2011 Films: #1

This year turned into a grind towards the end of the countdown. Oddly enough, I had more free time this go 'round, but I also had a lot of writing projects simultaneously. I think in the future, I will do it like a normal human being and write the movies up after I see them and give one paragraph re-caps in countdown season.

We'll see.

For the first time since I started doing this in 2004, I did not see all of the best picture nominees. I saw 8 of the 9, but missed Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I wasn't particularly enthused about it, for one, but I just kind of ran out of time.

There are three movies that did not get included in the countdown--two of which I saw after my self-imposed deadline, and one that I had forgotten I saw. They are: Hanna, J. Edgar, and What's Your Number?


*J. Edgar was slow, dark, kind of strange and all over the place. Leo was good. It would probably chart in the low to mid 40s.

*Hanna was Bourne Identity with a young girl who could shoot a bow and arrow. It was pretty cool, from what I remember. Mid to high 30s.

*I thought What's Your Number? was better and funnier than expected. It's not overly gross but there is some hilarious foul language and hijinks. Low 30s.

Those three bring my 2011 total up to 58. Yikes.

Here are the movies I wanted to see and missed:

Tabloid

The Interrupters

The Trip

13 Assassins

The Future

Project Nim

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Carnage

Contagion

A Harold & Kumar Christmas

A Separation (Ebert's #1)

Melancholia

Shame

My Week with Marilyn

Finally, enjoy this as well. Offers some nice counter-insight!

http://movieswithmulhern.blogspot.com/

My #1 this year is kind of polarizing film. It's pretty bloody, which is what kept it from much award-season love, but I (and plenty of other people) think it got snubbed. Interested to hear back from you all on it, if you've seen it.

Without further ado...


#1 Drive

After a meeting that had completely bombed between Ryan Gosling, studio execs, and director Nicholas Winding Refn concerning the direction and attitude of Drive, Gosling was giving Winding Refn a ride home (who ironically does not possess a license). A song came on the radio and Gosling turned it up. They both sang along to themselves. Winding Refn, frustrated and emotional, said to him "That's what I was trying to convey before-it should be about someone who can't connect with anything or anyone except being behind the wheel." Gosling nodded, their relationship improved, and the best film of 2011 was born.

Drive, originally slated to star Hugh Jackman (no offense to Wolverine, but it's for the best here) and be a straight action film, got a dramatic re-tooling following the botched meeting. Gosling plays the nameless lead--"Driver" in the end credits, called "kid" by his mechanic boss Shannon (Bryan Cranston)--a stunt driver for films and part time car shop worker who moonlights as a getaway driver for small-time thugs. The opening sequence finds him outrunning and outsmarting the police, carrying two armed robbers as cargo. It's one of the best car chases I have ever seen. Then comes the movie's best mood-setter, its soundtrack. The awesomely pulsing techno, combined with the pink scripted font, makes the viewer feel like they are smack in the middle of 1986; the movie, in tone and style, is oft-compared to the great William Friedkin crime thriller To Live and Die in L.A.


Two events set up the action of the movie: 1) Driver meets his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son Benicio, and 2)Shannon, limping from a previous "accident" and looking to make some dishonest money, sells the driving services of his young protege (Gosling) to mobbed-up stock car sponsor Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and his partner Nino (Ron Perlman). Driver steps in for Irene's absent husband Standard (Oscar Isaac), currently serving a bid in jail. Thanks to a montage set to College's thumping theme song "A Real Hero", we see Driver getting closer to Irene and Benicio. It doesn't last though-Standard gets released, for better or worse, back into their lives. After Standard gets the crap kicked out of him in the apartment garage by a couple of toughs who he owes money to, Driver offers to help him on a job that will pay back the interested parties and keep Ireneand Benicio safe. This is a mistake in every possible way, and soon Driver is on a "crash-course" (sorry, had to) with some very dangerous people. It starts to become clear that he will do practically anything for Irene, and some of those things aren't exactly flowers and cupcakes.

Drive owes a lot of its brilliance to it's subtext. When Gosling and Mulligan got the script, they started slashing expositional dialogue in favor of quiet looks that say it all. As the viewer, you get absolutely none of his backstory, so it's unclear if this is the first time he's involved himself in a situation like this or the 12th. He talks very little, but his eyes and his tone speak enough. As a villain, the always outstanding Brooks matches Gosling in eerie calmness. After the wild thrills, top-notch car chases and spiraling violence come to a close and we're hearing "A Real Hero" play us out, we are left to wonder-how heroic were his actions, really?

That wraps it up. Hope you enjoyed this year's edition of Mulhern at the Movies. Thanks for reading!

2011 Films: #2

#2 Stuck Between Stations


Proof once again that everything in life can be drawn back to The Simpsons, Seinfeld , and LOST, my ranking of this film at #2 reminds me of something that happened with LOST. Leading up the series finale, the producers made a questionable decision when they benched the entire starting team in favor of an episode with a plot line that could have been resolved weeks or possibly seasons before. It pissed a lot of people off, and hopefully the fact that I ranked a film that virtually no one has heard of one spot from the top does not have the same effect. It comes out on March 13th on DVD (and hopefully Netflix). Now, I will try and convince you why you should see this one.

Stuck Between Stations takes its name from the opening track of the Brooklyn-via-Minneapolis band the Hold Steady's classic Boys and Girls in America record. Though the song itself is about being high and or drunk ("some nights are crystal clear/but tonight it's like he's stuck between stations/on the radio"), the title is applicable to the protagonists, two postgrad hipster types who re-connect for one wild night in Minneapolis.

They are Casper (Sam Rosen), a vet of the 2nd middle east tour who is back for his father's funeral, and Becca (Zoe Lister-Jones), a graduate assistant bent on climbing the educational ladder. Out for a whiskey at famous music venue First Avenue, he spots Becca and remembers her from his childhood. The guys that she are with begin hassling her at the pool table, he steps in, he gets punched in the face. Outside a few minutes later, she approaches him and to his dismay, does not remember him. Via a cool split screen shot, we see them part ways-she to the car with her pals, him to his BMX bike-before she realize she is a little asshole'd out and runs to catch up with Casper. She's curious, obviously, and seems to want to make it up to him for the knight in shining armor act going awry. They talk about the present and the past with the lights and shadows of Minneapolis providing the backdrop. There's a tangible connection, but there are complications. Becca is romantically involved with her host professor (Michael Imperioli) and Casper, who up until this point hasn't really opened up to much of anyone, is damaged goods.

This doesn't stop the 12-hour adventure from unfolding, including a bicycle gang of Casper's old friends (including Minneapolis native Josh Hartnett), a night carnival in a warehouse, and a mission to retrieve her laptop from the professor's house. There is a constant "will they or won't they" vibe throughout, and I though I won't tell you the answer to that, know that what matters is, just like 1995's Before Sunrise, they click enough to tell each other the most intimate details of their lives as virtual strangers. Sometimes, it's easier that way.

It's very possible that I am biased because of the Minneapolis aspect. However, the script and the leads are strong enough that I believe it would have worked in any city. Working with a script penned by Rosen, director Brady Kiernan (newcomer) and cinematographer Bo Hakala (previously worked on Atmosphere and Doomtree music videos) aptly give life to Minneapolis, to the night, and to the confusion of trying to figure out exactly where, and who with, you belong.

2011 films: #4-3

#4 The Descendants


After his wife suffers a horrendous boating accident, Hawaiian landowner Matt King (George Clooney) suffers a horrendous realization at the hands of his daughter Alex (American Teenager's Shailene Woodley) : his wife had been having an affair. He had no idea. This news comes amidst King and his entire family being on the brink of selling a huge piece of their land to investors; they are the descendants of former Hawaiian royalty. The entire island seems to know about and be affected by the impending decision. "So what are you gonna do, Matt?" is a common question from the plebes.

King is of course a little sidetracked by the bomb that has been dropped and rather than deal fully with the land issue, he works on figuring out who this other meddling guy is. After he gets a lead on the extracurricular lover's whereabouts, he and Alex, his younger daughter Scottie (Amara Miller), and comical relief surfer dude Sid (Nick Krause)-who may or may not be Alex's boyfriend-take a trip to one of the other islands for a "vacation" so that they can track him down and confront him. King comes to find out that despite his best attempts, even his wife's lover is intertwined in the potential land deal. As the trustee among several cousins with their own ulterior motives, and people that continue to seemingly come out of the woodwork, the sale of the land is continually stressful. The news about his wife could  not have come at a worse time-or could it have?

The Descendants is flat out great. It's Alexander Payne's first film since the wine-country romp Sideways, and it is even more smart and much more touching than its predecessor. Krause is a joy as the party crasher who is deeper than his exterior leads you to believe. Beau Bridges (Jeff's brother) is both gregarious and conniving as cousin Hugh, constantly leaning on Matt to sell to the best potential developers. Woodley is a revelation as an angry and rebellious teenager who gives her father strength he didn't quite know he had. And then there's Sir George. He's a father who's as clueless about fatherhood as he is about his wife's infidelity, a trustee that's nowhere near as confident as he projects, and as a potential collector of revenge, he's not even quite sure what to do with it once it is in his grasp. This is Clooney's Oscar to lose; a hospital scene towards the end of the film is what locks it up in my opinion. He is completely believable, and so, somewhat uncommonly, is the film.

#3 The Artist


It all seemed like a gimmick to me. A silent film in 2011? Why, exactly? What is the point of stepping that far back?

Then I saw it, and it was stupendous.

Michael Hazanavicius' story follows George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), and his Jack Russell terrier Jack (skateboarding super dog Uggie) silent movie mega-star(s) in the year 1927. After a big premiere, he comes out to welcome his adoring fans and ends up bumping into Peppy Miller (Bernice Bejo, Hazanavicius' real life wife). They have a moment, and soon all of the papers are wanting to know--who's this mystery woman linked to the beloved George Valentin? Before too long, she is a backup dancer in one of his films and eventually works her way up to a starring role. Her trajectory goes on to overtake his, and as the world takes new shape, silent pictures get left behind by "talkies". Peppy Miller adjusts and Valentin does not. So while there is a love connection, it gets complicated by jealousy and the fear of change. They will work their way back together, but not without a few tears, laughs and life-threatening situations.

This movie would probably not succeed if it were not for Jean Dujardin. He does not let the fact that he can't talk get in the way of being completely effective and engaging. I couldn't help but grin at his enjoyment and hang my head at his moments of shame and desperation. He had a face that was equally evocative for the highs and lows, which is tough to pull off. While the supporters (Bejo, cigar-puffing John Goodman, and especially Uggie), the music, and the excellent cinematography helped to take us back in time, none more so than Dujardin. If it weren't for Clooney's turn in The Descendants, it's his statue.

2011 Films: #7, 6, 5

#7 The Tree of Life


Pretentious? A little. Confusing? At times. Heavy-handed? Absolutely--any film comparing the rearing of a small-town 1950s Texas family to the creation of the universe has to be.

However...

Fascinating? It had the ability to be. Gorgeous? Very much so. Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography was the best of the year, sun streaming in through picture windows, wind blowing through grasses and trees, follow shots of both children and adults walking down empty streets. And was it evocative? I thought so, especially being a male in that there were elements of it that reminded me a little of my own growing up and the confusion, anger and lack of responsibility that comes with adolescence. Others felt it more so than me.

There's not really a narrative arc to speak of in this movie, and that was a little bit of a problem. Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain are a husband and wife raising a family. We see the world through the eyes of their son, 11-year old Jack (Hunter McCracken) in jumbled vignettes and subtle, simple meditations on life. Pitt, a patent salesman, is an intimidating disciplinarian, who, despite the my-way-or-the-highway act, loves them all. He can be stern and has the ability to snap on a dime, and Chastain is the quiet, submissive counterpart.

Interwoven with all of this is adult Jack (Sean Penn), wandering lost in big-city, business world and looking for answers, and a long montage detailing the creation of the world, complete with NASA quality cosmos shots and exploding volcanoes. And even CGI dinosaurs. There are voiceover whispers and sweeping orchestral fare. Art house favorite Terrence Malick, in only his fifth feature in 40 years, decided to go as big he possibly could with the Tree of Life. Sometimes his conception of big is over our heads, and sometimes you find the film meandering and sleepy.

But my God, is it ever something to look at.

#6 Harry Potter 8

One of the most remarkable things about the mega-franchise, and I think I said this last year, is that Rowling has written them in such a way that each progressive book gets more adult and less kid. The movies follow the gameplan-thanks largely to having David Yates at the helm for the last four films-by holding onto dark undertones. We have watched the Radcliffe/Grint/Watson trio grow up on screen over ten years, from optimistic and wide-eyed (Rafcliffe), frightened and goofy (Grint), snippy and mousy (Watson) to full-fledged adults. Where Deathly Hallows Part I was a showcase for all three (Grint has come a long way from the one dimensional "scared of spiders' face in Chamber of Secrets), Part II is all Radcliffe, and he absolutely rises to the challenge of impending martyrdom.

We pick up right where we left off with a little bit of a re-cap to kick things into gear: Voldemort has just jacked the elder wand from Dumbledore's giant white tomb, rendering him virtually unstoppable; our fearless three escaped an attack at Malfoy manor by the skin of their teeth; and fan favorite Dobby the house elf bit the dust via a knife thrown by evil nutjob Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). They had spent the last movie on the run, away from their family, away from Hogwarts, hunting down the final horcruxes--items containing pieces of Voldemort's soul. For those keeping score at home, they had previously destroyed three of the seven: Harry stabbed Tom Riddle's (Voldemort's childhood identity) diary in the Chamber of Secrets, Marvolo Gaunt's ring was pulverized by Dumbledore sometime in the timeline of Half-Blood Prince,  and the locket that Harry and Dumbledore failed to dispose of near the end of Half-Blood Prince gets finished off by Ron Weasley in the Deathly Hallows, Part I. At the beginning of Part II, four remain. To make Voldemort mortal and defeat the bald asshole once and for all, the horcruxes must go. The trio starts by infiltrating Gringott's Bank in disguise for the purpose of a goblet that they have reason to believe is a horcrux, and from there it's back towards Hogwart's for a final showdown. Unlike Part I, this one is straight-up action, and wastes no time in chugging to the finish line.

The most successful film franchise of all time (it helps when there are eight of them) thus comes to a close, and it does so in a bombastic fashion worthy of the superbly-structured books. Throughout, there are game-changing reveals that continue to hit Harry like a quidditch bludger to the stomach, and eventually he comes to understand that his fate is unavoidable. Both the good (Maggie Smith as McGonnagal, Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, David Thewlis as Lupin) and the bad (Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort, Alan Rickman as Snape, Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy) suffer a gang of casualties. All of the actors convey the urgency very well, and special props go to Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom, who experiences a heroic coming-out of sorts, and to director David Yates, who knows exactly what is at stake and delivers a stark and powerful finale to legions upon legions of muggle fans. None, though, are on quite on Radcliffe's level this time around. There's a scene that takes place when on the way to meet Voldemort in the woods that he plays so perfectly, so quietly that it's practically a dance. He's a great and fearless actor with tremendous upside, and as the heart and soul of the story, he takes the viewer right into the psyche of the boy who, for better or for worse, lived.

#5 Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest


A couple-three years ago, I was sitting on my best friend's couch, paging through the contents of the book "Stuff White People Like". Lo and behold, there was a Tribe Called Quest. I was confronted with two harsh realizations on that day: One, I am, in fact, white; and two, following the hip-hop group was both ubiquitous and not at all unique. The truth is that I know every last word to Midnight Marauders and own a cat named Q-Tip with plans to eventually own a cat named Ali Shaheed Mohammed and a dog named Phife. This does not mean I am the world's only fan of ATCQ and I guess that's a good thing. It should come as no surprise to those who know me that this one would be charting high.

None of my biases, though, stop this from being a great and engaging film. I have watched it both with people who enjoy their music and those who had barely heard of them, and the result was the same. Early on in the film, the group is introduced via the semi-famous (at least in the hip-hop community) audio of the robotic woman who gives public service announcements in between tracks on Midnight Marauders: "A Tribe Called Quest consists of four members-Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Mohammed, Q-Tip and Jarobi. A, E, I, O-" "And sometimes Y, motherf***as!" Jarobi interrupts, and just like that, we're off and running.

The movie begins with the renowned Queens, NY group in a state of turmoil; it's 2008, and they have agreed to reunite to headline the Rock the Bells hip-hop lineup. Things have since gone south in a hurry, with Phife and Q-Tip at playing battling egos. As the movie unfolds, we come to realize that through the years, Q-Tip and Phife were oftentimes more competitors than allies (Phife Dawg's diabetes diagnosis played a role as well), both struggling to equally share the spotlight while ASM (Jarobi left in the early '90s) played the background.

It wasn't always tense, though, and it is a blast to see and hear how the whole thing came together, from the high school lunch table rhymes, to sampling records, to the formation of the Native Tongues collective (ATCQ, Black Sheep, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers) and their eventual  rise to fame. Director and superfan Michael Rapaport spent years collecting testimonials of hip-hop heavies like the Beastie Boys, De La Soul,     ?uestlove and Busta Rhymes, along with studio execs like Jimmy Iovine and Lyor Cohen who can all agree that A Tribe Called Quest's influential music  and path changed the game for good.

2011 Films: #9 & #8

#9 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I can safely say that I wasn't one of the million billions who had the ubiquitous bright green paperback in tow at the coffeeshop, on the beach towel, in the chaise lounge, on the airplane. Here's what I went in knowing: Punk rock mohawked cyber hacking girl with a giant chip on her shoulder. Daniel Craig plays a rogue journalist. It takes place in Sweden. It's directed by David Fincher. All the credit in the world to Rooney Mara, but the aforementioned director, who I knew would have the balls to get super dark with it, was the main thing that put me in the seats. 


 To the nine other people besides me who haven't read the commercial juggernaut, the story is that Michael Blomkvist (Craig) is himself in the news for uncovering shady corporate goings-on. Though he resigns amid the scandal, his work impresses the wealthy and geriatric Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), still haunted by the disappearance and possible murder of his niece some 40 years ago. Before he hires on Blomkvist to do his investijournaling, his family lawyer takes on the services of computer whiz/researcher/motorcycle rider/tattoo and piercing enthusiast/angry loner Lisbeth Salander (Mara) to tail Blomqvist and make sure his nose is clean. Henrik thinks someone in his family has murdered his niece, and under the ruse that he will be writing his memoirs, puts Blomkvist in a nearby cottage to conduct his interviews. He comes to realize he'll be needing a research assistant, so he goes to track down the raven-haired waif that somehow got open-book with his personal life. The unlikely duo is thus formed, and a strange, quiet connection begins to grow. She doesn't ever quite crack a smile, but her time with Blomkvist is about as upbeat as it gets for her.



She has good reason to be pissed, incidentally-her legal guardian (she's been orphaned since she set her pops on fire as a kid) has just died, along with her weekly stipends. Lisbeth is put under the watch of calculated and vile lawyer Nils Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen-what is that, Swedish or something?), who blackmails her into sex acts for her weekly financial allowances. Fincher does not shy away from the brutality and depravity of their relationship, and though it gets hard to watch, Bjurman getting his comeuppance is a thing to behold. Mara plays that particular scene perfectly, displaying an eerie calmness as she delivers the disturbing coup de grace.



Meanwhile, Blomkvist has quickly found himself in over his head, getting shot at from afar and threatening visitors. He and Salander have uncovered something much bigger than they imagined, deadlier the deeper they get. Someone wants them to let bygones be bygones. Someone thinks that they were getting along just fine in their quaint, picturesque Swedish seaside town before they stuck their chiseled jaw lines and pierced noses into their business. Someone wants them to get dead in a hurry.



From the get-go, Fincher creates a mood and an atmosphere that is equal parts fluorescent lights and black leather as it is dreary skies and black peacoats. The opening credits, to a Karen O cover of "Immigrant Song", pulse with industrial drums and show faces flexing out of melted black rubber. The flashback scenes showing the day of Harriet's disappearance bring a vibrant, old-timey kodak color to a town that has been under a cloud ever since. There are some grimy moments, but don't look away if you can help it, because they are handled masterfully. And save a few little chunks of sluggish exposition, the two and 40 minute run time sounds a lot more daunting then it is. Fincher brings lots of flair and excitement to a murder mystery that, without the Salander character and the set in Sweden thing, is standard fare for the genre.

#8 Moneyball

 

Right before I left to teach in Tanzania for two months, I finished reading the Michael Lewis book that film is based upon. Even I as a self-proclaimed baseball nerd had absolutely no idea how they would pull this off as a movie. Enter the King Midas team of screenplays, Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian. Sure, you owe plenty of this film's success to Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill and director Bennett Miller, but Sorkin, who turned a story about the Facebook lawsuit into provocative cinema, proved to once again be the man for the job.

I remember the Oakland A's of the early 2000s as constantly being a force to be reckoned with. They had incredibly good starting pitching, and their hitters, despite lacking a true superstar after Jason Giambi bolted for the New York Yankees, managed to wreak havoc. Their secret? A baseball mind named Peter Brand (Jonah Hill, whose character from the book is re-named), a student of stats guru Bill James and sabermetrics. Unlike typical baseball statistics, sabermetrics is focused on creating runs and creating wins, so it favors players who have a high on-base percentage (i.e., take walks) rather than people who hit a lot of home runs but strike out as a result.

Fascinating stuff, I know.

Oakland A's general manager and ex big-leaguer Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), who oozes overconfidence and bravado in every step and chew of his tobacco, recruits the unappreciated Brand after he helps the Cleveland Indians reject a trade with the A's. Mostly, he wants to know what Brand knows that everyone else doesn't. His Oakland squad finished strong the season before, but that was with slugger and MVP Jason Giambi in the lineup. With a payroll the size of a circus peanut, how are they going to replace his production? Scott Hatterberg, that's how. Hatterberg, played by Parks and Recreation's Chris Pratt, brings a little rube charm to the role, surprised to learn that he is even being coveted at all. To the dismay of Beane's scouts, the team roster begins to get stacked with cheap players that aren't flashy in the least, but get on base and manufacture runs, which in turn manufacture wins. Billy spars throughout with team manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), whose ego is as big as the gut tucked into his starched white uniform. Beane forces Hatterberg and the rest of the lovable losers on Howe, leading him to bench sluggers like Carlos Pena (who, to be fair still hits around .200 every season). It's not pretty at first. They lose some games, lack morale and watch the angry and passionate Beane throw things all over the locker room. Before long the experiment begins to work, and the Oakland A's rattle off 20 straight wins and rumble towards the playoffs.

More than anything, Moneyball is about winning at the least possible costs because you have no choicePitt settles into the Beane role extremely well. He's nervous energy, quick anger, potent charm, and, in moments of solitude, quiet vulnerability. While he tries his best to spoil his daughter, he lives with the scars left by his failed marriage (he still wears his wedding ring) and his failed career as a ballplayer. The underdog A's and their strange path into the history books are easy to root for. So are Pitt, Hill (more subtle than he has ever been), Seymour-Hoffman,Pratt and yes, math too.

2011 Films: #10

#10 Beginners

Beginners, in the context of the Mike Mills film, refers to starting anew; the thought that all of us, even at age 75, are still learning. For Mills, the piece is very autobiographical. After his mother passed away, his father came out of the closet as an elderly man and started a homosexual lifestyle. Same goes for Oliver (Ewan McGregor), who during one funny exchange, informs his father Hal (Christopher Plummer) that the kind of music he has just heard at a dance club is called "house". Hal holds the phone to his ear and takes notes on this.

Beginners actually begins after Hal has passed away. Oliver, dealing with the estate and the possessions, takes in Hal's Jack Russell terrier Arthur (played with vigor by Cosmo) and gives him a tour of the apartment. Arthur talks throughout the movie in subtitles and is often comic relief. After Oliver meets Anna (Inglorious Basterds' Melanie Laurent) and he is at a loss for words, Arthur says to him "Tell her the darkness is about to drown us unless something dramatic happens right now." Oliver and Anna's beginning is about as meet-cute as it can possibly get (a little much for me, but nice enough) in that she has just lost her voice, so she can only nod, smile and write messages. During the ride home, she points for him to turn right and he drives on the sidewalk. The narrative structure jumps between the present as his relationship with Anna begins to develop, and the past, which showcases the vibrant lifestyle Hal had always wanted but was too afraid to let play out. Even up to his death, he appears happier than he had ever been to his only son.

Speaking of narrative, the narration aspect of Beginners is far and away its strongest and most unique storytelling device. The film takes place in 2003, and Oliver's voice over brings us up to speed with the help of photo slides. Example: "This is what the stars look like in 2003 (a photo of the galaxy). And the President (a photo of George Bush). Here is what kissing looked like in the year 2003 (a photo of people kissing)." You get the idea. It sounds a little condescending as I'm writing it out, but the way that feels as your watching it is not that way in the least, and it hooks you in from the get-go. Mills also utilizes the effect with footage instead of pictures. "This is what it looked like when my father told me he was gay," Oliver says in voiceover as Hal, sitting on a couch in a sweater and ascot says "I'm gay."

Ewan McGregor is dynamite in the part of Oliver, a heart-on-his-sleeve type who supports, never questions, his father's strange admission. Melanie Laurent comes across a little pretentious, but maybe that's just because of the French accent, and Goran Visnjic as Hal's lover Andy is a pleasant counterpart. But this is Christopher Plummer's supporting actor statue to lose, and he'll win much in the same way that Jack Palance won for City Slickers in '91--an older gentleman who had never previously won an Oscar and was very effective in limited screen time. He's definitely fun to watch and truly does give the viewer the impression that for the first time in his life, he's having a blast being alive.

2011 Films: #11 & #11 (tie)

(Author's note: This next review is longer than usual because I used to be buddies with the filmmaker in high school. I happened to like it a lot, and it deserves to have more people know about it. I think if you're up for a little bit of craziness and originality, you should go see it.)

#11 Bellflower

You may have noticed that as a "reviewer", I sometimes err towards giving a movie more props than I maybe should based upon originality. The Guard, for example, is like plenty of other crime capers, except that Brendan Gleeson's performance makes something formulaic seem completely new. Bridesmaids certainly isn't the funniest film I have ever seen, but the fact that it's a raucous and gross and over the top and performed as such by six women impressed me. That was an original concept. And though it is twisted, a little self-serving, and at times even sloppy, so is love, and I have not seen a movie or love story this year that is as bravely and outrageously original as Bellflower.


Writer/director/star/camera builder/flamethrower building/car assembler/walking leatherman Evan Glodell and I spent a couple years running in the same circles during high school--not best friends, but always friendly. I remember Evan being spastic, entertaining and talking about 35 miles a minute. Walking across a pit of hot coals was par for the course among he and his crew. In interviews leading up to and following the Sundance 2011 success of Bellflower, the fast-talking and excitable personality was on full display. The film--despite moments of batshit insanity--came across as pretty together.

So what the hell is Bellflower about, exactly? At its core, Woodrow (Glodell) and Aidan (Tyler Dawson) are best friends that have formed a gang called Mother Medusa, whose responsibilities include building flamethrowers (the flamethrowers are 100% real, 100% built by Glodell, and 100% ruling class), assembling firebreathing muscle cars, and readying themselves for the end of the world. Do they have jobs? Who cares? Who needs jobs when you're preparing for the apocalypse?

One night at some dingy L.A. (Bellflower is a street in Los Angeles) dive bar, Woodrow and Aidan are throwing back beers and getting into some light debauchery when Woodrow lays eyes on Millie (Jesse Wiseman). He's smitten. He'll do anything to have a chance with her, including eating a whole bunch of crickets in a cricket-eating competition; this ain't your average romantic comedy. Their attraction is immediate. To keep the unorthodox vibe alive, she asks to be taken to the filthiest restaurant that he can think of, and this restaurant happens to be in Texas. In the ensuing road trip (featuring a whiskey-dispenser on the dashboard), they fall in love.

Woodrow soon comes to realize that love is kind of a tricky thing. Just as his relationship with Millie hits a decline and his relationship with the Mother Medusa "gang" starts to become strained, he sustains a head injury (won't tell you how or why) and suddenly his world becomes more dark, more unforgiving. From there until the explosive (see what I did right there?) ending, the line gets hazy between friend and foe, and more importantly, between reality and imagination. Bright sunshine love story/bromance becomes black revenge tale, and with a flamethrower and a fire-spewing muscle car at Woodrow's disposal, it does so in a hurry.

With a budget of just under $20,000, Bellflower certainly had its imperfections. While Glodell did a great job portraying a character who was equal parts affable and breakable and Dawson, as his Mother Medusa sidekick, was also good especially in their plotting and building dialogues, the rest of the gang was just okay, including Wiseman, other auxiliary love interest Courtney (Rebekah Brandes), and seedy friend/neighbor Mike (producer and past collaborator Vincent Grashaw). One reviewer said the entire movie's dialogue felt like it was spoken in "air quotes", and while I do disagree, there were a couple moments in the script that seemed almost Juno-esque in their deliberate coolness. Finally, with how stunning of a film Bellflower was visually (more on that momentarily), the sound mixing, especially in the dialogue scenes, could not quite keep up. Though the movie's score was pretty cool.

Nit-picking aside, I again bring up the budget of just under $20,000. Bellflower was, all in all, damn impressive to me. When you're working with a budget constraint like that, you don't have a whole lot of leeway to mess up the stunts/explosions, or a whole lot of film to keep re-shooting rough dialogue takes. Michael Bay gets hundreds of millions to blow stuff up, and his movies don't come close to the powerful nature of this one. The thing that stuck out the most to me about Bellflower was how it looked. Glodell built his own cameras out of various components of multiple cameras, and along with cinematographer Joel Hodge, created a blurry, washed out, bright hungover Sunday aesthetic. There are plenty of shots in films that feature our main subject in focus and the things behind him/her looking softer, but the way these cameras are put together, the focus is sharper and the blurry is blurrier. The way it is shot thus helps the audience get into the confused, warped, dizziness of Woodrow's Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Bellflower is all at once funny, quirky, terrifying, nauseating, anxious, slowed-down, sped-up. For a while there, it gets really tense, like Black Swan tense. But that's okay, because to me, if a filmmaker can create such a vivid emotional response--even if it's a jarring one--then they are on the right track. If Glodell and company can do all this with so little, I can't wait to see what they can do with more.


#11 Crazy, Stupid, Love.

While Bellflower appeals to the machismo and cynicism in me, Crazy, Stupid, Love hits the sappy guy in me right in the nuts. Steve Carrell has made a career out of playing the kind-hearted but aloof guy who receives help, advice or circumstances that allow him to drop the nice guy act and become more badass. That's sort of Steve Carrell's thing.

In CSL, this situation manifests itself in Cal, a doting straight-and narrow husband who ends up dumped at a fancy dinner by his wife Emily (Julianne Moore), and later in the car, she drives the nail in further by telling him she has slept with somebody else. That somebody else? Her boss, David Lindhaagen (none other than Kevin Bacon). Not knowing how to deal with the news, he rolls out of a moving vehicle, gets back into the moving vehicle, tells the kids and the babysitter that mom wants a divorce, and then makes his way to a fancy hotel bar, where he proceeds to take down vodka cranberry after vodka cranberry and repeatedly slur and curse the name "David Lindhaagen". "I'm a cuckold," he shouts. "David Lindhaagen cuckolded me." The shouting draws the attention of local Lothario Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), and out of charity mixed with a little bit of the constant opportunities to hear himself talk, decides to take Cal under his wing. Shortly after telling Cal that the straw he's using is too phallic (in so many words), he tells him "I'm going to help you rediscover your manhood," and then proceeds to walk out with a model-looking chick.

Throughout Cal's journey of trying to win back his wife, we spend time with his son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) who is in love with his babysitter Jessica (Annaleigh Tipton) who is turn in love with a much older man; Kate (Marisa Tomei), the first woman Cal picks up with the help of Jacob; and Hannah, a young law student who slowly gets into Jacob's head and makes him re-think his womanizing ways. The scenes between Gosling and Carrell are nothing short of stupendous, and the way their upping-the-status-quo montages characterize how different they are is one of the movie's best techniques. There are a couple of interesting and entertaining plot twists, not to mention some cool visual tricks; in the very beginning, the camera pans under the tables at the fancy restaurant to show sets of fancy shoes playing footsie before stopping on Cal and Emily's table, where Cal's New Balance sneakers rest a few feet apart from his wife's high heels. Why this one worked for me over a lot of other romantic comedies is because instead of being sappy and sentimental (okay, maybe a little) it was mostly just sincere.

2011 Films: #13

#13  50/50


Perhaps in a different year--and I didn't yet see Tinker Tailor, but Gary Oldman of course deserves to finally get a nod--Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be deserving of best actor recognition for his work in 50/50. I was happy to see the Golden Globes nominated him, because J.G-L seems to constantly turn in great efforts, whether it's lead spots like Hesher, Brick and (500) Days of Summer or in supporting roles like last year's stunning Inception. I guess that when I watched "3rd Rock from the Sun" as a kid, I didn't expect any fictional relative of French Stewart to end up anything other than Hollywood blacklisted.

50/50, like any decent movie dealing with disease, is unflinching in its portrayal of its protagonist. In this case, when Adam (Gordon-Levitt) learns of his diagnosis, the doctor's words become distant and distorted, and a high-pitched nonthingness takes over in his ears. This is almost exactly how it plays out when Walter White (Bryan Cranston) finds out he has cancer in the superb Breaking Bad; this reaction is how I have always imagined it, the body doing anything and everything to block out what it has just heard. Adam is only 27, and is given a 50% chance of survival. It's a good thing he has Kyle (Seth Rogen), his horn-dog party guy best friend to tell him things like "If you were a casino game, you'd have the best odds," and "Young people beat cancer all the time. Lance Armstrong? He keeps getting it." Kyle despises Adam's girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) and will do anything to get her out of the picture, and Adam's mother Diane (Angelica Huston) will do anything to put herself into the picture, including trying to move in with him. As part of his treatment, Adam has to meet with young therapist Katherine (Up in the Air's Anna Kendrick), who he does his best to not take seriously.

The Kubler-Ross cycle, better known as the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) has almost never been shown in a more accurate fashion, particularly the denial piece. Adam spends the majority of the first half of the movie smiling calmly rather than facing his condition head on. If he ignores it, he thinks, then it's not there. But when things start to turn in his personal life, he goes all Will Hunting and begins to let his therapist in, and just like that, the zen is gone: "That's what everyone has been telling me since the beginning. 'Oh, you're gonna be okay,' and 'Oh, everything's fine,' and like, it's not...it makes it worse that no one will just come out and say it, like 'hey man, you're gonna die.'" 50/50, as you may already know, is written by Seth Rogen's real life best friend Will Reiser, who fought against and ultimately beat cancer at a very young age. Therefore, Rogen understands the material and runs with it, making for a balls-to-the-wall sidekick who both wants to help his best friend and wants to exploit the situation for chicks. Kendrick, Howard and Huston all feel realistic (especially Huston, whose performance reminded me of exactly how my mother would react to news like that), but none are more dialed in than Gordon-Levitt. It's not an easy character arc to take on, and he does so with ease, bringing humor, passion and hubris to a touchy situation.

2011 Films: #14 & 13

#14 Bridesmaids


"And...I'm sh**ting in the street."

As said by Lilly (Maya Rudolph) the bride-to-be, who has just scatted herself in her super expensive wedding dress, all thanks to maid of honor Annie (Kristin Wiig), who chose a Brazilian steakhouse for the girls to lunch at right before the dress fitting. This scene, in many ways, sums up Bridesmaids--a comedy meant for women that is not afraid to err on the side of gross-out humor and dude-like tendencies.

After Lillian gets question-popped, she immediately thinks to ask her best friend from childhood to be the maid of honor. Lillian has found love and success in Chicago, while back in Milwaukee, Annie has fallen apart. The bakery she opened ran itself into the ground, she lost all of her money and her long-term boyfriend, she lives with a strange British guy and his freeloading sister, she has a mediocre at best sex-buddy relationship with Ted (Mad Men's Jon Hamm), and she sells engagement rings for a living. She drives her clunker down to Lillian's house for the engagement party where she meets the rest of the gang: Helen (Rose Byrne), the snobbish wife of Lillian's fiancee's boss; Becca (Ellie Klemper from The Office), all naivete and bubbles; cousin Rita (Wendi McCloven-Covey), looking for any excuse to break away from her housewife life; and of course the fiancee's sister Megan (Oscar nominated Melissa McCarthy), who brings much of the film's charm and raunchiness. It becomes clear via a painfully hysterical toast to the bride-to-be that Annie is going to be in direct competition with Lillian's new best friend Helen, whether she likes it or not.

Whether it's who can be most scandalous, who can be drunkest, who can be better friend or who can make the biggest splash, all of the girls make it their goals to one-up each other. The envelope-pushing often works the audience towards uncomfortable hysterics. All six of the gals bring the A-game and form a solid group dynamic. Wiig shines especially, even at her lowest points, and there are plenty. Sometimes the Annie ennui gets to drag, and my usual complaint about Judd Apatow flicks--they're always 25 minutes too long--is as present as ever. But props to Wiig and her writing partner Annie Mumolo in their going for broke to make a comedy unlike any other this year.

2011 Films: #17-15

And now, 2011's three best films for youngsters, back-to-back-to-back.

#17 The Muppets


I had a friend who used the descriptor "delightful" for the Muppet reboot, and I think that is spot-on. The plot is simple yet effective: Gary (Jason Segel) is a human and somehow his biological brother Walter (voiced by Peter Linz) is a puppet. Gary and girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) plan a trip to L.A. and Walter tags along so that he can go to world famous Muppet studios. They arrive to find the shoddy, broken down studios virtually empty and after Walter accidentally stumbles into Kermit's "office", he overhears a plot by the evil oil tycoon Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to tear down Muppet Studios and drill for oil. Mary, Gary and Walter then work to reunite the whole gang for a benefit show to stop Richman and save their studio. All of the favorites come together-Kermit, who is living a lonely Hollywood life; Gonzo, running a plumbing company; Fozzie, playing in a Muppets tribute band; Animal, taking anger management courses; and Ms. Piggy, the Devil in Prada, running a fashion mag in Paris. The celebrity cameos come fast and furious (Rashida Jones, Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Zach Galifinakis, Donald Glover, Jim Parsons, Whoopi Goldberg, Feist, Dave Grohl, Alan Arkin, Neil Patrick Harris), and the fantastic "Man or Muppet" is one of only two (really? Nine best picture nominees and two songs?) Oscar-nominated tunes. It's joyous, and definitely does justice to the beloved franchise. See it.

#16 Hugo


Martin Scorsese, yes he of Casino, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver and The Departed, has put together a pretty great kid's movie in Hugo. Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is orphaned after his father (Jude Law) dies in a fire, and he is tasked with keeping all of the clocks in a Paris train station running. He has a bedroom up within the clock tower walls and avoids getting caught by the snide station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen), who believes Hugo's uncle is still manning the timepieces. Early on, Hugo gets into a spat with a store clerk (Ben Kingsley) who believes he has been stealing, and in turn, takes Hugo's sketchbook. It turns out that within the sketchbook are designs for an automaton that he and his father were working on rebuilding. There's some weird connection between the shopkeeper and the automaton, and with the help of his granddaughter (Chloe Grace Moretz), Hugo is going to find out what exactly that weird connection entails. The story of Hugo is cool (though it is slowed by a couple of dumb subplots), but where it really shines is in its visual effects. As a live-action 3D film, it brings 1930s Paris to life in a breathtaking fashion, and as an ode to the cinema of old, it pays perfect homage. Just don't expect any DeNiro or guns.

#15 The Adventures of Tintin


Not everyone liked this one, but I am admittedly biased. When I was a youngster, I would check out the Tintin comics two at a time from the downtown branch of the Madison Public Library. Sometimes, if my folks were taking a while in their endeavors, I would sit in the lounge of the children's section and just read them there. I read each of the 22 or so Tintin comics at least twice, so for those of you who are unfamiliar, allow me to bring you up to speed: Tintin is a Belgian reporter-probably late teens or early 20s-who goes on worldwide adventures. His known allies include Snowy the dog, Thompson and Thomson, who are idiotic twin detectives, professor Calculus, and Captain Haddock, a whiskey drinking retired ship captain. This particular Tintin adventure is based on the comic "The Secret of the Unicorn", which finds Tintin buying an old model ship that leads him into danger and eventually introduces him to Haddock for the very first time. The Tintin comics were always appealing to me because of the adventure, the wit, and Haddock's insults ("trogolodyte", for example), and Spielberg and Peter Jackson do well by the comics. The strange combination of motion capture and animation takes a little getting used to, but it works well in the many film's action sequences. The cast (Jamie Bell as Tintin, Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock, Daniel Craig as the main villain) does a nice job as well, and thus begins the first of hopefully many cinematic adventures for our trench-coated, blue sweater/collared shirt, Richie-rich cowlick-ed reporter.

2011 Film: #18

#18 Midnight in Paris 


Face it, Allenophiles--Woody will never again approach the hot streak he put together throughout the 1970s. The thing about being arguably the game's longest-running auteur is that sometimes the material feels re-treaded upon. You can basically guarantee that after the Woody Allen playbill font and jazzy score plays us through the credits, our story will inevitably feature either "neurotic Jewish man monologue/aside" (Larry David in Whatever Works, Allen in Annie Hall), "deep-voiced omniscient narration" (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) or "Woody Allen character displaying his wittiness to others" (Midnight in Paris, just about everything else). The other thing is that no matter how many Woody Allens (i.e. Woody Allen speaking through lead actors) there are (Jason Biggs, Larry David, Owen Wilson), none of them are Woody Allen. They can imitate, but they can't quite nail it. His past decade has been streaky as hell, from the pretty good (Vicky Cristina, Match Point) to the not very good at all (Whatever Works, Melinda and Melinda), so it almost feels like the buzz surrounding Midnight  is sort of an Oscar sweetheart getting a nod because it's his first consistently well-received--and most lighthearted/appealing to the voters--movie in a long time.

Despite being the WASPiest Allen surrogate to date, Owen Wilson is the reason that this movie has charm. He's Gil, a hollywood writer turned novelist who, unlike his tremendous bitch fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams), finds inspiration in the streets, rather than the upscale fashion, of Paris. Gil and Inez are tagging along on a business trip with her parents, and Gil of course wastes little time in eschewing their conservative politics--it is a Woody Allen screenplay, after all. After running into him and girlfriend at the restaurant, Inez becomes more interested in the pompous intellectual offerings of her old professor friend Paul (Michael Sheen, rocking an American accent decently well). After listening to Paul destroy a museum guide at the Rodin Gardens (French first lady Carla Bruni, meh as an actress) and wax pedantic on different kinds of wine tannins, Gil has had enough. He declines an invite to go dancing and goes for a night stroll instead. On an empty street corner, the church bells strike twelve and a Model-T looking car rolls up. Without a second thought, Gil hops in and Midnight in Paris officially begins. When his feet next touch down on the cobblestone, he is in the golden era, shaking hands with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Picasso and his mistress Adriana (Marion Cotillard). Much to his dismay, he finds himself back in 2010 a few hours later. Gil goes onto create every excuse imaginable to avoid the present and get back to having a blast in the past-if he can find it again, that is.

Midnight is a fun movie, a lot of which is due to Owen Wilson choosing to play Gil like a wide-eyed kid in an old time candy store. Every time he turns a corner and realizes who he is meeting, his face lights up with joy: "You're Ernest Hemingway!" "Salvador Dali? The Salvador Dali?" "500 francs for a Matisse? Can I pick up 6 or 7?" The actors playing the dead socialite artists are very hit or miss, but the ones who are hit (Corey Stoll as gun enthusiast drunk Hemingway, Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein) add feel to the film. Ditto for Sheen and the asshole parents (dad is Kurt Fuller, who played Russell in Wayne's World; party time, excellent) in terms of making the present feel like a nightmare for Gil. One of the problems of the film, though, is that I didn't buy into the Rachel McAdams character in the least, and I had an issue buying into the potential of chemistry between Gil and Cotillard's Adriana. Both of them felt like caricatures to me. At times it felt far too fluffy to be an Allen film. But I liked it, all in all. The script reminds us that there is still a near-80 year old filmmaker who still flaunts liberal ideals and neuroses and forbidden romances. I agree with the sentiment that Midnight could be his finest work in a very long time; unfortunately, that's not saying a whole hell of a lot.

More this evening!

2011 Films: #20 & #19

20 The Debt


Like Spielberg's Munich, The Debt involves IDF (Israel Defense Forces) tasked with a retaliation job. Unlike Munich, it is entirely fictionalized. In the late 1990s, Rachel Singer (The Dame Helen Mirren) is speaking at her daughter's book unveiling, which covers a mission that she undertook in 1966 along with her ex-husband Stephan (Tom Wilkinson) and David (Ciaran Hinds). Rachel and Stephan show up at the unveiling to much applause and reverence; David does not. That's because David has just been flattened by a giant truck.

Rachel and Stephan thus begin to re-hash why exactly David wanted to kill himself and most of that story unfolds via flashback. "Yep, her again" Jessica Chastain (not that this is a bad thing) plays 1966 Rachel, with Sam "Man on Ledge" Worthington as David and Marton Csokas as Stephan. As Mossad agents, their mission is to bring down a Nazi war criminal nicknamed "the Surgeon" who is in hiding out in Berlin. Whether or not they fully accomplish their mission becomes the film's central question, and how that question affects their 1997 lives is also incredibly provocative. Joe Maddon (Shakespeare in Love, Proof) directs, and the way that the film jumps back and forth in time is both effective and easy to follow. The film's weakness is that it hits a decently long lull in the middle that involves the mission, and that the mission itself is less exciting than everything else. But everyone performs well--the 1966 trio pulls off a pretty strange love triangle--and the way that the past interacts with the present is evident in the emotions and worn-out faces of Wilkinson and Mirren. Here, they can't escape the past until they fix the present.


#19 The Guard



When I was a kid, my father wrote and directed a play called "Bon Voyage Brendan" about Ireland's famed explorer, saint Brendan. It was performed later on at Mikeaukee's Irish Fest, and it was there that my dad met a comedy duo called dD'unbelivables, comprised of Irish funnymen John Kenny and Pat Shortt. A couple years later, we would take a trip to Ireland and stay at Jon Kenny's house and hang out with both of said Unbelievables. About 2/3s into the Guard, this fella shows up wearing a cowboy hat and possessing a trunk full o' guns. All these years later, I recognized the Irish cowboy as our old pal Pat Shortt. This wasn't the first time my family had crossed paths with stars-my mom acted with Gary Sinese in high school and her friend Jeff Perry was both Angela Chase's teacher on My So Called Life and shot to death by Sawyer on LOST-but it was just one of the many pleasant surprises in The Guard.

The Guard (police in Ireland are known as Gardai, which is shorthand Gaelic for "Guardians of the Peace of Ireland")  stars Brendan Gleeson as a swilling, whoring and absolutely hysterical small-town Irish cop named Gerry Boyle. A couple of uncharacteristic murders stir things up in his neck of the woods, and shortly after he begins investigating them, Agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) shows up as part of a FBI task force that cries foul of international drug trafficking. And yes, he gets paired with the uncouth and racist Boyle to help take the smugglers down. There is a bit of the buddy-cop Gibson/Glover format in place here, but the outrageous performance of Gleeson stops it from ever reaching stale territory. The Guard is the first directorial offering from John Michael McDonagh, who is the brother of famous Irish playwright Martin McDonagh (In Bruges) and it is a very impressive debut. Sure, the small-town murder drug-corruption piece has been done before, as have the witty and verbose criminals. But in Gleeson's Boyle, we get a truly unique and amazingly loutish outlook. Rent this one. Laugh hard at Irish one-liners. Repeat.

2011 Films: #22 & 21

#22 The Ides of March


One of the things Ryan Gosling seems to get better than just about anyone in Hollywood right now is the notion of mystique. As campaign staffer Stephen Meyers, he is the kind of person that stays in poker face mode at all times, despite his somewhat obvious motives of rising to the top of the political heap. In comparison to his counterparts, though, he still shows flashes of idealism. The benefactor of his toils is  Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney), all well-coiffed, slicked-back charm. As the movie begins, Morris seems to be the favorite in the Ohio Democratic primary, which as we all know from elections past is a hugely important state that often is decisive and swings momentum towards its winner. Meyers' boss is Paul Zara (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a competitive type whose cynicism is only matched by his wits. Following a debate between Morris and his challenger, the opposing campaign manager Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) mentions a play to try and steal Meyers away from Zara and the Morris campaign. As Zara sputters and curses under his breath, Meyers appears a little intrigued by the offer. When Meyers begins to spend time with young intern Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood) though, he uncovers some harsh truths and learns just how dirty politics can be (duh). Suddenly, he has a choice to make--does he keep things copacetic, or does he take his knowledge and use it as a springboard to relevance?

The movie functions as a pretty interesting character portrait of a young man coming to terms with reality, and feels feasible as a study of the cutthroat nature of American politics. George Clooney, who wrote and directed the film, understands that in order to win in America, you have to meet in the middle both morally and politically. Any time that Meyers recommends Morris to lean left, he pushes towards the center. Gosling and Clooney both turn in great performances as expected. While the ensemble cast is good, PSH is underutilized, and Marisa Tomei (as an obnoxious reporter) and Evan Rachel Wood are limited by the fact that they are women in a game that has always seemed to be for men. I found that aspect of the story to be a little shortsighted in its scope, and I also found that Meyers' path seemed a little too unobstructed. Nonetheless, The Ides of March proved to be a believable story in blemished and downright nasty culture.

#21 The Help


From the second this beast came steamrolling out of the Hollywood studio circuit and cultivating buzz, I thought "Oscar bait". I mean, just look at the story--starry-eyed college grad Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), looking for a big scoop to bolster her writing, decides to buck her high society upbringing and create a tell-all book about African-American maids and their hardships in the 1960s Jim-Crow south. I mean, come on. It practically checks off "uplifting", "underdog story" and "socially relevant" within the first fifteen minutes.

Bait or not, The Help is still a good flick, due almost entirely to its performances. The Help at the story's center is Aibeleen Clark (Viola Davis), Skeeter's neighbor's maid, who is more of a mother to the neighbor's children than their mother is. This, it turns out, is par for the course in the south, where wealthy "stay-at-home" moms are more busy drinking Arnold Palmers and talking shit about those who don't dress the part. None more so than the devilish Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), heading up Home Health Sanitation Initiative, which would basically limit their maids further by creating separate, nastier bathrooms for them to use. One day during a thunderstorm, Minny (Octavia Spencer) refuses to use the outhouse and ends up fired by Holbrook. Skeeter helps Minny find work with the aloof, bubbly Celia (Jessica Chastain), but not before Minny extracts revenge on Hilly in the form of a "chocolate" pie. From there, the war wages on and more and more maids sign on to help Skeeter write her book.

Viola Davis should and most likely will take home the Oscar for her role as Aibeleen, a woman who bottles in all of her struggles because she needs the job and because she genuinely loves all of the children she has raised; her worn face and deep eyes reflect a hundred lifetimes. I personally think the snubbed Keira Knightley (A Dangerous Method) should be taking home the gold in the supporting role, but if Spencer wins as the outspoken and often outrageous Minny, it will be deserved. As far as the white girls, I thought all were good and though Chastain got the nod, Howard killed as the villainous and un-redeemable Hilly Holbrook. Yes, the movie does the struggle-to-uplifting bit to death, and it gets its middle-class viewers to go "Well, I'm not racist because I can identify." But all in all it works. Sometimes you feel like leaving the theater with your heart all warm and gooey, and this one fills that niche admirably.

2011 Films: #23

#23 Young Adult


There's a part of me that thinks Diablo Cody has a little bit of the Woody Allen thing going on in that oftentimes the lead character in his films is a projection of himself, or part of himself, anyway. Since Annie Hall, Woody-lite has been played by Jason Bigg, Larry David (equally Jewish and neurotic) and most recently Owen Wilson. That said, Cody herself was not a pregnant teen (Juno) or a possessed cheerleader (Jennifer's Body), but YA feels like it could have a few twinges of autobiography in it.

Like Cody, Charlize Theron's Mavis Gary is a divorced writer living in Minneapolis. She generally smokes and drinks her way to passing out face-first alongside her purse dog. Her most successful venture to date is a young adult book series in the vain of Sweet Valley High. Finding herself unmotivated and ducking deadlines, she returns to her hometown of Mercury, Minnesota for a mini-retreat. Cody's script, like Juno, holds nothing back in waging war on small town Minnesota, but whereas in Juno it was kitsch, here it is just mean-spirited. Much of that comes from Mavis' queen bee outlook; she is less than thrilled to be home. Pounding shots at a local watering hole, she runs into ex-classmate Matt Freehauf (an excellent Patton Oswalt), who walks with a cane due to a high school incident. Since Mavis is still stuck in high school, she blows him off completely at first before realizing she can use his help in achieving her ulterior motive--winning back her high school sweetheart Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson). Never mind that he is married with a child--when you're as important as Mavis Gary is to the Mercury community, you can get whatever you want.

Or so she thinks. Theron is absolutely acerbic and brutal to the point of cringing, but more importantly she makes Mavis' inability to move on from the past feel believable. Patrick Wilson is great as a guy who inadvertently lets his ex in more than he means to, and Elisabeth Reaser is cute to the point of making you want to vomit as his wife; she plays drums in a band of all mothers called Nipple Confusion. And Patton Oswalt's Matt provides the voice of reason and harsh reality to Mavis' delusions and as such, the scenes between Oswalt and Theron are far and away the best. This is the second team-up for Cody and director Jason Reitman, and they again prove formidable, giving the audience a dark and often hilarious look at a woman who doesn't even realize she is unraveling. Even if she does--she's not about to admit it.

Happy Valen times!

2011 Films: #24

#24 Margin Call

In the wee hours of the morning sometime in 2008, Peter Sullivan (Heroes Zachary Quinto, this time sans  Spock ears or the ability to telekinetically cut people's foreheads) takes the USB drive given to him by his fired boss Eric(Stanley Tucci) and opens the report that he had been working on leading up to his termination. What Sullivan discovers is terrifying--the firm is on track to sink big time if their trading continues at its current rate and they will owe much more than they are worth. Yes, this is a dramatization of the hours leading up to the 2008 financial crisis; yes, this takes place at a mortgage securities firm; and yes, by dumbing it down for those of us who know less than nothing about finance, it makes a hard and confusing topic not only understandable, but kind of exciting as well.

From the minute Sullivan figures out the implications, the clock starts ticking to get out fast and save their futures/asses. The news is so huge that it gets all the way to Sullivan's boss's boss's boss's boss in a matter of an hour or less. He calls his buddy Seth (Gossip Girl's Penn Badgley) and his supervisor Will (creepy albino priest vengeful angel Paul Bettany) back in so that they can give him a second opinion. They proceed to hit the panic button and in comes Will's boss Sam (Kevin Spacey) and Sam's boss Jared (Simon Baker) and eventually, via helicopter, everyone's boss John (Jeremy Irons). No one is quite ready to dole out the blame, nor are they ready to give up their Grey Goose and Porsche convertible lifestyles. While Will and the youngsters go off to track down Eric at his Brooklyn home in an attempt to re-hire him, the higher-ups buckle down and try to plot their escape plan. Most conflicted is the veteran Sam, who knows that John and Jared are essentially asking him to put together a fire sale of worthless properties. First-timer J.C. Chandor nails the nuances, partially because his father worked at Merill Lynch for 30 some-odd years. There are some truly amazing shots of New York from their world above the plebes, and while John eats his world-class breakfast just like any other morning, Sarah (Demi Moore) gazes out onto the skyline as if it was a series of giant glass and metal dominoes. The movie falters a little in that it has an emergency board meeting or two too many; it resonates most in the one-on-one conversations. The cast is great (Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons? Come on!) and the dialogue generally flows. Margin Call is interesting, but more than that, it is important. Audiences will feel conflicted. On the one hand, we get a close look at the selfish pricks that allowed this to happen and chucked us into this mess. And on the other hand, we get to see that these selfish pricks are also quite human.

2011 Films: #25

#25 Super 8


In a year of love letters to old cinema (The Artist, Hugo), director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg released Super 8. Unlike the other two, this romanticizes the Kodak Super 8 camera and film technology, released in the late 1960s. Abrams, who also wrote the film, remembers fondly making his very first films on his parents Super 8.  "There's something about looking at analog movies that is infinitely more powerful than digital," he said in an interview leading up to the release of the film. Super 8, in both influence and actual involvement, feels very Spielberg-ian. It's got the "where the hell are the parents?" childhood adventure vibe of the Goonies and the otherworldly obsession of ET/Close Encounters/War of the Worlds. Make no mistake--it's and  Abrams' project, but it has Spielberg all over it.

Super 8 is set in Ohio in 1979 and follows a group of kids trying to make a Super 8 horror film to submit to a film fest in Cleveland. Our main adolescent protagonists are Joe (Joel Courtney), a wide-eyed wanderer with his heart on his sleeve; Charles (Riley Griffiths), the bossy film director; Alice (Elle Fanning), the muse and all-around boyhood crush; and the lovable goofball Cary (Ryan Lee). Joe's mother has just been killed in a crash and his father (Friday Night Lights' Kyle Chandler) is a sheriff who has absolutely no idea how to deal with their mutual grief. Joe, on the other hand, finds a distraction in the form of helping on the film (meant to be a short piece on zombies), and drooling over Alice. The night they go to shoot the movie, they end up capturing a nasty train crash, full of awesome explosions and train cars stacking on train cars. Little do they know, they've uncovered a bizarre army conspiracy.

The movie had some fantastic sequences, and the kids kept up a good and often believable chemistry. The dialogue between them was fun as well, using 70s kids slang like "mint" But when the dust settles on the conspiracy plot, it feels contrived and though its meant to tug at the heartstrings, it ultimately doesn't. Still, a worthwhile flick that fit perfectly into the summer blockbuster genre.

2011 Film: #26

#26 Mission Impossible: "Protocolo Fantasma"


I saw this film while on vacation in Barcelona. There were posters everywhere on the subway with above Spanish title. I made up a chant. It was in the style of a "Let's! Go! Red!" It went like this:

PROTO COLO FANTASMA!
PROTO COLO FANTASMA!
PROTO COLO FANTASMA!

The friends I was staying with awoke to the sounds of this chant in front of their bedroom at around 1:30 pm on New Year's Day. I make an awesome houseguest.

Upon its release and review, Protocolo Fantasma immediately received the "best of the franchise" tag. I am inclined to agree; even with Phillip Seymour Hoffman's star turn as the badass Owen Davian, the JJ Abrams-helmed MI3 is not quite as good as this one. International super agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) starts the film in Moscow prison. When one of their top agents gets axed, the IMF, led by Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Jane Carter (Paula Patton), sets up and springs Ethan from prison in a rather sweet action sequence. From there, the newly formed IMF squad tries to infiltrate the Kremlin (of course) and capture files on code name Colbalt, a would-be nuclear terrorist. A bomb goes off, everything goes to crap, and the trio escapes. They are blamed for the attack and thus have to institute "protocolo fantasma" (ghost protocol), meaning go completely off the grid. They are joined apprehensively by new IMF intelligence agent Brandt (Jeremy Renner) and follow the Cobalt trail to Dubai. MI4:PF is directed by Brad Bird, an animation veteran who directed The Incredibles and Ratatouille and his vision and experience lend themselves well to much of the big, crazy action in Dubai. There are of course plenty of almost-deaths--most notably the incredibly rad running-down-the-skyscraper stunt that Mr. Cruise performed himself--and plenty of IMF gadgets and gizmos that keep them ahead of the game. Dubai is a giant, futuristic city, perfect for an action flick of enormous magnitude. Total escapist fun.

Top 25 coming up soon!

2011 Film: #28 and #27

#28 A Dangerous Method

This is one of those films that proves why I am not quite in "real film critic" territory--one critic in the Twin Cities had it as his #1 of the year. It's a movie I respect the hell out of, absolutely, but it did not do as much as I had hoped for me considering its unquestionable pedigree. Director David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises, the cult favorite Crash) has a flair for the dark and psychological, so the pairing feels wine and cheese-like in how obvious it is. The film follows pyschoanalyst Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender, ubiquitous in 2011) in the very beginning stages of his work, observing and working on a "talking cure" for Sabrina (Keira Knightley) and forming a relationship with eventual mentor Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen in his third team-up with Cronenberg). Sabrina is prone to strange, almost possessed attacks of bad memories, and Knightley--who should have gotten an Oscar nod for this one--physically nails it, shuddering, spittling, and sticking out her lower mandible like an upset orangutan. Sabrina and Jung's relationship becomes dangerously complex in the process, and as a result, Jung seeks the help of Freud in one of the film's many effective voiceover during letter-writing sections. Mortensen is highly entertaining as a booze-swilling, cigar-smoking Freud and eventually becomes interested in helping Sabrina as well, thus leading to a dangerously complex relationship between he and Jung. There are some very well-thought out shots and costumes, but the highlights in this slowish film are the three lead performances, with a great Fassbender rounding out the trio as a man stuck between his feelings and his professional morality.

#27 Rise of the Planet of the Apes

With his work in Apes and Tintin, Andy Serkis has gone on to prove he once again belongs in a category of his own. He is the King Midas of motion-capture technology. In the Lord of the Rings series, he brought pathos to an unlikeable character, and in King Kong, he found a way to humanize the legendary creature. Ditto goes for his performance as Caesar in the Planet of the Apes re-boot. A good friend of mine worked as assistant to director Rupert Wyatt, whose only previous credit for a feature was a crime drama called The Escapist. Here, he helmed a good reimagining of the series, whose previous claim to fame was possibly the best line of all time in Charlton Heston's "Get your stinking paws off of me, you damn dirty ape (recycled in this one, awesome)." James Franco is Will Rodman, a scientist who watches a young ape show remarkable results after receiving a new drug and then go off the wall. This ape's son (Serkis) is hiding in the wings and rather than kill him like his boss has requested, Will brings him home to his father (John Lithgow), who is living with Alzheimer's and takes an immediate shine to the ape, naming him Caesar. Things are copacetic until a neighborhood incident gets the authorities called on Caesar, and he is forced into a primate sanctuary. Caesar struggles to fit in with the established apes and deals with the abusive, idiot sons of the sanctuary owner, especially Dodge (Tom Felton, better known for playing Draco Malfoy). The plans for an uprising begin. The film is a lot of fun to watch, but I can't say enough about Serkis as Caesar. He captures perfectly the confusion, fear and eventual rage that come with adolescence. He makes Caesar relatable, almost human.

2011 Films: #30(35) & 29

This is where it gets a little difficult. Everything from here on out (and to be fair, from about #35 on down), I enjoyed. So it gets a little bit like ranking Starburst flavors-all are delicious, and though strawberry is the inferior of the fruity chewables, I would choose it over, say, a handful of jujubees.

I am going to push this next one back to #35. I swear it will be the last time. So now
#34 Adjustment Bureau
#33 Everything Must Go
#32 A Better Life
#31 In Time
#30 Attack the Block


#35 Hesher


Joseph-Gordon-Levitt is a joy to behold as Hesher (known as Metalhead in Japan), the angry loner with the long hair who works his way into the lives of T.J. (Devin Burchu) and his widower father Paul (Rainn Wilson). All we know about Hesher is that he squats at abandoned house and lives in a van, smokes like a chimney, dislikes wearing shirts and often pants, has given himself several tattoos and is novice pyromaniac. T.J., clearly not dealing well with his grief, throws a rock through the window of a house where Hesher is squatting. Hesher gets pissed, so T.J. lets Hesher crash at their house. Paul is far too catatonic to protest, and his grandmother is far too old to. Hesher, smoking cigarettes, farting, walking around in tighty-whities, brings new life into the house, whether they want him to or not. It's sort of unclear most of the time whether he wants to or not either; there are times when he appears to be looking out for T.J.'s best interests and time where he seems to get off on screwing him over. Natalie Portman (who also produced) plays Nicole, the quirky crush with thick librarian glasses that befriends and comes between the unlikely duo. The movie is worth watching for Gordon-Levitt alone, but it was a little disappointing and a little too deceptively serious. The Portman subplot is predictable and kind of unnecessary, and the supporting cast offers little. Hesher's biggest problem is how uneven it is in tone. It's too serious to be comedy and too outrageous to be taken seriously. When Levitt is at his best though-lighting shit on fire, cursing and mumbling, giving deadpan deliveries-the movies tagline rings hilariously true: "Sometimes life gives you the middle finger, sometimes it gives you Hesher."

#29 Thor 


With the exceptions of Halle Berry's Catwoman, Ben Affleck's Daredevil, and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, superhero movies have been synonymous with box-office and often critical success. Hollywood put together a smart long-term, buzz-creating plan when they created solo films for individual members of the Avengers over the last few years. Iron Man and the Hulk were joined by Captain America (didn't see it) and Thor as members of team Avenger to get their own blockbuster. Thor, helmed by Shakespeare aficionado Kenneth Branagh, was fun and boisterous, full of intergalactic Scandinavian bravado. Chris Hemsworth made for a perfect hero, a walking piece of sheetrock with long blond hair. On the distant planet Asgard, Thor and his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) both are vying to be heir to Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Together, they wage war against the ruthless frost giants. When Thor gets too aggro for his own good, Odin checks him and sends he and Mjolnir (his hammer, duh) rocketing down to earth for a taste of the common life. There, three scientists (Stellan Skarsgaard, Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings) discover him and take him for observation. Thor of course is bent on getting back his hammer and returning via space portal to Asgard to take back the throne from his scheming brother, but best believe there is plenty of ridiculousness (and punching) along the way as he tries to blend into life on earth. Fun stuff.

2011 Films: #32-31

#32 In Time


In the not-so-distant future, time has replaced money as currency. Every human has this rad-looking green digital clock on their wrists that ticks down as their "accounts" get lower and lower. The human model has been genetically enhanced so that no one will age physically past 25. The scientific advances are one part population control and one part social Darwinism. Will, saving all his time to spend on his mother (Olivia Wilde)'s birthday, is out at the bar with his pal (Big Bang's Johnny Galecki) when a man with over a century left on his clock comes in and starts flashing his time carelessly as if it were a Rolex watch. This garners the attention of the timekeepers (cops) fronted by Raymond (Cilian Murphy) and they give chase but Will and the man escape. After he wakes up in the morning, Will realizes the century has been transferred to him (people can share time by pressing wrists together...that could have been better thought-out by the filmmakers) and the man is dead. You guessed it-Will's accused of killing him and goes on the lam, becoming involved eventually with rich prick Phillipe Weis(Mad Men's Vincent Kartheiser) and one of his daughters (Amanda Seyfried). I thought that the concept of In Time put a cool twist on the "clock is ticking" chase/action genre. Things were kind of corny (wrist-sharing, Olivia Wilde as Justin Timberlake's mother, cheesy "that coffee cost me four minutes?" reminders) but also kind of clever (the boomerang sound made when time is passed between people, Kartheiser introducing his wife and daughters who all look exactly the same, the paying out of time to enter wealthier "zones"). Better than you might think.

#31 Attack the Block


You ever notice how every time an alien blockbuster comes out, the CGI aliens always have the same cone-like head, bony composition, E.T. fingers? Not the case in Attack the Block, a strangely fresh and clever take on an alien invasion. First-time director (and British person) Joe Cornish imagines up what an alien attack might look like in East London in a horror/sci-fi/comedy mash-up. We dive right into the action with Moses (John Boyega) and his four teenage friends holding up a nurse (Jodie Whittaker) at knife-point. She gives them her purse and they celebrate in their hybrid cockney Brit ghettospeak ("innit" and "fam" used almost interchangeably) when out of nowhere, a meteor looking thing slams into a car and smashes it to pieces. Out from the wreckage comes a grotesque something or other that looks like a giant white dog with sharp teeth and it slashes Moses across the face. Moses exacts revenge, and he and his cronies carry the thing's carcass around the East End like a giant rotting trophy until they bring it to weed kingpin Ron (Nick Frost) for safekeeping. Before too long, the creature is joined by multiple similar creatures that come careening down to earth, but rather than white, they are covered in black fur and green-glowing sets of fangs. Moses and his crew grab everything they can (samurai sword, knife, bottle rockets and firecrackers) and ready themselves to defend their block. At times a little gory, Attack the Block is more fun than anything else, just as much for trying to decipher the high-wired teenagers and their ghettospeak than it is to watch them in attack mode.

2011 Films: #34-33

#34 Everything Must Go


When Adam Sandler took on and nailed the role of Barry Egan in Punch Drunk Love, it was certainly not the first time a comedian had made the transition to drama, but it was one of the more successful forays in recent history. A few years later, Will Ferrell, known up to this point for only the most physical and high-volume type of comedy, toned it down considerably to play IRS auditor Harold Crick in the very good Stranger than Fiction in 2006. This year, he again went against type in the dramedy Everything Must Go, a film based on the Raymond Chandler short story "Why Don't You Dance?" He plays the part of Nick Halsey, a businessman who finds himself fired due to his alcoholism. He gets home and finds the doors locked, the locks changed, and all of his possessions on the lawn. At first he is resistant--he's pissed off, confused, and in desperate need of beer. With the help of neighborhood kid Kenny (C.J. Wallace, son of the Notorious B.I.G.) and his pregnant neighbor Samantha (The Town's Rebecca Hall), he comes to discover the situation is a blessing in disguise. By putting all of his stuff on sale, he gets the chance to reinvent himself. Ferrell is a delight as always, bringing levity to an otherwise grim situation, and his slowly-accepting character arc is believable especially as his relationships with Kenny and Samantha begin to change. The movie makes you wonder-how do you begin to prioritize your things when you don't know how to prioritize your life?

#33 A Better Life


It was good to see the relatively unknown Demian Bichir receive an Oscar nomination for his work in A Better Life, the latest from director Chris Weitz (About a Boy, American Pie). Bichir is humanity personified as Carlos Galindo, a Mexican-American gardener who sleeps on the couch in a one-bedroom apartment that he shares with his son Luis (Jose' Julian, also impressive). They are scraping by. Luis is missing classes and starting to run with the wrong crowds. Carlos' business partner is heading back to Mexico and wants him to buy him out of the business, thus getting the truck and all of the gardening tools. After borrowing money from his sister, he buys their way towards a better life. Immediately after, while on a tree pruning job, his new co-worker jacks the truck. He gives chase but to no avail. He finds Luis--playing hooky at a friend's house--and they go on a hunt to get the truck back. I had a few problems with the story; I didn't feel the Luis character would be so easily swayed away from the dark side considering what he had been getting into and his contentious relationship with his father. Other things came across as much more realistic. One thing is for sure, though-Demian Bichir is deserving of all the accolades. He spends the movie exhausted yet hopeful, resilient in the face of defeat, cognizant of every reality in his limited life. He only wants the best for his son, and their scenes together, showcasing the inevitable push-pull of single fatherhood and adolescence, are remarkably powerful.

2011 Films:#36 and #35

#36 Cedar Rapids


Straight-laced Tim Lippe of small-town Wisconsin (Ed Helms, erring on the side of Andy Bernard) has never been to a "major metropolis" until his boss sends him to represent the company at a regional insurance convention. Now he's off to majestic Cedar Rapids, Iowa (population-125,000) and all kinds of temptations await him. He wants to keep his word to his boss and stay away from legendary salesman and party hound Dean Ziegler (John C. Reilly), but they end up as hotel roommates. He wants to keep his word and stay true to his "pre-engagement" with his 7th grade teacher Mrs. Vanderhei (Sigourney Weaver), but he finds himself under the spell of insurance dealer Joan Ostrowski-Fox (welcome back, Anne Heche). Isiah Whitlock (Sr. Clay Davis from The Wire? Sheeeeeeeiiit) plays Ronald, the third roommate, who does his best to keep Dean and Joan at bay with by-the-books anecdotes. But before too long, Tim gives way to their outlandish peer pressure and gets in tune with a side of himself he never knew he had. Helms is great as the wide-eyed and conflicted lead. I loved when he arrived in Cedar Rapids and became flabbergasted by the buildings and his rental Chevy Cobalt. I thoroughly enjoyed his sobbing call to his pre-ancee', worried that he would turn into a philanderer. The convention veterans entertain, but none more so than John C. Reilly, who I would watch in every movie, if only it were possible.

#35 The Adjustment Bureau


The members of the Adjustment Bureau can travel through doors. By that I mean they have the power to go in the door of, say, a pet store, and come out on the the 90th floor of the Empire State building. As is often the case with sci-fi, you find yourself more disbelieving of the ordinary story elements than the extraordinary, like how you can be totally okay with a monster made from a pillar of smoke on LOST, but skeptical of the fact that Matthew Fox could wear the same sleeveless tank for a week at a time. Starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt's cleavage, The Adjustment Bureau (based on the Phillip K. Dick short story "The Adjustment Team") follows politician David Norris (Damon) as he prepares a concession speech in a men's room, where Elise (Blunt) is hiding. She tells him to be honest in his speech. They make out. She runs off. He tries the honesty thing. It works and propels his career. Then they meet again on a bus; she gives him her number. He is excited about the number. Walking into work, he encounters men who have frozen his co-workers with some sort of technology and are wiping out memories. This is the Adjustment Bureau. They are an agency tasked with keeping people on their supposed "life paths" without any sort of veering off course. Richardson (Mad Men silverfox John Slattery) and Harry (Anthony Mackie) are the team captains, if you will, and though they represent our antagonists, they are far from sinister. They say he is destined for big things but not if he is dating Emily Blunt. Then we come into classic conflict territory: Love or career? Destiny or pre-determined course? Gray bowler hat or black bowler hat? Despite the hokeyness, I actually kind of liked the film. A friend of mine said the weakness of the movie is essentially that no man in their right mind would consider giving up the possibility of being president for a girl he made out with for thirty seconds in a bathroom. Though Huey Lewis would disagree (awesome "Power of Love"" reference) I tend to side a little bit with my friend, especially finding myself not buying the "wealthy politician rides the bus every day for three years trying to cash in on what could best be described as a craigslist 'missed connection'" plotline. But the acting is there, the use of the doorway portals make for plenty of exciting chase scenes, and you actively want to know how the situation plays out, leading the viewer to almost forget that Emily Blunt is in the same low-cut dress for the last half of the movie. That could never happen!

That'll do it for today. More tomorrow.

2011 Films: Re-Scramble

Even amateur movie geniuses make mistakes sometimes.

Here's what happened. I keep all the movies on a list and cross them out as I go. When I transferred the list to a word document, I missed a few. Thus, I have to re-rank with the three I neglected to review and everything that I have written about previously will get pushed up accordingly.

Here goes.

#50 Take Me Home Tonight


It's 1988. Topher Grace and Anna Faris are academic twin brother and sister (fraternal) who are overqualified for all that they do. Matt (Grace) works at a video store at the local shopping mall and the Oxford-bound Wendy (Faris) dates rich clod Kyle (Parks & Recreation's Chris Pratt). Matt's high school crush Tori (Teresa Palmer) comes into the store and he blows it right around the same time his best friend Barry (Dan Fogler) gets canned from his job. Lucky for them, cinematic magic has provided the two with a chance to get the girl and get back on track respectively, this in the form of a blowout party hosted by Kyle. One of the big draws to his parties is that he has "the ball", a giant American Gladiator-style sphere that immediately ups one's status in the machismo department. Arriving in the party in a car stolen from Barry's dealership, they figure it's time to get busy livin'. The movie is kind of funny--Topher Grace is affable as usual, and the big-boned Fogle is a good counterpart--but it's nothing worth writing home about.


#45 Cowboys and Aliens


One thing I love about Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens is that there is absolutely no pretense. The film is about a bunch of cowboys and a bunch of aliens. We start with Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) waking up in the middle of the desert with a strange futuristic contraption attached to his wrist and no idea what happened to him. He rides a horse to the town over and there clashes with Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), conveniently the son of cattle farm owner Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). Both end up in cuffs and Woodrow, who believes Lonergan's gang robbed him previously, tries to use his sway to spring his son and keep Lonergan chained up. Before this can happen, a giant spacecraft descends on the town and starts stealing people, including Percy and consummate Western hottie Ella (Olivia Wilde). Differences are of course put aside, and with the help of Lonergan's alien laser wrist weapon, they ride off to take down the spacecraft. Craig and Harrison bring their usual acting chops and the rest of the gang is passable. The aliens are of a pretty decent CGI quality, especially their creepy extra set of hands. Watch the movie, for sure--just don't expect anything more than cowboys firing their antiquated guns at futuristic space technology and green slimy bodily fluid occasionally going everywhere.

#42 One Day

This much-maligned film actually came out better than I expected. The premise is that Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Across the Universe's Jim Sturgess) hook up at the end of college and we, the audience, see them each and every year on the same day-July 15th. They make a pact to see each other on that date despite the relationships they form outside of their own. Emma ends up with a fledgling stand-up comic Ian (Rafe Spalls) and Dexter, a host of a terrible MTV style request show, ends up married to fortune, drugs, and a rich spoilbrat named Sylvie (Romola Garai). Eventually their married lives begin to hit the skids, and Emma and Dexter work towards reconnecting. Their chemistry is good--at times it's hard to believe she still cares about him during the early '90s coked-out club era--and of course we as the audience root for it to work out. Just about everybody has the "one that got away"; in this case, the one that got away is always right in front of them. At least once a year it is, anyway.

With the re-working, the new rankings are as follows:

#55 I Don't Know How She Does It
#54 Hall Pass
#53 No Strings Attached
#52 Thirty Minutes or Less
#51 Bad Teacher
#50 Take Me Home Tonight
#49 Unknown
#48 The Lincoln Lawyer
#47 Paul
#46 Cars 2
#45 Cowboys & Aliens
#44 Win Win
#43 X-Men First Class
#42 One Day
#41 Horrible Bosses
#40 War Horse
#39 Limitless
#38 Friends with Benefits
#37 Source Code

Enjoy the Super Bowl. Back with more soon.