True to Shakespeare’s words, there’s a lot of conflict in Dark Stranger. There are a lot of tortured artists in relationships that made them unhappy for no other reason than they themselves are insatiable. Leaving these partners that are incapable of making them happy leaves them with new partners that can’t make them happy, not that they even try to. It’s a vicious cycle that Allen has tried to convince us it’s new again by the way he handles the climax of these conflicts. For the most part, the yelling and screaming is glossed over (and mercifully so, since Allen usually prefers painfully unscripted ad-libbing in these parts) and the audience is left to rationally, without emotion, deal with the consequences.  In Match Point, this idea was kept interesting by the protagonist’s deliberate decision to kill in order to maintain what he deemed important.  In Barcelona, it was kept fresh by the idea we’d all like to have a wild threesome in Spain’s countryside with two damaged, but beautiful artists.  But it seems Allen has taken it as far as the concept can go.  There’s no more fury to be made.

So, Dark Stranger shows us Roy, who’s married to Sally, who’s in love with her boss Greg, and Roy’s in love with the guitar player in the window across the way. Sally’s father Alfie, during a midlife crisis, leave his boozy wife (who latches on to fortune teller) and marries a prostitute who’s in it for the money. Each of the characters, I may add, are played by some pretty fantastic actors, like Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins, and James Brolin, to name a few. This is also the first thing we’ve seen Freido Pinto in since Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.  Allen put just enough effort into the script that there are some clever moments, but clever is probably the highest compliment I can give them. And, as the first opening lines promised, the movie There’s a lot of noise, unhappiness, struggling for something, but it signifies nothing.  And as such, it feels like my time has been wasted.  And so will yours.  Unless you’re looking for a sound a fury that mean nothing.

2 out of 4 stars

Michael Douglas, of course, reprises his role as the greedy former titan of industry Gordon Gekko.  The beginning of the film sees him released from prison around 2000, and the passage of time is made annoyingly obvious by the return of his Saved by the Bell model cell phone.  Gekko uses the next eight years to write a book.

Shia LaBeouf is the new Gekko named Jake, a young up-and-comer on Wall Street who seems to be a bit more idealistic, but is blinded by the multi-million dollar bonus checks, and billionaire mentors.  Jake just so happens to be engaged to Gekko’s estranged and pregnant daughter Winnie (a fantastic Carey Mulligan).

As you can guess, the markets fail, the government bails out investment banks before the world economy crashes.  Rich white men, steal and cheat other rich white men, while riding Ducatis and attending $10,000 a plate fundraisers where Charlie Sheen shows up dating twins.

Allan Loeb (Things We Lost in the Fire) and Stephen Schiff (The Deep End of the Ocean) worked together to come up with the usually tight, and well paced film.  But it’s Stone’s style that really brings the ridiculous atmosphere of Wall Street to life.  Although sometime he’s borders on the ridiculous (for some reason if a scene is shot in a night club, it’s shot all psychedelic-like).  At a few points in the film, it gets to be slightly too much, overly simplistic in its condemnation of Stone’s own characters (like in W. when he intimated Bush was so stupid, he got his entire cabinet lost on his own ranch).

But with all these complaints, I left Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps feeling like I had experienced a solid Zeitgeist film that ended on a weak note, but provided plenty of satisfying moments on the way.  Stone was very much aided by a terrific cast.  As much as I’d like to dismiss Shia LaBeouf as the next Spielberg golden boy, and nothing more, he actually put out a solid performance.  And Mulligan as Winnie is as perfect as anyone could hope the character could be.  Josh Brolin, Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, they’re all great.  As much as I like to despise Stone’s work, he didn’t do such a bad job on this one.

3 out of 4 stars

Milk follows the true life story of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), the first openly gay man to be elected to major public office.  It follows him from his days at an insurance company in New York where he meets the love of his life Scott (an perfectly even, warm and funny performance by James Franco).  The two move to San Francisco, seeking a sort of asylum among other semi-closeted gays during a time when you could legally be fired, or kicked out of your apartment for being a homosexual.  The film then focuses on his heroic campaign efforts finally resulting in a win, when Milk is elected as one of San Francisco’s City Supervisors.

This is the best ensemble cast of the year, without a doubt.  Emile Hirsh, Josh Brolin (who plays the slightly homophobic fellow Supervisor Dan White), Diego Luna, Alison Pill, they all play their roles pitch perfectly.  Penn is endearing and inspiring in his portrayal of this fallen American hero.  The script deserves special recognition as well, penned by Dustin Lance Black (Big Love), as it brings a sense of realism often glossed over in political dramas.

The most credit however, goes to Van Sant who handled this piece remarkably well.  If the Academy doesn’t throw him a bone with a nomination nod, I’m going to do something drastic.  I didn’t want the movie to end, it was that good.  A film celebrating this American hero and the fight for civil rights which he led, comes at a painfully relevant time, and perhaps it’ll bring a little more attention and humanity to the current unstable political atmosphere surround gay issues (get your shit together California).  This is Van Sant’s best film to date, and without a doubt, one of the years best ten.

4 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 93% – Cream of the Crop: 91%

I think most people aren’t quite sure what to make of this film.  It comes across as more of a documentary than a satire, following the Bush family from when Jed and Dubbya are in their teens.  It shows Dubbya’s inability to keep a job, his love of alcohol (all the way through is AA meetings), his tumultuous time while at Yale, all the way up through his elections, the first and second time.  The problem is, none of it was really interesting.  And since this seems to be a documentary, you have to wonder where Stone’s sources come from.  He obviously tried to make it somewhat accurate, now all I can think about is, ‘where did he stray from the truth?’  I have the same question while watching Michael Moore documentaries, and believe me, it’s no fun.

Josh Brolin excels as both the younger, and older Dubbya, and does an impression that would put the SNL cast to shame.  The rest of the cast was just as impressive, except for an oddly characterized Condolizze Rice, played by Thandie Newton.  It almost seems like Stone’s purpose was not to defame Bush, but to expose Washington to be an exclusive ‘good old boys club.’   He also encouraged actual sympathy for Bush, as he’s clearly just searching for the approval of his father most of the movie. In the lower points of the plot, Stone sought after his laughs in cheap ways, like showing Dubbya on the toilet for no apparent reason.  Thanks Oliver, that was hilarious.  He also attacks the media for being such whores when it comes to who’s side their on one day, and who’s the next. And I’m not sure what Colin Powell did right, but for some reason, he’s portrayed as the completely levelheaded one.  The film was uneven, it was unclear what the point was, who he was attacking, what is to be learned.  It fails to leave any sort of lasting impression on its audience.

1 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 55% – Cream of the Crop: 36%

W. features a stellar cast of fantastic actors: Richard Dreyfus as Dick Cheney.  Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush.  Ellen Burnstyn as Barabara Bush.  James Cromwell as Bush Sr., and the list goes on. This is Stone’s first directing project since 2006′s widely hailed World Trade Center.  Though the film has been screened to several critics, rottentomatoes.com only reports five official reviews, leaving it with an 80% fresh rating.

On behalf of W.‘s production company Lionsgate, eBay will be auctioning off five of the film’s posters, signed by Oliver Stone, Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, and Ellen Burstyn.  The proceeds will all go to benefit Stand Up To Cancer.  The winning bidders will receive the poster as well as a letter of authenticity from Lionsgate.  Bidding has already begun, and will end on October 20th. Click here to find out more about the auctions, W., clips from the movie, trailers, etc., etc.

Check out the hilarious trailer:

When I saw Brittany Murphy listed, my mind made an inaudible, ‘Ahhhh’ (Ahhhh in the bad, disappointed way, not like the Ahhhh you make when you see puppies).  But then I continued to read: Toni Collette, Giovanni Ribisi (okay, he’s questionable), Rose Byrne, James Franco (who only won me over last week with his performance in Pineapple Express), Josh Brolin, Marcia Gay Harden, and several others. Then I asked ChaCha what it got on RottenTomatoes and was pleasantly surprised to find out it received 74%. This resulted in a renting.  An ensemble cast like that had to at least be interesting.

The film is made up of several vignettes with simplistic titles like ‘The Stranger,’ ‘The Mother,’ ‘The Dead Girl.’  Each vignette varies greatly in interest (often connected to the acting talent of the main players), although all are disturbing in there own way.  In the same vein as Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia, each seemingly unrelated story ends up being related, in some way or another, to the discovery of the body of a dead girl.  I definitely can’t say that all parts of the film are worth watching, but some definitely are (particularly the section with Rose Byrne).

Writer/director Karen Moncrieff doesn’t have much experience writing or directing (to date, she’s stuck mostly with TV, including directing an episode of Six Feet Under). But still there’s something to her direction, the film definitely has some shining moments.  The Dead Girl failed to achieve it’s lofty ambitions (I’m pretty sure the limited release on December 29th meant she had award season dreams), but deserves respect for it’s attempt at originality.

2.5 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 74% – Cream of the Crop: 63%

Rated R for language, grisly images and sexuality/nudity.