Henry Saw: A pair of movies set in Glasgow

Shallow Grave and Red Road...two very different movies...


Red Road is the first feature film from Andrea Arnold who directed the far superior Fish Tank. IMDB's plot description: Jackie works as a CCTV operator. Each day she watches over a small part of the world, protecting the people living their lives under her gaze. One day a man appears on her monitor, a man she thought she would never see again, a man she never wanted to see again. Now she has no choice, she is compelled to confront him...

This film consistently flirted with being good. It's interestingly shot, has a fairly compelling hook, but just never comes together. I got frustrated with the film's ambiguous plot and never connected with the main character. The plot twist, if it can be called such, was something I was able to predict early on.

This is a smart film, and it has a very solid set up, but it is far better in concept than execution. I read a lot of critics who thought this was a better work than Fish Tank...I don't see that at all. Fish Tank is complex, funny, upsetting and utterly engrossing. Red Road is cold, one note, and feels like a student film stretched out to 90+ minutes. Andrea Arnold is a director whose work I will seek out...but not because of Red Road.

Grade: C-

Best Scene: The early scenes of the main character watching the streets of Glasgow via CCTV




Shallow Grave shows a very different, if similarly grim, side of Glasgow. Whereas Red Road was centered around poor people living on the outskirts, Shallow Grave is about three fairly successful inhabitants living in the heart of the city, and whose biggest worry is finding a new roommate. Shallow Grave follow three flatmates who conduct a series of interviews to find a fourth. They finally agree upon one, a mysterious and handsome man, only to find him dead in his room a few days later. Near his corpse is a suitcase full of money and the movie, in true Treasure of the Sierra Madre fashion, follows how the three react to this new found wealth.

This was the first movie made by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) and it stands as one of the better directorial debuts of the last 20 years. Shallow Grave works as a dark (dark) comedy, a Hitchcockian thriller, and a British crime piece. The cast, which features an incredibly young Ewan McGregor, has tremendous chemistry and energy.

This is not a perfect movie...it's rough around the edges and a little too smart for its own good...but it is really good. If you are looking for an exciting, fresh, and clever genre piece...you could do a lot worse than Shallow Grave.

Grade: B+

Best Scene: The interview scenes at the beginning

Henry Saw: The Ghost Writer

A grown-up and worthy thriller...


Roman Polanksi's newest film feels like a real throwback even if it really isn't. There is something about a tight thriller composed of good acting, skillful direction, and little nuanced touches to add some flavor, that can't help but remind one of Hitchcock and...the early work of Polanksi. Polanski's last movie was the little seen Oliver Twist and, before that, the Oscar Winning The Pianist. The last time Polanksi made a genuine thriller was 1988's Frantic, another movie with a Hitchcock vibe, and one of his most entertaining works. Polanksi is best known for Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, two of the all-time greats, and which both set a high standard for any conspiracy movie. While I would not put The Ghost Writer up in that rarefied air, it really is a well done film, and recommended to anyone who wants a movie aimed at thinking adults.

Ewan McGregor plays a ghostwriter hired to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). The first ghostwriter, a former aide of Lang's, died under mysterious circumstances. The Ghost is brought to a small island off the coast of Massachusetts where Lang and his wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) are staying. The job quickly becomes harder than he could have imagined when Lang is charged with orchestrating the illegal capture and torture of terrorist suspects for the CIA and is accused of war crimes...



This is not a flashy movie. Unlike Shutter Island, another thriller made by one of the greatest living directors, The Ghost Writer does not show off. Polanski lets the plot and his well chosen actors carry the film. McGregor, who has made some poor choices over the last decade, finally picked a proper role for himself. As the alcoholic and somewhat blank "Ghost" McGregor does a good job of playing a man who goes from being indifferent to reluctantly curious. It would be easy to accuse McGregor of underplaying the part, or sleepwalking through the first half of the movie, but that's the character. Brosnan fully inhabits Adam Lang. He's not playing Tony Blair, thank goodness, and he brings the right amount of smarm and conviction to the role. The standout is Olivia Williams, but then I've always liked her, who brings a lot of complexity to the role of Ruth Lang.

The one major flaw in the ensemble is Kim Cattrall who plays an English (her accent is all over the place) assistant to Adam Lang. She has a strange smirk on her face the entire time, I guess its supposed to be menacing, but it just makes her look like she's happy to be cast in a real movie made by a real director. Tom Wilkinson also shows up in a smaller role, the kind of job he can do in his sleep, but he's solid as always.

The plot is engrossing, filled with red herrings and maguffins, and deliberately paced. Polanksi never overplays a moment, never lets the score trick us into feeling something other than what we're watching on the screen, and puts little things in the background that you will have fun discussing after the film is over. The end of the film is the one place where Polanksi really flexes his directorial muscles, look for an excellent sequence where a note is passed among many hands, and he ends the movie with a perfect image.



There are brief moments where the film drags and its possible that the political and real life parallels could be a bit distracting for some audience members. Also, and this is a nit-pick, but there was some distracting over-dubbing of the F-Word in order to secure a PG-13 rating in the US (how many people under 17 are running out to see The Ghost Writer?). Those are the extent of my problems with this tightly made thriller.

The Ghost Writer is not a game changer...it's not a modern masterpiece...but its one of the best films of its genre in the last few years. I can't tell you to rush out and see it, it will work just fine on DVD, but definitely seek it out when you have the chance. It's a great director doing what he does best.

Grade: A-

Best Scene: The note being passed along...

The Oscars: Who Will Win and Who Should Win...

Let's get this on the record...



Best Picture
“Avatar” - WILL WIN
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker” - SHOULD WIN
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”

Best Direction
“Avatar” — James Cameron
“The Hurt Locker” — Kathryn Bigelow - WILL WIN AND SHOULD WIN
“Inglourious Basterds” — Quentin Tarantino
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” — Lee Daniels
“Up in the Air” — Jason Reitman

Actor in a Leading Role
Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart” - WILL WIN AND SHOULD WIN
George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Actress in a Leading Role
Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side” - WILL WIN
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan in “An Education” - SHOULD WIN
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Actor in a Supporting Role
Matt Damon in “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds” - WILL WIN AND SHOULD WIN

Actress in a Supporting Role
Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique in “Precious" - WILL WIN AND SHOULD WIN

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
“District 9” —
“An Education” —
“In the Loop” — SHOULD WIN
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” —
“Up in the Air” — WILL WIN

Writing (Original Screenplay)
“The Hurt Locker” —
“Inglourious Basterds” — WILL WIN AND SHOULD WIN
“The Messenger” —
“A Serious Man” —
“Up” —

Animated Feature Film
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” - SHOULD WIN
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Up” - WILL WIN

Art Direction
“Avatar” — WILL WIN AND SHOULD WIN
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” —
“Nine” —
“Sherlock Holmes” —
“The Young Victoria” —

Cinematography
“Avatar” — WILL WIN
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” —
“The Hurt Locker” —
“Inglourious Basterds” — SHOULD WIN
“The White Ribbon” —

Costume Design
“Bright Star” —
“Coco before Chanel” — SHOULD WIN
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” —
“Nine” —
“The Young Victoria” — WILL WIN

Documentary (Feature)
“Burma VJ”
“The Cove” - WILL WIN
“Food, Inc.”
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” - SHOULD WIN
“Which Way Home”

Documentary (Short Subject)
“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province”
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner”
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” - WILL WIN
“Music by Prudence” - SHOULD WIN
“Rabbit à la Berlin”

Film Editing
“Avatar” —
“District 9” —
“The Hurt Locker” — WILL WIN AND SHOULD WIN
“Inglourious Basterds” —
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” —

Foreign Language Film
“Ajami” — Israel
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos” — Argentina - WILL WIN
“The Milk of Sorrow” — Peru
“Un Prophète” — France - SHOULD WIN
“The White Ribbon” — Germany

Makeup
“Il Divo” —
“Star Trek” — WILL WIN AND SHOULD WIN
“The Young Victoria” —

Music (Original Score)
“Avatar” — James Horner
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” — Alexandre Desplat
“The Hurt Locker” — Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
“Sherlock Holmes” — Hans Zimmer
“Up” — Michael Giacchino - WILL AND SHOULD WIN

Music (Original Song)
“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog”
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog”
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36”
“Take It All” from “Nine”
“The Weary Kind” from “Crazy Heart” - WILL AND SHOULD WIN

Short Film (Animated)
“French Roast”
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty”
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)”
“Logorama” - SHOULD WIN
“A Matter of Loaf and Death” - WILL WIN

Short Film (Live Action)
“The Door” — WILL WIN
“Instead of Abracadabra” —
“Kavi” —
“Miracle Fish” — SHOULD WIN
“The New Tenants” —

Sound Editing
“Avatar” —
“The Hurt Locker” — WILL AND SHOULD WIN
“Inglourious Basterds” —
“Star Trek” —
“Up” —

Sound Mixing
“Avatar” —
“The Hurt Locker” — WILL AND SHOULD WIN
“Inglourious Basterds” —
“Star Trek” —
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” —

Visual Effects
“Avatar” — WILL AND SHOULD WIN
“District 9” —
“Star Trek” —


That's it. We'll see who wins on Sunday night...

Henry Saw: Some recomended films...

Recently watched some movies that were recommended to me by people I trust...with varying success...




The Petrified Forest:

This was recommended to me by my Uncle Craig. It's a 1936 film based on a play by Robert E. Sherwood. It stars Bette Davis, Leslie Howard, and Humphrey Bogart. The play and film are set in a small diner in the desert. Howard plays a poor writer who meets an infatuating waitress (Davis) and is charmed by her dreams of moving to Paris. Meanwhile, a vicious gang-leader named Duke Mantee (Bogart) is on the loose and plans to meet up with his girl at the diner.

The best parts of the film are the script and the actors. The script is a clever and relevant exploration of the era in which it was made. Each character has multiple dimensions (which is unique for the era) and the film doesn't sugar coat the endings (also rare for the time given the Hayes Code). Howard, Davis, and especially Bogart are very strong. Howard and Bogart had played their roles on stage but they seem as real and as fresh as in any other role they ever played. A strong film, a highly entertaining film, and further proof that movies from the 1930's had more to offer than poor musicals and schlocky melodramas.

Grade: A-



3 Days of the Condor:

This was also recommended to me by my Uncle Craig. ...The Petrified Forest is better. Much better. I thought this film was boring and useless. Robert Redford plays a nerdy CIA employee (codenamed Condor) who returns from lunch to find all his office co-workers have been assassinated. He kidnaps Faye Dunaway so he can hide somewhere no one knows. He finds out that there is no one he can trust, even his superiors in the CIA, as he tries to come in from the cold.

This is one of many conspiracy films of the 70's, all probably inspired by America's lost of faith in the government, that feel rather soulless. Network, The China Syndrome, Marathon Man, The Parallax View, Klute, and even Chinatown...they're all incredibly cold films. Only All the President's Men and The Conversation hold up in my opinion. 3 Days of the Condor is strangely unattractive given its cast and pedigree (Sydney Pollack directed the film) and just never pulled me in.

Grade: C


Harvard Beats Yale 29-29:

This was recommended to me by my Aunt Tiggy. I was kind of worried about this one. To use an old line...I knew how it ended. I'd read plenty of articles and blurbs about this game and was familiar with the overall story of the game. On November 23, 1968, Yale and Harvard's undefeated football teams met in Cambridge, with Yale heavily favored. The film combines interviews with 30 men of the men who played that day with game footage of all the key plays.

This could have been a really boring film...but a few of the men interviewed (including Tommy Lee Jones who was a running back on the Harvard squad) are so bizarre that it makes it a fairly entertaining movie. The movie never acts like the game meant more than it did (which is not to say it meant nothing) and is willing to broaden the spectrum of the film enough to fill its running time.

Look, if you don't care about Harvard, or Yale, or Boston, or college Football, or any of the select categories you could fit this film into...than this isn't a movie for you. But if you have any vesting interest in these things than I suggest you seek this little unambitious documentary out.

Grade: B



The Last Picture Show:

This one was recommended to me by my dad. Blegh...this one didn't work for me at all. The Last Picture Show follows three teenagers ((Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, and Cybill Shepherd) coming of age in a small town in Texas. It is one of the early classics of the New Hollywood generation (which started with Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate and ended with Raging Bull). Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, The Last Picture Show was nominated for 8 Oscars and won 2 in the supporting actor catagories (for Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman).

This movie just never clicked with me. It's not that its pretentious in any way (which was my original fear)...or that I wasn't interested in the characters (though the main character played by Timothy Bottoms is the worst character in the film)...it just never seemed to get anywhere. It's not that I can't appreciate a film whose ambition is to capture a time (the 1950's) and place (nowhere Texas) in which not much happened...but I guess I never found an "in" to the picture. Bogdanovich was ahead of his time in combining American archetypes with French New Wave styling...and full kudos to him. But, as someone who has seen Jules and Jim, and Band of Outsiders, and Breathless...I just wasn't that impressed. The film is overly long, ultimately empty, and one of the more boring film watching experiences I've had in a long time.

Grade: C-


That's all for now. I'll update you with the last few films I've watched for my Sunday night movie thing soon...

Henry Saw: The Art of the Steal

An interesting if uncompelling documentary...


The Art of the Steal is a documentary detailing the history of The Barnes Foundation, an educational art institution in Lower Merion (a suburb of Philadelphia), that is the home of more than 2500 pieces of art including works by Matisse, Renoir, and Cézanne. The movie focuses on the the leaders the Barnes has gone through since Albert C. Barnes died and how they have allowed and facilitated the museum to stray further and further from its founder's original intentions.

The Art of the Steal tells its tale in a straight-forward and linear manner. We start by finding out who Albert C. Barnes was, why and how he amassed one of the best private art collections in the world, and the altruistic reasons he created The Barnes Foundation. The Barnes Foundation was started as a school and was only open to the public on a select few days. The movie hinges on Barnes' Last Will and Testament which stipulated that the collection would continue to be part of the school and never be loaned, sold or moved.



The movie is made from a very biased angle. The filmmaker, Don Argott who directed and shot the film, is clearly on the side of the Barnes Foundation advocates who are angered that any aspect of Barnes' Will was challenged. I'm of two minds on the issue. The first time the Will was defied was when one of Barnes' disciples, who ran the Foundation for more than 25 years after Barnes' death, allowed the building to be open to the public 5 days a week. The advocates act as though this was the first step towards doom, an ultimate injustice, and an act against all that is good in the world. Now, I can sympathize with the idea that a man's Will should be binding, but is it really that bad that more people were able to see these amazing works of art? Is that really the worst thing in the world?

From that point the film follows how the Foundation was bequeathed to Lincoln University and how they appointed a series of ambitious men to run the Barnes who were more interested in political status than keeping the spirit of Barnes alive. It's not that I'm not sympathetic to the ideal of maintaining the Barnes Foundation as it was intended to exist, or that I thought any of the subsequent leaders were likable or did the right thing, but I guess I was never as moved as the movie wanted me to be.



The movie acts as though the idea of moving the collection to Philadelphia is the worst thing to happen since the Holocaust (it's possible that one of the talking heads actually says this in fact). Look, it's shady, it's a damn shame, but I just didn't feel the great tragedy of the proceedings like the filmmakers wanted me to.

The movie is well made, a little heavy of the classical music and a little repetitive in terms of who they talk to, but it's hard to complain about the craftsmanship. It's an interesting story, and I appreciate how passionate everyone involved is, but The Art of the Steal failed to completely suck me. Worth a viewing, but unless you're are highly interested in The Barnes or the art world in general, don't rush out to see it.

Grade: B-

Best Scene: The extended scene about Richard Glanton's leadership. He's a polarizing and interesting character...

Henry Saw: Les Sept Jours du Talion

Called "7 Days" in English...this film is the dark doppelganger of Law Abiding Citizen...



A brief word on this French-Canadian revenge film that's getting some buzz on the festival circuit.

This film is a about a doctor (played by Claude Legault) whose daughter is raped and killed while walking to school one morning. Not satisfied with the idea of the prime suspect (Martin Dubreuil) getting only 25 years in prison, the Doctor plans and executes a plan to capture and torture his daughter's murderer over a span of 7 days.

The only other characters of note is an investigator (Rémy Girard) who can sympathize with what the Doctor is doing and the Doctor's wife who can't help but blame her husband for their daughter's murder.

The most notable thing about this movie is how gruesome it is. I wouldn't call it torture porn, it's trying to achieve more than that, but there are a lot of "avert your eyes" moments. The Doctor clubs his "victim" in the knee and then makes him walk on it. He tortures him with a shotgun. In the films most gruesome moment (outside of a shot of the murdered girl) the Doctor uses his surgical skills to torment the pedophile.



The film, I suppose, is attempting to be about the cost of revenge, and make us question our (or at least my) desire to see the pedophile tortured. The investigator, who says he's not trying to save the killer but the Doctor, is the conscience of the film. Unfortunately, because the film is so cold and methodical, and the actors are not compelling, I never connected to anything or anyone in the picture. I didn't care if the pedophile died, I didn't care if the Doctor "lost" his soul, I just didn't care.

While it wouldn't be fair to describe this film as the first third of The Lovely Bones, the middle of Law Abiding Citizen, and the entirety of the Saw series...it wouldn't be that far off. Les Sept Jours du Talion is a bit more thought out than that. But not much. I just think the message is so hackneyed, and the drama is so dull (despite the scenes of horrific violence), that I can't really recommend this film to anyone.

Grade: D+

Best Scene: When the pedophile tries to goad the Doctor into killing him...

Henry Saw: Shutter Island

At the very least this is among the top five films I've seen in theaters in the last year...and that doesn't begin to describe how much fun I had this past Friday...


Firstly, quickly, let's get some of the back-story out of the way. Shutter Island is the first feature film from Scorsese since 2006's Oscar winning The Departed. Based on a Dennis Lehane novel, Shutter Island was supposed to come out in October of 2009. Whether it was because of re-shoots, quarterly statements, or a lack of faith, the studio pushed back its release date to February 2010. The plot centers around a Massachusetts State Marshall named Teddy Daniels (Leonardo Dicaprio) who travels to a isolated mental institution for the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of one of the "patients". Joined by his new partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo), Teddy encounters a wide range of characters including the head physician Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), the warden (Ted Levine), and a tormented patient (Jackie Earle Haley). Through all this Teddy keeps seeing visions of the concentration camp at Dachau and his dead wife (Michelle Willaims).



Very rarely do you see a film and know you are in the hands of a master. Every Kurosawa film has his hand-print. You can't watch a Hitchcock film without being aware of his skill and control of the camera. With Shutter Island I feel that Scorsese has entered this elite class of signature filmmakers. That's not to say that Shutter Island is his best film, far from it, but it's the film where I could most see Scorsese at work.

When's the last time you just had fun at the movies? Perhaps Avatar is your answer...it wasn't for me...but Shutter Island is. From the first scene on the ferry to the last moment on the hospital grounds...I was completely invested in the film. Every decision Scorsese made feels deliberate and appropriate. He's not afraid to show off a little bit, or make it obvious who he is referencing, but I thought that was part of the fun of the film.

It's very important that you go into Shutter Island not expecting high art. This is Scorsese having a good time. There are scenes that strive for, and achieve, greatness but the film is more concerned with simply entertaining the audience. Remember that when Hitchcock made North by Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds, he was not trying to make films worthy of study; he was trying to make movies that everyone would enjoy. In short, Scorsese has made a film that works both as a popping Friday night flick and a movie worthy of analysis in a classroom. Also standing out was the film's music, especially the use of Symphony No. 3: Passacaglia, which was another nice nod to the thrillers of the 40s and 50s.

Leonardo DiCaprio does a good job carrying Shutter Island. I think he might have been better in The Departed, but it's close, and I can't think of many other actors who could have anchored this film the way he does. Mark Ruffalo is perfectly cast as someone who is supposed to not be noticed. It's nice to see Ben Kingsly actually acting after a decade of work-for-hire appearances in Uwe Bole movies. Max von Sydow is incredibly entertaining (and Scorsese gives him a hell of an entrance) and Ted Levine is a part of the best exchange of the movie. Michelle Williams, given a tough and limited part, is riveting every moment she is on screen. Her final sequence, and it would be spoiling things to say more than that, is one of the most chilling I've ever seen. She is haunting.



I'm trying to think of negatives to say about the movie but I'm struggling. I suppose it's a bit long...and at a certain point you get a little tired of the build-up and just want the climax and denouement...but only barely. I loved Shutter Island. I recommend it to anyone and everyone. It's just so refreshing to watch a movie made by a director who knows what he's doing. Shutter Island knows exactly what kind of movie it should be and then exceeds its boundaries. I'll be surprised if I have a better time at the movies this year.

Grade: A

Best Scene: The last flashback...