BABEL.  My vote for Best Picture. I worship at Iñaritu's altar. Though he’s in danger of becoming a one-trick pony with all those Rashoman parallel narratives. Makes me think, "Hmm, I wonder how he'll tie this Icelandic infant to the Chilean supermodel who must be somehow related to the Hamas regime." But it’s worked for him so far.
BAD EDUCATION.  Indeed it was. In fact nearly every movie featuring a transvestite leading role has been a major disappointment to me after being praised by critics (which they always seem to be for some reason. . .). And I'm an Almodovar fan. I'm probably just predisposed to not identify with the characters. Yet, outright gay roles don't bother me in general. I just think it's the extreme flamboyance look-at-me-I'm-so-sad-on-the-inside actor peacocking that drives me crazy.
THE BANK JOB.  This thing is carpeted in '70s shag. A pretty solid heist flick (much as Flawless was, though they're vastly different in execution), the first half leading up to said job is standard genre fare, full of gratuitous flesh and scheming. The second half, where the gang must face the implications of their theft, is the reason for sticking with this. An Ocean's flick it ain't, we're talking low-tech heistery here, based on true events.
THE BAXTER. Sucked. I think they tried to flip the script on the romantic comedy genre, but say it along with me, class: you cannot have a passive protagonist. There's a reason those other movies work, because we wanna root for the dynamic guy who has something to lose. Michelle Williams is cute, though.
BE COOL. Good advice. Avoid this altogether. Hard to believe an Elmore Leonard novel can hurt the eyes so.
BEE MOVIE. Jerry Seinfeld’s inability to act is not a problem when he’s playing himself, and it suits this animated feature just fine. All the cutesy “bee”-isms never got on my nerves, and I really enjoyed the inner workings of the bee society and how they parallel our own, while getting a little education at the same time. The human motion-capture animation was really well done. The ending is too easily formulaic, but I don’t think their Reservoir Dogs ending tested well with five-year-olds.
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD.  Jesus Christ this is tense. Awesome flick, had everything. And a healthy dose of Marisa Tomei nudity (a spoiler we can all get behind). It's told nonlinearly, which seemed unnecessary in spots (and with some repetition), but it did make each scene more charged then the next, and that's always a good thing. Phil Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney – great cast. Big thumbs up.
BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON. It's a horror deconstruction a la Scream– an "unmasked" slasher has a documentary crew follow him around as he prepares for his masterpiece. Absolutely hilarous with some quotable dialogue. And it totally pricks the balloon of the slasher genre, outlining its conventions from his POV. A really tough role, and he takes it a little over the top sometimes, but the girl playing the journalist is just perfect in every way. I absolutely loved the first 2/3 of this, and then it got super predictable in the third act, which was expected, but I thought they could use that predictability to their advantage and twist things around more.
BE KIND REWIND. Yeah, it’s broad comedy, but I'm a dork for all things Gondry and enjoyed this. As is the consensus, the "sweded" film remakes are the best parts. Jack Black was a little too High Fidelity, but they still managed to find the humanity in it, which I appreciate as much as the lo-fi in-camera effects. Check out that opening shot; they helicopter over the city and then crane under the overpass (you can see the seam if you look closely).
BEOWULF. I cannot believe I missed this in IMAX 3D. Awesome in every way, if almost too realistic. A feast of the senses, and it was nice to turn my overstimulated brain off for a couple of hours and just enjoy its Bacchanalian excesses on a big screen. The character was a douchebag. And it bugged me that they went to such great lengths to conceal his junk in every nude shot. Not that I wanted to see it, but they drew so much attention to it with their Austin Powers-like efforts.
THE BLACK DAHLIA.  I think DePalma’s an immensely talented filmmaker with a lot of blemishes on his resumé. In this one, he commits the worst crime of all: it’s just boring. How is this possible when you have both Mia Kirshner and ScarJo on your casting couch?
BLACK SHEEP. Not the Farley/Spade farce. I was expecting a letdown with this after all the hype. It sounded like one of those films best left at the concept stage as some grindhouse trailer rather than a feature. You know, just another film about the efforts to deconstruct the colonialist paternalistic agrarian hierarchy that disenfranchises the Tangata Whenua and erodes the natural resources of Aotearoa. But it delivered, and the second half was truly awesome. Lots of great quotables, visual effects, and interspecies erotica humor. And the 5.1 mix is very effective if you've got that.
BLADE RUNNER. Referring to the "Final Cut" version on the five-disc Blu-Ray release, perhaps the most tampered-with film in history. Another great example of the "used future" look I've praised in other sci-fi films. Surreal now to see a story set in 2019 whose technology in 2008 we've already surpassed in many ways. Except for the replicants, of course. It's a clean HD transfer, with sharp details most noticeable in the CGI-enhanced city fly-thru wide shots. The trademark xenon lights still slice narrow beams through windows, Rutger Hauer still terrifies, and its seedy noir holds up pretty well after 26 years.
BLACK SNAKE MOAN. Really liked this. Funny that they cut out the scene of Jackson quoting from The Bible, all that "path of the righteous man" shit. This guy's films just have a really earthy, downhome quality to them that I dig. Great metaphors, good tunes, and some well-composed, simple shots. Timeberlake was even okay. I feel like a perv every time I leer at Ricci these days, because of my first impressions of her when she was much younger and always playing lolitas. I'm looking forward to his third film in the American music trilogy.
BLADES OF GLORY. This is the Bud Light of comedies. The PG-13 rating should tell you. There’s some amusing contrast between the leads, but the idea of a figure-skating outlaw is too high-concept for people who truly enjoy films. It’s almost worth watching for the competition scene where Heder lifts Ferrell up by the balls, one character beaming for the crowd while the other grimaces. Poehler and Arnett have some chemistry (they should, they’re married) that I’d like to see in some other features. Oh, and Jenna Fisher is really cute.
BLINDNESS. It polarizes audiences, but I loved this film (have not read Saramago's novel). It's basically Lord of the Flies in a quarantined blind ward of some composited melting-pot city. The stark, cold, overexposed shots are framed from interesting, seemingly-random points of view, with lots of closeups and off glassy surfaces that reflect the theme well. Exotic music. The production featurette on the DVD is excellent, too.
BORAT. Really lived up to the hype; hysterical and brilliant. It’s also a sly commentary on what’s both great and awful about our American culture. I can only imagine the legal nightmare of getting releases from all those humiliated unsuspecting folks. My favorite part was at the Chevy dealer when he was asking about getting the "pussy magnet" option installed.
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM. Not much needs said other than it is relentless, no-bullshit action from top to bottom. Killer fight choreography and stunts, including one where the cameraman follows Damon through a jump between buildings and shatters the glass into a room (not the rooftop). Oh yeah, and we finally discover his big secret. But mainly people get their asses kicked along the way.
BREACH. Meh. Predictable, but then again it's a true story. Although no one does suspicious like Chris Cooper. He makes you very nervous as a villain, they just could've done a lot more with it.
BRICK. Excellent. And a first-time director, to boot. I thought the dialogue was way too smart until I finally latched onto all the other noir conventions they were drawing upon, and then it fit. Watch it with subtitles the first time. Basically it’s a Raymond Chandler-type tale set in high school, but many characters are cast against type. The hero is a kid who looks like he’s spent most of his school days avoiding wedgies, and the villain is a frail mama’s boy with corrective shoes, a cape, and a retro van (with a table lamp) for an office. A top-fiver for the year.
BUG. I'm in the minority that liked it; it's definitely polarizing. An abrupt ending without epilogue. I thought the performances were terrific (yes, over the top) and the direction and visuals superb, not bowing to any audience expectation. You can't take the scenes at face value, because I don't believe it's at all about what it appears to be. Glad I didn't see it in the theater, though, cuz I was having a hard time sitting still even on my big-assed couch and with a much lower gore quotient than expected.
BUKOWSKI: BORN INTO THIS. What a sad, sad man. I liked the notion of him as the Anti-Disney. His baby-mama, the old woman with the beard, kinda creeped me out. And does Bono have to be in every single tribute film? It was technically unremarkable, but an interesting portrait of a guy I didn't really know much about personally, other than his work, which I now realize was the same thing.
BURN AFTER READING. Anyone reading these reviews knows I love the Coen's catalog, but this is light fare from the brothers, more in league with Intolerable Cruelty than Lebowski. The performances are good, especially the high-strung Malkovich and the underused J.K. Simmons (playing his usual self). Brad Pitt as a doofus is of course amusing if a bit too cheeky. Nothing much of significance happens in this film, which is quite deliberate and the source of its best laughs, but leaves you feeling empty.
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