Blue Valentine

Expectations can be a funny thing. See, I went into Blue Valentine expecting to fall in love with it. And that's a high bar to set.

I also went in knowing that it was the juxtaposition of two people falling in and out of love. I don't really know how else to talk about the reason I didn't fall in love with this movie than talking about how that isn't 100% true, so.... thar be spoilers ahead.

I think had it really been simply a story of how two people who fell so incredibly in love could, years later, fall completely out of love, that would have been really interesting and I might have loved it more. But the start of the story isn't the start of a beautiful, epic romance. She gets knocked up. With another man's kid. And Ryan Gosling decides to be the good guy and step in and marry her.

If that doesn't have flashing red lights all around it, going; 'this is completely and totally the wrong reason to marry someone,' I don't know what would. So it isn't, to me, much of a mystery about how these kids could end up on the brink of divorce. Of course it doesn't work. It's the logical conclusion to that story.

The thing is, lots of people do fall in and, later, out of love, and I think I wanted to see a story more about that. That was what I had expected going in.

Now, I will say that I think they both deserve acting kudos; both Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams give very vulnerable, nuanced performances.

The writing also felt really honest. Uncomfortably so. I think that's the other reason it's hard to love this film; watching people break apart is awful. They both make bad decisions. They both say the wrong thing. The relationship falling apart isn't really anyone's fault - it's just two people stuck in a cycle of being angry and hurt. And that's incredibly difficult to watch.

So; it's well done. I'm glad I saw it. It has some of my favorite end credits I've ever seen. The acting is great. Just... be kinder to each other, people.

4/5 stars.

True Grit

I suppose I could write out an entire review, but the only thing you really need to know is this: True Grit is fucking hilarious.

5/5 stars.

So much to see...

True Grit and Blue Valentine... True Grit and Blue Valentine....

Till then, enjoy this list of EW's 25 films to see before Oscar night (with helpful comments of availability included (bold are the ones I've seen):

The Social Network - on DVD Jan 11
The King's Speech
Inception - now on DVD
The Fighter
Toy Story 3 - now on DVD
True Grit
Black Swan
The Kids Are All Right - now on DVD
127 Hours
Winter's Bone - now on DVD
The Town - now on DVD
Rabbit Hole - goes wide Jan 14
Another Year - goes wide sometime in January
Get Low - DVD Feb 22
How to Train Your Dragon - now on DVD
Blue Valentine - goes wide sometime in January
Biutiful - goes wide Jan 28
Animal Kingdom - on DVD Jan 18
Waiting for Superman - on DVD in Feb
Alice in Wonderland - now on DVD
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - now on DVD
Inside Job - goes wide Jan 28
The Illusionist - goes wide Jan 14
Tangled
Burlesque

On an unrelated note, just as I was mourning what could have been with Nick Stahl's career, this news came through the wires: Nick Stahl Cast in Locke & Key. Yay! Back on the small screen and joining my most anticipated new show!

If I could make up my own awards

Once the Oscar noms come out, I'm sure I'll gleeful about some inclusions, pissed at some snubs, outraged at the undeserving noms, and wistful for those that never had a chance. And then I'll pick the ones I think will win, and which I think should win, and root for my favorites.

But what if I could pick all the nominees myself?

I certainly haven't seen everything that has come out this year. There are many films which I'm sure are some of the best of the year that I never got to; White Material, I Am Love, the Tillman Story, Restrepo, Get Low, Rabbit Hole, Vincere, Ghost Writer, A Prophet, Dogtooth, Applause, Mother, Another Year, Incendies, Beyond.

I mean, if you look at every picture which has received a nomination for Best Picture from a critics guild, that's 47 different films right there, excluding docs and foreign films.

So, given what I have seen, here's what I'd pick (nominees, alternates for your consideration, and notable omissions of the films I have yet to see):

Best Picture
Winter's Bone
Inception
The Social Network
Black Swan
The Fighter
Girl with a Dragon Tattoo
Fish Tank
Red Riding: 1974 (hey, Carlos is getting foreign film nods from a bunch of guilds. Although, yes, it is ineligible for an Oscar. But these are MY awards.)
Never Let Me Go
Animal Kingdom

Notable Omissions; Blue Valentine, True Grit, 127 Hours, Ghost Writer, The Town

Best Popcorn Film (those genre flicks worth your time, if not critical love)
Cell 211
Perrier's Bounty
Red, White and Blue
Predators
The Killer Inside Me
The Crazies
Red Hill
Kick Ass
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Notable Omissions; Red, Machete.

Best Actress
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
Katie Jarvis, Fish Tank
Noomi Rapace, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Carey Mulligan, Never Let Me Go

Notable Omissions; Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine), Lesley Manville (Another Year), Anne Hathaway (Love and Other Drugs), Hye-Ja Kim (Mother), Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole).

Best Actor
Colin Firth, The King's Speech
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Farrell, Ondine
Andrew Garfield, Red Riding: 1974
Noah Taylor, Red, White, and Blue

Alternates; Jim Carrey (I Love You, Philip Morris), Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In).

Notable Omissions; James Franco (127 Hours), Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine), Tahar Rahim (A Prophet), Edgar Ramirez (Carlos), Robert Duvall (Get Low), Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Jim Broadbent (Another Year), Aaron Eckhart (Rabbit Hole), Ciaran Hinds (the Eclipse), Vincent Cassel (Mesrine). *phew*.

Best Supporting Actress
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Mila Kunis, Black Swan
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Juliette Lewis, Conviction
Dale Dickey, Winter's Bone

Alternates; Chloe Moretz (Kick Ass), Amy Adams (The Fighter), Marion Cotillard (Inception).

Notable Omissions; Olivia Williams (Ghost Writer), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), Dianne Wiest (Rabbit Hole), Rosamund Pike (Barney's Version).

Best Supporting Actor
Andrew Garfield, The Social Network
Michael Fassbender, Fish Tank
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
Christian Bale, The Fighter
Armie Hammer, The Social Network

Alternates: Brendan Gleeson (Perrier's Bounty), Tom Hardy (Inception), Kieran Culkin (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Michael Shannon (the Runaways), Geoffrey Rush (the King's Speech), Sam Rockwell (Conviction), Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom).

Notable Omissions; Jeremy Renner (the Town), Matt Damon (True Grit), Edward Norton (Stone), Pierce Brosnan (Ghost Writer).

[Ed. note: I know, I know. I didn't include Sam Rockwell in my top 5. Quelle Horreur. He was good. He's always good. He wasn't given as much material to work with as one would have hoped. So when it comes down to the last spot, Armie Hammer had a more impressive role overall.]

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
David Fincher, The Social Network
Christopher Nolan, Inception
Debra Granik, Winter's Bone
Andrea Arnold, Fish Tank

Alternates; David O. Russell (the Fighter), Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture).

Notable Omissions; the Coens (True Grit), Danny Boyle (127 Hours), Roman Polanski (Ghost Writer), Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), Mike Leigh (Another Year).

Best Screenplay - Original
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
Ondine
Fish Tank

Notable Omissions; Buried, Blue Valentine, The Square, Four Lions, Another Year.

I almost want Four Lions to win as a write-in, just for its audacity.

Best Screenplay - Adapted
The Social Network
The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Winter's Bone
Red Riding: 1974

Alternates; I Love You Philip Morris, Never Let Me Go, The Killer Inside Me.

Notable Omissions; True Grit, The Town, Rabbit Hole

Best Foreign Film
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Cell 211
(both ineligible for oscars).... and....um. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest?

I may not have seen enough films in this category this year. Let's say Dogtooth, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, and A Prophet (nominated last year) for the other nominees and Simple Simon, Beyond, Incendies, Mother, I Am Love (ineligible for the Oscar), Hadewijch, Of Gods and Men, White Material, Carlos (ineligible), Applause, The Edge, Life Above All, and Undertow as the alternates.

Best Animated
Nada. Despite my deep love for animation, I have seen none of these films. I... don't know what happened this year.

Best Documentary
Ditto as foreign films. Marwencol FTW!

So let's go with Exit Through the Gift Shop, the Tillman Story, Restrepo, and A Film Unfinished, with Winnebago Man, Gasland and Last Train Home as alternates. I can't watch Inside Job. I just can't.

Best Visual Effects
Inception
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
TRON
Harry Potter 7a
Alice in Wonderland

Notable Omissions; Monsters, Narnia, Prince of Persia.

I have yet to see any shorts (hmmm.... when do those group showings occur?), so let's skip those.

Best Costumes
Black Swan
Alice in Wonderland
King's Speech

Surely other people wore costumes. Hmmm... TRON? Can I give an award for getting Garrett Hedlund into that getup? Inception? People wore pretty things in that.

Notable Omissions; True Grit, Burlesque (SEQUINS!!!), I Am Love, the Tempest, Agora, Made in Dagenham.

Best Art/Production Design
Bunny and the Bull
Inception
Black Swan
TRON
King's Speech

Alternates; Harry Potter 7a, Shutter Island

Notable Omission; I Am Love

Best Makeup
Alice in Wonderland
Black Swan
Harry Potter 7a

Notable Omissions; True Grit, Splice, the Wolfman, the Tempest, Burlesque? Who wore makeup this year? I can't fill this category.

Best Cinematography
Black Swan
Inception
Never Let Me Go
Harry Potter 7a
Winter's Bone

Alternates; The Fighter, The Social Network, Shutter Island, Let Me In.

Notable Omissions; True Grit, I Am Love, 127 Hours, Sweetgrass, Monsters.

Best Editing
Inception
The Social Network
Black Swan
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Shutter Island

Notable Omissions; 127 Hours, The Town.

Best Song
(AKA: who do I want to watch during the show - it's like who gets a grammy nomination!)
You Haven't Seen the Last of Me (Burlesque). CHER!!! PLZ WEAR BOB MACKIE, K? THNKS.
Eclipse (Eclipse). Much as I hate to nominate anything having to do with Twilight, I really do like Metric.
Bound to You (Burlesque). (Christina Aguilera)
Life During Wartime (Life During Wartime). (Devendra Banhard & Beck)
What Part of Forever (Eclipse). (Cee-Lo Green)

Your other song options (FYI); If I Rise - 127 Hours (Dido - I like this one alright), I See the Lights - Tangled (Mandy Moore), There's a Place for Us - Narnia (Carrie Underwood), Better Days - Eat Pray Love (Eddie Vedder - ditto; also not bad), Chanson Illusionist - The Illusionist (Sylvain Chomet). The last one isn't a Belleville Rendezvous, but it's cute.

I almost wish I could throw on Avril Lavigne's song from Alice in Wonderland or Gwyneth Paltrow's Coming Home from Country Strong, just to see them both get schooled by Cher and Cristina Aguilera. Because I'm cruel like that.

Best Score
TRON: Legacy - Daft Punk [Ed: WHY is this not getting more attention? I LOVED it.]
The Social Network - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
The Fighter - Michael Brook
Inception - Hans Zimmer
Black Swan - Clint Mansell

Alternates; King's Speech - Alexandre Desplat, Alice in Wonderland - Danny Elfman, Harry Potter 7a - Alexandre Desplat, Never Let Me Go - Rachel Portman.

Notable Omissions; True Grit - Carter Burwell, Ghost Writer - Alexandre Desplat, 127 Hours - A. R. Rahman.

Best Sound Mixing & Editing (I know the one has to do with recording sound effects and background, and the other has to do with volume/mixing/etc., but.... I'm grouping them.)
Inception
Black Swan
The Social Network
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Shutter Island

Alternate; Iron Man 2.

Notable Omission; True Grit.

Bits and bobs

I'm supposed to be unpacking today, but unable to get in touch with my ride. Which is a pity, because I had hoped to be done in time to go to a double feature of Hitchcock at the Castro this evening. C'est la vie.

Here are a few things that have caught my eye recently:

I want an iPhone.

I know what I'm seeing this week. Then again, I am a 27 year old single girl.

Good Movies: When a Critic is Off Duty. It doesn't matter how brilliant Black Swan is, or how much my mother loves ballet, she'll never go see it. It doesn't matter that the Social Network has won something like 18 best picture awards, my father will never go see that Facebook movie. And I can shout till I'm blue in the face about how fantastic Winter's Bone is, and maybe 1 or 2 people will check it out. Not that I'm a critic. But I like her take on a lot of these films, particularly the King's Speech.

Are American TV Execs as Crass as Episodes Makes Them Out to Be? No one else seems to find it as funny as I do that Shameless and Episodes are premiering on the same night.

THIS. Is amazing. They got JEREMY IRONS to narrate. There's no way to watch it without starting to hum this.

Which Oscar Contended Do You Vehemently Refuse to See? Let's see; this year it is shaping up to be the Kids Are All Right.
2000 - Gladiator. I should have stuck by that - I saw it years later. God, the Greatest Show on Earth might be a better Oscar winner.
2001 - A Beautiful Mind. Stuck by that. Still haven't seen it.
2002 - The Pianist. It was never open near me. I still haven't seen it, but I'd like to.
2003 - Master and Commander. Despite my love for Peter Weir, there's that little issue of Russell Crowe.
2004 - almost all of them. What a weird year for movies.
2006 - Letters from Iwo Jima. Although I'd really like to see it and unsee Babel.
2008 - Benjamin Button. Despite my love for David Fincher, it just looked soooo loooong.
2009 - Blind Side. I mean, are you kidding me?

And finally, did you know that if you go to Rotten Tomatoes and look up an actor, it will give you their highest and lowest rated films? For instance;
Guy Pearce: LA Confidential (99%), Factory Girl (19%)
Christian Bale: Henry V (100%), Captain Corelli's Mandolin (29%)
Ben Whishaw: Bright Star (82%), Stoned (15%)
Sam Rockwell: Light Sleeper (94%), Strictly Business (11%) [Ed. note - I have never heard of either of these. Rotten Tomatoes should maybe not include early bit parts?]
Cillian Murphy: The Dark Knight (94%), Disco Pigs (20%)
Nick Stahl: In the Bedroom (93%), Kalamity (0%).

Wait, what? 0%? What the hell?

Apparently it is a total crap thriller, and then this review on the page caught my eye. "Any writer-director lucky enough to snare Nick Stahl for a lead should, if nothing else, be smart enough to make good use of him. Instead, the gifted Stahl is stuck blankly responding to the operatic overacting of co-star Jonathan Jackson. As longtime friends, both guys are going through bad breakups. For Stahl's Billy, this means moping around a lot. For Jackson's Stan, it means pulling out a gun and stalking every woman in sight.

Stahl should have had a career similar to Sam Rockwell's, blending thoughtful indies with fun popcorn flicks. Instead, he's spinning his wheels in junk like this. Calamitous indeed. [Ed: bold mine]"

*sigh* That's sad, but astute.

The King's Speech

Right - catching up on my oscar-bait now. It's hard to go into films like these in a vacuum. Eventually, a certain amount of buzz rubs off on you. Films can certainly defy expectations, but you usually have those expectations going in. In my case, I had been hearing that the King's Speech was a front-runner for best picture after TIFF, it had slipped greatly and experienced a bit of a backlash, and then good word of mouth as it was released was helping it to regain momentum (backlash against the backlash?). Two of my very trusted friends had both really loved the film. I am not a huge Colin Firth fan, but I had really loved him in A Single Man last year. Then I found out that a lot of the supporting parts are occupied by some of my favorite British actors. Plus, I like the Weinstein Company, who is putting it out. And finally, I was raised on a lot of BBC and Masterpiece theater, so I figured the genre was pretty up my alley.

So did I like it? Eh...

Here's the thing - the acting and the production design are very good. I really felt that the script was incredibly uneven.

In case you have been living under a rock, the plot follows the Duke of York, who becomes King George VI when his brother abdicates for Wallis Simpson, from a disastrous public speech at Wembley to his speech to the people on the eve of WWII. The basis of the film is the relationship between the Duke and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue, an unconventional Aussie who helps him overcome his stammer.

Colin Firth gives a really great performance. And he and Geoffrey Rush are pretty much assured acting nods, I think.

The problem for me came from the script. There were these moments of expository monologue-ing that just didn't do it for me. It actually made me think of Fritz Lang's Metropolis; here, let me BEAT YOU OVER THE HEAD WITH THE MESSAGE OF THE FILM. And it was annoying, because parts of the film were really well written. For example, the best scene in the film comes from the Duke opening up to his therapist after the death of his father. It's wonderfully acted, and subtly written. The audience gets a lot of the home dynamics in the royal family, and the emotional trauma that the prince went through.

Contrast that to Michael Gambon as King George V, berating his son while he practices a speech;

This devilish device will change everything if you won’t. In the past all a King had to do was look respectable in uniform and not fall off his horse. Now we must invade people’s homes and speak ingratiate ourselves with them. This family is reduced to those lowest, basest of all creatures...we’ve become...actors!...

When I’m dead that boy will ruin himself, this family, and this nation, within twelve months. Who’ll pick up the pieces? Sir Oswald Mosley - marching his black-shirt British Union of Fascists through the streets of London? Herr Hitler, intimidating half of Europe, Marshall Stalin the other half? Who’ll stand between us, the jackboots, and the proletarian abyss? You?

Really, is that why it is important for him to not stammer? Gee, I hadn't gotten that through him watching you deliver a radio address, as part of your functional duties. You mean a part of his stammer comes from you being an overbearing father? I had no idea. It's like Masterpiece Theater for dummies. And these swings in the quality of the writing I found very jarring.

Finally, it also annoyed me to no end that Edward, the Duke's older brother, was reduced to an over-simplified villain. Okay, I get that the film focused on George, and that the whole royal family blames Edward for forcing him into being king and very possibly shortening his life-span by a whole lot. So I get that he is going to be the villain in this telling. But my understanding of his relationship with Mrs. Simpson was that they were wildly devoted to one another and that he was actually very canny in his dealings with parliament. In the film, he's basically a hood-winked playboy, even if he is well acted by Guy Pearce. Anyways, the part seemed very reductionist and inaccurate. Plus, it turns out that Winston Churchill was best friends with him? Didn't get that at all...

Finally, the woman who played Wallis Simpson looked very familiar and I could not place her till I got home; it was Eve Best. Eve Best, who is one of the finest Shakespearean actresses alive, was reduced to swanning around in a cocktail dress and looking cougar-ish. That is a tragic misuse of her talents right there.

I guess overall I'd say the scenes between Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are very well done, training montages and all, and that most of the periphery is ill-handled and over-blown (if set in pretty scenery).

3/5 stars.

Red Hill

So a couple of nights ago I went to see Red Hill, which is an Australian Western. Or Horror by way of a Western. Or Revenge Thriller. Some combination thereof. I had liked the trailer, was intrigued to see Ryan Kwanten of True Blood fame in something from his country of origin, and the NYTimes rated it as a critic's pick.

The film revolves around Constable Shane Cooper (Kwanten), who has moved to a nowheres-ville small town (Red Hill) for his pregnant wife. His first day on the job, a convicted murderer breaks out of a nearby prison and heads straight to Red Hill, throwing Cooper headlong into a series of shootouts, fights, and intrigue.

The film pretty much hits every Western cliche and foreshadowed sign post on its way to the final showdown. But it does so with such gleeful abandon that it is difficult not to be charmed. I know I complained about heavy-handed foreshadowing and knowing the plot ahead of time in TRON, but in Red Hill, the pacing zips along and the movie remains fun, even if you already know how it is all going to play out. It doesn't break any new ground or reinvent the Western, but its a solid, fun genre flick, which sometimes is all you are looking for. The genre fits well into the Aussie outback, simply because so much of it is on the edge of unforgiving, untamed wilderness and so far from civilization.

On a final note, I went to see this at the Lumiere, which is one of 5 Landmark theaters in SF. Very cute and absolutely the friendliest staff I've ever encountered at a theater. It was, however, very cold and they were offering free tea and coffee, which I really should have taken them up on.

3.5/5 stars