Pedro Almodovar tends to start his
films with the title card "A film by
Almodovar." It's as if he
acknowledges what the audience
already knows -- this movie is
unique, and you'll instantly be able
to tell that no one else but him
could've made it. Except this time
the Spanish auteur drops the
melodrama and focuses on a surreal
noir story, blending fact, fiction,
moviemaking, and romance into a
fantasia that may take a couple of
viewings to sort out. The material is
tough, but the rewards are many.
Martin Scorsese's love of
Hollywood's Golden Era is evident
in every frame of his engrossing
Howard Hughes biopic, from the
lush nightclub scenes to the
peach-and-blue color scheme to
the sense of wonder that manned
flight can bring. Leonardo
DiCaprio is (almost) entirely
convincing as the titular mogul,
but it's a regal Cate Blanchett as
Katharine Hepburn who really
stands out, knowing way before
her time that the media turns
everything and everyone glorious
into "freaks."
Zach Braff proved himself to be an
immense new talent behind the
camera with "Garden State," showing
surprisingly mature control over
character development, scene
framing, and romantic humor. Alas,
the pic falls slightly apart at the end,
with a teary "airport goodbye" that
seems erroneously lifted from a
much-less-accomplished film. Braff
nonetheless takes his audience on
an emotional ride of love and
discovery that's entirely intoxicating.
You attack the Bush Administration with the
filmmakers you have, and Michael Moore's tough,
disturbing documentary did just that. Some may
gripe about innacurracies or bias, but several facts
remain unchanged: George W. Bush lied about
the reasons for war. Our brave men and women
are dying in Iraq everyday. And few others had
the balls to question authority like this.
I was literally shocked at how much I
enjoyed Clint Eastwood's newest dour
drama. I was prepared to sink
beneath the hype of an aging legend
falling prey to the zealousness of
critics. But indeed, that's what the
film itself is about. In deftly covering
redemption and the nature of
devotion, Eastwood proved that a
film's background plotting -- in this
case, boxing -- needn't be a picture's
focus, merely the doorway to a story
about how even the most
unassuming underdog can touch
another's life.
Not to discount the entire 75
minutes that came before it, but
the final scene of this sequel to
1995's "Before Sunrise" is
probably the most emotionally
rewarding one of the year. In it,
the pair of flighty lovers (Ethan
Hawke and a sterling Julie Delpy)
who promised to meet each
other years earlier finally have
That Moment. You know -- the
one where uncertainty turns to
devotion, where intent becomes
solidified as truth, and where it's
never been more clear who your
one true love is. And has been
all along.
Where would "Vol. I" be without "Vol. II"?
In a triumphant conclusion to his martial
arts revenge epic, Quentin Tarantino
revealed the "softer" side of his
determined Bride, played with expert
anguish and internal fire by a never-better
Uma Thurman. The saga of Bill's killer
gang grows in mythos too, as tiny squints
of drama colorfully throw Elle (Daryl
Hannah) and Budd (Michael Madsen,
having almost as good a year as his sister
Virginia) into the spotlight with cleverly
violent results.
Thank you, Lars von Trier, for making
a film that's doggedly anti-commercial
but nonetheless artistically relevant
and politically important. In an era
when the xenophobes and
conservatives of the world seem to be
rapidly gaining control, the brutish
Danish filmmaker has the guts to
criticize all members of society -- from
the natives to the naive to the
outspoken to the liberals to the very
critics themselves.
Alexander Payne has
discovered the heart of modern
insecurity along the California
coast. In yet another triumph
for the filmmaker following
"Election" and "About Schmidt,"
he's cast the perfect
wine-loving quartet of Thomas
Haden Church, Paul Giamatti,
Virginia Madsen, and Sandra
Oh in the type of romantic
comedy Woody Allen should
still be making. The
performances feel as genuinely
alive and nourished as the
grapes of which the characters
lovingly pontificate.
There needs to be an annual Charlie Kaufman
slot on my Top 10 list, as the films he writes just
keep getting better and better. In this
bittersweet romance about a seemingly
unmatched pair of lonely souls who mentally
"erase" their shared experiences, Kate Winslet
and Jim Carrey deliver career-best performances
as a couple who only realize how much they
complement each other when it's too late. As
little nuggets slip away from the recesses of our
protagonist's mind, Kaufman and director Michel
Gondry key in on the hidden beauty of love --
the synapses between the actions that are
indescribable and irreplaceable.
