I love lists. They give people something to argue about, and there's always that great sense of smug satisfaction when you agree with the list maker. In honor of EWs's exhaustive list of lists, I thought I'd make one of my own.
Top Ten Movie Vietnam Vets
10. Herman Blume - Rushmore
9. Forrest Gump - Forrest Gump
8. Carson Wells- No Country for Old Men
7. Captain Koons - Pulp Fiction
6. Michael - The Deer Hunter
5. Travis Bickle - Taxi Driver
4. Llewelyn Moss - No Country for Old Men
3. Walter - The Big Lebowski
2. Rambo - First Blood
1. Ron Korvic - Born on the Fourth of July
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
The Dark Dark Night
Jonathan Nolan, 32, has been helping brother Christopher write movies for some years now. Together, the two of them have become one of the most energetic and daring storytelling duos out there. "The Dark Night" draws so many of its plot points, style elements and tonalities from the "Long Halloween" series of Batman comics, placing the caped crusader in a dark and semi-realistic world of underground crime, exploding public officials and very creepy villains. As director, Nolan (Christopher) pushes every stylistic element to the max, often successfully (like with the sleek new bat 'cave') and sometimes less so (like with his insistence that Christian Bale grunt whenever behind the mask), but all in all he calibrates each performance and set piece perfectly, creating a hellish cross between Law and Order and Escape from New York while staying true to the Batman creed.
This is also a movie about terrorists. It's filled with home-made hostage videos, enhanced interrogation techniques, fear and mayhem. The politics of the film are very vanilla, don't worry. Those 29% of Bush supporters, I'm sure, can find comfort in imagining their man as the Dark Night himself, perhaps bending the rules and taking the law into his own hands, but doing so because no one else can protect Gotham from the looneys; Markos Moulistas and his gang will understand that the true heroes are the guys on the boats who do the right thing, and that burning the forest down to catch the jewel thief is just as bad as letting the clowns over-run the city. But nevermind. Nolan doesn't overplay his hand, and instead presents just enough real life parallelisms to hook us viscerally without overdoing the think factor.
And the hooks are incredible, whether its the Hong Kong airlift or the Batmobile's eject mechanism, th Nolans have found some really fun ways to play with Batman. But what makes these scenes and others so impressive is the way they have been structured into the overall screenplay, how the stakes are always many and increasing, how they are presented with enough subtlety to feel, sort of, possible. The story of so many comic book movies is taken for granted -- see: Iron Man and Hellboy II -- and it is really breathtaking to be fascinated in a plot so deeply. There is so much conflict, so much pathos (so many pathos?), so much warrant and action that we aren't just waiting around for something to blow up, but we are legitimately concerned with how our heroes and villains will respond to their success and failures. This is especially exciting since we all know the lore anyway, and let ourselves be set up for what we know is coming, and then are shocked when and by how it does.
For all that has been made of Heath Ledger's performance-- and I don't think we'll stop hearing about it anytime soon-- I was blown away with what turned out to be the scene stealer: Aaaron Eckhart. Whether as idealistic DA Harvey Dent, killer two-face or Romantic Lead, Eckhart found so many ways to elevate this role and give the character shadows and highlights. OK, maybe the transformation happened a little two quick for comfort, but all in all I'd say this movie was mostly about him, even more so than Batman. If any Oscar nods go out for supporting actor in this movie, I say it should go to him.
The Dark Night was the kind of movie that's worth seeing twice in theaters, then twice on netflix, then ten more times on HBO. The Nolans' careers are already on the fast track, and it will be amazing to see what they think of next. With only one old black guy with white hair exception, the casting was perfect (think Katie Holmes would have elicited any sympathy the way Maggie Gyllenhal did when she met her fate?). I'm sure this movie had flaws, I'm sure some of the depth will wear thin on second viewing, and I'd hesitate to equate this movie with other thriller masterpieces like Minority Report or Terminator 2. But for its freshness, its poise and its precision, at this point at least, I'd have to say this was one of the best films of the year. 8.3
This is also a movie about terrorists. It's filled with home-made hostage videos, enhanced interrogation techniques, fear and mayhem. The politics of the film are very vanilla, don't worry. Those 29% of Bush supporters, I'm sure, can find comfort in imagining their man as the Dark Night himself, perhaps bending the rules and taking the law into his own hands, but doing so because no one else can protect Gotham from the looneys; Markos Moulistas and his gang will understand that the true heroes are the guys on the boats who do the right thing, and that burning the forest down to catch the jewel thief is just as bad as letting the clowns over-run the city. But nevermind. Nolan doesn't overplay his hand, and instead presents just enough real life parallelisms to hook us viscerally without overdoing the think factor.
And the hooks are incredible, whether its the Hong Kong airlift or the Batmobile's eject mechanism, th Nolans have found some really fun ways to play with Batman. But what makes these scenes and others so impressive is the way they have been structured into the overall screenplay, how the stakes are always many and increasing, how they are presented with enough subtlety to feel, sort of, possible. The story of so many comic book movies is taken for granted -- see: Iron Man and Hellboy II -- and it is really breathtaking to be fascinated in a plot so deeply. There is so much conflict, so much pathos (so many pathos?), so much warrant and action that we aren't just waiting around for something to blow up, but we are legitimately concerned with how our heroes and villains will respond to their success and failures. This is especially exciting since we all know the lore anyway, and let ourselves be set up for what we know is coming, and then are shocked when and by how it does.
For all that has been made of Heath Ledger's performance-- and I don't think we'll stop hearing about it anytime soon-- I was blown away with what turned out to be the scene stealer: Aaaron Eckhart. Whether as idealistic DA Harvey Dent, killer two-face or Romantic Lead, Eckhart found so many ways to elevate this role and give the character shadows and highlights. OK, maybe the transformation happened a little two quick for comfort, but all in all I'd say this movie was mostly about him, even more so than Batman. If any Oscar nods go out for supporting actor in this movie, I say it should go to him.
The Dark Night was the kind of movie that's worth seeing twice in theaters, then twice on netflix, then ten more times on HBO. The Nolans' careers are already on the fast track, and it will be amazing to see what they think of next. With only one old black guy with white hair exception, the casting was perfect (think Katie Holmes would have elicited any sympathy the way Maggie Gyllenhal did when she met her fate?). I'm sure this movie had flaws, I'm sure some of the depth will wear thin on second viewing, and I'd hesitate to equate this movie with other thriller masterpieces like Minority Report or Terminator 2. But for its freshness, its poise and its precision, at this point at least, I'd have to say this was one of the best films of the year. 8.3
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Summer Movie Report Card, Pre-DN
Iron Man.
Director Jon Favreau and Leading Man Robert Downey have done the seemingly impossible: made more money than Indiana Jones. And in the process, they have offered a glimpse of Generation 2.0 of comic book movies: more mature, funny and relevant. What a good idea to have so many scenes take place in the middle east, dealing with real-life threats like terrorist and WMD's, even if only obliquely. This movie hit so many marks, but with lackluster special effects and a brutal, might-as-well have two robots fighting each other finale, plenty of room is left for improvement in Iron Man 2. 6.9
Wall E.
Pros: An apocalyptic kids movie; a homage to Golden Age Hollywood; the summer's most taciturn hero.
Cons: shtick walks a thin line between Charlie Chaplin and Darkwing Duck; feel-good bioler-plate pervades more than just the climax. 6.0
Wanted
Neither Angelina Jolie nor James McAvoy can save this clunky amalgam of genre action, sloppy storytelling and inexplicable Morgan Freeman villainy. For all the loud music, swooshing cameras and wham-bam cuts, Kazakh-director Timur Bekmambetov's American debut is stolid and dull. Save your money. Stay home and watch Monk. 2.1
HellBoy II
There's a scene where Hellboy is taking a shower, steam clouding out his nether-regions, rosary beads tied around the same hand that clutches a can of Tecate. With creatures big and small, Guillermo del Toro builds a comic book world unlike that of Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne, one where superhero's aren't made by inherited fortunes and just-beyond-the-pale trinkets, but by gods and monsters. There are at least four legitimate action scenes here that range from squeamish to frightening to surprising, so we can forgive some of the less interesting filler, and hope for part III. 6.4
Director Jon Favreau and Leading Man Robert Downey have done the seemingly impossible: made more money than Indiana Jones. And in the process, they have offered a glimpse of Generation 2.0 of comic book movies: more mature, funny and relevant. What a good idea to have so many scenes take place in the middle east, dealing with real-life threats like terrorist and WMD's, even if only obliquely. This movie hit so many marks, but with lackluster special effects and a brutal, might-as-well have two robots fighting each other finale, plenty of room is left for improvement in Iron Man 2. 6.9
Wall E.
Pros: An apocalyptic kids movie; a homage to Golden Age Hollywood; the summer's most taciturn hero.
Cons: shtick walks a thin line between Charlie Chaplin and Darkwing Duck; feel-good bioler-plate pervades more than just the climax. 6.0
Wanted
Neither Angelina Jolie nor James McAvoy can save this clunky amalgam of genre action, sloppy storytelling and inexplicable Morgan Freeman villainy. For all the loud music, swooshing cameras and wham-bam cuts, Kazakh-director Timur Bekmambetov's American debut is stolid and dull. Save your money. Stay home and watch Monk. 2.1
HellBoy II
There's a scene where Hellboy is taking a shower, steam clouding out his nether-regions, rosary beads tied around the same hand that clutches a can of Tecate. With creatures big and small, Guillermo del Toro builds a comic book world unlike that of Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne, one where superhero's aren't made by inherited fortunes and just-beyond-the-pale trinkets, but by gods and monsters. There are at least four legitimate action scenes here that range from squeamish to frightening to surprising, so we can forgive some of the less interesting filler, and hope for part III. 6.4
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Conditions on the Ground
So, it begins. "Flip-Flopping," "Stay the Course," "Voted with George W. Bush 95% of the time." It's as if Presidential Elections are an elaborate game of Uno, with each candidate being dealt a hand of cards and carefully playing them one by one. As the surrogates get disowned and the melodramatic music gets played over deceptively presented voting records between innings of baseball games, we are beginning to see that even the two most unconventional candidates presidential politics have ever seen will still be running fairly conventional campaigns. I miss Hillary.
But before opinions really start to be formed about these two candidates, summer provides a testing ground to experiment with nuanced messages, to reposition, to venture into hostile waters, to present bios. But before the dreams of Montana and Michigan fade and tens of millions of dollars worth of media buys are made in Cleveland, the summer duldrums really do present some fascinating twists and turns, leading up to the late-August conventions, when the independents will finally start to sway.
And the candidates have been busy. Today John McCain addressed the NAACP, while Obama spoke at Purdue University about the threats of the 21st century. First McCain.
McCain, of course, has guts. No one has any illusions about how hard it will be to sway black voters. But by going to the NAACP -- an invitation he snubbed last year -- McCain showed some grace. Quoting MLK and addressing education and small business issues, McCain made a reasonable argument for why the Republican domestic agenda -- at least with the maverick at the helm -- may be better for the struggling economy than what he labels as Democratic tax hikes. And Obama will hike taxes. While income taxes for most Americans (about 99%) would go down, McCain rightfully points out that under the Obama plan, the 100's of millions of Americans who hold stocks and bonds would see their taxes go up under Obama's capital-gains regime, while estate taxes could change by a margin of 30%. Those are big differences. As McCain says, when people are struggling with gas and food prices, the last thing they want to do is pay higher taxes. Obama says that if McCain wants to have a debate on taxes, he looks forward to it. But can he really win?
Obama, introduced by possible-VP (and UVA law grad) Evan Bayh, spoke about the fascinating issues of cyber-security and nonproliferation. Obama has developed this really interesting two-tone personality. At night, he grandstands, but his day job is that of weary warrior. He speaks in dulcet tones about global annihilation, but not with the sweeping grandeur we're usually expecting. Often times, he talks with his head down, as if pleading, and instead of delving into specifics, stresses that the details will come so long as there is confident and inspired leadership at top--his leadership. Its an interesting argument, and not one that's lost on the electorate. Hardly a wonk, Obama can get bogged down when talking about important but non-principled issues, and he rightly avoids explaining how exactly America can prevent cyper-espionage and limit the creation of fissile material, and instead stresses that what is important is vision and boldness to conquer the new problems facing the country, to work with allies, to make the hard choices.
At this point, most prognosticators have their money on Obama, and for good reason. The political situation is bad for Republicans, McCain has failed to rally his base, Bob Barr may get 4%, and the state-by-state make up seems to have Obama playing offense all across the country. But I don't underestimate McCain. His biography is remarkably compelling, his manner of speaking comforting and convincing, his stance on domestic policy more in line with mainstream (read: heartland) American opinion and his foreign policy, if a liability in itself, at least principled and knowledgeable. Can McCain steal a mid-western state? or PA? He has the money, and somewhere in there he's got the message. The debates will be key here. Summer is just too far away from November.
But before opinions really start to be formed about these two candidates, summer provides a testing ground to experiment with nuanced messages, to reposition, to venture into hostile waters, to present bios. But before the dreams of Montana and Michigan fade and tens of millions of dollars worth of media buys are made in Cleveland, the summer duldrums really do present some fascinating twists and turns, leading up to the late-August conventions, when the independents will finally start to sway.
And the candidates have been busy. Today John McCain addressed the NAACP, while Obama spoke at Purdue University about the threats of the 21st century. First McCain.
McCain, of course, has guts. No one has any illusions about how hard it will be to sway black voters. But by going to the NAACP -- an invitation he snubbed last year -- McCain showed some grace. Quoting MLK and addressing education and small business issues, McCain made a reasonable argument for why the Republican domestic agenda -- at least with the maverick at the helm -- may be better for the struggling economy than what he labels as Democratic tax hikes. And Obama will hike taxes. While income taxes for most Americans (about 99%) would go down, McCain rightfully points out that under the Obama plan, the 100's of millions of Americans who hold stocks and bonds would see their taxes go up under Obama's capital-gains regime, while estate taxes could change by a margin of 30%. Those are big differences. As McCain says, when people are struggling with gas and food prices, the last thing they want to do is pay higher taxes. Obama says that if McCain wants to have a debate on taxes, he looks forward to it. But can he really win?
Obama, introduced by possible-VP (and UVA law grad) Evan Bayh, spoke about the fascinating issues of cyber-security and nonproliferation. Obama has developed this really interesting two-tone personality. At night, he grandstands, but his day job is that of weary warrior. He speaks in dulcet tones about global annihilation, but not with the sweeping grandeur we're usually expecting. Often times, he talks with his head down, as if pleading, and instead of delving into specifics, stresses that the details will come so long as there is confident and inspired leadership at top--his leadership. Its an interesting argument, and not one that's lost on the electorate. Hardly a wonk, Obama can get bogged down when talking about important but non-principled issues, and he rightly avoids explaining how exactly America can prevent cyper-espionage and limit the creation of fissile material, and instead stresses that what is important is vision and boldness to conquer the new problems facing the country, to work with allies, to make the hard choices.
At this point, most prognosticators have their money on Obama, and for good reason. The political situation is bad for Republicans, McCain has failed to rally his base, Bob Barr may get 4%, and the state-by-state make up seems to have Obama playing offense all across the country. But I don't underestimate McCain. His biography is remarkably compelling, his manner of speaking comforting and convincing, his stance on domestic policy more in line with mainstream (read: heartland) American opinion and his foreign policy, if a liability in itself, at least principled and knowledgeable. Can McCain steal a mid-western state? or PA? He has the money, and somewhere in there he's got the message. The debates will be key here. Summer is just too far away from November.
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