 It’s the finals!! Are you pumped? Because I’m pumped! We have watched and voted for our favorite stars the past 10 weeks and now we are down to the final 3. Ricki Lake, J.R. Martinez and Rob Kardashian are the celebrities fighting the Mirror Ball Trophy. On this night of competition the stars have to perform and individual dance and then go into the famous freestyle round. The freestyle is usually the dance that determines who will win the competition. Who do you think will be the last star standing? Let’s review.
Read more on Dancing with the Stars: The Finals!…
Is Spielberg the greatest living director?
In my upcoming book, Steven Spielberg: American Film Artist, I make the argument that Spielberg has evolved into not only one of the greatest modern directors, but just might be the greatest film director in film history. Nominated a record ten times for the Directors Guild of America (DGA), he has won that award three times, thereby earning the respect of his fellow directors. Yet the Academy has nominated him just six times for Best Director, with two wins, often leaving him bewildered and stunned by the rejection of a business he so loves, and now so dominates.
Often seen as t he young man with the childlike innocence, which often transferred to his work, he saw everything in the world through the eyes of a child and like a child who has been the outside looking in, so wanted to belong to the film world. Frequently the beach house rented by Margot Kidder in Malibu in the seventies, was filled on a Sunday afternoon with the hottest young directors in movies. One might wander in and find Francis Ford Coppola discussing his latest idea with Brian de Palma, while across the room Martin Scorsese, in a three piece white suit was talking to George Lucas, while, distant and shy, socially awkward, Spielberg sat on the outside watching, waiting to be taken into their world. Absorbing everything around him, the talk, the ideas, and slowly growing up he would be recognized in coming years for his unique story telling skills and remarkable technical skill behind the camera. More than any of those directors sitting in the room of that beach house, he understood the American audience, and seemed to possess an innate understanding of the emotion they needed in their films.
Read more on Spielberg – The Greatest?…
 Jeremy Irons gave one of my favorite Oscar acceptance speeches. Upon winning Best Actor for his shrewd performance as Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune, he gave a very special penultimate acknowledgement: “Thank you also, and some of you may understand why…thank you David Cronenberg.” Those who had seen Dead Ringers just two years earlier understood exactly why he had thanked the director, as his dual performance as twin gynecologists Beverly and Elliot Mantle is – without exaggeration – one for the ages.
Irons plays both twins with such specificity that after only a few minutes it becomes obvious which one is Elliot and which one is Beverly, even when one of them is pretending to be the other. Both deeply nuanced portrayals of these characters draw out two sides of what amounts to essentially the same person – men who complete each other yet are undone by their own unbearable closeness. Read more on Historical Circuit: Dead Ringers (****)…
 One of the joys in watching a Werner Herzog film is the fact that he seeks out topics and subjects that are so uniquely interesting. His recent work includes the storied “Grizzly Man”, which introduced us to the fascinating Timothy Treadwell, who famously spent summers living in the wilderness alongside grizzly bears; bears who would eventually take his life. Herzog traveled to the remote world of Antarctica and documented the lives of a disparate group of people who live and work in the Southernmost continent on Earth in “Encounters At The End Of The World”. Earlier in 2011, Herzog released “Cave Of Forgotten Dreams” and was granted incredible and stringent access to the Chauvet Cave in southern France, which was uncovered for the first time in 1994 and contains countless drawings, paintings, and hieroglyphics. So, with other documentaries in Herzog’s career covering subjects as diverse as a Vietnam War prisoner’s escape (Little Dieter Wants To Fly), Russian mysticism (Bells From The Deep), and the inventor of a teardrop-shaped aircraft (The White Diamond), the notion of Herzog covering a topic as straightforward as capital punishment is something of a bold move for this truly unconventional filmmaker.
Read more on Into The Abyss (***½)…
 This week we have one really good film coming out along with a whole host of decent fare to go with it. Quantity wise, we’re on as good a ground as ever with the selections on Blu-Ray and DVD. Quality wise, it’s about the middle in terms of what we’re used to. The top pick this week is real good, one of my top 20 of the year so far, so that’s a real plus in my book. It hasn’t gotten the attention that I expected it would as the season has progressed, but I’m about to do my part to change that. What is this particular film that gets my nod as the PICK OF THE WEEK this time around? Well, it’s a real throwback of a flick and one of the better treats of this past summer. It’s:
Super 8
A loving homage to the early works of Steven Spielberg, writer/director J.J. Abrams found a way to worship at the alter of one of his major influences while still making a film that stands on its own. It has this purity to it that I figured would make Academy voters swoon. I’m not sure that they won’t still honor it in some way, but i seems like they’ve somewhat forgotten about this period monster movie. It’s still extremely well made and a whole lot of fun. The monster isn’t quite as thrilling as in Cloverfield, but that’s hardly a big deal for me. This was one of the most enjoyable films of the year, and now that it’s out on DVD, it’s well worth picking up for everyone.
Read more on Joey’s DVD Picks of the Week (11/22/11)…
Scorsese's "Hugo" is one of the year's best films.
HUGO
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Any Scorsese film is an event even if the reality is that throughout his career though he has directed some undeniable masterpieces, he has also been guilty of being among the more inconsistent directors in America. While Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995), The Aviator (2004) and The Departed (2006) are great films there are those in between that are in many cases, average. There is a magnificent scope and rage to Gangs of New York (2002) and a stunning performance from Daniel Day-Lewis, but the film is not the masterpiece many including producer Harvey Weinstein were looking for when they financed the film for Scorsese. I suppose what it is with Scorsese is that when he’s good he’s the best there has ever been, but not every film is a great work, something he himself makes clear when being interviewed. Despite a masterful performance from Ellen Burstyn, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) is only a good film, not a great one, and New York, New York (1977) is a flawed work if there ever was one, marred by an annoying De Niro performance. Though now appreciated as a brilliant film, The King of Comedy (1983) is often uneven, however cautionary, despite a wonderful Jerry Lewis performance and some strong De Niro work. I cannot confess to being a fan of After Hours (1984) but admired The Color of Money (1986) for what it was, a vehicle for Paul Newman to win an Oscar, and the first real indication Tom Cruise could indeed act. Cape Fear (1991) has a terrifying De Niro performance and was made much darker by Scorsese, and Casino (1995) despite initial reactions being Goodfellas Goes to Vegas is much more appreciated now than it was upon release. His passion project, the beautiful Kundun (1997) has some glorious moments, stunning images and powerful music, but seems to disconnected form the Scorsese filmography.
Read more on Hugo (****)…
Categories: Film Reviews Tags: 2011 releases, asa butterfleld, ben kingsley, chloe grace moretz, Chloe Moretz, howard shore, Hugo, John Logan, Martin Scorsese, Oscar contenders, thelma schoonmaker
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Log in with
|
It’s the finals!! Are you pumped? Because I’m pumped! We have watched and voted for our favorite stars the past 10 weeks and now we are down to the final 3. Ricki Lake, J.R. Martinez and Rob Kardashian are the celebrities fighting the Mirror Ball Trophy. On this night of competition the stars have to perform and individual dance and then go into the famous freestyle round. The freestyle is usually the dance that determines who will win the competition. Who do you think will be the last star standing? Let’s review.
