Flippin' February, Robin!

S-l-o-w-l-y making my way through the year; here are my notes on the movies I saw in February.

Atonement
While the story didn't feel completely original or surprising, the good performances more than make up for it. The Final Twist (more of a twist of a knife in the gut, really) wasn't too surprising, but packed quite a punch emotionally, especially with Vanessa Redgrave's fine, fine performance. It also boasts a great score, especially in the opening scenes, the sound editing of which meshes perfectly with the visuals - rather ostentatious, but it worked well, nonetheless. Finally, there's an astoundingly good performance from the young Saoirse Ronan - she's worth the admission price alone.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated
While it serves as a rather entertaining and obnoxious "Fuck You" to the MPAA, it isn't really a good documentary in any sense of the word. Filled with far too much muckraking, it doesn't seem to have much to say beyond "Look at how stupid these MPAA people are". Less of that and more conversations with actual filmmakers might've helped tremendously. Very, very cool posters, though (to avoid accusations of sexism, I'm including both male and female versions).

長江 7 號 (CJ7)
I have to admit, it's amusing in bits (rather small and miserly bits for me), but Stephen Chow's recent penchant for including more and more drama in his comedies just does not work at all for me. This is especially when it tends towards manipulative melodrama and hackneyed plot developments. A filmmaker needs to establish his tone right off the bat, and unfortunately the tone for this was established as cartoony action, which means the melodrama completely fails to engage because one simply cannot believe in it. It ends up being one big, weak and disappointing mess. A tip for Mr. Chow - leave it to Spielberg. He's got much more control of tone than you do.

Away from Her
Probably one of the best films of the year, this film proves you don't need to have huge thundering Serious Themes That Are Vitally Important and huge Hollywood budgets to be a winner. You simply need a small, deeply human story that's well told, and actors who have the ability to touch the audience with deceptively simple portrayals. This is a beautiful film, emotionally rich and resonant, featuring a stunning lead performance by Julie Christie. To appropriate a line from the film: "We should all be so lucky". Indeed.

Gone Baby Gone
Who would've thought it? Ben Affleck as director, and a damn good one at that. This noir twists, and turns, and then twists some more, leading us down several different, diverging paths before finally revealing itself as something completely different from what it appeared to be initially. It takes a lot to surprise me, and I was surprised by this film. It's a refreshing and strong directorial debut with some really great tension and oodles of authenticity. Casey Affleck, while probably a nepotist casting decision, really shines and shows that his amazing turn in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was no fluke.

The Leap Years
I originally thought this was going to be the worst local movie of the year - until Dance of the Dragon came along and appeared to completely blow this out of the water (in more ways than one). Not having actually seen the latter (it was dropped from cinemas faster than body parts from a leper), I'll have to be content with dissing the former. There are just so many annoying things about this vile movie - the never-quiet score, the ridiculous contrivances, the awful writing, the horrible acting from almost everyone, the complete and utter lack of chemistry between the leads - in a romance, go figure. I could go on and on. Definitely a strong contender for "Worst of the Year", and a real black mark on Joan Chen's career...(read more).

No Country for Old Men
Entire books could be filled with the online debates on this film, and I couldn't possibly do it justice in these few lines. Epic in scope, but minutely observed, this is the Coen brothers operating at the top of their game. This is one of the finest filmic adaptations of a novel, both in spirit and in form. It's masterful, brilliant, hypnotizing; full of sadness, futility, ambiguity. In short, it's unmissable.
(Both posters looked so gorgeous, I couldn't decide between them)

The Kite Runner
Not having read the novel, I can't say how this adaptation compares, but as a film, there's precious little to love about it. It's resolutely middlebrow and utterly bland. Sure, Muslim fundamentalists cry foul over it, but religious fundamentalists cry foul over every fucking thing, because they're complete fuckwits. Anyhow, there's nothing remotely controversial over it, because there's nothing much there beyond shamelessly in-your-face emotional manipulation and pretentiousness.

Rambo
While it has some decent action sequences, the politics of the movie are rather off-putting. They roughly translate to: A bunch of Asians is killing lots of other Asian types. Oh well, that's just too bad, isn't it? They slaughtered entire villages? How naughty. No, wait, now they've kidnapped a small group of Christian missionary types?! How dare they? We'll send in John Rambo to wipe their fuckin' asses off the face of the planet!

P.S. I Love You
An stinking pile of crap designed for the same people who love wishy-washy bullshit romances like The Leap Years (i.e., stupid, stupid females), this movie irritates from the very first scene, which made me want to slap the leads already. This scene also establishes the complete artificiality of Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank's marriage, and it only becomes more and more twee when he dies and becomes this psychotic stalker who seems to insistent on making his words heard from beyond the grave. There are some mildly amusing turns from Swank's friends, but that's about all the movie has going for it.

There Will Be Blood
Wow. The second masterpiece this month comes courtesy of P.T. Anderson, in the form of this utterly captivating film that's epic in its scope and overwhelming in its intensity. In a fierce and strangely charismatic performance, Daniel Day-Lewis sucks you right in for an exhilarating, exhausting journey into the dark depths of humanity and capitalist greed.

Juno
To be honest, while I enjoyed Juno and found it very entertaining, I felt it was one of the more overrated ones in the current crop of award-winning films. Certainly the screenplay, which tries too hard to be smartass and cool, doesn't really deserve a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award. The entire enterprise rests on the capable shoulders of Ellen Page, who is excellent in the titular role, letting her vulnerability shine through her facade of wisecracks and jibes. Michael Cera, the best comedy actor of his generation, bar none, is also great in his sweet, awkward shyness (which he perfected in Arrested Development). I wish there was more of him, though. He's da bomb.

Persepolis
While the structure is rather episodic, which I'm not usually a fan of, the film itself is still captivating, nonetheless. There are nice touches of black humor and wry observations on living in such an insane environment. The animation style does wonders for the storytelling, making it much more powerful than a regular live-action film possibly could be. However, I kinda expected a little more from it, so I couldn't say I was completely satisfied. I suspect this to be due to inflated expectations from all the hype about it, so it's definitely still well worth your time and money.