Gavin Grades The Movies |
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| Posts from December 2010 |
Black Swan
by Gavin
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posted Dec 26 2010 5:35PM
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 I got forwarded an email from my mother that my aunt sent her. Â My mother's contribution was simply, "do you know anything about this movie?" Â It was in response to my 70-year-old aunt telling my mom that she was going to see Black Swan with a bunch of her friends that were part of the Philadelphia Ballet group she belongs too because they heard it was simply a movie about ballet staring Natalie Portman. Â Don't worry. Â I swiftly wrote back to my mom warning her that this was a Darren Aronofsky film. Â He's the man responsible for The Wrestler, Pi and the scariest, most disturbing movie I've ever seen, Requiem for a Dream. Â I also warned her that yes it's true that Black Swan is about ballet, in fact it might even be one of the best films about ballet; but it is also a deeply disturbing psychological horror. Â Naturally that makes the movie sound typical, plain and even a little silly. Â (It will actually sound even sillier when you hear people say that it chronicles Portman's character transforming into a swan.) Â Trust me though, that's a simplistic view of Black Swan and it's cheating the art that is this film. Â Natalie Portman gives the performance of her career and a sure thing for an Oscar as the frail and innocent ballerina, Nina. Â After getting the lead in Swan Lake, the movie slowly, and I mean slowly, spirals into terror and insanity. Â Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Family Guy) and Winona Ryder give great supporting performances but it's Portman's show. Â The only competition she has for the spotlight is the rarely seen anymore Barbara Hershey (The Right Stuff, The Natural), who plays Portman's overbearing, almost criminal, mother. Â But Portman is the star and shows so much control over her emotions that it astounds. Â She also goes through such a metamorphosis from sane and gentle to crazy and violent, that it seems eerily subtle at times. Â Be warned though, this is not a film for everybody. Â Some people got up and left the theater during my screening. Â One was during an incredibly graphic (hot) lesbian sex scene and the other was during a horrifically violent scene involving a nail file. Â And that's not even including the before mentioned change into fowl. Â But if you can get past all that, you're in for a finely crafted piece of art cinema. Â Makes sense that Aronofsky would do this after he did The Wrestler, since both are films about what is considered art by the performers who do it and how they torture their bodies to pull it off. Â His direction of the film is his finest work since Requiem for a Dream. Â The symbolism and use of iconic images is a little on the nose at times though. Â You don't have to be a film major to pick out that there is a reflection in the background of every single scene, Portman's character is always wearing white and Kunis' character is always wearing black, there are stuffed black swans every time there's a scene of attempted transition, etc.; but that's still fine with me. Â The real achievement of amazement for me was the cinematography. Â The cameras, most of which are handheld, moves like a dancer in the film. Â The scenes that involve the dancing itself are not observed from a far by a stationary shot. Â We're not meant to feel like the audience while watching this movie. Â We're suppose to be one of the dancers, feeling everything from an uncomfortably close perspective. Â That way when Nina slips into the abyss, it feels like we're sliding in with her.
Black Swan  (Rated R)
Gavin Grade: A | | | Tags : Social: Barbara Hershey, Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky, Gavin, Mila Kunis, Movie Reviews, Natalie Portman, Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder
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The Fighter
by Gavin
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posted Dec 24 2010 7:19AM
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 I hope that Christian Bale is already practicing his acceptance speech for winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Â Besides the fact that the infamous method actor sculpted himself into a 120 lbs crackhead for the movie (he's done that AND WORSE for movies before though), he also blends a perfect mix of sympathy, comedy and suffering into arguably the best performance of his career. Â He plays Dicky Eklund, the brother of famous boxer "Irish" Mickey Ward, who's played by Mark Wahlberg. Â Besides also being joined by the beautiful and extremely talented Amy Adams, you won't recognize another actor in this movie directed by David O. Russell (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees). Â This is his finest work as well. Â Be warned, the film is very misleading. Â You know it's about a boxer and the film is called The Fighter, but it's not the cliche sports movie you've seen over and over again. Â I would say this might be the best Boxing movie since Rocky and, in some aspects, might even give it a run for its money. Â Yes, the Boxing parts of the movie feel like they could be interchangeable with any other Boxing movie to ever come out (although Russell really impressed me by switching his camera to a digital one for the fights to give it more of a Pay-Per-View look) however Boxing has very little to do with the movie. Â This really is a movie about a family dealing with addiction. Â Bale's character is addicted to crack. Â Wahlberg's character is addicted to his brother. Â And Alice the mother, who is played amazingly by Melissa Leo (Frozen River, Conviction) is addicted to the fame. Â Everyone in this, with the exception of Wahlberg, deserves a nomination. Â It drips with talent. Â And hats off to Russell for also casting many locals in key parts that make you shake your head wondering "where the hell did they find these people?" Â Well, they found them in Lowell, Mass, where it all took place. Â Russell even allowed Mickey's trainer, Mickey O'Keefe, play himself in the film. Â Everything feels more like a documentary with it's shining authenticity and handheld camera work. Â It's true that the movie reminds you of something you've seen before. Â It has the archetype of almost every sports film but it also has the archetype for every poor family struggling with drug addiction. Â But rarely are those stories told together with so much talent and attention to detail put into it. Â If you're looking for a sports movie, you'll get one eventually but you have to wait a while for it. Â If you're looking for a family drama, you'll get one right away but you'll have to appreciate the Boxing too. Â My wife had zero interest in seeing this with me but went just to make me happy. Â By the end of the film, we were both sitting in the darkened theater with tears in our eyes and a desire to see it again. Â In fact she liked it more than I did. Â The Fighter won't win Best Picture because there are too many other movies that are just slightly better, but it deserves to be considered one of the Top 10 films of the year without a doubt...and doesn't have to fight to get there.
The Fighter  (Rated R)
Gavin Grade: A+
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True Grit
by Gavin
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posted Dec 23 2010 7:30AM
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 Earlier in the year, when Let Me In came out, I asked in the review, "Should a movie that's a remake of another film be eligible for the Oscar for Best Picture?"  It's a tough question to answer.  Once again, that question needs to be asked and this time more seriously because True Grit is amazing!  However, it's not really a remake as it is a different vision of the book.  Full disclosure however, I'm a HUGE fan of the Coen Brothers.  They're the writer/director/producing team behind movies like Raising Arizona, No Country for Old Men, Fargo, and my favorite of theirs and the best comedy of all-time (in my opinion) The Big Lebowski.  What excited me the most about True Grit was Oscar-winner Jeff Bridges re-teaming with the Coens for the first time since The Big Lebowski and on the heels of winning Best Actor last year for Crazy Heart.  The Coens are arguably the best filmmakers out there.  Their films are shining examples of every aspect needed to make a movie.  They've mastered suspense, comedy and drama all while making their films arty yet commercial.  With True Grit, which is based on the novel by Charles Portis and was already made into a movie in 1969 that won John Wayne his only Oscar, they are just as impressive as ever.  The Coens do everything perfectly but the one they excel at above the rest is writing a script.  They wield dialogue like no other writer out there...yes, that means Quentin Tarantino too!  And what's so incredible about Bridges performance in True Grit as "Rooster" Cogburn is that he manages to mumble and slur his way through the art of their words just enough that  you can still appreciate what he's saying and still doing it justice.  Amazing!  Besides adding Matt Damon to their repertoire of Oscar-winners that work with them, the Coens added a 14-year-old unknown Hailee Steinfeld.  She not only holds her own in scenes with Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon under the instructions of The Coens (I couldn't be more jealous), but she's amazing at it too!  Don't be surprised if she gets an Oscar nomination herself.  Don't go into this movie expecting the big-balled, gunslinger action movie that Westerns notoriously are.  The Coen's vision of True Grit is full of complex characters that are filled with grey and not black and white.  There are no true villains in this, nor are there true heroes.  The sense of the human condition is something that The Coens seem to know so well, they can evoke it into all the characters they create.  That aspect of it may turn some of you away from the film.  The lack of a true climax or big action might be unsettling, but just like the masterful No Country for Old Men, this movie will get better and better the more  you watch it and make you think about it long after it's over.
True Grit  (Rated R)
Gavin Grade: A-
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Little Fockers
by Gavin
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posted Dec 17 2010 4:28PM
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 Face it! Â You thought it too. Â You could be the biggest fan of the Meet the Parents series in the world, but when you saw the title Little Fockers pop up on a trailer last summer, you totally thought "Jump the Shark!" Â You're totally right for thinking that; this truly is an unneeded sequel, as was the last one. Â The good news is that it's not that bad but it is keeping up with the downward progression the series is going. Â Little Fockers picks up the story a few years after Meet the Fockers and now we find Ben Stiller and Teri Polo (Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers) raising a pair of twins and living in Chicago. Â The plot is insultingly simple in that it draws all the characters together just to celebrate the twins' birthday. Â Then more of the same jokes that have warn out their welcome a long time ago continue. Â Robert DeNiro is back as the scary, overbearing patriarch of the family and him and Stiller continue their waltz of control and cliched jokes. Â Barbara Streisand and Dustin Hoffman are back as well as The Fockers but are far less funny and have less screen time than they did in the last one. Â Jessica Alba actually gives a great performance as a prescription drug rep temptress that Stiller deals with. Â That's nice because it counters the downright pointless and stupid character that Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, National Treasure) plays. Â It's true that there are parts of the movie that made me laugh, yes even some of them were out loud, but the belly laughs and uncomfortable tension the original brought out are long gone. Â Perhaps that's because, by now, you can spot the jokes coming a mile away. Â Not to mention the fact that I've grown way tired of the jokes around the name "Focker;" I mean, "Godfocker?!" Â Are you kidding me?! Â Who's laughing at that? Â The lackluster quality might be because this film was really hard to pull off for the studio. Â None of the original creators are involved in it anymore. Â Jay Roach who was the director and writer of the first one is one of the producers of Little Fockers, but I'm sure that was more of a financial decision than an artistic one because none of this shows his flair. Â Instead the job of directing was handed over to Paul Weitz who gave us American Pie but also gave us The Vampire's Assistant, so take that for what it's worth. Â Not to mention the fact that this movie was in trouble when it had to be reshot after test audiences hated it and they paid Hoffman and Streisand gobs of money to appear in it after they said they didn't want too and try to make it funnier. Â Again, the good news is that they did. Â The film is funny but it's not what it used to be. Â The movie ends with a setup for another one, but for God's sake I hope it doesn't happen. Â The Meet the Parents movies are starting to act just like the characters that drive the story...overbearing, annoying and won't go away.
Little Fockers  (Rated PG-13)
Gavin Grade: C| | | Tags : Social: Barbara Streisand, Ben Stiller, Duston Hoffman, Gavin, Harvey Keitel, Jessica Alba, Little Fockers, Meet the Fockers, Meet the Parents, Movie Reviews, Paul Weitz, Robert DeNiro, Teri Polo, wake up call
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Tron: Legacy
by Gavin
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posted Dec 15 2010 5:53PM
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 I often have said to friends, "If I could buy stock in a movie, I'd be rich." Â That's in reference to me being able to sniff out a hit film before it comes out. Â Never in a million years would I have expected that Disney would get all these people whipped into a frenzy over a sequel to an obscure 1982 movie that even they forgot about and abandoned. Â As I went into the theater, there were some people who were there with their kids who were super pumped for the film to begin but didn't even KNOW it was a sequel. Â Okay, so maybe Tron: Legacy is one of those sequels where you don't have to see the first one to really get into the second, just like Wall Street 2 was earlier this year. Â Nope, that's not the case at all. Â Not only does Tron not care if you saw the first one or even remember how it ended, they created a new story of what's happened since the end of the first and quickly recap at the opening of the film. Â Not all has been happy in Tron land and Kevin Flynn's son, who's played by Garrett Hedlund (Friday Night Lights, Four Brothers) is sent there to finally rescue his trapped father. Â Think of it as a mix between the sequel to Wizard of Oz, Return to Oz, and The Matrix. Â Everything you may or may not remember about the first one is a little different. Â The self-important religious and philosophical overtones in the script are as obvious as can be. Â However, a script was never what made Tron the minor success it was...it was the special effects, and brother there are plenty to go around this time too. Â In fact, what you loved about the first one only gets bigger and badder for Legacy. Â The Light Cycles are more amazing and realistic and the Disc Fights are faster and more intense. Â I'm still shocked this movie got a PG rating from the MPAA and not a PG-13. Â Even if your little kids can handle the violence, they'll be bored by not knowing what the hell is going on. Â What's the most fun to watch is Oscar-winner Jeff Bridges pull double duty and play himself in current times as the zen Creator, Flynn, and the Bridges of 1982 who didn't age and is the bad guy, CLU. Â Bridges is so much fun to watch in anything and that doesn't change here, although the technology that makes CLU ageless from 1982 is subpar at times and even jaunting to look at. Â Another scene stealer is the fabulous Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon, The Twilight series) who isn't in the film long, but makes the most of it with every ticking second. Â I was actually amazed that Disney trusted the new launch of this potential franchise to a new director, Joseph Kosinski. Â He actually does a really good job at keeping the imagery from the original intact but taking up several levels though. Â That's not an easy task; to preserve the integrity of what made fanboys fall in love with it at first but also bring it into the 21st Century too seems full of pitfalls. Â Another notable feature of the film is the soundtrack that combines the classic score by Hans Zimmer and French freaky techno group, Daft Punk. Â It's amazing! Â However, the choice to put Daft Punk in the movie and then show them over and over again is awful. Â I think it's funny when there are musical cameos like that in movies, but after one quick shot, we get it; you don't need to bash us over the head with it. Â The more you do it, the worse it is. Â Overall I liked Tron: Legacy but I don't expect many people too. Â I was a fan of the first but I haven't seen it in a decade and I was lost through half of it. Â The action takes a backseat for a meaningless script that takes itself too seriously but Jeff Bridges owning it is enough to make you wait patiently for the action again.
Tron: Legacy  (Rated PG)
Gavin Grade: B
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The Warrior's Way
by Gavin
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posted Dec 2 2010 10:23PM
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 "You're as slow as molasses in January," is an actual line uttered through an awful and fleeting southern accent by actress Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns, 21) and not only does it drip with Velveeta, but it could be a general thought for the whole film. Â The Warrior's Way is a Kung Fu/Western from first time director Sngmoo Lee. Â Asian Cinema has always shared a kinship with the Western genre, but in the last year or so it seemed that over half of all the films coming out of Asia are either remakes of Westerns, take place in the American Old West or blend the two...much like The Warrior's Way did. Â That's not a complain; it's just an interesting observation. Â The story for this is that of a Samurai assassin that refuses to kill a baby for his clan and takes the baby and hides in an old west town in California. Â Not a bad story, but the promise of this film is action, action, action. Â The payoff is goofy, plodding and dull. Â Aside from Bosworth, Korean star Dong-gun Jan and Geoffry Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean, Munich) star in this mostly fantasy adventure that spends more time trying to show what a director can do with a Green Screen than what he can do with a story. Â Full disclosure though, I've never been much of a fan of Asian Cinema. Â I especially don't like it when Asian actors attempt to speak English in the films and it's told through an American filter. Â I personally believe that it slows everything down and makes the film more of a parody or mockery than anything else. Â I have several Asian movies in my collection at home but they're all subtitled since I think that's the only true way to get a quality performance out of the Asian actors. Â This was the case with The Warrior's Way and even when you surround Jan with decent actors who give it their all, especially Danny Huston (Wolverine, Children of Men) who never disappoints as a villain, it's still not the pace that can hold my attention and make me glad I'm still watching. Â However, I did take my friend Dave with me to see it. Â Dave is a big Anime fan and liked the film. Â He said the film screams Anime and even seems like still frames of animation at times that are more about the rich colors and imagery than they are about the story or dialogue. Â Okay. Â I can respect that. Â Makes more sense to know that as oppose to wondering why it seems to be raining lotus petals in the middle of the California desert through most of the more dramatic scenes. Â But even if you're going to be a fun, don't-take-it-too-seriously action film, I feel like there should be some actual action in it. Â Lee confused body count with action, Â Just because you can make a scene filled with killings doesn't make it exciting to see. Â When it comes down to it, this film is stylized for a certain audience and I just wasn't it. Â I'm also the same person who still can't figure out why Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon got the Oscars it did. Â One of the last lines of the movies, still covered in cheese and uttered through that same awful southern accent of Bosworth's, was, "Is this the end or just the beginning?" Â Ugh, as far as I'm concerned, I sure hope it's the end.
The Warrior's Way (Rated R)
Gavin Grade: D+
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