The Month in Review: June 2012

Best Film (Theaters): Safety Not Guaranteed

 Though it suffers from some awkward editing, this low-key indie comedy, featuring lovely performances from Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass, is entertaining, enjoyable, and heartfelt enough to make some flaws easy to ignore. By focusing more on character than its tiny shades of science fiction, the film really delivers, and never strains to be more than it is. 


Best Film (DVD): The Man Who Wasn't There

One of the less-talked about films of the Coen brothers' resume, this stab at noir surprisingly ranks among some of their strongest work. Featuring top notch work from the cast, a subtle sense of humor, and a bit of carefully managed strangeness, this under-appreciated gem is worth checking out as you wait for Joel and Ethan's next offering, due in early 2013.


Best Director: Ridley Scott - Prometheus

Ridley Scott's return to sci-fi may have not yielded the masterpiece many were clamoring for, but despite the bumps (mostly from the screenplay), the film did prove a return to form for Scott himself. A director who has had his fare share of forgettable films over the past decade, Prometheus showed Scott at his best, drawing out nice work from his actors, and creating, with his collaborators, an elegant, chilly, and eerie atmosphere that helped keep the flaws in check, and make the film an entertaining watch all the way through.


Best Male Performance: Mark Duplass - Safety Not Guaranteed

A name on the indie circuit for a few years now, Duplass is finally really having a break out year this summer. In Safety Not Guaranteed, Duplass hits all of the right notes with his character, making him compelling and keeping us guessing, never making him a weird guy who can be used for easy jokes.


Best Female Performance: Gong Li - Raise the Red Lantern

It's easy to understand why Gong Li's career skyrocketed after her performance in Zhang Yimou's melodrama. Though the performance is often restrained, Li captures the character's constantly shifting emotions as she rolls with the ups and downs of sharing a husband with three other women. 


Best Ensemble Cast: Mean Creek

One of the great difficulties ensemble films have is using every member of the cast effectively. That's not the case with Jacob Estes' Mean Creek, which features first-rate work from a terrific and very young ensemble, making this bleak teen morality tale all the more haunting.


Best Screenplay: The Man Who Wasn't There by Joel and Ethan Coen

For a film with one decidedly out-there plot element, it's surprising that The Man Who Wasn't There works so well as both a sly satire of the noir genre, as well as a sincere noir film. The Coens' resist the temptation to turn the film into a full-blown parody, and as such the little jabs taken at the noir genre register more due to their smart integration into a richly realized plot.

The Best of the Month: February + March 2012

Best Film (Theaters): The Kid with a Bike

The Dardennes brothers' latest film is a small, somewhat flawed film, but that doesn't stop it from being something of a gem as well. The writing and direction are restrained and honest, and the cast members give top flight performances. The final scene is troubling because it comes off as too open-ended for its own good, but just about everything before is lovely. It won't go down as one of the Dardennes' best, but it's still a strong entry in their filmography.

Best Film (DVD/Streaming): The Servant

A deceptively simple domestic drama/thriller, Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter's adaptation of Robin Maugham's novel is a taut tale of power dynamics filled with striking cinematography and strong performances. Though the ending has a bit of a stylistic shift - it feels like the result of a Bergman and Lynch mash up - the storytelling is handled so well that it hardly matters. It's strong enough before it turns weird, but the strangeness of the last 15 minutes gives the film something to help it stand out. 

Best Director: Danny Boyle - Trainspotting

Boyle's ability to energize nearly any subject matter works wonders in his 1996 breakout film. The subject matter - drug addiction - isn't glamorized by any means, but Boyle's style keeps it from being a grim slog to sit through. Cementing the film's greatness is the way Boyle and his tech team stage Renton's (Ewan McGregor) withdrawal hallucinations, all set within his childhood bedroom. It's a mesmerizing and terrifying piece of work that demonstrates Boyle at the peak of his power.

Best Male Performance: Lior Ashkenazi - Footnote

Half of the father-son duo at the core of Joseph Cedar's film about rivalry in academia, Ashkenazi narrowly bests his excellent co-star to deliver the film's finest performance. His role may not have the depth that comes with the father character's age, but he compensates by being so absolutely committed that it's hard to take your eyes off of him, even when the film's pacing falters. 

Best Female Performance: Cecile De France - The Kid with a Bike

She's one of France's biggest stars (and deservingly so), but her role in the Dardennes' latest is built fully on character rather than any sort of star persona. A dedicated turn every step of the way, De France makes her character worth following, even though the screenplay never fully fleshes out her motivations. This is wonderful, restrained work from one of world cinema's brightest talents. 


Best Screenplay: The Servant by Harold Pinter

His adaptation of Maugham's novel is a swift, sharp delight from the opening scenes, all thanks to his astute writing. Pinter keeps the action mostly confined within the house, yet the story never grows dull or feels repetitive, nor does it ever come off as stagey. A master class in building slow-burning suspense out of a seemingly harmless (and even boring) setting.

Best Ensemble Cast: Trainspotting

Character development may not be one of Trainspotting's strong suits, but the ensemble is, at least, completely dedicated to bringing Boyle's hectic vision to life. McGregor is excellent, as are Johnny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd,  and the somewhat underused Kelly Macdonald. 

Best Cinematography: Gabriel Beristain - Caravaggio

Jarman's film achieves much of its success thanks to Beristain's magnificent job of capturing the anachronistic, minimalist sets as well as the look and feel of the titular painter's works. It's gorgeous to behold, with wonderful mixes of motivated light and shadow, yet it never threatens to get in the way. 

The Month in Review: January 2012

Best Film (Theaters):
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Despite considerable obstacles and a (very) deliberate pace, Tomas Alfredson's adaptation of Le Carre's spy classic is a triumph, through and through. The ensemble is stellar, the production values outstanding (how did AMPAS pass this over for Art Direction?), and the film's slow burn builds to an understated, yet hugely satisfying conclusion.

Best Film (DVD/Streaming): Farewell My Concubine

Its scope is massive, yet this never detracts from what is, ultimately, a very human story. Kaige Chen's film masterfully covers decades of Chinese history in addition to the lives of the three main characters, and makes it all seem easy.

Best Direction:
Tomas Alfredson - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

His pacing is steady, yet he knows how to up the story's intrigue with a brilliant sense of timing. The dinginess and darkness of Cold War-era London comes to life thanks to his smart, sticky visuals. In a story with so much information to dispense, he helps it all flow together with expert craftsmanship.

Best Male Performance:Peyman Moadi - A Separation

As the only definitive lead in Farhadi's film, it's up to Moadi to more or less carry the whole film, and he does it impeccably. Whether he's verbally sparring with his wife in one of the many high-voltage dialogue exchanges, or quietly reigning in his frustration and sadness, he delivers in spades.

Best Female Performance:
Laura Linney - You Can Count on Me

The performance that earned Laura Linney her first Oscar nomination is also one of her very best. As Samantha, Linney's mix of confusion, tenderness, and anger all flow together to create a beautiful, authentic character. In a film filled with strong individual parts, Linney still manages to stand out as the highlight.

Best Ensemble Cast:
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

It's a film where even the smallest roles have key importance to the narrative, and despite some limited screen time, even the small roles make their marks. Everyone ranging from Kathy Burke's Connie Sachs to more prominent figures like characters played by Gary Oldman and Mark Strong deliver top-flight performances, working beautifully in-sync, whether they're sharing the screen or not.

Best Screenplay:
A Separation by Asghar Farhadi

What's immediately apparent from the opening scene of Farhadi's film is that the man knows how to write a good argument. And given all of the conflicts present in A Separation, that skill gets put to good use over the course of the film's two hours. Though the characters' logic can seem strange or archaic at times, the truth of Farhadi's writing still comes through. The verbal battles keep your eyes glued to the screen, as do the occasional moments of silence.

Best Cinematography:
Changwei Gu - Farewell My Concubine

Gu was faced with a big challenge in DP-ing Chen's sprawling film, yet his efforts paid off beautifully. Six decades of history come together under his fluid, roving camera movements and soft, hazy lighting. It's precisely this photography that allows for the film to achieve its strong mix of narrative broadness and emotional intimacy.

The Month in Review: December 2011

Best Film (Theaters): Shame

First impressions can be lasting, but that doesn't make them permanent. Such is the case with director Steve McQueen, whose second film managed to floor me despite my general distaste for Hunger, his 2008 debut. McQueen's direction, filled with strong music choices (and Harry Escott's excellent score) is elegant and powerful as he traces a sex addict (Michael Fassbender) whose life predictably but compellingly becomes a hollow vacuum. Boasting stellar performances from Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, Shame's point may seem rather an obvious one, but the overall execution is so unblinking and mature that it's hard to count that as a stroke against it. A slow-building, yet ultimately visceral work that stands as one of 2011's best.

Best Film (DVD/Streaming): Brick

Teenage noir is a concept that could have backfired horribly, yet Rian Johnson's film is actually quite the achievement. From the hard-boiled detective (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to the femme fatale (Nora Zehetner), Brick transfers the tropes of noir to a California high school setting with such skill that the style rarely, if ever, feels inappropriate. Populated with memorable characters, understated dialogue, and a quiet sense of menace that cuts through the sunny setting, Johnson's film functions perfectly as a tribute to noir, and as a legitimate (albeit modern) incarnation of the genre.

Best Direction: Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist

Making a silent movie in this day an age must have been quite the project to pitch. Let's be grateful then, for two things: that someone had enough faith in it to finance it, and that Mr. Hazanavicius was the man at the helm. Though the film rests on Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo's capable shoulders, Hazanavicius is the reason behind The Artist's success. His ability to - with his collaborators - create the look and feel of silent films without feeling detrimentally old-fashioned is a marvel.

Best Male Performance : Michael Fassbender - Shame

Like Jessica Chastain, Michael Fassbender has had one hell of a year. But where Chastain's breakout was out of nowhere, Fassbender's year has simply been a rise to a new level of recognition. And in Shame, he delivers one of the best performances of the year. Brandon doesn't talk too much, but Fassbender is captivating all the same. The looks he gives exude a sheer magnitude, whether he's silently coming onto a woman on the subway or watching his sister sing, transported to memories of pain that the movie never spells out. To put it simply, the man's a force to be reckoned with, and in a year where either Clooney or Pitt seem poised for Oscar gold, it's Fassbender (along with Michael Shannon) who ought to be dominating the category.

Best Female Performance: Jeong-Hie Yun - Poetry

There really aren't enough good roles for older women, which is why we should be thankful that Chang-dong Lee decided to write and direct Poetry, as it affords us a chance to see further evidence that there's plenty to be done with stories centered on older female protagonists. As Mija, an elderly woman who discovers an ugly secret while attending a poetry class, Jeong-Hie Yun delivers a first rate performance. To watch her shyness, her curiosity, her anger, and her sadness at a world that is quickly leaving her behind is a quite marvel that makes Lee's somewhat overlong film worth sticking with.

Best Screenplay: Brick by Rian Johnson

There's more than dialogue in a screenplay, but in a work like Brick, dialogue is one of the keys to establishing the tone. Though it does - only in brief moments - become a bit too hard boiled for its own good, Johnson's translation of detective and noir-style dialogue to a high school setting is quite the success. Cynical, detached, and very fast, Johnson keeps the pieces of his chessboard in constant motion, creating a dark and sinister world just under the California sun. The characters may be in high school, but the consequences couldn't be more adult.

Best Ensemble Cast: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Characters are not necessarily the strong point of Stieg Larrson's crime novels, but thankfully David Fincher's cast (along with Steven Zaillian's script) has made them compelling and convincing. Daniel Craig makes an intriguing and watchable Blomqvist, and Rooney Mara's fierce yet occasionally vulnerable take on Lisbeth Salander is compelling from her first appearance. Other roles, previously not worth a mention in the Swedish films, are also brought to life with great skill. Despite relatively little time (or depth), the roles filled out by Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgaard, Joely Richardson, Robin Wright, and Geraldine James actually feel distinctive and have a sense of life to them, despite the coldness of the story and the even colder Scandinavian setting.

Best Cinematography: Jeff Cronenweth - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

If we've come to the point where even Terrence Malick is working with digital cameras, then obviously digital's capabilities have advanced far enough to make a convincing replacement for analog film. The problem is to know how to work with the differences, or else everything ends up looking washed out and robbed of the richness that film (at its height) affords. Some films,Mysteries of Lisbon for example, get it wrong, and certain scenes, as mentioned, feel completely drained of color, leaving nothing but an ugly pale yellow/white tint on the screen. Jeff Cronenweth, on the other hand, seems to know what the hell he's doing, as evidenced by last year's The Social Network, and now by his follow-up collaboration with David Fincher. Cronenweth's lighting is rich, offsetting the tendency of digital to desaturate skin tones. Like many a Fincher film, shades of murky green play a prominent role, and Cronenweth captures them beautifully. One shot in particular, lasting no more than a second, demonstrates the height of the DP's work. It happens in the main flashback, as Henrik Vanger tells Blomqvist of the day his niece Harriet vanished. During a search party scene we look out from within a shed in a field. It's likely not a moment that most will remember on its own, but as image, it's beautifully rendered, and it's just one of many.

The Month in Review: November 2011

Best Film (Theaters): Martha Marcy May Marlene

Known to my friends as, "the one with all of the M names," Sean Durkin's debut unfolds with much more grace than its title tumbles off of the tongues of those unfamiliar with it. Jumping between past and presence with incredible ease, the film is quietly arresting from its opening sequence. Though it may be as deep of an examination as it seems to think it is, this is still an expertly crafted pyschological thriller, and one hell of a debut. Led by Elizabeth Olsen's excellent performance, you may have a hard time remembering the title, but you'll have a hard time shaking either her work, or the film around her.

Best Film (DVD/Streaming): Army of Shadows

Jean Pierre-Melville's classic, delayed from release in the US until 2006, hasn't lost anything over the decades since its first unveiling. Masterfully told, this tale of French Resistance fighters in WWII confronts the brutal reality of the struggle with a refreshing honesty and maturity. The whole thing may end up being a bit of a downward spiral, but Melville never manipulates, and lets the events fully earn their intended reactions.

Best Director: Jean-Pierre Melville - Army of Shadows

Turning to his own experiences in WWII proved to be a goldmine for Jean-Pierre Melville, as it resulted in one hell of a movie. Melville has a way of capturing his performers' littlest ticks amid the drearily epic story, which is quite the accomplishment. Army of Shadows may focus more on the logistics of operations than overblown violence, but what flashes there are provide a compelling (and in several instances, horrifying) look at the life of the men and women of the resistance.

Best Male Performance: Paul Newman - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Though he doesn't do much initially other than lay about sullenly on a sofa, the unravelling that Newman's Brick goes through is haunting to watch. Though the film is filled with big personalities, the more Brick gets dragged into the mess of it all, the better Newman becomes. It all comes down to the final confrontation with Burl Ives' Big Daddy in the basement, which elevates Newman's work to the status of legendary. It's almost painful to watch, yet it's simultaneously impossible to look away. One of the greatest performances, by one of cinema's best actors.

Best Female Performance: Elizabeth Taylor - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Though she plays one half of one of cinema's most dysfunctional couples, Taylor by herself is such a force to be reckoned with it's a miracle the other actors were left standing by the story's end. Taylor digs deeper than ever with Martha, and the results are ferocious, compelling, and intense as hell. Watching her slip from sly flirtations with Nick (George Segal) to savage bile-spewing with George (Richard Burton) so seamlessly is a marvel to behold. And, just when it doesn't look like Taylor can take the performance further, she nails her character's shattering climactic scenes. The film itself may be hard to watch, but Taylor's performance is too good to miss, as it's one for the ages.

Best Screenplay: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Richard Brooks and James Poe (adapted from Tennessee Williams' play)

Building an entire film on nothing but characters talking in different rooms can be quite the challenge, which is just one more reason why Brooks and Poe's adaptation of Williams' play is such a triumph. The dialogue, as much as there is, navigates an emotional minefield with such skill that there's hardly a moment that feels less than compelling.

Best Ensemble: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Newman, Taylor, and Ives. Those three names along make Cat on a Hot Tin Roof a force to be reckoned, in addition to strong work from Jack Carson, Judith Anderson, and Madeleine Sherwood. Watching the myriad of relationships between and among the characters play out is quite the show, and the almost non-stop fireworks is one of the most impressive acting displays ever captured on film.

The Month in Review: October 2011

Best Film (Theaters): Take Shelter

Whatever metaphorical ambitions may or may not be present in Take Shelter, it's hard to deny that this is truly first-rate film-making. Jeff Nichols' sophomore effort, drenched in dread from its opening sequence, takes its time telling its story. Rather than lay out a non-stop series of escalating madness, he gives us a surprisingly calm middle section before charging into the finale. The result, contrary to expectation, pays off in spades. Bolstered by rich performances (including heartbreaking work from Kathy Baker in a single scene), strong visuals, and a eerie score, this is one film that will stick with you long after it's over.

Best Film (DVD/Streaming): Fellini Satyricon

For all of its flaws in the storytelling department, this chaotic visual feast from Federico Fellini still leaves one hell of an impression based on the visuals alone. Fellini so brilliantly captures ancient Rome in the visuals and design that you can almost forgive the film's somewhat meandering tendencies and lack of strong characterization.

Best Direction: Jeff Nichols - Take Shelter

If Take Shelter is only Jeff Nichols' second outing as a writer/director, then the man would seem to have quite the career ahead of him. Rather than fall into a sophomore slump, Nichols' second film is a force to be reckoned with, not only due to the fine performances, but also to his marvelous direction. Nichols knows how to create an atmospheric sense of dread and foreboding that always feels perfectly judged, never flying off the rails into hysteria or beat-you-over-the-head repetition. Nichols is already at work on his third film (not due until 2013), and as of now I can tell you that thanks to Take Shelter, the man can consider my ticket sold.

Best Male Performance: Michael Shannon - Take Shelter

Already lighting up the small screen with his intimidating turn on HBO's Boardwalk Empire, Shannon returns to the big screen with a vengeance here, and delivers one of the year's finest performances. Mixing elements of naturalism and heightened drama with surprising finesse, Shannon makes his character's multiple angles come together cohesively. Whether he's mumbling quietly to himself or shouting in paranoid rage, he's a force to be reckoned with.

Best Female Performance: Elena Anaya - The Skin I Live In

The Skin I Live In may not rank as one of Almodovar's best, but at there very least there's some nice work from the cast, including Elena Anaya as the mysterious Vera Cruz. No, she doesn't come anywhere close to achieving what Penelope Cruz did in Volver, but she creates a fascinating character all the same, one whose full complexity doesn't come to the foreground until quite late in the game. Once all of the pieces have come together, everything that came before gains a whole new meaning, and Anaya's performance, while not necessarily a revelation, makes quite the impression, even if it's a bit on the surface-y side of things.

Best Screenplay: 50/50 by Will Reiser

'Write what you know,' the saying goes, and for Will Reiser, this piece of advice couldn't have been more appropriate. Based on Reiser's own experiences with cancer, 50/50, which could have easily been stupid, bipolar, or simply in bad taste, moves between comedy and drama so seamlessly that it's almost miraculous. The general sensitivity towards the characters (barring one unfortunate exception) and the way Reiser moves through Adam's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt's) journey helps the script avoid the potential pitfalls of its genre hybrid, and the result is a heavy dose of well-earned laughs and tears.

Best Ensemble Cast: 50/50

50/50 may only be about one man's struggle, but the film is still more than adept at capturing how Adam's story affects those around him. Gordon-Levitt is reliable as always, and he's backed up by strong work on all sides. Whether it's his out-of-her-league therapist (Anna Kendrick), his clingy mother (Anjelica Huston), or a chemotherapy cohort (Philip Baker Hall), all of the roles are played beautifully, and help make 50/50 an even richer experience. These aren't merely plot devices for Adam to bounce his feelings off of; they're fully formed characters, and the film is better off because of this.

Best Cinematography: Giuseppe Rotunno - Fellini Satyricon

Though Federico Fellini will perhaps always be known for his black and white classics of the late 50s and early 60s, when it came time to transition to color, the revered director pulled it off with spectacular results. DP Giuseppe Rotunno's work on Satyricon is, in short, stunning. He captures Fellini's wild and sensationalistic vision of ancient Rome with a rich array of light, color, and shadow, across myriad sets and locales. Film is often described as painting with light, which seems completely appropriate here, considering that any frame of Satyricon, thanks to Rotunno's work, would make quite a piece of still art.

The Rest of the Bunch: The Trip, Trespass, Anthony Zimmer

What I missed/need to catch up on: Martha Marcy May Marlene

The Month in Review: September 2011

Though September started off pretty strong with viewings, things quickly deteriorated (school, extra-curriculars, yada yada yada). As such, I was left with only six movies to choose from, which means that the wealth isn't as spread around as much as I would like.

Best Film [Theaters] - Drive

Acting as a perfect mix of style over substance, Nicholas Winding Refn's latest isn't terribly deep, but it takes Hossein Amini's skeletal screenplay and injects it with enough style to make it a memorable art-house action ride. Despite thin characters, Drive gives us enough time with them before launching into its gritty final act. Filled with nice performances (MVPs are Ryan Gosling and Bryan Cranston), strong production values, and some killer soundtrack choices, Drive may be a bit on the shallow side, but that doesn't make it a lesser achievement; this is cinema in its most badass form.

Best Film [DVD/Streaming] - The Thing (1982)

Though the story has been told before, John Carpenter's take on The Thing easily deserves to stand as the definitive version. From the deceptively simple opening, to the increasing amount of dread and paranoia, this is horror done right. Even in its nastiest moments (Carpenter doesn't exactly shy away from the graphic stuff), it remains compelling and scary as hell, if a little silly in spots. Even when scenes don't end with a jump, The Thing, much like the titular monster, still manages to get under your skin with unnerving results.

Best Direction: Nicholas Winding Refn - Drive

Despite all of the names in Drive's ensemble, the real star is the man behind the camera. Refn, who's no stranger to intense, violent films (Bronson) still knows where to draw the line between art and exploitation. But where Bronson sometimes skirted said line uncomfortably, here the director tones it down without compromising his style. The violence is often graphic, but Refn never lingers on the most intense images for the sake of upsetting your stomach. He's more concerned with giving us just enough to make us wince before showing us how the characters react to what has just happened. Like Joe Wright's Hanna, Drive is an example of a potentially iffy screenplay brought to life by superb directorial choices.

Best Male Performance: Ryan Gosling - Drive

Gosling's Driver may not have a name or much of a backstory, but don't mistake him for a blank slate. What starts out as a seemingly empty performance evolves into a compelling turn, as we see a man harnessing his inner violence. Whether Gosling is upset (his mesmerizing stare after the motel room fight) or intimidating (the strip club confrontation), he's utterly commanding from start to finish.

Best Female Performance: Jessica Chastain - The Debt

Further cementing her status as break out actor of the year, Chastain delivers yet another solid turn in John Madden's Cold War thriller. As Rachel, the Mossad agent tasked with capturing the twisted Dr. Vogel, Chastain's mix of vulnerability and toughness comes through with a nice, understated polish. Rather than play upon similar techniques as her previous films, she gives a performance that is completely unlike her work in The Tree of Life or The Help, which only makes her newfound It Girl status that much more deserved.

Best Ensemble Cast: Drive

Despite the relatively one note characters, Drive's cast more than made the most of what they were given to work with. Though no one is quite award worthy (though Gosling's sheer magnetism is certainly worth mentioning), the cast is filled with good work on all fronts, even those who aren't utilized to the fullest (Christina Hendricks and Ron Perlman). In a film that was truly a director's show, the cast still managed to make an impact.

Best Cinematography: Newton Thomas Sigel - Drive

In case you hadn't caught on by now, I really really liked Drive, and can think of no better recipient for cinematography than Sigel. Though the color palette is slightly washed-out (I'm assuming this is due to shooting on digital), Sigel's lighting and camera movements are quite striking, capturing Refn's gritty, neo-noir vision of Los Angeles with refined style.