Fall Movie Preview

Spill out your popcorn, Summer is almost over and Fall is upon us. Which means two things. One, The leaves are falling & two, The good movies are coming. If this was one of the limpest & most uninspiring summer movie seasons to date, The upcoming fall movie season looks to be delivering the goods we've been waiting for. I've picked the 14 movies that I believe have the best chance at all the year end awards. There will surely be surprises and disappointments but these are the ones that seem the finest from the outside looking in. For the next 4 months we will visit new worlds created by auteurs such as David Fincher, The Coen Brothers, Clint Eastwood, Danny Boyle, Mike Leigh, Sofia Coppola, Darren Aronofsky, David O Russell, Peter Weir, Terrence Malick & Julian Schnabel. Compare that to summer, when we only had Christopher Nolan and an Animated toy movie to save the day.


1) The American (September 1st)

Kicking off the Fall Movie season on September 1st is The American directed by Anton Corbijn (Control). George Clooney stars as an American assassin hiding out in an Italian countryside and falling for a local woman. Director Corbijn has said his film is "incredibly European", inspired by European cinema of the mid 70's. Clooney's sniper is isolated from all things American while waiting for his next hit. An all European cast completes the movie, leaving Clooney as the lone yankee wolf. Judging by the already released trailer, Corbijn has created a role that might just give Clooney another nomination come Oscar time.


2) The Social Network (October 1st)

If there's one movie that has the chance to go all the way it's David Fincher's The Social Network, inspired by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg's rise to fame with close to a billion dollars of earnings to date. Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) doesn't flinch and make Zuckerberg look like an American hero, instead he focuses on the back stabbing & blackmailing that happened amongst his Harvard student friends & mentors. Jesse Eisenberg stars as Zuckerberg and is helped out by -gosh- Justin Timberlake in a youthful cast. Fincher's last movie -Benjamin Button- hit it big with Oscar but fizzled with critics, something tells me he's back on their side again with this one, especially considering Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) wrote the screenplay. This is going to be heavy, dramatic stuff- then again with Fincher, when isn't it?



3) Hereafter (October 22nd)

Clint Eastwood turned 80 this past summer, which is all the more astonishing when you realize all the great stuff he's made during the past decade (Mystic River, Gran Torino). He looks to continue his impressive streak with The New York Film Festival's closing night film, Hereafter, a supernatural mosaic of interlocking stories that centers around relationships, acting & death. Hollywood loves Clint and by loving him I mean they shower him with their finest awards. If Hereafter -starring Matt Damon & Bryce Dallas Howard- gets well received press and decent box office, it will surely bring Eastwood many more nominations to his -already- phenomenal career.



4) 127 Hours (November 5th)

Danny Boyle was already working on pre production for 127 Hours, when he won his Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire in early 2009. To say his new film is a complete 360 would be an understatement. Leaving the slums of India, Boyle pursues mountain climbing in Utah and decides to tell the true story of Aron Ralston. Ralston cut off his own arm in 2003, after having it stuck under a boulder in an isolated, mountainous cavern. Ralston -played by James Franco- spent 127 hours in a cavern, with no food or water at his disposal. In telling a true story of relentless courage & strength, Boyle might just get another film and directing nomination come January.


5) Fair Game (November 5th)

Fair Game debuted at Cannes in early may & brought back strong buzz to the States. Competing in the Official competition at la croisette, Doug Liman's movie is only getting stronger & stronger word of mouth as the months pass by until its release. The fact that it's based on a true story of political conspiracy helps its chances, so does the fact that Sean Penn stars as a New York Times Reporter and Naomi Watts as his wife and covert CIA agent. Watts gets exposed by the White House administration because of a WMD article posted by her husband. This has got all the right pieces to be a contender & did I mention Watts and Penn?


6) True Grit (December 25th)

Those Kooky Coens have a way of always making art out of the absurd (Remember A Serious Man last year?) but there's nothing absurd about their latest film True Grit. As far as I'm concerned they have never made a boring movie in their 27 years of filmmaking. Co-Starring Jeff Bridges & Matt Damon as Marshalls, Grit is based on the same book that inspired the 1968 John Wayne film of the same name but according to them, this film is a completely different animal- cleverly adapted to match the Coens' wit and darkness. It's something the Coens haven't tackled yet -The Western- & here's hoping it's as devilishly clever as A Serious Man and not as sour and slight as The Hudsucker Proxy.


7) The Tempest (December 10th)

I'm putting this film on the list just because it will be part of the prestigious New York Film Festival in October. The organizers of the event tend to be accurate in their film selections and selecting visionary director Julie Taymor newest film The Temptest (based on Shakespeare's play of the same name) is a cause for celebration. Starring Hellen Mirren -the queen herself-Academy voters might or might not go for Taymor's epic but I've dug the play for so long and it will be a blast catching Taymor's vision of it- she is a maverick amongst hollywood hacks. December can't come sooner enough.


8) Another Year (December 31st)

British auteur Mike Leigh should never be discounted from an annual Oscar race. His movies, ranging from the darkly relevant Naked to the highly acclaimed Secrets & lies are cornerstones of any Cinema fan's DVD collection. Garnering nothing but rave reviews at Cannes, Another Year is destined to be a great success for Leigh. He tackles -yet again- the London middle class with a flair and wisdom only he can pull off. There might a sense of deja vu but Leigh always pulls out the stops in every film he does. Another Year might look small but it tackles emotions that cannot be described and are as big as life itself.


9) Somewhere (December 22nd)

Sofia Coppola was the toast of the town, she made a personal film called Lost In Translation & captured critics nationwide with her style and touching masterpiece. All of Hollywood wanted a piece of her, until she made Marie Antoinette- which bombed both at the box office and with the press. Since that debacle, Coppola has been unheard of and decided to work on her next feature film (her first one in 4 years). Somewhere -just like Lost In Translation- takes place in a hotel but instead of Tokyo, Los Angeles' Chateau Marmont takes it place. The hotel is renowned in its reputation of being filled up by hipsters and A-List celebrities. Stephen Dorff stars as a partying celeb that needs to focus on more important priorities when his estranged 11 year old daughter (Elle Fanning) appears out of nowhere and into his life.


10) Blue Valentine (December 31st)

If you didn't find Scott Pilgrim Vs The World to be all that realistic about relationships, then this movie is for you. Blue Valentine focuses on a 6 year reltionaship -Ryan Gosling & Michelle Williams play the lovebirds-with its ups and downs. It garnered raves at numerous film fests, ranging from Sundance all the way to Cannes. The Supremes song Where Did Our Love Go was supposedly an inspiration for the movie's themes and yearnings. If there's one small Independant feature that can come out on top this year, it's this one.



11) Black Swan (December 1st)

A Psychological thriller set in the Ballet world? I'm intrigued. Add director Darren Aronofsky, Nathalie Portman as a ballerina and I'm sold. Aronofsky's last movie -The Wrestler- revived Mickey Rourke's career and was the best film of its given year, which means expectations are through the roof that his new movie will be nothing short of spectacular. Details are very hush hush as to its plot and I bet it will stay that way until the movie's release on the first day of December. My prediction? Portman may just have a shot at Best Actress with this one & Aronofsky will make another bold, spectacular movie.



12) The Fighter (December 10th)

Mark Whalberg invested so much in his role as Boxer Micky Ward, that he spent 5 years bringing boxing equipment in numerous movie sets. He'd practice his boxing during break time or off days, to perfect a role what was -in a way- his dream role. Add director David O Russell (Three Kings) to the mix and you have the perfect duo to make a great movie. Ward had a famous comeback in the 90's that cemented his legacy as a great fighter. Like every boxer featured in film, Ward had trials and tribulations that were almost operatic & Whalberg -a close friend of Ward's- made sure to capture this flawed man. The keen political and satirical eye Russell showed us in Three Kings is long gone here, what we are left with are the ups and downs of a flawed man's life & the battles he faces. This could be Whalberg's biggest chance at an Oscar.



13) Miral (December TBA)

After making The Diving & The Butterfly, Painter/filmmaker Julian Schnabel decided to tackle another depressing subject, that of an orphaned Palestinian girl isolated right in the middle of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It's a tough subject to handle and I have confidence Schnabel will be able to not side and just tell the story as it is, if he does so he could have a winner here. It's getting released in Europe this september and in North America this December. Frieda Pinto of Slumdog Millionaire stars.


14) Tree Of Life (November TBA)

Here's the biggie this fall. Terrence Malick (Badlands, Days Of Heaven) -a legendary director- brings us Tree Of Life starring Brad Pitt & Sean Penn. It's enough to make any movie fan drool out of excitement. We know nothing of the plot & have yet to see a single scene but there's something defining and momentous in having the names Penn/Pitt/Malick within the same sentence. Malick has worked on Tree Of life for nearly 5 years and you can rest assured his style and natural touch will be on display here yet again. His sense of wonderment about nature and the human connection is one of a kind & unmatched. This is a perfect example of what distinguishes Fall movies from Summer movies, there's a sense of purpose and -more importantly- a sense of artful integrity that would be missing in the dog days of summer. Malick will surely remind us that when his picture opens in December.

from Graphic Novel to screen...



Don't kid yourself, it's not that easy to reproduce a graphic novel into a feature length film. Some valuable efforts have come and go but there aren't many that have duplicated the feel & intensity to turn the page in anticipation of what's going to happen next. The latest to try this arduous task is Scott Pillgrim Vs The World, which does what no other movie has done before- recreate the authenticity of holding a comic book and the visual gags that come with it. I have yet to see it but its director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz & Shaun Of The Dead) seems to have made visual eye candy out of -well- visual candy.




Many film fans would kill me if I didn't mention Sin City, which no matter how visually delighting or visionary it might have been, had its faults & was the product of a director that was trying to hard to please both film fans and graphic novel enthusiasts. The result? a mixed bag which had its highs but also had its lows because of its lack of substance and pulp obsession. Director Robert Rodriguez's style for the picture was astounding, using mostly black and white cinematography and occasional shots of eye popping yellow & red (to name a few). It's a violent and completely unnecessary picture- a graphic geek's wet dream & all the better for it. A sequel is in the works but has been postponed countless times in the last few years, let's hope second time's the charm.




Those of you that have caught up with this year's crop of movies will surely be reminded of Kick Ass, which was not as stylish as the films listed above but still had its own defining way of telling the story, every once in a while using comic book squares to remind of time going by or location. Its violent comic book root was also kept intact in celluloid, even enraging the most popular of critics Roger Ebert, who wrote that Kick Ass -which features a violent 10 year old superhero spurting offences & chopping people in pieces- was "morally reprehensible". He might be right but then again, all graphic novels are & they might just not care about that. So do its fans, which invite the overdone violence as a real come on.



Of course, there could familiarity when remembering movies such as 300 & V For Vendetta were first based of a graphic novel but many do not have the slightest clue about the source material & the fact that it was actually much more violent on page than on screen. With 300 , a craze came out of Hollywood for more novels to get translated. I never really understood the love that came with Zach Snyder's movie about the sparta, it was too corny and crass to fully engage me in a convenient manner. Then again, the 300 million dollars it made makes the makers of this film completely oblivious to my own opinion of their movie. No matter, I'd rather watch paint dry than encounter their trashy film again.



Not everything based on the graphic novel must be violent and totally devoid of a brain. I can thin of three examples that fit the bill of my theory. First off is American Splendor, which came off based upon late cartoonist Harvey Pekar's life and gave birth to an ingeniously inventive film starring Paul Giamatti as Pekar & Hope Davis as his wife. The fact that not many saw this movie, only enhances the fact that not every comic book based movie will make money. Ditto Ghost World, which might just be the best and most haunting comic book movie Ive ever seen. There are no ghosts and this is not a horror movie. Instead it's based on Robert R. Crumb's cult comic book of the same name, which has to do with two graduating high school outcasts that do not know what to do with their lives, they are stuck in their own Ghost World, a place where only their way of life and assumptions are correct. It's a beauty of a movie that won critical acclaim but did not make any movie.




& what to make of Sam Mendes and his Road To Perdition, a film that is starting to look more and more as one of his only good ones (along with American Beauty). Its style compared to all the other titles mentioned above is simple and cinematic, a hybrid of the kind of filmmaking directors in the 1970's used to revel in doing. It's one of the forgotten gems of the past 10 years, which leaves me clueless as to why this has happened. If you haven't seen Mendes' film, you're in for a real treat.

Farewell

If your taste varies around spy thrillers, then don't be shy to check out french film Farewell, which just got a limited release in Los Angeles & New York a week ago. Its main stars are notably well talented filmmakers (Emir Kusturica & Guillaume Canet) & its subject concerns the very end of the cold war and how a spy literally ended it, all on his own. Gripping stuff. I wrote about it in The Concordian a year ago when I was covering a French Montreal film fest, that can be checked out HERE. I'll be back later on to review the new Arcade Fire record, which is just really awesome & should be bought by all rock music geeks.

The World According to Pheonix



When I first started to notice that Something was off with Joaquin Pheonix early last year, I wasn't alone. From his infamous appearance on David Letterman to his Hip Hop club gigs, the guy was clearly losing it. Well -in the same vein as Borat- he was being filmed the entire time for a documentary by Ben's brother Casey Affleck, Hoax? Is the joke on us? No idea but what I do know is that this should be an entertaining mocumentary about how one of the great actors of our generation -Watch Two Lovers !- completely lost his mind for the sake of art. The above image is the first poster available for the upcoming Doc coming out later this year. You can also find the aforementioned Letterman interview by clicking HERE & his unusual club gigs by clicking HERE. Or how about just renting one of last year's best films Two Lovers to see why he's one of the great actors of our generation.

An Image 08/03/10


Jennifer Connelly in Darren Aronofsky's mosiac Requiem For A Dream. A movie that felt like Film School 101 and was largely overpraised by most critics. Check it out only to find how talent -no matter how immature- can be glimpsed at in a messy effort. Nevertheless, it showed a true talent getting ready for the big time. Aronofsky would later make The Wrestler, the only film of his I genuinely love featuring a never better Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. He releases Black Swan starring Nathalie Portman and filled with buzz in the fall.

Benning, Moore & War



Put Annette Bening and Julianne Moore at the top of this year's Best Actress race, they are the heart and soul of The Kids Are Alright. They play a married couple that go through the same issues any other hetero married couple would go through. Bening with her devious but honest smile is a tour de force as Nic, a woman that only wants the best for her children, even when she can sometimes come out looking harsh and honest. Julianne Moore, playing Jules, is her wife. Jules feels isolated and resorts to an affair with their kids' sperm donor Paul -magnificently played by Ruffalo (almost a sure thing for next year's Supporting Actor race). The scenes between Moore and Ruffalo are tremendous, sexy, touching and extremely honest.

Paul owns a restaurant but is haunted by the wasted potential of his life, meeting Jules and the kids makes him want a family to settle down with. Jules already has that and commits to the affair only for excitement and the isolation her partner has brought on. The hot sex they have brings much needed intimacy to Jules' sex life, If you don't believe me check it out for yourself it's ragingly hot. Ditto Moore, who's both sexy and terrific in her best role in years. Being the huge Julianne fan that I am, I cannot help but warmly welcome this comeback.

Much credit must be given to Writer/Director Lisa Cholodenko, who infuses realism and indie spirit to the film. Cholodenko -36- hits a career peak with the film. While her first two features (High Art & Laurel Canyon) had the potential, The Kids Are Alright shows it wasn't just anything. Born and raised in California's San Fernando Valley, Cholodenko makes high art out of family manners. Her personal life -she also had a kid through sperm donation with her long time partner Wendy Melvoin- makes this a personal and rewarding independent effort, even when the film hits through melodramatic bumps in its last third. Judging by the critical acclaim this film has gotten, expect it to get some well deserved awards in the months ahead.

★★★



If there's one documentary that should be seen this summer it's this one. Restrepo -directed by the team of Tim Hetherington & Sebastian Junger- will likely be seen in the years to come as one of the finest documents of the war in Afghanistan. The stuff captured here is at times jaw dropping as a platoon of U.S Soldiers get deployed to Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, one of the most dangerous spots for violence in the region. As the days go by and the casualties grow Junger and Hetherington start to focus on the bonding these soldiers have to one another and the way they manage to stay clam in a walking hell such as this one. They name their outpost after one of their fallen friends, his ghost lingers throughout the movie as these soldiers cannot shake their fallen comrade.

This isn't for the weak of heart. Restrepo might be about war and mortality but it isn't an indictment or critique of war. It stands on its own ground and doesn't make any assumptions about how these soldiers got there and why. The braveness that I saw in their faces was overwhelming. One soldier is asked "why are you here in Afghanistan". His response? "for my country". Junger and Hetherington's film is a knowing tribute to those that are still out there fighting the fight. The footage they have captured here is tremendous, as they put their own lives on the line filming soldiers in combat and on the brink of losing it. The film's most gut wrenching moment comes when a soldier is killed in battle and the reaction that ensues. If watching documentary is your thing, check this one out.


★★★

Christopher Nolan & his amazing mistakes



I've already chimed in on Inception a few days ago -that can be read HERE- but I'm still not done talking about Nolan and the constant mistakes he seems to be making in every film he releases. That is not to say Inception or Memento or The Dark Knight are not memorable experiences but they have a coldness and detachment to character that is very evident and almost frustrating to watch. Nolan is a man that is all about Ideas and structure- in fact he's a master @ those things. The concepts in Inception are brilliant and unforgettable, so are the payoffs and images that he imposes on the viewer. Nolan has a knack for creating visually stunning imagery that takes your breathe away, I can think of a few in his Batman movies and the lasting image of Leonard Shelby covered in tattoos and haunted by his dead wife in Memento. He is one of the great creators of the past 10 years of film, I haven't necessarily disliked any of his feature length movies with the exception of his film school-felt debut Following- which debuted in 1998 at sundance.

One thing I found very disconcerting about Inception was the way Nolan handled the action- his use of hand held camera was at times nauseating and completely devoid of comprehension. Ever since those Paul Greengrass Bourne movies came out, it's been a hip thing to use hand held camera for any and every action scene, which -instead of realism- can sometimes bring a feeling of dizziness. This struggle with action is not new to Nolan. Don't get me wrong The Dark Knight had some awe inspiring set pieces but Nolan can sometimes suffer from a case of too much is not enough. He gets excited with something and never lets it go- hammering down at his audience like an excited fanboy. Then again Nolan is only 40 and still has time to master his ingeniously original ideas into coherent action. You expect a movie such as Inception to create a backlash. It's riddled with ideas and is one of the most original movies you will likely see in 2010. Is it the best one? probably not.

Originality always comes at a cost and Inception will most likely puzzle and provoke the most timid of audiences. In other words, the world Nolan has created isn't for the A-Team crowd. Just like any of his previous efforts, it has flaws but its beating heart is undeniably real and in the right place. The male characters that populate his movies are flawed men with a haunted past. I can think of Leonard Shelby seeking revenge for his dead wife in Memento, Bruce Wayne building a better Gotham and still troubled by his dead parents in The Dark Knight, Al Paicno's detective Domer haunted by his past and not able to sleep in Insomnia & Leonardo Dicaprio's Cobb in Inception, a man that cannot face the facts and still tries to create memories of his wife in his very dreams. Now if only Nolan can control himself for a change and bring subtelty to his game, then maybe we can talk about a true master of his game. For now we are left with his undeniably messy but brilliant films which I've rated below

Following C
Memento A
Insomnia B+
Batman Begins B+
The Prestige B+
The Dark Knight A-

Salt



It wasn't supposed to work but it did. Salt starring Angelina Jolie is a high wire act of suspense mixed in with breathless action & excitement to spare. It's one of the funnest times I've had in a theater all year- which says a lot about the quality of film in 2010. The plot is outrageous but it works because a competent director is at work here. Philip Noyce, the director of Rabbit Proof-Fence and The Quiet American, knows how to stage action- unlike Christopher Nolan, who's still learning the dos and dont's. He stages Jolie in the most over the top set pieces you will ever see, which is all part of the fun and why Salt is a a master class in action. It actually reminded me of the first time I saw Brian De Palma's Mission Impossible- a film which shares similar traits to Salt & which was a clear influence from top to bottom. Just a real blast all around.

Inception



Am I dreaming? A movie from the Hollywood system done with intelligence and ambition? Christopher Nolan's Inception is just that movie & although it is not a perfect one, there is something ambitiously sly and shocking about Nolan actually trying to sell such a movie to the mainstream. That's what happens when your last movie was The Dark Knight- you usually end up getting creative control for your next project. Nolan was given 200 million $ to make a movie about dreams within dreams within dreams, a maze-like art film masqueraded as an action picture starring Leonardo Dicaprio.

I've seen Inception twice and although I understand its concepts and (most of) its ideas, It's a real mindfuck. It's a puzzle that unfolds before your very eyes with different clues flying all over the place at the same time. It is rooted -just like in Nolan's other films- with psychological undertones that bring much depth to a story about loss and illusion as Dicaprio's Cobb tries to find the memories that have haunted him since the death of his wife. Sounds familiar? Martin Scorsese pursued the same themes earlier this year in Shutter Island, a movie in which his main hero -also played by Dicaprio- is haunted by the death of his wife & resorts to a made up dream world as a cure. Familiar?

The film's highs are joined in by its lows as Nolan overdoes the action that takes place in 4 dream stages. His use of hand held camera does not necessarily make his action any easier to comprehend- because as talented as the man is, he still has a lot to learn with the staging of his action sequences & the emotional coldness that his characters seem to possess. The film juggles many ideas and doesn't deepen the character development. You don't care as much as you should about his characters and what's at stake. As much as I adored Memento and The Dark Knight, their main protagonists always left a coldness and detachment in me that was bothersome but not entirely distracting to the overall originality and sheer chutzpah of the overall piece.

Inception is Nolan's most frustrating film to date, a film which provokes its audience to ask many questions- which isn't a bad thing. It is an original work of art that has the advantage of being thought provoking and infuriating. A film rooted with a sense of purpose and intrigue, even if it didn't necessarily entertain me as much as make me admire its originality and ambition. To call it imaginative would be to state the most obvious of statements. In a summer filled with nothing but bad movies, Inception comes out of nowhere and makes you think hard about the psychology, philosophy & meaning of dreamlike existence.

The more the days go by, the more I come back to Nolan's visionary film. It lingers inside our heads like a nightmare that won't go away. Its existence is important because it is soaked in idealism that is rare and and almost non existent in mainstream -and even independent- consciousness. It provokes conversation that resorts t0 furious debating and psychological reasoning that can warp the most timid of minds. Only time will tell if Inception will hold up in the years to come but in a summer movie season filled with crass entertainment, the ambitious but flawed Inception is a welcome jewel from the sky.

Tilda Swinton Falls in love



I Am Love can take back a viewer to a time when movies were slowly paced but beneficial and satisfying. It is in Italian and is the directorial debut of Luca Guadagnino. It's a family affair as tradition clashes with modernism and desire clashes with values. Tilda Swinton first created the project with Guadagnino many years ago, it quickly became a labour of love that took up a big chunk of their times. Swinton saw something in the director that was special and unique. One cannot help but understand what Swinton saw when watching I Am Love. Guadagnino stylizes his film -if a bit too much- into a kind of Wes Anderson-like bon bon, spiked with malice and eroticism to boot.

The problem is in fact Guadagnino's over stylization, which is showy but not overtly effective. The talent is shown but doesn't need to be blown up in every scene. While Wes Anderson infuses heart and passion into his screenplays, there is a coldness in Guadagnino's words that one cannot escape. The silliness of his words and screenplay cannot be saved by his visual flair for image. The romantic plot is at times worldess and dull. There are moments of brilliance & moments of desirable sexiness but one leaves I Am Love with the notion that for all the positives & dizzying stylishness, the negatives outweight them and are like watching paint dry.

Recent stuff I've contributed



The wonderful Sasha Stone over @ AwardsDaily published a few writings of mine this past week, you can check it out in the Contender Tracker section which magically appears when you click HERE. I'll be contributing more stuff in the weeks ahead and look forward to a busy & exciting Awards Season over @ AwardsDaily & other publications.

Facebook movie -The Social Network- finally hits the web, amid controversy

*Video has been removed*

This should be interesting to say the least, especially with David Fincher at the helm of this one. Based on a controversial book about the creator of facebook -Mark Zuckerberg- and the way he back-stabbed and lied his way to the top of the Social Network market. This is sure to be something relevant and essential to our times, a dystopia of the world we live in and the greed that follows it. Fincher kind of struck out with Benjamin Button 2 years ago but there's something about this trailer that makes me think he's got his mojo back. Put this one on top of your list of must sees for the fall, it's gonna be explosive.

The Five Best Movies of 2010



It's only been 6 months, so I thought it'd be a kick to make a list of the 5 best movies of the past (Half) year so far. Especially after having seen a few of these pop out in the blogosphere the past few days. Take in mind, I haven't seen Christopher Nolan's Inception & Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are Alright- although that will likely change soon. The deadline to make this list would have been June 31st .

(1) Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese)
(2) Un Prophete (Jacques Audiard)
(3) Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich)
(4) Cyrus (Jay & Mark Duplass)
(5) Winter's Bone (Debra Granik)

Armond White vs. The World



Armond White is a film critic over at New York Press- an alternative weekly newspaper that has had incredible traffic on the web in the past year. Mostly due to White's -shall we say- alternative views on modern movie classics such as There Will Be Blood, Wall E & The Hurt Locker. He is basically a man that has the most curiously original taste in movies and a man that has no shame in bashing Toy Story 3 because of product placement & then praising Transformers 3 (a movie destroyed by every film critic imaginable & containing just as much product placement as about any other movie in history).

He is different and revels in his originally poor taste in film. Although I shouldn't really criticize his taste considering film criticism is -after all- an objective profession. Roger Ebert has come out calling him a Troll, former Premiere Magazine chief critic Glenn Kenny has called him a "Bully & a hypocrite" & just about every other film critic in the country has had their own saying about the man that has openly idolized legendary -and nonetheless controversial- film critic Pauline Kael.

It's interesting to have a guy this entertaining in the profession. His reviews tend to be well written and highly amusing in A what the fuck kind of way. He is what he is- a man that has firmly asserted himself into film media due to controversy (White is currently the chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle, a prestigious group that is as influential and well regarded as any in the biz). However, his denial about being an attention whore is also amusing. One can only imagine a person with White's taste writing about film.

He has the intellect and capacity to exude great debates but he sometimes deliberately writes to infuriate rather than to actually lay claim to firm reasons as to why he did not like the said picture. He has openly criticized film critics and -more importantly- film bloggers, whom he considers bad for his profession. White's reasoning behind some of his reviews is sadly inauthentic and sheepishly thought out. He is the anti film critic, a man possessed to cause controversy and make a name for himself just for the fun of it & for that I salute you Mr White by looking forward to your next comically written gem.

Satisfaction & failure in 'Cyrus'



It takes a lot to make a person laugh but it takes even more to send out the laughs out with smarts. That's how I felt watching The Duplass Brothers' Cyrus Starring John C Reilly, Jonah Hill & Marisa Tomei- all perfectly cast & great. A look @ the plot, one might be reminded of Step Brothers. Remember that one? Will Ferrell and Reilly playing step brothers that don't get along? This one is totally different and has an indie vibe that actually brings realism with its hand held camera & eccentric tone. Tomei is a divorced mother to a son (Hill) that will do anything to get her away from her new goofy boyfriend (Reilly)- a rivalry happens between the two guys, mind games that are both comic and deceptively nasty. Despite a pat ending that comes out as a major letdown, Cyrus is that rare jewel in a sea of muck. It's coming out @ a time when most mainstream fare is disappointing and relentless, stupid and unoriginal. It is counterfare to the horrendous films being hammered down our throats for the mind numbing pleasure of teenagers & the immature. I guess you can say that I liked it.

The Girl Who Played With Fire



I promised. The next time I would talk about the Millennium series is when the new chapter comes out. Well, here we are and The Girl Who Played With Fire is about to get released next week all across North America. Like the first chapter, it is a well thought out & at times challenging dive into the great Swedish divide. However, just like the first chapter, it is a mess, overstuffed with characters and a story that is hit and miss in execution.

The plot -involving sex abuse and sex rings- overreaches and ultimately fails in its outrageous concept. I do think the lead actors are great starting with Noomi Rapace as femme fatale Lisbeth Salander, the movie rests on her shoulders and she carries it gloriously to the finish line & her compatriot and film partner Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist- an impeccably professional Swedish movie star. They are the driving force of the movie. The filmmakers strike a somber, successful mood but there isn't much here that I'd recommend, unless -of course- you are a fan of the popular books. & That is basically what it comes down to. Most of the folks I encounter that have an affinity for these films are fans of the novels- which have sold in the millions worldwide.

When you have a fan base that is straight up literary, there is no reason why a film adaptation should not be made. Case in point, the Twilight series, which has single handily focused its attention on the book's die hard fans, to make the movies as straightforward as anything read on book. Smart move, considering the movies are now bona fide cash cows that are the hottest thing to have come out of the Hollywood system since The Lord Of The Rings (which doesn't necessarily mean the quality is high). Basically, playing it safe so that Twi-Hards don't get pissed off prevents the artistic freedom necessary for such a satisfying ventures into cinematic territory. Sucks for us but a wet dream for Twi-Hards and Millenium fanatics.

Kudos has got to be given to director Daniel Alfredson- trying his best at keeping the style and substance relevant- but even the greatest of directors cannot save the most poorly written screenplays (Scorsese? New York New York?). Rumor has it that Hollywood maverick director David Fincher has a remake up his sleeves for 2011, he's currently starting pre-production and filming should begin in the fall with Bond man Daniel Craig as Blomkvist and An Education star Carrey Mulligan as Salander. Here's hoping this visionary does something different with the source material and conjures up a screenplay that is both cinematic and more worthy than its predecessors & goes his own rebellious way in telling the stories. If there's a person that can do it, it's Fincher.

Winter's Bone



Debra Granik's second feature film Winter's Bone (B+) is the kind of movie that gets progressively better & better as you delve deeper and deeper on it. It is filled with humane, real characterizations of a society that is rooted in evil and people that have lost all hope in life and succumbed to shadiness & drug dealing. There are memorable scenes that linger (the gutting of a squirrel, the taking of a girl, the final -ambiguous- mumbling scene) & a sense of dread that will turn off the most primitive of moviegoers. It is through and through a product of Independent film and we should be very appreciative of its existence.

If there is a plot it is sparse and purposely slight @ first. Granik films her subjects in a cinematography layered in blue and in a mountainous background that brings mythic purpose to her story's very fabrication. What to say of the performances? absolutely spellbinding. Jennifer Lawrence as the 17 year old main character does not over act but instead brings subtlety to her role as a teenage girl desperately looking for her -dead?- father in the wilderness Ozarks of Missouri. John Hawkes as her isolated and troubled uncle & really just the entire cast which does an amazing job conveying a mood that enhances the dread.

I've heard people complain about the grimness of the picture and its sheer hopelessness. I've heard some complain that not much happens & that the narrative plotting is thin. I've also heard some folks say that they were bored out of their minds and did not get the movie's message. To all these naysayers I say look closer and maybe you will find what you missed the first time around- a film about the root of evil and how matriarchal ties that bind never get broken, no matter what the cost. That is Winter's Bone & I guarantee you will be talking about it no matter your liking or disliking of it.

Why 3D?



It's everywhere. It seems as if every film coming out these days is available with 3D glassses. This of course has a lot to do with money. Ever since that groundbreaker Avatar came out & stormed the Box Office, the studios wanted to take advantage of the 3d medium by releasing every mediocre effort with an extra pair of glasses. When conceived, most of these movies were not meant for 3D viewing, compared to James Cameron's Avatar which was born and bred as a 3D experience. Don't waste your money watching Toy Story 3 in 3D, it is not essential & the film does not benefit in any way shape or form from it. Watch it sans the frames, you'll thank me later for it.

The reason why these studios are releasing everything they have in this form is simple- money. The 3D glasses make the movie ticket 3$ more expensive, meaning that the average 12$ ticket price gets boosted up to 15$ for 3D. It's a Hollywood studio Exec's wet dream to have his ticket price boosted. I'll be the first to admit that 3D could quite possibly be the future of filmmaking, Martin Scorsese is planning to shoot his next movie that way, so are other key Hollywood filmmakers.

Cameron's 2009 film was a curse and a blessing. It brought out the best and the worst in movies. Its influence on the next generation of film is limitless. Film will be more focused on visuals and filmmakers will surely try to outdo themselves with visionary eye popping images. This is a positive but at what cost? The negative is simple, while a 3D film will focus on the visual it might just forget the most important part of a film- The story, the narrative, the structure.

How To Train Your Dragon did not forget the rules of  the technology, which is why it's the best 3D movie of the year thus far. Its story is heartfelt and well told, ditto its visuals which pop out & blow your eyes away. The story might be old fashioned and tiresome but it has an old school vibe that had me hooked from its colorfully inventive dragons to its innocently told tale. Cliches come about in many ways, but the key to enjoying it is letting yourself go to the images directors Dean Deblois and Chris Sanders conjure up in this medieval tale. There are far more gripping movies playing at the moment but none are as eye popping or colorfully transportive as this B movie dragon tale.