Young Adult - 2011 - 3½ Stars

Actors: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt

Director: Jason Reitman

I suppose in an age of narcissism where people write their thoughts about movies on the Internet as though anyone cared, it's only realistic that our indie film type characters have gotten more narcissistic. Charlize Theron's Mavis Gary is endlessly self-involved to the point of parody - she's constructed a fantasy world where she can liberate her ex- high school boyfriend from his outwardly happy marriage and satisfying life.

It's tempting, given that Theron's character is a writer of young adult fiction and that the writer wrote Juno, to read this as a meta-film about the difficulty of writing high school characters without being one yourself. On the one hand, this is pretty unfair, but on the other hand, it's damn hard to see other ways of looking at it.

Blow Up - 1966 - 4½ Stars

Actors: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

What if a shitty movie ended with a setpiece like Blow Up? I won't give anything away, but its ending is bizarre even by foreign film standards. I guess shitty writers and directors wouldn't have the balls to end their film that way, too.

Anyway, I'm in a giving mood, so despite the fact that Blow Up is at least 10 minutes too long, I give it a nearly perfect rating. It was the 60s, no one knew where to make their edits. The film has two unforgettable set pieces and a completely bonkers plot - it's a shame that its plot has been thrown into other movies and warped. Antonioni keeps the film Hitchcockian and thus centered on the individual.

D.O.A. - 1949 - 4 Stars

Actors: Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton

Director: Rudolph Mate

I normally try to avoid all critical reaction before I write up my posts, but I did happen to catch the fact that critics of this film lauded its revolutionary plot. I had not thought it so revolutionary - I just thought, 'Oh, this is the noir version of Crank.' I have to wonder what kind of studio oversight a film like this had, because there are several scenes that feel modern: a long tracking shot to open the film, a musicless suspense scene where all we hear are footsteps, and a scene that was shot on location at a time when that seems rare (Wikipedia informs me that this is a stolen shot, and it certainly appeared that way).

D.O.A. starts out dreary and shapeless but quickly becomes a classic noir, where the hero knows more than the audience and is trying to put together the pieces before he's killed.

The Descendants - 2011 - 3½ Stars

Actors: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley

Director: Alexander Payne

About as Oscar bait-y as a film can be without featuring British nobility, The Descendants still manages to be a decent way to spend two hours. The performances are good, the writing's generally good, and aside from some early clunkiness, the film is well-directed.

I noticed this in Win Win as well, but these movies that combine comedy and drama have a very fine line to walk - give a character too many laugh lines, and he or she is out of place in the dramatic portions of the film. It takes skill to draw a character who is both funny and real - The Descendants doesn't quite accomplish this with all of its characters.

World's Greatest Dad - 2009 - 4 Stars

Actors: Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara

Director: Bobcat Goldthwait

World's Greatest Dad might be the funniest film I've seen from the last five years. It's darkly hilarious and yet at the center there's actually a heart. Furthermore, not only is there a great performance by Robin Williams, but he doesn't even have a scene where he does 6 different voices in the space of a minute. Williams is underrated as an actor because of his tendency towards improvisation and look-at-me scenery chewing - when directors can get him away from those things, he's capable of both sincerity and humor.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - 2010 - No Rating

Actors: Thanapat Saisaymar, Jenjira Pongpas

Director: Apitchatpong Weerasethakul

I give Uncle Boonmee... no rating because it's such an unusual film. The 'story' is about the eponymous Uncle Boonmee who has a kidney ailment and is dying. Yet there are long interludes about his dead wife and a strange incident with his son. The meaning of some events in the film appears inscrutable, and it did sometimes struggle to hold my attention. Still, some of the shots in this movie are incredible. I think I say this too often, but while I love that there are films like Uncle Boonmee... - non-linear, inscrutable, prone to raise questions without answering them, I don't know how much I enjoy them. I also have to imagine that this film is far, far better on the big screen.

Shame - 2011 - 3½ Stars

Actors: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan

Director: Steve McQueen

Drug and alcohol abusers usually have a social network of sorts - enablers, bartenders, co-addicts - who can at least pass as friends. It's part of why addiction recovery is so difficult; one not only has to give up the substance, but probably distance one's self from all of one's old haunts and enablers. Shame takes a look at sex addiction, something that's often looked at as a joke, but is perhaps more alienating than run-of-the-mill substance abuse.

The film has many long takes, some of which work beautifully to capture tension, and others which seem like they should've been left on the editing room floor. One issue with addiction movies is that the addict turns himself and his world into a series of objects - it's hard to care deeply about willfully self-destructive people.