Here then is Part Two of the 2011 Wertzies. My thoughts on the year’s best performances. As a reminder, all Runners Up are featured in ascending order, with the Winner of each category coming at the end.
Enjoy.
Posted in Awards, DVD/Blu-Ray, Full List, In Theaters, Oscar Nominee, Oscar Winner
Tagged 2011, Actor, Actress, Awards, Entertainment, Film, Media, Movies, Opinion, Oscar Nominee, Oscar Winner, Reviews, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Wertzies
And so, the 2nd Annual Wertzies; my picks for the year’s best of nearly everything. I’m taking a slightly different tack this year, with expanded coverage of my picks and the Awards divided over three posts. Additionally, the format has altered a bit, with Runners Up revealed in ascending order, and each category ending with the Winner.
To be clear, I haven’t seen everything, nor do I consider these awards to be anything more than my humble opinion as an amateur film reviewer. Elaborate and considered these thoughts may be, but they are nonetheless informed as much by individual preference as real objectivity. And with that in mind, I eagerly await your supplemental thoughts and heated contradictions.
Enjoy.
Posted in Awards, DVD/Blu-Ray, Full List, In Theaters, Oscar Nominee, Oscar Winner
Tagged 2011, Awards, Director, Entertainment, Film, Media, Movies, Opinion, Oscar Nominee, Oscar Winner, Reviews, Screenplay, Wertzies
There’s a better version of Shame on the cutting room floor. Somewhere in the hours of unseen footage shot by Director Steve McQueen exists a film that lives up to the hype. A film less ambiguous, with a concrete arch, and character exchanges that don’t feel piecemeal. A film less dependent on intuition and more respectful of storytelling. A film not so thoroughly entrenched in a mood. And that would be a hell of a film to see, because Shame is built on some pretty powerful stuff as it is. The performance of Michael Fassbender will certainly get everyone talking, and almost as certainly garner a nomination. And there are things McQueen does as a director that prove he deserves the job. But the unfortunate reality is that Shame is only some of what it should have been, and simply not as good as it could have been.
Posted in Full List, In Theaters
Tagged Carey Mulligan, Entertainment, Film, James Badge Dale, Media, Michael Fassbender, Movies, Opinion, Reviews, Shame, Steve McQueen
If you need any proof that Seth Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg are BFF, just watch one of their movies. Thus far their three major titles-Superbad, Pineapple Express and now The Green Hornet–are all built up from a premise along the lines of, “so there are these two guys…” This is a charming conceit at first. Certainly in the case of those first two films the bromance was both the glue of the story and the vehicle for developing its two main characters. Meanwhile, it can actually be really sweet watching two regular dudes realize they have real love for another person. This formula had to lose its edge at some point though, and it seems to have happened smack dab in the middle of The Green Hornet.
Posted in Full List, In Theaters
Tagged Christoph Waltz, Entertainment, Evan Goldberg, Film, Jay Chou, Media, Michel Gondry, Movies, Opinion, Reviews, Seth Rogen, The Green Hornet
As someone who is lucky enough to have found love and held on to it, I find myself particularly struck by Blue Valentine. It’s not that a solitary individual will take nothing from the film, but it helps vastly to have some evocative experience with the love and salience of a relationship. At the core of the film is love, but in larger doses reside the blights of distrust and doubt, the arsenic of fear. So much of this experience is visceral that it’s no wonder the film has garnered a reputation as an emotional wrecking ball. While it certainly has its agonies, Blue Valentine is far from a one-note melancholic. There’s a lot of beauty in this film, and it’s delivered with equal sincerity.
Posted in Full List, In Theaters, Oscar Nominee
Tagged Blue Valentine, Derek Cianfrance, Entertainment, Film, Media, Michelle Williams, Movies, Opinion, Reviews, Ryan Gosling
It seems that “Based on a True Story” is a qualifier used more and more these days. This year alone contains the films 127 Hours, The Fighter, and The Social Network, which are all “based on…” to varying degrees. It’s logical that dramatic reality is more compelling than dramatic fiction, and regardless of how truthfully one’s film follows that reality, people are going to respond to it. The problem then comes when a filmmaker takes advantage of this fact and tells us a story that isn’t entirely worth telling, or a story more intriguing on paper than the screen. It’s not black and white either, with films like The Social Network telling first-rate tales but taking huge liberties in order to do so. Luckily, there are films like The King’s Speech, which don’t require any embroidery to astound us. Films that have found the perfect historical confluence of event and characters and themes. It’s the rarity of films like this that makes them so special, but in the case of The King’s Speech it’s also the quality of the yarn. It is surely one of the best stories you’ve never heard.
I happen to like the original TRON. It’s nothing if not dated, but the experience of seeing the film in the theaters back in 1982 must have been a special one. The filmmakers threw themselves earnestly into the creation of this computerized world, and despite the intervening years there’s still something graceful about the look of the film. And so, despite TRON: Legacy being one of those films you hear about endlessly for two years before it finally arrives in theaters, I remained intrigued. This type of overwhelming ad campaign is a tenuous scenario for any filmmaker to deal with, the hype certain to both fill seats and raise expectations to nearly unachievable levels. An Avatar-sized budget, a score by Daft Punk, and the kind of franchise building we haven’t seen from Disney since Pirates, TRON: Legacy is quite evidently a BIG DEAL. So how is it? Well, that’s a complex question. In some ways this is pretty standard stuff, the kind of holiday fare kids and parents can munch popcorn to. In other ways, this is one of the most remarkable films I’ve ever seen.
Posted in Full List, In Theaters
Tagged Bruce Boxleitner, Entertainment, Film, Garrett Hedlund, Jeff Bridges, Joseph Kosinski, Media, Michael Sheen, Movies, Olivia Wilde, Opinion, Reviews, TRON: Legacy
I don’t think there’s such a thing as a bad Coen Brothers movie. Now, I haven’t seen them all, so I can’t say that with all confidence, but as they somehow gain more and more momentum with the passing years, and the veneer on their product keeps getting shinier, it’s hard to imagine them making any really evident mistakes. Not only is this impressive when considering their startling prolificacy, but also because, frankly, the Coens don’t play it safe. They’re not churning out standby material with rote characters and tested plots. They change it up every single time. If I were an aspiring director I wouldn’t even bother trying to emulate them, because there’s just no way you’re going to do the things they’ve done. True Grit is the latest example of that consistently inconsistent greatness; a cocky and witty western from a pair of legitimate talents in their apparently never ending prime.
Posted in Full List, In Theaters, Oscar Nominee
Tagged Entertainment, Ethan Coen, Film, Hailee Steinfeld, Jeff Bridges, Joel Coen, Josh Brolin, Matt Damon, Media, Movies, Opinion, Reviews, True Grit
It seems that every year there’s a film like this. A film that ends up feeling weighted more towards character portrayal than big picture. A film with at least one performance almost guaranteed to bring home the Oscar. Last year it was Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. Before that Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Before that Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. The list goes on. It’s not that David O. Russell‘s The Fighter is an incomplete film as much as it’s so entirely driven by its actors. This based-on-a-true-story is clean and concise, and doesn’t require much sifting to get at a core comprised of an underdog vs. the world and the massive weight of his family.
Posted in Full List, In Theaters, Oscar Nominee, Oscar Winner
Tagged Amy Adams, Christian Bale, David O. Russell, Entertainment, Film, Mark Wahlberg, Media, Melissa Leo, Movies, Opinion, Oscar Nominee, Oscar Winner, Reviews, The Fighter
Preparing for a Darren Aronofsky feature is sort of like preparing for a break up or a funeral. That’s not to say that every last Aronofsky tale is a saga of desolation or exhausting melancholy, but when you look at the man’s filmography, one of the common elements is a darkness that permeates. The difference, though, between his earlier works (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) and his more recent (The Fountain, The Wrestler), is a respect for subtlety. In Requiem, Aronofsky thrust the grotesque into the faces of his audience with an almost mean-spirited bravado. It’s a film that, despite its high quality, is simply too awful for repeated viewings. Lately though, Aronofsky has coupled that signature bleakness with a real human beauty. He has found a balance in his method, and with his last three films, The Fountain, The Wrestler and now Black Swan, he has shown the kind of forward momentum that ensures real longevity.
Posted in Full List, In Theaters, Oscar Nominee, Oscar Winner
Tagged Barbara Hershey, Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky, Entertainment, Film, Media, Mila Kunis, Movies, Natalie Portman, Opinion, Oscar Nominee, Oscar Winner, Reviews, Vincent Cassel
Peter Wertz
Wertz of Wisdom 
