Albert Nobbs (2011)

I loved this story of an inhibited cross-dressing woman working as a hotel waiter in 1890s Dublin and Jack liked it, too. Glenn Close obtained the rights to the story after starring in it onstage in 1982, and she not only gives the performance of a lifetime and produces, she co-wrote the screenplay and the lyrics to a song sung over the end credits by Sinead O'Connor. Close has been nominated for six Oscars: The World According to Garp (1982), The Big Chill (1983), The Natural (1984), Fatal Attraction (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), and now this, for which she lost the SAG, Critics' Choice, and Golden Globe Awards (her song lost the Globe to Madonna's and the Best Makeup Oscar (watch this featurette) will probably not be won here, but by The Iron Lady). Here is a link to my list of movie awards and nominations sorted by title. In addition to her Oscar-nominated work, I also liked Close a lot in Jagged Edge (1990), Reversal of Fortune (1990), The Paper (1994), 101 Dalmatians (1996), Cookie's Fortune (1999), The Safety of Objects (2001), and Nine Lives (2005), the latter of which shares a director, Rodrigo García, with Albert Nobbs. I covered García in detail in Mother and Child, but didn't realize at the time that he is the son of Colombian author Gabriel García Marquez.

6'1" Janet McTeer's (I quite liked her in Songcatcher (2000)) performance is also amazing and is nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar. Fine support is provided by Mia Wasikowska (last seen in these pages as Annabel in Restless), Pauline Collins (Cristal in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), Maria Doyle Kennedy (from The Commitments (1991) to Dexter), Brendan Gleeson (Gerry Doyle in The Guard), and Aaron Johnson (John Lennon in Nowhere Boy), among others.

On a timely note, because I wanted to watch the SAG Awards tonight before writing this, just in case Close won, I remembered to check my DVR at 8:15 and, because it hates me and once again didn't follow my instructions, I manually started the recording then. I'm going to have to find a recording later of the "I am an actor" speeches.

The music, by Irish composer Brian Byrne, is lovely. You can listen to this soundtrack compilation, or go to this link, click open in iTunes, and hear longer samples by clicking them one at a time.

Our local freelance newspaper critic trashed this movie, and rottentomatoes agrees, with critics weighing in at 51% and audiences even lower at 46%. This time I'll include metacritic, which gives it 57% critics and 51 from audiences. We don't concur. We think it's good and you should see it.

War Horse (2011)

It's puzzling that this is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar when its other five nominations don't include any acting, directing, or writing. So see this story of a boy and his pet horse fighting in World War I for the cinematography, music, and animal handling (the latter is not a category). Sitting in the theatre I groused, "I hate war! And I hate war movies!" The mass horror of watching soldiers run to their slaughter disturbs me on a level far greater than individual dramas of murder or molestation. But I do like to see the cinematography nominees on the big screen. And Steven Spielberg's usual cinematographer Janusz Kaminski's (won Oscars for the Spielberg-directed war movies Schindler's List (1993--I dragged myself to it and thought it was good) and Saving Private Ryan (1998--I skipped it), also nominated for Amistad (1997--I missed it) and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007--I loved it), he also shot Jerry Maguire (1996), Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Terminal (2004), War of the Worlds (2005--not a real war movie), Munich (2005), and many more) images are spectacular. I haven't covered Spielberg yet in these pages, so here are my favorites chronologically: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Color Purple (1985), Jurassic Park (1993), Catch Me If You Can (2002), and The Terminal (2004).

The real star of the movie is the horse Joey, played by 14 different equine actors (no horses were harmed, blah blah), including Finder, who played the titular Seabiscuit (2003). The second mammal most on screen is now-21-year-old Jeremy Irvine, who was in a British TV series, and that's all, before being cast as Albert Narracott. Irvine was ebullient on a Letterman appearance recently, and, before the clip was shown, said that the horse was funny. No one in the audience laughed, but I got it--the horse rubbed people with his head like a cat. Supporting cast includes Peter Mullan (I always think of him as Joe from My Name is Joe (1998)) and Emily Watson (I missed her Oscar-nominated performances in Breaking the Waves (1996) and Hilary and Jackie (1998), but I did like Angela's Ashes (1999), Trixie (2000), Gosford Park (2001), Wah-Wah (2005), Miss Potter (2006), and Cold Souls) as Albert's parents, David Thewlis (last mentioned in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) as their landlord, Tom Hiddleston (in Midnight in Paris as Scott Fitzgerald) and Benedict Cumberbatch (I'll write soon about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as the soldiers who first take Joey to war, and Niels Arestrup (the scary guy in A Prophet) as the loving French grandfather.

We saw the Tony-award-winning play (adapted from a children's book of the same name by Michael Morpurgo, whose cameo at the auction, standing next to Thewlis, we missed) at Lincoln Center in September. The staging, with life-size puppets, was fabulous (here's a video to give you an idea). Jack, Don, and I thought the story was corny (Lisal loved all of it). And this is the same story. So I can't really recommend it one way or another. Yes, the photography is gorgeous. The music, also Oscar-nominated, is pretty corny, too (listen here and, with a few hitches to reload the pages, the tracks will advance if you click back onto the page if you're doing something else). I'd be very surprised if it wins Best Picture in February.

Carnage (2011)

Jack and I saw The God of Carnage (about two couples discussing a playground incident between their 11-year-old sons) on Broadway in 2009 and liked it a lot. We agree this movie adaptation is a fine one. Here we have superstars Jodie Foster playing Marcia Gay Harden's part, John C. Reilly in for James Gandolfini, Kate Winslet for Hope Davis, and Christoph Waltz for Jeff Daniels. Not obvious choices, but quite wonderful, under the direction of Roman Polanski (covered in The Ghost Writer). Because Polanski would be arrested for his past crime if he were to set foot on American soil, Carnage was shot in Paris, almost completely in a magnificent apartment (standing in for Brooklyn) that Jack commented was too nice considering what the characters who live there do for work. We missed the director's cameo, as the neighbor who peeks his head out of the apartment next door. Polanski collaborated with playwright Yasmina Reza on the screenplay.

Foster (I wrote about her in The Beaver, which Ricky Gervais called "Jodie Foster's Beaver" in the Golden Globes--yes, we finally got to watch that show last week) is so appropriately tightly wound as the intellectual Penelope it's hard for me to remember Harden in the part. Reilly (last in these pages in Terri), as her husband Michael, can channel Gandolfini's volatility in the second half as well as the easy-going manner required for the first. Winslet (my favorites are listed in Contagion) is great as Nancy, the conciliatory mother of the offending boy, as is Christoph Waltz (see Water for Elephants) as Alan, her husband with the non-stop cell phone. Waltz, born in Vienna, has now adopted an American accent as good as Winslet's (a Brit). The actual playground is shown as bookends (scenes at the beginning and end of the movie) shot from far away with no dialogue. Polanski's son Elvis, himself going on 14, plays the offending boy.

Prolific composer Alexandre Desplat (last heard in The Ides of March) provides the score, which is not for sale and hasn't been posted anywhere that I can find. You'll have to take my word for it that it's good. Or just see the movie. It's very short (80 minutes) and will make you cringe and laugh. If you don't have time to see it on the big screen, its expected DVD release is March 20. Of the four movies waiting in draft mode for me to complete, this is the one I liked the best.

2012 Oscar nominations

Announced this morning, they didn't have many big surprises (this article from the LA Times about who got snubbed is interesting). See the complete list of nominations here if you haven't already and check out my running list of nominations and wins sorted by title.

The Iron Lady (2011)

Ah, that magnificent chameleon, Meryl Streep! Many have complained that the movie concentrates too much on Margaret Thatcher's dementia and not enough on her power, but no one complained about Streep's Golden Globe-winning performance as the Prime Minister in mid-life and old age. And I predict a makeup Oscar nomination tomorrow for the flawless aging, the wigs, and the dental prostheses, complemented by Streep's (last in these pages in It's Complicated) flawless body language. The superb Jim Broadbent (Another Year) plays Denis Thatcher, and Alexandra Roach and Harry Lloyd are wonderful as the couple in younger days.The thought crossed my mind that it would have been nice for one of Streep's own daughters to play her as a younger woman, but Roach gets it just right (plus her teeth match) and Lloyd (the handsome great-great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens) is delightful as the captivated young Denis (here's a photo of them from the movie and an interview with Lloyd).

This is the third feature for former theatre director Phyllida Lloyd (her first was the treacly Mamma Mia!). Not to be confused with Emma Thompson's mother Phyllida Law, Lloyd has gotten it right with this one, helped by a screenplay by Abi Morgan (I liked the TV series she's written that I've seen--Tsunami: The Aftermath (2006) and The Hour (2011)--we tried to see Shame on Saturday but technical problems kept us away).

Tracks from the lovely soundtrack by the prolific Thomas Newman can be found on youtube. Of the four movies I have seen but not summarized, this is the one most likely to be honored at tomorrow morning's Oscar nomination announcements.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)

A "popcorn flick," more suitable for a summer day than Oscar season, this low-brow, action- and violence-filled romp delivers for everyone who can handle the shootings and danger inherent in this TV- series-turned-movie-franchise. Tom Cruise apparently did many of his own stunts, including swinging around near the top of the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai, the tallest building in the world. David Denby says, in the New Yorker capsule description, "The plot is utterly trivial: the world is about to be blown up by a 'nuclear extremist.' (As opposed to a 'nuclear moderate'?)" and I agree, but he, Jack, and I liked it. I covered Cruise in Valkyrie, his co-stars Jeremy Renner last in The Town, Simon Pegg last in Star Trek, Paul Patton in Precious, Michael Nyqvist in the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and its second and third installments. I did have to ask Jack what IMF means: Impossible Mission Force. Duh.

The opening credits are stupendous. We saw it in IMAX a few weeks ago, and wondered why were given special glasses. I kept moving them off and on, and couldn't tell the difference, other than their cheap tinted lenses made the screen darker. The locations are spectacular: they did shoot in Dubai, but substituted Bangalore for Mumbai and Prague for Budapest.

Directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille) in his live-action directing debut, it is indeed cartoony. The screenplay is by Josh Applebaum and André Nemec in their feature film debut. Bird used his Ratatouille composer, Michael Giacchino (after I wrote about him in Super 8, he scored 50/50) to exciting effect. As usual, someone has posted the tracks on youtube. You will want to start with #2, which contains the theme, and move around from there. There is some great singing in the score, which I have dubbed the Moscow Gay Men's Chorus.

Good fun for lovers of the genre, this fourth chapter in the feature series still has a 93% rating on rottentomatoes, making it the ninth highest rated movie in the top 50, and still #8 at the box office last weekend in its fifth week of release.

The Artist (2011)

Not subtle and quite entertaining, this is a 99% silent movie about a male star in 1927 about to be cast aside by the new technology of "talkies" while his starlet friend (both with 1,000 watt smiles) is rocketing to the top. Much loved at festivals and by critics, it's definitely worth your time and money. Oh, and as in Beginners, there's an adorable Jack Russell terrier (details on this one, named Uggie). Although it's a production of France and Belgium, the dialogue cards (and mouthed words) are in English (this compulsive proofreader noticed the spaces always put before question marks, exclamation points, and ellipses). French stars Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo may be unknown here in America now, but not for long (babetteflix trivia: I raved about Dujardin's wife Alexandra Lamy in Ricky). Supporting cast includes Americans John Goodman (my favorites: True Stories (1986), Raising Arizona (1987), Roseanne (1988-97), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000), and Evan Almighty) (he has slimmed down considerably) as the producer, James Cromwell (he was Oscar-nominated for Babe (1995), and my faves include L.A. Confidential (1997), The Green Mile (1999), 27 episodes of Six Feet Under (2003-05), The Queen (2006), and W.) as the chauffer Clifton, Penelope Ann Miller (I liked her in The Freshman (1990) as well as Chaplin (1992), another period piece) looking severe in dark lipstick as the wife, Joel Murray (plays Eddie, Sheila's husband, on Shameless) as a cop, and Andy Milder (Dean Hodes in Weeds) as a director in knickers, among many. Director/writer Michel Hazanavicius is no stranger to filmmaking, having directed/written two other features, directed a third, and written four more, but I've heard of none of them. Perhaps by the end of this evening, when the Golden Globes are over (of course they're recording on my DVR and I'll watch when I'm done here), we'll all learn how to pronounce his name. To see a long trailer go here.

The music, by Ludovic Bource, has received its fair share of nominations and wins so far (here's my running total of nominations and awards, sorted by film title--you should know that the American Society of Cinematographers also nominated cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography, a great honor to be nominated by one's peers). To hear the soundtrack, go to this link and proceed from there. News flash: Bource won the Golden Globe for Best Score about an hour and a half ago.

I have three other movies to summarize (watch these pages for two raves and one "meh") but wanted to get this posted so you will see it right away! Instead of my usual writing until the wee hours, I want to quit and go watch Ricky Gervais insult people (update--my DVR did not record the show, but I can tell you this movie won Best Picture, Musical or Comedy and Dujardin won Best Actor, Musical or Comedy). One last thing about the 1% that's not silent. I insist on no spoilers, so, instead, will reference Mel Brooks' Silent Movie (1976), in which one word is spoken: mime Marcel Marceau utters, "Non!"

The Infidel (2010)

Having missed this at our Jewish Film Festival Jack and I streamed it on netflix a few months later and laughed a lot at the story of a not-very-observant Muslim in London who discovers in his late mother's papers that he is adopted and was actually born Jewish. Omid Djalili, a British-Iranian comedian, is hilarious as the lead Mahmud, as is Richard Schiff (I wrote about him in Made in Dagenham) as his dissolute Jewish neighbor Lenny, thanks to the script by David Baddiel (born here, raised in the UK, Jewish atheist (if you don't understand, ask me), he's also a comedian, actor, novelist, documentarian, and TV and radio writer and performer) and direction by Josh Appignanesi (Jewish on his mother's side, he directed one other feature, set in Israel). Another draw for me is Archie Panjabi (best known now as the sneaky and sexy Kalinda on The Good Wife, she played the sister in Bend it Like Beckham (2002) and a confidante in a Mighty Heart (2007), among other roles) demonstrating comic timing as Mahmud's suspicious wife. 

All sorts of farcical complications ensue, inspired by writer Baddiel's affinity for "life-swap comedy (Big, Trading Places, etc.)" and his desire to make people laugh about their fears when it comes to the interactions between Muslims and Jews. This is quite funny and is in English with British accents and only a few subtitles, now playing on your computer with a netflix streaming subscription.

We Bought a Zoo (2011)

Amy, Jack, and I chose this for our Christmas day movie and we liked it a lot. A family reeling from the death of the wife and mother makes a new start in a country property that just happens to house a zoo in need of revitalizing. Matt Damon (last discussed in these pages in Contagion) is good as the dad Benjamin (it doesn't hurt that I've seen him talking on late night shows about being a regular dad of three), Colin Ford (at 15 he's already got 38 credits) is good as Dylan, and Maggie Elizabeth Jones (now 7) is awesome as little Rosie.

Cameron Crowe (he was a 15 year old writer for Rolling Stone and immortalized his story in Almost Famous (2000), which won him the Original Screenplay Oscar, was nominated for writing Jerry Maguire (1996) which he directed, also known for writing and directing the iconic Say Anything... (1989) in which John Cusack holds up the boombox) and Aline Brosh McKenna (Devil Wears Prada (2006), Morning Glory, more) adapted Benjamin Mee's memoir to make this. Patrick Fugit, who was the Crowe character in Almost Famous, is in this as one of the zoo workers, but, interestingly, he's almost mute. More support can be found from Thomas Haden Church (Oscar-nominated for Sideways (2004), also great in 123 episodes of Wings (1990-95), Spanglish (2004), Smart People (2008), Another Happy Day, and more) as Benjamin's brother, Scarlett Johansson (covered in Iron Man 2) as the head animal keeper, Elle Fanning (I wrote about her in Super 8) as her niece, Angus Macfayden (perhaps best known as Robert the Bruce in Braveheart (1995), but I like to think of him as wild man Julian in Californication--new season starting January 8!) as wild man Peter, J.B. Smoove (Leon in Curb Your Enthusiasm and the cab driver in Date Night) as the realtor, and John Michael Higgins (last covered in Bad Teacher) as the zoo inspector.

Mention must be made of the magnificent photography by Rodrigo Prieto (after I wrote about him in Broken Embraces, he shot Biutiful and Water for Elephants).

To be expected of Crowe, there's an imaginative soundtrack by Jon Thor Birgisson, AKA Jónsi of the Icelandic band Sigur Rós. As I write this I am listening to his 15 songs from the movie streaming from a page on the Rolling Stone website. In addition, there are 20 more songs, listed here.

This is a nice movie to see with kids of all ages (that reminds me, I need to update my kid movie list). It's been nominated for nothing (critics 63%, audiences 83% on rottentomatoes), but we still enjoyed it thoroughly.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

Despite a change in writers, this sequel to the one released two years ago has director Guy Ritchie's Holmes-o-vision (warning, spoilers in that link) style all over it, and it's fast paced fun just like the other, with hand to hand combat, all the modern weaponry of 1891, and a few mild anachronisms (more spoilers). In my post on Sherlock Holmes I covered Ritchie, stars Robert Downey, Jr. (Holmes), Jude Law (Watson), Kelly Reilly (Mary), and Rachel McAdams (Irene Adler). This time we have additional cast members Noomi Rapace (the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) as a Gypsy, Stephen Fry (a comedian who worked with Hugh Laurie (better known now as House) on a show called Fry and Laurie (1987-1995), and a writer, my favorites of his acting gigs include A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Peter's Friends (1992), Jeeves to Laurie's Wooster in the TV series Jeeves and Wooster (1990-93), I.Q. (1994), the title role of Oscar Wilde in Wilde (1997), Gosford Park (2001), Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005), and the voice of the Cheshire Cat, my favorite character in Alice in Wonderland) as Holmes' brother Mycroft, and Jared Harris (the son of actor Richard Harris, Jared has 64 acting credits in his 50 years of age, including as Lane Pryce on Mad Men, scary guys in the now-cancelled series The Riches and movies The Notorious Bettie Page (2005) as a photographer and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as a sea captain) as the evil Professor Moriarty. Everyone performs admirably. I must admit, though, every time Mycroft Holmes used a nickname for his brother I wanted to say, "Don't call me Sherly!"

The new writers are actor Dermot Mulroney's brother and sister-in-law Kieran and Michele (their second and third feature scripts, respectively) and I didn't detect much change from the other team. I did notice some continuity errors with the cut on Sherlock's cheek appearing and disappearing, as well as Watson's limp, but perhaps I'm nitpicking.

Music is once again by the great Hans Zimmer (I wrote about him in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) and all of the tracks can be found on youtube, however they're not easy to get into order, because the titles are so long. If you like that sort of thing, as I do, you can start with this one and haphazardly jump around when it quits.

If you liked the first one, you'll like this, too.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

The Swedish one is good but this, I daresay, is better, though still not for the faint of heart, as the brutal rape scene remains, albeit a bit shorter and slightly less graphic, along with other violence ensuing. That doesn't mean you shouldn't bother with the original; both are engrossing. I loved the music and pacing in this one, as well as the gorgeous winter and spring scenery photographed by Jeff Cronenweth (shot One Hour Photo (2002), Down with Love (2003), and Oscar-nominated for The Social Network) mostly on location in Sweden.

Director David Fincher (after I wrote about him in The Social Network, he received another of the movie's five nominations: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Cinematography, and Sound Editing, and it won for Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, and Original Score) and screenplay adapter Steven Zaillian (covered in Moneyball), adapting directly from the book and not from the other movie, use a more visual style and change a few details, leading one of my friends to think there are two stories that needed combining. Rooney Mara (briefly covered in The Social Network) is terrific as the title character, completely embodying the asocial, abused, and avenging Lisbeth. She lost weight, against the advice of her director, and got a number of actual piercings (details) both as method acting and so she'd be ready for the sequels (the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was part one of the Millennium Trilogy by the late Stieg Larsson, and all three were made into Swedish movies released over there between 2009-10). Speaking of the sequels, some industry analysts wonder if the sequels will get remade here at all, when this version has made somewhere between $21-47 million (every site gives a different number--that's Hollywood) in two weeks against a budget of around $90 (the Swedish version cost $7 million, or was it $13 million, and it may have made $104 million so far). Daniel Craig (last mentioned in Cowboys & Aliens) brings macho that I kind of wanted in the older movie to Mikael Blomqvist. Supporting cast are all good: Christopher Plummer (Beginners, much more) wonderful as always as Henrik, as is Joely Richardson (Vanessa Redgrave's and Tony Richardson's daughter, she was great in Return to Me (2000), 101 Dalmatians (1996), 100 episodes of Nip/Tuck, and I liked and liked her in the much-maligned I'll Do Anything (1994)) as adult Anita, Stellan Skarsgård (last in these pages in Melancholia) and all the rest. The one I had to look up was Geraldine James as Cecilia, whose face I knew from Made in Dagenham, Sherlock Holmes, and its new sequel (which I'll be writing up next) (yes, the holidays have put me very, very far behind in both watching and writing).

The story is set in a few locations in Sweden, and all the characters speak English with mild Swedish accents, to my ear. I had no trouble understanding them, though a couple of my friends did (the worst example of this trend was Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), an American adaptation of an American book about Japan, with Asian actors, all of whom are able to speak English flawlessly, using thickly accented English that had me longing for closed captions).

My anticipation for this version began the first time Jack and I saw the first trailer for this, with Karen O of the Yeah Yeahs singing lead on a kick-ass cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song. We laughed out loud at the tagline, "The feel bad movie of Christmas." And it was nice to hear that cover over the splashy opening credits, instead of saving it for the end. Speaking of the end, this, like the other version, is closer to three hours than to two, so be prepared.

We thought that having seen the first version helped us to understand many details. Lots has been written comparing the two, and here are some articles (one, two, three), which I recommend reading after you've seen all you plan to see, as they contain spoilers.

As I said above, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won the Oscar (and Golden Globe) for Original Score of The Social Network, their first feature together, and this is their second, already nominated for the Golden Globe (Oscar nominations will be announced January 24). Reznor is perhaps best known as part of Nine Inch Nails, and Ross worked with him in that and other bands. The soundtrack is extremely edgy (start with this link and move on to the others) and is composed of almost three hours of Reznor & Ross's instrumentals, plus the Karen O cover and Is Your Love Strong Enough (a Bryan Ferry cover) by (one of Reznor's other bands) How to Destroy Angels.

I can't finish this post without mentioning the emailed conversation I'm having with a friend, who was so horrified at the brutality in the 2009 version (which was released here in May of 2010, at which time he walked out during the aforementioned rape scene) that he published in his own blog last week that he feels it's his societal duty to shun and encourage others to shun such "entertainment." He says that audiences are perversely aroused by scenes such as this. I couldn't disagree more. I know of not one person who felt arousal, only disgust and horror, clearly the intent of both filmmaking teams. Perhaps we who see a lot of action movies, even action comedies, do get somewhat numbed to violence on screen, but there is no numbing possible for this one. It hits hard (pun intended) and that's what makes it so scary. Again, not for the faint of heart. That being said, both movies are still in the high 80th percentiles on rottentomatoes (this one 85% critics, 84% audiences; the older one 86/85). Jack and I recommend it for 85% of our friends, including you, dear readers.