March 2015 movie reviews

STILL ALICE.  Julianne Moore won the Oscar for her portrayal of a college professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.  It’s brutal watching her forgetfulness getting worse and worse, along with her awareness of what is happening to her.  Meanwhile, her family (Alec Baldwin and Kristin Stewart) are also trying to cope.  Julianne has one great scene where she gives a speech on what having the disease is like.  Not exactly a fun time at the movies, but certainly a worthy movie way above the usual disease-of-the-month type thing.

KINGSMAN.  Colin Firth plays a secret agent for a super elite agency in England in this spoof of spy movies.  He recruits a working class kid to join, and the movie shows the training the recruits go through.  Then the survivors must save the world from a megalomaniac Samuel Jackson.  As with so many of movies these days, for me, it felt too long.  Clever, but could have been terrific with some editing.

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS.  Four vampires are housemates in New Zealand, ranging in age from 8,000 years old to “only” 138.  This pseudo-documentary shows how they have conflicts like any other group of guys living together.  Plus they try to deal with the modern world and changing fashions, technology, etc.   Although mildly amusing at times, for me it really felt like an improv sketch that went on too long.  Definitely NOT as hilarious as the ads would have one believe.

SHE’S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE’S ANGRY.  This documentary covers the women’s movement of the 1960’s and 70’s, interviewing many of the women that were the movers and shakers of the times.  They fought for equal pay, women’s health, abortion rights, child care, against sexual violence, etc.  And the movie covers it all. Because it covers so many topics, it felt a little superficial.  Certainly worth seeing for people who don’t realize how far we’ve come, though.

December 2014 movie reviews

It’s definitely getting to be Oscar season…

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING.  Eddie Redmayne stars as Stephen Hawking in this biopic of his life.  The movie does a terrific job of showing his relationship with his first wife Jane (Felicity Jones) from their meeting in college to their post-divorce relationship.  There is some of his breakthroughs in physics, but the movie isn’t really about the science – it is more a personal story.  All marriages have ups and downs of course, but this one more serious challenges than most.   Redmayne does a spectacular job of embodying Hawking, not just in the physical decline, but also showing the spark that Hawking has – his wit as well as intelligence, his being much more than just a computerized voice.  This is based on Jane’s memoir, so we see quite a lot from her point of view as well.  I really liked this movie.

WILD.  Reese Witherspoon stars as Cheryl Strayed, who walked solo for three months on the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave to Washington to find her real self once again.   The movie follows Cheryl on the trail as she struggles with the hike itself (she was really unprepared) and deals with the good and bad and ups and downs she has along the way.  Meanwhile, it is interspersed with flashbacks to her younger days when she had such promise, and later descent into  drug use and promiscuity following her mother’s death.  Watching Cheryl come to grips with that which she cannot change, and learning to live the life she has, was engaging throughout, and really grabbed me by the end.

THE IMITATION GAME.  Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a brilliant mathematician, but a difficult personality (perhaps he had Aspergers).  During WWII, he is convinced only he can invent the machine that will allow the allies to break the German codes.  Despite no one quite understanding what he is trying to do (which is, essentially, invent a computer), he perseveres.  His team (including Keira Knightly, also based on a real character), make peace with his idiosyncrasies and support him.  The movie does a nice job with newsreels in making one feel how important the work was.  It also flashes back to his difficult boarding school days and forward to his persecution for homosexuality after the war.  An excellent movie, and Cumberbatch is great.

WHIPLASH.  Despite excellent reviews, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see this movie.  It centers on a jazz drummer (Miles Teller) and his sadistic teacher, two things that don’t interest me at all.  But the teacher is played by JK Simmons, who I think is terrific.  And surprise, I kind of liked the movie.  Although the sadism is tough to take, it isn’t relentless, and the movie isn’t all about that.  The student is very driven and on some level understands the teacher is trying to make him better.  There are also bits about his family and love life.  And the teacher has nuance as well.  There is an interesting story arc for both the characters.  Definitely not sorry I saw it.  :-)

INTO THE WOODS.  In this Stephen Sondheim musical, fairy tale characters (Cinderella, Jack, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, etc) make wishes that will make them happy (they think).  In addition, the Baker and His Wife wish for a child, and must go into the woods to obtain four items that will let a witch lift a spell on them.   I liked the music and the themes (we are imperfect, we don’t always get what we want, but we have each other). but it did seem oddly long for a two-hour movie.  Everyone is quite good (Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, Chris Pine, and others) but I suspect only real musical lovers will enjoy this (as I did).

FOXCATCHER.  This based on real life movie is about brothers Mark and David Schultz, who both won gold medals in wrestling at the 1984 Olympics.  Mark (Channing Tatum) is living a very hand to mouth existence with little support until he comes under the sponsorship of the brilliant and wealthy, but very odd, John E. DuPont (Steve Carrell).  David (Mark Ruffalo) does OK coaching (I think) and has a wife and kids for support.  The brothers are very close, but DuPont has a creepy way of undercutting their relationship.  The movie is well done, with both good acting and a real feel for the atmosphere of athletic training, but it wasn’t really to my taste.  I am not particularly interested in wrestling (and a bit is shown of course), and the story doesn’t have a bigger meaning.  It just sort of shows how personal creepiness can be overlooked if you have money to spend, at least until you go completely over the edge.  It’s just sad.

TOP FIVE.  Chris Rock stars as Andre Allen, a comedian who has made some very popular movies, but wants to make more serious fare, which isn’t being received well.  The movie follows him during one day, as he is interviewed by a NY Times reporter (Rosario Dawson), visits family, and plans his wedding to a reality show star (Gabrielle Union). There is considerable back and forth jockeying between him and the reporter.  Meanwhile, he also is dealing with a negative reaction to his latest movie about a Haitian slave uprising. Often funny, it is also sometimes political as he deals with the ramifications of being a successful black man who wants to be thought of as more than his comedic image. This movie didn’t knock my socks off, but was pleasant enough.

November 2014 movie reviews

INTERSTELLAR.  Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a single dad  who farms corn, the only crop that grows anymore. Earth is fast becoming unlivable and as a former pilot, Cooper is asked to take on a mission to find a planet that is viable and save mankind.  He doesn’t want to leave his kids, but he also wants to give them a future, so he goes.  He and the crew (including Anne Hathaway) will have to leap through a wormhole and avoid black holes, and it’s all a race against time before humanity dies out.  I thought I wouldn’t like this film, but I mostly loved it.  It’s got philosophy, physics, humor, edge of your seat action, and great visuals.  In this almost 3 hour-long movie, there were only a very few moments I didn’t enjoy.  Strongly recommended

BIRDMAN.   Riggan (Michael Keaton) starred in 3 very popular superhero movies in the early 90’s.  But now he is trying to bring a play to Broadway, one he adapted from a Raymond Carver story and is directing and starring in.  He has to deal with the temperamental actors, hateful critics, a resentful daughter, and a public that only wants him to make a 4th Birdman movie.  And more.  The movie is very artistic, the acting is really excellent, it is very funny at times and it has big themes about art and our current culture.  And I didn’t really enjoy it.  Most of the characters were so self-involved and egotistical that I just couldn’t get into it.  At times I found it insufferable.   Critics are loving it, though.

NIGHTCRAWLER.  Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a skeezy character, currently in LA and surviving by stealing.  He also is very smart, and will read up on ways to manage/manipulate people.   One night he comes across a traffic accident and observes the free-lancers that film dramatic episodes for the local news stations.  So Lou decides that is what he wants to do.  He buys a cheap camcorder and police scanner and tries his luck.  And he turns out he is good at it.  He works with a local low-rated TV channel and desperate news director Rene Russo to get his stuff on the air. He is not above manipulating events to get good footage.  Lou is beyond creepy, but this is a compelling look at a sociopath finding a niche.  Gyllenhaal is really good, and although this isn’t the kind of movie one says they enjoy exactly, it is a very good movie.

ST VINCENT.  Vincent (Bill Murray) is a cranky drunk with gambling problems. Single mom Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) moves in next door with her pre-teen son.  Stuff happens, and Vincent ends up looking after the boy. Given the cast, you might think this is a comedy, but it is not (although there is humor).  It is more in the same genre as Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, I would say.  The boy humanizes the crank somewhat, and Vincent helps the bullied boy.  Not a bad movie – the acting is very good, for example – but nothing about the plot is terribly unexpected.  A little pull at the heartstrings; it’s perfectly pleasant movie.

KILL THE MESSENGER.   Reporter Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) is working for the San Jose Mercury News in the 90’s when he stumbles on the story of how the government allowed drug dealers to operate in order to fund the war in Nicaragua.  He investigates and the story is published and it hits the fan.  Not only does the government come down on him, but other newspapers try more to discredit him than investigate the story.  Interesting look at how your life can tumble down when you take on the powers that be.  The movie doesn’t really have any thrills or gripping moments, but it is more or less based on a true story, so it is moderately interesting.

DEAR WHITE PEOPLE.  This movie takes place at an elite college campus.  There is a small minority of black students, some of whom are trying to retain their culture and keep the all (or mostly) black on campus-residence. Others are trying hard to fit in. The movie focuses on four different characters with very different issues, and as a result, I didn’t find this particularly enlightening, more all over the map. A decent attempt from a young director, I think, although it just felt not quite baked.  Mildly humorous at times, but mostly sarcastic.

October 2014 movie reviews

GONE GIRL.  Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy (Rosamund Pike) are a lovely couple living in Missouri.  Their relationship and marriage seem perfect.   But one day Nick comes home and finds Amy gone and the house in minor disarray.  The cops and the town mobilize to find Amy, but as time goes on,we see via flashbacks that the marriage was far from perfect and Nick seems more and more guilty of murdering Amy.  I read the book, and knew the twists and turns of the story, but I still really enjoyed the movie.  Director David Fincher has done a terrific job of bringing the best seller to the screen.  (Still, I wonder if I would have liked it more or less if I hadn’t read the book?)  The supporting cast is also terrific.  Recommended.

PRIDE.  In 1984 Britain, Margaret Thatcher tried to break the coal miners.  An LGBT group in London decided to support the miners (feeling a bond with another oppressed group).  At first it is even a challenge to get the miners to accept the money they have raised, but they eventually start supporting a small Welsh mining town, and they both learn a lot about each other and develop deep bonds.  This is based on a true story, and is a terrifically entertaining and funny and touching movie.  Well worth looking for.

LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM.  In 1974, when Nixon left office, North Vietnam broke the peace agreement and started pushing into South Vietnam.  As it became more and more clear that the country would fall, the American Ambassador was in denial.  (He had lost a son in combat and was deeply invested in the independence of the country.).  So no plans for evacuation were being implemented.  Finally, a variety of Americans  (military, spies, etc.) started taking matters in their own hands and tried to get as many South Vietnamese out as possible (they knew those that had worked for the Americans would be in deep trouble when the South fell).  The documentary is a gripping look at what the various people did and did not do,, and how sometimes doing the right thing might not be the legal thing.  Highly recommended.  It will be on American Experience eventually, watch for it on your PBS channels.

September 2014 movie reviews

WHAT IF.  Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) and Chantry (Zoe Kazan) meet at a party and immediately hit it off.  They have similar senses of humor and attitudes, and they just click.  But Chantry has a long-term boyfriend.  At first, Wallace doesn’t even want to be just friends, but their compatibility gets the best of him, and they do develop quite a friendship.   I thought this was a charming movie, with some good laughs, good characterizations, and a nicely developing relationship.  The developments aren’t exactly shocking, but it worked for me.  The movie only got middling reviews, but I would recommend it if you’re in the mood for a bit of rom-com fluff.  A When Harry Met Sally for the 21st century.

THE SKELETON TWINS.  In this family drama, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader are siblings who haven’t seen each other in ten years.  As the movie opens, failed actor Milo is in LA slitting his wrists.  Maggie is in New York about to take a handful of pills when she gets the call about her brother.  She flies to LA and brings Milo back to stay with her and her cheerful husband (Luke Wilson).  As the siblings get reacquainted, the problems that drove them apart eventually come to light.  They did not have a normal childhood and they both have “issues”.  Although this movie isn’t a complete downer, it is a very serious look at family relationships.  I actually liked it, and Bill and Kristen are amazing in this, but it’s not a party, that’s for sure.

LOVE IS STRANGE.  Alfred Molina and John Lithgow have been together for forty years when they finally are able to get married.  Which they joyfully do, but unfortunately the Catholic School Alfred works for fires him because they didn’t keep their marriage a secret.  As a result, they can no longer afford their New York apartment.  While they get on the waiting lists of affordable places, they have to split up – Alfred to live with nearby neighbors and John to his nephew’s.  Alfred’s hosts like to socialize, so he can’t get any rest, while John has to live in his great nephew’s bedroom, which isn’t ideal either.  So their situation is stressful.  That’s about it.  The movie is kind of sweet, and the acting good, but really…kind of pointless, I thought.  Just not much there.

MY OLD LADY.  Kevin Kline arrives penniless in Paris to take possession of the apartment he has just inherited from his father.  On his arrival, though, he finds Maggie Smith living in the apartment.  And it turns out she has kind of a reverse mortgage, and not only does she get to live there until she dies, but Kevin also has to pay her a stipend every month.  And he has no income.  Also in the mix is Maggie’s daughter, Kristin Scott Thomas, who is incredibly hostile to the idea of the apartment ever being sold.  Now, with a cast like this, you might expect a fun little movie, but nooo.  This is quite the downer, with alcoholism, infidelity, suicide, depression, etc.   I knew the movie wasn’t a comedy, but I didn’t expect it to be as depressing as it was.  Not a satisfying experience.

July 2014 movie reviews

BEGIN AGAIN.  Greta (Keira Knightly) and Dave (Adam Levine) are a couple who moved to New York so he could work on his rock-and-roll video.  She is a songwriter who believes in authenticity.  Dave gets caught up in his stardom, and dumps Greta.  She is alone in New York, but meets a friend who has her sing one of her songs in a club.  Dan (Mark Ruffalo), having just lost his production company and having personal troubles of his own, hears her and wants to make her the next big thing.  But the music world is changing…  This is a sweet movie, not the romance one might expect, more a movie about the music business and people adapting to it.  Keira doesn’t have a great voice, but she can carry a tune, and the songs are pleasant enough.  And all three actors do a good job making their characters believable. This is by the same director who did ONCE, and has much of the same feel.  Very appealing.

LIFE ITSELF.  Documentary on the life of movie critic Roger Ebert.  Begun during the last year of his life (not that they knew that), it includes interviews with him, colleagues, friends and family, clips from the past, and readings from his autobiography.  I watched Siskel and Ebert beginning with their appearances on PBS, and read Ebert’s reviews and blog (he was a terrific writer), so I knew a fair amount about the man, but I still learned something new about him.  The movie doesn’t idolize him, but also shows his warts, his weaknesses, and his physical struggles at the end of his life.  It also looks at his impact (for good and bad, depending on your perspective) on movie criticism.  Really quite good look at a man who had very full life. It brought me to tears a couple of times.

SNOWPIERCER.  Sci-fi action film. Apparently, in an attempt to solve global warming, humans instead froze the planet, killing everything.  Earth is now an ice and snow covered rock.  The only survivors are on a high tech self-contained train circling the world.  The train mirrors human society, with the destitute in the back of the train (including Chris Evans, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer, Jamie Bell) with the wealthy privileged few (including Tilda Swinton) in the front.  The poor are planning another revolt, and they have to battle car by car forward in the train toward the train’s engineer, who rules over all.  I think this was a little too long, and I am not big on long bloody fight scenes, but other than those minor complaints, this is a really fun and interesting movie.  What should human society look like?  Or what does it have to look like?  Look for it On Demand, although best on a big screen.

BOYHOOD.  This movie is making a big splash because director Richard Linklater filmed it over 12 years.  It is, at heart, just a simple story of a boy growing up, and his divorced parents Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke and a slightly older sister.  There are ups and downs as his mother has her struggles, and that’s it – his life from 6 to 18.  But with a few exceptions, it is fascinating to watch and feels not at all like 2 hours and 45 minutes.  I enjoyed it a lot, even though it really is just about ordinary lives – like a documentary, almost.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.  I really liked the previous RISE OF movie, so I had high hopes for this one.  But….eh, it just didn’t engage me.  The apes are living in Muir Woods while the humans have been decimated by a virus.  The people in SF need to go north to ape territory to fix a dam so they can have power (and try to connect with other pockets of humanity).   The apes have a bad egg, and the humans have a bad egg, and that’s all it takes to start a war between the two groups, even though most want peace.  Big CGI battles. Disappointing.

22 JUMP STREET.  Another sequel fails to impress.  I thought 21 Jump Street was pretty funny.  Here, the “boys” (Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum) go to college, again to take down drug dealers.  There are a lot of self-referential comments (about sequels doing the same thing over, about them looking too old, etc), and there are some laughs, but this one was, I thought, a little more labored.  Not flat-out horrible, but not as consistently funny as the first.  Or maybe just the jokes got old in the re-telling.

IDA.  This Polish black-and-white film takes place in the late 50s/early 60s.  Ida is a teenage orphan brought up in a convent, and is almost ready to take her vows as a nun.  But the Mother Superior insists that Ida first go visit her aunt, an aunt she didn’t know she had.  Turns out, Ida is Jewish, and her parents were murdered in the war.  So her and her aunt (a hard drinking Communist official) go looking for their graves.  If all that doesn’t sound absolutely scintillating, this movie takes place at a snail’s pace.  It has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I am stunned.  I can’t believe anyone with a pulse wouldn’t have trouble staying awake for this.  (OK, the actress is very good, but other than that…)

December 2013 Movie Reviews

HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE.  Katniss and Peeta are back in District 12, keeping up the pretense that they are a happy couple.  Meanwhile, rebellion is fomenting in the provinces.  The President (Donald Sutherland) sees Katniss as a symbolic threat, and wants to do away with her.  So another games is held, this time with previous winners from all the districts fighting each other.  Very similar to the first movie, with much the same set of characters (and now Philip Seymour Hoffman as well), this sets the stage for the final installment of the trilogy (and so necessarily has a less than satisfying ending).  Strongly recommended if you enjoyed the first; this one will leave you really wanting to see the finale.  At least it did me.

WOLF OF WALL STREET.   Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an aspiring stockbroker.  Originally idealistic, he is given the low down on making money and screwing your clients by Matthew McConaughey (in a fantastic small role).  When Jordan loses his job in the 1987 crash, he learns about penny stocks and starts building his own business.  The richer he gets, the more disgusting a human being he becomes.  There aren’t enough drugs, women, or expensive toys to satisfy him. There will be a downfall eventually, but until then, he is living high.  Although he is a disgusting human being, watching his roller coaster of a ride is a hugely entertaining movie.  It’s funny and crazy and unfortunately, I suspect, pretty on point on a certain type of man.  The movie never once felt like the three hours was too long (although truth be told, I could have lived with fewer naked women.)  Lots of fun.

PHILOMENA.   Irish Catholic Philomena Lee (Judi Dench) is reliving her past when he daughter catches her in tears, and Philomena confesses that it is the 50th birthday of a son she had given birth to in a Catholic convent.  The son was taken away when he was three, and Philomena has always wondered about him.  Meanwhile, journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) has lost his government job, and although he thinks he is too good for a “human interest” story, decides to help Philomena find her son.  Philomena is an innocent in some ways, but no pushover, and Martin becomes a better person himself during their quest.  The movie doesn’t follow a predictable path, and the story and characters both have a lot of depth.   Judi Dench is beyond outstanding; I really like this one.  Based on a true story.

SAVING MR. BANKS.  P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) wrote Mary Poppins, and for years she resisted having it turned into a movie.  Finally, needing money, she flies to L.A. to meet with Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) about giving him the rights.   The movie follows the Disney crew trying to work with her on developing a script she will approve of, and alternates with flashbacks of  her childhood in Australia with her adored (but seriously alcoholic) father (Colin Farrel).  Apparently, Mrs. Traverse was quite a pill (at best) , and even though she needed the money, still resisted any “Disneyfication” of the movie.  She didn’t want music, abhorred animation, and at one point even demanded that the movie not have any of the color red in it.  She was “off red”.  We all know the movie got made, and the ending here is definitely emotionally manipulative, but I love Emma Thompson, and she is great here, so I liked the movie.

AMERICAN HUSTLE.  “Some of this really happened”.  David O. Russell’s latest is a version of the late 1970’s FBI Abscam sting of politicians.  Here, Irving (Christian Bale) and Sydney (Amy Adams) are soul-mate con artists who are forced to work with the FBI when they are busted by agent Richie (Bradley Cooper).  Originally the goal was just to trap low-level criminals, but Richie is overtaken with ambition and keeps going for higher stakes.  Meanwhile, he is falling for Sydney, and she for him (maybe).  At the same time, Irving’s wife (Jennifer Lawrence) is a piece of work and a loose cannon that could ruin everything.  This movie does a terrific job of recreating the fashions of the times (which is a hoot), and the acting is fabulous, but I wasn’t really sucked in to the story.  I couldn’t root for any of the characters – they are all pretty disgusting – and I kept waiting for a really clever double cross.    Not a bad movie, though, and critics are really loving it.

DALLAS BUYERS’ CLUB.  In 1985, Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey) was a hard partying, redneck rodeo rider who was diagnosed with AIDS and given 30 days to live. Although at first he doesn’t believe his diagnosis, he soon realizes he is going to have to fight to live.  The drug available for testing isn’t available to him, so he goes to Mexico and meets with a doctor who points him in other directions.  In order to purchase and get the drugs to America, he creates a buyers club, where members join for a fee but get the drugs for free (this circumvents FDA rules).  With the help of transgender Jared Leto, he builds quite the clientele and continues to fight the powers that be for access to potentially life saving drugs.  Inspired by a true story.  Although McConaughey and Leto are both outstanding and the movie is well done, the story didn’t grab me all that much.  Perhaps I have seen too many heart wrenching documentaries on the AIDS crisis to be caught up in this Hollywood version of the story.

NEBRASKA.  Bruce Dern is a slightly demented retiree living in Montana.  He is convinced that he has won a Publishers’ Clearinghouse-like million dollars.  But he has to go to Nebraska to claim it.  He can’t drive anymore, so he starts walking.  After trying to stop him three times, his son finally agrees to drive him.  Along the way, the son will learn more about his father than he ever knew (since mostly the father was a drunk when the kids were growing up).  They stop off in his hometown and meet with relatives.  They are mostly a Midwestern taciturn bunch.  Some people are downright nasty; others are just dull.  Although there is a little humor, and a sweet resolution, I just didn’t care much for this movie – I was mostly bored.  Well reviewed by most critics, however.

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS.  Llewyn Davis is a folk singer in 1961 Greenwich Village.  He used to be part of a duo, but now he is a struggling solo artist.  He is having a bad week.  He is couch surfing at friends’ houses, he is broke, he has gotten a girl pregnant… This is the kind of movie where not much happens.  Occasionally amusing (“where is his scrotum?!?”), but mostly the humor is very subtle and dark. Critics are loving this one; I am “eh”.  I just didn’t have any interest – good or bad –  in the character.  Kind of liked the songs, though.

Coming soon, my favorites of 2013…

October movie reviews

CAPT. PHILLIPS.  This is a fictionalized account of what happened when a large cargo ship was taken by pirates of the coast of Somalia in 2009.  Capt. Phillips (Tom Hanks) runs a tight ship, but despite employing all the measures at his disposal, his ship is taken by four Somalis with automated weapons.  The first half of the movie is the cat-and-mouse game between the crew and the pirates, as the crew tries to ensure they and the ship are not held for ransom.  The second part covers the episode where the Captain is taken away from the ship on a lifeboat and the US Navy comes to the rescue.  Tom Hanks is great, and the film doesn’t give short shrift to the Somalis point of view.   Directed by Paul Greengrass (Bourne movies, United 93), who really knows how to do suspense, even though you may know how it is going to turn out, it keeps you engrossed at every minute.  A terrific entertainment.

ENOUGH SAID.  Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Albert (James Gandolfini) are two divorcees who meet at a party and agree that they initially aren’t attracted to each other.  But at a subsequent set-up, they really hit it off.  Unfortunately, Eva also meets Albert’s ex-wife (Catherine Keener), and starts hearing about all of his negatives.  Despite Eva and Albert’s budding romance, Eva keeps up her friendship with the ex-wife.   This is a charming comedy about an adult relationship, and how even mature people can screw up a good thing.  I really liked it.    

GRAVITY.  Dr. Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Astronaut Kowalski (George Clooney) are on a spacewalk as she tries to make a fix to a telescope.  He is experienced, and cool and collected, while she is a novice trying to do her job.  Then space debris hits their spacecraft, and they are alone in space trying to survive.  In what is essentially a disaster movie, the filming here is what make the movie so special.  It is remarkable how the movie makes you feel the emptiness of space, the beauty, the silence… and the terror of being alone with only your wits to rely on.   The special effects really enhance the emotion of the movie, not overwhelm it.   Whether or not the astronauts can make their way to a “lifeboat” and survive kept me totally engrossed, but at the same time, not fully satisfied.  Still, those effects…

PRISONERS.  Keller and Gracie (Hugh Jackman and Maria Bello) have Thanksgiving dinner with friends Franklin and Nancy (Terence Howard and Viola Davis) and their children.  When their two little girls go missing, they all react in different ways.  As Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) attempts to find the girls, Keller goes off the deep end while Gracie curls up in a ball of misery.  Convinced that a simple-minded boy (Paul Dano) knows where the girls are, Keller goes all vigilante.  This has a fairly convoluted plot, with bolts out of the blue, and is too long, but all of the acting is top-notch and it mostly comes together in the end.  So although it was a bit intense for my tastes (torture!), I would recommend it because of the acting.

ALL IS LOST.  The movies open with a voice-over  with a sailor (Robert Redford) writing a letter to his family, saying all is lost, and he is sorry for all of his failings.  Move to 8 days earlier, where he is sailing his yacht 1700 miles of the coast of Sumatra when it runs into a container that had fallen off a cargo ship.  The resulting hole in the side of his ship sets off a desperate struggle for survival.  He must patch his boat, overcome bad weather, and try to navigate to waters where he might be found.  There is practically no dialogue, and we simply watch as he thinks his way through every crisis and implements solutions.  Interesting, if a tiny bit too long.  A fight for survival story similar to GRAVITY, without the great effects. Still, I felt more satisfied at the ending of this one.  

DON JON.  Jon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who also wrote and directed) is a Jersey boy who does well with the ladies.  Still, he prefer porn, because as he says, with porn he doesn’t have to do nuthin’, or say nuthin.  Despite his lecherous ways, he is a church going boy, confessing his sexual peccadilloes every Sunday after going to the clubs and scoring the rest of the week.  But then he meets Barbara (Scarlett Johansson) and he thinks she is off the charts beautiful.  And she isn’t easy, either – she is definitely waiting for someone to meet her high standards – so he makes quite an effort to pursue her.   And they do become a couple, but although he makes several changes for her, he can’t wean himself of the porn habit.   So we’ll see if they can overcome their false ideas of perfect relationships.   Occasionally amusing, I didn’t find this the comedy some people said, but more a character study of a kind of shallow man that really doesn’t like women, or even sex with women, just orgasms.  I wouldn’t bother with the movie if you are offended by the objectification of women (by Jon and his friends) or multiple clips of porn.  Still I thought it was interesting.  Although primarily about porn addiction there is even a little side note on the harm believing in romantic comedies can have on women.

September movie reviews

AT WORLD’S END.  Gary King (Simon Pegg) was hot stuff in high school, but he is pretty much a loser 20 years later.  He decides recreating a famous pub crawl from his youth will make him feel better, so he gets the old gang (including Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Rosamund Pike), very reluctant, back together.  This time, he intends to finish what they didn’t in their youth, at the World’s End pub.  But about halfway through the dozen pubs, the gang starts realizing that their old home town is different, something about the town folk…  Third in the trilogy that began with SHAUN OF THE DEAD, followed by HOT FUZZ, the writer/director/actors have hit their stride.  Totally ridiculous stuff, but lots of laugh out loud bits.  We’ll always have The Disabled!

IN A WORLD.  Lake Bell wrote, directed and stars in this as a young woman trying to make it in the world of voiceover work.  Her father was a king of the field, and it is a tough field in general for women, so she also does vocal coaching (and really really hates women who talk like “sexy babies”).  She is competing with her non-supportive father as well as a contemporary to do the trailer for a new young adult quadrilogy that is bound to be a huge hit.  There is a love interest, and a side story involving her sister.  There is sweetness, family drama, humor, marital discord… Although the movie ends terrifically on a nice feminist note, as a whole it didn’t capture my interest.  It was kind of all over the place.  Like real life, I suppose.

ELYSIUM.  Max (Matt Damon) lives on 22nd century Earth, where because of pollution and over-population, the wealthy have moved to an idyllic space station while leaving the masses on earth in a desperate state.  Jodie Foster is Secretary of Defense of Elysium and stops at nothing to keep the people on earth from moving there.  Due to a circumstances, Max is desperate to get to Elysium  and agrees to work with a rebel to obtain computer code that would help the people on earth.  Stuff happens, there is action aplenty.  This movie was made by the guy who did DISTRICT NINE (a movie I really like; you can see similarities), but unlike it the characters here are more caricatures (Jodie Foster complete with a distracting accent) and the situation heavy-handed.  This one didn’t grab me and keep me along for the ride like an action movie should.

SHORT TERM 12.  This movie is about Grace, a twenty-something who works at a home for at-risk kids (abandoned, abused, etc.)  She is awesome at it – she knows when to be tough and when to sympathize.  Her boyfriend also works there, and you can see through their relationship that she has some issues of her own.  She knows what to do for the kids, but is still having trouble putting it into practice in her own life.  This movie takes a hard look at the challenges that these kinds of kids face, but has a hopeful note to it.  It feels really honest; I liked it.

THE SPECTACULAR NOW.  Sutter is a hard-partying teen who has just been dumped by his girlfriend.  He becomes friends with Amy, a more straight-laced, inexperienced girl.  At first he has no intention of dating her, but her sweetness draws him in.  And she likes his attention and charm.   She sees his sweetness, but doesn’t seem to see that he is an incipient alcoholic.  This is just a nice little movie that feels truthful about growing up and learning about relationships.  Bonus: Kyle Chandler and Jennifer Jason Leigh as parents.

June Movie Reviews

THIS IS THE END.  Seth Rogen meets best buddy Jay Baruchel at LAX, and they proceed to get high and stupid.  Seth insists they go to a party that James Franco is hosting at his place in the Hollywood hills, and Jay reluctantly goes along.  There they meet Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera…(they all play less than attractive versions of themselves).  Jay is getting fed up and ready to leave when disaster strikes.  It appears the apocalypse is upon them, and they are stuck at Franco’s house trying to survive.  This is a really stupid movie about people behaving badly, but it also has enough laugh-out-loud moments that make it worth the bits that don’t work and the often lowbrow male-oriented humor.

WHAT MAISIE KNEW.  Maisie is a little girl living in New York with her constantly bickering parents (Steve Coogan and Julianne Moore).  When they divorce, they put her in the middle of their never ending and bitter battles.  Mom especially is a self-centered narcissistic mess.  Maisie seems to take it all in stride, though, merely observing the world around her.  Eventually Maisie will understand that her new step-parents more concerned about her than her parents.   Based on a Henry James novel, this modern take isn’t quite as believable as the original, but still compelling, mainly because we totally believe the little girls’ journey in coming to grips with her parents’ true natures and figuring out where she needs to be in the world.

FILL THE VOID.  Shira is an 18 year old girl living in an orthodox community in Israel.  That means it is time for her to get married, and her parents are using a matchmaker to find her a husband.  Shira has some say in her marriage, but it will essentially be based on a look and a quick meeting.  She thinks she has found someone acceptable, but then her older sister dies in childbirth.  And her mother thinks, maybe, Shira should marry her widowed brother-in-law (and keep the grandchild nearby).  But her parents won’t force her.  Shira must think it through and decide for herself what is best, but at 18, that’s tough for anyone.  I really appreciate this kind of movie, which enlightens one about a culture and community that is behind closed doors for outsiders.

THE EAST.  An anarchist group is committing acts of terrorism against corporations, and a security firm whose clients are big corporations sends Sarah (Brit Marling) to try to infiltrate the group.  She is a well-trained young woman who believes in doing the right thing (the movie makes a point of her Christianity).  She is also very smart, and eventually finds and is welcomed into the group.  So, of course, you can figure out that she will begin to sympathize with the group (including Alexander Skarsgard and Ellen Page).  The morals of the group’s specific actions bother her, but not the cause of justice for the powerless.  The movie is always interesting, although I had trouble developing much emotional investment in Sarah’s issues.  I think the movie has trouble committing.  Patricia Clarkson is excellent (as always) as the cold-hearted head of the security firm.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.  For me, Shakespeare is like a second language I don’t speak all that well.  So I have to really concentrate on what people are saying to make sense of it.  In this comedy, director Joss Whedon has taken the tale of people manipulating lovers to modern day.  Well done, I suppose, but I really need to study up before watching Shakespeare because I otherwise miss too much of the dialogue.  

KINGS OF SUMMER.  Joe and Patrick are 15-year-olds struggling to deal with parents that drive them crazy.  One day, Joe gets the idea to build a house in the woods, leave their families behind, and live off the land.  Along with an odd hanger-on, that it what they (try to) do.  There is also a girl.  While I actually found the boys to have believable personalities, I found this movie to be rather pointless.  It was a favorite at Sundance, and has a high Rotten Tomatoes rating, but I wasn’t enamored.  Perhaps if I had an one point been a teenage boy (like most critics), I would have a better feeling about the movie.   It was just….eh.

KON-TIKI.  As an ethnographer working in Polynesia in the 1930s, Thor Heyerdahl becomes convinced that the Pacific Islands may have been populated from the east, (Peru) not the West as was commonly thought.  After the war, Thor tries to convince people to publish his book on his theory, but no one will buy it because they think it is outlandish, with little proof.  But he truly believe his theory, so he decides to build a raft using 1,500-year-old techniques, and sail to the islands, which he estimates will take 100 days.  And so, in 1947, with all the low technology of the times, he sets off with a group of five others up for the danger/adventure.  This movie is mostly a terrific depiction of his and his crews’ ordeal (storms, sharks!), although there are moments where not much is happening (a raft in the middle of the Pacific can be kind of uneventful).    Beautiful photographed, the movie worth catching if you would like a nice offering in the adventure genre (so rarely seen these days).  Nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar (although it’s in English).