October Episode
September Episode
Episode 1: Yikes!
Oscar Countdown: Snubs Galore
The Oscar nominations always cause a stir, what with the Academy’s glaring myopia when it comes to certain films. This year, the snubs were fewer and less harsh than in years past (like that year they totally ignored three of the best films of the year in Drive, Take Shelter and Young Adult, and failed to nominate the year’s best lead actress performances). We may never get over 2011.
Still, as always, there are some very curious omissions. Here we run down our 5 biggest gripes.
1. Inside Llewyn Davis
The magnificent Coen brothers’ immersive character study set in the unforgiving winter of the Greenwich Village folk scene garnered no love for its outstanding lead performance or its pristine screenplay or its rich and textured direction or even its music! That’s a lot of snubs for one film. It would certainly have been tough to find room for the wondrous Oscar Isaac in a leading actor field more crowded than most, and though the Coens are perpetual competitors for best director (by Oscar’s standards or anyone else’s), who would we bump this year? Scorsese? That’s a hard choice.
When it comes to original screenplay, we may have dumped Dallas Buyers Club in favor of Llewyn. There’s no question that we would have given it the best picture nod over Philomena.
2. Stories We Tell
The Academy had their heads up their asses with this one. In fact, there are a number of documentaries better suited to the award than this lineup suggests, but Sarah Polley’s deceptively complicated, brave and clever film cries out for recognition. Not only among the best documentaries of the year but one of the very best films overall, we would certainly have knocked Dirty Wars from the list in favor of Polley’s film. Truth be told, the only film in the category more deserving is The Act of Killing, so we’d have been fine with kicking any of the others to the curb to make room.
3. Her
The most imaginative and lovely film of 2013 went without acknowledgment in acting and directing, which is sinful. Our first order of business would be to get Scarlett Johansson a best actress nomination, even though the studio pushed her for supporting. Let’s be honest, regardless of the fact that she’s never onscreen, she plays one of two lovers in a love story. She’s the lead. And in a brilliant voice-only effort, she easily deserves Sandra Bullock’s spot. (In fact, we’d pick Johansson over Bullock, Streep or even Dench this year.)
Joaquin Phoenix should have edged out Leo (though we loved Leo’s work, it’s just a very tight race this year!). Director is as tight as actor, and while Alexander Payne and Martin Scorsese are 1) geniuses and 2) nominated for outstanding work this year, we’d have given one of their places to Spike Jonze for crafting a beautiful love story set in an unerringly crafted near-future, and doing so without a hint of cynicism or derivation.
4. Blue Is the Warmest Color
Apparently France couldn’t get off its cheese eating ass to get the film released in time for Oscar consideration, which is an absolute tragedy. The film should, by all accounts, boast two nominations, one for Best Foreign Language Film and another for Best Actress. The fact that Adele Exarchopoulos’s career-defining turn in this romantic drama will go unacknowledged is a crime.
5. And the Rest
We’d rather see Julie Louis-Dreyfus (Enough Said) for Best Actress than Meryl Streep. We know that sounds like heresy, but her performance in August: Osage County is so hyperbolic that it’s more exaggeration than acting. True, the weak direction of A: OC is most likely to blame, but the end result just doesn’t measure up.
We would also have given either Daniel Bruhl (Rush) or James Gandolfini (Enough Said) the nod over Jonah Hill for Best Supporting Actor.
For more on our Oscar picks, listen to George’s stint on the Sunny 95 (WSNY Columbus, OH) morning show.
Weren’t We Due a Little Something?
Devil’s Due
by Hope Madden
For the last few years, the first weeks of January have been littered with horror films. Last year it was Texas Chainsaw and Mama; in 2012, Devil Inside; in 2011, Season of the Witch (remember that piece of shit?!) and The Rite. What the correlation is between the bleak and miserable post-holiday winter and bleak and miserable films is hard to say, but 2014 continues the tradition with Devil’s Due, the second mediocre-to-poor horror flick of 2014.
It’s one of those found footage style films that follows newlyweds Sam and Zach through their first, unexpected pregnancy.
There are only so many ways a horror film can go with an unexpected pregnancy, the most common of which, like Devil’s Due, travels down Rosemary’s Baby Lane. So, you know in advance what terror lies ahead. At that point it’s up to the filmmakers to find new and interesting ways to generate those scares.
Unfortunately writer Lindsay Devlin and co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have zero surprises up their collective sleeve.
Ideas stolen from Rosemary, a smattering of Paranormal Activity films and scores of other, better movies are pasted blandly and unconvincingly together, with nary a jump, flinch or shudder to be found.
And do we seriously need two directors for this? Was there that much to do?
Devil’s Due is just another bad horror film, which means there’s little reason to explore cinematic integrity. And yet, here I go. The “found footage” approach in horror films is so, so tired that an actual artistic purpose for it rarely enters the picture anymore. In Blair Witch, someone discovered tins of film, and when those reels are watched, the mystery of three disappearances is revealed. In Quarantine, a newsman’s footage uncovers the terror of a hideous outbreak. In TrollHunter (if you haven’t seen it, you must), a TV news team receives and broadcasts footage shot of, well, trolls.
You see? If you have a found footage film, the footage has to be found at some point, explaining why we, the audience, are seeing it. Otherwise, the use of this technique is simply to avoid having to write a coherent story, provide character development or backstory, or learn the art of cinematography.
Far superior to the film itself, and much cheaper than a movie ticket, is the viral marketing video attached to it. Do yourself a favor and watch this (or watch it again) and skip the movie altogether.
Girl Fight
Raze
by Hope Madden
Quentin Tarantino’s deceptively complex Django Unchained boasts almost countless fascinating images of depravity and violence, among them, the Mandingo fights that Django and Dr. King use to con their way onto Candyland Plantation.
Filmmakers Josh Waller and Robert Beaucage found inspiration in this particular idea, writing and directing the film Raze about a set of prisoners forced to fight each other to the death. Rather than pitting enslaved men against each other for the amusement of plantation owners, Raze forces kidnapped, attractive women to beat each other to death.
Back to Tarantino and his far better ideas. Waller pairs the involuntary death match concept with Tarantino’s favorite death proof stunt double Zoe Bell for their spare and brutal film. We know Bell can hang onto the hood of a speeding Dodge Challenger, but can she hold her own against 49 women desperate to survive and protect their loved ones?
Bell plays Sabrina, a young woman who woke up one day in a cell in the dungeon-like basement belonging to some wacko order of zealots. Losing a fight does not only mean a prisoner’s own death, but also ensures the death of one loved one.
It’s a streamlined plot, certainly, with precious little time wasted on character backstory or the specifics of this weird, bloodthirsty order. Just round after round of two women bare-knuckling it until only one’s left breathing.
It would appear that this exploitation film hopes to make some points about exploitation, and it’s true that these battle sequences could hardly be considered titillating. (Should you find these battles arousing in any way, do society a favor and seek help.) But any gesture toward feminism or humanity is hollow. This is not a “women in prison” film in the traditional sense, but gratuitous violence is its primary purpose.
Bell is impressive. It’s always nice to find yourself believing a performance, and I believe she can kick some ass. I wouldn’t cross her.
Her Death Proof co-star Tracie Thoms turns in a solid performance, and Doug Jones offers an effectively quirky turn as the leader of the cult. But the relentlessness of the plot becomes tedious with half the film still to watch, and the anonymity of victims more than undermines any high-mindedness the film purports to offer.
Raze devolves quickly to little more than percussive violence perpetrated without imagination or artistic purpose. Apparently there is more the filmmakers have to learn from Tarantino.
Could Have Used a Wookie
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
by Hope Madden
JJ Abrams can reboot a franchise – or at least, given the success of his Star Trek re-direct, that’s what Star Wars fans are hoping. But with Abrams tied up in galaxies far, far away, I guess when it came time to breathe new life into an old spy with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, filmmakers went with the next best thing: Captain Kirk.
Yes, Chris Pine takes on the role filled by Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October), Ben Affleck (The Sum of All Fears), and most lucratively, Harrison Ford (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger). The results are barely worth noting.
American Jack Ryan is working on his PhD in London when 9/11 changes his trajectory. He ditches school in favor of the Marine Corps, but heroism (“Ryan dragged then both to safety. With a broken back!!”) sends him to a hospital to rehab and be eyeballed by Kevin Costner.
It’s a clumsy, shorthand back story meant, I suppose, to illustrate Ryan’s brains, patriotism, heroism and resilience in one reel. Plus it introduces the love of his life (Keira Knightly). Oh, that Ryan is such a good man!
Costner’s a CIA operative with designs on Ryan. Next thing you know, Russia’s trying to collapse our economy and we need Ryan to discern the algorithm.
Good God, who greenlit that yawnfest of a storyline? If the big threat is a Russian algorithm, director Kenneth Branagh will need his A-game to keep this action thriller thrilling and action packed. Will he bring it?
He will not.
Intrigue is an afterthought, tensions are kept to a minimum, and action sequences are few and far between.
Branagh pulls a bland double duty as director and baddie, playing the vodka pounding, assistant kicking, Knightly admiring Russian Viktor Cheverin. (It’s his algorithm.) Branagh can overact with the best of them, but his performance here is as colorless as Stoli on the rocks.
Pine, on the other hand, is charismatic. Costner proves to be a charming curmudgeon on occasion. Kiera Knightly is characteristically solid, but honestly, what is she doing in this film? Suddenly she has to take the role of the one-dimensional love interest to a second-rate action hero? When and why did that happen?
She deserves better than a toothless reboot. Maybe she should call Abrams. He might be looking for a new Leia.
Thanks Anyway, I’ll Walk
by George Wolf
In 1982, a young Eddie Murphy made his film debut in 48 Hours, a funny, action-filled cop caper that instantly launched him toward household name status.
Ride Along feels like an attempt to rewrite that film, and that history, to the benefit of Kevin Hart.
Okay, so Hart is hardly a newbie, and he’s proven himself to be a very funny guy through numerous supporting roles and one documentary/ concert film (Laugh at My Pain, 2011). But here, though he gets most of the screen time as part of a wannabe action/comedy, he’s on his own more than Murphy’s Reggie Hammond was in that redneck bar
Hart plays Ben, a security guard in Atlanta who has ambitions of being a police officer. When he finally gets accepted to the academy, Ben thinks it’s time to pop the question to longtime love Angela (Tika Sumpter, in a role that’s little more than eye candy.) Trouble is, Angela’s brother James (Ice Cube) is already a street-smart cop, and he thinks Ben isn’t worthy of his sister or a badge.
The answer is a “ride along,” and Ben jumps at the offer to join his future brother-in-law on his duties for a day, in hopes of convincing James to give the marriage his blessing. Ladies, maybe one day you’ll be able to get hitched without a man’s approval, but today is not that day!
The script comes from a committee of writers, with various credits including Employee of the Month, The Tuxedo, and last year’s R.I.P.D.
Wait, didn’t they all suck?
Yes, they did, and Ride Along would be equally bad, except for the efforts of Hart. Director Tim Story‘s main strategy comes straight outta Cleveland in the LeBron days: just go trough the motions and wait for the star to bail everybody out. Hart tries his best, and single-handedly delivers a few good moments of physical comedy, but it’s not nearly enough.
Kevin Hart may still get his trip to household stardom, but Ride Along is too lazy take him there.
For Your Queue: First Time Filmmakers Demanding to be Seen
Available today is new filmmaker Ryan Coogler’s impressive debut Fruitvale Station, telling the tragic story of Oscar Grant with the help of an award-worthy lead turn from Michael B. Jordan. Coogler’s evenhanded telling and his cast’s spontaneity and authenticity give the tale a fitting naturalism, but the film will be remembered as a look at two phenomenal young talents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crMTGCCui5c
Likewise, Dee Rees’s 2011 drama Pariah introduced an incisive and compelling new filmmaker with the story of an urban youth just trying to find a way to thrive. Also like Fruitvale, the film owes its power to a revelatory central performance. Adepero Oduye rings not a single false note as a 17-year-old coming out and finding her stride.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlc0SZYnoMc
