There was a crowded field this year, and a fantastic year for movies.
Before I get to my #1 of the year, first here is my list of movies I really wanted to see but didn't get to:
Lee Daniels' The Butler
Blackfish
Only God Forgives
The Act of Killing
Mandela:Long Walk to Freedom
Salinger
Mud
Ender's Game
Out of the Furnace
In a World...
Inside Llewyn Davis
Saving Mr. Banks
Blue is the Warmest Color
Pacific Rim
The World's End
47 Ronin
Short Term 12
Bad Grandpa
Leviathan
Upstream Color
The Great Beauty
Museum Hours
Here is a recap of all the movies I saw this year, worst to first:
Identity Thief
A.C.O.D.
The New Public
The Big Wedding
The Heat
The Internship
Admission
What Maisie Knew
The Bling Ring
We're the Millers
Runner Runner
The to-do List
Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
Best Man Holiday
Star Trek Into Darkness
Much Ado About Nothing
Anchorman 2
Drinking Buddies
Elysium
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me
Despicable Me 2
The Spectacular Now
The Great Gatsby
This is the End
American Hustle
Rush
20 Feet From Stardom
Blue Jasmine
Enough Said
Frances Ha
Nebraska
The Way Way Back
Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Stories We Tell
Don Jon
42
Philomena
About Time
The Place Beyond the Pines
Before Midnight
All is Lost
Gravity
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers' Club
Fruitvale Station
Prisoners
Wolf of Wall Street
12 Years a Slave
And my #1 movie of 2013:
#1 her
In the not too distant future...
(insert high-waisted pants joke here)
In the not too distant future, Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is reeling from a recent break from his wife. He pours his lovesick emoting into personalized e-cards at the company he works for. Then, at the end of every work day, he goes home to his high-rise apartment, plays video games and eats takeout. Occasionally, he kicks it with his upstairs neighbors Amy (Amy Adams) and Charles (Matt Letscher), who are trying to get him back in the game. But Theodore's not really interested in any of that (unless you count dirty phone calls gone horribly and hilariously awry).
One day, he sees an ad for a new Operating System that is "geared to fit your every need". Without anything to lose, he buys it and finds his whole life changing as he falls deeply in love with his OS, named Samantha and voiced with a shocking amount of range by ScarJo. There are lots of subtle tricks and shots that writer/director Spike Jonze employs throughout to take Theodore deeper down the rabbit hole. It's shot beautifully, often from high in the heavens.
Is her a social commentary on America's attachment to their devices, our delving into less actual communication with the advent of self-serve grocery store kiosks and the like, our getting set up with our future partners by computer algorithms? Of course it is. But it doesn't really feel that way. It feels like an oddball love story, and Joaquin Phoenix (also in my #1 of last year, The Master) sells what's considered crazy in society as what could eventually be the new normal. And damn, I really don't know what that says about us.
That'll do it for this year! What an awesome year for movies!
Til next time, amigos-
Mulhern.
title
Sunday, March 2, 2014
2103 Films: #3 and 2
# 3 The Wolf of Wall Street
I was out for a cocktail with a couple of friends after a play last weekend, and one of them said "I'm getting sick of people saying it's just like Goodfellas. That's the whole point Scorcese is trying to make. These guys are the new gangsters!"
Preach. It's got many of the same stylistic touches as Goodfellas: Plenty of cursing (the new record for 'f' bombs with 563), the voiceover narration throughout by DiCaprio, and the quick cut/spinning camera work from shot to shot. But it's not the same film. Leo gives his best performance in years as the cocksure Jordan Belfort, a predator on the rich peddling dummy stocks through pump and dump schemes. His right-hand man Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) engineers the debauchery train as the money piles up in laughable amounts, with wild parties, innumerable hookers, tons of cocaine, booze and drugs. He eventually leaves his wife for the drop-dead gorgeous Naomi (Margot Robbie) and brings her along on his wild ride. Quite obviously, the higher the rise, the harder the fall, and the fall for Belfort begins with a riotous sequence in which he and Azoff are all kinds of high on rare Quaaludes. Considering the weak-ass prison sentence the real Belfort received for his actions, I'm not exactly sure what kind of message it is supposed to convey. Wolf is over three hours, but it's so frenetic that you hardly even notice. I had a blast. Thank goodness for all of us that Marty found Leo.
#2 12 years a Slave
We got to this movie about 3 minutes before it started and the only seats left together for the four of us were in the very front row. What a movie to see in the front row.
The story of free northerner Solomon Northrup (Chiwetel Ejiafor), kidnapped and sold into slavery in the late 1800s, was the bravest thing put on screen this year by a mile. Gravity may have been more innovative, but nothing touched the no-holds-barred look at the worst institution in American history in terms of it just straight-up going for it. While at times it was incredibly hard to watch (there were 3 or 4 times in which the entire audience gasped at the same time), it was also beautifully shot and very moving. The Hans Zimmer score was beautiful too, but I got distracted at times by the fact that it was the exact same main theme used in Inception. Alongside Ejiafor, it boasts the best ensemble cast of the year in Michael K. Williams (a fellow slave), Paul Giamatti (a slave trader), Benedict Cumberbatch (Solomon's first slaveowner, Ford) Paul Dano (a dimwitted slave driver), Michael Fassbender (Solomon's tyrannical, sociopath second slaveowner, Epps) newcomer and best supporting favorite Lupita Nyongo (a fellow slave on Epps' plantation) and Brad Pitt (an abolitionist who, as producer, picked the only redeemable white person role in the bunch). An absolute knockout, in every way. Bravo to director Steve McQueen for taking such a bold shot.
Up soon with #1 and some other stuff!!
I was out for a cocktail with a couple of friends after a play last weekend, and one of them said "I'm getting sick of people saying it's just like Goodfellas. That's the whole point Scorcese is trying to make. These guys are the new gangsters!"
Preach. It's got many of the same stylistic touches as Goodfellas: Plenty of cursing (the new record for 'f' bombs with 563), the voiceover narration throughout by DiCaprio, and the quick cut/spinning camera work from shot to shot. But it's not the same film. Leo gives his best performance in years as the cocksure Jordan Belfort, a predator on the rich peddling dummy stocks through pump and dump schemes. His right-hand man Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) engineers the debauchery train as the money piles up in laughable amounts, with wild parties, innumerable hookers, tons of cocaine, booze and drugs. He eventually leaves his wife for the drop-dead gorgeous Naomi (Margot Robbie) and brings her along on his wild ride. Quite obviously, the higher the rise, the harder the fall, and the fall for Belfort begins with a riotous sequence in which he and Azoff are all kinds of high on rare Quaaludes. Considering the weak-ass prison sentence the real Belfort received for his actions, I'm not exactly sure what kind of message it is supposed to convey. Wolf is over three hours, but it's so frenetic that you hardly even notice. I had a blast. Thank goodness for all of us that Marty found Leo.
#2 12 years a Slave
We got to this movie about 3 minutes before it started and the only seats left together for the four of us were in the very front row. What a movie to see in the front row.
The story of free northerner Solomon Northrup (Chiwetel Ejiafor), kidnapped and sold into slavery in the late 1800s, was the bravest thing put on screen this year by a mile. Gravity may have been more innovative, but nothing touched the no-holds-barred look at the worst institution in American history in terms of it just straight-up going for it. While at times it was incredibly hard to watch (there were 3 or 4 times in which the entire audience gasped at the same time), it was also beautifully shot and very moving. The Hans Zimmer score was beautiful too, but I got distracted at times by the fact that it was the exact same main theme used in Inception. Alongside Ejiafor, it boasts the best ensemble cast of the year in Michael K. Williams (a fellow slave), Paul Giamatti (a slave trader), Benedict Cumberbatch (Solomon's first slaveowner, Ford) Paul Dano (a dimwitted slave driver), Michael Fassbender (Solomon's tyrannical, sociopath second slaveowner, Epps) newcomer and best supporting favorite Lupita Nyongo (a fellow slave on Epps' plantation) and Brad Pitt (an abolitionist who, as producer, picked the only redeemable white person role in the bunch). An absolute knockout, in every way. Bravo to director Steve McQueen for taking such a bold shot.
Up soon with #1 and some other stuff!!
2013 Films: #5 & 4
#5 Fruitvale Station
The most glaring omission in the best actor category is Michael B. Jordan in this true story (lots of those this year) as Oscar Grant, an ex-con trying to reform himself on New Year's Eve in the Bay Area. It isn't ruining anything to tell to you that he's dead by the end; the movie begins with real cell phone footage of real Oscar Grant getting a real gun fired into his back on the platform of Fruitvale Station, a stop along the BART line on the outskirts of Oakland. It's kind of like Milk in that regard--you know exactly how it ends, but you want to see it play out anyway. The story itself is told over about a 48 hour period with a few flashbacks thrown in to fill in the story. The rest of the supporting group is solid, particularly Octavia Spencer as his mother, trying hard to rein in her son and find a way to believe in him as a provider and a father. However, no one matches the gravitas of Jordan as Grant, the man desperate to fix his life before it's too late.
#4 Prisoners
What an intense movie. Holy smokes. Hugh Jackman is Keller Dover, a carpenter who, during a Thanksgiving celebration at the Birch's house (Terrence Howard as Franklin and Viola Davis as Nancy), has his 6-year old (and their 7-year old) kidnapped. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) pulls over a suspicious RV driven by Alex (Paul Dano) and lets him go with a lack of evidence but not without paying a visit to Alex's aunt Holly (Melissa Leo). Keller won't settle for that, so he decides to pay Alex a visit of his own. As the days drag on, things get worse for Alex and Keller, subsequently, drags in Franklin and Nancy into his interrogation sessions. There are red herrings, copycat criminals, twists, turns, tension, the whole schabang. Nerve-wracking and unpredictable, Prisoners had me captivated for all of it's 2.5 hour run time. And that last shot? Unreal.
More soon...
The most glaring omission in the best actor category is Michael B. Jordan in this true story (lots of those this year) as Oscar Grant, an ex-con trying to reform himself on New Year's Eve in the Bay Area. It isn't ruining anything to tell to you that he's dead by the end; the movie begins with real cell phone footage of real Oscar Grant getting a real gun fired into his back on the platform of Fruitvale Station, a stop along the BART line on the outskirts of Oakland. It's kind of like Milk in that regard--you know exactly how it ends, but you want to see it play out anyway. The story itself is told over about a 48 hour period with a few flashbacks thrown in to fill in the story. The rest of the supporting group is solid, particularly Octavia Spencer as his mother, trying hard to rein in her son and find a way to believe in him as a provider and a father. However, no one matches the gravitas of Jordan as Grant, the man desperate to fix his life before it's too late.
#4 Prisoners
What an intense movie. Holy smokes. Hugh Jackman is Keller Dover, a carpenter who, during a Thanksgiving celebration at the Birch's house (Terrence Howard as Franklin and Viola Davis as Nancy), has his 6-year old (and their 7-year old) kidnapped. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) pulls over a suspicious RV driven by Alex (Paul Dano) and lets him go with a lack of evidence but not without paying a visit to Alex's aunt Holly (Melissa Leo). Keller won't settle for that, so he decides to pay Alex a visit of his own. As the days drag on, things get worse for Alex and Keller, subsequently, drags in Franklin and Nancy into his interrogation sessions. There are red herrings, copycat criminals, twists, turns, tension, the whole schabang. Nerve-wracking and unpredictable, Prisoners had me captivated for all of it's 2.5 hour run time. And that last shot? Unreal.
More soon...
2013 Films: #10-6
#10 Before Midnight
The Before... series, considered by some circles as the best trilogy ever, has had the luxury of time to gather a cult following. Between Sunrise (1995), Sunset (2004), and Midnight (2013) were 9 years apiece. The chemistry between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) is indeed still palpable 18 years later, but a lot has changed since that train ride to Vienna. They have twin daughters together, live in Paris, and see Jesse's son Hank only in the summer (he lives with Jesse's ex in Chicago). On holiday in Greece, their friends give them a much needed night of child care as they attempt to rekindle the fire with a hotel room and spa set up. Unfortunately, life weighs on them both, so it's harder than they imagine.
The duo, along with Richard Linklater, created a script that feels improvised but is actually very rehearsed. It never feels forced, and the dialogue is both outstanding and very real. A fantastic performance turned in by both, and fans who are sad to put the trilogy to bed can rest easy that they went out the right way.
#9 All is Lost
"Our man", played courageously by Robert Redford, wakes up in his sailboat looking down at 3 feet of water. He goes out onto the deck and realizes he has collided with a floating shipping container. From there, it's every minute counts as his boat is starting to go down and weather is on its way. With the exception of the narration at the beginning, Redford utters less than 20 words throughout, but his actions and his looks bring everything you need to know to the story. It is a travesty that he did not get nominated for an Oscar considering his age (77) and the fact that it is an incredibly ballsy role to take on. Written and directed by J.C. Chandor (Margin Call), it's a completely original, completely breathtaking movie with a last two minutes that will knock you on your ass.
#8 Gravity
By now you know the drill--it's Sandra Bullock as Ryan Stone, an engineer in space doing everything she possibly can to survive after flying debris collides with her space station. Along for the ride is Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), a veteran astronaut who talks her down from her gasping and grasping in order to get her to safety. The story is thin and the crisis after crisis thing gets a little tiresome, but good lord, is it incredible to look at and to hear. Sandra Bullock was a trooper-reportedly in antigravity sequences suspended for 12-14 hours at a time. Where this movie will suffer is on home televisions, but Mr. Cuaron, the master of the long take (opening sequence was one 13 minute shot), made the kind of movie that makes you need to go to the movies.
#7 Captain Phillips
We here in Minneapolis are rooting hard for Barkhad Abdi, as the ruthless leader of the Somali pirates, to take home the statue for best supporting actor; before his excellent turn in Captain Phillips, he was a limousine driver here in the Twin Cities (and I believe a couple of the other Somalis in the film are Minneapolis raised as well). He deserves it--he was a terrifying villain with nothing to lose. This one was incredibly exciting throughout, and Tom Hanks is, as per usual, amazing as the ice-in-his-veins, quick-thinking boat captain who will do anything he can to get his people to safety, even if it means sacrificing his own.
#6 Dallas Buyer's Club
As we found out via Eddie Murphy's "Delirious" opening and other dated musings from the early to mid 1980s, AIDS was considered entirely a homosexual disease. So when rodeo cowboy Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey) founds out he is HIV positive, his first reaction is "I ain't gay." He sure isn't--he's as hetero as they come--but he's the exact kind of promiscuous party guy whose reckless behavior leads him in that direction. Shortly after his diagnosis, he meets Rayon (a fantastic Jared Leto), a cross-dressing escort who is also living with the disease. In Rayon, he finds a top salesman/woman when they set up a business smuggling and selling experimental HIV drug cocktails. The story is totally true. Sometimes it comes across as formulaic and the ending is abrupt (as if the directors realized they had only 10 minutes left to wrap everything up), but it's a great underdog story and both performances are out of this world good. If Leto and McConaughey both win, it would certainly be deserved.
More to come!
The Before... series, considered by some circles as the best trilogy ever, has had the luxury of time to gather a cult following. Between Sunrise (1995), Sunset (2004), and Midnight (2013) were 9 years apiece. The chemistry between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) is indeed still palpable 18 years later, but a lot has changed since that train ride to Vienna. They have twin daughters together, live in Paris, and see Jesse's son Hank only in the summer (he lives with Jesse's ex in Chicago). On holiday in Greece, their friends give them a much needed night of child care as they attempt to rekindle the fire with a hotel room and spa set up. Unfortunately, life weighs on them both, so it's harder than they imagine.
The duo, along with Richard Linklater, created a script that feels improvised but is actually very rehearsed. It never feels forced, and the dialogue is both outstanding and very real. A fantastic performance turned in by both, and fans who are sad to put the trilogy to bed can rest easy that they went out the right way.
#9 All is Lost
"Our man", played courageously by Robert Redford, wakes up in his sailboat looking down at 3 feet of water. He goes out onto the deck and realizes he has collided with a floating shipping container. From there, it's every minute counts as his boat is starting to go down and weather is on its way. With the exception of the narration at the beginning, Redford utters less than 20 words throughout, but his actions and his looks bring everything you need to know to the story. It is a travesty that he did not get nominated for an Oscar considering his age (77) and the fact that it is an incredibly ballsy role to take on. Written and directed by J.C. Chandor (Margin Call), it's a completely original, completely breathtaking movie with a last two minutes that will knock you on your ass.
#8 Gravity
By now you know the drill--it's Sandra Bullock as Ryan Stone, an engineer in space doing everything she possibly can to survive after flying debris collides with her space station. Along for the ride is Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), a veteran astronaut who talks her down from her gasping and grasping in order to get her to safety. The story is thin and the crisis after crisis thing gets a little tiresome, but good lord, is it incredible to look at and to hear. Sandra Bullock was a trooper-reportedly in antigravity sequences suspended for 12-14 hours at a time. Where this movie will suffer is on home televisions, but Mr. Cuaron, the master of the long take (opening sequence was one 13 minute shot), made the kind of movie that makes you need to go to the movies.
#7 Captain Phillips
We here in Minneapolis are rooting hard for Barkhad Abdi, as the ruthless leader of the Somali pirates, to take home the statue for best supporting actor; before his excellent turn in Captain Phillips, he was a limousine driver here in the Twin Cities (and I believe a couple of the other Somalis in the film are Minneapolis raised as well). He deserves it--he was a terrifying villain with nothing to lose. This one was incredibly exciting throughout, and Tom Hanks is, as per usual, amazing as the ice-in-his-veins, quick-thinking boat captain who will do anything he can to get his people to safety, even if it means sacrificing his own.
#6 Dallas Buyer's Club
As we found out via Eddie Murphy's "Delirious" opening and other dated musings from the early to mid 1980s, AIDS was considered entirely a homosexual disease. So when rodeo cowboy Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey) founds out he is HIV positive, his first reaction is "I ain't gay." He sure isn't--he's as hetero as they come--but he's the exact kind of promiscuous party guy whose reckless behavior leads him in that direction. Shortly after his diagnosis, he meets Rayon (a fantastic Jared Leto), a cross-dressing escort who is also living with the disease. In Rayon, he finds a top salesman/woman when they set up a business smuggling and selling experimental HIV drug cocktails. The story is totally true. Sometimes it comes across as formulaic and the ending is abrupt (as if the directors realized they had only 10 minutes left to wrap everything up), but it's a great underdog story and both performances are out of this world good. If Leto and McConaughey both win, it would certainly be deserved.
More to come!
2013 Films: #12-11
#12 About Time
Expectations were blown completely out of the water with this one. I thought I'd be getting traditional rom-com sludge, but this one was much more layered than that. The premise itself is where you as the viewer has to suspend your disbelief: Tim (Dubliner Domnhall Gleeson, best known previously as the eldest Weasley brother, Bill) is a young man when his father, played the always dependable Bill Nighy, pulls him into his study and tells him that all men in the family have the ability to time travel. To do so, they must go into a small, enclosed dark place, like a closet, close their eyes tight and imagine the place and time. I realize how stupid that sounds after writing it, but sometimes you just have to go with it. I mean, the beloved LOST had a principal character that was a pillar of smoke, did it not?
Early on in the movie, Charlotte (Margot Robbie), a friend of Tim's sister, comes to live at there house for the summer. He falls for her, hard, and uses his time traveling ability to go back, sometimes even minutes at a time, to fix something stupid he said or did. Eventually he comes to realize that no matter how many times this scenario plays out, she won't go for him. But soon after, he and his mate go to a London restaurant whose whole schtick is that you are paired with blind dates of the opposite sex while the lights are off (continue to suspend your disbelief, people!). There, he meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), and they hit it off. He gets her number at the end of the night. When his playwright roommate gets a lackluster review, he goes back to make the actor not screw up his lines. And lo and behold, when he goes to check for her number, it's no longer there.
From there, the movie focuses on how he can find her and win her back, using his ability. But it's also largely about his relationship with his father. When something happens to the father (won't tell you), Tim has to figure out what his ability is really for. I unabashedly really liked this movie, and I think you will too.
#11 The Place Beyond the Pines
Early in '13, I was wanting to see this movie and then came across this marquee:
And I knew I had to go.
We are a couple of years removed from 2011, the Y.O.G. (Ides of March, Crazy Stupid Love, Drive), but there is still a certain national obsession with the mysterious Mr. Gosling. He stars as Luke, a stunt driver in upstate New York who does performs dangerous motorcycle stunts at a local carnival. When he comes to realize former flame Romina (real life sweetheart Eva Mendes) has had his baby, he demands to be involved in his life and begins to rob banks with the help of pal Robin (Ben Mendelsohn) to provide for them. Tasked with taking down the robbery squad is fresh-faced detective Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), working for corrupt-ass police chief DeLuca (Ray Liotta) who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the money. 15 years after the events unfold, we meet two high school boys (Emory Cohen and Dane Dehaan) whose lives come to be directly affected by Luke and Avery's legacy.
This marks the second pairing of Gosling with writer/director Derek Cianfrance. Their first was Blue Valentine, which was also just as intense and even a touch better. Place Beyond the Pines, with it's stellar action sequences and multilayered plotline, is much more than simply Gosling on a motorcycle.
I'll be coming at you with the top 10 split in 3 ways real soon!
-Mulhern
2013 Films: #16-13
#16 Stories We Tell
This absolutely fascinating documentary by Sarah Polley (Away From Her) is a family history--hers--told by juxtaposing dramatized versions of her family shot on super 8 footage, and interviews shot in normal digital film. The story revolves mostly around her mother, Diane (who died when she was 11), her relationship with her children, and the men in her life, which included her first husband, her second husband (Polley's father Michael), and her acting buddies. When an astonishing family secret comes to light, the storytelling ramps up and the real sparks fly. It is a wonderful commentary on how different events are perceived even by the closest to you, and how feelings and yes, stories, can change over time. A must-see.
#15 Don Jon
With widespread worldwide access to the internet, the porn industry these days is eclipsing the billion dollar mark and then some. It is a difficult topic to address for many reasons. One major issue, tackled head-on in Joseph Gordon Levitt's debut as a writer and director, is how pornography damages the notion of intimacy. It tends to, for men anyhow, idealize sex as an act of power and not an act of love. The first cut of the movie struggled to even get down to a R-rating, but with some careful editing, it became a hard "R".
Joseph Gordon Levitt stars as Jon, a Mike "the Situation" Sorrentino clone who covets his pad, his ride, his boys (Rob Brown and Jeremy Luke), his girls and his porn. He watches porn multiple times a day, each sequence shown ending with him throwing a balled-up kleenex into a little trash bin with a clamoring sound effect. He's a good ol' Roman Catholic boy who eats Sunday dinners with his crazy family (fronted by tank-top sporting Tony Danza), goes to church, and hits confession at least once a week; these sequences are always hilarious as the "hail mary's" and "our fathers" are doled out depending upon how much porn he's watching and how much sex out of wedlock. But for Jon, it's just sex. Thanks to his porn addiction, he can't feel a real connection with anyone.
Enter Barbara Sugarman (Scarlet Johanssen), a woman he sees out at a club and begins to target. As their relationship blossoms, she convinces him to go back to college and get his life back on track. Enter Esther (Julianne Moore), a woman he meets in college courses who catches him watching porno on his smartphone. She is different, an older woman who challenges him and his very notion of intimacy. This movie didn't work for everyone. He uses sequences in a repetitive fashion, which bothered people, but I took it as a means of expressing how devoted to routine Jon is. Both ScarJo and JuMo are great as his muses, but the show belongs to Gordon-Levitt, who brilliantly manages triple duty as actor, writer and director.
#14 42
I am nuts about baseball. Always have been. For years, I thought would be the one to finally write the Jackie Robinson biopic. I even bought his autobiography used at a bookstore and cranked through it. And yes, I was dumb enough to think I was the only who had wanted to do this. There have been dozens of cracks at this-even Spike Lee almost got a Robinson project off the ground in the 90s with Denzell Washington as the hero. This one, written and directed by Brian Helgeland, was a very good crack at it, so to speak.
It's anchored by Chadwick Boseman as young Jackie, who is scouted aggressively by the eccentric and revolutionary general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford; in my perfect version it would have been Gandolfini as Branch Rickey, who had the same imposing body type). The story is zoomed in on just a 4 year period of his life, which in hindsight, was a good choice. We see Jackie work his way up through the Negro Leagues by utter domination, we see him have the famous meeting with Rickey in which he tells Robinson "I want someone with the guts not to fight back," we see him get taunted and threatened by fans, thrown at by pitchers, screamed at by managers and players alike. And the whole way, he keeps his composure in public, only losing it in private moments. Helgeland intentionally ended the arc before his circumstances changed and he was given license to fight back. Things inevitably got more interesting, but less heroic. The performances, especially by Boseman and Ford and Christopher Merloni as Dodgers manager Leo Durocher, are top-notch, and there is plenty of great cinematic and highly orchestrated baseball to watch. You won't hear me complaining.
#13 Philomena
Dame Judi Dench, in a true story , stars as Philomena Lee, an Irish school girl who gets pregnant and loses her son when she is raised by, and subsequently sold off by, the nuns at her school. In the present, she is now much older and has never quite come to terms with the situation. Journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), in a period of flux, takes on Philomena as a human interest story. What starts as a road trip with two opposites getting used to each other turns into an air trip to the United States as the search for her son gets more and more complex. It is a blast to watch Dench and Coogan spar and ultimately come to understand each other. They're both brilliant, and if it wasn't for Cate Blanchett, the statue would end up in Dench's capable hands. Who knows? It still might.
This absolutely fascinating documentary by Sarah Polley (Away From Her) is a family history--hers--told by juxtaposing dramatized versions of her family shot on super 8 footage, and interviews shot in normal digital film. The story revolves mostly around her mother, Diane (who died when she was 11), her relationship with her children, and the men in her life, which included her first husband, her second husband (Polley's father Michael), and her acting buddies. When an astonishing family secret comes to light, the storytelling ramps up and the real sparks fly. It is a wonderful commentary on how different events are perceived even by the closest to you, and how feelings and yes, stories, can change over time. A must-see.
#15 Don Jon
With widespread worldwide access to the internet, the porn industry these days is eclipsing the billion dollar mark and then some. It is a difficult topic to address for many reasons. One major issue, tackled head-on in Joseph Gordon Levitt's debut as a writer and director, is how pornography damages the notion of intimacy. It tends to, for men anyhow, idealize sex as an act of power and not an act of love. The first cut of the movie struggled to even get down to a R-rating, but with some careful editing, it became a hard "R".
Joseph Gordon Levitt stars as Jon, a Mike "the Situation" Sorrentino clone who covets his pad, his ride, his boys (Rob Brown and Jeremy Luke), his girls and his porn. He watches porn multiple times a day, each sequence shown ending with him throwing a balled-up kleenex into a little trash bin with a clamoring sound effect. He's a good ol' Roman Catholic boy who eats Sunday dinners with his crazy family (fronted by tank-top sporting Tony Danza), goes to church, and hits confession at least once a week; these sequences are always hilarious as the "hail mary's" and "our fathers" are doled out depending upon how much porn he's watching and how much sex out of wedlock. But for Jon, it's just sex. Thanks to his porn addiction, he can't feel a real connection with anyone.
Enter Barbara Sugarman (Scarlet Johanssen), a woman he sees out at a club and begins to target. As their relationship blossoms, she convinces him to go back to college and get his life back on track. Enter Esther (Julianne Moore), a woman he meets in college courses who catches him watching porno on his smartphone. She is different, an older woman who challenges him and his very notion of intimacy. This movie didn't work for everyone. He uses sequences in a repetitive fashion, which bothered people, but I took it as a means of expressing how devoted to routine Jon is. Both ScarJo and JuMo are great as his muses, but the show belongs to Gordon-Levitt, who brilliantly manages triple duty as actor, writer and director.
#14 42
I am nuts about baseball. Always have been. For years, I thought would be the one to finally write the Jackie Robinson biopic. I even bought his autobiography used at a bookstore and cranked through it. And yes, I was dumb enough to think I was the only who had wanted to do this. There have been dozens of cracks at this-even Spike Lee almost got a Robinson project off the ground in the 90s with Denzell Washington as the hero. This one, written and directed by Brian Helgeland, was a very good crack at it, so to speak.
It's anchored by Chadwick Boseman as young Jackie, who is scouted aggressively by the eccentric and revolutionary general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford; in my perfect version it would have been Gandolfini as Branch Rickey, who had the same imposing body type). The story is zoomed in on just a 4 year period of his life, which in hindsight, was a good choice. We see Jackie work his way up through the Negro Leagues by utter domination, we see him have the famous meeting with Rickey in which he tells Robinson "I want someone with the guts not to fight back," we see him get taunted and threatened by fans, thrown at by pitchers, screamed at by managers and players alike. And the whole way, he keeps his composure in public, only losing it in private moments. Helgeland intentionally ended the arc before his circumstances changed and he was given license to fight back. Things inevitably got more interesting, but less heroic. The performances, especially by Boseman and Ford and Christopher Merloni as Dodgers manager Leo Durocher, are top-notch, and there is plenty of great cinematic and highly orchestrated baseball to watch. You won't hear me complaining.
#13 Philomena
Dame Judi Dench, in a true story , stars as Philomena Lee, an Irish school girl who gets pregnant and loses her son when she is raised by, and subsequently sold off by, the nuns at her school. In the present, she is now much older and has never quite come to terms with the situation. Journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), in a period of flux, takes on Philomena as a human interest story. What starts as a road trip with two opposites getting used to each other turns into an air trip to the United States as the search for her son gets more and more complex. It is a blast to watch Dench and Coogan spar and ultimately come to understand each other. They're both brilliant, and if it wasn't for Cate Blanchett, the statue would end up in Dench's capable hands. Who knows? It still might.
2013 Films: #20 (19)-17 and bonus #36
#36 The Best Man Holiday
Also, in my old age I appear to have miscounted. I think I actually saw 49 movies this year. So we have to move everything up one, and when I do the last post of the day, I will display the re-calibrated list.
Therefore, instead of a top 20, I will present the beginnings of the top 19:
#19 Nebraska
Alexander Payne is probably best known for two pleasant-climate films, both nominated for best picture--the wine-country bachelor romp Sideways ('04) and the family expose' The Descendants ('11), both of which made my top 5 of those respective years. But most of his other notable work (About Schmidt, Election, Citizen Ruth and now Nebraska) take place in his home state. Nebraska was the last of the 9 best picture nominees I got around to seeing.
The story opens with Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) walking down the side of a busy road in Billings, Montana. This is not the first time he has behaved like this; Woody, a heavy drinker who's a few sandwiches short as the saying goes, is fully convinced he has won a million dollars in a Publisher's Clearinghouse-like sweepstakes. It turns out that he had been trying to walk from Billings to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim it. His wife Kate (an outstanding June Squibb) has had enough, so tasked with continuing to pick him up each time is their youngest son, David (Will Forte). In an effort to placate him and get Woody out of his mother's hair, David finally succumbs to Woody's constant requests to drive him to Nebraska. From there, the majority of the action takes place in Woody and Kate's Nebraska hometown, where we meet David's uncles and aunts, his hilarious cousins (Tim Driscoll and Devin Ratray, who played Buzz McCallister in Home Alone), and Woody's devious ex-business partner (they owned a car garage together) Ed (Stacy Keach). The legend of Woody's million dollars grows, and it's 50-50 whether or not the interested parties are actually interested or just mocking him. Woody and David eventually do make the trip to Lincoln, but I won't give away how that plays out.
I think Bruce Dern is great in this movie, but I would bump him out of the best actor nominees list for one of two people coming up on the countdown because I didn't really feel like he was the lead most of the time. As the doting son, he quietly keeps his family together.
#18 The Way Way Back
Bradley Cooper is good in American Hustle, but the fifth supporting actor nod should have gone to Sam Rockwell for his hilarious, heartfelt turn as the water park manager Owen who takes shy teenager Duncan (Liam James) under his wing for a summer. Duncan, his mother Pam (Toni Collette), her controlling new boyfriend Trent (Steve Carrell) and his daughter Steph (Zoe Levin) go for an extended vacation to his beach house. Living next door are wacky, party-hearty Betty (Alison Janney) and her daughter Susanna (Anna Sophia Robb), and constantly dropping in are Trent's buddies Kip (Rob Corddry) and Joan (Amanda Peet). Duncan, feeling constantly embarrassed by/ashamed of Trent and his oppressive management style, finds refuge in the local water park, where he befriends Owen and his band of merry troublemakers. It's a great coming of age story that takes legitimizes how hard it can be to accept changing family dynamics.
#17 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The cinematic return to Panem is just as or more satisfying than the first, as we pick up right where we left off. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) have effectively pissed off president Snow (Donald Sutherland) and the capitol for their unorthodox double victory. As a result, their families and well-being are threatened unless they stick to the script and enter the Quarter Quell, a special-event version of the Hunger Games, sort of an all-star game of sorts. The action-packed Q.Q. is awesome on screen, the supporting cast (Hutcherson, Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth) add flair, and Lawrence, as usual is beyond reliable.
Til next time, amigos-
Mulhern
Saturday, March 1, 2014
2013 Films: 22-21
# 22 Enough Said
Most people would say that the biggest loss of the year, actor death-wise, would no question be Philip Seymour Hoffman. Not me, though. I was devastated when, on June 19th, I found out that James Gandolfini had died of a heart attack on a trip to Italy with his son. Of course I was then prompted to revisit basically the entire Sopranos catalog, and there was a specific scene I watched over and over again: the famous scene in which the crew stages an intervention for Christopher "Chrissy" Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) for his heroin addiction. One thing that struck me was when, after Christopher goes on the defensive:
Christopher: There he goes, Mr. type-A personality!
Tony: We are here to talk about you killing yourself with drugs, not my f***in' personality!
Christopher: I'm killin' myself? The way you f***in' eat, you're gonna have a heart attack by the time you're 50!
Tony's weight was brought up plenty of times throughout the series, but I still couldn't believe that the fictional Christopher Moltisanti would become a harbinger for the real James Gandolfini's tragic end.
By all accounts, Gandolfini was an incredibly kind and generous human being. There were multiple reports of him taking a major pay cut during the last couple of seasons of the show so that HBO could afford to retain the cast. He would buy elaborate, expensive sushi lunches for all the members of the crew. And many actors who worked with him said that he was a great teacher and completely genuine.
Playing a character like Tony Soprano for so long wore him out and took him to some very dark places emotionally. Now that the world has embraced Breaking Bad and unabashedly declared it the best drama of all time, it is important for people to realize that there would be no Walter White without Tony Soprano. Period. Or Vic Mackey, or Don Draper, or, more recently, Frank Underwood. He set the bar extremely high as the antihero, and in my opinion, no one has given a finer performance in that capacity (though, to be fair-Bryan Cranston came pretty close.).
And now, onto Enough Said. Another HBO star, Julia Louis Dreyfuss (Veep) stars as Eva, an amicably divorced masseuse who meets Albert (Gandolfini) at a party. They hit it off and start falling for each other. At around the same time, she takes on a new client named Marianne (Catherine Keener), a new-agey woman who herself is reeling from a recent divorce. As the movie pushes forward, Eva start's to realize that the ex-husband Marianne has been kvetching about is, in fact, Albert. Against the wishes of her best friend Sarah (Toni Colette), she tries to keep both her blossoming relationship with Albert and her friendship with Marianne going strong. The problem is, Marianne's complaints about Albert are starting to get inside her head.
Both the leads in this film were great, and the mess that Eva created played out in a much more real way than I expected. Obviously for me, the appeal was seeing Gandolfini's second to last performance, and it was refreshing to see him be so normal, so scaled back, so non-Jersey. As two of the best in the game, Gandolfini and Dreyfuss made for a good couple.
#21 Frances Ha
"I can't tell if I think Greta Gerwig looks good or not. She's like the lady Jerry Seinfeld dates who only looks good in certain lighting," I told a friend not too long ago.
The rest of the indie world is smitten with Miss Gerwig. Rightfully so-she's got the right amount of awkwardness to match the perfect amount of cute. She co-wrote this movie with Noah Baumbach, who was in desperate need of a good flick; neither Margot at the Wedding or Greenberg struck the same emotional chord as '05's The Squid and the Whale. The movie follows Frances, a New Yorker who crashes with friends at an apartment (Adam Driver and Michael Zegen) and interns at a dance company. Her and her best friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner, daughter of Gordon Sumner, known to the world as Sting) talk boys, play fight, and have a good time, until they don't. Frances is spontaneous almost to the point of obnoxiousness and at times comes off as an unrealistic character, but mostly she's just a joy to watch as she tries to figure out what she wants, where she's going and who she is.
Most people would say that the biggest loss of the year, actor death-wise, would no question be Philip Seymour Hoffman. Not me, though. I was devastated when, on June 19th, I found out that James Gandolfini had died of a heart attack on a trip to Italy with his son. Of course I was then prompted to revisit basically the entire Sopranos catalog, and there was a specific scene I watched over and over again: the famous scene in which the crew stages an intervention for Christopher "Chrissy" Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) for his heroin addiction. One thing that struck me was when, after Christopher goes on the defensive:
Christopher: There he goes, Mr. type-A personality!
Tony: We are here to talk about you killing yourself with drugs, not my f***in' personality!
Christopher: I'm killin' myself? The way you f***in' eat, you're gonna have a heart attack by the time you're 50!
Tony's weight was brought up plenty of times throughout the series, but I still couldn't believe that the fictional Christopher Moltisanti would become a harbinger for the real James Gandolfini's tragic end.
By all accounts, Gandolfini was an incredibly kind and generous human being. There were multiple reports of him taking a major pay cut during the last couple of seasons of the show so that HBO could afford to retain the cast. He would buy elaborate, expensive sushi lunches for all the members of the crew. And many actors who worked with him said that he was a great teacher and completely genuine.
Playing a character like Tony Soprano for so long wore him out and took him to some very dark places emotionally. Now that the world has embraced Breaking Bad and unabashedly declared it the best drama of all time, it is important for people to realize that there would be no Walter White without Tony Soprano. Period. Or Vic Mackey, or Don Draper, or, more recently, Frank Underwood. He set the bar extremely high as the antihero, and in my opinion, no one has given a finer performance in that capacity (though, to be fair-Bryan Cranston came pretty close.).
And now, onto Enough Said. Another HBO star, Julia Louis Dreyfuss (Veep) stars as Eva, an amicably divorced masseuse who meets Albert (Gandolfini) at a party. They hit it off and start falling for each other. At around the same time, she takes on a new client named Marianne (Catherine Keener), a new-agey woman who herself is reeling from a recent divorce. As the movie pushes forward, Eva start's to realize that the ex-husband Marianne has been kvetching about is, in fact, Albert. Against the wishes of her best friend Sarah (Toni Colette), she tries to keep both her blossoming relationship with Albert and her friendship with Marianne going strong. The problem is, Marianne's complaints about Albert are starting to get inside her head.
Both the leads in this film were great, and the mess that Eva created played out in a much more real way than I expected. Obviously for me, the appeal was seeing Gandolfini's second to last performance, and it was refreshing to see him be so normal, so scaled back, so non-Jersey. As two of the best in the game, Gandolfini and Dreyfuss made for a good couple.
#21 Frances Ha
"I can't tell if I think Greta Gerwig looks good or not. She's like the lady Jerry Seinfeld dates who only looks good in certain lighting," I told a friend not too long ago.
The rest of the indie world is smitten with Miss Gerwig. Rightfully so-she's got the right amount of awkwardness to match the perfect amount of cute. She co-wrote this movie with Noah Baumbach, who was in desperate need of a good flick; neither Margot at the Wedding or Greenberg struck the same emotional chord as '05's The Squid and the Whale. The movie follows Frances, a New Yorker who crashes with friends at an apartment (Adam Driver and Michael Zegen) and interns at a dance company. Her and her best friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner, daughter of Gordon Sumner, known to the world as Sting) talk boys, play fight, and have a good time, until they don't. Frances is spontaneous almost to the point of obnoxiousness and at times comes off as an unrealistic character, but mostly she's just a joy to watch as she tries to figure out what she wants, where she's going and who she is.
2013 Films: #24 & #23
#24 Twenty Feet from Stardom
The 1960s were flush with Motown female talent such as the Supremes, the Ronettes, and Gladys Knight the Pips. But there was plenty of talent waiting in the wings, waiting for their shot to hit it big with the rest of them. They never got their chance; instead, they made lucrative careers as backup singers for famous acts throughout the motown era and beyond. This fascinating documentary follows some of those women as they tell their stories of singing back up Vocals. Perhaps the most entertaining of all is Mary Clayton, the African-American soul singer who recalls the story of being woken up at 3 AM, 6 months pregnant with curlers in her hair, to go sing the now iconic hook to the Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter". "Whatchu mean rape, murder? That's what you're trying to get me to sing on this hook?" She recalls with a laugh. I happened to see this documentary during the Minneapolis-St. Paul film Festival in Mary Clayton gave a live talk and performance afterwards. The movie theater in Minneapolis is no Palladium, but it's a good start, and hopefully it leads to more exposure for these talented women who deserve their shot at the spotlight.
#23 Blue Jasmine
Woody Allen's 49th film (!) follows Jasmine, a wealthy socialite whose husband is caught up in fraudulent business and ends up with all of his assets frozen. With nothing left and nowhere to go, Jasmine Jets off (on coach class for the first time), to San Francisco to spend some time living with her sister, Ginger. Jasmine is completely breaking down – physically, spiritually and mentally- as she tries desperately to figure out her next steps. The movie throws in flashbacks to her former life, in which you can see the empire start to fall piece by piece. I have seen much better Woody Allen films, but it is been a long time since I've seen a performance is astonishing as Cate Blanchett's in the titular role. She absolutely, positively knocked it out of the park. The supporting cast – Alec Baldwin as the estranged husband, Sally Hawkins as the freewheeling sister, Andrew Dice Clay as her former brother in law and Peter Sarsgaard as the love interest – do a nice job of balancing out her extremes. With the Dame (coming up soon in the countdown) as her only competition, the statue is hers to lose, and it would be a travesty if she did.
TNT, amigos-
Mulhern
The 1960s were flush with Motown female talent such as the Supremes, the Ronettes, and Gladys Knight the Pips. But there was plenty of talent waiting in the wings, waiting for their shot to hit it big with the rest of them. They never got their chance; instead, they made lucrative careers as backup singers for famous acts throughout the motown era and beyond. This fascinating documentary follows some of those women as they tell their stories of singing back up Vocals. Perhaps the most entertaining of all is Mary Clayton, the African-American soul singer who recalls the story of being woken up at 3 AM, 6 months pregnant with curlers in her hair, to go sing the now iconic hook to the Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter". "Whatchu mean rape, murder? That's what you're trying to get me to sing on this hook?" She recalls with a laugh. I happened to see this documentary during the Minneapolis-St. Paul film Festival in Mary Clayton gave a live talk and performance afterwards. The movie theater in Minneapolis is no Palladium, but it's a good start, and hopefully it leads to more exposure for these talented women who deserve their shot at the spotlight.
#23 Blue Jasmine
Woody Allen's 49th film (!) follows Jasmine, a wealthy socialite whose husband is caught up in fraudulent business and ends up with all of his assets frozen. With nothing left and nowhere to go, Jasmine Jets off (on coach class for the first time), to San Francisco to spend some time living with her sister, Ginger. Jasmine is completely breaking down – physically, spiritually and mentally- as she tries desperately to figure out her next steps. The movie throws in flashbacks to her former life, in which you can see the empire start to fall piece by piece. I have seen much better Woody Allen films, but it is been a long time since I've seen a performance is astonishing as Cate Blanchett's in the titular role. She absolutely, positively knocked it out of the park. The supporting cast – Alec Baldwin as the estranged husband, Sally Hawkins as the freewheeling sister, Andrew Dice Clay as her former brother in law and Peter Sarsgaard as the love interest – do a nice job of balancing out her extremes. With the Dame (coming up soon in the countdown) as her only competition, the statue is hers to lose, and it would be a travesty if she did.
TNT, amigos-
Mulhern
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)