February 9th, 2010
The story Burma VJ tells is fascinating, and shocking and enraging. As a movie, alas, it comes across as muffled, because…well, it's reporting from a closed country. Thanks to a repressive government, the footage is smuggled out of Burma and goes to Oslo, then doubles back to Burma via the BBC and other outlets; it's hard to give second- and thirdhand mini-cam footage much texture, in bulk, and the attempt can seem unfortunately amateurish.
I'd recommend reading up on the events covered by and surrounding the movie instead.
Death Race 47, Sarah 11
Tags: Oscars 2010 Death Race
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February 8th, 2010
I can't get completely on board with the screenplay nom for An Education — it's speechy in spots, and occasionally feels as though it's waiting for the jokes to land.
Carey Mulligan's performance, however, is fantastic. The entire cast is very good, although Alfred Molina is rather broad, but Mulligan is head and shoulders amazing above that. She bears a strong resemblance to Katie Holmes, but is less passive as an actress; she seems less concerned with seeming to react than Holmes, and more concerned with the actual reaction. Nothing against Holmes, really, but some of her acting choices come off more like defaults — usually done well, but still defaults.
The movie overall is fairly minor; Mulligan is probably its best chance to medal, provided the Academy voters feel like they've done their duty to Precious elsewhere, but having not seen Precious yet, I can't handicap that race. An Education is a worthwhile 90 minutes on its own merits, though.
Death Race 48, Sarah 10
Tags: Alfred Molina, Carey Mulligan, Katie Holmes, Oscars 2010 Death Race
Posted in movies | 3 Comments »
February 8th, 2010
Sweet movie, but with both its feet planted on the correct side of the cutesy line. The expected over-explanation of and/or moralizing about why Coraline wants out of the Other world never materialized; she just got a wiggins and proceeded from there. That businesslike approach (as well as a few understatedly creepy bits, like the walk through the empty parts of the Beldam's world) paired just right with elements like the talking cat and the glorious garden.
Points also for judicious use of chickens. Loved the Tex Averyesque popcorn machine at the mouse circus.
Death Race 49, Sarah 9
Tags: Neil Gaiman, Oscars 2010 Death Race, Tex Avery
Posted in movies | 28 Comments »
February 7th, 2010
Facing two subtitled hours about an Italian politician I'd never heard of, merely for the sake of crossing a Best Makeup nominee off the list, I considered withdrawing from the Oscars 2010 Death Race entirely and saving myself.
Instead, I threw Il divo on my Netflix instant queue, booted it up, and sat in front of my laptop, arms folded, giving it 10 minutes to impress me before I gave the whole thing up as a bad job. It had me by the collar in 90 seconds.
I haven't seen a movie this ambitious and just straight-up cool-looking in a long time. Paolo Sorrentino uses a lot of tricks and showy shots, but he understands their genealogy; when the movie feels like Fellini or Coppola (the chiaroscuro lighting) or Fincher (the playful 3D captions) or Tarantino via Carnahan (the outré angles and stretching/compressing of sequences), it feels intentional. It's not copying, or even homage — it's mastery of tonal control.
That it's so exciting to watch is more impressive when you realize that, as scripted, the movie is 80 percent doomy aphorisms about the nature of power and how we know ourselves — the kind of thing that reads much more profoundly 1) when it's delivered from underneath a hood of Don-Corleone's-study shadow, and 2) when you do literally have to read the dialogue. It's what I call The Truffaut Test: does it still work in American English?
But Sorrentino is so good at creating a mood that the words (and the fact that they do very little to untangle the dense web of political machinations the movie is, on the surface, about) almost don't matter. A couple of scenes clank, like the one in which Andreotti tears out a page of a book, saying he never wants to know the killer's identity — but then so many of them call for a rewind. The still-seeming shot of an apartment building, interrupted horribly and thrillingly by a jumper rushing toward the camera at a new angle; the car swan-diving into a pit of explosives; the end-credits music choice (Trio's "Da Da Da," which some of you will remember from that VW commercial) — Sorrentino is daring himself to do it in a new way, and daring us to come along.
Go along. It's fun.
Death Race 50, Sarah 8
Tags: David Fincher, Federico Fellini, Francis Ford Coppola, Francois Truffaut, Giulio Andreotti, Joe Carnahan, Oscars 2010 Death Race, Paolo Sorrentino, Quentin Tarantino
Posted in movies | 1 Comment »
February 6th, 2010
Whatever else I have to say about it, Up in the Air successfully distracted me from an offensive movie-going environment — the theater reeked of what I can only describe as bum stench. You board an empty subway car at the height of rush hour, not pausing in your triumph to wonder why every seat is available, and it is this exact odor that hits your nostrils just as the doors close. It's always some goddamn thing at the Pavilion: the heat or the AC isn't on, the roof is leaking, it stinks…pull it together, guys.
And speaking of spoiled things…
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Tags: Anna Kendrick, dial-a-cliche, George Clooney, Jason Reitman, Melanie Lynskey, Oscars 2010 Death Race, Sam Elliott, Vera Farmiga, Walter Kirn, Young MC
Posted in movies | 17 Comments »
February 6th, 2010
A very good movie with very good acting, weakened a bit by the two sequences at the end — but only a bit, which is a testament to how well built the rest of the movie is. It put me in mind of Michael Clayton, another perfectly paced film whose solid crafting didn't divert your attention from the work at hand.
Spoil-cifics after the jump.
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Tags: Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner, Kathryn Bigelow, Oscars 2010 Death Race
Posted in movies | 4 Comments »
February 5th, 2010
Dear Sars,
Yes, I know, it's another "can you and/or your wonderful readers find this book" question. But, you know, there's a little weight to it here, I think, at least for us.
You see, my husband and I named our eldest daughter Fiona. We're indecisive, she came two weeks early, we brought to the hospital our list of names, she was born with inch-long red hair…we had to go Irish-y. So, you know, Fiona. And we love it and it suits her and I'm glad we chose it.
(Even though we almost didn't thanks to Shrek. But, whatever.)
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Tags: Shrek
Posted in Ask The Readers, Vine, popcult | 25 Comments »
February 5th, 2010
About what you'd expect, structurally, and the end feels a bit abrupt — although I suppose that, once the Chinese government decides it doesn't care to deal with an issue, that's that.
The first half is quite affecting, though, in particular the things the parents say when they visit the graves of their children. "Little baby, you must give your mom strength." "If you want anything, come into our dreams." So sweet and direct and unbearably awful.
Death Race 52, Sarah 6
Tags: Oscars 2010 Death Race, snif!
Posted in movies | 3 Comments »
February 5th, 2010
Welcome to The Tomato Nation Oscars 2010 Death Race, in which I will attempt to see all the nominees before Oscar night. Yes: all of them. Best Live-Action Short, prepare to be boarded.
"But that's crazy! Even Sarah wouldn't tilt at such a windmill!" Sarah watched Jason and the Argonauts again last Monday. On purpose.
The list of pertinent nominees appears in alphabetical order after the jump. I've starred the Best Picture nominees. Care to play along on my perilous quest? See you in the comments. Coming soon: reviews of Up in the Air and Serpico (which I had to hurry up and watch to clear my Netflix queue).
Current score: Death Race 52, Sarah 6
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Tags: Kookoo Crazypantses, Oscars 2010 Death Race
Posted in movies | 42 Comments »
February 3rd, 2010
Sars,
I have a co-worker with a superior attitude and jealousy streak who cannot separate her personal life from her professional life. She will yell at someone for misusing the copier because her husband lost his job, and she will be an enormous passive-aggressive bitch if you get pregnant because she is infertile.
We work in different offices, have to see each other once weekly, correspond several times a day re: work related topics via email, and are on the same professional level: middle management. However, while my direct supervisor is a director of the company, her direct supervisor is the CEO. She's privy to things like everyone's salary history, so, if you catch her on a friendly day, she will disclose how much everyone makes and has been known to give out private information about employee bonuses. Without being asked, BTW.
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Posted in Vine, friendships, grammar, workplace | 64 Comments »