MY MOVIE REVIEW FILM ALERT:

Mark Twain and Mary Baker Eddy

If you like great character studies, are intrigued by fact-based recreations of historical biography, appreciate the candid humor unique to Mark Twain, or have the slightest affinity for experiencing what might best be described as a magnificent adventure through the wilderness of a complex, impassioned human soul, then fine tune your radar...do not fall asleep at the wheel... be on the look out for what may well be a slam dunk performance by Val Killmer. MARK TWAIN and MARY BAKER EDDY: A Love Story went into pre-production in January 2008 and its trailer - slightly over 10 and a half minutes - is a gripping invitation to what should be a powerful film and an extraordinary addition to the actor's filmography. Remember Kilmer's incredible performance as Doc Holliday in Tombstone (1993) where he walked away with everything except the set (and a well-deserved Oscar nod - do not get me started...), well, it seems he is at it again. Kilmer is superb as Mark Twain as seen in the available footage, capturing the popularized physical, attitudinal, and verbal likeness of the American humorist, lecturer, essayist, and author with uncanny perfection. I eagerly await the release of the completed project and anticipate that, should it receive the distribution and viewing opportunity it seems to warrant, it will bring the deserved acclaim to Kilmer.

Written and directed by Kilmer, the projected release date for Mark Twain and Mary Baker Eddy is 2010.


Take a look and tell me what do you think:

My 2009 ACADEMY AWARD PREDICTIONS

Before listing predictions for this year's Oscar winners, I must comment on the nominations for Best Documentary Film - one category where the Academy cannot fall short no matter who is called to the stage on award night. All of these films are extraordinary in distinctly different yet highly effective ways. They are equally strong in fashioning storytelling, direction, filming, etc. to the optimum benefit of the particular account they set out to present. Kudos and Congratulations to the production staffs of each of these fine documentary films:

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) addresses the far-reaching implications of America's involvement in the Vietnam War through the story of Laotian immigrant Thavisouk Phrasavath who exchanged a life of persecution in Southeast Asia following US withdrawal because his father assisted the CIA for a life of poverty in Brooklyn. It is quietly gripping and poignant.

Encounters at the End of the World is filmmaker Werner Herzog's beautifully recorded examination of the unique range of personalities and occupational lifestyles from research scientists to blue collar workers defining the population surviving in the harsh environment of Antartica. Never before has ice cold been conveyed with such warmth.

The Garden is a well constructed narrative of the conflict between residents in a South Central L.A. neighborhood and the new landowner of a previously city-owned tract of land that was one of the nation's largest community gardens but the owner has targeted for development.

Man on Wire is the dramatic account of how French performance artist Philippe Petit planned and executed his 1974 high wire walk between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers that took nearly one hour to the amazement of New Yorkers observing from the streets below. An homage to the structures themselves is an unintentional subtext.

Trouble The Waters is the first hand account of New Orleans resident Kimberly Roberts and her husband's chaotic experiences of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina from their grueling exodus, settlement in Memphis and eventual return to the city. Uses actual footage shot by Roberts. Candid and raw at times.


On to my predictions:


Category....................... Should Win................... Will Win

Picture....................... Benjamin Button.............. Slumdog
Actress....................... Meryl Streep..................... Meryl Streep
Actor.......................... Brad Pitt.......................... Sean Penn
Supp. Actress.............Taraji Henson................. Amy Adams
Supp. Actor............... Heath Ledger.................. Heath Ledger
Director..................... Howard:Frost/Nixon......Boyle: Slumdog
Art Direction............. Ben/Button........................ Ben/Button
Orig. Screenplay........ Wall-E................................ Milk
Adap. Screenplay....... Ben/Button........................Slumdog
Foreign Lang.............The Class (Fr).......Waltz/Bashir (Isr'l)
Docum. Feature........ WIDE OPEN
Short Docum............. WIDE OPEN
Short Film................. New Boy...............................Toyland
Short Animated......... Lavatory/Lovestory..........La Maison
Song........................... Slumdog ............................ Slumdog
Score...........................Button or Defiance............. Slumdog
Sound Editing.............Ben/Button................... Dark Knight
Sound Mixing.............Slumdog.............................Slumdog
Editing........................Button or Milk..................Sllumdog
Cinematography......... Dark Knight.................Ben/Button
Animation................... Wall-E.............................. WALL-E
Visual Effects.............. Ben/Button.................. Ben/Button
Costume Design.......... Ben/Button.................... Australia
Makeup....................... Ben/Button................. Ben/Button

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2009 GOLDEN GLOBE WINNERS...especially....

the family and friends of the late Heath Ledger, especially Chris Nolan

the production staff, cast and crew of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, the underdog that could (and DID!)

Best Actor recipient Michael Rourke (The Wrestler)....Welcome Back!

Double Winner Kate Winslet (Best Actress - Reservation Road, Best Supporting Actress -The Reader)...see you in CA 2/24!!!

and

Steven Spielberg - 2009 Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievment Award Recipient...Well Deserved!

MY PICK FOR BEST MOVIE: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button......Followed Ever So Closely By Doubt

View Site:
http://www.benjaminbutton.com/


Read My Review of TCCOBB Below
(Blog appears immediately after Golden Globe Predictions)

MY 2009 GOLDEN GLOBE PREDICTIONS

BOLD indicates correct pick:
(16 out of 26) Check out my Oscar picks later in the month!

Category.............................. Who Should Win ..................... Who Will Win

Best Picture/Drama………….......TCCO Benjamin Button……...............TCCO Benjamin ButtonX

Best Actress/Drama…………………Meryl Street (Doubt)……………..Angelina Jolie (Changeling)X

Best Actor/Drama……………Brad Pitt (Benjamin Button)……… Pitt (Rourke -Wrestler CBAS*)

Best Picture/Comedy/Musical……..……Mama Mia!…………………….Mama Mia!X

Best Actress/Comedy/ Musical… E. Thompson (Last Chance Harvey)... McDormand CBAS*X

Best Actor/Comedy or Musical………Dustin Hoffman (Last Chance Harvey)………..HoffmanX

Best Supporting Actress in a Mot. Pic.…….Viola Davis (Doubt)…Kate Winslet (Reader)

Best Supporting Actor in a Mot. Pic.………Heath Ledger (Dark Knight)……….Heath Ledger

Best Animated Feature Film……………………Wall-E………………………….Wall-E

Best Foreign Language Film.…I’ve Loved You So Long (France)……I’ve Loved You So LongX

Best Director – Motion Picture.…David Fincher (Button)…..Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon)X

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture……Eric Roth - B. Button .....David Hare – The ReaderX

Best Original Score – Mot. Pic.…….Alexandre Desplat (Button)…….....A.R. Rahman (Slumdog M.)

Best Original Song – Mot. Pic.…..Bruce Springsteen (Wrestler)……Peter Gabriel (Wall-E)

Best Television Series/Drama………………....Mad Men (AMC)…………………………… Mad Men

Best Actress in TV Series/Drama……Sally Field (Bros/Sis-ABC)..Anna Paquin (Blood/HBO)

Best Actor in TV Series/Drama………..Jon Hamm (Mad Men-AMC)…………….Jon HammX

Best Television Series/Musical or Comedy………….30 Rock (NBC)………………………..30 Rock

Best Actress in TV Series/Musical or Comedy…Tina Fey (30 Rock-NBC)……………….Tina Fey

Best Actor in TV Series/Musical/ Comedy…..Alec Baldwin (30 Rock-NBC)……Alec Baldwin

Best Mini Series or Motion Picture
Made for TV…………………..……………John Adams (HBO)……………………………John Adams

Best Actress in a Mini Series or Motion Picture
for TV/Drama.…….Laura Linney (John Adams-HBO)……C. Keener (Amer. Crime CBAS)*

Best Actor in a Mini Series or Motion
Picture Made for Television……………Paul Giamatti (John Adams-HBO)….Paul Giamatti

Best Supporting Actress in Mini Series or
Film Made for TV….....Melissa George (In treatment-HBO)…Laura Dern (Recount-HBO)

Best Supporting Actor in Mini Series or
Film Made for TV……..Tom Wilkinson (John Adams-HBO)………Tom Wilkinson
.......................................................................Dennis Leary (Recount-HBO) BCAS*


*Could Be a Spoiler

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Entertainment film in its highest form should present you with a story or aspect of a story that compels you to totally commit, unconditionally indulge, or consciously tolerate its plot, even in the face of something unexpected, unlikely or virtually impossible. In comes The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the time-metaphoric tale of a male born with the physical characteristics of a very old man - plagued with cataracts, wrinkled skin, fragile bones and a slew of other chronic ailments - who ages in reverse, becoming more youthful with each tick of the clock. He is deserted at birth, rescued by a stranger who is accustomed to caring for the aged, but who recognizes that what the infant needs most is love; the baby boy, ironically, in his innocence, presents her with an opportunity to nurture in the reverse care-giving manner than her daily routine running a home for the elderly requires. Button has a sequence of encounters and experiences as he grows progressively younger, maintaining a physical, psychological and cyclical anchor at the home of his adopted mother. Borrowing ever so loosely from the basic premise of the 25-page 1922 short story of the same title by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this rendition by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Insider) and Robin Swicord veers from many specifics of the original storyline but maintains its rootedness in the mysterious nature of Benjamin Button's life as a means to addressing conflicting attitudes surrounding the fact of aging and our ambivalence about concepts of time.

Brad Pitt delivers his best performance to date as Button - the quiet, confused man who walks the thinnest of lines between a resolved situation and life as a victim. And while the make-up and computer magic are unquestionably part of the cast in this film, Pitt wears these masks well, delivering just the right amount of reserve, cautiousness and passivity where applicable and enough hints of initiative and emotion when necessary. He is superbly supported by Taraji Henson as Queenie, the woman who raises him. Pitt and Henson should make the coveted short list from members of the Academy - Henson should walk with a statue. Jared Harris as Captain Mike, the tattooed seaman who befriends him, Tilda Swinton as Elizabeth Abbott, the woman who seduces him, and Elle Fanning (yes, Dakota's younger sister hits the mark here) who plays young Daisy - the love of his life also deliver strong performances. Cate Blanchett, however, has done stronger work. Her portrayal of Daisy grown up is credible, and occasionally comes across as just awkward enough to add another edge (even if unplanned) to an already unusual production, but it falls short of memorable, even moreso in light of Henson's and Swinton's great work in this project.

Director David Fincher (Se7en, Zodiac, Fight Club) seems to have an affinity for time-mazed fantasies and should pull an Oscar nomination as well. While he intrigues us to the point of at least hanging with the idea of Button's delimma, and gently prods us into gradually caring a bit about the character, he wisely avoids overt sentimentalism, laces the film with humor, and makes the love story one of its layers, not the force that truly drives the film - that aspect, for me, is all contained in the uniqueness, mysteriousness, and involuntary oneness of Button.

This may be a difficult film for some to follow (and swallow). It raises a lot of what-ifs and imagine this. Concepts of then and now, past and present merge in call and response-like scenarios facilitated by flashbacks, the voice of a diary reader, the recollection of an aging Daisy, the impending threat of Hurricane Katrina, the counterclockwise ticking of a large clock, the coloration of the images, silence, noise, water, travel, and Button's perspective. There is an understated attentiveness to the very status of being severely different, awkward, and yet human; of being embraced and accepted in one's own unsualness as opposed to being patronized and tolerated. Given a chance - one this film clearly deserves - the movie provides food for serious thought.

If you watch the film instead of your cell phone clock - a distraction and a nuisance to everyone seated nearby - you really do not feel its 2 hour 47 minutes. And after all, whom among us has not stated or thought, "if I could turn back the hands of time"?...



Grade: A-
Amalia

The Dark Knight

...I like the Lambourgini...I want the motorcycle...and the home is not half bad either....

The Dark Knight joins a relatively short list of sequels that hold their own as separate episodes that are as reputable as their preceding movies. While the success of this film is not comparable to Francis Ford Coppola's excellent, classic Godfather trilogy; nor does it advance the kind of psychological and technological breakthroughs of the Matrix threesome; producer/director Christopher Nolan does a credible job of re-formatting the familiar legendary action hero in contemporary cinematic terms, and, in this particular episode, his Joker nemesis - a character that was practically immortalized by a great performance on the part of Jack Nicholson in 1989 - reoccurs in an explosive portrayal by the late Heath Ledger.

Here, the enigmatic, temperamental Batman is further defined outside of the strict comic book persona. Less cartoonish and even more mysterious, his stoicism gives way to passion and his former sense of invincibility is replaced with vulnerability and questionable ethics. Gotham City has leaders who are, in the more normal context, heroes in their own right, and who interact and plot strategies with the super hero who is as counter-culture as he is anti-crime.

The Dark Knight is an action-packed, visually stimulating, engaging, suspenseful, and well acted film. Heath Ledger, the object of most of the film's pre-opening hype and a major factor in terms of its early record-breaking box office returns, is superb as the Joker. All jokes aside (pun intended), he nails the role - the Joker's psychotic, manipulative, and inhumane presence are pushed to the limits by Ledger. If he receives a posthumous Oscar nomination for best supporting actor from the Academy, as the Hollywood buzz seems to indicate, it may well be deserved. While I cannot go so far as to state that he surpasses the memorable performance of Nicholson, he is magnificent in the paradigm established by Nolan.

Christian Bale is no slouch either. He is equally on the mark as Batman in a performance that takes a back seat to no one's. Bale is totally believable as the personification of the Dark Knight whose dichotomous lifestyle is the source of his complex personality and conflicting modes of behavior; and he does so with power and precision. Bale is so well suited for this role that it is possible (and likely) that viewers will minimize his outstanding performance, particularly in light of Ledger's untimely death and celebrated portrayal of the Joker. He has great on-screen chemistry with cast members Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman, and his timing and sensitivity in terms of his physical assertiveness in each scene are tiny elements that translate into big pay offs in the total impact of a film.

Kudos to Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Oldman, Freeman, Caine and Chin Han - all great actors in their own right - for their individual contributions to the overall success of the film.

The Dark Knight has raised the mark for a one day cash total (66.4 million) and has raised the bar for DC Comics-inspired films. The greatest challenge for Warner Brothers, Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale is, how do they repeat it in the next sequence, much less top it?

Grade: A

Until next time,
Amalia