True Grit

The Cohen Brothers remake the classic John Wayne western with True Grit, about a young girl who hires a drunk U.S. Marshall to hunt down her father's killer. All of the ingredients for another hit Cohen Brothers movie are here. The typical humor and superior dialogue, the shocking blood shed, the emotional climax, and the unforgettable characters, including our lead anti-hero Rooster, remarkably reprised by Jeff Bridges, and the spitfire fourteen year old Mattie Ross, played courageously and smartly by Hailee Steinfeld. I hear this version was closer to the book than the one with John Wayne, but the two movies were so similar. I almost thought they'd used the same script, until three quarters of the way through. I was only slightly disappointed in the ending, when Mattie doesn't quite accomplish her goal in the way she had hoped, and Rooster unintentionally lets her down once more. However, we are left with clearer picture of Mattie's soul and the realization that she is the one with “True Grit” for whom this film was titled.

This film is definitely deserving of an Oscar nomination. Even with films like “The Kids Are All Right,” “Black Swan,” and “The King's Speech,” this film is a tough contender, and Jeff Bridges may have the opportunity to take home a statue two years in a row after winning just last year for “Crazy Heart.” Was it in his sights all along? For those of you who do not know, John Wayne was nominated and won the Oscar for his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn in 1969.

Never Let Me Go

The world in which Never Let Me Go is set is darkly fantastic. I want be clear that when speaking of the setting, I am not referring to the physical location, background or props. It probably takes place in England, but that's not important. I'm speaking of the social state of the world created by the novel's author, Kazuo Ishiguro. The story spans from the late 1970s to nearly present day. However, in this alternate world, children grow up to be “donors,” clones who live for the sole purpose of giving their organs to everyone else in the world. There are three stages to this film, each signified by the age and condition of the characters, Kathy, Tommy and Ruth. The story is narrated by the lead character, Kathy, played wonderfully by Carey Mulligan. She is tortured by her love for Tommy who is in a relationship with her loyal yet self serving friend, Ruth, played by Kiera Knightley. At a young age, the three learn of their impending early departure from life, as they are all donors. Their knowledge of this effects how their relationships develop with each other. The last film adaptation of a novel written by Kazuo Ishiguro was that of Remains of the Day. It, too, was about how second class citizens live in their world and how they shelter their emotions from those they love to keep the stability of that world. Remains of the Day was directed by the accomplished James Ivory (A Room With a View, The White Countess), while Never Let Me Go was directed by Mark Romanek whose only film director credit I know of, albeit a good one, is One Hour Photo. I didn't feel the same emotional pull in this film as I did in Remains of the Day, but I certainly felt a little tug. I think Never Let Me Go was adapted quite well and I definitely took a little part of it with me as I left the theater. The composition of the film reminds me of haiku poetry. It says so much with so few words or action and you might need to take a moment when its over to meditate on its purpose. Its simple theme of opposites, perfect yin and yang, remove the necessity for too much eventful detail or dialogue. This story is about balance. Along with the main character, Kathy, we learn that there cannot be virtue with out vice, life without death, or love without suffering. To feel both hope and despair is what it is to be human. Never Let Me Go received some mixed reviews since its release this past weekend. It seems critics either love or hate this film. I think the film was excellent, but probably required a certain amount of patience to appreciate it.

neo ned

Neo Ned

A Neo Nazi meets a black girl who calls herself Hitler in a mental institution and they fall in love. In the typical biracial love story, a person of one ethnic background falls in love with a person of another ethnicity and the former works to be accepted and fit in with the friends and family of the latter. In Neo Ned, two people of different ethnic backgrounds are placed together in the same environment for the thing they have in common: their psychoses. This story is not about race as it's summary may imply. This is a story about a boy named Ned who didn't receive the love and support he needed as a kid. He gets mixed up with a group of young Neo Nazis, and becomes a resident at a mental institute after being an accomplice in the murder of a black man. While his doctor tries to make Ned realize his childhood may have had some bearing on his current situation, Ned feels there is no connection. Ned isn't quite sure why he behaves the way he does or why he says what he says. But when he meets Rachel at the hospital, Ned begins to question whether his words have any meaning at all.

Regardless of the topic, this film is surprisingly lighthearted. It doesn't take long to realize that Ned isn't the man he labels himself to be. Although immature and irrational, he is sensitive and charmingly optimistic. We accept him as all the characters in the film accept him. When the guard, played by Ethan Suplee, hears Ned say horrible things to Rachel, he rolls his eyes, sighs, and continues his paperwork, letting us know that he doesn't take Ned's racial comments seriously and neither should we.

When Rachel helps Ned to realize his Nazi persona is unsubstantial, they become fast friends and begin an adventure of life in the outside world. But when they realize they are both in the wrong place at the wrong time, they must work together to get back to a home where they belong, but this time with new appreciation of the lives they were meant to live.

This unique and happy tale ends before you're ready to say goodbye. Jeremy Renner's performance won him best actor at the Palm Beach International Film Festival, and this screenplay came in fourth place at Slamdance and won for best screenplay in the San Diego Film festival. For something a little different, check out this emotionally dark romantic comedy written by Tim Boughn and directed by Van Fischer.

The Town opened in theaters this past Friday and you better believe the theaters in my home town of Boston were packed. Just a week ago we were graced with the presence of the film's leading actors as they walked into Fenway Park for the red carpet premier. I have to say, I was a little concerned, that after all my excitement and watching scenes from the film being shot just outside my back door, I might not like the movie. I've never been a huge fan of Ben Afleck as an actor. I was pleased with "Gone Baby Gone," but was hesitant about another bank robbery movie. And who would believe anyone's stupid enough to try and rob Fenway Park of millions of dollars?

Well, Ben Afleck definitely pulled this off. The story is smooth and very believable. The car chases through the North End had me on the edge of my seat. The love story moved a little fast for me, but who am I to say it doesn't happen that way. Jon Hamm has a presence you cant ignore and Ben Afleck seemed to fit this role better than any he's done before. Rebecca Hall was decent, and Chris Cooper was perfect as usual in his very small part. What I loved was Jeremy Renner's transformation into the emotional and violent James Coughlin who was product of growing up in the "bank robbery capital of the America." He changed his posture, his gate, his accent, his style, and I hardly recognized the pretty, charming man I met outside Fenway on the night of the premier.

I know how proud Bostonians are proud of anything to come out of Boston, but this isn't just a movie for us. Its legitimately a good film and we have good reason to be proud. Congratulations, Ben Afleck, for making it into the big leagues!

Peacock

In the first sequence of the psychological thriller Peacock, a young woman meticulously prepares a breakfast and, carefully noting the time, sets it on her kitchen table. As each movement is made with purposeful intent, she sets her hands, shoes, furniture in its place. She then walks up to her bedroom, sits at her vanity, removes her make up, hair and dress to reveal John Skillpa, played by Cillian Murphy. Nearly unrecognizable at the start, the actor's transformation is surprising. Following this, he is dressed in a suit, eating the breakfast prepared for him, then walking out the door. Stopping to pull a small treasure box out from under the porch step, he nervously looks over his shoulder at the bedroom window where we saw him dress earlier. Who could he be looking out for? He was clearly alone in his house.

John Skillpa, is a young bank clerk who, when no one's watching, dresses as Emma to recreate the daily routines of his deceased mother. But in the wake of a strange train accident which leaves the wreckage in his backyard, the politically driven townspeople draw attention to John and the supposititious Emma, whom the townspeople believe to be his new wife. While John is motivated by his need for privacy, Emma is driven by the need to feel socially connected to give truth to her existence. Neither personality is aware of what the other encounters in the course of his, or her, day. Eventually the two personalities clash, taking this emotionally disturbing story to a deeper, darker level.

Although I'm a big fan of Cillian Murphy and I've always known him to be very talented, I marveled at his performance as John / Emma. I cannot imagine that he wouldn't be recognized for the brilliant job he did in this film. As Emma, he is comfortably feminine and pretty. Emma's character is shy at first, but once aroused by the positive attention she receives from others, she is open and vibrant. John, on the other hand, is extremely tense. When his boss approaches him about a photo-op of the train wreck in his yard, the muscles in his neck protrude as his face revolts against a friendly gesture. Even more striking is the deep crease on the side of Murphy's face which remains throughout his performance as John, then disappears when he becomes Emma.

Despite the all star cast, including Susan Sarandon, Keith Carridine, Bill Pullman, Ellen Page and Josh Lucas, this film received almost no attention from media and went straight to DVD this month. This is a definite must see in my book. Its unfortunate that billions of dollars are being spent on ticket sales for films like Transformers and the Twilight series, two of the top grossing films of 2009, and films like Peacock cant even be found in a drive-up DVD rental box. Thank god for Netflix!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

This is a fantastic adaptation of Stieg Larsson's best selling murder mystery novel which I noticed so many women reading last year. The story follows Mikael, a journalist convicted of slander who, during the time he is waiting to serve his sentence, is hired by a man to solve the 40 year old case of his missing niece, Harriet Vanger. With the help of a young, damaged computer hacker, Lisbeth, superbly acted by Noomi Rapace, Mikael investigates the entire rich and powerful Vanger family, whom Harriet's uncle considers each a suspect.

From the starting credits to the final scene, this movie had me feeling a little tense the whole way through. Mikael and Lisbeth are unstoppable against the push back they receive from the elders of the Vanger family, some of whom are ex-Nazis. As they begin to measure the danger involved in the investigation, they get too close to back down.

This movie felt a little like a classic cat and mouse mystery, but a bit more brutal... think a John Grisham version of Silence of the Lambs. The mood was extremely dark, the temp was cold, and the emotion, well, after watching the anxious, depressed Lisbeth chain smoke her way through the film, I felt I needed a little psychotherapy or at least stiff drink to bring me back to normal.

A Serious Man

“A Serious Man” is not exactly what I expected to be the Cohen brother's next picture. After one of my favorite films, “No Country For Old Men,” and their next hit “Burn After Reading,” I hoped “A Serious Man” to be better, fresher than the last. Watching this movie in the comfort of my home on my big-ass TV, I found myself to be restless and impatient to find answers to the questions posed by the main character, Larry. Larry is physics teacher whose wife is leaving him for a man who has nothing more going for him than Larry (and if its not for money, looks or power, it seems to me a bigger jab than if she'd left him for someone more impressive, am I right)? Anyway, Larry tries to be a good husband, father and teacher, a Balebetishen Yidden (Yiddish for “good Jew”), but cant seem to get a break. He even tries several times to seek help from the elder Rabbi. Unsuccessful, he remains stagnant as the rest of world seems to move past him like a naïve child rolling down a hill on a bike with no breaks. Don't they know they're all wrong? Larry cant seem to be taken seriously by anyone. In the end, his pot-smoking jerk-of-a-son gets to meet with the elder Rabbi, only to send him off into the world with the lyrics to “Somebody to Love” by Jefferson Airplane. And Larry? Well, he doesn't get the answer to his life's questions, and the audience is left feeling basically hopeless.

In the first scene of the film, a tale is told in Yiddish of a couple who let a dybbuk, a ghost, into their home. I was completely frustrated by this tale, as it is never mentioned in the rest of the film and I could find no connection to the story or purpose for its use. Then I found Roger Ebert's review of the film on rogerebert.com (10/7/09), and he writes that Larry may be cursed because his ancestors let the dybbuk in their home. This made a lot of sense to me. Whether or not the Cohen brothers intended for the prologue to have this relevance is unknown to me, but I would like to think it had some meaning.

This film did not leave me feeling any kind of satisfied. It wasn't a bad movie. In fact, it was entrancing, funny, well acted, a little tense, and thought provoking. But if a film doesn't leave me satisfied, I cant recommend it.

Remember Me

So, I went to see Remember Me last night. It was the only movie playing now I hadn't promised to see with someone else, and since I was going alone, I figured I'd see a guilty pleasure: a sexy romance. Sexy romance it was, but this movie wasn't exactly what I expected. In the first five minutes of the film, the audience is shocked to near tears by a traumatic experience that later helps to explain the lead female Ally's character and situation. In the scene that follows we watch Tyler, played by Twilight's Robert Pattinson, mope around in a typical brooding teenage-angst fashion. The film quickly evolves as something more significant. Each character has his or her own place in the film and they're played well by seasoned actors, Chris Cooper, Lena Olin and Pierce Brosnan. New to film, Ruby Jerins, plays Tyler's much younger sister Caroline. Bullied by her grade-school peers, Caroline relies on her brother for support, while their father, much too busy with work, has emotionally abandoned his family.

I really liked that the relationship between Ally and Tyler didn't take up too much screen time. The audience sees what it needed to in order to follow the story. There weren't too many fillers, as I call them: montages of the couple doing daily "couple life" things... save for one unnecessary scene of them playing at the beach. Their part was full of realistic problems and emotions most people could relate to and perhaps feel nostalgic about. The attractive young couple had great chemistry and preformed well. All of these things legitimated the film's classification as a drama rather than a teen romance.

The part of this film I had a hard time with is its ending. I felt they used a cheap trick to manipulate the audience into crying. I'm not sure this was necessary to the story. Perhaps the writer didn't know how to end it. Before these final scenes are a series of uplifting displays that tell you "things are too perfect, so I know something has to go wrong." However, this particular thing is not what I expected, so should I give credit to the filmmakers for that? I'm not really sure. Overall, I really did like this movie... I was just a little disappointed in the ending.

"This time on Masterpiece Classics..."

I have to admit that I have, for a while now, been a fan of Masterpiece Classics on PBS. The latest Masterpiece Classic, Jane Austin’s Persuasion, is possibly the most unique and perfect adaptation I have seen on the Masterpiece series.

If you know the story, Persuasion can be a bit of a drag, telling the tragic story of a spinster named Anne who regrets breaking off her engagement to Captain Wentworth eight years earlier. When Captain Wentworth returns a rich war hero, she is sorry she every allowed her family to persuade her to refuse him. Will he ever forgive her? Will she ever tell him she has never stopped loving him? Of course! Jane Austin always graced her readers with a romantic and happy ending.

There is not a lot of action in this story, and it is much shorter than Jane Austin’s other novels. But from the beginning, this film pulls us in with little tricks I had not seen before on Masterpiece Classics. One of the most notable was having the actress, or Anne, peer subtly into the camera, especially after writing in her journal. When the camera and her eyes slowly adjust to meet, we are in synch with her emotions. In other scenes, the position of the camera conveys a closer point of view. The camera moves in so closely that the actors nearly walk into us. And at times, Anne’s face is cut off by the shot. These “tricks” bring us into the mise en scene, giving us the feeling of being there rather than just being an observer. Another affecting piece of the film’s composition is the use of shadows. The shadows here are exaggerated and very black. A few times the two main characters exit the scene by walking into the shadows. The black in their costume meets the black in the shadow until we can no longer differentiate the two. The characters were literally swallowed up by the dark.

The director was very successful in creating a dark yet passionate mood. And the lead actress, Sally Hawkins, grew more beautiful as time went on, as one might in real life. I’m not sure if my opinion is biased here… as I said earlier, I do enjoy Masterpiece Classics, and this was one of my favorite so far. How it fares with a general audience, I’m not sure. But if there were any of these films you’d want to see, I’d choose this one. Not only is it good, but it's shorter than the other films in the Masterpiece series (the award winning Little Dorrit was six hours long!).

The Grave Outdoors

(image from Dead Wood)

Movie watchers be warned, if a group of young people venture out to the woods and make road kill of its local inhabitants, you better believe nature will come back and bite them in the ass, or the neck, or the chest cavity.

New on DVD, Dark Wood (Menan Films, 2007) begins like many horror-in-the-woods films with young adults venturing deep into the woods for a camping trip full with skinny dipping in dark lakes, alcohol and easy sex. I believe I recall something of deer brains being smashed against the front bumper on the way to their camping site. Anyway, one by one, they are plucked off by something in the woods. This haunting and unusual story reminds me a little of the new genre Japanese horror, where emotion left behind by the dead and is returned to take vengeance on the unsuspecting living. Unfortunately, I believe the film falls short of its vision. The idea was good, but the story probably could have been told better in an episode of the X Files, and maybe with a little bigger budget.

In Nature's Grave (Arclight Films, 2008), Peter, played by Jim Caviezel, hits a kangaroo on the way to an Australian beach camping trip with his dejected wife. With a bigger budget than Dead Wood, this film almost hits the mark of a made-for-TV true crime. Blatant shots of the couple's attack on nature, and natures slow, very slow imprecation on the careless couple make this movie hard to sit through. The end held a couple surprises and some nice gory scenes, but I think my time was wasted on this one.

Fortunately, there are plenty more new movies taking place in the wild. Wild Country (Gabriel Films, 2005) took some time to capture my attention and looks like it was edited in a public access television studio. The creature seems to roll across the screen as if taped to a popsicle stick and literally slid across the film strip by hand. Its pretty funny. What I liked was the design of the creature itself. I don't want to give it away, but it was pretty scary looking, and not much like anything I've seen before. Its movements are stiff and mechanical, but the sound wasn't terrible and the director was great about not really giving away the creature until near the end. It's cry was distant until it was ready to tear its prey apart, and we never really knew where it was going to be. Though I suspected the ending a little, I was pretty satisfied with the last scene. If you don't mind the faulty special effects, this is a fun movie for the kind of horror fans who aren't satisfied with the two or three blockbuster horror movies a year.

Not Another One!! Will the Remake Bring You to the Box Office?

If you're a child of the 80s, then this is the movie decade for you. I've heard rumors of a Goonies remake, Stephen King's It, Footloose and Mannequin of all films. I'm not sure what they could do with the last two, but I suppose with the recent hype of the dance film genre, Footloose could be a hit with teens.

Lately there have been a slew of horror movie remakes. Halloween, Friday the 13^th, Stepfather, The Crazies and Nightmare on Elm St... I'd like to see a remake of Hellraiser. I think they could write new story, but modernize the film and create all new cenobites. Those things cant get much more evil as far as their ability to inflict pain, but with new make up and technology, they could make the film a little more gruesome.

I've been hearing about a Tron sequel for years and it is now in post production as Tron Legacy, scheduled to be released at the end of this year. The film is directed by Joseph Kosinski, who's only film credit, according to IMDb, is this film and three others in development. There were also rumors of a remake of Frank Herbert's Dune a while back. (Can you imagine sandworms in 3D? I get goosebumps just thinking about it!) Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything recently. There was a TV mini-series in 2000 which would have been more impressive with better special effects. I think as a movie-goer, I'm always searching for an original film that gives me the same feelings I had when I first watched these older ones.

So, I guess the remakes are not without reason. There are plenty of movie patrons out there getting excited about these movies. And production companies probably feel a bit more comfortable about a sure thing. There must be a lack of original material out there in Hollywood, which saddens me. I guess if you're an aspiring screenplay writer, now would be the time to push your work out there!

The Blind Side

Based on the true story of the family who takes in the despaired black teen, Michael Oher, this movie came as a little bit of a surprise to me. I half expected to be annoyed by a message like "African American unexpectedly turns out to be an angelic superhuman." I'm also not a big fan of Sandra Bullock, who played nearly the same character in "While You Were Sleeping," "The Proposal," and "Two Weeks Notice" with a few adjustments to her architype. However, she was superbly cast for this role and preformed it flawlessly. The message I mentioned earlier was absent, and in its place a simply heart-warming true story of a football player's rise to success with the love and encouragement of the Tuohy family. I'm sure Sandra Bullock agrees with me when I say she would definitely benefit from taking more roles like this one.

Dario Argento's Phantom of the Opera

I don't know many movie buffs who know the actor Julian Sands, but I love him. He was the "Warlock" in the 80s and had smaller roles in "Turn of the Screw" and "A Room with a View," but my favorite was "Boxing Helena." By most standards, it was a bad movie, but he was hot and the story was unusual. "Phantom of the Opera" was also very unusual. Not really a horror movie, but definitely gross, sexy and creepy classic Dario Argento. The beautiful daughter or Dario, Asia Argento, plays his overly-passionate subservient lover, and Sands plays the phantom who's really just a man abandoned at birth in the catacombs below an opera house. To be honest, the story is a bit of a let down, but if you like Julian Sands, its a movie worth watching.