So Here's What I've Been Up To:

My beloved Movies Kick Ass is turning ten this year and I've been such a neglectful parent lately...but it's not like I've not been doing movie things or anything...I've been cheating for the right reasons:

I was among the lucky few who got to interview Mr. Ken Loach about The Angels' Share. Talking to him was like listening to a film class. Here's the interview.

I talked to, and fell in love with, the sultry Patricia Clarkson, who seduced me by saying she loved my outfit during a week when I had a serious throat infection and was high on cold meds. She was a dream and the best thing in The East.

I interviewed Sarah Polley about her stunning documentary Stories We Tell. My absolute fave movie of this year so far.

And here are a few of my favorite reviews I've done:

Upstream Color one of 2013's most magnificent films got an early Blu-ray release and it's out on Netflix too, which means everyone should see it ASAP.

The Impossible you all know how much I loved this film and I will never stop getting pissed at people who think it's "white folk suffer in a tsunami" kind of movie. It might've been the most unjustly misunderstood film of last year.

Zero Dark Thirty It lost the Oscar, but its legacy will once again prove oh how wrong AMPAS gets it time after time.

Holy Motors two days ago I told Kylie Minogue how much I loved her in this movie. She smiled, touched my hand and said "thank you so much!". And no, I did not dream this...

So, what have y'all been up to?

Motifs in Cinema: The Inevitability of Death

Motifs in Cinema is a discourse across 22 film blogs, assessing the way in which various thematic elements have been used in the 2012 cinematic landscape. How does a common theme vary in use from a comedy to a drama? Are filmmakers working from a similar canvas when they assess the issue of death or the dynamics of revenge? Like most things, a film begins with an idea - Motifs in Cinema assesses how the use of a common theme across various films changes when utilized by different artists.

"I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen

Death has fascinated the human kind since the moment of its creation. It has always been said that art was in fact invented as a way for us to defy mortality. What we create, ideally, remains forever. While movies have had a special fixation on what happens after we're gone (perhaps because filmmakers believe they can interpret the idea of an afterlife or earthly purgatory visually) 2012 gave us a roster of films in which death went beyond the limitations of our bodily existence and filmmakers realized that death might also threaten things that were once thought of as immortal.

In the remarkable Holy Motors, Leos Carax brings up the eternal question: is cinema about to die? This question has plagued the art form even before it was thought of as an actual art form. Film, more than any other art, has always been plagued by accusations of fugacity. Why has literature or sculpture never faced such fate? What does paper - which is arguably as spoilable as celluloid - have that film doesn't? Carax observes this through the eyes of someone who's perhaps worried that the digitalization of our world might put an end to the photographic tradition, and as such the movie does a marvelous job in reminding us there is true pleasure in the idea of film, but it fails in achieving a sense of doom. Perhaps Carax wasn't attempting to discourage hope, he was just welcoming the beginning of a new era.

The death of tradition and old world culture is seen palpably in Michael Haneke's Amour, a film that deals with actual physical death, but isn't really about people, but about the passing of generations and the ideas carried by generations. The film's central premise wonders what happens to us when we stop thinking rationally, when nature deems us incapable of fulfilling the promise of immortality we've made ourselves and we are back to being basic creatures with animal needs who care only about survival. The film's "cruelty" is that it reminds us that not only are our bodies deemed to vanish, but also our creations. There is no enough culture, refinement or education that can save the movie's characters from vanishing, not knowing where they're headed and what was everything really about.

The death of love and traditional romance are studied by the wonderful Joe Wright, an uncompromising aesthete who has no trouble removing "emotion" when it serves a higher purpose. While I wasn't a fan of his Anna Karenina perhaps because I'm used to the more traditional readings of it which highlight the fiery passion and romance of Tolstoy's novel, I admired the way with which Wright reminds us that romance might only be a series of plays we put on to convince ourselves we are not cruel and wicked. His interpretation of Anna Karenina - as played by the incredible Keira Knightley - takes love to a level of intellectualism that punches us in the gut. By the time Anna jumps in front of the train we are convinced it wasn't an easy escape, it was her only one.

Like in Amour and Holy Motors, Miguel Gomes' Tabu explores the death of an era. The film could easily form a trilogy with the other two, each one envisioning the end of traditional aesthetic systems through a distinctive eye. In his gorgeous black and white movie, Gomes sees movie history played out in reverse: his film opens with a talkie and ends with a silent movie. We travel back in time as Gomes takes us to a state of "primal existence" where we go beyond the narrowness of "life" and are forced to become one with art. Can movies faithfully interpret lives? Are movies for that matter alive? Tabu easily convinces us that a movie too is a breathing organism subject to whims and emotional changes. Perhaps more significant is to realize that European filmmakers were observing art through similar lenses. Haneke, Carax and Gomes, all creators from different countries, contemplate the end through their own idiosyncrasies, all of them see life and art through the undeniable eye of post-colonialism. When across the ocean we were watching new filmmakers, like Chile's Pablo Larraín, explore life through the refreshing eye of new media (for what is No, if not a hopeful love song to modern life?) back in Europe, artists were obsessed with the end, trying to salvage the pieces they could before everything was just lost...have all these people been watching Melancholia too much?

In the United States, a country which unarguably has mastered the commercial aspects of cinema more than the artistic ones, we got a devastating look at the end of an era as well, only this one wasn't marked by culture or art, but by economic and political power (2012 might've been the one year in recent memory where countries evoked their entire history through key films) In her glorious Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow wonders what happens to a country when a collective ideal has been fulfilled. What happens when you destroy the enemy? Where do you go from there? Wisely Bigelow acknowledges that she has no answers, but what she does with this isn't going against the American idea of patriotism as defending your country without being critical of its shortcomings, instead Bigelow might be one of the most important thinkers of her time. Her movie has been accused of many things, all of which have to do with peripheral details that really amount to nothing. No one in Europe accused Haneke of using torture, even if he has a manipulative record much more prominent than Bigelow's for example. With her ambiguous take on America as a nation on what might be its most significant threshold, it's a shame that Bigelow's ideas are received with torches and pitchforks instead of with open minds. In a society where ignorance and bliss have become one the death she announces in her movie might be more of an eulogy delivered a little bit too late.

Style Sunday (SAG Edition)

Julianne Moore seems to do no wrong. Her choice of Chanel for the SAG seems to be doing her usual love of white and black (the Emmys last year were the rare exception) but adding a little something extra. The playfulness of the flowers and the sideswept hair might make it one of her best looks yet.

The lovely J.Law looks like a real grown woman in this sensational Dior gown. The color is marvelous and the classic hair and makeup are perfection. Can you believe she was recovering from pneumonia?

I love that Marion and J.Law seem to be doing the same Dior show, this maritime beauty recalls something Catherine Deneuve or Grace Kelly would've worn.

Any Jennifer Garner sighting is a good thing in my very humble opinion, even if nowadays it merely means she's supporting her husband. I don't know who she was wearing yet, but I believe she decided to dress as the Oscar her husband was snubbed for. God I adore this woman.

I am over Anne Hathaway this season, but I love the Audrey Hepburn feel of this Giambattista Valli. Her pixie cut and red lips are to die for.

Va-va-wow! Jessica Chastain is delicious in this fiery Alexander McQueen. Don't you think based on these looks, she and J.Law could be cast as 1940's noir vixens?

Tina Fey is the cutest and her sense of style has grown beautifully in the past few years. This Oscar de la Renta might not be far from what she usually does, but the simple belt adds a touch of class we'd never expect from Liz Lemon. Brava.

Nicole Kidman is a queen and this Vivienne Westwood gown makes her look absolutely magnificent.

Oh my dear January Jones, people will probably never understand that you are a magnificent creature sent to us from a distant future where fashion reigns. Your looks will be forever misunderstood and where wicked creatures saw you doing a Grace Jones parody in this stunning Prabal Gurung, time will reveal you were playing with structures and shapes in a way no one else would dare to. Soon, they too, will bow to you.

Who were your favorite ladies?

Sheet-y Saturday (Fave Posters of 2012)

In no particular order (both because I'm lazy and because I really like them all)

Portrayed the exuberance and joi de vivre the film teasd about having but ended up lacking. It's an image of pure joy captured in a single moment.

Merida gives her back to the world proving just how she's setting herself apart from all other Disney princesses. Brave move indeed.

After reading Pattinson and then Cronenber, you're like "wait, what?" but the matinee idol's look of quiet despair hooks you.

If ever a movie's visual idiosyncrasy was captured by its poster, it's this. 

You can not look at this and not giggle. If only the rest of the marketing campaign had been this Hitchcockian...

Saul Bass brilliance for a noble cause. 

It's like a flyer from an actual strip club. You just wanna do jello shots after looking at it.

Like the cover of a 70s exploitation movie or a bad paperback. 

Promises a mystery larger than what the movie actually contained. 

This redacted title with no movie star names, no "from Oscar winning director" and no release date might be the greatest movie poster of the year (maybe I did have a favorite). Simple, effective and haunting.

What were your faves this year?

Head Over to The Film Experience...

...where I discuss AMPAS' bias against modern movies and Best Cinematography.

(My) Best of 2011: Supporting Actress

5. Jennifer Lawrence in The Beaver

Jennifer Lawrence has one of those faces made to encompass the concept of All-American Girl however she has the acting chops to subvert these very notions and turn them into enigmatic traits. Take her performance in Jodie Foster's vastly underrated work of art The Beaver, here Lawrence plays Norah, a high-school girl who also happens to be a cheerleader, valedictorian and an underground graffiti artist. While lesser actresses would've conformed with letting the character do all the work, Lawrence taps onto something great: she recognizes the deep humanity that lies beneath the seemingly perfect shell and turns Norah into the most haunting characters in an already enthralling film.

4. Jennifer Ehle in Contagion

In an ensemble piece that feels more Nashville than Gosford Park it results kind of difficult for one actor to make a more lasting impact than others, particularly when their stories barely intersect and each of them end up commanding tiny movies of their own. In the case of Contagion it would seem almost impossible to choose between the impressively moving work of Kate Winslet, the vanity free performance of  Gwyneth Paltrow or the worldly wisdom projected by the lovely Marion Cotillard and yet it's the subtle work of Jennifer Ehle that stays with you and lingers for weeks after you see the movie. Playing the part of a dedicated scientist most of her scenes are actually dialogue-free. However watching the way her Meryl Streep-ian features light up is nothing if not magical. Ehle has the kind of face that evokes Falconetti and Streep in equal measures, the camera becomes so transfixed by her ethereal beauty that she needs but to muster a smile to let us into the secrets of creation.

3. Keira Knightley in A Dangerous Method

Year after year Keira Knightley seems to be delivering astonishing work that goes by without people making a fuss about it. Why? Her work in a movie like A Dangerous Method for example would get countless actresses hyperbolic comments about their craft and such. The way in which the young actress immerses herself into the character of Sabina Spielrein proves she possesses talents that go beyond her years. The way she allows the character to possess her is almost too disturbing to watch. The way in which Sabina's inner demons surface in shocking demonic moves makes Keira look completely awful, her notorious jaw and underbite deforming her lovely features and yet out of all of this - done without prosthetic work or special effects - Keira is always able to come back and find the latent humanity in this woman. She turns in absolutely moving work and steals the show from both Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen; watching her squirm with pleasure as Carl Jung (Fassbender) whips her might just send you into nervous shock.

2. Jessica Chastain in The Help

We all know Jessica Chastain had the most terrific year any actress could've ever wished for. Her presence in some of the most important pictures of 2011 turned into a recurrent joke, where everyone assumed in reality she'd literally been in every single movie. The beauty of  the Chastain effect however wasn't her perseverance but the quality of her work. She was the MVP in each of those movies she was in! She created different characters whose only common denominator was the actress playing them, other than that you could never see any of her conflicted Samantha from Take Shelter in the haunting performance she turned in The Tree of Life. However even within her flawless list of performances it was her affecting turn as Celia Foote in The Help the one which might very well become the most iconic of her short career. Filling the colorful 60's costumes and donning an outrageous blond wig, Chastain plays the ultimate ditzy blond, who moves into a town where she is hated for representing everything others only dream they could be. In a movie that takes intolerance to the front of the equation, it's her beautifully nuanced performance that comments on the way in which hatred can go beyond the confines of race, sex or religion. With the comedic timing of Judy Holliday and the whoop-dee-doop sex appeal of Marilyn Monroe, Chastain is more remarkable in quiet scenes where Celia's true persona surfaces. She might be all sunshine and smiles on the outside but we learn that she crafted this persona in order to survive in a world that would crush her without giving it a second thought.

1.Charlotte Gainsbourg in Melancholia

Lars von Trier has earned a reputation for torturing and destroying any actress who come near him. This results in quite the paradox when you see the performances he gets out of women in his films. It should mean something then - both for Lars and his ways and tough love in general - to see how Charlotte Gainsbourg has flourished under his direction. She was absolutely ravishing in Antichrist turning a performance that fearlessly dared to carry all the evil of the world upon its shoulders. Conversely her work in Melancholia seems almost saintlike. Playing Claire, the sister of depressed bride Justine (Kirsten Dunst), Gainsbourg effortlessly overcomes what could've been one of the film's biggest setbacks: the fact that no one in the family seems to be even remotely related. Instead of focusing on the differences between Claire and Justine, Gainsbourg devotes her performance to making them familiar because of the intense love they share. The way in which the actress seems to take pleasure in comforting the petite Dunst exudes warmth and a humanity unlike anything you've ever seen in a von Trier film. Even as she has to cope with her own fears and pain - after all a huge planet is about to destroy Earth - Gainsbourg gives a mature, unfathomably brave performance. She only allows Claire to break down during the very last moments of the film and unlike Dunst who is always one minute away from exploding with the joys of new discoveries, Gainsbourg always seems to have the knowledge of the world. Watching the way Claire's entire life flashes by in Gainsbourg's eyes in a matter of seconds isn't only testament to her prowess as an actress, it also reminds us of the beauty and fragility of life. 

Oscars 2012: Best Dressed.

It was the safest year we've ever had on the red carpet. This means that:
a) There's little to make fun of and even less to give us nightmares (something that very well describes the utter forgettability of the whole event)
b) There is just one look that will go down on the fashion books (guess which one...)
c) Meryl Streep is featured among the best dressed for the second time! You'll be in shock when you see how high she ranked!

10) Natalie Portman
Since last year she denied us moments of amazing fashion (damn you baby bump!) she tried hard to make up for it this year in a series of looks that highlight her loveliness. This vintage Dior gown features polka dots, yes polka dots, and even if you would've assumed they only worked in relaxed episodes of Mad Men, Portman made the look acquire a certain je ne sai quoi. The hair is a bit of a letdown, but she looks so jovial and fresh...

9. Michelle Williams

It was about time MiWi wore something that made it seem she was having fun and enjoying herself. The girlieness in this Louis Vuitton is undeniable and the way she accessorized it (the little bow!) is absolutely adorable. This is the first time I've ever been in love with one of her looks.

8. Emma Stone

Yes, we all know this Giambattista Valli is essentially Nicole Kidman's Balenciaga froma  few years ago. The difference is in the style of the woman who wears it. With Nicole, the dress made a statement; it seemed to be saying "I am a gift to humanity" and neither of us could prove it wrong, which is why the dress gained a certain arrogance (very much like Jolie and her leg this year). 

As worn by Emma, the giant bow expresses her exciting youthfulness and her eager desire to be liked. The flow of the gown is remarkable and Emma's grin brings it something that Nicole's icy demeanor never achieved.

7. Rose Byrne

She's sexy and she knows it, that's why she went for a simple Vivienne Westwodd sequined sheath that screamed disco queen meets dominatrix. 

6. Stacy Kiebler
She may not be a celebrity but boy was she perfect on the red carpet. This Marchesa is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. The structure is perfect, the color is bold and demands everyone's attention. Clooney lost Best Actor but he sure had his own little golden statue to take home.

5. Penélope Cruz

Everyone seems to have a strong opinion on Pé's new hairstyle. I think the length is perfect and even if it gives her a slight severity it still brings out the Grace Kelly-ness in her. Something highlighted even more by this gorgeous sky-blue Armani Privé which follows Pé's own kind of red carpet trend but feels utterly refreshing in spite of its classic-ness.

4. Jessics Chastain

Do you remember when Beyoncé wore an awful House of Dereon black and gold dress to the Oscars that made her look like a huge Chinese lantern? Do you remember when a few years later Halle Berry showed Ms. Knowles how to do black and gold? Well, Jessica Chastain now occupies the title of best black.and-gold wearer of all time, in this majestic Alexander McQueen that culminates Chastain's impeccable red carpet season with what might become her most iconic look. She is picture perfect and too flawless for words.

3. Rooney Mara
Bangs? Check.

Intense red lipstick? Check.
Givenchy structured dress? Check.

Mara was another newbie princess bringing it all together with a flawless Oscar look. 

The dress' texture made it look like she was surrounded by clouds. Perfection!

2. Meryl Streep
Upon first looking at Meryl's liquid gold Lanvin, one would've thought she was dressed like an Oscar because she knew she'd go home empty handed. As the night progressed, the color gave the Queen of Actors a certain glow that made her look holier than ever.

Then, she won and Meryl achieved a new power, that of prophecy given how beautifully her newest statuette looked against her dress. This is the best Streep has ever looked at any awards ceremony. Well done! Posterity will be thankful.

1. Gwyneth Paltrow
On a night that was all about nostalgia and old Hollywood glamour, Gwyneth Paltrow set the bar higher than the rest in this absolutely exquisite Tom Ford dress complete with a Joan Crawford-esque cape. This look is so perfect that not even the cape is mock-able. It gives her a demure consistency that's only surpassed by the simplicity of her makeup, hair and accessories. If she had gone for a tight bun or a high hairdo, she might've been too severe, or too old. The ease with which her pony tail let the dress take over and highlighted her sinfully beautiful bone structure, might just be Gwyneth's most astonishing red carpet look. Some are crediting the dress to the fact that she had first dibs on Ford's ultra secret new collection but come on, how many actresses out there can pull off a cape?
Gwyneth's boldness and refreshingly oxymoronic effortless glamour are what sartorialist dreams are made of!

What were your favorite looks?

I also discussed fashion with the awesome Nathaniel and Kurt over at The Film Experience. So what are you waiting for? Head over there and join the merriment!

Short Take: "Take Shelter", "Margin Call" and "Texas Killing Fields"

In Take Shelter, Michael Shannon plays Curtis, a man who is having constant apocalyptic visions, and can you blame him? With the world going through one of its most severe cases of economic, cultural and sociological

crises, he would need to be heavily sedated to be optimistic. This is the film's magic, how writer/director Jeff Nichols transports all these feelings of impending doom and crafts with them, not a preposterous ode to negativity but an intelligent psychological portrait about the way in which our subconscious manifests its fears.

The film isn't clever because we wonder whether Curtis' visions are signs of insanity or actual premonitions, but because of the way in which Shannon taps onto the fear of losing one's mind when trying to remain a responsible member of society. The film is almost socialist in the way it so fixates itself on work, as Curtis builds a shelter to protect his family (the ubiquitous Jessica Chastain plays his wife and is nothing short of perfect). Nichols crafts a workman symbolism as we see, construction worker, Curtis dig deep down into the ground to escape from a sky that for the first time seems to be noticing him. He's trying to escape doom by working harder. Now how's that for a pitch perfect snapshot of our times?  

Margin Call deals with the corruption that goes behind the stock market and emphasizes on the "thrills" that make Wall Street such an adored object of Hollywood's attention. Why not make a comedy about  this for once? The film doesn't really contribute anything new to the genre with Penn Badgley and Zachary Quinto playing the wide eyed virgins willing to sell their soul to get a piece of the pie and Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons playing larger-than-life monsters who control everything with their ruthlessness and suspenders. The ensemble is quite effective (despite having the likes of Simon Baker and Demi Moore in its ranks) but the film's lack of actual excitement makes it endlessly dull.

Oy, Sam Worthington really needs blue aliens or Keira Knightley to turn in semi-decent performances, playing a violent detective in Texas Killing Fields does him no favors, but then again the material does none of the actors any favor (although Jessica Chastain somehow manages to deliver the goods). This serial killer flick had all the makings of a B-gore fest, but everything is so overdone that its intention to be some sort of feminist essay bites in the back by becoming endlessly stereotypical and cliché. The film was directed by Michael Mann's daughter and one would wish she had inherited some of her dad's stylish eye for crime movies.

Grades
Take Shelter ***
Margin Call **
Texas Killing Fields *

SAG Style.

I was busy watching The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo for the third time last night and forgot all about the SAG awards. I loved the winners, so there's that and now let's focus on what really mattered, how everyone looked:

Again, as much as I loved pregnant Natalie Portman, that baby bump robbed us of some magic last year, just look how stunning Natalie looks in this plum Giambatista Valli. Her figure has never been better and the simplicity of the makeup and hair are to die for. 

I have come up with a theory. Every time Meryl Streep looks good she loses at awards shows. It's like they have something against the greatest living actress looking beautiful when she wins...

You want proof o my theory? Should I write a full post on this? Help me decide... 

Anyway she was fantastic in Vivienne Westwood last night.

Marchesa does no wrong when well used. Viola Davis is a true goddess in this flowy Greek inspired dress.

Tilda Swinton is a true vision in this astonishing Lanvin creation, which might just be the exact opposite of the liquid fabric Lanvin she collected her Oscar in. The red lips and hair remind me a bit of Marilyn Monroe and I'm imagining the late genius Derek Jarman doing Marilyn with her...

Is there anyone more adorable than Octavia Spencer? She's looking fierce in this light grey Tadashi Shoji. The high hairdo might be the best we've seen her in so far and the lovely top make her look truly regal.

Oh, actually yes, there is someone more adorable than Octavia, her The Help co-star Jessica Chastain. Want proof of that? Here you go. Anyway, the lovely actress stunned in a blue Calvin Klein that highlighted her upper body in a way she's failed to do recently. Doesn't she look dreamy?

Rose Byrne is gorgeous and this dazzling Elie Saab jumpsuit (and her new bob!) make her look even better! Only someone with real guts can pull off such a daring look on a red carpet. She's ace!

I will keep including Lea Michele in these lineups for as often as she looks completely ridiculous in her extreme posing and affected, almost constipated, in her facial gestures. This Versace dress is awesome, but Lea always manages to cheapen everything with her sluttiness and need to be in the spotlight. Sigh.

The always lovely Emma Stone rocked this Alexander McQueen tea-length dress which pays homage to The Help while reminding us of what a genius McQueen was...that top is SO Lee!

A Valentino red dress seems to be what Michelle Williams needed to finally look alive. She's a picture of joy in this column dress with delicate lace appliqués.

Someone needs to feed Angelina Jolie, she looks cadaverous in this Jenny Packham dress. The gown itself is lovely but Jolie's bracelet looks heavier than her entire body. 

Who were your best dressed at SAG?