4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days

A film about a college student helping her friend get and abortion in communist Romania where it is very, very illegal. This is one of the most harrowing, nausea-inducing, gut-wrenching films I've ever seen. The director is very spare, letting the camera sit unmolested for long periods. The acting isn't stellar, but highly effective, particularly the lead. I basically want to throw up and take a Silkwood shower now.

Bottle Shock

An enjoyable, if not memorable film about the events leading up to a historic blind taste competition between French and Californian wines. Alan Rickman is stupendous as Brit living in Paris who organizes the event as a way to drum up business for his fading wine emporium. Most of the action takes place in Napa where an eccentric mix of societal drop-outs have taken to becoming vintners. Bill Pullman is also very good as the head of the main vineyard. The parts of the film about wine and winemaking were pretty interesting and I enjoyed nearly everything that Rickman and Pullman did in the movie. Most of the screentime, however, goes to Chris Pine. In a bad wig and playing an uninspired post-hippie loser. The arc for his character is LITERALLY trying to not be a loser. There is a perfunctory love triangle story with him and Freddy Rodriguez that seems to go nowhere. It just seems like stuff they threw in because the wine part wasn't long enough.

Twilight

I felt like I need to see what the hoopla is about. This is a preposterously boring film. If you didn't know it was about vampires when you walked into the movie, you'd punch a hole in the screen by about thirty minutes in. It's just so faux-angsty. But as ridiculous as the story is, I actually really like Kristen Steward and Robert Pattison. I thought they were just models who looked right for the part. They have some chops. I also thought Catherine Hardwicke did a really nice job directing. It's a serious step up for her from "Thirteen". Worth watching, but I'm not going to line up for the sequels.

The Fountainhead

Wow. What an astouding film. Directed by King Vidor and written by Ayn Rand (from her book). Gary Cooper is amazing. Patricia Neal is stunning. The cinematography is brilliant. Vidor also uses his limited resources for visual effects in a creative manner that suggests the breadth of great archtectural achievements the story speaks of. The story is of an architect who is driven by his zeal to stand out as an idealist. The battle of whether architecture should exist for a common good or as an inspired art form is a way to bracket a bigger conversation of whether or not human beings exist to be individuals or if self-sacrifice is the only way to contribute to a society. The screenplay does suffer from a lot of "speeches" and incredibly pretentious dialogue, but I loved it.

Rio Grande

I don't get John Wayne movies. Or rather, why people still watch them. He's a wooden, physically awkward actor. The characters he played were uninteresting. The films are slow and boring. I mean there was interesting filmmaking being done in this era, but none of it on display today.

Adventureland

I had heard good things about this comedy, but I was disappointed. Jesse Eisenberg stars as a college kid with a summer between college and grad school. He's a virgin, because that's apparently mandatory for the lead in coming of age movies to be a virgin. He starts seeming Kristen Stewart who is secretly fucking Ryan Reynolds who is married. Their relationship hits a few snags, but ultimately they wind up having sex. I give it points for feeling authentic. It captured the particular hell of having a really shitty summer job. It was so short on laughs, however. And the story isn't strong enough to just carry it as a compelling character piece. I think Stewart is a really interesting actress and Matt Bush from "Party Down" and Matt Bush were really good too. I liked Bill Hader and Kirsten Wiig, but they are barely in this. I suppose I'm bitter because they were the main reason I wanted to check this out. I do not really understand how Jesse Eisenberg continues to work so much. He's not a strong actor, he's goofy looking and he's got a lot of ticks that are annoying on camera.

Sunshine Cleaning

This movie stars Amy Adams and Emily Blunt as sisters who stumble into job cleaning up after crime scenes. This is a not so subtle reminder to the two of them of when they were young children and discovered their mother after a suicide. The overall millieu of the film is very depressing. Money is tight. Adams is in a relationship with a married man who was once her high school sweetheart. Her son has behavior problems and gets bounced out of school. Blunt is detached and irresponsible. She strikes up a pseudo-lesbian relationship with the daughter of a woman who's home they clean after she's disovered dead. There are a lot of dark strands of story-like materials, but no connecting tissues or themes beyond "life's a bitch." This is an indie chick flick with lots of people talking about feelings and revealing deep secrets. It's not my cup of tea, but the acting is pretty stellar. I'm a fan of Blunt and Adams and they are great here. Truly believable sisters. Adam Arkin appears in essentially the same part as "Little Miss Sunshine" and is fine. This is not insufferable, but it doesn't hold together.

GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra

I'm not going to try to pretend this is a good movie. The story is hysterically convoluted. This is only accentuated by the films use of random, nearly indecipherable flashbacks to elaborate backstories for the myriad characters. There are a seemingly infinite number of characters in this, none of them developed past "awesome" or "evil." When Channing Tatum is your lead, it becomes unnecessary to say the acting is awful. Most hilarious is the final twenty minutes of the film which seem to be solely designed to set the film up as a "franchise" (as if the title wasn't enough of a tip-off).

But I'll say this. There's a lot of action and most of it is choreographed pretty well. There were a few moments where I felt it had crossed over into pure cartoon territory, but overall it packed a lot of excitement and the films one strength is some snazzy art design that made the non-stop stream of gadgets and weapons look and feel unique.

So no, it's not good. But it's a lot better than I expected.

The Slaughter Rule

This indie film stars Ryan Gosling who is always incredible. He plays Roy, a high school kid who suffers the twin traumas of his father's suicide and being cut from the school football team. A local man who is a disgraced former high school coach recruits him to quarterback a six-man team. The coach, David Morse, is a wounded soul with intimacy problems who is a pedophile. He makes a couple of abortive, awkward advances on Roy, but they continue to have a relationship. The plot is more of a series of emotional kicks in the stones to Roy. The filmmaking is really amateurish. Bad lighting, sloppy camerawork. And aside from Gosling, Morse and Clea Duvall the acting is pretty awful. Amy Adams has a brief appearance, but doesn't have much to do. It's worth watching if only for Gosling and Morse scenes together. They are two actors that have a lot of intensity, yet they remain grounded in character.

The Castle

A super low-budget film from the 90s out of Australia. It has probably stayed in rotation because of a bit part by a ridiculously young Eric Bana. It's the story of an idiosyncratic WT family living in the outskirts of an airport who are served notice that they are expected to leave so the airport can expand. The patriarch, Darryl, thinks that's not right and fights the bureaucracy and corporations who are trying to evict him. He enlists the help of the hapless barrister that attempted to defend his son who is currently in prison. Eventually his story strikes a cord with a retired attorney who takes the case to the Australian high court. The story is loosely an allegory for the forced migration of the Aborigines. This point is hammered home a bit too overtly in the final act, but adds a layer to the drama. It's a slow moving story, but it's charming and has some funny moments. Technically the film is a disaster. The lighting and editing are cheap and most of the performances are pretty weak. Most notably the youngest son is chosen as our "eyes" and narrates the film. The narration is overdone and incessant and takes away from some of the more subtle aspects of the story. But overall it's fun to watch.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

A 1973 Robert Mitchum picture directed by Peter Yates (I have always found him intriguing because he directed "Bullitt" and "Breaking Away" - two awesome, but very different films). Mitchum is a low-level hood about to go to prison, leaving his family on welfare. He turns informant to try to reduce his sentence. Eventually he's murdered when bank robbers get busted and assume he sold them out. Great performances throughout. Especially Mitchum and Robert Jordan, his contact in the treasury department. There's a bank heist that plays out in elaborate detail and is very well done. Also just lots of good scenes of crooks doing business. Not the most exciting film, but very compelling.

The Princess and The Frog

I took Anina to see this in the theater, so it holds a special distinction as being the first film of 2010 that I watched on a proper movie screen. It's a cute movie with a clever story about what happens if the girl who kisses the frog isn't a REAL princess (he's mistaken because it's a costume ball). The tertiary characters were amusing, if a bit stock. The animation and music were both pretty flat. To be fair, Anina wanted to leave a few minutes before the end, but I'm pretty sure I figured out where it was going. She enjoyed it, but I think it's telling that she was ready to go before it was over.

I Love You, Man

Paul Rudd has become the king of movies that are funny enough to check out on cable. I laughed a lot at this movie. I think there were a few too many of the same jokes. Paul Rudd learning to be comfortable around other men was done over and over. And they played Jason Siegel too cool for his character to really make sense. The tertiary characters are all fun adn there are some great back and forth conversations. A few times the movie descended into slapstick and it didn't really work, but not often enough to take away from the overall charm.

The World is not Enough

A Pierce Brosnan James Bond flick. The first fifteen minutes is a non-stop action movie with some fairly nice stunts and well-choreographed action. Even throughout this, however, the plot is confused. I honestly don't think they ever explained what the fuck the villans are trying to do. The highlight is probably when Denise Richards shows up as a nuclear physicist. Sophie Marcheau is also in this looking lobotomized. A confusing, boring trainwreck.

In the Loop

A satirical look at the bureacracy that goes into the build up to war. This thinly veiled stab at the origins of the Iraq war shows politicians from Britain and America jockeying to decide whether to go to war and if so, whom to give the credit to. This is a movie that is intermittently amusing, but noteworthy for the lead actor Peter Capaldi who steals virtually every scene he is in. He is a foul-mouthed director of communications for the UK's PM. He is vicious, filthy and hilarious. No one else really distinguished themselves. And while the film stays pretty close to the path of war for Iraq, it doesn't bring any characters to life and is quite dull at times. Still there are truly funny moments throughout.

Behind Enemy Lines

The story of a Navy pilot (navigator, actually - not sure who made that choice) who is shot down in Bosnia during the NATO police action. It reduces one of the most complex and confusing conflicts in recent memory to a simplistic chase movie. This was Owen Wilson's stab at being an action star. It's not a role he's terribly good at, but he certainly didn't embarrass himself. This is not a good movie, but there are some solid action set pieces. Particularly in the beginning of the film when he's shot down... behind enemy lines. Gene Hackman is his commander. His participation can only be described as "slumming."

The Terrorists

A 1975 film starring Sean Connery and an unbelievably young-looking Ian McShane. Terrorists have abducted the British ambassador and the Brits want him back. They terrorists hi-jack a plane to get their co-horts to safety with the ambassador. Connery is the head of security for... Norway... I didn't follow which country we were supposed to be in... He tries to get the terrorists without killing anyone. About an hour before Sean Connery I figured out that the Brits had staged the hi-jacking to get the ambassador back. It's a muddled plot that's pretty low on thrills and any kind of action. Connery is good and McShane is fun. Seems like the type of movie that would get a remake by like a Tony Scott and become an unwatchable mess. Instead it's just a pedestrian, 70's thriller.

The Seventh Cross

This 1944 Spencer Tracy film is pretty dull, but worth a look if only for a historical perspective. This film was made during WWII and tells the story of a prison break from a concentration camp. Seven men escape (only one is a Jew, the rest seem to be dissidents). The Gestapo methodically catches all but one, Spencer Tracy. The film is narrated by the prison break's leader, who dies in the first scene. That's an interesting hook, but the narration is incessent and overwrought. The action is dull and the story is more a series of vignettes than a real plot. Eventually he escapes, but the message of the film is that it takes small actions by many normal German citizens to make it happen. That is the compelling aspect of the film. The Germany portrayed here is deeply paranoid, but filled with good-hearted people who want a just soceity and are afraid of the government they have. Obviously it is wildly optimistic in its assessment of Germans, but I think it's an interesting time capsule movie. Tracy is great in a part where he speaks very rarely. The movie also features Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy whom I know only from their Cocoon ages. Nice to see them young and hot.

The Killer Elite

A Sam Peckinpah film that I was drawn to because it stars James Caan and Robert Duvall. I liked the idea of Sonny and Tom Hagen playing mercenaries working for a shell corporation run by the CIA. The first twenty minutes of the film are just that and it was mildly entertaining. Then Duvall betrays Caan. Duvall virtually dissappears from the film. Caan spends close to an hour rehabbing from his bullet wounds. Then he is thrust back to work to protect an agency contact that Duvall is trying to kill. The layer upon layer of conspiracy within the corporation was unintelligible to me and the actual mission Caan is sent on baffled me at every turn. Most upsetting is the fact that the action was so stilted and uninspired and confusingly shot. I haven't seen a lot of Peckinpah's films, but I expected a higher level of slickness.

Cornbread, Earl and Me

I have heard this film referenced from time to time, but really didn't know anything about it. It's a meandering, muddled film that was probably revelatory at the time because it's set in a primarily black, inner-city neighborhood. Cornbread is a young star basketball player that is about to be the first young man to leave his rough neighborhood for college. The community is proud of Cornbread and look out for him. There a lot of ways for Cornbread to get in trouble and there must have been five times that someone said "We don't want something bad to happen to you before you go away to college." Of course this is heavy-handed foreshadowing. Two cops shoot Cornbread in the back, thinking he's a rapist they've been chasing, but lost sight of. The story then turns to an inquest the family requests to prove that Cornbread was not a criminal. The neighborhood is bullied by the cops into not talking, but a young man (the "Me" in the title) tells the truth on the stand and convinces the cop that shot Cornbread that perhaps he did shoot the wrong man. It's a flat, uninspired movied that touches on some complex and interesting subjects, but ultimately never follows through. It is only worth watching for the debut performance of "Lawrence Fishburn III" in the "Me" roll. He was quite good. Even at age twelve you can tell he's an actor to watch.

It's Complicated

I liked this a lot more than I expected. Meryl Streep was great with Alec Baldwin, but my favorite moments were with Steve Martin. Especially an extended sequence where they got high together. Nancy Myers is waaaaay too fond of the Better Homes & Garden camera shots. And there were a lot of people in the ensemble (the kids) that didn't seem to have anything to do. When the actors were clicking it was a fun picture, but there were at least as many scenes that felt flat or contrived. Most notably it seemed to end about five times. A fun, but imperfect film.

The Night of the Hunter

Robert Mitchum plays a demented preacher who is locked up with a bank robber sentenced to death. His cellmate talks in his sleep and Mitchum realizes the money from the bank robbery is hidden with the man's children. He leaves prison and finds the man's family. He courts the mother and marries her. And quickly kills her and torments the children to tell him where the money is.

This is a SERIOUSLY creepy movie. It has an overwhelming sense of dread throughout. Mitchum is just fucking scary. No other word for it. His performance is stunning.

It was directed by Charles Laughton who is primarily known as an actor, but this is a tremendous effort. Although some of the camera work was self-conscious, it was effective. He particularly did a nice job of using shadows to create a sense of mystery and dread. I'm using that word a lot, but that's what this movie is all about. I also liked the art direction. There were a lot of scenes clearly shot on sound stages, but it made them look surreal and something out of a kid's nightmare.

Mitchum has LOVE tattooed on his right hand and HATE on the left. This is something Spike Lee lifted for Radio Raheem in "Do the Right Thing". Mitchum gives a speech similar to the one Raheem gives in this film. Except it's a lot creepier and fucking awesome.

The final act loses some of the momentum and there are some leaps in logic that I didn't follow. But it's a great film.

Kissing Cousins

Every year on Elvismas or the anniversary of his death I somehow delude myself into thinking that because I am a huge Elvis fan, I should watch an Elvis movie. And they never fail to disappoint. Kissing Cousins "distinguishes" itself amongst Elvis movies because it features Elvis in a dual role. He plays an Air Force Lieutenant assigned to talk mountain folk into letting SAC built an ICBM base in the side of their mountain. Brunette Elvis is a distant relation of these hillbillies and meets Blonde Elvis. They are some kind of cousins, but that's never fully explained. Hopefully they are distant, however, because Brunette Elvis almost immediately begins to work Blonde Elvis's sister (eventually picking the brunette over the blonde in what is surely a subliminal statement about mixed race marriage). What always amazes me about Elvis movies is how terrible the music is. Every now and then there's a good song that sneaks in, but they invariably make Elvis - described by many as the most dynamic performer ever - seem downright boring.

I was so uninterested in this movie that I started IMDBing it while I was watching. I find it interesting that it was released in 1964. So Vietnam is really heating up and here's Elvis playing a military guy chasing hillbilly tail in the Smokey mountains. It's also the same year that "A Hard Day's Night" was released. So the Beatles were making an immortal document that would change not just music, but film forever while Elvis was wrestling himself in a blonde wig. Sigh.

Revolutionary Road

This movie starts off promisingly enough. Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio flirt at a party and then we see them married with two kids. It's the 60s. He works a job he hates, she's miserable in suburbia. Then he has an affair and she coincidentially decides they should leave the dread suburbs behind and move to Paris. I thought this was an intriguing concept. A couple taking their family on such an unorthodox path.

But that's just a smoke screen to set up a long, tedious look at a failed marriage. They fight. They fuck other people. They fight some more. I yawn. They're great actors and Sam Mendes is a talented director, but this was not a good script. Scenes start with characters declaring a kind of thesis statement and then the arguments start. The speeches are too long and it all just seemed like a stage play.

Harvard Beats Yale 29-29

A documentary about the 1968 Harvard-Yale football game which pitted two undefeated teamns. Yale was vastly favored for this game I had never heard of, which was an extremely exciting match. Despite the fact that you're aware of the end score, thanks to the title, it's a compelling game to see. The film intercuts broadcast footage of the game with talking head interviews of the players today (who recall the game with amazing clarity). The first half of the film self-consciously sets up the time and place. A lot is made of the fact that several teammates are Vietnam vets and others are anti-War protestors. There's a lot of effort to include the celebrities near the two school. Tommy Lee Jones gives one of his least mannered performances in years by recounting his time as a Harvard Guard (and of course some stories about Al Gore). Yalies mentions George W., one player was dating Meryl Streep at the time and Gary Trudeau's "Doonesbury" started in the Yale school paper and many of the early characters were inspired by the players on the Yale squad. Eventually the "cultural impact" of the game gives way to the football game and although it probably takes ten times as long as the actual last four minutes of the game took, it was interesting to watch. This is not a well-thought-out production. The interviews are static with ugly and uninteresting backgrounds. The back and forth cutting with the game footage gets old and redundant.

The Soloist

I DVR'd this, but I'm not sure why. When it was in theaters I thought it looked like a treachly, predictable movie-of the week. It is all that, but I liked this much more than I expected. Mostly because of Robert Downey Jr. who gives a seemingly effortless portrayal of journalist Steve Lopez. He strikes up an interesting relationship with Neal Ayres Jr (Jamie Foxx). A homeless musician. I think it is impossible to watch the scenes Downey shares with Foxx and no think of the "Full retard" speech from "Tropic Thunder." Foxx is working so hard you can see fumes coming out of his ears. I can't say why, but I found the relationship interesting and stuck with the film to the end. The film touches on social issues like local LA politics, society's treatment of the homeless and the contraction of newspapers. I thought it was notable that Jena Malone has basically a four line cameo. I don't know why she hasn't been more successful, I like her a lot.

College

A 1927 silent Buster Keaton movie about an egghead who takes up athletics to impress the girl of his dreams. This is more a series of vignettes designed to allow Keaton to generate comedic set pieces than a coherent storyline. Some of the pieces are quite funny. Parts of it feel dated - I'm thinking particularly about a sequence where he poses as a "colored waiter" (yikes). Overall I was stunned by the artistry Keaton brings to physical comedy. There is a perfectionism to his timing and movements that speak of countless hours of rehearsal and consideration. It's frankly more effort that any modern comedian I can think of puts into his/her work. Although it sags in spots it's a truly funny movie.

World's Greatest Dad

Bobcat Goldthwait wrote and directed this minor film with Robin Williams in the lead. It is miles better than "Shakes the Clown". Williams is a nebbishy poetry teacher (no echos of "Dead Poet's Society"). His girlfriend keeps their relationship a secret from their co-workers. He is a single father raising a teenage son who is an asshole. The son is obsessed with pornography, has only one friend, gets in fights and is a terrible student. He's also surly and combativie with Williams and generally a pain in the ass. When Williams comes home to discover his son has killed himself by auto-erotic asphyxiation, he decides to shade the truth. He writes a suicide note and makes it look like an intentional suicide. The letter gets published and becomes a motivational missive to the students in school. Williams is suddenly popular, the girlfriend more responsive. His life is turned around, but he's haunted by a secret he can't share with anyone. He creates a journal for his dead son and uses excerpts of it to influence people in the thrall of the dead boy. This is particularly ironic because he is a failed author who generates a lot of material that no one ever read before now. Untimately the weight of it all is too much and he reveals that he concocted the writings on his own. He is dirt to his friends and colleagues, but freed from the weight of his guilt.

I feel I have to mention that Robin Williams strips nude for the ending.

Meet John Doe

A 1941 film by Frank Capra with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. Stanwyck is a reporter about to get laid off when she invents a voice for the pre-war everyman (John Doe) who threatens to leap from City Hall on Christmas Eve to protest corruption in local politics. His fictious letter strikes a chord and Babs conspires with her editor to cast a rube to play the part and string the story along. Cooper is a down-on-his-luck broken down pitcher too naive to realize the consequences of going along for this ride. The paper's publisher takes an interest in this folk hero and promotes him until he is a national phenomenon. The publisher, however, has nefarious motivations for doing this. There are a number of extremely long speeches in this film. The kind you just don't see anymore. People tell stories about off-screen action (again something that you rarely see). There's also a lot of very pedantic political pushing in there. It's an interesting movie as a kind of look back in time. After the film Robert Osbourne explained that Capra filmed five different endings which screened in different parts of the country until they settled on "the ending". I would like to see the others because this version was a happy ending where he gets the girl, doesn't kill himself and triumphs over evil.

Crazy Heart

This is being pushed as Jeff Bridges Oscar platform. He is, as always, really good. I do think this is not an ideal part for him. He plays a messy, drunk, almost-was coutry singer. I didn't think he was as good as he was in, for example, "The Contender". But he was great as was Maggie Gyllenhaaaalylleal. Robert Duvall and Collin Farrell were good in minor roles. I thought Farrell and Bridges did a nice job doing their own singing, although I'm sure they auto-tuned the shit out of it. I just don't think the world needs anymore movies about drunks who can't give up the bottle. It's an uninteresting subject matter. This film distinguishes itself in that genre for a couple reasons. First of all, the character sobers up and isn't tormented (as much). Also there's no happy ending to his relationship with the girl. The biggest problem I had was that it felt like a carbon copy of "The Wrestler" with a new venue. This was a more entertaining film, however.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

I rang in the New Year by watching the top grossing film of 2009. I had pretty low expectations because the first film was weak and it's Michael Bay, afterall. But I tend to think he does make beautiful messes. This was not the case. Put aside the muddled plot, terrible dialogue and horrendous acting. That I expected. But the "spectacle" of really expensive special effects wall-to-wall is what shocked me. I just think it all looked terrible. Like the first film, I found it annoying that is takes seven to eight minutes for the Transformers to "transform". I also still can't tell one giant robot from another. I was hoping for a diverting, turn-off-your-brain action flick. Instead it was a loud, annoying, confusing, headache-inducing catastrophe.