Sunshine

I want to get the inevitable complaint out of the way immediately. In the last third of the movie, there is a sharp turn taken, a la Event Horizon. Yes, it was jarring and yes, it was enough to make this movie not quite perfect. However, it doesn't change the fact that the film is in fact, nearly perfect.
Danny Boyle has brought something wonderful and visually arresting to the oft-neglected (and my favorite) genre, science fiction. He did the same thing when he tried his hand at horror movies, making 28 Days Later, one of my favorite movies of all time.
There are clearly nods to Kubrick's 2001 and Tarkovsky's (and Soderburgh's) Solaris, but that's ok! Those are two of the greatest films ever made, they deserve tribute. I loved the pacing of this movie, it was deliberate and elegant, in many ways I was reminded of the first half of Alien, where the feeling of a slow and steady burn adds so much to the tension building. The set design and visual effects are the best I've seen. So many of the visuals in this film are completely breathtaking, the solar shield, the sun itself, the inside of the "bomb", the inside and outside of the spaceship, I'm feeling nauseous with excitement just thinking about it.
The characters are very well drawn, and the casting, I thought, was excellent. I love Cillian Murphy (like, I'm in love with him, he's a beautiful boy) and Cliff Curtis and Michelle Yeoh..everyone's performance was flawless, even the human torch, Chris Evans was good.
Also, it has the most incredibly beautiful score since Clint Mansell's original music for The Fountain. This one is without a doubt on my Top Ten this year. Very, very near the top.

The Simpsons movie is unpossibly good.

The Simpsons are a huge part of my generation's pop culture. They've been on television since I was 12 years old, and I don't know anyone who doesn't at least know one line from the show. Admittedly, I have missed lots of the episodes from the past few seasons, it has gotten a smack dry, but it's still funnier than 75% of the shitcoms on tv. There's been talk of a Simspons movie for at least a decade, and there's a lot of expectation from the hordes of fan-nerds.
Hammer and I went to a sold out afternoon showing yesterday at the Paramount. The audience was made up of a surprising amount of kids who looked no older than 15, which surprised me. They were in Pampers when the greatest seasons of the Simpsons had long passed. Obviously, I looked on these young punks with eye-rolling judgement, and of course, they proved me right, not getting the subtle jokes, laughing at the obvious pratfalls and even making grossed out noises when two male (cartoon!) characters kiss. Dear rotten cellphoney teenagers, Evan Almighty is playing somewhere, please leave the sophisticated humor for the big kids.
All that said, the movie was great. It is irreverant, layered, smart and even touching. My only complaint is that there isn't enough facetime given to some of the best supporting characters. Ralph, Milhouse, Apu, Smithers...everyone else..is woefully underused. The pig is funny, but deserving of more screen time than Moe? Come on. I want to see it again soon, because like the television episodes, there is a lot of hilarity that went unnoticed on the first viewing. There is also something SO brilliant about being able to see them on a huge screen - they wear it well.