The King's Speech

This is a superb film. I wasn't surprised at how good it was, based on everything I've read and heard about it, and the fact that Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush (the two principals) are among my very favourite actors. But I was surprised at its very moving and emotional effect on me and others. This is not just about how King George VI overcame his stammer with the help of an eccentric and uncredentialed speech therapist from Australia. Whether or not the story is completely true in content, personalities and relationship of these two characters, it's such an inspiring demonstration of courage, friendship, perseverance and rising to the occasion and embracing a life that turns out to be precisely what one was hoping to avoid. Needless to say, performances by Firth and Rush are both outstanding, as well as that by Helena Bonham-Carter as Queen Elizabeth, the King's always supportive and loving wife and partner. Other performances were also good, the screen play by David Seidler excellent, and Tom Hoper's direction impeccable as the beautiful and compelling scenes unfolded. The film has already received some awards in Europe, is nominated for seven Golden Globes and I have no doubt will also have numerous Oscar nominations. All deserved, in my opinion. Not to be missed.

The Wackness

This 2008 film was recommended to me by "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" TV show/film star and friend Cathy Jones - thanks Cathy! - and I finally got around to watching it yesterday. It's rare that I like and am amused by American comedies but this one was truly funny as well as being very sweet. The main character Luke, a teenage marijuana dealer consumed by youthful angst, is wonderfully played by Josh Peck, someone I'm pretty sure I'd never seen in anything before. As well, an almost unrecognizable bearded and long-haired Ben Kingsley as a marijuana-smoking New York psychiatrist as well as Luke's client/therapist is hilarious. For a really enjoyable time, rent this DVD.

Fair Game

I felt pretty much the same at the end of this film as with the last one I reviewed (Inside Job), discouraged and chilled by the situation in the US. And as with that previous film, I pretty much knew the story of this one, as will anyone who was paying attention to the news during the time when Valerie Plame was outed as a CIA agent. But there were some insights and details that were new to me. As it's based on books by both Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson, her husband and equally part of the whole situation, of course it's from their perspective. And that perspective, laid out in the film, is that the White House had received many reports, both written and verbal, saying there was no evidence either that Niger was shipping uranium to Iraq, or that Iraq had any WMDs, and yet Bush and others went ahead and announced exactly the opposite and, as we all know, went to war based on supposed intelligence confirming it. The film was very well done and well acted, especially by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in the two main roles. Despite the fact that we basically know the story, it still kept my attention throughout and had the feeling of a thriller. The personal side of their lives was also revealed more than it was in the news, showing Valerie Plame's life and work before she was outed, and how their marriage was strained almost to the breaking point afterward.

Inside Job

Toward the end of Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, about global warming, he sounded fairly hopeful and optimistic as he outlined some things that could be done, in his mind, fairly easily to help that situation. Inside Job, about the recent and still ongoing worldwide economic crisis, isn't like that. So if you don't want to be even more discouraged and depressed than you may already be about unemployment, Wall Street, bankers, investment bankers, mortgage brokers, etc., don't go see this film. However, it's an excellently made documentary, describing and explaining many familiar and not so familiar things about how we got here and where we are now, in a clear and concise manner. And although it has many "talking heads", it's also visually interesting in many parts. Those talking heads, by the way, utter some truly jaw-dropping statements reminiscent of the tobacco industry executives swearing under oath that nicotine isn't addictive. Many of the key players, however, not surprisingly didn't agree to be interviewed for the film. I won't spell out any more specifics, except to say that if this film is accurate, it looks like we haven't gone through the last worldwide crisis that could cause a complete economic meltdown.

Never let me go

This is the most moving film I've seen in some time, because of a combination of a compelling story; wonderful performances; and great cinematography, directing and musical score. I hardly know how to write about it in a way that will get across just how powerful I found it to be in every aspect. It's based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, best known for another wonderful film The Remains of the Day. It takes place in England and could be called science fiction as it's about a society that's different from our own in that clones are created for the sole purpose of donating their organs as young adults so that other older people can live longer. This sounds quite freaky but in fact what makes the story so effective is that in most ways the people and society seem so normal. The story begins, looks and unfolds like any number of films taking place in the lovely English countryside with cute children being brought up in strict but expected residential schools, except for a few unusual details. All three of the main actors -- Carrie Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield -- are excellent, though I'm especially partial to Carrie Mulligan from last year's An Education. The director, Mark Romanek, amazingly has mainly directed various video documentaries in the past. The only previous film of the cinematographer, Adam Kimmel, that I'm familiar with is Capote. The wonderfully poignant and evocative music was written by Rachel Portman, whose name wasn't familiar to me but she's done the music for many other excellent films. So what can I say to give some idea of why you should not miss this film? It's true, poignant and thought-provoking even though it's about a fictional society, but how different actually are the lives, hopes and dreams of these young people/clones from those of all of us, who know we're going to die too soon no matter how long we live?

I am love

I'm recommending this film because of the visuals and Tilda Swinton's performance, her mesmerizing presence, not for the story/plot, which is a pretty predictable melodrama. Tilda Swinton is one of those fascinating actresses who can appear luminously beautiful, almost angelic (as she does for much of this film), and then suddenly look boyishly gawky, angular and cold, almost ugly. If you want more details about the plot, go to Roger Ebert's website, but briefly, it revolves around three generations of a wealthy, aristocratic family in Milan in which Tilda Swinton plays the Russian-born wife of the elder patriarch's son. She begins an affair with one of her son's friends, a chef, and the story plays out as you might expect, in the style of a passionate Italian opera. (All the other actors are Italian and the film is in Italian with English subtitles.) The cinematography is quite extraordinary, everything seeming larger than life, many close-ups not only of people but erotically-charged food preparation and dishes, opulent dinner scenes, massive buildings, snowy city-scapes, grass and insects. If you go to this film I recommend sitting quite far back in the theatre because the camera often moves very quickly and jerkily and those close-ups, literally in your face, fill the screen. This is a long film that spends lots of time on those visual details; some people will find this boring and the story over-the-top, so be warned.

Joan Rivers: A piece of work

I saw Joan Rivers live once in the 80s, so even before watching this frank and revealing documentary I knew her live comedy included almost nonstop profanity of the most potty-mouthed kind. I usually have no respect for and don't enjoy comics who seem to depend on swearing and insults for their laughs, but I have to admit that Joan Rivers is also very funny. I used to watch her frequently in her heyday of frequent appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, both as guest and guest host (but naturally without all the profanity). What this documentary displays is her extreme dependence on her career of standing in front of people and hearing their laughter and applause, the only time she's truly happy, as she says in the film. She'll do anything in order to fill her calendar - calling her a workaholic is an understatement, and I was exhausted watching this 75-year-old woman dashing from place to place, always of course in full makeup that can't hide the extensive "work" she's had done on her face, her first act upon getting out of bed each day. She gave the directors full access over a year of her life, and they (Ricki Stern and Anna Sundberg) did an amazing job. If you enjoy this type of voyeuristic and fascinating documentary, I highly recommend the film.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The radiant child

Well, my first film at this year's Atlantic Film Festival turned out to be a winner. I don't know how wide a circulation this documentary will be getting, but if you have the chance to see it, I highly recommend not missing it, even if like me, you're not particularly involved with art or the art world. I had seen the earlier Julian Schnabel film simply called Basquiat, which isn't a documentary, and found it very compelling but now I really do prefer this one. We're lucky that the director, Tamra Davis, was a friend of Basquiat and filmed interviews and lots of other footage of him so that we get a rich picture of this amazingly talented, intelligent and sophisticated young man, who emerged from seemingly nowhere first as simply one of many graffiti artists in NYC and then became the darling of the art world and a close friend of Andy Warhol. Sadly, like many others he got involved in drugs and died of an overdose at the age of 27. I haven't heard why Davis waited till now, over 20 years later, to make this film, but she did a great job of putting it all together, including a wonderful jazz soundtrack that goes perfectly with the film.

The American

I've been away for a while at a month-long meditation retreat, so I may have missed some films during August and early September, but now it's the Atlantic Film Festival season as well as the start of the Fall/Winter generally more interesting films time of year, so you may be hearing from me more often. I went to see The American after having heard that a few people I know really disliked it. But the reviews I read continued to make it sound interesting and so I followed my gut instinct. I still don't feel quite as clear on some of what happened in the film as Roger Ebert did, but I do agree with his very favourable review of it. I especially applaud George Clooney's tour de force acting performance, which included very little dialogue. Briefly, the film is about a professional hit man (Clooney) who's either completely cool and in control or constantly nervous and on edge, or both. The setting is Italy, mainly a small town where he's working on a job of preparing a very specialized weapon for a client; all the arrangements are made by his boss/master, with whom he has very terse communications by phone. As described in the reviews, the film has very stark, minimalist and Zen-like feel to it. The scenery was compelling though not the green lushness one often associates with Italy but in general rather craggy hills with colourless villages built on them. I thought all the cinematography was also excellent. I didn't find it a terribly violent film, though of course because of the plot and characters, there are a few scenes of shootings. Anyway, this film is obviously not for everyone; it doesn't have a thought-provoking message but I found engrossing and haunting and a very interesting character study.

Inception

Whew! What a ride! This 2-1/2 hour film flew by, and though the plot and action can seem (and sound) complicated, if you really pay attention - not hard to do - it all hangs together and can be followed without confusion. The story takes place in a future where people can be put to sleep and hooked up in some bizarre way so that they share dreams. And the main character in the film has perfected a system where he and a group of fellow operators use this method to extract information from someone's mind, a form of corporate espionage; not only that, he also claims to a potential "employer" to be able to plant an idea into someone's mind in such a way that that person believes it's his own idea. So the film follows them as they attempt to carry this out. And yes, there are lots of action scenes: things blowing up, impossible gun battles, but because they're taking place in a dream with no attempt to make them seem possible, they didn't bore or bother me the way these kinds of scenes in traditional action movies usually do. As well as the story itself, it's about dreams and reality, what's real and what isn't, how can you tell the difference. These questions are somewhat similar to what's presented in the wonderful 2001 Richard Linklater film Waking Life, though Inception doesn't have the philosophical/spiritual feel of that one. Rather, this one has a much more cerebral feel, and so the pleasure and admiration I experienced were intellectual rather than emotional, and as well, I have great appreciation for Christopher Nolan's skill as a director. He has definitely lived up to my enjoyment of his previous films Memento and The Prestige. He also has directed two of the Batman films, most famously The Dark Knight. Though the only character that brought out some emotional or heartfelt connection was the main character's wife, played by Marion Cotillard, I still felt this was an excellent film.

The Messenger

As the only film about the Iraq war I was interested in seeing, for the most part it didn't disappoint. Actually, it's about a lot more than the Iraq war. Excellently acted by Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson (who won a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his role) and Samantha Morton, the basic story revolves around two soldiers whose job is to inform a family member of the death of their son, daughter, husband or wife. Watching this film was mesmerizing and heart-wrenching: people being overcome by emotions, as you'd expect, as well as the stoic following of the military rules of non-involvement (just being a messenger) by the two soldiers and the effect of that on them. So this film is really about the overall result of war and the military life in general to soldiers who've come home from fighting as well as their families. As one of the soldiers says "They should show the funerals on TV". There were a few drunken buddy scenes later in the film that didn't seem as real to me, but maybe they would to a man or a soldier.

Soul Power

This documentary was put together in 2008 using some of the many hours of film shot before and during the 1974 concert in Kinshasa, Zaire, around the big event of the heavyweight boxing championship between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. You might have seen some of the footage shot if you watched the 1996 documentary When We Were Kings that focused on the fight itself; this one focuses on the concert. If you like soul music I really recommend this DVD, both for the music and the dancing. There were African and American musicians and dancers, as well as a great Cuban group showcasing Celia Cruz -- all wonderful to watch and listen to: BB King, James Brown, The Spinners, Miriam Makeba and more.

The Secret in their Eyes

This film won Best Foreign Language Film at the recent Oscars; since I haven't seen any of the other contenders I can't offer my opinion on whether or not it deserved to win or compare it to the others. But I will say that I found it quite an interesting and compelling film, though I probably wouldn't rave about it quite as much as some film critics have. It's from Argentina and is a haunting mystery/thriller with political overtones and also includes personal/intimate life details of the various characters including unrequited love spanning many years. The cinematography is beautiful and an interesting style and the characters also kept my interest throughout. One thing I very much appreciated was the sense that in some way that I can't really explain the whole film was presented with a strong flavour of Argentina and would have been a very different film if it had been made in North America or Europe. I don't know if this film will ever come to Halifax (I'm on vacation in Berkeley, California) but I'm sure it will be available on DVD at some point.

Mao's Last Dancer

This is a beautiful, romantic film that you'll particularly enjoy if you appreciate ballet - the dance scenes are spectacular. Based on the autobiography of Li Cunxin, who grew up in a peasant family in China, was selected at age 11 to train as a ballet dancer in Beijing, and defected to the US in 1981 after spending the summer as a student with the Houston Ballet Company. He went on to become one of their principal dancers and later joined a ballet company in Australia. The film moves between the stories of his early life in China and his time in the US, including the very tense situation of his defection. The role of Li Cunxin is played by Chi Cao, a wonderful dancer who trained in both Beijing and the Royal Ballet School in England; he's currently principal dancer with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Bruce Greenwood is excellent in the role of Ben Stevenson, who was artistic director in Houston and responsible for Li Cunxin being in the US in the first place. The film is directed by Australian Bruce Berseford, well known for a number of excellent films including Tender Mercies and Driving Miss Daisy.

Youssou N'Dour: I bring what I love

I'm still mystified by the fact that until I watched this film, as far as I can remember I had never before heard Senegalese super-star singer Youssou N'Dour, despite the fact that I've been listening to "world music" for many years. This documentary includes many clips of him singing at various concerts and recording sessions, and I predict that even if you've never been a fan of African or any other international music before, you won't be able to watch this film without at least smiling and possibly being compelled to get up and dance. I plan to now purchase one of his albums! He has been a well-known, popular singer in Senegal for over 30 years, and then in 2005 he released the controversial album "Egypt", which includes musicians from Egypt and is spiritual in nature, all the songs having themes from his Sufi-Muslim religion, of which he's a devout follower. As well as including clips from his early life and music, the film follows the controversy generated mainly by his fellow countrymen because of the feeling it was inappropriate to so popularize their religion in music. It also includes the album's wildly successful concert tour in Europe and North America, ending in his winning a Grammy for "Egypt". I loved this film and was completely taken in by the music and Youssou N'Dour's amazing voice and charismatic presence. I've read some critical reviews of it as being mainly for the purpose self-promotion, but that's not how it seemed to me.

The September Issue

Those of you who read my review of Valentino: The last emperor in my 2009 Film Reviews document will know that I by no means consider myself to be a fashionista, but as with that film, I found this documentary about the amazing and lengthy process to create and publish Vogue magazine's huge September issue completely fascinating. I like nice clothes and enjoy seeing people who are smartly dressed, but I watch this level of involvement in high-end fashion with a combination of admiration and revulsion. From my point of view it's actually a completely unnecessary and disgustingly extravagant activity, plus many of the dresses are really unwearable by normal people, yet in watching this film I could kind of see the designers, editors, photographers, etc., as purely creative artists rather than wondering how they could justify the expense and lives devoted to this kind of fashion. The film revolves mainly around Anna Wintour, who has run Vogue for many years and has the last word on everything, and Grace Coddington, Vogue's Creative Director also for many years. It's fascinating to see their very different personalities, how they often seem to clash and yet manage to come out with their product every month. It also demonstrates, to me at least, that what's considered beautiful in fashion or photographs is purely a matter of personal taste of the moment, rather than any absolute truth of beauty.

Grey Gardens

I had heard the glowing reviews of this 2009 HBO film and was sorry I couldn't see it since I don't subscribe to HBO. So I was really pleased to find the DVD on the shelf at the video rental place recently. It's based on the 1975 documentary of the same name and focuses on the incredible, eccentric and fascinating two Edith Bouvier Phelans, mother and daughter, who lived together for many years in a slowly deteriorating mansion, Grey Gardens, in East Hampton, NY. They were the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, and when the completely dilapidated and filthy state of the place was made public, she covered the costs for making it livable once again. This film goes farther than the highly praised documentary, though, in that it also has flashbacks to their much earlier lives when they lived in luxury and were immersed in high-end society. Both Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange give truly amazing performances. Many scenes of these baffling but endearing women and their relationship with life and each other remain vividly with me.

Chloe

I definitely liked this film more than a number of reviewers did. I always find Atom Egoyan's films interesting but haven't really liked one since 1997's The Sweet Hereafter; that's my favourite, with Exotica being next in line and now Chloe being third. Briefly, the story involves a married couple, played by Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson, whose marriage has become rather distant and unsatisfying, especially from her point of view. He's an attractive and popular college teacher, and she suspects him of having affairs with his students. So she hires a prostitute, played by the young, luminous and beautiful Amanda Seyfreid who's been in just about every other film these days, to seduce him so she can see how he reacts. That's all I'll say about the story, except that it isn't quite that straightforward, though I felt this was more linear and mainstream in content than Egoyan's films usually are. Beyond the outer storyline, though, I found it very thought-provoking about relationships and how we handle them: How much do we take for granted when things are going well and smoothly? How much do we believe the things we think we know with such certainty about each other? How much are we aware of our effect on other people? As well, I felt the tone set by the cinematography was very effective; though often the settings were dark and stark, they were sensual at the same time.

The Ghost Writer

What a thoroughly satisfying film! This is a mystery/thriller directed and co-written by Roman Polanski. I haven't always liked his films, but three from the 1960s really stand out for me: Knife in the Water (in Polish), Repulsion (starring the young Catherine Deneuve) and of course Rosemary's Baby - I was haunted and frightened by all of them. The Ghost Writer is adapted from a book and revolves around a former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan) and the writer (Ewan McGregor) who's the "ghost" helping him write his memoirs. The acting by both of them, as well as by Olivia Williams who plays the PM's wife, is excellent; the story (which is a barely concealed take on the current political reality) compelling; the details of scenery, settings, colours and overall visual tone perfect; and the music a fantastic complement to the action, heightening the mood without being overbearing. The score was written by Alexandre Desplat, whom I discovered has written scores for quite a number of recent films (The Queen, Coco avant Chanel, Julie and Julia, Syriana, to name a few) but I don't remember in any of those being so taken by the music as an important part of the film as I was in this one. Anyway, I predict that as this year's films are rolled out, I'll continue to think this is one of the best of the year.

March Break

It's just about time for school children here in Nova Scotia to have their March break, and I'll be taking one as well. I'm not going anywhere but will be doing a meditation retreat from March 12-21, so don't expect any posts during that period. Following that, I plan on getting back to my list of films and watching DVDs, and as well, I'm hoping some films of interest will show up in the theatres here by then, either ones left over from 2009 trickling in (Atom Egoyan's "Chloe", for instance) or new ones (Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" is one I'm waiting for).

Oscars 2010

Maybe I'm finally getting too old or jaded to watch the Oscars all the way through, because I have to say that I was more bored than usual with last night's show. It was obvious that some of the kinds of stuff included in past shows to try to make them more entertaining had been cut in the interest of this year's not dragging on for too long, but one thing I missed was a truly enjoyable host; I haven't seen any reviews of last night's hosts or the show altogether yet and will be interested in what the critics say. I like both Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, but they were hardly at all in evidence and only provided a couple of mild chuckles. I still miss Billy Crystal, my favourite past host. Well, on to the winners. No surprises in the main categories and, as I predicted, the films I liked best were almost totally shut out of awards. I'm still mildly (though no more) curious about "The Hurt Locker", but the more clips from it I see the more the topic and style just don't really interest me. The only winner who seemed to be a surprise, based on what I had heard, was the best foreign film; I haven't seen any of the nominated films in this category as they haven't been shown here, but I had heard it predicted a number of times that the German film "The White Ribbon" would win. I also haven't seen any of the documentaries except for the "The Cove", which won, and I'd very much like to see the others to give a fair opinion, but I didn't find "The Cove" to be nearly as compelling as other documentaries I've seen in previous years. To me, the most engaging part of the evening was looking at the gowns, which were almost all really gorgeous, and the set for the theatre, also very glitzy and beautiful.

Pre-Oscar musings

Some of you may be surprised to hear that I watch the Oscars religiously every year, have probably only missed a few since I was very young. It's true that they often aren't accurate, in my and many others' opinions, in their choice of award recipients, but I'm still addicted to the show, comparing it to past years in terms of hosts, etc. I also have to confess that I like seeing what everyone's wearing, though I hate the ubiquitous question asked by fawning media reps, "Who are you wearing?" Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin co-host this year, as I really enjoyed the two of them in "It's complicated". But on to my thoughts about this year's nominees.

First I have to say that I haven't seen and may not ever see a number of the films nominated in either major or less major categories. This is because the story, actors, type of film or director doesn't interest me, but sometimes I eventually become curious and decide to see such a film anyway. Here are the ones in major categories on that list this year:

Crazy Heart, The Hurt Locker, The Lovely Bones, Inglourious Basterds, The Blind Side, Precious, Nine, Up, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Sherlock Holmes, District 9, A Serious Man. I realize that some of these may be favourites of yours for this year. The ones I'm most likely to see out of curiousity are The Hurt Locker, Precious and Sherlock Holmes. I also haven't seen most of the foreign films or documentaries because I haven't had the opportunity.

Here are my favourite films from those nominated for various things, and I predict that none of them, with the exception of "Avatar" and possibly "Up in the Air", will get any of the major awards:

Up in the Air, A Single Man, Invictus, Avatar, An Education, Julie and Julia in no particular order. I also very much liked "The Last Station" and "The Young Victoria" but not as much. I loved "The Informant" and thought Matt Damon deserved a best actor nomination for his performance, though he was also excellent in "Invictus". Another left-out nomination, in my opinion, is Julianne Moore for her role in "A Single Man". I'm still waiting for "The Messenger" to be shown here. You can see my assessments of the films on this list in my "Film Reviews 2009" document.

I'm not giving any predictions on winners, but I'll probably write something after this Sunday's show.

The last station

"The last station" tells the story of the last days of Leo Tolstoy's life, focusing mainly on his tumultuous and passionate relationship with his wife, the Countess Sofya (excellently portrayed by Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren, both nominated for Oscars for these roles), but also centres around his young secretary, Valentin (James McAvoy, also played very well as naive and idealistic but ultimately very helpful in a seemingly impossible situation). At this stage of Tolstoy's life he's no longer writing novels, and his most devoted followers call themselves Tolstoyans and try to practice brotherly love and pacifism and denounce material wealth and physical/sexual love. Valentin is caught between the opposing views of the two Tolstoys as well as his own awakening of first love. How can you profess to love mankind and at the same time denounce actually touching and loving a real person? I was entranced by this film, as well as at times infuriated and exasperated at the way people who love each other deeply can cause each other so much suffering. The cinematography was beautiful, helped by the idyllic country setting of Tolstoy's estate. Definitely deserved more Oscar nominations than it got, in my opinion. I'll write some pre-Oscar musings here in the next day or two.

Introduction

As I begin this, my first and only blog, I’m listening to the soundtrack from “Frida” for inspiration. I loved that film, especially since it satisfied my key criterion for excellent films, which is that all the elements contained in a film came together and were great: acting, story, art and set design, cinematography and very importantly to me, music. But maybe a little background information is called for before I begin spouting off my opinions (see “About me”).

Why amazing?
If you decide to read my film recommendations for 2007, 2008 and 2009, you’ll notice as I did when going through them all at one sitting how embarrassingly often I used the adjective “amazing” to describe a film that really blew my mind. Well, why not change embarrassment into the title for my blog?

So here we go. This is not going to be a daily blog – I’ll add something when the spirit moves me, usually because of a film I’ve recently seen. Or I might be inspired to muse about films from the past or other film-related stuff.