For Your Consideration: "Inception"

The campaigns for the 2010 Best Picture Oscar have begun in earnest.... Here is the promotional trailer for Christopher Nolan's Inception

MOVIE REVIEW: Shutter Island

Finally saw Shutter Island starring Leonardo Dicaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese a few weeks ago at our favorite local movie theaters in Alhambra.

Amazingly, this is the first (and only) 2010-released movie I have seen this year. A little bird has told me that the Pacific Paseo movie theaters in Pasadena are being taken over by Arclight Cinemas by summer so they may become our new favorite places to see movies soon.

Anyway, back to Shutter Island. The movie also stars Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson and Jackie Earle Haley.

The film is clearly an homage to the films of Alfred Hitchcock. It has an old-school look and feel, with a classic art direction and cinematography.

The plot is based on Dennis Lehane's best-selling novel of the same name. The basic story is about U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels played by Dicaprio who is investigating the disappearance of a mental hospital patient from a locked room on Shutter Island. He is accompanied by his partner Chuck Aule played by Ruffalo and the head psychiatrist of the mental hospital is played chillingly by Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley.

Of course soon after the federal marshals arrive on the island a huge storm strikes it which prevents communication from the mainland and complicates the investigation. The story is like an onion, with layers being revealed piece by piece until a surprising plot twist at the end shocks the audience and gives the film its overall emotional impact.

Dicaprio gives a compelling portrayal of a conflicted man who has a past that intersects his ability to complete his mission and Kingsley is strong as his main adversary.

Overalll, it's a film that I'm glad that I saw in the theaters, since I am generally a fan of Scorsese's work but it's unlikely to be remembered when the memorable films of 2010 are noted at the end of the year and during award season.

Running Time: 2 hours, 18 minutes.
MPAA Rating:Rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity.

OVERALL GRADE: B+.

ACTING: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
PLOT: B.
IMPACT: B-.

VIDEO: Des'ree "Kissing You (Love Theme from Romero+Juliet)"

This is the video for one of my favorite songs of all time... It is Des'ree's "Kissing You" (the Love Theme from Romeo + Juliet). You might notice a theme from my previous post of one of my favorite tracks ("This Love"): both songs feature the orchestration of Craig Armstrong. The 1986 movie by director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) stars a very young Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes as the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet in this very faithful but expertly updated adaptation of Shakespeare's classic. Enjoy!

REVIEW: The Departed

I saw Martin Scorsese's The Departed in mid-December at the second-run Regency Academy Theaters in Pasadena.

The first thing I noticed about this film is how overwhelmingly white (some would say aggressively racist) it is. The very first lines of voice-over dialogue by 3-time Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson casually includes the word "n-gg-r" and other racially derogatory epithets (I think "sp-c" and "w-p" were also included). It's difficult to recall a single Black face in the entire movie.

One of the central themes of William Monahan's Oscar-nominated adaptation of the Hong Kong action thriller Infernal Affairs (2002) is tribalism. This theme manifests itself in a variety of incarnations. Just some of the examples which leap to mind are cops versus robbers, "good guys" versus "bad guys," crooked cops versus decent cops, college-educated versus street smart, Irish versus non-Irish, "us" versus "them."

The story follows Billy Costigan (Leonardo Dicaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) as two South Boston boys who join the Massachusetts State Police and follow parallel but divergent career paths. Damon's character becomes a rapidly rising star of the department and joins an elite Special Investigations Unit led by Alec Baldwin while secretly reporting to Jack Nicholson's Frank Costello, the all-powerful neighborhood mob boss. Dicaprio's character takes on a special deep undercover assignment in Costello's crime syndicate under the aegis of two decent cops, Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Dignan (Mark Wahlberg). Queenan and Dignan are the only people on the Massachusetts State Police Force who know Costigan's true identity as a police informant.

The symmetric nature of the two main characters, a cop who is undercover with the mob (Dicaprio) and a cop who is undercover for the mob (Damon) is fascinating to watch. Of course the two characters are connected via common acquaintances: mob boss Frank Costello, and police psychiatrist (and love interest) played by Vera Farmigia. Farmigia's role is particularly shallowly written. As the other half put it, her character is not really a person, she is a trope for the notion that "women can see through into the core of a man's soul." Farmigia's character's understanding of the nature of her boyfriend's character is a barometer of the film's choice between the Costigan (Dicaprio) and Sullivan (Damon) characters.

The acting is excellent throughout with particularly outstanding performances by Wahlberg (he actually grew up in South Boston and has the most authentic accent in the entire large cast, because it's absolutely real), Damon, Dicaprio and Nicholson.

GRADE: A-.

2007 Oscars Predictions

MadProfessah's Oscar nomination prediction accuracy rate in the Top 8 categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay) was an impressive 29 out of 40, or 72.5%. EW.com has a very cool Flash-powered game where you can enter EW's Oscars prediction contest. The awards ceremony will be hosted by Ellen Degeneres and broadcast next Sunday February 25th at 5pm from The Kodak Theater in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.

Best Picture











Of course the major story here is what I like to call in my classes the Wideman question, i.e. "What's not here?" or "What's left out?" The answer is Dreamgirls! In my opinion, it was the Best Picture of the Year. Although I have seen a lot of movies in the last year, I only saw Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima in the last week but I can't say that I was overly impressed with either of these films enough to endorse their Best Picture worthiness.

If I go with the film that I enjoyed the most while watching it I would have to vote for Little Miss Sunshine though I must admit that I felt that there were moments of "Damn! That's good film making" while watching The Departed (for the intricacy of William Monahan's script), Babel (for the impact of Gustavo Santolalla's heart-tugging score) and The Queen (for the amazing Helen Mirren's transformation into Queen Elizabeth II). Sadly, I felt no transcendent moments while watching Letters from Iwo Jima ("Oscar voters snubbed Dreamgirls for this?" this weekend.

Anyway, many Oscar prognosticators have forecast a win by Babel for Best Picture on Sunday while others have gone for The Departed or Little Miss Sunshine. Anyway, Oscar ballots had to be in by Tuesday February 20th. Here are my picks:

SHOULD WIN: Little Miss Sunshine
WILL WIN: The Departed

Best Director

• Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
• Stephen Frears, The Queen
• Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel
• Martin Scorsese, The Departed
• Paul Greengrass, United 93
  
  SHOULD WIN: Stephen Frears, The Queen
  WILL WIN: Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Actress

• Penelope Cruz, Volver
• Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
• Helen Mirren, The Queen
• Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
• Kate Winslet, Little Children
  
  SHOULD WIN: Helen Mirren, The Queen
  WILL WIN: Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Actor

• Leonardo Dicaprio, Blood Diamond
• Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
• Peter O'Toole, Venus
• Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
• Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
  
  SHOULD WIN: Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
  WILL WIN: Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Supporting Actress

• Adriana Barraza, Babel
• Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
• Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
• Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
• Rinko Kicuchi, Babel



SHOULD WIN: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
WILL WIN: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Best Supporting Actor

• Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
• Jackie Early Haley, Little Children
• Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
• Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
• Mark Wahlberg, The Departed
  
  SHOULD WIN: Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
  WILL WIN: Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls

Best Original Screenplay

• Guilllermo Arriaga, Babel
• Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis, Letters From Iwo Jima
• Peter Morgan, The Queen
• Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine
• Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth
  
  SHOULD WIN: Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth
  WILL WIN: Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Sacha Baron Cohen and Anthony Hines and Peter Baynham and Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips, Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
• Todd Field and Tom Perrota, Little Children
• Patrick Marber, Notes on a Scandal
• Alfonso Cuarón and Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, Children of Men
• William Monahan, The Departed
  
  SHOULD WIN: William Monahan, The Departed
  WILL WIN: William Monahan, The Departed
  

REVIEW: Blood Diamond

I saw a screening of Blood Diamond starring Leonardo Dicaprio, Jennifer Connelly (Best Supporting Actress, A Beautiful Mind) and Djimon Hounsou (Best Supporting Actor nominee Amistad, In America) at a private residence Saturday night. The audience, which was nearly 30 people, was also overwhelmingly African American and gay.

I had heard one extremely positive comment from a relative stranger in mid-December when the film first opened but I had seen somewhat lukewarm reviews and some negative rumblings about Connelly's performance. The film has grossed more than 50 million dollars domestically and a total of nearly 100 million dollars internationally, so it will likely make money for the releasing studio, Warner Bros. The film garnered a surprisingly strong five Academy Award nominations (Best Actor for Dicaprio, Best Supporting Actress for Hounsou and three technical awards) last month.

So, I was unprepared for how gripping and enjoyable I found Blood Diamond. I believe it is well-directed by Ed Zwick (Glory, Legends of the Fall, The Last Samurai) who I respected from his thirtysomething days. The script (by Charles Leavitt) is a slightly fantastical (to save Hounsou's character from near-certain death at the hands of unpredictable and violent rebels there are two improbably propitious coincidences in a very short period of time). However, generally I found the film very suspenseful as well as disturbingly violent (harrowing scenes of maiming and mutilation).

The most compelling aspects of the film to me were the amazing African scenic landscapes and the dramatic portrayal of the training, living conditions and violent activities of the child soldiers.

I agreed with the overall political project of the film (drawing attention to the horrific price in human suffering of what have come to be called "conflict diamonds") and I believe it is more effective at incorporating entertainment and exhortation than last year's African film The Constant Gardener which won Best Supporting Actress for Rachel Weisz (who happens to be married to The Fountain's Darren Aronovsky.) I heartily recommend the film to others and look forward to seeing The Last King of Scotland (set in Ghana) to see if I can make significant comparisons.

GRADE: A.