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
60 Second Reviews2011 is unarguably the year of Michael Fassbender. Magneto in X-Men: First Class, Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method, a sex addict in Shame, and here, the moody, haunted Fairfax Rochester in Jane Eyre. Having seen two of his four performances, it’s assured that Fassbender will be around for the long haul. As Rochester, he is in flux; a vacillating romantic unable to have the thing most important to him.
The story of Jane Eyre is familiar to anyone who took high school English: a young woman (Mia Wasikowska) with a bleak past is hired as a governess to the ward of Mr. Fairfax Rochester (Fassbender), a man twice her age. Though she is well beneath his class, the two share an undeniable connection. But Mr. Rochester harbors a secret which keeps the young woman at arm’s length, and eventually drives her away. In this gothic romance, Director Cary Fukunaga has raised the stakes, creating an environment so bleak, love seems to be the only path to unqualified contentment.
There are essentially three elements that matter in this iteration of Jane Eyre: the performance of Fassbender, the performance of Wasikowska, and the atmosphere created by Fukunaga. The two leads spend much of the film sizing each other up, their ornamental dialogue a sort of sparring. These scene towards the beginning of their relationship are arresting, if for no other reason than Fassbender and Wasikowska have a true chemistry. The brooding Rochester is intimidating, but also apparently a bleeding heart. And Jane Eyre has an elegant toughness that evolves the novel’s proto-feminism for a more contemporary time. Her quick tongue offers up some of the best lines in the film, and Rochester is never shy with an equally clever rebuttal. Fukunaga’s setting meanwhile is mostly bleak and tawny; a style that compliments the story and characters profoundly. This world is dark, and one must find their joys wherever they can. Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester are characters who understand this completely, and their love for one another is sustained by a desperation that sits at the heart of this timeworn romance.
Jane Eyre is an effective and affecting love story that utilizes two of the most talented performers working right now, and reminds its viewers of a time when the problems of love were greater, and love was stronger for it.
Posted in DVD/Blu-Ray, Full List, Oscar Nominee
Tagged Cary Fukunaga, Entertainment, Film, Jamie Bell, Jane Eyre, Judi Dench, Media, Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Movies, Opinion, Reviews
“This might be an adventure!” exclaims Chloë Moretz’s earnest Isabelle, shortly after meeting the titular Hugo in Martin Scorsese’s latest. And it’s true, Hugo certainly holds an adventure for its two lead characters. But that moment holds a deeper truth: the awareness that, for children, the world is still a magical place, capable of anything. There’s a kinetic excitement to being young and away from your parents, because possibility has an unknowable depth, and you haven’t yet been infected by the rot of cynicism. Scorsese, like many directors before him, plainly adores this moment in time, because for him it is connected unequivocally with the magic of the cinema.
When Toy Story came out in 1995, it shocked people. Pixar’s style was entirely unprecedented, and understandably became the chief talking point, but no one could deny the quality of writing and storytelling behind the flagship film. At its heart, Toy Story is a film about nostalgia and childhood, a musing younger generations seem more and more intent on indulging. The Muppets isn’t as tied up in the more general existentialisms of growing up as Pixar’s debut, as it is so obsessed with the Muppet canon, but it is nonetheless the best film about nostalgia since Toy Story. Writer and Star Jason Segel hasn’t made a movie so much about how wonderful the Muppets are, as a film about how wonderful the Muppets are to him, and by proxy, his audience. And this is not a minor distinction. Making a film from the heart and not the head, at least in this case, makes all the difference in the world.
Posted in DVD/Blu-Ray, Full List, Oscar Nominee, Oscar Winner
Tagged Amy Adams, Bret McKenzie, Chris Cooper, James Bobin, Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller, Peter Linz, The Muppets
Beginners is a film full of concise existentialisms; beautifully bite-sized sentiments like, “You make me laugh, but it’s not funny.” Writer/Director Mike Mills clearly prefers to keep his axioms digestible, which is good, because there’s no shortage of them to digest. Mills’ second feature takes place in the moment of a man’s life when all he can consider is the universe at large, its flux, its effect, where he fits, and why love is the undisputed destination. In a way, these movies are always going to be the most interesting, because (if done correctly) they offer a ubiquitous perspective of humanity. However you dress it, love is what we all need to feel actualized, and Beginners serves as a beautiful reminder.
Posted in DVD/Blu-Ray, Full List, Oscar Nominee, Oscar Winner
Tagged Beginners, Christopher Plummer, Entertainment, Ewan McGregor, Film, Mary Page Keller, Media, Melannie Laurent, Mike Mills, Movies, Opinion, Reviews
In the film’s opening narration, Matt King (George Clooney) bemoans the view taken by most “mainlanders,” that to live in Hawaii is to spend your days drinking Mai Tais and waxing a surfboard, free from the troubles of the world. According to Matt this is absurd, as pain follows us wherever we are. Beautiful Hawaii may be, but it is not a vacuum or a charmed oasis. And yet, much of The Descendants is devoted to the astonishing splendor of the Hawaiian countryside; a choice wholly at odds with the protagonist’s initial frustration. This is an apt disconnect when considering the similar disparity between the film’s subject matter and its tone. Though Alexander Payne’s latest journey film is devoted to an exploration of grief’s gauntlet, it seems to spend just as much time trying to charm us. A choice that, ultimately, hurts more than it helps.
Maybe cynicism comes with age. As the world reveals its endless potential for deception and betrayal, it becomes harder and harder to maintain idealism. This must be true with regard to political cynicism or apathy, as the perpetual cycle of that world is masterful deceit and earth-shattering revelation, and anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention seems to understand that politicians simply cannot be trusted. Running for political office means maintaining a pretense of white teeth and talking points; ostensibly being whatever voters want you to be. Unfortunately, this facade is easily shattered and nearly impossible to regain, an idea taken to its deepest depths in George Clooney’s latest direction, The Ides of March.
When the Miami Heat acquired Lebron James well over a year ago, it was the only thing the sports media could talk about. James, the best basketball player in the NBA, was joining a roster that already boasted Dwayne Wade, perhaps one of the top three players currently in the league, and had also pulled in Chris Bosh, another NBA superstar. Nothing like this had ever been seen in basketball, and within hours the conversation turned to Miami’s potential to go the NBA finals year after year after year. Sure enough, they ended up in the finals in their first season as a team…and lost. The reason I bring this up is because, looking at the cast, crew, and history of the film Moneyball, it’s hard not to see the all-star squad comparison. It’s got a supporting cast of legitimate talent, from Robin Wright to Jonah Hill to Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film’s director Bennett Miller is helming just his second feature, after his first (Capote) got him a Best Picture and Directing nomination. Then there’s Brad Pitt, the Lebron James of Hollywood. And much like the Miami Heat, the group that came together to make Moneyball, though objectively successful, end up feeling, frankly, a bit lackluster.
Posted in DVD/Blu-Ray, Full List, Oscar Nominee
Tagged Brad Pitt, Entertainment, Film, Jonah Hill, Media, Moneyball, Movies, Opinion, Reviews, Robin Wright
There’s nothing subtle about Drive, though for followers of Director Nicolas Winding Refn‘s career to this point, subtlety is about the last thing you’d expect to find. Refn is a filmmaker fascinated by intensity, eager to push the limits of graphic violence. Drive is no exception, though in the end it is not the film’s brutality that defines it. Refn’s latest is dripping with style, from the slick opening credits to the closing synthed-out track. It is a film for a generation that often judges a product’s success as much on aesthetics as content, and though this may be one of the sexiest films released in the last decade, it can also be prohibitively aloof.
Peter Wertz
Wertz of Wisdom 