Martha Marcy May Marlene ***½

Director: Sean Durkin
Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes
Sarah Paulson, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, Maria Dizzia, Julia Garner

Martha Marcy May Marlene begins with an escape: we see how a young woman (Olsen) having made sure no one is watching her, picks up a small bag and runs into the woods. Not a minute passes by before she is pursued by a group of people calling out her name "Marcy May! Marcy May!". The young woman hides from them - the look on her face one of complete dread and fear - before she feels safe to continue on her way.
Next, she picks up a pay phone, the woman on the receiving end asking "Martha is that you?", before the caller begs her to come find her. Sean Durkin's debut feature film begins with a bang - albeit an understated one - making us wonder how did this fragile looking woman, end up being known by two different names and what exactly is she running away from.
We learn soon that the woman Martha contacted is her sister Lucy (Paulson), a WASP-y well-doer who picks up her damaged little sister and takes her back to the summer house she shares with her husband, Ted (Dancy).
Lucy seems to be used to Martha pulling off these stunts and immediately assumes that she just got dumped by "some boyfriend". Martha decides to please her and just nod in agreement of whatever she says, without letting her know that she in fact was escaping from the overpowering abuses of a cult she'd joined.
Memories of the way she was forced into submission by, charismatic cult leader, Patrick (Hawkes) begin to haunt her and eventually she becomes convinced that her fellow cult members are coming to get her.
Durkin, who also wrote the screenplay, lets the story flow effectively on two levels, for we never know if Martha's fears are founded on reality or merely part of a persecution delirium.
Durkin's storytelling is so tight and controlled that the movie can work on both levels simultaneously, becoming a creepy thriller about cults as well as a superb study on the frail dynamics between fantasy and reality.
The director amps up the feeling of constant fear by relying on very basic techniques like ambiguous dialogues, a brilliant work of editing that blurs the lines between past and present and a camera that fixes itself on its subjects until it decides to zoom slowly towards them. It's in these moments when the camera tries to get closer that the film's themes manage to get under your skin.
That the camera has such an effect isn't just owed to the cinematographer, but also to Olsen who delivers an exquisite performance. Slowly she becomes one with every other element in the movie: the camera flashing us with the unconscious threats that plague her existence, the editing showing us that her present is constantly disturbed by images of her past and the sound design creating a world view that's haunted in the strictest sense of the word.
Lesser actresses would've let the screenplay's powerful story define their character, Olsen instead taps into something that's both disturbingly primal and beautiful to watch. She creates a persona for each of the women contained in the film's title, her Martha being a wild child who was always in the lookout for a deeper existence, her Marcy May being an illusion-filled girl whose crush turned into a nightmare and her Marlene being a completely fictitious creation that defines this woman's darkest intentions.
Olsen is able to overcome the fact that the movie could've easily become a critique of cults, instead making us understand why someone like Martha would be eager to be seduced by the "love for all" facade offered by strangers.
Watch the scene in which Patrick tells her "you look like a Marcy May", Hawkes complying with the slimy, but undeniably sexy, traits someone would need to convince you of joining their cult and Olsen displaying an almost childish coyness, surprised and moved that someone looks through her this way.
That Martha, Marcy May and Marlene never become completely defined people is testament to Olsen's capacity of inhabiting several lives, trying to find different truths in each of them, the only universal one - and also the film's chilling bookend- being that whoever she really is, she'll never be able to escape from herself.

Contagion ***½

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law

Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle, Elliot Gould

Sanaa Lathan, John Hawkes, Bryan Cranston

Contagion opens inside an airport bar where American businesswoman Beth Emhoff (Paltrow), on her way to the States from Hong Kong, sits having a drink and talking on the phone while she waits for a connecting flight. As she hears her flight number being called out she leaves the bar. The camera then focuses on the small bowl of peanuts that sat in front of her. A title card reading "Day 2" appears. With a seemingly innocuous choice of editing, camera positions and additional information (we don't get title cards in real life), Steven Soderbergh sends us down a spiral of fear, the likes of which we rarely see in contemporary cinema.

Once Beth is back in the States, she suddenly falls ill with a strange disease that sends her into a coma and kills her a mere minutes after the movie begins. With this bold move Soderbergh reassures us that for the next two hours, no one will be safe.
Contagion then deals with the discovery, propagation and consequences of this new lethal virus that is transmitted by contact and has no apparent cure. As the virus grows, we meet different characters who deal with it in their part of the world as society around them begins to crumble. Soderbergh also divides them into different aspects of our current world, without making them a too obvious "group". We see the emotional part with  Beth's husband, Mitch (Damon) for example, who has to deal with his wife's sudden death as he must survive in order to support his daughter.
There's also Dr.Ellis Cheever (Fishburne) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who tries to clear doubts that suggest the new virus might be a bioweapon by sending his colleague Dr. Erin Mears (Winslet) to investigate. Their stories are more related to bureaucracy and the handling of disasters by local governments which provide the film with eerie echoes of the H1N1 epidemic and the way in which the American government has dealt with events like Hurricane Katrina and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Their storylines are also linked to the scientific community represented by Gould, who plays a genius biology professor and Ehle, who plays Dr. Ally Hextall, a CDC scientist commissioned to find a vaccine.
As the story begins to occupy a more global aspect, we meet Dr. Leonora Orantes, a World Health Organization epidemiologist who is sent to Asia in search of "patient zero". Scenes involving her character are filled with an exotic dread in which we are reminded that despite the world's global union feeling, we are still pretty much on our own. Soderbergh makes her scenes scary and mystifying by recurring to the use of multiple languages which instill a very primal fear in audience members. Is he perhaps suggesting that xenophobia is acceptable under special circumstances?
Other characters include slimy conspiracy theorist/blogger Alan Krumwiede (Law), a down on his luck janitor (Hawkes) who finds himself in the midst of a disease which to him remains incurable due to his lack of money and Aubrey (Lathan), Dr. Cheevers partner who gets involved in a political disaster.
Soderbergh has proved in the past that he's a maverick at handling parallel storylines with unifying, often enlightening, clashes. But while in Traffic he did something a bit more orthodox in terms of dramatic structure, Contagion offers him the chance to do his own hybrid of Nashville and Outrbreak. Those expecting an ultimate message of salvation, or even a unifying climax will come out severely disappointed as Soderbergh makes a case of maintaining the pieces of his mosaic separated.
Their detachment might come off as cold-hearted by usual standards but Soderbergh sees himself as a scientist trying to dissect the various pieces of his experiment (an autopsy scene is done with such straightforwardness that you can't help but feel both revolted and mesmerized). He leaves it to his actors to create flashes of humanity within the hyper-realism of his direction. Cotillard for example brings a worldly charisma (and a serious working woman hairdo) to her scenes, while Ehle becomes a joy to watch as she puts all of her Streep-ian attributes to work as she delights herself with her work discoveries.
Paltrow, who the film sometimes uses as a morality clause, is haunting, as she represents the face of an irresponsible (if only by ignorance) branch of American society and Winslet delivers one of the year's most powerful emotional punches in less than ten scenes.
His insistence to keep the stories from coming together has a remarkable symbolism because we realize that he's trying to contain infection from seeping to his other characters. By maintaining them apart, Soderbergh might be making the film's strongest point which is a questioning of the benefits of globalization.
This is confirmed in the finale which might be a bit facile but still shocks us to our very core by reminding us that by trying to make the world a smaller place, we have also made its decay much easier to obtain. With his expert use of editing, cinematography and sound (there are scenes without dialogues that creep under your skin) Soderbergh creates the kind of movie that transcends genre but becomes effective even within them. The film is scary because it feels possible and its use of scientific fact and borrowing from contemporary history only makes it more valid.
Martin Scorsese said that horror is related to physicality but terror is more related to what we feel, with Contagion Soderbergh might've created one of the most terrifying films of the decade.

(My) Best of 2010: Supporting Actor.

5. Andrew Garfield in Never Let Me Go

We're never really sure why Kathy (Carey Mulligan) falls in love with Tommy (Garfield).

We're never really sure why Ruth (Keira Knightley) steals him from her either.

The thing about Tommy is that he's barely there and as such serves as a perfect canvas for others to imprint their feelings and idealism on him.

Garfield plays the part with a heartbreaking lack of self awareness. Tommy is one of the first characters we meet in the film and as often as we forget he's there, his bittersweet smile stabs our heart when we least expect it to.

4. Armie Hammer in The Social Network

"I'm 6'5, 220 and there's two of me" says an angry Tyler Winklevoss (Hammer) to his friend Divya (Max Minghella) and his brother Cameron (Hammer again).

They're talking about ways they can find to gut the friggin' nerd (Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg) who stole their website from them and Hammer does it with such grace that we think we're watching a hybrid of Clint Eastwood and Sir Laurence Olivier.

The Winklevi's commitment to Harvard law and their need to fulfill a social role is only overpowered by a rash masculinity they let us see flashes of now and then.

Hammer is remarkable in both roles and thanks to the editing and visual effects he creates two characters that are completely different and unique.

His inclusion here might be owed to the fact that nobody in the movie delivers Aaron Sorkin's lines with the elegance he does. When you multiply that plus two, you're prepared to have your mind blown away.

3. Sullivan Stapleton in Animal Kingdom

The Cody family knows good violence and isn't afraid to ask. Yet when recently orphaned teenager Joshua (James Frecheville) arrives to live with his uncles and grandmother things take an unexpected turn.

As the consequences of their acts begin to catch up with them, no other family member is as hypnotic to watch as Craig (Stapleton). Watching his descent into a self made hell is a thing that's both morally expected and completely devastating.

Stapleton plays Craig like someone who's half regretful, half surprised about the events that begin to unravel and this is what makes his performance so effective (His final scene is astonishing!)

He has an almost childlike innocence about him that make us believe that as much as he was a criminal, he was a victim.

2. Vincent Cassel in Black Swan

If someone was ever casting the role of the snake that tempted Eve to taste the apple in the Garden of Eden, Vincent Cassel should instantly win the part.

He embodies sliminess and seductive cruelty as Thomas Leroy in Black Swan. He's the creative director for the ballet company that psycho ballerina Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) attends and as such he gets the opportunity to tease, seduce and even destroy the fragile women at his command.

Cassel gets stuck with some of the most preposterous lines in the screenplay ("The real work would be your metamorphosis into her evil twin", "you could be brilliant, but you're a coward", "to beauty!","my little princess") but the actor is so aware of the theatricality and darkness in his character that he's always ready to give us more of that bite.

1. John Hawkes in Winter's Bone

Teadrop is an enigma. Everything he does seems to be coming from an impulse deep within that not even he knew existed. His quiet presence when we first meet him is perhaps more unnerving than the eventual outburst of violence he shows.

Yet there is something almost primal hiding under the surface; the way he acts with Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) lets us know that he may not be a man of sweetness but he's certainly a man of conviction.

We often are terrified whenever he comes onscreen, then we are soothed by the fatherly way in which he defends his niece but when the movie ends we are left waiting for a revelation that never comes. Ree might be Winter's Bone heart but Teardrop gives it its haunting soul.

Wishful Oscar Thinking.

Since The King's Sweep is practically inevitable, I won't bother with predictions this year and just stick to who I would be ecstatic to see win...

Best Picture

I prefer Black Swan as a film but The Social Network just screams Best Picture of the year and would make things like Crash and Driving Miss Daisy seem like tiny missteps when compared to such a masterpiece.

Best Director

David Fincher. Because this might be his masterpiece and those never are recognized by AMPAS. He'll probably lose to Tom Hooper and then win for something like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 2.

Best Actor

Jesse Eisenberg for making assholeness and loneliness two heartbreaking sides of the same coin.

Best Actress

Natalie Portman simply because of that final breakdown scene in her dressing room. She did things with her face I thought only Nicole Kidman and Greta Garbo could do.

Best Supporting Actor

John Hawkes, simply because no one else in that category could do what he did with such dexterity and cruel simplicity.

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams because she supports. She doesn't try to steal the spotlight and yet she does in the end. That tacky MTV girl is the one character that leaves the theater with you after The Fighter ends...to think Charlene would've hated such a movie just makes her more perfect.

Animated Feature Film

Toy Story 3 just happens to be the best movie of the year in almost every category...

Art Direction

As much as I love porn The King's Speech's got nothing on the marvelous sets Inception has. Yes, there I said it...

Cinematography

Roger Deakins should win for something where he shows why he's a master, True Grit could've been done in his sleep. My vote goes to Black Swan's beautifully strange camera work. those closeups! The way the camera menaces Nina...

Costume Design

I Am Love was the year's fashion orgasm.

Editing

The Social Network's editing work is so subtle that it took me three viewings to realize the film is indeed a courtroom flick with flashbacks. Its layers are so rich and embedded with such mastery that I still can not get enough of it.

Foreign Language Film

Dogtooth. Although I've only seen two and hate being so partial...

Makeup

No preference here.

Original Score

I still am humming the opening theme for The Social Network...besides electronica needs to be embraced by AMPAS!

Original Song

All of them make me yawn but Coming Home is kinda sweet...

Sound Editing

Toy Story 3 because EVERYTHING is sound effects! People seem to forget this about animated features.

Sound Mixing

That club scene in The Social Network should seal the deal without thinking it twice.

Visual Effects

Inception.

Adapted Screenplay

The Social Network has perhaps the best screenplay of the decade and I don't say things like that just to say them.

Original Screenplay

My favorite is The Fighter but I don't really love any of the nominees.

How about you? What are you hoping will take the naked golden guy home?

These Are a Few of My Favorite (Oscar) Things:

• Dogtooth made it to Best Foreign Language Film!!!!!
• John Hawkes got in for Winter's Bone.
• Toy Story 3 got 5 nominations! I still don't get how is it that Wall-E still seems to be the most nominated animated film ever if it didn't even make it to Best Picture back in the sad '08. But whatever: Pixar is perfection!
• Despite the odds Nicole Kidman received her third Best Actress nomination! She's my second favorite in the category after swan lady. Also, is it me or is this the first time in ages that the Leading Actor and Actress categories are all made up by extremely good looking people?
• Outside the Law, which I haven't seen, got in Best Foreign Language Film despite France's outrage at it even being considered.
• Unlike last year, I truly love 1/3 of the Best Picture nominees. I'd kicked out The King's Speech, Inception and the obnoxious 127 Hours in a heartbeat though but hey at least neither of them is The Blind Side.

How about you? were you particularly thrilled about anyone? How awesome is it that Jacki Weaver made the final cut over Mila Kunis?

Winter's Bone ***

Director: Debra Granik
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Dale Dickey
Kevin Breznahan, Garret Dillahunt, Lauren Sweetser, William White

It's refreshing to see a movie about poor people and drug dealers that doesn't feel like a movie about poor people and drug dealers. Debra Granik's Winter Bone is a masterfully told tale of tragedy and misfortune amidst social decay that doesn't need to be exploitative to get its point across.
Jennifer Larence stars as Ree Dolly, a seventeen year old living in the Missouri Ozarks. Her mother is in a catatonic state (we never learn how she ended like that) and Ree has to take care of her two younger siblings with whatever little money and supplies they get.
Her father, a crystal meth maker, has gone missing but not without doing one last misdeed: he put the family home as bail bond and unless he appears within a week, the authorities will take over the property.
Ree sets off on a search for her father that will lead her to encounter evil and violence among territory she realizes is completely unfamiliar.
Instead of becoming a manipulative tale about how much this young woman suffers, Granik turns it into a Gothic fable, a feminist rite of passage even. The director sets up a micro universe among the mountains which defies the strictness of cinematic realism.
We know all along that something about the setting and characters have more to do with The Night of the Hunter than with Frozen River, as Granik filters this world through her own vision of mythical America instead of approaching it with the preachiness of a biased documentary (there's a haunting scene near the end of the movie that convinces us Granik would've been a better choice to remake Clash of the Titans).
This is a universe of inverted justice where outlaws make the rules and Ree's search is a threat instead of a cause for people to unite.
There are tribal qualities to the structure Granik presents us where women are subjugated by their drug manufacturing men but still have the power to kidnap and beat a young girl.
Where patriarchal figures aren't defined by blood links but by power and fear, as is the case with White's creepy Blond Milton.
And in this strange, nightmare like setting we have our young heroine going through journeys usually reserved for men. It's this way in which Granik bends the rules of gender that makes her film so fascinating.
When we see Ree teaching her siblings how to shoot a rifle, we aren't supposed to be pitying their lack of parents but surprised by Ree's hands-on approach. Since the entire film rests on her back it's fortunate that Lawrence plays her with such conviction and ease.
She makes Ree someone who has learned how to deal with life the hard way but hasn't lost herself in the process. Whenever something goes wrong for her we know that we won't have to endure melodramatic scenes and dialogues, Ree just picks herself up and moves on.
Lawrence amazingly avoids making her a martyr and we see how every little thing this woman does is carefully thought out. When she intends to join the army to raise the money to save her house (again not as melodramatic as it sounds) we see that her sacrifice isn't done out of some deep need to be praised but merely because she needs the house.
In a film with several fine performances (Hawkes is phenomenal as Ree's strange uncle) Lawrence owns the film and carries it with the confidence of a mythical figure. "Ain't you got no man to do this?" asks one character, Lawrence convinces us nobody would've done it better.
During one of the first scenes in the film we see as Ree wanders along the hallways of her siblings' school. She peeks inside one class where she sees how students train to handle babies. She moves on to another room where she sees a group practicing a military march. Granik shows us here how Ree is always in the outside looking in, while establishing that her film is not an attempt to say something about the "real" world but simply telling a story.
And she's so good at it that we can imagine Winter's Bone being told around a campfire.