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Hey, Batman — Dark Much?

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Okay, I know he’s the Dark Knight and all. And The Dark Knight was a reasonably dark film. (Still, perhaps, not as dark as Tim Burton’s entries into the franchise, but nowhere near the excruciating kiddie razzle-dazzle of Batman & Robin, which has aged even more poorly than expected.)

Still, the new Dark Knight Rises poster is super dramatic and menacing! (See the full-sized pic below.)

This looks more like a poster for something like Raging Bull than a comic book movie, which I wholly approve of. I love that the success of The Dark Knight is allowing Christopher Nolan to push some boundaries for how adult a superhero aimed at mass audiences can be. He’d never get away with this if he hadn’t made the third highest-grossing film of all time.

Hinting that Batman’s gonna die in the poster? Edgy stuff!

(For a summer blockbuster, anyway.)

[Spotted over at Slash Film.]



Trailer Trash: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

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“There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne…”


Wow. To go along with the awesome poster, this movie looks seriously epic. Totally unlike any Batman film that came before, including The Dark Knight. That scene in the football stadium…

Christopher Nolan really pulled out all the stops. And while I’m still not 100% sold on Anne Hathaway as Catwoman (she’s somewhere between the lows of Halle Berry and the heights of Michelle Pfeiffer in my eyes), I do like her dialogue here.

Can’t wait.


Twenty ’12: The 20 Most Anticipated Films Of 2012

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It’s a brand new year, which means brand new movies. Largely, 2012 promises more of the same — more sequels, more comic book adaptations, more prestigious literary adaptations, more zombies and vampires. But at least a few motion pictures look to break the mold this year.

January’s a little early to be looking all the way ahead at next fall, when most of the awards season hopefuls are released, but the tentpoles are set in place, and amongst them are some highly qualified filmmakers taking on material that, in other hands, might not be so inviting. For me, it’s all about who’s making it, who’s in it, and what the story is. I’ll avoid some films like herpes, while others I’ll be drawn to like a moth to a really good movie.

So without further ado, these are the most anticipated film of 2012, based on filmmakers, cast, premise, and any marketing materials that have surfaced thus far:

*

20. The Bourne Legacy (August)

Tony Gilroy (writer of all the Bourne movies, director of Michael Clayton) takes the reigns from Paul Greengrass, who made the last two (excellent) entries in this franchise. Joining the delectable Joan Allen (where, besides the Bourne movies, has she been lately?) are Edward Norton, Rachel Weisz, and Jeremy Renner — three reasons to be more excited than I otherwise might be. (Although the absence of Matt Damon may be a difficult obstacle to overcome.) Ordinarily, I might fear that in its fourth film, this series may have overstayed its welcome, but as Brad Bird’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol proved, sometime’s the fourth time’s a charm.

19. Vamps (TBA)

The good news: Amy Heckerling (director of Clueless) and Alicia Silverstone reunite! The bad news? It’s a comedy about vampires, a subject about as fresh as Dracula himself. So here’s more good news: Sigourney Weaver is also in it. Obviously, this one could really suck (hey, if the poster can make a “suck” pun, then I can too), but for now I’m just going to pretend it’s Clueless with fangs. Way harsh, Tai.

18. Savages (September)

It’s been more than a minute since Oliver Stone directed a decent movie — instead, we got the impotent W., the atrocious World Trade Center, and the snoozeworthy Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. The last truly good film Stone made was way back in 1999, Any Given Sunday. So why am I holding out hope for this one? Well, it’s about marijuana growers facing off against a drug cartel, which hopefully means Stone has stopped trying to be blandly topical as in the above-mentioned films and is back to playing his strengths. At least he’s got the cast right: Uma Thurman, Benicio Del Toro, Emile Hirsch, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, and Blake Lively. (Also: John Travolta. No comment on that one.)

17. Rock Of Ages (June)

I haven’t seen the Broadway musical, so I’ll make no claims about how promising this story is for a big screen adaptation (looks semi-hokey). Movie musicals tend to be hit or miss, and it’s been a spell since we saw a truly great one. But this one features a respectable lineup of acclaimed actors — Bryan Cranston, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti, Alec Baldwin, plus more unusual choices Malin Akerman, Russell Brand, and Mary J. Blige — plus Tom Cruise, possibly back in Magnolia mode? Directed by Hairspray‘s Adam Shankman, it features guilty pleasure 80′s music, which is a step above most showtunes, if you ask me.

16. Life Of Pi (December)

Previously attached directors range from M. Night Shyamalan to Alfonso Cuaron, and now it’s official — Brokeback Mountain‘s Ang Lee is taking the reigns. Based on Yann Martel’s much-lauded novel, it’s about a zookeeper’s son who finds himself stuck in a lifeboat with a tiger, a hyena, an orangutan, and a zebra. From a filmmaking standpoint, this presents obvious challenges — no CGI, please! — so it’ll be interesting to see how this tale translates to screen. Ang Lee is one of few directors I’d trust with this.

15. The Paperboy (TBA)

I was only so-so on Precious, and only partially because it insisted its full title was Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire. But Lee Daniels’ follow-up intrigues me — and not just because it’s not called The Paperboy: Based On The Novel The Paperboy By Peter Dexter (though that helps). I’m still not convinced Zac Efron can act, but if he can, here’s the movie to prove it, alongside Matthew McConaughey and John Cusack. Something about this cast in a thriller set in the sticky Florida heat is making me hope for something like the trash-tastic Wild Things. It also features a fantastically pulpy poster and Nicole Kidman returning to To Die For femme fatale territory. Yes, please!

14. Looper (September)

Brick director Rian Johnson reteams with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has proven himself a force to be reckoned both in smaller independent films and colossal ones. The story is about time-traveling mobsters and co-stars Emily Blunt and Bruce Willis (playing Gordon-Levitt’s older self). The advance buzz is good, so let’s hope it delivers. It’s been awhile since we saw a really good sci-fi movie of this sort. (Well, since Inception, anyway.)

13. Gangster Squad (October)

We haven’t seen a really good gangster movie in quite some time, either — Michael Mann’s Public Enemy, starring Johnny Depp, fell short of expectations. This one comes from Rubin Fleischer, director of the surprisingly wonderful Zombieland, is set in 1940′s LA, and stars Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Josh Brolin, and Sean Penn. How can you not be enticed?

12. Django Unchained (December)

Say this for Quentin Tarantino — he’s never boring. And whatever he’s cooking up is bound to get people talking. After taking on Nazis in Inglourious Basterds, now Tarantino’s putting his own spin on slavery with a tale of a slave-turned-bounty-hunter (oh, that old chestnut?). The impressive cast includes returning Tarantino vets Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, and Christoph Waltz, plus newcomers Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Whether or not it’s a great movie, it’s bound to be a fascinating one — but there’s every reason to believe it might be great.

11. Magic Mike (June)

This year’s “what the fuck, that’s actually a movie?” entry is a film based on Channing Tatum’s real-life experiences strip club, directed by Steven Soderbergh. Ordinarily, a movie about a bunch of male strippers starring Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, and Matthew McConaughey would sound like a G-string train wreck, but this is Steven Soderbergh, who has made more out of less. (He turned a movie about a call girl, played by a porn star, into something quite memorable in The Girlfriend Experience.) The fact that the Warner Bros. is even making a movie about male strippers takes… well, balls. It may be too much to hope for something in the realm of Boogie Nights, but it’s Soderbergh, so you never know.

10. Titanic (April)

The trailer almost made me cry. If ever there was a 3D rerelease to entice me to pay $15 to see a 15-year-old movie I already saw four times in theaters back in the day, it is Titanic. That is all.

9. The Cabin In The Woods (April)

Yes, this could turn out to be total horror-schlock nonsense. But it’s produced by Joss Whedon! The trailer promises at least a few unexpected twists on the ol’ “young people alone in the woods” scenario, and it is written and directed by a Buffy The Vampire Slayer staff writer. I have faith.

8. The Amazing Spider-Man (July)

I only mildly enjoyed Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, so normally I would have only a small degree of interest in a too-soon reboot of the franchise, save for two factors: 1) Peter Parker is now played by one of my favorite young actors, Andrew Garfield, who many will recognize from The Social Network but delivered even better performances in Boy A, Red Riding, and Never Let Me Go. 2) The film is directed by Marc Webb, who brought us one of the best (un)romantic comedies of the last decade, (500) Days Of Summer — and the fact that he, of all people, was selected to helm a big superhero blockbuster is 500 kinds of awesome. Hopefully, this means the characters and humor will be as sharp here as they were in (500) Days — not so in most movies of this sort. Also, Emma Stone is the new love interest, which should be plenty of fun.

7. Prometheus (June)

Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel might just be a return to form for the director and the franchise, which lost its way with the bleak Alien 3, the campy-fun but not quite up to snuff Alien Resurrection, and whatever those Alien vs. Predator movies were. The trailer promises copious thrill and chills; if Prometheus is even half as good as the first two Alien movies, I’m all about it.

6. Cloud Atlas (October)

An acclaimed novel, a buzzy director — this list is starting to sound repetitive, isn’t it? Well, Cloud Atlas is still on my reading list, so I can’t speak for the quality of the book yet. But Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer brings us this adaptation of an epic story that leap-frogs through time and place, starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, and Jim Broadbent, which means this could either be a sprawling, bombastic mess or a masterpiece. We’ll see.

5. Lincoln (December)

Steven Spielberg essentially operates under two modes — the Oscar-worthy heavy stuff and escapist blockbuster fare. This year, he released one of each, but War Horse found sort of a middle ground (as in, it wasn’t too serious). So it’s about time the ‘Berg delivered another one in the vein of Saving Private Ryan or Schindler’s List (just hopefully not Amistad). I might have some reservations about this project if it didn’t have Daniel Day-Lewis as frickin’ Abraham Lincoln. Hopefully, DDL is already making room on his mantle for another Oscar. Also, here’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt again as Lincoln’s son! When does this guy sleep?

4. Gravity (November)

After Children Of Men, the third Harry Potter, and Y Tu Mama Tambien, Alfonso Cuaron could direct another High School Musical and I’d still be there opening day. I have yet to get a handle on what this film is really about — Sandra Bullock and George Clooney play astronauts stranded in space — but there’s buzz about it pushing boundaries with some mind-blowing new special effects. I care less about that, and more about the fact that Cuaron is one of the most viscerally exhilarating filmmakers we’ve got. Combine that with a terror in outer space, and I’m floored.

3. The Hunger Games (March)

Repeat after me: The Hunger Games is not Twilight. I know it’s tempting to compare them because they are both beloved book series aimed at young adults featuring female protagonists torn between the love of two equally strapping young men, but The Hunger Games has so much more going for it. As does its movie equivalent. For one — Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss (who’s no mopey, helpless Bella Swan, mind you — she kicks ass). It would be quite a shame for this film to not live up to the potential of these addictive books, so fingers crossed — wouldn’t it be great if the next Twilight-esque beheamoth was something that sentient adults could tolerate, too?

2. The Dark Knight Rises
(July)

“There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne…” Bet you thought this would be #1, didn’t you? As the third highest-grossing film of all time, The Dark Knight‘s footsteps will be hard to follow — especially since it spawned a legendary incarnation of a classic villain thanks to Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance. But the trailer indicates that Chris Nolan is more than up to the challenge of besting himself with spectacle to spare and a pitch-black atmosphere that hasn’t been toned down any. (If anything, it’s been kicked up a notch.) Other reasons to be jazzed: Tom Hardy appearing as Bane and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman — plus, hey! Joseph Gordon-Levitt! There’s a name we haven’t heard for awhile…

1. The Avengers (May)

Kicking off the summer movie season is yet another superhero movie — rather, the mother of all superhero movies, featuring Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, and plenty more. Normally, such an overblown cast might signal a rather unwieldly movie — The Avengers wouldn’t have made this list at all were it made by some second-rate hired hand — but this one is directed by Joss Whedon, who is perfect. To date, the Buffy maestro’s only feature film is a continuation of his own TV series FireflySerenity, which was pretty spectacular. Now we’ll see if he can deliver on a larger canvas, using a story with its own intricate mythology, plus millions of fans around the world hoping that The Avengers is the ultimate comic book movie of all time. But no pressure!

Noteworthy absences: The Hobbit trailer looked almost like a parody of a Lord Of The Rings film. I’m not that excited about it. The dueling Snow White films both look moderately wretched in their own ways. Men In Black III feels about a decade too late — Men In Black Orthopedic Shoes seems more fitting. Battleship, starring Rihanna — is this a Saturday Night Live sketch or a summer blockbuster? I think I’ll hold out for something a little classier, like Adele starring in Balderdash. Pixar’s Brave seems disappointingly ordinary, while the Sacha Baron Cohen vehicle The Dictator looks extraordinarily tasteless. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter? Well, the title makes fun of itself, doesn’t it? Skyfall might be fun, as it’s directed by American Beauty‘s Sam Mendes, but how worked up can I get about the zillionth James Bond flick? I can’t get too excited about another zombie movie either, even if it does star Brad Pitt, so sorry, World War Z. And Baz Luhrman doing a 3D Great Gatsby just sounds so wrong in so many ways.

Oh, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 juuust missed my cut-off at #21. I swear.


The Not-Oscars 2011

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(Originally posted over at Fabulous Apple. In preparation for this year’s “Not-Oscars,” here’s what I said about last year…)

We all know the Oscars don’t always get it right.

Of course, “right” is a matter of opinion — but with some perspective, there are a few awards and nominations we collectively agree did not go the way they should. A Beautiful Mind as Best Picture over Lord of the Rings, Gosford Park, In The Bedroom, and Moulin Rouge? Tommy Lee Jones as Best Supporting Actor for The Fugitive over Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List? The Green Mile and The Cider House Rules nominated for Best Picture in 2000 over Fight Club, Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Being John Malkovich, Election, or The Virgin Suicides? Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich beating Ellen Burstyn in Requiem For A Dream?

Yeah. Everyone’s a critic — especially me. But regardless of what the Academy says, there are a number of great performances from 2010 movies you should see — many you’re probably not even aware of. So in preparation for my “Not-Oscars 2011,” here are those that should have been nominated last year.

(The winners are in bold at the top, and from in descending order of how kudos-worthy they are. An asterisk marks the ones actually nominated.)

BEST ACTRESS

Julianne Moore — The Kids Are All Right
Natalie Portman — Black Swan *
Nicole Kidman — Rabbit Hole *
Kim Hye-ja — Mother
Annette Bening — The Kids Are All Right *

Honorable Mentions:
Michelle Williams — Blue Valentine *
Noomi Rapace — The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Yep. I, like many others, feel the Oscars got it wrong by nominating Annette Bening and snubbing Julianne Moore. Moore had more screen time and pulled off a more challenging role. Of course, Bening was fantastic too, and equally good in Mother And Child (again playing a bitchy mother). In other news, I’ve always been a fan of Natalie Portman and adored her in Black Swan, and was excited to see some of Kidman’s best work in years in Rabbit Hole. Kim Hye-ja, meanwhile, played just about every emotion in the book pitch-perfectly in a film that wouldn’t have worked without the sympathy we feel for her character. The always-solid Michelle Williams played an emotionally-wrought role with a lot of honesty, and Noomi Rapace took the now-iconic Lisbeth Salander to new heights and was the best part of her Swedish-language trilogy. Meanwhile, I just didn’t go nuts for Winter’s Bone’s Jennifer Lawrence like so many others did — she was solid, but the character didn’t captivate me as she did so many others. Julianne Moore was robbed.

BEST ACTOR

Jesse Eisenberg — The Social Network *
Aaron Eckhart — Rabbit Hole
James Franco — 127 Hours *
Colin Firth — The King’s Speech *
Ryan Gosling — All Good Things

Honorable Mentions:
Ryan Reynolds — Buried
Jeff Bridges — True Grit *
Upon second viewing I was even more impressed with Eisenberg’s performance than I had been at first. He manages to convey so much underneath that edgy, condescending exterior, and never becomes as unlikable as he reads in the screenplay. Almost as impressive is Eckhart’s moving work as a grieving dad — he deserves as much recognition as Kidman, but isn’t getting it. James Franco finally becomes a bona fide leading man in 127 Hours, single-handedly (ha!) carrying the entire movie, while Oscar favorite Colin Firth is undeniably strong in The King’s Speech. Gosling was unfortunately snubbed for Blue Valentine, but I find his killer-in-drag performance in All Good Things just a little more interesting. And much like 127 Hours, Buried is a one-man show (somehow, even more so), and Ryan Reynolds makes every moment count. Finally, Jeff Bridges is just a lot of fun in True Grit. But sorry, Javi — through no fault of your own, Bituiful was just too snoozy for me to get into your performance as the Academy obviously did.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jacki Weaver — Animal Kingdom *
Naomi Watts – Mother And Child
Kirsten Dunst — All Good Things
Delphine Chaneac — Splice
Mila Kunis — Black Swan

Honorable Mentions:
Blake Lively — The Town
Lesley Manville — Another Year

The toughest category for me this year — unfortunately I had no room for the girls from Rabbit Hole due to so much strong, diverse work this year. My favorite screen character of the year is Jacki Weaver’s sunny, ruthless “Grandma Smurf,” and in a just world, she’d win the Oscar. I also found Naomi Watts’ adopted ice princess fascinating in the little-seen Mother And Child — here we have a woman that not only seduces her neighbor’s husband just for the hell of it, but then leaves her panties lying around for the woman to find (all while carrying Samuel L. Jackson’s love-child). Kirsten Dunst provided a surprisingly empathetic emotional core in All Good Things, while Mila Kunis was naughty and magnetic as the bad girl in Black Swan. Meanwhile, Delphine Chaneac was asked to do a lot of things actresses are rarely called upon to do (such as sprout wings while riding Adrien Brody), playing a mutant creature who is sexy one moment, dangerous the next — and always scarily convincing in the over-the-top sci-fi/horror/drama Splice. And let’s not forget the Gossip Girl herself as a surprisingly good white trash slut in The Town, or Lesley Manville as by far the best thing in Mike Leigh’s Another Year (she’s so good that I was bored whenever she wasn’t on screen). Perhaps you’ve noticed I’ve made no room for The Fighter’s Oscar twins Melissa Leo or Amy Adams (both very good, but I’ve had better), Helena Bonham Carter (underutilized in The King’s Speech, and a lot more fun when she’s bonkers in Alice in Wonderland or Harry Potter), or Hailee Steinfeld (who I caught stumbling over the Coen Brothers’ difficult dialogue — and besides, she’s not “supporting,” she’s the main fucking character). The Academy and I really don’t see eye-to-eye this year.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Andrew Garfield — Never Let Me Go
Ewan McGregor — I Love You Phillip Morris
Armie Hammer — The Social Network
John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone *
Miles Teller — Rabbit Hole

Honorable Mentions:
Mark Ruffalo — The Kids Are All Right *
Samuel L. Jackson – Mother And Child

A strong year for supporting actors. Yes, Christian Bale’s drug-addled boxer was the most exciting thing in The Fighter, and yes, Geoffrey Rush held is own in The King’s Speech. I enjoyed Jeremy Renner in The Town, but none of these so much as some lesser-recognized performances this year. The guys from The Social Network could practically fill this category themselves, so I recognized Andrew Garfield’s more emotionally taxing work in the lesser-seen Never Let Me Go instead. I’ve been a fan of his for years (especially in the fantastic Brit drama Boy A) and am glad to see him getting his due, even if the Oscars unfairly snubbed him. And as much as I enjoyed Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker, I am even more enamored with Armie Hammer playing two roles distinctly (they could have been mere punchlines). Ewan McGregor was surprisingly good (and surprisingly gay) in a hilariously earnest performance that did not go the easy route and make him a homosexual caricature. It’s a bravely committed performance for a straight actor. Meanwhile, Miles Teller is a revelation in Rabbit Hole and the Oscars got it right by nominating the unnerving, unpredictable John Hawkes in Winter’s Bone and The Kids Are All Right‘s deadbeat dad Mark Ruffalo. And if you haven’t seen Samuel L. Jackson in his surprisingly sensitive performance in Mother And Child, you’re missing out.

BEST DIRECTOR

Darren Aronofsky — Black Swan *
David Michod — Animal Kingdom
David Fincher — The Social Network *
Christopher Nolan – Inception
Bong Joon-ho — Mother

Honorable Mentions:
Derek Cianfrance — Blue Valentine
Lee Unkrich — Toy Story 3


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Animal Kingdom — David Michod
The Kids Are All Right — Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg *
Black Swan — Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz and John J. McLaughlin
Blue Valentine — Derek Cianfrance & Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis
Mother and Child — Rodrigo Garcia

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Social Network — Aaron Sorkin *
Rabbit Hole — David Lindsay-Abaire
Toy Story 3 —Michael Arndt *
True Grit — Joel & Ethan Coen *
I Love You Phillip Morris — Jhn Requa & Glenn Ficarra

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST

Rabbit Hole
Animal Kingdom
The Social Network
The Kids Are All Right
Mother And Child

BEST SCORE

The Social Network — Trent Reznor and Atticus Roth *
Inception — Hans Zimmer *
Tron: Legacy — Daft Punk

*

I should totally be the Academy.


The Tens: Best Of Film 2010

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As a film school graduate, I’m afraid I have an obligation to take entertainment way too seriously. That’s why, when awards season rolls around, I can’t help but partake in the senseless, arbitrary, and totally nerdy critic’s pastime of ranking all the films I saw and compiling a Top Ten List.

And since 2011′s award season has already come and gone (catch “Best Of Film 2011″ for more on that), why not retroactively look back at movies from other years that were just as good?

Why, there is no reason not to!

(This list originally appeared on FabApp last year.)

Highlights of 2010 included Ryan Gosling channeling Norman Bates in drag; beloved Disney characters nearly being burned to a crisp; Nicole Kidman’s child getting hit by a car; a mentally unstable Korean lady solving crimes; and Leonardo DiCaprio freaking out about what is real, harassed by his dead wife (for the second time — see also: Shutter Island).

Meanwhile, the year’s five best films featured Julianne Moore getting impregnated by and sleeping with Mark Ruffalo, but not in that order; Natalie Portman lezzing out with Mila Kunis and sprouting feathers; a chipper Australian lady plotting the death of her teenage grandson; a punk, prophet, and billionaire who nobody “likes”; and Ryan Gosling in his second role of 2010 where a dog’s death serves as a harbinger of the expiration of his marriage, too.

So here they are…

The Top 10 Films Of 2010:
10. ALL GOOD THINGS

It all starts off nicely enough: privileged rich boy meets nice middle-class girl. They fall in love, get married, and move to the country; but then daddy pressures son to take over the family business, the happy couple moves to the big city, wife discovers husband may have sociopathic tendencies… and things slowly… start… unraveling.

You know that moment in a horror flick when you’re yelling at the blonde chick to run while she still has the chance? That moment lasts for years in the life of Katie Marks. “David, is there something wrong with you?” she timidly asks her husband at one point. (“Something wrong” is a bit of an understatement.) Based on the real-life, never-solved disappearance of Kathy Durst (names changed to protect the guilty), director Andrew Jarecki takes us to crime scenes and courtrooms in fairly predictable fashion, but what elevates this above Lifetime movie-of-the-week status is the initially sweet, then gradually disturbing relationship between the young lovers, a marriage slowly but surely decaying, building to inevitable tragedy.

As gloomy, troubled husband David, Gosling gives a startling and subtly disquieting performance while Kirsten Dunst anchors the film as the ill-fated Katie. She’s never been better. If the film is guilty of anything, it’s of being too short; the “unconventional” relationship between David and an elderly neighbor played by Philip Baker Hall demands more fleshing out (it could easily be its own movie).

The latter half of All Good Things zips by like a really good episode of Law & Order, playing coy about the facts while leaving us with little doubt about what actually happened to Kathy (hint: not all good things). But a number of novelties make this a story well worth watching — not least of which is the chance to see Ryan Gosling in extremely unflattering drag during a section of the film that plays like Zodiac meets Tootsie. Only a true story could be this unbelievable.

9. MOTHER

Whittling down the year’s films to the ten “best” is no easy feat; one hopes to be well-rounded, choosing from blockbusters and indies alike, while trying to represent animation, documentaries, and foreign films, too. Which is why it pained me to have to choose between two very different films telling wildly different stories about motherhood: Bong Joon-ho’s Korean Mother, and Rodrigo Garcia’s Mother And Child.

The former is a masterfully crafted mystery with elements of horror and film noir, transcending both genres thanks to its fantastic exploration of mental illness, murder, and the maternal instinct; it stars Kim Hye-ja in an unforgettable role as a woman with an unhealthy attachment to her mentally challenged offspring, desperately tracking a killer in hopes of getting her son out of jail.

Meanwhile, Mother And Child is a moving drama about the circle of life (cue lion cub raised to the sun), concerning three stories in which adoption plays a central role. Annette Bening stars as an even bitchier mom than the role she was Oscar-nominated for, still conflicted about giving up her only child 37 years after the fact. It’s hardly a flawless film — the latter half sags a bit, and at times, veers dangerously close to being sappy (in some of Bening’s later scenes and, most egregiously, with a blind character who should have been left on the cutting room floor).But far outweighing any criticism is the impressive interweaving of stories, at once intimate and universal, and the chance to see a pitch-perfect ensemble of actors playing fully-realized characters (Kerry Washington, Cherry Jones, Shareeka Epps, and Jimmy Smits amongst them). The storyline involving ice-cold attorney Elizabeth, embodied by Naomi Watts in her most arresting performance in ages, is transfixing and utterly heartbreaking; she’s a fierce yet fragile man-eater who uses sex as both solace and weapon. Her affair with boss Samuel L. Jackson gives us the rare opportunity to see that actor’s softer, gentler side in a part that is not in any way badass. (Maybe his agent told him the movie was called Motherfucker And Child?) Aided by Edward Shearmur’s haunting score, Mother and Child gave me one of the most moving experiences I had at the movies this year.

Both films have so much to say about the sacrifices moms make for their kids, so I am plugging the one that most personally resonated with me, Mother And Child, while acknowledging that Mother is a slightly more competent, one-of-a-kind film. (Just see both of them.) I’m going to go out on a limb and say Mother has the saddest dance number in the history of cinema; I won’t spoil it, but the opening scene is one of the most unexpected and delightful of all time, setting up a daring film that defies categorization and never goes quite where you expect it to. (And in the end, it all comes full circle, too.) I knew right then that I was a little bit in love with Mother; trust me, you’ll know right away whether or not this unconventional gem is for you.8. TOY STORY 3

Another year, another Pixar masterpiece. Does anybody else churn out such consistently good material?

Still, my expectations were only so-so given that this was a three-quel coming out fifteen years after the original. (Kinda makes you feel old, doesn’t it?) But rather than rehash the same ol’ (toy) story, Toy Story 3 pushes its characters in a fresh, emotionally mature direction that truly feels like the completion of a trilogy, not a mere cash grab.

That the film is loaded with Pixar’s trademark okay-for-kids, even-better-for-grown-ups humor goes without saying — witness genius touches like the Chatter Telephone acting as a Deep Throat-style informant, the hilariously grim clown who fills in the villain’s backstory, and of course Michael Keaton voicing the flamboyant metrosexual Ken. It’s a treat just to spend time with Woody, Buzz, and the gang as the film begins, but when Toy Story 3 becomes a prison-escape flick complete with an uber-creepy giant baby doll acting as prison guard, it soars as pure, exhilarating escapist entertainment.

And leave it to Pixar to take a few smart risks, like actually making us question the fate of these plucky playthings as they accept their mortality in the face of a looming incinerator. Yes, for a moment I actually believed that this Disney cartoon might end with our cherished heroes meeting a gruesome, fiery end. Now that’s good storytelling. When was the last time a family film actually left us in suspense about whether or not there’d be a happy ending?

This one’s, at least, is bittersweet — the franchise has grown up, and so have we. It’s not often the year’s highest-grossing film is one of the best. But life, like a Pixar movie, is chockful full of pleasant surprises.

7. RABBIT HOLE

Sorry, but I’ve found few films more grating and off-putting than John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus, while Hedwig And The Angry Inch merely left me shrugging. So I’m overjoyed that the man has redeemed himself with one of the year’s tightest, tautest dramas — and one of the most seamless stage-to-screen adaptations I’ve ever seen.

Unlike Shortbus, which primarily relied on amateur actors (and it showed), Rabbit Hole features a master class of performers at the peak of their craft, turning in some of the best work of their careers. It’s the year’s most solid ensemble. Nicole Kidman has received well-deserved raves as grieving housewife Becca, struggling to move on after the loss of a child before she’s found the desire to; Aaron Eckhart is equally superb as the boy’s father Howie, yearning to reconnect with his wife after the tragedy — and gradually losing faith that such a thing will ever be possible.

As “his” and “hers” support beams, Dianne Wiest and Sandra Oh are both highly appealing, but relative unknown Miles Teller is an understated revelation in his role as a teenager who… let’s just say has “something” to do with all this. (To say more would be a major spoiler.) It’s his character who really anchors the film and allows Becca to come to terms with what happened — she tumbled into a rabbit hole that took her to a strange, unfamiliar place, and she will be forever changed because of it.

The script (adapted by David Lindsay-Abaire from his play) is near-flawless and not nearly as grim as the subject matter might suggest. This is not a movie about loss, but about taking stock of what’s left afterward. Rather than lead us on a dark downward spiral as the title suggests, instead we are guided from a murky place to an increasingly hopeful one. A curious trajectory for such a story — but a welcome one indeed.

6. INCEPTION

Let’s just get this out of the way — no, Inception is not a perfect film, as some of its most ardent fans might insist. The screenplay is heavy on exposition, short on character development, and that lengthy snowbound sequence seems like a missed opportunity to conjure up a much more unique and stunning dreamscape.

Still, for those who managed to fall under Christopher Nolan’s unique spell anyway, no other film this year was quite so hypnotic. Hans Zimmer’s enthralling score, the mesmerizing editing, and of course, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s instantly-iconic anti-gravity fight scene — this is a blockbuster of the highest order, and Nolan must be credited for somehow pulling off a mega-budgeted two-and-a-half hour joyride through his (arguably too straightforward and logical) subconscious. In a marketplace crowded with box office behemoths that play it safe, here is one film that truly delivers on spectacle. (Plus, whether or not that wobbly top eventually falls or not is the year’s liveliest cinematic debate.)

I attended a midnight showing on the eve of the film’s release, resulting in one of the most memorable moviegoing forays of my lifetime. The lights came up around 3 AM in a packed house, everyone chattering breathlessly about a cinematic experience that can truly be called mind-blowing; I practically had to pinch myself to be sure that this wasn’t just another layer in Nolan’s meta-movie. (In other words, it was a total trip.)

And isn’t it refreshing to see a title on the silver screen without a number or “The Movie” after it, not based on a comic strip or theme park ride or a long-forgotten TV series? A film that caters to sentient adults rather than fan boys? Kudos to the director of the third biggest movie of all time (The Dark Knight) for planting a wild notion in Hollywood’s head: original ideas can make money, too! Let this be a wakeup call. If Inception paves the way for more auteurs at Nolan’s level to craft such dazzling fusions of art and commerce, it truly will be a dream come true.

5. BLUE VALENTINE

“You always hurt the one you love,” Ryan Gosling croons goofily (and prophetically) on his first date with Michelle Williams in this film’s most charming scene. From there, it’s all downhill.

Any film that begins with the untimely demise of the family pooch is bound to be a downer, and in that respect, Blue Valentine does not skimp. It’s a wrenching eyewitness account of the dying days of what was probably never an ideal match in the first place. The film spends no time examining what, exactly, went wrong, or placing blame on either spouse for the union’s flatlining; Dean and Cindy have merely drifted apart, as people do, and are now scrambling to find any last measly scrap of what they once shared to hold onto. Unfortunately, they’re coming up empty-handed.

In his second portrayal of a short-fused hubby this year, Oscar-snubbed Ryan Gosling is once again aged up thanks to the magic of makeup (even prematurely balding!). Here, as in All Good Things, his performance is unnerving — we don’t know exactly what Dean is capable of, and we get the sense he doesn’t either. As Cindy, Oscar-nommed Michelle Williams looks constantly fed up and drained of all energy; it only takes one glance at her to realize she’s felt this way for years.

Of course, neither started off this way: in flashbacks, we see Dean pursue Cindy. He’s charming and persistent, she’s coy and reluctant — trying her best not to fall for him, but failing miserably. They’re pretty young things with their whole lives ahead of them; trouble is, we also see exactly what those lives have in store, and it’s devastating. Director/co-writer Derek Cianfrance uses this structure artfully, giving us information out of context, then flashing back later to connect the dots. (For example, when Dean and Cindy visit a tacky themed motel room, he puts some music on, and she’s unimpressed; later, we watch the young lovers choose this as “their” song, adding a whole new layer to the scene we saw previously.)

And few films have ever had so much riding on their end credits — juxtaposed with the joyful sound of fireworks on the 4th of July, we see stills of the happy couple during their courtship, glossed-up and color-brightened. It’s reminiscent of the way we look back on our own lives as a series of snapshots, more vivid now than they were back then; Blue Valentine is stark, unflinching, and absent any flashy cinematic flourishes until this coda. It is only through those final images that we see what Dean and Cindy had, what they lost, and too late. Because now the story’s over.

4. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

Unfortunately but inevitably hyped as the Lesbian Moms Movie, it’s impossible to look at The Kids Are All Right without examining it through the lens of social context as a Message Movie. Yep, it confirms — gay parents can raise normal, well-adjusted children too! Score one for the left.

Yet The Kids Are All Right also has the audacity to portray both the “Momses” as flawed individuals, giving critics of same-sex partnerships plenty of ammo with which to judge (though anyone pointing to adultery and an over-reliance on red wine as tokens of dysfunctional gay parenting has clearly not examined many heterosexual unions lately, either). This story would work just as well centered on a boring ol’ straight couple, but as focused on two well-drawn, realistic gay women, an added layer of complexity is added (along with a progressive buzz factor). It’s a breath of fresh air to see characters who are truly alive, living their lives moment by moment rather than as some preordained plot tells them to. These people fuck up and then deal with the consequences.

Often, this unconventional tale threatens to veer off course and become too sentimental or too predictable — too Hollywoodized or too indie — but to director/co-writer Lisa Cholodenko’s credit, it doesn’t. Annette Bening is marvelous as the wine-guzzling wronged wife, deservedly Oscar-nominated; however, Julianne Moore has the tougher role as a free-spirited cheater, and she nails it — allowing the audience to cringe at and sympathize with her actions simultaneously, all while giving what might be the funniest performance of her career. And as the titular kids, Josh Hutcherson and Mia Wasikowska are quite a bit better than merely “all right.” They ground the movie. The joke of the title is that young Joni and Laser are doing just fine, whereas the moms are the ones who find themselves in a bit of a mess.

Mark Ruffalo also deserves his due in another tricky role, the sperm-donating man-child, keen on being a dad to two nearly-grown kids until he realizes that means having a responsibility to them, too. The climactic door slammed in his face has been misread by some critics as a curt dismissal of his character, but no. The scene slyly says it all — this family in crisis already has two loving parents, and no last-minute appearance from an absentee father figure is necessary to save them. It’s love and commitment, not biology, that matters here.

So relax, conservatives. In the end, the kids are indeed all right — and this movie is even better.

3. THE SOCIAL NETWORK

What to say that hasn’t already been said more eloquently? Yes, the “Facebook movie” (perhaps you’ve heard of it?) is the year’s most acclaimed film. It’s a rare masterpiece, a movie that is not only relevant to (as Justin Timberlake states, with a flourish) “our time,” but couldn’t exist outside of it.

It’s only fitting that a story about the creation of a website that altered the way human beings interact with one another would somehow feel interactive; each of us, in our way, is a part of this movie. We remember first learning about “the Facebook” (and stubbornly shaving off the “the” when mentioning it to our friends); it seems like only yesterday we created our account, blissfully unaware that we were, in effect, signing away our privacy and everything we knew then about social interaction. And then we witnessed the world change around it — but we hardly noticed, did we? At least until Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher made a movie that reminded us just how far we’ve come in under a decade.

In that way, The Social Network is terrifying. Ten years ago, the word “friend” had several less connotations; now, here is a story about a boy (not a man) who played a large part in changing that, by selling out his own friends in pursuit of a greater glory. To successfully build an empire that connects people all over the world, this movie’s Zuckerberg disengages from every last meaningful relationship in his own life; a guy with 500 million Facebook friends and zero real ones. Is this an accurate representation of Mark Zuckerberg? Doubtful — but the one played by Jesse Eisenberg is subbing for all of us; and he, like most of us, seems unaware of the vast disconnect between social network and actual, physical person-to-person interaction. (And isn’t it ironic that the man who allowed us to self-publish and edit the way the rest of the world sees us has issues with how he’s portrayed in the movie?)

Some critics have hailed this as the movie that defines our generation, when actually, it’s anything but. This is not a story about Facebook as we know it — the social network is not really put in context as the global phenom it’s become. (The film’s masterful trailer says more about how Facebook has infiltrated our everyday lives than the film even attempts to.) Instead, this tale of a power-hungry tyrant sacrificing loved ones like lambs in his rise to the top is as old as storytelling itself. What’s fresh is that it’s been made now, before we’ve truly taken to time reflect on what all this burgeoning technology has done to us. (This will be a fascinating film to revisit in five, ten, twenty, one hundred — any amount of years.) The Social Network is about the changing of the guard as the power baton is begrudgingly handed from crusty, Ivy League traditionalists to flip flop-wearing kids from the suburbs. Old school “connections” no longer matter. What does? A great idea. Whether or not Zuckerberg actually stole Facebook is irrelevant; what this film tells us is that in this day and age, it doesn’t matter.

Fincher should win an Oscar for bringing his trademark shadowy, menacing edge to otherwise-banal scenes of college kids typing and partying; Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross cannot go unrecognized for elevating what’s on screen with their innovative score, which pulses with techno fury swirling around a melancholy black void. A trio of actors could practically fill up the Best Supporting Actor category by themselves: Justin Timberlake, who brings a cool rock star vibe to the role of Napster creator Sean Parker, providing this film with a necessary jolt of mischief and hedonism; Armie Hammer, who nails two roles as Winklevoss twins who might as well have been named Abercrombie and Fitch, never portraying them as the pretty boy caricatures they easily could be; and future Spider-Man Andrew Garfield, finally getting the recognition he deserves as the film’s most (well, only) likable male. (The fact that all three were shut out of the Oscar race probably speaks to the fact that voters were divided — they were all so good.) And that poster? That trailer? If only there were an Oscar for Best Marketing, Social Network would have it in the bag.

Or, in short? I “like” it.

2. ANIMAL KINGDOM

This awards season, Winter’s Bone is the crime drama du jour according to the critics, while Ben Affleck’s The Town is the one that scored with audiences. Both are solid films, but this Aussie treasure takes the best aspects of each and one-ups them both, blending a kinetic cinematic sensibility with tense, heady drama. (Plus, Australian accents are way hotter than the Ozarks or Boston’s.)

David Michod’s assured directorial debut has been described as “GoodFellas Down Under,” but Animal Kingdom doesn’t have that movie’s sprawling grandiosity. As a filmmaker, Michod has more in common with Paul Thomas Anderson (witness the way he uses Air Supply’s “All Out of Love” to simultaneously amuse and unnerve). Our hero here is J, aimless and mumbly, the most average teenage boy imaginable. He turns to his saccharine-sweet grandma for help after his mom dies of a drug overdose (it’s a killer of an opening scene, in the most understated way possible). For a long while, we think grandma’s taking him under her wing; actually, she’s thrown him to the wolves.

At grandmother’s house, J gets acquainted with his criminal uncles — he’s a helpless cub amongst full-grown, feral lions. We expect this to be another tale of a naive youth seduced and then consumed by the excess of the underbelly; instead, it’s a relentlessly taut story of survival in this man-made jungle, as we join this family on the eve of its inevitable decline. One by one, the uncles are picked off by their enemies — the Cody clan is a dying species, rapidly going extinct. As a detective played by Guy Pearce assures J, it’s survival of the fittest; aligning himself with his family’s unstable ringleader (Ben Mendelsohn) can only end badly for everyone involved. But won’t defying his ferocious uncle have the same bloody result?

Unlike most American crime stories, there is no glamorization of the underworld. The killings are sad and shocking, all actions have consequences, and the innocent suffer just as much as the guilty. Yet the most alluring reason to see Animal Kingdom is to delight in the performance of Oscar-nominated Jacki Weaver as the cheerfully sinister grandmother — a grinning dingo more than willing to eat her own young if need be. “You’ve done some bad things, sweetie,” she coos deliciously in one scene. Witnessing those bad things has seldom been so good.
1. BLACK SWAN

2010 might best be remembered as the year in which movies went all schizo on us — a number of documentaries (Catfish, Exit Through The Gift Shop, I’m Still Here) and narrative films (Inception, The Social Network, Shutter Island) blurred the lines between fact and fiction, and/or made us question what is real and what is a fantasy/lie/delusion/dream. And no film did that quite so artfully (or blatantly) as Darren Aronofsky’s dark triumph Black Swan, which jolts adventurous movie-lovers with a dizzying dose of pure cinematic ecstasy.

At its grim, gorgeous core, Black Swan is essentially a horror movie set in the ballet world (let’s take a moment to marvel that it ever got made). And I’ll readily admit that, like all of Aronofsky’s work, it’s not a film for everyone; you’ll either surrender to it or not. Some have dismissed the intense psychodrama as an overcooked thriller, and that’s exactly what it would have been in the hands of any paint-by-numbers filmmaker. But you can feel Aronofsky’s vice grip on every frame as he follows Natalie Portman with a handheld camera, restraining the viewer almost to the point of repression, locking us in her mind. (It’s similar to the shooting style he employed in Black Swan’s male counterpart The Wrestler, also concerning a person whose body is their livelihood, who will stop at nothing to achieve greatness in their chosen profession. Separately, both films are brilliant, yet each enhances the other when viewed as companion pieces.)

A muted color palette, so drab and yet so pink, only adds to the claustrophobia — and speaks volumes about our protagonist, too. The cast is uniformly solid, with Mila Kunis stealing scenes left and right as the “black swan” Nina yearns to be; and of course Portman will win a richly deserved Oscar as the doomed ballerina. But the real showstopper here is Aronofsky, a brave, bold filmmaker unafraid to go for the jugular. (“Less is more” is probably not one of his favorite sayings.) The camerawork is breathtaking throughout, most notably in Nina’s intoxicating climactic dance, in which, yes, he “goes there” by having her sprout feathers. Witness the film’s most exhilarating series of events as Nina is drugged at a club, makes out with a stranger in a dingy bathroom, engages in an explosive fight with her (over-?)protective mother, and hooks up with Mila Kunis (or does she?). It’s an assault of sound and fury that has us tripping right along with our rapidly unraveling heroine.Black Swan is what a movie should be: vibrant, visceral, with bombastic music and eye-popping costumes and breathtaking cinematography and a big, over-the-top finale that actually means something. (Creative types will especially identify with Nina’s arc.) It’s a high-art thrill ride. But is there a hint of camp? Absolutely! Black Swan strikes the perfect balance between trash and sophistication. That’s why I so dearly love Darren Aronofsky, one of few filmmakers willing to take us to Crazy Town. Yet he’s able to do so without losing control of a credible, stirring story. At times, Black Swan tows the line of going a little too bonkers (screaming paintings!), but in the end, comes together so exquisitely in service of Nina’s transformation. Poor Nina does exactly what’s been asked of her by her lecherous director, unaware of the monster he’s created.

And for me, here’s the clincher — Black Swan follows in the grand tradition of Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino with playful, vaguely self-referential closing lines (“I’m finished!” and “I think this just might be my masterpiece” from There Will Be Blood and Inglourious Basterds, respectively). “I was perfect,” Nina whispers just before curtain. She may as well be speaking for the film itself.

Who says a nutso melodrama can’t be a masterpiece?

*

And that’s 2010 in film.


The Darkest Night.

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I’ve sometimes thought about what would happen if a violent act happened in a movie theater. It’s an incredibly vulnerable place, actually — you go into a dark room with a bunch of strangers, and you all give yourself over to a story. If the movie’s any good, our lives go away for a few hours, and we’re enjoying a collective experience. It can be very intimate — we might be laughing or crying together, enthralled or scared shitless. We hand ourselves over, in the dark, amongst like-minded individuals, essentially to dream.

Last night, though, some of those dreamers never woke up. The lives they sought three hours of escape from managed to get away entirely. We’ve heard the stories before — Columbine, Virginia Tech. Too many of them, always hitting us like a punch to the gut. Almost always, the victims are right where they should be, conducting their day in a sensible manner when the senseless happens. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m an aspiring filmmaker, because I love going to movies so much, and because I go to a movie theater about once a week, if not more — but in the case of the Aurora, Colorado shooting, I feel particularly violated.

I don’t think it’s just me, though. I think there is something particularly perverse about the arena James Holmes chose for yet another mass shooting, perhaps even more perverse than a high school or college or post office or just in the middle of the street. Particularly in the wake of Columbine, there was that whole “blame the media” campaign, and for awhile, violence in movies, music, TV, and video games was closely scrutinized (and briefly sanitized). Does playing first person shooter games desensitize a person to committing such an act in real life? Normally, no. In some cases? Possibly. I don’t care to weigh in on that debate.

But for most of us, there’s always been a very distinct line between what’s real and not. When we go into a movie theater, real goes away. Or at least it’s supposed to. Hopefully we carry the experience with us as we leave, think about it and apply it to our lives, the way we might analyze a dream after waking and say, “Oh, yeah, now I get what it represents, that makes sense.” But not in the moment. It doesn’t work like that, if it’s working at all. It’s horrible that we live in a world where students have to fear going to school because they never know if one of their classmates will decide today’s the day to open fire; and now it’s horrible that we’ll have to walk into theaters eying the exits, taking a careful survey of who’s sitting behind us, what suspicious-looking bags they’ve carried in, maybe jumping a little extra at every crash and bang that state-of-the-art surround sound. It’s horrible that we don’t have that escape anymore.

Of course, no matter what movie this happened at, it’d be an unimaginable tragedy. (Forgive me such phrases. They’re overused — for all the wrong reasons.) It’s too early to know many details of James Holmes’ intent, but it’s clear his choice of The Dark Knight Rises was no coincidence. It’s guaranteed to be one of the year’s biggest blockbusters — even still, though opening weekend numbers will surely be affected — a bona-fide event movie, of which a midnight screening is guaranteed a sold-out crowd ripe for that bloody picking. It’s also an action movie. If James Holmes knows the meaning of the word, which I somewhat doubt, I’ll bet he thought he was being totally “meta.”

But it’s a particularly cruel irony that The Dark Knight trilogy is about this exact sort of violence. Against it, really. I haven’t yet seen The Dark Knight Rises, but even the trailer concerns taking a stand against evil — particularly, the mass-killing variety. (The trailer depicts an attack on a football stadium — another place, like the movies, where people go to kick back and take in some “safe” cathartic violence.) The villains in Batman movies think they’re making pretty grandiose statements about terror, too. Look at Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight for a sterling example of what happens when “deranged” and “deadly” make a baby. It was Oscar-winning. Iconic. One for the ages.

But real-life killers aren’t like that, no matter how infamous the atrocities they commit. We may remember the names of the Columbine shooters… though, now, the Virgina Tech shooter’s escapes me… and many will remember James Holmes’. There is something deeply wrong with these boys and men, who believe the only chance they have of leaving this world with any value or notoriety at all is to rob others of meeting their potential. But just as there was no Batman to swoop in and save the day last night for the 12 people who died in Aurora, there are no villains.

What were his motives? Well, that’s simple. A man who goes into a movie theater at midnight setting off smoke bombs and firing away at innocent civilians is, ultimately, attempting to be “cool.” He wants to stage a scene that’s as awesome as in the movies. He wants to be remembered the way The Joker is. But he won’t be.

Maybe it should go without saying, but killing a bunch of people is no way “cool.” It’s a desperate grab for power by those who have none. It’s pathetic. The movies need villains like Bane and The Joker and The Scarecrow and Catwoman to make grandiose statements about chaos and order and the futility of justice. To provide formidable obstacles for superheroes to overcome. But we don’t.

It’s quite clear enough, every day, all day, what kind of a world we live in. Whatever point a gunman thinks he’s making, we already know. We heard it loud and clear through the gunshots at Virginia Tech, and at Columbine, and in all the stupid slaughters that happened before. We get it. You’re a loser who can’t fix what’s broken in you, who blames people you don’t even know for your own misery, who can’t stand the thought of everybody going about their day not reckoning with your pain. Seriously, guys — we get it already. You won’t be inserted into the rogues gallery of Batman villains, but you have jumped on a bandwagon with some other unsavory types. The Dylan Kleibolds and Eric Harrises and all the rest. You guys should have a lot to talk about.

As for the rest of us? Our only respite from the chaos of the real world is to escape, briefly, into fantasy — a novel or a comic book or TV or a movie, where justice is meted out at a much higher success rate, and even senseless murders have a narrative purpose, at least. It is, of course, too bad this happened at all, but it’s particularly too bad it happened at a movie that thoughtfully deals with these very issues. The Dark Knight trilogy is no brainless popcorn fare, but the very rare studio movie that tackles challenging questions of morality head-on. So few are made already, especially at this level. Unlike many studio filmmakers, Christopher Nolan and company actually set out to make something meaningful, and the people who went to see it last night in Aurora paid to receive that message. We need more movies like this, not less. If ever there was a movie that didn’t need any tacked-on footnote from a hack with a firearm, The Dark Knight Rises is it.

The anticipation for The Dark Knight Rises is pretty much unprecedented for a comic book movie, as far as the marriage of art and commerce goes. It was the one superhero franchise people who like smart, sophisticated, adult entertainment could feel good about. And now? Well, I, for one, know I’ll feel a little uneasy when the lights go down at my screening of The Dark Knight Rises, whenever I choose to see it. Then again, after last night, I’d probably feel the same way at To Rome With Love. Because you just never know.

Why so serious, James Holmes? Things were hard enough before you came along, for you and the rest of us. We only have so much time, and so many chances, to escape these harsh realities. To think about them and comment upon them via entertainment. And you took that from us. I suppose you’re proud of yourself for that.

But if the world had a low opinion of you before, you sure haven’t elevated it. You’re no Bane. No Joker. You’re not even Mr. Freeze as portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. It doesn’t take much to give in to the frustrations of the world and give up. It’s not hard to kill a lot of unsuspecting people, if that’s what you’re planning. It doesn’t make you like those comic book criminal masterminds, each with their own colorful backstory as to “why.” Oh, I’m sure you have a “why,” too. They all do. It’s the question on everybody’s lips, the unanswerable enigma. Every time. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter.

There will inevitably be some kind of fallout from this, and eventually, it will all revert back to the way things were. This tragedy, like the rest, will just be at the very back of our minds. Until the next one.

I hope we can put this behind us. I hope we can go to the movies and not think of James Holmes. I hope we can dream again, together. It’s not Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy but Inception that provides the true metaphor for how the Aurora shootings have affected us — a stranger has invaded our dreams and planted something unwanted there. Will we ever sleep soundly again?

I think we will. Eventually. But first, for awhile, we will have to wonder who, exactly, is sitting there in the dark with us. Another James Holmes? There’s always another.

The trailer warned us there was a storm coming. And now it’s here.


Oh, What A ‘Knight’!: Batman Meets The Bane Of His Existence

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Here’s the thing — I like Batman.

I like a guy who puts on a cape and cowl and goes out into the night to fight crime. I like the colorful, often kooky villains who bring mayhem to Gotham City. I’ve heard some say they like Spider-Man because Peter Parker is a nerdy everyman they can relate to, but not me. I like Bruce Wayne, the broody billionaire. I like the Tim Burton Batman films best of all, because they’re just the right amount of campy without going full-throttle (I am, of course, looking at you, Mr. Schumacher). A superhero story like this should be fun, after all… right?

Right, Christopher Nolan?

Right…?

Batman Begins was a decent reboot (the film that probably kicked off the whole “reboot” trend in the first place) and had a strong villain in The Scarecrow, but it was also a bit disorienting in its action and editing. I don’t think Nolan quite had the hang of it yet.

The Dark Knight, though, was something to behold. How much of that is to Heath Ledger’s credit? A lot — but not all. The Dark Knight was weightier and more morally complex than pretty much any other superhero movie, which isn’t to say it was quite The Godfather, but it did miss a Best Picture nomination by a hair (we assume). The Dark Knight isn’t a flawless movie, but it was big and ballsy in its ambitions, attempting something no other summer action blockbuster had done for a very long time. It brought comic books into the real world, let us see how such events might play out in a mostly plausible way. Yes, the villains were still larger-than-life, as is the billionaire with plenty of cash to throw around on military-grade toys, but everything else was grounded in reality. Gotham City wasn’t just some imaginary metropolis anymore. It was where we live.So let me begin by saying this: The Dark Knight Rises is pretty spectacular. It sure isn’t a letdown, even after the artistic and commercial heights reached by its predecessor. It feels like a natural continuation of what came before, and unlike most sequels, actually pushes forward the storylines set up in both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It’s not just a beat-by-beat rehash of what we’ve already seen, but the final chapter in a true trilogy, a complete three-act story. And, as in some other esteemed trilogies, that middle chapter is far and away the best part.

But I don’t know that anyone even expected The Dark Knight Rises to top The Dark Knight. I didn’t. The Joker is Batman’s best-known nemesis, after all, and his goofy brand of menace has always been the perfect foil for dour Batman. The Dark Knight Rises might have, say, thrown The Riddler up against Batman to try and capture some of that Heath Ledger magic, but it wouldn’t have worked. We’d all be comparing Leonardo DiCaprio or Channing Tatum or Seth Rogen or whoever to Heath Ledger, and it would be quite impossible to top that. Wisely, Nolan did not even try. Bane is the anti-Joker; he makes Batman look like Louis C.K. There was never any question that Tom Hardy’s Bane or Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman was competing with The Joker, the star of the show in The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight Rises, however, is Batman’s movie — for once, the titular hero isn’t upstaged by the rogues gallery (as he has been in virtually every other Batman movie). It’s Christian Bale’s best work in the franchise, since he’s given more to do here. (Though that still does involve an awful lot of brooding.)

The opening act of The Dark Knight Rises is fantastic. We are introduced very early to Selina Kyle, and at first it seems we may be getting another Catwoman origins story (hopefully, one that doesn’t involve mystical cat breath with healing powers — now I’m looking at you, Ms. Berry). But no. Selina Kyle is already well underway in her career as a cat burglar, delivering some appropriately catty one-liners. (This film’s only real stab at levity.) While it goes without saying that she’s no Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns (who ever could be?), she’s certainly no Halle Berry, either. There is a hint of romance between Batman and Catwoman here, though nothing so delectable as that bit from Tim Burton’s film about mistletoe and kisses. (Though a similar scene here, with Bruce and Selina dancing at a masquerade ball, does give us that memorable “There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne…” dialogue. Which is good, too.)

Yes, there’s an undercurrent of Occupy Wall Street to this Catwoman, but she’s always been something of a sexy, black-clad Robin Hood straddling the line between good and evil, a feisty underdog (err, undercat?). The Dark Knight Rises doesn’t overdo the financial parallels to our real world, but brings them front and center just enough. (It does give Selina a sidekick, played by Juno Temple, whom I wish we learned more about.)

So rest assured, Selina Kyle fans, these scenes give us just about everything we could want from a Catwoman in a Christopher Nolan film. Maybe it’s only because of my much-blogged-about penchant for bad girls quipping and kicking ass, but she’s actually the best thing about this movie. Her scenes are the most fun, the most Batman-y. We get the sense there could have been a whole movie’s worth of interesting stuff with just Batman and Catwoman in the mix. Of course, there’s something much larger going on here.

And that something is Bane, as portrayed by Thomas Hardy (not that you’d know it, with that creepy mask). Like The Joker, Bane is out to unleash chaos in Gotham and let its citizens seal their own fates. He’s orchestrated a pretty elaborate plan to make this happen, though his motives are a bit less clear. (But there’s a reason for that.)

Is Bane a formidable foe? Sure. In their first confrontation, he easily hands Batman’s bat-ass to him. And that creepy mask! (The voice is off-putting at first, maybe because it sounded different and less intelligible in the early trailers, but I guess it works.) Like many comic book villains, Bane’s plan ultimately involves detonating a nuclear weapon (resulting in some Captain America-esque plot developments), but there’s a long stretch before that when he isolates Gotham from the rest of the world. To what end, exactly? Well, Bane may be operating with the League of Shadows, that shady organization from Bruce Wayne’s backstory he went up against in Batman Begins. But I’ve always found the Ra’s al Ghul angle the least interesting part of Nolan’s franchise, even if the fanboys dig it. (Do they?) It makes the story so big, with the globe-trotting and ponderous Asian influences. It doesn’t ultimately have much to do with a good man in a mask fighting bad men in masks in Gotham City, which is the real appeal of Batman. It isn’t so much fun.

So, Christopher Nolan — why so serious? Yes, I know this is the epic conclusion to a substantial trilogy, and that sense of doom and scope is part of The Dark Knight Rises‘ appeal. I don’t mind a little gloom‚ honest! But Bane is a bit of a party pooper as Batman villains go. The Joker, for all his twisted carnage, brought a dose of humor to it all that killed two birds with one stone, so to speak. He was terrifying and amusing all at the same time, making for one hell of an entertainment. Here, Bane is terrifying and Catwoman is amusing, but not at the same time. And Bane is never anywhere near as unsettling as The Joker was. He’s too one-note to be all that appealing as a nemesis. As charisma goes in the Batman universe, I’m afraid he’s just one notch above Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze. At one point, a lot of time passes, and it’s awkward. Nolan doesn’t give us quite insight into what’s really going on here, and Bane becomes a bit inert. In the end, it turns out he’s not as menacing as we though, despite his physical prowess. (It doesn’t help that it feels like an extra hour has been cut out of the second act of this movie.)

I haven’t even mentioned Marion Cotillard as wealthy philanthropist Miranda Tate (Wayne’s female alter ego) or Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the young policeman who knows Batman’s identity. (It’s a big ol’ Inception reunion — five cast members and Nolan!) Both play major roles here, as do returning vets Alfred, Lucius Fox, and Commissioner Gordon. There’s a reason the movie runs two hours and 45 minutes — lots of ground to cover. But it all fits together pretty smoothly, probably more smoothly than even The Dark Knight. I never totally understood why “the hero Gotham needed” had to be Harvey Dent and not Batman  — doesn’t Batman make a whole lot more sense as a symbol of hope? That confusion carries over here, but at least this movie rights it by proving that, actually, it is Batman that Gotham City needs, not some two-faced politician. The Dark Knight Rises has a little less faith in people’s inherent goodness than The Dark Knight did, which seems appropriate, given the world we currently live in.

So if it sounds like I’m complaining a lot, well, it’s really only nitpicking. There’s much to admire in The Dark Knight Rises, despite flaws that tend to crop up in a lot of Nolan movies. Yes, sometimes his ideas are bigger than the story he’s actually telling — he’s more concerned with the forest than the trees. And, as good as he is with heroes and villains, civilians have never been his strong suit — so we get a busload of unnecessary orphans in peril. The Dark Knight Rises is about as good as we could have hoped it would be, and I’d say it tops The Avengers by a narrow margin as this summer’s best comic book blockbuster. (But like I said, Batman’s always just been my cup of tea.)

I wish I could discuss the ending, but if I have one major beef with this film, it comes here. There’s one egregious shot that ruins what could have been a wonderfully ambiguous close to the movie. (It feels like the studio interfered, which is dumb — didn’t they notice how much rousing debate the end of Inception incited? This could have sparked something similar.)

But no matter. I might have liked to see a little more of Batman facing off against villains, and a little less of all the other epic, sprawling storylines, since it’s the opening act of this film that feels most cohesive and fresh and exhilarating. But if this is the Batman movie I get, I’ll gladly take it.

Is it really the end? Nolan has said so, but I’m not sure Warner Bros. would agree. There are certainly sequel and spin-off possibilities, even if it’s not Nolan behind them. Can we please keep up this trend of hiring filmmakers with a strong, distinct voice and vision making superhero films? Or is it time to hand this franchise over to the next Joel Schumacher? Let’s hope we the people continue to get the Batman films we deserve.*


The Tens: Best Of Film 2008

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Before I started my own entertainment-related blog, my Top Tens had to whore themselves out on my friends’ pages. This one was originally posted on Justin Plus One.

As usual with my Top Tens, I have preserved them as they were, even if, in hindsight, I may disagree with some of my own choices. (Did I really exclude a Darren Aronofsky movie in favor of Iron Man? Gosh.)

Now here we are in 2012, and some of these have had sequels already. One of them has even had a sequel and another almost-sequel with a starring role in The Avengers.

This year was the last in which the Oscar nominees had just five prestigious slots open for Best Picture, brought about at least in part because of The Dark Knight‘s perceived snub. It was a year that took superheroes to the next level, and in which a strange, starless movie set in Mumbai centered on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? trumped typical Hollywood fare at the Oscars.

So let’s relive 2008, shall we?

10. IRON MAN

Two superhero movies in my Top 10 for 2008? Must’ve been a rough year for drama. While artsier fare like The Wrestler duked it out for the tenth slot on my list, ultimately including Iron Man just felt right. Robert Downey Jr.’s star turn as Tony Stark is every bit as crucial as Mickey Rourke’s performance is to The Wrestler, though he makes it look effortless. His Iron Man isn’t the first time a studio has hired a bona fide actor to play a costumed comic book hero (see Batmans Michael Keaton and Christian Bale), but those movies liven up when the cape and cowl are donned. In Iron Man, the alter ego is the star. Iron Man himself is just a bonus.

It’s readily apparent that everyone involved did their part to elevate this material above the mediocrity that bogs down most other comic book movies. Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts is particularly winsome – I hope they find a way to keep the sparkle in her relationship with Tony Stark in the sequel. I can’t help but admire Iron Man for fulfilling its genre obligations while also serving up a slice of entertainment that smart people with good taste can enjoy. Given the pressures on mega-budget films like this, Jon Favreau must be commended for proving that in a blockbuster, big need not necessarily be synonymous with dumb. Now can they keep it up?

9. HAPPY-GO-LUCKY 

Mike Leigh’s virtually plotless character study of a woman named Poppy has been classified as a comedy  –  which might be accurate, since there are funny moments peppered throughout. Just watching Sally Hawkins’ awkward, borderline-obnoxious performance is bound to provoke laughter – but what I found while watching it is that I laughed in places others did not, and vice versa. Like most great comedies, the humor is derived not from setups and punchlines, but our own identification with the protagonist and those around her, the truth we find in these situations. Everyone is bound to connect to a different moment, often in uncomfortable ways.

It’s all because, like most of Leigh’s work, this unique film refuses to take any conventional path, instead challenging viewers to spend two hours alongside a very cheerful woman with the most positive attitude… forcing us to reckon with our growing desire to punch her in the face. It brings up questions about our own happiness – and how much we’re willing to tolerate in others. Why is good cheer so obnoxious? Why are we so inclined to dislike anyone whose disposition is sunnier than our own? Is human nature fundamentally in opposition to contentment? Golden Globe-winner Sally Hawkins has a well-deserved shot at an Oscar for Best Actress, which ought to give her something else to smile about. (And something else the rest of us will want to punch her for.)

8. BOY A

There’s at least one on my list every year. You probably haven’t seen Boy A, or even heard of it. Too bad for you! Andrew Garfield is superb in a breakout performance as Jack, a likable 24-year old coming of age – contending with his first job, first date, first kiss, first adult beverage, and so on. Why is Jack such a late bloomer, you may wonder. Well, that’s because he’s been in prison up until this point, for the brutal murder of a young girl. (Just what his involvement is isn’t shown until near the end, but the film doesn’t let him off the hook easily.) Yet despite this atrocious act, you can’t help but empathize with Jack at what follows.

Jack’s parole contact Terry (Peter Mullen) serves as mentor and father figure, guiding Jack through everything from losing his virginity to ordering a meal in a restaurant for the first time – and he’s the only person in Jack’s life who knows that he’s really the child killer known as “Boy A,” now being hunted by the media. With insightful flashbacks, assured direction, and all-around solid performances, Boy A is quiet and unsensational despite the juicy subject matter, even when the new life Jack’s built suddenly collapses like a house of cards in the film’s tragic denouement.

7. THE DARK KNIGHT

Why so serious? The titular darkness of Christopher Nolan’s gothic drama makes Tim Burton’s Batman films seem as light and frivolous as, well, Joel Schumacher’s. In a twist that shocked everybody, it turns out the public likes their superhero movies pitch-black, thought-provoking, and “so serious,” to the extent that a comic book action hero sequel became the second-highest grossing film of all time (trailing Titanic). With its near-epic running time and emphasis on tortured souls and tragic character arcs, The Dark Knight has scope more akin to The Godfather than Spider-Man (if not quite the nuance or gravitas).

Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, and Maggie Gyllenhaal (replacing Katie Holmes) all do solid, if not astounding, work. Of course, what pulls it together is Heath Ledger’s magnificent, magnetic turn as The Joker – there’s no way he’s not winning the Oscar. And he deserves it, living or dead. There will almost certainly be another Batman film, but I’d wager there will never be another one with a performance like this. The Dark Knight is a cinematic milestone that may allow more mega-budget blockbusters to be moody, thought-provoking, and, hey, perhaps even Oscar-worthy. (Though I still say nothing beats the Bat, the Cat, and the Penguin in Batman Returns.)

6. REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

Kate & Leo! Together! Surviving! Living happily ever…oh, wait, no. This is not a love story a la Titanic. It’s a hate story – or rather, a story in which we watch love dissolve and eventually succumb to loathing, as “the American dream” strangles a young couple’s more intimate, individual dreams. Based on the peerless novel by Richard Yates, that perfect dream becomes a nightmare, a trap that seemingly no one can break out of.

If Revolutionary Road doesn’t exactly break any new ground in portraying the suburbs as a place where brittle facades just barely cover secret longings and infidelities (see Little Children and American Beauty, for starters), it certainly delves even deeper into the loneliness, the sacrifice, the misery, the hunger for more… the dark heart of suburban America. By using the iconic 50’s as the backdrop – a time we’re more likely to associate with smiling housewives and happy-go-lucky husbands returning home from a hard day’s work than the very modern quarrels these two have – Revolutionary Road is all the more shattering in depicting the perfunctory dysfunction at the core of our tried-and-true tradition of love, marriage, and child-rearing.

Sam Mendes echoes his skillful work in the sublime American Beauty, directing wife Kate Winslet and her best friend Leonardo DiCaprio, tackling uglier extremes than they’ve been asked to explore. Kinda makes the death-by-hypothermia conclusion of Titanic‘s lovestruck duo seem like the happier ending after all.

5. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

A curious case, indeed – the big studio movie that boldly explores themes like mortality without playing it safe or laying on the sap. It’s easy to imagine Ron Howard, Robert Zemeckis, or even Steven Spielberg going astray with this material – tugging the heartstrings a few too many times, getting caught up in the sweeter moments. David Fincher, on the other hand, turns out to be the perfect shepherd for this brand of magic realism, not only because of his mastery of the film’s astounding aging and anti-aging effects, but also because of the darkness and gravity of his oeuvre, the weight he lends this subject matter. There’s no sugar added to the film’s examination of what it means to get older, or the inherent tragedy that is (for Benjamin, and for all of us) the inevitable decline back toward a state of infancy.

That’s what’s remarkable about this story. We’re so used to the natural aging process, it takes a curiosity like this to let us see it with fresh eyes. As an elderly Cate Blanchett takes care of Brad Pitt in his final years, as a young boy and finally a baby, Fincher makes the heartbreaking point that the nature of love changes as we do – the lovers of our youths end up serving as nurses and mother figures once we’re again feeble-minded and helpless.

At nearly three hours, Benjamin Button doesn’t feel long at all – in fact, spanning the entirety of a man’s life just makes you want to see more of every moment. (I could have done with a little less childhood and more of Benjamin’s later life, and not just because that CGI-youthed Brad is just so pretty.) A Hurricane Katrina backdrop and the casting of a big star like Pitt lend an extra air of despair – if not even Brad Pitt can escape getting old and less hunky, what hope is there for the rest of us?

4. RACHEL GETTING MARRIED

The awkward title sets the offbeat tone for this intimate family drama, in which the characters feel so lived-in it’s hard to believe you’re not sitting there with them. As if to prove that point, a couple sequences are frustratingly long, giving us a hint of the boredom we might feel if we actually were at the wedding. When the dancing starts, feel free to refill your popcorn, go to the bathroom, validate your parking – it goes on awhile.

More than that, though, Rachel Getting Married features some of the best performances of the year, unlikely to be recognized by the Academy. There’s plenty of buzz around Anne Hathaway, who we watch like a train that’s about to derail at any moment (and rest assured, it does). But just as good are Rosemarie DeWitt, phenomenal as the titular Rachel, who inhabits the role so well she feels like your own sister, and Debra Winger in a briefer but no less acute appearance as the girls’ distant mother (in the film’s most electrifying scene, she’s the one that causes that  train wreck). Jenny Lumet’s observant screenplay and Jonathan Demme’s fly-on-the-wall direction deserve equal credit for pulling off this sharp character study that captures heightened family drama in a natural way few other films manage.

3. WALL*E

A truly visionary piece of work, WALL*E manages to be a crowd-pleasing family film featuring two robotic leads with little conventional dialogue, at the same time delivering a not-at-all-subtle environmental message. No small feat.

Here, Pixar’s standard of visual razzle-dazzle is matched by a story that feels just as groundbreaking as the animation. It should come as no surprise that these talented animators make a love story between two robots feel not only credible, but incredibly moving; even so, WALL*E takes romance to new heights using a starry backdrop and repurposing the Hello, Dolly! soundtrack. (Recycling – how green!)

More than just a clever adventure tale, WALL*E dares ruffle up its viewers by pointing a finger back at them, depicting humans as lazy and easily distracted, if ultimately good-natured and strong-willed. It’s a highly entertaining cautionary tale – and hey, it’s never too early to get kids thinking about the environment. But WALL*E would have no right to challenge us had the movie not raised the bar itself: by exploring uncharted territory for family-friendly fare, elevating the ideas and emotions typical in an animated feature to infinity and beyond. Pixar, you’re just too good to us.

2. FROST/NIXON

It’s unlikely that even the real Richard Nixon was quite as fascinating and complicated as the man portrayed in Ron Howard’s searing drama, which is a credit to writer Peter Morgan and especially to Frank Langella’s dynamic depiction of Tricky Dick. (Morgan wrote the stage play, which Langella also starred in.) Frost/Nixon plays with history a bit, giving us insight into America’s most-despised president (until recently, anyway) – though we have no way of knowing how accurate that insight is.

It doesn’t matter. The showdown between Nixon and Aussie TV host David Frost makes for a fascinating drama, an underdog-against-all-odds story in which the stakes are truth, justice, and all that other stuff Americans hold in such high regard. (Funny, it takes an outsider to hold an American president accountable for his actions.) Michael Sheen gives a compelling performance as the man who inexplicably risks everything on a single TV interview, but it’s Langella who steals the show, commanding the screen no matter what he’s doing. (Amazing, considering that most of Langella’s more subtle work here would not have come across on stage – he must have totally reinvented his performance.)

With help from Morgan’s complex study of the man, Langella makes Nixon an even larger larger-than-life persona than he already is, lending credibility to moments and dialogue that might sound theatrical coming from a less capable actor. The movie never hits a false note – just plenty of great ones.

1. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

Who’d have guessed Slumdog Millionaire would clean up so many major awards at the Golden Globes? Or that it’d be the frontrunner for a Best Picture Academy Award? Nobody – at least, not until recently.

Slumdog Millionaire isn’t the kind of movie people make thinking they’ll get an Oscar, which makes its success all the more rewarding. It’s hard to think of a director besides Danny Boyle who could have captured the energy of Mumbai in such an authentic way – I cringe to think of others tackling this material and glossing it up, Hollywood-style. It takes a rough-around-the-edges auteur like Boyle to bring such an incredible story to life, and that he does. The film is fully alive in every frame, from the cinematography to the music to the performances (mostly by unknown-to-America Indian actors).

What American audiences can connect to is the all-too-familiar format of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The cheesy game show is a ridiculous contrast  to the orphaned boys’ tough childhood on the streets. Slumdog Millionaire is what you’d get if you cross Regis Philbin with an Eastern Charles Dickens and added a dose of Scorsese. It makes no compromises and fits no mold – no concession has been made to make it more palatable to the average moviegoer (you know, the ones who made Paul Blart: Mall Cop the top-grossing January opener of all time), but against all odds, Slumdog Millionaire is winning audiences over because it is fresh, genuine, and original. Let that be a lesson.

While Slumdog Millionaire does depict some darker moments – crime, torture, child prostitution – the overall tone is light; it’s an improbably fun, feel-good movie. (So there. After choosing such films as Zodiac and United 93 as my previous #1′s, I’ve finally lightened up!) Hopefully Slumdog Millionaire’s success means more daring, unconventional films will finding financing in the future. No need to ask the audience or phone a friend – Slumdog’s underdog-gets-lucky story is about to be mirrored in real life at the Academy Awards.

THE 2008 ROSTER

1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. Frost/Nixon
3. Wall-E
4. Rachel Getting Married
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
6. Revolutionary Road
7. The Dark Knight
8. Boy A
9. Happy-Go-Lucky
10. Iron Man
11. The Wrestler
12. The Reader
13. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
14. Let the Right One In
15. In Bruges
16. Doubt
17. Tropic Thunder
18. Battle in Seattle
19. Tell No One
20. Reprise
21. Milk
22. Mister Foe
23. The Visitor
24. Priceless
25. The Wackness
26. The Duchess
27. Snow Angels
28. The Edge of Heaven
29. The Bank Job
30. Wendy & Lucy
31. Trick R Treat
32. Sex and the City
33. Cloverfield
34. Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
35. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
36. Pineapple Express
37. American Teen
38. My Blueberry Nights
39. Quantum of Solace
40. Burn After Reading
41. The Orphanage
42. Son of Rambow
43. Paranoid Park
44. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
45. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
46. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
47. Definitely, Maybe
48. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
49. Baby Mama
50. Valkyrie
51. The House Bunny
52. Never Back Down
53. Charlie Bartlett
54. Smart People
55. Brideshead Revisited
56. Married Life
57. The Fall
58. Hancock
59. Australia
60. Savage Grace
61. The X-Files: I Want To Believe
62. Funny Games
63. Synechdoche, New York
64. The Day the Earth Stood Still
65. Untraceable
66. Wanted
67. Eagle Eye
68. The Life Before Her Eyes
69. The Happening
70. Pretty Bird

*



Anti-Gravity: Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’ Is OK To Go

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interstellar_black-hole-nolanLast year, Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity blew us away. Not everyone loved the film, but most could agree that it was dazzling to behold on the big screen (especially in 3D) and one giant leap forward in cinema on a technical level. It was a thrill ride as much as a movie, anchored by one single magnetic performance by Sandra Bullock. Gravity went on to become one of two frontrunners for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, winning Best Director for Cuaron and conceding the top prize to 12 Years A Slave, quite rightly. Gravity was an experience, but 12 Years A Slave was a film.

At 91 minutes, Gravity was lean and mean, basically nonstop action from start to finish. Interstellar is not so concise. That should come as no surprise — Christopher Nolan has not made a film that clocks in at under two hours since 2002’s Insomnia. Most of his recent films have hovered around the two-and-a-half-hour mark, while The Dark Knight Rises was even longer. Interstellar is his longest yet, coming in at 169 minutes (nearly three hours). It doesn’t feel that long, though. Nolan’s films are propulsive, even if they wobble a little getting wherever they’re trying to go.

Paramount has done a good job of not spoiling Interstellar, to the extent that many people still don’t know what it’s about. It’s probably better that way, because it’s more fun to watch a movie unfold having no idea where it’s headed, except a reasonable assumption that at some point, it’s headed into space. To preserve that experience, I will be similarly vague in setting this up.INTERSTELLARThe film stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as astronauts named Cooper (no first name that we know of) and Amelia Brand, respectively; it also stars Jessica Chastain, Wes Bentley, John Lithgow, and Michael Caine, as other humans. It takes place in the future, following a rough patch in our planet’s history. A number of people seem to have died of famine, but we don’t know how many. Technology has not advanced. Food is harder to come by. It’s hard to tell what the rest of the world is like, since we’re bound to what seems like a Kansas farmhouse in the 1990s. (I don’t know why it seems like the 90s. Maybe because it reminded me of Twister.) Only a few tech advancement seem even as advanced as 2014, let alone many years into the future. (It seems Apple did not survive the collapse.)

I’m all for the less-is-more explanation of what went wrong on the planet, except for a bit where Murphy Cooper’s teachers try to tell her that space exploration never happened. (Cute meta nod to Kubrick’s 2001, though.) It seems impossible that enough time has passed to allow that theory to be introduced into the public school system, especially if there are still living astronauts amongst the population. (Cooper himself is one, we are told.) In moments like this, we wish for either more or less world-building to explain the state of mind these people are in. (Also inexplicable: why NASA decided to relocate to an underground Kansas-like location.)

I’m also fairly certain that there is a character named Cooper Cooper in this film, but I can’t say how without spoiling a major plot point.interstellar-matthew-mcconaughey-mackenzie-foy-timothee-chalamet-murphInterstellar packs an emotional wallop and has a few killer concepts up its sleeve. As often happens with Nolan, his reach exceeds his grasp. As the filmmaker who is probably least likely to be told “no” in Hollywood at the moment, the screenplay (co-written with his brother Jonathan) could have used a little more scrutiny before production. There are a number of leaps in logic one must take in order to get on board with Interstellar. Some are easier to ride along with than others. Though the fate of all mankind depends on the success of the crew’s mission, Cooper and Brand seem to be winging it an awful lot of the time, making decisions on the fly that you’d think they would have discussed before shuttling off to Saturn. Many characters are scientists and engineers and the like, but actual scientists and engineers would probably go insane trying to make sense of this film. This might be why a lot of the science exposition seems to be mumbled or swiftly cut away from. Nolan definitely doesn’t care about the actual science; his approach to science exposition is basically: “Mumble mumble relativity… look over here! Pretty!”

Interstellar owes plenty to previous science fiction entries ranging from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Signs, but it is closest in spirit to 1997’s Contact, which McConaughey also starred in. Like that Robert Zemeckis film, it explores the love between a father and a daughter stretching from infinity to beyond, while also giving us some time to ponder our small place in a vast universe. For all its wanderings in the cosmos, like Contact, Interstellar brings space exploration down to Earth. Space is a wondrous thing in all its majesty, but the human heart even moreso, as Nolan tells it. Parts of Interstellar play in the same mind-bending surreal realm as Nolan’s Inception, and you probably won’t want to think too hard about them. This is not a movie to think about, but to feel.interstellar-jessica-chastain-murphThat might comes as a surprise to some, since Nolan’s movies tend to be more cerebral than moving. (Or faux-cerebral, at least.) The performances are strong across the board, and why wouldn’t they be? Nolan has cast various Oscar winners and nominees, including many recognizable faces in relatively small roles, plus at least one surprise movie star. McConaughey could find himself with an Oscar nod if the competition isn’t too fierce. He’s wonderfully emotive, and he’s giving quite a lot of emoting to do. (Hathaway and Chastain are good, but their characters may be a tad too thin to warrant awards buzz.) The special effects are impressive because they don’t often look like special effects. The score by Hans Zimmer is exactly as bombastic as you’d expect it to be.

Like The Dark Knight Rises and Inception, Interstellar has more supporting characters than it knows what to do with, and we get little sense of who these people are or even what their function in this world is. Character remains one of his weaknesses. Interstellar feels like a lot of Nolan films do: like a really superb outline that somehow made it into production without ever being a screenplay. The broad beats are here, but the details aren’t, quite, and neither are the answers to my many questions. His stories defy the laws of logic the same way a wormhole defies time itself; instead of connecting Point A to Point B, he just bends the rules and smooshes them together. Nolan is essentially thrusting us all into a wormhole, saying: “It doesn’t matter how you get there, if you do indeed get there! Just go with it, okay?”

INTERSTELLAR

Okay, Christopher Nolan. Interstellar is an epic with big ideas and bigger emotions. It’s a thoroughly entertaining journey through space. Is it remotely coherent? Not really. I still admire Nolan for being one of few filmmakers who can transform an original idea into a blockbuster. We need more movies like Interstellar, and more movies like Interstellar need more input from someone who knows how to write a screenplay.

Gravity wasn’t a perfect film, either, but it was ambitious in all the right ways, while the actual story couldn’t have been simpler. It was, essentially, one character versus tremendous odds, and we followed her singularly from the beginning of her ordeal to the end. That’s all. Interstellar wants to do what Gravity did, and also so much more — it has similar action scenes and a few familiar emotional beats, but it also cuts between life on Earth and what’s happening in the far reaches of space, including a lot of manufactured silliness taking place on the Cooper family farm that could’ve been a lot shorter. Many of the events that unfold are episodic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though it seems Nolan is delivering the action beats mainly because a budget of this magnitude requires him to.

For all its vastness, Gravity kept things simple — one woman’s life at stake. That was it, but it was enough. Interstellar is the anti-Gravity — bloated and sprawling, caring little about the physical experience of being adrift in space, more caught up in earthbound drama. Cuaron’s take ends up being more grounded — which is ironic, given that much less of Gravity takes place on Earth. (Though, to be fair, even Gravity couldn’t resist one rather silly dream sequence indulgence.)

Gravity is a more cohesive film, one of 2013’s best. Interstellar is impressive, but far from a masterpiece. Like the universe itself, it is a beautiful mess. There is life inside it. It may be Nolan’s most moving film yet. It is not his best, but it is more personal and more alive than most blockbusters. This one is worth getting sucked into. interstellar-matthew-mcconaughey-sky-horizon

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The Tens: Best Of Film 2002

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julianne-moore-bathing-suit-far-from-heavenHere it is, straight from the mouth of a film student.

(Sort of.)

I made this Top 10 list relatively early in awards season, before I’d seen a number of films that factored into the race that year — including The Hours, 8 Mile, Secretary, Frida, Talk To Her, and The Pianist, some of which came away with major wins (Best Actress and Best Actor included).

Reconsidering this list in 2015, I wouldn’t change a whole lot. There are a couple films I like better now than I did back then — like Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, which didn’t quite do it for me the first time around. Others, like Talk To Her, Secretary, and 8 Mile, I know I did like quite a bit when I saw them, but now it’s been so long that I’d need to see them again to know if they’d find their way onto my list.

And, full disclosure: I did make one change to this list from back in 2002, adding a film I saw shortly after making this list that has since become one of my favorites of the year. It seemed a shame to leave it off, considering that it was one of my favorites both back then and still now.

Which film did I add, and which one got kicked off to make room for it? I’ll never tell…

LOTR The Two Towers gollum10. THE TWO TOWERS

The second installment in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy suffers slightly at not being nearly as fresh and exciting as the first, and lacks the inevitable climactic pay-off of The Return Of The King, but it does bring one cinematic marvel to the screen — Gollum, performed by Andy Serkis but entirely rendered by CGI, to date probably the most impressive computer-generated creature we’ve seen. (And definitely the most preciousss.)

The Two Towers adds several new characters we didn’t meet in The Fellowship Of The Ring, and many favorites from the first movie are shoved into supporting roles far away from the main action. And sure, these guys are pretty much in the same predicament at the end of this movie as they were in the beginning, and not a whole lot closer to Mordor. The battle of Helm’s Deep is the central focus, and director Peter Jackson brings his expected flair for technical wizardly and large-scale spectacle. It’s big and awesome, even if it seems there’s less at stake than at other points in this series.

Viggo Mortensen does an excellent job of carrying the movie as this film’s hero, leaving Frodo in the backseat, and Gollum is somehow the best-developed and most captivating character in the film. The Two Towers‘ main purpose is keeping audiences invested long enough to make it to the series’ grand finale, but as big budget fantasy epics go, it certainly delivers the goods.punch-drunk-love-silhouettes9. PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE

It’s Paul Thomas Anderson! So, it’s excellent, right?

Well…

Punch-Drunk Love is a surprise on almost every level from the uber-acclaimed director of Magnolia, Boogie Nights, and Hard Eight. Anderson’s films up until now have mostly been sprawling epics that don’t shy away from sex, violence, and some very dark themes, so it takes some adjustment to prepare for this quirky, smaller-scoped love story about Barry Egan and his quest to buy a whole lot of pudding — with some evil Mormon sex phone operators thrown into the mix.

This movie proves Adam Sandler can be at least a halfway decent actor, aided by the always lovable Emily Watson as patient love interest Lena and a pretty crazy turn from Philip Seymour Hoffman as an ill-tempered Mormon. (We can assume he’s Mormon since he lives in Provo, although his foul mouth and sex phone operation may suggest otherwise.) As in Magnolia, Anderson doesn’t follow the typical three-act structure — he marches to the beat of his own drummer, and this one is willfully offbeat.

At a scant 95 minutes, Punch-Drunk Love seems to gloss over some story elements and instead spends its screen time on a fair amount of chaos and randomness, but you gotta give it credit for being unpredictable. It’s funny, clever, crazy, quick, and entertaining, and Emily Watson lights up the screen, though it falls well short of being a masterpiece like Magnolia and Boogie Nights. I guess they can’t all be instant classics… (but they can still be very good).

robin-williams-insomnia8. INSOMNIA

Insomnia is a remake of a Norwegian film I haven’t seen, so I’m sure some of the credit goes to the original — but this adaptation definitely does it some justice regardless. Al Pacino is a tough-guy cop from Los Angeles struggling with his own morals and police ethics   while trying to solve a murder in Nightmute, Alaska. (A real place, apparently — despite the noirish name.) As his conscience eats away at him, so does the titular lack of sleep he struggles with in a town where the sun never sets — a nice twist on the typical murky nighttime setting of such thrillers.

Al Pacino is awesome as always, if you like that sort of thing (and I very much do!). Hilary Swank is perfect as the eager young local cop trying to learn from Pacino, unaware that he is not quite the good detective she idolizes. The real revelation, though, is Robin Williams in icy-cold killer mode (previously shown in One Hour Photo, which somewhat undermines the surprise of the comedian’s malevolent turn here).

Christopher Nolan, best known for Memento, pulls off some brilliant editing that puts us in an insomniac state of mind, and the film’s morality plays are almost epic. Certainly one of the best American thrillers to come along in quite some time. (Even if it did come from Norway first.)ADAPTATION-MERYL-STREEP-NICOLAS-CAGE7. ADAPTATION

This movie probably plays better to screenwriters than anybody else — sorry! The ultimate scribe’s wet dream has Charlie Kaufman literally writing himself into the movie he was supposed to be writing, an adaptation of Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief. Most writers who tried this would get a swift “no, thank you,” be fired, and never work in this town again. Somehow, Kaufman got a critically beloved film made — one that could easily win some Oscars. (It would be a sweet irony if a film called Adaptation won Best Adapted Screenplay, especially considering that it is basically an original story.)

Nicolas Cage gives two very solid performances as the frustrated screenwriter of Being John Malkovich and his half-witted twin brother. In addition to basically ruining the move version of her book, Kaufman also begins stalking Susan Orlean, who is played perfectly (of course) by Meryl Streep. Chris Cooper also provides a memorable turn as the kooky subject of Orlean’s book. But none of that orchid-thieving business is what ultimately makes Adaptation such a breath of fresh, weird air — it’s the bizarre mix of fact and fiction, with the real-life Kaufman and his made-up brother battling for screenwriting supremacy, tossing in plenty of industry in-jokes along the way.

The film goes spinning off on a strange tangent in the third act that embraces everything the movie is against. I get the point of it, thematically, but I didn’t love it. Adaptation is funny, clever, and twisted, and probably quite a bit more interesting than a straightforward Orchid Thief movie would have been — though let’s hope it doesn’t spark a dangerous trend of writers inserting themselves into their screenplays ever time they get writer’s block. This will only work once, people.Minority-Report-Tom-Cruise-samantha-morton6. MINORITY REPORT

Steven Spielberg proves once again he’s a peerless entertainer. In 2002, he delivered two very different chases movies, this one and Catch Me If You Can. (“Everybody runs” could be the tagline of either film.) While not as diverse as the films in other years when Spielberg has delivered a one-two punch (1993’s double-offering of Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List obviously takes that cake), I can’t help but be impressed that one man can craft a breathless piece of action-packed science fiction as well as a moving drama within a few months of each other, and have them both be so good. Let us never take Spielberg for granted.

Between the two, it’s Minority Report that gets my full-on Top 10 stamp of approval, with an utterly convincing (and somewhat terrifying) vision of the future despite a far-fetched premise — cops using prescient humans to predict crimes before they happen, but nevertheless arresting criminals for their murderous intent. Tom Cruise is at the top of his form as the detective who goes from hunter to hunted, grabbing an ethereally excellent Samantha Morton to prove his innocence along the way.

Spielberg once again blunders the ending to an otherwise great film — I had third-act issues with Catch Me If You Can and A.I. too — but it’s not an egregious error when so much that came before was so very good. The vision of the future presented here is the most original I’ve seen since, well, Spielberg’s last film (A.I.), and the maestro of wonder delivers several of his trademark Great Movie Moments — particularly the exhilarating mall chase scene. In a world that so often gets them wrong, this is a blockbuster done right.25th-hour-edward-norton-barry-pepper-club-scene5. 25TH HOUR

Countless filmmakers have made movies in and about New York City, but few are as closely tied to it as Spike Lee. He’s as essential to the city as Woody Allen, depicting a very different, but equally vital slice of life in the city that never sleeps.

So it’s almost impossible to think that Lee wouldn’t somehow respond to the devastation faced on September 11 by New York (and all of America, of course) — and it’s entirely appropriate that he is, essentially, the first. Though it’s probably too soon for cinema to cover the attacks in their entirety, 25th Hour finds a perfectly subtle way to pay homage without letting that dark shadow loom over the film overall.

The story itself has nothing to do with the World Trade Center — it’s about a drug dealer named Monty (Edward Norton) who has just one last day of freedom before he heads to prison for dealing drugs. He spends that day with his best buddies Frank (Barry Pepper), a Wall Street hotshot, and Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a shy high school teacher with a crush on his student Mary (Anna Paquin). Another key figure is Monty’s girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), whom he suspects might have been the one to give him up to the cops.

25th Hour spends more time on character development than on mystery or suspense, though, and that’s a very good thing. It takes its time and isn’t afraid of some random detours to explore its supporting characters or a slice of New York City life. (One incredibly memorable sequence features Monty’s foul-mouthed disparagement of virtually every person in New York, which somehow still comes across as a love letter to the place.)

Developed before 9/11 and shot afterward, the film’s only reference to the tragedy is a mournful look down at Ground Zero — and it’s all that’s needed. September 11 would be easy to exploit for some added emotional weight, but that’s now what Lee is doing here. Sure, it can be read as a metaphor for Monty’s life in ruins, but it would feel more conspicuous for a Spike Lee joint about these New Yorkers to pretend like it never happened. Monty’s angst is front and center, but 25th Hour is also very much about the rest of the people who inhabit his world. That single shot of Ground Zero hits just the right note, and then quickly moves on.
gabriel-garcia-bernal-naked-diego-luna-shirtless-bed-y-tu-mama-tambien4. Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN

Hollywood loves a good coming-of-age story, but apparently it takes a Mexican to get it right. Y Tu Mama Tambien treads in waters you’ll rarely see in any American film about teenage boys, with graphic sex scenes that are both hetero- and homoerotic. (Something for everyone to enjoy!)

The film takes us on a road trip, as two teenage boys (Diego Luna and Gabriel Garcia Bernal) woo the same older woman (Maribel Verdu) who has just left her cheating husband — and is carrying an even more heartbreaking secret, too. They go in search of a beach and instead find all kinds of romantic and sexual complications that come with the territory of growing up.

Cowriter and director Alfonso Cuaron understands that sexuality is complicated, especially when we’re young. The fact that these teen boys explore their sexual curiosities with each other doesn’t mean that either is gay, necessarily, but that the lines between friendship and romance aren’t always explicitly defined. (To be fair, there is a female present when they’re making out, which makes it a little less queer.)

The film is all about the journey instead of the destination, and the journey is not so much the road trip but adolescence itself. The most remarkable thing about the film is how natural it feels — less like a movie, more like eavesdropping on these people’s lives. Part of this is due to the raw, explicit sex scenes that leave nothing to the imagination.

The performances by all three are stellar, though it’s Maribel Verdu that really brings the film to life. The final scene is a real heartbreaker, because of what we learn happens to one of the characters, but moreso because of what it says about what happens when friendships grow a little too intimate. For better or worse, I’ve never seen a more honest movie about being a teenage guy.

chicago-catherine-zeta-jones-legs-spread-cell-block-tango
3. CHICAGO

I had a hard time figuring out where, exactly, to put Chicago on this list. It’s the songs and the spirit that make it so great, and that’s lifted pretty much verbatim from the musical. However, Rob Marshall finds a pretty nifty way to pull off a stage-to-screen adaptation, suggesting that the musical numbers take place in Roxie Hart’s warped mind. That could easily be cheesy, except that Roxie is so obsessed with being a star, it’s easy to see how she’d be deluded enough to imagine that everyone around her is starring in a musical that’s all about her.

Based on entertainment value alone, Chicago might have be the most enjoyable entertaining movie I saw all year. Shockingly, Renee Zellweger can sing! She’s great in Chicago, playing a character anyone who hasn’t seen this on Broadway may be surprised to learn isn’t very likable at all. (It’s a nice way to subvert the actress’ usual cutesy charms.) Balancing her out is Catherine Zeta-Jones as another murderess bitch, one who plays off Zellweger very well. Zeta-Jones’ Velma Kelly is more upfront about her killer instincts, though not necessarily the more ruthless — she may look darker, but both of these women are devious vamps.

Chicago is all about fame versus infamy, and Marshall nails every musical number, giving each one its own distinct flair. (Not always the case in movie musicals.) “Cell Block Tango” in particular is a real knockout. And though much of the film is a cynical look at criminal celebrity — witness Richard Gere’s turn as a sharky defense attorney — the film also has a tiny bit of heart in John C. Reilly’s poor schlub of a husband, who sells the melancholy “Mr. Cellophane.” Chicago feels perfectly poised to sweep the Academy Awards, and for all its gloss, it’s hard to fault a film that’s so much fun for painting the Oscars red.About-Schmidt-jack-nicholson2. ABOUT SCHMIDT

Jack Nicholson is an icon — he’s won three Oscars and been nominated for many more, turning in essential performances in classic films like Chinatown, The Shining, and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. And while I haven’t seen his entire body of work, I’m prepared to say that this might be his best performance ever.

We all know Nicholson can rant and rave like a madman. It’s become a bit of a shtick, which doesn’t mean it doesn’t still work when used effectively. (Call it the Al Pacino Syndrome.) But Nicholson rarely does that here, instead delivering a subdued and understated turn as a man grappling with aging, retirement, and the death of a spouse — and that’s just the first act.

Nicholson is fearless in his touching and honest portrayal of the perils of being a senior citizen, an underexplored topic in cinema to be sure. He allows his Schmidt to be vulnerable and pathetic, weak and petty. As good as he was in As Good As It Gets, that was not as good as Nicholson gets — it’s this performance that deserves an award. It’s the rare turn from Nicholson that’s more about acting than performance.

The movie as a whole is filled with solid work from a cast including Kathy Bates, Hope Davis, and Dermot Mulroney, reveling at times in the mundane cultural squalor of Middle America. Alexander Payne’s film is alternately very funny and very sad, and just when it seems like it might get boring, the plot goes in a new direction and makes us laugh all over again. About Schmidt proves that Election was no fluke, trading some of that film’s biting comedy for genuine pathos instead.FAR-FROM-HEAVEN-dennis-quaid-julianne-moore1. FAR FROM HEAVEN

This is both the best movie of 2002 and the best movie of 1955 — or at least it feels that way. Todd Haynes presents a pitch perfect pastiche of Douglas Sirk’s 1950s melodramas, though here the ideals of the “perfect” 50s family are shattered by topics that the world wasn’t ready to tackle back then. (Namely, homosexuality and interracial relationships.)

Julianne Moore plays Cathy Whitaker, a seemingly happy housewife whose cheerful suburban bubble is about to pop. When Cathy finds her husband engaging in unspeakable acts with a fellow gentleman, she discovers her marriage, her friendships, and basically her entire white hetero Connecticut world are nothing but surface — and longs to find something deeper. That causes her to fire up a flirtation with her black gardener, which is almost as taboo as her hubby’s same-sex hanky-panky in this era.

Anchored by Moore’s immaculate performance, Far From Heaven looks and sounds like it was made 50 years ago — with no sex or profanity, it’s certainly tame in comparison to today’s films, though it probably would have been the raciest, most controversial movie of 1955. The period details are simply flawless, with a Technicolor-like sheen that makes this by far 2002’s most beautiful picture to look at. The supporting cast — Dennis Quaid, Patricia Clarkson, and Dennis Haysbert — does plenty of good work too, but this is Moore’s movie, and she shines. If there’s any justice, she’ll win the Oscar this year.

Far From Heaven also contains my favorite line in a movie this year, because of its simplicity and importance to the story: “Here’s to being the only one.” Though it isn’t the only great film of the year, it is certainly one of the most strikingly original, in that it inhabits the tropes and mores of a 1950s melodrama while simultaneously critiquing them. That’s not an easy maneuver, but Haynes pulls it off in spades. And as good as Julianne Moore is in absolutely everything, this may endure as her most essential performance.

25th-Hour-Rosario-Dawson-school-girl-skirtBEST DIRECTOR

Todd Haynes, Far From Heaven
Spike Lee, 25th Hour
Steven Spielberg, Minority Report
Rob Marshall, Chicago
Peter Jackson, The Two Towers

BEST ACTRESS

Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven
Renee Zellweger, Chicago
Maribel Verdu, Y Tu Mama Tambien
Diane Lane, Unfaithful
Emily Watson, Punch-Drunk Love

BEST ACTOR

Jack Nicholson, About Schmidt
Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs Of New York
Nicolas Cage, Adaptation
Edward Norton, 25th Hour
Leonardo DiCaprio, Catch Me If You Can

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago
Kathy Bates, About Schmidt
Patricia Clarkson, Far From Heaven
Susan Sarandon, Igby Goes Down
Meryl Streep, Adaptation

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Dennis Quaid, Far From Heaven
Paul Newman, Road To Perdition
Chris Cooper, Adaptation
Dennis Haysbert, Far From Heaven
Colin Farrell, Minority Report

BEST EDITING

Chicago
Insomnia
About Schmidt
The Two Towers
Punch-Drunk Love

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Far From Heaven
Minority Report
Chicago
Punch-Drunk Love
Road to Perdition

BEST SCREENPLAY

About Schmidt
Far From Heaven
Changing Lanes
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Insomnia


The Tens: Best Of Film 2001

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memento-pictureThis is it. This is my final retroactive Top 10 list, because it is my first.

This was the first year I was in film school, and the first time I saw nearly enough films in any given year to feel qualified to weigh in. I was a teenager at the time, so maybe my taste wasn’t quite so refined — but hey, it was a lot more refined than most 18-year-olds, I’d wager.

These lists are a time capsule. Some of these films have aged better than others. Others that I’ve seen since — Mulholland Drive, Donnie Darko, Before Night Falls, to name a few — might have been in contention, but aren’t found here. Because you can’t see everything.

I wrote this list without ordering my picks, so I’ve ordered them as seems appropriate now. Another caveat: I didn’t do any write-ups then, so these are my current thoughts about these films. Some of these movies I love even more now than I did then, and others I’d probably happily leave off this list were I to go back and start over. But you can’t do that, because it defeats the whole purpose of encapsulating your favorites in a Top Ten!

(For other Top Tens from other years, click here.)

Left to right: Heath Ledger, Sean Combs, Billy Bob Thornton in a scene from the motion picture Monster's Ball. --- DATE TAKEN: rcd 01/02 By Jeanne Louise Bulliard Lions Gate Films HO - handout ORG XMIT: PX64576

10. MONSTER’S BALL

There’s a lot of misery going on in Monster’s Ball. Hank is a son of a bitch whose wife killed herself, and early in the story, his son kills himself, too. Then there’s Leticia, whose husband is executed on death row early in the film, and whose son is later killed in a car accident. But hey, at least there’s ice cream!

Yes, this film lays on the “chocolate versus vanilla” symbolism thicker than hot fudge, because Hank is white and Leticia is blank, and Hank is also pretty much a racist. It’s basically tragedy porn, and is mostly notable for winning Halle Berry her Oscar for Best Actress, which was also the first (and, to date, only) Best Actress Oscar to go to a black actress. Unfortunately, Berry’s career since 2001 has been, shall we say, less than optimal, with duds like Gothika and Catwoman following her win and somewhat sullying her appeal. She hasn’t been great in a great movie since. Director Marc Forster’s career has been spotty, too.

But Berry is really good in Monster’s Ball, and despite its retroactive inclusion under the Lee Daniels Meloadrama Umbrella, it’s not a bad film, if a tad overcooked. Billy Bob Thornton, Heath Ledger, and even Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs turn out fine performances. This isn’t a film from 2001 I’ve revisited often (I may be a masochist when it comes to bleak movies, but I’m not that much of a masochist), but it’s not a cinematic blight, either, even though Monster’s Ball doesn’t have the greatest of reputations anymore. (Funny how consensus on certain films just sours sometimes, largely when its key players turn out subpar work in subsequent ventures.)

British actor Jim Broadbent is shown in a scene from the film "Iris," for which he was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role at the 8th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Nominations, in Los Angeles, CA, 29 January 2002. The Awards will be presented in Los Angeles 10 March 2002. AFP PHOTO/SAG [PNG Merlin Archive] ORG XMIT: POS2014031909134325

9. IRIS

I suppose it’s fitting that my most forgettable movie of 2001 happens to be about Alzheimer’s. I certainly don’t want to dismiss the film — I liked it enough to rank it among my favorites of the year, of course, and it was nominated for three Oscars, all for its performances. Not too shabby.

Jim Broadbent won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, even though I’d say his role is more of a lead (as you’ll see in my acting awards below). No matter. As Bayley, the mild-mannered hubby of the titular Iris, played to perfection as usual by Dame Judi Dench, Broadbent is heartbreaking. Broadbent is the kind of stalwart character actor who isn’t often recognized by the Academy, or at least rarely wins against more formidable (and famous) opponents. For this role, he was up against Ben Kinglsey, Ian McKellan, Ethan Hawke, and Jon Voight, all of whom are more recognizable to audiences. And Iris also has a supporting turn from Kate Winslet, which is never a bad thing.

Dench and Winslet have had plenty of other memorable roles, and Broadbent has proven his worth in many roles since, but it’s nice that this movie earned him his due… even if I’m feeling a bit Iris-like, in that I remember very little about the story of the film itself…Fellowship-orlando-bloom-arrow-LOTR8. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

Speaking of Ian McKellan! This was the film that started it all, for better or worse. It’s actually rather unfortunate that Peter Jackson went on to direct his bloated Hobbit trilogy — which (to be fair) I haven’t seen — because the original trilogy was held in such high regard by both audiences and critics, back in the day. The third installment managed to sweep the Oscars in 2004.

These films still have their place in the hearts of many fans (and I suppose the Hobbit films do too, of a much smaller group), but since 2001 we’ve seen a lot of imitators — not so much in terms of fantasy stories, but definitely in terms of spectacle. Few of these are anywhere as good as Fellowship Of The Ring.

Give Jackson his due for adapting a difficult book series into something that fans old and new cherished, something of high enough quality to be nominated for Best Picture all three times, and utilizing such magnificent actors in these iconic roles. There is so much to praise in these movies, and yet… and yet… I find it hard to muster much enthusiasm for them now, because I’m exhausted by what they left in their wake.

Sorry, Mr. Jackson.gosford-park-ryan-phillippe-kristin-scott-thomas-sex7. GOSFORD PARK

Before there was Downton Abbey, there was Gosford Park. The cast features more or less every British thespian who was noteworthy in 2001 (many who would become even more noteworthy later), including Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam, Emily Watson, Clive Owen, Charles Dance… I’m getting tired of listing them, but there are lots more. Enough to compete with Hogwarts. Also… Ryan Phillippe!

Gosford Park is like an Agatha Christie novel come to life, paired with Christopher Guest-ian humor. (Or maybe that’s just the presence of Bob Balaban leading me to think so.) Directed by the legendary Robert Altman, this takes the auteur’s trademark comfort with colossal casts and loose narrative and puts it to work, in the pitch perfect setting of a posh English manor, where there’s been — dun dun dun — a murder!

The story is a classic “upstairs downstairs” type, where we see things unfold both with the upper crust and the servants. The film is wryly funny and the mystery is satisfying, and — no surprise here — the cast is superb all around. I haven’t seen Gosford Park in a while, but I should correct that. It’s Altman at his best (or close to it, at least).josh-hartnett-black-hawk-down6. BLACK HAWK DOWN

We’ve seen a lot of movies that resemble Black Hawk Down since 2001, but they may never have been made if Black Hawk Down didn’t get there first. Ridley Scott was hot off the Best Picture-winning Gladiator, with the hot lineup of Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Orlando Bloom, and Eric Bana, amongst others. (You remember when Josh Hartnett was a thing, don’t you?)

Black Hawk Down was the most intense war film since Saving Private Ryan, set in a much more recent era (Somalia, 1993). Up until this year, it was probably also the best regarded film by Ridley Scott since Black Hawk Down, as his output has been hit or miss otherwise. (A Good Year, Kingdom Of Heaven, Body Of Lies, Prometheus, Robin Hood, Exodus: Gods And Kings, American Gangster, The Counselor… definitely a mixed bag there.) Hans Zimmer pulled out a pretty fantastic score, and the film won two out of the four Oscars it was nominated for. Black Hawk Down also feels like a necessary precursor to films like The Hurt Locker and American Sniper that depict more recent war zones than the usual WWII varietal.   MCDROTE EC0215. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS

Wes Anderson has been assembling casts of weirdo “families” (biological or otherwise) since 2001, many times using the same actors. (I know Bottle Rocket and Rushmore did this to an extent earlier, but I’d say it was The Royal Tenenbaums that really cemented the full Wes Anderson formula.) I am sometimes charmed by Anderson’s sensibilities, and sometimes not. Occasionally, I get a sense of quirk overload, to the extent that I’ve had to skip a few of his films.

It helped that back in 2001, we hadn’t really seen this sort of thing before. Gene Hackman is a hoot as the gruff patriarch of a fractured family whose only method of getting back in his loved ones’ good graces is to pretend that he’s dying. Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Danny Glover, and Bill Murray are basically an immaculate lineup for Anderson (the dour, secretly smoking Margo is Paltrow’s best-ever performance). Like all of Anderson’s films, there’s an underlying sadness beneath the mega-stylized surface, but in this one, it feels earned.

memento-guy-pearce-carrie-ann-moss-mirror4. MEMENTO

I mentioned having forgotten a lot about the Alzheimer’s drama Iris above, but Memento is far less forgettable — even though it is similarly all about memory loss, albeit in a much more mysterious fashion. While not technically Christopher Nolan’s first film, it is the film that put him on the mainstream map. While still best known for his Batman films, the unique vision Nolan put forth in Memento carried on in bigger original films like Inception and Interstellar, which are mainly notable because hardly anyone gets to make big budget original stories anymore.

In Memento, we have a story that is nothing new — a man trying to hunt down the man who wrong his wife. The twist, of course, is that this man has anterograde amnesia, so he forgets everything he does and everything that happens, making him vulnerable to certain predators. Taking place in alternating scenes of chronological and reverse-chronological order, one in color and one in black-and-white, Memento is a post-Pulp Fiction pushing of the limits of narrative storytelling, one that — like Pulp Fiction — has prompted plenty of copycats in the years since.

tom-Wilkinson_in-the-bedroom_sissy-Spacek3. IN THE BEDROOM

This film is a lot less kinky than it sounds. In fact, it’s not kinky at all! The titular bedroom shenanigans refer primarily to grief, loss, estrangement, and other such unsexy things.

Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek are Matt and Ruth Fowler, living an idyllic life in Maine with their son Frank (Nick Stahl)… until he begins dating an older woman, Natalie (Marisa Tomei), who has two children and a hot-headed ex husband. That ex ends up killing their son in a domestic dispute, and because there are no witnesses, he ends up going free. Matt and Ruth cope in different ways, the absence of Frank palpable between them. Eventually, Matt comes to believe that the only way they can move on is to take eye-for-an-eye vengeance, leading to a tense finale.

In The Bedroom was the first official Sundance selection nominated for Best Picture, and certainly not the last. A number of independent films with similar stories and moods have been released in the years since, but In The Bedroom remains one of the most sparsely elegant of all, powered by powerhouse performances from Spacek and Wilkinson. The fact that it lost Best Picture to the lighter-weight A Beautiful Mind is a predictable shame in the Academy Awards record books, but this one holds up far better.

ghost-world-thora=birch=catwoman2. GHOST WORLD

Of all my 2001 favorites, this is probably the film I’ve re-watched the most, and it only gets better with age. Following their high school graduation, BFFs Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) hang out and fill their last summer of freedom in that idle, aimless manner you can only get away with as a teenager. Their primary preoccupation becomes with Seymour (Steve Buscemi), a lonesome sad sack, whom they prank by setting him up on a fake date. Then Enid starts to feel sorry for Seymour and begins spending time with him, and the longer she’s around Seymour, the more she realizes they have in common. Being a snarky outsider is fine and dandy in high school, but that’s the sort of attitude that could see Enid growing up to be as lonely as Seymour.

Adapted from a comic book, Terry Zwigoff’s offbeat comedy is plenty clever and contains a number of indelible comic moments, but like The Royal Tenenbaums, the comedy bubbles up in a sea of melancholy and human truth. The relationships between these characters are flawless and fascinating — Enid and Rebecca, as their friendship falls apart post-high school, as teen friendships tend to do, and Enid and Seymour, whose relationship is tender with some underlying romantic tension that’s never as creepy as it easily could be. Ghost World captures the tender age between childhood and adulthood perfectly, with a level of stark, sobering truth that’s rare in a “teen movie.” (This is one of those only in the most technical sense.) It’s one of the best comedies of the past 15 years… or maybe ever.

ai_moon-jude-law1. A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

This might be one of Steven Spielberg’s more divisive movies — in more ways than one. In it, you can feel Spielberg’s sentimental instincts grappling to stay buoyant while tangling with Stanley Kubrick’s more nihilistic worldview.

It is the story of David, an artificial intelligence in the form of a sweet-faced boy. (You didn’t get more sweet-faced in 2001 than Haley Joel Osment, hot off his iconic turn in 1999’s The Sixth Sense.) David is programmed to love his adoptive family, but these humans, of course, are not programmed to love him back. When their own child awakens from a coma, their fear of David’s synthetic origins overwhelms the complex feelings they’ve grown for him, and he is abandoned. That’s where the family drama ends, and an entirely different sort of adventure begins.

Based on the short story “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long,” A.I. is like a fairy tale, but not the sweet Disney-fied rewrites we remember. We’re talking original Brothers Grimm style stuff. Its depiction of the future is both awesome and hellish, and absolutely one of my favorite cinematic imaginings of the future. And how can you not love a story about a lost little boy and his talking teddy bear that has them meet up with a gigolo for the rest of their adventures? Though there are blatant echoes of Pinocchio in the text, A.I. also feels like a fucked up version of The Wizard Of Oz, as a child meets up with an array of unusual friends on his quest toward the big city.

It comes as no shocker that Jude Law makes a pitch perfect male prostitute, because in 2001, who didn’t want to sleep with him? But this is also one of his best and unheralded performances. The whole movie, in fact, is underrated despite coming from one of the highest profile filmmakers out there — it earned only two Oscar nods in a year where more people were focused on the first of Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings movies. (Though as you can tell by these ranking, I find Spielberg’s vision of A.I. a lot more compelling.)

It may take a few viewings to fully appreciate the brilliant and beautiful strangeness of this story, but it ranks amongst Spielberg’s best work. Even coming from such a blockbuster auteur, it’s one of the most creative and memorable pieces of cinema from this era, and I’m not alone in holding it in even higher esteem now than I did upon its release in the summer of 2001.in-the-bedroom-sissy-spacek-tom-wilkinson

BEST ACTRESS

Sissy Spacek, In The Bedroom
Halle Berry, Monster’s Ball
Judi Dench, Iris
Jennifer Connolly, A Beautiful Mind
Thora Birch, Ghost World

BEST ACTOR

Jim Broadbent, Iris
Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums
Tom Wilkinson, In The Bedroom
Billy Bob Thornton, Monster’s Ball
Denzel Washington, Training Day

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Marisa Tomei, In The Bedroom
Maggie Smith, Gosford Park
Kate Winslet, Iris
Gwyneth Paltrow, The Royal Tenenbaums
Cameron Diaz, Vanilla Sky

jude-law-ai-artificial-intelligence-haley-joel-osmentBEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jude Law, A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Steve Buscemi, Ghost World
Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast
Ian McKellen, The Fellowship Of The Ring
Peter Boyle, Monster’s Ball

BEST SCREENPLAY

Gosford Park
Memento
The Royal Tenenbaums
Ghost World
In The Bedroom

BEST DIRECTOR

Peter Jackson
Ridley Scott
Robert Altman
Steven Spielberg
Christopher Nolan

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Fellowship Of The Ring
Black Hawk Down
Moulin Rouge
Vanilla Skymask-tom-cruise-vanilla-sky-club

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