DARK ELEGANCE

Lt. James Gordon: "Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight."

The way that Gary Oldman delivers these final lines in THE DARK KNIGHT makes a tingle go up my spine. There's a quiet confidence that Oldman brings to his role as Jim Gordon. Cast against type as the good cop for once in his career (see LEON or ROMEDO IS BLEEDING for an entirely different type of cop from Oldman), he brings a level of gravity to all of the scenes that he appears in during THE DARK KNIGHT. With a bigger role than he had in BATMAN BEGINS, Gordon is a character that we're begining to learn more about, and really coming to love. Christopher Nolan has taken the time to expand his characters in this sequel, and he's given Oldman the chance to shine with his role.

I f'ing love this film. It is the best superhero movie ever made. It really redefines what the genre is capable of. I shudder to think what's in store for us when Nolan is ready to work on the next installment.

REVIEW: HELLBOY 2 (***)

This is going to be a different type of review. I enjoyed the first HELLBOY a few years ago so I thought I'd give the sequel a shot. I enjoyed it as well. Here are my thoughts after just finishing it.

Nice opening with teenage Hellboy. He looks a little too CGI but it's fine.

God, Ron Perlman is killer in this role. Love the attitude.

Gorgeous cinematography. Love the colors. Just beautiful.

Ewww. Gloppy monsters. This is an icky movie.

The first film felt big but you could tell it was on a limited budget. Del Toro must've gotten twice as much for this one. Everything is huge and overstuffed. Tons of creatures. Lots of slop. Beefy production design.

A lot of the imagery is like a bad acid trip.

Nice action scenes, even if none of it is going anywhere particularly surprising.

This villain is sort of a mamma's boy.

Nice twist with the sister.

That squid thing in the middle of NYC really tore shit up. Pretty cool.

Geez, Hellboy can really take a beating.

I love the attitude of this character.

Damn, it's like Del Toro ate too many mushrooms and freaked out.

There's a lot of trippy shit in this movie. Dragging a bit towards the end...we almost done?

Nice finish. Leaving it completely open to a third entry. But do I really care?

Fun movie. Nice special effects, though at times, it all got a little too Playstation-y. Not a huge fantasy geek but Del Toro is an artist. I think he and Salvador Dali would've gotten along. I really think that Del Toro had some bad hallucinogenic experiences.

MOVIES FOR THE WEEKEND

Tomorrow I will be treating myself to a double feature. First up: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. I can't wait. Been hearing nothing but fantastic stuff about it. It's been winning many awards in the early-going part of the awards season and it currently sits at 92% overall at Rottetomatoes, with a 94% cream of the crop rating.

After a little break, I will then catch Gus Van Sant's latest film, MILK, with Sean Penn. This film has also been picking up multiple awards, for the film itself, and for Penn's performance. It currently sits at 93% overall at Rottentomatoes, with a 91% cream of the crop rating.

On the Netflix front is HELLBOY 2 and the independent French romance-musical-comedy LOVE SONGS.

Reactions to everything will follow.

GOLDEN GLOBE NOMS

I'm not going to dissect the noms on a category by category basis. Rather, I am going to highlight the picks I am most pleased with. For those interested, here's a link to the full list of nominees: http://www.goldenglobes.org/news/id/104

IN BRUGES getting a Best Picture--Comedy or Musical nomination is fucking awesome. And it's made even better by the fact that both Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson were nominated for Best Actor, Comedy or Musical. While I felt that IN BRUGES was more of a drama with some moments of black, black comedy rather than an outright comedy, the fact that it got some awards attention is all that matters.

James Franco getting a Best Actor--Comedy or Muscial nomination for his brilliantly funny work in PINEAPPLE EXPRESS is perfect. I have been a Franco disser for years, but his work in this mad-cap stoner comedy is the stuff of instant legend.

Also in the comedy category, but this time in the supporting actor group, both Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr. got nominations for their terrific turns in TROPIC THUNDER. After re-watching the film this past week, I was reminded of how funny the film is overall, and how scene-stealing both of them were. Good stuff.

Also, my favorite "little" film of the year, HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, got awarded with a Best Picture--Comedy or Musical nomination, and the film's effervescent star, Sally Hawkins, racked up a Best Actress--Comedy or Musical nomination. After her wins with both the LA and NY critics groups and now this GG nomination, it's pretty safe to assume she'll get an Oscar nomination. This year has been one of the strongest years in recent memory for female performances, so nothing is set in stone. But from all that I have seen this year (and I have still yet to see either of Kate Winslet's performances, Kristin Scott Thomas in I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG, and Merryl Streep in DOUBT), Hawkins gave my favorite performance, followed by Anne Hathaway in RACHEL GETTING MARRIED and Angelina Joile in CHANGELING, both of whom got Best Actress--Drama nominations.

Overall, the nominations yielded few real surprises, with only THE READER getting a Best Picture--Drama nod registering as the true shock. Not that it's supposed to be bad, but rather that films like MILK, THE DARK KNIGHT, RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, CHANGELING, and DOUBT didn't make it into the top five. I have been watching THE DARK KNIGHT these past few nights and man-o-man what an excellent piece of filmmaking that is. I would not be surprised if the Academy gave it a Best Picture nod. It's the kind of smart, big-budget studio entertainment that deserves to be recognized. It was a massive undertaking, it grossed close to a billion dollars worldwide, and it was critically acclaimed. Some older members of the Academy may feel that all of those honors are good enough, but I am sensing that it has a shot at the big dance. We'll see...

The studios seemed to have waited until December to release most of their top-guns, which can create a pile-up for both moviegoers and critics when it comes time to sussing out the best of the year. BENJAMIN BUTTON, GRAN TORINO, DOUBT, THE WRESTLER, VALKEYRIE, THE READER, DEFIANCE, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, and FROST/NIXON are all set for wide release over these next two to three weeks (some of them are in limited release already). MILK and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE keep expanding and finding audiences. There's lots to choose from out there.

UPDATED: TOP 10

It's getting harder and harder to create this list. Every single film for the rest of the year has the potential to be great, the potential to be a four star effort. I can't wait. Up this weekend is Slumdog Millionaire and Milk. For now, here's where I stand:

Tarsem’s THE FALL (****)
Charlie Kaufman’s SYNECDOCHE, NY (****)
Christopher Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT (****)
James Marsh’s MAN ON WIRE (****)
Andrew Stanton’s WALL*E (****)
Jonathan Demme’s RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (****)
David Gordon Green’s SNOW ANGELS (****)
Werner Herzog’s ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD (****)
Mike Leigh’s HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (****)
Clint Eastwood’s CHANGELING (****)

REVIEW: MAN ON WIRE (****)

James Marsh’s spellbinding documentary MAN ON WIRE (****) is the sort of film that leaves you feeling queasy, enthralled, and alive. Queasy because of how insane the film’s subject – Philippe Petit – is. Enthralled because of how daring Petit was to do what he did. Alive because the film acts as a celebration of life. Petit, for those of you not in the know, pulled off what many people consider to be the “artistic crime of the century.” In 1974, he, along with a group of friends, attached a wire from one World Trade Center building to the other, and tight-rope walked back and forth between the two buildings. Eight times. Over the course of 45 minutes. In this staggering documentary, which has cleverly been constructed by Marsh like a first-rate Hollywood thriller, the viewer is treated to video footage of Petit doing numerous other tight-rope walks (in Paris, London, Sydney) and practicing for his endeavor in NYC. Some may think that Petit is ill. Some may think he’s simply eccentric, a guy in love with life, unafraid of the deathly consequences that his obsession carries. Others will think he was a guy with a death wish. And who knows, all of those scenarios could be true. It’s baffling to me that Werner Herzog, the wild-man filmmaker that he is, didn’t get the rights to this story; Petit is as Herzogian a character as there could ever be. In its quietly haunting way, MAN ON WIRE becomes something extremely special: a documentary that could never be made into a feature film while still retaining its power and illumination.

Petit, who is considered to be one the first widely-known and publicly accepted street performers in Paris (he juggled, danced, tight-rope walked), is such a distinct character, that everyone else around him, no matter how interesting they are in their own respects, pales in comparison. During the course of the film, we’re introduced to all of his friends and accomplices, who divulge information about their scheme and about Petit in general. Jaw-dropping footage of his other tight-rope walks is shown throughout the film, with footage from a high-wire walk in Sydney being the most insane. Petit didn’t just walk on the wires; he would lay down on it, bounce on it, dance on it. When he got the World Trade Center, he knew it’d be the crowning achievement of his career. Marsh shows TV interview footage with Port Authority Police Department Sgt. Charles Daniels, who was sent to the roof to bring Petit down; here’s an excerpt:

“I observed the tightrope 'dancer'—because you couldn't call him a 'walker'—approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire....And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle....He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again....Unbelievable really....everybody was spellbound in the watching of it”

Yeah. You could say that again. The way that Marsh amps up the tension using his framing device for the film is extremely clever, very stylish, and eerily subversive. The film takes the form of a terrorist thriller. You see Petit and his men infiltrate the World Trade Center, wearing fake disguises and showing phony paperwork to gain access to the roof. Of course, after 9/11, this story takes on greater significance, and there is a mournful quality to much of the footage we see of the World Trade Center being built. It will be impossible for us to look at photos and footage of the World Trade Center without thinking of 9/11, something that Marsh knew full well before setting out to craft this engrossing documentary. Never exploitive, Marsh brings a soulful quality to the film. It must’ve been a tricky balancing act (no pun intended) to figure out how to structure this film due to the recent real-life horrors from seven years ago. However, I wish Marsh had asked Petit about how 9/11 affected him. It’s clear from the film that Petit was in love with the World Trade Center, that it represented something to him, something of great significance.

There is something so thrilling, so inherently watchable about MAN ON WIRE that I can’t quite come up with the right words to adequately describe the feelings I had while watching this film. Full disclosure: I am petrified of flying and I am not a fan of heights. So my stomach couldn’t help but do somersaults while watching some of the footage shown through the course of MAN ON WIRE. My only complaint is that nobody, for whatever reason, decided to film Petit’s walk across the World Trade Center. They snapped lots of still photos, but why weren’t they filming it like they filmed his other death-defying acts? When asked why he did it by reporters, Petit, ever the showman, said there was no reason why. He did it because he felt he needed to. He felt compelled. He thought that the World Trade Center had been built so that he could walk in between them. Delusional? Maybe. Ballsy? Definitely. There is a reason that MAN ON WIRE has been winning all of the awards that it has been nominated for – it’s an incredible piece of work. If it doesn’t win the Oscar for best documentary I’ll be shocked. Granted, this year has yielded some of the best docs in recent memory; ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, YOUNG@HEART, and BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER have all been as good (or better) than most feature films have been in 2008. But MAN ON WIRE is the genre topper, a film that literally has the power to take your breath away. It’s a masterpiece, and one of the best films of the year.

UNREAL

MAN ON WIRE (****), from documentary filmmaker James Marsh, is as spectacular as everyone says it is. Quietly haunting and completely engrossing, it's one of the best pictures of the year. I will be delving into a review soon.