Inside Job

2011 in Movies: biggest disappointments

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LE QUATTRO VOLTE

1.  I haven’t seen Killer Joe, Restless and Tyrannosaur becuase they haven’t been released where I live.  And I haven’t seen Oslo August 3, The Kid on the Bike, Paul Williams Still Alive, Natural Selection, Polisse and Little White Lies because – as far as I know – they haven’t yet been released in the US.  You can read descriptions and watch trailers of these films as Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

 

2.  Meek’s Cutoff is an unfortunate misfire by the excellent director Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy).

 

3.  Le Quattro Volte is supposed to be a lyrical contemplation on the Circle of Life, but you’ll find yourself checking your watch during the interminable hacking of an aged goatherd.  If the geezer had taken Robitussin DM, there would be no story at all.

 

4.  The bewildering, pompous mess that is The Tree of Life .  It does contain a fine 90-minute family drama about a boy growing up in 1950s Waco (a superb Hunter McCracken) and the friction with his caring but brutishly domineering father (Brad Pitt). Unfortunately, there is another 60 minutes in the movie.

That additional 60 minutes is a self-important muddle that tries to lift the story to an exploration of life itself – from creation through afterlife. There are beautiful shots of clouds and waterfalls, with unintelligible whisperings from cast members. There are Bible verses, the Big Bang and dinosaurs (yes, dinosaurs). And, in case you don’t get how seriously the movie takes itself, there is an overbearingly pretentious score.

 

5. The Hangover Part II.  I really enjoyed The Hangover, but the sequel was just lame.

 

6.  Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is by no means a bad film, but I expected more from the winner of the Palm d’Or.

 

7.  David Gordon Green, director of All the Real Girls, Undertow, Snow Angels and Pineapple Express, showed up this year with The Sitter.  Say it ain’t so, Dave.

 

8.  HBO’s take on the financial meltdown, Too Big To Fail, failed in spite of an excellent cast.  It wasn’t nearly as good as last year’s great documentary Inside Job or this year’s fictional Margin Call.

 

9.  James Franco co-hosting the Academy Awards.  Lay off the weed, Jimmy!

 

10.  After watching the jaw droppingly awful trailer, I was hoping that Nicholas Cage’s Season of the Witch would be deliciously and entertainingly laugh out loud bad. But it was just bad.

 

Updated Movies to See Right Now

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Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau

The Must See film right now is The Adjustment Bureau, a first rate love story embedded in the action thriller genre.  You can still see Oscar winners True Grit, The King’s Speech and The Fighter. They are on my Best Movies of 2010. 127 Hours and Biutiful are also good movies out now. The Illusionist is the wistful and charming animated story of a small time magician who drifts through an ever bleaker array of gigs while helping a waif blossom. Cedar Rapids is a fun and unpretentious comedy. Kaboom is a trippy sex romp. Nora’s Will is a wry family dramedy.

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

You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is Inside Job. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV this week include After the Thin Man, Arsenic and Old Lace, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Trouble Along the Way on TCM.

DVD of the Week: Inside Job

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Charles Ferguson’s brilliant documentary Inside Job may be the most important movie of the year.  It is a harsh but fair explanation of the misdeeds that led to the recent near-collapse of the global financial system.  Unexpectedly, the film begins in Iceland, setting the stage for the collapse and kicking off the easily understandable explanations of the various  tricks and bamboozles that have hidden behind their own complexity.

It’s on my list of Best Movies of 2010.

Updated Movies to See Right Now

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Somewhere: It's Dad/Daughter Month at the Chateau Marmont

Now is the time to catch future Oscar contenders on the big screen, especially crowd pleasers like True Grit, The King’s Speech and Black Swan.

True Grit is the Coen Brothers’ splendid Old West story of Mattie Ross, a girl of unrelenting resolve and moxie played by 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld in a breakthrough performance, and Jeff Bridges is perfect as the hilarious, oft-besotted and frequently lethal Rooster Cogburn. The King’s Speech is the crowd pleasing story of a good man (Colin Firth) overcoming his stammer to inspire his nation in wartime with the help of a brassy commoner (Geoffrey Rush). Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a rip roaring thriller and a showcase for Natalie Portman and Barbara Hershey.

Biutiful is a grim, grim movie with a great performance by Javier Bardem in a compelling portrait of a desperate man in desperate circumstance, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amores perros, 21 Grams, Babel).

Somewhere is Sofia Coppola’s (Lost in Translation) artsy portrait of a man so purposeless that he can find no pleasure in pleasure.  An A-list movie star (Steven Dorff) is living at the Chateau Marmont with his expensive toys, booze and drugs and an inexhaustible supply of beautiful, sexually available women, but without Without any purpose or connection to others, his debauchery is completely joyless.  To his surprise and discomfort,  his eleven-year-old daughter (Elle Fanning) moves in for a few weeks.

I strongly recommend Rabbit Hole, an exquisite exploration of the grieving process with great performances by Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhardt, Diane Wiest, Sandra Oh and Miles Tenner. The Fighter is an excellent drama, starring Mark Wahlberg as a boxer trying to succeed despite his crack addict brother (Christian Bale) and trashy mom (Melissa Leo). Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, is also excellent. All are on my list of Best Movies of 2010.

I Love You, Phillip Morris is an entertaining offbeat combo of the con man, prison and romantic comedy genres. Red Hill is a stylish contemporary Aussie Western. Season of the Witch is a bad Nicholas Cage/Ron Perlman buddy movie set among the plague, crusades and witch hunts of the 13th century.

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

I have not yet seen Another Year or The Way Back , opening this weekend. You can see the trailers at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is The Naked Kiss. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include Jason and the Argonauts, Hannah and Her Sisters, D.O.A., The Shop Around the Corner and Night of the Lepus on TCM.

Movies to See Right Now

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Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in The Fighter

Now is the time to catch future Oscar contenders on the big screen, especially crowd pleasers like True Grit, The King’s Speech and Black Swan.

True Grit is the Coen Brothers’ splendid Old West story of Mattie Ross, a girl of unrelenting resolve and moxie played by 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld in a breakthrough performance, and Jeff Bridges is perfect as the hilarious, oft-besotted and frequently lethal Rooster Cogburn. The King’s Speech is the crowd pleasing story of a good man (Colin Firth) overcoming his stammer to inspire his nation in wartime with the help of a brassy commoner (Geoffrey Rush). Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a rip roaring thriller and a showcase for Natalie Portman and Barbara Hershey.

I strongly recommend Rabbit Hole, an exquisite exploration of the grieving process with great performances by Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhardt, Diane Wiest, Sandra Oh and Miles Tenner. The Fighter is an excellent drama, starring Mark Wahlberg as a boxer trying to succeed despite his crack addict brother (Christian Bale) and trashy mom (Melissa Leo). Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, is also excellent.  All are on my list of Best Movies of 2010.

I Love You, Phillip Morris is an entertaining offbeat combo of the con man, prison and romantic comedy genres.  Red Hill is a stylish contemporary Aussie Western.  Season of the Witch is a bad Nicholas Cage/Ron Perlman buddy movie set among the plague, crusades and witch hunts of the 13th century.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. You can see the trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is In the Name of the Father. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include 12 Angry Men, I Want to Live! and Glory on TCM.

2010 in Movies: The Year's Best Movies

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Here’s my list of the best films of 2010: 1)  Winter’s Bone; 2) Toy Story 3;  3) The Social Network; 4) The Secrets in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos); 5) Rabbit Hole; 6) Black Swan; 7) A Prophet (Un Prophete); 8 ) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; 9) Mademoiselle Chambon; 10) (tie) Ajami and Inception.

(Note:  I’m saving room for some films that I haven’t yet seen, especially Mike Leigh’s Another Year.)

Continuing with my list of 2010’s best films: The Tillman Story, True Grit, The King’s Speech, The Girl on the Train (La Fille du RER), Inside Job, Fish Tank, The Ghost Writer, Carlos, Fair Game, Hereafter, The Fighter, Solitary Man, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work and Sweetgrass.

You can watch the trailers and see my comments on all these films at Best Movies of 2010.

(Further Note:  The Secrets in their Eyes, A Prophet and Ajami were nominated for the 2009 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but were widely released in the US in 2010.)

Updated Movies To See Right Now

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Black Swan: Natalie Portman is under a little too much pressure

It’s the Holidays – this is your best chance to see a few excellent films.   I strongly recommend Rabbit Hole, an exquisite exploration of the grieving process with great performances by Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhardt, Diane Wiest, Sandra Oh and Miles Tenner. True Grit is the Coen Brothers’ splendid Old West story of Mattie Ross, a girl of unrelenting resolve and moxie played by 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld in a breakthrough performance, and Jeff Bridges is perfect as the hilarious, oft-besotted and frequently lethal Rooster Cogburn. The King’s Speech is the  crowd pleasing story of a good man (Colin Firth) overcoming his stammer to inspire his nation in wartime with the help of a brassy commoner (Geoffrey Rush).   Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a rip roaring thriller and a showcase for Natalie Portman and Barbara Hershey. The Fighter is an excellent drama, starring Mark Wahlberg as a boxer trying to succeed despite his crack addict brother (Christian Bale) and trashy mom (Melissa Leo). Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, is also excellent. I Love You, Phillip Morris is an entertaining offbeat combo of the con man, prison and romantic comedy genres. For some delectable food porn, see Kings of Pastry.

Love and Other Drugs is a passable comedy.

There are some Must See films still kicking around in theaters this week: Inside Job and The Social Network. Both are on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

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

I didn’t pick a new DVD of the Week.  This is the time to catch up on the year’s best, such as Winter’s Bone, Toy Story 3, Inception, The Secrets in Their Eyes, A Prophet, Mademoiselle Chambon, Ajami, The Girl on the Train, The Ghost Writer and Joan River: A Piece of Work, all available on DVD.   For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include Arsenic and Old Lace, My Darling Clementine and The Producers on TCM.

2010 in Movies: Documentaries

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As usual several documentaries made my list of  Best Movies of 2010:  Inside Job, The Tillman Story, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, and Sweetgrass.

And there were still more excellent documentaries.  Ken Burns augmented his brilliant Baseball with The Tenth Inning.  PBS’s Earth Days told the story of the modern environmental movement through the voices of key players.  The Most Dangerous Man in America brought new texture to the story of Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.   The fine PBS series Independent Lens brought us Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas), in which filmmaker Monika Navarro trailed an uncle deported to Mexico and discovered secrets in her own family.

Here’s the trailer for the magical Sweetgrass.

This Week's Movies to See Right Now

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Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhardt in Rabbit Hole

This week’s must see film is Rabbit Hole, an exquisite exploration of the grieving process with great performances by Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhardt, Diane Wiest, Sandra Oh and Miles Tenner.  Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a rip roaring thriller and a showcase for Natalie Portman and Barbara Hershey. Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, is also excellent.  For some delectable food porn, see Kings of Pastry.

Morning Glory is a passable comedy, as is Love and Other Drugs.

There are some Must See films still kicking around in theaters this week: Inside Job, The Social Network and Hereafter. All three are already on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

The Town is hanging around theaters and, without strongly recommending it, I can say that it is a satisfying Hollywood thriller. If you’ve seen the first two Lisbeth Salander movies from Sweden, then you should complete the trilogy with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

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

I have not yet seen The Fighter, The Tempest or The Company Man, opening this weekend. You can see the trailers at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD of the Week is Inception, perhaps the year’s best blockbuster. My top two American films of the year are now available on DVD – the indie Winter’s Bone and Pixar’s Toy Story 3. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include Stagecoach, A Shot in the Dark and The Searchers on TCM.

Movies to See Right Now – Updated

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Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in Fair Game

The best of the recent films is Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. Morning Glory is a passable comedy, as is Love and Other Drugs.

There are some Must See films still kicking around in theaters this week: Inside Job, The Social Network and Hereafter. All three are already on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

The Town is hanging around theaters and, without strongly recommending it, I can say that it is a satisfying Hollywood thriller.  If you’ve seen the first two Lisbeth Salander movies from Sweden, then you should complete the trilogy with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

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

I have not yet seen Black Swan or I Love You, Phillip Morris, opening this weekend.  You can see the trailers at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD of the Week is Mademoiselle Chambon, the year’s best romance.  My top two American films of the year are now available on DVD – the indie Winter’s Bone and Pixar’s Toy Story 3. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include The Caine Mutiny, Annie Hall, Easy Rider and Stagecoach on TCM.