Drive: Nicholas Winding Refn's cool and sleek thriller starring Ryan Gosling is a a stunner! What looks originally cheesy with the synth score and neon title screens unfurls into a confident and incredibly well-adjusted film. Gosling in such minimal dialogue is able to show everything through brilliant glances, looks, and reactions. Well-framed photography that just seeps with color and light, and a cast that is just plain spectacular, Drive is the BEST film I've seen so far this year. A-
Friends with Benefits: Frustrating how a film can rail against cliches for 100 minutes just to fall right into them. Mila Kunis and her brassy personality are still a winning combo, but Justin Timberlake's comedy smugness is infuriating. Even scene-stealers Patricia Clarkson's oversexed party monster mother and Woody Harrelson's gay co-worker with the bon mots are kinda stale. Richard Jenkins continues to remind us how even can make the blandest thing great. B-
Thor: Let's start with this Chris Hemsworth has charisma to spare. His Thor is a virile and powerful presence and the movie gives that certain respect. On the front of the film itself, I give director and Shakespearean god Kenneth Branagh a lot of credit for willingly trying to make it a bit campy and silly. The production values are certainly serious, but there's a hint of tongue-in-cheek I really appreciate. Still kinda lame in parts though. B-
The Beaver: Give Jodie Foster proper credit for still trying to bring quirky and difficult material to the screen, and also give props to Mel Gibson for such a ballsy performance as a very sad and very ill man trying to grasp at the straws that are his life. Jennifer Lawrence also gives a memorably naturalistic performance that escape the scripts drippier moments. The film doesn't have the light moments as advertised considering anything involving the puppet is downright sad. Almost works. B-
Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Strong taut storytelling and an exemplary performance by Andy Serkis in motion capture raise this movie from the laughing stock I assumed it would be. The visual effects were astounding and it's incredibly well-paced. One of the best of the year so far. B+
Source Code: A little bauble of a entertainment that takes the familiar concept of multiple realities satisfyingly crafted by Duncan Jones (helmer of Moon) and led with leading man panache by Jake Gyllenhaal. It does move with some real zip (only 93 minutes long), and Vera Farmiga elevates a seemingly boring non-part into something more important. B
Limitless: Bradley Cooper learned to stop being the smug prick from The Hangover and how to carry a movie. A preposterous concept but a glossy film with some wonderful little touches and genuine thrills. B
After the jump....Brad Pitt takes a swing at Moneyball, Fast Five puts action into overdrive, the gay drama Weekend, and the horseman documentary Buck.
Take Me Home Tonight: Topher Grace and Ana Faris star in this post-college coming-of-age comedy that for no apparent reason than the obvious gags with hair, clothes, and blow (and a great soundtrack) is set in the 1980s. The cast is actually interesting, (although people in their mid-30s shouldn't play early twentysomethings) unfortunately a clunky script lets them down again and again. Make this film contemporary, and stop trying to be so nostalgic. C
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Only a tad bit more coherent than the abysmal previous sequels and far less fun. Unfortunately as brilliant as Depp's Capt Jack is as a creation he can't sustain an entire film without interesting supporting characters. Penelope (a functioning voluptuary) and Ian McShane try hard but to no avail. Arduous and overly labored upon...and soo much fog. C-
Fast Five: I've had few times more purely enjoyable with film than with this slice of high octane silliness. Reuniting the casts of all four previous films, and with some of the most amazing looking and edited car chases I've seen in recent memory, Fast Five dials down all the bullshit supporting story lines and turns it into a pure heist film. Bravo. B
Moneyball: A soulful and satisfying film that doesn't sacrifice intelligence and wit for hints of baseball's romance. Brad Pitt, in full-on movie star performance mode gives such a nuanced and layer performance. His Billy Beane can be the cock-of-the-walk, but he enables him with a streak of insecurity that grounds him even more. The film is shot like a dream by Wally Pfister and with a script by Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin it sings too. A-
Weekend: A quiet, intimate drama full of naked emotions. A whirlwind weekend of sex, love, drugs, and the most intimate and intense of discussions between two gay men throws them both for a loop in surprising ways. The dialogue so real, acting so natural you won't believe it's not. The defining moments with someone aren't through the major events, the parties, the clubs, but the discussions, the quiet moments before you both wake up lying next to one another that make the difference. It's not gay or straight, black or white, men or women. It's human. See this movie! A-
Buck: This documentary winner at Sundance is a glorious and visceral portrait of a man who channels his early life and early pain and found connections between himself and unbroken horses. The horses are an extension of himself, and he wouldn't want it any other way. He can bore into the soul of the horse and even more powerfully into their owners with the precision of surgeon, and his techniques around a corral with these animals are a thing of seeming magic. A-
Sucker Punch: Oversaturated style mixed with a ridiculous and horrible story leads to unsurprisingly bad places. Apparently the recesses of the mind of a troubled young woman are like a fanboy's wet dream. Skimpy lingerie, comic book style explosions and fights, and brothels. Pa-leeze! Atrocious. Wasted the talents of Abbie Cornish and Carla Gugino. Some stylish moments for sure, but not worth much else. D
Green Lantern: It takes so long to really get moving with the set-up, the B story, and the villain and by the time the main climax arrives it feels like such a nothing moment. Despite the best efforts of the filmmakers, I can't buy Ryan Reynolds as a "superhero" even with a body that looks chiseled from granite and his dynamic speeches about overcoming fear. (Literally the word "fear" must be in the script at least 100 times; we get it!) Blake Lively tries to be interesting (no luck), and Peter Sarsgaard is just not in enough of the film to care about. AND, what the fuck are Angela Basset and Tim Robbins doing there? The visual effects look quite cheap, and so does Dion Beebe's camera work. Everything's just so shiny. D+
Rango: Taking the mythology of the movie Western with a raucous script of well-thought jokes and situations, Rango is certainly the best animated feature I've seen all year. Johnny Depp gives him most competent performance in years in his voice work as the titular chameleon trying to save a desert town with a water problem. The whole movie is ugly beautiful, but not in a Alice in Wonderland way, the character designs are actually interesting. The humor is sturdy and great too. B+
The Ides of March: George Clooney directs this political thriller like an old Sydney Pollack film. Get the best actors available (Gosling, Phil Hoffman, Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei, even Jeffrey Wright and Jennifer Ehle), have a fine script of intelligent ideas and insights, and have it made by some of the best people in the business. It fulfills all of those requirements, and it is a mighty handsome production. Great cinematography and score especially. Gosling is wonderful, but not revelatory and that cast of supporting actors do great work, but nothing they haven't done better in other films. The women are especially strong both in smallish roles. B
Rio: This cute and safe animated feature about two blue macaws forced to be together because they are the last of their species is fine....Jesse Eisenberg is tailor-made to play the neurotic, anxious bird, and Anne Hathaway does some supple voice work herself (including some good singing). But otherwise the story's a little flat and the other characters just don't seem to inspire much excitement even with good funny people like Jemaine Clement, Leslie Mann, and Tracey Morgan voicing them. The songs are bad, and the animation looks great in spots, but it looks cheap. Harmless family entertainment certainly, but so are any of the Pixar movies....and almost all of those are great. C+
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