OSCARS 2020 - Pre-Show Thoughts & Predictions & Rants

OSCARS 2020 Thoughts and Predictions:

- Alright, it's Oscar time! As I say every year, I don't really look at the Oscars as definitive or vital in terms of picking the actual best movies of a given year. More often than not, Oscar gets things wrong (or at best half-wrong), and the entire voting system - in which Academy members who've likely only seen a fraction of the nominees choose the winners - really needs an overhaul. That said, 2019 was such a great year for movies, and I personally loved so many of this year's nominees (naming several not just in my Best of the Year, but in my Best of the Decade) ... I'm excited to see some of my favorite writers, directors, and actors received much-deserved recognition. But even more so, I'm excited to see so many casual moviegoers get exposure to exceptional movies like Parasite and Jojo Rabbit and others they may not be inclined to check out otherwise.

Now, as is tradition ... here are my Top 10 OSCAR SNUBS for this year:

1.) Uncut Gems (Best Picture, Adam Sandler for Best Actor, Safdie Brothers for Best Director)

- Uncut Gems is such a fantastic and highly-relevant film. It's innovative, intense, and unforgettable.  Adam Sandler's performance in it is an all-timer, and will be talked about, raved about, and meme'd about for years to come. The movie's total exclusion from this year's Oscars is, frankly, a joke.

2.) Best Leading Actress - Lupita N'yongo for US

 -Lupita's performance in US was, IMO, one of the year's best. She played two characters and created an instantly-iconic horror movie persona. It was jaw-dropping. But horror movies pretty much never get a fair shake at the Oscars, so yeah, Lupita is left out. Crazy.

 3.) Best Director - Greta Gerwig for Little Women

- As many have pointed out, Little Women got nominated for a lot, but ... the movie obviously didn't direct itself. Gerwig is an amazing writer, but also an incredibly skilled director. She deserves to be talked about in the same vein as some of the best in the business today.


4.) The Lighthouse - Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Willem Dafoe

- The Lighthouse is a strange film, but also an incredibly good one. And Willem Dafoe gives an iconic performance - doing descent-into-madness as good as anyone ever has. Unfortunately, much like director Robert Egger's previous horror masterpiece, The Witch, this one also got snubbed.

5.) Midsommar - Best Picture and Best Leading Actress for Florence Pugh

- Another major horror masterpiece snubbed. Midsommar was a tour de force - anchored by a mesmerizing lead performance from Florence Pugh. But yeah, can't have horror at the Oscars!
 
6.)  The Farewell - Best Picture and Best Leading Actress for Awkwafina and Best Director for Lulu Wang

- A fantastic film featuring a breakout lead role for Awkwafina, The Farewell mixes humor, heart, and pathos to become something truly special.The fact that it was basically ignored by The Oscars is a bit ridiculous.

 7.) Apollo 11 - Best Documentary

- Apollo 11 was best seen in a theater in IMAX, so maybe that hurt it with voters who just watch everything via screeners. But, come on, Oscars - this was a seminal film, one of the most jaw-dropping movies I saw in 2019. A mind-boggling exclusion.

8.) Best Leading Actress - Jesse Buckley for Wild Rose

-  I'm not sure why Wild Rose went totally under Oscar's radar this year, but man, what a great indie movie this was - and what an all-time awesome performance from Jesse Buckley in the lead role. Go watch this one if you haven't seen it!

9.) Best Lead Actor - Christian Bale for Ford vs. Ferrari

- Bale goes all out in Ford vs. Ferrari - one of his best performance ever and so good that it elevates the film beyond what it might have been otherwise. And yet - no Oscar love? Come on.

10.) Best Supporting Actress -  Thomasin McKenzie for Jojo Rabbit

-  Thomasin McKenzie has quickly become one of the most must-watch young actresses out there. She was phenomenal a few years ago in Leave No Trace, and she's just as great in Jojo Rabbit - in many ways the heart and soul of the film. Strange to me that Scarlett and would get a nom, but not her.


2020 OSCAR PICKS AND PREDICTIONS:

BEST PICTURE:

Should Win: Jojo Rabbit, Parasite, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, or The Irishman

- Jojo Rabbit was my personal favorite of 2019, but honestly, all four of the above are, IMO, masterpieces. I put 1917 maybe one notch below (though I was also a huge fan of that one), but the above four films are all very much Best Picture worthy.

Will Win: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

- It's either that, or 1917. Could go either way. But I'm going slightly against the grain and saying that, ultimately, I bet on the movie about Hollywood. There's just too much nostalgia for that era among older Academy voters to bet against it. 1917 is the safe pick - the most "traditional" Best Picture movie in many ways - and it won the Golden Globe. So it's a favorite, no question. Parasite has maybe an outside chance, and I'd love to see it win, but unfortunately I think there will still be some bias about a non-English-language movie taking home the big prize. But I just have a feeling that Hollywood may eek it out.

BEST ACTOR:

Should and Will Win: Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

-Okay, I am well documented as having very mixed feelings about Joker. But ... Phoenix was undeniably incredible in it. He has an ability to go to this other level that few other actors do. I think that's why he's the runaway favorite to win, and why he probably should - regardless of what you think about Joker. Sandler should have been in this race though.


BEST ACTRESS:

Should and Will Win: Renee Zelwegger (Judy)

- This category is a bit weak this year, and is missing a lot of key performances like Awkwafina from The Farewell. But, Zelwegger, of the nominees, should and will take it. She turns in a big, showy, memorable performance as Judy Garland that you can't help but appreciate. It's exactly the kind of thing that Oscar voters love - but in this case, I've got to side with 'em - it's one heck of a turn from a deserving and beloved actress.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Should and Will Win: Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

-And here is another no-brainer of this year's Oscars. Pitt has long been underappreciated as an actor, and has steadily built his resume to include dozens of memorable and iconic roles - often of them surprisingly quirky, given his leading man image in pop-culture. But man, Pitt just kills it in Tarantino's latest - he owns the screen for every second he's on it.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Should Win: Florence Pugh (Little Women)

- 2019 was the year of Florence Plugh. She killed it in Fighting With My Family, Midsommar, and also in Little Women. In the latter, she was funny, engaging, and memorable - and in many ways the highlight of what was an all-around great film. That said ...

Will Win: Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

- I had mixed feelings about Marriage Story, but I LOVED Dern in the film. She made the most of every line of dialogue, creating a character that was hilarious and that stole the movie from the leads in many a scene. I give the slight edge to Pugh - especially given Dern's relative lack of screen time in Marriage Story ... but Dern is a Hollywood fave and will, I think, win this one.

BEST DIRECTOR:

Should and Will Win:Bong Joon Ho (Parasite)

- This is a tougher one to call. Sam Mendes has got to be a favorite for 1917. But I wonder if the director's eclectic resume will hurt him, and/or if a lot of the credit for 1917's amazing visuals will go to its legendary cinematographer, Roger Deakins. Meanwhile, Bong has quickly become a beloved personality - funny, outspoken, and personable. And he's one hell of a director to boot. Hollywood sort of missed the boat in ever honoring other great Korean directors like Chan Wook Park - but I think they might go with Bong here. Parasite is truly a director's movie, and it's clearly Bong's vision from start to finish.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Should and Will Win: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

- A lot of good stuff in this category, including the should-have-been-nominated-for-more Knives Out. But I think you've got to go with Tarantino for this one, as he is known for his writing and the Academy will, I think, reward him for Hollywood's slightly more subtle and subdued tone vs. some of his more ostentatious recent work. Parasite and Marriage Story are also in the mix, but we'll see. I personally put Hollywood slightly ahead of Parasite.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Should Win: The Irishman

- This was actually my top script of 2019 - the dialogue was so rich and so entertaining and there were so many fantastic moments big and small. I mean, man, this screenplay should IMO be studied. 

Will Win: Little Women

- And this is a tough one. I think the Academy respects Greta Gerwig more as a writer than as a director, and in some ways I see why. Her movies are more script-driven, and she's an absolutely brilliant writer. So I think this is where Little Women gets its due. I loved the script - I put it a notch below The Irishman, but I'll be cool if it wins.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:

Should Win: How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

- The How to Train Your Dragon franchise is absolutely beloved by fans young and old, but for whatever reason hasn't gotten much awards love. In theory, that should change at this year's Oscars. I mean, why not honor this Dreamworks series for a fun, heartfelt, and visually-incredible capper to a great trilogy of films?

Will Win: Missing Link

- This one's a little hard to predict, but my suspicion is that Oscar voters tend not to watch a lot of animated films and thus go with the known quantities. That would put Toy Story 4 as a favorite, but that movie's general underwhelming-ness will probably hurt it. Missing Link's Golden Glove win may have put it on more people's radars, so I'm going with it as a somewhat dark horse. Laika has often been ignored by the Academy in the past, so it's hard to say. But I'm going with it.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:

Should and Will Win: Parasite

- Similar to Roma last year, Parasite is the clear favorite here given its nominations in other major categories. And, I mean, Parasite is phenomenal so I can't dispute its front-runner status.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:

Should Win: Avengers: Endgame

- Let's give Marvel props for the incredible f/x work, over two movies, done to bring the character of Thanos to life. I mean, it's all-time great, bar-raising mo-cap work.

Will Win: 1917

- But yeah ... what a strange category this year. Most of the big f/x blockbusters nominated were also critical duds (i.e. The Lion King). And Marvel never seems to win, so I'll be pleasantly surprised if Endgame eeks it out but I just have a hard time betting on it. More likely, 1917 sweeps all the technical categories.By the way though, Alita: Battle Angel should have been in the running.


BEST FILM EDITING:

- Should and Will Win: Parasite

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

- Should and Will Win:1917

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:

- Should and Will Win: Parasite

BEST ANIMATED FILM SHORT:

- Should Win: ???
- Will Win: Memorable

BEST DOCUMENTARY:

- Should Win: ??? (where was Apollo 11?!)
- Will Win: American Factory

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT:

- Should Win: ???
- Will Win:St. Louis Superman

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT:

- Should Win: ???
- Will Win: A Sister

BEST COSTUME DESIGN:

- Should and Will Win: Little Women

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING:

- Should and Will Win:Judy

BEST SOUND MIXING:

- Should and Will Win: 1917

BEST SOUND EDITING:

- Should and Will Win: 1917

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:

- Should and Will Win:1917

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:

Should and Will Win: “Stand Up" - Harriet


And that's it for now. Happy Oscar watching and Happy Movie Watching!

THE BEST OF 2017 - The Best MOVIES Of The Year

THE YEAR IN MOVIES - 2017

- 2017 was one of the best years for movies in a long time - maybe the best overall since 2007. And thank god, because this was a year in which we really, really needed great films. We needed them to help us reflect on and make sense of the world around us. We needed them to escape. We needed them to get inspired, to get motivated. And we needed them to remind us that there can still be great art that gives us hope, even in occasionally hopeless-seeming times. 

Some of the best movies of the year were not just great movies, but urgent and hyper-relevant commentaries on the world we live in today. Films like The Florida Project, The Big Sick, and Get Out held up a mirror to our present-day reality. These films shed light on sometimes harsh truths - exposing an America that struggles with poverty, racism, and bigotry. But these films weren't just preaching at us - they wove complex themes into incredibly well-realized narratives, and they did so with humor, horror, and heart. At the same time, films like The Post, Darkest Hour, and Mudbound used history to reflect back on today - showing us times in the recent past where politicians, leaders, and ordinary people faced similar challenges as we do today. They warned us of the dangers of repeating history, and inspired us that change is possible - that the arc of time bends towards justice, or so we hope. And then there were the big, epic, blockbusters - some of the best ever. War For the Planet of the Apes concluded one of the best trilogies in modern cinematic history with an action-packed, at times heart-wrenching finale filled with biblical overtones. Logan was one of the best superhero movies ever, period. A dark, intense, brutal odyssey that finally gave us the Wolverine movie we've always wanted. Wonder Woman finally brought some much-needed light to the DC cinematic universe - reminding us why Wonder Woman is an icon that's lasted 75 years and counting, and inspiring women, girls, and really, all of us to aspire to the never-give-up ideals of Diana of Themyscara. Finally, there was Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Like Wonder Woman, it felt like a movie that we needed in 2017 - a surprisingly layered and complex re-tweaking of the Star Wars mythology for a new era. No longer was Star Wars the story of a single, messianic "chosen one." Rian Johnson wisely molded the saga into a story about how The Force is in all of us - about how each of us must channel that Force to rise up and resist. As I think about how these blockbusters collectively - sometimes overtly, sometimes less so - told the story of 2017, I keep coming back to the ending sequence of The Florida Project - probably the most powerful moment of any movie this year. No spoilers, but the sequence, to me, was all about how fantasy can lift us up out of ruts, gives us hope even when there is none, gives us a dream to aspire to.  

Like I said ... thank god for the movies. 

DANNY'S BEST MOVIES OF 2017:

1.) The Florida Project

- I'm not sure how to talk about The Florida Project, except to say that no other 2017 movie left me as breathless, as floored, as moved as this one did. Director Sean Baker crafts a film that feels like a documentary, but he knowingly subverts the film's aesthetics at key moments in ways that surprise and exhilarate. The film tells the story of a young mother and her precocious daughter who live on the outskirts of Disney World in Florida. They are part of a sort of tribe of impoverished, barely-scraping-by people who live off the local tourism trade - always living in the shadow of the just-out-of-reach theme park wonderland that fuels their well-being. Willem Dafoe, in an amazing turn, plays the owner of one of the area's gaudily-colored motels, who takes in and cares for the various vagrants who nomadically wander from block to block, each day worrying about where they'll spend the night. The Florida Project is a quintessentially American story, and one that particularly resonated in 2017. It's about the juxtaposition of artifice with reality, of poverty with middle class consumerism, of hopelessness with hope. Kid actor Brooklynn Prince is amazing in this film - hilarious and scary and sad and tragic all at once. Bria Vinaite who plays her mother is similarly amazing - this doesn't even feel like acting, it feels like we're peering in on a real person's life. Sean Baker accomplishes something remarkable with this film.

2.) Dunkirk

- Dunkirk is disorienting at first. It's hard to wrap your brain around the film's various timelines, events, and characters. And the movie's breakneck pace and constant you-are-there intensity doesn't help. But by the time the credits roll, it's clear that we were in good hands all along. Christopher Nolan weaves together the various threads of the film brilliantly, and when all is said and done what we're left with is an absolute marvel of immersive, visceral, unforgettable filmmaking. This is Nolan re-asserting that he's one of the most talented directors on the planet. In Dunkirk, he puts you in the heat of battle - you'll feel like you've been through hell by movie's end, and feel all the better for it. Because Dunkirk is intense-as-hell, sure - but it also puts you squarely in the middle of one of history's most remarkable battles - in which the under-siege British forces escape annihilation by the skin of their teeth (and thanks to the last-minute aide of a legion of civilians who helped to evacuate soldiers). Seen in glorious 70MM IMAX, Dunkirk was an unparalleled movie-watching experience.

3.) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

-Writer/Director Martin McDonagh has a way with words that few others working in film can match. His third film, Three Billboards, is not just a pleasure to watch, but a pleasure to listen to. Every word its characters utter feels deliberate and carefully chosen. And McDonagh uses his skill as a playwright to make this film into something truly special - a smart, witty, darkly comedic look at small-town America and the struggles of people who have been hurt, been screwed, been forgotten. It's a film about their anger and their pain, but also about their grit and determination and persistence. Frances McDormand absolutely kills in this one, in an all-timer performance. And she's surrounded by an all-star cast doing their best work - led by a great Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson, supported by the likes of Peter Dinklage, John Hawkes, Clarke Peters, and more. This one floored me.

4.) The Shape of Water

- How can one not love Guillermo Del Toro? The man bleeds passion for film. He's a walking encyclopedia - an expert on fantasy, folklore, myths, and monsters. And he makes movies that radiate that passion - his films, always, are lovingly crafted, visually rich, and rife with imagination. I always look forward to a new Del Toro movie - but the man has truly outdone himself with The Shape of Water - a film I'd dare say might be his best movie yet. It's got his trademark visual splendor, but it's also got a huge heart - it's a monstrous love story in the classic horror tradition, but also a story that's uniquely Del Toro. Sally Hawkins is phenomenal here. Michael Shannon plays the year's best movie villain. And Doug Jones (not the politician) is his usual awesomeness as the mysterious sea creature at the center of the film's plot. Absolutely loved this film.

5.) The Big Sick

- Kumail Nanjiani is one of those people whose career I've followed to the point where he almost seems like a personal friend. I became a fan of his years ago via the podcast he and his wife used to record weekly - The Indoor Kids. Each week, Kumail and Emily Gordon talked video games, movies, TV, and pop-culture. They were the cool, hilarious friends that everyone wants to have - the ideal couple who everyone aspires to be like. But in listening to the podcast, you'd get bits and pieces of their backstory and realize that their story had its share of heartache and challenge. And that story was amazingly, wonderfully told in The Big Sick. The movie is slice-of-life, but it's a slice that everyone, everywhere, can relate to in some way. It deals with complicated issues like religion and intolerance with hilarity and nuance and self-aware humor. It gives its characters humanity and depth, but isn't afraid to show their flaws, or to show them at their worst. It's super funny and it's a great comedy, but it's also one of the most important films of 2017.

6.) Lady Bird

- It's about time that Greta Gerwig got her due. Not only is Gerwig a fantastic actress, but she's helped create some of the best indie comedies of the last several years - having written Frances Ha and Mistress America. Now she's outdone herself with the amazingly realized, brilliantly written Lady Bird - which Gerwig also directed. Lady Bird is one of those great small movies that tackles the big issues. It's a coming-of-age story that's one of the best films in recent memory about finding one's place in the world while temporarily trapped by the expectations of where you were born and what you were born into. Saoirse Ronan - who's quietly been one of the best actresses of the last few years - does maybe her best ever work here. She brings humor and a boatload of depth to the titular character.

7.) Phantom Thread

-We know that director Paul Thomas Anderson and actor Daniel Day-Lewis make for a potent combo - their previous collaboration, There Will Be Blood, still stands as one of the great films of the last twenty years. And their latest (and supposedly Day-Lewis' swan song - let's hope not!) does not disappoint. Phantom Thread is a gorgeously-directed, impeccably acted gothic romance/thriller that is, in a word, mesmerizing. It's a movie that's best to go in cold, so I won't say too much about the plot. But I will say that Daniel Day-Lewis crafts another iconic character - and he's so good here that it's next-level. And I will say that leading lady Vicky Krieps is equally astounding - giving us a character who surprises us with her hidden layers. This is just such a spellbinding, intense, unpredictable film. You're never quite sure where it's going - but you know that you're in good hands with PTA at the helm.

8.) Logan

- Logan doesn't quite fit into any broader narrative about the films of 2017, so perhaps that's why it feels like it's not being praised quite as much as it should be. But the fact remains: Logan is pretty incredible - a gritty, badass, brutal symphony of violence that ranks as one of the greatest superhero films ever made. The funny thing is, until this year, I never actually loved Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. But Jackman has now aged into the role, and he's aged even further in Logan, playing a grizzled version of Wolverine that easily trumps every previous cinematic incarnation. This, finally, is the character done right. This is not just Jackman's best performance as Logan, but maybe his best performance ever. The film gives Patrick Stewart his best showcase to date in the X-films as well. And what can be said about Dafne Keen - the young actress who kicks ass seven ways to Sunday as the berzerker-in-training X-23. Director James Mangold really outdoes himself as well. In a year that saw several excellent comic book movies, Logan reigns supreme.

9.) War For The Planet of the Apes

- In a perfect world, the Apes films would be perennial Oscar favorites and star Andy Serkis would have a closet full of trophies for his genius portrayal of Caesar, king of the apes. And so too would these modern Planet of the Apes films be heralded as the new classics that they are. In any case, War made for an epic finale to the trilogy - as good of an ending and as profound of a conclusion as anyone could have hoped for. Director Matthew Reeves really needs to be commended for what he did with these last two Apes films - they look incredible, both in terms of overall aesthetics and in terms of the way in which Caesar and his simian ilk are brought to life. Credit to Serkis for being the master of mo-cap acting. And credit to Woody Harrelson (between this and Three Billboards he had a hell of a year), for being a great final villain in Caesar's saga. What I love about this series is that it takes big narrative swings. This one isn't playing franchise paint-by-numbers - it's making art. So for the last time: hail, Caesar!

10.) Star Wars: The Last Jedi

- It's always difficult to know how to rank big franchise blockbusters like Star Wars. By their nature, these kinds of movies tend to be imperfect beasts - forced to be more than just movies, they've also got to tie up loose ends from previous films, set the stage for subsequent chapters, and please corporate overlords who have their own particular agendas. But that makes what Rian Johnson accomplished here all the more impressive. Rather than just give us the obvious next chapter following JJ Abrams' The Force Awakens, Johnson recognized the need to shake things up. JJ painted the franchise into several hard-to-escape narrative corners, and Johnson saw that and decided to make necessity the mother of invention. With humor, wit, and infinite cleverness, Johnson coalesced the scattered, only-hinted-at thematic threads of The Force Awakens into a retooled and refocused film - and in doing so he reshaped the entire Star Wars saga. He doubled down on the idea that Rey comes from nothing, yet has within her the power to be something special. He expanded on that theme, to show that The Force is not just for a select few that are chosen, but for anyone willing to tap into their own latent potential. The Force can and will be strong in those ready to fight the good fight, to rebel, to resist. And so, The Last Jedi arrived as the most thematically rich and deeply textured Star Wars film to date. At the same time, it gave us enough genuine holy-$&%& moments that stand among the year's best cinematic geek-outs. The Last Jedi didn't just give us a Luke Skywalker cameo for a bit of nostalgia - it gave us a whole new Luke Skywalker story, with a complete arc of failure and redemption. And gave us Luke's epic final battle that was not at all what I expected yet more than I could have hoped for. It raised the stakes of the Rey / Kylo Ren rivalry, giving it a surprisingly charged and personal dynamic. It gave a fitting send-off for Carrie Fisher, whose Leia got to have the last word, and in so doing bid farewell to the old guard and welcomed the next generation. The Last Jedi was not just a repetition of familiar Star Wars tropes, but the introduction of a whole new vocabulary to the franchise. And that made it one of the year's most exciting, riveting, and yes - thought-provoking! - films. 

 
JUST MISSED THE CUT:


11.)  Ingrid Goes West

- A pitch-black social satire, Ingrid Goes West looks long and hard at our obsession with social media and shows us the consequences of going too far down the online rabbit hole. Audrey Plaza is fantastic in this one as an unhinged stalker - and man, what a year it's been for her (she also killed it weekly on Legion). O'Shea Jackson Jr. also kills it as Plaza's smitten accomplice. This one flew under a lot of people's radars, so check it asap if you've yet to watch it.

12.) IT

- It was such a perfectly-executed, insanely fun horror film. The movie felt more like quintessential Stephen King than any other King adaptation ever. The kid actors were all fantastic, Bill Skarsgard was iconic as Pennywise the Clown, and director Andy Muschietti 100% nailed it - giving the film equal measures of horror and adventure - and giving IT some of the most audience-pleasing, applause-worthy moments of any movie this year. Bring on Part 2. 

13.) Baby Driver

- Edgar Wright gave us the coolest action movie of the year in Baby Driver - a breakneck, amped-up, kinetic movie that also had the year's best soundtrack. Wright has long been a master at delivering genre-bending, high-concept, pop-culture savvy films - but he outdoes himself here. He gets out of his comfort zone and gives us some of the best car chases ever put to film, a unique protagonist in Baby, and a memorable cadre of villains led by Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx - in their best movie roles in years.

14.) Coco

- Pixar stumbled earlier in the year with the meandering Cars 3 - but man, what a rebound in the form of Coco - a masterful animated film that will make even the most hardened of hearts leave the theater with a tear in their eye. Coco is a visual stunner, bringing Day of the Dead aesthetics to colorful, eye-popping life. It's also a moving story about death and legacy that pulls very few punches in the name of being kid-friendly. And it's exactly that kind of sophistication and respect for an audience's emotional intelligence that tends to make Pixar films a cut above. Coco is one of their best. 

15.) The Post

- The Post is a movie that I can imagine being used as a teaching tool in classrooms for years to come. And I mean that in the best way possible. Steven Spielberg's latest is just that vital - an urgent reminder about a democracy's need for a free press that holds all institutions, including our own government, accountable for its actions. Spielberg directs this one with soaring aplomb - and he's aided by a triumphant John Williams score, a crackling screenplay, and awards-worthy turns from Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. Americans and people around the world need to see this movie, and need to heed its lessons.

THE NEXT BEST:

16.) I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore

- Blue Ruin star Macon Blair makes his writing and directorial debut with this Netflix original film, and the result is one of the year's best and most badass (and darkly funny) movies. Melanie Lynskey is fantastic as an ordinary women driven to take extreme measures when her home is robbed, and Elijah Wood is hilarious as her would-be sidekick.

17.) Get Out

- What a brilliant directorial debut from Jordan Peele. As a longtime Key and Peele fan, I was primed and ready for Peele's first film - but the end result far exceeded my expectations. Get Out is an instant-classic horror-comedy that is one of the sharpest, funniest, scariest, and most spot-on social commentaries on race that I've ever seen on film. Aside from that, it's just a flat-out great horror movie. Can't wait to see what Peele does next. 

18.) I, Tonya

-  A darkly funny, in-your-face roundhouse kick of a movie, this one hits hard from the outset and never lets up. Director Craig Gillespie, he of Lars and the Real Girl fame, gives us a tragicomic look at disgraced figure skater and tabloid news punching bag Tonya Harding - and makes us empathize with this woman who lived a hard-knock life and fell from grace just as she was nearing the top of the mountain. It's a cautionary tale that will stick with you, and Margot Robbie is fantastic in the lead role.

19.) Lucky

- Lucky is, sadly, the final role for the late great Harry Dean Stanton. But man, what a showcase for the consummate character actor and his unique and inimitable presence. Harry Dean looks every bit his 90 years in the film, but then again, he was never the embodiment of youthfulness. But it was his sunken eyes, craggy face, and cantankerous attitude that made Harry Dean such a beloved, iconic actor - and Lucky is a fitting swan-song. It's a sad, funny, moving look at one man coming to terms with his own mortality. It's a great hang-out movie, a thought-provoking film with a lot of big ideas, and a story that will leave you with a smile on your face and a tear in your eye. RIP Harry Dean.

20.) Darkest Hour

-Gary Oldman - unrecognizable under layers of prosthetics - delivers an acting masterclass in Joe Wright's stirring drama. Wright gives a sense of epic theatricality and gravitas to this fascinating look at Winston Churchill's tumultuous early days as Prime Minister - during which he was faced with the choice of a truce with Nazi Germany or continued hostility in a war they might very well lose. It's a thrilling history lesson and a wonderful character study. It's also a rousing call to action - at a moment when our President calls Nazis "very fine people," Darkest Hour is a reminder of a time when a Prime Minister had to rally a country to fight against the evils of Nazism, despite of the high cost to do so.

21.) Colossal

- Director Nacho Vigalondo is one to keep an eye on. With Colossal, he's crafted a unique film that's one part giant monster movie, one part dark comedy, and one part character study about a women struggling not to fall off the wagon. Anne Hathaway surprised me in this one - she's fantastic, playing against type as a down-on-her-luck everywoman trying to overcome her demons. Such an interesting, original film. We need more like this.

22.) Brawl In Cell Block 99

- Pure badassery, plain and simple. I was a huge fan of writer/director S. Craig Zahler's previous film, the horror-western mash-up Bone Tomahawk. But he matches that movie's awesomeness with Brawl - another pulpy, slow-burn grindhouse flick that feels like it's channeling the nihilistic spirit of John Carpenter. And who knew that Vince Vaughn could be so good at playing a badass hero? He destroys here - in my opinion it's his best role ever. This movie is just so brutal and shocking. It's got some stuff that will leave even the most jaded action fan's jaw on the floor.

23.) Logan Lucky

- Here was one of the year's more underrated films - a frequently hilarious heist film from Steven Soderbergh that, to me, hit higher highs than the director's more celebrated Oceans movies. I loved Logan Lucky because it had great, endlessly quotable dialogue, some of the year's most laugh-out-loud moments (that Game of Thrones joke ... amazing!), a top-notch cast (Channing Tatum doing best-ever work), and unexpected levels of heart.

24.) Okja

- Let's face it, it's going to be tough for director Bong Joon-Ho to ever top the out and out insanity that was Snowpiercer. But he comes close with Okja, his Netflix original film (one of many great ones in 2017) that again combined high-concept sci-fi with dark humor, frantic action, and inspired lunacy to make for a fairly unforgettable film. No one else makes movies quite like Bong Joon Ho, and I hope we get many more of them.

25.) mother!

- Darren Aronofsky's latest was probably the year's most divisive film - and to be honest, I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about it. Part of me wonders if it has a point. Part of me wonders if it crosses the line into pretentiousness. But part of me also acknowledges that of all the movies I saw in 2017, mother! stuck with me more so than most, and found its way into my dreams and nightmares. This is a profoundly disturbing, uniquely unnerving film that had me on the edge of my seat for its entire running time. I don't know what it all means - and it might very well mean nothing! - but man, watching this one was an experience. Aronofsky remains one our most interesting, risk-taking filmmakers.

MORE GREAT FILMS OF 2017:

26.) Wonder Woman

- Powerful and inspiring, Wonder Woman gave new life to the DC cinematic universe and was a legit star-making turn for Gal Gadot. The already-legendary "No Man's Land" sequence is, I think, among the best moments yet out on film in any superhero movie.


27.) Thor: Ragnarok

- A complete blast from start to finish, Thor: Ragnarok paid loving homage to the cosmic acid-trip aesthetic of the late great Jack Kirby, while also staying true to director Taika Waititi's uniquely quirky sense of humor. One of the best, most fun Marvel movies to date. Definitely the funniest.

28.) The Disaster Artist

- Oh, hai! The Room has fascinated me for many years now, and so too has its iconoclastic and enigmatic creator Tommy Wiseau. Wiseau is parodied to hilarious effect in James Franco's look at his life and his most famous creation. But the film is also an at-times poignant look at how legit creative spark can make even the most misguided art have value. It's also a cautionary tale about hitching your wagon to the wrong person. Most of all though, it's a celebration of one of the all-time best worst movies.

29.) Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2

- All hail James Gunn, and the sense of fun, imagination, and subversive humor he brings to Marvel's infectiously entertaining cosmic odyssey franchise. Vol. 2 upped the ante with cooler visuals, memorable new characters, and Kurt freaking Russell as Peter Quill's mysterious long-lost dad. I had a blast with this one.

30.) The Beguiled

- Sophia Coppola directs the hell out of this new take on the classic Clint Eastwood film. I loved her darkly funny take on the material, and firmly believe that this one is deserving of more big-awards love than it's getting. I mean, the entire cast is fantastic, with Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning killing it as the movie's warring "vengeful bitches," and Colin Farrell in top form as their object of desire-slash-vengeance. 

31.) John Wick: Chapter Two

- While it didn't wow me quite as much as Part 1, the second John Wick movie still delivered some of the year's most kick-ass action. And the world of John Wick is still cool, slick, and full of ruthless assassins eager to make their next kill. Keanu is so great in these films too - I wouldn't mind of this series just continues ad infinitum.

32.) Brigsby Bear

- This is a quirky, oddball gem of a film - a wonderfully weird movie from SNL's Kyle Kinane. It's about a guy kidnapped at birth and raised in isolation in a bunker, whose oddly endearing kidnappers (hello, Mark Hamill!) force him to watch a kids' TV show called Brigsby Bear, which ... okay, nevermind, I'm not going to explain the whole plot. Just trust me on this one - it's well worth a watch, and it's an amazing, oddly affecting ode to the creative spirit and the way in which our favorite stories can shape our lives.

33.) Alien: Covenant

- And here is my pick for the year's most unfairly-criticized film. I'm not sure why critics were so harsh on Ridley Scott's latest Alien installment. To me, it was a vast improvement over Prometheus - matching that movie's awe-inspiring visuals while giving us a much tighter script that focused on character-driven moments rather than go-nowhere mystery boxes. Scott gave the movie some great action and some memorable horror beats. And Michael Fassbender owned, doing double duty as identical androids David and Walter. Here's hoping we get one more film to close out the franchise.

34.) Blade Runner 2049

- Yet another highly divisive 2017 movie. The original Blade Runner is one of my favorite films of all time, so I was highly excited yet highly nervous for this thirty-five-years-in-the-making sequel. In many ways, BR2049 was a stunner. It was maybe the year's most visually impressive movie - with eye-popping direction from Denis Villeneuve, and jaw-dropping cinematography from the legendary Roger Deakins. The movie had so many cool moments and interesting ideas. It had a great central performance from Ryan Gosling, and a motivated Harrison Ford, back as Deckard, bringing his A-game. That said, I did feel disappointed by just how self-serious the movie was. Ridley Scott relishes sci-fi pulp (think of Rutger Hauer's insanely over-the-top, eminently quotable villain in the original), whereas Villeneuve deals primarily in dour, somber, humorless tonality. I wanted a movie that had dialogue to match the original's "tears in rain" soliloquy. And I didn't quite get that. But what we did get is one of the most interesting and discussion-provoking sci-fi films in a long while. We'll be talking about this movie and debating its merits for a long time to come.

35.) Mudbound

- This Netflix original was directed by Dee Rees, who impressed me a few years back with her debut film Pariah. This one is a big change for her - while Pariah was focused and personal, Mudbound is a sprawling, years-spanning epic that tells the story of two families and how their relationship embodies the racial struggles and conflicts of post-WWII America. It's a movie filled with great performances and layered characters. It's not subtle and can get a bit melodramatic at times, but the film at its best is powerful, affecting, and tells a story that's sadly felt all too relevant in 2017.


36.) Roman J. Israel, Esq.

- Many critics panned this one, but I really dug the latest from Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy. Based on the marketing, I expected a traditional feel-good film about an unlikely success story. But what I got was a super-dark neo-noir about a man who trades in his ideals to achieve success, only to find that it can all just as quickly come crashing down. Denzel Washington is terrific here - he's over-the-top, sure, but so is the movie as a whole. It's a heightened morality tale. I really dug it.

37.) It Comes At Night

- 2017 didn't have quite as many great indie horror films as the previous couple of years, but one real standout was It Comes At Night - a post-apocalyptic paranoid thriller that's just a great genre exercise in tension and creepy atmosphere. Joel Edgerton leads a strong cast, and the film keeps you guessing right up until the end. If you dig a horror movie with a great premise, be sure to seek this one out.

38.) The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

- Noah Baumbach's latest is yet another standout Netflix original that launched on the streaming service in 2017. I've long been a fan of Baumbach, but I'll admit that my favorite movies of his have been his collaborations with Greta Gerwig. Obviously Gerwig had a breakout year with the success of Lady Bird, but Baumbach's new film was no slouch either. The Meyerowitz Stories is a funny, affecting tale of a fractured family coming together again after their father falls ill. It's got some great acting - Dustin Hoffman is particularly great as the family patriarch, and Adam Sandler turns in his best acting in many years.

39.) The Foreigner

- This is one of those movies that, while not a new classic or anything, is exactly what the doctor ordered if you're in the mood for an old-fashioned action/thriller with an extra helping of badassery. Basically, this is Jackie Chan's Taken, with the added bonus of an ultra-hammy Pierce Brosnan as the main antagonist. The movie has Chan play a very meek-seeming dude who looks over-the-hill and by no means superheroic - which makes it all the more exciting when Chan does finally get to kick ass and show glimpses of the legendary martial arts wunderkind of old. It's all done in a supremely fun and satisfying way. This is the year's best "watch it on a rainy Sunday afternoon" sort of movie.

40.) Happy Death Day

- I wanted to include Happy Death Day somewhere on my list because, for me, it was one of the year's most pleasant surprises. I went in with minimal expectations, and left with a big ol' dumb smile plastered across my face. Because, as it turns out, Happy Death Day is a ridiculously fun, deceptively clever, slyly subversive horror-comedy that's legitimately funny and that actually makes great use of its Groundhog Day-meets-Scream premise. A great audience movie, I can see this one being a midnight movie favorite for a long time to come.

HONORABLE MENTIONS - OTHER HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MOVIES FROM THIS YEAR:

Battle of the Sexes
Gerald's Game
1922
Atomic Blonde
Raw
All The Money In the World
xXx: The Return of Xander Cage
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Power Rangers
The Little Hours
The LEGO Batman Movie
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
The Fate of the Furious
American Made
I Do ... Until I Don't
Murder on the Orient Express
Split
The Great Wall

INDIVIDUAL 2017 AWARDS:

BEST LEAD ACTOR:

1.) Daniel Day-Lewis - Phantom Thread
2.) Gary Oldman - Darkest Hour
3.) Kumail Nanjiani - The Big Sick
4.) Hugh Jackman - Logan
5.) Harry Dean Stanton - Lucky

BEST LEADING ACTRESS:

1.) Sally Hawkins - The Shape of Water
2.) Frances McDormand - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
3.) Saoirse Ronan - Lady Bird
4.) Vicky Krieps[ - Phantom Thread
5.) TIE: Bria Vinaite - The Florida Project, Margot Robbie - I, Tonya

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

1.) Willem Dafoe - The Florida Project
2.) Sam Rockwell - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
3.) Mark Rylance - Dunkirk
4.) Patrick Stewart - Logan
5.) Michael Shannon - The Shape of Water

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

1.) Laurie Metcalf - Lady Bird
2.) Helen Hunt - The Big Sick
3.) Nicole Kidman - The Beguiled
4.) Kirsten Dunst - The Beguiled
5.) Alison Janney - I, Tonya

BEST DIRECTOR:

1.) Sean Baker - The Florida Project
2.) Christopher Nolan - Dunkirk
3.) Guillermo Del Toro - The Shape of Water
4.) Paul Thomas Anderson - Phantom Thread
5.) Edgar Wright - Baby Driver

BEST SCREENPLAY:

1.) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2.) Lady Bird
3.) The Big Sick
4.) The Florida Project
5.) The Shape of Water
6.) Get Out
7.) Darkest Hour
8.) I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore
9.) The Post
10.) Ingrid Goes West
  
And there you have it. It was fun writing about movies a long break. Hopefully you discover some new films from this list, and hopefully there are many more great films to come in 2018.

MISTRESS AMERICA - No Sophomore Slump for the Baumbach/Gerwig Team

 MISTRESS AMERICA Review:

- I hope that the Noah Baumbach / Greta Gerwig team is one that we get many more movies from in the years ahead. The combination of Baumbach's wit with Gerwig's whimsy made Frances Ha one of the best films of the last few years. Now, the two have re-teamed for MISTRESS AMERICA, another farcical look at young adults in New York City. I'm not sure if their latest has quite the electric feel of Frances Ha, but it does, in its own way, really sizzle. Gerwig is such a fascinating on-screen presence - seeing her play a different sort of character in this one is a lot of fun.

Typically, we've seen Gerwig as the awkward ingenue paired with more worldly and experienced characters. Here, she's graduated to be this movie's Gatsby - the very embodiment of the young New York cliche. The film see's Gerwig's 30-ish Brooke get introduced to her soon-to-be step-sister, college freshman Tracy (Lola Kirke) prior to their parents' wedding day. Tracy has just moved to the city to go to school at Barnard, and though at first she's reluctant to reach out to Brooke, she soon finds herself excited to have this new pseudo older sister who can show her the ropes. Tracy is into writing, and she finds in Brooke a muse - a hopeless mess who knows everything and nothing all at once - a dreamer whose window to make her dreams come true is quickly closing. Brooke reveals that her current project - one of many - is to attempt to open a restaurant. Tracy is both convinced that the idea is doomed, but eager to help out both as a sign of sisterly bonding and as a way to get more material for her writing.

What I like about the Baumbach/Gerwig pairing is that Gerwig seems to soften Baumbach's bitterness and give his movies a more self-aware slant. In a non-Gerwig movie, the director might have made Brooke the sympathetic protagonist. But here, we see Brooke through Tracy's eyes, and she's the butt of the movie's jokes. Brooke is sort of scarily-accurate - the friend we all have whose refusal to follow-through on anything made them interesting in their twenties but increasingly hot-mess-resembling in their thirties. And yet, by sheer force of personality, Brooke and her ilk are able to scrape by and move from job to job,  relationship to relationship, social circle to social circle, life plan to life plan. In Brooke's eyes, she's still the college student with all of life's possibilities in front of her - or at least, that's what she tells herself to avoid a complete freak out. But Tracy and her college-freshman friends - convinced that it's only a matter of (not very much) time before their genius is discovered - look at Brooke with a mixture of admiration and fear. She's admirably still fighting their fight - except it's a fight that the wide-eyed freshman are sure they'll have wrapped up by graduation.

Lola Kirke is a real find as Tracy. She imbues Tracy with a familiar mix of too-cool-for-school and no-idea-what-the-hell-she-is-doing-at-life. She came to New York looking for her big New York moment, and like magic, her step-sister Brooke is a walking, talking New York moment. Kirke is really great here, and does a nice job of showing Tracy's gradual hardening as she grapples with whether to beat 'em or join 'em (as all college freshmen do). Gerwig, meanwhile, shows a previously-unseen manic energy - creating a memorable character in Brooke: a self-absorbed, self-delusional whirlwind. She'ss outwardly indestructible, but inwardly likely barely holding it together at any given moment.

The movie starts out as wryly funny, but edges closer and closer to all-out farce as it progresses. An extended sequence in which Tracy and Brooke (with Tracy's friend and his jealous girlfriend in tow) take a trip to Greenwich, CT to visit Brooke's rich, now-married ex-fiance (who's married to Brooke's nemesis, no less), devolves into a rapid-fire comedy of errors that is oftentimes laugh out loud hilarious.

It really is interesting, because MISTRESS AMERICA almost feels like a direct mash-up of Frances Ha and Baumbach's other 2015 film, While We're Young. But this film's manic screwball energy is what distinguishes it. At the same time, it's yet another film in which Baumbach explores generational themes. But where While We're Young sometimes felt misguided in its portrayal of twenty-something free-spirits, MISTRESS AMERICA, I think, hits at some essential truth about what it's like to be 18 vs. 30. That crushing feeling of being the same person, basically, but with less time and less options and more failure under your belt.

Aside from all that, this is the second Baumbach-Gerwig collaboration where I've just really dug the aesthetics. As with Frances Ha, there's a pulsating energy to this film that captures New York and its essence. Chalk up some of that to the mood-setting direction, chalk up some of it to the great music choices and score.

Baumbach seems to be making a real play these days to be the modern-day Woody Allen behind the camera, with Gerwig seemingly the neurosis-ridden intellectual heir to the characters that Allen so often played in his movies. The two have a powerful creative collaboration going, and this is a fine sophomore effort from them. More, please.

My Grade: A-

FRANCES HA Is Woody Allen for Gen Y

FRANCES HA Review:

- The new film from writer/directory Noah Baumbach, FRANCES HA mixes Woody Allen-esque slice-of-life neuroses-filled character study with a bit of modern-day rock n' roll. It's a beautifully-shot, often-times hilarious portrayal of late twenty-something life in the city, and it gets at some stark truths that any member of Gen Y can probably relate to, at least a little. It also features a winning performance from indie queen Greta Gerwig (who also co-wrote the film with Baumbach) as the title character. Gerwig is one of the most fascinating actresses out there - a wildly expressive, boundlessly quirky young woman who is not quite like anyone else making movies these days. Frances Ha is a total showpiece for Gerwig's unique talents and sensibility, and while some may not be onboard the bandwagon, I count myself a fan, and think she's never been better than here.

The movie tells the story of Frances, a 27-year-old aspiring dancer, living in New York City, trying to follow her dreams. Frances - a free spirit and a would-be intellectual, is trying to hold on to her dance dream while coming to terms with the reality that she's getting older, can't pay the bills, and, as one of her friends bluntly puts it, doesn't have her $#%& together. Like I said, many of us can, in some ways, probably relate. Throughout the course of the movie, we see how Frances' relationship with her best friend and roommate, Sophie, evolves. Sophie - the more practical and determined-to-grow-up of the two - tries to climb the social ladder and find a guy who will support her and give her the more glamorous, globe-trotting lifestyle she thinks she wants. Sophie's ambition creates a rift with Frances, even as Frances moves in with a bunch of trust-fund slackers who claim to be writers and artists, but who are really just living off their parents' money while working on sample SNL sketches and scripts for "Gremlins 3." (as someone who has lived in LA for eight years now, it's a type that is sadly all too familiar). But Frances, a type who stumbles her way from bad decision to bad decision, tries in her own way to keep up with the Joneses. She uses money she doesn't have to go on a hilariously poorly-planned trip to Paris, just to impress her friends and up her own feeling of self-worth. She refuses sensible jobs in order to stay on as a back-up for a dance troupe that clearly doesn't want her. She puts off being productive in favor of all-day movie marathons on the couch with her roomies.

On the surface, this might sound like the kind of self-involved character study that makes similar-ish efforts feel off-putting and lacking perspective (first season of HBO's Girls, anyone?). But Baumbach and Gerwig have a perspective and a self-awareness that's refreshing. In fact, I'd call it a major improvement from Baumbach's similar effort, Greenberg, which got a bit too caught up in its main character's own self-involvement, lacking awareness of his inherent unlikability. But what I like about FRANCES HA is that in many ways, the joke is on Frances. And because of that, we end up feeling sorry for her, empathizing with her, and rooting for her - because the movie is fully aware that she is a character who's essentially well-meaning, yet does a lot of dumb things. The movie freely admits that she doesn't have her $%&% together. At the same time, the movie perfectly captures the aimlessness and growing sense of dread that is the quarter-life crisis. Especially in this world of Facebook, blogs, etc., the pressure to do as well as, and to grow up at the same rate your peers, is uber-amplified. Whether real or perceived, it's hard to find your own way in a world in which everyone else seems to always be doing something really awesome at any given moment. Frances Ha does a great job of expressing that vibe of possibility mixed with dread. And Gerwig's Frances - the proverbial manic pixie dream girl, but clipped of her wings and brought down to earth - is the perfect vehicle to convey the movie's themes. In general, what separates this movie from other films and TV shows that look at young-adult-in-the-big-city life is that it is frank, and honest, about things like class, money, nepotism, etc.

Don't think that this is some ultra-serious downer of a movie though. It's very funny, with some wry observational humor, but also some broader/quirkier moments, like Frances having to make a desperate run across NYC to find an ATM while on a date.

It's also a very rock n' roll movie. Baumbach cuts some truly badass montages of city life and of Frances' journey, set to a grooving soundtrack of perfectly-chosen tunes. One song, Hot Chocolate's "Every 1's a Winner" struck me so much, with its disco-era guitar licks and driving beats, that I immediately downloaded it after seeing the film.

Gerwig is great, and so too is Mickey Sumner as Sophie. Sumner brings her own sort of quirkiness to the role, and there's something sad and frustrating as the character evolves into some sort of world-traveling yuppie. Adam Driver from Girls pops up as well, and he's quickly becoming a go-to ensemble player for slice-of-life urban comedy. His character here is much more normal than in Girls, but still really compelling, especially in his interactions with Gerwig as they awkwardly transition from blind date to odd-couple roommates.

At times, FRANCES HA does go a little overboard with its depiction of NYC privileged-hipster life. The movie ultimately gets the absurdity of some of its characters, but sometimes you do think "why doesn't Frances just ditch these rich kids, and hang out with some cooler and more genuine people?" In this way, the movie does sometimes feel trapped in a bit of a bubble. Moments of relatability are intermixed with moments of "ugh, first-world problems." Generally though, the film is sharply-observed and funny and elegantly made enough so as to cancel out such lapses. And even as I began to question Baumbach a bit as the movie went on, he won me over with a great third-act development that sees a distraught Frances return to her old college to work a temporary service gig. This part of the movie really works well, and gets Frances away from the insularity of Manhattan life. And that, in general, is a reason why the movie never becomes unlikable - it takes Frances on enough detours - to France, to her family's house in California, to her old college, that it puts her not-quite-starving-artist city life in perspective.

FRANCES HA was a really pleasant surprise for me. It felt like the modern evolution of movies like Woody Allen's Manhattan (this too is shot in black-and-white) - Woody Allen for the Facebook age. And Gerwig is the perfect inheritor of the Allen mantle. All at once a modern woman and a throwback, Gerwig is eminently watchable, and definitely one to watch.

My Grade: A-

TO ROME WITH LOVE: Woody Allen's Euro-Odyssey Continues

TO ROME WITH LOVE Review:

- Even if I don't love all of his work, I'll always be interested to see a new Woody Allen film. Woody's movies are so distinctly ... Woody ... that it's fun to just get inside the guy's head for a little bit and see what's on his mind these days. His movies, to me, are always fascinating to watch even when they don't 100% click - because there, on-screen, you're seeing the gears of his brain turning, seeing him work out his ever-expanding neuroses for all to see. Now, I tend to think that the chasm between the "great" Woody Allen films and the "dud" Woody Allen films is not necessarilly that great. It's why I tend to be surprised when, by turns, critics and fans hail something like Midnight in Paris as a crowning achievement, while writing off something like Anything Else as a bomb. Most of Woody's films have their moments. Most have some pointed observations, some interesting philisophical themes. But most also have implausibilities, anachronisms, awkwardness - characters that seem to exist only in a weird Woodyland where people on the street stop and discuss poetry and philosophy in casual conversation. Especially as Woody's gotten older, there's increasingly a huge disconnect between his percieved worldview and how things actually are. He usually writes characters and stories that are supposed to be grounded in reality (unlike, say, a Wes Anderson who is clearly writing from a left-of-center perspective). But again, Woody's reality sometimes feels like that of a guy who needs to get out more and live in the actual real world. And yet ... like I said, there's something to be said for a guy who is this singular of a voice. Sometimes, it's nice to imagine living in Woody's world, where nerds win the hearts of brilliant beauties, where knowledge of literature and the arts is used as romantic currency, where everyone is is smart, worldly, and well-off enough to spend their time dealing with the existential rather than the real.

Which brings me to TO ROME WITH LOVE. In many ways, I enjoyed it about as much as Midnight In Paris. For one thing, the setting is spectacular - if nothing else, the film serves as a great little travelogue. Allen still has a great eye for location, and he has an uncanny ability to film a given city and make it look both authentic and exotic and otherworldly. Allen's also got a talent for capturing the personalities of his cast members, and the cast of this film is truly top-notch. Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page, Penelope Cruz, Roberto Benigni, Alison Pill, Judy Davis, and Fabio Armiliato (a real-life opera singer who's hilarious playing one here) - all are great in the film. Even Woody himself gets in on the action, playing Alison Pill's father in a very amusing role - his first on-camera part in several years.

The film's story is actually four stories. Four interweaving but wholly separate stories that each tell a comedic tale set in Rome. In one story, Eisenberg plays an architecture student studying in Rome and living with his girlfriend, played by Gerwig. Her friend - a lovable but clearly crazy aspiring actress (Page) comes to visit for a few weeks, and immediately, Eisenberg is tempted by her freewheeling ways. The twist/joke here is that, one day, Eisenberg runs into an older, well-known architect played by Baldwin. the two strike up a conversation and become friendly, and Baldwin begins following his young apprentice around, giving him advice and providing a running commentary on the younger man's romantic dillemnas. Is Baldwin actually an older version of Eisenberg, magically transported back to the past to lend a hand to his younger self at a moment when he's about to - potentially - make a life-changing mistake? The movie plays coy, but it's the kind of magical-realism-infused device that Woody loves. In the second story, an ordinary man in Rome (Benigni) wakes up one day to find - suddenly and inexplicably - that he is the most famous man in Rome. He's a star, a tabloid sensation, a celebrity. But why? This, also, is Woody having fun with magical-realism. In the third bit, a young couple travels to Rome together - while happy on the surface, each longs for something a bit more adventurous from life. When they separate for the day, each finds temptation - the guy from a gorgeous prostitute (Cruz) who mistakes him for her client, the gal from a famous actor who takes a liking to her. In the final story, Woody and his wife (Davis) travel to Rome to visit their daighter and her new fiance. When they meet the fiance's family, Woody has a "eureka!" moment when he hears his in-law-to-be singing in the shower (Armiliato). It so happens that Woody's character is a retired opera director, and he sees this man - who's never sang professionally - as his ticket back to the bigtime. Only problem is, the dude can only sing well while in the shower. And so, yeah, shenanigans ensue from there.

All four stories are pretty amusing, though the one that worked for me the most was probably the Benigni segment, as it was a rare instance where Woody seems to strike at some spot-on social satire, with regards to our current Reality TV/TMZ culture. Benigni plays the whole thing brilliantly, and is very funny. This is also the segment of the movie where Woody's script is just in full-on farce mode, and it works well. It's nice to see him do something so blatantly silly and comedic. Of course, the opera-singer story is also very funny at times, but it's also much more dragged-out feeling as it's sort of a one-note joke. That said, I'll say again that Armiliato is hilarious, and also, Allen gets in a few choice quips - some vintage Woody sprinkled in there. The young couple storyline is okay, but meanders and feels a bit miscast. The actor who seduces the young woman is supposed to be a suave George Clooney type, but doesn't really pull it off. Cruz is good though, and looks stunning. The Eisenberg/Gerwig/Page/Baldwin storyline is the one with the most potential, but also the one that felt the most off to me. You've got two of the most perfect possible Woody surrogates in Eisenberg and Page, but the dialogue they're given feels like Woody at his worst - pretentious and stilted. I mean come on Woody, stop having your characters use the term "make love" in every other sentance. And why is Jesse Eisenberg dressed like an 80-year-old man? I know, some of these things are surface details, but still ... there's just a lot that felt *off* about this segment in particular. It's a feeling you get a lot when seeing Woody trying to do slice-of-life stuff these days. Maybe the segment could have worked better if it was the subject of an entire film - certainly, there's enough potential here to make a whole movie around this group of characters. But the anthology aspect of the movie - while helping the simpler, sillier segments of the movie - harms this more serious, more thematically ambitious portion.

If there's one overarching theme of the movie, I suppose it'd be that of people not being content with what they have, then coming to realize that, perhaps, things aren't quite as bad as they'd seemed. "It could always be worse." But that theme only very loosely ties things together. And the Rome setting gives the film visual continuity, but not necessarilly narrative continuity. The upside is that To Rome With Love is easy and breezy - it's pretty much enjoyable from start to finish, even if you end up wincing at some of the dialogue and characterization choices. Some critics may look for the broader critical analysis in all this ... is this "good Woody" or "bad Woody?" Is this the end of Woody's recent "streak," or a sign that his European film tour is losing steam? Is this a letdown after Midnight in Paris, or a solid companion piece. The answer is all and none. This is a "lite" movie from Allen, sure, but it's also a quintisenntially Woody Allen movie, with a lot of the strengths and flaws that you so often find in his work. But the man is now a novelty, because there are so few singular voices making movies. Especially in the summertime, when so many movies are processed, synthetic, product - it's fun and refreshing to see what now amounts to the cinematic equivalent of your neurotic comedian uncle sitting you down and telling you a couple of funny stories.

My Grade: B