My Year in Film, Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

My last post featured some random thoughts on the movies I've seen this year, as well as the 5 worst movies I've seen this year. For this post, I'll be listing my top ten movies that I saw this year. Some of them will be films from this year, some will be older, but they're all films I saw for the first time this year. So, without further ado, my top ten list.

Narrowly Missed: Brick, Starship Troopers, Heat, Phone Booth, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

10: When Harry Met Sally - From 1987 to 1995, Rob Reiner made 6 movies, and 5 of them were great, with a few legitimate classics. Has he made anything worthwhile since then? Man, what happened to that guy? Anyway, when Harry Met Sally is everything that a romantic comedy should be. Billy Crystal absolutely owns the movie, and you can count on one hand the number of on-screen couples in the past 20 years who rival the chemistry of Crystal and Meg Ryan. It's a movie about the difficulty of being friends with the opposite sex, and how friendship and attraction can get mixed up. It works because Crystal and Ryan are so believable as friends and as a couple. The movie is funny and sweet and doesn't rely on the kind of ridiculous, contrived situations that romantic comedies so often fall back on.
-Available on Netflix Instant Watch

9: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - The first thing you'll notice is how gorgeous this movie is. Even if there were no plot behind it, the film is as beautifully cinematic as anything you'll ever see. Every shot seems worthy of being printed off and framed. The second thing you'll notice is the acting. This movie is like a masters class in acting, with some of Hollywood's best (Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner) giving great performances. It won't appeal to everyone. It's slow-paced, taking time to let the story breath and develop, and it demands that you pay attention and engage with it. It's worth it though, because the story told is powerful and character-driven, and the film is a joy to look at.

8: 12 Monkeys - A post-apocalyptic time travel movie by Terry Gilliam starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt? Sign me up. A really fun sci-fi movie with great performances by the two leads. This is the first movie where I really realized just how good an actor Brad Pitt is, as he does fantastic work as a completely unhinged crazy person. Gilliam always brings the fantastic and the imaginative, and his take on sci-fi is as entertaining as it is unique. The script is fantastic, twisting and turning and never quite showing its hand. Is Bruce Willis actually a time traveling convict, or is he just crazy? What is the army of the 12 Monkeys? Can history be changed anyway? It's a heck of a ride, with a brilliantly constructed story and some marvelous performances.

7: Inside Man - A good heist movie isn't about the what or the why. It rarely matters what the thieves are stealing, and why they're stealing it is often pretty straightforward. No, as Clive Owen's character states at the beginning of Inside Man, what matters is the how, "and therein, as the Bard would tell us, lies the rub." Inside Man is all about the how, and not just how the heist is done, but how the story is told. The movie has an energy to it, always interesting, always building tension, always adding new angles and new motivations. You shouldn't be rooting for the crooks, what with Denzel Washington being the good guy and all, but Clive Owen manages to be so charming that you just can't help it. One of my favorites to recommend, because it's just so entertaining. Honestly, I just can't see anyone not liking this movie, it's just great entertainment

6: The Brothers Bloom - I wrote a review of this movie here, so I won't spend too much time rehashing it. Writer/Director Rian Johnson (whose debut feature Brick just barely missed this list) weaves a fantastical fairy tale about two con men and their quest for the perfect con. While Brick is probably Johnson's more audacious, technically impressive film, Brothers Bloom is just so much fun. It's overflowing with joy and adventure, and seems to get better with each viewing.

5: Alien - I do not like horror movies. I don't get the point. Jump scares and gore just hold no appeal. That said, I love Alien. It's a sci-fi movie, sure, but it's undoubtedly a horror movie as well, and it's great. Even though it was made 30 years ago, it looks just as good as most modern sci-fi movies. The reason is that Ridley Scott had a consistent vision of a dark, grimy, industrial future that remains distinctive among all the shiny, clean sci-fi films we see every year, and because the creature design is so brilliant. Sure, today the alien could be made with CGI, and chase crew members through the halls, but Scott's alien is all the more effective because we hardly see it. More than anything, the word I would use to describe the film is "atmospheric". You literally feel like you're on this cramped ship with the walls pressing in on you. Also, a facehugging alien with acid for blood is downright terrifying already, but then...*shudder*.

4: Groundhog Day - A classic. Hilarious throughout, but surprisingly dark and philosophical at times. The screenplay is great and there are some great supporting characters, but the genius of the movie is Bill Murray's performance as Phil Connors. As one of my favorite online film reviewers puts it, Murray manages to be "sleazy but lovable at the exact same time." The thing is, we know Phil is a jerk and a sleazebag, but he's so darn charming that we're rooting for him to get the girl anyway. It's also layered with so many jokes and gags and little details that you'll probably pick up something new on each viewing. Is it ironic that a movie about a guy repeating the same day is also infinitely rewatchable?
- Available on Netflix Instant Watch

3: Inception - The top 3 films on this list changed places several times, and they're basically interchangeable. Inception is the kind of smart, thoughtful, idea-filled movie that we rarely get as a summer blockbuster. Despite its high concept, it isn't a hard movie to follow for the most part, and the credit for that goes to Christopher Nolan's direction. The editing is masterful, weaving together together the four different levels of dreaming in such a way that you never lose track of what's going on. There's no way a van falling in slow motion should be as suspenseful as it is, but the constant flashes to it work much like a clock counting down. It's both action-packed (the gravity-shifting hallway fight is as good as anything from the Matrix) and cerebral. The performances are uniformly excellent, with Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, and the criminally underrated Joseph Gordon-Levitt as standouts. It's an epic, powerful and entertaining look at hopes, dreams, and the lies we tell ourselves. One of my favorite moments in a movie this year is the scene where Cobb tells the dream version of his wife "I can't imagine you with all your complexity, all you perfection, all your imperfection. Look at you. You are just a shade of my real wife. You're the best I can do; but I'm sorry, you are just not good enough. "

2: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - If this list were simply which movie I will rewatch the most, this one would be number one with a bullet. Laugh out loud hilarious from beginning to end, and likely the closest thing you'll ever see to a comic book on screen. Director Edgar Wright (he of the hilarious Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead) edits the movie with a frenetic energy, and it just moves like no other film I've ever seen. I left my first viewing of it thinking that this was a very singular experience. There is nothing quite like it out there. It isn't a movie for everyone, but it's like Wright has a direct pipeline to my brain, everything just works for me. Practically everyone in this gives a great performance, but I have to highlight Kieran Culkin's turn as Scott's gay roommate Wallace as the funniest character I've seen this year. In a movie filled with hilarity, his moments are always highlights.

1: The Social Network - If you dismiss this as simply "that movie about Facebook", then you're missing out on a one of the most terrific, and timely, dramas in recent years. The combination of Aaron Sorkin's writing and David Fincher's direction is really kind of brilliant. Sorkin, who wrote A Few Good Men, The American President, and created The West Wing, is a master wordsmith. There's a beauty to well-written dialogue, and Sorkin's script just hums. The thing is though, it's easy for a movie like that to be just talking heads and people walking down hallways. The genius of pairing him with Fincher, one of the most exciting visual filmmakers working today, results in the most exciting movie you've ever seen about people talking. The film is non-linear, flashing back and forth between the story of Facebook's founding and the two depositions about whether or not Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea. It's a great framing device that makes the story really dynamic. The film is certainly never boring. Like most of these films, it's filled with great performances. I mentioned Jesse Eisenberg in the last post, and he's definitely the standout, but Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake and Armie Hammer (playing both the Winklevoss twins) are both great. From the fantastic opening scene to the close, with Zuckerberg refreshing the screen again and again, The Social Network is brilliant at every turn.

My Year In Film, Part 1

In the last couple years, I've started to become a bit of a movie buff. That started a while ago when I stumbled upon a film website I really like reading, and found out I could buy DVDs cheap off of Craigslist. It continued this semester, since I'm living with my grandparents, and my grandpa watches a lot of movies. All told, I've watched 73 movies this year that I hadn't seen before (at least, those are the ones I recorded. I've probably missed a few). I'm not going to post the full list here, because that would be ridiculous, but if you're interested in seeing it, here it is.

I love writing about movies, so I'm gonna take this chance to write about the movies I saw this year. Some will be from this year, some will be much older, but they're all movies I saw for the first time this year. Be aware, this post is going to be massive, so consider yourself warned. Without further ado, my year in movies.

Best Bad Movie: Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus - I'll be listing some of my least favorite movies of the year later on, but you will not find this movie on it. That's because Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus is hilarious. I have a soft spot in my heart for terrifically bad movies, and this one joins the pantheon beside hall-of-fame bad movies like The Room and Troll 2. I would describe the plot of the movie, but frankly, all you need to know is right there in the title. Also, it includes the greatest scene in cinema history.

Biggest Disappointment: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - This one wasn't disappointing because I thought it would be good. On the contrary, I was confident that they would screw up this adaptation (since I didn't particularly like the first two movies). However, since this was my favorite Narnia book, I was hoping that it would at least be the best of the 3 movies. Nope. Not even close. It's as generic an adventure story as you're likely to find, and filled with the worst kind of lazy storytelling. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why you would take a beloved children's story from one of the 20th century's greatest writers and then feel the need to completely change huge chunks of it. The movie speeds along at a breakneck pace, hardly ever spending time to develop the characters. There's a scene near the end where Caspian refers to Edmund and Lucy as his only family, but it feels completely false because they have nothing even approaching a meaningful conversation, and in the previous movie Caspian spends all his time interacting with Peter and Susan. Things just happen because the story needs them two, and on several occasions characters pop up simply for the purpose of spouting off exposition, then disappear, never to be seen from again. At least it's interesting visually, with some dynamic sweeping shots of the Dawn Treader, and some pretty great creature design on the giant sea serpent at the end. The other bright spot is Simon Pegg as the voice of Reepicheep. He brings a noble, heroic spirit to the character that makes him easily the best thing about the movie. If only the rest of the movie had that same sense of adventure, maybe it could have been special. Instead, it's not so much a bad movie as it is mediocre and bland, and in a lot of ways, that's even worse.

Best Performance I Saw This Year: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network - I haven't seen many of the performances people are raving about this year (Natalie Portman, Colin Firth, James Franco), but Eisenberg is really brilliant here. He absolutely sells the antisocial, hyper-nerdy portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. He's twitchy and uncomfortable, but also haughty and superior. It's a great performance, and one that I'm not sure anyone but Eisenberg could have pulled off. Out of several memorable moments, this is the one that will stick with you most once you leave the theater.

Best Scene I Saw This Year: This one. If I have to explain why...

Top Five Worst Movies I Saw This Year:

5) The Fifth Element - I think I was more forgiving when I first watched this movie, but looking back on it, I have absolutely no desire to ever revisit it. It should have been a great movie. A Sci-Fi action movie by the director of The Professional starring Bruce Willis, Ian Holm and Gary Oldman. Instead, it's a plotless slog that seems entirely designed to show off character designs. It's loud, annoying, and has absolutely no logic to it. Ugh.

4) Knowing - There's nothing quite like Nicholas Cage playing crazy, over-the-top parts. This movie featured a scene where Cage's character witnesses a plane crash, runs into the flaming wreckage, sees a survivor running away while on fire and yells "WAIT!" Um...what? It's an illogical movie that really makes no sense. It's terrible, but at least it's terrible in a humorous, entertaining way.

3) The Squid and the Whale - I watched this movie without really knowing what it was about, because I had seen it highly regarded on a movie website I frequent. Ugh. It's a "rich people with problems" movie, which is tough to pull off at the best of times. The actors give good performances, but the whole thing is so twisted and depressing that the movie is just a slog. I don't know, maybe I'm just not the intended audience. It's not a totally inept movie, but it's so joyless that it's a task to sit through.

2) The Notebook - I should be an easy mark for this movie. I actually kind of enjoy chick flicks if they're funny and charming and at least mildly competent. I love Rachel McAdams, and Ryan Gosling is a solid actor. Lots of people love this movie. I'm not looking for much in a movie like this, just something resembling a coherent story and solid chemistry between the leads. It at least gets the second part right, and the sheer charm and magnetic presence of McAdams almost single-handedly makes the film watchable. Almost. The story, however, is flimsy, predictable and so blatantly manipulative that it boggles the mind. Characters simply disappear or die off because the script has no use for them anymore. For example, Noah's father is killed off in the narration, not because he had an illness or we saw a gradual decline in his condition, but simply because the story needed Noah to be living alone. The actors aren't so much playing characters as they are plot devices. When the terrible storytelling causes you to giggle throughout the movie, it just kills the movie and keeps it from reaching any kind of emotional depth.

1) Ultraviolet - Ultraviolet is like a seizure put on screen. The other movies on this list are bad, but at least they won't give you a headache simply by watching them. The fact that this was made by the same director who made Equilibrium is incomprehensible. I would try to explain the plot to you, except I have no idea what it was. It's in the future, and there are these vampires, only they aren't really vampires, they're just really strong and fast. Vampires can infect other people, but it's not really clear how (is it airborne? Bloodborn? We have no idea), and it's unclear why this would be a bad thing. Milla Jovovich steals a package that happens to be a young boy whose blood contains pathogens to do...well, that's not really clear. Cue much running around, fighting people (including some soldiers whose armor appears to be made of glass), and Jovovich's character apparently develops a deep maternal connection to this boy in the course of 24 hours. We're really not sure why she keeps running around and what the final goal is. I'd say that there are plot holes, but that requires a plot for there to be holes in. All of this would at least be tolerable if the visuals were good. To put it lightly, they are not. All the scenes are intensely bright in a way that makes everything washed out and indistinguishable. The fight scenes and chases are just a series of shots without any kind of overall sense of what is happening. Worst of all, the CGI looks like it was pulled from a bad Playstation 1 game. It's atrocious, and carries none of the simple elegance that made Equilibrium so great. The plot is nonexistent, the acting is awful, and the visuals will make your head hurt. It's a perfect storm of terrible.

To be continued with my top 10 list in Part 2

The Glory of Christmas

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
This is my story. This is my song.
Praising my Savior all the day long.

There's very little to write about Christmas that hasn't already be written a million times already, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Christmas is my favorite time of year for many, many reasons. I love hanging out with family and friends. I love the candy and cookies. I love just chilling out, playing games and watching the Muppet Christmas Carol. Most of all though, I love that every year, regardless of how hard I try to ignore it, God reminds me of himself.

The almighty God of the universe came down to dwell in human flesh. The very same God who speaks in thunder (Ex 19:18-19), whose word tears both rocks and hearts asunder (Jer 23:29, Heb 4:12). The God before whom angels hide their face (Isaiah 6:2), who stops the sun in the sky (Josh 10:10-13) and sets the stars in motion (Psalm 8:3-4). That's the God who came down to be born in a stable, to walk the earth with sinful men, and to die on a rude cross. He came down from glory to share the inheritance of heaven with us. He did it for you and for me, but mostly, he did it that his own name might be glorified (Rom 3:25-26, John 12:27-28). Christ came to save us, and he saved us for a purpose: that we might live our lives to glorify God.

This is our story. This is our song. Praising our Savior all the day long.

Finals, Papers, and Other Stuff

Hi all. It's been a while since I last posted, so I thought I'd take a quick break from writing papers to throw a little something up here. I went home last week for Thanksgiving and learned that there are actually people who read this blog, so I figured maybe I should post something.

This will be short, because of the aforementioned papers. I have quite a bit to finish up before the end of the year, which is rapidly approaching. Luckily, I have most of my required reading done for the semester. Unluckily, these papers keep refusing to write themselves. Also on the unlucky side of things, I seem to be coming down with a sore throat, which I'm hoping doesn't turn into something worse, because I cannot handle that right now. So, if you're reading this, I would covet your prayers over the next couple weeks as I try to survive my first semester of seminary.

Anyway, that paragraph was kind of a downer, so I'm going to spend the rest of this post listing things that are making my life better these days (mostly in the form of YouTube videos)

Things I Like

• This:

This season of Glee has been wildly inconsistent, but this is a fantastic performance. I don't care if you like Glee or not, if you can't enjoy this, I don't understand you.

• John Piper. Really, I love John Piper. One of the papers I'm writing now is on Soli Deo Gloria, so I've been reading tons of Piper (nobody has written more on the glory of God and its implications than Piper in the past few decades). He really has a passion for God that comes through in every talk that he gives and every book that he writes. I recently sent Shannon a sermon of his because I thought it was so cool. He's speaking on missions, and in the middle he just stops and sidebars for a minute to talk about how in the bulletin they listed the man who was saying one of the prayers, and it said "Dan Porch, Missionary". Piper says:
  

"That is a great title. Dan Porch. MISSIONARY. I just hope that that hits you like it hits me, 'Ambassador for King Jesus ' among an unreached people group. Go declare the amnesty, Dan! Go tell them if they lay down their arms of unbelief and swear fealty to King Jesus, they live forever, Dan! MISSIONARY! What a great title."

• X-Factor: I know I posted about this a while ago, but I thought I'd pass along a couple of the better performances that have come since then.

• Tap-Tap Revenge: This is a free app for the iPod Touch, and it's basically guitar hero, only instead of playing a guitar, you tap the notes as they get to the bottom of the screen. It's awesome for a free game, and super-addictive.

• Community: This deserves its own post, which I will get to once I have time, but suffice it to say that if you aren't watching this show, you should be. 8:00 on Thursdays. It's the funniest thing on TV, and nothing else is remotely close.
  

• Craig Ferguson: I don't watch late night talk shows very often, but I always make sure to check his interviews on YouTube every now and then. On most late night shows, the interviews are the weakest part, since the people are just there to promote their movie/book and the whole thing is a pretty boring affair. Ferguson is absolutely brilliant though. He doesn't work off cards, he's genuinely interested in his guests, and he's perfectly happy letting things get wacky and zany. I mean, this is a guy who did a full show just interviewing Stephen Fry (amazing) and won a Peabody for his interview with Desmond Tutu, but also has a robot skeleton sidekick and often ends his interviews with an awkward pause. Rather than posting an individual video, I'll simply link you to this amazing YouTube channel, where some fantastic fellow has taken it upon himself to post all of Ferguson's shows. Seriously, check out some of the interviews, this guy is awesome.

That's it for now. I'll check in again with a new post in a few weeks if I'm still alive.