tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

Starring: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, James Franco
Director: Gus Van Sant
Release Date: January 30, 2009
Running Time: 129 min
MPAA Rating: R
Distributor: Focus Features

- - -

As if we haven't already had our fair share of political drama with the recent presidential election comes a motion picture that mirrors the change in society that Mr. Obama has brought upon our nation. When his campaigns conclude we don't see what goes on behind closed doors. A man who wants to bring so much change to the world turns into a ghost while not seen on his soapbox promising hope. With Milk, the movie thrives on scenes like that, creating an intimate and personal feel of a man who was energetic and motivated by opportunities life offers. Certain times the film is too personal as director Van Sant laces actual footage of Harvey's movement which takes away from the actual movie experience. If you want to see that real footage go check out the 1984 documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk."

Harvey Milk, like Barack Obama, is out to make a change. Even though his life may be threatened he still wants to attempt altering the system. Harvey's change has to deal with homosexuals and their rights to roam free in society. Milk takes place in the 1970s when such ideas as that were frowned upon. But all it took was one man, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), an openly gay political activist who decided to run for office in San Francisco as supervisor three times before he actually won. His life was cut short because of his grandiose hope of equality and influences to create a better world.

Starring: Philippe Petit
Director: James Marsh
Release Date: July 28, 2009
Running Time: 90 min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures

- - -

In Man on Wire, a stunning and gripping documentary, there are reoccurring images that the film relies on to tell its story; a break in into the two World Trade Centers and showing us how it was accomplished. It has, though, nothing to do with terrorism, nothing in this documentary does, but has everything to do with the lengths one will go in order to acquire fulfillment and enjoyment in life.

In Philippe Petit's case, a native French high-wire walker, that fulfillment and enjoyment comes to him when he sees in a French newspaper the construction process of the World Trade Centers in New York. The moment he lays his eyes on that he knows what he wants in life; to walk from one roof top to the other by walking on a single wire. Prior to this he has been practicing and dreaming nonstop to perfect the feat of high-wire walking. Early footage of Philippe, which director James Marsh has unlimited access to, shows him practicing in an open field with friends and eventually crossing the Notre Dame Cathedral's rooftop in Paris and then is intertwined with just recently produced images that take on a dream like effect. With the help of some friends, all of whom give insight in the documentary, they all found a way to look death in the face and laugh. Philippe narrates the film in a lively manner that helps us understand what kind of passion he must have felt in 1974 when he attempted to cross the World Trade Centers.

Starring: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Director: John Patrick Shanley
Release Date: December 25, 200
Running Time: 104 min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributor: Miramax Films

- - -

“What do you do when you’re not sure?”

Nothing is reassuring about donning a priest collar. The fact that a priest goes out every day to try and carry out God’s word isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. There will always be skeptics, temptations and people who will doubt the very well being of a priest’s teachings. Instead of a code of honor, the tiny white collar placed atop all black attire invites more sin than righteousness. And most of the time the dark always seems to loom above the light.

If ever a place that was supposed to be uncorrupted by anomie, it would have to be a Catholic school. Throughout the film there’s an unnerving anger confined in the washed out corridors of St. Nicholas School in Brooklyn 1964. Life has just been pretty much banished. Only sign of it comes from Father Flynn and his ideas of bringing the school out of the dark ages and into a new era of celebration and change. Father Flynn’s - played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman with such sureness - job isn’t only to spread the word of God to his congregation but to guide the church through Sister Aloysius’ (Meryl Streep) strict reign. Transmitting any good deeds at the school is viewed as a mortal sin; decency isn’t acknowledgeable. Father Flynn helps an only black child (Joseph Foster) who is continuously singled out or ignored and has hopes of becoming a priest. The Bible says “let the children come to Me,” but St. Nicholas School says otherwise and so does the child’s mother played by Viola Davis who in a single scene creates a zinger out of it.

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Release Date: November 21, 2008
Running Time: 121 min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributor: Summit Entertainment

- - -

The best part about being a film critic is that my sole purpose as it pertains to this site is to give my opinion.  There are a few more subtleties that go into it, but for all intents and purposes my responsibility to the reader doesn’t go much farther than telling you what I think about movies.  People read reviews to determine whether or not to see a particular movie and, for me, the beauty of it is that there is no wrong answer.  I tell you what I think and you make up your own mind.  Movies like Twilight come along every so often that make my job that much easier.  Regular readers of tMF know full well that over the past year this site has become one of the (very) few Twilight-friendly movie sites on the internet.  So it goes without saying that my duty to this film is purely cosmetic at this point.  I could tell you the middle hour is ruined by a subplot involving a dancing one-legged hobo fornicating with members of the Catholic Church for money and you would shrug it off and see it anyway. 

Starring: Michael J. Smith Sr., Jim Myron Ross, Tarra Riggs
Director: Lance Hammer
Release Date: December 05, 2008 (Limited)
Running Time: 96 min
MPAA Rating: NR
Distributor: Required Viewing

- - -

Ballast may seem to be set in a place that welcomes turmoil and fragility. First glance at director Lance Hammer's directorial debut and you may believe that his film takes place in a world that has gone astray. Sunny days don't exist. Marshlands overtake fresh green grass. Broken down cars remained parked, never to be driven again. This is the Mississippi Delta, a vast, barren and vacuous land that only hinders good deeds. Signs of life can be found, but those lives are usually severed due to the lack of decency found in the lonely Delta.

This little town inhabits a fragile, suicidal black man named Laurence, his struggling and financially strapped sister-in-law Marlee and her child James who's tied up with the wrong kids at school and to whom he owns money to. All of them are related and all of them are dealing with the same tragedy in their own separate ways. There's one other inhabitant. Laurence's only neighbor, a white man who tries to help Laurence cope after his brother OD'd himself by inviting him over for a steak dinner. It's a daunting film and an isolated one that depends on visuals and emotions more so than words. But when words are spoken, especially from Laurence whose voice is consoling like that of an angel, they resonate deep because they're more powerful than any emotion can dictate.

Starring: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Judi Dench
Director: Marc Forster
Release Date: November 14, 2008
Running Time: 106 min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributor: MGM & Columbia Pictures

- - -

Martin Scorsese did it with Christ and Christopher Nolan most recently did it with Batman. Those are two iconic film characters that usually embody pristine souls of clarity and goodness. Their emotions aren't usually played upon because they don't usually find themselves being rattled. That was until Scorsese and Nolan injected their heroes with a Shakespearian sorrow and made them human. Now, Marc Forester - with the 22nd James Bond film from Ian Flemming entitled Quantum of Solace – injects the same serum to James Bond; the only man in the history of cinema that is lusted by children and men and women of all ages. Now after seeing Quantum of Solace how would they like to embody a Bond that has an unwelcoming conscious that craves a vulnerable soul?

James Bond has become a pinnacle to our society today. If his name were to be found in the dictionary it would indicate the words smooth, suave, dreamy and charismatic, not a tragic figure who invites bruises and scratches to his face preferably over kisses. Most Bond films, including last year's Casino Royale where Quantum picks up an hour after, provides the audience to escape the everyday casualties of life, not to sulk our hero in them and watch him slowly become – how can I put this? – Human.

When Daniel Craig signed on to play bond it was an awakening to a new chapter in the franchise. Dreamy love-boats, who adorned perfectly cropped hair and always a step ahead of their nemesis, were replaced by a more rugged man whose first instinct isn't to bed women but to put a bullet in the bad guys' heads. He rightfully accepts the bumps and bruises that follow throughout the process.

Starring: Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman
Director: Mike Leigh
Release Date: April 18, 2008
Running Time: 118 min
MPAA Rating: R
Distributor: Miramax Films

- - -

We first see Poppy riding on her bike soaking up life. Then see her react when her bike has been stolen. Unlike the victim from the 1948 film The Bicycle Thief, Poppy isn't so much distraught that her bike got stolen more so because she wasn't able to say a proper farewell to it. Her smile is always perky and her outfits always compliment her sunny and cheerful attitude no matter what adversity awaits her. At the age of 30 she's merely acting as a child with no worries in an adult world that is supposed to be littered with them. She strolls the London sidewalks with a cheerful mannerism (the cheerful music helps) that Jacques Tati did in M. Hulot's Holiday. Beware of Poppy. The rest of the world's population doesn't contain nearly as much glee as she has. Take your eyes off of her for one second and she'll contaminate you with her happiness.

Another reason not to look away from her is because it's likely you'll miss a comic gesture or a slick remark. All of that equals up to one of the year's top performances. Poppy is played by Sally Hawkins, now a regular in Mike Leigh films, and the performance is nothing short of a comic riot. Her ability to maintain a jolly smirk throughout the film is astounding. She never breaks it. While it does take just a little bit to warm up to her sprightly mood, Hawkins manages to create a character from two distinct poles; at one point we want to hit her, the other we want to hug her.

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Jeffery Donovan, John Malkovich
Director: Clint Eastwood
Release Date: October 31, 2008
Running Time: 141 min
MPAA Rating: R
Distributor: Universal Pictures

- - -

Clint Eastwood, the greatest working director today, continues to display reasons why his films have the potential and audacity to gather like a quiet storm and later evolve to form a massive natural disaster. Unlike any director today, Eastwood manages to go beyond the surface of the true story of a woman searching for her lost son in 1928 Los Angeles by digging deep into his subject matter's heart and finding gold in the unlikeliest of places. Time after time, he manages to show his ability of exploring darker situations and scenarios that aren't neatly placed on the table at first glance. Watch Million Dollar Baby or Mystic River if you need reference. As Changeling moves towards its climax we experience plot revelations that deal with children being plagued of hatred and corruption at an early age. Slowly the film expands to a full sized portrait of a town that once produced dreams, to a town that toils with human emotions as a hobby.

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin
Director: Jonathan Demme
Release Date: October 3, 2008 (Limited)
Running Time: 114 min
MPAA Rating: R
Distributor: Sony Picture Classics

- - -

A rollercoaster usually doesn't last long. You're guaranteed to get thrills and those butterflies that float around inside the stomach as you fly down the dips. You try and take it all in but it's useless because it goes by all too quickly. But you still try anyway because you know you only have the given moment. A Connecticut home, full of people with different backgrounds and ethnicities, housing a wedding and the receptions that come with it, finds itself on the tracks of a rollercoaster that has the possibility of being derailed. With that in mind, each person present at this party tries real hard to enjoy the moment that's full of music, family traditions and love. One character in particular, the bride, doesn't realize all that was in front of her until the wedding has now become something of the past. By the time the end credits roll along she reminded me of Michael Corleone, the distraught human soul, at the end of Godfather Part II.

Starring: Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight
Director: Gavin O'Conner
Release Date: October 24, 2008
Running Time: 130 min
MPAA Rating: R
Distributor: Warner Bros., New Line Cinema

- - -

Pride and Glory only has one thing going for it, and that's the fact that director Gavin O'Connor doesn't sugarcoat anything. The honesty that the film possesses is beyond brutal, it's teetering towards masochism. Shouting, violence and swearing are all laid on the table as O'Connor, son of a New York City cop, wants to explore the grittiness and kinetic energy of cop life. This doesn't hurt the movie at all. It actually enhances a script that's ridden with clichés from other police dramas and which also has a nonchalant attitude of approaching this material. Any movie that puts a steam iron close to an infant's face has guts. Leave it at that. But eliminate that scene, and others that contain searing moments of brutality, and you would have a movie that plays strictly to the genre's rules and can coax you towards a nap.