Kinematoscope

My favorite films of 2009. Since they're already semi-covered in detail in my preferred Oscar nominations and since we have best of the decade stuff coming up, let's go with some best-of particulars in lieu of paragraphs about why they're each awesome.


10. In The Loop

Best quote: "..it falls well within my purview!"
-"Within your 'purview'? Where do you think you are, some f**king regency costume drama? This is a government department, not some f**king Jane fucking Austen novel! Allow me to pop a jaunty little bonnet on your purview and ram it up your sh**ter with a lubricated horse c**k!"

Best Quote Safe For Work: None.

Best Post-Script: When you, presuming you're an ignorant American like myself, are informed by Wikipedia that In The Loop is a spinoff of the BBC series "The Thick Of It," which means there is at least nine more hours of Peter Capaldi as Malcom Tucker.


9. Broken Embraces

Best Left Field Soundtrack Selection: "Werewolf" by Cat Power


Best Plot Twist: Most of the plot, for once, seems plausible, which is rare for Almodovar. But late in the film we find out that someone is someone else's father, in a familiar soap-operatic moment that is never adressed again. It made me chuckle.

8. Inglourious Basterds

Best Film Within A Film: There's a German propagande movie in the big premier at the end of IB about a sniper that kills 300+ Allied soldiers, and it seems to be entirely composed of hilarious pratfalls and Wilhelm Screams.

Best Mangled Italian: "A-ree-ver-DARE-chee."

Best Mangled English: the title.


7. Sherlock Holmes

Best Victory Of The Rational: Spoilers: much of Sherlock Holmes points toward a villain that controls the Dark Arts, but the big ending reveals it was all trickery. I nearly clapped: I'm sick of things coming down on the supernatural side anytime there's a question- even if its mostle religous horror films (The Reaping, Stigmata, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) or every episode of "The X-Files" (was Scully's skepticism ever prudent?).

Best Broken Instruments: To give the score more "edges" to be in tune with the mid-Industrial-Revolution period film, Hans Zimmer just up and broke stuff. From an interview: "A lot of the percussion in the movie isn’t percussion...It’s someone totally mistreating their upright bass."

And what became of the out-of-tune piano they used? "...then I thought, rather than use big drums what would a piano sound like if you dropped it down a flight of stairs? ...We rented 20th Century Fox’s underground car park one Sunday and did hideous things to a piano."

6. District 9

Best Pre-Emptive Strike: I think an underrated part of the Best Picture race is the degree to which District 9 stole Avatar's thunder some months beforehand- who would have thought it would only be the second-best sci-fi actioner in which a human betrays his own kind to save an alien race, ultimately becoming one of them? It makes it easier to argue for The Hurt Locker, which is truly one of a kind this year.

Best Dodged Bullet: Does anyone really think that a movie based on the "Halo" video game series, which fell apart and led to District 9 instead, would have been anything but a big-budget disaster? When has a video game movie ever worked? Seriously, try to read the plot summary for "Halo" without your eyes glazing over.


5. Up In The Air

Best Trailer Of The Year: The first teaser was craftily edited to Clooney's motivational speech:


Best Scenes Of Destruction: For me, the most resonant images of our economic times from Up In The Air weren't the real people they worked into the firing scenes, but a few images of ravaged workplaces- our heroes arrive to fire the last few people in a stripped empty cubicle pool, or seeing Kendrick sitting in a room full of unused chairs.

4. Star Trek

Best Flawed Science: Though the time-travel logic in Star Trek is sound, nearly everything else is completely backwards. Among many innaccuracies, there's no way to conceivable drill to a planet's core without the hole collapsing, a black hole made out of a planet would only be the size or a marble, how big Vulcan would be in the sky on Delta Vega, supernovas can't really "threaten the galaxy," and there's no way the warp core explosion would have saved them at the end.

But you know what? It was too awesome for me to care.

Best Terrible Pun: "Are you out of your Vulcan mind?!"


3. Fantastic Mr. Fox

Best All-Purpose Curse Word Substitute: Expressions uttered by claymation animals in this film include "Cuss yeah," "The cuss you are," and "A real cluster-cuss." That's how you keep it PG.

Best Vague Anthropomorphism: The Fox family and friends all walked, talked, and listened to Burl Ives records, but I wasn't clear if they could speak directly with humans- at one point there's a recording of an animal hostage, but there's no dialogue. They do communicate in notes written with cut-out magazine letters, though.

2. The Hurt Locker

Best Abrupt Snap To Reality: One of my favorite lines from The Hurt Locker comes about halfway through- Anothony Mackie's staff seargeant, after a night of dunken bonding with his renegade superior Jeremy Renner, asks him if he thinks he has what it takes "to put on the suit," the protective gear of the OED squad leader.

In a boilerplate sappy war film or Hollywood action movie, he would of course reply: "Someday," or whatever, but instead Renner snorts a derisive "Hell no."

Best Stand-in For Civilian Banality: the grocery isle at the supermarket:





1. The Brothers Bloom

Best Opening Sequence In Rhyming Verse: "What kind of cave? -A Cave..Of Wonder! -Psh! -Shut up, Dave."

Best Card Trick: None of this is CGI:



True story.

I would first like to send my sincerest and deepest apologies to Avatar, The Cove, An Education, A Single Man, and Up in the Air. I did not see these five films, which have all been lauded. I am relatively certain that if I had seen one or all of them, it would have affected this list.

However, I make due with what I have. Away we go!


10.) The House of the Devil: A tense, low budget, horror film that evokes the nostalgia of quality the 1980s. Ti West’s film works because it is minimal in all approaches and never tries to be anything more than it really is. Also, how can you not love its tagline: Talk on the phone. Finish your homework. Watch T. V. DIE!

9.) In the Loop: The satirical take on the United States’ invasion of Iraq is hilarious. Utterly foul mouthed, this movie is blisteringly funny with a top notch cast. Most notably, Peter Capaldi delivers one of the most underrated (and probably under-seen) performances of the year as an offensive British Intelligence leader.


8.) District 9: I did not see this film until last weekend. Neil Blomkamp’s first true outing did not disappoint. What makes this movie action science fiction movie special is that it has a heart and its thought provoking. I also like to imagine that Peter Jackson prank calls Universal Studios periodically and reminds them that they could have had Blomkamp direct Halo.


7.) Sin Nombre: It’s poetic, touching, and beautifully shot. It’s also in a different language, which makes it even more artsy.

6.) Up: The much hyped opening 10 minutes of the film do not disappoint. It sets the tone for a movie that will make you smile and cry, sometimes at the same time. While Up is not the best entry in the Pixar canon, it ranks near the top.

5.) The Hurt Locker: Kathryn Bigelow’s mediation on the tensions that surround war is outstanding. Jeremy Renner breaks out in the most suspenseful film since The Bourne Ultimatum (I feel like Rex Reed when I say something like that). The tension created by Bigelow is mesmerizing and Mark Boal’s script hits all the right notes.


4.) A Serious Man: I enjoy every Coen Brothers’ film (even The Ladykillers). However, what made A Serious Man special was how personal it was. The Coen Brothers tend to focus on subversive people, while this film was about a college professor and his life’s troubles. I may be trivializing the film’s plot with that summation because it also deals with faith, family, adultery, and Jefferson Airplane.


3.) Drag Me to Hell: 2009 will be remembered – at least for me – as a fun year. 2007 had many films that could be called masterpieces, but this year was about being fun. Drag Me to Hell was easily the most fun I had at the movies this year. Raimi’s return to his roots was vintage form and Alison Lohman served admirably as the new Bruce Campbell.

2.) The Reader: I saw it in theatres five times in 2009, but it qualified for last year’s list.

2.) Fantastic Mr. Fox: On any given day, Drag Me to Hell and Wes Andersen’s first animated effort could swap places. However, this was the film I was most excited for this year and it delivered even more than I imagined. The meticulous attention to detail by Andersen proved to be rewarding because it was nice to have a film that was completely done by hand, as opposed to computer wizardry.


1.) Inglourious Basterds: This film has Quentin Tarantino’s pulp fetish fingerprints all over it. From the opening frame, to the screaming conclusion, the film is a masterpiece. The terrific performances supplied by all players, especially Christoph Waltz, rival the enthusiasm with which Tarantino directs. The film, while heavy on the dialogue, may disappoint the purest action fan, but it compares well to another World War II picture – The Dirty Dozen. This is a film that I can easily re-watch over and over again and still find it entertaining every time.

Of the Big Eight categories, Original Screenplay is the only one that's a true tossup. Will it go to the now beleaguered Hurt Locker script, or Tarantino's wordy Nazi parable?


1. The Hurt Locker- Mark Boal (0 for 0)

SGT. JAMES: [to his son] "You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your Mommy, your Daddy. You love your pajamas. You love everything, don't ya? Yeah. But you know what, buddy? As you get older... some of the things you love might not seem so special anymore. Like your Jack-in-a-Box. Maybe you'll realize it's just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. And then you forget the few things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things. With me, I think it's one."

The winner of the WGA and the BAFTA, Mark Boal's taught script looks like the current frontrunner, by just a nose. It's swift, frank, and as laudable for the things it leaves unsaid as the things it emphasizes.


2. Inglourious Basterds- Quentin Tarantino (1 for 2)

COL. LANDA: "Consequently, a German soldier conducts a search of a house suspected of hiding Jews. Where does the hawk look? He looks in the barn, he looks in the attic, he looks in the cellar, he looks everywhere *he* would hide, but there's so many places it would never occur to a hawk to hide. However, the reason the Führer's brought me off my Alps in Austria and placed me in French cow country today is because it does occur to me. Because I'm aware what tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity."

Tarantino, I suppose is a heavyweight having won this category for Pulp Fiction, but it's hard not to think of him as an outsider still. Yet it's possible AMPAS will award his wordy, episodic, and mannered script for Basterds, if only for navigating several languages at once.


3. The Messenger- Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman (both 0 for 0)

CAPT. STONE: "You do not speak with anybody other than the next of kin - no friend, no neighbor, no co-worker or mistress. Hours of operation are 0600 to 2200 hours and we dont want to wake anybody up in the middle of the night. If you ask me, hitting them with the news at the crack of dawn is not exactly a great way to start their day -breakfast-wise."

Moverman and Camon's screenplay seems more like something for a stage production- apparently there was little to no blocking or direction, or even rehearsal for any of the death notification scenes, so the reaction when someone slaps Woody Harrelson's character in grief-stricken panic was geniune. But there was some great work near the end when people finally start opening up.


4. A Serious Man- Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (both 4 for 8)

LARRY: "It's, it's more about myself, I've... I've had quite a bit of tsuris lately. Marital problems, professional, you name it. This is not a frivolous request. This is a ser- I'm a ser- I'm, uh, I've tried to be a serious man, you know? Tried to do right, be a member of the community, raise the- Danny, Sarah, they both go to school, Hebrew school, a good breakfast... Well, Danny goes to Hebrew school, Sarah doesn't have time, she mostly... washes her hair. Apparently there are several steps involved, but you don't have to tell Marshak that. Just tell him I need help. Please? I need help."

The Coens return with another dour, dark, farce layered with stuttering and awkward silence. It seemed to me designed to frustrate, but maybe that was the point. Moving on...


5. Up- Bob Peterson (0 for 1), Pete Docter (0 for 4), Thomas McCarthy (0 for 0)

CARL: "This is crazy. I finally meet my childhood hero and he's trying to kill us. What a joke."
DUG: "Hey, I know a joke! A squirrel walks up to a tree and says, 'I forgot to store acorns for the winter and now I am dead.' Ha! It is funny because the squirrel gets dead."

Not sure if I agree- Ratatouille, Wall-E, and The Incredibles seemed a little more complex to me- the appeal of Up is almost entirely visual and immediate.


I'm going with The Hurt Locker in a close vote, even with all the late-breaking hubbub last week. Sometimes there's just no stopping a movie on a roll.

Here's a fun category- the next best indicator to director of how well put-together a picture is made. Up In The Air likely saw missing the cut as the final nail in the coffin, while Precious and District 9 must have been a little surprised to make it.

It can be a surefire indicator of how the night will end (like Crash winning it and little else), or sometimes it can go to a popular movie with impressive work like The Bourne Ultimatum. This year? Probably the former, but we'll see.

1. Avatar- Stephen E. Rivkin (0 for 0), John Refoua (0 for 0), James Cameron (3 for 3)

The word is that Cameron and co. had to basically edit during shooting, watching "mintutelies" instead of dailies and structuring the film on the fly. That's great for them, but the finished product is what counts, and said product cut a very sleepy pace indeed.

2. District 9- Julian Clarke (0 for 0)

Fun fact: Julian Clarke's previous most recognizable credit is Uwe Boll's Postal. The counterpoint to Avatar, District 9 uses a faux-documentary style to get any backstory right out of the way, and thrills non-stop to the end.

3. The Hurt Locker- Bob Murawski (0 for 0), Chris Innis (0 for 0)

The likely winners and the ones that deserve it, to my mind. An epic 2:10 run-time combines a half-dozen odd bombs scares with about as many various character scenes without ever losing steam, and individual standout sequences abound.

4. Inglourious Basterds- Sally Menke (0 for 1)

Longtime Tarantino editor Menke is the only previous nominee (besides Cameron) in the race, for Pulp Fiction. Basterds is certainly a well tuned film, and it's got a knack for cutting the scene right after a punchline. I'd say this is just as much of a potential spoiler as Avatar, slim though the chance may be.

5. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire- Joe Klotz (0 for 0)

An unexpected nominee, but a fair one: witness the pastiche terror-flashback scenes in Precious that play like Lynch on fast-forward. It's fun work, but gimmicky.


The Hurt Locker all the way. And so end the tech awards. We've got two more BP previews and Animated Feature to discuss, then it's time for the money categories.

One of my favorite categories, which I invariably get wrong because I pick with my heart. And the guild is no help, they're great at matching nominees, but awful at getting the same winner. Let's get to the nominees, along with my favorite shot from each one (except for The White Ribbon, which I refuse to see).

1. Avatar- Mauro Fiore (0 for 0)

Fiore seems to have kicked around making mostly undistinguished action movies like The Kingdom and The Island before scoring his first nomination for Avatar. Beyond the impressive 3D elements, the film has a pretty straightforward "Look at this! Isn't this AWESOME!" look to it. It goes down easy, but doesn't say Oscar to me.

Favorite Shot: Long view of the transport ship.


Even without 3D I like the framing of Worthington getting out of cryo as we see how massive the Pandora operation really is.

2. The White Ribbon -Christian Berger (0 for 0)

Berger is a long time Haneke DP, whose job mainly consists of leaving the camera stationary and going to get a hot dog (ba-zing!). But hey, it was black and white, so there were issues with contrast and lighting and all that to deal with, I'm sure.

Every Shot In This Film: Someone looking sad while not talking for five minutes.

3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- Bruno Delbonnel

Two time nominee for his work with Jean Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, A Very Long Engagement), Delbonnel added a welcome visual flair, giving the sixth installment a melting aesthetic all its own.

Favorite Shot: Fire in the Cave


I know, it's FX heavy, but the whole scene helped fill the Lord Of The Rings hole in my heart for a while.

4. The Hurt Locker- Barry Ackroyd (0 for 0)

Ackroyd had some practice going for a documentary feel with Battle in Seattle and United 93, and made The Hurt Locker seem like it was happening live even as it threw in plenty of beautfiul compositions. I had trouble choosing my favorite sequence- was it the split second shots of bullets hitting the sand or rust shattering off of old cars? A harrowing night scene as three soldiers flicker in and out of view in the blue light of a flare? Or:

Favorite Shot: Walking through the smoke


On Jeremy Renner's first mission as the new bomb squad leader, he puts on the heavy protective tech suit and walks down toward an IED. He throws out a smoke grenade, allegedly to "create a distraction," but clearly the only reason he did it was to create this awesome shot of him disspearing into and reappearing from the myst, like some sort of reverse deep-sea diver.

5. Inglourious Basterds- Robert Richardson (2 for 5)

With Oscars for JFK and The Aviator, Richardson is the heavyweight this year, but I can't remember too many images from Basterds for some reason. Mostly I recall a lot of back and forth panning as characters translated for one another.

Favorite Shot: Burning the Cinema


But who can forget Shoshanna's maniacally laughing face as the screen cathes fire, about to burn a theater-full of Nazis to death. Best prank ever.


I think this will be the point in the ceremony where The Hurt Locker starts its run-up to the big prize. Call it a hunch. It's also the one I want to win, so take the prediction with a grain of salt.

Although it had its usual share of hiccups yet again (like disqualifying Where The Wild Things Are), the Score category surprised me with two of my favorites that I thought would be overlooked, and another great inclusion that didn't even occur to me.

1. Avatar- James Horner (2 for 8)

For your consideration: "War"


Funny how the future as depicted in cinema looks better and fancier all the time, but the soundtrack is the same old bombastic thing. Witness the above selection, a pretty standard Greek-chorus type of thing- seems like it could be from a chariot race or gladiator fight, not a huge battle between twin-blade space helicopters, robot-exoskeletons and big alien dinosaurs. If you want to see the future done right, see Clint Mansell's great work on the indie Moon.

Horner is a frequent nominee, but has wins only for Titanic's score and song. If he takes the trophy, it will probably be good news for the film's Best Picture chances.

2. Fantastic Mr. Fox- Alexandre Desplat (0 for 2)

For your consideration: "Kristofferson's Theme"


Desplat had a busy year in 2009- so much that I was sure that he'd get nominated for his work in Coco Before Chanel, A Prophet, Julie and Julia, or even New Moon before his wonderfully vibrant Fox score.

He matches frequent Wes Anderson composer Mark Mothersbaugh's plucky string work with some richer, more emotional compositions which helped make Fantastic Mr. Fox arguably Anderson's most affecting film.

3. The Hurt Locker- Marco Beltrami (0 for 1) and Buck Sanders (0 for 0)

For your consideration: "The Way I Am"


Hey did you know there's super-loud death metal band called "Hurtlocker"? Just a tip if you're looking for score clips on YouTube and have headphones in. I learned the hard away.

Anyway, a wonderful inclusion of a score I forgot about. It seems a lot like the branch trying to make up for certain past omissions, since the score has a lot of similarities to Zimmer and Howard's dark, atonal Dark Knight score- plus one track (from the six IED scene) is even entitled "There Will Be Bombs," an homage to Johnny Greenwood's tragically disqualified score from '07.

4. Sherlock Holmes- Hans Zimmer (1 for 7)

For your consideration: "Not In Blood, But In Bond"


Loved Zimmer's work here, especially the plaintive tack above when it looks like Watson died in an explosion (spoiler- he was fine. I'm sure you're shocked). The whole score had a very broken-piano, ranshackle, steampunk feel to it that was superb.

5. Up- Michael Giacchino (0 for 1)

For your consideration: "Married Life"


Your likely winner, thanks to the unforgettable early montage in Up that made everyone all teary-eyed. Giacchino's score does most of the heavy lifting in that sequence, and the score weaves in and out of the rest of the film nicely.

As previously stated, this award is for the film that best interweaves effects, dialogue, and music into the overall sound design. Let's hop to it:

1. Avatar- Christopher Boyes (4 for 11), Gary Summers (5 for 7), Andy Nelson (1 for 12), and Tony Johnson (0 for 1)

I can't say there was anything interesting or unique about the sound mix in Avatar, but the scope remains impressive. It's hard to think anything will beat it- remember that while the specific branch members choose the nominees, the entire Academy votes on winners, so the bigger picture often takes the prize.

Even with Slumdog Millionaire pulling a hardly deserved win in this category last year, I think Avatar won't get overlooked in the categories where it merits winning. It's just too big.

2. The Hurt Locker- Paul N.J. Ottosson (0 for 1) and Ray Beckett (0 for 0)

But if anything's going to split the Sounds up, it's the wonderful mixing in The Hurt Locker- so many moments pack a sonic punch in this film: the split-second breakdown of the opening explosion:



...the lurch of the score when the car trunk opens to reveal enough bombs to level a city, or when Jeremy Renner follows the wire to find he is surrounded by bombs and it builds to a howl.

3. Inglourious Basterds- Michael Minkler (3 for 10), Tony Lamberti (0 for 0), and Mark Ulano (1 for 1)

I'm much more game for Basterds' inclusion in this category, as Tarantino films are always multiple sounds at once: part rambling talk-radio, part noise-maker, and part jukebox.

4. Star Trek- Anna Behlmer (0 for 9), Andy Nelson (1 for 12), and Peter J. Devlin (0 for 2)

That would be the same Andy Nelson from Avatar- something about the number of people with double-digit nominations makes me suspect this isn't a very big field. Star Trek might stand a better chance if it had a Best Pciture nomination, but the opening transition from Giancchino's score to the blips and beeps of the U.S.S. Kelvin is one of the most memorable moments of the year for me.

5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen- Greg P. Russell (0 for 12), Gary Summers (5 for 7), and Geoffrey Patterson (0 for 1)

Didn't see it. But I'm sure it was fine work with all the aircrafts, imaginary robots, and awesome dialogue like the following:


Anyway, another call for the tall blue people.

They really need to rename the two sound awards, to avoid the yearly confusion about which is which. Don't get me wrong, I don't think people at large care all that much about the tech awards, but at least all the rest are self-explanatory (we all know what costumes, makeup, visual effects, and cinematography are, right?).

To wit: sound effects editing should really be called Sound Effects Creation- it's for the making, from scratch, of footsteps and explosion sounds and gunshots to match pre-existing footage (or CGI-work). To a lesser extent Editing is also about cleaning up dialogue shot on-set and removing background noises and imperfections to make it better for the finished film.

Got that? Sound Mixing is exactly what it sounds like: mixing all of the finished audio together- the effects that the sound designers created, the on-set dialogue they've cleaned up, Additional Dialogue Recording in post-production, and the score.

An analogy: Sound Effects Editing is to Sound Mixing what Cinematography is to Film Editing- the first one designs the raw materials, the second one fits it all together.

Now, let's see what kind of effects our five nominees had to create.

1. Avatar- Christopher Boyes (4 for 11) and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle (0 for 0)

If this seems like another Avatar vs. The Hurt Locker category, remember this: Critics Don't Matter. Past winners of this trophy include Pearl Harbor, U-571 and Peter Jackson's King Kong. They like big things, expansive projects- Avatar fits that bill to a T and should win this award- Boyes is also the only heavyweight in the field with four sound wins.

It's got everything: explosions, multiple alien creature noises- they even made Sam Worthington sound like he had a pulse two or three times.

2. The Hurt Locker- Paul N.J. Ottosson (0 for 1)

Another war film, with plenty of explosions, lots of gunfire, and what must've clearly been difficult dialogue to record onset in blistering conditions. If people are really in love with this film, it has the potential to sweep (except for Best Actor), but considering the indie darling (Slumdog Millionaire) lost to the popular action movie (The Dark Knight) in this category last year, I wouldn't bet on it.

3. Inglourious Basterds- Wylie Stateman (0 for 4)

Not really one that occurred to me would be here, but hey- it had as much going on as any other. I wouldn't necessarily vote for multiple sounds of Christoph Waltz chewing things over a giant spaceship shattering every window in Johannesburg, but I don't get a ballot, do I?

4. Star Trek- Mark Stoeckinger (0 for 1) and Alan Rankin (0 for 0)

Another worthy entry, perhaps a winner in a weaker year. Between the background noises on the enterprise, the destruction of planets, and your various beeps and boops, there were more sounds to create than there were lens flares to perfect.

5. Up- Michael Silvers (1 for 4) and Tom Myers(0 for 1)

Pixar is a frequent combatant in Effects Editing, but has only won for The Incredibles, which Silvers shared. Up, however, is the least sonically diverse thing they've made in a while, and another thing that I think shouldn't have beaten out District 9.

So for the record that's my pick going to Avatar. But will it win any more than this and Visual Effects? Stay tuned to find out.

A ten part series on the Best Picture nominees, structured around four basic questions.

Was It Any Good?

Oh man was it good. Seriously, you should go rent it. After countless Iraq war films, we finally found the right combination of narrative hook (following an Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit from bomb to bomb) and perfect director (Kathryn Bigelow, who knows her way around the right amount of fear, thrills, and action).

The result? A tense, quick, terrifying trip to Iraq- one without any sort of "message" beyond taking us to the forefront of the new kind of war. It helps that the leads are virtually unknown- Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty all do such great work it's easy to miss cameos by Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, and Evangeline Lilly.

More...

Would I See It Again?

In fact I just watched it on DVD for the second time, after seeing it in theaters in August- I was mildly concerned that it wouldn't pack the same punch, since I knew what would explode and what wouldn't, but that just made it more gripping, somehow.

The episodic plot leads to so many memorable moments, and the fact that it's so true-to-life makes them stick with you. You know what I felt when Home Tree fell in Avatar? Not a thing. But when Renner pulls a wire and six IEDs shake out of the dirt all around him, my stomach dropped into my shoes.

Watching it again with all of the Oscar nominations in mind gave me an appreciation of the craftsmanship as well (the first time I was too busy being all like "No WAY!" and stuff). The surprise nomination of the score seems right on to me- it was half dissonant tones blended with engine noises, sirens, and car horns, and it even had a recurring vaguely western theme if you listen for it.

Shots are framed with smoke and fire- The Hurt Locker moves from garbage strewn city streets to arid desert to a harrowing night seamlessly- only when Renner's character returns to the states does the world seem alien.



What Did It Acheive?

Financially, not that much- though robust DVD sales are encouraging, The Hurt Locker would be the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner ever (which would make Avatar the highest-grossing loser, natch).

But it's a masterpiece of filmmaking, and should lead to huge career boosts for Renner, Mackie, and especially Bigelow regardless of what it wins or loses. I mean, her last movie was K-19: The Widowmaker!

And I'm trying not to take it personally, but a victory over Avatar would be a triumph of the critical success over the popular consensus, and I'm all for it. If I want the biggest ticket to win every time, I'll just watch the Grammys.

Will I Remember It Years From Now?

And how. I was astonished when I wrote the Sound Mixing category preview, how many specific scenes I remembered before I had even re-watched it. The individual subplots might not be terribly complex- Geraghty's in particular has the most predictable outcome in one late scene- but they're really just incidental to the experience of the film, if that makes sense.

Happy work-week, people. I saw Funny People yesterday, and a mini-review will be at the end of this post.

Over the weekend G. I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra earned a yawn-inspiring $56 million (or as Box Office Mojo oh-so-cleverly puts it: 'G. I. Joe' Doesn't Roll Snakes Eyes). Everyone who needs to make money from it will, eventually, but I don't think we'll have to endure marketing for G. I. Joe 2: Knowing Is Half The Battle anytime soon.

Annoying headlines aside, BOM does point out something: "Curiously, though Paramount publicly eschewed advanced screenings for movie reviewers, they mysteriously presented reviewer quotes as the centerpiece of their television ads." What? We don't need critics, but we'll take any positive pull-quotes you got!

Julie and Julia opened strongly for a talking-rat-free movie about cooking with $20 million, while A Perfect Getaway floundered with just under $6 million- but Steve Zahn got paid, and that's all I care about personally. And in worldwide gross news, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince is now just $40 million or so behind Transformers 2: Even More Stuff Explodes for the year's most successful film (so let's cross our fingers).



In other news, notable older person and legendary critic Roger Ebert wrote about the dissapointing lack of younger viewers going to see critical favorite The Hurt Locker, as opposed to the flocks of teens that keep G. I. Joe and the equally brainless Transformers in business. He speculates:

The obvious implication is, younger moviegoers don't care about reviews and have missed the news that "The Hurt Locker" is the best American film of the summer. There is a more disturbing implication: word of mouth is not helping the film in that younger demographic. It has been Hollywood gospel for decades that advertising and marketing can help a film to open strongly, but moviegoers talking with each other are crucial to its continuing success. That has been Summit Entertainment's game plan for "The Hurt Locker," which opened in a few theaters and has steadily increased its cities, becoming a real success without ever "winning" a weekend or benefiting from an overkill marketing campaign.

Yeah, Summit. Nice idea. Just let "word of mouth" do it for ya, just like you did with Twilight earlier this year. It's not like you shoved that one down everyone's throat or anything (not that it's the best comparison). Ebert does go on to admit that plenty of young folks like good movies, but are looked down upon if they try and sway the group from that week's mass-marketed crowd pleaser.

The irony of this debate, to me, is that The Hurt Locker is not just an incredible film that should definitely be nominated for best picture, but also a straightforward action movie where sh*t blows up a lot! Critical success or no, it's not that crazy-different from G. I. Joe on a visceral level, I suspect. But it's playing in 535 theaters to Joe's 4,007, so what do we expect?

Does anyone remember the 95% positive on RottenTomatoes Star Trek? There's a movie that benefited from a substantial marketing push to open big, and then positive critical reception and strong word-of-mouth helped it's longevity at the box office. People talking up a film can increase exposure and up a gross in the long run, but it can't conjure audiences out of thin air. The movies are not a grassroots industry.

Funny People



What I Liked: A disclosure: off and on for the last few years, I've done some amateur stand-up comedy (very amateur- I got paid to do it twice, ever). As such I was all over the scenes in Judd Apatow's funny people that just involved stand-up comedians talking about their craft, whether it was Adam Sandler's character (a legendary success), Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill's open-mic warriors, or the dozen or so cameo appearances by L. A. comics.

Funny People also had decent movie-trappings, between Oscar winner Januscz Kaminski's cinematography and Jason Schwartzman's (!) original score.

What I Didn't Like: It is a bit long and overstuffed, as plenty have said. The melodrama between Sandler and an ex-flame played by Leslie Mann isn't necesarrily out-of-place or over done, but it sort of just halts the rest of the film for an entire half hour. It's not that I blame Apatow for trying to move beyond the "guys sitting around cracking jokes" sort of movie (even though I love those, really, especcially when those people are playing comedians. Metahumor!), it's just that the pacing was pretty haywire.

The Verdict: Two And A Half Stars.

Some more mini-reviews of films I’ve seen this year. If I keep doing this from time to time, it should be much simpler to quantify my top ten once the end of the year rolls around, since I’ll have an on-the-record star-rating to work with (note: I reserve the right to capriciously change my mind at any moment, about anything).

The Hurt Locker



What I Liked: Man oh man, where to begin? This film grabs your chest and squeezes, right from the start. Pulse-pounding, teeth-clenching. A brutally simple story of three soldiers in Iraq in an Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit, meaning a bomb squad. And that’s pretty much it: they wake up, they go disarm Intentional Explosive Devices, they die or they don’t die. In between the scenes of the various ways that they try to unwind the untenable tension each assignment brings, we get quietly chaotic moments of the squad doing a dangerous job in an already dangerous place.

There’s a scene with an anticlimactically realistic sniper-battle that emphasizes what an awful place for a war a desert is (not that there’s a great place for it. Maybe it emphasizes what an awful place a desert is to wear full combat gear). In the third act, a tank explodes in the dead of night, and as the team rushes to investigate why I realized I had forgotten about night-time! The day scenes were already harrowing, it didn’t occur to me that it could get worse.

What I Didn’t Like: Not very much. The scenes with leading man Jeremy Renner’s wife and child seemed a bit out of tone, but that’s sort of the point, I think.

The Verdict: Another Four Star movie! Quite the busy pre-September we’ve been having, at least for me personally.

(500) Days Of Summer



What I Liked: A bright, summery film if there ever was one, buoyed by some fun greeting-card gags and commendably twee performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. It’s pretty inconsequential, as it turns out, but oddly hard to fault for it. I don’t mean this in an entirely bad way, but it felt like an extended commercial for something, at least in design and visual presentation. A commercial for ‘love’? Who knows? Plus there’s a scene with karaoke, which is awesome.

What I Didn’t Like: It was, in the end, more forgettable than we all hoped back when we heard that indie-poster-people Levitt and Deschanel were involved. Deschanel is a Manic Pixie Dream-Girl to beat all the others, with no ambitions and very little background of her own. There’s also an annoyingly mature younger sister, and good old reliable Wacky But Pathetic Best Friend.

The Verdict: Two Stars- I’m torn between two and two and a half. But it’s really just Eternal Sunshine-light.

Click for four More...

Moon



What I Liked: Sam Rockwell! He played two distinctly different Sam Rockwells, which was great! Also the plot sort of straightforwardly goes where it says it’s going, which is both refreshing in a way, but also kind of anticlimactic. Hard to say, really. The film looks great, and the score (by Klint Mansell) is one of my favorites of the year). Plus: Sam Rockwell!

What I Didn’t Like: There were a couple of plot holes (or questions, rather) that sort of gnawed at me afterwards, not to get into spoilers or anything. It was a bit…stagey, I guess. I hoped for a little more expressionism from a touted ‘psychological thriller,’ but there’s something to be said for straightforwardness.

The Verdict: Three Stars! (One of these stars is brought to you solely by Sam Rockwell)

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I’ll get into this when I cover this movie for an upcoming feature. It’ll take a few weeks to get there, though (it’s the sixth installment said feature. Can’t imagine why…)

The Verdict: Three and a Half Stars!

Public Enemies



What I Liked: Johnny Depp was pretty slick as John Dillinger, and the cast was littered with ringers in nearly wordless parts (Stephen Dorff? David Wenham? What?) Christian Bale was pretty badass, and his accent was hilarious (as I have often visited South Carolina (where Melvin Purvis was from) and it was not very accurate). Mann’s orange-lit documentary style lends itself well to historical movies- it’s like he’s been emulating the poor lighting quality of footage from the thirties all along.

What I Didn’t Like: There’s a gun battle in the middle of the film that must last twenty minutes, and unlike in Heat, the real-life inspiration was a skirmish that lasted all of three minutes. I then read Bryan Burrough’s fascinatingly detailed book of the same name, and was just left asking why certain historical events were changed for the film, even beyond timeframe and narrative reasons.

The Verdict: Two And A Half Stars.

Bruno



What I Liked: Plenty of laughs from an extended tv show in the theaters: he gets Paula Abdul to talk about how helping people is very important to her while sitting on a Mexican worker in place of a chair- he interviews parents who whore out their babies for photo-shoots about the various hazards they have no problems exposing them to. He gets a lot of mileage out of homophobes of various types, culminating in a hilariously over the top finale.

What I Didn’t Like: Some of it was a bit far (poor Ron Paul), but really, I knew what to expect.

The Verdict: Two Stars- didn’t impress, didn’t do less than I expect either.