Fly Boys - Some good lying scenes, but this film was very studio.
Strange Days - Bigelow creates an beautiful dystopian vision. She also lets loose in some incredible scenes. The film is very strong, but goes a bit off the rails at the end. Still very worthwhile.
Night of the Zombies - Exhumed Films part 2. Shameless zombie ripoff film with some laughably bad moments. More»

In no particular order:

• Pomp, circumstance and fashion are lost on me. I’m just here for the movies, dammit! Ebert derisively put it best in his live twitter:

“They pose the actresses in their gowns, ask them to pose, and let the camera lick them from toe to head.”

• I don’t pretend to understand cinematography (anyone who has seen my films can attest to that), but does lighting generated on a computer count? I’m surprised Avatar won.

• 10 Best Pictures? Including more films makes the category less important.

• Sandra Bullock did a decent and forgettable job in The Blind Side. She didn’t deserve the Oscar but she seems nice and had a good speech so good for her.

• The White Ribbon, my vote for best film of the year, did not win Best Foreign Language Film. I’m ashamed that was the only one I saw in that category.

• Pixar has done no wrong in the past few years, and the Academy has thankfully recognized that.

• Bigelow wins for best director! The Hurt Locker was directly very well, and she deserves recognition, but in my mind more for Point Break and Strange Days then for her most recent film.

• District 9 did not deserve any nominations, let along Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay? I don’t care what LCD says.

• I was voting for Carey Mulligan. Her performance was subtle and true.

• I happened to catch all of the 10 Best Picture Nominees and I give them a 60/40 good to bad ratio. The best of the lot was A Serious Man, which I saw too late to put on my Top 10 of the Year.

• I don’t really like John Hughes.

• If the Academy allows Foreign Language Films and Animated Features to be nominated for best picture, they are logically saying that all the Best Picture Nominees are better than all of the nominees from those other categories. That is why I don’t like the Oscars.

Roman Polanski, France, 2010, 128 min.

Ewan McGregor stars as a ghost writer hired to help write the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan) after the first ghost writer died of mysterious circumstances.

Shuffled off to Martha’s Vineyard in secrecy and high security, he becomes a fish out of water in the Minister’s household. The manuscript that he was hired to edit is horrible, and the recently discovered news of some less-than-legal dealings in the Minister’s past combine to make this job rather a rather difficult one.

It gets even more difficult when it becomes apparent that the recent news about the Minister’s past may just be the tip of the iceberg. There is more going on than he is led to believe.

This film is refreshing. It is refreshing to sit back and be taken on a ride by a filmmaker who knows what he is doing. The film builds nicely, revealing information and developing the characters along the way.

The estate and its assorted denizens provide much intrique, humor and drama, all without resorting to cheap tricks. Hitchcock would have loved this film. The acting by McGregor and Bronson is strong, and the cast is rounded out by some great performances by Kim Cattrall and Olivia Williams.

I have a minor quibble with the ending, but the film is great for almost its entire length. The story is realistic, but even more important, the character’s and their actions feel real as well. So if the ending is imperfect, that can be forgiven. In real-life, nobody is perfect.

Shane Carruth, USA, 2004, 77 min.

A group of young engineers sit around a table and discuss their business. They work out of a garage, developing technologies but have not yet had a breakthrough to get them into the big-time. We do not understand all of the technical things they talk about, but we don’t need to. The fact is that what they are doing seems real.

They are lacking in seed money, and pilfer parts and supplies from wherever they can get them (old cars, refridgerators, microwaves friends in labs). Two of them (Aaron and Abe) work on a technology that they find decreases the mass of small objects. After struggling with finding a marketable application of this technology they realize there may be more to it than the initially realized.

In just a few days fungus has grown on their test item. But in natural conditions this fungus would take years to grow. Did they just invent the world’s best fungus incubator? There is another explanation that they work their way towards, disbeleiving at fist. Time-travel.

It’s proven when Abe takes Aaron out to the side of the road and points out a doppleganger of himself walking into a self-storage facility. What follows are philisophical, ethical and scientific questions all presented in a puzzling narrative. The joy is in figuring it all out.

Primer was filmed for only $7,000. It’s a film that relies on its script and the talents of its writer/directer/star Shane Carruth. Just look at the credits! The crew list is smaller than the cast list. What he does with this film is incredible, and that elevates the already intricate and fascinating story into one of the best independant films I have ever seen.

Sergei Parajanov, Soviet Union, 1968, 79 min.

The Color of Pomegranates states right at up front that it is not going to make sense. The text at the beginning says that what we will see on the screen are images from a poet’s mind, and that this was in no way going to show what actually happened, but how he perceived the events around him.

The film then treats you to a series of vignettes that chronicle the main character’s life from a small child until death. There is no narrative to hold it together, but the film creates a mood around the images, the music, and the poetic chanting.

It’s a film steeped in religious and cultural symbolism, and a film that truly is a monument to the culture of which it was made. Unfortunately, being that the culture and folklore are completely unknown to me, a stupid American, it was hard to connect in a meaningful way with what was on the screen.

Still, the craft involved with making this film is undeniable. Being an political auteur in the Soviet Union during that time must not have been easy. Parajanov’s vision is unique and The Color of Pomegranates is a singular film that only he could have made.

Jason Reitman, USA, 2009, 109 min.

Why people love Up in the Air is beyond me. At best, it’s a cliche “coming of age” story with some good performances. At worst, it’s a soul-less mess as interesting as a trip to the airport. I lean towards the latter.

George Clooney’s transition-specialist character is as shallow as you could imagine. He lives on the road, avoids his family, involves himself in meaningless relationships, and enjoys his work because it keeps him isolated.

Over the course of the film, spurred on by a relationship with the similar traveller (Vera Farmiga), and the introduction of a young protege (Anna Kendrick), the main character will grow and change. He falls in love, he realizes the value of family and the solidarity that they represent.

Predictable, but what really hurts the film is that none of the characters are interesting, and none grow to be interesting. They are shallow, and their actions are efficient and mundane.

Reitman’s previous films were a good combination of writing, acting and directing. It’s just not the case for Up in the Air. The acting is fine. The direction is not horrible, but very plain. The writing is cliche and the characters are uninteresting.

I do not mind slow films, and I hesitate to use the word “boring” to describe a movie. But this one fit the bill. So officially I have to say: Up in the Air was boring.