funny Preston Sturges films – The Great McGinty (inside workings of a corrupt political machine) on February 10 and The Lady Eve (con artist Barbara Stanwyck tries to land the clueless but wealthy Henry Fonda) on February 11. TCM is also cablecasting the Howard Hawks screwball comedy Ball of Fire, with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, on February 11.
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke in BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
My favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman performance is in the 2007 dark thriller Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, which I’ve called the decade’s most overlooked American film. It’s the gripping story of two very different brothers in a study of greed and desperation. Hoffman’s brilliant but amoral character needs money and suggests to his sad sack brother (Ethan Hawke) that they rob their parent’s jewelry store. Unlike many of his schlubby roles, Hoffman’s character here is talented, successful and supremely confident that he deserves even more than he has earned. Hoffman gives one his best performances as he tries to stay in control of his increasingly hopeless circumstances – melting down internally but harnessing all of his energy in a futile attempt to regain control.
Hoffman’s fellow actors are superb. A.O. Scott wrote of Hawke’s character: “If you gave him a quarter to feed the meter, you’d end up with a parking ticket and a stream of pathetic apologies.” Marisa Tomei has a showcase scene when her character lays one more devastating development on her hubbie (Hoffman). And Albert Finney takes over the movie in the very last scene. The film was directed by the 84-year-old Sidney Lumet (who was first nominated for an Oscar for 12 Angry Men in 1957).
Another thing – Hoffman’s movie characters rarely got the girl (and some – such as in Happiness – were outright perverted), but here he gets to bang away on Marisa Tomei with vigor and relish.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Hulu.
I’m planning to see the Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts, which opens today – it’s always worthwhile ( plus it helps me win the Oscar pool). You can also find the Oscar Nominated Short Animated a Films and Short Documentaries. The great thing about sampling the shorts is that, even if one short film isn’t your cup of tea, another one is coming along in 15 minutes and you might like it a lot more. I’ve never forgotten the touching and funny God of Love, which earned the 2011 Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film. God of Love won that year’s Oscar over Na Wewe, one of the best films about violence in Africa that I’ve seen. Similar discoveries could be waiting for you this week.
Not nominated, but pretty damn good, is The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, another fine thriller from that franchise, with another amazing performance by Jennifer Lawrence. I also admire the compelling French drama The Past. And I also like the Mumblecore romance Drinking Buddies, now available on VOD.
I’m not a fan of Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks (sentimental and predictable) or the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis (about an unlovable loser – and I didn’t love the movie, either).
The great Noir City film festival is still running for the next three days, this year with an international flavor. Check it out.
My DVD/Stream of the week is Prisoners. Prisoners is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox video.
In the pulsating thriller Prisoners, two girls go missing, and one of their dads (Hugh Jackman) goes vigilante as the lead detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) struggles to solve the case. Both men are driven and desperate, and they clash as they each race against the clock to find the girls, resulting in unrelenting tension for 2-and-a-half hours.
The tension comes from standard suspense devices (characters peering into basements and entering boarded-up rooms and dark hallways, prowlers slipping though a sleeping household, etc.), but there isn’t a hokey moment in Prisoners. That’s a tribute to director Denis Villenueve, who directed Incendies (my top movie of 2011). Plus, an intricately plotted story from Aaron Guzikowski adds a dimension to Prisoners and elevates it from a conventional thriller. As Gyllenhaal’s cop proceeds through the whodunit, he encounters what we assume are dead-end leads and red herrings. But everything – and I mean EVERYTHING – ties together at the end. I sure didn’t see it coming.
The one aspect of Prisoners that didn’t work for me is that Jackman is dialed up all the way from the get go, and there’s little if any modulation in his performance. I guess that may be the point of the character – he’s a tightly wound guy BEFORE his daughter appears to be abducted – and then he goes full-out maniac for over two hours.
Gyllenhaal is solid in the other lead role. Terrence Howard is superb as the other dad, a guy who wants his daughter back just as much, but is more passive, rational and empathetic (and consequently more interesting to me). Viola Davis, Maria Bello and Melissa Leo turn in their expected fine performances. And Paul Dano (perhaps his generation’s Christopher Walken or James Spader) is excellent in another of his weirdo roles.
Prisoners is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox video.
Not nominated, but pretty damn good, is The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, another fine thriller from that franchise, with another amazing performance by Jennifer Lawrence. I also admire the compelling French drama The Past.
I’m not a fan of Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks (sentimental and predictable) or the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis (about an unlovable loser – and I didn’t love the movie, either).
My DVD/Stream of the Week is number 5 on my Best Movies of 2013. The Spectacular Now is a spectacularly authentic and insightful character-driven story of teen self-discovery. It’s the best teen coming of age story since…I can’t remember. The Spectacular Now is now available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, GooglePlay and Xbox Video.
Here’s number 5 on my Best Movies of 2013. The Spectacular Now is a spectacularly authentic and insightful character-driven story of teen self-discovery. It’s the best teen coming of age story since…I can’t remember.
Sutter (Miles Teller – so good in Rabbit Hole) is the high school’s gregarious party guy. Everybody loves being charmed by Sutter, but it becomes apparent that his compulsive sociability is masking some family related emotional damage. It’s also clear that he will soon face some consequences from his out-of-control and escalating drinking.
When his popular girlfriend dumps him for a guy who is less fun, but a better long-term bet, he is in the market for a rebound relationship and meets Aimee (Shailene Woodley, glammed down from the foxy brat in The Descendants). Aimee is focused, responsible, capable and smart, but has no self-esteem; she has family issues, too. Sutter becomes her first love. At first, it’s a lark for Sutter – until he assesses himself and his potential effect on her.
That’s the crux of the movie. Sutter isn’t just a shallow party guy. He’s smart – and too smart to keep from seeing where he is headed.
The Spectacular Now is directed by indie filmmaker Joe Ponsoldt (director and co-writer of Smashed), who is moving toward Hollywood’s A list. The screenplay is adapted by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber from the novel by Tim Tharp.
Smashed is a remarkably realistic depiction of alcohol abuse, and so is The Spectacular Now. Miles Teller is great in the role. And there’s a second great alcoholic performance – that of Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Argo) as Sutter’s long-estranged dad; Chandler’s turn is Oscar worthy. Woodley is just as outstanding as she was in The Descendants. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent, especially Brie Larson and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
If you see The Spectacular Now with your teen, there will be plenty to talk about afterward – teen drinking, addiction, dating, partying, picking your friends, making choices and what a damn good movie this is.
Every teenager should see this movie, which brings me to this bit of insanity – The Spectacular Now has an R rating because teenagers are DRINKING ALCOHOL in the movie. It doesn’t matter that the movie is ABOUT teen alcoholism. It doesn’t matter that The Spectacular Now is the 2013 movie most likely to help teenagers in their real lives (by sparking discussion of the issues therein). Of course, just last year, the MPAA similarly assigned the R Rating to Bully. Just leave it to the pompous asses at the MPAA to keep those 14- to 16-year-olds out (unless they show the good taste and resourcefulness to sneak in).
I saw The Spectacular Now at the San Francisco International Film Festival in a screening with director Ponsoldt. It’s now available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, GooglePlay and Xbox Video.
Not nominated, but pretty damn good, is The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, another fine thriller from that franchise, with another amazing performance by Jennifer Lawrence. I also admire the compelling French drama The Past.
I’m not a fan of Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks (sentimental and predictable) or the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis (about an unlovable loser – and I didn’t love the movie, either).
My DVD/Stream of the Week is Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, which is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Sundance Now and Xbox Video.
The skeleton of the story inAin’t Them Bodies Saints is simple – a Texas prison escapee goes looking for his wife and kid. But that capsule understates the totality of Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, an atmospheric romantic drama that is superbly written, directed, acted and scored.
Every filmmaker should watch the first ten minutes of Ain’t Them Bodies Saints for its extremely economic story-telling, which lets the audience piece together the setting and the cores of the characters without obvious exposition. Bob and Ruth are young lovers, and Ruth is pregnant. They are involved in a crime, for which Bob goes to prison before their child is born. When the daughter is four, he escapes from prison and everyone – Ruth, Bob’s old crime partners, the community and the cops – know that he’s headed back to Ruth. Both the cops and the criminals are awaiting – the story follows the path to the inevitable conflict.
The characters are unforgettable. Bob, played with ferocity by Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone and The Assassination of Jesse James blah blah), has an obsession to reunite with Ruth and the daughter he has never seen. He has framed this quest as his moral obligation to take care of his family – but, of course, they would be better off without him and the trouble he will bring. He’s not really capable of nobility, but he doesn’t know that.
Ruth has a profound passion for Bob, and she owes him for taking the fall for her. But, despite her loyalty, she is entirely realistic about the consequences of his return. We see Ruth’s steely determination and wilfulness in yet another searing performance by Rooney Mara (The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).
The complexity of the secondary characters contribute to the compelling story. With an unsettling mixture of decency and creepiness, the local cop (Ben Foster, equally good in The Messenger and Rampart) becomes very attentive to Ruth and her daughter. He had been wounded at Bob and Ruth’s capture, seems to be genuinely interested in the welfare of the little daughter and also clearly has a thing for Ruth.
Ruth has also been helped by a fatherly gentleman storekeeper (Keith Carradine), whom we later learn is the local crime lord. His actions seem rooted in all the right values, but, given his criminality, how benevolent can he really be? As a leading man, Carradine had an impressive run in the 70s where he starred in Robert Altman’s Nashville, Ridley Scott’s The Duellists and Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby, all within three years. Now with 128 screen credits, Carradine’s performance here perfectly strikes every note.
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints looks beautiful – much like a Terence Malick film without all the confusion and boring parts. I also liked Daniel Hart’s atmospheric but unobtrusive music.
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is completely absorbing – and that doesn’t happen by accident. This is writer-director David Lowery’s first feature with a theatrical release. Who is this guy? Lowery edited two recent indies that I criticized for other reasons, Upstream Color and Sun Don’t Shine, but in which his editing was remarkable. It’s clear from Ain’t Them Bodies Saints that Lowery is a major talent.
So there you have it – a gripping story with brilliant performances by Rooney, Affleck, Carradine and Ben Foster in the debut of a promising filmmaker.
What does the title mean? I have no idea. And I hope that Lowery lets someone else name his next exceptional movie.
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Sundance Now and XBOX.
American Hustle is the most gloriously entertaining movie of the year – with Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner at their best.
The Angel’s Share is an endearing tale of a hard luck guy’s life changing after a visit to a Scotch whisky distillery. Released back to hardscrabble Glasgow after doing prison time, a young man becomes a father and determines to change his life. As focused as he is, that wouldn’t be possible without the encouragement of the guy who leads his community service work crew and the prodding of his girlfriend. The odds are against him, but he gathers an oddball team from the work crew and devises an ingenious (and funny) heist.
The story begins with a clever court sentencing montage that only gradually settles our attention on the protagonist. This young man (Paul Brannigan) is terse and always potentially destructive, yet we root for him because of his single-minded commitment to acting on his good intentions. His potential is not apparent to any other characters (or to the audience for a long time). His mentor (John Henshaw) has seen it all, but isn’t so jaded as to write off every unemployed and unemployable ex-con; more complex than he seems, he lives a lonely life, sparked by a single hobby.
The movie’s accessible tone surprised me because militant British director Ken Loach is known for far grimmer socialist realist films; here, Loach’s filmmaking skills and his unvarnished depiction of Glasgow slums enhance his warm story and hopeful characters.
Fortunately, because the Glaswegian accent is very difficult for we Americans to follow, The Angel’s Share is subtitled. The Angel’s Share is a fun and heartwarming movie that a wide audience will enjoy.
The Angels’ Share is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, YouTube and XBOX.
