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Cinema Enthusiast - by Catherine Stebbins

Cinema Enthusiast

Thoughts on the 2010 Academy Awards

Thoughts on the 2010 Academy Awards:

Overall it was a fun but rather dull and distinctly awkward evening to be honest. Last year the structure of the awards were changed in a way that focused on the art of making films through its presentation of the individual categories. For film lovers, this was fun to watch. This year they kept the motivation to show viewers how films are made, however there was an imbalance.

First of all, cutting out the Achievement Awards of Lauren Bacall and Roger Corman is blasphemous to say the least. Instead of getting the proper treatment that dignifies their life’s work, we get a short montage of the evening that did pay tribute to them, which we did not get to see. Then Bacall and Corman awkwardly stand up as a standing ovation occurs which felt obligatory and forced as opposed to genuinely given. The break dancing went on for too long. While getting a chance to really listen to the scores that were nominated was fantastic, each segment lasted too long and a few of the segments were misfires. Not having any segments to go along with Best Cinematography or Best Editing was disappointing, considering they are my two favorite technical categories.

How was the hosting? Again; it was awkward. While much of it was funny, this was due to Steve Martin’s impeccable delivery skills and not necessarily the material itself. There were weird pauses between each joke and there was no flow to anything. While Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin are good together, some of the awkwardness could have been taken away with it just being Steve Martin up there. The shots of audience members also add to the awkwardness because nobody ever looks amused but looks bored and annoyed to even be there. The George Clooney incident set the vibe for the night, which many people think was fake but I am convinced it was not.

What else failed? The tribute to the Best Actor and Actress nominees is nice but again, goes on for far too long. Also the deal that the ceremony made about Kathryn Bigelow’s win was frustrating. While she deserved it, putting that much self aware attention onto the moment and its creation just shows how far we have to go. Let her just go up there as a winner like everyone else. We know it is an important moment and we do not need to be told in abundance. It does not treat her as an equal but as a child. Playing “I Am Woman”? Really? They had to do that? It is embarrassing. Just let her have her moment!

Things that did work included the John Hughes tribute. People have complained it was too long. Really people? While his films were not necessarily masterpieces and some of his stuff was quite mediocre, he did something that very very few filmmakers can claim to have done. His films managed to literally represent an entire generation. They now serve as time capsules and are more meaningful now than they were when they first came out. Personally I can say that Ferris Bueller’s Day Off remains one of my all time favorite films. I truly believe it is perfection in entertainment filmmaking and it means quite a lot to me considering that Cameron Frye could be my favorite film character of all time. It sounds stupid and I’ve seen plenty of other films from other time periods and other countries and Cameron Frye remains for me a true gem.

I also liked the Ben Stiller segment. While many of the things he was given to say were corny, his delivery was spot on and his presence made the entire segment funny even if it went on for far too long. Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr. should star on a film together because their segment was probably the only fully successful presentation moment of the night. Tim Robbins’ tribute to Morgan Freeman, Colin Farrell’s tribute to Jeremy Renner and Stanley Tucci’s tribute to Meryl Streep stuck out last night. Basically, Stanley Tucci and Meryl Streep should be together in real life; no offense to their spouses.

The night shows few upsets. Best Adapted Screenplay took away Up in the Air’s chance of having anything which was a shocker. That might be about it? Avatar’s win for Best Cinematography was disappointing to say the least. The White Ribbon fully deserved it. However, Avatar’s two other wins of the night, Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects were fully deserved.

Needless to say, The White Ribbon should have won Best Foreign Film no matter how good El Secreto de Sus Ojos is. I do want to watch it soon. Sandra Bullock’s win was a joke; however, she gave the best speech of the night, almost making me forget her win was undeserved. Michael Giacchino’s win for Best Score for Up was particularly special. Listening to over a hundred hours of composition of his from scoring “Lost” and knowing how beautiful his score for Up was made his win particularly special for me. His speech was also the other best of the night.

Finally The Hurt Locker taking Best Picture was a lovely way to top off the night. Out of the major contenders (excluding Up and A Serious Man) it was deserving of the award, certainly over Avatar and to see it beat out the highest grossing film of all time was rewarding to say the least. Overall my predictions were not all that great scoring at 16/24. Best Dressed of the night was Gabourey Sidibe who looked beautiful and worst dressed going to the otherwise awesome Vera Farmiga. Overall the ceremony gets a B-

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March 9th 2010 @ 00:40

Posted By: Catherine Stebbins - Category: No Category

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Oscar Predictions 2010

Ok here are my Predictions for the Academy Awards tonight. This year is extremely predictable yet I am not happy with my picks but this happens every year. I decided to go the Avatar route simply because I think the Academy cannot ignore the money and the whole ridiculous scandal and the Academy presidents are all current or former Fox members. So here we go. My pessimism will be the death of me I think with my choice of Avatar for Picture and for Cinematography.

Oscar Predictions:

Best Picture:
Think: Avatar
Should: A Serious Man

Best Director:
Think: Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Should: Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker

Best Actor:
Think: Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
Should: Colin Firth – A Single Man

Best Actress:
Think: Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Should: Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

Best Supporting Actor:
Think: Christoph Waltz – Inglorious Basterds
Should: Christoph Waltz – Inglorious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress:
Think: Monique - Precious
Should: Monique - Precious

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Think: Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner - Up the Air
Should: Armando Iannucci - In the Loop

Best Original Screenplay:
Think: Quentin Tarentino – Inglorious Basterds
Should: Joel and Ethan Coen - A Serious Man

Best Editing:
Think: Chris Innis, Bob Murawski - The Hurt Locker
Should: Chris Innis, Bob Murawski - The Hurt Locker

Best Makeup:
Think: Star Trek

Best Special Effects:
Think: Avatar
Should: Star Trek

Best Original Score:
Think: Michael Giacchino - Up
Should: Michael Giacchino - Up

Best Original Song:
Think: “The Weary Kind” – Crazy Heart
Should: "The Weary Kind" - Crazy Heart

Best Live Action Short:
Think: The Door

Best Animated Short:
Think: A Matter of Loaf of Death

Best Animated Film:
Think: Up
Should: Up

Best Documentary Short:
Think: The Last Truck

Best Documentary Feature:
Think: The Cove

Best Sound Editing:
Think: Avatar

Best Sound Mixing:
Think: The Hurt Locker

Best Foreign Film:
Think: A Prophet
Should: Of the 2 I have Seen, The White Ribbon

Best Costume Design:
Think: Sandy Powell, The Young Victoria
Should: Janet Patterson - Bright Star

Best Cinematography:
Think: Mauro Biore - Avatar
Should: Christian Berger - The White Ribbon

Best Art Direction:
Think: Avatar
Should: Avatar

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March 7th 2010 @ 20:34

Posted By: Catherine Stebbins - Category: No Category

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Review: Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Grade: 2.5/10

Tim Burton’s adaptation of the musical Sweeney Todd signaled a possible return to form for the director whose work has become intermittently successful. The 2000’s were a very uneven decade for him. Starting out with his worst film to date Planet of the Apes, then moving on to the refreshing personal work that was Big Fish and then on to the mediocre Corpse Bride and the horrid Charlie and the Chocolate Factory finally moving to the fantastic Sweeney Todd. Will this decade be better for Burton? He certainly is not getting off to a good start with Alice in Wonderland, a film in the same league of misfire as his first film of the 2000’s, Planet of the Apes.

While Burton adapting Lewis Carroll seems like a match made in heaven in concept, it isn’t when Disney is thrown into the mix along with Burton’s visually exploratory ambition missing in action. Disney, who requested that Burton direct their planned live action adaptation, takes out any elements of Carroll and instead puts in elements of other works that don’t belong in the author’s created world. The nonsense, pointlessness, narcissism, exploratory structure, satire and humor are gone. Also gone, with the decision to have Alice be 19, is the journey of a child’s acceptance into the world she is part of. This change would have been interesting if the film had replaced the themes of the original with something worthwhile. Instead Wonderland, or as it has been transformed in the film, Underland, is a place filled with purpose and seriousness with underwritten characters galore who are far too humanized and underdeveloped to justify the decision to change the basic characteristics of nearly everyone.

The main plot involves Alice played by Mia Wasikowska, now 19 with no memory of having gone to Wonderland as a young girl. On the day that she unknowingly attends her engagement party and flees a marriage proposal in front of everyone, she finds herself going own the rabbit hole once again and seeing Underland, a deadened version of Wonderland due to the Red Queen (Helena Bonham-Carter) taking over the land from her sister the White Queen (Anne Hathaway). With help from The Mad Hatter and others, Alice sets out on her task to fulfill her destiny. She is now a chosen one, with a mission to carry out which involves slaying the Jabberwocky because it is foretold in an oracle in the form of a scroll…or something.

One of the main problems with the plot, bad on nearly all counts in its execution, is that 20 minutes into the film it is revealed exactly where the climax is headed and what will take place within it. While we can safely assume that the film will end happily that does not give screenwriter Woolverton the right to insert the exact circumstances of where Alice’s journey will end. That greatly decreases story involvement right off the bat and diffuses any sustained interest. In the film, Wonderland is a place where things actually happen; where events take place followed by consequences and long term effects are felt by Wonderland’s inhabitants. This grounds the world with a purpose and tangibility which takes away Carroll’s intentions on every level. Again, doing something this critical to the author’s intention needs to be justified by the quality of the storytelling but Disney, Burton and Woolverton do nothing to justify their bastardization. Luckily though, the first 10 minutes of the film, the last 2 minutes and probably 9 minutes in the midst of the wasteland that is the rest of the film are well done. At least it starts and ends on a good note.

Surely the contrivances can be made up for by the visuals? No. Burton feels like he is sleepwalking through this endeavor. Not only is there very little creativity gone into making a unique world filled with surprises but the effects themselves are consistently self conscious and mediocre. The idea of Underland should have brought a lot of interesting concepts to the table. How do you make Wonderland look and feel broken down? Dead? Ravished and decayed? Apparently you don’t do much. The world neither popped or amazed; in fact it was boring. There should have been a level of fascinating discovery and unpredictability to the visuals but instead Underland becomes mere background. Something needs to fill the screen, right?

Add to all of this the weak characterization and the making of a truly bad film begin to emerge. The White Rabbit has gone from fidgety and impatient to….nothing. He has no character at all. The Caterpillar retains his sense of frustration and wisdom but his wisdom is placed in a context making him merely a storytelling prop. The White Queen has not one line of characterization and Anne Hathaway, severely miscast is left to theatrical mannerisms and delivery in order to infuse some sense of character into someone who on the page could be anybody. Tweedledee and Tweedledum quibble a bit and represent more indifference. The Cheshire Cat is kind of sly and clever but floats around with lines that don’t assert his character to the extent they should.

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter is the biggest misfire of all. His Hatter is all about changing accents and mumbling his words so nobody can understand them. This performance is another bag of eccentricities and accents combined with an extreme appearance but it does not work this time. He is uninteresting to watch and annoying at times. While the concept behind humanizing him is interesting, the execution of it is wishy-washy. If the performance itself had been different, maybe this aspect of the film would have been more successful. Depp’s incomprehensible rabble is so forced and uninteresting that he buries most of the character’s intentions with his eccentricity overload. And wait till you get to his dance move because it could be the most quintessential jump the shark moment in a film in recent memory.

There were a few characters that did work. The March Hare was pure insanity with humor to boot but is used far too little. Bayard was mildly interesting and Stayne (Crispin Glover) was underwhelming but was acceptable in comparison to other characterizations the film had to offer.

The only truly successful aspect of the entire film is Helena Bonham-Carter’s performance as The Red Queen. While her lines are questionable, Bonham-Carter not only makes the dialogue work to her advantage but she actually manages to be consistently funny and entertaining, creating a very memorable character and performance. She actually creates something and works with what she is given in a way that helped her instead of drowning her in poor writing ala Hathaway. Her scenes are entertaining and her presence livens up the film every time she appears. Not only is she great but she looks fantastic managing to be the only visually satisfying character.

Mia Wasikowska carries the film as Alice. Without her, this would have been unwatchable. She does a really nice job, managing to keep the film somewhat interesting with her stunning presence. Her fabulous work on the first season of “In Treatment” revealed her as a young actress to watch and judging by her upcoming projects, she is about to make a stamp in the ingénue world.

Between the thin and contrived plot, the absence of wonder and unpredictability and visual creativity and the underwritten and uninteresting characters (outside of the Red Queen), Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is no less than a snoozefest; a visual bore surrounded by a bad script makes for a weak retelling of Carroll’s story that lacks his spirit and misses the point of the purpose of his lack of purpose. Maybe if this had not been a Disney film but a project that was allowed to go to dark places maybe something could have come of it. Maybe. However, the success of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, a PG film reeking of danger, paranoia and oncoming dread managed to be impressively moody and dark, rendering Alice in Wonderland’s family friendly PG rating a weak excuse for the film’s failure. Basically; go watch Jan Svankmajer’s version.

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March 7th 2010 @ 19:54

Posted By: Catherine Stebbins - Category: No Category

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Oscar Predictions/Dream Ballot 2010

It is that time of year again; time for Oscar predictions. The Oscars will always be the award show that I simultaneously don't care about and yet follow very closely and obsess over every year. It's something to do plus it motivate me to see more things, more often than not, films that are not even being considered for awards, many times the best films of the year. While there are still some biggies and not so biggies that I have not seen (Crazy Heart, Bright Star, The Blind Side, The White Ribbon, A Prophet, Broken Embraces, It's Complicated, Nine, The Lovely Bones, The Informant! and others) I feel like I have an decent (unfortunately not exceptional) group of films to pick from for my dream ballot. I am not going to explain my choices for either, although I will list the nominees in my predictions that I am taking a chance on (banking on it being a surprise nominee). For the more technical categories of which I am probably not suited to judge what the best of the categories are (although neither are most of the Academy voters) I tried my best based on what I know about those aspects of filmmaking. I have also included an Alternate for each category and a Long Shot.

Oscar Nominations Predictions/Dream Ballot 2010:

Best Picture:
Predictions:
1. An Education
2. Avatar
3. The Hangover
4. The Hurt Locker
5. Inglorious Basterds
6. Precious
7. A Serious Man
8. Star Trek
9. Up
10. Up in the Air

Alternate: Swap: An Education for The Messenger
Dark Horse: Where the Wild Things Are

Dream Ballot:
1. The Hurt Locker
2. In the Loop
3. Inglorious Basterds
4. Mary and Max
5. The Messenger
6. A Serious Man
7. A Single Man
8. Star Trek
9. Up
10. Where the Wild Things Are

Best Director:
Predictions:
1. Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
2. James Cameron – Avatar
3. Lee Daniels – Precious
4. Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
5. Quentin Tarentino – Inglorious Basterds

Alternate: Swap Daniels for The Coen Brothers – A Serious Man
Dark Horse: Neill Blomkamp - District 9

Dream Ballot:
1. Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
2. Joel and Ethan Coen – A Serious Man
3. Spike Jonze – Where the Wild Things Are
4. Tom Ford – A Single Man
5. Pete Docter - Up

Best Actor:
1. Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
2. George Clooney – Up in the Air
3. Colin Firth – A Single Man
4. Morgan Freeman – Invictus
5. Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Alternate: Swap Jeremy Renner for Ben Foster – The Messenger
Dark Horse – Matt Damon – The Informant!

Dream Ballot:
1. Colin Firth – A Single Man
2. Ben Foster – The Messenger
3. Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker
4. Adam Sandler – Funny People
5. Souleymane Sy Savane – Goodbye Solo

Best Actress:
1. Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
2. Melanie Laurent – Inglorious Basterds
3. Carey Mulligan – An Education
4. Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
5. Meryl Streep – Julie and Julia

Alternate: Swap Laurent for Emily Blunt – The Young Victoria
Dark Horse – Tilda Swinton – Julia

Dream Ballot:
1. Ok-Bin Kim - Thirst
2. Melanie Laurent – Inglorious Basterds
3. Carey Mulligan – An Education
4. Robin Wright Penn – The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
5. Gabourey Sidibe – Precious

Best Supporting Actor:
1. Matt Damon – Invictus
2. Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
3. Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
4. Stanley Tucci – Julie and Julia
5. Christoph Waltz – Inglorious Basterds

Alternate: Swap Stanley Tucci for Stanley Tucci The Lovely Bones
Dark Horse – Peter Capaldi – In the Loop

Dream Ballot:
1. Peter Capaldi – In the Loop
2. Red West – Goodbye Solo
3. Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
4. Fred Melamed – A Serious Man
5. Christoph Waltz – Inglorious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress:
1. Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
2. Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
3. Diane Kruger – Inglorious Basterds
4. Monique – Precious
5. Samantha Morton – The Messenger

Alternate – Swap Laurent with Kruger
Dark Horse – Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart

Dream Ballot:
1. Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
2. Diane Kruger – Inglorious Basterds
3. Monique – Precious
4. Samantha Morton – The Messenger
5. Paula Patton - Precious

Foreign Film:
1. The White Ribbon
2. A Prophet
3. Adjani
4. Samson and Delilah
5. El Secreto de sus Ojos

Alternate: Swap Adjani for Milk of Sorrow

Best Original Screenplay:
1. Mark Boal – The Hurt Locker
2. Quentin Tarentino – Inglorious Basterds
3. Joel and Ethan Coen – A Serious Man
4. (500) Days of Summer
5. Bob Petersen and Pete Docter – Up

Alternate: Swap 500 Days for Avatar
Dark Horse: The White Ribbon

Dream Ballot:
1. Mark Boal – The Hurt Locker
2. Joel and Ethan Coen – A Serious Man
3. Oren Movermen – The Messenger
4. Bob Petersen and Pete Docter – Up
5. Quentin Tarentino – Inglorious Basterds

Best Adapted Screenplay:
1. Neill Blomkamp and Terri Thatcher - District 9
2. Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach - Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. Geoffrey Fletcher - Precious
4. Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner - Up in the Air
5. Scott Cooper – Crazy Heart

Alternate: Swap Fantastic for An Education
Dark Horse: Where the Wild Things Are

Dream Ballot:
1. Neill Blomkamp and Terri Thatcher – District 9
2. Tom Ford – A Single Man
3. Armando Iannucci – In the Loop
4. Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers – Where the Wild Things Are
5. Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner – Up in the Air

Animated Film:
1. Coraline
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
4. Princess and the Frog
5. Up

Alternate: Swap Cloudy for Ponyo
Dark Horse: Mary and Max

Dream Ballot:
1. Coraline
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. Mary and Max
4. Ponyo
5. Up

Best Art Direction:
1. Avatar
2. Bright Star
3. District 9
4. Inglorious Basterds
5. Where the Wild Things Are

Alternate: Swap out Wild Things for Lovely Bones
Dark Horse: A Single Man

Dream Ballot:
1. Avatar
2. District 9
3. A Single Man
4. Star Trek
5. Where the Wild Things Are

Best Cinematography:
1. Avatar
2. The White Ribbon
3. The Hurt Locker
4. Nine
5. Inglorious Basterds

Alternate: Swap Nine for Bright Star
Dark Horse: A Single Man

Dream Ballot:
1. Inglorious Basterds
2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
3. The Hurt Locker
4. A Single Man
5. Where the Wild Things Are

Best Costume Design:
1. Bright Star
2. Coco Avant Chanel
3. Inglorious Basterds
4. Public Enemies
5. The Young Victoria

Alternate: Swap Public Enemies for Nine
Dark Horse: Julie and Julia

Dream Ballot:
1. An Education
2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
3. Inglorious Basterds
4. Public Enemies
5. A Serious Man

Best Editing:
1. Avatar
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Inglorious Basterds
4. Star Trek
5. Up in the Air

Alternate: Swap Star Trek for District 9
Dark Horse: A Serious Man

Dream Ballot:
1. A Single Man
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Inglorious Basterds
4. A Serious Man
5. Star Trek

Best Makeup:
1. Star Trek
2. District 9
3. The Road

Best Sound Mixing:
1. Avatar
2. District 9
3. The Hurt Locker
4. Star Trek
5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Sound Editing:
1. Avatar
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Star Trek
4. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
5. Up

Best Documentary:
1. The Beaches of Agnes
2. Burma VJ
3. The Cove
4. Every Little Step
5. Food Inc.

Best Original Score:
1. Alexandre Desplat – Coco Avant Chanel
2. Michael Hamlisch – The Informant!
3. James Horner - Avatar
4. Michael Giacchino – Up
5. Randy Newman – The Princess and the Frog

Dream Ballot:
1. Carter Burwell – A Serious Man
2. Alexandre Desplat – Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. Michael Giacchino – Star Trek
4. Michael Giacchino – Up
5. Abel Korzeniowski – A Single Man

Best Original Song:
1. Almost There – The Princess and the Frog
2. I See You - Avatar
3. I Want to Come Home – Everybody’s Fine
4. The Weary Kind – Crazy Heart
5. Winter – Brothers

Best Visual Effects:
1. Avatar
2. Star Trek
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Dream Ballot:
1. Avatar
2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
3. Star Trek

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February 1st 2010 @ 22:44

Posted By: Catherine Stebbins - Category: No Category

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Review: Big Fan (2009)

Big Fan (2009): 7.3/10

Most films, in some capacity, are about change. Films are filled with characters that change, for better or worse, due to the events taking place within the story. Big Fan, written and directed by The Wrestler screenwriter Robert D. Siegel, is captivating because it is about a man who outright refuses to change.

Paul (Patton Oswalt) is a 36 year old man who works as a parking garage attendant, still living with his mother who resentfully does everything for him. He is also a big New York Giants fan. In fact, everything and anything not having to do with the New York Giants means nothing to Paul. He has ostracized himself from his family who tolerates him and he in return tolerates them. His best friend Sal (Kevin Corrigan) is the only person who Paul connects with, not surprisingly because he is too, a huge Giants fan.

The plot of Big Fan involves Paul’s unfortunate run in with Giants player Quantrell Bishop (Jonathan Hamm) who also happens to be Paul’s hero. The encounter ends very badly and Paul ends up in the hospital. From there the film depicts Paul’s incessant need to maintain his loyalty to his team and the toll his refusal takes on him.

The screenplay, while rife with realist observation is also sprinkled with moments of black comedy during the scenes involving Paul’s family. The film never invites us to laugh at Paul, as much as it asks us to look upon him with pity. As for his family, while they are unmistakably seen as more sensible people, they are shown to us in the way that Paul sees them; as pitiful creatures in their own right.

Make no mistake that while this is a film worth seeing because of its character study of sports fanaticism, the reason to see this film is for Patton Oswalt’s performance. The actor dives into Paul, not afraid to be as selfish and as child like as he can be and never afraid of losing his audience. Oswalt understands that characters like this simply do not exist in most films and he uses that opportunity to depict Paul as truthfully as he can. He portrays Paul as someone who never second guesses his life choices but as someone who does understand that he has made those choices. It is a great performance and one not to be missed.

Big Fan is not a perfect film. The last act heavily depends on manipulation and Siegel’s overall direction is unfortunately so bland that it is noticeable. Perhaps if another director had taken over from his own script, the film would have been truly great. In other words, Siegel the director is a deterrence to Siegel the writer.

Despite this, Siegel has created a nicely loose character study that deals with the psychology of one particular sports fan and the voids that a certain level of fanaticism can fill in someone’s life when they need it. Paul is someone who uses football to escape and it alone makes him so happy that the rest of his life remains at a standstill causing Paul to still be a child in his immaturity, lack of responsibility, self support and perception. His screenplay is not addled with insightful moments or attempts at connection or change. Paul has fused his life’s meaning with a football team and that kind of loyalty is not about to be challenged by a cliched script; in a way, Siegel stays loyal to Paul.

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January 9th 2010 @ 23:55

Posted By: Catherine Stebbins - Category: No Category

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Quick Review Update

Reviews will be back on track in a couple of weeks but for now, while my laptop is unavailable to me, I will just have to give a quick update on the films I have seen recently. I'm simply not willing to deal with this computer long enough to give full length reviews of the films I have seen.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009): 6/10 - Great performance by Robin Wright Penn and an enjoyable film that falters in the last half hour and wraps up things in too conventional a manner to be good. It indulges in its light and fluffy tone which matches the title characters' calm, quiet and pleasant demeanor which some considered a major flaw but not I. However, the Winona Ryder character seemed like a big joke which threw off the rest of the slightly comic tone making way for outright goofiness. Blake Lively does a nice job as young Pippa and the two actresses do seem like they were playing the same character. It is unfortunate that awards suck and will not recognize Robin Wright Penn's performance, adding this to a long list of upcoming snubs to take place in the narrow minded Oscars. All in all though, the film is nice, then dissapointing and ultimately forgettable.

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009): 7.4/10

To get into the mind of Precious is to experience how this girl lives, functions and goes on with the trauma and hate surrounding her. For this reason and for the performances Precious is indeed an emotional and fulfilling experience. The film allows the audience to sink into her and her thoughts and it tries throughout to show us what life for her is like and the different ways she escapes and finally how she takes control of her situation out of the fundamental need for survival. The performances are something else. Gabourey Sidibe plays all of the characters' notes beautifully and brings a natural quality to a character who has so fully sheilded herself from everything that her voice has been forced into a low mumble (although not all the time). Monique is terrifying and gut wrenching to say the least. Her final scene is a whopper, bringing heaps of inner turmoil to the viewer as we try to work out what we are seeing. Paula Patton as Miss Rain is a bright light, giving a performance just as worthy of an Oscar nomination as Monique. Lee Daniels' direction is certainly important to the success of the film but it also holds the biggest flaw. Daniels is indulging a bit where it is not needed and instead of keeping the fantasy and reality elements distinct, at times he brings little experiments to the table in the raw and real scenes of the film which are the vast bulk of it, distracting from the scene instead of enhancing it. Precious is not an amazing film but it is a good one and one that many people out there might need.

OK; my mouth is hurting from the wisdom teeth again so I am going to go lie down. Here are the grades for the other films I have seen.

A Christmas Carol (2009): 2.5/10
Mary and Max (2009): 9/10
House of the Devil (2009): 8/10
The Messenger (2009): 9.2/10
The Box (2009): 5.5/10
Invictus (2009): 6/10
Public Enemies (2009): 4/10

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January 3rd 2010 @ 21:32

Posted By: Catherine Stebbins - Category: No Category

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Review: Jennifer's Body

Sorry it has been so long. Haven't had time to type during the final days before Christmas and my computer is unavailable to me due to a broken power cord. So I am waiting on that. I am typing from my mother's computer which is pretty slow and does not motivate me to write full length reviews for each film I have seen but slowly I will attempt to over the next several days. I still have most of the Oscar films to see. I am not sure when I will do that since I am getting my wisdom teeth taken out tomorrow and will be in recovery for the next few days. Fun fun fun.

Jennifer's Body (2009) 5/10

On a subjective level, Jennifer's Body is entertaining through and through. However, the film suffers from many flaws, big ones I might add, which force the black comedy horror flick to be categorized as one of lost potential.

First and foremost Jennifer's Body should have played it straight. By having screenwriter Diablo Cody's dialogue overshadow everything, it eventually becomes distracting. This screenplay is nowhere near as strong as Juno and without the strong story and director Jason Reitman controlling everything, this Cody screenplay comes off as something trying too hard to become a cult hit. Playing it straight would have cancelled out any Heathers comparisons with the dark comedy element being more subdued and it would have allowed for a much more challenging horror film that explores the different kinds of relationships and friendships between females. This is not to say the film does not take itself seriously; it does. Cody mentioned in an interview once that her intention was to make Jennifer's Body a serious film but she could not resist putting her own touch onto everything and then it became what it is. This accounts for the mish mash of elements the audience are supposed to take seriously and elements the audience are not supposed to take seriously.

Another problem with the film is that as a horror film, it fails. It is simply not scary and while there are a few suspenseful moments, overall it fails to create any kind of terror within the viewer. The scenes in which Jennifer seduces her victims are all essentially the same scene except there is no payoff because the moment that the gross out moments are supposed to take place, the film cuts away despite the film's R rating which can be attributed almost solely for the use of swearing.

The supposed 'feminist' message of the film gets completely lost with the character of Jennifer. Another major change that should have been made within the screenplay is that the film should have been equally focused on Jennifer as a character as it is with the Needy character. Megan Fox as Jennifer ends up becoming just as much of an object as she is in the Transformers series. The film should have been told equally from both points of view because this would have allowed for Fox to actually be playing a character instead of someone who, while close to being a character (there are hints of development which never pay off), is never given the development or space to become anything more than another objectification to the viewer.

The soundtrack adds an immature and very uncool vibe to the proceedings. I would have hoped that Cody could have pulled off something better than this in the music choice. I sincerely hope this was not her decision. To make it even worse, the film ends with "Violet" by Hole, a great song which led to the realization that Jennifer's Body should have been filled with 90's alt rock similar to that of Hole. A wasted oppurtunity to be sure.

The film's major success though is in the character of Needy both in development and in performance by Amanda Seyfried. Seyfried does take herself and the character very seriously and it does pay off because anything involving Needy is the only completely stable element of the film. This is the one area in Cody and director Karyn Kursama's feminist approach get right. They give us a female protagonist in a horror film who functions as a relatable and most importantly developed character who is recognizable as a girl that could actually exist. Seyfried lends her remarkable talents and single handedly holds this film together and actually makes it worth seeing. Her relationship with her boyfriend Chip is refreshing and done with a lot of care. If only they had a film to support them.

It does not seem like Jennifer's Body should garner the rating I have given it. There are elements that work though. The film is entertaining which is admirable enough and it does get the tone right quite a bit despite the many times it does not. Cody's dialgogue also works often and the first half hour shows the most potential in the film and could be its strongest section.

Jennifer's Body is a thoroughly entertaining but ultimately misguided attempt to create a feminist horror film despite the elements it succeeds in such as the character of Needy, her development, Seyfried's performance and the depiction of her relationship with Chip. Instead of making a black comedy desperate to be a cult hit, Cody and Kursama should have focused on creating a serious horror film that challenged our perceptions and explored female friendships. By taking itself more seriously and focusing on Jennifer, her struggle and submission to her transformation into a succubus as much as the film focuses on Needy, the film could have been great instead of having Megan Fox function as being an object almost as much as she is in Transformers. This failure needs to be attributed to Cody's screenplay and not to Fox who actually does a decent job as Jennifer despite the insults everyone else hurled at her in reference to this performance. All in all Jennifer's Body should be looked at this way; a film with lost potential is better than a film with no potential at all even if the former situation is much more upsetting and disappointing.

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December 29th 2009 @ 18:33

Posted By: Catherine Stebbins - Category: No Category

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Top 30 Film Performances of the Decade

While there are a lot of obvious choices here I do hope that this list is a nice and well rounded representation of the film performances that impressed me the most. A lot of the ones that happen to be considered the best of the decade really truly are. I am not going to give reasons for most of these; I just think they are all incredible performances. Thigns might change a bit when I see more of the films from this year but for now only one performance from this year made my list. I had to cut this down from 100 performances so these 30 are indeed special to me.

30. Cate Blanchett - Sheba Hart - Notes on a Scandal

I chose this performance over a few of her more noted performance. Even though she is amazing in The Aviator, I have always preferred this performance over any other. It is a very tough role to play and she does it beautifully. I also think she looks more stunning in this than in anything else she has done.

29. Gary Oldman - Shelly Runyon - The Contender

28. Kate Winslet - Clementine Kruczynski - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Very close to picking her performance in Little Children but ended up not.

27. Sam Rockwell - Glenn Marchand - Snow Angels

26. Mark Wahlberg - Tommy Corn - I Heart Huckabees

The only comedic performance on my list. For my money its the best comedic performance of the past ten years. I think he is brilliant in this.

25. Nicolas Cage - Charlie Kaufman/Donald Kaufman - Adaptation

24. Sean Penn - Harvey Milk - Milk

23. Birol Unel - Cahit - Gegen die Wand (Head-On)

22. Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Neil - Mysterious Skin

21. Sean Penn - Sam Bicke - The Assassination of Richard Nixon

20. Ulrich Muhe - Captain Gerd Weisler - Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)

19. Brad Pitt - Jesse James - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

18. Laura Linney - Wendy Savage - The Savages

17. Christoph Waltz - Colonel Hans Landa - Inglourious Basterds

16. Ryan Gosling - Dan Dunne - Half Nelson

15. Naomi Watts - Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn - Mulholland Dr.

I figured I would put up a picture of each character. The first is Diane's idealized version of herself. The way she once was perhaps. She gives herself talent, innocence and optimism and even the woman of her dreams in a situation where both parties are inexperienced, curious and vulnerable. In her own dream, she disturbingly does not give herself the name Diane but in fact renames herself. Then we have the real thing; Diane. Essentially the opposite of Betty. As we see how Diane's life and Betty's life do not match up, we can see how tragic Diane is and it is Watts' performance that really gets under your skin in the way that she juxtaposes the two characters.

14. Philip Seymour Hoffman - Truman Capote - Capote

Almost went with Owning Mahoney or Before the Devil Knows You're Dead but in the end I could not pick anything else but this.

13. Jeff Daniels - Bernard Berkman - The Squid and the Whale

12. Jackie Earle Haley - Ronnie J. McGorvey - Little Children

11. Casey Affleck - Robert Ford - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

10. Mickey Rourke - Randy - The Wrestler

9. Anne Hathaway - Kym - Rachel Getting Married

8. Julie Delpy - Celine - Before Sunset

7. Sally Hawkins - Poppy - Happy-Go-Lucky

6. Marion Cotillard - Edith Piaf - La Vie En Rose

5. Bruno Ganz - Adolf Hitler - Der Untergang (Downfall)

4. Heath Ledger - Ennis Del Mar - Brokeback Mountain

3. Charlize Theron - Aileen Wuornos - Monster

2. Daniel Day-Lewis - Daniel Plainview - There Will Be Blood

1. Ellen Burstyn - Sara Goldfarb - Requiem for a Dream

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December 18th 2009 @ 23:16

Posted By: Catherine Stebbins - Category: No Category

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Top 30 Worst Film Performances of the Decade (2000's)

There are a lot of bad films I have not seen. But I have seen a nice chunk of them. So here we go. No reasons; just pictures. I actually made a conscious decision not to add Lindsay Lohan in I Know Who Killed Me. To be sure, it is a bad performance; however I actually think she does a lot more with the material (the none that there is) than any of these actors do with theirs and she was working with worse material than most on the list so I am going to slightly defend the bad performance. Slightly. Enjoy and once again feel free to join in and post your worst performances of the decade!

30. Cameron Diaz - Jenny - Gangs of New York

29. Alison Lohman - Karen - Where the Truth Lies

28. Jim Carrey - Walter Sparrow/Fingerling - The Number 23

27. James Franco - Harry Osborne - Spider Man 3

26. Jensen Ackles - Tom Hanniger - My Bloody Valentine

25. Hayden Christensen - Musician - Factory Girl

Congrats Hayden for being the only actor with TWO performances on this list. What a joke of a Bob Dylan impression.

24. Britney Spears - Lucy Wagner - Crossroads

23. Paris Hilton - Paige Edwards - House of Wax

22. Gwen Stefani - Jean Harlow - The Aviator

I feel like I need to explain this one. First of all her casting was a gimmick which I do not like at all. Second, casting Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow is blasphemous. Third, she has two lines...and fucks them BOTH up. Case closed.

21. Christian Slater - Edward Carnby - Alone in the Dark

20. Ali Larter - Lisa Sheridan - Obsessed

19. Larry the Cable Guy - Deputy Larry Stadler - Witless Protection

18. Barry Pepper - Johnnie Goodboy Tyler - Battlefield Earth

17. Ben Barnes - Prince Caspian - Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

16. John Travolta - Terl - Battlefield Earth

15. Mark Wahlberg - Elliot Moore - The Happening

14. Tara Reid - Aline Cedrac - Alone in the Dark

13. Halle Berry - Patience Phillips/Catwoman - Catwoman

12. Travis van Winkle - Trent - Friday the 13th

11. Kate Beckinsale - Anna Valerious - Van Helsing

10. Scarlett Johannson - Silken Floss - The Spirit

9. Robert Pattinson - Edward Cullen - Twilight

Look at that face. So funny.

8. Richard Roxburgh - Count Dracula - Van Helsing

7. Hayden Christensen - Anakin Skywalker - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

6. Kelly Clarkson - Kelly - From Justin to Kelly

5. Tyra Banks - Nora - Halloween: Resurrection

4. Justin Guarini - Justin - From Justin to Kelly

3. Busta Rhymes - Freddie Harris - Halloween: Resurrection

2. Ryan Starr - Stacy - Ring of Darkness

There you have it; the third of three American Idol contestants to make the list.

1. Mike Myers - Cat in the Hat - The Cat in the Hat

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December 17th 2009 @ 03:22

Posted By: Catherine Stebbins - Category: No Category

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A nonsensical post

I am sitting in the editing room of my college. My boyfriend is transferring over a couple of family videos as I finish my absurd mockumentary which makes no sense whatsoever. I am working on a Mac right now which confuses the hell out of me. The keyboards are indeed nice but how anyone spends their life working on one is beyond me. I forgot to bring my stuff with me so one and only resource is this computer. So I am blogging. What am I blogging about? I have no idea.

I am done with classes on Wednesday at 3:30. I am done with the most stressful part of the semester but I still have a decent amount of work ahead of me. Thankfully I only have two finals. I just finished my documentary so I am finished for that particular class. The one class that is destroying me is the art class. All it has done is remind me why I do not draw. It may relax some people but few activities get me into such a stressful and rage filled funk than the act of drawing. For my final project I am recreating 5 specific shots from L'Avventura with charcoal and it is so much harder that I thought. Nothing looks real; it all looks representational. I basically lost my mind last night and literally smeared shit loads of black over the left side of the drawing. You know what? I am going with it. I'll do a bit more work on it but basically I am going to explain that I lost it and felt like keeping the result as it showed the unpredictability of the art making process or some bullshit like that. None of my drawings look good. I spent as much time on them as my homework assignments throughout the semester but I know she will only see a drop in quality and thus a drop in time spent on them. I have one more to go and I'm a bit nervous about the turnout.

Other than that I have to do a presentation tomorrow for my Terror of the Gothic class. Our group will be comparing Dracula and Twilight and Let the Right One In. Basically it will be about how the vampire genre has evolved and how it is used for many different things. It is a pointless assignment; worth only 5% of our grade and put in place simply to give us yet another fucking pointless thing to do. And I'm not sure we are making any points with this presentation. At first I was excited because I thought that our presentation was essentially going to be a shit fest on Twilight and how it has taken any interesting aspects of the genre and castrated it for Mormon infused morals. But the more i think about it the more I think our presentation is going to be a simple comparison which means that there is a possibility that I could come off as a Twilight fan. How do I convey in my minute of speaking that I am not a Twilight fan and am simply a fascinated observer from the cultural perspective? I don't want to just be a prick and put a disclaimer out there for the class before I speak. I have, after probably a half an hour of thinking about this, some up with a solution....Here it is; my section is going to be on the settings of each and basically what they signify. I plan on mentioning Edward's trip to Italy to seek out the Volturi in the second book; and I am planning on mispronouncing Volturi. There you have it; my master plan. I am hoping for it to play out something like this. "And in the second novel, New Moon, Edward goes to Italy to seek out the..Vol-turi? Volturi? Is that how you pronounce it? Okay good..." Genius no? I think so. I figure this will at least indicate that I am not all that familiar with the stories and am thus a passive member of the group in that I did not come up with the subject directly.

I am putting together some really fun end of the decade lists for this blog and for myself for I would be making these with or without said outlet. Right now I am doing my performances list. It will consist of Top 30 Performances of the Decade, Top 30 Underrated Performances of the Decade and Top 30 Worst Performances of the Decade. The Worst one is done. I am pretty happy with it I guess. It was the hardest of the 3 because these are mostly shitty films that I have only seen once and to remember a performance years afterward with no intention of seeing them again is hard. I am sure there are performances I am forgetting. I just picked the ones that stuck out to me. Underrated and Top 30 were slightly easier and actually extremely satisfying. I tried to only have 1 performance from each person. It was not a rule but simply a preference and luckily I really only ran into 2 problems with that. I also decided not to put any performances on the Underrated list that made my Top 30. My only issue with Underrated is that it was difficult once again to recognize any foreign performances since they are well recieved in their own country. For example nobody talks about Mathieu Amalric in A Christmas Tale but reviewers did acknowledge the performance and it was massive in France. So what do I do? I leave it out. The girl from Thirst would have made it but the film was huge in South Korea. So I leave it out. It is so difficult to gauge which performances are underrated in the foreign category. Basically they have to be underrated in this country to an insane degree. Because of this I believe I only have 1 performance from another country and I feel like an asshole. The same thing happened with my Top 30 list. I have not seen a ton of foreign films this decade and I had to cut 70 performances off of my brainstorm list to get down to 30; the chances for a performance from another country to make the cut is so much slimmer. I think I have maybe 3 that made it. Its very depressing and American heavy. Ugh. Oh well. I stand by my choices. Hopefully they will be posted within the next week.

The Lovely Bones is getting a ton of flack for not depicting the character is Susie's murder/rape and furthermore by not even acknowledging the rape as a part of the story. I figured I would give my stance on this before I see the film and then figure out where I stand after I see it. I do hope to reread the novel before I see the film. I laugh at my pathetic ambitions. Anyways though, this was something I had spoken about with someone (who that someone was I cannot remember) a few days before Entertainment Weekly had a short article which was labeled something to the effect of "Peter Jackson being attacked for not showing us a girl's rape and murder". Way to be objective. For the record I do not have a problem with Jackson and Fran Walsh deciding not to depict the rape or murder. I'm actually pretty happy about it. They understand that film is a visual medium, that this film is being made for mass consumption and that there are ways to convey events and have them be effective without showing them. Having said that (sorry Larry David but the phrase is necessary here) I take major issue with the film omitting the fact that she is raped. From my understanding it is never mentioned or acknowledged that Susie was raped by Mr. Harvey. Essentially the film conveys that she is murdered and nothing else. Perfectly okay with it not being shown; happy in fact. Really really not okay with the event not being acknowledged. It is such an important factor to take out and to me it does change things a bit. The entire tone is set with this knowledge. It is not even how it changes things; it is simply a much too important fact to cut out. If we add this with the fact that Jackson went back in later and filmed additional scenes of Mr. Harvey's fate because the audience wanted to see him suffer more than we have an interesting dilemma. Basically everything has been switched to make the audience more comfortable. The person that audience members do not want to see suffer do not have to and furthermore the characters final moments are changed dramatically and then we have the character that everyone wants to see suffer is allowed that extra pain. So basically none of it is challenging and this has been made into a very comfortable and cathartic film about a girl's murder. And apparently the rest of the film fails pretty badly as well. Do not get me wrong; I am still excited about this film. Extremely excited. I have been waiting for it for years. I just hope that if changes of this size were going to be made that they hopefully have a film that still retains the emotional exploration of the book.

What else to talk about? Nothing really. I think that it all for now!

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December 13th 2009 @ 22:55

Posted By: Catherine Stebbins - Category: No Category

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