MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: a review of "The LEGO Movie"

"THE LEGO MOVIE"
Story by Dan Hageman & Kevin Hageman and Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Screenplay Written and Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
***1/2 (three and a half stars)

If this is a sign of good cinematic visions to come in 2014, then bring them on!

Dear readers, I just have to tell you right up front that I initially had absolutely,positively, undeniably no plans whatsoever in seeing "The LEGO Movie," as my knee-jerk responses to all advertisements and trailers were wholly negative. I feared and fretted that this movie would just be one more day-glo colored, self-congratulatory hip, hellzapoppin' and emotionally empty piece of crap for children that typically litters our theaters and the fact that it seemed to be nothing more than a commercial for LEGOs truly ensured that I would stay away. And then, the major film reviews, which were all overwhelmingly positive to flat out raves came out, a collection of endorsement that indeed forced me to head out to my local theater and see this thing for myself.

Now having returned home, I will first openly admit to how extremely wrong i was with my initial fears concerning this film as "The LEGO Movie"  is by no means a self congratulatory hip and emotionally empty piece of crap for children. It is actually and precisely the type of animated film, like Directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders' magnificent "How To Train Your Dragon" (2010), that should have the animators and brain trust of Pixar shaking in their boots. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have nearly beaten Pixar at its own game of creating a film that is a virtual feast for the eyes and filled with an audio/visual wonderment that make you often wonder aloud, "How did they do that?" And while "The LEGO Movie" is indeed lusciously day-glo colored and enthusiastically (and almost defiantly) hellzapoppin, the emotional core of the film is a deeply passionate one. When making films that are designed for children, I firmly believe that the world sof art and commerce can, and should , intertwine as greatly as possible as even the smallest of children deserve the highest quality that we are capable of delivering to them. "The LEGO Movie" scales those heights with confidence, skill, hilarity and a big heart.

Chris Pratt voices the unlikely hero of "The LEGO Movie," Emmett Brickowski, a happy-go-lucky yet completely non-descript construction worker LEGO mini-figure, who literally stumbles into a life altering adventure that in which the fate of the entire LEGO universe is held in the balance. As prophesied by the wizard Vitruvius (a very sly Morgan Freeman), a savior known as "The Special" will one day rise to battle the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell), a malevolent figure who wishes to utilize a weapon known as "The Kragle" to immobilize all of the LEGO realms into eternally "perfect" place. To stop Lord Business, "The Special" needs to find the"Piece Of Resistance," which is actually one lone orange LEGO block, and save the universe from destruction.

Emmett, who finds surprisingly finds the "Piece Of Resistance," finds himself joined by Vitruvius, the pirate Metal Beard (Nick Offerman), the unicorn/anime kitten hybrid Uni-Kitty (Alison Brie), the "1980s something space guy" Benny (Charlie Day), Batman (Will Arnett) and his girlfriend, the tech savvy fight girl with the LEGO dyed hair streaks Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks)--also with whom Emmett falls in love--as they all band together to stop the nefarious plans of Lord Business and his henchmen led by Bad Cop (Liam Neeson). But can poor Emmett, who has been bred and raised to be a completely homogenized, obedient and most crucially, a non-thinking member of LEGO society find it within himself to truly be "The Special" and discover the sheer and unabashed ingenuity to save the day?

With regards to filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, discovering a sense of ingenuity is a problem that neither of them lack as "The LEGO Movie" is practically bursting at the celluloid seams with ingenuity that is superbly playful. The film is flat-out dazzling to regard visually and merged with the screenplay plus the film's rocket fueled pacing, Lord and Miller have created an experience that is impossible--I mean, IMPOSSIBLE--to fully digest in one sitting. From all of the one-liners within the dialogue to the resplendent visual panorama, "The LEGO Movie" is so incredibly detailed and designed that it indeed demands to be experienced more than once...and I am quite certain that those of you with children will be doing just that, especially once the film is released on the home video formats. It is a film universe filled with a wonderwall of astonishment and joyful awe that illustrates perfect just how inventive special effects can be in just the right hands. Even if I could fully describe to you the sights of "The LEGO Movie," I would refrain as I just would refuse to do so as I would want for yo to experience the film as freshly as I did. And while I did often wonder aloud to myself "How did they do that?" I also just do not want to know as the imagination presented to me was sincerely golden.

Even the aspect of product placement is entirely subverted as what could have existed as a nearly two hour commercial does, in the hands of Lord and Miller, become an actual movie, filled with characters, story and so much deliriously presented fun that the sharp satire goes down so easily that your little ones won't even notice it and the adults can chuckle with recognition. It truly is quite the masterstroke of an achievement as well as an accomplishment, the likes of which I have not seen since the deeply underrated and just plain terrific satire that was--believe it or not--the live action adaptation of "Josie And The Pussycats" (2001), where Directors Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan voluntarily used product placements in nearly every scene of the film to fuel their satire of subliminal advertising and corporate cultural domination. In "The LEGO Movie," as Lord Business makes his address to the LEGO nation and as we have our first full view of Emmett's daily life, in which all businesses and media airwaves (complete with ingratiating and innocuously catchy television shows and pop songs) are owned by one entity and nothing, not even a single thought is accomplished without having an instruction manual at the ready, we can see that Lord and Miller are holding up a somewhat sinister mirror to our real world society for us to pay more attention towards.

And here is where "The LEGO Movie" attains its highest achievements. In many ways, the film, even as meticulously designed as it is, miraculously feels as if it is being made up on the spot, giving us an experience that is kind of like we have purchased a ticket inside the mind of a child armed with every LEGO imaginable and we are witness to this child completely at play and completely at the mercy of every single childlike whim that emerges during unencumbered play. Frankly, this is actually the exact element that makes the actual storyline of "The LEGO Movie" so thoughtful and heartfelt as the film is indeed an ode to the process and gift of imagination and creativity as well as existing as a passionate plea to retain one's purity of spirited imagination and exude creativity, especially when the world around you is doing all that it can to stifle something so beautiful and necessary for human fulfillment and even enlightenment.

Even further, I have to say that I do find it quite odd when a major motion picture studio produces a film that houses highly subversive subject matter, as when Pixar, which is of course owned by Disney, released the wonderful "Wall-E" (2008), a film which presented a grim science fiction future while delivering an undeniably anti-corporate message. "The LEGO Movie" is no exception, and in some ways, even stretches further than "Wall-E," as this film is not only anti-corporate, it is also anti-establishment and anti-conformity while praising individuality and the populist themes of teamwork through a sense of rebellion and uprising. And this arrives to us from the under the corporate monolith that is Warner Brothers, who also gave us equally subversive anti-establishment messages in The Wachowski's 'The Matrix" trilogy (1999/2003) as well as "V For Vendetta" (2005). Who knows? If your children leave the theater singing that aforementioned ingratiating and innocuous pop song of the film entitled "Everything Is Awesome!" but later emerge singing John Lennon's "Power To The People" or Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up," perhaps you will know where those seeds had been planted!

Even with all of my praise, I did not think that "The LEGO Movie" was quite the masterpiece that a number of critics are expressing and that is due to...let's just say...a plot development that occurs late in the film. Now, as always, I will not produce spoilers but I will say that I did not have any issue with the actual development itself. I had an issue with how it was handled. It felt to me that the messages of the film were not only easily digestible but also easily understandable, even to some of the smallest children in the theater. So much so, that I just felt that perhaps Lord and Miller overplayed their hand a bit with expressing and explaining their messages even more explicitly than they needed to do, therefore giving me a bit of a feeling of hard sold overkill. That said, it did not derail the movie at all. t just stopped it from going over the top for me.

But with a film that is as successful as "The LEGO Movie," a film that is indeed swinging for the fences and just nearly gets there by ensuring that we in the audience are just as enormously entertained watching it as the filmmakers were making it, that is a cinematic triumph as far as I am concerned.

If most of the films of 2014 are to be as creative, earnest, inventive, imaginative and as profoundly thoughtful and purposeful in its conception and presentation as "The LEGO Movie" is, then this will be a movie year to cherish. I hope that happens!!!

SAVAGE SCORECARD 2013-PART TWO: "NUMBER 11"

The Savage Scorecard series continues with the second installment during which I reveal the films of 2013 which I awarded four stars but just did not quite make the final Top Ten list but are all jockeying together at the mythical "Number 11" slot.

As always, all full reviews are still available for you to peruse upon this site and I will inform you where to find them at the conclusion of each entry.

1. "THE GREAT GATSBY" Directed by Baz Luhrmann

As we have already witnessed with his now classic films, "Strictly Ballroom" (1992), "Romeo + Juliet" (1996) and "Moulin Rouge!" (2001), Director Baz Luhrmann makes motion pictures that are full-on EXPERIENCES unlike any other, and his visually and emotionally resplendent adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel is no exception as it was one of the most unique films I saw in 2013. Grandiose, dazzling and heroically opulent, "The Great Gatsby" presents a risky and boldly kaleidoscopic carnival of riches that shows just how a filmmaker is able to make special effects truly special, personal, purposeful and entirely individualistic. Baz Luhrmann works his cinematic canvas like a master painter!
(Originally reviewed May 2013)

2. "MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING" Directed by Joss Whedon

At the opposite end of the visual spectrum, but just as equally individualistic and resplendent is Joss Whedon's wonderful and effortless adaptation of William Shakespeare's eternal play. Light, frothy, enormously entertaining, undeniably romantic, completely artful and filled top to bottom with some of the finest words ever conceived, "Much Ado About Nothing" is elegant minimalism that is amorously urgent yet flows as naturally as a languid summer's breeze.
(Originally reviewed July 2013)

3. "THE SPECTACULAR NOW" Directed by James Ponsoldt

Clearly inspired by the iconic 1980's films of John Hughes and Cameron Crowe's "Say Anything..." (1989), as well as strongly standing alongside Will Gluck's "Easy A" (2010) and Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" (2012) this film is a leisurely paced, beautifully acted end of high school/on the edge of the future teen love story between a quiet introvert and a popular extrovert and alcoholic. Both Miles Terrier and Shailene Woodley elicit luxuriously aching three dimensional and star making performances as the young couple in a film that explores whether we are destined to live inside of a pre-conceived box or are we able to evolve into a potentially new and better existence. Undeniably graceful and more mature than most movie love stories featuring either teenagers or adults.
(Originally reviewed September 2013)

4. "STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS"  Directed by J.J. Abrams

The grammatical errors of the title notwithstanding, I still feel that J.J. Abrams fully delivered the goods with his second installment in the newly revamped "Star Trek" film series. Now that all of the secrets of the film are widely known, I feel that I can freely speak to the issues that plagued quite a hefty number of movie-goers, so much so that some felt that this installment was the worst "Star Trek" film to date--a criticism that I cannot take very seriously whatsoever if you really want me to believe that this film was somehow worse than "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989).

At any rate, as I said in my original review, I strongly feel that J.J. Abrams weaved a most appropriately dark film which mirrored the very dark political times in which we live in the real world. "Star Trek Into Darkness" was political commentary as well as a war movie, cautionary tale and even a parable about the insidious and dangerous nature of hubris. Most specifically, this film was Abrams' most clever deconstruction of the character of Captain James T. Kirk (played with riveting swagger by Chris Pine) and how his brashness, impulsiveness and recklessness is ultimately his undoing. This is a film where nearly every single choice Kirk makes is precisely the wrong choice and how those consequences lead him all the way to the controversial climax which purposefully mirrors the classic "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan" (1982). This element, in particular, was not a case of Hollywood being creatively bankrupt. It was a purposeful, meaningful choice that fully addressed the alternate time-line concept introduced in Abrams' first film of this new series and also worked conceptually and emotionally in this tale of Kirk's battle against Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch). Look, if you were truly that bothered by this film, there's nothing I can say that will change your mind. But, I stand firm with my own assessment of this film which left me enthralled, excited, awed, thrilled, challenged and superbly entertained.
(Originally reviewed May 2013)

5. "THIS IS THE END" Directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

Without question, this was the most riotously funny film of the year by a long shot. Furthermore, the debut directorial feature from writing partners Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, about a collective of famous movie stars (playing exaggerated versions of themselves) facing down a Rapture induced Armageddon, contained more rule breaking inventiveness, more consistently ruthless and gleefully profane hilarity, and more completely defied expectations than any other film of the year. "This Is The End" is unquestionably a film that boldly and proudly exists within its own universe but also comfortably sits confidently alongside cinematic comedic gold mines like "Monty Python's Life Of Brian" (1979) and Kevin Smith's "Dogma" (1999), while also mining sharp theological debates and even some honest horror film surprises, shocks and graphic gory violence. If you somehow merged "The Exorcist" (1973)," with "Ghostbusters" (1984) and the current state of "reality" television, you may end up with something like this film...but to its immense credit, there was NOTHING else like it all year long.
(Originally reviewed July 2013)

6. "THE WORLD'S END" Directed by Edgar Wright

Never did I think that I would ever see two apocalyptic themed comedies in the same year and that both of them would be uniformly excellent as well as entirely unique experiences; not only from each other but also from most movies released in the same year. The third film in the so-called "Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy,"--a series which includes "Shaun Of The Dead" (2004) and "Hot Fuzz" (2007)--about a collective of middle aged friends attempting to complete the failed 12 bar pub crawl of their youth, only to discover that the end of the world is nigh, was an awesomely vibrant, ferociously fast paced, visually stunning comedy that owed as much to comic book and video game aesthetics as it did to presenting a sharp social critique and deeply perceptive ode to the dangers of living and existing within one's own sense of nostalgia. With its relentless pace, dynamically choreographed fight sequences and head spinning verbal gymnastics, "The World's End" is also a film that very surprisingly contained a dark pathos and existential rage that cuts to the core of arrested development, failure and the pain of growing older. In a year when so many films don't even seem to want to try anymore, "The World's End" was fearlessly creative and so confidently blazed its own path.
(Originally reviewed August 2013)  

COMING SOON...PART THREE..."THE BAD, THE WORSE, AND THE ABSOLUTELY AWFUL"!!!!

SAVAGE SCORECARD 2013-PART ONE: THE HONOR ROLL

The time has arrived once again to give my final celebrations and last minute pummeling and poundings to the films of 2013 with my annual four part Savage Scorecard series!

Unlike the cinematic year of 2012, which was uniformly excellent, 2013 was a bit of an odd duck. It was a year when major, big budgeted films tended to show an increasing lack of imagination and creativity, settling for the same tired old CGI tricks of the trade and a disturbing trend in emotional emptiness. It was also a year in which some established and esteemed filmmakers presented works that were undeniably terrible, and fell so tremendously far from their previously greater artistic heights. While I did indeed award quite a number of films with my highest rating of four stars, for much of the year, those films tended to be the ones that were smaller, more intimate and stemmed from more independent sources.

At this time, I am happy to bring to you the first installment of the Savage Scorecard series with "The Honor Roll," a short compilation of the films I awarded the rating of three and a half stars.

1. "THE BLING RING" Directed by Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola's sharp, stylish, satirical docudrama about a collective of uber-rich Hollywood teens breaking into and stealing from a variety of Hollywood celebrities was a knowing, matter-of-fact cultural commentary that could exist as a close cousin to Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf Of Wall Street." Coppola deftly presents her material in a fashion that some found detached but I thought was very wise and perceptive as the film does not moralize but powerfully explores our increasingly soulless obsession with celebrity culture and evolving narcissism at the expense of our collective sense of humanity. And yet somehow, Coppola does give us a sly thrill with creeping into the homes of the rich and famous and special mention must be given to Emma Watson, who clearly had a wickedly fun blast playing essentially the polar opposite of the intelligent and virtuous Hermione Granger.
(Originally reviewed June 2013)

2. "THE BUTLER" Directed by Lee Daniels

I still cannot believe that this film did not receive even one Oscar nomination.

While some of the stunt casting (Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan?! John Cusack as Richard Nixon?!) fell completely flat and some of the sequences felt to be a tad rushed here and there, Lee Daniels' "The Butler" was a deeper, richer, more subtle and provocative film experience than I believe that it was ever given credit for. In addition to existing as a biopic, a historical travelogue and a film that is actually about the butler and not the white people who helped the butler, I think what Daniels accomplish most beautifully was to actually deconstruct what the concept of "history" actually is. That "history" is not the sole property of the key players that find their ways and names into our history books. "History" is the complete and collective experience of every single individual who has lived through a particular period of time, in this case, as exemplified by the titular butler. Furthermore, I believe that Daniels has also fashioned a stirring film devoted to the concept of empowerment, either of the self or through an entire ethnic group, and how in pursuit of that empowerment there are many roads up the same mountain. This film has stayed with me since I saw it last summer, and what gripped me the most was the astonishing, transformative performance by Forest Whitaker, who embodied his role so completely, that I honestly never saw Forest Whitaker on the screen. There was only the character of Cecil Gaines. Ignoring Whitaker's outstanding work is a cinematic crime, as far as I am concerned, Oscar. You should be ashamed!
(Originally reviewed August 2013)

3. "ELYSIUM" Directed by Neill Blomkamp

While this follow-up to "District 9" (2009), did not enthrall me quite as completely as that film, Neill Blomkamp's brutal, bloody, pummeling and deeply disturbing science fiction epic would feel like the most hollow form of ultra-violence if Blomkamp did not have something so passionately upon his mind and spirit to examine and express for us. Working as an allegory to immigration and our continuous precarious class warfare between the 99% and 1%, "Elysium" is film that simultaneously looks backwards to science fiction's past, where the merging of ideas and holding up a mirror to present day society fuels the storyline and also looks forwards with its stunning usage of photo-realistic CGI effects and relentlessly bare knuckled, two-fisted action sequences. And to those who complained that the plot point of a child nearly losing her life to Leukemia as she is denied a crucial Med Pod was gratuitous, look around our country right now in 2014 and then tell me if that plot point was not so far fetched. "Elysium" is happening right now.
(Originally reviewed August 2013)

4. "ENOUGH SAID" Directed by Nicole Holofcener

This was one of the loveliest, most bittersweet films of the year. An adult romantic comedy made by and for adults that treated people as three dimensional human beings with real emotions, desires, fears, lusts, regrets and failings. The wonderful Julia Louis-Dreyfus gave one of her most fluid and richest performances as a lonely, divorced, masseuse who is dreading the departure of her 18 year old daughter for college and who soon falls in love with the late, great James Gandolfini, a lonely, divorced Father, also dreading the departure of his daughter for college. The unlikely chemistry between Louis-Dreyfus and Gandolfini made for one of the most honest, heartfelt on-screen romances of the entire year as "Enough Said" explored not only how the perceptions of outsiders can influence our own when it comes to building a relationship but also the exquisite pain of middle age and the serious soul searching that comes with growing older.
(Originally reviewed October 2013)

5. "IRON MAN 3" Directed by Shane Black

My favorite superhero film of the year and a most worthy successor to Joss Whedon's "The Avengers" (2012), "Iron Man 3" greatly succeeded not only through its high flying style and the still engaging, firecracker performance of Robert Downey Jr. but also because this was a rare sequel that dared to take some serious risks, especially with the controversial re-imagining of the terrorist known as The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley). But what I loved most about the film is that it bothered to continue exploring the evolution of Tony Stark as he deals not only with the psychological fallout of his adventures with The Avengers, he is forced to take a hard, disturbing at himself and discover just who he is as a man and not as an iron clad superhero, a level of pathos that made the film more dramatic and even claustrophobic. With that, there is excitement and the aerial sequence where Iron Man has to miraculously save thirteen people ejected from an exploding airplane was downright sensational!
(Originally reviewed May 2013)

6. "TRANCE" Directed by Danny Boyle

While this blistering, jet-propelled, hallucinogenic thriller did not quite scale the artistic heights of Danny Boyle's "Trainspotting" (1996), "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008) or "127 Hours" (2010), this was still a wildly kinetic ride unlike any other I saw in 2013. This madhouse tale of art thieves and hypnotherapy is merely a launching point for Boyle's endlessly inventive filmmaking, which is often so breathless to behold that you may find yourself grabbing onto the arms of your theater seats just to ensure that you will not be whisked away! While I realize that a film like this is not for everybody tastes, the jigsaw puzzle nature of this story which falls into dreamscapes, memoirs and filled with all manner of duplicitous characters with duplicitous motives all set to the beat of a throbbing electronic film score sailed right up my alley.
(Originally reviewed April 2013)

Stay tuned for PART TWO!

SAVAGE CINEMA'S COMING ATTRACTIONS FOR FEBRUARY 2014

We have now truly reached somewhat of a cinematic wasteland.

February marks the time of year when notable new movie releases are far and few and yet, for this month, I will actually take that as a bit of a blessing. By not attending new theatrical feature films, that will actually give me time to devote this month to creating and posting my annual four part Savage Scorecard series, which encapsulates my favorite and least favorite films of 2013 and just in time before the Oscar telecast at the beginning of March 2014.

Just as in previous years, the Savage Scorecard series is presented in the following fashion...

PART ONE: THE HONOR ROLL
-This list contains all of the films to which I awarded three and a half stars.

PART TWO: "NUMBER 11"
-This is a short list of all of the films to which I awarded four stars but did not find themselves on the final Top Ten list.   

PART THREE: THE BAD, THE WORSE AND THE ABSOLUTELY AWFUL
-Just as it appears, I get to take my gloves off one last time for the films I hated in 2013.

PART FOUR-MY TOP TEN
-'Nuff said.

Making that series will keep me more than busy enough throughout the month and while I do have two more ideas in my head, just let me see how quickly I can get the Scorecard series underway.

So...as always, I'll see you when the house lights go down!!

TORTURED ARTIST: a review of "Inside Llewyn Davis"

"INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS"
Written and Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
**** (four stars)

"When you lay your life down in them grooves
You know you're bound to get
Scratched up sometimes..."
-Todd Rundgren ("Fair Warning")

If the Coen brothers set out to do what I think they did, then their latest film is simply ingenious.

"Inside Llewyn Davis," the 16th film from the inimitable fraternal Writing/Directing team of Joel and Ethan Coen, is yet another high achievement in a career, which aside from a couple of rare exceptions, contains nothing but high achievements. It is a challenging, prickly, haunting, darkly humorous and often bleak film that is as idiosyncratic and as singular as any of their previous works yet it also feels like the latest chapter in an ongoing Coen brothers' story. As always, the Coens defy whatever expectations one might have, in this case, towards a film about a folk singer and set during the folk music scene in early 1960s Greenwich Village, by playing their cards very closely to their chests, almost not revealing any sense of intent until near the film's conclusion.

While this may have some of you scratching your heads, wondering throughout the viewing just what the point of this experience may be, just remain patient because I believe once it all becomes clear to you as it did for me, the effect will feel like a bolt of lightning. And perhaps, as I elucidate over "Inside Llewyn Davis," while I promise, as always, to not produce spoilers, my thoughts may inform the overall experience. So, if you prefer to view "Inside Llewyn Davis" completely uninformed, then feel free to save this review to read after you see the film. Dear readers, regardless of those previous words, do trust me on this one as I definitely would not steer you wrong. At this precarious time in cinema, where films have grown to be more homogeneous and the individual creative voice has become increasingly rare, we should all thank our lucky stars that we have Joel and Ethan Coen, filmmakers who have somehow marched valiantly, continuously, unapologetically, and unrepentantly to their own creative rhythms for 30 years and with "Inside Llewyn Davis," they have not only proven that they have no signs of running dry anytime soon, they have delivered one of my favorite films of 2013.

Opening upon the image of a microphone in the smoky Gaslight Cafe nightclub circa 1961, "Inside Llewyn Davis" stars Oscar Isaac in the title role, a folk singer reeling from the suicide of his singing partner yet has decided to continue onwards as a solo act to limited success, if that. Essentially penniless and homeless, Llewyn Davis spends his days and nights trying to survive on his art on his own terms while also sleeping upon any couch he is able to find through his increasingly depleting circle of friends and acquaintances.

The film traces roughly one week in his turbulent life as Llewyn is faced with the weak sales and non-existent financial results of his debut solo album. He is also forced to confront folk singing competition, most notably from the singing duo of Jim and Jean (played by Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan), and additionally endures Jean's intense rage with being possibly impregnated by him plus her demands that he pay for an abortion. And even on top of that, Llewyn Davis is hurled through a series of escalating transgressions, tribulations and desperate circumstances that befall him, including the inadvertent escape and loss of a friend's orange tabby cat, whom Llewyn feverishly tries to find and return.

A silver lining just may exist in the form of Chicago recording impresario and producer Ben Grossman (played by F. Murray Abraham), to whom Llewyn makes a pilgrimage, with the hopes that his bad luck will finally pay off, potentially leading to future good fortunes.

Joel and Ethan Coen's "Inside Llewyn Davis" is a frigidly atmospheric experience that is decidedly not a film about a plot but definitely a character portrait housed inside a work of rich texture encased a very black mood. It is a wintry film, bitterly so, that unfolds as an escalating series of painfully unfortunate events in the life of a very talented yet insufferably self-important and misanthropic protagonist. In many ways, "Inside Llewyn Davis" works as a companion piece to several previous Coen brothers' films like their homage to film noir "The Man Who Wasn't There" (2001), the grim slapstick of  "Burn After Reading" (2008), and the intensely inscrutable "A Serious Man" (2009) as all of those films feature hapless characters trapped within Kafka-esque worlds, sometimes of their own design, sometimes not, yet completely enveloping and with no hopes of relief or escape. Such is the state of being of Llewyn Davis as he is equal parts a victim of circumstance as well as the hard driving engine of his own deep misery, a duality that creates a similar reaction for the audience: You do wish him well and to finally achieve the success that he is chasing to an almost despairing degree but you also know that he is also not the person that you would want to spend much time with so as to not get sucked into his personal black hole.

The film illustrates the Coen brothers' specialized brand of nihilism once again as "Inside Llewyn Davis" concocts a dark, angry world where just having talent is not enough for survival and artistic vindication. Disappointment is paramount and life is filled with all manner of recrimination, desperation, and intense failure and it is to their great credit as writers that they never have the material come off as pretentious, only ensuring the work's wise yet gloomy portentiousness. Additionally, the Coens have only continued to somehow discover new ways to making events feel so random and meaningless yet with their writing and storytelling, the events are so meticulously devised and entirely purposeful and meaningful. If one element was just this far out of place, the entire film would fall like the proverbial house of cards...like the state of Llewyn Davis's life.

Strangely, and as nihilistic as the Coen brothers' work tends to be at times, there is indeed a sense of greater empathy at work near the core of "Inside Llewyn Davis" as we can see how the suicide of Llewyn's former singing partner has unraveled not only his life but seemingly the fabric of the connective tissue that bound their particular circle of performers and friends together. It is as if the Coens have devised a story that shows how inter-connected we truly are and how one life can indeed make all of the difference in providing a certain inexplicable balance, a balance that evaporated once that life had been extinguished. Llewyn Davis is increasingly undone throughout the film as he occasionally and mournfully listens to the one album he recorded with his partner, a ghost that follows him in seemingly every exchange he has, reminding him of the magic they created together and how that magic is missing as he performs alone. No matter how gifted a musician he actually is--and as portrayed by Oscar Isaac, who does perform his own terrific singing throughout the film, he is a gifted musician--perhaps his former partner made him even better and maybe Llewyn Davis will never be as good as a solo artist as he was in a singing duo, a possibility that elicits an unending sting.  

As directors, the Coen brothers are filmmakers who achieve what increasingly few filmmakers are able to do by creating their own film universe. As with their writing, not one element is out of place, no matter what their subject matter happens to be or which genre they may be tackling. "Inside Llewyn Davis" is no exception as the film's visual and production design is absolutely sumptuous. It is as if their film's entire visual aesthetic is based upon the merging of two classic album covers: Bob Dylan's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" (released May 27, 1963) and especially, "Inside Dave Van Ronk" (released October 1964) by Dave Van Ronk, the artist upon whom Llewyn Davis is loosely based.  Most surprisingly, for a film world whose visual sheen is this gray and almost bleached out, the Coens, working in collaboration with Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, make "Inside Llewyn Davis" look positively lush.

All of the film's performances are as top-tier as you would expect from any film by Joel and Ethan Coen, with especially Oscar Isaac's naturalistic presence, singing and acting, still resonating deeply days after having seen the film. His self-absorption as Llewyn Davis reminded me a bit of the doomed playwright turned B-movie screenwriter in "Barton Fink" (1991) as both of those characters possess self-righteous and even self-destructive tendencies entirely based within their impenetrable stances on what they think artists should and should not be. But his shaggy dog appearance, as well as his tendencies to be polite, apologetic, regretful and truly worried about the fate of that aforementioned lost orange tabby cat who keeps re-appearing only to to disappear again to Llewyn's torment, made me think of and compare him to the genteel hero of "A Serious Man" whose life completely falls apart through no fault of his own. Isaac makes Llewyn Davis a character you do want to take in from the cold for the night even though you may wish to strangle him the very next morning.

Justin Timberlake impresses onscreen once again by seamlessly immersing himself into the Coens vision and the film's time period with ease. John Goodman, who appears as a sardonic jazz musician, always enlivens a Coen brothers' feature and Carey Mulligan delivers an unprecedented forceful wrath that always made me snap to attention. And I thought that the addition of F. Murray Abraham was an excellent and extremely clever bit of casting! To think, the once embittered Sallieri, the composer who could never grasp the keys to the musical kingdom in Milos Forman's "Amadeus" (1984) now sits as the man with the keys who may or may not allow Llewyn Davis entrance into the musical kingdom...well played, Joel and Ethan. Very well played.

At the outset of this review, I remarked about how "Inside Llewyn Davis" defies expectations about what a film about a folk singer could actually be alongside my amazement at what I think is the Coen brothers' full ingenuity with this particular project. For quite a spell as I watched the film, I was feeling that while "Inside Llewyn Davis" is set during the early '60s folk music scene, it is a film that is not necessarily about folk music but then again...

I would think the impression some of you may have towards folk music is that it is a genre that is polite, quaint, safe, sometimes saccharine and cloying, and I guess to a degree, I hold those prejudices myself. With "Inside Llewyn Davis," those (and my) perceptions were shaken over and again as I was struck by the juxtapositions of the delicate and seemingly angelic music, especially those songs performed by Llewyn Davis with his soaring, empathetic voice and precise finger pickings (like some of Joni Mitchell's best music, you can almost hear music within the spaces between the notes), merged that with the cold, coarse ugliness of the film's harsh environment. The Coen have presented a world filled with hurled profanities that are just this shy of "The Big Lebowski" (1998) and populated with junkie jazz musicians, non-communicative beat poets, and an assortment of characters lost within their respective states of dilapidation and seething rage.

And then, there are the songs themselves which, as you listen to the lyrics, are nothing more than a collection of various tales of woe, weariness, and defeat. The film opens with Llewyn performing "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me," and continues with the characters of Jim and Jean performing the lament "Five Hundred Miles." A Clancy Brothers inspired singing group handles the mournful ballad "The Shoals Of  Herring," and Llewyn returns with "The Death Of Queen Jane." Even the jaunty novelty tune "Please Mr. Kennedy," houses a terrified plea from a most reluctant astronaut. Just listening to the actual lyrics of the songs within the film made me realize that maybe this film is not really presenting a series of juxtapositions at all. Perhaps "Inside Llewyn Davis" is a representation of folk music.

And then, I had a realization that hit me near the conclusion of the film and definitely on my way home from the movie theater. Without producing spoilers, lets just say that the narrative of "Inside Llewyn Davis" eventually double ends upon itself, thus creating an experience that is undeniably cyclical. In doing so, what I think the Coen brothers have done is that they have used the language of cinema to essentially create a folk album!! From a storytelling standpoint as well as a thematic point, I think the odyssey of Llewyn Davis, with its motifs, recurring themes and images (like that cat), is made to exist as a record album, a circular and unending cycle of misery that plays onwards from front to back to front in endless revolution, thus signifying the path Llewyn's life is destined to take, with each failure representing a particular set of lyrics or full song. Once that idea or realization took hold, my admiration for the film solidified and skyrocketed, making it an experience I am anxious to see and immerse myself in again and again.

Sticking with the circular theme, Joel and Ethan Coen are truly on a creative roll with this film following the extremely impressive run of excellence which has included the Oscar winning "No Country For Old Men" (2007), the crowd pleasing Western remake of "True Grit" (2010), plus the aforementioned "Burn After Reading" and "A Serious Man" and "Inside Llewyn Davis" continues their amazing streak. Now having seen the film, I am now more confused than ever why the Academy Awards barely recognized it at all as I could easily see it deservedly nominated for Best Picture, Screenplay and Directing.

But maybe, it is just considering this is a film about the angst of disappointment and failure. And what a brilliant film it is.

REACTIONS TO THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS-A SAVAGE CINEMA EXCLUSIVE

And they're off once again!!!

Dear readers, while many of you may find yourselves salivating over the latest sports draft picks, I, your friendly neighborhood film enthusiast, always finds himself salivating over the annual nominations for the Academy Awards! Even after all of these years, and combined with the knowledge of how political and just downright silly these proceedings actually happen to be, I cannot help myself but to get swept away with the grandeur, the spectacle and most importantly, an event, when at its best, is a celebration of the art and artistry of the movies.

All of that being said, I do have to say that my initial reaction to the nominations was more muted, and at times incredulous to a highly negative degree more than actually ever feeling elated. While I am not 100% certain, it seemed as if David O. Russell's "American Hustle," a film I felt to be an enormously sloppy, severely underwritten, poorly directed, ill conceived and purposeless disaster, conned its way into the hearts of the academy by being the clear victor, as far as nominations are concerned. Somehow this film found itself nominated for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing (what?!?! ), Best Supporting Actor for Bradley Cooper, Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Lawrence, Best Actress for Amy Adams, Best Actor for Christian Bale and for the love of Pete...Best Picture as well?!?!?! To the full breadth of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, you have been seriously conned to think that what you witnessed upon the silver screen with "American Hustle" is award worthy to this degree, which makes me unable to help but think that the politics of the proceedings have taken center stage for this year and depressingly so.

How else but to explain that Meryl Streep was nominated once again for her work in "August: Osage County," a film that has not been terribly critically acclaimed and has actually been criticized for watering down what is otherwise an excellent stage play. Streep's almost annual inclusion in the Best Actress category shows exactly just how far being Hollywood royalty will take you...accolades and coronations solely for showing up, the overall quality of the work be damned. Which is shameful as this year had several other leading female performances that could have easily taken Streep's place. I am thinking of Julie Delpy's work in "Before Midnight." Or Julia Louis-Dreyfuss' warm, rich and layered work in "Enough Said." Or how about Oprah Winfrey's terrific and completely naturalistic work in "The Butler" (more on that film in a bit)? And the hell with whatever the regulations are, Scarlett Johansson delivered one of the finest performances of the entire year as the voice of the computer operating system in Spike Jonze's "Her." Any one of those women would have been a more welcome sight than the overly predictable and just plain tired sight of Streep's recognition one more blasted time.

And once again, we are faced with the sheer stupidity of the Academy recognizing only five Best Director nominees but then going ahead and nominating nine films for Best Picture, as if those other four films directed themselves! These are several of the instances where I wonder why I even get excited about this event any more. But this year, I have found something even more troubling...

Returning to "The Butler," I was stunned to see it completely shut out of the nominations, especially as the film was a box office smash, did receive some critical acclaim and boasted an unflinchingly astounding performance from Forest Whitaker in the leading role. Now, there did happen to be a variety of critics who complained during the film's initial release that it was nothing more than "Oscar bait," a derisive complaint I felt to be more than a little unfair. But, the entire dismissal of "The Butler" from the running almost felt to be made out of spite or some needless desire to prove to critics that the Academy would to be so easily swayed (but again, please do explain the lavish love for "American Hustle"), or more disturbingly, was it through some sense of racial shortsightedness. Now, I am no conspiracy theorist but I do find it terribly saddening that in a cinematic year that housed "The Butler," "12 Years A Slave" and "Fruitvale Station," a year that potentially could have seen up to three Black males (Forest Whitaker, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael B. Jordan) up in the running for Best Actor, we are only allowed to have one.

While the more than deserving Ejifor, whose work in "12 Years A Slave" was supremely haunting and harrowing, it would have really been something to, at least, have seen Whitaker alongside him as his work in "The Butler" was a complete transformation and unlike any of the other nominated performances in that category. Don't get me wrong. The inclusion of Leonardo DiCaprio was thrilling for me as his performance in "The Wolf Of Wall Street" has got to be one of his greatest performances if not the very greatest. I guess the inclusion of Bruce Dern for "Nebraska" was not unexpected as well as Matthew McConaughey's highly celebrated work for "Dallas Buyer's Club." To have had Forest Whitaker included would have been phenomenal, for the sight of seeing more than one Black male represented certainly, but for the actual work in which Whitaker metamorphosed himself from the inside out and completely disappeared, leaving the only man on screen the character of this butler. Academy, you sometimes depress me so...

Were there any nominations I was happy to see? Well, of course. Having "Her" nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and even for Best Film Score was very pleasing to me as was Jonah Hill's inclusion in the Best Supporting Actor category for his explosive turn in "The Wolf On Wall Street." I was thrilled that "Before Midnight" was represented at all in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. And well...frankly, not much else as it all seemed to be as predictable and as unimaginative as many of the films released in 2013.

As for the Best Picture nominees, out of the nine films, I have only seen six as "Dallas Buyer's Club" arrived and exited my city fairly quickly, I have had no interest whatsoever in "Philomena" and as for "Captain Phillips," I just hate Director Paul Greengrass' over-utilization of the dreaded "shaky-cam" so tremendously that I will wait to see that one on DVD. Even so, and while I am happy that four of my top five favorite films of 2013 are represented, I wish that I could wrestle "American Hustle" out of that bunch as I could think of perhaps fifteen other films I saw in 2013 that would be enormously more deserving of recognition than that piece of incoherent..."Oscar bait."
 
But, let's see what transpires on Sunday, March 2nd and hope that the real cinematic heroes of 2013 prove to be victorious.

ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE: a review of "Her"

"Her"
Written and Directed by Spike Jonze
**** (four stars)

Let's just get this whole thing started with the proverbial "bang"! If not for Director Steve McQueen's searing "12 Years A Slave," Writer/Director Spike Jonze's "Her" would be my number one favorite film of 2013 hands down. But hey, number two is still an outstanding place to rest so comfortably for a film that is this deeply conceived, executed and felt.

With only four feature films to his credit, Spike Jonze is precisely the artistic shot in the arm that 21st century cinema so desperately needs right now as his creative output is uniformly top tier. With "Being John Malkovich" (1999) and "Adaptation" (2002), his collaborations with Writer Charlie Kaufman, Jonze presented two dizzying and deliriously inventive films the very kind of which have not, and probably could not, be duplicated. Even better was his stunning, game-changing 2009 adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are, in which Jonze gave us an extraordinary and deeply autumnal exploration into a child's emotional landscape that was as visually thrilling as it was so beautifully perceptive. Now, with the arrival of "Her," Spike Jonze has unleashed what I am reading is possibly his most personal film but is definitely his finest film to date and I truly hope that I am able to fully explain to you how transformative of a film experience seeing this film was for me.

"Her" is, and fully represents, the very kind of film that that would typically end up as being one of my favorite films of any year as it is a film that fully transcends its subject matter and primary conceit to becoming a film that is not solely about its characters and main storyline but is also a film about all of us sitting in the movie theater, all of us that co-exist in the world at this point in time. Yes, by now, I m certain that you may have heard the basic idea of the film-a man falls in love with his computer--but trust me, "Her" probes decidedly and profoundly deeper, unearthing a well spring of emotion that felt grueling, exhausting and by the film's end, the real world did indeed look a little different as my perceptions had been altered that powerfully. The theme of "humanity" will forever remain an important characteristic to seek within the movies I see in my life and Spike Jonze's "Her" is as impassioned plea for humanity as I have ever seen.

Set in an undetermined future Los Angeles society, "Her" stars Joaquin Phoenix, in yet another outstanding performance, as Theodore Twombley, a lonely, introverted man who lives alone and in a perpetual state of melancholy due to his impending divorce from his childhood sweetheart Catherine (Rooney Mara). Theodore earns his living working for a letter writing company, composing intimate letters for customers who find it impossible to fully express their feelings themselves. One day, and mostly on a whim to combat his seemingly endless depression, Theodore purchases a new computer operating system which is stored with an artificial intelligence that possesses the ability to speak and evolve like a human being. After deciding to give this new operating system a female identity, "Samantha," (richly and beautifully voiced by Scarlett Johansson) as she names herself, is born and the twosome form an instant connection. Over time, their relationship develops into a passionate love affair that awakens Theodore from his gloom, Samantha into an increasingly higher consciousness and propels both beings into an emotional odyssey into the deepest natures of love and interpersonal connection.

"Her" is the kind of film that may remind you of some films from the past but somehow Spike Jonze has realized a vision that is unlike anything I have quite seen before. Yes, there are dashes of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) here, Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" (1982) there and even some sprinkles of Steve Barron's "Electric Dreams" (1984), that music themed romantic comedy which told the story of a computer who falls in love with a human. But even moreso, "Her" exists very closely in the same film universe as movies like Kevin Smith's "Chasing Amy" (1997), Michel Gndry's "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" (2004) and Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' stunning and sadly underseen "Ruby Sparks" (2012), movies that dare to explore the nature of love at its messiest, most confusing, confounding, turbulent, hard fought and agonizing. "Her" is a tone poem to emotional alienation, isolation and the difficulties of finding and maintaining new interpersonal connections, and therefore, it is a film that I often found to be very painful to sit through, at moments, even depressing (more on that later). But Spike Jonze's vision was so explicitly real that the film felt as if it was deeply conceived from the inside out, as if Jonze laid all of his nerve endings completely bare for us to view, experience and share what he may be perceiving the nature of love to be.

As I stated earlier, "Her" seems to be Spike Jonze's most personal film to date. In fact, I felt that it could almost be a companion film to Writer/Director Sofia Coppola's "Lost In Translation" (2003) of all films as Jonze and Coppola were once married to each other and the filmmaker character Giovanni Ribisi portrayed, the very one who is constantly leaving his lonely wife (played by Scarlett Johansson) behind, alone and adrift in Tokyo, in Coppola's film was rumored to be based on Spike Jonze! This piece of information made me feel that through Theodore Twombley's pain, we were possibly viewing Jonze's side of his unique love story, or at least the emotional aftermath of their divorce which features his sincere, earnest confessionals as to how he may have failed.

"Her" seems to be asking at points, why are the words "I love you," the three greatest words in our language, so often the most difficult words to say to each other. That fear of rejection, that fear of being misunderstood,  that fear of enduring even one more instance of paralyzing emotional pain, the kind that may make us desire to retreat from any human contact lies at the very bruised and damaged heart of "Her." Within the story of Theodore, Jonze holds up a discomforting mirror to all of us as well as the film exists also as a cultural critique about our increasingly dependent relationship with technology, a relationship that continues to advance seemingly at the expense of the very traits that bind us together as human beings. .

"Her" takes place in the future, an unnamed time but visually resembles something shiny and excessively clean like "The Jetsons" but without the flying cars and robot maids. But, Jonze's future vision is clean to the point of anti-septic, and is one that belies a societal emotional wasteland filled with disconnection and emotional instability. In the film, our relationship with technology is such that people are unable to compose their own thoughts without outside aid from a faceless corporation. Jonze shows us a highly populated society in which everyone walks around with ear buds firmly in place, and heads faced downwards gazing at the computerized devices in their hands. At the opening of the film, we see Theodore and the people that surround him on the sidewalks and transportation systems, only acknowledging their devices as the computers speak to their respective users, scrolling through e-mails, and even selecting the proper music to fit the individual's moods for the day. While people are constantly talking, the speech is rarely projected towards another human, but only to the machine who sits without judgement, and only exists to serve and please. Sounds a little uncomfortably like right now in 2014 doesn't it?

The arrival of the new operating system, in which Samantha and others like her have been formulated, presents the next "evolutionary" step as Theodore, so overcome with mournfulness and romantic despair that reaching out towards, and even being seduced by that pleasant, frisky, helpful, understanding, non-judgmental voice inside the machine seems to be the easiest connection to make. Or is it?

"Her" very perceptively delves into the mystical power of the voice and how through only hearing a speaking voice, we are all seduced and ultimately conjure up fantasies of what the actual person who possesses the voice in question may be like if only we were to meet them face to face. To that end, with whom is Theodore falling in love with. The entity Samantha actually happens to be or a mere projection of his deepest wishes being projected back to him in that voice? Furthermore, we also know that Samantha is a digital creation, something that is indeed not human or in some respects, even real. But, Samantha's sense of consciousness continues to build and grow through her relationship with Theodore, thus blurring the lines of what is perceived to be real, especially in regards to what they are each feeling.

With that, "Her" deftly explores the levels of reality, perceptions of said reality as well as our intense projections, the kinds of which that can make relationships fail between humans and Jonze illustrates how it is even more precarious between humans and machines, escalating his story and future vision to surprising territories, to uncomfortable situations that I had not forseen, uncovering emotions I did not expect to feel. What is indeed our relationship with technology in 2014? Our smart phones, social networks and all? Is our world truly growing smaller because with a click of a button, we can connect across the world no matter where we are or are we growing increasingly disconnected as we are all riveted to our screens and the immediate, non-judgmental responses we receive from our varying technological systems? Like David Fincher's "The Social Network" (2010), Spike Jonze poses disturbing questions as his film also serves as a societal warning to our collective narcissism and our potential cultural solipsism.

"Her" is presented through a sumptuous visual and production design that firmly establishes its unique time, place and emotional landscape. The music score, composed and performed by Arcade Fire, also lends considerable weight and sorrow to the entire experience. And all of the film's performances of some of the finest the film year of 2013 has had to offer. Joaquin Phoenix, fresh from his explosively maddening turn in Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" (2012), has reconfigured his entire state of being once again in a performance that feels married to the words of Spike Jonze's original screenplay as his portrayal of Theodore is so emotionally convincing and recognizable that I do believe that if any of us have ever had our hearts broken (or even several times), the choices he makes are so sadly and compassionately understandable.        

Scarlett Johansson is simply outstanding. I have read some press clippings as to how her performance is ineligible for awards nominations due to the fact tat she never appears on screen and if that is true, I hope the power-that-be seriously reconsider as her performance of Samantha is as three dimensional as the humans upon the screen. Her husky voice fills the movie theater just as sumptuously and attractively as it fills Theodore's head, heart and soul, making it completely easy to find ourselves as transported as he, and even desiring an unseen confidant who accepts you unconditionally. She is indeed funny, friendly, sexy, helpful and provides Theodore with an ever present companion that is as simultaneously Maternal and secretarial as it is also one of deep commitment, with the romance and eroticism that has eluded him. Johansson provides the film with as much of an urgently beating heart and pulsating soul as Phoenix, creating a film duet that is truly unforgettable

Not terribly long ago, I ventured into a neighborhood coffee shop for a latte and was taken aback from the sight I witnessed. This was a coffee shop that I have frequented for many years and it is a place that is typically filled with hearty conversations, laughter, and the clinking of glasses existing comfortably alongside those writing in their journals or doing homework on their laptops. But on this particular day, the coffee shop was utterly silent, aside from the music on the speakers and the noise from the coffee machines. Yet, the coffee shop was not empty. On the contrary, it was completely filled, with every table occupied but not one person was speaking to another human being on this particular day. Everyone was enveloped into their cell phones, laptops and headphones and it was so very odd, and more than little sad, to see a place of community transformed into one where every person was isolated in the worlds of their own makings.

That is the world Spike Jonze presents to us in "Her," a film about our relationship with technology that is urging us to not forget the characteristics that make us human beings, even when we are crippled with emotional pain. It is a romantic film true. But it is a brutally honest film that is also sharply satirical, erotically charged and I would like to think somewhat hopeful that our interpersonal connections cannot be deleted from our existence.

Spike Jonze's "Her" sits near the very top of my favorite films of 2013.