The Official Review Thread of 2009

[Zahveed]

District 9 - 8/10

It's a great directorial feature debut by Blomkamp and the concept is executed well. The plot is predictable once you get through a third of it but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying the ride. This could be one of the best sci-fi films in the past decade and the best action movie of the Summer. There are plenty of "oh shit" moments too.



Edited By Zahveed on 1250310215

[Zahveed]

I'm not a huge fan of The Smiths, but I like love The Clash and Pixies. The scene where Gordon-Levitt sings "Here Comes Your Man" is one of my favorites.

[Damien]

(Penelope, my guess is that your iPod and mine probably have not a single song in common )

I don't know: I do have a couple of Nancy Sinatra songs, as well as the Little Women soundtrack (I'd expect you to have that on your iPod). But, yeah, NO The Smiths or The Clash. Ick.

And no ABBA for me!

[Penelope]

(Penelope, my guess is that your iPod and mine probably have not a single song in common )

I don't know: I do have a couple of Nancy Sinatra songs, as well as the Little Women soundtrack (I'd expect you to have that on your iPod). But, yeah, NO The Smiths or The Clash. Ick.

[Zahveed]

Oh,and the split-screen “Expectations” vs. “What Really Happens” rooftop reconciliation is flat-out brilliant.

I would say this is the emotional high-point of the film. It's definitely something everybody can relate to, or at least something I've experienced several times on a personal level; having such high expectations for something that you plan out the scenario in your head like everything is going to be perfect and then have everything crushed by reality is a horrible feeling.

[Damien]

"Darling. I don't know how to tell you this, but there's a Chinese family in our bathroom."

Those scenes at Ikea were wonderful and perceptive because one of the turning points in a relationship is when you first start doing domestic things, like grocery shopping together or looking at furniture (even if you're not buying). Oh,and the split-screen “Expectations” vs. “What Really Happens” rooftop reconciliation is flat-out brilliant.



Edited By Damien on 1250148317

[Zahveed]

"Darling. I don't know how to tell you this, but there's a Chinese family in our bathroom."

[Damien]

(500) Days Of Summer. 9/10 (and it should have a thread of its own).

What a lovely film this is! It’s rare that a movie (or fiction, even, for that matter) ably captures the nuances of relationships but this one is spot on and so many ways. Along with being perspicacious, the movie is both very funny and ingenious, and I also love how clear-eyed Marc Webb’s and the screenwriters’ treatment of the two lead characters – both are completely believable, recognizable non-extraordinary young adults, neither one idealized or in any way demonized, and – rare in contemporary romantic comedies – they are so much more than a handful of arbitrary quirks.

The movie possesses so many cherishable small moments (just a throwaway like Gordon-Levitt holding up a Ringo Starr album is tremendously affecting), and I love the non-linear structure of the film, with the unfolding of the events thus working much as memory does, and thus akin to the viewer reflecting on a relationship he or she has had. (Great call BJ on likening it to the great Two For The Road.) And its bittersweet nature is the very antithesis of self-consciously “hip: as some have denigrated it, IMO. Webb brings such subtle gravitas and feeling to the material that I never would have guessed he was a music video director.

I can’t think of two more natural and completely convincing performances recently than those of Gordon-Levitt (I’m ready to anoint him as a Great Young Actor) and Deschanel. I also adored Chloe Grace Moretz.

It’s by no means perfect. It is derivative of perhaps too many films (some references work others fall flat; there’s an occasional coyness (right from the get-go before the film even starts, with thee “no intentional similarity” announcement, and some devices aren’t followed through on (the misplaced narration is guilty of both these last two drawbacks). And I agree with Original BJ that the outburst scene doesn’t work (although I love how banal the cards thjhis company manufacturers are.) But the pop culture references feel almost uniformly right.

Oh, and I wonder if anyone else felt a bit queasy at the wedding scene – when Joseph and Zooey are dancing, they are the only white people on the dance floor. It’s almost as if Webb wanted to isolate them and convey their being in their own universe, but it seemed a rather off-putting way of doing so.

Two favorite moments: “Get a room!” and Gordon-Levitt’s listing the things he hates about Deschanel, the vary same things he had rhapsodized about earlier, with her heart-shaped birth mark now a blotch resembling a cockroach.

And what music! This is one of the great compilation soundtracks ever. The Smiths, The Clash AND Nancy Sinatra! (Penelope, my guess is that your iPod and mine probably have not a single song in common )

But, one way the movie fails is that, contrary to what Zooey says about being in one of the world’s most beautiful cities, no filmmaker is ever going to be able to make Los Angeles look beautiful. It’s an impossibility. Can’t be done. (Despite the Bradbury building.)

[Zahveed]

I keep forgetting this is where the new film reviews go.

(500) Days of Summer - 9/10

[Penelope]

Julie & Julia (Nora Ephron) 5/10

[Mister Tee]

I'm mostly in line with BJ on (500) Days of Summer. Very likable actors and story/dialogue, all just enough off-center to put the film a cut above the standard young love movie. Though the film references The Graduate, its spiritual ancestor seems to be more Annie Hall: a relationship looked back on in jagged time sequence, with gags like the musical number and foreign film approximating the Snow White or subtitled-thoughts-on-the-terrace scenes in Allen's film. I don't think this movie is nearly as good as Annie Hall -- Annie Hall didn't have any deadening, obvious moments like the Gordon-Levitt greeting card rant BJ references, nor the banality of Tom going back to his true calling of architecture. But the final scene is, as BJ says, perfectly lovely (rating the screenplay nomination almost single-handed), Deschanel is bewitching, and in a summer where the few things I've seen have come in below expectation, the film is one of the few things I can honestly recommend.

[HarryGoldfarb]

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Jim Broadbent, Robbie Coltrane, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, David Thewlis, Julie Walters, Mark Williams, Bonnie Wright.
Dir: David Yates.

Although not QUITE as great as The Prisoner of Azkaban (still the best Harry Potter movie) this one came VERY close. It's probably the least faithful among the movies but very effective. It's nice to see the three leads grow immensely as actors and the first-rate supporting cast all have fun with their roles. Broadbent and Felton, in particular were outstanding. Cinematography (by Bruno Delbonnel) and art direction are also quite great.

Oscar Prospects: I'd say it's a contender for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects. I wouldn't be against a Best Supporting Actor nom for Broadbent.

Grade: A-

Don't know about Oscar prospects but this is the first film in the series that has a very decent cinematography work. The Art Direction is as good as the nominated Goblet of Fire. And yes, the effects have improved since the last installment (with the "inferi" being the exception). That being said, Broadbent was good but simply as good as every major brit actor that has been ingaged with this projects and that is underused. The roles seem extremely simple for these guys, they seem extremely superior to those lines... I don't know, it is an oddity that has been the norm throughout the series.

[Penelope]

In the Loop (Armando Iannuci) 6/10

Dark, excessively profane satire about international politics. Very funny in spots, but overall a rather unpleasant experience; I can't see this crossing over--even in the art-house, several audience members were walking out--the overly pessimistic tone of the piece isn't what people want these days.

[Sabin]

Funny People

This movie is an overblown, egotistical mess and it really didn't have to be. Basically, this is a movie about a jackass who doesn't really grow from a life-threatening illness, that he drags everyone down with him. This is a throwback to a curiously unpopular Rite of Passage genre that James L. Brooks, Blake Edwards, and many others used to do very well but has gone missing as of late. Shame, because I think people like them when given the chance, when properly promoted, and when actually good. Funny People is occasionally quite good. The first hour or so is fairly tight. Then it spirals into warts-and-all home movie-tactics that in theory is pretty daring but just feels like a waffling mess, almost like Mumblecore at its worst. Immature directing and acting choices. I hate to say it, but I'm sick of Judd Apatow's children.

Also, while Adam Sandler is better than he usually is, everyone around him is much worse than they can be. He drags people down just like his character does. They do what they can. Seth Rogen is pretty good. Either he needed to be pushed more or the script needed a clearer sense of direction during his scenes with Leslie Mann, more than sitting down, one-on-one-style because he creates a vacuum of vaguely detached bemusement that the film can't recover from.

[Zahveed]

But it rang rather dissonant for me that Tom and Summer's pop culture references weren't just foreign films from the 50s and 60s but also music from before they were born. A particularly blatant error occurs when the narrator mentions that Tom was adversely affected by British pop music videos, which is highly unlikely to have actually happened: Tom is, let's guess, about 26 or 27, which means he was 1 or 2 when these songs were in heavy rotation on MTV, yet it shows him as at least 9 or 10 years old--in reality, he would've been more affected by the grunge music of the early 90s. Now, had this film been released in 1999 rather than 2009, I'd believe it; but, now, I just don't--it struck me as a script reflecting the creator's influences stamped onto a much younger character. Took me right out of the film.

Unless he watched Vh1, a station that used to play stuff that was either too old or not popular enough for MTV. The early 90's sounds about right then.