Indie Cliché

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:53:00 +0000

My Top 10 Of 2009 (In Alphabetical Order)

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:46:00 +0000

There was never a romantic comedy more suitable for or telling about the 00s than (500) Days of Summer. It’s artificial and candy-coated yet knows this. It contains flirtatious sequences in big box department stores in which the central couple (Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel) play house to the sound of pop songs on a floor sample arrangement of kitchen furniture and appliances (all with the price tags still on them). They mime “family dinner” and “happy ending” but never get to dig in. The shuffle of memory is a key theme. The way it was vs. the way they thought it was. The reality vs. the rom-com vision. It may be hard to imagine such a twee film being one of the year’s best but it is a pure entertainment treasure and beneath that, a knowing yet lovestruck satire of romance both at the movies and in the modern world.

Coming of age was never as stylish as in Lone Scherfig’s winning adaptation of Lynn Barber’s memoir about a young girl in 1960s London who is seduced by an older man with a posh lifestyle and ample mystique. Carey Mulligan is positively radiant as young Jenny, a lover of culture, music, and all things French. She is wise beyond her years and yet positively girlish at the same time. The supporting players are equally adept, including Peter Sarsgaard as Jenny’s suitor, David, Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour as her equally enamored parents, and Dominic Cooper and wild card Rosamund Pike as David’s charming yet shady pals. An Education is a vibrant, sophisticated, fast-moving drama with tremendous appeal and brilliantly effective storytelling. It feels classic and timeless, as if it could very well have been made for the era in which it is set. What's most refreshing is that this is a smart movie about smart people who make real choices, real errors in judgment, and ultimately suffer real consequences. Yet the script by Nick Hornby is full of wit, sharp insight, and a playful sense of adventure. It's not preachy or sullen but rather gently revelatory in the way it navigates true drama with all the humor and joy intact.

Oh, Wes Anderson. Just when we thought we knew you by heart, you go and throw us a curve ball. Sure, the rapid fire comedy is as fast as ever. Yes, the characters are plucky losers with delusions of grandeur and a secret hurt inside. Of course, that Rolling Stones song comes in just where you expect it. Yet for all the ways in which Fantastic Mr. Fox is by the book Anderson goodness, it still stands as a unique and remarkable transformation into an animation auteur. Fox is easily Anderson’s most joyful film. It begins and ends with a smile and a song. It has all the sense of caper that Bottle Rocket had, the family catharsis of Tenenbaums (minus the suicide attempt), and more than enough jaunty weirdness to top Steve Zissou. A kids’ movie for big kids with young hearts, Fantastic Mr. Fox is an animated gem complete with stunning stop-motion work and enough joy and heart to become a classic.

The greatest film produced yet on the subject of the Iraq war is also the year’s greatest exercise in suspense. Director Kathryn Bigelow has crafted a gripping, unfiltered look at war that delivers as both a tense thriller and a complex psychological drama detailing the day by day dealings of an Iraq military bomb unit (Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty). In several expertly shot sequences we get the panicked, adrenaline rush that comes from being so near to deadly weapons on a daily basis. And in additional material we get to explore the minds of the men living this seemingly unbearable daily grind, particularly Renner’s Ssgt. James who is a renegade risk taker built for the work at hand and unable to cope with ordinary life on the outside. There’s no telling what to expect or where the film will go and it’s this sense of impossible, constant terror which makes The Hurt Locker such a unique and unmissable tour de force.

The 21^st century’s answer to Dr. Strangelove, In the Loop is a positively daffy and biting political satire from the UK (based on the TV series “The Thick Of It”). The basic premise involve a low level employee of the British government (Tom Hollander) finding himself as the central catalyst for a major international war. The film is truly dynamite and lightning fast, delivering hilarious, sharply scripted laughs and ultimately settling in on a surprisingly dark finale which does not alter the film's non-stop tone but simply allows for real character growth and despair. It is as smart and funny a comedy as I have seen all year.

If there are limits to the cinema, somebody forgot to tell Quentin Tarantino. His epic WWII murder fantasy Inglourious Basterds is a take no prisoners, do as we please thriller that operates under the assumption that all things are possible in the celluloid universe. Moreover, Basterds contains some of the iconic director’s very best work, namely a series of long, highly suspenseful conversations which alternate power between players to the point of dramatic exhaustion before typically erupting in a burst of climactic action. But for all the war and violence, Basterds’ deeper function seems to be as a love letter to the European cinema of the time. Tarantino has painstakingly detailed the era. He both names names (Leni Riefenstahl, Emil Jannings, etc.) and cites details (flammable film stock) which one would otherwise pick up in a film history lesson. Not only does the movie’s climax take place in a movie house, but the very nature of its ending speculates about the character and capacity of film in such a way as to make this the year’s ultimate meta-movie and one of the most sweeping, excellent, and action-packed pieces that truly invoke the form in all its glory.

Writer/composer/actor Stew crafted one of Broadway’s most innovative and overlooked musicals in Passing Strange, a revolutionary stage show which had a thunderous but all too short run at the Belasco Theatre and earned only one Tony award (Book Of A Musical). Thankfully, director Spike Lee recognized that Stew’s show was more than just another midtown tuner. Not only is the format unique (a narrative rock concert) but the sheer tenacity of the show will blow your mind. It loosely tells the story of Stew’s own life with humor, attitude, and heartbreaking sincerity. But dig deeper and there is another layer of complexity. Stew has made a stage show which ponders art in all its forms. It speculates about the power of performance and the way in which art, artifice, and the genuine article interchange unexpectedly. It doesn’t just break the “fourth wall” but screams through it, allowing characters to interact with the narrator, the narrator to interact with the audience, and the band to simply jam all night. The musical numbers are brazen and addictive. They give the kind of buzz all great rock & roll gives. You’d think a stage show would be stifled by the act of its being filmed but Passing Strange remains a wonder. You may not be able to feel the electric guitars shake the floor under your feet the way they did at the Belasco, but you can still appreciate the amazing score, performances, and story. And the raw emotion of the show’s incredible final performance can be felt miles away from the screening room. Standout number “Keys” is not just the greatest musical sequence put to film this year; it’s a religious experience. Is it alright? Yeah, it’s alright.

“Coen-y” may be a word we use to describe kooky, kitschy, Americana drenched screwball romps (and the occasional bleak oddity) but there is hardly anything Coen-y about the Coen brothers’ latest film, A Serious Man. It is personal, serious, devoid of the Coens’ repertory players, and completely on a level of its own. And unlike other directors who depart from the norm so wildly that they transform into flavorless, point-and-shoot drones, Joel and Ethan Coen have used this departure to blossom into full form. A Serious Man reinterprets their style and typical content in greater shades of gray, and with more soul than we could have possibly imagined. Michael Stuhlbarg stars as the Job-like central figure, a father who loses his wife, his health, and his money in such quick succession as to test the very fabric of his being. It is a story of faith, family, and the way in which all men fall.

If Howard Hawks and Cary Grant could return to make a comedy for the Google generation, they would surely create something a lot like Up In The Air. Director Jason Reitman’s third consecutive comedy knockout proves to be his sharpest and funniest yet. George Clooney stars as self-isolating, elitist, know-it-all Ryan Bingham, a professional firer who travels the country informing people that they have lost their job and giving seminars about relinquishing oneself of the burdens of home and family. He meets two women who will change his life: saucy Alex (Vera Farmiga) whom he seduces via platinum membership cards (she’s equally on the go) and up-and-comer Natalie (Anna Kendrick) whose plot to take the company’s firing practice digital may end Ryan’s always off the ground lifestyle. The banter is never stale, the characters are never false, and most importantly it all goes down so smoothly and with such vintage panache that it single-handedly reinvigorates the waning love in all of us for Hollywood, movie stars, and the still beating heart of mainstream American cinema.

This year’s other decade long labor of love from a visual pioneer involving mystical creatures and imaginative effects. Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are is a masterpiece of whimsy and emotional distress. The film expands upon the book the Maurice Sendak with a script from Jonze and author Dave Eggers which retains the book’s sense of adventure but also develops an emotionally, visually rich world in which monsters and children are broken-hearted, free-footed friends on the lam from the stricter social order, and moms everywhere. It is a stunning film with a deeply felt, loosely plotted sensibility that actually makes it one of the bolder studio features of the decade. Thankfully, it is a rounding success and one of the year’s greatest films.

Crazy Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:25:00 +0000

First time director Scott Cooper brings to life the novel by Thomas Cobb with a central performance by Jeff Bridges as washed up country star Bad Blake that is rightfully garnering the veteran actor a great deal of Oscar buzz. Bridges is a hulking, soulful mess in the film, balancing the passion of musical performance with the jaded edge of a star past his prime. Maggie Gyllenhaal also does fine work as Jean Craddock, a local reporter enamored of Bad who quickly falls for the singer's rough charms. Crazy Heart charts the couples growing relationship, Bad's failing career and lifelong addictions, and the road to redemption ahead of him. Colin Farrell and Robery Duvall round out the cast in modest performances as Bad's former guitarist turned country superstar Tommy Sweet and Bad's longtime friend and bar owner respectively.

Crazy Heart is by definition a small film. It's built around conversations and life choices. Characters get in a room together and we observe their interactions. It's brilliantly done and so simple and authentic it would be easy to overlook the power of its skillful writing and winning performances. It's no small feat to compose such fully realized characters and craft a compelling narrative out of their simple interactions. Crazy Heart is a compelling, whiskey-drenched story of love and loss that is as bittersweet as reality and as easy to settle into as ordinary life.

The movie is also backed by a strong set of bluesy country rock songs penned by T Bone Burnett and Stephen Bruton. The duo create an extensive and impressive back catalog for Bad Blake's live shows that's wholly believable as the roster for an iconic country superstar. The film also features a moving theme, "The Weary Kind," penned by Burnett and Ryan Bingham. Bridges is incredibly adept at performing on stage both in voice and in presence. He gives the impression of being an old pro so easily that the performance becomes an entrancing act of artificial reality. Farrell too nicely handles the musical side of the film as a believably slick modern country crooner. The music only adds to the atmosphere of the already strongly rendered dramatic portions of the film, making this one of the strongest musical features of the year.

Grade: A-

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:59:00 +0000

Director Terry Gilliam brings us yet another oddball tale of fantasy and morality in a very neat, visually exciting package. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus tells the tale of the weary and immortal Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), a disciple of imagination and storytelling in a century's long battle with the devil (Tom Waits) who has come to claim the soul of his daughter, Valentina (Lily Cole), on her 16th birthday (the price of one of their many wagers). To avoid losing his daughter, Parnassus agrees to yet another wager. He takes his flagging, dilapidated travelling show on the road along with companions Percy (Verne Troyer) and Anton (Andrew Garfield) on a quest to gather up righteous souls through the use of his enchanted magical mirror. The first to five souls wins. Along the way, the crew picks up the mysterious Tony (Heath Ledger in his final role) who upsets the long established traditions of the imaginarium and may have ulterior motives of his own.

Gilliam presents a fast-moving, fun-loving, "put on a show" type energy throughout most of the film which makes up for some of the rickety narrative components. It is, after all, a fantasy and a little botched logic is of no consequence. What's ever present is the weird charm of the imaginarium and its ragtag collection of characters. It's a form of entertainment so dated and desperate that you can't help but feel misplaced nostalgia for the weird sideshow antics they perform. The "behind the mirror" sequences of surreal fantasy are uneven but mostly fun. They're actually more interesting for what they bring out in the characters than for the colorful visuals which are more playful and silly than uniquely captivating. One of the most interesting and oddly seamless devices is the replacement of Ledger (who died mid filming) with a trio of peers when his character Tony slips into the world of imagination. Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell all pick up where Ledger leaves off with great class, honoring the actor with great performances which compliment his work perfectly. The process also stresses the two-faced quality of the shifty Tony and brings to the forefront his desires to be someone else entirely.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is a lively, inventive, fun romp which carries on with great energy up to a fairly predictable but nonetheless satisfying conclusion. It's not Gilliam's best film but it offers a concentrated dose of some of the qualities which have made him such an admirable pioneer in years past.

Grade: B

DVD Pick: Jennifer's Body

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:25:00 +0000

In hindsight, Jennifer's Body never really could have been anything more than a cult hit, which hopefully it one day will be. Body is a rare thing: a horror film with a female perspective. Best friends Jennifer (Megan Fox) and Needy (Amanda Seyfried) are pinned against one another in the aftermath of Jennifer's abduction by renegade emo rockers and eventual sacrifice to the devil (to the tune of "867-5309/Jenny," no less). The result being a succubus possessed Jen who feeds on the bodies of teenage boys. Consider it Heathers with The Exorcist spiked in for good measure. Writer Diablo Cody and director Karyn Kusama have crafted a nifty piece of pop horror with underlying wit and smarts, painting one high school girl's descent into darkness with broad horror overtones that grab at the Twilight generation without losing the core allegory for abuse and subsequent destruction.

Nine

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Daniel Day-Lewis, the unstoppable master of all things thespian, somehow manages to transition from transformative character actor to leading man of a movie musical in Nine. Granted, his Guido Contini is a tortured genius film director with fantastical musical memories and not exactly a Fred Astaire-type song and dance man. Still, the two-time Oscar winner shows off yet another layer of depth here as he brushes off a pleasant singing voice and some modest hoofing skills in director Robert Marshall's largely theatrical movie about the cinema. Though Nine is being adapted for the screen, Marshall envisions it as something like a stage show mixed with visual snippets of story and information. Footage of actual narrative blends with basic soundstage dance numbers rather than integrated song and dance. The results are mixed but mostly charming based on the sheer force and energy of each song's delivery.

Guido is also matched by an ensemble of extraordinary Hollywood women doing some of their best, most playful work. Throughout the film, Guido, a womanizing, self-destructive cad, juggles visions of his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his muse (Nicole Kidman), his saucy friend and colleague (Judi Dench), a flirtatious reporter (Kate Hudson), his childhood seductress (Fergie), and his dead mother (Sophia Loren). Each of the 7 women get their chance to shine in a fiery solo and together they present a map of Guido's darkly self-serving mind.

It would be fair to criticize Rob Marshall's Nine as an indulgent, over-the-top collection of disconnected musical moments. The narrative (based on the Broadway musical of the same name which itself is based on 8 1/2) flies free and only casually touches on key plot points. And while the "musical fantasy" format worked perfectly in Marshall's breakthrough Chicago, the performance numbers here (also imagined) mix less neatly with the narrative dialogue scenes. All of this is true and yet the performances by the massive big-name ensemble are so wonderful and Marshall's visual style as a stage director is so strong that the film still works far better than it logically should. By film's end, Marshall's odd visual rhythms start to feel precise and the unhummable, melodramatic score (written by Maury Yeston) starts to fully develop its charms. This is a transporting effort which, if resisted, will be grating but when indulged can be a wholly satisfying visual and musical spectacle.

Grade: B+

The Lovely Bones

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:05:00 +0000

Director Peter Jackson's well-intentioned adaptation of The Lovely Bones, the popular novel by Alice Sebold, is a visual treat but an emotional dud. The film depicts the tragic death and afterlife of young Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) who is stalked and killed by an eerie neighbor (Stanley Tucci). While her parents, played by Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz, try to uncover the truth of what happened to their daughter, Susie explores a magical world in between our earth and her future heaven. She observes and interacts, in small ways, with her grieving family as both parties learn to cope with what has transpired.

The first third or so of the film is a very stunning and well-acted tale of foreboding obsession, leading to a chilling end. It's in the latter part of the film that Jackson desperately loses his way. Splitting the narrative between Susie's dream-like, CGI rendered other world and the very grim real world, the film becomes a disjointed mess. Character motivations become questionable, style takes over from substance, and the eventual resolution is an unsatisfying, inconsequential throwaway complete with creepy possessed teenager makeout sessions and an afterthought punishment of Tucci's sinister villain that offers no closure. The tone skips all over from a teen fantasy, to a goofy Grandma Lynn montage (starring a boozy Susan Sarandon), to a dangerous murder mystery. Thankfully, the cast remains game in spite of all the missteps, namely 15 year-old Ronan who carries the film with aplomb and the versatile Stanley Tucci who gives a chilling performance that grounds the film with vivid and believable terror. Despite the fact that several sequences in this film are utterly breathtaking, the overall picture is a mixed bag that only gets worse as it goes on until none of the characters or the story really matter anymore.

Grade: C+

Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:43:00 +0000

Eclectic director Werner Herzog makes a confounding detour with a loose remake of the 1992 Abel Ferrara film Bad Lieutenant starring Harvey Keitel. Set in a post-Katrina New Orleans, the new Lieutenant stars Nicolas Cage in a hammy, scenery chewing performance as Terence McDonagh, a coke addicted lieutenant with less than legitimate police procedures who is investigating the drug related murder of a family. The cast also features Val Kilmer as McDonagh's partner, Eva Mendes as his junkie prostitute girlfriend, rapper Xzibit as prime suspect Big Fate, and some small character work by talented actors such as Michael Shannon, Fairuza Balk, and Jennifer Coolidge.

Determining whether this is a good film or a bad film is a near impossibility. In so many respects it is an absolutely awful film. The film is manic, random, and fueled by a dark sense of chaos. Every actor is playing at the top of their crazy register. And there are several completely ridiculous scenes based on the central character's hallucinatory habits, including one with an unbearably long close-up of imaginary iguanas. Yet weirdly it is those same ludicrous qualities which might make Bad Lieutenant enjoyable for some viewers. The film is a pure pulp spectacle and seems to be consciously constructed as such. In other words, the kooky crime antics and nutso performance by Cage all play into a fairly consistent vision by Herzog which may captivate audiences with its weirdness. The spectacle just doesn't carry enough actual drama, humor, or suspense to make this worth seeing all that much. This is definitely a niche work for gunfight lovers and gritty cop gurus.

Grade: C

Up In The Air

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:09:00 +0000

Director Jason Reitman continues his mastery of the American comedy with yet another winning, mainstream, character-driven effort that is as timely as it is perfectly classic. George Clooney steps seamlessly into the Cary Grant-type dapper cad role he was born to play as Ryan Bingham, a carefree soul who fires people for a living and does a little part-time lecturing about the unnecessary baggage of a home and family. He strikes up a shallow flirtation with an equally commerce hungry woman named Alex (Vera Farmiga) and lives his life with no strings attached. His great ambition is to amass 10 million frequent flier miles and join an elite club of travel snobs to have done so. Plans go awry when whip smart Cornell grad Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick resurrecting essential and beautifully crass elements of her breakthrough character from Rocket Science) proposes a cost effective reformatting of the company that would take workers off the road and have them do their firing duties via web cam. Bingham's objections to the system, which would ground his loose and unburdened lifestyle, leads his boss (Jason Bateman) to stick him on the road with Keener in an attempt to give her the work experience necessary to address Bingham's own complaints.

The film is a savvy blend of comedy and drama, sentiment and snark. It's so elementary and yet it stands out among most modern comedies as one of the few to really invest in characters and story instead of perpetrating low grade stupidity and begging for cheap laughs. Reitman has managed a natural flow that both feels realistic and maintains a certain radiant sheen that makes this as strong an effort to wear it's Hollywood glamour on its sleeve all year. Reitman couldn't not have sensed 1940s Grant in the writing of Ryan Bingham or missed the neatly cynical way his incorporation of depressing "firing testimonials" mirrors Rob Reiner's "real couple testimonials" in the structure of When Harry Met Sally. Many decades worth of romance and comedy get wisely condensed in this fine feature which still undoubtedly adds its own sharp, unique and particularly unmissable spin on all the tropes it recycles. Up In The Air is a moving, funny, and highly enjoyable film that will hopefully become as much of a breakout hit as Reitman's previous comic wonder, Juno. With each of his 3 films, the director has surpassed expectations and proved that fast, feeling, and funny films are far from lost on modern film audiences.

Grade: A

Avatar

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:41:00 +0000

Avatar is a much-hype passion project for director James Cameron (Aliens, Terminator 2, Titanic) with roots that reportedly extend as far back as 20 years in the director's life and an astronomical budget which has been rumored to be in the hundreds of millions. Despite all that effort and all that money, the product is a straight dud. While Avatar is technically impressive, it fails as cinema.

The film tells the story of paralyzed war vet Jack Sully (Sam Worthington) who gets conveniently swept into a top secret mission to another planet when his genius twin brother is murdered, leaving him as the only person with the biological makeup to operate the required avatar machinery needed for the job. On the planet of Pandora, a species known as the Na'vi have been recently infiltrated by the human race. In an attempt to meld cultures, the humans create Na'vi bodies for themselves to virtually inhabit in order to better interact with the natives, a tribal society of nature loving warriors with an infinite connection to their home planet. The reckless Jack somehow manages to draw the attention of Na'vi princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and become accepted into the tribe. Eventually the humans' strictly commercial interests conflict with the Na'vi way of life and Jack must choose between his species and the new family he has discovered.

With a script more careful to overexplain made up traditions and languages than to make any sort of rational sense, Avatar plays like a very indulgent space fable designed by people with too much heart and not enough brains. Moreover, it's a very grotesquely simplified feature which pins the ultra pure and innocent native Na'vi against a vision of humanity so outrageously exaggerated and cartoonish that somehow an easy target such as American corporate greed somehow manages to not get a fair shake in this mess. Sigourney Weaver plays Grace, a rare good-hearted human who runs the scientific portion of the avatar program. Meanwhile, actors Giovanni Ribisi and Stephen Lang accept the task of playing an executive and a colonel respectively who are each so disgusting as to commit genocide without a thought. These are not nuanced, complex characters. Neither are the Na'vi in most respects. Certainly, Cameron crafted a very specific history and world for them to inhabit but they are largely interchangeable, dull and lacking motivation. There's no clear moment where Neytiri falls for Jack. She just does. In a montage. Because she's the female character in the movie and that's what the female characters does. Jack too is a bit of a blank slate who makes radical life choices on a near whim and then fights to the death in a battle that comes too late to really matter.

For all the fine craft of Cameron's visual wonderland, this is a clunky overlong narrative burdened by poor writing and a preachy tone so bombarding as to irritate even apolitical ears. Viewers may still find it worth the experience to witness what Cameron has done, but anyone expecting an effective and well-composed feature will be sadly disappointed.

Grade: D

A Single Man

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Fashion designer Tom Ford delivers a very accomplished film debut in A Single Man which stars Colin Firth as George Falconer, a heartbroken college professor mourning the loss of his long time partner, Jim (Matthew Goode), in 1962 Los Angeles. A broken man, George proceeds to plan his own suicide and sets out to live his very last day. He gives a particularly passionate, unprofessional, and unjaded lecture in his college classroom and unintentionally inspires interest from the sexually ambiguous Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) who follows George after class to pick his brain and invite himself to coffee. Julianne Moore gives a playful performance as a lush drunk named Charley who is madly in love with George to no avail. They share a dance and a drink and contemplate their intertwining misguided lives. Whether George will go through with his plan remains a question mark as fresh elements of inspiration begin to shake him from the merciless pain of his grief.

Firth is utterly smashing in a very un-Collin Firth performance as a vulnerable soul with a posh exterior and cheeky underlying twist. He's charming by all counts during the lighter comic bits and even more effective in the film's quiet, meditative moments of which there are many more. Director Ford shapes the film into a moody, melancholic piece of nostalgia enamored of 60s culture and fashion yet equally drenched in the morose sentiments of a fading central figure. Ford's tone and style are exquisitely consistent yet perhaps distracting to some. He lends a heavy hand to the feature, using stylistic flourishes such as draining or filling his frames with color to suggest fluctuations between radiant joy and despairing pallor in the mind of the main character. A Single Man has the indubitable characteristic of being an "art film" and therefore will likely appeal only to a niche audience but willing spectators will be justly rewarded.

Grade: A-

DVD Pick: (500) Days Of Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:59:00 +0000

Director Marc Webb's sly, classic in the making rom-com, (500) Days Of Summer, penned by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, does for 2009 what Annie Hall did for 1977: it takes the aging, unimaginative romantic comedy genre into a new era with wit, insight, and an awareness of all that has come before. The film drifts whimsically along through a scrambled timeline as it follows the 500 days of the on-again-off-again relationship between hopeless romantic Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and cynical commitment-phobe Summer (Zooey Deschanel). That those actors and this film so neatly fit into the sub-category of "indie" style can seem a mockable and trite quality but the film itself is a friend and foe to formula, weaving predictability hand-in-hand with nuance. The film re-enacts so many film patterns we have seen a million times before and then magnificently departs from them at precisely the right moments

Broken Embraces

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:47:00 +0000

Director Pedro Almodóvar returns with Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotos) a visually stunning homage to the classic works of Alfred Hitchcock. The film opens in present day Madrid with blind screenwriter Mateo Blanco (Lluís Homar) coping with his disability and living as a "new man" under the pseudonym Harry Caine. In flashbacks we meet the stunning Lena (Penélope Cruz), the tragic mistress of fabulously wealthy mogul Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez) who monitors her every move. The jealous lover even goes as far as to employ his teenage son (Rubén Ochandiano) to film the set of Mateo's new film for fear that the director will fall for his new muse, Lena. Together the pair make the comedy Chicas y Maletas and fall madly in love in the process. What emerges is a vicious power struggle between the two men vying for the dazzling beauty's attention that leads to a very unfortunate end.

Despite the uniformly wonderful performances, the film is really a tag team effort between Penélope Cruz and her mentor Almodovar. Cruz gives a wonderful old Hollywood glamour performance that consciously echoes everything from beauty icons Audry Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe to the multi-layered complexity of Kim Novak in Vertigo with both camp and soul. Lena is a put upon starlet who acts her every effort in both in her life as a trophy mistress and on film as a beaming ingenue. Cruz manages to comfortably shoulder both the kitsch of the over the top wigs and the dark emotion of Lena's wounded soul and body. In return Almodovar films her with absolutely immodest passion. He constructs elaborate mise-en-scène which frames her in the shadow of still life portraits or at the mercy of painted guns and knifes. Her stasis and trauma are as much visually expressed through the camera as they are suggested in Cruz's quietly broken expressions. At its best, the piece touches pure cinema and yet it too often falls into folly and lackadaisical contrivance. This is most especially true in the present day framework which bungles the stirring magic of the Hitchcock-ian flashback. The film is so stunning as to be unmissable but also too sloppy to truly consider a masterpiece.

Grade: B+

The Road

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:14:00 +0000

Having directed the 2005 Western-styled Australian drama The Proposition, director John Hilcoat is no stranger to expressing a dark, dystopian portrait of ragtag renegade life. In The Road, he brings a similar unflinching eye and knack for visually elegant devestation to an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's acclaimed novel. Viggo Mortensen gives a riveting and raw performance as the unnamed "Man" who travels a desolate post-apocalyptic Earth in search of food and clothing along with his young son, "The Boy" (relative newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee in a wise beyond his years breakthrough role). The plot is slim yet captivating. It encompasses a series of episodic encounters of increasing intensity in which father and son combat their inner demons as well as very real, devolving human cannibals who search the road for fresh prey. The ensemble includes exceptional work by a number of actors in small roles, including Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Molly Parker, Michael K. Williams, Garret Dillahunt, and Charlize Theron (as the family's deceased matriarch seen only in flashbacks).

The film is not a complete home run. It relies on generous, patient viewership and an openness to the opaque narrative. What is undeniable though is that the film builds itself beautifully into a collection of moments, some heartbreaking (the small joy of a post-apocalyptic Coca Cola), some inspiring ("The Boy" and his generous care for a lonely old traveler), some horrifying (Do you really want to know what's in a cannibal's basement?). There are sequences here that are truly unforgettable even if they fall very calmly into a lull of shifting, road tripping minimalism. The big picture is one of striking beauty and gripping intensity. It is a very brutal and unforgiving plunge into a not so unbelievable darkness which despite its distance from a modern society seems to call attention to a vile underside all too present even in the now. Still, McCarthy's story and Hilcoat's film hint also at a journey, one in which the peril faced along the road leads to a redemption (perhaps divine?) which serves as saving grace.

Grade: A-

DVD Pick: Bruno

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:05:00 +0000

In what must be the most shocking and audacious American film in recent memory, Sacha Baron Cohen solidifies his status as gross out comedy’s golden god, and rare intellectual auteur. The brainiest, bawdiest, most jaw-dropping-est festival of dirty jokes and cultural satire since Borat broke, Bruno is like nothing else since, and certainly equal to its predecessor. There are more gasps per frame than any film I can think of and at least a handful of moments so drenched in muckraking social satire that you wonder how a single mind could conceive both the crude slapstick and observational humor which define the film. Director Larry Charles (Borat) is once again at the helm documenting Cohen’s outrageous behavior, partly scripted and partly improvised with real (unaware) participants in the fiction. Hewing close to the Borat mold, Bruno, the flamboyantly gay Austrian TV host, makes the exodus to America to learn how to become a big time celebrity. The result is an absolutely hilarious and uncannily perceptive piece documenting the hell of American celebrity media and the nation’s ongoing discomfort and homophobia.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:32:00 +0000

In his first foray into animation, Fantastic Mr. Fox, director Wes Anderson breathes fresh life into his familiar quirks. Adapting Roald Dahl's work of the same name, Anderson creates a vibrant underground world in which animal's combat a trio of food tycoons whose chickens, turkeys, and cider are too tasty to resist. The titular fox (voiced by George Clooney) betrays his contented family life with a wife (Meryl Streep) and son (Jason Schwartzman) to start up again with his old life of crime. In many ways he's not too far in pluck and deceptive spirit from scheming yet short-sighted Dignan from Anderson's breakthrough, Bottle Rocket. The multi-layered sets and deeply detailed frames that have become Anderson's visual trademark reappear here in stunning stop-motion imagery. The director finds ways to turn mineral deposits and running sewerage pipes into gorgeous set pieces and make rats, foxes, and opossums as engaging and vivid as all of his neurotic and vulnerable protagonists from film's past.

If anything, Wes Anderson's hyper-stylized, some say "cutesy" tone works all the more given the creative license of animation. The director's patented imagination runs wild. His bright gloss and busy sequences will simultaneously engage young children and astound adult audiences. This is one of the most visually spectacular and original animated film in a long while.

Grade: A

Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:12:00 +0000

The much-hyped little indie which took the festival circuit by storm is not exactly the feel good story big shot executive producers Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey would lead you to believe. It's a grueling, unrelenting cinema experience in which director Lee Daniels, a man who seems to know no restraint, bombards his audience with abuse after abuse against one innocent Harlem teen named Precious Jones. Make a list and check it twice. Incest! Beatings! Chicken theft! Nothing is off limits in this realer than real indie that all but begs you to cry and use the word "empowering" as you exit the theater. The film opens in the midst of violence and despair and very slowly lifts the burden until a pseudo-release arrives, but not with any sense satisfaction. There are no victories, no reliefs. As powerfully real as physical and sexual abuse might be, it's still a question of whether an audience will submit to being force fed shocking visuals without mercy for the full length of a feature film. Be assured, Precious will not be a fun or pleasant experience to view.

The film's central figure, Precious Jones (played with great presence and confidence by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe) is an illiterate teen, pregnant with her second child by her sexually abusive father, and living with her physically abusive mother, Mary (Mo'Nique in a role that's unquestionably startling and difficult to watch). She's aided by a new teacher at an alternative school (Paula Patton), the school's secretary (Sherri Shepherd), a generous nurse (Lenny Kravitz), and an invested social worker (Mariah Carey) in establishing new goals and finding her self worth.

The film's greatest virtue truly is its graphic, unflinching nature. The central topic is bold and there are moments in which the film mesmerizes not only with its brutality but with the way it captures the nuances of everyday life, humor and all. It is when it is in its simplest, purest form that the film really works wonders. It's director Lee Daniels' decadence of despair which clouds the moving central narrative with heavy-handed attempts to turn life into art. Consider the ridiculous amount of cheap looking montage that accompanies the very early revelation of Precious' rape by her father. Or the film's most emotionally draining moment: Mary's final assault on her daughter, which is made saccharine by ridiculous cutaways to childhood photos. If only these moments had stood alone the power would be felt more fully. Chopped up with film school instincts, they are significantly less than what they should be.

There's also the ever present issue of integrity vs. capital. At no point did I get the impression this was a film honoring those who have been abused in a similar fashion to Precious. Most times it felt like an ego stroke to fabulously wealthy talent so proud of themselves for flirting with "realness."At what point filming Mo'Nique's unshaven body hair or Mariah Carey's unmade-up face stops being a self-flattering exercise in capturing "real life" and starts becoming a serious film is sometimes hard to decipher. There are miraculous scenes of unflinching truth here made stronger by uniformly exceptional performances (even by Carey, dare we admit to it). There are just a few too many times in which reality (not "reality") shine through and the weirdly mocking sense of "Hey, let's play poor ugly people!" chews up the beauty of the film at hand. You can imagine the endless conversations had about exactly how "real" Carey should look. The kind of cheap clothes they could get her so she could be "real." How do "real" people talk (like Fran Drescher, apparently)? The attempts to strip away all artifice are so pronounced that they becomes equally artificial.

You cannot deny the power of so much of this material. I honestly believe the film works overall and has many great successes. Unfortunately, sometimes the packaging of this project, the tone and style set by director Lee Daniels, takes away from the power of the narrative and the vivid performances at the core of the film. Precious is a good film with a lot to say, but I do not think it is a great one.

Grade: B-

The Box

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Despite the popular opinion that The Box would be writer/director Richard Kelly's safe commercial sell-out film after producing two consecutive divisive cult gems (Donnie Darko and Southland Tales), the film actually fits very snugly within the emerging Kelly oeuvre. It's as weird or weirder than either of his previous films and despite a $30 million price tag and a trio of movie stars (Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, and Frank Langella) Box is exactly the weird little movie with overtones of apocalypse and science/religion slippage that Kelly might have produced working on a shoe string budget with an unfamiliar cast.

While the outcome is 100% Kelly, it's still a bit of a blah film. The most somber of his works, The Box clunks along somewhat groggily at times unwilling to spill narrative secrets yet unable to remain gripping in the face of ambiguity. The basic story (a couple is provided with a button by a mysterious stranger which, if pushed, will end the life of someone they do not know and reward them with $1 million) lasts somewhere around 30 minutes and every moment after that is another in which Kelly keeps the wheels turning but always with the faintest hint of desperation.

The film is bona fide B material, and Kelly may have wanted it that way. Despite moral implications and a few very well written speeches, The Box lives up to its "Twilight Zone" roots as a freak out paranoia fable that's good fun but no masterpiece. There are refreshingly old-fashioned elements to the story's suspense. It approaches horror from the realm of a drama rather than from a place of slasher exploitation. In the end, there's not a bit which is out of place. It's a clearly conceived vision from Kelly which is implausible and utterly bizarre but very comfortable at being exactly what it is, no more and no less. A home run, grade A film this is not but it is a solid, enjoyable thriller that will ironically end up being yet another Kelly cult fave.

Grade: B

DVD Pick: Up

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:26:00 +0000

The latest from Disney’s unstoppable Pixar, Up, is by far one of its most exciting adventures. Not quite the meditative masterpiece that Wall-E was, the film is more story-driven and plumped with action. A few very welcome juvenile touches (talking dogs!) make it feel like kid fare but there are so many adult ripples that one wonders how much of this children would understand or appreciate. In classic Disney fashion, we open with a tragic death. And it is perhaps the truest and least candy-coated cartoon fatality. Neither animal, nor spectacle, it is a quiet and sophisticatedly rendered human death from natural causes.

We then speed ahead to the present where Carl Frederickson, still grieving the loss of his darling wife Ellie, has blossomed into a first class lovable curmudgeon. A former balloon salesman specializing in making things take flight, Frederickson chooses to adorn his rooftop with a bundle of helium floaters and take off into the sky to avoid a bleak nursing home fate. Having promised his wife in childhood to take her to South America, he decides this new adventure is the perfect opportunity to plant the house on the spot they had discussed for their whole lives (one involving the legend of an old-time adventurer who recurs in truly strange ways). Along the way, he accidentally picks up a boy scout named Russell, who nobly attempts to earn his “helping the elderly” badge. Together they somehow end up on a totally enjoyable yet utterly incomprehensible South American adventure involving a renegade explorer, an endangered bird, and an army of dog soldiers. All the while having the floating house tied to their backs. Quite a feat.

Where the Wild Things Are

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:25:00 +0000

Visionary director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation.) has made an instant-classic live-action children's film that could very well become the 21st century's The Wizard of Oz. His adaptation of author Maurice Sendak's iconic children's book Where the Wild Things Are is rich, dark, and challenging even to adult viewers. It establishes in its young protagonist Max a hero who is combustible, impulsive, and highly insecure. While most children's films create a precocious and idealistically noble tot wise beyond his or her years, Wild Things reprsents Max in all his broken, destructive glory and paints a picture (in scenes both real and surreal) of what it genuinely feels like to be a child.

Whether or not children will embrace the film is questionable. I simply can't help but hope that they will. It's a truly magical and mysterious film which feels delicately woven and yet utterly natural. To question a scene, a moment, a frame seems superfluous. It is what it is and it is best simply to allow it to wash over you. It is, after all, an experience film. The narrative is simple: rambunctious Max causes trouble at home and flees to a magical island where he meets the "wild things" who reflect to him his own animal anxieties. Plot is not a major component here, nor should it be. It's a film about irrational feelings, sensory experiences, and gradual transitions. It is subtle and beautiful both in its gentle story and stunning visual style. Jonze's decision to portray the titular creatures through the use of elaborate puppet suits rather than CGI makes this a decidedly timeless film which tickles the imagination. It's a brave choice which pays off tremendously in making the audience feel for the giant, furry beasts who are almost certainly imaginary even in the narrative space of the film.

Ultimately, Spike Jonze's dreamy, gold-tinged euphoric adolescent fantasia will be a love it or hate it experience based on whether the moody haze of the film is found intoxicating or simply dull. There is no bare bones plot to keep the stragglers at bay. It will either grip you or leave you at the starting gate. Either way, there's doubtless a film with more nerve and raw passion to be released all year. That such a gorgeous, non-commercial masterpiece has managed to open in 3,500 theaters seems miraculous. A treat for everyone nationwide.

Grade: A

An Education

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:12:00 +0000

Director Lone Scherfig's coming of age drama, An Education, is a crackling account of one 16 year-old girl's liaison with an older man in 1960s London. Jenny, the teen in question, is not a mindless moppet but rather a free-spirited burgeoning intellectual with a penchant for all things French and an aspiration to attend Oxford. She's portrayed by actress Carey Mulligan in a performance so rich, natural, and fully-realized that the young Brit has found herself a sudden stateside star in the making. She's aided by a full ensemble of impressive players, including Peter Sarsgaard (as lover David), Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour (as Jenny's concerned parents), Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike (as David's suspicious and alluring pals), Olivia Williams (as doting teacher Ms. Stubbs), Emma Thompson (as Jenny's school's headmistress), and Happy-Go-Lucky's Sally Hawkins (in a scene which will break all hearts).

The film's script, adapted by Nick Hornby from a memoir by Lynn Barber, is full of wit, sharp insight, and a playful sense of adventure. It's not preachy or sullen but rather gently revelatory in the way it navigates true drama with all the humor and joy intact. The relationship between Jenny and David is allowed to have both charm and squirm, and the latter character's persona (a slick con man at best) is a tight rope walk of complex layers and manipulation. David offers young Jenny a world of opportunity complete with posh concerts, art auctions, and a trip to Paris. The young lady is then placed between worlds, wanting only the lavish luxury David offers but still obligated to a family which has dedicated themselves to her academic pursuits.

What's most refreshing is that this is a smart movie about smart people who make real choices, real errors in judgment, and ultimately suffer real consequences. It stands apart as a sophisticated, yet by no means stale, character drama that feels plucked from another era (perhaps its own period). It explores ordinary life and complication with great nuance.

Grade: A-

DVD Pick: Drag Me to Hell

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:47:00 +0000

Drag Me to Hell - director Sam Raimi's highly anticipated return to horror - explodes onto the screen in very fine form. In a nod to older works (including his own Evil Dead franchise), Raimi opens with a vintage Universal logo as a stylistic and tonal indicator. This is a an adrenaline fueled roller coaster ride of a horror piece that is committed to hard scares and good fun and has absolutely nothing (NOTHING) to do with tourists who get lost in Europe and end up having viking milkmaids skin them alive to drink their blood. It is truly of a different, pre-Saw and even pre-Scream era in which sadistic torture and ultra-ironic audience nods are altogether out of the equation. Point of order: Sam Raimi and brother Ivan penned the script in 1993 and then shelved it for all these years. Thankfully, the piece was not lost completely. Drag Me to Hell is some of the most masterful pulp of this or any decade and bears no shame for its commitment to a passe style. In fact, if all is right in the world, Drag Me to Hell will make what is old new again. I'd gladly see a dozen more Raimi-like low-camp high-chill romps than any number of Hostel-like abuse tomes.

Paranormal Activity

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:12:00 +0000

The so-called "scariest movie of the decade" is really a fairly sedate, sufficiently spooky creeper which capitalizes on the very primal fear of the vulnerable slumber. The film is shot in the building sub-genre of POV horror with unknown actors, one set, and a budget of $11,000. It chronicles the supposed haunting of Katie Featherston by a demon that has followed her since early childhood. Katie, now living with boyfriend Micah, has agreed to film their bedroom at night in order to capture the culprit on film. The couple records slight sounds and small movements at first but their continuing investigation of the phenomenon leads to one very pissed off demon and a much terrorized Katie.

A film like this is awfully hard to calibrate. How much casual banter do we need before the spooky stuff happens? How spooky should it be? How real? What will audiences tolerate? In many instances, writer/director Oren Peli gets it right. Several sequences, including the "powder night," pack a very potent mix of human emotion, suggestive horror, and just the right dose of the supernatural. Other ones, including a very cartoonish flaming Ouija board, simply take the gimmick too far. And the film's ending is chilling to a point....then nothing but overboard. If this really were found footage, it would be the most definitive proof of the supernatural ever caught on tape. What's wrong here is that the film all too often drifts from the novelty of subtle proof of the demonic to very cliché and recycled horror elements that are too convoluted to truly work in this format. At times, early in the film, it seems we're getting hardly any scares (a few thumps and nothing more). Later, it's a bit too much. A full-on demon-palooza. Not the eerie slow build scares the film does best. Paranormal Activity is far from perfect, but it is a nice experiment and it works well enough to be worth attending, albeit with modest expectations.

Cynics will likely grow weary of the main couple and their very "horror movie" decisions about the best ways to protect themselves. Somehow they manage to convince themselves (and attempt to persuade the audience as well) that they'd be best served by handling this situation alone and without the help of a professional demonologist, that fleeing their house would be a futile effort, and that it's best to just keep going to sleep every night as per usual and filming it to see what monsters attacked them in their sleep. That either of them voluntarily goes to sleep on the 21st (and final) day of their plight seems altogether insane and improbable.

As much as I like to back the dark horse indie, if pushed I would easily choose Sam Raimi's similarly themed and more lavishly produced Hollywood thriller Drag Me to Hell over this more mild concoction. Still, it's an impressive feat for such a small production and the final product is a thoroughly enjoyable, if overhyped, Halloween season treat.

Grade: B+

A Serious Man

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:48:00 +0000

For all the talk of A Serious Man being a major departure for the brothers Coen, the film feels quite Coen-y. It's actually something of a culmination which fine-tunes many elements of the absurd, the surreal, and the darkly comic which have percolated in the brothers work for several decades. Oft-obsessed with all the ways things can go wrong (particularly in the world of crime), the Coens have wielded Murphy's law like a narrative weapon film after film. A Serious Man is the first of their works to actually speak the question of divine acts of misfortune aloud and give them religious context. Relative unknown Michael Stuhlbarg gives an incredible performance as Lawrence Gopnik, a put upon physics professor experiencing a Job-like series of unfortunate events which call his faith into question. Seeking answers, he speaks to the local rabbis in an to attempt to find God's meaning for his misfortune.

The movie opens quite uniquely with a Yiddish fable prologue shot in vintage aspect ratio and made to look somethig like an old European film. It is followed by a credits sequence revealed to be taking place inside the ear canal of Lawrence's son, Danny (Aaron Wolff), a rebellious child listening to Jefferson Airplan in Hebrew class. Almost every scene in this constantly surprising masterpiece feels like a stroke of genius. Most importantly, the Coens have never been so assured in their craft. Each moment feels so distinct and vivid; every line of dialogue feels clear and specific. Famous for filming every line of their script, the Coens go as far as to even decide the "umm..." and "aahhh..." sounds character make as they stammer. And no one authors awkward quite like Joel and Ethan Coen.

A Serious Man is a varied affair, a gentle comedy and an engrossing tragedy as well. It ponders fate, the place of a man in his world, and the ability of a good man to remain strong in the face of so much despair. It very subtly suggests in its stunning, sudden climax that the breaking point of one good man is the point at which the world fall's apart. In what must be one of their very greatest films, the Coens have created an absolutely unmissable, quintessentially American drama with playful rhythmic dialogue and unforgettable images. It's a film steeped in Jewish culture which dares to ask big questions about faith in a dark time.

Grade: A

Zombieland

noreply@blogger.com (Pete) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:35:00 +0000

Credit Zombieland for knowing its place in the celluloid universe. Rather than attempting something grand and falling flat, the utterly fun and frivolous zombie comedy, set in a post-apocalyptic planet earth, simply savors its role as a nonsense happy rollercoaster ride. So much so that it does indeed build to an amusement park set climax which includes several gags involving actual rollercoasters.

Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) stars as "Columbus, Ohio" (no names in Z-Land), a paranoid loner who has managed to survive the annihilation of the human race by being constantly alert and without sentimental attachments. He finds a zombie killing companion in Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) who doesn't just survive the zombies but actually derives pleasure from screwing with their mushy, flesh-craving brains. The pair's expedition goes relatively well until they cross paths with a sneaky team of con artists (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) who undergo a slow transistion from adversaries to adopted family.

Not exactly a plot-heavy film, Zombieland more or less follows the quartet on their cross country journey to Los Angeles where rumor has it there is a zombie free amusement part. Along the way they make a memorable stop in the Hollywood hills which includes a film-stealing cameo by a very game celebrity guest. This meta-moment proves the most memorable, and original, of the film's devices which usually don't rise above the path laid by previous horror spoofs.

All and all, though, this is a weirdly funny little gem loaded with good laughs and lots of thrill seeking spirit. Harrelson has a lot of fun playing his renegade badass role (a zombie movie staple) and manages to create a lovable, gun-toting degenerate who is alone worth the price of admission. Factor in the odd appeal of pint-sized, angel-faced Breslin stealing cars and shooting up zombies in a role Dakota Fanning wouldn't dream of touching, and you've got a cocktail for one of this Fall's weirdest entries and biggest sleeper hits.

Grade: B