Welcome students, to the fall session of Movie Academy 2010. The successful graduate of this program may expect to be acquainted with a basic knowledge of history (The King’s Speech), economics (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Inside Job) and Shakespeare (The Tempest).
As well, our cutting-edge syllabus includes online programs (The Social Network), a sophomoric comedy seminar (Jackass 3-D) and afterlife career choices (Hereafter).
Please remember: This session is a prerequisite for the spring term half-courses for our Oscar Predictions 2011.
Now, please sharpen your eyeballs and begin.
THE CORE CURRICULUM
(The must-see, mandatory films. These are not electives.)
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Sept. 24)
Reception at Cannes was mixed. Director Oliver Stone updates his 1987 film, Wall Street, for a new economic crisis, with Shia LaBeouf as a young broker who comes under the wing of now-out-of-prison Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), while courting Gekko’s estranged daughter (Carey Mulligan).
Focus on: Douglas’s tricky portrayal of the rueful con man, Gekko, still the best character in this convoluted financial thriller.
You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (Oct. 1)
The grass is always greener in someone else’s bed in Woody Allen’s latest farce, which stars Anthony Hopkins as Alfie, a wealthy London business man, who ditches his superstitious wife (Gemma Jones) for a call girl. Meanwhile, their daughter (Naomi Watts) and son-in-law (Josh Brolin) struggle with extra-marital temptations.
Focus on: Hopkins, who squeezes genuine pathos out of this foolish old reprobate, while English newcomer Lucy Punch, as the gold digger, walks off with the comic scenes.
The Social Network (Oct. 1)
In a real revenge-of-the-nerd story, Jesse Eisenberg plays Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who improved his social life through computer programming, but became the youngest billionaire in history while facing legal and personal challenges.
Focus on: Director David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and writer Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), who bring Oscar-worthy weight to a topical story that already has half a million online friends.
Carlos (Oct. 21)
Too sexy for a terrorist? That was one knock against French director Olivier Assayas’s five-and-a-half hour epic, Carlos (starring Edgar Ramirez), a memorable portrait of a gun-for-hire as both an instigator and product of his times.
Focus on: Assayas’s taut storytelling as he turns a multi-language, decades-spanning drama into what feels like an intense dash across history from the sixties to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Hereafter (Oct. 22)
Clint Eastwood directs this supernatural thriller written by Peter Morgan (The Queen), following three near-death stories of an American factory worker (Matt Damon), a French journalist (Cécile de France) and twin English brothers.
Focus on: Eastwood’s no-nonsense aesthetic, which should make this afterlife story more about Zen detachment than New Age mush.
127 Hours (Nov. 5)
Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle directs the real-life story of Utah hiker Aron Ralston (James Franco), who, in 2003, spent five days with his arm trapped by a boulder before he came up with an escape plan.
Focus on: Man, rock and prolonged silences, as Boyle assumes an atypically understated mode for this intense survival tale.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Nov. 19)
The second-last of the ultra-lucrative Potter movies finds the mature Harry, Hermione and Ron on the run from the snake-nosed Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), who has taken control of Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic.
Focus on: Hanging with your favourite characters. Before the big showdown of Hallows: Part 2 brings the 10-year film cycle to a close, we have a road movie concentrating on the three friends.
The King’s Speech (Dec. 10)
Colin Firth plays England’s wartime king, George VI, who hired an Australian therapist (Geoffrey Rush) to cure his stammer, in the latest Brit pic about the human side of royal personages.
