My 10 (well, 14 or 15) best male performances of 2008

Since this is my list, after all, why in the world should I have to get it down to the rather random number of 10 any way?

Already, cutting it down to this collection meant omitting three small comedic performances I really liked, Russell Brand in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," Brad Pitt in "Burn After Reading" (not, mind you, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), and Peter Dinklage in "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian."

So, without further ado and in simple alphabetical order, here are the ones who managed to beat them out. Please, as always, feel free to add any of your favorites or chide me for any glaring omissions.

Josh Brolin
Mr. Brolin, who has really just had back-to-back sensational years, could easily make this list for his portrayal of Dan White in "Milk," but he's really here for his spot-on take on "W." Anyone who has resisted seeing Oliver Stone's fairly nuanced portrait will be in for a surprise if they spring for it on DVD because, oedipal issues aside, it's a surprisingly even-handed work. And most of the thanks for that goes to Brolin, who plays W. as a mostly likable guy who's just clearly in over his head.

Francois Cluzet
The main reason Harlan Coben's work translates onto the French screen so well in "Tell No One" is the style of director Guillaume Canet, but leading man Francois Cluzet deserves a lot of notice too. Like Ricardo Darin in "El Aura" (a simply sensational film noir you should rent right away if you can), he just has that everyman look that's needed to anchor a seriously mind-bending thriller, and the skills to make easily the most harrowing street chase of the year look nothing but natural. And, if you live here in Macon, please go see this one Sunday afternoon at 2, 4:30 or 7:30 at the Douglass Theatre courtesy of the Macon Film Guild.

Robert Downey Jr.
If there was an overall acting award for body of work for the year, I think I'd give it to Downey for his roles as Tony Stark in "Iron Man" and Kirk Lazarus in "Tropic Thunder." The latter, which is at least as offensive as advertised and - when it goes "full retard" - just as funny, should certainly get a supporting actor nomination and without The Joker and maybe Eddie Marsan (more on him later) as competition, perhaps even take the prize.

James Franco
His performance as amiable pot dealer Saul Silver in "Pineapple Express" was the definition of good physical comedy, but he makes this list instead for his work as Harvey Milk's lover Scott Smith in "Milk." It's the tenderness (not that there's anything wrong with that) that he and Penn bring to the early scenes of Gus Van Sant's movie that just make the tragedy we know is coming hit that much harder, and it just shows why Franco is deservedly the most successful of the former "Freaks."

Brendan Gleeson
Though he's gotten little recognition for the feat, Martin McDonagh has managed to direct two of the year's most satisfying flicks in the ultra-dark comedy "In Bruges" and the heist flick "The Bank Job." In the former, he has just the right comic foil in Gleeson, who plows through McDonagh's take on the cliche of the thinking hit man with a sharp wit, and keeps you laughing so that the ending - which is over-the-top in a way I couldn't have imagined - just creeps up on you until it drops the hammer.

Richard Jenkins
I'm still mulling doing a list of the signature shots of 2008, and if I do, that final scene from Thomas McCarthy's "The Visitor" when Richard Jenkins' Walter Vale finally lets it all go will certainly make the cut. The reason it's so satisfying is not just because McCarthy has crafted an engaging if occasionally heavy-handed tale about immigration to the U.S., but even more so because Jenkins plays Walter on a perfect slow burn, getting re-engaged with the world around him at just the right pace. He should, and I think will, get the fifth Best Actor Oscar slot for this.

Heath Ledger
Not sure what I can say about his takeover of the role of The Joker that hasn't been said too many times already, so I'll just share my favorite two shots from the late Mr. Ledger's second-to-last flick (don't forget Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus," assuming that ever really comes out.) From "The Dark Knight," I can't (and don't want to) forget that signature shot of Ledger's Joker riding away in a stolen police car, his head out the window and just reveling in the chaos he has just unleashed on the streets of Gotham, or when he's walking away from the hospital in that nurse's uniform, playing with the buttons on the detonator with that perfect look of crazed confusion. Rest in peace, Mr. Ledger.

Eddie Marsan
It's fitting enough that the only performance (in my book) that could rival Ledger's Joker for Best Supporting Actor comes next in the list. Mike Leigh is an expert at creating characters who tear at your emotions, and Eddie Marsan's Scott the driving instructor is no exception. You (or least I) want to find some kind of goodness under the rage that keeps building until his climactic showdown with the ever-positive Poppy in Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky," and he's just boiling throughout this minor masterpiece.

Danny McBride
Mr. McBride may never be considered a great actor by the standard definition, but in one of my favorite categories - comic sidekick - he's on top of his game. Along with playing the comicly indestructible Red in "Pineapple Express" and the blast-happy munitions expert in "Tropic Thunder," he also played the lead in and co-wrote one of the year's most-underappreciated laughers, director Jody Hill's "Foot Fist Way." If you like a good kung-fu comedy (and if you don't, why not?), rent this one right away, and definitely keep your eye on Statesboro, Ga.'s own Mr. McBride.

Bill Milner and Will Poulter
Of the two truly odd 2008 movies about making movies, I'd give the edge by a nose to Garth Jennings' "Son of Rambow" over Michel Gondry's kooky "Be Kind Rewind." As the two young stars of Jennings' at least semi autobiographical tale about a quest to remake "First Blood" (yes, really), Bill Milner and Will Poulter work well as the friends-turned-enemies-turned-friends-again who are crazy enough to undertake this quest during one long English summer.

Sean Penn
I can only assume Mr. Penn will be the big winner at tomorrow night's Golden Globes and again at the Oscars for his work in "Milk," and I have no problem at all with that, though I'd give my vote to the next guy on this list. As Harvey Milk, Penn just captures not only the drive that led Milk to pursue his career in politics after so many failures but also the devilish humor that marked his private life, and does it all in a surprisingly understated manner.

Mickey Rourke
"Milk" and "The Wrestler" are indeed wrestling in my mind for the title of best film of 2008, and I have a feeling Darren Aronofsky's flick will be on top by the time the Oscars roll around. As the aging grappler at its center, Rourke isn't just the only possible person you could see in the role, but just the embodiment of the wounded but still extremely vain warrior, and gives all the edge to this sports underdog flick about the biggest underdog you may ever see.

Brandon Walters
OK, this aboriginal kid may not even be an actor, but he was perfectly charming as young Nullah in Baz Luhrman's "Australia," and each time he said "cheeky bulls" it just made me smile. I see nothing on his IMDB list that says he'll ever manage to appear in another movie again, but here's hoping.

Jeffrey Wright
It's a shame that Mr. Wright is last on this list, because his portrayal of Muddy Waters in director Darnell Martin's "Cadillac Records" is certainly Oscar-worthy. I'll keep beating the drum for this underappreciated flick until my arms get really, really tired, largely because of Wright's pitch-perfect mix of anger and wicked humor that made him disappear completely into the role of the iconic bluesman.

And there, after more words than I had anticipated, you have it. As a final matter of business intended for only two people, I promised my friend Marvin Waters, a k a Randy to most of the world, that I would share this poem he wrote for his bride Barbara - who is an appreciated reader of this site - on the occasion of their second wedding anniversary today. Congratulations! Here goes:

Midnight
Noon
10 after 3

All day
This day
Is our day

Later
Now
Eternity

All day
Each day
Is our day

Not sure what in the world I could say after that, but I hope at least someone enjoyed this best actors list and didn't mind the sappiness that I gladly included at the finish. Peace out.

Take a wild, wily trip to Australia

Goofy. Corny. Often cheesy as you could possibly imagine. All those words could just as easily apply to Baz Luhrmann's "Australia" as they could in my book to the movie he set out to emulate, "Gone With the Wind." And in their own unique ways, they're both also often great.

With Luhrmann's flick, however, it takes more than a little while to get there. The first 20 minutes or so, necessary to set up all the story that Luhrmann wants to bite into here, is just about unwatchable. The fish-out-of-water jokes with Nicole Kidman are clearly the point but are just the worst kind of forced humor, and Hugh Jackman fares poorly in this intro too. You might be thinking "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.", but you'll be seeing and hearing something that just misses that mark by miles.

Once the cattle drive that makes up the first hour or so of "Australia" gets going, however, Luhrmann comes surprisingly close to creating just what he set out to do: Make the kind of old-fashioned, grand adventure we just don't get to see any more (and at a cost of $130 million and 165 minutes, we may never again!) Kidman and Jackman never quite gel enough to achieve the epic romance he was clearly going for, and the cliches are piled on without pause or shame, but it's still a rousing ride complete with a stampede that ends at the edge of a cliff (did I mention cliches?)

As this first chapter comes to a close we hit the first point where Luhrmann could have learned from "Gone With the Wind," at least when I saw the most recent re-release in the theater: Please use an intermission. As he panned out across the grand vistas of Oz, I was sure he was going to give my bladder a break, but alas it was not to be.

And if he were inclined to choose just one story line, it also could have been the place to end an entertaining if slight little flick, but Luhrmann has no interest in that here; on top of the cattle trade, he adds the bombing of Australia in World War II and, of course, Luhrmann being Luhrmann, the epic love story. You might be thinking that sounds like more than a bit much, but I can promise that once it got started I was never bored (and would have never looked at my watch if I ever bothered to wear one.)

Now, don't get me wrong. By the time he gets to the war in the third (at least) chapter, it's a rather sanitized vision of conflict. He makes the bombing of Darwin, Australia, simply a backdrop to explore his favorite themes of the joys of music and the power of love ("The Wizard of Oz" and, in particular, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" play a prominent and charming enough role here that I was able to forgive the anachronistic fact that the movie probably didn't arrive in Oz until at least a year after this flick was set.) And as cheesy as all that sounds, it's not "Moulin Rouge" on the battlefield, but it's never "Pearl Harbor" either.

I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but what made this last bit just work for me was the young Aboriginal actor Brandon Walters. He's the kind of cute kid with a cache of catch phrases (expect a lot of talk about "cheeky bulls") which I normally just can't stand, but I guess he and Mr. Luhrmann just caught me with all my cynicism in check. The kid's just great, as is David Gulpilil as his Aboriginal grandfather King George.

And that, I think, sums up in a nutshell just why I liked "Australia" so much. In a fall season that's been devoid of both movies for adults (at least in the wide-release realm where I dwell) and completely uncynical flicks, Luhrmann manages to deliver on both fronts, so check it out if you're in the mood for that kind of thing. In six days I'm planning to hit Atlanta for Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" and will hopefully find another charmer to really get fall rolling right.

The grand art of the epic movie

I have serous doubts that Baz Luhrmann's "Australia" will ever end up on this list, but I'm still fairly certain that any attempt to create the Australian "Gone With the Wind" should at least be maddeningly entertaining when I get to see it tomorrow (since Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire," getting perhaps the slowest rollout of all time, won't even hit ATL until next week.)

Even though I'm certain that most of the rest of the world surely has better things to do than sit in front of a computer on the day after Thanksgiving, I have to work a half day so I thought I'd spend a little time on this beforehand.

And before anyone point out that my definition of epic is just too loose to even be considered (or that I almost completely omitted war movies, which just aren't my cup of tea in general), remember that this is my list, so I make the rules. So, in honor of the return of Baz Luhrmann (surely a reason to cheer in my little corner of the world), here are my 10 favorite "epic" movies of all time. Please feel free to add any of the many, many, many I have omitted.

"The Godfather"
Though I certainly have respect for the "The Godfather: Part II," the inclusion on this list ends with the first movie, which is still simply the best movie about a crime family ever made (though you'll soon see another on this list too.)

"The Last Emperor"
There's so much to recommend in Bernardo Bertolucci's tale of Pu Yi, the titular last emperor of China, but what I enjoy most each time I go back and watch it again is the humor that comes in the proposition of handing the supposed reigns of a crumbling empire to a child. Priceless.

"Seven Samurai"
If the traditional epic has to have at least one hero, I'd argue (and be far from alone) that Toshiro Mifune's Kikuchiyo is still the best of the bunch. And though it brings me no pleasure whatsoever, it's still my duty to share that the IMDB still has a "Seven Samurai" remake listed with this rather ominous synopsis: A town in Northern Thailand recruits seven Blackwater-type paramilitary contractors from around the world to defend against an imminent attack. Don't get me started ...

Once Upon a Time in America
My parents surely wish I wouldn't share this story, but when I was 14 (old enough, probably) and my brother 11 (surely not), they took us to see Sergio Leone's rather amazing but more than occasionally tawdry gangland saga in the theater. We ended up leaving as Robert De Niro's Noodles was raping Elizabeth McGovern in the limo, a fact which still shames me to this day, because there are very few better American crime stories on film, if you're old enough to appreciate it.

"Apocalypse Now"
"The Deer Hunter" almost made this list too, but as far as Vietnam movies go this one is rightly heralded as the best because no other war movie showcases the futility and - of course - madness of war quite like it.

"Boogie Nights"
Paul Thomas Anderson drew what I felt was at least slightly more acclaim than he deserved for last year's "There Will Be Blood," certainly an epic American tale in its own right, but one that just left me a little cold. A well-made movie for sure, and both Daniel Day Lewis and an underrated Paul Dano were exceptional, but I'll take the fun of those tawdry "Boogie Nights" (and Don Cheadle selling stereo equipment in Western attire) every time.

"Bonnie and Clyde"
Though it at first comes close to romanticizing a truly notorious pair of criminals (and how could you not with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty on board?), but by the end Arthur Penn manages to craft probably the best movie about America's obsession with violence. And just still a lot of fun to boot.

"Malcolm X"
If you haven't seen Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna" yet, I'd still recommend watching it on DVD, even though it's a maddeningly uneven movie. It shows touches of Spike throughout, but they were all harnessed into a single movie three times: For "Do the Right Thing," "When the Levees Broke" and here, in the movie that still stands as the single biggest Oscar snub ever in my book.

"The Fifth Element"
As long as we've been hearing the name Luc Besson, I was amazed to find he only has 15 finished or coming feature films to his credit as a director (though tons more as a producer), four of which are in the "Arthur and the ..." children's series he's now fixated on. I can still remember seeing "The Big Blue" in a French movie theater and falling for it instantly, but this goofy space opera that combines just about everything I love in movies is still my favorite Besson flick (with "Nikita" and "Leon" getting a very stylish honorable mention.)

"Nashville"
For a story that takes place over just a few days in one city, the late Robert Altman's flick captures America in a certain time and place as well as any I can think of, and though his skill at weaving multiple story lines into a single quilt is often imitated, it's never been close to re-created. Rest in peace, Mr. Altman.

So, there you have it. Please feel free to add any that hold a place in your movie heart, and have a great weekend.

Trailer trifecta: A glance at three I'm really looking forward to

If you would have told me several years ago that David Fincher would direct a bona fide "Christmas movie," I would have thought you were straight-up mad.

And I had my initial doubts that he would be able to do much with F. Scott Fitzgerald's odd tale "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," about a man (Brad Pitt) who ages in reverse through the Twentieth Century. Judging from everything I've seen, however, including this lengthy new trailer, it indeed seems like he's come up with something that combines all his best touches with the crowd-pleasing scope of a holiday flick. Enjoy.



Since I've made little secret of just where I stand in this year's election race (and since I, frankly, don't really care who I might possibly offend), I finally decided to break down and get a Barack Obama "widget" for this site (and who came up with that crazy word anyway?).

I originally thought Oliver Stone's "W.", much like Michael Moore's movies in the past, would have a none-too-positive effect on the race, but with Bush so far gone in people's minds and this movie just looking more and more like such silly fun I now just can't see that happening. Here's the latest look at what Stone is cooking up, with the final product set to drop Oct. 29.



When I first heard what Baz Luhrman was attempting to pull off next, I can't say I was terribly excited. What in the world is a director with so much - for lack of a better word - flair doing making a movie in the dusty Australian outback?

I'm ready to be proven wrong once again. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in this appropriately epic-looking tale about an English aristocrat (Kidman) who inherits a huge cattle station in Oz and joins forces with a stock-man (Jackman) to drive 2,000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country's most unforgiving land during World War II. The "Casablanca" touch on the typography is more than a bit much, but count me there when this finally comes out Nov. 26.



And there you have it. Hopefully a little pleasant fodder for wasting some of your work day. Peace out.

Take heart: There are indeed good movies in sight!

I really can't remember a worse beginning to a movie year than we've had so far in 2008.

I was really hoping Kimberly Peirce's "Stop-Loss" would lift us up out of the muck, but with its thoroughly cliched characters and meandering storylines it just couldn't do it. That makes exactly one movie I've loved almost unconditionally - Michel Gondry's "Be Kind Rewind" - in wide release so far this year. Man is that depressing.

But, of course, summer is just around the corner, which means Iron Man, Indy and a whole lot more fun. And I do have somewhat high hopes for Clooney's "Leatherheads" and slightly lower ones for Scorsese's Stones doco "Shine a Light," both supposedly opening wide this week (though as of yet I see no proof of Scorsese's flick hitting Macon.)

Today here, however, it's all about the fall, when the studios unveil the big guns for awards season. And frankly, surveying the field, it looks like it's once again the Coen Brothers' race to lose (how cool would it be if they actually managed to win back to back Best Picture kudos?!?) So, here's a look at some of the big contenders you'll see hitting your multiplexes come September:

(Brief aside: As I write this I'm listening to Bettye LaVette's album with the Drive-By Truckers, "Scene of the Crime." If you like Southern soul and blues music at all, it just doesn't get any better than this .. OK, I'm back now.)

Sept. 12: "Burn After Reading"
Why not start out with the reigning champs? The Coens' latest will star not only George Clooney and Brad Pitt, but also Tilda Swinton (pretty much a guarantor of kudos), John Malkovich and Frances McDormand (huzzah!). Here, as far as I can tell, is the rather twisted plot summary: Malkovich will play a CIA agent who, after getting fired, writes an inflammatory memoir. The disc containing it is stolen by his soon-to-be ex-wife, played by Swinton, who then accidentally leaves it at the gym, where it falls into the hands of a trainer (Pitt) and the gym owner (McDormand), who want to use it to blackmail Malkovich. Throw in Clooney as a CIA agent investigating all this mess, and I can only say bring it on.

Sept. 12: "The Duchess"
It seems like I've been seeing the trailer for this since last summer, and it just looks like nothing more than the most bland kind of period piece, but here's hoping I'm once again wrong. Starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes, it is based on Amanda Foreman's biography of the scandalous 18th-century English aristocrat Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. I can only assume that Knightley plays the duchess, but it might be slightly more interesting if the reverse were true.

Sept. 19: "Blindness"
Though I've made it clear there's nothing but mad love for the Coens around here, if I had to pick one single favorite director it would be Fernando Meirelles, and now he's finally back again. In what I'm hoping will be a return to smart science fiction on the big screen, Julianne Moore will play the wife of a doctor (the great Mark Ruffalo) who finds she is the only person who can see in a world where everyone else has gone blind. She feigns illness in order to take care of her husband as her surrounding community breaks down into chaos and disorder. I'll probably have to wait until like December to see this out here in the hinterlands, but I'm still rather jazzed for this.

Oct. 3: "Valkyrie"
Tom Cruise and Bryan Singer's World War II epic has been pushed back from a summer release to make time for the shooting of a crucial battle scene, but presumably also to put it squarely in the middle of awards season. This one, about a German soldier (Cruise, of course) who launched a plot to assassinate Hitler, represents a reteaming of Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, the team behind "The Usual Suspects," so it should be great.

Oct. 10: "Body of Lies"
In another high-profile reunion, Russell Crowe is back with director Ridley Scott, and Leo DiCaprio's on board too, for this second CIA flick of the season. In what should be a much more somber (and probably less fun) movie than the Coens', DiCaprio will play a CIA operative who is sent to Jordan to find a high-ranking terrorist and forms an uneasy alliance with the head of Jordan's covert operations.

Oct. 25: "Flash of Genius"
If it has the fun spirit of "Tucker," which it certainly looks like it could, I think this could be the sleeper hit of the Fall (and not just because it means - finally - a prominent role for Lauren Graham!) Greg Kinnear will play Robert Kearns, a Detroit engineer who claimed the auto industry stole his idea for the intermittent windshield wiper, and Graham will play his wife.

Nov. 14: "Australia"
Is Baz Luhrmann really going to manage to finish his first movie since 2001's "Moulin Rouge"? Given all that I've read about trouble on the set, I have my doubts, but if he does it promises to be a typically ambitious project. Nicole Kidman will play an English aristocrat who inherits a large cattle ranch in northern Australia prior to World War II. To save her inheritance from cattle barons she joins forces with a cattle-driver (Hugh Jackman) to drive her 2,000 head of cattle across the country just as the Japanese start to bomb the continent. This could be either epicly good or awful, but I seriously doubt it will be boring.

Nov. 26: "The Road"
After the success of "No Country for Old Men," it indeed seems like we'll be stuck with Cormac McCarthy's works on the big screen for a while, which will probably be a good thing. Ridley Scott has his eyes on "Blood Meridian," but before that John Hillcoat will director this Oprah-approved McCarthy work about a father and son who journey together for many months across a post-apocalyptic landscape that was once the United States, some time after a great, unexplained cataclysm. The big names for this one are Charlize Theron, Viggo Mortensen and, in a welcome return, Guy Pearce.

Dec. 5: "Frost/Nixon"
Peter Morgan adapts his own play about David Frost's famous TV interviews with Richard Nixon for director Ron Howard. Though I have my doubts about Howard, you can't knock the casting for this one: Michael Sheen (Tony Blair in "The Queen") is Frost and, in the leading contender for next year's Best Actor Oscar, Frank Langella is Nixon.

Dec. 12: "Seven Pounds"
I couldn't bring myself to see "The Pursuit of Happiness (yes, I insist on spelling it right!)", and I'll probably skip this Will Smith-Gabrielle Muccino collaboration too unless I hear tremendous things about it. In the flick, Smith plays a man who "will change the lives of seven strangers." Yep, I can tell already that I'm gonna just have to skip this one.

Dec. 19: "Revolutionary Road"
In what essentially sounds like "American Beauty" set in the 1950s, Sam Mendes will direct wifey Kate Winslet and Mr. Dicaprio in this flick. The duo play a husband and wife who grow bored of their lives in the Revolutionary Hill Estates, and eventually tear each other and their marriage down. Sounds cheery, eh? I didn't really care too much for "American Beauty," so I can only get mildly excited about this redux.

Dec. 19: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
This time I have indeed saved the best for last, because I think David Fincher's next flick will be a real dark horse contender come awards season (and surely one of my favorite flicks of the year.) In the flick based on a F. Scott Fitzgerald work, a man (Brad Pitt) is born in Baltimore (huzzah!) in 1919 at the age of 80 and ages backwards through the 20th century. Cate Blanchett is also on board as a woman he falls in love with round about the time he hits age 30. Here's what Fincher himself has to say about this promising project: "It's dark, it's romantic, and it also deals with mortality in a pretty unflattering way. The guy is born in 1919 - with the film itself beginning in World War I, traveling around the world and carrying on all the way through to the year 2000." Simply cool.

And there, for anyone brave enough to stick it out to the end of all that, you have it. Definitely plenty to look forward to in the next awards season. Peace out.