Film Yap - Oscar Documentary Shortlist 2012

Last year I wrote about the shortlist for the documentaries for the Oscars. It’s a subject that puzzles me every year much like way the foreign film category plays out. By the time the award show finally airs, most of the major categories are predictable but these remain unknown because not enough people have seen them including the journalists reporting on them.

So let’s breakdown the 15 documentaries. This year I’ve seen 10 of them due to availability.

--Battle For Brooklyn. Have not seen this one. It’s about a large protest by people living in Brooklyn trying to save their homes from being torn down to build a stadium and skyscrapers.

--Bill Cunningham New York. One of my favorites of the year and I’m not alone in it. It has topped a lot of critic’s lists because of how charming Cunningham is and how his view of the fashion world is genuine and wonderful.

--Buck. Another crowd pleaser. Buck was the inspiration for the film “The Horse Whisperer”. The way he’s able to calm the horses without violence is inspiring and fascinating to watch.

--Hell and Back Again. Another I haven’t seen, but something I got from the trailer is how visually impressive this one is. I don’t know if they used recreations but the cinematography is impressive as they deal with the struggles of war and PTSD.

--If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front. There are a lot of activism movies this year and this isn’t one of the strongest. There’s an interesting debate in the center whether or not they are eco-terrorists but there isn’t enough questioning. Emotional ending, however.

--Jane’s Journey. Jane Goodall is a fascinating person who has done some wonderful things. This movie is just too…kind? It’s a very sweet movie but there is nothing pressing about it. Never feels definitive enough so it becomes just another look at a great woman.

--The Loving Story. Another one of the five I haven’t seen. The Independent Critic said it had a “refreshingly straightforward yet effective approach” to the civil rights case allowing the marriage of a while man and a black woman. It will play on HBO in February.

--Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. This is the conclusion of the decades long case of the West Memphis Three. It wasn’t as powerful of the first two entries because it tries to go back to tell a complete story instead of moving forward. Still well worth watching.

--Pina. This is also on the foreign film shortlist and for good reason. It’s a dance documentary that is so beautiful and abstract yet very watchable. Wim Wenders (“Wings of Desire”, “Paris Texas”) perfect captures Pina Bausch’s vision of dance, all of the pain and curiosity. My version was great, but I really hope the 3D version comes to Indiana soon.

--Project NIM. As a scientific experiment, a chimp named NIM was raised in a human home. It’s a perfect parallel film to “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” as the treatment and results of this decision is rightfully questioned. James Marsh (“Man on Wire”) uses too many documentary gimmicks that worked better in his other films.

--Semper Fi: Always Faithful. Newly available as part of Sundance’s streaming project, this is one worth watching. Improper toxic dumping poisoned the water causing irreparable harm to a large number of US Marines, including giving the soldiers breast cancer and death to small children. Their legal fight is hard to watch because of how little seems to be changing.

--Sing Your Song. I haven’t seen this one, but it’s one I would like to. It’s the story of Harry Belafonte, a popular singer who became a civil rights activist. Looks like a well made documentary with a lot of people speaking on his behalf.

--Undefeated. More of a teacher movie than a sports movie. The struggle to connect with a group of inner city kids to get them to succeed at a sport they love makes for a dramatic story.

--Under Fire: Journalists in Combat. Last one I haven’t seen, but this looks fascinating. It’s a look into the emotional and ethical difficulties of being a journalist in a warzone.

--We Were Here. A look at the AIDS epidemic from the men who survived it creates such a personal account of a devastating time. The filmmaking is simplistic, but luckily the speakers are powerful enough on their own.

So What’s Missing? A lot. Again! The reason why I keep writing these articles is because of what films they leave off. I enjoyed movies like “Jane’s Journey” and “We Were Here” but they never matched the results of Errol Morris’s “Tabloid”, Werner Herzog’s “Into the Abyss”, “Page One”, “Senna”, or even Herzog’s other film “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”. All of those films were beloved by critics and have been nominated and won a number of other awards. The one that is getting a lot of controversy is “The Interrupters”, a film I can’t wait to see. Those filmmakers faced the same omission when “Hoop Dreams” wasn’t on the shortlist for its year. Just strange what they don’t even list as the Top 15 of the year.

So Who Will Make the Final Five? It’s hard to say this year. Since they ignored the ones the critics are really responding to, it’s easy for them to pull out five more random films. I think “Bill Cunningham New York” and “Pina” seem likely. “Project NIM” and “Paradise Lost 3” are also likely since they are so professionally put together. The Oscars love issue movies and it almost depends on which activism/war film they responded to. If it’s as good as the trailer, I think “Hell and Back Again” could be that movie, but maybe the Oscars will change their ways and bring in a film like “Buck” which is more of a crowd pleaser.

The nominations come out Tuesday! What are the films you hope make the list? Or what films are you wanting to see soon?

http://www.thefilmyap.com/2012/01/21/oscar-documentary-shortlist-2012/

Film Yap - Top 10 WORST of 2011

Last year was my first year with The Film Yap. I was the youngin’ who took every film assignment, mainly the ones that nobody wanted to take. Aka the worst films imaginable. This year I tried to avoid those assignments, but I kept taking ones that I found morbidly curious. They can’t really be as bad as people say right? Of course they are.

Most of my most hated films this year I actually didn’t figure were going to be this bad. I was even anticipating most of them. Not all of them can be winners, but…boy they should be better than this.

#10 – Drive Angry 3D

By this point everyone knows that Nicolas Cage desperately needs to make money. Even if you aren’t following his hysterical financial problems, it’s evident through his films. He makes a few films people enjoy like “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” and “Kick-Ass” but mostly he just jumps aboard anything in production from “Next” to “The Wicker Man” to this. The reason “Drive Angry” is bad isn’t because of the subject matter. Having a guy escape hell to save his granddaughter from a satanic cult can be silly fun. Oh sorry, “daughter’s daughter”; they never use the other word. Can’t let you think Cage is old. Instead, all of the plot holes, boring action scenes, worthless characters, and fading stakes make this a mess instead of the cool 80s film it wanted to be.

#9 – Anonymous

There are dozens of solid theories of why Shakespeare wasn’t the author of some of the beloved plays in history. This may be the dumbest. Their idea is that William Shakespeare was a poor actor therefore he couldn’t have written anything of value so it must have been a rich aristocrat. Then it’s one implausible connection after another to set the pieces in place so Hamlet can be released to the world. Saying someone who didn’t go to an established university couldn’t have written Richard III but saying an 8 year old wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream is valid? This would be stupid on its own, but with an idiotic structure, laughable theatre scenes, and the most serious tone imaginable this is unwatchable.

#8 – The Help

When this film ended, I really expected the row of critics to be on my side to say this is a trainwreck. Nope! But truly, this is a disaster of a film. Joe and I extensively argued the film when it came out. What still resonates after so many months is how the characters feel like nothing. Viola Davis is a great actress who deserves plenty of complex roles, but this wasn’t anything except for a footnote of history. She could have played a character who happened to be in this time where the situations of history affected her persona, but that’s not the case. She is just an archetypical example of a maid from this time, which means she will cry a lot. Everyone is either an extremely racist person or someone with 2011 ideals to criticize the others. The script, direction, and editing are so amateur it’s a struggle to get through.

#7 –The Beaver

I wanted Mel Gibson to have a comeback. He seems like a lousy person I wouldn’t want to have dinner with, but he is still an entertaining actor. This script has been thrown around for a while noted as one of the best unproduced screenplays. Now that I’ve seen the final product, I have no idea why. All of the actors are perfectly fine, but the skeleton of the movie is a mess. Cliché after cliché without a single earned moment. Since none of the characters act like realistic people every time they try for catharsis it fails.

#6 – Mars Needs Moms

This is one of the biggest Hollywood financial disasters of all time and most people can’t even remember this came out. Thus, the disaster. “Mars Needs Moms” cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make but only made a tad back theatrically. This hurt Robert Zemekis’ motion-capture business so much he has to return to live action after vowing to never do that again. Could this be an undeserving failure? I wouldn’t wish them to lose that much money, but this is a terrible movie. Aliens kidnap moms because they need to suck out the maternal instincts. That could be a cool dark kids movie, but this is joyless. The main character learns that he loves his mom in the first few minutes and the rest of the time is just complaining while being surrounded by ugly trash. Even without the 3D glasses, it has this unpleasant color to it that makes you want to switch it off. Never the vibe you want to create.

#5 – Just Go With It

I refuse to see “Jack and Jill” even though I was tempted to put the trailer as my number one choice. At this point I just want to swear at Adam Sandler on the street which is a problem because everyone says he’s a nice guy. Why would such a nice guy keep making these movies where he’s treated like a god and everyone else on the planet are labeled as worthless buffoons? Characters don’t just laugh at this jokes, but they bust a gut and may even try to kiss his feet. “Just Go With It” is a remake of a very funny “Cactus Flower” where Goldie Hawn won an Oscar. Hawn’s character in this one is played a bikini model who is just supposed to stand with cleavage. Her most emotional moment happens off screen, further proving if it’s not about Adam Sandler being praised it doesn’t get to be on screen.

#4 – The Hangover Part II

When I walked out of the theatre for this, I was disappointed. A day later the more I thought about it, I hated it. When I listened to an interview with the screenwriters, I loathed it. They took such pride into make the exact same movie without having a single point to add to it. It took them so much work to recreate every single plot point, but changing the setting or prop. Changing a joke from “Two guys walked into a bar” to “two guys walked into a pub” won’t get a laugh the second time ‘round. I really liked the first one because I liked the characters. I wanted to see a sequel because I wanted to see them in something new, not to be in a shot-for-shot remake.

#3 – The Change-Up

Never see this movie. It’s vile.

#2 – Green Lantern

“The Change-Up” is probably a worse film, but I hate “Green Lantern” more for what it represents. (By the way, don’t see “The Change-Up”; it’s vile.) My favorite director is Alfred Hitchcock. With every film he wanted to show the audience something new; he always wanted to shock and awe them. It’s a contract with an artist. We give them money for the product and they make the best product they can. People can easily spend their money on something practical like food or rent, but they wanted to spend it on art. So at least pretend to make something worthwhile.

This is the laziest film I have ever seen. Boring beyond anything imaginable because it doesn’t care about the audience. The hero is blander than a green screen and the story doesn’t exist. It literally doesn’t exist. A story is a character wanting something, but can’t get it so there’s conflict. In “Green Lantern” the character wants nothing. He’s fine how he is. There isn’t even an unconscious want for a better life. He’s just so static about everything even when he’s whisped across the galaxy and given extreme responsibility over the Earth. When confronted with that, he quits because it doesn’t seem interesting to him. If saving the world is boring to him, why should we care? Everything else in the movie has been done a million times already—this summer even! So if Hitchcock wanted to always give you something new because he cares about the audience, what do these filmmakers want?

#1 – An Invisible Sign

I have no wish to watch any of the movies on this list again because they’re awful. Except for this one. Honestly I want everyone to see this movie because it’s wonderfully bad. People give allegiance to colossal failures like “Troll 2” because they are made by people who thought they were making a good film without having the perspective of questioning all of the madness around them. This film is worthy of being included amongst those great awful movies. Why is this so bad?

Jessica Alba plays a math expert…

Who doesn’t do any math during the movie.

Alba doesn’t know how to play a quirky Zooey Deschanel-esque character so she plays her as autistic.

J.K. Simmons wears ivory numbers around his neck that reflect his mood.

Alba got her job as an elementary school math teacher because the principal remembered that Alba liked math when she was a kid and her mom said she went to college. NO FOLLOW UP WAS NECESSARY.

Alba did not go to college.

Since first and second graders stressed her out, she does not bother to teach them anything. The fourth and fifth graders were never seen.

There is a scene where Alba is supposed to guess what type of cancer a student’s mother has. That scene is a comedy set-piece.

Alba buys a giant ax because it kinda looks like the number seven and hangs it on the wall of a children’s classroom after putting wrapping paper on it. (You know what happens if you introduce an axe in Act 1…)

The science teacher avoids a parent teacher conference and blows bubbles on a swing outside. He has a quote, “If anyone asks, just say it’s a science experiment. Look…spheres.” A sphere is a geometric shape. Geometry is math, not science.

Alba really really plays up the autism performance.

Thinking of numbers all the time is apparently math.

A student says her favorite number is 100. Alba scolds her because she says it should be from 1-10.

The science teacher hitting on Alba is the most aggressive thing imaginable. It’s basically flirt rape. Or rape flirt. Whatever the idea of not taking “no” for an answer of them being a couple.

Their movie date is adorably bad in all the ways the movie didn’t attend.

Jessica Alba plays a math expert.

Please see this movie. I own it on Blu-Ray!

The Rest of the List

11. Cars 2

12. The Music Never Stopped

13. The Green Hornet

14. Gnomeo & Juliet

15. Take Me Home Tonight

16. My Last Day Without You

17. Another Earth

18. The Art of Getting By

19. The Thing

20. No Strings Attached

http://www.thefilmyap.com/2011/12/31/top-10-worst-of-2011/

Film Yap - Top 10 Movies of 2011

The past Top Ten lists on The Film Yap suggested that 2011 wasn’t a great year for film. While compared to an amazing year in television, it’s bound to pale in comparison. I think 2011 is realized as a bad year for Hollywood. There is this fearsome trend where the studio movies are the most disappointing and forgettable. This isn’t some snooty “Studio bad, independent good!” rant, but a look in how we ought to change the way we find films.

Let’s compare it to television. If you just watched ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC you’ll find a lot of repetition in family dramas, sitcoms, and procedurals. A few can stand out like “Community” or “The Good Wife”, but for the most part nothing is too exciting. TV has evolved where there are cable networks that are going for a smaller, more select audience which can be bolder with what they are presenting. AMC produced “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men”, FX made “Justified” and “Archer”, Showtime introduced “Homeland” and HBO created “Game of Thrones”, “Treme”, and “Boardwalk Empire.”

With movies, you can also find other channels besides the big studios to find a film. Plenty of people complain that because we live in Indiana we don’t get to see a lot of the great smaller films, but that’s not true anymore. The Landmark Theatre showed some fantastic documentaries and foreign films. We have plenty of wonderful film festivals like the Indianapolis International Film Festival and the Heartland Film Festival that always have a strong collection.

Also there are new resources. Some of my favorite films of the year were found through Netflix. I read some great reviews when they opened in New York or Chicago and then I was able to see them when they hit DVD. DVDs are not subjected to a movie theatre so anyone can experience great movies on a weekly basis. Most cable services provide OnDemand which allows you to watch a smaller theatrical film in your home for a low price. Invite a few friends over to watch it with you and if you divide it up you just watched a $12 movie for maybe $3.

As critics I think it’s our job to help you find more movies that you could love. Just because it’s small doesn’t mean it’s good. (In fact my worst film of the year is an independent comedy.) It does allow you for a new opportunity. I would much rather watch a film that has the potential to be brilliant or awful than go and see a movie I’m sure will just be okay. January is notorious for having awful films that are dumped by the studios. Instead of wasting money on them, try renting some of the films highlighted by me and the rest of the Yappers. You’re reading this site because you love movies; trust us because so do we.

#10 Beginners

While in pain, it’s hard to figure out anything. Everything feels devastating and unconquerable. That confusion drives “Beginners” into a very personal area while remaining accessible to everyone. As Ewan McGreggor’s character tries to figure out what to do next after the death of father, he finds love. The pain doesn’t dissipate when he’s with her, but it is given certain context that allows him to maybe one day heal. All of the quirks of the film aren’t seen as a silly perspective to the world, but as a beacon to find those who see the issues in the same way. That vulnerability is hard to portray on film, but Mike Mills pulled it off without ever losing the audience’s sympathy.

#9 Weekend

“Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset” are two films where two very realized character walk through some gorgeous locations and talk. They talk about philosophy and love while strengthen their own relationship. “Weekend” accomplishes a similar goal, but having the two men walk, talk and sleep together though their home in New York adds a different weight to their story. They aren’t on vacation away from all of their responsibilities; they’re in the middle of it all. All of issues of what is stopping them from being the men they want to be and having the life they want are confronting them at every moment. It’s not up to someone they met just a few days ago to save them, but then again…maybe it can be.

#8 – Bill Cunningham New York

Once again, this was a good year for documentaries. Plenty of established directors gave us an exciting new story, but this one came out of nowhere. Anyone who has seen me knows I’m not an expert on fashion. Yet like all sorts of expression, I’m fascinated by those who are passionate in it. Fashion is usually only reserved for the rich who are able to travel to Paris and spend five figures on a dress they’ll only wear once. Bill Cunningham doesn’t belong to that group. He is a man who lives in an apartment that is about to close down and wears the same outfits every day. His job at the Times has him go to the big fashion shows, but his real joy is riding his bike down the streets of New York to capture what regular people are wearing. A viewpoint like his is so fresh and heartwarming because he is able to champion the unique aspects of those who are never championed.

#7 – Certified Copy

I’m usually not a fan of Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. His distance from this characters almost is portrayed as not being interested in them. “Certified Copy” was a complete reversal while still being a contradiction. An English author is in Italy to promote his latest book. In his book he argues the strength and value of a copy as opposed to the original. If you write a great joke and photocopy it, is the original piece of paper funnier? If you copy the Mona Lisa does it not create the same emotions when you look at it? The author decides to spend the day with a woman who came to his signing and they continue to argue this point. Then it gets a little nutty. At first we thought she was a stranger, but that may have been an illusion. Excitement rises from trying to solve this intellectual mystery while being completely charming through the leads romance (or anti-romance) and their search for what is real. Can’t wait to watch this again.

#6 – The Artist

I love silent films. This isn’t an attempt for me to rise to a new level of snobbiness. There was something crazy going on during those first few decades of filmmaking. With books and theatre, it seems obvious on how a story could be told but the cinema was like discovering a brand new world. Without sound, it’s even crazier. “The Artist” is a loving tribute to that time in what is the most accessible story of the year. It’s sweet and funny and lovable. The plot is very similar to “A Star is Born” and “Singin’ in the Rain” but jolted with a new level of creativity. The main character is an actor whose world seems to be more of a film than the ones he acts in. That means an average day can have wonder, excitement, surrealism, drama, and the greatest dog imaginable to light up the screen.

#5 – Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen remains one of the most fascinating directors working today. That said, I don’t like a large chunk of his movies. When someone makes a film a year, there can’t be only masterpieces. The past ten years with Allen has had best of both worlds where “Match Point” and “Vicky Christina Barcelona” ended up being wonderful while something like “Scoop” falls flat. “Midnight in Paris” is everything I want in a Woody Allen film. While remaining a largely comedic movie, he tackles some great points on the nature of nostalgia. It’s a subject I usually find very dull and self-indulgent but Allen looks at the full picture where there is beauty and loneliness attached to it. Being in Paris always looks like you’re living in a dream so Allen takes that a step further by turning it into a thing of pure magic where people can find their home through unconventional ways.

#4 – Hugo

Last year I did a speech about Martin Scorsese in Muncie because I discovered something new about the director. With films like “Raging Bull” and “Goodfellas” I thought he was always about the brute force, but it was his romanticism that encouraged me to rewatch his entire canon. Any interview with Scorsese can show you how much he adores film history, but it’s also seen through all of his movies. He rarely has direct film references, but instead he’s mixing styles and moods that inspired him from things he’s seen in order to make a pure by-product. “Hugo” has the most surface examples of that adoration. A young boy in a French train station goes on an emotional adventure that leads him to discover one of the greatest silent film innovators. If “The Artist” suggests that life is also a movie, “Hugo” says there is beauty in life that can be translated into a movie. This could easily become a family film classic, if only families go and see it.

#3 – Take Shelter

To me, the strength of a film is how much I think about it after it ends. The ones that stick with you are the ones that have power. All year I’ve been complaining that films are becoming to expensive which creates harmful limitations. “Take Shelter” shows the opposite can be true. Director Mike Nichols’ first film, “Shotgun Stories” was a raw look into the side of rivaling families. That only needed great actors and a working camera to pull off. “Take Shelter” needed a little more. The main character experiences dreams of pure horror and if those dreams don’t terrify the audience none of the emotional weight would resonate. Each one of those scenes isn’t scary because there’s a CGI monster, but they’re scary because it’s a CGI storm mixed with expert filmmaking. Schizophrenia, to me, is one of the most unnerving things imaginable because it means the reality you know is full of cracks. A rational man’s journey through this misery makes for some powerfully heartbreaking moments and a conclusion that doesn’t lessen anything that happened before it.

#2 – Drive

If I don’t write a theatrical review for The Film Yap, I try to put something up on my blog. Yet for “Drive” all I could come up with was “F*** yeah, Drive”. People in my life want to know what I thought of new releases and once again all I could say was “F*** yeah Drive.” I could easily break down all of the pieces of the puzzle. The cast is incredible; the style is smooth and vibrant; the story is simple yet fascinating; the song “A Real Hero” rocks in the context of the movie. All of that is just fine, but why this is a masterpiece of the genre is because how seamlessly it all blends together. Director Nicholas Winding Refn must be able to see across so many dimensions in order to know how it will all fit together even when the ideas seem ridiculous. (A silent driver in a scorpion jacket only listens to pop music in his car?) Everything worked. F*** yeah “Drive”.

#1 – The Tree of Life

There are so many films about religion and spirituality, which have caused me to question a decision the filmmakers decide to exclude. So often there are characters clamoring for their god to be left coldly on their own. Ingmar Bergman made a wonderful trilogy of this silence of God, but where are the other takes on the idea. In “The Tree of Life” I believe the movie goes through five stages of emotionally communication of a 1950s Texas family and their Lord. When they are at their lowest and they are begging for any sign of God, director Terrance Malick shows Him through a zillion steps back to show the whole scope of the story, traveling into the cosmos and the dawn of creation. Instead of being alone, there is hope even though all the pain and confusion. The film travels through time like a hymn with a journey of emotions over one of plot. It’s very challenging but it stretches what a film can be and the stories the medium can tell. One of the best films I’ve seen in a long time.

I saw way too many films this year, but I still didn’t see all of them. The ones I wished I could have seen before writing this article were “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey”, “Le Havre”, “The Interrupters”, “Jamie and Jessie are Not Together”, “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol”, “A Separation”, “Tryannosaur” and “A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas”.

The Rest of the List

11. Tabloid – The craziest movie of the year just happens to be true

12. Winnie the Pooh – Pure storytelling that matches the original spirit and humor

13. The Muppets – Flawed structure doesn’t matter when the intent is this magical.

14. Shame – Devastating and inventive

15. 13 Assassins – A samurai film that has the most creative action scenes of the year and the vilest villain imaginable.

16. The Future – Characters who would be seen as pathetic side characters try their best to find purpose in a very realistic present.

17. Poetry – A South Korean woman finds comfort in her poetry class as her brain starts to fade. Wonderful character study.

18. 50/50 – May have a simple story but the characters’ genuine heartache really makes this works.

19. Young Adult – Jason Reitman’s best film yet and Charlize Theron’s best performance yet. Will happily watch two more hours of her glaring at people.

20. Moneyball – One of my favorite tales of how innovative thinking should be encouraged even through the most rigid of environments.

http://www.thefilmyap.com/2011/12/29/austins-top-10-of-2011/