When Mrs. bee travels to the north country to help our daughter take care of young Jellyroll Johnson, I use the time to watch all those R-rated DVD movies that stack up on the shelves. Since I went to HDTV, I also accumulate movies on the DVR when I see some that look interesting. Last week I had an opportunity to watch a few films that were nominated for Oscars in 2008 and 2009, or that other people had recommended. Seven films in all, and ranked in ascending order as follows:
Blindness: This movie was a sort of hybrid science fiction art film. There's an old saying that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king --- which is basically the movie's premise. In a large metropolis, there's a sudden epidemic of an unusual sort of blindness in which the victims see everything in milky white rather than total darkness. Whether this is a worldwide epidemic is a question better left unasked, since the picture wants to be allegorical rather than plausible. Julianne Moore plays the only person who is for some unexplained reason immune to the white blindness. Intially the blind people are quarantined by the government, but eventually everyone (other than Moore's character) is blind, and there's a total breakdown in the civilized order. What results is a graphic depiction of hell on earth that was hard to watch. On my rating scale, Blindness earns a 6.0 or so.
The Sheltering Sky: Based on a celebrated novel by Paul Bowles, this story takes place in North Aftrica in the early post-WWII years, and like Blindness, has enough scenes of poverty, chaos, primitive disorder and unsanitary living conditions that it's unpleasant to watch. Debra Winger and John Malkovich play American intellectuals traveling through the region in search of something that's missing in their marriage. Several nude scenes featuring Winger, who was my favorite actress around the time she made Terms of Endearment and An Officer and a Gentleman. Better than Blindness, but not by much. Rating: 6.5
Payday: I first saw this cult classic when it came out in 1973 and I think I liked it better then, when I was a younger man. Rip Torn plays a country singer named Maury Dann, one of the sleaziest lowlife scumbags ever portrayed on a movie screen. No redeeming qualities whatsoever, except he seems to love his dog. Rip Torn is so convincing in his performance that he makes Payday worth seeing, but this is definitely not a feel-good movie. Score: 7.0
State of Play: The only non-R rated movie in the group (PG-13). A combination political thriller/murder mystery, with Russell Crowe as a Washington newspaper writer and Ben Affleck as a congressman with the looks and integrity of Senator John Edwards. The political aspect of State of Play concerns America's tendency to privatize its war-making and homeland security efforts. Think Blackwater as a frame of reference. This movie was recommended by Jellyroll Johnson's mom, as I recall, and had enough plot twists and thriller elements to keep me engaged all the way. Plus, I like Russell Crowe. Score: 7.5
The Wrestler: Mickey Rourke was one of my favorite actors in the 1980s (Diner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Year of the Dragon), and I was sorry to see him piss away his film career. He made a comeback of sorts in The Wrestler, winning a Best Actor AA nomination. Rourke plays a professional wrestler whose career has faded, and there was speculation that the character in the movie had much in common with Mickey Rourke in real life. He realizes his stardom has come and gone, and that he's running out of time if he wants to have anything to show for his life. His problem is that his intentions are good, but he's basically a fuckup as his estranged daughter tells him. Randy (The Ram) Robinson is a more sympathetic character by far than Maury Dann in Payday, although both live in a world of sleaze. Marisa Tomei plays the romantic interest, an exotic dancer, and is naked for about half her scenes. Score: 8.5
The Reader: Romantic drama starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. Although their characters have a love affair that is the foundation for the entire story, Winslet and Fiennes have only a few short scenes together. Like Debra Winger in The Sheltering Sky and Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler, Kate has a surprising number of nude scenes in The Reader. This is a sober, serious film that I want to see again, and not just for Kate's nudity. Highly recommended. Score 9.0
Up In The Air: George Clooney today fills the role for me that was once handled by Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford. For years, those three guys were the ones whose names in the cast practically guaranteed a movie was something I'd enjoy seeing repeatedly. George Clooney is good-looking, he's cool, and he has an appealing self-deprecating quality. Like Newman and Redford, his political viewpoints make sense to me. He never seems to take himself too seriously, and I've yet to see a George Clooney movie -- action, comedy or drama -- that I didn't enjoy. For my money, he should've won an Oscar for his work in Up In The Air.
Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, who's an ace in his chosen profession. His firm specializes in the unpleasant business of informing workers their jobs have been downsized, making Bingham a hired gun of sorts who spends much of his life aboard airliners and in or around airports. Up In The Air combines romance, drama, comedy and social commentary, and is easily one of the best movies I've seen lately. Score 9.5
Blindness: This movie was a sort of hybrid science fiction art film. There's an old saying that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king --- which is basically the movie's premise. In a large metropolis, there's a sudden epidemic of an unusual sort of blindness in which the victims see everything in milky white rather than total darkness. Whether this is a worldwide epidemic is a question better left unasked, since the picture wants to be allegorical rather than plausible. Julianne Moore plays the only person who is for some unexplained reason immune to the white blindness. Intially the blind people are quarantined by the government, but eventually everyone (other than Moore's character) is blind, and there's a total breakdown in the civilized order. What results is a graphic depiction of hell on earth that was hard to watch. On my rating scale, Blindness earns a 6.0 or so.
The Sheltering Sky: Based on a celebrated novel by Paul Bowles, this story takes place in North Aftrica in the early post-WWII years, and like Blindness, has enough scenes of poverty, chaos, primitive disorder and unsanitary living conditions that it's unpleasant to watch. Debra Winger and John Malkovich play American intellectuals traveling through the region in search of something that's missing in their marriage. Several nude scenes featuring Winger, who was my favorite actress around the time she made Terms of Endearment and An Officer and a Gentleman. Better than Blindness, but not by much. Rating: 6.5
Payday: I first saw this cult classic when it came out in 1973 and I think I liked it better then, when I was a younger man. Rip Torn plays a country singer named Maury Dann, one of the sleaziest lowlife scumbags ever portrayed on a movie screen. No redeeming qualities whatsoever, except he seems to love his dog. Rip Torn is so convincing in his performance that he makes Payday worth seeing, but this is definitely not a feel-good movie. Score: 7.0
State of Play: The only non-R rated movie in the group (PG-13). A combination political thriller/murder mystery, with Russell Crowe as a Washington newspaper writer and Ben Affleck as a congressman with the looks and integrity of Senator John Edwards. The political aspect of State of Play concerns America's tendency to privatize its war-making and homeland security efforts. Think Blackwater as a frame of reference. This movie was recommended by Jellyroll Johnson's mom, as I recall, and had enough plot twists and thriller elements to keep me engaged all the way. Plus, I like Russell Crowe. Score: 7.5
The Wrestler: Mickey Rourke was one of my favorite actors in the 1980s (Diner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Year of the Dragon), and I was sorry to see him piss away his film career. He made a comeback of sorts in The Wrestler, winning a Best Actor AA nomination. Rourke plays a professional wrestler whose career has faded, and there was speculation that the character in the movie had much in common with Mickey Rourke in real life. He realizes his stardom has come and gone, and that he's running out of time if he wants to have anything to show for his life. His problem is that his intentions are good, but he's basically a fuckup as his estranged daughter tells him. Randy (The Ram) Robinson is a more sympathetic character by far than Maury Dann in Payday, although both live in a world of sleaze. Marisa Tomei plays the romantic interest, an exotic dancer, and is naked for about half her scenes. Score: 8.5
The Reader: Romantic drama starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. Although their characters have a love affair that is the foundation for the entire story, Winslet and Fiennes have only a few short scenes together. Like Debra Winger in The Sheltering Sky and Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler, Kate has a surprising number of nude scenes in The Reader. This is a sober, serious film that I want to see again, and not just for Kate's nudity. Highly recommended. Score 9.0
Up In The Air: George Clooney today fills the role for me that was once handled by Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford. For years, those three guys were the ones whose names in the cast practically guaranteed a movie was something I'd enjoy seeing repeatedly. George Clooney is good-looking, he's cool, and he has an appealing self-deprecating quality. Like Newman and Redford, his political viewpoints make sense to me. He never seems to take himself too seriously, and I've yet to see a George Clooney movie -- action, comedy or drama -- that I didn't enjoy. For my money, he should've won an Oscar for his work in Up In The Air.
Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, who's an ace in his chosen profession. His firm specializes in the unpleasant business of informing workers their jobs have been downsized, making Bingham a hired gun of sorts who spends much of his life aboard airliners and in or around airports. Up In The Air combines romance, drama, comedy and social commentary, and is easily one of the best movies I've seen lately. Score 9.5
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