The Official Review Thread of 2013

anonymous1980
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by anonymous1980 »

SPRING BREAKERS
Cast: James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, Gucci Mane, Heather Morris.
Dir: Harmoney Korine.

This film looks like as if it's a Girls Gone Wild video directed by Jean Luc Godard. And for me, that's not a bad thing at all. I was very wary to see this film because I've only seen Harmony Korine's script-only features, Kids and Ken Park (I'm mixed on the first one, not a fan at all of the second) but to my surprised, I really, really admired and liked this film. The shock novelty of seeing Disney Channel staples Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens doing drugs, drinking, partying and generally behaving very un-Disney-like lasts only for a moment then you're sucked in and mesmerized and shocked by the amorality of unbridled youthful hedonism. James Franco steals the film as the creepy and funny white rapper, Alien. The cinematography is also similarly top-notch.

Oscar Prospects: I'm rooting for James Franco to somehow sneak in Supporting Actor but since he only get prominently featured over 30 minutes into the film, most of the older Academy members will have been turned off by all the jiggling boobs.

Grade: B+
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by anonymous1980 »

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR
Cast: Adele Exarchopolous, Lea Seydoux.
Dir: Abdellatif Kechiche.

I saw this film on Christmas Day because nothing says "Christmas" like graphic lesbian sex. Actually, the much ballyhooed sex scenes were nowhere near as graphic as I imagined them to be based on the reactions I've read. They were about as graphic as, say, Lust, Caution and Y tu mama tambien. But it's graphic enough that I'm glad I saw it in the comfort of my bedroom instead of a movie theater filled with people. Those scenes aside, the controversy and a brouhaha surrounding it often makes people overlook the fact that this is a wonderful, beautiful bittersweet story about young love/first love. It's simple enough: A teenage girl's sexuality is awakened as she falls for an older woman. The audience is taken to the journey of their relationship. As I was watching this, I almost forget the fact that it's about two women and I was just taken by a beautifully and intelligently told love story. At almost three hours, is it a bit too long? Perhaps but personally, I didn't mind.

Oscar Prospects: I would nominate for Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay. I think it has a legitimate at Adapted Screenplay.

Grade: A-
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by ksrymy »

Okri wrote:I watched Ain't Them Bodies Saints today [....] I do hope people check it out, though. Affleck and especially Foster were great (Mara less so, but in a way that suggests she'll actually have a career beyond Salander); Bradford Young continues his streak of truly excellent cinematography and Daniel Hart's score is definitely worthy of a purchase.
I have to second your review on the film. I thought Affleck was pretty stellar using his soft voice to his advantage as always, and your comments on Mara are spot-on. It is a really odd spot on her résumé.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by FilmFan720 »

Yeah, I think Passing Strange is superior to any of the scores that Tee or BJ mentioned. I will also throw in See What I Wanna See and Urinetown as probably the other best scores of the decade. In terms of more traditional Broadway fare, I'll take Catch Me If You Can, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Full Monty over much of anything else recently.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by Okri »

In terms of great musical scores, I'd recommend Murder Ballad; Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812; Passing Strange and Giant without hesitation.

I watched Ain't Them Bodies Saints today and I find it's trajectory intriguing, puzzling and a little disappointing. It was the film that I'd heard the most of heading into Sundance, but obviously got pipped by Fruitvale Station. While it got a quiet release, the reviews were muted (not unfairly) and it sorta just went away. Nothing from the Indie Spirits (a real what? decision) and it'll head into quiet obscurity. I do hope people check it out, though. Affleck and especially Foster were great (Mara less so, but in a way that suggests she'll actually have a career beyond Salander); Bradford Young continues his streak of truly excellent cinematography and Daniel Hart's score is definitely worthy of a purchase.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by The Original BJ »

flipp525 wrote:
The Original BJ wrote:
Mister Tee wrote:Not to send this conversation on a completely unrelated tangent, but I would want to add several musicals from this millennium to the two you (deservedly) cited: The Last Five Years, Next to Normal, and In the Heights, all of which I feel have scores that are hugely memorable AND, most significantly, completely singular. I don't think there are other musicals around that sound like those shows do.

There are other scores I've liked a lot this decade -- The Book of Mormon, Urinetown, Avenue Q, The Scottsboro Boys -- but all of those definitely fall more on the pastiche side rather than the never-heard-anything-like-that-before side of musical theater.
BJ, have you seen or heard "If/Then" the new musical with Idina Menzel? I caught it at The Kennedy Center recently and there are some outstanding numbers, especially one towards the end of the show. I was emotionally overwhelmed by it. I think it's heading to Broadway. It has a Sliding Doors kind of conceit.
Haven't seen If/Then yet, but the actor who plays Idina Menzel's husband is a friend of mine, so I will definitely be seeing it in New York in the spring. Having loved Next to Normal, another Kitt/Yorkey musical, I'm very excited about it.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by flipp525 »

The Original BJ wrote:
Mister Tee wrote:Not to send this conversation on a completely unrelated tangent, but I would want to add several musicals from this millennium to the two you (deservedly) cited: The Last Five Years, Next to Normal, and In the Heights, all of which I feel have scores that are hugely memorable AND, most significantly, completely singular. I don't think there are other musicals around that sound like those shows do.

There are other scores I've liked a lot this decade -- The Book of Mormon, Urinetown, Avenue Q, The Scottsboro Boys -- but all of those definitely fall more on the pastiche side rather than the never-heard-anything-like-that-before side of musical theater.
BJ, have you seen or heard "If/Then" the new musical with Idina Menzel? I caught it at The Kennedy Center recently and there are some outstanding numbers, especially one towards the end of the show. I was emotionally overwhelmed by it. I think it's heading to Broadway. It has a Sliding Doors kind of conceit.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by anonymous1980 »

NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY
Cast: Sid Lucero, Angeli Bayani, Archie Alemanya, Mae Paner.
Dir: Lav Diaz.

Lav Diaz's films can be a bit intimidating due to their tendency to be very long and deliberately paced. He's one of the most uncommercial filmmakers out there (he made an 11 hour black & white silent film for crap's sakes!). But brave open-minded film buffs are often rewarded with a one-of-a-kind emotional, immersive, thought-provoking cinematic experience that comes from his brand of cinema. Norte is no different. More than that, and I don't use this word lightly, it may be his masterpiece. It's about a horrific double murder that happens in a provincial town. The real killer gets away with it while an innocent man who has a wife and kids goes to prison. The film chronicles and examines the fall out during the next few years following three main characters: The innocent convict, the killer and the convict's wife. It's alternately shocking, heartbreaking, moving, suspenseful and even funny! Despite it being deliberately paced and over 4 hours long (short for Lav Diaz's standards but long for most people), I almost never drifted away from the film nor did it feel dragging or felt too long at all. I felt like watching a master at work.

Oscar Prospect: None. Not because it's not any good but I think this work will go over Oscar's head.

Grade: A.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by The Original BJ »

Mister Tee wrote:I agree the score is pretty undistinguished (though, as I was saying to a friend recently, Hairspray and Light in the Piazza are about the only musicals I've seen this millennium where the scores were really notable -- generally, most songs in most shows sound depressingly the same).
Not to send this conversation on a completely unrelated tangent, but I would want to add several musicals from this millennium to the two you (deservedly) cited: The Last Five Years, Next to Normal, and In the Heights, all of which I feel have scores that are hugely memorable AND, most significantly, completely singular. I don't think there are other musicals around that sound like those shows do.

There are other scores I've liked a lot this decade -- The Book of Mormon, Urinetown, Avenue Q, The Scottsboro Boys -- but all of those definitely fall more on the pastiche side rather than the never-heard-anything-like-that-before side of musical theater.

And yes, that Get a Horse short really is a scream. I first saw it at the Disney convention over the summer, when it was introduced to us by an archivist as a recently discovered and restored Mickey short that had never been seen before. You can imagine the audience's collective surprise when...well...I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone. But I think it reaches almost Duck Amuck levels of inventiveness, and found it completely delightful both times I saw it.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by Mister Tee »

Well, I saw a really exciting piece of animation in a theatre yesterday. Dazzling 3-D, a wild, acid-trippy concept, fun from start to finish.

Did I mention it only runs 10 minutes, and is the tag-on short running with Frozen, called Get a Horse?

As for Frozen itself...I'm not as down on it as BJ, but then I went in with his view as buffer, not expecting a Disney Animated Masterpiece. I agree the score is pretty undistinguished (though, as I was saying to a friend recently, Hairspray and Light in the Piazza are about the only musicals I've seen this millennium where the scores were really notable -- generally, most songs in most shows sound depressingly the same). And the story-structure issues BJ cites -- especially the miraculous/unexplained reversal at the finish -- are certainly there.

But I found the visuals pretty sensational (maybe partly because it's one of the few animateds I've seen in a big screen in recent years); I actually liked that we didn't have an obvious, sniveling villain (and that the villainy came from a somewhat off-center direction); and I liked that the redemption-of-true-love moment came from the less obvious angle (though it had occurred to me we might go that way). The fact that the story contains traditional romance but makes it a sub-theme to the sisterly relationship was a fresh slant.

I don't mean to oversell this: it's nowhere near as exciting as Frankenweenie or Wreck-it Ralph were last year. I'd put it on a par with Paranorman -- which is to say, I liked it better than Brave. But of course I'm open to Miyazaki taking me someplace more interesting.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by ITALIANO »

Mister Tee wrote: Jep's scathing character-evisceration of a colleague, for instance, has the zing of bravura writing, but it raised alot of reality questions for me (like, Could a person with that many skeletons in her closet be so self-delusional as to open herself to public criticsm? And then be so devastated she runs out at the end? (If she was so wounded, why did she sit there for so much of it?) And then speak with Jep warmly at their next meeting? It felt like the desire to do snappy writing overrode psychological believability.
It's interesting that you should point out this. And from an American point of view you are certainly right. I'm afraid that this just means that we Italians are more contradictory - emotionally, I mean - because nobody here, including me, found the relationship between these two characters unrealistic or difficult to believe. But I'm sure that by American standards it is.

Even here. though, some critics thought, like you, that the last part of the movie is less successful than the rest. It is, of course, a very long movie. Yet, having now seen it three times, I've come to appreciate its "generosity" towards the viewer. In a time of movies which are often too essential, or too long even but still very superficial, The Great Beauty's combination of length and depth is definitely unusual, and should be praised (and in the last part there is, I think, one of its most touching scenes - the aging noblewoman's visit to her own palace, now a museum).

If this were an American movie, or simply a popular movie in America, probably both Toni Servillo and Sabrina Ferilli (the actress who plays sad, beautiful Ramona) would and should be considered for Oscar nominations - as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively. And Luca Bigazzi's stunning cinematography would be honored as well.

But I can't complain. On this side of the ocean The Great Beauty has recently won Best Picture at the EFAs, the European Film Academy awards, beating, among the other nominees, Blue is the Warmest Color and Italy's other "big" movie of the year, Tornatore's The Best Offer.

It's certainly better than any American movie I've seen this year - but is it better than the Kechiche? Probably not. In all honesty, I have to say that Blue is the Warmest Color is still the best "foreign" movie I've seen this year - till now at least. Yet, as it won't be competing for Best Foreign Film, I will be free to root, for once, for the Italian entry, in case it's nominated (it will lose to the Danish one anyway).
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by Mister Tee »

I no doubt did The Great Beauty a disservice by going to see it on a day when I was pretty tired. Its lack of a strong narrative through-line probably made it even more difficult for me to maintain focus through my fatigue.

But maybe it didn't make that much difference, as I ended up with more or less the same take Italiano expressed early in the year: this is not a great or perfect film, but it's clearly the work of a major filmmaker and well worth seeing. Scene by scene, I rate most of the movie very high -- for its visuals (not least the unexpected view of the Colosseum, but also the art party, the night-tour of mansions), its characters (Ramona and the dwarf publisher my favorites, along with master of ceremonies Jep) and its often trenchant dialogue.

But there's occasionally too much of these very good things. Jep's scathing character-evisceration of a colleague, for instance, has the zing of bravura writing, but it raised alot of reality questions for me (like, Could a person with that many skeletons in her closet be so self-delusional as to open herself to public criticsm? And then be so devastated she runs out at the end? (If she was so wounded, why did she sit there for so much of it?) And then speak with Jep warmly at their next meeting? It felt like the desire to do snappy writing overrode psychological believability. Earlier on, there's a far more pithy exchange between two characters -- a woman apologizes after sex, saying she's not very good at it; Jep's response is "If you become good at it, there's the danger you become deft". I think the scene I referenced is an ilustrtaion of this concept.

The film also starts rambling in the final half hour. It's fitting it's considered the La Dolce Vita of its time, because Fellini's film, to me, also felt about half an hour too long. There were at least two or three times I expected the movie to end, and each of them would have made as much sense as the ending that finally arrived. And, for all that the film dragged, some things were dealt with too quickly: Ramona's fate came so from the blue I wondered if I'd dozed off a moment.

This is probably sounding too negative, and I don't mean it to; these are simply the caveats I think people should go in considering. The rest of what they'll see is a memorable portrait of a world-weary city and citizen -- one that, should it make the foreign film list this year, will be superior to many of the winners of recent vintage (the past two years excepted). It's, in fact, the sort of film that used to win the award back in the 50s through 70s; it may not be the warm bath voters seem to prefer nowadays, though, so we'll see how it does.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by anonymous1980 »

THE HOBBT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG
Cast: Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sylvester McCoy, Aidan Turner, Manu Bennett, Dean O'Gorman, Graham McTavish, Peter Hambleton, Mikael Persbrandt, Adam Brown, William Kircher, Jed Brophy, Stephen Hunter, Mark Hadlow, Stephen Fry, John Bell, Cate Blanchett, Stephen Colbert.
Dir: Peter Jackson.

Is it as good as the original Lord of the Rings trilogy? Overall as a film? No. Does this film justify turning a light-hearted adventure book whose story should have just been told in a packed 2.5 hours into a full trilogy? Not really. But that doesn't mean that this film doesn't have really good moments. Peter Jackson still knows how to create exciting action sequences. The barrell chase scene was delightful and fun. But the highlight is of course Smaug, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, a really awe-inspiring creation. Even at over 2.5 hours long, the film feels brisk. It is enjoyable overall. But I still think splitting this into three is a huge mistake.

Oscar Prospects: Production Design, Visual Effects, Makeup, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Song are possible.

Grade: B.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by Greg »

The Original BJ wrote:I believe the original song in the movie is called "Please, Mr. Kennedy."
Apparently, "Please, Mr. Kennedy" is not original. It is adapted from several other songs of the early 1960's that were all titled "Please, Mr. Kennedy."
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2013

Post by anonymous1980 »

ILO-ILO
Cast: Angeli Bayani, Koh Jia Ler, Yann Yann Yeo, Chen Tian Wen.
Dir: Anthony Chen.

This is Singapore's entry to the Best Foreign Film Oscar race. I think it deserves to get in. It's a wonderful, deceptively simple little drama about a Singaporean family who hires a Filipina nanny/maid who forms a bond with the family's young son. Very loosely autobiographical, the film is heartfelt and very sweet without being cloying. It has emotional heft. The quartet of actors all hit the right notes under the very assured direction of first-time director Anthony Chen, who is really a talent to keep an eye out on. One of the best films of the year.

Oscar Prospects: Deserves Foreign Language Film.

Grade: A-

ENDER'S GAME
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, Moises Arias, Aramis Knight, Suraj Partha.
Dir: Gavin Hood.

I read the book this film was based on which I really enjoyed but that was years ago and I barely remember it so I'm not 100% sure how faithful it is. But based on what I remember, I think they hit everything. I'm surprised how much I enjoyed this though. The dialogue is borderline George Lucas/Phantom Menace terrible but thankfully, the strong cast actually sells it. The first two acts which SEEM to push a neocon rah-rah-rah view of war was thankfully salvaged in the end though. The repugnant beliefs of author Orson Scott Card aside, this film is a solid sci-fi action picture.

Oscar Prospects: It didn't make the Visual Effect bake-off. But it has an outside chance for Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Costume Design.

Grade: B.
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