[REVIEWS] Films: Academy Awards
Jan. 31st, 2011 04:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewlisian_aferMy second set of movie reviews as I prepare for this year's Oscars! One more set to go after this. :)
127 Hours (2010)
From director Danny Boyle comes this harrowing tale of real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco), who literally cuts himself loose from danger -- and lives to tell about it when sliding rock pins his forearm under a boulder during a climb in Utah. To stay alive, Ralston resorts to his basest survival instincts. The film scored Academy Award nominations in the Best Picture and Best Actor (Franco) categories.
I have to admit, I was pretty bored through this whole thing. Even when he was cutting off his own damn arm. Also, I didn't care for some of the director's style choices, and there wasn't really enough backstory to make me give a crap about the guy as a character. James Franco was really good, though. I do have to admit that much. [Rating: 3 stars]
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson), the children of same-sex parents Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore), become curious about the identity of their sperm-donor dad (Mark Ruffalo) and set out to make him part of their family unit, often with hilarious results. But his arrival complicates the household dynamics, and nobody is sure how he fits in -- if at all -- in this Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe-winning comedy.
Oh, the characters. I could spend days thinking about this storyline from the POVs of each different character and never get bored. Possibly my favorite thing, though, was Laser asking his moms why they watch "gay manporn." The explanation is hilarious but not incorrect. I really expected to have more of a problem with this film because -- I don't think this really counts as a spoiler -- Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo have an affair (which is depicted quite explicitly for a non-porn American film). I'm really not a fan of that particular plotline. But for some reason, it worked for me here. The character's whole sexuality wasn't erased and rewritten, and since she talked about the fluidity of human sexuality at one point, it didn't feel forced or uncharacteristic to me. [Rating: 4 stars]
Blue Valentine (2010)
Once crazy about each other, Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) have now grown apart. Cindy is bored and disenchanted with her life while Dean languishes in the emotional emptyness of their sexless, routine life in rural Pennsylvania. As they muddle through their marriage, they hearken back to the golden days when life was filled with possibility and romance. Derek Cianfrance writes and directs this drama.
I liked this movie a lot more than I expected. Actually, I didn't expect to care for it at all and I wound up ... well ... it's hard to describe how I feel about it. I watched it with someone and at the end, my response was something like, "...Huh. I ... liked it?" It was emotionally draining and there were a couple parts that were difficult to watch. It had a lot of moments that made me smile and even laugh but overall it's not an uplifting film. Nevertheless, there were some stellar performances and I liked the ending in the same way I like the ending of Annie Hall and a couple of the storylines in Love Actually. [Rating: 3.5 stars]
True Grit (2010)
After drifter Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) murders her father, 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) hires alcoholic U.S. Marshal Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to help her exact revenge. The disreputable lawman still has grit, though, and mounts an epic search. Joining the duo on their quest is a Texas Ranger (Matt Damon) who's also hunting for Chaney in this updated Western that received multiple Oscar nods, including Best Picture.
I liked this movie a lot more than I expected to, too. It always makes me a little sad to say that about things that I rate three stars, but ... there you have it. I found Matt Damon oddly forgettable. I'm not used to that. Usually even if I don't care for a movie he's in, his character sticks with me. But I think I liked Mattie and Rooster so much that I really overlooked everyone else. Anyway. I definitely wouldn't have picked it for a Best Picture nominee, but it kept me pleasantly entertained and engaged the whole time. [Rating: 3.5 stars]
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
As the son of a Viking leader on the cusp of manhood, shy Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III faces a rite of passage: He must kill a dragon to prove his warrior mettle. But after downing a feared dragon, he realizes that he no longer wants to destroy it. So, he befriends the beast -- which he names Toothless -- much to the chagrin of his warrior father in this Golden Globe-nominated adaptation of Cressida Cowell's children's book.
Well, damn. I liked the story, the characters, the animation, the dragon design, the score... I could probably watch this movie about a hundred times in a row without getting tired of it. It just hit all my animated feature buttons. Everything was just perfect to me. [Rating: 5 stars]
127 Hours (2010)
From director Danny Boyle comes this harrowing tale of real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco), who literally cuts himself loose from danger -- and lives to tell about it when sliding rock pins his forearm under a boulder during a climb in Utah. To stay alive, Ralston resorts to his basest survival instincts. The film scored Academy Award nominations in the Best Picture and Best Actor (Franco) categories.
I have to admit, I was pretty bored through this whole thing. Even when he was cutting off his own damn arm. Also, I didn't care for some of the director's style choices, and there wasn't really enough backstory to make me give a crap about the guy as a character. James Franco was really good, though. I do have to admit that much. [Rating: 3 stars]
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson), the children of same-sex parents Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore), become curious about the identity of their sperm-donor dad (Mark Ruffalo) and set out to make him part of their family unit, often with hilarious results. But his arrival complicates the household dynamics, and nobody is sure how he fits in -- if at all -- in this Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe-winning comedy.
Oh, the characters. I could spend days thinking about this storyline from the POVs of each different character and never get bored. Possibly my favorite thing, though, was Laser asking his moms why they watch "gay manporn." The explanation is hilarious but not incorrect. I really expected to have more of a problem with this film because -- I don't think this really counts as a spoiler -- Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo have an affair (which is depicted quite explicitly for a non-porn American film). I'm really not a fan of that particular plotline. But for some reason, it worked for me here. The character's whole sexuality wasn't erased and rewritten, and since she talked about the fluidity of human sexuality at one point, it didn't feel forced or uncharacteristic to me. [Rating: 4 stars]
Blue Valentine (2010)
Once crazy about each other, Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) have now grown apart. Cindy is bored and disenchanted with her life while Dean languishes in the emotional emptyness of their sexless, routine life in rural Pennsylvania. As they muddle through their marriage, they hearken back to the golden days when life was filled with possibility and romance. Derek Cianfrance writes and directs this drama.
I liked this movie a lot more than I expected. Actually, I didn't expect to care for it at all and I wound up ... well ... it's hard to describe how I feel about it. I watched it with someone and at the end, my response was something like, "...Huh. I ... liked it?" It was emotionally draining and there were a couple parts that were difficult to watch. It had a lot of moments that made me smile and even laugh but overall it's not an uplifting film. Nevertheless, there were some stellar performances and I liked the ending in the same way I like the ending of Annie Hall and a couple of the storylines in Love Actually. [Rating: 3.5 stars]
True Grit (2010)
After drifter Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) murders her father, 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) hires alcoholic U.S. Marshal Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to help her exact revenge. The disreputable lawman still has grit, though, and mounts an epic search. Joining the duo on their quest is a Texas Ranger (Matt Damon) who's also hunting for Chaney in this updated Western that received multiple Oscar nods, including Best Picture.
I liked this movie a lot more than I expected to, too. It always makes me a little sad to say that about things that I rate three stars, but ... there you have it. I found Matt Damon oddly forgettable. I'm not used to that. Usually even if I don't care for a movie he's in, his character sticks with me. But I think I liked Mattie and Rooster so much that I really overlooked everyone else. Anyway. I definitely wouldn't have picked it for a Best Picture nominee, but it kept me pleasantly entertained and engaged the whole time. [Rating: 3.5 stars]
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
As the son of a Viking leader on the cusp of manhood, shy Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III faces a rite of passage: He must kill a dragon to prove his warrior mettle. But after downing a feared dragon, he realizes that he no longer wants to destroy it. So, he befriends the beast -- which he names Toothless -- much to the chagrin of his warrior father in this Golden Globe-nominated adaptation of Cressida Cowell's children's book.
Well, damn. I liked the story, the characters, the animation, the dragon design, the score... I could probably watch this movie about a hundred times in a row without getting tired of it. It just hit all my animated feature buttons. Everything was just perfect to me. [Rating: 5 stars]
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