I just recently heard about this new up and coming film community “Letterboxd”, and from what I can tell it looks to be an incredible site. Unfortunately at the moment it remains to be a private site and someone must be invited to get in, but I would love to hear anyone’s thoughts who knows literally anything about this site, I am very intrigued.

Not but ten years after her feature debut and Hepburn is acting like a true Hollywood star. What’s to be said about Charade that hasn’t already been said before? It’s a Hitchcock-like thriller (with a lot of comedy, too) filled with nothing but twists and turns until the grand finale. Just the way I like ‘em!

Regina “Reggie” Lambert (Audrey Hepburn) is taking a fun little skiing trip to wash away her problems, and has intentions of divorcing her husband when she returns home, but when she gets there she is only to find that he has been murdered. she is called to the U.S. Embassy where she learns that her husband was part of a theft taking 250,000 dollars from the government. She doesn’t know where it is, and with three strangers coming after her she has nowhere to go. But with the help of her new friend, Dyle (Cary Grant) she will stop at nothing to find the money, and the truth.

Oh, what a delightful film! Charade is just what I needed right now. As a movie buff often I find the dramatic, intelligent, and ambitious movies the most fun to watch, but sometimes it’s so much fun to just turn my brain off and have a good time. Charade brilliantly manages an easy to follow yet intelligent and entertaining film (they are hard to come by, ya know?).

Grant and Hepburn have easy chemistry that you won’t see too often in today’s time, both delivering funny and enjoyable performances. Charade is just one of those films that when you’re feeling blue, it is the perfect film.

9/10

 Note: For a little while I am going to try to keep my reviews 300 words or lower. It’s so hard to make them short sometimes, and taking this as a challenge will help my writing and critiquing skills, only highlighting the important parts in a film, instead of mindlessly running over the entire thing.

Even though I have several classics just waiting to be reviewed, I always end up at the local cinema to see something else before I get the chance. This week it was The Artist, which as you probably already know by now was a real treat. But the question everyone wants to know is where does The Artist stand against the best of the year?

As of now The Artist would rank among my favorites of the year (top 10 easily) but certainly not my favorite. Written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius, we all know he was daring enough just to make a silent movie; however, to be deserving of the Best Original Screenplay award everyone thinks he is going to win, I would have liked a bit more of an ORIGINAL story. 50/50 deserved to be nominated more. Other than the fact that I could pick the story apart before the plot unfolded, I loved everything about The Artist. A stunning film, that for the most part earned its praise.

George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a loved silent film star that just cannot seem to do anything wrong with his pictures, but his whole life changes the day his newest movie, A Russian Affair, premiers. After the film is over (receiving praise of course) Valentin is posing for the Press when a young lady, Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) is accidentally pushed into Valentin, and for show he goes along with it as the Press go wild with their pictures. The next day Miller is everywhere on every newspaper that is constantly asking the question “Who is she?”.

With a little help from Valentin, Miller quickly gets a signing job with Kinograph Studios (the studio Valentin works for) and she slowly climbs the charts to becoming the “next big thing”. But as this continues the idea comes out to put sound in movies, and everyone involving the film industry loves it, except Valentin. This marks the end of silent cinema, and possibly the end of this legend’s career.

Right, like I said, the only thing new in The Artist is the fact that there is no sound throughout the film (which might I add is entirely a breath of fresh air). The story is old news, and the length is fairly short. Considering I went in to the theater blind I had no idea what I was going to see, so with the Original Screenplay nod I did think there would be more originality to it.

With that being said, the acting and directing more than make up for that tiny little problem. Jean Dujardin is an absolute delight, his facial expressions are hilarious and believable, maybe not worthy of a Best Actor win, but undeniably worthy of the nomination. Berenice Bejo is fantastic as well, the perfect casting choice. There were also enjoyable performances from the supporting cast, including the always funny John Goodman. Well, always is a strong word.

In all honesty, despite thinking The Artist may be a little overrated by some, Michel Hazanavicius probably deserves to win Best Director, though I do want Scorsese to take the crown. The fact that Hazanavicius even decided to make this film just shows how truly talented he is, to be frank, most directors today wouldn’t have the chops, and I applaud Hazanavicius for that.

Final Word – I stood out in weather below freezing for a solid fifteen minutes in a short sleeve t-shirt to get tickets to The Artist. It was all worth it.

9/10

When I first heard that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was starring in a drama/comedy about a man who has just learned he has cancer, well let’s just say I knew we had cinematic gold coming to theaters. I was right to a certain degree. Not only was 50/50 touching, moving, fantastic, brilliantly acted, but it even exceeded my expectations. It is so rare in today’s time that we actually find a comedy that has a heart, they are often nothing more than vulgar trash that never have meaning whatsoever, yet still fail to entertain, then 50/50 came along.

Adam Lerner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a perfectly healthy 27-year-old man, until one day at a Doctor’s visit he learns that he has been diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer, and it is a mystery to both him and the medical staff as to how he has even gotten it. At first with the help of his best friend, Kyle (Seth Rogen) and his girlfriend, Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) Adam is optimistic about his fifty percent chance of survival, but when Kyle finds Rachael cheating on Adam his whole life begins to go down hill.

Now as Adam must try to find some happiness he reluctantly begins sessions with a young Therapist, Katharine (Anna Kendrick) who is actually still working on getting her doctorate. It’s a rough few sessions, but after a while Adam opens up to Katharine as they start an unlikely friendship.

It is a simple story with simple characters, the film succeeds so incredibly on how Will Reiser (making his writing debut, I might add) takes the simplicity of his story and makes it something more. As the audience not only do we care about the conflict surrounding the characters, but we truly care about the characters as well, that is a sign of fine writing, a piece of art that is certainly deserving of an Oscar nod.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Oh hey, did ya hear? He is directing a movie!) is absolutely fantastic in his often funny, and at times heart breaking performance. The first film I ever saw with him was Angels in the Outfield, and since then he has always impressed me, but here he reaches new heights. One of my favorite performances of the year.

Seth Rogen is not bad either, a surprisingly funny performance coming from him, especially as I hate almost everything he does. Anna Kendrick was the real gem though, not only is she beautiful but she gave a very worthy and realistic performance, I believed every single bit of it. Geez I hope she can get away from Twilight.

Final Word – Hugo still has the crown for my favorite of the year, but let me tell you 50/50 is darn close. In an age where comedies straight up suck, 50/50 is a modern classic.

10/10

While the Ides of March was a very solid entry into the political thriller genre (and of course just more proof that Clooney is one great director), I cannot help but be disappointed by it. The good news is before starting the film I entirely understood that it was a work of fiction, I know many people hated how it wasn’t actually giving the audience any insight into a true story, so I luckily avoided that problem by reading plenty of reviews before viewing the film. But really, The Ides of March isn’t a particularly flawed film, it’s just after hearing so many incredible  things about it, when the credits rolled I had a bit of a “that’s it?” response to the film. It was good, not great.

Mike Morris (George Clooney) Democratic presidential candidate with a decent lead against Arkansas Senator, Ted Pullman. The current campaign is in Ohio and if Pullman can catch a win he has a serious shot at running Morris down. However, if Morris is able to win then the nomination will be locked. Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) is a Deputy Campaign Manager who is working for Morris.

Meyers is about as innocent as a man can be in his position, but his whole life and the campaign begin to fall apart when he makes one bad decision. Pullman’s campaign manager calls a meeting in secret with Meyers and offers him a job working under Pullman. After he rejects, it does not take Meyers long to realize how bad of an idea it was for him to go to that meeting.

That was possibly the worst excuse for a plot description I have ever dared to post on here; I am desperate and short on time, you see. Clooney lacks ambition in The Idea of March, but where he succeeds is his screenplay, mixing an uncommonly intelligent script with characters that the audience will be interested in. Take that and add a bit of Ryan Gosling and you have a movie that will at least somewhat work on its own.

Like always, Gosling takes control of the screen. He out shines Mr. Clooney and any other actor in the film. I would argue Gosling a spot as the finest actor working in Hollywood today under the age of forty (and I am sure i’m not the only one who feels that way). I could compliment the supporters all day (Seymour Hoffman, Clooney, Giamatti) but they really don’t matter; Gosling is the focus and he carries the film without the help of anyone else.

Final Word – Entertaining, smart, well-acted. If you like political thrillers watch The Ides of March, if you don’t then stay away. Personally, I love them.

8/10

Gosh, with all the school work and actual work I have at the moment there just doesn’t seem enough time to fit the blogging in; this absolutely MUST change. And I realize I have not been commenting as much or been involved as much the past week or two, that will change as well. So I decided to write a post that doesn’t involve much writing (sorry, laziness, I know) and give my list of the films I think I will enjoy the most this year. Hope you enjoy!

In no particular order:

The Avengers

The Secret World of Arrietty

The Amazing Spider-Man

The Bourne Legacy

Skyfall

The Great Gatsby

Paradise Lost

The Hunger Games

Lincoln

Brave

World War Z

Django Unchained

Gravity

The Expendables 2 (I have to see it, even if I didn’t care much for the first)

Prometheus

Being Flynn

Flowers of War

The Lorax

The Raven

Cloud Atlas

Star Trek 2

Nero Fiddled

The final two films being my most anticipated are quite obvious, but without a doubt they look to be the best of these.

#2 The Dark Knight Rises

#1 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Now here’s the catch. I am going to make this a challenge, one to see every single film on this list. Soon I will have a separate page for the list alone, and every time I see one of these films (and review them) it gets scratched off the list. Sound fun enough?

Shoot. It has been a really long time since I had such difficulty placing a rating on a movie. Chronicle is just that kind of film. I actually, believe it or not, never even saw a trailer before going in to the theater, the poster looked cool and the fact that a 26-year-old , Josh Trank, made his directorial debut was too much for me to pass up.

Andrew (Dan Dehaan) is an unusual and unpopular high school student with a dying mother and a drunken, abusive father. Matt (Alex Russell) is the intelligent Plato reading cousin of Andrew, who is constantly trying to get him to break out of his comfort zone and meet new people and make new friends. Steve (Michael B. Jordan) is a charming Senior running for class President, and good friends with Matt. These three high school student’s lives don’t seem anything but ordinary, until special night arrives that changes them forever.

Matt convinces Andrew to come to a party, though when arriving Andrew does nothing but video tape the whole time. Being mistreated by several different people at the party, Andrew walks out to sit alone by a tree when he is approached by a very excited Steve, claiming that he and Matt have made an incredible discovery.

There is some sort of mysterious, giant hole in the ground, and when Andrew shines his light into it they cannot see the bottom. Well no one could live their life without going down, so it appears they have but no other option. As they continue down it comes to their attention that this is far more than a deep hole, it is literally a long tunnel. What next? To proceed, of course. Now this may sound like some sort of spoiler, but it isn’t, I promise. There comes a room which contains a very large, alien-like thing (seriously, “thing” is about the only word in my vocabulary I knew to use at this time) and while studying it something crazier than anyone’s mind has ever reached happens. Well, that was a tad bit of an over statement, but you get the idea.

The screen cuts black, then flashes on to the next day. The three have strange telekinesis powers that only appear to be growing as days pass by. This bonds them together, making them the closest of friends, until… oh! I suppose I should just let you watch the movie!

I’ll say this: the first half was a heck of a lot more funny than almost ANY comedy that comes out these days. I hate how in most super hero films, when the heroes get their powers the typical reaction is “Oh… that’s cool. Let me go save the world.” But not here, thankfully. It’s quite hilarious really, I connected so well with the characters and their responses to their incredible powers. It was a delight to watch.

Then Chronicle goes down a far different, darker path. I won’t go into detail, but for me it was in a sense like looking at a food I’ve never tasted and imagining of what is tastes like, but when I actually put it in my mouth it is completely different. The initial shock while not bad, is extremely hard to get over. Just be warned. In his debut Trank tries to make his mark by throwing twists, for better or for worse, he does.

But the real power, as impressive as Trank is, comes from the collaboration between the screenwriter, Max Landis, and the cast. Landis’ script is fantastic, so unbelievably believable (like what I did there? Didn’t think so). The cast does nothing but assist in making the screenplay come to life. The two together entirely carry the film. The best of all being Dan Dehaan’s performance.

Final Word – Chronicle is not what I was expecting, that hurt it. I felt the tones were too uneven. But I cannot deny the talents here. Trank, Landis and the cast are all in their twenties, and all have bright futures ahead of them.

7/10? Maybe?

This is officially my second edition of the soon to be regular series, Movies & Music. We all know how important music is to our favorite films, so it seemed like a great idea to often share with my readers some soundtracks that I love. The first edition was for “The Fountain” one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, and this week I bring to you Braveheart, an equally unforgettable score.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkLrnI7SsVY

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

As if you don’t already know the ending, right? There is a link to my favorite music in Braveheart, when I first watched Braveheart never before had music been able to evoke such emotion inside of me at the proper time. The torture scene is powerful beyond words, the Magistrate offers William the chance to stop the torture if he will only say “mercy”, which is when Horner’s beautifully soft and sad music comes in bringing the audience to their knees. My friends, this is some of the finest music you will ever hear, soak it in.

That concludes my second edition of Movies & Music, hope everyone enjoys!

GRADE: B

RATING: 3/4

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed War Horse, I really was. Though it was heavily flawed, after letting it sink in for a day I found myself having admired the film more than I did when I left the theater. While War Horse was not entirely emotionally satisfying for me as a whole, on a technical level it was undeniably fantastic. The sound was amazing, and Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography was top-notch, look for him to bring home the award come Oscar night.

But really, did War Horse deserve its Best Picture nod? COME ON Academy, no! If a movie’s screenplay isn’t good enough to get a nod, and its directing isn’t good enough to get a nod either, then the film overall sure as heck isn’t good enough to get a nod. Still, we mustn’t let the Academy’s brainless blunders keeping us from enjoying above average films like these.

War Horse opens with a young boy named Albert Narracott (Jeremy Irvine) watching a horse giving birth, and then proceeds to showing the audience a bit about the horse growing up. Once it is older three men take it to be sold at an auction, and Albert’s father, who is in need of a draft horse, unintelligently buys the colt. Albert could not be more excited, but this could mean very bad things for the Narracott family; the landlord is giving them the opportunity to wait till harvest to plow their rocky field, but if they don’t it will be the last night they spend in their home.

Albert miraculously gets his new best friend, Joey, to plow the field in time during a heavy storm, and the nest day it is planted and ready to go. However, once another powerful storm comes the new plants are ruined and the only way for the Narracott’s to have enough money is for Joey to be sold to the army. Albert is crushed, and attempts to join the war just to stay with Joey, but due to his age he cannot enter. Though the Captain that bought Joey promises to return him if he is alive after the war is over.

Honestly, I don’t feel comfortable going any further than that. War Horse is so strangely broken down into different segments, the first hour the audience sees nothing but Albert, and then he just drops out of the story. If I continue down the plot (like I tend to ramble about) then we are all in danger of a spoiler present review. Nobody likes that, right?

If you haven’t already seen this film, be warned, War Horse is not a film about any one person, only a horse. Personally, I wasn’t expecting that. The character of Albert is developed very well, but just as we are forming an attachment to this young man he is gone. Following this the rest of the characters are pitifully developed. We don’t care about them, they are only in the film for a short time and after a while I must wonder, “what is the purpose of these characters in the film?”. As long as I am asking that question, someone (cough cough, Lee Hall) is doing their job wrong.

With that being said, the power behind War Horse is not the great potential the story had, but on the technical side of the film. The cinematography is so incredible I could sit and admire the beauty for hours and hours and hours. It’s movies like this that seriously make me wish I lived in Europe, a beautiful place that I never tire of seeing in film.

Ah, and it doesn’t end there! After Saving Private Ryan we ALL know how great Spielberg is at making war movies. Never has there been a war for more recently than it was. War Horse is in the same category on the technical side (definitely NOT as a whole). Movies such as Pearl Harbor and many others seem to portray the soldiers as fearless heroes who aren’t afraid of anything; Spielberg does it right. As an audience we can feel the fear coming from the soldiers, they aren’t blindly charging into battle with nothing to lose, they have families, lives, children, and they are scared to death. This is what makes a hero, and Spielberg always handles such aspects of war perfectly.

Final Word – I recommend War Horse highly. Not because it’s great, not because it’s perfect, not because it’s silly miracle horse story is anything close to realistic. War Horse is good for two reasons: Beauty and directing. Child’s play to his greatest work, but War Horse still proves that mr. Spielberg is one of the most consistent directors to ever live.