The Place Beyond The Pines (2012, dir. Derek Cianfrance) ****/****

    Derek Cianfrance's "The Place Beyond The Pines" is a film in three acts, covering the lives of different characters in each.  It is a highly ambitious film and deals with ambition itself.  It is a working-class drama that asks questions about the nature of poverty and the lengths that a man will go to to provide for his loved ones.
    Luke (Ryan Gosling) is a skilled and talented motorcycle driver and he uses his skills in his profession.  In an opening tracking shot we slowly follow Luke as he walks through a fairground to a tent where he will perform death-defying moves within an enclosed, globed cage at high velocity.  This opening shot announces that this will be no ordinary film and that we are in for an epic, extraordinary experience.
   Later we learn at the same time as Luke that he has a recently-born son with a girl he had a fling with about a year ago, Romina (Eva Mendes).  He decides to stick around and care for his son and the mother in any way he can.  Unfortunately, he resorts to robbing banks to bring in the necessary funds.  The ensuing motorcycle-police car chases that occur are jaw-droppingly exciting and expertly directed.
   In the second act we join the life of Avery (Bradley Cooper) a police officer who also has a newborn son.  There is police corruption surrounding Avery and he must do what he can to avoid being involved in it.  At the same time he has vaulting ambition which gives him the desire to become a district attorney.
   The final act takes place fifteen years after the initial acts of the film and we are lead into the lives of the two men's teenage sons.  Somehow, their lives become intertwined and the tension and complications that arise from their coming together is the subject of this third act.  Both children are victims of absentee fathers for different reasons.
   Everything about this film is compelling and will keep your eyes glued to the screen.  The acting is great, the chase scenes are tense and exciting, and soundtrack is highly evocative and beautiful.   Your expectations are constantly thwarted.  It says a lot  about what society deems good or evil and lengths that people will go to to make ends meet.  It is one of the best films I've seen to come out in 2013.

42 (2013, dir. Brian Helgeland) ***.5/****

    Of Major League Baseball movies, "42" stands as one of the best of the bunch.  Only "The Natural" stands out in my mind as a baseball movie that delivers the goods in terms of lifelike and compelling baseball game situations and larger than life scenes in the life of a great player.  This gripping tale of the first season of the first black man in the majors, Jackie Robinson, is filled with intense baseball action and high drama off the field.   It vividly depicts the awful racism that accompanied Robinson's initiation into the majors after playing in the segregated Negro League and how he had the courage to hold his ground even when the taunting and provocation from fans, opposing players, and teammates reached a boiling point.
   Chadwick Boseman plays Jackie in a performance that captures the conflicted, overwhelming pressure that the player experienced.  You get the sense that you are actually witnessing history on the screen - Boseman's Robinson is a man of integrity, determination, and moral strength.  Harrison Ford plays Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers Baseball Club who recruits Robinson in a daring attempt to bring the first black man into the majors.  Ford's performance is great as well - he really creates a memorable character in Rickey - a drawling, cantankerous, hard-nosed old man with an open-minded and against-the-grain attitude.
   Helgeland's direction of the baseball action is dead-on.  The action is realistic and never fails to convince the viewer that this is the majors.  There are many memorable moments on the field and we are not only given the good moments of Robinson's first season but some of his struggles at the plate as well.
   This is a good, old-fashioned biopic in the Hollywood tradition.  There are no stylistic quirks or deviations from norms of filmic biography but it does a great job in creating a majestic story of a time when the colour barrier was broken in baseball.  It stands as a testament to the strength and dignity of mankind in the face of adversity and as a microcosm for the ordeal of the black man in 20th century America.

Killing Them Softly (2012, dir. Andrew Dominik) ***/****

    "Killing Them Softly" is a violent gangster romp from director Andrew Dominik.  It features Brad Pitt as a sly hitman who must avenge the holdup of a high-stakes card game.  At one hour and thirty five minutes, it is short and flies by.  There are scenes of high tension that will leave your heart pounding and jaw agape.
   Throughout this picture, there are interspersed speeches from George W. Bush and Barack Obama that we overhear on the radio or see on the television.  These provide commentary on the story:  the speeches deal with the economy and the attempts to alleviate the dismal recession that the United States is experiencing.
   The bad economy is always lingering in the foreground as the various gangsters struggle, like all citizens, to garner their fair share.
   James Gandolfini has an amusing role as a fellow hitman of Pitt and his appetite for booze and hookers may lead to his downfall.
   As the movie opens, two bumbling gangsters, under the tutelage of a crime boss, hold up card game and steal a lot of money.  Ray Liotta's character, who was responsible for an earlier holdup, is targeted as the instigator and planner.  Thus, things look bleak for him and will probably not turn out good.
  Brad Pitt's character shows up to investigate things and right all the wrongs.  His performance is good as are all of the other actors in this male-dominated cast.
   I thought that this movie ended too abruptly and in the end, there is not a lot of depth to it.  Characters aren't given much chance to really develop and we therefore aren't really invested in what happens to them.  It is a good picture but definitely not the best of a great year for movies.

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986, dir. Woody Allen) ***.5/****

     One of Allen's best films, HaHS is a 80's gem with vivid characters and a witty screenplay.  The films revolves around three sisters.  Mia Farrow plays Hannah the most worldly and successful of the the three sisters and is married to Elliot (Michael Caine).  Elliot has eyes for Hannah's sister Lee (Barbara Hershey).  Dianne Wiest plays the other sister, Holly who is struggling with addictions and other life problems.
   The film is enjoyable and eccentric, typical of all of Allen's work.  There are intertitles to separate each scene which give the film an ongoing literary commentary.
   The performances are great and Allen's character is funny (he is a hypochondriac).  There is a bittersweet nature to the story and the characters are richly developed making them tangible and life-like.
  This is a great film and fans of Woody Allen will love it.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008, dir. David Fincher) ****/****

    This is a truly epic film from David Fincher.  It is the story of a man who is born an old man and ages in reverse.  Brad Pitt plays the title character and it is one of his greatest performances.  With the help of CGI, we never once fail to believe that Pitt is embodying all the ages that the character journeys through.  It is a heartfelt, tragic film, but it is filled with optimism and a zest for life unlike other pictures of its kind.  In fact, TCCoBB is a one-of-a-kind picture, so comparison with other films is impossible.

   Benjamin is a man who experiences love and sorrow like most human beings but his voyage is all the more compelling and endearing because of the curious complications and predicament that his reverse aging puts him through.  Pitt does a great job of making Mr. Button a complex, deep character who is flawed but is able to make the best of his situation and live a fulfilling life.

  The period detail of the film is fantastic and the various ages - from the early twentieth century into the twenty-first, is painstakingly accurate and lovingly portrayed.  The cinematography is also top notch.

  It is a quirky film with several odd characters and situations.  There is one character who claims he was struck by lightning seven times and each time he recounts a different time it happened we are given a glimpse of what he went through in a brief flashback.  It is expressive, eccentric moments like this that add to the complexity and soul of the film making it unique and compelling.
  TCCoBB is a life-affirming, captivating film that should not be missed.

Ponyo (2008, dir. Hayao Miyazaki) ***.5/****

    It should be the aim of animated features to create fantasy worlds that are not achievable in live-action films.  Hayao Miyazaki is the master of this kind of fantasy world and "Ponyo" is no exception.  In this animated feature from Studio Ghibli we are immersed in a mythic country-side world where the natural world is as dynamic and alive as that of the human world.  This is common knowledge but "Ponyo" like previous Miyazaki films, has a natural environment that is so vibrant, colourful, and dazzling, that you will look at nature in a new way after seeing it.
    The title character is a fish who, with the help of a drop of blood from a human character, is able to transform herself into a child.  The film depicts her voyage from the ocean home to the world of humans where she befriends a small boy.  There are moments when they are separated and much of the film concerns their attempts to reunite.
   The ocean-side town in which the boy and his mother live is a picturesque place that is beautiful to imagine yourself living in.  At one points there is a fierce storm and there is a treacherous drive back home that is exciting and suspenseful.
   In the final third of the movie, the town is almost completely immersed in water, and the aquatic world that is created is wondrous and truly imaginative.  The boy and Ponyo go on a journey to find his mother in a small boat that Ponyo is magically able to transform from a miniature toy into one just their size.
  "Ponyo" like most animated features, is aimed at children but adults, especially fans of anime, will get a kick out of it.  The colourful, vibrant imagery will dazzle many viewers and keep them watching until the end.

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982, dir. Woody Allen) ***/****

    While not Woody Allen's greatest or most satisfying picture, AMNSC is entertaining and is, at times, funny and engaging.  The film revolves around three different couples who come together in a cottage for a weekend in the country.  Their various relationships are put to the test and there is much infidelity and changing allegiances.
   Unlike previous Allen films which were more atheistic, this film raises questions about the mystical side of life, the supernatural, and the spirit world.  It was a refreshing change from his previous works.  The cinematography is quite lush and beautiful, capturing the vast countryside in a breath-taking manner that adds atmosphere and a serene tone to the movie.
  Allen's character, Andrew, is an inventor and we get to witness many of his bizarre flying contraptions, some which actually manage to get off the ground.  These scenes are highly comical.
  The acting from all the players is good and there are several funny moments:  it is a well-written screenplay as Allen's usually are.
  I was however slightly put-off by the self-centred nature of most of the characters.  This makes them not very likeable and quite shallow.  This is typical of the time period though - although the film takes place in the early twentieth century, it clearly smacks of the me-generation and the early 80's in which it was made.
  As stated, this is not Allen's best achievement but fans of his work will enjoy it and so will most fans of cinema.

A Woman Under the Influence (1974, dir. John Cassavetes) ****/****

     "A Woman Under the Influence" is a tour-de-force from director John Cassavetes.  It is an uncompromising, harrowing look into madness and what society perceives as "madness".  Gena Rowlands' Mabel is a completely original character and it is truly a brilliant piece of acting from the female lead.  The whole cast is great.  Peter Falk's Nick is a wonderful portrait of a man struggling to deal with his wife's erratic behaviour and his own attempts to communicate his love for her.
   Typically of Cassavetes, there are scene which seemingly contain no purpose to the plot, but they give us a fascinating glimpse into the lives and mindsets of the various character and their eccentricities.  In an early scene, Nick brings a group of his co-workers home to share a meal after being forced to work a double shift.  Mabel prepares them a spaghetti dinner and there is much banter and idiosyncratic conversations over the course of the meal.  It is scenes like this that allow us to live with the characters on screen, get to know them better, and expose us to emotional truths.  A mainstream director wouldn't have included such a scene or spent so much time on it, but it is the mark of the director's genius that we are given the privilege of seeing such meaningful scenarios even if they don't advance the narrative all that much.
    Madness is not a topic that is dealt with frequently in cinema and when it is it is often done falsely and with gross stereotypes.  This film forces the viewer to question what he or she perceives as madness and the labels we put on people who are not conventional and do not conform to society's norms.  Mabel loves her husband and children but she is prone to high emotions and quirky tics in her manner.  She is thus forced to enter a psychiatric hospital near the middle of the film.  Six months go by and she returns to her family beaten down but seemingly not "cured" of her eccentricity.
   It could be argued that Nick is really the insane one in the family in his aggressive nature and high-strung personality.  "A Woman Under the Influence" portrays the limited social mobility of women in 1970's American culture and makes us question our preconceived notions.  It is a cinematic wake-up call and exposes emotional truths like no other film of its time.  It is also a demonstration of the sheer genius of its actors and director.