By Steve Evans
A trying year for most people failed to boost box office fortunes in 2009 as the economy knocked a dent in ticket sales, a counter-intuitive phenomeonon that shows movies are not always the escapist fare their promoters would have them be.
Or it could just be that 2009 was not a banner year for American cinema.
Exceptions:
The Soloist
Robert Downey and Jamie Foxx acted their asses off in a beautifully filmed story of mental illness that unraveled in the final reel into a preachy diatribe about the plight of the homeless.
A Serious Man
The Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, average a picture a year. Their latest is a quiet comedy about a nobody contemplating a substantive life while awash in mediocrity, which most people can relate to if they are honest. Is there no genre the Coens are unable to make their own?
Inglourious Basterds
Blabbermouth director Quentin Tarantino rewrites World War II so a platoon of Jewish-American special operations soldiers can whack Hitler and top Nazis brass in a Parisian arthouse cinema. Brad Pitt got top billing, but Christoph Waltz will get the Oscar for his incredible performance as a ruthless Gestapo officer fluent in four languages and as charming as a viper in top hat and tails.
Copyright © 2010 by Cinematic Cteve // dba Cinema Uprising. All rights reserved.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Cinema Uprising values comments and feedback from readers. Although we cannot reply to every message, we do read comments and take your thoughts into consideration as we continuously produce fresh content.