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03Feb

The Ring Finger (2005)

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Probably I’ve been ruined by too many American films in which the ironclad rule seems to be that something must “happen” in the story every few minutes, lest the audience get bored. But The Ring Finger leans too much in the other direction. There are long stretches with little or no payoff, psychological or otherwise. It’s a lushly photographed but at times deadly dull affair.

The plot concerns young Iris (Olga Kurylenko of Centurion), a factory employee who, after an accident in which she loses part of her finger, finds a new job with a mysterious scientist at his conservatory, a converted schoolhouse near the waterfront. Are there ghosts in the building where Iris now works as a secretary? Is it wise for her to conduct an affair with her reserved employer, or is he bad news? And what, exactly, is this man “preserving” for his clients?

Too much of this is left to the imagination. What is not left to the imagination is Ms. Kurylenko’s attractive body, which is on display in several scenes. Nothing mysterious about that. Grade: C+

Director: Diane Bertrand Cast: Olga Kurylenko, Marc Barbe, Stipe Erceg, Edith Scob, Hanns Zischler, Sotigui Kouyate, Doria Achour, Anne Benoit, Louis Dewynter, Anne Fassio Release: 2005

Watch the Trailer (click here)

01Feb

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

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by John Berendt

Some of the best “nonfiction” books come with a nagging caveat: How much of the story is factual? That was an issue with James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, and it has dogged classics like In Cold Blood. An author will produce an enthralling narrative, but it will include some quotes or incidents that stretch credibility.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is an addictive read, brimming with colorful characters and vivid scenes from 1980s Savannah, Georgia. But Berendt, who spent much of the ’80s hobnobbing with Savannah’s upper crust and slumdogs alike, evidently either possessed a photographic memory or an ever-present tape recorder. How else to explain things like the author, out for a morning stroll, encountering a native, engaging in a lengthy, spur-of-the-moment conversation – and then reproducing the conversation verbatim in his book? It doesn’t add up.

If you can accept this blurring of fact and fiction (and let’s face it, we generally do), Midnight’s story is thoroughly engaging. Berendt dishes up one juicy anecdote after another about the peculiar Georgians he meets. Here is his summation of Savannah: “The city looked inward, sealed off from the noises and distractions of the world at large. … The ordinary became extraordinary. Eccentrics thrived. Every nuance and quirk of personality achieved greater brilliance in that lush enclosure than would have been possible anywhere else in the world.”

30Jan

127 Hours

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If there’s a lesson to be learned from James Franco’s grueling ordeal in 127 Hours, my guess is that the wrong people will learn it. By now, most people know the story of young Aron Ralston, the climber who became trapped in a Utah canyon and was forced to amputate his own arm. Ralston, who failed to alert anyone to his whereabouts, spent five miserable days in a hellish hole before, essentially, rescuing himself. The moral of the story seems to be: No matter how tough (and young) you think you are, at some point you’ll need other people. (A second lesson is obvious: Don’t mess with Mother Nature.)

Believe it or not, I used to be a young man, even more foolish than I am now. So I’m guessing the reaction from today’s young men to this film will fall into one of two camps: 1) Wow, I guess I’d better not try to be so much like Superman – I really do need friends and family, or 2) That Ralston dude was a wimp. I’m going out climbing tomorrow, and I ain’t tellin’ nobody!

British director Danny Boyle, whom I think is better suited to fast-paced material (Trainspotting and 28 Days Later come to mind), is constrained here to one actor and one setting. He tries to overcome this potential handicap with a series of low-impact flashbacks and hallucinations whilst his hero is trapped. These predictable techniques are only mildly effective. The audience doesn’t have much emotional stake in Ralston’s life, unlike the connection we felt for Tom Hanks’s marooned executive in Cast Away.

Franco is personable and entertaining as the focus of nearly every scene (somewhere, Ryan Reynolds – similarly entombed in last year’s Buried – is scratching his head and wondering what became of his Oscar nomination), but he can only do so much.

As for the famous amputation scene, it’s gorier than I was led to believe, but I was more affected when Hanks had to extract his own tooth in Cast Away. Grade: B

Director: Danny Boyle Cast: James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn, Sean Bott, Treat Williams, Kate Burton, Clemence Poesy, Koleman Stinger, John Lawrence, Rebecca C. Olson Release: 2010

Watch Trailers and Clips (click here)

24Jan

The Uninvited (1944)

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The Uninvited, a 1944 black-and-white ghost story, is by no means a “scary movie,” although it might once have been. But this mystery about a brother and sister who buy a house on an English seaside cliff is something better than scary: It’s haunting, and in a good way. The Uninvited is perfect for rainy-night viewing, with its séances and ghostly apparitions and atmosphere – above all, its atmosphere. The film features dancing shadows and candlelight and a theme song forever associated with one tragic actress, the beautiful “Stella by Starlight.”

The actress in question was named Gail Russell. Just 20 years old when she was cast in The Uninvited as Stella, Russell was a painfully shy, doe-eyed beauty who should never, ever have gone into the motion picture business, even though films like The Uninvited might have been the poorer.

Hollywood lore has it that Russell began drinking on the set of this film to overcome her debilitating stage fright, and that’s when the trouble began. Well-publicized run-ins with the law, a divorce, rumored adultery – just another day at the office for modern playgirls like Lindsay Lohan, but no joke for an actress in the 1950s. By the time Russell was 36 in 1961, she was dead from liver damage and malnutrition, found on the floor of her studio apartment, alone and surrounded by empty bottles of booze.

“I didn’t believe I had any talent,” Russell once said. “I didn’t know how to have fun. I was afraid. I don’t exactly know of what – of life, I guess.” There’s your scary movie. Grade: A-

Director: Lewis Allen Cast: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Gail Russell, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Dorothy Stickney, Barbara Everest, Alan Napier Release: 1944

Watch the Trailer (click here)

22Jan

The Long Walk

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by Richard Bachman

In the introduction to this edition of The Long Walk, King attempts to explain his decision to create “Bachman,” whom he describes as his dark half, a writer more disposed to gloom and doom than the sunny, optimistic author most people know as Stephen King. But I’m not buying it. I defy anyone – other than King himself – to read any back-to-back Bachman and King books, without knowledge of the “author,” and then confidently declare which book was written by which version of the writer from Maine.

Somehow this distinction seems to be important to King, but I doubt that his “constant readers” give a damn. What does matter is story, and that’s where someone – King, Bachman, or the Ghost of Christmas Past – excels. The Long Walk was published in King’s prime (1979) and chronicles a mysterious march undertaken by 100 boys walking without pause from the Canadian border to Massachusetts. This bizarre societal ritual takes place in some alternate universe, but Walk for the most part steers clear of something that I believe trips up so many King novels: the supernatural.

Walk’s ending is abrupt, and the teenagers suffer a bit from “Dawson’s Creek Disease,” in which the boys are implausibly wise beyond their years – quoting Keats, making literary allusions, debating philosophy – but the story itself is absorbing, suspenseful, and original.

20Jan

Oscar Picks

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Disclaimer 1: I have not seen all of the films generating Oscar buzz. Two films in particular – 127 Hours and Waiting for “Superman” – have given me the slip, so I reserve the right to change certain predictions and preferences after I see them. But I have seen the majority of 2010 movies that give critics like Roger Ebert a 2 a.m. stiffy.

Disclaimer 2: Unlike some critics, I don’t pretend to have in-depth knowledge of the technical categories. I liked the look of The Book of Eli, but I have no clue if those super-cool visuals came courtesy of the art director, cinematographer, production designer, director – or some combination of the preceding. Similarly, I can’t tell you if the bathtub scene in Black Swan is so effective because of great editing, sound effects, or the guiding hand of director Darren Aronofsky. So I am copping out of all predictions and preferences in the technical categories. On the other hand, I feel I am as qualified as the next joker to tell you which movie I thought was best, and which performance, and which story.

Best Picture:

Will Win: The Social Network

Should Win: The Social Network

A boring pick, I know. I think a lot of people could have made this prediction before the film was even released. The Social Network was clearly a matter of the right people tackling the right subject at the right time. Aaron Sorkin, David Fincher, and a film about Facebook – how could it lose? It won’t.

My top five films of the year (alphabetical): Blue Valentine, The Ghost Writer, The King’s Speech, Never Let Me Go, The Social Network

Best Actress:

Will Win: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Should Win: Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)

Bening made me forget I was watching a politically correct movie about an “unconventional” family. Instead, I simply appreciated her fleshed-out, highly amusing character. Portman’s emotional arc in Black Swan ranged from concerned expression to worried expression to very-uptight expression. Portman does, however, masturbate in one scene and engage in oral sex in another. That’s the kind of thing, I have read, that impresses Oscar voters as a display of “guts and determination.” Reminds me of 2001, when Halle Berry had to get naked and simulate sex with Billy Bob Thornton for Monster’s Ball – talk about guts and determination. Bening does not have sex in The Kids Are All Right, and she does not have the advantage of 500 close-ups, as does Portman in Swan. But “guts and determination” will carry the day.

Best Actor:

Will Win: Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

Should Win: Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

Firth’s main competition is Jesse Eisenberg of The Social Network. Eisenberg was superb – but was he portraying the real Mark Zuckerberg, or Zuckerberg as imagined by writer Aaron Sorkin? I’ve seen Zuckerberg in televised interviews, and he seems nothing like the hostile, antisocial young man played by Eisenberg in the film. But should that even matter? Eisenberg’s intense portrayal was riveting, fact-based or not. But Firth has at least two things going for him: He lost to Jeff Bridges last year (sympathy factor), and he absolutely nailed an acting challenge in The King’s Speech: a convincing stutter.

Best Supporting Actress:

Will Win: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Should Win: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

I don’t see any performance out there strong enough to top Leo’s scary mother hen in The Fighter. Amy Adams? She was good, but I doubt that I was the only one watching her and thinking: “That’s Amy Adams acting with a Boston accent.” Leo wins, but I think this is a weak category.

Best Supporting Actor:

Will Win: Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)

Should Win: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

This is a tough call. I won’t be unhappy if either of them wins.

Best Documentary:

Will Win: Waiting for “Superman”

Should Win: Best Worst Movie

If I had to put a label on 2010, I’d call it The Year of the Documentary. There was a period when nearly every week saw the opening of another first-class nonfiction film. These docs fell into two general categories: old-fashioned, “just the facts, ma’am” films (Countdown to Zero, Client 9, Joan Rivers), and a new breed that blurs the line between fact and fancy (Catfish, Exit Through the Gift Shop, I’m Still Here). Most of these movies had serious subject matter. My favorite documentary of the year, however, had ridiculous subject matter: the filmmakers and fans behind Troll 2, reputedly the worst movie ever made. Best Worst Movie is my pick because it has that most elusive of all qualities: charm.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Will Win: The Social Network

Should Win: The Social Network

Ten years ago, Sorkin was reinventing TV dialogue with his rat-a-tat exchanges in the superb The West Wing. He hasn’t lost his touch.

Best Original Screenplay:

Will Win: The King’s Speech

Should Win: Blue Valentine

I have nothing against The King’s Speech; as a crowd-pleaser it excels. It was Rocky with royalty. Blue Valentine had a tougher assignment: It made depressing material compulsively watchable.

Best Director:

Will Win: David Fincher (The Social Network)

Should Win: Roman Polanski (The Ghost Writer)

Polanski has absolutely no chance of winning, and might not even be nominated. That doesn’t bother me much because I’m a Fincher fan. The Ghost Writer, Polanski’s polished political thriller, has a pair of formidable obstacles. First, it was released nearly a year ago, and Oscar voters have notoriously short memories. Second, it was directed by Polanski, whom some people regard as a child molester. But it was smart, smooth, and seething with low-key suspense.

Annual Snub Award:

Inception: I was enjoying this blockbuster until it suddenly turned into a routine shoot ‘em up, resembling nothing so much as an episode of Mannix, circa 1968, and at which point it began to bore the crap out of me. Give this movie a nomination for screenplay, give it an Oscar for special effects, and then give it the brush-off.

Newcomer of the Year:

Noomi Rapace of Sweden’s Dragon Tattoo series gave us the most original female character of the year. If she were nominated for Best Actress, I’d take her over Portman and Bening.

Best Movie I Saw in 2010:

The best movie I saw in 2010 won’t be winning any Oscars this year, because it already has one. Produced in 2009 but not released in the U.S. until the spring of 2010, Argentina’s The Secret in Their Eyes was easily the film of the year.

19Jan

Animal Kingdom

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I’ve never been to Australia, but if there’s another country (or continent, if you prefer) that has more in common with the United States, I’d like to know what it is. Australia and the U.S. share a common history. More so than, say, Canada, we share a “wild west” mentality that lingers to the present day. More so than England, we have prominent gun cultures. Aussies and Americans love their macho, and they love to drink.

So it comes as no surprise that our movies are similar, in particular our crime movies. An armed-robbery gang lives in a blue-collar neighborhood. Loyalty to the gang is paramount, and so is fear and hatred of the police. One young man wants to escape this paranoid world, preferably with his sweetheart. I am describing Boston and The Town, but swap Beantown for Melbourne, and you are watching Animal Kingdom.

Australian actress Jacki Weaver has gotten a lot of attention for her role as mother “Smurf,” the reptilian matriarch of the crime family in Kingdom, but – at least until the final minutes of the film – her part is relatively small. Weaver is good, but this movie belongs to Ben Mendelsohn as eldest son Andrew. Andrew just wants to be helpful, he’ll tell you. Are you gay, but hesitant to “come out”? Sit down and talk to Andrew about it. Having troubles with your teenage girlfriend? Andrew can be your friend and counselor. But beware, because Andrew isn’t always so friendly ….

Animal Kingdom is compelling, but like The Town, it’s not a great movie. Part of the problem, I think, lies with the young protagonist, Joshua. Joshua is a typical teenage boy, full of angst yet shy to the point of being a complete enigma. He is a blank slate, and it’s tough for an audience to relate to blank slates. Grade: B

Director: David Michod Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, Luke Ford, Jacki Weaver, Sullivan Stapleton, James Frecheville, Dan Wyllie, Anthony Hayes, Laura Wheelwright Release: 2010

Watch Trailers and Clips (click here)

16Jan

Autobiography of Mark Twain

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by Mark Twain

Mark Twain endures, I think, in part because he was a fascinating mass of contradictions. Twain is celebrated for his humor, but read this pessimistic quote from his autobiography: “The main-spring of man’s nature is just that – selfishness. Man is what he is … [he] tarries his little day, does his little dirt, commends himself to God, and then goes out into the darkness, to return no more, and send no messages back – selfish even in death.” And this quote: “These tiresome and monotonous repetitions of the human life – where is their value? Susy [Twain’s daughter] asked that question when she was a little child. There was nobody then who could answer it; there is nobody yet.” The man obviously had dark thoughts.

More apparent contradictions: Twain was a champion of the “little guy,” yet his friends were business titans and presidents. He was a sharp social critic, yet could react petulantly to criticism of his own work. This autobiography, planned for release 100 years after Twain’s death, is at once comforting and disturbing, as is the man himself. Helen Keller described Twain as someone who thought of himself as a pessimist but was in reality an optimist. I’m not so sure about that.

15Jan

Blue Valentine

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The best movies don’t end well. By that, I mean that their fadeouts are bittersweet, ambiguous, or flat-out depressing. Citizen Kane dies, alone and friendless. Rick and Ilsa are separated, apparently for good. Old Yeller gets shot.

Blue Valentine is that kind of movie, and that’s a good thing. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams play (superbly) a married couple that would seem to have it all. Young, bright, and white in America – if these two can’t attain the American Dream, what hope is there for anyone?

Director Derek Cianfrance films his romantic tragedy in a documentary style, which is both a strength and a weakness. The sense of eavesdropping on private moments lends credibility and depth to the proceedings, and yet ….

Movies similar to Blue Valentine in the past – I am thinking specifically of Days of Wine and Roses and Two for the Road – relied heavily on melodrama. Alcohol was a major culprit in Roses; infidelity reared its ugly head in Road. There are no such obvious trappings in Cianfrance’s movie. Two nice people run up against something much more mundane: dashed expectations about married life.

I’m sure that mirrors reality for many people, and it suits the realistic tone of the film. But I wanted something more. I was watching, after all, a product of the Hollywood Dream Factory. Where was the stirring soundtrack, emphasizing dramatic highs and lows? Why were there no villains – human or otherwise – for me to hiss? Instead of emotional catharsis, I left the cinema with this feeling: shit happens. Grade: B+

Director: Derek Cianfrance Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka, John Doman, Mike Vogel, Marshall Johnson, Jen Jones, Maryann Plunkett, James Benatti Release: 2010

Watch Trailers and Clips (click here)

10Jan

The Big C

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No good roles for women of a “certain age” in Hollywood? Balderdash. You just have to avoid the local Cineplex, which has become the domain of the teenage boy, stay at home and turn on your television. One of the best shows in any medium is playing on Showtime: The Big C, a comic drama created, written, and informed by women.

Laura Linney stars as Cathy Jamison, a Mary Tyler Moore for the 21st century. Like Mary Richards, Cathy lives in Minneapolis, has a career, and is the neighborhood “good girl.” But unlike Mary, Cathy has cancer – and some unorthodox ways of dealing with her crisis that would likely horrify Mr. Grant.

This is a smart, smart show. Cancer is always lurking in the background, of course, but what makes the series sparkle are its wit and unpredictable characters. Cathy at first glance is what you might call a spunky “soccer mom,” but she is surrounded by friends and family straight out of the booby hatch. In other words, her support network consists of realistic human beings. And, as someone famous once opined, we all know what bastards they can be.

One of the joys of the first season (the show returns with season two later this year) is the introduction of these goofballs, each of them a comic delight: Sean (John Benjamin Hickey), Cathy’s dumpster-diving, politically savvy brother; Paul (Oliver Platt), her emotionally stunted husband; Marlene (Phyllis Somerville), a modern-day Ma Kettle who lives across the street; Rebecca (Cynthia Nixon), her promiscuous ex-college roommate … and on and on. All of these characters are obnoxious on the surface; all of them are addictively watchable.

I’ve said before that the test of a great show is if it can transcend its target audience. I’m pretty sure I’m not in The Big C’s primary demographic, which would probably be those women of a “certain age,” but I recognize great writing when I see it. Unlike Mary Richards, Cathy makes a lot of really bad decisions – but we always understand why, and we’re always on her side.

Creator: Darlene Hunt Cast: Laura Linney, Oliver Platt, Gabriel Basso, John Benjamin Hickey, Phyllis Somerville, Reid Scott, Gabourey Sidibe, Cynthia Nixon, Idris Elba Premiere: 2010

Watch Clips (click here)