You might not need to see this movie about the plane that was hijacked and crashed in a field in Pennsylvania on September 11th, 2001. But after watching United 93, I felt closer to the events of that day than I did when they actually happened. I don’t know if I’ll ever watch it again, but I’m glad I saw it.
Match Point is a slowly unfolding thriller that’s likely to have you rooting for the most dislikeable character in the movie. You’d never know it was a Woody Allen film (don’t let his name turn you off). It takes place in London, England, and there are no neurotic New Yorkers. I don’t know what the big deal is about Scarlett Johansson, but the filmmaking is brilliant.
I know An Inconvenient Truth isn’t really a movie. It’s a message about global warming and the end of the world in the form of a presentation given by Al Gore. But it’s solid science and it’s still worth watching — even if you think you already know everything about global warming. My only criticism: It was a mistake having a politician present the information. (My brother wrote a post about it too.)
Stranger Than Fiction is a funny and compelling story of an IRS agent who hears a voice in his head narrating everything he does as he does it, and with a better vocabulary than himself. It’s the kind of script Charlie Kaufman might write, but not so out of control. I didn’t know much more than this when I walked into the theatre, so I’d rather not say anything else. I don’t care for Will Ferrell as a comedian, but his intelligent performance here makes the fantastic element of the story believable. Good job. Good movie. (Dec. 5/06) I rewatched Stranger Than Fiction last night and enjoyed it as much as I did the first time I saw it, if not more. The romantic element of the story is a bit too Hollywood for my tastes, but I guess I was too caught up in the fun of the movie the first couple times to notice that.
The Departed is the most fun I had watching a movie in a theatre in 2006. I haven’t enjoyed a Martin Scorsese motion picture for well over a decade. Now, with The Departed, he’s hit a grand-slam home-run right out of the park. It’s great to see Scorsese return to form at what he does best: the crime drama. This isn’t a retread of old territory like Casino. He does a few things we’ve seen before, but it’s fresh and exciting and fantastic. It may not be seen as his best film, but it’s certainly one of his most entertaining.
I enjoyed The Squid and the Whale so much, I rented it twice over a two-day period and enjoyed it even more the second time. It’s the story of two adolescent brothers and how they react to their parents’ splitting up, and how their parents react. Their individual reactions are honest and weird and so real that it’s strange to find it all entertaining. Nothing seems exaggerated for dramatic or comedic effect. It’s a well-written story, well-acted, with likable but not entirely admirable characters, which is nice to see for a change, because it lends a sense of realism to everything that happens. This could be, and probably is, the story of a real family, and it feels that way. I like everything about this movie. I don’t know what else to say without giving it away.
Bubble is Steven Soderbergh’s experimental whodunit film that he describes more accurately as a whydunit. It’s experimental in that he uses real people, non-actors, playing themselves; the characters’ lives are so mundane that even when something out of the ordinary happens, it’s still completely mundane — and one of the most interesting films I’ve ever seen. Its authenticity makes it extremely watchable, not unbearably or depressingly realistic. It’s entertaining, compelling and dramatic — everything you want in a movie, minus the Hollywood.
I agree with everything Roger Ebert says, that Red River is a film that captures “the exhilaration of being on a horse under the big sky with a job to do and a paycheck at the other end. [It is] one of the greatest of all Westerns…” It’s a bit chauvinist in its portrayal of women, but it’s easy to overlook such qualities because it is so damn entertaining.
3-Iron tells the story of a guy who spends his time breaking into and living in houses where he knows the owners are on vacation. He always cleans and tidies up the house, then leaves a token of appreciation behind. Inevitably he breaks into a house where someone is home, and I don’t want to say what happens next, but it’s magical. The director, Ki-duk Kim, who directed one of my favourite movies from last year, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring, likes to create characters who develop relationships in a non-verbal manner — and he makes it work. The two main characters of this film don’t speak a single word to each other, yet you know exactly how they feel about each other. It’s pure fantasy, of course, but pure cinema, too, in that you’re drawn into the story, into the lives and feelings of the characters, simply by watching them be together. It’s magical and compelling and dramatic and tragic and funny, and I know I’m going to like this movie more every time I watch it.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the best western ever made, and a whole lotta fun to watch. Unbeatable direction and cinematography. Over the top and magnificent. If you’ve only seen the full-screen VHS version (which I remember as being slow and boring), then you haven’t seen this movie. The recent extended edition doesn’t improve on the theatrical cut. It provides more insight into the characters, but it slows down the pace of the film even more. Either version is worth revisiting, though. It’s Sergio Leone’s magnum opus.