SKYFALL--Best Bond Ever!, THE SESSIONS, LINCOLN, plus Best Thanksgiving Movies APRIL&ALICE's

There are a lot of great James Bond films, but  SKYFALL has to counted as possibly the best of that list.  Of course, Daniel Craig is on most people's short list of great Bonds. but add an engrossing and (somewhat) logical plot, sharp and mature direction by Sam Mendes (AMERICAN BEAUTY 1999), expanded involvement of "M" portrayed by the esteemable Judy Dench, a great respect for the past history of Bond on films (including cars and gadgets) and the intelligent and entertaining introduction of some great Bond co-horts, and then mix in a great villain and a super knock out introductory scene, and what more can I say................GRADE----A

A forthright film about a mostly paralyzed polio-poetry spouting man (who spends much of his time in an iron lung,) yet he tries to loose his virginity with the help of a sensitive sex therapist.  It works very well as comedy/drama with some fascinating information about the challenges of the physically challenged.  The actors--especially John Hawkes and Helen Hunt-- are quite good and THE SESSIONS (of sex) moved me in ways that surprised me.           GRADE-----A-

History gets personal and intimate and clearly literate in Steven Spielberg's new film LINCOLN, a fascinating film about the last year of LINCOLN's life when he worked so hard to past the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery AND try to end the Civil War AND attempt to unite a very divided United States.  Politics hasn't changed so very much since then.  I had some very minor quibbles with a few technical glitches and that very sentimental style that serves Spielberg well most of the time, but overall, this is a very ambitious, entertaining and clearheaded film, and the actors including Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln, Sally Fields as the Mrs, and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens are masterful.     GRADE-------B+

The French documentary BESTIAIRE which profiles animals in long, intimate takes with out moving the camera remined me of Chantal Akerman's classic profile of a bored housewife who cleans the house, cooks food, and turns the occasional trick, and not much else in long, long takes, in JEANNE DIELMAN, 23QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUSSELLES (1975)  but BESTIARE is only 72 minutes and seemed longer, while JEANNE was 201 minutes, and seems just long.  Both films have their fascination.      GRADE-------B-



DVD CHOICES------------------

It's a clever, tricky film--not his most classic, but Alfred Hitchcock's nifty STAGE FRIGHT (1949) features star performances by Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, Alistair Sim and Dame Sybil Thorndike, plus some splendid character actors, and it becomes very engrossing in spite of a rocky 30 minute start that has many viewers wondering how a man could become so stupidly blinded by  such an evil woman so as to  be willing to take a murder rap for her, but Hitchcock has some turns and surprises up his sleeve, and the film is successfully engrossing up to the twisted end.        GRADE------B+

Never saw the classic film BEDAZZLED (1967) when it opened, but I can certainly appreciate the cult status of this film with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and Raquel Welch and Eleanor Bron and other great British actors and comedians, and at times I marveled more at the clever lines than laughed at them.  Cook plays the devil who buys the soul of Moore and then introduces him to the 7 deadly sins. (Guess which one is portrayed by Welch!?!)  I might  laugh more at the film on a second or third viewing.  Still, it is clever.    GRADE------B

It won the Best Supporting Male Actor award at last year's Oscar show, but  BEGINNERS (2010) may have been more effective had Christopher Plummer been the focal point of the plot of an elderly man who comes out as gay after his wife of many years has died, much to the confusion of his adult son Ewan McGregor.  Instead the film starts after the death of Plummer's character and has McGregor trying to start an awkward romance with a French speaking Melanie Laurent, with whom he seems to have ZERO chemistry.  The subplot of telling Plummer's story is pushed into the background as an annoying flashback, when really, that story was  much more interesting.          GRADE------C 


FAVORITE THANKSGIVING THEMED MOVIES---------

I haven't seen ALICE'S RESTAURANT (1969) for over 30 years, but this Arthur (BONNIE AND CLYDE) Penn film retains it's charm and surprising melancholic power in telling the based on fact story of a young Arlo Guthrie's struggle to make it as a singer (following his dying father Woody's illustrious career) in the mid-1960's amid the lure of the counter culture (hippie) life style.  The film features the hit song Alice's Restaurant ("You can get any thing you want at Alice's restaurant....") and features the long subplot about the misadventures of trying to dump a van load of garbage on Thanksgiving day, when the city dump is closed, and the funny, serious consequences of that adventure when he is drafted into service during the height of the Vietnam War.  Especially fine are the married duo portrayed by James Broderick and Pat Quinn--they provide a strong paternal center as they try to keep their "broad" of counter culture misfits alive and happy during trying times.    GRADE--------A

Before she married Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes had a successful little career playing counter culture types in GO (1999) and ICE STORM (1997) and in this lovely little film PIECES OF APRIL (2004).  April is an independent young adult with a troubled childhood--the rest of her family is quite traditional, but she cut them off and moved to Manhattan.  Now her mother is quite ill with cancer, and she wants to plan a Thanksgiving meal to make peace with her estranged family.  That morning, however she realizes her oven doesn't work, so the film inter cuts the trepidation that her family has with her history, and her struggles with trying to cook the tradition meal (while not really knowing what she is doing.)  She gets some unexpected help from some untraditional neighbors, and this charming but edgy film packs a big emotional wallop by the end.  It's a real gem.       GRADE----A-

PERKS of BEING WALLFLOWER, ARGO, CLOUD ATLAS, Simon and the Oaks,The Details, Taken 2

Topping any week, in fact, topping the year in films, is the impressively entertaining political thriller called ARGO.  Based on a true story (but I'm sure gussied up to entertain even more--see final sequence at the airport for that "yeah, sure" moment) ARGO tells of the heroic efforts of the Canadians and the CIA to rescue a group of American embassy workers who  slipped out the back door when Iranian mobs stormed the US Embassy and held over 50 hostages for over 400 days back in 1979.  Ben Affleck stars and (directs) as a CIA operative who pretends to be a film maker who wants to direct a science fiction movie in an exotic local, so he comes into Iran and instructs the embassy workers how to pretend to be the producer, writer, photographer, etc, and then hopes to fly them back home in plain sight.  The film is suspenseful and funny, and impossible not to like, especially with Alan Arkin and John Goodman chewing the scenery as the Hollywood types trying to set up the "best worst idea" possible.    Definitely one of the top films of the year so far.          GRADE--------A

Based on a popular best seller (which I have not read) THE PERKS OF BEING A WALL FLOWER is one of those lovely little films, falsely advertised as a charming teen coming of age comedy.  The good news is that it is sincerely subtle and genuinely perceptive in telling quite dramatically the story of three best friends--all social outcasts in high school, who band together with a few others for a tender and surprisingly emotional year of self discovery.  The film veers into a completely different story line as it proceeds, helping to illuminate the false starts and missteps that many high schooler may experience.  I was surprised and very moved by these revelations.  PERKS belied and completely exceeded my expectations.        GRADE------A-

Ambitious and epic, sprawling and fascinating, CLOUD ATLAS is a great science fiction film that works on several levels.  Intermixing a half dozen different plots set in different centuries (and worlds) and featuring a large, talented cast, each of who portray several different characters through out history, CLOUD ATLAS intrigues, mystifies and thrills, sometimes all in the same scene.  If nothing else, it is fun to watch as Tom Hanks plays a physical "neanderthal" type, a nuclear scientist, a sea captain, a nasty slave owner and several other parts, and Halle Barry portrays an Asian man, an investigative reporter, a futuristic space traveler, and a Victorian "lady", among other parts.  Hugo Weaving also gets a number of juicy characters (including a prison matron) as do Ben Whishaw, Jim Sturgess, and the amazing Jim Broadbent.  The many different sets and costumes are vivid and unique, and if the film doesn't exactly answer the question of how "we are all connected" it is still a courageous and  challenging work of cinematic artistry.       GRADE------A-

The modest but entertaining filmed in Seattle low budget movie THE DETAILS isn't quite a farce or a comedy, although there are many odd and humorous things that occur.  When the young couple living in the suburbs try to get rid of the pesky raccoons that are camping out in their back yard, they accidentally kill the neighbors cat, which leads the kind but immoral doctor to more lies, infidelity and ----murder.  It's a disturbing film, but the cast--Tobey Macguire, Elizabeth Banks, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, and especially Laura Linney, are all quite effective (in good and bad ways) and make THE DETAILS something special.      GRADE--------B 

The Swedish film SIMON & THE OAKS is a good looking melodrama set during WWII that has a Christian boy befriending a Jewish boy, whose family is being persecuted.  Because the Jewish boy's mother is mentally unstable, the Christian family raise the child, while their son becomes fascinated by the musically cultured world of the Jewish father.    The film covers many years, and wanders a bit, and needs some dramatic oomph towards the end, but it is mostly intriguing and well worth watching.        GRADE----B

Played as straight forward action, TAKEN 2 is not too bad, but suffers from those having seen and liked the original TAKEN.   Again, Liam Neeson is the killing machine--in the first film he mows down dozens of Albanians who have stolen his daughter into the European sex trade industry.  In the follow up, the patriarch of a kidnapper, from the first film who doesn't seem to acknowledge that the reason his son and all his friends were killed was because they were CRIMINALS!---he wants revenge, so he kidnaps and intends to kill Liam and his wife when they return to Europe.  This time the daughter gets to help the father, and after dozens of deaths......(SPOILER ALERT!!!)  all ends well.  Except for the headache the viewer will have due to the pointless hand held jerky camera that is annoying and a cheat when it comes to action scenes, since you can't tell what is happening with the camera swirling all over the place.    GRADE--------C


DVD CHOICES---------------------------

In anticipation of Christmas Day when the musical version of Victor Hugo's classic novel  LES MISERABLES opens with Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried, I watched with interest the earlier version of LES MISERABLES (1998) which featured Liam Neeson, Uma Thurman, Geoffrey Rush and Claire Danes.  The plot is all there, but I kept wanting to hear that glorious music.  As much as I like Claire Danes, she seemed rather miscast--perhaps a bit too old and mature for the part, and the film lacks urgency and style.  Still, it was OK.      GRADE------B-

In the opening minutes of MARY REILLY (1996) I thought this was going to be another UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS from the servants point of view.  Mary Reilly, played with restraint and a roving Irish accent by Julia Roberts turns out to be a domestic in the home of a Dr. Jekyll, who we soon learn will be "entertaining"  his friend, a Mr. Hyde.  Stephen Frears directed this curious tale--it is indeed told from Mary's point of view, but the action is rather staid when it should be thrilling.  Glenn Close has fun with a brief role as the local "butch" Madame of a house of prostitution, but Roberts nearly disappears into the set design, and I kept thinking that Jekyll and Hyde looked an awful lot alike, but nobody else seemed to notice.   It looks good and has some moments.        GRADE------C+