Boom, then crash...

This post is part of Nathaniel's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series in which the participants must post a single image from a movie he or she deems as the "best shot" for any particular reason.

The Get Down, the latest from Baz Luhrmann, is a new (and very expensive) Netflix show about the birth of hip hop set in the Bronx of the late 1970s. I admit that I was surprised when I heard Luhrmann was working on this, but upon further thought, the time period and topic lend themselves well to Luhrmann's highly stylized and frenetic direction.

The pilot, the only one actually directed by Luhrmann, is chock full of Luhrmann's visual panache and manic style, but the latter at times felt a bit too much especially in the first half of the extra long 90-minute episode where viewers are still trying to get a sense of the world and its characters. The tone is all over the place and the hyper editing threatened to make everything practically incoherent. Thankfully the performances held up and I'm intrigued enough to further follow the stories of Ezekiel, Shaolin, and their ragtag group of friends.

As for my best shot, I chose something that came from one of my favorite sequences in the pilot. This was one of the few times Luhrmann and company slowed it down a bit, giving us a better sense of the main character and just letting the power of words do most of the work.

Best Shot

Here Ezekiel is challenged by his teacher to recite a very personal poem he wrote talking about his dead parents. It's an evocative moment that appropriately starts off visually evocative as well with the camera panning to the left obscuring Ezekiel at the same time he's finally opening himself up. I love this particular shot as well because it highlights an Ezekiel who is literally split down the middle just as his journey seems to be. On the one hand there's his pursuit of his crush Mylene and on the other is his unlikely partnership with Shaolin. It'll be interesting to see how exactly the show handles this moving forward.

The Devil of Hell's Kitchen

This post is part of Nathaniel's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series in which the participants must post a single image from a movie (or TV show in this particular case) he or she deems as the "best shot" for any particular reason.

Instead of a movie this week, we were asked to pick a favorite shot or shots from the recently released sophomore season of Marvel's Daredevil on Netflix. I probably would've opted for Sense8 or Marvel's other show Jessica Jones, but I guess timing made this the more obvious choice. I ended up seeing just the first 3 episodes the past few days and I picked one shot from each episode which ended up working together quite well.

Ep. 1 "Bang"

Ep. 2 "Dogs to a Gunfight"

Ep. 3 "New York's Finest"

The shot from the second episode, "Dogs to a Gunfight," was actually my first pick, because how could I not pick a shot giving us a full display of the glory of Charlie Cox's bloodied superhero bod? But in conjunction with my other two picks, it takes on a more symbolic meaning. See how similar this shot is with a close-up of a bloodied Jesus on a cross from the opening sequence of the third episode, "New York's Finest," itself an intriguing shot from the show reminding us yet again that Catholicism runs through the veins of our main character. It also gives us the not-so-subtle message that Matt Murdock may be the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, but he's also channeling Christ in both the need to save people and to do so by suffering. And so like the neon red cross in the first episode, "Bang," shine light on the dark city below, so does this self-appointed savior/hero/avenger in its midst.

All of this makes me intrigued by the episodes ahead as the show hopefully delves deeper into the different brands of vigilante justice put forth by Daredevil and his seemingly new nemesis the Punisher. Are they really all that different?

OITNB S2 Best Shot: Don't Interrupt

This post is part of Nathaniel's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series in which the participants must post a single image from a movie (or TV show in this particular case) he or she deems as the "best shot" for any particular reason.

Orange is the New Black was my third favorite show (and favorite NEW show) last year with one of the most diverse and talented ensemble ever put together for TV. Its second season was released on Netflix just a few days ago and I'm already through most of it (episode 9). With the caveat that I can still change my mind depending on what happens in the rest of the season, I'm going to say now that season 2 has been better than its already great freshman season--darker storylines, deeper characterizations, and more expert handling of the aforementioned ensemble. With regards to the latter, I do like that Piper and her story aren't in the forefront like the first season and yet Taylor Schilling has also never been better. Many examples abound, but her breakdown scene in the first episode "Thirsty Bird" and subsequent reaction from her seatmate (played by Lori Petty) was perfection:

"That's some shit, man."

And while that would have been a fine "best shot" pick, especially with its deft balance of tragedy and hilarity, a skill the show has so far excelled at, I decided to pick from the the third episode "Hugs Can Be Deceiving." First, because while it's IMPOSSIBLE to pick a favorite character, Suzanne as played by Uzo Aduba would be my gun-to-my-head choice. And second, there's a fun shot (my pick for best) of this season's MVP Lorraine Toussaint playing new character Vee.

First, a couple shots of Suzanne showing her sad and happy:

I wish I could make gifs, because the first shot is more heartbreaking in movement as her face goes from cheerful to dejected as she counts down. The second shot just brings me too much joy with young Suzanne all dressed up with wings doting on her new little sister. Just... look at that face! But my pick for best shot is this:

My Best Shot

Suzanne's head is hanging upside down beside her bed because of course it is and thus this shot is us seeing Vee through Suzanne's eyes. It's effectively unsettling, disorienting, and somehow fitting this would be how Suzanne sees Vee for the first time. After all, the prison will be turned upside down as Vee tries to get back to power. This shot happens right after she barks "Don't interrupt" to Suzanne and it just sent chills all over me. Toussaint is just scarily brilliant in this role amidst an ensemble that's already one of the best in TV.

Netflix's 10 Most Rented Films

Perhaps to get people to stop talking about their recent troubles (free-falling stocks, decreasing memberships, Qwikster announcement), Netflix released a list of their ten most rented films of all time over the weekend (Movie|Line, h/t Nathaniel). Though it's also probably because soon they will stop renting DVDs altogether. *moment of silence*

The top ten are as follows, along with their final domestic box office gross:

1. The Blind Side, $256 million
2. Crash, $54.6 million
3. The Bucket List, $93.5 million
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, $127.5 million
5. The Hurt Locker, $17 million
6. The Departed, $132.4 million
7. Sherlock Holmes, $209 million
8. Inception, $292.6 million
9. Iron Man, $318.4 million
10. No Country for Old Men, $74.3 million

It's a pretty predictable, and yet also oddly surprising, list. Apparently Sandra Bullock + Race Relations = Netflix Gold!

The list has an expected mix of popular films (Blind Side, Benjamin Button, Departed, Sherlock, Inception, Iron Man) and Oscar Best Picture winners (Crash, Hurt Locker, Departed, No Country), but one oddity remains... The Bucket List? Seriously? It's actually the only film on the list that I haven't seen. For my part, the only two films on the list that I've rented were The Hurt Locker and The Blind Side. Didn't have a desire to see them in theaters but once they won their respective Oscars, I felt compelled to see them.

Netflix actually has their Top 100 on their site and it will be missed once they go streaming only. It's funny to think that the film that just missed the list was Date Night at #11. Another Bullock film, The Proposal, is #14 beating out Best Picture winner Slumdog Millionaire at #15. Meanwhile Avatar, the highest grossing film of all time, comes in at #17. Twilight and The Dark Knight round out the top 30. The oldest film is The Notebook (#22) which came out June 2004 while the highest animated film is Up at #84. Weirdly enough, none of the Harry Potter films made the list. Guess, everyone who wanted to see the films already owns them?

Review: Buried (2010)

Didn't know much about Buried before I saw it a couple days ago. I knew a lot of people kept comparing it to 127 Hours last year so I knew to expect a one-man claustrophobic film that promises me to a harrowing experience. And boy, that is exactly what I got and frankly I'm still recovering from it all.

The film opens in complete darkness with some muffled sounds of something or someone shuffling. Finally, a light from a zippo illuminates the setting and the protagonist both of which will remain constant throughout the film. The audience slowly, but organically, parses out the situation of this guy essentially finding himself tied, gagged, and oh yeah, trapped inside a coffin seemingly buried underground. Talk about the nightmare scenario. And that's basically the whole film in a nutshell.

Of course, there's a cell phone left for Paul Conroy, the one person we see in the film, played by a surprisingly affective Ryan Reynolds, enabling him and the rest of us to venture forth into the outside world. We meet other characters through his phone, so we only ever get to hear them. Once Paul, and thus the rest of us, learn how he ended up there, the film becomes a race against time to escape his cramped prison. The journey Paul goes through, even as he's stuck in one place, is still quite gripping. Simple things such as being put on hold, getting someone's voicemail, dialing 411 for a forgotten number all becomes life-and-death situations and the audience along for the ride. A very scary, very claustrophobic ride. There's a particularly horrifying scene with a snake and because of it, I probably won't be able to watch this move again. I really don't like snakes.

So how does it compare to 127 Hours? Not bad actually. While Danny Boyle and James Franco had the luxury of being able to use the breathtaking Utah landscape and other storytelling devices like flashbacks and fantasy sequences to distract from the horrors their main protagonist was going through, Buried committed itself to focusing on the horrors of being buried alive with the camera not once leaving the darkly lit space. Granted director Rodrigo Cortes also had the the luxury of working with a wonderful original story from writer Chris Sparling while Boyle was limited to the real life story of Aron Ralston. But in the end, there's no real use to put one film over the other. Both delivered career-best performances from their main lead while sufficiently terrifying me to my bones. B/B+

Inaugural Film Reviews

I always feel like I don't talk about films on this blog as much as I do TV shows or even tennis during its four big tournaments of the year. I mean I talk about bits of casting news, celebrating anniversaries, feature posters or films I'm looking forward to, etc. but other than my year-end list I don't often readily give my opinions on films I see. So starting now, I'm going to do my best to at least post something briefly on the films I see.

To start, I'd like to venture into my Netflix queue and briefly talk about the films I saw last month:


Made in Dagenham - Sad that I miss this plucky film last year. It's a well-made piece of cinema serving as a bit of a love story to the brave women in Dagenham back in the 60s demanding equal rights/pay as the men. Sally Hawkins delivers a strong performance as the main driving force with some lovely support from Miranda Richardson, Rosamund Pike, and Geraldine James. The predictable story/ending doesn't hamper the film, mostly because Hawkins and the other women pulls you in with their struggles. B+

Release - This little-known gay prison drama felt laborious throughout, from its purposefully opaque beginning to its inevitable melodramatic end. I'm okay with the film's low production value, because the budget is obviously small, but good writing and characterizations are necessary and sadly this film didn't have that. Confusing, muddled, and disappointing. D-

The Mechanic - Here's the thing. I have a slight Jason Statham situation in which I just find him so damn watchable that even though 97% of his films are exactly the same and 100% he's playing the exact same character, that film and that character is kind of awesome. This is all to say that if you've seen one of his films, The Mechanic is more of the same though he does share some screen-time with the newly bad ass Ben Foster and they make quite a team. Fun if you like this sort of film, which I fortunately do. B

The Other Woman - Based on other reviews, I was prepared to hate this film, but I didn't. With that said, there are plenty of problems mainly the fact that this film has NO IDEA what kind of film it's supposed to be giving the film a fractured feeling. Frankly I think writer Don Roos just wanted to do too many things on screen. If he had dialed it back a bit, I think the film would've been much better. It also doesn't help that the protagonist, played by Natalie Portman, was bordering on unlikable for most of the film. C

Natalie Portman getting around

No Strings Attached - Another Natalie Portman film and well this movie was not good. Like her chemistry with Ashton Kutcher in the film, it just lacked in every department. There are probably two scenes I loved from the whole film. One, when Portman's character yelled "I made the ball its bitch!" when they played mini-golf and the scene, which I've forgotten by now, where Kutcher actually looked like he was acting, making me feel sorry for his character. In the end though, I just felt sorry for me sitting through that. D+

Tron: Legacy - I'm a huge fan of the original film so my feelings for this film was always going to be colored by that. With that said, I liked it way more than I thought I was going to. First of all, I was shocked at how not at all incompetent Garrett Hedlund was in his role. Second, all of the "TRON" stuff was actually relatively understated. Third, Michael Sheen and Jeff Bridges looked liked they had a ball. Okay, the ending was lame and the CGI-young Bridges was hella creepy, but still a good time. B

Kaboom - Gregg Araki's latest film was a bit too out there even for me. Actually, to be more accurate, I was completely fine with everything else, from Thomas Dekker and friends' hypersexuality to the murder/hazing mystery. It was the last third of the film where the film lost me as it tried to put it all together and conjure some kind of final answer for it all. It all just felt flat after that. C+

Undertow - This Peruvian film revolving around a man with a wife and child who is also carrying on a secret affair with a man was a joy to watch. When you think you know where this age-old love triangle storyline is going, the film gives it its own fresh twist that is both inventive and emotional. Other than this twist, one thing I loved about this film is how we get into the heads of the three characters with all the pain and confusion inherent to this kind of drama. A-

A note on my review grades: I'm inconsistent--a B- film might end up higher than a B+ if I was forced to rank them. It's largely arbitrary--mostly encompassing my whole mess of feelings for the film. And finally, there's a curve--since I was raised by Asian parents, a C- has always equated as an F growing up. So make that as you will.

Holiday Movie Rush, Sort Of

It was a snow day today in New York as everyone tries to recover from the blizzard that hammered the area for most of the day yesterday and overnight. Suffice it to say, this weather event is cramping my usual year-end-holiday-movie-rush that I seem to do every year.

I saw The Fighter this past Friday before the storm hit, so I got that out of the way. I ended up quite liking it more than I thought I would! Had plans to see Somewhere and Tangled with some people sometime early this week, but the storm put those plans in limbo. I had vague plans to see Tron: Legacy sometime at the end of the month, but nothing is happening on that front and it's pretty much the end of the month already. I'm also curious about and thus might check out True Grit since it's playing near me. Oh, and there's also The Tempest, which a few of my friends want to see. I do, too, since it looks great even though the reviews for it dub it a hot mess. Oh well.

Then, of course, there's Blue Valentine which apparently comes out this Wednesday except I can't seem to find a theater who is playing it. Even if I don't see it this Wednesday, I'm really hoping I get to see it before I start work again next week.

Finally, I'm using my Netflix to catch up on a few films I missed out during the year. Just saw Robin Hood which wasn't as bad as I expected. Though maybe it was partly because I saw it at home and had a chance to pause if I felt it was getting a bit too long (and it did at parts) as well as having the opportunity to see the director's cut. I also checked out the fantastic documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop about street art/artists featuring Banksy. Very entertaining!

How about you? Are you spending the holidays/blizzard/vacation/whatever to catch up on films? If so, what have you seen or planning to watch? I'm always looking for recommendations!

Streaming French Films on My Wii

This weekend I ended up seeing a lot of movies thanks to Netflix. Not only did I have all three discs per my normal account, but with their new disc enabling to stream movies via my Wii system, I was like a kid in a candy store.

It's worth noting that the three movies that came in the mail were all comedies: The Hangover, The Informant!, and Men Who Stare At Goats. I already knew I'd like the first movie. I had high and low expectations for the other two films respectively so of course I ended up liking the latter more than I did the other film.

Without even meaning to, I ended up seeing three French flicks that have been in my queue for awhile. The fact that they were all French didn't even occur to me until I was midway done with the last film, so it wasn't a conscious decision on my part to have French movie marathon of sorts. The three films were...

Paris
A young man sidelined by a heart condition and his sister, played by Juliette Binoche, closely watch the streets of Paris as their lives gradually intersect with a diverse array of strangers.


Chacun sa nuit
Based on real events, this erotically charged drama follows the lives and sexual liaisons of five young denizens of a provincial French town.


Donne-moi la main
Twin brothers journey on foot to their mother's funeral in Spain, but romantic entanglements along the way stir up resentments.


I recommend all of them if you're so inclined. If you do have Netflix, I must also recommend the first two seasons of The Guild starring Felicia Day (Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse). The entire two seasons take less than two hours and they are, of course, available instantly.

End-Of-Year: 2009 Film Winners

On Friday, I posted my favorite (and not so favorite) films and film performances of 2009. Today, I present to you the winners...

Best Actor
Sharlto Copley, District 9
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 500 Days of Summer
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Max Records, Where the Wild Things Are
Sam Worthington, Terminator Salvation and Avatar

I can see a lot of people scratching their heads over the inclusion of Worthington, but I thought he was the best part of the unfairly maligned Terminator movie and more importantly didn't buck under the pressure of holding together a film (Avatar) of blockbuster proportions. Records was delightful as Max and really captured that sense of loneliness that was required for the role, while Firth delivers his best performances as a grief stricken man losing his lover. For me though it came between two summer performances that clung to me even until now. Both actors were required to juggle so many things with their roles and both did it superbly. Copley delivered geeky, scared, tough, and vengeful. Gordon-Levitt delivered geeky, romantic, desolate, and vengeful. I'd rather give them a tie than pick a sole winner, but I'd give the award to Copley this time around.

Best Actress
Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
Ellen Page, Whip It!
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia and It's Complicated
Tilda Swinton, Julia
Rachel Weisz, The Brothers Bloom

It's really disheartening that both Page and Weisz's movies and roles didn't get more critical hype or box office business this year especially since I much preferred these two roles over their previous Oscar-nominated ones. Laurent is wonderful and thus an extraordinary job in being the glue to Tarantino's vision. But in the end it's down to two Oscar-winning actresses who portrayed a woman named Julia this year. One played a legendary cook while the other an alcoholic disaster. Both Streep and Swinton fully embodied their characters that you sort of just forget you're watching actors. Swinton's performance was raw, but Streep was effortless so she edges out Swinton by just a tiny bit for me.

Best Supporting Actor
Jackie Earle Haley, Watchmen
Tom Felton, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
John Krasinski, It's Complicated
Stanley Tucci, Julie & Julia and The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inlgourious Basterds

I confess that my list seems a bit odd, but what can I say? Krasinski came out of nowhere, quickly becoming my favorite part of his movie (and it starred Streep, Baldwin, and Martin!). Jackie Earle Haley was riveting as Rorschach in a movie that I didn't even particular like. Felton flew past the other wizard kids delivering such a vulnerable and even sympathetic Draco Malfoy. Tucci was just fantastic in his two very different roles this year as Meryl Streep's husband and as Saoirse Ronan's killer. But the winner has got to be Christoph Waltz who has been racking up the critic awards and deservedly so for playing a Nazi.

Best Supporting Actress
Drew Barrymore, Whip It!
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Rinko Kikuchi, The Brothers Bloom
Mo'Nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Kikuchi is absolutely memorable even though she barely had any lines in the movie. Drew Barrymore was so much fun in the film which was also her directorial debut. Julianne Moore did the best (and then some) out of the limited screen time she had (and really isn't that what supporting actors should be doing?). But the two that's going to be fighting for the Oscar is also my top two pick. There's lots of love for the subtler acting that Kendrick's co-stars, Clooney and Farmigia, did in the movie, but it was Kendrick who connected most emotionally to me. And then there's Mo'Nique who delivered such a visceral and raw tour de force of a performance, that I understand why she's been getting all the raves and the awards as of late. I'd hate to go 2 for 2 in agreeing with the critics, but I say Mo'Nique takes this.

Best Ensemble
An Education
The Brothers Bloom
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Where the Wild Things Are

It's so difficult to really pick a winner here, because I find the cast of all of these films to be really wonderful and whoever did casting should be given an award. In the end, I'll pick Star Trek because not only did they have to pick actors that matched well with the iconic role but also actors that reminded people of the actors who used to play these roles without people thinking they were just cheap imitations. Most, if not all, of them did this to a tee and special kudos to Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto for pulling it off so well with two of the most difficult characters to pull off.

Worst Film
Ghost of Girlfriends Past
GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra
Eating Out: All You Can Eat
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I'd ask you to wait until I posted my ranked list of movies I saw this year, but really the less time I spend thinking about these movies, the better. X-Men Origins and Transformers 2 were ripe old messes and this is coming from someone who has seen previous movies from both franchises and liked them. GI Joe was just awful all around--the cast, the special effect, the script. Eating Out 3 proves that gay cinema still has long ways to go. But the absolute worst film I saw this year is Ghost of Girlfriends Past. I saw it on an airplane so I didn't exactly pay for it, but damn it was just so bad (i.e. sexist) in so many levels, I wanted to jump out of the plane just to avoid it.

Most Disappointing Film
The Lovely Bones
State of Play
Watchmen

I had high hopes for all of these movies especially since they were all adapted from highly regarded source materials. I hadn't read The Lovely Bones or the Watchmen comics, but I knew they were good. So when I saw both movies and came out with a "meh" it was a sad day. But the most disappointing movie for me this year is State of Play. I saw the British miniseries this was based on and absolutely LOVED it. When I heard they were making an American film version of it, I was wary but excited. It also starred Rachel McAdams and Helen Mirren. How could it go wrong? And yet it did. They got rid of the most interesting storylines/characters from the miniseries to deliver an ultimately bland, boring, and empty film.

Worst Acting Performance
Matthew Mcconaughey, Ghost of Girlfriends Past
Channing Tatum, GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra
Megan Fox, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Kate Hudson, Bride Wars
Anne Hathaway, Bride Wars

I'll forgive Hudson and Hathaway. For now. But yeah that movie was useless as their shriektastic performances. Fox and Tatum seem to be cut from the same cloth in that a lot of people (read horny people) are really into them, but damn if I can think of one good performance they've given not only this year, but ever. But the award for worst performance has got to go to Mcconaughey because I have a sick feeling he's playing himself and that's just sadder than I can even imagine if true.

Best Netflix Movie
Adaptation
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Bright Young Things
Electric Shadows
Letters from Iwo Jima
The Princess Bride
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The Royal Tenenbaums
Schindler's List
Tell No One

These are films that didn't come out in 2009, but I eventually caught for the firth time using Netflix this past year. It's always difficult to pick from a list that contains so many different types of movies made during different times. It's also hard when all of them were rated the same way by me (5 stars). I'll offer up a tie between Adaptation and Schindler's List. I can't do better than that. BTW, last year it was The Lives of Others. Rent it!

I'll post my film rankings sometime this next week. For now here's a reminder of my top ten films of the past year:

Best Film
500 Days of Summer
Avatar
The Brothers Bloom
Coraline
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up
Up in the Air
Where the Wild Things Are