Tuesday, January 29, 2013

WARM BODIES

WARM BODIES
Written and Directed by Jonathan Levine
Starring Nicolas Hoult, Theresa Palmer and John Malkovich

R: Why can’t I connect with people? Oh, right. It’s because I’m dead.

Zombie movies have long been an allegory for the despondency of society. We all walk around as if in a trance, going about our business without seemingly giving it any thought whatsoever. We don’t feel anything; we don’t notice anything; we just blindly accept our fates that have numbed our minds into complacency. Plainly put, zombies remind us that being alive is a much better deal than being undead. And with all the chatter about a zombie apocalypse on the horizon, WARM BODIES, Jonathan Levine’s follow-up to 50/50, announces that even if it comes to this, there will always be hope as long as there is love.

In WARM BODIES, zombies already run the world. Well, they don’t so much run it, as that would require thought, but they occupy it. The remaining unaffected human beings live in a city that is protected by a giant, fortified wall, as everyone knows, zombies are not the greatest climbers. On occasion, groups of humans, young attractive humans as it turns out, go on missions outside the city to collect whatever they can find, from medicine to food. On one such outing, a young lady named Julie (Theresa Palmer), the daughter of the human’s leader (John Malkovich) no less, is captured by the zombie who eats her boyfriend’s (Dave Franco) brains. Now, zombies don’t ordinarily spend their time taking humans prisoner but this zombie, whom we will later know as “R”, and who is played by Nicolas Hoult, a boy far too pretty to be caught chowing down on brains, is no ordinary zombie. No, in fact, R is intensely nostalgic and underneath all that dead skin, very sensitive. He collects things from the old world, like records and books, anything that reminds him of what it used to be like to be alive. Bringing a human being back might be overstepping though, or in the case of a zombie, over-shuffling.


WARM BODIES should not work as a movie. And, in all honesty, it doesn’t always come together properly. Zombies don’t move very quickly and they don’t really talk all that much. So having one as your protagonist could make for a very slow experience. So Levine, taking his cue from the Isaac Marion novel, lets us hear R’s thoughts throughout his kidnapping plot. What you hear is a romantic so held back by his own inability to connect with people, what with his being a zombie and all, that the audience, if they have ever felt restrained by their own insecurities surrounding love, should want to root for his success. The trouble is, his success, which Hoult does make as endearing as he possibly can given the circumstances, means that the film has to break more zombie conventions than it can recover from. On the plus side, I did learn that we needn’t worry too much about the aforementioned zombie apocalypse. Apparently, it is no match for true love.



Saturday, January 26, 2013

Black Sheep Reviews presents the 2012 Mouton d'Or Awards


It's that time again, ladies and gentlemen! And it is actually that time for me for the eighth time. I know it was seven years last year so the realization that this is the eighth year should not be so much of a shock for me but it is. May I present to you the 2012 Mouton d'Or Awards!

This year was such an incredible year for film, with so many filmmakers reaching new heights in their careers and abilities. With this in mind, what finer example is there to lead the nominations than Paul Thomas Anderson's THE MASTER, which leads with eight nominations in total, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Next up on the leader board is the breathtaking, LIFE OF PI, from Ang Lee. It too is nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and four others for a grand total of six. ARGO, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD and MOONRISE KINGDOM round out the remaining Best Picture nominees and each earns five Mouton d'Or nominations in total. And though they may have missed out on the top prize, LES MISERABLES and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK still have a strong showing, also with five nominations apiece.

P.T. Anderson's THE MASTER
I would like to thank everyone who shared their favorite movies with me in the last few weeks for the Black Sheep Readers Choice Award. There was so much response and so much passion for films that went on to be nominated that I had to expand the category to ten nominees, up from six last year. Be sure to vote in the poll at the top of the right hand sidebar for your favourite! And again, thank you so much for your participation. Your enthusiasm was moving.

And so, without further ado, here are the 2012 Mouton d'Or Award nominations ...

(Scroll over any film title and click for the full Black Sheep review.)

BEST BIG MOVIE

THE AVENGERS
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
THE HUNGER GAMES
LES MISERABLES
SKYFALL

BEST LITTLE MOVE

AMOUR
KEEP THE LIGHTS ON
LAURENCE ANYWAYS
MAGIC MIKE
STORIES WE TELL

THE WORST MOVIE I SAW ALL YEAR

DETACHMENT
DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX
HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET
THE INNKEEPERS
WHERE DO WE GO NOW?

THE BLACK SHEEP READERS CHOICE AWARD

ARGO
THE AVENGERS
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
DJANGO UNCHAINED
THE HUNGER GAMES
LES MISERABLES
LIFE OF PI
LOOPER
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
SKYFALL

ANIMATED FEATURE

BRAVE
FRANKENWEENIE
PARANORMAN

BEST LOOKING MOVIE

ANNA KARENINA
LIFE OF PI
THE MASTER
MOONRISE KINGDOM
SKYFALL

BEST MUSIC

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
LES MISERABLES
LIFE OF PI
THE MASTER
MOONRISE KINGDOM

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

ROBERT DE NIRO in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
LEONARDO DICAPRIO in DJANGO UNCHAINED
DWIGHT HENRY in BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN in THE MASTER
EWAN MCGREGOR in THE IMPOSSIBLE

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

AMY ADAMS in THE MASTER
SALLY FIELD in LINCOLN
ANNE HATHAWAY in LES MISERABLES
HELEN HUNT in THE SESSIONS
NICOLE KIDMAN in THE PAPERBOY

BEST ACTOR

DANIEL DAY LEWIS in LINCOLN
JOHN HAWKES in THE SESSIONS
HUGH JACKMAN in LES MISERABLES
JOAQUIN PHOENIX in THE MASTER
DENZEL WASHINGTON in FLIGHT

BEST ACTRESS

JESSICA CHASTAIN in ZERO DARK THIRTY
JENNIFER LAWRENCE in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
EMANUELLE RIVA in AMOUR
QUVENZHANE WALLIS in BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
NAOMI WATTS in THE IMPOSSIBLE

BEST ENSEMBLE

ARGO
THE HUNGER GAMES
MAGIC MIKE
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
SKYFALL

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

AMOUR written by Michael Haneke
LOOPER written by Rian Johnson
THE MASTER written by Paul Thomas Anderson
MOONRISE KINGDOM written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
STORIES WE TELL written by Sarah Polley

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

ARGO written by Chris Terrio
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD written by Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
LIFE OF PI written by David McGee
LINCOLN written by Tony Kushner
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK written by David O. Russell

BEST FIRST FEATURE

ANTIVIRAL
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED

BEST DIRECTOR

BEN AFFLECK for ARGO
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON for THE MASTER
WES ANDERSON for MOONRISE KINGDOM
MICHAEL HANEKE for AMOUR
ANG LEE for LIFE OF PI

BEST PICTURE

ARGO
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
LIFE OF PI
THE MASTER
MOONRISE KINGDOM

Thanks for reading. The 2012 Mouton d'Or Award winners will be announced February 16th and voting for the Black Sheep Readers Choice Awards will close at midnight on Sunday, February 10th.



Wednesday, January 23, 2013

THE BLACK SHEEP INTERVIEW: ANNA KENDRICK

GET THIS GIRL A BUCKET!
An interview with Anna Kendrick.

If you’re like me, you first fell in love with Anna Kendrick when you caught her Oscar nominated turn in Jason Reitman’s UP IN THE AIR, opposite George Clooney. Over the last year, she has starred in four separate movies, including the cop thriller, END OF WATCH, opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, and PARANORMAN, in which case she voices a vapid teenager. Kendrick also shows no signs of stopping either with four more films expected this year, including a small part in Robert Redford’s THE COMPANY YOU KEEP. And the audience shows no signs of getting sick of her either.

Kendrick’s biggest gamble in the last year would have to be PITCH PERFECT. It is her first starring role so not only did she have to prove she could carry a movie but she had to sing her way through it too. “Well, my first lead in a film anyone’s going to fucking see anyway,” Kendrick quips, when we sit down at the Toronto International Film Festival, just weeks before the film’s release. “I’m nervous about it. And I’m singing in it too, which makes it doubly nerve wracking.”

She needn’t have been so frantic about it. PITCH PERFECT became a sleeper hit at the box office, pulling in over $100 million globally. And as for the singing, she was over thinking that too. The soundtrack to PITCH PERFECT has been a permanent fixture in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart ever since the film was released on DVD in December. Still, I understand her apprehension at the time.

“Singing is something I’m comfortable with but it’s like anything. Doing it on screen, the stakes are a little bit higher.”

Kendrick’s role in END OF WATCH is small but pivotal. In the hands of another actress, she may have disappeared into the background, but Kendrick was sure there was something she could do with the part when she read the script. “I wish I could put into words what is great about the screenplay, what’s great about the characters, but I knew reading it, that if you had described it to me, I would have felt like it sounds just like a wife/girlfriend role. It doesn’t sound like something that would be that interesting. When I read it though, even though Janet isn’t in it a lot, it felt like she was incredibly important in rounding out this world, for creating a world in which it really feels like there is something at stake and there is something on the line.”

End of Watch

Kendrick plays Gyllenhaal’s girlfriend in END OF WATCH and one of their most endearing scenes comes when they dance at a wedding. “Wait, what are you talking about? That was not in the script.” This was Kendrick’s first reaction when writer/director, David Ayer, informed her that she and Gyllenhaal would not be just dancing together but dancing a piece of choreography in fact. “It said ‘They do a cheesy dance.’ I don’t know what we thought that was going to be but when we saw what it was, we were confused,” she explains. All the same, Kendrick thinks that, as seemingly simple as this scene is, it was one she really needed her director for. “That was one of those moments. In a movie like this, there are so many big emotional moments where you really feel like you have to trust your director, but doing the wedding dance was the moment that we really needed to trust our director.”

And how did Mr. Gyllenhaal fare at this dance? “Uh, Jake was not great at learning it. Sometimes, he was watching me just to keep up.” (END OF WATCH is now available on DVD and you can read more about it in my interview with Gyllenhaal himself.)

Kendrick’s time on THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, in theatres in April, was even shorter than her time on END OF WATCH, just three days. “I would have delivered his coffee if he had asked me to so I was just really happy to have that opportunity,” Kendrick reveals of her desire to work with Redford. “It was really interesting working with a director who is such a fantastic actor and such an experienced actor. He is a very intimate director. It was a very brief experience for me but a truly fascinating process.”

Pitch Perfect

Kendrick is always learning and growing and, at just 27 years old, this Maine native still has plenty of time to do both of these things. Now, she just has to calm her nerves and enjoy the ride. “It’s going to be awesome but I’m still nervous,” she jokes when asked about the prospect of her future. “I kind of feel like I’m on the verge of throwing up all the time.”

Did I mention that Kendrick is absolutely adorable in person?


BEST OF BLACK SHEEP: JAKE GYLLENHAAL

HE IS NOT HIS HAIR.
An interview with Jake Gyllenhaal, for END OF WATCH.

“And what was that other question you asked?” I heard a very relaxed and a very handsome, Jake Gyllenhaal, say to me early one morning during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. A very tired and a very frazzled me, sheepishly replied, “Uh, I was wondering if it was difficult for you to grow your hair back out after the shoot.” He smiles directly at me with those big, blue eyes and says, “Yeah, I just had to make you repeat that one.” Wow. Jake Gyllenhaal had just messed with me. Heaven.

To be fair, I preceded that hair question with a serious one about whether his time on END OF WATCH, his new badass cop film co-starring Michael Pena and written and directer by David Ayer (TRAINING DAY), was any more difficult to shake off at the end of each day.

“I’m just happy being in Toronto promoting this movie and having made this movie,” Gyllenhaal continues. “To me, honestly, this movie was not about vanity. I totally respect the intention of the question but it’s very hard for me to talk about hair when I feel like the police officers I worked with have much more important issues to think about. I feel like I’d be doing them a disservice.”

The great thing about Gyllenhaal, or what I can assess of him from the scant fifteen minutes we shared a room together, is that his earnestness is as plain as the nose on his face. Well, there’s nothing really plain about his nose but you get where I’m going with this. And it’s not like he didn’t give me a wealth of great material for my previous question.

Gyllenhaal with co-star, Pena, in END OF WATCH

“The process of making the movie, 22 day shoot in all, was probably the least intense part of the whole journey,” Gyllenhaal explains. He and on-screen partner, Pena, spent two to three nights a week for five months riding along with Los Angeles Police Department officers in preparation for the part, a lengthy prep period by any Hollywood standard. “When I would be driving home at 5:00 in the morning, having worked in South Central, it would take me a couple of hours just to get to sleep. I would also think, it’s not my job but i’m observing it and i’m continuously observing it. And yet you’re not really involved so there is this strange middle ground where you exist. This can make you weirdly feel even more alone.”

Aside from exposing Gyllenhaal, an Oscar nominee and Los Angeles native, to the harsh reality of the unfamiliar streets in South Central, the purpose of the ride alongs was to bond him to Pena. Ayer’s script called for Gyllenhaal and Pena to be so much more than mere partners; the script specifically refers to them as brothers.

Gyllenhaal in a recent Details spread

“You have to have that brotherhood in order for the movie to work,” Pena explains, when asked about his chemistry with Gyllenhaal. “We didn’t get along like brothers instantaneously but after all that time together, I knew that Jake had my back.”

In Gyllenhaal’s mind, if they didn’t get this camaraderie just right, then END OF WATCH would not have worked at all. “To me, the movie is about a relationship, the movie is about a friendship, the movie or the reason I wanted to do the movie is not because it was about cops,” Gyllenhaal exclaims. For him, the buddy cop genre is entirely irrelevant in this case. “I think you can take these two guys out of uniform and put them in another context and it would still be an interesting movie to watch.”

Of course, if it were an entirely different movie, like if Gyllenhaal and Pena were playing say, I don’t know, extreme cupcake partners, or something just as equally ridiculous, I’m not sure END OF WATCH would have had the same impact on his life.

Gyllenhaal with END OF WATCH co-star, Anna Kendrick

“I had never approached a film or a character in this way. It was really informative to me as an actor and really as a person,” a very appreciated and seemingly genuine Gyllenhaal reveals. “The relationships we made along those five months, the experiences we had together, they changed my life as a person. The movie for me almost feels like an after thought. It was a very special process for me. Michael and I will always share that and always be close because of that.”

Gyllenhaal is a self-professed actor’s actor, having worked opposite some of the best of them, from Heath Ledger (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) to Natalie Portman (BROTHERS). “I love actors!” I have no issue presuming an exclamation point there; he was that enthusiastic when he said. “I love watching them work. I love seeing somebody just kill it. It is the biggest joy that I have weirdly as an actor, that I get to be inside that process.”

Perhaps my favourite shot of Gyllenhaal, from BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

At just 31 years of age, and with upcoming projects as varied as Oscar-nominee, Denis Villeneuve’s follow-up to INCENDIES, AN ENEMY, in which he plays two polar opposite characters, to appearing an original off-Broadway play called, “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet”, Gyllenhaal shows no signs of slowing or easing into simpler roles. This not only bodes well for his future but it means there will be plenty more opportunities for him to mess with me again. Either way, as long as he continues, Gyllenhaal will be happy.

“To me, playing a character and making relationships with people, really learning about their stories, is what I love to do. And hopefully that’s what will be it for the rest of my life.”

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET

HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET
Written by David Loucka
Directed by Mark Tonderai
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Max Thieriot and Elizabeth Shue

I’m not sure what I’m basing this on as I’ve never met her but I think that Jennifer Lawrence seems like a smart girl to me. She always appears in sharp projects, big and small, so when I saw that she was starring what looked like an incredibly generic thriller, HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET, I thought the film couldn’t possibly be as bad as it looked. Why else would she sign on to make it? Now, I’m puzzled though. I wouldn’t say my faith in Lawrence has been decimated after watching the film but it has been shaken somewhat.

There is nothing redeeming about this watered down premise. Lawrence and her mother (Elizabeth Shue) move into a new home, next to a home where a murder took place. Everyone in town generally avoids this house so naturally Lawrence’s character is drawn to it. She takes rides from strangers, is constantly snooping around where she shouldn’t be and disobeys her mother when she is forbidden from spending time with the boy who lives in the house (Max Thieriot). And then she wonders how she ended up being chased by a knife-wielding maniac. It isn’t rocket science, Mrs. Lawrence. You just should not have made this movie.



Monday, January 21, 2013

BEST OF BLACK SHEEP: FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL ...

GIRLS DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES
An interview with FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL ... stars, Ari Graynor and Lauren Miller

For a good time, check out FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL ... starring Ari Graynor and Lauren Miller. For an even better time, spend any amount of time with these two ladies in person. I cannot remember the last interview I went to where there was so much laughter to sift through when it came time to transcribe it.

FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL ... (directed by Toronto’s own, Jamie Travis) tells the story of two unlikely and reluctant friends who are forced by circumstance to live together, and who find harmony in their lives by launching a successful phone sex line. The premise is based, and loosely I must add, on Miller’s experience with her college roommate, and co-writer of this screenplay, Katie Anne Naylon. The twosome were frightened to tackle their first feature initially but their history together got them through it.

“Obviously starting out to write any script, no matter how many scripts you’ve written before, is daunting,” Miller recounts, when we meet at Trump Hotel in Toronto. “You’re like, I need to come up with what? And it’s a hundred and how many pages? It’s daunting no matter what, but to have your friend with you, especially one who is as funny and creative as Katie, it’s easier.”

Miller will also admit to one other factor that made the writing process somewhat simpler. “Also, we cheated. We wrote a story loosely based on ourselves. I don’t know if that’s officially cheating but it certainly made things easier.”

Miller and Graynor prepare to take a call
Graynor, along with other high profile personalities like Seth Rogen, Kevin Smith and Justin Long, came to be in the movie after Miller and Naylon wrote her what they call a “love letter to get all these talented people to come play with us.” After playing memorable supporting parts in films like NICK & NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST and CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER, this was a chance for Graynor to take the lead, and one that spearheads women on screen at that.

“First and foremost, the biggest goal we had when it came to making this was to tell an honest, truthful, loving account of female friendship, that wasn’t competitive, that wasn’t based in jealousy, that wasn’t one girl and her sassy best friend on the search for the guy next door,” Graynor explains of one of the bigger draws for her in the script. Then of course, there is also the phone sex.

Graynor and Miller with director, Travis
“With the phone sex element, we allowed it to get a little fantastical because we wanted it to be funny first and not sexually titillating,” Graynor describes of how the film handles its raunchier elements, of which there are many. Miller continues the point, “The movie is obviously not a documentary about phone sex. It was about pushing the world that we were creating. For example, if we were going to have an accountant, what would an account in this world do or say?”

By the way, the answer to that question is call in his secretary to come clean up for him after he’s finished his call to the girls. Yes, they went there. Miller speaks on the film’s defense, “There were some things that pushed too far and that’s why you show your movie to friends and you have screenings. The movie does ride a fine line but I don’t think we ever cross it.”

Graynor and Miller with co-star, Long
FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL ...  also shows the more intimate, more personal side to phone sex. “It shows the two sides of phone sex really well,” Graynor states proudly.  “There is an element of it that you can see as a way to hide, it’s a way to create a fantasy. Certainly for movie Katie, and for real Katie, when she did phone sex in college, it’s a place to find a sense of confidence, which was not found at all in real life. And yet, it’s also a way to be intimate in this world of online porn and webcams.”

These are the things you can explore when you’re making a movie independently, without having to answer to anyone other than yourself. To some extent, you can tell the two are still somewhat surprised they made it through. “We fully recognize that this doesn’t happen,” Miller describes of her exaltation. “Making an independent movie is about dreaming big and not taking no for an answer. We just kept pushing and pushing and got really lucky.”

And Miller and Graynor, yet again
Graynor takes it even further and suggests that this movie needed to be made independently to be done right. “There was a lot of fat that we had to trim simply because we didn’t have the time or money to shoot everything. It’s actually one of those by-product gifts of independent filmmaking. You do it the way you want to, and this actually leads to, in many ways, a smarter movie.”

Miller agrees and concludes, “It’s just craziness. I’m still pinching myself every day.”

I’m about to ask where she’s pinching herself but then I remember, I’m not on the phone.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

THE IMPOSTER

THE IMPOSTER
Directed by Bart Layton

At first I thought he was crazy. Director, Bart Layton, chooses to introduce us to Frederic Bourdin in his first theatrical documentary, THE IMPOSTER, as an actual imposter. In 1997, Bourdin, a then 23-year-old French man, successfully passed himself off as a 16-year-old American kidnapping victim from Austin, Texas, fooling everyone from the boy’s immediate family to the American government. I couldn’t figure out why Layton wouldn’t want to fool us too into thinking Bourdin was the real deal, but it turns out he had a very good reason for not doing this. He knew the whole time that this was only the beginning of this story and that he still had many more shocking moments that were sure to blow the viewer’s mind.

Bourdin is a fascinating character and Layton knows it too. He is charming and charismatic, which sometimes distracts the viewer from the heinousness of what he’s doing. We are also occasionally made privy to certain elements of Bourdin’s childhood, or at least we are told what Bourdin wants to tell us that is, which in turn can make us almost sympathetic for his motivation to commit this crime. And then there’s the young boy, Nicholas Barclay’s family. It has only been approximately three years since his sister has seen him but yet she believes it’s her brother the moment he presents himself to her, despite the fact that his eyes are a different colour and he has a French accent. Her need to believe borders on delusion to some extent but this is nothing compared to Nicholas’s mother’s potential reasons to believe.


It is very difficult to know who to trust when watching THE IMPOSTER, but I always trusted Layton implicitly throughout the experience. All of the characters are questionable at one time or another, but yet Layton never pushes us to see them one way or the other. He is also very savvy to know when to reveal new details that will take you in the next direction, which makes for a very unexpected level of suspense in the film. Above all, he treats his subjects with dignity and without bias or judgment, especially Bourdin, which allows what feels like the complete story to come through. Of course, there is no way for this to be true though, as Nicholas Barclay was never found.


Review copy provided by eOne Entertainment. THE IMPOSTER is available to own January 22, 2013.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

QUARTET

QUARTET
Written by Ronald Harwood
Directed by Dustin Hoffman
Starring Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay and Pauline Collins

Jean: You must understand; I was someone once.
Sissy: I thought I was someone now.

Celebrated and famed actor, Dustin Hoffman, marks his directorial debut with QUARTET, and he does so in as safe a fashion as he possibly could. Based on the stage play of the same name, and written by the same man, Ronald Harwood, QUARTET is one of those delightfully cheery movies about the foibles that befall the aged, as they learn to face their own mortality. Serious ailments, like dementia for instance, become endearing quirks and we laugh, or at least we’re supposed to, when someone forgets what they were going to say or someone else pees themselves. It’s not that death and dying should be portrayed as impending horror but making light of it like this just makes Hoffman seem somewhat in denial about his own life.

All the action in QUARTET, confused or otherwise, takes place at Beecham House, an assisted living home for elderly opera singers and musicians. The residents are preparing for their annual concert, a tribute to the famous composer, Verdi, on his birthday. The funds raised at this concert are particularly vital this year, as if they don’t bring in a certain amount, the home might not be able to run for another year. I believe this is also the rough premise of the third STEP UP movie, but I could be mistaken. This year though, the show could stage an operatic coup, if it plays its cards just right. The home’s newest resident, and a highly reluctant one at that, is Jean Horton (Maggie Smith), and her presence at the home completes a famous quartet of singers, whose recording of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” is considered one of the best in history. There is just one tiny problem. Jean no longer sings.


As she has gotten older, Jean has noticed the wear on her voice get stronger. And so, one day, she just decided to stop singing altogether. Rather than face the reality of her journey, she would rather remember only the past and pretend like the future isn’t coming. She is a true diva though so this behaviour is entirely acceptable of course. What she, and her fellow house mates are not though, are well fleshed out characters. Instead, Hoffman gives us nothing but saccharine charm that moves along with such plain predictability, that by the time Verdi’s birthday roles around, there is no more mystery to be had. A life without any surprises to look forward to? That sounds like death to me.



Wednesday, January 16, 2013

SAMSARA

SAMSARA
Written by Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson
Directed by Ron Fricke

Samsara is a term used in Hinduism and Buddhism that is meant to represent birth, life, death and rebirth, followed in one continuous flow. It is a beautiful concept but a lofty goal to capture on film. Regardless, this is exactly what documentary filmmaker, Ron Fricke (BARAKA) strives to encapsulate in his latest opus, SAMSARA, a film he describes as a guided meditation through this cycle. Shot in over 25 countries around the world and in stunning 70mm film format, Fricke, along with the invaluable help of his team, have created a remarkably striking piece of cinema. And while I’ve no doubt that Fricke has the ability to showcase the world in all its splendor, I’m not sure he fully comprehends the notion of meditation.

When SAMSARA opens, it is instantly mesmerizing. We are treated to views of breathtaking landscapes, erupting volcanoes and people immersed in cultures that are so far removed from the fast pace of Western civilization. While it captivates, it also illuminates the viewer on a different way of life, one that is simpler with a great eye and appreciation for beauty. It is creation caught on film for photography aficionados and those with an eye for, and an interest in, film as art. There are no words, only music, which wasn’t even present during the editing process, as Fricke wanted nothing but the image itself to guide the flow of the film. This approach gives SAMSARA a fascinating flow but Fricke is fooling himself if he thinks that he isn’t just as big an influence on the direction of the film as the images themselves.


It is when Fricke begins looking at the living part of the life cycle, that SAMSARA goes from dynamic to somewhat disturbing. While I commend Fricke for not being afraid of humanity’s darker side, whether that’s our insatiable need for more material goods and consumption or if that’s our distressing ability to lose interest in what we have almost immediately after we obtain it, I do feel that his need to make that point is somewhat heavy handed and borderline judgmental. All the same, the point is a relevant one. With so much beauty in the world, beauty that is brilliantly exemplified for us in SAMSARA, do we really need so many things to distract us from it? To say nothing of the people who toil away day in and day out manufacturing these goods or the fact that these things just end up being thrown away eventually either. I suppose in the end, if I am to be schooled on living right, I am pleased the lesson looks as lustrous as this.


Review copy provided by eOne Entertainment. SAMSARA is available to purchase on Blu-ray and DVD now.


Tuesday, January 15, 2013

GAME CHANGE

GAME CHANGE
Written by Danny Strong
Directed by Jay Roach
Starring Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson and Ed Harris

Although I will never fully understand it, I was just another Canadian glued to my television set nightly leading up to the 2008 American presidential election. On the one hand, I was consumed by the idea of the change that then senator, Barack Obama, could bring to a country that so badly needed it, to say nothing of the historical possibility of an African-American president. But I will not deny that I was also deeply fascinated, and often just as disturbed, by the circus that was the John McCain campaign. GAME CHANGE, from the team who previously went behind the political curtain with RECOUNT to explore the 2000 election recounts in Florida, is not going to blow anyone’s mind with revelations about that campaign but it does make the whole insanity seem much more human than it came across.

Unlike the novel of the same name that GAME CHANGE is based on, by authors John Heileman and Mark Halperin, this HBO feature does not focus on the Democratic and Republican primaries. Instead, writer, Danny Strong, and director Jay Roach, introduce the film at a pivotal point in the McCain campaign and take it from there. Senator McCain, played by a reserved Ed Harris, is trailing Obama (not dramatized in the film) by far too many points to win the election and refuses to play dirty politics. So in order to win, his campaign manager (Woody Harrelson) suggests that they need a real game changer to compete with the celebrity status Obama had risen to. And so, McCain’s team heads out in search of a running mate that could somehow eclipse Obama’s star with one that shines even brighter. Unfortunately, their search did not include nearly enough research. Enter Sarah Palin.


And enter Golden Globe winner, Julianne Moore, in what seems like an effortless and yet beautifully layered portrayal of the former Governor of Alaska. While GAME CHANGE does make many a statement about the blunders that went into the rushed decision to bring Palin on to McCain’s ticket, the bigger focus is on Palin’s personal journey. Roach presents Palin as a patriotic woman with only the best of intentions to do right by her country when we first meet her and a bit power crazed by the end. Moore than takes that cue and reminds the viewer that she is also a caring mother, who genuinely connected with a great deal of the American people and who, after realizing she may have bit off more than she could chew, completely retreats from the outside world. Moore makes her human, shows us how scary it must have been for her to go through what she did, coming from where she came from. She isn’t painted as a saint by any means but showing us Sarah’s softer side reminds us that perhaps we too should be showing ours more often than we are now. Who knows? We just might change the game.


Monday, January 14, 2013

MAMA

MAMA
Written by Neil Cross, Andres Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti
Directed by Andres Muschietti
Starring Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Megan Charpentier

Victoria: Don’t.
Annabel: Don’t what?
Victoria: Don’t go in the closet.
Annabel: Why not? What’s in the closet?

They say that there is nothing as powerful as a mother’s love. Now, they say a lot of things, but I’m pretty sure that when they said this, they weren’t considering how much more powerful, and supernatural for that matter, that love is when said mother is coming from beyond the grave. Writer/Director, Andres Muschietti, has considered this possibility and gives us his thoughts on exactly how this could play out in MAMA, a feature length adaptation of his 2008 Spanish, short film of the same name. After seeing it, two reactions are sure to follow. First of all, you’ll never complain about your mother smothering you ever again. Past that, you may also wish your mother was still on hand to tuck you in to bed at night.

After losing everything in the stock market, a man kills his wife and kidnaps his two young daughters, bringing them to a cabin in the woods to kill them as well. His plan would have come to fruition too, if it weren’t for the one factor he didn’t take into consideration when he was having his mental lapse. His girls are saved by Mama, the maternal spirit that calls this cabin home, and once Daddy is appropriately removed from their lives, she decides to raise the children as her own. I’m sure her intentions were good but by the time the girls are found five years later, they are essentially animals with little speech ability and motor functionality. They are taken into the care of their dead father’s brother and his rocker girlfriend (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Jessica Chastain) and away from the cabin they’ve called home all this time. Mama is none too pleased about this development, as I’m sure you can imagine.


MAMA is a stylish thriller that shows genuine promise from first time feature filmmaker, Muschietti, an opinion clearly shared by executive producer, Guillermo del Toro, given his support for the film. It is a layered work that interweaves conflicting ideas about what truly makes someone a mother. Chastain’s Annabel, for instance, isn’t even sure she wants children but yet has to find her maternal instincts in order to truly protect the girls. While Mama’s overbearing stronghold on the girls is itself really just another attempt at keeping them from what she perceives to be harm. The ideas are present but they are not always fully formed, as the film does confuse the issue at times when it seems to suggest that the idea of settling into a normal family unit could in fact be the real horror. Come the end, Muschietti may not have worked out all his own unresolved mommy issues but he does manage communicate his fears quite effectively. And besides, that’s what sequels are for.




Sunday, January 13, 2013

COMPLIANCE

COMPLIANCE
Written and Directed by Craig Zobel
Starring Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker and Pat Healy

I know that COMPLIANCE is inspired by true events and is very clear about this fact right at the onset, but I just found myself finding it more and more difficult to believe as I watched. My frustration with the characters and the situation mounted exponentially from scene to scene, to the point I wanted to shut it off numerous times, but pushed through. The story, which I will detail in a moment, is certainly a very horrifying one, as well as one that should be told, if only just so it does not happen again. That said, I’m not sure it makes for a good movie, unless you enjoy watching situations deteriorate unnecessarily into realms of inexplicable discomfort and torture just for fun.

In April of 2004, a man called a McDonald’s restaurant in Kentucky, claiming to be a police officer. He spoke with the restaurant manager and explained that one of her female employees had stolen from a client and that he needed her to do some things to the suspect before the police could arrive. It is innocent enough at first, even though the employee insists she didn’t steal anything, but before long, the manager is strip searching the employee at the instruction of the officer. This is somehow the least horrible thing that happened to that poor girl before the night was through. Switch this scenario from McDonald’s to a chicken joint named Chickwich, and you have COMPLIANCE, a film that recreates these events so specifically, that it almost seems to delight in the bizarre torture of both this girl, and its audience.


This kind of situation can only truly be recounted and explained by those involved. Only they can say how they rationalized agreeing to command after clearly inappropriate command given by this man on the phone. COMPLIANCE presumes only one explanation, that these people aren’t very bright. Surely, there is a psychological explanation for why all involved, to varying degrees, blindly accepted this supposed authority without any question whatsoever, but writer/director, Craig Zobel, does not dig underneath any surface to find out what that is. I’m not sure whether this is because he doesn’t care to or rather because he just doesn’t know how to. Instead, he poses the question to his audience without any idea of the answer and so we too are left scratching our heads in the end. And, much to our dismay, we are subjected to every single painstaking detail of this horrendous act along the way.



Thursday, January 10, 2013

THE 85TH ACADEMY AWARDS NOMINATIONS



What the heck just happened in the Best Director category? That's all I want to know. Usually these things are so predictable but some of these nominations really threw me for a total loop. It is not so shocking to me not to see Tom Hooper up for LES MISERABLES but to see Kathryn Bigelow missing out for ZERO DARK THIRTY is very odd to me. Even more so is to not see Ben Affleck's name listed for ARGO. Hollywood was really building him up for this for the last few months. It's almost as if they wanted to see him fall on his pretty face.

I like surprises, especially when it comes to the Oscars because at least it keeps things interesting. That said, when those surprises are as dull as Christoph Waltz and Jacki Weaver picking up nods for sub-par work, I'm reasonably less enthused. I'm sure Leonardo DiCaprio is also unimpressed, seeing Waltz get the slot he deserved for DJANGO UNCHAINED. The worst thing about FLIGHT is its screenplay so that was definitely a surprise for me and also an insult, as it means no love whatsoever for Paul Thomas Anderson's THE MASTER, which was also shut out of the Director and Picture races.

Yesterday, I thought it was going to be either Emmanuelle Riva or Quvenzhane Wallis who would take the fifth Best Actress slot so I am very happy to see both of them there. And while I'm thrilled to see Joaquin Phoenix getting what he deserves in the Best Actor category, I can't believe that Bradley Cooper was included over John Hawkes. Cooper was great but did any of you see THE SESSIONS?

I am genuinely surprised to not see MOONRISE KINGDOM and THE MASTER in the Best Picture race. Both of these films are from respected filmmakers at the top of their games and both have ardent followings but that passion did not translate to a nomination. There was an open slot, people. Why not fill it with one of these fine pictures? Better yet, why not remove DJANGO UNCHAINED altogether and make room for them both?

And finally, a quick shout out and congratulations to Canada's WAR WITCH for grabbing an unexpected Foreign Language nod. It won't win but still ...

As expected, LINCOLN leads the nominations, with 12 in total, followed closely, and unexpectedly I might add, by LIFE OF PI, with 11. SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, which did a little better than expected, and LES MISERABLES, which fared a little worse than expected, follow with 8 each. ARGO rounds out the Top 5 with 7 nominations in all.

The 85th annual Academy Awards take place on Sunday, February 24, 2013. Here is the full list of nominees. Also, just in case anyone was counting, my predictions were 80% accurate. Damn you Best Director!

(Click any title to read the original Black Sheep review.)

BEST PICTURE

AMOUR
ARGO
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
DJANGO UNCHAINED
LES MISERABLES
LIFE OF PI
LINCOLN
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
ZERO DARK THIRTY

BEST DIRECTOR

Michael Haneke for AMOUR
Ang Lee for LIFE OF PI
David O. Russell for SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Steven Spielberg for LINCOLN
Benh Zeitlin for BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

BEST ACTOR

Bradley Cooper for SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Daniel Day-Lewis for LINCOLN
Hugh Jackman for LES MISERABLES
Joaquin Phoenix for THE MASTER
Denzel Washington for FLIGHT

BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain for ZERO DARK THIRTY
Jennifer Lawrence for SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Emmanuelle Riva for AMOUR
Quvenzhane Wallis for BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
Naomi Watts for THE IMPOSSIBLE

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin for ARGO
Robert De Niro for SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Philip Seymour Hoffman for THE MASTER
Tommy Lee Jones for LINCOLN
Christoph Waltz for DJANGO UNCHAINED

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams for THE MASTER
Sally Field for LINCOLN
Anne Hathaway for LES MISERABLES
Helen Hunt for THE SESSIONS
Jacki Weaver for SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

AMOUR
DJANGO UNCHAINED
FLIGHT
MOONRISE KINGDOM
ZERO DARK THIRTY

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

ARGO
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
LIFE OF PI
LINCOLN
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS

CINEMATOGRAPHY


COSTUME DESIGN


BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

5 BROKEN CAMERAS
THE GATEKEEPERS
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
THE INVISIBLE WAR
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

INOCENTE
KING'S POINT
MONDAYS AT RACINE
OPEN HEART
REDEMPTION

EDITING


FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR

AMOUR (Austria)
NON-TIKI (Norway)
NO (Chile)
A ROYAL AFFAIR (Denmark)
WAR WITCH (Canada)

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

THE HOBBIT

ORIGINAL SCORE


ORIGINAL SONG

BEFORE MY TIME from CHASING ICE
EVERYBODY NEEDS A BEST FRIEND from TED
PI'S LULLABY from LIFE OF PI
SKYFALL from SKYFALL
SUDDENLY from LES MISERABLES

PRODUCTION DESIGN

THE HOBBIT

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

ADAM AND DOG
FRESH GUACAMOLE
HEAD OVER HEELS
MAGGIE SIMPSON IN "THE LONGEST DAYCARE"
PAPERMAN

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

ASAD
BUZKASHI BOYS
CURFEW
DEATH OF A SHADOW
HENRY

SOUND EDITING


SOUND MIXING


VISUAL EFFECTS

THE HOBBIT