The Year's Best in Film
Not having yet seen MOOLADE, OTORCYCLE DIARIES, or MILLION DOLLAR BABY yet, I can still say is was a good year for film. Not a great year, but a good year. My favorite was Xiang Yimou's HOUSE OF THE FLYING DAGGERS. but it has some last reel credibility problems. Nevertheless, it has almost as spectacluar matial effects as CROUCHING TIGER, and just about as specacularity as the work Christopher Doyle die in HERO, but, unlike the other films, it has an emotionally compelling story. I am not a fan of love stories, but maybe because of the excessive nature of the emotions, this one worked for me.
After that, itr would be hard for me to rank the films. I certainly liked SIDEWAYS, but it did'nt astonish me as much as Alexander Payne's two previous films. BAD EDUCATION is must see, as is KINSEY, my favorite biopic of a year filled with biopics. I also liked THE AVIATOR. Scorsese & co. seemed to be having a good time. My only problem was I wasn't made to believe the transition between dementia and Hughes" pulling himself together for the hearings and the Spruce Goose. Most of the film's energy goes into the first half. There was the Iranian film about the pubescent girl trying to pass as a boy, and there was the vastly underrated DOOR IN THE FLOOR, with a subtle script and an even more subtle performance by Jeff Bridges. And, family films were actually good, certainly better than the overrated ELF of last year. THE INCREDIBLES and LEMONY SNICKET went places that went beyond formula. But the triumph was the third HARRY POTTER, with nothing to violat its PG ratimg. there was an atmosphere of dread. Also, where do you get a chance to get four reat actors in a single scene: David Twewlis, Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman , and Robby Coltraine in the same scene.
After I see MILLION DOLLAR BABY, I'll elaborate more. And, as many people know, I'm an enormous Clint Eastwood fam.
After that, itr would be hard for me to rank the films. I certainly liked SIDEWAYS, but it did'nt astonish me as much as Alexander Payne's two previous films. BAD EDUCATION is must see, as is KINSEY, my favorite biopic of a year filled with biopics. I also liked THE AVIATOR. Scorsese & co. seemed to be having a good time. My only problem was I wasn't made to believe the transition between dementia and Hughes" pulling himself together for the hearings and the Spruce Goose. Most of the film's energy goes into the first half. There was the Iranian film about the pubescent girl trying to pass as a boy, and there was the vastly underrated DOOR IN THE FLOOR, with a subtle script and an even more subtle performance by Jeff Bridges. And, family films were actually good, certainly better than the overrated ELF of last year. THE INCREDIBLES and LEMONY SNICKET went places that went beyond formula. But the triumph was the third HARRY POTTER, with nothing to violat its PG ratimg. there was an atmosphere of dread. Also, where do you get a chance to get four reat actors in a single scene: David Twewlis, Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman , and Robby Coltraine in the same scene.
After I see MILLION DOLLAR BABY, I'll elaborate more. And, as many people know, I'm an enormous Clint Eastwood fam.
4 Comments:
The Aviator was disappointing to me. Where was the story? Major stuff was left out, like the fact that Hughes was married most of his life to someone who wasn't a movie star. The timeline was all warped too, in a way that did injustice to Hughes' many accomplishments. I don't believe the severity of the shut-in scene happened before the hearings. DiCaprio was a boy trying to play a man. Hughes did amazing things, even if it ended badly. He must have been a formidable intellect and presence, and none of that came through. This film tries to span an exceptional person's entire lifetime, imho picking and choosing both events and emphases poorly. Loved the ladies though.
Kris
I agree with the previous poster, although DeCaprio wasn't quite as bad as I feared! Also, the movie overall was a little better than I expected, after Scorcese's disastrous last epic. I was also very impressed with 'the ladies' the Cate and Kate especially; I thought Cate Blanchett's impression of Kate Hepburn was great, really captured the gist of her delivery. Their relationship was also quite romantic, I thought: when she tells Howard that 'she can take the wheel', that worked well, story-wise. What stood out, by far, was the gorgeous cinematography, just breathtaking - Richardson and Scorcese worked on creating the Technicolor palette, and it comes accross nicely.
There's a lot missing in this bio-pic that could have helped us get a better understanding of the man and his times; the hearings were strangely staged, I thought, as were some of the dance-hall scenes, with a bizarre style that was distracting. Good music, though, Howard Shore's scores are generally excellent, and this one is no exception.
hpcine
Still not clear on how to NOT post anonymously, but maybe anonymous is better, the experts would know.
Any opinons on Closer? Finally broke down and saw it, and would love to see what you David, and any others, Anonymous or not, think. Great topic, of course, curious what people felt about the style, the transition to screen from stage, that whole thread; also the casting? I was more impressed than expected, and even its weaknesses seemed to tie in, reinforce the situations the characters are in. Not sure about all the sensitive manly crying, esp between the guys, uhm, otherwise it does a good job of slice-of'lifing a certain crowd at a certain place in their lives; Julia Roerts (yikes) was actually alright, no small achievement; her dreadful snarling acting, over the top at the start of the movie, was toned down enough as her character 'matures', a nice directorial touch. The pointless cyncism one expects from people of this ilk is well shown, and in my opinion, isn't unbearable the way in can be in life with such characters: a tired-sounding irony dripping all over their every observation, dragging any communication into a postured pretense. Nichols actually balanced that out to where you can still listen to the characters, and almost care for them at times...but only at times. I don't think we're expected to care for them really, so that also worked for me. Their superficiality isn't all that different from people we may know, and we can choose to try to see beyond it, to be caught up in it (vade retro!) or to share a while in their purgatorial lives, just long enough to ponder the dangers of superficiality. Not a bad topic for a mainstream movie!
Thank you all for your comments on my end of year musings. When I finally get around to seeing CLOSER and MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, I'll do two l0 best lists: one for those films there were nominated, and one for lthse films that were not. I think I'll find comparable quality in both.
But I'm sorry not to have seen ClOSER. With the exception of the disastrous WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM/ and the well intentioned but utterly pedestrian SILKWOOD, I've always liked Nichols' work. And, in terms of stage to screen, only Sidney Lumet with LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT has done as well as Nichols (with the help of the extraordinary camerawork by Haskell Wexler0 , so, although I did not see CLOSER on stage, I think I will appreciate what Nichols is trying to do.
As for THE AVIATOR, like one of Hughes' airplanes, it's falling fast Maybe because of got ll nominaions, but like the year THE COLOR OF MONEY was nominated, it's not in the league with MEAN STREETS, GOODFELLAS, TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL, or even KING OF COMEDY r ITAIAN=AMERICAN. Yes, the love of old Hollywood and the Technicolor palette are terrific, but I agree that the DiCaprio as written and as acted do not give us a convincing portrait. And, if one is to take liberties with Biographical fact, then the writer (like Shakespeare) needs to shape more of a cohenert portrait than exists in this film.
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