Ion The Web – Issue #75

FILMDRUNK

FilmDrunk is a very clever movie news and commentary blog with jokes and pictures of dogs wearing party hats. I read it every day because I like movies and laughing. With the fall movie season starting up, I asked Vince Mancini, the site’s founder, to pick what he thought would be the best and worst movies of Oscar season and the smaller indie festival stuff (some of which is already out on DVD).

Best of Oscar Season:

The Rum Diary
I don’t know if this will be any good, but it’s one of my favorite books and if it isn’t amazing I will cry.

Martin Scorsese is making a kid’s movie with the guy from Borat. THE WHIMSY! IT’S TOO MUCH!

Young Adult
The knives are out for Diablo Cody, and I admit, her dialog is obnoxious, but did you SEE Up in the Air? Take away Jason Reitman and that would’ve been the worst movie ever. Jason Reitman is the man, and is starting to look like twice the filmmaker his dad ever was.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I haven’t read these books, but everyone has a big boner for them. And David Fincher… he’s pretty good, you know?

The Guard
I don’t know if it counts as Oscar season, but easily the most fun movie I saw this summer. Not as weird as In Bruges (from The Guard director’s brother), which often gets mistaken for “depth,” but it was even funnier in a lot of ways.

Worst:

War Horse
Everyone’s full of praise for this based on the early trailer and because kissing Spielberg’s ass is practically a cottage industry, but holy hell this looks horrible. I watched the trailer and couldn’t stop thinking about Simple Jack from Tropic Thunder.

The Help
A hot white chick solves racism, AGAIN! Thanks, Hollywood, white people are awesome.

We Need to Talk About Kevin
I keep seeing this movie, about Tilda Swinton raising a son that hates her and goes on to become a spree killer, on people’s Oscar predictions lists. Which is surprising, since it looks like a direct-to-TV Lifetime movie.

The Iron Lady
(starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher)
Holy crap, it looks like they finally found a way to make a movie more boring and predictable than The King’s Speech.

We Bought a Zoo
The trailer just came out, and like all of these, it could go either way, but something about a sappy zoo movie screams disaster.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
I’m predicting another snoozefest everyone will rave about but no one will watch like Stephen Daldry’s other movies, The Reader, The Hours, and Billy Elliot.

Best of Festival Season:

(Again, I haven’t seen everything here, so I’m kind of guessing).

Cedar Rapids and Elite Squad 2
I saw both at Sundance. Not every movie is for everyone, but I would recommend either of those two to anyone.

Take Shelter
I haven’t seen it but it had one of the most bad ass trailers of the year. Michael Shannon is so metal.

Tyrannosaur
Another one I haven’t seen, but Paddy Considine is a great actor, so why wouldn’t he make a great director? (Don’t answer that). Anyway, the accents are fun.

Worst:

Buried
Ugh. A pointless, manipulative, wildly implausible, two hour snuff film. Hate hate hate.

W.E.
Madonna directed it.

Sarah Palin: You Betcha!
I haven’t seen it, but I’m guessing Nick Broomfield’s voice still sounds like someone trying to pass oatmeal through a dirty sweat sock.

Twixt
FF Coppola’s latest actually looked interesting, and I love Val Kilmer, but the reviews thus far have not been kind, to say the least.

Melancholia
Actually, it looks awesome, I just want to hear Lars Von Trier backpedal about being a Nazi again.

-Kellen Powell