VoML Guide to the 85th Academy Awards - Part 2

Best Actor



Joaquin Phoenix in The Master





1. Joaquin Phoenix, The Master - In 2010, I'm Still Here released and with it came questions about whether Phoenix had mentally gone off the rails or if he was just acting like it.  Either way, most agreed that he would never work again.  Nobody has ever worked so hard at dynamiting their career.  Then there are the disparaging (and probably true) comments he made about the awards process which many felt would spell the end of his major award nominee days.  Seeing his name among the Oscar nominees this year is the biggest validation of his supreme talent.  Possibly the greatest working actor today, Daniel Day Lewis, went out of his way to mention him in his SAG award speech.  Joaquin Phoenix gave his most prodigious performance yet in The Master and he deserves this award.  This is his 3rd total nomination.
2. Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln - We don't get to see nearly enough of DDL as we should.  Once every couple years he gives an iconic performance, only to drop away and immerse himself in his next role.  Creating a character from scratch is hard but so too is resurrecting a national treasure, and making yourself fit perfectly inside the shadow they cast without straying outside those lines and portraying a caricature.  Should he win this award, it'll be well-deserved.  This is his 5th total nomination, he has 2 wins (Actor for My Left Foot and There Will Be Blood).
3. Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook - Cooper's most meaty role to date gets his first nomination.  Jennifer Lawrence has gotten most of the attention this awards season but Cooper was just as good.  Let's hope that David O. Russell pulled something out of Cooper that we can expect to see more of.  If so, this won't be his last Oscar shot.
4. Denzel Washington, Flight - We've come to expect certain things from Denzel; he's as solid as they get.  Denzel portrayed a heroic airliner pilot with a serious substance abuse problem.  Flight was ok, I seem to have enjoyed it more than many critics but Washington (as well as the opening 20 minutes) is the main reason to see this film.  This is his 6th total nomination, he has 2 wins (Supporting Actor for Glory, Actor for Training Day).
5. Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables - Jackman is one of the most likeable actors in the business and "Les Mis" earns him his first nomination.  The role of Jean Valjean has been played by countless actors in countless renditions of this musical; Jackman succeeded in making the role his own.

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty

1. Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty - The Best Actress race comes down to Chastain and Lawrence.  While both were great, I was a bigger fan of Chastain's quietly determined performance.  Her transition from green CIA rookie to supremely confident vet was palpable.  With a number of film-elevating performances in 2011 and 2012, she deserves the recognition and probably the win.  This is her 2nd total nomination in as many years.
2. Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook - Lawrence carries all the momentum into the Academy Awards after winning the SAG award over Chastain.  She also won the Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award but her and Chastain did not go head to head.  Lawrence's role called for a "bigger" performance which usually wins over subtle, and her chemistry with Cooper made the film as affecting as it was.  Whoever takes the Oscar will have earned it.  This is her 2nd total nomination.
3. Emmanuelle Riva, Amour - Riva's performance was heartbreaking, from the first symptom of declining health through every level of mental and physical degeneration.  It was a dignified performance and a well-earned first Academy nomination for this French actress.  She's the oldest person to be nominated for an acting Oscar.
4. Naomi Watts, The Impossible - In the wake of a catastrophic tsunami while on vacation with her family, Watts' Maria desperately searches for her husband and youngest children while striving to preserve the health of her eldest child.  The helplessness visible in her eyes as the tidal wave approaches as well as the strength she shows for her son's sake really ground the film emotionally.  This is her 2nd total nomination.
5. Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild - For a 6 year old to take on a role like that of Hushpuppy and really hold such an arresting film together is outstanding.  It's an amazing feat for her, the youngest Academy Award nominee ever.

Best Supporting Actor

Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master

1. Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master - This is his 4th total nomination, he has 1 win (Actor for Capote).
2. Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained - This is his 2nd total nomination, he has 1 win (Supporting Actor for Inglourious Basterds).
3. Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook - This is his 7th total nomination, he has 2 wins (Supporting Actor for The Godfather Part II, Actor for Raging Bull)
4. Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln - This is his 4th total nomination, he has 1 win (Supporting Actor for The Fugitive).
5. Alan Arkin, Argo - This is his 4th total nomination, he has 1 win (Supporting Actor for Little Miss Sunshine).

Best Supporting Actress

Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables

1. Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables - This is her 2nd total nomination.
2. Amy Adams, The Master - This is her 4th total nomination.
3. Helen Hunt, The Sessions - This is her 2nd total nomination, she has 1 win (Actress for As Good as It Gets).
4. Sally Field, Lincoln - This is her 3rd total nomination, she has 2 wins (Actress for Norma Rae and Places in the Heart).
5. Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook - This is her 2nd total nomination.

Best Director

1. David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook - This is his 2nd directing nomination.
2. Ang Lee, Life of Pi - This is his 2nd directing nomination, he has 1 win (Brokeback Mountain).
3. Steven Spielberg, Lincoln - This is his 7th directing nomination, he has 2 wins (Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan).  Schindler's List also won Best Picture.
4. Michael Haneke, Amour - This is his 1st nomination.
5. Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild - This is his 1st nomination.

Who I want to win: Zero Dark Thirty, Phoenix, Chastain, Hoffman, Hathaway, Russell.

Who I think will win: Lincoln, Day-Lewis, Lawrence, Waltz, Hathaway, Spielberg.


-PSon



VoML Guide to the 85th Academy Awards - Best Picture

This is the first year that I’ve seen every single film, not only for best picture but for every major acting category, best director, and even the live action and documentary shorts. I'll say it now since I won't get a chance in the Best Picture section, The Master was the best film I saw this year.  In fact, prior to the nominations I said I would never watch the Oscars again if The Master wasn’t nominated, which of course happened, but I talked myself down from the ledge once Joaquin and PSH got their respective nominations. I never would have stopped watching. I love movies, and while I seldom agree with the Academy's decisions, it is great to watch actors be rewarded and occasionally show real emotion.

Best Picture

The Great

The last time Kathryn Bigelow was on stage at the Academy Awards, she walked away with two Oscars.  By not awarding Bigelow a Best Director nod for Zero Dark Thirty, the Academy ensured that history will not repeat itself.  It's a shame because Bigelow was the front-runner in my book.  The team behind The Hurt Locker has once again given us a tense film concerning the war on terrorism.  Combining Bigelow’s antecedent effort and the depiction of the search for and assassination of Osama Bin Laden was enough to make me extremely excited for this film.  The ensemble cast was quietly one of the best of the year.  In addition to my favorite for Best Actress, Jessica Chastain, the film stars the eternally underrated Jason Clarke (Lawless, Chicago Code), Joel Edgerton (Warrior, Animal Kingdom), Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Super 8), Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation, Moneyball), Mark Strong, James Gandolfini, and Mark Duplass. Going into a film convinced that it will be your favorite film of the year often ends in disappointment, however I walked out of the film with those feelings affirmed.

More than almost any other filmmaker, David O. Russell is a director of outstanding performances.  Christian Bale and Melissa Leo won Oscars and Amy Adams earned a nomination for their work on The Fighter (my favorite film of 2011).  Silver Linings Playbook is the first film since 1981’s Red to earn nominations in all four acting categories.  Ostensibly about a man’s struggle to overcome his inner demons and regain the life he once had, Silver Linings Playbook delves into the tragedies and monotonies that cause people to lose their mental capacity and how companionship and support can play a role in getting it back.  This was a film very close to Russell's heart (his son suffers from a mood disorder); every bit of that passion made it to the screen.

This year’s resident little film that could, Beasts of the Southern Wild, is at its foundation, a coming of age story.  Hushpuppy (played by best actress nominee Quvenzhané Wallis) and her father Wink (Dwight Henry) reside in a community called "The Bathtub", located outside the levees of New Orleans.  The combination of a community threatening storm and Wink's declining health threaten to tear Hushpuppy's world apart.  As the community recovers, Hushpuppy learns about survival, comraderie, and the strength of the human spirit.  Fittingly, with little in the way of resources and a cast of inexperienced actors, director Benh Zeitlin superbly composes a virtual mythical hero's journey with his 6 year old protagonist.  Keeping up with the egregious slights, the exceptional score, which greatly contributed to the film's emotional resonance, was not nominated.

The Good

Argo provides Ben Affleck's best shot at an Oscar to date.  He did not receive a Best Director nomination, which usually means the film won't win.  Award season has been kind to Argo which should indicate it has a good shot.  While I liked it, I wasn't as enthralled with this as the three films above.  In fact, I'm a bigger fan of his previous two films, Gone Baby Gone and The Town.

Lincoln was a good film and very well may win this award but will probably be remembered more for being a Daniel Day-Lewis Best Actor vehicle.  The sheer amount of great actors at some point became a huge distraction for me.  A Steven Spielberg film used to be a very exciting event for me, but emotion inducing swells of music mostly just fill me with annoyance.

Quentin Tarantino is a masterful filmmaker.  He cannot help but make entertaining films, occasionally he makes a great film.  Visually, Django Unchained looked great, the acting was superb (everyone without the initials QT), the music was good, and the dialogue was snappy.  Chalk up another in the entertaining category. 

I read Life of Pi early in my college years, I'm not sure I was willing or ready to truly understand it.  I wanted to see the film but had no idea how they would adapt it to the screen.  I must say Ang Lee did as perfect a job as could have been done. 

The OK

I was positively terrified to see Amour.  As you can imagine, I'm not a fan of death and viewing the decay of a person's mental and physical capacities is about the worst subject matter there is.  While this was a good film, I was more invested and frankly more emotionally crushed by the short montage at the beginning of Up than I was of Amour.

For me, Les Misérables, Tom Hooper's follow up to Best Picture winner The King's Speech, didn't pack as big an emotional punch as the great films this year.  What did I like?  Hooper made a great decision by recording the actors actually singing on set, Hathaway and Jackman were outstanding, and Hooper succeeded in giving an epic feel.

More to come...

-PSon

The Other Steve McQueen

The 1981 IRA hunger strike, sex addiction, and American slave trading in the 1800s; these are the subjects of the first three feature length films by British director Steve McQueen. Don’t get him confused with the American born, 60s-70s era actor of the same name and long-time “King of Cool”. To passionate film geeks, McQueen has already done enough to escape any confusion. Both of the director’s first two films, 2008’s Hunger and 2011’s Shame, pulled off the seemingly impossible feat of making stunningly beautiful films out of grimy subject matter. He also wrote both films, as well as Twelve Years a Slave, a film set to release later this year.

The starring role in every McQueen film to date has gone to British actor Michael Fassbender, whose career has exploded in the past few years. In Hunger, Fassbender played Bobby Sands, the leader of the aforementioned IRA hunger strike, who becomes a martyr following his death by starvation. His sometimes fiery but often understated performance elevated the film from a visually entrancing work of art to a truly engrossing character study of a man. The film centers on the final 6 weeks of Sands’ life, and details the inhumane treatment (imposed by both others and self) the imprisoned endured in the pursuit of being classified as political prisoners rather than criminals. The film’s entirety is not devoted to Sands; we view the physical and psychological impact on prison staff as well as family members of those involved. In Shame we see Fassbender as Brandon, a successful advertising executive imprisoned by his own sexuality. Unable to satiate his own sexual desires, Brandon’s descent and immersion into deeper and deeper levels of deviance and perversion make it impossible for him to carry on a relationship without a moral or monetary transaction. Brandon’s sister Sissy (played by Carey Mulligan), unreliable and damaged in her own way, comes back into his life and for better or worse threatens to uproot his lifestyle. McQueen paints Brandon as a very clean individual on the surface. The film looks gorgeous; Brandon’s appearance, apartment, office, and hangouts all give off an air of perfection. Calling him a non-sadist Patrick Bateman isn’t accurate, in the end we see that Brandon is more victim than Lothario.

On the heels of the 2013 movie preview, I realized I forgot to mention Twelve Years a Slave. Being that I may be more excited for this one than any other, I decided it deserved more than a comment under the preview. Thinking further, Steve McQueen is extremely underrated for the incredible work he’s done. At this early point in his film career, he’s made 2 outstanding films. When you take the artful way he’s filmed his other feature length works in combination with the cast and subject matter of Twelve Years a Slave, it’s easy to see why I think McQueen will be acknowledged come award season. Twelve Years a Slave is an adaptation of the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup, a black man born free in New York who was deceived, drugged, kidnapped, and subsequently sold into slavery in Washington D.C., later being transported to Louisiana where he remained a slave for 12 years. The underrated Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Northup. The film also will feature Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano, Michael K. Williams (The Wire’s Omar), Garret Dillahunt, Scoot McNairy, Alfre Woodard, Taran Killam, and Beasts of the Southern Wild’s Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry. I don’t think it is a stretch to say this film promises to be epic in nature, a distinct departure from McQueen’s works to date.

-PSon

2013 Movie Preview

A year ago, I remember reading/listening to 2012 movie preview columns/shows and I was sure that 2012 was going to be the best movie year of my lifetime. After all, on the slate were films from almost every well regarded director working today (Spielberg, Nolan, Whedon, Tarantino, O’Russell, Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, etc…) as well as films from up and coming directors who made waves with their first or most recent offerings (Hooper, Bigelow, Dominik, Apatow, Affleck, Rian Johnson, etc…). Whether or not these films hit or missed depends on the person. I tend to think most of those directors made very good films and this was a great year for movies. Here are a few reasons why I think 2013 could be even better:

Before Midnight once again reunites Before Sunrise and Before Sunset stars Ethan Hawke (Jesse) and Julie Delpy (Celine), this time in Greece. I don't want to say too much about the first two installments but taken as one piece of art, Richard Linklater's trilogy is as ambitous as they get. While there's not a lot to spoil, it is nice to experience the beginnings and endings on their own terms. The films are basically a chronicle of the serendipitous meeting between an American man and a French woman and their subsequent relationship. Each film takes place in less than a 24 hour period where these two humans do what humans do, interact. Yes, this is a very simple idea. In the wrong hands, there would have been no need for sequels but Linklater perfectly captures the birth of a relationship and the beautiful progression and fluidity of conversation. It doesn't hurt that Hawke and Delpy agreed to do each of these films over the course of two decades. These films couldn't have flourished without their chemistry and wouldn't have worked with anybody else picking up the parts.

While 2012 was the year that seemingly resurrected McConaughey from his rom-com grave, I predict 2013 will be the year where he earns his first major acting nomination. In 2012 he gave us silver-tongued male revue owner Dallas in Magic Mike, a cop doubling as a sociopathic hitman for hire in Killer Joe, and Danny Buck, the motivated district attorney looking to take down Jack Black’s title character in Bernie. Originally I intended to write about Mud, Jeff Nichols’ follow up to Take Shelter which was one of my favorite films from 2011. McConaughey plays an escaped prisoner who evades bounty hunters with the help of two teenage boys. The film also stars Reese Witherspoon, Sam Shepard, and Michael Shannon. IMDB lists 3 other 2013 films starring McConaughey in various stages from pre-production to post-production that look like great films on paper. Martin Scorsese’s next project The Wolf of Wall Street, Dallas Buyers Club (the film where Matthew notoriously lost 30 pounds to play an AIDS patient), and Thunder Run which depicts the April 2003 assault on Baghdad.

Oscar Isaac is my new favorite actor… or one of them. About a month ago I watched 10 Years, which chronicles a group of former classmates at their 10 year reunion. Isaac plays Reeves, a singer-songwriter with a recent hit. A scene late in the movie requires him to karaoke his own song. Instead of karaoke, Reeves grabs a guitar from the bartender and puts on an actually moving live performance. During the run-up to this scene when it became apparent classmates would make him sing, I furiously googled his name to see if he actually had any singing experience. Turns out Isaac played lead guitar and sang vocals for a band prior to graduating from Juilliard School. Yes, THE Juilliard School. One thing 10 Years convinced me of is that I want to see Oscar Isaac and a guitar together again. Then a link to the trailer for Inside Llewyn Davis was sent to me:

Did I forget to mention that this is a Coen Brothers film? Oh yeah, it also reunites Isaac with Drive costar Carey Mulligan. Well now you know.

Shane Carruth wrote, directed, and stars in this film, the first since his 2004 debut, Primer. Primer is simply a masterpiece. It's the quintessential film about time travel, one that you must watch more than once to even begin to grasp what you just saw. The real beauty is that Carruth is a genius, but he respects his audience enough not to explain more than what needs to be explained. It's a very tight script that benefits greatly from a lack of exposition. Upstream Color is Carruth's follow up.  Here's the IMDB synopsis, "A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives." God yes.

My love for Joseph Gordon-Levitt began with his role in Rian Johnson's high school, murder mystery noir, Brick. Well, you might begin to trace it back to The 10 Things I Hate About You, but after Brick there was no denying that this kid had talent. He's been silently proving it ever since. I would go as far as to call him this generation's Tom Hanks. Don Jon's Addiction marks the beginning of his directorial career. Levitt also stars in this film alongside the likes of Julianne Moore, Scarlett Johansson, and Brie Larson. JGL even managed to dig up Tony Danza. Levitt plays the title character, a lothario with a debilitating porn addiction tries to gain more meaning from his life while navigating two relationships with very different people.  Steve McQueen's Shame delved into similar territory, perhaps there's light at the end of this tunnel.

Alexandre Moors directs his first feature length film in Blue Caprice, a depiction of the Beltway sniper killings from 2002. The principles, John Mohammad and Lee Boyd Malvo are played by Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond. Reviews from Sundance were very positive, here's a piece from the great Sundance column written yesterday by Grantland's Wesley Morris:

A movie about two black men on a killing spree could go all kinds of wrong. But this one operates with a moral chill that doesn't identify with these two or even gratuitously humanize them. The movie is actually timid about politics. I don't recall hearing Muhammad's last name, and there's no mention of his radicalist embrace and perversion of Islam. Instead, the film creates one of the most chillingly becalmed portraits of insanity I've seen. Washington doesn't rant or rave, but his keel is usually uncomfortably uneven, like a man who doesn't know that his fly is always down. Richmond might say a dozen words the entire movie, but the way he reroutes his steeliness from self-protective innocence to evil is a kind of silent-movie master class.

This is Moors's first feature, and he works with rich, terrifying, documentary-like meticulousness. A lot of the shots are saturated with color and hauntingly framed. Like Spike Lee's Summer of Sam and David Fincher's Zodiac, it finds the sort of dread that knots your stomach, often, mercifully, by showing you very little of the murders but enough to fear what you know is coming. The film's iconic images involve the car itself, a 12-year-old cobalt Chevy Caprice that Muhammad and Malvo rigged for their spree — the way it drifts along I-95, its taillights glowing a satanic red; the insinuating way it sits in parking lots and near gas stations, almost breathing, almost alive; the manner in which we see Malvo slither from the backseat into the dark trunk to aim his military rifle through the small hole they've bored. You see him do this in detail only once. But you watch him mount the gun and hear him coordinate with Muhammad when to shoot, and your blood goes cold knowing they performed this ritual at least 13 times. I saw this movie close to midnight two days ago and I've been uneasy ever since.

Other Films

The World's End - The new Edgar Wright film with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.  Also, Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike, and the always solid Paddy Considine (see Dead Man's Shoes).
OldBoy - Spike Lee remakes Chan-wook Park's brutal revenge thriller.  While skeptical, I'm intrigued to see what Lee can possibly add to this masterpiece.  Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, and Sharlto Copley.
A Good Day to Die Hard - Die Hard is a classic, I'll see any John McClane vehicle no matter how much further each subsequent installment strays from reality.
Kick-Ass 2 - The first was a gritty take on superhero movies, I'm interested to see what the second one can add.  Also, Jim Carrey for Nic Cage seems like a fair trade.
Evil Dead - Another remake, just watch the red band trailer.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For - Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez direct.  Rourke, Owen, Alba, Willis, Dawson, and King return. 
Elysium - Neill Blomkamp's follow up to 2009's District 9, the film that came out of nowhere and put Blomkamp and Sharlto Copley on the map.  Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, and Copley costar.
Star Trek Into Darkness - The long teaser came out a few months ago but so far I've only been able to see it in theaters.  One thing the film is sure to be is visually stunning.  Check out the official trailer.
Man of Steel - Zack Snyder does Superman with Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane...
Only God Forgives - Drive star and director, Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Winding Refn reunite for a film set in Thailand.
This is the End - Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen direct this apocalyptic comedy.  Just look at the cast and watch the trailer.
Pacific Rim - Giant robots protect Earth from aliens.  Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman, Charlie Day, and Idris Elba (The Wire's Stringer Bell) star.
Captain Phillips - Paul Greengrass directs Tom Hanks in this film about the 2009 hijacking of a US cargo ship by Somali pirates.
The Place Beyond the Pines - Ryan Gosling as a motorcycle stunt driver who also engages in the occasional criminal activity.  This sounds familiar, I'm in.
Ain't Them Bodies Saints - Editor David Lowery's feature length debut starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck.  Affleck as a prisoner who escapes and sets out on a journey to reunite with his wife.
World War Z - The book, a must read for fans of zombies and the apocalypse.  The initial trailer was wildly disappointing (fast zombies?????) but I'll likely still be there on opening night to see this Brad Pitt vehicle.
To the Wonder - Terrence Malick, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem...  Enough said.
After Earth - It has become increasingly hard to stay a M. Night Shayamalan apologist, which I am.  I'm holding out hope that his steady decline is more temporary insanity than full on descent into madness.  Centuries after Earth was abandoned, a father and son (Will and Jaden Smith) crash-land on Earth, the son must head out on his own to save himself and his dying father.
Trance - The new Danny Boyle film starring Rosario Dawson, James McAvoy, and Vincent Cassel.
Runner, Runner - Ben Affleck, JT, Gemma Arterton, and Anthony Mackie star in this gambling thriller.

Sequels in which my interest level ranges from slightly more than apathetic towards to fairly excited about: Iron Man, Anchorman, The Hobbit, The Hunger Games, The Hangover, Fast and Furious, 300, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Also, Jurassic Park and Top Gun in IMAX 3D.

-PSon

The Boys are Back

After almost 3 years on the shelf, the sports/movie/man-love blog that you didn't know was gone is back.  That's right, finally.  Frankly, we just have too much to say regarding things nobody cares about and we need these things forever displayed on the internet lest we forget what morons we were, are, and will forever be.  God Bless.

-PSon

Childhood dream leads to QB vert record for Tebow

-PSon

VoML Postfilm Mini-Report: Rudo y Cursi (2008)

TOP BILLED ACTORS
Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, Guillermo Francella, Dolores Heredia, Adriana Paz, Jessica Mas, Salvador Zerboni, Tania Esmeralda Aguilar

DIRECTOR
Carlos Cuaron

3 MAJOR THEMES

1. Sibling Rivalry
   
2. Living the Dream
   
3. More Money, More Problems
   

BREAKDOWN
While Rudo y Cursi was directed by Carlos Cuaron, whose brother Alfonso helmed the great Y Tu Mama Tambien which also starred Bernal and Luna, the two movies are markedly different. Rivalry is a theme throughout both but in this film the two play brothers, Tato and Beto, who work on a banana farm and dream of success in their respective passions, singing and gambling. The two are also very adept soccer players and are discovered by a scout while playing a local league game. Their skill as soccer players and instant celebrity provides them an opportunity to pursue their true passion, but may also come with harsh realities for both.

The film was enjoyable, mostly because of the chemistry and overall likeability of the two leads. It's a little funny to think that people with the physical builds of Luna and Bernal could succeed as world class athletes but the film at first does a good job of showing reaction shots of fans rather than the actual plays the two make. When action scenes are finally shown, they are more comical than anything (see Tato's celebration dance) but I suspect they were meant to be that way. The ending was tense and kept me guessing the entire time. I would say that this is a must see for fans of the two leads but also enjoyable for fans of film in general.

I WILL GIVE…-PSon

VoML Movie Report: Gomorrah (2008)

TOP BILLED ACTORS
Toni Servillo, Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale, Salvatore Cantalupo, Gigio Morra, Salvatore Abruzzese, Marco Macor, Ciro Petrone, Carmine Paternoster

DIRECTOR
Matteo Garrone

5 MAJOR THEMES

1. Ascension
2. Fear
3. Obedience
4. Sacrifice
5. War
   
   

3 POSITIVES

• This film follows 5 unconnected (or mildly connected) characters or groups of characters and displays how their lives are touched and changed by the Camorra, a violent and highly entrepreneurial crime syndicate prevalent in the Campania region of Italy. By doing this, the filmmaker effectively illustrates how tight a grip the Camorra holds on vastly different members of society. Every one of the 5 characters (or groups) makes a sacrifice. Compliance means somebody else may lose their life, non-compliance means risking their own life or that of somebody they love.
  
• The camera work was excellent; the gritty subject material called for gritty shots. The framing is brilliant because at the director wants to give us enough information to sustain us but still keep us guessing as to the danger lurking outside the frame. Sometimes we see a character’s facial expression in the instant they see their fate, while other times we are given enough to know their fate and we wait for impending doom.
• The characters of Marco, Ciro (both pictured above), and Toto (part of a different story line) underscored the hard reality that children growing up in this atmosphere are going to idolize the people around them. The people they look up to are probably gangsters which means that they will take the first opportunity they see to prove themselves a worthy soldier. There are a few scenes where young characters realize the extent of the consequences to playing the game. Decisions are made and orders are executed without fail; staying under the radar might be the only way to stay alive.

3 NEGATIVES

• The film begins slowly, taking its time to introduce characters (and there are a lot). The first scene sets a tone that the viewer is probably going to be in for a lot of violence and backstabbing, then the following 20 minutes or so are pretty much just character building scenes. It can be confusing, but I love this part because it allows the filmmaker to give us pieces of information that will eventually be fit together in one way or another. It makes it not just about the story but also how the director weaves the tale for maximum effect.
• This movie is extremely hard hitting so if you have a problem with violence in general, you may not like this one. While brutal, the story is interesting and it needed to be told the way it was told.
• This is not a movie you can put on while doing something else (not sure why you would do that anyway). Because it has multiple plotlines and employs subtitles, it requires every ounce of attention. I found it hard to tell who was on whose side for much of the film which works well given the horizontal structure the Camorra is notorious for. Within one city, multiple bands compete for turf and even childhood friends that grew up in the same building could end up on different sides of a turf war.

BEST PERFORMANCE
There were a lot of great performances but Gianfelice Imparato was excellent as the fearful money man, Don Ciro.

MOST UNDERRATED PERFORMANCE
Salvatore Cantalupo as Pasquale the dress maker.

FAVORITE SCENE
Don Ciro leaves the scene of a multiple homicide. We don't see the murders (save the one committed in front of him) but we see an close aerial shot of him walking through the massacre and over bodies as he flees the area.

HEY, IT'S THAT GUY...
I did not recognize any of the actors in this film.

REMINDED ME OF...
The Departed, The Godfather

SEE ALSO...
City of God, Layer Cake

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? Yes

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? Yes

I WILL GIVE…

-PSon

VoML Postfilm Report: Tyson (2008)

DIRECTOR
James Toback (When Will I Be Loved)

As the opening credits to Tyson roll in, we are shown clips from Tyson's first title fight against Trevor Berbick. In the second round, Tyson stalks Berbick before unleashing a volley of power shots to the bigger man's face. Berbick goes down once but is able to get up. The motivated Tyson once again catches Berbick and drops him with a flurry of haymakers. Berbick attempts to get up 3 times but falls over, his body unable to understand what his brain wants him to do. At 20 years old, Mike Tyson is the heavyweight champion of the world. So begins the legend of Mike Tyson.

Most people know Tyson's story, a kid from New York falls in with the wrong crowd, then the right crowd, then becomes champ, then loses to an underdog, then goes to jail, then gets his crown back, then loses it again and never gains it back. At the apex of his career, he was arguably the most dominant fighter who every lived. Even as his career wound down, he was still the most intimidating. In fact, one of the most telling shots in the film is a silent Tyson, staring directly into the camera. His eyes alone are framed by the screen, staring like a caged lion. Toback's best work comes in a scene just before a Tyson fight. Mike discusses the anatomy of the prefight staredown. Mike stares unflinching while the other fighter looks at Mike, then quickly glances towards the floor, then looks back up and stares back at Mike. In that split second where the opposing fighter looked down, Mike saw the vulnerability. Toback layers audio of Tyson saying, "He'll fight hard for the first two or three rounds, but I know I already broke his spirit."

Tyson is mostly a string of interviews with Tyson himself, interwoven with clips from his career and older interviews with others. Tyson is pretty candid about his past, showing the good and the bad. There's no doubt that the things that made Mike unbeatable in the ring also made him a hard person to live with and a hard person to be around at times. His vulnerability is put on display within the first half hour as Mike talks about his mentor/manager/trainer Cus D'Amato, the man who got Tyson off the streets for good and probably saved his life. Utterly ferocious, bordering on the verge of a complete meltdown at times, Mike took the ring with an unbridled intensity that may never be seen again.

A ball of contradiction at times, Mike will mention how fearful his walk towards the ring was, afraid to lose, afraid to be embarrassed, while in the next breath he speaks of absolute confidence in himself. Of the rape allegations that landed him in jail, Tyson calls Desiree Washington a "retched swine of a woman" and remarks that he "may have taken advantage of a woman before, but I have never taken advantage of her" without thinking twice about what he said. Fitting that his career went much the same way. While Tyson exploded onto the boxing scene, he went out with barely a wimper. The traits that made him so dominant for years had dimished. Tyson's last round ended with journeyman boxer Kevin McBride leaning on him until he simply sat down at the edge of the ring until the bell rang. When he was asked to return to the ring, Tyson remained in his corner. In the postfight interview Tyson expressed that he no longer had a desire to fight anymore and that he would no longer disrespect the sport by fighting simply for a payday. The film takes an interesting journey not only through the career, but most importantly through the mind of one of the most polarizing athletic figures this world will ever see.

FAVORITE SCENE
Tyson attempts to hold back tears as he discusses his relationship with the late Cus D'Amato.

SEE ALSO...
Man on Wire, ESPN's terrific documentary series 30 for 30

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? No

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? Yes

I WILL GIVE A…-PSon

VoML Postfilm Report: Sleep Dealer (2008)

TOP BILLED ACTORS
Leonor Varela, Jacob Vargas, Luis Fernando Pena

DIRECTOR
Alex Rivera

5 MAJOR THEMES

1. Growth
2. Guilt
3. Repentance
4. Alternate Reality
5. Honor
   

3 POSITIVES

• The idea was great and extremely interesting. Memo (Luis Fernando Pena) lives in a future world where martial law prevails and the government holds a shoot first mentality, more worried with monopolizing, protecting and distributing their resources than they are with the well-being of their citizens. Essentially jobs all over the world have been outsourced to “sleep dealers”, workers in Tijuana (and presumably other localities) warehouses who are connected to machines via nodes implanted on their bodies. The workers clock in for their shifts and work at construction sites in San Diego, drive a cab in London, butcher animals in a Midwestern meat factory, etc… The best of the best, such as Jacob Vargas’ character Rudy, pilot drones who ferret out and destroy suspected insurgents in front of a national audience via live feeds.
  
• At the beginning of the film, Memo’s father asks, “Is our future a thing of the past?” Memo chuckles but it was a poignant question. Memo never saw the world before technological advances led to invasion of privacy, a loss of civil liberties, and the privatization of natural resources, even those necessary for survival. The family once had a future but now that future was gone, life became about surviving.
• Luis Fernando Pena was very good as the conflicted Memo. His obsession with technology and life in the outside world could destroy his family and slowly lead to his demise. Can he find a way to take back their future?

3 NEGATIVES

• It seemed that some of the technology in the film was unbelievably advanced while other things were exactly the same as they are now. Besides the unmanned drones, regular automobiles seemed to be the only form of transportation and clothing didn’t appear to be any different than it currently is. Meanwhile, Memo was able to pass cash through a machine and have it appear at his family’s home instantaneously and Luz (Leonor Varela) worked as a writer who transcribed other people’s memories into a keyboard-less computer and was able to have those memories she didn’t experience appear vividly on the computer.
• This film gives a pretty bleak outlook. Without giving too much away, the ending seemed like a short term fix to one town’s problem when the entire world appeared to be on a path towards destruction.
• This is more selfish than anything but I felt like the story was relatively small compared to the overall idea they came up with. Where films like The Matrix went HUGE, this movie went the other direction. It was probably a situation where the budget dictated how far they could go with the film but it would have been great to see what somebody like Danny Boyle could have done with this script and a boatload of money.

BEST PERFORMANCE
Luis Fernando Pena as Memo.

MOST UNDERRATED PERFORMANCE
Loved Jacob Vargas as Manolo in the film Traffic and in Sleep Dealer, he put on a winning performance as the reluctant agent to a force much greater than him.

FAVORITE SCENE
Memo first uses his nodes to work a construction job in San Diego.

HEY, IT'S THAT GUY...
Leonor Varela, Nyssa from Blade II. Jacob Vargas, Manolo from Traffic.

REMINDED ME OF...
The Lives of Others, The Matrix

SEE ALSO...
Intacto, Amores Perros

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? Maybe

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? Maybe

I WILL GIVE…
-PSon

VoML Postfilm Report: Up (2009)

TOP BILLED ACTORS (VOICES)
Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft

DIRECTORS
Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

5 MAJOR THEMES

1. Loss
2. Priorities
3. Perseverance
4. Growth
5. Aging
   

3 POSITIVES

• I'm always a little skeptical before watching animated films. Much like Wall-E, I heard a lot of good things about this film before viewing and it did not disappoint. There were enough adult themes that kept me entertained throughout.
  
• Sentimentality played a huge role in this film. I have been known to be a sucker to sentiment but I'm also very wary of forced sentiment. It felt real to me in this film; I would be lying if I said I didn't get a little teary-eyed in the first 20 minutes of this film.
  
• The dogs were excellent. The talking collar idea could have easily failed but it definitely added character to each dog. It was apparent that a lot of time was put into making each dog its own "person" yet they were all ultimately driven by the same things... SQUIRREL.
  

A NEGATIVE

• I really don't have any big gripes with the film. Just the general unbelievability of the premise. Animation filmmakers are never subject to the constraints of real life so they don't really have to worry about physics or the consequences of one's actions.
  

BEST PERFORMANCE
Ed Asner as Carl Fredricksen

MOST UNDERRATED PERFORMANCE
Dug the dog. Gotta love his anxious personality.

FAVORITE SCENE
The Ellie/Carl montage.

HEY, IT'S THAT GUY...
John Ratzenberger, Cliff from Cheers. Delroy Lindo, a veteran of many films including Get Shorty.

REMINDED ME OF...
About Schmidt, Love Story

SEE ALSO...
Wall-E

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? Maybe

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? Maybe

I WILL GIVE A…

-PSon

VoML Postfilm Report: Fighting (2009)

TOP BILLED ACTORS
Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard, Zulay Henao, Luis Guzman, Brian J. White, Roger Guenveur Smith, Anthony DeSando, Peter Anthony Tambakis, Michael Rivera, Altagracia Guzman

DIRECTOR
Dito Montiel

3 POSITIVES

• The title is brilliant because let’s be honest, nothing says “this movie is about fighting” like Fighting. Think about it, how happy would you have been if the new GI Joe movie would have been called, GI Joe: Give us your money because we’re going to blow shit up, and we hired these name actors to mail it in.
  
• I’ll have to admit, I have a soft spot for Channing Tatum. There’s just something about those expressionless eyes. I loved him in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints but after GI Joe I was a little down on him. Could he be that awful? No, he can’t be THAT awful. Take him for what he’s worth, he’s a charismatic and charming guy when he wants to be. I found him to be very likeable in this film and didn’t really get the sense that he wanted to be somewhere else like I did when watching the previously named film.
• The fighting scenes were actually pretty well done. Although frenetic and a bit dizzying at times, they looked like real fights. In real fights, guys don’t throw telegraphed round-houses and haymakers, sometimes guys get knocked out by water fountains.

3 NEGATIVES

• I spent the times in between fight scenes waiting for the next fight scene. The film needed a story line so they threw one together straight off the action movie checklist. Southern boy trying to make it in the big city, check. Cryptic allusions to a troubled past, check. A love interest, complete with awkward, hastily thrown together courtship scenes, check.
• The most glaring plot point weakness comes right at the beginning. Tatum’s character Shawn basically takes flea market level goods (Harry Potter vs the Hippopotamus) and peddles them to passersby on the street. Harvey's (Terrence Howard) band of merry thieves are set up in the same area and one of his shifty-eyed minions mills around Shawn’s goods. Well one thing leads to another and Shawn ends up in a fight with said minion. He gets tossed around a little, throws a few haymakers, and knocks the guy down. At that point he flees the scene. Somehow, that display leads Harvey to believe that Shawn can fight and he should be featured in underground bouts against the dregs of New York society. In some weird serendipitous moment, he runs into Harvey later the same night, Harvey asks him if he likes to fight and he agrees to fight for money. Well I don’t think I’m ruining the movie by saying that he wins a few fights. His fights are won in the weirdest ways possible; think of him as a mix between Rocky, Louden Swain from Vision Quest, and Tom Cruise’s character in Far and Away. He gets punched in the face a lot, falls on the ground a lot, but he’s got grit and he just wants it more than the other guy. What I’m getting at is, after watching his first frenzied brawl, Harvey was an idiot to think that he could beat good fighters. After watching his subsequent fights, he’s even a bigger idiot for thinking he could beat better fighters. I guess this all stems from my problems with the Rocky series. Yes, I love Rocky. But Rocky is one of the worst fighters I’ve ever seen. Shawn wasn’t quite as overmatched, but if I was a “two-bit hustler” just scraping by, I wouldn’t put my savings up, for or against a fighter like him.
• The ending was predictable at first, then way too unbelievable. You’ll know what I’m talking about if you see it. It was like the director said, let’s take everything we know about the characters and completely throw it out the window because this film needs the happiest ending possible.

BEST PERFORMANCE
Channing Tatum’s pecks, abs, and squared jaw. Without all of those, this film and his career would not be possible.

MOST UNDERRATED PERFORMANCE
I actually kind of liked Terrence Howard's character in this film. He has the hustler thing down.

HEY, IT'S THAT GUY...
Anthony DeSando who played Frank the dog walker from A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. Brian J. White, Sylvester from Stomp the Yard. Altagracia Guzman, grandma from Raising Victor Vargas.

REMINDED ME OF...
Never Back Down, Rocky

SEE THIS INSTEAD...
Dito Montiel's first film, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, is a must see. Also look for David Mamet's Redbelt.

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? No

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? Maybe

I WILL GIVE…
-PSon

VoML Postfilm Report: The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

TOP BILLED ACTORS
Sasha Grey, Chris Santos

DIRECTOR
Steven Soderbergh

3 POSITIVES

• I really liked how the film was shot. Soderbergh is particular about the lenses he uses to give you a certain feeling while watching a scene. There isn’t really a single story line so the fact that the film is shown out of sequence lends well to the documentary feel.
  
• The film really feels like a documentary even though the people in the film are acting. I think The Girlfriend Experience succeeds as a mockumentary where Full Frontal didn’t (even though I’m a big fan of Full Frontal) because it lacks big name actors. The relationship between Sasha and her boyfriend is very interesting and part of the movie is devoted to Chris and his struggles with having a girlfriend in her line of work. He is remarkably supportive when she talks about “work problems”; he of course has his own in a similar yet completely different job, as a personal trainer. It's interesting to see those experiences juxtaposed. How can a relationship like this work when she is paid to feign intimacy with other men, then she has to come home and show real intimacy in a committed relationship?
• The subject matter was one that hasn’t really been delved into yet. The “girlfriend experience” is the reason a person would seek out an escort as opposed to a prostitute. It isn’t all about sex, sometimes the “client” is looking for somebody to talk to and have a feeling of companionship with. The film shows Grey’s struggles with increasing her client base as well as maintaining it. How does a “sophisticated escort” get her name out there and how can she trust the men she has hired to market her when they aren’t always after monetary compensation?

3 NEGATIVES

• While the subject matter is interesting, I can’t really say the same about the subject. The only insight we get into why she started doing what she does is that she didn’t want to rely on her parents for support.
• Even though it goes well with the film, the scenes where she negotiates with men who seem a little too willing to help her further her business feel so dirty. Everything about her home life and even a lot of her scenes relating to clients are pretty clean and tidy so it’s tough watching her deal with the leaches and predatorial figures. It’s easy to say, hire an agent or a manager but even that is a tricky proposition when faced with a fluctuating income and a budget that includes expensive clothes and accessories.
• If you're looking for a film with a solid story line, you shouldn't rent this. Stuff happens but nothing is really resolved in the end. You're left with a glimpse of an interesting life and an interesting set of circumstances but really nothing more.
  

BEST PERFORMANCE
It’s tough to give this to any of the actors as it’s really just Grey and Santos surrounded by bit players. I’m going to give this one to Soderbergh for the masterful weaving of conversations and silent everyday moments into an interesting film.

MOST UNDERRATED PERFORMANCE
I would have to say Sasha Grey. Although I did not find her character (or perhaps her) to be particularly interesting, I thought she played the part she was given pretty well.

HEY, IT'S THAT GUY...
There were no recognizable actors although some people may recognize Sasha Grey from previous... [cough] ahem… films.

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? No

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? Maybe

I WILL GIVE…
-PSon

VoML Postfilm Report: Away We Go (2009)

TOP BILLED ACTORS
John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Catherine O’Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, Carmen Ejogo, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Josh Hamilton, Paul Schneider, Chris Messina, Melanie Lynskey

DIRECTOR
Sam Mendes

3 POSITIVES

• At times, Krasinski (Burt) was actually quite charming and despite my annoyance with Rudolph (Verona) from her SNL days, I thought she was pretty good in this film. The two actors had good chemistry.
  
• The diner scene (in Montreal) is actually pretty great. Chris Messina pretty much stole every scene he was in.
• The entire Madison sequence was so awful it was actually funny. Is it a bad thing when the funniest scenes were when a toddler admits to trying to smother his baby sister and when Burt fake yells at Verona, calling her a “cunt-sucker”?

3 NEGATIVES

• Didn’t actually see any of the cities. In fact, I would be surprised if any of the scenes were shot in the cities they claimed to be in. I understand that their reasons for going to each city was because they knew people in them but it seemed like 100% of their reasoning for liking one city over another was whether they had good experiences with the people they were seeing. It just doesn’t seem consistent with their lifestyles (doesn't seem like they have any friends where they currently live).
• I hated Juno. Why is that pertinent? Because I hated the writing in this film for some of the same reasons. There were very few actual characters, only caricatures. I felt like I was constantly being punched in the face with character traits. If I was from Madison, I would be pissed after watching this film.
• Small stuff: Burt’s blatant breast fetish was a little creepy. Paul Schneider was criminally misused in this film. Go rent All the Real Girls or The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

BEST PERFORMANCE
Chris Messina as Tom Garnett

MOST UNDERRATED PERFORMANCE
Chris Messina as Tom Garnett

HEY, IT'S THAT GUY...
Hot pocket guy, Jim Gaffigan. Allison Janney, Juno’s stepmom and the romance novel writing counselor from 10 Things I Hate About You.

REMINDED ME OF...
Juno

WOULD I PURCHASE IT? No

WOULD I WATCH IT IF I CAME ACROSS IT ON CABLE? No

I WILL GIVE…

-PSon

Kyle The Better-Than-Marginal: The Growing Legend of Neckbeard

Don't let the title fool you. This piece isn't just about Kyle Orton. In fact, you could say it is 90% inspired by Josh McDaniels. After all, he is the main reason behind the remarkable play of the Denver Broncos this season. It's not necessarily the success, Denver has been a winning organization for years now, but it is the way they are winning. With a dominant defense and a balanced offensive attack that commits few errors. McDaniels and D-coordinator Mike Nolan have instilled a grit that has been lacking since the days of the Orange Crush.

Nolan, the architect of the Baltimore D that was feared for so many years, arrived along with an army of NFL veterans on the defensive side. Much like the defense of McDaniels' former team, every player was handpicked for a specific role. Some Bronco veterans have shifted roles to better fit in with Nolan's defense of choice, the 3-4. Former DT Elvis Dumervil switched to OLB and has thrived, tallying 10 sacks through 7 games, good enough for second in the league. Dumervil has been the Broncos' best pass rusher since 2006 (his rookie season) but his best year was 2007 where he had 12.5 sacks and 34 total tackles. Dumervil has 24 tackles in the first 7 games.

Consider the following stats:

• The Broncos are 1st in total D this year, giving up 266.7 yards per game. Denver was 29th last season, allowing 374.6 yards per game.
• Nolan's 3-4 defense is 6th in the NFL in pass defense and 3rd in rush defense. Denver finished 2008 as the 26th ranked pass defense and the 27th ranked rush defense.
• Denver has given up 13.7 points per game, good enough for 2nd in the league this season. Last season they finished at 30th in the league, having given up 28 points per game.
• Denver has a turnover differential of +6, good enough for 6th in the league. Last season, they finished tied for dead last at -17.
• Denver has thrown 1 INT. In contrast, Detroit's quarterbacks have thrown 16. Surprisingly, Brett Favre's Vikings are second in the league, having only thrown 3 INTs.
  

The offense has contributed consistency. The 2008 Broncos were prolific on offense but short drives and turnovers often put the defense in situations they couldn't dig out of. With Orton, Denver has traded gaudy numbers for dependability. Through 7 games, Orton has thrown 1 interception, an end of the half hail mary that was picked off by Randy Moss of all people (Moss has as many INTs this season as Bronco TE Tony Scheffler). He has shown competence while running McDaniels' offense as well as the ability to know when to make a throw and when to throw the ball away. Against New England, he showed that he has the ability to sustain a game winning drive, when he picked the Pats D apart with precision throws and quality decision making. Rookie RB Knowshon Moreno and former Philly backup, Correll Buckhalter have run the ball with tenacity and have shown the ability to be decisive when hitting holes, gaining yards on every rush. Many questioned McDaniels' choice to draft a RB when he already had a gaggle of them on his squad (with Peyton Hillis returning and the signing of Correll Buckhalter, J.J. Arrington, and LaMont Jordan) but Moreno has cemented himself as one half of a dynamic running duo. The two have melded into one runner, capable of playing an entire game at 100%, wearing down opposing defenses after 3 quarters of constant pounding.

At 6-1, Denver looks good heading into their Week 9 game against Pittsburgh tonight. It's always a battle against the Steelers; Denver's heart will be tested after last week's loss to Baltimore. We'll know after tonight whether Denver truly belongs amongst the elite of the NFL. San Diego has recovered from their early season woes and if Denver loses, the Chargers will only be a game back.

I leave you with an audio clip of the pregame speech given by Brian Dawkins prior to Denver's first game against the Bengals. If you're looking for a catalyst behind Denver's defensive improvement, look no further.



-PSon