164. Conspiracy

164. (20 Aug) Conspiracy (2001, Frank Pierson) 58



With everyone playing the same nationality, it seems not everyone got the memo on which accent they're meant to have. That problem aside, this talky drama's matter-of-factness serves to increase the tension. It's deeply unsettling watching accomplished performers Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci's steeliness in discussing the "final solution" against the Jews. Colin Firth's fiery turn is the clear standout here. Even though his film is told in real time and set mostly with the actors around a table, Pierson makes this a distinctly cinematic experience in feeling and appearance.

154. The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

154. (15 Aug) The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2005, Stephen Hopkins) 53



Odd directorial choices abound in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers with some unnecessary breaking of the fourth wall and editing that rarely feels less than choppy. It's only a thoroughly absorbing performance from Geoffrey Rush that holds this together. He's continuously better than the too ambitious script. The film just can't delve into his personal life without coming across as disingenuous. For instance, scenes with his children all feel like this should be titled Daddie Dearest.

108. The Hunger Games

108. (12 May) The Hunger Games (2012, Gary Ross)* 58

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games, 2012
Directed by Gary Ross

By now I'm sure you're all familiar with what 'The Hunger Games' is all about. I'll break it down briefly for those who don't know. In the ruins of North America, now named Panem, there are 12 districts, each living in poverty and oppressed by the Capitol, a spoiled city. And to reaffirm their control, they hold, annually, something called the Hunger Games, where a one boy and one girl from each district, between the ages of 12 and 18 must fight to the death in an arena, until only one stands. The winner is awarded fame, wealth, and safety. Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12. When her little sister is plucked from the bowl of names to be a tribute, Katniss volunteers in her place. A boy her age named Peeta is also selected, in which she has ties to. And the Hunger Games begin.

I know, this review is a couple weeks late. I had originally planned to see it the Saturday after it opened, with a bunch of friends. We'd pre-ordered tickets and everything, but I got the stomach flu the morning of, and just haven't had time to see it since. Finally, 2 weeks later, I've seen in! I picked up the first book after the urging of my friend around a year ago, during the very early stages of casting. The books weren't a huge deal yet, but it was picking up steam. I read them all pretty quick, and while I wasn't awestruck with the books, they were good reads with a strong message, and knew they would translate to screen a lot better than most things.

 First, let me just say all the performances, I thought, were pretty spot on. A lot of people had reservations about Jennifer Lawrence being too sexy, and Josh Hutcherson being too young, or just not what they'd imagined at all. But getting Jennifer Lawrence on as Katniss was a really great move. She's an Oscar nominated actress, and this role is quite similar in nature to Ree, the character she played in Winter's Bone, in which she was nominated. She really embodied Katniss in every way and gave such a real and gritty performance. She had Katniss's strength, but was also able to embody her vulnerability in a real way, and was able to find the balance between that and her strength and stubbornness, which, I'd imagine, is quite tricky. Jenn is a really diverse actress. She had a small but cute role in last year's Like Crazy, she played the sexy and mysterious Raven/Mystique in X-Men: First Class, and debuted in Winter's Bone. Jenn has such promise to be a really great actress, and she doesn't take it easy in this role. She pours a lot of emotion into her character, and draws back enough when needed to draw back. She gives Katniss strength and a ruthlessness. But you can still remember she's just a teenage girl, who has a family to look after. She's not the tough person she appears to be, and Jenn really captures this all.

The supporting cast was great too. Josh Hutcherson was great as Peeta. What I really appreciated about his performance was the subtleties he brought to Peeta. The smiles, and the stolen glances, that you knew he bought every word Katniss said, and that he's really in love with her, and it's not a game to him. He was able to make me feel for his character in a way I hadn't in the book. He made me realize what a tragic character Peeta is, constantly getting the rotten end of the stick. Having an undying and loyal love for Katniss, and not realizing until he's head over heels that it was just a game for her. While he didn't give a heart-stopping performance, he did give a nuanced one, and was quite good if you were really paying attention.

Such as this moment here. Just the way he looks at her, and he just loves her, you can tell. Just the one little glance (and tons more in this scene and throughout the film) sold me. And his reaction to being picked to the Games was great too. Just mouth half-open, hardly believing, and in shock, and even crying. I feel like this is an unpopular opinion since I keep reading people thought his performance was mediocre, but I felt like he really understood his character. It wasn't perfect, nor was it the best in the movie, but he really captured who Peeta is and what he's about. For that I applaud him.


 There are plenty of fun performances by various well known actors. Woody Harrelson and Stanley Tucci gave my favourite supporting performances in the film. Harrelson as the drunken, harsh mentor of the 2 District 12 tributes gave a great performance. He was funny, he was a jerk, and then you saw the side of him where he really cared. And Stanley Tucci, you could tell he was really having fun with his part. The faces he made, his laughter, just the way he carried himself, it was such a fun performance to watch. Other fun supporting actors included Elizabeth Banks as the cooky and colourful Effie, Donald Sutherland as President Snow, Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane and Toby Jones as Claudius Templesmith.

The pacing of the movie, I found, to be balanced quite well. I had wondered how long they would spend on the preparations before the Games. The training and all that. I felt they kept in a good amount. It was long enough that you got the picture, and got enough information about the tributes, and about Haymitch and Peeta, that you needed to know before the Games. It was a good chunk, but it never overstayed its welcome. It was a large chunk in the book, and was a large chunk in the film. It showed off just how much of an event this was to the Capitol, and showed how grotesque it really is, when you think about it, showing the balance between the showing off of the tributes and the dressing up, and the training. The Games were also well paced, though Katniss's time with Rue was very short and could've been extended for a fuller effect. The violence was definitely there, and we got touches of it, but, to keep it to a PG-13 rating, it was scarce and was shown in generalities only, though there is a lot of blood shown.

Additionally, the costuming and make-up were quite fun. They were outrageous and crazy, and were just so fun and playful. I wouldn't be surprised to see this film get either a make-up or a costume nod. Both were well done and were great.

One frequent complaint that I've read is the excessive use of "shaky cam". For the most part, I felt it was well-used. During fight scenes, understandable. Running through the woods, understandable. However, it was used way too much during the first half hour or so, I felt like I was watching the Hurt Locker. But it felt extremely misplaced when in the Capitol and on the train. I felt like I never got a very good look at anyone for the first little bit since it was zoomed awkwardly in some places, and was all very close shots, and hardly any wider shots for the first little while. Use of shaky cam should've been reserved for the Games, and it didn't have much business in the first half of the film, as it took away from the film more than it added to it. Additionally, some of the Visual Effects weren't that great. When Katniss and Peeta was on fire at the tribute parade, I actually chuckled out loud upon seeing. It looked incredibly fake, and phony. I realize they didn't have an enormous budget and it was saved for other things, but this looked pretty bad. Though I forgive them because most of the other things looked quite good.

There were many "added" in things as well, though all were incredibly beneficial to the film. The scenes between Seneca Crane and President Snow, the rebellion in District 11, the television discussion with Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith, etc. Even seeing more of Haymitch, and what kind of role he played in different things added more to the film that the book wasn't able to with a first person perspective.  We get to see the part Haymitch plays behind-the-scenes, and showing him sucking up his anti-socialism, and interacting with the sponsors in order to help Katniss, and just how much he really cares for her, and for Peeta. In a way, I felt the movie portrayed the overall themes and thoughts of the characters better than the book did, because it was less limited to Katniss's view.

Overall, this is one of the better blockbuster films, based on a YA novel no less, that has come out. With an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, this film has done well for itself. Not to mention it had the biggest opening weekend, ever, for a non-sequel and has made a ton of money. This film has a wide appeal for both boys and girls, and it's great to see something the guys can get into as well, after having all-girls things like Twilight.
It's a fun movie, with some violence, some romance, and some fun costumes. It's a great movie, and a really well done adaptation.

8.5/10

2012 Anticipated Films

Here are some trailers from upcoming movies I'm looking forward to. Taking a break from the Awardsy movies, and sharing some films I'm looking forward to this year!

The Hunger Games- March 23rd 2012

The Amazing Spiderman- July 3rd 2012

The Dark Knight Rises- July 20th 2012

Brave- June 22nd 2012

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

December 14th 2012

Special mentions: Les Miserables, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The 5 Year Engagement, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, The Great Gatsby, Gangster Squad, Gravity

031. Margin Call

031. (25 Jan) Margin Call (2011, J.C. Chandor) 41



Despite the fact the characters work in a financial firm, they're constantly asking one another to dumb things down. It's just bad writing that Kevin Spacey's character has been in his position for 34 years, but has no idea how to read a projection. While it makes sense that this is just a terrible narrative device to make the financial crisis digestible for a mainstream audience, it's rather insulting.

So much time is spent clumsily, broadly indicting greed that there's no time to develop characters or give them arcs. Only Kevin Spacey's character comes close; he's burdened with a dying dog, a hilarious metaphor for his failing company. Chandor's attempts at stylizing his film, usually with off-center framing, occasionally distract from his scripting issues.

Best Supporting Actor 2009: Results

5. Christopher Plummer in The Last Station- Plummer although certainly competent never manages to make anything special out of Tolstoy.

4. Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones- Tucci mostly just tries to be creepy which he does do well enough. His performance though lacks the visceral power a performance like this should have.

3. Matt Damon in Invictus- This might seem like a surprise position but out of the bottom three Damon does succeed the most in his particular role. He brings the passion and spirit that the story needs.

2. Woody Harrelson in The Messenger- Harrlson gives an intense and powerful emotional performance when he is in uniform, but when out of it he relies  a little bit too much on his usual style.

1. Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds- Waltz simply gives a great memorable villainous performance that manages to be both humorous and chilling, and succeeds with every single challenge found in the role.

Deserving Performances:
Michael Fassbender in Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actor 2009: Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones

Stanley Tucci received his first Oscar nomination for portraying George Harvey in The Lovely Bones.

The Lovely Bones tells the story of a teenage girl Susie Salmon who after being brutally murdered after calling watches over her family's struggles after her death.

Stanley Tucci plays the murderer who is a serial killer and implied pedophile. I will say in my initial viewing I saw Tucci as one of the few good things in the film, since the film itself is such a poorly directed film almost the rest of the way. Tucci also just happens to be part of the only section of the film that is not directed entirely ineptly which is the thriller section of the film. I must say though when I watched the film again even Tucci performance ran thin on me as well.

One thing that Tucci does do in this film fairly well in fact is being creepy, but really a lot of that has to go more with his look that even Tucci's performance. He just looks like someone with something wrong with him with his bad comb over, his mustache, his glasses, and the clothes that he wears. All that Tucci really adds to that is a strange voice that just seems like there is something wrong with it, and the occasional fake happy smiles, as well as a great number of evil stares.

After watching him once though his whole appearance, voice, and style just becomes far less effective, I suppose Tucci whole transformation into the killer just is less disconcerting after you have seen it once already. He unfortunately he almost started to fall into the rest of the badness or blandness of the rest of the film. Tucci is not used in any way that allows him to expand George into a more interesting creation and in fact I really started to find it funny the way George almost seems to teleport around to find the best bush to hide behind in a creepy fashion.

The only thing Tucci really is allowed to do is act like a creep, and their a simply more interesting and memorable film creeps than Tucci's George Harvey. A problem though actually arises from him acting like a creep, since it seems there is too much of a delay in anyone suspecting him, and frankly how couldn't you suspect him. I think this would actually been a more memorable performance if Tucci seemed more outwardly normal as George Harvey. This bad decision to make him as creepy as possible though really just shows the ineptness of the direction.

Now I do want to state that Tucci is not exactly bad, in fact he probably gave the exact performance that the director wanted, but this could have been far more than it is. He simply does not make for that memorable of a villain, and what is notable about him is mostly the way he looks. Also the film fails to create the necessary  sympathy for the victim since Susie Salmon mispronounces Laurence Olivier name as Laurence Oliver, and calls him a loser HOW DARE SHE!!!! Anyways back to Tucci, not a bad performance but after watching it again it does not have the visceral effect one expects from a performance like this.  

Best Supporting Actor 2009

And the Nominees Were:

Woody Harrelson in The Messenger 

Matt Damon in Invictus

Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds

Christopher Plummer in The Last Station

Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones

MARGIN CALL

Written and Directed by J.C. Chandor

Starring Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany and Zachary Quinto

With most of Wall Street and the world’s major financial sectors being occupied by protestors and ordinary citizens, who can no longer sit idly by while the global economy is destroyed from within, there could be no better timing for J.C. Chandor’s first feature film, MARGIN CALL, to hit theatres. An all-star cast, ranging from veterans like Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore and Jeremy Irons to relative newbies like Zachary Quinto and Penn Badgly, make this debut a memorable and effective contemplation on what seems more and more like the inevitable collapse of the financial system. If you’re feeling a little lost about the world’s financial woes at the moment, occupying Margin Call should clear up those last lingering questions for you.

BURLESQUE

Written and Directed by Steve Antin

Starring Christina Aguilera, Cher, Cam Gigandet, Kristen Bell and Stanley Tucci

Ali: I've got to get out of this town

We open on a street so sparse, in a town so small, one expects tumbleweeds to float by the diner where two young ladies are wasting their lives away as waitresses. Pop princess / diva / star, Christina Aguilera, is sitting on the counter top, staring off into the distance, looking forlorn and pensive. She announces that she’s got to get out of this town and before long, she is buying a one-way ticket to Los Angeles to become a star! There you have it. This is BURLESQUE, a new musical that steals (sorry, borrows would have been too generous a word to use here) from great movie musicals of the past, like CABARET, MOULIN ROUGE and CHICAGO (which incidentally all did it better), to showcase the vocal prowess of its star and transition her to the next inevitable level of her fame as a Hollywood actress.

It has not been a good year for Aguilera. Her latest album tanked and barely registered at radio. Her summer tour was scrapped due to low ticket sales, or so it was rumoured. And as if her professional troubles weren’t bad enough, she separated from her husband of just five years in the fall. With an album, a tour and a movie coming out in one year, this was clearly meant to be a big one for her. While my heart goes out to her, BURLESQUE is not going to turn anything around. Perhaps if there were a stitch of originality in the film, it might have given Aguilera some desperately needed credibility at this stage in her career. Writer / Director (and I use those terms loosely) Steve Antin, keeps the clichés coming though and it is painfully obvious that the only reason the film was made was to showcase Aguilera’s impressive chops. With reasons like that, it won’t amount to anything but a forgotten blip in the increasingly chaotic pop spectrum.

Judging from the age bracket of the audience I caught BURLESQUE with, I’d say more people were curious to see Cher return to the screen than anything else about this movie. Cher plays Tess, a former burlesque dancer that now runs the club, fittingly called “Burlesque”, where Aguilera finds acceptance and success. Cher is the only character other than Aguilera to sing in the film but never does she sing with her co-star. In fact, when Cher does sing, I was afraid her intensely tight face might crack into tiny little pieces but alas no, and at least she sounded decent. It’s a shame the songs she was given were so boring though. Fortunately, she has everyone’s favorite gay sidekick, Stanley Tucci, at her side to liven things up when necessary, which is often.

BURLESQUE is simply too easy to be anything other than mediocre. About half way through the film, when Aguilera inevitably finds her voice after struggling to get noticed in L.A. and just after Cher finds out that if they don’t raise an obscene amount of money by a fast approaching date that the club will close, you are lulled into a state of complete familiarity. Your fate is accepted and BURLESQUE makes its way to its predictable ending without full-on disaster or wardrobe malfunction. Familiar means comfortable and while comfortable can be nice, it can also be easily forgotten. Simply put, BURLESQUE falls very flat when it was clearly aiming for busty.

Black Sheep interviews Damien Chazelle

GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH

Written and Directed by Damien Chazelle

Starring Jason Palmer, Desiree Garcia and Sandra Khin

I am reminded of Sheryl Crow lyric - “What ever happened to modern jazz?” - after watching first time filmmaker, Damien Chazelle’s GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH. The answer is certainly not that simple but there are a number of possible theories to be found in the textured grain of this experimental musical that captured the hearts of the Tribeca Film Festival patrons when it premiered there in 2009. It has now captured the heart of actor, Stanley Tucci, who presents it to you in a limited theatrical release.

Now, there is no need to be frightened of the word, “experimental” – or “jazz” for that matter – in this case, as some tend to run when they hear these words. In fact, the reason the film has been so well received is because it captures the beauty of these sometimes intimidating concepts so naturally that you wonder why you were ever hesitant to begin with.


What began as an undergraduate thesis at Harvard, GUY AND MADELINE (as it is affectionately shortened to for convenience purposes), grew into what Chazelle describes as his personal take on the musicals of the 1930’s and 40’s, which he had been obsessing over at the time. Citing specific influences like THE BAND WAGON and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, Chazelle pitched his thesis as a real life musical; people would still break out into song and dance but it would be grounded in a context that could be universally understood. The classic Hollywood musical is not the only genre being played up here though; Chazelle was also fascinated with the French new wave cinema of the 1960’s and 70’s, from Jean-Luc Godard to Jean Eustace. The combination of the two drastically different approaches is what makes GUY AND MADELINE so distinctly unique and according to Chazelle, balancing between the two was certainly tricky.

“The new wave films don’t really follow strict plots and find themselves as they go along and I tried to find a way to reconcile that with the very strict code of these old musicals that I loved. They have very familiar plots and archetypal characters and follow a strict pacing of musical numbers. It was important to me to not cop out from making a musical, to make an actual musical, but in my own way.”


Guy and Madeline (fresh faces, Jason Palmer and Desiree Garcia) have it rough from the start. Heralding from Boston, these two lovers of both music and each other are introduced to the viewer as happy and then torn apart before we can even get a chance to be happy for them. Still, as they both proceed to stumble around somewhat aimlessly in the wake of their brief but powerful time together, your heart goes out to them and you can’t help but wonder what went wrong. And what better way to explore the complicated nature of emotional turmoil than through song? Without a Hollywood sized budget, the musical numbers in GUY AND MADELINE have to rely on plain old fashioned talent, which, after scouring Boston’s music scene, Chazelle found in Palmer in Garcia. Garcia was pursuing her PhD on musicals at the time and was already entrenched in the tap dance scene so she was a natural fit but Palmer doesn’t actually sing. His musical contribution is a beautiful and delicate trumpet.

“I have to admit that wasn’t the original conception. It was originally going to be a singing and dancing male. The movie just changed when I saw Jason play. He just hit us out of nowhere as I went to this club to see someone else play really. It wasn’t the film that I envisioned in my head but it was immediately the film that I wanted to make.”


The musical is inherently out of step with reality but yet it continues to be made and it continues to honour the same values it did when it was originally conceived. Back in the day, when a character needed to deal with a love that is lost, they would saunter through a park and lament to the moon; when that love is reaffirmed, the whole cast breaks out into dance. In GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH, the aesthetic is decidedly different but the sentiment is the same. This is perhaps why the musical has survived all this time despite its detractors; perhaps beneath all of our meandering cynicism, we are all still romantics at heart.

“I believe the musical is so well suited to expressing romance because songs begin and end and are completely separate from the larger movie world. It is this kind of momentary perfection of existence that the characters are able to reach but they always know that it is inherently an illusion. So for me, there is something very beautiful but yet very sad about the great musicals but that’s part of the point.”

Damian Chazelle is already at work on his next screenplay and GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH is playing in select cities right now. If it's playing in your city, treat yourself.

For your enjoyment, here is the trailer ...

TIFF Review: EASY A

Written by Bert V. Royal

Directed by Will Gluck

Starring Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes and Thomas Haden Church

Olive: I used to be invisible. If Google Earth were a guy, he couldn’t find me if I were a ten-storey building.

What Ojai, California, high school student, Olive Penderghast, has to go through in director, Will Gluck’s EASY A to get her “A” cannot be described as anything remotely close to easy. That said, sitting back and watching everything she has to go through is one of the easiest things you’ll ever have to do. Not only does Glick make it easy for us to enjoy his second feature film, he makes sure we learn a thing or two while we’re in the midst of losing ourselves in hysterical laughter. Did I mention this is a teen comedy?

We are first introduced to Olive on her webcam. The lovely Emma Stone stares directly at us as Olive and tells us flat out that we are about to hear her side of a story, which she insists to us is in fact the right side of the story. She proceeds to tell us in incremental chapters about how one lie she told to her best friend in a bathroom about how she lost her virginity to a college boy over the weekend, spiraled out of control and ruined her life. She has a face you want to believe but we have no reason to trust her really. It is Stone’s conviction that ultimately sells it though; she is a sharp, young lady but her vulnerability is never disregarded and I can’t think of any reason why she would make any of this up.

EASY A is easily one of the funniest films I’ve seen all year. The entire ensemble, from Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci as Olive’s ultra-open-minded parents to Thomas Haden Church as Olive’s favourite teacher, are hilarious and seem to be having the best of times in their roles. Essentially, the whole thing is infectious and leaves a lasting impression because it goes beyond the sharp, witty dialogue we’ve come to expect in any teen comedy effort to show us that intelligence and growth are not yet lost on the young.