Review: Oscar Contenders

I was lucky enough to see a cornucopia of new films over the past few days and it's gonna take me at least a week or two to get through all the reviews. I had myself another great movie day, seeing There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I also had the benefit of renting several films including Sicko, A Mighty Heart, Ratatouille, Zodiac, and Friday Night Lights. (By the way Heather, we're gonna have to have a conversation about that last one, cause while I can believe that the show may be better, or have improved on the source material, in no way did I think the movie sucked.) Reviews for most of these films will be forthcoming, but will mostly be in mini-review form cause I just can't deal with writing seven full length reviews. I would never sleep again and my schedule is already erratic at best.

1 - There Will Be Blood: I have to confess myself partially confused by the implications in this film. That it follows the American dream in the form of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), as he searches for gold and oil in turn of the 19th century California, I understand. That it exposes the levels of greed in man is apparent. It questions the relationship between industry and religion, a connection that appears to alternately hinder and help each enterprise. Plainview is a gruff man who claims to hate people, but he clearly loves his son, H.W. (the composed Dillon Freasier), and enjoys teaching him about the family business. The changes in the dynamics of this relationship, as well as Plainview's continuous need for familial bond, are the most compelling in the film. But as the credits ran, I admit I felt as though I'd missed the boat. While I was intrigued by the story, interested in the history, and intellectually stimulated by the ideas, I was never engaged. Not every film has to evoke an emotional reaction, but something about this film felt very distant to me.

It is no doubt technically proficient. The location scouting and set decoration teams did an excellent job; the town and countryside in which most of the film takes places feels very isolated, almost like a ghost town with dusty old shacks, a lack of vegetation, and a dryness in the air. There is incredible sensory evocation in the sets - I can smell the fresh lumber, feel the oppressive heat, choke on the dry earth, and gag on the scent of all that black oil. The cinematography is gorgeous; this country feels vast and empty, and the unobstructed views of the skyline are really best experienced in a theater. The score, by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, has elements of classical music, but also includes jarring string ensembles that practically shriek, making many scenes feel ominous, and adding a fitting element one critic describes as "wrong" to others. All of this was very effective and managed to make the film feel large, epic, and grandiose, which is perhaps why I feel so confused at my inability to be captivated.

I have long been a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson (the brilliant director of Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love), and he has, at the very least, made an endlessly provocative film. He is supported by a stellar cast, Daniel Day-Lewis again creating a full-bodied and unique character. Even when I wasn't fully engaged by the story, I never doubted for a moment that Daniel Plainview was a real person, with particular motivations and a complex mind. Lewis is joined in many scenes by Paul Dano (the silent brother in Little Miss Sunshine) as Eli Sunday, the religiously-greedy local minister who becomes Plainview's adversary. For the weight this combative relationship is given, Dano should have more screen time, but their final confrontation, though somewhat discordant with the rest of the film, is meaty, tangled, and a fascinating end to the film. I think I need to see this one again.


2 - Michael Clayton: This is a legal thriller that grabs you from the first frame and doesn't slow down one bit for the entirety of the film. As a movie-going audience, we have perhaps become jaded with this genre. We've seen it done many times; the lawyers are shady, corrupt moral decisions are made, innocent people are victimized, and a startling revelation made at the end, by our hero, saves the day. For the most part, Michael Clayton stays within this formula, or seems to, but the ending never feels compromised because characters realistically occupy this world and make us believe the stakes are this high. Never has this game been played at such a scarily cutthroat level.

George Clooney plays the title character as what Entertainment Weekly called "world-weary." I repeat it here because it is the absolute best way to describe this man. He's the company fixer at a large law-firm, the man responsible for cleaning up big messes, describing himself as a "garbage man." Michael is in enormous debt after closing an unsuccessful restaurant, is resisting an addiction to gambling, divorced, and hates his job, but has to keep it in order to pull himself out of his financial mess. He is close friends with Arthur Eden (Tom Wilkinson), one of the firm's top legal minds, who at a deposition for a huge case, in which he has invested six years worth of time, bizarrely strips down naked on camera and rantingly chases the plaintiff into the parking lot. Michael is sent in to fix the situation and figure out why Arthur, a manic-depressive who has gone off his meds, has suddenly decided to blow the case and switch sides. Michael also has to calm down litigator Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), the chief counsel for an insurance company that has sub-contracted the case to Arthur's law firm, and is understandably upset that the chief counsel on this multi-million dollar case has apparently lost it.

Arthur makes decisions about the information he has, and doesn't trust Michael to help him with his actions, leaving him in a vulnerable position, and forcing Karen's hand. She is a reasonable person, a competent lawyer, and a regular woman who practices speeches in the mirror as she puts on make-up, but how she deals with Arthur's change of heart is shocking in it's audacity and bottom-line thinking. This is not the action we expect from a film like this, and definitely not coming from a woman as recognizably conventional as Karen Crowder. The film starts in the middle of the story, then jumps back to the beginning. As we come around to those opening scenes again, more fully understanding what is at risk and why, the film is still able to generate suspense through excellent writing, quick cuts and frenetic pacing. In fact, the film as a whole feels as though it's rushing through a great story and can't wait to show you what's next.

The acting is superb all-around. Clayton is a man, who by all appearances, should be successful, should be happy, but is actually a demoralized shell plodding through life. Clooney is burned out and disgusted with himself, but when he is presented with information that doesn't add up, he is does not let it pass. It is only after seeing the film that you realize how perfect he is for this role. Wilkinson makes Arthur a bit crazed, but is compassionate, so much fun to watch, and has a frenzied opening monologue. And Tilda Swinton, a longtime serious actress, largely unknown to popular cinema, plays a character who makes morally bankrupt decisions, but she doesn't feel like a stock villain; she is real, damaged and at times her vulnerability almost made me feel sorry for her. This may be a genre film, but nothing about this movie feels stale.