TIFF Preview

Landing in Toronto always feels like home. I’ve been coming to the Toronto Film Festival for more than four years now, but the vibe here always stays the same: excitingly frantic. The weather is beautiful, it still feels like summer, and the overall excitement can sometimes be contagious. During the next ten days countless screenings, interviews and after parties will be happening, so will lack of sleep and hundreds of media writers scrambling to meet deadlines. The days start early and end late, but everybody’s here for the movies. In fact, people here get drunk off movies; there’s a who’s who of press and industry people here, but Torontonians seem to catch the high as well. Tickets aren’t cheap for some of the galas, but it’s pretty common to meet people who have bought a dozen or so tickets to the showings.

Most industry people come here straight from the other fest that has been stealing TIFF’s spotlight a bit lately. Telluride is more than just a film fest, it’s a getaway retreat that doubles as a film fest. Some films skip TIFF altogether and opt to launch their campaigns in the more relaxed atmosphere of the Colorado ski resort town. Last year’s Best Picture winner, Birdman, went the Telluride route, which I’m sure didn’t please Toronto organizers one bit, but the fact remains that the last five Picture winners have had their debut over there. Toronto isn’t necessarily relegated to being the sub-par fest: the program they have each and every year is tremendous, a dreamy feast for cinematic lovers everywhere, and quite possibly the most comprehensive of any in the world. More than 300 films from 60 different countries will be screened over a span of 10 days.

There are many questions that still remain to be answered and there are movies premiering which might potentially stir up the race and make us all rethink who’s ahead and who’s not. Last year, The Theory of Everything had its debut here, which won Eddie Redmayne the gold. Julianne Moore’s winning performance in Still Alice also had its debut at TIFF. There are so many movies on the program that surprises are bound to happen in spades, maybe every day, and my peers at the fest would love to catch the next big thing. As I am writing this, these are 10 of the most buzzed movies premiering on King Street:

1) The Martian

Director Ridley Scott returns to the genre that made him an auteur to be reckoned with (Alien, Blade Runner). That’s why this film is at the top of my must-see list. It stars Matt Damon as an astronaut who is presumed dead, but who tries to survive until somebody realizes that they need to rescue him. The L.A. Times had a chance to catch a work-in-progress screening of this one and loved it. Based on the popular novel of the same name by Drew Goddard, let’s hope this is the Ridley Scott of Blade Runner and not of Exodus.

2) The Program

When Stephen Frears does biopics, watch out. The Queen was a brilliant film and Philomena was a rousing crowd-pleaser. Both got Best Picture nominated and both bowed at Toronto. The Program is about Lance Armstrong’s doping controversy and stars Ben Foster as the seven-time Tour de France champion. Frears is one of the best filmmakers of the last three decades with an eclectic filmography that includes My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, High Fidelity, Dirty Pretty Things and The Queen among his very best.

3) Our Brand is Crisis

Many people thought David Gordon Green’s Our Brand is Crisis would premiere at Telluride, but it didn’t. TIFF nabbed the premiere of the film, which is about the American political campaign strategies used during the ’02 presidential elections. The cast, which includes Sandra Bullock, Billy Bob Thornton, Anthony Mackie and Ann Dowd looks great on paper. David Gordon Green’s time has also come to shine, as this could be the movie that finally brings him to the forefront of the Awards conversation. His stunning debut was George Washington, which he directed when he was just 25 years old. Ever since then, he’s had his ups and downs, continuously switching back and forth between indie (All The Real Girls, Joe) and Hollywood (Pineapple Express).

4) Truth

I love newsroom dramas. When done right, this genre can truly churn out classics (All the President’s Men, Zodiac, The Insider). Spotlight is the one to beat this fall, but James Vanderbilt’s Truth looks to steal its thunder at this year’s fest. Vanderbilt’s directorial debut stars Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, and Dennis Quaid in a film based on 60 Minutes’ investigation of then President George W. Bush’s military service, which led to a controversial firing. Redford plays Dan Rather and Cate Blanchett is Mary Mapes. I also forgot to mention that Vanderbilt wrote the Zodiac screenplay. I’ve got high hopes for this one.

5) Where to Invade Next

We had no idea Michael Moore was filming a new movie, so it came as a shock when he announced the TIFF premiere of Where to Invade Next. Covering the subject of Infinite War and its consequences, here’s to hoping that we get something fresh from Moore whose last couple of documentaries (Sicko, Capitalism) did not get as much praise or make as much money as his previous ones (Bowling For Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11).

6) Demolition

I might regret putting this one on the list, but for now the pedigree of the cast and the filmmaker at the helm more than makes up for the delayed 2016 release of Jean-Marc Vallee’s Demolition. Why did the film get pushed over to next year? The industry has been scratching their heads ever since Fox Searchlight Pictures made the move. Coming off his awards circuit triumphs Dallas Buyers Club and Wild, Thursday night’s screening of Vallee’s film might make things a little clearer for us… or it might not. One thing’s for sure, if the film is well received by the press, why wouldn’t it go for that prestigious 2015 release date? Naomi Watts and Jake Gyllenhaal star.

7) Freeheld

Ellen Page, Julianne Moore, Steve Carrel and—the always great—Michael Shannon star in a film that deals with LGBT relationships, pension benefits and terminal cancer. Oscar bait much? Freeheld does have the potential to be something very special; Moore’s turn last year at TIFF for Still Alice won her the gold, and the relevant topics that the film presents might be too much for critics to ignore. Director Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) directs, from a screenplay by Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia).

8) I Saw the Light

Loki stars as Hank Williams in a film directed by the producer of The Thing and Robocop remakes. This could work. It worked last year when long-time producer Bill Pohland premiered the Brian Wilson picture that he directed, Love and Mercy. It was a great movie that came out this year with very good reviews. Tom Hiddleston looks like a dead-on Hank Williams and Elizabeth Olsen — always welcome in my books — plays Mrs. Williams.

9) Trumbo

We all know Bryan Cranston can act the living hell out of a TV role, but can he carry an entire movie? I think he can, and in Trumbo he’s given a great shot to prove himself as a leading man. Cranston stars as the real-life Dalton Trumbo a 1940s Hollywood screenwriter who gets blacklisted for his political beliefs. It all looks just great, with a cast that includes Diane Lane and Helen Mirren among many others. Jay Roach, yes that Jay Roach of Meet the Parents and Austin Powers fame, directs based on a screenplay by John McNamara.

10) Stonewall

One of the more curious entries at this year’s fest will be director Roland Emmerich — THE disaster movie expert—bringing his newest picture Stonewall to the festival circuit. This is the first time he’s brought one of his movies to a major film fest, which means Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, White House Down, 10,000 BC, Universal Soldier, and Independence Day were never chosen for anything. Surprised? Stonewall recounts the famous 1969 riots that took place in a Greenwich Village neighborhood, a riot known as the single most important event that lead to igniting the LGBT movement.

Already we know three buzzed movies from Telluride will not be making the trip to Canada: Carol, Steve Jobs and Suffragette. One of these could easily become an Oscar frontunner, especially Carol, which is bound to be the critical darling of 2015 and for good reason: Todd Haynes’ movie is a beautifully shot masterpiece that features career best work by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara and has socially relevant themes at its core. Haynes’ Far From Heaven in 2002 could not lure Oscar, with not even a nomination for Dennis Quaid’s phenomenal performance. Carol is more accessible and more part of the current zeitgeist than Heaven was — the buzz is already deafening. Steve Jobs I have not seen, but the early reviews have been promising and have established Fassbender as a force to be reckoned with in the Best Actor race, which is turning out to be, yet again, filled up to the brim: Fassbender, Leo, Redmayne, Hardy, Elba and McKellen seem destined for a possible nomination, but many surprises await and many will get knocked out of the final five.

Spotlight and Beasts of No Nation will look to continue the incredible best picture buzz from just a week ago at Telluride and Venice. Whereas Tom Hardy in Legend, Johnny Depp in Black Mass, and Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl would love to lock up an acting nomination with another strong showing of screenings, in just ten days’ time we’ll have a much clearer picture of the race and where we’re at.

Sundance 7 Months later ...

The best movies that come out of Sundance are the ones that, on second viewing, maintain the exhilarating high you had when you first saw them high atop the thin rocky mountain air of the resort town. Remember when in 2002 Tadpole was bought for a ton of money then made 3 million dollars worldwide? Yeah, it’s just that kind of festival. People get high off the movies, then months later forget they ever existed. There must be something in that air. However, the fest’s rich history with discovering small, indie gems has not been lost the last few years. In fact, if an indie movie does become a breakout hit at the box office, chances are it most certainly debuted at Robert Redford’s three decade old film festival. If we look back on Sundance history we will also find another trend: Best Picture nominees. Since 2009, when new rules for the number of Best Picture nominees were instated, there were only two years in which no Sundance movie was nominated. In the past 6 years, 7 films that premiered at Sundance have made it on the Academy’s Best Picture slot.

2014 Whiplash
2014 Boyhood
2012 Beasts of the Southern Wild
2010 Winter’s Bone
2010 The Kids Are All Right
2009 Precious
2009 An Education

As we stand now, here are the films that came out of the 2015 fest with the most buzz and critical chance:

Me, and Earl and the Dying Girl
Tangerine
Diary of a Teenage Girl
Brooklyn
The End of the Tour
The Witch
Dope

Of these, it would seem that Brooklyn is most likely to get Best Picture attention although there are opportunities for others in various categories. One of the best of the bunch is The Witch, which sadly is only slated for release next year! A real shame if you ask me. Robert Eggers’ haunting and spooky film was far and away the best movie I saw from Sundance 2015 and the one with the most potential to be a critical darling. Brooklyn is already being talked about as a contender, but it’s going to need a steadfast critical push. Quite a few of these “class of 2015” films have already been released this summer. All are worth checking out as counter-programming to many mindless and mind-numbing summer releases. The creative work that emerges from Sundance is the reaso I hope that this festival will always exist.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was bought for more than 8 million dollars back in January, collecting the Grand Jury Prize and Sundance Audience prize in the process. As mentioned, recent Jury Prize winners include past Oscar nominees Whiplash, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Winter’s Bone, and Precious.Sadly, its one of those outstanding films that didn’t find its audience, racking up only 6 million dollars at the box office and puzzling the industry as a whole. The film may not be as great as the aforementioned past prize winners, but it’s still undeserving of the neglect that has emerged i the wake of its June release. The film, a sort of indie take on The Fault in our Stars but better, had high expectations laid upon its post-Sundance shoulders that were unwarranted, but it deserved a better fate. I wish we had more movies that dealt with friendship, adolescence, and illness with such visually aesthetic wonder and a heart as vast as the sky. I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ll hear of Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, a visually gifted filmmaker.

Tangerine, an ultra-low budget film shot on an iPhone for chump change and directed by Sean Baker, comes at you like an exhilarating force of nature. It doesn’t care if it shocks you or riles up your senses. It’s a fervent product of Sundance and one of many indie summer releases that first premiered over there this past January. It’s an imperfect movie but one filled with abundant energy in its every frame. Groundbreaking is the right word, for it is ultimately the first of its kind: a film shot on an iPhone with transgender actors taking on leading roles. Witness how evolving awareness of transgender issues has sparked a wealth of fresh cultural expressions. Jeffery Tambor is gut wrenchingly great in TV’s best show Transparent (with Fargo not too far behind if you must know) and if you haven’t heard of Caitlin Jenner then you’ve clearly been living under a rock. The film takes place on Christmas Eve in California and deals with a transgender sex worker who just finished serving a short sentence in prison and finds out her pimp/boyfriend cheated on her. She obviously doesn’t take the news very well and sets out to find the “fish” he cheated on her with. What ensues is a screwball comedy that never winces; in fact, it bites. It’s a hell of a good time, but more importantly it’s incredibly stylish filmmaking . Of course the fact that it was shot on an iPhone already makes it an important milestone film, but the L.A subculture that it introduces makes it all the more fresh and happening.

Tangerine is only the latest example of a Sundance movie that is as relevant as ever. The Diary of a Teenage Girl, a formulaic title for a startling movie, deals with adolescence, but more importantly growing up female in the 21st century. Directed by tough as nails filmmaker Marielle Heller, the film is not afraid to showcase the awkward bits of pains that come with growing up. It also features a great performance from Brit newcomer Bel Powley, whose first words of dialogue in the movie are “I just had sex”. She’s 15, and the guy is her mom’s 40-year-old boyfriend. The images that Heller crafts, sometimes painted on, are from her own pure imagination and she’s definitely a talent to watch. The pacing can sometimes be a little shaky, but the fearlessness of it all is what makes the movie worth a look. Heller is trying to show us how it feels to be a teenage girl coming to grips with adolescence in the midst of chaos that adults can sometimes inflict. It’s not easy. Earlier this year the 35-year-old director was chosen as one of Variety’s 10 directors to watch, and they are right. The most awkward phase a girl will go through in life has been told countless times in cinematic terms, most notably in Todd Solondz’ great “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” but never this way and never with such blunt truthfulness.

Another new release that deals with politically relevant issues is Dope. The film exceeded expectations by racking up $17 million at the summer box office — on a micro budget of $700,000. It is a smart and bewildering film. It aims to break past racial stereotypes that are ingrained in us all by playing with our ability to predict what’s going to happen next. With a title like “Dope” and an all-black cast, what the movie wants you to expect and what it actually delivers are complete opposites. Its main character Malcom is a smart, articulate high schooler who happens to be living in the Los Angeles “hood” Inglewood. His love for the ’90s and un-hip past trends make him the ideal target for high school bullies. He wants to go to university and the movie is narrated as he reads his college application letter. When he’s “forced” to deal drugs in unexpected circumstances, he makes sure to break the fourth wall and tell the audience not to judge because of his color. Director Rick Famuyiwa who directed the ill-received Brown Sugar and Our Family Wedding seems to want to reinvent his style and make more meaningful fare. Dope is an occaissionally messy movie that has some pacing issues, but it nevertheless is a good start.

Jason Segel’s potential Best Actor nomination has been talked about at great length the past few weeks with the release of The End of the Tour, a talky almost existential movie based on David Lipsky’s best-selling memoir “Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself”. It is an account of Lipsky’s five-day touring interview with “Infinite Jest” author David Foster Wallace. The film was made by people drunk on words. Taking clear inspiration from Linklater, director James Ponsoldt who directed the lovely Sundance hit Spectacular Now, lends his film an organic vibe that translates into an admirably well-intentioned and resonant effort. Jesse Eisenberg compliments Segel by playing Lipsky in a very Eisenberg-esque way: full of neurotic twitches and quickly delivered dialogue. Segel, a 35 year old whose high points have come in goofball comedies such as I Love You Man and Forgetting Sarah Marshall pulls a Jonah Hill by completely transforming himself into a seriously great actor. The chemistry he and Eiseinberg have is great and the conversations never less than smartly written and concisely thought out.

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/09/jordan-ruimy-takes-a-look-back-at-sundance-standouts/

Summer Movie Report Card 2015

“Mad Max: Fury Road” & “Inside Out”

Summer 2015 might very well be seen as the return of the classic summer blockbuster. Just like in 2008 when The Dark Knight and WALL-E blew audiences away as twin pinnacles of pop culture triumph, two movies this year have again changed the game in regard to action and animation. “Mad Max” ramped up the way action can be done, shaming every superhero movie in its path and creating a new language for the genre. “Inside Out” showed us that an animated film for kids could be visionary, trippy and audacious enough to inspire profound analytical essays. “Mad Max’s” nihilistic outlook on human nature and a nasty, in-your-face style, was very much George Miller’s personal triumph through and through. The amount of detail that he brought to every frame was obsessively meticulous, as was the editing by Margaret Sixel, which – as things now stand – deserves serious consideration for next year’s Film Editing Oscar. As the brainiest, trippiest movie Pixar has ever made, “Inside Out” is mandatory viewing for any psych student.

“Amy” & “The Look of Silence”

With respect to non-fiction films it’s impossible to choose between two drastically different documentaries. “Amy” is virtually the first of its kind, a tragic examination of the late singer’s life, composed entirely of footage shot by Amy and her friends and directed and assembled with immeasurable passion by Asif Kapadia. The late 27-year-old singer/songwriter was an unmatched talent but tormented by the most torturous inner demons imaginable. This compulsively watchable film exemplifies the next evolution in documentary, one in which each key milestone of a life is recorded with phone or camcorder by the subject herself, and then this wealth of first-hand material is shaped by a talented director into a touching portrait. Kapadia doesn’t show talking heads as they’re being interviewed; instead he lets us listen to the interviewee while Amy’s personal footage plays in counterpoint onscreen. Don’t be surprised if we get more of these kind of documentaries in the years to come, as we seem to be part of a generation that wants everything recorded and instantly mementoed.

“The Look of Silence” is Joshua Oppenheimer’s sequel to “The Act of Killing,” and he once again addresses the Indonesian genocide of the mid-1960s that killed millions. If the first film dealt with the perpetrators this one is about the victims, as a man who lost his brother in the killings tries to track down the perpetrators through research and in-your-face interviews. The truth isn’t easy and a final confrontation had me almost looking away, but the interviews are the highlights as they bring back a past that most of the perpetrators are in denial about. If there is a more important, contemplative, and meditative film about human nature this year, I sadly haven’t seen it. This isn’t an easy watch, but it’s an essential one. It represents one of the reasons I hope we all go to the movies — to face hard truths and cold facts that might otherwise be forgotten. Oppenheimer is quickly becoming a world-class filmmaker with these important films and the potential significance they bring to society is almost beyond words.

Paul Dano & Ian McKellen

Paul Dano embodies Brian Wilson so brilliantly in his performance that you may actually forget you are watching a movie. Giving us another memorable performance, his depiction of Wilson is that of a wide-eyed kid being slowly stripped of his innocence by obsessive artistic creativity. His absence is clearly felt whenever he’s not on screen, as is the freewheelin’ nature of the “Pet Sounds” recording sessions where the actor basically becomes Wilson: a man so possessed and infatuated with getting the perfect sound that it ultimately became the tool of his undoing.

Ian McKellen delivers an equally impressive performance as a 93-year-old Sherlock Holmes in “Mr. Holmes.” Although the film itself may strike some as slight and is mostly focused on one character, McKellen understands how to make these aspects work to his advantage, creating a portrayal which is nothing short of mesmerizing. With his natural wrinkles serving as craggy foundation for the extra decades added by make-up magicians, 76-year-old McKellen portrays a Holmes suffering from a failing memory and a case that still haunts him to this day. No offense to Benedict Cumberbatch, always great as our modernized Holmes, but McKellen seems to inhabit this iconic character as perfectly as it’s ever been seen onscreen. Many of us still say to this day that he was robbed of the Best Actor prize back in 1999, when he broke our hearts in Bill Condon’s unforgettable “Gods and Monsters,” losing to Roberto Benigni. With Mr. Holmes, McKellan is in an excellent position to grab his third nomination.
Charlize Theron, “Mad Max Fury Road”

Charlize Theron & Lily Tomlin

All hail, Charlize Theron as the baddest of badasses. Proving that her win for “Monster” was no fluke, the 40-year-old actress owned George Miller’s action extravaganza as Imperator Furiosa. Despite the franchise title, the Fury Road wasn’t about Max, it was about her, and even in the quieter moments, not many of them, she found a way to say so much with so little dialogue. Her face weary and worn, but her spirit undiminished, she is an Ellen Ripley for the 21st century, a role model that we want follow anywhere she takes us and of course the empress of all things awesome. The feminist subtext of the film might have turned off a few too many fanboys, but isn’t that another reason to love this performance?

If I say that 75-year-old Lily Tomlin has never been better than in this phenomenal movie by Paul Weitz (American Pie, About a Boy) would you be impressed? Well you should be, because Tomlin’s had a phenomenal career: “Nashville,” “The Late Show,” “9 to 5,” “All of Me,” and “Flirting With Disaster” have all had a little Tomlin-esque spiciness sprinkled at their core and all the better for it. What she does in “Grandma” is heartbreaking and nothing short of astounding. She brings the spiky, zesty nature she’s always been known for, but plays with our emotions until we reach a finale that seals the deal on the truly amazing quality of her work. I went into the movie not knowing much about it, so I’ll allow you the same benefit. But expect a torrent of awards love to come her way in the months to come. The film opens in theaters next Friday.

“Shaun of the Sheep” & “Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation”

It’s almost not fair to ask another animated movie to contend with Pixar when the two are just a few months apart, but I will say that “Shaun of the Sheep” is well worth your time and features some of the best dialogue-free scenes in recent memory. In fact, the film has scarcely any dialogue at all. It relies on its visuals to entertain and does a a marvelous job at that. Some seriously Chaplin-esque stuff here, sure to please the kids, and some undeniably adult humor to be appreciated by grownups. The stop-motion animation is breathtakingly beautiful with layers of details in ever frame. I’d probably put this in an exclusive category of stop-motion classics such as “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Chicken Run,” “Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” and of course “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

I’ll get this out of the way early: I honestly think Tom Cruise is a great actor. He’s passionate about the quality of his work and really works to bring the best product to his legions of fans. “Rogue Nation” has ridiculously good action sequences and exhilarating stunts performed by Cruise. Every detail is put together in such a professional, meticulously stylish way. This is the type of movie you go into expecting over-the-top action sequences, especially after seeing the great ones delivered in “Ghost Protocol,” and the movie definitely delivers by exceeding those expectations. The movie does not have the strong thematic undertones and production design of “Fury Road,” and — again — the plot is definitely the weak link, but it does have some of the best action sequences of the year. I wish more summer blockbusters had this much effort and artistry on display. The multiplex would be a much better place.

“The Gift”

The biggest surprise of the summer is, sadly, a movie that many people have not heard much about. With 108 reviews on RottenTomatoes “The Gift” has an outstanding RT rating of 93%. Its metascore on Metacritic stands at 79. So what happened between the critics and audience awareness? As with most mini-budget movies, the marketing was micro — but despite that unavoidable reality, it ranked #3 at the box-office when it premiered and since earned an impressive $28 million on a budget investment of $5 million. Directed by “Zero Dark Thirty” actor Joel Edgerton, “The Gift” is a tense, creepy psychological thriller that has so many twists and turns in its screenplay that you never know what’s coming next. Edgerton directed, produced, wrote and starred in a movie so inspired that it’s reminiscent of Hitchcock and “The Turn of the Screw.” Starring Jason Bateman and the vastly undervalued Rebecca Hall, “The Gift” is a razor-sharp dissection of marriage and friendship that reminds us how we can never escape our past secrets. Go in knowing as little as possible and come out knowing more than you were prepared to find out.

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/08/jordan-ruimy-marks-some-highlights-of-summer-2015-2/

Dopest hip-hop movie "Straight Outta Compton"

Straight Outta Compton‘s success has stunned the industry as a whole. Its $60 million opening weekend defied all predictions and dethroned Mission: Impossible at the top of the box office. A wave of industry pros were left scratching their heads and rethinking what the winning formula of a summer blockbuster can be made of. Compton is 150 minutes long, has a mostly black cast and an R rating. Perhaps summer blockbusters can be more diverse than we previously thought?

Eazy-E, Dr.Dre and Ice Cube epitomized gangsta rap in the late ’80s as the West Coast gangsta rap group NWA. They brought it to the centerfold of the American conversation with songs such as “Gangsta Gangsta” and “Boyz-n-the-Hood”. In this summer’s surprise hit movie, Straight Outta Compton, their story is told with such in-your-face vigor and bravado that it almost feels like a gangsta rap companion piece to Goodfellas. Directed by F. Gary Gray, who directed some of Ice Cube’s most famous ‘90s music videos, the film recounts the day when the trio we’re the talk of the nation, eluding questions about police brutality and black poverty.

Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell) was the founder, Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ice Cube’s son) was the lyricist and Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins) had the sick beats that nobody could touch. They eventually all went their separate ways, but not without making a mark in music forever. The centerpiece of the film is a concert in Detroit where the group is threatened by Detroit Police not to play “F*** Tha Police” under threat of arrest. Guess what they do?

http://screenrant.com/top-10-movies-hip-hop

Stop-Motion Animation & "Shaun the Sheep"

With the release of the well-received "Shaun the Sheep" out in theaters right now, we figured it would be a good time to look back at the very best that stop-motion animation had to offer us over the years. This isn't a new technique by any stretch of the imagination. There have been many examples and stories of the claymation art being used almost a century ago, most notably in 1933's King Kong, which had animator Willis O'Brien creating the aforementioned monster-sized ape via the stop-motion animation art. Here are five movies that made unequivocally beautiful art out of it.

Chicken Run (2000)

Chickens run amok! What better way to start this list than with the 2000 gem starring Mel Gibson as the leader of a flock of feathered birds trying to get out of the horrid conditions at their farm. If time runs out they're going to be chicken pie, which is actually what the farmers make out of these chickens. Yikes. It's The Great Escape poultry style, with an added dash of British wit. How can you go wrong with that? Gibson works up his charm and stop-motion animation filmmaker extraordinaires Peter Lord and Nick Park seem to be having a blast creating visual miracles with the animation.

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

At the time of this movie's release, Wallace and Gromit were well-known in the U.K. for their kooky antics on TV, but mainstream American audiences were first introduced to the duo via The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, a visually stunning and imaginative stop-motion Animation masterpiece. The tale of a cheery British man and his sly, silent, but surprisingly smart dog radiated the screen with enough genius and wit that it scored an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. In this adventure, the duo accidentally create a Frankenstein-like rabbit that terrorizes the town. The visual miracles that spring forth are splendidly devised, all thanks to Nick Park and Steve Box.

Shaun the Sheep (2015)

Now in theaters is Shaun the Sheep, which features some of the best dialogue-free scenes in recent memory. The film has scarcely any spoken words, as it just relies on its visuals to entertain us, and does a marvelous job at that. Clearly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton's physical screwball comedy, directors Richard Starzak and Mark Burton have fashioned a classic out of such a simple story. A complete freak accident sends a farmer tumbling down the road to a bigger city where he loses all memory of his life and accidentally becomes a famous hairdresser for the celebrities. It's up to his flock of sheep to get him back to the farm, but not without going through the most insanely crafted screwball adventures imaginable. Just like Wallace and Gromit, the cast of characters were well known in the U.K. prior to the film's release, but if audience reaction and the deluge of rave reviews is any indication, this won't be the last we hear of them.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

When it comes to Christmas counter-programming on television during the holiday season, it's really hard to top Henry Selick's classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas. The story of Jack Skellington from Halloween Town who opens up a portal and discovers Christmas Town, a holiday which springs up new feelings and ideals in him, is an imaginative romp with the the most insanely designed characters imaginable. The musical numbers are inventive, especially the highlight "This is Halloween". Produced by Tim Burton, the film has the gothic, darkly humorous feel of a Burton production, right down to the spirit of the film, which is a sort of ode or love letter to dread, darkness, and holiday spirit. How much more Burton-esque can you get?

The Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Wes Anderson had just finished making The Darjeeling Limited when he embarked on an ambitious adventure: adapting Roald Dahl's classic The Fantastic Mr. Fox into a feature film. The decision to make it using stop-motion animation turned out to be an inspiring one. George Clooney voices the titular Fox, a character so ingrained in helping his family survive that he decides to go on one last heist, this one involving the three biggest farmers around. The pièce de resistance is the Apple Cider farm which ends the film on an exuberantly high note and features a chase scene worthy of any one I've seen in movies. The soundtrack is impeccable, the screenplay is witty and fun, and the voice acting is tremendous with a who's who of actors: the aforementioned Clooney, Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox, and Bill Murray as Clive Badger.

10 Films That Should Be in the Criterion Collection

Since its inception in 1984, the scope and importance that The Criterion Collection has had on cinema is immeasurable: Letterboxing, audio commentary, special edition DVD and Blu-ray packages and painstakingly made film restorations are at the forefront of their revolutionary ideas. Funded by film buffs Robert Stein, Aleen Stein and Joe Medjuck, the Collection has the upmost care for cinema history and its preservation, and directors know that, which is why some of the biggest names in cinema have worked with the company to have their films properly released, from Coppola to Scorsese, Lynch to De Palma, just to name a few. Tough-to-impress director Terry Gilliam once said, "It's nice working with people for whom profit isn't the only reason for existence. They seem to be actually interested in film."

There are currently over 775 films in The Criterion Collection, but not every movie on cinephiles' wish lists will get the much prized Criterion treatment. For the time being, however, the following movies seem to be tailor-made for an eventual restoration and release, many of which have been long rumored to be next for the Collection but to no avail.

1. "Beau Travail" (1999)

How can it be that Clair Denis' "Beau Travail" is only sporadically in print and that you can't find it on any streaming service? It's no coincidence that this war movie bears many similarities to another female-directed dissection of male ego and testosterone: Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker." This is an artsier film through and through, but no less remarkable; just the thought of its lingering final shot, which poses a turbulent, uncomfortable question, will give anybody – especially men – nightmares. Criterion has already released Denis' "White Material," an arguably lesser film compared to "Beau Travail," which has stood the test of time and now needs to be immortalized in proper fashion.

2. "Enter the Void" (2010)

Gaspar Noe's surreal nightmare was, once upon a time, rumored to get the full Criterion treatment; however, the story goes that "Enter the Void" was rejected by them and audiences ultimately ended up with a normal, token Blu-Ray/DVD release that could have been so much more. Noe's film is divisive, but it's garnered an immense cult following over the years, with many proclaiming it is ahead of its time. You can fault or insult the 51-year-old French filmmaker all you want, but he had the chutzpah to make a modern day "2001," full of intense visual treats and thought-provoking questions about life, death and the afterlife. 

3. "Bamboozled" (2000)

Most people have forgotten how groundbreaking, political and philosophical Spike Lee's work in the late 80's and early 90's really was. "Bamboozled" came out in 2000, when the director was about to enter a new, albeit confusing, phase of his filmmaking career. It would be the last explicitly political movie Lee would make about race in America. Starring Damon Wayans and Savion Glover, the film was pure Lee: Over the top, angry and ready to throw darts at its audience. Lee's film is as relevant as ever, dealing with an African American's frustration with a blindly racist country. All hell breaks loose when a black minstrel show becomes a primetime television hit. The film wasn't an easy watch, but it’s become a summary of Lee's strengths as a filmmaker, encapsulating a time when his anger translated into celluloid. A few years later he'd follow it up with the masterful "The 25th Hour," which couldn't have been more tonally or texturally different.

4. "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans" (1927)

It is criminally unfair that one of the greatest movies of all-time did not get the proper DVD treatment. The images in "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans" simmer into your head and stay there for years on end. F. W. Murnau's visual poetry was second to none, and "Sunrise" has always been the runaway winner for greatest silent movie ever made. Its DVD and Blu-ray releases until now have been mostly pitiful, bland and uncared for. What gives? It's mind-boggling that there are self-proclaimed "cinephiles" out there who have never seen this movie, and its DVD treatment is to blame.

5. "Freaks" (1932)

Tod Browning's visceral, pre-code horror film still shocks audiences today, so imagine what it must have been like to watch his masterful freak show 83 years ago, when audiences were much more sensitive to grotesque imagery. Then again, the original version was considered too shocking to even be released and basically ruined Browning's career. Based upon his own experiences as a runaway teenager with a travelling circus, Browning was one of the first mavericks to push the envelope to the very extreme. "One of us, one of us" is a chant that evokes the spirit the filmmaker was going for; he was trying to get the audience to understand his circus performers, when in fact the despicable people in the movie were the "normal" circus performers. The DVD release has a decent amount of extra footage, but this movie is the stuff that Criterion dreams are made of.

6. Any David Lynch Film

So far we have had "Eraserhead" and "Mulholland Drive" on Criterion, but where is the rest of the Lynch canon? The director's DVDs have always been scant on extra material, as he's always been a "the movie speaks for itself" kind of guy. Of course, the two films that have been released via Criterion have given Lynch-heads some hope that more is to come. "Blue Velvet" is the next great film, but its DVD treatment has actually been pretty decent, with over 51 minutes of deleted footage. Instead, the Collection could opt for "The Elephant Man," "Lost Highway" or "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me." Of course -- like with any Lynch film -- we don't want the mysteries explained to us; we would just love to have decent Lynch releases to add to our collections to replace the single-disc copies of these films.

7. "Blow-Up" (1966)

Will Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up" ever get properly released? Has Warner Bros. forgotten that they own the rights to this incredible film? There are some used copies of the film on Amazon for $50, but the film transfer is terribly primitive and the extras are nowhere to be found. A re-release is rumored to be in the works, but isn't a film like this one meant for a more in-depth treatment? Just recently, Criterion released Brian De Palma's homage to Antonioni's film, "Blow Out," a great movie that stands along the best 1980's cinema had to offer. You'd think it would only be a matter of time before we finally got what we wanted, but not so much. There is absolutely no indication this will be coming out in the near future via Criterion.

8. "Atlantic City" (1981)

In an American Film magazine critics poll of the best movies of the 1980's, Louis Malle's "Atlantic City" was named the fifth best movie of the decade. The film is criminally underrated and one of the great achievements of American cinema, and yet time has not been kind to Malle's film, but for all the wrong reasons. It is not a showy, bombastic picture, but instead quiet and cerebral in its approach to organized crime on the boardwalks of Jersey. The way this movie has been released is a crime, whether it'd be on VHS, DVD or Blu-Ray – the film is almost ghostly in its absence and availability. The film transfer is underwhelming and the extras are pitiful, that is, if you can find a copy. What exactly happened to Malle's landmark movie? Criterion has released 17 of his movies, and it's time for his best movie to be the 18th. 

9. "All About My Mother" (1999) 

10. "Talk To Her" (2001)

It has always been a toss-up as to what is the best Pedro Almodóvar movie: "Talk to Her" or "All About My Mother." Why can't Criterion just release them all? We'll be first in line to buy the 30-disc package of every Almodóvar movie out there, and even if we can probably pass on "I'm So Excited," we'll still take that one as well. The man is a genius, and his movies haven't had much luck when it comes to DVD/Blu-ray releases stateside. A proper release is almost inevitable, but we just hope we won't be waiting another decade for it.

[IndieWire]

@JFLMTL: The Big Lebowski

Michael Fassbender as The Dude? Patton Oswalt as Walter? Jennifer Lawrence as Maude? Mae Whitman as Donny? Dennis freakin Quaid as the real Lebowski? Mike Judge as Sam Sheppard's deep voiced, wise - ish narrator? It shouldn't work, right?  On a humid Friday night in Montreal, a live reading with the aforementioned culprits happened and it DID work, gloriously in fact. All part of the 33rd edition of the Just For Laughs festival.

The Coen Brothers classic is a peculiar  film, one greeted with mixed to divisive reviews upon its release, yet gaining a rich cult following over the years and comedy classic status - a fate I sure hope their much maligned but underrated "Burn After Reading" will one day get. The live reading this past Friday night was greeted with buzz - tickets sold out quickly once Lawrence was announced, and the show was  moved to a bigger theatre. But if there was any reason why these now iconic live readings created by Jason Reitmam were created, it was to read a Coen Brothers script.  Those kooky brothers have a flair to their dialogue that is second to none and is brought to life on a stage setting.

Patton Oswalt brought a whole new layer to John Goodman's deranged, Shabbos-observing vet, and every time he spoke the crowd went nuts. He brought out the iconic, anger-driven performance of the original character. At every "shut the fuck up Donny", the crowd couldn't hold still, hollering and cheering the legendary line.

Perhaps the highlight of the night was the fact that Michael Fassbender was actually smoking joints rolled up by Jennifer Lawrence on stage. One joint after another was lit up as Fassbender brought out a whole new meaning to the term "method actor". Lawrence, a self proclaimed "Lebowski fan", seemed to be happy to just be there. Her Maude had a scant amount of dialogue and she seemed to struggle with some of more high brow Maude words, such as satyriasis, but just hearing her struggle to utter the word "Vaginal" was worth the over 2 hour wait to get into the 700 capacity Olympia theatre.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was the, as of then unannounced, actor who would play the wheelchair bound Lebowski. None other than Dennis Quaid was introduced as the audience went batshit crazy when 61 year-old actor made his way onstage. Quaid not getting nominated for "Far From Heaven" is one of the biggest crimes in recent Oscar history.

Mike Judge, the creator of "Silicon Valley", did a great job emphasizing the deep montone voice of the narrator of the film. The man behind "Office Space", another cult classic in the same vein as Lebowski, used his skills of impersonation and sounded exactly like Sam Shepard. The rest of the cast was filled up by actors from HBO's brilliant TV series "Sillicon Valley". In fact, the day after the live reading I attended a Q and A with the entire cast of that show, which only made me appreciate the actors and writing even more.

Mae Whitman also shone. A female  playing Donny was a risky endeavour, but the "Parenthood" actress made it work so well.  The loose, liberal, almost European-esque atmosphere the city of Montreal brings was clearly felt by the actors, who were so high and inspired on stage that you almost forgot about the original incarnators of the film. Drinks and joints kept flooding the stage as the actors tried to get the loose vibe of the Coen film right.

The Coen dialogue has aged well, and so has the inspired lunacy that drives the film. We didn't need Fassbender, Lawrence,  Quaid and Co to remind us of that, but the night I and 700 others witnessed on Friday night was mighty in abidance to The Dude. The lineup outside was a what's what of Dude-ism: smoking joints, reciting famous lines, and even bringing bowling balls on a Shabbos night of all nights. 17 years after its release, it felt like the Coens created a monster.

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/07/michael-fassbender-jennifer-lawrence-dennis-quaid-in-montreal-for-a-live-reading-of-the-big-lebowski/

2015 mid year recap

After 6 months of moviegoing in 2015, one thing has become very clear: Female driven cinema is here to stay. If you look at my list of the best of the year so far you will find that most of the movies that were worth seeking out had a female lead or a female driven psyche infused to their DNA. It’s a breath of fresh air that makes me think that Hollywood has finally realized the importance of the female voice. Of course, there’s still a lot of work to do, but how refreshing it is to bypass the testosterone fueled barrage of superhero sequels and uncover an endless amount of counter-programming that relies on feminist ideals and themes instead of the usual one-dimensional bollocks we’re so used to.

In “Mad Max: Fury Road”, George Miller set the stage for a towering performance by Charlize Theron as a relentless seeker of freedom and justice. At this point in time she more than deserves an Oscar nomination by not only giving one of the best performances by a female this year, but one of the best performances by anybody this year period. It eclipses her towering work in “Monster” by being less showy but more powerfully subtle. It is the crowning achievement of Theron’s career.

Who can forget the gorgeous dissection of young Riley’s feelings in Pixar’s masterful and imagination-filled “Inside Out” — a film that stands alongside “WALL-E”, “Up” and “Toy Story 3″ atop the mighty Pixar shrine. The animation company has never made a brainier, trippier movie than this, nor have they ever concentrated the bulk of a movie into investigating the raw feelings of a teenage girl in her everyday life. She’s the anti-Disney princess and all the better for it.

The horror genre was rejuvenated last year with “The Babadook” -– a smart, snappy, and darkly twisted tale that dealt with death, mourning and the matriarchal role. “It Follows” continued that trend in a film that will probably make my top ten list at the end of the year. What a treat it was to watch “It Follows”, a darkly brilliant horror movie starring the indelibly talented Maika Monroe as a girl who gets cursed by a selfish young man and has to deal with the consequences throughout the film’s tightly-knit 107 minutes. Maika more than handles her own and then some.

How about the triumphant, intense fireworks that Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart create in “Clouds of Sils Maria”? Stewart’s mature performance will quiet all the haters once she gets a well-deserved nomination come next spring. I stumbled upon a list from a reputed website of the worst actresses in Hollywood and Stewart was in the top three! The kind of research that goes into having such blasphemous idiocy in a top ten list could make for a great topic in a separate writeup. Stewart is proving herself to be quite the actress: Her Cesar-winning performance in “Clouds of Sils Maria” isn’t the only time she exuded greatness. Check her out in “Adventureland”, “Into the Wild” and “Still Alice” just to name a few, you’ll see what I mean.

Want more? “Ex-Machina” gave us the iconic Ava, a beautiful and seductive android handmade by a man to fit and comfort his sick needs, that is until … just watch the movie, a brilliant movie, that goes past its themes of the dangers of artificial intelligence and locates the heart and soul of a female android who wants to stop being controlled by the men around her. Alex Garland’s “Ex-Machina” is a movie that works on so many levels, it’s like the beginning of something new. Its agenda just feels so clear and concise: it’s the prophetic announcement of a charge that’s coming at us full throttle without warning, the tossing over of a cinematic voice and the birth of a new one.

BEST SO FAR 2015:
1) Mad Max: Fury Road
2) Inside Out
3) Ex-Machina
4) It Follows
5) Clouds of Sils Maria
6) The Tribe
7) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
8) Predestination
9) Amy
10) While We’re Young

It doesn’t just stop at mid-year -– watch out for Amy Schumer’s hilariously relevant “Trainwreck” to continue the trend this summer, Meryl Streep teaming up with her daughter Mamie Gummer for Jonathan Demme’s “Ricki and the Flash”, Lily Tomlin giving an award-worthy, career-best performance in “Grandma”, and Noah Baumbach continuing his “Frances Ha” dissection of the 21st century young female in “Mistress America”, starring Greta Gerwig. Good times ahead.

There you go, I have to admit that going past 10 films would be stretching it, but this is a solid bunch of films that definitely deserve your attention. It’s time for you guys to share your mid-year movie experiences. I look forward to reading them.

Pixar's films ranked

Pixar hasn’t just reinvented animation for the 21st century, they’ve expanded it forward to a space and time where the adult/child line is blurred and the creativity on display is astonishingly rendered. You forget you’re watching a film primarily aimed for kids. You feel like a child again, full of innocence, full of joy, discovering a new world that previously seemed so out of reach. Over the past 20 years, Pixar has given us so much more than 15 timeless movies; they’ve brought us the ability to succumb to a universe full of magic and stories that hit the truest notes possible. It’s hard to imagine a cinematic landscape without Pixar, and the significance they represent cannot be underestimated. Their effect on regular, live-action movies is self-evident. They’ve pushed boundaries and forced other filmmakers to think beyond the box. Here’s to another 20 great years.

1) WALL-E (2008)
Any Pixar list must begin and end with this masterpiece. The first half hour of WALL-E has scarcely any dialogue and plays like a silent Chaplin movie -– that is if he had ever decided to make a post-apocalyptic movie about a lonely garbage-chewing bot who falls in love with an A.I. named Eve. The second half is more conventional but nevertheless visionary. The future that director Andrew Stanton concocts is that of a torn up world, ravaged by an environmental crisis, where the planet’s citizens have been evacuated to live aboard a space cruiser, with only one last possible chance to rebuild.

2) Up (2009)
I don’t know many people who can come out of this film’s first 10 minutes with a dry eye. In 10 hopelessly romantic and surreal minutes, Pixar gave us the quintessential anatomy of life, love, and death in a simple but heartbreaking montage that might just be the crowning achievement of the studio.  Although the rest of the film can’t reach the peak of that montage (and really, which can?), the rest of the film is incredibly great and visually vivid, bursting out with colors. It’s an allegorical film about aging without regret but with dignity.

3) Inside Out (2015)
“Inside Out” opens this week with a flurry of rave reviews and a brilliant marketing campaign that will have you in stitches, but is the movie any good? Yes. It’s damn good. In fact, this is the brainiest, most trippy movie Pixar has made so far. Coming out of the theater, a buddy of mine, who is coincidentally a psychologist, told me the movie should be mandatory viewing for all psych students. How does Pixar come up with such ambitiously ingenious ideas? I’m guessing this is the movie most have not yet seen from my list, so I won’t say much, but just let your brain have a little workout with this golden nugget of a movie.

4) The Incredibles (2004)
While we get relentlessly pummeled by countless superhero movies every single year, it is a breath of fresh air to see the genre work so triumphantly well. Brad Bird has proven his worth in the past, most notably with the criminally underrated animated movie “The Iron Giant”. Bird gives us another visual treat by tackling the superhero genre and coming out with a classic that can stand alongside “The Dark Knight” and “Spider-Man 2″. The action scenes are breathtakingly staged, with Bird’s incredible eye for detail and pacing coming in handy. Unlike many superhero movies, this is one of the rare cases where a sequel would be welcome and well-deserved.

5) Toy Story 3 (2010)
What more can be said about “Toy Story 3″? It was supposed to be the last hurrah. A sequel was just announced recently, but it will be very hard to top this achievement.  Tackling adult themes, the movie was the darkest, most vicious of the series, with a villain who could scare you more than any live-action baddie. The stakes were dead real, tackling the loss of innocence and the promotion – or is that a demotion? – to adulthood. Near the end of the movie’s wrenching climax, as our heroes are about to get cooked alive in an oven, you can’t help but think the inevitable could actually happen. Never have I feared for the lives of animated characters more than in this movie.

6) Ratatouille (2007)
A Parisian rat named Remy just wants to become a chef. This could have gone wrong on so many levels, but it didn’t.  “Ratatouille” is highly enjoyable, recounting some of the Disney gems from the golden age of animation. When Remy starts cooking up a storm in the Parisian kitchen he has crashed, the moves are like ballet, effortlessly propelling his miniature body all around the kitchen and unequivocally expressing his unadorned passion for cooking.  This again shows just how influenced by Chaplin the great animators at Pixar really are.

7) Finding Nemo (2003)
I can think of three times in cinematic history where an actor or actress deserved to get nominated for a voice performance: Robin Williams as the Genie in “Aladdin”, Jeremy Irons as Scar in “The Lion King”, and of course Ellen DeGeneres as Dory in Pixar’s “Finding Nemo”. The work DeGeneres does here is nothing short of brilliant.  She uses a playful innocence to counterbalance Albert Brooks’ sombre, more serious tone as Nemo’s father.  The lighter optimism of Dory shines through and perfectly complements the astonishing visuals of the coral reef in all its glory.

8) Toy Story 2 (1999)
We had no right to expect a sequel that would be better than the original, but that’s exactly what “Toy Story 2″ accomplished. This time around we had a better story, improved animation, and an exhilarating sense of adventure. If the original was riding high off of its landmark CGI, this sequel was trying to perfect the glitches that held the story back a little the first time around. With Indiana Jones styled action, “Toy Story 2″ proved there was still room to expand in the Pixar canon, and that these guys were dead serious about blowing us away.

9) Toy Story (1995)
It all started here. The first time I saw “Toy Story” I could scarcely imagine how groundbreaking and important it would become for animation. This movie literally changed the game and practically got rid of all hand drawn animation in Hollywood, which of course is a real shame, because hand drawn is still one of the most beautiful and creative ways to make a movie – just look at any Hayao Miyazaki movie if you don’t believe me. Now almost every single animated movie is CGI and we’ve relied so heavily on it because of how monstrous a success Pixar had with “Toy Story”. The facial expressions, the movements, and the effortless flow that carry characters about was unprecedented. It was goodbye to the classical and welcome to the new age.

10) Monsters Inc. (2000)
There hasn’t been a cuter, more adorable Pixar creation than Boo. The little girl who called Sully “Kitty” just about made the movie for me. The attention to detail given to Boo was simply amazing, encompassing the smallest, most precious details a baby girl can have.  Every time she spoke you couldn’t help but just want to hug the screen. Kudos must be given to directors Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich and David Silverman who let this kid run loose and cause chaos at Monsters Inc. Billy Crystal and John Goodman’s voice work and chemistry here is tremendous.

Ah-Nuld, Bruce and the art of the action movie

"Mad Max: Fury Road" has singlehandedly redefined what an action movie can do. George Miller worked on his baby for the better part of 30 years and his vision was finally unleashed on screens nationwide a few weekends ago to the ravest of rave reviews. Where does this "Mad Max" stack up with the others? I'm pretty sure it's on par with, if not better than, 1982's "The Road Warrior", a film that changed the action movie game over 30 years ago. Will "Fury Road" be as indelibly treasured a decade or two from now? Time will tell, but the feminist angle – a kickass Charlize Theron – and chaotically edited action might be a sign of things to come with the genre (could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing). When the movie was done all I could think of was how all these young, hip, new superhero movie directors coming from the indie scene just got schooled on how an action movie should be made...all this by a 70-year-old filmmaker. 

"Die Hard" changed the action genre almost 30 years ago; ever since then it has evolved in numerous, interesting ways, (mind you not all successful) but it’s given us a handful of great movies. "Fury Road" is only the latest addition to this ever-evolving genre. Where do we go from here? What will be the consequences of a post-“Fury Road” action world? As A.O. Scott wrote in The New York Times, "Miller has reminded us that blockbusters have the potential to not only be art, but radically visionary – even the fourth in a series. What a lovely day, indeed."  Here are ten movies -all released within the last 30 years - that tried to change the game, succeeded and made it a lovely day for blockbusters. 

1) Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) 
James Cameron's blistering sequel to the 1984 classic is much more of an action movie than its predecessor. Like many of the movies on this list, it first garnered mixed reviews before being re-evaluated years later as a masterpiece. Teaming up with Ah-nuld's Terminator, a buffed up and kickass Linda Hamilton tries to stop the viscerally frightening T-1000, sent from the future to kill her troubled son John Connor. I remember being a teenager when it first came out and I had never seen action scenes staged quite like this before, nor had I ever witnessed special effects as inventively surreal and chaotic. I still haven’t. The special effects still hold up to this day and so does the beating heart that Cameron injects into his characters. It had everything the 21st century action film would strive for, yet none have come close to replicating this 1991 movie's triumphant achievement.  

2) Die Hard (1988) 
Action movies are not the Academy’s thing and for good reason. They are – most of the time – loud, abrasive, dumbed down and ultimately artless films (“The Expendables” anybody?) but sometimes a movie like “Die Hard” goes beyond genre boundaries and achieves something special through sheer perfection of the craft. John McTiernan’s “Die Hard” isn’t high art, but it got the job done in high octane fashion and set the standard for what an action film should be like in the 21st century. It spawned numerous rip-offs in the 90’s and still does today, none of which have attained the excitement of McTiernan’s original. It is in fact not overblown to say that “Die Hard” set the standard for the perfect modern action movie.  

3) The Matrix (1999) 
The action movie was dying in 1999, Arnold was just not Arnold anymore, and there wasn’t a new action star to come and take over the throne. "The Matrix" is where the action movie went techno. Literally, it went beyond the technological and creative limits we thought were set for action. For better or for worse, "bullet time" reinvigorated the genre and shattered the clichés for a whole bunch of new ones to come. This is where the surreal got mixed into the action and canonized a whole bunch of copycats. Imagination and originality crept into the equation and signaled a whole new generation of mainstream filmmaking built on ideas as much as action. “The Matrix” was an inspiration for up and coming filmmakers and the countless camera tricks that were to come. Hell, even music videos changed their style because of it. The film was not just built on getting your pulse pounding, but also on getting your mind blown. Its Asian cinema-inspired leaps signaled the start of something new at the movies. Of note, another triumphant female heroine was introduced in the form of Carrie Ann Moss' Trinity. The sequels disappointed, but we'll always have the original.  

4) The Killer (1989) 
If you want to know where Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and even Johnnie To learned to fabricate their over-the-top violence, look no further than this 1989 John Woo classic. Starring Chow Yun-Fat as a lethal assassin who accepts one last hit in order to restore a young girl's vision, this Chinese action movie's influence was felt all over cinema and is justly called an important landmark in the genre. Just a year after its release, Luc Besson basically ripped it off for the excitingly entertaining "La Femme Nikita" and a few years later for his now classic "Leon: The Professional". Much of the borrowing from Woo's film is superficial—two-handed gunning, doves flying, near operatic kills – but it paved the way for the possibility of making bloody violence look artistically eloquent. Woo followed up with another classic, “Hard Boiled”, but to this day nothing in his career can top “The Killer”. 

5) Aliens (1986) 
“Aliens” taught us to never underestimate the stupidity of man. "Get away from her you bitch" exclaimed Sigourney Weaver's Ripley at the climax of this 1986 sequel to "Alien", a film that epitomized female power in a male dominated society. Like many of James Cameron's other films, this featured a strong, kickass female lead. If the original movie veered more towards the horror genre, Cameron shifted the emphasis towards a more action packed screenplay with an abundance of quotability. When Vasquez gets asked by her peers, "are you a man?" she hilariously replies "no, are you?" The feminist undertones are present, but one cannot go without mentioning the action sequences that left the viewer without a heartbeat by the end of the film's pulse pounding 146 minutes. To this day Ripley is still the set example for what a female action heroine should be.

6) The Bourne Trilogy (2002-2007) "The Bourne Identity" introduced movie-goers to a new type of action hero and a new style of action. Gone were the big-budget, explosion-laden, slick, special effects extravaganzas, in was a gritty template, naturalistic action sequences, and hand-held camera fight scenes. Our hero was no longer the cocky son of a gun trying to save the world; he was trying to save himself and find out who he was. Whatever you think of these movies you can't possibly deny the impact it’s had on this decade's action fare. Heck, even James Bond has been dubbed "James Bourne" by many. Liam Neeson was basically Jason Bourne in the "Taken" movies, ditto Keanu Reeves in last year's "John Wick", Angie Jolie in "Salt", Tom Cruise in "Jack Reacher". Hand to hand combat was replicated in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", and even Christopher Nolan used Bourne-esque moves in his "Dark Knight" trilogy.  

7) The Fugitive (1993) 
Another Best Picture nominee, this one stars Harrison Ford and is based on the popular 1960's television series. Accused of a murder he did not commit, Ford's John Kimble tries to find the one-armed man who killed his wife in order to clear his name. Fairly standard, but expertly done and a true classic of the genre. While Arnold, Stallone and JCVD were blowing stuff up and strutting their roided bodies on screen, Harrison Ford and "The Fugitive" knocked our socks off with wild stunts, Andrew Davis' tight direction, and a believable story that had us invested in the characters. They really just don't make them like they used to. Tommy Lee Jones won a Best Supporting Actor, besting out – huh – Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List? But that’s just a whole other story I won’t get into.  

8) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) 
You can't deny the sheer impact of Mad Max: Fury Road. Director George Miller's Fourth installment of the film franchise is proof that not all blockbusters should be greeted with an indifferent shrug. If anything, this brutal action film is even more intense and exciting than its predecessors. With its nihilistic outlook on human nature and a nasty, in-your-face style, this is Miller's triumph through and through. The amount of detail that he brings to every frame is as obsessively meticulous as any Wes Anderson picture I've seen, as is the editing by Margaret Sixel, which – as we stand – is most deserving of next year's Film Editing Oscar. Edited at breakneck pace and staged with manic fury, Sixel is the unheralded hero here. The celebrated one is of course Miller who's passion and vision comes through in every frame. The total control he must have had with this project to pull off what he did on screen is unheard of, which is good for him and great for us.

9) Predator (1987) 

If there’s any genre that calls for the acceptance of guilty pleasures, it’s action. You probably have this 1987 classic starring Arnold Schwarzenegger to thank for that. Carl Weather and Jessie Ventura compliment Ah-nuld in this testosterone fuelled beast hunt in the Central American jungle. Not sold yet? At one point Bill Duke says “This shit makes Cambodia look like Kansas”. I can’t say the plot is rocket science, but there’s something incredibly exciting happening here – a feeling that we just checked our brains at the door and let this pop culture milestone whiplash us. All credit is given to director John McTiernan who, one year away from his “Die Hard” triumph, takes a B-movie level script and elevates into a classic of the genre. Not convinced yet? Just tell me a smile doesn’t appear on your face when Arnold, finally face to face with the hunter utters “You’re one ugly motherfucker.” Classic. 

10) Speed (1994) "There's a bomb on the bus", Dennis Hopper screams halfway through this tense 1994 action movie. No worries, a strong and determined Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves try to stop the devilish Hopper. Psychotic and scary as hell, Hopper brings real evil to the movie, determined to wipe out anything in his path. With shades of his gas-huffing Frank from "Blue Velvet", mixed with his deranged Feck of "River's Edge", Hopper's villainous Howard Payne owns every frame he's in and leaves a mark on the film, even when not onscreen. It's a profoundly disturbing portrait of a man gone haywire that set the bar for the audacity, insanity and level at which a mainstream movie villain can go. Just think about it, every movie villain since Payne has had the freedom to go to extremes that might not have been available without this movie.

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/05/jordan-ruimy-counts-down-10-of-the-greatest-action-films-ever/

FULL RESULTS

01. Mad Max: Fury Road (53 votes)
02. The Tree of Life (42 votes)
03. Moonlight (37 votes)
04. Boyhood (31 votes) 
05. The Social Network (30 votes)
06. The Master (28 votes) 
07. Roma (27 votes)
08. Phantom Thread (25 votes)
09. A Separation (22 votes)
09. Inside Llewyn Davis (22 votes)
11. Get Out (21 votes)
12. Under the Skin (19 votes)
13. Carol (18 votes)
14. Margaret (17 votes)
14. Toni Erdmann (17 votes)
16. Uncle Boonmee (16 votes) 
17. Twin Peaks: The Return (15 votes)
18. Her (14 votes) 
18. Call Me By Your Name (14 votes)
20. The Act of Killing (13 votes) 
20. Inception (13 votes)
20. Holy Motors (13 votes)
21. La La Land (11 votes)
21. 12 Years A Slave (11 votes)
23. Certified Copy (10 votes)
24. The Florida Project (9 votes)
24. Amour (9 votes)
26. Ida (8 votes)
27. The Wolf of Wall Street (7 votes)
27. Once Upon A Time In Anatolia (7 votes)
27. No Home Movie (7 votes)
27. Dunkirk (7 votes)
27. Zama (7 votes)
27. Melancholia (7 votes)
35. Phoenix (6 votes) 
35. Inherent Vice (6 votes)   
35. Inside Out (6 votes) 
35.  Blue is the Warmest Color (6 votes)
35. Timbuktu (6 votes)
35. Silence (6 votes)
40. Son of Saul (5 votes)
40. Faces Places (5 votes)
40. Drive (5 votes) 
40. The Assassin (5 votes)
40. The Turin Horse (5 votes) 
40. The Rider (5 votes) 
40. Manchester by the Sea (5 votes)
40.  It’s Such A Beautiful Day (5 votes)
40. Only Lovers Left Alive (5 votes) 
40. Leviathan (5 votes)
40. First Reformed (5 votes)
40. Toy Story 3 (5 votes)
54. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (5 votes)
54. The Grand Budapest Hotel (5 votes)
54. Sorry to Bother You (5 votes)
54. The Clouds of Sils Maria (5 votes)
54.. The Great Beauty (5 votes)
59. Burning (4 votes)
59.  Bridesmaids (4 votes)
59. Beasts of the Southern Wild (4 votes)
59. A Ghost Story (4 votes)
59. Gravity (4 votes)
59. The Immigrant (4 votes)
59. Mysteries of Lisbon (4 votes)
59. Stories We Tell (4 votes)
59. The Lobster (4 votes)
59. Whiplash (4 votes) 
59. The Other Side of the Wind (4 votes)
70. Foxtrot (3 votes)
70. The Look of Silence (3 votes)
70. American Honey (3 votes)
70. Personal Shopper (3 votes)
70. Frances Ha (3 votes)
70. Take Shelter (3 votes)

Full top 100 to be posted tomorrow.

"Love and Mercy"

American cinema has tackled rock & roll in numerous ways over the years. Just look at the deluge of biopics that have been made in the last few decades: Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Doors, Ike & Tina and of course this summer’s the highly anticipated N.W.A biopic have all been given the hollywood treatment. To say that not even half of these movies were artistically successful portrayals of these legends is a downright disappointing. If you made a list of the best rock & roll movies, nearly half of it would be non-fiction films. This is why it is a cause for celebration to have a Brian Wilson biopic coming out on June 5th that is actually pretty tremendous.

I’m an avid Beach Boys fan. “Pet Sounds” is like my bible. Every song in that album could have only been created by a brilliant mind with ears that could hear sounds no other ear could. Brian Wilson is that man – an artist so consumed by his creativity and genius that it ended up haunting him forever. Not many artists were victims of their own creative brilliance, but Brian Wilson was. Consumed by the urgency to one up The Beatles and their revolutionary record “Rubber Soul”, Wilson set out to make something better, and he did, but it came with a cost. The Beatles countered back with “Revolver”. Wilson tried to counter with the brilliant and, as of then unreleased, SMILE, but that was the downfall.

In Bill Pohlad’s “Love and Mercy” two brilliant actors get to play Wilson in two different eras. Paul Dano is the “Pet Sounds”-era artist who had no idea what kind of masterpiece he was about to create. John Cusack is the aftermath, almost two decades later, highly medicated, taken advantage of by his manager and haunted by the sounds and voices that created “Pet Sounds”. Both actors are great and veteran film producer Pohlad (“The Tree of Life”, “12 Years a Slave”, “Brokeback Mountain”, “Into the Wild”) directs his first movie since 1990’s underseen “Old Explorers”. It’s an immeasurable feat for him as he tries the unthinkable – getting us inside Brian Wilson’s head.

The film has its bumps along the road, but the sheer ecstasy of watching Wilson record “Pet Sounds” in a studio with his bandmates is contagious and priceless. Yes, this is fiction, but Dano embodies Wilson so much in his performance that you actually do forget you are watching a movie. It really isn’t much of a surprise to know the 30 year-old actor of “Little Miss Sunshine”, “There Will Be Blood” and “12 Years a Slave” gives us another memorable performance. His depiction of Wilson is that of a wide-eyed kid being slowly stripped of his innocence by his obsessive creativity.

Pohlad wisely shifts the two time periods back and forth, and as good as Cusack is as the drugged up, lethargic Wilson of the 80’s – and boy is he fantastic in this movie – it’s Dano you want to see the most. His absence is clearly felt whenever not on screen, as is the freewheelin’ nature of the recording sessions. Cusack is as great as he’s always been in his career, never hitting a false note, showing an almost emotionless, tranquilized expression every frame, but keeping the pain Wilson felt in the eyes. It’s not easy playing a man who suffered through major depressions, schizophrenia and countless drug relapses.

This was clearly a labor of love for Pohlad and I do expect the reviews to be glowing for his wonderful film. I also fear that Dano’s memorable performance might be forgotten come awards time given the smale-scale, intimate nature of the film. It’s a delicate, sweet, but harrowing love letter to the art of creating. Who better as a subject than Brian Wilson? Dano is slowly becoming one of the great actors of his generation, all his work being done under the radar and without much buzz tied to his name. Throughout his career he’s refused to go down the hollywood route and has instead opted for a more adventurous set of roles. Will this movie be his big breakthrough? Quite possibly.

Watching Pohland try to recreate an iconic moment in music history got me thinking about some of the great Rock and Roll movies, both fiction and non-fiction. The translation from record player to screen has not always been smooth, and as much as I admired “Walk The Line” or “Ray”, I always felt like the narratives of those films didn’t capture the essence and boldness of the music created by the artists they depicted on celluloid. On the other hand, I truly enjoyed “Love and Mercy” because it never ran on conventional ground and didn’t go down the predictable biopic route, instead opting to provoke the viewer with a much bolder narrative, much akin to last year’s underrated James Brown biopic “Get On Up”.

What constitutes a great rock movie? There haven’t been a ton of great ones over the years. As I mentioned earlier in this write-up, the translation from record player to screen hasn’t always been smooth. Too many filmmakers have been caught delving into a formulaic narrative in telling their stories, choosing to have the music do the talking and forgetting about the filmmaking itself. Brainstorming through hundreds of titles I came up with five that truly broke the mold and rewrote the rules of the game. These are the iconic moments where film and music blended together and became one on screen. It is no surprise that most of the filmmakers on this list already had an incredible knowledge of music history before even making their movies (Demme, Scorsese, Crowe) and their movies really just speak for themselves. As Nigel from “This Is Spinal Tap” famously said “these go to eleven”.

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/05/jordan-ruimy-reviews-love-mercy/

My 2015 AwardsDaily.com Summer Movie Preview

by Jordan Ruimy

Summer is right around the corner, which also means summer movies are about to be unleashed onto audiences, young and old, from the first week of May right down to the last week of August. As much as people complain about the lack of quality in the summer movie season, I’ve come to fully embrace its arrival and do find it to be a notch higher than the first four months of the movie year, where most studios try to get rid of leftover scraps. While doing research for this preview, I noticed the highly unusual number of films coming out that look genuinely good. This is not even counting the indies, as the first bunch of Sundance favorites will be making their way to movie theatres in the coming months. The preview I’ve put together here is what I’m looking forward to the most. The list consists mostly of studio fare with a little added indie flavor. I omitted sequels such as “Ted 2”, “Pitch Perfect 2”, “Insidious: Chapter 3”, “Terminator: Genisys”, “Magic Mike XXL” and super-hero movies such as “Ant-Man” and “The Fantastic Four”, even though I’m sure plenty of people will be looking forward to those titles as well. This could have easily been a list of 30 movies but I narrowed it down to the 14 that I found would have the most impact in terms of artful quality.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1st)
As much as I feel worn out by the endless barrage of superhero movies we’ve been getting, you just can’t ignore this one. Summer kicks off with what will most likely be the biggest movie of the year at the box office – that is, of course, until “Star Wars” comes out in December. The original 2012 film had enough wit, sly humor, and action that you forgave its shortcomings. All credit must be given to director Joss Whedon, who proved that he’s a true cinematic talent, with “The Cabin in the Woods”. In fact, I wish he would do more of these original gems every once in a while, but alas “The Avengers” keep calling him back, which is not necessarily a bad thing. This time around it’s “The Age of Ultron”, and just by sneaking a peak at the trailer, it seems like our boys – and girls – have one hell of a baddie to go up against.

Mad Max: Fury Road (May 15th)
Here’s a summer blockbuster that is truly a labor of love. Director George Miller revolutionized the 80’s with the Mad Max films. Ever since the last one in 1985, “Beyond Thunderdome”, he’s tried to painstakingly get a new one going, all the while winning an Oscar for directing, ahem, Happy Feet. Yep, he was responsible for those cute cuddly little dancing penguins. There won’t be any dancing penguins in “Mad Max: Fury Road”. This is serious stuff, a post-apocalyptic landscape that has danger in every turn. If the trailer didn’t get you pumped up, please check your pulse, and if the image of a buzzed up Tom Hardy kicking ass doesn’t do it for you then the summer movie season just ain’t for you. Screenings have started to roll out for this one and it looks like it’s the real deal.

Tomorrowland (May 22nd)
As far as I’m concerned, director Brad Bird has never made a bad movie. His animation record – “Ratatouille”, “The Incredibles”, “The Iron Giant” – flawless. Live action? Only “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”, but what a great action movie. Now with “Tomorrowland”, he’s quite possibly tackling his most ambitious project. Based on a Disney theme park ride and starring George Clooney, not much is known and most plot points have been shrouded in mystery, but what is known about “Tomorrowland” has been shown in the astoundingly thrilling trailer we saw earlier this year. A creative mind like Bird doesn’t usually settle for the plain and simple; his next project after this one is the highly anticipated “Incredibles” sequel. Let’s hope the finished project gives us a blistering, rollercoaster-like high just like every other thing he’s done in the past.

Aloha (May 29th)
Poor Cameron Crowe. The release of his most personal film, “Almost Famous”, 15 years ago came with great praise, and the film’s reputation has only grown over the years with a new generation taking its universal themes to heart. But following up that film with “Vanilla Sky” didn’t work out so well. I was one of the few who actually got what he was going for in that movie; most people despised it. And then it only got worse: “Elizabethtown” and “We Bought a Zoo” were career lows that could have easily ruined any other filmmaker’s career. But Crowe is a talent. Not many people can pull off a romantic screenplay like “Jerry Maguire” or “Say Anything” with such elegant ease. Crowe is given another chance with “Aloha”. An all-star cast that includes Emma Stone, Bradley Cooper, Bill Murray, Alec Baldwin, and Rachel McAdams tries to get Crowe out of his frustrating funk.

Spy (June 5th)
Earlier this year I caught “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig’s “Spy”, an irresistible spy comedy that deserves to be a hit at the box office. I seriously haven’t laughed this hard since…”Bridesmaids”?  Melissa McCarthy stars as a CIA agent who gets caught up in a whole bunch of trouble when a fellow agent gets assassinated. This is clearly the best work McCarthy has ever done, but the other surprising standout is Jason Statham hilariously mocking his usual meathead persona to sheer perfection.

Jurassic World (June 12th)
It’s rather strange how the times and expectations have changed for the Jurassic franchise. After “Jurassic Park III” it seemed like nobody wanted the franchise to continue. Fourteen years later and the box office is now driven, more than ever, by audiences who want sequels, remakes and franchises. The good news is that most of these big Hollywood movies are directed by fresh talent just graduating from the indie circuit. “Jurassic World” will come out with the buzz of a very good trailer behind it and an indie director (Colin Trevorrow) who has shown in the past that he’s got the chops for action. I’m all for this film happening, but I do hope it tackles new possibilities instead of the usual same old. Spielberg did it best the first time around, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work again. Fresh off his “Guardians of the Galaxy” triumph last year, Chris Pratt stars, but where’s Jeff Goldblum in all this?

Inside Out (June 19th)
If you’re a true movie fan, you’re certainly itching to see what the animated studio behind “Toy Story 1,2, and 3″, “WALL-E”, “Up!”, “Finding Nemo”, “Ratatouille” and “The Incredibles” has in store for us this time around. Of all the animated movies coming out this year, none is more anticipated in my books than Pete Docter’s foray into the human psyche. Yes, this is a “kids” movie but it is not squarely aimed at just children. Just like all other Pixar movies, “Inside Out” carries with it adult themes mixed with what seems to be bitingly beautiful CGI animation. Pixar has been on a bit of a slump lately with a few “good but not great” movies, so it’d be a real kick to see them get back on their game with this one, especially if one take’s a look at the brilliant trailer that came out earlier this year. One thing’s for sure, the ambition seems to not be lost with this latest effort.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (July 1st)
Four out of the last six Sundance Grand Jury winners have received a Best Picture nomination, which is why close attention must be paid to Alfonso Gonzalez-Rejon’s sophomore effort that justly won the top prize at this year’s festival. The reviews out of Sundance were phenomenal and the buzz has been building ever since. Telling the story of a couple of quirky best friends and their friendship with a fellow classmate dying of Leukemia, the film will likely be compared to last year’s “The Fault in Our Stars” due to its less-than-grim depiction of teenage cancer. But that’s where the comparisons should end. The YA stereotypes we usually associate with these kind of sappy, conventional movies get deconstructed and shattered by Gonzalez-Rejon. What we’re left with is a movie with a unique voice calling out a new generation to artfully confront pain head-on.

Trainwreck (July 17th)
I’ve been a big fan of Amy Schumer’s blunt, terrifyingly in-your-face stand-up ever since she started in the comedy circuit. Trainwreck seems to be the perfect vehicle for Schumer to strut her stuff, and Director Judd Apatow also clearly sees Schumer as a major comedy star in the making. Apatow is no stranger in making movie stars out of comedians: Steve Carrell in “The 40 year Old Virgin”, Seth Rogen in “Knocked Up”, Jonah Hill in “Superbad”, and I hope Schumer is next. She’s edgy and ready to break out. In fact, she also wrote the film’s screenplay, which hopefully means it has her bracingly audacious wit all over the pages. Apatow admitted that he encouraged Schumer to add her own “personal wee of fear and neuroses to the script”. If the rave reviews coming out of SXSW for her portrayal of Amy in the film are any indication, she might have also revitalized Apatow’s directorial career after a few duds (“Funny People”, “This is 40″).

Southpaw (July 24th)
We’ve all seen the photos of a bulked up Jake Gyllenhaal with boxing gloves roaring victory in the ring. The transformation is tremendous, especially coming off the gaunt, almost unrecognizable work he delivered in “Nightcrawler. Gyllenhaal is hot right now, really hot. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, “Southpaw” has awards written all over it for its main actor, but will it the deliver the thrill of a knockout? Playing a young boxer that has to care for his young daughter after his wife dies, Gyllenhaal didn’t want to fake the fight scenes. He sparred with real professional boxers to get ready for the role and Fuqua hired an actual HBO crew to shoot the boxing scenes in real time.

Irrational Man (July 24th)
Not much is known about Woody Allen’s 45th directorial effort. What we do know is the Woodman’s penchant for hit or miss releases. Allen has just been a hit and miss kinda guy ever since his golden peak in the ‘80s and the vastly underrated work he churned out in the ‘90s. For every dud like “Scoop”, “Whatever Works”, “Hollywood Ending”, and “Anything Else” there’s been a golden nugget like “Midnight in Paris”, “Blue Jasmine”, “Vicki Cristina Barcelona” and “Match Point”. This one stars Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone and is rumored to be a much darker story like the aforementioned “Match Point”. The big draw for me isn’t just Allen or Emma Stone – one of the very best actresses out there – but rather Phoenix, whose acting comeback at the beginning of the decade has been nothing short of brilliant. We are seeing a legendary acting career being built right in front of us and it’s exhilarating to watch.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (July 31st)
Yes, I know, Tom Cruise. The recent HBO doc about Scientology was not very kind to the 52 year-old actor. Will we be able to separate our biases and enjoy this latest installment of the successful action franchise? Especially coming off the triumph of the last one (“Ghost Protocol”) that almost, just almost, eclipsed the 1996 original? I don’t have an answer; sometimes you just have to let the movie do the talking.  In fact, the same thing can be said of Woody Allen, who is no slouch to controversy. The trailer for M:I 5 looks great and the return of the “Ghost Protocol” cast is an encouraging sign. You can also expect Cruise, as usual, to perform his own stunts. The big showstopper has Cruise attached to a plane as it flies 3000 feet in the air. Christopher McQuarrie who directed Cruise in “Jack Reacher” replaces Brad Bird in the director’s chair.

Ricki and the Flash (August 7th)
I love Jonathan Demme. He’s one of the few truly great directors that has focused on the female voice for more than 4 decades. “Married to the Mob”, “Something Wild”, “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Rachel Getting Married” are prime examples of that. All are great movies. Hopefully we can add “Ricki and the Flash” to that list soon. Meryl Streep stars as an aging rock star who is given a second chance to make amends with her estranged daughter, who she abandoned many years ago to chase her dream of rock stardom. Fun fact: Streep’s real-life daughter plays the daughter, which marks the first time they’ve worked together since 1986’s “Heartburn”. Another fun fact: Diablo Cody, of “Juno” fame, wrote the screenplay.

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/04/summer-movie-preview-2015-part-i-jordan-ruimy-surveys-the-options/

It Follows

Jordan on It Follows

Any horror movie fan you talk to will tell you that the last few years have been weak for horror movies. What’s the deal? Well firstly, everything that’s coming out seems to be a rehash, reboot, or sequel to an older, higher quality film. Clichés abound, the genre is in dire need of new blood, and we may have found it with two bright new talented directors coming to the forefront of the genre. These new original voices know the secret formula that many great horror movies have used in the past: cast a female in the lead. In horror movies, the female lead doesn’t need to be weak; in fact, she can be strong. Very strong. Usually the last “man” standing. I remember writing a term paper in film school years ago about how women in horror advanced the cause of feminism in our society. Who can forget Ripley in “Alien” saying, “This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off”, or in the movie’s sequel seven years later uttering the kickass line, “Get away from her, you bitch”. If one looks back at film history they will notice a rich history of women in the lead role: “Rosemary’s Baby”, “The Shining”, “The Exorcist”, “The Ring”, “Halloween”, “Psycho”, “Suspira”, “Alien”, and “The Birds”, just to name a few.

The genre was rejuvenated earlier this year with “The Babadook” – a smart, snappy, and darkly twisted tale that dealt with death, mourning and the matriarchal role. The main character was of course female (Essie Davis), but here’s the kicker: so was the filmmaker, the promising Jennifer Kent. It was an original, refreshing change of pace to a genre that was, for the last decade or so, more interested in the same old boring ideas about the male psyche. Kent reinvigorated the game and “The Babadook” was a major success – one that will likely spark a new wave of horror filmmakers to one up it.

The same can be said of David Robert Mitchell’s “It Follows”, which refuses to follow the conventions of 21st century horror cinema. Its DNA is ingrained in and inspired by the classics. Just when you thought there wasn’t really much more room to manoeuvre creatively within the genre, Mitchell delivers this stunning movie. Having opened just last week, the film is already a hit with critics. After it’s sly, subtle bows at the most prestigious of film fests last year (Cannes, TIFF, Sundance) and the most glowing of reviews (check out that 96% RT score), audiences will likely soon discover what most festival goers already knew: this movie is the real deal. A blend of the surreal with the very real. A taste of the next generation of horror movies to come.

Much like “The Babadook”, the story’s main character is female and the implications are more psychological than gore-tastic – a relief if you ask me. Dealing with 19 year-old Maika Monroe who loses her virginity and is later told by the same guy that he has passed on a curse to her that will follow and haunt her everywhere she goes, the film is imprinted with ridiculously clever undertones. The only way for our main protagonist to get rid of this “disease” she has inherited is to sleep with someone else and pass it on to them. Oh boy. Here comes a slew of film school term papers for the next decade about the film’s allegorical connection to STDs. Those sly open-minded students wouldn’t be far off in their theories, but there’s much more to “It Follows” than just its fascinating dissection of STDs and teenage sexuality.

Every scene in Mitchell’s film is filled with unbearable dread, bringing to mind early John Carpenter just by its synth-driven musical score, courtesy of the brilliant Disasterpiece. The jump scares are also frighteningly timed, all thanks to Julio C Perez IV’s editing and the dreamy atmosphere Mitchell creates on-screen. Scene after scene, the viewer is engulfed in an inescapable sexual nightmare, and just when you think the film will unfold in a conventional way, Mitchell pulls the rug under you and slaps your face sideways. Just like the classic movies it has been inspired by, “It Follows” is inescapably eerie. It’s also the first great American movie of 2015.

10 Best Films of the Half-Decade (2010s)

This decade has so far been a transitional decade for movies. We are living in an exciting, confusing time where superhero movies, sequels and popular book adaptations are becoming the foundation at the box office. If the notion of an original, creative, idea seems to be lost and forgotten, there are still – now more than ever – filmmakers pushing the norms and boundaries of what a movie can be. Filmmakers like these are few and far between, but they need to exist to make movies further progress and evolve just like they have in past 100+ years. To me, the following ten movies represent the most important of the decade thus far. They are the movies have marked my mid-decade, the movies I feel have further advanced the cinematic medium. As always, I write articles such as these to get the readers to chime in with their own picks. Looking forward to reading them.

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1) The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick’s “The Tree Of Life” is a mosaic of a film that might test the limitations of its audience, but more importantly, the cinematic medium’s limitations. No matter what faults you may have with Malick’s movie, you cannot deny the sheer chutzpah and originality that went into its creation. There has never been anything quite like it and I highly doubt there ever will be. Malick tries to transcend the boundaries of life itself by trying to find a kind of meaning. This is his search for transcendence, in the little moments that make us and shape us. Death, mourning, rebirth, transcendence are just a fraction of the themes being tackled here. The mainstream might not have warmed up to the film’s non-linear narrative; for the rest of us, the symposium of abstract shapes and colors that pop our eyes out on the screen is just what the doctor ordered. This is the greatest cinematic experience of the decade.

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2) The Master

P.T Anderson’s masterpiece is almost unexplainable. A reinvention of the cinematic language with a never better Joaquin Phoenix. The backdrop is scientology, but that’s only the backdrop for a much more complex movie. The surrealistic nature of the film was a hint for things to come in the Anderson cannon – “Inherent Vice”, anybody?- but here was a movie that had the best director of his generation at the peak of his powers, using scientology as only the background for bigger more complicated themes. I was more than riveted. Bold, innovative and infuriating, “The Master” is a landmark movie, but one that will likely divide its audience in half. Too bad, I was hypnotized by almost every single frame of its puzzling, schizophrenic narrative.

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3) Margaret

“Margaret” is an absolute masterpiece. It thematically is going for the tone of a grandiose opera, but in a modern day context, filtered through the emotions of a teenage girl associated with a tragedy she witnessed and felt responsible for. It expresses the emotional teenage mind-set like no other. Every performance is astounding and every character in it so compelling and fully-realized. There’s no doubt in my mind that if this movie hadn’t been tangled up in lawsuits years ago, Anna Paquin surely would have been winning many awards for her performance. It’s such a shame that a movie of this size and scope was overlooked. Director Kenneth Lonergan asked friend Martin Scorsese for some help in the editing room and what you ended up getting was a movie that could not be explained easily and has only gotten better with time.

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4) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Grasping a film such as this one may require some major attention from the viewer, and even when the attention is there, frustration may come about as a result of the film’s abstractedness and non-linear narrative. This is all not too surprising when you consider Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s filmography and his constant acknowledgment of nature and the way it binds to us as human beings. Have I lost you yet? Snoozing? That’s how some folks might react when watching “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”. Coming out of the screening I attended, there was a kind of head scratching vibe in the air. It was as if Weerasethakul’s film had not only confused the general public, but actually angered them in frustration with what they had witnessed. I dug it the its mysterious setting and its dream-like episodes. If you’ve seen “Tropical Maladay” or “Syndromes and a Century” you know just how special this guy is.

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5) A Separation

Filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s indisputably great “A Separation” is the portrait of a country in turmoil. Just like the marriage depicted, it is constantly caught in the politics and restrictions the society offers. In one memorable scene, a man tells his daughter to speak Arabic as opposed to Farsi. In another telling moment, a girl’s school textbook recalls a time in the country’s history when the only two classes that existed were “royalty” and “everybody else”. Every person involved in the trial of “A Separation” has the best intentions and their own honorable values to go by. It is the most truthful and unbiased depiction of Iran I have seen this decade. The characters in Farhadi’s film live their lives according to the same religion and guidelines that are asked for them to obey. Yet, in the end it is only our own personal experiences that can provide us with the moral compass for the story.

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6) Under the Skin

What Glazer has accomplished here is quite remarkable and shouldn’t be forgotten. He’s made a picture that defies all the rules and, just like most films on this list, has reinvented a new kind of language. He showed real promise with his first film “Sexy Beast” back in 2000, a cerebral and intense film that paved the way for Ben Kingsley’s best performance. He followed it up with “Birth”, which was kind of all over the place and not as successful as I wanted it to be, but now he’s really surprised me with this one, an out of left field vision that stuns. More than two years after having seen it I still can’t get the damn thing out of my head. Its originality and absurdity is what I love the most about it, and of course Johansson, who is just perfect for the part of a murderous, seductive alien, was the perfect casting choice.

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7) Holy Motors

Leos Carax. You have to give it to this wildly imaginative filmmaker. He’s allergic to formula and refuses to adhere to the norm. In this thrilling, visionary, frustrating, exhausting and masterful film, he decided to give a poisonous valentine to the cinema, splitting his film into a bunch of different genres. Episodic in nature and more than eye-opening, Carax gave us something we’ve never seen before: a surreal nightmare of the past, present and future of cinema. With unusual acting chameleon Denis Lavant by his side, this was a movie in which anything could happen, in which any image could get juxtaposed with any other. There is no three-act structure built upon a tired, overplayed premise. Carax pushes, pushes and pushes until he finds the existential, surrealistic nirvana he’s been looking for throughout the movie with a simple but awe-inspring final image that is as haunting as it is ridiculous.

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8) Black Swan

Taking a cue from Kanye West’s 2010 album, this is Director Darren Aronofksy’s Beautiful, Dark, twisted fantasy. Natalie Portman gave the performance of the year in a film that was more than just about ballet; it was about the boundaries an artist had in order to push his or herself to the very limits of their art. The same could be said of Aronofsky, who’s never adhered to the conventional or acceptable. A potent, poisonous child of Emeric Pressburger/Michael Powell’s “The Red Shoes” and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive”, this was a campy, visionary, extraordinary mess that turned into the film that confirmed the filmmaker was the real deal.

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9) Inside Llewyn Davis

There was a hint of reflective existentialism in the Coens’ Best Picture winner “No Country For Old Men”. Those kooky brothers were maturing before our very eyes and we had no idea what was to follow. “A Serious Man” was unlike any movie they’ve ever done: autobiographical, philosophical and damn near apocalyptic. “Inside Llewyn Davis” is where the Coens, the thinkers, make the masterpiece they’ve been hinting at this decade. A meditation on failure which just so happens to have as a backdrop the 1960’s Greenwich Village New York folk scene. This is the scene right before Dylan, when Folk was still square and the struggles for the artists were very apparent. Our Llewyn Davis doesn’t want to sell out, sticking to his artistic integrity and preferring a life without money than to sell himself to the devil. If only we had more artists like him today.

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10) The Social Network

A film such as “The Social Network” relies on characters more than plotting. The characters populating the film stay etched in your head way after the film is done, which is in fact the highest quality of the film. There is an almost irresistible vibe created; Fincher uses low lit cinematography to enhance the dreary atmosphere happening throughout. The hallways of Harvard feel cavernous and nightmarish, whereas the look and portrayal of University life is nothing short of condemning. Although the movie can be seen as an entertainment first and foremost, the substance that drives its themes home is very apparent. After a second, third and even fourth viewing of David Fincher’s masterpiece, I discovered new things that might not have seemed as obvious or apparent the first time around. “American Beauty’s” advertising campaign told us to “look closer; the same goes for “The Social Network”.

Top 10 movies directed by women

In its 87 years of existence, only four women have ever been nominated for a Best Director Oscar. All of those nominees have made my list of the greatest movies directed by women. While researching this project, the original draft was more than 100 titles; narrowing it down to 10 was not easy, which is why I encourage you to chime in with your own choices in the comment section. In honor of Ava Duvernay, the latest and probably not last snub, for her brilliant “Selma”, here are 10 movies that make a good case for more original female voices at the movies.

1) Seven Beauties
Lina Wertmuller’s Seven Beauties is an ugly movie. Wertmuller is a female Italian director whose films weren’t supposed to be nice to look at. She consistently tried to break societal taboos over her long illustrious career. “Seven Beauties” was the best film of her career and justifiably made her become the first female director to ever get nominated for Best Director. Tackling the holocaust, WW2 and Italy’s ugly role in the war was a risk. The taboos tackled by Wertmuller were indelibly cringed in an air of shame in her native country. She wanted to push buttons with her film and make the audience as uncomfortable as possible. Wertmuller shot her scenes with no restraint, purposely going over the top with original characters that stay etched in your memory for a good, long time. “Seven Beauties” is a landmark of cinema and clearly inspired Tarantino to re-write WW2 history himself 34 years later with “Inglourious Basterds”.

2) The Hurt Locker
Here is Kathryn Bigelow’s taut, tense and incredibly terrific movie that justifiably won the Oscar for Best Picture. I could have chosen other Bigelow gems like “Point Break”, “Strange Days” and “Near Dark”, but “The Hurt Locker” was the best and most important achievement. An episodic movie that dealt with male testosterone and adrenaline by studying a man who thrived on it, and kept putting himself in the most dangerous situation imaginable. The attention to detail is staggering. “War is a Drug” the title card reads at the beginning of Bigelow’s film. This movie is a drug. Jeremy Renner’s incredible performance and Bigelow’s incredibly controlled direction changed the way we saw action films and reinvented the possibilities for the new century. Not surprising that Bigelow was the first ever woman awarded the Best Director Oscar, and this quickly became a landmark in 21st century cinema.

3) Lost in Translation
Sofia Coppola’s best movie as a director was such sensitive, delicate stuff – and I do mean that as a compliment. Every frame is beautifully photographed by Lance Acord; the film is a portal to a brightly colored, anything-can-happen Japan. And the performances by the two leads – Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanssen – just sublime. In showing unrequited, unforgivable, love between these two strangers lost in a place far away, Coppola infuses every frame of her magically romantic film with a sense of purpose and free will. It’s as if every convention known to Hollywood is thrown out the window and replaced by a
freshness you usually see in Japanese films made by Wong Kar Wai or Ozu. Most surprising of all, it’s American and as purely poetic as any movie can be.

4) The Piano
Jane Campion’s “The Piano” is the most personal movie of her astonishing filmography. This almost plotless story about a group of people who aren’t, on the whole, particularly easy to sympathize with, is a stunning mood piece and a haunting adult fairy tale about a woman’s quest to control her identity and destiny. A practically silent Holly Hunter gives an Oscar Winning performance that is as mesmerizing as it is haunting, and Anna Paquin, then 11 years old, won an Oscar playing Hunter’s smart and witty young daughter. Campion, never one to shy away from Gender politics, gave us a portrait of love, fear and passion amidst a world where a woman is not supposed to have the necessary freedom to fulfill her every desires. Rarely do we witness beauty as real as what is captured in this film. Campion’s cinematic landmark is such a visually stunning film, it’s almost intoxicating how its atmosphere sweeps across the screen and ravishes the eyes.

5) The Triumph of the Will
Was there ever any doubt that this – quite possibly the most influential film of all time – would not make the list? “Triumph of the Will” is a Nazi propaganda film that, despite its disturbing subject matter, revolutionized the way movies were made. Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl singlehandedly rewrote the language of cinema with her use of cinematography and music. This is a work of staggering brilliance with shots that are still hard to achieve to this very day. It is then no surprise that filmmakers such as Peter Jackson, George Lucas and Ridley Scott have all admitted to having studied and copied Rifenstahl’s masterpiece. Watching the film with attention to all the details on screen is an incredible experience; add in the fact that this was meant as a propaganda tool by the Nazis and you have one of the most harrowing cinematic experiences imaginable.

6) Cléo de 5 à 7
The French New Wave was a boys club – that is until a young Agnes Varda showed up to shake the party. We all know “Breathless”, “The 400 Blows”, “Contempt” and “Hiroshima Mon Amour”, but no French New Wave top five could be complete without “Cléo de 5 à 7″ a rich absorbing look at a woman embracing death and looking into the unknown. The film is a staple of feminist filmmaking and introduced to us a character that we could eerily relate to. Awaiting the results of a medical exam that could potentially lead to a stomach cancer diagnosis, Cleo wanders around the streets of Paris as themes of existentialism and mortality get played out. It’s a groundbreaking movie that gave way to one of the most iconic and important female voices in cinematic history. The boys club was forever shaken.

7) Zero Dark Thirty
Forget about the Bin Laden raid, which ends the movie, what counts in Kathryn Bigelow’s film is how they actually got there in the first place. The procedural work rivals that of “All The Presidents Men” and “Zodiac”, as does the harrowing relevance that burns at its core. A great performance by Jessica Chastain infuses every frame, and Bigelow, a great action director, proves her worth as a director of considerable intellectual skill. The controversy Bigelow’s film got upon release was obviously unwarranted and cost it Best Picture to –huh? – Argo? Haters will hate, but this movie has stood the test of time and will continue to do so.

8) Winter’s Bone
Debra Granik’s second feature film, “Winter’s Bone”, is the kind of movie that gets progressively better as you delve deeper and deeper into it. It is filled with humane, authentic characterizations of a society that is rooted in evil and people who have lost all hope in life and succumbed to morally wrong choices. There are memorable scenes that linger (the gutting of a squirrel, the taking of a girl, a final ambiguous mumbling sentence) a sense of dread that might turn the most primitive of moviegoers off. It is through and through a product of American Independent cinema and we should never forget its important existence. Then newcomer Jennifer Lawrence, delved deeply into her role and created something memorable and real. It was an absolutely spellbinding lead performance that brought subtlety to her role as a teenage girl desperately looking for her – quite possibly dead – father in the wild Ozarks of Missouri.

9) Boys Don’t Cry
I still hold out hope that director Kimberly Peirce will one day make as great a movie as her 1999 debut “Boys Don’t Cry”. Featuring an Oscar Winning performance from Hilary Swank, this was ballsy, original filmmaking at its finest. The true story of Brandon Teena, a trans-man raped, beaten and murdered by acquaintances after they discover that he is anatomically female, “Boys Don’t Cry” was a statement by Peirce to stop the madness and advance as a society. She doesn’t hold any punches and knocks us out with every stinging detail in this tragic, and sadly still relevant, story

10) Big
Director Penny Marshall became the first female director ever to direct a movie that grossed more than 100 million dollars at the box office. No small feat. She was sadly one of the few true feminine voices in Hollywood to sit in the director’s chair during the 1980’s. Who can forget the iconic piano dancing scene that is the centerpiece of this constantly copied, but never bettered, 1988 movie starring Tom Hanks as a boy trapped in a grown man’s body. Marshall’s short but impressive streak would continue with “A League of Their Own” and the vastly underappreciated “Awakenings”, starring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams.

The 10 Best Movie Scenes of 2014

Jordan Ruimy’s 10 Best Scenes of 2014 

Now that almost every single film critic in the country has published their top ten list, we can sit back, relax and think about the upcoming year, a year which will bring forth more sequels than ever before and an industry that – supposedly – keeps shrinking in ideas and creative freedom. No worries. There are still great movies out there and there always will be. The rebels that keep fighting for their vision to be shown onscreen are plentiful. I decided this year that instead of naming 10 movies, which I’m sure many of you have heard of before, I’ll switch it up and make a list of the ten best moments/scenes of 2014. Moments when artists decided to break the rules, change the game and leave us gasping for air (or a bottle of oxygen). Here they are.

1. Whiplash “The Final Performance”
The editing, composition, and performance of the drum solo finale in “Whiplash” is as perfect as finales go. An artistic breakthrough happens along the way. Miles Teller’s Andrew breaks on through to the other side by giving an impressive, sweaty, blood soaked drum solo that had audiences applauding to no end once the screen went black when I first caught it at the Toronto Film Festival. The ending is meant to be a provocation of the highest order. Up until that point, writer-director Damien Chazelle had pummeled us into a corner with J.K Simmons’ mentally abusive music teacher. The finale is equal parts disturbing, rousing, confusing and emotionally liberating. It’s the moment when Chazelle’s movie becomes the masterpiece that it is.

2. Birdman “Times Square Lockout”
I could have chosen the final scene or Edward Norton getting a hard on in front of a live audience or really any scene from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s visionary film, but this is the scene everybody keeps talking about. The ballsiest moment for many reasons. Riggan, wearing only his tighty whities, accidentally gets locked out of Broadway’s St. James theater after accidentally catching his daughter making out with one of the stars of his play. Riggan goes for it, marching down Times Square naked. The camera starts with an over-the-shoulder shot, then moves laterally with Keaton, then moves in front of him, to show his reaction. People start to recognize him and dozens of cameras start flashing to take mementos of this crazy moment. The audience gasps in agony and sit at the edge of our seat cringing. Suffice it to say, Riggan makes it back to stage via the front entrance – gasps heard all around the audience – finishing his lines, completing a tour de force moment in a film filled with them.

3. Gone Girl “Coital Bloodbath”
It was this or the “cool girl” monologue, but how can you resist this shockingly bloody post coital night capper? Of course it’s the scene where Amy cuts Desi’s throat, mid-coitus, as he’s climaxing, with a box cutter she sneakily hid from him and the audience. That scene. That scene alone took two days to shoot, as Fincher meticulously constructed and de-constructed the mise-en-scene. The frame is soaked in blood and Rosamund Pike’s Amy revels in the gore all around her by beautifully acknowledging what she has just done. She’s in control, she knows what she’s doing, and she and Fincher make sure we don’t ever forget what just happened.

4. Force Majeure “The Controlled Avalanche”
The money shot in Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure happens in the first few minutes of the film. It’s a four and a half minute shot that will leave you gasping for air and in disarray about what just happened. A Swedish family dines in an outdoor patio, we overhear people nervously gasping about an innocent looking avalanche coming their way. “It’s a controlled avalanche don’t worry”, says the father. Lo and behold it looks to be more than that as the avalanche comes towards the patio enveloping the screen with whiteness and having the father run for his life without thinking about his family’s fate. Fight or flight response? Or just plain cowardice? Of course our patriarch was right, the avalanche was indeed controlled, but his actions are now questioned and his role as family patriarch is jeopardized.

5. Under the Skin “The Disfigured Man”
Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin” is the most visionary movie of 2014. Scene after scene you are enveloped in its darkly deceptive web of sex and mystery. Just around the film’s halfway mark, the alien picks up a man with a facial deformity. You may assume you’re seeing an actor with a prosthetic, but in fact he’s played by amateur actor Adam Pearson, who has a condition called neurofibromatosis. Johansson’s Alien does not realize he is different, she keeps mentioning how he has beautiful hands and persists for him to touch her face. The film at the moment challenges our preconceptions about human nature, the way we see things, challenging to look at this man through the eyes of an alien who doesn’t know he is different. Yet, there’s a breaking point: our Alien is touched by this man and starts to feel things she hasn’t felt before, setting up the perplexing emotions that are about to come in this staggeringly masterful film.

6. Inherent Vice “Femme Fatale”
Here is a weirdly sexy long take that is one of many riotously dreamy moments in Paul Thomas Anderson’s messy, but at times mesmerizing, Inherent Vice. Up until then, Anderson has confused us and dared us to leap with him in a world filled with hallucinogenic madness. Shasta, who was supposedly missing, decides to stop by our beloved Doc’s apartment with the cool breezy chilled out attitude of a summer bunny femme fatale. She seduces Doc in every which way possible as she recounts tales of her past. They do finally get it on, but not before we are brought into her deceitful web of foreplay. When the coitus is done, she sensually whispers, “This doesn’t mean we’re back together.” I could have chosen Martin Short’s bravura sequence as a coked up paranoid attorney or James Brolin’s final statement, but this is the moment when Inherent Vice gives you the best high.

7. Boyhood “I Just Thought There Would Be More”
“I just thought there would be more.” That is a quote from a scene that will mostly likely be responsible for Patricia Arquette’s Best Supporting Actress statuette this February. These words are uttered near the end of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, as her teenage son is about to leave for college. It’s the kind of moment that wrenchingly breaks your heart yet never over-sentimentalizes its reach. Throughout the three hour movie, Arquette’s single mother has had to raise her two children practically on her own all in the while going through two difficult marriages and trying to get a degree. The end result is that she is now a successful working woman and is about to send her youngest off to college. It’s that moment in life when a parent has to let go. She feels underwhelmed by the moment but, having just seen 12 years zoom by in 3 hours, we feel like end result is the beauty of life.

8. Nightcrawler “The Home Invasion”
“Nightcrawler” has many incredible set pieces, but none more impressive than a mid-story LA hills home invasion that Lou Bloom and his assistant stumble upon. When Jake Gyllenhaal’s Bloom gets a camera in his hand, every law is thrown out of the window and nothing will stop him from capturing the most vicious crimes. The scene is morally questionable, but filled with undeniable tension, and aided by the brilliant work of Robert Elswit’s cinematography. This invasion of a crime scene before the police even shows up is the start of a nasty series of events that sets forth uncontrollable tensions that will undoubtedly lead to tragedy. I almost chose that incredible Chinese restaurant/car chase scene that ends the movie with a thrilling bang, but that scene wouldn’t have even happened without this creepy, deviously immoral moment.

9. Two Days, One Night “Timur”
Marion Cotillard is mesmerizing in her role as Sandra, a young Belgian mother who discovers her co-workers were pressured to choose a significant pay bonus rather than having her keep the job she so badly needs. In this mesmerizing film by the Dardennes brothers, Cotillard’s Sandra approaches each and every co-worker, asking them to change their vote. After failing to convince the last few co-workers – and on the verge of another mental breakdown – Sandra approaches Timur (Timur Magomedgadzhiev) in a soccer field. The smile on his face when he sees Sandra says everything about what is about to happen. He admits regret for voting against her for the bonus and that he’s been thinking about it ever since. He looks back at a time when he was new to the company and Sandra helped him overcome tough circumstances. Timur breaks down and bursts into tears, bringing a glimmer of hope to a story that seemed solely based in darkness. At that very moment we believe in the goodness of people.

10. Snowpiercer “Axe-Wielding Mayhem”
I could have chosen any of the car hopping, adrenaline pumping, blood running sequences from Bong Joon- ho’s “Snowpiercer” but the one that stuck with me the most was this nightmare Axe-wielding bloodbath that occurs mid-way through the film. You expect unpredictability and downright original storytelling whenever you watch a new Bong Joon-ho film, what you don’t expect is a jaw-dropping workshop on how to shoot the perfect action sequence- a sequence so tightly constructed and so visionary that it pretty much puts all of Hollywood’s action movies to shame. Axes, fish, complete darkness, complete light, a blood soaked floor and that’s only the half of it. The film’s first 90 minutes is the most brilliantly looney science fiction I’ve seen since Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil”.