AWN Blogs

This effective melodrama gives audiences the pre-requisite tear-jerking moments brought home with real heart from its leads Will Smith and Rosario Dawson. Moving from a captivating mystery in its first act to a sweet romance in its second, SEVEN POUNDS works at times like a broad parable and at other times like a sincere drama. In career best performances, Smith and Dawson bring to life this heavy material.

Ben Thomas (Smith, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS) is on a mission. We're not sure exactly what that mission is at first, but it seems that he is trying to help people. Emily Posa (Dawson, CLERKS II) needs a heart transplant, and her medical bills have pilled up and she owes the IRS thousands of dollars. Ben arrives at the hospital to audit her; he eventually tells her that he will put a freeze on her account. She wonders why this stranger is being so nice to her. He shows up when she ends up back in the hospital, he comes over and does lawn work, but when she asks him about himself, he shies away. Ben will pay visits to others. His friend Dan (Barry Pepper, SCHINDLER'S LIST) is helping him with his mission, where he seeks out people to help.

Dr. Seuss. Roald Dahl. C.S. Lewis. Chris Van Allsburg. L. Frank Baum. These writers are all responsible for some of the greatest children stories of all time. Their work has been turned into dozens of films — some good and some no so good. This Weekend's Film Festival takes a look at five of the good ones. Inspired by the release of Blue Sky's HORTON HEARS A WHO! on DVD, the lineup is a mix of modern renditions and bona fide classics. Get your golden ticket to hear all about witches and wizards and Santa Claus.

With a shoddy track record in adapting Dr. Seuss to the screen preceding it, this adaptation was a welcome surprise. This Bob Clampett-style animated feature fleshes out Seuss's picture book combining the original work's rhyme with sly pop culture references. Horton, voiced like a perpetually optimistic tween by Jim Carrey, sets himself on a mission to guard a speck, which holds the entire world of the Whos, who are led by their overwhelmed mayor, voiced by Steve Carell. The short 88-minute feature manages to find gags that work with the overall story, helping flesh out the characters add to the dilemma, or simply make us laugh. Filled with bright colors and wacky environments, HORTON HEARS A WHO! captures perfectly the anarchical worlds that are synonymous with Dr. Seuss. To quote my original review, "With great messages about imagination and respect for your fellow man, this animated feature version of Dr. Seuss is the best yet."

Ranked by the American Film Institute as one of the ten best American films, THE WIZARD OF OZ is deceptive. The first description would be to call it a family film then a fantasy. But few would call it a musical first. How many other musicals can step beyond being a musical, first and foremost? This grand production transcends the constraints of genre. In 1939, family films were often weighed down by an overly earnest message, or dumbed down by a simple light adventure plot. While OZ has adventure and some preachy moments, such as the Wizard's pep talk and Dorothy's closing "no place like home" speech, the development of the characters and the themes are worked into the corners of the fantastic journey. Who would have expected such subtle complexity from a film about a girl and her little dog Toto?

In last week's Getting Buzzed, I ran down the top 10 contenders for Oscar Best Picture. With the LA Film Critics giving Best Picture to WALL•E, NY Film Critics giving it to MILK, and the Golden Globes ignoring both films for their Best Picture categories, the Oscar Best Picture picture is just cloudier. So this week, I'll be taking a look at the top ten contenders for Best Actor and Best Actress.

10) Will Smith (Seven Pounds) & Michelle Williams (Wendy & Lucy)
Seven Pounds trailer
Wendy & Lucy trailer
Will Smith is the biggest movie star in the world for good reason and the Academy likes to nominate movie stars, so they'll go see this late entry in the Oscar campaign for that reason. Working with his PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS director, he gives a better performance than in that previous film for which he received a nomination. It's a long shot, but wouldn't be surprising.

Mike Leigh isn't a flashy director. His improvised films have a meandering quality that some do not like, because they do not strictly adhere to conventional plots. Compared to SECRETS & LIES and ALL OR NOTHING, his latest film is cotton candy. But like his somber VERA DRAKE, this film relies on one central performance. Sally Hawkins is a revelation. She fills the screen with happiness. I came out of the theater with a skip in my step and a smile on my face.

Poppy (Hawkins, THE PAINTED VEIL) is full of life. Her main goal is to make those around her happy. She's 30, teaches elementary school, and lives with her longtime friend Zoe (Alexis Zegerman), a woman who doesn't have the same cheery outlook on life as her flatmate, but knows that her life is better for having Poppy in it. Poppy floats on the wind and goes wherever it takes her. A coworker is taking Flamenco lessons so she joins in. She loves having a weekly turn on the trampoline. When her bike is stolen, she brushes it off and only wishes she could have said goodbye. This leads to driving lessons with Scott (Eddie Marsan, THE ILLUSIONIST), the most miserable man on the planet. The two couldn't be more opposites, but this film is too good to take them where every other film would.

Based on the animated short film A BUCK'S WORTH, this ambitious stop-motion animated feature takes on the not-so-bargain-bin topic of the meaning of life. Various lives intersect in an apartment complex. A Dear John loser. An unemployed, master cook do-gooder. A lonely old man. A young boy saving for a toy. A hallucinating man-boy. A ladies-man repo man. A supermodel. A suicidal homeless angel. You know the typical characters in an animated feature.

Starting the feature like the short film (which can be viewed on AWNtv), Jim Peck (Anthony LaPaglia, TV's WITHOUT A TRACE) has an unsettling run-in with a homeless man (Geoffrey Rush, SHINE), who later sprouts wings and moves into the house of lonely widow Albert (Barry Otto, STRICTLY BALLROOM), who is so desperate for human interaction that he gets excited when telemarketers call. Depressed after his encounter with the homeless man, Jim puts more pressure on his do-gooder son Dave (Samuel Johnson, TV's THE SECRET LIFE OF US) to try working with his brother Lenny (Ben Mendelsohn, AUSTRALIA). The problem is that nice-guy Dave isn't cut out for the repo business. He's more interested in finding the answers to life from a book priced at $9.99.

Hopefully, you didn't miss the column over the Thanksgiving break. With the majority of Oscar-bait films having finished their screenings for the press and Academy members, the buzz on Oscar noms is really heating up. So this week's column puts together a top 10 list on the leading contenders for Best Picture.

10) WALL•E (On DVD)
While only one animated film has ever been nominated for Best Picture, and that was before animated features were given their own category, it seems inevitable that like very universally accessible foreign language films, an animated feature can break through into the Best Picture category. And if it's going to be someone, it most likely will be Pixar. In a soft year like this year, WALL•E looks more like the little robot that could. But it's still a long shot.