by Christina Waters | Aug 21, 2008 | Home, Movies |
The capsule view of Ben Stiller’s in-your-face comedy of egos goes like this: an inconsistent, multi-genre amalgam that delivers some inspired riffs, a Disneyworld of offensive stereotypes, Grade A men-in-groups horseplay, a rousing, shorts-sucking send-up of Hollywood greed, and the genius of Robert Downey Jr. It’s also unspeakably funny.
All of this sometimes brilliant, sometimes so-so cinematic bombast is redeemed by the ease and intelligence of Downey’s cunning performance — a role, within a role, within a role — think multiple personality disorder of the sort to which character actors like Peter Sellers, Marlon Brando, Ben Kingsley were prey.
Downey’s character, Kirk Lazarus – an Australian multiple Oscar-winner (think Russell Crowe) cast as a black Vietnam era soldier — is so committed to his role in the film within the film, that he has undergone drug therapy to darken his skin. Add the appropriate hair treatments and Richard Roundtree/Jim Brown voice lowered an octave or so, and you’ve got an eerie and ironically likeable blaxploitation stud. Downey not only doesn’t back down from what could have been an offensive stereotype, he works it right down to the Shaft.
Downey’s uncanny incarnation of a brother from another planet — Planet Hollywood — creates a terrific bookend performance to Heath Ledger’s Joker. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Jul 24, 2008 | Home, Movies |
Too long, too cluttered, too disconnected — The Dark Knight contains one artistic masterpiece. The uncanny, ultra-vibrant performance by Heath Ledger. In his feverish hands, the Joker is one of the genuinely original creations of cinema history – and yes, I have to admit, it is such an exciting, smart creation, that it justifies sitting through one of the worst-written, least comprehensible exercises in directorial egomania I can recall. Let’s just say that Dark Knight ain’t Ironman, which still retains its title as champion adult comix film in recent memory.
But back to Ledger’s performance. I was ready for over-the-top. I expected darkly probing criminal psychology writ large. But nothing prepared me to be blown away by such an intelligent collection of acting choices — choices which, sadly, indicate just how high Ledger might have soared, had he lived.
Watching the portrayal of the cocky, quirky, brilliant madman/villain, I found myself rummaging through my film memory banks. Where had I seen some of those gestures? heard that insistent cackling voice, that nuanced, soaring derangement translated into highly specific bodily gestures? Here’s what I came up with. Think about tasting a great wine, all the different elements, the spatial range and movement of flavors from front to back of the palate. Okay.
The edgy stabbing hands and shoulders are pure (more…)
by Christina Waters | May 17, 2008 | Home, Movies |
This Marvel Comix-based big screen adventure is not just for 15-year-old males. Brooding, smart, crisp, astonishing and edgy — that’s Iron Man, and its star Robert Downey Jr. who pretty much owns the screen from the scorching opening in war-torn Afghanistan to the final delightful shot. I repeat, Iron Man is a thinking woman’s gloss on at least three Greek myths, one or two Freudian complexes and the age-old battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness.
Value-added for film buffs, Iron Man looks sensational, and serves up an orgy of visual quotes from Metropolis, Aliens, Gattaca, as well as reframing both the tale of Icarus and Plato’s myth of the cave.
As a Blakean flawed genius, Downey works his way into the short list of great American actors. (I know you’re thinking I have slipped a cog here. It’s a marvel Comix industrial design heavy metal flick — but Downey rockets Iron Man way out of the mere fantasy hormone genre.)
Muscular, graceful and charismatically weary, Downey (more…)
by Christina Waters | Feb 25, 2008 | Home, Movies |
Did I call it, or what? Well, almost. I was wrong about Julie Christie, but otherwise . . . An all-European quartet of major Oscar-winners surely made a statement, though I’m not quite sure what it was. It’s hard not to be moved at Javier Bardem‘s jubilation (AP photo). Other than being thrilled about the Coen brothers big win – a more laconic duo is just not imaginable – there were a few, uh, highs.
The beyond-sexy Bardem kissing co-star Josh Brolin. Daniel Day-Lewis kissing George Clooney. Great moments in metrosexuality. Day-Lewis being knighted by “the Queen,” was a delicious bit of improv, as was the slash-and-burn haircut on screenplay winner Diablo Cody — who deserves an Oscar just for her name. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Feb 18, 2008 | Home, Movies |
Not glued to the tube during this year’s Oscar telethon — I’ll be at a wine class for two of the three hours — I will nonetheless remain in solidarity with all the Red Carpet bling, AND the award-winners. These will include:
Daniel Day Lewis for Best Actor – his incandescent portrayal of obsessed oil baron Daniel Plainview shows us how the West was really won.
Javier Bardem for Best Supporting Actor (even though his was arguably the central performance in the film “No Country for Old Men”) Bardem is an uncanny chameleon with vast reservoirs of power and charisma. His performance as an idiosyncratic assassin was the centerpiece of this year’s best film.
Julie Christie for Best Actress – The Academy loves to reward a body of work – as well as enduring screen radiance. Julie Christie has both, and her performance in “Away From Her” was indelible. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Jan 29, 2008 | Home, Movies |
It’s not hard to believe, watching There Will Be Blood, that Daniel Day-Lewis could simply do a Google Search for an Oscar, and it would arrive at his door the next day via FedEx. He’s that good. And in this would-be epic by director Paul Thomas Anderson, his ferocious performance outstrips the film attempting to contain it.
Not that it’s difficult to become spellbound by Robert Elswit’s probing camerawork of New Mexico and California, or by the eerily engaging soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood. Blood has visual overtones of The Searchers and Giant, yet its tale of moral depression, greed and loneliness bears even closer resemblance to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, with some Elmer Gantry thrown in.
The story, based on “Oil” by Upton Sinclair, is as simple and sweeping as Citizen Kane. It is a tale of one man’s blind obsession and how the fortune that follows alienates him from other people, and ultimately his own soul. But Blood is no tragedy, and Day-Lewis’ character, Plainview, is no visionary. He’s a doggedly ruthless, unlikeable, turn-of-the-century entrepreneur driven to prevail by some dark fire.
The opening scene sets the tone — for both the film and for Day-Lewis’ performance. For the first ten minutes there is no dialogue at all, as we watch the physical ordeal of a man out in the middle of nowhere, deep in a pit digging rock with a pickaxe. The sheer desperate hardship of this life is conveyed in every sinew, every throbbing vein of Day-Lewis’ anatomy. (more…)
