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tommmk
Reviews
Behind the Candelabra (2013)
Bravely Honest Performances
From the opening blast of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" to the closing riffs on "The Impossible Dream," you know you are in for a real treat, especially thanks to excellent performances all around. Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are revelations here--these two performances, I think, rank among their very best, not only for being pitch-perfect, and often quite funny, but for being brave, honest, no-holds-barred, and most of all, faithful--personality flaws and all--to their characters, which stay with you long after the final curtain drops. Both actors deserve Emmy Awards for these performances. Sensitive direction raises the story from the merely sordid and tawdry to the realm of tragedy. Bravo to all involved.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Not As Bad As Expected, But Still...
So they've "updated" Sherlock Holmes by turning him into a Victorian version of "James Bond"? I guess that's one way to avoid paying royalties to Ian Fleming's heirs, or Arthur Conan Doyle's for that matter, whose copyrights mostly expired in 2000. Before you can say "cheap ripoff," however, I will admit that this sequel accomplished the rare feat of surpassing the first, although given the caliber of Ritchie's earlier film, that couldn't have been difficult to accomplish. Nevertheless, I don't enjoy watching Robert Downey Jr fight in those wretched "Iron Man" and "Avengers" movies and I don't relish watching him fight in this movie either, so turning Sherlock Holmes into an "action hero" is a major turnoff for me. (I much prefer the updated BBC TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a socially inept, sexually ambiguous Holmes.) Admittedly I am not a fan of Downey and his trademark deadpan one-liners, although they weren't as bad as usual this time around. I'd much rather watch handsome Jude Law, and it is an injustice that as Watson he has to play second fiddle to Downey. But I gave this film a not-dishonorable "7" because Downey and Law get to dance together, and share a few other vaguely, enjoyably homoerotic moments, otherwise I would have ranked the film lower.
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
So Stupid It Makes Your Brain Bleed
Cowboys & Aliens is perhaps the worst movie of 2011. Or perhaps only the stupidest movie of 2011. With some of the worst acting of 2011. Although it apparently was based on a comic book, this movie might well have been written by a dozen monkeys with typewriters, or more accurately, half a dozen screenwriters desperate for a dumb but potentially lucrative idea to pitch to some greedy Hollywood producers with very, very low opinions of their audience. In other words, a "high concept" idea perfect for low, low IQs. But what results is, of course, an insult not only to the audience but to both westerns and science fiction movies. On top of that, there is so much glorified gun violence--even the preacher (a "whiskey preacher," naturally, for no cliché is left unturned) advises everyone to get a gun--that this movie could well be a two-hour commercial for the NRA. (Although sitting through the movie seems more like TEN very, very excruciating hours than its nominal two hour run time.) Well, did you ever expect Steven Spielberg, who produced this pile of horse manure, to be working for the NRA? And are we truly expected to care that human scum is marginally better than alien scum? By the end of the movie, I was rooting for the alien scum.
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Not the Worst Movie of 2012, but Pretty Close
Hmm... Ten lines to explain what a wretched cliché this movie is? Hardly worth the effort really. I guess I will stick to complaining about how typecast and boring poor Charlize Theron has become, this once-great actress who was so phenomenal in "Monster" but apparently now reduced to playing the same wicked witch roles over and over. And yet Theron gives the best performance of a bad lot, including Chris Hemsworth, who apparently still has only two expressions in his repertoire---maybe one day he will treat the audience to a third? Not to mention Kristen Stewart, as the deposed princess who dons armor and raises her voice to exhort her army, but appears so wan and wispy that for me she manages to inspire only chuckles.
However, I did enjoy some of the moody cinematography, but the camera resorts to hand-held jitters during the all-too regularly scheduled fights and battle scenes, yet another cliché. I will also admit to liking the scene set in the fairy land, but who doesn't like fairies and cuddly animals? Unless you like your fairy tale and princess power clichés taken very, very seriously, I say SKIP IT.
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
One of the Best Movies Ever
It should come as no surprise that "Rosemary's Baby" ranks in the top 250 on IMDb; I, however, would rank it even higher than the general public does. It's the kind of film you can watch occasionally over the years and enjoy each and every time, i.e., a classic. Technically the film is brilliant, with superb cinematography, editing, music, acting, art design, and masterful direction. Polanski captures the timeless essence of New York, at least as I remember it, even though the setting is unmistakably the 1960s, and the milieu is literally diabolical. Depending on how you look at it, you can enjoy the film as a supernatural thriller or as a psychological thriller and study in paranoia. I especially love the dream sequences, which have a surreal beauty and nightmarish logic of their own.
Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia (2012)
A Bitter Disappointment
Wait a minute--so now, Sherlock is NOT gay after all? Ordinarily, he has no qualms about insulting women--including all of Watson's girlfriends--to their faces, but the sight of a naked and beautiful female villain is enough to fluster the usually unflappable detective and cause him to drop his defenses so foolishly that she is able to sneak up behind him and stab him with a syringe full of some narcotic? I enjoyed the first season of this BBC update of Conan Doyle's iconic detective, all the more for the amusingly and cheeky rendering of Holmes as sexually ambiguous. But now, some hottie whispers in his ear, or talks a little dirty to him, and he's instantly smitten, staring out the window, composing dirge-like melodies on his violin, and smoking cigarettes (huh?). He even fantasizes about saving her from Muslim terrorists. What a bore.
Black Swan (2010)
Going down in the third round
WOW that ending is one for the books and that is why Natalie Portman won the Oscar for best actress. Darren Aronofsky consistently makes great films, but shows a real talent for the campy and the melodramatic, so I think Black Swan is one of his best, one that places it in the esteemed company of arty potboilers like Repulsion or Carrie or The Red Shoes. Also of note are performances by Barbara Hershey and Vincent Cassel, and top-notch screen writing, cinematography, editing, sound and music, art, sets, makeup and costumes. If I had to find a complaint about this movie, one of 2010's best, it would be to raise a pinky in protest over the apparent lack of a single gay male character anywhere, for although we are everywhere, including the world of ballet, we are just not in this particular hallucinatory psychodrama.
300 (2006)
Male Beauty Never Before So Lovingly Presented
I had to write in response to all the straight fanboys are who raving about 300. Like them, I love this film too, but I love it without having to resort to denying its breathtaking homoeroticism or mocking Xerxes for his supposed effeminacy. (Xerxes is not just androgynous, he is commanding and imposing; he is a match and worthy adversary for Leonidas; their scene together, when Xerxes nearly swoons with desire and then walks up behind Leonidas to put his big paws on Leonidas' shoulders, is stunning.) I love this film for the way the camera caresses the bodies of the Spartan warriors; for its resplendent and transcendent acting, direction, cinematography, screenplay, sound, music, art direction, and special effects; for the tender way it presents Leonidas' profile before he is cut down. This is the best and most handsome film since Brokeback Mountain. Astounding. Never before has male beauty been so lovingly presented on the screen.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Talk about iconic - this is Hollywood at its penultimate!
First, acknowledge the importance of WIZARD OF OZ from any point of view, especially in terms of film history, artistic achievement, complete and utter fantasy, cultural icon. The only thing we can hope for is that one day sometime soon someone will aim to achieve a film like this one. While it is true that the oft repeated theme "There's No Place Like Home," is a wishful proclamation both simplistic and conventional, everyone can take pleasure instead in its myriad of sublime details, foremost Judy Garland's performance, indeed, the entire cast's, as well as the unforgettable story, songs, cinematography, sets, costumes, lighting, sound, etc. Hollywood craft at its best.