Part 91: 2011
MOVIES:
Black Swan (hidden gem)
The King's Speech (winner)
The Fighter
127 Hours
The Social Network
The Kids Are All Right
Inception
Winter's Bone
True Grit
Toy Story 3
Black Swan
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder, Benjamin Millepied, Ksenia Solo, Kristina Anapau, Janet Montgomery, Sebastian Stan, Toby Hemingway, Sergio Torrado, Mark Margolis, Tina Sloan
Oscar Wins: Best Actress (Natalie Portman)
Other Nominations: Best Film Editing, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Picture
Ballet, in and of itself, is an art form of grand gesture. It plays with our understanding of reality, the human body, even the force of gravity. Yet it demands rigorous perfectionism from its performers. It’s built on years of physical and mental training that’s incredibly focused and that often takes priority over normal life.
This conflict between the ideal and the reality is all too consuming for Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a talented dancer who has devoted her entire life to ballet. Whether that was entirely her choice is up for debate. Her mother, Erica (Barbara Hershey), was a dancer once, and now dedicates her life to her daughter’s career. They share a small apartment that sometimes feels safe and sometimes feels like a cell. Their relationship is strange from the get-go. At first Erica’s doting seems loving, but it soon crosses the border into overbearing, maybe even abusive. Their relationship is the first of many strange unions throughout Black Swan.
Nina feels more at home at New York’s Lincoln Center, where she dances under the tutelage of the autocratic Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel). His current season is dedicated to re-imagining the classics – starting with the most classic of all, Swan Lake.
Having cast off his former prima ballerina (and lover), Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder), he’s now auditioning for a new lead. His retelling of Swan Lake requires the lead to play both the white and black swan, an extremely challenging performance that demands everything of its performer. As the most technically skilled performer in the company, Nina is clearly the best choice for the white swan, but the black swan demands something different…a performance driven by feeling, not technique.
Nina, a driven perfectionist, is determined to score the part – and is willing to do whatever it takes to get it. However, tension grows when a new dancer named Lily (Mila Kunis) joins the company. Lily is everything Nina is not: bold, sexual, confident. Nina seems both fascinated and obsessed with her, a true black swan to her white one.
Ultimately, Nina does score the part…but it comes at a cost. As she dives deeper and deeper into the performance, the lines of reality begin to blur. Neither Nina nor the audience knows what’s real and what’s not, as her mind twists and turns like the dancers on the stage. There’s no moment of light here, no sense of relief, as we’re dragged into a dark version of one of the most famous ballet productions.
No backstage ballet story can be seen without The Red Shoes coming to mind…and Black Swan certainly borrows a lot from its inspiration. Both have an overbearing teacher whose autocratic manner masks a deep possessiveness. Both have a principal ingenue, so driven to please. And both expertly blur the lines of fantasy and reality. Why do literally ALL ballet movies have such scary elements?!
So, while Black Swan is certainly a beautifully done film, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. Backstage rivalry, jealousy, a great work mirrored in the lives of those performing it – we see this all the time in movies about the arts. Even the idea of Nina physically becoming a swan is an ode to Victoria Page’s red shoes that somehow become a part of her. But that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. Black Swan is filled with stunning performances from top to bottom, and even if you’re not a fan of ballet, the unsettling horror that weaves throughout the movie is sure to please anyone who loves a well-told story.
As different as the cultures of wrestling and ballet may be, Black Swan is also a bit of a companion piece to Darren Aronofsky’s other film, The Wrestler. Both are grounded in athleticism, study the limits of the human body, and consider the ways it inevitably betrays us. There are several moments in Black Swan where we see close-ups of cracking feet, bruises and scratches, and bloody, broken nails. The tragedy of Nina, and of many young performers and athletes, is that perfectionism in one area of life has led to sacrifices in many others…and its toll on our physical and mental health becomes more and more apparent over time. As Swan Lake’s prima ballerina, Nina loses herself in her performance – not so much a compliment as it is a sacrifice.
The King’s Speech
Director: Tom Hooper
Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Timothy Spall, Derek Jacobi, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Gambon, Freya Wilson, Ramona Marquez, Patrick Ryecart, Simon Chandler, Claire Bloom, Orlando Wells, Tim Downie, Eve Best, Anthony Andrews, Andrew Havill
Oscar Wins: Best Actor (Colin Firth), Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Director, Best Picture
Other Nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Geoffrey Rush), Best Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter), Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Music (Original Score), Best Cinematography
It’s gotta be hard enough for a king who didn’t want to be king to have to address his entire nation during the early months of war. Harder still, I’m sure, to do it with a stammer.
When The King's Speech begins, Prince Albert, Duke of York, (Colin Firth), is preparing to make a speech at Wembley Stadium – where his stammered words echo mercilessly into the crowd. The audience seems pained, uncomfortable, pitying…but Albert (or Bertie, as his family calls him) has pretty much thrown in the towel on fixing his affliction. As the younger of King George V’s two sons, his chances of making public appearances or worse still – becoming king – are slim to none with his older brother, David (Guy Pierce) in line to replace his father.
But Albert’s wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) hasn’t given up hope on fixing her husband’s ailment. In secret, she procures the help of unorthodox speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), who agrees to take Albert on as a patient.
Albert is skeptical at first, but Lionel proves his worth with a clever trick involving headphones and a little reading of Shakespeare. Perhaps this crazy Aussie isn’t so crazy after all…
Then, three things happen in quick succession that escalate Albert’s life in monumental ways. First, his father discovers this new-fangled contraption called the radio that will bring the royal family closer to the people. Then, dear old dad dies. Finally, David – who ascends to the throne as Edward VIII – creates a constitutional crisis by being engaged to an American divorcee. As King Edward, he’s barred from marrying someone who’s been married before, but he’s not willing to give her up…leading Edward to abdicate the throne.
This truly fateful progression of events leads to Albert being crowned King George VI. Now this quiet, stuttering man who never wanted to be in the spotlight is suddenly thrown into the spotlight with a form of technology designed to broadcast his words not just to his constituents, but to countries all over the world.
From here, The King’s Speech puts the focus on the budding friendship between the king and his therapist. As the two men warm to each other in their own ways, a beautiful friendship develops between them, one that would last the remainder of their lives.
While The King’s Speech is very much focused on Albert’s relationship with Lionel, it’s also about Albert’s ability to rally a nation during the early stages of World War II. His first major test of leadership rests on his speech to the world, via the radio, telling listeners why England must go to war. The moments surrounding this scene are intense, as Albert marches towards that microphone as it if were a guillotine – because, in some way, it is. Past experiences standing in front of a microphone resulted in moments of severe stuttering, but that can’t happen this time. With all of England listening, and heck – maybe even Germany, too – Albert cannot fail…because if he fails, England fails. All the exercises, all the vocal workshops, all the goofy dancing and moving and singing and screaming…it’s all come down to this one moment.
With Lionel by his side, Albert delivers a nearly flawless speech. Afterwards, he’s brimming with confidence. He’s a changed man. He’s conquered his nemesis. He’s a leader. A true king.
Though The King’s Speech is mostly your average historical drama (it even includes Timothy Spall who’s pretty much in every British World War II movie), the sets and visuals help set it apart. The movie is shot largely indoors and most of those spaces are long and narrow. That’s unusual for movies about British royalty, which usually emphasize sweeping, majestic spaces. Here we have long corridors, deep and narrow hallways, rooms that seem peculiarly oblong. It’s not hard to imagine the film is trying to evoke the narrow, constricting walls of Albert’s throat as he struggles to get his words out. It’s a poetic and symbolic ode to Albert’s life and how hard it’s been to navigate it.
Overall, The King’s Speech is an enjoyable movie. I don’t think it’s monumental in any way, nor do I think it’s really deserving of Best Picture, but it’s a genuine, feel-good film about leadership, acceptance, understanding, and the power of a good friend by your side.
The Fighter
Director: David O. Russell
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Jack McGee, Frank Renzulli, Mickey O'Keefe, Jenna Lamia, Bianca Hunter, Erica McDermott, Sugar Ray Leonard, Kate O'Brien, Alison Folland
Oscar Wins: Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale), Best Supporting Actress (Melissa Leo)
Other Nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams), Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Picture
Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) has less personality than the hero of any another boxing movie I’ve seen. Maybe that’s because he’s played by Mark Wahlberg, or maybe it’s because he just can’t get a word in edgewise.
His brother Dicky (Christian Bale) is a motormouth crackhead that loves boxing but loves the sound of his own voice more. His mom Alice, (Melissa Leo), who is also his manager, has a mouth as big as her hair and Dicky’s seven opinioned sisters aren’t really too keen on shutting the fudge up.
Micky grew up hero-worshipping Dicky, who’s entire persona is based on a fight he won a lifetime ago against Sugar Ray Leonard. Then Dicky got hooked on crack – and now he’s a goofy, scrawny guy with a cigarette in his mouth and his arm around his brother, trying to look too cool for school for the documentary crew following him around. Dicky thinks they’re making a movie about his unlikely comeback, but everyone knows it’s about his fall from grace. Easy for a drug-fueled brain to confuse the two.
As the movie opens, Micky is struggling to get any wins…but then his life changes when he meets Charlene (Amy Adams), a rough-and-tough bartender who knows the neighborhood, knows the story, and knows how Micky’s problem is blood-related.
Mama Alice sees both of her boys (more so Micky now) as performers in a long-running tribute to herself. Her kingdom is her living room, where her daughters poison the air with vulgarity, cigarette smoke and hairspray. She’s managed Micky’s career as a smothering mother would…but he’s loyal because family is family. Charlene struggles at first to get Micky to see the bigger matriarchal problem, but eventually everything comes to light…and Charlene becomes the villain in breaking up a family that really wasn’t that close to begin with.
The only union strong enough to survive Charlene’s blowtorch is Micky and Dicky, an almost biblical brotherhood that’s a time-honored tradition in any boxing movie. Dicky really was a contender, he could have been somebody, but now he’s a bum. His brother looks out for him, keep him safe, all while trying to be contender himself. They are each other’s strength and weakness in this fight that goes from the ring to the living room…and no one is left unscathed at the end.
While he won for Best Supporting Actor, Christian Bale really is the heart and soul of this movie. He’s proven, time and again, that he can pretty much take on any role and leave everyone else in his wake. His body is a master chameleon, able to transform almost effortlessly into something unrecognizable from his last role. In The Fighter, he looks absolutely wretched, and that’s a compliment of the highest order. His gaunt face, bony frame and sketchy behavior show his commitment to his craft and proves that Bale has that talent that’s not just skin deep.
The problem with that is that he really just outperforms everyone. Melissa Leo puts up a good fight, but this is Bale’s movie through and through.
Much like Rocky, The Fighter isn’t so much about boxing as it is a drama set against boxing. It’s a movie about family, about believing in yourself, and having the right people in your corner.
127 Hours
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn, Clemence Poesy, Lizzy Caplan, Kate Burton, Treat Williams, Aron Ralston
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Actor (James Franco), Best Music (Original Score), Best Music (Song) ("If I Rise"), Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Film Editing, Best Picture
Here are some things I never want to get stuck in: a waterslide during July, skinny jeans, the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disney, and Florida.
Before seeing 127 Hours, the mere thought of being stuck in a cavern in the middle of the Utah desert never even entered my mind – but now we may as well add that to the list, too.
Aron Ralston (James Franco), a climber and extreme sports enthusiast, is getting ready to head out on another thrill-seeking adventure. As a carefree guy who loves the outdoors and the excitement of exploration, Aron has no idea where today will take him – and neither, unfortunately, does anyone else.
No one has any idea where Aron is going. Not his mom. Not his friends. Not his neighbors. Not the two other hikers he met on the path. He doesn’t have a phone (not that he could get a signal anyway) and didn’t leave any note about where he’d be heading to that day – but he doesn’t seem concerned. His upbeat music and all the close-ups of him smiling and joking show us that this guy is comfortable in the uncertainty of it all.
Aron’s ultimate date with destiny begins when he starts a very dangerous canyon climb, only to fall and get his hand trapped under an immovable boulder. And, for the next 80 minutes, we’re stuck there with him. With food and water running out, we all know it’s just a matter of time before one of two things happens: either he finds a way to unstick his arm, or he dies.
What is essentially a one-man show is kept moving with Aron’s flashbacks and visions of the people in his life, including the two hikers he met before getting stuck in the canyon. He also talks about what he’s going through by videotaping himself periodically, leaving heartfelt messages to his parents on a video recorder he was carrying in his bag. These scenes help to flesh out the kind of person Aron was and is – and just makes you want his freedom that much more. They’re actually quite heartbreaking when you think about it. Trapped, knowing he’s probably going to die, Aron is left to just sit and think about the people he once knew, the mistakes he made, the situations he wishes he could take back. These are extremely emotional moments and really make you appreciate what you have that much more.
After being trapped for 5 days, Aron decides that enough is enough. In a scene I can’t even write about without gagging, Aron breaks his own arm, then proceeds to cut it off with a dull pocketknife. For the audience, the worst moment is not the sight of it, but the sound of it. Though most of us have never heard those sounds before, we know exactly what’s happening…and it hurts in all the ways.
With a movie based on true events, not to mention well-documented ones, 127 Hours has the tough task of still making Aron’s story interesting. In films like this, it’s hard to build tension or suspense. As we all know watching films like Titanic, the boat is going to sink – but how we keep the audience engaged with a story which they know the conclusion of is the true test of a good film. 127 Hours does a good job of that – and since Aron is the film’s only real character, the emotional impact heightens our feelings of empathy for him.
All in all, 127 Hours is a hard movie to watch…rock hard. And that’s no joke. It’s an unrelenting and unforgiving look at what hardships a man can push himself through in order to survive. It’s also a harrowing reminder of what we all learned watching Arrested Development:
The Social Network
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones, John Getz, David Selby, Denise Grayson, Douglas Urbanski, Rooney Mara, Joseph Mazzello, Dustin Fitzsimons, Wallace Langham, Patrick Mapel, Dakota Johnson, Malese Jow, Trevor Wright, Shelby Young, Aaron Sorkin, Steve Sires, Caleb Landry Jones, Josh Pence
Oscar Wins: Best Film Editing, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Music (Original Score)
Other Nominations: Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Picture
The Social Network, ironically, is filled with people being utterly antisocial towards each other. The king of the antisocials is Mark Zuckerberg (Jessie Eisenberg), a self-involved, petty little nerdy boy who spitefully creates a website designed to rate girls on his Harvard campus after his girlfriend dumped his ass. The website, “Facemash.com”, is wildly successful, generating so much web traffic that it brings the Harvard campus network to its knees.
Impressed by his work, fellow students Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer) approach him with an idea of their own: an elite, Harvard-only online social network that would allow students to connect (mostly for dating purposes) in the virtual space. Mark likes the idea, but it needs work. He decides to create a social network of his own, “The Facebook”, as a way for university students to communicate with each other. Together with his roommate, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), the two quickly begin building their new enterprise into a successful, popular website.
But, of course, innovation requires money. Mark appoints Edwardo as his CFO and tasks him with finding out how the website can generate income. Edwardo presents the only real viable solution: online advertising. Mark refuses to do that, though, thinking it would make “The Facebook” uncool.
To settle the dispute, Mark calls in Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), famed founder of the illegal music-sharing website, Napster. Sean has plenty of ideas for improving the site, including dropping “The” from the title so it’s just Facebook, but Eduardo starts to feel uncomfortable with Sean’s involvement. The feud sends Mark and Eduardo to opposite sides of the country: Mark (along with Sean and a team of programmers) moves to California to continue developing Facebook, while Eduardo moves to New York in an attempt to solicit financial support for the website.
As he works closely with Sean to improve Facebook, Mark begins a transformation from a naïve, annoying college kid into a ruthless, cold-hearted businessman. Sean’s utter lack of concern for others starts to rub off on Mark, leading to the breakdown of his relationship with Eduardo. As Mark, Eisenberg never gives us an ounce of sympathy for the guy. Instead, he’s portrayed as a calculating, cold, self-assured and, yes, vengeful person with sociopathic tendencies. A man that would betray those closest to him if it meant rising to the top. In other words, he’s a guy destined to become a billionaire.
Most of The Social Network is revealed in flashbacks. The film’s present moments happen in conference rooms, where Mark is being sued by Eduardo and the Winklevoss twins for stealing their idea. Part of you wants to side with the Winklevoss twins but, the truth is, everyone in this movie sucks. They’re all self-involved, which is off-putting to start with…then we’re dragged deep into the world of backstabbing and rich boys playing politics with daddy’s money and, in the end, no one is really likeable or redeemable.
The final scenes take us right back to the beginning, with Mark wealthier, but not that much wiser. With 500 million Facebook friends, Mark Zuckerberg is easily one of the most well-known guys in the world, yet here he is, sitting alone in a big empty room, stalking his ex on Facebook…nothing but his billions to keep him company.
The Kids Are All Right
Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Starring: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson, Yaya DaCosta, Eddie Hassell, Kunal Sharma, James Macdonald, Zosia Mamet
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Actress (Annette Bening), Best Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo), Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Picture
Well, the kids might be all right, but their parents are a bit of a mess.
Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) have been married for more than 20 years. They’re raising a boy named Laser (Josh Hutcherson) and a girl named Joni (Mia Wasikowska). Each mother gave birth to one of the children using the same sperm donor. Home life is casual and happy, upper middle class. Nic is a doctor, Jules is an entrepreneur, literally in the weeds of starting her own landscape and gardening company.
While comfortable in their routine, Jules and Nic also find themselves in a bit of a rut. Nic has been working late hours and often turns to wine as a way to decompress. Jules has a habit of diving head-first into a business venture, then failing to follow it through, wasting her own time and money. All in all, what Nic and Jules are going through is no different from what many straight couples go through – and it really gets to the truth of what hard work marriage can be.
Home life is shaken up a little further when the kids get it in their heads to seek out their birth father. Joni is skeptical, not wanting to ruffle any feathers…but Laser, seemingly desperate for some type of male connection, convinces his older sister to make the call.
The father turns out to be a cool California guy named Paul (Mark Ruffalo), the kind of ironically stinky, earthy hippie who says things like, “Sure, I mean…sure, yes, of course…I mean, why not? Sure.” He runs a cozy little organic restaurant that’s stocked with food from his organic garden. He wears a leather jacket in the summertime. He even drives a motorcycle. He has never been married and has no other children. He’s way too cool for any of that type of commitment.
When Joni makes contact with him, he agrees to a dinner. It’s cool his kids want to get to know him. It’s cool that their moms are lesbians. It’s cool that they want to meet at his restaurant. I mean…sure, yes, of course…I mean, why not? Sure.
When Nic and Jules eventually find out about Laser and Joni’s meeting with Paul, they decide to take the high road and invite Paul over for dinner. Initially they’re a little confused by Paul’s desire to be close to the kids. He seems like a test tube bio-dad, at a stage in his life when starting a family might be more on his mind…but Nic and Jules want it clear that they have no interest in welcoming him into their lives.
But no one can resist Mark Ruffalo! Over time, everyone’s feelings shift, particularly Jules’, who takes to Paul in a more, shall we say, physical way.
Naturally, their affair has disastrous consequences that pit everyone against each other. Can Nic and Jules reconcile with each other, and their kids, before Joni heads off to college?
The Kids Are All Right could have easily been about Paul’s redemption, his transition from an unattached boy-toy to a serious co-parent. But this movie avoids that plotline. Paul is changed by meeting Nic and Jules and their kids, but he doesn’t quite get what he wants in the end. It’s actually not even clear if he’s even learned anything about himself or his behavior. When Paul made his sperm donation, he was 19 years old…and he hasn’t really grown up since then (this might be symbolic of what happens when young men become fathers). In some ways, he becomes the family’s third child, making goofy faces and snide remarks. When Laser asks him why he became a sperm donor, Paul tells him he thought it would be more fun than donating blood. Laser’s face makes us think that’s not the answer he was looking for.
Furthermore, whatever Laser was looking for in developing this relationship with Paul doesn’t happen either. Paul is actually somewhat of a loser as a male role model. When the two play basketball, Paul can’t sink a basket, yet Laser scores on him almost effortlessly. Paul’s affair with Jules also makes him morally and ethically suspect to the rest of the family, with Joni even telling him she wishes he’d been “better”.
As Jules says, marriage is hard work. Inevitably, we’re bound to hurt the ones we love most as we slog through the years, making mistakes we can’t fix and trying to forgive each other for it. While Jules and Nic are lesbians, this is not a movie about lesbians…it’s a movie about marriage…an institution with challenges that are universal.
Inception
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine, Dileep Rao, Lukas Haas, Talulah Riley, Pete Postlethwaite
Oscar Wins: Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Cinematography
Other Nominations: Best Music (Original Score), Best Art Direction, Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Picture
Is it possible to pull a brain muscle?
Inception is a movie that tests your ability to pay attention. It’s about what’s real and unreal, what we perceive and what we project, what is solid in our conscious mind and how our subconscious can influence everything. It’s a movie that’s somewhat immune to spoilers because even if you know how it ends, that wouldn’t tell you much unless you knew how it got there…and telling you how it got there is challenging enough as it is!
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a corporate raider of the highest degree. Along with his partner, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Dom infiltrates the minds of other people to steal their ideas. It’s called Extracting, and Dom is one of the most skilled Extractors.
But things get complicated when Dom is hired by a wealthy billionaire named Saito (Ken Wantanabe) to do the opposite: to introduce an idea into a rival’s subconscious…and do it so well that he believes it was his own idea…a task called Inception.
Now, Extraction is one thing, but Inception is something totally different. There are questions as to whether or not this is even possible, but Dom is enticed to take the job when Saito promises to use his influence to clear Dom’s name of a mysterious murder charge that has kept him out of the United States and separated from his two children.
The target is Robert Fischer, Jr. (Cillian Murphy) and the task requires Dom to assemble quite the dream team. Along with Dom and Arthur, a top-notch team of experts sign on to handle the task, including Eames (Tom Hardy), a master at deception; Yusuf (Dileep Rao), a master chemist tasked with keeping everyone safe while they dream; and a new recruit named Ariadne (Elliot Page), a brilliant young architect who is a prodigy at creating dream worlds.
Together this team goes on the ultimate mission to infiltrate a dream, then a dream within a dream, then another dream within a dream within a dream. If you can keep up with the levels, the story isn’t too terribly hard to follow – but this is certainly a movie that demands your full attention. Lose interest for a second, and you may as well start it over again.
I would say I definitely enjoyed, like, 75% of Inception. The dream worlds are stunning…and when Inception takes on those big visual scenes, it excels. Folding cityscapes, exploding fortresses, and zero-gravity hallway fights are what dreams of dreams of dreams are made of…and certainly was something to see when this film was in theaters.
HOWEVER…
I also have a few complaints.
First off, whoever the hell is doing sound editing for all of Christopher Nolan’s movies should be fired. The sound balance in this movie is so drastic, with loud, blaring audible jump scares that mask what these characters are saying. You have to turn it up to hear the dialogue, then turn it down because the music is too loud. It drives me insane and is one of the reasons I never really watch any Christopher Nolan movie more than once.
Though, maybe the loud music is meant to mask the dialogue because it’s so freaking bad. This movie put SO MUCH into the visual and storytelling elements, then topped it with script writing that didn’t really match that talent level at all. But I guess a good script isn’t why most people go to do see a Nolan film…
But all that being said, this is still one of the more unique movies I’ve seen in a long while. The complexity of Inception is purposely frustrating and confusing, and the film works because of that. We try so hard to interpret our dreams, make sense of our subconscious mind, and you have to work just as hard – if not harder – to make sense of Inception…but once you do, once your head stops spinning like a top and things start to settle into place, you’re bound to love the movie even more.
Winter’s Bone
Director: Debra Granik
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Kevin Breznahan, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt, Sheryl Lee, Lauren Sweetser, Tate Taylor, Isaiah Stone, Ashlee Thompson
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Supporting Actor (John Hawkes), Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Picture
When Hollywood portrays the Ozarks or similar Appalachian-type settings, it does so either with a heightened sense of inbred drama or as a stereotypical southern outpost filled with burly men toting a gun in one hand a bottle of moonshine in the other.
In the grand scheme of things, those portrayals are not real.
What Winter’s Bone offers is something different. These Ozarks are real. Disturbingly so.
Like the place where she comes from, Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) is ordinary. She doesn’t strut. She doesn’t speechify. She doesn’t lead armies to war. She’s a plain, 17-year-old girl who lives a life in a world that the average American has no idea really exists. She’s confident, but it’s the type of confidence that comes out of pain, out of having to grow up too fast.
As the homemaker for her younger brother and sister, Ree has taken on a large amount of responsibility. Her mother is catatonic, mentally absent from life and responsibility. And her father, who was jailed for cooking meth, is missing. She does her best to keep her siblings fed and cared for, but there’s only so much a young 17-year-old girl can do.
When the local sheriff (Garret Dillahunt) shows up outside Ree’s ramshackle property, he does so the same way any outsider pays an unannounced visit in these parts: very nervously. The sheriff informs Ree that her daddy has posted the family home as bail, and if he doesn’t show up for next week’s court date, they will lose their home. “I’ll find him,” she says. And, in doing so, she starts to dig up some very dangerous secrets.
Ree’s journey through the meth-addled hills of Missouri lead her to first confront her father’s brother, Teardrop (John Hawkes), a man we don’t quite know if we can trust. As she walks deeper into the apocalyptic landscape of the Missouri Ozarks, Ree learns that not everyone is quite as willing to do the right thing…and many of the women Ree might expect to sympathize with her are simultaneously maternal and murderous in their protection of their own male-dominated clans.
But through it all, Ree doesn’t judge them…and the movie doesn’t, either. Ree herself has lived as one of them and doesn’t see them as inferior, only ungiving and disappointing. She knows there’s a code here. It’s a code that doesn’t respect bloodlines, gender or age. If you step out of line, you are bound to end up “et by hogs”…and this is the challenge that Ree undertakes. In her father’s world, everyone is a criminal. And everyone is suspicious of outsiders – even those that are blood-related.
Despite its brilliance, Winter’s Bone isn’t perfect. The relationship between Ree and her mother, for example, could do with further investigation. What caused her mental breakdown? Is she aware of her situation? Does she know the burden she’s put on Ree? In this small-town drama, it sometimes feels like we’re a bit out of the loop – though, maybe that’s intentional…
There are life experiences that are unfathomable.
There are places where sane people don’t go.
There are truths that are unbelievable.
Yet, ordinary people find their way into all of these scenarios. Winter’s Bone is a cold, chilling and haunting tale of such a person – a young girl who didn’t ask for this life, but is trying to survive in it, to find her place in a brutal, amoral world not built for her kind. Secrets stay buried here. When stuff is swept under the rug, it damn well better stay hidden. This is a film about transgression, taboo, and the consequences of trespassing upon the past.
True Grit
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, John Brolin, Barry Pepper, Domhnall Gleeson, Bruce Green, Ed Lee Corbin, Roy Lee Jones, Paul Rae, Nicholas Sadler, Dakin Matthews, Elizabeth Marvel, Leon Russom, Jake Walker, Don Pirl, Jarlath Conroy, J.K. Simmons
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Hailee Steinfeld), Best Actor (Jeff Bridges), Best Director, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Picture
Remakes. Ya love em or ya hate em. If you’re brave/dumb enough to embark on this project of Best Picture nominees, you’re going to see a lot of them. Little Women, A Star is Born, Cleopatra, Les Miserables, and Romeo and Juliet are just some of the stories that have at least two versions that were nominated for Best Picture…with some having even more that were not nominated.
In most cases, the original version is the best one. I think that’s certainly true of Little Women, West Side Story, and Cleopatra for sure…but sometimes, a classic is made even better with a fresh set of eyes…a new outlook…a better cast. And that is certainly the case with this western classic, True Grit.
Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) is a fat, boozy, has-been who drinks too much and washes none too often. After a career of gunslinging and soldiering, he’s now employed as a US marshal, perusing miscreants and fugitives of the highest degree. He may look a mess, but he’s good at his job and brings the majority of his targets back dead, whether they’re wanted alive or not.
Rooster’s life is turned upside down when a tenacious whippersnapper named Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) hires him to catch Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the man who killed her father. Cheney has fled for the Indian territories, meaning local law enforcement cannot pursue him. This leaves her with Rooster, a man with ‘true grit’, who’s willing to do whatever it takes to find this murderer and bring him to justice.
Unfortunately for Chaney, Rooster isn’t the only one on his tail. A Texas ranger named LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) is also hunting Chaney on a different charge…but Mattie is adamant about avenging her father first and foremost. If anyone is gonna take down Chaney, it’s gonna be her.
And so, True Grit becomes a classic chase story with a trio of characters who under normal circumstances would never be travel companions. In a moment of frustration, Rooster sums up their attitudes towards each other best when he declares them to be “a foolish man…a harpy in trousers and a nincompoop.” I’ll let you determine who is who there.
While True Grit does have beautiful cinematography and clever writing, the real enjoyment comes from the cast. In her first major role, Hailee Steinfeld steals the show – and that’s a big order when she’s acting against two Hollywood legends. Yet, it’s appropriate. This is her story, set in motion by her, and narrated by her. In the hands of Steinfeld, Mattie is not a weak, adorable 14-year-old…she does not live in an adorable world. This is not a little girl you want to adopt; this is a girl you want guarding your back.
And, as an even more drunk and crazy Jack Sparrow of the old west, Jeff Bridges owns this role – bringing Rooster Cogburn to life in ways John Wayne never could. Watching the original version, you’re very aware you’re watching John Wayne. When we see Rooster Cogburn in this version, we’re not even thinking about Jeff Bridges. They’re one in the same. There’s so much realism to him that you can almost smell him through the screen. It’s perfection in every way.
Usually, I’m not a fan of remakes. In most cases I find them lazy because they’re just not different enough from the original (*cough* West Side Story cough). But in this case, the Coen Brothers didn’t so much copy their inspiration as they did honor it, freshening it up with better characters, better casting, and a better story, all while paying homage to the film that came before it. What you get from that is something better than the original, and that – my friends – takes true grit.
Toy Story 3
Director: Lee Unkrich
Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, John Morris, Don Rickles, Blake Clark, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, Jeff Pidgeon, Jodi Benson, Michael Keaton, Emily Hahn, Timothy Dalton, Kristen Schaal, Jeff Garlin, Bonnie Hunt, Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Angel, Jan Rabson, John Cygan, Laurie Metcalf, Lori Alan, Bea Miller, R. Lee Ermey, Teddy Newton, Richard Kind, Bud Luckey, Javier Fernandez Pena, Charlie Bright, Amber Kroner, Brianna Maiwand, Erik von Detten, Jack Willis, Woody Smith
Oscar Wins: Best Animated Feature Film, Best Music (Song) ("We Belong Together")
Other Nominations: Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Sound Editing, Best Picture
The problems all began with the most dreaded of commands: “Clean out your room!”
We’ve all been there. We’ve all wrestled with the choice of what toys to keep, what to donate, and what to throw away. In the years prior to 2010, this may have been a much easier decision for people – but after Toy Story 3 convinced us all that toys have feelings and can be hurt by our decisions to dispose of them, well, let’s just say there are probably a lot more hoarders now than there ever were before.
The last time we saw Andy (John Morris), he was a seven-year-old boy. Now he’s 17 and getting ready to leave for college. His mom, probably eager to turn his room into a gym or craft studio, tasks him with deciding what to do about all his old and beloved toys. Either move them to the attic, trash them, or donate them to a local daycare center.
Over the past years, Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Jessie the Cowgirl (Joan Cusack), Hamm the Piggybank (John Ratzenberger), Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head (Don Rickles and Estelle Harris), Rex (Wallace Shawn) and the rest of the gang have been relegated to an old toy chest in his bedroom. They long so much to be played with that they try and play a prank on Andy, but it doesn’t go as planned.
Still, Andy doesn’t have the heart to throw away the toys that meant so much to him. He decides to bring Woody to college with him and move the rest of the gang to the attic. However, through a classic mix-up similar to Toy Story 2, the toys end up at Sunnyside Daycare. At first, Sunnyside seems like a dream “retirement center” for a toy, but it’s not quite as sunny as the name suggests.
Run by the manipulative, strawberry scented Lotso Huggins Bear (Ned Beatty), the toys quickly discover that Sunnyside is more of a prison than a paradise. Lotso is a tragic-comic figure who has become an emotionally twisted sadist as a consequence of him thinking he was abandoned by his owner. He banishes the new toys to the toddler room, where – as you can imagine – toys aren’t so much played with as they are destroyed. Now it’s up to Woody to rescue his friends and get them all back to Andy where they belong.
Despite all the laughs – and there are many – Toy Story 3 is also huge parts tragedy. The toys are never really out of the woods. They’re almost constantly in danger, from trying to escape the garbage truck to constantly having to hide from abusive toddlers. But perhaps the most tragic scene of all happens immediately after the toys finally make their way out of Sunnyside.
In the film’s finest and most heartbreaking moment, the toys face what is surely inescapable doom as they mistakenly find themselves heading towards a garbage incinerator. Knowing there’s no escape from the fiery pit, they decide to simply hold hands, meeting their fate together. It is a masterpiece in every regard, summing up the film’s themes just as beautifully as the film’s final scene.
And then: THE CLAW! Of course! In this delightful callback to the first film, those three squeaky aliens save the day, grabbing everyone out of the garbage heap and away from danger. Suddenly, the entire weight of that cliffhanger is lifted, and we can breathe again…at least, for a little bit.
For all their Herculean efforts, we somehow know from the first minute that things won’t go back to being the same for these toys. Now a smaller group than they ever were, the toys know they must stick together. Their sense of family is ultimately what they must rely on now and it’s a beautiful lesson to anyone who’s ever experienced the pain of saying goodbye.
Woody and Buzz are arguably just as recognizable as the likes of Barbie and Ken or Chewie and Han Solo…icons of a new generation of motion pictures which has made Pixar one of the best and most consistent studios in the world. We’ve followed Woody and the gang for 15 years, knowing that – one day – we’d have to say so long, partner. And while the Toy Story franchise has continued past this one, I still think Toy Story 3 was the perfect ending to a story so many of us grew up with, cherished and loved. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s emotionally gut-wrenching in those trademark Pixar ways, and it gives us hope that Woody and his friends will continue to enjoy playtime to infinity and beyond.
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