Harry Potter and the Sorcerer / Philosopher's Stone - Review

It took me years to warm up to the Harry Potter series, but I finally did & have done some catching up:

As an introduction to the magical Hogwarts universe, Sorcerer's Stone, is a beautiful piece of work. Its saccharine boarding school adventure ending & the awful acting from the child set, however, make it harder to take seriously. But with impeccable sets (Diagon Alley is a marvel), a haunting first shot of Hogwarts - oh how it will be destroyed in the years to come & John Williams' classic score, there is plenty for grown up cinema-goers to appreciate. 

Unfortunately, the visual effects are dubious - while the invisibility cloak is still something to write home about, "Fluffy", & the rest of the special effects guarding the Sorcerer's Stone, look a bit clunky. Especially considering this was made the same year as Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring  & AI: Artificial Intelligence.  

Script-wise, it is notable that JK Rowling had Harry talking to snakes right from the outset; as with Chamber of Secrets, its impressive how well planned & plotted her series was. It is also a nice showcase for Rowling's deft touch with surreal logic (a villain's face implanted on the back of a blithering idiot's head).         

At least the adult cast is excellent as ever. Maggie Smith is slick, if underused, as McGonnagall & Richard Harris makes a gentle & touching Dumbledore (although I will confess I prefer Michael Gambon's take), but the standouts are Robbie Coltrane as lovable Hagrid and the always-impressive Alan Rickman (can you imagine anyone else in the role) iconic as ambiguous Severus Snape.

Oscar nominations: Original Score, Costume Design (meh), Art Direction / Set Decoration

Somewhere - Review

Sofia Coppolla’s fourth film is the second from her own screenplay and, while it shares Lost in Translation’s DNA – a bored, semi-famous movie star (Johnny Marco, played by Stephen Dorff) hangs around a hotel (in this case, hotels) pondering his place in life while doing not much with a younger woman (this time, his daughter Cleo, played by Elle Fanning) – it is very much its own film, with its own concerns and, regrettably,  its own flaws.

Coppolla's direction is perfectly controlled, but her script lets her down. Through the pace of the editing, the composition of her shots and the general lack of her usual hipster cool soundtrack, Coppola manages to richly express her characters. The problem is that her characters are not much fun to watch - Dorff's Johnny Marco is a frustratingly hollow man, while the talented Fanning's Cleo is vague and underwritten.

The opening shot explains everything that is at once brilliant and frustrating about Coppola's latest exploration of celebrity alienation - a stationary shot of Johnny Marco's black Ferrari drives in and out of shot as he circles an abandoned racetrack - over & over & over & over & over & over & over again. Not at an exceptional speed, and with no one watching or cheering him on.

As a methaphor for Johnny's life, the opening shot could not be more effective; a fancy sports car, but no joy whatsoever. Just when you think Coppola can't possibly make you watch Johnny going around the track any more, she does. A few more times. It's powerful film making; as frustrating to watch as it must be to be Johnny, but making a film so committed to the boredom of its lead character has an obvious pitfall; it can be difficult to enjoy. And that is where Coppola's script & characters fails to provide the payoff needed to make the journey worthwhile.

Coppola's pacing traces the (minimal) development of Johnny and Cleo's relationship, but her technique is more intriguing than the actual characters.

Before Cleo arrives, scenes are shot in long, exhaustive takes with only diegetic (in-scene) music, and not Coppola's usually hipster cool music at that. While Johnny's life does not lack event, it certainly lacks emotional engagement, and so does the film, which is a beautiful illustration, but at times a difficult one to sit through. But that is Johnny's life.

Once Cleo arrives, the pace gradually picks up and the not much that happens takes on a somewhat lighter, less claustrophobic tone. In my opinion, though, the scene chronicling a game of Wii tennis takes it one step too far, but perhaps others may find it refreshing.

It's only once Johnny & Cleo have finally started to grow comfortable around each other - minus much  talking, mind you - & decide to spend a last day together before Cleo goes to Summer camp, that Coppola allows the editing & soundtrack to flow, setting a sweetly joyful montage of father / daughter poolside bonding to The Strokes' smashing I'll Try Anything Once.

But the surfacing of Johnny's feelings lead only to a solitary, self-loathing breakdown which is powerfully written and performed, but somehow feels forced an inorganic. And after hours of hanging around looking smart, shy & laid back cool, Fanning's Cleo is also allowed an out-of-the-blue, although justified, emotional catharsis, to which Johnny responds with a blank stare and awkward muttering.

When Johnny bids Cleo farewell, he is only able to express any kind of love for her when drowned out by the roar of a helicopter. Although a beautiful expression of Johnny's inertia, it is hard to care, after so much time, about a bored, self-indulgent movie star who makes no effort to enjoy his life, know himself or contribute anything of value to his daughter, even when she is begging for just one of her parents to make her a priority.

After Cleo is gone, Johnny's purposelessly mopey ways threaten to overtaken again. A shot of  Dorff's head slowly being cut out of frame as he floats lethargically on a li-lo was apparently unplanned, but is nevertheless pure perfection.

The enigmatic final reel, set to Phoenix's stirring Love Like a Sunset Part II, effectively revisits the Ferrari metaphor, but by this point, the journey taken with Johnny to get there feels exhausting rather than enriching. It is a poetic coda to a dry & measured film.

63rd Primetime Emmy Nominations

Outstanding Drama Series

 Boardwalk Empire

Dexter

Friday Night Lights

Game of Thrones

The Good Wife

Mad Men

Outstanding Comedy Series

Big Bang Theory

Glee

Modern Family

The Office

Parks and Recreation

30 Rock

Outstanding TV Miniseries or Movie

Cinema Verite

Downton Abbey

The Kennedys

Mildred Pierce

The Pillars of the Earth

Too Big To Fail

Outstanding Actress in a Drama

Kathy Bates, Harry’s Law

Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights

Mireille Enos, The Killing

Mariska Hargitay, Law and Order: SVU

Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife

Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men

Outstanding Actor in a Drama

Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire

Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights

Michael C. Hall, Dexter

John Hamm, Mad Men

Hugh Laurie, House

Timothy Olyphant, Justified

Outstanding Actress in a Comedy

Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie

Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Laura Linney, The Big C

Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly

Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope

Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Outstanding Actor in a Comedy

Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock

Louis C.K., Louie

Steve Carrell, The Office

Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory

Matt LeBlanc, Episodes

Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Polanski's Carnage - Preview

Based on the Tony-nominated play, God of Carnage, Roman Polanski's Carnage replaces the play's excellent cast (Marcia Gay Harden, James Gandolfini, Hope Davis & Jeff Daniels) with a new, equally intriguing cast of Kate Winslet, John C Reilly, Jodi Foster & Christoph Waltz. A very eclectic set of actors with very little in common besides the 4 Oscars between them (2 belong to Foster, none to Reilly).

The story roughly concerns two sets of parents who get together to talk after their sons are involved in a schoolyard brawl. The witty script is set entirely inside a single New York apartment. Needless to say, Polanski did not shoot in New York, as the warrant for his arrest was not overruled by his Oscar, but it will be interesting to see what he and his cast bring to the table. Foster seems a touch too intense for comedy, but we shall see.

    

TIME's Top 25 Animated Films

25. Lady and the Tramp (1955)
24. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
23. Yellow Submarine (1968)
22. Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
21. Kung Fu Panda (2008)
20. Paprika (2007)
19. Tangled (2010)
18. The Lion King (1994)
17. Akira (1988)
16. Happy Feet (2006)

15. Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
14. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
13. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
12. Toy Story (1995)
11. Toy Story 3 (2010)
10. The Little Mermaid (1989)
9. Finding Nemo (2003)
8. The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
7. Up (2009)
6. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
5. Spirited Away (2001)
4. Dumbo (1941)
3. The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979)
2. WALL-E (2008)
1. Pinocchio (1940)

'Best of' lists are always doomed to be controversial, but I find this one particularly odd. While it includes a bunch of good but not great animations - Happy Feet, Horton Hears a Who, Tangled - it omits any number of classics - Ratatouille, The Incredibles, The Iron Giant, A Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline, Watership Down, 101 Dalmations - & choosesThe Little Mermaid over Beauty and the Beast & Aladdin!


But it's nice to see a Top 5 that includes Dumbo, Wall-E & Pinocchio. 

Jason Reitman's Young Adult & Labor Day

Jason Reitman has very quickly become Hollywood gold, with 3 great, biting films proving he has much more to offer than his father's surname (his father is Ivan Reitman, once legendary director of Stripes & Ghostbusters, recently director of, um, My Super Ex-Girlfriend & No Strings Attached).

Reitman teamed up with Oscar-winning Juno screenwriter, Diablo Cody, to direct Young Adult, starring Charlize Theron as a divorced fiction writer returning to her small home town to rekindle a romance with her now-married ex boyfriend, played by Patrick Wilson.

Any resemblance to Never Been Kissed may or may not be intentional. It will be interesting to see what Diablo Cody dishes up next (after camping up sexy teen horror in Jennifer's Body & turning Toni Collette into everyone's favourite schizofrenic American mom on Dreamworks TV's United States of Tara), but with Reitman & Theron on board, there is no reason to believe it will be anything less than great.

Wasting no time, Reitman has already cast Kate Winslet & Josh Brolin for his next feature, an adaptation of Joyce Maynard's novel, Labor Day. The novel follows bored, horny teenager Henry and his depressed, divorced mother, Adele, who allow a mysterious convict, Frank, to take them hostage in their own home & learn important life lessons, like how to throw a baseball, how to make a perfect piecrust, how to handle jealousy & betrayal & still put loved ones before yourself and that true love is worth waiting for.

Just a touch of Eastwood's A Perfect World. Reitman's last novel adaptation was Up in the Air, so add this one to your watch list.

Stephen Daldry's Fourth

British director Stephen Daldry has had a good run so far - 3 films (Billy Elliot, The Hours, The Reader), 3 Best Director Oscar nominations & two Best Actress winners (Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet) - heavily aided by make up & complex, arguably supporting, literary roles.

Now Daldry is trying his hand at adapting Jonathan Safran Foer's inventive 9/11 novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.


The big trick with Extremely Loud is pulling off the lead character, Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist trying to find the lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father who died in the 9/11 attacks. 


Daldry worked wonders with Jamie Bell in Billy Elliott, so he should be the right man to direct 12-year old Jeopardy! Kid's Week winner, Thomas Horn, as Oskar. Meanwhile, Tom Hanks plays Oskar's doomed father & Sandra Bullock wastes no time cashing in on her Oscar to play Oskar's grieving mother, although the really interesting parts are Oskar's odd, misfit grandparents, whose tragic story is told in flashbacks.   


Not sure who's playing who yet, but Viola Davis, John Goodman, Jeffery Wright, Max Von Sydow & James Gandolfini fill out the supporting cast.


The novel is highly stylised, so it will be interesting to see what Eric Roth does with the screenplay, but Daldry's instincts in adapting tricky novels have served him well so far.

Bullock and Daldry on set

It's Kind of a Funny Story - Trailer

The Tree of Life now comes with a Disclaimer

This is cute & slightly tragic.

You have been warned.

Rubber - Trailer

Quentin Dupieux's bonkers film about a killer tire. For real. The IMDB.com plot synopsis is a fantastic read: When Robert, a tire, discovers his destructive telepathic powers, he soon sets his sights on a desert town; in particular, a mysterious woman becomes his obsession. 

I dunno, it could be a good, trashy night in, or it could be unbearable. Classy poster, though.

Our Idiot Brother - Trailer

Sundance hit starring Paul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer & Steve Coogan.

Dysfunctional family comedy. Little Miss Sunshine lite. 

X-Men: First Class - Review

Although it can't escape the occasional silliness of, you know, pretty girls with dragon fly wings or redhead boys flying by, um, screaming at a really high pitch, Matthew Vaughn's X-Men prequel is a solid comic book adaptation, and an even better period drama.

With a very smartly picked young cast led by heavyweights James McAvoy & Michael Fassbender, as Charles Xavier (soon to be Dr X) & Erik Lehnsherr (soon to be Magneto), respectively, Vaughn makes sure the action is grounded in well-developed characters and a very well-plotted finale.

James McAvoy shows the future Dr Xavier's greatness, but also the young Charles Xavier's arrogance & stubbornness.

Michael Fassbender, on the other hand, does Ian McKellen proud with a fully relatable soon-to-be villain. He makes you understand the pain behind the cold intensity & haunted eyes that burn up the screen. Although we know his fate, Fassbender makes us feel the battle for Erik's soul as if it may end well.

Kudos also to Mad Men's January Jones who manages to add at some depth to blonde ice queen, & comic book sex symbol, Emma Frost.

A decent comic book action film but, even better, a great character drama.

Chlotrudis Society's Top 100 independent films of 2000 - 2010

Because I love a) lists, b) independent movies, I bring you - the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film's list of best (independent) Films of the Decade:


1. In the Mood for Love
2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
3. The Lives of Others
4. Caché
5. Let the Right One In
6. There Will Be Blood
7. No Country for Old Men
8. The Piano Teacher
9. Donnie Darko
10. The Royal Tenenbaums
11. Talk to Her
12. Brokeback Mountain
13. Pan’s Labyrinth
14. Y Tu Mamá Tambien
15. Memento
16. Far from Heaven
17. My Winnipeg
18. Away From Her
19. Capote
20. The Social Network

21. Me and You and Everyone We Know
22. Grizzly Man
23. The Station Agent
24. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
25. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
26. Juno
27. Amélie
28. Mulholland Dr.
29. Once
30. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
31. Precious
32. The Hurt Locker
33. Duck Season
34. A Single Man
35. Best In Show
36. Dogville
37. Infernal Affairs
38. Man on Wire
39. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
40. 49 Up
41. Winter’s Bone
42. Protagonist
43. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
44. Mother
45. Brick
46. 3-Iron
47. Gosford Park
48. City of God
49. Last Life in the Universe
50. The Pianist
51. Bad Education
52. Jack Goes Boating
53. Hero
54. Tarnation
55. Synecdoche, New York
56. Still Walking
57. What Time Is It There?
58. White Ribbon
59. Lost in Translation
60. In Bruges
61. In the Bedroom
62. Monkey Warfare
63. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
64. Bowling for Columbine
65. Lilja 4-Ever
66. Spirited Away
67. Half Nelson
68. Punch Drunk Love
69. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
70. Italian for Beginners
71. Sping, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring
72. Marion Bridge
73. Linda Linda Linda
74. Yi Yi
75. Moulin Rouge!
76. The Proposition
77. Jellyfish
78. Sideways
79. Beau Travail
80. American Splendor
81. Dancer in the Dark
82. O Brother Where Art Thou
83. Ghost World
84. Hunger
85. Audition
86. O’Horten
87. The Edukators
88. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
89. Undertow
90. 35 Shots of Rum
91. The Departed
92. The Return
93. WALL-E
94. 25th Hour
95. The Saddest Music in the World
96. Before Sunset
97. The Beaches of Agnès
98. Milk
99. The Queen
100. Shortbus


Nice list. I love so many of these movies.

Glenn Close mans up for Albert Nobbs

5-time Oscar Nominee & recent Emmy favourite, Glenn Close is currently filming an adaptation of stage play, Albert Nobbs, about a poor, single woman in 19th Century Ireland who disguises herself as a man so that she can work as a butler at a hotel. When 'Albert' falls in love, she tries to find a way to escape the life-long illusion she has created. 

Gosford Park meets Boys Don't Cry, then, and a certain Oscar-bid from Close. From the photos, she's quite a bit more convincing in drag than Barbara Streisand.

Close has played Nobbs before off-Broadway in the 80s, and co-wrote the screen adaptation. She is being directed by frequent collaborator Rodrigo Garcia (Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her, Nine Lives).


Also starring Mia Wasalowski, Janet McTeer, Aaron Johnson, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers & Brendon Gleeson.

Sean Penn goes goth for This Must Be the Place

Reviews have been lukewarm since its premiere at Cannes, but any film where Sean Penn gets to play an aging goth rock star still dressing the part & living off royalties in Dublin until he decides to track down the ex-Nazi refugee who humiliated is late, estranged father, in New York, is worth a watch.

Also, any film where Sean Penn & Frances McDormand get to share the screen is worth a watch.

Kind of hoping Sean Penn is not this monotonous throughout, though...