Pop Culture Round Up: January 24 - 30

Who, pray tell, is being mocked? Your career?

What the? I don't care if Jennifer Saunders is involved, this thing is fishy. When my friend introduced me to the show, she told me that it was about a pair of aging hippies and trying to be career women but still hippies. Plus they're alcoholics. Does America find functional alcoholics funny?

Criticism in crisis reactions: Oh, no! I'm lazy!

They hired a new critic? Insanity!

For every action . . .

And a criticism defense!

"Film critics and scholars have a tumultuous relationship with a system that is meant to help guide readers but may also encourage some to skip the review entirely."

"The intellectual author's copious diaries record her struggles with a domineering father, her stultifying stint in the court of George III, her controversial marriage to a Catholic escapee from the French Revolution." Saucy stuff!

Ooo, another door! A flood door, but still.

"The most brilliant thing to happen to Jane Austen’s novels since … well, ever." I must have this book.

Don Draper makes ice cream!

That's too bad.

What, what?! This just might be awesome.

Holy Moses. Mind you, if I had that actor in the role, I might be wary of including an certain predilection as well.

This hurts a little.

Yes! I have been saying this for years.

Hmm. Good question. I'm pretty sure awesome movie is still the answer.

Heh. Although what he says is, "You followin' me, camera guy?", which is even better.

"As the number of possessions grew, so did the concept of ‘taste’, a subtle and elusive yardstick by which people advertised their social position and sensibilities."

"Comics actually are jazz." I can't say that occurred to me before.

I can't imagine one actor who could play him, much less two.

Hey, they did something nice!

Aww, don't take away old peoples' TVs!

SAG winners.

PGA winners.

"In five years we'll either be working for him or dead at his hand."

Happy birthday to you, little blog. You're five years old today. While we've been annoyed, horrified, bored, disgusted, and confused many times over, we've also unearthed a plethora of gems together. We've loved the years 2000, 2004, and 2007. We've mourned the dearth of good roles for adult actress. We've had crushes, broken up with movie boyfriends, and reviewed hundreds of movies in the process. All in all, we've been through a lot. One thing that remains undiminished is our love for movies (obviously). Another thing? Our love of Schoolhouse Rock!

Revolutionary Road (2008)

Summary: Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet) Wheeler are an unhappy suburban couple in 1955 who decide that a move to Paris is just the thing they need.

By the time this movie opened here, I had more or less lowered my expectations for it. I went into it not entirely sure what I was looking for or what it would be. I knew DiCaprio and Winslet would be great (they are). I knew that Michael Shannon, as the institutionalized son of their neighbours, would do something amazing (he does but more on that in a minute).

There is some interesting work about perception and self-delusion going on in Justin Haythe's adaptation of Richard Yates' seminal novel. We hear a lot of talk about how "special" the Wheelers are, both from outsiders and from themselves, but we never see any of this specialness in action. Instead it becomes clear that there is vast gulf between everything the characters say and the reality in which they live. They fear that this special quality will burn out if they continue on the way they are; their capacity for self-reflection already has. In comes Shannon, burning with such fervent intensity that even playing a well worn trope (crazy person tells the truth no one dares speak) he invigorates his brief scenes with an electricity lacking from the rest of the film.

That's possibly the most interesting thing about it. Even though the acting is top notch, the movie wasn't the sum of its parts. It's not enough anymore to say that people in suburbia put on a veneer of perfection and are dying inside (in this movie, it's "hopeless emptiness"). We've seen that before. We've seen it for two superb seasons on Mad Men, and director Sam Mendes told us the same thing ten years ago with American Beauty and with far more creativity and pizazz.

You have to bring something more to the table now, and this movie didn't do that. B

Pop Culture Round Up: January 17-23

I feel more inclined to watch now.

Ah, George, where would we be with you? I would so read an oral history about you.

I feel like this is the eighth article I have read like this.

"Hopes to put the episodes online"?! What do these bastards want from us?

I was upset about this when I first found out, but now I just feel meh. It happens.

"Movies like “10,000 B.C.” are popular because they appeal to our sense that life used to be more in sync with the environment." Huh? What does it mean if movies like that don't appeal to you?

Dude, that's just what I think!

Heh: "For humans, there is something captivating and unforgettable about the arrangement of two balls."

At first I though "aw" because I think lifelong affairs are sweet, but then I thought, "That's weird" because why would you have an affair with a married man for so long? What are you going to get out of that? I guess I should read the book to find out.

I think this has the potential to be one of the coolest things ever.

I'm so confused. I thought we heard about this movie last year.

I had no idea there was such a thing.

Ha!

Is there anyone in pop culture they didn't keep a file on?

Ah, George, where would you be without that show?

It can't be that bad, can it?

Dear Academy,

Was 2008 that bad a year for movies? I've suspected it was for a while, and your nominations this morning only confirm that theory. Little seems unexpected and a lot seems overlooked, which I suppose is your stock in trade, but c'mon. Fortunately I don't think you'll ever disappoint me quite as much as you did when you failed to recognize Children of Men as one of the single greatest movies ever, but let's talk about what you're doing here.

I've yet to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but I doubt that it's 13 nominations good. David Fincher's last movie, Zodiac, was possibly that good, and you paid it no mind. Are you trying to make up for that?

It's nice to see character actors Richard Jenkins and Melissa Leo get a Q-rating boost from their respective nods, and it's nice for you to throw hardest working actor in Hollywood Robert Downey Jr. a bone.

Less nice are the lack of nominations for the following: The Dark Knight for best picture, Christopher Nolan for director, Jonathan and Christopher Nolan for screenplay; In Bruges for anything other than screenplay; acting nods for Slumdog Millionaire; Bruce Springsteen for song; Rosemaire Dewitt or Debra Winger for supporting actress, Jonathan Demme for director, Rachel Getting Married for best picture.

Much like the middling melodramas you've insisted on celebrating, your nominations feel less than inspired. Most people would tell me that you're like that every year. When is it going to stop?

Heart,

April

P.S. I am going to go hang out with Dana and Troy.

Defiance (2008)

Brief: After their parents are murdered in an SS raid, the Bielski brothers (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, and George MacKay) hide in the woods in Belarussia to save themselves from certain death. While in hiding, they find other Jews and agree to band together; word gets out about their community and soon Jews from all over are making their way to the brothers for a chance to be free and live.

I know you might be like, "Belarus?," but they call it "Belarussia" in the movie, so that's what I'm going with here.

Where would we be without director and co-writer Edward Zwick? He's really cornered the market on humanist war movies, hasn't he? Even if he hadn't, I'd still love him for My So-Called Life and Once and Again, so he's just sort of awesome, isn't it? He's not a genius, but he's great. He's got a particular sense of how infuse real human responses into unfamiliar situations that make them familiar for the audience. Of course, his movies tend to suffer from obviousness, and I suspect that he and co-writer Clayton Frohman are playing fast and loose with the Bielski brothers' actual history.

Zwick's got all sorts of sexy, fantastic actors up in our grill, so let's just keep it in perspective. First we've got Craig as oldest brother Tuvia, the de facto leader. He's the only one who struggles to maintain the accent while speaking English (which stands in for Yiddish, while Russian gets to be Russian). Then we've got my dear Schreiber as second oldest Zus, rocking an accent in a Holocaust movie, which is exactly how I met him. My faithful viewing partner turned to me as the credits rolled but before she could open her mouth, I announced that yes, Liev Schreiber is so foxy. He is one of two actors that I would describe as cerebral. Bell rounds things out as Asael, the third son, who seems like a natural successor to Tuvia while Zus gets to be the hothead. (Sidebar: Bell should really be more famous by now.) Finally there's little Aron, but he gets next to no lines and no post-credits "whatever happened to?" moment. Poor MacKay.

Bear with me because I'm about to say something crass: I've got Holocaust movie fatigue. Don't balk because you've got it, too. It's all righteous, oppressed Jews and evil, unambiguous Nazis. While the site of a mass grave while never fail to be stomach churning, there's nothing in Zwick's filmmaking to allow for any nuance or shades of grey. The Bielskis are thieves and murderers to be sure, but it doesn't matter because they're the dispossessed. At least it doesn't matter in Zwick's forest, and it doesn't matter in the same way that it doesn't matter what Hanna had done since or what her circumstances were when Michael found out that she used to be a Nazi in The Reader. Now that's all she'll ever be to him. You can do the right thing and not be a hero; you can do the wrong thing and not be a villain. Motive counts, and in movies like this motives are always so simple. You do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. You give the big speech, and James Newton Howard's score swells, and you get the love of electric Gwen from Angel (the transcendentally beautiful Alexa Davalos) for your trouble.

At least Zwick's a talented director with a great cast, or all this might wearying. B+

Frost/Nixon (2008)

Story: British talk show host David Frost (Michael Sheen) hatches a plan to interview Richard Nixon (Frank Langella). As the plan takes longer and longer to come together, Frost struggles to come up with sponsors and a network, while his research team (Sam Rockwell, Matthew Macfadyen, and Oliver Platt) attempts to give Nixon the trial he never got.

Finally, something with a little life! If you wanted to do a study about the decline of the middlebrow melodrama, Doubt, The Reader, and Frost/Nixon would be excellent places to start. Ron Howard is the quintessential middlebrow director after all.

Adapting his own play for the screen, Peter Morgan continues to corner the market on the inner lives of public figures of yesteryear and on Michael Sheen. Wherever Sheen's been hiding all these years (the stage, apparently), movies had better not give him back. He's so naturalistic that it's disarming.

Ah, Langella. How nice to see you again. You make Nixon vacillate wildly between sympathetic and callous, and always so naturally. First Starting Out in the Evening and now this! What a find you are!

The rest of the moive: meh. Too many talking heads explaining what anyone with eyes can clearly figure out for him- or herself (did they have those on stage, too?), too little reason for pointing out Diane Swayer (she gets two lines, and one comes from off-screen), too few women generally. It's not very exciting, but it is fun and strikes the right chords. It'll do. B+

Pop Culture Round-Up: January 10 - 16

Criticism in crisis is back in full force: LA Weekly's theatre critic shifts to "Critic-At-Large" [shudder], and LA's Daily Breeze has dropped their theatre critic as well. Is there no theatre in LA? That doesn't sound right.

But what if you are in the target demo, and you don't watch any of those shows? Who's targeting me?

What? Do I really have to reconsider my slight obsession with returned Nazi art? Mind, I would like there to be some sort of condition that requires the art to be donated to a period of time to the museum of the rightful owners choice. Being too poor to go around buying expensive art, I never saw the point of keeping it locked away.

I'm not looking forward to many of these. Surely 2009 has more to offer?

Adieu.

That's true -- what did happen there?

There should be more rapping about that show.

When Gossip Girl asked us on Monday, "Does anyone remember Georgina?", the correct answer was, "Yes, the writers." Girl better get hooked up with Agnes and stir that shit up.

"A couple of songs this year, we wanted to do particular styles, like a club tune, and we wanted to do a West Side Story-type musical song." I can only hope this leads to the return of angry dancing, which is only a step away from dance fighting.

Pretty much anyone associated with Supernatural already has a good reputation with me.

People, do not deny yourselves Slumdog Millionaire. Even if you don't like it.

What the hell? That's a mistake. This, however, is not. Actually, it might be. If Spider-Man 3 taught me anything, it's that having multiple villains doesn't always work. Mind you, it worked just fine for Batman Returns.

I am going to see this one.

There's nothing about this that isn't funny.

For our tough economic times.

Huh, what? Actually, I think that's alright.

Ooo, I think I might like that. Of course, I'd like it a lot better if the stupid fuckers at the alphabet network weren't such stupid fuckers to begin with.

Oh, what the hell? Grow up, Parents Television Council.

I'm not sure how exciting a LINCOLN SMASH-less TV season will be, but I'm okay.

Yay! But why isn't it about Eric?

I'm all about 2, 7, 14, 15, and 17. As for five, it's occurred to me recently that it might be a better soundtrack than it is a movie.

GAH! Is there nothing this man can't or doesn't do? I'm beginning to think that he thinks that he's Peter the Great reborn.

Phew.

Okay, I've keep silent over this one because when your favourite (living) actor quits acting, it's little like your (movie) boyfriend breaking up with you from out of nowhere. I had some stages of grief to go through. I'm (mostly) okay with it now. He remains a prime candidate for my burgeoning celebrity interventionist* career with news like this, though. What kind of crap friend is Casey? He doesn't stop him from going out in public looking like Vincent Gallo, and he can't even be bothered to help him figure out right from left.

'Tis the season:

LAFCA winners.

BAFTA nominees.

Golden Tomato Awards.

*N.B.: This isn't for the type of problem that would land you on Intervention. We deal with more celebrity-specific issues like how to style your hair for public viewing, considering pants, and, apparently, when to keep your dreams of becoming a rapper to yourself.

The Reader (2008)

Brief: A chance encounter leads to an affair between a teen, Michael Berg (David Cross), and an older trolley worker, Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet). Years later while at law school, Michael attends a war crimes tribunal to find Hanna on trial for her time as a guard at Auschwitz.

If I tell you that the performances are uniformly excellent -- particularly Winslet as a woman who holds steadfastly to her belief that one does one's job as best as one can without questioning and who's great shame lies not in something that can never be undone or forgiven but in something she knows not how to change -- can we move on to why this story doesn't work best on screen?

Despite having never read it, I feel almost certain that the book must be better than the movie. Kate Winslet as a sexy older lady having an affair with a kid half her age and who happens to secretly be a Nazi certainly sounds like a pulpy premise, doesn't it? But in his effort to focus on the psychic scars that haunt post-war Germany to this very day (or at least to 1995 where Ralph Fiennes, as the oldest iteration of Michael Berg, reflects back on them), director Stephen Daldry presents us with another deadly dull literary adaptation. (Sidebar: Can you believe he directed Billy Elliot?)

Before you point out that perhaps the post-war Germany bit is more important than the sexy-Nazi bit, let me remind you that there are sexy movies about post-war Germany. It can be done. I am certain that there are stories about that time in that country's history that can and should be told, but this movie isn't the place I would look for one if I were you. There's a scene late in the movie between Fiennes and Lena Olin, as a survivor who wrote a memoir about her time in the camps and whose testified against Hanna, that would be a good starting off point. It carefully maintains a balance between wanting Fiennes to spell it out and wondering what good that would do. It put me in mind of My Own Private Lower Post, a powerful short about the psychic scars that reservation schools have unto the second and third generations.

While Winslet can't win enough awards in my opinion,* I would also hand one over to Bruno Ganz. He so perfectly embodied the role of a special seminar professor that it nearly took me by surprise.

My greatest surprise, however, came in the form of Nico Muhly's score. It relied, of all things, on the oboe. I had a professor who told us that we do not trust the oboe (or any instrument with a double reed) because it reminds us instinctively of the snake in Eden. There is something lovelorn about it and Muhly's work.** If only the movie could have maintained the same tone. Well, and moved a bit quicker. And maybe have been a bit shorter. B

*After all, working with Daldry and donning a prosethetic won Kidman an Oscar.

**It reminded me of nothing so much as the score for Sweeney Todd, to be honest.

Doubt (2008)

Story: A young nun, Sister James (Amy Adams), brings her suspicions to the school's principal, Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep), that the parish's new priest, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) may be interfering with the school's lone black student Donald Miller (Joseph Foster).

If for no other reason than it's set in 1964, I kept waiting for someone to revive the euphemism "interfering." No one did, so I shall take up the cause.

If I tell you that the performances are uniformly excellent -- particularly Viola Davis as Mrs. Miller, who in her scant screen time really makes you desperate to know the entire story, to know what she means by "character," and deeply sad -- can we move on to why this story doesn't work best on screen?

There's a lot of business about the opening and closing of doors and windows, and it's a theatrical conceit. It's not that it doesn't work or that it doesn't contain meaning; it's that it's constrained by stage business. On the stage, you need to have people both explaining what they are doing with doors and windows as well as actually doing with said doors and windows. It's a question of angles and sets for the theatre audience.

In a movie, you need to show not tell. It was late in the movie that I realized that this is what was missing - writer-director John Patrick Shanley, who adapted his own play, wasn't doing enough with the language of cinema to tell the story. Someone closes a door, and it's a Big Fucking Deal, this closing of the door, only we watch it happen solely from the inside of the room with the person's back to us. What we needed, though, was the repetition of watching this door close from the outside. Inside the room is one thing; outside the room is just as important. Would the door latching echo in the hallways or would it be silent? None of this would give anything away, but it would help layer meaning into what's meant to be a complex take on truth, reason, doubt, objectivity, and subjectivity. Again, it is all those things, but it's closed off, at a remove.

What happens inside the room I won't reveal. I will tell you that it's meant to be the Big Confrontation, and that doesn't really pan out either. Whether it's the product of the movie's airless quality, whether it was some resistance or hesitation on the actors parts, or whether it's a natural by-product of knowing that you won't get any answers there, I couldn't say for sure, although I'm leaning toward the second option. Traditionally, Shanley tells only the actor playing Flynn if Flynn is guilty, and I wonder if that hampers his performance in anyway. You have to play it straight down the line no matter what, so what good does it do to know?

Sidebar: Howard Shore wrote a score for this movie. I don't remember hearing any non-diegetic music. What does that mean? Also, I love Alice Drummond's voice.

All of this is pretty negative, I know. I'm not suggesting that this is a bad movie. It's obviously an outstanding play, and, I suspect, a better play than movie. Maybe a few more drafts or a different director would have taken it further. Then again, maybe those changes would have ruined it. B

Pop Culture Round Up: December 20 - January 9

I'm still getting all caught up, you know?

Inglorious Basterds finally gets a release date.

Sort of to the side of Criticism in Crisis, but still good to know.

More Criticism in Crisis reactions.

"Normally, a picture is worth a thousand words. But during blurb season, the laws of nature are reversed." Which is why I head to the movies and see giant Rolling Stone reviews in the place of cardboard cutouts.

Yay, Lauren Graham on TV again!

Speaking of, this reminds me of that Gilmore Girls episode where the town loner wanted to hang a giant sign from the bell tower.

Heh. This list is so curmudgeonly.

What if the movie is the only way you are going to get to see it?

Gak! Brain pain!

Check the slide show.

Gah, this bugs. Won't they at least need him for the before scenes?

They certainly don't seem as inventive as they could be.

Wouldn't be against it!

Why is this news to me? Also, is it just me or does Pegg look particularly foxy in that photo?

Do NOT take this away from us, Judge.

More art to be returned.

Sad.

But scientists, Army, and Al Gore got in the way.

Yes, but are they ideal for a certain song by Spinal Tap?

Not the point: Possession is finally coming out? Dude, I wrote about that last February.

Also not the point: In answer to your last question, no, but maybe he should consider it.

Listen, while that is the best part of Fantasia, what the hell? Just . . . why? Maybe it will be cool. I have my doubts, but maybe.

How cute is the "why am I marrying him?" gallery? (Psst, you have to click on the left to get to it)

I misread this headline and thought one crazy movie was in store.

And in honour of my best friend's most recent birthday.

'Tis the season:

National Society of Film Critics Awards.

PGA nominations.

WGA nominations.

DGA nominations.

Nice of CBC to put all their top 10 lists in one place.

Dana Stevens' Top 10.

Stephanie Zacharek's Top 10.

Vulture's Critics' Poll Ballots and Results.

The best of the AV Club.

TWoP's most disappointing movies of the year, favourite movies of the year, and most hated movies.

MOVIE CLUB! Yes, I was yelling. I loves me some Movie Club.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Premise: Poised to be the first person to win 20 million rupees on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Jamal (Dev Patel) is hauled into questioning by the police (led by Irrfan Khan) who want to know how a slumdog who serves chai at a call centre knows all the answers. Jamal tells them about moments in his life with his older brother Salim (Madhur Mittal) and true love Latika (Freida Pinto) that furnished him with what he needed to know.

I've read quite a few things along the lines of "if it wasn't set in India" or "if it weren't told in flashback" or "if not for this cast," and you know what I say? Fuck that. With Hollywood's War on Original Ideas (tm the Vulture) still on-going, what's wrong with doing anything we can to take a basic premise (guy bests unbeatable odds to win dream girl) and turn it into something fresh? If we can get something funny, heartfelt, and uplifting in the process, why are we looking a gift horse in the mouth?

That's what this one feels like, at any rate: a gift. 2008 isn't going to go down in the books as one of this decade's better years for movies (sucks to have to follow 2007), and I've been hard pressed, at this point in the game, to name what I think the best movies of the year have been so far. If co-directors Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan want to hand us this thrilling and ultimately sweet gift, why say no?

Working in tandem with gorgeous, sensual, and richly textured work from cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (he also did Boyle's amazingly shot 28 Days Later . . .) and the surprisingly subtle screen adaptation from Simon Beaufoy (who apparently invented the love story that both anchors the plot and sends it soaring), Boyle and Tandan have nothing short of magic on their hands. Every scene is alive with motion, colour, and energy; even the subtitles (the movie is partially in Hindi) dance across the screen, highlighted by different colours for each speaker.

It's hard to single out one performance in a movie filled with pitch perfect ones (the youngest versions of Jamal, Salim, and Latika are particularly endearing), but attention must be given to Patel nonetheless. There's very little that's universal in a story so particular, and it falls on his shoulders, as the oldest version of Jamal and as the storyteller, to make it personal. Patel succeeds by turning Jamal inward, making him quiet and conscientious but still bright. His ability to imagine a life for himself is limited to one that involves Latika, and his singular devotion to that vision is what gives him (and thus his performance) its strength.

There was another movie that I recall that had a lot of "if not for this" and "if not for that" comments about how beat out very narrow odds to become excellent. It was Shop Around the Corner, and you know what they called such movies back then? Lightening in a bottle. Why can't we still have lightening in a bottle? A

The Short Take: 2008 Round Up

It's not 2008 anymore, I know, but I still have quite a few 2008 movies that I have yet to tell you about. It seems obvious at this point that they're not going to get full reviews. I still want to acknowledge them, though, so they get the paragraph treatment instead. Hurrah!

Blindness (2008)

Bearing in mind that Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo are pretty much always going to be good, this has to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. A metaphor for the break down of communication in modern society, huh? How does that work, exactly? Let's go back to grade five and remember that a metaphor is a comparison not using like or as. So everyone loses their sight and only one seemingly ordinary woman (Moore) can still see but pretends to be blind in order to stay with her husband (Ruffalo). Okay . . . still waiting for someone to explain to me how the metaphor works. I'll give José Saramago the benefit of the doubt and guess that it works in the novel, but it doesn't come across in screenwriter Don McKellar and director Fernando Meirelles adaptation. Basically, this movie has an overlap of self-consciously arty crap (it's white blindness, so the theatre would occasionally fill with bright white light from the screen, which achieved nothing so much as taking the audience directly out of the film) and over attention to gritty details (people stopped using the washrooms and just used the hall, and not a single scene that involved walking down the hallway failed to include someone slipping in shit. I'd like to say points for continuity, but We. Get. It). We also got it when you stayed on the stray dog eating a dead person in the street for two minutes. Shut up, moive. D

Passchendaele (2008)

This movie had a lot going for it. The opening sequence was shocking. Then the movie zigged when you thought it would zag, taking you back to Alberta and focusing instead on an older officer (Paul Gross) wooing an emotionally unavailable younger nurse (Caroline Dhavernas). This part I liked. It was a little boring at times, but you could understand why he kept at it even as she pushed him away. But the movie's called Passchendaele, so you knew they had to get back to the front eventually. It was at this point, the third act, that the movie got bad. Out of nowhere, a small, well developed, character driven story became a sweeping war movie in the worst way. Now it was about CANADA, and CANADA deserves to have its story told. I'm not saying that that's not true; I'm saying that it didn't jive with what came before and was done in something of an embarrassing manner. Oh, well. I suppose writer-director-star Gross isn't perfect. C+

Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)

I'll just tell you how it is: I don't really get Kevin Smith. I don't dislike him or want him to come to any harm, but when I'm watching his movies, it's sort of a big meh. Part of it is that people just don't talk like that. Not in that Sorkin way where we wish we were all that erudite but in that "If I hear the words 'make love' or any derivation thereof one more time, I'm going to lose it" way. I don't believe that Zack would talk that way, and I wanted to stop such things from coming out of Seth Rogen's mouth. He's a good actor; they would sound ridiculous no matter what. And that's all it is, really: that two best friends would think making a porno is the best way to solve their financial crisis, that having sex could reveal deeper feelings, that it does, it's a workable premise. But then you throw all these other layers of shit (sometimes literal) on top of the thing, and it becomes shallow. There's humour there, but the fundamental lack of emotionality prevents the movie from ever being more than okay. B-

Changeling (2008)

Remember when Angelina Jolie got really skinny back in there? See this movie if you need a refresher. Not only does her collarbone practically cry out "feed me!", but all the veins in her hands stand out, giving her the effect of seeming fragile. Which is great when you are playing a character like Christine Collins. The trailer may give you the impression that this movie's about a lady looking for her lost son, but it's really about a lady learning to toughen up. She just also happens to be looking for her lost son. Jolie's great, but her out sized public persona prevents her from ever really disappearing into a role. It's hard to believe that she wouldn't start kicking some ass. John Malkovich is cast fantastically against type as Reverend Gustav Briegleb (I think you could get a solid short film out of him just saying that name), a firebrand so intent on taking down the corrupt police department that it's possible he only sees Christine as a means to an end. This, unfortunately, is all the nuance any character in the movie is allowed. Jeffrey Donovan, as the captain who gives Christine the wrong boy, gets all of fifteen seconds to register any doubt or remorse. No one else gets even that much. It gets the point where you want to tell the nice detective (Michael Kelly) to go easier on these kids. This just isn't it, Clint. C-

Australia (2008)

This not so much a movie as a child's fever dream of what an epic movie should be. It's bookended by a movie about the Stolen Generations, turns into a fish out of water love story about an Englishwoman (Nicole Kidman) who inherits a cattle farm in the outback and the Drover (Hugh Jackman) who helps her save the place from financial ruin, and then turns into a war drama. While there's plenty of material there, it's not convincingly much of any of these movies. Kidman's really got to stop doing whatever it is she's been doing to her face (woe is the day when I go back to The Others to discover that it was like that all along), Jackman's Jackman (he seems an affable, gregarious fellow, and you can pretty much take it or leave it with him), and they have some lovely friendship chemistry but not much else. And if I were Brandon Walters, he of that lovely mane, I would turn tail and run before I ever took on another Magic Aboriginal role like that again. A child who refers to his adoptive parents as Boss and Mrs. Boss? Where do we draw the line? For a man who has supposedly left his red curtain trilogy behind, Baz Luhrmann is awfully fixated on a literal swinging one. It's pretty, but there's not much else to this one. C

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: one of the problems rom-coms is the tendency to demonize the love interest the audience shouldn't want the lead to end up, and this problem tends to be ratcheted up when said love interest is a woman. So you can imagine my surprise writer and star Jason Segel remembered happy, funny times with his eponymous ex (Kristen Bell) and even allowed her valid points about the difficulties in their relationships (I'd balk at someone wearing the same sweatpants everyday for a week, too). When he starts to remember the downsides to their relationship (a montage of events where he stood back and held her purse, for one), it feels earned and as natural as it would in any break up. Everyone knows from the outset that he'll end up with the lovely Mila Kunis, but it's a pleasant surprise that Bell feels like a contender. At least until a couple of reveals undo all that nice work, but you'll forgive the movie it's only real misstep. It's still got hilarious turns from Russell Brand and Kenneth the Page, after all, and you totally would go see a Dracula puppet musical. A-

Made of Honor (2008)

I watched this as a double bill with Marshall, and, while it's the worse both by comparison and in point of fact, it's not as bad as you might think. It is what you think, a sex-reversed My Best Friend's Wedding, and the sex reversal guarantees an ending reversal as well. Because I stopped watching Grey's Anatomy several seasons back, I'm free to find Patrick Dempsey, all floppy hair and twinkling blue eyes, charming again (Fun fact: I started watching Grey's for Dempsey, kind of like how I started watching House for Robert Sean Leonard. There are a handful of early 90s movies that mean a lot to me, okay?). I like Michelle Monaghan as well, and they are pretty cute together. Nothing about this movie is fresh or interesting, but sometimes being middling isn't the worst thing in the world. C

Tell No One (2006)

It's all in the tagline: "8 years ago, Alex's wife was murdered. Today, she emailed him." This French thriller, adapted by writer-director Guillaume Canet from the novel by American Harlan Coben, is exactly as exciting as you find that premise. At the very least, it's mildly intriguing, right? François Cluzet goes on the hunt for the truth about his wife's murder, loosening the foundations of several people's lives in the process. Though neither the direction nor the writing are perfect (particularly egregious is the music video early on that disrupts the flow of the movie), Cluzet is fantastic as the still grieving widower, and Kristin Scott Thomas (perhaps practicing her French for I've loved you so long) is particularly welcome as his only supportive friend. Having never read the novel, I can't speak to the adaptation, but, as a movie, it's pretty good. B

Stop-Loss (2008)

While I'm certain that there's a story to be told about soldiers who get stop-lossed (that is, called back to duty just when they are set to be discharge based on the needs of the service) and Kimberly Pierce may even be the director to do it, Ryan Phillippe and Abbie Cornish aren't the actors for it. Cornish's attempts at an American accent and her man voice do nothing to alievate her lack of affect, and Phillippe's never been the most expressive actor (although he does seem the right type to solider). Perhaps subing out Phillippe for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who handles the film's most compelling plot with the aplomb we've come to expect, would have produced better results. Aside from her imperfect leads, Pierce's film tends toward the obvious, but it's also smart, patriotic, and occasionally quietly moving (the digital collages made by the soldiers themselves are perhaps the movie's pinnacle). B+

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

I probably wouldn't have seen this at all if we weren't already at the theatre and all in the mood to see another movie, but there you have it. What all the celebrity voices bring to the table I couldn't tell you (will a six year old even recognize Jolie, much less David Cross?), but it's fun and funny, necessary components for any worthwhile kids' flick, as well as beautiful to look at, smart, and just a little smart-mouthed. It's got a simple message (boiled down, you could call it "be yourself") that it handles with a fair amount of subtlety. In short, if your niece or nephew wants to rent it, you could do worse. A lot worse. A-

Drillbit Taylor (2008) could be one of those worse things. My hopes were briefly raised after my nephew put it on when I saw both Stephen Root and Danny R. McBride's names go by, but they petered out shortly thereafter. They scored their sole laugh from me in a cameo from Adam Baldwin that surely went over every head but my mother's. There's just something unfunny and downright creepy about a homeless man who tries to swill abused teens out of their money. It could be darkly funny, but the movie doesn't set that tone, and it's all downhill from there. C

"What you see are the things in its path -- objects and particles and dust --, and you see them because they reflect the light."

Want to reflect on the year that was in cinema? Let me help you out with my list of things to remember in my latest Culture article.

Over in the advice column, Miss Smartypants tackles Twilight Moms, Canadian spelling, and job opportunities. Keep sending your questions to advice@culturemagazine.ca.