The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

There is one certain kiss of death in the film industry. Don't lead the public to believe that your film is one thing, when in fact it is another animal altogether. Classic examples of this error can be found in films like Vanilla Sky which was a decent sci-fi flick masquerading as a Tom Cruise thriller, or My Girl, an excellent and poignant drama marketed as comedy by someone who probably became unemployed a full ten seconds after the film tanked. Unfortunately, this film has the kiss right along with the unmanageable title. You hear Jesse James, you think this is a western about a train robber. You would be wrong.

What this film is, is a really well done character study of a sociopath careening merrily down the road of suicidal paranoia and a rabid fan. Brad Pitt's Jesse is tortured and merciless, and he lays down a characteristically complicated and fascinating performance as a man who's not only out of control but knows it and wants it to end. But the real joy is watching Casey Affleck. Affleck imbibes history's hated Robert Ford with no end of nuance - the ignored little brother, a man accustomed to humiliation with dreams of grandeur - Robert Ford is all ego and id - too immature to see that the man he worships is sick and tired of all that ill earned fame. By the time he figures it out it's too late for both of them.

This movie's title isn't the only thing that's toooo long, but even so, writer/director Andrew Dominik gives it a grace and elegance rarely visited on a period piece. It seems more documentary than fiction; the language is refreshingly accurate to the time, the cinematography epic, the acting sublime. I'll admit I took an intermission midway, but I still felt it worth the watch. See the website here. PS - Brad continues to remind me of Robert Redford and see if you don't think RR would have relished this role in his younger days.

There Will Be Blood

Once every great while Hollywood makes some art. There Will Be Blood is such a film; epic, and masterfully crafted, it is destined to be a classic in the genre of Citizen Kane. Paul Thomas Andersen, who wrote the screenplay (loosely adapted from Upton Sinclair's Oil!) and directed this masterpiece, was robbed. This was Best Picture and Best Director hands down in my book. Nothing could have improved it.

Blood is at it's core a character study of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis who earned his Best Actor statuette in every moment of this film) set against the oil boom in California at the turn of the century. Our first glimpse of Plainview is of a man pitting himself solo against a hole in the ground with a pick axe and some dynamite and, in the first ten minutes of the film, the man is defined - indomitable is just the beginning. Over a thirty year span we watch him acquire - a son, and oilfields and wealth and a nemesis in a preacher (Paul Dano) as slick and dangerous as himself. Plainview despises humanity, and we watch him lose his tenuous grip on his own. I left the theater feeling bruised.

Day-Lewis is said to be a method actor, so feel some pity for those poor souls who had to share the set with his firebrand Plainview. Dano was a perfect counter score. The story is spartan and let's you puzzle about the missing details later. Cinematography was worthy of the epic scope - the black, burning oil derrick silhouetted against the raging fire sort of stuff. And the score...! Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead wrote a score that ratcheted up the tension till you could feel it in your belly. Keep your No Country For Old Men.... this was my favorite this year. See the website here.