Three Movie Reviews - Two New, One Old

In the last seven days, I have seen three movies of note, and it is time to tell you about them.  As always, this post contains NO SPOILERS.

The first movie is probably the first Big Movie of the Fall, and one that will no doubt merit consideration come Academy Award time.  It is David Fincher's "Gone Girl".

This is thriller based upon the enormous best selling novel by Gillian Flynn.  Ms. Flynn wrote the screenplay so it adheres very closely to the novel.  It stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike as Nick and Amy Dunn.  They are an attractive couple, but they have their problems.  The recession of 2008 has cost both of them their jobs, they were forced to move from New York City to Missouri to take care of Nick's dying mother, and strains have developed on their seemingly idyllic marriage.  Then, one morning, Amy disappears and it appears that foul play may be involved.  Did Nick have something to do with it, and just where exactly is Amy?

When I read the book last year, I found it to be a compelling read, but I was struck how unlikable the characters were.  This same feeling carries over into the movie, but the performances of both Affleck and Pike somehow ratchets down the "dislike-ability factor" of Nick and Amy.  Both actors carry off their roles, and, to me at least, they make Nick and Amy more three dimensional than they were in the book.  Ben Affleck is very good as Nick.  I know it's hip in some circles to trash Affleck, but I have pretty much liked him in everything in which I have seen him (and he does have two Oscars sitting on is mantle, by the way). However, it is the performance of Miss Pike that is most deserving of an Oscar nomination.  Just watch her eyes as she goes through this one.  Terrific performance.

Also, some outstanding performances by supporting actors: Carrie Coon and Nick's sister, Kim Dickens as a police detective, Tyler Perry as Nick's defense attorney, and Neil Patrick Harris as a creepy ex-boyfriend of Amy's.  And I love how the movie absolutely skewers the overblown and rush-to-judgement culture of cable television news.

Very good movie.  Four stars from me on this one.

********

I have been a reader over the years of a series of detective novels by Lawrence Block that feature a character named Matt Scudder.  Scudder is a recovering alcoholic ex-cop who now works as an unlicensed private detective.  Good books, and they finally got around to making a movie based upon one of the Scudder novels.

"A Walk Among the Tombstones" is a fairly dark and gritty story.  Liam Neeson stars as Scudder, and it continues the rather interesting movie trend of how in recent years, Neeson, now 62 years old, has reinvented himself as an action movie star.  He's quite good in it, too. The movie also stars Dan Stevens, who may be better known as Matthew Crawley of "Downton Abbey".   Fans of DA may not recognize him here.

The movie is violent and a bit grim, and it will never make anyone's Ten Best List, but if you like two hours of suspenseful action with a bad-ass central figure, you could do a lot worse than watching this one.  Also, if you were a fan of the Block novels, you won't be disappointed with what Hollywood has done to Matt Scudder.  I hope that they make more of them so that some of the other peripheral characters in the books can be portrayed.

********

Finally,  I watched, once again,  the classic 1944 Otto Preminger directed movie, "Laura" last Saturday night on TCM's "The Essentials" series.

This movie is always considered one of the classic  examples of film noir.  Host Robert Osborne said it is perhaps his all-time favorite movie mystery.  The movie begins with a narrator saying a most intriguing line, "I shall never forget the weekend that Laura died."  And it goes from there.

Gene Tierney played the title role, Dana Andrews is the hard boiled police detective who refers to women as "dolls" or "dames", Vincent Price, before he was a horror movie star, plays the handsome gigolo boyfriend of Laura, but the guy who steals the show is Clifton Webb as Waldo Lydecker, the effete yet influential New York newspaper columnist who has taken Laura under his wing and will do anything to protect her.

Essentials hosts Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore noted that Preminger fought to have Webb play this part.  He was a stage actor and this was his first major movie role.  He was terrific in it, and it propelled him into a solid movie career, although he essentially played "Clifton Webb" in every other movie he ever did, but I digress.

Based in part on the commentary of Osborne and Barrymore, I did a little research on "Laura".  Interestingly, the studio wanted different actors in just about every leading part before settling upon Tierney, Andrews, and Webb, and there were no great expectations for this movie.  It was pretty much felt that this was going to be a B-movie when it was released, yet it has gone on to be considered a classic.  Film buffs still point out its flaws, while at the same time praising it.  Classic example, I suppose, of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

And then there is the haunting musical score.  Even if you have never seen the movie, it's probably a good bet  that you know the "Theme form Laura" from this movie.

TCM rightly deems this movie an "Essential", and one every movie fan should see at least once.

"Zero Dark Thirty"

We finally made it out to see "Zero Dark Thirty" yesterday, and wow, what a movie!  As you probably know, this movie is all about the CIA's ten year hunt to track down and take down Osama Bin Laden.  You know how the movie ends, but that doesn't take away from the suspense and the overall excellence of the movie.

As you also may know, the movie has become controversial in its depiction of torture by Americans in interrogating detainees.  Is the movie an "endorsement" of these practices and/or a criticism of the ceasing of such tactics?  Director Katherine Bigelow says it is neither, merely a presentation of events, and the questions may have cost Bigelow a "Best Director" Oscar nomination, but regardless of all of that, this is one terrific movie, and the final 40 minutes or so when the team goes into Pakistan on their mission is fabulous.

Jessica Chastain as Maya, the CIA operative who devotes ten years to tracking down Bin Laden gets my vote for Best Actress Oscar.

Also in the movie is James Gandolfini as the CIA Director ("Leon Panetta" is not named in the movie, but Gandolfini has him down pat).  You may have thought that Gandolfini would be forever typecast as Tony Soprano, and you do remember him in that role, but he is completely believable as the CIA Director.  A small, but terrific performance.

On the subject of snubbed movie directors, did you all notice that Ben Affleck received the Best Director Award as bestowed by the Directors Guild of America two weeks ago?  Also, "Argo" was named Best Picture of the Year by the British Film Institute this weekend.  all signs are pointing to "Argo" winning the Best Picture Academy Award while it's director wasn't even nominated.  

Another Big Night for "Argo"

As it did two weeks ago at the Golden Globe Awards, Ben Affleck's "Argo" was the big winner at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last night.  At the Globes, "Argo" won best picture and, more significantly, Affleck was chosen Best Director, after his snub by the Motion Picture Academy.  Last night at the SAG awards, "Argo" was awarded the "Best Ensemble Acting" award, the SAG equivalent of Best Picture.

And make no mistake, Affleck was definitely snubbed by the Academy.  Last week I heard an interview with Stephen Hunter, former movie critic for the Washington Post.  His thought was that Affleck is generally perceived as a lightweight "pretty boy" actor by many in the Hollywood community, who decided to try his hand at directing, and, lo and behold, he is very good at it and it seems that this is where his true talent lies.  When it came time to nominate for Best Director, many of those directors who struggled through film schools and working their way up via numerous low level behind-the-camera jobs, obviously decided to take it out on Affleck, who they have decreed has had it too easy in his path to being a premier film director.  Makes sense to me.

What does this portend for the Oscars in a few weeks?  My own hunch is that "Lincoln" will win for Best Actor, Daniel Day-Lewis, Supporting Actor, Tommy Lee Jones, and that Steven Spielberg will nail the Best Director prize, but my guess is that the Best Picture award is now a horse race between "Argo" and "Lincoln".  Hey, I loved both movies, but if I had to vote, I would ask myself this question:  which movie am I most likely to watch again and again over the next ten years or so?  If that's the criterion, then I'd have to say "Argo".

The Oscar Nominations....and Snubs

The Oscar nominations announced yesterday are more notable for who was NOT nominated than who was.

"Lincoln" led the way with 12 nominations.  No surprise there.  I'm going to go way out on a limb right now and call a win for Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor.  You don't need to be Nate Silver to call that one.

Next with 11 nominations was "Life of Pi." I have seen the previews to this one several times.  It appears to be about a kid stranded on the ocean in a small rowboat with a wild tiger on board.  Sure, that kind of thing happens all the time.  Kind of like that movie a few years ago where James Franco cut off his own arm.  Nothing in that preview makes me want to see this movie.  Nothing.

The biggest story, as I mention in the title was who did not get nominated.  Big name directors with Best Picture nominated movies did not get a Best Director nomination - Tom Hooper (Les Miserables) , Katheryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), Quenton Tarentino (Django Unchained), and, most regrettably, in my opinion, Ben Affleck (Argo).  I don't get the snub of Affleck.  Seems to me that much of the Hollywood establishment holds it against Affleck that he is popular, once dated Jennifer Lopez and, thus, was a paparazzi target for many years, and he made some poor choices in acting roles (notably, "Gigli") early on in his career.  All I know is that in the past couple of years, he has directed three movies - "Gone, Baby, Gone", "The Town", and "Argo" -  that are among the best movies that I have seen in that time period.

Instead, some guy named Michael Haneke gets nominated as Best Director for a movie named "Amour".  This is a French language movie about an aging couple nearing the end of their lives.  Sounds fun, huh? It doesn't open in Pittsburgh until sometime next month.  I guess that when all is said and done that maybe seven or eight hundred people will actually go and see this movie across the USA.  This is the kind of movie that the Academy showers with nominations every year to prove that it, the Motion Picture Academy, is all about art, and not necessarily about what people actually like to see, and  Ben Affleck misses out on a nomination that he surely deserves.

Lots more on the subject of the Oscars in the weeks to come.

Movie Review: "Argo"

Today we went to see the new Ben Affleck movie, "Argo", and all we both can say is...."Wow!!"

Tremendous movie about the involvement of the CIA in extracting six American embassy workers from Iran during the Hostage Crisis in 1980.  Affleck, who directed the movie, stars as CIA agent Tony Mendez, who comes up with the idea to get these people out of Iran by....well, I'm not going to try to describe it, JUST GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!  I don't think I was able to breath for about the last 20 minutes of the movie.

And remember - this is a true story!  The old maxim of truth being stranger than fiction holds up once again.

Also starring in this movie as a Hollywood producer and a movie make-up artist/CIA "helper" are Alan Arkin and John Goodman, respectively.  Both are great, and old pro Arkin steals every scene he's in.

A word about Ben Affleck.  IMBD lists him as the Director on three feature length movies:  Gone, Baby, Gone (2007), The Town (2010), and now Argo.  Each of these movies have been not just good, but great.  That, movie lovers, is a track record!  From now on, when I see his name on a movie, I'm going to go see it.