FilmScope

The 2009 FilmScope Awards

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:35:00 GMT

It is awards season time for the movies. I love seeing great work getting recognition and have always wanted to do my own bit of awarding. That is why FilmScope has the Scopies! And while FilmScope isn’t any AMPAS, we like pride ourselves in our ability to call a performance as we see it. We will be giving awards for Acting and Technical excellence in filmmaking, including the one that never gets any real recognition from those other guys; Best Choreography, which recognizes film sequences with noticeable dance and/or stunt work. So here are your 2009 Scopie Award recipients:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker: You can find more information on this in the Top Ten of 2009 post. Runner-Up: A Serious Man.

Best Actor: Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man): Michael, Michael, Michael, you must be one cold basterd (sorry, wrong movie) to be getting so much applause for playing a character so mired in personal crises, or one hell of an actor. Thankfully, you are both and you allow us to feel sympathy towards Larry Gopnik. Come Oscar Day, you have my vote, if I had a vote, of course. Runner Up: Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker).

Best Actress: Carey Mulligan (An Education): Carey, a friend and I were talking about your performance a month ago when the name Audrey Hepburn came up. And while many people think you are following her example, I don’t think they understand how. It’s simple, you inspire the best performances out of your fellow actors and the effect shows when you’re on-screen. It was like falling in love with Roman Holiday all over again, except that Lone Sherfig is by no means William Wyler. I see great things in your future, including a Scopie. Runner-Up: Zooey Deschanel ((500) Days of Summer)

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds): What is it with so many compelling bad guys in movies? Two years ago it was Anton Chigurh, last year The Joker. Now it is Hans Landa, the menacing Jew Hunter in Quentin Tarrentino’s WWII epic. As Landa, Christoph Waltz creates a Nazi much smarter than seen before and more charismatic. The first fifteen minutes of the film, because of Waltz, is easily the best part. I really can’t wait to see what this unique German actor will come up with afterwards. Runner-Up: (tie) Zachary Quinto (Star Trek)/

Best Supporting Actress: Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds): If Christoph Waltz was the biggest reason to see Inglourious Basterds, Melanie Laurent is the second-biggest. And considering just how little screen time Ms. Laurent has on screen, that says a lot. As Shoshana, the young Jewish woman who escapes Landa’s terror, her scenes are filled with intrigue and terror, especially when she hatches her own plot against the Nazis. Most of the emotional impact falls on her shoulders and she pulls it off magnificently. Runner-Up: Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)

Best Director: James Cameron (Avatar): It doesn’t matter if you believe in the hype of Avatar or not, you cannot deny the technical skill nor the ability that Cameron has at conveying the story as he had. This is not the first landscape use of 3D, but the first time he has filled it with a sense of atmosphere and context. This isn’t the first director to take us to new worlds, but one that feels authentic outside it’s basis in CG. And he actually gets a great performance out of Sam Worthington, which I thought was a lost cause in Terminator Salvation. For that, he’s still king of the world. Runner-Up: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Best Original Screenplay: Ethan and Joel Coen (A Serious Man): While it was inspired by the Book of Job, this is a whole new monster, a much darker comedy with deeper implications of self. And it is genuinely funny in a lot of places. And Sy Ableman is one of the best-written characters in modern movies. Runner-Up: Quentin Tarrentino (Inglourious Basterds)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Nick Hornby (An Education): It isn’t a new concept that a novelist will take on another person’s work and turn it into a movie. But Nick Hornby isn’t just any writer. His work understands the minds of men and the work he’s adapting follows a 16-year-old girl who has fallen in love with the wrong kind of man. The merging of these two areas, along with the zip of British humor, makes this screenplay one of the freshest I have ever seen. Runner-Up: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)

Worst Movie: Terminator Salvation: You may ask why would I possibly put a non-positive in my awards post. Simple: because out of all those really bad movies out there, especially the critical darlings like Precious, I have to respect the truly awful ones. And instead of doing a worst ten list, I thought I would just mention it here. Terminator Salvation almost single-handedly destroyed the franchise James Cameron built. Not only did it self-destruct it’s own premise, but nearly destroyed the mythology entirely. Not only that, but the action was deeply boring and not a little hard to follow at times. Just awful. Runner-Up: Bruno

Best Choreography: (500) Days of Summer: Who will ever forget the glorious dance number just after Tom finally spends the night? Both extremely well-timed and delightfully funny. Runner-Up: The International

As for the rest, I won’t go into detail:

Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins (A Serious Man) Runner-Up Barry Ackroyd (The Hurt Locker)

Best Costume Design: Michael Kaplan (Star Trek) Runner-Up: Colleen Atwood (Public Enemies)

Best Production Design: David Wasco (Inglourious Basterds) Runner-Up: Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity)

Best Original Song: The Weary Kind (Crazy Heart*) Runner-Up: The Spirit of Adventure (Up)

Best Original Score: James Horner (Avatar) Runner-Up: Michael Giacchino (Up)

*I haven't seen Crazy Heart yet (otherwise Jeff Bridges might be my Best Actor winner), but I did listen to this song and it was so beautiful I knew I had to put it on the list. A slight cheat, but hey, it's my awards after all.

Top Ten of 2009

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:39:00 GMT

So now 2009 has come to a close, it is time to rank the ten best films of the year. We don’t have to do this, but it’s kind of fun and I just love giving attention to the films that I thought were superb and worthy of a chance. Because of my pretty rough year, I didn’t get to see as many documentaries or obsure films as I usually like, and all the ones that I have seen weren’t all that good to begin with, so most of these are pretty mainstream (even the indies I picked are pretty well-known). Bear in mind that in mid-March, just before the Oscars, I will be doing my Right One Awards for films that I didn’t get to see in time for this list. We’ll also be doing the FilmScope Awards (The Scopies) a little later in the day or week, celebrating the best performances and some technical categories, not to mention the best of the decade. But for now, here are the ten best films of 2009:

The Hurt Locker: Again like last year, the top three are pretty interchangeable, but this year, I had to go to the one I thought was just slightly better. Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq War thriller literally had me on my seat throughout. The film tells the story of a bomb-disposal unit in Baghdad in 2004 lead by a wild man (Jeremy Renner) who probably loves his job a little too much. This is by far the best film about the Iraqi War and one that stays with you, or at least in your nerves.
A Serious Man: I can’t wait to see this movie again and again to really understand what the Coens have created. It has an Oscar-worthy performance by Michael Stuelbarg as a Job-esque man whose life is deteriorating quickly and without anyone to help him understand. Roger Deakins’ photography is simply amazing and the Coens’ screenplay is simply original and laced with dark humor that will have you actually laughing.
Avatar: I will remember Avatar fondly forever because it constantly had me feeling that I was involved. Not just because of the 3-D effect in theaters (though I must recommend it), but because the characters are rich and interesting and the color palate is rich and engaging. James Cameron is easily one of if not the best director in Hollywood today. This film is a testament to the fact.
Inglourious Basterds: Quentin Tarrentino keeps surprising me with each film, and this one doesn’t break tradition. No other filmmaker would make you wait like he does for a payoff and then pays it off ten-fold. This WWII fantasy is tougher than the Dirty Dozen and more insane than the Valkyrie plot. With two Oscar-worthy performances by Christoph Waltz as the notorious Hans Landa and Melanie Laurent as the target of Landa’s pursuit and one fascinating performance by Brad Pitt, I can understand why many keep wanting the Basterd’s share.
Away We Go: Director Sam Mendes makes his comedic debut in the film Away We Go, a sweet little gem of a film about the roles played in the modern American family. John Krazinski and Maya Rudolph are phenomenal as a couple about to have a baby and trying to find a home around people they know that can give them some sense of home. At sometimes cruel and other times sad, this is a film that relies on it’s core characters to keep us interested. And because we are, we care about what happens to these nice people.
Up in the Air: Jason Reitman has made my list for the third time with this character study about a man whose impossible job allows him the lifestyle that allows him to escape. George Clooney gives a sober performance that holds the movie together, but it’s Vera Farmiga who deserves the Oscar as Clooney’s fellow-traveler who inadvertently teaches him to feel a connect to the world he seems to think he’s just visiting.
Knowing: Nicholas Cage and director Alex Proyas have created a piece of science fiction that is what War of the Worlds should have been. When a series of predictions get into Cage’s hand and he realizes that the end is nigh, the film wisely keeps us emotionally connected to the characters instead of creating spectacles. By the time we get to the last ten minutes, we are connected to the events going on and react as such. That’s great filmmaking.
Watchmen: Director Zack Snyder has made up for his horrific 300 with a visually engaging rendition of Watchmen. This film succeeds because it does NOT try to relate with these unrelatable characters who are delusional or psychoctic, but gives us a disturbing look at how and why people would don capes and masks and become superheroes. And how some might misuse such a status.
(500) Days of Summer: This non-love story is the kind of movie that leaves you a little happy, a little sad, but thoroughly engaged. Thanks to great performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, we feel like we are seeing a real relationship with real consequences.
The Road: John Hillcoat has done the impossible, he has made not just a good adaptation of an impossible Pulizer-winning novel, but has made it beyond anything I could expect. This quiet film has enough tension to keep you wound tight hours after the movie’s end and more heart than all the summer blockbusters put together. And for a film set after the Apocalypse, that’s saying something. Viggo Mortensen deserves a nomination for his performance as the father trying to keep his son alive as the world dies around them.

Top Ten of 2008

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:32:00 GMT

Just when things can’t get better, 2008 year changed the rules about filmmaking. It keeps seeming that the next movie was always better than the last and making a top ten list was extremely difficult. But here we go anyways:

The Dark Knight: Picking from the top three films this year the number one was virtually impossible since all three are simply perfect. And so I had to come down to which movie would I most likely watch over and over again. Hands-down, this would be it. Christopher Nolan has taken the bar for Batman and raised it beyond any mortal expectations. This goes beyond the limits of comic book movies and becomes a classic film in it’s own right. Heath Ledger’s Joker is the ultimate villain and Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent/Two-Face is just as worthy of Oscar Glory.
Synecdoche, New York: Charlie Kaufman’s film about the meaning of life goes beyond what Fellini tries in his 8½ and goes bravely deeper. Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s performance is baring of all emotional taboos and creates a flawed human creature whose theatrical masterpiece allows him to see from God’s perspective and back into his own soul. If this is Kaufman’s grand masterpiece, it’s definitely worthy.
Slumdog Millionaire: Danny Boyle’s film could easily be pigeonholed as an underdog story, but it’s much more. This is the story about a hard life and about a society at a crucial stage of it’s evolution and just how these two things have everything in common. Will you cheer along with the protagonist and hope that everything works out in the end? Yes. Dev Patel is a fascinating leading man and I hope to see more of him soon.
Wall-E: How does Pixar do it? How can they keep making these brilliant and engaging films one after another. Wall-E is a technical marvel, a visual delight, and storytelling at it’s best. Wall-E is more than just a cute robot, but a way to show how humanity can lose it’s own humanity through apathy. This film isn’t interested in making points or preaching, but provides us with the kind of adult satire that is missing in movies meant for grown-ups.
Stop-Loss: Director Kimberly Pierce creates a compelling drama and criticism about how war veterans are being treated by the US Government. Stop-Loss tells the story about a young man who is denied the ability to leave the military by presidential order and decides to run for it. The acting is all top notch by actors who are the cream of tomorrow’s Hollywood such as Ryan Phillippe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Channing Tatum, and an Oscar-worthy performance by Abbie Cornish.
Rachel Getting Married: This is a film so alive you might not believe that it was written, or that it’s a film altogether! Jonathan Demme’s direction is compelling and completely without vanity, allowing scenes to play out naturally and without forcing events to arise. His actors embody the movement of the film, including Oscar-worthy performances by Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt and Bill Irwin. But be careful or you might just find yourself wanting to join in the festivities.
Doubt: John Patrick Shanley’s film adaptation to his Broadway masterpiece is just as rich and thoughtful as it is on stage. We have four perfect performances by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Viola Davis that create a story about a mystery about a priest’s relationship with an alter boy, fueled by the scorn of a older nun against said priest. This is one of the movies that the more you think about it, the less you find you actually know for sure, except that it’s great.
Lakeview Terrace: Samuel L. Los Angeles cop determined to intimidate his new neighbors, an interracial couple, out of the neighborhood. Written and directed by Neil LeBute, this is a return to his brand of psychological pyrotechnics laced inside a plot-driven bad-cop drama.
Frost/Nixon: It’s particularly taking that the title kind of looks like what you would see at a boxing or chess match as the verbal war between TV Journalist David Frost and Former President Richard Nixon was just that. Ron Howard’s new film captures the flair of Peter Morgan’s play and uses the excellent performances of Frank Langella and Michael Sheen to set up a battle of ideas with stakes set so high that both men have nothing to lose.
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson: Alex Gibney’s look at the most sensational journalist of his time is purely breathtaking. Thompson broke a fourth dimension not with the power of drugs, but with his ability to capture his audience and bring them dragging and screaming to the crazy environements and vivid landscapes of his mind. With passages read by Johnny Depp, these landscapes are as vivid as his life, which was fuller than most. But what sets this documentary apart is how it doesn’t idolize the man, but shows him as flawed and sometimes insane creature beyond acceptance. It accepts him as he was, the way I’m sure he’d most appreciate his memory being kept.

Top Ten of 2007

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:29:00 GMT

2007 was an exciting breath of fresh air. This was year that Horror films became great again. Musicals and Music-Based films had risen to magnificent heights. Superhero films faltered and Transformers proved to be slightly more than meets the eye. Here are the ten best films of that year.

No Country for Old Men/Ratatouille (Tie): These two films are perfect in every way and yet you couldn’t find two any more different. Both are films that reflect on life and death. The Coen Brothers have made their masterpiece with breathtaking scope and fury from Cormac McCarthy’s novel. Javier Bardem gives an Oscar-worthy performance. Brad Bird directs his second Pixar film and is by far much better than his first. Remy the Rat’s pursuit of being a Parisian chef is inspiring and delightfully delicious.
Juno: Ellen Page just bursts with life as the ever-sensational Juno. Director Jason Reitman and first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody make a film that is funnier than most comedies out there and even more emotionally unique. This is the kind of movie you want to come back to in order to feel good again and again.
Once: Ever find a musical that you just want to sing along to? I always find myself singing along each time I watch Once. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are natural singers and impressive actors in this uber-independent film set in modern-day Dublin where two nameless people start a love affair through music.
No End in Sight: There are only a few documentaries that have really gotten into the situation in Iraq with any objectivity and really exposes the biggest problems there. No End in Sight not only does so with impartial judgement towards all the players, but really understands that no one person or party deserves all the blame. This is the kind of documentary that puts Michael Moore to shame.
Eastern Promises: Viggo Mortensen and David Chronenberg are back at it in their newest graphic crime drama Eastern Promises, by far Chronenberg’s best film to date. Mortensen gives his Oscar performance as a Russian hitman/bodyguard in London who is deeply involved in a mystery concerning a baby whose nurse (Naomi Watts) is seeking to find out what happened. One of the best fight sequences in a decade occurs in the infamous bathhouse scene.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Tim Burton has made his second perfect film, this time taking on the cult Broadway musical with Johnny Depp at his best and Helena Bonham Carter giving what should be her Oscar-Winning performance. Everything about this film is majestic from the sets, costumes and makeup and cinematography.
28 Weeks Later: I can name all of the award-worthy horror films on two hands, and 28 Weeks Later, a vastly superior film compared to it’s predecessor, is one of them. Juan Carlos Fresnedillo’s direction is breathtaking and alive with some incredible editing and cinematography. Jeremy Renner is sensational underplaying a military sniper who finds himself leading a band of survivors of a massacre when the walking (and running) infected retake London.
In the Valley of Elah: Is it over handed and hammy? A little. But do not deny the power of great acting as Tommy Lee Jones creates one of his most memorable performances as a man whose son is killed on a military base after returning from Iraq. Director Paul Haggis has taken a true story and turned it into a silent and thoughtful murder mystery.
Superbad: There cannot be a top ten list without one Judd Apatow film somewhere. I’ve picked one of the best of his canon, directed by Greg Matolla and written by Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg about one wild night for three teenage boys determined to bring booze to a party in order to impress these girls of their dreams. This has the makings of a new classic teenage comedy in the vein of John Hughes.
Breach: This film is exciting and engaging in ways that make lesser films even more noticeable. Chris Cooper gives his next Oscar performance as a CIA genius who is selling secrets to other nations. Brought in to take him down is Ryan Phillippe and these two spark off each other in every scene they share.

Avatar (10 of 10)

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:33:00 GMT

It has been eleven years since Titanic and almost nineteen since James Cameron’s last science fiction epic Terminator 2. During this time, he has been taken to making documentaries about the ocean in his Ghosts of Titanic and Aliens of the Abyss, working out his supposedly revolutionary 3D technology. He had been promising his re-emergence with a project that would change how movies would be seen. That film would be Avatar, the mother of all science fiction epics, taking everything that Cameron has learned over his 30-year career and making it into a simple and powerful story about connections, which even the Title makes pretty clear.

It is 2153 and on a distant moon known as Pandora, humanity has found remarkable things. The first would be a rare mineral resource that can harvest energy. The second would be a seemingly primitive race of giant purple beings called the Na’vi, whom ride six-legged horses and fly on winged creatures. They fight with bows and arrows and spears and are not too taken with their new neighbors. The company wanting to harvest the mineral are opting for both a diplomatic option as well as a military option, hiring privately-owned military and the leading scientists to do so. The leaders for both camps are Col. Quarrich (Stephen Lang) and Dr. Augustine (Sigourney Weaver).

The film starts off as a young paraplegic Marine named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is brought to Pandora to operate his dead twin’s Avatar, a genetic cone of the Na’vi that can be operated by someone with the same genetic code. Quarrich wants Sully to find a tactical weakness for the Na’vi that they can exploit to move them from their camp. Augustine wants to use him to get into the good graces with the Na’vi when reluctantly befriends the Na’vi chief’s daughter (Zoe Saldana). He finds himself slowly being attracted to their way of life, which is in delicate harmony with a very hostile world filled with predators of all shapes and sizes. If you have seen Dances with Wolves, you’ll know the territory. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?

The story itself isn’t very original, but how Cameron tells it is beyond approach. He connects his characters in very unique bonds and requires that they make decisions with full understanding on the implications. Take for example the Sully-Quarrich-Augustine angle. Sully must depend on both in order to achieve his own ends even as they are using him for theirs. The only way he can use the Avatar is through Augustine’s help. The only way he can keep from being pulled out of the program is by appeasing Quarrich’s curiosity. The Na’vi are interconnected in ways I won’t mention in a review and they see in Jake a way to interconnect the humans into this world.

I find it funny that many people see this film as a tree-hugging liberal love-in when it really isn’t. The Na’vi believe in peace, but are not afraid to go to war when necessary. They have a stake on their own planet and cannot get it through to their new neighbors that to live on Pandora is to respect it’s rules. They are physically sensitive to their environment that in a way I am amazed by. It makes me wonder would human beings be so apt to destroy our planet if we had to feel the pain of the destruction personally.

It’s easy to see that Cameron has a great love for classic science fiction by the likes of Bradbury, Asimov, and Ellison as well as classic western and war films. He incorporates all of these themes and motifs seamlessly into his own work and Avatar culminates every film that he has made since The Terminator. We can see physical resemblances with Aliens, Titanic, and The Abyss. And yet it feels completely different, mainly because of his use of 3D technology.

I am a fan of using 3D to create living environments. Robert Zimmeckis is most notable in this aspect as his films aren’t very interested in throwing things at the audience as much as creating a physical environment. Cameron takes it one step further as his 3D is meant to open up Pandora and to make it a real world with weight and gravity. One of the best scenes for 3D is when flying through a series of mountains that are disconnected to the ground. This is not just done for visual flare, but creating a landscape that will be very important as the story goes on. All of the 3D is used this way and yet it still words in 2D.

Even more amazing is the performances created in this film, many of whom are created by actors whom we never really get to see. The Na’vi are created using motion capture technology, played by real actors. Take Zoe Saldana, who is becoming a very talented actress in her own right, while we don’t see her on the film, her performance in movement and tone are delightful and create a fully-realized character. And Sam Worthington, to whom I have said nothing but horrible things about when it came to Terminator Salvation actually impressed me here as he conveys a man who is caught between two worlds and doesn’t want to betray neither, which cannot be done. And it’s always nice seeing Sigourney Weaver play a powerful role in which she can really flex her skills.

But this film is all about James Cameron, who has created his opus. It appears that this might be part of a larger series (trilogy, anyone?) and I am very excited to see what he would do in the next installment. He has created a hype that actually delivered the goods, something that is becoming more uncommon in Hollywood recently. He has created a technology that I believe is still being perfected but as of right now, this is the best there is. If he were running for King of the World again, I’d vote for him.

All in all, Avatar is not simply a film, it is an experience that I cannot tell you would be a shame to miss. Like Star Wars, it is revolutionary is some ways, in others it is beautiful reminder of why we go to the movies in the first place; to be engaged. In that sense, Pandora is world full of engagement and Avatar is portal you would need to use to experience it.

Up in the Air (10 of 10)

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:25:00 GMT

Ryan Bingham has a really nasty job; he fires people for companies too cowardly to do it themselves. He likes his job mostly because he knows he’s good at it, but also because he loves to travel. He isn’t interested in anything that can’t be packed into his travelling case, including people. In any other movie, he would be a villain condemned to a sad and tragic end. But this isn’t any other movie. This is Up in the Air, directed by one of my favorite filmmakers Jason Reitman and stars George Clooney in a role tailor-fit to perfection.

Bingham’s world is compartmentalized and orderly, as neatly packed as his travel case. He doesn’t have a home, living out of hotel rooms around the country as he goes from job to job. With such a lousy economy, it’s frenzy feeding time and Bingham takes full advantage. But then his life hits a snag when two things happen. The first is that he meets Karen (Vera Farmiga), a fellow traveler whom attracts him with her simple sweetness and lack of wanting any resemblance of a relationship outside of stops here and there. The other is that his company has hired a recent graduate named Natalie (Anna Kendrick), who is designing interactive software that allows his company to fire people via webchat. Out of both righteous and selfish indignation, Ryan contests in one of the film’s best scenes as he shows how delicate it is to fire someone. He is right, but we also know his real intention is that he wants to stay on the road. He convinces his boss to take the rookie on a couple of trips and show her first-hand.

The film is ultimately a series of events that happen during these trips. We see the effect that comes with being laid off and you would have to be cold not to feel their anger, frustration and terror as they know exactly how difficult many of them will find it getting a new job. Peppered into many of these montages of the newly damned are non-actors who have been laid off themselves. The problem with non-actors is that while they might have been through a scene such as the one they are playing, they are also trying to act and therefore lose the effect. But there are some actors such as Zach Galifianakis and J.K. Simmons. But they are not the reason for the film. They are the backdrop. The real focus is Ryan, who is not cold, distant or hostile. He really is just trying to do a job that he’s good at and has perks that are for him the real reason he’s doing it. He is close to a personal goal which might seem meaningless and down-right cruel considering how he comes about getting it.

The great thing about Jason Reitman’s films is that he doesn’t judge his characters and never leads the audience to do it either. He is curious about these individuals who make choices that we ourselves might think are bad, and shows them to be humans trying to get by and a life that is being lived long before we have met them and long after we depart their company. Rietman is a great filmmaker not because of his technical prowess or his use of shots, but in his ability to keep the humanity of his characters intact and never makes excuses for them. And while it would be easy to compare Bingham to the protagonist in Rietman’s Thank You For Smoking, a tobacco lobbyist, they are completely different animals playing for completely different reasons.

But what really allows the film to come through is the acting. George Clooney really does find his pace as Bingham and allows himself to play both the good and the bad of this rather distant character. But Clooney also knows to keep restraint and to allow the real flavor to come out in these colorful and exciting supporting characters such as Jason Bateman, Melanie Lynsky, Danny McBride, Amy Morton, Kendrick and Farmiga. But let’s really look at the last two ladies, who play such a large part in this film. Kendrick, whom I had last seen in the Twilight movies, is both a pleasure and a pain in the film. In some scenes, her awkwardness is refreshing and lovable. But other times she comes off as annoying and shrill, such as her really horrible crying scene in the middle half. But we are not supposed to be behind her as her freshness grates with unintended insensitivity at times, not to mention that she’s trying to take away the one thing that our protagonist wants the most; freedom.

The real prize of the film, and one of the best performances of the year is Vera Farmiga, who plays her role with a knowledge and humanity that will be needed when we really get to know her later in the film. We can see why Ryan would be affected by this woman and yet we also know why she would act the way she does. It’s usually an actors delight to be play a role that has more going on than meets the eye. Here, Farmiga has a role that allows her to really shine.

This is not a film of technical wonder or silent fury, but of curiousity and fascination of people not ourselves, made up of human beings neither righteous or foolhardy, but both at the same time. The film invites us to feel sadness but doesn’t revel in it like most films. It also invites us to laugh, but tempered with the knowledge of the horrible truth that the people Ryan meets are stuck in Purgatory and never lets us forget. That is to the credit of Rietman and his co-writer Sheldon Turner’s screenplay.

All in all, Up in the Air is a fantastic film that really does deliver an emotional experience. For such a dark and topical subject matter, this is a film I believe will last the test of time and become another notch on a budding filmmaker’s already impressive resume. And while there might be a rough patch here and there, this film comes down smooth and refreshing.

Top Ten of 2006

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:11:00 GMT

If there's something that can be said about 2006 and the movies, perhaps it should be that this year was definitely interesting. We've seen the first movies dealing with 9/11. Comedy became both entertaining and artistic again. This year Superman and Bond returned (neither did much for me, though) while Rocky finally said goodbye (just 20 years too late). I found ten great movies worthy of being called the best. I hope you'll give them a look.

United 93: Paul Greengrass has made a film so poignant that there will be no other like it. It recreates realistically the moments before and during the terrorist takeover of Flight 93 on 9/11. We see the events from inside the plane and from Ground Control as they try to piece together what’s going on. This is the kind of films that need to be made about terrorism.
Dreamgirls: Isn’t it great to find a musical that bring you not only worthy music but a decent story as well? Top it off with career-making Oscar-worthy performances from Eddie Murphy and ex-American Idol Jennifer Hudson and you have Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls, a musical about music and the corrupting agent of pop-culture.
The Queen: Helen Mirren gives the performance of her career as Queen Elizabeth II just after the death of Princess Diana, but it’s Michael Sheen’s performance that steals the show as he plays newly minted Prime Minister Tony Blair. Director Stephen Frears has never shied away from films that re-examine archetypes and here he really tries to dig into these two people and really see who they are.
Children of Men: Now THIS is science fiction as it should be. Alfonso Cuaron’s dark tale of a future without children pulls no punches and yet provides a deeply hopeful message about what humanity is capable of in it’s darkest hour. Clive Owen deserves recognition as a mid-level bureaucrat caught in the task of transporting the only pregnant woman through hell in hopes to protect her unborn child.
The Departed: When Martin Scorsese remakes a modern noir film from Hong Kong, you better believe that he has something up his sleeve. And this time, he pulls out a doozy with amazing performances from Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, and Mark Wahlberg. This is a deep, dark morality tale about the fine line between good and evil.
Little Miss Sunshine: One of the best ensemble comedies to come down the pipe in a decade with a well-rounded cast and a brilliant screenplay by Michael Arndt. Expect Oscar nominations for Steve Carrell and Alan Arkin.
Apocalypto: This was the last thing I was expecting from Mel Gibson; a genuinely great film using the backdrop of the fall of Mayan race to create an effective thriller. One could say that the likes of George Miller and Richard Donner are proud.
Thank You For Smoking: Satire doesn’t get much better and Jason Reitman is now one of the most promising young filmmakers to come out of independent cinema. Aaron Eckhart deserves a nomination for his conscience-challenged tobacco lobbyist as he tries to manage his possible downfall.
Jesus Camp: This documentary scared the living crap out of me. We follow several sets of kids and the councelors of a youth camp for fundamentalist Christians. Between hammering sin out of ceramic cups with a real hammer and praying to a cutout of President Bush , I kept wondering to myself who but the most extreme types would allow such people to teach their children and what will happen when these children start thinking for themselves?
Akeelah and the Bee: This is one of the most enduring and rich family films I have seen in a long time. Newcomer Keke Palmer is going to be a big start because she has a natural allure. Just catch yourself before you start spelling alongside the kids.

Top Ten of 2005

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:55:00 GMT

2005 was one of my favorite years in film. So many great films came out that I had a hard time putting a list together. But I did put one together and here’s how it came out. By this point, I knew what I was doing and I would probably rank them the same way now as I did then.

Munich: Stephen Spielberg’s master film about vengeance is his best since Schindler’s List. Working with playwright Tony Kuchner, the story about the Israeli response to the massacre at the Munich games is harrowing and leaves us questioning what it means to be righteous. Eric Bana gives the performance of his career.
Brokeback Mountain: Easily one of the best love stories in the last ten years or so. Ang Lee’s powerful drama is charged with four Oscar-worthy performances, mostly by Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Ledger as lovestruck cowboys in 50s Wyoming. Rodrigo Prieto’s cinematography is simply spellbinding.
Syriana: In a year that gave us some of the most imactful social commentaries, Syriana is easily one of the most influencing. Writer/Director Stephen Genghan tells the story about big oil and the corruption that comes with such power. It will make you think not so much about dwindling resources as much as about how greed and arrogance can damage the world.
The Upside of Anger: Joan Allen deserves an Oscar for her spellbinding performance in this engaging drama about a mother whose pent-up anger at her disappeared husband creates tension between her kids as well as her drinking friend/lover (Kevin Costner).
Sin City: Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s pulp noir is raw, intense and brutal. But it’s also one of the best comic book movies ever to be made. The beautiful use of black and white along with shots that are beyond spectacular, this is probably one of the most beautiful films to look at, that’s if you can look past all the blood and gore. And Mickey Rourke is BACK!
Crash: Paul Haggis’ interconnected story about Los Angelenos consumed by racial contempt might seem a little hokey, but is engaging and sympathetic even to it’s most despicable characters. And strangely enough, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges gives one of my favorite performances of the year. May Oscar glory be laid at his feet.
Batman Begins: This IS the best comic book film ever made, the one I’ve been dreaming would be made and Christopher Nolan delivers. Christian Bale is Batman and Bruce Wayne and this film is not afraid to allow other characters to be just as interesting if not more than it’s protagonist. Michael Caine and Katie Holmes give performances that beyond expectation.
Capote: I love me some Phillip Seymour Hoffman and I think he’s going to win Best Actor playing Truman Capote. But what’s amazing is just how well-structured this film is, especially from first-time director Bennett Miller.
King Kong: Coming off The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson not only remakes one of cinema’s most important films, but makes it better. This is the Kong as it should be, an ape with a crush on a blonde. And while Andy Serkis’ performance as Kong is amazing, Jack Black shows he is capable of being more than just a one-note comedian.
Millions: Danny Boyle’s Christmas tale is one of the most joyful films I have ever seen and understands the genuine love/hate nature between brothers. It is also a beautifully-rendered morality play that might leave a tear in your eye.

Top Ten of 2004

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:20:00 GMT

2004 has to be one of my favorite years in film this decade. So many great films were made and so many didn’t make my list barely. One of those were Million Dollar Baby because I didn’t see it until late January 2005, long after I made my list. Again, this was my list as I made it that year and might be different if I made it today:

Sideways: Alexander Payne’s comedy about life, love, and wine is one of the best comedies I have seen in my entire life. This movie hosts Oscar-worthy performances from Paul Giamatti, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh, and Thomas Hayden-Church, some of the best cinematography and well-crafted dialogue. So pop open a bottle and have a blast!
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Charlie Kaufman has finally made his masterpiece alongside director Michel Gondry’s mind-bending visuals. Jim Carrey gives one of his most emotional performances to date as a man wiping the memories of his ex-girlfriend (Kate Winslett) from his mind. This is a love story that really resonates.
The Aviator: Martin Scorsese has made his best film since Taxi Driver and Leonardo DiCaprio has finally proven to be the actor I never saw him being. The story of Howard Hughes as you never could have imagined is one of my favorite biopics of all time.
Fahrenheit 9/11: Michael Moore has stopped playing nice guy and has ratcheted up a full-scale attack on Number 43. This no-holds-barred documentary goes for the jugular and makes a disturbing case against the President. He might be wrong, but you have to give the devil his due, this is not a boring film.
Hotel Rwanda: Don Cheadle shows just why he’s one of my favorite actors of all time as he plays a hotel manager who saves thousands of people’s lives using his hotel as refuge. Even though it has a PG-13 rating, this film is much scarier and more intense than many of it’s R-rated brethren more interested in gore. After the movie was over, I didn’t feel like a simple observer.
The Dreamers: Bernardo Berdollucci’s epic story of rebellion without understanding is as much tragedy as it is intrigue. Eva Green is breathtaking and exciting to watch in a film that really marks the spot.
The Incredibles: Brad Bird’s…okay I’ll say it…incredible film is the reason I’ll never count against Pixar. Who else would think about a movie about a family of superheroes who have to navigate a world of real peril and family strife? Great voice acting by Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson and Jason Lee.
Kill Bill Vol. 2: If Quentin Tarrentino had your bloodlust slaked in the first film, he has your mind completely blown in this one. While the fights aren’t as over the top as the first, it’s all about getting to that damned Bill. David Carradine gives an amazing performance as Bill but Uma Thurman’s The Bride will go down as one of the most exciting antiheroes of all time.
The Village: M. Night Shyamalan’s film might not be Signs, but it’s still a skillfully deceptive thriller about arrogance and the nature of society. Bryce Dallas Howard’s debut is promising and Joaquin Phoenix is amazing, underplaying this role and making this a character that we really care about. The twist at the end isn’t really a twist, merely reaching a conclusion that we knew from the beginning.
House of Flying Daggers: Director Zhang Yimou’s film Hero also came out this year but was release years before and therefore I couldn’t place it in this list. But thankfully he made the just as impressive House of Flying Daggers, whose visual allure and emotional undertones are just as poignant. And the Drum sequence is simply worthy of this list alone.

The Road (10 of 10)

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:17:00 GMT

The Road is probably one of the most breathtakingly beautiful pieces of literature I have ever read. That it is about the end of the world and humanity literally eating itself says a lot more about Cormac McCarthy’s skill than anything. I never thought that The Road should be made into a movie, but after the success of No Country For Old Men, I wasn’t surprised to see it happened. Directed by The Proposition’s John Hillcoat and starring Viggo Mortensen, I still didn’t think that this story could translate into anything, though I desperately wanted it to. So after coming out of the theater into the crisp night air, I found myself not just content with this film, it affected me.

This is not the story of the end of the world. We do not know why the world is dying, just that it is. It is not about the last remnant of humanity in the throws of desperation and starvation. We do know that most have turned cannibalism and paranoia. It is a story of a father and a son, both without names played by Mortensen and newcomer Kodi McPhee respectively. They are heading south for the beach, being chased doggedly by a worsening winter and ravenous gangs looking for the only fresh meat available. They live off scraps of remaining food, skinny and affected by malnutrition.

The father is trying to teach the boy how to survive without turning towards cannibalism, to live by righteousness even as his own is constantly being tested as they come closer and closer to various perils. The film doesn’t have much of an overlying arc so to say, but episodes that lead them closer and closer to the beach and to their destiny. The man has flashbacks to his wife (Charlize Theron) and a life before the world went to hell. This is a man who wishes he could lie down and die but is afraid to leave his son alone in the world and refuses to let him die, too.

This leads me to a question that I find myself wondering; if there is no hope for the world’s redemption, would the man’s decision to keep himself and his son be more out of arrogance than love? It’s not because of any moral standing as the first thing we see the man teach his son is how to take his own life if it looks as though cannibals might get to him. Perhaps some people are just plain stubborn not to lie down and die, to fight with their very last breath for life, no matter how much pain would be in that life. There is something beautiful in that arrogance in my opinion, but let’s not mistaken it for anything else.

This is a truly amazing production that really does give us something unique and thoughtful to consider in an apocalypse. Compared to the wild ride of 2012, The Road is more of a stroll with a few exciting moments to keep things interesting. Most of the events go along with the novel with very few deviations. One thing that the movie does that I’m not sure really works well in it’s favor is the use of voice-overs. While done pretty well, I think it might have worked well without them as Mortensen’s face carries more powerful expressions than his voice could ever do.

Speaking of Viggo Mortensen, I find myself more and more his fan with every film role he takes. This is a very different character from those he has done before and yet he plays this one with such authority that we feel this man with no name’s fear and hope and determination. Director Hillcoat wisely allows Mortensen’s face and body language to be in main focus allowing this to be our gateway into this forbidding environment. And this is while Mortensen is underplaying the role. And he gives graciously to Kodi McPhee, who is just about as fine an actor as those he plays against. In the novel, the boy is a wide-eyed innocent. Here, he’s sweet and caring, but also weary. There is a small part for Robert Duvall as an old man whom they meet later on and this is probably one of my favorite scenes as it allows all three actors to really show their chops and to play off each other. I hope Duvall gets the sort of attention that William Hurt got for A History of Violence.

Director John Hillcoat here shows that he’s no wilting daisy, but a lion capable of going for broke in technique and storytelling. This is one of the hardest books to adapt and he along with screenwriter Joe Penhall find the way to tell this story by focusing on a man and his son the same way that Umberto D and The Bicycle Thief focused their tragic stories on such relationships. The photography and production design again is minimalist and yet does more to provide us with a real-world location that all those hundreds of millions of dollars on 2012 couldn’t do.

All in all, The Road is unlike anything I have seen in some time and one that I cannot recommend enough to those who are capable of accepting such a bleak premise. Not that I would expect you to watch it again. When you see millions of people facing death, it’s spectacle. When you see two people facing death constantly, it’s harrowing. Even if you don’t know their names.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (8 of 10)

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:55:00 GMT

Fox and His Friends in Fantastic Mr. Fox

Witty banter? Check. Overeducated characters? Check. A pungent yet brilliant aura of elitism? Double check. Yep, it’s a Wes Anderson film, no matter if he replaces oddball human characters for stop-motion animation. This is a filmmaker who waves his flaws like banner, and you know what? God bless him. He dances on the razor-thin line between pretense and stupidity and half the time gets sliced in half. But there are times when his brand of arrogant filmmaking actually works. In that sense, Fantastic Mr. Fox works and works well.

Based on the Ronld Dahl children’s book, Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) is a reformed chicken thief who turns over a new leaf when he finds out that his wife (Meryl Streep) is pregnant. Becoming a news reporter and family man, he decides to move his family into a tree overlooking three farms with three of the meanest farmers in the land. Feeling domestic suffocation happening after his nephew (Eric Anderson) arrives, he convinces his best friend Possum to join him in raiding one of the farms for it’s chickens. The thrill of it all then has him going out and doing it again and again, finally making the farmers aware and furious. What happens next not only affects himself, but his family, friends and neighbors.

While Anderson does a lot of deviating from the original Dahl classic, he does seem to keep the wonder of Mr. Fox and his friends as well as the underground world they make for themselves. He has the animal characters dressed as though they were 50s New York while they are plotted next to a British village in what might be the 1970s. The above-ground world looks dreary and forbidding while only slightly hostile. The world underground does look rather dirty but also fun and interesting. The character models don’t have the usual polish of more recent animation techniques involving clay, it’s rough edges give it a charm that I think is needed to keep the pretense from lifting this story out of reach.

But story-wise, Fantastic Mr. Fox is definitely lacking emotional payoff because of it’s pretentious dialogue and self-congratulation in showing just how smart it is. But unlike The Darjeeling Limited, Anderson wisely understood that this story isn’t supposed to have emotional payoff. We cannot relate to foxes or possums and therefore don’t even try. Just keep us interested in what happens to them and we’ll go along for the ride. And the one-liners are very good here. I

t’s always fun to see an animated film blocked and shot pretty much like a Wes Anderson picture. Being the first, I hope this isn’t the last. I would love to see Anderson take a whack at Dr. Seuss. Could you see him doing The Lorax? The photography is fun and unique and playful at times. I love how trains will come an go on the horizon for no apparent reason. And I love how the end of the film leaves on a slightly happy, is still ambiguous note.

And yet I find myself thinking about this film along with another film I saw the same day, Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, and just how both films are connected to each other in ways that are slightly disturbing (not to mention Willem Defoe’s small role as Rat the Rat). Both are handling the ideas of nature vs. restraint and roles placed by social norms. Fox doesn’t want to stop hunting because it’s in his nature, but his wife demands that he does. When he and the great Badger (Bill Murray in his best voice role ever) argue, their animal natures take over and they start hissing and clawing. Mr. Fox was not designed for this life, but is trapped and tries to make the best of it.

All in all, Fantastic Mr. Fox is not really a kids movie. I think some might like it and the physical humor might catch on, but most of the real humor is targeted towards older kids and grown-ups. And that’s perfectly fine. I love movies like Up, but sometimes it’s nice to see a maturity in animation. It goes down like chilled alcoholic cider and a fine stolen goose leg.

Antichrist (5 of 10)

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:51:00 GMT

I didn’t know exactly what I was expecting when going into Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist. The buzz I heard was that this was unique, challenging and terrifying. Anticipation and dread filled me coming into this film with the knowledge that the other two films of Von Trier’s I have seen (Dogville and Manderlay) were really terrible. Coming out of the movie, I didn’t really feel challenged, but more confused. What is this movie really getting at?

The movie is broken up into a Prologue, four chapters, and an Epilogue. It stars Willem Defoe as Man and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Woman, an unnamed married couple who lose a young son when the boy falls (or strangely appears to jump) out of their apartment window. The fact that they were having fierce and almost brutal sex while this happens seems to create a rift between the couple. Woman falls into despair and is dying slowly in her grief. Man is a psychologist who takes it on himself to “cure” her by forcing her to face the pain and to accept it. This leads the couple to go out into the woods to a little cabin called Eden because she is deeply afraid of the woods. As she starts to face her fears, the tables start to turn in their relationship and then begin to turn violent and brutal.

But what is it that Von Trier’s trying to go for here? Metaphors and allusion runs wild in every scene of the movie. I get the idea that he is trying to understand nature of..well…nature. Two battles going on here are man vs. woman and acceptance vs. vengeance. There is no good and evil here because both are evil in very different ways. In fact, there is no goodness in any part of the movie. The movie makes subtle hints at what is called the Three Beggars, three animals that represent different emotional stages of grief, but also the Man, Woman, and Child. But what is he trying to say about grief and it’s relation to sex and nature. Von Trier appears to punish for both accepting death and lashing out against it as Man and Woman do so respectively. It appears that even Von Trier doesn’t even understand what his point is himself.

Now I’m all for trying to explore concepts that a filmmaker isn’t sure about, but when you start using metaphors and personification as is done here, you need to have a pretty firm grasp on your ideas or they are simply empty thoughts. Let’s look at Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York, where you can tell that Kaufman understands what’s he trying to get across, which is the meaning of life. Von Trier seems to be throwing pasta on the wall just see what will stick. If grief is a part of nature, why don’t more animals grieve? Could it be that acceptance is the only to survive grief, if so, why does the movie end on the note that it does?

The last shot of the film brings me back to probably Von Trier’s most controversial element to the film which is how he views the battle of the sexes and about women specifally. It’s no secret that Von Trier allows chauvinism to play large parts of his movies, and Antichrist is probably his most frank look at the differences of sex. I can only imagine how tough this shoot was for Ms. Gainsbourg and Mr. Defoe as they are left without any defenses against each other or the story. In a better film, this would be groundbreaking. Unfortunately, Von Trier handicaps his actors by making his story more important than the characters or the actors playing said characters.

If only he knew what he was doing, these ideas along with the superb acting would have elevated cinema a few steps higher than ever seen before. This is a classic indie fallacy where a filmmaker believes too much in their idea that t hey sacrifice a deeper understanding to follow their own pursuits. And because it is not willing to take detours and look deeper into it’s own logic keeps this movie from working.

All in all, why is it called Antichrist? There have been so many people giving their own interpretation as to the meaning. I am not really sure myself, but I took apart the Anti and Christ and come to believe that the title for me means that that the filmmaker, along with his characters, believes that nature doesn’t subscribe to the noble ideas of Christ, thinking them naive and foolish. Redemption is not in this movie nor is faith in a better tomorrow. Nor for that matter, any hope for mankind.

Top Ten of 2003

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:22:00 GMT

2003 was the year I started writing movie reviews on Yahoo, beginning the long ascent to FilmScope. If you want to have a laugh, read some of my earlier reviews. While that year wasn’t very strong for me in film, it did have some great moments and the top two were simply some of the best cinema this decade. Remember this is snapshot of what I thought at the time. If this were now, I might have made a few changes:

Finding Nemo: Pixar has finally made a masterpiece in this brilliantly emotional and visually stunning film by director Andrew Stanton. What keeps this film from being standard is practically everything. From a story that focuses more on emotional payoff than plot with some really great dialogue to some of the best voice-work since the second Golden Age of Disney. Walt Disney would have been proud of his company’s association with Pixar, and with this film in particular.
Kill Bill Vol. 1. Quentin Tarrentino has made one of the wildest rides in film today, turning the concepts of the martial arts film on it’s ear and creating a new monster. Uma Thurman is perfect as The Bride and her revenge so far is bloody sweet (and you have put emphasis on BOTH words). Double points for a killer soundtrack and Robert Richardson’s amazing cinematography. Can Volume 2 beat this? Who knows?
Big Fish: I have been waiting for this day for a long time. Director Tim Burton has finally made his masterpiece about the stories people tell and what role those stories play on both the teller and the listener. The visual look of the film is breathtaking and the acting is cheerful. Big Fish might tell one heck of a whopper, but I’m eating it all up.
The Last Samurai: Forgive me for being a fan of epics, especially those with a great cast, flawless production values, and an amazing director. Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai hosts two amazing performances from Tom Cruise and Ken Wantanabe, the latter deserving not just an Oscar nomination, but a win.
Something’s Gotta Give: Nancy Meyer’s adult comedy is just that; adult and mature and yet feisty. With lead performances from Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, the movie hits all the right notes to play towards these characters as humans than as plot points on the road to the inevitable.
Lost In Translation: You have not seen Bill Murray until you have seen Lost In Translation. This is a groundbreaking dramatic performance and one that I hope changes how people see the one-time funny man. Scarlett Johannsen is also stunning as a young newlywed who befriends Murray as both are far from home and long for some human companionship in the middle of Tokyo. Sophia Coppola might actually be better than her father if she keeps this up.
House of Sand and Fog: This is something both endearing and yet depressing about lose/lose scenarios. What keeps this movie from being extremely uncomfortable to watch is the lead performances from Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley as they both fight for and over a unique house. This is a tragedy and director Valim Perelman creates a suffocating atmosphere and allows the fine performances to lead us to it’s climax.
Matchstick Men: I didn’t think Ridley Scott has this kind of movie in him, a human character drama involving con men, but not really about cons. Nicholas Cage gives a fun over-the-top performance as a con man on the verge of a breakdown faced with a young girl (Alison Lohman) claiming to be his daughter. And once again, Sam Rockwell doesn’t get nearly enough credit for his involvement.
Whale Rider: It’s rare when a movie so brilliantly merges realism and mythology. Whale Rider is one of them, following a young girl (Kiesha Castle-Hughes) as she vies for the spot of Chief of her native New Zealand tribe. I doubt there will be another movie that creates metaphors as easily as this film does.
Mona Lisa Smile: Mike Newell’s mainstream comedy is actually more subversive than you might think. This is a cast to be looking forward to doing greater things lead by the likes of Julia Roberts and Kirsten Dunst. While the movie gets bogged down in places, I loved the performances by Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gennifer Goodwin so much that I found myself enthralled in this movie.

Meet a New Face of FilmScope: Julie Randolph

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:35:00 GMT

I am so glad that we are adding some new faces to FilmScope, and one I'm very excited to join us is Julie Randoph. A native of Houston and runs her own Rotten Tomatoes Account. You can find it here: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/347419/reviews/. Her first review was for The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Check it out. Thanks for joining FilmScope, Julie.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (5 of 10)

julierpa@yahoo.com (Julie Randolph) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:56:57 GMT

Oh Edward, Edward, where for art thou ...wait, wrong film. Actually, no it's not. It's very much the same, plus vampires and werewolves, but that's just being picky.

I really wanted it to be great. Honestly, I did. My main priority in going to see the movie was because I had not seen Twilight on the big screen and the scenery was so amazing I was sorry I didn't see it. I grant you, the scenery was amazing, but did not make up for the travesty that is Kristen Stewart and/or Robert Pattinson.

Kristen's character, Bella Swan, spends the majority of this film lamenting the fact that Edward (Pattinson) has left. Why did he leave? I am so glad you asked. He left because Bella cut herself and bled during her birthday party and Jasper tried to eat her. So, Edward ...not Jasper, but Edward leaves. How is that logical?

At any rate, the lethargy Bella goes through in the book is profound and frightening ...in the movie it's ...well, it's boring. One has to have some serious acting chops to tackle long, pronounced depression that runs so deep you think you'll never survive. Kristen Stewart does not have them.

On the flip side of that coin is the equally, but slightly more interesting Edward who has run off to Rome to expose himself to the human population, therfore earning him a death sentence from the Volturi (the big, bad vamps of Twilight 2). I wondered about this in the book, and I still wonder about it. How is taking off one's shirt and stepping out into the sunlight so you sparkle, "exposing" yourself. In this day and age (and yes, these stories are set in this day and age), people would assume it was a truly cool costume/make-up effect/ect ...and move on, because that's just how people are.

At any rate, Michael Sheen and Dakota Fanning are suitably creepy, so kudos to them.

The bright and shining star than managed to make this an average movie instead of just downright awful is Taylor Lautner who plays boy turned werewolf Jacob Black. He manages to take his part in this movie and give it a bright, happy, friendly moment or two as Bella realizes that, yes, the world is still turning despite her grief. Lautner clawed and fought (no pun intended) to keep this role, and buffed up big time to make sure he was able to bring justice to it, and he does a great job. I could have done without the little girls (and some of their moms) squeeling when he takes his shirt off, but oh well, can't win them all. Thanks Taylor, because of you, New Moon didn't outright suck.

I did like the way they kept Edward in the movie. That was something I wondered about because he is virtually absent from the book. As Bella begins to come out of her funk, she starts to hang out with Jacob sho encourages her to try new things. I don't think he had cliffdiving in mind, but, you know, go with it. Bella quickly realizes that if she puts herself in harms way a vision of Edward will appear ...and tell her to be careful (which is dorky). Good thinking on the part of the screenwriter. He's there so the girls can coo at will, but he's not really there.

All in all, it's not horrible. That's about as much as I can give you. It's not great, but is didn't suck. The CGI is fantastic, and as usual, the scenery is spectacular.

Second Opinion: Eric Offhill:

I hated Twilight with a passion. The dialogue made George Lucas' prose appear Shakespearian. Catherine Hardwicke's direction was trying to be indie and hip and came off as amatuer hour. And don't get me started with the sparkling vampires, the fashion model actors and the implausible love story between Bella and Edward.

With that said, New Moon was actually a step in the right direction, but still far from remotely being anything I can call good. Director Chris Weitz's direction plays towards the melodramatic elements of the story instead of downplaying them. He also finds a way to get around the downright awful screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg by changing the rhythm of the dialogue.

But the best part of the movie is the Wolf Pack. There is so much going on with these guys that I find myself wanting to follow them around. They have a great mythology that I wish could have been fleshed out and the character of Jacob Black is fascinating. With the addition of these new characters, it makes me realize that the vampires are litterally sucking the life out of the story. All they do is walk around and brood, the worst of them is Robert Pattenson's Edward. Is it just me or does he not have anything better to do with his afterlife than to yearn for Bella? Even Sex and the City's Mr. Big does something!

Grade: 5 of 10

2012 (7 of 10)

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:59:00 GMT

I now officially declare that the disaster movie genre is dead. The world has been destroyed by earthquakes, floods, fires, famine, nuclear war, and alien invasion. Mankind has been dealt a fatal blow by these and a host of others. As a famous song has said before, it’s all been done. And perhaps it should be fitting that Roland Emmerich be the one to kill it off with a disaster movie to outdo all disaster movies, to effectively kill off 99.9999999% of the population of our little planet in 2012.

2012 refers to the year that the Mayans supposedly declare that the world will end (that is actually incorrect as I found out doing a little research). The crackpot theories are endless as to how the world will end on December 21, 2012 (one of my favorites is an undetected planet is going to collide with ours), but Emmerich chooses probably one of the most silliest. Due to circumstances barely mentioned, the earth’s core is super-heating and cracking up the fissures, breaking continents apart and changing the polar balances to turn the planet sideways (which is a scientific possibility, but one scientist do not believe will happen over the course of a few days nor created the chaos that the movie rides on). The scientific community has known since 2009 and the governments of the world are putting a plan into motion to ensure the survival of the species. But our main protagonist is a limo driver/failed novelist Jackson Curtis (I wonder if Fiddy had words about that). When camping with his kids, he comes into contact with a government cover-up and a wily radio show host (Woody Harrellson) who tells him what’s going on. He decides to save his kids, ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and her plastic surgeon husband (Thomas McCarthy, director of The Station Agent and The Visitor) by taking them to a place secretly holding the means to preserve human life.

The one thing that really bothered me with Emmerich’s The Day after Tomorrow, yet another disaster movie, was that he couldn’t decide if he would tell a more realistic tale of global climate change or create a roller-coaster ride and therefore left mixed signals to the audience as to what he was trying to do. Here, he learned his lesson and put us through chase after chase as the world collapses just behind our protagonists. This is rather redundant in many scenes, but how else are we going to get caught up with the destruction of Yellowstone, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Washington, DC, just to name a few locations. We do get to see many international cities and locations get flattened and many landmarks fall apart. One of the ones that I thought was resonant was the statue of Jesus in Rio.

But the movie makes me laugh more than scare me. In a way, I’m glad that it does because it reminds me that the filmmakers are not taking this premise seriously and therefore are having fun with the concept of doing the Earth what Inglourious Basterds did to the Nazis.

But the most annoying part of the movie is that repeats itself over and over again like a rinse and repeat from Hell. And they all look the same. And yet for some reason I was still involved because I cared about these characters played by actors who found just enough seriousness and cheese to keep it sliding from one extreme to the other. The only one that really plays it too seriously is Danny Glover as the President. Thankfully he had Chiwetel Eljiorfor and Oliver Platt to keep the scenes from sinking into serious drama.

But the movie is owned by Mr. Emmerich and his technical team who create these stunning visual of the world collapsing on itself. He keeps the tension running long and hard (some might argue too long), but he allows us to really take in the devastation. It should be said that as I hope not to see any more End-Of-The-World movies for some time, this is the second of two well-made EOTW movies made this year (the other being the excellent Knowing). But I’m pretty sure the world will still be around come 2013, I think it would be nice to let go of this tired genre (and possibly the near-tired zombie sub-genre) for a new and more interesting perspective of the world.

All in all 2012 has a log going for it and almost as much going against it. You will have a good time if you are looking for roller-coaster but are too motion-sick to handle the likes of Cloverfield. Apparently, while humanity very well might end with a whimper, the rest of the planet will go out in a BANG!

Top Ten of 2002

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:13:00 GMT

2002 was the year I left home and made my way in the world. It was also the year that Enron collapsed and sent a lot of people I knew to the unemployment line. And it was a rather enjoyable year in film. As usual, this list came from a younger version of myself that I will respect, though I might have changed the list a little if I knew then what I know now.

Solaris: Steven Sodenburgh’s adaptation of the Stanislaw Lem novel provides more questions than answers, but in the best way possible. This is science fiction at it’s finest as George Clooney and Natasha McEllohne give quietly powerful performances. But the real treat here is Viola Davis as the realist in a space station starting to lose it’s grip on reality. Can man really grasp the concept of God with all of His power? Solaris has an idea, but it’s not a pretty one.
Bowling for Columbine: Michael Moore’s powerful documentary is one that asks a question and searches for an answer that doesn’t exist. Why are American’s so eager to shoot and kill each other? What starts off being about bloodlust quickly turns into a documentary about fear.
Signs: M. Night Shyamalan has finally made the masterpiece he has been threatening to make since The Sixth Sense. Signs is terrifying intimate about a former priest who tries to protect his family from a possible alien invasion. Mel Gibson gives an Oscar Worthy performance as Tak Fujimoto deserves all the acclaim he will get for his photography.
Adaptation: Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman has made a film that makes the ultimate statement about adapting books and articles into movies as Kaufman writes himself and his “twin” Donald (played by Nicholas Cage) into his own movie adaptation of The Orchid Thief. The movie works on levels beyond simple comprehension. Chris Cooper deserves an Oscar Nomination for an amazing performance.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding: Opa! How many movies not only make you want to join the party, but actually HAVE you join the party? A star is born in Nia Vardallos as Toulla, a young woman coming on her own as she defies her designated role in her family and marry a non-Greek (John Corbett). The fun just drips from scene to scene.
One Hour Photo: Robin Williams gives his most challenging performance to date in Mark Romenek’s film about a photo technician who finds himself desperate for the love and affection of a young family he comes to idolize. Creepy and unnerving is an understatement as Williams provides us a look into a man who has never been loved before.
Chicago: Musicals will never be more dour and yet exciting as Chicago. And director Rob Marshall brings the classic Broadway musical to life on film with an impressive cast with the likes of Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, and John. C. Reilly, an array of technical glitz and pizzazz, and one truly fireball story. And if you don’t find yourself singing along on the first go-round, wait until the second.
Road to Perdition: Sam Mendes’ film about fathers and sons is one that really catches your breath. It’s always great to see Tom Hanks take on a challenging role, but here he’s playing against the legend Paul Newman in one of his best roles in ten, possibly twenty, years. Conrad Hall’s cinematography is just amazing and Thomas Newman’s score hits all the right notes.
Gangs of New York: Martin Scorsese has made greater films, but none as ambitious as Gangs of New York. The production is so amazing that you just want to stare and gawk. Daniel Day-Lewis gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Bill the Butcher, which almost seems tailor-made for the actor. And while I still don’t buy Leonardo DiCaprio as a viable actor, he does try his best and it works very well.
Spider-Man: Who knew that the web-slinger would make top ten lists? Sam Raimi’s adaptation of the Marvel Superhero is one of the most exciting superhero movies to come down the pipeline, hopefully to redefine the experience. Tobey Maguire makes the dual role of Peter Parker and Spider-Man into a real performance and Willem Defoe is juicy as the menacing Green Goblin. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (6 of 10)

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:49:00 GMT

I must be a bad film critic for not liking a movie it appears every other film critic has embraced. This is not the first time I have stood alone against the critical juggernaut before, most recently with The Wrestler, but this time I feel more isolated in my displeasure about such a sloppy movie made of interesting parts. Oh, well, I don’t want to be apart of their club if they can’t take the criticism they dish out.

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is a sad example of what not to do when trying to make an inspirational movie. It’s sad because there is a good movie (maybe not great) here if only it would calm down and understand the limits of an audience’s tolerance towards the incredible. Precious is the hero at the center of this story and is played by newcomer Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe. She is 16 years old and extremely obese. She has one child by incestuous rape and another on the way. Her mother, played by comedian Mo’Nique, is nothing short of a monster. She tortures her daughter while using her and her baby for welfare. Why does this woman hate her daughter so much? You can tell why just in how she treats her, partially a slave and whipping boy for a life she feels was denied to her. She wouldn’t even let the girl out to go to school if welfare didn’t require it. The hate that comes out of this woman’s mouth is intened to keep this girl pinned into a life of subservience and pain. Precious escapes into a life of fantasies where she’s the star that others adore.

After her second pregnancy is detected (though Precious doesn’t give up the father), she is kicked out of school and is placed into alternative education where she is introduced to Miss Rain (Paula Patton), one of those inspirational teachers that movies always make out to be saints on top of being great educators. She decides she wants to get out from under her mother’s grip and still be a mother as well. This leads to the mother of all clashes between mother and daughter.

Again, inside this idea is a good movie, an inspirational movie. And the actors here are really good. But director Lee Daniels and screenwriter Gregory Fletcher are more interested in hammering the audience with blunt objects and objectives that it gets really annoying. We don’t just have the mother being cruel and mean, but she has to have a monologue to explain everything we already understood about her character. Miss Rain has be saintly and never show even a pause of exhaustion from seeing girls come in and out who really don’t want help. There is never a gray area where a character’s intentions are questioned. They either fall into simple categories of Friend or Enemy.

And let’s also talk about beating a dead horse. Why does the movie keep feeling like it needs to keep making things worse for Precious? Not only does she have the devil for a mother and a pedophile father, but two incestuous children, is extremely heavy, laughed at or ignored by others, but as the movie goes along, things keep getting worse to the point that she is given extremely grave news during a time when such news is fatal. I can understand making things tough for a character as done in A Serious Man or Slumdog Millionaire, but the film feels like it has to keep piling on crap on this poor girl just in case her life isn’t hard enough. There is definitely a lot of neo-realism going on in this movie except that once we get near the end, the movie gets so ridiculously contrived that we are left not believing that what we are seeing is reality. The sad thing is maybe all of these events were real for someone, but shown as it was in this movie, I couldn’t buy it.

And the final straw that killed any chance of me liking this movie is that I could not for the life of me either relate to nor empathize with Precious, which was the filmmakers were wanting me to do. And the reason I can’t is because the situations feel contrived and that the filmmakers are trying too hard to get me to pity Precious that they never really allow her to open up to us as the audience except in these ridiculous fantasy scenes that are better imagined than seen. I know about mental abuse, I have lived with someone whose mind and mouth were not so far from this mother creature. You don’t have to exaggerate it to make it ugly. Doing so makes it into a caricature and therefore rots it’s validity. And sadly enough, it rots how we perceive Precious.

Let me make myself clear; the acting in this movie is a lot better than it deserves, especially from very unusual places. Mo’Nique gives a terrifying portrayal if a little too over the top. I’m pretty sure she will be seeing some justified awards season attention. The same goes for ‘Gabby’ Sidibe, who does a great job making this girl feel real if the situations around her seem unreal. Even more unlikely is pop diva Mariah Carrey as a welfare agent who gets Precious to open up. Most of her scenes are really meant for her to react to Precious, but she doesn’t allow herself to be belittled by a thankless role. Even more impressive is Lenny Kravitz as a male nurse who gets a few great scenes to shine, though he really doesn’t add much to the story.

All in all, this is not really a bad film, just a misguided one and one that I honestly can’t say I want to relive. I have had enough pain and sorrow in much better films to waste my time on needless suffering. Others might disagree. I already know a few who do. But not in real life, those are the people agree with me.

Pirate Radio (7 of 10)

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:44:00 GMT

It has just now really hit me that the decade is finally coming to a close. That ten years of my life has passed in what seems like a heartbeat. It has been ten years and yet no one still has come up with a name for this decade; the double-Os, The Zeroes, the None-ties. I put my hat in the ring now and declare we should call this decade the Seymour Hoffmansies. Let’s face it, this diverse actor started his decade playing a scruffy brash music critic who mentors a young man to make life-altering decisions in Almost Famous. And now at the close of the decade, he plays a scruffy brash music jockey who mentors a young man to make life-altering decisions in Pirate Radio. In between, he has been nominated for three Oscars, won once, played in every kind of film possible and still doesn’t take himself too seriously. If that isn’t a qualifier, I don’t know what is.

Pirate Radio, formerly known as The Boat That Rocked (In my opinion a much better title), is the newest love child from Richard Curtis, whose mainstream love stories have been his bread and butter. But here, he’s doing sort of the same thing, but instead of a love story between two people, it’s a love story between the people of the U.K. and Rock and Roll. Of course if you have a love story, you have to have an evil force keeping the lovers apart. And what better villain than the up-tight British Parliament, who have kept Rock off the mainstream stations, which are dedicated to news and classical music. And if there is a villain, you have to have a hero, and who better than a bunch of scruffy hippies and outcasts on a ship in International waters, broadcasting Rock and Roll to the masses out of the reach of England’s clasps. But the government won’t stop until they have made Rock and Roll illegal. And who better to find that solution than Kenneth Brannagh?

But the movie is more interested in the antics of the pirates, lead by the flamboyant owner Quentin (Bill Nighy) and the American madman of the airwaves The Count (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). We are introduced to Radio Rock through the eyes of Quentin’s teenage godson, who is on-board after being kicked out of school. You might think that a bunch of rock lovers would have deep thoughtful conversations about music, but you’d be wrong. They seems to enjoy goofing off around the boat on their off-air time in the tradition of Animal House and M*A*S*H. We get tons of music, lots of smoking and a little sex. The comedy is entirely episodic and seems only to have an excuse to listen to some great old-time rock. When the government finally does find the way to shut them up, I was pretty sure that their decisions as to what to do were more out of wanting to keep goofing around than for any noble ideal.

And while think this movie is simple mindless fun (and came in very useful trying to get over the suffering put on me by Precious), I cannot deny that those who hate the movie are not without some merit. Yes, this movie has no bite nor insight. It is rather just a silly little flick with a couple of one-liners and little more. To me, this is more a party than a film, one that I would love to put on for a few friends and sing and laugh along with the antics.

And who wouldn’t want to party along with Nighy, Hoffman, Nick Frost who really does make the best of his role, Rhys Darby from Flight of the Corcords, and a few special cameos. This is definitely a comedy-first kind of movie that doesn’t push limits or even tests them. But who wants to attempt to break the festive mood?

But let’s get back to Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I wonder why he decided to take this part. Was it the same cosmic forces that brought him his other work? Did he know that the universe aligned themselves with each role he took from Punch-Drunk Love to Mission:Impossible 3 to The Savages? It just couldn’t be that he wanted to make a fun little picture, not someone whose performances have redefined an entire decade! Doesn’t anyone else see that Seymor Hoffman and Serene Harmony both start with the same letters! This was the decade of enlightmenment and it slipped through our fingers!

But all kidding aside, as far as I can tell, this does close the book on Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s incredible decade of work, a consummate actor who deserves the title with honor. While Pirate Radio isn’t going to be getting him any accolades, I think he’s earned a break between Doubt, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, and his serious work. It reminds us that he is a joy just to watch being goofy and fun. We smile along with him and are excited when he gets worked up.

All in all, this is really a silly little movie that you should enjoy (especially if you’ve just seen the extremely depressing Precious) if you are looking for a little breathing room. But grab a friend, get a drink or two and sing along with The Kinks, The Who, and The Stones. Laugh like you have nothing better to do and be merry. It’s the holiday season, my friends. Why not share a cup of cheer (and whisky) with a bunch of hippies on a boat?

Disney's A Christmas Carol (8 of 10)

erico_77375@yahoo.com (Eric Offhill) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:37:00 GMT

There are no other directors who I think really master the IMAX format like Robert Zemeckis. I have seen all three of his digital 3-D animation films in the IMAX format and I am a firm believer that this is the best way to see these films. For his third, he takes on the over-used timeless Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. Making this film for Disney, this marks their third version of this film, although their first without using established Disney or Henson characters. And this is by far my favorite version out of all the prior versions, Disney or non, just for the sheer visual sensations.

I won’t bore you with the story details. If you do not know this story, you’ve lived under a rock. But I will say what I loved about this adaptation. This version understood more completely than others that this story of a time and that Ebenezer Scrooge is a caricature of the inhumanity of the times. While I love seeing Scrooge as a character study, the problem is that the story in itself does not lend for much study. We only see him for one night and that his transformation isn’t really believable in any kind of realistic element. Yes, this film as in Dickens’ story, provides a humanity for Scrooge, it’s real intent is to show that all beings and entities were noble once before being twisted by greed and arrogance.

Visually-speaking, I love the opening of the film as we fly around old London Town on a beautiful Christmas Eve as we see the city come to life. This film would take a lot more of these deviations from the story than earlier incantations because it wants to show that life goes on and that there is joy in this world that Scrooge can’t threaten out. I also love how these same citizens react to Scrooge (even the dogs tuck their tails down and move away from the miser). I love the character visualizations of the human characters. Bob Cratchet looks like a jolly version of Gary Oldman. While Scrooge doesn’t look much like Jim Carrey, we can buy him as Scrooge through the animation catching Carrey’s facial tics. I love the visual style of most of the spirit encounters, including Marley’s warning to Scrooge, which is terrifying.

At the same time, I am also a little disappointed in the things missing or misconstrued. There were character developments that were missing, which I understand as they are more interested in caricaturizing Scrooge, but I am fascinated with the miser as a human being and will always be so. Some of the animations feel really fake although lively which come close to pulling me out of the story. And the Ghost of Christmas Past was horribly rendered and executed. This looks most like Carrey and while I understand why, it really looked stupid in my opinion.

With this said, I must show appreciation for the likes of Jim Carrey, who plays Scrooge and all three ghosts, Oldman, who plays Cratchet and Marley, and Bob Hoskins who has a greatly underused character of Fezziwig, who was always my favorite character in the story. I always wonder what Fezziwig would think of Scrooge if he would have seen what had become of him.

And while I have some complaints, I would come back to this version with my mouth agape, an inaudible “whoa” in my throat. But only in IMAX, where I can lose myself in the colors and the brilliant use of 3-D which is not so much jump out at you as much as creating a full environment where the story can take place. Robert Zemeckis and his ImageMovers Digital team is light years ahead in the area of 3-D than even Pixar.

All in all, A Christmas Carol is what meets my definition of a theatrical experience. I felt the same way about Beowulf and The Polar Express. And if either of those other films happen to come back to IMAX theaters again, I’ll line back up to take the ride again, and I will bring friends.