The High Cost of Living

THE HIGH COST OF LIVING (2010) - Sept. 17, 2010
Featuring a better than expected performance from Zach Braff (though it did take me a few minutes to buy him as a very non-JD-like character) this was an above average film about a guy who causes a pregnant woman to lose her child, and who then befriends said woman (without her knowing his role in her accident).  Melodramatic (but not in a bad way), this was well made and quite well acted.  Plus, I've found myself thinking about it on and off pretty much all day.  ***1/2

Peep World

PEEP WORLD (2010) - Sept. 16, 2010
An enjoyable dramedy about a guy who writes a semi-autobiographical novel about his dysfunctional family, and the uproar that this causes among said family.  Though the film wasn't anything particularly special, it was well made and well acted by a cast pretty much crammed full of recognizable actors (I'm pretty sure every single major role was a familiar face).  ***

I Saw the Devil

I SAW THE DEVIL (2010) - Sept. 15, 2010
A well made but seriously flawed film about a cop (or a secret agent or something -- it's never really made clear) who seeks elaborate vengeance when his fiancee is murdered.  My main problem with this film is the ludicrous choice the character makes of catching the killer and then letting him go so that he can catch him again (in an effort to make him suffer as much as possible -- as if there is no other way than an ill-conceived catch-and-release plan to make a man suffer).  I never bought for a second that any even remotely intelligent person would make such a stunningly stupid decision -- an act I found so irrational that it took me out of the movie.  Aside from that the film was well made and definitely had its moments, but it was a bit overlong and it dragged in parts.  But ultimately, I just couldn't buy into the ridiculous premise.  **

Essential Killing

ESSENTIAL KILLING (2010) - Sept. 15, 2010
Someone needs to explain this movie to me.  Why did this particular story need to be told?  About a member of the Taliban (we assume -- the character never speaks and we learn nothing about him other than a couple of brief flashbacks that imply he has a wife) who is captured, escapes and then runs away through a seemingly endless snowy forest.  This could have been exciting and/or suspenseful, but we never learn a thing about the character and thus have no reason to care about him, so the whole thing ends up coming off as a pretentious excercise of some sort, despite the fact that it's reasonably well made.  *1/2

Henry's Crime

HENRY'S CRIME (2010) - Sept. 15, 2010
A really low-key but enjoyable film about a guy who is wrongly sent to jail for robbing a bank, and who then decides to actually rob the bank.  Featuring a pretty solid cast with people like Keanu Reeves, James Caan and Vera Farmiga giving above average performances (Caan, in particular, is probably better here than he's been in a while).  There's pretty much nothing here that we haven't seen before, but it's quite affable with characters that we really come to care about.  ***

Black Swan

BLACK SWAN (2010) - Sept. 14, 2010
Another big winner from Darren Aronofsky, and final confirmation that the man has serious talent, and that I need to revist Requiem for a Dream (and even if that movie is as bad as I remember, it's just a blip in an otherwise primo filmography).  About a ballerina who gets the lead role in a production of Swan Lake, and who then starts to unravel, this was a really well made, seriously compelling film.  Though it starts off seeming stylistically similar to the Wrestler, the film also has some very overt thriller elements, and even some horror thrown in.  It's really well made, well acted, and flat-out entertaining all the way through.  ****

Our Day Will Come

OUR DAY WILL COME (2010) - Sept. 13, 2010
Seriously pretentious and almost criminally self-indulgant, this was an inscrutable mess of a film, with characters who do odd things seemingly just for the sake of being odd.  I thought that perhaps it was all supposed to be a metaphor or an allegory for something, but the Q&A with the director after the film seemed to indicate that it was all supposed to be taken at face value.  If that's the case, seriously, why did the characters do pretty much everything they did in that film?  Why did these two strangers just randomly decide to take a road trip together?  Why did they go nuts and start murdering people at the end?  The whole thing just made me mad, because the director obviously has a fair amount of talent (or at the very least, a keen eye for visuals), but he seems to have little to no interest in making a coherent film, and in fact seems to want to thumb his nose at anything resembling convention just for the sake of being different.  1/2*

Outside the Law

OUTSIDE THE LAW (2010) - Sept. 13, 2010
Not quite the "epic gangster movie" that the TIFF guide promised (that's a seriously misleading description of the film, and I have to wonder if the person who wrote it even watched the movie), this was a decent film about the Algerian uprising in France in the '50s.  Well made and featuring a fairly epic scope without feeling too overlong (despite a running time of well over two hours), this was a good movie that I was just never all that involved with, despite never being bored.  **1/2

Super

SUPER (2010) - Sept. 13, 2010
Sort of like a more twisted version of Kick-Ass, this was a really fun film about a guy who decides to become a superhero after thinking he's heard the word of God.  Really well made, I think the Kick-Ass comparisons are going to be inevitable, but I think this is funnier and less slick, and definitely deserves to stand on its own (I liked Kick-Ass, but I liked this more).  Features a surprisingly good lead performance from Rainn Wilson; you definitely forget about the Office pretty early on, as his character here is quite far from Dwight.  The supporting cast is just as good, though it's Ellen Page who really steals the show as Wilson's overzealous sidekick.  Good times.  ***1/2

Late Autumn

LATE AUTUMN (2010) - Sept. 12, 2010
Well made but almost absurdly slow-paced, this was a decent film about a young Chinese woman, let out of prison for a couple of days to go to a funeral, who strikes up a relationship with a seemingly carefree Korean gigalo.  The film is well directed and reasonably well acted (though it's fairly clear that neither of the leads knew English too well).  It's actually quite compelling in parts, and the characters are definitely likable.  But it's insanely slow, and would probably benefit from some generous cutting.  There's also a fantasy sequence that just seems out of place and kind of slows down what little momentum the film has. **1/2

The Piano in a Factory

THE PIANO IN A FACTORY (2010) - Sept. 12, 2010
Well, it had to happen.  At least I got it out of the way early this year: I fell asleep.  I was pretty tired, but the movie being fairly poor certainly didn't help.  Directed with a fussy, overly composed visual style that gave the film an unpleasantly artificial theatricality and put the viewer at a constant arm's length, this was just not a particularly compelling film.  NO RATING

Easy Money

EASY MONEY (2010) - Sept. 12, 2010
Well made and quite fast-paced throughout, this was about an ambitious young man who finds himself working for a group of drug dealers.  Directed with a gritty visual style that suited the film quite well, I definitely enjoyed this.  ***

Outbound

OUTBOUND (2010) - Sept. 11, 2010
A typically European art house type of film (but a well done one), this was a well made and well acted film about a woman who gets out of jail -- supposedly for 24 hours only -- and who sets out to leave with her son.  The film follows her over the course of the day as she attempts to get her affairs in order, and features a naturalistic style that is quite reminisent of the work of the Dardenne brothers (but mostly without the handheld camerawork).  The film also features one of the more abrupt endings that I've seen lately, which seemed to irk the crowd I saw it with -- when someone asked the director to elaborate on what happened at the end, there were definite murmurs of appreciation (and of course, he didn't answer).  ***

Inception

INCEPTION (2010) - Sept. 11, 2010 (Fourth Viewing)
Yep, awesome.  And it definitely worked quite well on the large Imax screen, if not quite as brilliantly as the shot-for-Imax stuff from the Dark Knight.  ****

Wasted on the Young

WASTED ON THE YOUNG (2010) - Sept. 11, 2010
An interesting and well made film about a girl who overdoses and is subsequently raped at a party, and how this affects those around her.  Directed with visual flair by first-time director Ben C. Lucas, the film provided a unique spin on the high school drama.  ***

Cirkus Columbia

CIRKUS COLUMBIA (2010) - Sept. 10, 2010
A basically well made but uneventful and kind of boring film about a man who comes back to his small town in Bosnia after a twenty year absence, and winds up shaking things up.  There wasn't any particularly element of this film that was badly done, it was just kind of meandering and by somewhere around the mid-way point, I had completely lost interest.  *1/2

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

LEGEND OF THE FIST: THE RETURN OF CHEN ZHEN (2010) - Sept. 10, 2010
Though it started out with one of the better action sequences I've seen in a while (it was seriously awesome), the rest of the movie just wasn't up to that level.  About a famous resistance fighter in 1920s China, the film was just completely bogged down with political maneuverings, which left the characters themselves woefully underdeveloped.  It also didn't help that the first hour was pretty much action-free (aside from the aforementioned awesome opening), which completely threw off the pacing of the movie.  It picks up somewhat in the second hour, but it had pretty much lost me at that point.  It also closed with a pretty spectacular action sequence, but for the most part this movie was a let down.  Donnie Yen was awesome as usual, however.  **

Bedtime Stories

BEDTIME STORIES (2008) - Sept. 6, 2010
A surprisingly bad film about a man who realizes that the stories he's telling his neice and nephew are starting to come true.  Unabashedly juvenile, it becomes clear pretty much immediately that the film is aimed squarely at undiscrimating children, with no attempt to appeal to anyone over the age of twelve.  The film was pretty episodic, and lacked any particular narrative momentum.  Blandly directed and completely laugh-free, there really wasn't too much that worked here.  *1/2

The American

THE AMERICAN (2010) - Sept. 5, 2010
A well made if somewhat slow-paced film about a skilled hitman who hides out in a small Italian town making a custom sniper rifle.  The film kind of has a cool, emotionally distant tone that always keeps you at an arm's length, but it's well directed by Anton Corbijn and does a good job of evoking a European art-house vibe.  It also features a really strong central performance from George Clooney, who manages to create a compelling character (who is a bit different from his usual thing) without all that much dialogue.  ***

Machete

MACHETE (2010) - Sept. 3, 2010
Meh.  Based on the fake trailer from Grindhouse, this was about an ex-Federale who finds himself double-crossed by the people who hired him to assassinate a politician.  Further proof that Robert Rodriguez just isn't a very good director, this was decent in parts, but mostly it was just kind of flat, and it was never nearly as fun as it was trying to be.  Perhaps if it had been about half an hour shorter it would have been an enjoyable enough diversion, but at 105 minutes it definitely over-stays its welcome.  Plus, it's yet another movie where the violence is sullied by an over-use of CGI.  **