The Best Films of 2008

1. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)

Both a sensitive depiction of loneliness and a stinging rebuke of consumerism, WALL-E is an ambitious family film with plenty of humor and a cute-as-a-bug protagonist to amuse the kids and thougthfulness to engage adults. WALL-E is packed with physical comedy and sight gags as old as the silent films that provide inspiration for a hero in the tradition of Chaplin's Little Tramp. The sleek space-age design and graceful moments of quiet, such as a lovely robot dance among the stars, give comfort and peace from the heavy themes. WALL-E'S echo of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY--call it the second dawn of man--serves as a cunning tribute to Kubrick's film and an optimistic note for the future of slumbering mankind. Writer-director Andrew Stanton packages the fun and high-mindedness in dazzling ways to make WALL-E successful as popular entertainment for all ages and art that merits serious discussion.

2. THE DARK KNIGHT (Christopher Nolan, 2008)

THE DARK KNIGHT upends the traditional view of the blockbuster as possessing all brawn and no brain. Director Christopher Nolan administers the visceral stimulation required of an action movie and contemplates the urgent questions regarding the use of power to combat evil and the importance of imagery in the fight. Heath Ledger's riveting turn as The Joker, a sociopath conducting fear experiments on the public for his anarchic amusement, provides a terrifying reminder that the social fabric can be easily torn.

3. WENDY AND LUCY (Kelly Reichardt, 2008)

A simple story of a woman on the verge of losing everything, WENDY AND LUCY gains quiet power in how director Kelly Reichardt depicts the immediacy and peril in living day-to-day. As Wendy, a strapped young woman driving across the country in search of work with her dog her lone companion, Michelle Williams gives a heartbreaking performance. While the film deals Wendy the indignities of her economic situation, acts of decency and compassion provide the most stirring moments in a gorgeously photographed film.

4. RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (Jonathan Demme, 2008)

The challenge of a drug addicted past and family tensions in the present is beautifully elucidated in RACHEL GETTING MARRIED. The handheld camerawork draws us into an intimate and suffocating look at what it can be like to hurt many people and desire redemption. The stylistic choice allows the camera to get close while having the freedom to wander within a confined setting, which is precisely the situation Anne Hathaway's Kym finds herself in. Director Jonathan Demme unfolds RACHEL GETTING MARRIED like a novel that gives the immersive experience of being in an environment. The wedding and reception scenes are, in a sense, superfluous to the main narrative, yet this multicultural celebration of community and family is precisely what Kym feels outside of even while in its midst.

5. FUNNY GAMES (Michael Haneke, 2007)

Provocateur Michael Haneke didn't need to remake his 1997 Austrian thriller, especially a decade later as an English-language clone, but as multiplex performance art FUNNY GAMES is a wickedly amusing joke on viewers not expecting a film to toy with them so mercilessly. Coming on the heels of the torture porn trend in horror movies and amid countless reality TV programs, the timing couldn't be better for Haneke's stern lecture decrying the audience's bloodlust and the phoniness and debasement passing for realism in pop culture. Uncomfortable yet ultimately exhilirating, FUNNY GAMES uses suggested violence, intense moralizing, and dark humor to jolt modern moviegoers into recognizing what we consume for entertainment and question whether it's edifying.

6. MAN ON WIRE (James Marsh, 2008)

It's clear from the beginning of the documentary MAN ON WIRE that French wirewalker Philippe Petit survived the forty-five minutes he spent performing on the cable strung between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers without a net or any safety measures, but knowing this doesn't diminish the tension. Director James Marsh employs a heist film's structure to lay out the specifics of how the high wire artist and his friends schemed to get to the top of the towers, let alone pull off this inconceivable feat. Recreated scenes, home movies, and photographs are expertly edited together to heighten the sense of daring and danger.

7. A CHRISTMAS TALE (UN CONTE DE NOËL) (Arnaud Desplechin, 2008)

French auteur Arnaud Desplechin makes gloriously messy films about human interactions, so what better hothouse of domestic clashes is there for him to examine than the dysfunctional family Christmas movie? Featuring a who's who of France's finest actors, including Catherine Deneuve as the clan's matriarch and Desplechin surrogate Mathieu Amalric, A CHRISTMAS TALE unpacks a familial history of grudges, joys, disappointments, and fears that would keep a psychoanalyst busy for decades. For as brutally honest or supposedly truthful as the characters are with each other--with Desplechin it can be hard to discern between the real and the imagined--the airing of grievances is quite playful in tone and the director's inventive cinematic techniques.

8. TRANSSIBERIAN (Brad Anderson, 2008)

Emiliy Mortimer and Woody Harrelson find more adventure than they desired during a week-long trip aboard the Trans-Siberian Express in Brad Anderson's Hitchcockian thriller. TRANSSIBERIAN is a superb suspense film with plenty of intriguing developments to challenge the characters and keep viewers on the edges of their seats. As usual Mortimer is terrific playing a woman struggling to resist indulging her wild old ways as temptations and pressures mount.

9. DOUBT (John Patrick Shanley, 2008)

Writer-director John Patrick Shanley's moral drama actively involves the viewer in assessing the truth of a nun's allegation of a priest. In DOUBT the truth gets tossed about like a kite on a blustery day. It shifts direction abruptly, is difficult to control, and gets battered in the process. However, Shanley's film is not an argument against doubt but a reasoned case for a healthy dose of skepticism to balance out faith, even if such thoughts are unsettling. DOUBT inspires more uncertainty than it resolves, but unquestionably it houses philosophical inquiries and top-notch acting from Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis to mark it as a compelling piece of cinema.

10. AMERICAN TEEN (Nanette Burstein, 2008)

Nanette Burstein's sharply-felt documentary about Warsaw, Indiana high school seniors visits the hallways, bedrooms, and basements where the formative years are spent and finds things are not all that different regardless of when one is a teenager. The primary participants resemble their fictional teen movie analogues--Hannah, the artistically-minded outsider; popular mean girl Megan; Colin, the star basketball player in a hoops-mad community; and lovelorn band geek Jake--but are depicted with greater complexity than their central casting counterparts often receive. Burstein captures teenage angst and hope with such emotional potency that it is unlikely to make viewers wistful for a frequently idealized time in life.

2008 in Film: The Honorable Mentions

4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (4 LUNI, 3 SAPTAMÂANI SI 2 ZILE) (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)

Without a doubt this devastating portrait of a woman looking to get an illegal abortion in Romania during the 1980s is difficult to watch. Anamaria Marinca's searing performance anchors writer-director Cristian Mungiu's unblinking film, which confronts those on both sides of the issue with tough questions about personal freedom and legislated morality.

BE KIND REWIND (Michel Gondry, 2008)

Writer-director Michel Gondry sprinkles his affection for childlike imagination and handcrafted art throughout BE KIND REWIND, a fun and funny goof on backyard moviemaking. Gondry's intent is not to mock crude, no-budget creations but rather to pay tribute to the artistic spirit freed from commercial aspirations and demands. It's filmmaking as joyful activity and expression instead of a box office competition.

BLINDNESS (Fernando Meirelles, 2008)

Short of putting nothing but white on the screen, the desaturated visual conceit, which emphasizes white and gives the disorienting sensation of limited sight, is as close as the audience can get to experiencing what the characters in BLINDNESS live. Director Fernando Meirelles presents a grim vision of societal breakdown and a survival situation in which most people are susceptible to their worst impulses, but the dynamic style makes the unpleasant content more palatable.

ELEGY (Isabel Coixet, 2008)

Ben Kingsley's commitment-phobic college professor falls harder than he thought possible for Penelope Cruz as his younger student in this moving study of love and aging. Kingsley brings out the complexity in a man whose intellectual curiosity is matched only by his disinterest in deeply knowing the women he beds, but it's Cruz's performance, which transcends the object of desire role, that brings meaning to ELEGY.

ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD (Werner Herzog, 2007)

The title of Werner Herzog's documentary refers to his experiences while visiting Antarctica and ruminations on the planet's demise. In ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD Herzog alternates between astonishment and curiosity at the weird and wonderful people, creatures, and landscapes he sees and resignation about the potential for mankind to ruin it all. On the whole the nature footage is impressive, but the strange, beautiful world revealed in the underwater photography is so stunning that it produces feelings of rapture.

IRON MAN (Jon Favreau, 2008)

Director Jon Favreau populates IRON MAN with actors more accustomed to prestige pictures than summer blockbusters, but the choices pay off with richer performances across the board. Quick with a quip and projecting a reckless air, Robert Downey Jr. is perfect as an intelligent and wealthy ladies' man with self-destructive impulses. His low-key line readings bring a lot of humor to his interactions with his human and robot counterparts. As Stark's loyal assistant Pepper Potts, Gwyneth Paltrow lends quiet grace and value to what might otherwise have been an unremarkable Girl Friday part. Favreau forges a strong film through the combination of character development and comedy with the explosions and impressive special effects expected during the the big movie season.

MILK (Gus Van Sant, 2008)

Biographical films can feel like museum pieces, but Gus Van Sant's blending of archival footage and meticulous period recreation in MILK brings to life a vibrant community ready to boil over from the pressure put upon them. As a case study of political mobilization, MILK provides an intriguing look inside one man's conquering of the system. While the director puts his distinctive stamp on the material, MILK is an actor's picture. Penn's riveting performance captures Milk's complexity. Milk never apologizes for who he is, and it's Penn's looseness in the role that rounds out his acting and allows him to inhabit the character rather than impersonate the man.

THE ORDER OF MYTHS (Margaret Brown, 2008)

For all of the grand statements about what the election of Barack Obama means about current racial attitudes in America, THE ORDER OF MYTHS provides an example of one practice that shows how much work remains. This documentary about Mobile, Alabama's still-segregated Mardi Gras celebrations examines how people hold onto traditions. Director Margaret Brown resists playing gotcha as she challenges those who prefer to cling to mindsets that value the past while destroying the present and future.

PARANOID PARK (Gus Van Sant, 2007)

Merging his experimental impulses with a more accessible story (or at least something with the semblance of a plot), Gus Van Sant and cinematographer Christopher Doyle paint the inner life of a teenage skateboarder in the grays and blues of confusion, guilt, and alienation. Where MILK found the director focusing on a man attempting to be larger than himself, PARANOID PARK stares at a kid who finds himself wishing he could be so small as to be invisible.

PRICELESS (HORS DE PRIX) (Pierre Salvadori, 2006)

Audrey Tautou sparkles as a gold digger teaching Gad Elmaleh the ways of seduction for profit in PRICELESS. Although more risque than classic Hollywood romantic comedies, this French charmer is a throwback to glamour, graceful physical comedy, and sexually-charged battle of wits.

REDBELT (David Mamet, 2008)

Mixed martial arts and David Mamet may not seem made for each other, but both concentrate on hitting hard, whether with hands and feet or words. Physical and verbal combat come into play in the twisty tale of an honorable jiujitsu instructor played by Chiwitel Ejiofor. The venue may seem an unlikely one for Mamet, but it's an apt setting for the corrupting influene of commercialism upon art and principle.

SNOW ANGELS (David Gordon Green, 2007)

Although the interweaving stories of burgeoning and disintegrating love in SNOW ANGELS display trappings of suburban hell films, writer-director David Gordon Green embraces the characters in his rurally located movie rather than keeping them at arm's length with snarkiness and irony. Viewing these often unlikeable people with empathy, and sometimes humor, instead of judgment and condescension makes all the difference in what could have otherwise been a miserabilist tour of a rocky relationship landscape. In retracing the steps that led to tragedy, Green and lead actor Sam Rockwell provide the context rarely found in news reports or fictional films about common misfortunes. SNOW ANGELS can painfully burrow into one's heart, but such is the cost of empathy, or any human connection for that matter.

TELL NO ONE (NE LE DIS À PERSONNE) (Guillame Canet, 2006)

Films in the Hitchcock mold one of my favorite things, and this French suspense movie does not disappoint. Well-acted by François Cluzet as the prototypical "wrong man", a doctor suspected of murdering his wife and possibly others, and smoothly directed by Guillaume Canet, TELL NO ONE artfully delivers pulpy thrills.

THE WRESTLER (Darren Aronofsky, 2008)

While director Darren Aronofsky and screenwriter Robert Siegel's tour of the small-time wrestling circuit is enlightening, THE WRESTLER'S greater value comes as a portrait of aging via Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei's powerhouse performances. Rourke wears the physical and emotional scars of a man beaten for a living who continues to revel in what he does. Rourke's portrayal of the titular wrestler peels back the qualities people like about the character beyond his signature move. Tomei's naked performance, in every sense of the word, demonstrates how her fortysomething stripper is in charge of what she does yet ultimately draws her worth from the eyes of strangers. Both characters are sacrifices who give themselves up for the pleasure of others. Randy isn't nicknamed The Ram for nothing. Through the moving and observant performances, THE WRESTLER pins down the human cost of these professions.

On guilty pleasures

Wednesday a student was talking to me about anticipating that night's LOST season premiere while also expressing that the show must be a guilty pleasure. I was surprised that such a complex and popular program would get the guilty pleasure tag because the well-reviewed and highly-rated series is not the sort of disreputable entertainment normally associated with the term.

Then again, despite plentiful references to old philosophers and decades of popular culture, LOST'S science fiction and fantasy trappings banish it to dwell in the valley of genre rather than the hilltops of high art. As tends to get ingrained in us at an early age, if something is entertaining and accessible, it must be lightweight and can't be taken seriously. Difficult art that is less pleasing to the senses--stuff that feels like work to consume or is emotionally oppressive--has heft and merit.

In other words, fun is equated to the unserious and pleasures of the flesh and unpleasant means intellectual rigor. Certainly there is some truth in the thinking that pleasant, easy-to-watch fare lacks substance and skill and more demanding works display greater smarts and artistry, but intelligence, enjoyment, and craftsmanship are not (and should not be) mutually exclusive.

Two of 2008's most gratifying, thoughtful, and proficient films were entertainments for the masses in the forms of an animated children's comedy and a comic book action movie. Presumably "low" films like WALL-E and THE DARK KNIGHT may not have the sheen of high art--heavens, what self-respecting "important" movie would have frivolous ancillary products?--but existential explorations of loneliness and the limits of power thrive underneath their slick surfaces.

(While this blog entry is not intended as an indictment of yesterday's Academy Award nominations, that body tends to reinforce attitudes which consider prestige, somberness, and superficial seriousness more worthy of praise. The vacuous awards bait that is THE READER stands as the most egregious example.)

As a mass media consumer and critic I try to remain open to the potential of spotting artistic value in all films (or TV shows, books, music, etc.), whether the object appears to be studio schlock or art-damaged obscurity. So I don't put stock in the concept of guilty pleasures. I like what I like, and I don't feel as though it is necessary (or productive) to apologize for those preferences. Calling something a guilty pleasure only tends to marginalize it more.

Plus, when most people claim to reveal their pop culture guilty pleasures, they don't appear to feel any guilt about liking those things. Maybe there are shades of embarrassment in admitting these likes--the tough guy who enjoys romantic comedies or the literature professor with a weakness for Rob Schneider movies, for example--but guilt doesn't factor in.

Not that I'm going to change the dialogue, but I'd like to rename so-called guilty pleasures with the more precise label of disreputable favorites. All right, so that won't fit as easily on the cover of Entertainment Weekly or roll off the tongue as smoothly, but in my mind "disreputable favorites" describes what is meant when people talk about guilty pleasures. It's the stuff that mass audiences reject, critics pan, and cultural stereotypes proclaim we shouldn't appreciate yet we find ourselves enjoying anyway.

I say it's time to stop feeling guilty and start embracing the disreputable.

For your listening consideration

My half-hour conversation with Columbus Alive's Melissa Starker about the Central Ohio Film Critics Association 2008 award winners and some of the year's other notable films is now online. Listen to the podcast here.

The Worst Films of 2008

There's value in observing what makes films successful and what makes them fail. Sometimes it's easier to learn from bad movies than it is from the good ones. Explaining what works can be more difficult to pin down than spotting the techniques that lead to cinematic disaster.

There's value in finding what you like, what you don't like, and why you have those likes and dislikes. I'm an introspective sort anyway, so to me it's helpful to understand why certain things speak to me and other things don't.

High-mindedness aside, if I wasn't a critic, I would not have subjected myself to most of the films making my worst list, but I believe there is an obligation to keep up with what's out there, even if that means visiting the dregs of the cinema.

1. COLLEGE (Deb Hagan, 2008)

Although COLLEGE has its roots in raucous higher education comedies, what it really wants to be is SUPERBAD minus the affection for the characters. COLLEGE double majors in raunch and degradation of the trio of high school friends and actors portraying them. It's humiliation as career move for former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell and squeaky clean AMERICAN IDOL finalist Kevin "Chicken Little" Covais. The filmmakers are all too happy to dish out the indignity. For as much disdain that COLLEGE possesses for its characters and actors, it is equally as contemptuous of its audience. Nudity and vulgar depictions of hard partying and hazing are apparently all COLLEGE thinks viewers want. Original or funny jokes don't matter. Being offensive is one thing; COLLEGE makes you feel dirty for having watched it.

2. MEET THE SPARTANS (Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, 2008)

MEET THE SPARTANS, a feature-length parody of 300, isn't terribly different from VH-1's BEST WEEK EVER, except for the lack of self-conscious irony and smugness. It stands above (or below) the culture and takes potshots at easy targets. The triumvirate of celebrity bad girls are mocked, Spartans are totally gay for each other, and reality TV judges are self-absorbed clowns. Burn! Writer-directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have made a career out of pop culture-mocking time capsules with exceedingly short shelf lives. Maybe there wouldn't be anything so wrong with the disposability of their movies if they were funny.

3. ZOMBIE STRIPPERS (Jay Lee, 2008)

Like so many exploitation movies, the title ZOMBIE STRIPPERS is more enjoyable and memorable than the actual product. Unsurprisingly ZOMBIE STRIPPERS is poorly acted, written, directed, edited, and lit, but it is so tedious to watch that this might be the first movie that would be improved if Uwe Boll were calling the shots. At least the oft-derided director would have dropped the pretense of shoehorning in political subtext in an attempt to bring class to such a trashy film.

4. AN AMERICAN CAROL (David Zucker, 2008)

Writer-director David Zucker has been coasting for a long time on early career, exclamation point-punctuated creative successes (AIRPLANE!, TOP SECRET!, and POLICE SQUAD!), so objections to his latest so-called comedy are not primarily political. He hasn't made anything worthwhile since THE NAKED GUN, and AN AMERICAN CAROL'S recycled silliness keeps him on the schneid. Sure, jokes based on meager Republican talking points don't do the film any favors, mainly because putting ideology first is rarely funny. As unworthy of debate as the film's flimsy grandstanding is, AN AMERICAN CAROL isn't particularly inflammatory except for a tasteless invocation of 9/11. Reasonable people can disagree about issues facing the nation, but AN AMERICAN CAROL'S comedy style and politics are sorely missing that kind of thoughtfulness.

5. NOBEL SON (Randall Miller, 2007)

The nasty, self-satisfied NOBEL SON comes straight from the mold of mid- to late-1990s Tarantino imitations dominating video store shelves. Like so many of its theatrical and direct-to-video brethren, NOBEL SON is fueled by perceived cleverness rather than actual wit and innovation. Lots of "style" is imposed with little effect on this glib exercise in plot convolutions and hateful characters.

6. THE WOMEN (Diane English, 2008)

MURPHY BROWN creator and THE WOMEN writer-director Diane English aspires to present strong women, but this miserable lot come off as fragile, helpless, and sorely lacking an arsenal of witty retorts that their counterparts in the 1939 original possessed. Rather than a funny, empowering look at modern females, THE WOMEN serves laughless reinforcement of many of the old stereotypes.

7. MAX PAYNE (John Moore, 2008)

A video game adaptation slathered with action scenes and film noir atmospherics might sound like potentially brainless fun, but the mind-numbing repetition, emotionless performances, and needlessly complicated plot make MAX PAYNE earn a title promising extreme suffering.

8. MAMMA MIA! (Phyllida Lloyd, 2008)

In a classic example of mistranslating material from stage to screen, first-time movie director Phyllida Lloyd calls for her actors to deliver broad performances that reach the last row of the auditorium. For a medium dominated by close-ups, and a shot selection Lloyd often favors, the over-the-top acting style quickly becomes overbearing. Usually it is a joy to watch Meryl Streep practicing her craft, but in MAMMA MIA! it's embarrassing to see her mugging and flouncing about like a skittish teenager. ABBA's songs are as insanely catchy as always, perhaps maddeningly so, but if that's all MAMMA MIA! has to offer, one would be better served by their greatest hits CD than the mostly amateur hour singing in the film.

9. DISASTER MOVIE (Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, 2008)

Friedberg and Seltzer's DISASTER MOVIE is their "better" 2008 parody, meaning that they provided a more solid framework for stringing together sketches and I actually laughed a few times. Hip fave-turned-backlash recipient JUNO takes a few well-deserved licks, but other than that it's the same old toothless humor that might be called juvenile if the film could reach the intellectual standard of playground taunts.

10. FOUR CHRISTMASES (Seth Gordon, 2008)

Apparently Hollywood believes nothing gets folks into the holiday spirit like movies about how much scorn people deserve. CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS, SURVIVING CHRISTMAS, and DECK THE HALLS are some examples with little to no good will toward men or filmmaking prowess. (At least the crude and misanthropic BAD SANTA has the charity to donate laughs.) This joyless affair with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn as family-avoiding grinches employs Christmas gatherings more for MEET THE PARENTS-like possibilities, but whatever the aim, FOUR CHRISTMASES couldn't be more unappealing in spirit and cinematography.

7th annual Central Ohio Film Critics Association awards

Here's the press release I sent to publicize the Central Ohio Film Critics Association 2008 awards:

WALL·E collects top prize in 7th annual Central Ohio Film Critics Association awards

(Columbus, January 8, 2009) Andrew Stanton's WALL·E was named Best Film in the Central Ohio Film Critics Association’s 7th annual awards, which recognize excellence in the film industry for 2008. The film also won two other awards, including Best Screenplay-Original (Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon) and Best Animated Film. Stanton was runner-up for Best Director.

The Dark Knight, which finished fourth on the Best Film list, was awarded three prizes: Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Ensemble, and Best Cinematography (Wally Pfister). Ledger’s win marks the third time COFCA has honored the actor. He won 2005’s Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work) and Best Lead Performance for that year’s Brokeback Mountain.

Other multiple award winners include Slumdog Millionaire, Frozen River, and The Wrestler. Best Film runner-up Slumdog Millionaire claimed Best Director (Danny Boyle) and Best Screenplay-Adapted (Simon Beaufoy). Frozen River’s two awards went to Melissa Leo for Best Actress and Breakthrough Film Artist. Frozen River placed third on the Best Films list. Best Actor Mickey Rourke and Best Supporting Actress Marisa Tomei pinned down two awards for The Wrestler, which ranked seventh in COFCA’s Top 10.

Other individual winners include: Actor of the Year Robert Downey Jr. for his exemplary work in Iron Man and Tropic Thunder and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’s Alexandre Desplat for Best Score.

Other honored films include: Man on Wire for Best Documentary; 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile) for Best Foreign Language Film; and Ghost Town for Best Overlooked Film.

Founded in 2002, the Central Ohio Film Critics Association is comprised of film critics based in Columbus, Ohio and the surrounding areas. Its membership consists of more than 25 print, radio, television, and new media critics. COFCA's official website at www.cofca.org contains links to member reviews and past award winners.

Winners were announced at a private party on January 8.

Complete list of awards:

Best Films
1. WALL·E
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Frozen River
4. The Dark Knight
5. Frost/Nixon
6. Milk
7. The Wrestler
8. Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in)
9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
10. In Bruges

Best Director
-Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
-Runner-up: Andrew Stanton, WALL·E

Best Actor
-Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
-Runner-up: Sean Penn, Milk

Best Actress
-Melissa Leo, Frozen River
-Runner-up: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married

Best Supporting Actor
-Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
-Runners-up (tie): Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt and Eddie Marsan, Happy-Go-Lucky

Best Supporting Actress
-Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
-Runner-up: Misty Upham, Frozen River

Best Ensemble
-The Dark Knight
-Runner-up: Slumdog Millionaire

Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work)
-Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man and Tropic Thunder
-Runner-up: James Franco, Milk and Pineapple Express

Breakthrough Film Artist
-Melissa Leo, Frozen River (for acting)
-Runner-up: Courtney Hunt, Frozen River (for directing and screenwriting)

Best Cinematography
-Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight
-Runner-up: Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire

Best Screenplay – Adapted
-Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
-Runner-up: Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon

Best Screenplay – Original
-Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, WALL·E
-Runner-up: Courtney Hunt, Frozen River

Best Score
-Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
-Runner-up: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire

Best Documentary
-Man on Wire
-Runner-up: American Teen

Best Foreign Language Film
-4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile)
-Runner-up: Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in)

Best Animated Film
-WALL·E
-Runner-up: Kung Fu Panda

Best Overlooked Film
-Ghost Town
-Runner-up: RocknRolla

COFCA offers its congratulations to the winners.

Previous Best Film winners:

2002: Punch-Drunk Love
2003: Lost in Translation
2004: Million Dollar Baby
2005: A History of Violence
2006: Children of Men
2007: No Country for Old Men

For more information about the Central Ohio Film Critics Association, please visit http://www.cofca.org/ or e-mail info@cofca.org.

Marley & Me

MARLEY & ME (David Frankel, 2008)

In MARLEY & ME newlyweds John and Jennifer Grogan (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston) welcome a cuddly bundle of joy into their home only to discover that it's more than they can handle. The feisty puppy that grows into an untamed dog named Marley wrecks their house but wins their hearts.

John's humorous stories about his troublesome yellow Labrador earn him a promotion from the mundane metro beat to a newspaper column, but writing about canine hijinks isn't what he expected of his career.

No one is going to mistake MARLEY & ME for Bergman, but the deft touch with which it addresses spouses' and parents' professional and personal trade-offs proves this to be a more substantial and poignant picture than expected for what appears to be merely a cute dog movie. It is that and something more.

The film is a surprisingly nuanced study of marriage, suburban family life, and deferred dreams. MARLEY & ME and REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, Sam Mendes' better pedigreed, angst-ridden drama about a dissatisfied couple in the 1950s, are different sides of the same coin. Where REVOLUTIONARY ROAD believes the suburbs crush hopes, MARLEY & ME discovers that unexpected joy can be found in a life that doesn't completely resemble one's youthful visions of adulthood. Such an affirming message isn't exactly earth-shattering, although it is more novel in the movies, where suburbia is frequently equated to hell.

Don't think MARLEY & ME is too serious, though. This is a relatable and entertaining film that laughs knowingly at one dog's mischief-making and the owners growing accustomed to him. Wilson and Aniston are funny and real as their characters cope with life's ups and downs. As John's crusty editor Arnie, Alan Arkin is a reliable source of dry wit, and Eric Dane provides an amusing contrast as the carefree, rising star reporter John wishes he had the freedom to be.

John and Jennifer don't realize how attached they will become to their dog. It's appropriate then that MARLEY & ME has the same effect on the viewer.

Grade: B

A new beginning

It's been some time since I last posted here. I won't bother going into the details of a blogging sabbatical that I didn't intend to take. For one thing, the reasons are mostly mundane.

If anything, this entry is here to inform you that I have not fallen off the face of the earth and that I am still reviewing films, even though most of what I have written has not migrated to the web in recent months. Those backlogged reviews may or may not appear here. It depends if I get around to it.

If there's one thing that 2008 taught film critics, it's that you better be doing it because you love it. Many critics found themselves laid off and nudged (or pushed) into early retirement last year. Considering the financial health of the nation's newspapers, the forecast for this year isn't any brighter for those seeking to making a living writing about the cinema.

To be sure, I have not been affected as the film criticism I do has not been for pay. I've been fortunate to incorporate a movie review program into my job. Film critic duties are not my in the job description, though, which is why I don't really consider myself a professional even though I've been at it since 1997.

Or maybe it's just my weird way of looking at it. After all, in 2008 I did get my first check for writing a 100-word blurb for The Nashville Scene. For all of the words I've written, it was that minor piece that provided a sense of accomplishment and has probably been read by more people than anything else I've done.

Now that a new year is here, it's time to make a fresh start. I'm still digging through awards consideration screeners and finalizing my best and worst of 2008 lists. I hope to begin posting those lists within the next week. I have some other ideas for things I'd like to write about here on a regular basis, but for now I need to hold myself to getting content up consistently instead of promising new features.

The majority of my traffic comes from searches and review aggregate sites. Those visitors will never come across entries like this, so to those who've been stopping by expecting something new, thanks for being patient and maintaining an interest. Things should be picking up here again.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (Dave Filoni, 2008)

Arriving in the dog days of the summer movie season and with considerably less hype than usual for a new STAR WARS film, the computer-animated STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS wears its lowered expectations like armor to protect against the swords of jilted fanboys who feel like each new chapter in George Lucas' saga delivers further indignities to their childhood memories.

No wonder. Fans built up impossible standards during the long wait between RETURN OF THE JEDI and EPISODES I through III, and Lucas was susceptible to his worst impulses for writing stiff dialogue and directing stilted performances. Removed from the hothouse of their original release dates, perhaps the prequels can now be viewed on their own terms as flawed but entertaining movies incapable of ever living up to the versions of the original trilogy that exist moreso in the minds of a generation than on celluloid.

Or maybe not. Diminished expectations notwithstanding, at best STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS is unlikely to convince the disappointed faithful that the space opera is back on course. THE CLONE WARS elicits some pangs of nostalgia with its grand battles, alien landscapes, and beloved characters but yields little more than fuzzy thoughts of what used to be.

At worst it could reinforce fanbase beliefs that Lucas is motivated by an easy cash grab. The film functions as a feature-length teaser for the upcoming Cartoon Network series, and the introduction of the feisty female character Ahsoka comes off as a way of selling more ancillary products to girls. Lucas also continues to juvenilize the franchise, a move that has singlehandedly dropped him from the graces of his most ardent supporters.

Set between ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE SITH, THE CLONE WARS follows Anakin Skywalker and his young protégé Ahsoka as they search for Jabba the Hutt's kidnapped son. Why bother looking for a baby slug during the middle of a war? Jabba controls key trade routes through which armies can be moved. Winning his favor could be a determining factor in the fight's outcome, but doing so is far trickier than the Jedi realize. The duplicitous Count Dooku has orchestrated blame for the abduction and rescue to fall on the Jedi, thus paving the way for his separatist forces and Jabba to sign a treaty regarding those important shipping lanes.

Dave Filoni handles directorial duties, and three screenwriters are listed for THE CLONE WARS. Still, who else but Lucas, who gets producer and story credits, could be responsible for the familiar problems that mar this latest STAR WARS film? The ins and outs of intergalactic politics are as uninteresting and confusing as ever. Why Lucas insists on devoting so much time to these matters is especially baffling for a film even more kid-centric than the others.

The unwieldy dialogue becomes like the cacophonous honks associated with Charlie Brown's teacher. Most of the prequel performers have been replaced for the voiceover work, likely a budget-conscious move that neither adds nor detracts, but what in the world is going on with the voice of Jabba's uncle Ziro the Hutt? He sounds like The Lady Chablis.

Since the CGI-heavy prequels were practically cartoons anyway, the switch to full computer-animation for THE CLONE WARS should seem like a natural evolution for STAR WARS. The big miscalculation, though, is the plasticky design of flesh and blood characters. With faces like inexpressive rubber masks and immovable hair like that found on action figures, the characters have an unappealing look that puts them a few steps backwards technology-wise.

The plentiful battle scenes impress with their visual and aural assault and couldn't be pulled off better than being rendered in zeroes and ones. The gunships capable of vertical climbs up cliffs make cool additions to the Republic's armada. Although repetitive, the emphasis on action compensates for the film's deficiencies to a point.

THE CLONE WARS reveals that all the copying in the universe can reproduce a semblance of past greatness. It's the original inspiration that can't be duplicated. THE CLONE WARS isn't a bad movie but a faded version of what preceded.

Grade: C

Google Me

GOOGLE ME (Jim Killeen, 2007)

Chances are everyone has done it at least once even if it isn't something likely to be admitted: the vanity Google search. Plug your name into the popular search engine and see what results it produces.

Filmmaker Jim Killeen was so curious about the people he found who shared his name that he decided to meet as many as he could and make a film about the experience. The documentary GOOGLE ME takes him around the world to meet six other Jim Killeens. His namesakes include an Irish priest, a former New York City cop, and a swinger.

With all of the horror stories reported about meetings arranged over the internet, it's nice to see a film that shows the positive nature of the web to connect strangers. Killeen's desire to get to know these men seems genuine and not just a good idea for a movie. The director recognizes that everyone has a story and makes a solid effort to tell them in ways befitting their subjects. These are ordinary people who aren't often depicted on screen, so it's enjoyable to get to know them.

Surprisingly, the Jim Killeen making this personality-driven documentary is the one we become acquainted with the least. GOOGLE ME starts to go off the rails when Killeen explores his background and family. Rather than focusing on himself, he devotes an inordinate amount of time training the camera on his mentally ill siblings and being critical of psychiatrists and the medications they prescribe. It's a weird interlude whose inclusion becomes clearer later on although it is still out of place in the film.

As a first-time director, Killeen is to be commended for choosing this interesting topic and making a small, independent documentary with good production values. He has a tendency, though, to get in the way of the primary story and become sidetracked. He cuts in reaction shots of himself too frequently during the interviews, which distract from the others' narratives, and shows an abundance of footage of him and the Jims goofing around. Some late potshots taken at the Bush administration and the war in Iraq may have felt good to express, but the sentiments don't really have any bearing on anything else in GOOGLE ME.

Killeen also spends far too many minutes detailing the production process, the project's financial crises, rejected interview requests, and legal issues regarding the Google seal of approval for the film. The making of the movie is not nearly as compelling as the central purpose of it.

GOOGLE ME clicks when director Jim Killeen allows others with the same name to reveal themselves and what they have in common, but too much of the film is filled with material better served for the behind-the-scenes section on the electronic press kit.

Grade: C+

(In keeping with its web roots, GOOGLE ME can currently be viewed online.)

Ebertfest 2008: Day 3

Sleep deprivation is part of every festival, and I'm starting to hit the wall here at Ebertfest. This entry is going to have to be short and sweet.

-Skipped the morning panel to grab an extra hour of sleep and hopefully obtain a good spot in line for getting preferred seats in theater for myself and friends.

-SHOTGUN STORIES: David Gordon Green lent his name as a producer to give an assist to fellow film school classmate Jeff Nichols, who wrote and directed SHOTGUN STORIES. This lyrical Arkansas drama about two sets of feuding half-brothers bears some similarities to Green's work--strong sense of place, empathy for the characters--but Nichols' handsome and well-acted film differs in that it takes on a mythic quality. Ancient stories tell of quarrels between bloodlines. This one is no different, really, and just as tragic in its exploration of unarticulated emotions and male rage.

-UNDERWORLD: No, it's not the Kate Beckinsale movie with werewolves and vampires battling but the Josef von Sternberg silent gangster pic. The Alloy Orchestra returned to the festival to provide live musical accompaniment, which is always an Ebertfest highlight. The story and love triangle seem slight on this side of the passage of time, but von Sternberg populates the film with many wonderful visual flourishes--the party marking an evening of armistice among the city's gangsters, most notably--to stimulate.

-THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN: This documentary about an Illinois farmer who overcomes business failures and vicious community rumors deals with some of the same internal struggles regarding family property as the excellent film SWEET LAND, a drama that could be comfortably programmed at a future Ebertfest. THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN enjoys introducting viewers to this colorful individual as well as touching upon issues plaguing small family farms. It's an entertaining doc, but considering the plentiful home movies and videotape of Peterson, the film seems to reveal more about his personal philosophies than who he really is. The film wouldn't have been made if Peterson's longtime friend hadn't been behind the camera, but a more objective viewpoint likely would have helped in the areas where the film selectively leaves out information.

-MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS: Paul Schrader's biopic of the Japanese author Yukio Mishima was a challenging selection for the fourth film of the day, let alone one beginning after 10 p.m. I was not entirely up to the challenge as fatigue set in thirty minutes into the picture. I stayed awake for the most part, which allowed me to enjoy the exquisite production design, but I had a rough go of it trying to penetrate a movie about someone I knew nothing about. Schrader was here for the film and mentioned that Criterion is putting the film out on DVD. Purists can get ready to go into a tizzy because the director has inserted alternate skies for the home video version. He said that he wasn't satisfied with the more naturalistic look and that this change keeps those moments consistent with the heightened reality in the scenes from Mishima's novels.

Ebertfest 2008: Day 2

The first full day of Ebertfest '08 events included a morning panel discussion at the Illini Union and three features and one short at the Virginia Theatre. My morning began with a prematurely early wake up call that cut short an already abbreviated night of sleep, so I'm going to allow photos to do some heavy lifting and scratch down a few thoughts before I slump over the keyboard.

Timothy Spall and Shotgun Stories director Jeff Nichols

Chaz Ebert delivered the news that no one wished to hear but which came as no surprise: Roger has decided to focus on improving his health and will not be attending this year's festival. That he would even consider making a three-hour ride with a recently fractured hip should tell you how much he desired to join his festival family.

Housekeeping director Bill Forsyth and Delirious director Tom DiCillo

Film-wise the day for me could be summed up as muted enthusiasm. I liked Sally Potter's YES when I saw it during its original theatrical run, but I admire and appreciate the craft and technique rather than adore the film overall. The iambic pentameter dialogue is an interesting innovation but can be a bit distracting. Potter plays with the dichotomies of attraction/repulsion and God/nothingness in stimulating ways, yet I engage with the film intellectually much more than I do with the heart.

Rufus Sewell and Richard Roeper

I was less taken on both levels with DELIRIOUS, the day's first film. Tom DiCillo's satire about fame took six years to be realized, but it already feels dated in how it presents the chase for the next hot celebrity photo. (The internet is a non-factor in the film.) Steve Buscemi's scummy paparazzo and Michael Pitt's good-hearted homeless character build a friendship that strains under the pressure of Pitt's nascent stardom. The basic problem I have with DELIRIOUS is that its jaded attitude is not anywhere near as savage (or funny) enough about the absurdity of this high stakes publicity and fame game.

David Bordwell interviews the Canvas team (Joey Pantoliano, far right)

Prior to the third feature, the short film CITIZEN COHL: THE UNTOLD STORY honored the life of Dusty Cohl, a friend of Ebert and the festival. Cohl began the Toronto Film Festival and Floating Film Festival, but the smiling bearded man with the cowboy hat was remembered in the short as someone who brought people together. He was a fixture at Ebertfest, and this year's event is dedicated to him. He died this January, but from the testimonies of those at Ebertfest, his spirit lives on at places like this.

Thursday wrapped with CANVAS, a drama in which Joey Pantoliano and his son struggle to cope with Marcia Gay Harden's schizophrenia. The subject matter and filmmaking approach are of a piece with TV movies-of-the-week, but writer-director Joseph Greco earns a pass by dealing with mental illness in a straightforward manner light on actorly theatrics. In many respects this is a children's film. It's told from the boy's perspective and explores how his mother's illness affects his relationship with her as well as his dad. CANVAS is based on Greco's childhood, which may explain why this angle feels so honest.

Ebertfest 2008: Opening Night

Ed Tracy, David Bordwell, Rufus Sewell, and Timothy Spall

Tonight marked the beginning of the 10th annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival--"overlooked" has been officially excised from the event's name--but it didn't feel quite the same without his presence on stage at the Virginia Theatre before and after the opening night film. The room felt more subdued. Roger's wife Chaz greeted the audience and left open the possibility that he might make it before all is said and done. I wouldn't bet against him showing up in Champaign-Urbana, but fracturing a hip is serious business. We'll see how things unfold.

Opening night tradition has been the presentation of a film in 70mm, and if I'm being completely honest, as good as the other festival films can be, it's often downhill after the first evening. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, PLAYTIME...these are giant films in cinema history, so it's no wonder that everything that follows cannot reach such lofty peaks.

Kenneth Branagh's four-hour version of HAMLET--the last movie shot in 65mm, I believe, and the only filmed version without any cuts to Shakespeare's text--received the honor this year. I saw it in early 1997 with intermission and all. That 35mm presentation made an impression on me--it made my top ten for the rudimentary year in review/pilot episode of Now Playing-- but it had nothing on the screening of the pristine print that unspooled at the Virginia.

One of the marvelous things about Branagh's film is how well he communicates everything that is going on. It isn't critical to understand every word or mythological reference; the performances and direction keep the audience in tune with the machinations and mental states of the characters. I read the play in high school and have seen at least two film versions about the Danish prince, but it is after tonight's viewing that I feel like I've scratched the surface a bit more than I ever have before. One could make a career of studying HAMLET. I was pleased to gain greater insight into it than I ever have.

Branagh's performance stands out, obviously. His Hamlet is funnier than the brooding Dane is usually remembered being, and he's also less mad. Rather, Branagh plays him as a man in control of his faculties and putting on the countenance of lunacy to advance his plans.

Richard Briers' Polonius is very funny as well and seems to me to be the great underappreciated performance in the film. Charlton Heston brings gravitas to the Player King. I actually thought Billy Crystal's shtick served the First Gravedigger role well. Robin Williams' hammy Osric doesn't feel right, and the less said about Jack Lemmon's Marcellus, the better.

HAMLET is also a terrific visual film. The great mirrored hall where so much of the action takes place is an outstanding piece of set design, not to mention a camera operator's nightmare. On a technical level the film is a rigorous piece of work, whether it's managing the scope or keeping momentum for one of the longest Hollywood films ever made.

After the film, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert's HAMLET review from their syndicated show was projected on-screen. It sounds as though this will be a recurring feature at the festival. It's a nice way of letting Ebert speak, even though he's currently unable to do so.

Timothy Spall, who plays Rosencrantz, and Rufus Sewell, who appears as Fortinbras, were on hand for the post-film Q&A. With the late start and 30-minute intermission, they didn't take to the stage until shortly after midnight, but their hour-long discussion flowed well. I didn't take notes during the Q&A, but one item of potential interest is that Sewell mentioned a director's cut of DARK CITY is forthcoming on DVD.

Pre-Ebertfest news

As I've been preparing to head out the door for my eighth trip to Roger Ebert's Film Festival, I saw the news that the host will not be able to attend this year.

It's unfortunate, to say the least, that Ebert will be in the hospital rather than his regular spot at the back of the Virginia Theatre. His triumphant entrance at last year's festival was an inspiring sight. The man loves what he does, and the people love him for it.

Film critics are stereotypically perceived as being elitist and standoffish--killjoys who fashion themselves superior to who and what they write about and those reading them. From my observations of Ebert at his festival, no one could make such charges about the most famous film critic in America, if not the world. He has time for those who wish to speak to him about their shared love for film.

Fifteen hundred people or so will fill the Virginia over the next five days, but there will be one empty seat. Without a doubt, Ebert will be missed at the fest bearing his name, but his love for movies and his hometown will be felt as the rest of us settle in for his tenth festival. Get well soon, Roger.

The Forbidden Kingdom

THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM (Rob Minkoff, 2008)

Kung fu movie-obsessed teenager Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) gets to emulate his cinematic heroes when he is magically transported to ancient China in THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM. Pawn shop owner Old Hop (Jackie Chan) entrusts Jason with a bowstaff and a promise to return the weapon to its rightful possessor. The next thing he knows, Jason is no longer in south Boston but in a foreign land.

His first acquaintance is Lu Yan (also played by Chan), an immortal who remains as such by imbibing a special wine. He tells Jason that the staff belongs to The Monkey King (Jet Li), a playful warrior turned to stone almost five hundred years ago by the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou). With his mission identified, Jason and Lu Yan set out for Five Elements Mountain to deliver the staff and bring about the downfall of the Jade Warlord and his fearsome army.

Joining them on the quest are The Silent Monk (Li, again) and Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu), a revenge-driven orphan who refers to herself in the third person. The Silent Monk and Lu Yan squabble over how best to train Jason, but together they sculpt him into a worthy fighter for the battle ahead of them.

A slapdash but amiable crossbreed of THE KARATE KID and THE WIZARD OF OZ, THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM functions as a martial arts cinema primer for American youth. References to better films abound, but for any youngster not old enough to be well-versed in the Shaw brothers, not to mention Chan and Li's best works, this is a decent introduction that may encourage curiosity in boys who identify with Angarano's character.

THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM pairs Chan and Li for the first time on-screen, yet this is far from an ideal showcase for the top martial arts stars of their generations. Hong Kong legend Yuen Woo-ping choreographs some good fights combining Chan and Li's styles, most notably their temple showdown, but in the grand scheme of things they are relegated to supporting roles despite receiving top billing. Even if they weren't intended to be the primary players, the film could have had more fun with them as they train their eager pupil. Audiences and the stars deserved more than one brief scene of the mentors' differing fight philosophies.

John Fusco's screenplay devotes inordinate time to convoluted backstory that ultimately doesn't matter, and director Rob Minkoff, whose family-friendly filmography includes STUART LITTLE and its sequel, seems more comfortable with the fantasy elements than the action. Still, amid the thin characterization, cliché-ridden dialogue, and uneven presentation of the fight scenes, one's inner adolescent thrills at the acrobatic fisticuffs and ignores the flaws. THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM doesn't live up to its mythic story or the potential in Chan and Li's momentous meeting, but the boys emulating their moves in the backyard will probably think it's cool anyway.

Grade: C+

Zombie Strippers

ZOMBIE STRIPPERS (Jay Lee, 2008)

George W. Bush, topping a ticket with Arnold Schwarzenegger, is reelected to a fourth term as President, albeit with some well-placed assistance from faulty Florida voting machines and Supreme Court justice Jenna Bush. Congress is dissolved. American war expansion rivals McDonald's franchises for global ubiquity. Public nudity is declared illegal. What a future. And then there are the undead pole dancers that give ZOMBIE STRIPPERS its title.

With wars being waged on so many fronts, the number of available soldiers is dwindling. To combat the problem scientists develop a chemo virus that will reanimate troops killed in action. This battlefield technology enters the general public when an infected soldier escapes from the research lab to an underground Sartre, Nebraska strip club.

Headlining and Nietzsche-reading stripper Kat (Jenna Jameson) becomes his first victim, but as it goes for more reputable artists, dying is a terrific career move for the topless dancer. Kat's zombie stripper act drives the men crazy and rakes in the money. Seeing how successful it is when the undead can dance, club owner Ian Essko (Robert Englund) chooses to keep her around while many of her fellow strippers also opt for this latest biological enhancement.

As if the title ZOMBIE STRIPPERS isn't enough of a tip-off, lead performances by a porn star and the guy who played Freddy Krueger let it be known that this is Z-grade schlock usually sent straight to video, even though the film is getting a limited theatrical run. True to the title, there's plenty of brain and viscera munching and an abundance of stripping. Neither will get pulses racing despite the second act being almost nonstop stripper routines. The bigger question is whether there's more latex covering skin or silicone underneath it in the film. It's probably a toss-up.

Like so many exploitation movies, the name of the film is more enjoyable and memorable than the actual product. Unsurprisingly ZOMBIE STRIPPERS is poorly acted, written, directed, edited, and lit, but it is so tedious to watch that this might be the first movie that would be improved if Uwe Boll were calling the shots. At least the oft-derided director would have dropped the pretense of shoehorning in political subtext in an attempt to bring class to such a trashy film.

Writer-director-cinematographer Jay Lee strains to make a statement about the Bush administration, but his clumsily integrated rants are as politically and intellectually juvenile as those of an anonymous blog commenter. Zombie movies, particularly George A. Romero's, may function as mirrors of current events, but just because something is an allegory doesn't mean it has anything to say. Using the word "ontological" in dialogue doesn't make it smart either.

ZOMBIE STRIPPERS is also plagued with excessive self-awareness of its campy qualities. When the film isn't annoying with its pseudo-braniac act, it's irritating with the nudge-nudge acknowledgement of its intentional badness.

Forget high art. Assessed on its own terms, ZOMBIE STRIPPERS takes it all off only to reveal nothing's there.

Grade: F

Shine a Light

SHINE A LIGHT (Martin Scorsese, 2008)

Martin Scorsese, one of the most important directors of his generation, and The Rolling Stones, one of its defining bands, combine talents for SHINE A LIGHT, a concert film documenting the group's performance at New York City's Beacon Theater in 2006. Special guests Buddy Guy and The White Stripes' Jack White appear, connecting the band with their roots in American blues and perhaps passing the torch to one of today's most notable practitioners of the tradition. Christina Aguilera also drops by for a duet with Mick Jagger, although how she fits into this is less clear.

As one of the editors on WOODSTOCK and director of films about The Band and Bob Dylan, Scorsese knows his way around a rock doc. Filmed by Jean-Luc Godard, the Maysles brothers, and Hal Ashby, the Stones have been no strangers to cinema during their storied career. SHINE A LIGHT doesn't break any new ground for Scorsese or the Stones, but it's an enjoyable showcase for the prodigious skills the director and band have.

Scorsese and cinematographer Robert Richardson draft a camera-operating dream team consisting of many of the best lensers in the business, including Robert Elswit, Ellen Kuras, and John Toll. Whether fixed on flamboyant frontman Jagger or catching winded drummer Charlie Watts after tearing through EXILE ON MAIN ST.'S "All Down the Line", the cameras always appear to be in the perfect spots to capture the dynamics on stage and between the performers and crowd.

After decades of playing stadiums, the band is accustomed to performances writ large to reach the back rows. Although playing a comparatively small room in SHINE A LIGHT, the IMAX version of the film brings intimacy and enormity to the concert. The closeness of the cameras and enhanced image resolution catch details invisible even from the front row while the bigger frame makes Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, and Watts tower over the audience like the rock giants they are.

The Rolling Stones have been playing rock and roll since the early 1960s. Although not now as artistically or commercially relevant as in their heyday, they are still going strong more than forty years later. Probably for close to half that time the band has been asked how long they will stay at it.

The once smooth cheeks and rebellious swagger have given way to relief map-like faces and institutional approval--the concert was a benefit for the Clinton Foundation--but in crosscutting yesteryear's news clips questioning their staying power with a still energetic live show, SHINE A LIGHT celebrates the Stones' music and longevity with a mischievous wink of the eye. They've probably played "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" thousands of times, but the Stones attack it like a brand-new song. Time is on their side after all.

Grade: B

The Ruins

THE RUINS (Carter Smith, 2008)

In THE RUINS best friends Amy (Jena Malone) and Stacy (Laura Ramsey) are enjoying a sun-soaked vacation in Cancun with their boyfriends Jeff (Jonathan Tucker) and Eric (Shawn Ashmore). They might be up for a little adventure if it presents itself, but otherwise the couples are content to lay on the beach and by the pool the entire time.

Along comes Mathias (Joe Anderson), a German tourist who tells them about an archeological dig at some Mayan ruins off the beaten path. Mathias plans to visit the site to find his brother, who ran off to the jungle location with a girl he met during their time in Mexico. He tells the four Americans that they're welcome to join him. Jeff, a medical student who sort of acts as though he knows what is best for everyone, has been trying to convince the others that they should see something beyond their oceanside hotel during their stay. A visit to the ruins sounds like a nice way to cap their trip, so they all agree to meet up with Mathias the next day.

Dimitri (Dimitri Baveas), a Greek tourist who ditches his drunken friends sleeping on the beach, is added to the group Mathias leads to the ruins. They hop on a bus and then pile into the back of a pickup truck that takes them several miles from town to the jungle. The entrance to the final part of the path to the ruins is obscured, but Mathias finds the way. Soon enough they are basking in the large, vine-covered structure before them; however, their architectural awe doesn't last long.

Residents of a nearby village approach them in what appears to be a theatening manner. Before they can realize what is happening, one member of the group is dead, and the remaining scramble to the top of the ruins. More villagers emerge to surround them. The natives keep a reasonable distance and do not ascend the ruins, but it is clear they will not allow the captive tourists to leave.

THE RUINS explores how people react when placed in dire circumstances. For Jeff, the thing to do is to take on the leadership role. He urges agreement to conserve their minimal supplies of food and water as much as possible. While the group panics, Jeff assures everyone that Dimitri's friends, who were given a copy of the map to the ruins, will surely come looking for them in a day's time when he doesn't return. They just have to wait out the situation for a night. He reminds them that this sort of thing doesn't happen to Americans; however, like any leader's words without standing, Jeff's are cold comfort to them as bad developments tip over like a line of dominoes.

The nifty thing about THE RUINS is that Jeff may be less inhibited when it comes to making choices, but it doesn't mean his actions are correct. His response to fear is commonly accepted as heroic and decisive, but his pigheaded boldness may be as responsible for multiplying the group's problems as anything. Sometimes not having an answer is less dangerous.

Scott B. Smith wrote the novel and screenplay for THE RUINS. He also did the same for A SIMPLE PLAN, the fine Sam Raimi-directed thriller in which bad decisions snowball. Where A SIMPLE PLAN focused on whether a victimless crime is moral, THE RUINS tests the characters' mettle when confronted with fear of the unknown. Although THE RUINS isn't explicity about post-9/11 issues, it can function as a potent statement of how collective fear leads to enormous damage to individuals and society as a whole.

Subtext aside, THE RUINS is a stripped down genre exercise that goes about its business with brutal efficiency. Dread hovers over the situation like cumulonimbus clouds. Director Carter Smith extracts tension by virtue of permitting the tension to sit there unabated. No relief is in sight, especially with the violent scenes that induce frequent squirms.

A better film would have fleshed out the characters more. As it is, all behave about the same except for Jeff. The lack of explanations in THE RUINS may prove unsatisfying to some, but the unknown is often more terrifying than the tangible. Such are the wages of fear.

Grade: B-

A Conversation with David Gordon Green

With GEORGE WASHINGTON, ALL THE REAL GIRLS, and UNDERTOW, writer-director David Gordon Green has built a strong body of work that shows him to be a keen observer of human interaction and, along with cinematographer Tim Orr, a crafter of some of the decade's most beautiful films. SNOW ANGELS, his fourth feature, is no exception. The film stars Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale in a lyrical exploration of love and tragedy.

Green visited Columbus on March 28 to introduce SNOW ANGELS for its local premiere at the Wexner Center. (The film will begin a commercial run at the Drexel Theatre on April 4.) I met with him to discuss SNOW ANGELS, his methods and collaborators, and what the future holds for his career.

Mark Pfeiffer: SNOW ANGELS features your first adapted screenplay. How did that come about?

David Gordon Green: It was a book that was brought to me by another director that was interested in having someone develop a project with him. So I started as a writer and was excited about the idea, the experience, the experiment of adapting a book. I started with page one and started writing it.

MP: How was it different working with material that you didn't generate first?

DGG: One thing with anything that I write, I try to find characters that I emotionally relate to, and if they're not on the page, then I evolve them to be so. I personalized it, but the architecture was there. It was a really great book by Stewart O'Nan. I felt like the structure was in place so that it just was up to me to try to bring a little emotional authenticity and personal spin on it.

MP: The subject matter of the film is heavy, which is true of your other movies as well, yet there's a sense of hopefulness and optimism in spite of the tragedies. Is it fair to say you see the world in that way?

DGG: Yeah, that's definitely how I am from my personal perspective on life. That's how I deal with rougher situations, but I think in this particular movie it was an experiment in emotion and having a shared experience by people going to a theater, seeing it together, witnessing it with people they know and people that are stranger, and, at arm's length, being able to digest the cautionary tale. At the same time it's being shown through the perspective of a young, hopeful high school relationship of two people that are going through the invitation and imperfections of their own connection.

MP: Sense of place is something you do really well in your movies. What I really admired about SNOW ANGELS is that it seemed to understand what life is like in a small town, the people that are there, the connections that are made, and even how the homes look inside and out. Are these places familiar to you from your background, or is this something that you've picked up along the way?

DGG: Both. I've spent a lot of time of my life in small towns and find a real genuine sincerity to my affection for those cultures. There's a beauty in places that people don't see the obvious beauty, and it's not in the sterilized, Hollywoodized version of it. It's in the rust and the cracks and the shadows and the areas that people aren't always looking that I find the beauty in small towns and rural existence.

With this movie I wanted it to be universally appealing. Everything from the casting to the art direction to the selection of locations, I wanted to make sure that it was vague enough where everyone could relate to it. It could be anywhere, and it could be down the street. It could be you and me. By being in a cold environment it kept people indoors. A lot of this movie for me was about opening up the doors and seeing what the secrets were behind them.

MP: Is there anything you learned making this movie that you didn't on the others?

DGG: I learn things every day. I try not to set up a situation during production that is so preconceived and planned and designed that it's not open to the evolution of a project, and once you have a great sense of artistic and technical collaborators, you just let it loose. So I learned a lot about working with actors.

It was the first film that I'd worked in that wasn't crewed by all of my friends. I brought all my department heads, and we went up to Nova Scotia. There was us and there was them. It was trying to communicate with them so they could become us and we could all work together and form that kind of unity that a true collaboration advances from. It was an experience in communication and working with bigger name actors that are experienced professionals. They demand discipline, trust, and energy from directors and all of us. We just brought our best plan and most open minds to the table every day.

MP: You've worked really well with kids in your movies. Obviously GEORGE WASHINGTON comes to mind, but even the little girl in SNOW ANGELS come across unlike the typical child performance. If anything, it feels like it documented how she is on the set that day. What's your method working with kids to get that out of them?

DGG: My method working with kids is exactly what you said, documenting the kids as they are that day, not telling them what to say. Grace Hudson was three-years-old, and that's a really fun age to work with kids for me because they're not self-conscious. A lot of times you'll work with actors that have some degree of experience. They're seven-years-old and can smile at the camera and mug for you and be cute as a button, but that's not as interesting to me as some kid that's not trained and comes from a good, supportive place of family where you can trust emotionally they're not going to be damaged by the experience. I'm not going to lie. It can be a pretty challenging thing to go through emotionally.

As far as lines and working with her, there was one line where I needed her to say, "I want to go play outside." That was essential to the plot of the movie, and I needed her to say that, but I just gave her a Skittle and said, "Say this twenty times." (laughs) It was pretty easy. But then there would be situations when the little girl has to cry. The camera was there, she was crying, and we worked it into the scene. We filmed it and it plays to the emotional authenticity of what was going on in the scene, but it wasn't something that we had the agenda of filming.

MP: Do you use a lot of non-professional actors in the smaller roles? I get a sense that the people seem more authentic, that you're not necessarily having actors dealing with other trained actors on a lot of occasions.

DGG: I love two kinds of actors. Well, three kinds. I love all of them. What am I going to say? I love non-actors that are just charismatic, confident, crazy, or whatever they bring to the table, they're just characters. I love who they are, and I want to film it and have them say what they're going to say. I also love the extraordinarily talented, gifted, trained performers like Sam and Kate and Griffin Dunne and Jeanetta Arnette and the actors in the movie that brought more resume to the table. I love putting the extremes of those two together.

I was talking a little earlier about making it feel universal. In the casting too, I wanted to cast every one of the little bit parts with an ethnicity. So we've got a Croatian Chinese restaurant owner, we've got a Russian photographer, we've got an Australian carpet store owner. I really tried to find people within the local community of where we were filming in Halifax that weren't from there that brought an accent. It's another good way to dodge a Canadian accent when you're trying to make an American movie in our northern friends' country. There's a lot of effort in that. I love the idea of just having people be who they are and not telling them what to say but giving them a guideline of what the scene's about. If you set up the right environment, it can be really believable.

MP: It's interesting you say that because one of the things I think that you do well as far as, I don't know if you'd even say it so much as dialogue, but characters in your movies seem to have a lot of trouble articulating what it is inside them. I think it's really difficult from a filmmaker's perspective to be able to write that and to get that out of actors because otherwise it would seem rather unformed or lazy if you just say to them, "Well, go in front of the camera and not express yourself."

DGG: Right.

MP: But in your films it seems much more refined to where I think of ALL THE REAL GIRLS where you've got these two people who are falling in love but also really don't know how to communicate. Of course, that's all over SNOW ANGELS as well. In the case of Rockwell's character, it's how he is saying one thing and he's putting on this mask of having redeemed himself and become a new man, but you can see the desperation leaking out. That's not something that really comes through in the words so much. I guess the question with that is how do you write that? How do you get that out of the actors because it's not something really that you can put on the page?

DGG: It's not. It's weird because for me the perfect is the imperfect and that's what we go for. Sometimes that's the first take when they don't know what they're going to say, and you have those awkward pauses and imperfections of speech. Sometimes it's more rehearsed. So, depending on who the character is and what the specific instance of it is, it's always different, but in the editing room I find myself so drawn to those moments of vulnerability and awkward silence and two actors that are genuinely listening. You can see such a wonderful rhythm that feels believable. If I'm in a situation, especially of any drama or intensity, the last thing I am is eloquent. You see a lot of really amazing Oscar-nominated performers that go in there and always look cool and know the right thing to say, but how often do we really, especially when there's tension and emotion at stake? So I try to capture how would it really be.

MP: How much is improvised? How much do you stick to the script, and how much do you let them do on the set?

DGG: I don't know percentage-wise. I haven't read the script since before we shot it if that gives you any sort of indication of my possessiveness of a script. I can just say a substantial amount of it is improvised. A lot of it is taken from the book. The actors had copies of the book and would take things from that.

But there would also be something like a scene when a detective comes up to Sam Rockwell when he's beginning his investigation. It's kind of a confrontational scene. It was cool. The detective was in a trench coat as he stereotypically would be, and we're kind of playing to the clichés. When we rehearsed it, I said, "It's missing something." While we were talking about what it might be, the actor dropped his pen that he was taking notes with. I said, "That's what you do. You come in there, and you have a confrontational scene, an aggressive scene. You approach. You drop your pen, and you have to pick it up. And that takes all the tension out of it. And then we're going to zoom into it as if that dropping the pen is the most important thing of this whole movie. That becomes what it's about." The scene is now not about two guys confronting each other. It's about a guy walking into an intimidating situation and dropping his pen. That never would have happened if we weren't just bullshitting about what makes it interesting and there was that happy accident.

MP: You've worked with cinematographer Tim Orr and composer David Wingo since the beginning of your career. How did you all meet, and what keeps you continuing the collaboration with them?

DGG: I met Wingo, who I happen to be conveniently wearing the shirt for his band Ola Podrida, I met him in the third grade when I was seeing THE KARATE KID and he was there too. We were the only kids in the third grade that went to movies by ourselves, so we became friends. He works musically in a way that I work in movies, so it has always been a very quiet partnership where you read each others' minds, and that's been really awesome to have that. Then, depending on the project, we determine who his collaborator on the project might be. Sometimes it's bringing in electronic musicians, like in SNOW ANGELS we brought Jeff McIlwain, who we met at freshman orientation at college. So the two of them collaborated on the score.

With Tim Orr and a lot of my crew on the movie, we went to film school together. We were assigned to work on a documentary project together, so he shot a documentary I did about the artificial insemination of cattle. Driving to and from set, which was an hour away, we were listening to music and talking and quickly realized that we liked each other and became friends. Then when I was looking at the dailies, I said, "Whoa, this is a DP I don't have to look over his shoulder and question the composition. I really trust his instincts in lighting. When he says we should shoot over here, he's right." So, he's a guy who literally, in a good way, I don't have to worry about the camera department. I just let him do his thing, and it always falls into line with my taste. There's a communication and a discussion sometimes, but in a bad way, I've lost all the vernacular and education and some of the insight I had to the camera department because he's so good that I don't study that. I just leave it up to him. It's been a great relief so I can work a hundred percent with the actors and the other elements of moviemaking.

MP: Is that your favorite part, working with the actors?

DGG: My favorite part is actually casting a movie, which is working with actors and discovering who these characters could be. Everybody that you audition brings some new insight and love or repulsion of these characters. To me every moment is a discovery. Ultimately I guess that translates into working with actors. It's the most fun because you're in a room asking people to behave in ways that you want to see them behave, and how often in life can you play God like that?

MP: You've made smaller films up to this point. The action comedy PINEAPPLE EXPRESS is coming out this summer. Certainly in scale or release pattern it's a much bigger film for you. Do you see yourself continuing to do those sorts of movies, going back to the smaller ones, or alternating between the two?

DGG: Literally I don't try to put that expectation on myself. By working with a group of people that I trust--department heads, friends that I've made, and actors--I look to them when I have an idea of what might be the next move. They really help me guide my own instincts and come up with what's unusual, what pushes me, what educates me, what's more of an adventure but also what maintains some degree of soul and intimacy that rings with a truth that says yeah, invest the next year of your life in this project, because you don't want to do that for nothing.

Something like PINEAPPLE EXPRESS was a blast, it was a fun project that was made in a really wonderful way with an extraordinary, inspiring group of collaborators. And yet it can be a popcorn movie that people bring their friends to and have a great time at the movies. So I like to not put that expectation or that burden of what's next or where I come from or what makes sense and literally just follow my gut and bring the band.

MP: What haven't you done yet that you'd like to do?

DGG: A ton of things. The difficulty is that I have a lot of professional ambition, and to be healthy that has to be balanced with my personal life outside of movies. I get pretty excited. It's easy to get aggressive and take advantage of opportunities, but it's important to maintain and make sure you're walking your own beat and picking up stories that aren't just regurgitations of books or other people's screenplays, that they come from a real place. I'd love the opportunity of working in the genre of horror or making a western or science fiction movie. Right now I'm adapting a John Grishman book that's about a guy on death row, so I've been researching and hanging out in pretty interesting places and meeting some characters.

I'm interested in anything that is a path to other worlds. A lot of people use movies as escapism, as entertainment. I feel really fortunate to work in an industry that says, hey, go and invest, research, learn, occupy, and then entertain.