A beautiful tale

So the other night when I laid out Oscar picks I threw down the Gauntlet and said Colin Firth would get it for Best Actor. While I still think Firth delivered a grand, memorable performance and the hoity-toity folk that comprise the Academy will send the Golden Man his way, it's no doubt that Javier Bardiem makes a justifiable case for his performance in Biutiful. (and hey! Canne's thinks so too! [see below])

Unless you live in Spain, Mexico, New York or L.A. you haven't heard much about this film, much less seen it - it's only garnered $2 mil domestically since it came out a month ago. (Meanwhile Justin Bieber: Never say never made that and another mil on Friday (2/18) alone; all according to BoxOfficeMojo.com). If you've never heard of it, I'm telling you about it now. If you have heard about it and are on the fence to see it, just see it. If not for the powerful story of a man trying to do the most good for those around him then see it for the best lead performance and direction of the year.

As the story begins, Bardiem plays Uxbal, a poor businessman, role model, father and literally, a poor man. He soon finds out he doesn't have long to live and attempts to change his life around the best he can. Unfortunately, his deeds indirectly worsen the lives of those he cares about even more than if he had done nothing. This includes the deportation of a friend, the physical and emotional pain of his children and even the sudden, unintentional deaths of innocent migrants. This is NOT a rainy Saturday afternoon feel-good movie. It is a portrayal of a man's struggle to repent and the realistic consequences he must conquer. The direction of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - the camera angles, moments and breaks, the creation of creepy off center actions and clues - make the viewer feel they're in the spiraling mind of Uxbal in stylistic, almost grotesque fashion.

Check it out.

Rift

Forgive me readers, for I have left you and my partner in cinema sleuthing in a world of silver screen oblivion. It has been 579 days since my last post. You can thank that steaming pile of cow dung (figuratively speaking), The Hurt Locker, for that one. After hearing about an Oscar nod I had to Obi-Wan it for a year and a half and hang out in bed-bug infested Manhattan movie theatre seats to reinforce my faith in quality cinema. Now I'm back like Renton trying to get a fix and some Kelly Macdonald.

I digress. Though some have said this year has been lackluster in movie magic, I say it's been Fantasia. Just think: Inception, The Social Network, The Town, True Grit, Black Swan, The Fighter, 127 Hours, Toy Story 3, Shutter Island, How to Train your Dragon, Get Him to the Greek, and if you're into that sort of thing, Harry Potter 7 Part I. And hey, props to my boy Dwayne Johnson for doing Tooth Fairy. What an interesting career. Anyway, I'll get back to my normal review schedule (once a week!) and drop dimes on the most current sheisse so we can all spend our $6-23 wisely but for now...

It's Oscar time!! There are some movies that I believe should have been nominated (e.g. The Town) and some that should have been taken out (Acting aside, The King's Speech. I'm sorry, but really, he couldn't speak in the beginning and he couldn't speak in the end) but all in all there were some damn good movies out this year. I won't put out long reviews now but here is what I think will be the finalists:

Best Picture: The Social Network

-Sure, Inception was the coolest thing since Neo stopped bullets and yeah, it made viewers question their existence and what they're doing with their lives but The Social Network did it better. The difference? This showed a couple twenty year olds redefining how business is done and the steps taken to construct an empire that is more addicting and has generated more revenue than the crack industry. Yeah, look it up. The Social Network defines our generation more than Kanye West and with better acting, direction and writing (all nominated). It is, without a doubt, the most inspiring film this year and is guaranteed to make you want to change your life for the better - more than Matt Damon's wickid smahwt's film did 13 years ago. Hey, I watched it last night and am writing this today after nearly two years of silence.

Best Actor: Colin Firth

- Despite walking out incredibly underwhelmed with the movie itself, Colin Firth's performance was absolutely remarkable. "In this grave hour fuck fuck fuck perhaps the most fateful in our history bugger shit shit." - Ah', just grand. I have to give a nod to James Franco. Going from "Mmm, so good" in Spider Man 3 to delivering a performance that brought every viewer down into the lonely chasm with him is something none of us saw coming. Give this man the right script and I guarantee he'll win the Golden Man.

Best Actress: Natalie Portman

- This one's easy. Have you seen Black Swan? Go see it. I don't need to explain this. This is a tough role to pull off and she nailed it.

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale

- Remember in The Dark Knight when you got excited to see Heath Ledger as the Joker? Same sorta thing. Ledger's performance was legendary but Bale's performance is in the same "OMG WHAT'S HE GONNA DO NEXT?!' class. Super fun to watch.

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo

- There was no other female character this year that was easier to hate and make one cringe than Melissa Leo's portrayal of Alice Ward, the tough-as-a-beaten-coked-up-widowed-mother-of-5-working-in-a-South-Compton-skin-bar-truck-stop mother of Micky and Dicky in The Fighter. Think a Boston trailer trash, blue collar cousin of Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). It was almost hard to believe that she was just an actor that was previously on All My Children. Though it won't, it'd be really great if this went to Hailee Steinfeld. Fourteen years old and killing it almost as dirty as someone with 30 years of experience... like Melissa Leo.

Best Director: David Fincher

- This one is difficult. Both Fincher and Aronovsky have created beautiful works that bring the viewer in more than any other in the past two years. Easy. However, I have never felt the way I did after watching The Social Network. Though some of this can be attributed to Aaron Sorkin, Fincher conjured a story, mood and atmosphere that has and will become the anthem of our generation.

Best Writing directly for the screen: Inception

- Your mind walks into an alley and gets gang banged prison style by the scariest blokes imaginable and when you try to cry uncle and scream to God 'why is this happening?!' you get gagged and blindfolded and it hurts even more. But then you realize you kind of like it. And it may be the best you've ever had. And it may be something you wish you'd never wake from. Christopher Nolan created the perfect metaphor for all our lives in the coolest, most meaningful way imaginable. This screenplay was perfect.

Best Writing Based on a Previous Work: Aaron Sorkin

- Hinted at above, The Social Network is the perfect representation of our generation; it is the sum theme of our society's culture over the past ten years. Further, it's fast paced, thrilling, emotional and above all, inspiring. This will be spark for citizens the world over to kick procrastination in the ribs and realize their potential. Truly a masterpiece.

Chew on that and I'll have more in the coming soon.

"End? This is not the end. Death is just another path, one that we all must take"

Shutter Island

Is it better to live like a monster or die a good man?

Shutter Island is not an easy movie to watch. The acting, as always from Dicaprio, is top notch. The supporting actors are all incredible especially Sir Kingsley. The filming still sees Scorsese at his best.

I did like this film, a lot, BUT not all of it. If you are familiar with the psychological-thriller genre then you know that most of these films suffer the same fatal flaw. . .the ending. Now there are exceptions to this rule: best of all being The Usual Suspects, and the Sixth Sense in a close second. On the opposite side of the spectrum there are films like Identity, which suck donkey balls due to a cop out ending.

Shutter Island sets itself apart due to its great story. Every aspect is engaging and the backstory is fascinating. Scorsese also does a great job of messing with the audience in certain key moments of the film. However, as the end draws near, a too familiar and predictable ending (in my eyes) comes through to fruition but still leaves the audience with something to ponder.

Overall, I'll give Shutter Island a 7.5/10. With a slight ending modification, this would easily warrant a 9.

Hurt me plenty

The Hurt Locker starts out as a balls out war movie following an unconventional bomb specialist but transforms into a liberal mess of crooked plot lines and confusion as to where it's going to end up. Though the acting and action is top notch, the story itself sets out to accomplish more than it can within the time allotted. Even with enough time, the lack of a central plot makes for a movie that seems could have been split into three, or maybe even a mini series.

Kathyn Bigelow (K-19: The Widowmaker) directs a film that runs amok with scenes that seem to have nothing to do with each other or the rest of the story. It seems the only purpose of them all is a higher purpose. The anti-war undertones in The Hurt Locker are painfully unbearable. Whether it's destroying a family back home, killing the chance of having one or even just putting forth the notion that death is in fact bad, The Hurt Locker is a left winger's dream.

This isn't a bad thing, but it isn't a good thing either. Just like that, it makes for a pretty mediocre movie. Check it out, but please don't get caught up in the hype.

5.5/10

In space no one can hear you cry

Moon, currently an 8 theatre release written and directed by Duncan Jones, is less a sci-fi thriller and more a somber tagedy of one man's emotional turmoil brought on by desperate lonliness.

Sam Rockwell plays a lone crew member of a mining platform on the moon. At the start of the film, he has two weeks left in his contract before he is free to see his family back on earth. As events unfold, we see his nearly every reason for living is a lie.

Save for his robotical companion voiced by Kevin Spacey, Rockwell is the only true actor on screen for about 98% of Moon. This is not a slipshod move. Moon is an emotional rollercoaster and Rockwell will hold the viewer's hand to times of laughter and tears, just as Jones intended. He proves time and again that he can act better than most. It won't likely happen with Moon, but mark this reviewer's text, Sam Rockwell will win an Oscar before his career in acting is done.

What's interesting is this movie really could have taken place anywhere. Being that a one-man moon base with a view of Earth is probably the lonliest place a person could go, it gives the ideal setting. That said, the graphics of Moon aren't phenomenal; the moon-base Sarang looks very futuristic and iPod'ish, but it's nothing that hasn't been done before (think 2001: A Space Odyssey). The lunar surface is pretty cool, but not believeable. Again, it's Rockwell's performance that will convey the sad and lonely theme Moon aimed for. This is aided, however, by the music. Clint Mansell created some of the most morose tunes for this movie that have ever been put on a reel. This isn't surprising, he did The Wrestler, The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream. Perhaps Jones will use him in the future just as Aronovsky repeatedley has.

This is NOT a feel good movie. It is however a very good movie that will have you counting your blessings when the credits begin to roll, unless of course you begin to question if those blessings are truly what they seem to be.

9/10

The Hangover

Just go see it, it's good, well, hilarious. Way better than Starsky and Hutch, slightly better than Road Trip not near as good as Old School. Todd Philips really brings people the type of comedy that hasn't reared it's bastard head in a quite a while. So again, go see it.

8.375/10

Drag me to Raimi

The man who brought the world the cult classic Evil Dead more than 25 years ago now brings us easily the best horror film of the past 5 years, Drag Me to Hell. This movie has all the elements that made Evil Dead great; loads of gore, a ridiculous though semi good plot, and of course that awkward line between horror and comedy.

I won't say much about the plot other than it's a horror movie; a horror movie with demons, ghosts and posessions - much like Evil Dead. Truly the only difference between DMtH and Evil Dead is 28 years of technological and industry advances. Whether that tickles your fancy is up to you.

The dialogue and acting in DMtH is fair at best, but really, would you expect anything more from a horror movie? The special effects and sound especially are near Oscar quality. The graphic nastiness that DMtH brings to the table is truly disgusting. The amount of projectile vomit, blood, snot and other various body fluids and chunks is sweet, but when they're done with such finesse and care (like they are), snot becomes sexy.

See this movie with a bunch of friends and do NOT take it seriously. For what it is, it's a masterpiece. Spider Man was great, but Drag Me to Hell proves Sam Raimi's true calling is horror.

7.2/10