2011 Oscar Picks

This is going to be short and sweet. With only two days left until one of the biggest movie award nights, I wanted to get my final Oscar picks into writing and see who agrees and who challenges.

The BIG FIVE:

Best Picture

The biggest award of the night is most definitely Best Picture. There are a lot of opinions out there on which film will win this category. Though my “favorite” film of the year was Inception, it will not win Best Picture. This category is a big fight between only two films: The Social Network and The King’s Speech. Though The King’s Speech had great acting, a fantastic story, creative cinematography, and superb direction, it may not have the same type of cultural relevance (usually a large factor of Academy Award winning films) that The Social Network did.

Will Win: The Social Network

Dark Horse: The King’s Speech

Best Director

This is another battle between the same two films: The Social Network and The King’s Speech. However, this is not going to be as close as the previous category. Here we have Tom Hooper, a relatively new feature director, against the veteran David Fincher, known for Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and a director who is well overdue for an Oscar.

Will Win: David Fincher

Dark Horse: Tom Hooper

Best Actor

Sure, Jesse Eisenberg was great. So was James Franco. But really, to say that either one of them (or Jeff Bridges and Javier Bardem) has a chance, well, I’d just be kidding myself. Colin Firth was unstoppable in his role in The King’s Speech.

Will Win: Colin Firth

Dark Horse: Nope

 

Best Actress

A possible winner in this category is Annette Bening, but the reason she won’t win is because her role in The Kids Are Alright is not that far of a stretch. She plays herself. On the other hand, Natalie Portman does an amazing job in a very demanding role (both emotionally and physically).

Will Win: Natalie Portman

Dark Horse: Annette Bening

 

Best Original Screenplay

This is a difficult category. The King’s Speech is the favorite for this category amongst most critics but I truly feel that Inception is the better, more thoughtful script. The story in Inception is more complex and has a great character relationship, not to mention it took home the prize at the WGA awards.

Will Win: Inception

Dark Horse: The King’s Speech

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Social Network is a profoundly fast-paced, smooth and thought-provoking screenplay that is sure to win. Even if The Social Network doesn’t win Best Picture, this is a for sure and you can bet that Aaron Sorkin will make one heck of a speech.

Will Win: The Social Network

Dark Horse: None

Supporting Role

The Oscars for Best Actor and Best Actress in a supporting role are in the bag. They both have challengers but in all reality, Christian Bale will win the oscar for best supporting actor for his role as Dicky Ecklund in The Fighter and the oscar for best supporting actress will go to Melissa Leo for the same film. The dark horses in these categories are Geoffrey Rush for The King’s Speech and Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit respectively.

 

Other Categories and Technicals

 

Best Animated Feature

Will Win: Toy Story 3

Dark Horse: None

Best Documentary Feature

Will Win: Exit Through The Gift Shop

Dark Horse: Inside Job

 

Best Live Action Short

Will Win: God of Love

Dark Horse: Na Wewe

 

Best Documentary Short

Will Win: The Warriors of Quiugang

Dark Horse: Strangers No More

 

Best Animated Short

Will Win: Day & Night

Dark Horse: The Gruffalo

 

Best Foreign Language Film

Will Win: In A Better World

Dark Horse: Biutiful

 

Best Art Direction

Will Win: Inception

Dark Horse: The King’s Speech

 

Best Costume Design

Will Win: The King’s Speech

Dark Horse: Alice In Wonderland

 

Best Makeup

Will Win: The Wolfman

Dark Horse: The Way Back

 

Best Film Editing

Will Win: The Social Network

Dark Horse: The King’s Speech

 

Best Original Score

Will Win: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Social Network

Dark Horse: Alexandre Desplat for The King’s Speech

 

Best Original Song

Will Win: “If I Rise” from 127 Hours

Dark Horse: “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3

 

Best Sound Editing

Will Win: Inception

Dark Horse: True Grit

 

Best Sound Mixing

Will Win: Inception

Dark Horse: The Social Network

 

Best Visual Effects

Will Win: Inception

Dark Horse: Alice In Wonderland

 

Best Cinematography

This will be an interesting category on Sunday. Roger Deakins will probably win for his cinematography in True Grit, however, Wally Pfister could pull off the win here. Pfister’s photography is over all more intriguing and interesting, but he’s new. This is his fourth Oscar nomination since 2006. On the other hand, Roger Deakins has been in the business for much longer and most would argue that he “deserves” the Oscar with his past eleven nominations. Excited to see which way this award goes.

Will Win: True Grit

Dark Horse: Inception

“The Fighter” ***3 Stars***

All of the underdog stories that people see in movies cannot hold a candle to The Fighter. Why? Because The Fighter is a true story. And the underdog story is not just about what happens in the ring. The Fighter is the true story of welterweight boxer Micky Ward, his trainer/half-brother Dicky Ecklund, and their mother Alice, who also acts as Micky’s manager. As Micky attempts to make his comeback he is thrown through an emotional gauntlet caused by his brother’s crack problem, which leads to misdirection, and his mother’s inadvertent manipulation, which Micky recognizes as the future cause of his possible downfall.

The film opens on Dicky Ecklund (Christian Bale) sitting on a couch through an overexposed, deep depth of field video camera. He fidgets. His eyes bulge and blink excessively. His mouth shakes as his jaw tenses and his lips stiffen. “Do I look at the camera?” He asks. “No. Look here,” says the filmmaker. “So you don’t want me to look at the camera?” We begin with Dicky’s story. He was a professional boxer who early in his career knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard (some will argue that he tripped) and became the pride of Lowell, Mass. Here we are, several years later and HBO is making a documentary about Crack in America, starring Dicky Ecklund. We see how popularity and drugs have affected his life as he parades around downtown Lowell saying hello, hugging, and slapping fives with everyone he sees; the HBO cameras film it all. He’s a superstar in his hometown. He’s also an addict. He has forever lost his chance at a boxing comeback. Now it’s his brother Micky’s chance.

“My brother taught me everything I know,” says Micky about his brother. It’s this small amount of information that reveals to the audience why Micky can’t live without Dicky. He’s dependent on him. He’s also dependent on his chain-smoking mother (played by the INCREDIBLE Melissa Leo) who pushes Micky with the constant maxim that only family can be trusted. The film evolves into a constant battle between Alice and Charlene (Micky’s girlfriend played by Amy Adams), Dicky and the law, and Micky and his family.

The greatest part of this film is how it centers the focus around the ring instead of in the ring. David O. Russell executes this by being a great actor/character director. The cast for this film–which received a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Ensemble Cast–is unstoppable. The greatest shortcoming in the cast (also in the film) is the written character of Micky Ward (this is with no offense to Mark Wahlberg or the real Micky Ward). Wahlberg plays this role very well but to say that it was a quiet storm-of-a-role would be an overstatement. The role wasn’t overacted or underacted. It was underdeveloped. It’s boring. The whole time, the audience will ask, “Is Micky going to assert himself? Will he stand up for himself and his career?” The answer is yes, but hardly to any end. Bale’s Dicky and Leo’s Alice become the powers of this film as well as the driving force to the films raw emotion and  cinematic success. Adams’ role is fun too, but we never see it develop, nor do we see its depth. Sure, she can rough up “Irish” Micky Ward’s sisters but we never see the role come full circle.

This film emerges into a movie about overcoming a dysfunctional family. He’s not fighting to be a champion, he’s fighting for manhood, independence, for his brother and his mother, and his hometown. David O. Russell is also a great stylistic choice for this film and creates a real balance between the main story and the sub-stories which run throughout.

The Fighter is a TKO, that is not to say that it is merely technical, but rather I cannot give it the Knock Out status, only the next best thing.

Oscar Watch: Melissa Leo and Christian Bale will almost definitely be receiving the  Oscars for their parts; truly amazing.

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, and Amy Adams

Directed by David O. Russell; Written by Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, and Eric Johnson; Cinematography by Hoyte Van Hoytema; Production Designer, Judy Becker; Edited by Pamela Martinr; Original Music by Michael Brook

Of Kings and Commoners “The King’s Speech” ****4 Stars****

Imagine, if you will, you have suffered with a stammer since age five and have had trouble communicating with every single person, let alone large groups of people, nearly your entire life. Every time you open your mouth to speak, if merely to your wife, you feel awkward and frightened by the sound of your own voice; you feel as if you are choking on your tongue and that the nerve-induced beads of sweat that rain down your face will soon drown you. This might not be so terrible. Just don’t speak much, keep your conversations short, and only keep the company of your wife and closest friends. Perfect . . . until you add the last details to your story. Your brother, King Edward VIII of England, is about to be abdicated from the throne,  leaving you to fill his place. It is 1937 and you are about to rule over a quarter of the world during a time when communication via radio is flourishing and your country is on the eve of a great war. You are not only expected to speak over radio, it is in your job description.

It has been a long time since such a simple story had an emotional effect on me like the one incurred by “The King’s Speech,” the newest film by director Tom Hooper (known for John Adams and The Damn United). The story is of two men, the future King George VI of England and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue. The film opens on Prince Albert (Colin Firth) as he attempts to address a large arena in person and the entirety of his country over the radio. Needless to say, he stammers, he seizes up, and his wife (played by Helena Bonham Carter), the future Queen Elizabeth–as well as the future Queen Mother–looks upon him with great sympathy.

As it becomes evident to Elizabeth that soon King George V will die and that the heir to the throne, her husband’s brother The Duke of Windsor, will not last long, she seeks a speech therapist who will help her husband in order to prevent him from future embarrassment. After many failures, she finds Dr. Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush), a failed actor turned speech therapist, whose unorthodox methods of treatment may just be what the stammering Prince needs. Upon their first meeting, Logue and Bertie (a personal nickname  for the Prince and what he will be referred to by me henceforth) make a small wager that Bertie will recite a longer quote without a single stammer. Without giving too much away about Logue’s unusual methods and their connection with the magic of this particular scene, Bertie speaks the quote in its entirety, without flaw, which springboards their doctor/patient relationship as well as the friendship between a king and a commoner.

The actors all play their roles with a certain precision and focus needed to build the relationships. Carter’s queen is tactful and caring, Firth’s king is constricted and formal, and Rush’s Logue is amusing and eccentric. The interactions on screen keep the film perfectly balanced. Hooper also chooses some very interesting set design and cinematography in order to, I can only assume, make the audience feel the same confines and dimensions of the king’s throat and speech.

The film accomplishes what many historical films have merely attempted to do: take a historical moment, pull from it a sub-story of great personal anguish, bring it to the screen in all its detail, and move the audience to true emotion. The film also moves at a pace that leaves no one behind nor bored creating a story for everyone.

I can only imagine that this will be a big winner at the 2011 Oscars, with its 12 quite deserved nominations. Prepare your speech Mr. Hooper!

Sidenote: The films ‘R’ rating is for a scene with inexplicable but somehow necessary profanity. Nothing to worry about. This is a film that can and should be seen by teens.

Starring Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce and Michael Gambon

Directed by Tom Hooper; Written by David Seidler; Cinematography by Danny Cohen; Production Designer, Eve Stewart; Edited by Tariq Anwar; Original Score by Alexandre Desplat

The Dude Does The Duke “True Grit” ***3 1/2 Stars****

In 1970, John Wayne walked on to the stage to accept his first and only Oscar for his performance as Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn, the one-eyed, disgruntled old U.S. Marshall in Henry Hathaway’s screen adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel True Grit. This is not that performance, nor that film. What makes this film different is that it runs its narrative closer to that of Portis’ novel, in storyline, character development, and its focus which, in the 1969 version of the film, is on Duke’s version of Rooster Cogburn. In the Portis version and the Coen’s version, the focus is upon Mattie Ross.

True Grit is the story of Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), a brusque, smooth-talking 14-year-old, who hires the rusty, yet notable U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn to head into Oklahoma Indian Territory to hunt her father’s murderer, the evil and cunning Tom Chaney (played flawlessly by Josh Brolin). Just as Bridges outdoes the Duke’s Cogburn, Steinfeld plays a more compelling Mattie Ross than the original Kim Darby. Also along for the ride is Matt Damon’s swaggering La Boeuf (La ‘Beef’), a Texas Ranger who acts as both the comedic relief and balancing point between the other two protagonists. Damon’s effectiveness is not to be forgotten. He plays the snot out of this role with true ‘Texas Ranger’ pride.

In true Coen Brother form, the film builds darkness around our moving plot, accented by Roger Deakins’ well-paced and well-framed photography. The darkness builds until we meet ‘Lucky Ned’ Pepper’s gang (with which Chaney rides) and we explode into the final battle between Rooster and the gang that would give most notable western’s a run for their money. What separates this gunfight from most other western fights is the pace and movement. The Coens leave the scene raw, giving the audience the feeling of self-presence.

This is a true Coen Classic, as it set a new standard (a new step) for them as filmmakers. Never before have they done a project with this style falling in the guidelines of an adaptation. I hope it is not the last time we see this from the Coens.

Starring Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Barry Pepper.

Written, Directed, and Edited by Joel and Ethan Coen; Director of Photography, Roger Deakins; Production Designer, Jess Gonchor

Dreaming, totems, and kicks. “Inception” ****4 stars****

“You have one minute to design a maze that takes two minutes to solve.” This is Cobb’s request in his first meeting with Adriadne. Why? He needs to know that she can create difficulty. He needs to know she can design a maze. He needs to know that she can construct a labyrinth, within in her head…instantly. She is the architect.

Christopher Nolan (writer/director) has created a maze of his own which he is testing on us, his audience. He creates it and asks us to join and trust him as he leads us through. It’s disorienting at best. The levels of dreams and signature of time lead us through reality, reality within dreams, dreams within reality and everything between. This style of story (the screenplay took Nolan a reported 10 years to write) is no stranger to him. Memento, Chris’ 2000 film about a man with short-term memory loss, seems easy, even effortless next to Inception. Did I mention that Memento is backwards . . . literally?

The film begins mid-dream. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are professional extractors–they infiltrate one’s dream in order to steal (or extract) one’s idea(s)–who have a new client, Saito (Ken Watanabe). Their new client has hired them for a particularly difficult dream infiltrating–they must perform an inception. At first, Arthur calls inception “impossible” but Cobb disagrees and so we have a deal. Step two: assemble the team like in all good heist movies. The Architect – the one who creates the intricate levels and labyrinth style cities within a dream: Adriadne (Ellen Page); The Chemist – the one who creates the sedatives and puts the team and target under: Yusuf (Dileep Rao); and The Forger – one who can change his appearance within a dream so he may assume the role of someone else: Earnes (Tom Hardy); with the two extractors (now inceptors), Arthur and Cobb, and the client, Saito who wants to come along for insurance purposes, we have our team. The next hour and a half is spent with visually stunning action sequences taking place over four different timelines within three levels and sub-levels of dreams all with the common purpose, to place an idea within the mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the son of Saito’s terminally ill corporate rival Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaite), to break up the Fischer empire when Maurice dies. There’s a couple small hitches in the plan though. First, Robert Fischer has trained his sub-conscious to fight extractors. Whoops! Now instead of just implanting an idea on a calm sunny day, we’re in a busy, rainy city with gunslingers everywhere protecting Fischer’s mind. Second, in a typical extraction or dream, when you die, you wake up. But due to the powerful sedatives created to pull off this intense heist, if you die within the dream you fall into limbo (it’s an eternity within your head and there’s no way out–they describe that if someone falls into limbo within a 10 hour dream [the length of the heist in the film] it would feel like somewhere between 60 and 100 years to the dreamer . . . Ouch!). Third, there is a reason that Cobb must succeed with the inception. It’s a little too complicated for me to explain (nearly impossible without confusing you more and spoiling) but it involves Cobb’s deceased wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard) and his children who he won’t be able to see unless he successfully implants the idea.

What do you remember about dreams? Do you ever remember how to arrived into a certain situation or event? No.  This is how we become a part of the audience’s journey. We, like the hero, are put through the dream-reality-cycle-mind-bending-clusterbomb of a gauntlet (adrift and aloof of time) that the story and characters create. We become involved in the story.

Nolan has done something wholly original and like many unoriginal ideas these days that evolve into film, he has made it incredibly hard (probably impossible) for someone to follow in his footsteps and recreate his story. That’s what this film is: it’s entirely Nolan’s labyrinth. There is one difficult path in and an even more difficult path out. Unfortunately for us, he built it without writing a map. He has performed inception on us . . . and I think it took.

Neither Robin, nor Hood! “Robin Hood” *1 1/2 stars**

We all have a predisposition when walking into a film such as, “Robin Hood.” This is an ageless story about the famous Robin of Loxley, or . . . I mean Robin of the Sherwood Forest, er . . . Robin Hood? Wait, maybe it’s Robin Longstride? No, Robin and his Merry Men? Well, you pick your version, they’re all about Robin the Socialist: a so-called “Hood” who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. Right. So this is my predisposition. Boy, was I wrong? This is not in fact the story of Robin Hood at all. It’s hardly even a recognizable Robin. Ridley Scott (Director) and Brian Helgeland (writer) create the origin story (maybe they got the hint from all the recent origin stories: Wolverine or Batman or Superman or Casino Royale or Star Trek) about Robin Longstride, an archer and learned fighter for King Richard’s army.

After promising a dying man (Robert Loxley played by Douglas Hodge) that he will return his sword to the departed’s father on his way home from the crusades, he embarks on his journey to Loxley or Locksley (or once again, it’s not as it appears; it strays pretty far from the original tale here and “Loxley” is used as neither [or both] a surname and the area–it’s rather ambiguous) where he meets the lovely Marion (Cate Blanchett). Finally we see some acting in the nuances that Crowe and Blanchett create within their silver screen relationship. It adds life to the story and brings the audience back to a familiar page. Crowe, though playing a similar character to Gladiator hero Maximus (indistinguishably directed by Ridley Scott), creates something that is relatively beguiling out of something rather, well, characterless–the describing word of the film.

However interesting the original idea was–a Robin Hood origin story–we never make it to the ‘coup de grâce’. We’re left lingering with some half-witted jokes about those self-indulging, freedom-hating, liberal French (though a little anachronistic; still funny), a dazzling performance in the villain seat–Godfrey (played by Mark Strong)–and epic, though long-winded, battle scenes. It’s crowded–not what you wanted from a Robin Hood story.

So who is he? No, not John Mathieson (director of photography)–the real mastermind behind the beauty and glory of the battle scenes–but Robin. Lonsgstride? Of Loxley? Hood? I don’t really know, I got distracted by flaming, flying arrows, rude French people, and the liberal–I mean libertarian–I mean tea party–I mean liberal propaganda. Bien cuit, Mr. Scott. You wooed the masses again with your delicious Roman bread! Yes, I am ‘entertained’!

Starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Matthew Macfadyen, Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac, Lea Seydoux, and Max von Sydow

Directed by Ridley Scott; Written by Brian Helgeland; Director of Photography, John Mathieson; Production Designer, Arthur Max; Editor, Pietro Scalia.

“Pirate Radio” **2 1/2 stars***

In the mid-1960’s, off the coast of the stringent United Kingdom, there were a group of ships (yes, several) that pirated rock music to, at times, more than half of England. During these strict and sterile times the BBC would only allow about thirty minutes of pop music on their station during any given day. Can you imagine? This is a time when there is no iTunes, CDs, tapes, and other forms of digital music haven’t yet been created, and record turntables and records cost a pretty penny. People listened to radio, and unless they wanted to listen to the BBC’s music-less daily play, they would tune those radios to none other than Radio Caroline–the most popular of the pirate radio stations and also the station (and ship) that inspired the film Pirate Radio.

Richard Curtis (Director), who also directed Love Actually and wrote the screenplays for Bridget Jones’ Diary and Notting Hill, is no stranger to the detailed, multiple story-line film; that’s where Pirate Radio grabs our attention. It’s the story of eight DJs on a boat off the coast of the U.K., in the North Sea and out of British jurisdiction, who run an illegal radio station to entertain the English masses and youths. The DJs paths, as the fact remains that they live on a boat, seem to cross often and therefore there is no unneeded plot developments that take away from the story, only character development and growth. It’s vulgar, bawdy, and crude and it only becomes worse as the ship’s captain’s, teenaged godson, Carl, comes aboard at his mother’s request at the hopes he may find some “male role models” or something of that order. (Carl is played by Tom Sturridge, and Quentin the ship captain is played by the cool Bill Nighy) However, he never finds a role-model but he does seem to learn a lot. This is the story: a boy starts coming-of-age in a rowdy, rocking environment where he’ll learn more about life amidst the clatter and immorality than he would in the high-culture life on London.

The main conflict, lead by the comically interesting character Sir Alistair Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) is expected and develops into a nice “pop-culture vs. high-culture” battle. This never really left me on the edge of my seat. I wanted more — more evolution of the characters, more conflict. However, it’s the intra-conflicts on the ship that grab the audience’s attention: the small little love triangles, the on-going passive-aggressive fight between the DJs played by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rhys Ifans culminating in a towering ship-climbing scene. These are the elements that truly make this ship “rock.” And it does rock!

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nigh, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Sturridge, Talulah Riley, and January Jones

Written/Directed by: Richard Curtis

“How To Train Your Dragon” ***3 1/2 stars****

What’s big and blue and getting it’s visual behind kicked by a couple of dragon’s? Avatar. Okay, not entirely . . . but, James Cameron could learn a thing or two about flight sequences from this film:

Audiences were amazed at the beguiling sequences that won cinematographer Mauro Fiore the Oscar last month, but How To Train Your Dragon creates a true spectacle of flight, and they do this all with ease. Instead of encountering the action of flight, we get to experience the joy of it thanks to varied talents of cinematographer Roger Deakins (Visual Consultant for Dragons) and the production design of Kathy Altieri (Over the Hedge, Prince of Egypt). These artists collaborated to give the audience a new 3-D experience. No longer are we bombarded with images in both the foreground and background (like we so often are in 3-D films); this film lets us be drawn into a realistic visual story as if it is live action. And this is the just the aesthetic of the film.

We begin with full energy–on high alert. Our narrator, Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), introduces us to his very old village: a seaside escape on the Isle of Berk (strangely enough, I could not find this on any map off the coast of Scotland). It looks peaceful until he finishes the sentence, ” [My village is old, but] . . . all the houses are new.” Uh-oh, that’s bad, here come the dragons. And of course they come, swooping and diving and breathing fire. Not to fear, Hiccup’s father, Stoick (voiced by the booming Gerard Butler), who happens to also be the leader of the village, and Cobber (voiced by Craig Ferguson) lead teams of Dragon-slayers to the fight. This is normal–Vikings fight Dragons! Hiccup, however, falls a bit short (and also a little slim in the shoulders). Wanting to prove to his father that he can fight, he grabs his cannon-like-invention and fires away at the most terrifying dragon of all: Night Fury. To his (and no one in the audience’s) surprise, he nabs it. From here, it is the typical coming-of-age, or coming-of-Vikinghood, film about a boy, trying to impress and gain the respect of his father, who meets a dragon, one that he is supposed to kill, and tries things a little differently. It’s all done with some more, hmm, let’s just call them fireworks.

If the feel-good story doesn’t break your inner-child barriers, maybe the swooping and diving, the dragon’s, the vikings,the developing friendships, the battles,  or the kid love story will intrigue something within you. The film has a great theme and central message and is perfect for any child above the “the tiger in Aladdin scared me” line. It’s cute, and it’s supposed to be that way. It knows it’s cute and I’m good with a film that doesn’t try to be what it’s not.

Starring Jay Baruchel, America Ferrara, America Ferrara, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig Ferguson, Kristen Wiig, and T.J. Miller

Writer/Directors, Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders; Screenwriter, William Davies; Production Designer, Kathy Altieri; Editors, Maryann Brandon and Darren T. Holmes; Music by John Powell

A little Robert Downey Jr.

First, I wanted to give reason for why I have been out of this for a week: I’ve had the flu as well as I’ve been working on a new film in Grand Rapids. It’s low-budget and called The Scrapper. Truth be told, it will be the best film ever made at the budget it’s being shot at (nearly nothing) due to the fact that we have a few Oscar nominees on the crew basically donating time. But that’s enough apologizing and self-promotion. Second, I want to talk about two films that I’ve recently seen both of which star Robert Downey, Jr. The first: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. The second: Sherlock Holmes.

KISS KISS, BANG BANG ***3 1/2 Stars****

Far away from anything that resembles realism, this film is cool and original. Shane Black, who makes his directorial debut with this film, creates something that moves forward with a fleet pace bouncing the moviegoer back-and-forth between several dispositions. These states-of-mind are lead by Robert Downey Jr. on one side and Val Kilmer on the other. The film launches us immediately into the story with Downey as the clever, untrustworthy, and scatter-brained narrator who takes us on ride full of Hollywood crime scenes, scandals, and mistaken identities. Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) has just been relocated to Hollywood to read lines for a film that he mistakenly auditioned for in New York. Along the way, whilst schmoozing with some Hollywood big-wigs, Harry reconnects with an old childhood friend (Michelle Monaghan) and gets tangled with a Private Eye (Val Kilmer) who has been hired for him to shadow for his upcoming role (the reason he’s in Hollywood in the first place). Yeah, it’s a bit messy. And it only gets worse! It’s film noir meets cheeky british gangster comedy meets caper-gone-wrong (if there is such a thing). The best part of it all is its intention to align itself with a execrable crime novel. The story makes fun of itself, a ballsy move for any film. Downey too! He plays as a petty thief bad guy with which the audience empathizes (a near slap in his own face). Kilmer and Monaghan also provide great astuteness and comical relief (Monaghan as the teasing “one that got away”). Black creates a genuine Los Angelean story about fakery and excess. A conniving “tip-of-the-hat” to Hollywood.

Sherlock Holmes **2 1/2 Stars***

It’s cool! That’s not how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have put nearly 130 years ago . . . but, that’s okay. I am, and have always been a fan of Doyle’s Holmes, his ingenious problem-solving skills, attention to great detail (“Watson, how many steps lead up to my floor?”) and keen swiftness. Ritchie, to keep with the rest of his films and his original style, has changed the character a littler. Autonomy of art, ladies and gentlemen. Sometimes you must look at it through others’ eyes. He has created a little more bang to our protagonist, but it plays to our previous thoughts on him. The opening scene of Holmes, stylistically done, commences with Holmes (played by our topic: Robert Downey, Jr.) dissecting his prospective fight with a guard. With his keen sense of hearing and other senses we learn that the imminent threat has faults, and Holmes is going to play to them. He runs the fight through his head (as he does a few times later in the film as well) logically assessing every move he’ll make. Then he executes. Downey is once again controlling over his character with the insouciant style he has perfected. It’s intelligent, which is more than one can say about the film as a whole. Sure it’s cool, but Ritchie has always dug “cool” more than intelligent. And that’s where the story leaves us.

Holmes and Watson (played by the also-intelligent Jude Law) have witty interactions triggered by a sort of strange, homoerotic relationship, diverted sheepishly by the female interests (Irene Adler, played by Rachel McAdams and Mary Morstan, played by the lovely Kelly Reilly). As cool and swaggering as the story is, as well as the characters, it is unequivocal and doesn’t leave much to be desired, which, for Ritchie’s style, can work. What I did like about the story is the end (no spoiler): it’s left open for a sequel, which is something great for all Guy Ritchie fans, something that I still remain to be.

Sidenote: The score (Hans Zimmer) is audacious, cool, and original: classic for a Guy Ritchie film.

Off Topic

Hello everyone, this is going to be short and sweet and quite off the film topic.

A doctor friend of my family, who has been traveling to Haiti for nearly fifteen years (sometimes two or three times a year) to practice medicine and help this post-colonial nation (third world), has recently started a non-profit organization. Since the January 12 earthquake in Port au Prince, Steve (the doctor) has traveled down to Haiti on four different occasions with the help of others to help in every possible way. His non-profit organization is called StarFysh. The website for StarFysh will be up by the end of this week but there is a lot of information on his blog: http://cultureandsensitivity.blogspot.com

Here you will find all the information you need if you decide to help. Also, there are videos for the organization up on youtube at: www.youtube.com/NPOStarFysh

Thank you for your support and help!