Kid With a Bike – 7.5

A riveting psychological portrayal of a troubled 11-year-old boy, coming to grips with the loss of his father and, on occasion, his bike. He moves from sullen outcast to a slightly willing sharer in relatively short order, although it seems an age because of the Dardenne brothers’ slow pacing. Shots linger, which allows us to digest and savor and see time passing. The problem for me lay not in Cyril, but in Samantha, the natural beauty hairdresser who is instantaneously willing to bend her whole life to accommodate the troublesome (to put it mildly) boy, whom she doesn’t know and for whom she has no responsibility. Maybe she is just the artificial foil against whom we are to see Cyril’s story, but I could never get over the psychological void of her portrait.

A Separation – 9

There are no bad people in this story, but (almost) all the people do bad things – the chief among them not telling the truth. There is always a good reason, one that seems, at the moment, more important than the truth. Seeing how each of the characters handles this personal dilemma is only one of many strengths of this marvelous movie, which deserves its Oscar win and was, in my view, the best film in any category at that event. The performances are so real as not to seem like acting, from the winsome 4-year-old to the grandfather with Alzheimer’s. Given chance after chance to explode in rage, whether at the person around them or their own fate, the main characters remain remarkably equable, which invites us into their minds: what are they thinking? what would I be thinking in that situation.  Although the judicial process on view may be uniquely Iranian, and the role of the specific religion is foreign, there is nothing uniquely Iranian about any of the behavior on display. Just yesterday, the Times reported that William Rehnquist had undoubtedly lied about a memo he wrote in order to get confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. And the New Orleans Saints coach, when confronted by NFL investigators, was no more honest than the father who said he didn’t know that the woman he pushed was pregnant. But what would happen to his daughter and his father if he was sent to jail? Isn’t that reason enough to shade the truth, a little bit?

Where Do We Go Now? – 8

A comic but true-to-the-core depiction of Arab society in a small village where everyone knows, and gossips about, everyone else, usually at high volume. Meanwhile, below (or above) the frivolous surface, this smart movie presents the dichotomies of man and woman, love and hate, Christian and Muslim, life and death. All the actors are convincingly homespun, allowing the focus to rest on the pretty cafe-keeper, played by Nadine Labiki, the movie’s director. In this isolated Lebanese village, we are shown the need, and a way, to overcome petty divisions, even if we still believe this will not work in the bigger world out there.

Wanderlust – 3

Some thought that I rated last year’s Just Go With It inordinately high because of a puerile infatuation with Jennifer Aniston. As rebuttal, look at this rating: Jennifer was as adorable as ever, but this movie was just plain stupid. For some reason (their own lust?), the critics at The New Yorker, New York Times, Santa Barbara Independent all had kind things to say about this absurdist hippie spoof. For my part, I kept waiting for some payoff, even one joke to appreciate, but there was nothing here, just nothing. Alan Alda in a wheelchair was the only mildly entertaining character; the others wore out their welcomes shortly after introduction. When comedy bits are completely ridiculous, they had better be funny. These weren’t.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – 6

A rather mystifying, unneeded retelling of the classic John le Carre/Alec Guinness spy story. The main characters are represented by chess pieces, and that’s about how much they come to life. Gary Oldman is widely praised for his Smiley, but his expression changed only on the few occasions his ex-wife was mentioned. I found it strangely unimportant that secrets were being stolen, I cared little about which was the spy, and I have no idea why Prideaux was left alive and sent home to England when Karla was through with him. I can’t even remember if this was in black-and-white, but it should’ve been.

The Artist – 5

Like War Horse, this was an hommage to an era of movies past, and, also like War Horse, for me it was devoid of originality or emotional involvement. Unlike the Spielberg film, which actively annoyed me, this one merely left me cold. Featuring a lead character who was vain, proud, mean to his wife and sporting a pencil-thin mustache was not the way to win my sympathy. Having the studio’s meal ticket arrive at the lot only to learn from a janitor that the studio had switched from silent films to talkies overnight did little to win my belief. Yes, making a silent film in 2011 is a cute trick, but the reasons the studios switched back in the day remain just as valid now. I kept thinking how much more I would be enjoying watching – and listening to – Rocky Horror Picture Show. In the category of film-homage movies that are up for awards this season, I will credit Scorsese’s Hugo for creating characters worth caring about.

Girl With a Dragon Tattoo

I can’t think of a book whose plot I remember so well as Girl, which made this relatively faithful adaptation more a checklist for me than a separate cinema experience. I had no objections to the presentation, although neither Daniel Craig nor Rooney Mara matched my imagination; but I have to wonder what someone who hadn’t read the book would think. Whole characters, such as Blomkvist’s lawyer sister, would never have appeared in the film, except to appease viewers familiar with the novel. And the story’s most glaring flaw – why the villain would flee the scene of his crimes (to go where?) instead of returning with one of his many guns to eliminate our heroes – stood out more in the movie.

War Horse – 2

This is the worst movie I’ve ever seen – at least for this year. Attempting an homage to “sincere” movies of the ’40s and ’50s, Steven Spielberg came up with an epic that was not merely corny, but phony. Every scene was absurd, every character a cliche: the dastardly landlord, the dissolute father, the long-suffering mother, the courageous youth, etc., etc. Nor was the story interesting or enlightening: a horse survived four years of brutal treatment by the Huns in great shape. It didn’t save anyone’s life, it wasn’t a beacon of hope that kept the soldiers fighting on. It – unlike most of the soldiers, who were largely glossed over – survived. Every scene, cued by John Williams’ trite orchestration, blatantly aimed for the heartstrings. And missed. Disney would’ve done it better.

Shame – 7.8

This was a minimalist movie, like, say, a Donald Judd sculpture: stark, clean lines, eerily beautiful, solid and ambiguous in meaning. The opening shot established the director’s style – monochromatic (usually blue), intense, with long, slow takes. The epitome was Carey Mulligan singing “New York, New York.” Not only did she sing at half-speed, but the camera let her sing the entire song, something you’ll never see in today’s cinema, geared toward the MTV 2-second-attention-span generation. One felt assaulted by the end, and not from the frequent sexual couplings. Every minute was a challenge to understand Brandon’s emotions, what he was thinking, what his addictive illness was. This Michael Fassbender character would have been an ideal patient for the Michael Fassbender character I saw two movies ago.

Young Adult – 7.5

Charlize Theron was sensational as a case of arrested development, the fast blonde whose life peaked senior year in high school. She was also, I’m advised, a convincing alcoholic. Beyond that, there was not much of a story and only one other interesting character, Matt, the schlubby guy who viewed high school from the opposite end. The movie’s sensibility recalled its precursor, Juno, but whereas that was a tale of affirmation, this was a downer – mildly amusing with lots of good Minnesota touches – but still a downer.