MOVIE REVIEW
Up in the Air (2009)
Dale Robinette/Paramount Pictures
As A. O. Scott and perhaps others have presciently observed, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is this decade’s Jerry Maguire. The hero in “Up in the Air” is a self-made American corporate go-getter, whose sole mission in life is career success and the attainment of elite status (here via the rapacious accumulation of frequent flyer miles). Ryan is no stranger to director Jason Reitman, who brought us the soulless spinmeister Nick Naylor in “Thank You for Smoking.” Ryan’s eventual realization of the importance of family and companionship is similarly familiar territory for the man who also helmed “Juno.” This is a movie of few surprises, as our protagonist ultimately achieves self-actualization without compromising his capitalist principles.
Continue reading “Show Me the Mileage” »
Festival de Cannes
I am slightly ashamed to admit that many of 2009's more lauded pictures have passed me by. Whether by circumstance or design I shirked away from such heavyweights as "A Serious Man," "The Hurt Locker" and "District 9." Upping my game, I took in almost 30 films in October at the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival and Raindance Film Festival in what was truly a joyous month.Both festivals were brimming with gems, although sadly 99 percent of what I saw is not scheduled for release until 2010, which by the way looks like it's shaping up to be a vintage year.
So back to 2009, which for me personally was a far from classic cinematic year; it's particularly telling that of my top 10, the two standouts were documentaries and that four were comedies. So I bid farewell to a limp(ish) 2009 and welcome 2010 with open arms. It should be a standout year, but for now here's the best I bore witness to in 2009:
Continue reading “Reality Rain Check” »
Here Media/Regent Releasing
The past decade marked a remarkable transformation in the way we experience movies. It was the decade of the iPod after all. In an attempt to compete with the convenience of home entertainment systems and combat piracy, Hollywood once again embraced the 3-D format. Meanwhile, independent distributors utilized video on demand to reach a broader audience while cutting distribution costs.
Gone is the Miramax business model, and along with it boutique distribution arms such as Fine Line Features, Fox Atomic, Paramount Classics, Paramount Vantage, Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures. Miramax itself, once untouchable, is now on life-support. Several smaller outfits that did not jump on the VoD bandwagon also failed to make it: Cowboy Pictures, New Yorker Films, the Shooting Gallery, THINKFilm and Wellspring.
Continue reading “The Doomed Generation” »
Dale Robinette/Paramount Pictures
I’m rather adverse to the perfunctory duty of producing an introduction to the yearly top ten list, as those opening salvos all tend to read like a laundry list of gripes: Movies mostly stunk this year; there was a surprising lack of great films; what’s going on with Hollywood etc. Here’s the reality: It was an up and down year for big studio pictures, but despite the significant strife befalling the independent apparatus, there was still a surplus of top-notch indie productions that graced cinemas and video-on-demand menus everywhere. In other words, 2009 was in large part not much different than any other recent year. Without further ado, here are my picks for the best it had to offer:
Continue reading “Blasting Off and On Again” »
Francois Duhamel/The Weinstein Company
This list must be prefaced with the following: Each of these films should be happy (if cinema could actually emote, that is) that Martin Scorcese's "Shutter Island" got pushed back to February 2010. Something tells me that I'm going to adore that one like none other, and that something hopefully isn't the fact that the same-titled, original Dennis Lehane novel is a personal favorite. The point being here that "Shutter Island" could have easily knocked one of the following flicks off this rundown had it made its once-scheduled October release date.
Missed opportunities aside, cinema in 2009 was all over the place, in a good way. Combing through the year's list of eligible films, I found it difficult to select a dime's worth of standouts. Really, these kinds of lists are hopeless endeavors; the second you submit or post your own, a good five or six films tap your shoulder and whisper, "You forgot about me, sir. I thought you loved me?" Like a neglected lady friend, only less affectionate. The forgotten films go on to torment your thoughts, remind you of your now-sealed 2009-filled time capsule. Sadly, there's no Wite-Out available here.
Continue reading “Fear the Best” »
Kerry Brown/Sony Pictures Classics
The year 2009 has been an unusual one at the movies. Enormous blockbusters and children's animated series have held their usual sway at the box office, but they have done so while actually being good — and some of them have even been British. Women have been more visible in movies, as actresses and also behind the camera. I am so happy that women directed three of the movies on my list. What unexpected feminist joy! Things are also changing when a movie such as "The Hangover" — on the surface a totally macho film — is really about men failing miserably at taking a quick break from the women in their lives. The fact that two on my list are animated is also a surprise — when Hollywood seems determined to devise totally separate films for every possible marketing niche, it's wonderful to see that quality family films will always have a market.
Continue reading “Getting So Tired and Emotional, Baby” »
Intelligent Creatures Inc.
I recently put together a list of my top 100 films of all time. Let me reiterate: I recently was all but unemployed. So between filling out applications and watching reruns of "The Twilight Zone," I put together a list of my top 100 films of all time. What I discovered was that 54 of those 100 films were made within the last decade. As a self-described film snob, I was not only surprised but also a bit horrified that my scope of cinema seems to be so small. So, with my head hanging down I tried to make sense of why I'm so biased toward recent films. Then it hit me. My true love for film started in the mid- to late '90s.
Continue reading “The Answer Is Mind-Blowing in the Wind” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Precious: Based on the Novel 'PUSH' by Sapphire (2009)
Lionsgate
Is “Precious” a race picture or a women’s picture? Regardless of what critics have to say, those associated with it seem to cling to the former. Back at Sundance Film Festival, the film scored a distribution deal with Lionsgate, and along with it eyebrow-raising endorsements from Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry. Certainly, Ms. Winfrey’s seal of approval could make the case for the film either as a race picture or a women’s picture because of the media tycoon’s mass appeal. But Mr. Perry’s support points to a middle-class black target audience.
Continue reading “Charm School of Hard Knocks” »
MOVIE REVIEW
White Material (2010)
The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival
Isabelle Huppert has developed a very particular niche. With “The Sea Wall,” “Home” and now “White Material,” she is the go-to actress to hold a French family together in an unusual, isolated home environment, preferably in a foreign country. In “White Material,” the home is a coffee plantation in an unidentified African country, although it’s clearly based on Uganda. Maria Vial (Ms. Huppert) lives with her slacker teenage son Manuel (Nicolas Duvauchelle), her ex-husband André (Christopher Lambert, of all people), his new African wife (Adèle Ado), their child, her ex-father-in-law (Michel Subor) and a variety of staff. War has broken out, with ethnic hatred stoked over the radio and people are starting to die. Fires have been started; there’s smoke rising in the distance; and bodies are starting to appear. Anyone with any sense is taking what they can carry and getting out.
In those circumstances, who would ignore a personalized warning to evacuate shouted from a helicopter? But nothing will make Maria budge: The coffee crop is one week from harvest. She personally hires a new group of workers and does her best to focus on the harvest, while simultaneously developing a peculiar relationship with the wounded leader of the rebellion, known as the Boxer (Isaach De Bankolé).
Continue reading “Out of Nowhere in Africa” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Scouting Book for Boys (2009)
The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival
David (Thomas Turgoose) and Emily (Holliday Grainger) are the only staff kids in a vacation trailer park in Norfolk, the unfashionable part of England that’s the butt of every joke. David’s dad (Tony Maudsley) runs the pub, while Emily’s mother Carol (Susan Lynch) runs the convenience store. David and Emily are teenagers at that awkward stage between childishness and maturity. Emily in particular flips between flaunting her sexuality and throwing epic temper tantrums. Especially now the summer is ending, they spend all of their time together, swimming in the public pools, playing in the arcade, dreaming of adulthood. Then Emily learns Carol wants her to go live with her dad and disappears.
Continue reading “My Summer of Loss” »