True Grit - Rob Culpepper

A Review; Or, Why You Should Stop What You're Doing Now and Go Watch This Film

I heard it said that No Country For Old Men was the Coen Brother's take on a modern western. If that's so, then True Grit is the Coen's take on the classic western. And it is TIGHT. Like most movies the Coen Brothers put their hands on, True Grit is, plain and simple, really good. Story telling, humor, pacing, memorable characters...the Coen's do it all.

Don't get me wrong. They aren't flawless. But I think they've been able to capture Today what it must have been like to see a western at the pictures back in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. I think we're so used to the western as a genre thanks to TBS marathons that we aren't as carried away by the mythology of the west. Even Clint Eastwood's late attempts at creating the definitive western (Unforgiven) or any of Kevin Costner's tries (Dances With Wolves, Open Range) fail to create the magic of the West in a movie the way the old ones do. But True Grit does it for me. It's got a great story, good archetypal characters with enough personality to make them distinctive, and one event after another to keep things moving.

As you probably know, the film is a remake of the 1969 film starring John Wayne (for which he won his only Oscar, though arguably as a tip of the hat to his 40+ years of dominating). But the film is it's own piece. The dialog is Coen Brothers, as is the blood splatters, as is the way it's shot. There are very few sweeping vistas; the film is not about the land--The West--but about these characters who have found themselves bound together by a story thread in The West. Those are: Jeff Bridges, who is solid, and paired with the Coen Bros again is great. Matt Damon, who manages to make you forget you're looking at Good Will Hunting (though he reminded me a bit of his role inThe Informant). He's solid as well. In important but less screen-time roles are Barry Pepper and Josh Brolin and some others who are all at top form. (I think the Coens mask people well, so you see a face you recognize, but not so much that you only remember the other characters they played.) The real star of the show, though, is Hailee Steinfeld. Her IMDb has no info (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2794962/). Who knows where the Coens found her. But she is phenomenal. Not only does she hold her own among some very good Oscar Winners, but she shines in her toughness and in the few moments where she breaks open a bit. I don't know what else to say about it other than that the characters are superb.

This movie was so good that instead of waiting in the lobby of the cinema for my sister and brother-in-law, who had gone to see Little Fockers, my dad and I headed right out to the car as soon as the movie was over, still talking about how cool it was, and drove all the way home. You Must See This Film, especially the scene in which Rooster (Jeff Bridges) makes this famous (John Wayne) charge, with guns blazing in both hands, the reins of his horse in his teeth, one man against four....

127 Hours - KDJ

The awaited return of the emotive director of Slumdog Millionaire is just that, a return. The actors are different, the setting is different but the themes are as similar as the camera angles, music, and split screens are.

Those hopeful enough to assume that James Franco (still holding to, in my perspective, his characterization of The Fonz on Freaks and Geeks) would convincingly depict Aron Ralston, the infamous self-amputee-ing, adventurer, will be satisfied. Franco's performance was enjoyable and believable, though I imagine that Ralston runs with a less goofy gait than the predictably less-athletic Franco. After all, Franco publishes short stories he wrote at Columbia and currently studies queer theory at Yale. We can't expect him to compete in triathlons with McConaughey and make out with Sean Penn - that would be too much mixing of art and masculinity.

Franco, though really good in this movie, is held back and over-shadowed by the cluttered split screen flashbacks and sigur ros-esque mash-ups that Boyle is known for. Those hopeful for a true Samuel Beckett experience will be let down. Danny Boyle and Samuel Beaufoy know to well that the Academy needs a good trailer in order to garner any support. Don't get me wrong, I am a sucker for Coldplay genre mash-ups but for this film they come across as reaching and ill-timed. Ralston would make no money in the endeavor yet I think a cooler movie would have been made by Lars Von Trier or another up-and-coming Scandinavian director.

Beaufoy, when he heard that Boyle wanted to make this movie, thought Boyle was crazy - how does one fill up 90 minutes with one guy trapped under a rock? I don't think it too crazy but I'm not sure this movie reached its full potential. Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB are showing high enough ratings and it will probably be nominated for some stuff. The disjointed story telling just made engaging Ralston's predicament difficult. In the end, 127 Hours is definitely worth seeing. I just needed a choreographed dance scene to bring me full tilt.

The Tourist - KDJ

I have absolutely no idea as to why Johnny Depp agreed to do this movie. The experience of watching it is confusing. I spent the entire movie waiting for Depp to vindicate himself - not his character either, like, himself, really. As the movie awkwardly transitioned from one cheesy scene to another, I wondered, is this why Depp never watches his own movies? for fear that one may actually, accidentally end up like this one? Towards the end of the movie, after having watched Angelina Jolie smugly strut for hundreds of yards at a time, for what seemed like an hour total, I wanted to grab Depp by the shoulders and give him a talking to; "Dude, Depp, you are Edward Scissor Hands, and Gilbert Grape, and the dude that was brave enough to make a Sweeney Todd movie, you are Sands, Mort Rainey, you are George Jung, you are Roux, and Ichabod Crane, Raoul Duke, and Donnie Brasco, you are the freakin Libertine. You are not the freaking Tourist!" Maybe it was Jolie bringing him down. Maybe she is so good looking that she is destined to fail in every movie she ever makes. Maybe she will always be more good looking than the movie is good. Maybe, since Tim Burton didn't make it, there was too much light on Depp. Maybe if they would have dimmed the lights in every scene and given him a weird quirk to do the movie would have convinced. But they didn't. And Jolie, as mentioned, strutted as a Samford Seductress might, and there were entirely too many lights turned on. In the end, I'm afraid Depp needed a down payment on his new Vineyard, which probably isn't cheap. So, he made a movie that paid well, spent a fortune, and achieved only awkward, cheap thrills. If you must see Depp, as some must, wait a few weeks and Blockbuster will have about 400,000 returned copies in the post-Christmas buy back stacks.

The Social Network - T.J.

Directed by David Fincher, 2010

Apart from Julian Assenge, who currently finds himself at the receiving end of uncountable lawsuits, hackers' worship and a fatwa by Sarah Palin, Mark Zuckerberg is the person most likely to be named TIME person of the year 2010. The Social Network, a biopic (spanning only around four years) directed by one of today's most respected thrill-directors, is not the reason Zuckerberg is likely to be picked - it is rather a symptom of the influence he has had on 2010, if not the bulk of this past decade. Based on the 2009 bookThe Accidental Billionaires, which recounts the making of facebook from the point of view of Zuckerberg's once best friend, Eduardo Saverin (played in the film by Andrew Garfield). The Social Network will be among the films to look out for at the upcoming Academy Awards.

After being dumped by his girlfriend ("not cause you're a nerd - it's cause you're an asshole"), Zuckerberg gets drunk and starts blogging about her while creating facemash.com, where users can rate female Harvard students according to attractiveness. The site is so popular that the system crashes - and Zuckerberg realises the power a keyboard can bring. The predicament that this night gets him into establishes the basis for the rest of the picture, a long and grueling lawsuit. Fincher and screenwriter Sorking must be given a great deal of credit for telling this story in a thrilling way while sticking to the, admittedly somewhat subjective, story. There are very few moments in which you think there's no way this happened while Eisenberg's performance is gripping from start to finish. Fincher, whose most characteristic films are gloomy thrillers like Se7en, Fight Club or Alien³, puts his mark on the projekt by portraying Harvard as a rainy, clique-hell, where your only goal can be to get into one of the societies. Zuckerberg himself is no exception. The final scene , which I obviously will not disclose, shows how despite how far he has come since that fateful night in 2003, that initial humiliation still haunts and drives him. Good or bad, hero or villain? The TIME jury will have to ask itself the same question when they choose which nerd is the most influential: the one who, to get to 500 million friends, made a few enemies; or the one who made at least half a billion enemies and few friends.

The Social Network is likely to be nominated for the following Academy Awards:

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin

Best Picture: Fincher, Rudin et al

Best Director: David Fincher

Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg

Best Editing: Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall

Nomi vs Nina - JAK

Deciding between renting a flick at the local video/tan shop or packing into the station wagon for the late show of an independent art-house movie can be a difficult holiday decision. Consider the Showgirls/Black Swan debate that will occupy millions of American families this year. Ever since Elizabeth Berkley gyrated onto the scene with her 1995 morality tale, families have suffered schisms about whether to flick over to TBS for Christmas Vacation or to pop in dad’s well-worn, intentionally mislabeled VHS of Nomi . How much simpler the season would have been if Berkley hadn’t traded in her Jesse Spano pocket protector for a pair of Nomi Malone stilettos.

In the tradition of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, Nomi’s story of a small-town girl who just wants to dance, but is violated by the big city, but becomes a big star anyway, but gives it all up to go home, has inspired a generation. But now we get a different take on this holiday story with Natalie Portman’s Nina, a ballerina who finally gets her big break, but has to embrace her dark side, but loses her mind in the process, but dances great anyway, despite—or maybe even because of !—her violent delusions. Obviously hoping to draw from theShowgirls holiday demographic, Black Swan pays homage in more ways than the same heart-warming premise. Take for instance howBlack Swan’s repeated refrain of “you dance without passion” is only a thinly veiled inversion of Nomi’s “dancing like your f*!*1-1=0!g”. Or consider the Showgirlsesque sub-story of Nina usurping stardom from an established rival. Like with Nomi, this involves a leg injury, hospital visits, and titillating lesbian (or in Black Swan’s case, graphically homicidal) encounters. Lastly, the final act of both productions gives the audience the satisfaction of Nina and Nomi reaching the apotheosis of their art. For Nomi this is the result of indefatigable sexual gyration filthily coupling itself with old-fashioned gumption; for Nina, however, this is the inevitable conclusion of an artist who allows herself to be physically and psychologically consumed by her art.

Sooo which will you pick? Portman giving the performance of the year in a poignant, visually-stunning piece of art, which leaves you feeling tense and kind of down; OR Berkley jerkily thrusting her body into Vegas super stardom in a movie that defies logic, reason and taste—but never the ability to leave you, and anyone else who “gets” Nomi, feeling like a Christmas miracle.

Super racy trailer mashing up Black Swan and Showgirls:http://www.ology.com/screen/watch-showgirlsblack-swan-mash

The Fighter - KDJ

Wahlberg, in the role he was made for, and Bale, with the performance of the year, and an appropriately trashy-pudgy, Amy Adams, complete a 'made for the movies' story and deliver on Wahlberg's promise - 'It's the best movie of the year'.

Four years ago I heard that Wahlberg began training for this movie. I checked up on it probably bi-weekly for two years. Last year, Aronofsky was in, then out, then in again, and finally this year, out again. I was pretty devastated. I can't say I was jacked when David O. Russel signed on. Kind of how I'm not jacked about Sam Mendes doing the next Bond. At any rate, I love Three Kings. I really like Flirting with Disaster (check out the cast on that movie) and still enjoy watching Huckabees. Nonetheless, I was really unsure about him taking the reigns on a movie that I had already invested so much time in.

I was wrong to question. I was resolutely put-in-my-place towards the end of the movie. It happened when Bale, in some of the most convincing acting I have seen since Cassel in Mesrine, walked onto Amy Adam's porch and pleads for understanding, not forgiveness. The moments on the porch were almost like stop-motion; each movement and line seemed crafted and deliberate yet remindful of moments in our own lives where we know how it feels to be in their place. In other words, it was worked over, but just natural, and therefore powerful. The scene was crafted with enough nonchalance to balance the sheer discomfort Bale exerted. And just when it seemed that David Russel was getting ready to fall back on his, mostly unneeded go-to, comedic relief, Bale saves the day - "It's icing from the cake" - just as the scene was the icing on the cake, for me at least.

The Fighter is a full on movie-going experience. As my good genius friend Morris once said, in all his lighthearted and genuine humility, "Give me a good come from behind story, some movie-going friends, and a movie theater, and I'm cool." I agree, Morris. I'm cool with this movie. I'm cool enough with it to give it my nod as the movie of the year (with Bale earning performance of the year).

JCVD - Rob

If you, like me, didn't realize Jean-Claude Van Damme was back, well...he's back. Or at least he was in 2008 when he came out with the eponymous JCVD. If you're wondering: yes, those are his badass Belgian initials.

What you probably remember about Van Damme is Street Fighter, Lionheart, and best of all: Bloodsport. He had a respectable mullet for the time and he beat the crap out of a lot bad guys. He also hooked it with some hot 80s chicks and did other cool stuff. And then, as far as I can tell, he disappeared. IMDb tells me that he has actually made a bunch of movies in this decade, but for all intents and purposes I think it's safe to say he's no longer a Hollywood star.

And that's where this film begins: JCVD, playing himself--a washed-up, has-been Hollywood actor--has lost a custody battle for his daughter, is doing lame movies, and doesn't have any money. Stopping in at a post office to transfer some funds, he happens upon a robbery in progress, and then things go crazy. Not kick-out crazy. Just unlucky crazy. Because he was seen going into the building, the police assume he's the assailant...ergo, we have a movie on our hands.

The film is mostly in French, so I can't honestly tell if JCVD is a good actor, though certainly his role is that of a proper actor and not simply an action star. The film is very European and, while the bad guy is uber creepy, I think it makes a point to avoid the gratuitous marks of a Hollywood flick. In fact, JCVD does very, very little fighting. And there's this really impressive soliloquy by JCVD that mirrors the opening scene a bit...he speaks candidly about his career and Hollywood and what it is like being JCVD. In that super-meta way, the film works. Whether JCVD is playing Jean-Claude Van Damme, or the character JCVD, is another question. But the scene itself is though-provoking and feels very honest. You certainly see what a tired, beaten man looks like even when he used to be one of the greatest action stars in the world.

The end is not a JCVD ending either, but I think it works. It definitely raises questions of justice and equity, real life vs. the movies. This flick is interesting. Not a must see by any stretch, but interesting if only for the ideas it raises.

If that's not your style, if you'd rather just see JCVD crush some people, go watch Bloodsport.