The Official Review Thread of 2012

[Sabin]

Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh)

There are parts of Magic Mike that Steven Soderbergh absolutely nails. Pretty much any of the stage productions, and in doing them Soderbergh achieves a feat of cross-promotion that is as accomplished as any of his more artistic endeavors. He sells the act of male stripping -- for everyone! What woman doesn't want these men's attention? Or what gay man? And what straight man doesn't want to excite women like this? And he shoots it with restraint but with the exuberance of a show. Lots of static images that make us feel there, the camera movements held back and when they happen, they are totally dynamic. Soderbergh is a showman in Magic Mike!

But he's not much of a dramatist. For some time now, his deconstructionist tendencies have been increasingly wearying. Quiet scenes of inarticulate people isolated in singles talking to each other. The relationship between Channing Tatum and Cody Horn is a cliche, so Soderbergh compensates by playing it as naturally/boringly as one could imagine. Magic Mike is clichéd, and it only grows progressively so as it goes along especially in the final stretches. I recently outlined every scene in his great/best film Out of Sight and imagine how dull it would end up being today with this approach? There was a time where Soderbergh didn't feel the need to bog down every scene with an antiseptic fog between the performers. I think the problem ultimately is that the stakes in Magic Mike are too symbolic. I wonder if it was a good choice to feature Channing Tatum as a character other than The Kid. Alex Pettyfer is a very boring actor who plays someone incredibly naive and susceptible throughout the film and Channing Tatum is certainly a better actor but he plays a noble character always in control. So your hero isn't especially dynamic and their wants aren't especially gripping. There isn't much by way of thrust, which for the first half is fine. It's an engaging film to be sure when they're just living their lives, but there isn't enough happening to make you feel like it's worth caring about.

If Matthew McConaughey is not nominated, it will not be because of the film's subject matter or even because he is Matthew McConaughey. It will be because he isn't given enough to do. Is this great acting? No, but he's a lot of fun to watch. He is perfectly cast in Magic Mike, and the film doesn't really have time to exploit him.

[anonymous1980]

CLOUD ATLAS
Cast: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant, Keith David, James D'Arcy, David Gyasi.
Dirs: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer.

I haven't read the book but I've been told it's so gargantuan and complex it's widely considered to be unfilmable. Based on the film I've seen, I can definitely see why. There are many, many things to love and admire about this film. The sheer scope, complexity and ambition involved in interweaving six stories spanning millenniums featuring an ensemble cast performing multiple roles oftentimes changing age, race and even gender. For all its ambitions, it's still a flawed piece of work but with many, many moments of brilliance. It's obviously a risky, passion project that despite the fact that it's not 100 percent successful, it should still be seen as a somewhat of a masterpiece, a flawed masterpiece but a masterpiece by the three directors nonetheless.

Oscar Prospects: Makeup and Visual Effects seem assured but also deserves Production Design, Cinematography, Costume Design and Supporting Actor for Jim Broadbent.

Grade: B+

SOMETHING IN THE AIR
Cast: Clement Metayer, Lola Creton, Felix Armand, Carla Combes, India Menuez, Hugo Conzelmann, Andre Marcon.
Dir: Olivier Assayas.

Set in the early '70s, it's about high seniors/college kids involved in leftist student activism. Olivier Assayas is starting to become one of my favorite directors and this one is probably my LEAST favorite so far (it's not easy to follow Summer Hours, I must say) but still, it's a very interesting piece of work (Is it autobiographical?). It's interesting in that it neither romanticizes nor does it condemn the youth activist movement. The performances by the young cast are pretty good though it seems to go on too long.

Oscar Prospects: N/A.

Grade: B.

AMOUR
Cast: Jean-Louis Trintingant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert.
Dir: Michael Haneke.

The story of Michael Haneke's latest opus is a simple one: After suffering a stroke which paralyzed half of her body, an elderly woman's loving husband tries to take care of her the best he could without going back to the hospital and we see her mental and physical deterioration. There have been many, many films about dealing with illness and a dying spouse but few match the emotion and power this film has. Michael Haneke's signature aesthetic of long, static takes and little to no musical score makes things more real and therefore more uncomfortable and more emotionally devastating. It also helps that the performances of Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva are both stunning, it's a beautiful performance duet between the two of them. It's often a tough sit, especially if you yourself have experienced something similar but it's one of the most rewarding cinematic experience you will ever have this year. Truly one of the best of year, perhaps even the decade.

Oscar Prospects: This deserves more than just Best Foreign Language. Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actress and Screenplay will be deserving.

Grade: A.

[Sabin]

I haven't turned on a director as quickly as I have on Christopher Nolan in memory. Memento, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight are terrific entertainments, and then like a magic trick he has revealed to us that all this time he merely wants to be the next Bruckheimer, staging his films (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises) as rides, a series of set-pieces that exist devoid of character motivation. On Inception, I was mixed though very disappointed. At least it's cool-looking with some genuinely cool moments. The best way I can describe The Dark Knight is that it is to me as Armageddon was to Roger Ebert.

[Big Magilla]

I'm not that big a Nolan fan, though I did like Memento at a lot a decade ago. I thought his first two Batman movies were better than the 80s franchise but Dark Knight Rises is the only one I really, really liked.

[Sabin]

Big Magilla wrote
I'd also reverse your star ratings on the two big action films. The Avengers was to me a lot of noise and nonsense with uneven performances from just about the entire cast. The Dark Knight Rises was the best of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy with an involving storyline, excellent special effects and strong performances by the entire cast with Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Matthew Modine and the long forgotten Tom Conti in a bit part all memorable. I found Tom Hardy's character a bit hard to take but by the end when his character's motivations are made clear even he made sense.

That is interesting because to me nobody's motivations made sense aside from what the script required. I'd be interested in your take on Christopher Nolan's filmography, best to worst.

[Big Magilla]

The Dark Knight Rises may be the worst of the three films. Overlong and overcomplicated. I liked it, don't get me wrong, but Nolan is so in love with himself that it's painful at times. And the movie suffers like all trilogy-capping films, the desire to add multitudes of characters is apparently common. But instead of adding two or more villains, the introduce not only two or more villains, but add a handful of others, both villains and good guys. While they all have important parts, it seems like he was trying too hard to create something unique.

Overlong, perhaps, but not overcomplicated. There were no new characters of any substance. All the main characters are all from prior versions of Batman.

[POSSIBLE SPOILER] I especially liked the backstory he gave Robin and the possibility that we might see a new trilogy focused on Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character.

[mlrg]

I'm with Big Magilla on Beats of the Southern Wild 200%!!

Really can't understand how is it showing in any top 10 list of the year. It's easily the worst thing I've seen this year.

What I wrote November 26th in this thread:

What a pretentious piece of crap. Nothing in here fits together or has any logic, and the director seems to don’t ever care about that. Terribly written, all characters are completely cartoonish. The overbearing music and voice over narration is made with the sole purpose of making the film look important… but it’s unbearably pretentious

[OscarGuy]

The Dark Knight Rises may be the worst of the three films. Overlong and overcomplicated. I liked it, don't get me wrong, but Nolan is so in love with himself that it's painful at times. And the movie suffers like all trilogy-capping films, the desire to add multitudes of characters is apparently common. But instead of adding two or more villains, the introduce not only two or more villains, but add a handful of others, both villains and good guys. While they all have important parts, it seems like he was trying too hard to create something unique. At least with The Avengers, most of the characters had been developed in previous films making it easier to appreciate it. Though, as a stand alone film, The Avengers would certainly struggle to adequately explain its characters to the audience, which is why I love what the X-Men franchise has largely done over the years.

[Big Magilla]

I'll take the purposed aesthetic of Jean Renoir's The Southerner over this thing any day.

I'd also reverse your star ratings on the two big action films. The Avengers was to me a lot of noise and nonsense with uneven performances from just about the entire cast. The Dark Knight Rises was the best of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy with an involving storyline, excellent special effects and strong performances by the entire cast with Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Matthew Modine and the long forgotten Tom Conti in a bit part all memorable. I found Tom Hardy's character a bit hard to take but by the end when his character's motivations are made clear even he made sense.

I found Moonrise Kingdom tedious but watchable unlike Wes Anderson's last film, the over-rated Fantastic Mr. Fox. Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums remain this quirky director's best films.

[Sabin]

Yeah, I think the filmmakers were clearly going for a repurposed aesthetic. And the cinematography by Ben Richardson is pretty lovely, so I don't think I can meet you half way on that one, Magilla. I can't fault Behn Zeitlin's filmmaking but I can fault his screenwriting. Beasts is a pretty dumb movie that succeeds in being quite moving largely thanks to a few compensatory factors.

[Sonic Youth]

Art direction? Seriously, art direction? Garbage retrieved from a junkyard is art direction?

Sure, why not?

[The Original BJ]

I'm not as down on Beasts of the Southern Wild as Magilla is -- I think it's so clearly its own singular thing, and I always admire that in a movie. And it does have some lovely, memorable moments and images (the repeated sight of Hushpuppy and co. riding through the water in the bed of that pickup truck most of all). Plus, the score is awesome.

But I'm pretty agnostic on it overall, and didn't find it nearly the high so many did. I always hate to use the old "there just wasn't that much of a story" argument -- it always sounds reductive, as if "what happens next?" is the most important factor of any movie. But I'm afraid that bothered me throughout much of the film. Very few things in the movie seemed to lead to other things, and by the time we got to the last third, its aimlessness was really trying my patience. And though I often enjoy magical realist flourishes, the giant warthogs seemed out of a different movie entirely, and I didn't feel they served a purpose beyond illustrating that Hushpuppy created fantasies to escape from her situation. (Not a BAD idea, but one that, for me, occupied too much screen time for such a simple conceit.)

As for the much praised Quevanzhane Wallis, she definitely has a ton of energy, and I certainly think she was a find for the filmmakers. But a great piece of acting? I'm going to have to say no on that. I just didn't find enough to be so breathtaking from a technique standpoint that I'd label her work something truly special (as I would for, say, Paquin in The Piano, or Osment in The Sixth Sense, to name some recent child performances that really knocked me out.)

I do totally agree with Magilla on the film's art direction, though. That's the most meticulously over-designed vision of poverty I've seen on screen in a while.

[Big Magilla]

Beasts of the Southern Wild - *** (i was pretty drunk when i saw this and i'm pretty sure i overrated it. looking back it strikes me as pretty dumb but a forceful and intermittently beautiful experience.)

Maybe that's the secret. I saw it sober and hated it. I can't beleive the ecstatic reviews this thing has gotten or the awards it's receiving.

Cinematography? Talk about being drunk, could the cameraman have been anything but with that wobbly camera and focusing on people's backs or the ground when they've delivering dialogue? It seems rather fitting that his next film is called Drinking Buddies.

Acting? It was mostly voice-over, i.e. most likely reading from a script. That little girl may be talented but you can't tell from the film where all she does is run up and down and around except for one weepy scene at the film's climax. None of the film's alleged actors were professionals, just residents of the Louisna bayou who showed up to make the film for its young New York transplant director.

Art direction? Seriously, art direction? Garbage retrieved from a junkyard is art direction?

[anonymous1980]

KILLING THEM SOFTLY
Cast: Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, Ray Liotta, Vincent Curatola, Sam Shepard.
Dir: Andrew Dominik.

A couple of idiots rob a illegal mob high-stakes card game and Brad Pitt plays the hit man tasked to clean the mess up, so to speak. Andrew Dominik's previous effort, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a near-masterpiece and not an easy act to follow and he acquits himself well here. I don't understand the alleged "F" this film received by Cinema Score or something like that. It's far from a perfect film but it's beautifully shot and very well-acted (James Gandolfini is a stand-out). The financial crisis allegory was a bit too on-the-nose and it could have used more dark humor.

Oscar Prospects: None but I wouldn't be against a Supporting Actor nom for James Gandolfini.

Grade: B.

CAESAR MUST DIE
Cast: Salvatore Striano, Cosimo Rega, Giovanni Arcuri, Antonio Frasca.
Dirs: Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani.

A group of prisoners put together a production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. I read that the convicts that performed in this film were ACTUAL convicts which makes this film somehow even better. The entire "power of art" angle is nothing new (and the film doesn't do anything special with it) and the last line of the film mars it a little bit. But even so, you will find yourself swept up with both the narrative of the prisoner's story and the narrative of the play itself which the prisoners and convicts perform exceptionally well.

Oscar Prospects: It's the Italian for the Best Foreign Language Film category. It's a possibility.

Grade: B+

FLASHBACK MEMORIES
Cast: GOMA
Dir: Tetsuaki Matsue.

This is a part concert film/part documentary about a Japanese didjeridoo player named GOMA who has brain damage sort of akin to Guy Pearce in Memento and it's all in 3D. Yes, you read that right. Mixing archival footage, animation, photographs, diary entries along with new concert footage, the film constructs a moving and inspiring story of a man overcoming tragedy. This could have easily have been done in a conventional narrative "inspiring beat-the-odds" type film or even a straightforward documentary. But this unique somehow makes it far more memorable and also emotional. It takes a bit to get into admittedly but once you get past your initial reservations, you will find yourself dancing and applauding along with the music.

Oscar Prospects: No idea.

Grade: A-

[Sabin]

Of the reasonably major Oscar players.

Silver Linings Playbook - ***1/2
Moonrise Kingdom - ***1/2
The Avengers - ***1/2
Argo - ***1/2
Skyfall - ***1/2
Lincoln - ***
Beasts of the Southern Wild - *** (i was pretty drunk when i saw this and i'm pretty sure i overrated it. looking back it strikes me as pretty dumb but a forceful and intermittently beautiful experience.)
The Master - **1/2
The Sessions - **1/2
Life of Pi - **1/2
The Dark Knight Rises - *1/2