Another summer movie season has passed and thankfully this one is over. Now don’t get me wrong, I eagerly anticipate the season when action, comedies and fluff take over movie screens, though certainly not with the same passion I feel for the fall lineup of more dramatic work. However, when that “Entertainment Weekly” lands on the door step as April closes, going into ridiculous detail what I can look forward to on the third weekend of July, I get giddy, for though I know in the deepest reaches of my movie loving heart that there will be crap, there will also be surprises, expect maybe this year.
I can’t think of a year quite so lackluster in genuine new joys as 2009 has been. There was plenty to be taken away by, but they all seemed to be by the expected bunches. Of course Pixar’s latest would be fantastic. Were there any doubts that Miyazaki would deliver another animated wonder, or that Judd Apatow would come with a gargantuan barrel of laughs? What we movie lovers want it is the “Wow, I’ve never seen that or heard of this person.” Give me some unknown faces and talents.
Sadly, summer 2009 struggled in nearly every aspect of its usual popcorn fun. Take for example the weekend that it kicked things off with X-men Origins: Wolverine, a movie that redefines forgettability. Soon after, McG came into kick some more sand in the face of Terminator fans with Terminator Salvation, a ponderous trip overflowing with unshaved men screaming in gruff voices and, if you look real hard, maybe a robot or two. Out of the toy-bin came G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which the best thing that can be said about it is that it was better than director Stephen Sommers’ Van Helsing. Well, that is not entirely true, it was assuredly more fun than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the year’s highest grossing movie and what certainly felt like the longest set of hours I’ve suffered since I sat through Oliver Stone’s Alexander. I don’t mind it being really loud. I don’t mind that its based on kid’s playthings. I do mind that it manages to feature little no character or ideas, is racist, sexist and finds the notion of robotic balls to be amusing. There were only two adrenaline pushing pictures in the past few months and they couldn’t have been more different.
Star Trek ambushed many and delighted everyone else as a humorous space-romp, superbly cast and, though a flawed movie, zipped by with lots of memorable set pieces and is a perfect building block for this reenergized rollicking franchise. Back on Earth was the taut, tense Iraq-set Kathryn Bigelow feature The Hurt Locker, which crammed in heavy-duty explosives and tough storytelling into a powerful dramatic package. With a trio of solid performances - Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty - and a guttural, honest portrayal of life in battle, The Hurt Locker tends to have been the best movie of the year to those who actually sought it out.
On the lighter side of things, what really weakened these blazingly hot months was the comedies, which were harder to find than a dessert oasis with a McFlurry machine. With Year One landing with a thud, The Ugly Truth going for laughs in the most predictable of places, The Proposal and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past exemplifying what’s bad about rom-coms and Will Ferrell drowning his reputation further with Land of the Lost, Hollywood was barren in this department. Up was richer than any other picture out there for gags, Funny People divided critics and audiences but was Apatow’s most ambitious effort to date, even if it wasn’t his sharpest, but that was it for American mainstream movies. The best of the bunch was arguably Britain’s import In the Loop, a movie with razor-sharp wit, loaded with men who wield expletives and insults like weapons. The Hangover was the season’s biggest comedic hit but I can honestly say I’ve never heard any one mention a single line from it once, a must for any true great laugher.
Maybe what hurt the most was the talent that failed. Sam Mendes’s Away We Go bared a sensational cast, squandering the majority of it for a twee quirkfest that gets my blood boiling just thinking of it. Not even remotely as bad, Public Enemies managed to be a much larger disappointment, with the hopes of cinephiles being thrown on its back from the date of its announcement. Michael Mann behind the camera, Johnny Depp and Christian Bale going head-to-head, gangsters in the 1930s, how could it miss? Add to that we were overwhelmed with skilled actors and actresses stuck in bland to atrocious films - Hugh Jackman, Sandra Bullock and Ben Stiller (who personally I haven’t enjoyed since 2001’s double punch of Zoolander and The Royal Tenenbaums),
Maybe I’m simply looking in the wrong place. I know fall brings the prestige and surprising new turns from people we know already, but I get a kick in seeing new faces and talent emerge as the heat gets unbearable, taking refuge with them where the air-conditioner is set to freezing. A lot of people found this is in Sam Worthington’s work in Terminator Salvation, which was good but so one-note that is was difficult to be genuinely engaged in, which likely has more to do with the script than anything else. Yet, looking back, there are a trio of talents that shined as something a bit off, three first time filmmakers who all should be lauded for their originality, coincidentally all directors.
Two of these managed to bring fresh outlooks to classic sci-fi tropes. In District 9, Neill Blomkamp proved to have a distinct eye for action and setting, twisting the idea of an alien invasion, pondering not what would they do to us, but what would we do to them. Here is a man who knows how to make a world come to life with vivid depth. Vivid is not a word that would be used to describe Moon, the Duncan Jones picture starring Sam Rockwell, a moody, often grim tale of a blue-collar worker coming to the end of a three-year shift on our titular neighbor. Jones’s movie reels you in slowly, showing its influences on its sleeves, while managing to capture your attention with its spare design and anxious atmosphere.
On the other side of the spectrum came Marc Webb with, not the best film of the summer but definitely one of the most enjoyable, (500) Days of Summer, a smart reworking of the romantic comedy, with the shocking idea of having actual romance and comedy involved. The veteran music video director was significantly aided by a fine cast - Joseph Gordon-Levitt automatically makes anything better - but showed a knack for storytelling that was able to mix his short-form aesthetic and a flowing narrative. His playful impromptu park musical was a blast and defined Gordon-Levitt’s emotions at the moment, seamlessly silly without being showy. It was not a particularly good summer at the movies, but at least a small set of possible gems have been found for future mining.
Comments
Well at last the French and English fed us something of substance this summer: "Summer Hours," "Seraphine," "In the Loop." Even the flat lined "Cheri" had more emotional depth than 95% of the American offers. However the later gave us "Food, Inc." and "It Might Get Loud." Several fine Asian films played as well.
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