Australia (2008)

One can't write about this without using the word "sweeping." The cinematography (air, land, and water) is gorgeous, with an emphasis on "magic hour," that time before sunset when everything looks orange/pink. It's a romantic epic, a cowboy picture, a fairy tale, a World War II movie, a story about living with racial prejudice. It has a witch doctor who stands on one foot, boys singing, dusty campsites, elaborate costumes, and Nicole Kidman strutting with her shoulders pumping to and fro. Although at times the score was heavy handed (ominous or joyful, just in case we missed it from the plot), we weren't bothered, but amused. Perhaps it was a bit corny, but the magical boy Nullah was a great relief to me the day after seeing The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Don't drink anything before or during this movie--it's 2 hours and 45 minutes long. Director/co-writer/producer Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge (2001) had much the same look (and only 6 special effects companies instead of Australia's 11).

2008 British Independent Film Award winners

Earlier tonight, these were the winners (links are to the BIFA site):

•Best British Independent Film

Slumdog Millionaire

•Best Director of a British Independent Film

Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire

•The Douglas Hickox Award

Steve McQueen for Hunger

•Best Screenplay

Martin McDonagh for In Bruges

•Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film

Vera Farmiga for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

•Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film

Michael Fassbender for Hunger

•Best Supporting Actress

Alexis Zegerman for Happy-Go-Lucky

•Best Supporting Actor

Eddie Marsan for Happy-Go-Lucky

•Most Promising Newcomer

Dev Patel

for Slumdog Millionaire

•Best Achievement In Production

The Escapist

•The Raindance Award

Zebra Crossings

•Best Technical Achievement

Sean Bobbitt for Hunger

•Best British Documentary

Man on Wire

•Best British Short Film

Soft

•Best Foreign Independent Film

Waltz with Bashir

•The Richard Harris Award

David Thewlis

•The Variety Award

Michael Sheen

•The Special Jury Prize

Joe Dunton

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)

The trailer is charming, about an adorable 8 year old German boy (Asa Butterfield) who happened to find someone his own age on the other side of a barbed wire fence which enclosed a concentration camp in World War II. It's a holocaust movie that got sadder and sadder and has been haunting me for days. I haven't read the book (fiction by Irishman John Boyne, who spelled it "pyjamas," as did the publishers and film distributors across the pond) but did some research on it. The family moved from Berlin to "Out-With" (Auschwitz) on orders of the father's boss, "The Fury," (the Führer). Both David Thewlis (Remus Lupin in the once and future Harry Potter movies) as the father and Vera Farmiga (The Departed (2006)) as the mother won British Independent Film Awards earlier tonight. Rupert Friend, who played the handsome Lieutenant Kotler, was also the generous young man in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2005). Definitely worth seeing but do something afterwards that will bring your spirits back up.

Quantum of Solace (2008)

You like 007? I think you'll like this movie (Judy, you will!). Daniel Craig in his second turn as James Bond is chased but not chaste in this Action-with-a-capital-A picture. Pursuit by car opens the movie (followed by the credit sequence over animation in the old '60s Bond style). Other chases are in airplanes, motorboats, trains, trucks. Many more are on foot, over roofs ancient and modern, through caves, tunnels, a burning building, and, my personal favorite, on scaffolding, including balletic swinging. Cartoonist Nicole Hollander has a definition for a chick flick: "Too much talking, not enough hitting." This is the opposite--with fights to the death and a high body count. 

Beautiful location shots around the world, gorgeous girls: Ukrainian lovely Olga Kurylenko with a tan is convincing as South American Camille (she says, "Get in!" and he does, and Bond keeps telling her to "Wait here," but she doesn't), British beauty Gemma Arterton plays the one-named Fields (in the credits her name is listed as Strawberry Fields), and Dame Judi Dench is stunning as always playing M. I particularly liked the scene in which M is removing her makeup while talking on the speaker phone. In The Devil Wears Prada (2006) Meryl Streep's bare-faced scene made her look old, dry, and brittle (as it was supposed to). In this, Dench's face cream gives her a glow that complements her natural twinkle. As in No Country for Old Men (2007), there is a bad guy with unfortunate bangs, though in this case, he is a sidekick to a badder guy, played by Mathieu Amalric, who was fabulous as the stroke victim (a good guy) in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007). Apparently the dead girlfriend and several characters are from the last installment, Casino Royale (2006), but I don''t remember the details. 

In this one, a bartender gives the exact recipe for the 007 martini (my parents liked white Lillet and so do I--get it at a specialty wine shop). According to the link, the recipe was in the last one, too. I really was not paying attention!

Four Christmases (2008)

It won't win any Oscars, but it had its moments. I had seen the trailer at least a dozen times so thought this would be a pleasant way to spend Thanksgiving afternoon with Amy before dinner with the family. We had a few laughs and did some cringing. A happily unmarried couple's (Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon) usual plan to ditch their families for an exotic beach vacation is scuttled and they have to spend Christmas day shuttling between the homes of his father, her mother, his mother, and her father, in the greater San Francisco Bay area. Noteworthy that one of the 13 producers was Peter Billingsley (best known as the lead kid in A Christmas Story (1983)--really? that recently?), who had a cameo as the patient Fiji Airlines agent. Also noteworthy that each of the 4 parents was played by an Oscar winner: Robert Duvall for Tender Mercies (1983), Mary Steenburgen for Melvin and Howard (1980), Sissy Spacek for Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), and Jon Voight for Coming Home (1978). If you have seen the trailer you will know that Vince Vaughn's sidekick from Swingers (1996), Jon Favreau, played the muscled, mohawked, violent brother. You might not know that the other brother with few lines was played by country music star Tim McGraw. Another country music star, Dwight Yoakum, also seen in, among others, Sling Blade (1996) with Billy Bob Thornton, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) with Tommy Lee Jones, and Wedding Crashers (2005) with Vaughn, played Pastor Phil.

Outsourced (2006) released in 2008

We are lucky that this is playing at our aging art house theatre (now held over until Dec. 4). It has not enjoyed wide release since its completion 2 years ago and the filmmakers are begging us to buy the DVD and the soundtrack (which I ordered today). It is a delightful romantic comedy (if you have seen the poster you know he's gonna hook up) which I enjoyed thoroughly. I am a fan of Harvard-educated Indian director Mira Nair (especially Monsoon Wedding (2001) and The Namesake (2006), which was adapted from a wonderful book by Jhumpa Lahiri). Nair adeptly weaves compelling, timeless stories with splashy Bollywood images. This, the feature directorial debut of (American) John Jeffcoat, is lightweight and modern, about a 30-something man forced to leave his gray world in a Seattle call center and train his replacement in a colorful Indian city a couple of hours outside Mumbai (Bombay to us Yanks). Todd (Josh Hamilton) awkwardly learns to get along in this classic fish-out-of-water story. I thought Angelina Jolie was all lips and eyes in Changeling, but the lovely Ayesha Dharker (Asha) has giant peepers and smile in a face much smaller. Don't take the kids unless you are prepared to explain the meaning of Kama Sutra (there is no nudity, however). Sorry if that is a spoiler! Apparently there will be an NBC series next season based on this movie. See the original first. Available on netflix now. For more about the movie, check out the Outsourced blog.

Changeling (2008)

Impressive! Beautiful cinematography. Great sets, locations, wardrobe, gloves, and hats. Expect nominations in any of those categories (is there a Best Glove category? Yellow Submarine shoulda been a contender). We saved this for a weekend matinee because it is long at 2 hours 20 minutes. But it didn't feel long. The story is compelling and Angelina Jolie (who, Jack pointed out, was nominated several times for playing a woman with a missing husband in 2007's A Mighty Heart) was convincing as the bereft mother of a missing boy. She will probably gain a few nods for this performance as well, the true (with few licenses taken, according to my research) story of a woman's powerlessness against a corrupt police department and her determination to be heard. I have never watched the TV show Burn Notice on USA but have seen the trailer so many times (when watching Monk or Psych) that Jeffrey Donovan looked familiar. He was good as the patronizing police Captain Jones. Amy Ryan, whom we will miss as Michael's goofy ex-girlfriend Holly on The Office (and who won awards for her portrayal of a druggy mom in Gone Baby Gone last year) did a nice job in a small part in this, providing a line that got a smile when she said it and a big laugh when it was repeated later. That may have been the only laugh of the movie. I might refer to Angelina as "Lips," and if I did, it would be an example of the literary device synecdoche (sih-NEK-doh-key), meaning referring to a thing by one of its parts (it also means referring to a part by calling it the thing). I'm eager to see the movie of that name, opening soon, which promises to be even more inscrutable than the definition I just gave.

Soul Men (2008)

I would've rushed right out to see this, but saved it for Jack, who, like me, loved Bernie Mac's TV show. We like to go to 5:00-ish matinees on Fridays, and, for this one, the audience doubled when another couple joined us in the theatre. Yes, I know this movie is not great, and will not be playing much longer on a big screen. But we had a lot of fun with Samuel L. Jackson, the late great Bernie Mac, and his character's green convertible Eldorado named MUTHASHP, after Parliament's 1975 classic soul-funk album, Mothership Connection (Jack said the car was a character in the story). In Roger Ebert's review, he explains why classic cars are used so often in road trip movies. Whenever Sam and Bernie were together, it WAS great. The music was lots of fun, too. Musicians included multiple Grammy award winner John Legend (the pictures of his character's solo career were hilarious!), Sharon Leal (who acted and sang in an episode or two of TV's Boston Public and in Dreamgirls (2006) as the new girl), Isaac Hayes (who died August 10, 2008, the day after Bernie Mac) in a cameo, and others (see the complete cast list here) that I'm sure would be known to musical cognoscenti but not so much to me. Isaac and Bernie both looked pretty skinny, and apparently Bernie was ailing during the shoot, but he had plenty to give on screen, both to the comedy and drama. As the credits began to roll, one side of the screen featured a tribute mostly to Bernie and some to Isaac (so I don't need to alert you to stay), followed by Isaac's down-tempo rendition of "Never Can Say Goodbye." Bernie & Sam can sing their own numbers on the soundtrack album (and Sam's got some fancy footwork), but I'm disappointed that the Stanley Clarke (with George Duke and others) score is not (yet?) available.

Filth & Wisdom (2008)

Finally got my equilibrium back after Rachel Getting Married (but made sure to sit a row or two back from my usual spot--that wasn't hard because Mary Ellen & I were the only ones at the matinee today). I loved Everything is Illuminated (2005), directed by actor Liev Schreiber (wonderful in A Walk on the Moon (1999), the remake of The Manchurian Candidate (2004), and the gorgeous The Painted Veil (2006)), starring Elijah Wood (Frodo in the Lord of the Rings movies and Sigourney Weaver's son in Ang Lee's brilliant-but-depressing The Ice Storm (1997)) as a young Jewish-American man searching out his past in a Ukrainian village, and co-starring Eugene Hutz as the crazy Russian tour guide.

Hutz is the star and narrator of this ensemble piece, Madonna's directing debut. He is also the frontman for a Gypsy punk band called Gogol Bordello, which contributed several songs to the movie and appears on screen at the end. The only other actor in it that I had heard of before was Richard E. Grant, a Brit with a long resume whom I will always remember for his good and better first and fourth movies, Withnail & I (1987) and How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989). This movie is not for everyone but we liked it. Yes, we are in the minority. It's spotty, sometimes even hokey (despite starring a male character who, according to the Times of London, spanks other men for a living), and oddly uplifting. It can be summed up by the maxim, "Most folks are as happy as they want to be." Goof: when we first see Juliette in the pharmacy, her nametag is backwards, leading me to believe that the film was flipped for part of that scene.

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Prolific director Jonathan Demme has easily moved between drama, both light and heavy (Handle With Care (1977), Melvin and Howard (1980), Swing Shift (1984), Married to the Mob (1988), Philadelphia (1993), and the Oscar-winning Silence of the Lambs (1991)) and documentary (Stop Making Sense (1984), Swimming to Cambodia (1987), and Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006)). In Rachel Getting Married, Demme sort of combined the two. There was a script, but also a lot of improvisation, and all the camera work was handheld -- sometimes the viewer could tell the camera operator was running behind the actor -- shot with only available light. I got carsick as a child, but the last time I remember getting motion sickness was crossing the North Sea on an overnight boat trip in, maybe, 1994. And, now that I think about it, the handheld camera in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives (1992) did make me a little nauseous. This one was worse. I had to close my eyes repeatedly once I realized it was not something I ate. Some of the footage was even shot by cast members who held cameras in the scenes (including filmmaker Roger Corman). So, if you are affected by motion sickness, try the back row.

Also, if you get antsy and/or irritated by family members disturbing everyone's serenity, you might want to skip this one. Anne Hathaway's Kym-with-a-Y is awkward and raw, ticking off almost everyone in her path. Fabulous performance. Last year Jack & I enjoyed Nicole Kidman as the neurotic Margot at the Wedding, but then saw a friend who had walked out of the next screening of the same movie, because she so hated the character. Rosemarie DeWitt (from TV's Mad Men) co-starred as Rachel, Bill Irwin was very good as Kym and Rachel's anxious father, Debra Winger was understated as their divorced mother, and the cast was dotted with celebrities and musicians, some of which I missed behind my eyelids. I'm looking forward to watching the DVD from across the room, maybe chapter by chapter. Not everyone is bothered by shaking cameras (it may be genetic), so you will have to use your own experience to judge (I've made a list of Motion Picture Motion Sickness--MPMS movies).

Other than that, I really liked it.

Zack & Miri Make a Porno (2008)

Kevin Smith, the writer/director of Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), and Jersey Girl (2004) (which won 3 Razzies, as in Golden Raspberry, Awards for worst actor, worst actress, and worst screen couple), and the slacker classics Clerks (1994), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), and Clerks II (2006), is sorta kinda trying to go mainstream with this raunchy, puerile, occasionally gross, sometimes corny, and often funny ensemble comedy. 14 year old boys will love it (but we liked it, too). David Denby of the New Yorker did not. Here is his review, riddled with spoilers. Seth Rogen is still playing the optimistic loser from Pineapple Express (which he wrote) and many of his Judd Apatow projects (Knocked Up (2007), Undeclared (TV 2001-2003), Freaks and Geeks (TV 1999-2000)). Elizabeth Banks, a 10-year overnight sensation with 4 movies due to be released before the end of 2008 (including a nice turn as Laura Bush in this year's W., and the mother of J.D.'s child in TV's Scrubs in 2006-2007), is cute, and her character supplies much of the corniness. Kevin Smith's real-life-wife Jennifer Schwalbach Smith has a cameo as Betsy, the gal we first see at the reunion. The ensemble is rounded out by, among others, Kevin Smith sidekick Jason Mewes (he plays Jay, and has 3 features slated for release this year and 3 for next) as Lester, Traci Lords (best known as an underage porn star in the mid-80s, though she's done a lot of mainstream work since then) as Bubbles, current porn star Katie Morgan as Stacey, Craig Robinson (best known as Darryl on TV's The Office) as Delaney, Brandon Routh (the man of steel in Superman Returns (2006) -- which movie gets my vote for the best plane-crash-rescue scene ever; it's at the beginning) as Bobby Long, and, notably, Justin Long (best known as the Mac guy from the TV commercials, but he's done a lot of other work) who is hilarious as Brandon. DO NOT LEAVE WHEN THE CREDITS BEGIN. You will be well rewarded.

The Duchess (2008)

I did not expect to like this costume drama, because, as I mentioned in my post about about Atonement (2007), Keira Knightley irks me. However, spending a couple of hours with Ms. K, whose performance the LA Times deems Oscar-worthy, was entertaining enough that I didn't check the time nor the phone. The mile-high (and -wide) wigs should be getting a nomination, but probably won't, as hair and make-up are in the same category, and flashy prostheses usually trump elaborate hairdos. Hat-o-philes will enjoy the headgear, each one bigger than the next. The elegant locations, indoors and out, were also worth the price of admission -- I particularly liked the scene near the waterfall -- beautiful! Ralph Fiennes was detestable (by which I mean convincing as a detestable man) as the cold jerk of a husband, the Duke of Devonshire. Hayley Atwell, of Brideshead Revisited (2008) and Cassandra's Dream (2007) was luscious as Elizabeth Foster, and Charlotte Rampling (where do I start? Her resumé is long and rich. I must mention Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980), the truly wonderful costume drama Wings of the Dove (1997), and Swimming Pool (2003)) was a force of maternal power.

The real Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana Spencer, was an ancestor of Princess Diana, and the comparisons are inevitable: trend-setting, an adoring public, wit, warmth, and joie de vivre.

The Secret Life of Bees (2008)

The day after the election I was happy and weepy all day. This movie, based on the best-selling novel of the same name, is the story of a 14-year-old white girl affected by race relations in the 60s in the south. My waterworks started up again when they showed the clip of Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Three acclaimed singers (Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, and Queen Latifah) star in this, but all we get is Latifah and Keys humming a little bit to the radio, though Alicia Keys does have one song during the credits. Paul Bettany was good as the scary father. I must admit I liked him a whole lot better as the adorable tennis player in Wimbledon (2004) but, like many actors, he seems to have to venture to the dark side for meatier roles. Little Dakota Fanning isn't so little any more (15!), and did a great job. Kim asked me if it would be OK to take her 7-year-old. I think not -- there are some very sad things that a child would not be able to handle. PG-13 is right on the money for this one.

LA Times Oscar contenders as of early November 2008

Actresses: Kate Beckinsale (Nothing But the Truth), Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Penelope Cruz (Elegy), Dakota Fanning (The Secret Life of Bees), Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Nicole Kidman (Australia), Keira Knightley (The Duchess), Melissa Leo (Frozen River), Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City*), Kristin Scott Thomas (I've Loved You So Long), Meryl Streep (both for Doubt and Mamma Mia), Emma Thompson (Last Chance Harvey), Michelle Williams (Wendy and Lucy), Kate Winslet (both Revolutionary Road and The Reader). Read the LA Times online article about the actresses here.

Links are to my blog entries on the ones I have seen since I started posting in September. Those marked with a * I saw, I liked, but have not posted on the blog (and even though I liked Sex and the City, Sarah Jessica Parker has no chance of an Oscar nomination for best actress this year).

Actors: Josh Brolin (W.), Daniel Craig (Defiance), Tom Cruise (Valkyrie), Benicio Del Toro (Che), Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road), Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man*), Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino), Michael Fassbender (Hunger), Ralph Fiennes (The Reader), Dustin Hoffman (Last Chance Harvey), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Synecdoche, New York), Hugh Jackman (Australia), Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), Ben Kingsley (Elegy), Greg Kinnear (Flash of Genius), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), Viggo Mortensen (Good), Sean Penn (Milk), Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon), Will Smith (Seven Pounds). Read the actors' article here.

What Just Happened (2008)

This could be the companion piece to Living in Oblivion, with trials and tribulations in the Hollywood studio system instead of the independent milieu. I'm a big fan of Barry Levinson's direction of Diner (1982), Tin Men (1987), Good Morning Vietnam (1987), Bugsy (1991), Wag the Dog (1997), and especially Liberty Heights (1999). I may be the only one who enjoyed Man of the Year (2006), but I'm with the majority in not caring for Envy (2004). Levinson directed Robert De Niro in this satire about a frustrated Hollywood producer, based on the book, What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line, by Art Linson, about his experiences as a producer. Linson also wrote the script. Bruce Willis and Sean Penn played themselves, Penn's wife Robin Wright Penn played Di Niro's ex-wife, and Catherine Keener the cut-throat studio executive. I noticed that many adults threw tantrums in the trailer (that's trailer, as in preview). More tantrums, and objects, were thrown during the movie (and not in a trailer, as in temporary lodgings for an actor). This is not great art, but Jack & I liked it a lot, and we recommend it.

Living in Oblivion (1995)

10 years after I left film school this satire (so close to the truth for film students and wanna-be movie-makers) made me laugh so hard I almost couldn't breathe. Apparently it was originally a short that was so popular that writer-director Tom DiCillo got more money to flesh it out into a full length feature, cutting the black & white original film into the color footage he shot later. Tom DiCillo had directed Brad Pitt as the lead in Johnny Suede (1991) and, rumor has it, Pitt was a pill to DiCillo and co-star Catherine Keener. In Living in Oblivion James Le Gros played the prima don movie star Chad Palomino, Keener the frustrated leading lady, Steve Buscemi the beleaguered director, Dermot Mulroney the eccentric director of photography, the always-good Kevin Corrigan the ambitious assistant cameraman, and the wonderful Peter Dinklage had a cameo as the token little person.

Our Halloween costumes 2008

I went as Sara Goldfarb, the mother in Requiem for a Dream (2000) (here's the imdb page), a role for which Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Oscar. At the end, her hair was red with white roots, so I wore a white wig with red sprayed on the ends, a house dress, black tights, and oxfords. Darren Aronofsky, director of Pi (1998) and The Fountain (2007), directed this bleak, depressing, and brilliant picture that also starred Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, and Marlon Wayans. I recommend watching it with a friend. The end will stay with you for a LONG time.

Jack, who often is told he looks like Richard Dreyfuss, dressed as his character Dr. Leo Marvin from What About Bob? (1991) (imdb), wearing a blue blazer and a tie, among other things. In his pocket he carried a book, Baby Steps, by Dr. Leo Marvin. The movie is hilarious, directed by the great Frank Oz (voice of Muppet Miss Piggy), with Bill Murray as Bob. Highly recommended, whether you're alone or not. Other Oz pix I recommend: In & Out (1997) with Kevin Kline trying to figure out his sexual orientation, and Bowfinger (1999) with Steve Martin (who wrote it) as an unknown movie producer trying to make it in Hollywood.

Warning: these links contain spoilers.