THE 3 BEST FILMS
1.
Inglorious Basterds
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Genre: Drama; Action/Adventure;
Starring: Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender and Diane Kruger
"Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” is a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that he’s the real thing, a director of quixotic delights. (...) A Tarantino film resists categorization. “Inglourious Basterds” is no more about war than “Pulp Fiction” is about — what the hell is it about? Of course nothing in the movie is possible, except that it’s so bloody entertaining. His actors don’t chew the scenery, but they lick it. He’s a master at bringing performances as far as they can go toward iconographic exaggeration. (...) Tarantino films have a way of growing on you. It’s not enough to see them once."
by Roger Ebert in Chicago Sun-Times
"It's not enough to say that "Inglourious Basterds" is Quentin Tarantino's best movie. It's the first movie of his artistic maturity, the film his talent has been promising for more than 15 years. The picture contains all the things his fans like about Tarantino - the wit, the audacity, the sudden violence - but this movie's emotional core and bigness of spirit are new. (...) With its story of how a movie theater becomes central in the war against Nazism, "Inglourious Basterds" celebrates cinema - its power and dangerous allure. At the same time, Tarantino never forgets what cinema can't do and what war does do. (...) "Inglourious Basterds" provides exhilarating release, but it's also a deeply sad film. It leaves the audience suspended in a tangle of strong and conflicting thoughts and feelings, the hallmark of great art."
by Mick LaSalle in San Francisco Chronicle
2.
(500) Days of Summer
Directed by: Marc Webb
Genre: Comedy; Drama; Romance;
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel
"Fresh and slightly off the beaten track, (500) Days of Summer gives rom-coms about confused yuppies in love a welcome face-lift. (...) God save us from hyphenated boys and girls whose parents name them after J. D. Salinger characters, but thanks to two wonderful, offbeat performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, this movie has charm to spare. It looks you right in the eye and tells the truth. (...) Although the presumption that pretty women and smart, dashing young men can have it all and still want more is a bit naïve in this age of superficial achievement, this film has humor and warmth, thanks to the subtle, restrained and thoroughly engaging chemistry of its two stars, and character development that is good-natured at heart, and never dishonest."
by Rex Reed in New York Observer
"Boy meets girl, boy loses girl. It's been done to emo death. That's why the sublimely smart-sexy-joyful-sad (500) Days of Summer hits you like a blast of pure romantic oxygen. It turns the genre on its empty head and sees relationships for what they are — a bruising business. (...) With a seriously funny and touching script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, the movie spins a variation on Memento, shuffling through Tom's 500 days with Summer in a random order that lets us see the fun times and the fault lines. A gimmick? Maybe. But Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt are star-crossed lovers to die for. They play it for real, with a grasp of subtlety and feeling that goes beyond the call of breezy duty. This knockout of a movie expertly blends bliss (a dance number complete with an animated blue jay after Tom spends his first night in bed with Summer) and the blues (a split-screen segment in which Tom's expectation of winning back Summer clashes with reality). The ending is tidy and way too cute, but (500) Days is otherwise a different kind of love story: an honest one that takes a piece out of you."
by Peter Travers in Rolling Stone
3.
Up In the Air
Directed by: Jason Reitman
Genre: Drama; Comedy;
Starring: George Clooney, Anna Kendrick, Vera Farmiga, Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons and Zach Galifianakis
"Here are a few of the kinds of movies that I wish Hollywood made more often (like, you know, two or three times a year): a drama that connects to an audience because it taps, in a bold and immediate way, into the fears and anxieties of our time; a romantic comedy in which the dialogue pings with stylish wit and verve; a film that keeps surprising us because its characters keep surprising themselves. The beauty of Up in the Air is that it's all those things at once. Adapted from Walter Kirn's 2001 novel, it's a rare and sparkling gem of a movie, directed by Jason Reitman (Juno) with the polish of a master. (...) At the same time, it's a movie about how one man living inside the cocoon of an overly detached culture comes to see the error of his own detachment. Up in the Air is light and dark, hilarious and tragic, romantic and real. It's everything that Hollywood has forgotten how to do; we're blessed that Jason Reitman has remembered."
by Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly
"Reitman's juggling act here is impressive, because even as "Up in the Air" is indeed a film about layoffs and corporate brutality -- he uses interviews with many people who've lost their jobs throughout the film, including some from Detroit -- at the same time it's fun to watch a good deal of the time. (...) Reitman co-wrote the script with Sheldon Turner, adapting Walter Kirn's novel. Obviously Bingham's job took on greater importance as the current recession began ravaging American families. But in the end, this isn't a movie about the economy -- it's about the importance of connection, the value of grounding, the ultimate need to be tethered to something or someone. Jobs, lovers, friends, they offer these ties, and when one fails the others take on even more importance. As Ryan Bingham discovers, if you fly alone, you may eventually drift off beyond the clouds, where oxygen is scarce and the sky turns dark. "Up in the Air" makes you want to cling to the earth."
by Tom Long in Detroit News
BEST ACTING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR
Colin Firth for A Single Man
BEST ACTING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS
Abbie Cornish for Bright Star
BEST ACTING PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE CAST
Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz and Sherri Shepherd
for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Carey Mulligan for An Education
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