I haven’t posted for a few days but I was hard at work with this post! Few people have actually posted about the top performances of the decade and the few that I saw are top 25 so I went 10 steps further for a top 35 performances of the decade. I tried to be balanced and populated the list with about as many female performances as male one. The list was initially ranked because everyone loves rankings so much but after some pondering, I had to remove those meaningless numbers and shuffle things around. The point is those performances were some of my favorites of the decade and it wouldn’t do justice to any of them to try to put one ahead of another.
This was an incredibly difficult list to populate because there was so many notably good performances each and every year to choose from and making a small list of 35 doesn’t do justice to all the excellent work we have had the chance to watch over the years. Finally, well I haven’t seen every movies of last decade so there might be a few glaring omissions. I’m working on those! If you feel like I personally offended or infuriated you, yes it was definitely on purpose. Here are Anomalous Material top 35 performances of the decade:
Warning: Heavy in content. 56K users should not proceed.
Shawn Levy’s Night at the Museum was a relatively charming comedy with a clever and potentially fascinating premise: Museum exhibits coming to life at night when no one is looking. However, the novelty of the concept is now gone and with Battle of the Smithsonian, Levy gives us a numbing and unoriginal sequel which is only intermittently entertaining at best, and certainly quite bland overall.
Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), now a successful inventor, heads for the Smithsonian institution in Washington D.C to rescue his museum pals from being stored in some crates for eternity. Yes, that’s it folks… That was the plot of the movie. Sure, there is some story about a power-thirsty Pharaoh (Hank Hazaria) going berserk and not being happy about the presence of the new visitors but the various turns of events are only a pretext to bombard the audience with some nifty but ultimately empty CGI effects.
This movie is the perfect example of a dumb and fluffy movie sequel. The movie grossed $177 million at the US box office and an additional $235 million outside the US, which is really quite unbelievable given the overall mediocrity of this movie. Battle of the Smithsonian is simply not very funny, quite idiotic and has very little substance that would appeal to most adults. Children may find the movie relatively entertaining but it’s only because it was dumbed down to the level of a 4-yr old kid.
Most of the cast only goes through the motion. Ben Stiller looks like he has had more fun before and gives a tired performance as Larry. Owen Wilson is wasted, spending most of the movie in an hour-glass while Robin Williams has only a few short scenes in the movies. Amy Adams is the lone highlight of the movie as the perky and bubbly Amelia Earhart. Adams is her reliable and sparkling self and elevates Stiller’s bored performance. Despite acting her heart out though, at the end of the day, she is only in a thinly written supporting role and can’t carry the movie by herself.
A decent entertainment for kids. Adults, however, will have a hard time enjoying this unintelligent, unfunny and bland sequel.
C
Notes: Rated PG, 105 minutes
VN:F [1.8.4_1055]
Don't forget to vote! What did YOU think about the movie?
Julie & Julia is an absolutely irresistible movie directed by Nora Ephron and co-starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams for the second time in a year (Doubt). The movie is based from the book of the same title by Julie Powell who is played by Adams. Julie is a stressed government worker working in post 9/11 New York City and nearing her 30’s, unhappy with how little she has achieved so far in life. To unload some daily stress and achieve some short-term goals, Julie decides to cook all 524 recipes from Julia Child’s first book Mastering the Art of French Cooking within a year and blog about her experience. The movie flips back and forth between Julie’s quest and the early culinary career of the famed Julia Child (Meryl Streep) leading to the publishing of her first book Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 1961.
Julie & Julia was a very entertaining and, at times, fascinating movie. Not only did Julia Child had to fight prejudice against women but she also had to wait years and years for her book to be published and she remained forever optimistic and gracious through it all. There was also a short but very powerful scene that dealt with the Child’s not being able to conceive which should come into play during awards’ season. Julie Powell’s half of the movie is not at the same level but still engaging enough. Julie is an ardent fan of Julia Child and even goes so far as to imagine her as an imaginary friend to whom she constantly talks and refer to. We get to feel her life in a tiny and noisy 900-ft square apartment and I also enjoyed how her blog progressively went from total obscurity to getting massive amount of visits. Ephron links both stories by paralleling the lives of the two women and although the women never meet each other, it worked perfectly fine.
Amy Adams, sporting shorter hair, is her usual delightful self despite playing an unlikable character. Julie Powell is self-centered and whiny for most of the movie, focusing so much on her cooking that she neglects her husband and everything else at times. That Adams manages to keep her half of the movie just as entertaining is only a testimonial of her genuine charisma on screen. As much as I like Amy Adams though, Julie & Julia is the Meryl Streep show. What more can be said about Meryl Streep? She has received constant heaps of praises throughout her career and for good reasons. Not only does she captures Julia Child’s voice, her larger-than-life personality as well as her notorious physical mannerism, she was Julia Child! Julia Child being 6 ft 2, Streep even had to portray her imposing stature despite being only 5 ft 6. What could easily have been a caricature in the hands of a less talented performer was turned into an acting showcase which should be rewarded with numerous hardware come awards’ season. Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina give solid albeit unmemorable performances as the supportive husbands.
From a technical point of view, Ephron did a great job with the cinematography and I particularly appreciated the recreation of France in the early 1950’s from the decors to the costumes. Shots of the food are painfully top notch and we also get some beautiful backgrounds of New York City varying from a skyscraper office window to a skyline shot from the roof of an apartment.
A delicious movie to be savored thanks to strong performances from the two leads but I have to duck a little off the final grade because of the utterly needless political commentary. Finally, the movie will make you HUNGRY!
Adapted from the highly acclaimed play of the same name, Doubt is a drama powered by four Oscar-nominated performances and directed by John Patrick Shanley.
It’s 1964, the Bronx, a time of cultural upheaval. Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a charismatic, cheerful, and progressive-minded priest who desires to move beyond the traditional ways of the Catholic church. Opposing him is Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep), the strict and vindictive principal of the parish’s school who takes an immediate dislike for the free-wheeling new priest. When younger nun Sister James (Amy Adams) reports to her that Donald, the school’s only African-American boy (Joseph Foster II), came back shaken from a private meeting with Father Flynn (uh…). Sister Aloysius sets off on a quest to determine the truth and run Father Flynn out of town. But what happened exactly? Did anything even happen?
There is no real clear answer as to whether he did anything wrong. The movie lets the viewer make his/her own conclusion. Although the movie is rich in dialogues, Shanley did a great job of never overextending into never-ending talking. Doubt almost borders on a psychological thriller, it is that intense. The movie keeps the viewer on the edge of his seat, waiting for the slightest detail that might reveal him the truth.
The main driver of the plot is the confrontation of the titans. Father Flynn vs Sister Aloysius. Hoffman vs Streep. Those two match each other punch for punch and they deliver as expected. Meryl Streep gives a steely performance as the overbearing and uptight nun. She runs the school like a jail, expecting the utmost discipline from everyone around her. The arrival of Father Flynn rubbed her the wrong way from the get-go. He writes with a ballpoint pen, needs three lumps of sugar in his cup of tea, and doesn’t cut his nail. All of those major red flags in Sister Aloysius’ judgemental eyes. Philip Seymour Hoffman display his great acting chops, keeping the viewer guessing whether he really did anything wrong. He truly believes he did nothing wrong which make us, the viewers also believe he is innocent. There is also superb work from two great supporting actresses. Amy Adams plays her usual innocent, sweet and hopeful type of character but heck, she does it so well so I won’t complain for now. Sister James is hopelessly good-hearted and only wants to see the good in people and yet she is the one that provide the spark that sets off the powder keg. Viola Davis has only one scene as the mother of the potentially molested Donald, a dialogue with Meryl Streep’s character, but it is both an incredibly powerful and moving scene as well as a restrained performance. Very unique combination.
More of a good theater play put on film than a movie, Doubt features four incredible performances that no real movie aficionado would want to miss.
B+
VN:F [1.8.4_1055]
Don't forget to vote! What did YOU think about the movie?
The dysfunctional family theme has been re-hashed infinite amount of times with movies such as Meet the Parents, American Beauty, The Family Stone, Step Brothers or The Royal Tenenbaums among many others. Junebug, an indie directed by Phil Morrison, is another comedy-drama about the subject that was released back in 2005. I saw the movies months ago when I was still on crutches but never got to review it so here it is after a second watch.
Sophisticated Chicago art gallery owner Madeleine (Embeth Davitz) travels to North Carolina with her husband George (Alessandro Nivola) to convince a local painter to be featured at her upcoming show. She convinces her husband to introduce her to his southern family since they live nearby. There, despite her best intentions, she receive an oddly reticent and cold welcome. Mom Peg (Celia Weston) is barely polite and nearly ignores her, weird dad Eugene (Scott Wilson) is a man of (very) few words, and younger brother Johnny (Ben McKenzie) is downright antagonistic and angry 24/7. Only Johnny’s pregnant wife Ashley (Amy Adams) takes an instant liking to Madeleine. A golden heart and a free spirit, she chatters endlessly with a childlike innocence at the sight of the cosmopolitan woman and provides all the warmth that the rest of the family won’t give to their guest. But then who is Junebug you may ask? Junebug is the baby still inside Ashley’s belly, a little being on whom a sea of hopes rest on.
The plotline may sound all too conventional but unlike most dysfunctional family type movies, the movie is character driven and there is no artificial device to advance the plotline. No one overloads the septic tank or suddenly decide to stack two single beds on top of each other (I liked that one lol). Junebug is simply a look into the life of this weird family over the course of a few days and the Morrison let’s his characters’ action reveal everything about themselves. Madeleine comes into this family and much like an observer, she doesn’t affect any of the dynamics (or actually lack of) present before. She is not condescending to her small town in-laws and accepts those people for who they are. Looks and moments of silence are exchanged and only by the time is the movie is over do you get the full grasp of all the relationships at work. The movie takes its time to develop each of its character and although it has its funny moments, the film has a darker tone underneath. It is also fitting that there is no real conclusion to the movie and the outstanding cast is what makes this movie above average.
Amy Adams is by far the highlight but I will get to that last because it wouldn’t do justice to the rest of the cast which was exceptional as well. First of all, Ben McKenzie can act! McKenzie, whom you may recognize from the soap opera the O.C, did a great job portraying Johnny, the underachieving redneck son still living with his parents and in the shadow of his more successful brother. It is implied that he had to drop out of high school to support his newly pregnant wife to work in a shipping warehouse. He has incredible amount of pent-up frustration and is extremely insecure. He is both envious and jealous of his more successful brother, inattentive of his loving wife but yet loves her in his own prideful way. One of the scene which best exemplifies this is the one when he stumbles upon that damn meerkat documentary his wife loves so much and he frantically tries to record it on the VCR while she is upstairs opening gifts in the middle of a baby shower. He fails miserably and ends up screaming at her. Embeth Davitz also performed admirably, portraying the well-meaning daughter-in-law persistently trying to fit in. We watch the torrent of emotions on her face as she tries to comprehend this strange family. Alessandro Nivola (Pollux Troy in Face Off!!!!) portrays an earnest George, the only reason this family has not been destroyed by a deep and dark secret. I thought the movie should have done a better job of developing his character as we never really understand what he is so silent about. Although we are not told why, his relationship with his younger brother is strained and almost entirely consist of moments of uneasy silence. Celia Weston is fantastic as the mother while Scott Wilson is solid as the quiet and stoic father.
At the end of the day though, the supreme Amy Adams is the heart and soul of this movie and fully deserves all the accolades and hardware she received for that role. Although she portrays a naive and bubbly southern firecracker who can’t stop chatting, her Academy Awards nominated performance is multi-layered and nuanced. The eternally positive Ashley talks and asks questions endlessly, all of this to mask a much deeper sense of despair. She knows that there is something very wrong with her husband and his family. All her naive hopes are focused on that little being inside her belly, who she believes will cure all problems away. Her talent comes through in the hospital scene, as she goes through the entire range of human emotions in the span of 3 minutes.
Production value is average. It seems the director tried to put an artsy-spin on the movie with shots of empty rooms and silent landscape. There is nothing wrong with that but I disliked the repetitive and overextended nature of it. The musical score is mostly non-descript.
Junebug is not perfect but there isn’t a single phony moment in this character study of a movie. Its characters will move you and remain in your imagination well after the movie ends and the delightful performance by Amy Adams alone makes it worth the watch.
B
VN:F [1.8.4_1055]
Don't forget to vote! What did YOU think about the movie?
Sunshine Cleaning, directed by Christine Jeffs, is a comedy-drama co-starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. This small indie production premiered at, you guessed it… the good old Sundance Film Festival and well, I like them indies and it has the brilliant Amy Adams so this was next on my watchlist.
Rose (Adams) is a struggling single mother who dreams of becoming a real estate agent but cleans house for a living instead. Her precocious son (Jason Spevack) get repeatedly in trouble in school and is deemed as needing “special” attention. Rose decides to get him into a private school but can’t afford it. Her former high school sweetheart-turned married cop Mac (Steve Zahn) suggest she gets into the lucrative crime scene cleanup industry, which she does with the enlisted help of her sister Norah (Blunt). They name the business “Sunshine Cleaning” and we follow the women as they struggle to steer their lives to better horizons and find their way, cleaning up bloody crime scenes.
This looks like some pretty good premise for a movie right? After all, there is an abundance of choice as to where to take the movie from there. You can make it a macabre comedy, a crime thriller, or a feel good story about two sisters getting their lives together and creating a successful company in a dead economy, or even a feel-bad drama about women having nowhere to look up to. Unfortunately, the movie, running at 102 minutes, doesn’t really get anywhere in a focused manner. Instead, we get a few hints of comedy mixed in a semi-tragic offbeat settings. Add to that a side-story supposed to advance Norah’s character that is just not that interesting, preventing the movie from taking off. Despite that, heartfelt and honest performances from the leads make this movie about a dysfunctional family quite entertaining.
Two-time Academy Award nominee Amy Adams was downright superb depicting a complex character. She is delicate, naive and insecure, yet energetic and optimistic, often telling herself aloud that she is strong and can do anything. All of this despite the fact that she is stuck in an affair leading to nowhere and cleaning her former high school friends’ houses for a living. Her performance goes to the heart of what acting is all about. There is nothing phony or fake about it, it is simply heartfelt and honest and goes well beyond anything that my words can describe. Adams is all too familiar with the indie scene and has proved herself time and time again over the years. She is luminous and has great screen presence that few actresses can match. This reminds me I need to review Junebug, the performance of her life! Back on topic… Emily Blunt is not nearly on the same level but does a solid job contrasting Rose’s optimism as the disillusioned and reluctant sibling. Clifton Collins Jr. puts up great work in a very limited role as a kindly one-armed cleaning supply store owner. Alan Arkin seems like he just wandered off the Little Miss Sunshine set and is still in-character, as the crusty father/grand-father but whatever, he is old and likeable enough. Finally Steve Zahn is supposedly in the movie, but he doesn’t really get to do much except taking off his shirt, and putting it back.
The cinematography is adequate but bland and faded. The settings are pretty depressing to watch which doesn’t suit the movie all that well in a way, especially when the title has Sunshine in it. Heck, the movie screams small indie that was made for the Sundance Festival so really, you can’t blame it.
Despite some shortcomings, Sunshine Cleaning is well-worth watching if only for the amazingly heartfelt performance by the sparkling Amy Adams. Along with another green-eyed Adams praying for the right role to come along (Rachel McAdams!), she is one of a handful of actresses of her generation that have both superior acting chops and on-screen charisma and you have to appreciate them for working on becoming better actors, not movie stars (so far). If only there was better roles for talented female leads in a male-dominated Hollywood, we wouldn’t need to dig so deep to see their real talent come through in flawed little indies like this one.
B
VN:F [1.8.4_1055]
Don't forget to vote! What did YOU think about the movie?
Quick review of Enchanted which I happened to see while waiting for new tires to be mounted on my car (It’s true lol!). Directed by Kevin Lima, Enchanted starts like any old school Disney animation with the lonely 2D Princess Gisele (Amy Adams) serenading a crowd of animals and waiting for her charming prince in the fairy tale land of Andalusia. Soon after comes the aforementioned charming Prince Edward (James Marsden) and the two immediately decide to marry so they can, you know… live happily thereafter like fairy tales characters are supposed to… There would however be no movie if not for Edward’s mother, Queen Narissa, who wants to hold on to the throne and thus exiles Princess Gisele down a sewer hole to that far off place called … New York City where she is not in 2D anymore, but flesh and blood! Who will save our poor fairy tale princess? Will she ever get to live happily thereafter??? Intriguing uh?
I obviously did not go blindly into this movie and knew it had received widely positive critical acclaim (92% on RT) and I can see why. This movie is nowhere near perfect but there is something magical about it that will transport you back to the times when you were watching 2D Disney animations. It is funny in a goof-ball kind of way, pokes fun at Disney while keeping its tradition going. Best of all, it does not resort to cheap jokes, or overly cheesy and sentimental moments to make the audience laugh or cry.
The Academy will never acknowledge that fact because it’s a goddamn Disney movie and she makes it look easy but the lovely Amy Adams gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Giselle. She portrays a fairy tale princess in real life New York City unbelievably well. She is light on her feet, gay and innocent as one can ever be, and best of all, she makes it look effortless. Needless to say she was perfect for the job. James Marsden also gives a very good performance as flesh and blood prince Edward, displaying solid physical comedy and timing. Patrick Dempsey, on the other hand is average but I think it was a screenplay choice to have him be understated. Finally, Susan Sarandon does a solid job as the evil mother queen in her small appearance.
Cinematography-wise, this movie is drop dead gorgeous with colorful sets, stunning shots of New York City and some truly magical musical scenes. The CGI is top notch and the musical score is brilliant.
Enchanted is not a perfect movie, far from it, but it is a delightful Disney movie with laughs for kids and adult alike.
B+
VN:F [1.8.4_1055]
Don't forget to vote! What did YOU think about the movie?
By 
Loading ...
Most Popular