No Country for Old Men.

After a couple stumbles in screwball comedy land, the Coens are back. No Country For Old Men harkens to their more serious works like Blood Simple and Miller’s Crossing, shrugging off the typical zany Coen characters and pitch-black humor. It’s a film of incredible restraint, patience, observation, understanding, and familiarity.

The performances of every character, from the leads to the supporting roles, are as good as I’ve seen for a long time. Tommy Lee Jones especially conjures up a genuine, unique character in Sheriff Ed Tom Bell who strides through the film with world-weariness and can’t quite believe the atrocities that are happening around him. He thinks about the old days when his father and grandfather were lawmen, and wonders how we got here, what’s to come, and how to put any sense to it all. His sparse dialog, dialect, expressions, and demeanor are honed to perfection by Jones… we can see the years of this man behind those sunken eyes and hear the weight of the world in his words. On the other side of the story is Anton Chigurh, the wide-eyed, unblinking psychotic killer that has a chilling lack of respect for life. He lives by his own moral code that somehow follows a disturbing logic and matter-of-factness in his twisted mind. In the middle is Llewelyn Moss, a resourceful, clever trailerpark dweller gets caught when he loots a Mexican standoff over money and drugs. In one dialog-absent scene after another, he narrowly escapes capture with remarkable wit and determination. Chigurh is after the money and will kill anyone in his way. Sheriff Bell is constantly one or two steps behind Chigurh, and pieces together the aftermath with the accuracy and skill of an old-school lawman that’s seen more than his share of crime and human nature. It’s fascinating watching these three characters operate; we’re not insulted by expository dialog, instead their actions speak for themselves.

The cinematography puts the action together deliberately, coherently, chillingly. Here we delve into more familiar Coen territory where jarring scenes of brutal violence explode from the most placid scenes. It’s just as effective as it ever was in Fargo, capturing the bizarre, incomprehensible atrocity of cold-blooded murder as it happens. Simultaneously we’re treated to the sparse beauty of west Texas, the dust and rocks blinding in the sun and big-sky sunsets evoking that feeling of isolation. The deliberate pacing sucks you in as the camera meanders from one setpiece scene to the next. Once again, little explanation is offered of what you’re seeing, the movie always lays everything out in plain sight for you to discover as the characters do. It’s an exhilirating and rewarding experience.

There is virtually no soundtrack or incidental music in the movie, perfectly matching the desolate and unforgiving setting. It makes the visuals even more effective and the mood even more disturbing.. a great touch by the directors. I love hearing the little textures of sound instead… the crunch of dust and rocks under the boots, the click-hum of someone picking up a telephone, boards creaking in the hallway as you-know-who makes his way to the room where we hide along with Llewelyn, the scraping sound of him unscrewing the lightbulb in the hallway, the faint hiss of compressed air as he opens the valve on his air gun.

It all adds up to a engrossing experience that seems to fly by. Like all great movies, it doesn’t seem long enough. The ending isn’t very neat or tidy, but I think that’s part of the effect. By the time the movie is over, we’ve witnessed senseless violence and there doesn’t seem to be much payoff or benefit, no great realization or retribution. It’s just how things are; no explanation needed. No ride into the sunset as the theme song reprises, no hero kissing the girl, no dry quips of the victorious. This film is reality, in all its harshness.

American Gangster.

Let me preface by saying that this is one of the rare occasions where I actually enjoyed the trailer for a movie a lot more than the movie itself. Not that “American Gangster” was a bad movie, but the trailer was a real two minute cinematic masterstroke. The trailer made me imagine a chaotic, violent rise to power story in the league of Scarface, Goodfellas or The Godfather (indeed, some critics have called his movie “The Black Godfather”). It featured a montage of powerful scenes, killer dialog and some awesome cinematic effects that really drummed up excitement for the movie. What I experienced instead was a much more thoughtful, observant, but ultimately subdued crime story told from two sides of the law. It’s a very different rise-to-power movie than I’ve ever seen before.

You have to start with the performances. Denzel Washington is as great as he’s ever been, finding those neat little personality touches and quirks to make the character really come alive. For the most part his Frank Lucas is a straight-laced, business-minded, logical, supremely-motivated man that just happens to deal in an illegal substance. His goal is to corner the heroin market in Harlem by going directly to the supplier, cut out the middle man, and sell a purer product at a lower cost. He rallies his troops at home closely, recuriting his brothers and cousins to operate the distribution points. He follows a disciplined daily ritual, which includes taking his mother to church every Sunday and visiting one of two night clubs he owns every day, more likely to check up on his businesses than to enjoy himself. The fascinating part about Lucas is the way he insulates himself from the dirty aspects of his business… you never see him visiting his lab where the heroin is cut and packaged, he never uses his own product, and he never meets his customers. He deals strictly with his closed circle of family and keeps his hands clean, and maintains a clean-cut image that evokes an air of success. Only on rare occasions does he break out of his calm, calculating demeanor, and explodes into a surprising fit of brutal rage that appear to be just as surprising to himself as they are to those around him.

His antagonist is Richie Roberts, played convincingly by Russell Crowe, an equally moral cop studying for the bar at night school in his spare time, and in general is in a frazzled, short-on-sleep state for most of the movie. Early in the film he busts a crook with a million dollars cash in the trunk of his car, and Richie turns it into evidence, and earns the dismay of his fellow cops. His superiors recognize his skills and puts him in charge of a special drug task force under the authority of the State’s Attorney, where he similarly hand-picks his men and strategizes the takedown of the Harlem drug operation. Roberts is a resourceful cop, and realizes that their typical suspects, the Mafia, are not behind the operation, and eventually discovers Lucas’s involvement through straight detective work.. keeping his ear to the street, observing from plain sight, asking the right questions, making the right alliances with the local police, and above all, practicing patience. He systematically builds his case, and the ever-present tagboard filled with suspect photos gets lots of attention in the movie as he connects the dots. I didn’t have any complaints about Crowe’s performance, but it wasn’t overly impressive either… it was a no-frills, serviceable performance, definitely not in the same league as his work in 3:10 to Yuma or A Beautiful Mind. Still, I found myself rooting for the guy because he’s stacked up against insurmountable odds, tasked with a seemingly impossible puzzle to solve, surrounded by corrupt cops on the take, and lives a personal life that’s circling the drain. He finally pulls it together in the end and nabs Frank Lucas by the book, and we’re treated a thought-provoking last scene with him and Lucas across the table from each other, discussing the morality of each other’s situation.

The supporting cast does a good job as well.. Ted Levine turns in another interesting supporting role as Richie’s superior, and Cuba Gooding Jr is firey and simultaneously charismatic as usual as one of Lucas’s competitors. Armand Assante is a fairly token mob boss that is about what you’d expect. The rest of the cast is mostly rounded out by strong performances from young newcomers that hit the right notes.

The story follows an appropriately logical and calm progression, punctuated by few scenes of violence and conflict. Ridley Scott’s cinematography and direction are observant, understated, and unobtrusive; he allows the story to tell itself. There are a few scenes with artistic flair where Scott lets his skills as a visual stylist shine, but for the most part he dresses the movie in realism, period correctness, and subdued atmosphere. One scene stands out, the obligatory raid and shootout in the cutting shop, which is handled with a mastery that dazzles… I was reminded of the brutal opening scene of Hannibal and the unbelievable violence of Blackhawk Down, both also directed by Ridley Scott. The scene explodes with style and mayhem that is a fantastic visceral payoff to the film’s otherwise understated delivery. It’s the kind of brief indulgence that makes you applaud the director’s restraint, and even further amplifies the effect of that scene.

So overall, a refreshingly straightforward, well-put-together film… not quite what I was expecting but still worth checking out. Strong performances all around, but the real magic is in Denzel’s studied portayal of an all together different kind of crime boss. And, Ridley Scott definitely reasserts himself as the more restrained of the Scott brothers with a cinematic delivery that echoes the deliberate pacing of the story. This is another strong entry for this year of extraordinarly great films.

Metroid Prime 3.

Ok, there have been a couple requests for a Metroid Prime 3 review, so I present my opinion on the conclusion to the Prime trilogy.

Overall, this is a worthy conclusion to a consistently great series of games. Unfortunately, the bar was set impossibly high by the first game, which so sublimely married the sensibilities of the old Metroid side-scrolling games with a engrossing 3D experience that has practically reinvented the series. Whereas some 3D outings of old 2D platformers more or less gave us a new perspective on old favorites (Mario 64, the 3D Sonic games), Metroid Prime was closer to Zelda 64, in that you almost can’t imagine Metroid not being played in 3D now. Some of the elements that made Prime 1 great, such as the goofy morphball puzzles, beautiful art direction, memorable boss fights, and sprawling level designs are here once again in abundance. New stuff like the controls and interplanetary travel are a revelation that obsolete those elements of the previous games. Unfortunately, this game does not reach the level of perfection that the first game did in other regards, but the story does rise above that of the second game, which I think was the weakest point in the series.

A review of Prime 3 wouldn’t be complete without a discussion of the new controls, and I think it is the game’s greatest feature. These are hands-down the best first person shooter controls on a console I’ve seen. I don’t think it quite beats out the old mouse-and-keyboard controls on PC shooters (credit to iD for developing a control scheme over ten years ago that still remains the defacto standard), but the Wiimote controls beat the dual analog approach and the Gamecube Metroid scheme hands-down. Aiming is fast and accurate on the advanced settings, and feels great after a few hours of experience. You do have to hold the controller very steady to keep the view from skewing off violently, so I found myself only being able to play for a few hours at a time at most before fatigue sets in. Using the Nunchuk to cast out the grappling beam is engaging and really draws you further into the game. Even little control panel interfaces like twisting a lock with the wiimote and welding damaged circuits with the plasma beam are cool and add that little extra bit of immersiveness.

The other new element, travelling between planets, is another revelation in gameplay that really makes this game feel that much more sprawling and epic. I never got tired of seeing the cutscenes of the gunship landing and taking off, and the multiple landing sites added a new dimension to the game.. suddenly backtracking isn’t as laborious as it used to be, now that you can pick the landing site closest to where you need to go, and remote control your ship to land at the site closest to where you are. Also, being able to control your ship and have it pick up objects made for some neat puzzles. Unfortunately, the designers drastically cut down on the number of save locations because of this, so you usually have to find your way back to a landing site to save now. And, the different areas seem significantly smaller than their counterparts in the previous games. When I think about the huge, expansive areas like the Phazon Mines and Phendrana Drifts in Prime 1, and the Torvus Bog with its underwater chambers in Prime 2, the levels feel tiny here. The only one that comes close is the Pirate Homeworld, with its tram systems that carry you to the different installations.

One new feature that I don’t think works as well is the more story-driven plot. To me, Metroid has alway been about open-ended exploration and deliberate pacing. In this game, the story is much more focused and urgent.. much of the time you’re feeling rushed to complete your next clearly-defined objective. There’s also a lot more dialog and character interaction, which I guess really aren’t either a benefit or detrement to the game, it’s just different. The item collection this time around is more story-driven and less arbitrary than in the first game, I think… the idea of collecting energy cells to use to unlock areas of the derelict ship works well as a plot device, moreso than collecting the Chozo artifacts in Prime 1.

The upgrade pickups, on the other hand, are a lot weaker this time around. We get the usual missile expansions and energy tanks, and new ones like the voltage grapple and ship grapple are pretty cool. But, all hypermode expansions have very limited, specific uses, and the ship missile expansions are completely unnecessary when you have all of three opportunities to use them, so you never are without ammunition for it. The beam upgrades are also pretty boring and unimaginative, plus they’re cumulative instead of selectable like they used to be in Prime 1 and 2, so the gameplay doesn’t feel as diverse. Comparatively I like the old standard power, wave, ice, and plasma beams, and having to switch back and forth between them depending on what enemies you were fighting. I also liked the old super beam powerups from the first game.. the super missile, wave buster, flame thrower, and ice spreader. I also found myself not using the missiles very often at all.. the beam weapons were more useful for most stuff, unless it involved freezing something.

A final positive note, though, is the boss fights. Although a bit on the easy side (in my opinion, a welcome change from the obnoxious level of frustration in Prime 2), they all proved to be very inventive and actually pretty fun. The fight with Ridley near the end is probably the best ones we’ve had yet, with lots of grappling and x-ray action, barely edging out the one from Prime 1. The battles with the other hunters were mostly very good, aside from the shapeshifting hunter, which was just a rehash of the previous fights. The Dark Samus battle at the end was a little simplistic too, but the Aurora Unit fight made up for it with a pretty interesting battle. Not quite as fun as the Ridley battle but made for a nice last hurrah for the game. It didn’t quite feel as epic as the last battle in Prime 1 where you have to use all your beams, missiles, and then the hyperbeam at the very end to finish her off.

On a technical level this is the best looking and sounding Prime game so far. The game hums along at a steady 60FPS, as the game makes the best use of the Wii’s resources and minimizes its limitations. I.E., the limited video memory of the Wii doesn’t allow for very intricate textures but the polygon count is high, so objects and character models look great. The on-screen HUD also looks great, and has a neat reflection of Samus’s face whenever you turn on the scanning visor. The game also makes pretty liberal use of HDR (High dynamic range lighting) with light blooms and so forth that add some very realistic lighting effects. The game also sounds as good as ever, with an immersive Dolby ProLogic sound mix and crisp, realistic sound effects.

So overall, I thought Prime 3 was a bit of a mixed bag but overall a very good game and worthy of carrying the Metroid Prime name. The new stuff like the motion-sensitive controls and ship travel add some awesome facets to an already great platform. Most of the stuff that made Prime great is still here. But, there are some elements that have taken a dive.. the more focused storyline, the upgrade pickups, and levels are a bit on the weak side. All in all, this is still one of the must-have exclusive titles on the Wii.

Rubber Suit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie.

Recently I had a chance to go back and watch that old live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie that came out in the 90’s. I had fond memories of that movie, of when I was young and impressionable, and when the Turtles were the coolest thing ever.

Some movies age like fine wine. I can go back and watch movies like Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Star Wars, Temple of Doom, Big Trouble in Little China, and Aliens, and find even more to like about those movies than I did when I would sit wide-eyed in front of the television set, reciting the movie line by line, never missing a beat.

But the rubber suit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie, dear readers, is not one of these films. I felt depressed, annoyed, insulted, and embarassed for actually liking this movie at one time. This is an awful, awful film. This is one of those movies that seems so much smaller, simpler, and derivative through 27 year old eyes.

There are a couple glimmering lights of hope in this movie, like Elias Koteas who played Casey Jones in a slightly over-the-top but humorous performance (he would later go on to play one of the cops in Zodiac, one of the best films of this year), and Sam Rockwell, not necessarily because he has such a great role in this movie but he immediately makes me think of the sublime silliness of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where he plays the endlessly entertaining Zaphod Beeblebrox, and I’m instantly transported to a happier place.

The rest of the movie is just terrible. Those awkward little scenes with Splinter the Puppet trying to resemble something more lifelike than a ventriloquist’s dummy. The clunky, cliched, trite dialog. The see-through plot. The amateur-hour costumes that Shredder and the Foot Clan wear. Shredder’s obviously overdubbed and oversampled voice. April O’Neil that looks more like a frazzled substitute gradeschool teacher. The interchangeable personalities of three of the four turtles (Raphael is the only one given more than one dimension, and even then he’s generalized and shallow). And those silly, silly fight scenes that are shamed by more capable martial arts movies… especially the last fight scene where Shredder basically throws each turtle aside one by one as they come at him. And the final showdown between Shredder and Splinter, which has all the dignity and mastery of a Three Stooges sketch.

This movie was so obviously a marketing tie-in, thrown together on a budget that was 90% spent on the turtle costumes and financed by Domino’s product placement.

I can’t believe I liked this movie way back then. I guess some memories are better left alone.

300.

I want to go read the “300″ graphic novels now, just to see how close this movie is to the artwork. I get the feeling that, just like Sin City, you can find an accompanying panel for every shot in the film. Each one has that perfect framing, lighting, and composition that makes it feel like a graphic novel come to life. And on those grounds, as well as all the other technical qualities, the movie is a resounding success.

Let’s start with the visuals.. the screen drips with style. The dried out sepia tones that the majority of the movie is colored with makes it feel ancient and historic, like the images are leaping out of a parchment scroll. The Spartans’ capes are a deep, lucious crimson only matched by the constant blood splatters. The shields and helmets glisten in the harsh light with a rough, frosted texture that’s scraped and dented with old battle damage. The bare chests and arms of the soldiers look like they’re chiseled out of stone. The millions of flying Persian arrows fill the sky like a swarm of bees and blot out the sunlight. As the battle rages on, the bodies of slain enemies are stacked on top of one another and rise like a mountain range against the sky.

Then, there’s the fight choreography to accompany these striking visuals. Each one is perfectly executed as the 300 Spartans fight as a single entity. The camera angles are just perfect so you see the glint of their eyes in the darkness under their helmet. They wield swords and shields with a precision that harkens those ancient frescoes and sculptures of greek warriors captured in the heat of battle. Spear after spear sink into Persian flesh and Middle Eastern scimitars clash against Spartan shields. It’s a visceral experience, but my only complaint is the movie is a little too liberal with the slow motion. I would have loved to see more scenes kicked up to full speed.. but then we may have missed some of those perfect battle poses that were most likely lifted off the comic panels.

Visual details aside, we’re treated with some serviceable acting by a cast of little-known actors, which I think is a good choice. The characters seem fuller and more believable if you don’t recognize the face, but it’s also a compliment to the cast.. they do a great job of bringing fairly shallow and one dimensional characters to life. We have the fiercely noble, defiant-to-the-end warrior King Leonidas that you can’t help but cheer for; his stalwart second in command as the captain of the army that executes every command from his king with a boisterous enthusiasm; his beautiful and strong Queen Gorgo who is simultaneously regal and sensuous; and many faithful battle-hungry soldiers. On the other side of the battle we’re treated to a disturbing, exotic, gold-encrusted King Xerxes who has a demonic voice (that disappointingly sounds heavily overdubbed) and has proclaimed himself a god among men and dresses the part; his legion of soldiers, barbarians, slaves, and a horde of particularly fearsome masked elite soldiers called “The Immortals”. Each character proclaims those quasi-eloquent, grandstanding one-line phrases like “Tonight we dine in hell!” and “Immortals? Tonight their name will be tested!” In context they work, thanks to the conviction the actors have, but writing and dialog is not where this film is going to win any praise.

Similarly, the storyline and pacing are not great works, either. The story is told in flashback sequence, but the story doesn’t seem to arc very much. It’s essentially the story of 300 soldiers outlasting wave after wave of Persian forces, starting with the regular army, followed by barbarians, heavy horses, elephant battalions, and finally the Immortals. Again in style it may recall those epic poems by Homer but cinematically it doesn’t work very well. The 300 drive back each wave with very few losses each time. Predictability begins to set in as these seemingly flawless warriors continue the fight while the days roll by. Finally, a pretty weak, anticlimactic betrayal that opens up a second path for the Persian invaders brings the fight to a desparate conclusion. By the time minute 117 rolls by, you wish there was more. I would have loved to see that 10,000 strong Spartan army, inspired by the brave 300, crush the Persian invaders in one last great battle, but the film sadly cuts it off just as things get started.

On a visual and technical level, I think it barely edges out Sin City. It’s a fantastic looking and sounding film, and does an even better job than Sin City at bringing a graphic novel to stylized life. We get some choice historical-sounding dialog and some convincing acting that gets us closely involved. Beneath the surface, though, there’s not a whole lot here, and I think Sin City greatly surpasses it in storytelling. Still, it’s big, loud, violent entertainment that shouldn’t be missed on the big screen.

Zodiac.

David Fincher continues to impress. Of all his movies… Alien 3 (highly underrated, in my opinion. I think it stands shoulder to shoulder with the two before it, the two that follow aren’t even worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence), Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, and Panic Room, this one is the most procedural and deliberate. It doesn’t have the gritty and foreboding atmosphere of Se7en (but then, how many movies do?), the tightrope suspense of The Game, or maddening compulsiveness of Fight Club. But it does have a smattering of all of it that seeps into this film and makes it so much more. In the hands of a different director, this would have been a straightforward police procedural. With Fincher at the helm, it rises above the ordinary and becomes everything that his previous movies were: a complete cinematic experience.

The most distinctive part of a Fincher movie is the visuals and atmosphere. He recreates a climate of fear and skepticism of a 1960’s through 1970’s northern California, caught in a stranglehold by an elusive mass murderer that has struck three separate towns over the span of months. Without modern-day conveniences like cell phones (and fax machines, demonstrated in one amusing scene in which San Fran police personnel must coordinate with three different local departments with the US mail the only apparent method of communication available), this is a much bigger place for a killer to hide. The SF Chronicle, decked out in goldenrod furniture and wood paneling, buzzes with activity as more and more cryptic letters from Zodiac arrive. Political cartoonist Robert Graysmith and stoned reported Paul Avery meet in dark, crowded bars and cramped coffee shops to exchange notes. The two SF inspectors assigned to the case prowl the streets dressed in tan trenchcoats and bowties and driving a mint-green dodge sedan. They’re all small details, but mixed together they evoke a definite time and place that is engrossing. It’s all shot with the skill, visceral energy, and detail that you’d expect from Fincher.

The acting is equally top-notch. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Graysmith with subdued obsession that eventually spirals out of control into a compulsive frenzy as he chases after names, dates, times, locations, any clue that could bring him closer to solving the Zodiac puzzle. Robert Downey Jr plays Paul Avery in an deliriously sublime performance in which he disappears into the role of a stoned, smooth-talking reporter. Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards play the two cops on the case and bring a true sense of worn familiarity to their roles that makes you feel instantly at home with them helming the case as they overturn clue after clue that eventually leads them to what you’re convinced is the ultimate conclusion to the mystery. Aside from the leads, we have great small roles inhabited by the likes of Brian Cox, Philip Baker Hall, Adam Goldberg, and Donal Logue. And then there’s the prime suspect in the case, who enters the interrogation room and holds the audience in the grip of fear with one of the creepiest understated performances this side of Anthony Hopkin’s Hannibal Lecter.

And then there is the story, which I think should be a strong contender for best screenplay this year. The cops, reporters, and audience wade through a dizzying array of clues handled by four police departments in four separate towns, visit grisly crimescenes and many many other sharply-drawn locations, and even dip into some of the personal lives of the people involved to involve us with that obsession, fear, unrest, disappointment, and frustration that a mass murder investigation that spans the years gives us. A surreal storytelling device, the caption that tells us how many months and years have passed since the last scene, simultaneously breaks and rachets up the tension as the film navigates the sprawl of the investigation, marching deliberately towards the final conclusion.

By the time the 160 minutes roll by it’s a complete cinema, a work of pure craft in which great characters played by great actors present a compelling story in a memorable visual experience.

Little Miss Sunshine.

Spoilers herein. You’ve been warned.

Ok, this one perplexed me. It was funny, well written, and well acted but Best Picture? I dunno.. the fact that it was nominated alongside The Departed for BP yet BORAT! was not nominated for anything besides Best Adapted Screenplay (itself a stretch, since it was based on previously created television show characters, not a book or play or anything like that) just doesn’t seem right.

And What The Hell, may I ask, is up with Alan Arkin winning Best Supporting Actor for this role? He was only in the movie for the first hour, and he had some nice choice dialog and a handful of funny scenes, but it’s nowhere near the masterful performance of Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond, one of the most frighteningly passionate performances I’ve ever seen.

Oscar complaints aside, I did enjoy the movie quite a bit. I do like me some road movies, because you’re never quite sure where you’re going to end up next, and in this movie it’s one zany setpiece after another, all starting with the family dinnertime around the fried chicken bucket on the formica kitchen table in a house that appears to consist entirely of wood paneling. A call comes in that the regional winner for the Little Miss Sunshine contest has to back out at the last minute, leaving the Olive the youngest, a pudgy, plain-looking girl with pair of eyeglasses half the size of her head, the soul representative for Albuquerque. She has a talent routine that the audience will not be able to enjoy till the last half hour of the movie (and in the fine tradition of Napoleon Dynamite, it’s a surprise dance routine that must not be missed), practiced up at the instruction of her profane, heroin-snorting grandfather. The always fidgety and stressed-out Greg Kinnear is the dad who’s trying to get a 9-step book to success published and can adapt any situation to a maxim on winners and losers. Steve Carrell is hilarious as Uncle Frank, at one time the top Proust scholar (huh?), who after a string of bad luck is home from a visit to the mental hospital due to an attempted suicide. Paul Dano is Dwayne, a disenfranchised teenager who’s taken a vow of silence while he reads Nietzsche and literally sits around waiting to become old enough to join the Air Force. Toni Collette is the kind of Roseanne-inspired mom that throws a box of popsicles on the table and proclaims “dessert.”

The movie is definitely all about the characters as they move from one hairbrained situation to another, packed like sardines in an aging yellow VW Microbus with a broken clutch as they traverse the desert towards California and the Little Miss Sunshine contest. The van provides a running joke in which the family has to push it up to 20mph before Dad can float the gears up to 3rd. Along the road, Frank will have a chance meeting with his former gay lover at a gas station while buying straight porn for Grandpa, the family will have to deal with the prospect of illegally transporting a dead body across state lines, Dad uses an unorthodox method to defuse a potentially disastrous traffic stop, and Dwayne suffers a complete breakdown when he learns that he’s colorblind and won’t be able to join the air force. All this before we get to the surreal fiasco that is the Little Miss Sunshine talent show itself.

All in all, a very different kind of comedy that’s skillfully directed, sharply written, and expertly acted. Good, but not BP material in my opinion.

The Departed.

So, this is it… the quad-oscar winner, including best picture. It’s definitely worth the best editing, writing, and directing, but best picture? I’m not sure. Maybe of those nominated, but I haven’t seen the other nominees yet.

What it is, though, is an incredibly complex and nuanced story with a contrived amount of double agents, snitches, moles, and informants. Thanks to strong performances by Matt Damon and Leo DiCaprio, I found myself reminding myself who was working for who, who had what agenda, and who was on what side of the thin blue line. Damon is a detective sergeant that snitches for the mob boss, and DiCaprio is an undercover cop that infiltrated his organization. We’ve seen these sorts of roles before, but this is the first time I’ve seen them inhabited by Damon and DiCaprio, and they handle them with precision and authenticity.. Damon is the clean-cut desk sergeant on the surface with a rotten core that connives and plots against those around him, and DiCaprio is the street-smart cop with a criminal family that has gotten him so deep undercover he doesn’t know which way is up. This is another entry in a spree of great performances from DiCaprio.. he’s been amazing in Blood Diamond, The Aviator, and Catch Me If You Can. He can definitely be counted in the list of the next generation great actors.

The other performances, on the other hand, aren’t quite as enjoyable. Mark Wahlberg turns in a foul-mouthed, comedic, but ultimately irrelevant performance that’s fun to laugh at but often just gets in the way… avoiding spoilers, though, perhaps it’s not entirely unnecessary after all. And then there’s Jack Nicholson… probably one of our most talented actors, has one goofball scene after another that parodies his previous work with a manic, overstated performance as the mob boss. In the presence of more careful and targeted acting in the film, it comes across as silly and decidedly not criminal mastermind-like. As much acting clout as Nicholson has, I don’t think he has enough to make this role work. And Alec Baldwin, who has become sort of a master of A-list cameos, is ultimately forgettable and somewhat wasted.

The stuff that does work aside from DiCaprio and Damon is all Scorsese… the long, complex, unbroken shots interspersed with the quick, dramatic still shots, the symmetrical framing of key scenes, the broad color strokes, and the classic rock soundtrack that underscores scenes of severe brutality and once again creates that bizarre juxtaposition that can only be called “Scorsesian.” It’s a triumph for him to be finally recognized with an oscar for direction, although ironically I don’t think this is his best film. The Aviator, Goodfellas, and Bringing Out the Dead all show an artist at the height and mastery of his craft.. this movie shows us that he can still handle a cops and mobbers movie better than anyone, but I kind of got a “been here, seen that” feeling throughout this movie. Not that it made it a bad film, I thoroughly enjoyed it.. it’s just surprising that this movie won him the oscar.

I highly recommend this one. One down, many more to go for this amazing year for movies.

Wow, I'm behind on movies.

I’ve seen a lot of good movies this year… Borat, Pirates of the Caribbean, Miami Vice, Blood Diamond, Casino Royale, Flags of our Fathers, Idiocracy, even Snakes on a Plane. I enjoyed them all for different reasons; some made me think, some made me laugh my ass off, some were just a lot of fun and made me enjoy going to the movies again. But none of those were even on the best picture roster this year.

But now, post-Oscars, I’ve got a whole list of movies to watch now. I haven’t seen any of the best picture nominations, for example.. so now I need to go see Little Miss Sunshine, the Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Babel. I’m really excited about The Last King of Scotland, too.. I’ve always admired Forest Whitaker in everything he’s done (he was especially menacing and formidable in his guest role on “The Shield” earlier this year), and I’ve read a lot about this new movie but I never got a chance to see it. Supposedly it’s some of the most powerful work he’s ever done, so I’m pretty excited to see that.

It’s good to see Martin Scorcese finally bag an Oscar after so many awesome movies.. I don’t know if The Departed will stack up to his previous ones or not, but I think he had uncannily bad luck in getting nominated during years when there were a ton of good movies and directors nominated. I think Djimon Hounsou got snubbed this year, though.. I’m sure Alan Arkin was good in Little Miss Sunshine but damn Djimon Hounsou turned in an amazing performance in Blood Diamond. He owned every scene he was in, and had many moments of frightingly powerful emotion during such chaotic happenings in that movie.

So, in the end, a very strong year for movies in my opinion.. I felt like I saw more movies in the theater than my usual, but I still managed to skip all the best picture nominees. I guess I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.