In the years since 9/11 there have been only a handful of movies dealing directly with the subject.
Of those, most have dealt with the heroism and the survivors.
And of course, this leaves out a large number of people who also experienced the day, namely the families of those who died.
Well, with Mike Binder’s Reign Over Me, that void is over, and remarkably so. Continue reading
Unlike David Fincher’s other movies — say, Fight Club or Panic Room — Zodiac is generally a straightforward, no-tricks, procedural drama. If anything, you can say it’s quick moving, because the film covers about 20 years in about two-and-a-half hours. There’ll be a one minute scene and then the action will jump forward two weeks, or a month, or a year. But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.
Zodiac tells the true story of the Zodiac killer, who is alleged to have killed about a dozen people in San Francisco starting in 1969 and was never caught. Actually, the film tells the story of the efforts by cops, reporters, and a newspaper cartoonist to figure out the Zodiac’s identity. And like I said, they never did solve the case conclusively, but thanks to cartoonist Robert Graysmith’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) efforts, they got very close. Actually, the Zodiac killer has already inspired a handful of movies, including Clint Eastwood’s original Dirty Harry, which featured a bad guy named “Scorpio” who also threatens to kill schoolchildren.
As you’d expect, this movie features a big cast of well-known actors (Anthony Edwards, Robert Downey Jr., Brian Cox, Philip Baker Hall, Donal Logue, Chloe Sevigny, Adam Goldberg, etc.), but I thought only Mark Ruffalo was worth noting for his performance. In those rare moments when the film sort of drags, his energy keeps it going. And Sevigny actually has a pretty thankless role as Graysmith’s wife. But no matter. Zodiac is generally a solid, entertaining film that doesn’t really feel as long as it is. That’s because it’s well-paced and even has a few suspenseful scenes. So I’m going to give it a B+.
While I was away this week, someone posted a pretty funny trailer for the movie adaptation of the Mooninite scare earlier this year (yeah, Hollywood works really quickly). Check it out here.
(No, this is not real.)
(click on the link for my review)
2. GAME 6
4. DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY
7. UNITED 93
9. POSEIDON
11. THE BREAK-UP
12. KEEPING UP WITH THE STEINS
13. THE LAKE HOUSE
14. CARS
15. CLICK
16. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST
17. SUPERMAN RETURNS
20. MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND
21. SCOOP
25. THE ILLUSIONIST
26. TRUST THE MAN
28. THE LAST KISS
30. HALF NELSON
32. THE DEPARTED
34. BORAT …
35. FAST FOOD NATION
37. THE PRESTIGE
39. CASINO ROYALE
40. SHUT UP & SING
42. BOBBY
43. HAPPY FEET
45. THE HOLIDAY
46. THE HISTORY BOYS
47. BLOOD DIAMOND
49. DREAMGIRLS (2x)
50. ROCKY BALBOA
51. WE ARE MARSHALL
52. THE QUEEN
53. CHILDREN OF MEN
55. BABEL
I guess it was an enjoyable Oscars show. I’ll probably always enjoy it. Perhaps that’s the ultimate in denial, because this year’s show was really safe, slick, slow-moving, and not too exciting or surprising overall. And for a change, it felt long. That said, it had its moments:
I was shocked that Alan Arkin actually won Best Supporting Actor (though let it be said that I predicted that). Somewhere Jeffrey Wells is gloating, and elsewhere, Dreamworks/Paramount is regretting releasing Norbit before the Oscars … Celine Dion still sucks. I wish she’d stayed in Vegas, where we didn’t have to hear from her … J.Hud won and gave a nice, genuinely emotional speech — and gave me the chance to say for the last time (I promise) that I interviewed her months ago (I even scooped Barbara Walters) … I liked the opening Nominees film, by Errol Morris … I thought Ellen’s monologue was good, but I think she was probably a little too quirky for the Oscars … 
Good for An Inconvenient Truth, but I thought there was a little too much Al Gore, even if I do like him … A definite highlight was Apple’s commercial for the iPhone … Why was Jack Nicholson bald? … Does anyone else remember when Chris Connelly was cool? … The Dreamgirls musical number was good — if you don’t include “Patience” — but Eddie Murphy was missed … Jennifer Lopez: whoa! … So WTF were those shadow dancers?? … I still wish Judi Dench had won Best Actress … You know, say what you will, but I do sorta feel bad for Eddie Murphy. Were it not for Norbit, that award would have been his, and he seemed, in the end, to really want it (too little, too late, I guess) … Did Ellen really vaccuum?? That was ridiculous … Best acceptance speech: Forest Whitaker’s. Second best: the guy who won for West Bank Story, the Best Live Action Short Film … I’m happy Helen Mirren doesn’t have to feign surprise anymore … And while I thought Little Miss Sunshine would win Best Picture, I’m happy The Departed actually did. After all, it was my favorite movie of last year … 
Oh, and I can’t believe the three Dreamgirls songs actually cancelled themselves out and Melissa Etheridge won Best Song; that may be a bigger surprise/upset than Alan Arkin’s win because I thought “Listen” was a sure thing. (A complete list of winners is here.)
I guess that’s it. It’s past Abigail Breslin’s bed time. On to next year!
For all the unpredictability that accompanies this year’s Best Picture nominees, the rest of the major categories look to go according to plan. As a result, there’s not so much interesting about an Oscar predictions post this year. I’ll say I hope The Departed wins Best Picture, but I expect Little Miss Sunshine to actually win — which is fine, because Sunshine is a great movie. Otherwise, Scorsese, Hudson, Whitaker and Mirren will all win (though I’d rather Judi Dench take Best Actress). And The Departed and Sunshine will win the screenplay categories. Perhaps the only surprise might come in Best Supporting Actor, where Jeffrey Wells has convinced me that Alan Arkin might actually win, not Eddie Murphy. So I hope Ellen DeGeneres does a great hosting job, because the show is not shaping up to be a suspenseful one. (And by the way, if you need a ballot to keep track of the winners, here’s one.)
Either way, the show has to be better than the one in 1989, when Snow White and, yes, Rob Lowe opened the show by singing, among other things, “Proud Mary.” If you’ve never seen it, here’s your chance. The year after this debacle, Billy Crystal hosted and all was right with the world. But this is a great reminder of how bad the Oscars can be. So at 12:30, when the show is still going on, remember: it could always be worse. (And thanks to David Poland for the tip.)
God bless Billy Ray. The director coaxed a good performance out of Hayden Christensen in Shattered Glass in 2003, and now he’s done the same with Ryan Phillippe in Breach, a film that tells the story of the efforts in 2001 to catch FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who was suspected of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia. The end result of this film is known up-front — not only is this a true story, but the movie begins with a clip from John Ashcroft’s press conference announcing his capture — so it’s more about the way he was captured. Hanssen, who is played brilliantly by Chris Cooper, was a devout, seemingly by-the-book FBI agent, who doesn’t suffer fools. I love that the Boston Herald called this movie The Devil Wears Brooks Brothers because at first it’s like that. But as Hanssen’s clerk, Eric O’Neill (Phillippe), starts to peel away the layers and becomes an instrumental part of the FBI’s attempts to catch Hanssen, the movie becomes more cat and mouse and less, um, catty. Because we know how the story ends up, there aren’t too many surprising twists like you’d find in a conventional spy thriller, and Ray does his best to ratchet up the suspense a few times, but mostly Breach plays like a solid inside-D.C. drama that eschews such conventions. As mentioned, both Cooper and Phillippe are good, but Laura Linney, as O’Neill’s real boss, just doesn’t carry her weight. For some reason, she can’t bark orders like the rest of them and it’s almost laughable. They say good movies don’t get released in mid-February, and while I didn’t enjoy Breach as much as Shattered Glass, I still say it’s still worth seeing. I’m giving it a B+.
As I’ve previously said, when I see movies after the Oscar nominations have been announced, I’m skeptical that the movie is that good.
So I’m happy to say that yes, Babel is a very good movie.
Is it one of the year’s best? Sure, I’d say it’s worthy of the nomination. But I’m not going to adjust my top 10 to include it. I wonder if I’d have liked it as much if I saw the movie when it was first released in October. Continue reading
Andy Warhol is famous for, among other things, saying, “In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” And in the new movie Factory Girl, we see how Andy took one woman — Edie Sedgwick — gave her those 15 minutes, and then threw her away. Sedgwick (played in the film by Sienna Miller, Jude Law’s former squeeze) was an aspiring artist from a wealthy family, who became Warhol’s muse and a central figure in his “Factory” in the 1960s. She was transformed by Warhol — and not just physically — and the film takes us on the whirlwind ride from bottom to top and back down again. And it feels like a whirlwind because the film is only an hour and a half long — which, mind you, is not something I’m complaining about, but it definitely feels a little too short because there clearly has been a bit of editing here, and it feels like certain details are missing. Miller is good, but I didn’t get the bigger-than-life sense about Sedgwick or Warhol (played by Guy Pearce, from Memento). I mean, she was swept up into this world, and really, it didn’t seem all that cool or exciting to me. It’s interesting to think of how different the movie would have been had Katie Holmes been cast as Sedgwick (not better, I think). All told, I’m giving Factory Girl a B–.
There are movies you see because you want to, movies you see because you have to, and movies you see because, well, because they’re free. I’ll let you guess which one of those Because I Said So was for me. No need to give this a full review; if you’re a woman, you’ll probably love it. If you’re a woman and you see it with your mother, you’ll love it even more. If you’re a guy and you’re dragged to this movie, God help you. It’s shocking to learn that Because was directed by Michael Lehmann, who also directed Heathers, because this movie is so tame compared to that wickedly funny ’80s classic. Because is cliched, but it’s not awful, and you could do worse than watch Mandy Moore on a big screen for an hour and 45 minutes. Still, it’s puzzling what attracted someone like Diane Keaton to this movie, since she’s basically reduced to some bad physical comedy; at multiple times she either has a cake smashed in her face or she’s doing things like reacting to Internet porn in the most naive way (I said multiple times). When she gets the chance to actually act, it’s totally laughable. Certain movies just aren’t made for men, and this is one of them. I’m giving it a C.
