Looking Back at 2011

Well, there it is, another movie year over and done with. Looking back on the 2011 movie year, my feelings are somewhat mixed. On the one hand, there weren’t many movies that I felt were truly “great,” that really inspired passion in me. On the other hand, there were fewer movies that I flat out didn’t like – even the film that I would call the “worst” that I saw all year was one that I actually enjoyed quite a bit because it was so terrible that it was fun to watch. Essentially, it feels like it was kind of a middle of the road year – not great, but far from bad.

Review: The Artist (2011)

* * * *
Director: Michael Hazanavicius
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo

In Preston Sturges' great Sullivan's Travels, the conclusion that the protagonist comes to is that "there's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan." Comedy very rarely gets the same level of respect as drama, perhaps because happiness seems somehow like a less profound emotion than sadness, but it takes just as much skill, if not more, to make someone laugh as it does to make them cry. To make a successful comedy requires talent; to make one that feels effortless is nothing short of a miracle. Michael Hazanavicius' The Artist is such a film, and it pulls it off (almost) without saying a word.

Friday's Top 5... My Most Anticipated Films of 2012

#5: Prometheus

There's been a bit of back and forth about whether or not Prometheus is part of the Alien franchise (official word is no, however the new film's tagline is "In space something can hear you scream," which, you know, if awfully reminiscent of Alien's tagline), but regardless of its cinematic affiliation, the trailer makes it look pretty awesome.

Awards Roundup

* Golden Globe nomination
+ Guild nomination
* Critics Choice nomination

The winners so far:

Best Picture

(11) The Artist**:
Oklahoma Film Critics Circle
Phoenix Film Critics
St. Louis Film Critics
Detroit Film Critics
San Diego Film Critics
Las Vegas Film Critics
Indiana Film Critics
New York Film Critics Circle
Washington D.C. Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online
Boston Film Critics

(5) The Descendants**:
Southeastern Film Critics
Florida Film Critics
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics
Houston Film Critics
Los Angeles Film Critics

(4) The Tree of Life*:
Chicago Film Critics
Toronto Film Critics
African-American Film Critics Association
San Fransisco Film Critics

(2) Hugo**:
Austin Film Critics
National Board of Review

(1) Drive:
Utah Film Critics

(1) The Help:
Black Film Critics Circle

Review: Young Adult (2011)

* * * 1/2
Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson

Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) longs to return to her high school days because she believes that that was when she was at her best. What she fails to realize is that it wasn't so much that she was at her best in high school as that she still had people around to validate her awfulness. Reuniting writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman, Young Adult is a film as acid as Juno was sweet, replacing a naive but likeable protagonist with one almost dangerously delusional and misanthropic. It's the feel good movie of the holiday season!

Awards Roundup

* Golden Globe nomination
+ Guild nomination
* Critics Choice nomination

The winners so far:

Best Picture

(8) The Artist**:
Detroit Film Critics
San Diego Film Critics
Las Vegas Film Critics
Indiana Film Critics
New York Film Critics Circle
Washington D.C. Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online
Boston Film Critics

(3) The Descendants**:
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics
Houston Film Critics
Los Angeles Film Critics

(3) The Tree of Life*:
Toronto Film Critics
African-American Film Critics Association
San Fransisco Film Critics

(1) Hugo**:
National Board of Review

Friday's Top 5... Head Scratchers of the 2011 Awards Season (So Far)

#5: Melissa McCarthy is a Best Supporting Actress frontrunner

Look, I loved Bridesmaids and I loved Melissa McCarthy in it, but did she really give one of the best supporting performances of the year? Really, New York Film Critics? And Vegas? And Boston? Really?

Golden Globe Nominees

Nominations were announced first thing this morning - and once again, the HFPA and I disagree on what constitutes a "drama" and what constitutes a "comedy." Here are the nominees:

Best Picture (Drama)
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

Best Picture (Musical or Comedy)
The Artist
Bridesmaids
50/50
Midnight In Paris
My Week with Marilyn

Golden Globe Predicts

Nominations are announced tomorrow, here are my predictions:

Best Picture (Drama)
Drive
The Help
Hugo
Moneyball
War Horse

alt: The Girl with the Dragn Tattoo

Best Picture (Musical or Comedy)
The Artist
Bridesmaids
The Descedants
Midnight In Paris
Young Adult

alt: Carnage

Screen Actors Guild Nominees

Here they are:

Best Ensemble
The Artist
Bridesmaids
The Descendants
The Help
Midnight In Paris

Screen Actors Guild Predicts

The announcement will be made tomorrow morning, here are my predictions:

Best Ensemble
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Midnight In Paris

alt:Bridesmaids

Review: The Descendants (2011)

* * * 1/2
Director: Alexander Payne
Starring: George Clooney

Alexander Payne is an expert at finding comedy in unlikely places. His debut feature, Citizen Ruth, was about the battle over the legality of abortion, About Schmidt was about a recent widower and retiree who fears that life is meaningless and futile, Sideways is about a failed and alcoholic writer, and his masterpiece Election is about the epic battle between a frustrated high school teacher and a manipulative, over-achieving student. His latest, The Descendants is about, amongst other things, the process of grief and like his previous films mixes comedy and drama so seamlessly that he makes it look deceptively easy.

Awards Roundup

2011 Winners so far:

Best Picture

(4) The Artist:
New York Film Critics Circle
Washington D.C. Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online
Boston Film Critics

(1) The Descendants:
Los Angeles Film Critics

(1) Hugo:
National Board of Review

Best Director

(3) Martin Scorsese, Hugo:
Boston Film Critics
Washington D.C. Film Critics
National Board of Review

(2) Michael Hazanavicis, The Artist:
New York Film Critics Online
New York Film Critics Circle

(1) Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life:
Los Angeles Film Critics

Friday's Top 5... Actors Who Should Be Too Good To Be In New Year's Eve

#5: Abigail Breslin

Oh, Abigail. You were doing so good. You were nominated for an Oscar at the age of 10. You were in the little seen gem Definitely, Maybe and the much seen Zombieland. I promise you: you are better than this.

Great Last Scenes: Bon Cop, Bad Cop

Year: 2006
Director: Eric Canuel
Great Because...: It goes for it and it gets away with it. In film the line between the good guys and the bad guys is pretty distinctly drawn, particularly in action films. Heroes are supposed to get the bad guys, not kill them in cold blood. Bon Cop, Bad Cop not only manages to allow its heroes to brutally eliminate the villain, it does so with a smile on its face.

Review: Swimming Pool (2003)

* * *
Director: Francois Ozon
Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier

Francois Ozon's crime thriller Swimming Pool is one of those hypnotic, challenging films that you'll puzzle over and debate about long after seeing. It's a film that seems deceptively straight forward and then, in its final act, completely pulls the rug out from under you. This last act turnaround will be frustrating to some viewers, but for others it will simply add a new, rich dimension to what was already a first-rate thriller.

Review: My Week with Marilyn (2011)

* * *
Director: Simon Curtis
Starring: Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh

Movies like My Week with Marilyn exist for one reason and one reason only, and that's as a showcase for a performance. All the eggs go into this particular basket and everything else becomes of secondary importance, which leaves little room for error with that central performance. Fortunately, Michelle Williams' turn as Marilyn Monroe is fantastic, the kind that goes beyond "impersonation" and firmly into "inhabitation." However, the caliber of her performance can't disguise how average the film itself is, as it does little to break away from the cliches of its genre, and does even less to offer any new insight into the woman who was, arguably, the greatest film star of all time.

Friday's Top 5... Spy Movies (non-James Bond edition)

#5: The Hunt for Red October

The best of the Jack Ryan films (starring, arguably, the best Jack Ryan). This Cold War submarine thriller is expertly directed and acted and remains greatly entertaining. Just try to ignore the fact that Sean Connery makes absolutely no attempt to sound like anything other than a Russian guy with a Scottish accent.

Review: A Short Film About Love (1988)

* * * *
Director: Krysztof Kieslowski
Starring: Grazyna Szapolowska, Olaf Lubaszenko

The late Krysztof Kieslowski was, without question, one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. Many storytellers can talk about ideas, but he was (and remains) one of the few who could dramatize an idea. The series that best demonstrates this ability is The Decalogue, a series of short films based on the ten commandments, from which two segments (this one and A Short Film About Killing) were later expanded into full length films. Though slightly altered from the segment as it appeared in The Decalogue, A Short Film About Love is still an excellent and thought-provoking film.

Review: The Skin I Live In (2011)

* * *
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya

Pedro Almodovar is very good at what he does; I'd say that he's one of the most consistently excellent filmmakers working today. With The Skin I Live In he takes the admirable step of trying to branch out from familiar territory, but steps a little too tentatively and falls back a little too readily on those familiar tropes and techniques. It's still a good and often fascinating film (and beautiful looking even at its ugliest moments), but it's not quite everything that it could be.

Unsung Performances: Tilda Swinton in I Am Love

When I made my "Best of 2010" lists, Luca Guadagnino's sumptuous I Am Love came up again and again. It's a film that I admire a great deal and there's nothing I admire more about it than the central performance by Tilda Swinton. One of the most consistently great (and interesting) actors working today, Swinton never disappoints and often surprises with her ever shifting screen persona. Here she plays a much softer character than she typically does, but loses none of her usual intensity in doing so.

Friday's Top 5... Marilyn Monroe Movies

Note: for the purposes of this list I'm only looking at the movies in which she had a starring role, otherwise All About Eve, in which Monroe is fantastic but only features for about five minutes, would take the top slot.

#5: How To Marry a Millionaire

Suspend your disbelief long enough to buy that Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall would have any trouble landing a millionaire. Monroe's performance as nearsighted Pola, who refuses to wear glasses, is one of her comedic best.

Book vs. Film: Fugitive Pieces vs. Fugitive Pieces

Basic Plot: After narrowly escaping from the Nazis (and watching his family be dragged off by them) in Poland, young Jacob Beaer is rescued by Athos Roussos, a Greek archaeologist who hides him for the duration of the war. Afterwards the two move to Toronto, where Jacob grows up to be a writer and is haunted by his past. He marries but the union is unsuccessful do to his inability to let go of the past and after their divorce, he finds love again but first must find a way to reconcile himself to his survivor's guilt.

Review: Il Postino (1994)

* * * 1/2
Director: Michael Radford
Starring: Philippe Noiret, Massimo Troisi, Maria Grazia Cucinotta

Michael Radford's Il Postino (aka, the movie called The Postman that's actually good) is a lyrical and beautifully rendered story about love and friendship. Much rewarded at the time of its release, it is one of the few foreign language films to achieve crossover success with AMPAS, earning nominations for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Adapted Screenplay (though it was not nominated for Foreign Language Film, as Italy chose to submit Giuseppe Tornatore's The Star Maker instead). Although it remains utterly charming, it does feel just a bit dated now, albeit still well worth a look.

Review: Melancholia (2011)

* * * *
Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsborough, Kiefer Sutherland

It probably says a lot about Lars von Trier as a filmmaker and/or person that he begins his tale of the apocalypse by showing that the earth will ultimately be destroyed, thereby removing any underlying sense of hope that might otherwise have marked the story. And yet, despite that, Melancholia may very well go down as one of von Trier's most light hearted films. Although perhaps not as challenging nor as provocative as some of his other recent work, it is nevertheless an entirely captivating and fascinating film.

Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

* * *
Director: Sean Durkin
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy

If this year follows the pattern of the last couple, which saw Jennifer Lawrence, Gabourey Sidibe, and Carey Mulligan breaking out of Sundance and riding a wave of critical praise to awards glory, then Elizabeth Olsen is well on her way towards a Best Actress nomination. With only a few film credits to her name (most of which were mid-90s vehicles for her sisters, the Olsen twins), she announces herself here as an actress to watch out for.

Review: J. Edgar (2011)

* * 1/2
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench

Stately and handsomely mounted but ultimately a bit empty, Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar is less a story than a survey course on a segment of American history (and enduring political gossip). It is stacked with fine performances - led by Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover - but performances alone can only get you so far when the film itself succumbs to the worst habits of the biopic genre.

Great Last Scenes: American Psycho

Year: 2000
Director: Mary Harron
Great Because...: It manages to be the darkest moment in a film that is dark right from the beginning. To put it simply: Patrick Bateman is a fucked up guy living a fucked up, shallow existence - one in which he will forever be trapped and which may not even exist outside of his own head. Sort of fitting, don't you think?

Canadian Film Review: Margaret's Museum (1995)

* * *
Director: Mort Ransen
Starring: Helena Bonham Carter, Clive Russell, Kate Nelligan

Helena Bonham Carter is like a Venn diagram that shows the intersection of classy and crazy, equally at home in fare like The King's Speech and her films with the Merchant Ivory team, and as a host of creepy and freaky characters in Tim Burton's films. In Mort Ransen's Margaret's Museum she gets to do both at once, starring in a period piece about a hardscrabble mining town which eventually leads to her going totally insane. Good times.

Filmography: Leonardo DiCaprio

On Friday Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar hits theaters and with it the Oscar season truly gets started. Star Leonardo DiCaprio is an early frontrunner for a Best Actor nomination which, if it does occur, would shockingly only be his 4th nomination. Over the course of the last 21 years, DiCaprio's career has seen several phases, from childstar to cult heartthrob to superstar to serious and respected actor. Let's take a look back at his filmmography:

Review: Horrible Bosses (2011)

* *
Director: Seth Gordon
Starring: Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell

Horrible Bosses has all the necessary ingredients for a great black comedy, but ends up feeling just a little bit undercooked. Yes, it has moments that, even if they don't quite attain greatness, at least deliver on comedy but with such a skilled cast you'd expect nothing less. If you see Horrible Bosses, chances are pretty good that you'll laugh, but I'd wager the chances are equally good that you'll forget the film completely not too long after.

Review: Bad Teacher (2011)

* * 1/2
Director: Jake Kasdan
Starring: Cameron Diaz

It's easy to review a movie that you either love or hate, it's harder to review a movie that you enjoyed but that, objectively, you know isn't really good. Bad Teacher is a movie that I liked a fair bit while I was watching it, but its flaws as a film (which are many) are always fairly prominent. It is, however, a huge leap forward for screenwriters Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, whose previous cinematic credit was the aggresively terrible Year One.

Ebert's Greats #14: Seven (1995)

* * * *
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman

Seven wasn't David Fincher's first feature film (that would be Alien 3), but it was the film that announced him as one of the defining directors of his generation. In lesser hands, Seven could have been just another gimicky thriller, a dark police procedural not unlike hundreds of other films of the genre. Instead, it's one of the greatest thrillers of the 90s, perhaps even of all time. Suffice it to say, going from Alien 3 to Seven is pretty much the exact opposite of a sophomore slump.

Review: The Rum Diary (2011)

* *
Director: Bruce Robinson
Starring: Johnny Depp, Michael Rispoli, Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard, Giovanni Ribisi

The Rum Diary has the feeling of being a labour of love. Originally set to begin filming in 2000, the project ended up stuck in development hell until finally being filmed in early 2009 and then having its release delayed until now. The novel on which the film is based has a similar history, having been written by Hunter S. Thompson in 1961 but not being published until 1998. The film version plays like a love letter to Thompson, but one which unfortunately never reaches a level of cohesiveness that matches its affection.

Review: Training Day (2001)

* * * 1/2
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke

In terms of bad movie cops, Denzel Washington's Alonzo Harris ranks right up there with Popeye Doyle and The Lieutenant from Bad Lieutenant. Crooked and violent, he completely undermines the concept of "to serve and protect," a concept which his new partner, Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke), considers as gospel. Bad cops and mismatched partners are nothing new in the world of fiction, of course, but few such stories have been brought to life with as much intensity as Antoine Fuqua's Training Day.

Review: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)

* * *
Director: Jake Kasdan
Starring: John C. Reilly

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is, quite possibly, the most underrated comedy of the last five years. I remember seeing trailers for it when it was out in theatres and thinking that it looked really lame, but it's actually pretty much entirely awesome from beginning to end. Written by Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan (who also directs), this is a sharp and hilarious send up of the musical biography genre.

Review: Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011)

* * * *
Director: Werner Herzog

I hate 3D. Really, really hate it. Nine times out of ten, I think it's completely unnecessary and little more than a money grab. But then there's that tenth time, that film that makes you grateful that 3D technology exists. Werner Herzog's documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams is one of those films, a spellbinding and thoroughly awe inspiring film about art and its capacity to bridge unfathomable temporal distances, drawing the echoes of the past into the present.

Review: The Ides of March (2011)

* * * 1/2
Director: George Clooney
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, George Clooney, Evan Rachel Wood, Marissa Tomei

"Because how one ought to live is so far removed from how one lives that he who lets go of what is done for that which one ought to do sooner learns ruin than his own preservation: because a man who might want to make a show of goodness in all things necessarily comes to ruin among so many who are not good. Because of this it is necessary for a prince, wanting to maintain himself, to learn how to be able to be not good and to use this and not use it according to necessity."
- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Review: Meek's Cutoff (2011)

* * * 1/2
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Starring: Michelle Williams

Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff is the kind of movie that only a cinephile could really like. It is minimalist to the extreme and consists of a lot of scenes which are simply long shots of people in pioneer garb walking through the desert, growing increasingly despondent. It's the kind of film that could easily be called pretentious were it not for Reichardt's abilities as a craftsman.

Review: The Conspirator (2011)

* * *
Director: Robert Redford
Starring: James McAvoy, Robin Wright

History is not linear; it’s circular. What goes around comes around again and again, which means that the best way to understand the events of the present is to look towards the past. Though Robert Redford’s The Conspirator takes place in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, it is equally about the current war on terror and the way that governments and the public react in times of uncertainty and political instability. At its core, the explores the question of how liberty can be of any value when governments can suspend during the times when it is needed the most.

Review: The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

* * 1/2
Director: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal

Sometimes you just have to turn off your brain in order to enjoy a movie. If you actually thought about it and took it seriously, Roland Emmerich's disaster epic The Day After Tomorrow... well, actually, you can't take it seriously. It's an inescapably silly movie. It is quite possibly even sillier than the parody version South Park did. The good news is that none of that means that the film is without a bit of entertainment value.

Friday's Top 5... Scary Movie Houses

#5: The House of Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher)

Jean Epstein's silent classic The Fall of the House of Usher (adapted from the short story by Edgar Allan Poe) is all about the dreamy (well, nightmarish) atmosphere. Of course, a story that takes place in a house that has a tomb in the basement only needs a little atmosphere to be entirely creepy.

Review: Three Kings (1999)

* * * *
Director: David O. Russell
Starring: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube

1999 was a great year in film. It was the year of Fight Club, The Matrix, Being John Malkovich, American Beauty and Boys Don't Cry, just to name a few. These movies were great in 1999 and they all hold up really well today, though none feel quite as prescient as David O. Russell's Three Kings. Set during the First Gulf War, the film tackles subject matter that is arguably more relevant now than ever, as if Russell (who wrote the screenplay in addition to directing) anticipated the issues that would dominate the last decade of political discourse.

Friday's Top 5... Brad Pitt Performances

#5: Burn After Reading

Brad Pitt is, hands down, my favourite thing about Burn After Reading. His portrayal of his dumb as rocks character is brilliant, both in terms of line readings and body language.

Canadian Film Review: Saint Ralph (2005)

* * 1/2
Director: Michael McGowan
Starring: Adam Butcher, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Tilly, Gordon Pinsent

There's no such thing as an original story; even Shakespeare got his inspiration from other sources. It's what you do with the idea that matters, it's in how you take the bare bones and create a living, breathing thing out of it. Great films transcend the well-worn elements of their plots. Saint Ralph is not a great film but even if it doesn't transcend its cliches, it at least has good taste in them.

Book vs. Film: The Talented Mr. Ripley vs. Purple Noon and The Talented Mr. Ripley

Basic Plot: Tom Ripley is a small time conman who weasles his way into the life of his former acquaintance, Dickie Greenleaf, after Greenleaf's parents become frustrated with their son's extended vacation from his responsibilities. Dickie is amused by Tom at first, but quickly grows tired of him which eventually leads to Tom killing Dickie and assuming his identity. Thus begins a cat and mouse game as Tom tries to elude the authorities but still maintain his hold on Dickie's fortune.

Review: The Debt (2011)

* * *
Director: John Madden
Starring: Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Similarly, if you say that you dispatched of a Nazi war criminal in one way and there's no one who can dispute your version of events, then what's to stop your version from becoming the official story? John Madden's long delayed thriller The Debt centers on a trio of Mossad agents who become famous for killing a Nazi war criminal and then, 30 years later, must contend with the potentially explosive collision of their story and the actual truth. It's a solid and very effective thriller and definitely worth a look.

Review: Drive (2011)

* * * *
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks

He's a driver. It's what he does and who he is, no more, no less. Taking its cue from its protagonist, Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, based on a novel of the same name by James Sallis, launches itself along a deliberate, no frills trajectory, working its way towards the only ending that a story like this could possibly have. That feeling of predetermination, however, does nothing to detract from how thrilling the film is and it comes to transcend the boundaries of its genre. Drive is the rare action movie in which you find yourself actually caring about the characters and what will happen to them.

Canadian Film Review: The Bang Bang Club (2011)

* * *
Director: Steven Silver
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Taylor Kitsch, Malin Akerman

The line between being a witness and being a passive collaborator can be thin sometimes. War photographers are in a tricky moral position in that they are tasked with capturing the horrors of war and thereby be active in the creation of a narrative, but they also have to be passive observers and interfere as little as possible with what they're documenting. The Bang Bang Club, based on a book of the same name, tackles this quandry, creating a compelling and often thought provoking film, albeit one that doesn't quite reach the heights it aspires to.

Review: 8 Women (2002)

* * *
Director: Francois Ozon
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Beart, Ludvine Sagnier, Virginie Ledoyen, Firmine Richard, Danielle Darrieux

If you've ever wondered what a film that doesn't take itself too seriously looks like, I highly recommend Francois Ozon's 8 Women. A musical locked room mystery featuring several of the most stunning and celebrated stars in the history of French cinema, this is an extremely fun, albeit slightly silly, romp.

Review: The Help (2011)

* * *
Director: Tate Taylor
Starring: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain

The North American trailer for The Help did it a great disservice. The impression you may have gotten from the trailer is that this is a feel-good, uplifting chick flick with just a dash of "white people learn important things" mixed in. While The Help is by no means the most searing indictment of racism ever made, it isn't totally lightweight either and it really isn't the typical "oppressed minority seen through the eyes of a noble white person" type story that it might at fist appear to be, either.

Friday's Top 5... My Most Anticipated Movies of the Fall

#5: The Rum Diary

From the looks of the trailer, it appears that Johnny Depp is back in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas mode (which makes sense since The Rum Diary is adapted from a novel by Hunter S. Thompson), and that is definitely a good thing.

Canadian Film Review: Trigger (2010)

* * * *
Director: Bruce McDonald
Starring: Tracy Wright, Molly Parker

Friendships can be complicated things and the longer they last, the more complicated they get. Bruce McDonald's film Trigger is about a decades long friendship picking up after a long period of estrangement. Its two protagonists fight and make up, open some wounds and heal others. Though the scope of the film is very small, it is such a well executed and engaging piece of work that it makes a big impact.