The Descendants (2011)

4.9/5

Alexander Payne's The Descendants is a phenomenal film. The plot is filled with human complexities that are so intricately woven together that attempting to summarize it would do the film a disservice. To be brief: Matt King (Clooney) is in the middle of selling a large plot of Hawaiian land when his wife (Hastie) falls into a vegetative state after a boating accident. He has to take care of his two daughters, Alex (Woodley) and Scottie (Miller), while telling their friends and family that his wife is to be taken off life support. There is so much more here, but I don't want to make the story seem simpler than it is with my rudimentary retellings, nor do I want to ruin the experience of discovery and involvement.

The film effortlessly walks the line between comedy and tragedy with a heartbreaking script and breathtakingly honest performances. (Not to mention unparalleled medical accuracy for a Hollywood film.) It is reminiscent of Payne's earlier film Sideways, juxtaposing opposite moods like Wes Anderson but in a more muted and mature fashion. On the whole, the movie feels authentic and believable despite those sometimes acute shifts in tone. This is the result of a script that is precise and articulate, and a director who can lift the words off the page and pull the truth out of his actors. Clooney gives one of his best performances ever. He exudes vulnerability, strength, wisdom, naïveté, charisma, and ugliness in equal parts, painting a picture of a desperate man searching for meaning in the face of death. He pulls at our heartstrings with such ferocity that I feared they might break. I'm surprised I didn't cry during the film's final tender scenes.

The movie occasionally missteps, but I won't belabor its minor faults. This movie is both fascinating and enjoyable, a testament to the human experience, and I cannot wait to watch it again.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1033575/

Ip Man (2008)

3/5

Ip Man tells the sensationalized, quasi-true story of martial arts grandmaster Ip Man (Yen) during the Japanese invasion and occupation of China in WWII. The movie is a fairly rudimentary one in terms of its storytelling, filmmaking, and acting. The plot is simple and predictable, the acting is passable, and the cinematography is forgettable. The film uses simple archetypes instead of complex characters: the good guys are perfect and the bad guys are unreasonably evil. Where this movie really shines is the fighting. This showcases some of the most impressive martial arts I've seen in recent memory, with appropriate slow-motion and exciting camera angles. It puts the martial arts on display like poetry, and it is truly enthralling to watch. However, there are too many flaws overall to truly recommend this movie to anyone who doesn't like kung fu movies. If you do, though, this is one you don't want to miss.

Note: I saw the (laughably pathetic) dubbed version of this film, which is available for free on Amazon Prime Instant Video, instead of the subtitled version of this film, which is available on Netflix.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220719/

Biutiful (2010)

4/5

Iñárritu's Biutiful is a powerful, moving film about a single father dying of cancer. Uxbal (Bardem) has custody of his two kids, Mateo (Estrella) and Ana (Bouchaib), because of his bipolar wife's erratic behavior. He also runs a fake handbag business, managing Chinese sweatshop workers (Shen) and Senegalese street vendors (Ndiaye). After learning of his diagnosis, he tries to reconcile with his wife (Álvarez) for his children's sake, but all his attempts to do the right thing for everyone he cares about spiral out of control.

Iñárritu is a master of multiple story lines. Although they all stem from the same root (instead of intersecting randomly as they have in the past), we still enjoy vast, diverse, sprawling epics. Iñárritu does not shy away from tough topics, tackling illegal immigration, parenting with mental illness, and coming to grips with death. He brings these into sharp focus with an ear for incisive dialogue and an eye for evocative shots. For being such a dark, depressing movie, it contains extremely colorful shots that somehow still maintain a gritty blackness. The acting by Bardem is absolutely incredible. His silent looks, his flashes of anger, holding emotions in and letting rage out, all come together to give us a crystal clear picture of the chaos behind his passing life.

Despite my praise for the thematics and tone of the film, Biutiful can be a little slow. It's about thirty minutes longer than it needs to be. Despite its pace, it is steady in its progression and sure in its footing. The cinematography is too handheld for me, unnecessarily so. I wished the camera would just stop moving every once in a while. They invented tripods for a reason. Also, the nudity in this film seems superfluous and over-the-top. By the end of it, you're just tired of all the breasts. Still, this is a terrific movie. It is refreshing to see that Iñárritu still has important things to say and the talent to say it in prolific ways.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1164999/

The Ides of March (2011)

4/5

George Clooney's The Ides of March is a well-made, high-quality political thriller. Governor Mike Morris (Clooney) is running for president with campaign managers Paul Zara (Hoffman) and Steven Meyers (Gosling). Although Morris seems like an ideal candidate, problems start cropping up when his opponent's campaign manager, Tom Duffy (Giamatti), tells Steven some damaging news in strict privacy. Things get even more complicated when Steven gets romantically involved with a young intern (Wood) who has a few secrets of her own.

Technically, the film is impressive. The Ides of March showcases just about the finest ensemble cast in recent memory, perhaps ever. Although Gosling is billed as the lead, each of the supporting cast delivers stand-out performances so good that it makes Gosling's acting look simple and immature in comparison. While the script has sharp dialogue, it ultimately lacks the originality and creativity to make the story stand out. Clooney's directing, on the other hand, has matured significantly since his debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Instead of flashy filmmaking, he goes for simple, understated techniques to enhance the overall experience. Subtle moves, like close-ups that build tension by gradually getting tighter, show his command of cinematic technique. All the individual parts come together to make a cohesive whole, but nothing jumps out to make me sing its praises. This is a solid film that does one thing well, but there's nothing revolutionary going on here.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1124035/

Breaking Dawn: Part 1 (2011)

1/5

Wow. And I thought the first two were bad (I thankfully "missed out" on the third one). This movie goes over the intricacies and technicalities of vampire weddings, vampire pregnancies, and vampire babies in excruciating, explicit, unexpectedly graphic detail. Quite frankly, the sex scenes and the birthing scenes were truly disturbing affairs that I wish I could unwatch. Everything about this movie is staged, written, and stilted, much like Sharktopus and other B movies. It felt like everyone was putting on a performance for the camera, and nothing about this (admittedly preposterous) fantasy felt believable in any way. The technical aspects were just as laughable as before, with horrendous pacing, poor special effects, and uninspired action. Oh, and very awkward intimacy (with some neonatophilia). Ultimately, I think my biggest frustration is that nothing actually happens during this movie until it actually ends. It's all a bunch of angry outbursts without any climax, without any substance. This isn't just a bad movie; it's an infuriating one. Watch at your own risk.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1324999/

The Vow (2012)

3/5

The Vow tells the ridiculous but apparently true story of a woman (McAdams) who wakes up from a car accident with short term memory loss. She remembers her mom (Lange), her dad (Neill), her sister (McNamee), and her ex-fiancé (Speedman), but not her recently-wed husband (Tatum) and his weird cadre of hipster friends (which is a plus in my book). The rest of the movie is spent trying to restore her memory and win back her love. The script was predictable but appropriately tender. There were scenes with awkward cheesy teen romance and others where we felt intimately close to everything going on.

Much like The Time Traveler's Wife, The Vow is about two imperfect people who do the best they can in an impossible situation. Both tell stories of people who are victims of circumstances beyond their control, whether it's time travel or amnesia, who end up causing pain to the people who love them. McAdams, with that mesmerizing sparkle in her eye, plays to perfection the exact same role she always does: the fiercely independent, slightly selfish artist whose love knows no bounds. The supporting cast, including Tatum, varied between acceptable and above average. Lange stood out the most, delivering a fantastically moving moment near the end of the film.

Although similar in almost all respects to The Time Traveler's Wife, The Vow fell behind in a number of areas. First, its cinematography was nothing to write home about. Second, the medicine was surprisingly less believable than the science of time travel. (I honestly don't think anybody in Hollywood knows what intubation or extubation looks like.) The Vow is a solid romance and a must for fans of Rachel McAdams. But for everyone else, the predictable story and middling technical aspects will leave you wanting more.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606389/

Sharktopus (2010)

1/5

For being an "original Syfy movie," Sharktopus is about as unoriginal as they come. In this bizarre fantasy world, the US Navy has created a shark-octopus hybrid killing machine to keep our waters safe from drug runners, despite that job belonging to the US Coast Guard. When Sharktopus gets loose, Nathan Sands (Roberts) sends his scientist daughter (Lane) with a hunky boat driver (Bursin) to track it down and recapture it while he drinks scotch and video chats. The terrible script is made worse by awful "acting," although I honestly don't know if this monstrosity would be any better with good acting. The more believable performances almost seem out of place. The actors were likely cast for their lack of acting ability, as every word comes from idiots reading a script without realizing "scared" denotes their emotion. The male lead is shirtless most of the movie and seems to enjoy flexing his pecs for our apparent enjoyment, although it comes off as kind of circus freak-ish. Actresses are noticeably sucking in their stomachs in a pitiful attempt to look skinnier on camera. And that brings me to the special effects, which are laugh out loud bad. I think the screenshot I've included in this review insults the movie far more than my words ever could. I really have nothing more to say about that.

To summarize, this is a B monster movie with C actors, D filmmaking, and F special effects. This film was followed by another original Syfy movie, Supergator, which I passed on. I suggest you pass on any original Syfy movie you come across. You can thank me later.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1619880/

J. Edgar (2011)

4/5

Clint Eastwood's biopic of J. Edgar Hoover is a compelling portrait of a unique character in American history. The plot follows the controversial rise of J. Edgar Hoover (DiCaprio) to the director of the FBI--his anti-Communist crusades, criminal forensics, and government blackmail--and then analyzes how those same ideas eventually contributed to his public downfall. It tackles his personal relationships and his political ambition in equal parts, forming a tapestry of contradictions and dichotomies inherent in everybody but rarely projected onto the big screen with such clarity and precision. It chronicles his complex love for his mother (Dench), his secretary (Watts), and his number two man (Hammer) with tenderness and honesty instead of the gaudy spectacle and homophobic fantasies that seem to have incessantly plagued his reputation.

DiCaprio's understated performance is remarkable, providing depth and subtlety alongside rage and hidden feelings. He is able to generate empathy for a hard, rigid, oftentimes unlikeable man. His portrayal serves as the foundation for this phenomenal film. While the supporting cast throws in stellar performances, they quickly fall by the wayside in the grand scheme of things. Without DiCaprio in the lead, J. Edgar would still be a good movie, but it would be a forgettable movie as well.

The movie has its fair share of imperfections. Eastwood did not do enough to lift the screenplay out of its decidedly literary beginnings and translate it to the medium of film. There are often "profound" ramblings by Hoover--unrelated to the images on screen--that were arbitrarily lodged in anytime there wasn't dialogue. The timeline would flip between eras too eagerly, making it difficult to get a sure footing on the time and place of certain events. The cinematography was post-processed too much, giving it an inconsistently old-timey look that felt disingenuous. Minor side characters, like Robert Kennedy and Richard Nixon, were cast to mimic the famous political figures instead of to act as them. They focused on the accent instead of the words and the motivations behind the words. Despite these minor niggles, this is a terrific film and should not be missed.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1616195/

Margin Call (2011)

4/5

Margin Call chronicles the beginning of the recent economic downfall from the point of view of the insiders within Lehman Brothers who first discovered the impending collapse. Although the script occasionally feels repetitive or simplistic, it is sharp, incisive, and filled with thematics that span far more than this particular financial crisis. It is augmented by a spectacular cast with exceptional performances. It's been a while since I've seen Kevin Spacey in such a phenomenal role, and he does not disappoint here. He brings maturity, subtlety, and humility to a towering character. He delivers his lines with precision, power, and nuance.

The director manages to turn the talk-heavy screenplay into a thrilling, energetic film (although perhaps punctuated by a few too many shots of shocked faces). He makes investment banking vernacular exciting, focusing on power plays to allow us to witness experts do what they do best. For me, nothing is as awesome as seeing professionals perform, and we get all that and more in Margin Call. Highly recommended.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1615147/