Quick Takes: "Ted", "Chronicle", "The Gold Rush", "Battleship Potemkin"

"Chronicle"

Directed by Josh Trank

Over the past few years, "found footage" has emerged most fully in the mainstream as a manipulative and tired tool for horror thrills, most effectively used in films like "Paranormal Activity", "Cloverfield", and most especially "The Blair Witch Project". This year in particular seemed to bleed them out of every orifice in the first three months, so much so that the "found footage superhero movie" just felt like another feature to throw in the pile. And so it stood for several months, and then when it was mentioned amongst the top 3 films of the year thus far according to Justin Jagoe and Alex Carlson of Film Misery... well, I didn't have an excuse to moan about how it wasn't worth my time anymore.

What surprised me wasn't merely the fact that it was good, but that it used both the found footage and superhero genres in peak form. From the first moment of the film, you see the role in which the camera plays in these characters' lives, and it's becomes not merely a gimmick. The "Chronicle" of the film's title doesn't merely allude to that single camera, but the abundance of material that's made so publicly available for people to see. In the film's third act the style goes rampantly, exhilaratingly all over the place, jumping from cameras of different quality and purpose, moving freely between them as a jarring document.

"Ted" Restricted Trailer

Seth MacFarlane seems like he would inherently make an excellent writer of comedic cinema, but there's no way in hell I'm about to rely entirely on that as my official statement. When the creator of "Family Guy" goes about making a film, you're going to be questionable. When said film is an dark comedy about a profanity spewing teddy bear, you're going to think it sounds awesome. That's the perspective I'm coming from on "Ted". I'm not entirely sure if this film will be able to work on a cinematic level, if it will really use its concept well without leaning on it, or if it will just be your typical stoner comedy. I've heard positive things about the trailer, so I suppose I'll keep my head up. Take a look for yourself!

For Your Anticipation: Nothing Else To Do

It's the first clip post of the new year, since I wasn't motivated enough to turn one out for "The Devil Inside", and I'm still not feeling it for "Joyful Noise". So why not give it to Mark Wahlberg? The man is mildly competent, and he's moderately good at playing a certain character, like the one he played in "The Fighter". Action protagonists, not so much. "Contraband" looks rather predictable, and will probably do a fair amount of business this weekend. It is not doing anything new, or purposeful for that matter, so don't expect to hear much beyond box office prospects on this one.

Film Review: The Fighter

I've had a long running tussle with The Fighter, and even now I'm still at war with it. If I were to make predictions for the Oscars based on my views alone, I would not place this one in the nominations. On the other hand, I do not for a second believe this to be a bad film. As a matter of fact, it's a pretty great one. For those who weren't aware, The Fighter is the story of "Irish" Micky Ward, a boxer who has been trained by his brother Dickie for years, and his manager has always been his overbearing and counterproductive mother. Things haven't been going well for him lately, and his family has been holding him back his whole life.

A few things influence Micky in changing his life, including the entrance of hot bar girl Charlene, who really believes in him and just doesn't like his family. Then there's Dickie's descent into drug use, and the negative ramifications it has for the entire family. Micky's reputation is damaged, simply based on the fact that he's his brother. There's a lot of emotions going on, and it's actually inspirational. It's a hardcore underdog film at heart, and that is always something to root for. It felt a lot like Million Dollar Baby in respects to the family aspect of it, but it had a forward momentum it could keep to.

This film doesn't really bring us anything truly new that we haven't seen before. The roads it treads have already been set upon, but the execution of it all is completely original. Towards the end of the film, we go from a rather quiet setting straight to a furious Christian Bale, and it's one of the most aggressive cuts I've ever seen. Talking of which, the acting in this film is absolutely spectacular, with Christian Bale being at the top of his game. During the ending credits, we get a clip of the real Micky and Dickie, and while Mark Wahlberg just did his usual acting style, it's clear that Bale spent a lot of time nailing down Dickie's mannerisms and such. It's just uncanny, and it's the most Oscar worthy performance from a supporting actor this year.

The other members of the cast range from fine to phenomenal. Like I said, Mark Wahlberg isn't anything new, but I could still stand him being onscreen. Melissa Leo does a great job as the mother who wants to control everything in Micky's life, but ultimately cares more about her other children. Amy Adams is stunning, because she's still a white trash sort of girl, and she's got a bit of a tummy on her, but she's a sexy bitch with a heart of gold. Sure it's been done before, but what in this film hasn't? The real life Mickey O'Keefe plays himself in this film, which adds a whole lot of credibility to the enterprise, and he obviously does a great job of it. He lived it. He knows better than anyone how it felt. This film could've been rather pedestrian, but thanks to the powerful supporting cast, The Fighter turns out to be an inspirational film with some proper grit tacked onto it. It's not a truly great film, but it's a good one.

B+

For Your Anticipation: He's A Junkbag

I have made no illusions about my uneasiness when it comes to accepting The Fighter as a true Oscar contender. I never had a problem accepting Christian Bale, Amy Adams, or Melissa Leo as acting contenders, but as far as the film itself, I've never been easy enough to please. I still have massive problems with Mark Wahlberg and his acting style, but these clips give me the sort of impression that he's basically going to be played as a gullible sort of idiot who's living in a dream world, rather than an inspirational sort of figure. I doubt he'll ever get any real Oscar contention, but that's kind of the point. This will be a showcase of the supporting acting talent, and they definitely make me uncertain about who I'm siding with in this fight.

"The Fighter" Poster

Furthering my beliefs that The Fighter will be a rather simplistic film with little actual heft, here's the new poster for film, featuring little more than Bale and Wahlberg in indifferent poses.

Television Trailer: The Fighter

The second best thing that came out of last night's season finale of Mad Men was the short trailer for The Fighter. The more I take a look at this film, the more I feel it will be just average. What this trailer made me wonder the most about was why Christian Bale still hasn't been nominated for an Academy Award yet, but somehow Mark Wahlberg has. I don't believe this film will end up as great as everyone believes it will, but I really hope they offer Bale a chance to shine. Take a look.

Theatrical Trailer: The Fighter

I always have to take a look at a trailer a few times before I make my opinion of it, because I often don't know what I think of it after seeing it once. This was a very challenging trailer to read, because I went into not knowing what I was looking for. The Fighter has gotten a great deal of Oscar buzz which I don't think it's entirely earned, because until now, we hadn't seen any footage from it to indicate such praise. So now that I've seen the trailer a few times, I have to say that while Christian Bale's performance in the film looks pretty great, Mark Wahlberg is still not a satisfying actor, and the screenplay doesn't have much spark in its dialogue. It seems like it's striving to be like Million Dollar Baby, while incorporating the feel-good tone of those horse race films like Secretariat. I'm keeping this at an arms length for now. I don't have enough confidence to put it in my predictions until I know more, and it may be a while before that happens.

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