THE KING'S SPEECH (2010)
Oscar Record: Best Picture (4/10), Best Actor (4/5), Best Supporting Actor (1/5), Best Supporting Actress (2/5), Best Director (4/5), Best Original Screenplay (2/5)
I take the Oscar catnip and am thoroughly pleased. There's a little bit of shallowness to this movie but the lead performance by Collin Firth is one of the best I've seen. Although it's not graphically similar to the physical torture Natalie Portman goes through in Black Swan, I was cringing and uncomfortable with the main character's verbal tribulations all the same. The gravity of the situation a monarch participates in, perfectly orchestrated by the director makes you feel all the worse for this king. That solid drama keeps you engaged the whole time, even if the supporting characters don't have much depth at times. As the drama starts to become too conventional (not a fan of using that overplayed Beethoven symphony movement for a climatic scene) it adds just the right difficulties, in particular a short scene with the King watching footage of Hitler that not too subtly suggests the power of rhetoric. Very good, and I wouldn't be too annoyed if it won all the Oscars out there.
THE PASSENGER (1975)
Nope, I haven't finished Antonioni's Italian trilogy yet, but I received this later film of his starring Jack Nicholson and it's an incredible combination of talent. I was actively following the metonymic style I'm supposed to be looking for when I'm watching this director's movies, but then I just got lost in the beauty and desolation of it all. How a movie can never be urgent but never be boring is such a filmmaking feat. One of the final shots of the film (which is pretty famous in film appreciate circles) reminds any cinephile why these kinds of movies hit a very sweet spot. I love how I've learned to understand and appreciate this style of movies, and have learned to appreciate it distinctively from other types of entertainment, including excellent "traditional" movies. This could definitely be a gateway for a lot of casual movie goers to get into artsy movies.
PERFORMANCE (1970)
Back to the long list of older films to see, this was a bit of a risk, coming from an Ain't It Cool DVD release column a year or so ago and available via Netflix Instant. For a good part of it, it was similar to a few hippie dippy trip-fests of films that were released around this time. It's very colorful and confusing at times, but it wasn't completely incoherent, which believe me, is saying something. It's grounded in a story about a gang enforcer hiding out in a hedonistic den after going too far with one of his projects. Mick Jagger's appearance is I guess what originally intrigued me, and he was interesting in this movie, though hard to understand. Mostly it's quite random, though, not an easy film to introduce to someone if you want them to appreciate your tastes.
FOOD INC (2008)
Wrapped up an excellent holiday weekend of traveling and movie watching with a documentary from WIFF 2009 that got a lot of exposure in other circles. I'm thinking about the leftover turkey cutlets I will eat after writing this, because turkey is one of the few foods whose production methods aren't thoroughly decimated in this expose'. That means turkey is safe, right? This documentary covers a lot of ground and I mainly took away, as I do from these rabble-rousing things, that there are so many odds stacked against the little guy, and the ultimate ideal of the little guy in America is the farmer who is selflessly feeding us through his hard labors. Now, corporate America, likely housed in urban boardrooms is managing agriculture and rural life with an iron fist. It's hard to imagine what I personally can do to change this, but Food Inc. offers a hopeful vision that this movement about agribusiness is being tackled from multiple angles, including a surprising amount of support from Wal-Mart. I need to plan my cooking projects a little more in advance so I can buy at farmer's markets more.
Whew... got to watch less, update more, or be more brief. Movies are awesome!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
BEST OF 2010: NUMBER 6
A TOWN CALLED PANICFor 2008 and 2009 my ultimate favorite movies were animated films. I seemed to reflect, in both the situations of Wall-E and Coraline, that these perfectly crafted new worlds truly transformed me, as a film-watcher, into a different environment that tapped into a child-like sense of wonder along with a true heart of a story. If you go to films to truly escape, what could be ideal than a fantasy land of beautiful images, especially if the images and story tap into more universal dramas and have lovable characters.
When I watched A Town Called Panic at the Wisconsin Film Festival, in between the nonstop giggling moments I couldn't help but think about how I judged the animated marvels of recent years, and that this completely unique animated world and unmitigated joy brightly expressed on the screen was giving me such a strong criterion to once again crown an animated movie as the top film I will ever see this year. As the year went by, and I thought more and more about the quality of films I had seen, a little bit of a more reasonable attitude prevailed. Quite simply, and I mean this in the absolute best way possible, A Town Called Panic is just too silly to be my favorite movie of 2010.
Now you can ignore that last sentence, because silliness can take you a long way on its own, and nothing I have seen in a long time created such a madcap pace of goofiness as this inventive Belgian animated movie. There's no way to intelluctualize this giddy movie into a long analysis about the nature of my personal cinematic journey. This movie represents what happens when inventive grown-ups take a trunk full of toys and let their imaginations loose. Nothing is expected or taken seriously in a Town Called Panic yet there is an innocent Loony Tunes like sense of structure and closure that makes this more that an exercise in random surrealism. Leaving logic at the door is freeing, and this movie provides that escapism in spades (and lots and lots of bricks).
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
ANOTHER YEAR / BIUTIFUL
It's Oscar season and I have conveniently been taking trips to Chicago the past two weekends and it's been so freezing cold that indoor activities such as movie watching were an even more attractive option than normal, especially with the Oscar nominees announced and the wealth of artsy movie watching options in Chicago.
In between some parties and social events, I stopped at the Lakeview neighborhood's Landmark Century Theater and chose from several equally attractive cinema options depending on how the starting times coordinated with my schedule, with some influence based on whether I could see these movies back in Rockford for a few dollars cheaper. Even 12 nominations for the King's Speech was too much for my local multiplex to ignore, so they spared a fourth screen for Yogi Bear to make room for that movie, and I'll have to see it soon.
ANOTHER YEAR (2010)
[oscar nom: Best Original Screenplay 1/5]
Two years ago, at the same theater, I saw Mike Leigh's last film Happy-Go-Lucky, which became one of my favorite films of 2008 and one I hope to see for the second timesoon because I can't remember a more recent life affirming film or more loveable character that the main one in that movie. This is definitely a more somber picture, but still invigorating because of the improvisational style and "scriptless" approach that creates natural moments and suspense even in the most conventional settings. Like Happy-Go-Lucky, the only nomination this film got was for original screenplay, despite the incredible performances, especially Lesley Manville's desperation and vulnerability in the form of a middle-aged single woman coming to terms with the conclusion that there is a type of happiness and emotional stability she'll never be able to reach, and that, one can hope, her conclusion helps her pursue a different kind of happiness and satisfaction after the film's final scene. The flipside of giving actors room to breathe and flesh out characters during the course of the film does lead to some moments that drag, but no other style of filmmaking is quite like this, and I'll follow this director anywhere.
BIUTIFUL (2010)
[oscar nom Best Actor 3/5]
Javier Barden in an Oscar nominated performance for Best Lead Actor... that's all I needed to take a risk, and perhaps it was an even better move to watch this film because I didn't read any reviews or summaries to tell me what the movie was about... a completely cold turkey . Bardem nearly carries the whole film during its length over two hours... despite some frustrating elements, conventional themes, and a character that broods and seems to have trouble giving me the satisfaction of expressing himself at appropriate moments in order to move the film forward. It comes just short of satisfying because of the sensation I have when leaving some indie movies that I just viewed a bunch of random things for no deep reason. I will say that the director, Alejandra Gonzalez Inarritu, received some criticism for making an acclaimed movie, Babel (which I haven't seen), that tried too hard to throw together random character stories into a theme about how connected the world's struggles are. That criticism, in part, really turned me off to seeing Babel, because of my assumptions of how those movies are Oscar catnip but don't really take risks. This movie, however, is actually anchored in the personal battle of one well-acted character in one city, and the diversions from Bardem seem appropriate and add interesting elements to an overall picture of the environment this character works in. Critics didn't say absolutely wonderful things about it, but I think that it was worth my time for the most part.
[P.S. I'm going to make a little note whenever I watch an Oscar nominee... Best Picture/Director/Actor/Actress/Supp. Actor/Supp. Actress/Orig. Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay... I'll celebrate the viewing of a complete category of nominations with a recollections of all the nominations and my personal pick for the best]
In between some parties and social events, I stopped at the Lakeview neighborhood's Landmark Century Theater and chose from several equally attractive cinema options depending on how the starting times coordinated with my schedule, with some influence based on whether I could see these movies back in Rockford for a few dollars cheaper. Even 12 nominations for the King's Speech was too much for my local multiplex to ignore, so they spared a fourth screen for Yogi Bear to make room for that movie, and I'll have to see it soon.
ANOTHER YEAR (2010)
[oscar nom: Best Original Screenplay 1/5]
Two years ago, at the same theater, I saw Mike Leigh's last film Happy-Go-Lucky, which became one of my favorite films of 2008 and one I hope to see for the second timesoon because I can't remember a more recent life affirming film or more loveable character that the main one in that movie. This is definitely a more somber picture, but still invigorating because of the improvisational style and "scriptless" approach that creates natural moments and suspense even in the most conventional settings. Like Happy-Go-Lucky, the only nomination this film got was for original screenplay, despite the incredible performances, especially Lesley Manville's desperation and vulnerability in the form of a middle-aged single woman coming to terms with the conclusion that there is a type of happiness and emotional stability she'll never be able to reach, and that, one can hope, her conclusion helps her pursue a different kind of happiness and satisfaction after the film's final scene. The flipside of giving actors room to breathe and flesh out characters during the course of the film does lead to some moments that drag, but no other style of filmmaking is quite like this, and I'll follow this director anywhere.
BIUTIFUL (2010)
[oscar nom Best Actor 3/5]
Javier Barden in an Oscar nominated performance for Best Lead Actor... that's all I needed to take a risk, and perhaps it was an even better move to watch this film because I didn't read any reviews or summaries to tell me what the movie was about... a completely cold turkey . Bardem nearly carries the whole film during its length over two hours... despite some frustrating elements, conventional themes, and a character that broods and seems to have trouble giving me the satisfaction of expressing himself at appropriate moments in order to move the film forward. It comes just short of satisfying because of the sensation I have when leaving some indie movies that I just viewed a bunch of random things for no deep reason. I will say that the director, Alejandra Gonzalez Inarritu, received some criticism for making an acclaimed movie, Babel (which I haven't seen), that tried too hard to throw together random character stories into a theme about how connected the world's struggles are. That criticism, in part, really turned me off to seeing Babel, because of my assumptions of how those movies are Oscar catnip but don't really take risks. This movie, however, is actually anchored in the personal battle of one well-acted character in one city, and the diversions from Bardem seem appropriate and add interesting elements to an overall picture of the environment this character works in. Critics didn't say absolutely wonderful things about it, but I think that it was worth my time for the most part.
[P.S. I'm going to make a little note whenever I watch an Oscar nominee... Best Picture/Director/Actor/Actress/Supp. Actor/Supp. Actress/Orig. Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay... I'll celebrate the viewing of a complete category of nominations with a recollections of all the nominations and my personal pick for the best]
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