V-Day

Okay, all I've been hearing about this week are Valentine's Day films people "should" and "shouldn't" see. In all seriousness, I can't stand romantic films. Sometimes they work, but most of the time, they just make me want to grab the nearest bucket to throw up in. I might as well join the club and compile the list of films I would sit down with my loved one and watch on National Hallmark Day.

Play It Again, Sam/Annie Hall

Although he is not my favorite director, Woody Allen really shined in the Seventies with his cinematic love letters to Diane Keaton. Directed by Herbert Ross, Play It Again, Sam is the 1972 classic that satirizes the Playboy magazine bachelor life as Woody tries to channel the suaveness of Humphrey Bogart while trying to fill the romantic void. It's a fine mix of reality vs. imagination. One of the best scenes is the morning after Allen and Diane Keaton have sex and Keaton asked what Woody was thinking about during sex, and he replies "Willie Mays."

Annie Hall is Allen at his best when he questions and reminisces about his past flames (Carol Kane, Shelley Duvall and, most importantly, Diane Keaton). Allen and Keaton are like a house on fire as they both stimulate each other with weird conversations, cabaret singing, and debating over the joy of sex with or without marijuana. It makes you wonder if your girlfriend is having an out of body experience while you're trying to satisfy her.

High Fidelity

Based on Nick Hornby's bestselling novel, the film follows John Cusack and his conflicting love affair between his obsession with music and his ex-girlfriend, who he tries to get back. For Cusack, it doesn't sound like a stretch, since he made of name for himself as the desperate lover in the 80s flicks, Better Off Dead and Say Anything, but this is totally different. With Stephen Frears directing and Cusack having to deal with "the musical moron twins" (Todd Louiso and Jack Black, who gives a stellar performance of a Marvin Gaye classic), the film is not in the "chick flick" pile since any guy can sympathize and channel his codependency frustration with a mix tape and a stack of vinyl.

Lost in Translation

The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree with Sofia Coppola carrying her family name with her 2003 film, Lost in Translation. While in Japan filming a whiskey commercial, Bill Murray tries to grab a hold of his life as an actor and husband 5,000 miles away from home, but his vacation takes a turn when he befriends Scarlett Johansson, a young woman questioning her rush into marriage, and they both journey out into the hectic streets of Tokyo. A bittersweet story blended with a sublime cast and awesome soundtrack (turn it up when you hear The Jesus and Mary Chain) , Translation is a brilliant film that gives you hope in finding an equal in a world where you feel out of place.

Friends

Before you start thinking about Jennifer Aniston and that cheesy show....it's not, I repeat, "NOT" the "Friends" you're thinking about. Friends is a 1971 gem by Lewis Gilbert that follows two confused and lovestruck teenagers that run away from their troubled families and live in seclusion in the south of France. Despite its controversial depiction of teenage sex, its softcore compared to the films that followed this one (Last Tango in Paris, La Luna, Kids). With Elton John's music mixed with the road-trip cinematography that mirrors that of Harold and Maude, Friends is a beautiful and rare film that throws away the conventional standards of romantic films with something unique and pure.

The Best Films of the Decade

Well, it's finally the end of the first ten years of the new century. A new decade approaches, and there are hopes for a brighter future for all. Especially, when it comes to films. I had to sit down and think hard to myself, "What were the films that defined this decade?" Well, I whittled it down and I have decided on what were the Ten Best Films of the last decade from 2000 to 2009.

10. Superbad - Directed by Greg Mottola

It was the film that redefined the high school sex comedy genre, and ended it with a bang. This uncontrollable whirlwind of sophomoric humor with an homage to American Graffiti came from the warped minds of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and spatted out by the ultimate spaz trio; Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (aka McLovin) as three high school friends try to get booze and get laid before branching off towards a world that every 18 year old dreads; responsibility. American Pie was a titillating tiddler and Porky's amounted to glory-hole humor, but Superbad has a prose and style that is so perverse and insane that it would make David Mamet blush.

9. Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Directed by Lee Daniels

Precious is an intense and shocking look at the female equivalent of Job; an HIV-positive, obese, illiterate, raped teenager that tries to excel in her remedial studies and leave the world of abuse and neglect that she has grown up in. Gabourey Sidibe's breathtaking performance as Precious will be talked about in years to come; bruised and battered, she comes out strong and willing to take on anything standing in her way.

8. WALL-E- Directed by Andrew Stanton

Out of all the Pixar classics. WALL-E is a timeless animated film that explores a world in disarray and how a walking garbage disposal, with the nuances of Keaton and Chaplin, can help a dying planet. Prophetic, funny, and touching, the creative juices of Andrew Stanton mixed with an illustrious score by Thomas Newman make this film a visual and aural feast that stands on the shoulders with Brazil and 2001.

7. Venus- Directed by Roger Michell and 500 Days of Summer - Directed by Marc Webb

After being dragged by friend to see Hitch back in 2005, I walked out of the theater renouncing all romantic films. As soon as I saw Peter O'Toole and Jodie Whittaker onscreen in Venus, a legend with an aspiring actress, the sparks and emotions started to fly. O'Toole gives a stellar performance as an aging, impotent actor who falls in love with a young woman. At first, I thought I was watching Lolita: Redux, but as the story evolves, the film becomes a testament to the passage of time that we all must come across.

500 Days of Summer is another romantic comedy that caught my eye. Joseph Gorden-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel revive the humor and romance of Woody Allen and Diane Keaton with this modern take on falling in and out of love. The unique element of this fell-good flick is that it is non-linear; you don't see the typical beginning, middle, and end of a love story, which makes the film more funny and heartfelt.

6. The Wrestler - Directed by Darren Aronofsky

As the 2008 film season came to a close, the film that made me stand up and cheer, as well as cry, was The Wrestler. Mickey Rourke gives the performance of a lifetime as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, an aging wrestler trying to adapt to the modern world, despite being stuck in the 1980s. The myth of Icarus is displayed with grace and blood by Rourke as well as Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood as the women in his life he tries to connect to. Aronofsky adds another notch to his belt of celebrated films with this intense character study that mirrors Scorsese's Raging Bull and Lindsay Anderson's This Sporting Life.

5. Mystic River - Directed by Clint Eastwood

Based on the best-selling novel by Dennis Lehane, Mystic River is a powerful and provocative look at the aging friendship of three men, who are connected to a traumatizing moment in their past and are reunited with the death of one of their children. Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon ignite the screen thanks to Eastwood lighting the fuse with his ominous cinematography and haunting music. The ensemble cast that includes Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laura Linney work like a string ensemble; you don't know who's playing next, but it each actors plays beautifully on screen.

4. The Hurt Locker - Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

This decade has delivered war films that have had no substance, or spark. I'm not talking about The Pianist, or Letters from Iwo Jima, I'm referring to the Iraq War films that don't add up to snuff (Lions for Lambs, The Kingdom, Redacted). After watching The Hurt Locker, I felt a sigh of relief mixed with war fatigue as I had just witnessed the greatest war film since Full Metal Jacket. The film follows an Army bomb squad led by Jeremy Renner as he, along with his platoon, teeter on the edge of the proverbial knife as they dismantle bombs around Baghdad and try to regain their sanity throughout their tours of duty. Kathryn Bigelow's intense eyes and Mark Boal's dark script cast aside the politics of the conflict in Iraq, it shows the daily routine of men trying to live and breathe another day.

3. Milk - Directed by Gus Van Sant

Sean Penn has always impressed me with any role he comes across; a mentally-challenged father in I Am Sam, A coke addicted lawyer opposite Al Pacino in Carlito's Way, and a criminal paying for his sins in Mystic River. His performance as Harvey Milk really takes the cake, and we all get a slice of it. Set in San Fransisco in the 1970s, Milk chronicles the life and death of camera shop owner and former Wall Street businessman, Harvey Milk, as he becomes America's first openly gay politician until his tragic death in 1978. The film is a beacon of hope for any oppressed minority; regardless of sexual orientation or skin color as Van Sant captures the spirit of the Seventies with a flamboyant eye that matches Dustin Lance Black's incredible script. Over thirty years after Milk's death, his life is preserved through this film like many other icons of the last century.

2. There Will Be Blood - Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

This haunting and powerful epic from 2007 revolves around greed, religion, violence, redemption, and father-son relationships. Daniel Day-Lewis gives an iconic performance as Daniel Plainview; an oil prospecter who redefines the word "greed" as he clashes with Paul Dano as the founder of a new religion during the turn of the century. Paul Thomas Anderson's intense and provocative eye focuses on this hell on earth that is Southern California circa 1900. Robert Elswit's haunting and stunning cinematography mixed with Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood's score leaves you visually and aurally stunned. Plus, you leave the film with a strong appreciation for milkshakes.

1. The Departed - Directed by Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese has reinvented the crime genre again and again from Mean Streets to Goodfellas. In 2006, he returned to the crime genre with his adaptation of the 2002 Chinese thriller, Infernal Affairs, blended with William Monahan's wild screenplay set against the backdrop of the South Boston Irish Mob. The result, one of Scorsese's best pictures throughout his 40 year career. Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon play cat-and-mouse as they both infiltrate the Boston Special Crimes Unit and the Irish Mob led by Frank Costello, a devilishly fun and insane Jack Nicholson (Forget The Shining, this performance takes the cake).

Scorsese's panache for violence and Thelma Schoonmaker's fast-paced editing amounts to an homage of the crime classics of the 1930s (Scarface, Public Enemy, and Angels With Dirty Faces). Also thrown into the mix is Scorsese's eclectic soundtrack that adds another shot of adrenaline to the ears; Dropkick Murphys, The Rolling Stones (as usual), Badfinger, and Pink Floyd. Scorsese's eye is as sharp and meticulous as he sends the audience into the bowels of South Boston filled with rats and the dead. The crime genre may seem like an unusual choice for being the best film of the decade; sometimes, their merely cult films. But with Scorsese at the helm and a stunning ensemble cast giving the best performances of their careers, it is hard not to mention that the best film of the last ten years was The Departed.

I realize that I will be bombarded with questions like "Where was this film?" I tip my hat off to the following in my own little award categories.

Auteurs of the 00s:
Sofia Coppola, Jason Reitman, and Wes Anderson

Old Dogs With New Tricks:
The Coen Brothers, "A Serious Man"

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

There are very few films that have me in tears from beginning to end; Precious is one of those films. If you're still complaining about the economy and not being able to go on that holiday vacation, try taking a walk in Precious Jones' shoes. Set in Harlem in the late-Eighties, the film explores the life of Precious Jones, an illiterate, pregnant teenager trying to survive. Physically and emotionally battered by her deadbeat mother, raped by her father, and still in junior high, the sixteen-year old finds solace in her daydreams and at the alternative school she gets reassigned to. Intense and difficult to watch for the first hour, the film shows the bight side of life for a girl living in her own Hell.

Only his second film, Lee Daniels (Shadowboxer) is a marvel behind the camera. Not since Midnight Cowboy has anyone looked at desolation and dreams with such an unflinching eye and carry on a story that echoes the ominous passages of Hubert Selby Jr. One name that is sure to pop up during Oscar time is Gabourey Sidibe. A 26-year-old Psychology major with no experience behind the camera, Sidibe's raw and naked performance as Precious will leave you speechless. Take Joan Crawford, Ike Turner, and Frank Booth and roll it into one role and you have Mo'Nique giving a once-in-a-lifetime performance as Precious' psychotic mother. Mariah Carey not only can break the sound barrier, but give a stunning performance onscreen as Precious' social worker. Finally, the blood of Glitter can be wiped clean off her hands!

If I were to make a list of the best films of this year, Precious would definitely be up there. If you want to feel inspired and have hope, run (Don't Walk!) to Precious.

4 out of 4 stars: ****

Scorsese Recieves Cecil B. DeMille Award

It’s pretty early in the award season to place your bets on any winners, but there’s one person who is already a winner at the 2010 Golden Globes; Martin Scorsese. The Oscar-Award Winning auteur will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his 40 year contribution to the world of cinema. Ironically, Scorsese presented last year’s DeMille Award to Steven Spielberg. Scorsese has been honored twice for Best Director at the Golden Globes for Gangs of New York and The Departed, which earned him the Academy Award for directing.

I am a true Scorsese fan; watching his films always leaves me speechless and mesmerized. I remember seeing him finally receive the Oscar in 2007 and shouting with joy as if the Red Sox won the World Series. Now that I got that off my chest, I’m overjoyed that Scorsese is being honored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. A few months ago, I was eagerly waiting to see Scorsese’s new film, Shutter Island. Unfortunately, Paramount pushed the film back to February 2010. Needless to say, I was livid and my hopes of seeing the film and its filmmaker get nominated were dashed. After hearing today’s news, I exhaled a breath of relief.

In the Sixties, Scorsese channeled the French New Wave filmmakers, mixed with the grit of New York City, with Who's That Knocking at My Door ?, It’s Not Just You, Murray!, and The Big Shave. In 1973, Scorsese looked at the criminal underworld of Little Italy with Mean Streets. Stripping away the operatic structure of organized crime that made The Godfather a success, Scorsese’s tale of street thugs through the guerilla-styled filmmaking became a hit at the New York Film Festival. Scorsese raised the bar on the crime genre with GoodFellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, and The Departed.

Scorsese is synonymous within the world of music with his celebrated documentaries like The Last Waltz, Bob Dylan: No Direction Home, and Shine A Light. As a film historian and lover, he has made it a mission to preserve film and restore it to a new audience. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Scorsese premiered the restoration of Powell/Pressburger’s 1948 classic, The Red Shoes.

Forty years of film and many more, Scorsese rightly deserves the honor of being a recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

A Serious Man

When you’re going into a movie theater, you don’t know if you’re going to be watching gold, or watching pure crap. After watching the first ten minutes of A Serious Man, I knew I had struck gold. The next 95 minutes grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go without laughing or crying. Arguably, the Coen Brothers have topped themselves with this crowning comical achievement. Set in Minnesota in the late Nineteen-Sixties- semi-autobiographical to the Coens- Larry Gopnik, a middle-aged physics professor embodies Job by being pelted with divorce, his job and his enigmatic brother while questioning his Jewish faith. The pain grows with Larry’s self-absorbed teenage daughter and his son, who soldiers through Hebrew school with a handheld radio and a lid of weed.

Playing first-mate aboard the Coen’s Cruiser is cinematographer, Roger Deakins. Deakins captures the monotony of Midwestern suburbia that echoes American Beauty with an approach that would make Hitchcock grin, along with towering angle shots and drug-infused sequences that mirror Schlesinger’s Sunday Bloody Sunday. Carter Burwell’s romantic, yet haunting, blend of piano and strings flows throughout the film’s damned protagonist as he cycles around through id and superego. On top of Burwell’s score is an unforgettable blend of Jimi Hendrix and, primarily, Jefferson Airplane.

Michael Stuhlbarg has pounded the floorboards of New York reciting Shakespeare for the past decade. After seeing A Serious Man, you will be talking about Stuhlbarg’s intense, brooding, and funny performance as Larry Gopnik; this is a performance worthy of speculation and adulation. Richard Kind takes his comedic shtick from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and gets darker as Larry’s deadbeat brother. Amy Landecker adds another weight onto Larry’s back as a seductive neighbor who plagues his mind with the sexual energy and gravitas of Anne Bancroft’s Mrs. Robinson.

If you want cheep laughs and thrills, this is not the film for you. If you want to be philosophically and theologically mind fucked, than get as close to the screen as you can. A Serious Man is, seriously, the best film of the year. The Coen Brothers have created their cinematic Sgt. Pepper that will have the religiously devout or true agnostic reeling with laughter and self-loathing.

4 out of 4 stars: ****

The Damned United

I am not a sports film fan; I don’t even like sports, but what I do like are brilliant performances and images being captured on camera. After viewing The Damned United, I gained a strong appreciation for soccer and those behind the scenes. The film is loosely based upon the life and exploits of Brian Clough, the flamboyant football manager who went from coaching the working class County Darby League to heading Leeds United in the early stages of the 1974 season. The driving ambition and headstrong attitude brings Clough into becoming both a stubborn man destined to win for the sake of winning and an icon in English Football.

The Damned United is directed by the damn-brilliant Tom Hooper (Elizabeth I and John Adams). Hooper’s use of close-ups and static camera captures working-class England with an eye similar the social-realist auteurs of the Nineteen-Sixties, like John Schlesinger and Ken Loach, blended with stock footage that doesn’t leave you with the impression that you’re watching a documentary. Peter Morgan has had a series of successful screenwriting credits (The Queen, Last King of Scotland, and Frost/Nixon) and continues with his use of comedy and revealing telephone conversations, which flesh out the characters.

Michael Sheen can be the sweetest guy you ever saw, or the biggest jerk you ever laid eyes upon. Either way, he still leaves you smiling when the credits roll and his portrayal of Brian Clough is of no exception when he portrays him as a family man, a coach, and lover of the press. Timothy Spall delivers a stunning performance as Clough’s long-time friend and partner, Peter Taylor, who enjoys the fun of the game and the work he does. Rounding up the stellar cast are Colm Meaney and Jim Broadbent with their subduing, yet fierce, performances.

The Damned United is a fresh sigh of relief that segues from the discontented autumn of generic Halloween films and not-so-funny weekend flicks and entering the most ambitious time of year, awards season.