BuzzSugar

The Dark Knight: Tense, Sad, Unsettling - And One of the Best Movies I've Seen in Years

BuzzSugar — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:30:27 -0700

"This town deserves a better class of criminal." – The Joker

Indeed. And by extension, audiences deserve a better class of villain. In The Dark Knight, we get one. Director Christopher Nolan seems to have a keen understanding that we want our heroes to be badass - but we want our villains to be way badder. The movie tells a story about Batman, sure, but really, this is The Joker's tale. Even when it's Batman's story. . . The Joker owns it.

The Dark Knight is unlike almost any other superhero movie that came before it. It's insanely dark, it's melancholy, it doesn't leave you with a great sense of peace. But the thing is, we can handle it. I think this is Nolan giving audiences some credit. And every superhero tale has these themes of good vs. evil, order vs. chaos, hero vs. villain. It's just that this one doesn't sugarcoat these things at all. And why should they be sugarcoated? The superhero's tale is actually the perfect vehicle for exploring these things, and explore them we do. Nolan brings us an affecting, disturbingly dark tale, and one that could easily be seen as an allegory for the goings-on of today's world (terrorism vs. peace, cowardice vs. heroism, etc.). To see more what I mean (and I promise - no spoilers), read more.

Christian Bale reprises his role as the manly, gravel-voiced Batman by night and the wealthy Bruce Wayne by day. Michael Caine again dryly charms his way through the role of Bruce's helpful butler Alfred, and Gary Oldman is again the likable Commissioner Gordon. Maggie Gyllenhaal gives Rachel Dawes, Bruce's love interest and Gotham City's District Attorney, some much-needed depth and chutzpah. In this installment, there's an evil mastermind on the loose, terrorizing Gotham, and his name is The Joker. As The Joker continues to taunt Batman, trying to get him to break his noble moral code of beating the bad guys without actually harming anyone, the body count rises and Joker gets closer and closer to forcing the citizens of Gotham City to turn on each other. He is the greatest fearmonger of all time.

Heath Ledger is thoroughly mesmerizing as Joker. Should we be talking Oscars? Absolutely. I haven't seen a performance so impeccably realized, so desperately truthful in a long, long time. However, another impressive performance comes from Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, Gotham's great white hope for a safer, Joker-less future. His mixture of political-minded bravado and inner turmoil makes for a far more layered character than one might expect.

In perhaps my favorite scene - one that is so exciting, and yet so agonizing - we get both of these tortured souls, The Joker and Harvey Dent, alone together. The outcome of this scene is a profound sense of despair because in it we witness how quickly people can shift from good to evil, and how easy and nonsensical violence is. On Joker's part, there is no real reasoning behind his cruel madness, and we're reminded that sometimes evil simply exists for no good reason. It taps into a very real, basic and horrible fear: that in this world where terrorism could lurk anywhere, where chaos and war and murder exist, we struggle continuously to figure out "why?" The Joker represents our most feared response to that question: There is no reason.

Then again, here is another truth: Sometimes people choose good over evil, no matter what. Some will surprise you with their unselfishness. There is a lot of bleakness in this film, but there is also hope.

Of course, compounding the darkness of the movie is the maddening real-life tragedy that is forever intertwined with it. An unsettling side effect of Ledger's death is that we will never see the man behind the garish, horrifying makeup. And in this sense, the Joker is forever, hauntingly alive. There’s no Heath Ledger to do the late-night TV show circuit or the red carpet interviews. He's not coming out from behind the screen to reassure us, "No, no, it's all an act. Here I am, just a guy, just an actor, see?" Logically, we're adults who understand that the Joker doesn't exist. And yet. . . Ledger's absence causes the tiniest of doubts in the back of our minds, the part that's still on board for superhero movies. With no one telling us otherwise, we're left with the cryptic suggestion that the Joker might very well be. . . real.

This is partly what has left me with such a sense of uneasiness since watching the movie, and one of the things that is keeping The Dark Knight at the forefront of my mind. But even beyond that, the film is so well-written, thrillingly suspenseful, action-packed and brilliantly acted. It's all the things we want in a superhero movie - along with a whole bunch of dark, thorny morality issues tossed in.

All told: It. Is. Amazing.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Flawless: Dressed for Success but Ultimately Forgettable

BuzzSugar — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:30:46 -0700

Directed by Il Postino's Michael Radford, Flawless has all the elements of a slick, old-timey heist movie, including lots of neato early-1960s costumes. However, though I was enamored with shots of Demi Moore's gorgeous charcoal-colored suits against a backdrop of crisp menswear, the film totally drops the ball in terms of developing tension around this old-fashioned diamond heist.

Flawless opens in a modern-day cafe where a young female journalist is interviewing an elderly woman (Demi Moore in old-person make-up) named Laura Quinn. Quinn describes a 1960s London where the young Quinn (Moore) is the lone businesswoman at the fictional London Diamond Co. As you'd expect, an educated, unmarried, ambitious woman at this time is not exactly a welcome addition to the team, and we quickly understand that this character is an outsider. We're then introduced to someone else on the outside looking in: Mr. Hobbs (Michael Caine), the company janitor who sees Quinn as a potential accomplice to stealing the company's diamonds.

To read where I think this good-looking film falls short, read more

For Quinn, being the lone female in this boys' club means being passed over for promotions and getting hit on by married men on a constant basis, and to make matters worse, she soon finds out that she's probably going to get fired. So, she's none too pleased with the London Diamond Co. Hobbes, too, has his motives for taking the company down, though they're not entirely clear which lends the plot a little mystery. Therefore, the "how" they take the diamonds isn't very exciting and the film is far more concerned with the "why."

The problem is, nothing is unraveled in a way that would lend adequate suspense to the plot. Also, there's a social conscience to the film (focusing on both global issues and women in the workplace), but it's so awkwardly woven into the story, it's hard to feel anything about these issues. For example, protest signs show up early on, indicating that the London Diamond Co. is a shady company that may deal in the blood diamond trade, but this is never really explored.

The bright spots in the film for me were charming moments from the talented Caine, and the icy-cool feel of the film. Everything from the click-clacks of Quinn's heels on the marble floor of the corporation to observing the tidy way people smoked back then is captivating to watch. In the end, though, all the predictable plot lines wrap themselves up neatly and we're asked to endure an ending so blunt in its message, it could be mistaken for a UNICEF commercial. The clumsy handling of social issues combined with a complete lack of interest around the heist itself makes the whole experience forgettable.

In fact, knowing what the filmmakers were attempting to pull off here made me realize that Spike Lee already did so, and brilliantly in Inside Man. If you're looking for a heist film with a heart, you should check out that movie instead.

Photos courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Movie Preview: Demi Moore and Michael Caine in Flawless

BuzzSugar — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:31:09 -0800

Take a few notes from Mad Men and some hints from Ocean's Eleven, add Demi Moore and Michael Caine as the lead duo and you've got Flawless, a diamond heist film with an unlikely pair of criminals.

Set in 1960 London, the story follows the longtime janitor at the London Diamond Corporation (Caine) who, despite nearing retirement, decides to steal some diamonds from his employer. The person he goes to for help? A matronly Demi Moore, playing an American executive at the company who, as one of the few females, has repeatedly been passed up for promotions in favor of younger male employees. Though it's risky, she agrees to help the janitor with his heist.

Supposedly, it's a drama but the trailer makes it seem like a quirky heist comedy. I'm curious about this one, and I look forward to catching it in theaters when it opens March 28. You can check out the trailer and tell me what you think if you read more.

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Movie Preview: The Dark Knight

BuzzSugar — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:26:45 -0800

Finally! The Dark Knight trailer currently being shown before I Am Legend in theaters is online in a version that's not a shaky bootleg taken with someone's camera phone!

However, so far the only versions of the 6-minute clip from the Dark Knight, also shown before I Am Legend, are those jerky, low-quality bootlegs, like this one. Stay tuned for a better quality version, sure to hit the Internet before too long.

The trailer features a lot of Joker, as expected, and far less of our husky-voiced Batman. Thus, this heavy-on-the-Joker movie looks terrifying. I was genuinely frightened by a two-minute movie preview.

That Heath Ledger and his sinister laugh will haunt my dreams. To check out the chilling trailer for Dark Knight and discuss read more.

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Link Time! 10/4

BuzzSugar — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:02:44 -0700

Michael Caine told the MTV Movies Blog that Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight is "one of the scariest performances" he's ever seen.
Speaking of fear, Popwatch scared the daylights out of me just by asking what movies scared me as a kid.
You Ain't No Picasso finds us some songs for "Heroes" season two.
TV Squad tries to track down all the actors from overseas who are rocking fine American accents on TV this fall.
Cinematical brings us talk of the Transformers sequel; apparently it's going to be moodier and deeper than the first.
Vulture breaks down HBO's letter of apology to David Milch's fans.
If you can correctly answer Rock and Roll Daily's trivia question, you could win tickets to an Arcade Fire show in New York City.
Interview time! The TV Addict has a chat with "Reaper" star Bret Harrison, while TV with MeeVee corners Paul Adelstein of "Private Practice and Buddy TV talks with "Bones" star Emily Deschanel.

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New Photos From the Set of The Dark Knight

BuzzSugar — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:17:03 -0700

I'm starting to think that the people behind the viral marketing for The Dark Knight are geniuses. For a movie that doesn't even open until next summer, they've managed to generate an awful lot of buzz around this next Batman movie. The latest ploy: releasing 18 new images from the set of the movie, some of which hint at plot details previously unknown (multiple people in Batman costumes?). It's no full-length trailer, but it definitely worked to keep people talking and speculating about The Dark Knight. To see the gallery of images (which I found on Film School Rejects), read more

View 18 Photos ›