Henry Saw: Toy Story 3

Pixar does it again...


So I'm not a Toy Story acolyte. I think the first one is a splendid film but have always felt Toy Story 2 was over-rated. I was also troubled by the fact that Pixar is starting to do more sequels, Cars and Monster's Inc. are getting their own Part Twos in the next few years, when their original output has been so strong. Lastly, none of the trailers or promotions did much for me and it just felt like an easy crash grab.

Well, I was wrong to doubt Pixar...as Toy Story 3 is a fantastic film. As far as I am concerned it blows Toy Story 2 out of the water and contains heights not reached in the first film. While not quite as original as the first film, and how could it be, it does perfectly continue the themes of the series thus far and gives the characters the perfect conclusion.



Disney's plot description: Woody, Buzz and the whole gang are back. As their owner Andy prepares to depart for college, his loyal toys find themselves in daycare where untamed tots with their sticky little fingers do not play nice. So, it's all for one and one for all as they join Barbie's counterpart Ken, a thespian hedgehog named Mr. Pricklepants and a pink, strawberry-scented teddy bear called Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear to plan their great escape.

Pixar has always been great at economical storytelling (outside of Cars) and continue their great job of pacing their films here. The film is constantly moving forward, slows down enough for the heavier beats, and contains some of the more exciting scenes of the year. The "prison break" sequence, and an action scene on a conveyor belt at a trash dump, are as well executed as any scene you'll find in a live-action blockbuster.

That moment on the conveyor belt leads to what could be the best scene in a film this year. Facing certain death in the form of an incinerator, our characters make a choice that surprised and moved me, and I was embarrassed by a Pixar film yet again. I teared up during Wall*E, I teared up during Up, and I really welled up during this sequence. Again, the fact that I was made to care that deeply about CGI characters who are made of plastic is quite a feat of animation and storytelling.



The voice acting is, as one could expect, just as solid as in the last two films and the animation has only gotten better and better in Pixar's films. The film never achieves the beauty of Wall*E but the Toy Story films have always done an amazing job of immersing us in the toys' world. There's a sequence involving a bunch of younger kids assaulting the main characters that is just brilliantly conceived.

A great film and one just has to marvel at Pixar's consistency. It's a pity their next film is Cars 2, I just have no interest, but I'm sure it will be well made. Toy Story 3 is not my favorite CGI film of the year, that would be How To Train Your Dragon, but it's right there. The Toy Story films now take their place as one of the great trilogies of all time. Pixar should be very proud of these films and I can't wait to share them with my nephews...especially this third one.

Grade: A

Best Scene: That moment when the toys are about to fall into the incinerator...

Pixar: A Quick Look Back (Part Two)

Continuing my look back at the Pixar library...




The Incredibles is, without a single doubt, my favorite Pixar film. It's writer and director Brad Bird, the first of the Pixar film-makers to be called an auteur, created a stunning film. It's action packed, mature, funny, touching, beautiful, and discussable (an under-rated aspect for most animated films). It was 33rd on my list of my Top 100 Films of All Time list...I love The Incredibles

Grade: A+



Pixar followed up my favorite film of their's with my least. I've heard that this is actually Disney/Pixar's most lucrative film, they sell a ton of backpacks and lunchboxes based off Cars, but it's a total dud in terms of entertainment. It's way too long, too dull, and takes place in a world I find totally uninteresting. It's earnest, and innocent, but a movie I never care to see again.

Grade: C-



Ratatouille is a great film that I did not like. I honestly feel that Ratatouille is perfectly constructed, beautifully animated, and cleverly written...I just did not fall for it. It's one of Ben's favorite Pixar films, and I can understand why, but it just did not work for me. I must mention the scene when the film's "villain", food critic Anton Ego, tastes the Ratatouille. It's a brilliant scene, and even though Ego's following voice-over is a bit...obvious, it does not take away from that moment.

Grade: B



Wall-E is, after the first Toy Story, Pixar's greatest achievement. The first 35 minutes of Wall-E are utterly splendid. The cinematography, the character animation that echoes of Chaplin and Keaton, the social commentary...it's an art-film disguised as a children's movie. You can read Sam and mine original thoughts here and my opinion hasn't changed. Wall-E is not my favorite Pixar film...but I think it might be the best.

Grade: A



Up is a bit over-rated. It's very good, and Dug is a great character, but I'm not sure why many critics called Up the best Pixar movie of all time. The opening montage moved many to tears, and it is incredibly well done, but I can't say I ever had that kind of connection with the film. I thought it was funny, and exciting, but I never thought it was the work of art that many critics claimed it was.

Grade: B+



That's all of them so far...my review of Toy Story 3 will go up Wednesday

Pixar: A Quick Look Back (Part One)

Before posting my review of Toy Story 3 (here's a preview of my thoughts...it's awesome) I thought I'd do a quick look back on Pixar's prior films...




Toy Story came out when I was 11 (that makes me feel old) and I was a very big fan. I remember walking out of the theater with my parents and we were all amazed by what Disney (we all thought of it as a Disney film at the time) had achieved. I recently rewatched the film and assumed it would look primitive, thinking it would all be blocky characters and stilted design, but it really didn't. It's a beautiful and timeless film. When the AFI adjusted their Top 100 films of All Time list
Toy Story ranked 99th. This is not just because it was the first movie completely generated by computer effects, a feat that won the film a special Academy Award, but because it's just a perfectly constructed film. It's a true masterpiece and when people tell me that this is still their favorite Pixar film...I don't bat an eye.

Grade: A




Stage Fright is a minor Hitchcock film. Panic Room is a minor Fincher film. Man Hunt is a minor Fritz Lang film. And A Bug's Life is a minor Pixar film. It's utterly forgettable movie. Despite how much I liked Toy Story, I did not bother seeing A Bug's Life in theaters, and I could barely remember what it was about when I recently rewatched it for this post. The Seven Samurai meets Hamlet thing is weak, the humor is childish (and not in a good way), and it is just completely uncompelling. Bleh. Nothing Pixar does is bad...well we'll get to Cars...but A Bug's Life doesn't measure up.

Grade: C



Here's a confession...I walked out of Toy Story 2 when I saw it in theaters. I remember the exact moment, it was when Sarah Mclaughlin started singing, and my 14 year old self just could not take it. I've since revisited the film multiple times, aging has certainly allowed me to appreciate that scene quite a bit more than in 1999, but this is still not a movie that completely works for me. It's widely hailed as one of the great sequels of all time, up there with Godfather 2 and Aliens, and I'm not sure I get that. I still find the central drama, involving Woody being kidnapped by a toy-collector, to be kind of boring. I hated the Prospector character, Jessie did not resonate (I still dislike that much lauded scene with the Mclaughlin song), and I thought it was stretched out. The side-plot, with Buzz and the gang trying to save Woody, is solid but not great. In short, it's a well made film but not a masterpiece like many would have you believe.

Grade B



A film that grows on me every time I see it. For one thing, I think this is the movie that Pixar made the leap visually. Toy Story 1&2 are fantastic to look at but Monster's Inc is on another lever. Sully's fur, Boo's animation, the climactic door sequence...this is when Pixar redifined (again) when computer animated films could do. The plot and voice work are strong, the character work between Sully and Mike is especially strong, and I think Boo is an adorable creation. While I think the overall plot is weak, I never cared about the actual events of the film, the character work, dialogue, and animation is enough to carry the film. Also, I must mention the conclusion, which is one of Pixar's great endings (but not the best...)

Grade: B+



Pixar's biggest hit, and in many ways, it's most perfect kid's movie. Despite the dark opening, Finding Nemo is a flawless children's film. The movie's pace (brisk), the movie's plot (immediately understandable), the movie's characters (hilarious and distinct), and the movie's look (breath-taking) all add up to being an ideal concoction for a blockbuster. I appreciate Finding Nemo more than I like it, I was a little too old when I saw it to have any love for the film, but I understand why it was such a success. Ellen Degeneres is right up there with Robin Williams in Aladdin, Jodi Benson as Ariel in The Little Mermaid, and Eddie Murphy as Donkey in Shrek, as one of the most brilliant vocal performances in movie history. A fantastic film, a beautiful film, but it just lacks the mature brilliance that Pixar's next few films had...

Grade: A-


And on that note...to be continued

Henry Saw: Winter's Bone

Great film and further proof that 2010 has been a strange year for movies...


So I was looking over my Top Ten lists for 2008 and 2009 and was struck by the fact that both lists had at least one big film in the Top Five. I'm not cynical about the summer movie season, I love blockbusters when they are done right, and consider Iron Man and Taken to be some of the better movies of the last few years. I felt fine putting them right up there with The Hurt Locker and Slumdog Millionaire.

This year my favorite films have been an intimate Argentinian murder mystery, a British coming of age tale about a troubled girl, a documentary about street art, and an Australian crime movie that was in theaters for less than a month. Outside of Shutter Island, a film that was controversially delayed and derided, all of my favorite films have been very small. Well we can add another tiny movie to that list...because Winter's Bone is fantastic.



Winter's Bone, co-written and directed by Debra Granik, is the story of a 17 year old girl named Ree Dolly living in the Ozarks. Ree lives in poverty with her two younger siblings and her catatonic mother. Ree is forced to be both a mother and father to her brother and sister but cannot wait until she is able to join the army and get out of Missouri. One day the town sheriff shows up and tells her that her father, who was arrested for cooking Meth, is missing. The problem is that he put their house up for his bail bond and if he is not found they will lose their home. Ree realizes she has to try to find her father and convince him to turn himself in. Ree must go see her extended family, all of whom are also involved with drugs and quite scary, and who do not want Ree poking around...

To say Winter's Bone is a stark film would be an understatement. There's a refreshing frankness, and a unique silence, to much of the film. Granik avoids the temptation to go overly "arty" with her direction, but also avoids the documentary style that would also have been easy to slip into, and instead gives us a film that evokes the best work of the Coens or Polanksi. It's a startlingly well managed film, perfectly paced, and produces the tensest scenes I've seen this year. Given how strong a year it has been for thrillers...that's a real achievement.



Much of the film rests on Jennifer Lawrence's performance as Ree Dolly and she proves herself, like her character, quite able to carry the load. This is the best lead performance from a young actress I've seen in a few years. This surpasses Carey Mulligan's lovely performance in An Education, Kiera Knightley's vindicating work in The Duchess, or Ellen Page's spark-fire role in Juno. Lawrence perfectly captures Ree as a girl who is both wise, and tough, beyond her years but also put in a situation well over her head. We instantly believe her love for her siblings and her family, yet we can sympathize with her desire to escape, and we are with her character through every beat. Whether its teaching her younger sister to spell, begging her non-responsive mother for help, or starring down a coven of antagonistic female relatives...I've never seen a young actress be better in a film. Lawrence's beauty, which is there but not important, only serves to inform a few scenes in the film; it's not important for the character but it is a part of her.

She's aided by strong supporting work from Garret Dillahunt as the town sheriff, Dale Dickey playing the wife to the town kingpin, and John Hawkes as her uncle Teardrop. Hawkes is the other real standout of the picture. He fills in a character painted in broad-strokes by the script and owns one of the great scenes in the film (the confrontation with the sheriff).

The dialogue is stylized, sometimes to a distracting degree, but in a strange way that works for the film. Winter's Bone, in its own way, could be described as a film-noir. Part of that genre is generating a certain way of talking for its characters. Watch The Big Sleep, or Brick for that matter, and try to imagine anyone talking like that in real life...it doesn't work. Noir is not a genre that demands realism but instead requires heightened directness. The important thing is that the actors sell each line, no matter how stilted, and that the audience understands. John Hawkes best understands the kind of film he's in, and reaches iconic status in each scene he's in, and is one of the better anti-heroes I can think of in recent noir films.



Winter's Bone is a refreshing work. It's not perfect: Some performances don't resonate and some plot lines are not followed through on...but it's easy to see why this won the big prize at Sundance. Lawrence knocks this one out of the park and the entire film is an engrossing, suspenseful, and fascinating experience. Despite the dark subject matter, there's a decency to the whole piece that can be seen in the sentiment expressed by Ree towards her siblings, and her determination to rescue them. It's a movie about family and how we are willing to go through anything for our loved ones...Winter's Bone really stuck a chord with me.

Just an amazing little movie, well deserving of all the praise and awards it has received, and something you must see.

Grade: A

Best Scene: When Teardrop rescues Ree from a barn...

Henry Saw: The Runaways

Some good performances but an uninteresting film...


The Runaways chronicles the rise and fall of the first all-girl hard rock bad of the same name. With a focus on Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), and a strong supporting turn from Michael Shannon, the film follows the standard film play-by-play of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll. Unfortunately for the movie, the music in the film is fairly horrid, we never care about any of the characters, and the stakes never matter. When one thinks of films in this sub-genre, from The Buddy Holly Story to Walk the Line, or the recently reviewed Nowhere Boy to Control, the one constant is they usually sell you on the artists' music. With no compelling plot threads or music to fall back on, The Runaways plays a completely unnecessary venture, a waste of some real talent.

So who were The Runaways? This is their only song you might know...



What's supposedly interesting about them is that they were the first girl group to "rock hard", and they were all jail-bait, as each member of the band was younger than 16 when they released their first album. They lasted 2 years in the late 1970's, and one of their founders went on write one of the most iconic songs of the 1980s. Their producer, a man named Kim Fowley, was a manic visionary who saw how easily he could exploit a band made up of teenage girls. That's all there is to their story. It's just not enough to fill a film; just as it wasn't enough to sustain an entire documentary (Edgeplay: A Film About The Runaways).

What surprised me most about the film was that Kristin Stewart actually impressed more than Dakota Fanning. Now this is partially a matter of circumstance, Fanning is asked to do more and Stewart is better cast, but it was still unexpected. Fanning is too frail, still too young looking, and too young in our mind's eye to play the part of Cherie. She is given the most development, and "biggest" moments, but Fanning never quite connects. In the far more reserved role, Stewart does not go to her usual bag of playing-with-her-hair tricks, and makes more of an impression. The only other actor of note is Michael Shannon playing Kim Fowler. Shannon, who was fantastic in Revolutionary Road, brings the same energy to the role of the corrupt record producer. Every scene with him is a treat, no matter how unlikeable the character may be.

The film's "plot" is never engrossing, the supporting actresses are all blanks, and the movie ends on an entirely blah note. It's not without merits, and I think writer/director Floria Sigismondi's heart is in the right place, but the material is not strong enough. Fine efforts from all involved but The Runaways is a skippable experience.

For your viewing pleasure...the actresses of the film perform Cherry Bomb:


Grade: C

Best Scene: Kristin Stewart and Michael Shannon writting Cherry Bomb

Henry Saw: The Killer Inside Me

...Now this is a dark film


Michael Winterbottom's The Killer Inside Me is an incredibly faithful adaptation of Jim Thompson's 1952 novel. As a result, the film contains some of the most brutal scenes I've ever seen in a movie. Casey Affleck's performance as Lou Ford, the sociopath lead of the film, is one of the more chilling character portrayals that I can remember. The book, which Stanley Kubrick called "probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered".

This is not a film for everyone...the violence against women, the disturbing protagonist, and the meandering plot for the majority of the film, are all put-offs. The scenes where Affleck beats Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson are nearly impossible to sit through. Affleck is great in the lead role, one wonders why Alba and Hudson agreed to be in the film, and all the supporting actors are stylized but solid.



The film drags during the first half, there's too much puffed up interigue between Lou and the town sheriff, the town union leader, the town drunk, and the town D.A. It all read better than it shows on screen. The second half, when Lou is trying to cover (and kill) all his bases, is much more interesting. There's a great scene between Affleck and Simon Baker (the D.A.) that is almost worth the price of admission.

This is not a film I recommend, it's just too much of a task to watch, but it is not without merit. As an adaptaion, a character study, and an actor's showpiece...it really works. Winterbottom does not impress, nor does the editor Mags Arnold, and the film plays much worse than it really is.

Don't seek it out...but don't avoid it...and when it is inevitably on IFC you should check it out.

Grade: C+

Best Scene: When Casey Affleck and Simon Baker face off in Lou Ford's bedroom.

Ben Saw: Get Him to the Greek

The Judd Apatow formula strikes again. And it's pretty good.

(Site note: Apologies for the delayed posting, Henry's been away for a few days and I was not on the ball about getting this up early)



Damn, the Apatow backlash really has been going strong for a while now, hasn't it? Clearly that's partially the result of releasing some fairly self-indulgent, unsuccessful material (i.e. 'Funny People') but I get the sense that a lot of it has to do with the fact that he's been enjoying such meteoric success after years of toiling, more or less, in obscurity. Here's an original observation: we love tearing down successful people after building them up, don't we? Even moreso, we love tearing down successful people if their success rests, in part, on a formula.

And there's a certainly a formula to Judd Apatow movies; or at least to the core Apatow comedies (Virgin, Superbad, Marshall, and now 'Greek'. I hesitate to call 'Funny People' a comedy). Beyond the rotating cast of familiar faces and identifiable comic voice, the defining feature of Judd Apatow movies is that they share a dramatic arc and, most interestingly, a traditionalist, moralizing tone. If Apatow made a movie about nutrition, it would have the nebbishy lead get knocked out of his quirky, quip-worthy eating habits by a sudden event, spend an hour binging on junk food and midnight snacks, trying bizarre food combinations with random celebrities and spiraling into culinary disequilibria before ultimately realizing, after a painful encounter with the 'Spiciest Curry on Earth', that 3 square meals a day of the food you're used to (plus lots of vegetables) really is best, just like mom always said.

I really don't mind that Apatow is a scold and I don't mind that he has a formula. It's a broad formula that he's mined more-or-less successfully for laughs and some amount of pathos. We kind of know the point that he wants his movies to get to, but the process of getting there is usually fun and fairly surprising.

So it is for 'Get Him to the Greek'.

You probably know the premise already. In this case, Apatow has had one of his collaborators, Nicholas Stoller, direct a spin-off movie featuring Aldous Snow, the rock star from 'Sarah Marshall' (played by Russell Brand). Jonah Hill plays the schlubby Judd Apatow protagonist of the day as a young idea man for a struggling major record label who has the idea of revitalizing Snow's stagnant career with a big concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Hill, recently kinda-sorta broken up with his long-standing girlfriend (the smart girl from 'Mad Men'), is tasked to retrieve the self-destructive, hard-partying Brand from London and get him to New York followed by LA for the concert. And he only has 3 days.

So it's basically a road comedy, do I even need to say that 'hijinx ensue'? Regardless, the hijinx are pretty funny, themed around the kamikaze rock star lifestyle of showbiz culture and Hill's fish-out-of-water experiences therein, plus the script is peppered with the typically witty one-liners that Apatow's team seems to never run out of. But it's is a rock & roll movie so the jokes inevitably center around sex (an Apatow staple) and drugs (where some of the movie's best material comes from). This is the most anarchic of the core Apatow movies and it's most successful when it moves away from the squirm-inducing 'awkward humor' that this crew seems to love and instead goes totally nuts (a drug freakout/fight sequence in Las Vegas being the best example).

The script never really finds a groove, making clunky lurches between the absurd, the semi-realistic humor that Apatow clearly favors and the painfully sincere moments that all of these movies have contained. The characterization suffers as a result, but there's still plenty of laughs to be had. The cast is not bad, but certainly not totally on-point. Jonah Hill has the difficult task of being the straight man, a role he's just not up to. Not that he's bad, but he doesn't have much charisma and lacks the acting chops to carry the dramatic scenes very well. Brand clearly slays for a lot of people, whereas I simply find him 'funny' but I was comparatively impressed by his ability to ground a gonzo character and give Snow emotional depth. The rest of the cast is ok and has some real bright point, but isn't the best example of this crew's ability to find comedic talent for small roles. 'Mad Men' girl (okay, fine, I'll look it up.......Elisabeth Moss) is given an uninteresting role and doesn't do much with it. Many of the employees of the record label seem like missed opportunities for good jokes. There's a ton of quick celebrity cameos, with the highlight probably being a hilariously out of place Paul Krugman. Going back to the major players: Rose Byrne plays a one-note raunchy joke and is an unbelievably good sport about it while Colm Meaney has a hit-and-miss turn as Snow's father.

And then there's Diddy (nee Puffy nee Puff Daddy nee Sean Combs). Oh my gosh, he's absolutely the highlight of this movie. More than just a cameo, he plays Sergio, the owner of the record label and, after a so-so first scene, kills throughout the rest of the movie. He was the reason I was wary of seeing the movie since I figured he'd be too stiff and self-regarding to work well in a comedy, but looking back at his career that clearly wasn't fair. First of all, he was a key part of the team that made 'Notorious' (the B.I.G. biopic) and the character of Sean Combs in that movie is often a pretty blistering self-parody so he can't be too averse to making himself part of the joke. And, honestly, 'Bad Boy for Life' is a hilarious music video so the signs were there. Anyway, I'm not certain this movie is worth seeing without Diddy. With him it's among the better comedies of the year.


Grade: B


Best Scene: I'm sure many would say the 'Furry Walls' sequence, but I have to give it to a brief exchange between Diddy and Pharrell.