We Are The Movies

Coming Soon.

2011-03-10T22:22:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, my girlfriend took me out to see Rango, it was an enjoyable movie that took an interesting look at the Western genre. This post, however, is not about the movie we saw last week. This post is to announce that I will be working on an article about the triumphant renaissance of the Western since 2007 with the release of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 3:10 to Yuma, There Will be Blood and (possibly) No Country for Old Men. The genre had been all but dead since Clint Eastwood's beautiful Unforgiven in 1992 until it came raging back. I don't know when the article will be finished, but it is in the works.

Happy Birthday Robert Altman

2011-02-20T18:37:00.000-05:00

In the infamous words of hip-hop superstar, 50 Cent, "It's yo birtday, we gonna party like it's yo birtday."

Robert Altman was one of the most talented, endearing and enduring filmmakers of the American "New-Hollywood" era. His films, starting with his break-out 1970 success, M*A*S*H, defined what American filmmaking was all about. There were times when things got out of hand, but that's true of most visionaries. In 2006, shortly after the release of this master's final film, A Prairie Home Companion, Robert Altman passed away. Since then he has been dearly missed by lovers of American cinema.

Here's hoping that his young protege, and Assistant on his final film, Paul Thomas Anderson, can keep up his streak of brilliance and can one day be placed on the same mantle as Robert Altman.

For those not familiar with Altman's work here is a list of my favorite Altman films: McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, 3 Women, The Player, Short Cuts, M*A*S*H, A Prairie Home Companion.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Altman (1925-2006) And, happy birthday.

The King's Speech - Tom Hooper

2011-02-13T20:48:00.000-05:00

Last night I saw The King’s Speech, I hadn’t planned on writing a review on this masterful film as I cannot possibly add anything constructive to the discussion of this film. It is currently sitting at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a 95% rating from the users of Yahoo! a demographic notorious for disliking critical darlings, it won the triple crown at the major guilds as it heads toward Oscar gold in two weeks. The fact is that I am just another amateur critic who loved Tom Hopper’s picture. It feels necessary, however, to back up my opinions with concrete thought.

The backbone of this film is the relationship between King George VI, played masterfully by Colin Firth and Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). George has had a st-st-stammer since he was four or five years old, and while we now know that most speech impediments are caused by psychological trauma young in life, the most common way for parents to deal with them in the days of yore was to punish a child. King George V was no different than most of these parents. Without revealing a critical piece of drama, Logue is more familiar with the psychological aspects of speech problems that people have, and is called upon by Geoge VI’s wife, Elizabeth, to help her struggling husband become the man that they believe he is capable of being.

The most dramatic moments of the film are when tensions of the state come between Lionel and George; such as when his older brother, David, is struggling juggling a woman and the responsibilities of being king. This relationship, however, is a delightful one to watch develop as the picture progresses, Lionel’s guidance of the king through his problems is inspiring and oft-times hilarious, though never risible.

Some may write The King’s Speech off as shameless Oscar bait. As a critical darling that has nothing to do with the masses who only want to be entertained. There is some truth in the first statement, but people who say it forget that Oscar bait still has to be pulled off or else you end up with another Elizabeth: The Golden Age or All the King’s Men. If a writer, director and group of actors decide to team up to make a film they believe the academy will enjoy: there is nothing wrong with that. The second statement, however, can only be spoken out of ignorance or not having seen the film. While it is slow in parts, as it is a “talking” movie, both Rush and Firth are at the top of the acting game (and could both end up on the podium giving acceptance speeches), they are hilarious and are vastly entertaining.

Tom Hooper’s film may not, actually, be the best film of 2010. But, that is such an arbitrary and subjective statement that it is hard to quantify, qualify or defend. I do, however, believe that it had the two best performances I saw, and that if it isn’t the best film of last year, it is worthy to be crowned as such if or when it is. This is a picture worth seeing, and if you fall into either of the camps aforementioned, don’t be afraid to put down these prejudices until after you’ve seen it. And, if you still hate it, feel free to tell me I’m wrong and I’ll feel free to accept your opinion as that.

The Social Network - David Fincher

2011-01-13T10:24:00.000-05:00

There are very few young filmmakers as dynamic as David Fincher. In fact, Christopher Nolan and Darren Aronofsky come to mind. In his career so far, Fincher has taken on a piece of the Alien franchise, created the film that has, more than any other film defined Generation X, he's definitively proven the guilt of San Francisco's Zodiac Killer and he showed us that people who age backwards are people too...they just lead more complicated lives.

Two years ago, with the release of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher finally broke into the "Oscar Nominee" category; with October's release of The Social Network, it seems determined that David Fincher will join the immortal group of Oscar winners. Fincher's film may not be the best film of this year; it is; however, the most timely, generation defining and possibly, important film of 2010. When all is said and done, the 500,000,000 members of Facebook are very real. And when you're able to, not only show the genesis of such a defining tool of the age, but to show it with the grace and power that Fincher and star, Jesse Eisenberg bring to this film, there is something special afoot.

If you're one of us--and by us, I mean the 500 M members of Mark Zuckerberg's website--this is a must see. If you're not one of us--and by this, I mean a person outside of the social networking generation, a generation that spans the concept of age--this film is a tool to help you understand us. Just like 1999's controversial but defining Fight Club, The Social Network takes the defining quality of a generation, boils it down to the elemental and puts it under the microscope.

In short: See. This. Film.

Top 10 of 2010

2011-01-08T13:19:00.000-05:00

10. Hereafter - Clint Eastwood: I, admittedly, have yet to see last year's Invictus; however, with the exception of that one film I have seen everything Mr. Eastwood has graced us with since 2003's phenomenal Mystic River. And, while his latest effort may not be to the same level of brilliance as Mystic River and its ending was slightly abrupt, Hereafter has a lot to offer, and represents the growth of an aged and ripened filmmaker at the peak of his powers.

9. Despicable Me - Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud: I know the heat that could possibly come my way for daring to name a DreamWorks animated film over a Pixar title. I don't care, Despicable Me was and is the best animated picture of 2010, Toy Story 3 included. It was a sheer joy to watch start to end, and while the parent inside of me isn't sure how I feel about thieves being put on a pedestal the way they are in this movie, it is still a delight, and one that the whole family can enjoy together.

8. Greenberg - Noah Baumbach: Baumbach has a theme that he works with, that he lives with, that he eats, sleeps and breathes. That is: grown men dealing with the pains of growing up too late and the disfunction that it creates in the oft-pathetic lives. Greenberg follows suit to perfection. While it does not have the raw emotional power of 2005's The Squid and the Whale it is also a more subtle and mature film in many ways. And, in it's subtlety, Baumbach is not withholding any punches and this one brings it.

7. Shutter Island - Martin Scorsese: For those of you who know me, or read this blog at all, you HAVE to know that if Scorsese releases a film, it will be in the top 10. You must also know that if he releases a film and its in the number 7 slot that it's not one of his all time classics and we're in the middle of a solid year in cinema. Both are the case. Shutter Island is not Taxi Driver, Raging Bull or Goodfellas; it may not be The Departed or Bringing Out the Dead; it is, however, every bit as good as Gangs of New York and The Aviator. It brings a psychological depth that may be unsurpassed this year and the end leaves the audience with as many (or more) questions than answers.

6. The Fighter - David O. Russell: This loser cum champion story is the epitome of a sports film. In many ways it's generic. However, when you do the genre better than everyone else, generic doesn't mean much. The saving grace of this film are the performances from the ensemble: Bale, Adams, Leo and Whalberg. Especially Bale and Adams who are both dynamite.

5. Ghost Writer - Roman Polanski: Leave it to Polanski to make a thriller about a ghost writer. But, more so, leave it to Polanski to make a great thriller about a ghost writer. I guess when it comes to it, I don't have a lot to say about this movie. On paper it sounds a little weak. On screen it's anything but.

4. Black Swan - Darren Aronofsky: Natalie Portman kills it in this picture. She brings a depth to her character that is rare, and her performance may be the best by anyone this year. She is flat-out flawless from start to finish. Only Aronofsky could've pulled this film off. By that I mean, only the man who had the gaul to make a psycho-thriller based on mathematics could make such a devastatingly powerful and dark film about the beauty of ballet and the darkness inside of all of us.

3. Inception - Christopher Nolan: Can this man make a bad movie? I'll just list his films. Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception. Allow me to answer my own question. If he can, he hasn't and God bless him for it. Some people allow themselves to become too wrapped up in the dream sequences to allow themselves to understand the film. There are four levels of dreams. Each time they go farther "down" the level above them slows down. It's a deceptively simple plot with mind-blowing visual effects. And, that's all it has to be.

2. Winter's Bone - Debra Granik: This story about a girl trying to save her home after her deadbeat dad puts the house up for parole is a haunting and beautiful film about survival, and perseverance. It is completely unlike anything I have ever seen before and I loved it.

1. True Grit - Joel and Ethan Coen: The Coen Brothers are, once again, at the peak of their super powers. And, while their True Grit is also an adaptation of the 1968 novel by the same title, it is not a remake of the 1969 John Wayne classic of the same novel. Jeff Bridges plays a one-eyed, old, fat Marshall whose hired by a 14-year old girl to track down the man who killed her father and bring him to justice. You know the story. But you're missing something if you've not seen the Coen's take. Roger Deakins truly outdid himself on this film, and an 8th Oscar nomination and SURELY his first win are within his sights. True Grit is as close to flawless as we can get in most years and that is the reason why it is the best film of 2010.

No Country for Old Men (2007) - Joel and Ethan Coen - Revisit

2010-10-12T13:39:00.000-04:00

Continuing on my Cormac McCarthy kick. I am revisiting the masterwork, No Country for Old Men, the Coen Brothers's 2007 Best Picture winning adaptation. I am not going to bother writing a full fledge review on this picture. Every last one of you know how I feel about this film. But the fact is that nearly three years after it came out I am still completely enthralled in the story and the relentless tension of this film. The scene between Chigurh and the gas station attendant is a perfectly crafted scene and is a beautiful example of what this film is all about. Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones are perfect as the three principles and so is the film as a whole. That is all.

The Road (2009) by John Hillcoat

2010-10-04T14:35:00.000-04:00

-Suppose you were the last man on Earth.
-How would you know that. That you were the last man on Earth?
-I suppose it wouldn't be something you knew. It'd just be something you did.

These words never come to fruition in either Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel or John Hillcoat's fantastic adaptation. But, for one reason or another in this brief scene between The Man (Viggo Mortenson) and Eli (Robert Duvall) we understand what is really at stake in the lives of these dying people getting by on this dying planet. When surviving is to be the last man on Earth, a title that only God would know, what good is survival? What good is a trip to the coast? We don't really know what the point is, all we know is that its all that matters.

John Hillcoat's film is nearly flawless as a film, and looks stunning. The only real complaint to be made against the film is that it lacks some of the poetic punch McCarthy's novel contains. This, however, is not anything against the film just a difference in the mediums of film and literature. The fact that he was willing to take on (what most consider to be) the greatest novel in the canon of one of, if not the greatest American author working today is a feat in itself. But, the fact is, that the novel doesn't offer a lot to film for a mainstream audience which causes the film to feel disjointed at times because there are not the long passages of the man describing the journey on the road, it just shows them traveling briefly before moving onto the next important scene with action or dialogue in it.

I highly recommend seeing this picture. However, I would suggest seeing it before reading the novel if you plan on doing both. If you have already read The Road just keep in mind that you cannot do the same things on film that you can do in a novel and you will appreciate Hillcoat's vision of McCarthy's masterpiece novel.

Desired but not needed Adaptations: Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie

2010-06-24T18:45:00.000-04:00

Somewhere on the seam that lies on the border between April and May a friend of mine was about to graduate from the same university from which I graduated in December. As we sat and allowed the light from 2008's Iron Man to glow on our faces, we discussed some of the classes he had taken in the semester that I missed. The one that we kept coming back to was American Novel.

At one point he said, "Aaron, I don't usually like contemporary literature, but I couldn't put this book down. I think you'll love it." I asked him what it was and he ran upstairs and brought down a copy of Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie. A book that I took a while to get to, but when I did, I devoured. It is a novel about a rock band called Coyote Springs, made of five American Indians. Three Spokane Indians (from Washington) and two Flathead Indians (from Montana) It is hard to describe some of the happenings in the novel, it is an enjoyable though not always...kosher...read.

Its about stories. Its about desire. Its about sex. Its about friendship. Its a powerful book with the kind of dialogue that would make any cinephile salivate. The film could be visually stunning, though it wouldn't have to be. It could be an intimate portrayal of these young people's lives and the way that their lives were able to rise and fall with the times and circumstances. This is a film that I would like to see made. But if it never comes to fruition: worse things have happened.

A Beautiful Mind by Ron Howard

2010-05-23T14:07:00.000-04:00

Ron Howard is 56 years old. He played Oppie in The Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham in Happy Days, he also happens to be a very capable director. With several Oscar Nominations under his belt and one win he has proven that just because more people know you as "Oppie" or "Richie" than your real name means nothing.

His 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, is his Oscar darling, it may not go down as his masterpiece, but its the one that got him the hardware. It follows the life and hardships of Nobel Prize Winning economist and mathematician, John Nash. Played by Australian hot-head Russell Crowe, in one of the finer moments of a very solid career. The film is not perfect, as so few films are, but it has a heart, and her name is Jennifer Connelly. At the center of all of Nash's problems is the fact that he can't just be a menace to himself, because he has a wife that loves him more than she can figure out the reason for.

The chemistry between Crowe and Connelly with the direction of Howard and the graceful writing of Akiva Goldsman create a very good film. It is not, however, the cinematic achievement that I want to talk about. At the true center of this film is a nugget of fearful truth. The film faces mental illness in a way that few films do, and love in the face of illness. The quality of a woman who loves her man in the face of adversity and stays by his side through one of the hardest situations that a person can be put through. So, while there is some legitimate criticism about this film, manipulation of the audience, etc from a cinematic perspective. Its true. It is a flawed film. That being said, most films are flawed, there is a rare gem of perfection. But its what this film shows us about love and family and illness that makes it a picture worth watching and remembering.

Greenberg by Noah Baumbach

2010-05-16T21:34:00.000-04:00

   You like me more than you think you do.

   Hurt people, hurt people.

These are the two enduring quotes from Wes Anderson pal, Noah Baumbach's fourth film Greenberg. The film is a departure, of sorts from his previous two films, The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding in that the film isn't about children. On the surface. Roger Greenberg, played masterfully by Ben Stiller, is a 41 year man child. And his part-time lover, Florence, a 25 year old college grad who has now spent as much of her life since college as she spent in college, seems very well put together on the surface, but, she has some growing up to do herself.

While the film is named after Roger, one could argue that Florence is the centerpiece of the film. In Florence the audience is able to see themselves; and, in Roger we're allowed to see what Florence is in danger of becoming if she isn't able to save herself--and possibly Roger--from the ruts of their lives. Roger is a bitter man who always has a deep seeded guilt that he was the one who killed his band's chances of making it 15 years before.

Roger takes this anguish out on everyone he loves. Florence. Ivan. His brother. He wasn't willing to show up for his mother's funeral out of fear that he would have to face his former friends and bandmates. He also has a tendency of exploding on people as he gets truly close to him.

Greenberg is a film that is an incredibly awkward film. It has some truly hysterical moments and some touching and poignant scenes. Ultimately, I believe that the film has a message that says that we all have to grow up at some point. It won't be fun. But, the longer that a person puts off this inevitable moment the more difficult it becomes to do it without suffering major consequences. I believe that the film is loved by the people that admit to liking it; but I believe that when the film says "you like me more than you know," is a little wink to those in the audience that didn't enjoy the movie. Because, Noah Baumbach knows, as well as I do, that the movie caught the hearts and minds of the audience, whether they "liked" it or not.

Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans by Werner Herzog

2010-05-14T15:02:00.000-04:00

Since the 1970s Werner Herzog has been one of the jewels of world cinema. With classics such as Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Stroszek and the remake of F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu. Herzog has blessed audiences around the world with unforgettable cinematic experiences for decades. His Psycho-Realist style is fairly unique to him, though other filmmakers have made films within Herzog's style it seems that he has stuck to it as if it were a genre and not just a style within the broader scope of cinema. In 2005, Werner Herzog expanded his horizon's making his first, truly, American film--while I concede that Stroszek is close, it is much more of a German film--the documentary Grizzly Man, since then his last four features two documentaries and two narrative's have all been truly American films.

On the flip side of this film is the outstanding Nicolas Cage. Throughout his career, Cage has made some very (very x's you choose) bad decisions. However, when Cage is at his best is when everything around him is going wrong. In his classic roles from Moonstruck, Leaving Los Vegas, Bringing Out the Dead, Adaptation and The Weather Man Cage sneaks his way through a life that could be better, though for some reason he can't make it so. In Herzog's newest film. Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans Nicolas Cage is allowed to be just that. He is a lieutenant in the New Orleans police department in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Katrina. He and his partners have gotten used to the "cowboy" style that was afforded to them by the near martial law status of the city during the days after the devastation. And, a back injury causes him to get into worse habits than he had already had.

Equipped with every non-alcoholic vice that I have ever heard of, Cage sleazes his way through the seedy underworld of New Orleans. As the film unfolds we are allowed to see the this man and everyone around him both at their best and worst. We are able to see corruption and redemption over and over again. In many way Herzog's film plays like a comedy of errors as we are left in disbelief with what we see, and the consequences for the actions taken. The Psycho-realism and Cage's man-on-the-edge persona are a match made in cinematic heaven.

This is a film of vice and should be watched as such. That being said, it is also a vastly entertaining crime film that will keep you guessing and shaking your head from start to finish.

Needed Adaptations. Anything by Charles Dickens.

2010-05-11T16:52:00.000-04:00

This adaptation is quite different from the last few that I have done. In that, I am avoiding making a statement about which piece of literature should be adapted. Charles Dickens, is perhaps, the greatest British novelist of all-time. He is, also, perhaps, the greatest Non-Russian novelist. Though many may argue Jane Austin or George Eliot for British novelists, and many may argue James Joyce as greatest non-Russian novelist. I don't care. I will cross that bridge and have that discussion when it comes.

In any case. It makes no difference. The fact is that Charles Dickens wrote classic after classic and one of them must be adapted; but in a very specific way. Some of my readers may be aware of my...misunderstanding...(?) of the American filmmaker Tim Burton; however, this is a project that I think must be tackled by the quirky goth kid who brought us Beetle Juice, Sleepy Hollow, Sweeny Todd and his greatest film, Big Fish. But, to do Dickens's characters justice, this must be done in Burton's signature, stop-motion style animation.

What Tim Burton did as producer with the cult-classic, Nightmare Before Christmas and director in The Corpse Bride truly add a different dimension to the stories being unfolded on the screen. Think about the jagged edges, the gothic characteristics, the allegorical looks of Dickens' characters. This could be done with makeup, but its not the same. I would like to see Tim Burton's animation team take on Charles Dickens and the novels that I keep coming back to are Oliver Twist, though it has been adapted several times, successfully, already and Tale of Two Cities which has a bright and boring BBC adaptation made about it.

Once again, leave your feedback, recommendations and arguments in the comments section. I am really looking forward to hearing any ideas that are not mine.

Needed Adaptations. Nick Adams by Ernest Hemingway

2010-05-10T20:18:00.000-04:00

Ernest Hemingway, in my opinion, to the shock and awe of many of my friends, is the greatest of the American Modernists. He has many praiseworthy pieces of literature, and I believe that there may be another one of his works on this list later on. However, There is no denying the greatness of Hemingway's short stories; and the best of his short stories are those surrounding the character Nick Adams.

Stories including the thrilling "The Killers," and the heart breaking "The End of Something." Hemingway breathes life into Adams that is a rare kind of life for characters within short stories.

The film, in all likely hood would end up being episodic in nature, as are Hemingway's stories and novels anyway; but I don't believe that is a bad thing in the least. An author like Hemingway is a rare talent and American literature has seen few people who can replicate his ability to weave a story. His terse sentence structure and frank dialogue driven stories are among the best ever told, let alone by an American author--perhaps Poe is his only rival within American literature in the short story.

Hemingway is an American treasure and the brightest of his gems have yet to be touched by the world of cinema. It is time for that to change.

*Once again, I ask for any suggestions and recommendations that you will be willing to offer.*

Needed Adaptations. St. John's Eve by Nikolai Gogol

2010-05-09T11:34:00.000-04:00

I will say that I love Nikolai Gogol's master novel, Dead Souls, as much or more than the next guy. Believe me when I say that it is one of my favorite novels. I have called Gogol the Russian Dickens, which seems fitting since they were breaking conventions of the novel and story-telling in general at the same time in their respective nations. As much as I love Dead Souls, however, I also admit the near impossibility to adapt a novel that was supposed to have three sections and ends abruptly 3/4 of the way through the second part after missing significant portions of text in the second part to begin with. To adapt the novel a filmmaker would have to be brazen enough to write portions of missing text and create an ending...or just give their audience an ending as or more open-ended as the Coen's No Country for Old Men.

Nikolai Gogol, however, wrote more than just the one master novel. He wrote several plays and a lot of wonderful short stories. The one that sticks out to most literati-types is "The Overcoat," as it may be a truly pivotal point in the history of Russian Literature; however, I think that it would make for an interesting short story, but a lackluster feature. I think that, as his shorts go, that "St. John's Eve" would be a very adaptable piece that would be very entertaining and, if done right, quite horrifying.

"St. John's Eve" tells the tale of a man who makes a deal with the Devil for fame and all that ensues. The plot is simple and maybe doesn't sound like a lot in synopsis form. But believe me when I say that its the work of a master and if it was ever made into a film, if it was done right it would be a great film. Gogol has other stories that could make great movies, but I'll leave it there for now.

*Please share insights or suggestions in the comments section. I will be glad to consider them or discuss them with anyone who shares. Book suggestions? Have I missed a film? Please share.*

Needed Adaptations. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

2010-05-07T17:34:00.005-04:00

Fyodor Dostoevsky is, possibly, the greatest novelist of all-time. Of course, is contemporary and compatriot, Leo Tolstoy, would give him a good run for his money. And, The Brother's Karamazov, is probably his greatest novel, though The Idiot, Crime and Punishment and The Possessed (oft-called Devils) are also great in their own right. The fact, however, is that there hasn't been a Russian-language adaptation made of the novel, that is readily available here in the United States.

It is a shame that one of the greatest novels of all-time, named the fifth greatest novel of all time, doesn't have an adequate film adaptation that was made in its native language that can be accessed world-wide and that holds up to the cinematic standards that the novel has held up to.

In 1967 the Soviet filmmaker, Sergei Bondarchuk, made a six hour epic based on Tolstoy's War and Peace that has held up as one of the crowning achievements of the Soviet film industry as well as one of the most faithful adaptations ever put on celluloid, because that's what films were put on back then.

*The above post is the first in a series that is still in development. I don't know how many novels will be named, and I don't know how it will go. I would appreciate input from anyone who is willing to offer it on novels they would like to see, films I may've missed based on these novels and whether you even agree with what I'm putting on the list. Enjoy.

Here it is.

2010-05-01T07:51:00.002-04:00

I have been trudging my way through James Joyce's Ulysses for, about, the last two weeks. So, with that beast of a novel and the beginning of baseball season it has been hard for me to get to any quality movie time. I finished ripping the Bergman pictures yesterday before returning to Indiana for graduation of my Alma Mater. I should be back to giving real posts in the near future instead of life updates and excuses for not giving any meat.

Someone's gotta do it...

2010-04-20T23:36:00.002-04:00

Moving your stuff from one computer to another is always a daunting task; however, when you move things from a PC to a Mac things become increasingly difficult...especially when external hard-drives are involved. A couple of summers ago I went out and got myself a nice Terabyte hard-drive to put all of my movies on. For the record that was painstaking enough. However, when I switched computers files and folders were lost along the way, and at some point I deleted my entire Martin Scorsese catalogue.

This may not seem like much of a big deal; however, that is over 20 films, most of which come in over 2 hours, and several come close to 3 hours to rip onto the new computer to place back onto the hard-drive. But then, I discover that the program I use to rip my movies onto my Mac results in a much higher quality digital copy than did the old program. So, now I am currently re-ripping everything, or nearly everything I own. I suppose that's what happens when A) Better Quality B) Cinephilia and C) Lots of time combine to create a perfect storm.

So, after several days off the "Favorite Films" series, I have decided that I do not know enough about 1930s cinema to continue the series as it was being run. So, as for now I don't know what to tell you to expect over the next few weeks, maybe I'll start posting some reviews here again (that's a novel idea). So, maybe we can start getting some quality reviews up again instead of little 150-300 word blurbs that one can find on imdb.

Favorite Films: The 1940's

2010-04-16T15:09:00.003-04:00

Casablanca (1942) Michael Curtiz - Let the record show that choosing a "number one" film for the 1940s was the hardest of the decades yet because there were two films that easily could have been chosen. But, when all was said and done, how could I go against Humphrey and Ingrid? Is there really any doubt that this film about two war-torn lovers who meet in Paris and meet again in Casablanca is the most romantic film ever. At least the most romantic ever made about World War II. The film was adapted from a little-known stage play and was originally supposed to be another cheaply made mass produced picture by Warner Bros. Studio and star future president Ronald Reagan. As luck would have it, however, Bogart ended up taking the lead role in the film sharing the headline with Swedish beauty, Ingrid Bergman. The film would go on to win three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay, and in 2006 the Writers Guild of America named it the greatest screenplay ever written, and the American Film Institute has it currently ranked as the 3rd greatest American film ever made. I have my doubts its because the scenario is truly relatable for a large majority of people, but I also have my suspicions that most people have experienced love-lost or had a "We'll always have Paris"-type moment in their personal story. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman would both star in several of the pictures to be listed below, but in 1942, they captured the hearts of thousands when they starred together for the only time in both of their outstanding careers.

The Rest:

Citizen Kane (1941) Orson Welles

Detour (1945) Edgar G. Ulmer

Double Indemnity (1944) Billy Wilder

Its a Wonderful Life (1946) Frank Capra

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

The Maltese Falcon (1941) John Huston

Notorious (1946) Alfred Hitchcock

Spellbound (1945) Alfred Hitchcock

The Thief of Bagdad (1940) Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

The Third Man (1949) Carol Reed

Honorable Mentions: The Best Years of Our Lives, The Grapes of Wrath, The Red Shoes, Treasure of Sierra Madre.

Favorite Films: The 1950's

2010-04-15T17:15:00.002-04:00

Rear Window (1954) Alfred Hitchcock - Jimmy Stewart may be the most lovable leading man in the history of Hollywood. Alfred Hitchcock may be the greatest suspense director in the history of cinema. The two teamed up several times and made several great films. But 1954's Rear Window is the mother of them all. The film takes place, almost exclusively, in one room and from one vantage point. This can be maddening, and I have a nagging suspicion that that is the point. Why should we as the audience get any better view than the leading man? After all, it is his story, and it is his camera lens that we're seeing the picture through. Hitchcock once said that it is the director's job to "play the audience like a piano," and there is not a better example of his doing so than in Rear Window. Many say that Vertigo is the master's opus and some may add Psycho, It seems to me, however, that this gem is his most overlooked, with the possible exception of one a little further down the list.

The Rest:

12 Angry Men (1957) Sidney Lumet

400 Blows (1959) François Truffaut

Beat the Devil (1953) John Huston

Dial M for Murder (1954) Alfred Hitchcock

Rashomon (1950) Akira Kurosawa

Seven Samurai (1954) Akira Kurosawa

Seventh Seal (1957) Ingmar Bergman

Strangers on a Train (1951) Alfred Hitchcock

Sunset Blvd. (1950) Billy Wilder

Wild Strawberries (1957) Ingmar Bergman

Honorable Mention: Bob Le Flambeau, Elevator to the Gallows, I Confess, Ikiru, North by Northwest, On the Waterfront, Rebel Without a Cause, The River, Smiles of a Summer Night, Vertigo

Favorite Films: The 1960's

2010-04-14T21:43:00.003-04:00

Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Stanley Kubrick - Let it be known that Stanley Kubrick is one of the greatest filmmakers ever. Period. Even those who do not enjoy his pictures can recognize the skill and care of the craft. Kubrick was nothing if he weren't a technical master. That said, this is his masterpiece. Dr. Strangelove, is quite possibly the funniest film ever made. If it is not, I'd be hard pressed to think of any better. But This film is more than hysterical, it is also incredibly smart and nearly perfectly crafted. The film is a satire of the Nuclear threat that was on constant red alert in the United States and in the Soviet Union. At the center of this "hot line suspense comedy" is a triad of performances by the vastly under appreciated, Peter Sellers. His portrayal of the US President was so funny and irreverent that the film was due to come out in November 1963, but after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Kubrick decided that it wouldn't be appropriate for release and personally held it back until February 1964. Which is the kind of man and filmmaker Kubrick was, as we was quoted as saying, "One man writes a novel. One man composes a symphony. It is necessary for one man to make a film."

The Rest:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Arthur Penn

The Faith Trilogy (1961-63) Ingmar Bergman

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) Sergio Leone

The Graduate (1967) Mike Nichols

A Hard Days Night (1964) Richard Lesster

Persona (1966) Ingmar Bergman

Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock

The Virgin Spring (1960) Ingmar Bergman

Who's That Knocking At My Door (1968) Martin Scorsese

*Apologies to 8 1/2, Battle of Algiers, Breathless, Jules and Jim, Band of Outsiders, La Dolce Vita and Ivan's Childhood for forgetting you on this list. Probably only 2 of you had a real chance of getting on anyway. Consider this an Honorable Mention for the French New Wave and Italian Neo-Realists.

Favorite Films: The 1970's

2010-04-13T19:51:00.003-04:00

The Godfather pts I & II (1972/1974) Francis Ford Coppola - This may seem like, and may be a cop out. But I don't care. The fact of the matter is that these two films are one story, follow one arc, are perfect and belong to the greatest decade in the history of cinema, and as it is the greatest decade in the history of cinema it deserves to have double the pictures (totaling nearly 6 1/2 hours) than the other decades have had. As I have already stated, these two films are completely perfect. There is little that I can say that can add to the endless literature on these two pictures, the arc of a man's life from young idealist that wants nothing to do with the "family business" to running it. Al Pacino delivers two of the great performances of his career, if not of all time as Michael Corleone and Marlon Brando and Robert de Niro both give knock out performances as Michael's father, Vito 'Don' Corleone. The constant tragedy that envelopes this family are incredible, the way that they're able to wade through it and get passed it...or become it. However, despite both of these films being as great as they are, there is one scene that goes beyond the point of perfection at the end of the first film wherein Coppola shows the baptism of a child and the end of a bloody gang war, and the juxtaposition of the scene may be the greatest scene I have ever seen on celluloid.

The Rest:

3 Women (1977) Robert Altman

Cries and Whispers (1973) Ingmar Bergman

Jaws (1975) Steven Spielberg

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) Robert Altman

Nashville (1975) Robert Altman

Network (1976) Sidney Lumet

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Milos Foreman

Scenes From a Marriage (1974) Ingmar Bergman

Stroszek (1978) Werner Herzog

Taxi Driver (1976) Martin Scorsese

And here's where my self-imposed cutoff is killing me. But I will resist naming any other films from the 1970s.

Honorable Mentions: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Agguire: The Wrath of God, Annie Hall, Autumn Sonata, Chinatown, Dog Day Afternoon, Five Easy Pieces, Manhattan, M*A*S*H, Mean Streets

Favorite Films: The 1980's

2010-04-12T07:02:00.002-04:00

1. Fanny and Alexander (1982) Ingmar Bergman - Ingmar Bergman is one of my favorite filmmakers to ever take a breathe of air. His films are stark, spiritual, searching, existential, human. From the 1950s through Fanny and Alexander, his last film, until his real last film, Saraband, in 2003, Bergman represented all that was beautiful and difficult in world cinema. It was Bergman in The Seventh Seal that gave us the iconic image of death playing a game of chess for a young knight's life after the crusades, during the plague years in Europe. It is, however, this film, Fanny and Alexander, that is his magnum opus. The film combines the best attributes of his humanist pictures of the 70s and his spiritual/existential pictures of the 50s and 60s. It is a gigantic film that clocks in at either 3 hours or 5 hours, depending on the version of the film you watch; the three hour version plays very fast for a film that length, the five hour version fills in the blanks and takes a little more time (obviously) but if one has the allotted time, it is a beautiful film, and was Bergman's preferred version. Ingmar Bergman died in July, 2006, and left behind him an extensive, prolific, but masterful catalogue of films that have been loved and devoured by cinephiles throughout the world for decades, and will continue to be among the names at the top of the auteurs list forever.

The Rest:

After Hours (1985) Martin Scorsese

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Woody Allen

Do the Right Thing (1989) Spike Lee

Fitzcarraldo (1982) Werner Herzog

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Woody Allen

Raging Bull (1980) Martin Scorsese

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982) Steven Spielberg

Ran (1985) Akira Kurosawa

Secret Honor (1984) Robert Altman

Wings of Desire (1988) Wim Wenders

Favorite Films: The 1990's

2010-04-11T18:07:00.004-04:00

This following group of posts will not be as extensive in categories, or analysis as the Decade in Review post was for 2000-2009; it will however give a breakdown of some of my favorite films of the decade between 1990-1999. Contrary to the previous post, I will limit these posts to 10 films per decade, I will not try to limit it to the five or six I had previously said. I will, however, try to give one favorite film with some analysis followed by nine to ten other films in alphabetical order.

1. Shawshank Redemption (1994) Frank Darabont - In 1994 a young filmmaker took two of the great American actors to an out-of-commision prison in Mansfield, Ohio with a script based off of an uncharacteristic novella by the king of horror, Stephen King. The novella was "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption." The story follows a man convicted with the murder of his wife and how he stays positive through the crucible and brings life back to the institutionalized men. The film condenses some of the novella's characters, specifically, the warden, who remains the same man throughout the film and is three men in the novella. The protagonist is played by an inspired Tim Robbins fresh off of two brilliant collaborations with American master, Robert Altman, and a successful political satire of his own, Bob Roberts. Robbins is perfect through the film, but the heart of the film comes from Morgan Freeman, the man Pauline Kael said was the greatest working American actor: after his first picture. The films tells a story of unlikely friendship through trying circumstances and 20 years of rejections, new friends, and old friends dying off. Darabont's film is a beautiful film that captures the best of friendship in the worst of circumstances.

The Rest:

Being John Malkavich (1999) Spike Jonze

Bringing Out the Dead (1999) Martin Scorsese

Fargo (1996) Joel Coen

Goodfellas (1990) Martin Scorsese

L. A. Confidential (1997) Curtis Hanson

Magnolia (1999) Paul Thomas Anderson

The Player (1992) Robert Altman

Pulp Fiction (1994) Quentin Tarantino

Saving Private Ryan (1998) Steven Spielberg

Three Colors Trilogy (1993-94) Krzysztof Kieslowski

A Decade in Review

2010-04-06T12:01:00.003-04:00

I did make a Best of the Decade list which I will post here. I will also be unveiling a new style list that I was just introduced to where I will give a favorite film of each decade, and then I will give a few (up to five) honorable mentions (in alphabetical order) for that decade. This is in order to forego a traditional top whatever movie list which forces me to say "this is my 3rd favorite movie of all time." That will be posted within the next few days, but here are the Top 10 of 2000-2009 in a semi-organized fashion.

10. Up in the Air (2009) by Jason Reitman - Reitman made three films in the latter half of the last decade that were all great films in one way or another, Thank You for Smoking made a contemptible man into a lovable protagonist, Juno showed the hardships of being a 16 year, especially one who becomes unexpectedly pregnant, but his latest film was the one that was completely relevant, and pulled out the tough stops to say something important. Up in the Air is a romantic comedy that refuses to play by any preset standards, shows the American dream at its worst, is driven by a great screenplay with powerhouse performances by its three principles, including the best performance of George Clooney's already stellar resume.

9. There Will be Blood (2007) Paul Thomas Anderson - Along with Reitman, Anderson is a young auteur that will be making powerful and relevant films for years to come. His fifth feature breaks down the standard dichotomy that has faced America since its inception: Faith versus Greed. How much is too much? How far is too far? Daniel Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview in this throw back to a 1970s style Western and is the supernatural force behind this powerhouse film that toes the fine line between melodrama and hysteria, but toes it with dignity and class and never misses a step.

8. The Departed (2006) Martin Scorsese - The last decade was a good one for my favorite director. While he didn't have an all-time great, such as Goodfellas, Raging Bull or Taxi Driver he had three films that were very good, and capped it in 2006 with this great film that, perhaps, just missed the pantheon, but did finally win him his long overdue Oscar. The film's plot is Shakespearean and takes its viewers on a twisting turning ride through Boston's Irish underworld. With a great ensemble cast, Scorsese makes his return to the streets a big one in this Crime Thriller that is bound to be a classic.

7. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) Andrew Dominik - 2007 brought back the Western in a big way. A genre that I thought was officially dead when Clint Eastwood made the beautiful Unforgiven 15 years earlier in 1992. But not everything is officially dead after their soliloquy is written, and if one doesn't count a film I have further up the list as a Western, The Assassination of Jesse James is the best Western made since '92. Photographed by the oft-underappreciated Roger Deakins, the film is beautiful to look at from start to finish, and as some critics pointed out the title allows us to not worry about the ending of the film and just see how it all unfolds. Maybe this soliloquy is the true swan song, but something tells me the Western will never actually die in American cinema, its too important to our nation's mythos.

6. Adaptation (2002) Spike Jonze - In 1999 the world was introduced to a young screenwriter and a young director and the world of cinema would never be the same. The film, Being John Malkavich, the screenwriter: Charlie Kaufman, the director: Spike Jonze. In 2002 the two men joined forces once again to create another gem, Adaptation. The film follows Charlie and his fictional twin Donald as they try to adapt The Orchid Thief into a screenplay. The twins are played by Nicolas Cage, in his best performance since Leaving Los Vegas in an implosive performance that rivals Day-Lewis in There Will be Blood and Sean Penn in Mystic River.

5. Munich (2005) Steven Spielberg - Some films are important because of artistry, some because of message, some just are, and some have all three. In 1972 the Israeli Olympic team suffered a terrorist attack by a group of Palestinian nationalists called Black September, Mossad retaliated by sending a secret team of intelligence experts out to dispatch of these men. Spielberg's 2005 masterpiece follows the retaliation in a thriller for the ages, but when he leaves us with the last shot of the picture, we get it. This is one of those films that is important for its artistry, its message and for various inexplicable but noticeable reasons.

4. Synecdoche, New York (2008) Charlie Kaufman - Here's that name again. Charlie Kaufman made the list for his directorial debut by being the king of a fairly weak year. As I stated in a post just a few days ago, this may be the most profound film that I have ever seen, as a screenplay its perfect, the Magnum Opus of Hollywood's best writer. As an acting piece it is top notch, from a spiritual and philosophical level it is near the peak. Philip Seymour Hoffman is pathetic as Caden and we cannot help but see ourselves at our worst in him. He just wants to be remembered. Well, he will be, and so will this film.

3. Mystic River (2003) Clint Eastwood - If someone were to tell Dirty Harry that he was going to have a second career even better than his first, but it wouldn't be for being rough and tumbled but a true artist, they should be found and put on a mantle. By 2003, Clint Eastwood had already won two Oscars for Unforgiven, but then it turned out, it was no fluke and 2003's Mystic River marked the beginning of what has to be an unparalleled string of pearls for a director in his 70s making seven films in seven years all of which have been lauded in most film circles. Sean Penn gives one of the best performances of the decade and is flanked by one of the best ensembles of the decade.

2. No Country for Old Men (2007) Joel and Ethan Coen - These brothers have made a career of making films that eat at their audience from start to finish. This is their masterpiece. This is the best film of the best year of the decade. A cat-and-mouse thriller that pits an everyman against a man that could be the Grim Reaper himself, though I doubt it. Maybe Death's first general though. Playing the best villain since Hannibal Lector, Javier Bardem steals the show as Anton Chigurh a sadistic and mysterious man that seems to have no stakes in his business other than the love of seeing other people loose his game.

1. Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Guillermo del Toro - Once ever 15 - 20 years an explosion of talent enters Hollywood from a foreign language market. In the 50s and 60s it was a massive European explosion with the French New Wave, the Italian Neo-realists and Ingmar Bergman from Sweden. This is probably the longest stretch of American love for foreign cinema ever as it stretched into the 70s and early 80s as Bergman pumped out masterpiece after masterpiece. In the early parts of the last decades there was some smoke coming out of Mexico, but in 2006 the fires erupted as the top three directors from Mexico (lovingly dubbed the Three Amigos as they are friends and business partners) as del Toro, Cuaron and Inarritu all pumped out critically acclaimed films. Pan's Labyrinth was the best of them, also the only one made strictly in Spanish. The story has been called a Fairy Tale for adults and must be seen to be appreciated, as a plot description would not suffice.

Honorable Mentions - Lost in Translation (2003) Sofia Coppla, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Michel Gondry, Juno (2007) Jason Reitman, Million Dollar Baby (2004) Clint Eastwood, Lord of the Rings (2001-03) Peter Jackson, Iwo Jima Saga (2006) Clint Eastwood

Best Year - 2007

Screenwriter of the Decade - Charlie Kaufman

Director of the Decade - Clint Eastwood

New Artist - Jason Reitman

Actor (not performance) - Sean Penn

Actress - Kate Winslet

Lead Male Performance - Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will be Blood) Sean Penn (Mystic River) tie

Lead Female Performance - Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)

Supporting Performances - Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) Naomi Watts (21 Grams)

Original Screenplay - Synecdoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Charlie Kaufman; Pan's Labyrinth - Guillermo del Toro

Adapted Screenplay - No Country for Old Men - Joel and Ethan Coen; Adaptation - Charlie Kaufman; Up in the Air - Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Mulholland Drive (2001) by David Lynch

2010-04-01T10:07:00.002-04:00

David Lynch's dark, experimental film noir, Mulholland Drive, is a mind screw of the highest quality. The film has several explanations, the question, however, is whether trying to explain this film is even necessary. I, for one, don't believe it is.

Mulholland Drive is a dark, sexy and thrilling film that keeps you wondering what the mystery is from start to finish and leaves you wondering if there is even an explanation to be had once it is over. Watch it.

Synecdoche, New York (2008) by Charlie Kaufman

2010-03-26T14:43:00.002-04:00

In 2008 screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, perhaps the most creative and original screenwriter currently working, made his directorial debut and, what a debut it was. Synecdoche, New York is, perhaps, the most profound film that I have ever seen exploring the nature of love, lust, life, death, art and the meaning of all of it, whether art imitates life, or life is art, or any other combination of "art" and "life" that I can put together on the fly. On the surface the film follows Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) through his life from 40 - 80 (or 90 depending on whether you believe Hoffman's interview or the makeup artists) as he receives a McArthur grant and tries to make a piece of art that will define his life at the same time that it captures everyone's story.

The surface, however, is rarely what we're concerned with. The story gets at many deep ironies and intricacies of life. Whether its Sammy, the man who lives his life following Caden, knowing him more than Caden knows himself, or that Caden loves Hazel through the whole story, but spends his whole life desiring the woman or women that he's not with in at the moment, whether it be Adele (Catherine Keener), Claire (Michelle Williams) or even Hazel. Hazel's desire for Caden takes on more dangerous imagery, she lives in a house that is always on fire, a slow smoldering that never goes out and never consumes; it just slowly burns forever until she finally gets what she wants and the turn that it takes.

The film, which Roger Ebert named the best film of the last decade, is hard to describe properly without spoiling it for anyone who has not seen the film, or without having a proper dialogue, so I'll cut the review off here, but know that it is a labyrinth of emotions and ideas. Charlie Kaufman (writer of the wonderful Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) writes another gem, and gets to put a very personal stamp on it as his first film at the helm. Watch this film more than once, the more you watch it, the more you'll be able to get out of it.

Alexander Nevsky (1938) by Sergei Eisenstein

2010-03-24T09:42:00.002-04:00

1938 was a rough year for Europe. In represents the peak of the pre-war Nazi scare. A time between the Soviet-Zazi non-aggression pact and the Nazi invasion of Poland. Soviet Premiere, Josef Stalin, did not truly trust the Nazi's and he wanted the people of the Soviet Union to beware that there was a chance that the uneasy peace could be broken at anytime. Stalin turned toward his go-to filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein, perhaps best known for his silent, Pro-Communist propaganda piece, Battleship Potemkin. This time Eisenstein takes on a less contemporary subject.

Alexander Nevsky was a grand prince in Medeval Rus, and has become a folk hero to the Russian people as a uniter of the Russian people as he helped them stand against the Swedes, Mongols and, in the case of April 5, 1592--The Germans. Which is the battle that is at the center of this picture. Eisenstein's film captures the highs and lows of warfare, and does a great job of propagandizing the historical scenarios to make them both fairly accurate and relevant to the situation at hand in the Soviet Union in 1938.

In 2008, Russia held a reality television program called I Say Russia... which allowed the Russian people to vote on the top Russians of all time. In this contest the Soviet premiere who ordered this film, Josef Stalin, came in 3rd; and, the film's subject, Alexander Nevsky, was named the number one Russian of all time. Eisenstein is one of, in not the most, important filmmaker of the Soviet Union (a strong argument could also be made for Andrei Tarkovsky) and this film shows why it is that he is a true master of the craft.

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) by Woody Allen

2010-03-23T20:04:00.003-04:00

Hannah and Her Sisters may well be the best of all of Woody Allen's films. If it isn't, it is right up there with his other masterpieces, Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Crimes and Misdemeanors. The film concerns itself with Hannah (Mia Farrow), Her ex-husband (Woody Allen), her current husband (Michael Caine) and her two sisters (Barbara Hershey and Dianne Wiest). Woody Allen's character is a neurotic, hypochondriac, middle-aged, New York TV Exec who is trying to live his life while being crippled by fear and anxiety that his life is so momentary yet will be meaningless as soon as its over.

In many ways, Allen's character is the character through whom we experience the film. He is our link into this New York lifestyle that many of us are probably unfamiliar with. The film is told in a series of vignettes that can be watched as separate short films but come together to make a coherent whole. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert mentions that this approach makes for an ironic statement at the end of the film that we try so hard to organize our lives into these neat little categories that we think make sense in our lives, and to an extent we can pull them out and make a neat little story out of them; but we, in the end, have to show that neat little story in the context of two full years or even a life completed in order to fully understand the gravity or the mundane nature of a given event.

Woody Allen was inspired to write this film after re-reading Tolstoy's beautiful Anna Karenina, and in many ways viewers who have read the novel will see similarities in character traits and plot events; however, it is not more than an influence. When first released the film had supporters lobbying to make it the first Screenplay nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for drama, an honor still never bestowed upon a screenplay, though, in the end there was not a Pulitzer given out for drama in 1986.

In the end, Woody Allen has been one of the prolific of all American auteurs and has been, at times, truly great. This is one of his finest achievements.

I'm Back...

2010-03-17T21:18:00.004-04:00

I graduated from college in December and had little capacity for cognizant thought after I finished, I read a couple of books but did not do a lot of movie watching. The little I did do was catching up on the big films from the current year (ie. Up in the Air, Precious, The Hurt Locker, etc. (two Latin abbreviations in one sentence...nice)). In any case, after a couple of months on the dismal job market I am still a free agent, and, as I had a few films in my collection, and HBO that I'd neglected to see to this point, I decided to pop them in. Over the past week I've done my duty as a cinephile that I had neglected for quite some time. I am ashamed of the little film watching I did for a period of time, but I am back.

So far, in the last week I've been able to watch World's Greatest Dad starring the oft-brilliant Robin Williams in a dark as night comedy that brings some awfully big laughs. Forgetting Sarah Marshall a Best-way-to-forget-her-is-to-turn-her-into-literature Comedy that runs toward the middle of the pack in the vast array of Judd "King of Comedy" Apatow's collection of involvement. Ivan the Terrible pt. II, the second part of the would be trilogy that capped Soviet master, Sergei Eisenstein's brilliant career about the parallels of the Russian Empire's first Tsar and the Red Tsar of the Soviet Union Josef Stalin. Sunshine and 28 Days Later... the Sci-fi and Horror masterpieces made by British director, Danny Boyle before his let down of a Best Picture winner. Vampyr, Carl Theodore Dreyer's horror classic follow-up to his silent masterpiece, The Passion of Joan of Arc; the film is a visual masterpiece, with some visual effects that I was impressed with watching from my couch. O Brother, Where Art Thou, one of the very few films by the Coen brothers that I had missed seeing, this depression-era Bluegrass-musical-epic-Odyssey-Comedy about a couple of busted loose prisoners is one of the brother's finest comic moments. Hoop Dreams, this was the documentary that Roger Ebert named the best film of the 1990's, about two poor young black men in inner-city Chicago and their dreams of going to the NBA and being like Michael Jordan and Isaiah Thomas.

I still have a few more movies to get through on my list of catch-up, I may or may not write on all or any of these films, time will tell. Mainly I wanted anyone who may still be out there caring about my opinion on anything involving motion picture, that I am still alive and while I was on hiatus, I am back in the movie-watching game.

If anyone has a request for any specific reviews or any views I have on a particular movie listed above or in general, leave me a comment and I will try to get it up here in a timely manner if I've seen it and a little less timely manner if I still need to watch it.

Movies still to watch over the next few days: Alexander Nevsky, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Hunted and Glengarry GlenRoss.

Top 10 of 2010

2010-02-02T11:23:00.002-05:00

I know its been awhile, I have been surprisingly busy, its not that I've not been watching movies, I've just not really had time to sit down to really put my opinions into words that would suite a proper film review for a once-respectable movie blog. So, I apologize for my long absence, and without further adieu, I present my top 10 films of 2009. With a note that there are several films that have been called great that I have yet to see, including Best Picture frontrunner: The Hurt Locker

10. Watchmen by Zack Snyder

9. District 9 by Neil Blomkamp

8. Up by Pete Doctor

7. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Wes Anderson

6. Where the Wild Things Are by Spike Jonze

5. Away We Go by Sam Mendes

4. A Serious Man by Joel and Ethan Coen

3. Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino

2. (500) Days of Summer by Marc Webb

1. Up in the Air by Jason Reitman

Иваново детство (Ivan's Childhood) by Andrei Tarkovsky

2009-03-07T10:40:00.002-05:00

In a debut that would rank among the greatest in the history of cinema, Andrei Tarkovsky (best known for the original version of Solaris) brings us a heart breaking story, Ivan's Childhood. The picture follows a small cast of Red Army soldiers, including an eleven year old kid named Ivan and a young woman soldier (yes, the Soviets had women fighting on the front in the Second World War) named Masha. Ivan's parents were killed by the Nazi invaders and he is hung up on revenge. He becomes a great spy for the USSR going on many dangerous missions to spy on the German foe.

While we're never told, specifically, what battle of the war this takes place at, there is a passing reference to the Volga which would lead one to believe that it is near the time and the place of the infamous Battle at Stalingrad. In any case, the battle period and name does not matter, in fact, one does not see an actual German soldier in the film but one time in shadows as two guards are passing. There are also two other times that you here German being spoken by a person of screen.

In these respects, Ivan's Childhood is unlike any war film that I've ever seen, and it is refreshing. It plays, in fact, a little closer to a suspense film than a war film, though it has the historicity of a war picture. Ivan's Childhood is a must see for any lover of history or of world cinema. It is a truly top notch film that has survived the passing of time--and the empire in which it was created.

Watchmen by Zach Snyder

2009-03-07T10:28:00.003-05:00

Zach Snyder's Watchmen is a delicious addition to the newest level of visual eye-candy. Not since the days that Technicolor stopped making films have there been so many (starting with The Matrix in 1999) of films that have been quite so visually stunning as the films we've seen in the past few years.

Watchmen is only Zach Snyder's third feature film (Dawn of the Dead (2004) and 300 (2006)) precede this offering to the world of cinema. And, without a doubt, this is his best picture to date. In fact, it may even go without saying that this is one of the top 5 "comic book" movies ever made. The story, based on the (graphic) novel by Alan More, though he goes uncredited in the film. (The reason for putting the word "graphic" in parentheses is because Watchmen has, seemingly, stepped beyond the world of graphic novels and placed itself into the category of full scale literature, even being named one of the 100 best novels in the English language since 1923.)

So, it goes without saying that the story is strong, powerful, and incredibly relevant to today. The movie looks great, and yet, there is something that is missing, though I cannot place a name or finger on it. In all, however, it is a minor hangup in an excellent picture.

Final Prediction And Winners

2009-01-22T09:36:00.006-05:00

Predicted Winner will be set off with an astrick (*) Winners in Yellow

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk*
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downy, Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight*
Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - The Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - The Reader*

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt*
Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

Best Animated Feature
Bolt
Kung-Fu Panda
Wall-E*

Art Direction
The Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Cinematography
The Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight*
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Costume Design
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess*
Milk
Revolutionary Road

Best Direction
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire*
Stephan Daldry - The Reader
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant - Milk

Best Documentary
The Betrayal
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire*
Trouble the Water

Short Documentary
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness*

Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight*
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Foreign Language Picture
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Class
Departures
Revanche
Waltz with Bashir*

Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Original Score
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire*
Wall-E

Original Song
Down to Earth - Wall-E*
Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire
O Saya - Slumdog Millionaire

Best Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire*

Animated Short
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory (Lovestory)*
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

Live Action Short
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Man on the Asphalt*
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Sound Editing
The Dark Knight*
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
Wanted

Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight*
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
Wanted

Best Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Eric Roth
Doubt - John Patrick Stanley
Frost/Nixon - Peter Morgan
The Reader - David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire - Simon Beaufy*

Best Original Screenplay
Frozen River - Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky - Mike Leigh
In Bruges - Martin McDonagh
Milk - Dustin Lance Black*
Wall-E - Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon

The Best of 2008

2009-01-19T18:08:00.003-05:00

Of the movies I wanted to see but didn't have a chance to I missed Doubt and Milk.

Top 10 Films of 2008
1. The Wrestler - Darren Aronofsky
2. Shotgun Stories - Jeff Nichols
3. Gran Torino - Clint Eastwood
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - David Fincher
5. Frost/Nixon - Ron Howard
6. The Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan
7. The Fall - Tarsem
8. Slumdog Millionaire - Danny Boyle
9. The Vistor - Thomas McCarthy
10. The Changeling - Clint Eastwood

Best Documentary
Encounters at the End of the World

Best Animated Feature
Wall-E

Honorable Mention
W.
Tropic Thunder
Iron Man
Apoloosa
Burn After Reading

Not that it matters...

2009-01-02T13:00:00.017-05:00

The Golden Globes are coming up a week from Sunday and they will officially kick off awards season. I don't really care much for the Globes and the nominations actually came out nearly a month ago, but without further preface, here are the film nominations for this months Golden Globes.

Best Motion Picture, Drama
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Burn After Reading
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Mamma Mia!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Actor, Drama
Leonardo DiCaprio - Revolutionary Road
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Actress, Drama
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - The Changeling
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kristin Scott Thomas - I've Loved You So Long
Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road

Actor, Comedy or Musical
Javier Bardem - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Colin Ferell - In Bruges
James Franco - Pineapple Express
Brendan Gleeson - In Bruges
Dustin Hoffman - Last Chance Harvey

Actress, Comedy or Musical
Rebecca Hall - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky
Frances McDormand - Burn After Reading
Meryl Streep - Mamma Mia!
Emma Thompson - Last Chance Harvey

Supporting Actor
Tom Cruise - Tropic Thunder
Robert Downy, Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Ralph Finnes - The Duchess
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler
Kate Winslet - The Reader

Director
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Sam Mendes - Revolutionary Road

Screenplay (Original and Adapted)
Simon Beaufy - Slumdog Millionaire
David Hare - The Reader
Peter Morgan - Frost/Nixon
Eric Roth - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanely - Doubt

Foreign Language Film
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
Everlasting Moments (Sweden)
Gomorrah (Italy)
I've Loved You So Long (France)
Waltz With Bashir (Israel)

Animated Feature
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

Original Score
Alexandre Desplat - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Clint Eastwood - The Changeling
James Newton Howard - Defiance
A.R. Rahman - Slumdog Millionaire
Hans Zimmer - Frost/Nixon

Original Song
Down to Earth - Wall-E
Gran Torino - Gran Torino
I Thought I Lost You - Bolt
Once in a Lifetime - Cadillac Records
The Wrestler - The Wrestler

More Nominations and Wins coming within the next couple of weeks. Oscar Nominations are to be announced on January 22nd (Thursday instead of Tuesday due to the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama). Predictions will follow the nominations within the day or two following the announcement.

Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle

2009-01-01T23:14:00.004-05:00

If I haven't missed my guess, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millioaire could very well be the belle of this year's awards ball. That could mean a couple of different things. It could mean that the little Indie that could may finally be awarded by big cold Oscar, and it could mean that its just another Little Miss Sunshine or Into the Wild destined to clean up the precursors but not make a big splash with the academy.

Now, with awards comparison aside, its time for brass tax, simply put: Slumdog Millionaire is no Into the Wild though it would probably be right on the same level as Little Miss Sunshine. The film tells the story of Jamal, a boy who lost his destined love, Latika, and got onto an Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in hopes that she'd be watching and they could reunite. Jamal is accused of cheating and most of the film is played in order for the audience to determine whether this accusation is fitting or not.

The film concludes on a very high note, and one may even call it the "feel good movie of the year." And, as one blogger pointed out. Just because a movie has a happy ending doesn't mean its bad. I cannot agree with this statement 100%, I am very excited about the audacity the film showed in some parts of the film, and the storyline as a whole. I would, however, amend his statement by saying this, just because a movie is good doesn't mean its great. Slumdog Millionaire is a very good film, one of the best of the year, probably even worthy of its buzz; but it is not the best film of the year, and I will leave it there.

The Wrestler - Darren Aronofsky

2008-12-31T00:33:00.003-05:00

Darren Aronofsky is far and away one of the greatest directors of the young American wave. In 1998 he took a guerrilla crew through New York City and took the Independent film world by storm with his directorial debut, Pi, a Sci-fi thriller about...math. His follow up was nothing short of a genuine masterpiece. Requiem for a Dream showed a skill for the technical side of film making that is truly first class, and he had the vision of a born story teller. Well, Aronofsky is back ten years after his debut with his fourth feature, The Wrestler, this is the kind of film that comes along only a couple of times a year.

Although it is guised as a wrestling film, it is only such as much as Scorsese's Raging Bull or Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby were boxing films. There is plenty of in the ring action going on here, to be sure, but it is not Rocky VII; because, unlike the Rocky franchise (which I mean starting with Rocky II) the heart of this film is not found in the ring, but outside. Wrestling is what Randy "The Ram" Robinson does, and in many ways, it is who he is; it does not, however, define his entirety.

Randy has an estranged daughter, beautifully portrayed by the angelic Evan Rachel Woods, and a stripper would-be girlfriend played masterfully by Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei. The drama of the film revolves around Randy's incapability of being an everyday, normal human being. Coupled with an ailment that may not allow him to wrestle forever.

The Wrestler may very well be the best film of 2008, and Mickey Rourke's performance is one of the best of the decade. It is nothing short of a force of nature. He may not win an Oscar for the role, though he should; but, he will undoubtedly be nominated for it. And, I hope that he wins.

Some of the best of 2008

2008-12-27T01:06:00.002-05:00

Today, I went with a friend of mine for a good old fashioned home made double feature. We went down expecting to see some good movies and have a good time, when we left the second movie we both realized that we had seen two of the best movies that this year had to offer.

The first film was David Fincher's Coming (and Going)-of-Age Tale, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the film is beautifully woven together by Fincher, who is quickly becoming a Grade-A director. On top of that the cast is pitch perfect from Brad Pitt to Cate Blanchett to the find of the year, Taraji P. Henson. There is only one flaw in the film, but if you see the film you will recognize it yourself. I didn't find it to be a true detractor, just a slight distraction.

The second film, Frost/Nixon, tells the story of the David Frost interviews with Richard Nixon. The film plays slightly more like boxing film than a political thriller, but it works. Ron Howard's direction is slight and down played perfectly for the David versus Goliath story he was weaving. And, speaking of Goliath, Frank Langella's powerhouse performance as the 37th President of the United States was nothing short of the giant's stature.

These two films are two of the best films released this year, and I had a ball watching both of them.

Screen Actors Guild Nominations

2008-12-18T09:57:00.002-05:00

Best Leading Actor
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best Leading Actress
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - The Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downy, Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Dev Patel - Slumdog Millionaire

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Kate Winslet - The Reader

Best Cast in a Motion Picture
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Top 10 Favorite English Speaking Actors

2008-12-16T22:52:00.003-05:00

*no order*

1. Marlon Brando
2. James 'Jimmy' Stewart
3. Robert de Niro
4. Jack Nicholson
5. Cary Grant
6. Phillip Seymour Hoffman
7. Daniel Day-Lewis
8. Tom Hanks
9. Al Pacino
10. Paul Newman

The National Board of Review has spoken and the first lock for Best Picture is...

2008-12-04T15:00:00.003-05:00

Best Picture
Slumdog Millionaire

Top 10 Films(Alphabetical)
Burn After Reading
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Defiance
Frost/Nixon
Gran Torino
Milk
Wall-E
The Wrestler

Best Actor
Clint Eastwood - Gran Torino

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin - Milk

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Christina Barcelona

Best Ensemble Cast
Doubt

Best Director
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Adapted Screenplay
Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Original Screenplay
Gran Torino

Best Animated Feature
Wall-E

Godspell by David Greene (1973)

2008-12-02T08:50:00.002-05:00

What an endearing little musical this is. More simple than most Jesus movies and more sound than Jesus Christ Superstar. Godspell takes the Biblical book of Matthew and puts it in the context of 1970's New York. Somewhere between a normal Jesus movie, Hippies and The Lost Boys (of Peter Pan fame, not the vampires of the 1980's Corey's) mixed in with some of the best movie musical music I've heard in a long time.

For fans of movie musicals this is right near the top of the list. It is about the life of Jesus, but it treats his teachings as teachings not as commands and merely suggests that maybe this is a better way to go. For fans of theological and Jesus movies, its near the top of this list as well. It is very articulate in its discussion of Jesus and a lot of the dialogue comes straight from The Gospel of Matthew.

Well worth the watch, and if you can't find it in the local video store it is available in parts on YouTube.

Peeping Tom by Michael Powell

2008-11-26T15:28:00.003-05:00

Michael Powell's Peeping Tom is one of the most troubling and beautiful films I have ever seen in my life. For those who've not seen it - its a story of a young man who murders women while photographing them for reasons unrevealed here. I would recommend the picture for anyone who can handle a well-crafted film that is disturbing. While talking about the art of film direction Martin Scorsese said that "there are two films that a person needs to watch to understand directing. Fellini's 8 1/2 and Powell's Peeping Tom because it really shows how you must be willing to alter a person's will to the artistic vision."

Back to the Future

2008-11-24T09:25:00.002-05:00

Sometimes in the midst of being a movie snob we forget the things that made us love the medium in the first place. The Back to the Future Trilogy was one of the first DVDs I bought when my family got our first DVD player. I had seen the movies when I was a kid and I loved them. That never really changed, but I watched them so many times that when I watched them I would quote or even preempt a character's statement with the statement myself. I couldn't get a soul to watch the movies (especially the first one) with me. It was time to put the trilogy on the shelf for a while.

Last week, I decided it was time to take it back off the shelf and give her another watch. It had been a while and my taste in movies isn't as "80's teen comedy" as it was at one point. I must admit, however, that Back to the Future still made me laugh and smile with the joy that it did four and a half years ago.

So what? What does this have to do with any of you? I suggest that you go out and watch a movie that you used to love and that you stopped watching for a while for any number of reasons. Does it still have the mystique? Does it bring you the same joy? Why or why not? Its the same movie after all.

Robert Altman: 1925 - 2006

2008-11-18T09:13:00.002-05:00

I know that I have been a little preoccupied on one person as of late. He died two years ago on Thursday. I cannot avoid the tributes on Roger Ebert's page. The man made some of the finest American Films of the 1970s rendering them some of the finest American films ever made - period. Rest in Peace Mr. Altman and thanks for the wonderful films - and DVD commentaries.

The Election's Over...and the Legend of the Maverick Lives on

2008-11-10T20:52:00.004-05:00

This man ran for the highest office in the United States of America. His platform? Well...He's a Maverick. Or, at least that's what we're told. In any case, I think that John McCain is a true American hero, I think he has done wonderful things as a senator for the nation that he loves, but I think its good that the nation chose to go in a different direction.

Anyway, I know what you are all thinking. Aaron done and lost his mind because this here is a movie blog. Well, give me a moment I needed to give you the set up to what is on my mind before I go and drop some thoughts on you.

The thing is that the John McCain campaign did one thing incredibly well...it inspired me to think on all things "Maverick". That's right all this talk about "Maverick" of course lead to way too many bad jokes about Tony Scott's 2986 film, Top Gun, but more than that it made me miss the true American Maverick: Robert Altman.

Mr. Altman has been gone from us for nearly two years now and there is not a week that passes that I don't at least allow myself to stop and reflect on at least one of this master's major pieces of art. Robert Altman made his best films in the 1970's, as did most American filmmakers, but he did not stop there. In the 1980's, regarded as his lost decade, he brought us the revisionist memoirs of Richard M. Nixon in the powerhouse, one man show, known as Secret Honor. He did not stop there, though, he came back as good as ever in the 1990's with the back-to-back masterpieces The Player and Short Cuts. He then left us with a bang, his last two films were as good as anything he had delivered up until that point: Gosford Park, which was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards (they were his 6th and 7th nominations) and A Prairie Home Companion, a wonderful ensemble piece about the world of variety radio that hearkened back to his 1975 film, Nashville.

Robert Altman, as mentioned before, was nominated for seven Academy Awards. He never won an Oscar in competition, though it 2006 he received an honorary Lifetime achievement award for always breaking the mold and pushing the medium to new and better heights.

Robert Altman made a ton of movies, many good ones, a few great ones and two perfect films, Nashville and McCabe & Mrs. Miller. This post reflects some of that sentiment though not all of it. Robert Altman was a great American filmmaker that lived up to his title of Maverick and never made a film just because someone else wanted him to. More than a great filmmaker and a maverick of his form, he was a great artist and visionary of his period. He may not be the greatest artist in American film, but he is one of the most important because he finished the handbook on American Independent Film making that John Cassavetes started.

So, on this last evening before Veterans Day we salute a veteran of two kinds. The war heroes represented by Arizona Senator, John McCain; and, the fallen artists represented by Robert Altman.

R.I.P. Robert Altman: 1925-2006

Top 10 Silent Films

2008-11-09T19:59:00.002-05:00

1. The Fall of the House of Usher by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber
2. City Lights by Charlie Chaplin
3. The General by Buster Keaton
4. Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau
5. The Passion of Joan of Arc by Carl Dreyer
6. Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstien
7. Broken Blossoms by D.W. Griffith
8. Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin
9. Un Chien Andalou
10. Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith

Top 10 American Movies (Prior to 2000)

2008-10-31T15:13:00.002-04:00

1. The Godfather Trilogy by Francis Ford Coppola
2. The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont
3. Saving Private Ryan by Steven Spielberg
4. Casablanca by Michael Curtiz
5. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb by Stanley Kubrick
6. Taxi Driver by Martin Scorsese
7. Citizen Kane by Orson Welles
8. Nashville by Robert Altman
9. Unforgiven by Clint Eastwood
10. Raging Bull by Martin Scorsese

Honorable Mention: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (anything else by Altman in the 1970s); Goodfellas; The Best Years of Our Lives; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Rear Window

More Absurd Lists - Top 10 Foreign Films (Prior to 1990)

2008-10-27T00:07:00.003-04:00

Still no order*

1. Cries and Whispers by Ingmar Bergman

2. Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa

3. Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard

4. Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders

5. Fanny and Alexander by Ingmar Bergman

6. Battle of Algiers by Gillo Pontecorvo

7. Band of Outsiders by Jean-Luc Godard

8. Persona by Ingmar Bergman

9. Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa

10. 400 Blows by François Truffaut

Top 10 Foreign Films since 1990

2008-10-15T19:35:00.002-04:00

1. Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro (2006)

2. Three Colors Trilogy by Krzysztof Kieslowski (1993-1994)

3. Tsotsi by Gavin Hood (2005)

4. The Double Life of Veronique by Krzysztof Kieslowski (1991)

5. Amores Perros by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (2000)

6. Joyeux Noel by Christian Carion (2005)

7. Y Tu Mama Tambien by Alfonso Cuaron (2001)

8. Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni (1998)

9. Curse of the Golden Flower by Yimou Zhang (2006)

10. The Orphanage by Juan Antonio Bayona (2007)

Top 10 Directors Over 60

2008-10-11T22:37:00.002-04:00

This is the second list in a series of randomly ordered top 10 movie lists

1. Martin Scorsese
2. Ingmar Bergman
3. Akira Kurosawa
4. Alfred Hitchcock
5. Stanley Kubrick
6. Robert Altman
7. Krzysztof Kieslowski
8. Terrence Malick
9. Werner Herzog
10. Jean-Luc Godard

Honorable Mention - François Truffaut, Clint Eastwood, Charles Chaplin, Orson Welles, Howard Hawks

A Weekend of French Tragedy

2008-10-07T09:36:00.003-04:00

Above is one of the most famous images from François Truffaut's Jules and Jim if not from the entire French New-Wave. The film was just one of two films that I watched this weekend with tragic results, the other being the equally beautiful and tragic Contempt by fellow Frenchman, Jean-Luc Godard, which is about the process of making a film, though not in the same way that Fellini's 8 1/2 or Truffaut's Day for Night is about the making of motion pictures.

Godard has a much more subversive goal in his film. He tells the story of a love triangle that develops between the writer and his wife, along with the producer of the film. Much in the same way that Jules and Jim has the two titled men pining after Catherine. Despite the leauges of differences between the two films, at their core, in their essence are fairly similar.

Shot in a grandiose Cinemascope (which is what Kubrick shot his '68 masterpiece, 2001 in) and some of the most breathtaking technicolor ever put on film Godard's film is simply breathtaking. At times the score outshines the film, in that it plays as a score for the film that the crew in the film (including Germany's great, Fritz Lang, as director) is making, rather than the film Godard is making.

On the flip side of this, Truffaut shot Jules in Jim in a playful, nearly hand-held, style black and white, much to the style of A Hard Day's Night would later be shot. In the midst of this, however, he interweaves pieces of film that look as if they could be pieces of old home movies or documentary footage as well.

The two films above are amongst the greatest films of the French New Wave, rendering them amongst the greatest films ever made. I would highly recomend these films to anyone who asked, and to anyone reading this.

Ordet by Carl Theodor Dreyer

2008-10-01T19:12:00.002-04:00

Feeble are the words that are about to come from this writer. It is that way because there are few words to describe Dreyer's 1955 film, Ordet, without sounding dumb unless you are made of stone. This is quite possibly the most important film about spirituality ever made and as I commented to my roommate last night is a stark and beautiful contrast that I could only describe as "Antibergman" but you will have to watch for yourself to see if you agree.

The film follows five main characters: A man, his three sons and the eldest son's wife. The five principles have differing levels of faith from "lost it long ago" all the way to claiming to be the person of Jesus of Nazareth to bring peace to the family through the hardships they will face soon.

How the film plays out is poetry on celluloid and I will endevour to say no more about the film in order to avoid spoiling it for anyone. If one has an interest in things spiritual, or just wants to see a fine film (the next to last film Dreyer directed) should look into viewing this film.

Top 10 Directors under 60

2008-09-30T14:03:00.002-04:00

*NOTE* this list is not in any particular order, so sorry for the lack of organization.

1. Joel and Ethan Coen
2. Guillermo del Toro
3. Paul Thomas Anderson
4. Wes Anderson
5. Alfonso Cuarón
6. Sean Penn
7. Alejandro González Iñárritu
8. Jason Reitman
9. Michel Gondry
10. Darren Aronofski

Honorable Mention: Alexander Payne, Ang Lee, Sofia Coppola, Spike Jonze, George Clooney

Bergman and Melville?

2008-09-29T14:45:00.004-04:00

This week I am awaiting for a Criterion Collection two-disc set of Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows a curiously poignant film from the director of Bob le Flambour and Le Samurai, but it is none-the-less one of the great pieces of war film that I have ever seen. It follows several members of the French resistance during the period of Nazi occupation in France and their trials and sacrafices.

In any case, what brings this post to fruition is that my roommate was watching my copy of Bergman's Shame last night and I found myself thinking about how beautifully these two very different films come together, despite their glaring differences to make companion pieces for one another of war and peace time thoughts and actions.

Again, these two films have little in common, but I believe that there is a linking between the two that is magnetic in nature. If you have seen both films and would like to add some more thoughts to this slim post, please share. If you think there are glaring mistakes in this post, please explain and if you think that there are some other films that could fit in with these films please let me know, because I am endlessly intrigued with war cinema and the actions and consequences that are shown so vividly in them.

Well...

2008-09-20T23:51:00.003-04:00

I have been busier than I had expected to be and I apologize for the lack of posts.

Some of the movies I have watched lately:

Love in the Afternoon (one of Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales) which is a fantastic piece of film.

Samurai Rebellion which seems to show the viewer what would happen if Ozu and Kurosawa had a love-filmmaker, with a finale to die for.

Burn After Reading The Coen's latest comedy may be the brothers' best post-critical screwball comedy.

Son of Rambow wonderful indie comedy about a young lad from England and his coming of age tale.

The Counterfeiters The Austrian winner of the Best Foreign Language Oscar last year is a powerful story about an interesting concentration camp in WWII.

The Fall by Indian director Tarsem. Visual masterpiece.

Stay tuned for early Oscar coverage and some fall movie picks. The meatier pieces may have to wait until Christmas break.

mi amour...My Love

2008-08-26T00:13:00.002-04:00

How gorgeous this woman is, Ingrid Bergman not only is one of the 5 most beautiful (the most beautiful in my opinion) woman in the history of cinema; but, she is also one of the most under rated actresses of the 20th Century. Tonight I spent nearly six hours with Ingrid thanks to the wonderful Turner Classic Movies, and I am so glad that they made these pictures available to young people like myself and others who were not alive at the time of her death, mear years after her last film, Autumn Sonata, made by the other famous Bergman from Sweden, let alone the years when she was making the beautiful films that I watched tonight (Casablanca and an Alfred Hitchcock double feature, Notorious and Spellbound.)

So, in short, thank you Turner Classic Movies, thank you Alfred Hitchcock and thank you Ingrid for the beautiful films that you gave to us.

A Changing of the seasons

2008-08-22T19:50:00.002-04:00

As I leave the summer behind for the halls and studies of the school year I would like to say that my post will, in all likeliness, get closer together once the school year is here.

With that being said, I would also like any readers out there to know that starting this year I am thinking about doing some more "meaty" projects on this blog that will entail more than brief plot summaries and what I think of the overall affect of said film. I plan on doing a couple (between two and who knows how many) pieces on a subject that is very near and dear to my heart as a movie fan.

I do not wish to divulge all of what I am planning on doing, but I can tell you that the photographs in this blog will have a lot to do with some of these articles that I would like to write.

With that being said, I will leave you to enjoy the pictures and ask for any suggestions for ideas that I might write about, or movies that I should watch and write about in here. If there is any input at all, it will be greatly appreciated. I hope that this upcoming year will be a time of great films and great insights into them.

Top Trilogies - 1 - The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola

2008-08-08T21:46:00.002-04:00

Was there any question? If you've not seen it, do. Sure there's a hick-up in the third installment named Sofia Coppola (an astounding director in her own right). The first two pictures, however, are perfect...perfect, and that leaves little room for any other saga to come into focus.

Top Trilogies - 2 - Trois Couleurs by Krysztof Kieslowski

2008-08-07T23:58:00.002-04:00

In 1993 the Polish master, Krysztof Kieslowski, unleashed Trois Couleurs: Bleu on the world of cinema. With its unpeccable use of color and a moving performance by French beauty, Juliette Binoche, he told a story that was at once heart wrenching and heart warming. at the center of the film was the theme of liberty (represented by the color blue in the French tricolor) through loss.

A Year later he would release Blanc and Rouge both of which used the colors of the French tricolor to explore the themes of Equality and Franternity, respectfully. Both films, but especially Rouge staring Irene Jacob, uses lush cinematography rich in the color of the title to help set the emotional and visceral map for the trilogy.

These films are devestating, funny, maddening, and soothing simaltaniously, but more than anything these three films by Kieslowski are, in their very essence, beautiful. No more, no less. In saying that, however, I do not believe we have the right to ask for anything more.

Hancock by Peter Berg

2008-07-11T00:39:00.003-04:00

Peter Berg's Hancock begs a question that has really only been asked in one other superhero film, 2004's Spider-Man 2. What happens when the personal weight of being a super hero gets in the way of being a hero and makes you a super jerk.

The film is flawed, to be sure, and the last 20 minutes or so is a little clunky. However, this film is driven by the star and artist, Will Smith, and the way that he has sold John Hancock as a man with a lot of power and a lot of problems.

The film follows John Hancock as we watch him meet a publicist (Jason Bateman) and his family. John Hancock as do other persons have some secrets that we will not reveal here. The film is quite smooth for the most part and it is quite entertaining throughout.

***

Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and language.

Top Trilogies - Lord of the Rings by Peter Jackson

2008-07-10T01:38:00.003-04:00

Peter Jackson's epic trilogy is one of the most stunning trilogies ever made. The epic nine hour (theatrical release, 12+ extended cuts) trilogy tells the tales of four hobbits, a dwarf, an elf and two men who take it upon themselves to destroy an ancient ring made by the evil Sorcerer, Sauron.

Of course, given the fact that the three films raked in $2,954,933,388 world-wide, you already knew that much. These films took a simple story about a small group of unlikey heroes who take it on their backs to save the world. Jackson, with the touch of a master shows this romantic tale initially penned by J.R.R. Tolkien based off of stories in the Bible and his own war expiriences in WWI.

Eagle Vs Shark by Taika Cohen

2008-07-09T18:27:00.003-04:00

Eagle Vs Shark got lost in New Zealand half-way between an American and a British comedy. It has the biting wit of the great British comedies that the American comedies often lack but it added a tenderness to its romance that is often lost in the British films. The lead male is Jemaine Clement from the popular HBO series Flight of the Conchords and the leading lady's name is Loren Horsley, an awkwardly beautiful girl who also happened to write the story that sparked the screenplay and the film as a whole.

The film plays like an adult version of Napoleon Dynamite and is in its own way much more endearing because of its more mature nature.

***

Rated R for language, some sexuality, and brief animated violence

Wall-E by Andrew Stanton

2008-07-09T18:17:00.002-04:00

There is little that I can say about Pixar Pictures latest film, Wall*E, that you haven't heard or seen for yourself by this point.

The film is an absolute masterpiece, and at this point in the year it stands as the best film released to this point. From its message to children to apprecriate what we have here in this planet and to take care of it to its wonderful homage to the late Stanley Kubrick's 1968 masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Wall*E is far more than a childish entertainment or a cartoon that can get to the soft side of a hardened adult. It is a tender film about taking care of our planet, it is a comedy about a cute robot and it is a romance story for the ages.

The first half hour has little to no dialouge and the film is all the better for it, the only dialouge in the opening sequence comes from a song from Hello, Dolly and from Fred Willard setting up most of the plot for the rest of the film through a left behind video. This is an animated feature for the ages and it may well be the first animated masterpiece since Disney released The Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King both in the early 1990's, long before most of Wall*E's watchers were even thought about, let alone born.

****

Rated G

Top Trilogies - 4 - Robert De Niro Mob films by Martin Scorsese

2008-06-25T23:19:00.004-04:00

In 1974 a young New Yorker released a film that would launch his career and, in many ways, define it. The film was partially autobiographical and it dealt with street crime at its very lowest level, the kids who ran packages and get in fist fights. The film, of course was called Mean Streets and the young filmmakers name was Martin Scorsese. Mean Streets has become a classic on its own rights and Scorsese has become one of the most acclaimed directors of this and any other era in film history. Mean Streets was only Scorsese's third full length feature and only his second film that he made after leaving film school, it follows the lives of two young men (Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro), they have it rough, they live in a crap-shoot town and as the name of the picture would indicate, its not a fun place to live, either.

Fast-forward 16 years and two Academy Award nominations later (two of his films were also nominated for Best Picture durning that span) a new film, which would revolutionize the crime film and take the critical world by storm was released. The film, Goodfellas, took a look at the mafia and organized crime from the ground floor. Not only was this not a romantic look at the top levels of the organizations like the Godfather films, it was examining the lives of foot soldiers who had not even "made their bones" yet. In the film Ray Liotta plays Henry Hill an Italian-American who was not able to come fully into the family because his orgins were not fully Scilian, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci (in an Oscar winning performance) Co-Star as two other wise guys or goodfellas just looking to make their way (and some cash) while making their way through the underworld.

In 1995 Scorsese released his third mafia film, Casino, in this picture he would look at how the mafia families of the East coast had sent some of their responsible but expendable men out to the desert to found the most notorious town in the nation, Las Vegas. The plot follows the mobs best numbers man (De Niro) who finds himself the hottest thing in Vegas and has married the hottest show girl in town (Sharon Stone) and running into all kinds of problems with his number two guy (Joe Pesci). This film, like the earlier Goodfellas is based on a true crime novel by Nicolas Pileggi.

*Note* It seems that there are many people who, because of the three films and his 2006 Oscar-winning film The Departed, have tried to say that all that Martin Scorsese could make are mafia pictures. The fact is, however, that these are only four of his 23 film cannon, and could just as easily be pegged as a man who only makes Biopics (Boxcar Bertha, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Kundun, and The Aviator). It is though unfair and foolish to try to peg someone as being a person who can only make one type of film when it is not the only kind of film they can make.

Top Trilogies - 5 - Star Wars by George Lucas (and Irvin Kershner)

2008-06-05T11:09:00.002-04:00

Star Wars. The ultimate mark in Science Fiction Entertainment (which is not the same as Science Fiction as a whole). George Lucas wrote three wonderful stories in the mid-70s about a humanoid race living in a Galaxy...well...you know the drill. If it weren't for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars: A New Hope would probably be the most defining moment in Sci-Fi motion picture making.

In 1977 George Lucas set out to make an epic of the likes that had never been seen and the world has not been the same since.

Anyway, I know everyone and their brother...and sister has seen this trilogy and know why its on this list. If you don't...watch it

The Player (1992) by Robert Altman

2008-05-28T15:57:00.003-04:00

During the 1980's, master filmmaker and film pioneer, Robert Altman, all but fell off of the Hollywood map due to the studios and other business aspects of the industry that came into play that stopped the master from recreating his enormous success of the 1970's. In the early 90's, however, Altman came storming back with his 1992 film, The Player, a dramedy-meets film noir that only Altman could make.

The film stars a pre-Shawshank Tim Robbins as the studio exec. Griffin Mill. A young, slick smooth-talker that knows his way around the system. When he starts receiving death threats from an anonymous writer Griffin begins to fear for the worst. As the threats get more frequent he decides to take matters into his own hands.

From this point on the film takes twists and turns that I will avoid mentioning here, though most of them you can read on the back cover of the DVD case. The Robert Altman that made this film is the same one that made the 70's classics, M*A*S*H, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, 3 Women and A Long Goodbye, it is the same Robert Altman who would go on to make Short Cuts, Gosford Park and A Prairie Home Companion. He was lost in exile for nearly all of the 80's with the exception of the Phillip Baker Hall Tour De Force, Secret Honor and the surprisingly fun Popeye. The Player is a brilliantly crafted, fast-talking and brooding calling out of the way the Hollywood system destroys the artistic backbone of the motion picture.

****

Rated R for language, and for some sensuality

R.I.P. Sydney Pollack

2008-05-26T21:49:00.003-04:00

Sydney Pollack, the Academy-Award winning director of Out of Africa, Tootsie, and They Shoot Horses Don't They. Died today of cancer, he was 73 years old. He also acted in such films as Tootsie, Eyes Wide Shut and this years Best Picture nominee, Michael Clayton.

Top Trilogies - 6 - Faith Trilogy by Ingmar Bergman

2008-05-22T14:52:00.002-04:00

Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1962) and The Silence (1963) are seminal pieces in the Bergman cannon. These three pictures are small chamber dramas, each containing just a few locations and a couple characters. There is, however, something much more profound at the root of all of these titles. The theme at the center of these three small films is the frightening question of the silence of God during the hardest times of your life.

Set at the time of the release dates the films focus on the percieved silence of God during the upheaval of the cold war and the threat of nuclear holocaust. The power of these films can still be felt today by anyone who has ever had a struggle with faith of any sort.

Bergman is one of the greatest and prolific of all filmmakers to ever live. These films show him at his best and most disturbed.

Top Trilogies - 7 - Interweaving Human Tragedies by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

2008-05-19T21:28:00.002-04:00

Inarritu is part of the Mexican New Wave lead by himself along with his great friends and contemporaries Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron. Getting a later start than the other two the first film in his trilogy is Amores Perros (2000) which was a collection of interweaving stories that show loss and regret and love (the translation of the title means Love's a Bitch). This oft-overlooked picture was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar (though it lost to the Best Picture nominated Croutching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.)

In 2003 he came to America for his more than compelling 21 Grams; which, like Amores Perros, connects the stories through the tragedy of a car accident. In Grams, however, Inarritu adds some more twists and turns and even tells the story out of sequence using the car accident of a suburban family, the salvation of an ex-con (Benicio del Toro) and the heart problems of a Math Professor (Sean Penn) to connect to the wife and mother of the accident victims (Naomi Watts). While not nominated for any complete picture awards, 21 Grams was nominated for two acting oscars Del Toro in a supporting role and Watts in a leading role.

It was in 2006, however, that one of Inarritu's pictures took the film industry by storm. When he released Babel people saw what he was capable of. Taking some of the basic concepts and techniques that he brilliantly utialized in his first two films and translated them onto a global scale. This time instead of a single event connecting his characters he uses the international communication problem (language) as the problem connecting people. Yet, at the same time he uses one single transaction (which I will not reveal here) to connect people all around the world, that is the way this global economy works. Babel was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, Director and two acting awards, though it only won one (Best Score).

With his three films Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has shown a master level skill for the technical and story-telling aspects of his films, as well as an uncanny skill of directing his actors. With the future of cinema in the hands of young men like Inarritu and the other two members of the New Mexican Cinema we have a bright and wonderful future to North American and International filmmaking for years to come.

Top Trilogies - 8 - Vietnam by Oliver Stone

2008-05-10T20:11:00.002-04:00

Here is a trilogy that gets very little attention despite two Best Director wins, a Best Picture win and another nomination for Best Picture. The reason is that this is a thematic trilogy taking a different perspective on America's favorite war.

The first film, Platoon (1986), takes a look at war in and of itself. It doesn't support war, it isn't against war it just is, much in the same way that it was just there in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. Stone just lets his camera move around the jungle with a kid (Charlie Sheen) who represents Stone in his experience, who is scared to die but ends up more cynical for living. Its a powerful film that shows the ins and outs of war and how it affects the innocence of the young men that we send over seas to fight them.

The second film, Born on the Fourth of July (1989), takes the war home. In the film a young man in a fit of patriotism signs up for the marines to go over to Vietnam and fight a war that he knows little about, just that America must win it. When he is over there his legs are blown off in an explosion. When he comes home he is a strong advocate for what America is doing over there until he sees the same things that everyone else was seeing. His anti-war stance slowly grows until he is involved with protests that find him at the 1968 Republican National Convention. This film, based on a true story, is one of the finest of Stone's films.

The final film of the trilogy, Heaven and Earth (1993), not only crosses the national line from America to Vietnam; but it also crosses the gender perspective from male to female. This story is about a young woman from Vietnam who is rapped and forced into slavery during the war until she marries an American soldier and finds new problems with materialism back in the States.

The three films, in fact, have little in common with each other. There are two very prominent things, however, that transcend all of them. The first is the obvious war in Vietnam during the 1960s and its effects on everyone involved. The second is the loss of innocence experienced. In Platoon he shows us the loss of emotional/mental innocence due to the actual atrocities of war. In Born on the Fourth of July we are shown the loss of innocence the nation as a whole experienced as it became disillusioned with the war and the body bags coming home. Finally, in Heaven and Earth, Stone shows us the emotional/physical innocence lost by a young woman forced into sexual situations that she should not have been in. All of these films are important in their own way, and Oliver Stone, despite some his ambitious flops of the late 90s and early 00s should be remembered as the great film maker that he is.

Top Trilogies - 9 - The Man With No Name by Sergio Leone

2008-05-07T18:10:00.002-04:00

The next trilogy on the list is the definitive trilogy in the Western genre. Clint Eastwood brings to light one of the greatest characters in film history. Despite the fact that Leone is Italian, the films (Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and the epic The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) were all shot in Italy the trilogy, especially the final chapter has been brought into the cannon of American cult classics.

The first film in the trilogy is a direct remake of Kurosawa's Yujimbo, in fact Kurosawa made more money on the plagerism lawsuit than he did on the films box office run. The trilogy tracks a hero (with no name) through the American west during the Civil War and pre-Civil War years just trying to make money any way that he can.

The trilogy ends with the spectacular feat in Western filmmaking, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is one of the greatest films ever made. The end of the film is unforgetable and the way the suspense and action builds with little to no dialouge at times is impecable.

Trilogies - 10 - The Adventures of Indiana Jones by Steven Spielberg

2008-05-06T16:36:00.004-04:00

I find it a tragedy that this wonderful set of films (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade) has to be so low down on the list, but there a couple of reasons for that. Mainly, I had to rush this out to the blog as to have it still be a trilogy and not a saga. Steven Spielberg's 1982 film Raiders of the Lost Ark is quite possibly the definitive picture in the Action/Adventure genre, if not the film that should be credited with its creation.

The first film in the now legendary trilogy created one of the most lovable characters ever presented on film, and while most of us will never be able to relate to Indy and his adventures that does not mean that we cannot identify with the fun and fear that he experiences along the way. Spielberg shows us that even Biblical history can be cool in the context of a man in a hat that he cannot loose and artifacts worth more money than any of us can possibly imagine.

The strongest film in the trilogy is easily the first, Raiders of the Lost Ark shows us the character and the theme music by John Williams. It is the most action packed and it has special effects that hold up to this day; but while Ark is the best The Last Crusade is a close second. In the final film (until later this summer) we get to see some of the things that made Indy who he was as well as get a good dosage of mythology involved in the legend of the Holy Grail. Temple of Doom is the weakest film in the trilogy as it is incredibly linear and when its not break neck it is slow paced and almost boring at points. This is not to say that Doom is a poor film, it is just the weakest branch of an incredibly entertaining series of films that will live on forever.

Top Trilogies

2008-05-06T16:23:00.003-04:00

There will now be a list for you to come back by and look at from time to time and hopefully engage in conversation and debate about. Not all of the films are "great" not all of the trilogies are story based, they do not share characters and a story line, but rather themes and feelings. Some of these are not widely considered trilogies, but if watched it is understood that they can be placed together.

Hot Rod by Akiva Schaffer

2008-05-06T02:58:00.002-04:00

There he is, our hero. Rod. He's not that bright, he's not that cool and he's not all that hot. Somehow everyone loves him. Rod is going to perform an incredibly dangerous stunt to raise $50,000 to give his Stepfather a heart transplant so that he after he is healthy he can "kick his ass" to earn the respect of the Stepfather that he loves so much. There's a half brother, he's the manager of "the crew" there is also some sidelined drama dealing with a pretty girl (Isla Fisher) who is dealing with her douche bag boyfriend.

So, the big question. Is it funny? I suppose that depends on your sense of humor, short answer: there are a couple of laughs. It is inconsistent at best, however, and never really gets off of the ground. Shortly after seeing the movie a friend asked me how I liked it. My answer was short and it is the same statement that I will leave you all with. It wasn't terrible.

**

Rated PG-13 for crude humor, language, some comic drug-related and violent content.

Kundun by Martin Scorsese

2008-04-27T21:24:00.003-04:00

Martin Scorsese is one of the true masters of American Cinema in his 1997 film, Kundun, he leaves his comfortable New York setting in favor of Tibet and the turmoil of the 1930s and 40s that was felt between China and Tibet. The picture is not one of his "top tier" pictures, but it is incredibly moving and spiritual in a way that Scorsese does not tend to make. Kundun, is, of course, the name of the first Buddha of Compassion who, legend says, has been reincarnated 14 times and is now known as the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan political and spiritual leader, who is currently living in exile in India (since the early 1950's).

Rated PG-13 for Some violent Images

***1/2

The Savages by Tamara Jenkins

2008-04-23T19:39:00.002-04:00

Tamara Jenkins' Sophomore film is one the speaks with power. The Savage siblings appropriatley named John (Hoffman) and Wendy (Linney in an Oscar nominated role) (characters in Peter Pan) have never grown up. As they are in their late 40s they are faced with the challenge of dealing with their father, who they view as an abandoner, who is dying and has dimensia. Both performances have these super stars at the top of their career performing an Oscar nominated script in a year of wonderful original and adapted screenplays, this stands out as one of the best three scripts of the year.

Rated R for some Sexuality and Language

****

Top Biopics - 1 - Raging Bull by Martin Scorsese (1980)

2008-04-02T23:58:00.003-04:00

Was there any doubt? Scorsese's film is so perfect that it is known world-wide as one of five to ten best American films ever made. It was this film that made him one of the two or three most important directors in modern cinema. While training Robert De Niro for the role Jake LaMatta himself said that if he were not already over 30 years old that De Niro would make an outstanding boxer. And has there ever been a more heartwrenching scene as when an old, fat, washed up LaMatta recite's Marlon Brando's "I couldda been a contender" speech from In the Water Front? I think not

Top Biopics - 2 - Lawrence of Arabia by David Lean (1962)

2008-03-31T15:06:00.002-04:00

David Lean. These two words are the answer to how a seemingly impossible film to finance was made. T.L. Lawrence was a fasinating man who fought with the Arabs in World War II to help them gain a more formal sense of indepence. Lawrence of Arabia is also happens to be the debut performance of the legandary Peter O'Toole. The picture comes in at just shy of four hours, nothing happens and I could not take my eyes off of the screen, it is a portrait of greatness and a true triumph in American cinema. Pity Lawrence died in a motorcycle accident after surviving the desert.

Top Biopics - 3 - Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg (1993)

2008-03-27T17:24:00.003-04:00

All right, seriously, we all knew it was coming. So, here it is: So what if the real Oskar Schindler was more of a capitalist than humanitarian, he still saved a ton of Jewish people in the worst humanitarian tragedy in the 20th Century. Liam Neeson puts a face onto a struggling business owner who decides that he can make money and have a bonus of saving lives. Again, so what if the part when he breaks down to Kingsley about the desk being two more lives and the telephone, etc was slightly revisionist, it was beautiful. Steven Speilberg's film is a triumph on all fronts and that is why there are only two more pictures left on this list.

Top Biopics - 4 - Patton by Franklin J. Schaffner (1970)

2008-03-26T11:32:00.002-04:00

General George Patton was a brilliant and mean military man in the midst of World War II. George C. Scott portrays that with ease in his Oscar winning portrayal in the film named after the general. This film goes beyond a typical war film and allows the audience to see inside the man behind the maddness.

Top Biopics - 5 - Born on the Fourth of July by Oliver Stone (1989)

2008-03-24T23:20:00.003-04:00

The incredible story of Ron Kovic is heartwrenching. The story is ment to make you question war and especially the actions of the United States in the Vietnam War but its much more than that. Tom Cruise plays Kovic with such conviction he sadly fell into competition with the great Daniel Day-Lewis and lost his best shot so far at Oscar Gold.

Top Biopics - 6 - Goodfellas by Martin Scorsese (1990)

2008-03-22T13:24:00.002-04:00

Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece is one of the six biopics that he has made. Goodfellas is about a man named Henry Hill, an Irish-Italian American who grew up in Little Italy. When Hill gets involved with the mafia his life becomes a dream before spiraling out of control with cocaine and sex. Hill is still living under an alias under the Witness Protection Agency. The final act of this film is made with such an intensity that many people have been forced to choose to love or hate this film with little in between.

*Note* Goodfellas is part of a thematic series with Casino as its sequel for Mafia memoirs written by Nicholas Pileggi and along with The Departed it is the first part of Scorsese's Mafia Trilogy.

Top Biopics - 7 - The French Connection by William Friedkin (1971)

2008-03-21T10:08:00.002-04:00

The Academy called it the Best Picture of 1971. Early in Gene Hackman's career he made a living playing cops and men running from cops (see Bonnie and Clyde). This film about 'Popeye' Doyle is a little less of a biopic in the truest sense of the word and more of a memoir about a detective's life during the major heroine trade in the 1960's. It is brilliantly executed and technically flawless. The French Connection is a Cop Drama Thriller for the ages, and here it is.

Top Biopics - 8 - Dead Man Walking by Tim Robbins (1995)

2008-03-19T11:03:00.001-04:00

Tim Robbin's Dead Man Walking is more than a biopic, which it is, about Sister Helen Prejean, and based off of her memoirs. What makes this more than an ordinary biopic is that it is also a message film. The message is that there may not be a right answer to the problem of Capitol Punishment and while Tim Robbins may personally be opposed to the issue his film is the most even-handed film about a real political issue. It plays into the hands of those who stand up against the act and powerfully falls into the hands of those who think that it is necessary. It is a beautiful film that transcends political ideology and cuts straight to the human heart.

Top Biopics - 9 - Capote by Bennett Miller (2005)

2008-03-17T22:28:00.003-04:00

Capote is all about one man and three names: Phillip Seymour Hoffman. We all knew he was great before, but this performance cemented his name in the top of the current generations acting talents. Hoffman lost an immense amount of weight to personify the person of Truman Capote in all of his glory and all his short-comings.

Top Biopics - 10 - Nixon by Oliver Stone (1995)

2008-03-15T10:37:00.003-04:00

Call him a conspiracy freak, call him a liberal and write him off as paranoid, Oliver Stone was pumping out films as good as anyone in the late 80's and the early 90's. Nixon has Stone at the top of his game; and on top of that, one of the bravest and best performances ever given by the brilliant Anthony Hopkins. It is not, however, the acting, direction or any other film making techniques that make this one of the best biopics ever made. What Oliver Stone did with this picture was to take a person who had been made a monster in history and make him not only a human again but made him sympathetic.

Top 10 Biopics

2008-03-15T01:21:00.001-04:00

1. Raging Bull by Martin Scorsese (1980)
2. Lawrence of Arabia by David Lean (1962)
3. Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg (1993)
4. Patton by Franklin J. Schaffner (1970)
5. Born of the Fourth of July by Oliver Stone (1989)
6. Goodfellas by Martin Scorsese (1990)
7. The French Connection by William Friedkin
8. Dead Man Walking by Tim Robbins (1995)
9. Capote by Bennett Miller (2005)
10. Nixon by Oliver Stone (1995)

American Gangster by Ridley Scott

2008-03-05T18:14:00.003-05:00

This review is a little behind being that Ridely Scott's new film hit cinemas in October, but I was not able to make it to the theatre to see it, and it just came out on DVD. Scott's new film is a brutal exercise in filmmaking that rivals the kind of crime films by Michael Mann and Martin Scorsese. Denzel Washington plays Frank Lucas with a viciousness that has been admired by everyone from critics to the real Frank Lucas.

****

12/21

2008-02-25T00:06:00.002-05:00

Tilda Swinton - great performance, did not see the win coming
Marion Coltilard - the least deserving of the nominees
The Golden Compass (f/x) - where did this come from?
The Bourne Ultimatum gave me three misses
The Counterfeiters took the foreign award which I had no idea about
There Will be Blood - Roger Deakins split his vote and didn't win for his two suppieror films
Taxi to the Dark Side beat out Sicko in an excellent year for documentaries

Top 10 Oscar Winners/Losers

2008-02-23T14:03:00.002-05:00

Winners - Considered: How much I liked film, sentimentality

1. The Godfather

2. Casablanca

3. The Godfather pt. II

4. The Departed

5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

6. Unforgiven

7. American Beauty

8. Schindler's List

9. Terms of Endearment

10. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Losers - Considered: How much I like film and rip off factor

1. Saving Private Ryan

2. Fargo

3. The Shawshank Redemption

4. Munich

5. Goodfellas

6. Raging Bull

7. Network

8. Dr. Strangelove

9. Nashville

10. Bonnie and Clyde/The Color Purple

Oscar Forecast - Who Will/Who Should Win

2008-02-21T16:45:00.002-05:00

I figured that since every Oscar site got their say that I would take my turn...

Best Picture:

Who Will Win/Should Win - No Country for Old Men
The film has been the beast of the season, and not since Lord of the Rings: Return of the King has a film one the DGA, WGA, PGA and SAG in the same year...let's remember what Return of the King did on Oscar night.

Who Should of Been Nominated:
I am extremely happy with this category this year, the strongest its been in my time of paying attention. There are some films that I would like to see up there, but they generally are not the kind of films Oscar goes for anyway.

Best Actor:

Who Will Win - Daniel Day-Lewis
Day-Lewis gives one of the all time over-the-top performances as Daniel Plainview in Paul Thomas Anderson's epic There will be Blood. It is as close to hystarical as a serious role can get without crossing into parody.

Who Should Win - Daniel Day-Lewis/George Clooney tie
I am perfectly happy with the fact that DDL will win this award, but I felt that George Clooney gave the best performance of his carrer in Michael Clayton. It was strong and subtle and he made Clayton everything Plainview wasn't: human

Who Should have been Nominated - Philip Seymor Hoffman
In a year with three great performances they give him the supporting actor nod for the weakest of the three, instead of his turn in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead or The Savages.

Best Actress:

Who Will Win - Julie Christie
Playing a woman suffering from alzheimers Julie Christie is stunning: in a supporting role. People seem to forget that the film was about her husband and not her. Beautiful none the less.

Who Should Win - Ellen Page
Well, the Best Actress in a Leading Role this year was Ms. Ellen Page for her turn as the title character in Juno. She carried this heartwarming film on her back and that is not easy to do playing a pregnent 16 year old in a comedy.

Who Should have been Nominated - N/A

Best Supporting Actor:

Who Will/Should Win - Javier Bardem
This character will go down in the history books. He was and is and will always be evil incarnate, and his name is Anton Chigurh.

Who Should have been Nominated - Tommy Lee Jones
Yes, just like Philip Seymor Hoffman, they placed him in the wrong category.

Best Supporting Actress:

Who Will/Should Win - Cate Blanchett
There has not been a more...interesting performance in my time seriously watching film. She found every nook and cranny of Bob Dylan and exploited it. And, as Peter Travers said: She would be the only person to win Oscars for playing Katherine Hepburn AND Bob Dylan.

Who Should have been Nominated -This category I am perfectly all right with

Best Original Screenplay:

Who Will/Should Win - Juno by Diablo Cody
This is the most bitingly original work of the year and it is just waiting for its name to be called on Sunday. This has been the only sureshot through the entire season and its time has almost come

Who Should have been Nominated - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
From the moment the opening quote comes up on the screen "May you be in Heaven half an hour: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" this crime malodrama is one of the most strikingly wonderful crime films by a true master of cinema. The overlook on the Academy's part to not only skip the screenplay but the entire film in every category is criminal

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Who Will/Should Win - No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
This is the cleanest adaptation I've ever had the pleasure to see and read. It is the most literary of almost all films and the Coen's masterpiece: which is a mouthful

Who Should have been Nominated - Gone Baby Gone by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard
In a category he has already won in, Affleck gets snubbed for writing is directorial debut, a stunning adaptation of Denis Lehane's book...you remember him, the guy that wrote Mystic River

Best Director:

Who Will/Should Win - Joel and Ethan Coen
There has never been a work by them so clean, so moving and so stark. Their masterpiece has come and the Academy owes them one. With the DGA on their side it is the safest statistical bet as well

Who Should have been Nominated - Sidney Lumet
The man is 83 years old and still at the top of his game. He should have won in 1976, but was snubbed and he was snubbed for a nomination here

Suggested Watching List Part I

2008-02-21T13:57:00.003-05:00

Lost in Translation by Sofia Coppola
12 Angry Men by Sidney Lumet
Network by Sidney Lumet
Stroszek by Werner Herzog
Strangers on a Train by Alfred Hitchcock
2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
The Shining by Stanley Kubrick
3 Women by Robert Altman
McCabe & Mrs. Miller by Robert Altman
Letters from Iwo Jima by Clint Eastwood
Million Dollar Baby by Clint Eastwood
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Michael Gondry
The Science of Sleep by Michael Gondry
Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock
Secret Honor by Robert Altman
The Thin Red Line by Terrence Mallick
Days of Heaven by Terrence Mallick
Alien by Ridley Scott
Bonnie and Clyde by Arthur Penn
Bringing Out the Dead by Martin Scorsese

Post Guild Predictions - Big Dance with Fate coming for Coens?

2008-02-10T10:03:00.000-05:00

These are my final predictions, with commentary on a few of them. I have left off the short film categories because I have not seen any of them and they are impossible to predict

Best Actor
George Clooney - Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will be Blood*
Johnny Depp - Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones - In the Valley of Ellah
Viggo Mottenson - Eastern Promises
*There Will be Blood*

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men*
Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook - Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton
*There is all but no chance for anyone but Bardem*

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie - Away from Her*
Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney - The Savages
Ellen Page - Juno
*If Juno is more loved or viewed that Julie Christie has already won, Ellen Page could take this, but it is unlikely: she is my beat actress though*

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There*
Ruby Dee - American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan - Atonement
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton
*Ruby Dee won the SAG, but there's usually a descreption between the SAG and the Oscar and this is the one I pick this year*

Best Animated Feature
Persepolis
Ratatouille*
Surf's Up

Art Direction
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street*
There Will be Blood

Cinematography
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford*
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will be Blood
*If Roger Deakons splits his vote watch There Will be Blood win this, but it is also possible No Country for Old Men just rolls through the awards this year, so Deakons could beat himself here too*

Costume Design
Across the Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age*
La Vie en Rose
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will be Blood
Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men*
Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton
Jason Reitman - Juno
Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Best Documentary
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Expirience
Sicko*
Taxi to the Darkside
War/Dance
*Everyone is very in this race, Sicko just happened to win the PGA*

Best Editing
Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men*
There Will be Blood

Foregin Language Picture
Beaufort - Israel
The Counterfeiters - Austria
Katyn - Poland
Mongol - Kazakhstan*
12 - Russia
*I admitedly know nothing about this category this year*

Best Makeup
La Vie en Rose*
Norbit
Pirates of the Carribean: At the World's End
*La Vie en Rose is the only film with good reception this year*

Original Score
Atonement*
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma

Original Song
Falling Slowly - Once*
Happy Working Song - Enchanted
Raise it Up - August Rush
So Close - Enchanted
That's How you Know - Enchanted

Best Picture
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men*
There Will be Blood
*It won all four major guilds, something else has a shot until it is announced, but don't hold your breath*

Sound Editing
Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will be Blood
Transformers*
*If the Academy really loves No Country for Old Men it could take this award, and the mixing award as well*

Sound Mixing
Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers*

Best Visual Effects
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Carribean: At the World's End
Transformers*

Best Adapted Screenplay
Atonement
Away from Her
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men*
There Will be Blood
*There Will be Blood could win this if the Coen's sweep other categories, but don't count on it*

Best Original Screenplay
Juno*
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages

Top 10, Final Talley

2008-02-06T08:20:00.000-05:00

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Juno
3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
4. Gone Baby Gone
5. There Will be Blood
6. Lars and the Real Girl
7. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
8. Zodiac
9. I'm Not There
10. The Darjeeling Limited

Top 10 Favorite Directors (no order)

2008-02-04T17:44:00.000-05:00

Director Best Film

Martin Scorsese Raging Bull (1980)
Ingmar Bergman Cries and Whispers (1973)
Robert Altman McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Alfred Hitchcock Rear Window (1954)
Stanley Kubrick 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Jean-Luc Godard Breathless (1960)
Akira Kurosawa Rashomon (1950)
Terrence Mallick Days of Heaven (1978)
Francis Ford Coppla The Godfather (1972)
Krzystof Kieslowski Three Colors: Red (1994)

More on the directors coming soon

The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola

2008-02-03T22:35:00.000-05:00

There are two things that people may try to tell you about film, neither of which you are to ever believe. The first: that they know exactly what makes a movie great, this is something that just happens there is no single element that can be pointed to that makes a great film. The second is even more simple. If someone tells you that The Godfather isn't a great film you can walk away on the spot because they are an idiot. Yes, I realize art is subjective but somethings transcend likes and dislikes into the realm of greatness whether or not you like them and along with Orson Welle's Citizen Kane this is one of those undeniably great films.

The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont

2008-02-03T22:27:00.000-05:00

I feel that I am excited, I am so excited I can hardly sit still or keep a thought in my head. I think its the kind of excitment only a free man can feel; a free man at the beginning of a long journey. I hope I can make it to the boarder...I hope I can find my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it is in my dreams: I hope.

Morgan Freeman's final monolouge sparks every feeling I have everytime I watch this film. I am going to keep this short because if I don't I wouldn't keep it even close. So, plain and simple: most beautiful film ever made. If we can find hope in the grey, bleak world of prison we can find it anywhere, and I pray that we do!

Saving Private Ryan by Steven Speilberg

2008-02-03T22:18:00.001-05:00

In 1998 my father and I went to the cinema where I recieved a violent dose of Historical reality and the single most powerful expirience I've ever had in a theatre. The film was Steven Speilberg's Saving Private Ryan and at 11 years old the film granted me three gifts that I will never be able to show my full appriciation for: A love for film. A love and respect for history. And, the greatness of Tom Hanks. For these reasons and sheer beauty, brutality, poignency, overt messages and subtle ways of telling them I will never forget walking out of theatre 1 at the Jack Loakes theatre at Alpine, North Grand Rapids. If it were not for these powerful memories connected to the film (aforementioned things and other memories I need not mention) the sheer brilliance of Speilberg's film and the looks on the veteran's in the cinema with me would place it near the top of any Great Film list I would ever make...and here it is.

Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro

2008-02-03T09:31:00.000-05:00

The newest film on this list comes to us from Spain by way of one of the new Three Amigos of Mexico (Guillermo del Toro, Alfoso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu). Pan's Labyrinth transcends films and hits us at the level of a dream, or nightmare thick with imagery from our favorite and most feared fairytales. del Toro writes and directs this film with the ease and skill of a legend though only 43 years old. The film is the undeniable masterpiece of the new century cinema and I am looking forward from hearing more from Guillermo del Toro.