In the other three categories there are fillers - I will admit that. I have only seen 42 films, so there have been performances that probably should have been put aside for greater achievements. I don't think that is the case for Best Actress, in fact I could have easily done a top ten with tremendous performances.
1. Maria Heiskanen - Maria Larssons Eviga Ogonblick(Everlasting Moments). By far the most moving performance I saw this year was by a little known Swedish actress in a art-house release that I almost missed at the cinemas. Playing an abused wife, who falls in love with another man but does nothing about it, she ripped my heart in two. 
2. Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married. We may have seen Anne's boobs in the past but this was the film where she truly performed as an adult. Playing the destrutive sister of the titular bride, Anne was a torrent of self-pity and rage with an undercurrent of pure guilt. Excellent.
3. Sasha Grey - The Girlfriend Experience. A deeply unsettling and naturalistic performance where all we see are the layers a professional hooker places around herself. Throughout the film we see them falling apart, and the impact that has on the understanding of your own identity.
4. Michelle Pfeiffer - Cheri. The second courtesan of the list, with Pfeiffer playing someone who knows her best days are behind her and enters into her final doomed love affair. No-one does brittle like Michelle, and the look into the mirror at the close of the film tells us everything we need to know about her future.
5. Abbie Cornish - Bright Star. We end with more doomed love affairs - this time separated by society and by death. Abbie's Fanny Brawne is unafraid to announce her passions to the world (and to do some first class sulking) and this confidence is striking in the final performance.
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
2009 in Review - Best Actress
Sunday, 20 December 2009
The Girlfriend Experience
2009. Dir: Steven Soderbergh. Starring: Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Mark Jacobson, Glenn Kenny and Christine Nadeau. ●●●●○
I had planned to get some professional help, and a little insider knowledge, when reviewing The Girlfriend Experience, but alas "Sean"'s plans changed so I am writing from my own experience and knowledge only.
Steven Soderbergh's fourth feature from 2009 is by far his most outré, in terms of both content and style. Che was in immersive biopic of a controversial 20th Century figure as viewed through a very small period of time, The Insider a comic vignette, an exercise in big gestures and little resonance. In The Girlfriend Experience we follow a high class hooker (Chelsea), as played by porn actress Sasha Grey, over a couple of weeks leading to the 2008 Presidential election. During that time we meet her clients, her friends, her business associates and hear her diary entries.
It should be noted this film is not an exercise in titilation, at no point are Ms Grey's physical attributes glorified or debased. In fact we see much more of her chatting to her clients about the future of the economy or their family than we see her even kissing the patrons. This is also not a film about the horrors of protitution. Chelsea is strictly top end, offering a Girlfriend Experience, not a quick blow job up a back alley. The clients and the environments reflect this. And as there is no risk for Chelsea this can therefore be not seen as an essay on the rights and wrongs of prostitution. If you had imagined either a cheap thrill or a polemic then this is not the movie you think it is.
Instead the film looks at the nature of identity and how that is affected by selling yourself. The film plays with chronology, often returning to scenes over and over, and one of those is an interview where Chelsea is repeatedly asked what if a client wants the real her. Each time she answers that he gives the client a fake version of the real her, but you can it's that question preoccupying Soderbergh. What is the real Chelsea and how do the layers she puts in front of herself affect her self confidence?
Sashe Grey gives a remarkable performance, destroying any notion you may have that pron stars can't act. For the naysayers who would claim that Chelsea is so close to Grey that it's not acting I would say just look at the nuance in her eyes. The way she sits with her clients, the abstract listing of her designer shoes, her mouth curling when she receives a 'phone call at a hotel (I don't want to spoil that scene but it's a killer). I really hope that Hollywood sit up and take notice as I'm sure Sashe Grey could make that transfer to mainstream cinema with ease.
The rest of the cast are patchy, Glenn Kenny is suitably sleazy as an erotic reviewer, but her boyfriend Chris Santos ia little more than buff furniture.
Soderbergh uses a fly on the wall style which compliments the idea of detachment from the protagonists. The camera is often a couple of tables away in a restaurant or through the glass of a taxi, making each scene seem to be like snippets of conversation we've overheard with nothing really said of any importance.
For a 77 minute film there somehow manages to be some filling, as Soderbergh tries too hard to reflect selling your body against the meltdown in the banking industry and the confidence in the forthcoming changes in administration, perhaps streamlining some of this might have left the film feeling less baggy. Overall though this was an excellent look at a difficult to comprehend subject, proof that Soderbergh really is the king of indie cinema.
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Out these week (27/11/09-11/12/09)
Well, I'm back. The tour has completed - for the time being (I'll try and get in a personal news later today to explain this) and I've got this opportunity to catch up with the last 3 weeks of cinematic releases. I do feel a pang of guilt about not previewing these films, although I doubt any of them needed me. The first 2 weeks were actually pretty exciting with closely fought battles for the film of the week, with Paranormal Activity taking it on 27 November and Departures leading the pack on 04 December. This week was much easier to predict with Where the Wild Things Are really standing out as one to watch.
11 December 2009
Carriers
Do you want to see a film about the fall of mankind against an unspecified threat? Do you find the wait until The Road and The Book of Eli unbearable? Do you find Star Trek's Chris Pine unbearably cute? If the answer to these questions is yes, then this is the film for you.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Limits of Control
Jim Jarmusch directs a self-referential, obscure, inaccessible crime movie with a group of increasingly famous stars making unrecognisable cameos. It's like the quintessential Jarmusch picture. Not sure if it's me, though.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Mascarades
Algerian comedy. There aren't many of those, so scarcity will no doubt increase the anticipation for the film.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Rocket Singh - Salesman of the Year
Modern Indian comedy about a young man working in a outsourced call centre. Well loved on the net, so I'm giving it an unusual (for Bollywood) 3 blobs.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
7 Husbands for Hurmuz
Turkish comedy about a serial bigamist in Istanbul. Nurgül Yesilcay (as the titular Hurmuz) is clearly having a ball in the trailer.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
The Stepfather
Woeful looking remake of classic 80's slasher flick, with all the scares and social commentary edited out. Amber Heard spends most of the movie in her panties, which could be sen as a bonus.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Unmade Beds
Alexis Dos Santos's first English language pic is set in the squatting communities in London and spefically looks at the romance between two immigrants as they reach turnign points in their lives.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Where the Wild Things Are
The critical reaction has been surprisingly mixed, Anthony Quinn of the Independent felt it was less competent than The Stepfather, and US receipts were not what was expected. I'm up for it though. Let the rumpus start.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
04 December 2009
The Box
Richard Kelly continues to astound and confuse with his latest sci-fi thriller, based on the short story by Richard Matheson. Would you cause the death of someone you don't know for $1m? Even if the plot unravels in the final third it's definitely a film to watch.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Cracks
Jordan (daughter of Ridley) Scott makes her directorial debut with this British boarding school set drama. Essentially about the power and influence of teachers and the popular girls in school.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Departures
Surprise winner of the 2008 best Foreign language Oscar, this Japanese drama about a former cellist taking a job as a formal undertaker and discovering the dignity in death and the importance of leading life to the full.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
The Descent: Part 2
Needless sequel, replacing the tight knit group of friends with their individual character traits and collective baggae with ctock characters and excessive gore. Avoidable.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Disgrace
Adaptation of well regarding J. M Coetzee novel with John Malkovich playing a South African lecturer coming to terms about the truth of racial relations in Africa and his own prejudices.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
The Girlfriend Experience
Experimental Soderbergh picture about a high class hooker, and her personal trainer boyfriend. It's the fourth film for him this year, I'm up for it but with the low fi approach I can see why some will be turned off.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
I Know You Know
Autobiographical film about a boy grwoing up in a small Welsh town and slowly discovering his father is a MI5 agent. I have no idea who this Robert Carlyle starrer is aimed at.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Me and Orson Welles
Zac Efron continues to find ways to take over the world by choosing a key acting project working for renowned indie filmmaker Richard Linklater and co-starring with heavily buzzed Chritian McKay playing Orson Welles. Bombastic and exuberant.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Merry Gentleman
Michael Keaton returns from wherever he's been hiding with this directorial debut set in a depressed small town with an stand out performance from Kelly Macdonald.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Paa
Sort of a Bollywood version of Jack. Only less smaltzy looking and probably more incisive.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Planet 51
When we look back at the story of animation in 2009 I imagine this Dwayne Johnson/Justin Long vehicle about a US astronaut landing on an inhabited planet will be quickly forgotten. That might be a shame as the trailer looks fun, with some geeky references and perhaps a satrical title.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Radio - Love on Air
I know absolutely nothing about this film at all. Just the title. Not much I know, but given it's a limited Bollywood release I'm not even going to make the effort to find out any more.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Situations Vacant
Irish comedy about how you can use white lies to really boost your circumstances, but then once they start to unravel can lead to hilarious consequences. No I'm not buying that intro either.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
27 November 2009
Bunny and the Bull
DIY film making at it's best as a group of friends go on a pan-European road trip, without leaving the comfort of their shared flat. From the makers of The Mighty Boosh.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
De Dana Dan
Akshay Kumar is one of the most prolific and famous stars in modern Bollywood, this is his latest project. His name is really all that's needed to see it to the masses so I haven't looked up anythign else.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Law Abiding Citizen
Gerard Butler is a Law Abiding Citizen who following the horrific murder of his wife and daughter and the subsequent double dealings by Jamie Foxx's sleazy D.A. decides to kill everyone. Sub Death Wish tosh.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Mr. Right
Gay Rom com, set in London's Soho as the characters search for thier own Mr. Right. If it's anything like the Soho I know it will involves lots of bad cocktails and many catty comments about other people in the club. Although the trailer makes it seem like it could be anywhere.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Naan Avan Illai 2
If you liked Naan Avan Illai then this is the film for you...
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Nativity!
Quaint looking british comedy about intense competition in neighbouring primary schools for their Nativity plays. Looks charming and fun. If you've got a family this could be one for you.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Paranormal Activity
Masively successful indie horror film, showing that audiences care more for carefully constructed relationships and believeable set up than cheap thrills and gore. And it proves that a door moving fractionally is the scariest thing in the world.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Seraphine
French biopic about the illeterate cleaner who became one of the early 2oth Centuries most influence female artists.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
20 November 2009
And a couple of films that I had missed from the previous week - both of which have almost certainly disappeared from cinemas by now.
Christmas in Wonderland
Shameless release of one of Patrick Swayze's last films, which on reflection should have stayed locked up in a vault in LA. Single father Swayze takes his kids on a shopping trip ahead of the Christmas holidays. Family fun happens.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Valley of the Wolves: Gladio
Latest installment in long running successful Turkish action franchise.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
