The Chris Moeller Archives

The 11th Annual Chris Moeller Film Awards

You might be saying to yourself-- how can this be year number 11 of the CMFAs when the blog only dates back to 2004? That's a good question. And the answer is that I had a life before this blog. I lived and breathed, and loved, and laughed, and lost same as anybody else. I went to movies. Some good. Some bad. Some non-pornographic.

My first year out of college, 1997, was the jumping off point for film criticism. I was only employed on weekends at WHO Radio, and so weekday afternoons were often spent in dark movie houses as I dreamed of what the world on my own would bring. Would I overcome my "Pig Vomit"-like radio tormentors, as Howard Stern managed to do in that year's big-screen epic "Private Parts"? Would I one day pen a devastatingly brilliant script for a movie starring myself and my best buddy, like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in "Good Will Hunting"? Or would I put my trust in the wrong people, as Lefty Ruggiero tragically did in "Donnie Brasco"? Perhaps I would find myself one day like poor Matt Reynolds in "L.A. Confidential," dead on the floor of a seedy motel room with my throat slit, a pawn in the gay sex setup of a corrupt district attorney. The possibilities for my future were endless and thrilling.

These were the awards that were announced that year and after-- 2006, 2005, 2004, and 1997 through 2003. By my estimation, 2007 was the best year in cinema since 1999, when Alexander Payne, Anthony Minghella, Spike Jonze, Mike Judge, and David Russell were each at the top of their game. Movies in '07 have helped to spark exciting new trends in everything from advanced motion-capture film to industry award recognition for independently-financed productions to teen pregnancy.

Oh jeepers creepers, I can't hold it in any longer. I have to announce the winners...

CMFA Top 5 2007

Juno
Jason Reitman, dir

Lars and the Real Girl
Craig Gillespie, dir

Michael Clayton
Tony Gilroy, dir

No Country For Old Men
Ethan and Joel Coen, dir

And the 2007 Best Picture/Director
There Will Be Blood
Paul Thomas Anderson, dir

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Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There

Best Actor
Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Garner, Juno

Best Supporting Actor
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

Best Adapted Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

Best Original Screenplay
Diablo Cody, Juno


For a movie to have a run time of nearly 2 1/2 hours, it better be the type of movie like "The Godfather" where you want to go out and purchase the DVD and then watch the movie twice a year for the rest of your life. "There Will Be Blood" fits that mold. Your eyes become glued to the central performance-- Day-Lewis as fictional prospector Daniel Plainview, who seems bigger than the screen itself. The movie has this sweeping grandeur as a period piece, and everything revolves around Day-Lewis. No character is on screen except to serve his purpose, both in production and plot. His unique acting performance echoes Brando while his character suggests Charles Foster Kane. Even in a solid year, I couldn't resist passing over a film of such grand tragedy for Best Picture/Director, or denying P.T. Anderson for his script recalling Upton Sinclair.

As great as Daniel Day-Lewis is, Cate Blanchett might be better. Pair them in the same movie and then shut down the industry for good. The clever maneuver of "I'm Not There," about the enigmatic Bob Dylan is that, of the six actors portraying the singer, only the woman is doing the actual impression. I doubt that Katherine Hepburn would have ever imagined that the same actress would win separate Chris Moeller Film Awards for portraying both her and Dylan. There's a well-publicized dearth of meaty parts for adult actresses in Hollywood, but Blanchett found a way here to bust through the ceiling.

"No Country For Old Men" was the most terrifying killer-on-the-rampage movie I've ever seen, probably because the plot, unlike others of its genre, was pulled off on screen as so plausible in real-life.

"Juno" was the funniest movie of the year thanks to its wicked script and Ellen Page in the title role as a likeable, smart-ass teenager-- a more difficult combination to pull off than it might seem, and Jennifer Garner nearly brought tears as an affecting mother-to-be.

"Lars and the Real Girl" was the biggest surprise in both its tone and quality. The movie about an introvert from the northern woods (2006 CMFA winner Ryan Gosling) who intends to marry an inflatable sex doll was shockingly heartwarming and sweet. (The character doesn't have sex with the doll during the course of the narrative. They're saving themselves for marriage.) The film, though comedic, turned out to be more of a "Northern Exposure"-type whimsical production than a modern-day sex farce.

"Michael Clayton" was the second-best film of the year-- a suspense film with a conscience brought to us by George Clooney and his talented industry pals. The popular word to describe this type of legal thriller, I think, would be 'taut.' I gave Tom Wilkinson an award too for his performance here in pulling off the very delicate assignment of playing a man slowly toppling over the edge of madness. He took home the very competitive Best Supporting Actor nod, with apologies to TWBB's Paul Dano, "Juno's" J.K. Simmons, as well as to Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and Javier Bardem of "No Country," whose roles I decided didn't really belong in the supporting category.

As for the rest...

"The Simpsons Movie" was just as good as I anticipated it would be, providing the pleasure of seeing the animated franchise's subtle and seemingly-effortless brand of social criticism for the first time on the big screen. It contained the funniest gag of the year in the movies when the residents of Springfield believe the town is about to be destroyed-- all the churchgoers run out of the steeple into Moe's Tavern, passing the tavern's patrons on a reverse course.

"An Unreasonable Man" was the Ralph Nader-centered documentary I promoted so heavily on the blog. You know I liked that one. I watch it on DVD time and again to get politically-impowered, and an anonymous contributor to the film posted a comment on the blog in December of '06. If that was a hoax, I fell for it.

"Dan in Real Life" was a lovely little movie with appealing performances. Not the least of which was by Dane Cook.

I really despised "Black Snake Moan" not so much for the faux-confrontational and provocative exploitation of the central female character, played by Christina Ricci, but because it took so seriously the cliched premise of the redemption of white people by more soulful, spiritual black people. The topic of racism, and both races, deserve something with more meat.

"I Think I Love My Wife" found Chris Rock channeling French director Eric Rohmer. The comedian's direction was disjointed, but I hope he keeps reaching.

Kasi Lemmon's "Talk To Me," and comedies "Waitress," "King of California," and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" were each rather forgettable. I put them here in the same paragraph to preserve space.

I don't understand the appeal of "Knocked Up." Judd Apatow dialogue isn't particularly funny, and to quote George Costanza, "I now less about women than... anyone in the world" but even I could tell in this film that the script was completely tone-deaf to the way women speak, think, and act. Aside from anything else, I didn't believe for a second that this woman, played by Katherine Heigl, wouldn't have an abortion.

Let's do "I Am Legend" all over again and make it about environmental devastation rather than aliens. The first half hour of the film was really interesting.

DON'T SEE "Mr. Woodcock." You think you might want to because it has Susan Sarandon and Billy Bob Thornton, and the previews make it seem a little like "Bad Santa," but don't do it. When it's over, you feel like Christina Ricci in "Black Snake Moan."

"Superbad"? Really? It struck me as just "Revenge of the Nerds" for those people's kids. The girls are cast, as always, with no depth of character whatsoever, and simply as plotting subjects for the horny teen boys who star. I wasn't able to detect a speck of talent or wit in Jonah Hill, who sucks the life from everything around him, including appealing co-star Michael Cera. He's downright toxic. Many of the scenes are not just unfunny, but unpleasant. I really couldn't care less whether Hill's character ever gets laid in his life.

"Zodiac" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" are each compelling views and are hereby officially recommended, but both check in at approximately 45 minutes too long. "Jesse James" looks especially beautiful, and has many standout performances, but don't tease me with Mary-Louise Parker and then do nothing with her. That's like having Albert Pujols on your bench in an All-Star Game and not giving him a chance to play. Oh, never mind.

I don't think "The Savages" got it quite right. I realize a character that suffers from dementia can't add much to the backstory and the dialogue, but that was a fault then of the premise, which required us to see the connection between the children, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney, and their father. This is the kind of narrative that plays out better over a long dramatic series on HBO like "The Sopranos," where we first have time to come to care about the people before their mind fades. Hoffman's very good and Laura Linney has a license to print CMFAs, but I was bored a lot, and much of the time it seemed like Hoffman and Linney were in the middle of a big act-off competition.

"La Vie en Rose" was really good. I assume Oscar winner Marion Cotillard nailed the part of Edith Piaf but I don't speak French.

Wes Anderson's "The Darjeeling Limited" is too quirky by half, but are we surprised at this point? I think now he's just trying to piss us off.

"American Gangster" was pretty slick movie-making.

So was "Gone Baby Gone." It reminded me of last year's "The Departed" except I was surprised at the end.

"Into the Wild" was a failure on the central point that the main character was still a compete cipher at the end of the film. Director Sean Penn was certainly sympathetic to him, but like all-things-Penn, the movie was without irony or humor, and I found the character smug, self-righteous, and without cause for any sympathy at all. He treated his family rather contemptibly for the simple crime of being conventional.

Disney's "Enchanted" and star Amy Adams had me smiling from beginning to end. The film makes fun of the Disney style in the same warm and gentle way that Brando played off his own Don Corleone persona years later in "The Freshman."

"Charlie Wilson's War" was a bad political history lesson made worse by bad casting. Were we really right to be on any side during the Soviet/Afghan war? The scriptwriter forgot to tell us that the reason the mujahadeen went to war to begin with was because the Soviet-backed government had allowed female students to attend schools. The lesson of the conflict that eventually gave the world the Taliban, and which was completely missed by this film, was STOP MEDDLING. And can anyone watch Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts on film and ever forget that they're watching Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts? Sure, actors like Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe always played variations of their own style and image, but they also never accepted roles as real-life people. In "Charlie Wilson's War," Tom and Julia's characters have to sleep together offscreen so that America won't feel sympathy for Rita Wilson and that cameraman Roberts married. You'll find their scenes together sexy if you're turned on by watching James Carville and Mary Matalin spar on Sunday morning television.

And finally, a nod to "The Final Season," the movie about the Norway, Iowa high school baseball team near my hometown that rose to glory when I was likewise in high school. The feel-good sports tale starring Sean Astin and Powers Boothe was shut out of the CMFAs this year, but it was really their own doing. Mailing personalized "school consolidation ballots" to eligible voters was a clever publicity strategy, but it flew over too many heads. When its sequel comes up for award consideration, producers should just purchase an ad in Variety.

posted by CM @ 11:16 AM