Score- 9/10 (very high 9)

(I have stopped doing the ‘objective and ‘subjective’ plot synopsis for personal reasons………….laziness)

BC- The Social Network is the perfect example of what happens when a movie is orchestrated by the right people. Throw out the writer, get someone else to adapt the book and you lose the wit. Throw out the director and you have a movie solely about Facebook. Throw out the actors and you have a well directed and well written movie, but not a great movie as a whole. Get me?

Remember that feeling the trailer left you when it incorporated a haunting rendition of an already haunting song, leaving you feeling…something new? That was The Social Network for me. Something new. Sure, it had all that social commentary mumbo-jumbo everybody praises, but that’s not what made it special. Don’t get me wrong, we all love when a film can hit that intellectual point that is so lacking in contemporary art, but that’s not what we are all about as a people nowadays. We read pretension faster than we can understand what there was to be pretentious about. That is exactly what this movie talked about. It said to me…to us: we are so lucky to be living at this moment in time. We are so observant. Wise. We have so much at our fingertips. We can beat our parents at virtually any discussion by just using our technological skills to find the answer on the internet, that is if we hadn’t researched the topic before hand to knowingly beat them to the punch. We have every shortcut possible to reach success. What route will we choose to get there? Who’s toes will we step on? Do we mind ‘selling out’ when we get there? Is money more important than a good night’s sleep? The answer is there is no definite answer. It is all dependent on the individual. Success is not for everyone.

I don’t want to go into all the technicalities that made this film work so well because you shouldn’t have to look for it. It is complex simplicity. A painting that took decades to complete but you connect with at first glance. All the shots were stupendous. Not too much and not too little. The cinematography was something that was beautiful enough for me to create a mental picture out of but subtle enough to not be able to explain it in writing. The screenplay was one of those definite Oscar nominations; never, ever a dull moment. Nothing but fluidity, great character development, believable character motives and a storytelling technique that felt so fresh despite its trite usage in past films. Now, the acting was something special. Jesse Eisenberg is worthy of a Best Actor in a Leading Role nomination at next year’s Academy Awards. The rest of the cast just held all the pieces together and most importantly, made us relate to them by incorporating mannerisms that although at times can be very elitist, due to their Harvard-attending personalties, they maintain a sense of that ‘kid next door’ throughout the film. 

Not a flawless masterpiece, but a definite hit. 

Highlights- Screenplay. Jesse Eisenberg. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ eerily minimalist score. David motherfucking Fincher.

Best movies of 2010 so far:

1. Toy Story 3

2. The Social Network

3. Inception

4. Shutter Island

5. Kick- Ass

herekitty asked: Coin Firth was so wonderful. I will repress the thought of him having done a movie with Amanda Bynes in the past. I keep calling it A Beautiful Man due to how beautiful overall A Single Man is. Every scene. The detail on that little girls dress as she blinks in slow motion. I think something changed, he changed, or at least to me it felt as though there was a weight lifted of his chest and mine.

It's Monique by the way:)

YOO, why can’t tumblr allow simple freaking commenting?? But yes, I agree.

 1. Stanley Kubrick

5 Best Films

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. A Clockwork Orange
3. Barry Lyndon
4. Paths of Glory
5. The Shining

 2. Alfred Hitchcock

5 Best Films

1. Vertigo
2. Dial M for Murder
3. Rope
4. Rear Window
5. The Man Who Knew Too Much

 3. Steven Spielberg

5 Best Films

1. Schindler’s List
2. Jurassic Park
3. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
4. Minority Report
5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

 4. Federico Fellini

5 Best Films

1. 8 1/2
2. La Dolce Vita
3. La Strada
4. I Vitelloni
5. Amarcord

 5. Martin Scorsese

5 Best Films

1. Taxi Driver
2. Raging Bull
3. Goodfellas
4. Mean Streets
5. The Color of Money

Score- 8/10

Subjective Synopsis- A gay man tries to cope with the loss of his lover.

BC- One of the most consistently paced films I have ever seen. Picture a road trip with no bumps along the way, on cruise control, with not too much excitement, but yet, never a dull moment. A Single Man was just that. It felt like a Fellini movie but re-directed by Sam Mendes: a film which’s pretext is screaming for a spectacle of obscure shapes and sounds but is wrapped up and tamed with humility. The pace of the film, as I mentioned above, is as neutral and constant as any other worthy of that description. The cinematography is beautifully toned and shot, but it almost seems like a cheat alongside the elegance of the retro architecture (remember this was directed by a fashion designer).

Fashion Designer Tom Ford made his directorial debut with A Single Man and definitely proved himself worthy of a director’s chair. I felt that he truly understood the world in which A Single Man takes place and the complexity of an individual’s mourning and suicidal tendencies, because, after all, he did co-adapt the screenplay from the novel of the same name.

I enjoyed this film very much and I thought it was something fresh; something new. But, I also felt that the story itself was too simple. I was expecting the story to eventually merge into something a little more complex. Maybe even a twist at the ending, but instead I felt like it ended the same way it started. Nothing changed. 

Colin Firth’s performance in A Single Man was absolutely worthy of an Oscar nomination and I am now encouraged to see more of his work after this.

SCORE- 10/10

Synopsis (Objective)- Andy, now 17 years old, is packing his belongings and setting out for college. He puts all his toys in a black garbage bag, minus one: Woody. But not Buzz. Woody still decides to stick together with his friends and convince them that Andy still loves all of them equally. They end up at a Children’s Daycare where the boss is a pink teddy bear by the name of Lotso who convinces them that that is the best place for a toy and they should be nothing but optimistic about it. Woody doesn’t see it that way and escapes to later find out that Lotso and his Yes Men actually abuse other toys and so he sets out to break back in to rescue his companions.

Synopsis (Subjective)- Andy is getting fucking old. He was too old for toys even when he was 8. He is done with toys and moving on to beer and women…oh, and college. His mom accidentally throws them out which doesn’t really make a difference anyway, because they were still going to be stored in the attic for decades where they would live in misery. Woody feels guilty that he was picked as the only one to go to college with Andy where he would watch him get blowjob after blowjob and wonder what the fuck happened to that perfect little boy. So the toys end up in a Daycare where we meet a purple Teddy Bear by the name of Lotso, and we already know he is going to be trouble. We are right. So Woody tries to save his friends and the rest is history.

BC- When I first heard about Toy Story 3, I simply said ‘why’? That is the same ‘why’ I asked when first hearing of a sequel to Batman Begins. How could it get any better? It can and it did. Toy Story 3 was like The Return of the King of the Toy Story Trilogy. It had everything the first two movies had but with a sense of maturity that is only made possible by the first two movies themselves; not taking away anything from them. But, maturity is what I desire in an animated movie. Let’s face it, kids experience animated movies and can’t understand the real conflicts, but adults can. They see past the toys and the cuteness and see what adults themselves (the writers, directors, etc.) have created: A world where, because of its infinite fiction, there are no boundaries, which can ultimately lead to pretentiousness put in to the wrong hands (French New Wave) nor is there even mortality. If they chose to rip Woody into little itty bitty pieces, well you could just sew him back up. It is about the soul of these characters. Them being toys is only something that is done for entertainment. That is their shell and that shell is much more entertaining then the human one. Adults are somewhat or fully conscious about this and they remain interested because that toy could be anything…Their dog, kids, best friend or even themselves. 

Anyway, I feel that Toy Story 3 is on the same level of The Lion King and Ratatouille. All movies that are entertaining, philosophical, dark, lighthearted, humorous and have endings that can tear right through you.

Toy Story 3 is written by Michael Arndt, who won the Oscar for writing the oh-so-witty yet very deep, Little Miss Sunshine. He uses similar techniques in Toy Story 3 that he used in Little Miss Sunshine that apparently work really well if you have any sense of emotion. He likes showing a character’s isolation from the world and their contrast with other characters. You want to slap some of his characters silly sometimes but tend to forgive them at the end just because they were so damn well written (i.e. Paul Dano’s character, Wayne in Little Miss Sunshine).

All in all, Toy Story 3 had EVERYTHING you could possibly ask for in an animated movie. There was not a dull scene for me in the entire movie. And the end…well, let’s just say that I consider that to be one of the most depressing, yet, ‘had to happen’ scenes I have ever seen. Watch it and be blown away.

p.s. I am not kidding when I say that I feel very sorry for people who can’t see how an animated movie can be so effective. They are amongst us and they sadden me more than the people who think just because a movie or a movie’s character is based off of a comic book that it is not worthy of an Oscar (The Dark Knight). Pure bullshit.

SCORE- 6/10

Synopsis (Objective)- In a modern, post-apocalyptic Earth, where books are scarce, there wanders a man, Eli (Denzel Washington), with a plan. He holds in his possession a book that is sought after by a greedy man (Gary Oldman) envious of its ability to control the masses, that book is the Bible. Eli overcomes many obstacles to protect it and keep it away from the tyranny of man while also protecting a curious young woman (Mila Kunis), who has tagged along for the ride.

Synopsis (Subjective)- Another post-apocalyptic movie. Except, this time the protagonist is an intellectual, kung-fu fighting, bible preaching black guy who hangs around a hot and pretending to be innocent female character who is worthy of four circle jerks in one sitting. While the very well written, cold as ice antagonist does everything in his power to take control over Eli’s book, the Bible, where he has nothing but evil intentions on what to do with it.

BC- First off, let me say that I consider myself a Hughes Brothers fan. They made, in my opinion, the greatest black ‘hood’ movie of all time, Menace II Society, which in my book (of Eli) earned them a solid 9. They also made the highly underappreciated From Hell, with Johnny Depp. That being said, they disappointed me with The Book of Eli. Here is why:

To begin, it is way too over-stylized with its color grading and post-production cinematography. Which, if the story, acting, shots, music, pacing, editing and dialogue were above average then I guess that wouldn’t bother me too much. But since everything minus the editing was just bordering average, I felt that the look of the movie was used as scapegoat for its lack of ingenuity. Second, I felt that Eli’s ‘coolness’ was over-the-top and too obvious for my taste. He was like a poor man’s The Man with No Name (The Good The Bad and The Ugly). I mean, one of the first shots we see is him listening to his iPod (third generation, I might add. eww.) with Dr. Dre’s famous ‘Beats by Dr. Dre’ in-ear headphones…ok wait, so we are expected to believe that the iPod still has enough charge for him to listen to a two minute song, that’s fine I guess, but that also he has an iPod from 2003 with headphones from 2009??? NO. Sorry. Of course the next morning, he wakes up and the iPod reads’ low battery’ and it dies…which one of the two genius brothers though of that? I’m gonna go with Albert. 

Now for some positive mentions…I really liked the fighting scenes. I felt that they were tackled very well and that it wasn’t over-the-top. I also enjoyed the pacing of the movie. It knew when to slow down, went to add music, when to speed up, when to add ambient sounds and it especially knew when to show Mila Kunis :) The shots I felt were very mature and it didn’t try to be ‘Snatch 2’ or even a Spike Lee joint for that matter (constant, epic camera movements). Also, all the actor’s performances were above average, except maybe Mila Kunis’s. Now, as usual, Gary Oldman brought the house down. Not only was his character the most interesting of the ensemble, but his performance was more than believable and intense without him even trying so hard…but it’s Gary Oldman! He can make the main role in ‘Chocolate Rain: The Life and Times of Tay Zonda’ make you think twice about how good Daniel-Day Lewis’s performance in There Will Be Blood REALLY was.

SCORE- 7/10

Plot Synopsis (OBJECTIVE): A young couple travels North America in search of a new home for themselves, but more importantly, for their unborn baby girl as they experience many self-reflecting moments along the way.

Plot Synopsis (SUBJECTIVE): Two thirty-something-year old pseudo hipsters travel to random cities across North America at the harmonious pace of Nick Drake-ish wrist-slitting guitar music. A pussy’s whisper and an F-minor chord later, we meet all sorts of characters who are obviously written to conflict with the main characters, influencing the couple’s decisions on where they will eventually settle down. Can’t guess the end? 

Juno meets Elizabethtown, at best. Garden State in its 30s, at worst.

BC- So I gave it a 7…7s are really rare for me, believe it or not. What that means to me is that it COULD have been a really good movie (an 8), and it wasn’t necessarily that it was bad, but, it just wasn’t flawed enough to be a 6, nor solid enough to be an 8. Those are very rare. It’s almost as though movies that receive a 7 in my book are actually special; maybe just for that they should be 10s. No? Ok.

Sam Mendes directed this film. For those of you who don’t know who that man is…look him up (click the link with his name on it, duh). Two of his films got a 10 rating from me: American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, so you would assume I would be easy to sway, why with his handsome beard and meticulosity, who wouldn’t be forced to give a work of his any thing less than a 10? But I don’t think he was himself here. I strongly believe that an artist’s greatest work is his most honest. Instead, he tried to do something here, that although it can be considered admirable (switching his style up), it falls short of a half-truth. A joke that he knew was really funny but didn’t dictate it well enough to prove its genius. He has more than proven himself with marital conflicts and intense family issues, but, he needs to work on his ‘so what if i’ve made major hollywood dramas, I can still kick the shit out of a USC film grad’s first Indie feature’ attitude and just be real. This movie felt like many other ‘coming of age’ indie flicks. There are actually shots in the film that you could swear you’ve seen it in many other movies and what’s great about this one is that since there is not a whole lot of action going on throughout, you actually have time to remember what movie it was you recognized that shot from.