Coco Before Chanel (2009)

Nominated for an Oscar for costume design, basically the end scene showcasing the Chanel line was enough for the nomination alone. On the other hand the entire film has great costumes, but the main thing is that the film has substance as well.

I consider this a sleeper. Nothing was mentioned about the acting or script at awards season but this one really impressed me. I love a good biography and I felt that I not only got a good feel for the life of Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel, played by Audrey Tautou. But I also got a good plot with conflict and surprises. The men in her life were not easy to pin as either villain or hero, rather they had redeeming qualities and it seemed very realistic. I had to choose for myself what I thought was the better choice for her, rather than a Hollywood film that makes the villain so bad and the hero so good that you don't even need to think for yourself.

Foreign, so be ready to read, but this one is good.

Vote: 9/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1035736/

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Paris 36: Faubourg 36 (2009)

A film about a struggling music hall in Paris in the 1930's. Starring Gérard Jugnot, Nora Arnezeder, and Clovis Cornillac, this is just an average foreign film with a decent storyline.

I didn't see this as a standout film, it was only nominated for a song, and the film borders on musical. It has several song and dance scenes but all on the stage, with the majority of the film being about the struggle of Gerard to find work, rebuild the music hall, and retain the talented Nora. The other half of the story is a tragic romance between Nora and Clovis characters.

There is nothing is really disliked about this one, but nothing that makes me want to watch it again or suggest it to others.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0948535/

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A Single Man (2009)

Thank god I didn't know what I was getting myself into on this one. Easily the worst film of the Oscar ballot of the year, right next to the other A ___ Man movie [A Serious Man]. The film is about a college professor, Colin Firth, struggling with the loss of his gay lover. Julianne Moore plays the girl he almost settled down with, but who still hangs around as a friend. Nicholas Hoult, better known from his role in About a Boy 8 years ago, now a young man, plays a college student with a crush on his professor.

This film moves very slow as Firth constantly laments on screen and we get glimpses of the relationship he once had. This one will put you to sleep.

Vote: 3/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1315981/

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The Messenger (2009)

Ben Foster, better known to me as a villain in films like Alpha Dog and a fantastic job with the film 3:10 to Yuma, plays the leading role here. He is a man just returned from the war in Iraq with slight injuries including a bad eye that is still undergoing medical consultation.

Home from the war but still in the Army he is assigned to assist Woody Harrelson in delivering news to families of fallen soldiers. The film has some uncomfortable moments when the news is broken, but that is to be expected going into this film. The relationship with Samantha Morton's character didn't make a lot of sense to me. It made the movie less compelling than the look at what it took to do this job. Harrelson was nominated for an Oscar for his role but lost to Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds.

I really had trouble enjoying this film. I liked the idea, and I liked the dialog between Harrelson and Foster. It just turned into an awkward romance instead of a war drama. Not one I would suggest.

Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790712/

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Sex and the City 2 (2010)

I'll try not to bash this movie too much. You know what you are getting yourself into, as far as characters and theme. It is pretty easy to figure out what is going to happen and watching doesn't require much thought.

Here is the problem I had with the movie... it didn't make much sense. It starts with a gay wedding and we never touch base with the couple again in the film. Maybe this concluded a long running relationship through the television series, so fine. We go on vacation and after 2 hours the script writers and director realize that there really hasn't been any sort of conflict in the entire movie. They then generate a couple ridiculous problems for them to run into. They get out of their tough situation, which was that they might have to fly coach! Yuck! Then everything is fine again.

I was just offended that two and a half hours got me no real plot or story. The first film had conflict, comedy, and resolution. This film just had them... like a dvd extra, no real point. I have seen worse, but this could have been better.

Vote: 4/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1261945/

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Blackmail (1929)

Considered the first British talkie film. This is an Alfred Hitchcock thriller about a shopkeeper's daughter and the criminal mess she gets herself and her detective boyfriend mixed up in.

The plot is simple, Detective Webber is too caught up in his work to spend time with his girlfriend, Alice. She decides to go out with another man instead. After a quarrel in "the artists" apartment she relies on her detective boyfriend to cover up her mess.

Using sound creatively and a fairly simple story, especially from Hitchcock, this wasn't a memorable film of his. It is however historically significant and good compared to other films of this generation.

If you want to watch the whole Hitchcock collection you shouldn't be turned away from this early one, but it was not my favorite. I watched it because it is part of the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die book.

Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019702/

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Ajami (2009)

November is catch up on last years Oscar and Golden Globe nominees month. Usually at this point the foreign films are finally out on dvd and finishing the ballot is actually possible without going to the theater for 3 days straight.

This film taking place in Israel is one of the most depressing I have seen all year. The story follows a small community and the series of disasters that lead to several deaths and some destroyed lives. Told in a disjointed fashion and in 5 chapters we hop around in time [which is hard to follow on foreign films because you have to keep track of people's faces as well as just reading the subtitles].

Another sad film showing that this region will never be stable because the culture does not allow for religious freedom and understanding. I'm not sure if it made a clear point, and just left me with the feeling of "wow, that sucks..."

For a foreign nominee it could have been worse, and it was actually pretty memorable. All cultures have strange rules and laws but the sequence that will make me remember the film is this. Man busts into a restaurant, shoots the ceiling a couple times demanding money, cook shoots him out of reaction to shots in the front room, family of dead gunman then shoot the cook, then kill a neighbor boy in an attempt to kill the cooks brother. The cooks family now has to pay the gunman's mafia family $50,000 US in 1 month time or they will kill the whole family. Did I mention this was the sum decided in a religious courtroom? It was just nutty. The need to get this money is what leads to what I consider a series of unfortunate events.

Interesting to say the least, very sad film...

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1077262/

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