10. Up in the Air (CHUD review)(Buy the Book)
As
it stands it’s a damn good one, carried on the back of three excellent
performances from the leads and a nice revolving door of familiar
faces. Jason Reitman’s got a very snappy style that has led to him
coming out of the gates with three very effective, polished, and
entertaining features. The movie just sucks you in and as you follow
these people through a world of routine and lost souls, it just
delivers on most every level as a grown-up mainstream drama.
Clooney
is such a fine actor that people don’t often give him the credit he
deserves, and on the back of his great work in Syriana and Michael
Clayton this just guarantees that he’s his own breed of actor. The kind
of which we don’t get in this era.
The film’s flawed at times and it’s not quite as great as some have said [I’m still partial to Thank You for Smoking], but with Reitman doing what he does as well as he does and the three stars absolutely owning their material this is the best movie of its kind this year.
9. Where the Wild Things Are (CHUD Review/Pre-Order the Blu-Ray)
hard to define this movie. It doesn’t adhere to nearly any of the rules
of movies in its structure, execution, communication with its audience,
or rule book in general. And it’s beautiful in every way. How do you
adapt that book anyway? You don’t. And the results of Spike Jonze’s
amazing vision quest are so amazing that even the book’s author is in
its thrall.
Imagine the wildness and blindly aggressive love
of being free and carefree distilled onto celluloid and this is it. Max
Records is a revelation as a boy who really isn’t built for our
reality, a wild spirit whose loving and supremely patient and
understanding mother (the delightful Catherine Keener) can’t even keep
up with him. Sent into an amazing world of bizarre (and perfectly
realized) monsters where his social limitations get him into all sorts
of shenanigans, the boy and in turn Jonze deliver us to a place that is
absolutely fresh and unique and unforgettable.
It’s weird, certainly not a kid’s movie, and features one of two amazing performances from James Gandolfini this year.
I
still don’t presume to understand exactly how this happened, but it’s
is a singular experience and a film that in ten or twenty years will be
even more compelling and special than it is now.
creation and execution of the ‘Wild Things’. Spize Jonze’s amazing use
of the frame. A complete lack of concern for what an audience is used
to and expects. Somehow, it still maintains the sense of Maurice
Sendak’s work.
Something about Gandolfini’s voice work just blew me the hell away. I
always loved him as an actor but didn’t know he had THIS in him.
8. Up (CHUD review)(Buy the DVD/Buy the Blu-Ray)
But it does kind of have some third act issues. The movie doesn’t really need a villain. It’s a beautiful story and though the talking dogs are cute, it’s almost sad to see the film become something of a formula with its chase scenes and whatnot. Luckily some great moments come out of those scenes but for a while this felt like an old school adventure, a character piece. It still is much richer than most every other mainstream animated film and it still works like a charm.
It was on its way to being something transcendent, but it’s my policy to judge a film but what it is rather than what it isn’t.
It’s a beautiful movie. One for everyone’s bookshelf. If you’re not misty after the beginning I have no idea what died inside of you.
7. The Hurt Locker (Buy the DVD/Buy the Blu-Ray)
That’s this movie, the rare war centric film in a good while that doesn’t have a political agenda but just tells its story [in this case a compact one] and does it with no bullshit. Jeremy Renner is excellent and Kathryn Bigelow reminds us why we idolized her for Near Dark and Point Break (Strange Days still sucks).
It’s such an intense movie, but it never succumbs to action movie-itis. It also doesn’t overstay its welcome or abuse the guest stars peppering the margins. It just does its one thing very, very well.
6. Avatar (My review)(Buy the DS Game)
It’s great. I love the performances both real and motion captured. I love the immersion into the world of Pandora as well as humanity circa 2155. I love the tech of the movie both onscreen and in making the onscreen a possibility. I love the creatures and the way they interact. I love the sense of wonder. I love seeing James Cameron take elements from his previous work and mix it into a cocktail that feels ripped from (sorry Devin) the kind of pulp literature that has informed the work of all the major big storytellers of our age and do wonders with it.
One of the problems with the people rallying against this movie (both the ones who assumed it’d be bad and attacked ahead of the curve and those reacting to its success) is that they are giving it flak for what it isn’t. It’s not the best story, the coolest movie, the sexiest movie, or even the movie with the best special effects this year. It’s just a phenomenal experience and something that is truly transportive. Magical at times even.
It seems people expect the movie to be EVERYTHING. An Oscar-worthy screenplay backed by an Oscar-worthy score backed by Oscar-worthy acting, directing, cinematography, and so on and so on. It’s not that kind of movie. Well, it may be… but it’s not. Avatar works to me on the level Fellowship of the Ring does. The way The Matrix did. The way Star Wars did. The way Jason and the Argonauts did. The way King Kong did.
Oh, and that song at the end is the worst thing since asshole.