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There Will Be Oscars

22 Jan

Oscar nominations this morning were basically as expected (for me, at least), but four things in particular are worth mentioning:

1. Tommy Lee Jones’ nomination for In the Valley of Elah was an awesome surprise. I liked the movie, and Jones’ performance in it is one of the best of the year. I said it when I saw the movie and I’m saying it now. Jones totally deserves his spot on the list. Even if he had to take the spot from Ryan Gosling or Denzel Washington.

2. That there is no nomination for Jonny Greenwood’s score for There Will Be Blood is just a crime. Music is as integral a part of that movie as Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance, and it too deserved to be recognized. Blood would still be great without the score, but it’s even better with it. [Update: Apparently, the score was not eligible. Who knew?]

3. Overjoyed that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova got a nomination for “Falling Slowly,” the song from Once. But jeez, the rest of that category is just embarrassing. Nothing from Hairspray or Into the Wild?? Hopefully “Falling Slowly” will be a lock to win now. As it should be anyway. (And in a perfect world, Once would also have been nominated for Best Picture.)

4. Norbit: 1, Hairspray: 0. That’s just wrong on so many levels, even if Norbit‘s nom is for makeup (no surprise, I guess).

You know, some people make a big deal about how “no one’s seen (or heard of) the nominated films.” Well, whose problem is that? The films nominated are very good. Go see them! Especially There Will Be Blood. I may actually go see it for a second time this weekend. And I guess I’m going to have to go see Atonement now after all, even though I really don’t have much interest.

But in the meantime, I’m rooting for most anything Blood-related. And so should you.

Some Thing Stupid

19 Jan

So here’s my question: if some random monster was on the attack in your city, and you were running for your life, and you were filming everything on your camcorder, and it was nighttime … at what point do you turn the camcorder off and just run like hell?

That’s the question I found myself asking multiple times during Cloverfield, the new flick from the J. J. Abrams factory.

Essentially, Cloverfield is Godzilla crossed with The Blair Witch Project.

It’s a horror movie for the YouTube generation. Continue reading →

There Will Be Milkshakes

14 Jan

Thanks to Jeff Wells, who tipped me off to this pretty funny (albeit totally predictable and inevitable) mock trailer/music video for There Will Be Blood, a movie that I loved.

Tarnished Globes

13 Jan

Forget the winners — tonight’s Golden Globe awards press conference was awful. Between Mary Hart’s lame commentary, and all the other entertainment show hosts trying to one-up each other, the press conference itself sucked. And the TV coverage? Even worse. NBC didn’t even show the press conference live, relying on Billy Bush and Nancy O’Dell to announce the winners in their own mock press conference that trailed the real thing — thus rendering it instantly behind-the-curve and irrelevant. E! showed the press conference, but cut away every now and then to reaction from Ryan Seacrest and other folks in the E! studios. And the sound on CNN kept going out of synch, no doubt because Larry King kept making completely stupid comments after each announcement about how one movie or another was great or one of the year’s best. (Of course they are, Larry. Why do you think they’re nominated?) And the worst thing of all was when Johnny Depp won for best actor in a film, musical or comedy, and Larry King said something about how it was wrong that Daniel Day-Lewis wasn’t nominated. Duh. He was nominated — in the category of best actor in a film, drama. (And he won for it, too.) But because CNN was the only network of the three that actually showed the press conference as it unfolded, without interruption, I stuck with CNN. And by 9:30, a half hour after it began, the whole thing was over. At that point, NBC was still half-way through making their announcements and discussing the winners. Oh, and did Billy Bush really dismiss Cate Blanchett’s award-winning performance in I’m Not There by saying, “At the end of the day it’s a woman imitating a man?” That guy has no business being an entertainment journalist. He’s lame. NBC’s coverage was lame. The whole thing was lame. And it wasn’t even disappointing. Rather, as a film fan, a television fan, and a film awards show fan, it just made me angry. I really really hope this writers strike ends ASAP so we can get back our TV shows and the Oscars can go on as they should be going on, not like this awful attempt at television.

Bloody Great

5 Jan

Just like the way the oil flows from the oil wells in There Will Be Blood, so flows my enthusiasm for this movie.

Wow. It is so good.

This is why I should have waited to write my top 10 list.

The latest from P.T. Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights) tells the epic story of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), a greedy sumbitch oil man at the turn of the century who will stop at nothing to lease land and drain it of all its oil.

Plainview and his son travel from town to town convincing the residents they live on valuable real estate and that they can all share in the wealth. (Ha!) It’s all pretty easy until he meets Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), whose evangelism and greed when it comes to his church rivals Plainview’s financial greed. Continue reading →

The Good, the Bad, and Superbad

31 Dec

You know it’s been a good year for the movies when you go through the list of films you’ve seen (in my case, 56) and when separating out those you remember fondly, the list is close to 20. So narrowing those down to only 10 is quite a challenge. And yet, I’ve done that — but with one caveat: I still have not seen There Will Be Blood (it’s a 2007 release but it doesn’t open in Boston until Friday), and I’m almost positive that it, too, would have earned a spot on this list. So, this may be a top 11 list come next weekend. [Update 1/5: I’ve now seen There Will Be Blood. The list has been amended accordingly.]

But anyway, so without further ado, here are the 10 [now 11] films I saw in 2007 that brought me the most pleasure:

11. SUPERBAD
I laughed harder and more frequently at this film than I did at anything else all year.

10. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones give memorable, iconic performances, but the Coen brothers deserve plenty of credit too.

9. GONE BABY GONE
Ben Affleck’s directorial debut gets Boston right, and tells a compelling tale whose conclusion stays with you.

8. AMERICAN GANGSTER
A thunderous, exciting performance by Denzel Washington takes this one over the top.

7. 3:10 TO YUMA
A real man’s man’s movie, this one boasts some great action and acting (by Russell Crowe and Christian Bale).

6. REIGN OVER ME
One of the year’s most overlooked gems. It’s not perfect, but what’s good about this film (e.g. Don Cheadle’s performance) is so good. And Adam Sandler breaks your heart.

5. JUNO
Snark perfectly mixed with sweetness in a fantastic screenplay, plus a wonderful lead performance by Ellen Page.

4. LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
Sure, it’s a preposterous premise, but Ryan Gosling’s heartwarming performance helps turn this film into a really sweet tale of loneliness and love.

3. HAIRSPRAY
Maybe this isn’t the actual third-best movie of the year, but it’s certainly one of the most enjoyable times I’ve had at the movies all year. And it’s one of only two movies on this list that I saw in the theater twice.

2. THERE WILL BE BLOOD
An epic movie featuring one of Daniel Day-Lewis’ best performances ever, this film is just brilliant. It must be seen, and on a big screen.

1. ONCE
Can’t say enough about how much I love this movie. The music, the acting, the story, the writing … nearly everything about it is perfect. At just under 90 minutes, this is the rare movie you want to be longer. Once is an instant classic, a film of such magic that its effect stays with you for days, months, and (time will tell) years after you see it.


And what about the worst movies? Well, that list was a lot easier to compile. I’d like to think I stay away from the obvious stinkers, but every now and then I do get suckered or disappointed. So here are those films I wish I could say I didn’t see:

10. EVAN ALMIGHTY
9. SPIDER-MAN 3
8. FACTORY GIRL
7. SING NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE
6. LIONS FOR LAMBS
5. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
4. BECAUSE I SAID SO
3. FRED CLAUS
2. IN THE LAND OF WOMEN
1. RENDITION

This Isn’t Therapy. It’s Real Life.

28 Dec

In The Savages, John and Wendy Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) have the unenviable task of putting their estranged father (Philip Bosco) in a nursing home. You might think that would make for a depressing movie, and make no mistake, The Savages is no Superbad or anything (despite what the trailer might imply), but writer/director Tamara Jenkins has found a way to turn this ordinary situation that so many must go through into one we can all sympathize with, wringing some genuine laughs from a painful situation. John and Wendy are themselves distant — one lives in New York City and the other up in Buffalo — but when they come together in Arizona to learn what’s become of their father (who was abusive earlier, thus one reason why they’re estranged from him), it’s clear they have a tight bond. These are not terribly happy characters, but they have each other and you get the sense that they are better people when they’re together.

In the lead roles, both Hoffman and Linney make very strong impressions. For Hoffman in particular, it’s his third great performance in one year (the others being Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and Charlie Wilson’s War). The Savages doesn’t really have a plot other than the basic premise of John and Wendy dealing with their dad’s dementia, and after a while I got a little antsy waiting for the film to reach its natural conclusion, but it’s Hoffman and Linney who makes The Savages worth seeing. I’m giving this one a strong B.

A Tale of Two Photos

23 Dec

It struck me the other day how similar these two photos are, and yet how utterly different the films they’re from — Dreamgirls and Sweeney Todd — are. Perhaps the only thing these two photos have in common is that they both capture killer performances of very different kinds. What a difference a year makes.

Attend This Tale of Sweeney Todd

22 Dec

How excited was I to see Sweeney Todd?

Well, as I’ve previously stated, it’s one of my favorite musicals of all time, and I had high hopes based on the trailer.

And now, having seen the film, I’m happy to say I was not disappointed.

Sweeney Todd tells the story of Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp), a wrongly imprisoned barber who returns to London having rechristened himself Sweeney Todd. He’s hellbent on having his revenge against the judge who took his wife and child away from him. But when Sweeney decides not to stop at just the judge, and that “they all deserve to die,” he hatches a plan with Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), his downstairs neighbor, to grind up the bodies and turn them into meat pies.

Soon the city population is a fraction of what it once was, and Mrs. Lovett is making the most popular pies in London.

The film is directed by Mr. Macabre himself, Tim Burton, so needless to say, it’s a very dark film and there’s a lot of blood.

And yes, if you missed it above, this is a musical. But it’s safe to say you’ve never seen a musical quite like this. Continue reading →

Not Doubly Great

20 Dec

All those self-important musical bio-pics — like Walk the Line and Ray — were due for some mockery, but they don’t quite get the ribbing they deserve in Walk Hard.

While the film does make fun of many of the conventions of the genre, it’s more of an affectionate tribute than a satire, and that, ultimately, makes the film less impressive. Continue reading →

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