NERDY CINEMA: Jared’s Top Ten of 2009

This is a post from our sister site NerdyPerv. Since we love movies, we thought we'd share Jared's list. Enjoy! Leave comments if you want to argue....

A Quick Disclaimer: Sorry it’s taken me so long to get to this. I had to wait until the rest of 2009’s movies trickled down to Houston (I swear we’re the anus of the cinematic release system). So, here are my top ten movies of 2009…

10. THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS – Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) continue their infinite battle; this time the wager is the first to capture 5 souls, with Parnassus’ daughter (Lily Cole) being the prize and imagination the battleground. Along the way they find a stranger (Heath Ledger, in his final role), who decides to help them with their traveling sideshow, but is it for good or evil? Terry Gilliam has a way of taking a simple conflict (in this case, good vs. evil) and using fantastic imagery to tell the tale. The last 30 minutes are a barrage of symbolism, which I can’t get enough of as a fan of film. Favorite Scene: The first meeting between Parnassus and Mr. Nick.

9. (500) DAYS OF SUMMER – Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) dates Summer (Zooey Deschanel) for 500 days and consequently breaks up with her (spoiler alert?). The movie is an account of their relationship and the steps Tom goes through to cope with the end of it. An original love story in 2 main ways: 1) It skips around different days just like one would in remembering a relationship, and 2) It’s from a guy’s perspective, breaking the traditions of romantic comedies. Summer’s not necessarily a bad person, but the movie is biased because Tom is biased. No one ever wants to admit it when they both fail at it, but we have to come to that understanding sometime, including Tom. Favorite Scene: The morning after Tom sleeps with Summer and bursts into a musical number (thus making me conclude that Hall & Oates in the soundtrack never fails…they are the bacon of movie soundtracks).

8. THE ESCAPIST – Released in 2008, this British gem finally made its way stateside last year. Frank (Brian Cox) is in his 60s and has been in prison for quite sometime, content to pay the penalty for his crimes. But when he gets word that his only daughter is dying, he decides to break out in order to see her one last time. The movie starts with the escape and cuts back to the plotting done by Frank and his crew. First-time director Rupert Wyatt has put himself on the map with a gritty and suspenseful caper-type drama that is built around a stellar performance by Brian Cox, and a twist that ends the film on a peaceful and poignant note. Favorite Scene: The ending.

7. MOON– With 3 weeks left to go on his rotation at a lunar mining station, Sam (Sam Rockwell) starts to experience unusual circumstances, leading him to realize that he’s not alone on this rock and that he’s part of a corporate underlying that’s been occurring for years. This movie is all about Rockwell’s performance and conveying the mind-trip his character endures should have garnered him more acclaim. A great debut from director Duncan Jones; uses models for exterior shots when Sam leaves the station, which gives the film a special nuance. Very original and very intriguing. Favorite Scene: Sam goes to fix a harvester and comes to a disturbing realization.

6. UP – In my opinion, Pixar’s best movie to date. It has adult-oriented themes to build the characters but doesn’t make it too much for kids to handle. Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) misses his wife terribly. When city planners want to tear down his house, he realizes that he intends to fulfill the promise of going to South America he made to her before her passing, and does so by an intricate carrier system: balloons. As he makes his way through the sky, he finds a boy scout on his porch named Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai), who just wants to earn his “Helping the Elderly” badge. The movie’s design are vibrant and colorful, balancing out the dull emotions that Carl has since his wife’s death. Carl and Russell embark on a whirlwind adventure and realize they need each other to help heal the holes in their lives. Favorite Scene: Rescuing Kevin (I laugh every time Russell slides along the glass…it lasts just long enough to make it hilarious).

5. AWAY WE GO – Sam Mendes’ first shot at making a comedy is incredibly on the mark. Burt (John Krasinski ed's note: Gwen's love) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) are having a baby, but want to search for a better environment to raise it. They embark on a road trip, trekking to various cities that friends/relatives reside, trying to find the perfect place to settle. All too often in a movie, it’s the main couple who have their separate issues and it gets in the way of their relationship. Burt and Verona get along and have a fantastic relationship. They just want a better place to raise their kid. Mendes uses his trademark of soft tones to film this movie, but is very lighthearted and made me laugh a whole lot more than I expected. Favorite Scene: Burt and Verona visit Burt’s hippie relatives.

4. PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL 'PUSH' BY SAPHIRE – Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) is a teenager growing up in ‘80s Harlem, is pregnant with her second child by her father, and is constantly abused by her mother (Mo’nique). She wants to make her life better, and doesn’t know how until she starts going to an alternative teaching school. Before I saw this movie, I thought it had the framework of a melodrama, and Precious’ issues would be knocked aside for the “happy ending”. I was completely taken aback by how raw it was and that it didn’t pull punches. I loved the use of editing involved when something disheartening would happen to Precious, cutting to a happy place that she envisioned her life should be. It’s dramatic to be sure, with several emotional punches to the gut, but Lee Daniels’ direction and the fine acting involved made this a well-done and artistic film. Favorite Scene: Precious is finally on her own.

3. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS – A complete retelling of world history, I didn’t care. The movie is fantastically outlandish and a lot of fun. The movie is centered on two stories in Nazi-occupied France: one being the American-Jewish vengeance group called the Basterds (as dubbed by the Nazi party), the other focuses on a woman trying to escape from the brutal slaying of her family. The Basterds, led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), are to do one thing: kill some Nazis. The Basterds devise a plan to kill the heads of the Nazi party, and Shoshanna (Melanie Laurent) devises a plan to kill everyone, especially the man who killed her family, Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Tarantino’s film has a lot of style and verve, complete with his trademark tongue-in-cheek humor and homage to cinema. Favorite Scene: Shoshanna gets the last laugh.

2. UP IN THE AIR – Simplistic in its story, yet complex in its characters, I greatly enjoyed the subtlety of this movie. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) lives to travel for his job. Anything permanent is a hindrance…he even wrote a book about it. However the emergence of two women in his life, a love interest in Alex (Vera Farmiga) and an apprentice in Natalie (Anna Kendrick), have made him question the counter productivity his life represents thus far. I loved the camerawork Jason Reitman used, which interpreted the characteristics involved within Bingham. The acting and screenplay were honest and real, and that’s all you could ask for in a movie. Favorite Scene: Natalie uses her system for the first time
on the road.

1. THE HURT LOCKER – An original, engaging thriller revolving around an Army bomb technical unit (Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty) and its volatile leader Sgt. Will James (Jeremy Renner). They know that they need to stick together as unknown situations arise, but James is more focused on the rush and the addiction disposing bombs has developed within him. Even though the film is set in Iraq, it doesn’t go into political agenda. It focuses on the film itself and the life or death situations that can impact a soldier. Kathryn Bigelow’s direction is tight and tense, relaying the suspense of whether or not an explosion will end their lives. Cutting from the situation to various Iraqi citizens also implants the possibility of enemies nearby, and adds to the suspense ten-fold. A brilliant film and one I’ll watch repeatedly. Favorite Scene: The sniper stand-off.

Review: THE BOOK OF ELI

I’m starting to think that I should no longer give my opinion of a movie right after I see it to any of my peers. Even if I’m not so impressed with a movie, I always try to come up with something vaguely positive to say about a movie. I’ll say something like “oh, the ending was a big surprise” (translation: I don’t really remember the rest of the movie) or “it was visually stunning” (translation: the colors AND the guys were pretty). When I was walking out of THE BOOK OF ELI this week I made the mistake of saying to a peer how I really felt at that moment, to which he replied:

“oh really? I thought it was great! Such a smart movie.”

I was dumbfounded. Had he seen the same movie as me? We were talking about THE BOOK OF ELI right?

Attempting to re-navigate the conversation, I threw my support behind THE BOOK OF ELI’s most enjoyable detail—the ending. Now, before you read too much into that, the ending does not contain an M. Night Shyamalan type twist, it was just a nice resolution to the almost two-hour hero’s journey we had just taken.

THE BOOK OF ELI opens with Eli (Denzel Washington) killing and eating a cat. It was gross, even if you hate cats. The world has been destroyed by a nuclear holy war, and all that's left is desert and bad teeth. He's traveled over 30 years carrying a Bible to a safe place. He stops in a settled community run by Carnegie (Gary Oldman) to get a charge for his battery pack and then he wants to be on his way. Carnegie's goons have been sent out to find books and they keep coming back with handfuls of books but not the one Carnegie wants. After a freak attack in Carnegie's bar, Eli stays the night and is visited by barslave Solara (Mila Kunis). Solara discovers that Eli has a book, more specifically the book Carnegie wants, and they quickly escape the town to continue on Eli's trek. Carnegie follows after them, never mind the unbelievability that a GMC Suburban can drive across the desert on a tank of gas--I'm just saying.

As I mentioned, THE BOOK OF ELI had a pretty clever ending. I liked that in this world books are sacred and a literate man could bring together people—for evil and for good. The whole Eli-can-kill-everyone-in-his-way thing didn't work so well for me, because I have trouble believing a holy man could so easily kill that many people--even if he was guarding God's book from evil people. Ultimately the action scenes were really good, but there was a lot of down time between them. Washington and Kunis were compelling but it felt like Oldman just phoned in his performance--and I could barely understand him through his mumbling.

Thankfully, I did not have to write my review right after watching the movie, I’m sure it would have been a lot different and less considerate. The action scenes in THE BOOK OF ELI were really good, and ultimately the plot was intelligent for an action film. It was a little hit-you-over-the-head religious for my taste, but it's definitely a story that religious and secular audiences can understand and enjoy.

P.S. I still don’t believe that a Suburban can make it across the desert on one tank of gas!

Top Movies 2009

Soooo, this list is 1) long overdue and 2) not much different from anyone else's list. I saw a ton of movies this past year, and I've loved the opportunities I've had to work as a film critic. I guess that means I should actually post more reviews on my personal site, rather than just for work. So, for 2010 I'm actually setting a goal to write daily and post a review of every movie I've seen.

I've loved learning from some amazing film critics (Candace Havens and Gordon and the Whale) this year, and it's a great writing about movies. So look forward to some more reviews in 2010.

On that note, let's do this!

Reel Vixen's TOP 2009 MOVIES:

1. AWAY WE GO
2. UP IN THE AIR
3. A SINGLE MAN
4. STAR TREK
5. WHIP IT
6. THE HANGOVER
7. IT MIGHT GET LOUD
8. FANTASTIC MR. FOX
9. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

Movies in Bed: SECRETARY

My oldest and dearest friend Jen has been in town from Vermont the last week, which of course leads to debauchery and adventures. If you read my Twitter feed, you probably got an eyefull this week.

Well, the other benefit of having Jen in town, besides an adventurous partner in crime, is her new-found minimalistic spirit. She moved all of her stuff into her mom's house a few years ago before packing up to study comic book art in Vermont, and this year promised her mom that she would finally purge her garage of all her old things. This is great for me because she's found tons of DVDs that I then proceed to steal from her. Yesterday I "borrowed" SECRETARY, a movie I had long been wanting to revisit. It's strange how innocent I was in 2002, because with my viewing last night I caught onto so many things that I completely missed the first few times I saw it.

I kind of feel like a review of this movie is not really necessary. It's a fun, sexy, and I guess thought provoking indie darling--launching the careers of one of Hollywood's most prolific actresses Maggie Gyllenhaal. For me, watching SECRETARY again last night, felt more like opening a time capsule and revealing a moment in time that doesn't hold up as well as I had hoped. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it and have no intentions on returning the movie to Jen before she leaves, but I didn't feel the same wide-eyed curiosity as I felt in 2002. Granted, I watched it with my brother so I blocked a good portion of the movie out due to straight up awkwardness.

Yes, SECRETARY straddles a line between art and BDSM 101, which probably explains why so many of my ex lovers love this movie (and also why I've been so keen to rewatch it recently), but it's also a glorified fairtale. There is nothing wrong with fairetales, since, after all, that is what we want in our movies. But I take a slight issue with the fact that Lee's character needs to be rescued from her self-harm and the only person who could do it with success (since her shrink was unable to do it in the institution) is a man who feigns interest in her. Yes, ultimately he falls in love with her, but only after she has proven to him that she deserves his attention. Thus ignoring the fact that the Sub in a relationship has just as much, if not more, power in this type of relationship.

All the women in Lee's life are flakey and emotionally demanding, where as the men are there to "fix her." Be it her father, her goofy, asexual boyfriend, or the dominant Mr. Grey (James Spader)--they all want to make her right. I do find it hilarious that Mr. Grey's ex-wife scares the living hell out of Mr. Grey and tries to shame Lee by calling her "submissive." The bitterness in her voice alludes to the possibility that she was once his play thing, but then her own sexual needs and personality changed, while Mr. Grey's did not. Will this happen to Lee following her marriage to Mr. Grey? Or are we supposed to believe that the only way she can maintain happiness and self-love is through a submissive relationship with Mr. Grey? Who knows, really, because she was rescued from an emotionless marriage by a man who barely deserves her love--even after the sweet scene where Mr. Grey bathes and soothes her once he has decided to let her in.

Still the spanking scene is still pretty effing hot.

Le Swoon: North & South rivals Pride and Prejudice

Last night I stayed up until 3AM watching the most beautiful BBC miniseries. I could not have imagined a more engaging and wondrous movie if someone had given me all the glitter, rainbows, and active imagination in the world. And this movie was all about the down-trodden and British Industrial Revolution. What’s the movie you ask? NORTH & SOUTH. Yes, you’re probably thinking I’m confusing the 1980s classic American Civil War miniseries starring the late Patrick Swayze; but my friends I am not talking about that NORTH AND SOUTH(although now that I think about it, I should really re-watch that one.)

The NORTH & SOUTH, based on the novel by Elizabeth Gaskel, I rented last night told the story of middle class Southerner Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe), who, after her clergyman father leaves his post and uproots their family to the Northern industrial town of Milton, falls in love with the dashing (and my new imaginary husband) mill owner John Thorton (Richard Armitage). The film is not entirely a love story, although that is the overarching goal. It is about the trials and tribulations of a town based solely on the cotton milling industry and how the decreasing demand for cotton fabric over linen in London will destroy Thorton’s fortune and ultimately the town who relies on his factory for jobs.

People die, people live, people get corrupt and people stay virtuous. Basically, if you’ve read/seen PRIDE AND PREJUDICE you’ll know this story too, but it’s the compelling acting of and delectable chemistry between Denby-Ashe and Armitage that kept me awake longer than I should have been. From the moment Thorton sees Margaret in his factory he is enchanted by her and her free-spiritedness. She demands he treats his workers with respect and he, in turn, teachers her how to appreaciate and love her new home. Just like in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE we learn of Thorton’s love for Margaret early on (and his insecurities regarding Margaret’s feelings towards him), and we spend the last two hours holding our breath waiting for Margaret to get over her prejudices and just flipping kiss the guy already! I won’t spoil their final scene together, but just as a warning I should have brought tissues to bed with me. Thinking about it still gets my heart all fluttery. I have officially added Richard Armitage to my TiVo and Netflix lists.

Have you seen NORTH & SOUTH? Do you have a BBC recommendation for me? There is no better way to spend the holidays than cuddled up with a romantic British miniseries and I think I started off perfectly!

MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT

Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT was way less creepy than I expected. I was honestly anticipating watching two hours of a gaunt and frail man walking the Staple Center stage, unable to breathe and keep up with the music he made famous. Fortunately the sickness and fragility he experienced was not seen by the audience. He was lively, happy, and most surprisingly encouraging to all his dancers and musicians. He lived for the stage and the moments that he was on it, he lighted up and “sizzled.” This man was born to perform and the moments that I would pull myself out of the movie and remember he was no more were the most tragic.

These were private tapes that were never meant to be seen by anyone other than MJ (as those close to him called him) and I think that he would have liked it to be kept that way. The majority of the film splices together rehearsal performances, however there are interviews with his dancers, musicians, costumers, and other production staffers. MJ spent so much of his adult life keeping the public a safe distance from his personal life, so it was a treat to be able to step in and watch his mastery. He was charming, childlike, and completely and totally in love with music and his fans. Every decision he made to tweak his performances was always for his fans, and he made sure to get everyone working with him to feel the same passion and love. His love will be missed.

Review: THE INFORMANT!

Matt Damon (THE BOURNE IDENTITY) is hands down one of the most talented actors working today. If you had asked me ten years ago if I would say that, I would laugh instead of answer. However, over the past decade he has really proven himself and truly become not only a household name, but also a star. Director Steven Soderbergh (OCEAN'S ELEVEN) chose wisely when casting Damon as Archer Daniels Midland senior executive Mark Whitacre in THE INFORMANT!, because only he could pull off playing a completely self-diluted man with such charm.

THE INFORMANT is the loosely based true story of Whitacre’s two year gig as an FBI informant reporting on price fixing in the corn-product business. He spins entire stories about corporate bribery and blackmail, corruption, and embezzlement coming out of ADM. The most impressive part is that he lied about the whole thing—and people believed him. The film builds slowly as we watch Damon’s bumbling fool realize he’s caught red-faced in a lie and then convince whomever he’s talking to that something even more unbelievable is the truth. It’s fun watching him start with a very tiny lie and see it grow into a multimillion dollar scheme. By the end of the film, I started to believe Whitacre never spoke the truth. He lived in an imaginary world of his own making.

THE INFORMANT! was not a Soderbergh masterpiece by any stretch of the word, however it was enjoyable to watch Damon scramble around as Whitacre. The choice to film the entire movie in high fluorescent lighting was smart, because it captured the bleakness and uniformity of corporate America. And Damon’s subtle mannerisms, such as pulling on his toupee when he was questioned by the FBI about ADM price-fixing, were hilarious and well-crafted. In a time when watching corrupt corporate executives get their comeuppance generates great catharsis, THE INFORMANT! does not fail.