The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
The final instalment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is both the greatest visually, but the weakest character and plot-wise, but not by much. Batman is driven to seclusion because he has been vilified in the media and he just wants to hide away anyhow. Enter both Catwoman (a slinky marginalized toughy who just needs someone to love her) and Robin (a young beat cop with a heart for orphans) to draw the Dark Knight from his cave. But the real conjurer is the new supervillain Bane who holds Gotham hostage with bombs developed by Batman's tech corp.
The drama is interesting if you can follow what Bane says through is mask and you can buy the storyline if you cast concerns about timelines aside (especially for Batman's bones to knit in the pit). Not sure why I'm so negative on this all of a sudden, maybe I've grown tired of this genre... I do find the bigger questions asked by Bane compelling and the underground movements to thwart him are inspiring and of course the death and resurrection themes are always sublime.
Woody Allen's treatise on how the wicked go unpunished while the good live difficult lives - also a question as to the existence of God. The film is a masterpiece mainly due to its ability to pose (and attempt to answer) very difficult existential questions while at the same time making you laugh until your abdomen hurts.
David Fincher couldn't resist making his own film adaptation of the wildly successful mystery novels (I've heard they read exactly like the movies...) even though the original (released just 2 years previous) was very well made and popular.
With hilarious self-awareness, the Muppets work to retain their legacy by trying to save their old theatre which is under threat from a caricatured villain real estate developer.
Some fun one-liners, entertaining inter relational dynamics, and of course great visual effects. But it's still an action movie primarily and you'll find little else.
Ralph Nader's independent presidential runs in 2000 and 2004 are regarded by many as having given George W. Bush the elections in both those years because he drew Democrat votes away from the Gore, then Kerry.
Three master directors give us a collection of short films all set on the same train. The stories are all very unique and give us a flavour of humanity and Europe that we don't often get in film - or as isolated passengers on a train. Very lovely!
This film is too over the top I think, but maybe I just don't know the Australian trailerpark crime culture well enough. The crime and the response to crime seems cartoonish without trying to be.
Here is an important movie making personal the effects of overreaching political power, namely the Bush/Cheney administration. Fair Game is the true story of CIA operative Valerie Plame who is outed by the administration when her recommendations are contrary to what the executive branch demands. By publicizing her name, her covert (and noble) operations put in jeopardy and she becomes a target of hawk Republicans.
This crime thriller evokes the many 1980s and 1990s classic plot twist films. That isn't to say that it is any less clever than its precursors, but it does use a well-used mechanic with its audience.
This is the detailed account of how the wealthy financial sector is robbing the world. The details are calmly presented in a clear, well connected way to draw us to a very dismal conclusion. In fact the film is absolutely infuriating. It covers a lot of the same ground that Michael Moore covers in Capitalism: A Love Story, but it is perceived as much less polemic.
This film brought to mind the quote at the beginning of my film:
The writers (five of them) bite off more than they could chew trying to make a genuine drama about loss/fear/recovery, an action movie with a vigilante woman, and a film that tries to incite its viewers into asking questions about justice. I would say they succeed on all points to some degree, but ultimately lose much of the punch. Personally, a solid drama should have been the focus as it drew me in the most and then dropped me about 2/3 of the way in.
This is not an especially compelling account of the revolution in Cuba. It's told through the eyes of a boy from a middle to high class family who watches the adult scandals pre-revolution and the ultimate disintegration of his family during and after the revolution. I would be more sympathetic if it weren't so boring! The characters try too hard to be colourful and the dialogue is flat.
Missing is based on the true story of an American who went missing during the Chilean military coup of 1973. Jack Lemmon plays his father and Sissy Spacek plays his wife. Together they search for clues as to where he could have disappeared to.
The Celebration is a cross between Monsoon Wedding and Gosford Park with some Noah Baumbach and Lars Von Trier thrown in. The setting is a Danish country mansion where family and friends have gathered to celebrate the 60th birthday of Helge - a successful restauranteur and freemason. We learn quickly of the family's disfunction and several sparks have already flown by the time the real fuse is lit at supper.
Win Win is a superb film with plenty of flawed (but very entertaining) characters. The collision of two families each with a unique struggle who then lean into the other is a picture of communion and love.
What a heartbreaking film! A desperate labourer is robbed of his bicycle and spends the next day trying to find his bike and thus save his employment in postwar Italy. The film was a powerful display of what life is currently like in many parts of the world and I was surprised at how similar late 1940s Rome looked to current Guatemala City.
Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, Sideways) walks us through letting go and hanging on at the same time. The Descendants is fresh and old at the same time, an unromantic look at some upper crust folks in Hawaii.
A clever and dark, superbly executed animation. The creatures of the desert are brought to life and given such detail just in their appearance that it is almost unnecessary to have a story - but it does, and it's a gooder.
