Review: Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about his Father (2008)

When I sat down one unassuming Wednesday night with my wife to check out this film, I already knew what to expect from it because I had read a lot about it online: “It will break your heart.”  “It’s the saddest film you will ever see.”  “You will cry buckets.”  “The events of this story are completely unfathomable.”  And, although I usually believe everything I read on the internet, I dismissed these comments as mere hyperbole.  I mean, surely it can’t be sooooooo unbelievably heartbreaking, right?

Wrong.

If you haven’t heard of it, this story is basically a love-letter to the family of Dr. Andrew Bagby, who was murdered by his girlfriend Shirley Turner.  The filmmaker was a close friend of Andrew’s and he wanted to make it as a way for Andrew’s son, Zachary, to know his father through interviews of family and friends.  Doesn’t sound like it could be that sad, right?  Well, here’s a brief running diary of my emotions throughout the 90-minute film.                                        

0:20: Small lump in throat, not looking at wife because I know she’s already shedding a tear or two which will make it harder for me not to.

0:42: First inkling of a tear rolls down cheek.  Man card=REVOKED. 

0:57: Tennis ball-sized lump in throat, beginning to reach “death of my childhood dog when I was 12” status. 

1:10:  Tears accumulating in rapid fashion; beginning to flow steadily.  All bets are off at this point. 

1:25:  Pools running out of blood-shot eyes; blubbering; wailing; snot everywhere; hugging wife and dog.

1:30: Film ends.  Repeat above for 30 more minutes. 

So I think that paints a pretty accurate picture of what this film is capable of doing to you.  As far as the quality of the film, it’s not a prototypical documentary in that it’s not so much an investigative journalism as much as a home-video from one friend to the family of another; the editing is somewhat overbearing at some points and the music heavy-handed; but because of the personal nature of the story and the downright tragedy of the actual events, this is easy to forgive.  I highly recommend exercising your lacrimal glands and giving this one a shot. 

**Thanks to fellow film-buff Taylor S. for turning me on to this film.**

Sleeping Beauty Fail

So, This is Happening.

I've been a lazy bum the past couple of weeks with keeping up on here, and I have a lot of movies I want to get to, but I had to post about this in order to see if everyone is as enraged as I am about it.

As my wonderful sister and parents know all too well, I am obsessed with Disney's Sleeping Beauty.  I probably watched it 300 times from age 2 to 8.  It's still my favorite Disney movie of all time.  When it came out on DVD for the first time in the fall of 2003, I risked my manhood by informing my new friends at college that I would be purchasing it and watching it on a Friday night by myself, and I didn't care what they said or thought.  Long story short, I would be lying if I said I didn't have an emotional attachment to the film.  Judge me.

Despite this, I don't think my possibly concerning attachment is clouding my opinion that I think trying to make a movie centered around Maleficent is a mistake.  As it stands, Maleficent is one of the scariest and best Disney villains ever.  Part of what makes her so scary is that we don't know anything about her...we don't know why she hates the King and Queen and wants to kill their child, but isn't it better that way?

Moreover, I can't imagine anything worse than Tim Burton directing this film.  I haven't seen Alice In Wonderland yet, but based on all accounts of people I trust, it was despicable.  So he's already screwed up one classic Disney movie (and the trippiest, I might add).  He screwed up Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, another movie that didn't need to be touched.

Look, I'm not trying to be a stick in the mud, but can we really not come up with any sort of original idea every once in a while?  Moviegods, I don't ask for much, but please....just no.

Official 2009 Oscar Predictions

Listen up, Academy.  If you do the 10 Best Picture nominee thing again, I'm going to punch you.  And I will gripe and complain until I'm blue in the face, and threaten to not watch you again, but we both know that I will.  But maybe that's the problem AND the solution.  See, apparently the Academy's reasoning for expanding the Best Picture category was to open it up for more mainstream films to get in, such as this year's Up, The Blind Side (sorry, just threw up a little in my mouth), and District 9.  More mainstream movies getting a nomination = more viewership, as far as the Academy's concerned.  My theory is that this will not affect the amount of people who watch it.  People will complain and stomp around mad about who gets nominated/who wins, but they will always come back.  It's the Academy Freaking Awards, THE *end all and be all* of American film awards.  They lucked out this year anyway, with AVATAR making enough money to fill Texas.  The following of that movie alone will yield much higher viewers tomorrow night, but it would have been nominated in a field of 5 anyway.  But I digress.  Academy, just admit that this year was a failure and move on.  Anyway, here are my picks for tomorrow night; enjoy.  

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

% Sure: 75

Comments: There has been a little backlash in the past couple of weeks surrounding The Hurt Locker, but I'm sticking with my guns here.  It's a two horse race between it and AVATAR (although some would claim Inglorious Basterds has a shot, but it doesn't).  The problem with AVATAR is that it has zero acting or writing nominations.  I think it's something like, zero, movies have ever won Best Picture without a writing or acting nomination (although if any movie was to break that mold, it would be that one).  The other major reason that I think Locker will win is because of the enormous amount of precursor awards going to it: Writers Guild Award, Directors Guild Award, Producers Guild Award, Editors Guild Award, and the BAFTA, to name a few.  The only thing AVATAR has won is the Golden Globe, which has not matched the Academy several times recently.  Anyway, I think it's Locker for the win, but I won't be surprised if I see James Cameron take the stage in Kodak theatre tomorrow night.  

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

% Sure: 95

Comments: Jeff Bridges has won every major award so far except for the BAFTA, and I don't think this will change here.  The other problem is that there is not another standout upset contender: Colin Firth won the BAFTA and not much else, George Clooney had a lot of early buzz but dropped off, Jeremy Renner wasn't even a lock for a nom but has gotten a LOT of buzz of late, and then there's Morgan Freeman playing himself, er, Nelson Mandella.  If anyone upsets it will be Renner, but you can feel pretty safe putting your money on Bridges.

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

% Sure: 40

Comments: Okay, here's the deal: the other acting categories this year are all locks, and there's almost always one "out of nowhere" winner (see: Arkin, Alan).  I think this will be the category that it happens in this year. Having said that, I'm still picking the frontrunner with Sandra, because there's not a clear 2nd banana with the noms.  Meryl Streep is Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan won the BAFTA (and it's my fav. female performance of the year), and Gabourey Sidibe has a lot of recent buzz.  Do not be surprised if any of those 4 women win.  Here's my %'s: Bullock = 40, Sidibe = 25, Mulligan = 20, Streep = 15, Mirren = 0.  

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds

% Sure: 100

Comments: Two things: First, I love that because of this movie, I'm allowed to say "Basterds" in my blog.  Second, you can bet your firstborn child on this win.  

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Monique, Precious

% Sure: 97.5

Comments: Monique will win.  And barring Gabby Sidibe pulling the upset over Sandra, it's the only award that Precious will take home tomorrow.  

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

% Sure: 99.5

Even if AVATAR wins BP, I think Bigelow wins best director.  As she'll be the first woman to ever take home the award, I think the Academy will do the politically correct thing here.  It's the right time.

Best Original Screenplay: Inglorious Basterds

% Sure: 70

Comments: It's either going to be this or The Hurt Locker.  My thinking is that the Academy will want to award Quentin Tarantino for this movie, which won at the Screen Actor's Guild awards for best ensemble performance.  

Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air

% Sure: 80

Comments: It's won almost everything so far in this category, and I think this will be the one award that the movie takes home.  Much like Basterds, the Academy won't let such an acclaimed and highly nominated film walk home empty-handed.  

Best Cinematography: Avatar

% Sure: 25

Comments: Okay, here come the technicals.  A few of them I have a really good idea on, and the others I might as well throw darts at a board.  This is one of those.  My original pick was for The White Ribbon to win, as it's a beautifully shot film, but if The Hurt Locker wins the major awards then AVATAR could very well sweep the technicals, so I'm switching my vote.  Don't count out any of the nominees on this one.  

Best Editing: The Hurt Locker

% Sure: 40

Comments: Best Editing many times goes along with the BP winner, and in this case, the editing was very important to the feel of the movie.  However, per my theory about AVATAR above, it could very well win also.

Best Art Direction: Avatar

% Sure: 45

Comments: Many times in categories like this, the BP nominee will take home the award against the other films not nominated for it.  My original pick was Nine, but others think Sherlock Holmes as well.  Who the heck knows?  I'll go with the movie that made 2 Billion dollars, thanks.

Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria

% Sure: 75

Comments: The Academy loves period-piece porn, and it's won a lot of awards already.

Best Makeup: Star Trek

% Sure: 95

Comments: No other good candidates. 

Best Original Score: Up

% Sure: 85

Comments: It's been winning everything, and the score in AVATAR just isn't very good, or else it would have a chance.

Best Original Song: “The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart

% Sure: 90

Comments: Good song, it's been winning everything, and the upset contender would be one of the songs from The Princess and The Frog, but since it has two noms it will split the vote.

Best Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker

% Sure: 45

Comments: Once again, two horse race between it and the blue smurfs movie.  If I had any brains I would pick the same movies for this and sound editing to increase my chances for winning one of them, but I just have a hunch.  

Best Sound Editing: Avatar

% Sure: 35

Comments: (See above)

Best Visual Effects: AVATAR

% Sure: 110

Comments: The other nominees are just glad to be there.  

Best Animated Film: Up

% Sure: 85

Comments: Strong, strong year for animated films.  I personally liked Coraline better, but Up was nominated for BP, and has been winning everything, so I don't really see anything else taking it.  Also, doesn't AVATAR qualify for this category?

Best Foreign Film: A Prophet

% Sure: 50

Comments: Haven't seen A Prophet, but it looks like the clear frontrunner.  The White Ribbon and The Secrets in Their Eyes could also win.  Not feeling too sure on this category.  

Best Documentary: The Cove

% Sure: 90

Comments: This one's pretty safe, but Food, Inc. could sneak in.  It's just too bad Capitalism: A Love Story wasn't nominated, Michael Moore is always entertaining.  And fat.

Not gonna attempt the short films; haven't seen a one.  That's it for my predictions, have fun watching everyone!

Top 10 of 2009: #'s 5-1

5. Crazy Heart

The best acting performance of the year occurs in this understated, authentic film.  That performance is by Jeff Bridges, who plays Bad Blake, an aging country singer who has fallen from grace in the music industry.  I’m a sucker for sympathetic down-on-their-luck characters almost as much as I am a sucker for films with great, original music.  Put those two together, and you can see why I loved this film. 

4. An Education

Following my favorite male performance of the year is An Education, which contains my favorite female performance of the year in Carey Mulligan.  This film is a classic combination of a great story and great acting—no bells or whistles here.  The story succeeds because the characters are so well written that we genuinely feel for them (even the “bad” characters).  It was a little difficult at first for me to accept the major premise of the film (Mulligan’s 17 year-old character being in a serious relationship with someone in their mid-30’s), but then I found out it was based on a true story, so bad job by me.  The fact that Sandra Bullock is probably going to win best actress for “The Blind Side” over Carey Mulligan is just about sinful. 

3. Coraline

Beating out Up and Fantastic Mr. Fox in the animated category for me is Coraline, a haunting little stop-motion animation film with heart.  I always like movies that take the most basic themes (a child’s relationship with her parents/the family dynamic in general) and find new and exciting (and bizarre, in this case) ways to explore them.  It doesn’t pack quite the emotional punch that Up does, but what separates the two for me is the completeness of the writing—all of the characters and subplots bring meaning to the story and make it a well-rounded film, and they are portrayed in such a new, interesting, and eerie way that it’s hard not to appreciate it.  

2. The Hurt Locker

The Oscar battle for best picture this year is waged between two camps: The Hurt Locker and Avatar.  You can see which side I belong to.  This is easily one of my favorite war movies, and easily my favorite movie about the Iraq war.  It’s psychological, it’s intense, and it’s everything you want in a war movie that you didn’t know you wanted in a war movie.  To illustrate this, let me relay to you a facebook transaction that occurred a few months ago, between C, a friend of mine and J, an avid reader of this blog who actually served in Iraq:

C: “The Hurt Locker was disappointing.  The characters went around doing nothing the whole time, it was boring, had no ending, and was pointless.” 

J: “hmmm…doing nothing for hours, boredom, and no resolution...yep, pretty much sounds like Iraq.” 

This illustrates it perfectly for me.  The reason many people probably don’t like it is the same reason that it works, as exemplified above.  The only thing I disagree with is that I wasn’t bored at all watching this.  The tension level was really high for most of the film, and when it wasn’t a particularly tense moment we were learning something interesting about the psyches of the characters.  I also think it’s pretty awesome that a woman (Kathryn Bigelow) directed one of the best war movies to come out in years (rivaling Letters From Iwo Jima for me).  Hopefully she will be the first female to take home the Best Director award at this year’s Oscars. 

1. Goodbye Solo

So I have a new completely scientific factor to use when judging movies, which I call “The Smile Factor.”  It’s something I’ve noticed about myself over the last few years when watching transcendent films: they are so excellent in one way or the other that I can’t help but just grin from ear to ear as I’m watching them, while feeling so lucky inside to have the privilege of watching them.  The only films in 2009 that passed my Smile Factor are: Goodbye Solo and…..that’s it.  I stated in my snippet for An Education that one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much was because it was driven by a great story and great acting.  That’s how I feel with Goodbye Solo, except multiply it by about 20.  It’s the simplest story of a foreign cab driver in Winston-Salem befriending a one of his regular customers, a down-trodden older man.  Souleymane Sy Savane gives an incredibly inspiring performance as Solo, a character so warm and charming that it makes you empathize with everything that happens to him.  I really hope you will go out and rent this one if you haven’t heard of it before.  It’s not for everyone, and I could see how some people could say it drags in some places, but for me it was a reminder of just how good movies can be, and that well-written characters and strong acting will always, always win.  

Top 10 of 2009: #'s 10-6

            So, after doing a little research for this post, and trying to put the year in movies in perspective, I realize that I might have a problem.  I’ve seen 55 movies that were released in 2009.  55.  I’ve seen 55 movies from 2009.  Look again…that’s not the number of movies I watched in 2009…that would probably be somewhere in the range of, oh, ~175.  Seriously, how am I still married?  I’m baffled.  Yes, there are a couple of award winners that I have yet to see (including BP nominee Precious, and foreign-film The White Ribbon (which I would kill to see)).  But overall, when you read blog entries like this one, you can be pretty sure that I’ve at least seen enough movies to have perspective on the issue.  The only thing I ask is that you keep reading my blog so that least I can justify watching that many movies.  If I can justify it, then I might stay married a little longer.  So in essence, by you reading my blog, you’re really saving my marriage.  Are we clear?  Thanks.  Today I’ll discuss my 10-6, and tomorrow or the next day I will release my 5-1.  As always, everyone feel free to comment on mine and give me your personal top 10. 

#10. Fantastic Mr. Fox

            I’m not a huuuuuuge Wes Anderson fan (I liked Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, but loathed The Life Aquatic and was ambivalent about The Darjeeling Limited and Bottle Rocket).  Fox, though, is probably now my favorite of his films.  It’s a great commentary on the male desire to be a “fox” while simultaneously being a great husband and father.  Somehow, Clooney gives one of his best performances just by using his voice, and the stop-motion animation is nothing short of spectacular. 

#9.  Up In the Air

            Following Fox is Clooney’s live action film directed by Jason Reitman of Juno and Thank You For Smoking fame.  The story and directing are pretty good, but what really pushes it over the top for me is the acting.  Clooney gives the second best performance of his career (behind Michael Clayton) and Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick are stellar.  All three were nominated for Oscars.

#8.  Inglorious Basterds

            I can’t resist Quentin Tarantino films, and although this isn’t my favorite of his by a long shot, it was a really enjoyable movie.  The thing with Tarantino is that you know what you’re getting when you walk in: gratuitous violence and great dialogue.  This one doesn’t disappoint with either.  Christoph Waltz gives an amazing performance as the villain Nazi colonel, and is the frontrunner for the best supporting actor Oscar.  What really makes the film is the dialogue-heavy scenes that are riddled with tension; it keeps you on your toes about what is going to happen next.

#7.  In the Loop

            One of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time.  Based on the British TV show by the same name, this political satire has some of the wittiest (and dirtiest) dialogue of any film I’ve ever seen.  It’s sort of shot in a mockumentary style, which really works because it almost makes you believe that politicians really are this clueless.   If you are into smart comedy, this is the movie for you.

#6.  Up

            Pixar strikes again with this one.  Of all the good things I could say about this movie, let me just say that the first 10 minutes of the film is possibly the best, most emotional 10 minutes of film as there is out there.  The only reason it’s not higher up on my list is because I felt like some of the more “kiddie” aspects of the film got in the way a little too much, like the talking dogs and the huge bird they were after.  Having said that, this is the only film since I can remember that made me cry…(alright, fine, besides Marley & Me).

Come back tomorrow for #'s 5-1

2009 Movie Awards

I’m not gonna lie: there’s not just a whole lot that made me excited to be a fan of cinema in 2009.  In a couple of days I will release my top-10 of the year list and talk about this a little bit more, but since it didn’t particularly excite me to make that list, I thought I’d mix it up a little and make some of my own special awards.  This is what I came up with; hope you enjoy. 

Worst Movie: Whatever Works

Best Comedy: In the Loop (honorable mention: Zombieland)

Most Underrated movie you’ve never heard of: Big Fan

Most Underrated movie you have heard of: The Informant!

Biggest Letdown: Public Enemies

Best Guilty Pleasure: Paranormal Activity

Best Extremely, Utterly Embarrassing Guilty Pleasure: 17 Again (judge me)

Most Ridiculous Premise: Did you Hear About the Morgans?

Best Documentary/Only Documentary I’ve Seen: Food, Inc.

Best Movie Directed By an Annoying Actress With a Lisp: Whip It (Drew Barrymore, in case you were wondering)

Two of the Best Child Performances I’ve Ever Seen That Didn’t Get Enough Recognition: Kodi Smitt-McPhee (The Road), Max Records (Where the Wild Things Are)

Best Movie That Makes Women Look Like Complete Morons: Bride Wars

Most Quotable: Tie, The Hangover & In the Loop

Best Popcorn Flick: Star Trek

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Carey Mulligan, An Education

Most Original: Inglorious Basterds

Most Unoriginal: Avatar (duh)

Biggest Douche in Hollywood: James Cameron (just had to throw that shot out there)

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly and New York City

              I got so tired after writing 500-word essays about each of the Top-10 films of the 2000’s that I had to take a 12-day sabbatical to regain my blogger strength.  Between that post and today, I took a 4-day weekend trip (sorry, law school) to Washington D.C. and New York City to visit my two best buds and, despite the worst weather of the winter forcing me to improvise my plans a little bit, was still a pretty epic weekend.  To waste time on the plane, I watched a movie that I’ve wanted to see for awhile, 2007’s The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.  This French film is based on the true story of a French magazine editor who suffered a stroke and became fully paralyzed, save for one eye.  The movie flashed back to his pre-stroke life, but mainly focuses on his post-stroke life—how he learns to communicate through blinking and writes a book with the help of a very patient scribe who writes letter-by-letter.  If I had to go back and redo my top-10 foreign language films of the 2000’s list, this one is easily be #2 behind City of God, and if you know me at all I wouldn’t take something like that lightly. 

            Basically, I’ll put the movie in these terms for you:  in a weekend where I got to hang out with my two best friends in D.C. and Manhattan, went to the top of Rockefeller Center, had some great laughs at one of NYC’s premiere comedy clubs, ate the best crepe of my life, saw Ground Zero, went to Century 21, ate some authentic NY pizza, hit some of Greenwich Villages hotspots, rode the 4AM train out to Long Island Sunday morning with the drunkest/craziest of New York’s crazies, and generally had an amazing time just talking about the good ole’ days and busting each other’s chops for girls we used to date, I would STILL place watching The Diving Bell and The Butterfly in the top-10 best parts about the weekend. 

            So there’s a glowing recommendation for you.