The Oscar bait

I'm Not There (directed by Todd Haynes)

It comes as no surprise that a director like Todd Haynes could pull off something like I'm Not There.

Always the provocateur, Haynes is famously known for telling the Karen Carpenter story with Barbie dolls and handmade sets in his early short film Superstar (still unavailable as a result of a cease and desist order slapped by Richard Carpenter) as well as his tribute to glam-rock, Velvet Goldmine, whose main inspiration, David Bowie, refused to allow any of his songs to be used in the film.

Luckily, Haynes' third shot at a music-related film fared much better for the filmmaker, as the former Robert Zimmerman allowed his own music to be used, along with a somewhat biographical account of his life and all of the folklore associated with it.

For anyone familiar with Dylan, particularly the fabrications Dylan made about his background once he moved to NYC, I'm Not There serves as an entertaining document of all of the myths surrounding the crotchety songwriter.

Haynes made a wide decision not to structure the film in a linear way, or attempt to tell the Dylan story in a traditional biopic fashion. If he had, his film most certainly would have failed as an attempt to dissect a nonlinear person.

Cate Blanchett received a much-deserved Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Jude Quinn, a model of the Dont Look Back-era Dylan. The other performances are fine for what they are, but Blanchett undoubtedly steals the show. The late Heath Ledger mostly just mopes around as the Blood On The Tracks version of Bobby, and Richard Gere is a chore to watch as Billy the Kid.

The main reason for checking out I'm Not There is Blanchett and the fantastic use of Dylan's music, which is more than any Dylan fan could want.



Charlie Wilson's War (directed by Mike Nichols)

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are two of the most overused (and overrated) movie stars of all time, so it's fitting that they should appear in a movie together, both as Texans, with horrible accents. However, seeing Hanks as the bad-boy Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson isn't quite as painful as you might think. Hanks brings his requisite charm to the role of a man who (along with the help of the CIA and other friends in high places) helped Afghanistan defeat the Soviets and in turn brought about a chain of events that ended the Cold War.

The script by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) is plenty sharp, and Philip Seymour Hoffman tosses off the great role of Wilson's CIA contact Gust Avrokotos like removing pocket lint, particularly notable considering he's already starred in two other great movies of 2007, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead and The Savages.



Juno (directed by Jason Reitman)

For those yet to be taken under by Juno's spell, it's about a teen (Ellen Page) who gets pregnant, decides to have the baby, hands it over to a slick yuppie couple (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) and dishes out acerbic one-liners like nobody's business. It also stars the great Michael Cera (Superbad) as the baby's would-be Dad, and the wonderful Allison Janney and quick-witted J.K. Simmons (of Spider-Man fame) as Juno's parents.

What elevates Juno above typical romcom fare (and other grating indie comedies like Garden State) is its affection for its characters and a great script by newcomer Diablo Cody. Yes, Juno is hipper-than-thou, but she is also a confused teenager using her sarcasm to shield her own insecurities.

If the final, sweet scene between Page and Cera doesn't win you completely over, you must have Dick Cheney's black heart.



There Will Be Blood (directed by Paul Thomas Anderson)

Speaking of black hearts, they don't get much blacker than the character of Daniel Plainfield (Daniel Day-Lewis) in PT Anderson's There Will Be Blood, his best film to date.

Anderson already caused a few exploding heads with his epic porn opus Boogie Nights and Magnolia, but in comparison to his new film, they were merely appetizers for this grand explosion of oil.

Daniel-Day Lewis and Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) go head-to-head, and it's a true delight to see both of them chew their scenes like Plainfield chews his steak. Plainfield is a greedy oil man, you see, and he doesn't want anyone else getting his milkshake. The score by Jonny Greenwood of the band Radiohead helps to underline the tension of the characters and sets a particularly creepy mood.

In an interview, Anderson described There Will Be Blood (based on the Upton Sinclair novel Oil!) as a horror film, and it's not hard to see why. Here's a horror film where instead of massive body counts, we see just how nasty people can be to each other--and without that much blood.



The Savages (directed by Tamara Jenkins)

The Savages begins in Sun City, Arizona, quite possibly one of the nine circles of hell, along with Green Valley, where old folks drink, screw and pop pills as they await their inevitable fate.

Jenkins' film centers around the fear in every son or daughter's heart: What do you do with Mom or Dad when they've gone cuckoo? Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney play those people, who have to figure out what to do with their Dad (Philip Bosco) once he starts writing messages with his fecal matter on the wall.

The Savages can't strictly be described as either a comedy or a drama, so it decides to find solace in both.

Hoffman's character is a college teacher and is busy writing a book about the life of Bertolt Brecht. It wouldn't be all that funny if I hadn't just read some of Brecht's work, and listening to Hoffman sing along in German to Brecht/Weill's The Threepenny Opera is worth the price of admission alone.

At this point in his career, Philip Seymour Hoffman is so good that it almost seems like giving a great performance for him is an afterthought.

Laura Linney is similarly great as a woman that's still figuring out her life, taking temp jobs and attempting to get her autobiographical play financed. In the meantime, she carries on an affair with a married man with a pooch (Peter Friedman) as she pushes her way to midlife crisis.

The character observations in The Savages are so richly detailed that it makes you still have faith in character-driven dramedies.