Since my inner reviewing voice is on hiatus, I thought I'd share this fascinating story from NY Magazine about a movie phenomenon now known as "The Blart".

Quickie: Superbad (2007)

A while back, I put the Judd Apatow gang's high school romp Superbad in my Netflix Instant queue. This afternoon I was in the mood for some nasty, goofy comedy, so I streamed it down to my Xbox 360. Superbad didn't disappoint. The movie brought back fond memories of 1980's teensploitation comedies, just a little modernized and a little raunchified from the heyday of the Brat Pack.

The laid back Evan (Michael Cera, standout star of 2008's Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist) and the tempermental Seth (Jonah Hill, Apatow comedy vet of the past decade) are graduating best friends getting ready for a party to set the tone for their last summer before college. Their friend Fogell (a.k.a. McLovin), played by master geek Christopher Mintz-Plasse, uses his freshly minted fake ID to get the guys some alcoholic lubricant for the party. Mintz-Plasse, by the way, totally stole the show in last year's bawdy but heartwarming comedy Role Models.

Fogell takes a side trip with a pair of cops played by Seth Rogen and SNL alum Bill Hader. Fogell gets separated from his friends, who are looking for liquor in all the wrong places, and hijinks aplenty ensue. Seth Rogen has been a busy guy for the past few years, and I particularly enjoyed his performance here, as it was the least Seth Rogeny I've seen him. Not that Seth Rogeny is bad, it was just nice to see him pull a little changeup.

I mentioned this movie hearkens back to the crazy teen comedies of the '80s, but one element is missing. Superbad utterly lacks gratuitous nudity! I'm not sure what director Greg Mottola was thinking. I think he had just a little too much respect for his female leads. He traded in the sexy for more lowbrow gags. I must admit it all worked out okay. Especially the masterful notebook sketches of penises that appeared behind the closing credits. SuperPenis (complete with cape), Penisaurus, Octopenis, Medusa with penis hair instead of snakes... 37 sketches in all. If the thought of that makes you smile, Superbad is right up your aisle.

Review: In Bruges (2008)

I somehow missed this tasty little morsel of Belgian bittersweet when it was released early last year. Earlier this year, lead Colin Farrell was honored with a Golden Globe for best actor in a motion picture, Comedy or Musical. That's what got me interested in renting In Bruges, as I've enjoyed Farrell's performances in other movies like The Recruit and Phone Booth. When I saw that his costars were long time favorites Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes, I was pretty sure I'd enjoy this movie. Sure of the acting, anyway.

It wasn't long before I was surely enjoying the whole experience. You couldn't ask for a more attractive backdrop than Bruges, Belgium. Before long, I started wondering if this movie was partly funded by some Belgian tourist bureau. The script was full of lines like "best preserved medieval buildings in Europe" and included a detailed description of the rites of the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Either writer/director Martin McDonagh is a bigger fan of the city than his character Harry, or he had some Belgian assistance. All the touristy minutiae really did enhance the atmosphere of the movie and bring the city to life.

In Bruges' pace is leisurely. You have all the time you need to soak up both the beautifully framed sights of the city and the beautifully drawn characters of Ray (Farrell) and Ken (Gleeson). This pair of hit men, one with years of experience, one just off his first job, are holed up in a hotel awaiting instructions from their boss, Harry (Fiennes). The younger Ray can't stand the place, but Ken wants to take advantage of every sightseeing opportunity. Action picture fanatics will probably be turned off before the end of act one. Things really get moving in the last twenty minutes of the picture, but the rest of it is all about character and setting.

Even the minor supporting parts get a thorough treatment by the award-winning playwright McDonagh. From the pregnant owner of the hotel where Ray and Ken stay, to the eccentric ticket seller at the bell tower, there are almost no anonymous bit players in this story. There's also no wasted dialogue, and very little exposition. Every spoken word serves to flesh out a character, set up a scene, or foreshadow a future plot point. Every spoken word, that is, but one. According to the movie's IMDB trivia page, In Bruges has an average of 1.18 "f--ks" per minute. That's a lot of expletives, but what else should one expect from a couple of hit men and their boorish boss?

I won't go into the story at all, because it's too much fun to watch it unfold. The rating is a hard R--the movie is packed with harsh language and some brutal, bloody violence. Unless you prefer exploding helicopters, two-dimensional characters and non-stop jump cuts, you'll love In Bruges. You can take my f--king word for it.

Review: Beowulf (2007)

Ever have one of those dreams where Anthony Hopkins is married to Robin Wright Penn, and a giant mutant Crispin Glover is his son, but Angelina Jolie was the mother? And Hopkins asks Ray Winstone, the son of an old friend, to get rid of the hellish beast who has a habit of tearing up the mead hall and eating people, but Hopkins' advisor John Malkovich doesn't think Winstone is up to the task. Nevertheless, a naked Winstone defeats Glover, killing him by ripping off his arm, then sires another son for Jolie (also naked) in exchange for her protection. Years later, when Winstone is married to Penn, but sleeping with Alison Lohman, his offspring appears, but it's really him in dragon form, and he has to fight himself to the death. Ever have that dream? Beowulf is kind of like that.

I admit I only read the epic poem years ago when I was in high school, so I have no idea how closely the movie follows the original story. Given that the screenplay was co-written by Neil Gaiman (whose other work I love, including the wonderful fantasies Mirrormask and Stardust), there's a pretty good chance that he took some license with the story. Beowulf the movie consists of a long setup full of tall tales and buckets of mead, all leading to an impressive set piece featuring an old man doing battle with a golden dragon. In the air. Using, in the end, nothing but his bare hand to rip out the beast's heart. The climax is all very exciting, and the whole movie is all very computer generated.



Director Robert Zemeckis has fallen in love with this new movie making process which digitizes the performances of real actors using tiny balls affixed to strategic locations on the actors' bodies and faces. Complex computer graphics software takes this motion capture data and creates artificial scenes with very realistic characters. I'm sure it saves a bundle on location scouting, model making and set dressing. The digital artists responsible for the look of the film really do a remarkable job of making the digital characters resemble their live actor counterparts.



Zemeckis' former foray into this style of filmmaking, The Polar Express, was a big hit in IMAX. I wish I'd seen Beowulf in IMAX 3D, because I think it would have added greatly to the experience. This is a movie made for viewing in a theater, as the dark and gloomy environments are difficult to appreciate on a TV screen. The main exception, the dramatic airborne fight sequence between the king and the dragon, is bright and beautifully rendered.

Beowulf is rated PG-13, and includes plenty of viscerally violent scenes, including Grendel picking up men and tearing their bodies in half, as well as biting off some heads. There's also a bit of titillating nudity featuring Angelina Jolie's avatar, as Grendel's mother seduces Beowulf. Nothing very explicit, all tastefully presented. If I've made the movie sound cartoonish, it really isn't. It's quite dramatic and serious. An epic story reimagined with modern technology.

Review: Gran Torino (2008)

Gran Torino is equal parts hilarious and poignant. It's a story about a grouchy old bastard, about the only white man left in his Detroit neighborhood, who gradually warms up to his Hmong neighbors and makes his peace with his past. I'll tell you what, though. This grouchy old bastard surely does know how to make a movie.

Clint Eastwood produced, directed, and leads a cast of mostly veteran TV actors, with the exception of talented newcomers Bee Vang and Ahney Her as the brother and sister next door. Oh, and Eastwood also co-wrote the song that plays over the end credits. Is there nothing this man can't do? It runs in the family, too: one of his sons scored the picture, and another has a small role in it.

Eastwood brings an Archie Bunker-meets-Harry Callahan vibe to the character of Korean war veteran/curmudgeon Walt Kowalski. He's definitely chewing up the scenery with some of the most outrageous growling and scowling ever committed to film. He verbally abuses family, friends and strangers alike with a remarkable range of racial slurs and insults. Despite his despicable manner, he manages to make the character lovable--and hilarious! I found myself almost embarrassed to be laughing at Walt's decidedly un-PC epithets, but the whole theater was laughing right along with me. Kowalski's bark is worse than his bite. His bite, though, is formidable, as local gang members and street thugs who cause trouble for his next door neighbors soon learn.

After Kowalski shuts down a tussle on his lawn involving her brother, Sue Lor persists in thanking the man, even though he doesn't want her thanks. Played by Ahney Her, this character was a standout feature of Gran Torino for me. Sue is sassy and smart, mature beyond her years, resigned to, but enjoying the burden of heading up her multi-generational household. I'm looking forward to seeing this actress again in future films.

Gradually Walt succumbs to the charity of Sue and their neighbors, partly due to their determination, and partly due to his own loneliness. Things start to get out of hand when Kowalski takes it upon himself to send a message to the gang that has been harassing the Lor family. There is some offscreen violence, but the brutal aftermath is shown, as Sue returns home, battered and broken after a drive-by shooting at the Lor house. Kowalski is so full of rage, he must make a terrible decision.

Gran Torino is at its best when Eastwood lets himself dominate the scenes. His presence and personality are so overpowering anyway, it just seems more natural when he gives himself free rein. The Lor siblings can definitely keep up with him, though. The timid Thao comes out of his shell, and Sue gives as good as she gets when Walt tries his schtick on her.

This is perhaps not the best date film, as the brutal aftermath of the gang's assault on Sue is shown. This is a Clint Eastwood film, so you can imagine what happens to the perpetrators. Overall, though, the movie is a rather mild R, with very little graphic violence and no sexual content. It probably earned the rating mainly for Walt Kowalski's unparalleled command of racial slurs.

Funny, touching, and educational to boot (I learned of an Asian people I knew nothing about), Gran Torino is a moving portrait of cultural transformation in urban Detroit.

Slumdog Update

Apparently the Hollywood Foreign Press Association enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire as much as I did. The movie was awarded the Golden Globe for best drama, director Danny Boyle won best director, writer Simon Beaufoy won best screenplay, and A.R. Rahman was also honored with a golden globe for best musical score!

Review: Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Let's kick off the year (and the blog) with a release from last year that I didn't get to until last week. Slumdog Millionaire is a great movie to start with because, well, it's just a great movie, period.

Funny thing about this movie, its title might at first be offputting. When I first mentioned it to my mom, her reaction was something along the lines of "oh, he's seeing one of THOSE movies again." After I clarified that "slumdog" is a term for a poor person from the slums of Mumbai, and the "millionaire" part is because he appears on India's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, a light dawned, and she said "oh, he's seeing one of THOSE movies again."

Odd title aside, Slumdog Millionaire is simply breathtaking. The lead characters are poetically fleshed out through a series of vignettes beginning in early childhood and continuing through early adulthood. The music is a joyful mixture of South Asian and Western styles, and suits the settings and the story perfectly. The story, though, ah, the story. That's the thing.

It's not so much the story itself, but the way it is told that elevates Slumdog Millionaire to greatness. This is not to imply other weakness--the pacing is perfect and the threads of plot are wonderfully woven. It's just that the parallel timelines and Q&A mechanic of the storytelling is as brilliant a device as the brain bending time manipulation of 2000's Memento. I'm not sure who to thank for the way Slumdog plays out: the novelist, for the book Q&A on which the movie is based, the screenwriter, for his adaptation, or the brilliant director Danny Boyle, who can make a scene emote as powerfully as any individual character.

The movie begins in the video monitors of the Indian Who Wants To Be A Millionaire TV show, moves to a rough police interrogation, then follows the antics of a pair of Muslim brothers in the slums of what was then Bombay. These three parallel tales, the TV show, the interrogation, and the adventures of Jamal, his elder trouble magnet brother Salim, and their fellow orphan, the sweet Latika, continue throughout the film. Eventually everything comes together in a romantic Hollywood-meets-Bollywood ending.

The thing that struck me about the story telling was that each of the three parts could almost stand on its own as a short film. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is a popular show, and for good reason. It's got tension, drama and even a conversational side with the banter between the host and the contestant. The movie takes it one step further and peeks behind the scenes at the scheming of the egomaniacal host. In front of the cameras he applauds the answering ability of Jamal the chai walla. But is he smiling for the cameras or gritting his teeth? Bollywood vet Anil Kapoor plays the smarmy host Prem Kumar with just the right touch of villainy.

The police interrogation, which actually begins as an unpleasant torture sequence, provides the scaffolding for the rest of the story. Even so, it stands on its own as a story of a young man's grim determination, and the eventual acquiescence of the stern police inspector who, in the end, has to recognize the truth. It also provides a bit of comic relief in the form of an overeager subordinate who never seems to do the right thing. It is these scenes where relative newcomer Dev Patel really shines. His Jamal shows weariness and conviction, innocence and experience in equal measure.

The main line of the story is related as Jamal explains to the police inspector how a mere slumdog could know all the answers to the Millionaire questions. It begins with the story of how Jamal and his brother were orphaned in the Bombay riots of the early 90's. From a very early age, it is clear that the paths of the elder Salim and the younger Jamal are intertwined, but lead in very different directions. Each story behind a question's answer is captivating, each revealing more about Jamal, Salim, and Jamal's beloved Latika.

Eventually the stories catch up with the current day, and everything is tied up in a big finish that is tidy, tragic on the one hand, and romantic on the other. And after the movie, stay for the credits, and the obligatory Bollywood dance sequence!

Slumdog Millionaire is definitely my pick for best movie released in 2008, and that's not just because I'm losing my memory and it's the most recent movie I've seen. So go out and see it. In spite of the title.