CONTROL

I love the fall/winter film release schedule. The studios save all the good ones so that they are fresh in people's minds come awards season. I've had a good run in the theaters recently, with several of my top ten contenders being seen in the last month. Anton Corbijn's Control is the latest sure thing addition to my list. I've been a Joy Division fan since my walls-painted-black teenage angst years, and this film is a perfectly realized portrait of the band and its lead singer. Newcomer Sam Riley is effing incredible as the doomed genius Ian Curtis; for one, he's a dead ringer and secondly, his portrayal is both heartbreakingly sad and effectively distant.
Also, this film is so beautifully photographed that it may dethrone The Assassination of Jesse James as my choice for best cinematography this year. I know that's a bold statement, especially since I was just talking about marrying Roger Deakins, but this film is in beautiful black and white, and so I found the cinematography to be more powerful and dramatic. Every single shot could be a photograph. A really cool photograph.
Best music biopic since Sid and Nancy. A shoe-in for the top ten, probably top 3.

Vancouver Time Lapse

Why Don't I Just Marry Roger Deakins?!

I feel like all I ever talk about these days is this guy so I might as well. If there was someone out there that felt like having a Roger Deakins film fest then I know they would want me to tell them which movies to rent.

Barton Fink
Dead Man Walking
The Big Lebowski
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
House of Sand and Fog
The Village
Kundun
The Hudsucker Proxy
The Secret Garden

I think that would make for a fun little festival celebrating one of our favorite cinematographers. He also did Fargo and Shawshank Redemption and Jarhead and a whack of others. Stay tuned for my next installment of the Cinematographers I May as Well Marry series featuring the genius DP, Tak Fujimoto.

This...

...falls into the category of "Blog ideas I wish I'd had"
menwholooklikeoldlesbians.blogspot.com

Bladerunner - The Final Cut

Listen, when a movie like Bladerunner is re-released in the theaters and you don't go see it, then I don't understand you and I can't help you. It's your mistake. Anyone interested in why films today look the way they do should see this movie on the big screen as intended. It's a modern film classic.

No Country For Old Men

The Coen brothers have made one of their best films to date. Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh is one of the creepiest and most sadistic bad guys to ever grace a movie screen. It was hard for me to imagine him being able to pull off that Mary Lou Retton hair-do, but he does, and it only adds to the bizarre nature of the character. I love the way Bardem speaks...he, Jeff Bridges and Michael Wincott have my favorite male voices in Hollywood.
The film itself is near perfect, filled with unspeakable tension and moments of acerbic wit people have come to expect from the Coens. The cinematography is incredible (of course, with Roger Deakins behind the camera) and the acting is unsurprisingly amazing. I also noticed how well this film was edited, and noticing that is a testament to artful editing.

This movie is sublime. Do yourself the favor of seeing it. IMMEDIATELY!