Genuine Articles
Jonathan Roche
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A PROPHET
YES, THIS WINNER OF THE 2009 GRAND PRIX at Cannes sentences you to 154 minutes in a French prison — but you won’t suffer there. Due to the violent and tense nature of its setting, Prophet is bound to keep audiences engaged as it unrolls the story of Malik, an illiterate 19-year-old serving six years for fighting with a cop. Malik, weaker than the hardened inmates that surround him, is soon forced to carry out a dreadful
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mission by a powerful Corsican gang. Though he succeeds (and continues to depend on their protection), Malik
is never fully accepted because he is half Arab. As the years pass, he
educates himself (through books and hard-knocks), and eventually
develops his own schemes — occasionally aided by dreams that manifest
in reality at pivotal moments. WORD OF MOUTH: Newcomer Tahar Rahim will
quickly win your favor in writer/director Jacques Audiard’s (The Beat
That My Heart Skipped) beautifully shot film.
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I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS
THOUGH THE TITLE MAY SOUND like a Michael Moore documentary about the tobacco industry, this is actually a mix of dark comedy and tender gay love story. The stranger-than-fiction plot is based on the real-life romantic and felonious exploits of Steven Jay Russell (Jim Carrey), a genius con man and prison escape artist. Russell starts out as a church-going cop with two kids and a wife (Leslie Mann),
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but leaves it all behind to embrace both his talent for deception and his homosexuality. In prison Russell begins a soaring love affair with gentle, drawling fellow inmate, Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). Written and brilliantly directed by the duo who penned the deliciously
transgressive Bad Santa, the film bucks expectations with all the
frenetic energy of Carrey himself. It will leave you weepy, surprised
and smiling at the same time. WORD OF MOUTH: Having been a non-fan of
Carrey’s for quite some time, I must say, I loved him in this.
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CREATION
IT'S A HEART-WRENCHING look at the life of Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany), whose theory of evolution explained the nature of life but threatened the premises of religion. Darwin struggles over whether to publish his theory: Colleagues urge him to do it and “kill God,” but he has respect for faith and its importance to his wife (Jennifer Connelly). The ghost of their daughter Annie, who died in childhood,
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also appears long enough for Darwin to regale her with stories about his adventures around the globe. Considering evolution is currently such a contentious topic, it’s
intriguing to see Darwin presented as a man who tried to see the world
without bias. WORD OF MOUTH: A scene between Bettany and a young
orangutan steals the show and melts the heart — I promise.
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HAPPY TEARS
WRITER/DIRECTOR MITCHELL LICHENTENSTEIN (Teeth) offers up a personal fantasy about family and fortune. Jayne (Parker Posey) and her sister Laura (Demi Moore) must deal with their seventy-something father (Rip Torn) as he slips into dementia. Jayne is reluctant to return East from her wealthy-but-empty life in California (where she seems to float around in vaguely happy haze that makes you wonder what pills her doctor has prescribed her).
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Luckily, this kind of role is perfect for Posey, who carries the heart
of the film. Moore mostly seems to be there to play a foil for Posey, while Ellen Barkin has a nice little part as the father’s druggie
girlfriend who is clearly using him for shelter and beer. WORD OF
MOUTH: Things start out rough, but once skeletons are dug up and
relationships are re-forged, they find a perhaps-too-neatly-wrapped-up
ending.
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THINKING OSCARS
BEST PICTURE
>MetroPick: Cult director Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break) delivered an air-tight and explosive Iraq war drama with The Hurt Locker.
>More likely to win: Up In The Air, Up, Nine, Invictus
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BEST ACTOR
>MetroPick: Colin Firth owned the screen as bereaved gay college professor in A Single Man.
The film also benefits from director Tom Ford’s meticulous eye,
Julianne Moore’s boozy performance and Christopher Isherwood’s
masterful text, but it is Firth who stole our breath with his
overflowing emotion.
>More likely to win: George Clooney (Up In The Air), Michael Stuhlbarg
(A Serious Man), Viggo Mortensen (The Road), Paul Bettany (Creation)
BEST ACTRESS
>MetroPicks: Abbie Cornish proved that she clearly has a bright future with the period drama Bright Star, while Penélope Cruz is blazing hot in her latest collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar, Broken Embraces.
>More likely to win: Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
>MetroPick Indie-film regular Paul Schneider has never previously displayed dramatic acting chops like he showed off in Bright Star.
>More likely to win: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), Alfred Molina (An Education)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
>MetroPick: Mo’nique (Precious) — The monstrous humanity of her performance blew us away.
>More likely to win: Sorry ladies, I wouldn’t advise getting in the ring with this new Oscar heavyweight.
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THE LAST STATION
NEAR THE END OF HIS LIFE the great Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer), at that time the most famous author in the world, dedicated himself (and his copyrights) to his own religious movement based on peace, love (but not sex) and poverty. The Last Station focuses on what his wife, countess Sofya Tolstoy (Helen Mirren), thought of this (hint: she was not a fan). Mirren is thunderous and delightful as a woman
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scorned-yet-still-greatly-in-love,
while Plummer fills the role of
Tolstoy as probably no other could. We experience the film along side Tolstoy’s idealistic secretary (James
McAvoy), who is caught between admiration for the great man and
sympathy for Sofya. The ever-apt Paul Giamatti plays Vladimir Chertkov, Tolstoy’s seemingly
exploitative partner in “Tolstoyism,” who clashes fiercely with the
countess. WORD OF MOUTH: It’s a picture-perfect period piece with a
superb cast (which still can’t disguise that — in terms of plot — very
little happens).
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FISH TANK
A COMPLEX OF CHEAP tower housing in Essex, England functions as a metaphorical fish tank in writer/director Andrea Arnold’s brilliant and completely unpretentious film. The film could also be said to exist in the head of its main character, 15-year-old Mia, who lives there, observing a static world filled with almost no hope of change. Mia (played by young Katie Jarvis, a name worth remembering), who lives with her little
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| sister and young, party-girl mother, seems to like no one and nothing other than urban dancing, for which she has no particular talent. When her mom brings home Connor (Michael Fassbender of 300 and
Inglourious Basterds), a man as good and fatherly as he is handsome,
Mia develops a crush that draws her into uncomfortably choppy waters.
WORD OF MOUTH: Both Jarvis and Fassbender are superb in this stark and
thoughtful film, which doesn’t seem fake for a single moment. |
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