FINCHER DELIVERS AGAIN

David Fincher's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (****) is a masterpiece. Not much more needs to be said at the moment. After seeing the film today, it's been impossible to not think about. It's a film of uncompromising beauty -- it's easily one of the most gorgeous films I've ever seen in my lifetime of movie watching. But at the center of the experience is a tender, incredibly romantic love story, which is one of the best (and one of my favorites) in recent memory. I can't wait to delve into my full review for this work of art. I plan on seeing it again before writing anything official. I am only slightly hesitant to say that it's the best film I've seen this year, because I truly feel that THE FALL is a one-of-a-kind cinematic effort and like nothing I've ever seen. However, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON marks a massive leap for Fincher as an artist and storyteller; a best director Oscar nomination is certainly in the cards. Eric Roth, yet again, demonstrates his masterly touch with words, story, and structure, crafting an impeccable, literate, deeply emotional screenplay. The production design and cinematography are things of movie-magic -- you've never seen a film look quite like this before. And the visual effects, at once both subtle and epic, are some of the best ever created. Oh, and did I mention a quietly moving and possible career-best performance from Brad Pitt and, surprise-surprise, yet another stellar piece of acting from Cate Blanchett? This film has it all. It's a film to see with someone who's important to you.

DVD REVIEW: THE HOUSE BUNNY (**)

I didn't expect much from THE HOUSE BUNNY (**). Written by the LEGALLY BLONDE team of Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith and nominally directed by Fred Wolf (STRANGE WILDERNESS), I rented this piece of harmless garbage because of one reason: Anna Faris. I am a big fan of this girl. She kills me. There's something about the way she does the "clueless blonde airhead" that just makes me laugh. Hard. The problem with THE HOUSE BUNNY is that its star is better than the material. The simple set-up is that Shelley (Faris), a Playboy bunny but not yet a centerfold, gets kicked out of Hef's mansion because she's too old (27...ha-ha). With nowhere to go, she stumbles upon a University campus and finagles her way into a dumpy sorority with the idea of becoming "house mother" to the rag-tag group of girls. The Zeta house is in shambles. Without enough new pledges, the house will be lost and the sorority will be shut down. All of the current members are weirdos and dorks of varying degrees (one wears a full body brace, one looks more like a man than a woman, one is still a virgin, etc.). Shelley gives them all a makeover, cleans up the house, throws some parties, and shows them all how to attract guys. The problem is that the script, stuck in the confines of the PG-13 rating, never does anything remotely surprising with it's fairly clever concept. It's all incredibly predictable and the filmmaking is shoddy around the edges. Yet because of Faris' involvement, the film remains watchable, and in some cases, quite funny. Sure, the jokes are easy and obvious, but Faris is so damn winning, so cute, so spunky, and so confident in the role that she makes the brisk 90 minute run time fly by. She's been a major standout in just about everything she's appeared in. She kicked off the SCARY MOVIE franchise with panache. She stole the few scenes that she appeared in during LOST IN TRANSLATION, playing a hollow, Cameron Diaz-esque actress. She stole the show in the underrated but crude rom-com JUST FRIENDS. She was a comedic tour de force in the independent stoner comedy SMILEY FACE. And she had a lot of fun playing herself a few seasons ago on ENTOURAGE. It's jut a shame that the script didn't serve her better in THE HOUSE BUNNY. Lutz and Smith have done good comedy writing before; 10 THINS I HATE ABOUT YOU and LEGALLY BLONDE were both solid genre entries. But THE HOUSE BUNNY is the epitome of undemanding, lazy entertainment. A solid idea is more or less wasted but intermittently saved whenever Faris shows up and ignites her inner comedic spark plug. THE HOUSE BUNNY is an effective-enough time waster, something to catch on HBO.

Oh, and did I mention that she's pretty hot?

POSTER: LAND OF THE LOST

I am very curious about the upcoming fantasy adventure flick LAND OF THE LOST, based on the trippy 1970's television series from Sid and Marty Kroft. The film has been directed by Brad Silberling (CASPER, MOONLIGHT MILE, CITY OF ANGELS, LEMONY SNICKET), a filmmaker who's work I have mostly enjoyed, and it stars Will Ferrell and Danny McBride, who pretty much ruled the big-screen comedy circuit this year, with hilarious, scene-stealing performances in two of the decade's best comedies, TROPIC THUNDER and PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. I'm betting that LAND OF THE LOST is gonna shoot for a kid-friendly, PG-rating, but that doesn't mean it can't be funny; see ELF as proof of a PG-rated family comedy that was hysterical. The idea of the film centers on Ferrell, McBride, and Anna Friel (of TV's PUSHING DAISIES) as a group of explorers/adventurers who stumble upon a fantastical land inhabited by dinosaurs and strange creatures. There's no trailer yet but one should be getting released soon. The film is currently scheduled to hit theaters on June 5, 2009.

DVD REVIEW: MARRIED LIFE (***)

Films like MARRIED LIFE (***) don't come around too often. Ira Sachs' neo-noir was given a limited release early this year but I doubt many people are familiar with it. Which is weird given its tony cast: Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson, and Rachel McAdams. A highly stylized cross of Todd Haynes' superior FAR FROM HEAVEN and the work of Alfred Hitchcock, MARRIED LIFE is a low-key entertainment with a script that bounces back and forth between predictable and surprising. Set in 1949 in a suburb outside of NY, the film centers on Harry Allen (a tamped down Chris Cooper), unhappily married to his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson, solid as always), who decides to murder his wife in order to spare her of the humiliation of divorce. Harry has met the alluring vixen Kay (Rachel McAdams, cute and dangerous) who he wants to run away with. The problem is that Harry's debonair friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan, oozing sex-appeal) also has eyes on Kay. The script by Sachs and Oren Moverman (I'M NOT THERE) is tight (the film is a crisp 90 minutes) but there is no depth to the story. We get some satirical jabs about domestic life in the early 50's but the tone is a bit scattered. There's a thriller element introduced about half-way through the narrative, and while there are a few moments of surprise, you can mostly predict where the story is going. But I have to give some credit to Sachs. This is an independent film which probably had a limited budget but you'd never know from the look of it. Beautifully shot by Peter Deming (I HEART HUCKABEES) with gorgeous period detail in the production design by Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski (SNATCH, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS), MARRIED LIFE has a time time-capsule quality much in the same way that the television show MAD MEN has. Evocative of wealthy suburban life from roughly 60 years ago, the film is always visually impressive and all of the performances are top-notch, especially Cooper and Brosnan. Cooper has made a career out of playing the dour, put-upon schnook and in MARRIED LIFE, he's able to take his character in few interesting psychological directions. And Brosnan, who will always have that James Bond twinkle in the corner of his eyes, is smooth as brandy and very likable even when playing an unlikable character. MARRIED LIFE isn't a life changer, but it's a solid throwback to the melodramas of yesteryear.

WHEN IT SNOWS

When you're snowed in your apartment all weekend what's better than constantly watching DVD's? From last Friday afternoon through last night, here's a rundown of what I caught up with, either in full, or in parts:

MARRIED LIFE (in full, mini-review coming up)
THE GODFATHER PART 1 (in full)
WALL*E (in full)
TRANSFORMERS (the last 45 minutes courtesy of HBO HD)
THE FALL (the first hour)
TROPIC THUNDER (the last hour)
THE DARK KNIGHT (all of Heath's scenes and the truck flip)
SNOW ANGELS (the middle section)
THE ISLAND (the jet-bike, train-wheel sequence)

REVISED TOP 20 OF 2008

Tarsem’s THE FALL (****)
Danny Boyle’s SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (****)
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 (****)
Ben Stiller’s TROPIC THUNDER (****)

Mike Leigh’s HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (****)
Martin McDonagh’s IN BRUGES (****)
Clint Eastwood’s CHANGELING (****)
David Gordon Green’s PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (****)
Matt Reeves’ CLOVERFIELD (****)
Joel & Ethan Coen’s BURN AFTER READING (****)
Marc Forster’s QUANTUM OF SOLACE (****)
Martin Scorsese’s SHINE A LIGHT (****)
Roger Donaldson’s THE BANK JOB (****)
Stephen Walker’s YOUNG @ HEART (****)

REVIEW: MILK (***1/2)

The fact that Gus Van Sant’s new film MILK (***1/2) isn’t great doesn’t mean that it’s not important. Or very, very good. Van Sant, who earlier this year directed the more challenging PARANOID PARK, is back on more commercial ground with MILK, a traditional biopic about San Francisco city politician Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay politician in the U.S. Sean Penn delivers, as you’d expect, a splendid performance as Milk, and the entire supporting cast, including James Franco, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, and Diego Luna all offer fantastic supporting turns. What keeps MILK from reaching greatness is the paint-by-numbers screenplay by Dustin Lance Black. Not that it’s bad; far from it. It’s well researched, the dialogue is sharp, it’s never boring and at times it’s quite fascinating. It’s just that you never learn all that much about who Harvey Milk was as a person. I went into the movie with only a broad-stroke background of Harvey Milk and his accomplishments. And after I left the theater, I couldn’t really say that I learned much more about him other than what I already knew. Still, the film is beautifully put together by Van Sant and his excellent creative team (the incomparable Harris Savides is the cinematographer), and the performances elevate the entire production. However, what makes MILK so important in today’s society is that the messages and ideas that Harvey Milk was preaching are still topical in our landscape today. With the recent passing of Prop-8, this film is as timely as ever.

Harvey Milk stood up for the entire gay community in the United States when nobody else dared to speak up for what they knew was right. This made him both loved and hated; wherever he went and whatever he did, his actions provoked passionate responses from everyone who crossed paths with him. After moving to San Francisco (he grew up in New York), Milk became a gay rights activist and then later, a city politician. After a few attempts, he was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in 1977, which made him the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in our country. A year after his election, he was gunned down by a recently-fired city supervisor named Dan White (Brolin), who also killed city mayor George Moscone. Black’s straight-trajectory original screenplay focuses on the last few years of Milk’s life, and anchored by the conceit that Milk is reciting his life-story into a voice-recorder, the viewer gets treated to a highlight-reel style narrative that touches briefly upon some of his personal relationships as well as his political career. What is missing in depth is made up for in sweep. This is a movie that dispenses a great deal if information, introduces you to a wide range of characters, and lays out the facts cleanly and concisely.

Penn, who will undoubtedly be nominated for Best Actor by the Academy for his searing work in this film, is an actor who knows no emotional bounds when it comes to creating an indelible on-screen character. He embodies Harvey Milk with soul, fire, and supreme confidence. Here was a man who decided that enough is enough – it’s time to set things right for himself and everyone like him. Penn breezes through the film with likable ease, and because death hangs over the proceedings so ominously, there is genuine sadness when he meets his ultimate fate. The other performers are all up to the task as well. Franco, playing Milk’s lover and first campaign strategist Scott Smith, gives one of the best performances of his career; combined with his hilarious turn in PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, this is a banner year for Franco. Penn and Franco, from the first scene, generate real on-screen chemistry. Brolin is fantastic as the confused and desperate White, a man who may or may not have been gay himself. The filmmakers certainly feel that White was probably a homosexual but that he was too scared to give into his true feelings and desires. Brolin, in a role that could have been oppressively one-note, brings layers of emotion to the role of White. A supporting actor nomination should be in order. This is also a banner year for Brolin, with this excellent performance as well as his tremendous work in W. Hirsch, who last year set the screen on fire in INTO THE WILD, registers strongly as Cleve Jones, one of Milk’s political strategists. And Luna, playing Milk’s emotionally troubled boyfriend Jack Lira, brings skittish, nervous energy to every scene he appears in; you never quite know what will happen when he’s on screen.

Van Sant has led an extremely eclectic career as a filmmaker. Over the last few years, he’s embarked on some seriously challenging – both narratively and visually – pieces of work, including ELEPANT, GERRY, LAST DAYS, and PARANOID PARK. These films, with their super-long stedicam tracking shots, overlapping and sometimes oblique narratives, and austere style, have often been compared to the work of Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr, in that they are more interested in mood, atmosphere, and internal, suppressed emotions rather than obvious plot points, easy sentimentality, or external emotional fireworks. But the one thing that MILK shares with these more experimental efforts is Van Sant’s fascination with death, and how death lingers over everyone, at all times. Working with master cinematographer Savides for the fifth time (he also shot FINDING FORRESTER, GERRY, ELEPHANT and LAST DAYS for Van Sant, as well as last year’s AMERICAN GANGSTER, ZODIAC, and MARGOT AT THE WEDDING), Van Sant seamlessly blends archival footage with vivid re-creations of San Francisco in the late ’70’s. It’s sort of like a visually thematic cousin to the work that Savides did with David Fincher on last year’s criminally underrated masterpiece ZODIAC. Danny Elfman’s score isn’t intrusive but offers wonderful moments of musical inspiration and Elliot Graham’s fluid editing keeps the two-hour run time moving along at a swift but unhurried pace.

Finally, and even though the screenplay could’ve dug a bit deeper into Milk’s psyche, MILK is an important movie for any number or reasons. Like BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, it’s an important step forward for Hollywood in that the studios are finally realizing that they should be making films about the gay community. The fact that Harvey Milk fought against something as inane as Proposition 6 roughly 30 years ago echoes what so many people are going through right now with Proposition 8. Who cares about how someone chooses to live their lives? If they’re not bothering you, then what do you care? If it’s religion, then, well, hey, what the hell can I say? Religion and religious-fueled hatred has tainted so much of our world that I feel we’ll never fully come back from all of it. The people that opposed Milk back in the day, the Anita Bryant’s and Dan White’s, have been replaced by similar fear mongers and cultural haters, both inside and outside of the political world. Harvey Milk stood for something, an ideal if you will. And with an actor like Penn, he of gravitas and generosity, Milk’s legacy gets a powerful moment in the cinematic sun up on the big screen.