Lincoln

Everything I have heard about Lincoln thus far has been overwhelmingly positive. People are calling it the best movie of the year, and a masterpiece. While I liked the film, I wouldn't go that far. For the most part, for me, Lincoln is merely an acting showcase for some of the best performances of the year.

Steven Spielberg's Lincoln follows about a month in his life after he's been reelected for his second term and when he's trying to get the 13th amendment (abolishing slavery) passed through the House of Representatives. What follows is a beautifully acted, well directed movie in which every character actor you can think of talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and talks (and then talks some more!) for two and a half hours. These characters give speeches and tell anecdotes and three scenes later someone very long windedly reiterates exactly what a different character has said already. But the glacial pace and ridiculously long dialogue scenes weren't even my biggest problem with the film. My biggest problem was this: when you think about Abraham Lincoln, arguably the greatest president in history, what are two things you think about immediately. Your answer will most likely include The Gettysburg Address and his assissination. This movie shows you neither. You can argue that the movie focuses on that month long period, and that's fine. But the movie does give you the Address and his death (in a way) without showing either, and I think that's a cop out. Like my boyfriend said, it would be like watching a three hour movie about the Titanic and then having it end with some old white guy saying, "Oh, well, the ship sank." After we already sat through a movie with no action to speak of, at least give us something!

Spielberg is considered the greatest living filmmaker, but he's never been one of my favorites. I will say that I unabashadly love two of his films - Jaws and Schindler's List. There are moments of greatness in this film, like many of his other films. Two particular scenes that come to mind, are a beautifully shot Lincoln standing in front of a window while talking to his wife, and Lincoln's son Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, all but wasted in a small and fruitless role) following a wheel barrow of body parts near the end. Both of those scenes stand out as being closer to art than movie making. But, for the most part, this is a long-winded and flawed historical epic (which means it will win all kinds of Oscars).

The saving grace here are the performances. Daniel Day-Lewis, who is the greatest living actor, becomes Abraham Lincoln to the point where it is a little scary. It's uncanny how much he looks like the great man, especially in profile. I think he's well on his way to winning a third Oscar because his performance is that good and natural. I had no problem beliving that this was actually President Lincoln. And the great thing about this performance is how different it is from his last Oscar winning role in There Will Be Blood. That performance was loud and bombastic and showy. His Lincoln is refined and subtle, a beautifully powerful performance. It's hard to think of any actor stealing the show from Day-Lewis, but co-star Tommy Lee Jones very nearly does. One can argue that this is just another wise cracking version of every character he's ever played before. But, I disagree. He is responsible for the single greatest scene in the movie and if that scene in his office near the end isn't his Oscar nominee clip, then I don't know what to say. The final member of the trifecta is Sally Field. All I know about Mary Todd Lincoln is that she was supposedly crazy, but Field makes her so much more complicated. Instead of a crazy lady, she's a woman grieving for a lost son and trying to live with a man who is beloved by everyone.

The most fun part of Lincoln, however, is playing Spot the Character Actor. Between this movie and Argo, I think every character actor working in Hollywood had a job for at least a few weeks. In Lincoln, the great supporting cast includes David Strathairn, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, John Hawkes, Jackie Earle Haley, Bruce McGill, Tim Blake Nelson, Lee Pace, Jared Harris, Lukas Haas, Dane DeHaan and more.

So, while Lincoln is being hailed as a masterpiece, I tend to disagree. It's a good movie, that's for sure, and the three main performances are so stellar that they definitely deserve Oscar nominations (to say the least). However, Lincoln, for me, didn't live up to the hype.

Grade: B-

Skyfall

Allow me to state, for the record, that I have never seen a James Bond movie that didn't star Daniel Craig. So, right off the bat you know I'm not the biggest Bond fan in the world. I'd sort of like to go back and watch every one in order but also part of me thinks they are basically all the same. Hot women, fast cars, suits, exotic locations. They just change basic plot points so if you've seen one then you've seen them all.

That being said, Skyfall was pretty damn good. The plot follows Bond (Craig) as he tries to track down a bad guy (Javier Bardem, with his bad guy ridiculous hair) who attacked the MI6 building and hijacked a list of undercover agents. Said bad guy, Silva, also has a special interest in M (Judi Dench) and so this time it's all a little personal. And, so, Bond treks from England to Shanghai to deserted islands to Scotland in hopes of bringing down Silva before it's too late. Enter the car chases, train derailments, women in backless gowns, yachts, Tom Ford suits and whatever else stylishness director Sam Mendes can throw at you.

I know I sound blase about the whole thing (and I guess I kind of am) but, for me, Bond is way more style over substance. According to reviews I've read, Skyfall is supposed to be the best of the best as far as Bond movies go, and it was really fun and very good, but I feel like it holds up well against super blockbuster movies like Spider-Man but not necessarily against brilliant fall thinkpieces like Looper. Skyfall is a fun ride, but a ride is really all it is. It's exciting and it gets your adrenaline pumping, but it's not really the kind of movie that is going to stay with you for a long time.

The performances are great, though. Craig makes for a rebellious bad ass Bond was swag. Dench is joyfully great as M. Ralph Fiennes shows up as a sort beaurocratic bad ass named Gareth Mallory. Ben Whishaw is adorable as ever as Q. But, the real stand out here is Javier Bardem. Anyone who has seen No Country for Old Men knows how good he is at playing a chilling villain. Here, with equally awful hair (seriously, is it in his contract that when he plays a villain they have to give him the worst hair of all time??? or is it just producers way of trying to make him less attractive??), Bardem is having a blast playing a Bond baddie. He's easily the best thing about the movie although I didn't entirely buy his motivations. Without giving anything away, it just seemed completely out of character for him to be doing what he was doing in this movie.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Skyfall. It makes me a believer in the pure fun you can have at a Bond movie. However, as far as substance goes, I think I'll probably forget all about this movie by the end of the year. And for the solid performances and great action sequences, that's a shame.

Grade: B

Flight

I will admit to one thing right off the bat - I am not Denzel Washington's biggest fan. Sure, he's a great actor, when he tries. But for every Training Day, there are a dozen mediocre movies where he merely shows up and coasts along. When Washington is good, he's so good, and he can be similiar to Daniel Day-Lewis in the way that he never takes on a movie that he isn't going to completely rock the part. More often than not, I find Washington disappointing because he's capable of so much more. But, in Flight, he lives up to all of his potential and then some. This is, by far, the best part of his career and he nails it.

Flight is the story of pilot Whip Whitaker (Washington). He's a great pilot, and he knows it. He's cocky and selfish and proud. Whitaker is not a likable character at all. In fact, it sort of seems like Washington goes out of his way to fight his natural urges to be likable. Whitaker has a drinking problem, and a drug problem. The movie opens in a hotel room where he has had a romp with a hot flight attendant half his age. They wake up for their early morning flight from Orlando to Atlanta hung over from the night before, so they do a little coke to straighten themselves out. Once aboard the plane, Whitaker drinks some vodka too. Although drunk and on coke, Whitaker manages to fly the plane out of some initial turbulance and it's smooth sailing... until the last few moments of the flight when all hell breaks loose. What follows is an intense scene, probably the best plane crash ever put on film, and surely the greatest moment in a movie so far this year. Whitaker manages to land the plane, losing very few lives, saving almost everyone and becomes a hero.

Of course, eventually his toxicology screening comes back and it finds out his blood alcohol level was at 2.4! The film then follows Whitaker as he struggles with his alcoholism while trying to help a recovering heroin addict (Kelly Reilly). He also teams up with a lawyer who is almost as cocky as he is (Don Cheadle). Throw in John Goodman as a hilarious drug dealer and Flight is a compelling character study directed by Robert Zemeckis in his first live action movie since Castaway.

Reilly is killer as the heroin addicted Nicole. Goodman is one juicy scene away from a much deserved Oscar nomination (even though he looks like he is wearing his old costumes from The Big Lebowski). But Flight is entirely about the performance of Denzel Washington. He is in virtually every scene and he manages to make a man so unlikable feel compelling and fascinating. There is a particular scene in which he tries to convince a flight attendant to lie for him that would win him an Oscar (in a year he's not up against Daniel Day-Lewis, anyways). Washington is so damn good that words can barely describe.

The movie, however, I had issues with. Besides the heavy handed religious issues and the sometimes over-the-top zealot characters, my biggest problem was the Lifetime movie ending. Denzel's warts and all performance deserves so much better than what he's given at times. Still, Flight is definitely worth seeing because when it's good, just like Denzel's career, it's real, real good.

Grade: B-

Moonrise Kingdom (DVD)

Here's the thing I love most about Wes Anderson, and you can probably only say the following about a very small number of directors: when you are watching a Wes Anderson movie, you absolutely know you are watching a Wes Anderson movie from frame one. If you didn't know he directed the movie, you would most certainly realize it as soon as the movie starts.

Moonrise Kingdom is most certainly a Wes Anderson movie. Every single detail proves this, from the clothes to the set decoration to the dialogue - everything. And while it's not my personal favorite of his movies (that award goes to The Royal Tennenbaums, of course), I think it may be his best work to date. It's sweet and it's sad and it's just damn good.

The movie takes place in 1965 on a small East Coast island where a teenage khaki scout named Sam (Jared Gilman) falls in love with a book / binocular loving girl named Suzy (Kara Hayward) and they decide to run away together. With an impending hurricane headed their way, a bunch of people begin searching the island for them, including Suzy's lawyer parents with a troubled marriage (Frances McDormand and Bill Murray), the island cop (Bruce Willis), a hilariously serious Scout Master (Edward Norton) and a character aptly named Social Services (Tilda Swinton). Jason Schwartzman also shows up in the final act to help our young love runaways. What's so great about Moonrise Kingdom in this day and age of movies with complicated plots and confusing story lines is how unabashedly straight forward it is. It's a simple story told simply and that is what makes it so beautiful. There's this great overall sense of adventure and this celebration of young love. The film is so beautiful but it also makes you sad at the end, remembering better days.

The movie may be Wes Anderson's best but it's far from perfect. The adult characters have a certain lack of personality and aren't really fully developed although I like to think that's intentional. As a child, you don't fully understand the problems and concerns going on in adult lives, so perhaps this is a reflection of that feeling. Another small problem I had was the third act. The film meanders at a slow, sweet and enjoyable pace and then at the end, Anderson tries to fit in as much action as possible (in fact, all of the action).

But these two small problems don't take away from the fact that Moonrise Kingdom is a great movie, definitely one of the best of the year and probably Anderson's overall best. Anderson is known for being weird and pretentious but he keeps this movie quirky while managing to curb his more out there notions that maybe turn off mainstream audiences. The performances, especially by the young Gilman and Hayward, and Norton, who all but steals the show, are fabulous. The dialogue is fresh and sweet. Moonrise Kingdom happens to be a perfect inclusion in Anderson's resume.

Grade: B+