Three Special Actresses

Meryl Streep comes through, as always, in It's Complicated, a very funny movie. Emily Blunt keeps getting better as the very appealing queen in The Young Victoria and Robin Wright Penn shines through with the complicated title role in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.

3 New Recommendations

All 3 are good movies with This Is It being the most surprising. I've never been a fan of Michael Jackson and have been put off by his sleazy activities, but Willie Brown, in his most interesting San Francisco Chronicle column every Sunday, highly recommended it. I'm so glad he did. This movie stands on its own as an insight into the putting together of a megastar's colossal concert. It's also an education for viewers into the extraordinary talent and serious professionalism of Michael Jackson. The Beaches of Agnes is another compelling documentary and is made by a major Italian talent, Agnes Varda. Bad Lieutenant, a film by Werner Herzog, about a cop in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina played by Nicholas Cage. I've intentionally passed up most of Cage's blockbusters of recent years, but Werner Herzog drew me in, and I thought Cage was phenomenal as a drugged up cop with a conscience, well, some kind of conscience. His performance reminded me of just how engaging he can be, as in Leaving Las Vegas and Red Rock West.

Best Fall Film to Date

An Education stands out prominently as the best movie out there these days. Another movie with a theme about an older guy and young girl but this is no stereotypical film. Peter Sarsgaard is spot on as the sophistcated, suave charmer and the 16 year old girl (the actress is actually 23) is understandably taken in by him. A very engaging movie that might remind us all of the times we have been educated.

August P.S.

I have inadvertently neglected to mention in previous posts that I have a favorite tv show that is not a "series". That is Real Time with Bill Maher. I think he is (almost) always right on the money with whatever issue he's discussing. He's smart and funny and will take to task, where appropriate, any of the wide variety of guests or panelists he has on the show. His is one show I can't wait to see, and it's on tonight!
Back to the movies, I just saw Inglourious Basterds. This is definitely one of my favorites of the year. Christof Waltz plays a Nazi officer and his is an amazing (and funny!) portrayal. If you liked Javier Bardem and the role he played in No Country for Old Men, then I'm sure you'll like this movie. Bardem was menacing and Waltz is charming, but the direction they're going and the startling and eerie things they say have a marked similarity.

Summer Sizzlers

The best war movie I've ever seen is out there now, The Hurt Locker. A US bomb defusion unit is constantly under tension while trying to do its job. Iraqi eyes are always on them and nobody knows if these are the eyes of enemies, friends, simply onlookers or bomb detonators.

My favorite current tv series is Nurse Jackie. Edie Falco is perfect as the complicated and conflicted, but steady, title character. This series is already on the verge of making it onto my short list of favorite series. That list includes Mad Men, which starts its 3rd season this Sunday and I can hardly wait.

July Gems

Three very good films are out right now: Revanche, Tetro and Anvil. Revanche involves a desperate couple who pay the consequences of a desperate act, then the film slows down and another couple writhes in this simple but deeply moving story. Tetro is a wild ride from a great movie maker, Francis Ford Coppola. Anvil is a good music movie about a band that didn't "make it" with two talented and very likable guys.

Under the Radar Alert!

Adoration is Atom Egoyan's latest and it is a gem. The story centers around a boy delving into the past to try to understand how his parents died. It is a thoroughly engaging film with crisp, penetrating and surprising dialog. It takes place in a post 9/11 world and the prejudice resulting from that horror is a central theme. The real star here, along with Egoyan, is his wife, Arsinee Khanjian, and she is on a quest every bit as captivating as the boy's.
Another movie not to miss is Food, Inc. This excellent documentary explores how multinational corporations have risen to take over so much of the marketplace, but it also reveals the rise in organic and locally grown foods.

April, 2009

It's been rather thin in the movie world lately, with the exception of Two Lovers and The Great Buck Howard. These movies both make the "must see" list. On a music note, Leonard Cohen was in Oakland recently and he was extraordinary!!! This great poet/song writer, musician is a good as ever and the band is right there with him.
I enjoyed this concert more than any I have ever seen. It's hard to pick out favorite songs, but three of them did stand out to me: Tower of Song, Everybody Knows and I'm Your Man.

Best Under-the-Radar Movies for 2008

1. The Edge of Heaven
2. Tell No One
3. Beauty in Trouble
4. Mister Foe
5. Mister Lonely

All of these movies are must-sees. The Edge of Heaven is an absolute gem. It involves searching for people who have been missing but are somehow connected to the searcher(s). Hanna Schygulla plays a mother with such a generous nature that you are simply bowled over.

Oscar Time - February 2009

My top 10:
1. The Wrestler
2. The Edge of Heaven
3. Revolutionary Road
4. Vicky Christina Barcelona
5. Doubt
6. Milk
7. Red Belt
8. Tell No One
9. Rachel Getting Married
10. Slumdog Millionaire

Honorable mention:
Encounters at the End of the World
Elegy

Best scene:
Anne Hathaway and her mother (Debra Winger) in Rachel Getting Married

Biggest oversights in nominations:
The Edge of Heaven for best foreign film and Rachel Evan Wood for best supporting actress in The Wrestler

Best credits:
Mister Foe