Fair Game

I followed the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story closely from the very beginning. It was one of the many offenses of the Bush administration that appalled me, and I was astonished that no one was held accountable for what was clearly multiple acts of high treason. When I first heard the story was going to be dramatized into a movie, I wasn’t sure I would see it. I was afraid it would make my blood boil again, as it had when the story originally broke. But it turns out the movie is great, based mostly on the merits of superb performances from Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. It helps too that the story is foolproof. It’s such a perfect and uncomplicated depiction of flagrant injustice, it would take a real moron to fuck it up. So director Doug Liman has a relatively simple job: don’t fuck up. He doesn’t. The pace is quick, the drama is strong, the acting is outstanding, and low and behold, by the end my blood was boiling. But the principals should all get their tuxes and dresses dry-cleaned. It’s going to be a major kudo-fest. Deservedly so. It’s a great and worthy drama.

Army of Darkness

It’s been almost 20 years since this was originally released and even though I’ve already seen it like, a couple of dozen times, it was worth seeing again for the excellent q&a with Bruce Campbell afterwards. He does about an hour of standup comedy shtick and takes questions from the crowd. Although I’m sure he’s told those stories repeatedly at various Comicons, it sure was funny.

Jackass 3D

Well, they didn’t do what I hate, which is fuck with innocent people on the street, so that’s good. It’s almost turned into a Mythbusters episode, wherein science and physics are pushed to the dangerous brink. Some of it’s funny, too.

Hubble 3D:IMAX

An excellent journey into space with a 3D Imax camera. Leonardo DeCaprio’s narration is a little too low-key and hypnotic, but otherwise this is technically amazing.

Secretariat

Diane Lane, painted and poised, acts her heart out, within an inch of her life. It’s clear she thought this will be the next Seabiscut, and she had better deliver. Because the horse, apparently, was unstoppable, so the filmmakers focus on making this story about the owner of said horse, the impossibly sincere, in-over-her-head ranch owner Lane portrays. But the script is dull and the drama is ginned-up to make this formidable horse seem like the odds were against him. They weren’t. So all the clever camera angles depicting the famous races from the point of view of the hoof or mane are all for naught. With a critical lack of drama, the script’s lame.

Never Let Me Go

I wondered, while watching this movie, if Carey Mulligan wakes up every morning and says to herself, “I have the most beautiful English accent in the world.” I also wondered what part of England all the happy, dancing people were from in the Richard Curtis movies. I also wondered if any of the talented leads had seen the Michael Bay movie The Island that came out five years ago with the exact same plot. I also wondered, impatiently, when the movie was going to end.

The Social Network

They say it isn’t accurate. And I’m not a big David Fincher lover. Didn’t like Benjamin Buttons. Sorta liked Zodiac. But Fincher/Sorkin et al made the HELL out of this movie. Social Network delivers a riveting, beautifully-made drama about the internet in which, thankfully, characters aren’t sitting in front of a computer the whole time. I also liked the characterizations, too, and the way the creative team works to carefully stir some sympathy into what would otherwise be an unsympathetic situation. Although, from what I understand, it is these human moments that are considered factual embellishments. I don’t mind. It made the movie intense and watchable, and a strong parable about the nature of outsiders and feeling “left behind” as the internet connects and then disconnects us all.