or: The Art and Joy of Film Criticism
Warm Bodies
Dir. Jonathan Levine. Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Dave Franco, Teresa Palmer & John Malkovich
Release date NL: TBA
World War Z
Dir. Marc Forster. Starring: Brad Pitt, Matthew Fox, David Morse & Michiel Huisman
Release date NL: 20 June 2013
The Last Stand
Dir. Jee-woon Kim. Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Forest Whitaker, Genesis Rodriguez, Johnny Knoxville & Rodrigo Santoro
Release date NL: February 7, 2013
Story: Two small time crooks knock over an illegal card game, knowing that the blame will fall on game organiser Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta). However, their plan falls apart when gun-for-hire Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) finds out their scheme and sets out to inflict appropriate revenge.
Andrew Dominik was the brains behind 2007′s wonderful western The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. A 160 minute film that gave away the ending in its title. And was subsequently not well received by audiences (critics loved it). The Assasination… was also the first collaboration between Dominik and Brad Pitt. A collaboration that is now continued in Killing Them Softly, an adaptation of the novel Cogan’s Trade, by George V. Higgins.
And again, the emphasis in Dominik’s film is not in the plot, which is simple and straightforward, but on the execution. On character, mood and subtext. And there is a lot of mood and a lot of subtext in Killing Them Softly. One entire character, James Gandolfini’s New York hitman Mickey, is brought along only to reflect on the state of The States, and to recall the better ‘old days’. The plot of Killing Them Softly is an allegory for the events in the financial and political higher echelons in the fall of 2008, when the financial system collapsed, the blame game was played, guilty banks were saved and a new president was elected who promised hope and change.
The criminals who drive through a delapidated post-Katrina New Orleans go through similar processes, albeit on a smaller scale. The difference is that when scores are settled, the blood is not dollar-bill green, but bloody red. For make no mistake: despite its title, which expresses Jackie’s desire to make clean kills – kills from a distance, without emotions and bodily fluids – the kills are not softly in this film. There is blood, and brains and splatter. Dominik does not play down the effects of being hit in the guts with a shotgun.
Killing Them Softly is a relatively short film, clocking in at 97 minutes. Yet in contrast to The Assasination… it does feel a bit too long. The final scene, in which Brad Pitt gets to deliver Jackie Cogan’s political analysis of America (while on the background the newly elected president Obama gives his voctory speech) is unnecesary. The subtext pushes its way forwards, through the – until then – seemless stitches of the tightly-woven plot. It stops being subtext, and for a moment you feel like your watching a nihilistic Michael Moore ranting on-and-on. And that leaves a bad taste in the mouth that the rest of the film does not deserve.
Final verdict: A tense and moody thriller with much to say in very few words. Andrew Dominik confirms his reputation as one of America’s most talented and versatile directors. The ‘slip-of-the-tongue’ in its final scene prevents this film from becoming a genre classic.
I have already reviewed six out of the nine nominees for the Best Film Oscar, which will be handed out during the big ceremony tomorrow: Hugo, The Descendants, War Horse, The Help, The Artist and The Tree of Life. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is not yet released here, but two films have been released last year that I’ve managed to miss out on so far. So here are brief catch-up reviews of Moneyball and Midnight in Paris.
Moneyball (dir. Bennett Miller) is the story of baseball manager Billy Beane (what a name!) – played by Brad Pitt – who manages the relatively poor, bottom-of-the-league team Oakland A’s. Despite his efforts, Beane sees all his best players being lured away by rich teams such as the New York Yankees, and is unable to replace them on his modest budget. It is only after he meets computer nerd and economic Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) – who has come up with a statistical analysis of players that values players who are overlooked by anyone else – that Beane is able to put together a team that can win. Eventually, because by radically rethinking baseball Beane and Brand alienate the entire club, and the wins don’t come easy.
Moneyball is very decent, and a very good sports movie, even though there is very little sporting shown. But a best picture nominee? I could think of a number of films that are more deserving of such honor. I enjoyed myself, but not much more than that. And while the nomination for Best Actor for Brad Pitt is more or less deserved (he’s not going to win anyway), the one for Supporting Actor for Hill is a joke. Hill’s role is small, one-sided and without any meat to it. He was being applauded for lpaying a role different to the usual nerd he plays in Judd Apatow like comedies. But his Peter Brand is just a very bland, grown-up version of that same nerd. Americans, ts.
Midnight in Paris is said to be Woody Allen’s best film in twenty years. I would not know as I have not seen everything he has done in that period. But I do question whether that justifies nominating the film for an Oscar. Sure, the writing nod (Best Original Screenplay) makes sense, as much of the dialogue is zingy and entertaining. But ultimately the film lacks the pull or punch to stay with you for more than an hour afterwards.
Owen Wilson is surprisingly un-annoying as the American bread-writer-with-literature-amibtions in love with a fairy-tale version of 1920sParis. And who is mysteriously drawn into that world, populated by the likes of Hemingway and Dali, when the clock strikes midnight. However, his impersonation of a 1970s/80s Woody Allen is also very uncanny, and I would have preferred novel, original character. There is some surprising, and surprisingly funny, supporting casting being done. For instance with Adrien Brody’s rhinoceros-obsessed Dali and Kathy Bates’ friendly matriarch Gertrude Stein.
Allen’s best in twenty years? I’ll believe that. But Moneyball and Midnight in Paris, despite being completely acceptable, show that the decision, some years ago, to have more than five nominees for Best Picture does not necessarily produce added value for every year’s award ceremony.
It has taken me a week, apologies for that, but let’s comment on the Oscar nominations for this year. Obviously the nominations caught up with my predictions, so these are now a bit outdated. But let’s go through the list. 10 nominations for The Artist and 11 for Hugo make those films the big contenders of this year. Other films with many nominations are The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, War Horse, My Week with Marylin, The Help, Bridesmaids and The Tree of Life.
Oscar scandals are often about those films that are not nominated. Senna, in the documentary category for instance. And We Need To Talk About Kevin, for best picture and best actress ina leading role. And why is Spielberg’s Tintin not in the animation category? What does Puss in Boots do there? Harry Potter fans, hoping for a big sweep for Deathly Hallows Part 2 in recognition of the entire series will be a bit disappointed too, with 3 technical nominations (production design, make-up and visual effects).
Personally I was very happy to see Gary Oldman nominated for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I find, however, that film’s nomination for best adapted screenplay an odd thing. And I am very pleased that the overrated, pretentious wanna B film Drive is almost neglected (apart from 1 nom for sound editing).
I am stunned that Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain are nominated for Moneyball and The Help respectively, while their performances in The Tree of Life were far superior. And the one thing that film should not have been nominated for is best picture, because it is too unbalanced.
I could go on and on. I won’t. Here is the list. The titles in italics are the ones I think should win, and the titles in bold are the ones I think will win. Please note that I haven’t seen everything. I am for instance still waiting for War Horse, The Descendants (both out today in Holland), Hugo and The Muppets. And I refrain from predicting the short film and documentary categories, because I really have not seen enough to have a judgement.
Best Picture
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
“The Help”
“Hugo”
“Midnight in Paris”
“Moneyball”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”
Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir in “A Better Life”
George Clooney in “The Descendants”
Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”
Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”
Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn”
Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”
Nick Nolte in “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”
Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis in “The Help”
Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”
Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn”
Actress in a Supporting Role
Bérénice Bejo in “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain in “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer in “The Help”
Animated Feature Film
“A Cat in Paris”
“Chico & Rita”
“Kung Fu Panda 2″
“Puss in Boots”
“Rango”
Art Direction
“The Artist”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
“Hugo”
“Midnight in Paris”
“War Horse”
Cinematography
“The Artist”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”
Costume Design
“Anonymous”
“The Artist”
“Hugo”
“Jane Eyre”
“W.E.”
Directing
“The Artist” Michel Hazanavicius
“The Descendants” Alexander Payne
“Hugo” Martin Scorsese
“Midnight in Paris” Woody Allen
“The Tree of Life” Terence Malick
Documentary (Feature)
“Hell and Back Again”
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”
“Pina”
“Undefeated”
Documentary (Short Subject)
“The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement”
“God Is the Bigger Elvis”
“Incident in New Baghdad”
“Saving Face”
“The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom”
Film Editing
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Moneyball”
Foreign Language Film
“Bullhead” Belgium
“Footnote” Israel
“In Darkness” Poland
“Monsieur Lazhar” Canada
“A Separation” Iran
Makeup
“Albert Nobbs”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
“The Iron Lady”
Music (Original Score)
“The Adventures of Tintin” J
“The Artist”
“Hugo”
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
“War Horse”
Music (Original Song)
“Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets”
“Real in Rio” from “Rio”
Short Film (Animated)
“Dimanche/Sunday”
“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”
“La Luna”
“A Morning Stroll”
“Wild Life”
Short Film (Live Action)
“Pentecost”
“Raju”
“The Shore”
“Time Freak”
“Tuba Atlantic”
Sound Editing
“Drive”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“War Horse”
Sound Mixing
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Moneyball”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“War Horse”
Visual Effects
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
“Hugo”
“Real Steel”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
“The Descendants”
“Hugo”
“The Ides of March”
“Moneyball”
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Writing (Original Screenplay)
“The Artist”
“Bridesmaids”
“Margin Call”
“Midnight in Paris”
“A Separation”
That would, in my expectation, lead to 3 awards for The Artist and 4 for Hugo and a pretty even spread accross the board. Of course I hope for some recognition for Rango, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Deathly Hallows.
But we’ll have to see. The awards will be awarded in a Billy Crystal hosted ceremony in Los Angeles on the 26th of February.
The nominations for the 2012 Oscars will be announced on January 24, but on this site we have still three predictions to make. Best Film, Best Director and, today, Best Actor. A tricky category. Last year the little golden fellow went to Colin Firth for The King’s Speech, while he should have received it in 2010 for A Serious Man. In that year, ironically, Jeff Bridges won for Crazy Heart although his 2011 performance in True Grit. The point I’m trying to make is that the Best Actor award, even more so than the Best Actress one, is a career prize. It is not about the specific movie you happen to be in, it is about it being yuor turn. That is why there is only one big favourite this year, although there are many Oscar-worthy performances.
The big favourite:
George Clooney for The Descendants.
The other ones:
Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Brad Pitt for Moneyball
Leonardo diCaprio for J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender for Shame
and
Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (my favourite, could easily work as a career prize)
The career thingy is also the reason that, while they might score a nomination, it is just still too early for Ryan Gosling (Drive), Michael Shannon (Take Shelter) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (50/50)
The second part of a two-part review. Read the first part here.
Of course Malick would have to decline. Politely he could say that he was too busy making his own films. That he had made this commitment to direct a film each year. Oh no, wait, that was Woody Allen. Terence Malick is the critically acclaimed, notoriously media-shy director who made five feature films in forty years. The last few years he has been busy though, working on his latest film The Tree of Life. It was supposed to premiere at the Cannes film festival in 2010, but Malick, being either a perfectionist or really, really insecure, decided to tinker another year with his movie. Perhaps to add some more whispering voice-overs, or take out a little more narrative continuity.
‘Cause that is one thing The Tree of Life has in common with Transformers: Dark of the Moon: There seems to be no sense of necessity when it comes to telling a coherent story. Where Transformers sacrifices logical continuity for bigger bangs, Malick interrupts his story of a grieving family for, exactly, the Big Bang (and he then adds some dinosaurs, something even Michael Bay might consider a bridge too far).
But enough with the sarcasm. If there is one thing that The Tree of Life deserves, then it is to be taken seriously. Because it takes itself very seriously. In a good way. For all its other faults it is a very honest and sincere film by a filmmaker who genuinely wants to make us reflect on the meaning of life, and the meaning of one life in the greater picture of God’s (or nature’s) creation.
Sean Penn is an architect in a midlife crisis, thinking back on his childhood in Texas in the 1960s. He was the eldest of three brothers growing up under the protection and guidance of an angelic mother (Jessica Chastain) and an authoritarian father (Brad Pitt). Malick presents us these memories as we experience our own childhood memories: as fragments, whispers, some stronger than others, not necessarily connected, infused with particular sounds, particular music and particular colors. And about twenty minutes in the film he inserts gorgeously animated sequence about the beginning of time, the creation of the universe and the start of life on our planet.
It is wonderful. The Tree of Life is a very, very beautiful film. It had me crying at the end, and that does not happen often. Chastain and the kids playing the brothers are really good, but it is Brad Pitt who steals the show in a role that will see him nominated for all the major awards.
But in a way The Tree of Life has the same problem that Transformers: Dark of the Moon has. It is directed by the ideal director for the job. There is no way Malick could make this film in any different way: this is not just his film, it is his way of filmmaking translated to celluloid. Just as the Transformers films are Michael Bay’s way of filmmaking translated to celluloid. And therefore it is too much. At least with The Thin Red Line (1998) Malick still had to do the war story as well as the reflections on nature and loss.
The Tree of Life should have been made in a different way, because as it is, it is not a very good film. It is very beautiful, and very affecting, but as a film, as a story, it has too many flaws in it.
I know it’s just not the way Malick works, but having written the script he should have given it to someone else to direct. And no, not to Michael Bay. That would be ridiculous and criminal. But to someone he could trust with the material. Clint Eastwood, or, perhaps more sensibly, Sean Penn.
And so this review, an overlong and ponderous self-indulgence to please its own writer, ends with the conclusion that this is a very peculiar moment in cinema. A moment when two films are out at the same time that are directed by the perfect man for the job, and that are for that very reason not the films they could have been. Instead they are overlong, ponderous and self-indulgent. Each in its own special way of course.
The one that’s bound to be metaphysical and stuff:
Tree of Life. Dir. Terence Malick. Starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn & Jessica Chastain.
Dutch release date: May 26 2011
The one that’s either plain weird or plain weird and metaphysical:
Melancholia. Dir. Lars von Trier. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg & John Hurt.
Duth release date: August 25 2011
And another one with space-stuff
Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Dir. Michael Bay. Starring Shia LaBoeuf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley & Josh Duhamel
Dutch release date: June 30 2011
As I am going to see True Grit tonight, finally, I have literally nothing else on my midn all day. Hence, my favourite scenes from previous Coen Brothers films.
“Y’a know, for kids” (The Hudsucker Proxy). Tim Robbins’ upstatr nitwit CEO invents the hulahoop. You know, for kids. What follows is an amazing 6 minute montage of product development, placement, failure and eventual success.
“And it’s a beautiful day” (Fargo). After all the demented outrageousness that is Fargo Marge Gunderson (played by the amazing Frances McDormand) provides for the first time true heart and warmth to a Coen Borthers film.
“The Big Inception”. No movie scene here, but a recut of images from stoner-bowling epic (really a niche market genre) The Big Lebowski to the music of the trailer of last year’s mega-hit Inception. A mix up trailer that showcases soem brilliant editing and yet captures the mood of the Coen Brothers film perfectly.
“Down to the River”. Gospel music, the American South in the Great Depression, George Clooney as an idiot. It all comes together in O Brother Where Art Thou.
“The Old Sheriff”. Tommy Lee Jones sees the world go to hell as monstrous killer Anton Chigurh arrives in town. Start around 5.00.
“The security of your shit” (Burn after Reading). They don’t come more retarded than Brad Pitt’s Chad Feldheimer.
“When the truth is found to be lies” (A Serious Man). The brothers were surprised that they got an Oscar nomination for A Serious Man. I was not.
Two years ago Jean-Claude van Damme starred in the wonderfully original JCVD, in which the former action film hero returns to Belgium to escape the madness of the USA. Only, of course, to end up in a hostage situation of which the police believe he is the bad guy. It was a post-modern (in the good sense of the word), bittersweet take on the end of fame and stardom, with a hint of nostalgia for the 1980s action movies in which Van Damme would karate himself out of such situations.
Van Damme refused to sign on for Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables, much to the chagrin of Stallone, who also saw Steven Seagal walk away from the project. A good choice from the two b-movie heroes. For The Expendables is terrible. What could have been a JCVD on a high budget ends up being a Rambo re-hash with some famous faces and terrible, inner-ear torturing dialogue. What could have been a film about growing old, redemption and letting go – masquerading as an 80s action flick – is instead just an 80s action flick: heavy on explosions but empty inside. The latter film might have been acceptable on some level, if only there wasn’t a second act ‘emotional’ development that suggests the makers intended to make the former.
The Expendables are a group of righteous mercenaries, led by Stallone. He is joined by less nostalgia-infused action specialists as Jason Statham and Jet Li and martial arts legends (but not film actors) Randy Couture and Steve Austin. There is also a huge token African-American who, surprisingly, survives the film. Not exactly the rat pack to carry the movies this could or should have been. Only Dolph Lundgren manages to be slightly interesting. Of course, Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke and even the Governator make an appearance, but they don’t get to do any action. They just hang around and talk a bit.
So, we’ve got Stallone with Statham as the central couple. Good, then we get some mentoring perhaps, father issues on both sides certainly. Secretly I hope for a closet romance. Very cliché, but at least it produces character development. But no, we get none of all that. All we have is chit-chat like that of Clooney and Pitt in Ocean’s Etcetera, but terribly written and read by actors who’d better just let their fists do the talking.
So we get car chases, and fist fights, and bones broken and knives thrown into necks, and superguns blasting ethnic henchmen to pieces. We get a mini-war against the dictator of the mind-numbingly ill-named fictional island of Vilena and the unmasking of an CIA actor gone rogue (an acceptable Eric Roberts). We almost get a totally inappropriate romance between Stallone and the painting (sensitive artist!), politically engaged daughter of the dictator – who is about half the age of Stallone’s own hypothetical daughter. Thank God we’re saved from that in the end.
The awfulness of The Expendables can be summarized in two sentences: It is the only bad film with Mickey Rourke in it in which Rourke is not a redeeming feature. And it ends with Jason Statham reading elementary school level poetry. Yuck.
