The Oscars: What will/should win

Here's my take on what will/should win among the big categories at tomorrow night's Academy Awards... my full list of predictions is here...

Best Picture: No Country For Old Men will win, but its incoherent last thirty minutes ruined it for me. And while Atonement is the best of the nominated films, the real Best Picture is Into the Wild, Sean Penn's generally-overlooked masterpiece.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, for There Will Be Blood, will and should win. He delivered a complex, multi-dimensional character and he carried the film.

Best Actress: Julie Christie, for Away From Her, will probably win. She has the buzz and hasn't take home an Oscar since 1965. I'm okay with any of the nominees winning except for Ellen Page. Her flip, over-the-top performance in Juno was the weakest part of a very funny movie.

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem made for the creepiest bad guy in a long time in No Country For Old Men. He'll win, but I wish there was a way it could be a tie between him and Hal Holbrook for his poignant on-screen performance in Into the Wild.

Best Supporting Actress: It's kind of a toss up, but I'll predict that Tilda Swinton will win for Michael Clayton (a film I generally disliked). I'd like to see Saoirse Ronan, the "evil sister" in Atonement, win. In fact, she'd make a great sidekick for Javier Bardem in something like Still No Country For Old Men. Hmmmm...

What/who do you think will win?

My top 10 films of 2007

#1 - Into the Wild. As writer/director, Sean Penn has created a masterpiece that tells the story of Christopher McCandless (played by the little-known but very talented Emile Hirsch), an upper middle class young man, just graduated from college, who rebelliously opts to donate his savings to charity, leave society and journey to the Alaskan wilderness to become one with nature. The beautifully-filmed story bounces around chronologically to great effect, providing balance to the generally-episodic nature of McCandless' trek. The stories and characters that unfold throughout the episodes add a lot of depth to the film, as do outstanding supporting performances from Vince Vaughn, William Hurt, Catherine Keener and Hal Holbrook, among others. The soundtrack, by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, is haunting.

#2 - The Namesake. An engrossing, character-focused human drama that tells the story of a just-married Indian couple who, in 1977, say goodbye to their family and friends and move to New York City. Soon, the couple starts a family and moves to the suburbs, and the story leaps ahead and focuses on their first-born (played by Kal Penn) and his struggles and conflict balancing his family's Indian traditions amongst his desires to be a "typical American" teenager and young man.  The Namesake offers intriguing insights into Indian culture and customs. This is an epic but intimate film.

#3 - Atonement. A successful adaptation of Ian McEwan's highly-regarded 2001 novel. Powerfully told, Atonement is a classic love story between characters expertly played by Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. The story begins on a hot summer day in 1935 at a British family's country estate. Jealousy, misperceptions and ultimately a false accusation keep the young couple apart until they are reunited five years later during the thick of the Second World War. The film contains brilliant, unique editing and spectacular cinematography, especially during the war scenes. The rich, creatively-told story builds on itself and is quite satisfying.

#4 - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton are reunited in what is arguably their most ambitious filmmaking effort, an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's award-winning Broadway musical. This is a bloody film -- and perhaps the most joyously bloody film I'll ever see! The blood and gore are complemented by gothic, twisted humor and characters who break out in song -- some quite beautiful and touching -- throughout the entire film. Depp and Helena Bonham Carter deliver fantastic performances; other stand-outs in the cast include Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen. Sweeney Todd offers an abundance of both style and substance.

#5 - Knocked Up. A new era in comedy is with us and is in full force! Knocked Up is hilarious, touching and well-made. Writer/director Judd Apatow (whose 2005 film The 40-Year-Old Virgin was good) has finally made a film that's great. Seth Rogan and Grey's Anatomy's Katherine Heigl deliver tender performances as two mismatched people brought together by a one-night stand. There's plenty of goofy, crude humor intermixed in this story, and the overall effect is quite winning. Watch for standout supporting performances by Saturday Night Live's Kristin Wiig and Bill Hader.

#6 - Superbad. Seth Rogan (from Knocked Up) co-writes with Evan Goldberg and the result is an extremely crude comedy that works fantastically. Michael Cera and Jonah Hill deliver strong performances as best friends navigating their last few weeks of high school and their rites of passage. The film is consistently very funny and enjoyably absurd. And it has a sincere heart -- something that most teen comedies don't. Superbad is super good.

#7 - Juno. Wow, 2007 really was a great year for comedies! In the quirky Juno, newcomer Ellen Page offers a sharp, almost-too-witty performance as a suddenly-pregnant 16-year-old. Coming off of 2006's Thank You for Smoking (one of my favorite flicks from 2007), director Jason Reitman balances the film's quirkiness with increasing amounts of warmth and humanity as the movie goes on. Superbad's Michael Cera offers a touching -- and hilarious -- performance as her best friend Paulie Bleeker. Other strong supporting performances come from Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner and The West Wing's Allison Janney.

#8 - King Corn. An entertaining and important documentary about the U.S. agriculture industry, focusing on two friends who move to the nation's heartland to learn where their food comes from. They grow an acre of corn on Iowa soil and then follow their pile of corn into the food system. Along the way, what they find raises troubling questions about what we eat, how we farm and why we are farming the way we are. This well-crafted documentary also addresses the inhumane treatment of animals on factory farms.

#9 - The Kite Runner. Adapted from Khaled Hosseini's 2003 novel of the same name, The Kite Runner spans several decades and focuses on the 1970s pre-Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and the 1990s Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.  Rich in its visuals and panoramic shots, the film offers a touching story of two boys growing up in different social classes, with a focus on friendship, betrayal for the sake of acceptance, and -- two decades later -- redemption.

#10 - Year of the Dog. In this unconventional comedy-drama, Molly Shannon (from Saturday Night Live, 1995-2001) stars as a woman living a simple life with a simple job, a simple house and a simple dog, a beagle named Pencil, who she adores immensely. Her simple life turns upside-down, though, when Pencil dies of a very sudden illness. This unpredictable film is about the woman's life transformation. It offers quirky, offbeat, dry humor along the way. Shannon delivers a surprisingly remarkable dramatic performance. Peter Sarsgaard is a stand-out in a strong supporting cast.

Honorable mentions go to: The Bourne Ultimatum, The Brave One, Charlie Wilson's War, The Lives of Others, Once, No Country for Old Men and The Savages.

"The Savages" depicts a little slice of life

My freelance review:

Real life, without glamour, plays out in The Savages, a new film starring Academy Award nominee Laura Linney and Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Linney and Hoffman are middle-aged, bickering siblings brought together when their estranged, elderly father exhibits advanced dementia and can no longer care for himself. Linney's character, a struggling writer in New York City, relocates to Buffalo, where Hoffman's character teaches college. They relocate their father to there from across the country.

The story delves into the sibling's somewhat empty lives and their attempts to care for a man they barely know. The film doesn't take any cheap shots. Director and screenwriter Tamara Jenkins keeps the tone and focus of the film consistent. Linney and Hoffman deliver strong performances and stay true to their characters throughout.

This film depicts a little slice-of-life. It's not overly-dramatic. It offers little bits of humor here and there. It doesn't pretend to say what life is all about or anything like that.

Like real life, it just is what it is.

I highly recommend The Savages.

Two new films offer depictions of Afghanistan

My freelance review of two new films:

Afghanistan is front-and-center in two enlightening new films, The Kite Runner and Charlie Wilson's War.

Kite Runner, adapted from Khaled Hosseini's 2003 novel of the same name, spans several decades and focuses on the 1970s pre-Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and the 1990s Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

Charlie Wilson, also adapted from a 2003 book (Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History, by George Crile) focuses on the 1980s efforts of a Texas congressman (played by Tom Hanks) to convince the CIA to increase covert military funding to help a savaged Afghanistan fight the Soviets.

Each film does a great job integrating rich characters into their stories.

Kite Runner is the fictional story of Amir, a well-to-do boy growing up in Kabul, the largest city in Afghanistan. His best friend is Hassan, his father's servant's son. Early on, the film focuses on their friendship -- including their kite flying activities -- and Amir's ultimate betrayal of Hassan for the sake of acceptance by his own father. Years later, after having fled Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion, Amir returns to Kabul and faces the atrocities of the Taliban reign in an effort to redeem himself.

An all-star cast powers Charlie Wilson. Along with Hanks as the playboy congressman with an extraordinary mind, Julia Roberts plays Wilson's anti-communist friend and romantic interest and Philip Seymour Hoffman is a CIA blue-collar operative who, with the Hanks and Roberts characters, travels the world to form unlikely political alliances.

The two films are quite different in style. Kite Runner is slower-moving and rich in its visuals and panoramic shots (courtesy of director of photography Roberto Scheafer). Charlie Wilson offers fast-paced dialog (courtesy of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin) and a fair amount of character humor.

One thing about Charlie Wilson, though: To fully grasp many of the nuances of its story, there's a bit too much assumed familiarity of all of the political players and events leading up to the end of the Cold War.

Directors Marc Forster (Kite Runner) and Mike Nichols (Charlie Wilson) deliver powerful films. Especially together, these two films do a good job depicting an ever-so-relevant slice of world history.

"Sweeney Todd" is a delicious treat

My freelance review:

With Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton are reunited in what is arguably their most ambitious filmmaking effort. (Depp and Burton previously worked together on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sleepy Hollow, Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands.)

Sweeney Todd is quite the escape. It's set in a Victorian-era London downtown with characters whose costumes and surroundings feel right out of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Any similarities to A Christmas Carol end there, though!

For this is a bloody film -- and perhaps the most joyously bloody film I'll ever see! The blood and gore are complemented by gothic, twisted humor -- and characters who break out in song -- some quite beautiful and touching -- throughout the entire film.

Adapted from Stephen Sondheim's award-winning Broadway musical, Sweeney Todd is the story of a man (Depp, in the title role) who is unjustly sent to prison and who -- upon his release -- vows revenge for that and for what happened to his wife and young daughter while he was imprisoned.

Todd reopens his barber shop -- and let's just say his knives are plenty sharp. Helena Bonham Carter plays Mrs. Lovett, owner of a restaurant under the barber shop that serves "meat pies" to its customers. Todd and Lovett join forces. Given the dark humor of the story, I'll leave things to your imagination at this point!

Depp and Bonham Carter deliver fantastic performances. Other stand-outs in the cast include Alan Rickman as Todd's arch-nemesis, the corrupt judge, and Sacha Baron Cohen (who played the title role in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan) as a rival barber.

Overall, there is an abundance of style to this film, and fortunately there is also plenty of substance from the story and the music.

This holiday season, let yourself be taken away by Sweeney Todd. And think twice before eating any meat pies.

"Juno" delivers plenty of laughs

My freelance review:

In the new movie Juno, the title character is a 16-year-old high school student who is witty, quirky and snappy.

And newly-pregnant. And as she ponders her situation, she remains witty, quirky and snappy.

I struggled a bit to accept that anyone -- let alone a 16-year-old! -- would behave this way given the gravity of the situation.

Despite this flaw, though, Juno manages to please. Director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking -- reviewed here) maintains a consistently quirky tone to the film, and overall there are a great number of laughs that come about. In fact, when I saw this film in November at a sold-out screening at the St. Louis Film Festival, the audience was roaring with laughter.

And as the film goes on, the main character's hip demeanor is increasingly balanced by intermittent moments of warmth and humanity. As Juno, young actress Ellen Page exhibits good range.

There are also a number of strong supporting performances -- in particular, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as the prospective adoptive couple and Allison Janney (The West Wing) as Juno's mother.

Another plus for the film is that its story plays out in a way that isn't completely predictable.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed Juno. It's tone may take a little bit of getting used to, but it is worth seeing as a good and sometimes touching comedy.

Juno is playing in select cities. It starts Friday, Dec. 21 in St. Louis.

Great DVD movie watching opportunity

Do yourself a favor and rent the little-seen film The Namesake, which comes out Tuesday on DVD. The Namesake, adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, follows two generations of an Indian family living in America. It's a great human drama -- both epic and intimate. Check out my full review here.

"Into the Wild" takes you away

My freelance review:

The new film Into the Wild continues to be on my mind, almost ten days after seeing it.

As writer/director, Sean Penn has created a masterpiece. Adapted from Jon Krakauer's best-seller, Into the Wild tells the story of Christopher McCandless (played by the little-known but very talented Emile Hirsch), an upper-middle-class young man, just graduated from college, who rebelliously opts to donate his savings to charity, leave society and journey to the Alaskan wilderness to become one with nature.

And what a journey McCandless has! South Dakota, Arizona, Alaska, Mexico, California... the authentic and scenic locations come to vivid life thanks to cinematographer Eric Gautier, who produces some of the most beautifully captured pictures I have ever seen.

The story bounces around chronologically to great effect, providing balance to the generally-episodic nature of McCandless' trek. The stories and characters that unfold throughout the episodes add a lot of depth to the film. Through flashbacks and narration by McCandless' younger sister, we observe the dysfunctional relationship between McCandless and his parents, played by Marcia Gay Harden and the always-terrific William Hurt. It's interesting, in contrast, observing McCandless with the sweet, caring hippee woman (played by the endearing Catherine Keener) who provides a type of maternal relationship to him, and then later in the film with an Army retiree (tenderly played by Hal Holbrook) serving as his surrogate father.

And it's in such relationships that we see the ever-so-philosophical McCandless coming to life. At one point in his travels, he develops a buddy relationship with a farmer played by Vince Vaughn (demonstrating a considerably wider acting range than his typical film roles allow). McCandless also bonds with a talented young woman (played by Kristen Stewart) living in a California desert RV camp that attracts non-conformists and vagabonds. He takes to making music with her; a touching, soothing moment in the film has the two of them singing to the desert commune the John Prine song "Angel in Montgomery."

Also contributing to the overall mood of the film is the powerful soundtrack by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder. His songs are haunting and fit the movie perfectly.

There's great appeal to watching this film. Beyond the acting, the cinematography, the editing, the music, the mood -- all of which are great -- there's something more. Perhaps deep down, at some point or another, each of us has had a desire or an impulse to run away, perhaps to leave civilization, to push our lives in another direction. Few of us, for various reasons, ever do. Witnessing the story of someone who has made this happen, I found an utter fascination to observe and to study -- and, for a few hours, to allow myself to be taken away.

I don't expect to find a better, more engaging film this year than Into the Wild.

"The Brave One" executes with ease

My freelance review:

Charles Bronson would be proud.

In the new film The Brave One, it's two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster in a story that's quite reminiscent of Bronson's 1974 Death Wish.

Foster's character, Erica Bain, is the personality behind a melancholic talk radio program that depicts the darker aspects of a moody, personified New York City. As the movie begins, we see and hear this program but only in stark contrast to the happiness of Bain, deeply in love with her fiance, David (well-played by Nadeem Andrews of TV's Lost).

Within the first 10 or 15 minutes of the film, though, Bain's world is turned upside down when she and her fiance are brutally and viciously attacked by several thugs in Central Park.

How Bain carries on in her world turned upside down is the story being told in The Brave One.

Foster carries the movie with ease. She brings a depth to the role of Bain that easily solicits empathy from the viewer. Bain is pretty much walking through life unsettled throughout most of the film -- and this unsettledness triggers a lot of suspense and more than a few jolts and surprises.

Another big plus for the movie is Terrance Howard (2006 Academy Award nominee for Hustle & Flow) as a detective investigating a rash of recent vigilante-style killings.

At the end of the day, The Brave One is clearly big-budget Hollywood entertainment. While it may not get strong marks for originality, it does get strong marks for execution -- in more ways than one.

Let's hear it for the "Dog"

My freelance review:

Year of the Dog is a new movie opening wide (including the St. Louis metropolitan area) in a few weeks. This is an early review.

Dog stars Molly Shannon (from Saturday Night Live, 1995-2001) as Peggy, a woman living a simple life with a simple job, a simple house and a simple dog, a beagle named Pencil, who she adores immensely.

Peggy's simple life turns upside-down, though, when Pencil dies of a very sudden illness.

Knowing this about the film, it may come as a surprise that Dog is also quirky, off-beat and full of dry humor -- much like life itself. The rest of the movie follows Peggy and what is ultimately a life transformation for her.

This is not a predictable film. Released under the "Paramount Vantage" specialty-film division of Paramount Pictures, Dog is a ultimately quite the treat. It has its messages and it doesn't hesitate to tell them. But it does so in a way that ultimately works.

Strong credit for the success of the film goes to Shannon. This may end up being her career breakthrough role. She could have easily played her character with quite a bit of goofiness -- this is, of course, the actress who was hilarious on SNL as Monica Lewinski opposite frequent host John Goodman's Linda Tripp! Instead, here Shannon delivers what I interpret as a dramatic performance.

Her character of Peggy -- reeling from having lost her canine companion, her best friend -- plays it very straight and dry against a number of off-beat eccentric characters, played by John C. Reilly, Laura Dern and Regina King.

A stand-out supporting performance comes from Peter Sarsgaard, a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, as an animal activist who shows concern for Peggy and helps her.

First-time director Mike White (writer of Chuck & Buck, Nacho Libre and The School of Rock) seems intent to take the viewer into the world as seen by Peggy. Many of the camera shots are taken from Peggy's direct perspective. The unconventional camera work fits nicely in what is essentially an unconventional film.

If you are a dog lover, see this unconventional film.

If you like good movies, see this unconventional film.

'Namesake' is both epic and intimate

My freelance review:

The Namesake is the kind of movie that I wish we would see more of: An engrossing, character-focused human drama with an appealing and entertaining story.

In this day and age of big-budget, mainstream movies overly-reliant on computer-generated characters and effects -- too often at the expense of focus paid on a core story -- it's refreshing to find a movie that revolves around character and story -- and delivery.

Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, Namesake tells a story of a just-married Indian couple who, in 1977, say goodbye to their family and friends and move to New York City where the husband, Ashoke, has a new job. The wife, Ashima, keeps house and adjusts to life in a tiny apartment.

Soon, the couple starts a family and moves to the suburbs, and the story leaps ahead and focuses on their first-born -- a son named Gogol -- and his struggles and conflict balancing his family's Indian traditions amongst his desires to be a "typical American" teenager and young man.

As Ashoke and Ashima, Irfan Khan and Tabu deliver stunning, understated performances. Kal Penn (Kumar from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) shines as Gogol transitioning through phases of his young adulthood.

Namesake is quite effective dealing with aspects of culture. It offers intriguing insights into Indian culture and customs, and when U.S. and Indian customs clash, there is humor but not the kind of looniness offered by My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Ultimately, this is an epic -- but intimate -- film. There's a lot to reflect on from the overall story and the way that director/producer Mira Nair tells it. That is helped, by the way, from some of the most beautiful and powerful cinematography I've seen in a long time (credit to Frederick Elmes) as well by Stephanie Carroll's respectful production design details.

On a side-note: This film makes me want to visit India and experience what it has to offer -- which, I think, is in keeping with the film's general themes of seeing, living and being.