MCN: Movie City News

Wilmington on DVDs
Bright Star, Moscow, Belgium, Paris, Texas, Michael Jackson's This Is It, The Boys Are Back, Whip It and more...
by Michael Wilmington

Bright Star though, is a lovely period film. Coincidentally, it marks one of two superb photographic jobs out on DVD this week by Greig Fraser. (The other is The Boys are Back.) Both Fraser’s camera feats are remarkable and quite different in style: Boys’ cinematography is as crystalline as Star‘s is often misty and reverie-strewn.

Letters from Larry - Brian Poyser's Lovers of Hate is the kind of tiny brilliant gem that low-budget indie films ought to be and so seldom are.

'Dancing with the Wildman - People actually request pictures of Jesus. Other fun requests: Hitler at the 1948 Olympics and Neil Armstrong and all the other astronauts in a group photo. On the moon.

The DVD Wrap
Whip It
by Gary Dretzka

Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut was far more influenced by the stars of A&E’s delightfully raucous reality series Roller Girls, than the men and women who barnstormed the country in the 1960s. The women who compete today are mostly of the riot-grrrl persuasion… punk feminists, decorated with multiple tattoos and piercings. Rollergirls was set in Austin, which, in the mid-aughts, became the capital of modern, all-woman roller derby. (Historically, the game featured both male and female skaters.)

Also: War Trilogy, Paris, Texas, The Boys are Back, The Burning Plain, Post Grad, Whiteout and more ...

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1,000 Monkeys
Of Romance, Fairy Tales, and Happily Ever After
by Kim Voynar

There was a time, back when I was maybe twelve or so, when I thought I had the marriage thing all figured out: Just find the right guy, marry him, have kids together, don't fight over the small stuff, and work through the bigger stuff together. That's how it worked in books and movies, after all. And that's what I wanted, that happily ever after, the relationship with my soul mate that would last forever.

Film Reviews
MCN Critics Roundup
Box Office Hell
DVD Reviews
Trailers

Weekend Report: Three films bowed nationally during the frame with the sci-fi adventure Legion the best grosser with $17.9 million that ranked it second.

Pride, Unprejudiced
The 2000s
by Ray Pride

I compiled a version of this list in December and then expanded it to the version here. Somehow after the inundation of dozens of other brightly reasoned and lucidly observant lists, I ought to revise my early judgments. Doesn't seem likely: it'll take another decade at least. As with any ranking like this, taking into consideration any of a hundred shifting factors-personal thrills, social importance, relevance to changes in the medium-would shift things around if it were revised in a month or a year, just as I have for weeks on end.


Top Tens of The Decade With lists still coming in, No Country For Old Men takes the number 1 spot on the chart. But with 13 mentions - together and individually - the Lord of the Rings trilogy is the top vote getter. The Scoreboard The Lists of Lists

2009 Top Tens And The Hurt Locker stands alone. 225 lists, 239 films, and no other film even a close second. The Scoreboard The Lists of Lists

Wilmington on Movies
Extraordinary Measures and Tooth Fairy
by Michael Wilmington

Extraordinary Measures doesn’t yield extraordinary results, or even really measure up. Ford‘s character -- who was concocted to replace the real-life researcher, Dr. Yuan-Tsong Chen—is a little too much of a kneejerk big movie hothead. And though Fraser and Ford play their roles with what seems impassioned commitment, neither rings totally true.

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Pride, Unprejudiced
Fish Tank, The Lovely Bones, Daybreakers and The Imaginarum of Dr. Parnassus
by Ray Pride

Arnold makes many quiet creative choices that enrich her loving, lovely tapestry, but her preference for shooting in the almost square, old-fashioned 1.33 ratio and the snapshot esthetic of some of her lighting suggests memories built from a shoebox of poignant Polaroids. The world is not bleak: there is dance and there are dreams and even in the most dangerous moments, Arnold implies Mia will survive; thrive.

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Frenzy on the Wall
So Long, Old Friend
by Noah Forrest

There are certain filmmakers who come along and completely change your perspective, to the point where you can actually see the dividing line of, “life before this filmmaker entered my life” and subsequently, “life after.” I’ve had only three or four filmmakers who fit this bill. Kubrick is one of them for sure (the first one, when I was 11), then Truffaut followed a few years later and then the next really important one for me was Rohmer. With each of these filmmakers, once I saw but one of their pictures, I knew I needed to devour each and every one of their movies.

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With the Golden Globes this week, the Gurus predict the Best Picture winners, in both the Drama and Musical/Comedy categories.

Meanwhile, Avatar stays at the top fo the Best Picture chart ...

Gurus: January 14

20 Weeks to Oscar
The Blurry Season
by David Poland

If you are wondering why Avatar has become a prohibitive front-runner in the Best Picture race, you are right at the crux of what this season is all about.

There was a lot of really excellent work this year. But there are virtually no "that's The ONE!"; movies, performances, or even below-the-line efforts that scream for an award. The only one that has been right there was Mo'Nique in Precious ... and there is still a very good chance that she will end up winning Oscar. But even that performance is beginning to blur under the strain of time and slowly sliding memory.

Best Picture Chart | Director
Actor/Supporting | Actress/Supporting

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The Ultimate DVD Geek
The Best Blu-Rays and DVDs of 2009
by Doug Pratt

I have chosen James Whale's The Great Garrick as the representative Warner Brothers Archive Collection title—the 'best' of the year—because it was the most serendipitous of the Archive Collection titles I have reviewed. Whale turns out to have been a vastly underrated director who has still not received the credit he is due, despite having been the subject of a feature film and having directed several certifiable masterpieces. The thing is, as each new title of his becomes available on DVD, it too turns out to be a masterpiece.