Gone Baby Gone
Following in the footsteps of Clint Eastwood with Mystic River, actor Ben Affleck has crafted a masterpiece of moral ambiguity. Based on a Denis Lehane novel, Baby follows two private detectives (Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan) in search of a missing four year old girl. The plot unfolds in a surprising way, and it's a testament to Ben Affleck's directing abilities that he is able to keep it from feeling exploitative or familiar. At one point I honestly had no idea where the film was going to go next, a quality I wish more films had. All the performances are excellent, with Casey Affleck once again proving he is ready for the big time. Ed Harris as a morally ambiguous cop and relative newcomer Amy Ryan as the mother of the missing child give the best performances, however, and it would be truly surprising to not see at least one of them (probably Ryan) get an Oscar nomination. It all builds to one of the most thought provoking finales of the year, with a final shot that is a bit devastating. If this is the career Ben Affleck has in his future, I welcome it with open arms.
Bee Movie
There really is only one reason to see Bee Movie: Jerry Seinfeld. It's been almost a decade since his hit sitcom went off the air, and he has finally made the leap to the big screen (Comedian notwithstanding). If you were to remove Seinfeld's humor, though, this would be just another Dreamworks animated comedy, which is to say, not a very good movie. Yet Jerry brings enough wit and charm to raise this above the Shreks and Shark Tales and deliver an occasionally very funny film. The supporting cast is unfortunately largely wasted, especially Chris Rock, whose presence here amounts to maybe three scenes. Seinfeld definitely still knows how to make you laugh, though, and that's really all I expected from this to begin with.
American Gangster
With American Gangster Ridley Scott appears to have watched every major gangster film of the past 40 years, and then proceeded to copy them all. The result is one of the least original films of the fall season. Which isn't to say it's a bad movie. You've seen literally everything in this film before, but it's done with such precision here that it barely receives a pass. Denzel Washington is up to his usual tricks as Frank Lucas, a gangster on the rise, while Russel Crowe is satisfying as the cop out to catch Lucas. The best scene in the film is when these two men finally sit down to talk with each other (shades of Heat), which unfortunately doesn't come until over two hours into this epic. Don't go into this expecting anything new and you will be satisfied. Those who prefer to see a new take on an old genre best look elsewhere.
No Country for Old Men
I wanted to try and write a full review of this film, but I just don't feel like I've been able to digest it the way I should have. Clearly this is a very ambitious film, and the Coen brothers have rarely stumbled in their long career. Yet for some reason I felt distanced from this film throughout. What frustrates me is that I can't pinpoint what it is I found so alienating about this film. Tommy Lee Jones as a weary cop is stoic and melancholy, a man who has seen the horrors of the world and walked away dumbfounded. Javier Bardem as the psychopath Chigurh is chilling, one of the best villainous performances in recent years. And capping off his comeback year, Josh Brolin centers the film with his portrayal of a conflicted man on the run. It's interesting that no character here is meant to really be liked or sympathized with, perhaps aiding my conflicted feelings towards this film. Everything is shot with bravado, the sound is beautiful, the lack of any real score adds tension. In fact, the only thing that I can immediately point out as being a misstep is a jumpcut towards the end of the film that essentially skips one of the most important parts of the story. We spend so much time with Brolin's character that it feels like an outright cheat to not see how he gets to where he is at the ending, even if we can piece it together on our own. I wanted to love this movie, and I see no reason why I didn't, which makes this such a maddening experience. This isn't your typical quirky, offbeat Coen brothers movie, instead feeling cold and calculated - and perhaps that is what threw me off. In a way it surprisingly feels more like a Stanley Kubrick film than a Coen brothers film. Kubrick is a man who rarely made a movie I outright loved upon initial viewing, and yet I now consider most of his films to be among the best cinema has every produced. No Country for Old Men is not a film that I can fully dissect right now, but given time it might become a classic - or its coldness might just put me off to it for good. It's simply too soon to tell.
