Hunger

It's been a pretty decent couple of years for Ireland in film. First came the palm d'or winner The Wind That Shakes The Barley (a very good film, although it was the only English language film I've ever needed subtitles for), the the delightful musical Once and now, the best of the three, Steve McQueen's Hunger. This is the story of Bobby Sands and the hunger strike he organized at HM prison Maze in order to get IRA members treated as political prisoners. This is a brutal, uncompromising look at the strike, its causes and its effects. McQueen (I can't believe this is his real name) is a well-known, award-winning visual artist making his feature film debut here. The fact that the director is an actual artist is something you should keep in mind during this film. The framing on nearly every shot is clearly the work of a meticulous worker (while he doesn't take this to Kubrickesque levels, there are a couple shots, especially in the hallways of the prison that remind me of Kubrick). Playing Sands is Michael Fassbender, who has had a few small roles in the past, but nothing of this magnitude.
As the film opens, we see a man look into a mirror and wash off his bloody knuckles. We don't know who he is at the time, but we later find out that he is a guard at the prison. He isn't a terrible guy, but we see him do bad things. His final scene is one of the most disturbing I've seen in recent years, but that doesn't come for a while. After we see him go through his day, a new prisoner comes in and refuses to wear his uniform. He is marked as insubordinate, and is forced to strip naked (this movie is not at all shy about nudity) before putting on a blanket (it was part of an ongoing protest). He gets to his cell and discovers that his cellmate had been smearing his shit on the walls as part of another ongoing protest. He doesn't seem to mind, and eventually joins in, but soon the guards come to wash them off. This is where we first meet Bobby. They drag him, kicking and screaming, from his cell, cut his hair and make him into a bloody mess. Even though he is the main character, this doesn't happen until thirty minutes into the film, although nearly no dialogue had been spoken through that point. Next, we get a virtuoso sequence in which, following a small riot, the guards march the prisoners out, send them through a gauntlet of baton-wielding riot police and then have them cavity searched, on-by-one, by a guy who never takes off his gloves. A large part of this is done in one take. Bobby is brutally beaten for not allowing the guards to search him, and we see the psychological effects of this on the guard who is forced to hit him. We don't really sympathize, but it's something. Next, after another moment of shocking violence, we get the film's centerpiece. Bobby has decided to organize a hunger strike, but unlike failed ones of the past, he organizes it so that they will die if their demands aren't met. Bobby lays all of this out in a seventeen minute conversation with a priest played by Liam Cunningham. What makes this conversation so notable is that the entire 17 minutes is done in a single take where the camera never moves. This is supposedly the longest single take in any feature film. After this, we flash to a few weeks later, and we see Bobby whithering down. There is little dialogue near the end, but the physical transformation is tremendous. Fassbender does a fantastic job of expressing every little emotion and pain that he must go through. We know from the outset that Bobby dies, but the brutality of the whole thing is shocking. Did he really accomplish anything? Was he a martyr or a rabble-rouser just trying to start a civil war?
I don't know Bela Tarr's viewing habits, but if he watched this film I'm sure he was proud. The master of the long take's old joke that the 12 minute reel is a form of censorship seems to have been disproved (I'm not entirely sure how they did it). The 17 minute conversation, despite simply being a static camera focused on two men is one of the most charged and tense in recent years. it speaks mainly to the immense talents of the two actors, but also to the film around it. Before this take, there had been very little dialogue. In fact, I'd say at least 75% of the dialogue in the 90 minute film comes in this one take. It's so new and unexpected that we get dragged in and we never leave. The conversation switches between comic statements on the nature of the priesthood to questions of the morality of Bobby's actions with ease, and we completely buy it. Fassbender and Cunningham lived together for weeks, rehearsing 15-20 times a day, to be able to get everything just right, and its worth it.
Like The Wind That Shakes The Barley, this film may be a little to obvious in its politics. The use of Margret Thatcher sound-clips may be a bit over the top, but that film's biggest failing was its complete lack of humanization of the British. here' we know that the guard at the beginning probably isn't a bad guy, and the guard who beats Sands is distraught over it. It isn't much, but acknowledging the humanity of the other side is an important step to avoid seeming to flat and one-sided. The film's final moments have also drawn some criticism, with some saying that the final moments make him too much of a Christ-like figure, but that was set up from the beginning (his long hair and beard at the beginning are very reminiscent of The Passion), so I don't really mind. This film sets up McQueen as a filmmaker to watch and will hopefully draw attention to the issues in Ireland. Whatever side you're on, they aren't finished yet.
Rating (Out of ****): ****

Made in USA

Has any other director ever had a burst of creativity like Jean-Luc Godard in the sixties? Starting with Breathless, moving through Vivre Sa Vie, Bande a Part, Alphaville (his masterpiece in my opinion), Contempt, Masculin Feminin and ending with Week End (with eight or nine other films mixed in there for good measure), this burst of creativity forever changed cinema across the world. A film from that period which has always been lost in the shuffle is 1966's Made in USA. It was never released in America because Godard never paid for the rights to adapt the book it was based on, he just did it, and, due to the subsequent legal action, Made in USA never came to the USA. Thankfully, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts decided to include it in their ongoing series on Godard in the 60's and I was able to go. I hope this means the legal issues have been resolved and Criterion can get their hands on this, because this is a film that deserves a wider audience. It is just as deserving of high praise as any other film on that list.

Godard's muse/wife Anna Karina plays Paula Nelson, who travels to Atlantic City (which, for the sake of this film, is in France) to visit her lover Richard, only to discover that he has died under mysterious circumstances. She runs into an old associate of theirs named Typhus, who she quickly knocks out and dumps in his own room, which allows her to meet his nephew David, who is a very strange writer, and his Japanese fiance. As she investigates Richard's death, the police discover that someone has killed Typhus, and things begin to spin out of control. I'm going to stop the plot description here because it would be utterly pointless to go on. Like The Big Sleep, which was a heavy influence on this film, the plot becomes too much to actually explain. I know it is a political thriller has something to to with communism, but that's pretty irrelevant aside from the fact that, at this point, Godard sure loved his communism. They never really explain why most of the things that happen happen, so you're best off just going along for the ride.

Godard was famous for saying that all he needed to make a movie was "a girl and a gun." Karina is the perfect girl for him. Taking on a rather Bogart-esque role, she looks perfect in the requisite trench-coat and the wear and tear of starring in so many films in such a short period of time gives her the perfect look for someone in her line of work, whatever that may be. She also delivers the film's best line "we were in a political movie-Walt Disney with blood" with a perfect amount of irony and anger in her voice. As that line implies, this film is almost comically self-aware, although it stops before it hits pure comedy, which would just seem out of place in a Godard film. The other aspects you'd expect are also there. We get characters named after American pop-culture icons (two henchmen named Richard Nixon and Robert MacNamara), wonderfully jarring mid-scene edits and tons of guns and trench coats. Although, in some ways it is different from the traditional Godard-fare. It was only his third color feature, and the cinematography from Raoul Coutard, who worked on many of Goadard's films is just fantastic.

There is a fascinating paradox inherent to this work. Godard spends much of the film decrying the spread of western culture, calling advertising a form of fascism, but he is obsessed with that same culture. Would he exist without American gangsters? I'm not sure. It may not even matter, but it is something to think about. Hopefully you'll think about it while watching this film.

Rating (out of ****): ****

Coraline

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a huge fan of the recent proliferation of 3D films. I think many of the films using it are too gimmicky and use it to make up for lack of a story. Henry Selick's Coraline thankfully manages to avoid this. Selick, who was previously best known as the answer to the trivia question, "who really directed The Nightmare Before Christmas?" does a good job of adapting the popular Neil Gaiman novella, and he uses the power of 3D technology to perfection, creating what is bound to be remembered one of the most beautiful films of the year. Selick and his team combined the stop-motion animation of Nightmare and Corpse Bride with some CGI to create two very unique worlds. The film is not perfect, but it is probably the best 3D film in recent years.
In the beginning, a young girl named Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) moves into a very boring new house that is filled with intriguing characters. There is Wyborn, a young boy who follows her around with his cat, two retired actresses who read her fortune and a crazed Russian who trains mice for a circus (voiced by Ian Mcshane). After fighting with her parents, Coraline finds a small door that leads into a parallel version of her world. In it, her parents are extremely nice, the actresses are still beautiful, Wyborn doesn't stalk her and the Russian is completely sane. Most importantly, everything appears to be magical. The garden in this world is probably the most visually stunning part of the film, and everything just pops out wonderfully in 3D. However, she soon realizes that all of it is a trap, and her "other mother" intends to keep her there forever. After escaping back to the real world, she finds out that her "other mother" has kidnapped her real parents, and she must go back and save them, along with the souls of other children that she had kidnapped. This if the film's weakest point. It plays out like a mission from a cheap video game, and the suspense never really works.

It's difficult to look at this film and not compare it to Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. Aside from the obvious use of stop-motion, they tell similar stories of looking for happiness in alternate worlds. Coraline lacks the pure magic of those two, although it may be even more aesthetically pleasing. I guess it may be the fault of the original story, but the end is pretty weak, and it really offers nothing new. Still, with absolutely nothing in the pipeline until the long-awaited release of Watchmen next month, Coraline should be good enough to hold you over.

Rating (out of ****): ***

Wendy and Lucy

My next post was going to be my top twenty of 2008, but then I discovered that Kelly Reichardt's new minimalist film Wendy and Lucy opened in Boston for one week, and I decided that I should try to see as many of last year's highly acclaimed films as possible before I made any list. This film can, at least in terms of plot, be compared to Sean Penn's Into The Wild. Unlike that film, Wendy and Lucy does not seek to create a martyr for our times out of it's lead. Into The Wild did succeed, but that was because of the supporting characters and the performance of Emile Hirsch. Wendy and Lucy succeeds because we're not asked to bow to it's main character and because of the performance of Michelle Williams. Williams plays Wendy Carroll, a young woman driving from Indiana to Alaska with her beloved dog Lucy in search of work and a new start. We never learn much about her life before we see her, just a quick conversation with her brother-in-law. As the film picks up, Wendy and Lucy walk through the woods, taking a break from their long journey, only to meet a group of similar lost souls. Later that night, she stops her car in a Walgreen's parking lot and in the morning, after being woken up by a kind security guard, she finds that it won't start. The mechanic is closed, so she decides to go pick up some food for Lucy. Running low on cash, she has to steal and is caught by a self-righteous grocery store employee. It becomes clear that he is an evangelical Christian, and with his warped, evil view of religion, he convinces his manager that he must call the cops. When she is released, she runs back to the store where she'd tied up Lucy and discovers that the dog is gone. Despite help from the pound, she can't seem to find her, and she discovers that her car repairs will cost much more than expected. One night, while sleeping in the woods, a man comes to her and talks about the people he's killed. He doesn't do anything, and in all likelihood, he may be lying, but it helps clarify her situation. As her economic situation falls deeper into despair, Wendy realizes that she has lost control, and no longer has any idea what she must do, before coming to an extraordinarily difficult decision regarding her future.

Many reviews have discussed the film's political message about the plight of the marginalized people in today's society, but it's moral message is far more important. Outside of Wendy, there are only two good characters in this film, the woman at the dog pound (who is really just doing her job) and the security guard who helps her when he can, and even his flaws appear at the end. The religious grocery store worker, the cops, the mechanic and the insane man who speaks to Wendy may occasionally do her or someone else a favor, but they are not good people. The real question of this film is what do we owe each other as human beings? The film's answer is that we should give what we can. Even the difficult decision that Wendy must make at the end fits into this answer.

The film's strongest point is Michelle Williams' inexplicably snubbed performance as Wendy. She appears in nearly every frame of this eighty minute film, and her performance is the dominant feature of all of them. Wendy is not street smart, and she does not completely understand the world around her, and Williams perfectly captures that idea. A film portraying the outsiders in our modern world just works better if shot in a more natural minimalist style, which made Reichardt, who also directed the critically acclaimed Old Joy a perfect director for this piece. Instead of the sweeping vista's we'd normally expect from this sort of film, we get smaller shots of the real west, of the people who inhabit it and the emptiness around them. If the film has one flaw, it's that the story itself really isn't that great. The film gets by on style and character, but it has a rather standard story that we've all seen before. This alone could leave some people feeling underwhelmed, but they should not feel that way. Wendy and Lucy may not be the classic that some are calling it, but it is one of the better films of 2008.

Rating (out of ****): ***1/2

Best of 2008

OK, I wanted to wait until I'd seen The Class, and now that I have, here's my top 25 of 2008.

25. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army -The year's second best superhero film only further showcases Del Toro's brilliance when it comes to visuals, even if the story is somewhat absurd.

24. The Fall- Yes, this film is highly flawed, and most of the scenes in the hospital only take away from the story itself, but it also features some of the best visuals in any film of this or any year.

23. The Band's Visit- This is one of the two Israeli films on my list this year, and while it wasn't quite as powerful as the other (I think you know what it is), this simple, lighthearted story has a lot to say about the idea of peace and friendship in the middle east. This is a film that everyone should see, just to understand what it's like over there, because this is very realistic.

22. Religulous- Bill Maher's mockumentary on religion is not for everyone, and many will find his style abrasive, but this film is constantly hilarious and has an important message.

21. Pineapple Express- This is one of the funniest films the Appatow crew has put out, although it still wasn't able to live up to the trailer (http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6f25e84ca3/pineapple-express-red-band-trailer-from-judd-apatow-james-franco-and-seth-rogen), which is one of the funniest I've ever seen. Franco was fantastic, and he earned that golden globe nomination. David Gordon Green's visual talents may be somewhat underused, but this is still by far the best looking Appatow film.

20. Gran Torino- Sure, the supporting actors were a joke, and the story wasn't exactly unique, but two hours of Clint Eastwood making racist jokes is far more entertaining than it had any right to be.

19. Revolutionary Road- Great performances highlight Sam Mendes' look at suburban disillusionment. Winslet's best actress nomination should have come from here, and Michael Shannon's best supporting actor nod is much appreciated. The only issue is that the whole thing winds up feeling a bit too cold and intellectual at certain points.

18. Wendy and Lucy- Kelly Reichart's heartbreaking minimalist commentary on the American economy gets by on Michelle Williams fantastic performance, which may have been this year's strongest from a leading actress.

17. Burn After Reading- A decent Coen Brothers film is still better than most other things. While it lacks the depth of No Country, and the pure entertainment value of Big Lebowski, it is a fun film filled with fantastic performances from the A-list cast.

16. Man On Wire- One of this year's best documentaries is a fascinating heist tale and a beautiful remembrance of the world trade center. This is the best reviewed film of all time according to Rottentomatoes.com

15. In Bruges- The "hitmen having an existential crisis" genre has been done to death since Pulp Fiction. This is the first time that it's been done well. Great performances, great direction and a wonderful screenplay elevated this thriller far beyond the normal constraints of the sub-genre

14. Wall-E- This incredibly adorable film is one of the best Pixar has ever done. The second half is a bit of a drop off, but the first half is as good as anything else this year.

13. Vicky Christina Barcelona- This incredibly sexy and entertaining film is Allen's best in years. Bardem continues his winning streak, Cruz and Hall are perfect and Scarlett Johanson...looks really good. Allen perfectly captures the feelings of Spain.

12. Milk- This timely film is loaded with great performances, especially from Penn, Franco and Hirsch. Although it sticks to many conventions of the traditional bio-pic, it works perfectly inside these conventions, giving us a heartbreaking true story.

11. Trouble The Water- This underseen nominee for best documentary tells a stirring tale of survival after Katrina. Using large amounts of footage shot on the ground by aspiring rapper Kimberly Rivers-Roberts and her husband Scott, this is a tale of redemption and a commentary on the lack of anything resembling support that the Bush administration gave to the poor people of New Orleans.

10. Snow Angels- David Gordon Green's depressing story of small-town life boasts great performances from Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale. It is visually brilliant, heartbreaking, and as powerful as any other film this year.

9 . Encounters At The End of The World- Werner Herzog is my hero. Him bringing his act down to Antarctica and combining it with stunning nature photography leads to one of the year's best documentaries

8. Let The Right One In- This coming of age vampire story is, by a rather large margin, the strongest horror film in years. There are a couple missteps (the CGI cats just look stupid), but great performances and fantstic visuals, as well as a generally creepy story that doesn't rely on gore or cheap jump scares elevate it far bayond the normal constraints of the genre.

7. The Class- Now, I haven't seen L'enfant, but based on what I have seen, this is probably the strongest winner of the Palm d'or since at The Pianist back in 2002. Leaving behind the constrains of the traditional heartwarming film about teachers in the inner city, this is a realistic look at life in a poor Parisian school. The students hate the teachers, the teachers can't deal with the students and the parents are stuck in between. Shot with hand-held style footage and featuring great performances from writer François Bégaudeau and most of the kids in the class, this really is one of the year's strongest efforts.

6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button- David Fincher's fantasy is the strongest of the best picture nominees and his best film since Se7en. Yes, there are similarities to Forrest Gump, but this film has better performances, fantastic visuals far more interesting themes of life and death and is less sappy and overly sentimental.

5. Rachel Getting Married- Jonathon Demme's best film in years fully immerses us in the lives of it's characters, especially Kym, played to perfection by Anne Hathaway. Some have criticized it as being too slow. I don't really like those people.

4. Waltz with Bashir- Ari Folman's animated documentary was the best foreign film, animated film and documentary of 2008. This movie looks great, has a fascinating score and does a great job exploring the themes of war and memory. It's still in theaters, so see it.

3. The Dark Knight- This is the best superhero film of all time. I don't think it's even close (hell, I'd probably call Hellboy 2 the second best superhero film, so here's a good look at the gap). Nolan's slick visuals, a smarter-than-average script and the best supporting performance of the year from the late, great Heath Ledger are what really pulled this up onto that level and made it a modern masterpiece that will be discussed for years to come.

2. The Wrestler- Aronofsky's best film yet is also his most personal. Mickey Rourke is on screen for almost every second, and he has the perfect combination of ability and charisma to pull it off in one of the year's best performances. Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood also shine in supporting roles, but Rourke is the star here. Also, Springsteen's title track was absurdly snubbed in favor of two songs from that piece of shit Slumdog Millionaire. Really?

1. Synecdoche, New York- the year's best film has it's best script, leading performance and supporting actress (Samantha Morton). Unfortunately, the academy didn't quite get it. Just go back and read my original review. My opinion hasn't changed.

*Sigh* The Oscar Nominees

Ok, here's the full list of nominees, courtesy of Yahoo. I'll also include how many of my predicted nominees made it

1. Best Picture: " The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," " The Reader ," " Slumdog Millionaire ."

Of these, Curious Case was the best, then Milk, then a very wide gap followed by Frost/Nixon and then an even wider gap followed by the atrocious Slumdog (it would feel redundant to go back and edit my review of Slumdog again, but that ** rating is starting to feel too high for a film that should have gone straight to DVD, which was the studio's original plan). I still refuse to see The Reader. 4 of my 5 predicted nominees made it.


2. Actor: Richard Jenkins , "The Visitor"; Frank Langella , "Frost/Nixon"; Sean Penn, "Milk"; Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Mickey Rourke, " The Wrestler ."

I didn't see The Visitor, but I like Jenkins, so it's nice to see him nominated. Langella was good, but not great in a very mediocre film. Penn and Pitt were both very good and Rourke, who had better win, was fantastic. I'd much rather see Dicaprio (for Revolutionary Road) and the others I mentioned in my other entry than Langella or Pitt. 4/5 made it


3. Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"; Angelina Jolie, " Changeling "; Melissa Leo , " Frozen River"; Meryl Streep, "Doubt"; Kate Winslet, "The Reader."

I hope Hathaway wins, she was my favorite in this group. Leo is a good underdog story, so it's nice to see her here. Streep just wasn't good at Doubt. Winslet deserved it for Revolutionary Road, but I always thought The Reader was a supporting role for her. I didn't see Changeling, so I won't comment on Jolie. I'm shocked that they snubbed Sally Hawkins, and I'm disapointed that Rebecca Hall didn't sneak in. 2(3?)/5 made it. I don't know if I should count Winslet or not.


4. Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin , "Milk"; Robert Downey Jr ., " Tropic Thunder "; Philip Seymour Hoffman , "Doubt"; Heath Ledger , " The Dark Knight "; Michael Shannon , " Revolutionary Road."

It's great to see Downey on here, and Shannon and Brolin were both great (I'd have picked Franco and Hirsch over Brolin out of the supporting cast of Milk). Ledger should win and I think he will. I love the work of PSH, but Doubt just wasn't that good. 3/5 made it


5. Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, "Doubt"; Penelope Cruz, " Vicky Cristina Barcelona "; Viola Davis , "Doubt"; Taraji P. Henson , "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler."

Well, if I had known that WInslet was being submitted as a lead actress for The Reader, I would have put Adams into the fifth spot, as she is my favorite of these five. Cruz and Henson were both excellent. Davis was very good, but I think people have overrated her performance. Tomei would be my second pick; her performance was brave and heartbreaking, and she made a perfect compliment to Rourke. 4/5 made it


6. Director: David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"; Gus Van Sant , "Milk"; Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"; Danny Boyle , "Slumdog Millionaire."

Fuck Slumdog. It just wasn't a very well-directed film (neither was Frost/Nixon, but Slumdog was much more disapointing) This went as expected, with the exception of The Reader getting it over TDK. 4/5


7. Foreign Film : "The Baader Meinhof Complex," Germany; "The Class," France; "Departures," Japan; "Revanche," Austria; " Waltz With Bashir ," Israel.

Of these I've only seen Waltz with Bashir, which was fantastic. I really want to see The Class, but it won't be here for a while.


8. Adapted Screenplay : Eric Roth and Robin Swicord , "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; John Patrick Shanley , "Doubt"; Peter Morgan , "Frost/Nixon"; David Hare, "The Reader"; Simon Beaufoy , "Slumdog Millionaire."

Once again, same as expected except with The Reader instead of TDK. 4/5
9. Original Screenplay: Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"; Mike Leigh , "Happy-Go-Lucky"; Martin McDonagh , "In Bruges"; Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"; Andrew Stanton , Jim Reardon and Pete Docter, "WALL-E."

So I guess The Wreslter, Synecdoche and Rachel Getting Married really were just too much for the sensibilites of the academy. In Bruges, Milk and Wall-E were great, and I'm sure the others were good, but really? Nothing for the year's three best original screenplays? 2/5


10. Animated Feature Film : "Bolt"; " Kung Fu Panda "; "WALL-E."

Bolt ahead of Waltz with Bashir? I guess it doesn't matter, since WALL-E has this locked up


11. Art Direction: "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "The Duchess," "Revolutionary Road"

The three I saw all looked fine. It's not like I was expecting The Wreslter or Rachel Getting Married to be nominated here anyway, but Synecdoche had some really fantastic set design


12. Cinematography : "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire."

Curious Case and TDK were good. I'm done talking about Slumdog for now. There were no standouts a la No Country or TWBB this year.


13. Sound Mixing: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Slumdog Millionaire," "WALL-E," "Wanted."

Wanted was nominated for more Oscars and Synecdoche New York. The academy should be ashamed


14. Sound Editing: "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man," "Slumdog Millionaire," "WALL-E," "Wanted."

Wanted was nominated for more Oscars and Synecdoche New York and Rachel Getting Married combined. The academy should be ashamed


15. Original Score: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Alexandre Desplat ; "Defiance," James Newton Howard ; "Milk," Danny Elfman ; "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman ; "WALL-E," Thomas Newman .

I hated the music in Slumdog, and the music in TDK was far better than any of the nominees. Otherwise this is ok


16. Original Song: "Down to Earth" from "WALL-E," Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman; " Jai Ho " from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Gulzar; "O Saya" from "Slumdog

Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam.

Two songs from Slumdog, and they ignore Springsteen's song from The Wrestler? I don't give a shit about Springsteen and even I love that song. Now we have to listen to the two songs from Slumdog during the actual ceremony. Great job AMPAS


17. Costume: "Australia," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Duchess," "Milk," "Revolutionary Road"

I'm ok with this


18. Documentary Feature: "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)," " Encounters at the End of the World ," "The Garden," "Man on Wire," " Trouble the Water."

I loved Encounters and Man On Wire, and I haven't seen the others. Waltz with Bashir really should have been nominated


19. Documentary ( short subject ): "The Conscience of Nhem En," "The Final Inch," "Smile Pinki," "The Witness — From the Balcony of Room 306."

I have no idea


20. Film Editing: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "Slumdog Millionaire."

Nothing special about Slumdog or Frost/nixon, the others were good.


21. Makeup: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."

I fully support these choices
22. Animated Short Film: "La Maison en Petits Cubes," "Lavatory — Lovestory," "Oktapodi," "Presto," "This Way Up."

No idea


23. Live Action Short Film: "Auf der Strecke (On the Line)," "Manon on the Asphalt," "New Boy," "The Pig," "Spielzeugland (Toyland)."

No idea


24. Visual Effects: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," " Iron Man."

Hellboy had far better effects than the severly overrated Iron Man



I hate the academy. They ignore Synecdoche and give out three total nominations to The Wreslter and Rachel Getting Married. They snub The Dark Knight in the best picture race in favor of The Reader, a film whose basic plot I find so insulting, to both history and the viewer, that I refuse to see it and their outdated rules stopped Let the Right One In from getting a nomination for best foreign film. Worst of all, they continue the needless amount of praise heaped on Slumdog, a film that history will hopefully allow us to forget very soon.
As a side note, the first two episodes of the fifth season of Lost were absolutely perfect, so even all of this can't make me that mad.

Waltz With Bashir

As a preface to this review, I should probably note that I am a non-practicing Jew who has spent a decent amount of time in Israel and has many friends currently in the Israeli army. I say this because these facts made it very difficult to simply review Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir on an intellectual level. This was one of the most emotional movie-going experiences I've ever had. This animated documentary (I'll get to that later) is one of the most highly acclaimed films in Israeli history, and was one of my most anticipated films of 2008. It has already won the Golden Globe for best foreign language film and is the front-runner for the Oscar in that category as well as a dark horse in the best animated feature category (although I'd be shocked if anything actually beat Wall-E). When I first heard that this was an animated documentary, I really didn't know what to think. It just sounded like too much of a contradiction, unless you count an animated educational film as a documentary. Waltz With Bashir has advertised itself as the first feature-length animated documentary, and, given the way it is filmed, I agree with that label. The film is centered around a series of interviews and discussions between Folman and others who were with him in the 1982 war with Lebanon. These sequences were first filmed in a studio, and then the animators drew them separately (it was not rotoscoped, like Waking Life or A Scanner Darkly, which is where they animate over the actual image). Then their interviews lead to a story of flashbacks and hallucinations about the war. At first I didn't realize how these could be considered part of a documentary, but I realized that they are no different from the reenactments in The Thin Blue Line, except in that they use a separate medium.
As the film opens, Folman sits in a bar with an old friend from the war who explains a recurring dream in which he is chased down the street by 26 angry dogs. In Lebanon, they knew he couldn't kill humans, so his commanders made him kill the guard dogs instead, and he sees this recurrent nightmare as his punishment. After this interviews, Folman realizes that he doesn't remember a thing about the war except for one hypnotic flashback where he and two others wake up in the ocean and walk into Beirut, only to see a large crowd fleeing the Sabra and Shatila massacres, in which a large group of Christian Lebanese entered two Palestinian refugee camps and slaughtered the refugees while the Israeli guards just stood by, paralyzed by the chain of command. Folman goes to interview one of the men who was in the dream (he can't remember the other), and, through interviews with him and various others who were there in that time, he begins to put together what happened. Through this, we get a series of fascinating, interconnected vignettes about the war and its effect on people. The only one of these that doesn't work perfectly involves Folman working a VCR so his colonel can watch porn; however this is soon followed by the best scene in the film. As they entered Beirut following the assassination of Lebanese leader Bachir Gemayel (pronounced Bashir), Folman's company faced heavy enemy fire. After a few minutes, his commander knew that they needed to cross the street, so he grabbed a heavy machine gun and walked out, shooting into the air, performing a crazed Waltz amid the gunfire and posters of the fallen leader. Near the end of the film, there is an abrupt switch from animation to archival footage. This scene, aside from showing the true effects of war in far greater detail, perfectly uses the dreamlike imagery of animation to contrast the real, and reminds us of the line between dream, memory and fact.

I really can not express my admiration for this film enough. Every little detail was alternatively fascinating and heartbreaking. The animation was both dreamlike and beautiful, perfectly capturing the feel and the themes of the film. The score, which won composer Max Richter best composer at the European film awards, is occasionally overbearing, but otherwise perfect, especially during the main hallucinatory sequence. Folman is a perfect guide for this journey, always allowing the story to come out on it's own, and the interviewees, from his friends to the reporters to the military higher-ups at the end, all give us the exact piece of the puzzle that we need from them. My emotional connection to the people and places in the film certainly helped my personal reaction to the story. I can't deny that, but this is an important film, especially now, and it is something that everyone should see. Waltz with Bashir really is one of the best and most innovative films of 2008.

Rating (out of ****): ****