That's a Wrap on 2014!

Hey there, and happy 2015 to all! I haven’t returned to this space since the Oscars back in March. Since then I’ve been busy, very fortunate to continue to work and grow in the industry -- various roles on a few indie features, a short, some commercials and a couple of web-only projects. Even got to hang out in the background a few times. Viva Duane! It’s been a fun first year in LA and I’m looking forward to pushing ahead and making more things happen.

And you bet your ass I’ve been watching a lot of movies. I somehow exactly kept pace with last year’s number at 186 by my count, because of course I keep track of these things. Click through to see the full list. A solid third of these (66 and counting) are from 2014 (or from 2013 but only released widely enough this year to be eligible during the upcoming awards season). Compared with previous years I’m already in pretty good shape heading into the Golden Globes which hopefully portends well to being ahead of the game for the Oscars, nominations still to be announced on Jan 15th. There are a few newly released key players that I haven’t had a chance to see yet: Selma, Big Eyes, and Into the Woods are on the docket for the next fortnight or so. I’m definitely loving the plethora of theaters and stuffed-to-the-gills early release schedules here! Resolving to see more indie features at smaller venues in 2015.

I’ll catch up with a bunch of quick hits for 2014 flicks, starting today with my favorite features that were released in the past 12 months. Top 10 in no particular order:

A Most Violent Year (wr./dir. J.C. Chandor) - Hot off the presses, a gritty, simmering opus with Godfather-esque leanings, Chandor's newest success shows a steady hand that should continue to deliver seething drama in years to come. Intense performances by Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain.

Under the Skin (dir. Jonathan Glazer) - Exposition can be tricky business. One of my biggest pet peeves is a script that over-explains the action to the audience or hammers home themes through on-the-nose dialogue (I’m looking sideways at you here, Interstellar). So it was refreshing to see this mesmerizing and unsettling sci-fi/horror hybrid simmering with underlying themes of isolation, social interaction, and sexual agency. It alternates stretches of throbbing, dreadful anticipation with moments of overwhelming electricity. Most importantly, it doesn’t attempt to explain things at all, leaving the viewer in full on decipher mode and wondering, “The hell did I just see?” I love that mode.

Inherent Vice (wr./dir. PT Anderson) - Based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel, it’s a twisting, episodic neo-detective rollick with a down and out P.I. who is more addled than hard-boiled. Too deep and complex to completely absorb in one or two viewings, it’s the darker, sexier, more introspective cousin to The Big Lebowski. I’m sure my initial rating will only improve with time.

The Babadook (wr./dir. Jennifer Kent) - A vibrant, perfectly-crafted horror film with edgy, unnerving performances from Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman. Relying smartly on suggestion and imagination to provide creeping tension and dreadful scares, it is underscored by strong character development replete with an acidic twist of maternal guilt and feminist empowerment. Bonus points for the unconventional ending.

Whiplash - (wr./dir. Damien Chazelle) - Miles Teller pours his sweat onto the screen and JK Simmons delivers an award-worthy supporting performance of manipulative intimidation under the guise of mentorship. It’s Black Swan meets Full Metal Jacket, but with drums and jazz combos instead of bullets and ballet.

Jodorowsky’s Dune (dir. Frank Pavich) - Alejandro Jodorwsky is one of cinemas most original beasts, and if you ask me his films (El Topo, The Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre) are the absolute pinnacle of tripped out cult classics. With this documentary we get a little peek at perhaps one of the most influential unfinished films of the century, his epic planned adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel. May not appeal to those who don’t already have an affection for Jodorowsky’s unique brand of madness, but for me it was like chipping away at a mountain to get a glimpse at a long lost Holy Grail.

Nightcrawler (wr./dir. Dan Gilroy) - With Jake Gyllenhaal’s gaunt, wiry Louis Bloom, Gilroy gave us one of the creepiest, most memorable characters of the year. He also delivered a taut, edgy thriller complete with a spectacular chase scene. It feels like a spiritual sibling to Taxi Driver, shifting the focus from the mean streets of NYC to the gritty reality underlying LA’s image-obsessed, media-driven gloss. Along with Inherent Vice, I felt that I soaked in more here by living in LA for the past year, as knowing the geography of the city lent the action a new layer of immediacy (and lunacy) that I previously never could have appreciated.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (wr./dir. Wes Anderson) - Mr. Anderson continues to up his game and deliver the goods by melding the wide-eyed romanticism of Moonrise Kingdom with the sprawling weirdness of The Royal Tenenbaums. A hilarious, beautiful, magical journey.

Boyhood (wr./dir. Richard Linklater) - Takes a little time to find its tone and makes a few melodramatic missteps here and there, but it’s ultimately a tremendous achievement, reminiscent of Michael Apted’s 7 Up documentary series in its scope and delivery. Patricia Arquette is the story’s heart and soul, and the parallel line with Ethan Hawke’s dad progressing through “Manhood” is a brilliant character/story understroke.

Birdman: or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu) - A weird, fantastic, thoughtful meditation as well as a dizzying technical juggernaut. The winking script and turns by Keaton and Norton, especially, deliver punches that land over and over again, oftentimes with jabs directed at themselves. I was not exactly a fan of the “2nd ending” and did not dig Emma Stone here, but those are minor quibbles for an experience that was still probably my favorite of the year. 

Honorable Mention:

The Wind Rises (wr./dir. Hayao Miyazaki) - Any opportunity to watch Miyazaki’s genius on a large screen is a rewarding experience, and his latest (and probably final) was no exception. A slight notch below his masterpieces, it’s still a beautiful, wistful bow for a towering master.

Guardians of the Galaxy (dir. James Gunn) - Pure fun. Star Wars for a new generation?

Blue Ruin (wr./dir. Jeremy Saulnier) - Great gritty little indie revenge flick. Bullish brutality shaded with some interesting twists and emotional complexity.

The One I Love (dir. Charlie McDowell) - Another fun, twisty indie with a clever, sci-fi tinged concept, this time picking apart the minutiae of romantic relationships by holding up a mirror. Imperfect and strange, yet incredibly entertaining.

Only Lovers Left Alive (wr./dir. Jim Jarmusch) - A hip, sultry twist on the immortal ennui of vampires set amongst the crumbling ruins of Tangiers and Detroit.

The Raid 2 (wr./dir. Gareth Evans) - While it didn’t hit me in the face quite as hard as the first one that is only a slight fault. The fight scenes are just as brutal and impeccably choreographed. Total killer.

The Imitation Game (dir. Morten Tyldum) - Bandersnatch Camphorbinge (sp?) is impeccable as Alan Turing, WWII Enigma code-breaker, father of the computer, and one of the most important unsung, tragic figures of the last 100 years. Takes gross liberties with the true story, but still delivers exciting historical drama mixed with relevant social commentary.

Aaaaand for good measure -- with the caveat that I and have thus far boycotted The Interview and thankfully avoided Tusk -- the worst thing I managed to watch all year was...

Annie (dir. Will Gluck) - Next stop, Dudsville. Yeah, I watched it and while it doesn't take a genius to transition the story into the modern age it’s flat, pandering, and unimaginative. The remixed original songs lack heart and the new ones lack punch. All it took was Bobby Cannavale hamming it up and a quick cameo by Patricia Clarkson to remind me how much I would rather be watching The Station Agent...Or anything else really. Props to Rose Byrne for being the only one who looks like she’s having some fun with it.

I hear football and beer calling my name, so best wishes to all in the new year and more happy days ahead!

Breakneck Oscars Thing 2014

Well, a lot has happened since I last gave this space any attention, and I’m a little surprised it hasn’t up and run off with another fella. Hooray to the unending preservation of digital information. First things: I no longer live in the Midwest! After much deliberation I decided to take this show on the road and I have relocated to the City of Angels. I documented my cross-country trip with a GoPro Hero3 in tow and spent the first couple of months in California crashed on a buddy’s couch, looking for housing, starting the job search, and furiously cobbling together a travelogue/cinematic homage combining the resulting footage with my digitized film collection. I’m pretty proud of the end result, which I entitled “West & South,” so please click on through to ch-ch-check it out!

I’m back here because Oscar season is almost past, and I’ve been getting asked if a rundown is in order this year. This week was pretty busy -- I'm working long, fruitful days on a "demon horror fantasy noir" -- so I’m not going to be able watch the ceremony this year and won't be able to be as in-depth as last year. Hey, take what you can get, m'kay?

Here are the numbers:

• 57 different feature films and shorts received nominations this year... (of which I've seen 52)
• ...resulting in 121 total nominations (of which I can account for 116)
• Last year I was 43/52 and 113/122 last year, respectively, and was about 65% on predictions. (Annual caveat: I am always terrible at predicting the shorts.) 

The five nominees I haven't been able to see are:

• The Book Thief - nominated for Best Original Score
• Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom -- nominated for Best Original Song
• Ernest & Celestine - nominated for Best Animated Feature
• The Missing Picture -- nominated for Best Foreign Language Film
• Omar -- nominated for Best Foreign Language Film

While there are plenty of movies worth seeing, in my opinion this has been a fairly weak year at the top and will be a pretty tough year to predict. Additionally, since the expansion to 9+ best picture nominees a few years ago, this is the first time there were no standouts from either Foreign Language or Animation to earn any "Big 6*/9**" nominations and maybe foreshadow the category win (as has been the case the last few years with Amour (nominated for Best Pic, Actress, Director, Screenplay...won Best Foreign Language Film), A Separation (Best Original Screenplay nom...won Best FL Film), Toy Story 3 & Up (both had Best Pic and Screenplay noms...Best Animated Feature wins).

* Best Picture, Director, and the four acting categories...

** ...plus Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, and Cinematography

When necessary, as before, I will make a point to differentiate between my favorite and my prediction. And away we go!

Best Short Film, Live Action
Nominees:

• “Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?”
• “The Voorman Problem”
• “That Wasn’t Me”
• “Just Before Losing Everything”
• “Helium”

The first two are funny little crowd pleasers, and I especially loved the twisted simplicity of "The Voorman Problem." The other three take us into tough territory, with African child soldiers, domestic violence, and pediatric terminal illness on the plate, respectively. I'm going with the one that I felt unfolded the most compellingly, with slow, building tension.

Prediction: "Just Before Losing Everything"
 

Best Short Film, Animated
Nominees:

• “Feral”
• “Get a Horse!”
• “Mr. Hublot”
• “Possessions”
• “Room on the Broom”

I feel it's probably a two horse race, and Disney's "Horse!" is certainly the most widely seen, since it played theatrically in front of Frozen. It's a fast-paced whirlwind of classic cartoon gags, for sure, but it doesn't hold a candle to "Mr. Hublot's" detailed steampunk world-building and visual storytelling.

Prediction: "Mr. Hublot"

Best Documentary, Short Subject
Nominees:

• “Cavedigger”
• “Facing Fear”
• “Karama Has No Walls”
• “The Lady In Number 6”
• “Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall”

Alice Herz-Sommer, the subject of "The Lady in Number 6," just passed away last week at the age of 110, having survived the Holocaust while playing piano in a Czech concentration camp. Sympathy vote might help push it over "Karama Has No Walls," an absolutely astounding first-person video account of a turning point in the Yemeni uprising and a perfect companion piece to this year's essential feature documentary, The Square.

Prediction: "The Lady in Number 6"

Best Documentary, Feature

Nominees:

• The Act of Killing
• Cutie and the Boxer
• Dirty Wars
• The Square
• 20 Feet from Stardom

20 Feet from stardom is the mainstream, populist choice, but while it is great, it doesn't have the vitality and importance of the other two top contenders. As I just mentioned, The Square is absolutely breathtaking and a living, breathing document of a revolution that is cycling through triumphs and failures even as we speak. The Act of Killing is like no documentary I've ever seen, the closest being perhaps the bizarre, quintessential Japanese doc, The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On. While it pushes the envelope, it might be a tad too controversial for voters.

Additional note: All five nominees are streaming on Netflix, so I encourage everyone to check them out when you get a chance.

Want: The Act of Killing
Will: The Square

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Click through for score samples

Nominees:

• The Book Thief -- John Williams
• Gravity -- Steven Price
• Her -- William Butler, Andy Koyama
• Saving Mr. Banks -- Thomas Newman
• Philomena  -- Alexandre Desplat

Desplat is one of my favorites working these days, but there has been a recent turn to hip, young rock stars scoring hip, young films, and Arcade Fire did a pretty damn fine job with "Her," even if they were way better before they, like completely sold out and stuff. Gchuhh, I know, right?

Want: Philomena
Will: Her

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Nominees:

Despicable Me 2 -- “Happy"

Frozen -- "Let It Go"

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom -- "Ordinary Love"

Her -- "The Moon Song"

[Also, Nominated, then disqualified -- Alone Yet Not Alone -- "Alone Yet Not Alone" -- 
Read the story behind this controversy.]

I'd go with the breathy, twee simplicity of "The Moon Song," but it doesn't stand much of a chance against "Let it Go," the overwhelming powerhouse of an otherwise lukewarm Diz delivery.

Want: "The Moon Song"
Will: "Let it Go"

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
Nominees:

Gravity

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Captain Phillips

Inside Llewyn Davis

Lone Survivor

I strongly disagree with the sound design of Gravity because in real life sound doesn't travel in space. All of the dragons I've met, on the other hand, make an awful lot of noise.

Want: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Will: Gravity

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Nominees:

All Is Lost

Captain Phillips

Gravity

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Lone Survivor

Ditto, y'all.

Want: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Will: Gravity

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling
Nominees:

• Dallas Buyers Club
• Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
• The Lone Ranger

I'm actually working alongside a couple of Oscar-winning makeup artists on my current job, guys who specialize in truly amazing horror effects. This year will probably go a different direction, though, as the more realistic transformations of Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto through their disparate HIV+ experiences help make the film engrossing,

Want: Dallas Buyers Club
Will: Dallas Buyers Club

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Nominees:

• American Hustle
• The Great Gatsby
• 12 Years a Slave
• The Grandmaster
• The Invisible Woman

My favorite wardrobe choices of the year came from Her, so I was sad that it wasn't nominated. Grandpa pants, 4eva! As for the remaining nominees, possibly a win for American Hustle (Hooray cleavage!), but I'm leaning to one of the older period pieces in preference and prediction.

Want: 12 Years a Slave
Will: 12 Years a Slave

Best Achievement in Production Design
Nominees:

• 12 Years a Slave
• American Hustle
• Gravity
• The Great Gatsby
• Her

Again, I adored the design of Her, which used bold colors and quirky, minimalist details to envision the not-too-distant future in a unique yet believable way. That said, there are a lot of strong contenders in this one, and my prediction goes to Catherine Martin, who has already picked up an Oscar working with Baz Luhrmann on Moulin Rouge!, and this year added something extra to the garish decadence of the Roaring Twenties.

Want: Her
Will: The Great Gatsby

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Nominees:

• Gravity
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Iron Man 3
• The Lone Ranger
• Star Trek Into Darkness

As with Life of Pi last year, I wasn't as over the moon about Gravity as everybody else, but those criticisms lie mostly in the acting, pacing, and story departments, and the visual effects and technological creativity make for an otherworldly spectacle.

Want: Gravity
Will: Gravity

Best Achievement in Editing
Nominees:

• 12 Years a Slave -- Joe Walker
• American Hustle -- Alan Baumgarten, Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers
• Gravity -- Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger
• Captain Phillips -- Christopher Rouse
• Dallas Buyers Club -- Martin Pensa, John Mac McMurphy

Just when you thought the long-take was becoming blasé, this year breathed new life into it, with Gravity, 12 Years, and The Wolf of Wall Street, notably putting extended tracking shots to strong use. As a whole, however, editing should help drive the film forward while deftly keeping lots of threads together and not confusing the audience.

Want: American Hustle 
Will: Gravity

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Nominees:

• Gravity -- Emmanuel Lubezki
• Inside Llewyn Davis -- Bruno Delbonnel
• Nebraska -- Phedon Papamichael
• Prisoners -- Roger Deakins
• The Grandmaster -- Philippe Le Sourd

Special shout to Le Sourd and director Wong Kar Wai, an undisputed master but not normally thought of as an action director, who matched glowing canvases with some of the most breathtakingly lit fight scenes I've ever seen in The Grandmaster. In the rain. Whoa.

That said, I'm a sucker for Deakins, who is quickly turning into the Susan Lucci of cinematography...11th nomination without a win. He'll have to wait a little longer, as Lubzeki will bring this home for his revolutionary way of thinking inside the box.

Want: Prisoners
Will: Gravity

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Nominees:

• American Hustle -- Eric Singer, David O. Russell
• Blue Jasmine -- Woody Allen
• Her -- Spike Jonze
• Nebraska -- Bob Nelson
• Dallas Buyers Club -- Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack

I never do that great at picking the screenplay winners, but I'll narrow this down by saying there is no way in hell Woody Allen wins this year with all of the controversy surrounding him lately. Nebraska is great, but gets a wheel stuck spinning in the mud from time to time, so I think it's a three-way toss up between the other three.

Want: Her
Will: Dallas Buyers Club

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Nominees:

• Before Midnight -- Richard Linklater
• Captain Phillips -- Billy Ray
• 12 Years a Slave -- John Ridley
• The Wolf of Wall Street -- Terence Winter
• Philomena -- Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope

Possibly 12 Years a Slave, but instead I'm crossing my fingers for a special achievement award or sorts for Linklater's "Before Trilogy," perhaps the essential cinematic rumination of love of a generation.

Want: Before Midnight
Will: Before Midnight

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Nominees:

• The Croods
• Despicable Me 2
• Ernest & Celestine
• Frozen
• The Wind Rises

I thought Frozen was a little tepid compared to some of Disney's best works, and would love to see Miyazaki-san take home his second Oscar for what might be his last film at the helm.

Want: The Wind Rises
Will: Frozen

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Nominees:

• The Broken Circle Breakdown -- Felix Van Groeningen (Belgium)
• The Missing Picture -- Rithy Panh (Cambodia)
• The Hunt -- Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark)
• The Great Beauty -- Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)
• Omar -- Hany Abu-Assad (Palestine)

No clear-cut winner here, with the excellent The Hunt on the outside looking in at The Great Beauty, which can most succinctly be described as 21st century Fellini on crack, and The Broken Circle Breakdown, which is what you get when you mix Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with a terminally ill child, tattoos, dead birds, and bluegrass.

Want: The Broken Circle Breakdown
Will: The Great Beauty

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Nominees:

• Sally Hawkins for Blue Jasmine
• Julia Roberts for August: Osage County
• Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave
• Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle
• June Squibb for Nebraska

I will never again underestimate JLaw after last year, but I'm going a different direction anyway.

Want: Nyong'o
Will: Nyong'o

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Nominees:

• Barkhad Abdi for Captain Phillips
• Bradley Cooper for American Hustle
• Jonah Hill for The Wolf of Wall Street
• Michael Fassbender for 12 Years a Slave
• Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club

No question. Holy lock.

Want: Leto
Will: Leto

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Nominees:

• Christian Bale for American Hustle
• Bruce Dern for Nebraska
• Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street
• Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave
• Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club

Perhaps the biggest question mark of the show. I've been preaching Leo for a while now, but we're nearing post time and I'm hedging my bets on a razor thin margin.

Want: DiCaprio
Will: McConaughey

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Nominees:

• Amy Adams for American Hustle
• Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine
• Sandra Bullock for Gravity
• Judi Dench for Philomena
• Meryl Streep for August: Osage County

Meryl's just bein' Meryl as always, even if she wouldn't eat the fucking fish, bitch. In the meantime, dammit, can we give Amy Adams an Oscar already? She's up against it again this year, against a quartet of ladies who already have one. It's going to be Blanchett's, though, and deservedly so. (PS. Ugh: Bullock. Why?)

Want: Adams
Will: Blanchett

Best Achievement in Directing

Nominees:

• Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
• Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave
• David O. Russell for American Hustle
• Martin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street
• Alexander Payne for Nebraska

I see another two-way race between two young visionaries, and the innovation and absolute jaw-dropping spectacle pushing the director's award to Gravity.

Want: McQueen
Will: Cuarón

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Nominees:

• American Hustle
• Captain Phillips
• Dallas Buyers Club
• Gravity
• Her
• Nebraska
• Philomena
• 12 Years a Slave
• The Wolf of Wall Street

Her was my favorite film of the year, hands down. It's not a perfect film and definitely won't connect with everybody, but it's fully realized in all of the little details and delivers love and laughter and social commentary and heartbreak and fantasy and reality in a sparkling, beautiful package.

12 Years a Slave, though, is the best film made this year, and the most important.

A breakthrough triumph for arguably the best up-and-coming director making movies these days.

Want: Her
Will: 12 Years a Slave

Whew, just made it. Enjoy the show!

Hair Slicked Back, Wayfarers On

The summer theme continues as I somehow avoided the worst of the rainfall and took in a Monday matinee of 2013 Sundance entry The Kings of Summer, the feature film debut of director Jordan Vogt-Roberts. Fifteen year old best buds Joe and Patrick (Nick Robinson and Gabriel Basso) decide to ditch their annoying parents for the summer and go Thoreau, running away to build a secluded ramshackle cabin in a clearing in the woods with their tagalong weirdo pal Biaggio (Moises Arias).

Ostensibly a run-of-the-mill coming-of-age flick, it manages to tickle all the right parts of my funny bone with the supporting cast, notably familiar faces Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Alison Brie. Through debut writer Chris Galletta and (I'm guessing) a fair amount of improv, the straight-faced non-sequiturs fly fast and furious, led by the scene-stealing Arias (of "Hannah Montana" fame), whose character manages to channel a mini-Galifianakis, out-of-left-field vibe that keeps things light even when the proceedings get pointy and grim.

Cinematographer Ross Riege squeezes the most out of the the gorgeousness of the settings, guiding the action through vibrant sunny fields, glistening riverbanks, and lush forests with the eye of a true outdoorsman. When combined with the overabundance of here-and-gone montage sequences of the boys' adventures, however, I get the feeling that the time spent pitching style could have been better spent in developing the characters and the substance of the story, which is rather flimsy and haphazard at times, and frankly a little misogynistic. The Kings of Summer is a boy-centric, Lord of the Flies-lite with a snarky heart, but a smart, lovely little summer flick, nonetheless.
79/100



Tuesday, I felt like this pretty much all day:

Hey, even during the Summer of Jim, some days are just gonna eat you alive

Once I shook off the shark, the newest Noah Baumbach entry awaited me on Wednesday. Frances Ha, co-written by and starring Greta Gerwig, is another witty navel-gazer from the director of Kicking and Screaming and The Squid and the Whale. Frances is a wandering soul, a dancer in NYC who can't quite manage to lock down her dream job or affordable living arrangements. She is awkward, impulsive, outspoken and prone to over-drink. Her friends winkingly refer to her as "un-datable," despite her Ingrid Bergman-esqe beauty.

As a portrait of a rootless twenty-something with grand ambition but still seeking direction, Frances Ha straddles the line between her dreams and reality in a way that is both cautionary and celebratory. Her evasions and delusions can be sad and dangerous, but sometimes they are absolutely necessary, forces that can either throw her into blind adventures or enable her to swallow her pride to step back and make hard choices. She looks around and realizes that she and her friends are maturing into "grown ups" at different rates -- if at all -- and whether it is healthy to push back against this maturation process to hold onto a nostalgia of youthful idealism is a powerfully resonant theme.

Shot in (sometimes too-dark) black and white and off-the-cuff in the streets and parks of New York, it immediately recalls the visual sensibility of the French New Wave, early Jim Jarmusch, and especially Woody Allen's Manhattan. With the focus on the trials of a liberated NY chick, comparisons to Lena Dunham's series "Girls" are also inevitable (they even share a lead actor). Here, sometimes the characters go too far off on the quirky/hipstery tangents, but they are rounded out with heart and humor and are pretty likable, and the cringe-worthiness is kept pretty minimal.

While it has a loose, ephemeral feel to it, Frances Ha was meticulously scripted and directed, and Gerwig's lead turn is nothing short of phenomenal. During one close-up monologue, she travels through what seems like a hundred different subtle quirks and facial expressions within the space of about a minute, a mastery of character detail and delivery.

Oh hey, and there's always room for a little Bowie.

83/100

Sinking and Spinning

Majorly major things are happening in my neck of the woods. I've quit my job after 13 years in the drug trade, and I'm planning to take my man Horace Greeley's advice and go to the west. Things are still developing, but I'm excited as all get out and taking advantage of some prime free-time before the relocation. This summer just keeps getting crazier and crazier.

Ow! Two Points!

After a fuming exit from work on Tuesday -- my antepenultimate day on the job -- I swung by the Michigan to take advantage of an opportunity to see Vertigo, part of their Summer Classics Film Series. This marks the fourth time I've seen Hitchcock's masterpiece but the first on the big screen and it was well worth it. The restored transfer was absolutely gorgeous. The colors were extremely lush and vibrant, crucial for a film so steeped in the symbolic use of reds and greens.

Despite its lofty acclaim, this is not my personal favorite Hitchcock. In fact, I would probably list North by Northwest, Psycho, Rebecca, and Rear Window in that order before getting around to Vertigo. The deliberate pacing can be a bit of a drag at times, and to be honest I have a hard time accepting the love connection between Scottie and Madeline/Judy. When his repeated makeover efforts cause her frustration to reach a breaking point and she finally concedes

Judy: If I let you change me, will that do it?
        If I do what you tell me, will you love me?

it diminishes the scene into a moment of hysterics and out-of-time feminine weakness that elicited quite a bit of laughter from the modern audience, and I was cringing and laughing right along with them.

That said, there's no denying the lasting impact of Vertigo, as Hitchcock uses every visual trick in his arsenal, From the dizzying opening credits and the harrowing interstitial sequence, to elaborate circling tracking shots with disorienting background changes, and of course the the revolutionary contra-zoom. Even the simple compositions are downright majestic.

This Summer Cray

Just because I'm feeling ecstatic about my life today, and because the world cannot have enough One Crazy Summer gifs. More to come, people!

(click embiggens)

A Few Lists and You Get the Gists

Three months since last post? Damn, sorry, y'all. I actually had a pretty good run of movie watching after the Oscars, but it was all watching and no writing, for some reason. I took a step away from current releases and, like Inigo Montoya after the job went wrong, I went back to the beginning.

I assume that most cinephiles have some sort of personal checklist of movies they want to see, even if it is just a mental list. Mine is slightly more organized. Sorry, that's a lie. It's obsessively organized, and spreads across dozens of individual lists culled from various books, news sources, and websites. (filmsite.org has a great compilation of such lists). I keep things broad enough to cover everything from major directors to Maxim Magazine's favorite "Guy Movies," from everything ever released by Criterion to silent classics and cult favorites, and any film that's been awarded a major Oscar.

My personal baby, my "master" list, is one that I started around 1999, my freshman year in college, and is a compilation from major lists of films that are considered must see. It was the impetus of the list-craziness. I always add some of the best films from each year, new stuff that slips into (and sometimes right out of, the Top 250 on IMDb (my internet Dead Sea Scrolls, fanboys be damned) along with every film nominated by the Academy for Best Picture, some of which I loudly grumble when I am forced to add...I'm looking at you, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Ugh. But rules are rules, even if they are self-issued, arbitrary and often ridiculous. The list hit 1000 around 2007, and has since ballooned to the tune of 1154. If you want, you can check out my original 1K, warts and all. Yellow = I've seen it.

Still a little way to go, but it feels like I'm in the homestretch on this thing. I typically come back to this master list to find something when I need a reboot of viewing inspiration, but this time instead of being picky-choosy, I basically started from the top and ticked off things I hadn't yet seen by working alphabetically, managing to close out everything through the C's, with the exception of a couple of hard-to-find pieces.

Kanal

Some quick highlights from the last few months, which had a mostly international flavor: 
Having seen A Generation (1954) a few years ago, I finished Polish director Andrzej Wajda's "War Trilogy." First, the claustrophobic masterpiece Kanal (1956) follows an isolated squadron through one final battle and their subsequent attempt to evade capture (or worse) by slogging through the city sewers, led by a ragtag group of underground fighters, notably Daisy, one of the most badass women ever depicted on screen. Their physical and emotional descent takes an exhausting toll, and the result is harrowing and fatalistic. 93/100

The final piece of the trilogy, Ashes and Diamonds (1958), is a free-flowing, existential examination of the post-war experience, depicting a cross-section of characters reacting to the cease-fire with various states of mourning, celebration, and continued defiance. A poetic reflection from a nation still rebuilding and attempting to reclaim its identity, with an explosive, James Dean-like lead performance by Zbigniew Cybulski as a resistance fighter tormented by his final mission. 80/100

Closely Watched Trains

Closely Watched Trains (1966) - An essential piece of the 1960's Czech/Slovak New Wave by Jiří Menzel, this bawdy, coming of age story provided a nice palate-cleanser to Ashes and Diamonds. It manages similar themes of political unrest and occupation, national identity, and existential malaise with colorful characters and black humor, but is tinged with moments that pack an emotional punch. 82/100

Come and See (1985) - Elem Klimov's controversial depiction of the WWII Belarussian genocide is one of the most brutal depictions of war I've come across. If you thought Atreyu had it bad in the Swamps of Sadness, you ain't seen nothing yet. 90/100





Away from the list there was some new blood, too, both good and bad:

I mean, right?

Evil Dead  (2013)- The new reboot of Sam Raimi's unimpeachable cult trilogy is loads of gory fun but lacks the cheekiness that elevated Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. Bruce Campbell is irreplaceable. Still worth a look for horror fans, but I preferred The Cabin in the Woods (2012), a cutting genre deconstruction that tosses the humor and horror into a blender, pumps it through a hose, and sprays it all over audience expectations.
Evil Dead: 72/100
Cabin in the Woods: 81/100












Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)/Man of Steel (2013) - I'll go ahead and lump these together because I felt approximately the same about both of them: incredible visual spectacle, good popcorn-munching summer diversion, but wanting for some originality in the story department. Trek sufferes from relying on all sorts of all-too-familiar constructs -- The baddie behind bars who is really in complete control; the not-so subtle flipping and subsequent copping-out of the Wrath of Khan heartstring-tugger; the "good" superior officer with hidden hawkish motives a la General Jack Ripper (I'm telling ya, just have Peter Weller replace "communist" with "Klingon"). Man of Steel, on the other hand, lacks the snappy dialogue and character interplay and doles out Kal-El's internal and external struggles with a heavy hand, repeatedly relying on short, distracting flashbacks to shoehorn in character motives whenever necessary. The singleminded villainy of General Zod (Michael Shannon) makes for a few fun, overly ridiculous set pieces, but it becomes a little tiresome watching indestructible people batter one another over and over and over...and over and over again without anyone getting tired or hurt. In the end, these are movies designed to put buts in seats and dollars in pockets, but they aren't going to change the way we think about Sci-Fi and Superheroes.
Star Trek: 65/100
Man of Steel: 61/100

How fast'll she run? That depends on who's around.

February was pretty productive given the run up to the Academy Awards. I took a little time off writing this week as I caught up on some TV shows I'd been neglecting and started watching Berlin Alexanderplatz. A mix of pleasure and self-flagellation. I've had this dude on the back-burner for a little while. A must-see:

Two-Lane Blacktop (1971, Dir. Monte Hellman) --94/100--

The Driver: James Taylor (yes, that James Taylor.)

The Mechanic: Dennis Wilson (yes, that Dennis Wilson.) 

The Trusty Steed: A souped-up steel-gray stallion of a ’55 Chevy. 

Damn. I think it’s safe to say, looking back, that the car is waaay more badass than either of its pilots. 

The boys roam from town to town hustling pickup races for their nigh unbeatable beast. The irascible Warren Oates steals the show as the shit-talking pilot of a shiny new, canary-yellow GTO, with an always-changing backstory and an ever-evolving destination. The boys prod GTO into a mano a mano cross-country race for pink slips, with frequent stops to navel-gaze the American condition. As usual, a free-spirited girl (Laurie Bird, aka "The Girl") gets involved, rattles their brotherhood, and basically louses up the works.

Given the basic sketch of the story, it's important to note that this is not a Cannonball Run deal where wild car chases and unrealistic stunts win the day, and by the end we're not really concerned who wins the race. The real drive, where the rubber meets the road, is in the constantly shifting dynamics between the four main characters. Through numerous booze and repair-induced pit stops, brushes with the cops, and run-ins with untrusting locals, the boys connect with GTO, then disconnect just as quickly, and we get a unique glimpse at their outsider perspective.

Often considered an also-ran to Easy Rider, in my opinion Two-Lane Blacktop runs right with it as a document of the wayward wandering of youth as symbolized by motorheads rambling out on the open road. Mostly uninterested in drug culture, by eschewing psychedelica in favor of growling engines offset with doses of quiet introspection it delivers a raw, honest rootlessness. It is an entirely essential piece of the Man Canon. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go check the points. Color me gone, baby!