22nd Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards

The Independent Feature Project (IFP) announced their 22nd Annual Gotham Awards on November 26th, 2012. Here is complete the list of winners:

Best Feature: Moonrise Kingdom

Best Ensemble Performance: Your Sister’s Sister

Best Breakthrough Actor/Actress: Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere)

Best Breakthrough Director: Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Best Documentary: How to Survive a Plague

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You: An Oversimplification of Her Beauty

Tribute Award: Marion Cotillard

Audience Choice Award: Artifact

Film Review: Argo (2012)

My rating: ★★★★★

The movie was fake. The mission was real.

The movie worked. The mission accomplished.

As we all know that majority of the films that are inspired by true events do not work properly, they don’t deliver that charm the audience hopes for. But this isn’t the case here. Directed by Ben Affleck and co-produced by Affleck, George Clooneyand Grant Heslov (known for producing the Academy Award nominated movie Good Night, and Good Luck), Argo is an excellent thriller and maybe one of the best films of 2012. Inspired by true events of 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis and the superb job done by Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) to exfiltrate 6 escaped hostages hiding in Canadian ambassador’s house, this plot incorporates the inclusion of Hollywood to help accomplish the mission suggested by Mendez as they call it in the film their best bad idea. Not highlighting the extreme violence or the use of guns and grenades as we see in the thrillers mostly, this film maybe the prime example given to us that a thriller can be made without the incorporation of extreme violence. I really hope Ben Affleck gets an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, he has done the job quite well this time and has proved that not only he is a great actor, he is also an outstanding director (he previously directed Gone Baby Gone (2007) and The Town (2010), both of them were outstanding movies).

Supporting cast includes Bryan Cranston as Jack O’Donnell (Mendez’s supervisor at the CIA), Alan Arkin as Lester Siegel (A film producer) and John Chambers as John Goodman (A Hollywood make-up artist) and Victor Garber as Ken Taylor (Canadian ambassador), all of them deliver great performances especially Chambers and Arkin, their scenes have that slight incorporation of humor which keeps the plot on the right track and prevents it from losing audiences’ interest in the film which obviously means that the screenplay (by Chris Terrio) is well-written and kept to the point to avoid causing any boredom and increasing the running time of the movie.

What’s good about this film is that how it stays at same pace throughout and goes in the right direction. We all know what is going to be the outcome of the entire storyline but Affleck’s direction still keeps us interested in the movie, especially in the climax which is shot at the airport as Mendez tries to catch the flight to get those 6 hostages out of Iran, and the intense moments caused by Iranian militants, which is worth watching.

Despite the historical inaccuracies, this movie is well-crafted and deserves appreciation because of being not-so-typical thriller. One thing that kept me wondering throughout the film was why did the Iranians not think that the arrival of film producer in the time of crisis is not linked to the hostage crisis itself? Well, maybe nobody did!

Film Review: End of Watch (2012)

My rating: ★★★★½

End of Watch is a thrilling action drama film incorporating the elements of hand-held footage. What’s great about this movie is that Jake Gyllenhaal (Source Code, Prince of Persia, Brothers, Zodiac, Brokeback Mountain, The Day After Tomorrow) and Michael Peña (30 Minutes or Less, Everything Must Go, Observe and Report, Shooter, World Trade Center) give amazing performances along with the rest of the cast such as Janet (Anna Kendrick, known for her portrayal as Jessica Stanley in Twilight film franchise), Gabby (Natalie Martinez), Van Houser (David Harbour) , Sarge (Frank Grillo) and Orozco (America Ferrera). This film is another turning point for Gyllenhaal, he’s an Academy Award nominee (for Brokeback Mountain in 2005) and I think he might get nominated this season as well, such an outstanding performance he delivers in this film as he has never done something like this before and that’s why it’s so brilliant.

Written and directed by David Ayer, who previously worked on films such as Street Kings (2008), Harsh Times (2005), Training Day (2001), End of Watch proves to be the best work of Ayer so far. Screenplay seems so real at certain points, you can really imagine how hard it gets for the cops to deal with all the stuff in the streets. All the credits go to Ayer for giving us something so close to reality. Ayer’s Training Day won Denzel Washington an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2001. And I think it’s a sign that Gyllenhaal might at least get a nomination in Best Actor considering the fact that so many brilliant films were released in 2012 and are yet to be released.

Best thing about this film is that it is not what it seems. Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) are not just funny cops, their relationship and the storyline of the film go much deeper than that. This film reveals that cops have emotions, too. They’re willing to risk their lives for the members of general public and they don’t seem to care about themselves. Taylor and Zavala have been partners for years and they are so close and treat each other like a family which becomes pretty clear in the magical ending of the movie, sometimes even a sentence is enough to express your emotions. The film depicts how the cops live their lives and how much crap they have to deal with out there in the field and how they manage all that. You can feel a connection in between all of the cast members whether positive or negative but it’s just there. Overall, End of Watch is an outstanding action drama film with the strong acting and superb direction one should not miss.

Film Review: Skyfall (2012)

My rating: ★★★★★

LET THE SKY FALL. WE WILL STAND TALL, AT SKYFALL.

SKYFALL is a mere proof that a good spy film doesn’t need nonsense action-sequences or incorporation of unrealistic gadgets, it just needs a great screenplay, astounding performances and outstanding direction. I see a lot of people complaining that a James Bond movie without action sequences and gadgets and devices is worthless. What they don’t understand is that everything needs to evolve and get out of its own self-made shell, because, sooner or later, people start demanding for something else, something they never would have expected, something that makes them change their mind about a certain subject.

Same is the case here.

Sam Mendes has proved himself to be an outstanding director once again (he directed American Beauty for which he won an Academy Award in 2000). His sense of imagination is so brilliant that it totally works for the film. Cinematography is done by Roger Deakins, having received nine nominations for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, he is one of the great cinematographers of the film industry and he continues to prove it in Skyfall with his brilliant camera work.

The important thing about this film is the screenplay, which is, no doubt, different from all the Bond movies made before Skyfall and that’s what makes it so better. Written by Neal Purvis, John Logan and Robert Wade, the screenplay works like a charm because you get to know Bond and above all, the other major character of the movie, M (played by Judi Dench). Daniel Craig continues to shine in his role even more, it seems like he had been practising to improve himself and it becomes really clear when you compare his performance to the previous installment Quantum of Solace. In Skyfall, it feels like Craig has found his lost indenity and he is never going to let go of it.

The other key character of the movie is Raoul Silva (played by Javier Bardem who is perhaps the most famous Spanish actor, having previously won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in ‘No Country for Old Men’), is the film’s main antagonist and he is more than a villain. Bardem’s performance and his character reminds me of the Joker (comparing to Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight) at cerain points, he has done it so wonderfully and only he could make it happen. Other cast members include Ralph Fiennes (Gareth Mallory, the Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee), Naomie Harris (Eve Moneypenny), Bérénice Lim Marlohe (Sévérine, the Bond girl), Albert Finney (Kincade, the gamekeeper of the Skyfall estate)and Ben Whinshaw (Q, the MI6 quartermaster) who support the film’s plot and storyline properly.

What I love about this film is that it doesn’t feel like I am watching a Bond movie and that’s exactly what I love. It has a different soul, a darker one, the character-driven plot has been handled in an amazing way. I don’t mind if a spy film doesn’t have more action-sequences because to me, the plot and main theme of the film are more important. People may also say that the plot of the movie is so typical and predictable and it gets boring but if we look closer, we see a rebirth of the entire Bond franchise, just like Christopher Nolan did with the Batman franchise.

…And who could forget Adele’s wonderful voice in a melodious soundtrack to the movie, written by both Adele and Paul Epworth and the way it has been incorporated in the opening sequence is just freaking brilliant. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wins the Academy Award for Original Song.

Am I liking it too much? Am I impressed with this movie too much? Am I being biased? MAYBE. Because SKYFALL is just the right amount of Bond I wanted to see in the 23rd film.

Film Review: Looper (2012)

My rating: ★★★★½

First of all, let me take a moment to praise outstanding work done by the director and writer of this movie, Rian Johnson. I have watched a lot of science-fiction films that incorporate the elements of time travel and in the beginning, this movie seems like any other typical science-fiction film but it has a lot of surprises and the amount of creativity and genuinity that has been put in the making of this film is excellent.

Looper is a remarkable and beautiful film, with astounding performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Young Joe Simmons), Bruce Willis (Old Joe Simmons), Emily Blunt (Sara Rollins) and Pierce Gagnon (Sara’s kid, Cid).

 

A lot of science-fiction films get confused as reaching the conclusion and they lose all the charm they had in the beginning. This isn’t the case here. The screenplay is well-crafted and carried out properly that it doesn’t get boring or predictable. The cinematography is good, the production design is compelling and moreover, you can notice a lot of resemblance in between Gordon-Levitt and Willis.

Looper reminds me of two great films; Inception (2010) and 12 Monkeys (1995) mainly because of its mind-twisting and time travel elements. It doesn’t resemble any of the mentioned films in anyway, you can notice a little bit of similarity in between 12 Monkeys and Looper but that’s just in the beginning of the film. These are two different films dealing with different plots and different stories, the only thing in common is time travel.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s role in this film kind of reminds me of Christian Bale, I don’t know how but it does. His face and the way he speaks in the entire film, maybe. I must say he did a very good job by putting so much effort in this role and carrying it out amazingly. I hope to see more of him in the upcoming Hollywood generation. He has a lot of potential and he can do a lot better than he is doing today and maybe that will also win him an Academy Award. Anyway, sticking to this film, Looper maybe an opening door of opportunities for this man.

In short, Looper is one of the great films of 2012. It is creative, it has mystery, it has a great cast that do a superb job, it has outstanding direction, it has a well-written screenplay, it has a convincing plot and a clever conclusion. A must watch!