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	<title>Rainestorm &#187; Film Focus</title>
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	<description>A downpour of raves, rants, writings and ruminations</description>
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		<title>Score Card: A River Runs Through It</title>
		<link>http://www.rainestorm.com/2012/01/19/settling-the-score-%e2%80%98a-river-runs-through-it%e2%80%99/</link>
		<comments>http://www.rainestorm.com/2012/01/19/settling-the-score-%e2%80%98a-river-runs-through-it%e2%80%99/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:21:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rainestorm</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Film Focus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Score Card]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[a river runs through it]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alexandre desplat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eliot goldenthal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[elmer bernstein]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hans zimmer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[john williams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mark isham]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[point break]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[score]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rainestorm.com/?p=2220</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Score Card is devoted to an unseen but pivotal force behind the best (and worst) movies: the motion picture score. An ethereal veil of ambiance, its absence can be as powerful as its presence, and its misuse can bring down a single scene or an entire film. This column will be something of a journey for me. For though I appreciate film music, I am disadvantaged in that I do not know the the language or vocabulary of music. So I will proceed as delicately as I dare and ask that you bear with my ignorance. It occurs to me there are two basic ways to enjoy a score: how well it drives the film and how well it stands on its own. It may be a movie&#8217;s perfect musical accompaniment but virtually unlistenable as a standalone piece of music. The best scores, of course, fuse both. Fittingly, the first film score on this list is the first one to capture my interest as a piece of music for its own sake. By no means the first score I ever listened to or even owned, Mark Isham&#8217;s achingly blissful score for Robert Redford&#8217;s 1992 family drama A River Runs Through [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Trophy strife</title>
		<link>http://www.rainestorm.com/2012/01/16/trophy-strife/</link>
		<comments>http://www.rainestorm.com/2012/01/16/trophy-strife/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:39:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rainestorm</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Film Focus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[andy serkis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cgi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lord of the rings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[oscars]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[planet of the apes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rainestorm.com/?p=6970</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Much has been made of a possible Oscar nomination for Andy Serkis&#8217; astonishing performance(s) in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. If there has ever been the nagging question of whether or not it was his performance or the work of the animators that brought the simian Caesar to life, the following video should lay that to rest. Last week, the entertainment website HitFix posted a behind-the-scenes comparison of Serkis both pre and post CGI. It&#8217;s clear the animators did some fine-tuning to Serkis&#8217; very nuanced facial gestures, but it&#8217;s all there in the Lord of the Rings actor&#8217;s commitment and anguish. Take a look for yourself:]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Ten for &#8217;11</title>
		<link>http://www.rainestorm.com/2012/01/02/ten-for-11/</link>
		<comments>http://www.rainestorm.com/2012/01/02/ten-for-11/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:59:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rainestorm</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Film Focus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[3D]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[andy serkis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IMAX]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[melissa mccarthy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[michael fassbender]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ryan gosling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the rock]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[top ten]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vin diesel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rainestorm.com/?p=6728</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Any honest annual top ten list would have to stipulate that they are the foremost movies the writer was actually able to see. It is improbable, if not impossible, to attend every release in a given year. There are a dozen or so films that I didn&#8217;t have the opportunity to assess, either because they came and went too quickly (Meek&#8217;s Cutoff) or they arrived too late to contend for this list (The Artist). Still, by my count I managed to see nearly 60 films this year, albeit a few were late-year video releases. 2011 was a year I will remember as when the dramas didn&#8217;t deliver and were shockingly outclassed by energetic summer blockbusters, low budget horror films and low-brow comedies. Who woulda thunk it? With that in mind, I present my selections from 2011. 10. Paranormal Activity 3 Part one was nails-on-a-chalkboard irritating, which undercut the too-little and far too sporadic suspense. Part two began a bit more promising before devolving into the same slightly less grating tedium. This latest installment was astonishingly effective, helped in no small part by some genuine and genuinely funny humor. The ingenious use of an oscillating fan as a makeshift panning camera [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Payne and anguish</title>
		<link>http://www.rainestorm.com/2011/12/31/payne-and-anguish/</link>
		<comments>http://www.rainestorm.com/2011/12/31/payne-and-anguish/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:22:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rainestorm</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Film Focus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Movie Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[about schmidt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alexander payne]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[George Clooney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[revolutionary road]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sideways]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rainestorm.com/?p=6703</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are some films, and more specifically some directors, to which and to whom I devote my time and money against my better judgment. Alexander Payne is one such individual. After the painful but promisingly hysterical Election, he regressed with the irksome About Schmidt before taking a nosedive with the bafflingly adored but loathsome Sideways. This year he again finds himself beloved of critics and only slightly less irritating with the wearisome The Descendants. The common thread throughout is Payne&#8217;s seeming dislike and utter disrespect for the people about whom his stories are told. With his previous films, it was at least apparent he was trying to craft comedy. Here it is uncertain whether the story is comedic or dramatic and he fails either way. Punchlines are set up almost an entire act in advance and when they&#8217;re delivered they either fizzle or arrive flat. The height of humor is star George Clooney running awkwardly down the road in his slip-on shoes. Ha ha. In the film&#8217;s favor are the excellent performances by Clooney as a cuckolded father of two daughters whose wife&#8217;s recent boating accident has left her comatose and dying, and Shailene Woodley as his teenaged eldest. They [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Not so new Zoo revue</title>
		<link>http://www.rainestorm.com/2011/12/30/not-so-new-zoo-review/</link>
		<comments>http://www.rainestorm.com/2011/12/30/not-so-new-zoo-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:05:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rainestorm</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Film Focus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Movie Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cameron crowe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cary grant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cuba gooding jr.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jerry maguire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[katherine hepburn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[matt damon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phillipe rousselot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scarlett johansson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[thomas haden church]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rainestorm.com/?p=6682</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I never drank the Cameron Crowe Kool-Aid. He always seemed a filmmaker hinting at depth and significance without having experienced either. His films suffer from an incurious lack of dynamic range and the only injection of energy they&#8217;ve ever received was Cuba Gooding, Jr.&#8217;s spirited Rod Tidwell in the otherwise puzzling Jerry Maguire. We Bought a Zoo doesn&#8217;t plumb any new depths but it does have an easy charm that is sweetly palatable. Newly widowed father Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon), attempting to escape the ghosts of his amputated marriage, engages his embittered son (of course) and his gleefully fun-loving daughter (likewise) in the titular &#8216;adventure&#8217; that serves as the central metaphor for his fractured and mending family. Maggie Elizabeth Jones carries most of the movie on her adorable little shoulders as Benjamin&#8217;s daughter, Rosie. She&#8217;s a Grinch repellent, there to forestall the prickly grumps who refuse to have a good time, and whenever she&#8217;s onscreen the film brightens considerably. Damon&#8217;s Benjamin is an equally stock sad-sack father but he has an affability and penetrability that are difficult to dismiss. Scarlett Johansson, bless her soul, tries her best as the head zookeeper who inevitably falls for Benjamin, but she cannot escape [...]]]></description>
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