BLOGATHON: My Movie Alphabet

A few weeks ago Mettel Ray wrote a celebration for her 400th blog post that spawned an unexpected blogathon - My Movie Alphabet. After seeing so many bloggers participating, I just had to join in on the fun. Read below for my entry:

Tweet

Best of 2000

This will be my last "Best of the Year" list until I post my "Best of 2012" and boy, this took a while! For some reason I struggled to find 10 films that I genuinely love. After many weeks of searching, here are my Top 10 films of 2000. They are listed in order, starting with my #1 - Traffic.




Traffic
Remember The Titans
Love and Basketball
Erin Brockovich
Almost Famous
Cast Away
Before Night Falls
Lumumba
Chocolat
Pay It Forward

Tweet

OLDIE GOLDIES: Stalag 17 (1953)

William Holden with his Best Actor Oscar

Every time I watch a Billy Wilder I'm always amazed by his story-telling and that was certainly the case with this week's Oldie Goldies film "Stalag 17". This is a great tale of courage and the power of community in a time of great duress. Even though it's a World War II film, it's also quite hilarious with its great ensemble cast. The film won an Oscar for Best Actor, along with 2 other well-deserved nominations for Best Director and Best Supporting Actor.

Tweet

MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Batman

This week I watched 1989's "Batman" for the first time. That may come as a surprise, but somehow I missed both of Tim Burton's entries into the franchise (nope, I haven't seen "Batman Returns" either). While watching the film, I was obviously forced to compare it to Nolan's interpretation of the story. By sharing the same central villian (The Joker), the film is perhaps best matched up with "The Dark Knight".

In this 1989 version, it's amazing to see the early development of an auteur's signature style. "Batman" was only Burton's 3rd film, but it showed a visual panache more associated with a confident, seasoned veteran. This is a true Burton film, dark and quirky. These qualities really come through in the art direction, a trademark that we have now come to expect from his films. The architecture seems to be a character itself, with tall doors and high ceilings creating an intimidating atmosphere, while the grey colour palette suggests the underlying evil always threatening to surface. It's really a fascinating work of set design, seamlessly blending different styles of architecture. This Gotham looks very gothic with its arches, spires and statues but the tall angular structures also recall the art deco style seen in films like "Metropolis". It all comes together for a very unique artistic vision, while still managing to tip its hat to its cinematic influences.

Of course, no Burton film is complete without a touch of whimsy. In the true Burton way, the darkest elements are often the most colorful (in both a literal sense and in personality). In this film, the Joker brings this whimsy, with a dynamite performance by Jack Nicholson. When I watched "The Dark Knight", I obviously had no idea of the high standard that Nicholson had set for Heath Ledger to emulate. Now that I've seen Nicholson's performance, it's easy to see why people had their doubts. While Ledger certainly rose to the occasion, this interpretation was quite impressive in its own way. Even though Nicholson was much older when he played the character, he brought an amusing childlike quality to the role. This was clearly a combination of the actor's instincts and the director's vision, as it's a common trait throughout Burton's filmography. Thinking especially of Willy Wonka and Edward Scissorhands, Burton plays up the creepy nature of immaturity. Nicholson definitely understood this concept and works it thoroughly with his multicoloured outfits and eccentric behaviour.

Given the film's title, you also need to have a good Batman for the film to work and Michael Keaton is more than adequate. He is less "emo" than Christian's Bale understanding of Bruce Wayne, but it fits within the tone of this story. The rest of the cast is decent too, but it definitely showed up a weakness when compared to Nolan's work. Nolan really knew how to manage his ensemble cast in his films, with Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman et al. proving incredibly valuable to the success of those films. Burton's supporting players however take a real backseat to Nicholson's larger-than-life performance. As a result, these characters are completely forgettable. From a story perspective, the script also falls short of the deeper philosophical gravitas of Nolan's films. "Batman" is more of a routine "kill the bad guy" superhero movie, but that's fine. The film is still well-crafted and a lot of fun.

Is "Batman" better than Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy? Perhaps not. However, it is an essential component to the Batman film canon, entertaining us in its own way. Tim Burton takes the idea of the comic and accurately lightens up on the seriousness. After all, Batman is at its core, a very wealthy man playing dress up.

This film is part of my List of Shame.

Tweet

A ROTTEN TOMATO: Holy Motors

Back in May, French filmmaker Leos Carax unleashed a rather unique film when he premiered "Holy Motors" at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. The film follows a few hours in the life of Monsieur Oscar (played by Denis Lavant), a shadowy character who journeys from one life to the next. This is taken straight from the IMDb description because to be honest, I have no idea how to describe the plot of this film. "Holy Motors" is so determinedly obtuse that it seems to take pride in creating a difficult viewing experience. Although its abstract nature put me into a negative mood at the end, I was initially quite taken with certain elements of the film. Particularly in the early part of the film, there are some great scenes involving Oscar and his various shenanigans. Lavant undoubtedly gives an impressive performance as his character pretends to be a wide range of different people. He is able to completely transform himself and simultaneously gives us a crash course on hair and makeup!
Unfortunately, there seems to be something missing in the character development of Oscar himself as a human being. This is the main gripe I have with this film, as all the characters just seemed so hollow. The script refuses to answer the essential questions of "who", "why" and "what". I never really got a sense of who Oscar was and how he was thinking or feeling (the scarcity of dialogue didn't help either). Furthermore, there wasn't any explanation (or maybe I missed it?) of the purpose of his daily routine. Considering the bizarre nature of his actions, it felt like a disservice to the audience for the filmmakers to not hint at his motivations. As a result, I became increasingly disinterested in this character. The film itself seemed to lose its grip on the material, as the latter stages of the film seemed to lose all the energy of the beginning. It's a shame, because I really was willing to go along for the ride. By the halfway point of the film though, I started checking my watch to see how much longer I had left. "Holy Motors" is a film that had a lot of potential, but it just falls flat when all is said and done.

Tweet

#FF James Bond, Leo DiCaprio and more...

We've all seen Skyfall by now, right? If not, what are you waiting for? Heck, I even saw it twice in one weekend! If you have seen it(or even if you haven't), check out some of my favourite Skyfall reviews among other interesting stuff this week:

Sam shares his thoughts on Skyfall.

Over at Anomalous Material, Nick gives his analysis of Skyfall.

Alex also enjoyed Skyfall, serving up a great review of the film.

Ryan reminds us why Casino Royale is the best in the 007 franchise, inducting the film into his "pantheon".

Stevee recently listed her 10 Favourite Leonardo DiCaprio Performances.

Shala recently celebrated the 1st year of her blog and wrote a post featuring some wonderful articles from the past year.

Tweet

OSCAR WATCH: The Master

During the lead up to the 2011 Academy Awards (for films released in 2010), The Weinstein Company famously snatched away the seemingly destined Best Picture award from "The Social Network" with their popular underdog "The King's Speech". During their Oscar campaign, they used the slogan "some movies you feel" and as we all know, it payed off handsomely. I bring this up because in the context of this year's Oscar race, some films will once again be kicked to the curb for their lack of heart. One of those films is the subject of this review - "The Master".
In the latest addition to an outstanding filmography, Paul Thomas Anderson brings his unique auteur's vision to this fascinating examination of the human conscience. The film tells the story of a man who has lost his way in life and is recruited by a charismatic cult leader who aims to give him guidance. "The Master" is a film that I wouldn't normally like, as it eschews sentimentality for a more cerebral experience. As someone who is a sucker for broad emotional films, this doesn't fit my usual taste. However, I was quite surprised by how engrossing this film was. For a film that is almost 2 1/2 hours long, it really flew by as I couldn't take my eyes off the film for even a second.

Tweet

OLDIE GOLDIES: The Big Sleep (1946)

This week's "Oldie Goldies" selection serves up a dense film-noir - "The Big Sleep". This film features an intricate plot that can be quite a challenge to follow. Heck, I can barely explain what happens! Despite this, it still manages to be entertaining due to its wit and magnetic performances.

Tweet

MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Skyfall

Back in 1962, "Dr. No" opened to strong box office and critical acclaim, spawning one of the most beloved film franchises ever. 50 years and 23 films later we have the latest addition to the series - "Skyfall". The film follows James Bond as he struggles to prove the modern day relevance of the MI6 intelligence agency after a serious security breach. As he tracks down the infiltrator, Bond and agency head M are forced to re-assess their value to the agency. After 2 viewings over 3 days, my initial impressions of the film were solidified. "Skyfall" is a polished technical marvel that is just slightly overlong. The highlight is Roger Deakins' cinematography, which really delivers a masterclass in lighting, colour and framing. It's a constant stream of stunning imagery that indicates the work of a truly gifted cinematographer.
The film opens with a thrilling sequence including some awe-inspiring setpieces. It definitely gets you pumped up and climaxes with Adele's fantastic theme song over the opening credits. Following this, the film seems to momentarily get bogged down in its serious tone. Apart from some further excitingly choreographed action scenes, the film tends to drag until we meet Javier Bardem's villain character. This introduction brings some much needed energy and the film is completely captivating from that point onward. Bardem's Silva is the epitome of a scene stealer. In fact, his demented playfulness recalls that of Heath Ledger's iconic Joker. For my money, he's the most memorable Bond villain of them all. While Bardem definitely steals the show, the rest of the cast are no slouches themselves. Daniel Craig once again adds a unique vulnerability to the character's suave machismo, making for another fascinating interpretation. Judi Dench also nails it as M. Unfortunately, the film doesn't know how to properly use its alluring pair of Bond girls. Naomie Harris gets some really cheesy lines and Bérénice Marlohe serves merely as a facilitator for Bond's introduction to Silva.
As I said earlier, the film has an accomplished team behind the scenes, resulting in an outstanding showcase of cinematic craft. It's no surprise though, as the film has an abundance of Oscar-nominated artists, including its acclaimed director Sam Mendes. Thomas Newman did a great job scoring his first big action movie, though he's limited by the requirement to use existing Bond themes. The overall aural quality is top notch work, left in the capable hands of experienced sound mixer Greg P. Russell. Many of the film's thrills are reliant on the film's purposeful art direction too, with moving trains and dilapidated houses leaving a lasting impression.
As it is 50th anniversary of Bond, the film pays nice homage to its vintage roots. There are some amusing references to vintage Bond films with shaken martinis, the original Aston Martin and a mention of exploding pens. Everything comes together for an enjoyable experience for the audience and would especially tickle the fanboys. As someone who is less attached the franchise, I only wish the screenplay was a bit more thought-provoking and emotionally affecting. In my opinion, "Skyfall" doesn't achieve the storytelling excellence of "Casino Royale" but damn, it's so beautiful to look at.

Tweet

#FF Flight, Don Cheadle and more...

Denzel Washington and Robert Zemeckis made a welcome return to serious "Oscar movies" with the recent release of Flight. The positive critical and audience response has put the film firmly in contention for this awards season, with many praising Denzel's fearless performance. Some persons weren't as high on the film as I was, but the film has inspired some great reviews. Check out 2 of those reviews below, along with other great posts from the past week:

Andrew and Sarah give a good analysis of Flight in their review.

Brian struggled with the dark nature of Flight, but praises the crash sequence in his thoughtful review.

Max recently lead an interesting discussion about whether we should make an effort to watch bad movies. His feelings on the matter match up quite closely with mine.

With Flight making its mark in theaters, Alex looks back on Don Cheadle's great career for his latest "In Character" post.

Tweet