Review: "Meet the Robinsons" is a Heartfelt Gem

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 140 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Meet the Robinsons (2007) – computer animated
Running time: 95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)
MPAA – G
DIRECTOR: Stephen J. Anderson
WRITERS: Stephen J. Anderson, Michelle Bochner, Jon Bernstein, Nathan Greno, Don Hall, Joe Mateo, and Aurian Redson; with story material from Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson, and Shirley Pierce; (based on A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce)
PRODUCER: Dorothy McKim

ANIMATION/SCI-FI/COMEDY/ACTION/FAMILY

Starring: (voices) Daniel Hansen, Angela Bassett, Jordan Fry, Tom Selleck, Harland Williams, Laurie Metcalf, Adam West, Ethan Sandler, Tom Kenney, and Matthew Josten

Meet the Robinsons, a Walt Disney Feature Animation digital 3-D animation film, focuses on a boy genius named Lewis. His love of gadgets and gizmos takes him on a trip to the future and reveals to him great secrets about his past and about his own limitless potential.

Lewis (Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry) is a brilliant preteen inventor, but he’s also an orphan. He’s been living at the 6th Street Orphanage under the guardianship of its sweet and patient caretaker, Mildred (Angela Bassett), ever since she found him on her doorstep as an infant. Rejected by most prospective adoptive parents, Lewis decides to invent the “memory scanner” to retrieve his earliest recollections and hopefully see his birth mother. Lewis presents his invention as his school’s science fair where it is a disaster – mostly because of sabotage on the part of the villainous Bowler Hat Guy (Ethan Sandler), who steals the machine.

Lewis is ready to give up on the quest for his birth mother when he meets a mysterious teenager, Wilbur Robinson (Wesley Singerman), who like the Bowler Hat Guy, is from the future. Wilbur whisks Lewis to the future in his father’s time machine/jet car. Wilbur is desperate to get Lewis to help him retrieve his father’s second time machine, which was stolen by the Bowler Hat Guy. However, when Lewis meets the Robinsons, Wilbur’s large and extended eccentric family, he discovers that, much to his delight, they are ready to adopt him. But if Lewis doesn’t stop Bowler Hat Guy, everyone’s future may turn out to be very dark indeed.

Meet the Robinson’s theme is “keep moving forward,” which is taken from a quote by the late Walt Disney himself, and the filmmakers stay true to “keep moving forward” in terms of the characters. Don’t let the past drag you down, and don’t be bitter about failure because failure is a better teacher than success, the film practically yells out. The writers deal with some pretty serious subject matter in terms of what it means to be a family and also what it means to accept personal blame for failure rather than blaming someone else.

In terms of the film’s visuals and production design, Meet the Robinsons looks way back into the past for inspiration. The futurism of the industrial design movement of the 1930’s and 40’s is present, as well as art deco (which was inspired by futurism). “Streamline Moderne, which was a 1930’s architectural style and Walt Disney’s “Tomorrowland,” join to create a heady, invigorating mix of the retro sci-fi cool and cartoon futuristic. This goes well with what Lewis uses to create his inventions: scrap, spare parts, household items, and odds-and-ends. Think “The Jetsons” meets “Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius.”

The computer (or 3D) animation, however, is highly suspect. There are times when some of it seems to disappear in a glare of white light, or the camera shifts and the entire 3D environment becomes two-dimensional. It’s simply bad lighting and poor environmental building (perhaps because of software and/or hardware issues). It is sometimes embarrassingly shoddy animation work from Disney, a company that has a legacy of delivering exceptional animation, even when the story is mediocre.

However, the truth is that while viewers may come to the film looking for 3D animation, they’ll end up staying for the story. Luckily, Meet the Robinson’s messages of family bonds and of never letting failure be a crippling setback make this visually imaginative film a poignant gem that might bring at least one tear to your eye.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Review: "Michael Clayton" is a Powerful Social Drama (Happy B'day to Goddess, Tilda Swinton)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 15 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Michael Clayton (2007)
Running time: 120 minutes (2 hours)
MPAA – R for language including some sexual dialogue
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Tony Gilroy
PRODUCERS: Jennifer Fox, Kerry Orent, Sydney Pollack, and Steve Samuels
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Elswit
EDITOR: John Gilroy
2008 Academy Award winner

DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, Michael O’Keefe, Austin Williams, Ken Howard, Robert Prescott, Terry Serpico, Sean Cullen, and David Lansbury

In screenwriter Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton, his debut as a film director, a burned out corporate lawyer who has built a career on cleaning up his clients’ messes faces his biggest mess when a guilt-ridden colleague threatens the settlement of a multi-million-dollar case. Gilroy is best known for writing the three Jason Bourne films, including most recently, The Bourne Ultimatum.

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is an in-house “fixer” or “bagman” at Kenner, Bach & Ledeen, one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. A former criminal prosecutor, Clayton is burned out and hardly content with his job as a fixer, but his divorce, a failed business venture, and mounting debt have left Clayton inextricably tied to the firm. The firm is defending U/North (United Northfield) a giant corporation in a multimillion dollar class action lawsuit, but Kenner, Bach & Ledeen’s brilliant litigator, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), has a meltdown that threatens to upend a potential settlement entirely in favor of the plaintiffs against U/North.

Clayton faces the biggest challenge of his career and life to reign in Edens. Meanwhile, U/North’s general counsel, Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), who operates on a hair-trigger, knows that her career rests on the multi-million dollar settlement that once seemed to be heading to a successful conclusion for U/North. Edens’ rogue status means that Crowder may have to take matters into her own ruthless hands.

At one point in Michael Clayton, Sydney Pollack’s Marty Bach says, “People are fucking incomprehensible,” and that seems to be one of the dominant themes of Gilroy’s absolutely gripping legal thriller. Sure, Michael Clayton is an exposé of what evil corporations can do (poison their customers) and the way corporate law firms help them get away with it. The greed, the lies, and the under-the-table murder-for-hire deals are in evidence here, and while we’ve seen this in other muckraking dramas, what sets Michael Clayton apart is that we’re watching a film about people and not just characters.

It is in these people we see both the beauty and ugliness of humanity. We can admire how George Clooney’s Michael Clayton chases his ideals even if no one else believes in them or even if those ideals are the antithesis of others’ beliefs. The manner in which Gilroy tackles such mature themes through his star Clooney makes this an accomplished movie for adults. It’s a crackling delight full of standout performances including Tom Wilkinson’s Oscar-nominated turn as Arthur Edens and Tilda Swinton’s Oscar-winning performance as the neurotic viper Karen Crowder.

And Clooney: what can I say? He’s a movie star in the Old Hollywood tradition and also an exceptional actor that modern American filmmaking would be lost without.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2008 Academy Awards: 1 win for “Best Performance by Actress in a Supporting Role” (Tilda Swinton); 6 nominations: “Best Achievement in Directing,” “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (James Newton Howard), “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox, and Kerry Orent), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (George Clooney), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Tom Wilkinson), “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen”

2008 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Supporting Actress” (Tilda Swinton); 4 nominations: “Best Editing” (John Gilroy), “Best Leading Actor” (George Clooney), “Best Screenplay – Original” (Tony Gilroy), and “Best Supporting Actor” (Tom Wilkinson)

2008 Golden Globes: 4 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (George Clooney), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Tom Wilkinson), and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Tilda Swinton)

Thursday, March 20, 2008

-------------------

Review: Animated "Superman: Doomsday" is Not Super

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 90 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Superman: Doomsday (2007) – straight-to-video
Running time: 74 minutes (1 hour, 14 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
DIRECTORS: Bruce Timm, Lauren Montgomery, and Brandon Vietti
WRITERS: Duane Capizzi; from a story by Bruce Timm and Duane Capizzi
PRODUCER: Bruce Timm
EDITOR: Joe Gall

ANIMATION/SUPERHERO/ACTION/DRAMA

Starring: (voices) Adam Baldwin, Anne Heche, James Marsters, John Di Maggio, Tom Kenny, Swoosie Kurtz, Cree Summer, Ray Wise, and Adam Wylie

Superman: Doomsday is a 2007 direct-to-video animated superhero film. It is based on “The Death of Superman,” a 1992 storyline that ran through DC Comics’ various Superman comic books, which culminated in the death of Superman in Superman (Vol. 2) #75. Superman: Doomsday is the first release in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies from Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation.

Lex Luthor’s (James Marsters) company, LexCorp, unleashes a powerful alien monster known as “Doomsday,” from his burial place deep in the earth. Doomsday then goes on a murderous and destructive rampage. It’s up to Superman (Adam Baldwin) to defend the Earth, but at the apparent cost of his life.

Later, after his burial, Superman appears to have risen from the dead. Lois Lane (Anne Heche), his secret lover, is suspicious. With the reluctant assistance of fellow Daily Planet reporter, Jimmy Olsen (Adam Wylie), Lois seeks the truth and discovers that Lex Luthor is behind this risen Superman, who certainly doesn’t seem like his old self.

Bruce Timm is known as one of the minds behind the popular animated TV program, “Batman: The Animated Series.” He wears many hats in the production of this straight to video film, Superman: Doomsday, although the look of the animation in this film is different from Timm’s earlier work. In fact, the character design is streamlined with crisp line work, and the art direction emphasizes rich, dark colors. Technically, the animation is quite good (although the movement of the characters is often a bit awkward and stiff), which is essential in a film with so many extended, elaborate fight sequences and scenes of destruction and explosions that rival big-budget Hollywood sci-fi and action movies.

The problem is the story and voice acting. Not only is the narrative’s mood very dark, but the film is often violent, shockingly so, as Doomsday often kills humans – sometimes ever so slightly off screen. That’s not really a problem, except for very young viewers. The problem is the leaden pacing and flat mood in what should otherwise be an exciting and riveting movie. Superman’s death and resurrection just doesn’t have the emotional impact they should have.

Superman: Doomsday is a picture show of pretty and quality animation. It just doesn’t live up to its potential as an epic story.

5 of 10
C+

Thursday, November 03, 2011

-----------------------------

Rob Zombie's "Halloween" Fueled by Brutal Violence

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 8 (of 2009) by Leroy Douresseaux


Halloween (2007)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong brutal bloody violence and terror throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language
DIRECTOR: Rob Zombie
WRITER: Rob Zombie (based upon the movie written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill)
PRODUCERS: Malek Akkad, Andy Gould, Rob Zombie, and Andy La Marca
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Phil Parmet (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Glenn Garland

HORROR

Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton, Brad Dourif, Daeg Faerch, Sheri Moon Zombie, William Forsythe, Hanna Hall, Ken Foree, Lew Temple, Danny Trejo, Danielle Harris, Kristina Klebe, Pat Skipper, Dee Wallace, and Tyler Mane

In 2007, musician turned movie director Rob Zombie already had two brutal horror films to his credit, House of 1000 Corpses and its sequel, The Devil Rejects, when he unleashed Halloween, a remake and re-imagining of director John Carpenter’s 1978 classic horror film of the same name. Zombie’s film followed the now familiar storyline, but went into the past to reveal some origins.

It’s Halloween, and 10-year-old Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) goes on a murderous rampage in the quiet town of Haddonfield, Illinois. He spends the next 17 years in the Smith’s Grove Sanitarium under the care of noted child behaviorist, Dr. Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell). Loomis seems to be the only person who can truly understand the evil of Michael’s nature.

After 17 years, the adult Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) escapes from the mental facility on the day of Halloween and begins a bloody trek back to Haddonfield. He stalks a high school girl, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton), and her friends, Annie (Danielle Harris) and Lynda (Kristina Klebe). When Dr. Loomis hears about Michael’s escape, he races to Haddonfield and joins Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif) to find Michael and to put an end to Michael’s reign of terror. There, Loomis discovers that Myers and Laurie Strode have ties to a similar past.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween is a prequel, a re-imagining, a reinvention, and a remake of the original film. This new film is partly a prequel because Zombie, as both writer and director, chose to begin the story earlier in Michael Myer’s life than the writers of the original movie, John Carpenter and the late Debra Hill, did. That the story begins before the scene in which Michael puts on the mask and kills his sister, which is where the first film began. Zombie’s film begins Halloween morning, at the breakfast table of a highly dysfunctional “white trash” family. The audience sees Myers the “perfect storm” as Dr. Loomis calls it: Myers’ destructive home environment and his murderous tendencies.

Zombie re-imagines the film in the way he presents Michael Myers. Michael is not something of supernatural force, as the first film suggest, but he is simply a human monster – a psychopath. In the original film and its sequels (in which John Carpenter was involved to some extent) Carpenter suggested that Michael Myer’s evil was in some way a reflection of the darkness that existed at the heart of small towns like Haddonfield. Zombie provides no such social context or metaphor. Myers is simply a bad-ass, evil killer dude.

The film is a re-invention of sorts because it presents the violent slasher film as sort of a reality show in which all the gushing fluids of violent murder must be on display before the voyeuristic audience. In the original Halloween, Carpenter showed no blood, although Myers’ attacks on his victims were quite violent. In Zombie’s hands, the attacks are rude and crude – exercises in blood and mayhem and in bloody mayhem.

This film remains a respectful remake. Scenes, sequences, and even certain shots are repeated from the original or are only slightly altered. Halloween 2007 can stand on its own. The acting wasn’t great, but Zombie chose a nice mixture of character actors for the major parts and some famous faces and somewhat cult figures to fill in the bit parts and cameos, and that works out well.

Towards the end, the film seems out of control, both in terms of Zombie’s usual excesses and the fact that the ending seems padded. Still, Halloween is a scary movie, a celebration of raw violent horror, and true to Zombie’s rebel spirit. It is scandalous and disrespectful of those “our values” about which so-called conservatives like to preach. It’s funny and scary – a black comedy and horror movie that is stained dark with a lot of blood.

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Review: Will "I Am Legend" Smith - The Film Rests on His Shoulders

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 143 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

I Am Legend (2007)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence
DIRECTOR: Francis Lawrence
WRITERS: Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman (based upon the 1971 screenplay by Joyce Hooper Corrington and John William Corrington and based upon the novel by Richard Matheson)
PRODUCERS: Akiva Goldsman, David Heyman, James Lassiter, Neal H. Moritz, and Erwin Stoff
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrew Lesnie
EDITOR: Wayne Wahrman
Image Awards nominee

SCI-FI/DRAMA/HORROR/THRILLER

Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, and Willow Smith

I Am Legend is the third film adaptation of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel, I Am Legend, following the 1961 film, The Last Man on Earth (starring Vincent Price), and the 1971 film, The Omega Man (starring Charlton Heston). The book also apparently influenced George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.

Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the last human survivor in what is left of New York City, and perhaps the last man on earth, after a manmade virus – unstoppable and incurable – ravages humanity. Neville, however, is not quite alone. He shares the city with “the Infected,” victims of the plague who were mutated into monstrously fast and powerful carnivorous beings, who can only exist in the dark (and look like the belong in a video game).

For three years, Neville, who is also a brilliant scientist and military virologist, has scavenged for food and supplies. He also sends radio messages hoping to find other human survivors – his only companion a faithful dog named Sam. Immune to the virus, he also continues to search for a cure to the virus, a way to reverse the effects to the virus. Meanwhile, the Infected are watching him, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake, and Neville knows that he is outnumbered and running out of time.

There’s something missing in I Am Legend, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. I know what it does have in its favor – Will Smith, and that’s enough to carry the incomplete things and wash over the bad things. Neville played by Smith seems a powerful force in the lonely canyons and abandoned edifices of New York City – alone because man finally brought about Armageddon all on his own. It was the end of everything, and Satan didn’t have to break a sweat to bring it about, but here is the stubborn Smith-Neville, single-minded in his pursuit to survive and find a way to make hungry monsters human again. That makes him something like a persistent weed or an oblivious roach, or maybe he’s too clueless to remember that quite a bit of humanity was already trading in monstrosity before the virus wiped them out. This complexity of character and the ambivalence and stubbornness Smith gives Neville is what marks Will Smith as a great movie star and exceptional actor. His excellence is both in the process and in how he executes his preparation into fashioning engaging, riveting, mesmerizing characters.

Smith is glorious in a film that traffics in the mundane and sometimes makes intractable boredom the narrative, and what’s amazing is that he does it by playing a character that, while he may earn our sympathy, is largely unattractive. Neville is either slowly going crazy because he is lonely or has already been driven bonkers because he’s so desperate for human contact. He can’t be friends with the Infected who only want to eat him (although one could get the idea that he’d like to be friends). Smith presents Neville as someone, who because of his current state of affairs, should be avoided.

I Am Legend is well-served by the lovely German shepherd, Sam. In a world that has died, a dog is hope, love, friendship, and loyalty on four legs. Director Francis Lawrence, fortunate that Warner Bros. Pictures gave him another chance after Constantine, makes the best of this wonderful dog. Lawrence is also lucky for Smith’s masterful, rich performance and for the incredible CGI work that went into creating an empty NYC. That’s why “the whatever” that’s missing in I Am Legend seems like such a small thing, so Lawrence helms a film that is almost a great sci-fi movie, but is still a really good one.

7 of 10
A-

Sunday, December 16, 2007

NOTES:
2008 Image Awards: 2 nominations: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Will Smith) and “Outstanding Motion Picture”

-------------------

"30 Days of Night" Almost Gets it Right

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 135 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux


30 Days of Night (2007)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong horror violence and language
DIRECTOR: David Slade
WRITERS: Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie, and Brian Nelson (based on the comic by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith)
PRODUCERS: Sam Raimi and Robert G. Tapert
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jo Willems (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Art Jones

HORROR/THRILLER with elements of mystery

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster, Mark Boone Junior, Mark Rendall, Manu Bennett, Megan Franich, and Joel Tobeck

Barrow, Alaska is the northernmost town in the United States and is isolated, about 80 miles from the next nearest town. At one point during winter, the sun does not appear for 30 days and nights. This year, when the darkness falls, a stranger (Ben Foster) arrives in Barrow. Unknown to the residents of this isolated village, the stranger is the harbinger of a legendary evil hungry to feed on them. Barrow’s youthful sheriff, Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett), and his estranged wife, Stella Oleson (Melissa George), lead a small band of survivors against the marauding killers and their terrifying leader, Marlow (Danny Huston). Their only hope is to hide and survive the 30 days of night.

Part of the selling of 30 Days of Night was to tell potential audiences that the film would be some kind of new vision of vampires, but the truth is that this movie is like an imaginative retelling of the 80’s vampire flick, Near Dark. Director David Slade (Hard Candy) creates a proficient, atmospheric horror film, recalling the claustrophobic dread of John Carpenter’s The Thing, and composer Brian Reitzell’s unnerving score also adds a deeply ominous mood over the movie. However, the storytelling ultimately takes a backseat to the clever premise, and the movie suffers for it.

Midway through, the film comes frayed at the ends. The cool idea – to set a vampire tale in a place where night last for 30 days – can’t save a movie where the narrative is a collection of scenes and plot points rather than an actual story. There’s not so much as a beginning, middle, and end as there is a series of vampire attacks. Also, the characters are merely fodder – meat for the beasts, and they’re played by a dreary, chilly cast, although Josh Hartnett and Melissa George stand out for reasons that will be obvious. Who are the people of Barrow? What do they like, and what are their goals? What makes them want to live in an extremely remote place like Barrow, where it’s actually dangerous to live? Those questions are never posed because the filmmakers are obsessed with the blood and guts of horror to the neglect of anything about good storytelling.

30 Days of Night will ultimately be remembered as a good idea that became a misfire in the hands of filmmakers so blinded by the surface shine that they wouldn’t dig deep. Yes, it does have its inspired moments and can entertain, but what could have been a special horror flick ends up being yet another flashy display of horror movie blood and excessive violence.

5 of 10
B-

Monday, November 05, 2007

Review: "Shoot 'Em Up" is Empty Calories (Happy B'day, Clive Owen)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 5 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Shoot ‘Em Up (2007)
Running time: 86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive strong bloody violence, sexuality, and some language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Michael Davis
PRODUCERS: Rick Benattar, Susan Montford, and Don Murphy
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Pau
EDITOR: Peter Amundson

ACTION

Starring: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, Stephen McHattie, Julian Richings, Tony Munch, and Lucas and Sidney Mende-Gibson

Writer/director Michael Davis’ film, Shoot ‘Em Up, may not be the last word in action movies, but dressed in a hail of bullets, Davis’ film certainly seems familiar with the best gunfights from the last three decades worth of American and Hong Kong action movies.

Mr. Smith (Clive Owen) is a mysterious man, but the one thing obvious about him is that he seems to be the angriest, most hardboiled man in the world. Now, this mysterious loner gets to play Mr. Hero when he delivers a woman’s baby during an intense shoot-out. Mr. Smith discovers that the infant boy, whom he dubs, “Oliver” (Lucas and Sidney Mende-Gibson), is the target of a ruthless killer named Hertz (Paul Giamatti) and his seemingly endless supply of gun-toting henchmen.

Smith teams up with an old acquaintance, a prostitute named Donna Quintano or “DQ” (Monica Bellucci), and the duo try to protect Oliver until Smith can discover why the baby is a target. Running through a storm of bullets and facing every conceivable (and some inconceivable) permutation of a gunfight, Smith takes the battle to Hertz in order to see who will be the last man standing.

Shoot ‘Em Up is gleefully sleazy and cheerfully offensive, and the cast knows it. Because the leads Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti play it strait with nary a wink or a nudge at the audience, we buy into this implausible, but highly entertaining nonsense. We’re all having fun, and this hyperactive bash isn’t witless, nor does it shoot itself in the foot. Owen and Giamatti are both fine actors and true movie stars; they simply know just how much to give and how to give it.

Davis has conceived a feast of gunfights that are both breathtaking and imaginative. Owen and Giamatti pull them off. Owen’s gun battle in the sky late in the film is so good that it lifts Shoot ‘Em Up’s pedigree. The final duel between Hertz and Smith is a showdown that is as much classic Western as it is Coen Bros. or Sam Raimi.

A movie that is largely just one extended, elaborate shoot out seems like, at best, a bad idea, and, at worse, a giant stink bomb. Shoot ‘Em Up, however, is a high concept built around something movies do well – create superb visual imagery and captivating visual moments and sequences. It may be low brow, but Shoot ‘Em Up is full of artful fun, cinematic thrills, and even a laugh or two (or three) at the expense of the gun lobby.

6 of 10
B

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

-------------------

Review: "Ratatouille" is a Tasty Pixar Classic (Happy B'day, Brad Bird)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 107 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Ratatouille (2007)
Running time: 110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – G
DIRECTOR: Brad Bird
WRITERS: Brad Bird; from a story by Brad Bird, Jim Capobianco, and Jan Pinkava with additional story material by Emily Cook and Kathy Greenberg
PRODUCER: Brad Lewis
CINEMATOGRAPHERS: Robert Anderson (D.o.P.) and Sharon Calahan (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Darren Holmes
Academy Award winner

ANIMATION/COMEDY/FAMILY

Starring: (voices) Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Peter O’Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Will Arnett, Julius Callahan, James Remar, John Ratzenberger, Teddy Newton, Tony Fucile, Jake Steinfeld, and Brad Bird

In its latest feature-length, computer-animated gem, Pixar presents Ratatouille, the story of a plucky, ambitious rat and a shy garbage boy who forge a friendship out of mutual need. Directed by Oscar-winner Brad Bird (The Incredibles), the film follows the struggle to keep the bonds of family and friendship alive under the most trying circumstances.

Born with a gifted sense of smell that helps him appreciate the ingredients that go into a great dish, Remy (Patton Oswalt) longs to be a great French chef, but he is a rat, and cooking is a highly rodent-phobic profession. Living in the French countryside, Remy’s dreams put him at odds with his father, Django (Brian Dennehy), and his brother, Emile (Peter Sohn). Fate, however, soon places Remy in the sewers beneath Paris, and he finds himself near Gusteau’s, the restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, the late chef Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett), whose motto was “anyone can cook.”

Remy strikes an unlikely bargain with Linguini (Lou Romano), a down-and-out garbage boy at Gusteau’s, and together they become unlikely popular chefs. Remy discovers that by pulling tuffs of Linguini’s hair he can control the young chef as if he were a puppet – Linguini’s clumsy body channels Remy’s creative brain. Their dreams, however, may come to an end thanks to the efforts of Skinner (Ian Holm), the man who now runs Gusteau’s. He has his eyes on Linguini, and he’s planning on denying the boy what is rightfully his.

Ratatouille is everything that makes Pixar animated films so great. The animation is beautifully textured and inventively designed, presenting Paris as a gaslight romance. The characters, sets, art direction, lighting, etc are all outstanding – the hallmark of Pixar. The film is full of physical comedy and acrobatic hijinx with the cast of characters dashing, leaping, chasing, and catapulting. All of it works because of the tightly choreographed comic timing.

Don’t let the witty banter and slapstick comedy fool you. Ratatouille, like the other Pixar films (such as Finding Nemo), touches on emotionally resonant themes that are relatable to the audience, young and old and regardless of socio-economic standing. The film repeatedly hits on the notion of honesty. Don’t steal, and don’t make excuses for stealing. Give credit where credit is due, and look not on others with prejudice so inflexible that you fail to see their gifts. It’s all so simply put and not preachy. Ratatouille is an uproarious comedy, but also a poignant tale about being oneself and loving family and friends, and committing to colleagues. Wrapped up in such a grandly beautiful package, it is thus far on the short list of best films the year 2007 has to offer.

10 of 10

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

NOTES:
2008 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Animated Feature Film of the Year” (Brad Bird); 4 nominations: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (Michael Giacchino), “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Randy Thom and Michael Silvers), “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Randy Thom, Michael Semanick, and Doc Kane), “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (Brad Bird-screenplay/story, Jan Pinkava-story, and Jim Capobianco-story)

2008 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Animated Film” (Brad Bird)

2008 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Animated Film” (Brad Bird)

---------------------

Disney's "Enchanted" Thrives on Magical Amy Adams

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 22 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Enchanted (2007)
Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some scary images and mild innuendo
DIRECTOR: Kevin Lima
WRITER: Bill Kelly
PRODUCERS: Barry Josephson and Barry Sonnenfeld
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Don Burgess
EDITORS: Gregory Perler and Stephen A. Rotter
2008 Academy Award nominee

FANTASY/ANIMATION/COMEDY/ROMANCE with elements of a musical

Starring: Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Susan Sarandon, Timothy Spall, Idina Menzel, Rachel Covey, Tonya Pinkins, and Isaiah Whitlock, Jr.

What would happen if fairy tale characters that were like those in such classic Walt Disney feature animated films as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty entered the gritty, urban real world where there aren’t always happy endings – certainly not of the variety found in many fairy tales? Disney’s recent motion picture, Enchanted, a mixture of 2D animation and live action, answers that question. While Enchanted lacks the magic that makes many Disney animated films so beloved and memorable, it does have one bit of excellent magic – the charming Amy Adams as its star.

Princess-to-be Giselle (Amy Adams) lives a perfect life in the wonderful, musical, fairy tale (animated) kingdom of Andalasia, and that charmed life gets even better when Prince Edward (James Marsden) arrives on his white steed to carry her off, marry her, and make her Princess Giselle. Giselle’s dreams come to an abrupt end when the evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), Edward’s vile stepmother, exiles her to the cold, cruel, real world of New York City, where the naïve girl finds it difficult to get her bearings. Her rescuers arrive in the unlikely form of a cynical and divorced, divorce lawyer, Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey), and his lonely young daughter, Morgan (Rachel Covey). Giselle soon falls in love with Robert, who is already more or less engaged to another woman, so Giselle has to wonder if her storybook view of romance can win a man in the real world.

Meanwhile, Edward has followed Giselle to NYC, so Narissa sends her henchman, Nathaniel (Timothy Spall), to keep Edward from finding and reuniting with Giselle. However, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, so Narissa blows her way into our world determined to put an end to Giselle once and for all.

Anyone familiar with Amy Adams’ from her other movie appearances already knows that she is enchanting. She is magical in Enchanted, and makes this clunky, nicely conceived, but poorly executed concept worth watching. In creating her character, Giselle, Adams gives flesh and substance to the idea of the beloved “Disney Princess,” and personifies the utterly captivating charm and winning personality of a Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. Plus, she’s a good singer whose bubbly exuberance gives Enchanted’s Alan Menken/Stephen Schwartz songs some needed bounce. Adams makes the Oscar-nominated “Happy Working Song” seem like it popped out of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and she turns “That’s How You Know” into a remarkable and memorable love song in its own right.

On the other hand, practically everything else about this film, directed by Kevin Lima (who co-directed Disney’s 1999 animated feature, Tarzan) is mediocre. It would be ironic to say that the dreadful Patrick Dempsey is perfectly cast as the dull and cynical Robert, but maybe the script didn’t mean for the character to be as grey and colorless as the inexplicably popular Dempsey makes him. Sadly, the overrated Dempsey means that the thoroughly talented James Marsden (X-Men, Hairspray) gets less screen time, which is a pity. Marsden makes the most out of a poorly developed character and turns the saccharine ditty, “True Love’s Kiss,” into a fun song.

The great Susan Sarandon is also under-utilized, and her Narissa never reaches the heights of evil that she should, in spite of Sarandon’s best efforts. No, Disney’s Enchanted is a misfire. Perhaps, the film did indeed have a fairy godmother, but the only magic she gave Enchanted was the delightful Amy Adams.

5 of 10
C+

NOTES:
2008 Academy Awards: 3 nominations for three songs by Alan Menken (music) and Stephen Schwartz: “Happy Working Song,” “So Close,” and “That’s How You Know”

2008 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (Amy Adams) and “Best Original Song – Motion Picture” (“That’s How You Know”)

Saturday, April 26, 2008

----------------------------------

Review: Woody Allen Gets Serious in "Cassandra's Dream"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 57 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Cassandra’s Dream (2007)
Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA - PG-13 for thematic elements, some sexual material and brief violence
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Woody Allen
PRODUCERS: Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, and Gareth Wiley
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Vilmos Zsigmond
EDITOR: Alisa Lepselter
COMPOSER: Philip Glass

DRAMA/CRIME

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, Tom Wilkinson, Sally Hawkins, Hayley Atwell, John Benfield, Clare Higgins, Ashley Madekwe, and Phil Davis

Cassandra’s Dream is a 2007 film from writer/director Woody Allen that got its U.S. release in 2008. An American/British/French co-production, this drama tells the story of two British brothers who commit a shocking crime that changes both their lives – one for the better and the other for the worse.

The Blaine brothers, Terry (Colin Farrell) and Ian (Ewan McGregor), have serious financial woes – Terry from gambling and Ian from trying to invest in highly speculative and risky business ventures. When their uncle, Howard (Tom Wilkinson), proposes that the brothers commit a crime for him in exchange for the money they need to make their problems go away, they agree. However, one brother moves on from the crime as if nothing happened, while the other feels the heavy weight of guilt upon his shoulders.

Cassandra’s Dream could be seen as something akin to a Greek tragedy. The film’s simple premise deals with complex characters and the complications that arise from their life-changing decisions and sometimes rash actions. Cassandra’s Dream engaged me, and I found myself thinking about what I might do if I were in the Blaine brothers’ position. Viewers could spend the entire movie thinking about which brother’s side they would take. I found myself sympathetic with Ewan McGregor’s Ian.

Speaking of which, McGregor and Colin Farrell give good performances, with Farrell showing a sensitivity and vulnerability we don’t often see in the characters he plays. However, the focus is on Ian, as the lead character, and his point of view is the window through which the audience sees the story. McGregor, as always, proves to be a capable leading man, who has the ability to convey the internal conflicts that direct a character’s actions and the way he lives.

I’ve been watching Woody Allen’s film for three decades. I’ve noticed that his best work features characters making momentous, even life and death decisions that not only impact their own lives, but also change the lives of other characters – often for the worst. Cassandra’s Dream reveals that Allen has only scratched the surface of his talent for telling crime stories.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, July 02, 2011

----------------------

Review: Tom and Julia Candy-Coat "Charlie Wilson's War"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 23 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong language, nudity/sexual content, and some drug use
DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols
WRITER: Aaron Sorkin (based upon a book, Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History, by George Crile)
PRODUCERS: Gary Goetzman and Tom Hanks
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Stephen Goldblatt (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: John Bloom and Antonia Van Drimmelen
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/COMEDY/HISTORY

Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Brian Markinson, Emily Blunt, Jud Taylor, Hilary Angelo, Cyia Batten, and Ned Beatty

Director Mike Nichols’ historical drama and political comedy, Charlie Wilson’s War is based on a true story. In real life, Charles “Charlie” Wilson was a 12-term Democratic United States Representative from the 2nd congressional district in Texas. Wilson is best known for convincing the U.S. Congress to support a CIA covert operation in Afghanistan. This largest ever CIA covert operation supplied the Afghan mujahideen in their fight against the Soviet Union which began occupying the country when Soviet forces entered the Asian nation in 1978. Charlie Wilson’s War is a biographical film based upon George Crile’s book about Wilson and his activities entitled, Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History.

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), an alcoholic womanizer and Texas congressman, conspires with a rogue CIA operative, Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman, in an Oscar-nominated role), to aid Afghan mujahideen rebels in their fight against the Soviet Red Army. With the help of Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), a conservative political activist and Houston socialite, Wilson persuades Congressional defense committees to fund the training and arming of resistance fighters in Afghanistan to fend off the Soviet Union. The money, training and a team of military experts may help turn the tide for the ill-equipped Afghan freedom-fighters, but Wilson finds himself in a fight to keep his loosely connected allies in line.

Charlie Wilson’s War is certainly a sly and sophisticated movie, but it is ultimately shallow. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin weaves a steady stream of clever and witty dialogue, and his ability to make wonkish political and military jargon light and airy enough to fit in with this film’s humorous tone is impressive.

Mike Nichols builds his sharp-edged political comedy around actors who give… well, sharp performances. Tom Hanks plays Charlie Wilson as a down-home smart aleck who can be a regular guy, a savvy politician, or blindingly smart strategist when the occasion calls for it. Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers Gust Avrakotos as a bludgeon and scalpel, but the treat here are the women. Julia Roberts is so fine as the charming, imperial Joanne Herring – a super woman who can match any man. Amy Adams as Wilson’s ever-ready, girl Friday continues to spread her enchantment on movie audiences, while the other actresses who play Wilson’s staff of super honeys also deliver really good performances.

So, Charlie Wilson's War is entertaining, with its good performances and deft comedic handling of real American history, but its entertainment value is about the extent of it. Charlie Wilson’s War is just a candy-coated topping covering up the ugly side of American intervention in international affairs. Nichols, his creative staff, and his cast certainly give us enough sweet sassiness to enjoy, but sooner or later we have to get down to the bad taste of the truth that lies at the heart of this story. In the real world, covert operations are much messier than this clean, slick political film is.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2008 Academy Awards: 1 nomination for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

2008 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination for “Best Supporting Actor” (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

2008 Golden Globes: 5 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Tom Hanks), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Philip Seymour Hoffman), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Julia Roberts), and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Aaron Sorkin)

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

-------------------

Review: First "Transformers" Movie is Good ... Then Goes Bad

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 105 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Transformers (2007)
Running time: 140 minutes (2 hours, 20 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language
DIRECTOR: Michael Bay
WRITERS: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman; from a story by John Rogers and Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (based on Hasbro’s Transformers Action Figures)
PRODUCERS: Don Murphy, Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and Ian Bryce
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mitchell Amundsen (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Paul Rubell, A.C.E. and Glen Scantlebury
Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI/ACTION with elements of drama, thriller, and war

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Anthony Anderson, Megan Fox, Rachael Taylor, Bernie Mac, with John Turturro and Jon Voight, Kevin Dunn, Michael O’Neill, Julie White, and Amaury Nolasco

Director Michael Bay (Armageddon) unleashes Transformers, the long-awaited live-action, feature film starring the ever-popular toys, Hasbro’s the Transformers.

Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is the clever, jokester trying to navigate his way through the pitfalls of high school and the teenage years. As something of a smart mouth, he may think he’s special, but he doesn’t know the half of it.

For centuries two races of robotic aliens – the Autobots and the Decepticons – have waged a war to find the location of the lost Allspark, the energy that both powers them and creates more of their kind. Now, they’ve come to Earth, and the planet may be their final battleground. U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson) and U.S. Army Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel) lead the military charge against the Decepticons. Meanwhile, Sam and his girlfriend Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) are caught in a tug of war between the human-friendly Autobots and murderous Decepticons, and the clue to the whereabouts of Allspark is in Sam’s unsuspecting hands.

The first 100 minutes of Transformers is a great sci-fi war movie that is as gripping and as fun as Independence Day, which is a testament to Michael Bay’s skill as a director of awe-inspiring visuals. The last 40 minutes is mostly inane, with every few moments of action being a cinematic seizure crammed next to another spasm of CGI pomposity. In fact, in Transformers’ last act, even the supernaturally endearing Shia LaBeouf, who lights up both movies and TV with his half-shy, half smarter-than-you-are screen persona, is utterly lost.

The first half of the film is about the heroes versus impossibly advanced alien invaders, but the good guys won’t give up. After that, the Autobots and Decepticons take over, and the movie turns preposterous. CGI makes the robots and Michael Bay loves CGI, special effects, and all the technical processes of making a movie more than he loves actors and story. Actors and story thrive in the beginning, but computers and technicians take over by the end. I enjoyed the human story – man with his back against the wall against a mysterious invader, and I liked it enough to overlook the special effects ejaculation that is the final third of Transformers.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, July 14, 2007

NOTES:
2008 Academy Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Achievement in Sound” (Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, and Peter J. Devlin), “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins), and “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl, and John Frazier)

2008 Razzie Awards: 1 nomination: “Worst Supporting Actor” (Jon Voight)

-----------------------------

Amazon wants me to inform you that the affiliate link below is a PAID AD, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on the affiliate link below AND buy something(s).

Review: "Superbad" is a Top High School Comedy (Happy B'day, Michael Cera)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 121 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Superbad (2007)
Running time: 114 minutes (1 hour, 54 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive crude and sexual content, strong language, drinking, some drug use, and a fantasy/comic violent image – all involving teens
DIRECTOR: Greg Mottola
WRITERS: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
PRODUCERS: Judd Apatow and Shauna Robertson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Russ T. Alsobrook
EDITOR: William Kerr

COMEDY

Starring: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen, Kevin Corrigan, Joe Lo Truglio, Martha MacIsaac, Emma Stone, Aviva, and Erica Vittina Phillips

Sex, drugs, and booze may not necessarily make you happy, but they can make for an incredibly funny movie… in the right hands.

When he isn’t writing and directing hit films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, Judd Apatow finds time to produce hits like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby or the new film, Superbad. It’s the uproarious cautionary tale/coming-of-age story about two socially inept childhood pals. They are about to graduate from high school and go their own way when one panic-driven night reaffirms their super-close friendship.

Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are two codependent high school seniors. No, Seth and Evan have a ridiculously dependent relationship, but now, they’ll be forced to separate because they’ve both been accepted to different colleges. It seems as if the quiet, sweet, and smart Evan managed to get into Dartmouth, while volatile, foul-mouthed Seth didn’t. Combine this duo with their friend, the arrogant nerd, Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who also got into Dartmouth, and they form an unholy, horny trinity.

It’s three week before they graduate, and they want to hook up with girls before they go off to different colleges. Thanks to a fake I.D. card that Fogell has obtained, Seth promises Jules (Emma Stone), a girl he lusts after, that he can buy some alcohol for a party she is throwing. Evan makes the same promise to Becca (Martha MacIsaac), the girl he’s always secretly loved. However, after a calamitous night of trying to score booze for the party that involves a convenience store hold up, two crazy cops, and another thoroughly adult party, Seth and Evan find overcoming separation anxiety is a bigger obstacle than getting girls and alcohol.

Before Superbad reaches the ten-minute mark, it already has more coarse and crude language than most mainstream comedies or many R-rated comedies for that matter have in their entire runtime. In spite of the raunchy language and racy subject matter, Superbad rings with honesty. Many viewers will find that to some extent it resembles their own high school lives, especially if they were born after the 1950’s. Writers Seth Rogen (who also stars in the film) and Evan Goldberg are smart enough not to divide the school into jocks and losers. In real high school, even the nerds and geeks know the beautiful people, at least in passing. It’s not as if a “loser” can never get to say “Hi” to the popular people and athletes.

In Seth and Evan, Rogen and Goldberg have created genuine high school kids and genuine high school pals. From the moment the two first appear on screen together, there is a moment of recognition in the viewers who are really paying attention. Seth and Evan’s adventures may be over the top and even dangerous, but we can laugh. In their raunchy verbal jousting, we recognize that the two say what they do because they don’t know crap about sex. We’ve all been there. If we’ve never spoken the vileness that they do, we feel the truth in their friendship and the pain in their coming separation as they enter adulthood.

Now, the overall plot and the thin story don’t amount to much, but that isn’t important. The fine cast of comic actors hits the right notes, and that is what’s important. Superbad feels like the real thing – one the very best high school comedies ever. Superbad is supergood.

7 of 10
A-

---------------------

Review: Matthew Vaughn Makes Magic Out of "Stardust"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 130 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Stardust (2007)
Running time: 128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for fantasy violence and some risqué humor
DIRECTOR: Matthew Vaughn
WRITERS: Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn (based upon the novel written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Charles Vess)
PRODUCERS: Matthew Vaughn, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Michael Dreyer, and Neil Gaiman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ben Davis
EDITOR: Jon Harris

FANTASY/ADVENTURE/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller, Ricky Gervais, Jason Flemyng, Rupert Everett, Peter O’Toole, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro and Ian McKellen (voice), Kate Magowan, Melanie Hill, Mark Strong, Henry Cavill, Ben Barnes, and Dexter Fletcher

Matthew Vaughn, the acclaimed director of Layer Cake, adds one more eclectic film to his young filmography, the late Summer 2007 film, Stardust, an adaptation of the novel written by Neil Gaiman (American Gods) and illustrated by Charles Vess. Although Stardust proved to be excellent late summer, counter-programming to the normal empty big budget fare that crowds movie theatres during the warm months, it failed to catch on with American audiences. That’s sad, really.

Young Tristan Thorne (Charlie Cox) lives in the sleepy English village of Wall, which is named for the cobblestone wall that has for eons kept the villagers safe from the supernatural parallel universe that lies just on the other side of the wall – the fantastical realm of Stormhold. One evening, Tristan makes a promise to the prettiest girl in the village, Victoria (Sienna Miller), whose heart he hopes to win, when the two spy a star falling from the sky and landing on the other side of the wall. Tristan pledges to Victoria that he will bring back the star for her hand in marriage.

Crossing the forbidden wall, Tristan makes his way to the star’s crash site only to discover that the star is different from what he expected. It is a spirited young woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes), injured by her tumble from the heavenly firmament. However, before he can get Yvaine back to his home, Tristan must protect her from the chilling witch, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), who wants to murder Yvaine and use the star’s heart to achieve eternal youth and beauty. With the help of an eccentric pirate, Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro), Tristan and Yvaine evade the clutches of Lamia and anyone who wants to harm her, but in his adventure through Stormhold, Tristan may finally discover the secrets of his own past.

There are no elements in Stardust that can be described as “great,” except for Michelle Pfeiffer’s truly inspired performance as Lamia, but when all the components are brought together, they make a film that is an exceptional screen fantasy. Matthew Vaughn brings together all the elements: odd components from the original story and peculiar screenplay adaptation; the eccentric performances, and the knotty, but imaginative production work of his creative crew (cinematography, production design, score, etc.), all of which create a convincing fantasy world. It’s a world that the more audiences buy into the setting; the more they are willing to vicariously experience Tristan and Yvaine’s adventure.

As for the performances, the aforementioned Ms. Pfeiffer really stands out as Lamia. Her performance is one of those charming displays of acting that critics describe as delicious, and if that’s the case, Pfeiffer prepares a feast. She’s wicked with an extra dose of wickedness, but her evil is so luminous and Pfeiffer looks so good that Lamia is like a beautiful poison thing.

The rest of the cast is good. Claire Danes and Charlie Cox don’t exactly burn up the screen as the star-crossed pair, but they work in the context of the film. It’s much the same with Robert De Niro’s performance. De Niro’s Captain Shakespeare works best when paired with Dexter Fletcher’s Skinny Pirate. It’s all a matter of the right ingredients coming together at the right time in the right place. Perhaps, that’s the best way to explain why Stardust works – it’s all about chemistry.

7 of 10
A-

Friday, October 12, 2007

-----------------------

Review: "Sweeney Todd" is Bloody Good" (Happy B'day, Dante Ferretti)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 21 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Running time: 116 minutes (1 hour, 56 minutes)
MPAA – R for graphic bloody violence
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITER: John Logan (based on the musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler; originally stage by Harold Prince)
PRODUCERS: Richard D. Zanuck, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, and John Logan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dariusz Wolski, ASC
EDITOR: Chris Lebenzon, A.C.E.
2008 Academy Award winner

MUSICAL/DRAMA/HORROR

Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jayne Wisener, and Edward Sanders

Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) brings the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim to life in his wonderfully gruesome film, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, based on the Tony Award-winning musical by Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler. Burton keeps most of the songs from the musical and joins his frequent leading man, Johnny Depp, for the sixth time to make fantastically macabre movie magic, one that demands that the audience accept the gory reality of murder if it’s going to be entertained by bloody revenge.

Escaping two decades of false imprisonment in Australia, Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) returns to London and vows to kill the evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) and his nefarious henchman, Beadle Bamford (Timothy Spall), who framed him on trumped-up criminal charge in order to steal his wife. However, Barker has learned that his wife, Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly), poisoned herself, and his now grown daughter, Johanna (Jayne Wisener), is Turpin’s ward.

Adopting the guise of Sweeney Todd, Barker resumes his trade as a barber. He sets up his business in his old Barber Shop above the pie-making premises of Mrs. Nellie Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who falls for the mad barber. After killing a rival who threatens to expose Sweeney’s real identity, Todd devises with Mrs. Lovett an inhuman scheme that will both get rid of the body and save Mrs. Lovett’s ailing meat pie business. Todd begins to murder his customers, cutting their throats, and Mrs. Lovett uses their flesh as the filling for her pies.

Meanwhile, Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower), the young sailor who rescued Sweeney from the sea, has fallen madly in love with Johanna and becomes the target of Turpin’s ire, for Turpin wants to marry his young ward. Mrs. Lovett’s pies soon become the talk of London, and as business booms, she dreams of respectability and a life at the seaside with Sweeney as her husband and her young charge, Toby (Edward Sanders), alongside as her adopted son. Sweeney Todd has only one thing on his mind – cutting Judge Turpin and Beadle Bamford’s throats so severely that their arterial sprays will paint his walls.

While it may be true that Johnny Depp doesn’t have a quality singing voice, he is a great actor, and his frequent collaborator Tim Burton is a great director. In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the two of them make a splendid film musical, as good, and in some ways better, than recent screen musicals Chicago, Dreamgirls, and Moulin Rouge.

Depp, all brooding, smoldering, and quite mad, as Sweeney Todd is mesmerizing on screen. His Todd is a rich character capable of so many moods and so very capable of feigning civility and humanity when there is never a moment in this movie when Todd isn’t at heart, a freaking homicidal maniac. It’s no wonder that Depp earned his third Oscar nomination as a lead actor. His colleagues in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can see how wonderfully fertile this character is, simply because this amazing actor can create a profound character, almost out of thin air.

Burton, often criticized for focusing on whimsical, macabre, and almost pop gothic films instead of “serious” subject matter, seems to distill everything he has done thus far in cinema into this one gruesome, luminous jewel. Burton’s creative and technical collaborators have fashioned some of the most imaginative and decorative costumes and sets. His cinematographers, editors, and lighting crews have made inventive uses of the tools and equipment of their trades and crafts. Burton is not only able to get the best of his technical staff, he is also able to get them to go out of the ordinary when it comes to creating visual splendor. Sweeney Todd is the movie where everything he has done has come together to produce the epitome of his visual style. It’s like an astonishing colorful ode to Italian filmmaker, Mario Bava, an influence on Burton.

That’s not to say that this is the Burton/Depp show alone. Stephen Sondheim’s music is not only divine, but is also excellent at storytelling, character defining, and mood making. Helena Bonham Carter, a thoroughly underrated and underutilized actress, is a surprisingly spry singer with a beautiful voice. She’s a scene stealer here, and one can argue that the film is as much her Mrs. Lovett’s as it is Depp’s murderous Todd. To put it simply, the people who made this movie made a great movie, a deliciously demented great movie.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2008 Academy Awards: 1 winner for “Best Achievement in Art Direction” (Dante Ferretti-art director and Francesca Lo Schiavo-set decorator) and 2 nominations: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Johnny Depp) and “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood)

2008 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood) and “Best Make Up and Hair” (Ivana Primorac)

2008 Golden Globes: 2 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Johnny Depp); 2 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Tim Burton) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Helena Bonham Carter)

Friday, April 25, 2008

-------------------

Review: Too Much Nancy Drew in "Nancy Drew" (Happy B'day, Emma Roberts)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Nancy Drew (2007)
Running time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for mild violence, thematic elements, and brief language
DIRECTOR: Andrew Fleming
WRITERS: Andrew Fleming and Tiffany Paulsen; from a story by Tiffany Paulsen (based upon the characters created by Mildred Wirt Benson writing as Carolyn Keene)
PRODUCER: Jerry Weintraub
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Alexander Gruszynski (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Jeff Freeman

MYSTERY/FAMILY

Starring: Emma Roberts, Josh Flitter, Max Thieriot, Rachael Leigh Cook, Tate Donovan, Marshall Bell, Daniella Monet, Kelly Vitz, Krystle Hernandez, Barry Bostwick, Adam Clark, and Laura Harring (Screen appearances with no screen credit: Bruce Willis, Chris Kattan, and Eddie Jemison)

The 2007 film, Nancy Drew, is a return to the big screen by the famous girl detective.

When her father Carson Drew (Tate Donovan) heads to Los Angeles to take on some high paying temporary legal work, Nancy Drew (Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts’ niece), the resourceful teen detective, is right behind him. She’s leaving her friendly hometown of River Heights for life at Hollywood High School. Nancy’s uncanny intelligence and smarts, as well as her retro manners (including her perfect picnic lunches and penny loafers), earn her some enemies. The less-than-warm reception from reigning fashionistas Inga (Daniella Monet) and Trish (Kelly Vitz) might bother the average new girl, but not Nancy, who has more important things to think about, in particular a brand new mystery.

Nancy promised her worried Dad that she'd quit “sleuthing,” but it isn't long before she gets a lead on one of Hollywood’s greatest unsolved cases of all time: the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of famous actress Dehlia Draycott (Laura Harring). Nancy happened to make sure that the Drews’ temporary L.A. home is the former Draycott mansion. With Inga’s little brother, Corky (Josh Flitter), tagging along, and a surprise appearance from her hometown sleuthing partner, Ned Nickerson (Max Thieriot), Nancy combs the long-reputed haunted mansion to solve the Draycott mystery, but some shadowy and dangerous figures aren’t happy about that.

The modernization of Nancy Drew took a character known mostly for existing in a rural, small town setting and placed her in the fast-paced and more dangerous big city. This is not necessarily a bad thing, nor is the movie bad. The script sets the supposedly unsophisticated Nancy against the Byzantine urban world, but Nancy ends up looking super sophisticated, while L.A./Hollywood seems to be a world full of narcissistic and selfish morons. It’s fun to watch Nancy basically run roughshod over a world determined to keep her in her place.

It’s a shame that the film has so many good supporting characters, but simply drops them here and there, some with no rhyme or reason. This is a Nancy Drew film that is just too Nancy-centric. Still, in spite of its limitations, Nancy Drew is likeable. It lacks the snappy freshness of the Bonita Granville Nancy Drew movie series made in the late 1930s, but this new Nancy Drew is fun on its own.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, March 15, 2008

----------------------

Review: Someone Likes "Next" (Happy B'day, Nicolas Cage)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 141 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Next (2007)
Running time: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violent action and some language
DIRECTOR: Lee Tamahori
WRITERS: Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh, and Paul Bernbaum; from a screen story by Gary Goldman (based upon the short story “The Golden Man” by Philip K. Dick)
PRODUCERS: Nicolas Cage, Norm Golightly, Todd Garner, Arne L. Schmidt, and Graham King
CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Tattersall, BSC
EDITOR: Christian Wagner

ACTION/SCI-FI/THRILLER

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann, Tory Kittles, and Peter Falk

Starring Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas), Oscar-nominee Julianne Moore (Far From Heaven), and not-hard-on-the-eyes Jessica Biel (The Illusionist), Next is a sci-fi/action flick based upon the 1954 story, “The Golden Man” by the late Philip K. Dick. Dick was the visionary science fiction author whose novels and stories have been adapted into such films as Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Paycheck.

Next focuses on Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage), a Las Vegas magician with a secret gift that is both a blessing and a curse to him. Cris has the uncanny ability to know what will be the next thing that happens to him because he can see two minutes into the future. Performing under the stage name, Frank Cadillac, Cris uses his extrasensory talent to make a living off cheap stage tricks and off his gambling winnings at the blackjack table. His latest project is to find and meet, Liz (Jessica Biel), a young woman who seems to have a strange effect on his powers.

Other eyes, however, have been taking notice of Cris’ talent and dexterity with the portal of time. Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore), an FBI counter-terror agent is eager to tap Cris’ brain to help thwart a terrorist group’s planned attack on Los Angeles with a nuclear time bomb. Using all her wiles, Callie, with the help of a fellow agent, Cavanaugh (Tory Kittles), pursues Cris trying to convince him to help her. When the terrorists, who are also aware of his powers, kidnap Liz, Cris may be forced to put his reluctance aside to save Liz and stop nuclear destruction in California.

Directed by Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors, Die Another Day), Next is an absurd popcorn flick, but easy to watch and enjoy. Of course, it wasn’t really worth a trip to the theatre, as it’s more like a big-budget, prestige “original movie” from the Sci-Fi Channel. Still, it’s occasionally clever, and Tamahori is actually quite good at making action-filled set pieces that somehow manage to catch the attention of an unwary action movie junkie.

Nicolas Cage isn’t very good here, but neither is he very bad. He’s only cheesy bad, as is the rest of the cast. In fact, it’s a good thing that Jessica Biel is easy on the eyes, because her acting talent sure ain’t the thing that is getting her roles. Nicolas Cage is a movie star and there’s something about him on the big screen that is attractive. Put him and Biel together, and that’s not a bad thing, even when it’s not really that good a thing – as in Next.

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

---------------------

Review: "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" Dumb and Eloquent

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 144 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)
Running time: 110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for crude sexual content throughout, nudity, language, and drug references
DIRECTOR: Dennis Dugan
WRITERS: Barry Fanaro and Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor; from a treatment by Lew Gallo
PRODUCERS: Michael Bostick, James D. Brubaker, Jack Giarraputo, Adam Sandler, and Tom Shadyac
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dean Semler
EDITOR: Jeff Gourson

COMEDY

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, Dan Aykroyd, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Nicholas Turturro, Nick Swardson, Blake Clark, Mary Pat Gleason, Cole Morgan, Shelby Adamowsky, and Robert Smigel; also Rob Schneider and David Spade

In I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, two guys’ guys pose as gay lovers in order for one of the men to make sure his children get his insurance benefits.

New York City firemen Chuck Levine (Adam Sandler) and Larry Valentine (Kevin James) are the pride of their fire station. Loyal to the core, they’ll do anything for each other, but after Larry saves Chuck’s life, Chuck is about to find out just how much owing his buddy will cost him. When widower Larry realizes that civil service red tape might keep his children, Eric (Cole Morgan) and Tori (Shelby Adamowsky), from getting his life insurance benefits, he knows that one of the ways to insure his children’s financial future is to get married.

Still deeply mourning his late wife, Larry hasn’t dated since her death or really moved on from that tragedy. A newspaper article gives him a crazy idea – domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples, so he asks Chuck to pose as his live-in gay lover. Chuck, however, has a vigorous sex life as a heterosexual and often entertains several women at a time, and wants no part of Larry’s plan. But he owes Larry. After the friends start posing as love-struck newlyweds, nosey city bureaucrat, Clinton Fitzer (Steve Buscemi), starts to investigate the alleged relationship, so the buddies are forced to present a genuine picture of domestic bliss. After the boys hire a lawyer that specializes in their situation, Chuck falls hard for their sexy attorney, Alex McDonough (Jessica Biel), and his lust just might reveal his and Larry’s secret.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is a somewhat badly made, broad comedy, but it sure is funny. The writers seem to have written a flimsy script that simply plays up to the numerous possibilities for comic misunderstanding this concept offers. It’s not lacking in cleverness so much as it is overly abundant in crassness and gross-out humor. That crudeness is actually personified more in Ving Rhames’ Fred G. Duncan, a sort of Mandingo as giant, threatening homo, than it is in Adam Sandler’s Chuck, who is a self-admitted “whore.” In fact, neither Sandler nor Kevin James is anywhere near doing his best work. As for Biel, her body is still a wonderland, and we get to see quite a bit of it.

Although this movie comes across as a rutting goat, where I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry actually beats the low expectations that many had for it is in the film’s not-too-preachy attitude about acceptance of gays and the gay lifestyle. The filmmakers and their stars, Sandler and Kevin, vigorously assault anti-gay sentiment, gay-bashing, and gay slurs wherever they find it. The film also offers generous samples of gay clubs, drag queens, and flashy dancing.

On the other hand, the film does offer several brief scenes that reveal the not-fun-side of being a gay couple. Quite frankly, it’s uncomfortable and embarrassing to watch Chuck and Larry’s friends and colleagues suddenly become quite skittish about their old friends once they discover that the duo is a gay couple. Even worse is to watch the people that Larry knows from his children’s school, sports leagues, and the Boy Scouts suddenly remove his name from participation lists. It’s almost as if he died.

How this mixture of raunch and gross can have positive messages about family and acceptance of others is a mystery. That the filmmakers made a bad movie so funny and entertaining is an even deeper mystery.

6 of 10
B

Friday, December 28, 2007

----------------------------

It Gets Ugly in Fine "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)
Running time: 117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – R for a scene of strong graphic sexuality, nudity, violence, drug use, and language
DIRECTOR: Sidney Lumet
WRITER: Kelly Masterson
PRODUCERS: Michael Cerenzie, William S. Gilmore, Brian Linse, and Paul Parmar
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ron Fortunato
EDITOR: Tom Swartwout

CRIME/DRAMA

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Rosemary Harris, Aleksa Palladino, Amy Ryan, Michael Shannon, and Brian F. O’Byrne

Andrew “Andy” Hanson (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his brother, Henry “Hank” Hanson (Ethan Hawke), plot to rob their parents’ jewelry store, Hanson Jewelers. Hank is also sleeping with Andy’s wife, Gina (Marisa Tomei). Charles Hanson (Albert Finney) and his wife, Nanette (Rosemary Harris), have no idea what their prodigal sons are plotting. When the job goes horribly wrong, the botched robbery triggers off a series of events that sends the brothers, their associates, and their family towards a shattering climax.

Famed director Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon) was 82-years-old when he directed the riveting crime drama, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. [The title comes from the old Irish saying, “May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows you’re dead.”] Yet the five-time Oscar nominee for “Best Director” (and winner of an Honorary Oscar) seems as fresh today as he did half a century ago. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is a mesmerizing, raw open wound that examines the murderous extents to which desperate people will go, the complicated dynamics of parent/child relationships, and sibling rivalries.

Much of Lumet’s reputation as a director is built around his ability to get intense, riveting, and memorable performances out of actors. Everyone in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is at the top of his game, even the smaller parts. The usually-fine Albert Finney surprises with a compelling performance that delivers a gut punch. The underrated Ethan Hawke subtly and slyly delivers Hank Hanson in a way that is as funny as it is heart-wrenching. It’s Hawke’s way of revealing how pathetic Hank is.

Philip Seymour Hoffman made 2007 a banner year for him by giving three superb performances in a diversity of roles (in such films as Charlie Wilson’s War and The Savages). Here, his Andy Hanson is a tightly-wound thief and addict capable of sincere emotion and unexpected emotional outbursts. Hoffman simply presents that in unique ways that enhance the drama rather than detract from it with a showy performance.

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is similar to Fargo, Joel and Ethan Coen’s Oscar-winning 1996 film about a plot to kill family for money. Devil may lack Fargo’s dry wit, black humor, and wacky imagination, but Devil goes deeper into the dark heart of an angry family. Lumet and company really let the ugly be ugly.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Director and Stars Deliver the Goods in "The Savages"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 25 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Savages (2007)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R for some sexuality and language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Tamara Jenkins
PRODUCERS: Anne Carey, Ted Hope, and Erica Westheimer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: W. Mott Hupfel, III
EDITOR: Brian A. Kates
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/COMEDY

Starring: Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman, Gbenga Akinnagbe, David Zayas, and Cara Seymour

Writer/director Tamara Jenkins delivered some of the best screenwriting of 2007 with her drama, The Savages. Her stars, Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, in turn, delivered some of the best acting on screen all year.

Wendy Savage (Linney) and her brother Jon Savage (Hoffman) carry the emotional scars of an abusive childhood. Living in New York City’s East Village, Wendy is a long aspiring playwright who spends her days temping and spends her nights having an affair with her neighbor, Larry (Peter Friedman). Living in upstate Buffalo, New York, Jon is a professor of drama, struggling to finish his book on Bertolt Brecht. They suddenly get an unexpected call from Arizona informing them that their estranged and abusive father, Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco) is suffering from dementia.

Reunited, the siblings face the challenge of caring for their ailing elderly father in spite of their emotional disconnect from him and each other. They move him into a Buffalo nursing home, and Wendy takes up residence with Jon. Living under the same roof again, Wendy and Jon rediscover each other’s eccentricities, personal failings, and the other things that drove them crazy. However, they may finally have to face adulthood and learn what good there really is in being part of a family.

If a director is to keep a family drama like The Savages from becoming a sappy soap opera, she must draw nuance from both her script and her performers, which Tamara Jenkins does in The Savages, earning herself an Oscar nomination for “Best Original Screenplay.” This smartly written and beautifully played film is for people who love films that allow great actors to do the thing they do so well.

Laura Linney, who also earned an Oscar nod for this picture, wows with her deep and sensitive portrayal of woman adrift in her middle age and trying to get her bearings. Linney really sells the notion that Wendy Savage will, through this tragedy, find the things in her past that she can both cherish and also bring into the future to make her life better. Philip Seymour Hoffman, having a career year in 2007, shows off his diversity by also playing a sensitive creative type. Hoffman also enriches Jon by gradually revealing a strong, steady side to a character that seems unable to take the next big step in anything he does.

Tamara Jenkins reveals an uncanny touch in the way she examines how nature and nurture go into making us who we are, and she makes an attractive narrative of this. It is a film that, while compassionate, is unsentimental.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
2008 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Laura Linney) and “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Tamara Jenkins)

2008 Golden Globes: 1 nomination for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (Philip Seymour Hoffman)