Magnolia Pictures
Full disclosure: Due to a professional detour, I saw fewer films in 2010 than in any of the previous 14 years. No self-respecting critic or dedicated movie buff would stand for that, and to change it is a top priority for the new year. But for this annual list-making exercise, it means there are a couple more sentimental favorites in place of critically defensible choices.
Musically, the oversaturating trifecta of Lady Gaga, Eminem and Justin Bieber effectively drove me to the thriving scenes in Japan and South Korea. Unadulterated pop music is making a comeback on a global scale, but folks in Asia craft it exceptionally enough to truly transcend any language barrier.
Continue reading “The Age of Innocence Lost” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Fighter (2010)
JoJo Whilden/Paramount Pictures
“The Fighter” isn’t this year’s “The Wrestler.” Think of it rather as the American riff on the “Animal Kingdom” milieu. Hardly anyone could possibly find this true story of Lowell, Mass., boxer Micky Ward (here played by Mark Wahlberg) inspirational because it so seeps with the same disdain for the underclass found in that Australian coming-of-age crime saga.
Continue reading “Low Blow the Underclass to Kingdom Come” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Arbor (2010)
54th BFI London Film Festival
About the late British playwright Andrea Dunbar’s turbulent life in a working-class housing project, Clio Barnard’s “The Arbor” is an unprecedented documentary told almost entirely through reenactments instead of conventional routes such as a dramatized biopic or an adaptation of Dunbar’s semi-autobiographical play.
Continue reading “Play by Ear” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Made in Dagenham (2010)
Susie Allnutt/Sony Pictures Classics
“Made in Dagenham” seems to be the British “Norma Rae.” Aside from their common thematic and period details, both draw from real-life inspirations and feature star-making turns from lead actresses named Sally. Unfortunately for “Dagenham,” it’s been 31 years since “Norma Rae” and this type of feel-good story about workers united for gender equality seems almost trite. As we know, affirmative action hasn’t entirely closed the gap between the sexes even three decades later.
Continue reading “Reaffirmative Action” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Social Network (2010)
M. Tsai 
David Fincher: “The Social Network” is entertaining only because of Aaron Sorkin’s script, and even then in the most trivial sense. Besides your unmistakable visual vocabulary, you’ve brought little else to the film as a director. It pales in comparison to even your lesser works such as “The Game” and “Panic Room.” In fact, the whole thing is simply too brisk and lacks dramatic weight.
Wednesday at 11:59pm · Comment · Like · See Wall-to-Wall
M. Tsai Aaron Sorkin: There’s no shortage of admirers of your snappy dialogue, but it’s difficult to take anything you write too seriously. It’s fine when the subject is a presidency that no one would mistake for the real thing. But you continue to put Sorkinese in the mouths of your characters in “The Social Network” despite the fact that it’s the true story of the founding of Facebook. Nobody motormouths like that in real life.
Wednesday at 11:55pm · Comment · Like · See Wall-to-Wall
Continue reading “The Writing Is on the Wall” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Aurora (2010)
Coproduction Office
Cristi Puiu famously told the Times that “There is not, not, not, not, not a Romanian new wave.” He certainly made his case with “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu,” a black comedy about Romania’s broken-down health-care system that ultimately became something miraculous. Five years later, though, his follow-up “Aurora” seems to disprove the very same point. The film plays out almost in the same fashion as Corneliu Porumboiu’s “Police, Adjective,” with long stretches of silence and staking out/stalking and then concluding at a police station.
Continue reading “Another Stakeout” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Certified Copy (2010)
Laurent Thurin Nal/Sundance Selects
Abbas Kiarostami has muddled our perception of reality with documentaries (“ABC Africa”), re-enactments (“Close-Up”) and vérité (“Ten”). He ventures further with “Certified Copy,” though this time through the dramatic form. For the first time, he’s working outside of his native Iran. The Tuscan town of Lucignano — with its cobblestone streets, rolling hills, sparkling fountains, old-world museums and cozy cafés — seems to be the perfect place for a love story. It’s certainly more conventional a movie setting than the dirt roads of Tehran. Casting an international star such as Juliette Binoche is also a first for the director. She appears opposite the dashing William Shimell, who looks, sounds and acts the part of a romantic lead — so much so that you’d never guess this is the first acting gig for the opera singer. Is a film less of a virtuoso work of fiction when nonprofessionals act in it? Perhaps Mr. Kiarostami wants us to ponder that for a moment.
Continue reading “That Obscure Subject of Desire” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Film socialisme (2010)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Jean-Luc Godard is finally showing signs of age after spending much of his career upholding his reputation as the enfant terrible of the nouvelle vague. With “Film socialisme,” he has succumbed to the cranky impulses of a septuagenarian, pretty much railing against everything wrong with the world today while sporadically lamenting a missed opportunity for us to do without capitalism.
Continue reading “Keep Your Left Up” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)
Strand Releasing
Let’s recap Thai cinematic exports that have recently arrived on these shores. Given their popularity at home and abroad, Tony Jaa’s muay Thai flicks are perhaps the most representative of the indigenous Thai cinema. There have also been numerous attempts to capitalize on the pan-Asian horror wave, including “Shutter” and offerings from the Pang brothers. On occasion, there are exposés on transsexuals such as “Beautiful Boxer” and “The Iron Ladies” or historical epics such as “The Legend of Suriyothai” and “Bang Rajan.” Then there are festival favorites by the likes of Wisit Sasanatieng and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Of this diverse crop, critics in the West are en masse heralding the extremely idiosyncratic work of Messrs. “Joe” Weerasethakul and “Sid” Sasanatieng as the vanguard of the Thai new wave. This year, that movement finally emerged as the next major national cinema when Mr. Weerasethakul’s “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” claimed the Palme d’or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Continue reading “Topical Malady” »
MOVIE REVIEW
127 Hours (2010)
Chuck Zlotnick/Fox Searchlight Pictures
With “Slumdog Millionaire,” Danny Boyle finally broke his streak of hyperkinetic movies that ultimately left the audiences cold. But following his Oscar triumph, that nagging problem threatens to rear its ugly head once more in the big-screen adaptation of rock-climber Aron Ralston’s memoir “Between a Rock and a Hard Place.” Starring James Franco, “127 Hours” retells Mr. Ralston’s harrowing ordeal of having his right arm pinned between a fallen boulder and a canyon wall at the Blue John Canyon in Utah, an experience that would end in self-amputation.
Continue reading “Going Out on a Limb” »