Man on Wire

Yes.

Here's what's weird about Man on Wire: Even though the climax of the film is told with a heavy French accent and shown with mostly still, black and white photos, it is still so unbelievably breathtaking that I was actually saying things like "holy shit" out loud to my computer. That's right, I saw it on my 18" computer screen and was still completely blown away by the experience. That, however, was only my description of the last 20 - 30 minutes of this documentary about a man who walked on a tight rope between the two towers of the World Trade Center in the 70's.

The beginning of the movie was a little long. If they had shortened it slightly, it would have been highly entertaining. I suppose it was very entertaining except for the parts that dragged. It was structured like a heist film and really felt like one... actually, I guess it kind of was one. What they were doing was highly illegal and they had to be highly sneaky about it.

While it was generally well crafted and the images were mind numbing, it was a bit too long. If you can get past the accents and the extended running time, the ending will make it all worth while.

Doubt

There's no reason to see this on the big screen, but it was very good.

Doubt is an intimate character study with powerful performances from Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis. As far as the rest of the film goes... nothing really happens. Something may have happened, but we never find out. The only one's who may know are Hoffman's character and the boy that may or may not have been involved leaving Streep, Adams and the audience with doubt as to whether or not a crime was actually committed... hence the title.

Don't be surprised to see multiple acting nods as well as a possible writing nomination for writer/director John Patrick Shanley, but should you see Doubt? Nah, not in theatres. Rent it when it comes out on DVD or watch it on cable.

Revolutionary Road

Umm...

Revolutionary Road was an absolutely miserable movie, but that's actually a good thing because it really is supposed to be.

I've always been a fan of Sam Mendes; American Beauty remains in my top five favorite movies, I enjoyed Road to Perdition, and I loved Jarhead. I kind of feel like he phoned it in on this one. It's a 50's period piece about the two most unhappy people ever, and it relied heavily on it's two lead actors, not necessarily it's director. The set design, costumes, hair and make-up were all accurate for the time period, but those were other peoples' jobs, Mendes only had to sign off on them. With Kate Winslet's and Leonardo DiCaprio's talent, I doubt he had to direct them much.

The performances were powerful. These two are locked in an unwanted relationship and they fight... a lot. They fight from the opening scene until the film's tragic end with the exception of a short period of forced happiness. They worked well together in a complete turnaround from their last movie together. In fact, they could have used the tag line "What if Jack didn't die?" on the poster for Revolutionary Road and made it a, kind of, sequel to Titanic. The 50's may have been a little late for that, but it is the natural progression of their relationship if he had survived the sinking.

So, should you see it?

There is a chance for some acting nominations out of this one. The eerie penultimate scene had me entranced, thanks entirely to Kate and Leo. If you like to see all of the nominated performances before the Oscars, you might want to check this one out. It really is horrible to watch though, so I can't bring myself to recommend Revolutionary Road.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

YES.

Words can't express how beautiful this film is. I was absolutely mesmerized from the moment the Paramount logo hit the screen. I actually found my eyes welling up with tears simply from the film's grandeur. I don't know how they aged Brad Pitt the way they did and I don't think I want to know. The visual effects in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button are so subtle that you don't even know they're there... proving, I suppose, how great they are.

Most stories evolve from writers putting an ordinary man into an extraordinary situation. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button does the opposite. It tells the story of an extraordinary man in quite ordinary situations. The movie follows Benjamin's life from the cradle to the grave as he is surrounded by, and surrounds himself with one of the most diverse groups of people ever assembled.

This movie made me think of films like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. All simple stories with complex subtexts, written, directed, acted and filmed at a skill level that most filmmakers can only dream of.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, as well as The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, and Wall-E, is making my decision for best film of 2008 an extremely difficult one.

Slumdog Millionaire

Yes.

Trainspotting brought me into Danny Boyle's world with an immensely entertaining look into the lives of Scottish heroin addicts. He turned the zombie genre on it's head with 28 Days Later... followed immediately by a sophisticated, emotional family film called Millions. He explored the center of our solar system as well of the psychological impact of space travel in Sunshine and now he tells a beautiful and shocking, love/survival story with Slumdog Millionaire.

The culmination of his work alone should win him the Oscar for best director. All director's have a bomb or two and Boyle is no exception. The Beach and A Life Less Ordinary were inexcusable. His willingness and ability, however, to successfully cross genre barriers with such extremity is inspiring. To jump blindly from dark comedy to science-fiction to romantic comedy to horror to family drama, and now, finally, to love story, shows a true love for the art of film making and a skill beyond that of most people in most professions.

Slumdog Millionaire is one of the best told stories I've seen in a long time. Is it predictable? Yes, but it's the journey that moves you. Throughout his life, Jamal has been unknowingly collecting the answers to questions that may ultimately reunite him with his one true love. His horrifying tale of survival as an orphan growing up in Mumbai leads him to to his fateful appearance on India's version of "Who Wants to be Millionaire?" Accused of cheating, Jamal is forced to tell his life story in an effort to explain how an uneducated "slumdog" could possibly know the answers to the questions he was asked on the show.

Stylish and masterful direction, astonishing performances, and a bitter sweet tale of love, sacrifice, and destiny makes Slumdog Millionaire one of the best films of 2008.

Frost/Nixon

Ummm... yeah...

Frost/Nixon is an extremely well made movie. The performances by Michael Sheen and especially Frank Langella were extraordinary and are absolutely deserving of recognition by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; if not with an Oscar then at least with a nomination. It was put together as well as the material would allow, but I honestly don't know that the material was deserving of a major motion picture.

I don't want to minimize the events that the movie conveys. It was an important moment in American history and I recognize the impact it has had on both the government and the media. I can also tell you, however, that I was unaware of the events until I saw the preview for Frost/Nixon for the first time. Should this information be out there for common-folk to see? Yes. Should it be a dramatization? No, it could just as well have been a documentary. Even this dramatization was written and filmed like a documentary with the "confessionals" being acted out in character.

Frost/Nixon is a straight up re-enactment of specific events, without any personal or political views of the filmmakers. It is both critical of, and sympathetic to both characters and therefore, effectively remains neutral in it's stance. The reason why I'm hesitant to recommend the film is because while I recognize that it is an extremely well made film, I wasn't very entertained. In fact, until the end of the second to last interview, I was actually rather bored.

American Teen

Nah.

This is going to be short. American Teen may as well have been called MTV's True Life: I'm an American Teen. There is nothing extraordinary about this film and there is no reason to have made it. There certainly was no reason to put it on the big screen.

Gran Torino

Yes.

Why aren't they advertising this movie? Clint Eastwood is amazing in it and the story is heartbreaking, but it's also unbelievably funny. It's predictable in the sense that while I didn't know exactly how the movie would end, I wasn't the least bit surprised. Still, everything about Gran Torino is just less than Oscar-worthy... and that's not bad.

I believe it's still in limited release and will expand after the new year, so seek it out, I think your other choices in January will include The Unborn and My Bloody Valentine 3D.

Valkyrie

Nah.

I wasn't necessarily expecting it to be better... just a little bigger, maybe. Bryan Singer made X2 and passed on a third X-Men movie to make Superman Returns. He put off making another Superman movie so that he could make Valkyrie. Valkyrie was in the works for a very long time and this is the final product. It just seems like Singer in constantly trying to "one-down" himself.

I was also expecting more of a "heist movie" feel. Not the witty banter of the Ocean's films, but at least a similar structure. And actually, I don't think a little bit of humor would have been uncalled for. I know that this is a serious subject and that German's are notoriously unfunny, but a sarcastic or snide remark, or a joke during casual conversation, something to make me care about these people would have been helpful.

I just think this was an unwise time of year to release this film. With movies like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon set for a holiday release, Valkyrie would have been better suited for release in late August or October.