Happy Birthday to my oldest movie buddy. I remember going with you to see Jaws and The Deer Hunter. And Logan’s Run (waiting for Jenny Agutter’s flimsy dress to slip off or at least get wet). We saw The Paper Chase just before I went to law school. Nuggets like St. Jack. Every Jack Nicholson movie for a decade (even The Missouri Breaks and Goin’ South, I think). And, of course, high brow stuff like The Hangover. Lots of movies, lots of good times.
Now it can be told. Around 1964, Kiefer wrote a story about an adventurer archaeologist on a quest for the Ark of the Covenant – 17 years before Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s now on the Internet, so it must be true!
Ripped from the headline! Based on true events! 2010 featured an unusual number of movies based on real people and events, including two of the year’s very best – The Social Network and The King’s Speech.
But there were also Howl, 127 Hours, The Way Back, Fair Game, Carlos, the Mesrine films, Casino Jack and I Love You, Phillip Morris.
Here is the trailer from Carlos, the 5 1/2 hour miniseries on the 70s/80s terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Carlos begins as a playboy who thinks it would be cool to fight for the Palestinians, inadvertently gains some celebrity and LOVES IT. Carlos has a star making performance by the Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez who perfectly captures Carlos’ bravado, audacity, vanity, sexiness, delusion and dissolution. I strongly recommend waiting for the DVD release of the full length version (or watching for it to pop up again on Sundance Channel).
Black Swan: Natalie Portman is under a little too much pressure
It’s the Holidays – this is your best chance to see a few excellent films. I strongly recommend Rabbit Hole, an exquisite exploration of the grieving process with great performances by Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhardt, Diane Wiest, Sandra Oh and Miles Tenner. True Grit is the Coen Brothers’ splendid Old West story of Mattie Ross, a girl of unrelenting resolve and moxie played by 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld in a breakthrough performance, and Jeff Bridges is perfect as the hilarious, oft-besotted and frequently lethal Rooster Cogburn. The King’s Speech is the crowd pleasing story of a good man (Colin Firth) overcoming his stammer to inspire his nation in wartime with the help of a brassy commoner (Geoffrey Rush). Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a rip roaring thriller and a showcase for Natalie Portman and Barbara Hershey. The Fighter is an excellent drama, starring Mark Wahlberg as a boxer trying to succeed despite his crack addict brother (Christian Bale) and trashy mom (Melissa Leo). Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, is also excellent. I Love You, Phillip Morris is an entertaining offbeat combo of the con man, prison and romantic comedy genres. For some delectable food porn, see Kings of Pastry.
There are some Must See films still kicking around in theaters this week: Inside Job and The Social Network. Both are on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.
I didn’t pick a new DVD of the Week. This is the time to catch up on the year’s best, such as Winter’s Bone, Toy Story 3, Inception, The Secrets in Their Eyes, A Prophet, Mademoiselle Chambon, Ajami, The Girl on the Train, The Ghost Writer and Joan River: A Piece of Work, all available on DVD. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.
Movies on TVinclude Arsenic and Old Lace, My Darling Clementine and The Producers on TCM.
It’s not that weren’t ANY good comedies in 2010 – just not many. And none made my list of the best films of the year. The funniest movie was Iron Man 2, a comedy masquerading as a super hero movie.
Going the Distance and I Love You, Phillip Morris were good romantic comedies – a particularly meager genre this year. Going the Distance was a rarity – a sweet, smart, funny and successful romantic comedy for adults. Screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe tried a novel approach that respected the audience – creating characters like the ones we know in real life, who talk and act like real people do. Instead of an implausible set-up, the conflict was the real problem of a bi-coastal romance. The offbeat I Love You, Phillip Morris was a gay version of the con man, prison and rom com genres, and the risk paid off.
Once, we get past the three best comedies, there were the passable (but not especially noteworthy) Get Him to the Greek, Morning Glory, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Please Give, Get Low, Love and Other Drugs, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Youth in Revolt, Cyrus and Death at a Funeral.
The Locksmith, a funny little movie which won the low-budget award at Sundance, didn’t even get a theatrical release.
It was disappointing, because even the good 2010 comedies didn’t match up with 2009’s really funny and original movies: (500) Days of Summer, Away We Go, Zombieland, The Hangover, In the Loop, Funny People and I Love You, Man.
This year, we had crappy comedies like Pirate Radio, Date Night and Soul Kitchen. The worst movies that I saw this year were so-called comedies Tooth Fairy and Leap Year – two films that no one thought were good (but that I was stuck with on a long airline flight). Not to mention that the most reviled movies of the year included the alleged comedies Sex in the City 2, Valentine’s Day, The Back-up Plan, Due Date, How Do You Know, Yogi Bear and Little Fockers.
So here’s the trailer for a non-lousy comedy (a romantic comedy, even), the original and funny Going the Distance.
The King’s Speech is the crowd pleasing story of a good man overcoming his stammer to inspire his nation in wartime with the help of a brassy commoner. As you would expect, Colin Firth gives a stellar performance as the stuttering king. It’s a well executed film that establishes itself as major Oscar bait.
It’s a very good cast, featuring Geoffrey Rush as the Aussie speech therapist. Helena Bonham Carter is especially good as Firth’s Queen. Guy Pearce and Eve Best capture the shallow, selfish essence of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson.
This was the most welcome trend of 2010 – movies that centered on relationships between mature adults. Hollywood tends to avoid such movies because teen audiences prefer not to imagine that their parents’ peers have thoughts of love and lust (let alone act on them). And 2010 had films that understand that love doesn’t happen in a vacuum – people may have pre-existing commitments and actions have consequences.
There was an all-too-rare second chance at love in The Secrets in Their Eyes. There was the impulsive midlife lust of I Am Love and Leaving. there was the affair that is NOT rekindled in The Girl on the Train. We saw the depth and messiness of real marriages Fair Game, Rabbit Hole, Please Give and Another Year.
The year’s best romance was Mademoiselle Chambon. Finding one’s soul mate in middle age, when one may have serious commitments, can be heartbreaking. Here, the two people are not looking for romance or even for a fling. He is a happily married construction worker. She is his son’s teacher. They meet (not cute) and do not fall in love (or lust) at first sight. He is unexpectedly touched by something she does, and she is touched that he is touched. Despite their wariness, they fall in love.
The lovers are beautifully acted by Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlaine in two of the very finest performances of the year.
Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, Blood Simple, No Country for Old Men) have brought us the splendid Old West story of Mattie Ross, a girl of unrelenting resolve and moxie played by 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld in a breakthrough performance. Without her performance, the movie could not have been the success that it is, and Steinfeld has no problem standing up to the likes of Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin and Matt Damon. Mattie’s merciless smarts and resourcefulness become clear in her negotiations with prairie mogul Col. Stonehill (magnificently played by Dakin Matthews).
Jeff Bridges is perfect as the hilarious, oft-besotted and frequently lethal Rooster Cogburn. Damon, Brolin and the rest of the cast are excellent, especially Matthews and Barry Pepper.
This film is made from the same source material as, but is not a remake of, the 1969 John Wayne oater (a movie that I particularly dislike). The 1969 film is burdened by a hammy effort by Wayne and the miscast and untalented Kim Darby (playing a 14-year-old at 22) and Glenn Campbell.
The film opens (without title credits) with the old hymn Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, signaling that the Coen Brothers will play True Grit absolutely straight within the traditional Western genre – no ironic winks at the audience.
As usual several documentaries made my list of Best Movies of 2010: Inside Job, The Tillman Story, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, and Sweetgrass.
And there were still more excellent documentaries. Ken Burns augmented his brilliant Baseball with The Tenth Inning. PBS’s Earth Days told the story of the modern environmental movement through the voices of key players. The Most Dangerous Man in America brought new texture to the story of Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. The fine PBS series Independent Lens brought us Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas), in which filmmaker Monika Navarro trailed an uncle deported to Mexico and discovered secrets in her own family.
It was another year in which foreign cinema was essential. Three of the nominees for the 2009 Best Foreign Language Oscar were released in the US this year: Ajami (Israel/Palestine), A Prophet (France) and the Oscar winning The Secrets in Their Eyes (Argentina). Those three made my list of Best Movies of 2010, along with Mademoiselle Chambon, The Girl on the Train, and The Ghost Writer from France, Carlos from France/Germany, Fish Tank from the UK, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from Sweden. If I couldn’t see foreign films, I wouldn’t have a Best Movie list.
France also gave us the Mesrine films. Ireland offered Kisses. Italy had the food-centric I Am Love and Mid-August Lunch. In a tremendous year for crime drama, the Aussies added Animal Kingdom and the Koreans contributed Mother. Police, Adjective was another bleak, cynical drama from Rumania.
Now we’re at the time of year when the award-aspiring movies are released just in time for Oscar eligibility. Trailers and descriptions are on my Movies I’m Looking Forward To page.
We’ll start on December 22 with Sofia Coppola’s (Lost in Translation) semiautographical Somewhere. On Christmas Day, the Coen Brothers open their version of True Grit. The King’s Speech, with Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham-Carter, will finally get its wide release.
On the 29th, I’ll be awaiting Another Year, a potential masterpiece by one of my favorite directors, Mike Leigh. We’ll also have a flashy performance by Javier Bardem in a contemporary Job story – Biutiful. Kevin Spacey will star in a real life story of political corruption in Casino Jack. Peter Weir (Master and Commander, Picnic at Hanging Rock) will showcase The Way Back.
The year’s final release will be the offbeat un-romance Blue Valentine, with Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. Festival critics loved and hated this film. The trailer, which depicts the beginning of a relationship that falls apart during the movie, is quite charming.
