December 28, 2006
THIS IS THE YEAR THAT WAS
The 10 Best Movies Of 2006 (At Least We Think So)
By Robert Newton
In the days before the Internet (when the world was dark and barbaric), movie critics’ year-end Top-whatever lists were unassailable and perhaps a little too much like gospel. Now, though, with the godsend/unholy plague that is blogging, anyone with an opinion (and even a vague familiarity with the alphabet) can be an e-publisher. With all that in mind, please consider the official Worcester Movies Weekly Top 10 Movies List for 2006 (batteries not included).
10. STRANGER THAN FICTION
Just as Jim Carrey ascended to Serious Actor status with The Truman Show, so too did funnyman Will Ferrell, playing an IRS agent who suddenly starts hearing in his head the verbose narration of a word-blocked writer (Emma Thompson). It is one of the recent movies that reminds us of the simple joys of being alive and sharing it with others, and is a lovely treat.
9. MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT
Lazy, thumbnail comparisons to Harold and Maude aside, Dan Ireland’s unassuming little dramatic comedy about a spirited septugenarian (Joan Plowright) who while on holiday meets a young artist (Rupert Friend) is a boundless wonder, warm to its core and quietly reveling in its synchronicity.
8. TSOTSI
A South African gangsta struggles with his humanity after inadvertently kidnapping a baby during a carjacking, and the result is a harrowing but cathartic journey into darkness and ultimately, light.
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NOT LOST IN TRANSLATION
A 10 Best Anime List
By Shamus Mahan
Ten years ago, a list of ten classic must-see anime would have been preceded by a long introduction to a clannish niche market. Nowadays, though, everybody from insurance companies to fast-food chains is taking advantage of the explosive popularity of this former subculture. For those who still have not jumped on the giant robot bandwagon, though, here is a list of ten anime series that have risen to the top as examples of what is great about the always-diverse medium of Japanese cartoons.
10) OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB (2006, SRP $TBD)
We start with a gender-bending high-school comedy that is definitely not standard fare. With an underlying theme of class struggle, it has a keen sense of humor and endearing characters in an exclusive private school who have more free time than they know what to do with. They decide to start a host club, a pay-for-dates service that leads to situations that to ridiculousness of hitherto unseen levels. Watch for it on DVD in 2007.
9) REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA (1997, $120)
This show is a true head-trip. Technically a “shoujo” anime (aimed at young women), it holds appeal for anyone who enjoys exploring gender roles, the nature of reality and self-determination. For the guys, there are a lot of well-choreographed sword fights, and everyone will enjoy the thoughtful writing.
INU YASHA (2000, $MUC.HO)
Another anime with something for everyone, this is an epic-length program that showcases comic artist Rumiko Takahashi’s tremendous diversity of talents. Not without its flaws, it has nonetheless garnered a huge following internationally, and is certainly worth spending the several days it would take to watch it all.
7) ELFEN LIED (2004, $49.95)
A brilliantly disturbing cavalcade of violence and death about mysterious girls with telekinetic powers, and another example of beautiful animation paired with keen writing and a haunting score. From the opening credits (set to a Latin hymn), to the copious amount of blood, it is a study in contrasts and explores concepts of innocence and power.
6) AKIRA (1988, $39.98)
Every list about anime ends up having this film on it, but that is because it is such a phenomenal film. It is a stunningly animated story that not helped to define the post-apocalyptic cyberpunk archetype, but to launch America’s seemingly insatiable love for the entire anime artform. It does not show its age after almost twenty years, which is no mean feat for a cartoon made before the Internet existed.
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THE TOP 10 DVD’S OF 2006
By The Editors Of DVDJournal.com
10. STEPHEN TOBOLOWSKY’S BIRTHDAY PARTY (2005)
(Released May 30, 2006)
Stephen Tobolowsky is a Hollywood character actor. When you get him off the set and into the comfort of his Malibu home, with a pot of beer-boiled sausages for the BBQ, he is also a naturally affable raconteur at ease telling his friends funny, epiphanal, moving, and often-bizarre tales from his life. Think of Stephen (and we may call him Stephen) as a softer, rounder, more existentially content Spalding Gray, or the film as a My Dinner With Andre in a pullover sweater and sensible shoes. For DVD extras, we get 14 self-contained outtakes that together become a slightly raunchier ad hoc STBP: Part II.
9. TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY (2006)
(Released Dec. 12, 2006)
The year’s most quotable comedy on DVD arrived just before the holidays, and fans are already screaming “Shake and Bake!” at each other while making bizarre references to Highlander, crepes, and the little baby Christmas Jesus. We think co-star John C. Reilly actually stole the movie out from under Will Ferrell’s nose. The evidence? Check out the deleted, extended, and alternate materials on the DVD to see just how hard the cast worked with their setups until they got it so perfect; it’s almost sublime.
8. JUNEBUG (2005)
(Released Jan. 17, 2006)
This little-seen indie comedy deserves more attention than it got, and not just because of Amy Adams’ ambrosial charms in the role that earned her an Oscar nom for Best Supporting Actress. With languid, understated knowingness, director Phil Morrison gives us a measuredly comic South not of Jeff Foxworthy, but a suburban Lost In Translation by way of Flannery O’Connor, where folks eating spaghetti hot dish at a church social can more freely reveal themselves than those at a wine-and-cheese soirée in a cosmopolitan art gallery. The cultures don’t clash, really, but they do scrape the chrome off each other’s fenders. Sony’s DVD includes a generous selection of extras that do a better job of giving us a behind-the-scenes experience than most “making-of” featurettes that are more scripted and budget-showy.
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WELL, IT’S NEW TO ME…
10 Not Necessarily New Films I Loved This Year
By Rogan Marshall (Self-Professed Netflix Junkie)
10. LEMORA: A CHILD’S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL (1973)
One of many misplaced independent classics recently rescued from thorough obscurity for DVD release, writer/director Richard Blackburn’s only feature concerns a Lolitaesque runaway whose search for her missing father leads to a town populated by vampires. Like the slicker but less lovable Company Of Wolves, Blackburn’s film walks a razor’s edge between fantasy and horror, seethes with uncomfortable erotic tension, and crawls with carefully deployed literary references, witty evocations of Lewis Carroll, H.P. Lovecraft, and other progenitors. An “adult fairy tale” that really lives up to such a
description.
9. SEVEN WOMEN FOR SATAN (1976)
Another putative “horror” movie now on DVD after many years of exile, prolific if obscure nudie director Michel Lemoine’s take on “The Most Dangerous Game” defies coherent description. Lemoine plays a bored Parisian Count whose second life, which may be entirely dreamed or hallucinated, revolves around seducing women in his castle in the country, then hunting and killing them. His movie plays advanced games with narrative “reality;” it has a nasty sense of humor, a wild surreal streak, a genuinely Sadian attitude problem and is just as beautiful to look at as the many unclothed actresses who adorn it.
8. 9 SONGS (2004)
Controversial idosyncratic British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People) wrote and directed what may be the best hardcore porn movie ever made. The two leads improvise a summer romance Winterbottom then heavily edits, reducing a strict alternation of conversations, sexual encounters, and musical interludes to the semi-random bytes consisting one’s own memories of passionate doomed affairs. Winterbottom’s film is just as subjective as memory; its pretentions, and graphic sex, alienate many viewers attracted by Winterbottom’s other work. Not me: this is the only porn movie that has ever made me cry at the end.
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December 23, 2006
Supreme makeover
A review of the movie musical Dreamgirls
By Robert Newton
DREAMGIRLS
Starring Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson; Written for the screen and directed by Bill Condon; 131 minutes; Rated PG-13 [for language, some sexuality and drug content]
Anyone not up on his or her Motown history might be led to think that the events depicted in Kinsey director Bill Condon’s enormously entertaining musical drama are real, as he is that convincing with it. Anyone who knows a thing or two about the Motor City Sound will see it as the loving tribute that it is, skillfully paralleling its rise in the 1960s through the 1970s. Either way, it is one heck of an enjoyable night out.
Top-billed are Oscar winner Jamie Foxx (Ray) as Curtis Taylor, Jr., a car salesman-turned-hit-producer, and Beyoncé Knowles (The Pink Panther) as his protégé and object of obsession, Deena Jones. They are both very able and effective, and Eddie Murphy casts off his family-friendly image and scores a solid with his turn as a womanizing singer named James “Thunder†Early. As marquee-worthy as they all might be, newcomer and Season 3 “American Idol†contender Jennifer Hudson dwarfs them all.
Hudson plays Effie White, the zaftig diva who heads the girl group The Dreams when the story begins. When Taylor comes on board, though, he relegates her to a back seat in favor of the conventionally pretty Deena, and this is when Hudson begins to seethe and burn so delightfully. Not only are we smitten by the joy of discovering the vibrant, unapologetic chanteuse, but hearing her sing is simply heavenly. Her fabulous, all-in-one package is a marvel to behold, from her Hey! Check Me Out! first number to her tear-bringing last and all of the storms in between. One almost hopes that all the Golden Globes buzz does not culminate in that Best Supporting Actress Oscar so that she can avoid the dreaded curse that this particular category seems to carry with it.
Key in helping Condon and company pull off this pretend is the music. Not every song is a keeper — and longtime fans will be able to spot the new additions in an instant — but each is performed with passion. The chestnuts please, like “Cadillac Car,†which is Jimmy Thunder’s really rockin’ signature song, and Effie’s torch song, “One Night Only,†provides one of those “Wow!†moments. Most of the new stuff is effective, too, like the resonant “Listen,†which signals Jimmy’s step up to social consciousness, and the Jackson-like “Perfect World,†which helps us sync with this parallel Motown. Condon, who parlayed his screenplay for the smash Chicago into an Oscar nomination, has a similar command of the music here, as well as a firm grasp of its importance to the story. Based on Off-Off-Broadway pioneer Tom Eyen’s 1982 Tony-winning musical, this version lets us distance ourselves from the era more with a big memory reset. The quarter century since has given Condon a chance to make this alien time more real through his careful weaving of multiple story threads, untainted by our recent recollections of the ghastly Birth Of Disco. Given the fact that studio Dreamworks has a whopping three spend-happy demographics in their sites with this one — black audiences, gay audiences, and Everyone’s Mother Over 40 — a lot of people will be cheerfully laying that memory to rest together…in the aisles and, ironically, to the tune of “Hard To Say Goodbye.â€â€¢â€¢â€¢
December 22, 2006
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM [PG]
While there is an out-of-right-field gimmick at its heart, this beefed-up adaptation of Croatian illustrator Milan Trenc’s children’s book fuses the hyperkinetic bent of Jumanji and the dependable, seat-packing laugh power of Ben Stiller into one entertaining, family-friendly package. Stiller plays Larry Daley, a bit of a bum who takes a job as a night security guard at New York’s Museum Of Natural History to placate his ex-wife and show up her new husband who is slowly winning over their 10-year-old son. The rub, of course, is that at sundown every day, everything inside the museum comes to life. The non-stop gags are predictable but fun, with screenwriters Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon ably shifting from their “Reno 911!†state of irreverence. They give Pink Panther director Shawn Levy every excuse to show off the great set, an imaginative construction inside Vancouver’s aptly named Mammoth Studios. He has plenty of help on-screen, too, not only by expert schlub Stiller, but by his supporting cast, too. Robin Williams plays the bigger-than-life Teddy Roosevelt with considerable restraint, lending authentic personality to the museum. Additionally, Levy calls on two really old pros — Mickey Rooney and Dick Van Dyke (making his first movie appearance in over 15 years.) They play night guards who initiate Stiller into the weird world of talking statues, warmongering diorama figurines and dinosaur bones that play fetch, and even as second bananas, they show the kids how it’s done. –Robert Newton
THE QUEEN [PG-13]
Stephen Frears’s drama about the mournful week in the life of British Family after the death of Princess Diana in 1997 is not only a pro show all the way, but it is also a surprisingly detailed look into the unseen interplay between the Crown and its governmental body. As Queen Elizabeth II, Helen Mirren is a host of royal excellence — regal, majestic, stately, a steely bedrock for not only the Windsors, but her nation as well. Frears masterfully illustrates Elizabeth’s initial reluctance to pay tribute to the late “People’s Princess,†and the process by which she gave in and ultimately strengthened the monarchy in the days shortly following Labour Party PM candidate Tony Blair’s landslide victory. Michael Sheen (Blood Diamond) plays Blair again, having done so for Frears in his 2003 TV play The Deal, and he is a fine counterpoint to Mirren’s HRM. Mirren has been nominated for an incredible three Golden Globes this year — for this, for her Emmy-winning turn in HBO’s Elizabeth I, and for her final bravura portrayal of Det. Supt. Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act. For Mirren’s decidedly sexy other side, rent Peter Greenaway’s extravagant and grotesque political allegory, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, or for die-hards only, the recent DVD release of the 1980 groaner, Hussy. –Robert Newton
ROCKY BALBOA [PG]
“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em â€is the approach that allows this sixth and final entry in the up- and mostly-down Rocky franchise go the distance, forgive the obvious Rocky boxing reference (of which you will find many in this review). 60-year-old star/writer/director/cheap-shot talk show punch line Sylvester Stallone takes a pretty far-fetched concept — a 50-something former champ agreeing to an exhibition fight with an in-his-prime, not-50-something dynamo — and with charm and a strategic flurry of self-aware, self-effacing jabs à la Marlon Brando in The Freshman, sells it to us again. Parroting the structure of the way-simple Oscar-graced 1976 original, he introduces himself all over again, this time as an aging and slightly slow restaurateur who regales star-struck patrons with his tired tales of the ring when he was king. When an opportunity to prove himself lands gift-wrapped in his lap in the form of a charity exhibition fight with Mason “The Line†Dixon (actual retired light heavyweight Antonio Tarver), he goes for it, facing the cocky powerhouse whom a computer simulation determined would have fallen to The Italian Stallion at his career height. Thankfully, Stallone does not demonize his opponent like he did the last four times, instead making him a struggling human like himself. Balboa’s struggle is multi-faceted, as he is letting go of the memory of his late wife, Adrian, dealing with the frustration of getting older and wondering if the path he chose for himself was the right one. Plus, he has a strained relationship with his son Robert (Milo Ventimiglia of “Heroesâ€). It all adds up to a warm and thoughtful thank-you to the fans that have stuck with him for the last three decades (and a mea culpa for the what-the-hell-did-I-just-watch sucker-punch that was Rocky V). Of course, the movie was entirely foretold over 20 years ago when Weird Al Yankovic, in his parody of the theme to Rocky III, “Theme From Rocky XIII,†sang, “Try the rye or the kaiser…†and in 1982’s Airplane II: The Sequel, which featured a memorable sight gag with a geriatric Stallone on a poster for Rocky XXXVIII. –Robert Newton
THE GOOD SHEPHERD [R]
Robert De Niro is successful — if not a bit long-winded — in chronicling the emergence and rise of the CIA in the days following World War II. The secret agent man in De Niro’s first turn behind the camera since his 1993 directorial debut A Bronx Tale is Matt Damon!, playing Edward Wilson, a straight-laced Yale man recruited on campus to work military intelligence in London during the war. Munich writer Eric Roth’s script is weighty, but with the kind of heft that builds a real momentum. The extremely well-paced dramatic action jumps between Wilson’s childhood, college days and rise to power to the Bay Of Pigs fiasco in 1961, when the full effect of his slavish devotion to the Agency is felt through a terrific and harrowing climax. Damon may be a very dull spy in the Ludlum Bourne movies, but the demeanor works here, and while Angelina Jolie (as Wilson’s long-suffering wife Clover) does not, Tammy Blanchard as Wilson’s unconsummated flame, Laura, works wonderfully. The lovely Blanchard, best known for her Emmy-winning portrayal of the young Judy Garland in 2001’s Me And My Shadows, plays Wilson’s deaf almost-lover so well that if you did not know her, you’d think that she was the second coming of Marlee Matlin. De Niro layers the degrees of necessary moral blackness to form a fairly rich picture of not only how the CIA came to be, but also how it has sustained its unaccountable mass for the last 60 years. (This is the part in the review where the writer says, “I could tell you more about the movie, but then I’d have to kill you.”) –Robert Newton
