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jeremy

Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 9:41 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

Hey, you don't need an 'lol' to know your appreciated.

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bartist

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 2:25 pm

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6961 Location: Black Hills

Lorne, pretty sure I'm not the only one who laughed but didn't supply the LOL, LMAO, LMFAO, or ROFL. Incidentally, as a Canadian, you may be aware that there is a town in Newfoundland whose name makes it the suitable location for the premiere.

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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

billyweeds

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 2:59 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

A second viewing of The Fighter raises the rating to three-and-a-half stars by dint of a more reasoned view of Wahlberg's understated and extraordinarily well-judged lead performance. He and Amy Adams really carry the film despite showier turns by Christian Bale and Melissa Leo which grab focus on a first viewing. Wahlberg in particular is admirable. He's a genuine movie star, the kind that hardly exists any more. Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Wahlberg, and...who? (And don't say "Tom Cruise.")

bartist

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 3:11 pm

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6961 Location: Black Hills

Not sure what you mean, or why Matt Damon wouldn't be a genuine movie star (despite his disclaimers of just being a character actor). Or Russell Crowe. Or Christian Bale. Or Kate Winslet. Or a dozen others who step into a frame and you just can't help but watch them. I guess I really don't know what you mean.

_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

billyweeds

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 4:23 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

bartist wrote:

I would add Bruce Willis to the former list, but none of the actors you've just mentioned, excellent as most of them are (and uneven as Willis is). A movie star the way I'm defining it has almost nothing to do with being an actor or actress, if you will. It's about persona, charisma, presence. I don't think that definition applies to Winslet or Bale or Crowe or Streep or any number of other fine actors. Compare Marilyn Monroe with Celeste Holm. They were both in All About Eve. Monroe was borderline amateurish, Holm was class and craft personified. Who is the star? Compare John Wayne with Sir Ralph Richardson. Are you getting the picture now?

inlareviewer

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 5:21 pm

Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS

Rabbit Hole is a remarkably restrained, beautifully acted film about a couple attempting to survive the accidental death of their 4-year-old son. Adapted by David Lindsay-Abaire from his Pulitzer-winning play, the movie is largely an improvement on its source, an old-fashioned stage drama dotted with (and somewhat distorted by) a post-Lifetime-TV mentality and the playwright's signature quirky comedy. By opening up the action from the suburban living room/child's nursery setting and adding characters only referred to in the play, screenwriter Lindsay-Abaire and director John Cameron Mitchell prevent melodrama or treacle from disfiguring the delicate reality they build and sustain. From the first shots of the translucent Nicole Kidman's heroine Becca planting a new flower in the back yard, her face an enigmatic map of uneasy composure, we are in admittedly familiar territory, the precedents ranging from The Crowd and Penny Serenade to Ordinary People and The Sweet Hereafter (also Antichrist, and let's not go there). While many colleagues find fault with the ultra-controlled tone and often-trod topic, those aspects were for me the most gratifying. Not to mention the cast, as humor-laced, subtle and effortlessly real an ensemble as any this year has produced. Dianne Wiest's salty-sweet grandmother and Tammy Blanchard's party-girl sister are particularly good at registering the awkwardness of being unable to absorb a loved one's pain for them, Ms. Weist's late-inning exchange with Ms. Kidman about bearing grief over the long haul a textbook study in delivering What It's About without bombast or bravado. Sandra Oh as a pot-smoking group therapy member is typically nuanced, and Miles Teller, as Jason, the teenage comic-book artist who will forever wish he'd driven down a different street, is quietly impactful, most noteworthy given that Mr. Lindsay-Abaire has jettisoned the character's showy letter monologue that closes Act 1 for a casually organic, metaphorically apt means of contact with Becca. However, it is finally for Ms. Kidman and a never-better Aaron Eckhart as husband Howie to withstand the full force of my admiration. Mr. Eckhart, who achieves some astonishingly truthful effects with a flicker in his eyes, a whispered response, a hunch of his shoulders, never leaves us in doubt about his frustration with/devotion to his withdrawn wife and his own roiling bereavement, which, when it surfaces, is devastating. And Ms. Kidman is extraordinarily committed, being, rather than playing, her mercurial, edgily striving character. Whether blurting out what Becca thinks regardless of the company she's keeping, slapping a nasty supermarket mom, or resisting Howie's fumbling attempts to make love, Ms. Kidman commands the screen, emanating what she's feeling without spot or blemish. When the film cross-cuts between Howie's potential adultery and Becca's at-long-last catharsis -- Mr. Mitchell's prime sequence, its image-driven fragmentation approaching Buñuel -- we are reminded anew of what a superb actress Ms. Kidman is when her talent dovetails with worthy material, and this is easily her best screen turn since Dogville. Her interactions with Mr. Teller are uncommonly arresting, and she is perfectly attuned to the award-meritorious Mr. Eckhart -- their final scene (as in the play) is ineffably touching in its halting understatement. Anton Sanko's tenuous, guitar-and-piano-pointed score is another asset, and the technical contributions across the roster are first-rate. So is Rabbit Hole, ultimately as much about love as it is about loss, and its layered brevity, unerring taste and petit-point details got under my skin to linger there still.

_________________
"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim

billyweeds

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 8:52 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Kidman and Eckhart also share a wrenching fight scene which in furious emotion and intensity tops anything Taylor and Burton accomplished in Virginia Woolf.

The only reason I've been more vocal in my admiration for Kidman than for Eckhart is that I've always liked him, but almost never her. Now--suddenly and, to me, astonishingly--I'm a Kidman fanatic, at least for the length of awards season.

inlareviewer

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 10:50 pm

Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS

willybeeds, yes, that Rabbit Hole bust-up, lifted almost intact from the play, is indeed beyond WAOVW? not least for it being less calculated and more out-of-the-moment, in the moment. Searing. Mr. Eckhart is almost certain to be overlooked, I fear, which is a shame if so, because he's absolutely marvelous. Had also always liked him hitherto, but was still unprepared for his incisive, seamless work here. Having been previously fonder of the Second Ex-Mrs. Cruise than you (ever since To Die For, actually), while often finding her chilly abilities not exactly up to the received reputation, am glad to know she's finally gotten the Weeds Seal of Approval, tee-hee -- deservedly, 'cause when she's on, she's SO on, and that is absolutely the case in this instance (As previous posts indicated, her Becca faced near-impossible competition in my remembered affections from Cynthia Nixon's staggering NYC and Amy Ryan's heartbreaking LA portrayals on stage...and, by gum, Her Kidmanity sure exceeded my highest hopes). Buzzwerks reports that at present, the Prima Donna race is developing into a three-wommyn stand-off between Mrs. Warren Beatty for Kids (though La Belle Julianne's role is arguably the more central, Annette is magnificent, and long overdue), Natalie Pirouetteman for Black Swan (ingenue's virtuoso breakout into maturity and the promise that Closer held out, am seeing it on Monday, can't wait), and La Belle Nicole for Rabbit Hole (for reasons I would hope have been made clear already). If the SAGGY noms hold true for RACSO (meaning no Julianne Moore, no Halle Berry, no Lesley Manville), this could be a real nail-biter on Aclademy night.

And oh dear heavens, it's film prize seazzon agin. How'd THAT happen?

Edited for typos that managed to escape billyweed's exacting eye, whew.

Last edited by inlareviewer on Mon Dec 20, 2010 1:14 pm; edited 4 times in total
_________________
"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim

gromit

Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:28 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9016 Location: Shanghai

Wahlberg makes it on to the movie star list?

What about Brad Pitt? Johnny Depp?
Scarlett? Penelope Cruz?
Nicolas Cage, even if he's pretty unwatchable.

Jack and Pacino are still around.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

billyweeds

Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:45 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Get Low is a possible Oscar nomination for Robert Duvall, and he's undeniably excellent, skilled, technically perfect, and an actor's actor, etc., etc., etc., in this interesting but disappointingly limited shaggy-dog-style story of a man who throws his own funeral party for reasons of his own, which become clear in the final scene.

Was that a long enough sentence for ya? It sums up the movie, unfortunately. One hopes for more, but the result is little more than a slightly comedic crime story. Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek provide professional but unexciting support.

inlareviewer

Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 6:24 am

Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS

Well, have to say I liked Get Low far more than that, though not as much as the mater did, and she remains the Voice of The Common Person in my orbit. However, it is extremely small-scaled, Horton Foote meets an RKO programmer with rather more depth (to quote myself from earlier here this year) yet its narrative, culled from the most nominal of true-life Depression-era anecdotes, held my interest throughout. Duvall! is on top form, thought he and Sissy Dearest were lovely together, and Bill Murray (again, with the quoting of self) all but stole it.

Elsewhere, saw For Colored Girls. Although I still, and will always, favor the evocative punch, pure theatricality and cumulative effect of Ms. Shange's incomparable choreopoem, I must nonetheless admit that Tyler Perry is unlikely to ever again do anything anywhere near as heartfelt or potent as this adaptation is at its best (of course, he had nonpareil material to draw upon). It's at once imperfect and formidable-- imperfect in the inevitable dilution of its gathering force by the realistic settings and literal presence of the men that the original text deals with so ineluctably and obliquely; formidable in its cast, which, even if it didn't sport treasured personal acquaintances Loretta Devine and Tessa Thompson, both wonderful, would still be an imposing gaggle of great wommyn on fillum. Devine Loretta's community-minded nurse with the boyfriend who keeps returning and leaving is perhaps most tonally representative and endearing, whereas Kimberly Elise as the abused mom at the heart of the property's horrific pivot point is possibly the most acute and indelible (I almost couldn't watch that scene, partly because Mr. Perry so hyped up the edits and soundtrack, partly because....well, you have to see it), her post-tragedy downturn terribly moving and true. That said, Thandie Newton's against-type self-hating slut and Ms. Tessa's knocked-up teen sister are pretty darned fine, multi-valent and vivid, while Kerry Washington as the social worker who intersects with Ms. Elise, Phylicia Rashad as the apartment manager who has literally seen it all, and certainly Anika Noni Rose as the dance teacher whose date goes terribly afoul aren't exactly negligible, to resort to massive understatement. Whoopi the Goldberg as Ms. Newton and Ms. Thompson's religious fanatic mom verges on overkill, but just try to look away. In this rejiggered context, Janet Jackson's imperious magazine doyenne is absolutely right, even if the role's late-reel/updated complications do much of the work for her. Withal, neither the gush fest some colleagues have raved about, nor the debacle other colleagues have complained of. Was very pleased at how much of the poetry, archetype-color-designations and certain memorable spatial/physical iconographics survived their translation into cinematicality; indeed, actually found many relationship choices and coincidences that Mr. Perry uses to make something that originated as mega-lyrical and stylized into something naturalistic and conventionally linear on the whole inventive and acceptable. It hardly supplants For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuff, which remains necessary and ever-pertinent a stage property, but it is a very respectable, often overwhelming alternative, and if it gets Ms. Shange's magnum opus to the masses, why, more power to it, her, him, them, and, above all, us.

Edited, and again, and again, and again, because the rushed original posting read like Kindle kindling, which was unacceptable, so there.

Last edited by inlareviewer on Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:55 am; edited 10 times in total
_________________
"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim

billyweeds

Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 6:54 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Well, I guess I have to see For Colored Girls, which I had been prepared to skip.

Have to say I agree that Get Low was constantly interesting moment to moment, and I realize my tone was condescending to it. I was just expecting more profundity or something. I was in fact relieved that Duvall wasn't playing the "crazy old coot" I saw in the trailer. His character was much more than that, though still less than I would have preferred. I'm just picky, I guess.

billyweeds

Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 6:55 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

gromit wrote:

Wahlberg makes it on to the movie star list?

What about Brad Pitt? Johnny Depp?
Scarlett? Penelope Cruz?
Nicolas Cage, even if he's pretty unwatchable.

Jack and Pacino are still around.

Yeah, I know, I was just being irascible. There are a lot more stars around than I was ready to concede, though not "as many stars as there are in heaven," to quote the old MGM press line.

billyweeds

Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 9:09 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

On second and third thought and after my second viewing of the film, The Fighter is now on my best-of-2010 list. It has its old-hat feel-good aspects, but in general it's a worthy addition to the David O. Russell filmography and a highlight of the acting resumes of Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams, Christian Bale, and Melissa Leo.

gromit

Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 10:05 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9016 Location: Shanghai

I keep forgetting that film is O'Russell.
I'll have to look for it.
Should be turning up here soon.

Tonight, I bought Howl with James Franco as Allan Ginsberg. Hadn't heard of it, but thought it worth a watch. Probably going on tonight/soon.

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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

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