434 - Milk review

This about is the level of serious thought "Milk" aspires to:

Gus Van Sant: No, Dan White, YOU'RE gay. Take THAT!

1.5 out of 5

433 - Seven Pounds review

"Seven Pounds" makes the mistake of assuming that the audience has enough energy to care about both the awkward mystery surrounding Will Smith's character and his chemistry-light romance with Rosario Dawson. Filmmakers need to be wary of scripts that shield us from the basics of the story until the close; here, director Gabriele Muccino demonstrates none of the delicacy needed to steer a blacked out narrative efficiently into the light.

In lieu of skillful storytelling, we're provided with a stream of shots and scenes demonstrating how kind and photogenic Smith is. He's an IRS agent giving away life changing favors to people in need, though his criteria seems to be limited to people that simply aren't evil. There's a purpose to this that half the audience will deduce within the first hour, though it gets put on hold so that Smith can put the moves on Dawson. It's one of those cinematic love stories that exists not because of spiritual connection or circumstance, but because the actors are too good looking not to copulate. By the time the pair takes a casual stroll through 2008's most scenic field, the film's syrupy thickness reaches critical mass and everyone who called the plot secrets early on just wants the pertnient characters to die, already.

432

Happy New Year to all my readers. Hopefully, I'll have a best of 2008 list ready before too long. Before making the list, I have a few films to see:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Doubt
The Fall
Frost/Nixon
Gran Torino
I've Loved You So Long
Let the Right One In
Man on Wire
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
Synendoche, New York
The Visitor
The Wrestler

Once I get through a healthy chunk of these, an offical list can proceed.