January 2010

2009 OSCAR NOMINATIONS/TOP TEN
Well, the smarty pants at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences got what they wanted, right? Adding those extra five spots in the best picture category allowed “An Education,” “A Serious Man” and “District 9” to join the competition for the top Oscar prize. There’s no question, crowd pleasers “The Blind Side” and “Up” were also included because of the expansion of the category, but does anyone in their right mind think any of these second-tier movies (in terms of award potential) will garner more than a handful of votes for best picture?

What does baffle me is how “A Single Man,” the superb directing debut by designer Tom Ford, didn’t make the cut in the Academy’s Top 10. From my viewpoint, it’s a smarter and better made film than all but three of the nominees.

In the acting categories there were few surprises, but I did think Michael Stuhlbarg from the Coen brothers “A Serious Man” deserved a best actor nod and, in the supporting category, Timothy Spall should have gotten recognition for his wonderful performance as a soccer coach in the Oscar-ignored “The Damned United.” But, I must admit, I haven’t yet seen three of the supporting actor selections----Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger,” “Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station” and Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones.” I have my work cut out for me.

Among the actresses, I think Meryl Streep was much better in “It’s Complicated” than she was as Julia Child and I would have certainly included Michelle Monaghan for “Trucker” and Amy Adams for “Sunshine Cleaning.” I can’t argue with the supporting picks, except to wonder why the Academy felt they had to honor a great actress like Penelope Cruz for such a throw-away performance. She was 100 times more impressive in “Broken Embraces.” A supporting performance that I thought worthy but was never on anyone’s radar was given by Charlize Theron as a daughter who can’t get past a childhood tragedy in “The Burning Plain.”

Who’s going to win this expanded Oscar race? I don’t think “Avatar” can be denied, but I would just love to see Kathryn Bigelow become the first woman to win a best director Oscar and deny the prize to ex-husband James Cameron.

Looks like Bridges (finally) and Sandra Bullock (god help us) are shoo-ins, as are the very deserving Mo’Nique for “Precious” and Christoph Waltz for “Inglourious Basterds.” And let’s hope that Quentin Tarantino wins for original screenplay, if only for what you know will be an incoherently memorable acceptance speech.

Now, getting to the important awards, here’s my Top 10 as of now. My complete year-end list, including my picks for actors, actresses, screenwriters and foreign films will be posted on my blog just before the March 7 Oscar ceremony.

1 The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
2 Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
3 Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
4 The Damned United (Tom Hooper)
5 A Single Man (Tom Ford)
6 An Education (Lone Scherfig)
7 Tetro (Francis Coppola)
8 A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Cohen)
9 State of Play (Kevin Macdonald)
10 Star Trek (J.J. Abrams)

Just missing my Top 10 were two films discussed later in this post, “Trucker” and “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” and the hilarious satire of the run-up to war “In the Loop.”


CRAZY HEART (2009)
This film won me over in its first scene when has-been country music singer Bad Blake pulls into an empty parking lot after driving all day from his last gig, curses the fact that he’s playing in a bowling alley and then empties the plastic bottle he uses to relieve himself when he’s on the road. Inside, Bad immediately commences to get drunk.

Jeff Bridges, sporting an unkempt beard and long hair and about 20 extra pounds, delivers one of his best performances as Bad, a once legendary singer-songwriter who has turned into a bitter, pitiful, hopeless alcoholic dragging himself from one small-town gig to the next. Looking like a cross between Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson, but singing in a voice similar to Eric Clapton’s, Bridges creates an authentic, heartbreakingly sad character, disappearing into Bad both on stage and off. It’s a tribute to Bridges indelible performance that the film remains interesting even after the plot loses its steam in the second half of the picture. I would have been happy to watch this character for another hour or two.

First-time writer-director Thomas Cooper (working from a novel by William Cobb) is at his best while capturing the butt end of entertainment: Bad rolls into town, starts drinking, meets his backup band a few minutes before the show, drinks, gives the fans what they want, drinks, sleeps with some floozy and then heads off to the next dusty destination. Then a little light shines down on Bad when he’s interviewed by Jean, a small-town journalist (the always spot-on Maggie Gyllenhaal) who finds this beaten and bruised, but also funny and melancholy, 57-year-old appealing. And it doesn’t hurt that he takes a liking to her fatherless little boy.

The age gap of these lovers doesn’t seem like a big deal, in large part because Gyllenhaal, who’s becoming the female version of Bridges---consistently brilliant but rarely receiving recognition. She possesses such a sad, expressive face that she makes you understand that she sees so much more in Bad than what’s on the surface. It’s an extraordinary performance that seemed to be overlooked until her surprise Oscar nomination.

In fact, there’s superb acting all through this film, from a surprisingly convincing Colin Farrell as Tommy Sweet, Bad’s onetime protégé now a country-western superstar; Robert Duvall (in a nod, no doubt, to his similar, Oscar-winning role in “Tender Mercies”) as Bad’s longtime friend; and James Keane as Bad’s abuse-taking agent.

But Bridges towers over everything in “Crazy Heart” (a lame title, it should have been called “Bad” or maybe “Bad Side of the Road”); the role should finally earn him the Oscar he’s long deserved. He should have won for his beautiful performance as a children author in “The Door in the Floor” (2004) or for his unrepentant ex-con in “American Heart” (1992) or for his suicidal radio DJ in “The Fisher King” (1991) or for his insightful look at middle age in the “Last Picture Show” sequel “Texasville” (1990). And he should have at least been in the running for his turns as the Dude in the cult favorite “The Big Lebowski” (1998), the cynical pianist in “The Fabulous Baker Boys” (1989), the car inventor in “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” (1988) and the self-styled crime investigator in the enigmatic “Cutter’s Way” (1981). Not a bad resume, and that’s just the highlights.

Since he became a star almost 40 year ago, after playing Duane, the love-struck teen in “The Last Picture Show” (1971), Bridges has given great performance after great performance, but without a signature role that made critics and filmgoers swoon. He’s forged a career not unlike underappreciated stars such as Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan (with whom he acted in the 1973 film version of “The Iceman Cometh”) and, unfortunately, I don’t think the recognition for this role is going to change that. But there’s no other living actor who is more deserving of adding the title of “Oscar-winner” before his name.

TRUCKER (2009)
Nearly every year, there’s a tough little indie that offers an unsanitized, unpretentious portrayal of a working class woman, usually single or divorced, always depressed and anxious for something good to come into her life.

Just to name a few, there was “Frozen River” (Melissa Leo) in 2008, “Waitress” (Keri Russell) in 2007, “Come Early Morning” (Ashley Judd) and “Sherrybaby” (Maggie Gyllenhaal) in 2006, “Down to the Bone” (Vera Farmiga) in 2004 and “The Good Girl” (Jennifer Aniston) in 2002. Each film and the performance were among the best of its year and “Trucker,” starring Michelle Monaghan, is no exception.

Best know for her detective role in “Gone Baby Gone” (2007) and as Tom Cruise’s fiancé in “Mission: Impossible III” (2006), Monaghan plays Diane, a sullen, tough-as-nails long-haul trucker who lives alone in a small suburban home in Southern California’s Inland Empire. Her only friend is her drinking buddy neighbor (played by TV actor Nathan Fillion), who clearly has a crush on her even though he’s married. Her aimless life breaks down into three activities: driving, drinking and sleeping.

Then, out of the blue, Diane’s world is altered when her ex-husband’s girlfriend shows up at her door with the child she abandoned years ago. Because the father (Benjamin Bratt) has to spend a few weeks in the hospital, Diane reluctantly agrees to take care of the boy. Peter, well played by Jimmy Bennett (who also plays James Kirk as a boy in “Star Trek”), turns out to be a feisty, spoiled and lonely little boy who would rather be anywhere except with this woman he’s grown to hate.

Diane doesn’t do much to endear herself with the boy, treating him as an unwanted guest and then forces him to go on the road with her. We’ve all seen too many of these parent-child getting-to-know-one-another stories, which inevitably turn out to be tiresome and weepy, but “Trucker” takes a fresher road. Of course, they eventually bond, but it happens without sentiment and in fits and starts over the course of the film; it feels like real life. Much of the credit goes to writer-director James Mottern, making an impressive debut behind the camera.

“Trucker” stayed in theaters for maybe two weeks and received little publicity, but it’s one of 2009’s better films and Monaghan’s gritty portrait of a troubled woman drifting through life is as fresh and memorable as any performance I’ve seen this year.

THE BLIND SIDE (2009)
While “Trucker” and its ilk are ignored and forgotten, this picture, the worst kind of formulaic junk from the Hollywood feel-good machine, is raking in box-office dollars and acting awards by the fistful. Nothing against Sandra Bullock: she can be a very appealing actress in light comedies, aided by her self-deprecating humor and understated line readings. But in this manipulative, inspirational (of course, based on a true story) dramatic comedy, she struts around in her tightly tailored suits and big hair as if she’s doing a one-woman show as Ethel Merman or maybe Mae West.

I could take the hackneyed plot---white Southern family takes in a homeless African-American high school student who turns out to be one of the country’s best football players---if Bullock, along with director John Lee Hancock, hadn’t turned Leigh Anne Tuohy into a raging force of nature. This sharp-tongued Southern cliché frightens everyone in her path, even the big-name college coaches who parade in to recruit Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron). In fact, the film spends so much time preening over Bullock that it forgot to write a personality for Oher, who, in real life, went on to star at the University of Mississippi and now plays for the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL. Just once in awhile, I would have liked to have known what Big Mike was thinking. But this is Leigh Anne’s show---everyone else, get out of the way! (and that includes all the other best actress nominees.)

STAR TREK (2009)
You’d think after six films featuring the original TV show cast and four more with the Picard-led group moviegoers would have had their fill of “Star Trek” adventures. But along comes the latest version and, damn it Jim, it may just be the best of the lot.

Resetting the story back to the dramatic events surrounding the birth of James T. Kirk, director J.J. Abrams, creator of the TV show “Lost” and director of “Mission: Impossible III,” and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman mix fresh storylines with the series’ sacrosanct legends to create a sci-fi adventure that’s both excitingly fresh and comfortingly familiar.

I probably don’t write often enough about the overall casting of a film, as it’s such a crucial aspect to a production’s success. The ensemble of “Star Trek” is the perfect example. Along with Abrams, kudos have to go to casting director Alyssa Weisberg for finding Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Bones McCoy), Simon Pegg (Scotty), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Anton Yelchin (Chekov) and John Cho (Sulu). These relatively unknown performers are faithful to the personalities their predecessors established for these characters while putting their own mark on the roles. It’s a tricky balance; you don’t want the film to play out like a SNL skit. Here, the entire cast pulls it off.

The plot involves the usual maniacal space avenger (this time a Romulan) who has issues with Spock---not the young cadet but the 50-years older version who somehow exists at the same time. The time shifting gets a bit confusing, but, most importantly, the movie makes sense in human terms. Not only is the picture jam packed with great action, but it offers the chance to see the crew of the Enterprise get acquainted and bond.

Speaking of getting acquainted, who would have guessed that Spock and Kirk would be rivals for the affections of a young, very hot Uhura? (Actress Saldana had quite a year; she also was the Na’vi princess in “Avatar.”)

Pine captures the hot-headed, out-spoken bravado of Kirk (without William Shatner’s dramatic staccato speech pattern) but the most impressive performance in the film comes from TV actor Quinto (“Heroes”) as Spock. He brings out the deep-seated emotional conflicts that exist within this half-human, half-Vulcan walking computer without the advantage of utilizing any facial expressions, beyond those famous eyebrows. His disapproval, mixed with admiration, for the fearless Kirk proves to be the heart of the film.

Abrams has done to “Star Trek” what Christopher Nolan did with the “Batman” series; not only has he started over, but he’s reinvigorated it. I doubt he can repeat this success in part 2 (coming soon to a theater near you), but he’s made an entertaining, cleverly written and superbly acted sci-fi film and that’s not something you see every year.

NINE (2009)
No longer is De Mille, Balanchine, Robbins or Fosse the driving influence of dance in movie musicals. Even the era of MTV video-influence has passed. In the ultimate example of the tail wagging the dog, those unbearably schmaltzy Academy Award show production numbers have become the models for big screen dance scenes. Case in point is Rob Marshall’s adaptation of the stage musical “Nine,” itself based on Federico Fellini’s 1963 dramatic masterpiece “8 ½.”

Marshall makes little attempt to make the musical productions integral to the story or even look like they’re part of the same movie. Star Daniel Day-Lewis serves as the show’s host, as the camera goes back to him after the numbers as if he’s Billy Crystal ready to deliver a pithy one-liner. Even viewed on their own, the dance scenes are totally lacking in originality or screen energy; it’s just attractive women strutting about.

I shouldn’t shortchange the filmmakers---along with the Oscar showstoppers, they also seemed to have pilfered some of their ideas from visits to local gentlemen’s clubs.

This musical, about a self-centered, philandering filmmaker who can’t come up with an idea for his new film, is an utter water of expensive sets. The only things that kept me awake were the abundance of cleavage and fishnet stockings, but even those pleasures wore out their welcome.

By mid-film I was trying to come up with another movie that had so many acting Oscar winners in the cast. The seven in “Nine” (Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren) may be the most in a film at the time of its release. Other films have had eight, including all-star productions “The Greatest Story Ever Told” and “Around the World in 80 Days,” but many of the performers earned their Oscars years after the release of the movie.

Yet with all those award winners, only French actress Cotillard (she won her Oscar for “La vie en Rose”) give a solid performance, playing the put-upon wife of Day-Lewis’ Guido. The rest of the cast seems pleased to look great in their cool outfits.
While I wasn’t much of a fan of Marshall’s “Chicago”---at least in that film he smartly stole all the good ideas from Bob Fosse’s stage version---“Nine” makes that 2002 Oscar winner look and sound like “Singin’ in the Rain.” The songs are lame, the dancing is forgettable, the acting over the top and the best parts of the story were present with so much more flair in “8 ½.” But I can deny that Cruz looks smashing in fishnets (and, no doubt, earned her an Oscar nod).


THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS (2009)
There’s no mistaking a film by Terry Gilliam, whether it’s his thoughtful, superbly constructed outings such as “Brazil” and “The Fisher King” or over-amped, disjointed romps “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” “Twelve Monkeys” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” his ability to bring his distinctive, oversized vision to the screen seems limitless. In fact, it’s been his inability to know when enough is enough that’s turned his promising post-Monty Python career into a series of high-profile disappointments.

Once again, he creates a wondrous, colorful alternative universe---actually many of them---in this inconsistent, slight but very entertaining movie that, at points, is nearly as visually impressive as Pandora from “Avatar” (even without the 3-D.)

At the center of the story is a seriously quirky performance by 80-year-old Christopher Plummer as a Munchausen-like Dr. Parnassus, a character out of the Middle Ages whose traveling show seems equally anachronistic. Looking like they just arrived from the road show of “The Holy Grail,” the immortal doctor, his spunky 16-year-old daughter Valentina (Lily Cole), his loyal right-hand man Percy (little person Verne Troyer), and a young assistant (Andrew Garfield) with designs on the daughter travel around modern London attempting to allure customers into the doctor’s “Imaginarium.”

Those who dare pass through the magic mirror experience a cartoonish, unearthly world that’s Parnassus vision of what that person would imagine as paradise. Complicating matters is the long-time rivalry between Parnassus and the Devil (Tom Waits at his smarmy best), who shows up in the Imaginarium to temp souls to the dark side. I never understood exactly what was going on in the Imaginarium or how the doctor and the Devil measured their victories, but there’s enough going on that it really didn’t matter.

Spicing up the proceedings is Tony (Heath Ledger in his final role), who the troupe finds hanging by a noose off a bridge. They rescue him and make him part of the show. And, of course, he eventually falls for Valentina. Because Ledger died before any scenes of him inside the Imaginarium were filmed, his character is played by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell during different trips into the fantasy world. By acknowledging the change in Tony’s looks, what might have become distracting and odd seems like just another bizarre aspect of the Imaginarium.

More distracting is the utter failure of Gilliam and co-writer Charles McKeon (who also co-wrote “Munchausen” and “Brazil”) to deliver an interesting conclusion. The last 30 minutes are filled with pointlessly elaborate Imaginarium fantasies and a smorgasbord of poorly developed ideas.

If Gilliam had come up with something interesting to say at the end of this picture, it might have been one of his best, but even flawed, it’s a wild, unpredictable ride, featuring enough unforgettable visuals to fill a dozen movies.

THE BEST OF 2000-2009
If you judge the quality of American movies by decade, nothing changed much from the 1930s through the 1950s, a period when instant classics were regularly produced. Quality took a dive in the 1960s as the studio system collapsed and a new wave of creative talent began to emerge. In the ‘70s and much of the 1980s, those filmmakers and performers worked their magic. By the 1990s, the bloom was off the rose and the suits had reclaimed the power and it has only gotten worse during the first decade of the new century.

While the decade with no name produced some great films----though not in the quantity of earlier periods---it failed to deliver a landmark, defining picture, a “Godfather” or “Blue Velvet” or “Raging Bull”; the star to place on the top of the decade’s best films. The closest any production came to that level was the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, but that was three films, not one.

I debated among “Mystic River,” “The Pianist” and “The New World” for the top spot, but it could have been a half-dozen others. I’ve looked at nearly a dozen rankings of the decade’s best and have yet to see the same film at No. 1.

To me, there should be no debate on the best performance by an actor during the decade. Sean Penn as the complex Boston crime boss who seeks vengeance after the death of his daughter in Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River” delivered a magnificent, explosive but never out of control performance, which topped excellent work by Philip Seymour Hoffman as the flamboyant writer in “Capote” (2005), Forest Whitaker ad dictator Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland” (2006), the old master Jack Nicholson portraying senior angst in “About Schmidt” (2002) and Penn again in “Milk” (2008).

The decade, with Hollywood emphasizing action films and franchises, offered fewer and fewer good lead roles for women, but a few amazing performances still sneaked through. Leading the pack was Helen Mirren’s astonishing portrayal of Elizabeth in “The Queen” (2006), Charlize Theron as a sad psychopath in “Monster” (2003) and Halle Berry playing the wife of a death-row prisoner in “Monster’s Ball” (2001).

If there was a Person of the Decade for film, it could only go to Eastwood, who bloomed at an age when most filmmakers are tinkering around the house or writing memoirs, directing two films that made my Top 10 and another, “Letters From Iwo Jima” that was probably the finest foreign-language picture I saw in the past 10 years.

Here’s my Top 20 for the ‘00s. A full list (what can I say, I’m compulsive) of the decade’s best films and performances will be posted on my blog later this month.

1 The Pianist (2002) Personal, yet calmly measured slice of horror in Nazi-occupied Warsaw by the still controversial (and fugitive) Roman Polanski.

2 Mystic River (2003) Clint Eastwood’s brilliantly constructed examination of three lives forever altered by a childhood tragedy.

3 The New World (2005) The colonization of North America---Pocahontas, John Smith, John Rolfe---brought to life by the mystic/director Terrence Malick.

4 United 93 (2006) Writer-director Paul Greengrass finds a way to make this hard-to- watch insider examination of 9/11 both artful and inspirational.

5 Million Dollar Baby (2004) Eastwood, again, brings three fascinating characters together, this time in a sweaty boxing gym.

6 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Writer Charlie Kaufman’s mind-blowing, time-altering look at the difficulties of love.

7 Capote (2005) Philip Seymour Hoffman becomes the iconoclast New York writer in this parable of personal and public ethics.

8 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) The final chapter of this astonishing, heroic trilogy beautifully realized by director Peter Jackson.

9 The Hurt Locker (2009) Kathryn Bigelow taps into the unrelenting intensity of men in war to shed some light on the occupation of Iraq.

10 Memento (2001) Backward or forward, this hypnotic mystery is “Batman” director Christopher Nolan’s best film.

11 The Queen (2006) Director Stephen Frears and writer Peter Morgan take docudrama to a new level in this study of the aftermath of Diana’s death.

12 Mulholland Drive (2001) David Lynch, the master of the unexplainable shows us what Hollywood looks like inside his surreal mind.

13 Up in the Air (2009) Jason Reitman’s subtle mix of comedy and drama captures the public and personal angst of the here and now.

14 Synecdoche, New York (2008) Another overstuffed Charlie Kaufman creation, this time examining where art and life merge into one baffling world.

15 High Fidelity (2000) Director Frears and writer Nick Hornby capture the integral, romantic importance of pop/rock music for an entire generation.

16 Traffic (2000) The deadly cat-and-mouse game between cops and drug dealers masterfully connected by director Steven Soderbergh.

17 About Schmidt (2002) This hilarious, touching and very human tale of a senior’s soul-searching journey is perfectly personified by Jack Nicholson.

18 Adaptation (2002) The third Kaufman penned film on this list, brilliantly directed by Spike Jonze, explores the painful costs of creativity.

19 Little Children (2006) Director Todd Field’s examination of our loss of community and fear of others as seen through suburban infidelity.

20 Children of Men (2006) An ominous, but plausible thriller set in a future where tolerance is dead and nonconformity is a crime, from director Alfonzo Cuarón.

December 2009

AVATAR (2009)
James Cameron’s new film, at least when seen in 3-D, made me think I was attending a Universal Studios attraction instead of a motion picture. Amazing experience, yes; great film, not even close.

In fact, one could make a case that creating a 3-D film is a completely different art form than directing a typical 2-D production. The effort spent to make the foreground pop out of the screen, flying ships and animals seem like they’re headed your way and characters move in 3-D clearly becomes the focus of the filmmakers rather than the composition, the storytelling and the character development that are essential to what makes a good film in the traditional sense. In essence, 3-D makes for an entertaining event but doesn’t do much to make the film better or worse. Cameron first feature in 12 years----since the multi-Oscar winning Titanic (1997) broke box-office records around the world----gives you a story and characters you’ve seen dozens of times before in a form you’ve never come close to experiencing. And clearly that’s the point.

“Avatar” turns out to be another version of the classic science vs. military that was so popular in the monster/sci-fi films of the 1950s. Inevitably, the scientists want to understand the alien (or the giant insect) and discover why it’s taken the form it has and is visiting our planet, while the military just wants to blow the damn thing up. If you’ve seen many of them, you know exactly how the plot plays out in “Avatar” and that it always turns out to be much harder to destroy those pesky invaders than the men with the guns ever imagine.

In this new film, set in mid-22nd Century, a science/military base near the planet Pandora has been established in part to study the blue-skinned, cat-eyed (they have long tails also), very tall and gangly Na’vi, but primarily to mine a very valuable mineral that lies beneath the planet’s surface. There’s no subtly offered here: it’s Big Business stealing from the native people and showing no qualms about devastating their land in the process.

Essentially, the Na’vi are the Indians and the military/science folks are the European invaders. That’s as complex as “Avatar” gets.

Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully, a paralyzed Marine whose twin brother was part of this operation before he was killed in action. Jake is assigned to take his place, despite his lack of scientific training, the assumption being that the avatar created for his brother will respond to the twin’s DNA as well. How it works, is the human gets into a chamber in the lab and somehow is mind melted into the body of the Na’vi replica body down on the planet.

To his credit, Cameron doesn’t linger with the scientists or setup too long. In fact, on Jake’s first visit to Pandora he’s separated from the exploration group, headed by the chief science officer played by Sigourney Weaver, and is rescued from vicious wild beasts by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), an alluring Na’vi princess and taken into the tribe. She’s then assigned by the rulers to teach Jake the ways of the tribe’s warriors. At this point, it’s pretty clear where the plot is going.

Stephen Lang plays the ridiculously macho head of the team’s security force who’s itching to kick some Na’vi butt and eventually does, which results in an epic CGI battle that rivals some of those incredible battlefield scenes in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

The main attraction of “Avatar” is the incredible world Cameron creates on Pandora and he smartly lingers over the strange beasts and plants and the incredibly colorful landscape that the natives feel such a bond to, not unlike the way the American Indians revered the land. I can’t imagine anyone going to this film and not enjoying the experience.

You’re not there to see a complex, insightful movie and Cameron doesn’t make much effort to give you that. And while Cameron goes out of his way to paint the native people as sympathetic and the invading Earthlings as the ugly, thoughtless brutes, it still comes down to yet another film in which the white man, in this case Jake in his Na’vi body, has to save the native people. He becomes their greatest warrior and finds ways to battle the bad guys that the Na’vi never could have managed.

While Cameron’s point is that the native people should be left alone and their way of life respected he still can’t help utilizing the old cliché that it takes the ingenious outsider to save the locals. Couldn’t he have found a way to make Jake helpful to the Na’vi without making him both the action and romantic hero?

But then, I’m missing the point. The stock story and characters Cameron provides are good enough for what he was trying to accomplish. He’s not making great art, he’s making jaw-dropping entertaining and in that he succeeds tenfold.


UP IN THE AIR (2009)
This exceptional movie from Jason Reitman, who directed “Thank You for Smoking” (2005) and “Juno” (2007), manages to succeed as a smart, subtle comedy, an insightful study of a relationship-phobic man and an angry commentary on the country’s unemployment problem. Bringing it all together is a perfectly measured performance by George Clooney, whose relaxed confidence, amusing small talk and supreme professionalism as Ryan Bingham belies deep-seated reservations about his life.

He flies around the country doing the dirty work for companies who don’t want to layoff their own employees, bringing a slice of humanity to the unpleasant taste of telling workers they are no longer wanted. Yet he enjoys the routine of the job: airports, plane trips, hotels, the anonymous friendliness, all the while keeping, as he says in the seminars he gives on the side, his “backpack” light.

Then Ryan gets some bad news; his company plans to end the in-person service and start firing via video conferencing. Maybe because he objects to the idea so convincingly, his boss sticks him with the sure-of-herself recent grad who came up with the remote-firing idea and orders him to show her the ways of the job.

The inexperienced, tightly wound Natalie (Anna Kendrick in a superb performance) finds out that firing someone isn’t as clean cut as she imagined. And while he’s showing her the realities of the world, she provides a mirror of sorts for Ryan, as the shallowness of his life becomes clearer.

Muddying his uncomplicated life, he strikes up a relationship with Alex (Vera Farmiga), first in a wild one-night stand and then as they arrange to rendezvous whenever their schedules align. She seems to be his female counterpart; smart, uncommitted and constantly on the move and their bond matures when he takes her to his sister’s wedding in his Wisconsin hometown.

The superbly crafted screenplay by Reitman and Sheldon Turner ,from a novel by Walter Kim, doesn’t short-change any of the major character and even manages to turn Ryan’s two sisters and the bridegroom into memorable, well-drawn characters.

Farmiga as Ryan’s perfectly matched partner gives her most interesting and full realized performance since her breakthrough role in the indie “Down to the Bone,” while Kendrick has Natalie’s calculated view of the life down pat. But Clooney, as he does in most of his films, dominates every scene. While he’s no De Niro or Pacino or Sean Penn, this 48-year-old has developed the most engaging and versatile screen persona in film today, rarely failing to bring just the right energy and tone to the story. You never catch him “acting,” he just thoroughly inhabits his characters like the classic stars of the past.

In just the past 10 years, he’s starred in two hilarious Coen brother comedies (“O Brother, Where Art Thou,” “Intolerable Cruelty”), played the suave thief in three “Ocean” movies and given impressive dramatic performances in “Michael Clayton,” “Good Night, Good Luck,” “Solaris” and “Syriana,” which earned him an Oscar.

“Up in the Air” may be his best performance yet---it’s certainly his most complex. Ryan Bingham is the rare Hollywood film character who doesn’t end up figuring it all out. Life, even in the movies sometimes, isn’t nearly that easy.


A SINGLE MAN (2009)
Fashion designer Tom Ford, in his first venture into filmmaking, has crafted one of the most icily stylish, intelligent and affecting studies of deep depression you’re likely to see on film, adapting a story by Christopher Isherwood, (the British writer who also wrote the stories that served as the basis for “Cabaret”). Colin Firth, in the performance of his career, plays George, a gay college professor circa 1962 who has just lost his companion of 16 years in a car accident.

In sharp, minutely observed detail, Ford shows George as he struggles through a single day, fighting to find a reason to go on. Acerbic and bookish, but unsure of the point of his life, George, at first, seems like an indulgent bore, but Firth makes you care about him. Soon his every conversation, how he sits or holds his drink, even his choice of clothing, become fascinating in the way they offer clues to his state of mind.

In many ways, Ford’s filmmaking style is a throwback to the 1960s, favoring extreme close-ups and holding shots as if he’s exhibiting still photos. It can be pretentious, but in this film it works. And while Ford’s strength as a director is clearly his eye for images and the mise-en-scène design, he never lets the film became stagnant, even as the story takes on a dreamy, romantic style. He also smoothly incorporates George’s memories of his dead lover Jim, superbly played by Matthew Goode, to not only show how strong their love was but to help explain the sadness that continues to overwhelm George.

George’s best friend and fellow expatriate from London is Charley, a chic, hip, lonely alcoholic, played with ’60 panache and desperation by Julianne Moore, amuses him for awhile but mostly makes him more depressed as he makes his long day’s journey into night.

George’s friendship with an earnest, presumptuous student feels a bit too much like a literary device, but most of “A Single Man” is an intense and spotlessly painted character study featuring one of the year’s finest performances.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that a designer for Gucci could produce a great looking movie, but what is surprisingly is that he has also written one of the year’s most insightful and complex screenplays and coaxed impressive performances from the entire cast.


IT’S COMPLICATED (2009)
It’s easy to miss: In the middle of this hackneyed, crowd-pleaser, Meryl Streep gives a nuanced, complex, wonderfully amusing and completely unaffected portrayal of middle-aged angst, giving life to a woman working through relationship issues while engaging in an affair with her ex-husband.

Streep plays Jane, successful owner of a fancy Santa Barbara bakery shop and mother to three seemingly problem-free children, who, after a night of drinking and reminiscing with her ex (Alex Baldwin) while they’re in New York to attend their son’s college graduation ceremony, ends up in his bed.

She assumes it’s just a one-time mistake and returns to her life in Santa Barbara, where an shy architect (a very stiff Steve Martin) makes a play for her while working with her on her house remodeling project. The usual comic complications and sitcom-like misunderstanding ensue (if you saw writer-director Nancy Meyers’ much better “Something’s Gotta Give” you know the jokes already) yet Street keeps adding layers to Jane, elevating the film to a level way beyond where its plot or dialogue take you.

Baldwin, an underrated actor who seems to get better with age, is perfect for this role as a self-obsessed jackass but, as written, he’s given little to do beyond begging his ex-wife for sex and looking depressed while dealing with his much younger, insufferable current wife and her son.

This film would be completely forgettable without the presence of Streep (the same can be said of “Julie & Julia”) who remains at the top of her game and more surprisingly, at age 60, has become a box-office draw.


PRECIOUS (2009)
There is much to admire about this heartbreaking story of a severely obese, sexual abused teenager living in abject poverty in Harlem. Not only is it one of the few films to give voice to a seemingly hopeless, unattractive African-American girl, but it refused to look away from the horrors that have condemned generations of poor inner-city minorities to the same fate as their parents and grandparents.

Yet director Lee Daniels and screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher (working from the novel “Push” by Sapphire) have heaped so much tragedy on this sad girl ironically named Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) that by the story’s end they’ve made it easy to dismiss the film’s valid observations. On top of that, some of the choices by Daniels, whose only previous credit as a director is the 2005 film “Shadowboxing,” do more harm than good: misplaced music, a disjointed structure and a handful of odd fantasy scenes more suited to a broad comedy, work to lessen the impact of the central story.

What he can’t diminish is the unforgettable portrayal of maternal evil by rap singer Mo’Nique. Mary is a welfare cheat who treats her daughter as a slave, repeatedly tells her she’s too stupid for school, encourages her to over eat and has allowed both Precious’ father and grandfather to molest the teen. Their dark, dingy apartment feels like a torture cell with Precious as the innocent victim of the deep-seated hatred her mother feels for the world.

Mo’Nique’s Mary rarely gets off the couch, but she fills every scene she’s in with an ominous sense of impending violence. The cold stare of Mo’Nique will send chills up your back along with reinforcing every racist stereotype of a welfare recipient.

Providing a light of hope in Precious’ bleak life is Blu (a very effective Paula Patton), a sensitive, inspiring teacher in a special learning program the teen enrolls in after being tossed out of public school when she becomes pregnant. Blu shows Precious she is capable of learning, worthy of love and ready to care for her children.

A deglamed Mariah Carey does good work as a social worker, but the script turns her welfare cubicle into an unlikely confessional for both Precious and her mother.

In most films, a character like Precious would be the object of a fat joke or two and then fade into the background. This movie turns that caricature into a real person and tries to explain the circumstances that have left her mentally and physically damaged. Despite its flaws, “Precious” puts a light on a subject rarely broached in a Hollywood film. Maybe, if this movie succeeds financially, more films seriously exploring the black experience will make their way to the screen.


INVICTUS (2009)
While there seems to be little agreement on which films were the best of the just concluded decade---I’ll offer up my assessment next month---few would deny that the most dominate American filmmaker of the period has been Clint Eastwood. Never in Hollywood history has a septuagenarian directed so many entertaining, diverse, intelligent, memorable pictures. Since 2000, Eastwood, who turns 80 in May, made two great English-language films (“Mystic River” and “Million Dollar Baby”), a masterful Japanese movie (“Letters From Iwo Jima”) along with a handful of others that were among the best of their year (“Flags of Our Father,” “Gran Torino,” “Changeling” and “Blood Work”).

His latest doesn’t measure up to his best work, but it continues this former matinee idol’s on-going investigation of issues of race, here focusing on post-apartheid South Africa.

As the picture begins, longtime political prisoner Nelson Mandela, just elected president, is intrigued by the upcoming rugby World Cup to be held in Capetown. Mandela works with the popular captain and star of the national team, the Springboks, to turn their Cup run into a way to unite the country’s whites and blacks.

This is a very deliberate, straightforward story in which deep-seated conflicts seem to resolve themselves and long-held hatreds are overcome way too easily. It’s the surprising relationship between Mandela (a dignified, charismatic Morgan Freeman) and Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon, a very convincing Afrikaner athlete) and what that represents in a changing South Africa that sustains the movie. Eastwood’s seamless direction and old-fashioned storytelling works beautifully when dealing with these two, but he missteps in his focus on Mandela’s integrated security team and the interminably long rugby scenes. And, at points, the movie tries so hard to win over the audience that it starts to feel like a made-for-TV tearjerker.

Freeman gives another memorable performance under Eastwood’s guidance (following his Ned Logan in “Unforgiven” and Scrap-Iron Dupris in “Million Dollar Baby, which earned him an Oscar), but it’s a bit too reverential to feel like a full, fleshed-out portrayal. Mandela’s strained relations with his family are referred to but never explored and he rarely says anything that doesn’t sound like a famous quotation.

While “Invictus” (the title comes from a poem that inspired the imprisoned Mandela) offers a glimpse at the problems faced by South Africa after white rule ended, it’s too safe, too predictably inspiring to spark the kind of fire the story needed and that we’ve come to expect from this great director.


SUGAR (2009)
Nowhere in the world is baseball more revered than in the Dominican Republic. This poor Caribbean island nation has seen so many of its sons become rich and famous in America through baseball that families can’t help but put all their hopes and dreams on any boy who can hit or throw better than his peers.

This low-keyed, unpretentious look at one young man’s journey from the D.R. to a mid-West minor league baseball town should be required viewing for any teenager from any country who imagines himself headed for big-league glory.

Miguel “Sugar” Santos, played with just the right combination of innocence and athletic confidence by Algenis Perez Soto (who himself played in the Dominican leagues) goes from a camp for prospects run by the fictional Kansas City Knights to the teams’ farm club in Iowa. There he boards with an elderly couple who are devoted fans of the team and regularly serve as hosts to foreign players. This isn’t a movie invention---locals have for decades offered inexpensive room and board to minor league players, a leftover from the days when baseball was a vital part of the country’s fabric.

Not only does Sugar struggle while adapting to American life and a new language, but he suddenly faces tougher competition on the field than he’s ever seen. And then, as has happened to thousands of other players with great potential, an injury takes him out of the starting rotation and off the radar of the team’s decision makers.

The film (mostly in Spanish with subtitles), written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the team behind the excellent “Half Nelson,” suffers from its predictable, TV-movie plot lines and artless direction, but it doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities these athletes face in their journey from coveted prospect to the big leagues. And the filmmakers have done a first-rate job of staging the baseball scenes, including Sugar’s pitching, and made the relationships between Sugar, his teammates and the family he lives with sincere and believable.

You don’t need to be a baseball fan to enjoy “Sugar”; it’s a tale of immigrant dreams and life’s realities, facing disappointments and making the best of it.


THE ROAD (2009)
This is the kind of movie that sustains my belief in Hollywood. While only partially successful---done in by the magnitude of its hopelessness---this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s painfully tragic, unadorned novel of a post-apocalyptic world shows that studio executives and filmmakers are still willing to take a chance on risky material.

Anyone who cares about American movies has to lament the recent proliferation of comic-book action, futuristic nonsense and crude sex comedies that fill most screens. Yet despite its reputation as the ultimate profit-obsessed industry, Hollywood studios gave the go-ahead for “The Hurt Locker,” “Synecdoche, New York,” and “The Wrestler” just to name a few films released in the past 18 months. And there was no bigger gamble than this attempt to turn McCarthy’s book into a film someone would pay to see.

No doubt the success of the Oscar-winning “No Country for Old Men,” also based on a novel by McCarthy, helped get “The Road” off the ground. But, to say the least, this nearly Biblical tale of a father and son seeking out food, shelter and safety as they journey to the sea has none of the fascinating characters, crackling dialogue or blood-letting action of “No Country.”

Viggo Mortensen plays the Man who, along with the Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee), has been on the road for an undetermined length of time, forced to keep moving to avoid roving bands of cannibals and their never-ending search for more traditional sources of protein. The earth has been dying for at least 10 years, ravaged by earthquakes, fires, unpredictable weather and a permanent hazy gloom. Few humans are left, cities have been destroyed and life has become a day-to-day test of survival.

Not much happens to the father and son, but the moral decisions they face, more immediate and real in such dire circumstances, and how they hold on to their humanity anchors the film.

John Hillcoat, who previously directed the excellent Aussie western “The Proposition,” and screenwriter Joe Penhall do first-rate work in translating McCarthy’s compelling but simple narrative to the screen and both Mortensen and Smit-McPhee offer strong performances, creating very normal people dealing with extraordinary circumstances. In smaller roles, Charlize Theron as the wife/mother---seen in flashbacks---and Robert Duvall as a feeble old man bring some needed spark to the film’s monotony. Yet when the best possible outcome for these characters is to starve to death (or take their own lives) before the “bad guys” catch them, it’s hard to become emotionally involved.

On the page, “The Road” is powerful, impressively crafted fiction. Replicated as a visual drama, it becomes a more emotional experience, rather than the cerebral approach I believe the author intended, an inevitable consequence of putting faces to these anonymous characters. Usually, that’s the great strength of the cinema; in this case it gives us hope when there is none.

There are no Jerry Bruckheimer heroics or cool special effects in this film, just the unrelenting bleakness of a dead world and doomed characters. For me, the fact that “The Road” managed to get made turned out to be the one slice of hope the picture provided.