The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Christian Bale

© Warner Bros Pictures

I've already written 1000 words on this picture, so I don't think I have it in me to craft anything resembling a complete essay with a narrative though-line. I do, however, have a lot more thoughts and reactions to the movie as a whole, which will now take the form of bullet points. This probably goes without saying but, just in case it doesn't, SPOILERS.

• I must be the only person alive who loves Hans Zimmer's score. I love the tribal beat of Bane's theme and the way it goes crashing up against Batman's bombastic horns. I love the sneaky switcheroo when you realize that Bane's theme is like Bane himself -- not at all who you (or even he) thought but something entirely different. Above all, I love that when Bane and Batman come head to head for the first time, there is no score whatsoever. Just bone crunching and breathless anticipation in one of the most knock-down, drag-out fights I have ever seen on screen.
  
• My best friend's already made remarks to the extent that she is over Christian Bale, but I think he's my mafia: just when I think I'm out, he pulls me back in. It's not just the streaks of grey hair, the hollows under his eyes, or the fact that he is visibly thinner and more fragile than previous incarnations that break my heart to realize that he may have "aged-out" of the role he defined for himself. It's the way his voice softens when he's speaking with Alfred about Rachel. There's not only sorrow in that voice but innocence, like Alfred is a time machine that brings Bruce back to a moment when he was truly himself. It's the way you can tell, even at first blush, that there's no way Bruce/Batman could ever be more interested in Miranda Tate (though Marion Cotillard has never been more luminous) than he is in the Cat/Selina Kyle. It's not just the challenge that thrills him but the possibility of finding a single human being who may also understand.
  
• Speaking of Anne Hathaway, could she be any more killer in this movie? Sure, her first scene with Bruce when she flips from ingenue to seductress to criminal and right on out that window is gangbusters, but so is the moment in that scene when she hikes her skirt from just under her knee to just over her knee so she can climb (no one would wear those tights or the shoes to cater a party). Her dancing body can go from purring to ready to pounce in nanoseconds, but it's never campy. Above all, she gets to go through Harvey Dent's arc in reverse -- from apathetic to finally having some skin in the game. It was never really a matter of which side she would chose. It was just a question of how long it would take her to get there.
  
• If it weren't for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I think I would have fainted right out of my seat when Blake told Bruce he knew Bruce's secret identity 'cause he was also Batman (essentially). Mind you, it highlights the essential difference between them and further makes my point that you have to be a fuckin' weirdo to not become a cop or a prosecutor or the world's most dedicated lobbyist, but it also really smartly sets up the whole structures becoming shackles stuff and the way the movie lets you imagine that Blake just knew Bruce would leave him a little something special in his will. Of course, what I would really like to see is the "Becoming Batman" journal that would go along with it, full of handy tips like Lucius Fox's direct line, the best way to appear out of a shadow, and a guide to better growling.
  
• Actually, I'm also probably the only person who doesn't hate the Batman growl. On PCHH Glen Weldon posited that the movies could be a solid 10% better if it weren't for that growl, but whatever. He's got to disguise his voice somehow. Maybe he should have sunk some money into those Mission: Impossible voice patches.
  
• For that matter, I don't mind Tom Hardy's lilting based-on-an-Irish-Romani-'cause-he's-that-guy voice either. It took me right out of the movie the first time, I started to groove on it the second go 'round. It's just on border of being too silly, but, when you introduce a voice like that and follow it up with an impossibly menacing* hostile plane takeover, you start to see the character behind it. You see it in Bane's strut. You hear it in lines like, "What a lovely, lovely voice," followed immediately by mass murder and destruction. In fact, when you hear his voice for the first time, it's overwhelming loud - not just coming from behind you but in front of you and below you and in the seat next to you. Unnerving. 
  
• I don't really get Talia's point -- she hates her dad for disowning her protector but decided to follow through on his plan to destroy Gotham because his murder liberated her from her hate? That's pretty much what she said, I know, but I just don't understand. Why not enjoy the freedom to make your own decisions or reform the League of Shadows or use philanthropy to save the world like you've been pretending to anyway?
  
• To the nit-pickers who want to know how Bruce gets from the unspecified prison location and back to a secured Gotham in an unspecified amount of time, I say, "Did you not watch Batman Begins?" He spent seven years figuring out how to get from A to B without any money or notice. I'm sure he had it in the bag.
  
• How weird is it to see Batman in the daylight, though, right? It's a testament to both how broken the city is yet how accustomed they are to his presence that there are no double takes during that climactic showdown at City Hall. Gotham's just like Bruce in that regard -- they take Batman for granted.
  
• The song/video that inspired my article title.
  
  
  
  
• Besides the above, I think this is my favourite image that I came across in my research:
  

  

  Christopher Nolan

  © Warner Bros Pictures

A touch too long and a touch too reliant on Michael Caine's moist eyes to carry the emotional beats, but otherwise a near masterpiece. A-

 *I was going to say "badass" here but decided against it in part because I think the term is overused, in part because I don't want to associate any positive connotations of the term with the character, and in part because I heard a very convincing argument against the very character of Bane (in that he is a less product of storytelling needs and more of a need in the 80s and 90s for more "badasses" in comics).

"They never have rat exhibits in the zoo. I could start a new trend!"

I normally find a quote that utilizes the month's theme, but it turns out that "liberation" quotes didn't go that well with my latest (Cult)ure article. It's a handy checklist to the trends behind the movies that defined the decade. It will also help explain why your favourite movies from 2000-2009 didn't make anyone's top of the decade list.

Also, I believe I forgot to tell you about the interview I did with writer-director David J. Garfield last month. Enjoy!

Public Enemies (2009)

This summer has offered a pretty bland movie going experience so far, and Public Enemies is no exception. Perhaps I set myself up to be disappointed after highly anticipating the movie for so long. Perhaps not.

The movie begins with two of the exact type of gangbuster sequences you would want it to: John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) organizes a jail break, and Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) guns down Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum, and that's all you'll see of him). Two driven, organized, powerful men at cross purposes that are bound to crash into each other. Heat for the Great Depression. Those two sequences are . . . mildly tense.

Director and co-writer Michael Mann has lost his edge. His last effort, Miami Vice, suffered from the same inert, distanced quality that puts, if anything, a fifth wall between the audience and the story. There's no way to get involved because there's nothing to get involved in. Forcing Jaime Foxx to quote The Eagles didn't do the movie any favours either.

Possibly worse was when I realized that I had seen this movie before, only better. No, not Heat, although I am sure that's what everyone was thinking. It's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Both are long, introspective looks at famous criminals and the men that killed them, peeling back the layers to reveal a criminal who has accepted said death as inevitable and a killer who cannot yet grasp the consequences of his actions. Assassination was exactly like the winter it depicted: cold, haunted, and delicate enough to contain the tender promise of spring.

Public Enemies is none of those things. It's dull when it should be exciting (unless it intended to make bank robbing look boring with occasional spatters of violence) and tepid when it should be hot (there's something weirdly chemistry free about the pairing of super hotties Depp and Marion Cotillard). Elliot Goldenthal's score is mismatched the few minutes it is used. Otis Taylor's "Ten Million Slaves" works far better when it comes up.

Mostly though, I would have killed for some exposition, which is a strange complaint for a movie that's 140 minutes long. But why is Purvis so innovative yet inept? What kind of man is he? Why is Dillinger so sad?* What's with Billie (Cotillard) and Dillinger's fatalistic take on relationships?

To say that Depp, Bale, and Cotillard offer great performances** is to say nothing at all. We already know that they are great performers. Mann drummed the personality and magnetism right out of them, and, in doing so, nearly drummed it right out of the movie. There's enough in the story (and the supporting cast) to make the movie worth watching, but it's almost in spite of Mann. Plus, Depp did me the great favour of singing, as it's next to impossible for me to see him in jail and not expect him to burst into song. C+

*Truly, if you could only use one word to describe Depp's take on Dillinger, it would be "sad." Ironic given that others will describe him as "jolly," and I think it may have been ironic on purpose. There's one for you, movie!

**Purvis' walk, in particular, killed me. It was a nice contrast to Dillinger's swagger and stomp.

Wolverine, Star Trek, & Terminator Salvation

2009: The summer in tent poles (so far)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

This movie does not, as I had previously thought, have a double colon in the title. They are missing out. Of course, the movie's also missing things like interesting characters, plots that make sense, and my attention. Punctuation's the least of their worries. Screenwriters David Benioff and Skip Woods seem to have thought of this movie backwards from action set pieces (cool guys don't look at explosions) and then filled out the bare minimum of plot between them. Gambit (Taylor Kitsch, deciding to do little in the Cajun accent department, but otherwise rocking) was cut from the first movie because of the budget, yet they're still doing the least they possibly can with the character. And for what? So we can laugh when Logan (Hugh Jackman, who I always want to type as Huge Jackman - that's his porn name) cuts a sink in half with his new adamantium claws? So we can get a backstory on his amnesia that makes no sense whatsoever? So Liev Schreiber can run around making his evil villain the most fun (and dangerous) character in the proceedings? Actually, that's kind of worth the price of admission. Though, like Watchmen, the movie is never so good as its opening montage (as Jimmy and Victor go from war to war over more than a century, Jimmy becoming disillusioned and Victor gradually losing his humanity), Schreiber's line reading on "Ooo, shiny," is too good to describe. He deserves a better movie. D

Star Trek

J.J. Abrams, look at you! Here we have something that doesn't start in the middle, makes sense without endless exposition, and is a heck of a lot of fun in the interim. Apparently you and scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are finally figuring these things out. Best of all, you found an inventive way to reboot the entire series that works. And really, I don't know if I've ever seen anything as badass as a 12 year-old driving a car off a cliff. Chris Pine may be an excellent Kirk, all cocksure swagger with just the right stripe of intelligence to pull it off, but Zachary Quinto as Spock owns that movie from start to finish. So long as you've got those two in place, you're set. Well, kickass Bruce Greenwood, dreamy Karl Urban, and adorable Simon Pegg and Anton Yelchin don't hurt either. This might be going some place good. Maybe cool it with the solar flares next time, though. B+

Terminator Salvation

Another colon-less confusing title! Another Anton Yelchin movie! In this case he goes from being adorable with an overblown accent and a head of curls, to, quite frankly, a little bit sexy with his tight pants and guns and the come-with-me-if-you-want-to-lives. The casting is spot on for this kid to grow into Michael Biehn. I have no idea why writers John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris (and the legions of other writers brought on to do rewrites, of course) chose to saddle him with a little mute girl and then didn't have the good sense to kill her (for pathos not my personal amusement), but what are you going to do? I'd rewrite this movie if I could. I'd tell McG to rethink the lighting scheme (not a joke), to give dreamboat Sam Worthington some direction other than "yell a lot," to give dreamboat Christian Bale some direction other than "brood." We get that he can brood, and we love that about him, we really do. I suspect that if I were hunted for the entirety of my life, I would brood a lot, too. But then I'd remember the immortal words of Roger Ebert, and I'd get the stick out of my ass. I'd remember that my character calls for imagination. Mostly, though, I'd call up those bastards in charge of cutting my trailers and ads and thank them for spoiling the only innovative twist the movie had going for it: do you know that Worthington's some kind of terminator? You do? Too bad the movie spends its entire first hour waiting for you to find that out. Bloody hell. There really ought to be some communication when it comes to these things. I don't know if I would have made the movie less boring, but I bet it would have been a good start. C

"Oh, yeah? Me and my banana stand are going to kick your banana stand's ass!"

So many lovely treats for you over at the Bananas issue of Culture! First there's my latest article, a carefully culled list of bananas celebrities, hand-crafted by Sarah, Emily, and myself. Then you can move on to giggling at my bananas-themed YouTube picks, and finally settle down for some advice which, sadly, is not banana-related. If you have banana-related questions (or any questions really; the next theme is Sex), send them to advice@culturemagazine.ca.

And if you are not already doing so, don't forget to check out the mag's blog, as written by its editors. By which I mean, mostly Kevin and me.

Pop Culture Round Up: February 28 - March 6

I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I'm leaning toward negatively at the moment.

Aw, they want to forget their troubles!

Nothing this cool ever happens at my office.

Yes? Listen, I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm all for criticism, but why would lack thereof equal no book culture? It's not like the publishing industry, English majors, and book clubs have ceased to exist.

Is it me, or does Paul Rudd look hot in this photo?

Ha! I knew those Baby Einstein DVDs were a crock. Another good reason to steer clear.

Well, yeah. When else can you call your friends and yell "Holy shit!"?

Continued obsession: Tracking down Nazi art booty. Yeah, that's what I just said.

I'm not quite at this point yet with the show, but Sars is right about the way pretty every conversation goes lately.

Oh, how I want to see it.

There are about 500 million things you could read about Watchmen this week, but I'd recommend this one.

Reactions to this headline: Shock, disbelief, suspicion that the Fug Girls were lying to me. Reactions to photo: Mild anxiety, as Vampire Boy suddenly looks kind of like ex-co-worker that I occasionally run into in the streets.

I think I may be reaching the saturation point on my anti-obsession as I didn't immediately clamour for one of these. Mind you, if it were actually like she described, I would want one so bad.

I do kind of want this.

Truth: I've only read two of these. I don't recall lying about the rest, mind.

I know it's supposed to sound hard and discouraging, but I thought, "Cool job."

I'm down with this casting, but the job is preposterous. It's a stupid contrivance entirely to cause friction. They are old money, for pete's sake!

The casting of this movie is getting surreal, but I kind of think it could end up being awesome.

Trailer insanity:

Terminator: Salvation

500 Days of Summer

Wolverine

Public Enemies

The Limits of Control

Pop Culture Round Up: February 21 - 27

But how do you ask questions?

Good for them.

I can't saw I ever thought much about this (confession: I don't have an mp3 player. I used to, then my headphones broke, then it broken, then I realized I prefer to hear the world around me most of the time when I'm out walking, which is pretty much the only time I used it), but I am glad that there is a solution. There's no reason to be denied your Prokofiev.

Holy shit, harsh! Sometimes criticism is crisis really gets me down.

Heh.

Watchmen guide for the uninitiated. Next Friday still seems so far away.

"Greenfield warns social networking sites are changing children's brains, resulting in selfish and attention deficient young people."

Was this an unknown previously?

Finally. What was his problem?

Yay! I can only assume that awesomeness will result.

This week in greatest things ever: Vladimir Putin releases judo instruction DVD.

Good, they should.

The answer is Conchords.

Nine! That's just fine by me.

Hee!

Why?

If I knew how to contact Kenneth Clark, I would mail this to his racist ass.

I don't see this happening, but it's a great rumour.

Pop Culture Round Up: January 31 - February 6

DGA winners.

I don't know why exactly but heh.

"The nominations of a still relatively little-seen crop of best-picture contenders are making it harder for producers of the Oscar ceremony to deliver on an earlier promise: to create a big night for the movies, even if some of the movies are not so big." You know, I never used to think one way or the other about whether the movies nominated were seen or unseen, but she does have a point. What makes you tune in if the only movie if you are likely to have seen is Wall-E? You already know and like Wall-E. You don't need the Academy to tell you that.

Also, heh. I'm buying a Group of Seven work when my ship comes in just to be contrary. Or maybe I'll get cute Geoffrey Farmer to do an installation. I suppose that would be selling out, though, so maybe that wouldn't work. Good thing no actual ship is on the horizon with all these decisions to make.

This is true, and I can get behind it. I'd personally like it if we had shorter seasons but more seasons throughout the year.

This link pretty much exists for the last line. Could you imagine what mincemeat Don Draper (name must be said in full) would make of Edward? Edward could be his new Pete, actually, now that Pete seems to be on his way up (or dead, or down). I love that show.

And this one exists pretty much for the headline.

Oh, dear. This does not suggest good things for my future.

This dramatic thriller and its casting strike me as better suited to a comedy.

You'll never guess who Clint Eastwood's best partnership is with!

Really? That doesn't seem right.

"Indeed, Disney said its CEO decided to forgo an additional bonus of $2.4 million as a gesture of good will." Generosity!

At first I balked, but I think I get this. It's cocktail party fodder.

Heh. Dude, you so don't get it.

"I don't have a message." That's good to know. Also, of course.

Alright, I don't want to spend a lot of time on the thing that you've been hearing and seeing all week, so you get this and this. But that's it.

Backlash to the backlash: "Some say the Oscar contender is 'poverty porn,' but that criticism misconstrues the nature of art."

Okay, I totally want this, especially if it a) contains insults about the source material or b) is secretly a tell-all. Would it be too much to hope for both?

Heh: my friend sent me a link to this for the headline.

I know this one! I know this one! Is the answer, "Yes, for pete's sake, kill it and put us all out of our misery?"

Ugh, why? I mean, I know why, but still.

This casting has blown my mind.

"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.

Pop Culture Round Up: November 29 - December 5

I can't say I'd put many of these on my list if I took the time to make one, but I can tell you that there are some great ones in there like 48 and 15. They've even got the same quote I used last January in my Culture article!

Recently I was reminded of this glorious thing, which I stumbled upon years ago for legitimate work reasons. That job was terrible, but at least it had that.

Part of me thinks that this is terrible, and the part of me motivated by scheudenfraude hopes this blows up like David O. Russell did awhile back.

If I tried this challenge, I wouldn't need new reading material for a solid two years.

The more we learn from Anton Chigurh, the better.

The first person to get me one of these wins top prize. For reals.

This never would have happened on Slings & Arrows.

I'm a little concerned that this will be awful, but I'm going to try to hope for awesome. Or at least not sucky.

"Viva Las Vegas meets Tommy?" How have I not heard of this before?

Yay! Really yay!

Alex Kingston would be an excellent Doctor. Lobby hard!

"TIME TO SPARKLE" is my new sign off.

I was unconcerned with this rivalry this summer, but now I am jazzed about the re-release. I am going to go see it again.

Holy shit! You know who they should centre this around, don't you? Eric.

Feel free to read this if you want to bring yourself down.

Go to the source and read the entire thing if you need a laugh after the above link.

And, because it is that time again: Independent Spirit Award Nominees and National Board of Review Winners.

I know, I know you are sick of my weird love-loathe thing with Twilight, but I clicked on over to The Old Hag because I used to love it and now haven't been there in, like, for-EVAH, and what do I see? A Twilight review. I don't make a point of linking reviews, but, hey, I love what she's got to say, and I can't wait to read her linked article.

The Prestige (2006)

See? I wasn't kidding when I said there were more RE-views in store.

And I bet you didn't even know that a Johansson/Hall double bill was possible.

As per usual when watching something surprising or twisty, particularly if you were surprised, watching it a second time makes you wonder how you could have been fooled. I watched this with a friend who had never seen it, and she was like, "Obviously that guy is his twin." I threw her off the scent, inquiring incredulously, "You think that guy looks like Christian Bale?" She admitted that he didn't, but, seriously, why didn't I notice it before? He doesn't talk! He's always hanging around! Suspicious stuff, man.

Instead, I made a game of figuring out which one he was in any given scenes. Certain scenes, like the ones with Sarah (the still terrific Hall) and Olivia (a less irritated although still unnecessarily English Johansson) or when he is in jail, are more obvious, but it's still a pretty fun game in the second viewing. On the other hand, thinking about this twins business for too long can make you disappointed that you just watched an entire movie to learn absolutely nothing about one of the central characters. Why are the Bordens so obsessed with magic that they are willing to live only half a life to pursue it? The Nolans won't be giving you the answer.

I was once again bowled over by Jackman's performance. Angier is the real villain of the piece, a man so hell bent on revenge for so long that even the reason for his obsession pales in comparison to pursuing it. It's his steadfast belief that Borden could not, under any circumstances, be using a double that drives a lot of the action, and he plays it so well. With Jackman as Angier, has a blood curdling believable quality to it: if he could just understand how Borden works. I love how something so seemingly simple (if he could just) leads to so much complication.

I didn't realize upon first viewing that there were two prestiges at the end: Borden and Angier each get their own prestige. It never occurred to me that we were supposed to think that Telsa (the subdued but still rockin' David Bowie), discovering that the machine duplicated rather than transported, would "fix" the machine. It was more a question of what Angier was going to do with all the extra Angiers, and I figured that one out soon enough. Still, it's the more devastating reveal for the audience; the two Bordens is most devastating to Angier alone.

While I may not feel exactly the same watching this as I did the first time around, it's still a superbly crafted fantasy/thriller and an excellent allegory for filmmaking. Original grade stands: A

Pop Culture Round Up: August 9 - 15

Sorry about the lack of posts this week, kids. I think I'll be back on track soon. In the meantime, holla me, as the 9th up there was my birthday. I have moved into a new age bracket and had to get a new prescription for my glasses, hence am feeling old.

I wonder if they could have chosen a worse photo for this story.

"Do you suffer from blockbuster fatigue?" Possibly, although I considered that to be related to the lack of good movies this year rather than an overabundance of blockbusters.

Actually, I've noticed this as well inasmuch as there are ridiculously few new shows that I am anticipating for fall. And by few I mean . . . one, sort of.

"It won't sell, they think, unless they put some naughty bits in - even if they have to invent the naughty bits." What, I can't take a sentence out of context for my own amusement? Of course I can!

I must say that I agree with the first one (No. 1o) on this list mostly because they annoy me in this about to happen/just happened/is happening way.

Gak! It's just like when the Globe shrank, and now it sits there, pushed to one side in its over sized boxes on street corners, a hollow shell of what it used to be.

"But as Warners goes through the arduous process of absorbing two dozen or so New Line films into its distribution system, the studio simply has too many movies to release, so it's starting to pick out the weak calves from the herd." Ooo, a slaughter! Much like the above, this kind of news makes me a little sad. You toil to get a picture greenlit, actually finish it, and then it might never see the light of day. Sigh.

Already? It occurs to me that the show as it will exist on air will never live up to the behind the scenes drama I imagine is going on. I want to watch that show.

Isn't Jerry Maguire a little too much for a simple date movie?

Apparently Allan Kozinn over at the Times has a beef with French horns, which is sad but funny. They are one of those instruments that are really beautiful when played well but don't get really get enough play for players to get really good at them, you know? No? Okay.

Another beef that cracks me up. Pretty much any beef reported in "Beef" cracks me up, though. Remember when Spike Lee accused Clint Eastwood of racism earlier this summer? Somehow the Vulture made that funny, too.

Again, why are people still reporting this like it's news? Well, new news, which it was, about three years ago. Holla 2005!

Oddly, this does help redeem Sorkin in my eyes. That and occasional memories of what a brilliant show The West Wing was.

Now, if I linked to every good post on Go Fug Yourself, I'd be linking to GFY all the live long day, but this post in particular is fantastic. Maybe it's for a role?

Hurray! I've been missing Green since he stepped out as Oz to go hang with monks. Okay, Oz went to hang out with monks, and Green went to finish a movie, but still. We're missing Green, right?

While I think this is probably true, I also think that it is a slow, trickle down effect that will prevent us from realizing the dire situation for another few years. Most of us haven't had the time to get around to the all the fantastic releases to realize that there aren't enough coming out anymore.

"Julia Child's spy career revealed." That headline says it all.

I'm beginning to think that the web peeps over at CBC revel in choosing strange photos.

"But it was his cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” that spread through the Internet and drew new listeners to his site." Which I love. It's almost as good as "Tom Cruise Crazy."

"Kaleem Aftab is outraged at the way marketing is taking over." Outraged!

I'm so excited that Primer is back (I don't think I've seen one since May) that I think I probably would have linked to it regardless of the subject matter. Getting to know one of America's most influential filmmakers is a good idea, though.

Batman Update

Pursuant to my lengthy Dark Knight post, I bring you the latest in Batman related news: Christian Bale arrested for assault. Assault! Of his mother and sister! My image of him, based on very little given that he is an extremely private person, is shattered.

Update within the update! He denies it! No reason for all these exclamation marks, as that is not shocking.

Further updates! Apparently now he's full of rage. Or maybe, as Bob Thompson suggests, this was sort of bound to happen?

The Dark Knight (2008)

Premise: While Batman (Christian Bale) and Lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman) are busy trying to clean up the mob in Gotham, the Joker (Heath Ledger) is slowly accruing more power. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne (Bale) is frustrated to find Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) in so serious a relationship with new DA Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) now that end of Gotham's need for Batman seems to be in sight.

I was always a Superman kind of girl. I read Spider-Man comic books, I watched Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, and Superman TV shows, but I was always a Superman kind of girl. I'm sure Dean Cain's adorable dimples on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman played no small part in my childhood love, but there it was. There's just something about Superman: he's a genuinely nice, decent person, as raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent. He's also tragic figure, the last of his kind, trying to protect the beings on his new home when he could easily rule them, forced to keep his identity a secret for fear of what they might do to him. There's a lot of pain, and he hears all of it, and he tries anyway. It must be lonely.

By contrast, as much as I watched the cartoons and the various incarnations, there was always something that bugged me about the Batman. He was a rich, privileged brat who decided that he alone could be above the law in order to enforce it because he suffered a personal tragedy at a young age. There were never any real consequences for his vigilantism; he never seemed to answer for anything.

Over the years, perhaps largely due to weekly doses of idiocy from Smallville and the growing popularity and quality of comic book adaptations on the big screen, I've become disenchanted by Superman and drawn in by other heroes, super and not. Then Christopher Nolan came along and gave me an origin story that I didn't know that I wanted. Now, it's like he's heard about all my nagging doubts and chosen to address them. What if Batman's vigilantism did have unintended consequences? What if someone did want him to pay for his actions? What if he wasn't the best at what he does? What if he didn't want to be? Most importantly, what if, as I suggested in my initial review, I could get a sequel to outrank the original?

You want to know how Nolan does it? He doesn't put Bale/Batman in the centre of the movie. Bruce Wayne's not the protagonist. Neither is Batman. Although it is an ensemble drama (yeah, that's right), he isn't the standout character. It isn't Ledger/Joker either, posthumous Oscar campaign be damned. It's Eckhart/Dent/Two Face.

Eckhart may have been leading in movies for years now, but this is it. This is the kind of star making performance that should, in an ideal world, net him an Academy Award. This is the kind of perfectly paced, heartbreaking, gut wrenching, white knuckle performance for which we should all be on the look out. It's Dent, and only Dent, that goes through a complete character arc in this movie, and it's Eckhart, and only Eckhart, that could bring him there convincingly. What Eckhart does goes beyond convincing. He reaches Chandler/Taylor levels of character embodiment that you start to feel deep down 'til it makes you shudder. You think you believe in Harvey Dent, Bruce? You don't know the half of it. I've never even met him.

While I believe the attention should be focused on Eckhart, director and co-writer Nolan doesn't skimp in a single area. Suddenly Gotham seems more like a real city, one that you could visit or even live in, than ever before. Thanks to Gyllenhaal, Rachel is suddenly a smart, sassy, sensual lawyer who seems both real and necessary, qualities she lacked in her previous incarnation. Oldman continues to play Gordon as the most regular joe, upstanding cop as only Oldman could, and Michael Caine still has a winning way with a one-liner and an inspirational speech.

Ledger is as terrifying, and as thrilling, as the Joker as you expected him to be. No connections, no motivations, no origin story. The Joker simply appears, a force for chaos that cannot, will not be stopped. Everything about him, the walk, the voice, the smacking lips,* was invented for this exact purpose, and it takes you outside and beyond Ledger. You can no sooner think of any actor in the role than you can entertain a thought about this actor's tragic passing. Those things are outside the movie, and Ledger is so present that he forces you, without you realizing it, to be present as well. So long as the movie runs, there is only this. Even when he's not on screen, his presence lingers over the movie. It's a creepy, crawly feeling that makes you nervous in the dark. He's a Nietzscheian superman, outside and above not only the law but morals and justice as well. With him against Bale's Batman, there is no good vs. evil. Good and evil co-exist, and, perhaps, they must.

Thank goodness for Bale. Though he isn't the protagonist and does have limited screen time, he anchors the movie. It's Batman's actions and, yes, their negative consequences that fuel each plotline, and Bale acts the hell out of each and every one. He's so focused on taking down the rest of the mob that he misses, repeatedly, the growing danger that the Joker represents, and it costs him dearly. He'll finally get the chance, it seems, to put aside the sublimated rage that drove the first movie, only to pick it back up again. But now it's different, and you can feel that thanks to Bale. He thought he understood the consequences of being Batman before. Now he's forced to live them, and it is only through Bale's tightly wound performance that we could feel how a person so beaten down could make the right choice for the right reasons and take on the negative consequences that sometimes accompany those choices. Only through Bale could we, in the midst of all that, find room for hope.

Only with Nolan at the helm, co-writing with his brilliant brother Jonathan, working out the story with Batman Begins co-author David S. Goyer, scored intensely by an unthinkable combination of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, could a sequel this dark outshine the original. Yes, it's very dark. It's downright bleak. But it is also exactly how it has to be. Nolan executes exactly what he needs to without hesitation or remorse. It's the kind of filmmaking that, despite how dark it is, inspires. A

*There was big debate about what, exactly, was going on there. Was he smacking his lips? Licking his bottom lip? Tonguing his scars? Only subsequent viewings will tell.

Confidential to Sean: You're right. I won't say about what to avoid giving anything away, but that possibility certainly exists.

I know this post is crazy long, and I am just going to take a moment to give props to the crowd in the theatre on Friday night. It was packed in there, and somehow we managed to behave ourselves. Two cellphones went off, but we held it together with barely a murmur. The girl behind me talked non-stop during the previews, going so far as to call Watchmen stupid, but she (mostly) clammed up during the feature presentation. Nolan must be working some serious magic for that to happen. Coincidence or miracle?

I'm Not There. (2007)

Premise: I'm not going to write a plot description. It doesn't make sense to sit here and try to tease out this dense, tangled knot of a movie into a pithy paragraph. It won't help you understand what you see.

Cate Blanchett, "Jude Quinn": We'll start here for two reasons: 1) She's getting the most press of the six actors to take on the role, and 2) she plays the most easily recognizable Bob Dylan. I don't mean that it is a caricature. I'm not saying that she doesn't resemble a young Dylan (you'll marvel at her ability to hold her face that way). Simply, she plays the most easily recognizable period in Dylan's life (Dylan goes electric; Dylan gets into a motorcycle accident). The level of technical mastery on the part of the actress that goes into transforming this stunning woman into an angry, fragile, drug addled young man is worth the admission price alone. The creative spark that allows Blanchett to go beyond that, to move out of the shadows into real darkness, is worth a mint. All of the Dylans display some level of repulsion with the media and its creation/destruction of celebrity; Blanchett plays it as its ugliest: baiting interviewer Bruce Greenwood, fighting with his loyal band mates, tossing out insults to Michelle William's Edie Sedgwick for sport. It's in Blanchett's scenes that you can genuinely feel why Dylan couldn't stay folk forever.

Christian Bale, "Jack Rollins": Bale portrays Dylan at the height of his folk scene and again in Christian revival mode. The two sections fit perfectly around Blanchett's, feeding and informing them in their initial stages and then showing us the results. Bale's section is one of two that take on a more artificial form. Instead of watching it unfold naturally, it is a documentary TV piece exploring Rollins' rise and fall and presenting us with his first interview in decades. It's framed by black and white photographs, grainy footage, and Julianne Moore's Joan Benz providing interview material. If Blanchett's Dylan was angry, then Bale's is furious. He's also furiously disconnected, which suits the material and the role, but ends up disconnecting the audience as well. It's a great role and portrayal, but it doesn't dig as deep as it could. I'd sooner put that on director and co-writer Todd Haynes than Bale, though.

Heath Ledger, "Robbie Clark": Clark is the actor who portrays Rollins in a biopic, a moment that ends up being the high point in the young actor's career. He's also the only one we capture in a relationship (with a woman he meets on set) and the only father (of young girls). It's more than a little strange to be writing about the day of Ledger's sudden death. It's sad. Should you see this movie (and you should), you can find all manner of similarities that make writing about Ledger in this role now heavier than it ought to be. Ledger's work here is a marvel of foreshadowing. Even the slightest movement or gesture lets you know how it will end. At no point are any of the Dylans any happier than Clark is in those early days with Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and his broad smile and down-to-earth manner are thrown into sharp relief by the places his ego and personal disappointment will take him.

Marcus Carl Franklin, "Woody Guthrie": As a young troubadour riding the rails (and possibly on the run), Franklin's Dylan would seem out of place if the simple edict to write about his times instead of those of the past didn't feed directly into Rollins's arc. Haynes has a created a wonder in how each individual Dylan fits together even when you can't imagine how it will work out. Franklin is the only one who does his own singing. His Dylan brings sweetness and levity into the film, but there's also a scary dark side at which Franklin more than capably hints. He's all set to sell himself out to Hollywood until tragedy forces him to rethink what being a musician really means. Franklin's Dylan is filled with hope in his observant youth.

Richard Gere, "Billy the Kid": More than a few have said Gere's Dylan is the silliest, but I can't agree with that. For one, Billy is Guthrie pushed to his illogical extreme, and there is something exciting in the telling of it. For two, it's not hard to see the relationship between a Billy the Kid who dodged Pat Garrett's bullet and went into hiding and the artist who takes on new personae with ease and regularity. Each townsperson calls him by a different name when he rides into town, and it is in this vignette/story/whatever you want to call it that we get closest to what Dylan's own constant metamorphosis as artist has cost him as a man. As an actor, I've always found Gere difficult to pin down. The performance here is smooth and unfussy, providing the film with a perfect coda even if some of my fellow viewers jumped up at the end of the previous scene (one of Blanchett's) and applauded pre-emptively.

Ben Whishaw, "Arthur Rimbaud": I got all excited to call Whishaw a young whippersnapper here, only to discover that he is older than I am. Whishaw as the (mis?)fortune of playing the most reflexive of the sextet, but it doesn't do him a disservice. Arthur is tethered to a chair in a bare bones press conference, and he provides the context and sometimes even subtext for the other Dylans (more so than even Kris Kristofferson's narration). He channels the jangling nerves that characterize Quinn's interactions with the press as well as Rollins' disconnection into a series of strange Dylan-isms, both grounding and enlightening.

If one man was going to do it, it had to be Haynes. From the blinking "i'm not here/her/there" title in the opening shots to Ginsberg (David Cross) and Quinn hanging out with Jesus to the fantasy sequence with Rimbaud tethered to the earth below, this movie is as unmistakeably Haynes as it is Dylan. Only the man who brought us Bowie by way of Citizen Kane and a biopic starring a Barbie Doll could present us with so something far from a conventional biopic that could still manage to be the definitive take on the life of an ever changing artist.

In the end, this movie isn't about Bob Dylan, Man. It's about our perceptions of Bob Dylan, Artist, as funnelled through his music and pushed back out again to its extremes. It's as if everything we ever thought about the voice of so many generations sprang to life from hazy dreams and fantasies to something fully formed, intelligent and strange. It's a beautiful picture and one that goes on long after you leave the theatre. A

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Premise: Rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale), in danger of losing his land, takes a job assisting in the transport of Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) from Bisbee to Contention for the 3:10 train bound for Yuma prison. With Wade’s crew, led by second in command Charlie Prince (Ben Foster), hot on their tails, the rest of the men (Peter Fonda, Dallas Roberts, Kevin Durand, and Alan Tudyk), including Dan’s son William (Logan Lerman), struggle to keep hold onto Wade and get him on that train.

I think I just told you less than the trailer and TV spots revealed, so we’re in pretty good shape.

N.B. I haven’t seen the original 1957 version, so I won’t be able to provide any points of comparison.

You must have known there was no way I was going to be able to resist this one. Christian Bale + Russell Crowe + a Western + James Mangold = my butt in a seat. It’s simple math. Actually, I’m pretty sure you could combine any two of those four elements and get my butt in a seat.

Oh, Christian Bale, why you got to play me this way? Why do you have to take a stand against Crowe: Professional Diva and cut him down to size, never letting him for a second grow larger than life, and get him to share the spotlight? Why do you have to be so good? You made Dan’s plight heartbreaking and thoroughly masculine, and you threw it right in the face of Ben’s own struggles against man and his institutions. That Ben and Dan could find common ground outside of Ben’s charms and manipulations (a combination practiced by only the best villains) and that it could come easily and naturally speaks volumes about seeing these two . . .

Why, hello there, Ben Foster! I knew you were in this movie, yet I didn’t recognize you at all. When did you become such a chameleon? All swagger and affectation, the perfect second in command, it’s your devotion to Wade that drives this film. If I didn’t have a good look at your eyes every once and while, I may have mistaken you for a much older character actor. Good for you.

Although I loathe admitting it, I noticed that director Mangold’s first feature after Walk the Line has the same two flaws as that movie: the second act drags, and I find it impossible to sympathize with a secondary character. One hundred and seventeen minutes isn’t a long running time, so the drag isn’t too bad.

Dan’s son William, on the other hand, drove me to distraction. It’s not that I can’t understand why William acts the way he does. On an intellectual level, I get it. He’s at a point in his life where he’s beginning to see the man instead of the myth, and it’s frustrating to discover how human your parents can be. To that end, Lerman plays William very well. But one look at his family’s hardscrabble life and the way his attitude and actions make it all the more difficult, and I was calling for a smack. Whether the blame lies with Mangold, Lerman, the script, or somewhere between, I could not tell you. Sometimes his scenes with Bale elevated him to the point of being bearable, but most of the time I wanted someone to teach William a lesson.

All in all, it’s Bale’s film with Crowe offering (dare I say it?) gracious and delightful support. Bale gets to take Dan on one hell of a journey, while Crowe gets to peel away at Ben’s layers. It’s a great fit for both of them, and that’s great news for the audience. A-

Rescue Dawn (2006)

Short: Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) is shot down over Laos during his first mission in the early days of the Vietnam War. Taken into a POW camp, he meets Gene (Jeremy Davies), Duane (Steve Zahn), Phisit (Abhijati Jusakul), and Procet (Lek Chaiyan Chunsuttiwat). Insistent that they find out a way out, Dieter leads the prisoners in an ill-fated escape.

I was about to say something like, "It's all true, too," but I remembered that Slate article and hesitated. Instead I'll say that it's based on a true story.

While Bale's accent's a bit spotty (it really only sounded like a light German accent in one line near the end), every other element of his performance is spot on. Bale gives Dieter just enough charisma so that his overwhelming need to survive easily infects the rest of the prisoners who had obviously given up long before he arrived.

The finest point of their defeatism is drawn between Gene, who has convinced himself that they will be released, and Duane (an emaciated Zahn, face hidden under a shaggy beard and long hair), who has withdrawn from the rest of the prisoners. Duane finds his lost hope in Dieter, and Zahn heartbreakingly allows a light to slowly creep back into Duane's eyes only to have it snuffed out by the harsh conditions of the merciless jungle during the rainy season.

It is to writer-director Werner Herzog's credit that his decision to stay away from the prisoners' inner lives seems like both a blessing and a curse. A lesser film would have had an early scene between Dieter and his briefly mentioned fiancé or had him carry around a photo of her in order to provide suitable motivation enabling the audience to understand his astonishing desire to escape in the face of so many obstacles. Even so, Herzog goes too far in the other direction: he includes the story as to why little Dieter needed to fly in the first place, but he gives us no real indication of what keeps Dieter or the rest of the men going. He doesn't even tell us if Dieter's fiancé remained true in the closing credits. Instead, Herzog dedicates those moments to Dieter's career in aviation.

When Herzog listened but decided not to include the audio tape of the deaths of Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard in Grizzly Man, it made him seem thoughtful and compassionate. I believe it is the same qualities that lead Herzog to pull away in this picture when another director would push in for the all-too-important close-up. Unfortunately, this decision also keeps the audience at arm's length.

The film is compelling and the performances gripping, but there's always something in the way to prevent the viewer from truly becoming involved with these men. Hey, at least we got another great score from Klaus Badelt. B+

The Prestige (2006)

Premise: Apprentices Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman) are competitive but friendly. An accident during Milton (Ricky Jay)'s magic show leads to a death, and their competition turns to rivalry. Angier's the better showman, but Borden's the better magician by far, forcing Angier to wonder if Borden has gone beyond tricks and illusions. Angier's obsessive need to beat Borden feeds Borden's own obsession, consuming both of them until it leads to murder.

Co-writer and director Christopher Nolan is a prima ballerina. His moves on the screen are so graceful, so delicate, and so disarming that you are hardly watching a movie at all. I was about 40 minutes in before I even remembered it was a movie. He and his brother, Jonathan, composed the screenplay, based on Christopher Priest's novel, in the three acts of a magic trick: The Pledge - the magician shows you something ordinary. In this case, it's a trial. The Turn - the magician makes the ordinary extraordinary. Film making is magic in and of itself, and here the magic comes from making you believe. Obviously the suspension of disbelief is required in all storytelling, but the Nolans go beyond that. They don't care about your disbelief because they do a lot more than get you to suspend it momentarily - they get you to leave it behind entirely.

Getting a convincing performance out of Bale is hardly extraordinary. Borden isn't one person but a plethora - a magician, a showman, a husband, a father, a lover, a friend, and an enemy. The characters are a lot to keep track of, and Bale's best moments are when the discrete personae begin blur and overlap. He never plays one emotion without the undercurrent of at least one more, if not two, and it's in that conflict that he achieves the extraordinary. He doesn't have to will you to believe in him as a great magician - he is one.

Perhaps the more extraordinary feat from C. Nolan comes then in Jackman's performance. It's not that I didn't believe that Jackman was a good actor before. It's just that he's not had much of a chance to prove it. Here he takes on a plethora of roles as well, but there's an emotion that each must possess and that Jackman embodies with a ferocity never before seen: hate. Hate is a complex human emotion, and a lot more goes into it that simply intense dislike. There's jealousy and admiration and loathing, and all of it is only a split hair away from love. I was awestruck by how much Jackman put into this role.

Another extraordinary feat was making me maybe, a little bit like Piper Perabo. She's not in the movie for long, but she didn't annoy me once, so I have to credit where it is due. Where isn't it due? Scarlett Johansson. What was that crap? I can get past her Gwyneth Paltrow English accent, and there's still nothing to get to. Her husky voice and opaque sexiness mean nothing if there isn't something behind them. And there wasn't. None of the love or hate or betrayal she should have felt as a pawn of these men was there. Instead Johansson was the apotheosis of John Berger's comment that "Men act. Women appear."

It certainly didn't help that Rebecca Hall, as Sarah, created a complete and compelling character. Or that Michael Caine delighted as Cutter, an engineer and inventor who made Angier's illusions possible. Or that David Bowie made quite an impressive entrance as Nikola Tesla.

David Julyan's score gives the movie just the right atmosphere of deception, as does Wally Pfister's compelling cinematography.

It is the third act, the Prestige, that gets you. The Turn on its own isn't enough. It's clever and nice, but figuring it out is too easy. No, the Prestige is the twist that makes you believe. The Prestige is the moment you realize the ordinary thing you thought you saw at the beginning was never ordinary. A

Batman Begins (2005)

There's nothing like a little RE-view action to get you through your days, is there?

I did not give Bale the mad props he deserved last time around. Bale is one of those actors that just makes everything so completely believable. I very much believed that Bruce loved Rachel, although I really have no idea why. His loyalties, loves, and losses were all so present, even if some of them had to remain under the surface. That's my boy.

Speaking of the evil one, Holmes is even more annoying this time around. What is it, exactly, that Rachel wants from Bruce? She acts like a crazy bitch to him instead of being glad that he's alive after all this time, and, when she discovers that he's gone to incredible lengths to do exactly what she's always telling him to do, she tells him that's why they can't be together? What the shit? Stupid, stupid, made up, not from any of the source material character. I personally believe that there is absolutely no reason for you to be in the sequel, so you just better not show up.

Also, Neeson is a giant. There's only a three, four inch height difference between him and Bale, but he absolutely towered over him. Towered. I don't know if it was camera angles or other trickery (Bogart had to stand on a milk crate to achieve the same advantage over Becall), but it really added to how intimidating Ducard was.

Also also, special thanks to Sarah for fan wanking a bit for us last night. Indeed, a little reading around has born her theory out. Good thinking, Sars.

May I just say that that was a bit of a waste of Ken Watanabe? Just a little bit. Sadly, more of him is not to be had. Ah, well. Sacrifice and all that.

Did anyone else sense a vibe between Lucius Fox and Alfred? No? Just me?

Mad props also go out to Murphy. Em was right: Dr. Crane is all the more frightening because of the way Murphy overarticulates. That's exactly what makes English villains seem so extra-creepy to American audiences, and he brought that to his American accent. Smart move, Cillian. The fact that they've yet to find you means you could still pop up, which would be delightful. Besides, the fact that the mask is so basic is what makes it so harrowing. Those peeps over at Supernatural totally ripped off the whole idea.

Finally, I said it once, and I'm about to say it again: If I had my druthers, I would take that perfect shot of Bruce coming down the stairs of Wayne Manor (at left, although it's a wide angle shot in the film) and mate it with the shot in The Count of Monte Cristo where the Count walks down the steps to his gala after he arrives is a hot air balloon, switching his walking stick in front of him and his coat blowing in the wind behind him?* Anyway, I'd mate them and have perfect shot babies.

*I'd show you, but I can't seem to find the image anywhere.

American Psycho (2000)

Short: In late 1980s New York, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is a VP of mergers and acquisitions at Pierce and Pierce. At night, however, he’s a murderer with an insatiable bloodlust. After the disappearance of a co-worker, Paul Allen (Jared Leto), Bateman becomes the subject of Detective Kimball’s (Willem Dafoe) investigation, but that only seems to encourage Patrick.

Oddly enough, although there’s a complete story there, I couldn’t really think of anything to write beyond the first two sentences. That’s what it’s about: An affluent, handsome young man in 1987. He’s wealthy and well dressed, goes to the best restaurants, and does the best coke in their bathrooms. And then he kills a lot of people.

Perhaps when Bret Easton Ellis released the novel it was easy to brush off as a gory horror story. Director and co-writer Mary Harron and co-writer Guinevere Turner wanted to prevent the story from slipping into oblivion, so they gave us this master work.

Harron and Turner focus not on the murders themselves but on their protagonist’s reaction to it. They also brought back Bale out of oblivion, so he could dive into the role with maniacal glee. Bateman is deadpan in every situation, hiding away his inner pain and disgust with the language and actions of the other VPs he spends his time with, but he is in fits of joy when he sociopathically defiles all the other beautiful bodies of his generation.

To that end, and without having read the novel, Ellis kind of reminds me of Hemingway. Oh, my, that’s just plain nutty. Okay, let me explain a little, even though the comparison is shaky at best: All of Hemingway’s work, in his own estimation and mine, was him trying to sort out his feelings after the war. Everything he wrote was, on one level or another, about the war. The 20s, as fun as they seem in retrospect, were as bad as and sometimes worse than the war itself because they served to etherize people into forgetting about the war, forgetting to grieve for it. I’ve got it into my head that the materialism of the 80s was like that, creating a façade to hide the emptiness inside.

Bateman’s life is an exaggeration of those feelings, which is what makes it such a rich satire. Oh, satire. I heart you.

John Cale provides an excellent score, which was at turns jovial and menacing, much like the main character himself.

Unfortunately for me, I already knew quite a bit about this movie before I saw it, including the ending. So, either for that reason or because I am one sick puppy, I found a lot of it amusing. Also, either because I knew what was going on or because I’m sharp like a tack, I picked up on a lot of clues that give the ending away.

The movie’s engrossing, delightful, and intelligent, but it’s not quite perfect. No particular reason, no one in particular to blame, but it’s just not quite there. I therefore choose to blame supporting actor Josh Lucas, for (a) taking Cole Hauser’s place and doing a poor job of it (I am convinced that Hauser would have been on to Bateman and kicked his ass), and (b) for reminding me of Ben Affleck in that scene in Good Will Hunting, where he shows up in an ill fitting suit, squirms in his chair, and eventually demands cash.

But, oh, that business card scene. That perfect, perfect scene. A