Plastique Valentine (#80 in a series)- Leonard Cohen

I don't believe I have posted any Cohen here, though he seems like an essential.

I have to start with last year's "Different Sides", if only for the classic "You want to change the way I make love, I want to leave it alone"

Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty

I am going to start my review with everyone else's review.

There's something about 2012 and 13.  Movies that are Oscar-bait have crossed over.  It may be Hollywood's fault.  They expect people to rush out to see an Arnold Schwartznegger/Johnny Knoxville buddy flick, but America is not buying.

Zero Dark Thirty like Lincoln (especially) and Silver Linings Playbook might not have been a blockbuster in another year, but people are going to it in droves.

If not that, then maybe audiences just are hungry to see a film that captures the Bin Laden assassination story.  Thus, ZDT is marketed as everything for everyone. 

People are expecting an Act of Valor style action movie that captures the American military at its best (and oddly, everything these days feel like video games, not that anything is wrong with that).

There is that, but the focus of the film is the protagonist Maya and her intelligence gathering that leads to the killing.

Thus getting back to others' reviews, it is able to pull off being both.  Most people are going for the action, not the drama, but both elements are strong.

Jessica Chastain as the lead is strong, and a cast that is largely free of A-list stars (James Gandolfini is almost unrecognizable as a Leon Panetta-ish CIA Director.) certainly helps things.

There are some torture and waterboarding scenes, though they are not over-the-top, they certainly will have you leaving the theater with some inquiring thoughts in your head.

Best film of the year?  Hard to say, but it certainly feels like it.  It's a strong film in about every aspect and at two and a half hours, it never feels over-long.