Rango

Rango is a delight of a film. It should win this 2011's Best Animated Feature Academy Award (especially because Pixar's entry will be a sequel to their only failure: Cars). It tells of Rango, a dramatic lizard who was thrown from a car on the highway. He's voiced with care by Johnny Depp (for at times it doesn't sound a bit like Depp's plodding voice). After he falls on the highway, Rango enters into a Western town and, using his acting talents, pretends to be a man of the law. The mayor awards him the position of sheriff after he kills a bird by mistake, and Rango becomes the hope and soul of the drought stricken town of 'Dirt'. The film is great. It uses its setting to its advantage by pulling on all sorts of Western movie themes. It is beautifully drawn, contains touching underlying themes, and is more funny than most of the proclaimed comedies out in theaters. Although the story sounds silly and exclusive to little kids, the opposite is true, and adults will take the most out of the film. Where most animated films use stupid scatological jokes and an excess of slapstick, Rango uses wit and parody. It's a triumph.
Rango: ★★★★

The Bridge

This movie sucks. It's a film that is trying to be edgy, and fails because it's overly simplistic, obvious, and unnecessarily creepy. It's a documentary that has captured a year of suicides at the Golden Gate Bridge. 24 people killed themselves at the bridge in 2004. In the film we see about a dozen of these tales and a dozen descents. The fact that so many people killed themselves at the bridge in a year, and some only a few days apart, is the only interesting part of the entire film. As it begins we watch someone fall and die, and then we hear from family members and observers of the person's last moments, and what led to their decision. A question arises here, why would anyone want to talk about such an event, and then exploit it for a supposedly edgy film? The people who jumped the bridge were obviously mentally ill, and that is quite clear from a barrage of information about the deceased. However, these observations are painfully obvious. The entire film feels like a scene where a reporter asks a Tsunami stricken victim: How do you feel? Well, obviously shitty, good thing we got that out of the way. The Bridge then continues to talk about victims without any doctor involved. Instead we just hear story after story from family members. Not only does this become boring, but cruel as it feels pushy and busybody-esque to be watching the film. The movie has delusions of ominousness, and there are countless shots of the bridge enveloped in creepy fog to strange music. The Bridge has nothing to say. It started out with a possibly interesting idea and then had to decide what to do with that idea. It's schlock.
The Bridge: ★1/2

Heartbeats

Heartbeats is the second film by the Canadian film prodigy, Xavier Dolan. Dolan has directed, art directed, written, starred in, and edited Heartbeats. The word prodigy fits Dolan appropriately, and although Heartbeats is far from perfect, it is its imperfection that makes it all the more interesting as an early entry into what will be a great career. The film tells of two best friends, Frankie (Dolan) and Marie (Monia Chokri). Both are overly critical, brutally witty, and nice to look at. Another twenty-something-year-old enters both of their lives. He's a rich, attractive man named Nicholas. At first each tells the other that he's not their type. This is not true, both characters become infatuated by Nicholas. Dolan makes this clear in stylized sequences he's placed to either pop or classical music where each character has sex with someone who isn't Nicholas, and they regret it. Nicholas is flirtatious and unclear where he stands sexually, so Marie and Frankie and taken along for the ride, and perhaps led on. Nicholas pits the friends against each other, and rather than this coming out in numerous violent outburst, Dolan allows for the tension to slowly rise. Heartbeats is one of the best and most exciting films I've seen in a while. Dolan is extremely talented, and places himself around other great talents like Chokri, whose face is gorgeously expressive and melancholy.
Heartbeats: ★★★1/2

The Gold Rush

The Gold Rush is a silent comedy from 1925. It is the perfect example of how great silent films from over eighty years ago can be. For, The Gold Rush is so effective a film on so many levels, that one cannot help but grin. It breaks two misconceptions: the first that silent films are boring, and the second that silent films are silent. For, the film is rife with colorful classical music that accentuates that pathos within Charlie Chaplin's film. It tells of Chaplin's usual character: The Tramp, as he treks to Alaska for the gold rush. He falls in love, but is often used as a cheap joke by the woman he loves. There's such a sadness to this character. He hopes, and his ideals are often broken down. However, through the ridiculous things that happen to the character, the audience grows sympathy for Chaplin. The film brims with wit, and effectively pulls at a variety of emotion. It's not the greatest Chaplin film, but it's a good introduction to him.
The Gold Rush: ★★★★

Idiocracy

Idiocracy is a low-budget film from Mike Judge, who did the great Office Space. It stars Luke Wilson as Joe, who is consistently average in every possible way. Joe and a hooker named Rita (Maya Rudolph) are chosen as the guinea pigs for a military project. They are to be frozen cryogenically and then woken up in the near future. However, everyone who's working on the project either forgets about it or goes to jail for unrelated activity. Joe and Rita are forgotten, and it's not until the mid 3000's that they wake up. They awake to a future of idiots. Man has become so lazy and in-urgent that everyone is really, really, stupid. Trash is piling up, gatorade is used to fuel crops, and Joe is mistaken for a fag because of how he talks. For, in the future "the English language had deteriorated into a hybrid of hillbilly, valleygirl, inner-city slang, and various grunts." Joe sets off to save the world as best an average guy can, and in the 3000's, he is the smartest man in the world. This is often amusing, and with such an original idea, the filmmakers have a lot to pull on for jokes. The film is constantly effective, and has narration that benefits the storyline a great deal. Sometimes it falls into clichéd low-budget movie territory and it is admittedly predictable. However, it's the general idea the film is working with, and how it never betrays that idea, that makes it a worthwhile comedy.
Idiocracy: ★★★

One Hour Photo

One Hour Photo is a brilliant and poetic film. It considers a lonely man without anyone to care for or anyone to care for him. This man is Sy, played with ease and nuance by Robin Williams. He works at a K-Mart-esque photo development stand. He has some steady customers, and thoroughly enjoys his job. He is so kind and low-key that you could pass him in the hallway and never consider him again. But in One Hour Photo we delve into that face of normality and see the psychotic. For, Sy has become obsessive over his job. His boss notices that he clings to it too much, and Sy himself keeps extra prints of one of his favorite customers. That customer is part of a family, and Sy often considers himself to be "Uncle Sy" as he has seen the family's child grow up through photos. As we see this psychotic nature come out, we become more fascinated. William performance is the key, but so is the eeriness of the cinematography, and the way that everyone in the film acts how you would expect them to. And the most interesting part of the developing psychotic-nature of Sy is that you could see him as a normal guy, or it could make you consider the inner-selves of all those who walk by and are forgotten. The poeticism and kindness the film has is admirable, and then it is followed to violence and outburst. A hell of a movie.
One Hour Photo: ★★★★

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom is one of two good films to come out of Australia in 2010. The other, The Square, was made by Joel Edgerton (who is in Animal Kingdom). Like The Square, Animal Kingdom is often shockingly violent, while maintaining dark undertone. As the film opens, a mother is dead from a heroin OD, and her son watches an Aussie "Deal or No Deal" as the paramedics attempt to resuscitate her. Turns out, this mother was attempting to keep her son, J, away from the real bad side of the family. J is pretty clueless what to do following his mothers death, so he calls up this bad side, and is slowly sucked in. He meets the group of low-level criminals led by the honey-sweet, but evil, Smurf (Jacki Weaver). Her sons and husband are all pretty blatant in their criminal activity, but J has happened to come upon the family in their decline. After years of untouchability, the feds are closing in, and slowly the family is dismantled. Now, Animal Kingdom has a singular fault: the main character, J, is a bit boring. At times he is catatonic while surrounded by colorful characters like Guy Pearce, Weaver, and the previously mentioned Edgerton. However, this gives the sinkhole of a film a place to go. It allows for a numbness to be prodded into activity. The film is so dark and brooding, slow and occasionally shocking, that by the end, all that can happened has happened and we are left to consider a way of life.
Animal Kingdom: ★★★1/2