The Cinephile Fix

Calling David O. Russell’s The Silver Linings Playbook the best romantic comedy of the year would be an understatement. I don’t remember the last time I wholly enjoyed watching a generic romance as much as I did here. Mark my words: when the Academy Awards announce their nominations next week, The Silver Linings Playbook will make a very strong appearance in most major categories.

If this film isn’t nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, I’ll lose my faith in the Oscars. I refuse to call it a chick flick because it’s meant to be enjoyed by both genders. If there’s one film you will see this week, make it this heartwarming tale of love, joy and forgiveness.

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence command the screen with natural chemistry that will leave you wanting more. Time flies when you’re having fun, and this is a solid exemplar of this saying. Clocking at over two hours, The Silver Linings Playbook feels more like thirty minutes. I simply did not want to take my eyes off the characters I so warmly embraced and grew to love. You’ll walk out the theatre in an upbeat mood with a wide grin carving your face for the remainder of your day.

Pat (Bradley Cooper) plays a young man fresh out of a mental institution. During his stint in the hospital, he lost everything, including his wife, job and house. As depressing as this may seem, Pat refuses to give in to depression, for he believes that by staying positive, everything will work out in the end. In comes, Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), the girl next door who, like him, isn’t 100% stable either. They come to an agreement to help each other get what they want. In his case, it’s his wife back. As for her, she only needs a partner to enter a dance competition.

There’s a humanity in this film that seems scarce nowadays. The dialogue in this film is phenomenal. It’ll have you laughing out loud one second, and silently wiping tears from your eyes the next. Perfectly timed spurts of dialogue sound genuinely witty, because they seem to come out of character rather than a screenwriter’s sense of humor. Chris Tucker makes a welcome return to the screen as a mental institution escapee who always comes out of nowhere, adding a sense of unpredictability to the movie.

But if there’s one performance that deserves most of the praise, it’s the bittersweet performance of the legendary Robert De Niro. He plays an Eagles fanatic desperately trying to reconnect with his son, Pat. De Niro is, in my opinion, the most talented actor to ever grace this planet. He has acted in more classics than anyone out there and here Bobby D proves his versatility has no boundaries. While his choices of films have been somewhat disappointing as of late, De Niro reminds us that he’s still the master of his domain.

The Silver Linings Playbook follows the same formula of every other romantic comedy out there, but it follows it so well, you’ll understand why it became a formula in the first place. The dialogue is fast, unexpected and honest; the performances are marvelous, and the pace is outstanding. The Silver Linings Playbook is a slapstick comedy that ranks up there with the best of Hollywood’s long-forgotten classics. David O. Russell managed to create one of the best feel-good treasures in a long time.

In 2008, Katheryn Bigelow became the first female director to bag a Best Director Oscar for her Iraq war drama, The Hurt Locker. This year, she’s a strong contender to be the first female director to win two Best Director Academy Awards. Although not as intimate and personal as The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty is a magnificent achievement of epic proportions, and I can’t imagine how this film could’ve turned out any better.

It chronicles around the greatest manhunt in human history, the long search for Osama Bin Laden. The film focuses on the single-minded determination of Maya to locate the terrorist. In that sense, it works both as a character study and a report on the incidents leading to perhaps CIA’s most accomplished mission.

There probably isn’t a single viewer out there who doesn’t know how this film ends, but make no mistake, this is one of the most suspenseful films of the year thanks to Bigelow’s concentrated, intense pacing. There’s always a threat of a characters losing their lives in this long dedicated attempt to bring an end to the world’s most wanted man. Zero Dark Thirty spans a decade from the horrific events of 9/11 to the Navy SEAL raid on Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The scenes of that operation will have you gasping for air. They feel authentic, realistic and accurate.

Even though the film has been criticized for promoting torture as a method of interrogation, I beg to differ. In fact, if anything the film shows that torture was not the primary force that led to Bin Laden’s death, but rather careful monitoring and a deep understanding of how Al Qaeda’s network works.

The film benefits from a strong cast lead by the great Jessica Chastain. Chastain is a remarkable actress who seems to have come out of nowhere to take Hollywood by storm with her sudden workaholic-like attitude towards acting. Last year alone she gave six powerful performances in films that gained much critical acclaim. Two of those films ended up battling against one another at the Oscars, and this year Zero Dark Thirty is an even bigger threat to the big prize than anything she’s did last year.

The young actress was discovered and handpicked by Al Pacino for a reason. Chastain already has a second shot at Oscar glory since her momentous breakthrough last year. It’s great to see female actresses and, particularly, directors being taken seriously in Hollywood. Here, Bigelow shows the world that her directorial effort in The Hurt Locker was not a one hit wonder and Chastain carries a rather heavy film effortlessly on her shoulders.

I don’t know how much of Zero Dark Thirty is fact or fiction, what I do know is that it’s most definitely one of the year’s best films. Even if it’s not a great historic retrospective piece, it’s hard to argue against this being a great movie. The long quest to end the reign of Osama Bin Laden is brought to life in horrific detail; at the film’s most climatic scene, you’ll forget you’re even watching a movie.

Robert Zemeckis is no stranger to filming horrific air disasters. His last-live action film, Cast Awayfeatured a memorable plane crash and this makes him the perfect man for the job. He ups the ante in Flight by opening his film with the longest plane crash I’ve ever seen. I personally think the crash in this year’s earlier release, The Grey was much more realistic and therefore more terrifying, but it’s not nearly as epic and cinematic as the one portrayed here.

Denzel Washington delivers one of the year’s strongest performances as Whip Whitaker, a pilot struggling with alcohol addiction. The film takes off with Whitaker drinking the night before (and the morning of) a flight that goes horribly wrong due to problems with the engine. We also see him drinking during the flight itself. Technically though, Whitaker evens things out by snorting cocaine. He knows exactly what he’s doing.

 

In other words, he single handedly redefined the definition of being high by literally flying 30,000 feet off-ground and, figuratively speaking, being in a whole other state of mind.  The things people do on coke, I tell you; one minute you’re sniffing white powder, the next you’re intentionally flipping a JR-88 full of passengers upside down. That’s right, Whitaker purposely inverts the plane to break a free-fall and his miraculous feat saves almost everyone onboard.

A few days later, Whitaker attempts to quit everything. He pours alcohol down the sink and flushes a bag of weed down the toilet (a shot many will find every bit as shocking as the actual plane crash). Anyway, the rest of the film plays more like a character study of an alcoholic. I think the point wasn’t to show an impressive plane crash, but rather symbolically portray the psychological journey of an alcoholic.

Alcoholics often seek help after they’ve done something terribly wrong, be it cheating on a loved one, saying something extremely inappropriate, or luckily escaping death. Flight is an allegory for that journey, the crash is a metaphor for the disaster that often serves as a wake-up call, and everything that follows is more or less about finding the courage to take responsibility for your actions.

 

The film always seems to dwell on the question of whether Whitaker deserves to be hailed a hero, or should be set as an example never to pilot a plane while intoxicated.  On the one hand, you have a lawyer and the survivors fighting for him. On the other, there’s the aircraft manufacturer desperately trying to push the blame on someone other than itself.

Whitaker did save a lot of lives, but he also deserves to be charged. Should he really face life in prison for risking the lives of over a hundred souls the moment he sat in that cockpit both drunk and high? Or should he be given a medal for accomplishing something that no other pilot has achieved successfully in flight simulation?

What’s really going to burst your bubble is, would he have the balls to pull of this crazy stunt if he wasn’t high on cocaine? Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying hitting at least four lines of coke should be a piloting prerequisite, I’m merely saying that if, God-forbid, I was on a plane that was going nose-down, I want my pilot to be as high as a freaking kite.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey takes us back to the fertile lands of Middle Earth, a make-believe world of wizards, orcs, hobbits, dwarfs, dragons, and goblins. The film is the first entry in a trilogy of prequels to The Lord of the Rings, arguably the most beloved fantasy franchise of our time. With Peter Jackson make in helm, it follows the same tone and mise-en-scene of the Rings trilogy. We are introduced to new characters, but it’s ultimately the presence of some of the familiar characters that warms our heart.

The film kicks off with a prologue that nicely ties this new trilogy with the latter entries. Like Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, it starts with Gandalf the Grey visiting the peaceful land of Hobbits, the Shire. He assembles a carefully picked group of odd characters to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which we learn was taken by a fearsome dragon known as Smaug.

The pack is lead by the legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshield, who takes on a role similar to that of Aargon of The Lord of the Rings. We learn that after the dwarfs fled their inflamed mountain; they wandered Middle-Earth helpless and homeless. They never settled for a land, and it is Thorin who single-handedly kept them safe in battles against Orcs.

However, at the center of the tale is Bilbo Baggins, played marvelously by Martin Freeman. One thing this film has going for it is a much more likable central character than the Rings trilogy. Unlike Elijah Wood’s whiny portrayal of Frodo, Freeman is witty, charming, humorous, and a joy to watch.

Clocking at nearly three hours, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey covers the first third of the book. Don’t let that turn you off though, for this makes room for a lot of character development and Jackson fills it with extended battle sequences. The film is in every sense a feast to the eye, with state-of-the-art CGI and breathtaking landscapes.

I imagine many filmgoers will walk into this film with extremely high expectations. Make no mistake, the mood and essence of the Lord of the Rings lingers with you throughout the picture thanks to Howard Shore’s similar score; yet, to fully appreciate this film, you’ll have to tone down your expectations. The Hobbit is less epic, more lighthearted and humorous than the original trilogy. Instead of endless armies of Orcs, for example, the threat is more or less a gang of Orcs. I have a feeling the films will get a lot darker as the trilogy progresses on, as was the case previously.

One thing that always puzzled me about the Tolkien adventures is how at the most critical moment, Gandalf seems to come out of nowhere rescuing his mates with large eagle like creatures who pick up our characters and drop them off at a safer place.

Now, we know the film largely relies on it being a journey where characters walk through hell to reach their ultimate destination, but wouldn’t it be a lot easier if those bird-like creatures just flew them all the way to their destination? I suppose this is a plot hole I’m willing to dismiss, because we wouldn’t have an adventurous tale if it were that easy (which it is).  Still, unlike its title, the first of the Hobbit films is very much an expected journey and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

 

Three directors working today know the crime genre better anyone. Martin Scorsese understands the criminal mind like no other; Michael Mann’s visceral work shows a deep understanding of the grey area where cops and criminals merge. His work is probably my favorite of the three; the psychological chess game where both criminal and detective have a deep unspoken respect for one another has always fascinated me more than anything. However, when it comes to the workings of the police department, it’s hard to argue that anyone portrays it more realistically than David Ayer.

Ayer’s first writing credit is the accomplished Training Day. His body of work shows that the power of the badge often drives cops to corruption. The one thing Harsh Times, Street Kings, Dark Blueand Training Day have in common is people of authority abusing their powers. With End of Watch, Ayer delves into the flip side of that coin. It’s a real love letter to the force, in particular, the good honest cops who risk their lives everyday to make their city a safer place for everyone.

 

This is a real challenge since the conventions of the genre have almost neglected their existence. InEnd of Watch, no one is breaking any rules. This is a micro-storyline, following Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his partner Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) as they drive by the city in patrol. Through their natural and often humorous conversations between jobs, we learn more about the men behind the badges. Ayer uses this intimacy to make his viewers care for his characters. It’s a smart move because the more we care for them, the more we fear for their fates.

End of Watch is shot in that shaky handy-cam style and this is one those rare cases where the film benefits from the realism of the documentary like style of film-making. The film’s only flaw is the source of this footage. While we’re sold on the idea of a cop filming his adventures, it’s hard to believe that criminals are doing the same. In fact, every chapter seems to be filmed by someone within the scene. At first it becomes distracting, but eventually, I embraced its purpose. After all, most of the real car chases, arrests gone wrong and conflicts we see on TV are shown old through hidden, CCTV-like footage.

 

While the film doesn’t follow a particular plotline, things eventually pick off when our main characters are marked for death by the cartel after they bust drugs, money, and firearms during a routine call. The film is extremely hard-hitting. It’s both humorous and downright heartbreaking at the same time. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I feared for the fate of characters on screen like I did here. I was completely absorbed, on the edge, and praying for a good outcome that only seemed more unlikely as things escalated to the slap in the face of an ending.

We’re approaching the end of the year, which means we get to see all the treasures studios have been saving up for Oscar season. End of Watch is the best cop drama in years; it’s a triumph and perhaps David Ayer’s best work yet. It’s not for the faint of heart though, and I must throw this out there. End of Watch is the real deal; graphic, shocking and gritty. If you’re still not convinced to see this film, I’ll let the powerful opening narration be your deciding factor:

 

“I am the police, and I’m here to arrest you. You’ve broken the law. I did not write the law. I may disagree with the law but I will enforce it. No matter how you plead, cajole, beg or attempt to stir my sympathy, nothing you do will stop me from placing you in a steel cage with gray bars. If you run away, I will chase you. If you fight me, I will fight back. If you shoot at me, I will shoot back. By law I am unable to walk away. I am a consequence. I am the unpaid bill. I am fate with a badge and a gun. Behind my badge is a heart like yours. I bleed, I think, I love, and yes, I can be killed. And although I am but one man, I have thousands of brothers and sisters who are the same as me. They will lay down their lives for me and I them. We stand watch together. The thin-blue-line, protecting the prey from the predators, the good from the bad. We are the police.”

I was always a sucker for time-travel movies. It was never the idea of traveling to another era that fascinated me, but rather the mind-bending paradoxes that materialise from baffling scenarios of crafty science fiction. I remember as a kid, the Terminator paradox kept me up many nights. Kyle Reese is sent back in time by John Connor to save the life of Sarah Connor. Reese falls in love with Sarah and impregnates her with a son, John Connor. So how can future John Connor send him back if Reese dies before that happens? This stuff drove me nuts; it still does.

The subgenre of hardcore science fiction is a dying breed. Today most science fiction movies lack this type of awe-inspiring philosophical depth. We get a laser show, explosions, futuristic devices, flying cars and that’s about it. Fortunately every once in a while we’re blessed with a nostalgic return to the thoughtful genre. Duncan Jones’ vastly overlooked Moon comes to mind. Blade Runner, The Matrix, Dark City, 12 Monkeys, Minority Report and Inception made good use of the genre’s conventions by exploring the philosophical opportunities. The latest member to join the club is Rian Johnson’s Looper.

Here’s a time-travel film that focuses on complex story rather than fancy effects. The film takes place in a plausible future where security seems nonexistent. Thugs lurk within the filthy streets of an anarchic city. Not surprisingly, everyone seems to own a gun, and the masses use eyedropper drugs to escape the milieu of their dystopia.

The year is 2044. Time travel hasn’t been invented yet, but thirty years later it will be accessible. Despite being declared illegal, crime syndicates use it to get rid of whomever they want. The way things work is, you have a special hitman called a ‘looper’. He waits at a specific time and place. The gangsters from the future send their victim to the past, a man materialises from thin air, gets the shotgun treatment and voilà the job is done. It’s a quick, clean and efficient system, but all hell breaks loose when Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is forced to kill his older self played by Bruce Willis.

The number one rule of being a looper is you never let your target escape, even if it’s your future self. When you finally do (not knowingly) terminate your (older) self, the loop is complete. You spend the remainder of your days blowing off money until the day comes when you’re sent back to get terminated. In other words, it’s the most creatively badass suicide depiction on film.

Anyhow, the whole system is at stake when older Joe escapes from younger Joe. We see a number of alternate timelines but Johnson’s screenplay neatly ties everything at the end. I was very impressed by the thought that went into constructing this nonlinear story line, and even more so by the frenetic original score.

Reminiscent of Josh Brolin’s uncanny performance as a younger Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black 3, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is almost unrecognizable here. It’s not all makeup though; Levitt fluently imitates the facial ticks, expressions, and voice of the iconic action star.

The only weak point I found was an unnecessary add-on of supernatural elements to a central character. This didn’t ruin the experience for me, but it makes the film fall short of greatness. In a time when it’s almost impossible to walk into a multiplex without facing the limitation of seeing a sequel, prequel or remake, Looper feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s quite literally a blast from the past.

In 1979, Iranians participated in the first televised revolution. They overthrew a leader who wasn’t initially chosen to be their Shah, but was rather appointed to the throne after a US/UK backed coup d’état in the early 50’s. Months after he was overthrown, the former dictator was granted permission to receive medical treatment in the US. This angered the masses and they demanded for the US to return their former dictator so he could receive a proper trial.

The protests largely took place outside the American embassy in Tehran. On one particular day, the crowds escalated in startling numbers. Fueled with anger, they stormed into the embassy. Six Americans working in the embassy managed to escape, and the rest were taken hostage. Argo tells the story of the rescue operation planned for the six Americans who took refuge at the Canadian ambassador’s home. What followed was one of the most unusual rescue operations in CIA history.

1979 Iranian demo

It’s funny how history repeats itself. So much of the archival footage seen in this film is reminiscent of the Arab Spring. The Iran revolution of 1979 was the first televised revolution and the Egyptian revolution is considered the first digital revolution. The protest for the Shah trial reminds me of the calls for a Mubarak trial. However, the most coincidental element here is the US embassy takeover, which almost mirrors the recent tragic incidents in Libya.

Though Ben Affleck’s Argo does feature the regular Hollywood dosage of angry Muslims, it is nevertheless honest in its depiction, for the understandable reason behind their anger is presented in all fairness. Often Hollywood productions (and Fox News) go for what I like to call the effect without cause route. We see angry Muslims burning down American flags, but we don’t see anything of ‘The Burn the Quran Day’. Here Affleck gives the cause, the effect, the whole damn shebang.

This is the actor’s third directional effort and it’s a magnificent achievement. His first debut as a director was the excellent mystery thriller Gone Baby Gone, his second was the marvelous crime caper The Town. With “Argo” he fully establishes himself as one of the best working directors today. Expect a bunch of Academy Award nominations when Oscar season rolls round.

Argo is one of the most suspenseful films of the year and even though the subject matter is quite serious, it doesn’t shy away from humour. Alan Arkin and John Goodman in particular stand out amongst the strong supporting cast. Goodman plays a Hollywood make-up artist who brings in film producer Lester Siegel when the CIA decides that the best rescue mission is to fool the Iranian government into thinking they’re filming a Canadian science fiction film. The idea comes to Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) while watching Planet of the Apes on TV.

The title of the fake film is Argo and even though the “Star Wars rip-off” was never actually made, this Argo is a phenomenal production. The hairstyles, makeup, and 70′s-ish mise-en-scene really take you to another time and place. In many ways, the audience almost becomes a seventh member being smuggled out of the country. As the clock ticks to the nerve-wracking finale you’ll be holding your breath the whole time.

This is a rare case where the universal love for movies played a crucial part in saving lives. An American friend of mine surprised me once when I asked him about the first thing he noticed when he came to Egypt. Astoundingly, it wasn’t the heat, the traffic or the overuse of hair gel, but our knowledge of American pop culture. “People here know our music, movies, and TV shows a lot better than folks back home,” he said. Argo captures this global love for cinema better than any film this year. Film is truly the language of the world and “Argo” is a perfect entry in that dictionary.

The James Bond franchise lives on 50 years after it first came to light for one simple reason: it perfectly encapsulates every man’s wet dream. Think about it; fast cars, stylish clothes, high-tech gadgets, exotic travelling, stunning babes, not to mention the fact that Bond is the luckiest gambler to ever grace the planet. He also lives on the edge, knows how to hold his liquor and is a complete utter bad ass when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. His charm, looks and womanizing skills are just the icing on the cake. Most guys will settle for one or two of the Bond traits, but to have it all, let’s face it, that’s the male population’s communal dream right there.

This franchise is the picture-perfect exemplar of pure old-fashioned movie escapism and has sunk itself into popular culture like no other. Describing a member of the womenfolk as a ‘Bond girl’, for example, is perhaps the shortest way of saying she has the body of a model, the face of a Goddess, and the attitude of tamed beast.

Fans have debated endlessly about several aspects within the franchise. Who makes the best Bond? The hottest Bond girl? The nastiest villain? What’s the most memorable Bond song? The Aston Martin that beats them all? Skyfall would make a legitimate answer to all of those questions and for that very reason, it is arguably the best Bond film ever made.

I personally think Goldfinger features the best Bond performance with Sean Connery taking suit. The high-stakes poker game in Casino Royale is without a doubt the best Bond scene of all time. It didn’t rely on any stunts, car chases or explosions just pure simplistic suspense. It was very clever to have the key scene be composed of nerve-rackingly lengthy shots of both hero and villain in a poker game where 10 million dollars to a terrorist organization is at stake. That said, Daniel Craig’s mature performance here displays an ageing James Bond in perhaps the greatest espionage entry in the series.

With arguably the world’s best cinematographer, Roger Deakins, behind the camera, Skyfall is without a doubt the most breathtakingly shot Bond film I’ve ever seen. This is the proper Bond film fanatics have been waiting for after the brilliant Casino Royale. We all know the disappointment that followed and the probable cause behind it, too. Prior to Quantum of Solace, the producers most likely saw The Bourne Ultimatum winning more Academy Awards in a single night than the entire Bond franchise ever has.  They tried to emulate that success, but foolishly attributed Bourne’s accomplishments to its shaky-cam style of photography. When I watched the cheap rip-off that is Quantum of Solace, I couldn’t help but imagine James Bond barging into a room full of writers as they worked on the shooting script. “I want my camera shaken not stirred.” Boy, was that a mistake.

Anyway, a lesson was learnt and Sam Mendes wisely drew inspiration from what many consider one of the greatest sequels of all time, The Dark Knight.  This was a very logical choice seeing thatCasino Royale is thematically similar to Batman Begins. In both revitalized origin films, Batman and Bond slowly transform into the fictional legends we know by heart. Following in Christopher Nolan’s steps makes perfect sense.

Like The Dark Knight, Mendes uses an alternate universe to explore relevant contemporary issues such as cyber terrorism and the dark side of social networking in Skyfall. I couldn’t help but see a little of hacker-activist Julian Assange and what he did with Wikileaks in Javier Bardem’s ruthless portrayal of Silva, an ex MI6 agent leaking secret information to the public. Bardem’s homoerotic villain is one you will love to hate. It’s quite genius really, having a man inappropriately running his fingers against our role model’s bare skin is truly the biggest threat to that wet dream of ours.

Mendes also takes away the super in superspy the same way Nolan took out the super in superhero. By humanizing James Bond, everything suddenly becomes more threatening and in return more suspenseful. We learn of Bond’s childhood and how he was recruited. The film even digs deep into his relationship with M played marvelously by Judi Dench in a film that could very well be called an M film as much as it’s a Bond film. For those of you who don’t know, Sam Mendes is the Academy Award-winning director of American Beauty, Road to Perdition and Revolutionary Road; what he did with Skyfall is nothing short of extraordinary.

The film wastes no time and sets everything on high gear from the get-go. It opens with a very impressive chase scene that climaxes in perhaps the most unforgettable moment in Bond history. To spoil it would only hurt the chances of enjoying that unexpected slap in the face. I noticed I’m almost 700 words into my review and have yet to say anything about the actual plot, or perhaps I’ve said enough to hustle you off to the next showing. Some things are best left unsaid and to reveal anything about this complete revival of the Bond franchise would only ruin the experience for you. Skyfall is original, genuine, classy and elegantly perfect. And that’s all you need to know.