13 Weeks To Oscar: The Irony Of Fear

Every year about this time, after those of us in the Oscar chattering class have, basically, shaped the conversation for months, taking the whole mess within 80% or so of what the actual outcome will be, I start to notice the desperation of the films and candidates that just aren’t going to make it. It’s like seeing a beautiful woman of a certain age without make-up… they may still be beautiful, but the willing illusion is gone.

The DVD Wrapup: Hangover II, The Help, Friends With Benefits, Cowboys & Aliens, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Medea, Underbelly …

The Hangover: Part II: Blu-ray The pressure on producer/director/co-writer Todd Phillips to create an instant sequel to the 2009 blockbuster, “The Hangover,” must have so great that it blinded him to the fact that it generally takes more than a few minutes to write, re-write and re-write again a prized property. That movie was so…

Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin

How rare it is to find a film that looks so honestly and unflinchingly at the side of motherhood the glossy parenting magazines would like to pretend doesn’t exist? Beyond that, though, Ramsay brings a feminine perspective to a question that haunts me, as I’m sure it must other mothers: What would it feel like to be the mother of a monster? How do the mothers of murderers overcome the guilt that must drive their every waking moment, knowing that they raised a child who took the life of another mother’s child?

Wilmington on DVDs. The Rest: The Hangover, Part II; Cowboys and Aliens; Mr. Popper’s Penguins; Kuroneko; Behind the Mask

   The Hangover, Part II (Also Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Combo) (Three Discs) (Two Stars) U.S.: Todd Phillips, 2011 (Warner Bros.) I laughed at 2009’s big comedy hit, The Hangover — that tense and raunchy tale of three longtime buddies at a wedding who wake up after a night of incredible but totally forgotten debauchery and have to try…

Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classic. The Lady Vanishes; Crooks’s Tour; Design for Living (Hecht-Lubitsch or Coward); If I Had a Million .

In The Lady Vanishes, his marvelous 1938 classic of mystery and intrigue set aboard a train full of English and international travellers racing though the Balkans, Alfred Hitchcock pushes the form of the romantic-comedy-thriller to near perfection. It’s one of the most purely entertaining movies he ever made, and it can be watched over and over again with no diminution of pleasure.

Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: The Help. The Debt.

  “The Help” (Three Stars) U.S.: Tate Taylor, 2011 Like smooth Kentucky Bourbon or hot cornbread and jambalaya, or like Ray Charles’ great bluesy versions of “Georgia on my Mind” and “America the Beautiful,” The Help is old-fashioned, flavorsome stuff — old-fashioned in many good ways, and a few not-so-good ones. Set in Jackson, Mississippi…

DVD Geek: Lucky Lady

In 1975, the heavily promoted Lucky Lady, sporting three big boxoffice names, was intended to be a Twentieth Century Fox blockbuster. Full of witty one-liners and some decent slapstick (especially from Reynolds), it followed the movie company formula for success precisely, but audiences quickly sniffed a turkey and the stars couldn’t save it.

Gurus o’ Gold: December 6, 2011

In Best Picture, the big mover is Hugo again, now up to #4 after being at #13 less than a month ago.

Amazingly, there has been no change at the top of the Actor and Actress charts, though the field has continued to narrow and one of the superstars drops out of the #5.

Also, The Gurus take on potential Golden Globe nominations that might shock or surprise.

Review: Young Adult

I’ve been a little surprised in talking to a few folks here and there about this film to hear some say they loved Theron’s performance, but weren’t impressed by the script. Are you kidding me? Did Theron pull this character out of thin air? This is bold, honest, compelling writing, unafraid to embrace this painfully awkward, flawed character exactly as she is, without copping out by leaning on some contrived, by-the-books character arc. What’s amazing is that a major studio would have the balls to make this film at all.

Denby’s Embargo-Busting New Yorker Review Of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

EDITORS’ NOTE: We have the link to the New Yorker and our strict policy is not to reprint when we can link. But the madness of the embargo break made us disregard our ethics today. We apologize deeply and won’t do it again. Unless we feel like it.

Special thanks to David Denby & The New Yorker for guiding the way to journalistic lying whenever it suits your whim.

The Weekend Report

Moviegoers were otherwise engaged this weekend and overall box office sank by slightly more than half. With no new national releases in the mix, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn easily held onto the top spot with an estimated $16.8 million.

Niche and exclusive newcomers generally did little to brighten the picture. The exception was the exclusive bow of the controversial Shame that grossed $364,000 from 10 engagements. Also good was Bollywood newcomer The Dirty Picture with a $263,000 tally at 52 venues. But otherwise it was the blahs across the ages and genders.

Wilmington on Movies: Hugo

      Hugo (Four Stars) U.S.: Martin Scorsese, 2011  Martin Scorsese’s Hugo — a movie masterpiece if there ever was one — is a film for film lovers to dream on.  It’s an incredibility entertaining show. But how could it not be? Scorsese has made it at the peak of his craft and art,…

Friday Estimates, December 2, 2011

It’s not easy being green. But the green flows like blood for those wacky Twilight kids sucking the life out of The Muppets and the rest of he parade of family films (and Jack & Jill and The Descendants). Maybe Kermit should have worked on his abs.

Wilmington on Movies: Shame

           Shame (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.-U.K.: Steve McQueen, 2011   There have always been lots of movies that show or exploit sex, but far fewer that try to explore it seriously, as a rich, meaningful subject, whether psychological or social. And there’s only a handful of that few that try to portray…

14 Weeks To Oscar: Down To The Real Nitty Gritty

There are two major battles underway. The first is for the number of Best Picture nominees.

Usually, it’s Best Actor or Supporting Actor where the big fight is. This year, it feels like some big chances can still happen in all the acting categories, but one… Best Actress. That’s the second key battle.

There are, basically, eight deadly serious potential nominees for Actress this year. Three of them are going to be left out. And it will really feel like that… left out.

The DVD Wrapup: Our Idiot Brother, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Radioactive Wolves, Another Earth, The Future, The Art of Getting By, Horror Express, Rules of the Game, Smallville …

Our Idiot Brother: Blu-ray It’s interesting how individual members of a family can be a close as peas in a pod or, in this case, as different from each other as snowflakes. For “Our Idiot Brother” to work, viewers must suspend their disbelief long enough to accept the possibility that a guileless flower child (Paul…

Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classics, Sets. Orpheus; La Villa Santo-Sospir; Jean Cocteau: Autobiography of an Unknown

      Orpheus (Also Blu-ray) (Two Discs) (Four Stars) France: Jean Cocteau, 1950 (Criterion Collection) 　 Jean Cocteau, the French artist-of-all-trades who mastered many forms — he painted, drew, wrote and made movies — was a fountain of talent and an apostle of art. He was also a bit of a dandy and a…