This was all I was hoping for in the film. Definitely in the top five for the year. Another contender I saw this week, but later to that film.
Clint Eastwood is at the top of his form as an actor and director. Plus composer. What an amazing guy! And he's in his 70s.
He plays a retired man who's just lost his wife and is alienated from his family, church and neighbors. The neighbors are the bain of his existence since the etnic background of the neighborhood has completely changed from Caucasian to Asian. He hates them and doesn't trust them. Walt Kowalski is a bigot, a patriot and a Korean War veteran. In someways he could be my Dad. I understand this fifties kind of man. Think Bud White from LA Confidential as an older man.
Walt built cars for Ford in their heyday of the muscle cars in the 1970s. He assembled the Gran Torino that sits in his driveway in perfect mint condition.
Despite his not wanting anything to do with them, the humanity in Walt comes out when he gets drawn into the lives of the teenaged boy and girl who live next door.
I won't give anymore plot away. That's plenty.
See this film. It's exciting, edge of your seat as well as makes you care for the characters and story. Eastwood gets the most out of his young untested cast. I really liked the performance of the sister, Sue, played by Ahney Her and the young parish priest, Father Janovich, played by Christopher Carley.
But, then Eastwood knows how to work with actors to get the best they can give. Think of Tim Robbins, Sean Penn and Marcia Gay Harden in Mystic River. Angelina Jolie in Changeling, Hillary Swank and Morgan Freeman in Million Dollar Baby. And the example I always use, Kevin Costner. Yep, Kevin Costner. Not exactly the best actor in film, but if you ever saw him in Eastwood's A Perfect World, he was wonderful as Butch.
Gran Torino gets and A. This is a top notch film. See it! Make my day...okay, I couldn't resist.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Australia
Ok, for starters....YAWN!
This film is 2 hrs and 45 minutes which can fly by on a great film, but was agonizing for this film.
Most people who watch movies know the premise. Hugh Jackman plays a drover named "The Drover" and Nicole Kidman is a British aristocrat traveling to Australia to get her husband in line to sell their property in New South Wales to have some cash infusion into their British lands and holdings. She gets there and her supposedly cheating and ingoring husband is very dead.
I've seen plenty of films that build slowly that don't seem 'slow,' but this is NOT one of them. This is a beautiful film to look at that highlights the harsh land of this portion of (Darwin) of Australia, but I wasn't going to the theater for a travel film. And that was mostly what I did enjoy of the film.
Like another war film (though this is as much an Aussie cowboy movie with cattle drive and all) named Pearl Harbor it seems to have all look and little substance. Obviously I didn't like that film either.
I'd fit the blame for this lackluster film firmly in the lap of Baz Luhrmann. He was the director and cowrote the screenplay and that's where the problems are. Come on, Baz...EDIT! This film would have been better if at least 20 minutes were cut and tightened up. Seriously I didn't care about the characters either (very different from the previous film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas). The half Aboriginal boy and his grandfather were the most interesting characters in the film. A much better film on the subject of what was done to the half Aboriginal and half white children of Australia is Rabbit Proof Fence.
Ack, enough said on this film. I don't recommend it. Average at best. C+ and only the plus because of the cinematography. Originally the buzz was this film would star Russell Crowe with Nicole Kidman. He'd have brought more gravitas to the role of the drover, but I think it was good for him that it didn't work out.
I'll try to get to some thoughts on the Golden Globe nominations later. I was pleased with the Slumdog Millionaire and In Bruges nominations, but was sad there was no nominations for Richard Jenkins from The Visitor. I want to see a few more of the films in the next few weeks like Frost/Nixon, Doubt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
imdb's got the nominations of course: imdb: Golden Globe nominations
This film is 2 hrs and 45 minutes which can fly by on a great film, but was agonizing for this film.
Most people who watch movies know the premise. Hugh Jackman plays a drover named "The Drover" and Nicole Kidman is a British aristocrat traveling to Australia to get her husband in line to sell their property in New South Wales to have some cash infusion into their British lands and holdings. She gets there and her supposedly cheating and ingoring husband is very dead.
I've seen plenty of films that build slowly that don't seem 'slow,' but this is NOT one of them. This is a beautiful film to look at that highlights the harsh land of this portion of (Darwin) of Australia, but I wasn't going to the theater for a travel film. And that was mostly what I did enjoy of the film.
Like another war film (though this is as much an Aussie cowboy movie with cattle drive and all) named Pearl Harbor it seems to have all look and little substance. Obviously I didn't like that film either.
I'd fit the blame for this lackluster film firmly in the lap of Baz Luhrmann. He was the director and cowrote the screenplay and that's where the problems are. Come on, Baz...EDIT! This film would have been better if at least 20 minutes were cut and tightened up. Seriously I didn't care about the characters either (very different from the previous film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas). The half Aboriginal boy and his grandfather were the most interesting characters in the film. A much better film on the subject of what was done to the half Aboriginal and half white children of Australia is Rabbit Proof Fence.
Ack, enough said on this film. I don't recommend it. Average at best. C+ and only the plus because of the cinematography. Originally the buzz was this film would star Russell Crowe with Nicole Kidman. He'd have brought more gravitas to the role of the drover, but I think it was good for him that it didn't work out.
I'll try to get to some thoughts on the Golden Globe nominations later. I was pleased with the Slumdog Millionaire and In Bruges nominations, but was sad there was no nominations for Richard Jenkins from The Visitor. I want to see a few more of the films in the next few weeks like Frost/Nixon, Doubt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
imdb's got the nominations of course: imdb: Golden Globe nominations
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
A bit under the weather and didn't want to subject other movie goers to my cough this weekend so...this is last weekend's films I didn't get to yet.
Friday night saw a trip to the theaters for a small film that has had a lot of acclaim. I found it a very engrossing film dealing with the subject of the holocaust through the eyes of a German child whose life was completely untouched by war and sorrow in the beginning of the film.
The film is in English and stars David Thewlis (Father) and Vera Farmiga (Mother) as the two main actors I'd recognized from other films. Also Rupert Friend who I'd seen in Pride and Prejudice. Given these two films he hopefully won't be typecast as a heavy like Sean Bean has spent much of his career on film.
The film follows a boy who is the son of a decorated German soldier who gets a 'promotion' to commandant of a concentration camp and moves his family there. His wife, daughter and son are unaware of the nature of the camp or his work. They are told the camp is a 'farm.'
The boy is lonely having left all his friends behind in the city and befriends a a boy who he thinks works at the farm and not is imprisoned in the concentration camp.
This is a very good film. Striking and devastating at the ending. Not for the faint of heart. Certainly worth seeing. I'd give it an A-.
Friday night saw a trip to the theaters for a small film that has had a lot of acclaim. I found it a very engrossing film dealing with the subject of the holocaust through the eyes of a German child whose life was completely untouched by war and sorrow in the beginning of the film.
The film is in English and stars David Thewlis (Father) and Vera Farmiga (Mother) as the two main actors I'd recognized from other films. Also Rupert Friend who I'd seen in Pride and Prejudice. Given these two films he hopefully won't be typecast as a heavy like Sean Bean has spent much of his career on film.
The film follows a boy who is the son of a decorated German soldier who gets a 'promotion' to commandant of a concentration camp and moves his family there. His wife, daughter and son are unaware of the nature of the camp or his work. They are told the camp is a 'farm.'
The boy is lonely having left all his friends behind in the city and befriends a a boy who he thinks works at the farm and not is imprisoned in the concentration camp.
This is a very good film. Striking and devastating at the ending. Not for the faint of heart. Certainly worth seeing. I'd give it an A-.
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