The muse is still avoiding me, so just quick mentions of films I’ve seen in the past week.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps — Tuco himself is in this movie, 95-year-old Eli Wallach. The Shia LeBeouf character’s ringtone even plays the theme from Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), as a tribute to Wallach I assumed. That’s the foremost thought I took from this film, which was an entertaining if unremarkable sequel to the 1987 movie. Michael Douglas reprises the Gordon Gekko character, but this time around, Josh Brolin is the real villain, as bad though a lot slicker than he is as Tom Cheney. Charlie Sheen has a cameo.
Winter’s Bone — I’ve seen five of the 10 best picture nominees so far and this is by far the most engrossing film. Jennifer Lawrence surpasses both Annette Benning and Natalie Portman as best actress and John Hawkes is superb in a supporting role — he too has an Oscar nomination. Set and filmed in the deepest Missouri Ozarks, Lawrence plays Ree Dolly, a 17-year-old raising her two younger siblings. Hawkes plays her uncle, Teardrop, a man in Roger Ebert’s words “whose existence inflicts a wound on the gift of being alive.” Provocative. I rented this movie, but intend to watch it again as soon as it’s available on streaming. Highly recommended.
[Winter’s Bone is the kind of movie that could surprise come Oscar night. I don’t predict it will win anything — though it did at Sundance. I just wouldn’t be surprised if it did.]
Dogtooth — This movie from Greece is nominated for best foreign film. It’s a bizarre tale of a family totally secluded from the outside world by the father, even though the son and two daughters are nearing 20. In one example, they see planes flying high over — the father tosses a toy plane into the yard, and they think it has fallen from the sky. The father brings in an outsider to have sex with the son. Things begin to unravel from there. Very strange.
Tortilla Soup (2001) — Hector Elizondo plays a widowed, middle-aged father with three grown daughters still living at home. Romance and comedy ensue. Paul Rodriguez and Raquel Welch have minor parts, hers mostly silly. The star of this film is the Mexican cuisine — the father is a chef and cooks Sunday dinner at home. For me, the movie did for Mexican food what Chocolat did for chocolate. Entertaining.
Rio Bravo (1959) — One of the best of the genre with John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan and Angie Dickinson (Wayne’s love interest, and, of course, half his age). The sheriff (Wayne) arrests the bad guy (Claude Akins) for murder. The killer’s brother promises to spring his sibling. He sacrifices countless hired hands in the attempt. Dean and Ricky sing.
The Bourne Identity (2002) — The best of the three.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest — Not the best of the three.
Coming up next, Oscar nominees Restrepo and Toy Story 3.
I watched Winter’s Bone a little while back, having heard nothing about it, and thought it was excellent. The main character certainly is one strong willed young lady.
Tortilla Soup was fun (for the food) but pretty much like a Mexican remake of Eat Drink Man Woman, from 1994. Directed by Ang Lee, it is a movie which always leaves me craving Chinese food.
I watched Winter’s Bone this week. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but thought it was very good. I’m glad it got a Best Picture nomination, so it will get a wider audience. It’s a view of a part of this country that most of us don’t ever see.
I predict you will greatly appreciate Restrepo and Toy Story 3 – but in very different ways!
If you are looking for rentable “check marks” for Oscar night, Salt was fairly entertaining, and Inception and The Town were very good.
I watched Restrepo last night after posting this.
“Appreciate” is a good word for it. Reflecting as I fell asleep afterwards, I realized that what I disliked about the film — its jumbled chronology, its confusion of time and place and even individuals — were actually what made it work, the “fog of war.” We learn just enough to understand the anger, the fear, the apprehension about returning to civilian life.
I think everyone should see this documentary produced by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger while embedded with American troops in Afghanistan.
We watched Toy Story 3 tonight. This series of movies plays havoc with my allergies.
Manipulative bastards!
Just got home from seeing Black Swan. I think that movie made ME go a little crazy.