Every time I get stopped on the street (if the hat is traveling with me) or whenever someone sends me an email, I get asked one question: “Why do all the good movies come out during the last month of the year?” (One wonders where all the good movies are the rest of the year.) This is a very good question.
The easy answer is that the Academy Awards voters have short memories, so smart producers release their films close to when the voting actually happens, quite early the following year. Of course, there are other answers. Different demographics dictate the most advantageous time of year, in terms of marketing, merchandising, production schedules, and release dates. The holidays are often a good time for all of these. Whatever the reasons, every December, film critics have to rush around madly to see everything all at once. Since we all love the movies, this is really not a bad problem to have.
Let’s begin with the latest Meryl Streep movie, The Iron Lady. I can hear you already groaning, “Oh no, not another accolade for Meryl!” Well, what can we do when she keeps topping herself? Add to her deep, multi-layered performance some very fine makeup wizardry—even during these days of high- definition digital imaging, her physical transformation is seamless and amazing. For the many awards I vote on, it was a pleasure to choose this film for best makeup and costume design, in addition to best screenplay and best director. It does not matter what your politics or your personal feelings about Margaret Thatcher might be, this film speaks to our shared humanity—while reminding us of the sublime art form known as cinema. What a fine way to begin a brand new year!
Keira Knightley has not been a particularly favorite actress. Many audiences preferred Greer Garson in the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice. (Give yourself the gift of a Greer Garson film festival with an add-on of Random Harvest and Madame Curie.) But let’s get back to the (oh-so-thin) Knightly, whose talent is starting to show. The new film, A Dangerous Method, convinced this writer of her acting chops. This is a marvelous film about Karl Jung, Sabrina Spielrein, and Sigmund Freud. A colleague doesn’t understand my enthusiasm. “But Jan,” said he, “it is so talky!” Yes it is, and the words are quite wonderful. Was The King’s Speech too talky, or Social Network? The art of the screenplay is alive and well as we begin 2012; let’s make a toast to movies that are strong and stimulating enough to send you to the library or the computer to learn more about a subject or the film’s characters. Hats off to anything that tweaks our intellectual curiosity! Two other good Knightley films are being released this month in a tandem DVD package: Atonement and The Duchess.
Two three-hat DVD releases this month, both worth your time and money: Our Idiot Brother and Belle De Jour, in all its classic French sexiness. Two four-hat movies are also being released to DVD in January—one relatively new and fabulously eccentric, and the other yet another example of the genius of Orson Welles: The Station Agent and Touch of Evil.
Jan Wahl is a multi-Emmy winning producer, writer, and director and a longtime member of the Director’s Guild of America. She reviews theatre, film, and DVDs for KCBS AM/FM All News Radio and KRON TV. She also lectures here in the Bay Area, throughout the United States, and on international cruises.
