Jodie Foster’s The Beaver was one of the more controversial releases this year, thanks to the latest highly publicized incidents during the production surrounding its lead actor, Mel Gibson.  Once Hollywood’s greatest working leading man, Gibson has descended to a new low in terms of public opinion.  Yet in light of these incidents, he delivers his most personal performance yet in this movie.

Gibson plays Walter Black, a hopelessly depressed man, whose level of self-loathing has forced his wife, Meredith (Jodie Foster), to kick him out of the house.  In a drunken haze, Walter find a beaver hand-puppet in a dumpster and takes it to his hotel.  Walter attempts suicide in a moment of desperation, but is put off by the cockney accented voice of the beaver puppet, which proclaims is out to save his life.  Hiding behind his newfound beaver puppet persona, he returns to life with confidence and swagger, though it causes confusion and frustration to those closest to him.  Meanwhile, Walter’s awkward son, Porter (Anton Yelchin), makes money writing papers for kids a school.  When the silently troubled head cheerleader at his school (Jennifer Lawrence) approaches him to write her graduation speech, he’s forced to face his own family issues while trying to help her tackle her own demons as well.

The Beaver has one of the most bizarre, interesting, and beautiful performances of Mel Gibson’s career.  The vast majority of the film is spent with the actor in beaver-mode, as he skillfully belts out a cockney accent, along with perfect puppeteering to go with it.  One could be forgiven for mistaking Mel’s accent for the voice of Ray Winstone.  Gibson hides behind the puppet in what seems to be a defense mechanism in the movie’s toughest scenes, even when the film delves into truly strange territory, the man sells everything that’s going on with his performance.

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Morgan Spurlock exploded on the American pop culture scene as the star, writer, and director of the humorous documentary “Super Size Me” in 2003. In that film, he ingeniously shined a spotlight on the epidemic of obesity and the rampant fast-food eating habits of Americans by deciding to eat and drink nothing but McDonald’s products for 30 straight days and documenting the results.

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Basically, Spurlock’s body went haywire, putting on nearly 25 pounds in a month while sending his body fat, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels skyrocketing. The media response was immense, as was the public’s, since “Super Size Me” quickly became one of the ten biggest documentaries of all time, and snagged an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature to boot.

So, Morgan Spurlock became the flip side to Michael Moore, since he was making films that had a point but didn’t beat people over the head with their message, and since people were actually surprised when he wound up getting fat.  He went on to make an insightful documentary series on the FX cable network called “30 Days,” in which people had to experience something they’d never normally endure for a month in order to understand others better. (more…)

Big news for Top Chef enthusiasts: Bravo’s spin-off series featuring celebrity chefs competing for charity debuts Wednesday night at 10pm ET.  I still have a bad taste in my mouth from last season, largely due to Hosea’s undeserving triumph, so I’m eager to see if the cooking franchise will redeem itself.

Here’s the skinny on Top Chef Masters, courtesy of the LA Times:

The cooking competition spinoff — this one featuring “world-renowned chefs” — has recruited a star-studded lineup of guest judges.

They include Neil Patrick Harris, Zooey Deschanel, Morgan Spurlock, “Lost” writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, “Flipping Out’s” Jeff Lewis, and all of the previous “Top Chef” winners. Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons will also appear. (more…)