November 26, 2008

Winter Movie Roundup

I've been seeing tons of the holiday releases this month- two screenings last week, two this week, and THREE next week- so here's a brief roundup of what I've seen so far:

"Twilight"- To say I'm not in the demographic for this movie would be an understatement. But I actually liked it more than I expected to. Sure, it's ridiculously silly at times, but the adventure parts worked, the actors had good chemistry, and I really liked the Pacific Northwest cinematography, which was surprisingly "Twin Peaks"-like. (In case you didn't guess, I haven't read the books.) Full review in the Trend is here.

"Slumdog Millionaire"- Everybody and their brother loved this one, and I feel bad saying it, but... I don't see what all the fuss was about. Sure, it was entertaining and inspiring, but I just didn't get the brilliant vibe everyone else did, and I say that as someone who generally likes Danny Boyle quite a lot. I just felt like the film is based around its gimmick (the kid knows all the game show answers because he learned them firsthand throughout his miserable third-world life) but never really transcends it.

"Australia"- Ugh, what a mess. It's like Baz Luhrmann couldn't decide whether to make a screwball comedy, a Western, a war movie or a romance, so he decided to throw them all into one film, one that's so, so SO long. Other drawbacks- it's an anti-racism message movie, except it plays the "Magical Negro" card to the hilt and even tosses in an inarticulate Chinese guy as pure comic relief. And on top of that, Nicole Kidman once again shows that Botox to be hazardous to one's acting talent. I wholeheartedly endorse Christopher Orr's review, in which he calls Baz on his bizarre directorial tic of having someone die of tuberculosis in every one of his projects. (Full review to come next week.)

"Milk"- Now that's more like it. The most perfect execution of the biopic formula in years, "Milk" is propelled by Sean Penn's great, great performance- probably his best since "Dead Man Walking"- and Gus Van Sant's tight direction. It's always fascinating, from its description of Milk the man to the political intrigue in San Francisco to its depiction of the birth and rise of the Castro Street scene. Its modern-day political resonance is also pretty hard to ignore, especially after Proposition 8. This one goes near the top of the Best Movies of the Year list, for sure (More to come in North Star next week.)

To see in the next few weeks: "Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Doubt," "Cadillac Records," "Valkyrie," "Frost/Nixon," and many more.

Posted by Stephen Silver at November 26, 2008 02:26 PM
Comments

I'm seeing Revolutionary Road on Friday.

Posted by: A at November 26, 2008 03:20 PM

Are you getting an invite to a screening of Valkyrie? (also: is that the movie with the clip of Hitler in the bunker that all the youtube people have subtitled with funny stuff?)

Posted by: LilB at November 27, 2008 09:05 PM

IMHO you've got the right ansewr!

Posted by: Minerva at June 21, 2011 06:53 PM
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