I’ve seen four movies since being back in the city after Christmas. The Spirit, Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler, and Benjamin Button. Sorry, I refuse to type out the whole name for that snooze fest. Having seen all of these movies, I’m still convinced that they don’t hold a candle to WALL-E and The Dark Knight. Those two summer blockbusters were not only entertaining, they had better stories, and were far more original and daring than any of the (three) critically acclaimed movies listed above.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was something quite different for director David Fincher. Fincher, more known for his crime films like Seven, Zodiac, and Fight Club continues his love affair with Brad Pitt in something completely different. A heart-felt, if not heart-string pulling film with magnificently dull performances. This movie proved to me why no matter how good a story is (and I freakin’ love the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story) or the chances taken by a director not known for this kind of movie can sweep an audience into sheer boredom by the the disinterested acting. I just could not get into Brad Pitt or Cate Blanchett. Perhaps it had something to do with the CGI used with Pitt, but I feel like I’m making excuses for an actor who is way better than this.
Slumdog Millionaire, however, was a lovely modern fairy tale, with terrific music orchestrated by M.I.A and composer A.R. Rahman. I was actually shocked that M.I.A. had anything to do with this music and contributed to this delightful film with a score that was quite different. Considering, M.I.A.’s uber-popular album, is nails on a chalkboard awful. Its just noise, not Slipknot noise, but noise. The film though, like something ripped from National Geographic is beautiful. Which is to be expected with Danny Boyle’s mastery of the Documentary-style directing. This movie is a nice, beautiful gem with characters you fall in love with, and what seems to be a trend in this year’s best movies a departure from the usual Danny Boyle material.
The Wrestler, was fascinating, and I think Mickey Rourke should win for Best Actor, but he probably won’t. Rourke, is just awesome and this movie is subtle, and graphic. Definitely not for the squemish. Just in the fact that after the match they congratulate each other for putting on a good show; a good show being either body slamming someone through a table wrapped in barbed wire or shooting a staple gun at each other. Just kind of disturbing. Rourke gives a terrific performance and I think its about time he gets his due but I think he is seriously going to have a hard time winning against Sean Penn.
The Spirit, heh, that was trash. I mean, I’m kind of glad it did so horrible but its got a quirky charm to it. Its so bad in moments that I couldn’t stop laughing. Well, actually, Samuel L. Jackson has charm no one else does. Jackson is at his loveable weirdest in this movie and if you do see this movie: see it for him. I couldn’t stop laughing at him, but the movie was pretty wretched.
A movie that magnificently under-whelmed me from the trailer was Revolutionary Road. They had a trailer for this movie in virtually every theater we went to in seeing these movies and every time I said: “That looks like the most boring, derivative movie ever. Oh its Sam Mendes! Director of another highly overrated derivative movie: American Beauty.” I mean, who wants to see a movie about a suburban couple and how “trapped” they feel in their lives and their white-picket fenced jail? God, what a knuckle shuffle on the piss pump.
However, none of these movies compare to The Dark Knight or WALL-E–the best movies of the year, I saw. These two are just above and beyond anything else I saw this year.
With Dark Knight, you have an incredible cast all performing well with one of them performing at a level you couldn’t have guessed was him. Seriously, Heath Ledger was taken over by that role, a man possessed. Clearly, but I’m not breaking any new ground with this opinion. Christian Bale, though a stellar actor, and probably the best Batman/Bruce Wayne we’re ever likely to see seemed to know that he wasn’t the star of this show. And his performance wasn’t as good as it should have been. Gary Oldman, however, was what did it for me. He’s such a level-headed calm demeanor to him that his Gordon was a quiet but in moments showed a severity to rival his outlandish counterparts. Faced with a deeply psychological examination of the Joker/Batman fight, Christopher Nolan with his brother Jonathan wrote a masterful screenplay. I seriously think, above anything else, that the screenplay should be nominated for an Oscar. People have their issues with it especially with the final end scene between Harvey and the Gordon family but that end scene affirmed for me what makes a good screenwriter and decent one. For me, I feel like a writer should leave you guessing at the end. Leave you with something to discuss and trying to wrap your head around when you leave that theater. That’s what The Wrestler did really well. This idea is also a dangerous gamble. I’ve seen the movie twice now since Christmas and I still don’t quite understand why Harvey kidnapped Gordon’s family, its not clear to me or why Batman has to go on the run. It doesn’t make sense, but I enjoy the discourse I have in my head in trying to figure it out. Though, why I say this is the best movie of the year is the across the board goodness throughout the movie. Stellar even direction, a really spectacular script that moves fast and never leaves you not entertained, music that haunted and performances from stellar actors and actresses performing at the top or near the top of their game.
WALL-E is the best example of an across the board appeal to adults and their children. People say that about all of Pixar’s films but this one really worked that angle perfectly. You had the exceptionally disturbing political commentary on our over-eating as a race, the destruction of our planet and then you have these two robots fall in love with each other. For me, what I really loved and came away from this movie is the appreciation it was to Charlie Chaplin as a filmmaker. For the first half of the movie there was no dialogue to speak of. The animation, was beautifully detailed and this also testified to another thing I believe about movies. You should walk out of that theater thinking about your current circumstances, but you should do it with a smile on your face and that is a magnificently hard thing to do. WALL-E did that, where I feel like the rest of these top contenders for best movie of the year don’t do it nearly as well.
