127 Hours

True achievement in filmmaking comes when you just can't imagine a movie being made any way other than what it was. 127 Hours is one of a few films this year that can make such a claim.

I would not go as far as saying that Boyle did the impossible by making a film about a man stuck in one spot for nearly the entire time. Yes it might seem static in terms of geography and character population but the dynamic of a man fighting for survival is powerful. There are numerous factors at play here. It's not as if Aaron Ralston simply sat there and did nothing for the entire time. This story is like a war for it's made up of individual battles each with its own level of intensity. One particularly strenuous moment has Aaron (James Franco) attempting to retrieve the knife he has dropped a few feet below him.

Boyle makes the movie a very subjective experience. Every sensation that this character experiences can be felt in the audience. He doesn't just photograph Aaron trying to get the last drop of water out of his bottle. He sticks the camera in the bottle and shows us Aaron's tongue emerging from a chasm in need of nourishment, flailing for the last possible drop.

The structure is appropriate and utilizes flashbacks carefully. A couple of the scenes that we see aren't seen in any context nor do we ever find out the context. All we see is what we need to see to know how Aaron is feeling. Some moments are fused with quirky and yet heart-breaking humor that enhances the dramatic value of the movie. Sure, eventually an arm gets cut off, but to walk away from this movie with that in the forefront of your mind is to miss the entire point.

Boyle's direction out does that of his Oscar-winning work in Slumdog Millionaire by celebrating one man's desire to live and making a movie filled with life itself. Unfortunately, it seems the more limited scope of this project will prevent it from getting the same sort of deserved attention.

Tangled

I was hooked from the prologue. Whatever I had going on in life as I walked into this movie just melted away when I found myself along for this delightful ride as the combination of the Rapunzel tale with mythical elements is downright enchanting. Much like in "Beauty and the Beast," the premise here is immediately laid out and hints precisely at where we are going but gives you a thrilling sensation at the dramatic possibilities.

In keeping the tradition of a princess in distress, the team from Disney appropriately swaps the roles of the female and male from the Brothers Grimm tale and creates an Anastasia-like twist with the lore of a lost princess. It doesn't satirize fairy tales in the cliched manner that has become popular since "Shrek," but instead offers a fresh blend of modern humor and traditional charm. The lengthy hair is given appropriate attention and a worthy purpose to further the story.

At $260 million this is easily the most expensive animated film to date (in fact it has the 2nd highest budget of any film behind only the third Pirates of the Caribbean) but boy howdy did the animation for that golden, magical hair look astonishing! I was skeptical when I read of the filmmakers' intention to create the look of a traditional hand-drawn film within a CGI environment but it seems to have prevailed handsomely as the result is reminiscent of the hand-painted work done eons ago.

This studio is alive and is beginning to once again make its contributions to the art of animation. After basing their previous success mostly on spectacle and charm, they'll have to do some catching up to get their scripts up to the level of narrative structure and character development that Pixar has risen to, but these last two outings give me hope in their potential. (Next year will be a down year for Pixar with "Cars 2," a very unnecessary sequel. Can "Winnie the Pooh" get Disney its first Animated Feature Oscar?)

For the price Disney paid, they should hope to gain a few Annie awards or something to validate the wonderful work they have done here because they aren't going to win the Academy Award over Pixar's climatic Toy Story finale. Although do expect the legendary Alan Menken to add another nod (statuette maybe?) to his resume in the Original Song category.

Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows: Part 1

When J.K Rowling wrote her dedication for the seventh book in her famous fantasy series, she split it seven ways with the seventh part being to us, the readers, if we have "stuck with Harry until the very end." This established the tone as powerfully ominous and Rowling managed to maintain that throughout the novel. Yet again though, a Harry Potter film adaptation merely gives us a taste of those powerful emotions without embracing them.

Fans of the movies and books each have their favorite installments. However, I appreciated each book for what it brought. The first couple established a sense of wonder at this new world, then the plots grew thicker and they became pure exhilaration, and the last few saw any lingering innocence vanish as Harry's world went through its darkest hour.

I cannot say that I experienced the same arc of emotion with the films. I do not prefer any one of the movies over the other for they are all merely satisfactory without being truly fulfilling. The earlier films might have done the best job at imitating the magic of the books, but they lacked the more impressive technical characteristics in the more recent installments. As the beginning of the end is upon us, there remain very few threads between the films. Many small moments that would have established or enhanced particularly important themes are absent. The plot is obviously there, but consistency in techniques would have brought the movies closer to a single entity rather than 8 separate pieces of work.

Peter Jackson successfully accomplished this with "The Lord of the Rings," but Harry Potter does not have a single auteur like Jackson. The Lord of the Rings, while only three films long, flawlessly executes a highly emotional climax. Come July, when Harry Potter comes to its denouement, there will not be the same sense of heightened desperation as our characters struggle to defeat an evil juggernaut because this series has not done enough to earn it. There is no doubt Part 2 will pack an emotional punch, but it will not stand the test of time.

The 7th Harry Potter book holds a special place in my heart for the depth it takes us to. It's one of the most powerful coming of age tales put into writing. Objectives that seem so important in the first few books are deemed utterly insignificant by the last one. David Yates does many things right to help bring at least a portion of those emotions to the screen, but it's not enough to cover the ground that has been lost over the last 9 years.

Inception

Dreams are a very basic (even if complicated) and common subject to tackle. Many movies feature dreams within and around their plotline but how many have you seen that work their plotline within and around dreams? I'm sure there is (or was) an expectation that dreams are too nonsensical to really appropriately be the prime backdrop for a film yet Christopher Nolan has ingeniously found a way to make such a film that works and with only a handful of surreal elements.

It's difficult to make a movie about dreams and accurately reflect them because dreams aren't accurate. Visuals are obscure and often undefined but how can you make a movie with such obscurity? The dream world our characters find themselves in is very detailed and seems to reflect real life too well but Nolan gets around this by craftily blurring the line between dreams and reality. While you might miss its implications the first time through, there is a scene in the movie that hints at the reality Domm Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) finds himself in and at what ultimately turns out to be a very thought-provoking and meaningful final shot.

There are probably many plot points and logistics that will not quite be fully solvable. One could study the film over and over and perhaps find and/or create explanations that will fit, but doing so takes away from the experience. No, ultimately this is a movie about dreams is it not? So what if the plot confuses us a little? Like a dream, by the end we know where we are and have an idea of how we got there and even if the details are fuzzy, the feelings are very much describable and real.

This is a movie that will be referenced in film history, partially for its unique topic and top technical expertise but mostly for the character of Cobb and the emotions involved that take us to a new depth... almost as deep as a dream within a dream within a dream.

Toy Story 3

The Toy Story trilogy bears parallels to The Godfather trilogy and the original Star Wars trilogy. The first installment was a phenomenon, the second was very arguably better than the first, and the third is the weakest in its group but only because it’s a very good film amongst greats. It might not necessarily bring too much new to the table, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a worthy entry.

This movie exists primarily for its conclusion. Pixar is known for character depth and strong emotional ties, but never before have they gone to the level that they do here. Then again, never before have they developed characters over the course of two films, let alone three. The fact that these stories correlate with the maturation of a young boy makes them unlike any other animated franchise, or probably any franchise for that matter. The sequels are not simply set up and motivated by plot but by the characters.

This is a coming of age story about the episodes of life. For toys that means a greater distance between them and their owners. Woody’s issue of being replaced by Buzz in the first episode suddenly seems very mild. From the beginning, it’s established that the tone is darker with the realization that many of our beloved supporting plastic cast members are no longer members of Andy’s toy chest. In a scene near the end, that ominous tone reaches a point so intense that dare I say it’s the most memorable and powerful moment in the entire series.

The downsides to this film include the plotline being undeniably recycled from Toy Story 2, just simply adapted to fit a new scenario. You’ll notice parallels with some new characters to older characters. Many of the interest hooking mishaps come as no surprise and feel as if they more or less are inserted to create a story as opposed to being driven by characters and circumstances as they were in previous episodes. Many of the same emotions from Toy Story 2 recur in this one. The main one being the need for these toys to always be loved by an owner and the temptation to give in to a less valuable but more permanent substitute. Formerly, it involved Woody becoming a collector’s item. This time it involves the group searching for belonging within the context of a day care hierarchy.

But alas, the tricks this movie employs still work, even if they don’t have the same charm as before. The filmmakers found an incredible way to wrap up the material. To describe it as moving is not enough. The depth that this denouement goes to is iconic. It may not have the same literary clout as more recent Pixar films, but the emotions carry it through.

Cyrus

The beauty of Cyrus is its ability to take a premise that has been achieved before in more contrived and artificial manners and give it a sense of verisimilitude. The laughs are not necessarily "roll on the floor" kind of laughs because they are not set up in the way most movies set them up. They are fused with real development and real emotion.

The actors will be recognized most for selling their small scale reactions and intriguing us in the process but the Duplass brothers deserve ample credit for their style which provides an allowance for improvisational responses. Rather than just create an outline though, they write a full script then allow for the improv to compliment it. Given their previous work, and now this little gem, their method seems to work very well as their writing lays down the foundation of the characters and their development but is still open to input that will enhance the realism.

This movie is all about the normal American. It's focus is not on the drama but on the lack of it. It considers the desire and need for comfort, enjoyment, and uninterrupted companionship in those moments between all the points of stress. Each character has their path that makes them happy and the conflict simply comes along when they are held back from that path. It's appropriate for that is the way of life for the average person and films are not usually about truly average sort of people, just about those with average lives. The characters struggled but they dealt the way we all deal and gave off the impression that they wanted to enjoy life and did everything in their power to do so.

Fascinatingly and oddly enough, the film could also be described in a manner contrary than what I have already done. For there is drama and it is dealt with in extremes at times. The story ultimately becomes one major stress point as the characters deal with their conflicts in a complicated manner. What's important though is that we don't come away from the experience feeling that anything has been complicated or dramatized for our sake. Yet, I would hardly call it slice of life for it's not that clean. It's more like a bulging lump that got craftily sculpted into something wonderfully aesthetic. The structure is tidy enough but only because we deem it so, just as we do with all memorable events.

I hope and anticipate the Duplass brothers to one day be a force to be reckoned with but only if they avoid seeing themselves as such. They are character-centric not only in their writing but in the way they direct their films. The storyline in Cyrus was relatively simple, but one day these guys will take their methods and stumble upon a story where the stakes are much higher and when they do it will indeed be something grand.

Winter's Bone

The character of Ree is something to behold. To see the world she lives in will astound you enough, let alone how she manages to live in it. She is mighty and fierce but yet so human. She does not back down even though she often can't handle the fight. She is naive perhaps, but if she wasn't then she wouldn't be a believable 17-year-old.

Her future has very little promise. She is left with a mentally invalid mother and two younger siblings to raise. Her initial desire to join the army establishes a vague notion that she has aspirations for her life, but more importantly it solidifies the commitment she is willing to make to help her family. By the end of the ordeal that is the plot of "Winter's Bone", her path becomes more uncertain than ever. She says to her brother and sister, "I would be lost without the weight of you two on my back." That phrase resonates with you and couldn't be anymore accurate (or unsubtle). She is someone who knows nearly nothing else in life but surviving and helping her siblings survive. But is determined to do those things right and well in a community where so much is wrong.

This character is truly a tribute to those youth whose lives are in some way restricted by their habitat or any circumstances beyond their control. The backbone and discipline they have is both astounding and heartbreaking. Jennifer Lawrence knows the age of her character and plays her accordingly with the appropriate amount of wariness but yet youthful optimism. She gives us hope for the character's future based on her determination but yet leaves us with uncertainty towards the stability of that hope in the years to come.

The plot to "Winter's Bone", while substantial enough and full of intensity at moments, really doesn't do much for the film with its disappointing lack of compelling mystery that you would expect given the premise. It winds up playing a supporting role with its partially unmotivated pacing that seems to do little but continue to further the story in an adequately efficient, even if not preferable, manner. The ending will intrigue you but the journey there just isn't as memorable.

What you will take away from the film is a look at the world Bree is confined to and her ability to stay afloat in it. Unfortunately, this is a story that is built to be driven by both plot and character but only achieves one of the two.