The Moon of Liberty

The 80th Academy Award's go ahead in one week's time, writers strike averted and all. It promises however to be a night of very few surpises in the main categories, as most seem locked.

Personally I would love to see an upset in the Best Film category as I don't believe 'No Country For Old Men' deserves to win. However, it almost certainly will, 'It Will Be Blood appears to be it's only challenger, a film not on general release inthe UK until next week, thus I cannot really comment on it's merits (review will be here as soon as possible). The outsider is the well put together 'Juno' but the race appears to be between the first two. The problem is those not keen on 'No Country' will split between the other two, meaning while No Country is clearly a love it or hate it film, those who love it should have enough votes to carry the day. It's dual directors, the Cohen brothers, will also win best director, they have no serious challenger.

In the acting stakes Daniel Day Lewis has won at the Golden Globes, the Screen Acor's Gulid award and the BAFTA's. so he should take out the best actor. Javier Barnden for No COuntry is in a similar position for supporting actor, and will take it out, much as I would one of the (imo) superior performances of Tom Wilkinson in 'Michael Clayton' or Phillip Seymour Hoffman in 'Charlie Wilson's War' to take it, Barnden appears a lock for this one.

On the feamle side, the supporting actress seems to have been taken over by Cate Blanchett, ironcically for playing a man, namely Bob Dillon for 'I'm Not There.' British hopes in this category lie with Tilda Swinton for 'Michael Clayton.' But I expect Blanchett to take it.

The best actress is a facinating race. The bookies favourite is Julie Christie for 'Away From Her.' A film I have to confess not to have seen. However, the Goldon Globe and BAFTA winner was Marion Coultillard for 'Le Vie On Rose.' A French actress in a french film, many are not convinced a foreign language film can be successful in the big categories, Coutillard may change that tonight and score something of an upset. The dark horse is Ellen Page for 'Juno.' I'm going for the French girl however to buck the trend.

The other one to watch is best Animated film. They have come up with a more interesting threesom of nominations than the BAFTA's did. 'Ratatouille' won the BAFTA, and should win the OSCAR too, but instead of playing safe in it's opposition going for big name let downs as the BAFTA's did in nominating 'The Simpson's Movies' and 'Shrek the Third,' the OSCAR's have gone for the lovely tale of the Surfer penguin from Shiverpool in 'Surf's Up', and a facinating French animation about an Iranian family called 'Pesepolis.' I think the French film to win is unlikely, so it will be the Rat against the Penguin, In the chinese year of the rat, I'll take the rat to win.

See how wrong I am next week,should be a good show.

And finally for tonight's reviews, a mix of the serious and comedic

Juno

Starring - Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney, JK Simmons

Directed by Jason Reitman

Juno (Ellen Page) is a smart young girl with a reasoanbly streetwise attitude. When she decides to sleep with Bleeker (Michael Cera) she falls into every young girl's nightmare trap of pregnancy. Thankfully she gets more backing than she expects from her dad (JK Simmons) and stepmum (Allison Janney) when she rejects abortion and decides to have the baby and look for adoptive parents.

In the local paper they find Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark. (Jason Bateman) They appear probably a little posh for Juno's taste but they seem to be willing to give the baby a good home in any case so despite her personal msigivings she is happy have have them as the parents. Through the period she strikes up a friendship with Mark, who is into similar music, plays a guitar, into horro films like her. They get on very well to the point where she begins to see more of Mark when Vanessa is no home. At firs Juno thinks Mark is cool while Vanessa seems quite a cold, uptight person.

This all changes when Mark suddenly announces he is going to divorce Vanessa and he is not ready to have the baby. This upsets Juno who wanted the baby to have a real close family, however Mark has gone cold on the baby idea and after a showdown with a distraught Vanessa he decides to go ahead with he divorce, leaving some tough decisions all round. Juno finds that in reality, Vanessa is the one she has more in common with despite Vanessa's weaknesses.

The film is quirkly made and despite the serious subject matter, has a good amount of humour to lighten the load. One citricism I have is there was a fair bit of uneccersary swearing which for me did not add much. Despite this the film is a pleasent watch with a few gentle twists along the way as circumstances continually change, both in Juno's relationships with Bleeker, the adpotive parents and her own parents.

Page leads the way with a strong mix of seriousness and well delivered comedy, Janney is a tour de force in deomonstrating her characters committment to her step-daughter and Garner superbly desplays the emotions and strnghts and weaknesses of a women desperate yet terrified to become a first time mother.

There are a few clever imagery nods to one of Page's previous performances. The relationship with Mark has undertones of the sexual tension which touches close to the little girl-grown man scenario she found herself in in the spine chilling 'Hard Candy.' On finding she was preganant, she also put her head playfully in a noose, bringing memories of the ending to the self same film.

THE MOON OF LIBERTY VERDICT - RATING 'B+' - A very well done peice mixing the serious issue of adoption and relationship break down with a touch of comedy. Some smart imagery, good entertainment, well worth seeing.

Here is number three. The (imo only) completely overated favourite for Best Film at the OSCARS.

No Country For Old Men

Starring - Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Barden, Josh Brolin, Kelly McDonald, Woody Harrelson

Directed by Joel Cohen & Ethen Cohen

When Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) picks up a suitcase full of money, little does he know he will be hunted down for it by a range of individuals, particularly the twisted killer Anton Chigurh. (Javier Barnden) Also on the case is small town cop Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) who seems to be of the view everything was better and less violent in the 'good old days.'

Chigurh is a mysterious killer who on occasion gives his potential victim a coin flip chance to stay alive, as we observe through one service station scene he does not kill the person if they win the coin flip. He tries to chase down Moss as Bell tries to chase him down. At one stage we also get the intervention of Carson Wells (Harrelson) who tries to get Moss's daughter out of the way (Kelly McDonald) but Wells, who you at first feel may be a signifcant character, meet Chigurh and dies so quickly I was unsure of what the true point of him being there was.

The film is slow for the most part, it takes a while to get going and on occasion you think it does, it gets dragged down in a series of conveluted sub-plots, like the sotry of the cop, what the CIA are doing to try and help, The pointless Wells interlude. If it had been more of the chase between Moss and Chiguh this may have been better, but it tried to be too clever and failed as a result.

There is plenty of violence for those who like that and it seems clear from trying to bring all th angles they did in they tried to make this film this years 'The Departed' which brilliantly brought together a series of angles on the same set of circumtances. This is no Departed, the performances do not hold anywhere like the interest, I found myself bored through most of the film and dissappointed as the film went off on pointless tangents everytime it seemed to pick up a little.

For me the only performance of note was that of Barnden as the killer, but half way through the film they decided to get to to talk and have a personality of a sort, killing the mystery which was one of the positives of the first part of the film. The ending is also very poor, Overall this was a huge dissappointment.

THE MOON OF LIBERTY VERDICT - RATING 'D' - Very little to save this film, parts of Barnden's performance perhaps, but slow, dull, a very weak ending, some pointless characters that could have made an impact. Apparently this may win best film at the OSCAR's, I have no idea why, it won't be in my award nominations later this month.

Second up, the one man crusade against the Red Army.

Charlie Wilson's War

Starring - Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour-Hoffman, Amy Adams, Shiri Appleby

Directed by Mike Nichols

Said to be based on true events, Charley Wilson (Tom Hanks) holds the easiest congressional district in the US house of representatives. His Texas base is made up of small towns who don't want very much, just governemnt to leave them alone. This gives him plenty of time to indulge in things most politicians would get slaughtered for.

Aided by his more intelligent than he thinks advised, Bonnie Bach (Amy Adams) and an office of very attractive if not hugely intelligent young ladies, Wilson's main interest is international issues. He likes to keep on top of what is going on, especially as the Soviet Army are about to begin an assault on Afghanistan.

He finds the effort to help the Afghans amounts to a miniscule $5 million dollars. He also finds that Joanne Herring, one of his biggest donors, is passionate about this subject. To him she intrugues as she is attractive, and annoys him with some her her political views such as religion, which he has no interest in. However he needs her donations so he agrees to take up the challenge of trying to increase the money to help the Afghans. With the help of CIA agent gust (Seymour-Hoffman) he goes around the US political scene, and into the heart of the middle east, to form bizarre coalitions which help turn small time afghan fighters into a force tot ake on the red-army.

The film proves Aaron Sorkin, the creator of the brilliant US political series 'The West Wing' can also do serious screenplay for the big screen. It's political content takes on some of the lazy arguments of the current 'War on Terror' debate from both sides and provides an alternative view of what went on in the 1980's, and what is happening now.

Two two huge plusses of the film are it is very real on a political level, fort his Sorkin has to take huge credit, and it has simply great acting creating great characters you can engage with. Hanks creats a likeable rogue, Seymour-Hoffman puts in a fantastic performance as a long-standing, passionate but frustrated CIA agent. On the female side two very different performances, Julia Roberts plays a very in your face, sexy and confident character, while Adams interplay with Hanks, and the quiet power her character exherts over Wilson without him knowing it is a joy. To play a shy, quiet yet powerful character like that with such charisma is a very difficult thing to do on screen, Adams truely did so.

THE MOON OF LIBERTY VERDICT - RATING 'A' - Politically powerful and well argued, and great acting across the board. A fine mix of the serious and the entertaining, I highly recommend it.

It's OSCAR night this time next week, so here come 5 back to back posts, four film reviews, and an OSCAR preview.

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Starring - Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron-Cohen

Directed by Tim Burton

As Benjamin Barker (Sweeny Todd) returns to London from a spell in prison, sentenced unjustly by Judge Turpin. (Alan Rickman) He takes on the new persona of Sweeney Todd. He then meets pie shop owner Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham-Carter), after taking on one of her 'Worst pies in London,' He tells how he vows revenge on the judge who falsely imprisoned him, purely becuase he fell in love with the lady the judge wanted for himself.

The sub-plot is Tobias, who was on the boat with Todd on the way back to London, who falls for what seems to be the judges daughter through a window, as she is not allowed out due to the judge keeping her under watch. It is then revealed Barker his love had a baby before the imprisonment, so it is Barker's/Todd's daughter he has fallen for.

Todd strikes a deal with Mrs Lovett that he will set up shop as a barber (for that is what he did before the imprisonment) and slit the throats of his customers, Lovett could then use the meat to considerably improve her pies. Eventually events transpire that Todd gets the chance to get revenge on the judge in the chair, he also finds Lovett lied in telling him about the death of his wife, these events lead to a bloody but fitting conclusion.

The whole set-up of the films looks beautiful, it moves with ease at a nice pace. The whole thing is put together brilliantly and the genius of Burton is there for all to see. The interplay between Depp and Bonham-Carter as at times spellbinding. Depp creates a murderer who at times you actually feel like he has a point, twisted yet brilliant. The musical style also works well while not being over done.

The story creates nice sub-plots and amusing bit part characters to add to the drama, like the Baron-Cohen interlude pertending to be an Italian barber, and the nosey old lady who tries to warn people who wont listen something bad is going on in the place. From start to finish this is simply a first rate film.

THE MOON OF LIBERTY VERDICT - RATING 'A' - A magical piece of cinema with quality acting and brilliant artistic attention to detail.