According to Dave Poland these are the films to watch as awards contenders
Charlie Wilson's War,
Che,
Elizabeth 2: The Golden Age,
Things We Lost In The Fire,
The Savages,
American Gangster,
Margaret,
Sweeney Todd,
Love In the Time Of Cholera,
Reservation Road,
The Kite Runner,
The Other Boleyn Girl,
Youth Without Youth,
Synecdoche, New York,
Lust, Caution,
The Feast Of Love,
The Brave One,
Margot At The Wedding,
Eastern Promises
To which I would add
There Will be Blood
Lions For Lambs
The Golden Compass
Zodiac
Toissant
Grace is Gone
Reign Over Me
Away From Her
Rescue Dawn
Jindabyne
Mr. Brooks
Evening
Knocked Up (screenplay)
Martian Child
Hairspray
Stardust
Becoming Jane
Atonement
Trade
Michael Clayton
Across the Universe
Beowulf
Leatherheads
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Margot at the Wedding
scratch Zodiac off that list in the post above this.
David Fincher's latest film is memorable as the first all digital (no tape, no film, only data workflow) film to be produced. Beautifully shot with the Thomson Viper (a joy to work with, btw), the film looks incredible. The opening titles are vintage, and immediately set the tone back to the seventies.
But the film is overlong and rather procedural, it has none of the sizzle or tightness of All the President's Men or Serpico, although the film has it's moments where it's almost there. Trimmed of ten or twenty minutes this film could be mesmerizing.
As it is it's frustratingly uneven as a script and as a final product. It's all over the place (literally, it spans 30 years).
What saves the film are four utterly wonderful performances. Jake Gyllenhall in a career best as an awkward, unimposing cartoonist who becomes gradually consumed by the case being studied all around him in the offices of the San Franciso Chronicle. Chloe Sevigny thanklessly playing an underwritten woman (this is a fincher movie, it's a triumph there's even a woman in it), but improves the whole film from her presence in her scenes with Gyllenhaal. Robert Downey Jr, at first looking much like Al Pacino in Serpico, and coming across like Dustin Hoffman in All the President's Men, before his character descends into scenery chewing land. And the best for last, an absolutely superb performance that drives the entire film and causes the whole movie to work just on the sake of the skill and determination of the performer, Mark Ruffalo. Ruffalo, not Fincher, is the main reason the film isn't a disaster, it's an incredible piece of work.
I really want to rate this higher, but the film works against itself in the third act by going the oh so typical indy film route.
Gray and Sam are brother and sister, a year or two apart, they're inseperable, codependent and do everything together. And both are single. They make an agreement to find dates for each other, and while out on their morning run, Gray spies Charlotte (Charley), strikes up a conversation and promptly introduces her to Sam. They hit it off and before you know it the trio is flying to Vegas so Sam and Charley can get married. Gray is NOT pleased, she and Charley get extremely drunk on a girls night out before the wedding and suddenly Gray and Charley are kissing. Gray is freaked out, Charley doesn't remember it and suddenly her whole world is turned upside down.
The performances are excellent, the script is brilliant, smart and funny, bordering on the 'too clever' side of things, but never really crossing over. Molly Shannon does a good supporting job playing the Rosie ODonnell role, but goes a bit too far into Molly Shannon land, instead of actually acting like the rest of the troupe. The film earns it's laughs and emotions, in fact it's one of the best romantic comedies since Sleepless in Seattle... until....
Spoiler:
Gray, who has apparently never before had any stirrings or attractions towards women, decides she is gay (her psychiatrist suggests she was subconsciously trying to undermine her brother's marraige because she was afraid of it changing their relationship). Dumps on the best relationship in the movie, with her friend Gordy, played brilliantly by Alan Cumming, and hooks up with a coworker at a gay bar. this AFTER the movie had specifically pointed out the problems with meeting people at bars. And we're supposed to believe a night of meaningless sex and losing her gay virginity is supposed to be a triumph for this character we've come to care about so much through the brilliant writing of the first two acts? The film really works against itself because it decides to be blase instead of daring, it goes for the incredibly typical indy film 'i'm gay I've got to come out and find myself, my new gay identity will be based on meaningless sex, not relationships' approach. A truly original film would have had her NOT be gay, or at least bi, which would be as Shocking a move in today's film world, as having a main character realize they're gay in the films of the 60s or 70s. The film is strongly influenced by Billy Wilder, and fans of his films should definitely check this out, it's the rare worthy romantic comedy.
The other problem with making Gray gay is that it turns the end of the film into a message movie, this results in a poigant elevator scene that simply goes on LONG after it already made it's point. And she truly is a gray character, so transforming her sexuality into a black or white issue undoes a lot of character development that was rather subtly and brilliantly accomplished earlier in the film. It's a rare thing that a movie this good could sabotage itself so completely in the third act, but it's more than worth seeing, in fact this would almost be one of my favorite modern movies.
Caught the press screening tonight for Amazing Grace. It can be rather brute force filmmaking at times, but then again it's a rather brute force subject matter. It helped that I'd read Equiano's slave narrative a couple weeks ago, as he was a key character in the film.
Albert Finney has the most moving role, but it's Gambon that steals the film with all the knowing humor and whimsical eccentricity he generally fails to bring to Dumbledore. Ioan Gruffudd reminds us that he can, after all, act.
20th Century Fox/Fox 2000 “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer”
"The Dark is Rising" “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium”
Fox Searchlight Pictures “Margaret” “The Namesake” “The Savages” “Sunshine” “Waitress”
Columbia Pictures “Across the Universe” “The Other Boleyn Girl” “Reign Over Me” “Vantage Point” “The WaterHorse”
Sony Pictures Classics “And When Did You Last See Your Father?” “The Children of Huang Shi” “The Jane Austen Book Club”
First Look International “An American Crime” “King of California”
Lionsgate Films “Away from Her” “Bug” “Tenderness” “Trade”
Metero-Goldwyn-Meyer/United Artists “1408” “Feast of Love” “Hannibal Rising” “Killshot” “Lars and the Real Girl” “Lions for Lambs” “Married Life” “The Nanny Diaries” “Rescue Dawn”
Miramax Films “Becoming Jane” “Gone, Baby, Gone” “The Hoax” “The Lookout” “Smart People”
Paramount Pictures/Dreamworks SKG
“Bee Movie”
“Beowulf”
“Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight”
“Stardust”
“Things We Lost in the Fire”
“Transformers”
“Untitled Kimberly Pierce Project”
“Zodiac”
Paramount Vantage
“Into the Wild”
“The Kite Runner”
“Margot at the Wedding”
“A Mighty Heart”
“No Country for Old Men”
“There Will Be Blood”
“Year of the Dog”
THINKFilm “The Ten”
“The TV Set”
Universal Pictures
“American Gangster”
“The Bourne Ultimatum”
“Charlie Wilson’s War”
“Evan Almighty”
“Georgia Rule”
“The Golden Age”
“The Kingdom”
"Leatherheads"
“We Own the Night”
Focus Features
“Atonement”
“Be Kind Rewind”
“Eastern Promises”
“Evening”
“Lust, Caution”
“Reservation Road”
“Talk to Me”
Walt Disney Pictures/Buena Vista Pictures/Touchstone Pictures “Bridge to Terabithia”
“Dan in Real Life”
“Enchanted”
“The Invisible”
“Meet the Robinsons”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End”
“Ratatouille”
Warner Bros. Pictures “300”
“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”
“August Rush”
“The Brave One”
“The Bucket List”
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”
“I Am Legend”
“Lucky You”
“Michael Clayton”
“No Reservations”
“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”
Warner Independent Pictures
“The Astronaut Farmer”
“Clubland”
“Funny Games”
“In the Valley of Elah”
New Line Cinema “His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass”
“Love in the Time of Cholera”
“The Martian Child”
“Pride and Glory”
“Rendition”
Picturehouse Entertainment “A Dog Year”
“El Cantante”
“La Môme”
“Silk”
The Weinstein Company “Awake”
“Dedication”
“Grace is Gone”
“Grindhouse”
“I’m Not There”
“My Blueberry Nights”
“Sicko”
No Current Domestic Distribution “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”
“Broken English”
“Cassandra’s Dream”
“Chapter 27”
“Closing the Ring”
“Dark Matter”
“The Girl in the Park”
“Golda’s Balcony”
“In Bloom”
“Lonely Hearts”
“Manolete”
“Savage Grace”
“Spinning Into Butter”
“Untitled Alan Ball Project”
“The Walker”
“Youth Without Youth”
I'm not the biggest fan of Anchorman or Talladega Nights, I think the soccer movie Farrell did was abyssmal, and one of the worst movies I've seen. Both Anchorman and Talladega Nights are on again off again funny. Anchorman is the worse film of the two, only occasionally funny but often in the land of 'notvery funny--flopping--SNL sketches that go on too long' Talladega Nights is a tighter film, but has a lot of the same, though not to the overwhelming degree of Anchorman.
Blades of Glory has none of that up and down, it is consistently funny throughout, right up until the tremendously silly ending. In many respects, I think this is due to John Heder, who is a perfect foil for Will Farrell. Farrell's affected naivete is only partially successful much of the time, whereas Heder's seems more genuine and real world, less dependent on mood swings and sudden shouting, outrageous verbiage etc, however it's often limited to weird, sad, geeky quirkiness. But combined the two are as brilliant a comic team as Farley and Spade or Carrey and Bridges. They generate all the energy the film needs to succeed and because the film is tight and focused, and logically progresses from moment to moment this is possibly Will Farell's best Will Farell comedy yet.
And if you've ever watched figure skating this is both a brilliant parody and at times a clever satire (though more parody than satire), the film has a lot more content to work with and plays it up, and it deserves an oscar nomination for the genius costume design, one of the highlights of the film that really takes it to the next level.
Blades of Glory doesn't take itself too seriously and has it's share of silly gags, but they are better handled here than in any prior Will Farell film.
Added Bridge to Terabithia, Reno 911!: Miami, and Black Snake Moan. The first and last are four star films, which bodes REALLY well for 2007 in cinema.
