Milk

Harvey Milk. I must admit that I didn't know about him until the trailers for this film began to appear. Perhaps that's because I'm from Orange County, California, where one could easily guess that knowledge of him was suppressed into the ground and kept away from our little innocent minds. I had heard a little about the "Twinkie Defense", but just in passing, a blip in the civics book.

Gus Van Sant. One of my favorite directors, with "My Own Private Idaho" as my top pick of his films, until now.

This film, "Milk", feels important to me, it spoke to me, it almost feels like Harvey Milk spoke through the film to those of us affected by the recent, and closely paralleled, proposition struggle in California. It's as if he knew this was going to happen and he's telling us his message, that same message that helped defeat Prop 6. His soul was in it, right there in the celluloid.
The cast, who bear a striking similarity to the actual people they portray, was phenomenal, Penn, especially.

I fully expect to see this film snag a few Oscars.

Stranger than Fiction.

This movie is a literary one, and I love it. Normally, I'm not one for narration, but this narration by Emma Thompson's character is so fun to listen to. It's like listening to a book on tape, which essentially is the point. Great screenplay by Zach Helm.

When this first was released in theatres, I was a little worried about Will Ferrell. I thought, oh crap, he's going to make it goofy and dumb, but when watching it, you realize-at least I did-that no one else could have played Harold with such heart. I apologize to you, Will Ferrell, for doubting your acting skills, now please make something with similar talent. Now that I know you have it, you have to use it.

The rest of the cast was great too. My only complaint was that it made me really uncomfortable watching Maggie Gyllenhaal have to mount and make out with Will Ferrell. It was just too wrong. Emma Thompson should have won some kind of award for her character, and I wished that if I was in college, I could have a professor like Dustin Hoffman's character.

Visually, this movie was amazing. Starting with the numbers and measurements over the picture, going to subtle background movements. Directed by Marc Forster, same guy who directed "Stay"-one of my favorite movies, stunning-he has an eye all his own. He can make a major city look like a sort of any-city, finding the most interesting buildings you've probably never seen before.

Paul Newman

Today we mourn the loss of a Hollywood legend. Paul Newman's career spanned half a century and gave us some of the most memorable movies in cinema, my favorite is pictured above, "The Hustler". Last night Newman lost his battle with cancer at the age of 83. He will be missed.

Choke

It's hard to be disappointed when your hopes weren't that high to begin with, but when your hopes are low, it's always great to be surprisingly impressed. I found the newest Palahniuk adaptation to be funny and somewhat heartbreaking.

I know what you're going to say, the book is soooo much darker, and the book is soo much better. You must understand that what works in novel form doesn't often translate well onto film. Not all movie adaptations of great books are going to be winners, and most of them need to change details to make it cinematic. Cinema is completely different from literature. They changed a few details from "Fight Club", and look how great that movie is. Hell, I prefer the movie to the book in that instance. So please don't give me your sad little "This movie sucks because the book is better" or "I haven't seen it yet because from the trailer and the synopsis it sounds like crap" comments. I am reviewing this from a strictly cinematic standpoint.

Sam Rockwell did a fantastic job as Victor, a sex addict starved for his mother's love who chokes himself for sympathy cash from those who save him. Anjelica Houston, in my opinion, should get a supporting actress nomination for her portrayal of Ida, Victor's crazy mother who now has alzheimer's and has to live in an institution. Clark Gregg had a challenge ahead of him when he decided to adapt a Palahniuk novel as his directorial debut. I think he did a pretty good job given his budget restraints and knowing that his film would forever be compared to "Fight Club", a movie not many can live up to. If for anything, go see this for the best dumb blonde joke pulled off in a while.

I enjoyed this film and hope to see more R rated comedies, a genre that seems to be picking up steam-thank goodness.

A Bucket of Blood

In 1959, Roger Corman released "A Bucket of Blood" which was probably his best film. Corman was best known for his campy B-movies of the fifties and sixties. He seemed to almost churn them out, sometimes up to four films a year. Given that, most of them were less than great and often forgotten until "A Bucket of Blood".

Released only a few years after "House of Wax", it does have one main similarity, but the stories around that similarity are so different that it doesn't feel like a complete rip-off.

Dick Miller brought poor Walter Paisley to life. Walter is a lonely simple-minded bus boy at a hip bohemian cafe full of beatniks, druggies, and artists. He is jealous of their popularity and after accidentally killing his landlady's cat and hiding it beneath clay, he becomes a sculptor. When he accidentally kills an undercover cop, and tries the same thing, he becomes a sensation in the art world. Thriving on his new-found popularity, Walter continues making sculptures out of some unlucky souls.

Corman's directing style is marvelous. He makes you pay attention to what's happening in the background as well as the fore, and his ability to capture the shadows is stunning. This is a cult classic dark comedy with staying power. It is just as funny and just as dark as it was in 1959 today.

Sunshine

This is what a science fiction movie should be, it's slow, smart, scary, and beautiful. The dynamic filmmaking duo of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland have done it again. With the previous collaborations of "The Beach" and "28 Days Later", those two shouldn't make movies without each other. Something clicks just right between Boyle's directing style and Garland's pen.

"Sunshine" has a basic premise, the sun is dying and a team of people go to restart it with a huge bomb. It is written with believable characters who are marvelously brought to life by the amazing cast. Chris Evans in particular proved that he isn't just that flame guy from "Fantastic Four".

Most people seem to have a problem with Pinbacker, played by Mark Strong, I however, thought it was great. Remember people, this is science fiction, it doesn't have to be completely logical. You bought into being able to restart the sun with a bomb the size of Manhattan, so why not a guy from Icarus 1 who went crazy?

This is the absolute best science fiction movie I've seen in probably ten years.

Burn After Reading

Thank all that is good for the Coen Brothers and their latest film "Burn After Reading", a dark comedy about a couple of spacey gym employees who find the memoirs of an ex CIA analyst and try to sell it to the Russians and blackmail the analyst for money so that one of the gym employees can get some plastic surgeries to reinvent herself.

It's no wonder why so many great actors jumped at the chance to be in this movie. The characters are so well created and folded into this complicated plot. And because they are all great actors, they seemed to have a competition going for who could take their character the farthest and give the best comedic performance, they all won. Francis McDormand and Brad Pitt are awesome as the two not-so-sharp gym employees. Tilda Swinton, though playing a character she plays a lot, was great as the cold bitch wife of John Malcovich who plays the analyst who quits the CIA after being demoted and writes the memoir that falls into McDormand and Pitt's hands. George Clooney does what he does best playing a ladies man. His character works for the treasury department and he is completely neurotic and convinced he is being followed. J.K. Simmons was fantastic as the boss at the CIA headquarters who is being reported to about everything that has gone wrong, and Richard Jenkins was brilliant as the manager of Hardbodies Gym who was completely in love with McDormand's character who was completely oblivious of how he felt.

There were a few surprises that I didn't see coming at all which is refreshing. The last time I had a true gasp moment watching a movie was when I saw "The Departed" - you know what scene I'm talking about if you've seen it, if you haven't, I won't ruin it for you even though you probably know about it because of some jerk who couldn't keep his mouth shut.

I loved it and want to see it again.

Une Vieille Maitresse or The Last Mistress

At its core, "The Last Mistress" is a love story, a twisted one, but still a story about two people's unending love for each other. In this tale, Ryno -a Casanova- (played by Fu'ad Ait Aattou) falls for Vellini -a sultry Spaniard- (Asia Argento). They share a tumultuous yet passionate life together full of affairs and heartbreak. When Ryno marries a French aristocrat named Hermangard (Roxane Mesquida), Vellini can't let him go. She is a shell of herself without him, willing to do irrational things to get him back, not unlike what he did to get her in the first place.

Catherine Breillat did a phenomenal job adapting and directing this film. It was visually beautiful, the lighting was picturesque, the costumes and set were impeccable, and the framing of the shots were like paintings. One shot in particular was wonderfully executed: Ryno and Vellini are at a dinner party, he is trying to seduce her, she is doing her best to resist him, there are men playing a game in the background. The camera is pointing at a mirror with part of the frame in the shot and each of the actors are perfectly blocked so you see each of them in the mirror's reflection like a painting.

Fu'ad Ait Aattou used his expressive, and not so bad to look at, eyes very well in his portrayal of Ryno. Asia argento stepped up and gave an almost raw performance as Vellini, some of her scenes were truly heartbreaking. I enjoyed the little character traits like Vellini smoking cigars rather than cigarettes.

On a whole, "The Last Mistress" suffered a little from a few side characters that I found boring and tedious, and the pacing at times felt a little slow, but given the story, it was acceptable. I really enjoyed seeing a "period" love story that didn't bore me to tears.

Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome!

I have started this blog to share my love of, no, my passion for film. I will review films that are new, old, classic, bad, good, and just plain awful. This will include shorts, features, and animations, and in January when it's Sundance time, you can count on me updating you nightly (or as wireless connection permits) with my festival happenings and reviews. This blog will most likely include some essay-type rants on my love of film and watching a filmstock presentation at the theatre rather than digital projection.

I was a projectionist for a few years at a twenty-two plex, one without digital projectors. In fact, our projectors were kind of old, not very, but they weren't Christies (projectionists will understand, they look kind of like Tonka projectors compared to what I worked with). Apparently, Christies don't have a lot of the problems that Strongs (the ones I used) have, like brain wraps mostly. I hated brain wraps, it was like all hell broke loose when one happened, listening to the lull of clicking and whirring you would suddenly hear a noise that was unmistakable (but kind of hard to describe) and in an instant your walkie talkie would blare something along the lines of "Number 12 stopped". You knew what was wrong, but you tell them you'll check it out anyway, because most likely the angry patron was standing right there and wanted to hear your response. You grab a splicer and head over to the projector, swear a bit, turn on the threading light and begin to fix it. While your hands are busy fixing it, the walkie talkie blares again "How's it looking?" or "Do you know when you'll get it back up?" usually with a semi panicked tone in their voice due to the whole auditorium lining up in front of them to put in their individual (but identical) complaints and all demanding a refund AND a pass. I ignored these. They delayed my fixing the problem because I had to stop what I was doing to answer them. Then because you didn't answer them, they would come up to see what the problem was. What a nightmare.

Anyway, I'll have the first review soon, as soon as I figure out which film to review! There's so many to choose from. And if you didn't catch the blatant nod to one of my absolute favorite films," Cabaret", then I am sorely disappointed.