MONEYBALL In 2001, the Oakland A’s made it to the playoffs, but when their season ended their top three players went to greener pastures. Because Oakland is a small-market team with a small budget, there was no way to get equal caliber players on the 2002 team. This based-on-fact story shows how general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and a recent economics major (played by Jonah Hill) used statistics to replace those players and have a winning 2002 season. Billy faces opposition from the coach, scouts, and the owner. But he prevailed. Now, I understand the movie takes liberties with the truth, but I am not a huge baseball fan and wasn’t distracted by that. As much about the business of baseball as anything, I wouldn’t really even call this a sports movie, at least not a typical sports movie. All in all, it was pretty interesting and I enjoyed it.
FRIGHT NIGHT. Teenage Charlie and his mom (Toni Collette) live in suburban Las Vegas. Their new neighbor, Jerry (Colin Farrell), seems a little off-putting, a weird combination of charm and sleaze. Charlie used to be a geeky kid, and one of his former geeky friends, Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, love that guy), insists on seeing him. When they finally meet up, Ed tells Charlie that one of their friends has disappeared and it’s because Jerry is a vampire. Charlie, naturally, thinks this is unlikely. But, it’s true. So the blood-letting begins, with Charlie trying to save family, neighbors, and his girlfriend. Throw in a Vegas magician who is a vampire expert. This isn’t a great movie, but I kind of liked it, mostly because it isn’t taking itself seriously. I don’t like really graphically gory movies, but this one has a good blend of humor and horror, without just being gory for gore’s sake.
CONTAGION. Gwyneth Paltrow returns from Hong Kong with a bit of a cold. Next thing you know, she’s dead. But this is just the beginning of an epidemic that will sweep the world and kill millions. The star studded cast includes Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Lawrence Fishborne, Kate Winslet, and Jude Law. They are CDC officials, doctors, World Health Organization officials, a paranoid blogger, etc. Now, I have a real fondness for medical topics, so I quite liked the movie, but my fondness for epidemiology doesn’t keep me from thinking that for most people this movie would feel like a NOVA special. There’s not that much excitement, just more an explanation of how epidemics come about and how the medical professionals deal with them. But it is getting good reviews, so maybe I was over-analyzing it. I do think people will be better about hand washing after seeing this movie. :-)
THE DEBT. Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, and Ciaran Hinds are heroes in Israel, because in 1966, when they were young Mossad intelligence agents, they pulled off a mission to catch a Holocaust war criminal. Helen’s daugher has written a book about the affair, and it makes them a little nervous. They don’t seem to be comfortable in the limelight. One senses not is all as it seems. The movie then flashes back to the actual events surrounding their mission. I quite liked this part of the movie, but then the last 30 minutes of the movie takes a turn that I couldn’t buy into. Still, it didn’t make me regret buying a ticket.
DRIVE. Ryan Gosling is a stunt driver who also will drive getaway cars for criminals. He is a very cool customer, rarely speaking or showing any emotion. He does begin to care about the woman down the hall, and when her husband gets out of jail and gets in trouble, Ryan tries to help. But things go really wrong. This movie is methodical and really slow paced, but it is only a little bit longer than 90 minutes, so that didn’t bother me. It’s very stylish, has some good music, and has interesting supporting actors Cary Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman. But the second half has some really gruesome violence, and if I have to hide my eyes 4 or 5 times in a movie, I just can’t recommend it.
THE HELP. Skeeter (Emma Stone) has graduated from college in 1963 and returns to her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. She wants to be a journalist, but the best job she can get is writing a household hints column for the local paper. But she does get the idea of interviewing the maids in town for a book, to try to get their view of what it is like to raise a white woman’s children, and then have those children grow up to become their bosses. Skeeter’s society friends don’t understand, and in the Jim Crow south it is illegal for her to do what she wants to do, but eventually she gets one particularly downtrodden maid (Viola Davis) to help her. And then another. This movie is getting good reviews, and I didn’t hate it, but at the same time I felt it to be completely fake. Skeeter’s white childhood friends are all stereotypes (horrible racist, ditzy blond) and the maids are oh so noble. Not a bad film for young people to see, though, since they probably have little idea of what the segregated south was like.
MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE. Gerard Depardieu is a handyman in a small village, where he is teased by his friends for not being very bright. One afternoon he goes to the park and meets a old woman, Margueritte, who comes every afternoon to read. They begin a friendship, she reads to him, and they become close. He had an unfit mother, and Margueritte had no children, so they even develop something of a mother/son relationship. And she actually increases his confidence and helps him become a more fully realized person. Sweet film, but there isn’t much more to it. (French)
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