The Last Station (2009)

Hey, want to see a spineless guy be ineffectual? No? Even if he's cutie pie James McAvoy? Still no? Neither did the editors of The Last Station it would seem, as they abruptly and randomly cut from his scenes to those featuring Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren as Leo Tolstoy and his wife Sofya every chance they get.

Not that I am blame them or the Oscar voters that nominated Mirren in the role. As adorable as McAvoy is making that hyper-earnest face with the veins popping out in his forehead, there's nothing to his character, his character's conflict, or the movie's central conflict (who will retain Tolstoy's copyright after his death). The movie is so stacked in Sofya's favour that even as Mirren (somewhat uncharacteristically) tears into Sofya's histrionics, it's impossible to root for Paul Giamatti and his moustache wax (though I dig that he carried around moustache wax).

Writer-director Michael Hoffman's has no aptitude for the small work on his hands: though the subject matter itself may be new to the viewer, he doesn't address it in any way that's fresh and ends up divorcing the characters from their supposed beliefs so rapidly that your head will spin. Ultimately, what you get out of the movie is directly related to what you get out of Plummer and Mirren's scenes. Fortunately, those scenes are delightful, much like Sebastian Edschmid's cinematography, which makes Russia in springtime look like an enchanted forest. B-

Now, where can I find a Russian tea set?

"I like to think of it less as a friendship and more as a solid foundation for future bliss."

The same can be said of the central relationship in It Happened One Night, which I explore in my latest Culture article. It's the foundation of every rom-com ever made, so blame Frank Capra if you're not a fan.

And don't forget about Ask Miss Smartypants, updated every Monday. Send your questions to advice@culturemagazine.ca.

Pop Culture Round Up: February 6 - 12

A Tour of 'Hell' in Evening Dress

New vote counting procedure for Best Picture Oscar is hard to follow

People Share News Online That Inspires Awe, Researchers Find

Surprise! Bradley Cooper Won’t Be Romancing Julia Roberts in Valentine’s Day

Creature feature

Magicians Speculate on Profession's Gender Imbalance

A world of Marvel

Exclusive Details on the Escape From New York Remake: Different Big Apple, Same Eye Patch

Sex Change: The Rise of the Female-Driven Blockbuster

Bored to Death? It Could Happen

Exclusive: 'Friday Night Lights' sets end date

The Wolfman’s Anthony Hopkins on Twilight, Working With Benicio, and the Problem With Mumbling Actors

Bob Dylan paintings get London gallery show

A discussion about Liz Phair, Riot Grrrls, and other '90s women in rock.

In the Loop (2009)

In the Loop is only nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, although why it isn't nominated for just about everything is beyond me. Is there an award for most inventive cussing?*

Based on TV series The Thick of It, co-writer and director Armando Iannucci has created a pitch-black satire that's almost certainly a hair's breadth away from being exactly right, which is what makes it so scary and funny to watch. The (never-seen) US President and the UK Prime Minister fancy themselves a war in the Middle East, but not everyone in their respective governments agrees. A single off-message word dropped in a radio interview by International Development Minister Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) is all it takes to kick the ramp up to international conflict into high gear. He's equally beset by political factions for and against the war, but it's the Prime Minister's own director of communications, Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), who wields the most dangerous weapons: words and influence.

It's like The West Wing in reverse: instead of an idealistic group of people who want to change the world for the better united under a passionate, intelligent leader, a disparate group from both sides of the pond are too obsessed with their own careers and machinations to see clearly through the conflict they're helping create even as they try to negate it. In the middle of it all, there's a man so adept with one-liners and profanity that to add in his drive makes him look positively Shakespearean (if Shakespeare's characters said things like, "I've already told you to fuck off twice, and yet you're still here").

It's genuinely unsettling to realize that people no one elected can effect such catastrophic policy (and so quickly), so Iannucci et al. have the good sense to make it so funny that you keep from losing your head. Packed to the gills with recognizable faces and brilliant supporting work, the docu-verité shooting style and editing only heighten the feeling that what you are watching could be a dramatic recreation of the truth. Finally, Dr. Strangelove has found its true heir. A-

*Actually, if there were, In the Loop would have some stiff competition from Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Pop Culture Round Up: January 30 - February 6

How having the web on your phone is changing urban living

You suck, and so does your writing

Independent Cinema - Poised for a D.I.Y. Revolution

RAZZIES Nominations

Zachary Quinto (aka Spock & Sylar) Tunes Up For Spielberg’s Gershwin

Zac Efron to be the next Spiderman

Catalan film theaters go on strike

Yes, “awards season” is stupid, but it beats the alternative

Prokofiev’s operatic talent to bemuse

Basics - Abstract Thoughts Prompt Literal Physical Responses

Is Avatar the All-Time Box-Office Champ or Not? Vulture Has a New Equation

The Odd Situation Of The Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar

Clooney as Batman tops worst movie list

Days of Our Lives actress Frances Reid dies

Risk and the adolescent brain.

Avatar (2009)

Weighing in on Avatar is entirely unnecessary at this point, aside from saying that I've seen it. There: I saw it. I saw it in magnificent IMAX 3D, where the kid at the door gave me and my viewing companion glasses with different coloured arms than the people around us. Perhaps because they had to go over our regular glasses?

"Unnecessary" seems the best word to qualify much of writer-director-HMFIC James Cameron's approach to dialogue, characterization, and plot. We played a little game called "I've seen this movie already" and came up with The Last of the Mohicans, Pocahontas, and FernGully: The Last Rainforest. There's nothing surprising about what happens in the movie, nothing that isn't telegraphed well in advance, no character who comes close being as 3D as Pandora itself.

And that's fine, in its own way. Obviously a lot of though and work went into imaging this lush new moon, and it is truly awe inspiring from the seeds of the soul tree right on up to the floating mountain range. But it's also insanely, excessively long. I grew tired hearing Giovanni Ribsi whinging about unobtanium (legit science term though it might be), Sigourney Weaver demanding for cigarettes, or Stephen Lang war-mongering like he was on the verge of war-starvation (limit of one character trait per actor!), as well as James Horner's overblown score. To be honest, the movie would have been a lot better if we cut out almost all the human stuff and just watched the Na'vi (especially Zoe Saldana's fierce warrior poses) for an hour and a half. C+