Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

4/5

Katheryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty is an intense, visceral experience. It details the decade-long manhunt for Osama Bin Laden following September 11, 2001. The movie is thrilling, but under a premise I find somewhat unsettling. The whole motivation for the film is essentially for us to cheer on the murder of a real human being--this seems disturbing no matter how guilty and deserving that person might be. I felt like a spectator watching gladiators fight to the death--haven't we evolved past that point? If you're able to take that (admittedly large) component out of the equation, then you're left with an exceptional piece of filmmaking.

Kathryn Bigelow takes what she learned from The Hurt Locker and hones her already expert craft to fill Zero Dark Thirty with scenes of tension and dread. Each one is an episodic burst in which you know something bad is going to happen but you don't always know what. Bigelow is able to take that uncertainty and that fear and combine it with efficient editing and sharp cinematography to keep us on the edge of our seat for the entire 2.5 hour runtime. This is in spite of knowing "how it ends" for one simple reason: we were never witness to the inner workings and behind-the-scenes political intrigue that made it happen. We were never witness to the true cost and true sacrifice to get to where we are now.

It is not the most inviting story, or the easiest to discuss, but it is an important one. Bigelow is a filmmaker at the top of her game, who makes it absorbing from beginning to end even while addressing difficult topics like the role of American-led torture and government-sanctioned murder. She has made a uniquely American movie that takes place almost entirely outside of America. But one of her greatest accomplishments is in directing Jessica Chastain.

Chastain gives a phenomenal performance as Maya, the CIA agent who doggedly pursued her lead to the very end and who fought tooth and nail against government doubt. She is fierce, girded by righteous indignation over 9/11, and vulnerable, suffering alone as she loses the people she loved. Make no mistake: this is Chastain's ballgame, and she knocks it out of the park. This is a movie worth watching for her performance alone. You will not be disappointed that you did.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790885/

In the Loop (2009)

4/5

Wow. In the Loop is hilarious. It had me cracking up non-stop with unending vulgarities, random asides, and preposterous situations. The movie is supposedly a political satire--although the story arc itself never really made me laugh--about a group of politicos linked together by the possibility of war. There is Simon Foster (Hollander), who made a statement about the war being "unforeseeable," then flipflopping and suggesting that sometimes we must "climb a mountain of conflict" to reach peace on the other side. There is Karen Clark (Kennedy), who is very much against the war based on a paper recently put out by her aide Liza Weld (Chlumsky). There is Linton Barwick (Rasche), perhaps the funniest of them all, who feels a war is inevitable after receiving compelling but faked evidence from Malcolm Tucker (Capaldi). Linton and Karen both try to use Simon's quotes to defend their side, but even his new aide Toby Wright (Addison) cannot fix the situation. In fact, he ends up making it worse by sleeping with Liza and leaking story after story to a CNN friend.

If the plot sounds too intricate to follow, it's not. The personalities are so well-developed and visually distinct that you remember them and all their mannerisms well after the film has finished. The acting is on point, but I have to give credit to the brilliant, sharp, incisive script. The writing is impeccable. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that had me laughing this hard, sitting in my apartment by myself on a lonely, fateful Sunday afternoon. The editing was also remarkable, as it effortlessly united numerous disparate stories to feel like a single tapestry of chaos. The cinematography, on the other hand, struck me as rather bland, trying to pull off a documentary feel and not really impressing. You don't have to be a politics aficionado to enjoy this film, just someone who appreciates witty dialogue and amazingly unique characters. Highly, highly recommended.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226774/

Where The Wild Things Are (2009)

3/5

Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are is a technical marvel but an emotional disappointment. The plot follows a young, lonely Max (Records) who is unable to express all the feelings he experiences as he grows up. After an argument with his mother, he runs away into the woods and finds himself in the land of the Wild Things. For those who have never read the book (or seen the trailers), the Wild Things are 8 foot tall monsters with gigantic heads. They are without a doubt the stars of the show, with phenomenal costuming and superb computer graphics. They seem so real in every sense of the word; it is an incredible feat of filmmaking prowess.

But the rest of the movie makes very little sense. The lack of a plot makes the 90 minute runtime exhausting and boring instead of engaging and exciting. Most of the characters are relatively unlikable and possess very few redeeming qualities. And what were we supposed to take from the movie? What I did like was how the film was able to conjure up the point of view of a young child who doesn't always get what he wants and doesn't understand why. The sadness on his face when other kids destroy his igloo is genuine and palpable. The way he plays with his mother's stockings when she's working effuses the loneliness he feels. Emotionally, there is much potential but it is never fully explored or satisfactorily concluded. If you like Spike Jonze and don't much care for the content then you will like this movie much more than if you love the book and don't know who Spike Jonze is. Enjoy at your own risk.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386117/

Fallen (1998)

3/5

This movie has some really good elements. The dialogue is witty, oftentimes laugh-out-loud hilarious, and the twist on the narration at the end is ridiculously clever (and without a doubt my favorite part of the entire movie). There are scenes that stand out, like when the demon chases the woman by touching people nearby, or the first confrontation between the demon and Denzel Washington's character.

The acting, music, and cinematography were acceptable, but not exceptional. The characterization was pitiful if not nonexistent. A lot of the plot was hackneyed and/or easy to predict, so the thriller aspect of this movie lost its impact. I felt it lost a lot of steam near the ending, so it was just tedious waiting for the ending. Many people thought the ending was kind of cheap (I don't have too much of a problem with it). But overall, the cool scenes, the twist on narrative, the witty dialogue; it's just not enough to make this movie interesting enough to recommend.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0119099/