Best Picture Nominees of 2010

Just in time for tonight's Oscars, here are my reviews for all ten of the nominees for Best Picture.

127 Hours

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

The King's Speech

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter's Bone

Winter's Bone

Winter's Bone - Dir. Debra Granik (2010)

Winter's Bone was 2010's little indie film that could. It didn't have major studio backing or big name stars, but still managed to score numerous accolades, including a nomination for Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards. Not bad for a movie budgeted at $2 million, which probably wouldn't have even paid the catering bill for some of its fellow nominees.

Much like 2008's Frozen River, Winter's Bone features a strong-willed female protagonist and highlights a region rarely shown in media through a story about the people who have fallen through the cracks of modern society. Jennifer Lawrence gives a star-making performance as 17-year old Ree Dolly, who lives amidst the Ozark Mountains of rural Missouri. Ree has taken on the tremendous responsibility of raising her younger siblings and caring for a mentally ill mother. Family bonds are tested when they learn Ree's father, Jessup (a known cook for the local meth labs) skipped bail after a recent arrest. The wayward patriarch had paid that bail by putting the family home up as collateral. If he does not make his court date, the county will repossess the house and the Dollys will be thrown out on their asses. Ree embarks on a harrowing odyssey in search of her missing father, not so much for fear of his well-being, but for fear of losing a roof over their heads.

Ree's journey takes her deep into the backwoods of this loose-knit community filled with dangerous and unpredictable individuals, many of whom are her family and neighbors. Make no mistake about it; these people aren't the folksy, salt of the earth types from a Steinbeck novel (or even The Dukes of Hazzard). Most of them are the creepy, rape-you-in-the-woods types who are now running meth, instead of moonshine. Perhaps the most intimidating of the bunch is Ree's uncle, Teardrop, played with quiet menace by Deadwood star John Hawkes. His true feelings and motivations remain ambiguous for much of the film. Does he know where his brother is? Does he even care about his brother? You're never quite sure if Teardrop is there to help Ree or strangle her.

Director Debra Granik and D.P. Michael McDonough shot Winter's Bone with the digital RED camera, giving the film a crisp look that captures every bump and wart of the landscape. The world of Ree Dolly is filled with as many dichotomies as its inhabitants. There's a haunting beauty to the rural area heightened by the gray-toned color palette. The look of the picture actually matches up well to the post-apocalyptic wastelands of The Road. It is also reminiscent of the beautiful bleakness of Roger Deakins' work on the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men and True Grit. Speaking of which, Winter's Bone could almost act as a contemporary companion to the critically acclaimed Western. Much like Mattie Ross, Ree undergoes a harsh coming-of-age quest, but without the assistance of Jeff Bridges or Matt Damon.

Ree is on her own when it comes to searching for her missing dad and shepherding her family. Jennifer Lawrence is undeniably superb in the role, displaying all the toughness and vulnerability needed. Lawrence (who will be seen next as the young Mystique in X-Men: First Class) certainly needed to be tough after learning how to fire a rifle, chop firewood, and skin squirrels for the part. While Granik doesn't shoot the film in a documentary style, there is a documentary feel in much of it thanks to the naturalism displayed in the scenes with Ree and her little brother and sister. When the kids notice a neighbors' smokehouse full of food, she imparts a tidbit of wisdom, "Never ask for what ought to be offered."

Granik and co-writer Anne Rosellini based the screenplay on the 2006 novel by Daniel Woodrell. They have penned a refreshingly unique take on people some would derisively refer to as hillbillies. The film does not simplify its subjects into mere caricatures nor does it descend into an overly sentimentalized and pedantic study of "simple folk." Some of the characters may be odious human beings, but Granik does not demonize or lionize their way of life. It is what it is and is presented in a realistic manner.

Winter's Bone is an exceptional picture. It is a gripping drama, a crime thriller, and a modern day Grimm Brothers' fairy tale, all rolled into one. Without a doubt, one of the best films of 2010.

Rating: **** (*****)

The Mechanic

The Mechanic - Dir. Simon West (2011)

CBS Films is quickly carving themselves a little niche for old school action movies. Last fall, they released the 70's revenge throwback, Faster, with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It was a marked departure from their first two productions, the medical drama Extraordinary Measures and the Jennifer Lopez rom-com, The Back-Up Plan. CBS follows up Faster with The Mechanic, a remake of the 1972 picture directed by Michael Winner and starring Charles Bronson. The original film was a warm-up for Winner and Bronson's more renowned Death Wish franchise. It did feature a classic 15-minute, dialogue free opening with Bronson preparing an elaborate set-up to kill his target.

This time around, Jason Statham takes on the role of Arthur Bishop, an assassin who kills his targets in intricate fashion to prevent anyone from knowing he was ever there in the first place. Bishop isn't your average thug, he's a high-class aesthete. He lives in an ultra-modern home tucked away in the bayous outside New Orleans and listens to Schubert…on vinyl, no less. Bishop and his best friend and mentor, Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland, in an all-too brief role) are both in the employ of a shadowy organization that is nice enough to only murder unsavory folks like drug lords and arms dealers.

Everything changes when Bishop's boss, Mr. Dean (Tony Goldwyn), orders Bishop to take out Harry when it is revealed he has double-crossed the organization. He reluctantly pulls the trigger and winds up becoming the mentor of Harry's wayward son, Steve (Ben Foster). Steve is trained in the art of contract killing, but lacks Bishop's patience and discipline. His sloppiness sinks what should have been clean, simple jobs. Not to mention, there's that thing about Bishop killing Steve's dad.

The original Mechanic was a slight attempt at emulating the philosophical crime films of Jean-Pierre Melville. This new version doesn't even bother to engage on more thoughtful levels. So don't expect The Mechanic to come anywhere close to the existential hitman movie that The American was. The remake isn't about belly gazing and contemplations about solitude, it's all about explosions and bone-crunching fist fights. Sometimes that's not a bad thing.

The Mechanic is the prototypical Jason Statham actioner and fits nicely into his oeuvre alongside the Crank and Transporter franchises. Statham is probably the closest thing we have to a modern-day Charles Bronson. He has a steely gaze, a unique voice, and is wholly believable as a stone cold badass (though only Danny Trejo can match Bronson's craggly visage). No slouch in the intensity department, Ben Foster matches up well to Statham as his livewire protégé. You wonder if they ever have staring contests with each other or see who can grow the cooler looking stubble. There's no denying the film has a rather palpable homoerotic subtext riding through the narrative, especially considering there are no substantial characters of the female persuasion. The screenplay by Richard Wenk and Lewis John Carlino (who also penned the original) makes sure to undercut this by having Bishop frequenting the classy call girl with a heart of gold.

The action scenes are well done without descending into a seizure-inducing series of overly edited shaky camera shots. Two of the highlights include a brutal fight scene between Foster and a rival, 6'7 hitman and a rooftop shootout that ends with the protagonists repelling down the side of a skyscraper. The set pieces still tend to be a little too hyperactive; this is after all a Simon West movie. The story is clichéd and predictable with a late plot twist done in the laziest of manners. It does, however, contain a very funny one-liner uttered by Tony Goldwyn in which he menacingly declares to Bishop, "I'm going to put a price on your head so big that when you look in the mirror, your reflection is gonna want to shoot you in the face."

Rating: ** (*****)

No Strings Attached

No Strings Attached - Dir. Ivan Reitman (2011)

After unfurling the majority of their high profile releases for the holidays and awards season, studios slowly trickle out the leftovers in the first few months of the new year. You can rest assured that a crappy romantic comedy will always be among the bunch to kick things off on a sour note. In 2009, it was 27 Dresses and Leap Year in 2010. The torrent of bad rom-coms in 2011 opens with No Strings Attached, the flipside to When Harry Met Sally. While Rob Reiner's film posited the question of whether men and women could be friends without sex being involved, No Strings Attached is all about men and women having sex without emotional attachment.

Natalie Portman is Emma, a medical resident working 80 hours a week. Ashton Kutcher is Adam, a production assistant on a Glee-esque TV show. A prologue opens the movie showing how Emma and Adam first met at summer camp and how they would bump into each other every few years. It's a blunt way to tell the audience that these two were destined to be together. One day, Adam gets dumped by his girlfriend for his father (Kevin Kline), an aging sitcom star. In response, Adam gets drunk and somehow wakes up naked in Emma's apartment. They quickly have sex and Emma decides to use Adam on a purely carnal level. He eventually desired a more meaningful relationship, while she is reticent for anything long-term.

Rare is the romantic comedy that is rated R. The script, written by Liz Meriwether, originally began as a raunchy female buddy comedy entitled Fuck Buddies. The screenplay managed to make Hollywood's Black List (a compendium of hot, unproduced scripts) in 2008. However, committee filmmaking rears its ugly head. You can tell the story was rewritten and rewritten to make it more palpable to mainstream audiences. The original version featured the female protagonist describing a sojourn to Napa Valley as a "dick tasting trip." The final film contains just enough of an edge so that the males in the audience aren't too embarrassed about seeing an Ashton Kutcher movie without the words "Dude" and "Where's My Car?" in the title.

Portman has generally avoided these types of films, but seems like she's looking to shed the good girl persona with her recent performances here and in Black Swan. While she brings a bubbly personality and a winning smile to the role, the novelty of a horny, foul-mouthed Portman wears thin because the material isn't particularly funny or genuine. Kutcher is bland through and through, doing nothing memorable whatsoever. Where the leads fail, the supporting cast shines. The movie really belongs to the secondary characters, including Olivia Thirlby as Emma's younger sister and Greta Gerwig and Mindy Kaling from The Office as two of Emma's friends and roommates. Gerwig gets the most substantial role and it's great to see the former matron of the mumblecore movement receiving more high-profile work. Let's hope she isn't forever cast as the kooky best friend (i.e. Judy Greer). Also good is Lake Bell, who displays deft comic timing as a nerdy and talkative co-worker of Adam's.

Hmm…there's an idea for a picture, a story revolving around the tertiary characters in a standard rom-com plot. It would do to romantic comedies what The Other Guys did to the buddy cop movie.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

The Dilemma

The Dilemma - Dir. Ron Howard (2011)

The Dilemma stirred up some controversy over a scene in which Vince Vaughn's character derogatively referred to electric cars as "gay." The joke was poorly timed following a tragic spate of teen suicides and the ugly comments by an Arkansas school board member. In the end, the controversy disappeared quicker than the movie did. The Dilemma was released in the doldrums of January and vanished from theaters a month later.

Vaughn plays Ronny Valentine, a fast-talking businessman who runs a small automotive design firm with his best friend, Nick (Kevin James). They're about to land the biggest contract of their lives after successfully pitching Chrysler their idea for an energy efficient engine with the power and feel of a classic muscle car. Nick's struggle to actually pull off his novel invention isn't the dilemma of the film's title. The real dilemma comes when Ronny discovers Nick's wife, Geneva (Winona Ryder), is having an affair with a younger man (Channing Tatum). Obviously, Ronny can't tell his BFF because then there wouldn't be a movie. No, Ronny decides to follow Geneva around like an amateur detective looking to gather enough evidence to bust her.

The previews made The Dilemma out be a lighthearted comedy when that's only partially true. Much like another Vince Vaughn vehicle, The Break-Up, The Dilemma is an unbalanced mixture of wacky comedy and heavy-handed drama. The usually competent (if bland) Ron Howard seems like the wrong director to juggle the story's fracture tonal shifts. Vaughn does his usual wiseacre routine as his once sterling career continues on a downward trajectory. The sharp tongued Vaughn of Swingers and Old School fame has disappeared, chipped away after years of doing terrible pictures like Fred Claus, Four Christmases, and Couples Retreat. It would be a safe bet to guess the filmmakers were hoping to get Jon Favreau for the Kevin James role or at least try to capture some of that same chemistry. They don't as James is given little to do beyond being the typical schlubby guy.

Beyond the basic comedic trappings, the movie takes a few vain stabs at lowbrow, Apatow-esque humor with Queen Latifah's character. She delivers bawdy lines about "lady wood" and having sex with people's words and it all feels completely forced and unfunny. The Dilemma also veers into slapstick when Ronny attempts to confront Geneva's boytoy, who is known simply as Zip. The chaotic scene culminates in Ronny threatening to burn Zip's apartment building down with a makeshift flamethrower made from an aerosol can. As the loverboy, Tatum is surprisingly funny in lampooning his own meathead persona. You know your movie is in trouble when the best thing in it is Channing Tatum. Jennifer Connelly is also excellent as Ronny's girlfriend, Beth. She lends an additional layer of gravitas to every scene she's in and is way better than this movie deserves. It helps that she looks insanely gorgeous too. Never has a Chicago Cubs shirt looked better than it does on Jennifer Connelly. Perhaps, she did the role as payment for Howard and producer Brian Grazer for helping her net that Oscar for A Beautiful Mind.

Rating: * (*****)

Jack Goes Boating

Jack Goes Boating - Dir. Philip Seymour Hoffman (2010)

Philip Seymour Hoffman has accumulated numerous accolades and awards during his long career as an actor. He finally makes his directorial debut with Jack Goes Boating, based on an Off-Broadway play written by Robert Glaudini. The original theatrical production was workshopped at the LAByrinth Theater Company, where Hoffman once served as co-director along with fellow actor John Ortiz. Both Hoffman and Ortiz starred in the play along with Daphne Rubin-Vega. All three return for the feature film version with Amy Ryan rounding out the main cast.

Hoffman is the titular Jack, a chauffeur working for his uncle's limo service in New York City. Jack is the kind of fellow you wouldn't waste a second glance on. He's the type of person no one pays attention to in the Big Apple and that's the way he likes it. Jack shuffles along, staring at his feet as he walks the pavement. He buries his head in his earphones while listening to reggae music on his Walkman. Yes, he listens to an honest-to-goodness cassette player. Jack's love of reggae has led him to fix his hair into a series of unkempt dreadlocks.

Jack is best friends with Clyde (Ortiz), who is married to the strong-willed Lucy (Rubin-Vega). Lucy works at a funeral parlor with Connie (Ryan), a woman who is as socially awkward as Jack. Clyde and Lucy figure Jack and Connie would go well together, probably because it would be almost impossible for them to fit with anybody else. The four friends sit down for a dinner marked by sparse and uneasy conversation. In spite of that fact, Jack and Connie seem to hit it off. When she makes an off-hand remark about going boating in the summer, Jack embarks on a personal journey of self-improvement that begins with swimming lessons. Later, when Connie mentions nobody has ever cooked for her, Jack learns how to cook and agonizes over the idea of making the perfect meal for his paramour.

As the relationship between Jack and Connie blossoms, the marriage between Clyde and Lucy crumbles in direct proportion.

For his first directing gig, Hoffman chooses a less ambitious project where the emphasis is on acting rather than camera style. It's about what's happening on camera and not behind the camera. Needless to say, the acting is superb all around. Hoffman is an old hat at playing these roles. There's something almost heartbreaking about his performance as this gentle teddy bear of a man. His child-like demeanor certainly inspired the film's kid-lit style title. Amy Ryan is perfectly cast opposite Hoffman. Ryan's career skyrocketed following her award-winning turn as the drug-addled mother in Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone. She also won acclaim as the dorky love interest to Steve Carell on The Office. Ryan doesn't go to either extreme as Connie, but finds a quiet desperation the character. In the role of Jack's best friend is John Ortiz, who most movie-goers will recognize as the drug kingpin in Miami Vice or the drug kingpin in Fast & Furious. Yes, it is refreshing to see Ortiz in a more understated role than that of the generic, ethnic villain.

Jack Goes Boating tries a little too hard to create quirky characters. The script tends to labor at a feeling of preciousness leading to an artificial aura around certain scenes, in particular one in which Connie confesses to fantasizing about making love to Jack on a spaceship rocketing through the cosmos.

The oddball romance between introverts is the kind of storyline you generally see between two twenty-something hipsters, but Hoffman and Ryan make it work.

Rating: **½ (*****)

The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet - Dir. Michel Gondry (2011)

In the pantheon of superhero movies, The Green Hornet ranks above the atrocities known as Steel and Catwoman, but never reaches the heights of Iron Man. Therein lays the dilemma with The Green Hornet, it is a film that seems happy to remain in the middle of the pack, content with its own mediocrity.

The Green Hornet began life not as a comic book character, but as a 1936 radio serial created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, who also created The Lone Ranger. In fact, the Hornet was meant to be a direct descendent of the masked gunfighter. Perhaps, the most well-known incarnation of the emerald vigilante was a brief television series that aired on ABC from 1966 to 1967. That series starred Van Williams as the Green Hornet and introduced the world to Bruce Lee as the kung fu fighting sidekick, Kato.

A feature film version has been in development for nearly two decades with the property bouncing around from Universal to Miramax to Sony. George Clooney, during the early days of his fledgling movie career, was attached to star before making the fateful decision to film Batman & Robin instead. Both Jason Scott Lee (who ironically played Bruce Lee in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story) and Jet Li were attached as Kato at one point or another while the studio looked at Greg Kinnear and Mark Wahlberg as possibilities before landing in the hands of the Weinsteins. Kevin Smith was brought on to write and direct, but his version never came to fruition though his script eventually resurfaced as a comic book published by Dynamite Entertainment. This brings us to Seth Rogen and co-writer Evan Goldberg who are white hot following the success of Superbad. The duo surprisingly chooses The Green Hornet as a future project. Fanboys are skeptical about Rogen dipping his feet into the action realm, but perk up when Rogen's first choice for Kato is Stephen Chow. The star of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle not only signs on to play the crimefighter chauffeur, but to direct as well. Sadly, Chow eventually parted ways due to the lack of creative control he was used to in the Hong Kong film industry. Michel Gondry (who was actually attached to direct back in 1997) is brought on board to replace him as director while Taiwanese pop star/actor Jay Chou is cast as the new Kato.

Rogen plays Britt Reid, the spoiled son of newspaper mogul, James Reid (Tom Wilkinson). Growing up under the harsh hand of his father, Reid has become the male equivalent of Paris Hilton, wasting his life away on an endless parade of parties, booze, and loose women. Everything changes when James dies due to a bee sting. Britt befriends Kato, who worked for his father as a mechanic and barista. Yep, this Kato not only kicks ass, but makes a mean cup of coffee too.

Britt and Kato bond over their mutual dislike for the elder Reid and engage in a night of debauchery and vandalism. They wind up saving a couple from an attack by a gang of hoodlums and decide to mask up as a pair of costumed vigilantes. Britt also hits on the idea to pose as villains in order to get closer to the criminals while preventing them from using innocents as bargaining chips. In his civilian guise, Britt uses his late-father's newspaper, the Daily Sentinel, to publicize the Green Hornet's exploits as he wrecks havoc across Los Angeles.

Though Gondry has proven to be an incredibly imaginative and playful filmmaker, The Green Hornet is Seth Rogen's show through and through. Flashes of Gondry's signature style emerge here and there, such as in clever split screen sequence that breaks into a cluttered mosaic of assassins hunting for the Hornet. Gondry's largest contribution to the film is the use of "Kato-Vision," taking the audience into the mind's eye of the Hornet's sidekick during his fight sequences. It isn't simply slow motion, but slow motion and fast motion simultaneously as Kato moves at lightning speed before the bad guys even have a chance to react. We see Kato zeroing in on critical attack points, charting out his strategy within a split second. Alas, these moments are fleeting as Green Hornet drudges along as a formulaic buddy comedy.

The joke has always been that Kato does most of the work and the movie plays into that. Kato is the ultimate fighting machine and he creates the team's entire arsenal, including a gas gun. The crown jewel is definitely the Black Beauty, '65 Chrysler Imperial tricked out with bulletproof windows, machine guns, and rocket launchers. Meanwhile, Britt Reid stumbles around throughout the film as an obnoxious doofus. All well and good if he goes through a character arc and learns to grow as a person. He doesn't and neither does Rogen grow as an actor. Yes, Rogen is a funny guy, but he continues to play the same frat boy man-child he has in previous pictures like Knocked Up and Pineapple Express.

The burden is left to Rogen's co-stars to carry the weight. Jay Chou isn't up to the task, however. As the silent straight man, he plays well against the glib Rogen, but his iffy English is painfully obvious when given any substantial dialogue. Chou delivers his line with wooden conviction and little screen presence. Cameron Diaz pops in as Lenore Case, Britt Reid's new secretary who is originally assigned from a temp agency. I'd love to know what temp agency sends you Cameron Diaz. Unlike most obligatory love interests, Lenore has little tolerance for Britt's horndog flirtations. In fact, she seems to be more intrigued by Kato, but that subplot never leads anywhere. She winds up being nothing more than a throwaway character, a far cry from Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts. Tom Wilkinson and Edward James Olmos (as the Perry White-esque editor are equally wasted in bit roles.

The biggest waste, without a doubt, is Christoph Waltz, still fresh off his Academy Award winning turn as Col. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. Here, Waltz is Chudnofsky, a gangster who has risen to control the entire underworld of L.A. His ruthlessness is matched only by his insecurities. He is constantly worried that other people don't find him scary enough. Chudnofsky also arms himself with a custom-made double barreled Desert Eagle. Waltz's brilliant portrayal of the Nazi officer was helped by Quentin Tarantino's amazing script. He truly sunk his teeth into the role, but Rogen and Goldberg are unable to offer anything as meaty. Aside from an early scene opposite an uncredited James Franco, Waltz is never given the proper material to create something more than a run-of-the-mill villain.

Once slated as a summer tentpole film, The Green Hornet was pushed back to a holiday release before quietly being scuttled off into the doldrums of January. Despite Gondry's best efforts, his unique visual style is crushed underneath the heel of committee filmmaking and Rogen's unconvincing attempt at playing the action hero. While the film is hardly the stinker many predicted, the final product is ultimately generic and forgettable.

The Green Hornet was pointlessly converted to 3D in post-production. It looks better than the hackjobs of previous conversions like Clash of the Titans and The Last Airbender, but the 3D adds nothing to the experience.

Rating: ** (*****)

Blue Valentine

Blue Valentine - Dir. Derek Cianfrance (2010)

Blue Valentine was at the center of some controversy late last year when the MPAA handed down an NC-17 rating due to a sex scene between stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. The Weinstein Company appealed and the film was ultimately given an R. After viewing the movie, I saw nothing in it that merited an NC-17. In fact, I've seen far racier stuff on basic cable. Sometimes it's best not to think too much about the inane decisions of the MPAA.

"You always hurt the one you love,
The one you shouldn't hurt at all.
You always take the sweetest rose,
And crush it till the petals fall."

Blue Valentine charts the birth of a hopeful romance towards its painful dissolution through non-linear means. Think of (500) Days of Summer sapped of any hope or optimism. When we meet Dean (Gosling) and Cindy (Williams), we are six years into their relationship and living in the suburbs of Scranton. It's obvious that married life has beaten them down as a simple breakfast with their daughter, Frankie (Faith Wladyka), turns into a passive aggressive snipe-fest. Cindy works as a nurse and has a hard enough time balancing her career with raising a child, let alone an emotionally immature husband. Dean, a high school dropout, is content with cracking a beer in the morning before heading off to his job as a house painter.

Their marital problems have been simmering below the surface for some time and the heartbreaking loss of the family dog acts as a catalyst for a series of life altering events. Cindy is disappointed by Dean's utter lack of ambition while he is frustrated by the growing emotional distance between them. Dean's harebrained idea to fix things is a trip to a cheesy theme motel where they check into the Future Room, complete with Star Trek Conn panel and a cold, sterile décor. Dean's awkward attempt at making love is equally cold, bordering on rape at one point.

The film flashes back to their halcyon days living in Brooklyn. Cindy deals with med school, a douchebag boyfriend (Mike Vogel), and a rough home life due to a verbally abusive father (John Doman). Dean has just arrived in the Big Apple and gets a job with a moving company. The two meet cute while Cindy is visiting her grandma at a nursing home and we watch love gradually blossom before our eyes. The new couple does cutesy things one night like walking down the streets backwards. Cindy dances by a storefront window as Dean does his best Tiny Tim impression, strumming a ukulele and warbling "You Always Hurt the One You Love." Much like the characters, you wish you could linger in these moments a little longer.

Director Derek Cianfrance has been developing the screenplay for Blue Valentine (which he co-wrote with Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis) for nearly a dozen years. Even so Cianfrance employs a largely improvisational approach similar to Cassavetes and Mike Leigh. While a bit too cloying, the flashback scenes have a spontaneous feel to them that capture the feeling of young love. Cianfrance differentiates the parallel timelines further by shooting the present day in digital with blue tones. The past is shot with warm tones on 16MM with wide angle lenses. Using a documentary style, the camera alternates from passive to intrusive as the everyday life of Cindy and Dean unfolds.

The performances are strong, if overly mannered from time to time. Michelle Williams deftly portrays vulnerability and weariness, the exact type of performance that gets recognized during awards season. Gosling is charming and it's easy to see why a girl could fall for him. With a few subtle changes, he turns it all around. What once seemed charming becomes aimless immaturity. Dean travails a downward spiral, becoming something of a 21st century version of Brando's Stanley Kowalski from A Streetcar Named Desire, a brutish alpha male unaware of his soul-crushing nature.

Blue Valentine is the hipster indie cinema version of the suburban malaise picture. The actors may be excellent, but they aren't enough to elevate material that drags on into tiresome melodrama. There are only so many scenes of squabbles and disillusionment that we can tolerate.

Rating: ** (*****)

Somewhere

Somewhere - Dir. Sofia Coppola (2010)

Sofia Coppola made a strong debut as a filmmaker with 1999's The Virgin Suicides, but it was Lost in Translation that made her a critical darling. Her second film did exceptional box office (especially for a film that only cost $4 million) and received numerous awards. After finding such success, many independent filmmakers choose to tackle more ambitious films as their next project. So it was with Coppola who chose to shoot her passion project, Marie Antoinette, with Kirsten Dunst in the lead and a budget ten times that of her previous movie. The picture was not given the same positive praise as Lost in Translation and was even booed the Cannes Film Festival. Coppola's decision to use an anachronistic pop music soundtrack with tunes like "I Want Candy" by Bow Wow Wow was a head scratcher for most. Personally, I feel Marie Antoinette is a widely misunderstood film as it was never meant to be an historically accurate biopic, but a piece of pop art and commentary on teenaged célèbre.

Taking the criticism in stride, Coppola has gone back to her roots with a low-budget and intimate tale of two individuals attempting desperately to connect. Call it Lost in Hollywood. Stephen Dorff plays movie star Johnny Marco, who has the type of career some predicted Dorff could have and should have had. Marco lives an utterly empty life as a glamorous Hollywood celebrity. This is symbolized quite bluntly during the opening scene in which Marco aimlessly drives his Ferrari in a circle out in the desert.

In between filming and press junkets around the world, Marco lives at the trendy Chateau Marmont, a hotel for the rich and the site of John Belushi's fatal overdose. As an A-lister, Marco doesn't just get room service; he gets strippers sent to his pad, blonde twin strippers with portable poles, no less. He runs through an endless parade of women. Most of the ladies practically throw themselves on him. Some send him anonymous profanity-laced text messages or tell him to his face how big a jerk he is. None of this sparks even an iota of genuine emotion from Marco. He can barely keep himself awake for the strip routines; he even falls asleep while attempting oral sex on a woman he just picked up. Only when Marco spends time with his daughter, Cleo (Elle Fanning), do we see a softer side to the bad boy.

Marco gets the occasional day with Cleo, but the latest daddy day becomes an extended stay when his ex-wife dumps Cleo on him for unknown reasons. As more time is spent between the two, Marco comes to the realization of how much he has missed and how much his little girl is slowly becoming a young woman. This revelation hits Marco when he looks up from his Blackberry to watch her during an ice skating lesson.

Is it difficult to feel for a millionaire movie star who tools around in a Ferrari and has woman flashing him at random? Yes, it is hard to sympathize with someone who is so miserable, yet still has so much. Somewhere becomes a far more interesting film when it moves past mopey Marco to the father-daughter relationship. Nothing feels forced or scripted about their scenes as little events work to build their connection. Cleo makes Eggs Benedict for her dad and his pal (played by Jackass's Chris Pontius, of all people) and beams a mile-wide smile as Marco is honored at an Italian awards ceremony.

Throughout it all, Elle Fanning gives a wonderfully understated performance, one that ranks at the top of female performances in 2010. Fanning deserves to be at the head of the youth movement of actresses that includes Hailee Steinfeld and Chloe Moretz. When one of Marco's one-night stands shares breakfast with them, Fanning brings a subtle change to her facial expression, a change that undoubtedly involves staring daggers at dad. Dorff compliments Fanning's performance well and is more than suited to play the brooding movie idol.

Just as the actors adopt a minimalist approach to their parts, Coppola adopts an equally minimalist approach to her direction. The camera lingers on the characters' inertia. The unique framing of the camera and the director's fascination with the most mundane tasks owes much to Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, which cinematographer Harry Savides screened for her. Coppola's penchant for infusing her pictures with pop songs is absent here as she goes for a purely diagetic soundtrack, aside from a score by the band Phoenix (fronted by Coppola's husband, Thomas Mars).

When Cleo is gone, it feels like the heart has been ripped right out of Johnny Marco's chest. It feels the same for the film as well. Elle Fanning is really the heart and soul of Somewhere and whenever she and Dorff are on-screen together is when the magic happens. Lacking that strong emotional core, Somewhere becomes a cold character study.

Rating: *** (*****)

Black Swan

Black Swan - Dir. Darren Aronofsky (2010)

Black Swan is a feverish concoction that recalls the early psychological thrillers of Roman Polanski along with the backstage drama of All About Eve and a dash of Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes. Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky continues exploring themes of addiction and the mental anguish that comes from naked ambition. In his debut film, Pi, a mathematical genius is driven to the brink of insanity due to an obsession with a numerical sequence that might allow one to contact God. His sophomore effort, Requiem for a Dream, followed a quartet of hopeful dreamers whose lives are utterly destroyed by their addictions.

Thematically, Black Swan matches up very closely to Aronofsky's previous picture, The Wrestler. On the surface, ballet and professional wrestling seem like they are worlds apart, one is considered highbrow and the other lowbrow. But, both are performance arts that require its participants to sacrifice a great deal in terms of physical well-being and personal lives. While The Wrestler focused on a downtrodden man past his prime, Black Swan centers on a young woman at the cusp of a burgeoning career.

Natalie Portman is Nina Sayers, a dancer for a prestigious New York company run by the artsy alpha male, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel). For the new season, Leroy boastfully proclaims that his production of Tchaikovsky's "Black Swan" will practically reinvent the old standby. He chooses Nina as his new lead with reservations. In terms of grace and technique, Nina has all the skills necessary to dance the role of the White Swan. However, she lacks the raw sensuality to dance the role of her twin, the Black Swan. As Nina throws herself into her work, her grasp on reality gradually unwinds. Her unbalanced mental state is only exacerbated by the arrival of Lily (Mila Kunis), who threatens to steal her spot as the company's top star. Lily is everything that Nina is not. Lily is sexy and free-spirited whereas Nina is virginal and repressed.

Physically, Nina must remain thin and lithe while mentally, she is kept in a state of child-like regression by her overbearing mother (Barbara Hershey). The Sayers live in a cramped apartment with Nina's bedroom decorated in pink and littered with doodles and stuffed animals. It's clear that whatever psychological problems have plagued Nina for years and haven't sprung up overnight.

Much like David Cronenberg, Aronofsky blurs the line between reality and the protagonist's distorted fantasies. The director pulls the carpet out from under the audience multiple times as Nina slips further and further away from sanity. The film's much talked about lesbian sex scene between its starlets is a firm example. Perhaps, it really happened. Most red-blooded males certainly hope it did. Was it a complete dream or maybe a masturbatory desire? Also cribbed from Cronenberg is Aronofsky's fascination with extreme body horror as Nina finds herself gradually morphing into some sort of avian form.

The first and second acts of Black Swan are gripping thanks to the excellent performances of Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. Aronofsky's long-time cinematographer, Matthew Labatique (who shot on Super 16mm with some DSLR work), gives the film a grainy look that only accentuates the moody atmosphere. But, the film's final act is where it goes completely off the rails. Black Swan switches from creepy psychological thriller to wildly over-the-top melodrama. Any semblance of subtlety is thrown right out the window. It's difficult to tell if Aronofsky wanted the movie to be taken seriously or treated as camp.

Rating: ** (*****)