Review - Midnight In Paris (Allen, 2011) ***

Sometimes I wish I lived through the 1970s, in New York or Chicago, or even Detroit. I wish I could be there in the golden age of Funk and Soul music. A time when it took real musicianship and a real sense of substance to really make it big. But this kind of naivete really never takes me anywhere but back to my own sense of romanticism for that period in music. Such is the paradox in the great Woody Allen's latest film "Midnight In Paris", a charming and satisfying comedy with beautiful photography, a crisply written, tightly plotted script, boasting the finest Owen Wilson performance in a really long time and a thematic eloquence to boot.

Wilson plays Gil Pender, a successful Hollywood screenwriter of many funny, but forgettable films, vacationing in Paris with his fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams, who is absolutely stunning here, but in one-note role) and her vapid right-wing parents. Gil is absolutely smitten with Paris, and is immediately taken with the idea of throwing his cushy Beverly Hills life away in exchange for spending the rest of his days walking in the rain through Paris and writing novels. After a wine-drenched evening with Inez's pretentious, overly flirty friend Paul (Michael Sheen, donning a shockingly good American accent) and his wife, Gil finds himself inexplicably transported back in time to 1920s Paris, where he meets F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, among others that I won't reveal as to spoil the fun.

Devotees of Woody like to separate his films into a number of classes, including minor Woody, funny Woody and classic Woody. What's interesting about this film is that it is a mix of all three. He keeps a nice, steady pace to the proceedings here, lingering enough on character, theme and dashes of his trademark humor to keep things light and fairly engaging. I liked that the plot device of time travel exists not as a gimmicky bludgeon, but more as an extension of Gil's internal struggles as a hopeless romantic torn between the prospects of the seduction and nostalgia of the past and the constant uncertainty of the present. Each character is allowed a moment of memorable poignancy too, as seen in a surprisingly intense monologue about life, death and sex by Woody's version of Ernest Hemingway (played by Television vet Corey Stoll, who absolutely sinks his teeth in here.

Woody's better films of the past two decades (Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona) are at their best when his leads are accompanied by strongly written, directed and acted supporting characters (see Penelope Cruz's Oscar for VCB as proof in the pudding). Here, we have the always ravishing Marion Cotillard as Adriana, Wilson's love interest who, like his character, longs for the beauty of an earlier era. Cotillard, always sumptuous, is radiant here. And like many of Woody's great female roles, Adriana's beauty and scars of the past are the direct cause of her tragic endgame (don't worry, it's not so bad).

In the end though, the film draws to a relatively light, but satisfying conclusion; it's a lesson of embracing the uncertainties rather than living inside a disguise of predictability. The subject matter here is certainly not as dark or cynical or relentlessly depressing as heavy Woody, but leaves a rather positive, uplifting aftertaste. It's nice to know that a filmmaker who has been around as long as Woody (he's 75) can still make films this poignant. "Midnight In Paris" is a short, memorable, romantic lark that has given me the opportunity to coin a new term: Just-plain Woody.

Review - Bridesmaids (Feig, 2011) ***

In an age of dime-a-dozen chick flicks that are completely superficial in their creative and commercial aspirations, director Paul Feig's "Bridesmaids" is refreshingly honest and hilarious, reminding us again of the power of the funny female and the enormous cinematic potential of star Kristen Wiig.

Sporting a terrific script from Wiig and Annie Mumomo, "Bridesmaids" takes us into the life of Annie (Wiig), a broke thirty-something who gets booty called on the regular by a rich asshole (another great Jon Hamm cameo), is about to get thrown out of her apartment by her half-witted British roommates and works a miserable job at a retail jewelery store.

When best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) gets engaged, Annie decides to take up the reins of Maid of Honor and meets Lillian's bridesmaids: Becca, the too innocent for her own good newlywed (Ellie Kemper); perpetually boozy and jaded housewife Rita (Wendi-McLendon Covey); plus-sized party animal Megan (Melissa McCarthy, in the definition of a scene-stealing role); and of course Helen (Rose Byrne) the control-freak trophy wife of Lillian's fiancee's boss and ultimately the film's semi-antagonist, thwarting Annie's every endeavor with a transparent tinge of condescension.

Strung together by a loose, episodic structure similar to "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (another Apatow production), the film maintains dramatic escalation by means of letting all of Annie's failures, missteps and awkwardness inform her inability to perform as Lillian's Maid of Honor; Wiig gives Annie a spectacular display of drunkenness on a flight to Vegas that is absolutely uproarious. We root for Annie because she's a smart, attractive woman and we know that her incompetence at this stage of her life is due to previous heartbreak.

Director Feig gets most of the credit for the film's substantive feel. He allows his female stars the ability to stay improvisational inside the bodies of these fleshed out, honest characters, and we love them all the more because of their natural reactions and attitudes. But this is also the film's weakest trait; some scenes are very fatty with dialogue and gags such as an engagement party one-up-a-thon between Wiig and Byrne get dragged out to an unnecessary length.

"Bridesmaids" is a blast and a great reminder that the female condition is a lot funnier and more nuanced than most (both gals and dudes) would like to believe. This is truly a breakout vehicle for Kristen Wiig and a solid entry in the realm of Apatow-style character driven comedies.

HOT DOCS 2011 - REVIEWS FROM TWITTER

Will I one day hopefully write long-form reviews of some of these? Probably. I'll have to see BEAUTY DAY one more time to confirm its greatness.

And now without further ado, by rating:

Beauty Day (Cheel, 2011) ***** A big, real story about a dude who lives life to the limit. Uproarious, tender and perfectly shot.

Black Power Mixtape (Olsson, 2011) **** Forgotten Swedish footage of black militant leaders is powerful, rousing & inspirational.

Project Nim (Marsh, 2011) **** Well paced, epic tale about an intelligent Chimp & tragic human flaws. An emotional rollercoaster.

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest (Rapaport, 2011) **** Plays out like a great Tribe track: intense, funky and full of life.

Hell and Back Again (Dennis, 2011) **** Engrossing, brutal doc captures claustrophobic effects of war at home and on frontlines.

Kumare (Ghandi, 2011) *** - Inspiring Borat-like doc with solid yogic philosophy linked into plot and character. Funny & gorgeous.

Magic Trip (Gibney & Elwood, 2011) *** Impressively edited look at Merry Prankster's trip across US with a memorable LSD sequence.

A Simple Rhythm (Girard, 2011) ** Intelligent thesis hampered by wavy pacing. Neglects opportunity for more kinetic storytelling.

The Castle (D'Anolfi & Parenti, 2011) * Mind-numbingly slow & indulgent behind the scenes look at Milan airport misses the mark.

Review - Rango (Verbinski, 2011) ****

Not only is director Gore Verbinski's (Pirates of the Carribean trilogy, The Ring) first animated feature "Rango" a sensual pleasure of the highest order, it's a truly original surrealist-western adventure with pitch-perfect voice acting and brilliant thematic invention.

Johnny Depp voices the titular character; at first a nameless, identity deprived Chameleon with a penchant for dramatics, who through a set of extremely odd circumstances and well crafted tales of grandeur, ends up as the Sheriff in the town of "Dirt", a water-deprived, grungy, bizarre place inhabited by equally bizarre anthropomorphized Western film archetypes.

Depp, leading an (unexpectedly) brilliant voice cast including Isla Fisher, Harry Dean Stanton and Ray Winstone, is virtually unrecognizable here. Totally throwing himself into this role despite this being an animated film, Depp creates an entirely original voice; Rango is a three-dimensional (even though the film is not *GASP* presented in 3D), memorable and oddly sympathetic character, among the many others in this film.

Perhaps the film's biggest strength is the detailed and gorgeous rendering and animation, done by George Lucas' ILM in their first animated feature. The creatures populated throughout the film's desert environment, all strange desert morphs of western archetypes, including Bill Nighy's menacing chaingun-tail-equipped Rattle Snake Jake and a huge squadron of thieving redneck-like moles, all move with a believable grace. The cinematography and lighting, advised by Coen Bros favorite Roger Deakins, creates a lush, almost photo-real look to the environments and characters, and adds to the metaphysics of the film's original-but-classic western feel.

But while on the surface, this Nickelodeon-produced film may seem geared toward imagination-inclined kids, and it is, Verbinski has actually created a subtly self-reflexive story that is best swallowed by mature filmgoers who will swoon over the myriad Western/Sergio Leone allusions. And while the intense gunplay and surrealistic fever dream sequences may frighten younger viewers, "Rango" is a fun, gorgeous, metaphysical journey through Western film history, with a thematic resonance that is at once comforting and familiar, but ultimately deeply human.

Review - Four Lions (Morris, 2010) * * *

The word Jihad gets tossed around so much these days, who is to say what it actually means? Do we think of horrific violence perpetrated by bloodthirsty terrorists? Or perhaps some may think of their own personal quest for justice. Well the truth is that one's actions will always speak louder than the words that society has chosen to define them; the central premise behind UK comedy vet Chris Morris' hilarious and fascinating black-comic satire "Four Lions".

Following five bumbling Muslim men as they go through all the necessary steps to reach their goal of putting together the ultimate plan to blow themselves up and ignite the "final holy war", the film shares a kinship with such classic topical satires as "Dr. Strangelove" and even the Marx Brothers' screwball war comedy "Duck Soup". Each man is more bumbling than the last: There's protagonist Omar (Riz Ahmed), a loving family man with Jihadi aspirations, Barry, the token white extremist, Waj, the handsome idiot, Faisal, an impressionable fool, and Hassan, the new guy who is in way over his head.

Morris' film takes us through all the standard familiar staples of Jihad that we've all read about or seen in movies or documentaries, but somehow humanizes them by adding a thick layer of incompetence to the proceedings; the film opens with a hilariously inept attempt at an amateur Jihad-threat video. As the film progresses and the guys find themselves plotting a final grand plan to explode themselves amidst a populated London marathon, things take an inevitable turn for the darkly violent.

There are a number of moments in "Four Lions" that are poignant in their depiction of the human and political costs of terrorism; a scene involving snipers mistaking the bombers for civilians is terrifying but uproarious at the same time. Scenes like these give the film a unique power, but are rare and are mostly piled up near the end of the film. At 97 minutes, "Four Lions" is quite breezy and fast considering the subject matter. As a hilarious exploration of the inherent dumbness of extremism in modern society and a rare human take on the war on terror, Morris' film is a success. With the silliness toned down a bit and perhaps a sharper edge, it could have been a classic.

Review - True Grit (Coens, 2010) * * * *

It is pretty much resolved that the Coen Brothers could create a beautiful cinematic experience out of paint drying. In their latest opus "True Grit", the intrepid duo re-interpret a classic Charles Portis novel (already filmed in 1969 featuring an Oscar winning performance by John Wayne in the lead role) set in the Wild West and manage to inject it with enough heart, ugly beauty and trademark wit to create a piece of work all their own.

Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld plays 14-year-old Mattie Ross, a stern, focused young woman who embarks on a quest to avenge her daddy's death at the hands of Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin, again proving he's at his best working with the Coen Brothers). Along for the ride is Jeff Bridges in another hugely memorable performance as Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn, a surly but violently determined U.S Marshal, and LaBoeuf, an insecure Texas Ranger played with grace and a fair dollop of intensity by Matt Damon.

And while the acting as a whole is uniformly outstanding, the standout elements here are the uncompromising strength of the writing, direction, and sumptuous camera work from Roger Deakins. A scene involving Steinfeld's Ross bargaining with a nervous trader is just such classic Coen brothers and reminded me of the legendary gas station scene with Javier Bardem from "No Country For Old Men"; even in close personal exchanges, the Coens can put us through the emotional wringer with just a little pitch-perfect editing, finely tuned acting and crackling dialogue.

This is also an uncompromisingly violent film, despite its PG-13 rating. Thematically, the Coens plumb familiar depths here, but this film is almost like a populist "No Country For Old Men": The grey areas of human violence are once again explored, but where "No Country" was cold, detatched and contemplative, this film is personal, warm and quite human.

Some viewers should take discretion in that a lot of the dialogue (especially that of Bridges' perpetually drunk Cogburn) is unintelligible, but thanks to Steinfeld's measured performance and the Coens' meticulous attention to all the details, "True Grit" is the best old-school western in recent memory.

Review - Blue Valentine (Cianfrance, 2010) * * * *

I love movies that force me to follow them into an abyss of uncertainty or even a kind of mysterious ambiguity. Derek Cianfrance's "Blue Valentine" does exactly that, but in a much more emotionally manipulative way than most films that consciously leave plot details, or in this case, conclusions, unclear. The film takes the old adage that "love is blind" and forces us to hinge on both the negative and positive aspects of it.

Cianfrance, whom apparently spent numerous years writing the script and choreographing the visual style of the film, throws us into the lives of Dean (Ryan Gosling, in another bravura-knockout role) and Cindy (Michelle Williams, also fantastic, in an Oscar nominated role), a married couple with a small daughter, currently on the sexual rocks of their relationship. We move back in time with them too, witnessing the birth of their relationship; the passionate intensity that informed their early sexual encounters.

In both time-frames we are forced to consider a number of questions: In the earlier setting we ask what extent idealism is informing Dean and Cindy's early notions of true love, and in the latter, we begin to question what happens when that idealism fades away and reality sets in. Essentially, the film forces viewers to witness the creation of a prototypical version of love, then its destruction.

This film has been subject to some weirdly intense controversy regarding its sex scenes. In this reviewer's view, there is no controversy; the sex scenes in this film (especially the controversial one in question) are pretty much un-erotic for the viewer. They remain cold, and objective.

I saw this film too late, in early 2011. It's certainly one of the best films of last year and a very challenging, impeccably made, acted and written love-drama.

Let's hope Cianfrance is someone we can look forward to in the future.

-CC