Friday Minute
No. 236 | December 30, 2011

Where Has the Year Gone?

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Last we met, on this page at least, we were heading down the yellow-brick road with Dorothy to celebrate some joyous news with the Munchkins.  That was May.  May?  May!  So where have I been?  Good question.  Where have you been?  Another good question.  And where oh where has the time gone?

Long story short, my already full life became even more full and something had to give.  That something turned out to be writing for this site on any kind of a regular basis.  I had expected that I’d find time to add occasional posts, but that, I’ve learned, is harder to do when it’s not part of a daily or weekly routine.  So the year has slipped away—pffft!—but before it is officially done, let’s take a look back at some of the movies of 2011.

For the record, this is not my list of ten best films of the year.  No reason to stop at ten anyway, and slowpoke that I am, my moviegoing for the year remains a work in progress.  I’m still catching up with a few films from November (and before), and some late-year releases are just hitting theaters (A Separation opens today).

Rather, this is a list of movies I’ve seen (so far) that made going to the theater worth the time and effort.  It’s incomplete and somewhat arbitrary—I’ll have something a bit more definitive to say after I’ve taken in a few more year-end releases, sometime before Oscar time.  Let me add this disclaimer:  these are not necessarily great movies.  Some are only arguably good, flawed but with enough redeeming value to make them worth noting.

I’ve broken out the list into two groups:  one, films from before the deluge, i.e., before Oscar hopefuls hit theaters starting around October, and the other, films that have come out since.

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Films of 2011 (Part I)

Pre-Oscar Season (films through September)

Standout Films

The Tree of Life
Terrence Malick doesn’t direct many films—five features in 38 years (though he may be just a slow starter, with nearly as many in pipeline).  What he lacks in number he more than makes up for with uncommonly rich, dense explorations of the beings who people his stories.  His stories are not the linear narratives we’re used to getting at the movies.  Nor are his characters revealed through the usual mix of dialogue and action.  Malick’s works resemble photographed novels as much as they do cinema.  Malick combines images, dreams, memories, and voiceovers to portray lives lived in the context of forces far beyond, and deeper than, ordinary experience.  His latest, The Tree of Life, has divided critics and audiences (making it the kind of movie I tend to favor).  A tour de force or tour de farce?  Depends whom you read.  I lean toward the former view.  The story ostensibly is about a family in a small town in Texas, yet it takes time for meditations ranging from the origins of the universe to the ultimate demise of Earth.  Within that grand sweep we see human life not as a thing in itself but an episode in the continuum.  Few movies take such a wide perspective; 2001: A Space Odyssey, a very different film, is one.  Malick, like Kubrick, contemplates the mystery of it all and gives his audience something rare, a chance to experience wonder.

Midnight in Paris
We think of Woody Allen as a New York director but he seems to have found new life in recent years making movies in Europe.  Since 2005 he’s released four films shot in London and one in Barcelona.  This year it’s the City of Light and Midnight in Paris is the best of the lot.  (Rome gets its turn next year with Nero Fiddled.)  Owen Wilson turns in a winning performance as Gil, an American writer in love more with the city than with his fiancée.  His knack for time travel offers an escape as he hobnobs with greats from the city’s storied expatriate past—Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein, Porter, Picasso, Dalí, and Buñuel among them.  The film is sweet and whimsical, more than a bit nostalgic, and for one interlude in which Gil steals the heart of Picasso’s mistress, wonderfully portrayed by the beautiful Marion Cotillard, it’s altogether touching.

Drive
Drive is a steely cool slice of L.A. crime drama propelled by an unflappable, razor-sharp lead performance from Ryan Gosling.  The film borrows freely from a variety of sources, and influences such as Jean-Pierre Melville and Sergio Leone give the story a distinct non-Hollywood feel.  The driver, never named, is a man of few words.  He works as a mechanic in a shop run by gangsters, does stunt driving for the movie biz, and hires himself out for getaway work.  A loner by nature, he gets involved with his neighbor (Carey Mulligan), who has a young son and a husband getting out of prison.  Complications ensue and plans inevitably go awry.  Among the strong supporting cast is Albert Brooks as a ruthless and surprisingly believable bad guy.

Notable Films

Bridesmaids
A comedy with great laughs and real people.  See, that’s not so hard.  Thank you, Kristen Wiig et al.  More like this, please.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Werner Herzog’s 3-D documentary inside the Chauvet Cave in France, where some of the world’s great art has been sealed for thousands of years.  Ever wonder, What is it to be human?  This film holds part of the answer to that question.

The Company Men
A timely film about a corporate downsizing and for the unlucky duckies who lose their livelihood, what happens next.  A fine cast led by Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner, and Tommy Lee Jones.

Contagion
Thanks to the brave leadership of politicians and medical professionals, the societies of the world pull together, avert panic, and successfully combat a mysterious and deadly virus sweeping the globe.  Oops…that’s a different film.  This one’s from Steven Soderbergh, and sad to say, it may be a somewhat more realistic view of what could someday happen.

The Debt
The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli thriller and doesn’t achieve all that you might have hoped.  Still, it’s a heckuva story, and with Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, and the busy Jessica Chastain, among others, you’re in good hands. 

Dogtooth
A Greek film that’s part horror, part comedy, about three older children living a totalitarian nightmare devised by their deranged parents.  Unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

Hanna
Hanna is a teenage girl living in the northern wilderness, where she is trained by her father to be an assassin.  Saoirse Ronan does a terrific job in the title role.  The film is uneven in spots and has some plot elements that don’t really work.  Nevertheless, there’s plenty of action, some nicely photographed sequences, and a few moments of brilliance.

The Help
I can think of a few things wrong with this movie, but I enjoyed the performances, especially those of Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, and Emma Stone.  The racial divide of Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960s may not be the same as it is today, but the divide now between the haves and have-nots feels as wide as ever, and for that reason, the film seems unusually timely.

Incendies
A Canadian-made film set in the Middle East and largely in French.  Two adult children travel back to the war-torn homeland of their dead mother to deliver letters to their brother and father and discover the truth about their family and themselves.  It’s devastating.

Moneyball
Films about baseball typically are not great movies.  This is no exception, though it is a cut above many of the others.  The tale leaves behind old-fashioned notions of the romance of the sport.  This one’s all about the science of numbers.  Perhaps that’s the way the game is played these days, but also it’s part of the problem—for the sport and for the movie.  A little more heart wouldn’t hurt.

Super 8
Probably the best Steven Spielberg film this year, though J. J. Abrams directed this one.  I liked the story of the clever kids, breaking curfew to make a movie.  The extraterrestrials show up, and what started fresh begins to feel like something we’ve seen a few too many times before.

Tabloid
Errol Morris’s documentary on the fascinating story of Joyce McKinney, with a big juicy 1960s sex scandal, a kidnapping, Mormons, and dog cloning to boot.

The Trip
Adapted from a British television series, The Trip follows the hilarious Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon on their travels through the Lake District of Northern England.  They drive, they stop at one inn or another, and they eat.  Not a lot more happens.  But they talk, and their repartee and impressions account for some best laughs you’ll find on film this year.  The movie feels a bit slapdash, and I can’t help but wonder what didn’t make it into the final cut, but one thing is sure:  no one who sees it will think of Michael Caine the same way again.

Oscar Season (films from October on)

Notable Films

Anonymous
The story is over the top—but Roland Emmerich was never one for subtlety.  He took liberties—hey, like Shakespeare—so don’t come to this film looking for history.  Whatever merits the Earl of Oxford–as–Bard authorship theory may hold (it does make for fascinating reading), at heart this film is a paean to the greatest writer of the English language who ever lived.  That’s something special, whatever his name was.

A Dangerous Method
Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud at the birth of psychoanalysis, featuring the story of Sabina Spielrein, the patient, protégée, and lover who unites then divides them.  Strong performances from Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortenson.  Keira Knightley plays the troubled and irresistible Sabina.  It’s a period picture, but with David Cronenberg at the helm, working from a Christopher Hampton script, it’s not at all old-fashioned.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The first of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy to get its English-language big-screen treatment, it delivers more or less what you’d expect (though not much more):  quick storytelling from David Fincher, a pulsating score from Trent Reznor, and dynamite performances from Rooney Mara in the title role and Daniel Craig doing some very un-Bond-like detective work.  The film is the kind of up-to-date genre piece that Hollywood should be making more of, if only it could kick its fantasy habit.

Hugo
A film about the magic of movies, and made with more than a bit of magic itself.  The story of Georges Méliès, the pioneer filmmaker who lost favor with audiences, ran a toy store with his wife at Gare Montparnasse in Paris, and late in life was rediscovered is one that deserves to be told, and now in fictionalized form it has.  Martin Scorcese directed the adaptation of Brian Selznick’s inventive novel.  Fine performances, with many comic touches and sweet moments.  I am probably more fond of this film than any other I’ve seen recently, and it’s the rare 3-D film I’m glad to have seen in 3-D.

The Ides of March
Intrigue behind the scenes of a presidential campaign, with pols and candidates more lifelike than we get on the reality TV known as cable news.  George Clooney directed and stars as Governor Mike Morris, but the film belongs to the campaign manager played by Ryan Gosling, who’s having quite a year.  An all-around fine cast, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright and Evan Rachel Wood on hand to do deeds nefarious and otherwise.

J. Edgar
Here, friends, is the love story of the year.  Leonardo DiCaprio is a revelation as the one and only J. Edgar Hoover.  Armie Hammer is Clyde Tolson, his colleague, confidant, and more.  Naomi Watts is his lifelong secretary, the loyal Helen Gandy.  A richly told tale directed by Clint Eastwood, probably on balance as good a film as any he’s made.

Margin Call
If you want a movie to help you understand the financial crisis of 2008, I’d recommend the documentary Inside Job.  It shows how the 1% ripped off the 99% and gives you the who-did-what (plenty of bad guys, not a lot of good guys).  Margin Call is the story of some of those crooks.  You might not like them—a few are just rich assholes, after all—but you get a sense of the price they pay.  The film doesn’t let them off the hook, but you can understand why they do what they do.  That may not be a popular take in these times, but it’s an achievement.  The cast is wonderful and the performances well worth the time.

My Week with Marilyn
Marilyn Monroe, as great a star as the movies have known, is brought to life in a remarkable performance by Michelle Williams.  You can’t take your eyes off her.  That’s the reason to see this movie, even if the film may be slight in other ways.

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The Pause Button

As noted above, I’ll be back with another post or two early in 2012, recapping the year and looking at the Oscars (February 26).  The regular schedule for posts about movies is on hold for the time being.  I’d like to get back to writing more about movies when time permits, but that will not be very soon.  I have a couple of ideas for other movie projects, and someday I will get to them too.  Meanwhile, my next writing gig will not about movies, and will not be online, but it will keep me occupied for some time, and if and when there is news to share about that, I will let you know.

For you crossword fans, my 16-month series of Gram Cracker minipuzzles wrapped up earlier in December.  It was a fun experiment, and in the end I’d say the puzzles turned out well.  Hope it was fun for you solvers too.  Once again, a big “thanks” to two-time ACPT champ Dan Feyer for his expert test-solving skills, a big help to me getting the puzzles ready for prime time.  The Gram Crackers and other puzzles, as always, are at the MAD Puzzles page.

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Hugo (2011)
Martin Scorsese, director
Robert Richardson, cinematographer
Brian Selznick (book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret), John Logan (screenplay), writers
Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Chloë Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen
Trailer

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Quote of note
“If you ever wonder where your dreams come from, look around:  this is where they’re made.”
—Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley), Hugo (2011)

…58…59…60.

Thursday Minute
No. 229 | March 24, 2011

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2011

Our theme this week
Performers inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011

Featured this week
(See Monday post for theme introduction and program note)
Monday         —   Alice Cooper
Tuesday         —   Dr. John
Wednesday    —   Darlene Love

Neil Diamond

My five stages of Neil Diamond:

One) my preteen years:  best known as the guy who wrote songs for the Monkees (“I’m a Believer,” et al.), which meant something, and his solo stuff was catchy and very popular, in a good way (“Cherry, Cherry,” “Sweet Caroline”).

Two) my teen years:  it was not hip to be a Neil Diamond fan in high school (though I would never deny my fondness for ”Solitary Man,” a great song to defend and earn some contrarian cred).

Three) the looking-back years:  all in all, Diamond seemed better that I remembered at the time, someone who I could allow myself to like, even if it was in a campy, nostalgic sort of way.

Four) the not-so-young-anymore years:  recognition that Diamond was, without qualification, a major pop writer and singer.

Five) the current view:  not much different than Four, but surprise at the number of people of a certain age, many of them women, who regard Diamond as the pinnacle of pop, but unlike me, never went through stages Two or Three.

Diamond may have had a whole new career if The Jazz Singer had been a success.  We’ll never know what might have been, but we’ll always have that one shining example of a cast with Diamond, Laurence Olivier, and Lucie Arnaz.

Diamond on film
Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973)*
The Last Waltz (1978)**
The Jazz Singer (1980)
Saving Silverman (2001)**

* Original score.
** As himself.
Contributed songs to soundtracks of many films, including Pulp Fiction (“Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” performed by Urge Overkill).

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The Jazz Singer (1980)
Richard Fleischer, director
Neil Diamond, Lucie Arnaz, Laurence Olivier
“Love on the Rocks”
Neil Diamond

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Saving Silverman (1992)
Dennis Dugan, director
Jason Biggs, Steve Zahn, Jack Black, Neil Diamond
“Holly Holy”
Neil Diamond

 

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Quote of note
Yussel:  He’s just kidding around, right?
Molly:  No, they’re doing it for real.
Yussel:  This song’s supposed to be a ballad.
Paul:  That’s his style, mister.  Made him a millionaire.
Yussel:  Yeah, but the thing is it’s too fast.  You can’t hear the words.
—Yussel Rabinovitch/Jess Robin (Neil Diamond), Molly Bell (Lucie Arnaz), Paul Rossini (James Booth), The Jazz Singer (1980)

…58…59…60.

Wednesday Minute
No. 228 | March 23, 2011

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2011

Our theme this week
Performers inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011

Featured this week
(See Monday post for theme introduction and program note)
Monday         —   Alice Cooper
Tuesday         —   Dr. John

Darlene Love

It took a long time for women get proper respect in the world of rock.  The girl groups of the 1950s and ’60s didn’t get the star treatment of Madonna or Lady Gaga, but hey, they could sing.  And nobody had a voice like Darlene Love’s.  She started as a backup vocalist working with Phil Spector and was the lead singer for several groups.  Her hits make for a good soundtrack of the era:  “He’s a Rebel” (a #1 single of 1962, her biggest hit), ”He’s Sure the Boy I Love,” “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” “(Today I Met) The Boy I’m Gonna Marry,” “Wait ‘Til My Bobby Gets Home,” and “Why Do Lovers Break Each Other’s Hearts?”  Love has continued working through the years, and frequently on Broadway.  In the 1980s, she starred in Leader of the Pack, later on, in Grease and Carrie, and just a few years ago, in Hairspray.  Her best-known role in movies was as Danny Glover’s wife in the Lethal Weapon franchise.

Love on film
Basketball Jones (1974)
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)

Contributed songs to soundtracks of many films.

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Father of the Bride (1992)
Chris Shyer, director
Steve Martin, Kimberly Williams-Paisley
“(Today I Met) The Boy I’m Going to Marry”
Darlene Love / Soundtrack

 

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Bachelor Party (1984)
“Alley Oop”
Darlene Love / Soundtrack
Cover of hit song of the Hollywood Argyles
Dallas Frazier, songwriter

 

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Quote of note
Trish:  Is this your pen?
Martin:  Thanks, I keep losing it.
Trish:  Something’s wrong.
Martin:  No, not really, just another goddamn pen.
Trish:  You were saying about the pen.
Martin:  Oh, it just reminds me of something, that’s all.
Trish:  Reminds you of what?
Martin:  Ah, reminds me of the night Vicki was killed.
Trish:  I didn’t mean to push.
Martin:  Hang on that, okay?  We never talked about this, did we?
—Trish Murtaugh (Darlene Love), Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson), Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

…58…59…60.

Tuesday Minute
No. 227 | March 22, 2011

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2011

Our theme this week
Performers inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011

Featured this week
(See Monday post for theme introduction and program note)
Monday         —   Alice Cooper

Dr. John

Longtime musician Mac Rebennack hit it big in the late-’60s/early-’70s as “Dr. John, the Night Tripper.”  His debut album, Gris-Gris (1968), blended New Orleans R&B with psychedelic rock, and though ignored at first, it gained cult status, and later became regarded as one of the classics of the time.  By 1973, everyone knew Dr. John.  “Right Place Wrong Time” was a top 10 hit, the biggest of his career.  “Such a Night” was another hit from the same album.  When Dr. John came on the radio, you couldn’t mistake him for anybody else.  He hasn’t had great mainstream success in the decades since, but he never stopped making music, everything from blues to zydeco to boogie-woogie to jazz to whatever you want to call what the Doctor was cooking up.  From his top hit, one line that probably sums up Dr. John as much as anything:  “I’m having such a good time.”  Listen to his music and you’ll be feeling the same way.

The Doctor on film
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)
The Last Waltz (1978)*
Candy Mountain (1988)**
Blues Brothers 2000 (2000)
Lightning in a Bottle (2004)*

* As himself.
** Original music.
Contributed songs to soundtracks for many films.

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The Last Waltz (1978)
Martin Scorsese, director
“Such a Night”
Dr. John

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Blues Brothers 2000 (2000)
Dr. John
“Season of the Witch”
Donovan Leitch, songwriter

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Quote of note
“I been in the right place / But it must have been the wrong time / I’d have said the right thing / But I must have used the wrong line / I been in the right trip / But I must have used the wrong car / My head was in a bad place / And I’m wondering what it’s good for.”
—Dr. John, “Right Place Wrong Time,” soundtrack to Dazed and Confused (1993) and other films

…58…59…60.

Monday Minute
No. 226 | March 21, 2011

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2011

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A program note:  my schedule this week, and the next several weeks, will make it hard to keep up my regular posting routine (even my every-other-week slacker routine).  I’ll have little time to write, so don’t expect any in-depth exegeses on the art of film (which you know better than to expect anyway).  That said, I will do my best to keep the posts coming.  Brevity, though, will be the key.  Sometime mid-April, knock on wood, look for a return to normal operations (whatever that may be).

One week ago, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame held its annual ceremony at New York’s Waldorf Astoria to induct the Class of 2011.  This week, the honors keep rolling in, with that same class the featured theme here at Minute A Day About Movies.  Congratulations to them all.  (We’d have had a gala at the Waldorf too, but they were booked.)

The inductees are best known, of course, for their music.  But each has picked up credits for work on the big screen—for soundtracks, performing as themselves, and acting in dramatic or comedy roles.  This week, a brief look at the five inductees and their work.

Our theme this week
Performers inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011

Alice Cooper

I was in high school when Alice Cooper had his biggest hits.  Cooper was something different—a proto-gothic, shock rocker, who turned to the dark side but in a way that was never wholly serious.  He had an act, he did it well, and it worked.  If some rock at the time tended to be pseudo-authentic, Cooper was an alternative to that.  He was popular, maybe more popular with the generation right behind mine (“We’re not worthy!” was Wayne and Garth’s opinion of him).  Surprisingly, he’s been a bigger influence than I’d have ever guessed back then.  KISS, Ozzy Osbourne, the New York Dolls, and whole subgenres of the rock and roll to come owe a debt to Cooper.  But bottom line, the guy could rock.  “I’m Eighteen,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” and “School’s Out” were anthems of teenage rebellion, the essence of rock for as long as the music has been around.

Cooper on film
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)
Roadie (1980)*
Prince of Darkness (1987)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988)*
Shocker (1989)**
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
Wayne’s World (1992)*
Suck (2009)

* As himself.
** Original music.
Contributed songs to soundtracks of many films.

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Wayne’s World (1992)
Penelope Spheeris, director
Alice Cooper, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey
“So, do you come to Milwaukee often?”

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Wayne’s World (1992)
Alice Cooper, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey
“Feed My Frankenstein”

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Quote of note
Wayne:  So, do you come to Milwaukee often?
Alice Cooper:  Well, I’m a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors.  The French missionaries and explorers began visiting here in the late 16th century.
—Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers), Alice Cooper, Wayne’s World (1992)

…58…59…60.