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Up In The Air

Almost anyone who has seen the film Up In The Air can easily tell you that it is one of the best film of 2009 and I agree wholeheartedly. Up In The Air is about Ryan Bingham, played by George Clooney. His job is to fly around the country and lays off employees for bosses who are unwilling to do so themselves.

His disconnected and hollow life might seem unappealing to the outside observer, but Ryan enjoys it and would not want his life any other way. Since he has no real life prospects to look forward to, the only thing he has, since he flies so often, is to save up his frequent flier miles to reach a goal of 10 million miles. This is his only goal in life and he would be the 7th person to ever achieve it. He also gets by with making small connections with random women in between flights. Ryan’s latest minor connection with another frequent flier is Alex Goran, played by Vera Farmiga. They enjoy each others company enough they start a casual relationship by comparing flight scheduling to see when they will meet up next.

Ryan’s own boss, played by Jason Batman, grounds Ryan and makes him return to the home office to find out that ironically his own job is threatened. A new young employee, Natalie Keener played by Anna Kendrick, has a new cost saving plan. Instead of spending a lot of money physically flying people around the country to perform a layoff, they now would layoff people over the internet with a video call. Ryan is upset by this because his shallow way of life and job, that he personally enjoys, is now disrupted. Ryan convinces his boss to allow him to take Natalie with him on his next round of layoffs the old fashion way. The rest of the film involves Ryan showing Natalie the old way versus the new way, and Ryan actually trying to make a real connection with another person for once, Alex.

Up In The Air is very well paced. Featuring many funny, dramatic and unique true life moments. The delivered and performance of the witty and smart dialog helped emphasis the great quality of the writing. After the first viewing of the film I thought it was the best film of the year. On a second viewing of the film, it reconfirmed that my choice was right. The film was actually better the second time around, which I did not think was possible. On the seconded viewing, now having the foresight of what will happen in the film, it was even more clear of how well the film was structured. The character’s actions and development are true to life but still very original.

Even though the film is based on a novel from almost 10 years ago, this film truly captures a unique perspective on this current financial economic crisis. It is a very realistic and relatable film. An interesting thing the director Jason Reitman did, was include real people that had actually been fired from their job, in the film. This is done three times through out the film. They basically slightly look past the camera and talk about the what it feels like to be fired. The footage was used by inter cutting between George Clooney and the person that had been fired, making it appear as if he had just fired them. Almost every word the real people said about losing their job was heartbreaking.

Out of the 10 Best Picture nominates, Up In The Air is my favorite. Hope it wins as many Academy Awards as possible. There are many other films that I hope win as many awards as possible, but then there are films that don’t need to win many.

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Up

Up is a fully computer animated feature film created by Pixar and Disney. It is an adventure film, and like all Pixar films, it is meant for the entire family. The story is about an old man named Carl Fredricksen, voiced by Ed Asner, trying to achieve his dream of one day going to South America. He attaches thousands of balloons to his house to make it fly. Mistakenly, a little boyscout named Russell tagged along. As the two adventure on, they meet new friends and enemies, that will help them and hinder them on their journey.

Up is a very emotional film. At the very beginning of the film it shows a montage of Carl Fredricksen and his wife’s life. There are two extremely sad moments in the montage that that will leave a grown man crying, myself included. Even multiple viewings still make me tear up a little. Then through out the rest of the film, Carl comes up agents struggles that are hindering him from achieving his dream. These moments are also very emotionally overbearing. Little Russell talks very briefly about his personal life, and it is very sad. The friends that Carl and Russell meet up with also have problems of being hunted and outcasted by others.

If I had to fault Up for anything, it would be the evil old man villain story line. I felt that was much weaker than the rest of the films plot. It was kind of weird to have an evil old man villain, contrasting with a emotional journey to achieve someones dreams. I understand that they needed a major conflict in the film, but I think they could have come up with something better. Maybe Pixar should have extended the journey itself and made it a bigger conflict than it already was.

Like all Pixar films, the art direction and animation was outstanding. They created a very interesting world that was familiar but different. The character designs are stylized enough that they will never look out of date. These things make this film an instant classic. It is sadly not my favorite film created by Pixar, but it is many unique qualities that separate it from the rest of the collection. I would have to place Up on the top half of my list of favorites out of the 10 best picture nominees. I am happy this film is nominated for best picture because it is very rare for animated features to be nominated. Up is only the second ever to be nominated, Beauty and the Beast being the first.

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A Serious Man

A Serious Man is about a Jewish American man in the 1960s as every aspect of his life falls apart. From the extremely large spoiler heavy things, to the completely minor things, like the TV going out, there is nothing in his life that is untouched. It even extends to his entire family, with all of them having parts of their own lives falling apart. My review is very spoiler heavy and becomes less of a review and basically becomes an analysis of the film because so many people did not understand it. Read on if you have already watched the film or do not mind spoilers.

The opening scene of A Serious Man features a seaming unrelated story on the surface to the main film, but it has a deeper purpose. It features an older Jewish family in the early 20th century in Europe. They never explicitly states that the main character in the film is related to them, but by the rules of Chekhov’s gun, not only are they related to the main character, but their own miss actions are the cause of the main characters misfortune. The opening scene could have three other major points; the idea of telling far fetch family stories, the old idea of curses, or just to show a traditional European Jewish family in the early 20th century. So maybe in the end, it was actually needed.

Spoiler Alert, here is where I get spoiler heavy with the plot and ending. The entire film loops around back to the exact spot where it started. Ignoring the opening scene, the very first scene we see, is the main character’s son trying to pay off the another kid at school. He loses the money and though out the entire film he cant pay the kid back. One of the son’s few problems he has to deal with. The son finally gets the money back and in the very last scene we see is him, in the exact same manor as that the very beginning of the film, the son gets ready to hand over to money to the other kid before the film cuts to the credits. The second scene we see is the main character at the doctors office. The second to last scene the doctor calls the main character to come into his office for bad news. So the film ends on the same note as in began.

A lot of peoples problems with the A Serious Man is that there is no resolution to anything but instead the film cuts to credits even before the final climax. At first I was shocked when I saw the credits rolling but then seconds later I realized everything and actually thought it was funny what the Coen Brothers did. Through out the entire film they blatantly stated multiple times the idea of no resolution to a story.

The opening scene had no resolution, unless the entire main part of the film is the actual resolution to the minor story.

The main character has multiple dreams but wakes up during the climax, so there is no resolution to any of them.

The main character is a professor of physic and explains two different ideas about quantum mechanics. Lucky for me, I have already read up on the basic ideas of quantum mechanics to under stand it when it comes up in media, such as this film. So I already knew both quantum mechanics ideas that were explained before viewing this film. The first, he explaining Schrödinger’s cat. A very deep and complex idea but to put it simply; It is a thought experiment of the idea of putting a cat in a box with acid and closing the box. Then you do not know if the cat is alive or dead, thus no resolution. The second theory he talks about was the Uncertainty Principle. The name alone tells you that you can not know everything because some things will be left uncertain.

Then the most blatant of them all. The main character is told a long pointless story that has no resolution. The main character even goes as far as to state that there was no resolution and that he wanted to know. The story teller response by saying who cares.

All these things add up and everyone should have not been surprised when the film had no resolution. First off the films resolutions could only go in two direction. Second it would actually be boring an unnecessary to see it. Either the doctor tells the main character he is fine, or there is seriously something wrong. The doctor called the main character over the phone, but forced him to come in, which means only one thing, there is something seriously wrong. As for the main character’s son, either him and everyone else dies from the tornado, or they survives it. Both parts we do not need to see. This is my third favorite film out of the 10 best nominated for best picture. I think very highly of this film and it is in third place only because I like the other two just slightly more.

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Inglourious Basterds

In all of Quentin Tarantino’s films, he never likes to tell a story in a plain vanilla style. He normally likes to use a nonlinear story instead. This time around, Inglourious Basterds tells two different linear stories that start off disconnected and jump back and forth between each other, but then the two stories finally come together and dovetails nicely at the very end.

Inglourious Basterds is set in Nazi occupied France during World War II. The first story shown is about a young Jewish girl, played by Diane Kruger, who barley escapes capture by the main Nazi villain, played by Christoph Waltz. The second story is about Brad Pitt‘s character who has gathered a team of Jewish Americans to be his Inglorious Basterds. A team that runs around seeking revenge on Nazis by killing and branding as many as possible, with the ultimate goal to take down Adolf Hitler.

Quentin Tarantino likes to use a strong female lead, like in the films Jackie Brown and Kill Bill. Or instead of a central lead, he will have a strong all male team, like he did in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. With Inglourious Basterds, he was able to have both a strong female story along with a story of a strong all male team. Quentin Tarantino also place his films in two distinct worlds. One is the real world where normal rules apply, featured in his films Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. In the other world he uses, which is set in the Hollywood movie world, most rules do not apply. Like Kill Bill, it is often bizarre and over the top. Inglourious Basterds walks a fine line between the two worlds. I feel that the story line about the Jewish girl is set in the real world, with long drawn out realistic moments. Where as the story about the Inglourious Basterds themselves, is set in the movie world, with over the top actions, comedy and even a narrated introduction of the team.

Quentin Tarantino is a filmmaker who truly loves films. He shows this off in Inglourious Basterds by having a premiere of a Nazi propaganda film play a central plot. Along with playing a main character in the main film, Eli Roth directed the propaganda film within the film. Like always Quentin Tarantino has to use many long drawn out slow scenes but Inglourious Basterds uses this the best out of all of his films. All of the scenes feature either a group of Jewish people hiding from Nazis, or a group of Jewish people undercover talking with Nazis. They have to be careful because any wrong move will reveal who they actually are or where they are hiding, thus the slow drawn out scene builds tension and work perfectly for this film.

All the characters in Inglourious Basterds are great and will go along well with the collection of already classic and unique characters Quentin Tarantino has created. Brat Pitt plays a guy who is too full of himself and is actually kind of dumb which leads himself into trouble. Eli Roth plays an absolutely crazy Nazi killer, which is very funny and I would like to see him act more, instead of write and direct. And Christoph Waltz plays an manipulative two faced Nazi who is always playing a game with someone. He is such a great character that he over shadows Adolf Hitler in this film. It was also great to see minor roles go to B. J. Novak from The Office and Samm Levine from Freaks And Geeks.

Out of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture of 2009, I will have to say Inglourious Basterds is my second favorite film of the year and possibly my second favorite Quentin Tarantino film. I am not a big fan of guns but I will be first in line when they start selling punch guns. Inglourious Basterds is a comedy and drama, set both in the real world and the Hollywood movie world, and features both a strong female storyline and a strong all male team storyline; Quentin Tarantino for the first time gets to have the best of both worlds.

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The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is a well paced realistic look at a United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team during the Iraq War. The film is about a highly skilled team leader of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit play by Jeremy Renner. He rubs the rest of his team the wrong way because he likes to do everything is own way, even if it is extremely dangerous. The film is about him connecting with his other teammates as they are put in many risky situations.

The pacing was the first thing I noticed about the film because it starts off with a bang. The film continues this trend by feeding the audience a healthy amount of downtime of the soldier just living, between all the thrilling action. The opening of the film also makes the statement that anything could happen at any time. So all the characters did feel like they were in danger all the time, unlike many other films where main characters are completely invincible. Along with that, the films visuals had a quality to them that made you feel as if you were watching a real life documentary, unlike most unrealistic Hollywood movies. The near documentary style helped make the characters more real and thus allowing the audience to connection to the characters more and have them appear to be in greater peril. Even though the film is fictional, it puts perspective on the idea that this is a very real job that people actually risk their lives doing.

Overall the film is a very interesting look at the nearly unbelievable job and life of the main character, plus his wife is Evangeline Lilly. Out of the 10 Academy Award Nominated For Best Picture Of 2009, I would have to place it in the middle of the list of my favorite. Not only is the film up for Best Picture but for Best Director. The director is Kathryn Bigelow, who is the ex-wife of James Cameron. His film, Blue Aliens Are From Pandoria And Under Developed Characters Are From Earth, is also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. This fact does not actually matter, but Hollywood’s second biggest export behind movies is celebrity gossip that does not effect anyone but the ones who are involved.

Update –
Congratulations to The Hurt Locker for winning Best Picture and Best Director among many other awards. It might have not been my favorite out of the ten Best Picture Nominees, but I completely understand why it won Best Picture and happy that it won because it beat out the majority of other films that did not even deserve the award.

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District 9

I went a very long time without watching District 9. I was lucky enough to not be spoiled by the film’s plot during that time. When I finally watched the film, I was genuinely surprised at the direction the film went. I am a bit saddened that I saw Avatar before District 9 because both films have a lot of the same plot points. I do think District 9 was stronger than Avatar, but I believe if I had watched District 9 before Avatar, I would have enjoyed it even more.

District 9 is an adaptation of the short film Alive In Joburg. The feature film is in a documentary style and set in 2010. The film opens with humans talking about how an alien ship suddenly appeared over Johannesburg, South Africa back in 1982. The alien ship just sat idle for an extended period of time until the humans sent a team to investigate. They found the aliens in a weak state. The humans removed all the aliens from the ship and brought them down to the city below. The aliens were suppose to live among the humans in Johannesburg, but very quickly, racial conflicts arose. The aliens were forced into a government controlled camp called District 9. The documentary style continues with the human interviewees talking how the aliens are now going to be removed from District 9 and forced into a new camp. An under prepared human, played by Sharlto Copley, was put in charge of the team that would move the aliens.

After a few scenes of the team trying to force the aliens to move, something goes wrong unexpectedly. This is when the film has a dramatic shift in its story and its tone. Before, the film was a documentary with talking heads and now it becomes a hand held action drama with Sharlto Copley character trying to fix the mistake he made. I did enjoy the direction the film went, but it was unexpected, and not what I assumed the film would be about. I believe I would have enjoyed the film even more if it were all in the documentary style and a story that would have fit that style.

This film is far from the normal action packed alien Sci-fi movie. The main theme of District 9 was xenophobia. The entire film was a metaphor for the Aparthid in South Africa. I would put District 9 in the middle of my list of favorite films out of the 10 Best Picture Nominees Of 2009. The production of the film had a very low budget but still managed to produce amazing visuals. I am, once again, saddened that Avatar’s revolutionary visuals and technique overshadows District 9, especially since District 9 used a fraction of the budget that Avatar did.

District 9 was directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson. The two were originally teaming up to create a Halo movie, but they created District 9 instead. I am very happy this deeper and more thoughtful film was created instead of a weaker, geared towards frat boys, video game movie.

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Avatar

Avatar is a film that only a few people might have heard of. It has gone under the radar for far too long. Everyone must know that Avatar is easily the greatest film of all time, if not greatest thing of all time.

In all seriousness, James Cameron’s Avatar is just another mediocre blockbuster movie that is now the highest grossing film of all time.

The story of Avatar deals with humans invading the planet Pandora for its resources but the native humanoid alien race, The Na’vi, are unhappy with the humans. The humans created a handful Na’vis that they can control with their minds and inhabit the body of with the help of machines. One human in his Na’vi avatar body goes rouge and gets involved with the native Na’vi culture. He struggles with being a human in a Na’vi body as the struggles between the humans and the native Na’vi worsen.

The story conflict of Avatar is simple, Man VS Animal. You may try to find a more complex conflict of it being Man, with the motivation of Greed and with the help of Machines VS Animal, with the motivation of Faith and with the help of Nature. However, Avatar’s basic story helped it become so successful. It is so generic that the story could be a metaphor for many different real world conflicts from the past and present and from round the world. This is appealing and relatable to many people and cultures around the world.

I did enjoy Avatar and had more fun during the viewing of it than many of the other 10 best picture nominees of 2009. But that is the problem with Avatar, it was just a movie experience that was made for you to have fun while watching it. Once the last frame of Avatar is shown, the experience is finished and you do not think about the movie itself again. You might think about the amazing visuals, but not about the story or the characters or about the film as a whole. All the other best picture nominees are long lasting deep films and have made me think about the story and characters weeks later. Many of them were depressing with characters struggling through real world situations. Since the others nominees were depressing, that is the only reason why I can say I had more fun viewing Avatar but it did not make me think or care about the film like the other depressing films did. The only thing Avatar has going for itself is the visual 3D roller coaster ride for your eyes.  The visuals might be amazing, but that does not make a good movie. The music was just as bad as the visuals were good. The story and characters were undeveloped and there was too much Papyrus.

Avatar is a movie made to be a movie. It will be nothing more than just a movie. It is an experience meant to be had in theaters with 3D glasses on, like I did with my friend Michelle Fischer. I would recommend anyone to experience Avatar this way, but I could not recommend Avatar as a simple home viewing. Because of that, Avatar fails at being something more and is just a simple short term experience.

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Demented Daddy Dexter

The thrilling tale of everyone’s favorite serial killer is back again for the fourth season of Dexter. The Showtime original TV series, based on the Darkly Dreaming Dexter novel, tells the story of Dexter Morgan, a serial killer whose modus operandi is to kill other killers. The narrative and Michael C. Hall‘s portrayal as Dexter are strong, showing him as the lesser of two evils, that you will find yourself supporting the likable serial killer and hoping he does not get caught.

Most seasons of Dexter are setup with a main antagonist, another serial killer who Dexter is trying to hunt down throughout the entire season. Meanwhile, Dexter is satisfying his own personal fix by killing other murderers in almost every episode. Normally, the antagonist is a mystery and stays in the shadows for the majority of the season, but in season four, the opening shot introduces him and shows his face. John Lithgow is The Trinity Killer, one of the most notorious serial killers in the country, who finds himself in Dexter’s town of Miami, Florida. Dishonest detective Dexter is a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police, who discovers clues about the new serial killer in town. Finding and killing the Trinity Killer would be the ultimate trophy in Dexter’s collection, but it will be a race against the Miami police before they find and deal with The Trinity Killer the legal way.

I normally do not like knowing who the main antagonist is in a TV series because it always adds to the compelling mystery. The fact that it is the high profile John Lithgow and seeing his kills from his perspective will balance out the show’s lack of the mystery. The writers always find an interesting new approach to the show each season so Dexter’s character does not get stale. Along with Dexter’s strong competition of The Trinity Killer, Dexter has also become a new father. Family life is distracting daddy Dexter and making him a more clumsy killer, putting him at risk of getting caught.

Dexter season four premiered September 27, 2009. The beginning of the episode was a slow burn of exposition, but ended with a giant cliffhanger of dozing driving Dexter crashing his car. The crash happened after one of Dexter’s kills, leaving the viewer believing there was a severed body in the back of his car. I hope that all of season four can keep up the high impact storytelling that ended of the first episode.

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Lost again

Starting the other day, I began to casually re-watch the TV show Lost. I viewed episodes one through four and then a handful of random episodes of season one even though I have already watched the entire series so far. I believe that Lost is the greatest show ever (Yes, a hyperbole, but the show is that good to claim it). Despite the fact that I enjoy the series so much, I have always believed that Lost was a one time watch because of it is strong focus of mysteries that surround every element of the show. Having the insight of five out of the six seasons, I can say that watching the series a second time is just as good as the first. I might know the answers to some of Lost’s major mysteries but I still found myself engrossed by the beginning of the series. This was made clear to me during the fourth episode of the first season Walkabout featuring the first flashback of the character John Locke. I knew exactly what was going to happen but still enjoyed the twist ending and the reactions from the first time viewers.

The reason I am watching Lost again, but not viewing all the episodes, is because my sister Kyle just started watching the show for the first time. She was lucky enough to remain spoiler free for over five years since Lost premiered September 22, 2004. Kyle instantly was hooked and she can not stop watching. She is currently a little more than half way through season one, only a few days after she started. The best part of watching Lost with someone who has never seen the show before is their speculation of all the shows mysteries and knowing almost all the answers yourself. Often their guesses are comically wrong but a few times they get one right.

Watching Lost again with a new viewer is a good way to recap before the sixth and final season that will primer in early 2010. Now that Lost has proven to me it can be watched more than once, I will most likely buy the series when a “complete series” collection comes out in the future.