movies & films

WORDS on FILM

*Films of 2011* Vicky's best movies of 2011 John's best movies of 2011 John's ... best animated movies I just didn't get it creepy Vicky's BEST MOVIE of 2011 1. The King's Speech 2. Midnight in Paris 3. Beginners 4. The Guard 5. My Week With Marilyn 6. Descendents 7. The Fighter 8. The Tree of Life 9. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo 10. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John's BEST MOVIE of 2011 1. Midnight in Paris Woody Allen's film was worth the ticket price just to hear the actor playing Hemingway deliver his lines so strongly self-assured. We laughed and laughed and laughed. It's a movie that makes me smile every time I think of it. 2. The Tree of Life if you want to see a movie unlike anything you've ever seen, and one that is our favorite of the year—watch The Tree of Life. Some critics have really gone after this film for being self-indulgent. Well, sure director Terrence Malick is self-indulgent, that's why we love particular artists, we want to see what they can create. This is a very special image. I came out of the theater knowing that this was one of the most unique movie experiences of my life. 3. The King's Speech This was something we saw at the very beginning of the year, but it has stood proud all this time. The acting was superb, and the story, while a small story about a big king, made you care. 4. My Week With Marilyn It wasn't Monroe on the screen, but it was so very close, in so many ways. There is some very good acting all through this movie. It showed a troubled woman who needed people to love her, and she certainly knew how to turn it on and accomplish that. 5. Take Shelter This was deeply disturbing and one of the most discomforting movie experiences I've ever had...so I say...Go see Take Shelter. You may sit in the theater wondering like I did, are you losing your mind along with the film's star Michael Shannon, or is something else going on? He plays Curtis LaForche, a construction worker who sees huge storm clouds and other threats headed towards himself and his family. His behavior goes off the tracks, but his reserved manner and fear of mental illness add such a starkly ominous feel to the whole film that it really sucked us in. The psychological thriller directed by Jeff Nichols, won the Grand Prize in the Critics Week at Cannes. Jessica Chastain (it may seem that we are searching for her every role) plays a scared and supportive wife, but she is truly confused and scared by her husband's actions. Shannon's face is on screen for 95% of the film and that may be why you feel so close to his character's fears. I think you should see it for a disturbing and unique movie experience. 6. Beginners This is a sweet story with two actors putting their best stuff on the screen. 7. The Muppets I couldn't help myself, this film just made me feel good—even optimistic. All those snappy songs and the music is great. It brought back so many memories of watching the show with some pretty cool young kids...so many years ago. 8. Blue Valentine This movie has a slightly, OK hugely different feel than The Muppets. Some times this is a hard film to watch. It is down right brutal at times, and the storyline is a painful one of a tough relationship between a man and a woman. Throughout all this pain, and some happiness, is some outstanding acting. It still stands out in my mind. 9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Still think of myself as a bookseller and I have never read this book, but I have now seen this version, as well as the older, subtitled Swedish one. Daniel Craig heads a very good cast in a film that obviously took a lot more money to make than the very good Swedish version—and it shows. The beginning is a perfect visualization of COLD. This film is well put together, start to finish. 10. The Guard This was fun, funny and clever. It's directed by John Michael McDonagh, and stars Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle. There are some great lines, and Gleeson is a treat as Sergeant Gerry Boyle, a salty village cop in Ireland, with an extremely subversive sense of humor and a caustic wit. Cheadle is a FBI man chasing international drug smugglers. Clever and funny, with many bizarre little touches...it's golden. 11. Rango What a look this film's animation has! Add some very snide and snappy dialogue, and a rich, recognizable group of voices, and you have a good time for all...aged 6 to 62. The long shot of Rango rolling along in that jar in the desert is still fresh in my mind's eye. 12. The Fighter Easily one of my two favorite fight films and sports film. Right up there with the nonfictional When We Were Kings. This story real catches a feeling and runs with it. John's BEST ANIMATED FILMS...we've seen many films with our granddaughter 1. The Muppets 2. Rango 3. Arthur Christmas 4. Puss in Boots 5. Hugo A Movie John JUST DIDN'T GET...sometimes nothing seems to click Young Adult This was one of those times when I was in a theater with quite a few people who were laughing away at scenes on the screen that were just hitting me as extremely uncomfortable and down right creepy. I was feeling so bad for the characters involved on the screen. This was a cold-hearted film, that was at its very core, MEAN. I have laughed at people's misfortune many times in movies, it's a basic to a lot of comedy, but this was maybe too real...no, just too mean. There's some good acting here, and there are some laughs to be had, but if this is a comedy, I'm in the wrong culture. GOOD FILM...but I don't want to see it again Black Swan Some fine acting, a great look to everything, and it's well put together. I learned a great deal about the world of ballet, within a clever, well-written screenplay. When I walked out of the darkness of the theater, the darkness of the story hung with me. I admire it as an accomplishment in film, I just don't want to face going through the experience ever again.		2012 FILMS 2.21.12 THE GREY Here's a movie that didn't always go where you thought it would...and that was good. And, it didn't end the way I thought it might. The one weak area was the wolves themselves, I got to thinking about cardboard cutouts on Popsicle sticks at one point, but that was really the only weak spot in an intelligent film. I was so pleasantly surprised when some of the characters actually got down to talking philosophy, as they sensed how little hope there might be left for them. I resisted seeing this for a while, because I thought it would be just another one of those intense Liam Neeson films. He is so much of this movie, he is so very intense, and it all worked. Snow, ice, intense cold, plane crash, survival, death, plenty of testosterone, wolves, AND some very good acting, a smart screenplay, as well as a great look to all that cold. This was directed by Joe Carnahan, has a screenplay by Joe Carnahan and Ian MacKenzie Jeffers, and was based on Ghost Walker by Ian MacKenzie Jeffers. Its cast includes: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Dallas Roberts, Joe Anderson and others. 2.9.12 BIG MIRACLE This was a outing to the movies with the granddaughter for a family film. Let me say that I am not much of a family film kind of guy...the term lowest common denominator comes to mind. Yet, I still have a soft spot for those rare, very clever, funny animated films. Key problems with this film: Drew Barrymore seems to be channeling her weak acting abilities from her E.T. period, and since they couldn't have real whales breathing on cue in holes in the ice, they used some extremely fake-looking ones, oh, and the screenplay. But it was quite funny in parts and the granddaughter almost cried when the baby whale, Bamm-Bamm, died. The movie was inspired by a true story of 1988's Operation Breakthrough that took over the world's media for days on end. This rescue brought together: big oil, Greenpeace, native Alaskans, the National Guard, the entire town of Point Barrow Alaska, inventers from Minnesota, Ronald Reagan, a Russian icebreaker, and seemingly all the world's media. It's directed by Ken Kwapis, and stars Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, as a Greenpeace activist and a local TV reporter. Also of note are: Ted Danson, Tim Blake Nelson, Rob Riggle, Dermot Mulroney, and Stephen Root. _____ 1.28.12 ALBERT NOBBS Glenn Close is spot on as Albert Nobbs, a woman forced to live as a man in 19th century Ireland after a terrible sexual experience as a child. Nobbs has lived this secret for many years and has been saving every coin towards a dream of a different life and a business. With the unusual Mr. Page's influence, Nobbs starts to think even more could be possible. The housepainter, and more, Mr. Page is finely portrayed by Janet McTeer, Helen Dawes is the randy maid (Mia Wasikowska) who takes advantage of Nobbs, and is involved with Joe Makins, her lover played by Aaron Johnson. Personally, I could have done without Aaron, but he was useful plotwise. Close plays her character extremely tight and under control—often painfully so. This is a small film. It won't be filling the seats in suburban multiplexes. But Albert is a wonderfully played part that is the enormous center around which the rest of the cast and film revolve. I will long remember all those close ups of Close's face as she WAS Albert Nobbs. _____ 1.23.12 HAYWIRE WARNING If you're hoping to see the movie you think you're going to see, based on the movie's preview, DON'T GO. If you want to see anything beyond kicking, punching, and bad acting by the movie's lead, DON'T GO. Unfortunately, we went, got burned, and saw the worst movie of our new year. Remember, I warned you. The film is directed by Steven Soderbergh and has Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, Michael Douglas in the cast. Those stars are "included", but given little screen time. Vicky and I are both big McGregor fans and his role is quite tiny. Instead, the movie is used as a vehicle to introduce MMA (mixed martial arts, think ultimate fighting) superstar Gina Carano, to punch and leap her way around the screen. After seeing the 81% rating, and the following quote on Rotten Tomatoes, I'm absolutely certain that I'm not the audience for this film, and I'm alright with that. "Haywire is a fast and spare thriller, with cleanly staged set pieces that immerse you in the action." I just didn't get it. _____ 1.19.12 CARNAGE What could be good about two rich, polite, civil, married couples getting together to discuss their fighting children? Just about everything. But for a little dialogue that needed editing, the film is filled with fine acting and shows how a "civil facade" can get "down and dirty" fairly quickly. I can still see Jodie Foster's face stretching and becoming more pointed and strained, until I was afraid it would explode or spear someone. Roman Polanski put together a name-dropper of a cast with the Longstreets, played by Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly, up against the Cowans, played by Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet. In my book, Waltz stole scene after scene with the edge in his voice, and the look in his eyes—sarcasm, boredom, and wild amusement. The ultra-sophisticated character played by Kate Winslet, give it her all and really lets it all go. The transformation of Reilly's character was the weakest of the four. After he stopped being the polite liberal that his wife dressed him to be, his lines became pretty trite, predictable, but still occasionally funny. This is a very funny film, and, as an added benefit, you don't end up feeling dirty along with the characters on the screen. Be amused by their pain. _____ 1.1.12 MELANCHOLIA This is a stunning vision of a film from Lars von Trier. You get to attend a huge, highly-dysfunctional wedding reception AND wonder what is reality, madness—all in a world full to the brim with depression. Oh yes, the newly-discovered planet Melancholia is headed straight towards the earth. Kirsten Dunst is at her very best as the bride Justine. Her sister, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, has another face that is hard to look away from—there is just so much emotion there. She is married to the wealthy John (Kiefer Sutherland) and is trying to help as much as she can with Justin's problems. Divorced parents, John Hurt and Charlotte Rampling are shortly on screen, but they're grand in those minutes. The film's website may state it all best, "...a psychological disaster film...." There are some striking similarities to Tree of Life in the film's pacing and visual beauty, and I find myself liking it more and more the longer I reflect on it. This was quite a way to start out film going for a new year. _____ 12.26.11 TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY After reading the book (all those many years ago) and watching Alec Guinness in the 1970s television series, I still found myself going with the flow for who exactly was who, and where things were happening. It all takes place in the murky world of moles, double agents and traitors. The look and the feel is just perfect and I've been a huge fan of Gary Oldman for years. He has been so good in so many films, but I must mention a favorite—Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. This was our second try, as Tinker was sold out yesterday AND today we ended up in the front row...this added a little extra graininess and texture to the film's look...it worked for me. CAST Gary Oldman - George Smiley Colin Firth - Bill Haydon John Hurt - Control Toby Jones - Percy Alleline Kathy Burke - Connie Sachs Benedict Cumberbatch - Peter Guillam Mark Strong - Jim Prideaux Tomas Alfredson - Director Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan - Screenplay John le Carré - Novel and Executive Producer _____ another good film — THE DEBT was directed by John Madden and starred: Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain (who was so good in Tree of Life) Sam Worthington, Ciaran Hinds, and Marton Csokas, and as the evil Nazi doctor, Jesper Chrisensen. This is a wonderful screenplay, clever and smart, it keeps catching you off-guard and moving you forward. And the acting is mighty fine.
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