Snob Movie Review: Coraline

This film written and directed by Henry Selick (he also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas) is based on Neil Gaiman's book. It opens February 6, 2009 on 3-D screens and conventional 2-D.

The story begins when Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) moves with her two parents to a dreary rural area. Her parents pay no attention to her as they are busy editing and writing a new catalogue. She is left to explore her new space and meet the new neighbors and creepy neighborhood kid.

Continuously neglected by her parents she is given a doll that looks uncannily like her. Then weird things start to happen.

She goes through a door and enters a parallel world in which her button-eyed parents are awesome. They cook great food, make beautiful music and have a cool garden. Coraline then starts to like this world better than her 'real world' with her 'real parents'. Then, as the tag line says 'Be Careful What You Wish For'.

The script is equal parts funny, heartwarming and silly. The voice work is fun and sound like the characters. However, what's really on display is the absolutely stunning stop motion animation. Coraline's world is such a unique place with unique characters, that I was in awe of the imagination and creativity of Selick's mind. He has the ability to make cheery, candy-coloured designs and later turn these on their head to mean something completely different.

I saw it in 3-D, and enjoyed how they really exploited depth in the set designs which were magnified with the medium. It's a refreshing change from the usual 3-D movie cliche of having the flying knives coming at you. Don't get me wrong though, there are a few gimicks. I'm sure if viewers can't see it in 3-D, it will still be beautiful as the colours will be much brighter and objects more sharply drawn.

Coraline is definitely a great start to the year.

Snob Movie Review: The Reader

The film directed by Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot) opens December 10th, 2008 in limited release and wide Jan 9th, 2009.

The film is an adaptation of the novel by Berhard Schlink and stars Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes and David Cross. The story is a very complex tale of guilt, secrets and dealing with the horrors of the past.

David Cross is a 15 year old boy in post-WWII Germany, who encounters an older woman (Kate Winslet) who works as a conductor on trams. The two begin a torrid love affair that involves the boy reading books to the older woman followed by a lot of sex.

Eventually, they break up and the young man continues with his studies. In law school his Professor takes them to a trial. It's one of the trials for employees at Nazi Concentration camps. One of the defendants is the older woman. The woman does not reveal a piece of information about herself that could easily deflect some of the accusations meant against her. The boy also keeps her secret.

Ralph Fiennes plays the boy, now a middle aged man who has a distant relationship with his own daughter. He is forced to reconcile his past with Kate Winslet in order to save his relationship with his daughter.

There are some serious flaws with this movie: the fact that the actors don't speak German (they speak English with German accents), the constant changing of time periods and the montage-like feeling of many scenes.

With that being said, the movie is still fascinating. Great performances, a story that really explores German attitudes towards its past and a morally ambiguous slant on everything makes this an ineresting watch.

Snob Movie Review: Gran Torino

Directed and starring Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino opens December 12th in limited release and wider January 16th, 2009.

Clint plays a Korean War vet who is recently a widower. He is left alone in his home in a neighborhood that is quickly being populated with immigrants.

His family is completely self-absorbed and pay no attention to him. His asian neighbors stick to themselves and their community. Their children played by newcomes Bee Vang and Ahney Her are brother and sister. They are constantly being harassed and recruited by a gang that is up to no good.

Clint's character is a bigot that spews ignorant and racist talk in every sentence. He is very much the crotchety old man.

When the neighbor boy is caught trying to steal Clint's prized Gran Torino car from the garage, the boy is sent to work for Clint to restore honor to his family. Unwillingly, Clint accepts and begins to give the boy tasks around the neighborhood. Soon, Clint is seen as a hero in the neighborhood for cleaning things up and standing up to the gang. Clint takes a liking to the hardworking neighbor boy, but Clint realizes the gang must be stopped or they will take the boy and turn him to a life of crime.

This story is a coming of age story, and an unconventional buddy picture about clashing cultures. It's heart is in the right place, but it just boils down to a Dirty Harry grown old movie.

Although Clint gives a good performance (although a bit one note, especially for the first half of the movie), the rest of the cast is spotty at best. In fact, some of the characters are just so one dimensional such as the old man's family. Also, the film falls prey to so many of the stereotypes that it is in the position to challenge. It is for these reasons that we can't recommend this one from good ole Clint.

Snob Movie Review: Valkyrie

Directed by Bryan Singer (at one point, he was one of our favourite directors), this picture opens Christmas Day.

Tom Cruise stars as von Stauffenberg a member of the German Army who plans to kill Hitler in WWII. At the beginning of the movie, he is wounded in Africa leaving him without an eye and a hand.

The good thing about this movie is the unprecedented supporting cast which includes: Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Terence Stamp, Eddie Izzard, Tom Wilkinson and more. All deliver interesting performances.

However, the same can not be said for Tom Cruise. Personally, I think he is an interesting actor, but in Valkyrie we see none of it.

We all know the outcome of the movie, but it still lacks the suspense and drama that is demanded in a movie of this. All of the characters are uni-dimensional (especially Cruise). There is a lot of talking and very little action, the movie becomes pretty boring.

Although I appreciated the interesting transition from German to English, it's a very strong choice to have your actors perform with their native English and American accents. It's a weird decision that I'm sure will get some attention.

Above all, the directing, acting and editing becomes robotic. It's adequate, but there's something missing. No surprises. No emotional content. Thi is especially tragic since this is one of the most interesting stories of our time.

Snob Movie Review: Los Cronocrimenes (Timecrimes)

After making the festival rounds, this movie opens in limited release on December 12, 2008 and was written and directed by Spaniard Nacho Vigalondo. He also plays one of the four cast members.

A husband and wife are hanging out by their isolated home. The husband looks into the woods and sees a young woman behaving suspiciously. He sees her take her top off. With his wife gone, he decides to go investigate the woods. He comes across the completely nude woman and is quickly attacked with a pair of scissors by a trench-coated, and face bandaged lunatic.

The husband flees and is led to lab where a seemingly friendly scientist tells him to hide in pod-like device. The pod closes. When it reopens, the man is transported many hours back in time.

This sets off an interesting entry into the Time Travel genre, which has echoes of Primer, Deja Vu and Memento. One that involves an extremely small cast and very few locations. However, they all work with an interesting script that is constantly turning in on itself.

Perhaps not the best time travel movie, but Los Cronocrimenes is enjoyable and very well made.
Watch out for the Hollywood remake in a couple of years.

Snob Movie Review: Milk

This biopic directed by Gus Van Sant opens today (November 26th, 2008) in limited release and wider next Friday (December 5th, 2008).

Sean Penn stars as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California. Josh Brolin plays a colleague of Milk and Emile Hirsch and James Franco play his friends.

The film opens with an astounding montage of newsreel and newspaper clippings of homosexual raids across the USA in the past. Milk meets up with Franco in NYC and they end up moving to San Francisco's Castro neighborhood. Starting up a camera store, Milk decides to organize the gay community to have financial and political clout.

He decides to run for city office and loses. A couple of times. Not discouraged, he gets more and more folks to volunteer their time and expertize to his cause. Eventually, he gets elected and gets involved in the national debate over gay rights. More specifically Proposition 6, the law that would make it illegal for homosexuals to be teachers in California.

Gus van Sant has taken a lot of jeers (and cheers) for his storytelling style (long takes, relaxed narrative structure, if any at all) but with Milk, he's made a fairly conventional film. It's also one of his best. He tackles a huge story and seamlessly blends in real footage, real people and original locations to create a cohesive film of undenying power.

The performances on display are fantastic. Sean Penn finally plays a character with a broad range of emotions and he's inspiring.

After a year of mediocre fare, Milk sets the bar for American films in 2008.

Snob Movie Review: Australia

This film opens today (November 26, 2008) and is directed by Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, Romeo + Juliet), and stars Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and young Brandon Walters.

There is no doubt that this film is a labor of love for everyone evolved. The plot involves the WWII bombings in Northern Australia as well as the mistreatment of mixed children by the government. Mixed in there is a sweeping romance.

Kidman plays an English aristocrat that comes to Australia only to find her husband dead, and his ranch being run into the ground by a rival rancher. Jackman plays a cowboy that leads cattle across the country to be sold. Mixed into all of this is a bi-racial kid (Brandon Walters) that is torn between his Aboriginal grandfather's mysticism and Nicole Kidman's maternal modern love.

I could continue on with the plot, but that should give an indication of the convoluted mess that Australia is. The first 20 minutes of this film should have ended up on the cutting room floor. It has a bizzarro goofball tone that doesn't go anywhere, and Nicole Kidman has as much personality as the sponge in my sink.

The rest of the film is part romance, part war film and part comedy in the vein of Gone with the Wind. Unfortunately, that's where the comparison ends.

The script is uncompromisingly corny and downright ridiculous at moments. There is far too much CGI effects. It's not so much that we don't think it's real, it's more that I don't believe it. And of course, there's the whole White Saviour undertone.

A massive bloated missfire, Australia deserves more.

Snob Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire

This film directed by Danny Boyle opened today (November 12, 2008), and is garnering a lot of attention. Early reviews are touting it as a Best Picture underdog. In a year where most films thus far have sucked, that could be a good prediction.

In my books, Danny Boyle has built one of the best bodies of work this generation. Everything he does is somehow interesting, but still has his trademark audacious aesthetic. Slumdog is no exception.

The film is shot mostly digital and entirely in India. The protagonist, Jamal, is on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and is about to be given his final question, when he is accused of cheating. He is interrogated by a cop played by Irrfan Khan (this guy can do no wrong) trying to figure out how this uneducated kid from the slums could answer all of the questions correctly and even get on the show. The answer to a question triggers off a flashbacks to how Jamal knew the answer to the difficult question. It's an interesting narrative device.

Through the flashbacks we learn of Jamal's almost Dickensian youth with his tough brother Salim and a girl he loves Latika. These characters are played by three different actors at various ages, however, the transitions are not jarring. If anything, the performances of the younger cast eclipse those of the older actors.

There are several problems with this film, mostly with the far reaching storylines and the supposed love story at its core. To be honest, I just didn't buy it. The peripheral characters, although interesting, have no real depth and make some weird decisions.

With that being said, the look and feel of the film, shot by Anthony Dod Mantel, propel this average 'rags to the riches' tale into another league. There is so much visual energy in the shots and editing that it exudes real beauty.

Snob Movie Review: Changeling

Clint Eastwood directs this period-piece set in 1920's Los Angeles (not to be confused with the cult favourite The Changeling, the Canadian horror movie). It opens in wide release on October 31st, just in time for awards season.

It stars Angelina Jolie as a young single mother who leaves her child alone at home one day to go to work. When she returns, she finds the boy gone. The police eventually return a boy to her - but it's not her son. What then occurs is an unbelievable set of circumstances and situations that show the level of corruption and politics within the police. The problem is that it's all true. The film is a true story.

There are some problems with the storytelling: it lags at some points, and it doesn't really have a satisfying ending. Perhaps if the movie ended 30 minutes before it actually does, I would have been happier.

However, the good things outweigh the bad. Jolie's performance, although bordering on the same thing over and over (it would be fun to count how many times she says 'I want my son back!' or how many times she cries) is still believable and heart-wrenching at times. John Malkovich as a Presbyterian reverend that comes to the woman's aid is incredible. I never thought I'd see him in a role like this, but he does it well. By and large, the supporting cast (Jeffrey Donovan as a corrupt captain, Colm Feore as the chief and Jason Butler Harner as a killer) is what makes this movie work. They will all be overlooked.

Snob Movie Review: Religulous

Larry Charles (Of Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Borat fame) brings us another run-and-gun style documentary about America. It opened last night (October 3rd).

The film consists of Bill Maher questioning every facet of the three 'major' religions in America: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is definitely the most damning critiques about religion since Monty Python's The Life of Brian.

In Maher's quest to learn about why religion is still such a major force in America despite the overwhelming evidence against it, Maher interviews devout followers and religous leaders. He travels the world and also delves into his family history with faith.

Some of the interviews work, some of them don't. The most interesting ones are with the folks associated with the Vatican. Their answers are shocking in their candidness and their progressiveness.

Content aside, the movie is quite slick and amounts to just being a travelogue with several sound bites. I feel that some scenes scenes needed to be played out a bit more, others should have been cut down. Although the pace and tone of the movie don't exactly work, the filmmaker's thesis is clear and never deviates from it.

Right before the credits, Bill Maher sums up the entire film in one 'straight for the jugular' angry rant while epic orchestrations play. It's equal parts comedy, satire and insight.

Perhaps not the greatest documentary ever made, Religulous does have some genuine laughs and is entertaining. That's a lot to say for a movie that tackles a taboo topic. It also proves that Larry Charles is one of the great comedic directors of our time.

Snob Movie Review: Blindness

This film directed by Fernando Meirelles and written by Canadian Don McKellar opens in wide release on October 3rd, 2008.

The film is an adaptation of the famous novel, which I have not read and has a pretty good cast: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Alice Braga and even Gael Garcia Bernal.

The story begins when people in a non-descript large city begin to go blind. The isolated incidences become an epidemic.

Julianna Moore and Mark Ruffalo (he plays an eye doctor) are a husband and wife team. The husband becomes blind, whereas the wife doesn't. She pretends to be blind so that she can be with him as he gets put into an asylum with other blind folks.

The movie then goes the way of The Lord of Flies, where cliques are created, and food becomes more scarce. Tensions rise. Little to no help from the outside the outside city. It seems that the entire city has been abandoned after a while.

Anyways, the story goes on and there is a hopeful ending. Unfortunately, this movie is just so damn bleak and dark, it's hard to get into it. It's dreary color pallette even make the film boring to look at.

Essentially, this movie is not about everyone going blind, but rather it's about the one woman that can see. We're used to seeing Julianne Moore give so much of herself to other roles, but I just didn't buy her performance here. Perhaps it's the fault of the writing, but I didn't believe her actions, and when she took them.

This film was made by the same guy that did City of God and The Constant Gardener, both of which we love. What makes those stories so interesting is that they are about characters put into horrible situations. They then go on to make larger socio-political points.

Unfortunately, Blindness is more about a horrible situation with some characters in it. As a result, the film ends up being cold and trite.