Recent Reviews--Reader Beware (Extremely Stream of Conscious) Part 2

Here we go again. I've recovered from thinking about Invictus.

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Um...what do I even say about this? It's certainly never boring. Nicholas Cage is more watchable than he's been in years. Jennifer Coolidge turns in a specifically plucky and in-your-face supporting turn that, were it any other actress performing in any other film, would surely garner some awards attention. This is a film that commences, already in realms of Bjork eccentricity and crescendoes gradually into full-tilt Brian Wilson insanity. For that, I've got to respect it and I kind of expect no less than Werner Herzog, who I had the pleasure of hearing speak in person after a screening of this film.
Grade: B-

The Road
Gorgeously shot, necessarily slow paced and well-acted. This is a film that was made with such a full understanding of its almost unfilmable source material. I believe that this is the best film that could have been made based on Cormac McCarthy's staggering and beautiful novel. If it can't be my beloved Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) who grabs that fifth best actor slot that seems to be up for grabs, then I'm totally pulling for Viggo Mortensen who is wonderful here. Kodi Smit-McPhee also impresses, sidestepping the usual cliches of child acting. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis's dark, foreboding score brought tears to my eyes. Is this a perfect film? No. Far from it. I could have done without the beefing up of Charlize Theron's part, not because I have anything against her, nor because it's so untrue to the novel, but because it's so unnecessary. It is, however, a solid film. Certainly more worthy of the zero conversation its generating.
Grade: B+

Brothers
While not terrible, it stinks to high heaven of unrealized potential, even if you don't hold it up against the beautiful Danish original. It's on Netflix watch instantly. Check it out. I'm not a Tobey Maguire fan. At all. I find him to be incredibly blank and corpse-like as an actor. That being said, I'm fully willing to admit that my bias against him may be clouding my judgment, but I did not understand one note of his performance here. He's so shrill on one end and vacant on the other, beyond the requirements of the role in both cases. Natalie Portman is already behind an 8 ball, miscast as a small town, all-American former cheerleader/ war widow. I'll give her that. But she brings few notes to the table. Jake Gyllenhaal tries his best, but ultimately suffers from lack of a good script/good screen partners to play off of. Props to young Bailee Madison, who plays Portman and Maguire's oldest daughter with shocking aplomb and believability. But she's not enough to save the film.
Grade: C+

Up in the Air
I've already spoken about this film briefly. It's very well-made. Polished seems to be the word that comes to mind. It's also superbly acted. This is one of the few cases in recent memory where I'm legitimately behind the Oscar buzz for every performer. Especially the women. Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick are fantastic. But the best of the year talk...I'm just not there. Sorry. I enjoyed it, certainly. But it's not a game-changer by any stretch of the imagination. Outside of the aforementioned performances, I seldom think about any specific aspects of Up in the Air less than two months later. The way it sidesteps addressing job loss and the recession in any sort of meaningful way is a bit of a headscratcher, as is its need to spend some twenty minutes at the wedding of two characters who we don't know or care anything about. That being said, it's a good, if over-praised film. Not nearly as great as its lovers would have you believe. Not nearly as bad as its haters would have you believe. A very pleasant movie-going experience. I certainly smiled.
Grade: B



Paranormal Activity
Bleh.
Grade: D





Julie & Julia
What a complete trifle of a film, even when you take into account Streep's enjoyable and overly praised performance. I cannot even remember the last time I violently disliked such a seemingly innocuous film. The Julia Child portion of the film is fine (and that's being generous). Streep is good (as usual) and she has some seriously heartwarming chemistry with Stanley Tucci. If Tucci's getting Oscar buzz, fine but why couldn't it have been for this instead of The Lovely Bones? The Julie Powell portion of the film is absolutely atrocious in a way that every review that says so can't possibly prepare you for. Seriously, Nora Ephron...you curse my beloved Amy Adams with a character and direction as needlessly hostile as her haircut, force me to watch her be mean to Chris Messina for two hours and then expect me NOT to react with vitriol? Nope. Not going to happen.
Grade: C

Julia
Tilda Swinton is absolutely fearless. Only she could take a completely, almost cartoonishly unlikeable character who makes obvious mistake after obvious mistake and make it layered, interesting and modulated. There are so many notes in her performance as the title character that it's practically a symphony. The film is exciting too, if a bit overlong. I leaned forward, I held my breath and I gasped more times than I can remember. Tilda Swinton is exactly the type of actress that we need more of. Someone who doesn't take a project unless she sees that there is something interesting, peculiar and spectacular to do. I said it before and I'll say it again. Tilda Swinton is absolutely, 100% fearless and the fact that she already has an Oscar makes me think the AMPAS voters must have been whacked out on cough-medicine that year or something. Actresses as specifically and startlingly talented as her often go without big laurels. I pray she continues to make movies like this until she's 95.
Grade: B

Capitalism: A Love Story
Michael Moore doesn't make documentaries. Let's drop that pretense now. He makes film editorials. But his films are (usually) so well-made and entertaining that one can often forgive the shaky facts and misleading interviews. Capitalism: A Love Story is (mostly) no exception. It ranks somewhere in the middle of his films. Better than the middling Sicko and the almost abysmal Fahrenheit 9/11, but not quite as good as the wonderful Roger n' Me and the iconic Bowling for Columbine.
Grade: B


District 9
I certainly enjoyed this more when I first saw it, but it has experienced somewhat of a fast fade in my memory. Its allusions to apartheid feel more heavy-handed and obvious in retrospect, but its scenes of well choreographed action still remain a vivid and positive memory. There was certainly no other film like it in 2009 and I'm excited to see what Neil Blomkamp comes up with next.

Grade: B

Part 3 is coming up soon...

Up in the Air with Reitman and other thoughts

I just saw Up in the Air yesterday. I can't talk about it too much (my thoughts are too fresh on it for the moment) but let's say...I enjoyed it. It's pretty much impossible not to. Let me just say, regarding the Oscar talk, people are right about...

Clooney. His very recent win for Syriana, plus the fact that some will read this performance as easy effortless for Clooney, PLUS the Colin Firth/Jeff Bridges factor will likely prohibit him from winning. But he should snag his third nomination, no problem.

Anna Kendrick. She's plucky and funny (two things that often get you noticed in the supporting actress category) and she brings layers to what is essentially a caricature. In a category that only seems to have one lock (Mo'Nique for Precious) and one "probably" (Julianne Moore for A Single Man) I don't see how Kendrick misses here, what with the Nine ladies causing confusion left and right with this Cotillard lead/supporting mess.

I'm less sure about...

Vera Farmiga. Her performance is a lot quieter than Kendrick's and she suffers (**spoiler alert**) the unlikeable character conundrum, which tends to hurt women more than men. I may be wrong, but I'm not thinking she gets nominated for this.

Picture. I know it's a ten-wide field, but I could still see Up in the Air missing. It's not the total slam-dunk it's being built up to be. The film's third act almost collapses under the weight of everything before it. The tonal shifts provide a sort of narrative whiplash. It's not going to be a massive crowd-pleaser like Juno (again, I could be wrong, and maybe projecting a little in this case). What could potentially help Up in the Air is its own perceived relevance to the current economic recession. Potentially. But (without going into too much detail), I'll say that that's problematic in and of itself and I'm sure a lot more reviewers will discuss this at length after the movie is released. All of these comments seems to suggest that I liked the movie a lot less than I did, by the way. It's a good film.

Other thoughts:

Reitman can light up a room. He speaks very honestly about his experiences as a filmmaker and I didn't detect one trace of bullshit or entitlement, even when people asked him incredibly stupid questions. He's also very charming and funny, in a way that's completely unforced and unaffected. Kind of like how I imagine Clooney to be, honestly (aside: I know people read Clooney's coolness as smugness, but I don't...or if I do, I'm okay with it. He has the talent in front of and behind the camera to back it up. And I believe that infamous 2005 Oscar speech came from a place of genuine sentiment about how proud he is to work in what he feels is an increasingly progressive industry. It's not his fault that the Academy underwrote everything he said by giving best picture to Crash a couple of hours later. aside over). Reitman has also managed to make three good feature films at a relatively young age. It may not be for this film, but if he ever gets a chance to get up on stage, I think we'd be in for a great Oscar speech. Specific, funny and personal the likes we haven't seen since Ms. Swinton. I hope he presses on.

Full Review to Come


****Apropos to nothing, I feel it prudent to publish a mea culpa regarding my post about Lady Gaga. What can I say? The gal is talented. I concede. Sure, nearly every one of her fans I've encountered is a culturally-anorexic queen who's also currently in line to buy tickets for the new Twilight movie. But I'm not going to hold that against her. There's a right way to be pretentious and a wrong way. I'm a firm believer in hate fanboys, not the phenomenon. Mostly, I just got caught up in the fact that Perez Hilton likes her in a "friend of my enemy is my enemy" sort of way. Je suis désolé, Gaga.