December 22, 2009
October 23, 2009: Broken Embraces (2009)
Spanish director Pedro Almodovar never disappoints. Here, he gives us a fascinating meditation on love, loss and filmmaking. The camera work is top-notch as per usual and the performances are captivating. Almodovar is one of few directors whose work always feels fresh even when trodding over similar themes.
Posted by Tucker Battrell.
October 19, 2009
Sunday Oct. 18th, 2009 - Where The Wild Things Are (2009)
I've been informed that it would be hyperbolic of me to refer to this film as perfect, so I will refrain. Instead I will just say that I've just bared witness to the first great family film of this generation. This is the kind of movie that kids will see, and if they like it, will absolutely love it when they grow up. I've heard criticisms leveled at this film that it's too hip, too inaccessible, too artsy. Rubbish. While Spike Jonze has directed mind-benders like Being John Malcovich and Adaptation, this movie maintains his artistic aesthetic while making a populist kids movie. This movie treats kids with respect and doesn't pander to them with easy laughs and scatological humor. This is a movie that captures, more than any other family film I can recall, what it is like to be a frustrated, scared, imaginative nine-year-old boy. Sorry if that's too hip for some people, but maybe they prefer G-Force. This will definitely find a spot on my top ten of 2009.
Posted by Tucker Battrell.
October 19, 2009
Sunday Oct. 18th, 2009 - The Hurt Locker (2009)
While waiting up until five in the morning for my wife to get home from a costume party I decided to watch Kathryn Bigelow's critically acclaimed new Iraq War film The Hurt Locker. Aside from the classic vampire movie Near Dark and her genius Swayze/Busey starring actioner Point Break, Bigelow has managed to put together a rather mediocre body of work. But when she's good, she's really good, and The Hurt Locker is pretty good. The story follows a division in Iraq who find and disarm, or detonate, IEDs. What's interesting about this film as opposed to other movies concerning the war, is that this is the first time we've seen the day to day dealt with in such an honest way. There's no overly dramatic or sentimental flourishes. These guys have a job to do, they do it, and in some cases get addicted to the rush of it all. It's a delicately handled premise and Bigelow paints the portrait with thoughtful detail and very few broad strokes.
I was tired and ready for bed, but had to make sure Jynx arrived home okay and could get in as she had left her keys. I was not in the most pleasant mood and not really prepared to enjoy anything, so it's a credit to The Hurt Locker that I could throw it on at two-thirty in the morning and stay engaged and awake through the entire film.
Posted by Tucker Battrell.
October 17, 2009
Friday Oct. 16th, 2009 Monsters vs Aliens (2009)
I'm not a huge fan of the animated features. I like a couple Pixar movies, and a few of the old Disney classics, but overall I'm just not impressed. I find most of them to be crude, filled with fart jokes, and insulting to children. And I don't like Anime. Just to alienate everyone. Monsters vs Aliens will never be mentioned in the same breath as the touching Up or the overrated (now you'll hate me) Wall-E, but it's funny and entertaining and by my count contains only one reference to a person shitting his pants. The cast, including Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Stephen Colbert and others is first rate. It's a good time filled with laughs and pop culture references that don't pound you over the head like they do in lesser films like Shrek. Fuck Shrek.
Posted by Tucker Battrell.
October 17, 2009
Friday Oct. 16th, 2009 Adoration (2008)
Atom Egoyan has made some great films. The Sweet Hereafter and Felicia's Journey are both personal favorites, so I was excited to sit down and watch his latest offering Adoration, and while I was not bored I was not impressed. Egoyan delivers his ideas with a sledgehammer, having his characters debate post 9/11 religious intolerance. The story centers on a young man whose parents died in a car accident. As a school project he writes a story wherein his parents were involved in a terrorist plot. He and his teacher keep the fact that it's fiction to themselves, and soon the internet is buzzing about his terrorist father. I can't say I completely disliked the film. I stayed with it and was somewhat entertained, but I groaned more than a few times at the overbearing dialogue. I think good drama will provoke discussion not dramatize it. I was left feeling as if I'd been in a high-school chat room or dorm room discussion on terrorism. I heard nothing I hadn't heard before. There were no real ideas here which is always frustrating. Maybe I have higher expectations of Egoyan, but I know he's capable of far better films than this. I know there was some commentary on our new internet-age ways of communication, but again, nothing I haven't heard before. I'm still with Atom, but this is one of his least impressive films.
Posted by Tucker Battrell.
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