Five Year Anniversary and Grad reflections: 10 Best Movies 2009-Present

 Where does the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo land on this list?

Photo Credit: Sony Pictures

Can you believe it’s been five years since I’ve been writing (even to the smallest audience ever) on this blog? Because it has and since I’m graduating high school officially in just a few short weeks and it’s been five years it’s time to make a bunch of lists! We start the look back with the best films that I saw during high school (or starting with the first January of high school and moving into the present) because some obvious favorites weren’t eligible (if 2008 were eligible this list would be way to predictable) so it’s going to be a tough list with a lot of really good films to be had here. Without further ado here are the best films I’ve seen throughout my high school and blogging career:

Honorable Mentions:

Inception, Black Swan, Django Unchained, Avatar, The King’s speech, Lincoln, The Artist etc.

10. Scott Pilgrim Vs the World (2010)

This one is a mega personal pick. At the time (way back in 2010) I only put Scott Pilgrim at number 10 on the list as I found it to be an under watched and fun diversion. Over the years this film has only gotten better and become one of my top comfort films that I can go back to over and over again. Plus the jokes land just as well now as they did the first time I watch it. Truly a fantastic film that deserves much more attention then it ended up getting.

9. Toy Story 3 (2010)

Another movie that keeps getting better with repeat viewings Toy Story 3 was a true marvel when it came out and continues to hold up fantastically. Pixar seems to have reached a peak with Toy Story 3 as it brought all of the power and emotion Pixar could have over the course of an amazing 90 minute film. Not only that but Pixar created perhaps the greatest third film in a franchise ever that was actually better then the first two. Toy Story 3 is fantastic on so many levels and it’s disappointing to see that they haven’t done much right since.

8. District 9 and Moon (tie) (2009)

Two of the most powerfully real sci-fi movies to come out in 2009 Moon and District 9 showed what could be done with a lower budget and a lot of creativity. District 9 took a brutally real look at what would probably happen if aliens landed on earth. It gave us a phenomenal structure that kept the viewer engaged, some great acting from a virtual unknown (good old Sharlto Copley), and a concept that kept its legs going at full speed throughout. Moon was a creative innovative film that played with a dangerously real idea of resource and human management. It was true thinking man’s sci-fi that brought the true disturbing factor as well. Both films have one thing in common; they were great lower key sci-fi movies from two great young sci-fi directors.

7. Drive (2011)

Yet another film that gets better after repeat viewings (this seems to be a theme) Drive shows the power of what an action film can really be when it’s intelligent. Drive wasn’t especially action packed (although what action scenes existed were amazing) but what it did provide was a powerful, artsy, and intelligent punch that was accentuated through some amazing direction and a great leading performance from Ryan Gosling. Drive also had one of the best choreographed action scenes put to film in the modern age at the beginning that gave it’s thematic statement right of the bat, an action film can be smart and artsy. How many films these last few years can say that? Very few that’s for sure.

6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2010 and 2011)

The list begins to heat up a little. While Steig Larson’s novel The Girl with the Dragon was a very good thriller in its own right it was not until the film adaptations where the material became truly special. It always seemed that the films captured more of the edge and intensity of the material then did the original book. Plus the performances, direction, and overall pacing of the films were just down right near perfect. Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara gave star turning performances that were equally as fantastic as the title character Lisbeth Salander, the films captured more of the dark vibe then the books better then the books, and ultimately it just seemed that the material was dying to be shown instead of told. If I had to pick a favorite adaptation it would probably be the English language Fincher version because of the darker tone and more vulnerable heroin, but either film you watch you can’t go wrong at all.

5. The Social Network (2010)

The film I most underrated at the time (realistically it should have been the number one film of 2010) The Social Network is just a phenomenally near perfect drama that captures something truly special. As much as he can be frustrating in the television medium at times (Newsroom says hi) when Aaron Sorkin is confined into writing a film he writes his finest work and The Social network is no exception. The dialogue just pops perfectly from the screen in ways no other film have over the last many years have. Add phenomenal performances form Jessie Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake (whom I still think should have been at least nominated for best supporting actor that year) and fantastic direction from the great David Fincher and the Social Network is truly a great film that should not be missed.

4. Inglorious Basterds (2009)

Of the two Tarantino films to be released over the last five years Inglorious Basterds was the one that captured what makes a Tarantino film special the most. The opening scene of this film alone would probably have put this film as high as it is on this list as it featured some of the best acting (yay Christoph Waltz), pacing and writing of nearly any film on this list. That wasn’t the only scene that made Inglorious Basterds a special film as it included long stretches of beautiful conversations in different languages in the center of the film that built to fantastic bursts of Tarantino violence. The film was just a pure showcase of Tarantino at his finest all the way through and provided the perfect show case of why I love Tarantino’s filmmaking.

3. Looper, Zero Dark Thirty, and Amour (tie) (2012)

Yeah it’s cheating but really I couldn’t wrestle with separating this equally amazing core of films that defined cinema in the great cinematic year of 2012. Each film is very special and masterful in its own unique fashion. Looper is the best sci-fi film in about a decade providing a truly amazing core concept and running all the way with it. Zero Dark Thirty was a thriller masterpiece providing true tension and emotional weight in every frame along with an amazing performance from Jessica Chastain. Amour was a true emotional powerhouse a film that didn’t manipulate its audience but at the same time pulled more emotion out of a situation than any other love story in 2012. What do they have in common; they are three masterworks that were a large part of why 2012 was one of the finest movie years in a long time.

2. Before Midnight (2013)

Yes it’s very recent but I can’t help but fall in love with this film the more and more I think about it. No other film can be as elegantly romantic and yet capture the truth of a relationship as well as Before Midnight did. The film is so natural, so well written and Ethan Hawke and July Delpy have the best chemistry in the book. Is this a little high of a placement for this film? Perhaps but it had a divine effect on me that few films of the last many years have had. It took something simple and made a brilliant film about it and in the era of big films being big Before Midnight is a true masterful treat to the senses.

1. The Tree of Life (2011)

The film that had the most divine effect on me that came out over the course of the last five years was easily the Tree of Life. Never have I walked out of a theater more intrigued and puzzled by a film. Terrance Malik’s masterpiece was a truly ambitious trance of a film that investigated something so large (the universe) and translated it into something so intimate (a 1950’s family). The whips of memory that defined the films center remain one of the most powerful sequences of a film ever and the universe section allows for Malik to reach large to put the lives into a grand perspective. The film is so gorgeous, so ambitious, and ultimately so powerful that it defies classification and demands attention. It’s the film that to this day in which each viewing feels just as awe inspiring as the last. Each frame is so powerful and provides true insight into the power of ambitious filmmaking at its finest.

Mad Men “Favors” Review: Work and Play

 Don looking concerned on Mad Men

Photo Credit: AMC TV

A Review of this week’s Mad Men as soon as I learn to juggle oranges…

“Not all surprises are bad.”

-Roger

Spoiler alert!! Usually I don't put this before Mad Men reviews because it's not often a spoilable show but this week is an exception!!

Surprise! The strength of Mad Men over years has never been its sudden and surprising moments. The show has always been best at its characters and the gradual building of their relationships and characteristics. Surprises on Mad Men always seem a little off within the context of the show. They seem to not play as brilliantly as the rest of the show does on a regular basis.

On the other had there was “Favors” an episode that dropped the surprise of Sally walking in on Don and Sylvia so perfectly, and with a payoff that is so devastating, that it was a surprise that ultimately paid off very well for Mathew Weiner and crew. The reason the big moment worked in the end was the natural build to it and the devastating ripples of its effects on the characters of the show. Sally being put in the awkward situation regarding potentially crushing on the Rosen’s boy Mitchell, whom Don is also trying to aid was an interesting set up for Don’s first massive mistake with Sally. The sequence played out like a perfect game of chess with all the pieces coming together in such a naturally perfect fashion.

Will Don ever do a good deed for someone ever again after this experience? The intentions behind Don trying to save Mitchell from getting arrested for not going to war are entirely good after seeing Arnold greatly devastated by the potential fate of his son leaves him caring enough to take immediate action, without it being Sylvia driven at all. Don has a great concern for what the Rosens are going through and for once his need for an outside engagement was not a factor in his decision.

Then, unfortunately for Don Sylvia’s emotional phone call at work propels himself back to Sylvia out of a need to comfort her (strangely, while the lie to Sally about what was going on was really lame in every facet there was some truth in the whole comforting thing) and while the big mistake begins. Sally just looking to get rid of a note that her friend planted about Sally and her interesting feelings runs into Don and Sylvia about to do it. On an execution level the sequence could have been a disaster but with the set up, the writing, and the amazing in the moment acting from Kiernan Shipka especially made it all work perfectly.

What was even better and more devastating was the aftermath of the whole event. “Favors” allowed the events to continue on for about ten minutes allowing the aftermath to take its devastating shape. Sally is done with caring about Don now and there is no going back. For Don that’s completely devastating as loosing Sally’s love is a true loss at this point for Don. Great work is done here by both Shipka and Hamm to display the emotional devastation of both parties in the final conversation with the door in between them (some very overt Mad Men symbolism yet again this week). The desperation of don as he tries not to lose the love of his daughter and the devastation felt by Sally as she tries to process what she has witnessed. Both will face consequences equally as devastating in their lives and ultimately it may ruin both parties emotionally in substantial ways. The episode ends in a perfect, eerie silence as Don shuts the door to the living room leaving him and Sally equally alone in their situations.

That was only about a third of this brilliant episode too, but because of some constraints (not much sleep due to some graduation things) the rest of the episode review will be given in the bullets so…

Some other Musings:

•  Pete had a great little episode this week as well in a few aspects of his life. First off Bob Benson is really looking up and caring for Pete. Man was that sequence a strange yet fascinating look into the mind of Bob Benson. I personally ultimately predicted that Benson was looking to barge in and take the spot of Pete Cambell but in the end it looks like he actually has feelings of intrigue and care for the man who is slowly falling out of importance at the company.

• To the other point, no I don’t think that Bob Benson is in fact gay but instead he has a more in the moment feeling about Pete than anything else in the knee on knee sequence.

• The dinner sequence featuring Pete, Peggy, and Ted was absolutely fantastic in every way. It felt so natural watching that after watching Before Midnight just a couple of days ago and comparing dinner sequences. It gave a chance for Pete and Peggy to have a candid moment together allowing for them to share what is going on feelings wise (Pete with his mother and the company, Peggy with Ted) with each other’s lives in ways that haven’t been possible in long stretches of time.

• Pete’s mom potentially getting sex from her male nurse is both very funny and strangely disturbing.

• Ted is stuck in opposite mode from Don at this moment. While Don’s energy mostly relies on his personal life Ted is planted firmly in the workplace as of late. The scene with his wife is telling of where Ted’s head is right now and his sequences with Don suggest that he may be more interested in wrestling control of the company while Don’s out of it (especially in the near future with the whole Sally debacle) than was initially thought last week.

• Peggy (probably drunkenly) asks Stan for sex and gets a cat to kill rats!

• Roger juggles!

In all this was just an amazing episode of an amazing show! Potentially this season’s best!

That’s just me though, what did everyone else think?

Before Midnight Review

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy out for a stroll in Before Midnight

Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Classics

Before Midnight

A+

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

Hollywood films have always had a faulty perception of love and all that it entails. The films industry often overdramatizes the idea of romance to bring an audience to a theater without truly investigating the reality of love and a relationship. This is why it’s always refreshing when the rare film like Before Midnight is released that provides a more realistic look of the nature and challenges of long term love. This is the best in the “Before” trilogy (it really is a funny thing to think that there have been more than one film) and is easily not only the best film of 2013 but the best film I’ve seen in quite some time (yes perhaps even better than all of the fantastic films of last year). It’s going to takes something truly special to beat this knock this off the top of the hill in 2013.

Before Midnight is the third in the so far “Before” trilogy all of whom investigates different stages of human love. The first, Before Sunrise showed the dizzying feeling of near instant love and the way it’s handled in just a single night. The second, Before Sunset investigated the reconnection and the regrets when the two meet up for the second time after nine years of being apart. Before Midnight picks up about nine years after Before Sunset, but instead of Jesse and Celine (played as usual by the amazing Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) being apart during the nine years they have built a new life together. Before Midnight, through a series of investigative conversations investigates the long term nature of their relationship and how they have dealt with being in a more mature relationship. Safe to say it’s not as easy as it seems.

There are always a handful of elements that can be expected in a “Before” film. The first is the sharp writing. When boiled down to its basic elements Before Midnight is essentially a series of conversations between Jesse, Celine and a few brief guest appearances. In this kind of film dialogue is absolutely essential and here it’s near perfect. Conversations feel like real conversations often taking routes into different subjects and even the random, but that ultimately are connected in an intimate way. The dialogue is improvisational and truly brilliant perfectly capturing not only really engaging and funny conversations but the true developed feelings of Jesse and Celine and the relationship they are in.

The second element to expect is fantastic acting from both Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. At this point Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy play such a believable pair that they may as well be together. Their continued impeccable chemistry shows two characters that know each other almost too well and can play off each other practically perfectly. Their chemistry is only heightened in this film with the material they are given and it’s truly a fantastic thing to watch them play off each other for nearly two hours.

The element that makes Before Midnight even more fantastic then the rest of the films is that Before Midnight reaches into some darker places this go around. The film shows the pain and bitterness in their growing relationship in the ways that the previous two films in the series did not. Jesse and Celine have now been together for a long period of time and all the frustrations and nitpicks in their relationship begin to come out. The film also displays this by having Jesse and Celine actually interact with other characters (especially well in a fantastic dinner scene that has a great French cinema feel to it) in the first half of the film allowing writer/director Richard Linklater, and his actors and co-writers Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy to really express how Jesse and Celine work as a relationship in a group before they are again sent out on long conversations between just to two of them.

Visually the film keeps it simple, much to the betterment of the film. Linklater, at this point, has immense respect for these actors and the dialogue that has been written and improvised and ultimately stays out of the way of the proceedings with very simple camera work. Long takes are often used to allow a conversation to flow and change, as the relationship between these two characters is allowed to simply unfold. The visuals are simple and elegant allowing for the writing and acting to do the work. The same thing applies to the score that is soothing and simple and provides a nice background to the proceedings. It all amounts to a simple yet perfect feeling visual presentation that complements the true centre of the film, the conversations.

Before Midnight is easily the best motion picture to hit theaters in 2013 so far. It provides a look at how tough a relationship can be and the truth of a “happily ever after.” It provides a series of conversations that provide powerful, realistic insight into the world of long term relationships in a way that very few other films can. It’s a masterpiece of a romance film that is truly in the top of its class. I most likely won't see a better film in 2013 then Before Midnight.

Mad Men “A Tale of Two Cities” Review: Take Another Little Piece of my Heart

 Joan waiting for judgement on Mad Men

Photo Credit: AMC TV

A Review of tonight’s Mad Men as soon as I make excessive amounts of short people jokes…

“You’re splitting this place, and not in half.”

-Ted

Revelations everywhere! The continued war of “whose agency is it anyways” is again battled, but it’s hardly business as usual. Rules are being broken, lines are being forms, and tempers are being tested. “A Tale of Two Cities” was another satisfying hour of the show, as it allowed the show to get into the minds of the characters and begins to draw lines in the office that could help or hinder its progress.

Don’s a bit of a mess in the workplace at the moment, he really is. Usually California is a place of comfort and piece for Don but with his new trip it’s only causing him confusion. Change is imminent in the land of the west and California is beginning to grow into the new entertainment epicenter, and we all know how Don works with change. The other factor that doesn’t seem to be helping is that Don just seems to be out of it in almost every way. Tragic events are taking place across the United States and Don doesn’t seem to have a caring bone in his body. His company is being slowly invaded (or is becoming closer I still can’t really decide) and Don remains firmly out of it and in the background. He doesn’t seem to have a clue of what he’s doing in his own life at this moment and “A Tale of Two Cities” continued to analyze that.

Then there was Don’s hallucinations well being high on mysterious substance he smoked at the LA party (not to mention he was probably drunk on top of that). Weiner and crew show some of what Don wants in his relationship with Megan and what he thinks he’s missing. Don is old-fashioned in every way and watching him fantasizing about Megan quitting her job and having a child is just evidence of that. Don wants to live back in an older world one where social norms aren’t moving forward and Megan is still back at the office with him and they can ignore work together. Don doesn’t know what to do with Megan being progressive and an actress not ready to be there all the times he requires it.

Women’s roles is a big issue outside of Don’s hallucinations (which we’ll revisit in a bit) but in the office as a whole as well. When Joan get’s surprise business from an Avon executive that her friend set her up on a “date” with, the roles begin to be tested. After being shown no respect from Pete (who just wants thing to work as normal in all reality), Joan decides to take issues in his own hands and not walk through the normal ladder to get there. It’s a success as Avon seems to ultimately be interested thanks to good wooing by Joan, but it doesn’t work that way in the corporate structure of the 1960’s, especially when Pete Cambell is involved. Joan get’s scolded by both Peggy, who went through the system to get where she was (with Joan telling her she couldn’t do it at the time), and Pete who’s either right or being a total idiot. Either way Joan is a part of the changing nature of the business and in the end Ted, who seems to be looking for this change, allows it to slide.

Other things are changing at the agency as well, namely who’s in charge. The tide seems to be changing at Stearling Cooper and Partners (finally I don’t have to avoid trying to type the name of the agency) and it’s not in favor of the old Stearling Cooper gang. Ted and crew want to make more shifts towards either making a compromise or walking over the shares of the Stearling Cooper gang (although I’m leaning towards the invasion front I hope it’s not). The new name being picked out by the company as well as the consistent shift towards more Ted centric accounts is transforming the room into a less Stearling Cooper vibe and more of a Cutler Gleeson and Chow one and no one on the Stearling Cooper side (especially not Don and Roger) seems to care.

The exception to that rule is Pete. Whether it’s because he feels that his role is diminishing or the fact that he actually cares about the future of the company (I think it’s more of the former rather than the latter) is debatable but he’s still frustrated either way. He sees the accounts slip through their hands like sand and he feels that Ted is beginning to draw the line farther and farther onto his territory. Joan taking matters into her own hands with Avon just adds to his reduced ego fire. Then the name on top of that as he has to stand around while the other side picks their name. Maybe Pete is the correct one maybe he’s overreacting. God help us if Pete’s right.

Out of all of “A Tale of Two Cities” including Pete’s frustrations and all, the most interesting part of the episode came from that other half of Don’s hallucination, the notion of death. Death isn’t anything new to Mad Men, or all to distant of a memory for that matter, but it’s interesting to see how Don pictures it in his little hallucination episode. Don is reminded of the soldier he met way back in the premiere in his random stoner dreams and that death is a tragedy and “will not make him whole” as he seems to think. Standing back and watching himself deteriorate will not allow him to come out of the situation he’s in and the strange thought and reality of death.

Great work is done here by I do believe first time (editors note: I was very wrong on that one it's his fifth time directing. I don't know where I got that idea from) Mad Men director John Slattery who shoots the Don fever dream, as well as the rest of the episode with an amazingly keen eye. The shots that Slattery goes for are interesting and help bring home the point especially throughout the hallucination scene. Props go to the puzzle like structure of that dream that allow the audience to slowly figure out that Don is in truth the one drowning and clawing at the door of his mental demise. That change is happening and those who aren’t willing to go with it, like Don are going to get left behind in the dust.  Safe to say Mad Men continues on its run of solid and interesting episodes.

Some other musings:

• I’m a sucker for Janis Joplin I guess as I sat through the entire credits sequence just to listen to “Piece of My Heart”

• Some interesting symbolism used in this episode with the democratic national convention and the Chicago protests. It also provided Ginsberg a good chance to pick a fight with Cuttler allowing Weiner and crew to show the warring sides of the spectrum.

• Danny! As much as I hate to give Harry credit, treating a potential Hollywood big shot with some respect, even if he worked at the office briefly, was the right call. All Roger got for making fun of him was a firm punch to the balls.

• It’s amazing how in six seasons Peggy has gone from representing the progressive woman to the old fashioned status quo.

• Bob Benson continues to move up the ladder! Him and Ginsberg share a wonderful scene in this episode that shows just how good and convincing Bob can truly be. I wonder how close we are from him jostling Pete out of true power…

That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?