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
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Young Adult (2011)
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Dir: Jason Reitman
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Cast: Charlize Theron, Patton
Oswalt, Patrick Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser
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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.
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Super 8 (2011)
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Dir: J.J. Abrams
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Cast: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning,
Kyle Chandler, Ron Eldard
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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. |
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The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
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Dir: George Nolfi
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Cast: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt
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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. |
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The Next Three Days (2010)
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Dir: Paul Haggis
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Cast: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth
Banks, Liam Neeson
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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.
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The Town (2010)
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Dir: Ben Affleck
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Cast: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Pete Postlethwaite, Jon Hamm, Rebecca
Hall
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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.
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Get Low (2009)
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Dir: Aaron Schneider
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Cast: Robert Duvall, Bill Murray,
Lucas Black
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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.
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Crazy Heart (2009)
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Dir: Scott Cooper
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Cast: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell
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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.
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Moon (2009)
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Dir: Duncan Jones
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Cast: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey
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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? |
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Adventureland (2009)
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Dir: Greg Mottola
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Cast: Jessie
Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds
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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.
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Coraline (2009)
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Dir: Henry Selick
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Cast: Dakota
Fanning, Keith David
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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.
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State Of Play (2009)
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Dir: Kevin Macdonald
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Cast: Russell
Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren
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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.
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Duplicity (2009)
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Dir: Tony Gilroy
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Cast: Clive
Owen, Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti
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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.
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As Always,
theJOE
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