The Road (2009)

Somber, gut-wrenching drama about a father and his son wandering a post-apocalyptic wasteland in search of food, warmth, and other "good guys." The cataclysm that wiped out humanity is not specified, but the whole world is covered in a grey, volcanic ash, implying either war or atmospheric depletion or both; either way it is incredibly dark and depressing, constantly. Viggo Mortensen is the determined father, who, in narration, confides to us that he is aware that he is close to death, and is being very particular about the legacy he leaves for his pre-teen son. Many of the remaining survivors have given into cannibalism, and so the father-son is aware that they cannot trust anyone except themselves (this leads to several tense encounters with seemingly benign strangers). My favorite stretch of the film involves flashbacks to before, and during, the world-ending catastrophe, with Viggo and the boy's mother (Charlize Theron) going from a happily married couple to a pair of nearly-insane, desperate parents; Theron's performance in this brief section ranks among the best work I've ever seen from her, and easily makes the biggest impression of the supporting characters (although Robert Duvall's appearance warrants mention). The subject matter lends itself well to the dark, apocalyptic imagery, which is more Fallout 3 than I Am Legend in its wastelands and burnt, grey and brown landscapes. John Hillcoat uses the same nihilistic tone (and composers, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis) that fueled his masterpiece, The Proposition, and it helps to achieve a sort of melancholy that few filmmakers can successfully maintain for the duration of a picture. In the end, the whole thing does not amount to much; because the film opts not to go the I Am Legend rote by throwing in third-act twists, and gratefully so, the narrative just sort of sputters out without any real finality. But as a portrait of a post-apocalyptic landscape and the loss of humanity that comes with it, it is slightly more successful than I Am Legend, but has more of its own unique identity.

Recommended for fans of post-apocalyptic goodies like Mad Max or A Boy and his Dog or Viggo, who turns in typically professional work. This did not blow me off my candy ass the way The Proposition did, but I do not expect Mr. Hillcoat to find a more riveting story for his signature slow-burn than that film had in the near future.

Despicable Me (2010)

Fun, well-crafted animated film about a supervillain named Gru whose plans of stealing the moon from its orbit are sidetracked by 3 surrogate children he adopts. Regardless of the cutsey throughline, the film does not betray its villain-centric premise; most of the adult characters in the film are nefarious in some way, and that helps create the world where this film exists in. I was surprised to see Universal's logo before the film, rather than a Dreamworks or Disney, but their signature touch is evident in the distinct, insular production and character design of the film; these characters could only exist in the world the filmmakers have designed for them. The voice work is also very indicative of a desire to deviate from convention; filled with celebrity names, the only ones that are readily obvious (besides Steve Carrell) are Danny McBride and Jack McBrayer, and their roles are so background (and well-designed) that the recognition does not distract from the story. While all the voice actors are fairly note-perfect (with special mention going to Julie Andrews, Jason Segel, and Russell Brand), it is Steve Carrell that holds this movie down. While creating a thoroughly original and distinctive character design for Gru, the animators made the brilliant decision to give Gru Carrell-esque eyes and eyebrows, allowing Carrell to subtly sneak in his patented form of awkward humor at every given opportunity. Hearing him in such a radically different role from Michael Scott while still recognizing (and, repeatedly, appreciating) his signature style was one of the real pleasures of the film.

Recommended for fans of Steve Carrell and family films with a looser, more interesting vibe; this primarily French-animated film is way more Land of the Lost than Toy Story 3. There is a moment toward the end involving Gru and the moon that is almost as moving, in its own way, as the notorious furnace scene in Toy Story, and all the more rewarding because it is an animated moment reveling in the happiness of the villain; not as common as one would hope.

On The Beach (1959)

Dark, thoughtful Stanley Kramer classic about a community of survivors living out their last days in Australia after the Cold War has escalated to the point of irradiating the rest of the planet. The message here is written on its sleeve; there are many scenes of long monologuing about how inevitable the planet's nuclear devastation was and how it was in our nature, and blah blah blah, but it's actually all written very effectively. The characters in the film are thin, but archtypal; of the four leads, Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, Eva Gardner, and Anthony Perkins, Astaire and Perkins make the most sympathetic impressions while Peck and Gardner's romance is more interesting than either of their separate performances. There is a lot of submarine work in the film, due to Peck and Perkins' characters Navy ranking, and it looks fantastic and legitimate; a long sequence where the sub looks for survivors and/or methods of dispersing the global radiation proves to cause tension even when the planet seems globally doomed from the start. The gloom over the whole thing proves to be the defining factor of the film; in an era, clearly represented by Peck and Gardner's presence as leads, where films were basically legally obligated to be cheerful, this film has a one-two punch of having an unbeatable foe (nuclear radiation brought on by winds) and very uncompromising personal struggles. The last shots of the film are incredibly haunting and provocative.

Highly Recommended for fans of Sci-Fi with a more realistic, down to earth vibe a la Children of Men, which this film shares similarities to. Of the three Stanley Kramer films I've seen (so far), two of them have been very powerful social, moral tales; of the two, this is the lesser film (Judgement at Nuremberg being the other, superior film), but still wholly successful at conveying its message in a thoughtful, dramatic manner.

State of Grace (1990)

Okay, derivative crime drama about an Irish mob syndicate with a top notch cast, but not much else. Sean Penn is the lead, and HE'S A COP, if you don't figure it out right away; the film's masterstroke is not to reveal his real job until a third into the film, but the director and Mr. Penn make sure you don't have the slightest shadow of a doubt that this cat is completely full of shit and has ulterior motives on his mind, like, say, busting his criminal friends who haven't seen him in 10 years. Some of these friends include Gary Oldman, who evokes Deniro in Mean Streets and turns in easily the most interesting work in the film, John C. Reilly, as a younger version of the John C. Reilly character, and Ed Harris, now the boss, also quite obviously not what everyone thinks he is. Robin Wright is here, not yet Penned, and she sucks as much dick as she sucks in everything else, from Forrest Gump to What Just Happened. She's bland sauce, and her and her lame-o husband definitely share credit with the director for sinking this film like a stone. His "intensity," a.k.a. his macho angst that reminds people, but does not evoke, Brando, gives his character no relatability in relation to the real criminals onscreen. His romance with his real life wife, obviously included to get the audience on his side, is just boring, tepid, pointless, and derivative; blue lit bedroom scenes of Penn confessing his street wounds abound. I was getting anxious watching the opening credits for this film, which has a lot of talent on both sides of the camera; now I know why this isn't a bigger deal in the history books.

Skip it. No point in watching this boring, mediocre trash, even with Gary Oldman doing his sweaty, raving Leon schtick. John Turturro's in this movie; it's so bad, he's not even worth mentioning as a saving grace. I just remembered that he was in it, and figured it should be noted.

Runaway Train (1985)

Well-made, unconventionally tough thriller about two convicts and their attempt to escape from prison. The first act is very leisurely in a '70s kind of way, taking its time to establish the prison life that our two leads are accustomed to, which includes regular riots and beatings from the guards (as one would expect in a Golan-Globus prison). Jon Voight does a phenomenal job as one half of the duo, the feral prison legend Manny, who opens the film leaving a 3-year stint in the hole, cracking wise. He's scarred up and experienced, and is willing to throw down at any moment to defend himself. This may be the strongest and most emotional performance of Voight's that I have ever seen. Eric Roberts is his partner, the laundry boy who Manny only lets accompany him because his laundry route is part of his plan. Roberts was a very capable, very unpredictable actor at this point in the '80s, and he, like Voight, turns in a nuanced, carefully balanced performance, and is not afraid to test the audience's resilience in terms of their sympathies towards his character. Rebecca DeMornay enters the picture about an hour in, and she's surprisingly effective, but still inevitably ends up on the sidelines watching the two leads go at it. Special mention must also go to the villain of the piece, a prison warden that is just as much an animal as Manny, and knows it; watching the lengths of their intense, almost childish rivalry is one of the several hidden pleasures of this film. The movie is a winter-set thriller, and it is never relaxed as a result; even if the characters are completely at peace and out of danger, they still have the very real danger of freezing to death. The tension in this film is palpable, mostly due to the legitimacy of both the prison life and the nature of the prisoners themselves; ex-con Eddie Bunker's presence as co-writer and co-star almost certainly is responsible for that.

Highly Recommended for fans of high-speed thrillers, well-made prison films, or either of the two leads. I was pleasantly surprised by this one; a big budget '80s thriller made with the intensity, originality, and character work of a taut '70s film.

The Wrong Man (1956)

Surprising, serious drama from Alfred Hitchcock about a well-to-do cellist who gets mistaken for an armed robber and arrested. This is a rather humorless affair for Hitchock, and with good reason; it's based on a true story, and tells its story fairly straightforward. Henry Fonda is the poor patsy, an everyman with a loving family whose strong hold on reality is hampered by his wrongful imprisonment, and its effect on his family. His wife is played by Vera Miles, and she manages to outact Mr. Fonda by displaying her character's increasing guilt and paranoia with shocking subtlety, especially for the era. The thing that really shocked me about this film is that it completely lacks Hitchock's trademark cheekiness (save for a gratifying scene where a robbery goes wrong). It completely empathizes with Fonda's character, and Hitchcock goes to great lengths to put yourself in his shoes. He frames the world around Fonda, not just the jail cell, as a prison, as the impending sentencing for a crime he didn't commit looms around his shoulders; some of the tilted angles and intense camera movements recall Fritz Lang more than Hitch. He films New York City as a giant prison, with constant enclosures and corners being focused on to heighten the tension, with great success.

Highly Recommended for fans of the more serious side of Hitchcock's work, or of Henry Fonda or Vera Miles. This is a wonderful '50s drama, albeit with a more stark, European edge than much of the American work of the time, including Hitchcocks.

Cypher (2002)

Thrilling, terse cyber-thriller about a man who trains to be a corporate spy, but, in the process, begins losing his identity and sense of reality. Vincenzo Natali, the wonderful filmmaker behind Cube, Nothing, and, most recently, Splice, directs, but doesn't write, this thriller that creates great tension out of the idea of two tech conglomerates using their massive means to spy on each other, by any means necessary; one thinks it is not unrealistic to think that Microsoft and Mac relations operate at least somewhat like Digicorp and Sunways, the two corporations at odds here. Jeremy Northam is the lead, a mild-mannered man named Morgan Sullivan who is convinced by Digicorp to act as a spy for them at Sunways keynotes and conventions, under an alias with specific character traits. Immediately, Northam begins having headaches and memory lapses, and begins to become far more like his alias than his normal self, and begins to lose focus over who his employers are, what their agenda is, and who HE is. Lucy Liu enters into the equation as a woman who meets Sullivan in a bar, and seems to lead a parallel life to his. Both leads' performances are impeccable; Liu is wonderfully mysterious and sexy, while Northam succeeds in the more challenging task of being a protaganist that's an enigma to both the audience and the other characters. The production (I'm guessing Canadian like Natali's other projects) has Natali's highest production values (other than Splice), and portrays its lofty sci-fi concepts in full fidelity. But for all the sci-fi techno-babble, the emotion and humanity in this movie is quite strong; we accept the fantastical things Sullivan encounters as real because he seems to be just as perplexed by them as we are. Even though Natali didn't script this one, the script contains his trademark lofty ideas, and he executes them just as proficiently as if he had written it himself.

Highly recommended for sci-fi nerds and appreciators of the phenomenal work of Vincenzo Natali. In an age of regurgitation and repackaging, Natali has made four movies (Cube, Nothing, this, and Splice) that not only completely defy conventions, but contain enough originality to seem ignorant and FREE of them. He has my undying attention.

The Hot Spot (1990)

Steamy, if thin neo-noir about a drifting used-car salesman, a teenaged sexpot, and a sexually aggressive southern belle. Don Johnson is the lead, who gets bounced around between his flirty, virginal relationship with Jennifer Connelly's sweet 19-year old and Virginia Madsen's blonde bombshell trophy wife (of his boss, no less). Connelly is gorgeous, but is, expectedly, too subdued, leaving the true sparks flying between Johnson and Madsen. Aside from being ideally sweaty-handsome, Johnson is a fucking trooper in trying to play his inexplicable, plot-dependent character straight, and not over the top, and keeping him a somewhat grounded and identifiable protagonist, despite his unjustified behavior throughout; Johnson deserved more roles like this when he looked like that (I'm counting down the seconds till Machete brings Crockett and Seagal back to me). But the true star of the show is Madsen. For the first time, I see the evidence of her bloodline with brother Michael, 'cause she's all sorts of crazy-sexy-cool in this one. Her backstory is thin, so she makes her character a large, smothering sexual figure, one that would have been considered a Catherine Tramell spoof had this been released after Basic Instinct. Her performance takes her character very far over the edge, but her dynamite looks at this time completely back it up, and it is not a stretch at all to see someone like Johnson's character losing his marbles over that appealing of a sexual aggressor. The supporting cast, featuring strong character actors William Sadler and Charlie Martin Smith, gets short-changed, with all the focus being on the nonsensical love triangle. However, the style in Johnson and Madsen's scenes are so strong, the rest of the film kind of falls into place around their relationship, instead of distracting us from it.

Recommended for fans of neo-noirs, Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, or Jennifer Connelly's (gratuitously shown) breasts. This one falls in the realm of Palmetto or Wild Things, in terms of hot, southern, sexually-charged noirs, but definitely more the former than the latter in terms of quality (no 3-ways here, gents).

Trekkies (1999)

Well, I guess I am a Trekkie. Because, according to some of the people in this fantastic doc, a Trekkie is "a casual fan, who has seen the movies and/or television show(s)," while a Trekker, the true fans, are the ones who, as Kate Mulgrew affectionately puts it in the film, "on the journey with them." They are the ones who incorporate aspects of Star Trek cannon into their everyday lives, whether it is by adorning their homes with overpriced memorabilia or going to court in their Starfleet-mandated uniforms, and they are the beloved subject of this film. Intercut with investigations by former Next Generation cast member Denise Crosby are interviews with cast and crew members of all the Trek incarnations, where they explain how deeply their fans have been affected by the saga, and how they, in turn, have been touched by the fans' response. Leonard Nimoy and James Doohan have particularly moving stories of how Trek fandom surprised them, but all the interviewees wear their reverence for Trek's power on their sleeve. The fans are, expectedly, a hoot in their devotion. Pretty much every bit is humorous and interesting, but several memorable ones include a Klingon club devouring burgers at a burger shack, a 15 year old editing his 175 page fan-fic Trek screenplay, and a handy fan who devised his own working Captain Pike wheelchair device (with beeping light for "yes" and "no"). The film is paced delightfully for a doc, and not only justifies its running time, but leaves room for a sequel, which does, indeed, exist (as to its quality, I have no idea).

Highly Recommended for fans of humorous subculture documentaries, and Trekkies and Trekkers alike. As someone who has seen all the films and much of the original series, I was moved to tears by some of the moments where the fans and the cast and crew alike reflect on how innocent and optimistic Trek's image of the future is, and how that is just as legitimate as anything else as something to believe in and revolve one's life around.

From Paris With Love (2010)

Stupid, but mildly entertaining buddy flick about an ambassador's assistant and an unhinged psycho American spy tearing up Paris in search of terrorists. Johnathan Rhys-Myers is the assistant, a dork of the McAvoy-Wanted caliber (similarly worthless and boring as well) who has his domesticated, girlfriend-loving world rocked by Travolta's bald badass. It surprises me to say this, but Travolta is really the only reason to see this movie. Luc Besson's script sucks and Pierre Morel stages action boringly for the first time in his career, but seeing Travolta shoot, cuss, and overact his way through this film is a reminder that the Pulp Fiction-Face/Off Travolta's still in there somewhere; honestly, I forgot he was capable of the kind of energy and responsiveness on display here. His look is too much; someone should have told him that he could have the bald head or the garish Chrome Hearts getup, but he couldn't have both. But he still steals the film effortlessly, and if he had the film to back him up the way Liam Neeson had Taken, he'd be back on top of the A-list before you could say "Old Dogs."

Slightly Recommended for Travolta fans or junkies of Besson's Paris-set action flicks. I wouldn't dare compare this to the best of those, especially the other Morel pictures, but it falls roughly into that mold.