Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Christmas in Connecticut" (1945)

Well, it might as well be Christmas season already, right? The stores have already put out their decorations, and the Hallmark cable channels started playing Christmas movies 24/7 the day after Halloween (not kidding about that). So I'm going to jump into the season by recommending this screwball comedy starring the great Barbara Stanwyck as a single woman in her 30's (the horror!) who works as a columnist giving out homemaking advice to housewives (ala Martha Stewart), a subject that in truth she knows nothing about. So now when her boss wants to bring a war hero to the home of the "best homemaker in America," she's got to put on the show of her life. It's a classic that Stanwyck carries completely with her special brand of streetwise daffiness- it's a good one that should be better known.

Original 1945 Trailer:

FEATURETTE: "The Imitation Game"

Two new featurettes for The Imitation Game that shed more light on the underknown story of codebreaker Alan Turing, and what he and a group of other colleagues achieved during the second world war. The movie is coming out this Friday in the UK and Thanksgiving weekend in the U.S.:

FINAL TRAILER: "Annie"

This last trailer for director Will Gluck's updated version of Annie kinda toys with the idea of not pretending the movie isn't a musical, although just barely- you can only see glimpses of people dancing in the street (I guess we can assume that's where the songs are taking place). It also ups the cutesy factor to almost unbearable levels. I don't know- I'd be pretty shocked if this was any good, but who knows, maybe it'll surprise us. It's coming out on Christmas Day.

2014 Academy Governor's Awards Recap

The Governor's awards ceremony took place last night, where Golden Age actress Maureen O'Hara, costume designer Jean-Claude Carriere and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki were honored with honorary Oscars for lifetime achievement, while actor/singer/activist Harry Belafonte received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award. The event has also, somewhat cynically, become the first place for potential Oscar nominees to hobnob with Academy members, meaning that of the huge crowd that showed up last night, few of them were likely there to hear the speeches from the honorees. But since they deserve their moment in the sun (that is what the event is for, after all), here are the videos of last night, provided by the Academy.

After being tributed by Susan Sarandon and Chris Rock, Harry Belafonte's fiery acceptance speech was the best of the night:

94-year-old Maureen O'Hara (who probably should have won this years ago), was honored by Clint Eastwood and Liam Neeson before receiving her award for starring in such classic films as The Quiet Man, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Miracle on 34th Street and The Parent Trap, among others:

And the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, who wasn't even there to receive his competitive Oscar when he won for Spirited Away in 2003, made a rare appearance after being touted by John Lasseter as, along with Disney himself, one of the two most important figures in the history of animation:

BOX OFFICE 10/07-10/09: 'Big Hero 6' Beats 'Interstellar' at the Box Office

It was expected to be a tough fight for #1 this weekend, as would be blockbusters Interstellar and Big Hero 6 both vied for the top spot, but in the end, Disney's superhero kiddie ride easily landed in first, with $56 million over the weekend. Interstellar came in second with $50 million, despite beating out the animated film on Friday. It did have some challenges, being a long, three hour film that can't play at as many showtimes, and family audiences tend to pack the matinee times on Saturday and Sundays, but both films got pretty good Cinemascores (A- and B+ respectively), so they should stick around for a while.

In third was Gone Girl, pulling in another $6 million and showing some pretty remarkable staying power. Its accumulated haul is now $145 million, making it a huge success for David Fincher, and even though its a genre the Academy tends to stay away from, I think the box office and good reviews do make it a dark horse for some Oscar consideration, especially in Director. Ouija continues to hang around, coming in fourth with another $6 million, and St. Vincent broke into the top five this weekend, earning $5.7 million, making it quite a big success for an indie film this year.

Top 5:

1. Big Hero 6- $56.2 million
2. Interstellar- $50 million
3. Gone Girl- $6.1 million
4. Ouija- $6 million
5. St. Vincent- $5.7 million

In limited release, the big story was The Theory of Everything, which debuted to the fourth best independent opening of the year, with $207k from just five screens, and a $41k average. That's only behind The Grand Budapest Hotel, Boyhood and Birdman, so that's a promising start for the Stephen Hawking biopic's awards hopes. Next week it's the premiere of Dumb and Dumber To and the limited debut of Foxcatcher, as Oscar season is really kicking off. See you then!

REVIEW: "The Homesman" (2014) Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank. Dir. Tommy Lee Jones

It pains me to write a review for a movie like The Homesman, which is a well made, beautifully shot, entertaining and slightly offbeat feminist western, of all things, that unfortunately makes a crucial error in its screenplay about two thirds of the way through, with an event so jarring that it proves detrimental to the entire film as a result. You see something like that and think, well, one badly written event can't possibly take a whole movie down, but in this case, it really does and it's so critical to the plot and the story arc up until that scene that it leaves a bad taste in the viewer's mouth, and the film is unsalvageable as a whole after that moment, even if individual scenes are still quite good.

Tommy Lee Jones co-wrote and directed The Homesman, which is based on a novel and in it he does a very rare thing, which is to tell a western tale from a woman's point of view, something hardly ever done in the long history of movie westerns. Women in this universe have usually been regarded as one of two things- prostitutes or docile housewives, never a part of the action themselves. Of course, that was historically accurate- the American west of the 19th century was vast, lawless, and dangerous for all women, even those with husbands to provide for them. Rape was an ever present threat, along with robbery and murder, possibly at the hands of strangers, Indians, any and all men that built the West through savagery and John Wayne toughness. It was never a place that had much room for women, least of all single women, which is the role our protagonist, Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) plays in this movie. She's a lone single woman who runs her own home in a tiny little Nebraskan town (and I do mean tiny- the population looks to be about eight people), which includes tending the fields and handling the crops, essentially all on her own. We're not sure why she's there, just that she apparently made the trip herself, leaving a family back home in New York, to try her hand at the new frontier. That will ultimately prove to be a mistake, as Cuddy herself realizes she can't survive long without a husband, and proposes herself to a caller in the opening scene, a man who turns her down flat for being plain and bossy. In other words, too unladylike.

A tragedy hits the blossoming town when it's realized by the parish that three of the town's female citizens (two wives and a sister of some of the men) have lost their minds due to the various severe tolls that life on the frontier has taken, and must be transported across the Missouri river and delivered to a preacher's wife who will arrange for their safe passage back east. When no men volunteer for the job, Mary Bee declares herself up to the task and takes it upon herself to transport the women, feeling it's God's duty to ensure them a better life than what has now fallen upon them through no fault of their own. Of course, she's smart enough to know that her determination alone will never guarantee the success of this trip, and when she sees a man strapped in a noose to a tree, she saves his life in exchange for assisting her on the long and arduous journey. That man is Tommy Lee Jones of course, who plays to his familiar strengths as the tough and grizzled rascal George Briggs, and the two develop a fine partnership as he undertakes the task alongside her. From that point onward there are twists and turns that are fairly unpredictable (the one I mentioned earlier being the most startling) but always well-paced, and the vast array of midwestern landscapes are incredibly well shot, conveying the empty hollowness and enormous space of a wild new land that eventually drove each of the female passengers crazy (we get flashbacks to the horrors that all of them have undergone in their pasts).

But the movie belongs to Hilary Swank as Mary Bee, who's perfectly cast as the stoic yet strong and capable homesman of the title (at least until a certain point), and to develop the film from her perspective was to create a movie that gives us a very fresh take on a genre with thousands of entries, almost entirely male dominated, to its name. Which brings us to the major error in the story, of which is impossible to go into detail without spoiling the film, and so I can't explain exactly what happens that knocks a perfectly fine western just under the bar of recommendation. But I will say that as one of several offbeat and unpredictable twists in the film, this is one that serves no purpose but to alienate the viewer entirely, and change the tone so dramatically that it never quite recovers its footing. It was handled badly, should have been spotted at the screenplay level, and with maybe just a couple of rewrites, it would not have played to the story's detriment, no matter how it may have come across in the novel. Adaptations are changed for a reason, and that mistake has to be laid at the feet of the movie's director and writer. It's truly a shame, because otherwise he had made a very good movie, with good performances and a starkly feminist take on the Old West, and that's something we don't get nearly enough of, with the genre itself something of a dying breed these days. Quite a shame indeed.

* * 1/2

TRAILER: "Selma"

One of the last films coming out this year to debut a trailer, here's a look at Selma, the MLK biopic about the famous march. This was directed by arthouse filmmaker Ava Duvernay and is coming out in limited release on Christmas Day. It had been labeled a potential Oscar contender, but obviously we won't know how good it is until it screens for an audience, which it still hasn't done yet. The trailer makes it look pretty good, except for that music in the background in the last part (seems like desperate attempt to make history feel modern, which is a constant thing they do in trailers like this and it's really annoying). David Oyelewo looks pretty good as MLK, although it doesn't appear to be much of an imitation. Maybe that's a good thing though.

FINAL TRAILER: "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies"

The last Hobbit movie gets a final, epic trailer, but it seems to me that in dragging this book out to three movies, buzz and excitement has decreased significantly for these entries. Of course, I'm biased, not being a big fan of either of the first two films. I'm sure the die hards will still be there to complete the trilogy, but most of this has seemed like a missed opportunity.

TRAILER: "Into the Woods"

Well, here we go with a full length trailer that finally decides not to hide that it's a musical. Yet, after seeing it, I'm still concerned. To be honest, the only person who looks like she's got the tone right here is Meryl Streep, hamming it up with some campiness in tow, while everyone else seems to be playing it deadly straight. This play was a flat out comedy, as it needed to be in order for the fairy tale universe to be believable. I don't think deadly seriousness is the right approach for this at all. Hopefully, this is just the trailer not conveying the tone properly, but we'll see. The Emily Blunt and Little Red Riding Hood characters in particular look worrisome, the polar opposites of their portrayals on stage.

TRAILER: "Furious 7"

Okay, so this one is decidedly not an Oscar contender, but expect it to be a monstrous hit next April. And yes, they're showcasing Paul Walker front and center here, maybe even in a fashion that's a little too on the nose, although it's probably considered a tribute to his memory. I'll be honest, I haven't kept up with the Fast and Furious series since seeing the first one in theaters way back when it came out, but I guess that opening action scene here looks kinda cool? With Kurt Russell in the mix now, it seems to have some kind of added pedigree. 

TRAILER: "The Gambler"

Hmm. This full trailer for The Gambler makes it look much better than that short little teaser did a couple weeks ago. Although every time I hear "Sympathy For the Devil" in a trailer it reminds me of The Departed, which, coincidentally, screenwriter William Monahan also wrote. This one's premiering at AFI Fest next week- maybe it's a surprise late breaking Oscar contender that nobody's expecting?

REVIEW: "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" (2014) Michael Keaton, Emma Stone. Dir. Alejandro G. Inarritu

Alejandro Inarritu's Birdman is a wildly ambitious film, one that attempts to combine several different elements and tones, all at work in one piece- this is a movie that wants to say a lot about a lot of things, and perform innovative techniques while doing it. It's difficult to say if it achieves the impact it wants- it certainly leaves you pondering the meaning of it all, and of what you've just seen.

Michael Keaton is perfectly cast as Riggan Thomson, an aging former movie star who was once the world famous face of the Birdman franchise, which grossed $1 billion dollars globally. Obviously, this is a not so subtle dig at Keaton's Batman history, and it's so clearly meant to be his reality as a former megastar who missed the boat on the superhero franchise that they may well have used the actual name, rights be damned. Thomson is now attempting a comeback, having written a play which he himself is directing and starring in on Broadway, all the while being haunted by his alter ego, the grizzled voice of Birdman himself, who comes into his head and cynically tells him to give it all up and make a comeback of a different kind.

I said that this film is a hodgepodge of experiments, one of the best of which is the behind the scenes satire of the theater, poking fun at movie stars who desperately want the kind of critical validation they feel comes from being on stage. In these scenes we get some of the best acting, not just from Keaton as he attempts to maneuver the chaos of his flailing play during the previews, but of Edward Norton as a pretentious, over the top, vain film actor who comes in as a last minute replacement and essentially takes over the show, making up his own lines, fighting with the cast and crew, and making a mockery of the play itself in front of the audience. Norton is a hilarious scene-stealer in this movie, and every time he shows up you know a big laugh is on the way. Zach Galafianakis is also very good as Riggan's long suffering attorney, managing the increasingly hopeless situation the best he can, and Naomi Watts is spot on too as a fellow actress mistreated by Norton and willing to do anything to be on Broadway. The ensemble shines the most when the camera is following the various altercations and conversations between the actors, and this is the heart of the film and what I enjoyed most about it.

But there's a lot more to it than that, and Inarritu is not interested in making a film simply about theater people. After all, that's been done before. He wants to satirize show business as a whole, and the script is full of jabs at the current superhero/action movie saturation in the marketplace, the dumbing down of the American consumer and the actors who must degrade themselves for the easy money that is now just tossed their way like candy if they sign up. Riggan wants to be revelant, wants to be taken seriously as an artist, but is jealous and resentful about the Robert Downey Jr.'s of today who can make $50 million dollars for doing nothing so much as showing up and saying the same lines, movie after movie. There's a seething resentment boiling underneath the surface of this film, directed at American culture and the ignorance of the masses, who are so easily fooled again and again (social media does not come away unscathed either, nor do critics themselves). it often comes across as venting from Inarritu, who co-wrote, but really, when you look at the top box office movies of the last five years, who can blame him? It looks bleaker with every passing month.

Birdman's also a character study which spends an awful lot of time inside the mind of Riggan Thomson, usually as he battles the goading of his alter ego, but also as he half-heartedly struggles to connect with his daughter Sam (Emma Stone), fresh out of rehab and working as his personal assistant, she who lectures him on embracing the power that comes with being a viral sensation through physical humiliation, and his faltering relationships with his ex-wife (Amy Ryan) and current girlfriend, both of which suffer due to Riggan's narcissism and self-obsession. The movie's not blind to the self-importance of actors (the Edward Norton character is a direct mockery of such cliches), but when Inarritu employs some elevated moments of magic realism as Birdman comes closer and closer to merging with Riggan himself, the tone does shift to resemble something closer to fantasy and it leaves a strange impact as you wonder what it all might mean. Last, but not least, Inarritu is wanting to be technically innovative as well, and the camera creates the illusion of a single take throughout the entire movie as we follow Riggan, Sam and others through the confines of backstage and outside, the streets of New York coming virulently alive as the movie thrives in a vibrant, claustrophobic, chaotic visual movement. Hitchcock did it before in Rope, and like that film, you can see where the camera breaks in this one, but it's a neat trick nonetheless.

With all these contradicting elements at play, Birdman is certainly an event film not to be missed, but I can't help but wonder if a bit less of any one element would have made the overall impact stronger, helped it to convey one or two messages in a sharper, more powerful fashion, rather than the many, sometimes disparate statements at once. But it certainly is a wild enough ride as it is, and one worth taking, if you're open to letting its strange spell work its magic on you. I'd recommend it.

* * * 1/2