Dogs Bark

Georgy Girl - - The Duchess (2008) - - 26 February 2009

Not recommended. OK, I got it. Keira Knightley has my attention. As she demonstrated so endearingly in the 2006 version of Pride and Prejudice, Ms. Knightley is very talented. Now she needs the roles. The Duchess could have been that part . . . is almost that part . . . but *sigh* it ain't. Despite her expressive dexterity and laughing eyes, this grey, heavy-handed script allows her only unrelieved misery. The story and her antagonist reduce the term 'abusive spouse' to melodrama, Snidely Whiplash in a powdered wig. Ralph Fiennes, here and in The Reader, offers two of the more zombie-like performances of his career. "How wonderful to be that free," he muses over his children, as though that utterance plumbed an ocean of profundity. Yeahright. See it for Keira or her Oscar-winning costumes, if you must. Otherwise . . . flee.

Who's Got - - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008)- - 21 February 2009

Recommended. This has been a strange year. It seems like many movies I saw started well, then went south or like The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button stumbled right at the wire. The story, from a Fitzgerald short story, was expanded by journeyman writer and Forrest Gump scribe, Eric Roth. Both the arc of the story and it’s details echo the earlier movie, but in a thoughtful, less jokey style. Brad Pitt also offers his most adult work . . . ever. Some of the darker side may come from David Fincher’s (Fight Club, Se7en) sardonic affect. In any case, the idea of the plot is thick with ambition, perhaps too much. Is this a movie about the inflexibility of romantic timing? Or the acceptance of loss? I found the end a little unsatisfying, the running time, excessive. And what of the gorgeous pictures? Is this an Oscar-nominated cameraman or a ten-page CGI roster? Does that even matter anymore?

Eve Of Destruction - - Wall-E (2008) - - 20 February 2009

Recommended. What to make of this frustrating film? The opening is one of the best of the year. We start with a chirpy voice singing from Hello Dolly. The scene zooms down to reveal, not Yonkers, but the wrecked, garbage-strewn remnants of planet Earth, abandoned of life. It’s a very challenging sequence, with no dialogue to sort the story line out.  Wall-E’s cheery characterization recalled Ernest Borgnine as the cabbie in Escape From New York.  Does that make Eve, the female robotic explorer who visits Wall-E, Snake Plissken? But anyway, Wall-E falls hard for Eve and this is where things go into the trash compactor.  While the beginning of the flick offers classic Disney fantasy, the annoying Pixar provides the bourgeois morality and crappy animation, as humans (yuck) return to the planet. Frankly, it reminded me of the Wall Street bailout. But, on the whole, Wall-E is worth your investment.

Play Messy For Me - - Changeling (2008) - - 19 February 2009

Not recommended. It's pretty dangerous to ever draw on Clint Eastwood. But now, in addition to that squint, there's his new sidekick, Mad Dog Oscar.  Well, I ain't gonna whistle Dixie, Changeling sucks. The film starts calmly enough, great wide shots (long-time Eastwood d.p., Tom Stern) of 1920's L.A., Angelina Jolie snug in her bungalow.  Clint's nice score tinkling behind us. Then the kid gets snatched and a riot breaks out.  An eye-rolling serial killer. Sadistic psych nurses. John Malkovitch as a weird preacher. And everyone at LAPD is on the pad. J. Michael Straczynski's endless script shows his roots in based-on-a-true-story television.  This was my take on Million Dollar Baby - - it died before the last reel. But Changeling is punch drunk from the opening bell. Angelina, her lush face overshadowed by hats and eyeshadow, pouts and frets.  When will we see her in a title fight?

Duke’s Picks - - The Oscars 2008 - - 22 Feb 2009

Wow, it seems like each year more and more movies complete for release dates closer and closer to the Oscars. And it gets tougher to get it all seen. How much am I getting paid for this gig? Yeah, I thought so. Anyway here are, though you must have better things to think about, my picks out of the nominated films.

Best Actor in a Starring Role
Frank Langella - - Frost/Nixon - - Of course I liked Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler but showing up on time was not his only job. Both Sean Penn and Frank Langella took well-known people and re-made them as characters, infused with their own unique sense of self. Either one was a more difficult task than the other three, admittedly, excellent performance. I think that Langella was just a shade better.

Best Actress in a Starring Role
Melissa Leo - - Frozen River - - Each of these ladies did a splendid job but I had big problems with Doubt, Changeling, and The Reader that crippled these performance. Anne Hathaway was superb but maybe Bride Wars lost her some Duke-cred. No such problem with Leo’s powerful and stark portrayal of poverty and desperation.  She earned this Oscar.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Heath Ledger - - The Dark Knight - - Wait didn’t I vote for Hoffman last year, despite everyone else going for the Dutch Boy Hitman? Won’t make that mistake again. Seriously, Ledger did an outstanding job and his Joker is now snickering for all the ages.  

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Viola Davis - - Doubt - - I adore Penelope and Marisa and they were both great. And I’ve admired Taraji Henson since Hustle And Flow. But Viola Davis’s short scene in Doubt was riveting. I couldn’t look away.

Best Original Screenplay
Dustin Lance Black- - Milk - - Another close one. I was delighted with Frozen River. I loved the way Milk captured the essence of the Castro revolution. Both were dramatically sound but, in the end, Milk was a more important and universal statement.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Simon Beaufoy- - Slumdog Millionaire - - One has to admire building a three-hour movie out of a goofy short story; unfortunately, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was about an hour too long.  The plays, Frost/Nixon and Doubt, were adapted by their own authors and neither was a particularly innovative script. Slumdog Millionaire was.

Best Cinematography
Tom Stern - - Changeling - - If you want to win this Oscar how about two brilliant cameramen? That was The Reader’s strategy. Too bad the movie stunk. I loved many scenes in The Dark Knight and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button but both of them were a little too heavy on the CGI for my taste.  If you like the ‘look’ of Clint’s movies, Tom Stern is the guy to praise. OK, here’s my praise

Best Score
A.R. Rahman- - Slumdog Millionaire - - I loved the propulsive rhythm and pace of this score.  Wall-E also had its moments.

Best Direction
Danny Boyle - - Slumdog Millionaire - - This one is between Gus Van Sant and Danny Boyle, with Opie getting honorable mention because of his perfect restraint in Frost/Nixon.  I go with Danny Boyle since his actors spoke a foreign language, something I suppose he learned from directing Trainspotting, wot?

Best Picture
Christian Colson- - Slumdog Millionaire - - Milk was very good.  So was Frost/Nixon. But Slumdog Millionaire was a breakthrough picture. There’s a whole subcontinent over who need a bit more than Gandhi to be proud of.

And so it goes . . . Meg has me on a short leash this year. At the post-Oscar party I am to keep repeating, “Diane Keaton doesn’t raise koi in my toilet so please don’t . . .”

Well, you get the picture.

Canis Latrans Thamnos - - Frozen River (2008) - - 18 February 2009

Recommended.  Frozen River is director Courtney Hunt's first commercial script and like Diablo Cody last year, she's been nominated for an Oscar. Such a joy for her, but well deserved. The story concerns two working-class women, one white (Melissa Leo) one Indian (Misty Upham), who employ the trans-national Mohawk boundaries and a Dodge to import illegals across the frozen St. Lawrence. The Rio Grande ain't the only place where currency and misery pass in the night. Leo (21 Grams) masterfully creates a tough and not virtuous character, the kind who sells you beer at the local supermarket. Upham, playing a fellow trailer wench and more experienced smuggler, meets Leo head-on in one of the best actress pairings this year. The nightmarish, headlight-lit drive across the ice is a grindingly effective image. This is a grim movie. But, in the end, some redemptive hope is offered in this well-done film.

The Politics of Joy - - Milk (2008) - - 15 February 2009

Recommended. I was recruited by Harvey Milk. He was my Supervisor in 1978. Although my Upper Noe Valley neighborhood more resembled Dan White's, Castro was the heart of counterculture in those days. No young hipster in San Francisco could overlook the joyous celebration unleashed by Milk, years of deeply personal oppression lifting like a Sunset morning fog. Unimaginable . . . but Gus Van Sant, and particularly, Sean Penn, do imagine the hope and astonishment of the day. Only Phillip Hoffman challenges Penn as the most consistently good, astonishingly diverse actors of the current day. I also loved the flirty/flinty relationship between Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch) and Anne Kronenberg (Allison Pill), both superb acting.  My only complaint is reducing Mayor George Moscone (Victor Garber) to a minor role. George was from the same old, ethnic San Francisco as White but with a lifelong commitment to justice.  He is also missed.

Shock, Awe and Boredom - - The Dark Knight (2008) - - 12 February 2009

Not recommended. So a madman who hates us is killing is innocent civilians and destroying buildings. We need to 'just trust' in a secretive figure who spouts clichés and taps cell phones. Wait . . . is this a review of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight or W? Probably not Nolan's intention, but this incoherent movie provides little else to follow. The senses are pulpified by the Zimmer/Howard musical cacophony, the stroboscopic editing, and spastic, irrational plot to a state of coma, leaving us zombies to repeat, "Well, we have to do something about these terrorists"  But the worst offense - - this is such a tedious movie, hopelessly predicable when a narrative actually is discerned. Modest amusement is provided by Heath Ledger's Joker, the Most Valuable Player on a squad of fumblers. But by half time, I was on his team. Burn it all down. Kill everyone.

More Glass - - La Notte [The Night] (1961) - - 11 February 2009

Not recommended. Once again, I can’t recommend that the average movie-goer expose themselves to the intense abstraction of Michaelangelo Antonioni and this one is one of his most inaccessible. La Notte is another portrayal of a failed marriage (see Revolutionary Road) but there is little of the dramatic in this film. There is no real story. The characters speak in riddles; the images are strange and hard to interpret. Yet the sum of them is so damn unique as to be fascinating. And you will see stuff that’s been imitated so many times by less brutal story tellers. Jeanne Moreau is such a beauty; I could stare at her for two hours and be very happy. Monica Vitti also appears as her doppelganger and rival, as sunny as Moreau is glum. So you are on your own here. No shame; I needed a break halfway through.

Walking On Broken Glass - - Revolutionary Road (2008) - - 10 February 2009

Strongly recommended. This movie really spoke to me. But it speaks to you, too. In most marriages I’ve observed, one of the partners decides to compromise their identity. The other partner evaluates their own dreams and either leaves or goes with the flow. Since we no longer rule out divorce, many leave. But there was a time, within my lifetime, that compromise was the rule. This is the terrain lit by Sam Mendes’s new movie. Thomas Newman’s score is like Chinese water torture - - in a good way. And the studied photography (d.p. laureate Roger Deakins) is both supportive and interpretive of the narrative. Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio expose extraordinary passion in describing their separate purgatories.  It’s the real-life ending of Titanic, a movie Mendes interestingly quotes in several ways. We see only a few feet into the darkness of tomorrow.  Revolutionary Road brilliantly elucidates the horror of the dark.