Review of Precious

I sometimes question why I am usually really entertained by films focusing on depressing subjects. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I like films that portray realistic events such as Schindler's List, Das Boot, and Munich, which all focus on historical, yet depressing topics. I think another reason why I tend to like dark-themed films such as Se7en, Zodiac, and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is because depressing films are often shocking and succeed in putting the viewer on the edge of his/her seat. However, as much as I seem to like films covering depressing topics, it only works when the story has either a powerful message, is a realistic account of a historical event or is thrilling. Precious is at times shocking over how terrible a young, teenage African-American girl (Precious) is treated, yet I wish it focused more on how Precious is able to overcome the odds instead of concentrating on how the many hardships she must endure. By the end I simply felt sorry for Precious, instead of feeling like she overcame her horrific upbringing.

The film Precious is based on the book Push by Sapphire. From what I know about the book, the film follows it almost down to the last word. From the moment she was born, Precious was given almost no chance to succeed in life. Her father began sexually abusing her when she was just a young girl and by age twelve Precious was pregnant with her first child (her father's). Her mother does not have a job and spends her time sitting at home awaiting her welfare check. Even when Precious has an opportunity to attend a good school, her mother simply wants her to stay at home and cook. Despite all these setbacks, Precious eventually finds a mentor at an alternative school named Ms. Rain. With the help of her new teacher, Precious gains the courage to stand up to her abusive mother and takes control of her own life. Now even though Precious learns something about herself, there are certain points within the story that prevented me from believing that Precious was going to be okay in the long term. In short, I didn't feel hopeful for her future.

Overall, Precious is a powerful story about a young girl who learns that the only person she needs to listen to is herself. Unfortunately, I often felt the film tried to hard to push the personal difficulties that Precious had to go through. Still it succeeds at showing the life of a broken home in Harlem during the 1980s and how one mentor can affect the life of young adolescents.

RATING: 3.3/5.0

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Review of The Crazies

Although recently I have seen quite a few horror films, I am not very familiar with the original horror classics made by George Romero. Most of them are supposed to be thrilling and much better than the modern day remakes, yet I did enjoy Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead (2004). Originality is hard to develop in horror films because most audiences have seen everything before in previous motion pictures. You can make a blood-splattering zombie, vampire, or serial killer movie but chances are another filmmaker has already created a film with a similar story, bigger stars, and more gore. Yet every once in a while a director will come up with a clever story in order to make up for the lack of innovation in modern horror films. Last year's Paranormal Activity (2009) is one of those exceptions and so is Breck Eisner's The Crazies (2010).

If our own government accidentally dropped a biological weapon on a small country town, would it take precautions to cover it up or would it admit the mistake and take necessary measures to help those infected? This is the situation in The Crazies, in which each family of a small town in Iowa begin developing violent symptoms and start losing their minds. One day at a high school baseball game a local farmer comes onto a baseball field with a double barrel shotgun. After failing to talk the crazed man out of dropping the gun, the local sheriff named David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is forced to shoot him. At first it is believed that the incident was a consequence of the farmer drinking too much but soon other citizens of the town begins acting in a familiar way. One man burns his house down while his wife and child are locked within. Another man appears to have lost the ability to speak. Confused about what is happening, David and his deputy go searching for possible leads to what could be causing the disturbing behavior of the locals. In their search they discover a crashed plane underneath the town's river and they soon see that it is no coincidence that those who live closest to the water supply are slowly developing symptoms of the strange disease. A few days after the first signs of the virus, military personnel suddenly appear and take everyone in town into custody. At the military base, David and his wife are separated because it is believed that she has been infected. The rest of the film follows David's journey to try and save his wife. Can he trust the government to do the right thing and take care of his wife or is he the only one who can save her?

Although the Crazies themselves are entertaining, it is nothing viewers probably haven't seen before. They basically act exactly like zombies minus the biting. What separates this film from other horror films are the emotions shared by the main characters and the political questions brought up about how our government might handle the accidental insurgence of biological weapons on U.S. soil. Naturally every character begins to become paranoid over the fact that his or her friends and family may have become infected, yet how to you deal with knowing that your loved ones will soon become uncontrollably disturbed and may try to kill you. It is amazing, yet understandable how people's personalities can suddenly change at the first sign of any danger.

Overall, The Crazies has enough action and gore to satisfy horror movie fans, but is also clever enough to separate it from most other modern horror remakes. So far this has been the biggest surprise for me in 2010.

RATING: 3.4/5.0

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Review of World's Greatest Dad

When you are a father I can imagine it is extremely difficult to distinguish the line between being a friend and being a disciplinarian. I'm sure things are further complicated when your son or daughter's purpose in life seems to be to make your life miserable. What do you do when your child appears to hate you? An even more interesting question: What do you do when you don't even like your own child? These are questions explored in Bobcat Goldthwait's World's Greatest Dad, which is in my opinion one of the best dark comedies of 2009.

As a high school teacher, Lance Clayton (Robin Williams) has tried his whole life to have his writings published but has always failed. However, after a bizarre incident involving his son, Lance has the source material available to write some of his best works, which eventually receive national acclaim. At first Lance appears to enjoy his newly found success, but then he begins to realize that his achievements are occurring at the expense of his son. Lance loves his son, but because he does not trust or respect him he believes it is okay to achieve success at his expense. However, after his works are published he begins to realize that though he may not always like his son, he loves him and has certain responsibilities toward him.

Overall, World's Greatest Dad works best as a dark, raunchy comedy, yet there is also an interesting and original story about a father and son that keeps the viewer entertained. So if you are looking for a raunchy comedy and you have to choose between re-watching one of the Judd Apatow films (40 Year Virgin, Funny People, Knocked Up) or World's Greatest Dad, check out Robin William's latest film on Instant Netflix. It's one of his best of the last decade.


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RATING: 3.5/5.0

Review of Moon

It is rare for a science fiction film to be slow paced, yet remain entertaining. Last year's Moon is one of those exceptions in that although there is little action, it is clever, suspenseful, and is never boring. When most people think of science fiction films they think of a fast-paced, technically stunning experience (i.e. Avatar, District 9, Aliens), yet Moon was made for a tiny budget and still manages to be visually ravishing. This is caused by the impressive camerawork as well as the futuristic setting.

The film follows astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), who is only a few weeks away from completing his three-year contract with Lunar Industries, the company responsible for extracting helium 3 (Earth's main energy source after all oil has been depleted) from the Moon's surface. Sam has been completely isolated during his stay on the Moon with the exception of a robot named GERTY (Kevin Spacey). He does keep in contact with his family via video transmission, yet the transmissions are not live feeds because of a failure with one of the communications satellites located on the surface. After Sam wrecks his Moon rover into an harvesting machine, he is saved by another suspicious astronaut. After recovering he is bemused to find that the astronaut who saved his life turns out to be himself. Throughout the rest of the film it is up to Sam to figure out whether the other him is indeed real or simply a fragment of his imagination. Now I know that you are thinking that this movie sounds confusing and weird, but somehow director Duncan Jones pulls it off. In fact, the most interesting part about this film is trying to figure out what is happening to Sam. Is he being cloned or has being completely alone for 3 years simply lead him to lose his mind? This question posed by the filmmakers is what makes Moon more suspenseful than most science fiction dramas.

Overall, Moon is a superior small budget film thanks to its original story, clever dialogue, great visuals and a fantastic performance by Sam Rockwell. Besides District 9, this was the best science fiction film of 2009.

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RATING: 4.0/5.0

Review of Crazy Heart

Although Jeff Bridges was not my personal choice to win the Oscar this year for Best Actor, it is impossible to argue against the fact that he is absolutely terrific in Crazy Heart. Despite having more respect for the character played by Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker, I believe Jeff Bridges deserves an Oscar for over 30 years of superior performances. Jeff Bridges may not be as widely popular as George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, or Brad Pitt, but he is an actor who appeals to almost every generation. One of his first performances was in the Oscar nominated film, The Last Picture Show (1971), which is now known as a cult classic because of the way the movie portrayed small town life in the 1950s. Since then Bridges has played a variety of rolls from the hero in King Kong (1976) to the piano expertise in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) to the villain in Iron Man (2008). Despite being fantastic in almost every roll he plays, Bridges is perfect for the character Bad Blake in Crazy Heart, which is essentially the same character as the Dude from The Big Lebowski. There is no actor I can think of that plays the washed-up lazy drunk better than Bridges.

In Crazy Heart Bridges plays a 50 year old country singer named Bad Blake, who despite having natural musical talent spends more time drinking than playing the guitar. In his early years Blake supposedly attracted masses of fans, but as he got older he lost popularity and now plays at smaller locations such as bowling allies and bars. At one show on the road he is interviewed by a local reporter named Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who he falls immediately in love with and the two begin a relationship. Although Jean as well as doctors warn Blake about his bad habits, he cannot stop drinking. The relationship between Blake and Jean is the weakest part of this film, primarily because I didn't buy that Jean would fall for such a wreck of a personality (as likable as Blake is). Although Gyllenhaal gives it her all, I think someone older and perhaps less attractive would have made the story more believable.

Overall, the two best parts of this film are Bridges portrayal of an alcoholic musician and the songs themselves. This film really gives viewers an idea of how both music and alcohol can deeply affect an individual in two completely different ways. So despite not buying the romance between Blake and Craddock, Crazy Heart is worth your time because of Bridges performance. This is especially true if you love country music.

RATING: 3.6/5

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Review of Shutter Islad

The main reason I was looking forward to viewing Shutter Island was not that Scorsese was directing it (although that was part of it), but it was the fact that from the moment I viewed the trailer I was captivated by the environment of the island itself. The idea of Shutter Island is the same as Alcatraz, and it makes for a very interesting concept. Even if the inmates escape from their cell, they are still in prison. You can only leave Shutter Island if the guards allow it. The setting is what makes this film worthwhile. With this in mind I believe Shutter Island would have been better if Scorsese had focused more on the history of the island instead of on the mind of the main character.

If you are considering going to see Shutter Island I would strongly recommend heading to the theater with a clear head. This film is one hell of a puzzle to say the least. Fortunately the film has a clever ending, which saves it from becoming a maze with no way out. Although there are a lot of scenes and characters that I felt were not necessary to the story, the twist at the end and the strength of the first 45 minutes, in which the audience learns about the history of Shutter Island as well as Teddy Daniel's (Leonardo Dicaprio) disturbing past are worth the price of admission.

The film begins with Federal Officers Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule arriving by boat to Shutter Island, a location reserved for only the most dangerous mentally disturbed convicts in America. They have been assigned to investigate the disappearance of a disturbed murderer named Rachel, who became a patient at Shutter Island after she murdered her three children. From this point on every sequence is part of the puzzle and I don't want to risk giving anything away. Similar to any puzzle, Shutter Island can get frustrating at times, but once you put together the missing pieces you feel satisfied after it is complete.

Overall, Shutter Island is a beautifully shot film by perhaps the best director of our time. Unfortunately, the plot of the film throws too much at the audience to be considered a classic psychological horror film. Filming the human mind is a complex task which few directors have ever been able to pull off and despite making the hallucination sequences interesting, Scorsese fails at intertwining them within the story. So despite not being in the same league as some of Scorsese's other works (Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed), Shutter Island is still better than most recently released thrillers.

RATING: 3.0/5

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2010 Oscar Predictions

It should be to no ones surprise that I am really looking forward to this years Academy Awards on March 7. According to most film critics the Oscars this year are going to be predictable with the exception of the Best Picture category (which will most likely go to either Avatar or The Hurt Locker). I feel like in the past few years the Academy Awards have not been very popular among adolescents, teenagers, and young adults, which is partially why I think Oscar has decided to make some changes this year. Instead of having only 5 best picture nominees, the Academy has increased the list to 10 in order to add more popular films to be considered (The Blind Side and District 9). So far I've seen 9 out of the 10 Oscar nominated films for best picture. Below I'm going to list my prediction for who will win each Oscar category and also who I personally would choose to win the Oscar.

BEST PICTURE:
Who Will Win- The Hurt Locker
My Pick- Up in the Air

BEST DIRECTOR:
Who Will Win- Kathryn Bigelow
My Pick- Kathryn Bigelow

BEST ACTOR:
Who Will Win- Jeff Bridges
My Pick- Jeremy Renner

BEST ACTRESS:
Who Will Win- Sandra Bullock
My Pick- Meryl Streep

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Who Will Win- Christoph Waltz
My Pick- Christoph Waltz

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Who Will Win- Monique
My Pick- Vera Farmiga

BEST ANIMATED FILM:
Who Will Win- Up
My Pick- Up