A Single Man

A Single Man
Genre: Drama
Director: Tom Ford
Stars: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult
Rating: ★★☆ (2.5/4)

A Single Man is the directorial debut of fashion designer Tom Ford; and it shows. A Single Man is a very visual experience, to the point that it somewhat overshadows the good story. It's crafted with an incredible amount of passion but it's rare that this amount of passion can be channeled into something ridiculously frustrating. It feels somewhat like Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain.

The movie centers on a middle-aged English gay university professor named George Falconer, played by Colin Firth, who's partner Jim was just recently deceased. His best friend Charley, played by Julianne Moore, is his best friend. The two have a peculiar relationship; Charley has romantic affection for George as is custom for every LGBT themed film.

Colin Firth, as usual, loans his all. Like his performance the next year, he plays someone frustrated by his situation. Though in this one, his depression is extremely deep. His search for something uncertain leads him to do peculiar things throughout this day like talking with a male prostitute and developing an emotional connection with him. He gets into a fight with Charley due to her romantic attraction. He goes into a bar and develops a relationship with his closeted student. All of these things feel real, yet he knows that they are fleeting. The movie is inter-cut with flashbacks from his relationship with Jim making his depression stand out even further.

George is extremely empty. His life lost some of its meaning once Jim died, so he plans to commit suicide. He retains a blank look on his face. He lives this day routinely at the beginning. Charley decides to call him and wishes to spend the evening, to which he agrees to. He sits on the toilet, staring at things. He goes to class and teaches, albeit with a little bit of personal emotion inside of his speech. Kenny, played by Nicholas Hoult, develops a bond with him. The connection between the two is immediate; Kenny buys his teacher a pencil sharpener.

Because of his plan, he sees all things vividly and with extreme focus as he thinks that these will be the last glimpses of his life. He stares at everything from the shirtless bodies of the tennis players to the cigarette of a random girl in class. While this is pretty in the beginning, this gets increasingly frustrating. It starts to get mind numbing at the point where the cut slow-motions at the little girl playing on the street. While I understand the point behind it, I find that it should have been done with a little less exaggeration and a little more subtlety.

The plot very compelling and emotional but it is overshadowed by Tom Ford's grandeur vision. It's gorgeous, but somehow, a little too gorgeous. Too much style, not enough substance. The film had a lot of potential to be better, however much of the screen-time is invested in showing close-ups instead of what's actually significant. That does not mean this is a bad movie though, Tom Ford's costume design is incredible and so is Colin Firth's performance. I'm certainly looking forward to his next project.

Note: A rating of 2.5/4 can be either positive or negatively leaned. This one is positive.

Moneyball

Moneyball
Genre: Sports Drama
Director: Bennett Miller
Stars: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Rating: ★★★☆ (3.5/4)

Moneyball was directed by Bennett Miller who directed the 2005 drama Capote, which still remains as one of my favorite biographical dramas due to the powerful emotion and the performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman. This is, again, a biographical drama, and it, again, has Philip Seymour Hoffman, but that's about it for the similarities between the two movies.

Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, is a former baseball player the general manager for the Oakland Athletics, a baseball team with an extremely limited payroll. He struggles with both trying to make a working team with what he is afforded, and his personal problems such as his recent divorce. On a trip to Cleveland, he meets Yale graduate Peter Brand, who interests Beane with his unique mindset when it comes to players. He comes up with an ideology that is more focused on scoring rather than assembling a good team in the conventional sense. This leads to a radical change in the team, much to the dismay of the owner, the scouts and the team manager, Art Howe, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The film is about baseball in terms of plot, but not really in terms of spirit. The film does not attempt to show passion for the sport or love of the game, even the central character does not watch the games. In spirit, this is really a film about business; a film that is based more on the unseen aspect of baseball. The characters on this film have the same mindset as those in writer Atticus Ross' other film The Social Network, to innovate. Whether or not they succeed it dependent on their success in the sport which is about as far as fire for the game is going to go.

Moneyball showcases some great performances from the film's central characters. Brad Pitt has already achieved some success this awards season thanks to his great performance as Billy, who he portrays with humor and bluntness. Jonah Hill's performance is understated yet very good, the whole dork persona that he portrays so often is channeled and made dramatic; and successfully if I might add. The rest of the supporting cast adds well to the film also.

The rest of his companions don't take the new strategies warmly. Beane starts to get players solely on On-Base-Percentage; those of which were calculated by Brand. They go against the current flow of the sport's mindset by disregarding normally important factors such as age, health, experience and even batting ability and instead those who can simply get on base. In one particular scene, Brand expresses his admiration for the baseball player who has the second most walks in the league. That further shows the significance of pure numbers in the movie's context.

The movie is ruthless; in a scene Beane says that he does not go to games in order to fire people without hesitation. He prefers to keep an emotional distance to those involved so he can break them off quickly. Brand, a man of statistics, finds this particularly difficult to do. For a ruthless and cold movie however, it still manages to be touching. We actually start to care about Billy Beane and the Oakland A's. Even those who know absolutely nothing about baseball will start to care about its coldest aspect. Quite admirable indeed.

I'll add this: the movie is funny. Much of this humor can be attributed to Brad Pitt. The movie is not a comedy though, it isn't comedic in the slightest sense. It's just funny. "The problem is there are rich teams, and there are poor teams. And then there's fifty feet of crap, and then there's us."

Tangled

Tangled
Genre: Animated Musical
Directors: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
Stars: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi
Rating: ★★★ (3/4)

Tangled was lost amidst the huge success of it's fellow animated films Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon. I believe that it did not gain the attention it really deserved which is why I have chosen to review it. Also, it keeps showing on cable so I was reminded that it was actually quite a good little film.

Disney's Tangled is a romantic-comedy musical part of the line of Disney's animated classics. It is Disney's 50th animated film; and I believe that it befits at that position. It showcases the best of the old era of Disney films while still giving way to the changes in animation and the new tastes of this generation.

Much like the stories of the Disney Renaissance, this film was based on a fairy tale. Rapunzel, played by Mandy Moore, grew up secluded from the rest of the world in a tower together with her adoptive mother. As we already know from the classic tale, the person trapping her is evil, however she doesn't know that. She is oblivious to her mother's ulterior motives. Rapunzel is actually the daughter of the king and queen of the kingdom whose hair obtained magical healing abilities through a flower. Her mother keeps her in order to retain her youth. Each year, Rapunzel sees that, around the time of her birthday, stars light up the sky. She asks her mother to allow her to go out, and her mother refuses.

All this changes when Flynn Rider, a thief unknowingly climbs up the tower. The scene is wonderfully comedic. She hits him with what will be one of the film's trademarks, a pan. She blackmails him into accompanying her to see the lights, which turn out to be lanterns. They are aided by Maximus, the general's horse. The characters have genuine connection to each other and have nice comedic chemistry. The scenes with Maximus and Flynn are perhaps some of my favorites from the film.

The film's animation is quite incredible. As far as I am aware, they used a technique in which computer generated imagery is merged with traditional hand-drawn pictures. Th pictures look gorgeous. I cannot comment on how the 3D was as I never watched it in 3D, however the colors are bright and vivid so I would assume that the 3D did more harm than good. The scenes are beautiful and have lots of impact, most especially the scene with lanterns. It was romantic; comparable to the great sequences of the Renaissance, such as the ballroom scene from Beauty and the Beast and the sequence of "Can You Feel the Love" from The Lion King.

The musical score, composed with Alan Menken, is upbeat and suits the film perfectly. They give the film energy. My favorite musical moments from the movie where the sequences of "I Can See The Light," which is perfectly suited to the scene where lanterns light the sky, and the scene where they discover the kingdom to a medival yet modern-feeling instrumental. In terms of it's loss at the Oscars last year, I believe that they did deserve Best Original Song.

All the film's aspects celebrate the older elements of Disney; the jolly music, the romantic fairy-tale love story, and the fun characters. It's in spirit, a classic Disney movie. However, the expensive animation (the film is the second most expensive film ever produced) showcases that it is a new generation for this media form.

Some complain that the movie isn't groundbreaking or doesn't do anything relevant in terms of story. I agree with this, however that isn't a bad thing. As the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Genre: Action Thriller
Director: Brad Bird
Stars: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg
Rating: ★★★☆ (3.5/4)

I walked into the theater slightly dismissive about the Mission: Impossible series as a whole. I never liked Tom Cruise; he always seemed like an actor that was very limited and lacked impact, so I assumed that it would be impossible not to be biased about my opinion. I was wrong. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is far and beyond the greatest action film of the year, and one of the greatest ones in recent memory. It was a dazzling spectacle, brimming with sharpness and spectacle. It went beyond what I expected the Mission: Impossible could go to.

The film starts of fresh. I barely recall the previous MI movies as I never cared much for them, but the film gave me the sudden urge to re-watch the previous ones. After being freed from a Russian Prison in an excellent start-off, Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, is assigned a mission to retrieve important documents from the Moscow Kremlin. Here is where we really see the incredible invention behind the movie. In the Kremlin, there is this great stealth sequence where a gadget is placed that gave the illusion of space that they hid behind. It's extremely creative and a delight to watch. Here is the point where we realize that this is unlike any other Mission Impossible that we have seen.

Much of this inventiveness can be accredited to the excellent team behind it. First would be the new writers, Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, who wrote a more polished and sharp script than any other movie in the series. Then there is the score from Michael Giacchino of "Up" fame, who mixed the already riveting original theme and made it more attuned to this film. Next is the editor Paul Hirsch, and then there is Robert Elswit, the cinematographer, who's work was crucial to some of the scenes, most especially the Burj Khalifa scene which I will talk about in a bit.

The most essential part of the new team is Brad Bird, who you may know from his work directing The Iron Giant, Ratatouille, and most significantly The Incredibles; that of which I believe he draws the same kind of energy  in directing this. The energy of the movie is kinetic which can be attributed from his work in animated films. I believe that Brad Bird has a huge future in directing live action films; that does not mean that I wouldn't want to see an Incredibles Two at some point in the future.

The most riveting scene in the whole movie was the sequence in Dubai. Since Ethan must go up several floors without using the elevator, it is decided that he must climb up the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, using only a pair of electrical sticking gloves that tend to malfunction. The scene is the epitome of the modern action thriller, it is compelling and it demands that our eyes be glued to the screen. I can remember wanting to go to the bathroom yet not doing so. It was fascinating. For a second, I actually believed that Tom Cruise was on the Burj Khalifa until I realized the impossibility of that.

The performances were also great. Tom Cruise delivers a rare great performance. And this comes from someone who never really liked Tom Cruise. Jeremy Renner delivers as always playing the mysterious Brandt. The other two members of Ethan's team are Jane, played by Paula Patton, who captures the whole "badass fox" classic persona quite well, and computer geek Benji, played by Simon Pegg, who functions as the primary comic relief for this movie. I could relive the scene in which Brandt says "So I'll jump," and Benji then says, "And I'll catch you." The chemistry between the two is delightful.

(500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Director: Marc Webb
Stars: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Rating: ★★★★ (4/4)

Rarely is a romantic comedy this inventive. Most romantic comedies originating from the United States at this day and age follows a very staple romantic formula: a person (either sex) becomes infatuated with another person, faces challenges in getting the two of them to become a couple, they have a large amount of sex, and then they end up a couple with the future relatively certain. This movie, however, puts a twist on this formula.

The movie, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, follows the first step at least. Tom Hansen, played by Gordon-Levitt, is infatuated with his co-worker Summer Finn, played by Deschanel. The two are virtually pitch perfect in their roles. Gordon-Levitt perfectly captures the sense that Tom has too many assumptions of how their relationship should be described. He supposes that they are boyfriend and girlfriend, regardless of what Summer says it is. Deschanel on the other hand is naturally infectious; channeling the same kind of energy that she uses in every role. Her awkward, quirky charm works perfectly for the tune of this movie.

The movie also follows the second step, however it takes a different approach. While in most of these movies, these breakups or issues are dependent with some factor that pulls them apart. Perhaps it could be cheating, or just plain romantic friction. In this film however, the two don't have any romantic friction and there is naught a factor that would make sense as a tool to break-up, at least in the conventional sense. This movie makes use of how the dynamics of the relationships can pull each other apart. It shows how undefined relationships tend to go down the drain when you try to define them at too late a point. Next would be sex, however this movie contains little sexual insights. It was an excellent decision to do so, the movie was able to remain consistent about its central theme.

Before we go to the conclusion, it would be wise to talk about the movie's most fascinating aspect; that it is told in non-chronological order. In most movies, each event significant to the plot follows one another. This movie does not merely use a non-linear narrative in order to make itself distinct, I fully believe that it is essential to the movie and was an artistic choice. The fact that it is told in a non-chronological order allows us to go into how the narrator, Tom himself, feels. In the movie, he begins with the best aspects, follows with the worst aspects, then ends with the dissolve. It's how we tend to remember the best and save the worst for last. The narration is human. We also see how the film treats the actual day of the events are irrelevant. Why should we care which day it is? What happens, happens. I believe the idea to present the days was a clever decision, it even further highlights the irrelevance of the chronology.

The last step is this; they end up, everyone is happy, and the future will certainly be bright. Before the movie begins, Tom describes how it is not a love story. If how a love story goes is that the couple fall in love and ends as such, then it is certainly not a love story. I prefer to think of it as a story about love, rather than a love story. The movie ends in neither a high nor a low note, it seems more like middle ground. The ending is a clean slate; a beginning for another story. Unfortunately for Tom, you can't begin on a clean slate without wiping off the slate first.

It's not a good idea to go too technical when trying to review this movie. It's a movie based on feeling. However, for those of you curious, the editing and cinematography are excellent.

Note: The beginning has the disclaimer, "Any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental ... Especially you, Jenny Beckman ... Bitch." I laughed out loud.