My wrap up...
Great Films:
Merry Gentleman:
Michael Keaton's directorial debut. It has an Oscar worthy performance by Kelly MacDonald (from No Country for Old Men and Trainspotting). Bobby Carnavale gives a good performance in just one scene as her ex-hubby.
The Hurt Locker:
Jeremy Renner really shows his worth as an actor with this gritty movie by Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days, Near Dark, Point Break). The first good Iraq War II movie.
500 Days of Summer:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt can do it all. High School detectives. Gay hookers. Brain Damaged Bank Robbers. Here is shows that he has a "light touch." It doesn't mean that the movie is inconsequential. It just means that the guy could be a comedy lead if he wants too.
Boy, Interrupted:
Probably the best documentary of the year. Extremely difficult to watch. It concerns a suicide of a 15 year old boy. The film is directed by his parents, who are film makers.
Good Films:
Suger:
The first half is incredible to watch. You get to see the rise of a young Dominican baseball player through the American Minor League system. I think the film loses steam once it arrives in New York, but it is still a worthy movie. The best baseball movie of the decade.
Landscape Number 2:
Slovic thriller about a art heist gone wrong.
Awesome sex scenes + gruesome violence= My recommendation
Goodbye Solo:
The new film from the director of Chop Shop. An engaging, but sad dual character study of a African cab driver and an elderly white man in North Carolina. Neo-Realism at its finest. A little slow, though.
Moon:
The debut film from David Bowie's son. Sam Rockwell is the man. A throw back sci-fi film to the 70's "thinking man" films like Solaris, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Logan's Run.
American Violet:
Great supporting performances by Alfre Woodard, Michael O'Keefe and Will Patton. It also features a strong performance by Nicole Beharie. A little too much of a Stanley Donovan liberal message movie for my tastes, but I am still recommending it.
Brothers Bloom:
Not as good as Brick, but what is? I thought there was one con too many at the end.
