1999 statistics!

Here's another year of statistics, this time from 1999. One thing that jumps out at me as I look at these is just how many films I watched alone in the first couple of years of Kinetoscope [what I've dubbed my handwritten film journal, see image for sample couple of pages]. Granted, I'm not the most social of individuals, but this year was possibly the most anti-social my film-watching has been. Or, maybe it was 2001 when I lived in NYC and didn't know anyone? Watching movies has largely been a solitary activity for me over the years. I was living in Norman, Oklahoma working on finishing my degree in History/Film Studies and just preferred to be alone. And watch a lot of movies!

The highlight of 1999 was watching one last film with my grandmother Gertrude a few months before she passed away. Believe it or not, we watched Dead/Alive, the Peter Jackson gore fest that is so bloody that it's comical. Why she decided to sit down and watch that movie with me I have no idea. I can't think of that movie, or Jackson, without now thinking of my grandma.

The 2000 statistics will come in a few weeks.

Total for the year: 285

By Month

January: 26
February: 17
March: 18
April: 25
May: 31
June: 36
July: 26
August: 12
September: 20
October: 24
November: 14
December: 35

By Decade

1910-19: 4
1920-29: 9
1930-39: 15
1940-49: 12
1950-59: 12
1960-69: 10
1970-79: 16
1980-89: 39
1990-99: 162

Who I saw 'em with

164--alone
55--in class at OU
35--Lillian Blevins
11--Otis Hoover
4--Scott Booker
3--Bobby Ahn, Kelly Healy, Seth Jones
2--Victoria Nguyen
1--Gertrude Blevins, Shane Davis, Melissa Wabnitz

Where I saw 'em

171--Norman, Oklahoma
91--Pryor, Oklahoma
10--Tulsa, Oklahoma
7--Dallas, texas
2--Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1--Miami, Florida; Montreal, Canada; Treasure Cay, Bahamas

By Country

205--US and A!
17--France
14--England
7--Spain
4--China, Germany
3--Ireland
2--Australia, Canada, Norway, Serbia
1--Cuba, Iran, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Vietnam, Yugoslavia

UTW review of Just Go With It + Biutiful

I'm at least a month behind on my Urban Tulsa Weekly reviews, but that just means I've got a lot of other content to post such as the recent guest writers Stephanie and Eva. I like having too much rather than not enough. I often question myself whether I will run out of things to say about movies, but then there seems to always be something new that comes to mind. And, I could always do a monthly insult to Michael Bay if things get too dry! Go here if you want to read a couple of short reviews of the comedy Just Go With It and the Mexican drama Biutiful.

Stephanie Huettner's SXSW journal [part one]

Friday, March 11

My journey with SXSW 2011 will be my first as a Video Projection Crew Chief. I have been a Film Traffic (Film Librarian) Crew Chief for the past four years and was moved over to projection this year, to my delight. While this will mean a more restrictive schedule for me during the festival with regards to what I choose to see, I will still get to see plenty and learn plenty about video projection equipment.

The first movie I see at the festival is aptly titled The First Movie. It is a Scottish film by a director from Northern Ireland, Mark Cousins. Cousins grew up during the worst days of the IRA conflicts and remembers film being a welcome escape from the chaos surrounding him. He decides to travel to a remote region of Iraq called Guptapa (which was the site of horrific chemical rain attacks in the late 1980s) to set up a pop-up free cinema and to see what kinds of movies the kids in this region would make if given the opportunity. While this premise may sound like a set-up for maudlin realizations about the nature of war and the usual waxing poetic about how children see the world, this film takes a more experimental track. Rather than editing the film like a diary of the journey, Cousins and his team choose to focus on several long sequences featuring the children playing with balloons and talking about what kind of movie they would make if they had the opportunity. The free cinema is a smashing success and one who loves film can't help but be inspired by the genuine wild enthusiasm with which the children greet films like E.T. and The Red Balloon. The films made by the kids on flip cameras are sometimes silly, as they should be, but others are very thoughtful. One child chooses to take his camera to a mosque to interview the men there. He gets an unabashed and honest interview from a man who may have been wary of talking to any outsiders. The film which is considered the “discovery” of the film is made by a boy named Muhammed, (nicknamed “Little Muhammed”). It is a 2:20 minute-long shot of a boy playing in the mud. The filmmakers choose to call it “The Boy and the Mud.” Muhammed shoots his friend playing with water passing in a small stream, pulling it on to the soil and turning it in to mud. If this description makes one shrug with apathy, the key to it is the narration which Muhammed provides. “The boy is playing with the mud. He is using the water to turn the soil in to mud, because this is all we have to play with where we are. He is giving his dreams to the water and the soil. He is giving his dreams to the mud. He would like to build a house from this mud.” Muhammed then pauses in his stream-of-consciousness poetry to direct his friend: “Keep playing with the mud. Keep playing with it and make more.” A born director. While it may not be a work of genius, it is incredibly impressive that an 8-year-old boy who has little exposure to cinema at all knows innately how to narrate and direct a film, as well as how to make adjustments to the shot. I enjoyed this film thoroughly, finding it thoughtful and beautiful. Ironically, having just praised the novice filmmaker's narration skills, I could I have used less of Cousins' constant narration in every scene. Many of the images tell the stories just fine on their own and don't need his intrusive description. Nevertheless, his true affinity for the kids comes across and one gets the sense that they are truly discovering a new part of themselves through the creation of their films.

Saturday, March 12

The next day, I saw another documentary with a far more complicated story to tell. Better This World is the story of two friends from Midland, texas who became increasingly disillusioned and angry at the state of their country and the role which it was playing in the world after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. They dabble in revolutionary group meetings and are soon pulled in to a group in Austin, by a man known in the media for his activism in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. As the SXSW blurbs state: “The result: eight homemade bombs, multiple domestic terrorism charges and a high stakes entrapment defense hinging on a controversial FBI informant.” Like I said, this one is very complex and in order to get all of the details, you'd need to just watch it. It is exceptionally well made, tightly edited and incredibly informative. While it's also emotional, filmmakers Kelly Duane and Katie Galloway do not indulge in the melodrama of the situation. They succeed in making a thoughtful and provoking portrait of two young men who saw themselves as true patriots and the agents who viewed them as a threat to the country they love.

Sunday, March 13

I had a minor break on Sunday evening, and couldn't resist stopping by the Paramount (a gorgeous movie palace where the likes of Harry Houdini and Katherine Hepburn have graced the stage) to catch a few minutes of Win Win. Director Tom McCarthy was in attendance, as were Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan and Alex Schaffer. McCarthy is proving himself one of the most well-rounded talents in the business. In addition to his work as an actor (remember that smarmy, lying reporter in season 5 of The Wire?), his two previous directorial efforts (The Station Agent, The Visitor) were both home runs. I only got to see the first 45 minutes of this one before jetting off to another venue, but I think it's safe to say that he has another win winner on his hands. Sorry, I had to do it.

E-mail alerts/report from SXSW

For those of you who would like an e-mail alert for new posts, I just added that feature on the right. Just enter your e-mail and you'll get a special CineRobot e-mail every time a new post is added. It will be in raw text without images, but if you click on the heading it will take you directly to the post as it appears on CineRobot.

Coming soon will be a post [or two!] from CineRobot's SXSW film festival correspondent [yes, we are trying to add field agents to the site!] Stephanie Huettner. She has been busy watching films and jotting down some opinions just for CineRobot. Be on the ready for that and get some scoops on films that haven't been released yet.

New poll question about method actors too if you haven't voted.

Poll question: who is the greatest method actor?

The new poll question concerns method acting and who is the best...your choices are Robert De Niro, Christian Bale, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino or Daniel Day-Lewis. Go to the home page to cast your vote.

UTW review of The Roommate

Go here if you want to read a review I did a few weeks ago for Urban Tulsa of The Roommate. If you've ever watched the early 1990s film Single White Female, well so did the creators of this made for teenagers knock-off. How they can claim this isn't a straight-up remake is beyond me because it's basically a carbon copy with terrible actresses in the lead roles. There, I've spoiled it. I didn't like this at all, but if you want to read all the levels of my disgust for The Roommate, click the link.

Michael Bay: "Transformers 2 was crap"

"We made some mistakes. The real fault with [Transformers 2] is that it ran into a mystical world. When I look back at it, that was crap. The writer's strike was coming hard and fast. It was just a terrible to do a movie where you've got to have a story in three weeks."

Those are some pearls of wisdom that the antichrist of cinema Michael Bay recently spilled to the Empire Magazine from England.  All I can think is, "Transformers 2 was crap? Uhm, thanks for admitting it, but I didn't need you to validate my opinion regarding that waste of everything that has to do with moviemaking known as Transformers 2." The shocking thing in the quote above is Bay's admittance that a film actually needs a story. What?! From what I've seen in his other films, having no story didn't seem to hinder his lust for pyrotechnics. No dialogue, story or plot to Bay just gives him a reason to shoot more guns or blow stuff up. Bay is also quoted as saying he'll "take some of the criticism." No, you'll take ALL of the criticism you talentless hack because you are Michael Bay!

Don't be fooled by this PR blitz by Bay and company trying to reassure the omni-gullible public that Transformers 3: Revenge of the Fallen is going to be anything better than part one or part two of this exorcise in vacuous filmmaking. Trust me, it's going to be more of the same from the man who thinks great cinema is watching giant metal robots based on toys smash into each other for two straight hours. His taste in what is good was stunted before he hit puberty when boys are still obsessed about explosions and the idea of fictional warring toys making a good story that deserves three, yes three films. Who knows how many of these dreadful movies he's going to unleash on the world if people keep forking over money to see them. The smirk on his face in the photo says it all: "I'm the great and 110% awesome Michael Bay. I'm stealing your money when you pay to see me blow shit up. Transformers 2 crap? Yes! But, so was every film I've ever directed and you've made me a friggin' 100 millionaire!" I'd kind of like to slap that smirk right off Bay's face.

Hollywood's history in books

[After I posted a few of the "Tops" in 2010 from guests, I thought it would be fun if every so often I'd include something from readers and friends to give a perspective about some cinema related topic different from my own. The cool thing about putting a blog on the internet is that strangers may stumble across CineRobot and come back enough times to become a regular reader and contributor in the comment field. That's the route Eva has taken to be one of the first non-tops guest writers for CineRobot. Eva is from Germany, but now lives in Utah and loves movies [naturally!], books, walking everywhere and says "foreign languages are my thing." Eva's essay below concerns her love of books on Hollywood's rich history and is going to cause me to make some purchases it looks like. Enjoy and start reading about cinema.]


I fell in love with the Mutiny on the Bounty long before I fell in love with Clark Gable. As in: I could not read enough about it, both fiction and non-fiction, and to this day have a bit of an obsession about it and think it is one of the greatest and most unlikely stories in history. As a teenager living in Norway I was in contact with a Norwegian lady who had visited, and then moved to and married on, Pitcairn Island (still my number one spot to go to!). She wrote in her book that it really all got started because of her crush on Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian in the 1935 movie Mutiny on the Bounty. I definitely envied her like hell for living on Pitcairn and being married to one of the descendants of the mutineers, but I thought: “ew, Clark Gable, what’s great about him? Yuck, I hate his mustache.”

My love of movie biographies started from very un-lofty ambitions. I don’t sleep very well. One summer night about 4 years ago I could not sleep and switched on the TV very late at night, say 3am. Much like some people “stumble across” porn at that hour, I stumbled across an old Clark Gable movie and - I really don’t know why -  he suddenly had me go weak in the knees (I think those people with the porn probably don’t get weak in the knees, just horny). He had such a presence, such chemistry with this actress, and I immediately developed an enormous crush on him. I don’t know why that night I suddenly saw what I had not seen before. To this day I am always on the lookout for early '30s Clark Gable movies, young and handsome, and preferably without a mustache (there are only a couple of those movies).

So shortly thereafter I got a biography of his and then a second, by Warren G. Harris and Chrystopher J. Spicer (for Gable fans only!). And from there on that was it – I think I have only read movie biographies ever since. I used to be such a fiction reader. Will this exclusive biography reading dumb me down??  I hope not, and find that I am learning a great deal about life stories, movie history, and history in general from them. It is somewhat of an addiction – in one biography I come across the lovers/co-stars/directors etc. of the movie star in question, and then I get curious about them, and next thing I know I got three or four more books lying there. Oh well! Best to follow a healthy addiction like this one. It will either peter out, or result in some kind of expertise.

I have read so many now I hardly remember them all. I know that initially my taste was terribly “uncultured” and I read anything, poorly written or not. Sometimes I still do, we all need our junk food. There are definitely some favorites, though.

Here are some general rules (but I emphasize, they are general; there are definitely exceptions). Generally, a lot of the really big movie stars have many biographies written on them, but they are rarely good. You will be more likely to find a good biography on a somewhat lesser star. Generally, if a biography is from the 1990s or newer, they will be better than the old ones. It seems they have more of a distance, and do more thorough research. Generally, don’t get anything by Jane Ellen Wayne; it seems poorly researched, sensationalist, and has bad spelling. Generally, biographies are better than autobiographies. Generally, stay away from books that have those subtitles like “the man behind the myth,” “tormented star” or “lifting the veil….” They are usually badly written and researched, out for a quick buck, and happy to throw some as-yet-unknown dirt on a star.

The books I like best are sometimes, though not always, on people I don’t have that much of an interest in. But because of the times they lived through, or the people they interacted with, their biographies or autobiographies are extremely interesting. I have barely seen any Shirley Temple movies, yet her autobiography Child Star was very enlightening, well-written, and shed tons of light on many Hollywood figures and events. It is also refreshing in the sense that she appears very down-to-earth and neither prone to embellishing or pitying herself. Her childhood was no trauma, and neither was it perfect. Other auto-biographies I liked were Lauren Bacall’s By Myself and Then Some, and Fred Astaire’s Steps in Time. Bacall herself is interesting and writes well, and of course there a tons of interesting insights into the lives of several directors and actors, most of all Bogie, of course. Astaire’s Steps in Time is quite tame, no sensational revelations there. I think his very nature was the opposite of sensationalist, and he has that typical charming self-effacing Fred Astaire style. I haven’t yet found a good biography of Astaire’s, so I will stick to his own words. I worship anything coming from him anyway – a while after Gable, Astaire joined him in equal rank in terms of an Eva crush.

One book I got quite lost in, and that I thought was very well-written, is a biography of Mary Pickford, by Eileen Whitfield, called Mary Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood. It was fascinating both regarding Pickford herself, as well as the times she lived in and shaped; the really early silent films, D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin (who instead of calling her "America’s Sweetheart" like everyone else, called her the "Bank of America’s Sweetheart"), and the goings-on at the legendary Pickfair estate (how I would have liked to be a visitor! So did Joan Crawford, but she had to wait her turn). It becomes quite clear of how much importance she was in building Hollywood.

I loved David Stenn’s Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow. It is strangely unobtainable and expensive, but luckily I managed to find it at the library of a university where I was teaching. It explored the mysterious death of her husband Paul Bern and her own unexpected death in much saner ways than had been done before. Of course these two deaths make for fascinating reading; as well as Harlow’s life – an actress who got teamed up with Gable very often and had incredible chemistry with him. Her death at a young age, and that of Irving Thalberg, majorly shocked and impacted Hollywood.

So now I have mentioned Thalberg... I am endlessly fascinated with him. He occurs in practically every biography of every movie star of the 1920s or '30s. He pops up all the time. By the time I got to an actual biography of his, by Bob Thomas, this December, I already felt like I knew him well. I liked that book, but there is also a very new Irving Thalberg biography by Mark A. Vieira that I’m keen on reading. The library here doesn’t have it and its price hasn’t sunk yet, but I’ll get it soon, ILL or otherwise.

Once Thalberg was done, of course I had to finally get to Louis B. Mayer. There is a new-ish biography, Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer by Scott Eyman, that I devoured. Oh, Louis B! - part ridiculous, part scary, part scary street-smart, influential and talented. Needless to say – also offers great insights and tidbits into just about anyone he ever came in touch with!

I really liked Graham McCann’s biography on Cary Grant: Cary Grant: A Class Apart. It’s hard to get good biographies on the major stars, and this is one. I loved reading two biographies by Lee Server: Robert Mitchum: Baby I Don’t Care and Ava Garder: Love Is Nothing – both rich, long, satisfying, much-researched, with a thousand interesting tidbits. I also recommend two Garbo biographies: Garbo by Barry Paris, and Greta Garbo: A Life Apart by Karen Swenson. I much enjoyed As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin by Laurence Bergreen – a great look at Tin Pan Alley, and you can imagine how many interesting lives someone came in contact with if they turned a 101 years old!

One of the best reads was a gigantic book by David Thomson on David O. Selznick - Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick. It was the fattest book (I think over 800 pages) I had when I went on a pretty spontaneous trip to Sicily last year, and boy was I glad for it when I got stuck there for an additional week (oh, how tragic) when the Icelandic volcano exploded. Sicily had so much to offer, but my apartment was TV and internet-less (lovely!) and so in the evenings it was just me and David O. Selznick. I always enjoy Thomson’s writing – pretty much all of his books. Thomson extensively interviewed Irene Mayer Selznick in person, and he had plenty of new and interesting things to say. Of course, the making of Gone With the Wind makes up for a large part of the book (and who knew Vivien Leigh liked to play the game different-ways-to-kill-infants?) For those who like very short books, Thomson has a great little series of small books of about 100 pages each going (so far, I think, Ingrid Bergman, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis). Nice, chatty, unorthodox tone.

For those who don’t want to pick any specific biography (yet), I really recommend The Star Machine by Jeanine Basinger. You get tons of insights into the studio system, how stars were made, and Basinger singles out many different stars to prove her examples. Finally, here you get something on lesser-known, or less “glamorous” contract players, and finally some information on fantastic people like Irene Dunne or William Powell, on whom it is harder to find good material. This book I could not put down.

I just started a biography of Gene Kelly, and have my eye on one of Louella Parsons. Can’t wait! I also don’t have a lot of people with whom to exchange information on biographies, but I do have one friend whose taste I fully trust in this, and he says he highly recommends Chaplin’s auto-biography, as well as David Niven’s The Moon’s a Balloon. So they are next on my list.

Once upon a time I was really worried I would run out of these biographies. No longer so! I realize just how much material there is, and just how little I have read. That’s a good thing – plenty left for the future. When I spent a longer time in Germany, where these types of Hollywood biographies are totally unavailable, and many simply have not been translated, I got anxiety about not getting my fill. I had a couple of hospital stays there this past year and luckily thought of buying some used biographies inexpensively, shipped from the UK. Salvation! I will never forget it – I think I ordered  9 at once, and about 8 of them arrived all on the same day! I was sitting on the carpet in my living room surrounded by the parcels, and in a state of bliss (the pain and weakness was briefly forgotten).

I am not at all an authority on this topic, and the more I get in there, the more I realize how much I don’t know. Still, I hope I threw some interesting ideas out there. I am thinking of a thousand little stories from those books as I write this. Why I am so hooked on this stuff? I am massively interested in people’s life stories, and perhaps there is also a small part in me that likes to see what messes they got themselves into (and that I’m not the only one) - and out of (a couple, of course, did not). And on some level, I am definitely in love with the glamour that surrounds old Hollywood like no glamour can do these days. I love the dashing men, the good manners, the love affairs, the clothes… I realize the innocence, images, and glamour are partly fake (they did, after all, have a little thing called WWII), but we all need our dreams, and sometimes “breathe an atmosphere that simply reeks with class.”

1998 statistics!

I thought it might be interesting to post some statistics before the existence of CineRobot. Let's start with 1998, the first year I started keeping my film journal that I dubbed Kinetoscope [pictured]. These older stats should show how consistent I've been regarding films over the past decade plus. I guess it's pretty clear, but I'll say it again--I love movies!

1998 was kind of a roller coaster year for me that saw me returning to Hungary for a month, ending a relationship, hibernating in Pryor Creek for six+ weeks watching the satellite dish like a demon and moving from Seattle back to Oklahoma to finish my BA at the University of Oklahoma. I didn't know anyone in Norman, so there were lots of loner screenings. Some of the films I saw in film classes I counted as "alone" in the stats that year though. 1998 was an anti-social year for me when I look back on it from the vantage point of 13 years. Seems like another lifetime, but yet like it was "yesterday." It's weird how memory acts sometimes. I'll post the stats for 1999 in a few weeks.

Total films seen in 1998: 262
In a theatre: 93

By Month

January:16
February: 16
March: 25
April: 15
May: 18
June: 27
July: 31
August: 23
September: 15
October: 17
November: 20
December: 40

By Decade

1930-39: 1
1940-49: 5
1950-59: 3
1960-69: 8
1970-79: 13
1980-89: 21
1990-98: 199

Who I saw 'em with

179--alone
42--Laura Ballay
19--Lillian Blevins
16--Otis Hoover
5--Scott Booker, Robert Schrader
2--Angie Booker, Shane Davis
1--Brent Booker, Donnie Bostwick, Siobhan Bowers, Emily Hennigs, Joshua McNichols, John Thomas

Where I saw 'em

86--Pryor, Oklahoma
80--Seattle, Washington
48--Norman, Oklahoma
19--Tulsa, Oklahoma
11--Budapest, Hungary
8--Dallas, texas
3--On a jet
2--Santa Fe, New Mexico
1--Madison, Wisconsin; New York, New York; Springdale, Arkansas

By Country

215--US and A
9--France
8--England
6--Ireland
4--Australia, Italy
3--Hong Kong
2--Japan, Mexico, Russia
1--Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, India, Israel, Sweden

New poll question and other new things

I haven't done a poll question in forever so just came up with one for fans of the Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu involving which of his four films is your favorite. If that's not a crowd-pleaser to bring back the poll question I don't know what is, ha. It's at the top of the home page if you want to vote. I've also ordered my favorites just to the right of the poll question to see where I stand--don't let me influence you as all votes are anonymous.

Also added a counter. This might be depressing if the numbers rarely change, but at least I can enjoy the flip counter as it slowly moves to a higher number.

Go vote!

The Tunnel + Smile

The Tunnel. Last week in my "February movies" post I mentioned seeing a German thriller I really liked called The Tunnel. I want to say a little bit more about it to hopefully pique some interest for people to watch. Released in 2001 and directed by Roland Suso Richter, The Tunnel is based on real events as a group of people in 1961 dig a long tunnel into East Berlin to try and lead an escape of relatives and friends. The tunnel needs to be long enough to reach past the unoccupied zone populated by soldiers, barbed wire and the concrete wall being constructed to keep German citizens separated from one another.

The Tunnel works as a thriller and suspense film, but also as a exploration of the physical and psychological damage caused by the Berlin Wall's creation in 1961. The wall, an extreme barrier that was not only a symbol of the escalating Cold War between the Soviet Union and the USA but an actual device to keep people imprisoned, is completely fascinating to me. After I watched the film, I promptly bought The Berlin Wall: A World Divided 1961-1989 by Frederick Taylor and am eager to read more on the topic.

I knew going into watching The Tunnel I'd love the premise, but I was surprised at just how suspenseful the film is. Richter gives us multiple stories to become entangled in--there's romance, secret border crossings, espionage, betrayal, loyalty and lots and lots of digging. If you like films set around the Berlin Wall or East/West Germany during the Cold War [the Lives of Others is an example of another film I love based in this setting] then this rousing film is highly, highly recommended.

Smile. It's no secret I love a sly bit of satire and this lesser known gem from 1975 and director Michael Ritchie really deserves to be discovered by more people. There's just so many films from the 1970s that have slipped into the cracks of film history that are waiting to be seen and embraced, Smile is one of them. It's a funny portrait of a group of people connected to a "Young American Miss" beauty pageant, from judges to the women competing. The pageant is small potatoes, but don't tell that to car salesman and head judge "Big" Bob Freelander, as it is the highlight of the year for him and other contestant organizers.

Big Bob is played by the great Bruce Dern and he's an actor I'll watch in pretty much anything, especially from this particular time period. Dern usually portrays villains, eccentrics and other characters that allow him to tap into this manic nervousness he's perfected, but his character in Smile is kind of the straight-man to chaotic events that befall the pageant. It's wonderful to see Dern outside his usual sphere of oddball and play a character so lost in normalcy.

Dern is just part of the pleasant ensemble cast that also includes very early appearances by Melanie Griffith, Annette O'Toole and Adam Sandler's buddy director Dennis Dugan as a pervy teenager trying to get some polaroids of the pageant contestants undressing. There's just so much charm in Ritche's film and it works as a satirical comedy and snapshot of the 1970s. Good stuff--go discover it if you don't know this one and like films from the '70s.

UTW review of Another Year

I'm weeks behind in posting my links to the reviews I write for Urban Tulsa Weekly. I'll try to catch up. Go here if you want to read my thoughts on the Mike Leigh film Another Year. It's classic Leigh as he's tapped into the English psyche like only he can. One of my favorite character actors, Jim Broadbent, is in the cast. I love that guy.

February movies

I finally finished the Stieg Larsson trilogy with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and I'd been led to believe that the last was the weakest of the three. I beg to differ. I actually preferred part three over part two. In order here's how I'd rank the three films: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and The Girl Who Played With Fire. I also saw a really good German film from 2001 called The Tunnel that I'm going to do a short review of in the next few days. That movie was nearly three hours of awesome!

Quantum of Solace---2008---usa   **1/2
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control---1997---usa   ***
The Illusionist---2010---france   ***1/2
Blue Valentine---2010---usa   ***
Hannah and Her Sisters---1986---usa   ****
The Roommate---2011---usa   *1/2
The Last Metro---1980---france   ****
Smile---1975---usa   ***1/2
Pressure Cooker---2008---usa   ***
Just Go With It---2011---usa   **1/2
Extract---2009---usa   ***
The African Queen---1951---usa   ****
Super---2011---usa   **1/2
I Am Number Four---2011---usa   **
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest---2009---sweden   ***1/2
Amores Perros---2000---mexico   ****
Hall Pass---2011---usa   **
The Tunnel---2001---germany   ****1/2
Death Race 2000---1975---usa   ***

Studio Tulsa interview

Go here if you want to listen to a 30 minute interview I did recently on "Studio Tulsa," a daily show that broadcasts on the local NPR station KWGS. The topic is 2010 in cinema--best, worst, missed, performances, the Oscars and my thoughts on 3D. I think radio is my medium! In a re-do life I'd love to be a DJ and play music to people. Or, I'd be up for a film, music and culture show right now, ha.

Oscar journal

Each year I torment myself by watching the ultimate display of Hollywood superficiality, publicity and "slap-ourselves-on-the-back" via the Oscars. Here is the minute by minute recap of my thoughts as it took place.

6:17 [central time zone] Let the phoniness begin!

6:27...The typical over-reacting TV weathermen are talking about a storm in Kansas. That's right, Kansas. I guess Kansas doesn't have fancy doppler to alert viewers that it's storming? So, I'm not watching the red-carpet festivities due to a ridiculous local TV station.

7:22...I guess the storm is farther into Kansas now since the broadcast is back on. Halle Berry--how can someone so hot keep attaching herself to "loser" guys? At some point, can we start blaming HB for her disastrous romantic choices?

7:38...Co-hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco--lame choices and a lame start. Why couldn't Alec Baldwin host again by himself? Or, anyone else. How can two people who have done as little as Hathaway and Franco get this job? Awh, they want to attract the young. We'll see, but it's not a good start when you've got a mom popping up from stands regarding Hathaway's posture. Cringe.

7:39...Hathaway is acting like she's hosting Saturday Night Live. It's going to be a long night if this is their style.

7:42...So let me understand this--producers wanted to attract a younger demographic for the telecast so right off the bat there's a Gone With the Wind reference? Fifteen minutes in and the show feels like watching paint dry.

7:57...Kirk Douglas is hitting on Hathaway and she's swooning. I just find it sad and exploitive he's out there like this. Melissa Leo wins for supporting actress and is fake, fake, fake. I used to like her, but now I'm not sure. She drops an f-bomb and then steals Douglas cane on the walk-off for some reason.

8:01...That's what Hathaway and Franco call a quip? They are a tag-team of horrible. Hathaway's idea of a quip is to squeal or whoop loudly. She's acting like a cheerleader at a pep-rally. SJ just commented that Franco isn't trying and Hathaway's trying to hard. It's not a good mix.

8:26...Why couldn't Russell Brand and Helen Mirren been the hosts? They have more chemistry than the two nitwits tormenting me at every opportunity. And Franco claimed Ricky Gervais bombed at the Golden Globes? Can someone get these two a mirror so they can see what it truly looks like to bomb?

8:30...Best foreign film Oscar doesn't go to Dogtooth, but rent this Greek film and be blown away.

8:33...I love John Hawkes, but I'm happy for Christian Bale winning for supporting actor. Good speech too. Off the cuff, not overly-scripted, that's how it's done.

8:41...Nicole Kidman's plasticine face on display. I won't mention it.

8:55...Marisa Tomei. Highlight of the evening so far. Let her host!

9:17...Luke Matheny's speech is best of the night so far. I need to see his short God of Love. Let him host!

9:21...The autotune montage is the best moment of the night and I actually laughed for the first time. Two hours in and I hadn't chuckled once, but that was so ridiculous and a jab at how you really need no talent to autotune a melody out.

10:03...Harvey Weinstein just bought Tom Hooper the award for best director. Astute readers know what I'm talking about here.

10:39...Weinstein strikes again! The King's Speech is a good movie, but the man knows how to buy Oscar wins like nobody's business.

Epilogue...One of the worst Oscars in memory. The choice of James Franco and Anne Hathaway was a complete and utter train wreck that supplied enough cringe-worthy moments it might damage their careers slightly. She was like an over-eager kid playing grown-up and he was like a surly kid who didn't want to be on the stage at all. I don't know who came off worse between the pair of them as they were both horrible for different reasons. I know I don't want to see either of them on TV or in a movie for awhile.

Stephanie Huettner's tops [part two]

As promised two days ago, here is the rest of guest blogger Stephanie Huettner's tops in 2010.

#6 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 -- Stick your nose up at this series and this film if you want, but you're the one who is missing out (I'm looking at you, Vern Snackwell). I was ecstatic when I heard that the final book in the series of The Boy Who Lived would be getting a two-movie treatment. After seeing David Yates' brilliant and edgy first installment, I can't wait for the second. I wish I could post the “Snatchers Chase” through the forest, my favorite scene, but it isn't to be found anywhere except in the film at this point. So, go see it!

#5 Waking Sleeping Beauty -- This wonderful documentary played at SXSW 2010 and I was sadly unable to see it there. The subject matter, the revival of Disney animated films between 1984 and 1994, would be interesting no matter what. However, this goes beyond interesting and becomes an engaging, well-crafted, fascinating story of the history of Walt Disney Studios, a character study of the major players behind the scenes, and the events surrounding this special period of rebirth at the magic kingdom. After giving a general overview of the tradition of animated movies at Disney, the film smoothly segues to the early 80s, when hand- drawn animation was considered a dead art form and the studio's latest animated work, The Black Cauldron, came in over-budget and underperformed at the box office. From that point on, the focus is on the business, personnel and creative choices which led to the resurgence of animation in pop culture and to the creation of many classic films (including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King) in such a short time span. The movie itself is so tightly knit and well constructed, taking advantage not only of the ample press footage from over the years, but also a treasure trove of behind- the-scenes material made by people who worked at the studio. These home videos include such gems as a young and very strange Tim Burton working at his animation table to the entire animation staff re-enacting Apocalypse Now as they waited to hear whether they'd all been laid off. The editing is some of the best I've seen in any film this year and certainly much better than the average documentary. Rather than constantly cutting back to talking heads, the films introduces the main characters, and then identifies their voice for the rest of the film with an on-screen talk bubble. It manages to cram in so much information about so many things without losing the thread that it's absolutely mind-boggling. Waking Sleeping Beauty is a tribute to artists and their belief in the potential greatness of animation when there is true talent and dedication involved.

#4 How to Train Your Dragon -- Speaking of the potential greatness of animation, I get to my #4 film of the year. One of many breathtakingly beautiful shots in this movie is a simple transition shot. A flyover view of some rocky hilltops near the Viking village where the film is set. The care and detail on display in this one shot is representative of the entire film. A fellow film buff friend, whose main forte is horror, said that this is easily his favorite 3D film ever. While the bar may have been set low for 3D recently, this is one of the very few who have used 3D as more than a gimmick. Rather than have one or two shots wherein a dragon claw lunges out at the viewer, the filmmakers gave the setting a gorgeous depth. They also took the time to do this with their characters. Like last year's brilliant Coraline, this film expands on, and improves on, the book upon which it's based. I've read one of the Dragon books (written by Cressida Cowell) and found it cute and fun. The film, however, is that plus a whole lot more. The story centers on Hiccup, a young Viking who is small in stature and doesn't quite fit in with the rest of his tribe, who spend most of their time thinking about how to kill things. Their main focus is dragons, who are prone to stealing the village sheep and destroying their huts. Hiccup uses his blacksmithing skills and intellect to create a long-range sling shot which he employs to down a dragon during one of their raids. He intends to kill it later and bring it back to the village, proving himself a true Viking. When he finds the injured dragon in the woods, he is unable to complete the kill. Instead, he feels overwhelming compassion for the creature he has wounded so severely that it is now unable to fly more than a few feet at a time. He eventually decides that he will find a way to restore the dragon's flight and live in harmony with the creature. This may sound trite, but in the context of the film, it's a boy who is choosing to reject his people and social identity in order to help someone he's been taught to hate. A particularly moving sequence is when Hiccup takes the dragon, named Toothless, flying for the first time since his injury. They are both completely dependent on one another to fly successfully and have chosen to trust the other with their life. This sequence also features one of the best pieces of music from John Powell's amazing and moving score, which is rightfully up for an Academy Award. How to Train Your Dragon is a story of empathy, sacrifice and the courage to change. Toy Story 3 will obviously get the Oscar, but this movie won my heart.

#3 The Social Network -- It isn't really necessary to pile even more praise on top of this film, but it's every bit as good as it's been hyped up to be. The first scene is rocky, as Aaron Sorkin's unnaturally-paced, eye roll inducing dialogue throws the audience head first in to a world full of people with brilliant minds but dim personalities. The central character in this web is Mark Zuckerberg. He made his name and fortune with the titular idea (dubbed Facebook, if you hadn't heard) but is, according to the film and the book on which it's based, a social retard. As played by Jesse Eisenberg, he's one hell of a fascinating character. Eisenberg has long gotten the short shrift as an actor, despite turning in brilliant performances in films like Rodger Dodger and The Squid and the Whale. He is finally getting his due with this film, making a seemingly unlikeable person sympathetic. The scope of the film is of an insular world on a grand scale. Some critics compared it to Citizen Kane, and I think that's accurate insofar as it concerns a small core group of people who, through their actions or just through social connections, cast a wide net throughout the world. At a panel at the 2010 Austin Film Festival, Kenneth Turan cited The Social Network as the antidote to the onslaught of ridiculous, low-brow silliness that has flowed through the Hollywood pipeline this year. He professed a hope that this is a sign that Hollywood can still produce great, adult, complex movies. If not, at least we got this one.

#2 Roger's Pass -- This one is another festival favorite of mine. At the 2010 Austin Film Festival, which included heavy hitters like Black Swan and 127 Hours, this was my clear favorite. The endless string of cutesy indie flicks which proclaim they have heart and sincerity could learn a lot from this film. The film opens with an animated sequence which outlines the main character's upbringing and his relationship with various members of his family. While it's cute and funny, is not a superfluous bit of fluff for cheap laughs. Every character shown in this sequence is an important member of the ensemble. The film's log line is “Roger's Pass is a dramatic comedy about a disjointed family forced to come together under tragic circumstances and discover what really matters most.” That's enough plot explanation, as it isn't really the plot that matters most. The film reminds me of David Gordon Green's All the Real Girls. The two are not alike in tone or storyline, but they are both filled to the brim with great characters who all have a distinct personality. They also take a theme that has been done to death and manage to infuse it with life and originality. Both are also incredibly funny in an organic and genuine way. It's worth mentioning that most of the film's cast also worked in some capacity on the crew and that a few people play themselves. The passion, hard work and love that went in to the film are clearly felt and I recommend it to everyone who truly loves movies.

#1 Winter's Bone -- This film has been the easy favorite for me since March, when I saw it at SXSW. I was immediately drawn in by the opening music: a downbeat, low hymn to Missouri played over shots of two children playing in a wooded yard. Toys litter the porch and ground around the house, which is well-kept but rundown. These images are enough to let us know where we are and what life is like around here. The creation of this kind of instant atmosphere is extremely rare impressive. I will forgive a lot in a film if it manages to create good atmosphere. Luckily, there's not much to forgive in this film. The rundown house belongs to the Dolly family. The de-facto head of the family is 17-year-old Ree. She is played with quiet force by Jennifer Lawrence, whose ability to command the screen seems effortless. I learned from the post-screening Q&A that many of the film's actors, including the two children at the beginning, are locals. Lawrence and her professional co-stars (including Deadwood veterans John Hawkes and Garret Dillahunt) all do an impeccable job of blending in with the Ozark crowd. Within the first five minutes of the film, Ree is informed by the local Sheriff (Dillahunt) that her father, a notorious ne'er do well, has failed to show up for a court date. This doesn't surprise Ree. In fact, she accepts the news as if it is the least of her worries. Unfortunately, her father posted the house as bail, and if he isn't found by the end of the week, she and her younger siblings will be homeless. From this point on, the film is equal parts thriller, family drama, sociocultural study and detective story as Ree sets off to find out what has become of the Dolly patriarch. This need for answers leads her on a Homeric quest through her county, which comprises the whole of her world. The audience is taken on a tour of a part of the country which is rich in natural beauty, history and culture, but is economically deflated. The social system is a complex puzzle, which the screenplay (based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell) artfully navigates. Friends, and even family, whom it seems should jump to Ree's aid, often respond to her questions and pleas for information with apathy or even violence.Winter's Bone is an intense, brilliantly crafted, straightforward film which casts a strange and wondrous enchantment on the viewer.

Stephanie Huettner's tops in 2010 [part one]

Sorry it took me so long between posts. I was trying to figure out how to imbed videos into our next guest blogger's "tops" in 2010. I wanted to get it how she wanted it since she spent so much time working on the copy. No video though as I'm giving up on that. Posters will have to do--Sorry Stephanie! Here's part one of her favorites from the year with part two coming in two days.

Stephanie Huettner (AKA Rumblefish on CineRobot) is from Tulsa, Okla. but has lived in Austin, tx
since 2002. She is an aspiring actress and has produced a number of independent short films, including
I Am Nick Robinson, The Peacemaker, Harvest Home, Mighty Mutant Mollusks, and the upcoming The 
Garden and the Wilderness. Stephanie is also a freelance writer. Her work includes a series for www.newpictureshow.com, entitled “She Wants Revenge,”  and the Austin Kung Fu Academy blog
(www.austinkungfuacademy.com/).

Honorable Mentions: Red Riding 1983, Toy Story 3, The Tillman Story, The Fighter, Black Swan, 127 Hours, Micmacs, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, True Grit, Winnebago Man, The A-Team and The Stieg Larsson trilogy (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo/Who Played With Fire/Kicked the Hornet's Nest).

#12 Restrepo -- Since the beginning of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, there have been a great number of documentaries about the war and the soldiers who fight it. This one is the best I've seen. The log line is: “A year with one platoon in the deadliest valley in Afghanistan.” That pretty much sums it up. The interviews with those who survived are deft, intelligent and moving. The editing is tight and flawless and the film respectfully avoids trying to spoon-feed the audience a message. Bravo.


#11 The King's Speech -- I knew that this would be really good, even though the synopsis makes it sound hilariously silly. Vern Snackwell and I joked that it sounds like the fake art house movie made up for when an actor within a film is nominated for an Oscar and they need movies to fill out the other nominees (think the end of Tropic Thunder). Colin Firth as a stuttering king and the speech therapist who saved him. No? Just me and Vern who think like that? Oh well. It is really good, as all word of mouth led me to believe. It's also unexpectedly gorgeous (Danny Cohen has been given a deserved Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography), expectedly moving, charming, educational, perfectly paced and has the usual stellar British ensemble. When Timothy Spall showed up in his first scene as Winston Churchill, my friend next to me gave a chuckle of approval. When he came on for his last scene, the same friend leaned over and whispered: “Good Churchill. GOOD Churchill!” Good everything in this one.

#10 Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World -- And the award for most underrated, screwed-over film of the year goes to... So, this movie's stunning visuals don't earn it an Oscar nomination, but the TV movie-quality tsunami from Hereafter gets a nod? Whatever. This movie may have bombed at the box office, but it will surely pick itself up in a video release and become a cult favorite. I was pretty stoked to see this on opening night at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, a city where it was marketed heavily. I went with nine friends who are all huge fans of the books (I have not read them) and dressed up as characters. Edgar Wright also gave everyone in my theater a high five for being his first paying audience. Yup, he ran up and down the rows of 300 people and high fived every single one. With that kind of hype, you'd think I was destined to be disappointed, no matter how good the movie was. Instead, it exceeded expectations by a mile or two. There's no point in describing the plot, as it would basically take as much time as just watching the movie. Kieran Culkin makes a welcome return to film with his fantastic portrayal of Scott's roommate, Wallace, and Allison Pill continues to show her boundless range as an actress. Wright is gifted at taking material that would most certainly become sloppy and incoherent in lesser hands and elevating it to a level that few would imagine possible. He is able to give the impression that his movie is an inside joke between him and every member of the audience.

#9 Piranha 3D -- I saw this twice in theaters and had a ball both times. The first time I saw it was on a very sad day for me and my entire family and this managed to lift me right out of the doldrums and in to B-movie bliss. Adam Scott, Elisabeth Shue, Jerry O'Connell and Ving Rhames are thankfully all on the same page with this film's status as a B-movie and they all do an outstanding job of giving good, earnest performances whilst not taking themselves or the movie seriously. One of my favorite moments from any movie in 2011 is Adam Scott (a wildly underrated actor) riding a jet ski and cocking a shotgun repeatedly with one hand, blowing away mutant fish as he goes. Christopher Lloyd essentially plays Doc Brown and Richard Dreyfuss gives an appropriate cameo. I can actually leave you with two good quotes about this film from different people:

“If you haven't seen this movie, then you're not living your life the right way.” - Rob Huebel


“If you don't like this movie, then you just don't like movies, period.” - Vern Snackwell

I couldn't be more excited about the planned sequel: Piranha 3DD.

#8 Animal Kingdom -- Add Ben Mendelsohn to the long list of actors who deserve a Supporting Actor statue this year. As the sinister senior son in a family of four criminal brothers, he gives a calculated, searing performance that is truly terrifying in its realism. The film, in short, concerns 17-year-old Josh (James Frecheville) whose mother has died from a drug overdose. He calls the grandmother he hasn't seen for many years (Jacki Weaver, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for this amazing performance) and goes to live with her and the aforementioned brood of brothers, his uncles. Josh, also the film's narrator, is incredibly passive, but still can't avoid getting sucked in to the world of crime in which his extended family have embedded themselves. Even though he avoids trouble, it always finds him. The film is furiously fast-paced and economically written, but manages to develop more than a half-dozen characters. It cuts the fat of exposition and gets in all necessary plot points with a sentence or a glance. I don't know how to describe it, other than to say that it is gloriously brutal and straightforward in a way that only Aussie films seem to be.

#7 Exporting Raymond -- The 2010 Austin Film Festival's Opening Night Film is a real life fish-out-of-water story that sees Phil Rosenthal, the creator and head writer of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” travel to Moscow to oversee the recreation of the show as  Russian sitcom. While I love Ray Romano's stand-up, I was never a fan of the show. This film, however, knocks it out of the park. It is hysterically funny, honest and insightful. I hope it gets the wide release that it richly deserves.

Death Race 2000

Next weekend Circle Cinema is screening one of my favorite "drive-in" movies--Death Race 2000. My father, in an inspired bit of genius parenting, actually took me to see this movie in the late 1970s at the drive-in. I don't often say this but here goes: thank you Dad! How else was I going to witness the cross-country road race carnage and unclothed females if not on the screen of the drive-in in Muskogee, Oklahoma if not taken by my father? I'd never heard of this film before I saw it, but I've never forgotten it as it hit my young mind like a meteor.

This poster (which I also love! How could you not love this piece of 1970s pulp cinema artwork?) completely sums up the b-film aspirations of Death Race 2000. Produced by drive-in maestro Roger Corman, the film stars David Carradine as a leather clad race car driver competing against others (including Sylvester Stallone) in a contest that involves being the first to get across the country while ALSO running over as many people along the way. You actually get points based on who it is you kill--old people get certain points, harder to hit people are assigned a higher point value. Awesome. 

So if you are in the Tulsa area and want to see one of the best "carsploitation" films on the screen, next weekend you'll have your chance. If you have kids (the younger the better), bring them and scar their impressionable psyches like my dad did to mine. It seems I've turned out fairly respectable. Seeing it helped establish a childhood path for me grow into a film geek, which led to hundreds of films a year starting in my teenage years, which led to bad grades in my teenage years, which led to a delayed start to college post-teenage years, which led to a degree in film studies, which led me to writing about a film in various avenues over the past 15 years, which led me to start and write away in obscurity on CineRobot, which has led to me becoming an official member of the film critic fellowship and press at Urban Tulsa. Dad didn't make that bad of a decision on this one. 

UTW review of The Way Back

Go here if you want to read my review for the Peter Weir film The Way Back that was in Urban Tulsa a couple of weeks ago. I'm kind of behind on posting the links to my weekly film column. This is a survival epic where a group of escaped prisoners from a gulag who go on a massive trek to freedom of over 4,000 miles. They undergo a lot of trials and tribulations on their journey as you might expect.

Sarah Jesse's tops in 2010

Sarah Jesse watched 125 films in 2010 and set the new record for films watched with me in a year with the sparkling total of 96. She's director of education and public programs at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa and maintains the blog Twin Pique with her sister Amanda. These are her favorite releases from 2010 in alphabetical order.


Biutiful (Mexico): Javier Bardem blew me away in this intense, visceral, tour de force film that will stick with you for weeks. As much as I love Colin Firth in The King’s Speech, I will be disappointed if Bardem’s unforgettable performance is slighted for the Oscar.

Exit Through the Gift Shop (England): Taking his message from the street to the movie house, elusive graffiti artist Banksy proves once again how duped we all are by bad, derivative art.  In this “prankumentary,” the art world appears silly, gullible and impressionable—perhaps not totally off base!

Greenberg (USA): Sadly, it seems I’m in the minority for loving this movie. Though bleak, it’s honest, and the excellent, natural performances of Ben Stiller and Greta Gerwig often made me forget I was watching a movie.

Heartbreaker (French): One of the most charming, intoxicatingly sweet, funny movies I’ve ever seen.  American filmmakers take note: this is how romantic comedies are done! I have a new celebrity crush in the adorable Romain Duris who has a knack for lighting up every scene he is in.

Inside Job (USA): I’m with Dylan on this one, it’s one of the best "horror" films I’ve seen in a long time besides Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Gutsy filmmaker Charles Ferguson is particularly adept at embarrassing the crap out of these once-invincible men. Thank god these creeps are finally getting what they deserve—obliterated reputations and jail time.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (USA): Rivers has got to be one of the hardest-working women in Hollywood and I respect her for that. Seeing her card catalog of jokes and learning about some of the more painful aspects of her life will convert even her most staunch haters. Also, she has a great line from the film that I still remember: “Bad things can happen, even in a pretty house.”

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (Canada): Before I saw this documentary I couldn’t identify a single Rush song. While I’m still not into their music, it’s impossible not to appreciate their musicianship, work ethic and their charming personalities. Unlike most rock docs, this one didn’t include any mention of drug addiction, rehab, sex with groupies, inter-band fighting and compromising standards for a record label. These Rush guys are class acts!

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (USA): Why don’t more people acknowledge the sheer creativity of this film? Everyone’s talking about James Cameron inventing a new kind of film, but what about director Edgar Wright’s unique perspective that throws all film conventions out the window? It’s cool, fast-paced and I love it.

Social Network (USA): Like everyone else on the planet, I loved this fast-talking, timely film. Eisenberg hits a home run.

The King’s Speech (England): Again, like everyone else on the planet, I loved this film and think Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush’s performances are impeccable. Its 12 Oscars nominations are well deserved.