Fourth Row Center

BEST PICTURE – THE KING’S SPEECH TRUE GRIT is my favorite film of 2010, and my pick if I were handing out the Oscars. THE FIGHTER is also remarkable, in my top three along with BLUE VALENTINE, but I think my number four is the most “ Oscarly ,” if you will, and deservedly so. BEST DIRECTOR – DAVID FINCHER , THE SOCIAL NETWORK This category is a close one, but I think that although THE KING’S SPEECH will get the best picture nod, David Fincher ’s work exceeded so many expectations that the best picture/director category will be split this year. BEST ACTOR – COLIN FIRTH, THE KING’S SPEECH I have not seen Javier Bardem ’s performance in BIUTIFUL , but have seen the others. My personal favorite is Jeff Bridges in TRUE GRIT, but Bridges won the Best Actor honor last year. Jesse Eisenberg is terrific in THE SOCIAL NETWORK, and James Franco’s work in 127 HOURS is truly an achievement. However, it’s Colin Firth’s time. BEST ACTRESS – JENNIFER LAWRENCE, WINTER’S BONE The odds have Natalie Port...

The Brothers Coen have gone back to the novel for their inspiration for this version of True Grit , and the result ranks along side No Country for Old Men as the brothers’ best work and the best movie I have seen all year. Fourteen-year-old Mattie (played with true grit by newcomer Hailee Steinfeld ) hires boozing Federal Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to track her father’s killer and return him to Arkansas for trial and a just hanging. They are accompanied into Indian territory by a Texas Ranger, played by Matt Damon, in pursuit of the fleeing villain. First and foremost, True Grit should not be compared with the previous film version, as it is neither a remake nor a “ reimagining .” Despite its origins, this version, adapted, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen , manages to remain quite Coenesque , if there is such a term: unconventional, with quirky dialogue and action peppered with offbeat humor and sudden acts of brutal violence. The story, a straight...

A cantankerous hermit with a shady reputation named Felix Bush (Robert Duvall, in a brilliant performance) has lived alone in a ramshackle cabin for forty years before realizing it’s about time to “get low,” or die, and decides to venture into town with a wad of cash to plan his funeral, which he wants held while he is still alive. Hearing of the money, an unscrupulous funeral director (Bill Murray in a humorous but subdued performance) and his assistant, played by Lucas Black, rise to the occasion. Bush, who is feared by many of the locals, insists upon inviting everyone in four counties who has a story to tell about him, knowing full well none of them will be flattering. But the story he truly wants told is a dark and secret one, and as we learn more about Bush’s curious past we realize that what he seeks is redemption for the sins that forced him into his decades-long seclusion. Get Low is a simple film with a strong story and well-developed characters. The unraveling of Bush’s pas...

There is something about Harry Brown that is mesmerizing from the first moment we meet the elderly shut-in in his simple apartment, and the grim journey that Harry Brown takes its audience on becomes far from simple. Michael Caine plays a poor, grieving widower living in a crime-ridden section of an English town who, after losing his best and only friend to street violence, decides to do something about it. Yes, this is a vigilante movie, but Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson, Caine is not. His soft, reluctant determination is in marked contrast to characters in movies of a similar vein, and Caine ’s performance elicits sympathy and concern more so than a hope that he gains vengeance. First-time feature director Daniel Barber use Caine ’s age to great advantage, and the stellar performance by Caine is muted and complex. The film rests entirely on his capable shoulders and he carries it like a martyr on the way to the cross.

As usual I have waited until the last moment to post my annual Oscar picks, and the field for Best Picture, now with ten nominees instead of the previous five, makes it more difficult this year. The one film that really stuck with me was Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, which was screened last year at the Seattle International Film Festival. In a field of great films, including UP (which should take the award for Best Animated Feature), Up in the Air (a great movie and serious contender) , Avatar (a real ride of a movie but not Titanic ), A Serious Man (a remarkable film I enjoyed very much, but was little-seen), and An Education (another great, but little-seen movie), I predict The Hurt Locker will take home top prize. Here is what I wrote about this film: The Hurt Locker follows a crew of American Army bomb experts through their tour in Iraq in 2004. Sergeant James is young, cocky, and takes unnecessary risks, so much so that he puts the lives of his crew in danger. But h...

This review is coming in a week late. Cindy and I went out to see James Cameron’s Avatar before Christmas. Already, I knew that this film had some mixed reviews from sources I trust, so, if we were going to see, let us see it on a IMAX Screen in 3D. It was recommended that we arrive at the auditorium early to secure a good seat at the AMC Lynnhaven theater. The advice was gold: forty minutes prior to the film starting, most of the good seats were taken. I was able to secure a center seat, but, only in the fourth row of the second tier seats. 3D Movies I am not a fan of 3D movies. Lately, many of the animated films will be released with a 3D version that you can pay a few extra dollars to see. Very few mainstream films employee the technique. The last two films I saw in 3D were Beowulf and My Bloody Valentine . Neither film was very good, and the 3D was gimmicky. Avatar’s approach to 3D felt different – it provided visual depth. The movie screen became a window that we were ...

The spirit of Sherlock Holmes and his loyal assistant and chronicler Dr. Watson (played by Robert Downey, Jr., and Jude Law, respectively) is alive and well in this breathless reinvention of the Holmes genre, although in the details these characters are more Ritchie than Doyle. No matter. The convoluted plot involving a strange cult bent on wielding great power in England (which in my mind borrows heavily from Mark Frost’s intriguing novel “The List of Seven”) manages to sustain itself only by the sheer power of Downey’s performance as the illustrious detective. It's absurd, confusing and over-blown, but Downey manages to infuse a degree of style and modern sophistication into it. This version of Holmes is not for the purist. If you want Doyle’s work and character incarnate seek out the phenomenal BBC series starring Jeremy Brett. There’s no better interpretation of Holmes’ character than Brett’s. But as holiday flicks are concerned, Sherlock Holmes is as entertaining and fun as an...

I was hoping Chuck would post his Avatar review by now, but in its absence, I'll plow ahead. After more than 10 years, James Cameron ( The Terminator, Titanic) returns to the director’s chair in this visual feast of a film that combines live action with CGI so seamlessly that it lives up to the techno-hype. And there has been quite a bit of hype, indeed. The story is simple: mankind goes to far off planet to rob it of its precious natural resources. Primitive alien people stand in the way. Mankind must wipe out primitive people. Good man comes to the rescue and saves the day. Heavy-handed? Maybe. Culturally and environmentally relevant? Sure. Where this film succeeds visually, it lacks in character and in its very simple and uninspired storytelling. And aside from Sigorney Weaver, Avatar sports a cast that is merely adequate. Still, in 3D, Avatar is not something to be missed. See it.

Recently there was a cast reunion worth mentioning. No, I am not writing about the Seinfeld reunion that is the subject of this season's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on HBO. Think more David O. Selzenick and less Larry David. To honor the 70th anniversary of Gone With the Wind , surviving cast members gathered at a tribute event outside Atlanta recently. With Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh being off-planet, the cast reunion comprised actors who played children and babies and Beau Wilkes at various childhood ages in the classic 1939 film. I don't suppose there was much reminiscing going on at this reunion. But for those surviving performers in attendance , it must be marvelous to know that each was a part of such a remarkable feat of cinematic grandeur the likes of which are long gone in American motion pictures. I think I'll add Gone With the Wind to my Netflix queue. It's been a while for me, too. Oh, and George is divorced and is trying to get back with this ex-wif...

To follow up on Jay’s post, I have two films that follow the vein of The Blair Witch Project , but, does it right. The films are Quarantine and [*REC], but we only need to talk about the later as the former is an American remake of the later Spanish Film. Both are excellent, but, I have to admit to liking [*REC] better. Both stories follow a female reporter who host the show “While you were sleeping” and follows a group of fire fighters who are called to a tenement building to help with an old lady who has fallen. That’s when the film goes to hell. Literally. What makes both films great is that it does not start as a horror film. It lulls you into a false sense of security. The second thing is that the actors in the film feel like normal people who have gotten stuck inside the building. I prefer [*REC] because the main character is absolutely convincing and ending is…well…creepy. It has more in common with Aliens than Blair Witch, and makes for a pretty scary Halloween ...

Two films have been released this autumn that fall in the vein of The Blair Witch Project : feature motion pictures produced from purported actual archival video capturing elements of the unexplained. The newly released The Fourth Kind, starring Milla Jovovich, is one of those “let’s pretend this is real using actual video footage” movies, like Paranormal Activity , except here the filmmakers augment the archival “footage” with “dramatic reenactments.” The premise involves a close encounter of the fourth kind, abduction, and the aliens here are not the happy ET’s of Spielberg’s movies. These are bad beings with a grudge. The set up is intriguing: a psychologist in Nome, Alaska (Jovovich), has patients who seem to all have abduction accounts when placed under hypnosis. And so, too, as it turns out, does our heroine. But the result is uneven, and the climax never really wraps anything up, except to suggest that these bizarre nocturnal owl sightings are really alien abductions, which the...

Cirque du Freak is something for teens, a modern Fright Night , as far as I’m concerned, and it’s a good, clean vampire fun. Two best friends become vampires after visiting a peculiar little freak show run by Mr. Tall (Ken Watanabe) and come down on opposite sides of a vampire conflict: one sides with the good vampires (they do not kill humans) and the other sides with the evil vampires who kill humans and want a war with the good vampires. Silly, of course, but this kind of goofy cinematic fun is sometimes what movies are all about. Director Paul Weitz ( In Good Company, About a Boy ) keeps the action moving in this simple but entertaining good versus evil story. The decent performances by John C. Reilly, Selma Hayek and a terrific turn by Willem Dafoe as one of the "good" vampires provide the flick with a little street cred, as does a screenplay co-written by one of my favorite screen scribes Brian Helgeland ( Payback, Mystic River, L.A. Confiedential ).

Directed by Jane Campion, “Bright Star” is not only a poem by John Keats but the person for whom the poem was written, a young Englishwomen by the name of Fanny Brawne, who falls in love with the young Keats despite the fact that the struggling poet has no income to support a wife. Their romance is not an easy one, lacking the approval of both Keats’ best friend and Fanny’s traditional family, and the three year romance is ultimately cut short by Keats’ tragic death at age 25, a failed poet, broke and alone in Italy recovering from an illness. A great romance flick for those who love poets and poetry.

DISTRICT 9 Produced by Peter Jackson. This sci-fi lesson about racism has some nice ideas—unwanted aliens stranded on earth and kept in camps, growing inter-species mistrust, a plan to return the aliens to their planet gone awry. But the follow-through is lacking, the performances second-rate and the film withers pathetically on the vine. G-FORCE Animated, from Disney. Talking CG guinea pigs are secret agents. Why, Disney, why? HANNAH MONTANTA Starring Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus. After so many bad films, Disney takes a kids’ Disney Channel sitcom and stretches it out to an hour and a half motion picture, and what do you have? A pretty watchable film, actually, and much to my surprise. Although the first part of the picture (set in Hollywood) is pretty much business as usual for the “Hannah Montana” show, the rest of it takes on some meaning as Robbie Ray takes his daughter Miley (who is actually superstar Hannah Montana) back to the family farm in Tennessee, much against Miley’s w...

I went to see what will most likely be my last summer movie today, and it got me thinking: I haven’t posted a single thought about it on 4RC. Shame on me. Wolverine * I really liked the first two X-Men films, but the third was completely lost on me. Wolverine started off with one of the best opening montage sequence since The Watchmen. After that, it jumped around, and by the time film ended, I just didn’t care anymore. Star Trek **** I have mixed feelings about this film. TOS has a particularly special place in my inner geek, and part of me was sad to see that they made a TOS film that was better than five of the other TOS movies. I approached this movie fully expecting to kinda like it, but not love it. But J.J. breathed life into my childhood heroes and proves one of my friends favorite sayings: “it’s all about the story.” Terminator Salvation *** I think that after Seth Rogan, Christian Bale must be the hardest working man in Hollywood. I went into this film with ...

Inju: the Beast in Shadow follows French mystery novelist Alex Fayard as he arrives in Japan for a publicity tour and receives a cryptic warning from his Japanese rival, Shundei Oe, a wildly popular but reclusive author who has never been seen or photographed, known only by a gruesome self portrait on his book jackets. Alex meets a dancer in a tea house who thinks she knows who Oe really is, a brutal and insane former lover who may be capable of harming Alex. Director Barbet Schroeder ( Reversal of Fortune, Single White Female ) seems at ease with both the material and the odd French/Japanese hybrid style of the film, which blends mystical Asian themes with elements of a taut European thriller. The plot unfolds like a flower, petal by petal; and as the plot unravels myriad twists and misdirection are revealed, the end result is a watchable and satisfying cinematic experience.

First time screenwriter Stephen Lindsay, who hails from Greer, SC, not far from my old stomping grounds, says he was thrilled to be involved with Hachiko: A Dog’s Story , to which actor Richard Gere attached himself early on and provided a great deal of creative input toward the final script. Gere stars as Parker, a New England man whose life is changed when an Akita pup finds him late one night at the train station. The station master, played by Jason Alexander, can only turn him over to the pound, so Parker elects to take the pup home until the owner is located. It’s not an easy transition for Parker’s wife, but Hachi and Parker bond, becoming an inseparable pair. And, as any dog movie worth its salt would have it, the pup’s owner never comes forward. Hachi becomes not only Parker’s best friend but a staple in the community where they live. Parker commutes to work by train, and like clockwork Hachi is waiting on his master every day outside the train station at five o’clock, rain or ...

Matthew Broderick stars as Ben Singer, a an embittered civil servant whose marriage has failed, who is estranged from his only daughter, whose career is at a dead end and who blames corporate greed on the part of The Man (an amusing performance by Philip Baker Hall) as the origin of both his and all society's ills. Then his roommate (and only friend) enters a diabetic coma and Ben is forced to take stock of his life. He's helped along by his roommate's sister, Khadi, who travels from Dakar to wait by her brother's bedside, and by a coworker who discovers that Ben was previously a very successful recording artist of children's songs until being put down by The Man. Thankfully, Wonderful World is not as heavy-handed as it might have been, and Broderick brings a soft, sympathetic touch to Ben’s pessimistic nature. Writer-directer Joshua Goldin (who wrote Out on a Limb with Broderick and 1990’s Darkman ) crafts a movie that blends comedy into a hopeful story about a m...

The Fortress is a Swiss documentary about a weigh station for foreign refugees seeking asylum in Switzerland, and it manages not only to paint a clear picture of what a refugee has to go through to obtain Swiss residency, but it paints portraits of a few hopeful souls and the dramatic and often painful journeys their lives have taken to arrive at the Swiss border petitioning for refuge. This is the only documentary I have seen at this year's festival, and I arrived thinking I was about to see a movie called Cold Souls with Paul Giamatti . I did see Giamatti standing outside of the Harvard Exit theater, signing a few autographs, but he did not appear in the Swiss documentary I screened. There was no narration nor were there any interviews. The Fortress was shot entirely in the refugee center, and the filmmakers did a terrific job editing the film in such a way that the lives of the workers and refugees there were vivid and fully realized. The movie is fascinating and flows nicel...

Many of the films shown at Seattle's film festival were made here, the majority of them independents. Such is the case with World’s Greatest Dad . Robin Williams plays Lance Clayton, a high school poetry teacher and failed writer. And he is hardly the world’s greatest dad. His teenage son, Kyle, who is crude and cruel and virtually friendless, seems to have no moral or ethical compass and runs roughshod over his weak-willed single parent. Williams is terribly sympathetic in his failure to discipline his son, and his rebuffed efforts to bond with the teen – dinner, movies, anything – are heartbreaking. But this is a black comedy, one of the darkest American comedies I've seen, and when Kyle dies in an accidental and undignified manner, his grieving father pens a suicide note leading all to believe that Kyle was a friendless genius who has taken the easy way out. Having redefined his worthless son, Lance finds that his life takes a remarkable turn for the better, as others (who p...