"Drive." To the theater and see it now.

2011 has been a slow year for movies so far. It's already September and I've only been a few times, and the movies I did see were meh (X-men: First Class) or bleh (The Tree of Life). Seriously, don't get me started on The Tree of Life. Even Sean Penn, who starred in the movie, thought it sucked*.

Things did get interesting in May during the Cannes Film Festival, when a movie about a stunt driver/getaway driver starring Ryan Gosling received great acclaim and a Dane named Nicolas Winding Refn won best director for it. IMDB featured a short clip from the movie, and it looked great.

Drive, the aforementioned movie, finally opened last Friday and I went to see it with much enthusiasm. And it didn't disappoint. Drive is a gourmet action film, with surprising, intense, well-crafted scenes. The cast is near perfect. Gosling is captivating as a soft-spoken yet brutal and exact criminal, similar to Jean Reno's Leon in The Professional. Albert Brooks steals scenes as a witty but equally vicious boss. And Bryan Cranston's kindly inept character is endearing.

What makes Drive stand apart is its tone/pace/atmosphere. It feels like a mashup between the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City & Steven Soderbergh's The Limey. The soundtrack's 80s-synthesized songs, the text/font during opening credits, the horrific violence and suspenseful chases, all seem right out of GTA:VC. The movie's patient pace and laconic dialogue, all set by an unrelenting protagonist, as well as thin plot, resemble that of The Limey, and make the film all the more powerful. During a time when the movie theaters are filled with three-dimensions of superfluous cacophony, Drive demonstrates that less is more. Think Haagen Dazs.

That's it for now. The fall movie season looks promising, but I probably won't be back in theaters until after the pediatric board exam in October. Wish me luck!

*http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2011/08/22/2011-08-22_sean_penn_complains_about_final_cut_of_tree_of_life_says_it_lacked_emotion_and_i.html

"Exit Through the Gift Shop": Vandal with care

One of the original goals of this blog was to highlight films that may have otherwise been overlooked. Exit Through the Gift Shop is a case in point. Fresno Filmworks actually brought this documentary to the local Tower Theater for a one-night screening. But having never heard of the movie, it didn't really catch my attention. Plus I was probably on call.

So I didn't actually get around to seeing it until I started a one month Netflix free trial and saw it on Watch Instantly (I haven't formally joined Netflix because it would probably turn me into a hermit since I'm such a movieholic, addicted to moviehol.)

Anyway, Exit Through the Gift Shop is an excellent documentary, the best I've seen in a while. It begins as an exploration into the clandestine world of street art, as seen from a very curious observer, Thierry Guetta. Guetta, a clothing vendor and amateur video recorder, finds himself intrigued by the unusual artwork momentarily displayed in various public locations, and seeks to understand how and why these images are created. He meets and follows Shepard Fairy, the creator of the Obey stencils. But Guetta's ultimate goal becomes finding the elusive Banksy, one of the most infamous street artists in the world. The documentary then takes an unexpected twist when Banksy, once befriended by Guetta, then turns the camera around and makes Guetta the subject of the documentary. What ensues is a hilarious and ridiculous look into Guetta's life, as he himself attempts to become a street artist and draw fame and fortune from the phenomenon.

A word about documentaries themselves. What are they exactly? The documentary was originally a category of film in which a particular event was documented for posterity. An excellent example would be The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, in which the coup that overthrew Hugo Chavez in 2002 was incredibly captured by Irish filmmakers. But documentaries today seem to have moved on from this key, and instead become a medium for talking heads, reenactments and archived footage. An Inconvenient Truth, for example, didn't really document anything, rather was a mouthpiece for Al Gore to educate audiences about global warming. Which is fine. But the power of the documentary lies in the incontrovertible evidence of the real images and sound presented, as compared to the staged fictitious scenes of a movie. Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line is a great example of this power. In this documentary the director so eloquently presented the evidence behind the murder of a police officer that the man who had been convicted of the crime and sentenced to death was later absolved and released from prison!

What's great about Exit Through the Gift Shop is that the street artists' creative production process is captured so well on film. We see the artists cutting stencils, copying at Kinko's, scaling buildings, spray painting, and fleeing the police. Because this art form is so covert, the film is all the more illuminating. We also develop an appreciation for the artworks' messages of rebellion, creativity and irreverence.

The movie is nominated for the Oscar for best documentary. I think it deserves to win. It will be interesting to see if the mysterious Banksy will show up and, if he wins, what he will say. Or spray.

Favorite films of 2010

There's a lag time between the calendar year and the movie year. Films that were officially released before the end of December often don't find their way into mainstream (i.e. Fresno) movie theaters until January. This means I can't put together my list of my favorite movies of the year until around now. Anyway, here were my favorite movies of 2010. And the worst movies of 2010? Well there weren't many BAD movies that I saw, but definitely some that were disappointing and could have been avoided.

Favorite films of 2010

1) The Social Network. See my previous review for details. Epic. Must see.

2) Somewhere. This is Sophia Coppola's latest movie, a limited release but a real gem. Stephen Dorf plays Johnny Marco, a movie star drifting through Hollywood (and life) alone in a black Ferrari, and later reacquainting with his lovely daughter, played by Elle Fanning. I loved the pace and tone of this movie. Very patient, warm and touching but not sticky sweet. Also a cool Phoenix and Strokes soundtrack.

3) Winter's Bone. Again, see previous review. This movie felt very original, with an unfamiliar setting and relatively unknown cast. Creepy as hell.

4) True Grit. Coen brothers (probably my favorite filmmakers) come through with another winner. What I've always liked about the Coen brothers' movies was their defiance of convention. The unpredictable twists, surprises, outlandish characters and dialogue have made their movies stand out among the rest. True Grit is probably their most straightforward/crowd-pleasing movie, with the biggest surprise being the amount of humor for a revenge western.

5) 127 Hours. As a Danny Boyle fan (28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, Shallow Grave are my favorites) and an outdoor enthusiast, this movie was pretty well suited for my tastes. James Franco was awesome, plus the Clemence Poesy cameo and Sigur Ros song at the end were nice bonuses.

Stinker films of 2010.

1) Biutiful. A film set in Barcelona, starring Javier Bardem and directed by Iñaritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams). Recipe for a great movie right? Wrong. This was the most depressing movie I've seen since Requiem for a Dream. Absolutely no redeeming qualities. Seriously, who wants to watch hematuria, asphyxiated immigrants washing up on a beach, exhumed corpses, and most disturbing of all, boob butts?

2) Inception. See previous rant for further ravings. This movie was visually spectacular but stupidly complicated. If you want to see an excellent mind-bending movie, I highly recommend Charlie Kaufmann's Synecdoche New York. FYI Christopher Nolan's third and final batman movie The Dark Knight Rises is reportedly starring Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Tom Hardy as Bane, to be released July 2012!

3) Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Sorry but this movie was not funny, and for all it's flashy effects and sound, pretty boring after a few minutes, not unlike the 8 bit graphic video games the film so lavishly glorifies.

4) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part I. As far as I'm concerned, the only Harry Potter movie that came close to being as good as one of the books was Alfonso Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban. Granted this latest installment had the impossible task of adapting the best book of the series. Still, somehow the movie just doesn't quite capture the sense of terror I felt while reading the book. When I read the scene of Harry's escape from Privet Drive (photo below), I was really horrified, but in the movie, it was just another chase. Also, the scene where Hermione is tortured? To me that was probably the most atrocious part of the series, but in the movie almost unnoticeable. The best part of this movie was Hermione's animated narration of the story of the deathly hallows. And the worst part? Definitely the dancing scenes. Potter has no moves!!