Bryan’s 2012 Awards

This is the final look back at 2012. I’ve already gone over my top ten movies, my top ten trailers, and my top 20 posters. Now I’m handing out my awards and nominations Academy Award style.

Artful Dodger – “Trance” Review

The latest film from Danny Boyle is slick, but it never completely makes up its mind as to whether or not it wants to be sensational fun or aim for higher art. It’s like someone squished together Headhunters, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Inception but left out the shocks, the heart, and a sensible third act. It’s not a total waste. I don’t think any Boyle film is ever without some merit. It’s a disjointed film, which is appropriate considering the hypnosis plot device, but it never commits.

Enter the Void – “Spring Breakers” Review

You know how in Gladiator Russell Crowe is always having visions of his home? He’s wading through wheat and sees his wife and child. Or maybe you remember The Thin Red Line and the soldier dreaming of the love he left? She’s lit like an angel, a perfect vision. In both films, these are the characters’ idyllic ideas of paradise. Well in writer/director Harmony Korine’s new film Spring Breakers the main characters’ idea of heaven is a hedonistic spring break that never ends. The film is an exploration of this thesis writ large in a burst of neon day-glo, breasts, booze, and guns. It’s a movie that can be approached a number of ways, and is sure to be misappropriated left and right, and I think this only makes it more brilliant.

2013 Oscar Checklist – Documentary Feature

Here are reviews of all 5 Oscar nominees for Best Documentary.

Liberation – “Lore” Review

Are children innocent? The common answer is yes, but the new film co-written and directed by Cate Shortland offers up a startlingly new perspective on the question. Lore takes place in Germany just as the Third Reich is crumbling. Fearing capture, an SS officer relocates his family from their affluent home to the countryside, but he knows he’s only delaying the inevitable. But his children, including a baby, don’t know what’s happening or they’re feigning ignorance, either way they’re in for a rude awakening.

Actionable – “Zero Dark Thirty” Review

There is a scene early on in Zero Dark Thirty where the main character is asked to assist in water boarding a terrorist detainee. The way the film handles this quick exchange is a lively departure from almost any other Hollywood entertainment. For starters, the hero of the story is Maya, a CIA specialist with a severe one-track mind played by Jessica Chastain. But the movie moves right on past the rarity of a female lead in a major motion picture to use this moment to show you what kind of tone and character you should be prepared for.

Crimes of Time – “Tabu” Review

There are two types of shots that show up in Tabu with some regularity. The static shot with the main subject virtually immobile while activity bustles around them, and the tracking shot moving along with a character, almost struggling to keep pace. For a film split into two parts this dichotomy couldn’t be more apt. It seems to be the best representation of the themes as well as the films two halves. Time lived and time lost. Passion and the passionless. This unique and stylish film is difficult to categorize, but this is its essence.

Have It All – “A Royal Affair” Review

A Royal Affair is a very pleasant surprise. With that title and belonging to the costume drama genre, originality seemed like an uphill battle. It doesn’t break convention with pop songs or anachronistic details like Marie Antoinette, but it isn’t a stodgy slog either. Working heavily in its favor is the emphasis on history and politics over the non-existent love triangle. There is a love story, but it isn’t the focus.

MoviePass Review: “The Collection”

Writer/director Marcus Dunstan and co-writer Patrick Melton stick to familiar horror sequel territory with The Collection. And while it’s bigger and bloodier than 2009’s The Collector, in the realm of the horror sequel, wherein the survivor of the first film is somehow coerced into revisiting the source of their trauma, The Collection is a middling addition, not quite as disappointing as The Descent: Part 2, but still a far cry from the adrenaline-amplifying Aliens. If its muddled plot and flat characters were half as interesting as the the elaborate death scenes, then The Collection might be a bit more than mildly entertaining and bit less of a bloody mess. Continue reading at blog.moviepass.com →

The Trouble with Quibbles: Life of Pi

The Oscar-winning director of such films as Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon returns with his adaptation of Yann Martel‘s Life of Pi. It’s the simple enough tale of a boy lost at sea with a Bengal tiger, and some other stuff happens too.

Emancipated – “Lincoln” Review

With Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis has topped himself again. It seems unfair that he is this good. Day-Lewis encompasses the role of the revered 16th President of the United States in every conceivable way. It is a performance certain to be discussed for a long time. The movie is pretty great too.

Best Birthday Party Ever – “Skyfall” Review

You’re late, 007, but maybe that’s a good thing. After 2008′s Quantum of Solace, a scatter-brained and unworthy follow-up to Daniel Craig‘s first outing as James Bond in Casino Royale, Bond producers knew they’d done wrong, as filmmakers and as torch-bearers of the longest running franchise in movie history, which has now hit its golden 50th anniversary. Four years later, they’re backto prove themselves and Britain’s top spy once again, with Skyfall.

The Trouble with Quibbles: Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas is inescapably epic. The nearly three-hour-long film has three directors–Lana Wachowski, Tom Tywker, and Andy Wachowski–includes 6 different stories spanning over a thousand years, chronicling the karmic ripple effect as the ramifications of several characters’ actions “echo through eternity.” The cast includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, Hugo Weaving, Keith David, Hugh Grant, and Susan Sarandon, all of whom play multiple characters. There’s no arguing whether or not the film is epic. And the only thing that surpasses the filmmakers’ ambition is their zeal. Bryan drank the Kool-Aid. Having little interest in its saccharine mix of schmaltzy spiritualism, morality tale clichés, and overblown take on the Golden Rule, I did not.

The Trouble with Quibbles: Argo

Argo is Ben Affleck’s directorial follow-up to The Town. It’s a political thriller set during the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis. In order to rescue six U.S. Diplomats, the CIA enlists some Hollywood help to fake their way out of the predicament. The crazy part is the entire story is true. But more importantly what did Adam and I think of the movie?

Naturally – “Wuthering Heights” Review

There are more than a few things about Andrea Arnold’s retelling of Bronte’s classic novel Wuthering Heights that stick out. These elements aren’t only unique for a literary adaptation, but also for most movies. Like in her previous film Fish Tank (a film I highly recommend and not solely for Michael Fassbender), Heights is shot in the box-shaped 1.33 aspect ratio. This artistic decision might be seen as a gimmick similar to shooting a modern film on 70mm film stock, but the results speak for themselves. Arnold and her brilliant cinematographer Robbie Ryan make ample use of the square palette. Despite the seemingly limited space, the movie invokes an almost primal response based heavily upon its images.