We Know You've Been Waiting!! - The Annual Xavierpop Holiday Season Movie Preview((tag: xavierpop, film, pop-culture, nerdiness, tumblrize,Amy Adams,David Cronenberg,Invention of Hugo Cabret,James L. Brooks,James McAvoy,Martin Scorsese,Matt Damon,Muppet,M

There is cause for cheer yet in 2011 at the movies because the final weeks of the year are jammed-packed with the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, muppetational mix of huge holiday season releases and promising Oscar contenders. Not least of which The Muppets are set to make a roaring comeback.

There's enough meat and cheese on the holiday wishlist to please every kind of movie lover. The back end of the year looks ready to erase out of our memories the giant thud that marked the year's opening with the dreadful Nic Cage mess Season of the Witch, a movie with too many seasons to care about and sadly, no witches. Not even Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy flying in on vacuums could have saved that turkey despite all the welcome ham they would have added to the proceedings.

The mess continued from there with the lackluster Green Hornet, the unfunny comedies No Strings Attached and Your Highness, and the dreadful additions to the Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, and Twilight series of flicks, although Harry Potter 7 Part 1 hit the mark.

In terms of adaptations, Troy was regrettable, The Smurfs only a smidge better, while Captain America got the job done and Winnie the Pooh won our hearts.

Hollywood has seen better years for movies, but here at Xavierpop, we're flipping cartwheels in anticipation of what the calendar looks like this holiday season; a tsunami of releases that look to change the entire complexion of 2011 as a whole.

Here's the scoop: Martin Scorsese goes 3D, we get a double-dose of Spielberg in December, the Muppets make a comeback, the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo goes Hollywood, Alexander Payne proves once more that he's this generation's James L. Brooks, David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortenson prove that the third time really is the charm, Michelle Williams is Marilyn Monroe, Meryl Streep is Margaret Thatcher, Glenn Close is a man, Twilight is back (did it ever go away?), Angelina Jolie makes her directing debut, Jonah Hill's a babysitter in a movie that harkens back to Adventures in Babysitting, while Matt Damon moves into a zoo.

Here's the naughty and the nice of it, an Xavierpop holiday checklist of movies that are must-sees from here on out in 2011;

The Descendants (Nov.16; limited release) marks another mature dramedy for Alexander Payne (Sideways, About Schmidt), starring George Clooney as an absentee father of two girls whose world turns upside down after mom dies. Like James L. Brooks in the 80's with Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News, Payne delivers another solid effort that has the ability to make audiences smile, laugh and cry all in the same movie. Plus, being very well received at TIFF is always a good thing.

George Miller (Mad Max, Babe: Pig In the City, Happy Feet) brings us a second installment in family fave Happy Feet Two (Nov.18), with the voices of Brad Pitt and Matt Damon joining Elijah Wood and Robin Williams. And yes, apparently the sequel does get a little more serious, like the second Babe outing.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (Nov.18) brings us the fourth pic in that series, this one tracking Bella's marriage to Edward and their uber-troubling and complicated pregnancy.

Fans of hard-hitting dramas will love the festival fave Tyrannosaur (Nov.18; limited), starring Peter Mullan (The Magdalene Sisters) and marking the second directing effort of actor Paddy Considine (In America).

The U.S. Thanksgiving long weekend is top-loaded with potential hits that should satiate every appetite. Check out this selection, hitting theaters on Nov. 23:

First, there's Martin Scorsese, who's set to enjoy the biggest commercial success of his career as he moves into more populist fare with Hugo, the 3-D adaptation of Brian Selznick's best-selling children's book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" about a boy who lives within the walls of a Paris train station. It has a stellar cast that stars Jude Law, Ben Kingsley, and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Then there's The Muppets, who storm back into theaters with the help of Jason Segal and Amy Adams.

Sony Pictures also gets into the 3-D and animation ring that weekend with Arthur Christmas, a movie that is set to reveal just how Santa gets the job done on Christmas Eve. With the voices of James McAvoy and Jim Broadbent.

And then there are three bonafide Oscar contenders launching that same weekend with festival favorites A Dangerous Method, this time a historical pic that teams David Cronenberg with muse Viggo Mortenson in a drama focusing on Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud; The Artist, that mesmerizing, touching, gorgeously photographed in black & white and almost entirely silent pic that opened with a roaring standing ovation at Toronto's Elgin Theater at TIFF, about a washed-up silent movie star (played by Cannes Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin) whose career stalls with the advent of the talkies; and My Week With Marilyn, the biopic starring Michelle Williams (Wendy & Lucy) as Marilyn Monroe.

December kicks off with deep, dark, and delicious movies, first with Shame (Dec.2), the most talked-about film at the Toronto Film Festival which re-teams director Steve McQueen (Hunger) with the star of that pic, Michael Fassbender, this time as a man tortured by his sex addiction; and then there's the brooding Roman epic Coriolanus, with Ralph Fiennes directing and starring, along with Gerard Butler and Vanessa Redgrave.

Luc Besson (The Professional, Arthur & the Invisibles) tries his hand at a straightforward drama with the biopic The Lady (Dec.2; limited), with Michelle Yeoh starring as Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Roman Polanski (Chinatown,The Ghost Writer) returns with the interior drama Carnage (Dec.16; limited), starring Jodie Foster.

The serious tone continues the first half of December with three other dramas opening around North America in major cities beginning Dec. 9 with I Melt With You, the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll soundtrack-infused drama starring Rob Lowe and Jeremy Piven; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Gary Oldman and Colin Firth in the feature adaptation to the John Le Carre best-seller about a cold-war era spy-hunt that climbs to the upper echelons of power at the British Secret Intel Service, directed by Tomas Alfredson who made one of 2008's best movies with Let the Right One In; and the disturbing TIFF hit We Need To Talk About Kevin, starring Tilda Swinton as a mother haunted by her son, who appears to be a bad seed, directed by Lynne Ramsay, who indie lovers will remember from her uncompromising and challenging dramas Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar.

Lightening up the pre-Christmas rush are The Sitter (Dec.9), with Jonah Hill as a suspended student stuck babysitting young children; New Year's Eve (Dec.9) from Garry Marshall, that schmaltzy but heartwarming of directors (Beaches, Pretty Woman, Valentine's Day) who returns with another hyperlink movie with heapings of characters and storylines, this time focusing on year's end; and Alvin and the Chipmunks - Chipwrecked (Dec.16), another installment in the hugely popular adaptation of the Saturday morning family fave.

Bringing wall-to-wall action pre-Christmas week is the Steven Spielberg 3D-action-fantasy The Adventures of Tintin (Dec.21), starring Jamie Bell and Daniel Craig; Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, with Robert Downey Jr. back as the famous detective; and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, with Tom Cruise returning, but this time with Brad Bird behind the camera (The Incredibles, Ratatouille), a most interesting choice.

Perhaps the single biggest event among film geeks everywhere is the anticipation of the Hollywood adaptation of the European indie hit Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Dec.21), with David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) helming from a Steve Zaillian-penned script (Searching For Bobby Fischer, Moneyball).

All of this leads to Christmas week, when a flurry of huge titles hit theaters, starting with the 3-D aliens-attacking-earth flick The Darkest Hour (Dec.25), starring Emile Hirsch; War Horse, the WWI English drama marking the second feature in as many weeks from Steven Spielberg; and Extremely Loud & Up Close (Dec.25), the 9/11 drama starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, directed by Stephen Daldry (The Hours, The Reader).

Within days of each other, Glenn Close and Meryl Streep star in their own movies, and you've read it here first: the Oscar winner will be one of those two ladies, either Close, who disguises as a male waiter in the wondrous 1898 British hotel drama Albert Nobbs (Dec.25), from director Rodrigo Garcia (Nine Lives, Mother & Child), or it'll be Meryl picking up a long-overdue third Oscar with what will surely be her whopping 17th nomination playing Margaret Thatcher this time out in The Iron Lady (Dec.30).

Rounding out the holiday madness is the iron lady of this generation, Angelina Jolie, directing her first feature In the Land of Blood & Honey (Dec.23), set against the backdrop of the war in Bosnia, as well as another first-time directing effort from Madonna called W.E., which goes on a one-week Oscar qualifying run in late December while opening the first week of February. Last year audiences were treated to The King's Speech, while this time around W.E. focuses on two stories, one of which follows the elder brother who abdicated the thrown to marry the American woman he loved.

Posted

@MovieJay Reviews Margin Call

Fresh off of last year's Oscar-winning doc Inside Job as well as the Washington lobbyist-scandal flick Casino Jack comes Margin Call, the most impressive fiction film to date about the 2008 Wall Street collapse that kicked off what we now know to be 'The Great Recession'.

Three years later, would you say you're any clearer about what a 'credit default swap' is? How about 'derivatives'? Inside Job did a great service in how it visualized these things for us and to the best of my ability, I will communicate it here. What essentially happened to cause the financial meltdown of September 2008 was this: Powerful corporate interests with the help of their lobbying muscle in Washington eviscerated the rules and regulations that had held since the Great Depression preventing speculators on Wall St. from gambling away the nation's treasure as well as the savings of millions of people on things that held no value. Take away the regulations and once again they bet on thin air, propping up value to mostly mortgage-backed securities. The resulting action is that it sent regular folks to buy up stocks and use their homes as leverage in the marketplace only to be left holding a bag filled with hot, steaming poop after the speculators had bet against the fact that we weren't actually holding anything.

One of the important things to know about Margin Call is that the characters in the film know exactly how this works while the rest of us don't, which only adds to the fascination of watching them all fall to pieces in their own specific ways as word climbs up the corporate hierarchy of their huge banking institution (very loosely based upon the first big collapse of a too-big-to-fail outfit in 2008, Lehman Brothers) about how the bubble is about a week past-due from bursting.

As Margin Call opens, the good times on Wall St. appear to be coming to an end as the unnamed firm in the film is in the process of laying off 80% of it's employees. One of them is a senior risk analyst named Eric, played by Stanley Tucci, who on his way out the door hands a USB flash drive to one of his staff containing the last big project he was working on, warning them to "be careful". He's lead to an office where two hired hands play out exactly how the narrative of his firing and compensation package will work out and we feel the dread along with the Tucci character of a life that appears to be figuratively dumped in the recycle bin like an old computer file is.

From that point in the film, the gathering storm of what is to come moves up the executive ladder of the firm beginning with Peter and Seth, two of Eric's former employees. As they work out the rest of Eric's equations, they are left with the reality that the potential stock losses at the firm will be greater than the value of the firm itself as the market is trembling on the verge of collapse. They contact their supervisor Will (Paul Bettany), who immediately brings in his boss, Sam (Kevin Spacey) for an all-night emergency session at the firm that eventually leads to a helicopter swooping in in the middle of the night with the firm's CEO, John Tuld (a small tip of the hat no doubt to Lehman CEO Richard Fuld) played by the astute Jeremy Irons. When he repeats the line "Speak to me in plain English", at first we think it's for comic effect until it dawns on us that he only understands the ownership part of his relationship to the firm and not what it is they actually do.

What he does (and what was enacted in many huge financial institutions in the fall of 2008) is to make a "margin call", meaning, to dump all of the stock that was made worthless by them in shady deals where they benefited from gambling against their own shareholders, reaping massive profits. The large cast, which also includes Demi Moore and Simon Baker (The Wire), do a fantastic job of making all this confounding business sound interesting and urgent.

Cinematographer Frank G. De Marco, whose previous credits include the interior drama Rabbit Hole and the dramedy Delirious, once again does quietly impressive work here in the way he's able to capture antiseptic, enclosed spaces, this time turning that cold office building of the firm into a dark, indifferent, sinister character that casts a pall on the film. The characters are framed in wonderfully intimate moments of soul-searching in front of bright computer screens, bathroom mirrors and worrisome reflections in office tower windows.

Margin Call depicts the last night on Wall Street before bad times were ushered in, but what it's really about are characters who are ultimately more loyal to their corporations than to a greater good. Writer-director J.C. Chandor does an excellent job of showing his characters, allowing us to sympathize with them despite the fact of their misdeeds. In between the cold, efficient dialogue are many close-ups that quietly study their faces, watching them fall inside with the knowledge that their livelihoods are being rendered meaningless and that they're each doing their part in making it so.

This is one of the most important movies of the year.

Posted

@MovieJay Reviews Margin Call

Fresh off of last year's Oscar-winning doc Inside Job as well as the Washington lobbyist-scandal flick Casino Jack comes Margin Call, the most impressive fiction film to date about the 2008 Wall Street collapse that kicked off what we now know to be 'The Great Recession'.

Three years later, would you say you're any clearer about what a 'credit default swap' is? How about 'derivatives'? Inside Job did a great service in how it visualized these things for us and to the best of my ability, I will communicate it here. What essentially happened to cause the financial meltdown of September 2008 was this: Powerful corporate interests with the help of their lobbying muscle in Washington eviscerated the rules and regulations that had held since the Great Depression preventing speculators on Wall St. from gambling away the nation's treasure as well as the savings of millions of people on things that held no value. Take away the regulations and once again they bet on thin air, propping up value to mostly mortgage-backed securities. The resulting action is that it sent regular folks to buy up stocks and use their homes as leverage in the marketplace only to be left holding a bag filled with hot, steaming poop after the speculators had bet against the fact that we weren't actually holding anything.

One of the important things to know about Margin Call is that the characters in the film know exactly how this works while the rest of us don't, which only adds to the fascination of watching them all fall to pieces in their own specific ways as word climbs up the corporate hierarchy of their huge banking institution (very loosely based upon the first big collapse of a too-big-to-fail outfit in 2008, Lehman Brothers) about how the bubble is about a week past-due from bursting.

As Margin Call opens, the good times on Wall St. appear to be coming to an end as the unnamed firm in the film is in the process of laying off 80% of it's employees. One of them is a senior risk analyst named Eric, played by Stanley Tucci, who on his way out the door hands a USB flash drive to one of his staff containing the last big project he was working on, warning them to "be careful". He's lead to an office where two hired hands play out exactly how the narrative of his firing and compensation package will work out and we feel the dread along with the Tucci character of a life that appears to be figuratively dumped in the recycle bin like an old computer file is.

From that point in the film, the gathering storm of what is to come moves up the executive ladder of the firm beginning with Peter and Seth, two of Eric's former employees. As they work out the rest of Eric's equations, they are left with the reality that the potential stock losses at the firm will be greater than the value of the firm itself as the market is trembling on the verge of collapse. They contact their supervisor Will (Paul Bettany), who immediately brings in his boss, Sam (Kevin Spacey) for an all-night emergency session at the firm that eventually leads to a helicopter swooping in in the middle of the night with the firm's CEO, John Tuld (a small tip of the hat no doubt to Lehman CEO Richard Fuld) played by the astute Jeremy Irons. When he repeats the line "Speak to me in plain English", at first we think it's for comic effect until it dawns on us that he only understands the ownership part of his relationship to the firm and not what it is they actually do.

What he does (and what was enacted in many huge financial institutions in the fall of 2008) is to make a "margin call", meaning, to dump all of the stock that was made worthless by them in shady deals where they benefited from gambling against their own shareholders, reaping massive profits. The large cast, which also includes Demi Moore and Simon Baker (The Wire), do a fantastic job of making all this confounding business sound interesting and urgent.

Cinematographer Frank G. De Marco, whose previous credits include the interior drama Rabbit Hole and the dramedy Delirious, once again does quietly impressive work here in the way he's able to capture antiseptic, enclosed spaces, this time turning that cold office building of the firm into a dark, indifferent, sinister character that casts a pall on the film. The characters are framed in wonderfully intimate moments of soul-searching in front of bright computer screens, bathroom mirrors and worrisome reflections in office tower windows.

Margin Call depicts the last night on Wall Street before bad times were ushered in, but what it's really about are characters who are ultimately more loyal to their corporations than to a greater good. Writer-director J.C. Chandor does an excellent job of showing his characters, allowing us to sympathize with them despite the fact of their misdeeds. In between the cold, efficient dialogue are many close-ups that quietly study their faces, watching them fall inside with the knowledge that their livelihoods are being rendered meaningless and that they're each doing their part in making it so.

This is one of the most important movies of the year.

Posted

@MovieJay's Review of The Descendants

With Sideways, About Schmidt, and now with The Descendants, Alexander Payne (also of Election fame) solidifies his place as the James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) of our time -- a torch-carrying heavyweight of the modern dramedy that specializes in making you laugh and smile while leaving a lump in your throat all at the same time.

The Descendants, starring George Clooney in another amazing performance, focuses on the role of modern men and is another in a series of movies from Payne that have specialized in men taking stock of themselves. Here Clooney sheds the crisp suits, slick hair and shoeshines of Michael Clayton and Up In the Air and trades them for tropical shirts, sandals, and hair that needs to be cut like a week and a half ago and turns in a performance more physically resembling his dishevelled CIA agent in Syriana (though not as pudgy). He plays Matt King, a man whose lost touch with his family in what appears to coincide with him losing touch with the land he is from and the traditions it represents.

If Matt seems a square and an absentee father, than his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is the yin to his yang -  a thrill-seeking, free-spirited type who opens the film in a boating misadventure that leaves her in a coma. On his side of the family, Matt's a descendant of one of the first white land-owning families in Hawaii and holds, by a slim majority, the controlling-share of a piece of untouched land on neighboring Kuaui Island that he is having to decide whether to sell to condo and resort developers.

If Matt has been taking care of his family's estate, it has been Elizabeth taking care of the rest of his family at home, including two daughters: the boarding-school teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller). Now that mom is in a coma, it forces Alexandra home from school where she must help with Scottie as dad both takes care of work as well as dealing with friends and extended family in a new reality where he must now lead his own family instead of losing time to caretaking his family's affairs.

Things get complicated when Alexandra reveals to him that mom was having an affair with local real estate agent Brian Speer, played by Matthew Lillard. Lillard is surprisingly effective in this role that announces him as a real man with no trace of the cartoonish and anxious young guy traits we have grown familiar with from the Scream and Scooby-Doo franchises.

Alexander Payne does a great job of continuing the tradition of his other intelligent, accessible Hollywood films. The idea of presenting us a story with a strong and complicated lead character surrounded by an equally strong supporting cast who are all given their moments behind the wheel is his staple and he delivers it in spades.. And like his other films, The Descendants feels uncannily like life from one true scene to the next where plot is secondary to character, allowing scenes to be as serious as they are light.

Consider Robert Forster here, as the handsome, grizzled, angry Mr. Thorson and father to Elizabeth. It's a testament to how great he is for this role that we sense so much beyond the words that are spoken in the very few scenes he's in. Mr. Thorson doesn't respect Matt, finds him weak, and in one agonizing scene when close family and friends are invited to say their goodbyes to Elizabeth (who has expressed in a living will her wish to be taken off of life support in such an instance), Thorson implies that had Matt been a better husband and stronger man that maybe she wouldn't have been seeking thrills out in the ocean and would still be with them today.

Other strong supporting roles include that of Beau Bridges as Cousin Hugh, an affable, well-liked, salt-of-the-earth sort to all that know him. Privately  he plays the foil to Matt, who is on the fence about selling their ancestral land. As I mentioned earlier, Matthew Lillard really brings it in a character that ought to be the bad guy instead of Cousin Hugh, but who we come to find a great deal of empathy with.

Come Oscar time, George Clooney will find himself with a best actor nod, without a doubt, however huge shout-outs belong to Shailene Woodley as the teen daughter who faces down the family crisis with a reserve of grace and strength that bode well for her as adulthood approaches. Also Robert Forster, who has one of the strongest supporting roles ever rendered with that little amount of screen time, (punctuated hilariously by a moment of comic-violence between him and Alexandra's whoa-dude-spaced-out pseudo-boyfriend Sid).

Based on the novel by the same title by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants no doubt works as well as it does because of her years growing up in Hawaii, infused particularly in the characters of the two daughters in the film.

The Descendants is one of the best movies of the year above all for its performances (Sid even gets his moments of depth in there) but also in the strength of its screenplay, which does a tremendous job of fitting Elizabeth in a coma, the land deal, along with the Mr. Mom as well as the coming-of-age stuff all in one story and telling it as seamlessly as it does with charm, humor and depth.

Posted

@MovieJay's Review of The Descendants

With Sideways, About Schmidt, and now with The Descendants, Alexander Payne (also of Election fame) solidifies his place as the James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) of our time -- a torch-carrying heavyweight of the modern dramedy that specializes in making you laugh and smile while leaving a lump in your throat all at the same time.

The Descendants, starring George Clooney in another amazing performance, focuses on the role of modern men and is another in a series of movies from Payne that have specialized in men taking stock of themselves. Here Clooney sheds the crisp suits, slick hair and shoeshines of Michael Clayton and Up In the Air and trades them for tropical shirts, sandals, and hair that needs to be cut like a week and a half ago and turns in a performance more physically resembling his dishevelled CIA agent in Syriana (though not as pudgy). He plays Matt King, a man whose lost touch with his family in what appears to coincide with him losing touch with the land he is from and the traditions it represents.

If Matt seems a square and an absentee father, than his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is the yin to his yang -  a thrill-seeking, free-spirited type who opens the film in a boating misadventure that leaves her in a coma. On his side of the family, Matt's a descendant of one of the first white land-owning families in Hawaii and holds, by a slim majority, the controlling-share of a piece of untouched land on neighboring Kuaui Island that he is having to decide whether to sell to condo and resort developers.

If Matt has been taking care of his family's estate, it has been Elizabeth taking care of the rest of his family at home, including two daughters: the boarding-school teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller). Now that mom is in a coma, it forces Alexandra home from school where she must help with Scottie as dad both takes care of work as well as dealing with friends and extended family in a new reality where he must now lead his own family instead of losing time to caretaking his family's affairs.

Things get complicated when Alexandra reveals to him that mom was having an affair with local real estate agent Brian Speer, played by Matthew Lillard. Lillard is surprisingly effective in this role that announces him as a real man with no trace of the cartoonish and anxious young guy traits we have grown familiar with from the Scream and Scooby-Doo franchises.

Alexander Payne does a great job of continuing the tradition of his other intelligent, accessible Hollywood films. The idea of presenting us a story with a strong and complicated lead character surrounded by an equally strong supporting cast who are all given their moments behind the wheel is his staple and he delivers it in spades.. And like his other films, The Descendants feels uncannily like life from one true scene to the next where plot is secondary to character, allowing scenes to be as serious as they are light.

Consider Robert Forster here, as the handsome, grizzled, angry Mr. Thorson and father to Elizabeth. It's a testament to how great he is for this role that we sense so much beyond the words that are spoken in the very few scenes he's in. Mr. Thorson doesn't respect Matt, finds him weak, and in one agonizing scene when close family and friends are invited to say their goodbyes to Elizabeth (who has expressed in a living will her wish to be taken off of life support in such an instance), Thorson implies that had Matt been a better husband and stronger man that maybe she wouldn't have been seeking thrills out in the ocean and would still be with them today.

Other strong supporting roles include that of Beau Bridges as Cousin Hugh, an affable, well-liked, salt-of-the-earth sort to all that know him. Privately  he plays the foil to Matt, who is on the fence about selling their ancestral land. As I mentioned earlier, Matthew Lillard really brings it in a character that ought to be the bad guy instead of Cousin Hugh, but who we come to find a great deal of empathy with.

Come Oscar time, George Clooney will find himself with a best actor nod, without a doubt, however huge shout-outs belong to Shailene Woodley as the teen daughter who faces down the family crisis with a reserve of grace and strength that bode well for her as adulthood approaches. Also Robert Forster who has one of the stronger supporting roles ever rendered with that little amount of screen time, (which is punctuated hilariously by a moment of comic-violence between him and Alexandra's whoa-dude-spaced-out pseudo-boyfriend Sid).

Based on the novel by the same title by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants no doubt works as well as it does because of her years growing up in Hawaii, infused particularly in the characters of the two daughters in the film.

The Descendants is one of the best movies of the year above all for its performances (Sid even gets his moments of depth in there) but also in the strength of its screenplay, which does a tremendous job of fitting Elizabeth in a coma, the land deal, along with the Mr. Mom as well as the coming-of-age stuff all in one story and telling it as seamlessly as it does with charm, humor and depth.

Posted

@MovieJay's Review of The Descendants

With Sideways, About Schmidt, and now with The Descendants, Alexander Payne (also of Election fame) solidifies his place as the James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) of our time -- a torch-carrying heavyweight of the modern dramedy that specializes in making you laugh and smile while leaving a lump in your throat all at the same time.

The Descendants, starring George Clooney in another amazing performance, focuses on the role of modern men and is another in a series of movies from Payne that have specialized in men taking stock of themselves. Here Clooney sheds the crisp suits, slick hair and shoeshines of Michael Clayton and Up In the Air and trades them for tropical shirts, sandals, and hair that needs to be cut like a week and a half ago and turns in a performance more physically resembling his dishevelled CIA agent in Syriana (though not as pudgy). He plays Matt King, a man whose lost touch with his family in what appears to coincide with him losing touch with the land he is from and the traditions it represents.

If Matt seems a square and an absentee father, than his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is the yin to his yang -  A thrill-seeking, free-spirited type who opens the film in a boating misadventure that leaves her in a coma. On his side of the family, Matt's a descendant of one of the first white land-owning families in Hawaii and holds, by a slim majority, the controlling-share of a piece of untouched land on neighboring Kuaui Island that he is having to decide whether to sell to condo and resort developers.

If Matt has been taking care of his family's estate, it has been Elizabeth taking care of the rest of his family at home, including two daughters: the boarding-school teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller). Now that mom is in a coma, it forces Alexandra home from school where she must help with Scottie as dad both takes care of work as well as dealing with friends and extended family in a new reality where he must now lead his own family instead of losing time to caretaking his family's affairs.

Things get complicated when Alexandra reveals to him that mom was having an affair with local real estate agent Brian Speer, played by Matthew Lillard. Lillard is surprisingly effective in this role that announces him as a real man with no trace of the cartoonish and anxious young guy traits we have grown familiar with from the Scream and Scooby-Doo franchises.

Alexander Payne does a great job of continuing the tradition of his other intelligent, accessible Hollywood films. The idea of presenting us a story with a strong and complicated lead character surrounded by an equally strong supporting cast who are all given their moments behind the wheel is his staple and he delivers it in spades.. And like his other films, The Descendants feels uncannily like life from one true scene to the next where plot is secondary to character, allowing scenes to be as serious as they are light.

Consider Robert Forster here, as the handsome, grizzled, angry Mr. Thorson and father to Elizabeth. It's a testament to how great he is for this role that we sense so much beyond the words that are spoken in the very few scenes he's in. Mr. Thorson doesn't respect Matt, finds him weak, and in one agonizing scene when close family and friends are invited to say their goodbyes to Elizabeth (who has expressed in a living will her wish to be taken off of life support in such an instance), Thorson implies that had Matt been a better husband and stronger man that maybe she wouldn't have been seeking thrills out in the ocean and would still be with them today.

Other strong supporting roles include that of Beau Bridges as Cousin Hugh, an affable, well-liked, salt-of-the-earth sort to all that know him. Privately  he plays the foil to Matt, who is on the fence about selling their ancestral land. As I mentioned earlier, Matthew Lillard really brings it in a character that ought to be the bad guy instead of Cousin Hugh, but who we come to find a great deal of empathy with.

Come Oscar time, George Clooney will find himself with a best actor nod, without a doubt, however huge shout-outs belong to Shailene Woodley as the teen daughter who faces down the family crisis with a reserve of grace and strength that bode well for her as adulthood approaches. Also Robert Forster who has one of the stronger supporting roles ever rendered with that little amount of screen time, (which is punctuated hilariously by a moment of comic-violence between him and Alexandra's whoa-dude-spaced-out pseudo-boyfriend Sid).

Based on the novel by the same title by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants no doubt works as well as it does because of her years growing up in Hawaii, infused particularly in the characters of the two daughters in the film.

The Descendants is one of the best movies of the year above all for its performances (Sid even gets his moments of depth in there) but also in the strength of its screenplay, which does a tremendous job of fitting Elizabeth in a coma, the land deal, along with the Mr. Mom as well as the coming-of-age stuff all in one story and telling it as seamlessly as it does with charm, humor and depth.

Posted

@MovieJay's Review of The Descendants

With Sideways, About Schmidt, and now with The Descendants, Alexander Payne (also of Election fame) solidifies his place as the James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) of our time -- a torch-carrying heavyweight of the modern dramedy that specializes in making you laugh and smile while leaving a lump in your throat all at the same time.

The Descendants, starring George Clooney in another amazing performance, focuses on the role of modern men and is another in a series of movies from Payne that have specialized in men taking stock of themselves. Here Clooney sheds the crisp suits, slick hair and shoeshines of Michael Clayton and Up In the Air and trades them for tropical shirts, sandals, and hair that needs to be cut like a week and a half ago and turns in a performance more physically resembling his dishevelled CIA agent in Syriana (though not as pudgy). He plays Matt King, a man whose lost touch with his family in what appears to coincide with him losing touch with the land he is from and the traditions it represents.

If Matt seems a square and an absentee father, than his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is the yin to his yang -  A thrill-seeking, free-spirited type who opens the film in a boating misadventure that leaves her in a coma. On his side of the family, Matt's a descendant of one of the first white land-owning families in Hawaii and holds, by a slim majority, the controlling-share of a piece of untouched land on neighboring Kuaui Island that he is having to decide whether to sell to condo and resort developers.

If Matt has been taking care of his family's estate, it has been Elizabeth taking care of the rest of his family at home, including two daughters: the boarding-school teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller). Now that mom is in a coma, it forces Alexandra home from school where she must help with Scottie as dad both takes care of work as well as dealing with friends and extended family in a new reality where he must now lead his own family instead of losing time to caretaking his family's affairs.

Things get complicated when Alexandra reveals to him that mom was having an affair with local real estate agent Brian Speer, played by Matthew Lillard. Lillard is surprisingly effective in this role that announces him as a real man with no trace of the cartoonish and anxious young guy traits we have grown familiar with from the Scream and Scooby-Doo franchises.

Alexander Payne does a great job of continuing the tradition of his other intelligent, accessible Hollywood films. The idea of presenting us a story with a strong and complicated lead character surrounded by an equally strong supporting cast who are all given their moments behind the wheel is his staple and he delivers it in spades.. And like his other films, The Descendants feels uncannily like life from one true scene to the next where plot is secondary to character, allowing scenes to be as serious as they are light.

Consider Robert Forster here, as the handsome, grizzled, angry Mr. Thorson and father to Elizabeth. It's a testament to how great he is for this role that we sense so much beyond the words that are spoken in the very few scenes he's in. Mr. Thorson doesn't respect Matt, finds him weak, and in one agonizing scene when close family and friends are invited to say their goodbyes to Elizabeth (who has expressed in a living will her wish to be taken off of life support in such an instance), Thorson implies that had Matt been a better husband and stronger man that maybe she wouldn't have been seeking thrills out in the ocean and would still be with them today.

Other strong supporting roles include that of Beau Bridges as Cousin Hugh, an affable, well-liked, salt-of-the-earth sort to all that know him. Privately  he plays the foil to Matt, who is on the fence about selling their ancestral land. As I mentioned earlier, Matthew Lillard really brings it in a character that ought to be the bad guy instead of Cousin Hugh, but who we come to find a great deal of empathy with.

Come Oscar time, George Clooney will find himself with a best actor nod, without a doubt, however huge shout-outs belong to Shailene Woodley as the teen daughter who faces down the family crisis with a reserve of grace and strength that bode well for her as adulthood approaches. Also Robert Forster who has one of the stronger supporting roles ever rendered with that little amount of screen time, (which is punctuated hilariously by a moment of comic-violence between him and Alexandra's whoa-dude-spaced-out pseudo-boyfriend Sid).

Based on the novel by the same title by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants no doubt works as well as it does because of her years growing up in Hawaii, infused particularly in the characters of the two daughters in the film.

The Descendants is one of the best movies of the year above all for its performances (Sid even gets his moments of depth in there) but also in the strength of its screenplay, which does a tremendous job of fitting Elizabeth in a coma, the land deal, along with the Mr. Mom as well as the coming-of-age stuff all in one story and telling it as seamlessly as it does with charm, humor and depth.

Posted

@MovieJay's Review of The Descendants

With Sideways, About Schmidt, and now with The Descendants, Alexander Payne (also of Election fame) solidifies his place as the James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) of our time -- a torch-carrying heavyweight of the modern dramedy that specializes in making you laugh and smile while leaving a lump in your throat all at the same time.

The Descendants, starring George Clooney in another amazing performance, focuses on the role of modern men and is another in a series of movies from Payne that have specialized in men taking stock of themselves. Here Clooney sheds the crisp suits, slick hair and shoeshines of Michael Clayton and Up In the Air and trades them for tropical shirts, sandals, and hair that needs to be cut like a week and a half ago and turns in a performance more physically resembling his dishevelled CIA agent in Syriana (though not as pudgy). He plays Matt King, a man whose lost touch with his family in what appears to coincide with him losing touch with the land he is from and the traditions it represents.

If Matt seems a square and an absentee father, than his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is the yin to his yang -  A thrill-seeking, free-spirited type who opens the film in a boating misadventure that leaves her in a coma. On his side of the family, Matt's a descendant of one of the first white land-owning families in Hawaii and holds, by a slim majority, the controlling-share of a piece of untouched land on neighboring Kuaui Island that he is having to decide whether to sell to condo and resort developers.

If Matt has been taking care of his family's estate, it has been Elizabeth taking care of the rest of his family at home, including two daughters: the boarding-school teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller). Now that mom is in a coma, it forces Alexandra home from school where she must help with Scottie as dad both takes care of work as well as dealing with friends and extended family in a new reality where he must now lead his own family instead of losing time to caretaking his family's affairs.

Things get complicated when Alexandra reveals to him that mom was having an affair with local real estate agent Brian Speer, played by Matthew Lillard. Lillard is surprisingly effective in this role that announces him as a real man with no trace of the cartoonish and anxious young guy traits we have grown familiar with from the Scream and Scooby-Doo franchises.

Alexander Payne does a great job of continuing the tradition of his other intelligent, accessible Hollywood films. The idea of presenting us a story with a strong and complicated lead character surrounded by an equally strong supporting cast who are all given their moments behind the wheel is his staple and he delivers it in spades.. And like his other films, The Descendants feels uncannily like life from one true scene to the next where plot is secondary to character, allowing scenes to be as serious as they are light.

Consider Robert Forster here, as the handsome, grizzled, angry Mr. Thorson and father to Elizabeth. It's a testament to how great he is for this role that we sense so much beyond the words that are spoken in the very few scenes he's in. Mr. Thorson doesn't respect Matt, finds him weak, and in one agonizing scene when close family and friends are invited to say their goodbyes to Elizabeth (who has expressed in a living will her wish to be taken off of life support in such an instance), Thorson implies that had Matt been a better husband and stronger man that maybe she wouldn't have been seeking thrills out in the ocean and would still be with them today.

Other strong supporting roles include that of Beau Bridges as Cousin Hugh, an affable, well-liked, salt-of-the-earth sort to all that know him. Privately  he plays the foil to Matt, who is on the fence about selling their ancestral land. As I mentioned earlier, Matthew Lillard really brings it in a character that ought to be the bad guy instead of Cousin Hugh, but who we come to find a great deal of empathy with.

Come Oscar time, George Clooney will find himself with a best actor nod, without a doubt, however huge shout-outs belong to Shailene Woodley as the teen daughter who faces down the family crisis with a reserve of grace and strength that bode well for her as adulthood approaches. Also Robert Forster who has one of the stronger supporting roles ever rendered with that little amount of screen time, (which is punctuated hilariously by a moment of comic-violence between him and Alexandra's whoa-dude-spaced-out pseudo-boyfriend Sid).

Based on the novel by the same title by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants no doubt works as well as it does because of her years growing up in Hawaii, infused particularly in the characters of the two daughters in the film.

The Descendants is one of the best movies of the year above all for its performances (Sid even gets his moments of depth in there) but also in the strength of its screenplay, which does a tremendous job of fitting Elizabeth in a coma, the land deal, along with the Mr. Mom as well as the coming-of-age stuff all in one story and telling it as seamlessly as it does with charm, humor and depth.

Posted

Doctor Who Christmas Special Has A Fancy New Name And Sparkly New Trailer!!

One of my favourite holiday traditions is only a few years old, yet I can't wait for it every year.  As a huge fan of Doctor Who, watching his Christmas special simply cements the season for me every time because after the special, it's Muppets Christmas Carol, some egg nog and a pretty major marathon of catching up with movies.

They have just announced the details for the latest special and in usual fashion, while there is very little known about it, it still looks awesome.

The title of the special is :  The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.

Here is the official synopsis:

Evacuated to a house in Dorset from war-torn London, Madge Arwell and her two children, Lily and Cyril, are greeted by a madcap caretaker whose mysterious Christmas gift leads them into a magical wintry world.

Starring: Matt Smith and Claire Skinner. Executive Producers: Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger and Caroline Skinner

And here is the official trailer :

Filed under  //  Christmas   Claire Skinner   Doctor Who   Dorset   London   Matt Smith   Piers Wenger   Steven Moffat   film   nerdiness   pop-culture   tumblrize   xavierpop  
Posted

Doctor Who Christmas Special Has A Fancy New Name And Sparkly New Trailer!!

One of my favourite holiday traditions is only a few years old, yet I can't wait for it every year.  As a huge fan of Doctor Who, watching his Christmas special simply cements the season for me every time because after the special, it's Muppets Christmas Carol, some egg nog and a pretty major marathon of catching up with movies.

They have just announced the details for the latest special and in usual fashion, while there is very little known about it, it still looks awesome.

The title of the special is :  The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.

Here is the official synopsis:

Evacuated to a house in Dorset from war-torn London, Madge Arwell and her two children, Lily and Cyril, are greeted by a madcap caretaker whose mysterious Christmas gift leads them into a magical wintry world.

Starring: Matt Smith and Claire Skinner. Executive Producers: Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger and Caroline Skinner

And here is the official trailer :

Filed under  //  Christmas   Claire Skinner   Doctor Who   Dorset   London   Matt Smith   Piers Wenger   Steven Moffat   film   nerdiness   pop-culture   tumblrize   xavierpop  
Posted