11 August 2012

Seen any good movies recently? Here are 12…


Many times, but not as often as you think, the question comes up, “Seen any good movies recently?”. Naturally, I’d prefer the question to be, “Do you have any film recommendations?” More often than not, however, it is the impetus of this blogger that poses the question beginning with, “Have you seen…?”


The result of these questions is the following list. After all, everyone loves lists. Shopping to countdowns, have and have not, lists are groovy little trackers and time-savers that help with the organization of life and the pursuit of. This particular list suggests twelve movies from the past three years (chronologically from 2011-2009) that you probably missed and really shouldn’t have, along with obligatory comments.  All of these films are easily available and should make their way to the top of whatever queue, which is just another fancy word for “list”, that you currently subscribe to. You can then go on and impress your friends, both Facebook and real, with your cinematic knowledge and taste and pass on the recommendations below.


In compiling these twelve recommendations, I noticed the following trivialities:

1 – animated, stop-motion at that
2 – Ben Affleck films, one of which he directs
2 – Tony Gilroy written films, one he directs
2 – Russell Crowe films
2 – Robert Duvall films, one is little more than a cameo
2 – films starring separate Fanning sisters
2 – sophisticated sci-fi films; neither involve death-rays, cyberspace or midi-chlorians
4 – first-time feature-film directors make the list




Young Adult (2011)
Dir: Jason Reitman
Cast: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser
YOUNG ADULT, the latest from Hollywood Next-Gen'er Jason Reitman and the second pairing with Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody, is a complex, compelling and, often times, creepy character piece focusing on an alcoholic author, the ginchiest of clichés admirably played by Oscar-overlooked Charlize Theron, who decides to reclaim the former greatness of her life by hooking up with her past true love in her past hometown. The catch being, of course, that said ex-love is happily married and, naturally, a new father. Bitterness and ignorance ensues.
Reitman and Cody made a fun, watchable film around an otherwise depressing character, but a few more extremes would result in a few more laughs, intentional or not.




Super 8 (2011)
Dir: J.J. Abrams
Cast: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Ron Eldard
J.J. Abrams gets a huge piece of the puzzle correct, and that is the everyday boy getting involved in the spectacular extraordinary all wrapped in a coming of age tale – the perfect Spielbergian formula.
SUPER 8 is a wonderful vision of nostalgia. A bit derivative at times, a little glossed over at others. However, it would be hard to come by a finer example of a modern-day look at a time of fun films.






The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
Dir: George Nolfi
Cast: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt
A mash of sci-fi, fantasy and rom-com, THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU works as a fun film, and actually works quite well as a suspend-your-disbelief narrative goes, mostly due to the believable chemistry between likable stars Matt Damon, a senator-to-be, and Emily Blunt, an NYC dancer.
The two lovers meet as a result of a cosmic accident and, as if a modern-day Hitchcockian duo, decide to run against fate. The resulting genre flick is a meeting of the overlord concept from DARK CITY and the rebelling-against-prophesy ideals from the MATRIX, both of which parallel the age-old ordeal of the existence of free will. Damon does it with his Boston smile, Blunt with her accent.





The Next Three Days (2010)
Dir: Paul Haggis
Cast: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson
As with most suspension-driven thrillers, there is always that built-in awareness, that a dose of suspension-of-disbelief probably as hefty as the salt in the popcorn is as sure to occur as a montage sequence showing the story's protagonist preparing for that daredevil dive into the breathtaking unknown. THE NEXT THREE DAYS, writer/director Paul Haggis' thriller starring Russell Crowe and based from the 2008 French film POUR ELLE, is a convincing, fun, escape-plan thriller that still has its moments of disbelief-suspension, but consider such as the low-in-sodium variety.




The Town (2010)
Dir: Ben Affleck
Cast: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Pete Postlethwaite, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall
Ben Affleck has matured well beyond his ARMAGEDDON and PEARL HARBOR foibles both in front of and, perhaps even more importantly, behind the camera. THE TOWN, then, is beautiful example of the craft of the heist formula executed perfectly and proves that Affleck, his second outing as a director, is one helluva storyteller.
THE TOWN is an entertaining, well-executed movie and a great vehicle for spotlighting Affleck's talents. This film also should have brought Renner an Oscar, the absence of which is the true crime here.





Get Low (2009)
Dir: Aaron Schneider
Cast: Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Lucas Black
Most times, as the cliché goes, the journey is just as important as the destination. These true words perfectly suit GET LOW.
Duvall is a master at playing quiet, contemplative figures allowing his body language and facial expressions to tell the eloquent story of the script. GET LOW, as OPEN RANGE and THE APOSTLE did before, provides plenty of those quiet, introspective moments allowing the audience to see the pain of the character and wonder at his thoughts.
GET LOW is a good story and a great character piece; moving and, perhaps, even redemptive, but not in a prime-time Disney-fied way.





Crazy Heart (2009)
Dir: Scott Cooper
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell
Jeff Bridges IS the film and lays out Bad Blakes's life in a true train-wreck style.
As with many character-driven movies, the narrative tale becomes a minor chord and plays itself out with the familiarity of other songs. Instead of the typical elevator story of found fame - lost fame – regained fame, CRAZY HEART begins at the bottom and sinks lower before getting back to ground level. The progression of the man, however, the heart, is much more important that the trappings of a three-act format. To quote Bad, that's the way it is with good ones, you're sure you've heard them before. CRAZY HEART, and Jeff Bridge's Bad Blake, is among the best.




Moon (2009)
Dir: Duncan Jones
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey
MOON is, essentially, a one-man play admirably performed by the Oscar-overlooked Sam Rockwell, playing Sam Bell, a miner overseeing a solo three-year operation on the moon. An accident out on the lunar surface gets Bell's attention that, surprise-surprise, things are not all well with Lunar Industries and that his indentured slavery to the corporation might be a greater price than imagined.
Directed by Duncan Jones, whose father knows a thing or two about the oddities of space, MOON absorbs the viewer into Bell's tight living space. The film's lo-fi F/X work to its benefit amplifying that classic sf-movie feel giving proper attention to the story, not the visuals. But as such, the look is starting real as is the permeable paranoia that also exists on the station, a paranoia that is enhanced by Clint Mansell's simple yet haunting orchestration, a paranoia that leads to a quest for escape. But who can escape the reaches of a corporation? 





Adventureland (2009)
Dir: Greg Mottola
Cast: Jessie Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds
ADVENTURELAND, set smack in the late ‘80s, plays to the clichés of the time wrapped around a soundtrack of familiar standards, including many that normally don't make the cinematic memory rounds, and, if anything, tells truths that most Gen-Xers either believe, lived through or simply fall prey to that great lie of "remember the time...?" when friends, co-workers or whoever just sorta hung out and talked.
ADVENTURELAND doesn't make importance of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, rather shows the importance of breaking walls between friends and how going on a date with the wrong girl has just as many consequences as the Iran-Contra Affair.




Coraline (2009)
Dir: Henry Selick
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Keith David
The star and titular character of the story, CORALINE, is the perfect imaginative kid for a perfect imaginative tale, set in a similar vein as the children from Narnia or even Dorothy Gale… if both were re-imagined with eerieness by graphic novel wizard Neil Gaiman.
Director Henry Selick treats the viewer into stunning images of cobwebs, raindrops and creepy spaces along with a fun cast of characters, including a know-it-all cat perfectly voiced by Keith David. Aside from the goth-lite plot and a nearly-too convenient wrap-up, Selick does his very best to keep the craft of his animation at the peak of its form while also using it to benefit the story.
Fun, beautiful to watch and perhaps mistargeted to a kiddie crowd that Pixar usually caters to, CORALINE is a winner. And, perhaps if released in Pixar-free year, would have been an Oscar winner as well.





State Of Play (2009)
Dir: Kevin Macdonald
Cast: Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren
STATE OF PLAY, the film from director Kevin Macdonald and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, successfully incorporates the high points from the successful BBC miniseries of the same name but does something the series could not, which is the incorporation of the near-irrelevance of print media into a much-better-than-standard conspiracy thriller.
Crowe’s Cal and McAdams’ Della work – and work well – both as independent rogues as well as uneasy partners in a pseudo-traditional mentor/apprentice relationship as they deal with both the story of a Congressman’s murdered aide and the future of the newspaper biz. The conspiracy elements of the film are good with plenty of keep-the-audience-guessing moments. However even more interesting is how STATE OF PLAY comes across as a love letter to the dying newspaper breed with Cal passing the pen-and-paper torch off to Della's blogs and tweets.





Duplicity (2009)
Dir: Tony Gilroy
Cast: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti
DUPLICITY takes your standard heist plot and throws in elements of the perfect con game playing out a mutual mistrust that exists on every level where the only constant is that smart is sexy.
Dialogue and story both are crafted in a way to include the viewer into secrets shared among the parties as well as having key data excluded for the film's big reveal. In the meantime, the banter, equally subtle and obvious, between the corporate spies keeps the characters interesting. 
Fun, hip and full of those falsehoods that make great films, DUPLICITY may not steal away the spy-grifter film genre, but should have enough lire in its bank account for a long-term Roman holiday legacy.




As Always,
theJOE

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