What Comes Next?

The 2013 Oscar season is in the history books and it's time to move on.  But the lure and obsessing continues.  An Oscar nomination (and even better, a statue) can mean huge things for both budding and established talent.  How do you follow that up?  Here's a look at the 2013 winners and what they have in store for us.

BEST ACTOR

McConaughey in Interstellar

"Alright, alright, alright," Matthew McConaughey's personal hero may be himself ten years in the future, but he's without question in the prime of his (comeback) career now.  With an Oscar win for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club and a potential Emmy on the way for his work on the just ended, zeigeist-y HBO series True Detective (which nearly broke the internet with its conclusion this past weekend), the once Kate Hudson-cohort will next be on screen in Christopher Nolan's eagerly awaited Interstellar.  The plot details are still tight-lipped (as Nolan does), but McConaughey co-stars alongside Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck and nearly half of SAG in the film due in theaters this November.  Beyond that, there's the rumored Magic Mike 2 and more chasing.  Leonardo DiCaprio scored some of the best reviews of his life in The Wolf of Wall Street (which McConaughey, incidentally, had a small role in) and constant "give him an Oscar" memes after losing his fourth acting bid, but he's taking his time it appears-- he has The Ballad of Richard Jewell in development which might re-team the actor with Wolf co-conspirator Jonah Hill in the true story of a security guard falsely vilified after discovering a bomb at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta; that film appears a few year away at the least but Captain Phillips scribe Billy Ray was recently signed to write the screenplay.  BAFTA winner Chiwetel Ejiofor is currently filmming Z for Zachariah, a science fiction drama based on the novel by Robert C. O'Brien alongside Wolf of Wall Street's Margot Robbie and Chris Pine, directed by Craig Zobel (Compliance) and has signed on for John Hillcoat's Triple Nine alongside Oscar-winner Kate Winslet and Fruitvale Station star Michael B. Jordan.  Bruce Dern, now a two-time Oscar nominee will follow his Cannes-winning turn in Nebraska with a role in the thriller Cut Bank opposite Liam Hemsworth, John Malkovich and Billy Bob Thornton, while the always light on his feet Christian Bale will follow his surprise American Hustle nod portraying Moses in Ridley Scott's biblical epic Exodus, due in theaters this Christmas.  Bale is also set for Knight of Cups, Terrence Malick's latest something-something as well as the still Untitled Terrence Malick Project, however we'll believe it when we see it.

Oscar Nomination Eve

Like many a youngster on the night before Christmas morning, I wait-- sleepless and anxiety-filled-- for the announcement of the 86th Academy Award nominations, set to arrive in less than two hours time.  Unlike Christmas gifts however, these are presents that cannot be returned and the hope is always that this will be year that Academy makes the right decisions across the board.  Those decisions vary from person to person, but in the hours before all is set in stone and industry bloodbath really reaches its ugliest, there's still that hope, that quiver of anticipation.  It's silly.  It's ridiculous.  But those unlike myself (and a great many who hold their films and awards mania fandom more to themselves), this is Christmas morning.  What shiny presents will Santa leave under our tree?  Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Chris Hemsworth, he of such defined abdomens, will tell us at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at the break of this coming Los Angeles dawn.

All our predictions, for which we've been second guessing ourselves on over the past few weeks and most urgently, in the past few hours, will either be righted or wronged.  What surprises will emerge?  Will American Hustle, currently in the esteemed position of holding the most guild mentions of any film in 2013, pull of on upset in the leading tally of nominations setting itself for the Best Picture gold?  Or will 12 Years a Slave, the film that's been pegged ever since its first screening at Telluride, lead the field?  Or is it Gravity, the undisputed visual feast of the year, ripe for the taking?

And what of Robert Redford, whose had a bumpy awards season after being named Best Actor from the New York Film Critics, only to be snubbed from the SAG and BAFTA line-up and overtaken by Matthew McConaughey at the Golden Globes?  Or the entire Best Actor field for that matter, arguably the most competitive category which no matter what will result in more than a few painful snubs?  Will Leonardo DiCaprio be catapulted into the race from all the buzzed about controversy stemmed from The Wolf of Wall Street, a maelstrom that hit its apex whilst voting was taking place?  Or what of Amy Adams-- can she really usurp Meryl Streep's assumed eighteenth nomination?  So many questions, so little confidence in anything at this unruly hour-- who knows, maybe James Franco's gonzo Spring Breakers performance will make it in with all it's "Consider This Sh*t" bravado.  Or maybe, just maybe, enough Academy members watched my Frances Ha (yes, I claim perverse ownership of it) and will reward it amply across the field in a giant middle finger sigh of rebellion to the rules of awards prognosticating.  That's the insomnia creeping in, but let me have my moment...

Of what is clear is that three films are at the very top-- American Hustle, 12 Years a Slave and Gravity.  The locks in the Best Picture line-up.  All three managed PGA, DGA, BAFTA and considerable guild mentions.  Captain Phillips follows and is safe and sound and likely will end up as one of the films with the highest nomination tally even as a single win seems unlikely.  From there on, things get shaky.  Nebraska, which earned guild mentions from the Producers, Writers, Cinematographers and anchored by Oscar-ready performances from Bruce Dern and June Squibb, looks to be in about fifth slot.  It helps that the film likely plays right the sweet spot of older Academy base and plays beautifully on screener.  The Wolf of Wall Street earned Martin Scorsese a DGA nomination and film earned a PGA nod, but SAG ignored it and its awards season has been spotted and rife with endless arguments over everything and anything.  The film is likely in the Best Picture field because how can it really be resisted, but how adventurous are these Academy members anyway?  Dallas Buyers Club has a shockingly robust awards season.  The film was assured slots for actors McConaughey and Jared Leto, but it seemed at the start that would be ample reward enough.  Considering it's strong showing at PGA, WGA and that weird SAG Ensemble nomination, it would be hard to predict in the top award winning the trophy for the greatest divide between industry love and the merits of the film itself-- it also represents a closing chapter to James Schamus' deservedly heralded reign of Focus Features, which makes a bit more sense.  Her, Spike Jonze's beautifully melancholic romance has done wonderfully with the critics and is assured passion votes, but the film is fairly youth-skewing and the most hipster upscale film in the line-up.  The film may break in, but it could easily be snubbed-- consider: how many older members of the Academy will this appeal to anyhow?  The older members likely frothed at the mouth to the decidedly un-hip Philomena, which is the Weinstein Company's best bet a Best Picture nomination-- I feel it's in in a pinch, if the field is expanded to nine like it has been the last two years running.  And then there's Blue Jasmine, which earned PGA and WGA nods, Saving Mr. Banks, a slow burner that earned a PGA nomination and Lee Daniels' The Butler, which earned a SAG Ensemble mention and Inside Llewyn Davis, with all its critical love all the hopefully siphon enough votes away for a surprise nomination.

Anyhow, here's my NO GUTS, NO GLORY takes:

• Spike Jonze surprises with a Best Director nomination alongside Steve McQueen, Alfonso Cuarón, David O. Russell and Paul Greengrass over-taking Martin Scorsese and Alexander Payne.
• Leonardo DiCaprio in; Robert Redford out.
• Meryl Streep in; Amy Adams left snubbed and already deemed the frontrunner for next year with Big Eyes.

TIFF Stats

The People's Choice Award win for 12 Years a Slave for the 2013 Toronto Film Festival raises its awards profile times ten.  Past winners of the award include The King's Speech and Slumdog Millionaire.  Here's a look back at the history of the award and how it correlates with the big dog:

2013: 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)
2012: Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)- nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Picture; won Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence)
2011: Where Do We Go Now (Nadine Labaki)
2010: The King's Speech (Tom Hooper)- won 4 Academy Awards including Picture.
2009: Precious (Lee Daniels)- nominated for 6 Academy Awards; won 2 including Best Supporting Actress (Mo'Nique)
2008: Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle)- won 8 Academy Awards including Picture
2007: Eastern Promises (David Croenberg)- nominated for Best Actor (Viggo Mortensen)
2006: Bella (Alejandro Monteverde)
2005: Tsotsi (Gavin Hood)- won Best Foreign Language Film Oscar
2004: Hotel Rwanda (Terry George)- nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Actor (Don Cheadle)
2003: The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (Takeshi Kitano)
2002: Whale Rider (Nikki Caro)- nominated for Best Actress (Keisha Castle-Hughes)
2001: Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)- nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Original Screenplay and Foreign-Language Film
2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)- nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture; won 4 Oscars including Foreign-Language Film
1999: American Beauty (Sam Mendes)- won 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture
1998: Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni)- nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Picture; won 3 Oscars including Actor (Benigni) and Foreign Film.
1997: The Hanging Garden (Thom Fitzgerald)
1996: Shine (Scott Hicks)- nominated for 7 Oscars including Picture; won Best Actor (Geoffrey Rush)
1995: Antonia's Line (Marleen Gorris)- won Best Foreign Language Film
1994: Priest (Antonia Bird)
1993: The Snapper (Stephen Frears)
1992: Strictly Ballroom (Baz Luhrmann)
1991: The Fisher King (Terry Gilliam)- nominated for 5 Oscars; won Supporting Actress (Mercedes Ruehl)

1990: Cyrano de Bergerac (Jean-Paul Rappeneau)- nominated for 5 Oscars including Foreign Film and Best Actor (Gerard Depardieu); won Costume Design
1989: Roger & Me (Michael Moore)
1988: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almódovar)- nominated for Best Foreign Film
1987: The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner)- nominated for Best Original Song
1986: The Decline of the American Empire (Denys Arcand)- nominated for Best Foreign Film
1985: The Official Story (Luis Puenzo)- nominated for 2 Oscars including Original Screenplay; won Best Foreign Film
1984: Places in the Heart (Robert Benton)- nominated for 7 Oscars including Best Picture; won 2 including Best Actress (Sally Field-- her famous "you like me" speech)
1983: The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasden)- nominated for 3 Oscars including Picture
1982: Tempest (Paul Mazursky)
1981: Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson)- nominated for 7 Oscars; won 4 including Picture
1980: Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (Nicholas Roeg)
1979: Best Boy (Ira Wohl)
1978: Girlfriends (Claudia Weill)

Things I Learned On My Summer Vacation

The summer movie season came and assaulted the senses and poof, it's gone.  The Labor Day weekend signals the end of that special parcel of time when Hollywood throws all its bombast in our faces, but the sign posts have been there for a few weeks now, evident by the dominance of Lee Daniels' The Butler solid box office play and three week straight strangle hold as the number one film of the nation.  It's not so much that the Forest Whitaker-Oprah Winfrey Civil Rights drama has posted the most significant numbers in the stratosphere (they certainly are impressive, especially given the subject matter) but more so because the dog days of August are when Hollywood typically gives up and regroups for fall.  It may be too early to tell how the cinematic offerings of the past few months will hold up and where there legacy lies, but first impressions are typically all that matters (especially in today's climate where a film lives or dies based on opening night grosses), but there's always takeaways, residual damages and lessons to be learned.  Here's Musings and Stuff's rundown of the good, bad and ugly of the 2013 Summer Movie Season.

First off, seventeen of Hollywood's offerings raked in over $100 million at the box office, which is a healthy sign that the theater-going habit isn't quite dead yet.  The top of the charts, unsurprisingly is Iron Man 3, which joined the worldwide billion dollar club and started summer 2013 with a bang, thanks to The Avengers afterglow.  The Marvel machine is healthy enough it hardly matters the film, strangely critically accepted, wasn't all that.  The real test, however, should be found in the grosses and the critical impact made by lesser Marvel standalone vehicles Thor and Captain America as each will have individual offerings in the next 365 days.  The remaining sixteen films tell a startlingly different story.

"The Simpsons" at the Movies

A wonderful 20-minute time waster-- every film reference from the first five seasons, or "Golden Age" of The Simpsons.  The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane and Gone With the Wind are particularly popular, but the greater sight gags are the less obvious-- did you spot them all?

The 10 Most Awesome New Members of the Academy

The Academy recently invited 276 new members to join in the annual circus of voting for the Oscars.  In a striking move, AMPAS seems to be making an effort to listen to the many critics of the membership and the eventual types of movies that appear on the lists year after year as examples of "the best" of the year.  The invitations have been sent, and while we will be unaware to who will eventually accept, here's the most awesome.  And while it's cool that the director of Fantastic Four and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants were invited to the club, those names will not appear on this list.

Jeff Nichols

runners-up: Emily Mortimer (actror)-- and a lovely one that as films as varied as Lovely & Amazing, Shutter Island, Match Point and Young Adam can attest. ~ Jason Schwartzman (actor)-- eclectic actor and member of the Coppola dynasty; star of Rushmore and I Heart Huckabees. ~ Kimberly Elise (actor)-- gifted actress of For Colored Girls and Beloved fame, and far worthier than the typical roles she's been granted.  ~ Emmanuelle Riva (actor)-- beloved French actress and should have been recent Oscar-winner for Amour.  ~ Ava DuVernay (writer/director)-- gifted filmmaker who made a huge wave with last fall's indie hit Middle of Nowhere.  ~ Jeff Nichols (writer/director)-- director of Take Shelter and Mud, surely to be an Oscar contender shortly...one hopes.  ~ Cliff Martinez (composer)-- in demand cool composer for films as varied as Drive, Contagion, Traffic and the soon to be released Only God Forgives; never Oscar-nominated.

10. GREIG FRASER (cinematography branch)
Infinitely gifted director of photography whose been on the rise since lensing Jane Campion's Bright Star (2009.)  2012 proved a banner year with expert, frame-worthy work on films as varied as Zero Dark Thirty, Snow White & the Huntsman and Killing Them Softly.  Next up is Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher.  Fraser has never been nominated for an Oscar but hopefully as a member that might help his chances.

9. JAFAR PANAHI (documentary branch)
This Is Not a Film, Panahi's impassioned protest documentary was an avid indictment for the importance of the art form.  The film, shot in Panahi's native Iran, was done in secret and made illegally capturing the filmmakers house arrest after being persecuted for his art by the Iranian government.  Shot partly on an iPhone and smuggled out the country in a cake, the fact that exists at all is worthy enough to affirm AMPAS membership; that the film was eventually shortlisted for an Oscar nomination was something short of miraculous.

Benh Zeitlin

8. BENH ZEITLIN (directors branch)
Whatever becomes of the Beasts of the Southern Wild filmmaker, his legend is certainly already cemented with the glorious Cinderella story of his breakout film and what it stand for.  In the ever harsh movie-making climate of contemporary cinema, Zeitlin went out in the trenches and made a film with a shoestring budget and it turned into one of the most magical, original and epic splices of filmmaking in years.  Beasts is a totem for the modern independent film movement and Zeitlin deserves a free pass at his stab, as well as an Academy membership-- I'd be curious to see his picks for sure.


7. RIAN JOHNSON (directors branch)
Brick and The Brothers Bloom introduced a quirky new filmmaker to the modern indie landscape, one who showcased an expert sleight of hand in meshing and mashing genres.  Last years Looper established Johnson as a filmmaker capable of upping the ante on terms of budget and scale without losing any wit, insight or ambition-- in truth this a filmmaker who should be at the top of every studios list for directing their tentpoles.  Or really directing anything for that matter.  He deserved at the very least a writers nod for Looper just last year.

6. JULIE DELPY (actors branch)
Nominated in 2004 for co-writing the screenplay of Before Sunset (with Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke), Delpy might find herself an Oscar contender this year for her performance in Before Midnight, but aside from the wondrous trilogy for which she has been a part of for the better part of the last twenty years, she's proven herself and delectable talent on and off screen as an director, writer and actor.


5. STEVE McQUEEN (directors branch)
Hunger and Shame were both inexplicably shut out from the Academy-- in truth it was expected, but still...not cool.  However McQueen has proven to be on the most interesting and provocative filmmakers in recent years-- his films may be tough, but they are also incredibly artful and substantial.  If nothing else, this fall's 12 Years a Slave will prove his highest profile release to date, as well as this richly deserved invitation to the Academy.

4. AGNÉS VARDA (documentary branch)
The iconoclast French New Wave member is one of the "how the hell is she not a member yet" invitees this year.  However, it's better late than never-- which may also explain why she's never received an Oscar nomination either despite beautiful work with recent films like The Gleaners & I and The Beaches of Agnés and old classics like Cleo From 5 to 7.

3. SARAH POLLEY (writers branch)
The multi-talented Polley, whose most recent work Stories We Tell is currently a must see in specialized theaters around the country, is a most splendid choice, even if the invitation is years overdue-- this talented actress, writer, director made her breakout in 1997's The Sweet Hereafter, a hit with the Academy, even if Polley herself was snubbed.  She wasn't snubbed for her writing effort for her debut feature film Away From Her, and is a strong possibility for a nomination for Stories We Tell.  Well done and finally, she is freaking awesome!

Sarah Polley

2. PRINCE (music branch)
Just because...plus he's an Oscar winner for Purple Rain.

1. MATT GROENING (animation branch)
Best. Invitee. Ever.  

10 Best Performances of 2013 (So Far)

We have arrived at the halfway point of 2013.  What has the cinema offered us so far?  In the first part of a multi-part retrospective, here are my favorite performances of the year so far.

Runners-up:  Benedict Cumberbatch, Star Trek Into Darkness; Henry Cavill, Man of Steel; James Franco, Spring Breakers; Mia Wasikowski, Stoker; Michael Cera, This Is the End

10) Ryan Gosling, The Place Beyond the Pines
Gosling and filmmaker Derek Cianfrance cobbled together some kind of alchemy in Blue Valentine in 2010 (with a little bit of help from Michelle Williams, in an Oscar-nominated performance.)  The sharpest instinct Cianfrance exhibited with his grander, messier follow-up work was reuniting with the resourceful Gosling.  In a film that ultimately bites off more than it's able to chew, the ingenious performer proves to be the best part of this ambitious triptych melodrama about fathers and sons and the overbearing consequences of ones past and upbringing.  Gosling's Luke is a rebel outcast in the mold of an old school antihero-- James Dean or Marlon Brando might have played this part had Place been made in the 1950s-- and yet despite the endless look of cool and mystique so fetishistically photographed by Cianfrance, Gosling shades his Robin Hood-like character with a brimming and soulful yearning.  Luke is the first part of The Place Beyond the Pines, and without spoiling anything, once he disappears, the film starts to crumble.

9) Mickey Sumner, Frances Ha
The ugly sting of nepotism rings a dampening effect to a budding young performer, a nearly contemptuous sneer at times.  However, sometimes a performance and film is so radiant and so effortlessly lived-in that in the private sanctuary of a movie palace, you can forget the entire world outside.  It needn't be necessary to know that Sumner is the offspring of Sting and Trudie Styler, and the film that surrounds her richly comic and well observed supporting turn, Frances Ha, is strong enough to make you forget nearly anything that ales.  As Sophie, Frances' BFF through the scary jungle of contemporary New York ennui, Sumner is sarcastic and ironic, sardonic, but also a lovesick dreamer.  To play such contradictory notes without ever falling into caricature is a testament to a hopefully inspired new artist; to turn them is something that's nearly moving is something even more special.

8) Jude Law, Side Effects
If Steven Soderbergh's retirement from the movies is in fact deemed true, at the very least, one can say, he went out with a hell of a year.  Surely, it will be HBO's Behind the Candelabra that will be the one to net the most trophies and esteemed hosannas, but his year began with the tight and delightfully warped little noir called Side Effects that just as effectively imbued all the skills that have complemented Soderbergh's career.  The first and most glaring compliment must be his work his actors, and in that regard, Jude Law's lithe and menacingly playful performance as slippery doctor who may or may not be being duped is worthy in it of itself of more acclaim than it will likely ever receive.  Law, it appears, may be on the upswing with surprisingly fruitful performances in not just Side Effects, but also last fall's anemic Anna Karenina, and his performance here is easily his most awake, alert and sharply keyed in than the actor has been since his career peak period that ascended in The Talented Mr. Ripley and swayed as Gigolo Joe in A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

7) Alden Ehrenreich, Beautiful Creatures
It was supposed to a silly little movie made in an attempt to cash in on the young adult star-crossed lovers/occult phase-- in short it was merely supposed to be a rip off of Twilight, and yet it somehow became 2013's most inexplicably ignored film critically and commercially.  Richard LaGravenese's Beautiful Creatures somehow, under some set of only-in-the-movies sort of magic is a gleefully underrated and joyous oddball of a movie about the teenage romance between a mortal boy and a witch.  Sounds pretty dull, but the writing, playful visuals and the potent performances that are sharp as a tick, but forever realizing what indeed this material really is make it one of the more pleasant surprises of the year.  Leading actor Alden Ehrenreich is perhaps the biggest surprise of all as the lovelorn Ethan Wade, a melding together of jock and nerd boy next door, he proves a charming leading man with a hopefully fruitful career ahead of him.  His performance here would blow Robert Pattinson and all the other mimics well away. 

6) Elle Fanning, Ginger & Rosa 
Elle Fanning, younger sister of Dakota, has for years been somewhat trapped in the doomed muse-like role for her leading men.  Sure, in films like Super 8 and Somewhere, Fanning had a captivating hold over the audience, but the characters themselves were used as little more than to serve her male co-stars.  Ginger & Rosa, a blink-and-you've-missed-it independent drama released this past spring gave Fanning the sharpest character she's yet to play, and the performer took to it with the natural precision of a gifted surgeon, even acquiring a believable British accent to boot.  As the rebellious young girl raised by a prim and conservative mother in the 1960s, Fanning shows incomparable diction and poise. 

5) Matthew McConaughey, Mud
Whatever happened in the last two years or so in the life of Matthew McConaughey, it was apparently and abundantly worth it.  For this sudden and startling period of productively in the career of the one-time nude-banjo-player is as surprising as any third act twist.  Mud, Jeff Nichols' follow-up to Take Shelter, made its inauspicious premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and left the stew for nearly a year before making its way to American movie houses.  The surprise (or perhaps not after the year the performer has having) was McConaughey's richly nuanced and beatifically observed performances as the titular Mud, a fugitive forever dreaming for a better life with the troubled girl whom he loves.  Nichols' film takes a few missteps along the way, and concludes as an utterly contrived yarn, but McConaughey's steely gaze and reserve is unsettling, sympathetic and in sharp command.

4) Gael Garcia Bernal, No
The invaluable Bernal has made a wondrous journeyman career for himself working alongside filmmakers as varied and vibrant as Michel Gondry, Pedro Almodovar, Alfonso Cuaron, Walter Salles and Alejandro González Inárritu and yet imbuing a rich, quiet humanity carried over every genre and tone.  With Pablo Larraín's bold and enriching No, Bernal has clearly and authoritatively honed in on his gift for the title of leading man with the most humility and compassion for his projects and characters.  There's never a false note in the complex and beautifully engrossing performance, nor a stance for side-swipping showboating-- every tic, manner and line reading in the service of this most superior film and while his most compelling humanistic approach to his characters may never give this exceptional performer the awards or plaudits he richly deserves, it's a novel and engrossing detail that has made Bernal one of the finest actors of his generation.

3) Nicole Kidman, Stoker
Chan-wook Park's English-language debut was a mixed bag of a film, but the biggest and most reassuring highlight was the beaut and hoot and a half of the performance that Kidman delivered.  She spends the majority of the film sidelined in her own little chamber piece of play-- a sort of lost Tennessee Williams heroine, but in the final moments unleashes a giddy showcase of maternal hell that frankly the subdued hothouse of a chiller needed a bit more of.  Kidman's ravenous contempt and rage all quivers to the seems in a chilling last-minute monologue that gives the chameleon actress finally something to chew on, and settles the film with a tasty bit of naughtiness.

2) Elizabeth Debicki, The Great Gatsby
Baz Luhrmann's lurid and colorful retelling of The Great Gatsby was supposed to the ultimate cinematic staging for the doomed star-crossed lovers Jay and Daisy, played here by Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan.  However it was newcomer Debicki as the supporting player Jordan Baker who ran away with the best in show honors, not because Luhrmann showcased or particularly upped the impact of the role, but because Debicki brought a stylized charm and grace to the one-note acting proceedings, adding notes and abundant flair to her side-lined character.

1) Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha
My favorite film so far in 2013 also featured my favorite performance from the year so far, a caveat I'm fairly certain isn't going to change much come six months from now.  The two are most certainly connected as Gerwig is Frances and Frances is Gerwig, a wonderful melding of actor and character and character and film.  With this, it brings a bit of sadness that Gerwig is likely unlikely not going to a favorite for a leading actress Oscar nomination come winter, and may even be but a longshot for the Indie Spirits, but in my book her joyous, witty and beguilingly profound creation is worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize for its brute honesty and natural joie de vivre.

What are your favorite performances from the first six months of 2013?    

101 Best Written TV Series of All Time

The Writers Guild Associations of America, in conjunction with TV Guide, revealed the 101 best written television series of all time.  In something that's all in good fun, if a tad meaningless, the most interesting find in the list is that the WGA seems to have a particularly modern sensibility.  Sure, there's some classics scuttled about in the list, and the top ten give or take seems nearly right for universal appeasing, but there's something telling in that the list is so eagerly made up of shows in the past twenty years (including a great many that are still on the air today.)  Have a look, and argue:

1. The Sopranos (HBO)- created by David Chase- nominated for 11 WGA awards and won four.
2. Seinfeld (NBC)- created by Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld- nominated for 13 WGA awards and won four.
3. The Twilight Zone (CBS)- Season One writers: Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Robert Presnell, Jr. and Rod Sterling- nominated for 2 WGA awards.
4. All in the Family (CBS)- developed by Norman Lear; Based on Till Death Does Us Part by Johnny Speight- nominated for 11 WGA awards and won once.
5. M*A*S*H (CBS)- developed by Larry Gelbart- nominated for 28 WGA awards and won seven.
6. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS)- created by James L. Brooks & Allan Burns- nominated for 10 WGA awards and won once.
7. Mad Men (AMC)- created by Matthew Weiner- nominated for 11 WGA awards and won five.
8. Cheers (NBC)- created by Glen Charles, Les Charles & James Burrows- nominated for 13 WGA awards, winning four.
9. The Wire (HBO)- created by David Simon- nominated for 3 WGA awards, winning one.
10. The West Wing (NBC)- created by Aaron Sorkin- nominated for 12 WGA awards, winning two.

Cannes ----> Oscar?!?!

Fun fact: only two movies have ever won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Best Picture Academy Award.  Ever.  In history.  In that, it brings a certain irony that the festival strikes a chord and chill year after year for potential and future awards crystal ball gazing.  The last time Cannes and the Academy agreed was in 1955- for Marty, so it's not even a close record.  It's unsurprising that the cool and the fabulous creed that makes up the most esteemed film festival in history would veer off from the typically middlebrow consciousness of AMPAS naval-gazing.  It's a yearly document, however, of the lofty legacy of the year of cinema though and the Cannes programmers and the Hollywood distributors have perhaps always been bedfellows, even if the yearly jurors tend to dismiss the competition options that may have a chance of gold statutes in the their future.  Still, it would nice if one day Marty and Billy Wilder's 1964 addiction drama The Lost Weekend had some company.  Not that there haven't been contenders.  The following are films that won the Palme d'Or and collected a Best Picture nomination sans prize:

• Friendly Persuasion (1957)
• M*A*S*H (1970)
• The Conversation (1974)
• Taxi Driver (1976)
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
• All That Jazz (1980)
• Missing (1982)
• The Mission (1986)
• The Piano (1993)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Secrets & Lies (1996)
• The Pianist (2002)
• The Tree of Life (2011)
• Amour (2012)

What If "Frances Ha" Ruled the World...

I'm rather smitten with Frances Ha as I've previously mentioned.  What's engaging and almost revelatory about Noah Baumbach's new irony-soaked misfit comedy is that it's undeniably a very hopeful film.  Despite the fact that the leading character, named Frances, wonderfully played by Greta Gerwig in her finest hour (to date, for sure-- she's still quite young, but this will be a hard act to follow) is a fairly feckless woman going through a 21st century quarter century malaise.  She's an aspiring dancer at the age of twenty-seven, but really she's just an apprentice without much means for economic stability, she's romantically unattached (even rendered "undateable" by close friends) and doesn't even have a home of her own.  In fact, the entire conceit of Frances Ha is hinged on her mooching of friends and acquaintances as she hops around New York City with little else than the semi-false conviction she tells herself (and others) that it's all going to work out in the end.  And yet, the film is wistful and charming and utterly believable in spite of its post-modern, black and white filmed, Woody Allen-esque romanticism.  The film is certainly one of the few genuine highlights of the years so far, and will likely remain so by year's end.

I suppose one of the reason that I'm so taken with Frances Ha and its main character is because I instantly felt a sort of kinship to her in a way I haven't felt at the movies in quite a while.  This being the start of the summer movie season, that's rather miraculous in itself-- not that it's impossible to feel that way about grown men in tights, per se.  Both Frances and myself (in my distorted sense of reality, we're close friends) came of age in the same slice of time, and both of us yearn for a life filled with creativity, even with the nagging sense of perhaps not having the slightest clue on how to go about doing so, and the even more nagging sense that the tide of time is starting to mark the term "aspiring" as something rather pathetic.  For 27 (in full disclosure, I'm turned 28 last fall, but that matters not) is, of course, not old...not now at least, and not here.  For coming of age now feels likes a series of blunders and missteps and false starts more so than perhaps ever before, and that's not even accounting for the fact that, as a society, we've grown ever more complacent and feel some sense of accomplishment in the sense of discovering some new toy in our iGadget world.  The feelings of entitlement over such devices is a topic for another day.

Deeper than that, the quarter century crisis of 2013 in unlike those of before because it's informed by the last two decades of economic recessions, wars on terror, the FOX News Network, eight years of George W. Bush, and six so far of President Obama.  There's been enough of an outcry to arms and confusion and anger that has beset this generation, but unlike the baby boomers distraught and outraged by the corruption of the Nixon administration and the spurring of the counterculture, us spawns of the Reagan era have lied mostly dormant-- the most radical thing we may do is change our Facebook avatars to voice our support for same-sex marriage.  Surely, that's not completely true, but that safety net and security of living through digital currency has changed the way we attack when disturbing by things-- now it most commonly comes in the form of "like" buttons.  Is this out of depression, a feeling of hopelessness or just plain right laziness?  

Frances has moments throughout the film where she says outwardly that she should be doing something, but finds herself instead with drinking with her pals and in a genuine assessment of 21st quarter century ennui-- merely hanging out.  That's our bid for doing something.  Frances Ha digs beautifully and artfully into this generation, and it's sort of post-growing pains growing pains.  It's startling to realize that Mr. Baumbach himself is 43-years-old, and yet how acutely and accurately dissects the quirks of the iGeneration and even more startling that the film is such a deft and affectionate one that.  Frances is perhaps a totem for now.

She's certainly intelligent and assured, but consumed by that certain pull of frustration and constant negativity that plagues the very now of society.  It's certainly strange, and not exactly new at all, but more persistent now in its extremity that even in languid tranquility, there's a certain doom that seems to have won the war long ago.  For instance, anyone who has watched television in the past few weeks has been beholden to the natural terrors of Oklahoma and very man-made ones in Boston.  Multiply this anguish by years of coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan and Iran, northeastern storms dubbed "Frankenstorm" and Hurricane Katrina.  This past television year, many watched show Smash out of contempt...it was dubbed "hatewatching," but in a way, aren't we all just hatewatching the world these days?  It's a hard world outside and rationalizing the harshness of the scary events of the world can feel slightly suffocating if your private world is quite going the way you think it should.  Being that the cinema has long been my comfort, it's even harder to reconcile very real world terror depicted on the big screen for big popcorn thrill rides (see recent examples Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness), but there's a respite in Frances Ha's wistful hopefulness in the land that suckiness built.

Frances Ha is far removed from politics, but Gerwig's characterization is filled with the very tics I see in myself and many I'm closest too.  It's a charming and disarming movie, charmingly staged and spliced with an off-the-cuff realness that the scenes all feel lived-in, not staged at all, but any twentysomething whose ever felt a sense of struggle can relate to it, I feel.  One day, people like myself and the other Frances' of the world will rule it.  Frances copes by going on with a soundtrack in her head and hope in her heart.  The most joyous scene of the film shows her flinging and flailing the streets of New York while Bowie's "Modern Love" soothes the background.  It's a tenderly transcendent moment, even whilst being a strictly only-the-movies thing.  All the frustrations and grief and ennui and anger is seemingly pushed aside by a wave of optimism and hope and regeneration that even when all is it at its worst, you can create and imagine a more perfect destiny.  I'd love to do that too.  Unfortunately, there are certain things that can only be deemed socially acceptable in quirky independent comedies; in the streets I would be deemed a lunatic dancing to imaginary tunes.

I'm not really sure where I'm going here.  I fear this might read like a hopeless foam at the mouth exercise without order or direction, which is actually in keeping with Frances' train of thought whether she's running and falling about in the streets or desperately trying to act like a sophisticate at grown up dinner parties.  The expression of a cinematic character speaking for a generation, even if in a especially specific way, or a personal attachment of a piece of art speaking to someone at just the right moment in life.  There's a moment in the film where Frances in near-apparent sincerity says, "sometimes it's good to do what you're supposed when you're supposed to do it." For the social misfit, that's pretty much as to the point as her character gets, but more importantly, something a film character comes along at the right moment in the passage of time for it become truly meaningful.  If I were 40-years-old or 17-years-old, Frances and her vaguely misguided plights and adventures likely would not have crossed my mind as something other than an on-the-surface diversion.  Now, and at this stage, she and film come across as nearly rebellious in so that in that you trudge the shit around and within and continue because someone's art is important, even if it's silly and has an audience restricted to but one, and of absolute value even if you're penniless.

Wouldn't Be Nice If This Were the Final One Sheet?!?!?!?

Just sayin'.  You know that when formal promotional materials are made public for Ain't Them Bodies Saints, the Sundance player starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, which won the Cinematographers Prize at this years festival, will never look as vague, mysterious, ambiguous and as old school wonderful as this!

Just Say NO!!!!!

In unfortunate and altogether ridiculous new, Hollywood is toying with the idea of ruining yet another masterful work of art, in this case with a planned re-make of Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 Oscar-winning Rebecca.  The original film, based on the grand Gothic novel by Daphne du Maurier, starred Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine as unexpected lovers tormented by the ghost of his first wife, and the chambermaid still in the past, played with timeless creepiness by Judith Anderson in one of the all time greatest villain showcases in movie history.  Alright, first off, it Alfred freaking Hitchcock, and certainly Gus Van Sant can attest to the notion of trying to better or even putting oneself in the light of comparison is an error no one can run away from.  Secondly, this is a masterclass work of Hollywood glamor and distinction, a property of which should not be touched...it's still a wonder.  Thirdly, no matter the gifts of scribe Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises), nor the passion backed from DreamWorks and Working Title Films as the planned distributors, Rebecca is that one in a million type of classic that cannot be bettered nor filtered through the new-Hollywood reckless way of carbon copying.  This is an endlessly special film, and the first Hitchcock made for Hollywood.  PLEASE DON'T DO IT!!!!!!  Mrs. Danvers will burn down your house.

Happy New Year

As we say goodbye to the somewhat daffy, somewhat dreary, whatever-you-make-of-it year of cinema that was 2011, and welcome a time of reflection and hope for a better one to come, I offer some of my favorite memories of the past year of movies.  Note this is not a best-of list (that comes with more reflection and timing...damn the critical society for their silly Oscar dazing; filmmaking requires a time to breath to truly absorb.)  Here's some happy gems I savored:

The grotesque, but fascinating demise of Gwyneth Paltrow in Steven Soderbergh's outbreak horror global flick Contagion.

When Owen Wilson's Gil met Salvador Dali (played with a never before seen sense of humor by Adrien Brody) in Midnight in Paris.

The nuttiest and most hilarious sequence of the year: when the Bridesmaids gals took that ill-fated plane ride to Las Vegas-- Kristen Wiig was "ready to paarrtttyyy," and welcomed everyone to the celebration of perhaps the most artfully executed girls-gone-wild piece ever created for the silver screen.

The nervy, stomach-inducing sequence atop the world largest building in Dubai, whereTom Cruise scaled in Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol.  Shot with such tense, such verve, such "how the hell did do that" kind of cinematic magic that franchise filmmaking appears to have lost some time ago.  I didn't feel good watching it, what with the butterflies in my stomach churning of the fear of heights I never knew I had, but damned if I wasn't compelled.

The alarming and worthwhile sense of discovery in watching the absorbing charm of Elizabeth Olsen tackling a dense, hard to define character of many names in Martha Marcy May Marlene.  Ditto the arrival of Rooney Mara in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, just to cheat a little.

The shock and awe of George Valentin's nightmare possibly becoming a reality as everyone has a voice but himself, the greatest silent movie star in the world in The Artist.

"Life a Happy Song," the best musical sequence in a feature film since Catherine Zeta-Jones belted "All That Jazz" in The Muppets.

The opening prologue to Melancholia, in which director Lars von Trier romantically and beguilingly scored his end-of-the-world operetta to tune of Wagner's Tristan & Isolde.  von Trier has never been quite so unnervingly and beautifully poetic.

That nifty, ultra cool, so-stylized it hurts elevator shot in Drive, where Ryan Gosling became not just a movie star, but a generational icon.

The sad and haunting conclusion to best romantic story of the year-- the bittersweet farewell of the lovers from Weekend.

What are your favorite cinematic moments of 2011?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Another Nail in the Coffin for Los Angeles Indie Movie Theaters

Rather sad day, at the very least personally, hopefully to many cinephiles in the Los Angeles area as well as the venerable institution known as the Sunset 5 will be closing its doors December 1st.  Owned and operated by Laemmle Theaters, a small Southern California chain of art houses, the decision comes with a whimper on the already sad state of art house complexes in Los Angeles.  Over the past few years, many have folded (thinking of the Fine Arts Theater and NuWilshire Theater, and the others (including the Sunset 5) have for some time appeared fledgling at best.  All of which is terribly sad news, not the least bit personally for the indelible marks seethed into my memory, but the lack of art houses in Los Angeles itself.  While bigger, fancier multiplexes have popped out and have over the past few years have increasingly shown a bigger diversity in mixing big Hollywood films with the smaller art house offerings, and certain local revival houses are doing stellar business working on their own terms (thinking of the New Beverly Cinema, owned by Quentin Tarantino, and Silent Movie House of Fairfax.)  But what's becoming of the simpler, scrappier art houses that value screen space to the truly independent, foreign and documentary features that now, more than ever appear less and less existent in Los Angeles.

Perhaps saddest for me, because I was at the Sunset 5 just yesterday (where I saw Take Shelter) and have been a regular and happy consumer for several years-- I saw films like Weekend and Tabloid there as, and as both are currently two of many favorite offerings of the year.  Yet it's fact that this nearly two decade old cinematic haven (it opened its doors in 1992) has a lasting legacy; the theater is located in center of West Hollywood and opened its doors to the small, but everlasting moment in independent filmmaking of the Queer New Wave, showing the early titles of brash filmmakers like Todd Haynes, Gregg Araki, Lisa Cholodenko, and Todd Solondz.  Before the look started to become slightly rundown, it was the hippest theater in town, but also a lovely communal moviegoing experience in of itself. 

Plans are underway that Sundance Cinemas will renovate the space and open a 7-screen multiplex in 2012, but that's hardly the point.  The of late, no-thrills atmosphere of movie places like the Sunset 5 are reminders that plush and fancy (not to mention-- ridiculously expensive) are not the wave of the future, but the reason why many prefer staying home.

A Brief History of Title Design

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

One forgets how much the title design of a film used to be, or how much fun is should be.  It sets the tone for the entire feature...love the great Hitchcock classics....

So Now What...

As Sunday's telecast of the Golden Globes concluded (with an uptick in viewership from last year), the general opinion was the Hollywood Foreign Press might really be the People's Choice Awards. The behemoth of 2009 filmmaking, Avatar snatches the two biggest prizes (picture, drama and director) in the same weekend the James Cameron opus breaks $500 million in domestic box office; Cameron, pleased with himself, even speaks a few lines of his invented language of the Nai'Vi in winning best director. In winning the best picture drama prize, Cameron bested the other two alleged top contenders, The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air; it also became the first science fiction film in Golden Globe history to win best picture-- something that has never occured in Oscar history either.

In the musical\comedy field The Hangover, with it's massive popularity and gay jokes won in true underdog fashion over more prestige comedy choices like the indie hit (500) Days of Summer and Nine, a surprise casuality for the singing and dancing loving HFPA (as witnessed from previous love for Moulin Rouge!; Chicago, and Dreamgirls.) Could it be that The Hangover could become a real possibility with the Academy after this key win and nominations from the Writers Guild and ACE Editors Guild?


Other populist choices were Sandra Bullock winning best actress in drama for The Blind Side (box office is $230 million and counting) and Robert Downey, Jr. winning actor in a comedy for Sherlock Holmes ($180 million and counting.) While Downey, Jr.'s win won't mean anything to the Oscars, Bullock's stock is ever gaining. After tieing the Critics Choice Awards with Meryl Streep (for Julie & Julia, another big hit at $90 million) and winning the Globe, Bullock has emerged, at least in media terms, as the dark horse in best actress. The "deul" is one between Bullock and Streep. In fact, really the only awards given out at the Golden Globes that didn't go to an extremely popular and successful film were Jeff Bridges actor win for Crazy Heart, and the song "The Weary Kind," from the same film. This is in huge contrast to recent years where the independent film community had stronger grasps in key awards-- for example last year films like Happy-Go-Lucky, In Bruges, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and The Wrestler all won key awards-- Avatar handily beat all of those films box office within it's first couple of days.

I personally thought it was a pretty dull show, even though I can't complain about the majority of the trophies handed out. Well actually I can: The Hangover and it's frat boy humor had nothing on the witty charm of (500) Days of Summer. Robert Downey, Jr., as awesome as he is, had nothing on Joseph Gordon Levitt's incandescent romantic. And Sandra Bullock, as likeable and warm as she is didn't really have an awards worthy performance in The Blind Side, which isn't to discredit it really, even though I wasn't exactly a fan. She has always been a very warm presence on screen, and a natural at the press rounds-- her speech was lovely because she exuded all the charm and American sweetheart-ness we like about her, but in terms of a cohesive, complex feat of acting triumph I think not. Also, I was left cold by the big wins of Avatar, not because I didn't like the film, but because Cameron always has to ruin it by speaking.

Is 2009 a stronger year for commercial filmmaking, or is it post-The Dark Knight criticism coming back in an eager and desperate attempt for award shows to prove that they aren't elitists? I think it's a strange case of both. 2009 has been a boon for commercial filmmaking, notably, I would say with the exception of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, all of the big blockbusters of the year have been decent-- this year alone saw a sort of re-birth in classic science fiction (District 9, Star Trek, Avatar), a rejuvenation in animation (Up, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess & the Frog), a wonderful year for women named Meryl (Julie & Julia and It's Complicated are two of her highest grossing films to date) and Sandra (The Proposal reminded everyone that light comedy is her specialty and The Blind Side made history as being the first film ever to gross over $200 million with a woman carrying it.) 2009 also saw revisionist history at it's finest (Inglourious Basterds became Quentin Tarantino's highest grossing film to date.)


All of this coupled with the diminished returns of the American independent companys-- many of them released less or simply folded in the past year, have put the Oscar spotlight back in big, glossy Hollywood product. It's interesting to note that in the year's before Titanic, American filmmaking and Academy tastes were in a similar spot-- the smaller films were beating the big studio films and the old adage of Hollywood being out of touch was a trademark. Twelve years later and James Cameron has come again to save the movie industry. I meant that remark with a tinge of bitterness, but not too much, being an admirer of Avatar myself and all it's 3-D fantastical glory. The problem with the situation at hand this standstill of the awards season is basically the AMPAS is damned if they do and damned if they don't-- anointed a big popular film will delight the broadcasters and advertisers, and enrage the cinephiles.

My current predictions for the top ten best picture slots are:

• Avatar
• District 9
• An Education
  
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Invictus
• Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
• Star Trek
  
• Up
  
• Up in the Air

The ironic thing is that in this first post-The Dark Knight awards show, there really didn't need for a big change like putting 10 nominees for a big movie to enter, and maybe even win. Avatar's principle rivals currently are The Hurt Locker (which has had the critics salivating since opening in July, the prestige factor in being a war movie, a slew of critics prizes and guild mentions, but as of now only made about $12 million in box office-- no film in recent best picture history has made that little money) and Up in the Air (a more AMPAS friendly title with critical support and booming box office-- it's about $60 million and counting-- plus big names in George Clooney, and Academy nepotism in Jason Reitman, and a timely subject matter, but it's also a comedy and it's lighter touch might make it a tough sell for the academy voters who prefer a bit more of a heavy hand.)

I guess the point is should the success of films at the box office be there one reward, and are we mistaken in calling some of the big hitters of the year artistic successes...

Wow, this is been a long rant-- I hope it makes sense to someone...

Quickie Reviews

MARGOT AT THE WEDDING

What's exceptional about Noah Baumbach's familiar and biting follow-up to his exemplary The Squid and the Whale is Nicole Kidman's astute and harshly stinging performance. It's in this fondness for being an auteurial vessel that makes Kidman an amazing performer, her utter ability to throw herself into characters (some of which not particular likable, which is slightly brave in its self for a mega watt movie star who could easily coast it in commercial fare) for the benefit of a gifted, if slightly mad director. Mr. Baumbach, I'm sure, is no Lars von Trier on the crazy department, but his depictions of upper-middle class family strife isn't easy to stomach. Kidman plays Margot, a successful writer, who travels to impending nuptials of estranged sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and loser\boho Malcolm (Jack Black.) Being of the overly judgemental variety, one without a proper filter for the words coming out of her mouth, Margot has plenty to say of this union, and has little qualms about sharing it with whoever will listen. There's elements of Margot at the Wedding that are especially hard to watch and listen to, but what makes the movie work is the chemistry and dynamic of Kidman and Leigh, who even while arguing in their hyper literate way you still see a warm sisterly bond between them; both actors are so lived-in with these roles, that a great sense of history and happiness, and betrayl comes across the entire time. This isn't exactly a better film than The Squid and the Whale-- while there's really no plot, there's a bunch of non-sequiters that take away from the drama (the cutting of tree, Margot's affair, and a strange group of neighbors that feel like an entirely other movie altogether), but it's still a pretty good one. B+

THE GOLDEN COMPASS

Based on the first book of Philip Pullman's fantasy trilogy, The Golden Compass feels likes a rehash of The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, other recent fantasy crap (insert name here) and feels overly kid friendly, while the book was quite dark. The Catholic Church made a huge spectacle urging one and all to boycott the film, but it's been so sanitized and focus group approved that seems foolish-- yeah Pullman is an atheist and the church is viewed as the enemy in the book, but director Chris Weitz and New Line Cinema copped out and went the Disney-fied, corn-fed route in telling the not the very original tale of a girl named Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards-- who studied at the Daniel Radcliffe School of Acting apparently), a poor orphaned lass whose given a magical golden compass that holds the key and power to see all. The evil Magisterium, ruled by Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) wants the compass in order to succeed in evil deeds of ruling the world by censoring it, or something like that. It's far more expansive and morally chilling in Pullman's prose, and there's more of sense of magic as well. Really the only cool thing the movie got right was daemons (which are animal counterparts of one's soul), and Kidman (again) getting her evil on-- the rest of the film seems overly familiar and not particularly exciting. When a climatic polar bear fight can't even parlay any excitement on it's audience, there's no hope at all. Just sleep. C+

ENCHANTED

So a cartoon girl, waiting for her prince, gets tricked and trapped in real world Manhattan thanks to an evil sorceress. It's a cute premise and there's quite a lot of parts of Enchanted where it works, and it's cute and clever and spunky. All the praise really belongs to Amy Adams, who with utmost warmth and absolute sincerity, owns the role of Giselle, the uber-Disney princess. The charm of Enchanted is how it sends up and points out the dated cliches of Disney animated films, but embraces them at the same time. The tone is just right, and James Marsden as her animated Prince Edward is dimly vain yet absolutely appealing, it's just that certain things don't quite register right in the real world, and the overly pat ending and predictable ending makes doesn't serve the good stuff at all. Neither does Susan Sarandon mugging way too hard as the evil Queen Narissa, or the bland Patrick Dempsey as Giselle's live action suitor. But never mind about the film's faults (I just mentioned them, I done), what makes the film is Adams and her un-ironic, deeply committed investment in her character. She emphasizes Giselle's 2-D world view, but never makes her dim, and gradually becomes a modern, resilient 3-D kind of gal. It's refreshing in an era of dark and gloomy films, that Adams is making a habit out of showing complexity and honesty and freshness in good people. This performance and her Oscar-nominated turn in Junebug are the nicest people to inhabit the cinema in quite some time. B-

AUGUST RUSH

I don't wanna be mean, so I just say-- C-