Harry Dean Stanton in LUCKY. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
This weekend, I’m going to try to catch The Florida Project and Mark Felt – The Man Who Brought Down the White House. Of the movies that I HAVE seen, I like the often funny and stealthily profound Lucky, starring the late Harry Dean Stanton.
My DVD/Stream choices of the week are Woody Harrelson’s overlooked gems. The best, Rampart, is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Netflix Instant, Amazon, YouTube and Google Play. But check out The Messenger, Zombieland and True Detective, Season 1, too.
As they say, life begins with fifty Gs. On October 22, Turner Classic Movies presents Raw Deal(1948), with some of the best dialogue in all of film noir, a love triangle and the superb cinematography of John Alton.
Woody Harrelson has come a long way from his cheerfully amiable dunderhead bartender in Cheers. As an actor, Woody swings for the fences and is attracted to larger than life roles. He’s also famous/notorious as an off-screen provocateur.
And Woody works a lot. This year, he’s featured in War for the Planet of the Apes, Wilson, The Glass Castle and LBJ.
Here are some of Woody’s overlooked gems:
Rampart: In a sizzling performance, Woody plays a corrupt and brutal LA cop trying to stay alive and out of jail. If you’re looking for Woody Harrelson’s best performance, you should try this movie. Available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Netflix Instant, Amazon, YouTube and Google Play.
The Messenger: Woody plays a veteran soldier helping a younger one (Ben Foster) through his new assignment: visiting military next of kin to inform them face-to-face of their loved one’s death in combat; Despite the challenging material, most people will appreciate Woody’s brilliant performance. Available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, YouTube and Google Play.
Zombieland: Woody plays a master zombie killer is this riotously funny satire of zombie movies. Zombieland also features performances by Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, Amber Heard and Abigail Breslin very early in their careers, and a priceless cameo from Bill Murray). Available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
True Detective, Season 1: It’s a dark tale of two mismatched detectives – each tormented by his own demons – obsessed by a whodunit in contemporary back bayou Louisiana. Woody is very good – but Matthew McConaughey’s performance may have been the best on TV that year. Available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from HBO GO, Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
(Note: I’m saving room for some films that I haven’t yet seen, especially Amour and Zero Dark Thirty, which I won’t get a chance to see until mid-January .)
You can watch the trailers and see my comments on all these films at Best Movies of 2012.
According to Metacritic, all of my picks (except Detachment) were highly rated by prominent critics. I did disdain some well-reviewed films, most notably The Master, which made lots of critics’ end-of-year lists.
(Further Note: A Separation won the 2011 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and Monsieur Lazhar was nominated, but neither were widely released in the US until 2012. Similarly, The Kid with a Bike was screened in October 2011 at the New York Film Festival, but was not theatrically released in the US release until March 2012. These films are on my 2012 list because, like most Americans, I couldn’t see them until 2012.)
My top movie pick so far in 2012 - THE KID WITH THE BIKE
Here’s a pre-autumn check in with my running list of the year’s best films – Best Movies of 2012 – So Far. I’ve included six foreign language films, from Belgium, France, Quebec, Iran, Russia and Turkey, and five American and Canadian independent films. That’s par for the course, because I usually call out 23-28 movies on my end of the year list.
The Kid on the Bike and A Separation had very limited US theatrical runs at the end of 2011 to qualify for the 2012 Oscars. But they weren’t available to most Americans until this year, so they’re on my 2012 list.
And guess what – there are zero Hollywood movies on the list. That’s not a huge surprise because Hollywood generally releases its Oscar bait in the fall. The hyped Hollywood fare coming up in 2012 includes Argo, Cloud Atlas, The Sessions and Hyde Park on Hudson (being released by the prestige arms of major studios). The other promising prestige movies (Killing Them Softly, Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln, etc.) are being released by mini-majors such as The Weinstein Company and Touchstone (the prestige arm of Dreamworks) and by the smaller indie distributors.
Here’s another surprise – there no documentaries on my list so far. Last year at this time, Project Nim, Buck and Tabloid were all on the list. There are several promising documentaries yet to be released (Paul Williams Is Still Alive, Undefeated, The Gatekeepers, Stories We Tell, Mea Maxima Culpa, ), but, as of now, it’s a down year.
Incidentally, you can still find Beasts of the Southern Wild in theaters. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Rampart, A Separation and Monsieur Lazhar are already available on DVD. Detachment, Moonrise Kingdom, Elena and Take This Waltz will become available on DVD in October.
Wes Anderson’s wistfully sweet and visually singular Moonrise Kingdom is well worth seeing. Bernie, a very funny dark comedy by Richard Linklater, shows off Jack Black’s talents in a whole new light. The story of aged Brits seeking a low-budget retirement in India, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is much more than a fish-out-of-water comedy, and has deservedly become they year’s biggest indie hit.
Men In Black 3 is delightfully entertaining, as Will Smith time travels back to 1969 and meets the young Tommy Lee Jones (nailed by Josh Brolin). Hysteria is a breezy, feminist lark. HBO is still broadcasting its new epic Hemingway & Gellhorn, starring Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman.
I haven’t seen these films which open this weekend: the contemporary Russian noir Elena, the Broad to screen Rock of Ages and the Emily Blunt indie dramedy Your Sister’s Sister. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD pick this week is the Denzel Washington paranoid spy thriller Safe House.
Judi Dench, Tom Wilkenson and Bill Nighy in THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL
Man, there are some good movies out right now! My top pick is still Polisse, the riveting story of the police child protection unit in Paris.Bernie, a very funny dark comedy by Richard Linklater, shows off Jack Black’s talents in a whole new light. The story of aged Brits seeking a low-budget retirement in India, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is much more than a fish-out-of-water comedy. I also really like the Norwegian dark comedy Headhunters, with Aksel Hennie as a smug corporate headhunter/art thief who panics when a high tech commando hunts him down.
Men In Black 3 is delightfully entertaining, as Will Smith time travels back to 1969 and meets the young Tommy Lee Jones (nailed by Josh Brolin). Hysteria is a breezy, feminist lark. HBO is still broadcasting its new epic Hemingway & Gellhorn, starring Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman. Where Do We Go Now? is a Lebanese comedy about village women who go to extreme lengths to extinguish the sparks of sectarian violence.
I haven’t yet seen Moonrise Kingdom, which opens widely this weekend, and which is already looking like an indie hit. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD pick this week is Rampart, with a sizzling showcase performance by Woody Harrelson as a corrupt and brutal LA cop trying to stay alive and out of jail.
And don’t forget to watch the short film On S’Embrasse? (Can We Kiss?) on my site HERE.
In a sizzling performance, Woody Harrelson plays a corrupt and brutal LA cop trying to stay alive and out of jail. Woody’s Dave Brown is always seeking control. He manipulates his superiors. From behind his badge, he unleashes sadistic brute force on every other unfortunate within his sight. Yet he is a man out of control, whose impulses to bully, to drink and to seduce increasingly endanger his job security, his finances and what is left of his relationship with his family. He is already skating on the edge of self-destruction when one brutal incident is caught on video and goes viral a la Rodney King.
Rampart benefits from the one of the best large supporting casts – less an ensemble than a series of great single performances as individual characters tangle with Dave Brown. Ben Foster (The Messenger) is brilliant as a homeless man with too many drugs and not enough meds. Robin Wright is also superb as an emotionally damaged lawyer who sleeps with Dave until his paranoia takes over. Sigourney Weaver and Ice Cube are two LA officials who see Dave as a walking, talking threat to public order and the City treasury. Ned Beatty is the retired cop who has kept his finger in the police corruption racket. The Broadway star Audra McDonald plays a cop groupie that Dave meets in a bar. As one would expect, Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon are excellent as Dave’s two amiable but bullshit-proof ex-wives. Brie Larson and Sammy Boyarsky are especially effective as the daughters, who figure in Rampart‘s most breathtaking scenes.
Rampart is a singularly visual film – we always know that we are in the sunwashed, diverse, sometimes explosive anarchy that is LA. The movie is structured and shot to heighten the experience of both the chaos that Dave causes and that the chaos that he feels. This is Oren Moverman’s second effort as writer-director, the first being the searing The Messenger, also starring Harrelson and Foster. Moverman keeps Rampart spinning along wildly as we wonder what will happen next to unravel Dave Brown’s life.
If you need some redemption to leaven a very dark story, this is not the movie for you. Rampart reminds us that not everyone finds redemption. It made my list of the Best Movies of 2012 – So Far.
Don’t miss The Kid with the Bike, an extraordinary film that tells a riveting story of unconditional love. It is emotionally powerful without being sentimental and is gripping without stunts and explosions – one of the year’s best.
The Hunger Games is a well-paced, well-acted and intelligent sci-fi adventure fable with excellent performances by Jennifer Lawrence and Stanley Tucci.
The Deep Blue Sea is well-crafted and deeply, deeply sad tragedy of a woman (Rachel Weisz) who loves too much.
In Footnote, a rising Talmudic scholar sees his career-topping prize accidentally awarded to his grumpy father. This potentially comic situation reveals the characters of the two men.
The drama Detachment features a top-rate performance by Adrien Brody as a teacher in a hellish school system that decays teachers’ souls. In a sizzling performance, Woody Harrelson plays a corrupt and brutal LA cop trying to stay alive and out of jail in Rampart. The searing and brilliantly constructed Iranian drama A Separation won the Best Foreign Language Oscar. The Best Picture Oscar-winning The Artist is still playing in theaters.
I haven’t yet seen The Salt of the Earth, which opens this week. You can read descriptions and view trailers of these and other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD pick this week is the edgy game changer comedy Young Adult.
The Kid with the Bike is an extraordinary film that tells a riveting story of unconditional love. It is emotionally powerful without being sentimental and is gripping without stunts and explosions- one of the year’s best.
In Footnote, a rising Talmudic scholar sees his career-topping prize accidentally awarded to his grumpy father. This potentially comic situation reveals the characters of the two men.
The drama Detachment features a top-rate performance by Adrien Brody as a teacher in a hellish school system that decays teachers’ souls. In a sizzling performance, Woody Harrelson plays a corrupt and brutal LA cop trying to stay alive and out of jail in Rampart. The searing and brilliantly constructed Iranian drama A Separation won the Best Foreign Language Oscar. The Best Picture Oscar-winning The Artist is still playing in theaters.
My DVD pick this week is the documentary Project Nim, the extraordinary story of a chimpanzee that was taught American Sign Language and then sent off to an assortment of post-placements, some terrifying.
