ZERO DARK THIRTY

If you were thinking that two years is a bit soon to be making a film about the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, I have news for you: the film has actually been in production since 2009, two years before Bin Laden was killed.

Mark Boal won many accolades for the accuracy he brought to the screenplay of The Hurt Locker, and after he and director Kathryn Bigelow scored big wins at the 2009 Oscars they planned to work together on a follow up. At that time, Boal, through his military contacts, was following a Navy SEAL team's operations. As luck would have it that SEAL team ended up being involved on the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. Within two days of the assassination, Bigelow announced they were re-working Boal's Black Ops script into the film that is now Zero Dark Thirty.

So, how does a "based on true events" story turn out when the events and the film production ran parallel? Actually, quite well. The film, which is up for 5 Oscars including Best Picture, is a string of events filmed in the still-popular handheld fashion that the Jason Bourne series used to excess. It is one third torture and interrogation, one third spy bureaucracy, and one third Call of Duty.

Central to the CIA investigation is Maya (Jessica Chastain) and her evolution from naive young agent to heavily-disguised operative. If this film wins anything at the February 24 ceremony it will be for Chastain's performance. She has given several great performances in ensembles over the last few years with The Help being a standout, but in Zero Dark Thirty she stands above a cast that includes a dozen recognizable faces including James Gandolfini. As the investigation drags on, her patience thins, and Chastain turns into the female equivalent of Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. To put it simply, she is the strongest female lead Hollywood has put out in a long time.

As the story progresses through the many terrorist attacks that have occurred in the past decade the tension continues to mount, and Bigelow succeeds in the same way Ben Affleck did in Argo, or Ron Howard did in Apollo 13. Even though everyone knows how the story ends, tension and suspense build out of the relationship that is built between the audience and the characters. It is a terrific feat of visual storytelling and performance that makes this a highly recommended film.

THE SHINING and other Christmas Classics

Everyone knows about It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, and A Christmas Carol. These are the traditional classics of a traditional holiday. Even A Christmas Story has become an oft-repeated favorite, and most families have their annual film choice already made.

But if you're looking to try something new, allow me to suggest that this season you take advantage of some of these less-traditional holiday films:

DIE HARD

Set on christmas eve, this heartwarming story follows John McClane as he comes to LA to visit his wife and prove his devotion to his family, but a grinch-like villain decides to steal the Nakatomi Corporation's Christmas presents. Only John stands in their way in this highly-traditional family film. Rated R.

See Also: Die Hard 2, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Lethal Weapon

THE REF

Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis are an unhappily married couple, and Dennis Leary is the poor fugitive thief that has taken them hostage. The bickering banter is on full force in this comedy, which successfully displays holiday morals like love and understanding while having the characters scream insults at each other.

See Also: Christmas Vacation, Trading Places, and Love Actually

BAND OF BROTHERS (Episode #6: Bastogne)

If there is one episode that places this mini-series above other war classics, it's Bastogne. The sixth episode follows Eugene "Doc" Roe during the Battle of the Bulge. Stranded behind Nazi lines, the Allied forces are running low on all ammunition and provisions while fighting in some of the worst conditions seen on the Western Front.

See Also: Joyeux Noel and Stalag 17

BRAZIL

It's George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, but filtered through one of the comedy geniuses of Monty Python. Terry Gilliam follows a paper-pusher named Sam Lowry who is perfectly happy to remain a cog in the machine until an unusual series of events involving a fly and a typewriter lead him to come face-to-face with the girl of his dreams. What follows is an epic love story of bureaucratic proportions.

See Also: Batman Returns and Rare Exports

SCROOGED

This is the ultimate version of Charles Dickens' immortal classic, A Christmas Carol. The main reasons would be Bill Murray's heartfelt and hilarious performance, and the Ghost of Christmas Present's use of a toaster. Scrooge is now a callous TV executive, and the classic story arc is populated by dozens of oddball cameos including Lee Majors, Robert Mitchum, and Buddy Hackett.

See Also: Ghostbusters II

THE SHINING

What could say more about the holidays than a family spending the entire winter together in a distant hotel where ghosts and evil spirits infect the mind of the father and turn him into an axe-wielding... oh. Right. Well, at least it is still set during December.

See Also: Eyes Wide Shut, Psycho, and Gremlins

HITCHCOCK

Two brothers are digging a hole outside a farmhouse. After a disagreement about their mother, one of them walks out of frame. He returns a moment later to bash his brother over the head with a shovel and the camera pans to the side where Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) is watching, just like an audience member at a theatre. He turns to the camera and delivers the first charming quip (of which there will be many) to his audience about Ed Gein and how he inspired Psycho. And so begins the entertaining, somewhat lightweight look at one of the most famous directors in history, and the production of his most-famous film.

When it was released in 1960, Psycho made a huge impact on Hollywood that affects movies to this day. It was near the end of the censor’s reign, which had held films back from including content that would get anything beyond a PG rating by modern standards. It was also at a time when television was stealing audiences, and filmmakers were looking for new ways to lure people to the theatre. Hitch created a pre-release buzz that was unheard of, but has since become standard. In the 60s a film could open in a couple of theaters and play for months before finding an audience and becoming a nationwide success; today studios release films in thousands of theaters, and if they don’t make the top three on their opening weekend they are considered flops.

But all of this history is secondary to the real purpose of Hitchcock.

Under all the film trivia, the focus of the story is Alfred (“Just call me Hitch, drop the cock.”) and his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren). They are a couple heading into their golden years together, and comfortable performances from Hopkins and Mirren make their long-lasting love affair very believable. Running gags with Alma trying to make Hitch eat better food, and Hitch trying to hide his drinking, play out in scenes of Hollywood negotiations and production stress to bring these two characters firmly to life.

This care and attention given to develop the two lead characters is great for them, but it leaves most of the supporting cast underdeveloped. In the lead up to the production a series of short scenes introduces characters who are offered up like garnish; they look great, but they have little substance. Ralph Macchio plays the psychiatry-obsessed screenwriter Joseph Stefano, Kurtwood Smith is the hardliner censor who hovers over the script with a red pen, and James D’Arcy is Anthony Perkins,  the actor playing the titular psycho. D’Arcy’s performance seems to avoid any of the complexity of the real Perkins in favor of his character in the film, Norman Bates.

A supporting part that actually does get some development is serial killer Ed Gein  (Michael Wincott) who haunts Hitch’s dreams like a psychotic muse. There are times it seems that Gein might have more influence over the director than his long-suffering wife. Gein is one characters who, along with beautiful blonde Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) and slick writer Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston), starts to come between Hitch and Alma, and his appearances are some of the only real insights given to Hitch’s thoughts.

By the end, with a great reference to Hitchcock’s next film, the piece that will be remembered most is Hopkins’ performance. His makeup is perfect and he uses the fat suit and prosthetic lips to make Hitch be the charming, troublesome, childish genius he is known to have been. He has some great lines, but it is his physical reaction to the first audience seeing the shower scene that makes him a likely contender for this year’s awards. Standing outside the door he conducts their screams like Amadeus and stabs the air with an invisible knife.

The simple supporting parts, all of them brilliant impersonations, and Hopkins’ easy-to-like lead create the film’s simple, tongue-in-cheek style. It is the sort of biopic that Hitch himself would have enjoyed because it has the bare minimum of personal insights and regularly choses entertainment over historical accuracy. We can never know exactly what went on with all these people during the making of the film, and we can never know exactly what Hitch and Alma’s relationship was like, so having a lot of talented actors performing an entertaining script is really all we can hope for, and Hitchcock delivers. It might not be perfect, but, after all, “It’s only a bloody movie.”