Directed by: Tomas Alfredson
Genre: Drama; Mystery/Suspense;
Starring: Gary Oldman; Colin Firth; Tom Hardy; Mark Strong; Benedict Cumberbatch;
Release date: 5th September, 2011 (Venice Film Festival); 9th December, 2011 (USA);
"A superb adaptation of John le Carré’s brilliant, intricate Cold War spy novel, the film is a triumph. (...) All these roles are played formidably, yet Gary Oldman’s Smiley is the plum role. In large glasses, with lank hair and an ill-fitting overcoat, his Smiley looks unimpressive, but has a razor-sharp brain and a touch of ruthlessness. We’ve never seen Oldman like this before, and he’s simply stunning: his soliloquy about his only meeting with his counterpart, the Soviet super-spy Karla, is so engrossing you forget to breathe. Alec Guinness immortalised Smiley in the 1970s TV version of this story, yet Oldman is easily his equal. (...) Much of the credit for all this must go to director Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In). He captures scenes with silky fluidity, dispatching his cameras into nooks, crannies and improbable angles, finding a visual equivalent to the story’s hunt for complex solutions. (...) The best compliment to pay Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is to affirm that it does what every great film can do: it makes your heart pound, gets your pulses racing and sends your brain cells into overdrive."
by David Gritten in Daily Telegraph
"One could have sworn that the temperature dropped still further, to practically Baltic levels, during the morning screening of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a marvellously chill and acrid cold war thriller from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson. Right here, right now, it's the film to beat at this year's festival. (...) Oldman gives a deliciously delicate, shaded performance, flitting in and out of the wings like some darting grey lizard. We have the sense that Smiley has seen too much and done too much, and that a lifetime's experience has bled him of colour. His eyes are tired, his collar too tight, his necktie a noose."
by Xan Brooks in Guardian
"Picking up a role on which the great Alec Guinness left his signature in the 1970s when the novel was adapted as a British TV series, Gary Oldman is a cold-blooded, inscrutable Smiley whose unhappy marriage is the only personal thing about him. The scene in which he relives his one meeting with Karla is about as excited as he gets, and yet his rock-solid steadiness in a world of betrayal and his penetrating mind make him a very British kind of hero. With the Cold War long gone and other problems to worry about on the world political scene, Tinker Tailor risks feeling out of date and superfluous. Alfredson’s solution has been to celebrate the period and its rigidity in a stylish feast of modernism designed by Maria Djurkovic and lit by Hoyte van Hoytema. The look carries over from creative indoor sets like the beehive-walled MI6 conference room to locations in London, Budapest and Istanbul. Shots framed through window panes and sets lit through a constant hazy mist emphasize the spy theme; some shots, like Ricki Tarr’s spying on a bedroom scene in the building across the street, have a Rear Window feel. Alberto Iglesias, who also composed The Constant Gardener score, manages orchestral accompaniment with a sly subtle touch."
by Deborah Young in Hollywood Reporter
Oscar potential categories:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Leading Actor (Gary Oldman)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Art Direction
Best Original Score
Best Editing
Directed by: Gavin O'Connor
Genre: Drama; Action/Adventure;
Starring: Joel Edgerton; Tom Hardy; Nick Nolte; Jennifer Morrison
Release date: 9th September, 2011
"The script, co-written by O'Connor, isn't always steady on its feet, but the actors score knockouts. Tom Hardy, the fireball star of Bronson, brings animal force to Tommy Conlon, an Iraq War veteran returned home to Philadelphia after 14 years. He has no use for his troubled father, Paddy (an exceptionally fine Nick Nolte), who abused his late wife. But Tommy wants Daddy dearest, a wrestling coach, to prep him for an MMA competition that could earn him $5 million. Tommy's married older brother, Brendan (a very fine Joel Edgerton), also wants the prize, to save his home from foreclosure. The brutal MMA action is skillfully staged. But Warrior aspires to myth. It's Cain and Abel battling it out in the face of a decidedly ungodly father before humanity goes down for the count. Strong stuff."
by Peter Travers in Rolling Stone
"O’Connor and fellow writers Anthony Tambakis and Cliff Dorfman concentrate on their characters, giving you enough information but leaving plenty of room for these most capable actors to fill in the idiosyncratic derails. Surly and brooding about wrongs, real and imagined, Hardy’s thickly muscled, highly tattooed ex-soldier is a ticking bomb. Emotionally, he is in a permanent fighter’s crouch, in constant vigilance for the next punch fate will throw his way while looking to do damage to any and all foes (...) Like many ex-alkies, Nolte’s Paddy wraps himself in blandness as a kind of disguise. He’s hiding from his former self, even to the point that Tommy says, more than once, he prefers the drunk to this dull and weak person. (...) For the footage of extended fights over a two-day tournament, whether shooting from the rafters or up close in the feral ring itself, Takayanagi’s cameras dart and weave just like fighters."
by Kirk Honeycutt in Hollywood Reporter
"Warrior" is one of those movies that, if you were to describe it to friends in an attempt to tell them how much you enjoyed it, you would sound ridiculous. Do it anyway. Implausible and far too reliant on coincidence, with a mixed-martial-arts tournament the setting for the climax (almost the entire second half of the movie), director and co-writer Gavin O'Connor's movie is nevertheless gripping and emotionally satisfying. Outstanding performances by Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte and Joel Edgerton are a big part of the reason. Hardy is as good an actor as there is working today; his intensity here is amazing. Nolte hasn't been this good in a long time. And Edgerton holds his own with both."
by Bill Goodykoontz in Arizona Republic
Oscar potential categories:
Best Leading Actor (Tom Hardy)
Best Supporting Actor (Nick Nolte)
Best Editing
Directed by: Alexander Payne
Genre: Drama; Comedy;
Starring: George Clooney; Shailene Woodley; Amara Miller; Beau Bridges; Judy Greer
Release date: 3rd September, 2011 (Telluride Film Festival); 10th September, 2011 (Toronto International Film Festival); 18th November, 2011 (USA);
"Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings (Payne co-wrote the screenplay with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash), “The Descendants” is Clooney’s picture to carry and he masters the challenge at every turn. He was lauded in 2009 for showing his acting chops in “Up in the Air” and has clearly looked for ways to explore his abilities further with this role; his willingness to allow us to see Matt’s naked vulnerability as the character struggles to make choices that he can live with is touching and impressive. And he is ably assisted by strong supporting performances from Shailene Woodley as his eldest daughter (...) In less capable hands these sudden shifts might test an audience’s willingness to accept the validity of the story. But the tonal balance struck between the painful moments and the necessary and often humorous release of tension shows Payne’s mastery over the material, as he uses every ounce of his experience to deftly guide Clooney to what might be the most complete performance of the actor’s career."
by Michael Patterson in The Playlist
"As well as featuring Clooney, The Descendants glows with maturity and assurance. It's far from the electric bite of 2002's About Schmidt or 1999's Election's yelps against authority. Rather, it's a primer on passivity: when not to act, how to give in – to grief, or abuse, or betrayal. It's also frequently very funny. (...) Clooney is tremendous here, even better perhaps than in his own film, The Ides of March, currently joining this one on the festival circuit. (...) Still, The Descendants, if not quite the Oscar sucker-punch many anticipated, is a drama of unusual nuance. It lingers, spawns thoughts, connections, as a great film ought. Let's just hope we don't have to wait another seven years for the next one."
by Catherine Shoard in Guardian
"A beautifully written, splendidly acted serio-comedy about love, family, loss, forgiveness, and redemption, “The Descendants” adds another glorious panel to Alexander Payne’s already distinguished, if still brief, career. (...) In “The Descendants,” Clooney submerges completely his good looks, suave manners, and star persona in playing an ordinary man, a lawyer, who’s closer in age to his own biological age; Clooney is 50 and at the prime of his career. And I think it’s time for us to stop describing him as “the closest contemporary Hollywood has to a star like Cary Grant,” because he is way beyond. (...) As the estranged husband whose wife has been in coma for 23 days, and asa father alienated from his two girls, Clooney gives yet another stellar, Oscar-caliber performance."
by Emanuel Levy in EmanuelLevy.Com
Oscar potential categories:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Leading Actor (George Clooney)
Best Supporting Actress (Shailene Woodley)
Best Adapted Screenplay
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