Ebertfest 2010: Day 2

The second day of Ebertfest 2010 commenced with a panel discussion that, no matter the title, boiled down to a familiar topic at this annual event's panel discussions: the current environment for making small and mid-level films and getting them in front of audiences. In other words, the topic stays the same, but the people on the panel change.

In short, nobody has a cure-all for the problematic state of financing and exhibition when it comes to making anything but genre and event pictures, but it's totally unfair to expect that any of the filmmakers or the lone critic at the front of the room would reveal the solution this morning. The industry as a whole hasn't figured it out.

One panelist mentioned that there are more available screens now than ever, yet there remains little to no room for films without splashy, pre-sold qualities or a ton of money behind them. In baseball parlance, very few studios want to hit doubles anymore. It's home runs or nothing.

One other item of interest to emerge is that Charlie Kaufman, who is here with SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, mentioned that he's working on creating a fake superhero as the subject of his next writing/directing gig.

Onto the films...

First off, I wasn't wild about the first two films of the day. Plenty of people in attendance seemed to enjoy them, so don't let me rain on everyone's parade, even though that's what I'm about to do. Yes, each person is entitled to his opinion, but with the festival being curated by the country's preeminent film critic, it can feel like I'm being a little pissy in going against the grain. There's no willful contrarianism at play here, just my reaction to what I'm seeing. (Based on the introduction of the second film, it sounds like Gene Siskel would have my back.)

Although written and directed by American filmmakers, MUNYURANGABO is set in Rwanda and uses local non-professionals to bring it to life. The title is the full name of one of the two young men traveling to complete a job that we come to find out involves killing a man. Ngabo's father was murdered during the genocide, and he wants to avenge his parent's death.

The journey of Ngabo and his best friend Sangwa takes a detour to the home of Sangwa's parents. This is his first time back in three years, and his family warmly welcomes his return, for the most part. Sangwa's father is suspicious of Ngabo, who belongs to a different ethnic tribe. Violence between the Hutu and Tutsi is still fresh in everyone's memories, so this cross-tribal friendship is seen with skeptical eyes.

Director Lee Isaac Chung has certainly crafted an authentic feeling film in MUNYURANGABO, and I can appreciate the great pains he and his collaborators take to make it seem like a work of art representative of the country and continent rather than an object that imposes an outsider's, specifically a Westerner's, perspective. The film's unforced naturalism is both it's strongest asset and biggest weakness, at least to this viewer.

The simple, repetitive dialogue is almost always descriptive of what we are seeing or have seen. This may be anthropologically accurate, but it can be a real grind as the film unfolds in long takes that do little to advance the action. On a dramatic level MUNYURANGABO can be a slog to get through, although I'll hedge my criticisms with the acknowledgement that this type of film may fall in a blind spot for me.

There are festival films like this that swap entertainment value for intense realism, which make them somewhat bulletproof because they appear Important. I'm not questioning the intent or the skill in assembling this film. In this instance it just does very little for me.

Writer-director Michael Tolkin's 1994 film THE NEW AGE followed. Talk about cinematic culture shock. We go from poor Rwandans using mud to repair the walls of their homes to well-off Californians who think it's tragic that they must start selling paintings when financial hardships hit.

Peter Weller and Judy Davis play a couple who are looking for answers in life but struggle to find them. Whether they seek solutions in New Age spirituality or entrepreneurial efforts, their quest to feel alive is stymied at every turn.

THE NEW AGE is intended as a dark comedy, and Tolkin does get in some good jabs at the hucksterism inherent in spiritual and business gurus. This is a film teeming with ideas but one that can't quite get a handle on any of them. THE NEW AGE seems like a classic case of a writer not knowing how to edit himself and thus producing a final work that possesses some merit but is ultimately too jumbled.

Of note in THE NEW AGE is Samuel L. Jackson briefly appearing in an energy infusing scene, the likes of which have come to define what we expect from him. His small, funny turn as a telemarketing manager jolts the film out of its stupor. If only there had been more moments like his pep talk to a circle of phone jockeys.

Speaking of overstuffed, day two was capped with Francis Ford Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX. Plenty has been said about the film, all of it likely to be better reasoned and argued than I can achieve at 2:30 a.m., so I'll keep it short.

Yes, the addition of the French plantation sequence can be problematic, although it does some important mirroring of an early scene and contains discussion that deserves inclusion. Whether one's crazy about the changes or not, there's no doubt that Coppola's direction is nothing short of dazzling. The practical effects, particularly during the taking of the beach, remind how sometimes there's nothing better than the real thing. The limitless abilities of CGI could not achieve the same result.

APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX is a hallucination that lasts nearly three and a half hours. I'd seen this version once before but was still astonished at what was before my eyes. Rarely is ambition and spectacle and craftsmanship fulfilled on such a high level.

-MUNYURANGABO: C-/45

-THE NEW AGE: C/46

-APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX: A/90

One last note for today... While Ebertfest strives to bring guests for all of the films to the festival, the volcanic ash in the skies above Europe has kept high profile invitees such as Walter Murch and, most likely, Bill Nighy from getting here. Supposedly Barbet Schroeder was also going to be unable to get a cross-Atlantic flight, but the latest word is that he will be in Champaign-Urbana for the screening of BARFLY. The guy made a documentary about Idi Amin, so who thinks an Icelandic volcano will stand in his way?

Ebertfest 2010: Opening Night

Film festivals are often mad adventures in which one gorges on films and purges sleep. Getting back to my hotel room at 1 a.m. to begin writing this Ebertfest Opening Night recap--and with an eye on a panel discussion I plan to attend at 9:30--means a few things have to go: sleep and a perfectionist's research and editing. Add in that this is 2 a.m. in Ohio and that I just took a muscle relaxant to loosen up my neck from a car accident a couple months ago and, well, this could be interesting. I'm about the last person one would compare to Hunter S. Thompson, so don't expect the rest of this entry to spin off into depraved tales of Champaign-Urbana after hours.

The 12th annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival kicked off with a visit from the Illinois governor to proclaim this Ebertfest Day (or something to that affect). Fine, fine, but get on with it, governor. We have two films to watch.

It's become tradition for the festival to open with a film in 70mm. Tonight's first selection was intended to be projected in that format, but apparently the print was pink. That tint would have been ironically fitting considering that the film was PINK FLOYD THE WALL. Luckily a 35mm print--and a pristine one at that--was obtained in time so that the visual experience wasn't clouded by faded layers of celluloid.

I don't think I've listened to Pink Floyd's concept album since I was in college, if not high school, and I'd not seen director Alan Parker's film until tonight. Classic rock radio has burned several of these songs into my brain, but they take on different associations, not always for the best, in this rock and roll art film.

Bob Geldof acts out the role of Pink, a rocker who has barricaded himself in his hotel room while having a nervous breakdown and overdosing on drugs. The film doesn't so much as follow Pink's storyline as it sifts through whatever Roger Waters vomits up in regard to feelings about his father's death during World War II, the relationship with his mother, his animosity toward the system/the establishment, fascism, violence, the push/pull dynamic between performer and audience, and sex, drugs, rock and roll.

For as meticulously arranged and played as the band's music is, the film is raw and messy in uncovering the pain, horror, and disgust residing beneath the clean sounding surfaces of the songs. The spilled blood, weak flesh, and sexual anxiety are like something out of a teen's nightmarish fantasy (or David Cronenberg's filmography).

PINK FLOYD THE WALL can play like an adolescent's bilious railing against the unfairness of life. That's what makes this primal scream of a film so vivid. Whether it's schoolchildren being put in a meat grinder or Pink's new identity as a fascist leader emerging from a body that looks as though it is encased inside an enormous tumor, the lack of restraint in producing these hideous but striking images is where the material draws its power.

The danger of indulging the rantings of a disaffected youth who thinks he's the only one who ever felt this way is that can seem juvenile. Spare me the moans about the uncaring teachers and crookedness of everybody, junior. There's a reason why the album speaks to those that age from generation to generation and why it seems at least a tad overly melodramatic to me.

One more note about the imagery... The most memorable part to me was when Pink is sitting alone in a clean, empty room and then is pursued by a giant animated snake/dragon. The utilization of space and scale is pretty fantastic.

As for a couple stray observations that don't have much to do with anything, how about Bob Hoskins chowing down on a pineapple sliced in half during "Young Lust"? I also thought it was pretty funny to see a big ad with Mike Schmidt beside the words "Feeling 7Up" while the fascist force beats the scattering fans. Did anyone else think Pink's posture in front of the television was reminiscent of those old Memorex ads?

If that wasn't enough grimness for one night, how about Roy Andersson's YOU, THE LIVING (DU LEVANDE) as a late night cinematic chaser? It's actually a pretty good pairing with THE WALL as both films are populated with people who think that no one can understand the hurt inside of them and despair at what this means for the present and the future.

I put the film on my list of Honorable Mentions for the Best Films of 2009. Here's what I had to say then:

Swedish director Roy Andersson follows up his 2000 surrealist comedy SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR (SÅNGER FRÅN ANDRA VÅNINGEN) with more darkly humorous sketches about the dilemmas of human existence. Laughs catch in the throat, although this time a bit more optimism underlies the drollness and Scandinavian emotional coolness. Andersson favors gorgeous, deep focus compositions that establish scenes in which the jokes trickle out in unbroken shots. The meticulous craftsmanship and impeccable timing in YOU, THE LIVING show an artist in full command of his distinctive voice.

On a second go-round the film seems akin to what I remember being a theme in Kurt Vonnegut's writings. Assuming I'm not thinking of someone else or getting this completely wrong, he stressed that life is short, so it's best to be kind to one another during the time we have as it could all end tomorrow.

I marvel at the formal command that Andersson has as a filmmaker. The strong vertical and horizontal lines box in his put-upon characters. The camera, positioned at something akin to a medium wide shot (for lack of a better term) zoomed out all the way, is merciless in its probing examination of these people. Am I not mistaken in seeing that he has most of the poor souls populating his films in a kind of whiteface to make them look more sickly?

The post-film panel came up with plenty of excellent comparisons for describing Andersson's work. Elvis Mitchell likened it to a cross of Gary Larson's THE FAR SIDE comic strips and Ingmar Bergman's work. I would like to propose that although Mike Judge's filmmaking style (or rigor) is the same as Andersson's, he's the closest American director that I think is a kindred spirit.

-PINK FLOYD THE WALL: B-/62

-YOU, THE LIVING: B+/74

Tomorrow: a panel (if I can make it), MUNYURANGABO, THE NEW AGE, and APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX.

Ebertfest 2010: Prelude to a festival

It's hard for me to believe, but tonight marks the tenth Roger Ebert's Film Festival I will have attended. I've been coming since 2001, when Ebertfest had the word "Overlooked" in its title. The adjective often required contortions to justify its use anyway, so good riddance to it. For instance, how exactly is 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY an overlooked film? (Answer: its 70mm format is overlooked.) Overlooked certainly no longer applies to an event that sells out of passes months before the films are even announced.

The focus at Ebertfest is on the films, and rightfully so, but I can't help but feel that it is something more than just an excuse to watch and discuss movies for five days. The festival fosters the sense of being at an annual family reunion, something reinforced by all the familiar faces among the passholders, individual ticket buyers, and special guests. We're all ushered into the old and stately Virginia Theatre to partake of the entertainment that, say, our favorite uncle has chosen especially for us.

The analogy may be a hokey one, but Ebert presides over the event adorned with his name not as the sage atop the mountain but as a congenial host who just so happened to accommodate around 1500 people for the party he's throwing. The filmmakers and other invited guests intermingle with the attendees--this isn't The Celebrities and the hoi polloi--which keeps a relaxed vibe at the festival. Maybe some paparazzi slink about, but I've not seen any. While VIP seating may be saved, there's nothing keeping them from grabbing a spot anywhere they like. There's no red carpet. Instead, you might find John Malkovich behind you in line for coffee at the University of Illinois student union or Robert Forster leading a session in a classroom in the library's basement.

As with any family get-together, the health of an ailing member is a hot topic, and that's been the case with Ebert throughout the years with his well-documented surgeries and recovery. (Aside from that, there was also the year when he broke his arm late one night and showed up for the next day's introduction with his arm in a sling.) He was sorely missed the year he could not attend and was warmly welcomed back the following year.

So yes, there are reacquaintances to be made, but if you're not here, what do you care about the good time everyone here is having? The good news is that this year you can share in it, at least somewhat. The panels and film intros and Q&As will be streamed live here. To the best of my ability I'll be blogging each day of Ebertfest. Tonight will be a killer with the second film starting at 10 p.m. and a panel being held early the next morning, but I'll try to stay on top of everything.

Here's to a great Ebertfest #12.

Greenberg

GREENBERG (Noah Baumbach, 2010)

In the dramedy GREENBERG Ben Stiller’s forty-year-old Roger Greenberg returns to California fresh off of a nervous breakdown and still nurturing his bitterness about pretty much everything. For six weeks Greenberg is to watch over his brother’s house, but doing nothing, save for the occasional carpentry, is his primary goal. He meets up with some old friends and begins a romance of a sort with his brother’s 25-year-old assistant Florence Greta Gerwig, but Greenberg can be so intent on being miserable and dragging others down with him that he’s in danger of pushing everyone away.

Writer-director Noah Baumbach’s most recent films, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE and MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, have found humor and pain through the examination of hurt people hurting people. GREENBERG continues that thematic exploration with the study of a prickly and self-sabotaging title character who isn’t a charming rogue but, to put it bluntly, a jerk.

Greenberg feels his life has spun out of control and attempts to bring order to it, whether through rehearsing his behavior, writing complaint letters, or lashing out when he feels others may be hitting a nerve. Stiller often makes Greenberg’s hostility and rants funny, but his strongest work comes in exercising the character’s worst reflexes without trolling for sympathy. The performance requires looking beyond the surface to see a wounded soul who believes he can only feel better by making others miserable.

Florence spots the vulnerability Greenberg obscures with his gruff nature, which is why Gerwig’s performance is key to making the film successful. Florence and Greenberg are kindred spirits searching for the same answers. She just hasn’t reached the moment when disappointment and doubt transform into despair. In inhabiting Florence’s awkward and unguarded optimism, Gerwig lets the character demonstrate another way of dealing with life’s bruises without becoming a redemptive figure.

Baumbach’s writing and direction of these characters display more of a novelistic touch that can make them tough to like all the time, but the approach produces a deeply felt view of flawed individuals.

Grade: B+

Fish Tank

FISH TANK (Andrea Arnold, 2009)

FISH TANK'S 15-year-old Mia (Katie Jarvis) has a chip on her shoulder and always seems to be itching for a confrontation, whether it's with her family, former friends, or strangers. She takes comfort in hip hop and dancing. She dreams of being a B-girl and practices her moves when alone. When her mother brings home new boyfriend Connor (Michael Fassbender), Mia gives him the same attitude she does everyone else. The difference is that Connor shows attention to and respect for her and slowly wins over Mia.

Done in the style known as kitchen sink realism, FISH TANK explores the lower class environment Mia inhabits with an unsparing view. The film's first half is uneventful, but writer-director Andrea Arnold does a fine job depicting the harsh economic and domestic realities Mia must live with. Her mother, who was probably in her mid-teens when she had Mia, acts as though she's still her eldest daughter's age.

Jarvis suggests a softer side to Mia underneath the rough exterior. While Mia is not particularly likable and the grim circumstances don't foretell a happy ending for her, Jarvis' bruised and stubborn performance elicits empathy.

FISH TANK'S second half is much more eventful, fatally so. The film becomes a caricature of arthouse miserabilism, which asserts that the only truths are the ugly ones. The problem isn't that Mia's life gets worse. The natural course of events seems to be leading there. The issue is that the piled up complications become ridiculous and at no greater purpose than to indulge a nihilistic attitude.

Nas' song "Life's a Bitch" accompanies a key scene near the end of FISH TANK and plays over the end credits. Mia has every reason to identify with the lyrics, but the film can't shake that adolescent mindset as it heaps insults upon her.

Grade: C-

Date Night

DATE NIGHT (Shawn Levy, 2010)

When their seemingly happy friends split up, the Fosters question if their relationship is showing similar signs of strain. Looking to add a little spice into their routine marriage, Phil and Claire Foster (Steve Carell and Tina Fey) head from New Jersey to the big city in DATE NIGHT. The Fosters arrive too late to get a table at a trendy New York City restaurant, but an emboldened Phil claims the reservation of the Tripplehorns, a couple who don't appear to be at the fine dining establishment.

The date night is going very well until two shady characters ask the Fosters to accompany them to the alley. They believe the Fosters are the Tripplehorns, who took something from someone you don't want to steal from. Thus begins a crazy evening for the suburban parents as they run for their lives.

Carell and Fey make a believable couple who are comfortable with one another yet worry that they've settled into a safe but boring marriage. DATE NIGHT'S undercurrent of quiet panic fleshes out the Fosters more than other comedies attempt to do, and it goes a long way in making them relatable. Unfortunately, DATE NIGHT takes two funny people, puts them in unfunny situations, and has them do and say unfunny things.

The comedy is disappointingly lousy rather than aggressively bad. Carell and Fey give their best effort and salvage occasional scenes. When they pose as a hipster couple to obtain a crucial telephone number, the actors find laughs in looking foolish and behaving with false confidence they've not shown to that point.

Carell and Fey can only do so much with this material. It's telling that some of the ad libs in the outtakes during the credits are funnier than what's in the proper movie. Who needs the lame thriller and action elements when these two performers can be funny themselves?

Grade: D+

The Runaways

THE RUNAWAYS (Floria Sigismondi, 2010)

The rise and fall of an all-girl rock band in the mid-'70s gets the big screen treatment in THE RUNAWAYS. Band members range in age from thirteen to sixteen and include Kristin Stewart as guitarist Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as lead singer Cherie Currie.

At the time the idea of hard rocking girls was not taken seriously, but the group's manager Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) finds the key to success in emphasizing their jailbait appeal, especially with Cherie. The Runaways get a record deal with Mercury and go on a tour of Japan, but personally and professionally, the girls aren't prepared for the temptations before them.

THE RUNAWAYS doesn't take the traditional biopic route. Rather than checking off all the important events on the band's timeline, the film gets caught up in the rush of youth, rebellion, and rock and roll. It pulses on the energy of surging hormones and living in the moment. That raw, uninhibited feel serves the music and the characters well, but after the buzz wears off, it's easy to see how lacking it all was for those living like this and is for those of us watching a recreation that's about as deep and insightful as a photo shoot.

Fanning brings vulnerability to her role as an underage sex kitten. Stewart carries her character with low key integrity. Both struggle, though, to round out their parts beyond assuming rock star poses. To the contrary, Shannon gustily takes to playing the sleazeball manager. It's a weird, funny, and scary performance that embodies the worst beliefs about people in the entertainment industry.

The Runaways may have gone along with Fowley's design of the band, but undoubtedly they were exploited in the process. It may have been nearly impossible to avoid doing the same in telling their story. Still, it's no accident that THE RUNAWAYS teases and delivers the possibility of young starlets gone wild. The film might be intended as a cautionary tale, but that tends to get lost amid the lurid thrills and tacked-on happy ending.

Grade: C-

Hot Tub Time Machine

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE (Steve Pink, 2010)

One drunken night in a ski lodge's whirlpool magically transports four guys to 1986 in HOT TUB TIME MACHINE. Rob Corddry's Lou is suspected of trying to kill himself while blasting Motley Crue and revving his car while parked in his garage. His old friends Adam (John Cusack) and Nick (Craig Robinson) are also experiencing some rough patches in life and decide that a trip to one of the places from their glory days will be good for all of them. Tagging along, much to Lou's chagrin, is Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke).

When they roll into town, the guys find that most of it is boarded up. The resort and its employees are in shambles. The hot tub is on the fritz too, and when it does begin working properly, it sends them back twenty years in time.

Nostalgia exerts a powerful pull, so as the oldest Generation Xers hit middle age and the youngest approach 30, it's no surprise that '80s revivalism is being shuffled out for this pop culture-minded age group. From its silly title and concept to the cheap sets and loud fashions, HOT TUB TIME MACHINE looks and plays like something studios churned out during that decade.

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE'S unrefined charms, nonsensical plotting, scruffy filmmaking, and appropriate casting produce a decent simulation of '80s comedies. Essentially it's the cinematic equivalent of Pepsi Throwback. Spotting the references to Cusack and co-star Crispin Glover's old movies supplies an amusing diversion, and the film mines the differences between then and now for occasional laughs.

The unfiltered hostility in Corddry's performance matches well with Robinson's deadpan style as well as bringing energy to a film that feels kind of tired. Through its slack editing and direction, HOT TUB TIME MACHINE gives the impression of a halfhearted effort, as if the film's name and story were wacky enough that any old gag would do. For as uproarious as the jokes are intended to be, they often land much more softly.

It's not that the film isn't funny or pleasantly stupid. At issue is that it seems like HOT TUB TIME MACHINE'S humor is overly reliant on fond memories of its predecessors rather than generating much that's witty in and of itself. The sloppiness is a fitting tribute to the movies HOT TUB TIME MACHINE resembles, but that's not entirely a positive quality.

Grade: C+

My CIFF 2010 Film List

For attendees at this year's Cleveland International Film Festival and fans of lists, this is where I'm keeping an updated inventory of the films I've seen and their corresponding grades/points. Due to the instant nature of determining grades and points and moving on to the next film with little time for reflection, there's always the potential for upgrades and downgrades. This is more of a flash poll than a final verdict.

The current plan is to see 50 films (plus one short) over eight days, which ought to provide a good overview of this year's slate, or at least what I sample from it. Originally I intended to update this during the fest, but typing in Blogger doesn't work as well on the iPhone as I thought it would. Here's what I've seen so far:

Final update made

-Lourdes - A/92

-No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson - A/90

-Marwencol - A/87

-Accident (Yi ngoi) - A-/84

-9500 Liberty - A-/80

-Inside Hana's Suitcase - B+/75

-Disco & Atomic War (Disko ja tuumasõda) - B/72

-For the Love of Movies - B/70

-Max Manus - B/70

-A Brand New Life (Yeo-haeng-ja) - B/69

-Masquerades (Mascarades) - B/69

-The Desert of Forbidden Art - B/68

-The Girl on the Train (La fille du RER) - B/67

-The Great Contemporary Art Bubble - B/67

-Last Train Home - B-/65

-North (Nord) - B-/65

-The Happiest Girl in the World (Cea mai fericita fata din lume) - B-/63

-The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner - B-/63

-Please, Please Me! (Fais-moi plaisir!) - B-/62

-Pop Star on Ice - B-/62

-Convention - B-/61

-Dear Lemon Lima - B-/60

-Do It Again - B-/60

-Turtle: The Incredible Journey - B-/60

-Bare Essence of Life (Urutora mirakuru rabu sutôrî) - C+/59

-Down Terrace - C+/59

-Garbo: The Spy (Garbo: El espía) - C+/59

-Bananas! - C+/58

-My Year Without Sex - C+/58

-Shameless (Nestyda) - C+/58

-The Taqwacores - C+/58

-Colony - C+/57

-The Good Heart - C+/57

-Cash & Marry - C+/56

-My Tehran for Sale - C+/56

-Vincere - C/52

-Headhunter - C/51

-Falkenberg Farewell (Farväl Falkenberg) - C/50

-Will You Marry Us? (Die Standesbeamtin) - C/48

-Paper Man - C/46

-Cooking History - C-/45

-The Ape (Apan) - C-/44

-Father and Guns (De père en flic) - C-/43

-Harvest - C-/43

-The House of Branching Love (Haarautuvan rakkauden talo) - C-/42

-Bomber - C-/41

-Storage - C-/41

-December Heat (Detsembrikuumus) - C-/40

-Adrift (Choi voi) - D+/38

-Van Diemen's Land - D+/37

-Love Hurts - D-/23

For fest attendees who stumble upon this and think I'm off my rocker with some of these ratings, I am aware that what tops my list and brings up the bottom is often out of step with passholder favorites and dislikes. I heard several times how much people enjoyed Bomber, for instance.

The Bounty Hunter

THE BOUNTY HUNTER (Andy Tennant, 2010)

Ex-husband and wife Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler) and Nicole Hurley (Jennifer Aniston) are reunited in THE BOUNTY HUNTER when she skips out on a court appearance and he's tasked with bringing her in. Nicole is an ambitious journalist whose career focus led to her break-up with Milo. Now that job fixation leads Nicole to digging into a story about a suspicious-looking suicide rather than showing up for her appointed case before a judge.

Since the divorce Milo has lost his job as a police detective and makes ends meet as a bounty hunter. Apprehending his former wife looks like a chance for some sweet revenge, but Nicole can be a wily target.

As a lousy mystery and lousier romantic comedy, THE BOUNTY HUNTER is two bad films in one. For a comedy of remarriage, Aniston and Butler have a distinct lack of chemistry. Their failed relationship is supposed to provide that extra zing to his pursuit of her, but little evidence exists that these two characters ever felt deeply for one another or even were more than passingly familiar. Based on their absent romantic history and tension, she might as well be some random bail-jumper for him to chase.

Butler again plays a sensitive soul hiding behind a malicious creep persona. His BOUNTY HUNTER role isn't quite as off-putting as his turn in THE UGLY TRUTH, but both parts have the diminishing effect of molding Butler into a smug, unappealing performer to watch. Aniston has rarely found film work that caters to her comedic strengths. In THE BOUNTY HUNTER she seems as disinterested as everyone else.

Director Andy Tennant possesses a decent track record for light entertainments, with EVER AFTER and HITCH among his filmography highlights. This candy-coated yet ill-tempered version of a procedural isn't suited to his romantic comedy chops. In a confounding choice, the film is built around the suicide Nicole is investigating. The crime and corruption mystery is as boilerplate as they come. It also receives excessive and misplaced attention for a film with the primary concern of convincing us these two squabbling lovebirds are destined for one another despite their protests.

Grade: D+

The Ghost Writer

THE GHOST WRITER (Roman Polanski, 2010)

Playing a character referred to as The Ghost, Ewan MacGregor accepts a lucrative offer to write former British Prime Minister Adam Lang's memoirs in THE GHOST WRITER. Like anything that appears too good to be true, the assignment quickly proves to have its pitfalls. After agreeing to the job The Ghost is mugged and has a manuscript stolen.

The previous ghost drowned in what is considered a suicide or alcohol-fueled accident, but doubts linger about the official line. The ex-politician's assistant refuses to let the last writer's draft leave the island compound. Then news breaks that Lang (Pierce Brosnan) may be brought up on war crimes charges for assisting the CIA with illegal rendition and torture.

Co-writer/director Roman Polanski fashions THE GHOST WRITER as a '70s-styled potboiler bubbling with paranoia and conspiracy. This isn't CHINATOWN level work from Polanski, but THE GHOST WRITER still succeeds as an above-average thriller that dabbles in the political and the personal. A la LAW & ORDER'S ripped from the headlines stories, Tony Blair's actions in office serve as juicy inspiration for a plot trading in accusations of shady government dealings, but rather than delivering substantive political commentary the film is more interested in watching what happens when a group of people close ranks as external pressure ramps up.

Lang and staff, which now includes The Ghost, aren't bound by the island compound's gates, but their mental isolation from a hostile outside world yields compelling responses. Lang continues to come and go as he sees fit while those caught in the crossfire, such as his wife, rivetingly played by Olivia Williams, and The Ghost, hunker down. Both in the foreboding weather and narrative tautness, the encroaching sense of doom pushes the film along with quiet intensity.

THE GHOST WRITER can be read as a metaphor for Polanski's much-publicized life in exile, with the politician standing in for the disgraced director and the writer taking the public's place. Despite The Ghost's best attempts to uncover the truth, he's kept at arm's length from his subject. What he observes is a man who seems relatively untroubled by the storm around him and indignant about his alleged wrongdoing. Those with vested interests are complicit in covering up key points. If this depiction isn't reflective of how the director feels about his situation, then he's done a good job of leading the audience astray in such an interpretation.

A ghost writer's purpose is to tell someone else's story in that person's voice. As co-writer and director Polanski gets to speak for himself through the film, but for all of it's mirroring of real life circumstances, THE GHOST WRITER'S shrouded revelations are ever transitory.

Grade: B+

Green Zone

GREEN ZONE (Paul Greengrass, 2010)

Time and again Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) follows intelligence reports regarding the locations of Weapons of Mass Destruction in 2003 Baghdad, but much to his unit's frustration in GREEN ZONE, they find absolutely nothing. A source known as Magellan has supplied all of the information that predicated the United States' intervention in Iraq, yet the experiences of troops on the ground and doubts of a CIA operative suggest that the books have been cooked, so to speak.

In reteaming Damon and director Paul Greengrass, who made the last two Jason Bourne movies together, GREEN ZONE becomes a crypto BOURNE film that again finds a single man doggedly trying to uncover the truth and take down those who would hide it. Driving the narrative is the bad intelligence and futile search for WMDs that characterized the start of the ongoing Iraq War, so there's no doubt that GREEN ZONE cannot avoid the taint of dividing viewers according to political ideologies.

The film comes down squarely against a war that has proven costly in American and Iraqi lives, especially if it was conceived out of lies, so it's tailor-made for hot button editorials and seething viewers sympathetic to both sides of the Congressional aisle. Depending on your view, the film whips you into righteous anger or offended antagonism.

Stripped of its political urgency, GREEN ZONE is a dynamic action film akin to recent Best Picture winner THE HURT LOCKER. Greengrass utilizes the cinema verite style that has been his trademark since BLOODY SUNDAY. The wobbly camerawork and quick cutting tend to induce fatigue, especially during a climactic nighttime chase of an Iraqi general through war-torn streets, but the director brings an undeniable immediacy to the material that a more static aesthetic would struggle to maintain.

Occasionally Greg Kinnear relieves the film's unrelenting nature as an administration toady obstructing the hero's best efforts. The ending, which can be interpreted as a conventionally happy conclusion, has produced grumbles in some corners, but in retrospect, I wonder if it isn't one last gut punch regarding the irrelevance of facts. GREEN ZONE may be too intent on achieving its purpose to unwind for some necessary spells, but as a politically-charged action film, it accomplishes the mission.

Grade: B-

Oscar picks 2010

The long crawl of this Oscar season culminates this evening when the awards are finally handed out. Winners in the major categories seem pretty easy to target, so if you're in an Oscar pool with a semi-informed crowd, it's going to take success in the tech categories and such to win. For what it's worth, here are my picks to win the gold and hopefully net me a fistful of dollars:

Best Picture: Avatar

A movie this financially successful has to win, doesn't it? The feel good story the press wants to write can come in...

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

It isn't common for these two awards to split, but I don't foresee any other outcome.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

These all seem like locks, but I am getting the sense that we will get one surprise here. The Supporting Actress category often seems to produce the unexpected. While the idea of Mo'Nique winning an Oscar fits the bill, she's been the prohibitive favorite since Sundance 2009. I wouldn't be stunned if someone else walked away with the trophy. Still, Mo'Nique gets picked on my pool sheet.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Best Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker

Best Animated Feature: Up

Best Documentary Feature: The Cove

Best Foreign Language Film: Un prophète

The "experts" are nearly unanimous in The Cove winning that I'm backing off my gut instinct to go with The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. Foreign Language Film has been such a crap shoot of late, with lesser seen films beating better known ones. I'm betting the Audiard plays better than the Haneke, although I've seen neither. So watch one of the others to come out on top.

Best Art Direction: Avatar

Best Cinematography: Avatar

Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria

Best Editing: The Hurt Locker

Best Makeup: Star Trek

Best Original Score: Up

Best Original Song: "The Weary Kind", Crazy Heart

Best Sound Editing: Avatar

Best Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker

Best Visual Effects: Avatar

If there's this kind of back and forth through these categories, it keeps things interesting for Picture and Director. If Avatar comes up short here, not including the mortal lock that has to be Visual Effects, then it likely indicates a tipping of the scales toward The Hurt Locker.

Best Animated Short: A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Documentary Short: The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant

Best Live Action Short: Instead of Abracadabra

I've seen all the Animated Shorts and think the Wallace and Gromit short is clearly the best of the bunch. I've seen none of the others. I'm being somewhat the sentimental homer in selecting Dayton filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert's entry in Documentary Short, but keep in mind that multiple nominee Reichert has never won.

If everything goes according to my picks, the breakdown looks like this:

5 - Avatar

4 - The Hurt Locker

2 - Crazy Heart

2- Up

1 - The Blind Side

1 - The Cove

1 - Inglourious Basterds

1 - Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

1 - Un prophète

1 - Star Trek

1 - Up in the Air

1 - The Young Victoria

We'll find out soon enough if these awards are as predictable as I've felt they will be.

Post-Oscars addition: 17 of 24 overall, including a pathetic 0 for 3 on the shorts. My instinct was correct that neither of the better known Foreign Language Films might not win, but I didn't have the temerity to check the box for the winner. In other words, no credit.

What I saw and heard of the show amid the party conversation was not exactly riveting television. The Actor and Actress nominee testimonials took far too much time. The biggest surprise was the casualness with which the Best Picture was awarded.

The best news: awards season is over.

Brooklyn's Finest

BROOKLYN'S FINEST (Antoine Fuqua, 2009)

BROOKLYN'S FINEST tells separate but eventually converging stories about three New York City cops wrestling with the inherent problems of their jobs.

With an expanding family incapable of comfortably occupying their home, Sal (Ethan Hawke) supplements his meager income by stealing from criminals and crime scenes. Eddie (Richard Gere) is a week away from retirement. He tries to ignore the problems he sees on the streets when not on the clock, but a glimpse at his desperate, lonely life shows that he lugs around all the terrible stuff he witnesses. Tango (Don Cheadle) has a strong desire to transfer out of his deep undercover assignment, especially when he's asked to bring down a drug dealer who's watched his back for years.

BROOKLYN'S FINEST weaves together familiar stories of police corruption and desperation that feel much smaller in size than the near-epic runtime suggests they deserve. Character development and the intertwined threads are conveyed in shorthand. Director Antoine Fuqua gives the well-trod material more room to roam than necessary but fails to shade it in anything but the drabbest law enforcement blue.

The dueling brevity and long-windedness means that BROOKLYN'S FINEST is best suited either to a lean cop drama in theaters or, in an ideal scenario, serialized television. In a TV show the characters can be granted more intricate and well-rounded arcs than is possible in 132 minutes divided among three leads. Fuqua delivers a watchable film but one that's also bland and derivative.

BROOKLYN'S FINEST fails to surprise at pretty much every turn. The lack of originality or the unexpected wouldn't be as large of an issue if the three protagonists held more interest, but these beleaguered officers' grim tales fail to make an impression. Hawke's at his scuzziest, Gere is at his most tragic, and Cheadle is at his most honorably conflicted. In skimming each of their plot lines, BROOKLYN'S FINEST simply doesn't find a way to do justice to to any of them.

Grade: C

Strongman

STRONGMAN (Zachary Levy, 2009)

The documentary STRONGMAN follows New Jersey's Stanley Pleskun, who performs under the name of Stanless Steel. This scrap metal salvager bills himself as one of the world's strongest men when it comes to bending steel. Stanless is reportedly the only person who can bend a penny with his bare hands. While he has the ability to change the shape of metal, it seems that he lacks the power to alter his life into what he wishes it would be.

Although the rigorous cinema verité style may agitate viewers accustomed to slick documentaries, STRONGMAN'S unvarnished approach complements its salt of the earth subject. The narrative repetition reinforces his constant struggle to achieve greater success. What can be more frustrating than to believe you have a special skill yet don't receive the equivalent acknowledgment for it, whether in the form of accolades or monetary compensation? Stanless doesn't make a living solely as a strongman, but clearly he desires for his uncommon abilities to propel him above his current living conditions.

To call STRONGMAN a real life version of THE WRESTLER is an easy comparison but one with merit. Just as Mickey Rourke's washed up pro wrestler could have been a laughable caricature, the person that Stanless shows himself to be and that director Zachary Levy presents is a flawed but basically decent guy who aches deep down because he can't make his dream come true. Leg lifting a truck in a parking lot or bending a horseshoe at a kid's birthday party isn't where Stanless thinks he should be, yet he pushes forward to to get every scrap he can.

Levy could have played such moments for cheap laughs at the strongman's expense, but the director displays a great deal of empathy for his subject. At the same time, Levy shows that Stanless' pride and stubbornness can hold him back too. He insists on the purity of his stunts, but from a practical standpoint, much of what he does simply won't translate from a stage to the rear of the auditorium or even on television. In that sense he's like an artist who won't budge at all on any creative decisions lest it compromise the integrity of the work.

STRONGMAN provides an intimate perspective of coming up short in pursuit of a goal but plowing ahead anyway in the hope that one day the destination. Whether it's a Sisyphean task depends on if you're the one pushing the stone or watching someone do it.

Grade: B-

(STRONGMAN is playing at the Arena Grand from March 5th through the 7th during the Arnold Sports Festival.)

Cop Out

COP OUT (Kevin Smith, 2010)

The action-comedy COP OUT features Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as longtime mismatched partners working for the NYPD. Following in the footsteps of many other movie cops, the duo makes some major mistakes that lead to their suspension. Jimmy Monroe (Willis) fritters away his time worrying about how to pay for his daughter's wedding while Paul Hodges (Morgan) obsesses over suspicions that his wife is cheating on him with their neighbor. When Willis is robbed of a highly valuable baseball card he planned to sell to pay for his little girl's big day, he and Morgan set out in hot pursuit of the thief.

With COP OUT director Kevin Smith of CLERKS fame attempts to make his version of a 1980s buddy cop comedy. To make the concept more obvious, COP OUT even comes with a synthesizer-heavy score by Harold Faltermeyer, who's best known for composing and performing "Axel F" from BEVERLY HILLS COP. Smith didn't write the screenplay, although his likely influence on it can still be found in his signature foul-mouthed, pop culture referencing dialogue. Even if many of the jokes in COP OUT aren't all that funny, Smith's facility with crude wordplay is what he salvages from this huge mess of a film.

Morgan's energy and cheerful idiocy help to sell the flat verbal and visual jokes more than they probably deserve. Whether he's chasing a drug dealing gang member while dressed as a giant cell phone or delighting in his videotaped failure being a viral hit, Morgan strikes the right tone. He and Willis don't generate any comedic chemistry, though.

Smith is less adept in guiding COP OUT'S serpentine crime investigations along and shooting the action scenes. He's never been known as a visually dynamic director, and his clumsiness in camera set-ups and movements hamper anything that isn't joke-oriented. COP OUT isn't top shelf material, so it's not as though Smith's limitations drag it down. Nevertheless, his skill set is not the right match. Dare I say that Michael Bay, who seems to fashion himself as something of a comedy filmmaker, might have served the screenplay better?

Grade: C-

The Crazies

THE CRAZIES (Breck Eisner, 2010)

Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) doesn't usually face much trouble in his small Iowa town in THE CRAZIES, but when a crashed military plane delivers a biological weapon into the water supply, people start behaving as if they're mad. One man with a shotgun walks onto a field during a high school baseball game. Another traps his wife and child inside his home and seeks to burn it down.

Dutton and his deputy try to take control of the situation, but who's to say they aren't infected? Before long the military has stormed into town to contain the contamination and the resilient victims by any means necessary.

Breck Eisner's remake of George A. Romero's THE CRAZIES isn't bad so much as it is inconsequential. Without any palpable sense of terror or political subtext, the film is analogous to its not-exactly-zombie townsfolk who stagger about purposefully but blankly.

On command THE CRAZIES follows what the screenplay dictates but lacks the cheap thrills or substance to take it beyond a basic escape movie with a low sense of urgency. Early scenes of regular people behaving irregularly are suitably disturbing. When the population is forcefully herded and divided, it appears that THE CRAZIES is ready to explode with tension ,but instead it fizzles out.

Olyphant adds a slightly off-kilter spin on the sturdy and heroic lawman attempting to keep order and fight the powers that be. Joe Anderson's humorous and skittish performance as the paranoid deputy brings some uncertainty to a film short on surprises.

THE CRAZIES is professionally made and reasonably diverting, but it's not eventful enough for it provoke a response. In real life no one wishes for mass panic during a deadly outbreak, but this fictional account of such a situation could stand to stoke more hysteria.

Grade: C+

Ranked 2010 Film List

For my 2010 Film List I'm experimenting with the 100-point scale, in addition to using my usual letter grades. Since the first list is in chronological order, I thought it might also be useful to take the numerical values I'm applying to the films and put them in order.

Ranking of older films is more for informational purposes. I don't see it having any real apples-to-apples value.

For what it's worth, 60 points equals the lowest total that still means a positive review.

A range=80-100, B range=60-79, C range=40-59, D range=20-39, F=0-19

Last update: December 31, 2010
Total features: 329 (2010 qualifiers: 217)
Total shorts: 15

2010 Films

Inception - 92
Lourdes - 92
True Grit - 91
Exit Through the Gift Shop - 90
Toy Story 3 - 88
Four Lions - 87
Marwencol - 87
Never Let Me Go - 87
The Tillman Story - 86
The Social Network - 85
Everyone Else (Alle Anderen) - 83
Carlos - 80
Mother (Madeo) - 80
Winter’s Bone - 80

Shutter Island - 78
Black Swan - 77
Wild Grass (Les herbes folles) - 77
Greenberg - 76
The Fighter - 76
The Oscar Nominated Shorts 2010 - Animated - 76
Catfish - 74
The Ghost Writer - 74
The Kids are All Right - 74
Going the Distance - 73
Please Give - 73
Disco & Atomic War (Disko ja tuumasõda) - 72
I Am Love (Io sono l'amore) - 72
How to Train Your Dragon - 70
Max Manus - 70
Neil Young Trunk Show - 70
The Father of My Children (Le père de mes enfants) - 69
Splice - 69
Unstoppable - 69
The Book of Eli - 68
Boxing Gym - 68
How Do You Know - 68
The Oath - 68
A Prophet (Un prophète) - 68
Buried - 67
The Exploding Girl - 67
The Girl on the Train (La fille du RER) - 67
Tangled 67
The American - 66
Conviction - 66
Daybreakers - 66
Hubble 3D - 66
It’s Kind of a Funny Story - 66
Kings of Pastry - 66
The Town - 66
Despicable Me - 65
Get Low - 65
Inside Job - 65
The Last Exorcism - 65
Last Train Home - 65
Let Me In - 65
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole - 65
Paranormal Activity 2 - 65
Restrepo - 65
Dogtooth (Kynodontas) - 64
Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno (L'enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot) - 64
Tron: Legacy - 64
127 Hours - 63
Easy A - 63
Green Zone - 63
Iron Man 2 - 63
The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) - 63
The Secret of Kells - 63
When in Rome - 63
The A-Team - 62
Hereafter - 62
No One Knows About Persian Cats (Kasi az gorbehaye irani khabar nadareh) - 62
Oceans (Océans) - 62
Pop Star on Ice - 62
Predators - 62
[Rec] 2 - 62
Robin Hood - 62
Shrek Forever After - 62
The Switch - 62
Waking Sleeping Beauty - 62
You Again - 62
Animal Kingdom - 61
Convention - 61
The King's Speech - 61
Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di ferragosto) - 61
Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1980 - 61
She's Out of My League - 61
Youth in Revolt - 61
It Came from Kuchar - 60
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work - 60
Leap Year - 60
The Other Guys - 60
Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974 - 60
Resident Evil: Afterlife - 60
Salt - 60
Secretariat - 60
A Woman, A Gun, and a Noodle Shop (San qiang pai an jing qi) - 60

The Crazies - 59
Dear John - 59
Diary of a Wimpy Kid - 59
Down Terrace - 59
Hot Tub Time Machine - 59
The Karate Kid - 59
Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1983 - 59
Repo Men - 59
Solitary Man - 59
Takers - 59
Monsters - 58
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief - 58
Tamara Drewe - 58
The Taqwacores - 58
The Tourist - 58
Chloe - 57
Colony - 57
The Good Heart - 57
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 - 57
MacGruber - 57
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor) - 56
The Yellow Handkerchief - 56
Get Him to the Greek - 55
Machete - 55
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - 55
Cyrus - 54
The Next Three Days - 53
Step Up 3D - 53
Letters to Juliet - 52
Morning Glory - 52
The Perfect Game - 52
Sweetgrass - 52
Vincere - 52
4192: The Crowning of the Hit King - 51
Charlie St. Cloud - 51
Due Date - 51
Death at a Funeral - 50
Frozen - 50
Megamind - 50
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps - 50
Yogi Bear - 50
Alice in Wonderland - 49
Dinner for Schmucks - 49
Edge of Darkness - 49
Waiting for "Superman" - 49
Around a Small Mountain (36 vues du Pic Saint Loup) - 48
Case 39 - 48
Kick-Ass - 48
Tiny Furniture - 48
From Paris with Love - 47
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice - 47
Brooklyn's Finest - 46
Paper Man - 46
Soul Kitchen - 46
Clash of the Titans - 45
Extraordinary Measures - 45
Faster - 45
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Luftslottet som sprängdes) - 45
Mother and Child - 45
The Wolfman - 45
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - 44
The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom) - 44
Life As We Know It - 44
The Runaways - 44
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - 44
Babies [Bébé(s)]- 43
Creation - 43
Devil - 43
Kites - 43
Saw 3D - 43
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky - 42
Fish Tank - 42

Love & Other Drugs - 42
Micmacs (Micmacs à tire-larigot) - 42
The Thorn in the Heart (L'épine dans le coeur) - 42
Tooth Fairy - 42
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse - 42
Burlesque - 41
Cop Out - 41
Grown Ups - 41
Life During Wartime - 41
Alpha and Omega - 40
A Film Unfinished (Shtikat Haarchion) - 40
Harry Brown - 40
Knight and Day - 40

City Island - 39
Eat Pray Love - 39
For Colored Girls - 39
The Losers - 39
Piranha 3D - 39
Adrift (Choi voi) - 38
Date Night - 38
Killers - 38
Little Fockers - 38
The Spy Next Door - 38
The Back-up Plan - 37
The Bounty Hunter - 37
The Expendables - 37
The Girl Who Played with Fire (Flickan som lekte med elden) - 37
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - 36
Valentine's Day - 36
I’m Still Here - 35
Marmaduke - 35
Remember Me - 34
Skyline - 33
The Last Airbender - 32
My Soul to Take - 30
Sex and the City 2 - 30
Gulliver's Travels - 29
Jackass 3D - 28
Legion - 28
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore - 26
The Nutcracker in 3D - 24
The Warrior's Way - 22

The Virginity Hit - 19
The Black Waters of Echo's Pond - 17
Jonah Hex - 5
Enter the Void - 3
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) - 0
Trash Humpers - 0

The Two Escobars - unrated

Cumulonimbus (short) - unrated
Day & Night (short) - unrated
Rabid Rider (short) - 42
Scrat's Continental Crack Up (short) - 75

Older Films

Man with a Movie Camera (Chelovek s kino-apparatom) (1929) - 100
Metropolis (1927) - 100
Playtime (1967) - 100
The Red Shoes (1948) - 100
Still Walking (Aruitemo aruitemo) (2008) - 93
Small Change (L'argent de poche) (1976) - 92
Apocalypse Now Redux (1979) - 90
The Circus (1928) - 90
Inglourious Basterds (2009) - 90
Mant! (1993) (short) - 90
Plastic Bag (2009) (short) - 90
Psycho (1960) - 89
Synecdoche, New York (2008) - 89
Make Way for Tomorrow (1935) - 88
Stagecoach (1939) - 80

Barfly (1987) - 77
Mystery Train (1989) - 76
The Thief of Baghdad (1940) - 76
Homicide (1991) - 75
Audition (Ôdishon) (1999) - 74
Experiment in Terror (1962) - 74
The Sun (Solntse) (2005) - 74
You, the Living (Du levande) (2007) - 74
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009) - 73
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009) - 73
Quai des Orfèvres (1947) - 73
A Town Called Panic (Panic au village) (2009) - 71
Face/Off (1997) - 70
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009) - 70
Breathless (À bout de souffle) (1960) - 69
The Girlfriend Experience (2009) - 69
Miami Blues (1990) - 69
Crazy Heart (2009) -68
Departures (Okuribito) (2008) - 68
The Horse’s Mouth (1958) - 68
Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) (1954) - 67
3 Idiots (2009) - 66
Broken Embraces (Los abrazos rotos) (2009) - 66
Nightfall (1957) - 66
House (Hausu) (1977) - 65
Police, Adjective (Politist, adj.) (2009) - 65
La signora di tutti (1934) - 65
Trucker (2009) - 64
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner (2009) (short) - 63
Séraphine (2009) - 63
Session 9 (2001) - 63
Stray Dog (Nora inu) (1949) - 63
Big Fan (2009) - 62
I Live in Fear (Ikimono no kiroku) (1955) - 62
It’s a Good Life (1983) (short) - 62
Pink Floyd The Wall (1982) - 62
Variety Lights (Luci del varietà) (1950) - 62
Death Race 2000 (1975) - 61
Red Cliff (Chi bi) (2008) - 61
Alibi Ike (1935) - 60
The Horse Boy (2009) - 60
Ricky (2009) - 60
Sanshiro Sugata (Sugata Sanshirô) (1943) - 60
Strongman (2009) - 60
Vincent: A Life in Color (2008) - 60
Zabriskie Point (1970) - 60

I Capture the Castle (2003) - 58
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) - 58
Death in Venice (1971) - 56
The Messenger (2009) - 56
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) - 54
Il posto (1961) - 53
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) - 52
The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte) (2009) - 52
Falkenberg Farewell (Farväl Falkenberg) (2006) - 50
Song Sung Blue (2008) - 49
The Maid (La nana) (2009) - 48
The New Age (1994) - 46
The Young Victoria (2009) - 46
Chocolate (2008) - 45
Munyurangabo (2007) - 45
Open Water (2003) - 45
The Black Cauldron (1985) - 42
The Last Station (2009) - 42

The Keep (1983) - 36

The Conformist (Il conformista) (1970) - unrated
My Son John (1952) - unrated

Daylight Moon (2002) (short) - unrated
False Aging (2008) (short) - unrated
Her Fragrant Emulsion (1987) (short) -unrated
Lethe (2009) (short) - unrated
Nimbus Smile (2009) (short) -unrated
Nimbus Seeds (2009) (short) - unrated
Wednesday Morning Two AM (2009) (short) - unrated

Film festival selections (includes TV features/episodes seen theatrically & undistributed/to-be-distributed films)

No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson - 90

Accident (Yi ngoi) - 84
9500 Liberty - 80

Inside Hana's Suitcase - 75

A Brand New Life (Yeo-haeng-ja) - 69
Masquerades (Mascarades) - 69

The Desert of Forbidden Art - 68
The Great Contemporary Art Bubble - 67
Air Doll (Kûki ningyô) - 65
North (Nord) - 65
The Happiest Girl in the World (Cea mai fericita fata din lume) - 63
Please, Please Me! (Fais-moi plaisir!) - 62
Dear Lemon Lima - 60
Do It Again - 60
Turtle: The Incredible Journey - 60

Bare Essence of Life (Urutora mirakuru rabu sutôrî) - 59
Garbo: The Spy (Garbo: El espía) - 59
Bananas! - 58
My Year Without Sex - 58
Shameless (Nestyda) - 58
Cash & Marry - 56
My Tehran for Sale - 56
Headhunter - 51

Will You Marry Us? (Die Standesbeamtin) - 48
Cooking History - 45
The Ape (Apan) - 44
Father and Guns (De père en flic) - 43
Harvest - 43
The House of Branching Love (Haarautuvan rakkauden talo) - 42
Bomber - 41
Storage - 41
December Heat (Detsembrikuumus) - 40

Van Diemen's Land - 37
Love Hurts - 23

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (Chris Columbus, 2010)

PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF bears more than a passing resemblance to the Harry Potter series, and it isn't just because director Chris Columbus helmed the first two of those films. A teenage outsider discovers that he has heretofore unknown supernatural powers. To keep him safe and to train him in using his new talents, the young hero is sent to a magically protected place where he forms a tight inner circle with an unfailingly loyal best friend and a smart, beautiful girl.

In this case the protagonist is a demigod struggling with dyslexia and ADHD, and his pals are Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), the satyr assigned to protect him, and Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), the half-human daughter of Athena. The son of Poseidon (Kevin McKidd), the Greek god of the sea, and Sally Jackson (Catherine Keener), Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) hasn't an inkling that his life is anything but ordinary until a substitute teacher transforms into a Fury and attacks him during a field trip.

Percy unwittingly finds himself as the presumed instigator of the latest squabble among the eternally quarreling brothers Zeus (Sean Bean), Poseidon, and Hades (Steve Coogan). Zeus' lightning bolt has been stolen, and he believes that Percy is responsible. Zeus wants this most powerful weapon returned by the summer solstice, but Hades is angling to get his hands on it first. Operating under the assumption that Percy is the lightning thief, the god of the underworld abducts his mom and drags her to hell in hopes that the conscientious lad will head south to make a trade.

PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF is a dutifully made kids' fantasy film that Columbus handles with the basic approach that he wielded on his faithful but vanilla HARRY POTTER adaptations. It's as though rather than adding anything to the material, his purpose is to stay out of the way of bringing the story's essence from page to screen.

The requisite effects-driven action sequences range from the suitably thrilling battle against a hydra in Nashville's Parthenon to the uninspired climactic showdown. Much of the dialogue and music selections couldn't be more on the nose, and the modern spins on Greek mythology aren't exactly going to win points for cleverness.

Regardless, this overly familiar tale about greatness lurking in an unlikely savior plays perfectly fine. The clunky early sections give way to a magical adventure that ought to keep Harry Potter fans tided over, if only partially satisfied, until the last installments of that series arrives in theaters.

Grade: C+

(Photos courtesy 20th Century Fox)

The Wolfman

THE WOLFMAN (Joe Johnston, 2010)

For traveling actor Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) in THE WOLFMAN, his homecoming is not a joyous occasion. Having left the family's Victorian estate several years earlier without ever looking back, Lawrence returns to Blackmoor after receiving news of his brother's disappearance. Upon arrival he is informed that his sibling's maimed body has been recovered.

A medallion among the deceased's personal effects leads Lawrence to visit a gypsy camp on the fringe of the village in search of answers. Before he can gain any clarity regarding his brother's death, a werewolf attacks the camp and bites Lawrence. The wound heals quickly, though, and Lawrence's full recovery has him feeling better than before, that is until he encounters a full moon and transforms into a beast like the one who bit him.

The Wolf Man first appeared in 1941 with Lon Chaney Jr. in the title role. For this remake nearly sixty years later, director Joe Johnston and screenwriters Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self have greater special effects at their disposal and the freedom to show far more gore in the monster's rampages. Yet what's missing in this WOLFMAN is something timeless: the human cost that gives tragic meaning to the metamorphosis and potential cure.

Del Toro comes across as uninterested in much of the film. He mumbles and sulks in the hallways and corridors of the dark estate but never conveys the inner torment that comes with his dilemma. More critically, the supposed romance that takes hold between Lawrence and his brother's fiancée Gwen (Emily Blunt) is nonexistent on screen. Except for the rare proclamation or action meant to reinforce their otherwise invisible passion, the single element that may grant this werewolf his salvation is not to be believed.

THE WOLFMAN'S choppy editing is more of a rhythmic problem in the narrative sections rather than in the action scenes. Whether it's the case or not, character-building portions feel as though they've been snipped in an attempt to minimize downtime between The Wolfman's maulings. The strained relationship between Lawrence and his father Sir John (Anthony Hopkins) needs more heft than some oddly placed flashbacks can give.

The action scenes can be reasonably diverting, especially when The Wolf Man breaks loose while under medical observation, but like the film as a whole, these violent outbursts also seem insubstantial. The only thing hiding behind THE WOLFMAN'S dramatic and visual murk is a patchy story.

Grade: C-

The Best Films of 2009

1. SUMMER HOURS (L'HEURE DÉTÉ) (Olivier Assayas, 2008)

SUMMER HOURS is a gorgeous evocation of the ephemeral and the enduring, the tangible and the spiritual, and our relationship to the objects around us. Economics is treated as a science, but as the character Frederic asserts, it is more akin to religion. SUMMER HOURS explores that idea as the camera glides through the process of making preparations for one's death and the survivors deciding what to do with inherited items, appraising the objects, and selling them. In observing interactions with the things of our lives, writer-director Olivier Assayas reveals how objects become consecrated and worthless. One of the saddest shots in the film is of an unopened box perched on a sill. The three telephone handsets were politely set aside when the mother received them as a gift and have been overlooked as the house is emptied. Like the discarded playthings in TOY STORY, these unused and forgotten phones represent the passage of time and unfulfilled love. As a gentle reminder to be more mindfully engaged with the products sharing and cluttering our living spaces, SUMMER HOURS is a powerful piece.

2. TWO LOVERS (James Gray, 2008)

TWO LOVERS is the kind of film Hollywood studios used to make for adults on a regular basis but which are now exceedingly rare. The small-scale relationship drama is a sharply observed and well-acted portrait of a man struggling to find happiness in the aftermath of romantic disillusionment. Joaquin Phoenix is excellent as the heartbroken Leonard, who is trying to repair his wounded self but often acts against his best interests. As the two lovers of the title, Vinessa Shaw does subtle and sensitive work as a woman who sees Leonard for who he is and accepts him in spite of his faults, and Gwyneth Paltrow is effective playing against type as the damaged and damaging temptation who Leonard can't resist.

3. DUPLICITY (Tony Gilroy, 2009)

Writer-director Tony Gilroy uses the espionage tale to scrutinize something more important than product development secrecy and conglomerate antagonism. In DUPLICITY he's really concerned with how and whether to believe someone who proclaims love. Gilroy keeps the twists coming with gleeful abandon, both in the elaborately planned thefts and mutual distrust between romancing thieves. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen stylishly play the smooth criminals while Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson are savagely funny as business titans practiced in the art of destruction. Whether it's the high stakes of a heist or committed coupledom, DUPLICITY understands that all of the careful planning in the world won't lead to success if there's a lack of faith.

4. STILL WALKING (ARUITEMO ARUITEMO) (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2008)

Hirokazu Kore-eda began as a television documentary filmmaker before transitioning to narrative fiction films. His keen observational sense is put to exceptional use in STILL WALKING, a lovely and heartbreaking portrait of family and all of its complications. Set during a family's annual memorial for the eldest son, who died several years ago in the act of saving another, STILL WALKING carefully watches the dynamics among three generations. Kore-eda captures a lot of truth about the passive-aggressiveness in family interactions and how knowledge is passed down. The film is so uncommonly perceptive about communication and the complexity of people that it feels as natural as breathing.

5. A SERIOUS MAN (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 2009)

A SERIOUS MAN is the product of singular filmmakers humorously examining the eternal questions that have vexed humans since ancient times. The Coen brothers ask what if there is no meaning to life or suffering. Their film elicits choked laughs and stifled sobs, with an indistinguishable distinction between both reactions. Filtering this modernized tale of Job through the sensibility of an agnostic fatalist and Catskills comedian makes it oddly consoling and despairing.

6. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS is an entertaining mix of art and trash cinema that has more to say about the movies than World War II. Then again, when hasn't that been true of Quentin Tarantino's films? Tarantino is likely never going to be considered a director with much of substance to say, but he may be the supreme champion of the cinema as the audience's alternative to the psychotherapist's couch. This revisionist fairy tale is tense, funny, and well-acted, qualities that all come to fruition in Christoph Waltz's startling performance as a Nazi colonel. It matters less what INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS means and more that it's a terrifically entertaining movie.

7. UP (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, 2009)

Building an animated movie around a grieving senior citizen and making it play for children and adults is a bold creative move, yet UP accepts and fulfills the challenge in surprising and delightful ways. The folks at Pixar, Pete Docter and co-director Bob Peterson in this instance, continue to match their ambition with accessibility, which is a pretty remarkable feat, especially for family films. This tender and fantastical adventure conveys that the journey is the reward. Whether you're seven or seventy, it's a message that can't be heard enough, especially when passed along in such a humorous and graceful way as it is in UP.

8. THE INFORMANT! (Steven Soderbergh, 2009)

Director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns deftly present the puzzling information about corporate price fixing in a clear and highly entertaining manner in THE INFORMANT!, but for all of their hard, workmanlike efforts, the film is Matt Damon's through and through. At first Damon's hilarious performance as top exec-turned-whistleblower Mark Whitacre appears to be little more than playing the clueless schlub who narrates his exploits with an internal, analytical yammering, which is funny enough in its own right. Damon's layered work gradually transforms this unlikely hero into the type of person Whitacre's FBI handlers couldn't have anticipated encountering. The story about why Whitacre chose to help is fascinating, perplexing, and, in a certain light, outrageously funny.

9. CORALINE (Henry Selick, 2009)

The sterling craftsmanship in CORALINE is practically reason enough to see this stop-motion animated film, but thankfully the imagination extends to the spooky story as well. CORALINE bewitches and frightens with promises of what any child could ever wish for while simultaneously imparting a worthwhile message about the danger of always getting one's way.

10. 35 SHOTS OF RUM (35 RHUMS) (Claire Denis, 2008)

Looking back on my sparse notes for something to write about 35 SHOTS OF RUM, I found I'd scribbled just three words: quiet, warm, lovely. Those words seem sufficient for saying all that's necessary about Claire Denis' mood piece focusing on four people in Paris who seem relatively satisfied with their lives even if a significant piece is missing in each. The pretty Tindersticks score and a pivotal scene in a diner set to "Night Shift" express more about who these characters are than words ever can.