Oscar Nominations Reactions

“Oscar Nominations Reactions”

The funny thing about Oscar® predictions in many years is that you don’t know whether you want to be right or wrong. We know most of the popular Oscar® patterns but we are disappointed when the Academy does not think outside the box. In such a great cinematic year like 2007, the Academy responded quite well to the wealth of filmic audacity on display and, though inevitably not all achievements could be duly recognized, it is heartening that even the majority of surprise nominations are worthy.

The Best Picture nominations were as many expected, with No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood being the clear front-runners with a total of 8 nominations apiece. Juno became the so-called successor to Little Miss Sunshine and may actually be the only one with the potential of reaching $100 million at the box office. Michael Clayton and Atonement rounded out the list with 7 nominations each, despite some doubts that the latter would be passed on over Into the Wild. One curiosity to many though is how Into the Wild is also conspicuously absent in almost every other category. Even the movie’s director, Sean Penn was passed over for that award as well as Best Adapted Screenplay.

The voters instead went for Juno’s director, Jason Reitman (son of Ghostbusters director, Ivan Reitman), which just seems like a tie-in to the film’s Best Picture nod and probably an attempt to show that there is not such a bias in favor of actors turned directors. The other four Best Director nominees were as expected: the Coens for No Country for Old Men, P.T. Anderson for There Will Be Blood, Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton and Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

The Best Actor category had perhaps the most pleasant surprise: Tommy Lee Jones from In the Valley of Elah. I praised his performance as the main reason for seeing the flawed film and griped at his being ignored by the precursors so it is great to see that the Academy had the imagination to pick such a subtly rich performance. Johnny Depp’s lack of a SAG nod did not hurt him picking up a nomination here while Daniel Day-Lewis, George Clooney and Viggo Mortensen picked up nods as expected for There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton and Eastern Promises, respectively.

Julie Christie, Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page were all honored Best Actress nods for Away From Her, La Vie en Rose and Juno, respectively, as everyone predicted. The nod for Cate Blanchett’s badly overrated repeat performance in Elizabeth: The Golden Age over Amy Adams in Enchanted is my only major quibble with the nominations because I was hoping the Academy would finally break the stigma of ignoring that acting in comedy is really harder than drama. On the other hand, one inspired but unexpected choice was Laura Linney, whom many thought was the main thread that held The Savages together.

Best Supporting Actor had no surprises, though Hal Holbrook said he himself was stunned at his becoming the oldest male nominee at the age of 82. Javier Bardem, Tom Wilkinson and Casey Affleck also received nods for their work in No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, respectively, and Hoffman had to get some kind of honor for turning in three distinctive performances in one year (and he was the stellar standout in Charlie Wilson’s War, too).

Cate Blanchett received her second, more richly deserved nomination in Best Supporting Actress for I’m Not There, though her stronghold as a frontrunner may be threatened by Amy Ryan whose buzz has only been rising for Gone Baby Gone. Though I did not predict it, it was comforting to see the recognition for Ruby Dee who delivered an unforgettable, powerful emotional jolt in the middle of the crime epic, American Gangster. Saoirse Ronan’s work in Atonement was not forgotten either and Tilda Swinton picked up her first nomination for yet another tremendously risky performance in Michael Clayton.

Best Original Screenplay was probably the easiest to guess and it is nice to see so many female screenwriters honored for their comedic originality from Diablo Cody for Juno to Nancy Oliver for Lars and the Real Girl and Tamara Jenkins in The Savages. Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco also picked up a nomination for his deliciously innovative Ratatouille while Tony Gilroy filled in the serious dramatic void in the category for his legal thriller, Michael Clayton.

The Best Adapted Screenplay lineup was as expected with one positive exception in Sarah Polley for Away From Her and I am happy that the Academy showed enough imagination to recognize its unusually intricate emotional puzzle. The Coens and P.T. Anderson also gained nods for No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, respectively, continuing their fierce three-category, two-horse race. Atonement’s Christopher Hampton and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’s Ronald Harwood picked up deserved nominations for adapting notoriously difficult material for the screen.

Best Animated Feature is a very strong category this year now that Persepolis is going head-to-head with Ratatouille. The out-of-the-blue nomination though came from Surf’s Up (no pun intended), suggesting that the Academy’s unusual fascination with penguins is not quite over after the Oscar wins for March of the Penguins and Happy Feet. But I think we can safely assume that no penguins will be waddling onto the stage this time, as this is really a fierce fight between two very different but equally imaginative works.

As for the remaining categories, I am happy to see the old-school style Disney songs from Enchanted up for Best Original Song, though all three of their nominations may lose out to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irlgova’s “Falling Slowly” from the great Irish musical, Once. It was also nice to see the music fable, August Rush recognized. I’m also relieved that the valuable political documentary, No End in Sight was not overlooked for its objective, factual analysis of the Iraq war and that Michael Moore has a more deserved nomination for his documentary critiquing the health-care system, Sicko.

Overall, that there are so few nominations to question or doubt and that nearly every single film mentioned is worth writing home about are a testament to how wondrous a year 2007 was for movies. Having had such a year should be a screeching call for studios to quickly settle the writers’ strike so that the Oscars® can properly celebrate it with a proper starry ceremony. We can only hope and keep our fingers crossed.

Footnote: After the news of Heath Ledger's passing that was also announced on Tuesday, I cannot end without saying how heartbreaking it is to think that he will now never make it to the Oscar podium when he had every talent and potential to and that his two-year old daughter will grow up without seeing him there.

Cloverfield

“Cloverfield”

USA. 2008. Directed by Matt Reeves. Written by Drew Goddard. Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Lizzy Caplan, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, Margot Farley, Theo Rossi, Anjul Nigam, Brian Klugman, Kelvin Yu, Liza Lapira, Lili Mirojnick and Ben Feldman.

Rating: ★★★

Cloverfield seems to be the culmination of the recent trend of handheld hyper-realism in action and horror movies. After The Blair Witch Project popularized the shaky camera technique, numerous films from the Bourne and the 28 Days Later series to The Kingdom have used it to place viewers in the frantic rush of the action with varying degrees of success. Now, with the shakiest camera available, the disaster genre gets its turn with this movie that depicts a relentless monster attack on New York City without the typical cheesy histrionics and ra-ra jingoist instincts to distract from the central lean, mean terror.

The film, of course, is the one that has been surrounded by Internet hype and speculation ever since its trailer was shown attached to Transformers with just the producers’ name, J.J. Abrams and the release date, 1-18-08, and no official title. The big money shot was the head of the Statue of Liberty falling to the street in the midst of a monster attack that strikes New York City. All of this is filmed entirely like a point-of-view shot of a handful of survivors who have a friend’s going-away party interrupted by a large explosion incited by the gigantic monster.

It is a credit to Abrams, director Matt Reeves and writer Drew Goddard that they have not buried themselves under their clever ad campaign, unlike The Blair Witch Project, which became nothing more than a gimmick after the elaborately fake back story on the website prevented us from really using our imaginations to figure out whatever was going on in the dark. The filmmakers here have kept their big creature as their secret weapon and the movie itself is smart enough to reveal the monster’s true nature piece by piece like bread crumbs. And no, I will not reveal what the creature really looks like or how it gestates other than to observe that I think it could probably have Godzilla for breakfast.

We don’t even really see much of a back story of the origin of the monster, just like the group of twenty-something year olds initially celebrating that going-away party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David) would not from their limited perspective. The first half hour is just focused on that surprise party as Rob is about to head to Japan for a new job (a not so subtle nod to how Abrams wants to make this the YouTube generation's successor to Godzilla). One of the guys, Hud (T.J. Miller) starts filming farewell testimonials from all of the party guests with his video camera. He also keenly has his eyes on Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), who is only a friend of a friend of Rob and has only stopped by on the way to meet up with others later. All of a sudden, a rumbling explosion goes off in the distance and an earthquake shakes the apartment. They go up to the roof to investigate until another gigantic explosion sends fiery balls all throughout lower Manhattan. Then the head of the Statue of Liberty rolls down the street.

From that point on, the movie is a generally engaging, if exhausting thrill ride, as we follow five people including Rob, his brother, Jason (Mike Vogel) and his girlfriend, Lily (Jessica Lucas), Hud, who holds the camera throughout most of the film, and Marlena. The story is not without a few clichés like the motivation for Rob and reluctantly his friends to go towards the middle of the city to rescue Beth (Odette Yustman), a friend he had a one-time fling with but for whom he may have more serious feelings. But the film at least avoids creating any phony character development and simply shows these survivors doing what they can to reach her at the 49th floor of a high-rise apartment leaning against another skyscraper near Central Park.

One issue that has come up inevitably is whether using imagery referencing 9/11 such as the leaning skyscraper, the Empire State Building being knocked down by a monster and the people consequently being covered with dust and crossing the Brooklyn Bridge is appropriate in a mass entertainment. After all, the movie, in a way, could be seen as the American 9/11 equivalent of the Japanese Godzilla, which was meant in the 1950s as a veiled social commentary on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. While the issue is debatable, I will simply say that, albeit the movie could have been just as well without it, it does add to the realism of the “what if” scenario of the city in ruins and one reason, I think, we go to the movies is to face and exorcise our fears in a more accessible way.

It is also worth noting that the realism extends all the way through to the conclusion as the story progresses only as a monstrous invasion can within the circumstances. Fair warning, besides the fact that the shaky camera movement is as quease-inducing as it can get (even for an average person, Hud does not seem to be much of a cameraman), there are a few bloody deaths that do push the boundary of the film’s PG-13 rating. The fact that the film does not sugar-coat its horror material or cheapen it with unnecessary machismo, patriotic heroics makes whatever comment the story tries to imply more effective and keeps it from feeling crass and insensitive.

From a technical standpoint, it is rather impressive how the film maintains the illusion that we are watching crude, video camera footage. The visual effects seamlessly match the restless camera movement and the actors do a good job of reacting as everyday people would against the catastrophe often within long, unbroken takes (though I imagine the editors squeezed in a few breaks in between the herky-jerky swish-pans). I am still not sure, however, how the camera manages to endure what it does throughout or how Rob is able to get good cell phone reception to talk to Beth and others while walking through the subway tunnel all the way from lower Manhattan to 59th Street.

In the end though, Cloverfield successfully goes beyond being just a marketing ploy and works to provide some good scares. It is at the right, spare length at 84 minutes and the filmmakers respect the classical Jaws tradition by preserving a full view of the creature until 70 minutes in. I only hope, however, that, for all of the film’s effective use of the handheld technique, the camera does not get any more erratic than this.

Oscar Nominations Predictions

Oscar Nominations Predictions:

At the risk of suffering from the same debacle that was the Golden Globes, the Oscar® show must go on and thus so must the nominations. To my delight, this has been one of the trickiest and most unpredictable years to pick, which really indicates the wide variety of artistic films the year had to offer. It is hard to narrow down to just five nominees in some categories but, of course, there can only be five. So from Best Picture and Actors/Actresses to Director and Screenplay, here go my predictions:

Best Picture: The Coen brothers finally have their best shot at earning the big trophy with No Country for Old Men and this time, it was also released at the right time in November (unlike Fargo, which deserved the award, but had a March release date and was snubbed in favor of the vastly overrated Miramax juggernaut, The English Patient). P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood is quickly rising to be that film’s biggest threat though and the increasing buzz seems great enough for a lock. The Academy always loves to recognize sweeping epics, and with the BAFTA nomination and the other potential nominees being on a relatively intimate scale, Joe Wright's Atonement will fit the bill here.

The remaining spots will be a duel among Juno, Into the Wild and Michael Clayton with one of them missing out. Juno has been labeled as this year’s “little movie that could” or Little Miss Sunshine, as if that means anything to bolster the film, while Michael Clayton is the smart Hollywood thriller of the year. My hunch, though, is that the director of Into the Wild will get more recognition because the Academy loves actors turned directors and I think that is how they will likely split their vote between the two categories.

Final prediction: Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood.

Best Director: Once again, the Coen brothers are an absolute lock in this category and are even more the odds-on favorite to win in this category than Best Picture. P.T. Anderson will also be able to move on from being treated as the “writer who can direct” and earn a nomination for his uniquely strange vision in There Will Be Blood. As noted earlier, Sean Penn is also a sure bet to be recognized here for Into the Wild.

Tim Burton looked like he could score his first nomination here but Sweeney Todd seems a little too weird and, worse, black-hearted for the Academy’s tastes. Ridley Scott is known as the accomplished director without an Oscar® but his American Gangster was considered not very original. Atonement’s director, Joe Wright might have a shot but Atonement looks like it is being more appreciated as a whole than in its parts. So my verdict is that the nominations will be identical to the DGA with the last two seats going to Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton.

Final prediction: P.T. Anderson for There Will Be Blood, The Coen brothers for No Country for Old Men, Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton, Sean Penn for Into the Wild and Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Best Actor: There are two near absolute certainties in this category: Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood and George Clooney in Michael Clayton. Also, considering the surprising but well-deserved support he has received, I think Viggo Mortensen will finally get his long-awaited nomination for Eastern Promises. The biggest surprise to me is how Tommy Lee Jones is not one of the locks in this category after giving arguably his best performance ever in the movie, In the Valley of Elah. But considering that the precursors have repeatedly passed over him, he probably has little chance of getting in.

That means the last two spots will likely be tosses among Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd, Ryan Gosling in Lars and the Real Girl, James McAvoy for Atonement, Emile Hirsch for Into the Wild and Denzel Washington in American Gangster. Depp seemed like a lock in this category but his lack of a SAG nomination hit him hard. McAvoy is a long shot because, again, the Best Picture nomination will be the film’s reward. Washington is Hollywood royalty but his movie was considered only good, not great despite being a big hit. My guess is that the final lineup will be the same as the SAG lineup with young actors Gosling and Hirsch being included on the list.

Final prediction: George Clooney in Michael Clayton, Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, Ryan Gosling in Lars and the Real Girl, Emile Hirsch in Into the Wild and Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises.

Best Actress: Despite the eclectic strength of this category, one curious note here is how a sentimental vote has carried a veteran actress so far. Julie Christie’s performance was indeed superb in Away From Her but it was not the very best of the year and it is a little surprising that she is the front-runner. My personal favorite, of course, is Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose, who gave one of the most shattering performances ever delivered in a biopic. Ellen Page was also magnificent in Juno and I am personally hoping that the focus will shift to her and Cotillard, whom I both feel had to create performances outside of what the screenplay gave them. In any case, those three actresses are the locks here.

Angelina Jolie will likely take the fourth spot for bringing the admirable strength and courage of Marianne Pearl to the big screen in A Mighty Heart. I know people are saying Cate Blanchett will score a nomination for Elizabeth: The Golden Age but despite the thespian reputation she has, the Academy does not usually like to vote for performances in movies they don’t like and The Golden Age was generally considered to be a flop. That will leave room for the most flat-out entertaining performance of the year by Amy Adams in Enchanted to sneak in amidst the otherwise pretty austere category.

Final prediction: Amy Adams in Enchanted, Julie Christie in Away From Her, Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose, Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart, Ellen Page in Juno.

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem is pretty much a given in this category for playing one of the most sinister cinematic villains in a long time in No Country for Old Men. The beloved British actor, Tom Wilkinson is the other sure bet for Michael Clayton. Casey Affleck will have no problem being remembered for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Also, despite missing out on a SAG nod, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who turned in three great performances, is also likely to be recognized for the most widely seen of his films, Charlie Wilson’s War.

The last spot in a supporting category is always a wild card and it will probably be matter of choosing which veteran to recognize: Tommy Lee Jones for No Country for Old Men, Hal Holbrook in Into the Wild or J.K. Simmons in Juno. My preference would be for Simmons who intelligently played the most understanding dad you could find in any movie. But I am sensing much comeback support for Holbrook so he will take the spot.

Final prediction: Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, Hal Holbrook in Into the Wild, Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson’s War and Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton.

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett has been the favorite here ever since the trailer for I’m Not There showed her uncannily spooky rendition of the androgynous Bob Dylan. Amy Ryan has earned the praise she has received for Gone Baby Gone and will have no problem scoring her first nomination. Tilda Swinton has been widely revered for her body of work and will also finally score her long-due first nomination for her fearless, less than glamorous performance in Michael Clayton. The fourth spot will likely go to Catherine Keener for Into the Wild.

That leaves the last place, which is the hardest to pick in any category, I think. The SAG voters seemed to have split between Saoirse Ronan and Vanessa Redgrave playing different ages of the same compelling character in Atonement, which left room for Ruby Dee from American Gangster to get a nomination. It is anyone’s guess here but I am going on the odds that at least one performance will be nominated in Atonement and it will ultimately go to the youngest actress, Ronan.

Final prediction: Cate Blanchett in I’m Not There, Catherine Keener in Into the Wild, Saoirse Ronan in Atonement, Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone, Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton.

Best Original Screenplay: This, I think, is the easiest category to predict. Diablo Cody’s screenplay for Juno has been considered the best thing since sliced bread and she has a wild story to back it up, too, so she will be the front-runner here. Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton is the legal thriller finally made with the intelligence of the adult audience in mind so it won’t break a sweat vying for this category. I am glad that Nancy Oliver’s screenplay for Lars and the Real Girl, which was the best movie of 2007 in my opinion, has been consistently recognized by various precursors including the WGA for its sheer originality and the Academy won’t overlook it either.

The Savages is the kind of family drama that is considered accomplished but too edgy so it will be rewarded with a screenplay nomination. The Pixar has another Best Animated Feature favorite on their hands in Ratatouille and the original screenplay often gets a nomination with it, too, so this year will probably be no exception. There are a few other potential spoilers like Kelly Masterson for Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and Judd Apatow for Knocked Up but the former is better recognized for its director while the latter will be considered ultimately too lightweight to belong here.

Final prediction: Brad Bird for Ratatouille, Diablo Cody for Juno, Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton, Tamara Jenkins for The Savages and Nancy Oliver for Lars and the Real Girl.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Cormac McCarthy’s novel was translated as well as it could be cinematically in the Coens’ No Country for Old Men but the threat of P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood is coming on fast. Ronald Harwood’s The Diving Bell & the Butterfly was considered unfilmable before the movie came out and the power of its visual translation will not be ignored.

The screenplay categories sometimes have room for a few surprises, too and I have the feeling that the Academy will show that they have not forgotten about Zodiac by honoring its writer, James Vanderbilt here with a nomination. Sean Penn may have a chance here for Into the Wild but the Academy will give his recognition for direction. Since the Academy would want another major award nomination for potential best picture nominee, Atonement, Christopher Hampton will likely fill the last spot.

Final prediction: P.T. Anderson for There Will Be Blood, The Coen brothers for No Country for Old Men, Christopher Hampton for Atonement, Ronald Harwood for The Diving Bell & the Butterfly and James Vanderbilt for Zodiac.

Best Animated Feature: Brad Bird’s Ratatouille is a given all throughout and Persepolis has earned enough unanimous praise to earn a place, too. The third and last slot could go to Beowulf or The Simpsons Movie and if I were to guess between the two, I would go with the one that was better received commercially and critically and that would be the latter (and it's in 2-D to boot).

Final prediction: Ratatouille, Persepolis and The Simpsons Movie.

So here is to hoping that the nominations will perk things up so that the writers’ strike comes to a fruitful resolution and that the Oscar® telecast can become starry event it should be.

Michael Clayton

“Michael Clayton”

USA. 2007. Written and directed by Tony Gilroy. Starring: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, Michael O’Keefe, Ken Howard, Merritt Wever, Austin Williams, Sharon Washington, Denis O’Hare, Julie White, Sean Cullen, David Lansbury, and Susan Egbert.

Rating: ★★★½

His eyes are always weary while facing a client whose legal mess he has to clean up. He has to put up with people who irately bark at him after he bears the bad news that there is really no such thing as “options” and that the best he can do is to recommend a good attorney. When one client says that the law firm he works for said that he would be a miracle worker, he explains, “I’m not a miracle worker. I’m a janitor. The math here is simple: The smaller the mess, the easier it is for me to clean it up.”

He is the titular character of Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton, which tells the story of a man whose life of working as a legal fixer at a powerful New York law firm has long left him deprived of any kind of idealism or aspiration. As played by George Clooney, he dresses in nice suits and exudes success and command in appearance but his wife has long left him, he barely has enough time to spend with his son, Henry (Austin Williams), and his life moves from one crisis to another, whether a client’s or his own. Gambling is one addiction he cannot shake off and that only leaves him more incapable of paying off a $75,000 debt he owes to some dangerous people who mean business.

Amidst his broken life, he must now deal with his own firm’s chief litigator and his former mentor, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), who is supposed to defend a powerful agro-chemical company called U/North against a multi-billion dollar class-action lawsuit regarding lethal pollution. Edens also has bipolar disorder, however, and after skipping a few medications and suffering from a mental breakdown, he is overridden with guilt that he may have been defending a corrupt corporation. Thus, the head of the law firm, Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack) sends Clayton in to take care of the problem, particularly since the executives at U/North including chief legal counsel Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) will do anything to eliminate all potentially damaging claims that may cost the company.

The plot is not laid out that straightforwardly in the opening scenes though and the film by writer/director Tony Gilroy (best known for writing the Bourne series) is a rarity in its desire to respect and challenge the audience’s intelligence to follow it. All the people in the movie know who the players are and what they mean to each other and Gilroy just lays out his knowledge of legal firm operations and enhances the tension by encouraging us to figure out for ourselves how the characters and their motivations relate to one another. It is like an elegant polish of the John Grisham novels: Having the lawyers simply talk and feel like real lawyers without resorting to cornball, contrived subplots.

The movie, as implied by the title, is not really so much about its conspiracy plot anyway as it is about how Clayton feels about it. He has spent his entire life eschewing his own values to defend the malpractices of corporate culture and other smaller misdemeanors in the shadows, though he had aspired to be a partner when he came into the law firm. It is only now when the issue hits closer to home and the stakes are riskier than anything he has dealt with that his own loyalties and ethics resurface to be tested.

The central performance by George Clooney is further proof that he has become one of the most magnetic actors of his generation. One mark of great screen presence is when a performance alone consistently draws our attention despite the plot’s varying distances from complete understanding or resolution. The crucial key to his success in movies with labyrinthine storytelling like Syriana and this one is in his ability to combine realist common sense with dogged determination to keep us empathizing with his plight of sorting through the moral and intellectual complexities of his maze.

Clooney’s is not the only character that is explored to unflattering depths, as Wilkinson and Swinton both deliver equally rich and intense performances. Swinton in particular is most daring for willing to pack on a few pounds and look more like a worn-out middle-aged woman weighed down by her job to maintain corruption rather than a merely conventional villain. Wilkinson’s role is equally tricky, as his character balances between standing as the moral center and being the wild card of the story.

In his first directorial effort, Gilroy, aided immensely by his cinematographer, Robert Elswit, shows a real eye for shot composition. There is an ominous quality to the lighting in every scene and a method in it to show the whites, shadows and grays Clayton inhabits from the harshly bright daytime offices to the lonely evenings under lurid night lights and the empty gray field he runs through in the middle of nowhere at sunrise. And as he did with his writing of the Bourne movies, his screenplay and direction show a clean grasp of pure storytelling in what is really a deceptively simple plot, with a sense of pacing as to how much to reveal and leave the viewer to figure out the rest along with Clayton.

It is no surprise that Michael Clayton, besides being a cleverly crafted legal thriller, has been compared to the 1970s conspiracy classics like Three Days of the Condor (with the casting of that film's director Sydney Pollack in this movie serving as a key reminder) and The Conversation. Like that latter film with Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert who questions the true meaning of his recordings, the movie is above all a character study of a man who faces a crisis of conscience after overlooking and ignoring one potentially damaging piece of evidence after another. It is even worse for Michael Clayton because he has actually made a living out of sweeping what he clearly knows to be dirt under the rug as a legal “janitor.” But just because he hides it there, it doesn’t mean he can abandon all knowledge of it.

Superbad

“Superbad”

USA. 2007. Directed by Greg Mottola. Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Starring: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen, Martha MacIsaac, Emma Stone, Aviva, Joe Lo Truglio, Kevin Corrigan, Clement Blake and Erica Vittina Phillips.

Rating: ★★

It was bound to happen at some point soon. The younger the characters in Judd Apatow’s comedy universe, the greater the temptation would become for the guys to use it as an excuse to deliver every dirty, filthy phrase they can think up. Now that the main characters are teenagers in Superbad, they have free rein to go for the cheapest route to a laugh and simply reduce teenage sexual angst to stunted maturity and inhibition.

I know my opinion is in the minority; the movie has been hailed almost unanimously by critics as finding a nice balance between raunchy humor and insightful drama. My personal theory is that these two elements almost always make a volatile cocktail, as was the case with Apatow’s Knocked Up where the women got shortchanged in the story's attempt to bring forth a gender relationship drama amidst the testosterone-laced vulgarity. With producer Apatow now handing the writing duties to Seth Rogen (who was the lead in Knocked Up) and Evan Goldberg to present what is supposed to be their puerile teenage experiences, this movie descends into near misogyny in its barrage of sexual slang terms used to describe the females around them.

Attempting to cross the far superior American Graffiti and Dazed and Confused with American Pie, the story follows the writers’ teenage counterparts, Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), who are nervous during their last day of school before graduation and anxious because they have not lost their virginity yet. To remedy the latter, they set out to impress a few girls who will be at a graduation party by finding a way to bring alcohol to it. Seth is in hormonal overdrive over a partner he had in cooking class, Jules (Emma Stone), who is throwing the graduation party, while Evan seems a bit more genuinely attracted to another girl, Becca (Martha MacIsaac). Of course, being in a comedy that tries to be an identifiable human drama for teenagers, they will learn some life lessons through their raucous last night such as learning to calm down and be patient and realizing that the two best friends still have each other, though the other implication seems to be that the guys can be as verbally putrid as they want before learning them. The latter is only reinforced by the fact that the females just seem to accept the males' demeaning speech and are not even close to being developed as characters as in The 40-Year-Old Virgin or even Knocked Up.

The movie, to be fair, does have some brief flashes of depth. There are moments when Hill and Cera are able to convincingly project the timidity that teenagers often have before they make the next big step into college and adulthood and the kind of male bonding that is mocked by other classmates as homoerotic. Seth, who is curly, chubby and lacking in self-confidence, and Evan, who always looks insecure and anxious, have been close friends ever since grade school and they had vowed to go to college together, until the latter got into Dartmouth and the former did not. And the way the movie has the two declaring their immutable friendship by repeatedly saying, “I love you” to each other is both liberating and funny.

There are a few other laughs that the film scores when it does not resort to bawdy jokes, particularly in Seth and Evan’s sidekick, Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, in his first starring role), who reminded me a little bit of the geeky nerd, Eugene from Grease. He offers to be Seth and Evan’s ticket to illegally purchasing alcohol, though they are a little shaky about the idea because all Fogell has is a fake ID that identifies him as a 25-year old, Hawaiian organ donor named McLovin’. The way Mintz-Plasse tries to act so cool and hip about it and Cera’s po-faced reaction to the one-word name saying, “One name? Who are you, Seal?” are both priceless.

But even the talents of Mintz-Plasse get squandered once the story puts him together with two cops, Officer Slater (Bill Hader) and Officer Michaels (Rogen again), who feel like characters out of bad SNL skits. They capture him during a stick-up that happens when Fogell is trying to put the ID to use and, for some reason, drag him around to do a lot of corrupt behavior and spin the police car around and around in slapstick fashion without registering a single laugh. It all goes downhill to a shamelessly sappy scene that attempts to communicate the all too familiar message that the crude teenage years are really the best times for everyone. Maybe that means the filmmakers have not grown up that much after all.

More to the point, what I do not understand is the incessant urge for director Greg Mottola and writers Rogen and Goldberg to base their brand of humor entirely on sophomoric raunch and shock value, which does not speak highly of their regard for women. I have said before that comedy based on the lowest common denominator of dirty phrases is really inducing uneasy laughs, no matter how funny. When Evan and particularly Seth measure a girl relentlessly by how “good” she would be in bed in the most profane terms available, I found myself with more uneasiness than laughs. That leaves the ending where the characters are supposed to have learned something in a night of outrageous behavior and stunningly foul-mouthed language utterly unconvincing.

Yes, the defenders of Superbad will say that I am being a prude and that teenage males talk in that crude way when they are genuinely curious about sexuality. But I somehow doubt that adolescent yearning alone would automatically turn them into extreme potty mouths like the screenwriters’ teenage alter-egos here who are not even polite enough to just point out a woman as “hot” or stop at one four-letter word instead of 20 or 100. And when you assume the worst in a crowd of people, it is hard to bring out the best in them.

The Bucket List

“The Bucket List”

USA. 2007. Directed by Rob Reiner. Written by Justin Zackham. Starring: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd, Rob Morrow, Alfonso Freeman, Rowena King, Annton Berry, Jr., Verda Bridges, Destiny Brownridge, Brian Copeland, Ian Anthony Dale and Jennifer Defrancisco.

Rating: ★★½

They ought to make a special lifetime achievement award for Morgan Freeman as Best Wise Mentor in the movies, as directors tap on him again and again to open and close their films with his narration of witty and pithy maxims. Rob Reiner gets his chance now with The Bucket List, as Freeman’s narration talks about another man whom he says lived more wholly in the last few weeks of his life than the rest of his days put together. When that other man is played by Jack Nicholson, one wonders whether Freeman can tame a wild persona like Nicholson’s.

Putting two great veterans like Nicholson and Freeman together as two terminally ill cancer patients living their lives to the fullest may seem like a winning concept and is the selling point of The Bucket List. The problem with Rob Reiner’s direction and Justin Zackham’s script is that they just trade in on their personas rather than rejuvenating them. We instinctively pay attention to two of the most watchable actors on the screen who do what they do best and are willing to look less than glamorous with shaved heads and surgery scars. But they and everyone involved here seem to be too laid back to add in some creative juice.

After that opening narration, we first see Freeman as auto mechanic Carter Chambers who lights a puffy cigarette as a bad news signal that is about as subtle as writing “lung cancer” in big letters on a chalkboard. When he is hospitalized, he ends up lying next to Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson), who also happens to be the hospital administrator. The cantankerous Edward is not exactly happy to have to abide by his own policy of placing two patients per room for comfort, which he previously strongly advocated in court before coughing up some blood and being diagnosed with cancer himself.

Carter is a history professor in spirit, if not in title due to giving that dream up in order to fulfill his economic obligation to providing for his growing family. The man can answer every single question that comes up on Jeopardy, which Edward watches with amazement. Edward later discovers him writing a bucket list, which Carter explains was an assignment from his old philosophy professor to write the things one would like to do before he or she dies. Carter thinks it is silly at first but upon Edward’s reinforcement, the two escape from the hospital to check off the items on the list. None of the activities listed such as skydiving, racecar driving and traveling on a private jet to such locales as The Pyramids of Giza and The Great Wall of China are beyond their reach because Edward is a super-rich lothario who has a personal assistant, Thomas (Sean Hayes) and is probably only about a two-inch stretch from Jack Nicholson in real life.

Many people were drawn to the trailer that showed the great promise of having Nicholson and Freeman playing off against each other like sandpaper and the disappointment is that the movie itself does not have a whole lot more abrasive humor to offer. There is not much funnier dialogue you will hear, for example, in the skydiving scene when Nicholson says, “This is living!” and Freeman shouts back, “I hate your rotten, stinking guts!” Both actors are comfortable in their respective thespian styles but the screenplay offers very few surprises as the two men check off the list once we realize that the actors will behave exactly according to what they are best known for rather than playing a little more role reversal.

The predictability pervades to the ways that Edward’s and Carter’s lives seek to resolve themselves before they die. Edward, in contrast to Carter who has been married for 45 years to his wife, Virginia (Beverly Todd), had married four times and turns out to have a long-lost daughter that he is not in good terms with. But again, if you have seen the trailer, you can guess the resolution already, as the movie just cuts to a montage without any real dialogue of simmering conflict between the two (which is made even more derivative because Nicholson has played a far richer character of this sort in About Schmidt).

The whole movie progresses like that during their globe-trotting adventures. Each man spills out his guts and then refuses to follow up on an unresolved part of his life but ends up acting on it anyway upon the other’s coaxing. That Carter’s rocky relationship with his wife has some more feeling despite the trappings is more of a tribute to Todd, who really grows to be the most compelling probably because her lacking the star power of her fellow actors allows her to make much more of what could have been a shrill wife character who wants her man to come home and spend his last few months with his family.

I hate to knock on a movie that tries to earnestly deal with issues of life and death and I have nothing against a more optimistic, feel-good treatment of the material. But the screenplay by Justin Zackham just seems to have been cobbled together after jotting down notes from repeated viewings of Nicholson’s and Freeman’s greatest hits and does not make their characters’ lives unpredictable enough to feel more real and less soapy. That certainly does not help director Rob Reiner who has failed to capture in recent years the real comical spin and zing he brought to his past films like This is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, and The American President, though this one is certainly better than his last few unbearably cloying clunkers like The Story of Us, Alex and Emma and Rumor Has It.

It’s a missed opportunity, as what could have been a deep reflection and meditation on life is simply condensed to watching something of an actors’ retrospective, which you might have guessed from the fact that I mentioned their names so many times throughout. Of course, I am not without high regards for the two actors even if I felt I was watching them more than caring about their characters’ ultimate fates and no one dispenses fortune cookie advice like “Find the joy in your life” more persuasively and charismatically than Freeman. When he later gets his lifetime achievement Oscar, he could just a pick a clip of one of his past movie narrations instead of writing his own acceptance speech.