Movies

DVD of the Week: Winter's Bone

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My pick for 2010’s best movie to date is Winter’s Bone, which is just now available on DVD.  A 17-year-old Ozarks girl is determined to save the family home by tracking down her meth dealer dad – dead or alive.  The girl’s journey through a series of nasty and nastier Southern Missouri crank cookers is riveting – without any explosions, gunfights or chase scenes.  Every moment of this film seems completely real.  Winter’s Bone won the screenwriting and grand jury prizes at Sundance.

With just her second feature, Debra Granik has emerged as an important filmmaker to watch.  She presents an unflinching look at this subculture without ever resorting to stereotype.  Granik hits a home run with every artistic choice, from the locations to the spare soundtrack to the pacing to the casting.  I’ll be watching for her next film.

As the protagonist, 20-year-old Jennifer Lawrence is in every scene.  With a minimum of dialogue, she creates a lead character of rarely seen determination.

Dale Dickey is exceptional as a criminal matriarch.  John Hawkes (the kind Sol Star in Deadwood)  also gives a tremendous performance as the ready-to-explode Uncle Teardrop.

For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.  Winter’s Bone is on my lists of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far and 5 Great Hillbilly Movies.

Coming up on TV: The Americanization of Emily

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Julie Andrews and James Garner in The Americanization of Emily

 

One  of my Overlooked Masterworks plays on TCM on October 25th.  Set in England just before the D-Day invasion, The Americanization of Emily (1964) is a biting satire and one of the great anti-war movies. James Garner plays an admiral’s staff officer charged with locating luxury goods and willing English women for the brass.  Julie Andrews plays an English driver who has lost her husband and other male family members in the War.  She resists emotional entanglements with other servicemen whose lives may be put at risk, but falls for Garner’s “practicing coward”, a man who is under no illusions about the glory of war and is determined to stay as far from combat as possible.

Unfortunately, Garner’s boss (Melvyn Douglas) has fits of derangement and becomes obsessed with the hope that the first American killed on the beach at D-Day be from the Navy.   Accordingly, he orders Garner to lead a suicide mission to land ahead of the D-Day landing, ostensibly to film it.  Fellow officer James Coburn must guarantee Garner’s martyrdom.

It’s a brilliant screenplay from Paddy Chayefsky, who won screenwriting Oscars for Marty, The Hospital and Network.

Today, Americanization holds up as least as well as its contemporary Dr. Strangelove and much better than Failsafe.

Reportedly, both Andrews and Garner have tagged this as their favorite film.

One of the “Three Nameless Broads” bedded by the Coburn character is played by Judy Carne, later of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

Updated Movies To See Right Now

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James Coburn and James Garner in The Americanization of Emily

The best movie to see is still The Social Network.   The birth story of Facebook is a riveting tale of college sophomores that are brilliant, ambitious, immature, self-absorbed and disloyal – and about to become zillionaires.  It’s a triumph for actor Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland, Zombieland and Solitary Man), director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing, Charlie Wilson’s War).  It’s already on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

Howl has a fine performance by James Franco, but is marred by an unsuccessful animation.  Without strongly recommending it, I can say that The Town is a satisfying Hollywood thriller.  You can skip Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger.  For trailers and other choices, see  Movies to See Right Now.

I have not yet seen Inside Job or Hereafter, which open this week.  You can see their trailers at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD of the Week is still The Day of the Jackal.  For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include  The Americanization of Emily (more on that tomorrow) and The Black Stallion, all coming up on TCM.

Movies I'm Looking Forward To – Late October Edition

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I’ve updated the Movies I’m Looking Forward To page to add trailers and descriptions of some key late October releases.  First, we have two romps, the sex comedy Tamara Drewe and the tongue-in-cheek actioner RED this weekend.  Then we step up in class on October 22 with the Wall Street documentary Inside Job and Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter.  And October 29 brings us the eagerly awaited (at least by me)  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

The early buzz is that Inside Job may be this year’s best documentary and one of the year’s best films.  Here’s the trailer.

This week's Movies to See Right Now

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Rooney Mara and Jesse Eisenberg open The Social Network

 

The Social Network is still the top choice in theaters this week. The birth story of Facebook is a riveting tale of college sophomores that are brilliant, ambitious, immature, self-absorbed and disloyal – and about to become zillionaires.  It’s a triumph for actor Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland, Zombieland and Solitary Man), director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing, Charlie Wilson’s War).  It’s already on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

Howl has a fine performance by James Franco, but is marred by an unsuccessful animation.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story is a light and wry coming-of-age comedy set in a locked psychiatric facility.  It’s good-hearted fluff with a few chuckles and an unexpectedly restrained and  heartfelt performance by Zach Galifianakis.

Without strongly recommending it, I can say that The Town is a satisfying Hollywood thriller.  You can skip Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVD of the Week is The Day of the Jackal, like The American, the tale of an international master assassin – only fact-based and even better.  For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include  Mister Roberts, Repo Man and Arsenic and Old Lace, all coming up on TCM.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story

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This is a light and wry coming-of-age comedy set in a locked psychiatric facility by Directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Half Nelson, Sugar).  It’s hard for me to find humor in psych wards, but this good-hearted fluff had a few chuckles.  Keir Gilchrist and Emma Roberts star as the teens.  But the film is more of a showcase for Zach Galifianakis’ restrained and textured performance, less Wild Man and more  heartfelt – who knew?

A great movie on TV you haven't seen

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The Earrings of Madame de… (1953):   This is one of the great movies that you have NOT seen, having just been released on DVD in 2009.  Max Ophuls directed what is perhaps the most visually evocative romance ever in black and white. It’s worth seeing for the ballroom scene alone.  The shallow and privileged wife of a stick-in-the-mud general takes a lover, but the earrings she pawned reveal the affair and consequences ensue. Great Italian director Vittorio De Sica plays the impossibly handsome lover.   TCM 10/6

This week's Movies To See

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Mademoiselle Chambon

Mademoiselle Chambon is the year’s best romance, and very worth seeking out;  The lovers are beautifully acted by Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlaine in two of the very finest performances of the year.  I’m still pushing the hardhitting documentary The Tillman Story. There’s also the George Clooney arty thriller The American. If you can still find them, there are also two excellent crime dramas –  Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Animal Kingdom.  For a date movie, there is the charming and relatively smart romantic comedy Going the Distance.

Without strongly recommending them, I can say that The Town is a satisfying Hollywood thriller and the silly A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop has its moments.  You can skip Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVD of the Week is one of the year’s best so far:  The Ghost Writer.  Don’t miss another of the year’s best, The Secret in Their Eyes either.   For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include lots of good choices:  Seven Days in May, Badlands, Boxcar Bertha, Leave Her to Heaven, Twentieth Century and The Earrings of Madame de…, all coming up on TCM.

If you’re a baseball fan, there’s Ken Burns’ The Tenth Inning on PBS.

New Movies to See Right Now

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Mademoiselle Chambon

Mademoiselle Chambon is the year’s best romance, and very worth seeking out in the next two weeks.  The lovers are beautifully acted by Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlaine in two of the very finest performances of the year.

I’m still recommending the hardhitting documentary The Tillman Story, the George Clooney arty thriller The American and the two gritty crime dramas –  Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Animal Kingdom.  For a date movie, there is the charming and relatively smart romantic comedy Going the Distance.

Without strongly recommending them, I can say that The Town is a satisfying Hollywood thriller and the silly A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop has its moments.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVD of the Week is one of the year’s best so far:   The Secret in Their Eyes.  For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include Sunset Boulevard, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? and The Searchers, all coming up on TCM.

Roger Ebert and At the Movies return to TV

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Well, here’s some grand news – Roger Ebert is bringing back At the Movies as Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies.  The co-hosts will be respected film critics Christy LeMire and Elvis Mitchell.  Ebert himself will appear with the aid of computer-generated speech  in the “Roger’s Office” segment.  The show will also include movie bloggers Kim Morgan (sunsetgun.com) and Omar Moore (popcornreel.com).  Ebert and his wife Chaz have gone back to the show’s roots and are producing the show for public television stations.