Young Adult (2011)

Lovers of cringe, rejoice: here's a good one, about a "psycho prom queen bitch" trying to steal her high school boyfriend from his happy marriage and new baby. Charlize Theron dims her luminosity with good acting and makeup and convinces us that she's a bats**t crazy, mean-spirited loser, with the help of a script by Diablo Cody (a former stripper, she won an Oscar and a pile of other awards for her debut screenplay Juno (2007), then created the masterful series United States of Tara, sadly now cancelled) and direction by Jason Reitman (covered in Up in the Air). One bit of trivia Jack and I noticed as well as imdb: Theron's character Mavis drives a mini-Cooper, just as she did in The Italian Job (2003). We also noticed a continuity error missed on that site: the Cooper bangs something but doesn't appear to be damaged until the next shot.

Theron (I liked her debut performance in the noir 2 Days in the Valley (1996), don't remember her in the excellent That Thing You Do! the same year, loved The Devil's Advocate (1997), Celebrity (1998), The Cider House Rules (1999), The Italian Job, Monster (2003) which won her her Oscar, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) in which she played Britt Eklund, North Country (2006 - nominated), and her hilarious turn in a series arc in Arrested Development in 2005) is great as the deluded writer of Young Adult genre novels. Patrick Wilson (wonderful as the "Prom King" in Little Children (2006) and good, though I wrote little, if anything, about him, in the following: Lakeview Terrace, The Switch, and Morning Glory; he also starred in the Broadway adaptation of The Full Monty, and has a good voice--I have the soundtrack) is fine as ex-boyfriend Buddy, as is Elizabeth Reaser (I wrote about her in The Art of Getting By) as his wife Beth. I really like Patton Oswalt (covered in the excellent Big Fan) and he plays his character Matt, Mavis' fellow barfly, with all dimensions. For fans old enough to remember L.A. Law, Jill Eikenberry plays Mavis' mother; and Mary Beth Hurt (another age test, her biggest hits were Woody Allen's unfunny-but-fabulous Interiors (1978) and The World According to Garp (1982)) plays Buddy's mom.

As to be expected, a Jason Reitman movie has a good soundtrack--you can listen to clips on this page. Set and mostly shot in Minnesota, where Cody lived for a time, this is a fun way to spend just over an hour and a half if you don't require all sweetness and lack of loose ends in your cinema experience. Oh, and if you love Pomeranians, as Vivian does, you must see this for those scenes.

Another Happy Day (2011)

Fans of cringe-y dysfunctional family stories will like this, as we did. Others will not. Ellens Barkin and Burstyn go head to head as an acting-out grown daughter and her "quietly furious" mother at the wedding of their son/grandson. The directing debut of Sam Levinson (Barry's 25 year old son) who also wrote it, this is an example of Jack's maxim that no matter how messed up you think your family is, someone's is worse. Oh yeah, and the title is a complete lie.

My favorites of Barkin's work are Barry's debut Diner (1982), Desert Bloom (1986), Down by Law (1986), Sea of Love (1989), Switch (1991)--so funny--where she plays a man trapped in a woman's body, This Boy's Life (1993), Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), and She Hate Me (2004). Here she is a woman on the verge, with terrible TMJ and a knack for pushing away those she wants closest. For Burstyn, I loved her Oscar winning role in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), her nominated roles in The Last Picture Show (1971), The Exorcist (1973--okay, I didn't like that one much), Same Time, Next Year (1978), Resurrection (1980--it was on my short list of all-time faves once), Requiem for a Dream, as well as The Fountain (2006), W., and the series The Book of Daniel. Then there's a big and impressive cast of supporting characters, including Ezra Miller (covered in City Island), Kate Bosworth, Thomas Haden Church, Demi Moore (very funny as the trashy second wife), George Kennedy, young Daniel Yelsky, and, as the shrewish laughing sisters, Siobhan Fallon and Diana Scarwid.

Here is a song from Ólafur Arnalds' soundtrack. The movie was shot entirely in Rochester, Michigan, half an hour north of Detroit.

And, ladies and gentlemen, we have a new winner of the Producers Plethora Prize, formerly held by Get Low at 23. Jack and I usually count. This has end credits, and we thought we had counted 20 including executive, co-, associate, and one each supervising and line, and then there were two cards with six more each, bringing our total to 32. 29 are listed on imdb, which is still a winner. The long list includes Barkin (here's an interview with her at Sundance, where the movie was nominated for Best Picture and won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award) and Michael Nardelli, who plays the son getting married. This may not be the best cringe-y dysfunctional family movie you'll ever see, but it's still pretty good.

The Muppets (2011)

Jack wanted to see this the minute he saw the trailer and he loved the movie, as expected. I'm not as big a fan as he but there is plenty to entertain grandparents on down to toddlers in this update co-written by Nicholas Stoller and co-starring/co-written by Jason Segal, who said Disney was understandably skeptical of the team since in their first movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Segal showed his penis (they also worked together on the raunchy Get Him to the Greek, though Segal doesn't appear in that; after I covered him in I Love You, Man, he was in Bad Teacher). In the same NPR interview Segal also commented that the way these Muppet guys can form facial expressions with only one hand is amazing. James Bobin makes his feature directorial debut here after similarly less-than-Disney-clean experience on 11 episodes each of Da Ali G Show and Flight of the Conchords (he was a creator of the latter and writer on all episodes). Surprising.

Segal as Gary and Amy Adams (after I wrote about her in Julie & Julia, she was in The Fighter, which earned her her third Oscar nomination--this won't be number four) as his girlfriend Mary, plus villain oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper, covered in some detail in The Company Men) are the main humans and they all sing and dance--Cooper's number is very funny, and Gary has a muppet-like brother Walter, to whom he is devoted. There are more celebrity sightings than you'll be able to count, including Rashida Jones who appears several times, Micky Rooney and Alan Arkin a couple of times, Sarah Silverman, Rico Rodriguez (Manny on Modern Family), and many, many more (take a look at the cast). Also, the beautiful Los Angeles Theatre was used for the interiors (details in this article) and for the exterior of it  they used El Capitan, which is owned by Disney, on Hollywood Boulevard, and closed down that main thoroughfare for at least two nights to shoot the finale!

Composer Christophe Beck is a known entity, but his music isn't featured on the soundtrack (you can listen to clips on the amazon page, but the "Artist" listed for each song isn't accurate and some of the songs are more fun if you don't know they're coming, so I consider the list there and here as spoilers, so view at your own discretion). What you'll hear are covers, licensed songs, and new material by Bret McKenzie, half of the Conchords (here's a song from their brilliant HBO series). Here is McKenzie singing a duet with Kermit of the movie's opening song.

Good fun and lots of laughs, especially if you're a fan. There were a couple of kids in the room with us, but mostly adults, including Sally and Mike, who laughed, too. And, by the way, Jack's favorite Muppet character was the Swedish Chef. And I think he would like me to mention that this movie has a 97% rating on rottentomatoes.

Melancholia (2011)

Hard work. Jack said watching this was like being punched in the face every seven minutes. Some have called it a masterpiece. We call it depressing and heavy handed, although Kirsten Dunst's performance is amazing, and the movie has staying power--I'm still thinking about the images and the story combining a depressed bride Justine (Dunst), her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and other family with an apocalyptic planetary event. Danish director/writer Lars von Trier was born Lars Trier, but adopted the Germanic "von" because some of his friends called him that during his time at Danish Film School. He was also banned from this year's Cannes festival for joking that he was a Nazi sympathizer. He said later that he's not sorry he said it, though he should have said he was joking, and that the French just don't get the Danish sense of humor. Von Trier has been on my radar screen for a while but I never made it to any of his movies. When Antichrist came out in 2009 it sounded so hateful we didn't want to see it, and then I read this article (caution, it's got spoilers--read it only if you have seen or don't plan to see Antichrist) which validated my decision.

When I read that Dunst (I wrote about her in All Good Things, including that she has had in-patient care for depression) won Best Actress at said Cannes festival earlier this year we decided to see it. The movie is divided into three parts, 1. a prologue, with slo-mo images of the rogue planet Melancholia in space, eventually crashing into earth (I reveal this only because von Trier has said he wants there to be no doubt from the get-go), 2. an act called Justine, which takes place at the wedding reception, and 3. an act called Claire, where the family is at their estate, looking at the sky through a telescope, and discussing whether or not they will be hit. Gainsbourg didn't win anything for this, but won plenty for Antichrist (including Best Actress at Cannes), however she has usually annoyed me a bit in some otherwise good movies, e.g. My Wife Is an Actress (Ma femme est une actrice - 2001), 21 Grams (2003), I'm Not There (2007). And yes, this time I did not take to her character, trying very hard to care for her sister and cope with impending doom. There are moments of comic relief, some involving the wedding planner (Udo Kier, who was in but not mentioned in my post on Soul Kitchen), some with Claire's husband John (Kiefer Sutherland, best known as Jack Bauer in the series 24, he also won MTV's best villain for A Time to Kill (1996) and Phone Booth (2002)), and some with Claire and Justine's bitter mother (Charlotte Rampling, last covered in Never Let me Go). Is it nitpicking to be bothered by the fact that Rampling and John Hurt, the parents, and Gainsbourg have British accents, but Dunst's is American? Or that the setting is supposed to be America at a vast estate (near a "village") with a stable full of horses and a golf course, but Tjolöholm Castle in Sweden, the shooting location for exteriors, is grander than any McMansions I've seen here. I really thought it was a hotel for the longest time. This might be a good place to mention that von Trier has many phobias, including airplanes, and travels around Europe only by car--he has never set foot on American soil. The interiors were shot at a studio in Sweden as well.

Also featured are Stellan Skarsgård (after I wrote about him in Angels & Demons he was in Thor) as Justine's boss, his son Alexander (plays Eric in True Blood, but you couldn't prove it by me) as the groom, Jesper Christensen (The Debt) as the housekeeper, inexplicably called Little Father.

The music is, other than some ditties at the wedding, excerpts from Tristan & Isolde by Richard Wagner, performed by Orchestra the city of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Richard Hein.

This movie literally made me sick with Motion Picture Motion Sickness (I've made a list for those similarly afflicted). I didn't move to the back soon enough and was extremely nauseated by the end. All this having been said, the reviews have not been bad: rottentomatoes' score is 78% critics, 75% audiences, and metacritic gives it 81 and 66. Now you know what we think. The rest is up to you.

Hugo (2011)

Spectacular! Jack and I honestly had not read anything about this before we chose to see it Wednesday, but we loved Martin Scorsese's PG 3D masterpiece about a boy living behind the clocks in Paris' Montparnasse train station. With live action supplemented by lush computer-generated graphics, it features outstanding performances, gorgeous images with saturated color, a rich score, and it's no wonder the National Board of Review picked it as the Best Picture of 2011, with Scorsese winning Best Director. Asa Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) who plays Hugo, was 12 when the live action part was shot in the winter of 2010 as was Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) who plays Isabelle, but he looks much younger. In any case, these young actors are superb, as are Ben Kingsley (after I wrote about him in The Wackness he was in Elegy and Shutter Island) as Papa Georges, Helen McCrory (Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise, Cherie Blair in The Queen (2006)) as Mama Jeanne, Sacha Baron Cohen (covered in Brüno) as the silly Station Inspector (his humor is physical this time, rather than raunchy dialogue), and, in small parts, Richard Griffiths and Frances de la Tour (they performed together in The History Boys (2006), among others), Emily Mortimer, Jude Law, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Christopher Lee. All but two of these actors are British, and everyone in the movie speaks English with a British accent, even though it's set in Paris. Written things are in French, but the dialogue is not. Moretz' and Stuhlbarg's accents are good, to my ear.

Rule #2 is strictly observed as the camera/computer zooms around the city. I saw many parallels to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with all the clocks but, in this case, the clocks and machinery are plot-driven rather than metaphors. And the machinery is quite wonderful--technology of the early twentieth century and before.

Scorsese (summary in Shutter Island--this is his first movie in seven years not starring Leonardo DiCaprio) makes a cameo in a flashback of the happier days of Georges and Jeanne--he plays a grinning photographer with a big noisy flash (when his character turns around we can see it becomes someone else). His artistry is predictably apparent in every frame, this time working from a script by John Logan (Oscar-nominated for co-writing Gladiator (2000) and writing Scorsese's The Aviator (2004), he also co-wrote Any Given Sunday (1999) with Oliver Stone, co-wrote The Last Samurai (2003), and adapted the stage play into Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), among others) adapted from Brian Selznick's historical fiction picture book The Invention of Hugo Cabret. If you are familiar with the book or with certain historical elements you will not be surprised by any of the plot, but we weren't and so we were! I see now that the author Selznick has his own cameo as "Eager Student," but we missed it. Here is his photo so you can find him when you see it. I think the "official behind the scenes video" from that site is full of spoilers, so perhaps you shouldn't watch it yet.

Composer Howard Shore (won three Oscars for two Lord of the Rings movies (2001 and 03), among his 87 credits, from big studio pictures to little independents, and plenty of Scorsese's work) could get another Oscar nod for his sweeping, Parisian-style (think accordions) score. You can listen to the whole thing numerically on youtube (14 was hidden--I had to go to 15 to find it).

We recommend this for anyone who has the attention span to sit through a movie that is two hours and seven minutes long. It's rated PG for "mild thematic material, some action/peril and smoking." We debated whether to spring for the 3D, because Thor's was so bad. I read some audience comments and decided to go for it. And despite being outfitted with "child size" glasses (learn from our mistake and check the wrapper before you go in) that barely covered our prescription lenses, it was totally worth it with magnificent pictures to go with everything else. Not just for kids. See this before the Oscars.

My Week with Marilyn (2011)

Loved, as we expected, this memoir of then 25 year old Colin Clark's time working on the movie The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, and Kenneth Branagh are superb as Marilyn Monroe, Clark, and Laurence Olivier, respectively (I last mentioned Williams in Meek's Cutoff, covered Branagh in Pirate Radio, and here are my favorites of Redmayne's work: The Good Shepherd (2006), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), and this, although I heard Savage Grace (2007) was very good). Williams, especially, is accruing awards for her performance as the moody Monroe (we noticed they padded her hips, not consistently, but didn't give her enough up top to match the voluptuous star--see these pictures 1, 2, 3, for yourself). Also noteworthy are Judi Dench as Sybil Thorndike, Zoë Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg, and Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh. We're not quite sure why they cast Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame as Lucy; perhaps it was to bring in the younger set. She's all right but there's something odd about the way she looks and the way her part is written. Director Simon Curtis makes his feature debut after a number of TV movies and shows in the UK and Adrian Hodges (co-adapted the excellent Tom & Viv (1994), about T.S. Eliot and his wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood) does a fine job adapting Clark's memoir.

Composer Conrad Pope's (orchestrator on 101 titles, composer on 15) lush score is complemented by tracks from Chinese pianist Lang Lang, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, and La Tropicana Orchestra, and Williams sings all of Monroe's songs in the movie. The soundtrack is great. Listen to previews on amazon, or this site in French. Also, those cars! Especially the two-tone Rolls Royce!

Here's my Marilyn Monroe story. No, I didn't meet her. In 1962, I was an awkward fifth grader in New York City. My mother was a big Marilyn fan and had a similar blonde hairstyle and va-va-voom hourglass figure in those days. One day in school, the "roving reporter" stopped me as I was rushing to a class, and asked me who would I like to be. I said, impulsively, "Marilyn Monroe!" and ran off. They published my answer with the others in the school newspaper. And then, months later (August 5, age 34), she was found dead of a drug overdose. This sensitive kid was embarrassed--I had picked the superficial addict, rather than anyone with depth or apparent intellect. Oh, well. I guess I have always liked show business.

If I hadn't begun my post about The Descendants with the word sublime, I would surely be using it here. With the added benefit of going behind the scenes of movie-making in the 1950s, the whole package is great fun. Highly recommended.

The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito - 2011)

Even more psycho-sexual-horrific than Black Swan, Almodóvar's 18th feature is a heartstopper. It has a massive twist and if anyone tries to tell you just put your fingers in your ears and repeat, "Oh no, you won't!" Antonio Banderas is intense as the mad plastic surgeon, though the director apparently told him to tone it down, Elena Anaya is breathtakingly beautiful as his captive Vera (she does yoga to calm herself), and Marisa Peredes (an Almodóvar regular) is deep as the surgeon's housekeeper and accomplice. I've seen half of Almodóvar's (he has pretty much given up his first name of Pedro; I last wrote about him in Broken Embraces) features, and liked them all (the Academy has liked quite a few as well) and Banderas was wonderful in his Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990), as well as The Mambo Kings (1992), The House of the Spirits (1993), Miami Rhapsody (1995), Frida (2002), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), and many more, including a small but pivotal part in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. I have seen a few of Anaya's previous movies, but didn't remember her. Now I will.

The director adapted Thierry Jonquet's novel Mygale (it was in French, then published in English as Tarantula) into this multi-layered script. The rich music is by Alberto Iglesias, who in addition to collaborating with Almodóvar on all of the above, was Oscar-nominated for The Constant Gardener (2005) and The Kite Runner (2007). Here's a medley, or go from this page to iTunes and click Preview All for minute and a half samples from this soundtrack. The sets and locations are fabulous, with production design by Antxón Gómez and cinematography by José Luis Alcaine, both frequent Almodóvar collaborators, shooting in Tolédo (not Ohio) and Santiago de Compostela (the goal of The Way), Spain.

Now that I've warned you about spoilers, read this spoiler-laden summary ONLY AFTER seeing the movie. Even if the movie leaves you feeling unhappy or violated, you will laugh out loud. But please, save it for later. Mary Ellen put her hands in front of her face more than once, but she liked it a lot, as did Dan, Jack, and I. Yes, you can read the subtitles. It won't kill you.

Speaking of reading, this compulsive proofreader has been bothered for a long time by the title ending with a preposition (there's a line about it in my post on I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With). I realized months after first posting this that the correct Spanish translation would be The Skin I Inhabit, but apparently no one thinks we English speakers will understand that.

2012 Independent Spirit Award nominees

I think we have seen all of the nominees that have been released in our area so far. Here's the list, below. Give me a couple of days and I'll update my alphabetical list of nominees and winners.


BEST FEATURE

(Award Given To The Producer) * Executive Producers Are Not Listed.

50/50 - Producers: Evan Goldberg, Ben Karlin, Seth Rogen

The Artist - Producer: Thomas Langmann

Beginners - Producers: Miranda De Pencier, Lars Knudsen, Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Jay Van Hoy

The Descendants - Producers: Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

Drive - Producers: Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel

Take Shelter - Producers: Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin

BEST DIRECTOR

Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist 

Mike Mills - Beginners 

Jeff Nichols - Take Shelter 

Alexander Payne - The Descendants 

Nicolas Winding Refn - Drive

BEST SCREENPLAY

Joseph Cedar - Footnote

Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist

Tom McCarthy - Win Win

Mike Mills - Beginners

Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash - The Descendants

BEST FIRST FEATURE

(Award given to the director and producer)

Another Earth - Director: Mike Cahill, Producers: Mike Cahill, Hunter Gray, Brit Marling, Nicholas Shumaker

In The Family - Director: Patrick Wang, Producers: Robert Tonino, Andrew Van Den Houten, Patrick Wang

Margin Call - Director: J.C. Chandor, Producers: Robert Ogden Barnum, Michael Benar-Oya, Neal Dodson, Joe Jenckes, Corey Moosa, Zachary Quinto

Martha Marcy May Marlene - Director: Sean Durkin, Producers: Antonio Campos, Patrick Cunningham, Chris Maybach, Josh Mond

Natural Selection - Director: Robbie Pickering, Producers: Brion Hambel, Paul Jensen

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Mike Cahill & Brit Marling - Another Earth 

J.C. Chandor - Margin Call 

Patrick Dewitt - Terri

Phil Johnston - Cedar Rapids 

Will Reiser - 50/50

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD

(Award given to the best feature made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer) * Executive Producers are not listed.

Bellflower - Writer/Director: Evan Glodell, Producers: Evan Glodell, Vincent Grashaw

Circumstance - Writer/Director: Maryam Keshavarz, Producers: Karin Chien, Maryam Keshavarz, Melissa Lee

Hello Lonesome - Writer/Director/ Producer: Adam Reid

Pariah - Writer/Director: Dee Rees, Producer: Nekisa Cooper

The Dynamiter - Writer: Brad Inglesby, Director: Matthew Gordon, Producers: Kevin Abrams, Matthew Gordon, Merilee Holt, Art Jones, Mike Jones, Nate Tuck, Amile Wilson

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Lauren Ambrose - Think Of Me

Rachael Harris - Natural Selection

Adepero Oduye - Pariah

Elizabeth Olsen - Martha Marcy May Marlene

Michelle Williams - My Week With Marilyn 

BEST MALE LEAD

Demián Bichir - A Better Life

Jean Dujardin - The Artist

Ryan Gosling - Drive

Woody Harrelson - Rampart

Michael Shannon - Take Shelter

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Jessica Chastain - Take Shelter

Anjelica Huston - 50/50

Janet Mcteer - Albert Nobbs

Harmony Santana - Gun Hill Road

Shailene Woodley - The Descendants

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Albert Brooks - Drive

John Hawkes - Martha Marcy May Marlene

Christopher Plummer - Beginners

John C. Reilly - Cedar Rapids

Corey Stoll - Midnight In Paris

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Joel Hodge - Bellflower

Benjamin Kasulke - The Off Hours

Darius Khondji - Midnight In Paris

Guillaume Schiffman - The Artist

Jeffrey Waldron - The Dynamiter

BEST DOCUMENTARY

(Award given to the director and producer)

An African Election - Director/Producer: Jarreth Merz

Bill Cunningham New York - Director: Richard Press, Producer: Philip Gefter

The Interrupters - Director/Producer: Steve James, Producer: Alex Kotlowitz

The Redemption Of General Butt Naked - Directors/Producers: Eric Strauss, Daniele Anastasion

We Were Here - Director/Producer: David Weissman

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

(Award given to the director)

A Separation (Iran) - Director: Asghar Farhadi

Melancholia (Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany) - Director: Lars Von Trier

Shame (UK) - Director: Steve Mcqueen

The Kid With A Bike (Belgium, France, Italy) - Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne

Tyrannosaur (UK) - Director: Paddy Considine

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD

(Award given to one film’s director, casting director, and its ensemble cast) MARGIN CALL DIRECTOR: J.C. Chandor

CASTING DIRECTORS: Tiffany Little Canfield, Bernard Telsey ENSEMBLE CAST: Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto, Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD

The 15th annual Piaget Producers Award honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality, independent films. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget. The Finalists are:

Chad Burris, producer of Mosquita y Mari 

Sophia Lin, producer of Take Shelter 

Josh Mond, producer of Martha Marcy May Marlene

Piaget Producers Award Nominating Committee:

Brian Udovich (Chair), Anish Savjani, Lynette Howell, Amy Kaufman

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD

The 18th annual Someone To Watch Award recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant. The Finalists are:

Simon Arthur, director of Silver Tongues

Mark Jackson, director of Without

Nicholas Ozeki, director of Mamitas

Someone To Watch Award Nominating Committee:

Alison Dickey (Chair), Jay Duplass, Lisa Kennedy, Daniel Stamm, James Faust

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD

The 17th annual Truer Than Fiction Award is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant. The Finalists are:

Heather Courtney, director of Where Soldiers Come From

Danfung Dennis, director of Hell And Back Again

Alma Har’el, director of Bombay Beach

Truer Than Fiction Nominating Committee:

Wesley Morris (Chair), Ava DuVernay, Laura Poitras, PJ Raval, Laura Thielen

JAMESON FIND YOUR AUDIENCE AWARD

The 2nd annual Jameson FIND Your Audience Award was established to help make it possible for one Spirit Award-nominated film to find a broader audience. The Award includes a $40,000 marketing and distribution grant, funded by Jameson Irish Whiskey. The grant is designed to meet the filmmakers’ biggest challenge today: How to get their films out into the marketplace. A blue-ribbon committee will determine the winner. The deadline to submit is Friday, December 2, 2011.

All of the winners of our filmmaker grants will be highlighted at the Spirit Awards ceremony and announced at the Spirit Awards Nominee Brunch on January 14 at BOA Steakhouse in West Hollywood. 

The Independent Spirit Awards are usually the night before the Oscars.

J. Edgar (2011)

Jack and I liked this bio-pic way more than we expected. Leonardo DiCaprio transforms (1, 2, 3) into the rigid, authoritative Hoover and we predict nominations for makeup and art direction at the least. Clint Eastwood directs his star studded cast with ultra-high production values and we liked the historical bent and the use of actors playing Robert Kennedy (Jeffrey Donovan--Burn Notice, Changeling) and Nixon (Christopher Shyer), who, despite not looking much like their roles, had the voices down pat, including the latter's expletives. DiCaprio (after I wrote about him in Shutter Island he was in Inception) is very good in this, as are Armie Hammer (The Social Network) as his adoring colleague Clyde Tolson, Naomi Watts (covered in Mother and Child, then she was in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and Fair Game) as his faithful secretary Helen Gandy, and Judi Dench (I loved her Oscar-winning performance in Shakespeare in Love (1998), her Oscar-nominated turns in Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown (1997), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005), and Notes on a Scandal (2006), as well as Tea with Mussolini (1999)) as his devoted and exacting mother. Eastwood (covered in Invictus, then directed Hereafter) treats the subject lovingly (despite a few goofs--this link contains spoilers, in my opinion) with a script by Dustin Lance Black (I wrote about him in Milk, which won him an Oscar). My only quibble with the movie is that even though Tolson was five years younger than Hoover (here's a photo from 1939), in the makeup of later years, Hammer looks much older than DiCaprio.

As usual, Eastwood composed the score and added songs of the times, but I can't find any links to the tracks, or even a list of songs. What I did find was this review by "blind film critic"--now there's a niche--in which he says he's made a list, but it has only three tracks on it. There is also this youtube link.

Rottentomatoes' scores are low: 41% critics and 56% audiences, which is part of why we didn't expect to like it (the other part is that Mary Ellen was lukewarm). A few hours before seeing it I saw Jon at the park. He likes metacritic better, and it likes this movie better, rating it 59% critics and 70% audiences. We think it's worth seeing.

The Descendants (2011)

Sublime, with Oscar buzz to match, this story of a Hawaiian lawyer and his two daughters dealing with their mom's coma and new revelations about her life is by turns funny and sad, with first-rate performances, magnificent footage of at least two islands, and a soundtrack consisting entirely of native Hawaiian songs. George Clooney (last covered in The Ides of March) scores again as Matt King, the sole trustee of his family's 25,000 untouched coastal acres on Kauai, and the befuddled dad of the 17 and 10 year old angry girls, played by 20 year old Shailene Woodley (nominated for the Gotham Awards Breakthrough Award for this after over a dozen TV roles) and 11 year old Amara Miller, making her screen debut after auditioning along with 300 others. 19 year old Nick Krause is funny as smart-ass Sid, and equally good acting is contributed in selected scenes here and there by Robert Forster, Beau Bridges (Jack noticed Bridges got third billing in the end credits, even though he was only in the last third of the movie), Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, and others. The stunning photography is by Phedon Papamichael, who has an impressive body of work, including Cool Runnings (1993) about the Jamaican bobsled team, Moonlight Mile (2002), Sideways (see below), Walk the Line (2005), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), W., and The Ides of March. You can hear clips from the guitar- and ukulele-heavy soundtrack from this link.

Jack and I are both fascinated with our own midwestern families' histories and this is full of family lore, old photos, and legacies, based on Kaui Hart Hemmings' story “The Minor Wars,” from her collection, House of Thieves, and then fleshed out into a novel called The Descendants. Here's the New York Times review. To avoid spoilers, just look at her picture so you'll recognize her cameo as Matt's secretary, then you can read the review or the book after you see the movie. The co-screenwriters, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash deserve credit, not only because Rash plays Dean Felton on Community, one of the half hour comedies I love on NBC Thursdays, but also because these characters are fully fleshed out.

Director/co-writer Alexander Payne (won Oscar for co-writing and nominated for directing Sideways (2004), also directed and wrote or co-wrote Citizen Ruth (1996), Election (1999), and About Schmidt (2002), all of which are wonderfully cynical) is one of those Hollywood auteurs whose work is eagerly anticipated. Now you don't have to wait. Run right out to your neighborhood theatre and see for yourself, as we did today on opening day here.

Circumstance (Sharayet - 2011)

This story of two rebellious teenagers in Iran won the Audience Award at Sundance, the same one that happythankyoumoreplease won last year, as well as being nominated for Best Picture and losing to Like Crazy. It is colorful, poignant, and sexy (the girls are more than best friends), but left Jack and me a bit puzzled about all the hoopla. The political parts, where the girls come in conflict with the fundamentalists in their community, was disturbing but didn't get to us that much. Perhaps it's a cultural thing. I'm pleased for director/writer/co-producer Maryam Keshavarz (a woman of Iranian descent born and educated in the U.S.) making her feature debut, and the girls Nikohl Boosheri and especially Sarah Kazemy are quite beautiful and this is their first time on screen. Like the Sundance jury and audiences, critics are loving this (82% critics/72% audiences on rottentomatoes). It closed here today and will be available as a DVD on netflix beginning December 13, so you can judge for yourself.

Like Crazy (2011)

Jack and I liked very much this sweet love story between American and British college students that quickly gets complicated by visa issues. Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) as well as a Grand Jury Prize for Felicity Jones it also boasts the growing talent of co-star Anton Yelchin (after I wrote about him in Star Trek he was in The Beaver). Coincidentally Jennifer Lawrence (last covered in X Men: First Class) co-starred with Yelchin in The Beaver and has a part in this as well. I wrote about Jones in Chéri, and she earns her accolades here. Director/co-writer Drake Doremus is getting lots of love for this and has another project in the works. His co-writer Ben York Jones, who worked with him on Douchebag (2010) (I didn't see it but just had to put in the title) has a small part. Look at his picture and you will recognize him when you see it or if you have.

Composer Dustin O'Halloran's name was familiar to me because I bought the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006), which had a mixture of classical piano solos by O'Halloran and some 1980s pop ditties. He likes to call his songs Opus this number and that number and I thought there was overlap until I examined the numerology. If you're a myspace member (or maybe if you're not) you can stream some of the opi (opuses?) from this link. Here's another one (with strings added) that is definitely from the movie. In another coincidence, the music of Paul Simon is a part of the lovers' relationship and we saw the movie within the same week of seeing Simon live. Only one of his songs is in the official soundtrack (the streaming link on that page is broken, sorry), but quite a few more are in the movie, including Graceland.

This is playing in only 109 theatres right now (Tower Heist is in 2942 and Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 is first with 4061) but may go wider, since its rating is 74% critics/70% audiences on rottentomatoes. On the other hand, it will translate well to the small screen if you must wait. It is a delightful little movie about first love and we recommend it.

Vidal Sassoon: The Movie (2010)

Good fun, this documentary about the man who invented the modern wash and wear haircut played at our local Jewish Film Festival a few weeks ago. The directing debut for Craig Teper is colorful, as you would expect with this genial subject, and assured. The movie covers Sassoon's life, including his Jewish roots, at least three wives, his healthy lifestyle, and his wonderful haircuts. Watch the trailer here and, if you like, buy or rent the whole thing from iTunes, buy it from amazon, or watch it on demand from selected providers.

Rule #12 for movies and television

On screen, driving the wrong way on a crowded street, freeway, sidewalk, or even through a parade, causes honking, swerving, screaming, running, but almost never a quick crash or death. Please do not test my theory! See the complete list here.

Tower Heist (2011)

Jack and I laughed a lot at this action comedy with a fully developed plot (victims team up to rob a Ponzi schemer) and awesome production values, reuniting Ben Stiller and two of his co-stars, Téa Leoni and Alan Alda, from the must-see indie Flirting with Disaster (1996), as well as Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Gabourey Sidibe, Michael Peña, and many more. Since I panned Little Fockers and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, refer to Greenberg and Tropic Thunder for some Stiller fandom--he is earnest in this, playing it straight, but that's not a problem. As for Murphy, who is very funny here with his trademark rubbery face, for my favorites I would choose his debut 48 Hrs. (1982), Trading Places (1983), Coming to America (1988), Bowfinger (1999), Dreamgirls (2006), and this. 

My favorites of Broderick's work are WarGames (1983), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), The Freshman (1990), Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), The Road to Wellville (1994), The Producers (2005), and Then She Found Me (2007). Alda (other faves: M*A*S*H of course (1972-1983), Same Time, Next Year (1978), The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979), The Four Seasons (1981), Sweet Liberty (1986), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Betsy's Wedding (1990), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), and Everyone Says I Love You (1996) in which his song was one of the best, and he was Oscar-nominated for The Aviator (2004)) plays with finesse the charming but heartless financier. 

Affleck (covered in I'm Still Here) has a lot of funny lines, as do Peña (30 Minutes or Less) and Sidibe (Oscar-nominated for Precious and has been in every episode of The Big C). Leoni's (after Flirting with Disaster, my other favorites are The Family Man (2000), Hollywood Ending (2002), Spanglish (2004), and You Kill Me (2007)) FBI agent reminds me of the line from The First Wives Club (1996), when Goldie Hawn's character says that the only roles for women are "babe, district attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy." Leoni was a babe in Flirting, and she's every bit as lovely 15 years later, but not treated as such.

I believe this is the first Brett Ratner-directed movie I've seen and the pace is good. We didn't have high hopes when we saw there were two screenplay writers, Ted Griffin (Ocean's Eleven (2001), Matchstick Men (2003), others) and Jeff Nathanson (both of Ratner's Rush Hour sequels, Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Terminal (2004), more), and three story writers, Adam Cooper & Bill Collage (Accepted (2006) and an Olsen twins movie) and Griffin. But there are no plot holes that I remember (imdb contributors found a few) and the whole thing is quite entertaining. Oscar-nominated Dante Spinotti (for L.A. Confidential (1997) and The Insider (1999), and 60 other productions, including Public Enemies) is the cinematographer responsible for the beautiful photography of New York and the plush interiors, although I'm guessing he was not in the helicopter for the aerial shots.

Exciting jazz-inflected music is by Christophe Beck (last covered in Crazy, Stupid, Love.) and you can listen to tracks here. Check this out sometime. It probably won't be nominated for anything, but it's good fun.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

Just as creepy as the trailer and really really good, this story of a young woman after her time in a rural cult deserves the nominations and win it has gained so far. Ashley and Mary-Kate's little (23) sister Elizabeth Olsen, luminous in real life, acts the part of the fragile MMMM with her whole body. This is only her second feature but another is in the can for 2011 and four more are scheduled for 2012 and 2013. John Hawkes (after I wrote about him in Higher Ground he was in Contagion) is back to his scary tricks as the cult's leader. Sarah Paulson (Golden-Globe-nominated for the über-Christian comedian Harriet in the cancelled series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a small part in Down with Love (2003), more) is MMMM's concerned sister Lucy and Hugh Dancy (Adam) is Lucy's husband, both of whom are completely clueless as to what MMMM has been through, which is not totally their fault. Director/writer Sean Durkin makes his feature debut at those jobs here, but did produce Afterschool, which I liked a lot. The script is layered and goes back and forth in time but we are never more confused than we're supposed to be. Cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes also shot Afterschool as well as Tiny Furniture and shows us the differences between the cult's farm and woods and Lucy's beautiful lake house.

The music is by Daniel Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, from a band called Priestbird (you can download an album for a suggested donation here) and one dissonant song, Collage, representing the feel of the movie, is available from this site. There are two other songs, one called Marcy's Song (sung by Hawkes in the trailer) and another called Marlene, from 40 years ago (story is here). The soundtrack album is available exclusively on iTunes.

Do check this out and learn why she has so many names.

The Rum Diary (2011)

Jack and I wanted to like this but sadly found the adaptation of Hunter Thompson's first novel a mishmash, unable to decide if it's a political drama about a newspaperman in 1960 Puerto Rico, an action movie, or a rollicking farce. Jack, who read Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, said that Thompson's writing style is equally disjointed, you should forgive the expression. One of the tag lines on imdb is "One part outrage. One part justice. Three parts rum. Mix well." I think a better blender was needed for the mixing.

I was surprised when I learned that Bruce Robinson directed and adapted Thompson's novel, because I LOVED (caps necessary) his quirky Withnail & I (1987) and especially How To Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) (he also was Oscar-nominated for writing The Killing Fields (1984) and wrote the excellent Return to Paradise (1988)). Johnny Depp (last covered in these pages in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) gives his all to each genre but can't save the project from the script. More fine actors give what they can, notably Michael Rispoli (Two Family House (2000), Jackie Aprile on The Sopranos, Death to Smoochy (2002)), Aaron Eckhart (covered in Rabbit Hole), Richard Jenkins (I wrote about him in Eat Pray Love), Amber Heard (The Joneses, the now-cancelled series The Playboy Club) whose character Chenault is pronounced sha-NELL, and Giovanni Ribisi (I've missed much of his work, but liked Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) and Avatar, in which he had supporting roles, as well as a series arc on My Name is Earl) who manages to out-swish Depp as a drunken co-worker.

What we did like were the fabulous vintage cars, the beautiful location shots of Puerto Rico, and the slow motion cock fighting (you won't see the violence). You don't need to pay to see this--just wait for its free cable showings and watch for those cars!

The Names of Love (Le nom des gens - 2010)

Another great French movie, this is about a ditzy woman, proud of her middle-Eastern name Baya Benmahmoud, who feels the best way to convert right-wingers is to have sex with them. Then she meets a straight-laced guy with an ordinary name, Arthur Martin, and begins a romance. The part was re-written once Sara Forestier was cast as Baya, and it won her the César Award (French equivalent of the Oscar) for Best Actress and Michel Leclerc and Baya Kasmi won Best Original Screenplay. In the subtitles, by the way, the heroine's name is spelled Baya, like the screenwriter's. However, on imdb, it's spelled Bahia. Although I have definitely seen Forestier in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) and Wild Grass, I don't remember those roles. Now I will remember her! Among other trivia, she asked that a nude scene be put back in after another actress had asked that it be removed. It's a funny scene (and not the only time we see her naked). Jacques Gamblin plays Arthur, and he is quite funny as well.

We saw this at a Jewish Film Festival, and were told before the movie began that Arthur Martin is the name of a type of washing machine in France, about which poor Arthur is frequently teased. And this time I knew the meaning of the actual movie title: Le nom des gens literally means the name of people. It showed only one night here, but is now available on netflix. Check it out. It's sexy and funny.

My Afternoons with Margueritte (La tête en friche - 2010)

Good fun! Mary, Bob, and I liked a lot this sweet tale of a barely literate man, teased and verbally abused his whole life, and his elderly friend who reads aloud to him from Camus and introduces him to the world of books. Starring Gérard Depardieu (last covered in Potiche) and 97-year-old Gisèle Casadesus and directed by Jean Becker, who, along with Jean-Loup Dabadie, adapted the novel by Marie-Sabine Roger (they are all experienced at their crafts, but new to me). The book won the Cezam Prix Litteraire Inter CE, one of the largest adjudicated readers' prizes in the world, in 1997 for Roger. And because I speak a little French and am interested, I looked up the meaning of the real title of the book and movie, La tête en friche. It means literally "the uncultivated [or fallow] head," which certainly does describe Depardieu's character Germain.

It closed here weeks ago, so save it to your netflix queue. Here is the trailer and a little of the music.

Take Shelter (2011)

Very well done, this story of a man going mad (or is he?) kept us riveted the whole time. Michael Shannon's (last covered in The Runaways) Curtis never has a moment's rest and his face shows it in every scene. As his wife Samantha, Jessica Chastain (The Debt) is outstanding, with a fully developed character to express. Jeff Nichols directed and wrote the script (his second), which is set and shot in northern Ohio, about 30 miles from Cleveland, and the little girl who plays their deaf daughter Hannah is a deaf girl from central Ohio named Tova Stewart who makes her acting debut here. I knew the guy who works with Curtis looked familiar, and then I watched the latest episode of Boardwalk Empire and realized he is Shea Whigham, who plays Sheriff Eli Thompson on that show, not so far sharing a scene with Shannon's Agent van Alden. Another face I recognized was Ray McKinnon, who has one scene as Curtis' brother Kyle--McKinnon was In O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and The Blind Side, among others.

Spooky music (go to the amazon page and click Play all samples) by David Wingo (from the band Ola Podrida) is supplemented by a song by Ben Nichols (the band Lucero), the director's brother. I'm glad I decided to write this one up, before the other five (!) in draft mode, because I learned the Gotham Award nominees for independent film have been published. This was nominated for best picture and ensemble cast, and soon I will add it to my work-in-progress of nominations and winners sorted by title. Well, maybe not that soon, since I have the others to write up, and haven't stopped seeing new ones, nor my other work.

Anyway, this is a good one, and you should see this new movie.

Margin Call (2011)

Peggy told me I would like this thriller about a big investment firm at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis and she was right. Written and directed by J.C. Chandor in his feature debut, it has a star-laden cast portraying people at all levels of the game, and it will keep you involved. Stanley Tucci's (after I wrote about him in Julie & Julia and The Lovely Bones he was in Burlesque and Captain America: The First Avenger) character is fired within minutes of the opening credits but his findings are key to the plot, which is explained clearly over the course of time. Then Zachary Quinto's (Spock in Star Trek) financial analyst runs with it, followed by his sidekick Penn Badgley (a regular on Gossip Girl, which I haven't watched). The hierarchy moves up to Paul Bettany (last covered in Creation), Kevin Spacey (Casino Jack), Simon Baker (good in Something New (2006) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006), I haven't watched The Mentalist), and finally Jeremy Irons (won his Oscar for Reversal of Fortune (1990), my other favorites include Dead Ringers (1988) in which he played twins, Damage (1992), The House of the Spirits (1993) in which he was among the mostly Anglo actors who played Chileans for the Danish director who adapted Isabel Allende's novel, Stealing Beauty (1996), Chinese Box (1997), Lolita (1997), and Being Julia (2004)) as the head honcho, with Demi Moore (The Joneses) and Aasif Mandvi (It's Kind of a Funny Story) thrown in for a smattering of diversity, speaking of House of the Spirits. Mary McDonnell (Oscar-nominated for Passion Fish (1992) and Dances with Wolves (1990), both of which I intend to see at some point, and I loved Grand Canyon (1991) and loved her part) must have had a good contract to get top billing with the others, as she has only one scene as Spacey's wife.

The tense music is by Nathan Larson (covered in Our Idiot Brother). I've been listening to it as I type, from a loop on the movie's official site. With 19 producers, including Quinto, this does not win the Producers Plethora prize, still held by Get Low with 23.

This time I can't tell you what Jack thought because he couldn't make it, but I liked it very much.

Contagion (2011)

Scary! This bio-thriller about a killer virus gone world-wide epidemic is packed with stars and kept us on the edge of our seats, thinking about all the doors and hands we had touched. Director Steven Soderbergh (I wrote about him in The Informant!) is working again with writer Scott Z. Burns (I forgot to mention that Burns adapted the novel for the Informant! and co-adapted The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)), and this time takes credit in his own name as cinematographer (in all his previous work, Soderbergh uses the pseudonym Peter Andrews as cinematographer).

When Valentine's Day came out, Jack said, "Just tell us who isn't in it," and this bears some resemblance to that, with Gwyneth Paltrow (last mentioned in these pages in Country Strong), Matt Damon (Adjustment Bureau), Laurence Fishburne (Oscar-nominated for playing Ike Turner in What's Love Got to Do With It (1993), also good in Apocalypse Now (1979), Rumble Fish (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), The Color Purple (1985), Higher Learning (1995), Bobby (2006), 21 (2008), and many more), John Hawkes (Higher Ground) playing someone non-creepy for a change, Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes), Marion Cotillard (Midnight in Paris), Kate Winslet (my favorites: Sense and Sensibility (1995), the love story part of Titanic (1997), Hideous Kinky (1998), Holy Smoke (1999), Iris (2001), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Little Children (2006), her scenes in Romance & Cigarettes, the mini-series Mildred Pierce (2011), and her Oscar-winning performance in The Reader, which was predicted by Ricky Gervais in the episode of Extras where Winslet played a foul-mouthed version of herself who said the Holocaust wins Oscars), Jennifer Ehle (The Ides of March), Demetri Martin (Taking Woodstock), Elliott Gould (my personal faves are the TV movie Once Upon a Mattress (1964), Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) for which he was Oscar-nominated, M*A*S*H (1970), California Split (1974), Bugsy (1991), and Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001), Twelve (2004), and Thirteen (2007), among his 162 acting credits), Bryan Cranston (Drive), Sanaa Lathan (Love & Basketball (2000), Something New (2006), a series arc on Nip/Tuck), and Dr. Sanjay Gupta as himself among the 68 actors credited with 78 more uncredited, which may be a precedent.

Shooting locations are listed as Atlanta, San Francisco, Hong Kong, and various places in Illinois, but it looks like we travel around the world with very high production values. Master composer Cliff Martinez (also covered in Drive) keeps up the tension with his high energy score, of which all twenty tracks are posted on youtube and is available from iTunes, amazon, etc.

My favorite line apparently is someone else's, as it's been posted on imdb: Gould's scientist says to Law's blogger, "Blogging is not writing. It's just graffiti with punctuation."

Playing in only one house here, this has a predicted DVD release date of January. Don't watch the movie right before you go to sleep if you're prone to nightmares. But it's good.

The Big Year (2011)

We rather liked this comedy with Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson as competitive birdwatchers, even though reviews were awful (40% critics/54% audiences on rottentomatoes). There's a robust supporting cast, including Dianne Wiest and Brian Dennehy as Black's parents, JoBeth Williams as Martin's wife, Rosamund Pike as Wilson's wife, Rashida Jones and Andrew Wilson (Owen and Luke's brother) as fellow birders, Kevin Pollak and Joel McHale as Martin's business associates, and cameos by Anjelica Huston, Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Parsons...the list goes on, and Jack correctly identified a voiceover as John Cleese of Monty Python fame. I don't remember Black's film debut in Bob Roberts (1992), though the movie was great, but did like him in a number of pictures, including High Fidelity (2000),  Shallow Hal (2001), The School of Rock (2003), King Kong (2005), Margot at the Wedding (2007), and Tropic Thunder. I wrote about my favorite Owen Wilson roles in Midnight in Paris and Steve Martin in It's Complicated, and all three are believable as the obsessive birders.

Directed by David Frankel (Miami Rhapsody (1995), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Marley & Me (2008, I didn't see it), and some TV) from a script adapted by Howard Franklin (The Name of the Rose (1986), Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), more) from the book The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik, the movie features great locations (mostly Canada, plus some Atlanta), wonderful sets, and, of course, beautiful photography of birds by Lawrence Sher (Kissing Jessica Stein (2001), Garden State (2004), Dan in Real Life (2007), The Hangover, The Hangover Part II, among others).

The music is also good, with eight songs, including Black's ringtone, listed here, and if you scroll down on that link, you can hear samples (click on the little arrows next to $0.99) of the excellent soundtrack composed by Theodore Shapiro, who scored State and Main (2000), Old School (2003), Prada, Tropic Thunder, and Dinner for Schmucks, among his 50 credits.

If you see only one movie a month, perhaps you should pick another, but if you like birds or any of the cast members, check this one out, still playing in very limited showtimes here, with a possible DVD release set for February.

The Way (2010)

Poignant, lovely, and even funny at times, this story of a father undertaking the spiritual journey his son died before completing is just wonderful. It's the seventh collaboration between Emilio Estevez (director/writer/supporting) and his father Martin Sheen (starring) and is based in part on selected stories from Off the Road: a Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route by Jack Hitt (the movie's website credits him so I submitted the correction to imdb and it will appear after a while, Hitt's first hit on imdb). The journey is the walk from St. Jean Pied de Port in southwestern France to Santiago de Compostela, which is in the northwest corner of Spain, about 500 miles (I spent a week in Santiago de Compostela in 1997--it's a fascinating medieval city with stone streets and Gaelic music--but didn't learn much about the Pilgrim's Route). The prolific Sheen (born Ramon Estevez) has 226 acting credits, and my favorites include Catch-22 (1970) (I'm showing my age here!), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Dead Zone (1983--one of my top twenty of all time), Wall Street (1987), Da (1988), Bobby (see below), Talk to Me (2007), and, of course, 154 episodes of the West Wing--I watched a couple of seasons but Jack has seen them all multiple times). Here Sheen is a master of manly introversion--recently I heard someone on a screen, big or small, say, "We men can talk about our feelings, we'd just rather not," which sums up Sheen's Tom Avery. Estevez, now 41, has been acting since he was 18 (my faves: The Outsiders (1983), Repo Man (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985)), got his first screenplay produced at 23, and began directing five years later (of his five features I've seen only Bobby (2006), a great ensemble piece about the people at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, the night of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination). We see his Daniel Avery as a ghost who occasionally walks and talks with his father along The Way.

The excellent supporting cast includes Deborah Kara Unger (coincidentally my favorite of her many credits, Crash (1996) (not the 2004 Oscar winner), was directed by David Cronenberg, who directed Sheen in The Dead Zone) as angry Canadian Sarah, Yorick van Wageningen as jovial Dutchman Joost (pronounced yost, rhymes with toast), James Nesbitt (Waking Ned Devine (1998), Millions) as intense Irishman Jack, and Tchéky Karyo (I recognized his name and face but his credits aren't all that familiar to me) as Zen-like Frenchman Captain Henri.

The movie was shot on location on the actual trek and the images are quite lovely. The music by Tyler Bates is pretty, with nice guitar riffs. To hear two tracks, go to this page and select playlist 2 (I also enjoyed hearing the first track on playlist 1: the theme to the Showtime series Californication). Most of his other work has been much more agitated than this, which you'll discover if you listen to the rest of the tracks. In addition there are good songs, listed here.

This is still playing in our town and Jack and I highly recommend it. I have to add that when I heard Tom describe Daniel, in both the trailer and the movie, as "my only son," I thought about messed up Charlie Sheen, and who wouldn't want to distance himself?

Restless (2011)

Despite a dismal 35% (critics) /58% (audiences) on rottentomatoes, I liked a lot this story of odd teenagers in love and Jack said, "It wasn't hatable." Annabel (Mia Wasikowska) and Enoch (Henry Hopper) meet at a funeral and share, for different reasons, an obsession with death. Director Gus Van Sant (I liked Drugstore Cowboy (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Elephant (2003), and Paranoid Park (2007), and loved To Die For (1995), Good Will Hunting (1997), Finding Forrester (2000), and Milk) keeps it light from a script by newcomer Jason Lew, who went to NYU with Bryce Dallas Howard. She convinced him to flesh out his play and she produced this movie along with her father Ron and Ron's producing partner Brian Grazer, among others. Wasikowska (pronounced vash-i-kov-ska, she is Australian) was believable as Alice in Wonderland with an English accent and as the strong-willed American daughter in The Kids Are All Right, and here is the strong-willed sick American girl in the fabulous vintage outfits. Costume designer Danny Glicker (Oscar-nominated for Milk, won a Costume Designers Guild award from his peers for Transamerica (2005), and was nominated for Milk and Up in the Air) may get another nomination for this one. Hopper is the 21-year-old son of the late Dennis Hopper, and Henry had one other role before this, at the age of 6. I hope he isn't too daunted by the bad reviews, for which few are faulting the acting anyway. Speaking of famous parents, Sissy Spacek's 29-year-old daughter Schuyler Fisk (The Babysitters Club (1995)) plays Annabel's custodial sister as brisk and overworked. The wonderful Jane Adams (my favorites: Happiness (1998), The Anniversary Party (2001), Little Children (2006), The Wackness, and just started another season of Hung) is under-used as Enoch's aunt.

Danny Elfman wrote the score and I can't find any clips for your enjoyment (other than that in the trailer and a loop on the site). I'm a huge fan of Elfman, including his four Oscar nominations (Men in Black (1997), Good Will Hunting (1997), Big Fish (2003), and Milk), as well as Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), Back to School (1986), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Dick Tracy (1990), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman Returns (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), To Die For (1995), Men in Black II (2002), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Spider-Man (2002, 04), Milk, Alice in Wonderland, and many more) and this is more understated than his usual splashy orchestral work.

We saw this ten days ago, just before it closed in our area, and the DVD release date hasn't yet been announced. Save it to your netflix queue it for the good acting, the cloudy Portland Oregon scenery, and Gus Van Sant.

The Future (2010)

Here's one that we didn't much like. Director/writer Miranda July's sophomore feature opens with her croaky voiceover from a wounded cat waiting to be adopted by dysfunctional couple Sophie (July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) and their lives get weirder from there. Her feature debut, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), was pretty good and won piles of awards. July (née Grossinger, and there's a story behind each name) puts herself out there, which I respect, and has worked as a performance artist, which is evident in some scenes. Jack and I don't mind quirky, but this is a little annoying, I'm sorry to report, despite its nomination for a major award at the Berlin Film Festival. I know how difficult it is for women to make their own movies but I just didn't care about the people (or the cat), nor did I find the story amusing. I do like Linklater, who starred as the brother in The New Adventures of the Old Christine, and here plays the same kind of smart, worried nebbish.

July met fellow director Mike Mills (Beginners) in 2005 when both of their debut pictures were featured at Sundance, and they've been married for two years now. So maybe they'll do something good together in "the future."

Composer Jon Brion (Hard Eight (1996), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), I Heart Huckabees (2004), Synechdoche, New York, The Other Guys, more) provides the music, but I honestly don't remember it, as we saw this maybe 6-8 weeks ago. Watching the trailer again, I see elements that I like, way better than I recall, so maybe you should give it 91 minutes of your life after it's released on DVD.

50/50 (2011)

Jack and I loved this story of a 20-something guy diagnosed with a tumor on his back--surprisingly funny and predictably poignant. Writer Will Reiser actually had this rare cancer and Seth Rogen was his supportive friend and here plays the supportive friend of patient Joseph Gordon-Levitt--they have wonderful chemistry as the id and the ego, respectively, with Gordon-Levitt (he was in Inception after I wrote about him in (500) Days of Summer and this title will go right above it in my alphabetical list) giving a nuanced performance as Adam, and Rogen (covered in The Green Hornet) his usual irresponsible stoner, but this time a caring friend. The stellar supporting cast includes Anna Kendrick (see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help), Anjelica Huston (favorites: Prizzi's Honor (1985), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), The Grifters (1990), Agnes Browne (1999) which she directed, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), and Choke), Philip Baker Hall (profiled in All Good Things), and Matt Frewer (with 111 acting jobs on imdb, he'll always be Max Headroom to me).

This is Reiser's (a cousin of actor Paul) feature film writing debut, though he's done a little producing, and an assured script it is at the hands of director Jonathan Levine, who wrote and directed The Wackness, which we also loved. Rogen encouraged Reiser to write the script and we're glad he did.

Despite Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino's (covered in Super 8) score, what you will remember are the songs, listed here by fellow blogger reelsoundtrack, who came back from a long hiatus days before we saw this.

This is one of the best movies so far this year, in my humble opinion, though "Oscar season" has barely begun. Do make a point of seeing it.