Animal Kingdom: A Review Saturday, Jan 29 2011 

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Last night, PJ and I watched Animal Kingdom from Netflix. This Oscar nominated Australian film is gritty crime movie told from the perspective of 17-year-old Josh. As the film begins, Josh’s mother dies from an overdose, forcing him to move in with his grandmother and uncles, who are professional back robbers.

The cops are on to the family’s criminal activities, creating an increasingly tense climate as the police resort to drastic measures to “punish” the family for its crimes. As the violence escalates, Josh has to decide whose side he’s on: the corrupt police or his corrupt family. It’s not an easy choice.

Here’s the trailer:

Overall, I really liked this movie. The acting and directing are excellent, even if some of the plot twists are hard to believe — it’s sometimes difficult to believe that anyone would make such stupid choices when confronted with a situation as volatile and violent as Animal Kingdom depicts. Even so, I really liked it.

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Red Cliff: A Review Wednesday, Jan 19 2011 

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Over the Christmas holiday I wasn’t feeling well, so I had lots of opportunities to just lay around and watch movies and TV shows. At one point, I decided that I was in the mood to watch a Medieval Chinese epic — or whatever the correct term might be — something like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or The House of Flying Daggers, two of my favorite movies. We now have Netflix for Wii, which is a great way to watch movies or television just by browsing by subject.

After trying out a couple of other movies that quickly didn’t feel like what I was in the mood for, I came across Red Cliff, a John Woo’s epic war film set in 208-209 A.D. It was just what I wanted to watch. Here’s the trailer:

Here’s the basic plot. In the summer of 208, Emperor Xian is forced into allowing his prime minister, Cao Cao, to march to war against two of the southern warlords, Sun Quan and Liu Bei, eventually forcing them into an alliance against Cao Cao’s overwhelmingly large forces. Cao Cao successfully attacks Liu Bei first, and Liu Bei sends his trusted strategist Zhuge Liang
to negotiate an alliance with Sun Quan’s forces. His success gives Cao Cao the pretense he needs to attack. The allied armies gather at Red Cliff, Sun Quan’s main military base.

Believing that the allied forces will be distracted by his huge navy, Cao Cao sends a cavalry force to storm Red Cliff. Zhuge Liang, however, anticipates this movie, and the allied forces defeat the “surprise” attack. Cao Cao is therefore forced to plan a naval attack against Red Cliff. His navy is commanded by two southern warriors, a fact that Cao Cao thinks will help him win the battle, since they are more familiar with the area.

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The King’s Speech: A Review Monday, Jan 17 2011 

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Last night, PJ and I joined a couple of our friends at the cinema to see The King’s Speech, Colin Firth‘s new movie. Firth plays Albert Frederick Arthur George, the Duke of York, who became King George VI in 1936 when his older brother, Edward VIII, abdicated in order to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.

The instability caused by his brother’s short reign of less than a year combined with the threat of a second world war puts  great deal of pressure on George VI to succeed as king; this success, however, is threatened by his inability to speak without stammering. The King’s Speech follows the Duke of York’s and then King’s efforts to overcome his impediment with the help of a speech therapist, Lionel Logue. Here’s the trailer:

Overall, this movie is excellent. One of the things that some of the blogs I’ve been reading lately have emphasized is that it’s an uplifting film, and it definitely is. All of us came out of the movie feeling that it was a very inspiring movie.

Much of this inspiration is due to Firth’s magnificent performance as the stuttering prince and king. His performance is both physical — you can see all of the muscular contortions his character is going through in order to get words literally out of his mouth — as well as emotional.

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Strapped: A Review Sunday, Jan 9 2011 

movies and queer culture and song of the week thisgaudygildedstage 6:20 pm

Last night, PJ and I watched Strapped, a small gay independent film written and directed by Joseph Graham. Ben Bonenfant plays a male prostitute who easily adapts to each client’s needs. After coming home with a John — literally, since the character’s name is John — the hustler becomes trapped in an apartment building, meeting some of its various tenants. He sleeps with some of them, but he learns a little more about himself from each person he meets. Here’s the trailer:

We first see him with a client who tells him a story about the guy he loved when he was a teenager in Russia. Bonenfant’s character immediately replies with his own revealing tale of childhood abandonment. He then meets a queen, instantly becoming a queen himself and pretending to be a version of Keanu Reeves’s character in My Own Private Idaho. He hooks up with a closeted married guy while pretending to be straight himself, blows a guy at the queen’s party, and gets fucked by an older gay activist who’s grateful for the opportunity to have sex with a such a hot guy. He also runs into a guy who just wants to kiss and have his soul penetrated.

The Hustler–we never know his name in the film–adapts to each client’s needs, but he also shares tender moments with most of the men, connecting with them in some deeply personal way. But is it really connection? Or are the tender moments just another part of his professional toolbox?

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Fruit Fly: A Review Thursday, Jan 6 2011 

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Fruit Fly is a 2009 musical that PJ and I recently watched on Netflix. It stars L.A. Renigan as Bethesda, a Filipina performance artist who has just moved to San Francisco. Her performance art is about her search for her birth parents, whom she has sought out after her adoptive parents’ death. Her biological father is now also dead, but no one knows what has become of her mother. She has found a room for six months in an apartment building, and the film follows her attempts to stage her performance piece while getting to know her new roommates. Here’s the trailer:

Fruit Fly is a fun, entertaining movie. PJ and I both really enjoyed it.

Part of what I liked it about is its experimental nature. It’s not a traditional musical in which the characters break into song to sing about their emotions or falling love or stuff like that. These characters do break into song, but their songs are about public transportation, workshopping your performance piece, being a fag hag, or meeting another versatile bottom. In other words, this is a musical about urban, racial, gender, and queer identities.

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True Grit: A Review Thursday, Dec 23 2010 

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Last night PJ and I saw the Coen brothers’ new movie, True Grit. This movie, based on the novel, is technically a remake of the John Wayne classic. I have a healthy respect for the original film, and I love several of the Coen brothers’ movies, especially Fargo, Blood Simple, and No Country for Old Men. Here’s the trailer:

Hailee Steinfeld plays Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old whose father has been murdered by Tom Chaney. She wants justice, so she hired Rooster Cogburn, a U.S. Marshall, to track him down and bring him back for trial. Jeff Bridges plays Cogburn, also known as the part for which John Wayne won his Oscar. Matt Damon plays LaBeouf, a Texas Ranger who teams up with Cogburn for this job.

A few things stand out about this film. First, Steinfeld is excellent as Ross. She plays the character’s precociousness just right. Ross is intelligent and thinks she knows everything. This “adventure” will prove otherwise. Steinfeld is likely to receive an Oscar nomination for support actress, which is silly, since hers is a lead role. I don’t understand why critics and awards groups go along with the fiction that child actors are de facto supporting performers. Why not just have a separate category for best juvenile performance? Or better yet, why not put them in their real category? If she wins, it will be at the expense of someone who deserves the supporting Oscar — like Annette Bening for her role in The Kids Are All Right — oh, wait … I forgot … she’s in the leading category even though her role is a supporting one ….

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The Fighter: A Review Wednesday, Dec 22 2010 

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Over the weekend, PJ and I went to see The Fighter, starring Mark Wahlberg as professional boxer Micky Ward. The film traces his rise to a welterweight title after overcoming a professional decline caused in part by his reliance on his half-brother and drug-addicted trainer, Dicky Eklund. Here’s the trailer:

I didn’t know anything about this true story before seeing the movie, and I think that helped – -I at least could imagine various outcomes. But basically, The Fighter is a genre pic that adheres pretty closely to its genre–think a modern-day Rocky: boxer gets shafted by poor management and training and has to make good on his dream of winning a title by dumping his family and going it alone. There’s nothing new here cinematically speaking, but  it’s an enjoyable film nevertheless because the actors are so good.

Mark Wahlberg is solid as Micky. He’s a charismatic, engaging actor. There’s something about him that makes you instantly like his character, to root for him to win.

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Black Swan: A Review Thursday, Dec 16 2010 

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PJ and I saw Darren Aronofsky‘s Black Swan, a psychological thriller about a ballerina and her rival, while we were in New York last week. Natalie Portman stars as Nina, the innocent ballerina who is in line to play the Swan Princess in Swan Lake. Her director, however, is skeptical that she has the sensuality to play the black swan. When he challenges her to get in touch with her less-than-perfect, sexy side, she begins a quest to achieve everything he wants her to be. Here’s the trailer:

Nina begins the film as a more or less virginal princess who, while technically perfect, never really achieves perfection in her dancing because she never embraces passion. Just as the previous prima donna, played by Winona Ryder, is being pushed out of the company and into retirement due to her age, a new, more sensual dancer, Lily, played by Mila Kunis, joins the company. She quickly becomes Nina’s rival for the part.

As a result of the competition, Nina soon becomes obsessed with Lily. What’s initially unclear is whether this obsession is the result of Lily’s desire to push Nina out of the way and take the role for herself or of Nina’s own fantasies. These fantasies revolve not only around dancing but also around her latent sexuality–while she has no chemistry with the male dancers, she’s clearly attracted to Lily, who seems more than willing to help Nina break out of her shell. But again, is she helping Nina or trying to destroy her?

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Harmony and Me: A Review Monday, Oct 18 2010 

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On Friday, PJ and I watched Harmony and Me on Netflix for Wii. This was my first time watching a movie through Wii, and I thought it worked really well. Soon, there will no longer be a need for DVDs!

Harmony and Me stars Justin Rice as Harmony, a barely employed musician whose girlfriend has recently broken up with him. This relatively short film — it’s just a little over an hour long, follows Harmony as he tries to recover from this heartbreak. As Harmony keeps telling everyone, she’s still breaking his heart, since she hasn’t finished the job yet.

Here’s the trailer:

I love mumblecore as a genre, and we initially started watching this movie in part because we thought it was a mumblecore movie, but it really isn’t. While the film clearly borrows from the techniques of mumblecore — the documentary realness of the cinematography, the dialogue, and the plot — it is more heavily plotted than the primary examples of that genre.

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The Town: A Review Saturday, Sep 25 2010 

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Yesterday, PJ and I went to see Ben Affleck‘s new movie, The Town, which is based on a novel, Prince of Thieves, by Chuck Hogan. Affleck directed, co-wrote, and stars in the movie, about four friends from Charlestown, Massachusetts, who rob a bank in Cambridge. When Affleck’s character decides to check up on the hostage they brief took during the robbery, he finds himself slowly becoming involved with her, which causes complications when he and his pals decide to pull one more heist. Here’s the trailer:

I really enjoyed The Town. It’s interesting that some of the movie blogs I read seem to judge every movie by its Oscar potential as if all movies are trying to win Best Picture and several acting awards. One of the things I like about The Town is that it doesn’t feel like Affleck is trying to get a Best Picture or Best Actor or Best Director nod. It feels like he’s just trying to make a good, entertaining movie. And he succeeds admirably.

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