Alexander Nevsky (1938) by Sergei Eisenstein

1938 was a rough year for Europe. In represents the peak of the pre-war Nazi scare. A time between the Soviet-Zazi non-aggression pact and the Nazi invasion of Poland. Soviet Premiere, Josef Stalin, did not truly trust the Nazi's and he wanted the people of the Soviet Union to beware that there was a chance that the uneasy peace could be broken at anytime. Stalin turned toward his go-to filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein, perhaps best known for his silent, Pro-Communist propaganda piece, Battleship Potemkin. This time Eisenstein takes on a less contemporary subject.

Alexander Nevsky was a grand prince in Medeval Rus, and has become a folk hero to the Russian people as a uniter of the Russian people as he helped them stand against the Swedes, Mongols and, in the case of April 5, 1592--The Germans. Which is the battle that is at the center of this picture. Eisenstein's film captures the highs and lows of warfare, and does a great job of propagandizing the historical scenarios to make them both fairly accurate and relevant to the situation at hand in the Soviet Union in 1938.

In 2008, Russia held a reality television program called I Say Russia... which allowed the Russian people to vote on the top Russians of all time. In this contest the Soviet premiere who ordered this film, Josef Stalin, came in 3rd; and, the film's subject, Alexander Nevsky, was named the number one Russian of all time. Eisenstein is one of, in not the most, important filmmaker of the Soviet Union (a strong argument could also be made for Andrei Tarkovsky) and this film shows why it is that he is a true master of the craft.

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) by Woody Allen

Hannah and Her Sisters may well be the best of all of Woody Allen's films. If it isn't, it is right up there with his other masterpieces, Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Crimes and Misdemeanors. The film concerns itself with Hannah (Mia Farrow), Her ex-husband (Woody Allen), her current husband (Michael Caine) and her two sisters (Barbara Hershey and Dianne Wiest). Woody Allen's character is a neurotic, hypochondriac, middle-aged, New York TV Exec who is trying to live his life while being crippled by fear and anxiety that his life is so momentary yet will be meaningless as soon as its over.

In many ways, Allen's character is the character through whom we experience the film. He is our link into this New York lifestyle that many of us are probably unfamiliar with. The film is told in a series of vignettes that can be watched as separate short films but come together to make a coherent whole. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert mentions that this approach makes for an ironic statement at the end of the film that we try so hard to organize our lives into these neat little categories that we think make sense in our lives, and to an extent we can pull them out and make a neat little story out of them; but we, in the end, have to show that neat little story in the context of two full years or even a life completed in order to fully understand the gravity or the mundane nature of a given event.

Woody Allen was inspired to write this film after re-reading Tolstoy's beautiful Anna Karenina, and in many ways viewers who have read the novel will see similarities in character traits and plot events; however, it is not more than an influence. When first released the film had supporters lobbying to make it the first Screenplay nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for drama, an honor still never bestowed upon a screenplay, though, in the end there was not a Pulitzer given out for drama in 1986.

In the end, Woody Allen has been one of the prolific of all American auteurs and has been, at times, truly great. This is one of his finest achievements.

I'm Back...

I graduated from college in December and had little capacity for cognizant thought after I finished, I read a couple of books but did not do a lot of movie watching. The little I did do was catching up on the big films from the current year (ie. Up in the Air, Precious, The Hurt Locker, etc. (two Latin abbreviations in one sentence...nice)). In any case, after a couple of months on the dismal job market I am still a free agent, and, as I had a few films in my collection, and HBO that I'd neglected to see to this point, I decided to pop them in. Over the past week I've done my duty as a cinephile that I had neglected for quite some time. I am ashamed of the little film watching I did for a period of time, but I am back.

So far, in the last week I've been able to watch World's Greatest Dad starring the oft-brilliant Robin Williams in a dark as night comedy that brings some awfully big laughs. Forgetting Sarah Marshall a Best-way-to-forget-her-is-to-turn-her-into-literature Comedy that runs toward the middle of the pack in the vast array of Judd "King of Comedy" Apatow's collection of involvement. Ivan the Terrible pt. II, the second part of the would be trilogy that capped Soviet master, Sergei Eisenstein's brilliant career about the parallels of the Russian Empire's first Tsar and the Red Tsar of the Soviet Union Josef Stalin. Sunshine and 28 Days Later... the Sci-fi and Horror masterpieces made by British director, Danny Boyle before his let down of a Best Picture winner. Vampyr, Carl Theodore Dreyer's horror classic follow-up to his silent masterpiece, The Passion of Joan of Arc; the film is a visual masterpiece, with some visual effects that I was impressed with watching from my couch. O Brother, Where Art Thou, one of the very few films by the Coen brothers that I had missed seeing, this depression-era Bluegrass-musical-epic-Odyssey-Comedy about a couple of busted loose prisoners is one of the brother's finest comic moments. Hoop Dreams, this was the documentary that Roger Ebert named the best film of the 1990's, about two poor young black men in inner-city Chicago and their dreams of going to the NBA and being like Michael Jordan and Isaiah Thomas.

I still have a few more movies to get through on my list of catch-up, I may or may not write on all or any of these films, time will tell. Mainly I wanted anyone who may still be out there caring about my opinion on anything involving motion picture, that I am still alive and while I was on hiatus, I am back in the movie-watching game.

If anyone has a request for any specific reviews or any views I have on a particular movie listed above or in general, leave me a comment and I will try to get it up here in a timely manner if I've seen it and a little less timely manner if I still need to watch it.

Movies still to watch over the next few days: Alexander Nevsky, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Hunted and Glengarry GlenRoss.

Top 10 of 2010

I know its been awhile, I have been surprisingly busy, its not that I've not been watching movies, I've just not really had time to sit down to really put my opinions into words that would suite a proper film review for a once-respectable movie blog. So, I apologize for my long absence, and without further adieu, I present my top 10 films of 2009. With a note that there are several films that have been called great that I have yet to see, including Best Picture frontrunner: The Hurt Locker

10. Watchmen by Zack Snyder

9. District 9 by Neil Blomkamp

8. Up by Pete Doctor

7. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Wes Anderson

6. Where the Wild Things Are by Spike Jonze

5. Away We Go by Sam Mendes

4. A Serious Man by Joel and Ethan Coen

3. Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino

2. (500) Days of Summer by Marc Webb

1. Up in the Air by Jason Reitman

Иваново детство (Ivan's Childhood) by Andrei Tarkovsky

In a debut that would rank among the greatest in the history of cinema, Andrei Tarkovsky (best known for the original version of Solaris) brings us a heart breaking story, Ivan's Childhood. The picture follows a small cast of Red Army soldiers, including an eleven year old kid named Ivan and a young woman soldier (yes, the Soviets had women fighting on the front in the Second World War) named Masha. Ivan's parents were killed by the Nazi invaders and he is hung up on revenge. He becomes a great spy for the USSR going on many dangerous missions to spy on the German foe.

While we're never told, specifically, what battle of the war this takes place at, there is a passing reference to the Volga which would lead one to believe that it is near the time and the place of the infamous Battle at Stalingrad. In any case, the battle period and name does not matter, in fact, one does not see an actual German soldier in the film but one time in shadows as two guards are passing. There are also two other times that you here German being spoken by a person of screen.

In these respects, Ivan's Childhood is unlike any war film that I've ever seen, and it is refreshing. It plays, in fact, a little closer to a suspense film than a war film, though it has the historicity of a war picture. Ivan's Childhood is a must see for any lover of history or of world cinema. It is a truly top notch film that has survived the passing of time--and the empire in which it was created.

Watchmen by Zach Snyder

Zach Snyder's Watchmen is a delicious addition to the newest level of visual eye-candy. Not since the days that Technicolor stopped making films have there been so many (starting with The Matrix in 1999) of films that have been quite so visually stunning as the films we've seen in the past few years.

Watchmen is only Zach Snyder's third feature film (Dawn of the Dead (2004) and 300 (2006)) precede this offering to the world of cinema. And, without a doubt, this is his best picture to date. In fact, it may even go without saying that this is one of the top 5 "comic book" movies ever made. The story, based on the (graphic) novel by Alan More, though he goes uncredited in the film. (The reason for putting the word "graphic" in parentheses is because Watchmen has, seemingly, stepped beyond the world of graphic novels and placed itself into the category of full scale literature, even being named one of the 100 best novels in the English language since 1923.)

So, it goes without saying that the story is strong, powerful, and incredibly relevant to today. The movie looks great, and yet, there is something that is missing, though I cannot place a name or finger on it. In all, however, it is a minor hangup in an excellent picture.

Final Prediction And Winners

Predicted Winner will be set off with an astrick (*) Winners in Yellow

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk*
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downy, Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight*
Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - The Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - The Reader*

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt*
Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

Best Animated Feature
Bolt
Kung-Fu Panda
Wall-E*

Art Direction
The Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Cinematography
The Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight*
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Costume Design
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess*
Milk
Revolutionary Road

Best Direction
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire*
Stephan Daldry - The Reader
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant - Milk

Best Documentary
The Betrayal
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire*
Trouble the Water

Short Documentary
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness*

Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight*
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Foreign Language Picture
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Class
Departures
Revanche
Waltz with Bashir*

Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Original Score
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire*
Wall-E

Original Song
Down to Earth - Wall-E*
Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire
O Saya - Slumdog Millionaire

Best Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire*

Animated Short
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory (Lovestory)*
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

Live Action Short
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Man on the Asphalt*
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Sound Editing
The Dark Knight*
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
Wanted

Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight*
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
Wanted

Best Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Eric Roth
Doubt - John Patrick Stanley
Frost/Nixon - Peter Morgan
The Reader - David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire - Simon Beaufy*

Best Original Screenplay
Frozen River - Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky - Mike Leigh
In Bruges - Martin McDonagh
Milk - Dustin Lance Black*
Wall-E - Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon