Dogs Bark

Black Irish Humour - - The Guard (2011) - - 22 February 2012

Recommended. A number of on-line reviews call The Guard a ‘fish out of water’ movie. As a matter of fact, the movie jokes about it, too. That would make it a Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) movie, playing as he does an American F.B.I. agent in Galway to bust up a dope ring. But really now, as good as Cheadle is, this is Brenden Gleeson’s movie (In Bruges, Gangs Of New York), lock, stock and barrel. After all, it’s an Irish movie and Gleeson creates a wonderfully specifically Hibernian take on the Nick Nolte-style, rumpled but decent cop. Instead of a single hooker girlfriend, Gleeson rides them in tandem. Of course he’s got a foul mouthed mum, played by the perfectly lovely Fionnula Flanagan (The Others, Waking Ned Devine). The movie is directed by newcomer John Michael McDonagh (Ned Kelly), brother of Martin McDonagh (In Bruges). Quite a strong beginning.

Duke's Picks - - The Oscars 2011 - - 25 February 2012

Last year I was under the covers but now I’m back in the pink. And so is this batch of movies. I really liked this crop, despite not getting to several of them. I find Sandra Bullock to always be too Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and my distaste for Maggie Thatcher will probably allow The Iron Lady to rust away. One dragon tattoo was enough for me, thanks, so let’s get down to it

Best Actor in a Starring Role  - - Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - - Yes, I did love Jean Dujardin in The Artist and Clooney gave one of his best performances. I applaud the Academy selecting Demián Bichir. But I’ll go against convention with Gary because the role called for the toughest thing an actor can do - - underact.

Best Actress in a Starring Role - - Pass - - I missed Rooney, Meryl and Glenn (these are girl’s names?) so I can’t really pick one. I always like Viola Davis but didn’t like The Help. Supposedly Ms. Streep has a lock. Ho hum.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - - Pass - - Gents, I will see all of you eventually but as of now only Sir Ken and Jonah are in the bag. Incredibly, Von Sydow and Plummer, both octogenarians, have only a single Oscar between only and only two noms each. If one of them doesn’t get it it’s a crime but what about the other?

Best Actress in a Supporting Role - - Bérénice Bejo, The Artist- - I didn’t get to Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs. I liked Jessica Chastain in The Help but Octavia Spencer and Melissa McCarthy were a bit too broad for my refined tastes.  Bérénice was amazing.

Best Original Screenplay - - Woody Allen, Midnight In Paris - - This is close since Michel Hazanavicius wrote a very inventive script. But I love dialogue too much I guess so I’ll give Woody the envelope. I did not like Margin Call but A Separation was also very good.

Best Adapted Screenplay - - John Logan, Hugo - - Wow! A great group of scripts here. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy did good by Le Carre and I love Hugo and The Descendents. Moneyball and The Ides Of March were also great. But Hugo deserves a big win and this is it.

Best Cinematography - - Janusz Kamiński, War Horse - - I didn’t see the dragon but I did enjoy the others. The Artist and Hugo were beautiful. The long shot of Joey running through the trenches and No Man’s Land was a masterpiece so I give the statue to Janusz Kamiński

Best Direction - - Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist - - Directing a silent movie? Seventy-five years after Modern Times? How did he prepare his cast? These are five great directors and movies but The Artist was an amazing feat of helming legerdemain.

Best Picture - - Jim Burke, Jim Taylor, and Alexander Payne, The Descendants – - - This is the tightest race in years for me. Hugo was an outstanding movie and I agree with the horde that The Artist was masterful. Midnight In Paris and The Tree Of Life definitely deserve to be considered. These five movies are way above the rest. But one must choose and I had a strong personal connection to The Descendants; I will not be disappointed if Hugo or The Artist wins.

And so it goes . . . Ms. Ryan and I will be a little late (again!) this year. We got a ride home from a party with Woody and Soon Yi last night and wound up on The Strip in 60’s-era Las Vegas.  Woody was terrified of losing his wife to a younger version of himself so we are cowering in a parking structure at Circus Circus with only marginal Internet access through the car’s AM radio. Anyway, Meg wants to catch Marlene Dietrich at the Sands before we head back to 2012. Whatever Lola wants . . .

Un Voyage Dans La Lune - - Hugo (2011) - - 19 February 2012

Strongly recommended. Wow. What a beautiful Valentine’s Day card to movie lovers! First off, I unfortunately saw the non-3D version. Whatever . . . Hugo is still beautifully filmed (Robert Richardson) and edited (Thelma Schoonmaker). Production design (Dante Ferretti) is fantastic - - an intricate representation of Montparnasse Station being the main location - - and Howard Shore has written a great score. All of this group work routinely for Martin Scorsese, have ten Oscars among them and are deservedly nominated this year. None of the actors were nominated and that’s a shame. Ben Kingsley, Sasha Baron Cohen and Jude Law have key parts that are superbly done. But it’s the kids, Asa Butterworth and Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick Ass, Let Me In) that make the film. I hope to see more of Asa but Ms. Moretz has already left the launch pad. Her characterization here is adorable and she has one more big fan.

Weapons Of Messy Destruction - - A Separation [Jodaeiye Nader az Simin] (2011) - - 18 February 2012

Strongly recommended. Before the next mission accomplished the powers-that-be need to see this movie. A Separation presents, in its quiet and apolitical manner what it’s like to live in modern Iran and we find out, they’re not that different from us. Two couples engage in a torturous dispute. Nader (Peyman Maadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami), educated, white collar, have employed Razieh (the gorgeous Sareh Bayat) to watch over Nader’s senile father. Razieh and her husband Hodjat (Shahab Hosseini) are working class and more devout. Each couple also has a daughter, serving as a witness to the events. Things go very bad. The story, elliptically revealed, is about the interaction of these six principal actors as they seek honor, piety and truth. Oscar-nominated writer/director Asghar Farhadi (About Elly) stiches together a brilliant cast, including his very talented daughter, in a seamless tapestry. Hopefully, we’ll see much more from him.   

Bronte Sours Us - - Jane Eyre (2011) - - 12 February 2012

Not recommended. Jane Eyre is yet another film this year that I did not hate, but didn’t like either and I don’t really have much to say about it. Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre) does a workmanlike job of helming the thing, demonstrating his past role as a cinematographer, but it’s hard to make England’s most popular national park look ugly. In the titular role, Mia Wasikowska (The Kids Are Alright, Alice In Wonderland) adds another journeyman performance to the resume and Michael Fassbender (Shame, A Dangerous Method) doesn’t embarrass himself. The other actors, (Sally Hawkins, Judi Dench, Simon McBurney) seemed a little under-utilized. The costumes gained another Oscar nomination for Michael O'Connor (The Dutchess). I guess my problem is the script. I acknowledge Charlotte’s feminist fan club but that issue didn’t play strong in this version. In any case, I find the story and the characters - - particularly Rochester - - to be rather dull.

Res Ipsa Loquitur - - The Artist (2011) - - 11 February 2012

Strongly recommended. Whenever I pan a popular comedy, people claim I don’t like fluff. Well of course, I am a snob. But The Artist is nothing BUT fluff and I - - like BAFTA - - adored it. Unlike most of the trash I sweep to the curb, The Artist is an astonishingly well-made bit of fluff, a golden dust bunny. Black and white cinematography used to have its own Academy Award and cameraman Guillaume Schiffman should get that special statuette this year. The composition of many shots, extras scurrying in the background, quotes, then technically trumps, the great shots of Chaplin and Lang. And how did the cast learn the silent film vocabulary so eloquently . . . not just Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, but the wonderful cameos and support by John Goodman, Malcolm McDowell and Joel Murray?  Director and writer Michel Hazanavicius deserves our applause; I can’t find a flaw in this wonderful film.

 

Booze And Sympathy - - Some Came Running (1959) - - 10 February 2012

Strongly recommended. Bogdonovitch and Scorsese consider this movie an essential - - literally, when the former was on TCM. I’d call it an overlooked gem. Vincente Minnelli, a genius for light musicals (Gigi, Meet Me In St. Louis), is sometimes forgotten as a dramatic director. This is his masterwork; however, the true essential is the powerful cast, headed by Frank Sinatra. Some Came Running is Sinatra at his darkest, a lousy heel with just enough charm to unlatch our sympathy but never push it open. He's very similar to Jack Nicholson’s Bobby Dupea in Five Easy Pieces. This is also the birth of the Rat Pack, the first pairing of Sinatra with Dean Martin, who’s also charming and despicable.  But it is Best Actress nominated, sometime Rat Packer, Shirley MacLaine that overwhelms in her ‘sweet hooker’ persona, created here and several times reprised. Her serious, touching performance is the heart of this movie.

Los Pobrecitos - - A Better Life (2011) - - 7 February 2012

Strongly recommended.  I am very pleased to say I got this wonderful film out of an Arizona Redbox. Why so? Because I want the entire State Legislature and the Governor to accidently watch it. A Better Life portrays what some of us know, that although resolution at the border is needed, we need to stop demonizing the people who are entangled in it. A Better Life tells a very common story about a man trapped between the needs of his family and the iron fist of society. Demián Bichir employs an Oscar-nominated performance to create a modern Jean Valjean, an LA landscape gardener and ‘illegal,’ with dignity and compassion; however, A Better Life tosses no softballs. It also shows the epidemic of gangs and drugs plaguing the border. Carlos is accurately depicted as a victim of this evil. All of this, simply set before us, political grandstanding completely absent. 

Of Course, Of Course - - War Horse (2011) - - 4 February 2012

Recommended. War Horse is director Steven Spielburg at his most sentimental and manipulative. And other than the Joey the horse, there’s not much character development. Nice pirouettes by David Thewlis and Emily Watson grace the screen but not much else. That’s all I have bad to say about this enjoyable bit of fluff.The theme of the movie seems to be the unifying redemption of equine love, as everyone falls under Joey’s spell.  He's certainly more good-looking than ET. The scenes at the Somme and the sequence of Joey running madly through No Man’s Land may someday rank among the finest equestrian scenes in movie history. The wide-scale photography, by Speilberg stalwart Janusz Kaminski, and John Williams’s sturdy score earned the film two of its six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.  His visual quotes of How Green Is My Valley are splendid, so see this in a proper theater. 

Something Borrowed, Something Blue - - Bridesmaids (2011) - - 2 February 2012

Recommended.  This came out just about the time of an actual important wedding in my life so I was poised between resonance and dread. I decided to skip it, despite being a HUGE fan of both Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig. Didn’t matter, my daughter and her bridesmaids made their own wild and crazy movie.  But I did enjoy these Bridesmaids immensely. Female buddy films are more interesting just because they don’t get made much. I was on the edge of my seat as to how painfully debauched Ms. Wiig was going to take her character. Director Paul Feig’s comedic tension reflects his years running The Office. Academy doffed Melissa McCarthy was as brilliant as advertised.  My only complaint: not enough, yet too much, of Maya Rudolph. The street dump scene was a new low in moving pictures; Away We Go proved she has much classier stuff in her knickers.