tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17650081611155996202024-03-05T18:17:27.932-08:00Nick's PixActionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.comBlogger1731125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-50544528724466412812015-04-29T14:50:00.000-07:002015-04-29T14:50:19.112-07:00RECONSIDERED: STEVEN SODERBERGH'S KING OF THE HILL (1993)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Steven Soderbergh's King of the Hill is grotesquely
underrated, an absolutely fantastic movie that feels like a unique anomaly in
the filmmaker's eclectic oeuvre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Released in 1993, this was the indie master’s third film, after the
breakout success of the highly influential Sex, Lies, and Videotape in 1989,
which was followed up in 1991 by the little seen, black and white oddity Kafka,
which is better than its reputation suggests, but still not a 100%
success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still finding his voice as a
filmmaker at the time, King of the Hill is a painterly, 1930's set drama that
looks at the harsh realities facing a family during the Great Depression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The film would find warm critical embrace
after a rocky Cannes Film Festival debut, and was one of the first releases
from Universal's independent label Gramercy Pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>King of the Hill flopped at the box office,
grossing just over $1 million in the United States; I'm not even sure if an
international theatrical release was attempted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Featuring a cast of child actors and extremely talented character players
rather than big Hollywood stars, the film was always going to face a struggle
to get noticed, which is a shame, because this is the warmest, most emotional
movie of Soderbergh's often cold and clinical career as a filmmaker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I've long been fascinated with his lightning
quick turnaround in between projects, how he often times shoots and edits his
own features, and how he's been able to swiftly move from genre to genre
throughout the last 26 years, almost always with spectacular results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s made experimental, form-pushing movies
for himself and has also been able to play at the top ranks of the studio
level, delivering big box office when needed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Up front: I've not seen a Soderbergh movie
that I haven't liked on some sort of level, and a few of them, most notably
Schizopolis, Out of Sight, The Limey, Traffic, The Informant!, and Contagion,
are films I feel to be masterpieces for the filmmaker, and his late-career run
of Magic Mike, Haywire, and Side Effects were a total triple threat of genre skewering
brilliance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His recent work on the Cinemax
series The Knick is bold and convention breaking, infusing a period atmosphere
(a turn of the century NYC hospital) with his modern camera style and
anachronistic musical choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it's
King of the Hill that feels so remarkably different for Soderbergh as a
director, a movie that he made almost in response to his down and dirty indie
cred that he had developed on his first two features, looking to expand his
abilities and further confound his critics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A young Jesse Bradford is Aaron, a 12 year old boy who is
struggling to survive on his own in a shabby motel after his mother is sent to
a hospital for having tuberculosis, and his father is forced to hit the road as
a travelling salesman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Set in the
Midwest, King of the Hill painfully examines the disintegration of the family
unit and the crushing reality of the “American dream” for so many people during
that turbulent time period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Heartbreakingly, Aaron is also forced to say good bye to his younger
brother, who is sent off to live with moneyed relatives who thankfully offer to
lend a helping hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bradford is
extraordinary in this film, conveying desperation, hope, humility, and humor,
all sometimes within the same scene, as he learns to navigate the uncertain and
sad situation that he's found himself in. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There's one unforgettable sequence that shows
him, in an act of starvation and imagination, cutting out pictures of food
items (a chicken breast, potatoes, corn, a pad of butter) from a magazine,
which he then plates, mentally examines, and eats with a fork and knife, trying
to approximate the taste of the food through the flavorless morsels of
paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The way Soderbergh directed this
film was perfect, really.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scene after
scene of poignant drama unfolds, with moments of honest laughter spiking the
edges, and it’s a testament to Soderbergh’s involvement with the material that
the film never feels overbearing or maudlin. He also avoids cheap
sentimentality, so even when things might be taking a turn for the better, you’re
left with the implicit understanding that things could just as easily unravel
all over again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soderbergh got as close
to these characters as he's ever possibly been as a storyteller with one of his
narratives, telling a wonderfully humanist story that anyone can relate too. A teenaged
Katherine Heigl makes a strong supporting turn as Bradford's potential
girlfriend, while Jeroen Krabbe is perfectly cast as Bradford's German
immigrant father, a man who believes in the "Tough Love" school of
parenting, and while not the most trustworthy of men, he makes the case that
for all his faults, he truly loves his sons, despite doing some things that in
retrospect seem a tad harsh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Karen
Allen, Spalding Grey, Elizabeth McGovern, and a barely able to shave Adrien
Brody all round out the excellent cast with memorable, scene-stealing moments, further
underscoring Soderbergh’s inherent gift for casting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Shot on gorgeous Super 35 film by Elliot Davis and fully
utilizing the 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, Soderbergh crafted what's
undoubtedly his prettiest movie to date, a film that he feels is "too
pretty," a comment that can be heard while watching the highly informative
interview that's included on the superlative Criterion Collection Blu-ray
platter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seems curiously disappointed
with himself as a filmmaker in regards to King of the Hill, openly stating that
he wished he had shot the film in a more rough and tumble, grittier fashion,
which is more in line with his late era work and aesthetic. But I think one of
the best things about King of the Hill is how the film is overwhelmingly
beautiful at times, evoking a lost, calamitous era, with the juxtaposition of
the luscious images bouncing off the hard-scrabble nature and plight of the
characters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The production design is
supremely evocative of a long ago era, forever lost to pictures in books, with
period appropriate cars and clothes filling the frame without ever coming off
as precious or ostentatious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soderbergh
has often been a filmmaker, much like David Fincher, who likes to look back at
his work and talk about the problems that he sees and how he'd do things
differently if he were to make the movie all over again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This must be a constant source of mental
nagging and anguish for storytellers, as the best of them are always
challenging themselves to make their movies better and more artistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I don't agree with the criticisms that
he throws at himself, I can respect him for having the hunger and desire to
critically look at his own work from more than two decades ago and contemplate
what he’d like to have a chance to redesign or reinterpret.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in its current form, King of the Hill
stands as a serious, important work for Soderbergh as a craftsman, and easily rests
as one of his finest overall efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-6815217265210937012015-04-09T11:24:00.004-07:002015-04-09T11:24:58.712-07:0020TH ANNIVERSARY OF MICHAEL MANN'S MASTERPIECE HEAT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIRBymNxHcYiZGRNncKA4mnga_dq7lqWj3y-aY4Wk624PG8iIUfrrTfPhd9EU0mK1F51GC0wffiW_ti22HPxRszg-NCV0VV_PmZdO15Phu2TmgnKYEzAw0g13y4xpFgGHPovMBHaeq7GEB/s1600/Heat+Title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIRBymNxHcYiZGRNncKA4mnga_dq7lqWj3y-aY4Wk624PG8iIUfrrTfPhd9EU0mK1F51GC0wffiW_ti22HPxRszg-NCV0VV_PmZdO15Phu2TmgnKYEzAw0g13y4xpFgGHPovMBHaeq7GEB/s1600/Heat+Title.jpg" height="138" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Michael Mann's Heat represents the finest distillation of
the filmmaker's stylistic and narrative obsessions, and his ultimate
masterpiece as a storyteller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mann, a
writer/director who has often reached greatness throughout his career, appears
to be most comfortable when telling stories about crime and its effects on the
various people that surround his multilayered stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A reworking of Mann's earlier NBC movie of
the week, L.A. Takedown, Heat turns 20 years old this year, and looking back on
it, it's incredible how little it has aged, and even more remarkable to notice
how many other filmmakers have been lifting Mann's striking visual aesthetic
since the film's initial release.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Critics took Heat a bit for granted when they first encountered it, as response
was mostly positive and respectful, though not overly effusive, and while a
solid success at the box office, it didn't do massive numbers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, over the years, audiences have
turned the film into a cultural touchstone, as it represents the type of film
that rarely gets made anymore: The introspective Hollywood drama with smarts
and action that features big stars and a name director working at the top of
their games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The work that Mann had done
preceding Heat clearly influenced his decisions on his magnum crime opus, and
the films he'd go on to make in the future have all been fairly (or unfairly)
compared to this epic 1995 crime saga.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mann has found his obvious home in the crime genre, with his
name associated on TV projects (Starsky & Hutch, Police Story, Police
Woman, Miami Vice, Crime Story, and the wildly underrated Robbery Homicide
Division) and on various feature films (Collateral, Miami Vice, Public Enemies,
and Blackhat), all of which hum with a distinct personality and unified vision,
no matter in what capacity Mann served.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Part
of what differentiates Mann from other filmmakers is his unique sense of place
and dedication to realism; no matter how busy the narrative and how jargon
fueled the dialogue may be, there’s always a clear sense of how every detail
might fall into place, allowing the audience to follow the rigors of the plot
while still having the capacity to be surprised. And in Heat, there’s a level
of clarity to the story that might have been unattainable by another, less in control
filmmaker, considering just how many moving pieces are involved in making Heat
the success that it became. What I love so much about Heat is that, like James
Mangold’s 1997 policier Cop Land, the film operates as a sly, contemporary
Western, but Heat, unlike many other genre efforts, transcends the themes that
it so dutifully explores, vaulting the picture into rarefied, existential
territory that Mann always seems interested in exploring no matter the milieu. He
also managed to craft the Ultimate Los Angeles Movie, but more on that later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Not that a plot explanation should be necessary, but I’ll
break down the basics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Robert De Niro is
a master thief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Al Pacino is a master
cop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They both have dedicated crews that
will follow them anywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The city of
Los Angeles is their deadly playground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The film revolves around the notion of duality, and how the De Niro and
Pacino characters are essentially the same person, just on opposite sides of
the law, completely consumed by their work, with a constant sense of
professionalism and integrity guiding them through their perilous daily
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>De Niro assembles his team to do a
major score, the daring robbery of a bank, and it’s up to Pacino and his band
of fellow officers to bring them down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mixed into the main story are the various relationships that De Niro,
Pacino, and their men have with the women in their lives: Wives, girlfriends,
and in one instance, a step-daughter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead of just a nuts and bolts crime film, Mann opened up his generous
narrative to include real conversations between real people that drive all of
the action in a grounded, thoughtful manner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How it all ends is the stuff of cinema legend, and if you don’t know by
now I’ll allow you to discover for yourself, but I will concede that Heat
operates on multiple narrative tracks all at once, with side-jobs bringing
along potentially fatal consequences for De Niro and his men, and the
emotionally taxing rigors of having to balance your family life and your cop
life for Pacino.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">De Niro’s Neil McCauley is a criminal driven to
perfection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lives by a code: Never
become attached to something that you can’t walk out on in 30 seconds if you
spot the heat around the corner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No
wife, no family, a true lone wolf in a sharp grey suit (a costume obsession of
Mann’s for years), McCauley is the kind of man who thinks he has everything
under control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, things change when
he meets a woman who might be a reason to leave his dangerous life behind
for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She gives him a new reason to live,
or at least he thinks she does from time to time, because the way that De Niro
brilliantly plays the character, all inward quiet and small glances to suggest
intent and feeling, you never truly know what he’ll do at any given
moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know he’s pulled off vaious high-stakes
jobs with total ease and precision, but he’s not used to letting his emotional
guard down, and then when coupled with the fact that he’s got a Super Cop
looking for him, he understands the need to take decisive action in an effort
to complete his goals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is one of De
Niro’s least flashy and totally reserved performances, bringing a masculine
grace to the role of leader and friend to his teammates, and while clearly a
man capable of more than just violent action and air-tight planning, he’s still
a human being, capable of making emotionally misguided mistakes which could
prove to be his undoing.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Pacino’s Vincent Hanna, Mann has created an amazing
dichotomy between the MacCauley character, because while both men certainly
share similar traits and attributes, the recklessness of the Hanna character is
what allows him to constantly move throughout the night, always trying to one
up his stealth opponent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pacino brings a
live-wire spark to the role of this driven detective, hollering out orders at
his underlings, busting down doors, always ready to mix it up with an
opponent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While listening to the Blu-ray
audio commentary with Mann, it’s revealed that he had written a casually under control
cocaine habit into the Hanna character, which would help explain the sudden
outbursts of energy and profanity, as well as all of the jaw chomping that he
exhibits all throughout the film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m ot
fully sure why this angle was cut out of the film (I guess it cuts down on the
sympathy factor for the character), but I really do wish that Mann had kept
this edgy bit of business in the final cut, as it would have further
contextualized Hanna as a man of steady habits and unpredictable behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pacino, no stranger to large emoting,
especially during the 90’s in films such as Scent of a Woman and The Devil’s
Advocate, chews the scenery when called for, but also allows small moments of
stern quiet to seep in around the edges. He’s a man who is always assessing the
situation, whether on the job or at home, and it’s the way that Pacino burrows
deep into Hanna as a man that we come to understand the method to his
madness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also find it curious how Mann
introduces his top-cop character at the start of the film, during a morning
lovemaking session with his wife, as opposed to on the streets chasing down
some bad guy. Romance is another aspect that Mann's films always deal with, and
the way that Pacino balances his home life and professional life is of key
consequence to his character and the story in general.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The romantic angle and the film’s concentration on the
female characters also help separate Heat from lesser genre entries. Not
content to tell an all-boys story with guns and explosions, Mann, as he’s been
prone to do in the past, allows for the leads to have personal relationships
which amp up the narrative tension and reason for being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>McCauley meets an enchanting young woman who
he feels might be worth running away with (a super young Amy Brenneman), and it
isn’t until the film’s final moments where you learn his ultimate decisions
regarding their unique relationship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This relationship takes the normally rigorously disciplined McCauley out
of his comfort zone, which allows for shards of humanity to creep in around the
edges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hanna, meanwhile, is a two time
divorcee who is in the middle of an about to fail marriage (Diane Venora is his
sharp witted wife); it’s clear that he can’t keep things on the up and up at
home while still traversing the streets of Los Angeles looking for all of the
city’s transgressors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The scenes between
Pacino and Venora have a palpable tension, because while they clearly loved
each other once, they are so obviously drifting away from each other, and their
confrontations carry a verbal weight and sting that elevates the material from
mere soap opera to fully fleshed-out human dramatics. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To further complicate Hanna’s life, his
mentally unstable stepdaughter (played by a then emerging star Nathalie
Portman) also looms over the proceedings, creating a sense of unease that
becomes essential to one aspect of the script.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In retrospect, Heat does sort of resemble a male soap opera of sorts, as
the two lead characters are emotionally stunted and need to sort out their
issues through a variety of ways, some involving words, and others involving action.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Heat has action peppered all throughout the runtime, but the
film’s opening set-piece, involving the robbery of an armored truck, and
unfortunate execution of the truck’s owners, immediately grabs the viewer by
the throat, never letting you up for air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>De Niro and his team orchestrate the perfect smash and grab, stealing
only what they need, and leaving hardly a trace of evidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the scene that everyone loves to discuss
and re-watch is arguably the greatest single sequence of action ever put on
film, the robbery of a downtown Los Angeles bank in broad daylight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This bravura sequence is nothing short of
staggering, with very few (if any) other films capturing the same sense of
immediacy and violent impact throughout the years, no matter how hard they try,
Mann included (the gun battles in Public Enemies, Miami Vice, and Blackhat are
terrific and at times extraordinary, but none match the rawness of what was
captured in Heat).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While never overly
bloody, the street rampage is filled with all sorts of deadly implications,
from numerous police officers and innocent bystanders being killed in the
crossfire, and various members of De Niro’s crew either getting hurt or
killed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thousands of rounds of
ammunition were expended during this blistering sequence of sustained fury,
with the sensational sound team capturing every single bullet strike and muzzle
blast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mann saves the bloodiest bits of
violence for the moments that really count (Waingro, Van Sandt, the climatic
moments between McCauley and Hanna), so that when we see someone go down hard
and viciously, we feel it all the more rather than everything being a senseless
blur of unending graphic violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a
filmmaker, Mann knows more about what to show and when to show it than few
other currently working directors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPmtFsSRGsMfcDqwGXrd4S7Klz7UVL-4ZDY_4XSWyEd-9FuxkEfUSJBCKLElFT77AL2gg8M3v5UHnBtvYXSDEOwDTNyTxlYcqC4MW0Q5qh4iCTVI9iT89P_faJUJpGs8diCsanm2gP3YN/s1600/Heat+final+shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPmtFsSRGsMfcDqwGXrd4S7Klz7UVL-4ZDY_4XSWyEd-9FuxkEfUSJBCKLElFT77AL2gg8M3v5UHnBtvYXSDEOwDTNyTxlYcqC4MW0Q5qh4iCTVI9iT89P_faJUJpGs8diCsanm2gP3YN/s1600/Heat+final+shot.jpg" height="128" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The cinematography, editing, music, and production design
are all in total harmonious synch in Heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Dante Spinotti's naturalistic if at times slightly heightened images, in
full 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, fill the edges of the frame with visual
information and precise detail, with Mann's
"always-looking-into-the-future-of-the-night" style mixing with
Spinotti's elegant use of color and depth of field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shots are framed a tad off center, with the
character’s heads filling the foreground or background or side of frame, almost
so that the camera is entering the minds of the story’s inhabitants, creating a
lyrical and thought provoking tone that suggests a cerebral nature as much as
it does anything else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The physical
locations chosen for Heat showcase Los Angeles in all of its ethnically diverse
and cement-sexy splendor, with the vapors of street lamps bouncing off the flat
street surfaces, as industrial landscapes dot the horizon, with parking
garages, empty lots and fields, side-streets, and the vast expanses of the
city's various skyscrapers and office buildings suggesting endless
possibilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then there’s the
amazing music, which ranges from ambient to grand, sweeping to soft, always in
perfect tandem with the bright daytime and dark nocturnal images on screen,
with some Miami Vice-inspired guitar riffs for those paying close attention. Heat
is a nearly three hour picture, but because of the crispness and the
judiciously timed editing, the film never sags or allows itself to slow down;
once the story kicks into gear it never lets up, with a final hour that packs
various dramatic conflict and incident into the narrative yet never feels
rushed or forced. The swift pace created by the seamless editing patterns goes
a long way in keeping this lengthy but forceful film moving along, with Mann
pulling all the elements together in a way that few could ever have when it
comes to material such as this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjrFJKgguNg7dO0okBUxBOF5T1sOu38nvB-BaoFd16mv84IPV8eA9rn5p1cbdXaDf-QG-ODd6_QK_j24Tx7APdo1YQwn1_xERImxg7RZnSMhti5QS0UQ1ZueSfc5C3FxjDYvOkrxmY-M78/s1600/Mann+credit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjrFJKgguNg7dO0okBUxBOF5T1sOu38nvB-BaoFd16mv84IPV8eA9rn5p1cbdXaDf-QG-ODd6_QK_j24Tx7APdo1YQwn1_xERImxg7RZnSMhti5QS0UQ1ZueSfc5C3FxjDYvOkrxmY-M78/s1600/Mann+credit.jpg" height="147" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">At
the end of it, Heat is a film that is consumed with the professionalism and the
costs of committing 100% to any area of life, but in this story, that area of
life is the criminal vs. the cop. And during the film’s electric final moments
of action at a busy LAX and in the galvanizing final scene accompanied by
Moby’s epic and poetic song God Moving Over The Face of The Waters, you get the
sense that Mann has crafted two characters that, while resting on opposite
sides of the law, have come to mutually respect each other as men and as
adversaries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It all goes back to their
fantastic meeting at the coffee shop at the film’s midsection, and how the two
of them look clear into each other eyes and tell one another that the life
they’re living is the only life they know how to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than any other great piece of work from
Mann, Heat is his definitive masterpiece of filmmaking, the A-1 end result of
all of his ticks and tendencies as a storyteller, filtered through that indelible
and totally dynamic visual aesthetic that has subtly morphed over the years
while still retaining its core elements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s a film that I remain blown away by every single time I take in a
viewing, and I love how I can vividly recall the first time I experienced it on
the big screen with my father back in my high school days; I had a second
opportunity to see the film on the big screen with Mann doing live Q&A (he
took a break from editing duties on Ali to run over to LACMA for the
screening).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heat will always be one of
my favorite films of all time, for so many reasons, not the least of which, is
that, simply put, it is great, enduring cinema that stirs the soul. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-24067480400223990622015-02-22T10:48:00.002-08:002015-02-22T10:48:41.126-08:002014 OSCAR PREDICTIONS AND FAVORITESHere's who I think WILL win and who I think SHOULD win out of what was nominated for this year's Academy Awards:<br />
<br />
BEST PICTURE<br />
Will Win: Birdman<br />
Should Win: Boyhood<br />
<br />
BEST DIRECTOR<br />
Will Win: Richard Linklater<br />
Should Win: Richard Linklater<br />
<br />
BEST ACTOR<br />
Will Win: Eddie Redmayne<br />
Should Win: Michael Keaton<br />
<br />
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR<br />
Will Win: J.K. Simmons<br />
Should Win: J.K. Simmons<br />
<br />
BEST ACTRESS<br />
Will Win: Julianne Moore<br />
Should Win: Rosamund Pike <br />
full disclosure: haven't seen the performances from Moore and Cotillard<br />
<br />
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS<br />
Will Win: Patricia Arquette<br />
Should Win: Emma Stone<br />
full disclosure: haven't seen Meryl Streep's performance<br />
<br />
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY<br />
Will Win: The Grand Budapest Hotel<br />
Should Win: Boyhood<br />
<br />
BEST ADAPATED SCREENPLAY<br />
Will Win: Whiplash<br />
Should Win: Inherent Vice<br />
<br />
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM<br />
Will Win: Ida<br />
Should Win: X<br />
full disclosure: sadly, haven't seen any of the nominated films<br />
<br />
BEST ANIMATED FILM<br />
Will Win: How to Train Your Dragon 2<br />
Should Win: X<br />
full disclosure: haven't see any of them. disgraceful that The Lego Movie isn't here<br />
<br />
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS<br />
Will Win: Interstellar<br />
Should Win: Interstellar<br />
<br />
BEST FILM EDITING<br />
Will Win: Boyhood<br />
Should Win: Boyhood<br />
<br />
BEST SOUND EDITING<br />
Will Win: America Sniper<br />
Should Win: Interstellar (though I'd be TOTALLY fine if Sniper takes it)<br />
<br />
BEST SOUND MIXING<br />
Will Win: America Sniper<br />
Should Win: Interstellar (though I'd be TOTALLY fine if Sniper takes it)<br />
<br />
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN<br />
Will Win: The Grand Budapest Hotel<br />
Should Win: Interstellar<br />
full disclosure: haven't seen Into the Woods or Mr. Turner<br />
<br />
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY<br />
Will Win: Birdman<br />
Should Win: Birdman<br />
full disclosure: haven't seen Mr. Turner<br />
<br />
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE<br />
Will Win: The Theory of Everything<br />
Should Win: Interstellar<br />
full disclosure: haven't seen Mr. Turner<br />
<br />
BEST ORIGINAL SONG<br />
Will Win: Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me<br />
Should Win: Begin Again<br />
full disclosure: haven't seen Beyond the Lights or Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me<br />
<br />
BEST COSTUME DESIGN<br />
Will Win: The Grand Budapest Hotel<br />
Should Win: The Grand Budapest Hotel<br />
<br />
BEST MAKE-UP<br />
Will Win: The Grand Budapest Hotel<br />
Should Win: Guardians of the Galaxy<br />
<br />
BEST DOCUMENTARY<br />
Will Win: Citizenfour<br />
Should Win: X<br />
full disclosure: sadly, haven't seen any of the nominated efforts<br />
<br />
BEST SHORT FILM ANIMATED (BLIND GUESS)<br />
The Dam Keeper<br />
<br />
BEST SHORT FILM LIVE ACTION (BLIND GUESS)<br />
Parvaneh<br />
<br />
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT (BLIND GUESS)<br />
JoannaActionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-82262918077192416652015-02-19T07:34:00.002-08:002015-02-19T07:34:52.071-08:002014 IN REVIEW: 25 FAVORITES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggBfTdIkt1MmsbSNnnNd0ON4TmKDGbFgrwkAbZTx3RTlNQsaE04QS4GcVX_FBOzje0fnQcDpvJ0zt_4gZyeBUApQoQQagtLjijGgmkKrwTgIqXrtX0bs_grzXX3ql-VKhdTJ_NOc9NTDD7/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggBfTdIkt1MmsbSNnnNd0ON4TmKDGbFgrwkAbZTx3RTlNQsaE04QS4GcVX_FBOzje0fnQcDpvJ0zt_4gZyeBUApQoQQagtLjijGgmkKrwTgIqXrtX0bs_grzXX3ql-VKhdTJ_NOc9NTDD7/s1600/6.jpg" height="174" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Under the Skin is as singular as cinema gets, and out of
every movie from 2014, it’s the one that keeps begging for more viewings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And like Kurbrick’s 2001: A Space Odyseey,
Under the Skin dares to show a new and startling science-fiction tableaux that appeals
to the mind just as much as it does to the eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is an endlessly debatable and extremely
challenging movie, forcing the viewer to draw their own conclusions in order to
form the complete story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Glazer believes
in the power of cinematic obfuscation, which can drive people crazy, but for
me, makes all three of his works beyond fascinating and immediately ripe for
reinterpretation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The unpredictability
of Under the Skin and the way it constantly subverts our expectations is what compels
the most, and because so much is left for the viewer to put together, anyone's
guess of what's transpired isn't exactly wrong. Mental mind-trick cinema isn't
new, as filmmakers have been tormenting their audiences for years with
narrative reversals and late- in-the-game twists. But what's so unique and
ultimately haunting about Under the Skin is the way Glazer makes us examine the
human condition and our constant desire for primal lust, and why we're all so
drawn to outward beauty but repelled by the sight of anything different or
potentially otherworldly. Because the film operates in reverse fashion from
what we're used to seeing in mainstream cinema (it spoils nothing to reveal
that the film is about a female alien in human disguise preying on unfortunate
male victims), we're forced to see why the male cinematic gaze is so powerful
and hardened when it's put into opposite context. Casting Scarlet Johansson as
a lethal predator in sheep's clothing was a stroke of genius because of what
she, as a human being, has come to represent in our culture: The Most Desirable
Woman, but here, she's an unremorseful, icily detached killer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when Scarlet’s alien starts to learn more
about humanity, and starts to add up all of the unique experiences that
she’s(?) had, the movies reaches some startling conclusions about how our
brains operate and why we do the things that we do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This film is one surprise after another, both
on a visual and narrative level, and some of the sights and sounds on display
will remain in your head long after the movie is over. The cinematography in
this film is beyond transfixing and each shot should be endlessly celebrated.
Under the Skin is the sort of film that rewards with multiple viewings, and now
having seen it roughly five times, I can easily that that I’ve picked something
new up each time, and each viewing has informed and improved upon the
last.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I simply cannot get the images
from the final moments of Under the Skin off the brain-pan. This is an
endlessly inquisitive film that gets richer the more one experiences it. And
given our current cookie-cutter studio system that keeps shoveling out the same
“product” each and every month, it’s bracing to see a vision this stark and
seemingly uncompromised end up on the big screen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Glazer spent roughly a decade working on this
film from the planning and scriptwriting stages all the way through production,
music, and post-production.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Micha Levi’s
brazenly creepy score exemplifies the film’s title, burying deep within the
viewer, keeping them unsettled for the entire running time. Contemplative
science-fiction will always be one of my favorite cinematic cups of tea, and I
knew when I first saw this unqualified masterpiece it would remain as my
Favorite Film of 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Birdman is totally amazing and distractingly brilliant. But
don’t tell Birdman that!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’ll spread
his wings, let out a roar, and get ultra pissed-off! This is an uncontrollably
original and all together brilliant piece of outraged filmmaking, the type of
movie that pounces on the opportunity to bite the hand that’s feeding it, all
in an effort to explore movies and art and creativity as a whole, while
debating the notion of what constitutes “Great Art” in both an emotional and
visceral fashion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The positively overwhelming
cinematography makes you feel like you’re high as a kite and free-form-floating
from scene to scene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How it all comes
together feels very 8 ½ and Fellini in general, and I love the fact that it’s
probably the most expensive art-film ever crafted with flights of fancy that
just need to be seen to be fully believed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Birdman is a poison pen letter to the conventions of cranked-out
Hollywood cinema and a massive Fuck You to the Hollywood Superhero Machine,
something that’s been coming for a while now. And yet Alejandro Gonzalez
Innaritu’s movie was fully funded by the Hollywood machine (20th Century Fox)
and felt totally uncompromised which just makes me laugh – every now and again
an artist sneaks one by the bean counters and it’s wild to behold (works like
Punch Drunk Love and I Heart Huckabees and Synecdoche, NY and Eternal Sunshine
of the Spotless Mind all come to mind when mulling over Birdman).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a movie about movies and Broadway and
actors and directors and about the challenges of creating and about how we’re
never as good as we think we are, and never as good as we want to be. I haven’t
even attempted a traditional plot description, because, well, there’s nothing
traditional about this ultra-ambitious, and scaldingly funny black comedy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One sharp line after another of caustic,
self-referential but never overly precious dialogue after rolls out of the
various character’s acid-tinged mouths, and in tandem with the near constant
percussive drumming score, it’s the sort of assaultive work that you’re able to
get totally lost inside of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
perfectly calibrated performances from a sterling cast of A-listers (Michael
Keaton MUST win the Oscar as this is the performance of a lifetime) are all in
perfect harmony with one another, as Emma Stone, Edward Norton, and Naomi Watts
truly cut loose, giving bold and passionate performances. The entire endeavor
feels like some sort of cinematic high-wire act where all participants shot for
the moon and nailed the landing with sarcastically poetic grace. Birdman is an
embarrassment of cinematic riches. But please, I beg you, don’t tell Birdman
ANY of this stuff. Otherwise, he’ll come after me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And all of us…<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What I love so much about Christopher Nolan’s breathtaking
and gorgeous sci-fi journey Interstellar is the seemingly unlimited imagination
that it seems to possess. The birth of the anti-blockbuster is here with this
visually astonishing, thought provoking science-fiction epic which feels like
the most expensive “indie” blockbuster ever made, a $165 million production
based on an original idea, one that never feels like a pre-determined,
manufactured “product” that’s eager to sell toys and video games and
lunchboxes. There’s no “made by committee” feeling here, and I applaud the fact
that it offers the audience very little in the way of traditionally overt
“fun,” instead placing an enormous emphasis on ideas and hard-science and
hypothetical thought, while still telling an intimate and emotionally gripping
story that’s relatable, honest, and impactful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nolan, often labeled cold and humorless by his critics, has made his
wittiest, most heartfelt movie yet with Interstellar, and it’s in his expert
and patient blending of the earth-bound dramatics and the life or death stakes
in the cosmos that an enormously involving story is crafted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anchored by an immensely appealing and dead-serious
movie-star performance from Matthew McConaughey, (the sort of role Tom Cruise
would’ve been asked to do 10-15 years ago), Interstellar takes its time but
never feels its length (it’s close to three hours), allowing the first act on
earth to breathe and take shape before we blast off. After a brilliant jump-cut
from the back of a speeding pick-up truck to the fiery rocket engines of the
shuttle, we’re in the vast reaches of space, heading for Saturn and beyond,
with wormholes and black holes and new dimensions and galaxies to explore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our Earth can no longer sustain itself and
it’s up to a brave crew of three astronauts to traverse the galaxy in the hopes
of finding a habitable planet, thus ensuring the continuation of the human
race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be honest, the less that’s
spoiled about this trickily involving narrative the better, because as with all
of Nolan films, there’s layer upon layer that will be open to dissection,
interpretation and surprise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are
shades of 2001 and Contact and Primer all felt throughout, but Interstellar is
definitely its own thing, operating on a massive canvass and utilizing
top-flight craft contributions from everyone in the top-flight crew. The
jaw-dropping cinematography is by Hoyte Van Hoytema (Her, Tinker Tailor Solider
Spy, Let the Right One In) and each shot is worthy of the pause button, with
the IMAX format allowing for some incredible vistas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The flawless and seamless special effects are
used to propel the story, not as a story-telling crutch, but the most
impressive aspect to Interstellar may just be how much was done practically and
in-camera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, no spoilers, but this
is an intensely beautiful movie at times, with images that will simultaneously
thrill and haunt the viewer, and I’d suspect filmmakers like Jonathan Glazer
and Terrence Malick will go bananas for this otherworldly, cosmic trip. But
most importantly, as a filmmaker, Nolan seems incapable of not engaging his
audience on a cerebral level every time he gets behind the camera. The last 30
minutes are as mind-bending as it’s going to get for big-budget cinema, with
the narrative constantly coming around on itself again and again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as usual, Nolan sends you out of the
theater, yet again, looking to converse with people about what you’ve all just
collectively experienced. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Viewing number
two of the film only reinforced how I felt after my first viewing – this is
Nolan’s most accomplished effort to date.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is an overwhelming space epic, and the more one watches it, the
more emotionally involving the film will become.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wormhole and black-hole segments are
filmmaking at its most bravura, literally taking you to places that you will
never, ever see with your own eyes. Hans Zimmer's magisterial score is one for
the ages, possibly the greatest of his already legendary career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interstellar is a gloriously trippy and
brain-teasing ride through the cosmos and beyond. As a filmmaker, where does
Nolan go from here?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t possibly
imagine but I absolutely can’t wait to find out.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Just as great, troubling American war films from our past
(Coming Home, The Deer Hunter, Platoon, Casualties of War) that were scorned by
some during their initial release, Clint Eastwood’s bold and bluntly powerful
anti-war statement American Sniper has become a lightning rod for our
society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No longer “just a movie,” it’s
a legitimate cultural phenomenon; you’ve either seen this important, devastating
film and you can join the conversation, or, for whatever reason, you haven’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a film that will leave its mark on
you and one way or another, and it’s doubtful you’ll leave the theater
unaffected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might make you
angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might make you cry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might make you feel empowered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve all been living through the war in the
Middle East for quite some time now, some of us for our entire lives, and it’s
shaped our society, our world, and our future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like any politically resonant piece of work to come out of Hollywood,
audiences are going to show up with their own agenda at hand, bringing their own
ideologies into the theater.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And what
they’ll see on screen in America Sniper is anything but simple and easy to
digest, but rather, it’s a subtly complicated film about the horrors and impact
of violence on one’s psyche, and a sobering reminder of how there are those of
us out there willing to lay it all on the line in the name of their country. </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’d like to point to the integral scene in American Sniper
where Kyle is justifiably horrified by the collapsing twin towers, and you see
his emotional response to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For many
people with an already gung-ho, patriotic up-bringing, this was a seminal event
in their lives – a call to action and a reason to enlist in the military.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes – from the movie – it's made clear that
the attack on America on 9/11 is what drove Kyle to finally join the
military.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what’s the problem with
that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This exact same thing happened all
across our country in the days and weeks post 9/11 – these men and women, for
the most part, wanted to serve the country professionally and have done so
proudly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why are people ignorant to the
idea that an attack on our country would have spurred some people to act?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again - Kyle was sent to Iraq by our military
- he didn't walk up to someone and say: "Iraqi's flew planes into the
towers, let’s go kill Iraqis!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was
fed lies by his government and military about Iraq.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t create the “intel” – he followed
orders and was asked to do stuff that very few people have the intestinal fortitude
to carry out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why is it that tons of
people seem to forget that soldiers don’t get to pick their deployments. Unless
I’m way off base here and then do and if that’s the case then I’m sorry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’d just be news to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of the anti-war subtext is right there in
the film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s just that Eastwood knows
how to do it without obviously ladling it on for viewers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For me, there is no such thing as “too soon” when it comes to
thoughtful explorations of our darkest hours in history via the cinema.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When United 93 and World Trade Center were
released in 2005, I can remember a chorus of “too soon” and “No!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it never made sense to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we supposed to ignore these things that
happen to us in the real world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we
to set them aside and just focus on empty-calorie entertainment that, while
entertaining in the moment, leaves no lasting impression?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The war film is one of the most important
genres in Hollywood, and some of our very best filmmakers have made some of their
very best films exploring the futility of war and the inherent warrior spirit
that some of us have deep within ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>American Sniper joins the ranks as one of the best, most tough-minded,
and most subtly provocative entries that has come out of the Hollywood studio
system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the Iraq war film that
Hollywood has been toying with making for the last few years. </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">American Sniper is a masterpiece. Clint Eastwood has an
inherent understanding of the power of violence, and with this staggering
anti-war statement, he's crafted one of the best films of the genre, standing
alongside greats such as Platoon, Casualties of War, Black Hawk Down, Paths of
Glory, The Thin Red Line, The Hurt Locker, and Saving Private Ryan. Eastwood
shows the absolute terror and horror of war while also proudly paying tribute
to the Warrior Few, the men who are willing to put themselves in harm's way and
do the unthinkable. Very similar in spirit to last year's gut-wrenching Lone
Survivor, American Sniper plunges the viewer into the chaos of violent conflict
and near constant action. Eastwood's connection to the image of the gun and the
seriousness of death is something that this film benefits from. Bradley Cooper
delivers easily the finest work of his career; this is a quietly devastating
piece of acting, and in scene after scene, you see the anguished pain that this
many must have felt every time he looked down the scope of his rifle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taking a life can’t be easy, and Cooper
infuses his character with sorrowful notes that deepens the character and
allows the audience to undertand the pain he was going through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kyle was a solider, like so<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>many, who always felt the need to be doing
something – anything – for his comrades, and if it wasn’t covering them from
afar at an elevated spot as the grunts kicked the doors down on the city level
with no idea of what awaited them on the other side, he was more than happy to
talk with returning soldiers suffering from immense bouts of PTSD, something
that America Sniper casually but forcefully suggests is the true evil in this
new-fangled “war on terror.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sienna Miller should have gotten a Supporting
Actress nomination for her forceful work as Kyle’s wife back at home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the sort of role we’ve seen countless
times, but here, under Eastwood’s sensitive direction, Miller is able to hit
grace notes not previously afforded to other actresses who have taken on
similar roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The entire physical
production is extraordinary and fully believable. The sound effects are
stunning as is the entire sound design in general, and Tom Stern's patient,
un-showy cinematography captures every horrifying moment with supreme precision
and clarity. Jason Hall's screenplay is on-target, free of speechifying, and
wholly gripping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this viewer,
American Sniper will easily stand the test of time, and when the dust settles,
will be seen for what it is: a sad reminder of what’s become of our world and a
further demonstration of the powerful and dehumanizing effects of violence that
can take hold of so many people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Foxcatcher is as chilling as true-crime cinema can get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The vice-grip direction from the extremely
erudite filmmaker Bennett Miller in tandem with a supremely intelligent screenplay
fashioned with scalpel-sharp dialogue from Dan Futterman and E. Max Frye creates
a film that is unshakeable and grim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Funereal in tone and sad to the core,
Foxcatcher is a richly textured a masterpiece of filmmaking and storytelling,
daring to explore America at its worst, never cheapening anything during its
all-consuming, slow-burn runtime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
film will be massively off-putting for many people – a true bitter pill – but
for those who have cinema running through their veins, this is the equivalent
of a five course meal at a Michelin rated restaurant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the clear and clean screenplay at his
disposal, Miller captures the dark, rotted soul of the corrupted male psyche,
utilizing a cold and detached directorial aesthetic that fully absorbs the
audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Greig Fraser’s quiet,
measured, and totally unassuming cinematography unfolds in a deliberately
patient fashion; I was blown away by the unnerving quality of Foxcatcher, as
Fraser and Miller use empty visual space to convey the alienation of everyone
in the narrative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The performances are
astounding with the big-three trio of Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, and Mark
Ruffalo providing transformative work, anchoring this exceedingly gripping tale
of obsession, paranoia, ritualistic sport behavior, and blunt, psychological
turmoil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carrell imbues self-professed
“patriot” John Dupont (ex-heir to the Dupont family fortune who hosted the 1988
wrestling team at his estate) with a staggering false sense of importance and
pride; his consistent uttering that he’s “helping America” is one of the
creepiest elements to the character of Dupont, and something that Carell does
so well in the film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fact that when
you see Carell in this film and you never once think of Michael Scott from The
Office – that’s a testament to how deep Carell went in his portrayal; the rest
of his work as an actor will be judged against his menacing turn in
Foxcatcher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s a sociopath to the
extreme, bordering on outright psychopath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yet, nobody calls him on it, none of his handlers or business managers
or associates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because, had they raised
concerns, they wouldn’t have gotten paid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And, as I see it, one of the many key themes of Foxcatcher is just that
– how much is a person’s life worth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s a crime that Tatum wasn’t talked-up for Best Actor because, for me,
he’s Carrel’s equal in every way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using
his already physically intimidating body to maximum effect as 1984 Olympic
wrestling gold medalist Mark Schultz, his jaw jutted out, with a shuffle of a
walk, Tatum forces the viewer to confront this socially awkward character head
on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s a man in the shadow of his
brother, fellow gold medal winning wrestler Dave Schultz, having never grown up
with the love of a father, looking for something – anything – to latch
onto.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ruffalo plays Dave Schultz as a
good and decent family man, and as always, is astonishingly natural, never
hitting a false note, always nailing the little details just as much as the big
scenes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the film progresses, you
watch as he begins to possibly understand the madness that he’s allowed himself
to become a part of. The scene with Ruffalo being coached by the documentary
filmmaker to say that he loved Du Pont and that Du Point was his mentor has got
to be one of the more upsetting movie moments of the year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Foxcatcher builds towards its inevitable
conclusion, one is left with the impression that Miller wants us to examine the
very fibers of what it means to be a “winner,” and how people of high-net worth
and little actual talent delude themselves into thinking that they are somehow
entitled to greatness, without having to earn it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a phenomenally layered and erudite
piece of work that chills to the bone.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pauline Kael once said something along the lines of: “Great
movies are rarely perfect movies.” If she were around today, she’d hopefully
think that Whiplash is both great and perfect, because after only one viewing,
I’m pretty much convinced that it’s a flawless piece of great cinema.,
something that couldn’t possibly be improved upon, made with exacting care and
precision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Writer/director Damien
Chazelle has made one of the most promising debut features in recent memory,
demonstrating commanding technique and a raw understanding of how to ruthlessly
move your narrative forward without shortchanging character and emotion and
depth. Led by two of the best performances of the year from Miles Teller and
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash tells the laser-focused story of a determined college
drumming prodigy (Teller) and his psychotically passionate band instructor
played with fierce force by J.K. Simmons (chaneling R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal
Jacket), who will stop at nothing in order to bring greatness out of his
students. I will spoil no more about the twists and turns that the high-voltage
story takes but I will allow this: there’s not a false moment to be had at any
point during the two crisp hours that the story unfolds. To say that Chazelle
has been influenced by Full Metal Jacket would be an understatement; Whiplash
feels like a war movie, from Simmons’s intensely verbal (and vulgar) taunts to
the fetishizing of the instruments and the obsessive details of rehearsals and
recitals. This is clearly a world that Chazelle feels in his bones and he’s
made a picture that grabs you from frame one and never lets you go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sharone Meir’s dynamic and agile
cinematography gets up close and personal to the all of the musical action,
bringing the viewer one step closer to the loud and rhythmic world on display. It
goes well beyond being just another Mean Teacher Movie because of the way that
Chazelle explores the psyches of his stop-at-nothing-to-achieve-greatness
characters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whiplash is about striving for greatness,
never losing sight of the task at hand, and how certain people have an almost
obsessive desire to always be perfect, no matter what’s being asked of them. And
just wait for the dazzling and utterly impeccable final shot – it’s the best
single shot I’ve seen all year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any
movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not just because of how it looks
visually, but for what it suggests thematically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a wowser of a cinematic moment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Boyhood is a once-in-a-lifetime-movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For everyone involved:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Richard Linklater, his crew, his cast, the
studios who funded it, and the audience watching it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other films have dabbled in this “shoot for a
small period of time over a number of years” style (Apted’s Up series and
Winterbottom’s Everyday immediately come to mind) but nothing is like Boyhood
whatsoever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a scripted narrative
drama, using the same actors over the course of 12 years, where Linklater and
the cast and crew met for one week per year, every year, in an effort to
chronicle and trials and tribulations of a boy, his sister, and his single
mother, as they navigate all manner of tricky waters, in an effort to create a
home for themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doesn’t matter what
your race, religion, or gender is – I dare you to watch this movie and not find
at least ONE thing about it that mirrors your own life, and whether it’s a big
or small moment in the film that reminds of you something personal, Boyhood is
that unique project that will mean something different to all who experience
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a nearly three hour story
told in linear fashion (albeit with a ton of jump-cutting, obviously), and it
carries the same relaxed, unhurried, and observational style that all of
Linklater’s films have employed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s
the least show-offy director I can think of, and while I wouldn’t call his
directorial aesthetic bland, I love how he refuses to call attention to himself
as a filmmaker; his graciousness as an artists can be felt in every department
of the filmmaking process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of the
performances are a joy to behold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
watch as Ellar Coltrane ages 12 years, effortlessly, right before your eyes,
and Patricia Arquette is worthy of all of the acclaim she’s received thus far,
etching an unfortgettable portrait of a woman trying to right by her children,
while still trying to maintain her own life and grasping on to the things she
finds important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ethan Hawke, a regular
Linklater collaborator, is perfectly cast as the “here one minute and gone the
next” father to Arquette’s children, and the way he interacts with Coltrane and
Lorelai Linklater (the director’s daughter playing the daughter in the film)
has a familiar ease that’s refreshing and candid; you feel as if you’re
watching a father talk with his own children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And that’s why Boyhood is so special of a movie – it’s free of artifice,
and instead of taking a potentially gimmicky narrative conceit (ahem, The
Artist, ahem…) and not doing much with it except creating an homage to what’s
come before, Linklater expands upon the form, telling his story in the most
unique manner possible, and cementing his reputation as one of the most
underrated filmmakers of the last 20 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While it’s not my absolute favorite films of the year, I’d love to see
Boyhood win Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars, if for no other
reason than that the movie is a milestone for the form, and Linklater has been
paying his dues, making very good if not great movies consistently with little
to no acclaim being thrown in his direction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you’re searching for two perfect hours of fully
transporting cinema then look no further than the Swedish import Force Majeure.
It’s a devastating masterpiece, slyly satirical, aesthetically unnerving,
deeply emotional, and incredibly powerful, with icy-cold cinematography that
would make Michael Haneke giggle with sadistic joy. Director Ruben Östlund is
unknown to me; it’s now time to search for anything else he’s made and to
actively look out for his name in the future. This is the sort of dark,
disturbing look at marriage that will be seen as a psychological endurance test
for some viewers, but for others, it will serve as a caustically funny and
penetrating glimpse at a relationship under extreme pressure. It’s ironic that
both Force Majeure and Gone Girl would come out in the same year, but after
seeing the former, the latter feels all the more like a beautifully appointed
cartoon in comparison. The two films seek to disrupt the notion of the “perfect
marriage,” with Gone Girl taking a trip down the Grand Guginol highway, and
Force Majeure taking a more elevated, cerebral approach to the highly dramatic
proceedings. The film centers on the perfect Swedish couple with their two
perfect children. They are vacationing at an uber-perfect French ski resort
that’s literally carved out of a post-card-perfect mountain. Money is no
object, everyone’s happy, everyone’s in love. Then, while the family is having
an outdoor lunch, they are witness to a controlled avalanche, which suddenly
becomes less controlled than the resort probably ever anticipated. The
narrative thrust of Force Majeure centers on the exact moments when the
avalanche reaches the family and how both the husband and wife react in a
moment of crisis. This movie will make you question what you’d do in the same
situation, and there’s a dark wit that permeates so much of this movie which
results in a severely biting tone that’s both arresting and unique. Using
classical musical cues to heighten individual scenes and shooting in 2.35:1
widescreen via mostly long and medium shots, Force Majeure has an overwhelming
visual and sonic beauty that fills in the gaps when there’s long stretches of
silence, of which there are many. This is a haunting, quiet, totally masterful
exercise in filmmaking, one that is worthy of multiple viewings. The end
sequence is sweaty-palms-brilliant, true white-knuckle stuff, and the final act
on the part of one of the characters makes the entire movie all the more rich
and priceless.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">James Gray’s The Immigrant is the masterpiece that got away
from 2014.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Weinsteins should be
ashamed of themselves for the embarrassing way they treated this movie – it’s
like they thought they had a dud on their hands they pretended that it didn’t
exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s better than pretty much
every other movie they put their company logo on in 2014, and over time, I
truly hope it attains the status it deserves as a brilliant, completely
consuming work of American historical art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every single shot in The Immigrant is worthy of museum placement.
Legendary cinematographer Darius Khondji (Seven, Evita) is a visual genius, and
the way he plays with light is a marvel to behold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Engrossing doesn't cover it as this work of
art overwhelms you with both epic and intimate details. It's easily the best,
most fully realized work from Gray, and he's made some great movies (Little
Odessa, The Yards, We Own the Night), so that’s no small compliment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s an ambiguous nature to the patient
narrative, and by the end of this tragic and distinct piece of work, you’ll
have run through a gamut of emotions. Marion Cotillard is a magnetic screen
presence, portraying a European immigrant coming to America in the early 20’s,
arriving with nothing at Ellis Island (how were these scenes achieved?) and meeting
the potentially nefarious Joaquin Phoenix, doing customarily intense work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s smitten immediately, and whisks her away
to his apartment, eventually putting her to work as a high-end call girl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She then meets a frisky and upbeat stage
magician played by an always in-the-moment Jeremy Renner, who also starts to
fall in love with her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From there, Gray
tells a tale about love, the American dream, and the idea of people coming to
this country and trying to navigate the slippery waters of trying to become a
citizen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s simply mind boggling why
this haunting, uniquely adult, and magnificently mounted production got buried
with a half-assed release last summer. This is as "fall prestige
season" as it gets, and I hope that Gray puts a hit out on the Weinsteins
down the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And just wait for the
final shot – astonishing its quiet beauty and narrative implications.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bleak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Arid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Desolate. Angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Internal. Methodical.
Australian writer/director David Michod (Animal Kingdom) has crafted a haunting
companion piece to Cormac McCarthy's The Road with The Rover, a gut-punch movie
for people who are fascinated by nihilistic, end-of-times scenarios.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re not sure exactly what has gone down in
society but life is on the downward slope in The Rover – nobody has gas or oil,
food and water seem to be in short supply, the streets are seemingly lawless
except for military types roaming from town to town, and there’s a general air
of despair that feels as if it’s there for good. Guy Pearce is yet again
fantastic as a man on a mission and with one purpose in life – to get back the
car that’s been stolen from him by a gang of dimwitted thieves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s all you need to know about the “plot”
of The Rover, because it’s less about ticking off plot points and more about
the sun-scorched way this sad, and introspective movie is unraveled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pearce is raw, dirty, quiet, and doing some
serious acting with only his eyes; you can’t look away when he’s on
screen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His emotionally ravaged and
quietly forceful performance as a man with literally nothing to lose is as
haunting and affecting as anything I've seen in recent memory (Robert Redford's
legendary work in All is Lost comes to mind but that's about it). His weathered
face and sullen eyes, framed often times in close-up, dominate the widescreen
space, conveying more than written words could ever provide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Michod knows that Pearce's mere presence is
enough. And there lies the genius of Michod's storytelling technique - dole out
just enough information verbally but allow the unspoken to fill in the blanks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Natasha Braier's expansive, controlled 2.35:1
widescreen cinematography captures Michod's penchant for sudden, graphic
violence with an unflinching eye, while also capturing the dusty, dangerous,
ominous vistas of the Australian outback. The patient shooting style is matched
by the exacting editing by Peter Sciberras, and the PTA-esque musical score,
filled with discordant chords to keep you off kilter, allows for a constantly
intense mood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Robert Pattinson
proves he can act, playing a slow-thinking pseudo criminal who crosses paths
with Pearce, after his brother (the always awesome Scoot McNairy) has left him
for dead after a botched robbery. There's nothing happy to be found with The
Rover - this a film about bad, desperate people in tough, deadly situations. One
gets the sense that Michod made exactly the film he set out to make, having to
make no concessions, with nobody standing over his shoulder taking notes or
offering suggestions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stark and pare, The
Rover is a great piece of contemplative cinema, with an absolutely devastating
final shot that haunted me for days.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How does an honest man working in a corrupt industry stay on
the right side of the tracks?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s
wrong with cutting corners and being shady if all of your competitors are
taking extra, morally questionable steps to ensure their success?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What drives people to do the things they
do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are only some of the questions
that the thematically rich film A Most Violent Year covers in an intimate, very
70’s way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Writer/director J.C. Chandor
(Margin Call, All is Lost) summons the ghost of Sidney Lumet with this down and
dirty, early 80’s NYC fable consisting of businessmen, politicians, cops,
wives, children, and the constantly shifting dynamics between men of power and
those who are needed to allow that power to continue and thrive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every character in this slow-burn drama (with
a tad of melodrama thrown in at the end, possibly unneeded) is out to get their
own; everyone has an agenda and enormous reason for wanting the things they
want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When one character asks another in
this beautifully written story about ethics and morals “Why do you want this?”,
the question takes on multiple meanings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And when the character answers with simply “I don’t understand your question”
you know that this is a film that isn’t interested in black and white notions
of good and bad, but rather, the gray areas that separate us from doing right
and wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Most Violent Year carries a
metaphorical title that extends more to the atmosphere of NYC in the early 80’s
then it does to constant violent action, which is something that this talky,
low-key, and wonderfully observed movie is most definitely not interested
in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, you get some fantastic foot
chases and one sensational, hair-raising car chase that echoes the POV car chase
in James Gray’s The Yards (another Lumet homage), but A Most Violent Year is
all about the performances and the writing and the burnished, dark, early
morning and late night cinematography from shooter-of-the-moment Bradford
Young.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His work here is elegant and
smoky, all browns and blacks and golds with splashes of orange and red for
accent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved looking at every image
in this movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oscar Isaac is
sensational as Abel Morales, a man trying to run a home heating-oil company
with his wife Anna (a juicy, sexy Jessica Chastain, playing the ultimate
snake-in-the-grass), and always attempting to run an honest business without
cutting too many corners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interesting in
always being “mostly good,” Abel knows he could call his wife’s gangster father
for support in any number of ways (someone is jacking his oil tankers and
beating up his salesmen and drivers; people are waiting for him outside his new
mansion in the late hours with pistols, etc.) but he doesn’t want to do that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And despite probably knowing that his wife is
more than meets the eye in any number of respects, he keeps his head up,
doesn’t ask too many questions, and lets the assorted pieces to his complicated
business puzzle take shape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the end
of this tense and gripping drama, if you loved it as much as I did, you’ll want
to know more about what happens to the various characters as the screen fades
to black – I know I did.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The sweet stench and hazy after-effects of marijuana can be
found all over Paul Thomas Anderson’s hysterical, bewildering, utterly
zonked-out shaggy-dog detective movie Inherent Vice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This film didn’t make a splash with general
audiences and it’s not all that hard to guess why.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel, this is a spacey,
ridiculous, totally original work that has “cult-classic” status written all
over it. Different and yet similar to obvious inspirations such as The Big
Lebowski, The Big Sleep, and The Long Goodbye, Inherent Vice is going to anger
a lot of people looking for easily identifiable plot points and then it’s going
to be groovy for many others who are willing to accept the notion that this
film is all about the journey, not necessarily the destination. And also, it
must be said that you’ve got to be interested in watching a perpetually stoned,
lackadaisical, potentially hallucinating lead character (Joaquin Phoenix,
completely incapable of never not being awesome) who can’t seem to get out of
his own way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As this is a PTA movie, the
cast is reliably peppered with tons of stars (Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson,
Benicio Del Toro, a debauched Martin Short in one of the best scenes in the
film) but Phoenix owns this picture. Coming on the heels of his exquisite and
varied work in both The Master and Her, he delivers a totally different
performance in Inherent Vice, bringing his chameleonic quality to any role he
takes on, investing every performance with integrity, intensity, and odd,
sympathetic charm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “plot” of
Inherent Vice can be followed, but I’ll admit this after only one viewing: I’d
be lying if I said I caught every last little detail, every line of dialogue,
every flight of fancy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s fine.
Great movies allow for constant exploration. And this is one of the ultimate
“multiple viewings” movies that I’ve ever encountered. Because Phoenix’s character
is essentially an unreliable narrator, and because everyone he comes into
contact with screws with him in some way, there’s this sense of randomness to
the plot that won’t be to everyone’s liking. Inherent Vice is more about the
crazy characters and the druggy aroma and the floral dialogue and stony
voice-over and the minutiae of the time period – those looking for an
“air-tight” plot need to go find something else. It’s also about the collision
of two subcultures, and how America, in particular Los Angeles, was rapidly
changing during the late 60’s and early 70’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Josh Brolin absolutely nails his could-have-been-a-farce
supporting role as an angry LAPD officer who butts heads with Phoenix multiple
times throughout the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s the
complete opposite of Phoenix – buttoned up, repressed, clenched, and waiting to
explode.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their scenes together are
gold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s also some of the bravest nudity I’ve
ever seen from an actress on the part of the lovely and talented Katherine
Waterston, who injects her character with an earthy, hippie sensuality that you
don’t normally see on the big screen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
loved watching this film I can’t wait to let it glide over me again, as I’ll be
ready to waft it all in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Inherent Vice makes you feel intoxicated even if
you’re not already before watching it, and because of PTA, I’m now totally
obsessed with the band Can, and in particular, the song Vitamin C.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This film has a dynamite soundtrack that’s a
total play-thru.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Raid 2: Berandal is the greatest action film I’ve ever
seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It eviscerates the
competition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve been ranting and
raving for months about it and for just cause: there’s nothing else that even
remotely comes close to matching the overall level of bad-assery that you’ll find
in this movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s two and a half hours
of punching, shooting, maiming, garroting, car-chasing, slicing, dicing,
hammering, base-ball-batting, kicking, and shanking, and yes, if you can
believe it, there’s more plot to choke a horse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Picking up mere moments after the obscenely bloody events of The Raid,
this sequel ups the ante in every regard: characters, plot-lines, set-pieces,
and overall level of lunatic abandon when it comes to the mind-blowing action
sequences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll see one of the very
best car chases ever captured by cameras in The Raid 2, and you’ll also see the
single most vicious and bloody one-on-one fight that I could ever possibly
imagine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Honestly – after the stuff done
in this film – I’m not sure what else needs to be attempted with this sort of
thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But leave it to director Gareth
Evans as he’s currently working on The Raid 3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is legendary action cinema, taking cues from genre masters like
John Woo, Takashi Miike, and Paul Greengrass, mixing an
undercover-cop-in-prison narrative ala The Departed with classic tribal feuds
straight out of a Japanese Yakuza picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Indonesian setting makes for an exotic backdrop for all of the
insane bouts of mayhem, with the impossibly agile cinematography covering all
of the action from the most bezerk angles possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a movie where you feel every punch,
hear every bullet whizz past your ears, and every single scene seems to have
been designed to top the last.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
outstanding action cinema that will be very, very tough to beat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What can one really say about Ari Folman's bold,
breathtakingly alive hybrid movie The Congress? It's like nothing you've ever
seen, I can promise that much. Half animated, half live-action, all totally
blazed to the extreme, this is a colossal artistic statement about Hollywood,
art, culture, society, and our unending preoccupation with make-believe and
hero worship. It operates on multiple levels of reality and surreality
simultaneously; this is super-charged cinematic acid that feels like it’s being
dropped directly onto your corneas. The purposefully sprawling and messy
structure plays to the film's wild and operatic strengths. This isn't a movie
to be taken 100% literally, as it’s more of an existential crisis fable that
begs to be viewed multiple times for maximum appreciation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I've been
able to watch it twice now, and I can’t wait for another trip – and I mean trip
– into this wild and wooly world where you never really know what’s going on.
Robin Wright plays a tweaked version of herself, a mid-40's actress who is
about to be abandoned by the major studios due to her being “old,” an actress
beaten down by the pressures of the Hollywood machine and the demands of the studio
movie-star system. Thanks to her lively agent (the awesome Harvey Keitel) and
an extra-slimy studio chief (Danny Huston, twirling his moustache with glee),
she's given the chance to have her mind, body, and soul digitally transferred
into a computer so that her likeness can be used and re-used throughout the
years, preserving her "Princess Buttercup" good-looks and charm, thus
transforming her into the ultimate movie-star for years and years and years.
The Congress then makes a 20 year jump cut at the mid-point and leaps
head-first into a hallucinatory outpouring of odd and crazily unique
Anime-inspired images. It seems that the only way that one can enter the movie
studio of the future (playfully referred to as Miramount) is to drink a magical
potion which turns you into a digital avatar of yourself, and then, once inside
this madcap universe, you're able to drink yet another potion which can
literally turn you into whatever you want. This is a dense, packed-to-the-gills
experience, one that shouldn't be immediately shrugged off as just another
esoteric artistic experiment. Folman is the real deal, a man with a singular
vision, and now, after Waltz with Bashir and The Congress, he's a filmmaker
that I will actively anticipate each new film with baited breath. The Congress
will be on repeat-watch-mode for weeks to come. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">With the exuberant and hysterical The Lego Movie, filmmakers
Phil Lord and Chris Miller have crafted a work that's as accomplished as the
best offerings from Pixar. Bursting with creativity from first frame to last
while stacking the deck with an almost assaultive amount of verbal and visual
humor in tandem with note-perfect voice performances, this is one of the rare
"kids movies" that transcends the genre and becomes something of a
pop-culture touchstone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The songs are
bouncy and beyond-catchy, filled with witty humor that will delight
everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember seeing this film
with a packed crowd of families and children, and the responses from everyone
were a joy to observe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kiddies loved
the wild animation and abundant silliness, and the adults could latch on to a
touching story that reinforces the notion that our childhoods are important and
special and that everyone deserves a little fun every now and again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve watched this movie countless times now
on Blu-ray, and I’m constantly in awe and amazed by the technical skill that
was required to pull the entire thing off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The colors are virbrant, literally screaming off the screen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The script is smart without being
pretentious, satirical without being cynical, silly without being stupid, and
above all else: Massively Entertaining. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unnerving. Unforseeable. Unforgettable. Writer/director Dan
Gilroy's thrillingly caustic media satire Nightcrawler shows some seriously
vicious teeth, taking you on a dark and twisted trip through nocturnal Los
Angeles, all shot in 2.35:1 Mann/Refn-vision by the estimable Robert Elswit,
with James Newton Howard's synth score pounding away in the background. Jake
Gyllenhaal is utterly brilliant as Lou Bloom, a diseased creature of the night,
appearing in virtually every scene, totally live-wire, spewing rapid fire
dialogue with sociopathic glee. Shades of Travis Bickle abound in his portrayal
of a freelance videographer hustling from crime scene to crime scene trying to
sell his exploitive footage to the highest buyer. This is the best performance
of his career so far, and over the past few years, he seems incapable of not
being thoroughly excellent in whatever he appears in (Brothers, Source Code,
End of Watch, Prisoners, Enemy). It’s great to see Renee Russo in a substantial
role again, as she brings sass and class to her role as a beleaguered news
producer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She gets to cut a nasty
portrait of what it might be like to run a big-city local news station struggling
for a piece of the competitive ratings pie. Original movies from a single voice
seem less and less common these days, and as Nightcrawler races through its
propulsive and lurid narrative, you begin to realize that you're watching
something that's playing by its own sick and cynical set of rules, unafraid to
peek at the nastiness that's running through our cities, news outlets, and
members of society. This is an instant classic that defies expectations that I
can't wait to watch again and again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Locke is a mesmerizing film to study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cemented (no pun intended...just see the
film...) by a spellbinding, tour de force performance from Actor of the Moment
Tom Hardy, Steven Knight's brilliant existential drama Locke is nerve-rackingly
intense, fully absorbing and completely unpredictable, due in no small part to
the narrative conceit of the entire film taking place from the interior of a
car. Confined to the driver's seat of his BMW SUV, Hardy gives an all-stops-out
performance – this guy is the real deal, seemingly capable of any role that’s asked
of him, always able to elicit sympathy no matter how ragged the character,
going from subtle to big at the drop of a hat. The dreamy, artsy cinematography
by Haris Zambarloukos leaps off the screen; it’s
London-street-lamp-at-night-gorgeous, cousins with Collateral in some respects,
with reflections and window patterns dotting the 2.35:1 widescreen space.
Because the story is exclusively delivered via a series of desperate phone
calls that Hardy is having with a variety of people, there’s always the question
of how realistic can this scenario play out. But because Knight is so strong
with his words and so precise with his visuals, the film becomes more than just
a trick-stunt – it’s a gripping, all-together brilliant ride that will leave
you with sweaty palms by the finish.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Wetlands is singular, gross, nauseating, highly sexual,
strange, lovely, smart, insane, icky, depraved, uber-graphic, and sort of
monumental.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s never, ever going to be
remade for American audiences and it’s likely to appeal strictly to fans of
“cinema-as-art.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve never seen
anything remotely like it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You get to
see a POV shot from that of an STD-infected pubic hair, a woman uses a variety
of vegetables as sexual pleasure devices, and the camera lovingly details a
shaving accident that, let’s just say, will pucker up a certain part of your
hind-quarters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s all in the
first act!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Directed with energy and snap
by rising star David Wnendt with a constant attitude of “I’ve Got Something To
Prove,” Wetlands, at times, feels like a hybrid of Enter the Void and Blue is
the Warmest Color with a dash of the sweetness of a Farrelly Bros. enterprise,
and while I probably won’t re-watch it as much as Void and Color, I’m glad I
subjected myself to this off-the-wall, intensely stylish, totally
uncompromised, fully deranged, and boundary-pushing German import.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carla Juri gives an absolutely fearless,
wholly committed performance as a young woman named Helen with any number of
unique sexual and bodily fetishes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There’s isn’t one American actress who would ever dare take on the
challenge of this role.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Known in some
circles as “the anal fissure movie,” Wetlands will prove to be an endurance
test for many viewers, offering wildly graphic sights you’ll never be able to
un-see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the previously mentioned
shaving accident, Helen winds up in the hospital and falls in love with a male
nurse, but this being the type of movie that it is, their meet-cute is over
discussions of bloody buttocks injuries and the benefits of abundant oral sex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After her surgery, Helen fakes the inability
to pass her bowels, in an effort to remain in the hospital so that she can win
the heart of the nurse she’s falling in love with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it’s the classic girl meets boy story, filled
with the requisite amount of heart and honesty that makes you care for the
characters, but ups the gross-out elements way past what Apatow and the
Farrelly’s could ever dream of creating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is outlaw cinema to be sure, replete with constant full frontal
female nudity, extraordinarily graphic sexual behavior, and a general air of
chuck-it-all-unpredictability that is bracing to behold and keeps you on edge.
And while there is a rather sweet and simple story that gets told, many viewers
will be too caught up in the moment to make heads or tails of whether or not
Wetlands has something interesting or valid to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I think it does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At its heart, this is a film about
acceptance, and about love, and about how one woman, no matter how different or
odd her behavior may seem, is living the life that she wants to live, bloody
orifices or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not for the faint of
heart or weak of stomach, Wetlands is a romantic comedy that defies general
description.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In short, see it with the
fam!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mood Indigo has a hand-made feel that I adored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cinematic whimsy is tough to pull off; done
wrong and it can be quite annoying, but when done by someone like Michel Gondry
(Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Human Nature),
the results are typically dream fun, and his latest (maybe greatest?) is no
exception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m shocked by the relatively
muted response that this wildly original artistic triumph received.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It feels like the sort of movie destined to
find a cult audience down the road, but I’m afraid that it’s maybe too out
there to possibly find the fans it deserves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This wondrous filmmaking and a further demonstration that the best
movies in any given year are the ones that feel the least artistically
compromised. Sustained cinematic surrealism is rare these days, and as this
majorly tripped-out film began to unfold, I doubted whether or not the
anything-goes-style and charmingly frantic pace could sustain itself. It did –
Gilliam eat your lunatic heart out. This is maximum Gondry, unfiltered
imagination, whimsical and poetic and over the top, all in the name of visual
storytelling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The story is simple: man
meets woman, they fall in love, and then she gets sick because a water lily is
growing in the pit of her stomach…you’ve heard this story before, right? Mood
Indigo will be a patience tester from the outset for many…you’ll either be
smitten or totally turned off by the heightened performances, the free-for-all
spirit, and the purposefully artsy inclinations. Gondry’s DIY-aesthetic is
pushed to the breaking point, then it breaks, then it becomes something
all-together-new. The phrase “How did they do that?” will be uttered repeatedly
while watching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This film feels like the
deranged lovechild of Amelie and The Science of Sleep and if that doesn’t get
you excited then I’m not sure what to tell you. You don’t even need the sound
on with this one as the visuals transport you away to some bizarro world where
everything is alive with the sound of cinema. (Note: I viewed the two hour and
10 minute “extended cut” – I gather there’s a 95 minute version lurking around
somewhere. The horror!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Enemy, the glorious head-scratcher from French Canadian
director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Incendies), is a twisted mystery with all
sorts of loaded implications. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it the
slyest version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers that’s ever been pulled
off?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it a metaphysical exploration of
divided souls hovering in a unique state of otherworldliness?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it the simple yet complex story of one
many having a nervous breakdown?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or is
it none of those things and something completely different?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the brilliance of this tricky,
multi-layered, and extra-creepy piece of work, which features an on-fire Jake
Gyllenhaal in dual performances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
version of Jake is a regular office dweller, repressed and atypical, going
about his daily routine without much in the way of surprise, and the other Jake
is the ultimate version of himself, what we project ourselves to be: commanding,
sexy, dangerous, and strong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the
two of these entities meet, the film becomes a mind-twisting exploration of
identity and fate, all filtered through the always intriguing notion of the
doppelganger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on Jose Saramago’s
novel The Double, Villeneue shoots in Fincher-esque pea-soup green and
piss-yellow, giving the film an ominous visual sheen that’s both sketchy and
slick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The films’ final shot is a doozy,
and show-stopper, and a candidate for the most WTF moment of the year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’ll create the impulse to hit the rewind
button on your Blu-ray remote, as the stunned look on your face quickly gives
way to nervous laughter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a
hot-blooded mental-mind-fuck that will play twister with your brain.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Hollywood biopic is a tricky thing to pull off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have to respect and honor the individual
in question while also providing a complete, sometimes unflattering portrait
that might upset some members of the chorus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then there’s the question of Historical Accuracy vs. Poetic
License.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I try not to get bogged down in
such details; I understand that a movie is a movie, it’s not real life, it’s
not a documentary, concessions have to be made, and dramatic flow for the
cinema must be adhered too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With all
this being said, Ava DuVernay’s Selma, an impassioned look at a chapter in the
historic life of Martin Luther King, felt urgent, vital, topical (especially given
our current social and political climate), and important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This isn’t a film you should feel “obliged to
see” because of the subject matter; you should WANT to see this film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It should anger you, shock you, and pull you
out of your seat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>DuVernay’s style, in
tandem with Bradford Young’s striking widescreen cinematography, is immediately
engrossing and undeniably powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David
Oyelowo’s magnetic performance as Dr. Martin Luther King is immense, nuanced
and beautiful to observe. Rather than a tired and traditional biopic narrative,
screenwriter Paul Webb focuses on the Right to Vote protest and bridge-march
from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. It was there that King and his followers
gathered in an effort to show that the illegal and oppressive anti-voting
tactics of racist southerners wouldn’t be tolerated any more. Selma is
necessarily brutal at times, with Young’s fluid and unflinching camerawork
capturing all of the harsh violence and angry hysteria that accompanied the
various protests. Sound effects are used to maximum effect during all of the confrontations,
giving the audience the sense of the ferocity that racist whites felt while fighting
for what they disgustingly believed in. Not enough can be said about Oyelowo’s mythic
performance; you can’t look away when he’s on screen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His voice and physical resemblance to the
real Dr. King are uncanny, and there’s a gravitas to his presence that few
actors currently possess. Selma is yet another film to highlight an
embarrassing chapter of intolerant behavior on the part of simple minded and
backwards thinking people, but rather than overly preaching and going the
“message movie” route, DuVernay smartly allows the ugly facts of the story to
take center stage, and with Oyelowo front and center, Selma becomes more than
just “that movie about Martin Luther King,” but rather a glorious portrait of
people who refused to sit quietly and allow our society to be further poisoned.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Spare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Menacing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Near constant tension.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vice-grip direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Airtight plotting that MAKES SENSE when you
stop to think about the fine details.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Graphically
violent yet never exploitive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Virtually
faultless. Blue Ruin is writer-director-cinematographer Jeremy Saulnier's big
coming out as a top-notch genre-buster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Reminiscent of the Coen brothers with its dark thrills and formal
precision, this is a true screw-turner, a grab-your-date-on-their-arm thriller
that takes no prisoners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s like no
revenge movie I've ever seen, and I admired how Saulnier used the blackest of
comedy to somewhat lighten the heavy, nihilistic load of neo-noir mayhem. Macon
Blair's uncommonly focused, award-worthy, multi-layered lead performance is one
for the ages and totally mesmerizing to behold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It helps a ton that this is an actor I've never seen before and that I
had no preconceived notions of, as you don’t bring any baggage into a film when
the actors are unfamiliar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t want
to spoil the plot to Blue Ruin, but I’ll allow that it’s a “man on a mission”
narrative that gets turned upside down due to a series of unfortunate
circumstances, each escalating in violence, and culminating in a fierce
finale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a dangerous,
all-consuming work, strangely beautiful, and horrifyingly bloody. I loved all
90, ultra-precise moments and I can't wait to see what's next for Saulnier.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Begin Again is a pure delight from start to finish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A tad melancholy to be sure, but like John
Carney’s previous heartfelt musical-romance Once, his newest effort is long on
charm and inherently likable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mark
Ruffalo, in one of his best performances, is a sloppy, beaten-down, old-school
music executive who, after a night of heavy, depressing drinking, stumbles into
a NYC bar and just so happens to hear the voice of a talented,
equally-down-on-her-luck singer (the effervescent Keira Knightley, who should
have been nominated for her work in this film rather than her solid but
unspectacular showing in The Imitation Game); it’s mutual respect at first
sight but will it blossom into something more?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The two music lovers decide to record an original album, preforming all
of the songs all throughout NYC, out in public areas, in an effort to create
something special and organic and long-lasting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Carney is a sadist with a smile, a guy who loves the tropes of the
romantic dramedy but enjoys tweaking the formula just enough so your
expectations are subverted at almost every turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s also a massive fan of keeping his
potential love-birds apart from one another for as long as humanly possible,
which will annoy some, but delight those of us who know that life isn’t as
simple as “I do” or “I don’t.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Begin
Again isn’t quite the movie-miracle that Once was, well, that would have been
impossible to replicate for a variety of reasons, but it’s still a hugely
entertaining movie that will likely prove impossible to resist for anyone who
gives it a chance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">White Bird in a Blizzard is something unique: a touching
coming of age story, a tense whodunit with a dynamite final twist, a study of
marital discord, a time capsule of the late 80’s, with some surrealistic
touches and flights of fancy for good artistic measure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Directed with customary style by Gregg Araki
(The Doom Generation, Smiley Face, Mysterious Skin) who also wrote the
genre-defying screenplay based off of Laura Kasischke’s novel, White Bird in a
Blizzard feels like one of those movies that’s just waiting to be
discovered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shailene Woodley, so good in
The Spectacular Now and The Descendants, grows WAY up in the lead role of Kat
Connor, a sexually blossoming high-school student with a phenomenally messed up
mother (a whacked-out Eva Green) and a put-upon father (a quiet Christopher
Meloni) who is trying to figure out what kind of woman she’s growing up to
be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The narrative is framed around Kat
meeting with her therapist (a kindly Angela Bassett), flashbacks to Kat’s
childhood, and the various romances that Kat embarks upon (the boy next door,
an older police officer).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Woodley is
naked here – physically and emotionally – and I absolutely love watching her as
an actress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s able to express
vulnerability very well, and she has an unforced and extremely natural air
about herself as an actress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Green
steals all of her scenes as the Mom From Hell, and I loved how Arakki upends
expectations in more than a few instances, and then throws a killer twist at
the viewer during the final moments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This film was a big surprise, and hopefully it finds a large audience at
home.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fury is a reminder of how hellish life must’ve been like for guys
suffering through tank warfare during WWII.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Embracing the gung-ho spirit of old-school Hollywood action flicks, writer/director
David Ayer has considerably upped his game as a big league filmmaker with this
ruggedly fashioned, butt-kicking trudge through the rain-soaked and bombed-out battlefields
and cities of late WWII combat in Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The film carried the hardened spirit of a late-era John Wayne movie,
with just as much anti-war sentiment as pro-American image making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Americans are good and Nazis are bad –
it’s the same template Hollywood has used for eons, and for good reason: Who
doesn’t like some dead Nazis?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A gruff,
grizzled Brad Pitt and a surly band of supporting actors (Shia LeBeouf as the
introspective one; Michael Pena as the wise-ass; Logan Lerman as the rookie; and
a skeevy Jon Bernthal as the potentially unstable wild card.) confidently carry
this combat ready and extremely graphic depiction of the horrors of war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had Fury been based on an actual event, it
probably gets a Best Picture nomination from the Academy, because when you look
at the film, it has all the requisite ingredients for that audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m surprised it didn’t do a tad better at
the domestic box office (roughly $90 million) and with critics in general (78%
at Rottentomatoes), because while not an earth-shattering entry into the genre,
it’s dependable, entertaining, and effectively brutal when it comes to
showcasing the bloody battles that tank operators went through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ending doesn’t go all Hollywood which was
also a plus; while one might question the final outcome slightly, it makes
enough sense within the scenario that Ayer created.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fantastic, gritty cinematography and
excellent, lived-in production design went a long way in creating a dangerous,
volatile atmosphere, but my one complaint might be the slightly overbearing
musical score; sometimes less is more but I get what Ayer was going for –
maximum, blunt impact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a
rock-solid action movie that will be a dependable choice for many viewers for
years to come.</span></span></div>
Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-21762594768013935892015-02-07T07:33:00.003-08:002015-02-07T07:33:29.565-08:00A SERIOUS MAN: RECONSIDERED<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrxjqIYyE9-XTLEzdE22UdJiefJGB2K9l4e4VEOAwZHxsonPAVK_UunX-D27WP0admT8FoCDLBY-voY4WtJesK7qg2w-dy2uPiCB8wzRZGVBOyY_6bi3gi8hYRKOmaY_VMoLRmj9DntlaB/s1600/man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrxjqIYyE9-XTLEzdE22UdJiefJGB2K9l4e4VEOAwZHxsonPAVK_UunX-D27WP0admT8FoCDLBY-voY4WtJesK7qg2w-dy2uPiCB8wzRZGVBOyY_6bi3gi8hYRKOmaY_VMoLRmj9DntlaB/s1600/man.jpg" height="149" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
A Serious Man could have been called A Private Man. Because that’s what this film is – private. It’s the sort of movie that only gets made by a powerful entity, in this case, the Coen brothers. Hot off the Oscar success of No Country for Old Men and the commercial success of Burn After Reading, the Coens went slightly Barton Fink on their fans with this utterly hysterical 60’s-set black comedy, which for me, is probably the best movie to deal with the modern Jewish-American experience, with the possible exception of Barry Levinson’s touching family drama Avalon. At least that I’ve seen. I love all of the period and religious detail, every single cast member is the exact and only person for their role, and the Coen’s diseased, droll sense of humor is in evidence during every scene, with their perfect formal composition almost suffocatingly perfect to behold. <br />
<br />
A Serious Man is about that – a serious man – a college professor named Larry Gopnik (the fantastic Michael Stuhlbargh) who has a lot of personal issues to tend too. His wife is leaving him for a man he’s sort of friends with (in the film’s best subplot); his stoner son is getting ready for his Bar Mitzvah and he’s not really taking it seriously, favoring getting ripped with his friends over practicing his Hebrew; he’s up for tenure at his college but a conniving student might be up to something to prevent that tenure; and his sloppy brother with a grotesque neck ailment is living on his couch. Oh, and let’s not forget the pot-smoking and frequently nude-while-sunbathing next door neighbor who might just have a thing for Larry. This movie is bitingly funny, never in a cheap fashion, mixing laugh-out-loud guffaws with sly, uncomfortable humor. The less spoiled about the story specifics the better, as each character is given plenty of material to create a lasting impression, while the uniquely dark sense of morality and fate leave you questioning what will happen by the end. <br />
<br />
Just like every Coen brother film, this one has gotten better and better upon repeated viewings, and I firmly believe it’s in their top five films of all time. It’s very specific, just like all Coen efforts, and for some people, it’s going to be emotionally inaccessible. The film marked yet another striking collaboration between the Coens and legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins; they seem unbelievably in synch as a creative unit. A Serious Man asks questions of faith, of moral compass, and of familial obligation, and it’s all done with a misanthropic sense of deranged glee, so sometimes it’s tough to exactly know what the Coens might be trying to say. That’s a quality, in my estimation, of great storytelling. Great art needs to be considered, it needs to be re-examined, and discussed. And it never needs to hold your hand. Which leads me to the final image of the film – if there was ever a whammy in the making, it’s the one that closes this offbeat piece of work. There’s a particular, blackly-comic world-view that the Coens subscribe too, and I know that it rubs some people the wrong way. But for fans of this brazenly unique filmmaking duo, A Serious Man will really do the trick.<br />
I just adore the creative chances the Coens took with aspects of this bizarre and brilliant film. <br />
<br />
I love how the cryptic opening sequence, filmed in Yiddish, is one of the most surreal things to start any movie. The Coens dare you to make sense of what you’re watching. Shot in 1.33:1 with a purposefully degraded image, A Serious Man opens with a Jewish folk-story that on first glance has nothing to do with the events in the narrative of the film. But after the movie is over, think back to the beginning, and maybe watch this dreamy passage again – it’s as beguiling as it is informative and despite what the Coens have said in interviews (that it’s meaningless), I don’t think that’s truly the case. And then you have the sure-to-be-divisive ending and final shot, that without spoiling anything, has to be seen as a metaphor for all that has come before it, and all that will occur after the final frame has disappeared into the Fade to Black. Everything they have ever done has been all of a piece, a total vision from start to finish, a work that never feels compromised in any way. <br />
<br />
Over the last 20+ years, they’ve created a particular type of cinema, and they've developed a narrative and visual short-hand, not only with their frequent on and off screen counterparts, but with audiences, and most importantly, with viewers who enjoy re-watching their work over and over and over again. That's the best part of a Coen film: re-watchability. Can you look yourself in the mirror and honestly say that once is enough for the likes of No Country for Old Men, Barton Fink, Fargo, Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, and The Big Lebowski, just to name a few? No way. A Serious Man should easily be considered one of their absolute finest accomplishments.Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-17409608906623132152015-02-05T05:10:00.001-08:002015-02-05T05:59:14.505-08:00IF I HAD AN OSCAR BALLOT 2014These are my personal favorite selections in all of the key categories. Winners are in bold/underlined, with runner's up underneath. On Oscar night, I'll post my predictions for the big show, along with my personal selections out of who was actually nominated.<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST PICTURE</u></strong><br />
<br />
<br />
Under the Skin<br />
Birdman<br />
Interstellar<br />
American Sniper<br />
Foxcatcher<br />
Whiplash<br />
Boyhood<br />
Force Majeure<br />
The Immigrant<br />
The Rover<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST DIRECTOR</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Jonathan Glazer -- Under the Skin</u></strong><br />
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu -- Birdman<br />
Christopher Nolan -- Interstellar<br />
Clint Eastwood -- American Sniper<br />
Bennett Miller -- Foxcatcher<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST ACTOR</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Jake Gyllenhaal -- Nightcrawler</u></strong><br />
Michael Keaton -- Birdman<br />
David Oweloyo -- Selma<br />
Bradley Cooper -- American Sniper<br />
Tom Hardy -- Locke<br />
Guy Pearce -- The Rover<br />
Oscar Isaac -- A Most Violent Year<br />
Miles Teller -- Whiplash<br />
Brendan Gleeson -- Calvary<br />
Joaquin Phoenix -- Inherent Vice<br />
Macon Blair -- Blue Ruin<br />
Channing Tatum -- Foxcatcher<br />
Matthew McConaguhey -- Interstellar<br />
Eddie Redmayne -- The Theory of Everything<br />
Ellar Coltrane -- Boyhood<br />
Mark Ruffalo -- Begin Again<br />
Philip Seymour Hoffman -- A Most Wanted Man<br />
Jack O'Connell -- Unbroken<br />
Benedict Cumberbatch -- The Imitation Game<br />
Jake Gyllenhaal -- Enemy<br />
Joaquin Phoenix -- The Immigrant<br />
Brad Pitt -- Fury<br />
Dan Stevens -- The Guest<br />
Guy Pearce -- Breathe In<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST ACTRESS</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Scarlett Johansson -- Under the Skin</u></strong><br />
Carla Juri -- Wetlands<br />
Reese Witherspoon -- Wild<br />
Jenny Slate -- Obvious Child<br />
Marion Cotillard -- The Immirant<br />
Keira Knightley -- Begin Again<br />
Shailene Woodley -- White Bird in a Blizzard<br />
Elizabeth Moss -- The One I Love<br />
Felicity Jones -- The Theory of Everything<br />
Amy Adams -- Big Eyes<br />
Felicity Jones -- Breathe In<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Steve Carell -- Foxcatcher</u></strong><br />
Josh Brolin -- Inherent Vice<br />
J.K. Simmons -- Whiplash<br />
Bill Hader -- The Skeleton Twins<br />
Mark Ruffalo -- Foxcatcher<br />
Ed Norton -- Birdman<br />
Jeremy Renner -- The Immigrant<br />
James Gandolfini -- The Drop<br />
Robert Pattinson -- The Rover<br />
Riz Ahmed -- Nightcrawler<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS</u></strong><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u><br /></u></strong><br />
<strong><u>Sienna Miller -- American Sniper</u></strong><br />
Emma Stone -- Birdman<br />
Jessica Chastain -- A Most Violent Year<br />
Katherine Waterston -- Inherent Vice<br />
Lorelai Linkalter -- Boyhood<br />
Patricia Arquette -- Boyhood<br />
Eva Green -- White Bird in a Blizzard<br />
Jessica Chastain -- Interstellar<br />
Laura Dern -- Wild<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Richard Linklater -- Boyhood</u></strong><br />
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, & Armando Bo -- Birdman<br />
J.C. Chandor -- A Most Violent Year<br />
Dan Gilroy -- Nightcrawler<br />
Steve Knight -- Locke<br />
E. Max Frye & Dan Futterman -- Foxcatcher<br />
Chris & Jonathan Nolan -- Interstellar<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Jonathan Glazer -- Under the Skin</u></strong><br />
Jason Hall -- American Sniper<br />
Paul Thomas Anderson -- Inherent Vice<br />
Damien Chazelle -- Whiplash<br />
Jez & John-Henry Butterworth -- Edge of Tomorrow<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY</u></strong><br />
<strong><u><br /></u></strong><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Under the Skin</u></strong><br />
Birdman<br />
The Immigrant<br />
The Raid 2<br />
Interstellar<br />
The Rover<br />
Whiplash<br />
A Most Violent Year<br />
American Sniper<br />
Selma<br />
Foxcatcher<br />
Inherent Vice<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST EDITING</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>The Raid 2</u></strong><br />
Boyhood<br />
Whiplash<br />
The Lego Movie<br />
Wild<br />
American Sniper<br />
Foxcatcher<br />
Selma<br />
Inherent Vice<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST COSTUMES</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>The Immigrant</u></strong><br />
Inherent Vice<br />
Snowpiercer<br />
Fury<br />
The Imitation Game<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST MAKE-UP</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<u><strong>Foxcatcher</strong></u><br />
American Sniper<br />
The Raid 2<br />
The Rover<br />
Fury<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Interstellar</u></strong><br />
The Rover<br />
Snowpiercer<br />
The Immigrant<br />
Inherent Vice<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST ORIGINAL SCORE</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Interstellar</u></strong><br />
Under the Skin<br />
Gone Girl<br />
Whiplash<br />
Birdman<br />
The Rover<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Force Majeure</u></strong><br />
Wetlands<br />
Borgman<br />
Big Bad Wolves<br />
Omar<br />
Bethlehem<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST DOCUMENTARY</u></strong><br />
<strong><u><br /></u></strong><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Life Itself</u></strong><br />
The Dog<br />
Tim's Vermeer<br />
Jodorowsky's Dune<br />
Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST SOUND</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>American Sniper</u></strong><br />
Interstellar<br />
Whiplash<br />
Birdman<br />
Fury<br />
Inherent Vice<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>BEST VISUAL EFFECTS</u></strong><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Interstellar</u></strong><br />
Edge of Tomorrow<br />
Mood Indigo<br />
The Congress<br />
The Raid 2<br />
Captain America: The Winter Soldier<br />
Godzilla<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-18212566804748563882015-02-01T18:57:00.001-08:002015-02-01T19:41:04.561-08:00MY WIFE PICKS 'EM: FAVORITES OF 2014<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsh-SY91VS5GYHydVVi6mVz2-PIIXGcDKYajOZ1qIqZYspWTFV-wuMydnpG1Pz7BTH8B8O9I_yazFpvl13nmeNGizQhYuzP4XwKgvEfB-MHIHoIaytwE6Uorm2eS_ywXIQLhveWmKCgZB3/s1600/boyhood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsh-SY91VS5GYHydVVi6mVz2-PIIXGcDKYajOZ1qIqZYspWTFV-wuMydnpG1Pz7BTH8B8O9I_yazFpvl13nmeNGizQhYuzP4XwKgvEfB-MHIHoIaytwE6Uorm2eS_ywXIQLhveWmKCgZB3/s1600/boyhood.jpg" height="144" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My long-suffering wife, Praise the Movie Godz, has been
willing to take cinematic trips with me that I’ve never thought she would
have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Movies have the chance to touch
everyone who watches them, and sharing cinematic experiences with that special
someone is something that I’ll always treasure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I can’t thank her enough for tolerating my constant idiocy and my
undying passion, and it fills me with joy to be able to share something I love
so much with the most important person in my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s her lineup of her Favorite Films from
2014.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it exhibits taste, class,
and the opportunity to be surprised. Out of over 50 movies we saw this year, these were her favorites:</span></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Boyhood<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">America Sniper<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Immigrant<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Birdman<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Whiplash<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Locke<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Foxcatcher<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Force Majeure<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Begin Again<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Theory of
Everything<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Wetlands<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Obvious Child<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Imitation Game<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Snowpiercer<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gone Girl<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A Most Violent Year<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Chef<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Under the Skin<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Wild</span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Selma<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unbroken<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Big Eyes<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nightcrawler<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The One I Love<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Borgman<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Lego Movie<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Skeleton Twins<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">White Bird in a
Blizzard<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bethlehem<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Interstellar<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Omar<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Joe<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Neighbors<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Before I Disappear<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Inherent Vice<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Signal<o:p></o:p></span></i>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-87334784832086402712015-01-23T12:23:00.003-08:002015-01-23T12:23:39.521-08:00THE FOUNTAIN: RECONSIDERED<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM6PBLB0TNRWoBz5f_F2UBY3_n_gSDINRABtBumwkdD21q3yGTb9H1GD_6GrHXZgN4UNTcpY6sPQrQqoiw-PnAcbcHStUB069WnNRz9CH5or7rEL6OvGY7foXEFZ8C2GX5iNXWWSuABTAr/s1600/Fountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM6PBLB0TNRWoBz5f_F2UBY3_n_gSDINRABtBumwkdD21q3yGTb9H1GD_6GrHXZgN4UNTcpY6sPQrQqoiw-PnAcbcHStUB069WnNRz9CH5or7rEL6OvGY7foXEFZ8C2GX5iNXWWSuABTAr/s1600/Fountain.jpg" height="138" width="320" /></a></div>
It's very hard for me to completely describe my feelings of love and admiration for Darren Aronofsky's uber-ambitious, boundary pushing The Fountain -- it stands as a towering artistic achievement made by a filmmaker in total control of his vision. This is awe-inspiring cinema-magic, crafted by a director who is interested in stretching the limits of the form, delving deep into his wild, fertile imagination, and delivering something completely uncompromising and unique. The Fountain lives in the same cinemaverse as 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Tree of Life, Enter the Void, Cloud Atlas, and Under the Skin, and as in those world-creating films, The Fountain has been hand-crafted by a filmmaker with an intensely personal vision, resulting in a work that is beyond thought provoking and visually astonishing at every turn. Matthew Libatique's cinematography on this film is transcendent; I'll never completely understand how some if it was achieved. Originally intended to be a $70 million production with Brad Pitt in the lead role, the film was delayed, scrapped, then resurrected with Hugh Jackman in the hot-seat and a comparatively "low" budget of $35 million. Even though I wouldn't change a frame of what Aronofsky delivered, I'll always be curious to know what the larger, Pitt-led version would have been like. And it's also been on my mind for a while now: is there a "director's cut" of The Fountain in Aronofsky's back-pocket waiting to be unleashed at some point in the future? <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMx4Txj7wSDkNHEEI6tb4ueEgLzwEQp6y0H_IbiPqdGpnwps9N9YBZGg001G-js4kTSZlQMES-iZIanWFtQxbHz4GkFKeJ2qIvtjU2VOENCOeH9gpSt7EUy0SoxS4PI1OXcoJUSfvu2Nj6/s1600/fountain+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMx4Txj7wSDkNHEEI6tb4ueEgLzwEQp6y0H_IbiPqdGpnwps9N9YBZGg001G-js4kTSZlQMES-iZIanWFtQxbHz4GkFKeJ2qIvtjU2VOENCOeH9gpSt7EUy0SoxS4PI1OXcoJUSfvu2Nj6/s1600/fountain+2.jpg" height="126" width="320" /></a></div>
The complex narrative is going to be extremely dense for some, and to be honest, I'd be lying if I said that I "got" everything from the story. And that's fine. I'm not sure I need or want to know all of the secrets of The Fountain. Something this heady and layered needs to be experienced more than once, and as with all of the best art, every time you view The Fountain it will mean something different. At least that's how it's worked for me. The Fountain is an intentional and surreal hodgepodge of various elements from multiple genres, inspirations, and topics: history, religion, science, science-fiction, nature, and above all else: love. Aronofsky devised his mind-bending tale over three story lines, each one featuring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Both actors deliver some of their best work in The Fountain, providing rich, full-bodied performances that are somehow never overwhelmed by the film's visual grandiosity. The narrative is set in three vastly different eras, in which Jackman and Weisz play different sets of characters who might possibly be the same two people in the grand scheme of the universe. In the present day, Jackman is a fevered scientist racing around the clock, trying to save his dying wife (Weisz) from cancer. A second track follows an ancient conquistador (Jackman) and his queen (Weisz), and the third bit is that of an advanced astronaut (Jackman) who ostensibly hallucinates (reincarnates?) his long-lost love (Weisz). Arnofsky and his editor, Jay Rabinowitz, brilliantly match-cut and jump-cut all throughout the film, creating an All-is-One type sense of encompassment. Add in the legendary score from Clint Mansell, which soars to grace notes previously undiscovered, and the overall results are nothing short of hallucinatory. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjva_ZjJo7Bbfipo7Ma_-52flREWQSsF19OOEOyDjydSCqYoV5hUGwFRqRoP1PrdeH5I9E3Sah-qX0-VP4Sg3GCLTWLymahIw05YPDazxhtzpGpQMXVP6Sr8qfFoi2u1xjLgrCKbai6I6Uc/s1600/fountain+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjva_ZjJo7Bbfipo7Ma_-52flREWQSsF19OOEOyDjydSCqYoV5hUGwFRqRoP1PrdeH5I9E3Sah-qX0-VP4Sg3GCLTWLymahIw05YPDazxhtzpGpQMXVP6Sr8qfFoi2u1xjLgrCKbai6I6Uc/s1600/fountain+3.jpg" height="138" width="320" /></a></div>
I vividly remember seeing this film in the theater on opening weekend, in a massive, mostly empty auditorium, and the experience I had at the time was extraordinarily different than the one I had last night while watching it in my living room (probably my fifth time taking it in from start to finish). As a piece of filmmaking, The Fountain feels like an organic creation, a living and breathing piece of art, something that reveals new sides and textures of its being each time you sit down to view it. And over the years, as my life has changed and as my cinematic tastes have expanded, the themes of The Fountain -- love, death, life, the power of hope -- have come into focus on an even stronger level. When you boil it down, The Fountain is an almost overwhelmingly sad film, filled with desperation, the longing for your soul mate, and our intrinsic desire to spend as much time with that one special person we love the most. The film makes you contemplate all that you value and hold dear to your heart, which is something that can't be said for too many pieces of filmic fiction. The surreal nature to the filmmaking heightens each segment of this constantly over-lapping tale, which gives your mind a wonderful mental work-out. Aronofsky seemingly designed The Fountain to be something unique for every viewer, with each viewing holding the potential to teach you something new about yourself and the film in general. This is a cosmic and trippy ode to the very idea of love and the process of loving another human being, a work that allows itself to be constantly rediscovered and reinterpreted.Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-57899471234311127042015-01-21T11:16:00.002-08:002015-01-21T11:16:10.609-08:0020TH ANNIVERSARY - TONY SCOTT'S CRIMSON TIDE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN-jXXIpxRzjlONI_v43HNH2sO-Ohov39G1XWJUfKPbjQKEBnnzSWqSN1szKsIS4RTjIKieI4OQTqW5rzmw3ZTR3J3yTFcXBi2xUV4Z9pEXE8b3tR4n4r2vzZEoNiTLa2gwfGApdjBOqWH/s1600/tide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN-jXXIpxRzjlONI_v43HNH2sO-Ohov39G1XWJUfKPbjQKEBnnzSWqSN1szKsIS4RTjIKieI4OQTqW5rzmw3ZTR3J3yTFcXBi2xUV4Z9pEXE8b3tR4n4r2vzZEoNiTLa2gwfGApdjBOqWH/s1600/tide.jpg" height="128" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span id="yiv8341676633yui_3_16_0_1_1421865285849_3452" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Crimson Tide remains one of the very best Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer collaborations with the late, great Tony Scott at the helm.<span> </span>Don’t you miss that old lightning-bolt logo crashing down before a big-budget pop-corn movie?<span> </span>Shot for a now-paltry $55 million and released in May of 1995, it featured an on-the-rise Denzel Washington going head-to-head against Gene Hackman as dueling nuclear submarine commanders engulfed in a hostile battle over command of the sub and the fate of the free world.<span> </span>An interrupted communications message leaves the crew of the sub unsure of what to do during a tense military stand-off with the Russians; will we or won’t we launch our warheads which will inevitably lead to WWIII?<span> </span>This film excels because Scott cared enough about his believable screenplay and his full-bodied characters to the point where his uber-stylish creative leanings didn’t overpower the entire production – it was a perfect match in material and filmmaker.<span> </span>Recalling the claustrophobia of Das Boot and the grittiness of The Hunt for the Red October, Crimson Tide sits alongside those genre classics and many others as a first-rate submarine drama with narrative complexity to match its high-powered pyrotechnics, of which there are plenty.<span> </span>Intelligently written by Michael Schiffer (Colors, Lean on Me, the underrated The Peacemaker) with uncredited punch-ups by Quentin Tarantino, Crimson Tide has story tension, strong, macho dialogue, and a credible finale after all of the angry dust settles between Hackman and Washington.<span> </span>Both thesps deliver power-house performances, sweating and snarling their way through each adrenaline filled scene.<span> </span>Budding master cinematographer Dariusz Wolski bathes the widescreen images in greens, reds, and blues, playing off of the submarine’s read-out screens with fantastic shadows covering the actor’s faces in numerous sequences.<span> </span>As Scott and Wolski’s camera darts down the sub’s narrow corridors and swings back and forth with almost primal ferocity, the film picks up a tremendous sense of visceral energy that continues all the way to the heated finish.<span> </span>The heavy use of extreme close-ups in tandem with Chris Lebenzon’s razor-sharp editing only heightens the intensity.<span> </span>Hans Zimmer’s epic, often-borrowed score is one of his best, filled with moments of soaring grace that stir your insides.<span id="yiv8341676633yui_3_16_0_1_1421865285849_3478"> </span>And then there’s the ridiculous supporting cast, assembled by the legendary Victoria Thomas, which includes no less than James Gandolfini, Viggo Mortensen, Matt Craven, George Dzundza, Ricky Schroder, Rocky Carroll, Steve Zahn, Danny Nucci,</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span id="yiv8341676633yui_3_16_0_1_1421865285849_3455" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Lillo Brancato, Ryan Phillippe, and an uncredited Jason Robards.<span> </span>The film was a hit with critics and audiences, grossing $160 globally ($91 domestic), thus putting Simpson and Bruckheimer back on track after two previous hits that year in Bad Boys and Dangerous Minds. It also garnered three Oscar nominations (Film Editing, Sound, Sound Editing)<span id="yiv8341676633yui_3_16_0_1_1421865285849_3467"> </span>I’ve watched Crimson Tide probably 50 times and I’ll likely watch it 50 more.<span> </span></span></span><br />
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<br />Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-28125856685172279112015-01-21T06:29:00.001-08:002015-01-21T06:29:01.328-08:00ODD ALTMAN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Only Robert Altman would have had the wily nerve to release his cynical, ultra-revisionist Western oddity Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson on the bicentennial anniversary of the United States. It's a film easier to admire than it is to outright "love." Casually ripping apart the shared notions of "white nobility" and the "violent Native American savage," this is a darkly comical, defiantly strange movie with a careening tone and a hazy, sometim<span class="text_exposed_show">es murky visual style that relies heavily on long shots with multiple characters in the frame, all of whom are talking at once, without any close-ups to establish which voice is coming from which mouth. Altman's use of sound has always been a point of conversation, but in this film, it may have reached its apex in terms of the use of multiple and simultaneous audio tracks. Co-written with frequent collaborator Alan Rudolph, the film has an episodic, farcical approach to the material, and arriving immediately after his much celebrated Nashville, my guess is that critics and audiences didn't know what to do with Altman's latest at the time of its release. Paul Newman is terrific as Buffalo Bill, taking the myth out of the man, and layering him in alcoholic glee. This is a phenomenally ambitious, wholly original, and totally unique item in the legendary filmography of one of America's greatest and most influential filmmakers.</span><br />
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<br />Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-36530155147854839802015-01-19T15:11:00.003-08:002015-01-19T15:11:35.847-08:002014: EXCELLENT MOVIES THAT DIDN'T CRACK MY TOP 20<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" id="id_54bd8ebb3ca233686908925">
Memorable Films from 2014 that won't make my Top 20 but are nonetheless excellent in their own ways and very much worth watching include:<br />
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A Most Wanted Man<br /> A Field in England<br /> Obvious Child<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> Breathe In<br /> Big Bad Wolves<br /> Borgman<br /> Bethlehem<br /> Fury<br /> Omar<br /> The Drop<br /> The One I Love<br /> Calvary<br /> Gone Girl<br /> Wild<br /> Skeleton Twins<br /> Captain America: The Winter Soldier<br /> Edge of Tomorrow<br /> Chef<br /> Before I Disappear<br /> The Imitation Game<br /> The Theory of Everything<br /> Big Eyes<br /> The Signal<br /> Joe<br /> Dawn of the Planet of the Apes<br /> Unbroken<br /> Godzilla<br /> Neighbors<br /> They Came Together<br /> Life After Beth<br />Snowpiercer<br /> Guardians of the Galaxy<br /> 22 Jump Street<br /> The Double<br /> Cheap Thrills<br /> The Interview<br /> The Gambler</span></div>
Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-47939596155973148872015-01-14T13:32:00.003-08:002015-01-14T13:32:46.135-08:00CUBIST ACTION CINEMA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tony Scott’s Domino.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wayne Kramer’s Running Scared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Michael Davis’s Shoot ‘Em Up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These films, guided by the work of others in previous years, spawned
what I’d like to refer to as Cubist Action Cinema, a sub-genre of modern action
films that are seemingly shot through the aesthetic lens of a painting by
Picasso.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These films have a
hyper-realistic quality to them, and while they aren’t meant to be taken 100%
literally, they traffic in real ideas, themes, and emotions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The imagery in these movies (and in other
films that fit this mold, of which there are many) are seemingly jacked and
juiced for maximum impact, while their respective narratives jumble and blur
into a cacophony of freewheeling expression (both verbal and visual) and overall
flamboyant artistry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The phrase
“in-your-face” applies, but only in the crudest sense of the term; yes, these
filmmakers are hurtling their visions at their audiences, but not without
serious intent or regard for the form and the content they’re purveying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the maximization of the medium, and
these movies are as engrossing and as accomplished as this sort of fare will
likely get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Movies such as Domino and
Smokin’ Aces and Running Scared and Shoot ‘Em Up are a blitzkrieg of color,
sounds, movement, and filmic ferocity that slap the viewer wide awake, never
letting them off the hook for a second, winking a sly wink one minute and then
playing for keeps the next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After the stylistic cinematic experimentation that he
developed on 2004’s Man on Fire, Tony Scott brought out all his directorial
tricks for his magnum opus and career-defining masterpiece, 2005’s Domino,
which is easily the *Toniest* Tony Scott film ever crafted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A pulsing, racing, fever-dream biopic of the
famed female bounty hunter Domino Harvey (the fantastic Kiera Knightley), this
was Tony Scott unleashed, uncompromised, and totally off the reservation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Independently financed with no bean-counters
sitting over his shoulder to tell him no or what to do, Domino was his Freedom
of Expression Movie, the film where he was able to cut loose as an artist and
be the filmmaker he always wanted to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Critics hated it (except for a small, passionate core of supporters).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Audiences ignored it (though it’s becoming
something of a cult-classic).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it
sent Tony back to the Bruckheimer well (2007’s underrated and
experimental-in-its-own-right Déjà Vu) for a more popular styled hit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many complained that Scott’s directorial
tricks and kinetic editing patterns were a major problem in Domino but I
couldn’t agree any less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First off, lest
anyone forget, the film is framed through the P.O.V. of a main character who is
tripping on magic mushrooms – that should be the first sign to the viewer that
the film is going to be a bit off-kilter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Daniel Mindel’s super-saturated, kaleidoscopic cinematography bleeds and
jumps off the screen, assaulting and overwhelming the viewer’s senses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a wild, semi-true, semi-insane movie
that genuinely does new stuff when it comes to the moving image, and stands as Scott’s
undying love letter to cinema as a whole.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Arriving after one of the best cop films of all time –
2003’s Narc – writer/director Joe Carnahan unleased the extra-crazy and wildly
entertaining action/comedy Smokin’ Aces in 2006, and despite critical swats and
mediocre box-office, it’s become something of a cult-favorite and talking point
for extreme action-cinema lovers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Boasting an immense and varied cast (Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Common,
Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, Peter Berg, Martin Henderson, Chris Pine, Andy Garcia,
Alicia Keys, Taraji P. Henson, and a hilariously sleazy turn from Jason
Bateman), this is a hyperactive ballet of chases, arguments, shoot-outs, vulgar
humor, plot twists, reversals, showgirls, cocaine, FBI agents, gangsters, and
lots and lots of high-powered ammunition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cinematographer Mauro Fiore goes the glossy and gritty route, concocting
extremely stylish images all throughout, while the frantic editing creates a
mad-cap sense of lunacy and dangerous thrills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There’s some solid social commentary throw in for good measure, and
there’s a lot of jet-black humor that graces the edges of the screenplay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved how each rambunctious character in
Smokin’ Aces gets enough time to shine, and because of the oversized
personalities, the oversized filmmaking technique fits the proceedings like a
glove.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get the sense that Carnahan was
at times tipping his stylistic hat to Scott, knowing that his frenetic energy
was channeling the late auteur’s magic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Excessive, loud, potentially obnoxious, and over the top in all the best
ways, Smokin’ Aces is unapologetic blood-letting that goes for broke at all
times.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Speaking of go-for-broke-cinema, Wayne Kramer, the fiercely
independent and tremendously gifted writer-director of the Oscar-nominated
drama The Cooler (2003), made a splash in the extreme action genre in 2006 with
his underrated and supremely stylish hybrid actioner Running Scared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a movie that takes elements from the
traditional cop film and mixes them with magical realism (the nastiest kind,
naturally), gritty 70’s flourishes, and modern violence ‘n mayhem which results
in an intoxicating brew of kitchen-sink-cinema.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Roger Ebert’s famous review of Running Scared says it all: Speaking of
movies that go over the top, "Running Scared" goes so far over the
top, it circumnavigates the top and doubles back on itself; it's the Mobius
Strip of over-the-topness. I am in awe. It throws in everything but the kitchen
sink. Then it throws in the kitchen sink, too, and the combo washer-dryer in
the laundry room, while the hero and his wife are having sex on top of it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t have said it any better
myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is one of my all-time
favorite action flicks, a joyous celebration of all things wild and wooly, with
an engaging lead performance from the late Paul Walker, a terrific supporting
turn from Vera Farmiga, and tons of great character actors showing off their
gruff faces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The narrative pivots on a
gun used in the murder of a cop; it’s up to gangster underling Jimmy (Walker)
to dispose of the weapon in question without it ever being found.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when the gun goes missing, all hell
breaks loose, and he’s on the run looking for the pistol while trying to evade
the dangerous crosshairs of corrupt cops, psycho pimps, child killers, and the
Russian mob.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a dangerous, perverse,
adult-oriented flick, replete with graphic violence, sex, nudity, and the
liberal use of the “F” word. In short – it’s terrific fun, a movie in love with
its own movieness, while still operating within the parameters of genre entertainment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cinematographer Jim Whitaker goes berserk,
filming the action in jagged, extreme close-ups and slick Steadicam to create a
sense of danger and immediacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, and
it must be mentioned – for once – the thankless role of the “on-looking wife”
has been given some heft and texture thanks to Kramer’s inventive
screenplay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of relegating
Farmiga to the sidelines after so memorably introducing her character, the
narrative involves her in interesting and complex ways, giving her character
her own arc, and giving the film a menacing edge it might not otherwise have
had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t want to spoil anything, but
I’ll just say this: scumbags get what they deserve in this outrageous world
that Kramer created.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Shoot ‘Em Up is the silliest of all of these movies but
amazingly fun on its own terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Playing
like a Looney Tunes adventure on a few hits of crystal meth, this is pure
comic-book-movie shenanigans, but instead of superheroes from outer-space, the
characters in this oddly eccentric actioner bounce off one another with crazy
glee and nasty aplomb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a
lactating hooker, a shoot-out in the middle of coitus, and enough scenery
chewing from Paul Giamatti as one of the most incompetent villains in the
history of action movies to choke a horse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Clive Owen basically reprised his role from the BMF Films short series,
this time with a carrot fetish (you’ll see!), as a take-no-nonsense Driver who
shoots first, steps on the gas second, and rarely has time to ask
questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pseudo-amateur filmmaker
Michael Davis famously got this film made by showing New Line execs the entire
movie via pre-viz artwork, and it’s a shame that someone with this level of
creativity hasn’t been allowed to work since (the movie flopped big time at the
box office despite mostly positive reviews).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There’s a careening sense of ebb and flow to Shoot ‘Em Up, with the
film’s wicked energy level never stopping for a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a playfully violent, R-rated cartoon
that while being less graceful and artistically inclined as the other films up
for discussion, still manages to talk the talk and walk the walk when it comes
to extreme, outlandish thrills.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There’s a post-MTV quality to all of these films –<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>let’s call it Pre-Futurist – with filmmakers
like Oliver Stone paving the way for auteurs like Scott and craftsman like
Kramer and Carnahan to branch out on their own both stylistically and
narratively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stone’s seismic
contribution to the landscape of world cinema, 1994's Natural Born Killers, represents
both the apex and a new jumping-off point for this sort of adrenaline-fueled
aesthetic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That film acted as a crescendo
of sorts for Stone, who had refined his aggressive filmmaking style over the
years with films such as Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, and The Doors, but
seemingly influenced Scott with his handling of many elements in his brilliant
1995 film True Romance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s no coincidence
that both Natural Born Killers and True Romance were birthed by the pen of
Quentin Tarantino, that man of many, many genre influences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Graphic violence mixed with black comedy
would become a staple element of these types of movies, with abrupt and
forceful tonal shifts signaling the idea that anything’s possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of the films discussed herein demonstrate
a common sense of excitement and openness to the idea of what genre cinema can
and should be, and have blown open the stylistic doors so that other filmmakers
can sample the goods and develop new trends of their own (Gareth Evans, here’s
looking at you, kid!)<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-41594262774231144522015-01-12T14:45:00.002-08:002015-01-12T14:45:47.278-08:00How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Oscar and Remembered to Just Love Movies in General
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">People need to calm down and relax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Movie lovers, I mean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is that time of year when Top 10 Lists
are floating around everyone, all the critics groups are chiming in, the
various guilds start bestowing their awards, and the Two Big Shows (The Golden
Globes and the Academy Awards) are right around the corner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But for anyone with a serious love for world
cinema, all of these insipid statue giveaways are meaningless and
inconsequential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People shouldn’t be as
obsessed about what gets nominated for Oscars, but rather, when exploring the “best”
that cinema has to offer, they should be obsessed with the idea of seeing challenging
works that have something new to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But instead, many people get caught up in the hysteria and the excitement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Listen, I won't lie – I enjoy watching the
Oscars as much as the next person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
glitz and the glamour and the dresses and the (sometimes) fantastic speeches
are all exciting to watch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I never
take them to heart, or at least, over the years, I've learned to stop taking
them to heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right around 1994/1995 is
when I became a budding Cinefile, and when Pulp Fiction lost the big trophy to
Forrest Gump, I was pretty much in tears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But over the years, I’ve realized that it’s silly to take that much
stock into awards shows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There's no
concrete way to discern what the "best" movie of any given year
actually was/is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Movies connect with
people for all the right (and wrong) reasons, and they are personal experiences
which are collectively shared with strangers in a darkened theater.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People project themselves into the stories
they’re watching which makes the process of experiencing a movie a uniquely
personal one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are plenty of
reasons why people love certain movies while those specific films are hated by
many others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So to reduce one of our
greatest art forms to a series of contests seems a little disingenuous; it
chips away at the foundation of what great cinema is supposed to represent.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It's useless to even remotely dissect the Golden
Globes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's a night for celebs to get
loaded for free, to have a good time, but nobody cares and nobody remotely
takes the awards seriously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Globes have
no impact on Oscar voting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People need to stop trying to make
correlations between the two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are
thousands of voters in the Academy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who
are these 75 people in the "Hollywood Foreign Press" and what
credentials do they have to tell us what the "Best" of something
is?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's a charade done for advertising
dollars, nothing more, nothing less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now, the Oscars are clearly more prestigious based on the name and
history, but they are no less irrelevant when it comes to distilling what the
most important works of filmed entertainment are from any given year. The
Oscars are a joke in terms of their ability to shine a light on the true
greatness of cinema.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure, they get it
right sometimes (recent winners No Country for Old Men and The Hurt Locker come
to mind) but too often, the selections made for Best Picture are tired and lazy
and done so out of knee-jerk reactions that stem from political attitudes and
old-school cronyism, rather than true artistic merit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The King's Speech over The Social Network?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Argo? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Crash?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Chicago?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Lord of the
Rings?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shakespeare in Love?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The English Patient?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dances with Wolves?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Driving Miss Daisy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I bring these good if sometimes ordinary
titles up because all of these movies have won Best Picture, but how many times
since their year of release have you actually re-watched them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fine, Argo was pretty damn good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But for me, in my mind and heart, if the
Academy cared about what "Great Cinema" truly is, they'd honor a film
with their top prize like The Tree of Life or Enter the Void or Blue is the
Warmest Color or City of God or The New World or Children of Men or The Fall or
Synechdoche, NY or Holy Motors or dozens and dozens of other films that
transcend the medium and become something else entirely: form pushing works
that are worthy of repeated study and discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we're supposed to be looking to the Oscars
as the end all be all of cinema, I'd hate to think that what the Academy feels
are the most important is all that the majority of the populace seeks out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In terms of 2014, my favorite movies will hardly get any
Academy recognition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This happens almost
every year - the stuff that makes the biggest impact on me are the movies that
tend to be a little different or challenging and not up to the Academy’s standards
of greatness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm always down for a good
historical drama (Selma) or a whiz-bang action flick (The Raid 2) or a nice
piece of Oscar-bait (Unbroken) just like the rest of us, but what sets my
cinema soul ablaze is the idea that I'm going to experience something unique
and something powerful in ways that I don't upfront expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which is why, for this year's Oscars, I'm
hoping that Boyhood pulls a sweep in all categories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, mind you, Boyhood is not my absolute #1
film from 2014 (it's certainly top 10 material), but what Boyhood represents is
something that cannot be denied: It's a one of a kind movie, a one of a kind
experience, not likely to be attempted again, completed almost by miracle, made
by a filmmaker who has done consistently good to great work for 20 years
without getting any acclaim or notice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What Richard Linklater was able to accomplish with Boyhood is something
special and something that advances the notion of what cinema is capable
of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which is why it needs (and deserves)
to win any award that it's nominated for – if – and only if – we have to reduce
our greatest art form to a series of contests. Birdman (which will find some
love, I think, from the Academy) and Under the Skin (destined to be blanked,
except possible for Original Score) are two of the other transcendent, medium-pushing
works from 2014, and for me, represent two of the boldest cinematic visions in
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are the movies I'll be
re-watching for years to come rather than solid but unspectacular works such as
The Imitation Game or The Theory of Everything or Unbroken, films that are
likely to resonate more with the Academy than with someone like myself.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Top 10 lists from critics can be a great resource, because,
if you're smart, you'll keep your Netflix queue minimized while looking through
everyone's list and you can add movies you've never heard of immediately to
your lineup of films to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the
years, I've come to trust a few key critics (Ebert when he was with us, Manohla
Dargis , Andrew O'Hehir, A.O. Scott to a certain degree, Todd McCarthy, Scott
Foundas, Justin Chang) and I look to those people to see what's moved them or
made them excited about cinema.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of
my favorite films are movies that have terrible Rottentomatoes scores, and as
dangerous as I think Rottentomatoes can be to genuine critical analysis in
certain ways, there's no doubt that without it, we wouldn't be exposed to
numerous voices that have added something interesting to the discussion of
world cinema.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I choose to see has
more to do with how I perceive the overall quality of a film to be, whether
it's the subject matter, the cast, or the filmmaker behind the camera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too often, people become discouraged to see
something genuinely brave or different because of a low Rottentomaotes or
Metacritic score.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You need to go with
your gut before being swayed to see something or not by someone you've never
met.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the trailer looks interesting
and there's an element to the film you're interested in, see that movie in
question, because you might be missing out if you don’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Which brings me to the ultimate point of all of this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When it comes to movies, everyone is entitled
to their own opinion, and there's no "correct" or
"incorrect" feeling that you can have with a film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Movies hit us in certain and often times
inexplicable ways that are unexplainable; we all invest a different amount of
ourselves in the things we watch depending on the other circumstances that
surround our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Movies provide an
escape, but most importantly, a glimpse into worlds we’ll never explore in
person, and often times we find ourselves sucked into stories that showcase
something that we'll never be able to do or experience in the real world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea that movies act as a transportation
device for the mind is not something new, but it’s something that constantly
reinforces itself to me as each year passes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So, in closing, watch The Big Show in February,
have a fun night, place your Oscar bets, and fill out your at-home
ballots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just don't take it too
seriously and always remember that you're not wrong for loving a movie (or 10)
that gets no Oscar love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are so
many great movies from all over the world that come out every year that it does
a disservice to only use the various award shows as a barometer of what's out
there and available to experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
true film lover should constantly be seeking to broaden their horizons, ready
to explore unfamiliar genres, and submit themselves to challenging viewing
experiences that seek to disrupt the idea of traditional, A-to-B-to-C
cinema.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm not saying that every single
viewing has to be Cloud Atlas or a Michael Haneke or some <span style="font-size: small;">buried</span> treasure from
Estonia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just want people to remember
that there’s more than 31 flavors in the ice-cream parlor of cinema, and what's
great about today's distribution outlets (Netflix, On Demand, Amazon, Hulu,
Roku, Redbox, etc) is that there are more ways than ever to constantly expand
upon your cinematic horizons.</span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-64787979779584808782015-01-06T14:02:00.001-08:002015-01-06T14:02:01.800-08:00BEST OF 2010-2014 #1 THE TREE OF LIFE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSujWfu68jF4Y8v9Y_rIXjfWYcFbmXkH-sOvclIela40BNqtM8TVQPXirZzxTJcFqosIPmZJdPnLINmigTflD22YnvLxN8IVJ-V3Roz9zhTHzzOCOkByN1g3U4ziy1KsaWjBiJpWnnscT/s1600/life.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSujWfu68jF4Y8v9Y_rIXjfWYcFbmXkH-sOvclIela40BNqtM8TVQPXirZzxTJcFqosIPmZJdPnLINmigTflD22YnvLxN8IVJ-V3Roz9zhTHzzOCOkByN1g3U4ziy1KsaWjBiJpWnnscT/s1600/life.png" /></a></div>
No less than the film of the century so far, Terrence Malick’s staggering work of art The Tree of Life is existential cinema worthy of awe, respect, and admiration for its deep rooted interest in expanding the form as a whole. Like the best of all great art, it’s a film that’s open to interpretation from any angle, from any perspective; no two dissections of the film are correct or wrong<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">, correct or incorrect. This is a deeply personal movie, made by a profoundly private artist, and it will either immediately connect with the viewer or totally alienate them. The Tree of Life dares to explore where we come from as a species, how we’ve evolved as humans, and where we’re headed as a planet. It goes without saying that the performances, production values, and overall directorial vision are unified to the extreme, and in many cases, the film achieves an overall grandeur that’s above and beyond what’s normally considered perfect. Emmanuel Lubezki’s haunting, forever-dazzling cinematography may be the finest ever captured by a moving-pictures camera; there’s a distinct and unique quality to each and every image in The Tree of Life, and via the Blu-ray format, it’s beauty is next to impossible to stop admiring. The sprawling nature of the narrative is both intimate and epic, a feat that is tough to pull off, but Malick does so effortlessly, creating a dreamlike state almost immediately with his constantly darting camerawork, dreamy voice-over narration, and elliptical storytelling style. The camera always seems to be on the prowl, observing life as it unfolds, primed to capture both innocence and cruelty with a clear, non-judgmental eye. With his customarily uncanny sense and use of voice-over, startling visual imagery, layered sound design, and orchestral music, Malick takes the viewer on a tour de force journey through the creation of our universe, and then settles into a deceptively simple story of small town American life in 1950’s Texas seen thru the prism of the “traditional American family.” It’s a juxtaposition that may seem strange at first, but upon further reflection and repeated has come to symbolize one of the boldest narrative decisions this side of Kubrick’s epic jump-cut in 2001: A Space Odyssey, quite possibly the only other film that the Tree of Life bears any overall resemblance too, and even that’s a stretch. Malick wants you to consider the idea that we’re all just tiny pieces of a much larger puzzle, and that the intricacies of our life will undoubtedly remain a mystery no matter how hard we try and figure them out. The Tree of Life is cinema to be treasured, studied, and revisited countless times.</span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-9588677814606173662015-01-06T14:00:00.002-08:002015-01-06T14:00:15.599-08:00BEST OF 2010-2014 #2 ENTER THE VOID<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEFZoDgavKh_sb7xRubCjGZOnIJDofen8t9mKhhEKrCgxa0zmTJJk3PBPqY8mA56A2YEuk-ZwIMRKXpBdUYHn2ax1jxJ-nwXFzhq960O5-qkiiZemsKN-lmPYOx3oK2YPxoToWhY37Rdk3/s1600/void.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEFZoDgavKh_sb7xRubCjGZOnIJDofen8t9mKhhEKrCgxa0zmTJJk3PBPqY8mA56A2YEuk-ZwIMRKXpBdUYHn2ax1jxJ-nwXFzhq960O5-qkiiZemsKN-lmPYOx3oK2YPxoToWhY37Rdk3/s1600/void.jpg" height="135" width="320" /></a></div>
Experimental. Daring. Seductive. Intoxicating. Those are all words that I’d use to describe Gaspar Noe’s pulsating masterwork Enter the Void, a movie that for many will be too much, but for some, will be just right. I am interested in seeing new stuff when I sit down to watch a movie, and to paraphrase something that Manhola Dargis said in her New York Times review, Noe is a filmmaker intereste<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">d in showing you something new and startling and taking you to a place that you’ve never been. Now…the places that Noe likes to explore…those places won’t be of interest to everyone. This is as explicit of a movie that I’ve ever seen where nothing is left to the imagination: sex, drugs, death, hallucinations, conception, abortion, birth – Noe doesn’t leave anything out. Loosely inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead and shot through the lens of a DMT-trip-gone-terribly-wrong (Google DMT to learn more…), Enter the Void is an almost entirely first-person point-of-view cinematic experience (meaning the camera is literally the main character, complete with a “blinking” shutter to approximate regular ocular blinking) and as a result the audience is all but flung head-first into Noe’s outrageous and purposefully excessive madness. This is extreme, outlaw cinema, more accomplished and even more provocative than Noe’s previous freak-out-fest Irreversible. Nothing is traditional about Enter the Void and there’s nothing simple about the themes that Noe explores in Enter the Void; it’s a film that’s clearly coming from a very personal space, a work that refuses to be hand-held to any narrative destination. Oh, and have I commented about the opening credits? They are some of the best I’ve ever seen, putting you literally in a trance, and setting a feverish tone for things to come. Enter the Void is a film that travels beyond our expected definitions of what cinema is and can be, and it’s a piece of work that will be better understood through multiple viewings.</span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-52506581786937036532015-01-06T13:59:00.002-08:002015-01-06T13:59:15.630-08:00BEST OF 2010-2014 #3 ALL IS LOST<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYuQBDGOTs_rjIdxZOq1ZXLWzmG51ZxbQuq4g1H3F83DSilveMiuKFpcXKd4mlUyz5mpGpdwCHg0lURrCvEqOYtMn_ky1RatNhK_qxvIIVghX2pryUsB066RlcNhZ_IyzEn1-55fSRRrH-/s1600/all.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYuQBDGOTs_rjIdxZOq1ZXLWzmG51ZxbQuq4g1H3F83DSilveMiuKFpcXKd4mlUyz5mpGpdwCHg0lURrCvEqOYtMn_ky1RatNhK_qxvIIVghX2pryUsB066RlcNhZ_IyzEn1-55fSRRrH-/s1600/all.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
All is Lost is as simple and as straightforward as storytelling will likely get, but at the same time, it strenuously avoids (or upends) cliché at every turn and is totally devoid of obvious, cheap-seats sentimentality. It’s a nearly wordless motion picture, relying on clear-cut visual storytelling to communicate its ideas and feelings. Writer/director J.C. Chandor and screen legend Robert Redford<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">, in a historic performance, take the viewer on a harrowing and breathtaking journey with a finale that shakes to the core – this is vital cinema for anyone who considers themselves a fan of the medium. Recalling the sadness and melancholy of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea but also infused with a sense of pride, elegance, and grace under pressure, All is Lost will likely test the limits of most moviegoers, as it offers little in the way of backstory or easily identifiable character traits; it values patience and quiet like few recent films. The primal muscularity and overwhelming visceral tension that Chandor and cinematographer Frank G. DeMarco achieved harkens back to 80's-era Friedkin and Mann, recalling past glories such as Sorcerer and Thief, while sharing familiar beats with modern classics such as Castaway and The Grey. Shooting on the open water in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen, while also utilizing hand-held cameras which were fitted with wide-angle lenses, the filmmakers presented themselves with a huge task, and the film possess a near-constant state of nervousness and excitement. Alex Ebert’s moody and inventive score surrounds the film but never overpowers it, allowing Redford’s remarkable face to do the heavy emotional lifting rather than a cloying soundtrack; it’s the smartest use of music in a film that I can remember. All is Lost is a masterwork for all involved, a work that’s interested in pushing boundaries and expectations, and is clearly the closest we will get to pure, existential filmmaking in the current Hollywood landscape.</span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-17007166824690955332015-01-06T13:58:00.002-08:002015-01-06T13:58:07.758-08:00BEST OF 2010-2014 #4 THE GREY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXP1g3fUZ7CvoC359WSVtSXqfv4QrA8h5kw95cpgIxAXq0H5CfWC-uz-3FLtllAqmkERPvnzTkrR25UDkcHwp-67pojPsLt9r251lS64i-YoE-SaYHrXgpvCHYczYTOybwawfEEqbmljK-/s1600/grey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXP1g3fUZ7CvoC359WSVtSXqfv4QrA8h5kw95cpgIxAXq0H5CfWC-uz-3FLtllAqmkERPvnzTkrR25UDkcHwp-67pojPsLt9r251lS64i-YoE-SaYHrXgpvCHYczYTOybwawfEEqbmljK-/s1600/grey.jpg" height="181" width="320" /></a></div>
The Grey is tough-guy poetry, wearing its bruised, wounded heart on its heavy-flannel sleeve, a force of nature cinema experience that leaves me crushed every time I watch it. Quiet, oppressively cold, and deeply introspective, this is a brilliant, Jack London-esque tale of machismo in the face of all-but-certain-death. Had this movie been released at the end of 2011 the Oscar nominations would have bee<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">n different, as Liam Neeson’s towering performance would surely have been recognized with a nomination. Jumping into this project almost immediately after the death of his wife, he couldn’t have known how real life would have informed his aching, forceful work in The Grey. When the final 10 minutes of The Grey arrive, there’s a major twist, and it makes the entire film even that much more moving and powerful. I’m aware of the fact that many meat-head audience members were near riotous over the fact that The Grey wasn’t some sort of WWF-style smack-down between the guy from Taken and a pack of rabid wolves. With certain movies, the job of Hollywood marketing teams seems to be to hoodwink potential ticket buyers into thinking they’re seeing one thing, and this is what happened when people saw the ads for The Grey – they saw guys running away from wolves and Neeson throwing up his dukes. Yes, this stuff does happen, just not in the way you’d think it would happen. And when things get rough, they’re believably rough. And besides, the wolves in this movie are merely metaphorical creations; to literalize every single thing we see in a feature film is to do a disservice to the artists who are asking more of us as viewers. Carnahan is a 70’s influenced filmmaker, interested in character as much as action, and his output over the years has been interesting to observe. I’ve always felt that he’s constantly at odds with the money-guys, as he’s always interested in digging beneath the surface of things, whether or not that’s what people want to see. He’s due to have that film that truly blows him up and I can’t wait for that day. With The Grey, I was not prepared for how still and patient the filmmaking would be one minute, and then how visceral and violent it would get the next. It's a slug-to-the-gut type movie, a piece of work that will haunt anyone who encounters it. Featuring one of the most harrowing depictions of a plane crash ever captured on film and ending on a note of tremendous ambiguity and narrative power, The Grey isn’t a film for the weak stomached or weak willed.</span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-47554338419870676472015-01-06T13:56:00.002-08:002015-01-06T13:56:33.792-08:00BEST OF 2010-2014 #5 MARGARET<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Kenneth Lonergan's almost-never-released masterpiece Margaret is a film that many don't even know exists, and that's truly a shame, because it's as compelling and as powerful as dramatic cinema can get. Lonergan’s lone previous directorial credit, You Can Count On Me, was as perfectly observed indie dramedy with black humor and lots of heart. With Margaret, he goes large, and the results are no le<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">ss impressive. Featuring a volcanic lead performance from Anna Paquin (never better), the film centers on a tragic city-bus accident and the aftermath that it creates. It's a story about guilt, grief, acceptance, and finally, forgiveness, and nothing about the narrative is easy or simple. The film utilizes an Altman-esque sound design with tons of overlapping dialogue; Lonergan's decision to also have the casual conversations of extras and passerbys audible on the soundtrack and audible to the main characters further heightens the anxious mood and frenzied atmosphere of this unobtrusively engrossing tapestry of people and events and places and emotions. The superb Mark Ruffalo pops up in yet another soul-searching supporting turn, and the film is enlivened with the likes of Matt Damon, Allison Janney, Kieran Culkin, Rosemarie DeWitt, Matthew Broderick, Olivia Thirlby, and Lonergan himself. We'll never know exactly what happened behind the scenes with this film. The oft-rumored "Scorsese-Schoonmaker Cut" would certainly be interesting to see, but what we're left with is a film of enormous ambition, a multilayered magnum opus from one of the best, most underappreciated voices that Hollywood has come across in years.</span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-21290686824505773602015-01-06T13:55:00.002-08:002015-01-06T13:55:14.805-08:00BEST OF 2010-2014 #6 CARLOS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv1R5jYU5cxLZEf1mngN5jF3onKZ8pv0uNjk06aFkxFJjpKuLgE7RA6FFXm-L20XUDE9E13MGprrJVZ6-FFEtc5Dr8WkCfQKt9tgpQvVfbIj0q8wg3nDt5P_pVGP_6-0uks1RJMBdj9X_4/s1600/carlos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv1R5jYU5cxLZEf1mngN5jF3onKZ8pv0uNjk06aFkxFJjpKuLgE7RA6FFXm-L20XUDE9E13MGprrJVZ6-FFEtc5Dr8WkCfQKt9tgpQvVfbIj0q8wg3nDt5P_pVGP_6-0uks1RJMBdj9X_4/s1600/carlos.jpg" /></a></div>
Forceful. Commanding. Absolutely gripping. There’s a brooding sense of danger and impending violence that hangs over every frame of Olivier Assayas’s five hour epic Carlos. Edgar Ramirez went all out in his searing, terrifying, completely transformative performance as the infamous terrorist Carlos “The Jackal”. The verisimilitude of Assayas’s filmmaking is exquisite, and as the film swiftly progre<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">sses due to the dynamic and exhilarating pacing, the viewer can’t help but be fully engrossed by the stunning craft and meticulous details on display. With procedural elements that are worthy of Pakula/Fincher comparisons and showcasing a sprawling narrative that spans the final years of the Cold War, Carlos is vast in scope yet intimate with its fine details. Considering the elephantine length, multiple viewings are necessary in order to distill each and every plot-point, fact, relationship, and motive. The viewer is treated to Ramirez burning up the screen with an intensely physical, Brando-esque performance of transformation and verbal command. French filmmaker Assayas utilizes hand-held camera work, a propulsive musical score, nimble editing, and a variety of spoken languages which all helps to create a totally real and organic atmosphere and viewing experience. Much of the film feels like a documentary, and the ability of Assayas and his crew to transport the audience into many of these frightening sequences makes the film feel incredibly vital. Carlos sort of feels like distant cousins with Steven Spielberg’s Munich, another terrorism epic set all across Europe. The international hop-scotching and zigzagging of Carlos is extremely impressive especially when you consider how many speaking parts there are in this massive film. It’s a towering achievement for all involved.</span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-42825578581557903092015-01-06T13:53:00.002-08:002015-01-06T13:53:44.148-08:00BEST OF 2010-2014 #7 UNDER THE SKIN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Under the Skin. Kubrick has been re-born. I’ve said a lot about this film over the last few months and I’ll be saying more about it in the near future. Jonathan Glazer has made an indelible work of art, something that allows itself to be constantly studied and pondered, and like the best of cinema, truly takes you somewhere that is strange and foreign and new. (More thoughts and ruminations on Under the Skin will appear in my upcoming Favorites of 2014).Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-51481644277773539012015-01-06T13:27:00.002-08:002015-01-06T13:27:50.127-08:00BEST OF 2010-2014 #8 THE COUNSELOR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Cynical. Ruthless. Unmerciful. A modern day Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Ridley Scott’s uncompromising neo-noir gem The Counselor is tack-sharp filmmaking, never afraid to head into the bleakest of territory, always ready to inflict a death-blow. Boasting a career-defining performance from Cameron Diaz as the ultimate femme fatale and a rogues gallery of sleazy supporting turns (Javi<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">er Bardem, Brad Pitt, Bruno Ganz, Ruben Blades, Toby Kebbell, Dean Norris, John Leguizamo), the film is anchored by Michael Fassbender’s brilliantly modulated performance as a man who thinks he knows how to swim with the sharks but fast realizes that he’s but a mere guppy and dinner is about to be served. The Counselor died a fast death at the box-office and critics sliced into it with as much vicious aplomb as writer Cormac McCarthy brought to his ultra-sadistic landscape of drug-dealers and killers. I think that this movie scared people too much; they didn’t like their sexy Hollywood stars getting killed and acting like ass-holes and it was a turn-off for many people. I think people were afraid of what McCarthy’s prose has to say about the human condition, how we’re all just lions lying in wait, looking for our next meal, no matter the consequences or repercussions of our (potentially disastrous) decisions. Being that The Counselor is the work of Ridley Scott, there’s a sexy élan to the visual style, with cinematographer Dariusz Wolski bathing the film in a sinister gloss that reflects the new-money-opulence of the morally bankrupt characters. Nobody is safe in this film, nothing is what it seems, and the final moments are some of the nastiest to come out of Hollywood in many years. Scott’s choices in projects typically veers towards the epic, but it’s interesting to note that two of his most interesting works as a filmmaker (The Counselor and Matchstick Men) find him playing on a smaller scale. This is a cold-hearted, brilliant anti-thriller that doesn’t play by any traditional rules.</span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-72316265984667458732015-01-06T13:26:00.000-08:002015-01-06T13:26:01.950-08:00BEST OF 2010-2014 #9 BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKxW1H8UqGwHY4iTEFnzf2I54jggZVi5-iETB1TRJjFX2R8MSJ9sNzqm6kGQB4HdFfvTReBZDgDcdkE7D67CLwXZgdVS-94zL-isnezMBposqS4Wv3nnIspKRj8CJ-BqXmP5mnyrrxxDPE/s1600/blue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKxW1H8UqGwHY4iTEFnzf2I54jggZVi5-iETB1TRJjFX2R8MSJ9sNzqm6kGQB4HdFfvTReBZDgDcdkE7D67CLwXZgdVS-94zL-isnezMBposqS4Wv3nnIspKRj8CJ-BqXmP5mnyrrxxDPE/s1600/blue.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
Blue is the Warmest Color is one of the most romantic movies I’ve ever encountered, often times transcending what we normally expect from a “love story,” and on numerous occasions becomes something else entirely: a direct peek into another person’s soul. A raw and incredibly open glimpse at a woman experiencing a sexual and spiritual awakening filled with both her inner most desires <span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">and deepest uncertainties, Blue is the Warmest Color unfolds with grace and simplicity, and is guided by two of the most fearless performances that I’ve ever seen from any actor or actress in my lifetime from Adele Exarchopoulous and Lea Sedoux. Writer-director Abdellatif Kechiche favors naturalism above all else, and he’s clearly fascinated with the daily minutiae of everyday life. As his camera fixes its stare on his characters, you get the sense that he’s a filmmaker who’s constantly searching for that perfect moment of clarity: that one beat where you can say to yourself – that’s life at its purest. This film reminds you that love is unexplainable and comes at us in various forms and shapes and sizes, at any moment that it chooses, and that when we’re least expecting it, our lives can forever be altered by just a glance at the right (or wrong) person. Blue is the Warmest Color is a study of human behavior, and how we act and react in a variety of situations and contexts. What does it mean to love and what does it mean to know when your love isn’t enough for another person? Every kiss in this film is felt, every bite of food or sip of wine is tasted, every moment is savored as if it might be the last. The sexuality on display will leave many people speechless; you become privy to two people exploring the boundaries of themselves and one another, and in those moments, you feel as if you’re in that room with them, a curious observer to something private and extraordinary. Everything in Blue is the Warmest Color feels real. There’s a lover’s quarrel that feels as scary and as intense as any cinematic fight has ever felt (or at least that I’ve seen); it’s shockingly believable and phenomenally sad because every verbal sling feels like an honest dent in the armor.</span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-73846996844859012642015-01-06T13:23:00.004-08:002015-01-06T13:23:58.597-08:00BEST OF 2010-2014 #10 THE RAID 2: BERANDAL<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUf3f92kVlaV0G6IYBUZZ2K6p3x-ThkAaZQfm3R8vFzDhcblmUHnYT6vAyFCVORj4aAaDy2MkdY87vlo92ua9si8Rug-r-C2eHkACFDKto0Ny25Ar-4yQhECZoZy93J8-js_LDpwoF1yDh/s1600/raid+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUf3f92kVlaV0G6IYBUZZ2K6p3x-ThkAaZQfm3R8vFzDhcblmUHnYT6vAyFCVORj4aAaDy2MkdY87vlo92ua9si8Rug-r-C2eHkACFDKto0Ny25Ar-4yQhECZoZy93J8-js_LDpwoF1yDh/s1600/raid+2.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
The Raid 2: Berandal is the greatest action movie I've ever seen. No contest. It's not even close. Gareth Evans runs circles around his directing competition, and literally blasts a mile-wide hole in the genre that's unlikely to be topped. Until, that is, Evans makes The Raid 3. Iko Uwais is some sort of martial-arts God; I've never seen anyone that comes remotely close to having this set of s<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">kills. Outlandishly violent and excessively in your face, this is an action-lovers dream come true, and it furthers the notion that the MPAA truly has their heads in the sand when it comes to how they judge a film's content. Expanding upon the tightly confined events from The Raid, this sequel picks up literally 5 minutes after the conclusion of the first film, and it couldn't be any different in overall execution or ambition. This is an epic crime film, blending elements from the classic Yakuza picture, John Woo-esque ultra-violence, and an "undercover-in-prison" plot-line that echoes Infernal Affairs/The Departed. From set-piece to set-piece, Evans keeps upping the ante in terms of violent spectacle, but still pays close attention to plot, story, motivation, and character. This is a two and half hour work of head-splattering art that truly needs to be seen to be believed. From the rain-soaked prison fight to "Hammer Girl" and "Bat Boy" to the positively insane car chase and then on to the final one-on-one-smack-down (absolutely the best fight I've ever seen in filmed entertainment), The Raid 2 shatters any preconceived notions of what to expect from an action picture; this is pure cinematic adrenalin, a thousand kicks to the ribs and face, and easily the bloodiest, craziest action film that I've ever come across.</span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-88964947552403048902014-01-30T20:31:00.000-08:002014-01-30T20:31:17.802-08:002013: IF I HAD AN OSCAR BALLOT
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All is Lost<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Counselor<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lone Survivor<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Captain Phillips<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nebraska<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Wolf of Wall
Street<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gravity<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Her<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prisoners<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Man of Steel<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Director</span></u></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">JC Chandor, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All is Lost</i><o:p></o:p></span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ridley Scott, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Counselor</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Peter Berg, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lone
Survivor</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Paul Greengrass, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Captain
Phillips</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Alexander Payne, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nebraska</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Robert Redford, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All is Lost</i><o:p></o:p></span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tom Hanks, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Captain
Phillips</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonardo DiCaprio, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Wolf of Wall Street</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hugh Jackman,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
Prisoners</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Matthew McConaughey, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dallas
Buyers Club</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cate Blanchett, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blue Jasmine</i><o:p></o:p></span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Greta Gerwig, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frances
Ha</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sandra Bullock, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gravity</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Amy Adams, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American
Hustle</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Judy Dench, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Philomena</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Barkhad Abdi, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Captain Phillips</i><o:p></o:p></span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jonah Hill, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wolf
of Wall Street</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Michael Fassbender, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">12
Years a Slave</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jared Leto, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dallas
Buyers Club</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jake Gyllenhaal, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prisoners</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Supporting
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cameron Diaz, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Counselor</i><o:p></o:p></span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sally Hawkins, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blue
Jasmine</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lupita N’yongo, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">12
Years a Slave</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">June Squibb, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nebraska</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Margot Robbie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Original
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Her<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All is Lost<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Counselor<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Inside Llewyn Davis<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nebraska<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Before Midnight<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Wolf of Wall
Street<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lone Survivor<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Captain Phillips<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Philomena<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cinematography</span></u></b><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gravity<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All is Lost<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Counselor<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lone Survivor<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Man of Steel<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Captain Phillips<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All is Lost<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Counselor<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lone Survivor<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Her<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rush<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">12 Years a Slave<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All is Lost<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gravity<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Her<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">12 Years a Slave<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Elysium<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Great Gatsby<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Man of Steel<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
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Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1765008161115599620.post-63324308625551006312014-01-30T20:24:00.003-08:002014-01-30T20:24:48.351-08:002013 #1: ALL IS LOST<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Coming off the fancy-pants dialogue-show that was <em>Margin Call</em>, it’s something of a bizarre notion that J.C. Chandor’s second feature film would be the almost entirely wordless survival-at-sea drama <em>All is Lost</em>. Communicating exclusively through powerful, visual storytelling on a large scale within a limited budget seemed something of a Herculean-task, a task that Chandor was<span class="text_exposed_show"> more than up to tackling. Featuring a historic, eloquent performance from Robert Redford as the aptly named Our Man, the film takes on a Hemmingway-esque vibe of existentialism and self-reflection during times of great personal stress, drawing the viewer intimately into the drama and the archetypal character of Our Man, so that by the end of the film, the viewer has become one with Redford in spirit. So few movies would have the narrative courage to not cut-away to grieving or hysterical loved ones, unimportant secondary characters or a frantic search party, but that’s exactly what Chandor does here; he’s only interested in the plight of Our Man and how he reacts to every situation, so as a result, the connection we feel to him is inordinate and special. Purposefully slow moving but enormously engrossing as a result of the patience of the storytelling and the fullness of Redford’s wordless, magnetic performance, this is more than just a “one-man show.” Some predictable plot elements are rewarded with unexpected results and variations on themes that we’ve see before but never in this fashion. The sensations of dread and solitude have rarely been conveyed this well on screen; this is a sort of personal/emotional horror movie, complete with ominous sound work, a subtle, eerie musical score, and point-of-view cinematography that limits perspective and vantage point. The muscular camerawork by Frank DeMarco recalls vintage-era William Friedkin and Michael Mann, balancing the harsh realities of nature with the dangerous creations of the industrialized world. And then there’s the breathtaking finale, which, quite literally, left me an emotional disaster inside the theater, requiring some time spent in the lobby to collect myself. Maybe it was just that particular day and that particular screening, but I was devastated by the final moments of this unconditional masterpiece and the decisions that Chandor made as a filmmaker. A second viewing a week later re-confirmed my feelings: this is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen and far and away the best film from 2013.</span>Actionmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16513109522731313470noreply@blogger.com0