THE YOUNG VICTORIA
UK. 2009. Directed by Jean-Marc Valée. (100 mins.) Rated PG.
Oscar Nominee!
Best Art Direction, Costume Design, Makeup

"The term ‘heritage cinema' seems to have been invented for British films that dwell on elements of the nation's chequered history, much of which finds a ready market overseas. THE YOUNG VICTORIA is no exception -- a beautifully mounted and costumed odyssey into the early life of the monarch. With a script by Julian Fellowes, who won an Oscar for his screenplay for GOSFORD PARK, THE YOUNG VICTORIA positively sizzles with impeccable pedigree. Emily Blunt (Golden Globe winner in 2006 for THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA) portrays the queen at a stage in her life that will be unfamiliar to most viewers more used to seeing the monarch in her later years. Rupert Friend is well-matched as Prince Albert, to whom he bears a remarkable physical resemblance. They are aided and abetted by a customary strong cast of Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Paul Bettany and Mark Strong. Fifth in line to the throne at birth, Princess Victoria (after the deaths of her father, grand-father and two uncles) was heiress presumptive by the time her third remaining uncle, William IV (Jim Broadbent), was crowned in 1830, when she was 14. Parliament passed an Act that stipulated that Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent and Strathearn (Miranda Richardson), would serve as Regent should Victoria succeed William IV before coming of age. A power struggle ensued with both Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong), an Irish adventurer who was rumored to be the Duchess's lover, and the Whig Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany) trying to exert their influence over the Duchess and her charge. Fortunately Victoria turned 18 a month before her uncle died, making a regency unnecessary, but still the young girl continued to fall prey to the interferences of the men around her. It was only her marriage to Albert -- an honorable, hard-working man who protected her throughout his life -- that gave Victoria the independence and inner strength she needed to carry her through. It is essentially a love story that focuses on the protracted courtship of the teenage princess and her first cousin, but it also deals with all the political intrigue, charting her uneasy road to the throne and the battle for power and influence that revolved around her. Fellowes script pays particular attention to her complicated relationship with a domineering mother who, until the moment of her accession, insisted that Victoria went nowhere unaccompanied or without someone holding her hand. Read More...

PRECIOUS
United States. 2009. Directed by Lee Daniels. (110 mins.) Rated R.
Oscar Nominee! Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress Gabourey Sibide, Best Supporting Actress Mo'nique, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing

"PRECIOUS opens with a poetic image -- a floaty red scarf on a lamp post -- and a quotation to match. It's credited to Ken Keyes, the germinal self-help guru who founded the Science of Happiness: ‘Everything is a gift from the universe.’ Well, hmmm. Isn't this the movie about the obese Harlem teenager, the one who's raped by her dad and abused by her mom? Shouldn't it be depressing, devastating, harrowing, repulsive? Where's the room for chiffon neckwear and cosmic uplift in a story like that? All I can say is: It is. It should. And you'd be amazed. Directed by Lee Daniels (SHADOWBOXER) and adapted by Geoffrey Fletcher from the novel Push by Sapphire, PRECIOUS is arguably the hardest-hitting depiction of childhood incest ever to find widespread mainstream distribution. From its first reel to its last, the film looks squarely at the graphic emotional contours of sexual abuse, whether it's the sweaty face of the man who impregnates his daughter or the twisted psychological battery of the woman who enables him. It's about as raw as a movie can get and about as tough to watch. Yet that naturalism is streaked with lyric flights. Daniels mixes up the harsh urban drama with episodes of magical realism, moments when the title character cuts away from the horrors of abuse into a fantasy world of glamorous photo shoots and red-carpet schmoozing. In that realm, she's adored. In this one, she's reviled. The contrast between idealized and real emphasizes the unforgiving grittiness of Precious' life, but it also plays up the resilience of a girl who hasn't yet given up on loving, or being loved. At one point, Precious looks in the mirror and imagines a skinny blonde, a glimpse of self-loathing that might have been torn from Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. That's but one of many shocking images. But this is more, far more, than some mere drain on our tear ducts. Bit by bit, in a messy progression of choices, confrontations and setbacks, hope insinuates itself into the plot. And the cast is perfection: Gabourey Sidibe as the heroic Precious; Mo'Nique in her Golden Globe winning role as her contemptible, pathetic mother; Paula Patton as a kind teacher in a new school; Mariah Carey, incognito in drab bangs, as a no-guff welfare caseworker. Even Lenny Kravitz impresses as a charming maternity nurse. PRECIOUS counts among its producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry -- and cynics may be tempted to dismiss it as pop exploitation of a sensitive topic. It isn't. It is, first and foremost, a compassionate, closely observed study of a traumatized adolescent. Yet this isn't just any portrait of a pregnant teen. With innocence, force of will and a welling largeness of heart, Sidibe conveys both the child Precious was and the adult she wants to be. What a quiet feat of acting. What a triumph of a film." – Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

A SINGLE MAN
United States. 2009. Directed by Tom Ford. (101 mins.) Rated R.
Oscar Nominee!
Best Actor Colin Firth

“Some films aren't revelations, exactly, but they burrow so deeply into old truths about love and loss and the mess and thrill of life, they seem new anyway. A SINGLE MAN is one such film, one of the best of 2009. It's subtly heartbreaking. In adapting Christopher Isherwood's 1964 novel to the screen, first-time feature filmmaker Tom Ford has put his admiration of the source material, a groundbreaking text in the pre-Stonewall era, to excellent results. Ford also has facilitated a career best for Colin Firth, one of the screen's great and subtle portraitists. Firth is nearly always exemplary in his efforts; here, though, he opens up to new areas of artistry as well as subtlety. Early in A SINGLE MAN, the protagonist George Falconer learns of his longtime lover's death in a car accident. George receives the news by telephone. (The story takes place in Santa Monica in 1962.) The camera stays on him a long time, as he soldiers through the niceties, holding back his emotions as best he can while thanking his caller for the information. It is a stunning piece of acting and in this one shot, Ford---a legendary fashion designer for Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent---proves himself an instinctual colleague. Read More...

BROKEN EMBRACES
Spain. 2009. Directed by Pedro Almodovar. (127 mins.) Rated R.

"Can there be such a thing as exuberant melancholy? I can’t think of another way to describe the spirit of BROKEN EMBRACES, Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film, the title of which carries a telling hint of paradox. It is grave and effervescent, tender and cruel. The story might seem simple at first -- a film noir potboiler of jealousy and revenge -- but as it unfolds, the narrative reveals an intricate and enigmatic structure, full of twists and reversals. The visual and aural textures are lush and sensual, as we’ve come to expect from Mr. Almodóvar, and yet the rich colors and deep sonorities somehow illuminate an unusually austere emotional terrain. Like  ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, TALK TO HER and VOLVER -- not a bad decade’s work, by the way -- BROKEN EMBRACES leaves the viewer in a contradictory state, a mixture of devastation and euphoria, amusement and dismay that deserves its own clinical designation. Call it Almodóvaria, a syndrome from which some of us are more than happy to suffer. Mr. Almodóvar’s characters tend to be stricken with their own versions of the malady -- subject to strong and confused longings, surprised by pain in their pursuits of pleasure. When we first meet him, Harry Caine (Lluís Homar), the central male figure in BROKEN EMBRACES, seems to have found a cure. Read More...