BRILLIANCE AS PER USUAL

Michael Mann's Public Enemies is a masterpiece and the best film of 2009 thus far. From first frame to last, I was totally engrossed in this sprawling yet intimate crime saga. I'll be seeing this one again in the theater a few times. Dante Spinotti's electrifying cinematography is a sure-bet for an Oscar nom (if not win). Mann stages some of the best shoot-outs of his career (with one set-piece coming close to the downtown-LA shootout in Heat) in Public Enemies, and he's helped enormously by Johnny Depp's charismatic and showy lead performance. The screenplay is intelligent, economical, and always engaging. As Dargis in the NY Times said, it's a work of art, and unlike any gangster film before it.

THE WEDDING

We got married on Sunday, June 28th, 2009. Nicholas and Erica Clement. The weather was beautiful. My wife looked extraordinary. The food was sensational. Everyone partied. Everything went perfect. Take a peek.

Our sweet-heart table, next to the cake (natch).

The Perennial Garden at Elizabeth Park in West Hartford, CT.

We named the various guest tables after some of our favorite movies. We sat at True Romance, natch.

My father (and best man) giving his amazing speech.

Me kissing the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.

My groomsmen: Jed, John, Matt, Mike. My other groomsmen, Lon, was helping my grandparents get settled. Thanks for all of the help, buddy.

Happy. Relieved. Excited.

The name-cards for our guests.

The kiss of our lives.

People hard at work, making it all look smashing.

Elizabeth Park. We got lucky. It was 75 degrees. Breezy. Nobody was sweating. Couldn't have asked for better weather.

A big moment right here.

Aren't we a bunch of tough guys.

Our Right Stuff/Michael Bay hero shot/Reservoir Dogs moment.

Erica's sister, Denise (matron of honor), Erica, and her mother, Rhonda.

Cocktail hour.

Me dancing with my beautiful sister, Marisa (she was a bridesmaid).

Lon gets a hug from the groom.

The two men in Erica's life.

I'm a lucky duck. Our first dance.

I love kissing her.

A sweet little shot.

Pure happiness.

My mom, ever the perfectionist, working some last-minute magic on the cake table. Martha Stewart a'int got shit on my mother.

One of my groomsmen, Matt, with his lovely parents.

My parents. Cute, huh?

Lon escorting my grandparents, who made the trip from Naples, Florida. He's 93. She's 83. And they're still full of life.

My parents walking me down to the ceremony spot.

Erica with her parents.

My sister looking all dramatic and teary.

My cousin Gabe, my grandpa Lou, my uncle Peter.

They played during the ceremony in the garden.

My dad and his daughter.

My dad and his poker buddies.

Cutting the cake. Marble cake with mocha-cappuccino mousse. Yes, we put a slice in the freezer for next June.

Our Justice of the Peace (Shelley), me, my dad, Jed.

The cake.

My mother, Erica, and Erica's mother.

Erica's father, Bill, gets a dance with his gorgeous daughter.

Bill giving his speech.

Me and all my boys.

A lifetime of happines awaits.

THE HONEYMOON

I've been away for the last 12 days on my honeymoon. We first went to The Balsams Grand Resort in Dixville Notch, NH. Then we went to Montreal. We finished up in NYC for the weekend. It went perfect. Here's some snaps:

We arrive at The Balsams and grab drinks at The Tavern.

Breakfast at The Balsams. Always an event.

Us in front of a rushing waterfall (it rained every day) at The Balsams.

The facade.

Us at dinner at The Balsams

Taking a practice swing on the one morning when it didn't rain.

The Panorama Golf Course at The Balsams. I shot an 89; played the best round of my life. Though Erica dropped a 75-foot chip shot from the outer rough. It was a mind-blowing moment.

Taking down a lobster.

4th of July fireworks at The Balsams. This picture doesn't do it any justice.

Our favorite spot in Montreal -- a little Suisse chocolatier who made some of the best frozen chocolate drinks we've ever tasted. The guy knew us by name by the end of the week.

Breakfast at Eggspecations in Montreal. I swear the cook was a coke addict and his powder got mixed into my food because I was higher than a mother-fucker after eating this dish. Strawberry-bannana french toast where the fruit has been cooked in Brandy. I broke out into a cold sweat for about 45 minutes after eating it. The world around me looked sped up like it does in action movies when the d.o.p. undercranks the shutter to make everthing look crisp and fast.

Notre-dame Basillica in Old Montreal.

Light from The 30th Annual Jazz Festival in Montreal.

Listening to some tunes at the Jazz Festival.

A Pagoda at the Botanical gardens in Montreal.

Erica looking all bad-ass.

Botanical gardens.

More botanical gardens.

One more garden shot for good measure.

Dinner at Gibby's in Old Montreal. The place is an institution. I had a Parmesan/breadcrumb/dijon mustard crusted strip steak. Medium rare. Erica went with the Filet Mignon. Truly incredible.

The happy couple in the throws of a steak-gasm.

Probably the best photo I've ever taken. About 30 minutes after an intense sun-shower. The streets of Old Montreal.

Another shot I love.

Nice light.

Nice clouds.

A hungry little bird that I fed while having a pizza on Crescent street in Montreal.

The best frozen chocolate drinks of all time. Dark-chocolate orange and white-chocolate Toblerone.

The bathroom at the Soho Grand hotel in Soho, NY.

There's Italian food and then there's Angelo's on Mulberry (at Grand). Linguine alla Vongole and Rigatoni alla Vodka with chicken. Can't be beat. The oldest (and best) restaurant in Little Italy.

Us at Angelo's.

Soho. Sunday morning at about 11am.

Public garden in Soho.

Our in-room gold-fish at The Soho Grand.

The Soho Grand.

The best restaurant meal I've ever eaten. Asia de Cuba on Madison Ave at the Morgans Hotel. Strip steak in an orange seseame-soy marinade with Honeydew/Cantaloupe slaw, with chicpea fries. Unfuckingreal.

Outside of the Soho Grand.

The Chocolate Opera Cake at Asia de Cuba. It tastes as intense as it looks.

On the movie front, we saw Transformers 2 in a museum-style Imax theater and I literally shit myself in my seat. We also saw Under the Sea: 3-D at the Science Museum in Montreal. It was a blast.

Tomorrow is Public Enemies. Bruno on Tuesday.

VISUAL ORGASM

Michael Bay plays around in the biggest sandbox known to man. Transformers 2 was fucking INSANE.

QUICK BITS

I still haven't gotten around to writing full reviews (it's been a very hectic last few weeks) for The Hangover or Up, but in brief, they are two of the most satisfying movies of the year, with Up being the best I've seen so far in 2009. Here's a quick run-down of those two, plus two more I caught up with over this past weekend. Oh, and do you hear those loud foot-steps in the distance? That'd be Optimus Prime and his boys. They're coming to kick every one's ass on Wednesday.

I saw The Hangover (A) for the second time yesterday and it was just as funny as the first viewing. It's just a simple idea, executed brilliantly (for what it sets out to do), with great chemistry from the three leads (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifinakis), and huge laughs from start to finish. The pacing is brisk and efficient, it's surprisingly well-shot for a comedy (Todd Philips and d.o.p. Lawrence Sher go 2:35:1 and the results are glossy), and each performance is perfectly calibrated to play off one another. It's the best comedy that Philips has directed thus far.

Up (A+) is the best film of the year for so many reasons that I'll probably have to delve into it in a longer review in the near future. But in brief, it's nothing short of a perfect family movie, with a surprising amount of emotional depth and adult-level sophistication. Much like last year's fantastic Wall*E, Up has moments of visual poetry and narrative power that you sometimes forget you're watching an animated movie. The 3-D technique on display in Up enhances both the story and the dizzying action sequences. The opening 10 minute montage is emotionally devastating and Chaplin-esque; so much is said with so little words, with the beautifully rendered visuals telling a rich story. I loved this movie. It represents yet another gold star for Pixar. Finding Nemo, Cars (to a slightly lesser extent), The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall*E, and now Up represent an unprecedented run for an animation studio. You'd have to go back to the golden years of animation at Disney to find a time when a team of artists and storytellers were knocking them out of the park with this sort of consistency and expertise.

You gotta love Steven Soderbergh. If he's not out shooting back to back Che Guevara biopics or a star-studded and glitzy Oceans caper, he's doing small, personal, and experimental work like Schizopolis, The Good German, or Bubble. His newest feature, The Girlfriend Experience (A-), is what blogger/critic Jeffrey Wells would call a "high thread-count" movie. Everything looks sexy and richly appointed and luxurious. Less than 80 minutes and shot with a cold, detached style befitting the subject matter, Soderbergh's film examines the life of an extremely high-end escort, who is involved in a series of relationships with different types of clients, as well as a real relationship with her boyfriend. By casting adult-film star Sasha Grey as the call-girl, Soderbergh toys with audience expectations, and surprisingly, gets a focused performance out of his lead actress. The movie isn't about sex as much as it is about power and money. The film is also about the juxtaposition of jobs and careers, as Grey's character Chelsea tries to advance her brand into new areas (a website, a clothing line) as her personal-trainer-boyfriend tries to launch a line of work-out clothing while also trying to advance up the corporate ladder at his gym. Soderbergh, acting as his own cinematographer, drapes the film in sleek lighting patterns, with his camera alternately taking on documentary like angles as well as highly stylized ones. Shot over the course of a month in late October and early November of 2008, the film feels extremely "of the moment," in that many characters obsess about the crashing stock market and the volatility of the money markets. The phrase "bail-out" is uttered more than once. The semi-improvised screenplay by Brian Koppleman and David Levien (Rounders, Oceans 13) is tight and the dialogue feels very real. All of the performances carry an air of authenticity. The Girlfriend Experience is a neat little movie that only someone like Soderbergh could have pulled off.

Very briefly, Sharon Maguire's overwrought yet underdeveloped melodrama Incendiary (C) was nothing more than yet another showcase for actress Michelle Williams, who again delivers an excellent performance; too bad the script wasn't sharper. Playing an adulterous wife/mother who's son and husband are killed in a suicide bombing in London, Williams (in a very clean British accent) gets to go through a variety of emotions in this low-budget British indie. There are some steamy sex scenes (with a very naked Williams again proving she's not afraid of on-screen nudity), some interesting political ideas, and Ewan McGreggor and Matthew McFayden both lend solid support. Maguire is a better director than writer; had the script been more fleshed out the movie would have been all the better for it.

BEST SO FAR

Pete Docter’s Up (A+)
Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah (A+)
Jody Hill’s Observe and Report (A)
Henry Selick’s Coraline (A)
Tony Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 123 (A)
Todd Philips’ The Hangover (A)
Zack Snyder’s Watchmen (A-)
JJ Abrams’ Star Trek (A-)
James Gray’s Two Lovers (A-)
Neveldine/Taylor’s Crank: High Voltage (A-)

Kevin McDonald’s State of Play (A-)
Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience (A-)
Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity (B+)
Greg Mottola’s Adventureland (B+)
John Hamburg’s I Love You, Man (B+)
Tom Tywker’s The International (B)
Wayne Kramer’s Crossing Over (B)
Pierre Morel’s Taken (C)
Ken Kwapis’ He’s Just Not That Into You (C)
McG’s Terminator: Salvation (D)
Timothy Linh Bui’s Powder Blue (D)

MOVIES FOR THE WEEKEND

Sadly, nothing in the theaters for me this weekend. The Proposal looks a'ight for what it is, but it's got Netflix written all over it. Same goes with the critically destroyed Year One; I'll rent that one just to see how bad it apparently is.

From Netflix, I've got the British independent thriller Incendiary, with Michelle Williams and Ewan McGregor. It sounds cool...

However, time stops next week when Transformers 2 hits theaters; I've already got my IMAX tickets in hand.