10. Inside Job
The financial crisis of 2008 screwed just about everyone, everywhere. By now most of us are vividly aware of the tale of the Wall Street greedsters and real estate hucksters that took the world down. But Charles Ferguson’s powerful and speedy documentary plunges us deep into the political underworld where real government ends and vampire capitalists begin. In doing so he creates one of the passionately angry docs of the year.
The financial crisis of 2008 screwed just about everyone, everywhere. By now most of us are vividly aware of the tale of the Wall Street greedsters and real estate hucksters that took the world down. But Charles Ferguson’s powerful and speedy documentary plunges us deep into the political underworld where real government ends and vampire capitalists begin. In doing so he creates one of the passionately angry docs of the year.
9. Toy Story 3
I remember the day I saw the first “Toy Story” film. The story of that day is relatively banal and probably a little cheesy, but the point is that the super-geniuses at Pixar have done something that even some of our more accomplished filmmakers today struggle with: Recreating youth. Director Lee Unkrich’s film not only stays consistently rich and inventive with its imagery and narrative drive, but with its dedication to the warm center of the human heart as well.
I remember the day I saw the first “Toy Story” film. The story of that day is relatively banal and probably a little cheesy, but the point is that the super-geniuses at Pixar have done something that even some of our more accomplished filmmakers today struggle with: Recreating youth. Director Lee Unkrich’s film not only stays consistently rich and inventive with its imagery and narrative drive, but with its dedication to the warm center of the human heart as well.
8. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Ever since this 24 year old Torontonian can remember, video games and movies and women and Rock and fuckin’ Roll have always been an integral part of his life. If only there was some sort of kick-ass film that could roll all those things together in a package that would inevitably be injected into his cerebral cortex...wait. Yeah, Edgar Wright just did that didn’t he? Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a movie that has defined a generation of kids. The scene where Scott Pilgrim (Brampton’s own Michael Cera) walks down his high school hallway, following his dream girl Ramona Flowers (a deliciously rebellious Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to the tune of the fairy theme from “The Legend of Zelda” on SNES, melted my brain and sucked my emotions into a cinematic vacuum cleaner.
Ever since this 24 year old Torontonian can remember, video games and movies and women and Rock and fuckin’ Roll have always been an integral part of his life. If only there was some sort of kick-ass film that could roll all those things together in a package that would inevitably be injected into his cerebral cortex...wait. Yeah, Edgar Wright just did that didn’t he? Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a movie that has defined a generation of kids. The scene where Scott Pilgrim (Brampton’s own Michael Cera) walks down his high school hallway, following his dream girl Ramona Flowers (a deliciously rebellious Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to the tune of the fairy theme from “The Legend of Zelda” on SNES, melted my brain and sucked my emotions into a cinematic vacuum cleaner.
7. The Ghost Writer
Say what one might about Roman Polanski, the guy still knows how to creep his way under our skin. His latest, with standout performances from the entire cast including Ewan McGregor, Olivia Williams, Kim Kattral and a never-better Pierce Brosnan, is a political-conspiracy-thriller with a plot that operates like clockwork. Polanski is still a master of understated detail and finesse. Released at the beginning of the year, it was passed over by the movie going public, but as far as star-studded art house pics go, this one is a barnburner.
Say what one might about Roman Polanski, the guy still knows how to creep his way under our skin. His latest, with standout performances from the entire cast including Ewan McGregor, Olivia Williams, Kim Kattral and a never-better Pierce Brosnan, is a political-conspiracy-thriller with a plot that operates like clockwork. Polanski is still a master of understated detail and finesse. Released at the beginning of the year, it was passed over by the movie going public, but as far as star-studded art house pics go, this one is a barnburner.
6. 127 Hours
For years I’ve been saying “only Danny Boyle.” Only Danny Boyle could take a flick about Aron Ralston, an alpha-male-adventurer (and Phish fan) who gets his arm trapped in a boulder down in the unexplored depths of the Utah mountainscape - and eventually has to saw it off with a dull blade - and turns it into another visually masterful, kinetic and intelligent experience. Also James Franco delivers one of his best performances ever.
For years I’ve been saying “only Danny Boyle.” Only Danny Boyle could take a flick about Aron Ralston, an alpha-male-adventurer (and Phish fan) who gets his arm trapped in a boulder down in the unexplored depths of the Utah mountainscape - and eventually has to saw it off with a dull blade - and turns it into another visually masterful, kinetic and intelligent experience. Also James Franco delivers one of his best performances ever.
5. Black Swan
No other actor or actress put themselves through the shit like Natalie Portman in Darren Aronofsky’s latest film: A psycho-sexual-ballet-horror-thriller where Ms. Portman is required to lose all the weight off her bones, dance like a professional, and experience an intensely schizophrenic episode, where reality meshes with pure unadulterated nightmarishness. Some have called it one of the trashiest films of the year, but I think it’s great because it’s one of the most trippy, philosophically beautiful, but yeah, trashy films I’ve ever seen. Also Portman and Mila Kunis get it on. Ticket price = earned.
No other actor or actress put themselves through the shit like Natalie Portman in Darren Aronofsky’s latest film: A psycho-sexual-ballet-horror-thriller where Ms. Portman is required to lose all the weight off her bones, dance like a professional, and experience an intensely schizophrenic episode, where reality meshes with pure unadulterated nightmarishness. Some have called it one of the trashiest films of the year, but I think it’s great because it’s one of the most trippy, philosophically beautiful, but yeah, trashy films I’ve ever seen. Also Portman and Mila Kunis get it on. Ticket price = earned.
4. Winnebago Man
Watch this clip before reading this review: http://bit.ly/9MOVmB
Jack Rebney is the Winnebago Man. He’s also a human being. Director Ben Steinbauer started out making a documentary about the sociological effects and dangers associated with becoming an Internet celebrity and ended up gaining access to the soul of a once great, broken man who had lost faith in modern society. Rebney is an absolute character; a man who wields words with a brilliant voice and an even more brilliant vulgarity. A hilarious film that eventually becomes so upliftingly powerful, you won’t know whether to laugh or cry. Seriously.
Watch this clip before reading this review: http://bit.ly/9MOVmB
Jack Rebney is the Winnebago Man. He’s also a human being. Director Ben Steinbauer started out making a documentary about the sociological effects and dangers associated with becoming an Internet celebrity and ended up gaining access to the soul of a once great, broken man who had lost faith in modern society. Rebney is an absolute character; a man who wields words with a brilliant voice and an even more brilliant vulgarity. A hilarious film that eventually becomes so upliftingly powerful, you won’t know whether to laugh or cry. Seriously.
3. The Social Network
Absolutely no one thought this movie would work. On paper, director David Fincher’s team was stacked: Sorkin, Eisenberg and Timberlake were on board and ready to go. Only thing was, it was the “Facebook movie.” And due to the nature of the billion-dollar social network beast, that meant a lot of things to a lot of people. Then the movie came out and we were all caught off guard. That’s because the final product resembled something more of a adrenaline shot to the brain wrapped in an exquisitely shot, acted and written film about the nature of truth and communication in the digital age. If it were up to me, Fincher, Eisenberg and Trent Reznor would already have their Oscars.
Absolutely no one thought this movie would work. On paper, director David Fincher’s team was stacked: Sorkin, Eisenberg and Timberlake were on board and ready to go. Only thing was, it was the “Facebook movie.” And due to the nature of the billion-dollar social network beast, that meant a lot of things to a lot of people. Then the movie came out and we were all caught off guard. That’s because the final product resembled something more of a adrenaline shot to the brain wrapped in an exquisitely shot, acted and written film about the nature of truth and communication in the digital age. If it were up to me, Fincher, Eisenberg and Trent Reznor would already have their Oscars.
2. Enter The Void
Inside every human mind is an ability to see things; but have you ever asked yourself what else there is to see beyond your own mind? Gaspar Noe’s trip-out of visually explosive proportions reaches new psychedelic heights and treads fascinating philosophical territories. The film, which entered the festival circuit at Cannes 2009 and has been dividing audiences (par the course for eccentric frenchman director, Noe) ever since, finally seeing a full release in late 2010.
Virtually unseen apart from art-house and Noe fans, the film follows Oscar (newcomer Nathaniel Brown), a drug dealer living in Tokyo with his Stripper sister Linda (Boardwalk Empire’s Paz De La Huerta). After an intense trip on DMT (one of the most powerful hallucinogens existing today) and some discussion about the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Oscar is killed in a drug raid.
Disclosing that information however, does not give away much of this film’s “plot”; all of this happens in the first 30 minutes. What happens in the next two hours is a very strange but hypnotic trip through time, space, sex, drugs, life, death and ultimately, rebirth. Gaspar Noe worships at the feet of Stanley Kubrick; he is a filmmaker much more interested in taking his audience on a cinematic trip rather than a structural path. You might hate it, you might love it, you might fall asleep, but like Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”, it is a trip worth taking a chance on.
Inside every human mind is an ability to see things; but have you ever asked yourself what else there is to see beyond your own mind? Gaspar Noe’s trip-out of visually explosive proportions reaches new psychedelic heights and treads fascinating philosophical territories. The film, which entered the festival circuit at Cannes 2009 and has been dividing audiences (par the course for eccentric frenchman director, Noe) ever since, finally seeing a full release in late 2010.
Virtually unseen apart from art-house and Noe fans, the film follows Oscar (newcomer Nathaniel Brown), a drug dealer living in Tokyo with his Stripper sister Linda (Boardwalk Empire’s Paz De La Huerta). After an intense trip on DMT (one of the most powerful hallucinogens existing today) and some discussion about the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Oscar is killed in a drug raid.
Disclosing that information however, does not give away much of this film’s “plot”; all of this happens in the first 30 minutes. What happens in the next two hours is a very strange but hypnotic trip through time, space, sex, drugs, life, death and ultimately, rebirth. Gaspar Noe worships at the feet of Stanley Kubrick; he is a filmmaker much more interested in taking his audience on a cinematic trip rather than a structural path. You might hate it, you might love it, you might fall asleep, but like Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”, it is a trip worth taking a chance on.
1. Inception
In my review for Chessmaster Nolan’s superhero/crime opus “The Dark Knight” I proclaimed that Christopher Nolan scared me. Even though TDK was an absolute beast of a film, grossing over a billion dollars, something told me that he was capable of making something even “bigger.” His latest perfectly shot, perfectly acted, fully realized labyrinthine action-adventure wasn’t exactly a box office behemoth like TDK (despite the $823 mil it took in worldwide), but it did manage to solidify Nolan’s ability to step his game up successfully, even in the face of enormous critical and industry hype.
The plot and thematic implications of Inception are almost too complex to describe in a few sentences. One might be able to categorize it simply as just another “is this real?” flick with great production values and huge stars, but in reality it is so much more. It is an exploration of the effects time and altered consciousness have on the human mind...in a world where both can be manipulated quite easily. In this world, the lines between dreams and reality are routinely blurred, and those who control all the wealth, power and intelligence are the only ones who can walk those lines carefully (or can they?).
This is also a daring, but beautifully crafted, film. Longtime Nolan DOP Wally Pfister, Production Designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, Editor Lee Smith and Director Nolan work together on an almost symphonic level to create some of the most gorgeously rendered city dreamscapes ever seen on film. Smith’s editing in particular is crucial to the piece; Nolan’s use of slow motion and viscerally jarring cuts only adds to the experience of moving through dream-time with these characters. Those who have seen the film can attest to the falling van sequence and its beyond-words intense value to the last 40 minutes of this uncannily brilliant film.
Christopher Nolan scares me. Not because he made the best film he’s ever made, stuffed with ideas and themes at once metaphysical, existential and ultimately, human. No. It’s because the next Batman film could possibly be better.
In my review for Chessmaster Nolan’s superhero/crime opus “The Dark Knight” I proclaimed that Christopher Nolan scared me. Even though TDK was an absolute beast of a film, grossing over a billion dollars, something told me that he was capable of making something even “bigger.” His latest perfectly shot, perfectly acted, fully realized labyrinthine action-adventure wasn’t exactly a box office behemoth like TDK (despite the $823 mil it took in worldwide), but it did manage to solidify Nolan’s ability to step his game up successfully, even in the face of enormous critical and industry hype.
The plot and thematic implications of Inception are almost too complex to describe in a few sentences. One might be able to categorize it simply as just another “is this real?” flick with great production values and huge stars, but in reality it is so much more. It is an exploration of the effects time and altered consciousness have on the human mind...in a world where both can be manipulated quite easily. In this world, the lines between dreams and reality are routinely blurred, and those who control all the wealth, power and intelligence are the only ones who can walk those lines carefully (or can they?).
This is also a daring, but beautifully crafted, film. Longtime Nolan DOP Wally Pfister, Production Designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, Editor Lee Smith and Director Nolan work together on an almost symphonic level to create some of the most gorgeously rendered city dreamscapes ever seen on film. Smith’s editing in particular is crucial to the piece; Nolan’s use of slow motion and viscerally jarring cuts only adds to the experience of moving through dream-time with these characters. Those who have seen the film can attest to the falling van sequence and its beyond-words intense value to the last 40 minutes of this uncannily brilliant film.
Christopher Nolan scares me. Not because he made the best film he’s ever made, stuffed with ideas and themes at once metaphysical, existential and ultimately, human. No. It’s because the next Batman film could possibly be better.
