MOVIE REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

The Other Half and I have seen all of the Harry Potter movies, and I have read all the books. The final installment in the movie franchise is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, which was also released in 3-D. I wasn't that enamored with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 but since I had read the books I knew that more than 2/3rds of the action in the book was going to happen in Part 2. We decided to splurge for the 3-D since it was the last time we would be seeing a Harry Potter movie in the theaters plus it was garnering rave reviews from most critics (96% on Rottentomatoes.com). 

Surprisingly, the last movie in the Harry Potter series is also the shortest in the series, coming in at a zippy 130 minutes. Also, another surprise about this installment is that it is basically a war movie. There are two competing armies, a large one on behalf of the Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort and a small one on behalf of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, called Dumbledore's Army. This movie is so different from the early Potter films which were filmed with the hijinks of school children and featured games of Quidditch.

For the last two movies we have been following the quest of Harry, Ron and Hermione as they chase down magical objects called Horcruxes, which contain the soul of Voldemort. If the horcruxes are destroyed, Voldemort will cease to exist. We think that there are six horcruxes, but one of my major quibbles with the the movie adaptation is that it doesn't really do a very good job of keeping the audience on track on how much progress is made on destroying all of the horcruxes.

Another aspect of the story is that when the audience discovers that Harry Potter must die (spoiler alert) we also see that he has the Resurrection Stone, but Harry drops the stone to the ground instead of carrying it with him to his death. It's unclear to the audience (or at least, me) why Harry couldn't just use the stone to die and then be resurrected and the movie doesn't do a good job of answering that question either.

There are several things that the film does do very well. I did think the 3-D effects were used sparingly but very effectively. Alan Rickman, as always, is excellent as Snape, although some have complained about the nature of his character's demise. My favorite character has always been Hermione, and Emma Watson plays her well. Daniel Radcliffe has most definitely grown into the leading role of Harry Potter. Rupert Grint has also grown, and is no longer cringe-worthy.

Overall, the final movie in the series works well as an action film and also has an excellent pay off for those of us who either read all the book or saw all the movies (or both). It is doubtful we will see a more successful adaptation of successful fantasy novels into successful fantasy films in my lifetime.

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.
Director: David Yates.
Running Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.
MPAA Rating: R for language and some sexual content.
Release Date: July 15, 2011.
Viewing Date: July 17, 2011.

Plot: A.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A.
Impact: A+.

Overall Grade: (4.0/4.0)

WATCH: Trailer for The Skinny

There was a rare screening of his Black gay classic film Punks at Outfest 2011 on Sunday July 17th and creator-director Patrik-Ian Polk  (Noah's Arc: Jumping The Broom) was in the audience and wowed the crowd with the trailer for his next feature film, titled The Skinny. Check it out!

MOVIE REVIEW: Beginners

Eschewing the appeal of spending two hours in the dark watching the pulchritudinous Ryan Reynolds in form-fitting costumes in Green Lantern, the Other Half and I decided to see the art-house film Beginners at the Laemmle's Playhouse 7 instead.

 Beginners is a very small film which has been getting quite good buzz (an 82% rating on rottentomatoes.com). It has a pretty acomplished cast, including Ewan MacGregor (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) and Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music). Plummer plays Hal, who is the father of MacGregor's Oliver. After 44 years of marriage Hal, at 75 years old, tells his son that he is gay and no longer wants to be theoretically gay. When the movie begins Oliver is in mourning for Hal, who has died from liver cancer a few months before after having spent an unspecified amount of time dating Andy (Goran Visnijc from E.R.) and enjoying the "gay lifestyle" with a group of dozen or so senior gay men. This entails having a movie night (watching The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, dancing in clubs to loud house music, having fabulous dinner parties and various excusions around Los Angeles). Oliver meets Anna at the very first party he has been dragged out to by his friends since his dad's death and it happens to be a costume party. He goes as Sigmund Freud, complete with a wig and lots of tweed, while she appears to be a mime and allegedly has laryngitis and can only communicate through written notes on a pad. The first thing she writes is "Why are you so sad?" This is a very perceptive remark and marks the beginning of their relationship.

As an Angeleno, Beginners is a fun experience because it is shot all over the city and one can watch the movie trying to figure out exactly where they shot what. Besides the geographical hook, Beginners is anchored by a pretty affecting performance by Christopher Plummer, who is now over 80 years old and playing a younger man. Shockingly, Plummer has only been nominated for an Oscar once. I suspect he will be nominated and may even win for this role, depending on the competition, of course.

The best parts of the movie usually involve the presence of the Jack Russell dog Arthur, who actually gets subtitles detailing his thoughts about the actions of the humans around him. The plot is centered around three "love stories": Anna and Oliver, Hal and Andy and Hal and Oliver's mom.

The movie is quite affecting and well worth seeing.

Title: Beginners.
Director: Mike Mills.

Running Time: 1 hours, 44 minutes.

MPAA Rating: R for  language and some sexual content.

Release Date: June 3, 2010.

Viewing Date: June 18, 2011.

Plot: B-.

Acting: A-.

Visuals: A-.

Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: (3.5/4.0)

2012 Oscars: The Best Actress Race Starts Early

Meryl Streep (left) has 2 Oscars (1979 Best Supporting Actress, Kramer v Kramer;
 1982 Best Actress, Sophie's Choice) and 16 nominations. Glenn Close (right) has
5 nominations and no wins (but 3 Emmys and 3 Tonys).

Ever since it was released that Glenn Close was playing a man in a film called Albert Nobbs she was producing and had co-written the screenplay for tongues have been wagging about her as the one to beat for the 2012 Best Actress Oscar. I have a sweet spot in my heart for Ms. Glenn Close because she is the best thing in one of my favourite movies of all time: Dangerous Liaisons.

Check this scene out and ask yourself why the Best Actress Oscar went to Cher that year!

However, now comes word that Meryl Streep, the most nominated actress of all time, is set to play former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in an upcoming film called The Iron Lady. The trailer for the latter has been released and La Streep has done one of her famous accents and incredible transformations:

Most people give the edge to Glenn because her film also has her brandishing an accent (19th century Irish), has a better director (Directed by Rodrigo Garcia, a well-known director of episodes of HBO series like Six Feet Under, Carnivale and In Treatment), a better cast (Oscar-winner Brenda Fricker, up-and-comer Mia Wasikowski (The Kids Are All Right, Alice in Wonderland), Jonathan Rhys Myers), and Glenn co-wrote the freaking screenplay and has been trying to get the movie made for 15 years! She also played the role on stage and won a Canadian Tony award (called an Obie). However, don't count out Ms. Streep either. The Iron Lady is directed by Phyllida Lloyd who directed her in her biggest box-office smash, the execrable Mamma Mia! and stars Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent and the always good Richard E. Grant.

If the movie is even half-way good, there's no question in my mind that the Academy will want to reward Glenn with atleast one Oscar (Anyone remember Emma Thompson's Oscar for Adapted Screenplay of Sense and Sensibility?) Also, Glenn currently has no Oscars on her mantel while Meryl has two.

I really don't know who I will be cheering for, I really really want Meryl to win her 3rd Oscar, but I also think Glenn Close was robbed decades ago so I really really want her to win as well.

MOVIE REVIEW: Super 8

The Other Half and I saw J.J. Abrams' Super 8 last weekend. It was billed as his homage to the classic Steven Spielberg movies of the 1970s and 1980s such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial. Interestingly, Spielberg is listed as the producer for this film.

The story is set in the 1970s and is centered around the lives of four young teenaged friends who live in Lillian, Ohio, a small. mid-Western town. The main protagonist of the film is Joe Lamb, a 13-year-old who lost his mother in an industrial accident and whose Dad is one of the deputy sheriffs of the town. His best friend is Charles who is trying to make a zombie movie with his Super 8 camera. While filming late at night the kids witness a horrific train derailment, which looks like it was caused intentionally by their biology  teacher. The military shows up to clean up the train wreck, which was apparently a military transport. The audience starts to see people around town disappear in strange circumstances, providing us brief glimpses of what could be some kind of alien creature.

The movie is very suspenseful, with some amazing set pieces (the train crash sequence is incredible) and there were moments when either myself or my husband literally screamed out loud in surprise. Abrams skillfully deploys the "children-in-danger" motif which occurs so often in Spielberg's films to great effect and combines it with a coming-of-age story. The later aspect of the plot was less interesting to me, and the resolution of the alien creature storyline is full of Death Star-sized plot holes but overall Super 8 is a very enjoyable theatrical experience.

Title: Super 8.
Running Time: 1 hours, 52 minutes.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and some drug use.
Release Date: June 10, 2010.
Viewing Date: June 12, 2011.

Plot: B-.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: B+/A- (3.4167/4.0).

WATCH: Final Trailer for Final Harry Potter Movie!

The movie is released July 15, 2011, in 3D and 2D. It looks amazing (much better than Part 1, which was a bit disappointing), I may actually re-read the book before seeing the movie since it's been 4 years since the book came out.

MOVIE REVIEW: X-Men: First Class

The Other Half and I succumbed to summer movie marketing and went and saw X-Men: First Class in its opening weekend, at a matinée screening at the L.A. Live Regal Theaters. We had previously seen the earlier X-Men movies directed by openly gay Bryan Singer and we were curious to see how Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn would re-boot the franchise. I'm not as big a "Gay Geek" as Wonder Man (who is?) but I do remember collecting the X-Men comics briefly in the mid-1980s.

Overall, I was impressed with X-Men: First Class. The highlights for me were Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds) as Magneto and the decision to set the film in the 1960s during the Cuban missile crisis. Fassbender is very easy on the eyes, and he's a good actor to boot. By placing most of the action in 1962, the director was able to distinguish this X-Men from the others and most recent super-hero films. Instead of the super-intelligent computers and futuristic gadgets that clutter most summer blockbusters this movie features retro styling and very un-sophisticated electronics. The heart of the film is in relationships, the three most notable are between Fassbender's Magneto and James McAvoy's Charles Xavier, Xavier and Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique and Magneto and Kevin Bacon's Sebastian Shaw. Bacon makes an excellent villain, and it is a generally accepted principle that the strength of a superhero entertainment can be measured by how effective the main villain is portrayed. The ongoing metaphor of mutant powers and sexual orientation (i.e. both of these are traits that you discover when a teenager, you may not share the trait with parents and you can be ostracized from society for actualizing the trait) is an incisive hook for a gay viewer like myself.

There are problems with the movie, however. For example, who the heck are these mutants? The "first class" of mutants to be educated and trained by Professor X feature a few that I was familiar with (Mystique, Beast and Banshee) but many more that I had no clue about (Havok, Darwin, Emma Frost). Emma Frost was controversially (among fan boys) played by Jennifer Jones of Mad Men fame, and although she looks amazing, her performance is a bit wooden. But at least she has lines to deliver, which is more can be said for Dr. Shawn's sidekicks Azazel and Riptide who have awesome powers (teleportation and wind control) but puny agents, because they are literally speechless. I was somewhat disappointed with McAvoy's Xavier because I thought he (but I concede it may be due to the script) did not do as an effective job as Fassbender did of displaying his character's motivations. It is very, very clear why Magneto is suspicious of collective efforts and humanity, in particular. It is not very clear why Professor X is so sure that he can work within the system to allow humankind and mutantkind to live and work together towards a common future.

One negative outcome of setting the movie in the early 1960s is that issues of race and gender are generally downplayed, or worse crop up in ways which discomfit those of us familiar with the 21st century. (SPOILER ALERT) Of course the first mutant to die in the movie ends up being one of the few Black ones, and the other (multiracial) mutant ends up on the side of Magneto, the putative future villain in the X-verse. The gender issues are even more problematic, with most women in the movie being shown scantily clad, even when they are given impressive mutant powers (c.f. Emma Frost). There's a reason these films look like they are designed with the viewpoint of a straight (white) 13-year-old boy in mind,despite the audience being a whole lot more experienced and diverse than that.

It will be interesting to see if they are able to make a sequel to X-Men: First Class. There are many, many great stories set in the X-Men universe (Dark Phoenix, anyone?) and hopefully, Vaughn will bring his fresh eye, and Fassbender and McAvoy to future depictions of these stories.

Title: X-Men: First Class.
Running Time: 2 hours, 12 minutes.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some sexual content including brief partial nudity and language.
Release Date: June 3, 2010.
Viewing Date: June 6, 2011.

Plot: B-.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: B+.

Overall Grade: B+ (3.333/4.0).

MOVIE REVIEW: Incendies

For my birthday last year the Other Half and I saw the film that won the 2010 Best Foreign Film Oscar, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, a suspenseful, mysterious drama set in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in Spanish with English subtitles. This year, I decided I wanted to see Incendies, which many thought should have won the 2011 Best Foreign Film Oscar (Denmark won for In a Better World),especially after hearing this review from Bob Mondello of NPR:

I can't recall seeing a film in which I have so often wondered, "My God, how must that feel?" We in the audience are meant to be as unsettled as the characters. I've heard complaints about the ending being over-the-top, but my background is live theater, and you won't hear them from me. The storytelling in Incendies strikes me as primal the way Greek tragedy is primal. Shattering. Cathartic. It is a breathtaking film.

So clearly Incendies is a suspenseful, mysterious drama in French (and Arabic) with English subtitles. It was Canada's entry into the Foreign Language Oscar competition, but most of the scenes occur in an unspecified Middle Eastern country (presumed to be Lebanon).

The story begins with the reading of the will of a mother named Nawal Marwan to her surviving twin children, a boy Simon and a girl Jeanne, in a somewhat depressing Montreal notary's office on a cold, wintry day. The notary delivers two letters from Nawal to her twins, one is to be delivered to their older brother and one is to be delivered to their father. The twins are amazed: as far as they know, their father is dead, and they have never been told that they have a brother! Her mother wishes to be buried in an unmarked grave, face down until they have completed her requests of communicating these letters to her twins' brother and father. The male twin reacts with anger and storms out of the office while the female twin sobs quietly. Thus the movie begins as a mystery about family secrets.

The scene shifts to Nawal as a young woman, and we see that her "immigrant" (Palestinian?) boyfriend get attacked and killed by her brother. However we find out that Nawal is pregnant, and she eventually has a baby boy who is immediately taken away within minutes of birth. This solves the mystery of the existence a brother to the twins.

There are many more mysteries to come, however, because Nawal leaves home to go to University in the big city and finds herself in the middle of war zone. The Christians and the Muslims are fighting a civil war "in the South" and the hostilities have spread throughout the city as well. Nawal is Christian and when she finds out that that orphanages are being attacked she travels to the South to find out if she can find her son she gave up who would now be a toddler. The movie turns into a war story as Nawal witnesses horrific atrocities committed by both sides first hand and ends up in prison.

The movie then shifts again into a "fish out of water" story as we follow Jeanne, Nawal's daughter from Canada as she attempts to retrace her mother's steps a generation removed in time in order to solve the mysteries surrounding her father and her brother and comply with her mother's dying wishes. Eventually Jeanne's twin brother Simon joins her, along with the notary who had employed their mother for decades and is insistent that they do all they can to fulfill her dying wishes.

Incendies is an incredibly haunting film. You will either hate or love the final twist at the end but you will not quickly forget it. Incredibly, they were able to get the rights to one of Radiohead's most psychedelic songs, "You and Whose Army?" which is deployed to devastating effect in the film's opening scene. I would strongly urge you to see the film in the theaters, but if you miss it there add it to your Netflix queue as soon as it is released on home video. It really should not be missed.


Title: Incendies.

Running Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

MPAA Rating: R for some strong violence and language.

Release Date: September 4, 2010.

Viewing Date: May 21, 2011.

Plot: A+.

Acting: A.

Visuals: A.

Impact: A+.

Overall Grade: A- (4.167/4.0). 

Celebrity Friday: Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin

Julianne Moore is one of my favorite actresses, and should have won an Oscar for her work in Far From Heaven years ago. According to the Hollywood Reporter, she is going to be starring as Sarah Palin a.k.a. "Moose Mess" in the upcoming HBO film, Game Change, based on the 2010 best-seller Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime on the 2008 presidential race by John Heileman and Mark Halperin. She looks amazing!

WATCH: Trailer for Final Harry Potter film

Looks like the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 will be ending with a  bang, not a whimper. Part 1 was a bit slow (see MadProfessah review). Part 2 looks like it will be more closely following the book, which was pretty amazing.

Review of 2011 LGBT POC Film Festival: Fusion Shorts

I attended the Fusion LGBT POC Film festival yesterday and checked out the Fusion Shorts program. Here are my reviews.

STOP IT - ALMA 

Dir: Mike Rose

A spoof on intervention reality shows that features a woman, who compulsively cooks to the dismay of her family who just wants her to Stop It! This is a very clever spoof of reality shows whose comic appeal is based on the sheer ridiculousness of the "addiction" it depicts as well as the gender-bending nature of the lead character. The person  I saw the films with was curious whether the laughs would have started so quickly if the drag element was removed. I think probably not, but even without that, this short would be a funny hit. GRADE: B+.

REVOLUTION  

Dir: Abdi Nazemian

A coming-of-age story about Jack, a 16-year old Iranian boy growing up in 1989 Los Angeles. (In Farsi, Tagalog with English subtitles). This is a lush, dramatic film with a haunting score and an emotionally complicated plot. Unfortunately, the numerous, various pieces (cultural assimilation difficulties, teenage homosexual experimentation, father-son tension, the AIDS tragedy, mother-son angst and a too-cute  small dog) fail to really coalesce into a whole which matches the components. The central metaphor is flawed and the acting of several of the characters is unconvincing. GRADE: B-.

TIME AFTER TIME 

Dir: Laurie Thomas

The unspoken dance of a love triangle unfolds in the time it takes to sing this song. My first response is that this is a curious choice for an inclusion in a collection of shorts in an LGBT people of color film festival. On the surface it appears to be a dialogue-free depiction of a complicated moment between the red-haired, female singer of the classic Cyndi Lauper song and the two people who are interested in her affections: a laughing, smiling dark-haired white guy and a presumably multiracial dark-haired gal who is ultimately disappointed by whatever she sees in object of affection's eyes. GRADE: C+.

ANDY

Dir: Andrew Ahn

A six-year old boy discovers what it means to be a man. (In Korean with English subtitles). This is a too-short meditation on father-son dynamics by considering the ways in which gender roles are performed and policed by little boys and adult men with the complicated cross-cultural (mis)interpretations of same-sex interaction thrown in for good measure. The film definitely leaves it up to the viewer to interpret  nuanced reactions of a Korean father to a lipstick-wearing six-year old as well as the problematic depiction of an adult male stranger interacting with the child in a public men's room. GRADE: B+.

REMEMBER ME IN RED 

Dir: Hector Ceballos

Fidelia must find a way to honor what would have been her friend’s wishes before it is too late. (In Spanish with English subtitles). One of the highlights of the 2011 Fusion Shorts was this beautifully shot, tautly written depiction of the real deprivation(s) of the life and death of transgender individuals. The complicated ways that family ties can constrict and limit an individual's potential as well as the ways that they can be recreated in a more authentic way among a family of choice are the main themes here. The acting is particular strong, although some may feel that the storyline veers perilously close to telenovela melodrama. GRADE: A.

FAMILY IN THE FRAME 

Dir: Neelu Bhuman

Accentuated by voices of family members, this short film is an honest portrayal of the experience of bisexuality (English subtitles). A rather experimental short film which attempts to show the dilemmas of a bisexual, Indian immigrant and the tensions her identities produce within those around her. Generally, I found the film to be visually uninteresting and dramatically obtuse; it's differences from the other films are so extreme it was ill-served to be included in this collection. GRADE: D.

THE QUEEN 

Dir: Christina Choe

Bobby, a Korean-American teenage outcast, is working at his parents’ dry cleaners on prom weekend. When the prom queen and her boyfriend, stop by with their dress and tuxedo, Bobby has his own prom to remember. A near-perfect short film for any LGBT film festival. Almost any gay man can identify with the lead character of Bobby and his desire to be the consort to the Prom King, which is realized in a thrilling, pitch-perfect, well-choreographed crescendo and a surprise ending which is sure to generate squeals of delight from even the most jaded "queen." GRADE: A.

CHANGE 

Dir: Melissa Osborne & Jeff McCutcheon

A gay African-American teenager grapples with his young identity on the night Obama was elected. This is a well-produced short which tries to depict and (possibly defuse?) the complex emotions surrounding the inextricably coupled events of the passage of Proposition 8 and the election of Barack Obama in the African-American, LGBT and African-American LGBT communities. Happily, the directors have chosen to tell the story through a closeted Black teenager played by a young actor with a handsome, expressive face. It is thrilling to recall the historic events of Election Night 2008 and devastating to be reminded of the day after when the implications of California's passage of a ban on same-sex marriage began to sink in. The short film is engrossing but has some slightly odd pacing problems. The person I saw the film with was very disappointed in the very final scene; we both wanted more explanation of the motivations of the main characters' reactions to the Election Day events. GRADE: A-.

Overall, I'm very glad that I went but felt that this collection was slightly weaker than last year's, but just barely. If you see The Queen, Remember Me in Red or Change at a film festival near you, I strongly urge you to check them out!

2011 Oscars: The Winners

The winners of the 83rd Academy Awards have been announced. My 2011 Oscars predictions were announced earlier. This year I successfully predicted 7 of 8 in the big categories and 15 of 24 over all (20 of 24 if you count second guesses).

I was pretty happy with this year's awards. My favorite film of the year Inception won the most Oscars (four: Cinematography, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects), tied with The King's Speech (Picture, Director, Actor, Original Screenplay). My hope for Best Picture was The Social Network, which won 3 Oscars (Editing, Score and Adapted Screenplay). Interestingly, Alice in Wonderland won 2 important awards (Art Direction and Costume), denying The King's Speech any kind of sweep. It was sad to see True Grit lose 10 Oscars, the most of the night, but I was glad The King's Speech lost 8, 127 Hours lost 6 and both The Fighter and The Social Network lost 5.


The biggest disappointment was Tom Hooper winning Best Director instead of David Fincher (or, hello!, Christopher Nolan), followed by Natalie Portman winning Best Actress (I wanted Annette Bening to win).
The best moment was Inception winning Best Cinematography. I still don't understand how anyone can listen to the nominated scores and think Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' for The Social Network is better than Hans Zimmer's Inception.

Here are the 2011 Oscar winners:

Best Picture: The King's Speech (2nd: The Social Network)
Director: David Fincher (2nd: Tom Hooper)
Original Screenplay: The King's Speech (2nd:Inception)
Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network (2nd: Toy Story 3)
Actor: Colin Firth (2nd: Jesse Eisenberg )
Actress: Natalie Portman (2nd: Annette Bening)
Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (2nd: Helena Bonham Carter)
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (2nd: Geoffrey Rush )
Editing: Black Swan (2nd: The Social Network)
Art Direction: The King's Speech (2nd: Inception) Alice in Wonderland
Sound: Inception (2nd: The King's Speech)
Sound Editing: Inception (2nd: Toy Story 3)
Cinematography: True Grit (2nd: Inception)
Costumes: The King's Speech (2nd: Alice in Wonderland )
Documentary: Inside Job  (2nd: Exit Through The Gift Shop)
Foreign Language: Biutiful (2nd: In a Better World)
Animated Film: Toy Story 3 
Animated Short: Day & Night (2nd: Madagascar) The Lost Thing
Live Action Short: God of Love (2nd: Wish 143)
Documentary Short: The Warriors of Qiugang (2nd: Poster Girl) Strangers No More
Makeup: Wolfman
Score: Inception (2nd: The King's Speech) The Social Network
Song: "We Belong Together" (from Toy Story 3)(2nd: "Country Strong")
Visual Effects: Inception (2nd: Alice in Wonderland

2011 Oscars: My Predictions for All 24 Categories

Here are my picks for all 24 categories in  the 83rd Academy Awards (2011 Oscars):

Best Picture: The King's Speech (2nd: The Social Network)
Director: David Fincher (2nd: Tom Hooper)
Original Screenplay: The King's Speech (2nd: Inception)
Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network (2nd: Toy Story 3)
Actor: Colin Firth (2nd: Jesse Eisenberg )
Actress: Natalie Portman (2nd: Annette Bening)
Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (2nd: Helena Bonham Carter)
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (2nd: Geoffrey Rush )
Editing: Black Swan (2nd: The Social Network)
Art Direction: The King's Speech (2nd: Inception)
Sound: Inception (2nd: The King's Speech)
Sound Editing: Inception (2nd: Toy Story 3)
Cinematography: True Grit (2nd: Inception)
Costumes: The King's Speech (2nd: Alice in Wonderland )
Documentary: Inside Job  (2nd: Exit Through The Gift Shop)
Foreign Language: Biutiful (2nd: In a Better World)
Animated Film: Toy Story 3 
Animated Short: Day & Night (2nd: Madagascar)
Live Action Short: God of Love (2nd: Wish 143)
Documentary Short: The Warriors of Qiugang (2nd: Poster Girl)
Makeup: Wolfman
Score: Inception (2nd: The King's Speech)
Song: "We Belong Together" (from Toy Story 3) (2nd: "Country Strong")
Visual Effects: Inception (2nd: Alice in Wonderland)

Last year I got 17 of 24 correct. We'll know how I did this year in a few hours....

MOVIE REVIEW: Winter's Bone

The breakout film of the 2010 Sundance film festival was this little picture called Winter's Bone which won the Grad Jury Prize. Directed by Debra Granik from a script co-written by the director and Anne Rosselini, adapted from the novel of the same name by Daniel Woodrell. Woodrell is known for his bleak crime novels set in the Ozarks and the film sets out to capture the bleak depiction of desperate poverty which leads to rampant criminality in rural areas. And nails it.

The film stars Jennifer Lawrence as Ree Dolly, John Hawkes as Teardrop, Dale Dickey as Merab and Garrett Dillahunt as Sheriff Baskin. Lawrence (Best Actress) and Hawkes (Best Supporting Actor) have received acting nominations for the 2011 Oscars. Frankly, I thought Dickey was robbed for not getting a Supporting Actress nod but that category, like every year, was pretty tough this year. The film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

I first saw the film on a flight and only caught 90% of it since I was grading papers at the time but even absent-mindedly watching the film you come away with an impression of an austere landscape and emotionally draining movie. Later as the end-of-year accolades started piling up for Lawrence's performance (which are fully deserved--it's amazing what she does as a 20-year-old actress playing a teenager here) I rented the film via redbox.com so the Other Half could see it, and I could watch it (again),with my full attention. Even knowing the major plot points the second time, the film has an absorbing, powerful impact.

The basic story involves Lawrence who plays a 17-year-old girl named Ree Dolly whose father has disappeared after putting up the house where Ree, her two much younger siblings (8-year-old sister and 12-year-old brother) and mentally addled mother live, as collateral for his bail bond. If he doesn't show up, then the Sheriff says they will have a week to get out and go somewhere, but as the film makes very clear (with multiple shots of burned out cars, tiny colorless houses packed to the wrappers with detritus and mementos) Ree has nowhere else to go. Ree is determined to find her father, dead or alive, in order to save her family, and this entails her being forced to come face-to-face with the more unsavory branches of her gnarled family tree, most specifically her uncle (named Teardrop for the tattoo on his face) as well as her neighbors who will apparently do almost anything to hide their secrets from strangers and family alike.

Title: Winter's Bone.
Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.
MPAA Rating: R for some drug material, language and violent content.
Release Date: June 11, 2010.


Plot: B.
Acting: A+.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: A- (3.667/4.0). 

WATCH: Trailer for "X-MEN: First Class"

 

Hat/tip to TowleRoad

MOVIE REVIEW: Black Swan

I finally saw Black Swan. The film has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and star Natalie Portman is the clear frontrunner for Best Actress. It was directed by Darren Aronofsky, who also made the films π and The Wrestler (see MadProfessah's review).

Black Swan is a bona fide hit, having been made for a mere $13 million and as of February 1 2011, grossed nearly $100 million.

I, however, was not so impressed. I can see clearly why Portman is a near-lock for the Best Actress Oscar, mainly because she is in nearly every frame of the film and it's impact is centered around her performance. She plays Nina Sayers, a beautiful, timid (but obsessive) ballet dancer who gets the lead role as the White Swan in Swan Lake. In this production one dancer will play the Swan Queen and the Black Swan. Nina apparently starts to go insane under the strain of trying to change her essentially innocent "White Swan" nature into the villainous, aggressive "Black Swan." Nina's alter ego Lily in the film is played by Natalie Portman's best friend Mila Kunis, another dancer in the company who has the risky temperament better suited to the Black Swan. Lily is either trying to loosen up Nina and admires her dancing or (as seen from Nina's warped perspective) Lily is stalking Nina and will stop at nothing until she replaces Nina as the star of the show.

Other actors in the movie are Winona Ryder as the bitter, over-the-hill ballerina who Nina is replacing as the star of the ballet company, Vincent Cassel as the main choreographer/artistic director of the ballet company and Barbara Hershey as Nina's mom. Hershey is particularly striking because she is very clingy, almost to the point of smothering. But what makes Hershey memorable is her appearance; her face is bloated (from excessive plastic surgery?) and many times when she appears on screen and the rhetorical question "What is up with her face?" comes unbidden into the viewer's mind.

Overall, the word that comes to mind to describe Black Swan is "overwrought." The film is described as a "psychosexual thriller" by some critics, but this assumes a very heterosexual male viewpoint (which is an odd thing to say about a film which is based in the behind-the-scenes milieu of ballet). Even watching the film as a gay man I can appreciate Natalie Portman's beauty and she clearly carries the film. However, what happens to her character has clearly been written by a straight man (let's just say there's a lot of shots of scantily clad dancers and a fairly explicit, nudity-free lesbian sex scene between Kunis and Portman). The film doesn't really have much to appeal to either gay men or straight women (apart from the fabulous ballet costumes); there are very few shots of any hot, athletic bodies of male dancers, for example. Are women who watch the film supposed to identify with Nina or Lily or just be appalled at what the effects of obsession-compulsion can be? There is no female character which has a positive sense of agency--except perhaps Lily, but she is fetishized as an outsider ("Just flew in from San Francisco"). Meanwhile the central male character  is clearly an asshole but this goes unchallenged because he's the boss--sexual harassment is assumed and normalized.

Black Swan is a film which is worth seeing for Natalie Portman's lead performance--in the comfort of your own home.

Title: Black Swan.

Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, language and some drug use.

Release Date: December 3, 2010.

Plot: B-.

Acting: A. 

Visuals: A-.

Impact: C-.

Overall Grade: B-/C+ (3.00/4.0).

OSCARS 2011: The King's Speech Set For Sweep

The Oscars race has become clearer in the last few weeks as the main guilds, the Producers Guild (PGA), Directors Guild (DGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG), have all awarded The King's Speech their highest award, making an Oscar night of historic proportions seem like an inevitability.

Director Tom Hooper, a first-time DGA nominee won the DGA award and is probably a frontrunner for the Best Director Academy Award despite critical clamor for The Social Network's David Fincher. The top PGA award went to The King's Speech, which is significant because, like the Oscars, 10 films were eligible for the top honor. At the SAG Awards Colin Firth continued his sweep of the pre-Oscar awards for Best Actor and the film won the Best Ensemble award.

Other frontrunners for Oscars are Natalie Portman (Black Swan) for Best Actress and Christian Bale (The Fighter) for Best Supporting Actor. Some people think Melissa Leo (The Fighter) is also a lock for Best Supporting Actress, but I have my doubts.