New Movies

Amazing, isn’t it, how complex some people’s reasoning gets in predicting the Oscars?

A month ago, after Argo won two more honors, from the actors and the producers groups, one scribe went on about how it may not help the film all that much at the Oscars, where only one per cent of those actors and 10 per cent of those producers have a vote. 

I couldn’t crunch those kind of numbers even if I wanted to. So, right now, the day after the academy members had to get their votes in, let’s just guess.

BEST PICTURE:

Two serviceable but unexceptional Hollywood films arrive this week but the short films with Oscar nominations are a better bet.  Here’s the list:

Oscar Shorts Animation: 4 stars

Oscar Shorts Live Action: 4 ½

Side Effects:  3   

Identity Thief: 2 ½

Mountain Film Festival: --

OSCAR  SHORTS:  The bane of Oscar-pool players and anybody who follows the Academy Awards. They’re the short films, both animated and live action. Most of them we haven’t seen; maybe not even heard of.  At best we got tantalizing glimpses during the award show along with a declaration of their importance as an entry-level medium for new filmmakers.

You can now see them, and on the big screen too, for which they’ve been created, thanks to a tour organized by a British company and presented here at the VanCity Theatre.  They’re grouped into two programs (animated starting Friday; live action starting Saturday) and play eight or nine times each.  You can find details at http://www.viff.org/theatre.

On the Road’'s opening here has been postponed. Again. That’s the third time. Not good for a film that got major publicity at the Toronto Film Festival and its star Kristen Stewart onto  the front page of the Globe and Mail.

But we have lots of other choices: two zombie films, three creaky old criminals carousing, four festivals and lucky, for us, a stylish history and romance from Denmark.

Here’s this week’s list:

A Royal Affair:  3 ½ stars

Warm Bodies:  3

Stand Up Guys:  3

Last Days at the Ridge:

Spark FX ’13:

Canada’s Top 10:

Cockneys vs  Zombies  ( of the Digital Film Fest):  2 ½

Bullet to the Head: --

A ROYAL AFFAIR:  Just what we want in a historical drama. A lavish presentation, intrigue in the court of a crazy king, a forbidden affair and then a bonus: substantive ideas to go along with the entertainment. In this case, contrasting political philosophies battle it out in 18^th century Denmark .

Old age is a key theme this week in three films, the much celebrated Amour, the comic Quartet and The Last Stand with the return of Arnold. Time itself is contemplated in another film. There’s also a ghost story, a paranoid fantasy and Canada’s 10 best of last year.

Here’s this week's list:

Amour:  5 stars

Quartet:  3 ½  

The Last Stand: 3 

Camera Shy:  3 

The End of Time: 3

Rebelle (of Canada’s Top 10):  4

Mama:  2 ½

Broken City:  --

AMOUR: It starts with a battering ram and ends with a shock but in between Michael Haneke’s fine film is a sensitive and very humane consideration of something we don’t often want to think about: what old age will do to us. And what it eventually will bring on. As unsettling as the subject is, and we’re spared few details, the film is not difficult to watch because the overriding tone, as the title suggests, is love.