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I have been seeing a TON of movies lately. This fall has been one of the best ever. It's the time of the year when the studios release most of their best films in an effort to garner praise and awards. Otherwise known as Oscar Season.

When you're trying to figure out what to watch in the next few weeks, hopefully these will help you in your decisions:


Brokeback Mountain

I will never see Brokeback Mountain again. Not because it was awful. On the contrary, it was so incredibly good and made such an indelible impression that it will stay with me for the rest of my life. Indeed, I have never seen a movie quite like it before and have seldom been so moved.

When I first saw the trailer I was not initially impressed. Cowboys? Mountains? Camping? Didn't Robert Redford already make a movie with the same elements? But then 15 seconds into the trailer as I stared, open-mouthed and shocked, I changed my mind. Robert Redford most definitely did not make a movie like this. And, honestly, while I was simultaneously titillated, I also I resented the trailer in that it gave a huge part of the story away.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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Memoirs of a Geisha

The long awaited cinematic adaptation of Arthur Golden's moving 1997 novel Memoirs of a Geisha has finally arrived. Unfortunately the movie has to follow in the footsteps of a much-read book that clocks in at 448 pages. Which is something almost impossible to compete with and come out on top. Memoirs of a Geisha the movie tries the best it can but still falls somewhat flat.

The story tells the tale of a young girl, with astonishingly blue eyes (played as a child by Suzuka Ohgo and as an adult by Ziyi Zhang), who is taken from her remote fishing village and sold by her aging parents into an okiya (geisha house). There she works as a maid for the strict Mother (Kaori Momoi in a scene-stealing role) and is continuously harassed by the head geisha, the vindictive, bitter and manipulative Hatsumomo (Gong Li looking more beautiful than ever here), until she is taken under the wing of Mameha (Michelle Yeoh) who becomes her mentor and brings her into the world of geisha where she is re-named Sayuri.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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Syriana

Stephen Gaghan has a reputation for dealing with complicated issues. Five years ago he tackled the screenplay for Traffic about drug trafficking. This year he both writes and directs an epic film on the oil industry that spans the globe and involves a myriad of characters. Welcome to Syriana.

Syriana is written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, who was inspired to make the film by Robert Baer, an ex-C.I.A. operative (on whom Clooney's character is also loosely based) who memorializes his experiences in See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism. As you can imagine, there are several different storylines running through film. The film's tagline reads: Everything is Connected. And it is.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
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Aeon Flux

If you've stayed up late watching Liquid Television on MTV, then you've already been acquainted with Aeon Flux. I guess it's taken ten years for someone to finally step up and get the animated series, full of dark undertones, surreal elements and experimental notions, out of the cult archives. Karyn Kusama (whose first film was the outstanding Girlfight) has tackled this potentially disastrous task with flare.

As the opening voiceover informs you, in the year 2011 a virus has wiped out a large portion of the planet's population. The few remaining survivors are rounded up and live in Bregna, an encased "utopia" shrouded from the encroaching outside world and ruled for the last 400 years by what is known as the Goodchild regime headed by Trevor Goodchild, the scientist who had developed an antidote to the virus. However, in 2415 unrest boils under the seemingly healthy and content civilization.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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Walk the Line

It seems like every year, right around the holidays, another biopic about a musician is released. I can imagine watching Madonna's life story unfold in 2030 or perhaps that of Prince's. This year we have Mr. Cash. While "the man is black" may not have been as popular or as well known as "the king" with whom his used to tour, Johnny Cash holds his own.

I find the Hollywoodization of a life fascinating. The biography always gets more glamorous and the person in question invariably becomes better looking; so one becomes cooler and more beautiful, wouldn't it be great if everyone's life could go through the same process? In Walk the Line, Cash's lumbering, intimidating frame gets turned into that of dark and sulking Joaquin Phoenix.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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Bee Season

Spelling bees seem to be enjoying a revival and a boost in the coolness factor. The national championships are televised on ESPN and gamblers bet on contestants on-line. There's a Tony-award winning musical about bees (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) and author Myla Goldberg's novel Bee Season has been made into a widely released movie.

But don't be fooled, Bee Season isn't about spelling bees, not really. It's about a family -- The Naumann's -- falling apart, and a bee is just the catalyst that makes it all happen. After their youngest member, Eliza (Flora Cross), qualifies for the regional bee, everything seems to change. Her father Saul (Richard Gere), a religious professor at Berkeley, begins to pay a lot more attention to her and the two set up study sessions during which he goes over word lists and teaches her about Jewish mysticism.
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
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Pride & Prejudice

You would think the world would have had enough of Jane Austen remakes by now. But with yet another rendition of Pride & Prejudice you realize that, on the contrary, they have not. Director Joe Wright brings us this latest version, which is less insipid than you might think and…surprisingly funny.

Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) is the spunky and outspoken second eldest sibling of the Bennet family. A family burdened with five sisters, all of whom their garrulous, meddling mother (played wonderfully by Brenda Blethyn) is desperate to marry off, starting with the eldest, Jane (Rosamund Pike). Luckily for her, she has caught the eye of the dashing and wealthy Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods). Unfortunately, Bingley has a snooty younger sister (Kelly Reilly) and an over-protective best mate in the form of Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen). The sullen and socially inept Darcy immediately catches the ire of Elizabeth and the two proceed to trade bitter quips. But you know what they say about there being a thin line between love and hate.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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The Chronicles of Narnia

I read the book when I was younger but had forgetten most of it. Nonetheless, Narnia is more for kids than for adults. The whole "talking animals" thing is cool but gets old as the movie progresses, plus the CGI is not that impressive. Tilda Swinton kicks ass though.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars



Rent

Two words: totally cheesy. Stay away. If you love it so much, go see the musical again.
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Oh! and before the Memoirs of a Geisha screening last week, they showed a trailer for Marie-Antoinette, which opens next summer. It looked freakin' amazing! It's written and directed by Sofia Coppola and the trailer is infused with her indelible style. There was no talking or voiceover. It was set, simply, to New Order's Age of Consent, one of the best songs ever. Sigh.

I also saw King Kong tonight. Peter Jackson has done it again. It was awesome. That's the best word to describe it. I'll post my review for that later this week...