Hugo (2011) Review | Jamie Daily

Hugo (2011)
84th Academy Awards 2012
4/5 Stars
Nominated for 11 awards, of which it won 5.
Nominated for Best Picture (Graham King, Martin Scorsese), Costume Design (Sandy Powell), Directing (Martin Scorsese), Film Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker), Music-Original Score (Howard Shore), and Writing-Adapted Screenplay (John Logan).
Won Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson), Best Art Direction (Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo), Best Sound Editing (Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty), Best Sound Mixing (Tom Fleischman, John Midgley), and Best Visual Effects (Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman, Alex Henning).
Watched January 4, 2013.

 

In a machine, there are no extra parts.

 

Hugo is a family movie, despite its length, that brings humor and reality to a world of magic.  The plot seems to begin in one place, but before you know it you are headed in almost a completely different direction.

 

It is a film about Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) who lives in a train station in France.  He once lived with his father (Jude Law), a clockmaker who passes away in a museum fire.  Hugo is then taken to the train station, where his Uncle Claude (Ray Winstone) takes care of the clocks.  Once Hugo knows how to do his Uncle’s job, his Uncle disappears and he is left to somehow survive on his own.  He steals food and maintains the clocks so that no one suspects his Uncle has gone.  The Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen), the almost childish comic relief, is notorious for catching boys and sending them to the orphanage, therefore Hugo must always watch his step.

 

Hugo is in possession of an automation that he and his father were repairing.  While trying to pilfer supplies for the repair from the station’s toy merchant (Ben Kingsley), he is caught and his notebook with is father’s drawings of the automation is taken.  This throws him into an adventure, one which he doesn’t really care for until the merchant’s goddaughter Isabelle (Cloë Grace Moretz) gets involved.  She reintroduces him to books, he introduces her to movies, and together they seek out the notebook while fooling the Station Inspector left and right.

 

In a machine, there are no extra parts, and as Hugo Cabret sees it, if the world is a machine, then he must be there for a purpose, and so must Isabelle.  They soon discover that maybe, for now, their purpose is to give a man back his life.  Once Isabelle is introduced to the magic of movies, the plot turns and the two adventurers discover a secret about her Godfather.

 

The performances in this film are pretty standard.  Many reviewers rave over Moretz but are a little wavy on Butterfield’s performance in comparison.  On the contrary, I thought Moretz fell a bit short of her past appearances, but this is perhaps more because of the story and the intention of being a family movie.  Her enthusiasm often felt a bit unreal, but then again, isn’t the magic of movies a bit unreal itself?  Butterfield did an adequate job for a family movie, on the same level as Moretz.  I loved the supporting cast and fell quite in love with Ben Kingsley’s on screen wife, Helen McCrory.  Sacha Baron Cohen, also, was much different from what you might remember him as in his past roles, and I found that it fit him quite well.  His story was a bit unnecessary to the rest of the plot, but again, it is a children’s film and therefore requires a little bit of unnecessary humor to maintain everyone’s attention for two hours.

 

The cinematography, art direction, sound, and visual effects were all absolute magic.  Everything combined beautifully to create such a visual feast that even in 2D format it was incredible.  I have heard that nothing can touch the original 3D format and it is said that although there is a lot of shoddy 3D work happening in the industry right now, Scorsese has the sense to respect the viewers and understand that if you are going to do something, you must do it right.  He also brings his own passion for maintaining film history to the story and perhaps wishes to help the younger generation understand the magic of film so that they too can respect it and pursue it, whether in career or simply pastime.

 

Hugo might not be for everyone, but if you are looking for a family film with a bit more depth than usual, and an incredible visual display, I would definitely suggest you sit everyone down to enjoy this Scorsese masterpiece.

 

Sources: A Potpourri of Vestiges, Scarlett Cinema, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Movies on Film, The Guardian, Films According to Chris Wyatt, Picturenose, The Best Picture Project, John Likes Movies

War Horse (2011) Review | Jamie Daily

War Horse (2011)
84th Academy Awards 2012
3/5 Stars
Nominated for 6 awards.
Nominated for Best Picture (Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy), Cinematography (Janusz Kiminski), Art Direction (Rick Carter, Lee Sandales), Music – Original (John Williams), Sound Editing (Richard Hymns, Gary Rudstrom), and Sound Mixing (Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, Stuart Wilson).
Watched December 29, 2012.

 

What can I say about you, War Horse?  It is a technical genius and a simplistic, clichéd display of love and devotion that leaves half of the critics baffled and the other half in adoration.

 

Steven Spielberg will forever be a cinematic genius whose technicality in the art is boundless.  However, I have grown so accustomed to his polished cinematography and overall composition that I was less impressed with the technical aspect and therefore more distracted by the unlikely plot line.  It is simple in almost a bad way.  There was very little character depth and the actions of all but the horse (Joey) were extremely predictable.

 

Despite its shortcomings in story, I still enjoyed it, partially because I am a huge horse lover.  It is a war movie without the gore of today’s films.  Spielberg did not feel the need to show every battle field in detail and to draw out the exchange.  Instead, he took a much more simple, abstract approach that lets the audience know what has occurred but does not necessarily show the act itself.  This was one of my more favourite aspects of the film, which leads me to my viewing advice.

 

If you have the ability to suspend reality (something that most movie-goers should be well versed in) and accept the fact that War Horse is going to test you, then you should certainly see it.  It is a walking cliché–a tale of innocents on all sides, despite the gruesome war surrounding it, and the joy that is found despite the death, destruction, and separation.

 

Joey begins his life as a playful, half-thoroughbred who is bought at auction at a young age by a farmer who needs a plow horse.  Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan) was tempted by the astounding beauty of the horse, his landlord’s clear desire for the animal, and his drink.  His wife Rose (Emily Watson) is furious when he brings the young, small, untrained horse home, but his son Albert (Jeremy Irvine) is ecstatic.  He takes the horse on himself, names him, and trains him, and in one of the more unlikely bits of the film, plows an entire field with him in order to save his family’s farm.

 

Despite their efforts, the farm is still in jeopardy.  When World War I finally breaks upon them, Mr. Narracott sells the horse to a Captain James Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston).  Heartbroken, Albert vows to Joey that he will find him again one day.

 

It is soon after this that the most brilliant scene of the film occurs.  The Captain and his company are led to believe that a German camp lays close by, unsuspecting, and thus their calvary rides into it. They ride through the camp at full gallop but once they reach the woods at the other side, they are cut down thoroughly by machine guns.  Instead of watching the horses and their riders fall at extreme length, we instead see one shot of the riders charging at full gallop and in the next the horses are leaping over the guns–riderless.

 

Joey finds himself in German hands, and along with his gorgeous black stallion friend, jumps from master to master and from England to Germany to France and back again, much in the same way that Black Beauty would share his tale of owners.  He spends time on a French farm, pulling guns in the war, and even brings the entrenched British and German soldiers to a temporary truce as they try to free him from barbed wire.

 

It is not the most brilliant nominated film this year, but it is certainly deserving.  Although the end shots are certainly a sort of sentimental pride with Spielberg, as is evidenced by their drawn out screen time, the majority of his execution is so flawless that I longed for a dirtier edit and a more experimental cinematographer.  If you have missed War Horse somehow, I would certainly suggest watching it, especially if you are in a good mood and are willing to set aside your firm grasp on reality for some more innocent fun.

 

 

Sources: Fan Pop, Awards Daily, DreamWorks Studios, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, NY Times, The Guardian, John Likes Movies, The Best Picture Project

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) Review | Jamie Daily

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
84th Academy Awards 2012
4/5 Stars
Nominated for 5 awards.
Nominated for Actress (Rooney Mara), Cinematography (Jeff Cronenweth), Film Editing (Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall), Sound Editing (Ren Kluce), and Sound Mixing (David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Bo Persson).
Watched October 20, 2012.

 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has David Fincher stamped all over it.  It you have seen Fight Club, The Social Network, and/or Benjamin Button, you will recognize the beautiful imagery and artistry of one of my favourite directors.  Based on the first book of a famous series by Stieg Larsson, the English version that follows but is not a remake of the Swedish films, is a fast paced, audio-driven investigation of a killer of women with characters more deeply troubled than one would like to imagine.

 

Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is a journalist with a recently ruined reputation.  He is hired by Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the age old murder of his niece Harriet.  On a remote, frozen island in Sweden, Mikael holes himself up in Henrik’s guest house and sets to work getting to know the troubled Vanger family.  They are a group of communists, alcoholics, rapists, and murderers.

 

Our other protagonist is the true star of the film, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara).  After trying to kill her father, Lisbeth became a ward of the state and has been abused ever since.  Her hard exterior and self proclaimed psychopathic habits alienate her a bit from the audience, and yet strangely make one cheer for her.  After watching her be brutally raped by her social worker, we then get to watch her exact cruel but deserved revenge on him.  Despite her unconventional and abusive upbringing, Lisbeth is a computer genius with the ability to hack into anyone’s computer and conduct incredibly thorough and incredibly illegal background checks for her employer (and also a little bit for herself).

 

 

Over an hour into the film, our two protagonists are finally brought together.  Mikael accepts her without question, although Lisbeth does not seek his acceptance.  Her interest is caught when he asks her to catch this killer of women and immediately she is off and solving mysteries the original investigator had never even dreamed of, let alone that they were somehow linked to the Vangers and Harriet.

 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is often overly graphic as well as driven more by the suspenseful music than what is really happening on screen.  Lisbeth’s character has a lot of depth to her–every scene seems to peel back another asset of her character.  Mikael, on the other hand, seems to be a little one note, which is of course no fault of Craig, who is a consistently brilliant actor.  The relationship between the two is little developed and somehow becomes affectionate, probably because Mikael has a daughter and Lisbeth is attracted to that.  Her relationship with him is more understandable than his with her, but somehow the fact that it shouldn’t work makes it all right.

 

The imagery–cinematography and art direction–along with the sound of this film are beyond spellbinding.  The story is a bit lacking and the ending seems completely off balance with the rest of the film, but all in all, it is a good Oscar contending film.  I appreciate the nominations.  I’m not a fan of films involving rape scenes, but because of Lisbeth’s triumph over her rapist in the end, I felt a little better about this one.

 

I would definitely recommend this film.  It has a lot of graphic sex and violence, therefore its ‘R’ rating is something to be aware of, but if you have missed this film I would definitely recommend it as a Friday night thriller!

 

Sources: IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, NY Times, The Guardian,  Movie Film Reviews

Moneyball (2011) Review | Jamie Daily

Moneyball (2011)
84th Academy Awards 2012
5/5 Stars
Nominated for 6 awards.
Nominated for Best Picture (Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Brad Pitt), Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Film Editing (Christopher Tellefsen), Sound Mixing (Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, David Giammarco, Ed Novick), and Writing-Adaptation (Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin).
Watched September 2, 2012.

 

 

“Baseball is a business.  Only we fans love it as a game” (Roger Ebert).

 

If you watched and enjoyed The Social Network, you should also enjoy this Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian script with a story less about the game and more about the management and business-driven backstory that the fans never see.  From a constant barrage of trading players to a stats crazed assistant, the characters of Moneyball challenge the once long standing traditions and beliefs of the baseball scout’s world.

 

Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) is the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, the poorest team in major league baseball.  Although he constantly leads his low budget team to success, he is always saying that unless you win the last game of the year, no one cares.  In this brilliant look into the 2001 year for Beane, we see how he and his new Yale graduate assistant, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), twist the scouting process to favor their payroll.  Brand was an economics major and has probably never played baseball in his life, but his obsession with the game leads him to have a deep understanding of the theories of one Bill James, author of a book that challenges the norms of baseball.  The traditional way of scouting is parodied in the film as being obsessed with the look of the player over the effectiveness.  Beane and Brand decide to flip the tables by buying runs and wins instead of multi-million dollar stars.

 

Although the film was originally dropped by Sony and went through a few directors, Pitt stuck by the project and was rewarded by a classic Brad Pitt performance and academy nomination, well deserved.  His character has depth and heartache–being cared about by only his ex-wife and daughter.  In his adolescence, he rejected a full ride scholarship to Stanford in order to play baseball.  When that didn’t pan out, he moved into management, where he is driven by a deep hatred of loss.  His baseball superstitions run deep and prevent him from ever watching a game.  Therefore, we as the audience rarely see more than a few snips of an actual game, but are instead treated to Beane’s occasional sports radio, restless driving, or persistent work out sessions.

 

Jonah Hill is likewise wonderful in this film, but in contrast to Pitt is in a role very unlike those of his past.  His general comedy acts disappear in this quiet, shy wasp of an analytic.  The only thing better than his performance is that he earned his first nomination.

 

Beyond the notable acting, the cinematography is darker, grainier, and more beautiful than many high definition shots of the big blockbusters of today.  The sound mixing is to die for.  I have yet to see Hugo, which won this category, but at the moment I am sorely disappointed that Moneyball did not.

 

Despite how many times I have seen this slow moving, two hour film, I can’t stop loving it.  The contradicting character types, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Art Howe, Chris Pratt as Scott Hatterberg, the contrasts between the Athletics and the Boston Red Sox–everything comes together to form a formidable opponent to many nominees.  Apparently the Academy and I do not share opinions about what Moneyball should and should not have won.

 

Please do yourselves a favor and add this Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill home run to your ever growing list of films to see! (Did you see what I did there?  Home run?  You can laugh, it’s okay.)

 

Sources: IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Rolling Stone, LA Times, New York Times, AceShowBiz, Roger Ebert