Alex’s Politics and Movies Blog

Bachmann's out, Ron Paul leads GOP presidential nominee web poll results for December but places second to Romney-Santorum Iowa caucuses dead heat

2012-01-05T00:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) left the presidential race, "suspending" her campaign after a disappointing finish in Iowa's caucuses, where the Ames straw poll initially boosted the Iowa-born author of the Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act and founder of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus to some prominence.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) led December voting for who respondents thought would be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. As usual, this is of self-selected voters of any party who found my website, so it is not scientific in any way. (This means you should not complain that it was not scientific because it's never going to be.) Voting is just for fun, please no wagering. Here are December's results:

December 2011

#1 - Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) ... 36.8%
#2 - Other ... 27.9%
#3 - Gov. Rick Perry (TX) ... 22.1%
#4 - Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA) ... 10.3%
#5 - Fmr. Gov. Jon Huntsman (UT) ... 1.5%
#6 - Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) ... .7%
#6 - Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (MI) ... .7%
#7 - Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MI / UT / MA) ... 0%
#7 - Fmr. Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) ... 0%

136 total votes cast / Margin of error ±100%

Meanwhile, Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MI / UT / MA) and Fmr. Sen. Rick Santorum (PA), who don't ever seem to do very well in this site's monthly poll--hmm--finished in a dead heat for first place in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses. Ron Paul finished a strong second to these two, with the rest of the field limping away smarting. 2008 Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (AZ) threw his support behind past rival Romney for president, for some reason. The Romney campaign apparently is keeping annoucements of endorsements from Fmr. Pres. George W. Bush (TX) and Fmr. Vice Pres. Dick Cheney (WY) in its back pocket in case things get really weird.

I have now removed Bachmann from the poll and the GOP field page.

You can vote for this month's new poll here, or click the vote button from any of the Choose Our President 2012 pages.

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Cain's out, Ron Paul leads GOP presidential nominee web poll results for November (estimated)

2011-12-04T02:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday businessman/radio talk show host Herman Cain (GA) effectively left the presidential race, "suspending" his campaign citing publicity over allegations of sexual improprieties, harassment and assault and concern for his family.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) led November voting for who respondents thought would be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. As usual, this is of self-selected voters of any party who found my website, so it is not scientific in any way. (This means you should not complain that it was not scientific because it's never going to be.) Voting is just for fun, please no wagering. Here are November's results (estimated):

November 2011

#1 - Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) ... 28.1%
#2 - Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA) ... 20%
#3 - Other ... 16.2%
#4 - Herman Cain (GA) ... 15.7%
#5 - Gov. Rick Perry (TX) ... 10.3%
#6 - Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) ... 3.2%
#7 - Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (MI) ... 2.7%
#8 - Fmr. Gov. Jon Huntsman (UT) ... 2.2%
#9 - Fmr. Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) ... 1.6%
#10 - Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MI / UT / MA) ... 0%

185 total votes cast / Margin of error ±100%

(This month's poll results are estimated with a fair degree of accuracy. The server hosting the poll had to be changed, so perfect results are not available. Margin of error ±100%)

I have now removed Cain from the poll and the GOP field page. He only lasted one month in the Choose Our President 2012 web poll, because he only recently seemed to be gaining support.

You can vote for this month's new poll here, or click the vote button from any of the Choose Our President 2012 pages.

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Review: The Muppets (2011)

2011-11-28T00:43:00.000-08:00

The Muppets is a fun, funny family film in the best tradition of Jim Henson's musical puppets. While relying on the shopworn plot "Let's put on a show!" the film interweaves a new, clever twist which keeps it fresh and allows it to comment on the relationship between people and their puppets, Muppets and their fans.

All your favorite Muppets are here--Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Rowlf, Fozzie Bear, Scooter, Gonzo, Animal--along with some older and newer ones which even more ardent fans might be hard-pressed to pick out of a line-up, plus the aforementioned clever twist character, Walter, a new Muppet.

Walter has grown up with his brother Gary (Jason Segel, very good, and a co-scriptwriter) in Smalltown, USA, as, inexplicably, a Muppet-looking child among humans. Puppets aren't very good at sports or fitting in generally with other children in everyday situations, so Walter feels left out and alone--until he and Gary discover "The Muppet Show" on t.v. Suddenly a huge Muppet fan who imagines joining their crew someday, somehow, Walter finds new ways of fitting in and seeing himself in the world.

While Walter never grows an inch, Gary does grow up and finds a girlfriend, a beautiful, capable shop teacher, Mary (Amy Adams Enchanted, The Fighter, very good as well). Gary and Mary are planning a trip to L.A. for their anniversary, and of course Gary invites Walter along so they can make a sidetrip to Muppet Studios.

Instead of a bustling tourist attraction, however, Walter, Gary and Mary find a nearly abandoned entertainment complex with no Muppets nor evidence of Muppet production anywhere. Walter overhears a conversation about the future of the studios which prompts him and Gary to try to find Kermit so the Muppets can pull together a gig and save their showbiz home from destruction.

Pretty standard-sounding plot there, but the destination is in the journey. As the Muppet gang reunites and Gary's and Mary's anniversary trip gets sidetracked, some very simple but effective emotional tugs-of-war play out among the puppet and human cast and their jokes and musical numbers which make for an entertaining and solid movie (full of celebrity cameos I won't spoil here).

As for the music, classics along with new songs by Bret McKenzie of "Flight of the Conchords," I found it got off to a bit of a slow start, but it builds to two great duet montages between Mary and Miss Piggy and brothers Gary and Walter which bring it all together and reach heights of humor which had me laughing out loud pretty hard, which can be embarrassing. But I didn't mind. "Me Party" and "Man or Muppet," especially "Man or Muppet," are well planned and executed songs and numbers in the right place at the right time. I didn't, frankly, expect anything this funny in the movie, while still fully expecting to be entertained with at least passable Muppet goodness, so they were a very pleasant surprise indeed, and are a large part of what gives the film its heart and overall feeling. I could have done without the rap song and probably the Nirvana cover, but there they are.

I'm not the world's biggest Muppet fan, I admit. Not that I dislike them, I like them very much generally, and watched many episodes of "The Muppet Show" and the cartoon "Muppet Babies" when I was a kid, along with having seen most of their movies and t.v. productions. They're good fun, but I couldn't get canonical about it in a serious nerdy discussion.

Some people will never go see a Muppet movie, some people couldn't be held back with torches and pitchforks, but The Muppets just might please them all. Give 'em a chance if you never have, or if you always do. This one holds up and hits all the right notes. It's really quite good.

Alex
The Magic of the Movies

Other, Ron Paul lead again in 2012 GOP presidential nominee web poll results for October

2011-11-08T11:01:00.000-08:00

The "Other" option and Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) led October voting for who respondents thought would be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. As usual, this is of self-selected voters of any party who found my website, so it is not scientific in any way. (This means you should not complain that it was not scientific because it's never going to be.) Voting is just for fun, please no wagering. Here are this month's results:

October 2011

#1 - Other ... 39.6%
#2 - Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) ... 34.7%
#3 - Gov. Rick Perry (TX) ... 13.4%
#4 - Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA) ... 5.4%
#5 - Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) ... 4%
#6 - Fmr. Gov. Jon Huntsman (UT) ... 1.5%
#7 - Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (MI) ... 1%
#8 - Fmr. Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) ... .5%
#9 - Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MI / UT / MA) ... 0%

202 total votes cast / Margin of error ±100%

Georgia businessman Herman Cain has joined the poll for November, just in time for the sexual harassment charges firestorm which has engulfed his campaign. We'll see if he lasts out the month as a candidate....

You can vote for this month's new poll here, or click the vote button from any of the Choose Our President 2012 pages.

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Review: Take Shelter (2011)

2011-10-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

Jeff Nichols's Take Shelter is a brilliant, hypersuspenseful, ominous, serious tour-de-force through human psyches, most notably Michael Shannon's Curtis's and his wife Samantha's (Jessica Chastain, The Tree of Life, The Debt). Both are wonderful characters in balance with each other and the story in amazing performances from each actor.

I had very little idea what the film was about before seeing it, but was willing to go along and find out what was in store. Immediately, the film is gripping, frightening, mysterious, commonplace in focus and yet utterly unique. In retrospect, it reminds me of a number of other great films, but none so much that they rate specific mention as overwhelmingly influential on Take Shelter.

While being thrilling moment by moment, the film also feels very original and earned through the quality of the script, the style of storytelling, the characters and the story. You won't be able to put it down.

Shannon's Curtis is a construction worker in rural small-town Ohio, laconic to the point of autistic--or perhaps some other diagnosis? He supervises the operation of lots of heavy machinery with a small crew, sometimes only one other worker, his friend Dewart (Shea Whigham, Machete, Wristcutters: A Love Story, excellent). Curtis has a beautiful wife, Samantha, and a beautiful daughter (Tova Stewart), with whom he is learning to share more and more communication through sign language, as his daughter is deaf.

Then there are the dreams. Curtis is afflicted more and more with insomnia, bad dreams and other related disturbing events. And are these ever bad dreams! Each is visually stunning as presented, horrific, universal and terrible, and not story cheats but perhaps prophecies.

The dreams have common themes which begin to run through his waking life as well (and yet each dream still feels like an authentic dream). He takes actions based upon them which seem to threaten or burden his and his family's future. He doubts his own sanity, and looks for help with it. He starts remodelling the storm shelter in the backyard.

Getting too much further into the plot would not be doing a service to anyone, but the set-up is enthralling and the finish well justified, though at first I was a little skeptical. It has a certain type of ending, which is open to interpretation, but feels to me in dramatic alignment with all that has come before. I admire it.

Director of photography Adam Stone's muted autumn palette is perfect for the time of year when it has been released, as well as for dramatic effect, and the soundtrack of bells, chimes, strings and dusty guitar notes from composer David Wingo is a thing of beauty entirely emotionally connected to the film. Writer/director Nichols has assembled a fantastic filmmaking team to make a great work of art. You could watch it for Halloween or anytime.

Go and see Take Shelter. I haven't had a better time at the movies this year, and this movie gets my first four-star dramatic film review of the year. (I have it in second place overall after Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams in 3-D.) Shannon's and Chastain's are the outstanding performances of the film and of the year. Here's a cave full of troubling remembered dreams.

Alex
The Magic of the Movies

Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (AK) won't run for president in 2012

2011-10-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

From msnbc.com:

Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and tea party favorite, announced Wednesday that she is not running for president, saying, "my family comes first."

...

She added that she will "help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House."

Oh, well, it might have been fun. Doubtless her supporters are disappointed, and many liberals will have less heartburn. I have now removed Palin from the GOP field page, and replaced her entry in this month's poll with "Other."

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

NJ Gov. Christie won't run for president in 2012

2011-10-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

From CBS News:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced Tuesday that he would not seek the Republican presidential nomination, saying that while he thought seriously about entering the presidential race, "now is not my time."

Christie said he made his final decision last night and told those closest to him this morning. He said he went to the bed last night "knowing exactly what I wanted to do" for the first time in weeks.

He declined the chance to close the door on a future presidential run, saying he is "not going to preclude any employment in the future."

There you have it. The race is set, pending Palin news.

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Other, Ron Paul lead again in 2012 GOP presidential nominee web poll results for September

2011-10-03T02:14:00.000-07:00

The "Other" option and Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) led September voting for who respondents thought would be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. As usual, this is of self-selected voters of any party who found my website, so it is not scientific in any way. (This means you should not complain that it was not scientific because it's never going to be.) Voting is just for fun, please no wagering. Here are this month's results:

September 2011

#1 - Other ... 39.1%
#2 - Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) ... 23.4%
#3 - Gov. Rick Perry (TX) ... 13.6%
#4 - Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (AK) ... 13%
#5 - Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) ... 6%
#6 - Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA) ... 2.2%
#7 - Fmr. Gov. Jon Huntsman (UT) ... 1.1%
#7 - Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (MI) ... 1.1%
#7 - Fmr. Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) ... .5%
#8 - Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MI / UT / MA) ... 0%

184 total votes cast / Margin of error ±100%

Texas Gov. Rick Perry joined the poll for September and leapt into second place. Let's see about October....

You can vote for this month's new poll here, or click the vote button from any of the Choose Our President 2012 pages.

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Review: Drive (2011)

2011-09-28T00:56:00.000-07:00

Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive is a sphinx about a sphinx, a cipher about a cipher, a satisfying action picture which also frequently flirts with pure silliness, especially near the end, which I found somewhat less than totally satisfying--yes, even for an ultra-violent, terse, arty grunter.

Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine, Crazy, Stupid, Love.) plays the main character, a jack-of-all-manly-and-dangerous-trades, who alternates working as a mechanic, a Hollywood stunt driver, and an expert getaway driver for local heists, and who aspires to race stock cars with his pal Shannon (Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad," Larry Crowne), who is also his boss at the garage and his intermediary for both stunt and criminal jobs, a handy contact for a dangerous loner.

Drive is heavily indebted to Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, without question, along with many other films, and a lot of what's strong in it is what's strong in that film and other films with similarities to both: character development without excessive dialogue, wonderfully sharp and bright images still tinged with shadows, stark action violence which is smart and considered (though not always nearly as well in Drive as in most notable predecessors). Unlike Travis Bickle, and more like our mulberry bush hero in Yojimbo or Eastwood as the Man with No Name, Gosling's driver has a lot of useful skills.

Things are humming along pretty nicely for our hero, criminal wrongdoing and all. He's good at committing crimes and stunts while remaining ever in the background, his skill set keeps him going while progress is made toward his stock car racer dreams in the form of a financial backer, the shady but pragmatic-seeming Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks, Taxi Driver, Out of Sight), who has a crass and mobster-y business partner, Nino (Ron Perlman), and he meets Irene, a blonde with a slightly mysterious, unresolved past.

Is the driver's mistake to get involved with Shannon, Rose and Nino or Irene (Carey Mulligan, Never Let Me Go, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) and her son Benicio (Kaden Leos), and later her husband Standard (Oscar Isaac, Robin Hood, Sucker Punch)? Yes, of course. We know from all movies of this genre that emotional involvement is the downfall of professional criminals, killers and other psychopaths at all times in all places.

The only other Refn film I've seen as I write this is Valhalla Rising, which is The Seventh Seal meets Yojimbo meets Unleashed meets Dead Man meets The New World. I can tell you that Valhalla Rising and Drive share a nameless hero, ultra-violence, minimal dialogue, spectacularly good imagery, camera movement and framing and a penchant for oddity over story at times.

This will drive some people crazy with love, and others crazy with hate. I call it all admirable. This is not to say it always works just right, because it doesn't. It's usually funny when it doesn't, though, which is a plus. From my limited exposure to Refn, I'd like to see more, and there's lots more.

This film is worth seeing to chart the progression of Ryan Gosling's acting career alone, which is definitely going places. (Does he always have to talk like De Niro?) But Drive is fun while the fun lasts. It goes over and around the top by the end, in my opinion, but great acting from the whole cast and strong pacing still make it a ride worth taking. Some will disagree with me by hating it, and some will disagree with me by loving it, and I am happy to stay right in the middle.

Drive itself is a touch above middlin', certainly a step in class up from the worst Jason Statham action movies, and definitely not just an off-the-shelf retread. But if you hated The American with George Clooney, I believe I can solidly advise you to choose another movie to watch than Drive. Me, I liked The American better, but I like Drive okay, too. I would have liked to have felt more like the director was in complete control of the story, but some might call that another of the film's assets.

Alex
The Magic of the Movies

Other, Ron Paul lead 2012 GOP presidential nominee web poll results for August

2011-09-03T15:24:00.000-07:00

The "Other" option and Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) led August voting for who respondents thought would be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. As usual, this is of self-selected voters of any party who found my website, so it is not scientific in any way. (This means you should not complain that it was not scientific because it's never going to be.) Voting is just for fun, please no wagering. Here are this month's results:

August 2011

#1 - Other ... 53.5%
#2 - Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) ... 20.5%
#3 - Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (AK) ... 12.6%
#4 - Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (MI) ... 3.9%
#5 - Fmr. Gov. Jon Huntsman (UT) ... 3.1%
#6 - Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) ... 2.4%
#6 - Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA) ... 2.4%
#7 - Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MI / UT / MA) ... .8%
#7 - Fmr. Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) ... .8%

127 total votes cast / Margin of error ±100%

The Other option was inflated for this month by a few Pawlenty votes cast before he announced his withdrawal. Texas Gov. Rick Perry joins the poll this month.

You can vote for this month's new poll here, or click the vote button from any of the Choose Our President 2012 pages.

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Weekend round-up: Perry's in, Bachmann wins straw poll, Pawlenty's out

2011-08-17T02:22:00.000-07:00

Well, they just had a big old Fox News debate in Ames, Iowa, which started with Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann rhetorically eviscerating hapless Fmr. Gov. Pawlenty of the same state, effectively ending his campaign. It took her about two minutes.

Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who can love America or leave it, declared himself a candidate and promptly defeated "frontrunner" Fmr. Gov. of Massachusetts Mitt Romney in the weekend Ames straw poll, which was won by Bachmann and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, M.D., and confirmed the Bachmann-forced exit stage left of Pawlenty.

This changes the race in that one "major" candidate is now in, and another out. Paul Ryan might even run, but probably not. Still waiting to hear from Fmr. Gov. Palin. Tune in to the next big debate to see who Bachmann knocks out next....

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Ron Paul, Other lead 2012 GOP presidential nominee web poll results for June, July

2011-08-10T00:17:00.000-07:00

The "Other" option and Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) led June and July voting for who respondents thought would be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. As usual, this is of self-selected voters of any party who found my website, so it is not scientific in any way. (This means you should not complain that it was not scientific because it's never going to be.) Voting is just for fun, please no wagering. Here are this month's results:

July 2011

#1 - Other ... 45.7%
#2 - Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) ... 24.6%
#3 - Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (AK) ... 13%
#4 - Gov. Tim Pawlenty (MN) ... 5.1%
#5 - Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA) ... 4.3%
#6 - Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (MI) ... 2.9%
#7 - Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) ... 1.4%
#7 - Fmr. Gov. Jon Huntsman (UT) ... 1.4%
#8 - Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MI / UT / MA) ... .7%
#8 - Fmr. Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) ... .7%

138 total votes cast / Margin of error ±100%

And the previous month:

June 2011

#1 - Other ... 51.7%
#2 - Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) ... 21%
#3 - Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (AK) ... 13.3%
#4 - Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA) ... 8.4%
#5 - Gov. Tim Pawlenty (MN) ... 3.5%
#6 - Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MI / UT / MA) ... 2.1%

143 total votes cast / Margin of error ±100%

Sorry I was so late posting June results. I'll try to keep on top of it better as the real race heats up. You can vote for this month's new poll here, or click the vote button from any of the Choose Our President 2012 pages.

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Review: Larry Crowne (2011)

2011-07-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

Tom Hanks's Larry Crowne is a solid, charming recession fantasy with quite a bit more to it than may first meet the eye. Featuring Hanks as Crowne, Julia Roberts as his speech teacher at community college in the Valley and a supporting cast of wonderful actors with consequential parts to play, Larry Crowne manages to be a very good human story with elements of whimsy and lots of truth, well worth seeing. Directed by Hanks nearly invisibly, with a delightful script by Hanks and Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Larry Crowne is deeply wonderful, if not quite a perfect four-star film, assured and balanced quite well at the confluence of comic fantasy and current econonomic realities.

The previews for the film don't promise much, but I tried hard and couldn't think how one might change them to make the film seem more promising briefly. It's a character study, and mostly of Hanks's Crowne (though other characters get their due, as well), so the totality of the performance and how the main character is written are what end up being really important, not necessarily anything that could be easily condensed for a commercial.

Larry Crowne is a sort of Everyman, with exceptions, a regular guy who loves his job at U-Mart, and is good at it. So everybody's surprised when he loses it because, without a college degree (and though he served in the Navy for 20 years), he's not on the track for advancement beyond his current position. We learn that this is not the first hint of trouble in Larry's life as a whole. His wife left him some time ago, prompting him to take out a loan to purchase her share of their home, meaning he's freshly alone as well as "underwater" on his mortgage on a gorgeous if modest suburban house.

But this is not a movie in which "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" would play well, so we're lucky the soundtrack has a lot of Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne songs on it instead. Hanks brings his astonishing abilities as an actor, and an eye for detail as a writer and director to the part, with marvelous dedication and aplomb, making Larry Crowne an Everyman with a lot more to him than that (still-valid) analytical category might suggest as limiting.

These two or three setbacks and trying circumstances are a bit of a sleight-of-hand trick, plotwise, used effectively to cut ties with Crowne's past and force the audience to see him as a single person, working on himself when this is the task he's faced with. Jerry Maguire and last year's worthwhile The Company Men are somewhat similar films, but Larry Crowne is more patient, amiable, silly, fun and as wise and good.

Julia Roberts is second-billed and the second lead as Mercedes Tainot, the community college professor who teaches Crowne's intro speech class. Tainot is getting fed up with her loutish, has-been writer husband Dean (Bryan Cranston, very good), as well as with teaching classes which have ceased to challenge or interest her much. There's a very raw, truthful quality to Roberts's performance. But just as important as her story foil is the scintillating Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Talia, a fellow student of Crowne's who takes him under her wing (and into her gang) as he starts to face his future. Her character exists in the realm of overdone free spirits in the movies, while also surpassing the usual as a sort of parody or bright answer to the audience's familiarity with such roles.

Indeed, the film is full of satisfying acting turns which could turn sour or fall into familiar traps, but don't. George Takei has a particularly memorable and welcome part as Larry and Talia's economics professor, Dr. Matsutani, but Wilmer Valderrama as Talia's boyfriend, Cedric the Entertainer and Taraji P. Henson as Larry's lucky neighbors, Rami Malek as Steve Dibiasi, another speech student, Pam Grier as Tainot's professor colleague and Holmes Osborne as the dean of students are standouts as characters as well as for the acting chops on relaxed yet confident display.

I freely admit I've seen a few more negative reviews, and I understand some of the reasons for them. Larry Crowne takes its time and meanders a bit, usually successfully, as far as I can tell (I've seen it twice by now), but others seem not to appreciate this quality as much as I did. Indeed, I felt it added suspense. It's also not a grand political statement, though it gets some good punches in, nor is it, certainly, the solution to our economic problems, though it has some personal insights in that regard as well, which are not at all obnoxious or too easy as I saw them. If you want a little heavier drama with a similar tale, do watch The Company Men, which is also very good, but which is not this movie. Then there's actor fatigue, which some critics seem to be experiencing with Hanks and Roberts, but which is really not very applicable to these fine performances--some of their best work--and of course comes with the territory. Is it too cute? I say no, but you may disagree.

If you watch Larry Crowne, and you should, I think you'll find it light, funny, comic, but with serious things to say which it says pretty well. It consciously chooses not to be maudlin or simple, despite a straight-ahead approach. I liked it very much, and found the details and action meaningful and smart. I guess I think it's okay to go in with different expectations, but pay attention to what you get, it's Larry Crowne, a sunny serio-comedy with a satisfying, lingering character mystery. And sure, it's been done before, but I'd be quite gratified to see another Best Actor nomination for Hanks here, which is all the more remarkable for his having written and directed the picture. Who can do all that so well? Few can do all that so well.

Alex
The Magic of the Movies

Huntsman and Bachmann throw their hats in

2011-06-30T20:52:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd mention that Fmr. Gov. Jon Huntsman (UT) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) have entered the race for the Republican nomination for president. I know I'm a bit late, and I really don't have much to say about it.

As a Democrat supporting Obama, I can only be grateful for the current crop of hopefuls opposing the President, but as an American, I'm disappointed in our two-party system for such a woeful showing. But, again, mainly in the GOP. Perhaps I run the danger of seeming smug, but you try to think of something nice to say about them....

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Review: Bridesmaids (2011)

2011-06-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

Paul Feig's Bridesmaids is a hilarious, touching, Rabelaisian (that means poop humor!) born-loser comedy which has so many laughs it hurts (in a good way), bright human insights and identifications and an awards-worthy acting performance from the amazing Kristen Wiig ("Saturday Night Live," Walk Hard, MacGruber, Paul) as Annie, an endearing crazy woman on the edge.

The film isn't quite sure whether it wants to be a realistic-wacky or pure absurdist film, which is noticeable, but it's still remarkably of a piece. It goes for laughs like nobody's business, and finds quite a few, in good rhythm, so I won't inquire too much into its intellectual origins.

Annie's life is headed downhill. She's lost her business, a cupcake shop, and her boyfriend, and is in a self-destructive hook-up relationship with a real jerk (Jon Hamm, hilarious). Then her best friend since childhood, Lillian (Maya Rudolph, Away We Go, MacGruber, great), announces her impending marriage to a guy who seems pretty solid, understandably bittersweet news for Annie to hear.

But Annie tries to be excited for her friend and agrees to be the maid of honor, which involves various duties for which she is ill-suited for various reasons. Unfortunately a rival for her maid of honor role appears in the person of Lillian's "new best friend" (also now her rival for best best friend), Helen (Rose Byrne, Insidious, X-Men: First Class, wonderful), who is the wife of Lillian's fiancé's boss, very rich and quite interested in snagging Lillian away from Annie in the friend department. Whether through bad luck, fate, some kinds of passive-aggression or Annie's being frazzled over the many changes and insults happening in her own life, this proves to be pretty easy for Helen to do, as Annie navigates from embarrassing disaster to humiliating disaster in helping plan the lead-up to Lillian's wedding.

I won't spoil how exactly this happens, but some of these sequences are already justifiably famous, no-hold-barred classic comedy moments. Again, if you can't take a little humor about bodily functions, you are warned away. I've seen it three times, and did notice some people seeming to walk out at various points all three times. It may not be for everybody. But also, all three times, the laughs were abundant and satisfying, so we in the audience didn't seem to care too much that some in the crowd were oversensitive.

Many of the laughs come from seeing what big brick life will throw at Annie next. The film consistently makes these setbacks bigger and bigger, testing the audience's belief in the story while always bringing the laughs. It's fun to experience as a filmgoer, and it's also fun to see crowds react to this teasing.

Meriting special mention among the bridesmaids is the sister of the groom, Megan (Melissa McCarthy, priceless). McCarthy gets some (but not all) of the most outrageous moments, and is uproarious. Chris O'Dowd is great as Officer Rhodes, an Irish cop who loves Annie's cream puffs and notices her taillights. Look for O'Dowd in romantic comedies opposite every major Hollywood leading lady. The late great Jill Clayburgh is also funny, dotty and believable as Annie's mom.

There are several scenes of visual poetry which are like great short films in themselves, and most are mixed with a precise and joyous perfect comic timing. Again without spoilers, Annie's inebriated plane ride has a wonderful throwaway punchline you can use to impress your friends and neighbors, another scene plants two words in the viewer's head near the beginning which Annie breathlessly yells later for the payoff, and a scene in a car near the end has Wiig channeling Bugs Bunny and/or Wile E. Coyote to great effect. If you have an asthma inhaler, puff it just before the lights go down or bring it with you just in case.

If you don't mind or can appreciate some ribaldry and obscenity, and can laugh at people, Bridesmaids is a pretty good bet any time. There are waves and crescendoes of dangerous laughter. Give this Wiig an Oscar already, and more and more starring vehicles. And if we start giving Oscars for great comedic work, let's throw in at least a nomination for the masterful director Feig. Thank you, that is all.

Alex
The Magic of the Movies

Romney's in, Santorum's set, Other, Ron Paul lead GOP presidential nominee web poll results for May

2011-06-05T23:29:00.000-07:00

Last week Fmr. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (MI / UT / MA) officially joined the presidential race, to great yawns of indifference, also "Anybody But Mitt" campaigns. Fmr. Sen. Rick Santorum (PA), who is kind of a crazy person, will officially announce his candidacy Monday.

Meanwhile, "Other" and Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) led May voting for who respondents thought would be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. As usual, this is of self-selected voters of any party who found my website, so it is not scientific in any way. (This means you should not complain that it was not scientific because it's never going to be.) Voting is just for fun, please no wagering. Here are May's results:

May 2011

#1 - Other ... 43.7%
#2 - Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) ... 24%
#3 - Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (AK) ... 11.4%
#4 - Gov. Tim Pawlenty (MN) ... 7.8%
#5 - Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA) ... 6.6%
#6 - Gov. Chris Christie (NJ) ... 6%
#7 - Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MI / UT / MA) ... .6%

167 total votes cast / Margin of error ±100%

I have now removed likely non-candidate Emperor Christie of New Jersey from the poll and the GOP field page. Santorum didn't declare in time to get into this month's poll, but I'll probably put him in for next month, if he's still in the race by then, even though he is kind of a crazy person. Still just indecisive indications from Fmr. New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) and others.

You can vote for this month's new poll here, or click the vote button from any of the Choose Our President 2012 pages.

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Review: X-Men: First Class (2011)

2011-06-03T02:14:00.000-07:00

Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class is so boring it kind of hurts. You want to like it, or I did, anyway. But there's no character development, sensitive historical subjects and events are made boring plot fodder and the usual climactic mutant fights aren't visually interesting or dynamic at all. I've only seen Kick-Ass of Vaughn's previous films, and I practically loved that compared to this.

The earnest James McAvoy (The Last Station, The Conspirator) plays Professor X, the role made famous in the first X-Men films by the great Patrick Stewart, and the brooding Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, Jane Eyre [2011]) plays Magneto, the previous Ian McKellen part. This movie is about their origins, and the origins of the X-Men as a quasi-governmental arm, and the Brotherhood of Mutants as an anti-X-Men arm, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

You didn't know that was really a mutant crisis, now did...zzzzz...z. President John Kennedy gets to give his famous speech warning against the U.S.S.R.'s stationing missiles in "Cuber." As for period flavor, that's what we get and all we get, along with some beehives. The screenwriters' understanding of history makes Sarah Palin's look like Ariel Durant's. Michael Fassbender has his least interesting alternate-historical beer with Nazis. What X-Men: First Class most reminds me of, for many various reasons, is Thomas Harris's only bad Hannibal Lecter novel, Hannibal Rising, which of course was made into a bad movie I can't even remember if I've ever seen. We know all about Hannibal Lecter from Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. Could there possibly be an origin story dark, weird and rewarding enough to fit in with the rest of the story and still stand on its own? Answer: Maybe, but Hannibal Rising ain't it. Same for First Class.

The picture has lots of arguments about mutantism which press releases about the movie claim are metaphors for, or in some way about "civil rights," then the movie engages in the egregious, usually always offensive cliché of having the black guy kick first. Red did this too--to Morgan Freeman!--but had other redeeming qualities. The other mutant of color (besides the demon/devil guy and the blue ones) is a flying prostitute. You can't make this stuff up, people. I wish I were joking. "How'd you like a job where you get to keep your clothes on?" asks the "intuitive" Professor X, lounging with Magneto while declining her favors. Ugh.

The movie also shows a young boy in a Nazi concentration camp threatened with the death of his mother, who is standing between two guards. I won't say what happens next, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't square with the laws of physics, nor is it well explained by mutant interference with them. It's almost a continuity error, the camera is placed so poorly.

The movie has a lot of visual-logical problems. The effects surely look like they involved a lot of time, energy and money to create, and yet they are crutches, not visually impressive in themselves, nor, again, bearing much relation to how things move or look, even leaving room for the powers of many of the superbeings and some comic-book cartoonishness. Instead, they tie up boring plot points or substitute poorly for actual story excitement or interest. At one point, something has blood on it and it looks like digital blood. Boring digital blood.

It's difficult to blame the cast of fine actors, as we've all seen them all do better with better material. They're uniformly young folks who are exciting emerging talents, but here their characters are cardboard cutouts, their development wooden, their dialogue leaden. That's a lot of efficient packing material. We've seen this all done before, better. Caleb Landry Jones plays Banshee, and gets to break out of his usual typecasting as Guy Who Shows Up Near the End for a Significant Event (see No Country for Old Men, The Last Exorcism, The Social Network) by showing up near the middle and there are no significant events.

I went to see it again with an interested midnight crowd instead of a theater of critics, and they were bored, too. I left after 45 minutes because I was so bored, and also, importantly, because it was being shown way too dark on a digital projector configured for 3-D projection. It was easy to tell: there were two screens' worth of images being beamed out instead of one, and the white subtitles were a dingy grey. I explained this problem to the manager, and so should you if you spot it.

X-Men: First Class is not the worst superhero movie or aspiring summer blockbuster ever, nor certainly even the worst the X-Men franchise has had to offer. But I certainly can't recommend it, as I believe the average person interested in seeing it won't be interested much in the movie, or in ever seeing it again. Did I mention it's really dull and boring? The most fascinating existential question raised is why does Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone) have a receding hairline when she goes blue. I think this series could use a big rest, but I await the rest of the contemplated trilogy, presumably One Small Step for an X-Man and All the President's X-Men. Walk out of X-Men: First Class and get your money back if it's superdark because it's being projected wrong. Or watch Thor, it's really good and it's already supposed to be shown in 3-D, in which it looks awesome.

Credit where it's due: I worked in film projection in the past, but via the great Roger Ebert I read this Ty Burr article in the Boston Globe and learned how to spot incorrect digital projection, and you should, too, if you like movies.

Alex
The Magic of the Movies

Review: Thor (2011)

2011-06-01T01:52:00.000-07:00

Kenneth Branagh's Thor is an excellent comic-book-mythological superhero movie that's great to watch. An origin-and-adventure combo which exploits its Norse origins, graphic and plot history of the classic comics, and niche in the Avengers Marvel run-up begun with Jon Favreau's very good Iron Man and sequel Iron Man 2, and continuing through Louis Leterrier's The Incredible Hulk, Thor and the upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger, it bodes well for the series and whatever further spin-offs may come.

Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, his brother, wrote the early adventures of Thor as a Marvel character in the sixties, with memorable art by Jack Kirby, in which the Norse god was banished from Asgard and transported into the body of an ordinary mortal. Kirby is a comics legend, who often worked on big stories of galactic forces meeting and transforming, and the film takes ample inspiration from a lot of his work, creating an Asgard, Jotunheim (the realm of the Frost Giants) and the cosmic rainbow bridge or portal which unites and divides them in memorably beautiful ways. "Trippy" as a word could have been invented to describe the Kirby aesthetic. In many ways, if you're talking about modern comics, you're talking about Kirby. Thor rips out swaths of pages of this and renders them in some stunning 3-D.

Maneuvering around pitfalls which have brought down many a movie about mythology, or swords and sorcery, the film embraces the "ancient astronaut" theory which could loosely describe the Marvel sci-fi concept of the series from its beginnings, with updated computer imagery and effects which do not feel sterile or cold, but epic, and of a piece with the story and its action, Thor succeeds.

This movie really strips things down to the basics and provides an origin and first adventure which aren't dated or in rigid thrall to the history of the comics, but which also isn't disrespectful or unmindful of it. Thor drops in to New Mexico, by happenstance, or fate, into the path of astrophysicist and stargazer Jane Foster (Natalie Portman, good) and her colleague Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings, funny), who are out investigating aurora-like celestial anomalies observed in that area of the desert.

There's a light-comic tone from the beginning which suits the story of an ancient Norse god/superpowerful dimensional traveler who falls to Earth with us mere mortals. This continues, and interweaves with the Asgard story without damaging the regal, advanced technological world of the home of the gods. Chris Hemsworth leads this charge with winning charm, strength and credibility.

In Asgard, we see what led to Thor's banishment by Odin (Anthony Hopkins), and separation from his powerful war hammer, Mjolnir. A rivalry between Thor and his brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston, pitch-perfect), the trickster god, plays out with betrayals, secrets, usurpation and twists. Hopkins is really good here, as he usually is, even in big blockbuster attempts which sometimes fail to use him effectively. Here, Odin is effective and powerful. His wisdom is multifarious and farsighted, in keeping both with mythology and the advanced technological world of the Asgardians. He's not quite as pluperfect a comics patriarch as Marlon Brando's Jor-El, but he's definitely in the same class, guiding Thor toward a better understanding of what is required of him and his powers.

The plot itself fits in well with the continuing Avengers build-up, so I won't spoil much of it here, but we know or can guess that the search for Mjolnir and its reclaiming by Thor will be important. Meanwhile, it's fun to see Thor and his battle companions, the Warriors Three, Fandral (Josh Dallas), Hogun (Tadanobu Asano) and Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), as well as the female warrior Sif (Jaimie Alexander), act together against the Frost Giants, Loki's machinations and the robot Destroyer, when they threaten the Earth and the balance of power in heaven.

Idris Elba as Heimdall, the gatekeeper of the rainbow bridge, who has his own inscrutable secrets, motivations and rules of engagement, is a particular pleasure, and well portrayed visually. Despite the relative scarcity of his scenes, they add a lot, largely due to his particular acting presence and the visual dynamism of Heimdall and his post. For reservations, the film is a bit long, and flirts with boredom somewhat before the climax. But the visuals, humor and good acting keep it from ever being actually boring for long at all. I particularly recommend the film in 3-D for the optimum impact.

Thor is good fun, smart, a good addition to the building story of The Avengers, and Chris Hemsworth's star-making breakthrough (and don't forget Tom Hiddleston). If you like Thor, or if you never quite liked Thor, or if you never paid any attention to Thor, this film is designed to satisfy, inform, and bring the character to a solid, epic new level. I've seen it three times already, strongly recommend it in 3-D, and am already ready for more. All in all, it plays to Thor's strengths, what's cool and original about him as a superhero, and satisfies. Watch all the credits....

Alex
The Magic of the Movies

The GOP presidential nominating race begins in earnest

2011-05-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks have seen the GOP presidential nominating race take off in earnest. First, Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA) declared his candidacy. Fmr. Gov. Mike Huckabee (AR) and Donald Trump (BIRTHER) quickly backed out. Former Libertarian presidential nominee and Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) also announced his candidacy. Gov. Mitch Daniels (IN) declined to run, and Fmr. Gov. Tim Pawlenty (MN) made it official that he would run.

So the race is taking shape, and the shape it is taking is of a broken-down party without popular ideas or leaders. I still think the race has room for somebody credible, just don't ask me who that might be yet.

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Review: Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011)

2011-05-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams is an incredible, not-to-be-missed documentary on one of the most beautiful and exciting discoveries ever, the Chauvet cave of France, a time capsule of an art gallery containing over 400 cave paintings of animals, the oldest visual art known, created during Paleolithic times by early humans who shared their valley with Neanderthals.

As a movie fan, I love it, and I think you will, too. As a movie critic, I can say that it is now, and will be, this critic's best film of 2011, and indeed it's my pleasure to report that it's one of the best movies of all time. You need to see it. Your friends and neighbors need to see it. Take the kids, the grandkids or the grandparents. I sincerely ask you to do yourself a favor and find out where it's playing and go there. If it's not playing near you, please contact your nearest theaters capable of playing 3-D movies and demand it in your area. In an ideal world, it would play and play, so that anyone could see it anytime they wanted forever.

I can sympathize with those who might be skeptical that it could be as good as I'm saying. Documentaries are rarely huge box office, and the 3-D surcharge could also keep some away. One might think, "Wouldn't a 3-D documentary be boring and expensive?" Boring, no way. And the 3-D adds so much. Cave of Forgotten Dreams is certainly as good a 3-D movie as How to Train Your Dragon or Toy Story 3. I've looked up and marveled at images from the cave online since seeing the film, and I have to say, it's better in 3-D.

Scientists have determined that around 32,000 years ago, in a cave nestled in a hill near the natural stone arch known as Pont d'Arc, early humans began creating an incredible work of art. They worked on it for 5,000 years. Then, about 20,000 years ago, a cliff collapse closed the entrance to the cave, which remained sealed off from human view and knowledge until 1994, when Jean-Marie Chauvet, for whom the cave is named, and two other explorers, found and uncovered it, allowing it to once again enter human consciousness.

Nature and the animal kingdom have also collaborated with these early humans to create the vision of this priceless jewel box of a cave bear cave now available to be seen by all...in 3-D. The beautiful paintings themselves take advantage of the curvature of the cave walls, so that the 3-D presentation is not a curiosity, but a necessity for the audience to see Chauvet cave very much like its creators would have. Water, minerals and gases seeping through the cave for thousands of years have left a layer of peach-colored calcite over everything, preserving the paintings with a startling clarity, blanketing the cave floor, strewn with preserved animal bones, and creating cascades, curtains, stalactites and stalagmites throughout with their own eerie delicacy and perfection.

But the beauty and intrinsic value of the cave and its contents are not all that makes Cave of Forgotten Dreams a masterpiece of incalculable importance. In many ways, this movie is a culmination of filmmaking, a genuine meeting of subject, medium and execution which provides unanticipated reasons the development of filmmaking and 3-D technology took place. The playful, almost off-hand way Herzog has put together images of the cave and its surroundings with experts who can put it all in context make both a fascinating document and a high-level artistic statement beyond a simple trip to an ancient art gallery (which is exciting enough!).

Herzog himself, one of our greatest filmmakers, narrates the film with a sense of seriousness mixed with wonder and whimsy suited to the task. He also served as one of the small crew allowed to film inside the cave. A humorous and confounding postscript side trip provides somewhat random but ultimately illuminating juxtapositions, contradictions and questions, and more stark beauty.

Then there's the music. Herzog, in the beginning of the film, makes some seemingly hyperbolic claims for the cave and its implications for art history and culture, as well as geology, anthropology, religion, zoology, and more, which create an automatic urge to scoff and doubt, until we see the stunning cave itself and conclude that his statements are, first, true, and second, modest. The original music, by Ernst Reijseger, works in a similar way, starting out with some relatively over-the-top and familiar tricks for evoking feelings of discovery and grandeur, then piling these on top of each other as we begin to believe. As a result, while the score constantly calls attention to itself, it also points back at the walls of the cave, so that while it is distracting at times, it also unifies with, accompanies and complements the images in a powerfully satisfying way.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams is the best view possible of the amazing Chauvet cave. Very few people will ever get to go inside and see it in person. So go and see it, and get a good look. It's hard to feel I could do a film this great justice with this short review, but I've seen it twice, and chances are good that even while you may be finishing up reading this, I may again be descending Cave of Forgotten Dreams, torch high, eyes popping. It is a rare beauty, in fact, one of the rarest. Do not miss out.

Alex
The Magic of the Movies

Alex's worst ten movies of 2010

2011-05-03T02:27:00.000-07:00

And now for the worst....Here are my worst ten movies of 2010, though, to be fair, I'm only including films I have reviewed. I'll do them in reverse order, with number one being the worst of all:

10. The Runaways. Blah, empty magazine-shoot rock-o-pic.

9. Knight and Day. Oh, Cameron Diaz/Tom Cruise movies, what are we going to do with you?

8. Case 39. Children are evil! This is a more fun premise when executed in a way which is not flat and boring.

7. Alice in Wonderland. Helena Bonham Carter is notably good in a movie which mostly doesn't really seem to care.

6. Robin Hood. Seemingly promising prequel to the familiar Robin Hood tale falls down quick.

5. Country Strong. This is a very unrelatable country music movie which is actually sad because it is not very sad.

4. Alpha and Omega. Not an animated wolf version of the Old Testament, but a weirdly racist animated wolf version of nothing with lousy animation and 3-D.

3. The Warrior's Way. A super-awful kung fu Western, seemingly one hundred hours long.

2. The Bounty Hunter. Bad, bad Jennifer Aniston.

1. Daybreakers. A silly, grim vampire movie to inspire even vampire-movie lovers to want to punch vampire movies in the face.

Estimated number of viewings in total for these ten films: 10.

And that is quite enough of the worst movies.

Alex
The Magic of the Movies

Alex's top ten movies of 2010

2011-05-03T01:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm more than a little late this year, not sure exactly why. Maybe I'll be faster for 2011. Here are my top ten movies of 2010, all four-starrers:

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Niels Arden Oplev's moody, suspenseful murder mystery/romance/autistic character study is gorgeous and perfect, the best of a fun and exciting series based on the novels by Stieg Larsson. Noomi Rapace did not win the Best Actress Oscar, for some reason.

2. Black Swan. Darren Aronofsky continues to stack eccentric masterpiece upon eccentric masterpiece. Natalie Portman did win the Best Actress Oscar, for obvious reasons.

3. Toy Story 3. The third entry in a perfect series of groundbreaking computer-animated sci-fi/fantasy adventures, this one about growing up. Yes, I cried, too, and loved it.

4. Animal Kingdom. David Michôd directs an Australian true-crime family drama with knockout performances all around, and tension, love, heartbreak, betrayal as well as outstanding cinematography and editing, as gripping as any great gangster story ever.

5. Devil. The Dowdles' Shyamalan-produced slice-of-life supernatural thriller keeps moving, keeps you guessing. It's a dark mirror surface of horror and grief with genuine creep-outs and lots to say.

6. Machete. Danny Trejo stars in Robert Rodriguez's funny, smart, iconic and indelible parody/fantasy on national themes.

7. Cyrus. Cyrus puts characters before everything for a laser-sharp comic vision of modern family and weird people.

8. Never Let Me Go. Kazuo Ishiguro's novel brought to complex and fascinating life by director Mark Romanek. Carey Mulligan, Keira Knighley and Andrew Garfield (and their younger counterparts) are like to break your heart with this lovely future fugue.

9. I Love You Phillip Morris. Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor give some of their best performances ever in this brilliant true gay romance which is also a hilariously frank and dirty story of over-the-top pathological lying and obsession. Similar in some ways to The Jerk, Happy Together, and as great as both.

10. Get Low. Robert Duvall's hermit character plans his own funeral in the deep South with help from Bill Murray's funeral director and his assistant, played by Lucas Black. This one is also inspired by a true story. Bill Cobbs is especially excellent here, and his character is a key to the story's successful adaptation to drama.

Since these are, in my opinion, the ten best films of the year, I view it as an injustice that many were not nominated for Best Picture, as there were ten open slots for the year. But there are always Oscar injustices, you just have to factor that in, so whatever....I'm especially glad about wins for Portman and The King's Speech (see below).

And to round out a full top twenty for 2010: How to Train Your Dragon, Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist (L'illusionniste), M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender (no, I'm not kidding), Tom Hooper's well-deserved Best Picture-winning The King's Speech, Olivier Assayas's six-hour Carlos, Henry Jaglom's wacky Queen of the Lot, David O. Russell's The Fighter, Randall Wallace's Secretariat, Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, and John Cameron Patrick Shanley Swayze Mitchell's Rabbit Hole (this is not the director's real name, just how I remember it).

Estimated number of viewings in total for these twenty films: 79.

Nowhere Boy, The Town and True Grit should get honorable mentions, too. Estimated total viewings of True Grit: 14.

Alex
The Magic of the Movies

Ron Paul leads 2012 GOP presidential nominee web poll results for April

2011-05-03T00:33:00.000-07:00

Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) led April voting for who respondents thought would be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. As usual, this is of self-selected voters of any party who found my website, so it is not scientific in any way. (This means you should not complain that it was not scientific because it's never going to be.) Voting is just for fun, please no wagering. Here are this month's results:

April 2011

#1 - Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) ... 27.4%
#2 - Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (AK) ... 20.2%
#3 - Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA) ... 11.3%
#3 - Gov. Tim Pawlenty (MN) ... 11.3%
#3 - Other ... 11.3%
#4 - Gov. Chris Christie (NJ) ... 6.5%
#4 - Senate Min. Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) ... 6.5%
#5 - Gov. Sam Brownback (KS) ... 3.2%
#6 - Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) ... .8%
#6 - Fmr. Gov. Tom Ridge (PA) ... .8%
#6 - Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MI / UT / MA) ... .8%

124 total votes cast / Margin of error ±100%

The Other option was inflated for this month by Barbour votes cast before he announced his non-candidacy. I have also now removed likely non-candidates Brownback, Hutchison, McConnell and Ridge from the poll and the GOP field page.

You can vote for this month's new poll here, or click the vote button from any of the Choose Our President 2012 pages.

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Gov. Haley Barbour (MS) won't run for president in 2012

2011-04-26T01:21:00.000-07:00

From the Chicago Tribune:

“I will not be a candidate for president next year,” Barbour said in a statement emailed to reporters. “This has been a difficult, personal decision, and I am very grateful to my family for their total support of my going forward, had that been what I decided.”

...

“A candidate for president today is embracing a ten-year commitment to an all-consuming effort, to the virtual exclusion of all else. His (or her) supporters expect and deserve no less than absolute fire in the belly from their candidate. I cannot offer that with certainty, and total certainty is required," Barbour stated.

Barbour will stay on as governor and said he will continue his work with the Republican Governors Assn. “and my efforts to elect a new Republican president in 2012, as the stakes for the nation require that effort to be successful.”

Barbour never had much chance, despite, as a Southern governor, having credentials which, on paper, would be the envy of many in the attenuated GOP presidential field for 2012. I think we can all agree that his not running is good for the nation. I have now removed Barbour from the GOP field page, and replaced his entry in this month's poll with "Other."

Alex
Choose Our President 2012

Review: Hanna (2011)

2011-04-08T17:52:00.000-07:00

NO STARS
Joe Wright's Hanna is a severe case of the emperor's new clothes. There is literally nothing interesting, complex, dramatic or worthwhile to see here, perhaps with the exception of a few modestly effective scenes totally undercut by everything else in the movie. It's an action movie without rhythm, a story without weight, a completely fruitless exercise in terseness so closemouthed one is forced brutally to the conclusion that it has absolutely nothing to say for itself, about itself or about anything else.

Hanna stars the enormously effective young actress Saoirse Ronan as Hanna, a young girl growing up in the snowy Northlands with her father, Erik Heller (Eric Bana doing an Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, apparently because the filmmakers were not brave enough to animate a young Schwarzenegger themselves, à la Terminator Salvation). It makes perfect sense as we go along that he has trained her to fight and kill without pity, as news of her existence is set to prompt desperate and dedicated efforts against her survival. He allows her to decide the timing of the release of that news.

Period, end of sentence. Having now told you every intricacy of the plot, please be forewarned that this review may contain spoilers, such as they are. Continue reading at your own risk and/or pleasure. But again, I already told you the whole story with the set-up, perhaps saving lucky readers who understand how truly literal I can be 111 minutes.

Wright directed actress Ronan to an Oscar nomination for her role in his previous, outstanding feature, Atonement, based upon Ian McEwan's excellent novel. I haven't seen any of Wright's other movies or other works. I have seen three other Saoirse Ronan movies since, City of Ember and the very good The Lovely Bones and The Way Back. So based upon the strengths of these, and a pretty slick and intriguing trailer for Hanna, I was somewhat excited to see his version of an action movie featuring a young girl made by outside forces to defend her life and individual integrity using the same skills against her opponents as they would use against her.

Instead, Hanna is a desultory, boring version of "Snow White," "Red Riding Hood," Frankenstein, Ang Lee's Hulk (also starring Bana) or Stephen King's novels and stories about The Shop. If it's actually a spare and elemental criticism of black ops, MK-Ultra, undercover government-sponsored assassinations or anything, I must have missed it. I'm sure our public officials will feel dutifully chastised. It has plot similarities to my top film of last year, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but a distinct lack of the mystery, originality and grander vision of that film.

I'm not opposed to the violence in the film, though it is not particularly well done intellectually or visually. Additionally, the film comes across as respectful of women at some baseline level of acceptability (at least in the context of a strangely, vaguely anti-woman screenplay), mostly simply from Ronan's screen presence combined with her character's predicament. Yet it feels almost random that this is so. Erik Heller tells Hanna to kill Cate Blanchett's Marissa Veigler, not because Veigler is a woman, or a woman he hates because she's a woman, but because he knows Veigler will try to kill Hanna, and keep the killing of Hanna "contained," meaning killing Veigler may be the only loose end necessary to tie up to save Hanna's life. Veigler is not evil because she's particularly anti-woman, nor because has a thirst for Hanna's blood, but because she's caught up in years of covert wrongdoing.

We see other women with different realities from Veigler and Hanna who are more complex and beautiful in their actions and emotions. On the whole, however, I found the film dismissive of women's points of view simply from the fact that the film is stupid, and runs right over any possibly interesting developments for its woman characters. So my main objection to Hanna is its deep and utter vapidity, lack of interest, surprise, drama, kinetic achievement, message. I won't stand against the metaphor that parents prepare their children for the world the best they can, and then must stand back, be optimistic and await any results. But when that's all that's presented, it's nothing more than a long-winded cookie fortune which will stick with the recipient about as long as such a cookie's bland aftertaste.

Tom Hollander plays Isaacs, Veigler's co-villain, a hitman and nightclub owner whom, I would guess, is the cousin of the orderly played by Oscar Isaacs in Sucker Punch. His character is supposed, I surmise, to be evil incarnate, maybe even threatening, but as the film goes he's a weak, pointless, drab and ineffectual nothing who whistles the weak, pointless, drab and ineffectual Chemical Brothers theme.

Hanna is a movie so bad that if it were to survive to some future time as the only complete representative example of the filmmaking art, historians would be forced to conclude that film was indeed a failed experiment overall. Some may insist on watching it, and I was in their place a few short days ago, so I do sympathize, and add my warning. You might not heed it, but I feel that at some point you may thank me for caring, and warning against it. This movie is walking around intellectually undressed in fact and kinetically and dramatically bankrupt. If the goal is to suck all the life, danger and energy out of a righteous and inevitable revenge story, here is Hanna.

Alex
The Magic of the Movies