The straight man-fat man road trip routine has been done before (see “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”), but just because John Hughes milked that cow first doesn’t mean he milked it dry. There’s still plenty of humor left in the sub-genre, and “Due Date” manages to find quite a bit of it. With Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis in great comic form, director Todd Phillips of “The Hangover” fame makes a movie that really delivers in the laugh department.
All plausibility is thrown out the window as Peter (Downey) makes an all-too-difficult return voyage home to Los Angeles for the birth of his child. Each step of the way is only made more challenging by aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis), a magnet for disaster with no filter blocking thoughts from words. As they traverse across America with a coffee can of his father’s ashes and his carry-on sized pooch Sonny, Ethan’s ineptitude makes sure Peter won’t arrive prematurely for the due date of his wife (Michelle Monaghan).
The situations are fairly well-crafted, ranging from a grumpy Western Union employee played by the always hilarious Danny McBride to Jamie Foxx as a smooth-talking Texan football player. There are also plenty of conflicts with national security from the TSA to Border Patrol to keep things interesting too.
But what saves “Due Date” from being average and raises it to the level of decent entertainment is the talent of its stars Downey and Galifianakis. They inject the movie with their hilariously polar opposite personalities, and their sheer presence is enough to garner multiple outrageous bursts of laughter. Galifianakis particularly lights up the screen with his dynamite energy, and he shows that his ability to spin little lines into comedic gold is not limited to the character Alan in “The Hangover.” With him in full gear, there’s no shortage of laughs here. Cheap, sure, but nonetheless, laughs. B /
I realize that I am totally powerless to do anything about this issue, but that won’t stop me from voicing my opinion.
It’s such a nuisance when I’m at a movie and can hear what’s playing in the theater next to me. This is mainly a problem when I’m seeing quieter movies like comedies or dramas and next door there’s an action movie playing, which always promises plenty of loud bangs and explosions. If I pay for a movie, I want to see AND hear just what I paid for, not what someone else paid for.
So I guess this really only goes out to builders of new movie theaters: make your walls THICKER and more soundproof! Not that anyone’s making them in this economy…
Back in June, I wrote a polarizing piece suggesting that “Shutter Island” could be a legitimate player in the Best Picture race. In the poll, most people thought that was a big pot of croc. But what if the February release that we should be looking out for is Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer?”
For many of the same reasons “Shutter Island” is being considered, we should consider this movie. It has the name of high-prestige director on its masthead who has been rewarded by the Academy in the past decade (2002 for “The Pianist”). It has critical support; both movies received identical BFCA scores of 81. It is an audience-pleasing thriller that keeps you closely tied into the action until the conclusion.
But unlike “Shutter Island,” there is an aura of controversy surrounding “The Ghost Writer.” Timed almost simultaneously with the movie’s stateside release was Roman Polanski’s arrest overseas for the statutory rape he fled the United States for decades ago. The director instantly became a topic of heated conversation. Should he face justice, or be pardoned after all these years? No matter what you think, the debate put Polanski into a very present mainstream consciousness. As Sasha Stone put it in her excellent piece Cinema Paranoia, “there was no room, nor any invitation, to look at ‘The Ghost Writer’ [after the hysteria].”
The Hollywood community flocked to Polanski’s side, and it will be interesting to see where this support goes in Oscar season. The movie took an unexpected resonance in the face of the controversy, and I think it added a different dimension to the experience. It certainly brought out a great deal of passion in certain people, and as Guy Lodge of In Contentionpondered, “progressive media loyalty to Polanski may have gone into overdrive … [I] wonder whether the director’s band of supporters in the Academy might show up for the film come nomination time — despite its low profile and early release date.”
“The Ghost Writer” has already racked up several impressive feats this year that could bode well for it during the long season ahead. Back in February, Polanski won Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival. Over the summer, FIPRESCI, the international critics’ association, named it their best movie of 2010; their previous choices have included art-house favorites “Magnolia” and Best Picture nominee “There Will Be Blood.” At the beginning of November, it received seven nominations for the European Film Awards, more than any other movie.
It remains to be seen whether these accomplishments or the controversy will amount to anything substantial in terms of Oscars. What happens in Europe doesn’t necessarily reflect American tastes. I think if the movie can get some support from critics groups, which isn’t too far-fetched given its 83% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 77 on Metacritic, “The Ghost Writer” could gain some significant traction for one of the bottom 5 Best Picture nominations and perhaps even an out-of-nowhere Best Director nomination. Some have even speculated that Olivia Williams, who plays the wife of the former Prime Minister, could play into the Best Supporting Actress race. Given the volatile field there, I wouldn’t discount her if the film starts to catch on.
Worth nothing as well: a below-the-line nomination could also be in store for composer Alexandre Desplat, who was recently awarded Composer of the Year at the World Soundtrack Awards. However, he also has scores in play for “The King’s Speech” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the former of which is probably much more Academy friendly than “The Ghost Writer.” I haven’t listened to the score from the ultra-baity English flick, but I will say that Desplat’s score was one of my favorite parts of the movie and is very deserving of a nomination.
The general consensus is that this isn’t one of Polanski’s best, but is “not his best” better than “really good” from lesser filmmakers? We’ll find out.
BEST BETS FOR NOMINATIONS: Best Supporting Actress (Williams), Best Original Score
OTHER POSSIBLE NOMINATIONS: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay
This post is coming about two months too late thanks to difficulties with my household scanner, but back in September, my reviews were put into print for the first time! I submitted two of my reviews to the editor of my school newspaper, and sure enough, they ran them!
So here are my reviews of “Easy A” and “The American” on paper! Perhaps this is only the beginning…
At 18, I’m probably a little young to be using the phrase “they don’t make ’em like this anymore,” but I can’t help but have it come to mind when talking about “Black Swan.” Simply put, Darren Aronofsky’s brilliant directorial artistry has culminated in a stunning masterpiece that is unmatched in vision or ambition by anything that cinema has churned out in a long time.
It’s so bold and daring that to call it wowing simply doesn’t do the experience justice. Aronofsky weaves together the beauty of ballet with the terror of psychological meltdown with such nimble grace that it leaves you reeling long after leaving the theater.
There’s really no one else but Aronofsky who could pull off a big, brassy movie like this. He’s simply the best visual filmmaker out there. As if his first two movies, “Pi” and “Requiem for a Dream,” weren’t powerful enough, “Black Swan” is Aronofsky in full bloom, showing absolute command of all cinematic vocabulary. There is no boundary too sacred or stiff for him to toy with, and he doesn’t so much push them as he does eradicate them. Thus, “Black Swan” isn’t just a victory for Aronofsky and the rest of the crew; it’s a victory for the craft of filmmaking as we know it.
The film is chalked full of imagery, symbolism, and visual motifs that jump off the frame and into your lap. It’s so clear that Aronofsky is intimately involved in sculpting every frame and every moment down to the colors of the room. His presence is terrifyingly arresting, and it feels like he himself is reaching out to grab your heart and pump it at a million beats per minute. The racing begins in the first scene and doesn’t let up even when the credits roll.
Yesterday, I finished David Sedaris’ “When You Are Engulfed in Flames,” well over a year after I first picked it up. For some strange reason, last week I just had this insatiable mental impetus to devour a book. I found Sedaris’ collection of hilarious essays nestled in my bookcase and decided to start over and bask in his humor once again.
The whole movie blogging gig really does keep me away from books. As I wrote back in Random Factoid #352
I really do love to read, and I used to use my free time to do a whole lot more of it. It’s such a therapeutic thing for me to do, and it’s great for building vocabulary as well. I have a huge bookshelf in my room filled with shelves of books I haven’t read. I really do intend to get to them some day, but it’s hard to find the time.
And reading is another thing that gets pushed to the side doing movie blogging (like TV, which I described in Random Factoid #259). It’s so hard to resist the temptation to get the full satisfaction of watching a plot arc develop in around two hours in a movie, while it takes days and days to read through a book. Reading a book has less immediate gratification, something I’m constantly told my generation has a problem with.
I feel compelled after reading a whole book of Sedaris that without him, the Random Factoid feature and the abundant humor (at least I hope) within might not be present at all. I’ve certainly learned a lot about how to have a present and booming voice through his writing, and I certainly try to emulate through the Random Factoids the laughs I get from reading him. These posts usually receive the most comments and feedback of anything I do on this site; I think it’s because I try to make this blog a very personal thing, and the Random Factoids are the least formal, most Marshall things I write.
So, what should you get from this post? 1) Thank David Sedaris, 2) Read David Sedaris, and 3) Keep reading me!
(For those curious, my reading craze is still going on. I’m currently devouring George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and will then move on to either Jeffrey Eugenides’ “The Virgin Suicides” or Steig Larsson’s “The Girl Who Played With Fire.”)
It’s Black Friday! While my shopping today was limited to Amazon.com, there’s something more to celebrate … IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME! (Officially, at least!)
What better way to celebrate than by watching a Christmas movie? May I propose “Love Actually,” my pick for this week’s “F.I.L.M.” It gets you in the holiday spirit like no other with its abundant tales of all sorts of different loves in the Christmas season. This isn’t a traditional Christmas movie in the tradition of “Elf” or “The Santa Clause,” but the holiday plays such an integral role in the storyline that it’s hard to call it anything else. It reminds you of the joys of the Christmas season so well that it’s become a sort of traditional holiday kick-off for my family.
Platonic love, impossible love, irresponsible love, mourning love, familial love, interlingual love, desperate love – you name it, this movie offers it. Some might call it overambitious or cluttered, but I think Richard Curtis’ script is an enormously satisfying blend of love that makes flawless connections between its characters. He packs the movie full of humor and heart, tied with a bow of such irresistible charm that you’ll wish every gift under the Christmas tree could provide such joy.
All your favorite Brits (and Laura Linney) are feeling the bliss and pain of love in overdrive with all the madness surrounding the holidays catches them. The perpetually single Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) is undeniably attracted to one of the women working for him (Martine McCutcheon), which makes for a difficult situation. The clumsy writer Jamie (Colin Firth) finds himself falling for his Portuguese housekeeper while working France, despite the fact that neither can speak the same language.
Sarah (Linney) is madly in love with her co-worker Karl (Rodrigo Santoro) but can never work up the courage to say anything. Daniel (Liam Neeson) is mourning the death of his long-suffering wife while trying to help his young stepson get noticed by his crush. Karen (Emma Thompson) is trying to put on a happy face for her family while her husband (Alan Rickman) isn’t being entirely honest about his affairs.
And playing behind it all, there’s washed-up and rehabbed rock star Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) trying to reclaim his former glory by shamelessly converting an old song into Christmas jam, “Christmas Is All Around.” He’s a hilariously self-depracating mess, making ill-advised remarks like, “Kids, don’t buy drugs; become a celebrity and they’ll give them to you for FREE!” Nighy delivers one of those divine, once-in-a-decade comedic performances, and he absolutely steals the movie.
I didn’t even touch on about half of the storylines in the story, not to mention the subplots. There’s just so much there for everyone in “Love Actually” that it’s practically irresistible. While you might not click with one storyline, there are a dozen others that you are bound to love! Like the poster says, it’s the “ultimate romantic comedy,” and you’ll be amazed at how entertaining and fun Richard Curtis and his army of British actors can make the dying genre.
Remember back in September when I called “The King’s Speech” one of the Oscar frontrunners, suggesting it could even win Best Picture? Most of the “Gurus o’ Gold” have it pegged to win today, the day of its United States release.
But clearly no one in the blogosphere was too excited about it back in September. To be honest, I’m only tepidly excited now as I think this looks like typical Oscar bait with nothing very new on the table.
In September, I wrote about Tom Hooper’s movie:
After the win at Toronto, it’s riding a sort of front-runner status (although “The Social Network” managed to steal some thunder after many rave reviews popped up). The People’s Choice Award certainly correlates more to the Oscars than the Venetian Golden Lion. They have picked three Best Picture winners – “Slumdog Millionaire,” “American Beauty,” and “Chariots of Fire” – and plenty more nominees including “Precious,” “Life is Beautiful,” and “Shine.” The award hasn’t been entirely effective in predicting Academy tastes, but it’s been very close in recent years. ”The King’s Speech” has to be considered a big contender, though, by virtue of winning.
… there’s a chance that “The King’s Speech” has had its moment in the sun. But there’s certainly nothing wrong with being at the top of the list for the moment, and many have speculated that Best Picture may come down to “old school Academy play versus a Gen-Y instant classic.” I’d say given the fact that it’s a light drama with an acceptable amount of bait, it’s a pretty good bet for Best Picture and thus Best Director.
Two months later, not much has changed in the race, and not much will unless “True Grit” arrives in a blaze of thunder. The poll I placed at the end of the post asked if “The King’s Speech” would win Best Picture, and it only received one vote saying “no.” Until the critics chime in with their take in December, I’m remaining on the side of “The Social Network” simply because it seems like the Oscars are going more “movie of the moment” with Best Picture than “movie of a moment” like they traditionally did.
For an interesting take on this development, I recommend you check out Nathaniel Rogers’ full post at The Film Experience elaborating on the trend. Here’s an excerpt:
” … even if a shift has occurred daring voters could still go for ‘The King’s Speech’ simply because it is a fine piece of filmmaking. Let’s not forget that Oscar bait and quality often coincide (see: ‘Quiz Show,’ ‘Milk’ and many more). Still current trends favor a ‘Social Network’ or – gasp – ‘Inception’ grabbing the top prize. It could happen. Even if a good chunk of the Academy digs in their heels and votes the safe choice, with the nominee pool expanded to ten the need for consensus has been drastically reduced. If ‘King’s Speech’ ends up checking every box on the Oscar wish list and still loses then this will go from being a trend to being a new reality.”
“Country Strong” is Middle America bait, combining country music and rehabbed alcoholic singers a la “Crazy Heart” with a spunky heroine with a down-home charm a la “The Blind Side.” Coincidentally, both of those movies featured leading performances that won Oscars in 2009. So are we looking at a similar trajectory for Gwyneth Paltrow, the movie’s leading lady?
Paltrow has already hit the promotional trail in somewhat unconventional but definitely effective ways. She guest-starred on “Glee,” singing a cover of Cee-Lo Green’s “Forget You.” Then, directly aimed at the people who will see “Country Strong,” she performed the movie’s titular track at the Country Music Awards (CMAs) in Nashville. Here’s a clip of her singing:
Let’s not forget that Paltrow has already won Best Actress for a completely different flavor of acting (for “Shakespeare in Love” in 1998). Her star power could power her into the race even though her only Academy friendly movie that has gotten any recognition was “The Royal Tenenbaums” back in 2001. However, her foray into the dramatic with “Proof” landed her a Golden Globe nomination, so perhaps “Country Strong” will have that extra push to get her into the Best Actress field. Yet even taking her competition out of the picture, I think it would be difficult for the Academy to vote her to a second win. They realize now what a great honor their trophies are, and when someone like Hilary Swank has the same amount of wins as Meryl Streep, something’s up.
Paltrow and the movie have lost one big building block to an Oscar campaign in the Golden Globes. The HFPA decided to place “Country Strong” in the drama category, which is much tougher to receive nominations (not to mention wins) because of the more respected field. If the movie were placed in musical/comedy (since it features a lot of song), Paltrow would compete against Annette Bening and Sally Hawkins. In drama, she will face Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, and several other talented actresses. And for the lightweight movie, talk about a huge long shot to score a Best Picture nomination. The only way I could see it sneaking in would be for there to magically be more than 5 nominated films.
And since this is a movie about country music, it will be a strong contender in the Best Original Song category. There are two featured tracks in contention for the win, “Me and Tennessee” and “Coming Home.” The rules have changed in the Best Original Song category to try to prohibit one movie from hogging all the nominations and thus vote splitting; this is why Alan Menken only chose to submit one song from “Tangled” for consideration. If “Country Strong” wants to win this category, Screen Gems needs to pick one song to put all their horses behind.
There are 18 days between the wide release of “Country Strong” and the announcement of the 83rd Oscar nominations. If it manages to rake in some nice box office dollars, I suspect we could be looking at a financially successful movie popular with Middle America that this year’s Academy Awards really don’t have. It could be an enticing proposition … but it would have to make big money FAST.
BEST BETS FOR NOMINATIONS: Best Actress, Best Original Song
Today, November 26, 2010, I achieved an important milestone.
As I reported back on December 26, 2010 in Random Factoid #151, I got a whole lot of movie money. $150, to be precise. And today, I finally spent the last dollar of that money.
That’s not to say $150 covered all of my moviegoing expenses in 2010. I used plenty of my own money to buy tickets, and there were several times when I simply forgot I had gift cards to use. But I also got tickets to a whole lot of free screenings which also helped my frugality.
So, a month away from Christmas 2010, I have to wonder how far this year’s money will go.
If you think “127 Hours” is a melancholy movie because it involves self-mutilation to escape death, prepare to be proved wrong. It is NOT a movie about the loss of an arm; it IS a movie about the gaining of perspective and an increased thankfulness for the importance of living.
Director Danny Boyle takes the true story of climber Aron Ralston, forced to cut off his arm when it was trapped under a boulder, and pulls out all the stops to make it an absolutely majestic cinematic tribute to the human spirit. Together with James Franco at the top of his game, “127 Hours” has the power to turn hyperbolic praise into understatement.
The five days Ralston spends with his arm pinned underneath a boulder is reduced to about 90 minutes of claustrophobic discomfort for the audience as we anxiously await the inevitable. But nonetheless, it’s still an enormously affecting watch, and it sure does know how to get your heart racing. There’s never a dull or wasted moment to be found in the movie thanks to Franco’s sublime and enlightened performance. While shooting on location, Boyle consistently had him act in character for 20 minutes straight and then relied on the editor to find 30 seconds to make it into the final cut. This total immersion into Ralston’s desperation makes Franco all the more raw and moving.
Hope you all are having some nice, relaxing time with friends and family – and, of course, EATING! PopEater posed the question three weeks ago of what celebrity you would want to spend Thanksgiving with, and I gave this a lot of thought. I translated it into cinematic form, and the question I wound up asking myself was, “What movie family would I want to spend Thanksgiving with?”
Since Thanksgiving is a holiday all about family togetherness and eating, I figure I would have to pick a family that ate heartily and without shame. So, if I was going to spend Thanksgiving dinner with one family, it would clearly be …
The Klumps! They sure can argue, but I feel like they would put it aside on Thanksgiving Day and just feast.
I see a lot of movies, and I don’t exactly try to hide it. People often ask me, “Have you seen this movie?” I breathe and most often reply, “Yes, I have.” Then I brace myself and wait for the inevitable follow-up question: “How was it?”
I have a nice reservoir of descriptors that I’m ready to whip out at a moment’s notice, but I usually start with the simple good. If a movie is particularly noteworthy, I might add very in front. If people are particularly curious, they might probe for more, asking “Really?” At this point, I’ll take the time to more thoroughly explain my thoughts, pointing out a certain performance or technical aspect I found to be exemplary. It’s also at this point when I whip out more sophisticated adjectives, like dazzling, flooring, and mind-blowing.
With “Inside Job,” I can skip over good and go straight to the vocabulary that no movies ever allow me to use. It was infuriating, an outraging movie experience that left me reeling and in total shock. How often does a movie come along that merits the use of those words?
Given that it took a $20 trillion global meltdown to bring me such sentiments, I’d rather have this be the only time I have to feel similarly. But we have to face the facts: it happened, and documentarian Charles Ferguson goes all the way back to the era of Alan Greenspan to show how the financial crisis began. He then takes us through the next twenty years, stopping along the way to show all the ways that the recession could have been prevented.
I’ll go there again – another moviegoing pet peeve that I think I may have just realized bothers me.
PDA. No, not the ancient name for Palm Pilots and BlackBerrys, I’m talking about Public Display of Affection. Or, as I’ve heard it alternatively dubbed, public demanding of attention.
That second definition is exactly what it means to me when done in a movie theater. When seeing “Harry Potter” for the second time, I had to squeeze in next to a couple very much in love in order to get four seats together for my entire family. At the beginning of the trailers, his hand was on her kneecap. Throughout the movie, I would hear a little giggle, and the hand would move up just a little bit. By about halfway through the movie, that same hand was about halfway up her knee.
At that point, I was feeling fairly awkward that they were having a nice little moment and here I was trying to watch a movie. I’d tell them to get a room, but why do that when we both paid $10.25 to sit in the same room? I don’t think a movie, particularly “Harry Potter” in its first week, should send a message that it’s an appropriate place for some intimacy. It should send the message saying, “I love you but I want to see what happens to Harry Potter for a few hours, so I’m going to disengage for 2 1/2 hours aside from a few trite comments every once in a while.”
All things considered, compared to crying babies and inappropriate laughter, PDA in a movie theater isn’t that bad. But it’s still a nuisance. Can’t everyone just be on their best behavior for two hours so I can enjoy a movie?
P.S. – I’ve had the idea after reading an excessive amount of David Sedaris that maybe I should turn all these nasty moviegoing experiences into some great book of humorous anecdotal essays. Thoughts?
Before I begin, let me give credit to Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment Weekly for inspiring this post after her blog entry on Jennifer Aniston got my creative juices flowing. It’s a great post, and it’s worth a read.
After Sandra Bullock becomes the latest comedic actress to put on a serious face and win an Oscar (in the tradition of Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon), Schwarzbaum wonders if Jennifer Aniston could ever join the list.
Since she’s taken Aniston, I figured I would take eight other actresses who have a similar track record as Bullock on the comedy side of things. In part one of the “From Rom-Com to Oscar Gold” series, I will analyze four actresses who many people could actually envision with an Oscar in their hand.
These actresses are … Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Garner, and Kate Hudson.
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