The Official Review Thread of 2009

[Sabin]

Adventureland (Greg Mottola)

There is something stronger and better struggling to get out of Adventureland but what we have is still pretty charming. I'm going to give it a pass. The chemistry between Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart (the latter of whom is especially good in this film) is very, very strong and creates a groove for the rest of the film to coast on. I kept wanting messier, more interesting challenges for them. The theme park canvas is so ripe for exploration, and Mottola as a visual director creates some lovely moments. He's matured from Superbad in moving his scenes around, though unlike that film Adventureland doesn't really blend pathos and humor all that intoxicatingly. The bigger problem is that it feels like memories that he never healthily digested. As I said, Eisenberg and Stewart do a fine job of making it work, but I think a forty-something-year old man should be able to put his experiences in order a little more than this.

Definitely worthwhile but disappointing.

[Bog]

I could easily foresee nominations for Hans Zimmer's (very good) score, Philippe Rousselot's Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design, Sound Mixing, and Sound Effects. Visual Effects is a little bit of a stretch but although they're rather egregious, I enjoyed them. Quite frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing Downey, Jr. and Law both nominated either. Rachel McAdams was not good though. Famke Janssen would've been preferable.

Hahahaha....April Fools!!!

awww shit...it's January?

[Zahveed]

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
dir Terry Gilliam


Gilliam doing what he does best - fairy tales and fables - and everyone in the film puts on one hell of show. Each character morally ambiguous with their own motivations, their own restrictions, and those wishes and dreams that get in the way. Imagination gets the best of them figuratively and quite literally.

Terry Gilliam may be the best out there when it comes to waging war between fantasy and reality. Everyone wants to escape from something. Valentina wants to live a normal life with a house in family, Anton wants to run away with Valentina, Doctor Parnassus wants to escape the Devil's grasp, and Toby (played by the late Heath Ledger doing one last great performance) is hiding from his past.

The set pieces, especially the Imaginarium stage, are quite intriguing and though some of the scenes within Imaginarium itself are jarring, the Dali inspired visuals can be a treat. Even though, this morality tale could stand on its own for the story and its layers of themes.

Hell, I'd say Ledger, Waits, Plummer, Cole and Farrell (the best of the mirror Tobys) give some of the best performances of the season, if not the year. I'll stand by that.

[Sabin]

Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie)

I honestly have no idea what this backlash is about. I had such a better time than I was expecting. It's probably the most entertaining total betrayal adaptation in film history. House cast in an episode of 24...but fun.

Like George Clooney, I just don't see myself getting tired of Robert Downey, Jr.. Especially considering that casting him in a Hollywood blockbuster is a solid way to introduce something genre-bending. His relationship with Jude Law (also excellent) in this film is such an endlessly entertaining bickering marriage. Law hasn't been this much fun in ages, and Downey, Jr. is actually a more engaging lead here than in Iron Man. Ritchie's visual indulgences aside (which admittedly are decently set-up by the script), this is a very competent, entertaining venture in franchise-building. I say this knowing full well that the plot becomes ridiculous in the third act and this character is NOT Sherlock Holmes. But I didn't care. This was the most entertaining summer film of the year. More than Avatar, it's actually fun to shut your brain off in this film.

I could easily foresee nominations for Hans Zimmer's (very good) score, Philippe Rousselot's Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design, Sound Mixing, and Sound Effects. Visual Effects is a little bit of a stretch but although they're rather egregious, I enjoyed them. Quite frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing Downey, Jr. and Law both nominated either. Rachel McAdams was not good though. Famke Janssen would've been preferable.

[Sabin]

Coraline (Henry Selick)

I'm still rolling this stop motion work of art around in my brain. Whereas Fantastic Mr. Fox is a bit too understated in its melancholic third act, Coraline slightly enters video game territory. I would no doubt have less a problem with this had I seen it in 3D as it clearly should be seen, but it's both slightly lacking and on auto-pilot in the third act. All that precedes is pretty outstanding. If Fantastic Mr. Fox has the year's best costume design, then Coraline easily has the year's best production design. These two stop motion animated films couldn't appear less couldn't appear more different in style, but together they're two of the best American films I saw all year. Whereas Anderson aims within something slightly antiquated for an air of almost anachronistically sophisticated, Selick spins down the rabbit hole with new technology in the guise of the crowd pleaser that we've been longing for. I think I prefer Fantastic Mr. Fox, but had I seen this in 3D I'm fairly certain that would not be the case.

The surfaces are imaginative, the character choices well though-out, never cloying, and trapped between contemporary and staple (Coraline, thankfully, is a brat!). I love how Coraline's parents are designed. Her father like a tortoise extended out from his Michigan State sweatshirt, her mother in a sweater that seems to encompass her neck, both of them planted in front of their laptops. For most of the film, it's fucking weird! And it's a pretty darn good screenplay, well-structured to just take in the weirdness of Coraline's weird domestic world and weirder fantasy world but also keep moving forward.

[Precious Doll]

Like Swinton, Evans (as Mister Tee has correctly pointed out) reinvented her screen image and delivered her most striking performance in a somewhat, though not fatally, flawed film. But critics then had integrity. Now all they want to do is predict the Oscars. With the precursors to point to, AMPAS voters can smugly say "we weren't the only ones who thought she deserved it."

Not entirely true, otherwise the LA and NSFC critics would not have given their best actress awards to a very deserving Yolande Moreau.

[ITALIANO]

A win might be a bit much but it would bring a smile to my lips, if only to imagine the harrumphs you guys would be going through.

Nah, the others would approve; she's officially a "star" after all, and this board never liked Streep too much. But yes, I would literally implode.

[anonymous1980]

ZOMBIELAND
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Amber Heard, Bill Murray.
Dir: Ruben Fleischer

This is a good but not great zombie horror comedy (an example of a great zombie comedy, well, probably the ONLY example is Shaun of the Dead). But it's still quite entertaining thanks to the engaging performances of the four leads and the hilarious extended cameo by Bill Murray which makes this movie well worth checking out.

Oscar Prospects: I wouldn't mind a Best Supporting Actor nom for Bill Murray (just for kicks).

Grade: B

SHERLOCK HOLMES
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly, James Fox.
Dir: Guy Ritchie

I can definitely say that this is my favorite Guy Ritchie movie I've seen so far. The only other one I've seen in RocknRolla which I found kind of blah. But this one's a quite entertaining re-invention of the Sherlock Holmes story. It didn't really blow me away but Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law make for a nice team and I was entertained.

Oscar Prospects: Best Original Score, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, maybe Best Sound Mixing.

Grade: C+

[Big Magilla]

Big Magilla's predictions are usually famously wrong, and I don't see Bullock winning unless the Academy gets really crazy. But you know what? I'm afraid that if Streep weren't in the running, she really might make it.

Only my early pre-release predictions. Once the films are out and I've seen them I'm usually famously right.

At least nowhere have I said Bullock deserves to win. I like her in most things and I liked her here but Tilda Swinton (Julia) is the one who deserves to win. That won't happen, in part because Julia hasn't been widely seen, in part because Swinton has been largely missing from the precursors and in part because she recently won.

I liked Streep in Julie & Julia but it makes as much sense to give her an Oscar for this film as it did to give one to Katharine Hepburn for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. In Hepburn's case the few precursors in existence at the time went to Edith Evans (deservedly) in The Whisperers.

Like Swinton, Evans (as Mister Tee has correctly pointed out) reinvented her screen image and delivered her most striking performance in a somewhat, though not fatally, flawed film. But critics then had integrity. Now all they want to do is predict the Oscars. With the precursors to point to, AMPAS voters can smugly say "we weren't the only ones who thought she deserved it."

But back to The Blind Side. It may not be a great movie, but it's not a bad one and Bullock's performance would be far from the worst ever nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. A win might be a bit much but it would bring a smile to my lips, if only to imagine the harrumphs you guys would be going through.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1263040817

[ITALIANO]

As it happens, I wasn't, so you can get whatever miniscule worry it caused you out of your head. (Presuming you mean the Blind Side thread, if you look back toward the beginning of it, you'll find my thoughts on the film are pretty much in line wit h yours)

No worry at all, actually I enjoy disagreements if they are intelligent. Better than idiotic agreements for sure.

I read your thoughts about the movie now and I admit that they are rather close to mine. A bit softer maybe, but then I found your third paragraph quite interesting in the way it analyses the Americans' emotional reaction to the movie. I think you are right; it's not like in Europe we don't have our own trash, but we are a bit more cynical maybe, and anyway we'd never apply it to serious issues (can you imagine an Italian movie about the mafia made that way? It would be universally condemned as superficial and insulting, not to mention, let's say it because this is what The Blind Side it, very stupid).

Big Magilla's predictions are usually famously wrong, and I don't see Bullock winning unless the Academy gets really crazy. But you know what? I'm afraid that if Streep weren't in the running, she really might make it.

[Mister Tee]

I'm just getting too many hints of "you couldn't think that unless you were uneducated" around here lately, which I think gives too little credit to much of our membership.

In case you are referring to me (which wouldn't be a problem of course, nor a major crime), I never said that and maybe you should read that thread again Mister Tee.

As it happens, I wasn't, so you can get whatever miniscule worry it caused you out of your head. (Presuming you mean the Blind Side thread, if you look back toward the beginning of it, you'll find my thoughts on the film are pretty much in line wit h yours)

Uri, I said I might have been over-reacting, and I'm content to leave it at that.

[ITALIANO]

I'm just getting too many hints of "you couldn't think that unless you were uneducated" around here lately, which I think gives too little credit to much of our membership.

In case you are referring to me (which wouldn't be a problem of course, nor a major crime), I never said that and maybe you should read that thread again Mister Tee.

[Uri]

Uri, I didn't take offense to your statement.

I know.

This role is indeed a new territory for her, the way other roles in the past could be considered kind of departure for her at the time. She is such a fascinating actress because she doesn’t confine herself to any safe zone. As for being "powerless" – she did play vulnerable characters before. Check her in The War Zone – the quite flowed yet very intriguing directorial debut of Tim Roth – in which she plays the mother in a dysfunctional family. It was shot very shortly after she gave birth to her twins and the way she willingly allows the camera to explore the mental as well as the physical exhaustion of the rather defeated character she's playing is quite an unsettling experience too.

[FilmFan720]

Uri, I didn't take offense to your statement. This is the first time I remember seeing her in a role this "powerless", especially in those first few scenes (where she also had a personality I hadn't seen before). Maybe that was per the usual in her earlier, smaller films that I haven't seen but in most of the film you named, both mainstream and smaller, this is a different type of performance.

[Uri]

Maybe I'm being over-sensitive here, but it strikes me this post comes perilously close to assuming that FilmFan would only have seen Swinton's work in the wide-grossing stuff and would have a different opinion had he only a wider exposure to Swinton's hipper work. But I've seen Orlando, Broken Flowers, Young Adam, The Deep End (I in fact thought she gave the best performance of 2001 in Deep End), yet I still had a vague sense of boundaries to her work, through which I thought she pushed in Julia.

If I misread/overrreacted to your original post, apologies. I'm just getting too many hints of "you couldn't think that unless you were uneducated" around here lately, which I think gives too little credit to much of our membership.

Sorry – I was reading "she is always the inc control bitch" – it's probably my poor grasp of the English language, but I found this statement somehow not representing the whole scope of Swinton's opus, and since I had the misconception here was a place one comes to be informed and, god forbids, at times even challenged, I made some remarks I thought would address that statement, which, admittedly, I found to be somehow debatable. How can one read such comprehensive derogatory assessments into my words is quite beyond me, but if anyone did, I apologize. Mea culpa.