Random thought:
I was just listening to Brad Pitt on the Fight Club commentary track - he's actually a pretty intelligent guy...

Woody Allen talks about the Academy Awards

"There are two things that bother me about them. They're political and bought and negotiated for, and the whole concept of awards is silly. I cannot abide by the judgment of other people, because if you accept them when they say you deserve an award, then you have to accept them when they say you don't. It's The Green Hills of Africa, that's what it is. You put yourself in their hands as you're judged, and you're flattered, and the next year they say, 'No, you don't get it, Steve McQueen gets it' - and you know you were fantastic. The whole thing goes against everything you've worked for in your life. Also, there's no provision made for comedy and never has been. Consequently, artists like Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton never win Academy Awards. But it's not fair. Of course, if you're judging Groucho Marx against Death of a Salesman or Streetcar Named Desire, it's wrong. These guys are spectacular artists and they always get kind of stepson Oscars that are voted out of largesse, and that's not right. It bothers me. I wish it was different. I think it would be wonderful if the Academy Awards were truly a spectacular occasion and the awards meant something and glamorous people did them and it was really a step-out night."

(Woody Allen has been nominated for an Academy Award 14 times in the Best Screenplay category - more than any other person. He's won three Oscars - two for writing, one for directing - and has been nominated a total of 21 times. He's never attended the Oscars).

"Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie" by Bob Dylan

When your head gets twisted and your mind grows numb
When you think you're too old, too young, too smart or too dumb
When you're laggin' behind and losin' your pace
In the slow-motion crawl or life's busy race
No matter whatcha doin' if you start givin' up
If the wine don't come to the top of your cup
If the wind got you sideways with one hand holdin' on
And the other starts slippin' and the feelin' is gone
And your train engine fire needs a new spark to catch it
And the wood's easy findin' but you're lazy to fetch it
And your sidewalk starts curlin' and the street gets too long
And you start walkin' backwards though you know that it's wrong
And lonesome comes up as down goes the day
And tomorrow's mornin' seems so far away
And you feel the reins from your pony are slippin'
And your rope is a-slidin' 'cause your hands are a-drippin'
And your sun-decked desert and evergreen valleys
Turn to broken down slums and trash-can alleys
And your sky cries water and your drain pipe's a-pourin'
And the lightnin's a-flashin' and the thunder's a-crashin'
The windows are rattlin' and breakin' and the roof tops are shakin'
And your whole world's a-slammin' and bangin'
And your minutes of sun turn to hours of storm
And to yourself you sometimes say
"I never knew it was gonna be this way
Why didn't they tell me the day I was born?"

And you start gettin' chills and you're jumpin' from sweat
And you're lookin' for somethin' you ain't quite found yet
And you're knee-deep in dark water with your hands in the air
And the whole world's watchin' with a window peek stare
And your good gal leaves and she's long gone a-flyin'
And your heart feels sick like fish when they're fryin'
And your jackhammer falls from your hands to your feet
But you need it badly and it lays on the street
And your bell's bangin' loudly but you can't hear its beat
And you think your ears mighta been hurt
Or your eyes have turned filthy from the sight-blindin' dirt
And you figured you failed in yesterday's rush
When you were faked out and fooled while facin' a four flush
And all the time you were holdin' three queens
It's makin you mad, it's makin' you mean
Like in the middle of Life magazine
Bouncin' around a pinball machine

And there's something on your mind that you wanna be sayin'
That somebody someplace oughta be hearin'
But it's trapped on your tongue, sealed in your head
And it bothers you badly when your layin' in bed
And no matter how you try you just can't say it
And you're scared to your soul you just might forget it
And your eyes get swimmy from the tears in your head
And your pillows of feathers turn to blankets of lead
And the lion's mouth opens and you're starin' at his teeth
And his jaws start closin' with you underneath
And you're flat on your belly with your hands tied behind
And you wish you'd never taken that last detour sign
You say to yourself, "Just what am I doin'
On this road I'm walkin', on this trail I'm turnin'
On this curve I'm hangin'
On this pathway I'm strollin', this space I'm taking
And this air I'm inhaling?
Am I mixed up too much, am I mixed up too hard
Why am I walking, where am I running
What am I saying, what am I knowing
On this guitar I'm playing, on this banjo I'm frailing
On this mandolin I'm strumming, in the song I'm singing,
In the tune I'm humming, in the words that I'm thinking
In the words I'm writing
In this ocean of hours I'm all the time drinking
Who am I helping, what am I breaking
What am I giving, what am I taking?"

But you try with your whole soul best
Never to think these thoughts and never to let
Them kind of thoughts gain ground
Or make your heart pound
But then again you know when they're around
Just waiting for a chance to slip and drop down
'Cause sometimes you hear 'em when the night time come creeping
And you fear they might catch you sleeping
And you jump from your bed, from the last chapter of dreamin'
And you can't remember for the best of your thinkin'
If that was you in the dream that was screaming
And you know that's somethin' special you're needin'
And you know there's no drug that'll do for the healing
And no liquor in the land to stop your brain from bleeding

You need somethin' special
You need somethin' special, all right
You need a fast flyin' train on a tornado track
To shoot you someplace and shoot you back
You need a cyclone wind on a steam engine howler
That's been banging and booming and blowing forever
That knows your troubles a hundred times over
You need a Greyhound bus that don't bar no race
That won't laugh at your looks
Your voice or your face
And by any number of bets in the book
Will be rolling long after the bubblegum craze

You need something to open up a new door
To show you something you seen before
But overlooked a hundred times or more
You need something to open your eyes
You need something to make it known
That it's you and no one else that owns
That spot that you're standing, that space that you're sitting
That the world ain't got you beat
That it ain't got you licked
It can't get you crazy no matter how many times you might get kicked

You need something special, all right
You need something special to give you hope
But hope's just a word
That maybe you said, maybe you heard
On some windy corner 'round a wide-angled curve
But that's what you need man, and you need it bad
And your trouble is you know it too good
'Cause you look and you start gettin' the chills
'Cause you can't find it on a dollar bill
And it ain't on Macy's window sill
And it ain't on no rich kid's road map
And it ain't in no fat kid's fraternity house
And it ain't made in no Hollywood wheat germ
And it ain't on that dim-lit stage
With that half-wit comedian on it
Rantin' and ravin' and takin' your money
And you think it's funny
No, you can't find it neither in no night club, no yacht club
And it ain't in the seats of a supper club
And sure as hell you're bound to tell
No matter how hard you rub
You just ain't a-gonna find it on your ticket stub
No, it ain't in the rumors people are tellin' you
And it ain't in the pimple-lotion people are sellin' you
And it ain't in a cardboard-box house
Or down any movie star's blouse
And you can't find it on the golf course
And Uncle Remus can't tell you and neither can Santa Claus
And it ain't in the cream puff hairdo or cotton candy clothes
Ain't in the dime store dummies and bubblegum goons
And it ain't in the marshmallow noises of the chocolate cake voices
That come knocking and tapping in Christmas wrapping
Saying, "Ain't I pretty and ain't I cute, look at my skin,
Look at my skin shine, look at my skin glow,
Look at my skin laugh, look at my skin cry",
When you can't even sense if they got any insides
These people so pretty in their ribbons and bows
No, you'll not now or no other day
Find it on the doorsteps made of paper maché
And inside of the people made of molasses
That every other day buy a new pair of sunglasses
And it ain't in the fifty-star generals and flipped-out phonies
Who'd turn you in for a tenth of a penny
Who breathe and burp and bend and crack
And before you can count from one to ten
Do it all over again but this time behind your back, my friend,
The ones that wheel and deal and whirl and twirl
And play games with each other in their sand-box world
And you can't find it either in the no-talent fools
That run around gallant
And make all the rules for the ones that got talent
And it ain't in the ones that ain't got any talent but think they do
And think they're fooling you
The ones that jump on the wagon
Just for a while 'cause they know it's in style
To get their kicks, get out of it quick
And make all kinds of money and chicks
And you yell to yourself and you throw down your hat
Saying, "Christ, do I gotta be like that?
Ain't there no one here that knows where I'm at
Ain't there no one here that knows how I feel
Good God Almighty, that stuff ain't real"

No, but that ain't your game, it ain't your race
You can't hear your name, you can't see your face
You gotta look some other place
And where do you look for this hope that you're seekin'
Where do you look for this lamp that's a-burnin'
Where do you look for this oil well gushin'
Where do you look for this candle that's glowin'
Where do you look for this hope that you know is there
And out there somewhere
And your feet can only walk down two kinds of roads
Your eyes can only look through two kinds of windows
Your nose can only smell two kinds of hallways
You can touch and twist
And turn two kinds of doorknobs
You can either go to the church of your choice
Or you go to Brooklyn State Hospital
You find God in the church of your choice
You find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital

And though it's only my opinion
I may be right or wrong
You'll find them both
In Grand Canyon
At sundown

United 93
(5 stars out of five)
This film had its world premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. The story of that first showing goes like this:
United 93 was the first film to deal directly with the events of 9/11, and many people were understandably concerned with how the events would be portrayed. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan on April 25, 2006. After the film ended, the audience sat in complete, stunned silence for the entirety (8+ minutes) of the credits, while many people also wept and sobbed openly during this time. After the last credit rolled and the screen was black, the entire auditorium erupted into thunderous applause.
This is a brave, selfless, and amazing film. I've never "called it" this early before, but this is - in my mind - already the Best Picture of the year. It will take something really, really good to top this one.
I've honestly never seen an audience become so emotionally affected while watching a film. A woman in front and to the left of me was visibly shaking during the end sequence. A man in the aisle across from me started gagging and almost vomiting during one of the more emotionally-disturbing sequences. The theater sat in stunned silence at the end. You could literally hear a pin drop. And the most amazing thing for me - as an avid movie-goer - was that, at the end of the film, everyone in the theater (which was quite packed for a weekday night) sat in their seats through the entire end credits. No one left. In all the years and all the hundreds of times I've sat in a theater, I've never seen that.
Like I said before, this is an incredibly brave film. The reason for this is not because of what writer/director Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday) decided to include in the film, but rather because of what he chose to leave out. Greengrass shows almost nothing of the people in the film before the fatal events. No backstory. No character traits. We are introduced to the characters as they board the plane. It's a bold move, and one that you'd think would distance you from the people, but it actually serves to make the story more universal, and more human. Just as an incident of movie violence is usually more affecting when it's not shown onscreen and you're left to imagine it for yourself, the passengers' emotional calls home during the final moments are much more powerful, as you never see or hear the people on the other side of the telephone line. Greengrass has made a decision to simply depict the events as they happened, nothing more, nothing less, and that simplicity translates into devastating emotional effect.
The movie has tried to be as technically accurate as possible, to a maddeningly wonderful degree. Greengrass shoots the entire movie with handheld cameras and minimal lighting, to create a "documentary" feel. The actors are unrecognizable, unknown actors, and even some real air traffic controllers and other people who were involved in the events of that day appear as themselves. Effort was made to cast actors that resembled their real-life counterparts as much as possible, and research was made to learn as much as possible about the personality and characteristics of each and every person involved. More research and interviews were conducted, in fact, to learn exactly what clothing every person wore on that day (or, if that was not possible, what kind of clothing that person usually wore) and the costumes are recreated here. The detail and care that went into this film really shines through.
It's a hard film to watch, but it's an important one. It's easily the first great film of 2006, and the best film of the year so far.

Syriana - The scenes shot at White Marsh

Hey mom, I thought you'd get a kick out of this... These are the scenes in the movie Syriana that I was telling you about - they were shot at White Marsh in Baltimore, MD:

Here, George Clooney's character drives on the highway in Maryland. It's a little hard to make out in this picture (although it is actually really clear on a big theater screen) but if you look closely at the sign above, you will see that the sign says:

Route 147 - Harford Rd

Route 43 - White Marsh Blvd

Route 1 - Belair Rd

So in this scene, Clooney was driving on I-695 South, because if you look at the sign on the right, he's just passing the exit for Route 41 - Perring Parkway.

Then, the camera pans to the driver's seat, showing that Clooney is, in fact, driving the car. (Isn't it funny how nobody noticed him when they were filming?)



This scene has Clooney talking to William Hurt's character in a parking lot. The parking lot is actually the White Marsh Mall parking lot. Look over Hurt's shoulder - you'll see the Macy's store.



In between the two of them in this shot is a big building in the distance. I don't know if you can recognize it, but it's actually that huge hotel that you drive by when you come into White Marsh. You remember seeing that?



And of course, as they walk across the parking lot, you can see the Ikea building across the street!



During the scene, they both end up changing sides and facing the opposite direction. Here, you can see Ikea again between the two guys.



And finally, you can see the Macy's store again in the background, right next to Hurt's head on the right side of the picture. To try to give you an idea of where things are in this scene, the mall has been directly behind them for the entire scene, and in this shot, the mall is directly to the left of where Clooney is standing.

Dave Chappelle's Block Party
(5 stars out of five)
Wow. I went into this film simply to answer a question that's been nagging me for some time: why does everyone like Dave Chappelle? I rarely watch TV, and so I've never seen his show, and I figured, at the very least, that this movie would give me some sense of who this guy was. What I ended up seeing was one of the best depictions of black culture that I've seen in at least a decade. This movie says more about race in 10 minutes than Crash could ever hope to say in its entire running time. But it's not a "race" film as we've come to expect from such a movie... no, it's much more than that. This film celebrates how far we've come all these years, while still making a point of showing how far we need to go. And did I mention that it's fucking hilarious, too? Chappelle's humor is witty, true, and overwhelmingly inviting. Love and happiness flows through the entirety of this picture. What starts out as a great little concert film quickly becomes a funny, touching, and often moving study of the great qualities that can bring many different people together. Even more impressive is the fact that here we have a wonderful, sincere film about the culture of Young Black America in the new millennium, and it's directed by a middle-aged French guy! (Michel Gondry, director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Further proof that sometimes the best films come from the most unexpected places.

I'd just like to point something out here...
I'm going to move on from all of this soon and consider this last year's stuff, but I just want you all to see this, and see how little sense this actually makes:

Best Film awards for Brokeback Mountain:
BAFTA Awards: Best Film
Boston Society of Film Critics: Best Picture
Broadcast Films Critics Association: Best Picture
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association: Best Picture
Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture (Drama)
Independent Spirit Awards: Best Feature
London Critics Circle: Film of the Year
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Picture
New York Film Critics Circle: Best Film
San Francisco Film Critics Circle: Best Picture
Satellite Awards: Best Picture (Drama)
Southeastern Film Critics Association: Best Picture
Vancouver Film Critics Circle: Best Film
Venice Film Festival: Golden Lion (Best Film)

Best Film awards for Crash:
Academy Awards: Best Picture
Chicago Film Critics Association: Best Picture

What the fuck?...

John Stewart at this night's Oscars:
"In case any of you out there are counting, here's the tally...
[rap group] Three 6 Mafia, 1 Oscar; Martin Scorsese, still zero."

Transamerica
(2 stars out of five)
Writer/director Duncan Tucker's debut feature is a potentially interesting story in desperate need of a better-realized film. Felicity Huffman is wonderful in it. She convincingly plays a transexual with a subtlety that the rest of the film doesn't have. The film is loud and obvious when it shouldn't be and frustratingly undefined when it comes to the supporting characters. The movie is quite simply a mess. It's all over the place. It's horribly edited (drags on forever), clumsily written (same old "road-trip story"), and filled with terrible dialogue (when a character gives an astoundingly out-of-place monologue about the "gay undertones" in The Lord of the Rings, that's when I start to groan). Even worse is the fact that the film itself gets in the way of Huffman's performance: The movie starts out well enough - it starts simply and assuredly, letting the story tell itself and allowing Huffman's performance to shine. Then, the whole comic "road-trip" starts, and the film goes down in flames. There are moments in the very beginning of the film where we are allowed to study Huffman's face and learn what's beneath the surface; sadly, those sort of moments quickly disappear, and it almost feels as if the director has forgotten that he has actors up on screen. He treats them as props, moving them from one scene to the next with no sense of development or character arc. Against all odds, however, Felicity Huffman manages to inject emotion into the film. Much like the way an actor on stage must talk louder for the audience to hear him, Felicity is somehow determined not to get lost in the chaos of the film. She gives it a center, and that's the only reason this isn't zero stars. It's a pity her performance couldn't have been in a better film.

The Best Films of the Year (in order):

Updated, with trailers for each film (click on a film title to view the trailer)

1. Brokeback Mountain
2. The Squid and the Whale
3. Syriana
4. Murderball
5. Capote
6. Cinderella Man
7. Good Night, and Good Luck
8. Saraband
9. Broken Flowers
10. Match Point
11. A History of Violence
12. Walk The Line
13. Rent
14. King Kong
15. Grizzly Man
16. Oliver Twist
17. Proof
18. The Constant Gardener
19. Memoirs of a Geisha
20. The New World
21. Crash
22. Paradise Now
23. Jarhead
24. Munich
25. North Country
26. Junebug

Mrs. Henderson Presents
(2 ½ stars out of five)
A trivial little picture, which wants to be (and often thinks it is) much more than it really is. It stars the insanely overrated Judi Dench, the wonderful Bob Hoskins, and is directed by Stephen Frears (High Fidelity). It's another one of those lighthearted, comedic films that wants the audience to take the dramatic U-turn into serious drama about halfway in. The only problem? The film is so lightweight it almost floats away, with performances that border on caricature, and almost nothing to ground the film in reality. A collection of one-liners and funny banter does not sufficiently develop characters enough to make the transition into a dramatic third act, unfortunately. If you really want to see a film about the power of the theater, see Tim Robbins' wonderful Cradle Will Rock.

Match Point
(5 stars out of five)
It started with Anything Else, continued through Melinda and Melinda, and finally reaches its peak here with this film: the return to form, of Woody Allen. Match Point is Allen's darkest film since Crimes and Misdemeanors in '89, and it's a welcome change from his recent decade-long run in making comedies. Perfectly cast, tightly scripted, and filled with Allen's darkly comic views on faith and humanity, it's probably the most "adult" film he's ever made, replacing the often-neurotic male protagonist of his films with an almost shockingly (at least by Woody standards) confident character. Especially of note is Woody's striking use of slow motion in the film, something he's never used before in his four decades of filmmaking. I won't go into the movie any more. It's best you go into it knowing as little as you can.

The New World
(4 stars out of five)
Terrence Malick is the granddaddy of existential, poetic filmmaking. He's fond of studying the grass on the ground and the leaves on the trees just as much as the characters themselves. He's a strange character: he makes his films for himself, and no one else. He's 62 years old, and yet he's only made four films in his entire career (including the one in this review). After making Badlands and Days of Heaven in the 70's, he retired from filmmaking for over 20 years before returning with The Thin Red Line in 1998. Now, seven years later, comes his new film, which is also the first Malick film I've seen in the theater. It was an interesting experience, to say the least... Now, the audience walkouts for The Thin Red Line are almost legendary (people were expecting a war film, and instead found themselves watching philosophical conversations taking place amid picturesque shots of grass blowing in the wind at sunset), but the walkouts for this film were unbelievable. The theater was filled with a mixture of giggly teenaged girls anxious to see Colin Farrell, their boyfriends who were dragged along with them, and lots and lots of old couples, no doubt attracted to the film by the new TV ads, which compare the love story in the film with Titanic. So, as you can see, not quite the audience for this film. The movie starts off quickly enough, but about a half hour in, I saw the first walkout. The reason? The movie is one of the slowest-paced films in recent memory, with the movie's 2 ½ hour running time feeling more like 3 hours. It's not a problem for me; I actually enjoyed the film. But it is definitely - just like The Thin Red Line - not a film for mass audiences. Periods of 10, 20, even 30 minutes go by without a single line of dialogue spoken. There is a wonderful sequence, about 20 minutes long, that is simply one huge montage with a voiceover, nothing more. There are probably less than fifty actual lines of spoken dialogue in the film; almost the entire film is in voiceover, with the characters having inner monologues. People had no fucking clue what to make of this movie. I'm not exaggerating when I say over half of the people walked out. I will admit it - the film is a little long. A good 20-30 minutes could have been trimmed. But what we have here is decent. At least it wasn't longer than it is... Malick is famous for shooting hundreds of thousands of feet of film, and this movie had four editors - a sure sign that some major trimming was going on (The Thin Red Line's final runtime was 3 hours - cut in half from its original six hour running time). Sure, it drags a little bit. But there are real moments of beauty and honesty present, not just in nature, but between people. The acting is quite good. Newcomer Q'Orianka Kilcher is a revelation! I'd love to see her get a nomination, but this year is really crowded and this film was mostly ignored. A Malick film is famous for its photography, and this film is no different. Roughly half of the film was shot on 65mm as opposed to 35mm, and it really looks magnificent. Look for a cinematography nomination for this. So in summation, this is a film that is better than what most people will tell you. Just give it a chance. And lots...and lots... of patience.

Brokeback Mountain
(5 stars out of five)
In a year of great movies, this tops them all. This is my pick for the best film of the year… it is truly an amazing, AMAZING film. This is a film that fearlessly dares to break down walls and barriers, without looking back and without apologizing. This is a film about love, friendship, and the importance of human tolerance and understanding. It makes the love between two men as potent and beautiful as any other romance you’ve seen on screen before, without sacrificing truth, and avoiding the pitfalls of stereotypes that would normally hinder such an on-screen relationship. Everything you’ve heard about the film is true: it is just as striking, poetic and moving as everyone is saying it is. Possibly even more. Ang Lee (The Ice Storm) directs the film with patience and stillness, and the film deserves an audience willing to give it that sort of attention as well. The cast is excellent, with (of course) special mention going to the two leads, most of all Heath Ledger. It’s a little overlong near the end, but fuck it… it doesn’t really matter. It’s one of those films where it has given you so much throughout the film, that you’re willing to give it as much time as it wants from you. A great movie, and one of the most important films of the decade.

Memoirs of a Geisha
(4 stars out of five)
Steven Spielberg was, at one time, in negotiations to direct this picture. The directing duties eventually went over to Rob Marshall (Chicago) who did a decent job with it, although his relative inexperience (this is only his second feature, and his first was a musical) is apparent from time to time. No, the biggest problem with the film is something that not even Spielberg could have overcame: being an American production funded with American dollars, there's no way the producers would have poured so much money into something that wasn't in the English language... So here we have a film, set in Japan and with Asian actors, who all speak English instead of Japanese. It's a strange thing, and it just feels wrong... but there's nothing that could have really been done about it, unless it was a Japanese production from the start. Nevertheless, the film is beautifully shot, and the actors do amazingly well with conveying emotion in a language that's foreign to them. I still wonder, however, how much more powerful it would have been if the actors had spoken their language instead of (sometimes quite awkwardly) spitting out English. Oh well...
I'm pretty tempted to give this another half star, as it really was very well done and truly packed a punch, but this is one of those films where the story was so amazing, that it could have been done by pretty much anyone with at least decent results... I'm not so sure how much of Rob Marshall was in this film, and how much he really had to do to make it work. Most of the scenes in the beginning have a feeling of a lack of passion for the material... it almost feels like someone else picked up the movie from that point on...or maybe it's because you end up getting into the story and forgetting how lazily directed everything is... either way, the reason why this film is as good as it is...well, it's not Rob Marshall.

A million gazillion reviews

The Squid and the Whale
(5 stars out of five)
An amazing, beautiful film. Writer/director Noah Baumbach (co-writer of The Life Aquatic) has crafted one of the best films of the year. Shot with a grainy, handheld camera (on either 16mm or video, I can't tell for sure), the film has a feeling of urgency, moving like a locomotive from start to finish. With a runtime of only 80 minutes, Baumbach has managed to create fully realized characters, the like of which we hardly see in movies anymore. The entire cast is stellar, the writing is observant and fearless, and you get the overwhelming feeling, during the film, that you're watching something really special. A great achievement, and a huge contender for the Best Original Screenplay category this year. Winner of the Director's Award (Dramatic) and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Munich
(4 stars out of five)
The opening sequence is wonderfully shot and edited. The entire film is exceptionally well-made. The movie raises some great questions, and never ceases to be entertaining. Yet, something is missing from Steven Spielberg's latest film. It's a revenge drama, and it never is anything less than compelling, but it somehow still holds us at arm's length in terms of how close we're allowed to get to the emotional core of the characters. The ending is also a mess. It's not terrible by any means, but the film is further evidence that Spielberg will never make a better film than Schindler's List.

King Kong
(4 ½ stars out of five)
Peter Jackson's first film since completing the Lord of the Rings trilogy is just about as good as a fantasy film can get. The original Kong was the film that inspired Jackson to be a filmmaker, and so it's no surprise that here, his loving hand can be felt on every frame of film. The film shares the epic feeling of the Rings films, and it really feels like the kind of "event movie" that they hardly make anymore. Jackson is mostly successful in making Kong seem human and emotional, and his cast is uniformly excellent, particularly Jack Black, who sinks his teeth into his first largely dramatic role and comes out on top in the end. It's a rollicking, wonderful ride.

Syriana
(5 stars out of five)
Hands down one of the best films of the year. Immensely entertaining and amazingly complex, I think Roger Ebert described the film best when he said: "The movie's plot is so complex we're not really supposed to follow it, we're supposed to be surrounded by it." That's the perfect way of explaining the feeling one gets while watching the film. Even though the audience is almost guaranteed to be confused at least a few times while watching the movie, never once is it a frustrating confusion. The movie - which follows the complexities of the oil business and the countries involved in it - surrounds the audience in a warm, enveloping atmosphere of plot and character, and presents it in such an interesting way, that we grab onto the things we understand, leave behind for the moment the things we don't and put faith in the filmmakers that everything will add up in the end. It's a testament to writer/director Stephen Gaghan (writer of Traffic) that, not only do we understand any of it at all, but we're fascinated by it, and even more importantly, that we're emotionally involved with the characters. An incredible motion picture. I would even go so far as to call it a masterpiece.

Bee Season
(3 stars out of five)
Starts out well enough, but soon devolves into a disappointing mess. Subplots go nowhere, and the most interesting parts of the film aren't explored enough. The individual family storylines (the daughter's spelling bee competitions; the son's spiritual exploration) are handled well enough, but directors David Siegel and Scott McGehee (the wonderful The Deep End) can't quite find a way to merge them together without it becoming phony, or - at its worst - silly. The ending is quite fitting and beautiful, however.

Walk The Line
(5 stars out of five)
Fun, entertaining, and powerful. It follows the conventions that most biopics have, but breaks free of some of them with some smart writing and clever scene construction. Joaquin Phoenix is Johnny Cash. His transformation into the legendary singer is unbelievable. James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted) directs the film in a surprisingly subtle way, letting the actors and the story do the work, and the result is a film that feels as if it doesn't quite know the magnitude of the person it is chronicling... but in a good way.

Shopgirl
(3 stars out of five)
Having not read Steve Martin's original novella, of which this film is based, and from reading other reviews, which observe that the movie is apparently a very faithful adaptation of the book, I must say that the main problem with the film lies in the flaws of the book itself. The movie is made competently enough: Claire Danes is wonderful, Steve Martin is quite good, and Jason Schwartzman is perfectly cast, and there are some wonderful lines and dialogue sequences. The problem with the film is a structural one. The main plot of the film consists of Danes' character choosing between Martin's character and Schwartzman's. The problem is, after a few early scenes with Schwartzman, we rarely see him again for the rest of the film. When she finally makes her choice at the end, we know she's happy, but how are we, as an audience, supposed to make up our minds when we don't have enough character substance to make a choice? We can take for granted that she makes the right choice in the end, but to be denied the opportunity to decide for ourselves and compare her choice with ours, takes away much of the power that the film could have had.

Proof
(4 ½ stars out of five)
A really wonderful little film from John Madden (Shakespeare In Love). A small, subtle character study that takes its time with its characters and treats the audience like adults. Jake Gyllenhaal and Gwyneth Paltrow are well-cast and the movie is beautifully shot.

Rent
(4 ½ stars out of five)
One of the best stage-to-screen adaptations in recent memory. It could have failed miserably: With Chris Columbus (Home Alone) as director, and a huge legacy to live up to, it was almost destined to go down in flames. But, fortunately, we have this film. The movie feels big and lively and important (as it should), with dozens of camera moves and sweeping crane shots. It really opens up the film from its stage production. The most welcome success of the film, coming from someone who's usually not a fan of musicals? Things don't feel forced, which I feel is the problem with most movie musicals. Everything just feels... right. That's the best way I can explain it. How does a movie musical work? If they open their mouths and sing, and it feels like they're supposed to.

Paradise Now
(4 stars out of five)
A brave film that gives a face to the problems in Palestine, as we follow two friends about to become suicide bombers in Tel Aviv. A solid, well-crafted film and the front-runner for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Jarhead
(4 stars out of five)
--The big question that people usually ask themselves when they’re about to view a war film is a logical one: Which side will they (the filmmakers) be on? Early on in this film, a soldier says “Fuck politics. We’re here. That’s all that matters”. There’s the answer to your question. Sam Mendes’ (American Beauty) new film Jarhead does not take an outright stance on politics, Iraq, or war in general. In most cases, that would seem to be a strange, and – especially in these times – irresponsible move. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the film is much like Full Metal Jacket: it is a scathing attack on the American military.
From the first scene of the film, we are instantly aware of the film’s stance. The main character (exquisitely played by Jake Gyllenhaal) is getting punched in the face by his drill instructor, and we hear his voice-over narration on the soundtrack: “It was about this time that I realized that joining the Marines was a mistake”. In this film, we have a rare thing in American movies: a soldier that regrets his choice to enlist. His story continues as he’s trained physically and mentally (i.e., brainwashed) into being a “killing machine” along with his fellow soldiers. There’s only one problem: they’re shipped to the desert, but the war hasn’t started yet. They proceed to go insane as their urge to kill goes unquenched in the uninhabited desert. It’s quite an original story to see on film: a war film with almost no violence. In fact, the only person that dies onscreen in the entire film is a Marine that dies during boot camp in a training exercise where live rounds are fired.
Sam Mendes continues to be a director with a superb sense of pacing, and his skill goes a long way in making this film successful. In making a film about boredom, it’s exceptionally hard to keep it fresh and entertaining. While he doesn’t always succeed, Mendes keeps things moving with a wonderful selection of songs on the soundtrack, and Thomas Newman’s surprisingly upbeat score.
Unfortunately, the film suffers from an overwhelming feeling of detachment. We never really connect with any of the characters, and whether it was intentional or not, it keeps the film from being as involving as it could be. Regardless of the shortcomings, it’s still a remarkably accomplished and timely piece.

Capote
(5 stars out of five)
--An outstanding film. The accolades go out to everyone: Philip Seymour Hoffman is almost unrecognizable in the title role, and he's aided by wonderful supporting performances from Katherine Keener, Chris Cooper, and especially Clifton Collins Jr. The real surprise here is that the movie has not only a first-time director (Bennett Miller) but also a first-time writer (Dan Futterman), and it succeeds as if it were a film made by veterans! The real triumph of the film is in the construction of the story, in relation to the characters. You don't feel as if you're being forced into feeling certain emotions, and at the end of the film, it's up to you to decide just how much you like Truman Capote as a person, if at all. A stellar picture, every step of the way.

The Weather Man
(3 stars out of five)
--Wow, this movie really wants to be the new American Beauty... It tries to mix humor and despair in equal parts, with limited success. In American Beauty, the humor seemed to evolve naturally from the drama around it. Here, it just seems manufactured and forced. The movie is at its best when it grabs hold of a melancholy tone and sticks with it; there's an extended sequence near the end of the movie, in which director Gore Verbinski (the director of The Ring and Pirates of the Caribbean, here in his first "serious" film) does just that, and the attention to detail in the sequence is almost startling. It's a shame that the rest of the film that surrounds this sequence is so poor.

North Country
(4 stars out of five)
-- (review deleted accidentally)