January 31, 2011: True Grit (2010) I watched the original True Grit (1969) just before seeing this Coen brothers remake, and then I saw the original again afterwards. My first viewing of the remake made the original improve in my mind, and the re-watching of the original improved it even more. This remake has its [...]
January 31, 2011: Winter’s Bone There was plenty of buzz about Winter’s Bone as Oscar season approached, although the film was relatively unknown at the time. A surprise Best Picture nomination among the newly expanded field of 10 has undoubtedly been a boon for this little film, and further nominations for Best Actress, Best Supporting [...]
January 26, 2011: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 Following my viewing of the first Harry Potter film out of interest in the storyline, since then I’ve typically only seen them when Oscar nominations force me to do so. Art Direction and Visual Effects this year led me to see Harry Potter and [...]
January 26, 2011: Tangled I saw Tangled because of its single Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. It had reviewed OK so I wasn’t dreading the experience, so I trotted off to the nearest multiplex to see it in 3D. It turns out to be totally formulaic but well enough done to stand with the [...]
January 24, 2011: Gasland I watched Gasland as a pre-emptive Oscar pick, since it was on the short-list for the Best Documentary nominations, and the subject matter was of interest. A film about the widespread dangers of natural gas drilling in the US, the film is startling and I hope that its nomination will provide [...]
January 22, 2011: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World I haven’t read the series of graphic novels upon which Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is based, but I had to see this film in order to understand the wildly mixed opinions about it. I found it to be an entertaining romp, but clearly not aimed at [...]
January 21, 2011: TRON: Legacy I don’t know what made anyone decide that now was the time for a sequel to TRON, but it’s actually a fitting point in history to revisit the concepts explored by the original film. In the early 1980s society was struggling with the question of what great worlds could be [...]
January 20, 2011: Blue Valentine How is it that a movie can have great buzz for months, and then once it goes into wide release and all the critical reviews come out, it gets three stars out of five from everyone? I complained about this phenomenon in my review of Somewhere, and Blue Valentine receives [...]
January 13, 2011: True Grit (1969) Prior to seeing the new Coen brothers interpretation of True Grit, I wanted to watch this 1969 John Wayne version of the story. It was originally adapted from a novel, but I’m not yet at the point where I am prepared to devote the time to reading all novels [...]
January 13, 2011: TRON In anticipation of technical Oscar nominations for the sequel, I decided to watch the original TRON film. Released in 1982, TRON tapped into the pulse of the day, when computer programming and video games were becoming more high-profile, and with Star Wars having legitimized geeky sci-fi action films and precipitated a [...]