Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine stands tall among the best of the iconic writer/director’s latter-day works, possessing a rich thematic resonance and depth of characterization that rivals both 2011’s Midnight in Paris and 2008’s Vicky Christina Barcelona. That Blue Jasmine is also politically and socially topical just seems like icing on the cake for a film this uniformly excellent. Cate Blanchett is the standout here, of course, and her twitchy, finely observed portrait of neurosis made incarnate is indeed one of 2013’s best, but the entire ensemble, including Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin, Bobby Canavale, and Andrew Dice Clay, are electrifying.
Blue Jasmine will arrive on DVD and Blu-Ray January 21st. Read my full review of the film here.
[h2]The Broken Circle Breakdown[/h2]
This Belgian film about a married couple reeling in the midst of their young daughter’s terminal illness is an absolute powerhouse, its fragmented, non-chronological structure employed perfectly to evoke the feeling of painful memories being sifted through. Veerle Baetens and Johan Heldenbergh are both tremendous in the lead roles, each delivering some of the rawest and most passionate acting of 2013, and I think any list of Best Actress or Actor would be incomplete without each of them. The film is excellent throughout, but its first eighty minutes or so are a bit of a slow burn, putting the pieces in place and building to an absolutely dynamite final half-hour. The finale is such a powerfully emotional stretch of film, a series of painful releases that resonate because of how well we know these characters, and it pushes The Broken Circle Breakdown into 2013’s absolute top tier.
The Broken Circle Breakdown is now playing in limited release.
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