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.

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).

February 2013 movie reviews

SIDE EFFECTS.  The movie opens with a scene of a bloody apartment.  Obviously something bad has happened.  Then “three months earlier”, we meet Emily (Rooney Mara) as she is meeting husband Martin (Channing Tatum) in jail.  He was convicted of insider trading, and will be getting out soon.  Even though Emily is happy about his release, she has a history of severe clinical depression.  After a suicide attempt, she goes to a psychiatrist (Jude Law), where she tries to treat her disease with the latest pharmacological drugs.  I won’t say any more about the plot but you do wonder whether justice will be done.  After a fairly slow first thirty minutes, this is a terrifically entertaining movie, ESPECIALLY if you don’t read anything about it beforehand.  It’s not deep, but a lot of fun as you follow the twists and turns.

WARM BODIES.  In this version of the zombie apocalypse, zombies retain a small vestige of their humanity, and have thoughts, vague memories, and can grunt out a few words.  “R” (Nicholas Hoult) is a young zombie and he is friendly with another older zombie “M” (Rob Cordry).  We hear R’s thoughts in voiceover (e.g., early on, R is wondering about his human life, and guesses he was unemployed, because he is wearing a hoodie.)  The surviving humans, led by John Malkovich, live in a city behind a very high wall, and venture out only for supplies.  John’s daughter, Julie, is a member of a group sent out to obtain medicines.  They are attacked by a group of zombies, but she is saved by “R”  because he feels a connection with her.  He tries to keep Julie safe from other zombies, especially the ones that are so far gone they have no humanity left.  He also wants to keep her close but not freak her out too much.  Eventually she will start to warm up to him.  This is a bit a fluff, actually kind of sweet, and has some real laugh-out-loud moments.  Worth seeing, if not paying for.

WEST OF MEMPHIS.  Another documentary in the they-were-wrongly-convicted genre.  It follows the case of the West Memphis 3, who were convicted in Arkansas of murdering three young boys in 1993, based on the false confession of one mentally challenged young man, and because they were misfits.  Prosecutors presented the case as a satanic crime, based on “expert” testimony that most certainly was not.  One of the teenagers was even given a death sentence.  HBO has done a series on the case (Paradise Lost 1-3), but this movie puts it all together, shows the weakness of the case, and even promotes an alternative suspect.  Interviews with the celebrities who championed the case (Eddie Vedder, Peter Jackson), investigators who pursued new evidence, and the main personalities in the case provide context.  It’s just tragic to see how prosecutors will insist on the correctness of their case in the face of overwhelming evidence.  American justice may be top of the line, but it sure as hell isn’t perfect.  (see also:  CENTRAL PARK FIVE.)  Very well done.  

56 UP.  This ongoing documentary has followed several English people every seven years since they were seven years old in 1963.  The original idea was to see how much class distinctions in England would affect what happened to the children.  The class issue isn’t quite as prominent now, which is what the filmmakers thought might happen as Britain changed post-war.  The movie shows clips from the earlier episodes, and it is fascinating to see how consistent people’s personalities are, even given the wisdom they gain over the years.  It’s kind of a voyeuristic thing, but I have enjoyed all of these movies.  Now at age 56, most of the people seems quite content with their lives, no matter the ups and downs they have had.  

October 2012 movie reviews

ARGO.  In 1979, when the Revolutionary Guard took employees of the American embassy in Iran hostage, 6 people got out and took refuge in the Canadian ambassador’s home.  This movie details the story of how a CIA agent (played by Ben Affleck, who also directed) came up with the idea of making it look like the hostages were part of a Hollywood film crew, and just take them out through the airport under the noses of the Iranians.  Affleck does a terrific job of setting the scene leading up to the Iranian revolution, as well as showing how the U.S. government bureaucracy worked and how the agent overcame it.  There are great scenes of the agent and his contacts in Hollywood (John Goodman and Alan Arkin) showing him the ropes of how to make the fake film (Argo) look like a real production.  Affleck also does a great job in making the movie suspenseful, even though I knew the outcome (and, in fact, the truth wasn’t quite as suspenseful).  Very good movie, very entertaining.

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER.  Charlie is starting high school, and is understandably worried about fitting in and finding friends.  He has a past, but we aren’t quite sure what his issues were.  Lucky for Charlie, he is adopted by a couple of seniors who consider themselves outsiders as well, including Sam (Emma Watson) and her gay stepbrother Patrick.  They hang out, go to dances and parties, participate in the Rocky Horror Shows, and generally act like teenagers.  Charlie has a crush on Sam, but she has issues herself (it’s said she was quite a slutty freshman) and isn’t interested.  This is very much a movie for the teenage crowd, or those who remember the angst of teen years.  It’s honest and sweet without being saccharine.

SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS.  Martin McDonagh, who wrote the very good IN BRUGES, also wrote and directed this.  It involves Colin Farrell, a screenwriter, and his friend Sam Rockwell, who along with Christopher Walken, steals dogs for the reward money.  When Sam steals criminal Woody Harrelson’s beloved dog, things get a little crazy.   Like McDonagh’s other works, this combines shocking violence with really black humor.  The movie did have lots of laughs, but it just wasn’t enough for me.  Although I guess it wants to parody the movie business, it just seemed cobbled together for the sake of the violence and laughs, without enough back story to make anyone all that believable.  It’s interesting how a movie can be both funny and dull at the same time.

October must be documentary month…

THE HOUSE I LIVE IN.  This documentary takes a look at the origins and consequences of the war on drugs.  Drug use is essentially unchanged, and America has the most prisoners in the world, most for non-violent crimes.  In addition, this has destroyed poor and minority communities.  The filmmaker interviews people in the prison industry, cops, judges, abuse experts, and victims of the system.  All of them know the current system doesn’t work.   This is a very compelling documentary that explains the difficulty in changing the system (more than just politics,; there’s lots of money in the current system).  Just Say No.  To the War on Drugs.  It’s useless.

THE OTHER DREAM TEAM.  This documentary looks at the Lithuanian bronze-winning 1992 Olympic basketball team. In 1988, four of the five starters for the Soviet Union gold medal team were Lithuanians, who had to play for the Soviets.  So 1992, after their independence, was a real opportunity for them to show some national pride.  And they ended up playing against Russia for the bronze.   The movie shows a little too much history of Lithuania (although some is necessary to show why the win was so important for their country), but because I didn’t watch much of the 1992 Olympics, I knew very little of the story.  So I enjoyed the movie, including appearances by the Golden State Warriors and the Grateful Dead.  Very inspirational. 

THE WAITING ROOM.  This documentary takes place in the emergency department at Highland Hospital, the public hospital of Alameda County, California.  Anyone in the area without health insurance will come here for their health care.  Even though emergency departments are not the place for ongoing or preventive health care, it is the only option for people without insurance. (Patients in the know will bring lunch and dinner, because they know they have a long wait in front of them.) The staff do their best, and are extremely compassionate toward their patients.   Stories include those of a father who is terrified that his daughter is sick, because he already lost a child, a young man with testicular cancer who knows he needs surgery ASAP, a man who has spreading numbness due to a gunshot wound, and people with a whole variety of other ailments.  And even once they are seen in the emergency department, it may be months until they can see anyone for needed follow-up care.  This documentary is very powerful, and should be required viewing for anyone who thinks people in America can get the health care that they need.

September 2012 movie reviews

END OF WATCH.  Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña are best friends and cops in the South Central area of Los Angeles.  They love their jobs, and Jake is especially gun ho and ambitious.  So much so that they begin to gain the attention of drug cartels, which is not a good thing.  From the previews, I thought this might be a movie about rogue cops, but it is not.  This movie feels very authentic, showing the two over several months just BS’ing on patrol (some of their conversations are hilarious), with their patrols being humdrum punctuated with really tragic and really frightening moments.  I really liked it.

LOOPER.  In this science fiction tale, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) lives in 2044, where time travel has not yet been invented.  But it has in 2074, and Joe works for a crime boss in the future.  The crime boss sends back people to be killed and Joseph does it – he’s a looper.  They are called loopers because it they decide to get out of the killing business, they know that in 30 years time, they will be sent back to be killed (hence, closing the loop).  It  sounds complicated, but it isn’t that hard to follow.  When old Joe (Bruce Willis) is sent back to be killed, things go haywire, and young Joe is in serious trouble for not killing his older self.  Both old and young Joe are on the run, trying to survive.   There’s a lot more, but I won’t explain it.  Suffice it to say the movie is very watchable and held my attention for the whole two hours.

ARBITRAGE.  Richard Gere stars as one of the 1%, a fabulously wealthy money guy.  When the movie opens he is winning awards, and loving his family, and attempting to sell the business for a boatload of money.  But of course not all is as it seems to be, personal or business wise.  When his mistress has an accident, he tries to manipulate the situation to keep his role out of the papers and continue his business machinations.  This may not seems like a good plot for a movie these days, but the script is tight.  We watch and really don’t know – will he get away with it?  Will he ruin the lives of others in doing so?  Or will he pay the price?  I thought this was an enjoyable movie.  Also with Susan Sarandon and Tim Roth.

SLEEPWALK WITH ME.  This movie stars comedian Mark Birbiglia in a semi-autobiographical look at his relationship with his girlfriend of 8 years and his early comedy career.  He knows how lucky he is to have Abby (Lauren Ambrose) in his life, because he is a bit of an aimless loser, tending bar and barely working on his comedy.  When he starts feeling pressure to make a commitment to Abby (his parents are James Rebhorn and Carol Kane in terrific small parts), Mark starts sleepwalking.  Not in a cute way, either, but dangerously.  Around the same time he starts using his relationship in his act, his comedy career starts taking off.  This is a nice little movie, interesting in that Mark has no problem portraying some of the least flattering aspects of himself.  So the movie feels very realistic and believable.  It’s apparently based on a “This American Life” that Mark did for NPR.  It does feel like a filmed version of one of those stories, so if you like them, you’d probably like this.

HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE.  Documentary.  This movie uses old footage of the early years of Act Up (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), a group of mostly HIV-positive New Yorkers who took on the powers that be to push for the expedition of AIDS drugs and research.  They know that they are facing death, but they educated themselves and chose to use political action to help, if not themselves, those who will come after them.  Although I knew of the group, I was surprised to hear how effective they had been, despite eventual infighting.  Those who survived are interviewed toward the end of the film.   Very moving look at the power of the people to effect change. 

August Movie Reviews

RUBY SPARKS.  Paul Dano plays a young writer who made a big splash with a great novel when he was 19.   Now he is 29 and suffering from writer’s block.  His therapist suggests a writing exercise of just writing one page about a woman he would like.  It gets him going, and he writes reams about a woman of his dreams.  And then, she comes to life.  (You just have to go with it.)  At first, of course, he thinks he is going crazy, but when he realizes other people see her too, he realizes his good fortune.  And their relationship grows and he is happy for the first time in a long time.  But…even with a woman who you can control by writing her to be/do what you want, things will get complicated.  This movie is funny at times but at heart it is taking on people who can’t accept that no one is perfect, even the partner of your dreams.  Loved it – one of my favorite movies of the year so far.

HOPE SPRINGS.  Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones play a long married couple whose marriage has gone stale.  Grumpy old Tommy doesn’t care to do anything about it, but Meryl is desperate to save her marriage and insists they go to couples therapy.  This movie is being touted as a romantic comedy.  Although it is occasionally mildly amusing, the movie is really about a couple that is seriously sexually repressed and needs sex therapy.  I don’t care how good the acting is (and it was), this is not a movie I was interested in.

PREMIUM RUSH.  This is a popcorn movie about a bike messenger racing through Manhattan being chased by a sinister man who wants his delivery.  A silly premise, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Shannon are really good actors, and it is getting generally positive reviews, so I thought I would give it a shot.  Actually the scenes with the bikes were my least favorite, because those guys are such assholes in traffic (making it hard to root for them), but I did like the story behind it all.  The plot involves gambling and money changing in Chinatown, among other things I won’t divulge, and is more coherent than many an action flick   So all-in-all, not a bad 90 minutes, if a fast-paced chase movie is what you are in the mood for.

ROBOT AND FRANK.  In the near future, Frank (Frank Langella) is getting a little forgetful.  He goes to town, visiting shops and the local librarian (Susan Sarandon).   His son (James Marsden) lives far away, and knows that someone needs to be there to watch out for Frank.  So he gets him a helper robot.  Frank is really annoyed at the gadget, but he eventually warms to the robot, especially since it doesn’t judge him.  And Frank does have a criminal past.  They end up going on adventures together, and the robot actually does help his health.  But Frank can’t keep going the way he is…. A bittersweet kind of story, as stories about people getting old invariably are.

CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER.  Celeste (Rashida Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg) have been best friends forever, gotten married, and, when the movie opens, after six years of marriage, are getting a divorce.  She is a professional and he is an artist going nowhere, so she thinks she has to move on.  But neither is thinking anyone is at fault.  They are still really close friends, and their friends are thinking it is all a bit weird.  Eventually Celeste and Jesse will start trying to move on with their lives and date other people.  But in doing so, they will each come to the realization that they can’t quite maintain the friendship they had.  Although somewhat amusing, this is also sort of a sad story about the importance of maintaining relationships and not taking them for granted.  Not bad, but definitely not a must-see.

THE IMPOSTER.  Documentary.  In 1993, a 13-year-old boy in San Antonio went missing.  Three years later, the family gets a call from Spain saying he has been found.  Despite the fact the supposed son has different skin, hair and eye color, the family bought into the fiction that this was their boy.  They believed his tales of torture and sexual abuse and ignored obvious clues to his fakery.  Interviews with the family, the imposter, and investigators make this a fascinating story.  Unbelievably true.

THE WELL-DIGGER’S DAUGHTER.  In this French movie, Patricia is the oldest of 5 daughters in turn of the century rural France.  Circumstances sent her to Paris as a young girl, but now she is back home in Provence, where her widowed father knows he needs to marry her off.  He would be OK with his work colleague, a really good guy, but working class and not very charming, being his son-in-law.  She, however, will fall for the local good-looking guy from a well-to-do family who is a smooth operator.  This is a very old-fashioned movie, with bucolic scenery, and will be appreciated by those who are not put off by a movie with plot points that hinge on 19th century morals.

AI WEI WEI – NEVER SORRY.  Documentary about human rights activist/artist Ai Wei Wei, a Chinese dissident who uses his fame as an artist (he designed the bird’s nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics) to highlight the abuses of the Chinese government, most often in the arena of lack of transparency by the government.  For example, he investigated the large number of schoolchildren who died in an earthquake due to shoddy school construction.  And then his results posted it online, where he had a large following.  When the government shut down his blog, he moved to Twitter.  Admirable man, this movie is worth seeing.

EASY MONEY.  J.W. (Joel Kinnaman) is attending school at the Swedish School of Economics, where he is working nights and trying to keep up socially with the wealthy boys.  When his boss asks him to help him in a task, it involves saving an escaped prisoner from a beating and takes J.W. into the criminal underworld of drugs and money.   In addition to J.W. and Jorge, the escapee, the movie also follows a thug that has gotten custody of his little girl and wants a better life.  They will all be working toward a big score that will help them escape their circumstances. The movie has Serbian mobsters, Spaniards, and maybe Russians, I am not sure.  Because there were so many ethnic groups (all subtitled) I sometimes got a little confused on who was with who.  Not a bad movie, but maybe a little slow and not very satisfying in the end.  Mostly in Swedish.

May 2012 movie reviews

BERNIE.  Bernie (Jack Black) is the assistant funeral director in a small East Texas town.  Everybody loves Bernie.  He sings at church, participates in the local theater, is kind and giving, and is wonderful at his job.  The little old ladies especially adore him.  He even befriends the meanest (and wealthiest) old lady in town, Mrs. Nugent (Shirley McClain).  Everybody, including her own family, dislikes and avoids her.  But Bernie gets along with her, and before we know it, he is living a very nice lifestyle thanks to her, traveling with her to international destinations, flying a private plane, etc.  But this won’t last.  This movie is based on a true story, and I won’t say more, but it’s a look at small town relationships as much as anything.  It is interspersed with comments from the townspeople, which give it a real depth at how people looked what happened.  On one hand, it is a kind of a slap at small town naiveté, but on the other hand, it is really very funny.  Most enjoyable movie so far this year.

HEADHUNTERS.  Roger is a smooth corporate headhunter.  He is married to a tall, beautiful blond, and feels inadequate.  To compensate, he steals art works on the side so he can give her expensive things.  He is deeply in debt, and when the opportunity for a big score comes along, he grabs at it.  But of course, things will start going wrong, and he keeps getting deeper and deeper in over his head.  One doesn’t know if he will be able to extricate himself from the bodies that are piling up.  I really, really liked this Norwegian thriller – it kept me interested through all the twists and turns.  They’ll probably re-do it in English, but it may not be as good.

FIVE YEAR ENGAGEMENT.  Romantic comedy, with Jason Segal and Emily Blunt getting engaged at the beginning of the movie (no meet cute, or hating each other before realizing they belong together).  It is clear that they have a loving, grounded relationship.  But when she gets a job that will take her cross-country, their relationship will be tested in ways they never expected.  Written by Segal, who also did FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, this is a romantic comedy that isn’t ridiculous in its premise.  Funny, and very enjoyable.

BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL.  Seven various retirees in England get taken in by a glossy brochure that extolls retirement living in luxury in India.  When they get there, they find the hotel doesn’t quite live up to its name.  Not to mention that life in India is quite different from England.  Some of them will roll with the punches, some can not.  Each character is developed so that they seem like relatively believable people, and it turns out that going to India will be more than a physical journey, but also a psychological one for most.  It’s hard to go wrong with a movie starring Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, etc.  It gets a little sappy at the end, but all-in-all, it’s a charming little film.

AVENGERS.  An evil Nordic wanna-be god steals an energy source and plans to use it to dominate earth.  Only a group of superheroes can save humanity.  Samuel Jackson will bring them together and they work out their competitive natures before joining together in battle.   I have never had much of an inner  fan girl when it comes to comic book movies (with the exception of the Batman movies, I usually think the genre is just ok) and this one was no different.  I enjoyed the character development, and the repartee between characters quite a lot, and there were a couple of laugh-out loud moments.  But the battles just went on too long.  This is a special effects extravaganza, and by no means a bad movie, it’s just not my taste.  Maybe if it were 20 minutes shorter…

FIRST POSITION.  Documentary about kids ages 9-19 who compete in a ballet competition for scholarships and jobs in elite ballet companies.  The movie follows a small group of contestants from around the world through regional contests and the finals in New York.  I have never taken a dance lesson in my life, and rarely go to dance shows, but I am fascinated by these kids being so devoted to something at such a young age.   And they are GOOD, amazing to watch.  This is a nice little view into a subculture that we rarely see. Really enjoyed this.

SAFE.  Sometimes I just want to see a mindless action flick.  And Jason Statham can do the job, because he looks good beating the crap out of a dozen guys at once.  In this case, he is a disgraced cop/martial arts fighter (!) who tries to save a young Chinese girl from the various bad guys (Russians, Chinese, and cops on the take), who are after her because she is a math genius who has memorized a code they all need.  Doesn’t make a lot of sense, and not really an edge-of-the-seater….just OK.  Jason can, and has, done better.

April movie reviews

CABIN IN THE WOODS.  I don’t enjoy horror movies, but I went to see this one because it was written by Joss Whedon (who I love).  It’s a sly take on the horror movie genre.  Here, the five college age students (each filling a stereotypical role), despite warnings from a maniacal gas station owner, go to a secluded cabin in the woods to relax.  What makes the movie different is that they are all guinea pigs in a government experiment (the first scene shows two bureaucrats; I am not giving anything away).  That setup allows for lots of clichés to be poked.  The movie is rather clever, has some amusing bits, and despite a couple of standard horror scenes where a woman is being brutalized (which I HATE), it’s an original take on the standard story.  I would think horror fans would really love it, because they understand all the conventions being tweaked.

BULLY.  Documentary.  This film follows several students in several states who endure bullying (psychological torture, really) in school, as well as parents who have lost their children due to bullying.  This is a heartbreaking movie, well worth seeing, and very effective at showing the problem, if not so much at pinpointing solutions.  One can only hope that it pushes school boards and administrators (who are unbelievably useless in this movie) into realizing bullying doesn’t have to be something that is tolerated, and do something about it.

JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI.  Documentary.  This films follows 85-year-old Jiro Ono, who had to begin working in restaurants when he was 10, and continues to pursue absolute perfection in his 3-star Michelin sushi place every day.  He is obsessed with sushi, never taking a day off and working long hours.  Interviews with his sons and restaurant critics and his suppliers bring little more insight into his psyche.  He is just plain and simple driven to be the best he can be, and old age isn’t changing that.  Every day he thinks about what can be done to make the sushi better.   Interesting enough movie. I was hungry after, even though the focus isn’t on the food, but the man.

FRIENDS WITH KIDS.  Romantic comedy.  This is a likeable little movie, written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt (who did the amusing KISSING JESSICA STEIN).  Julie (Jennifer) and Jason (Adam Scott) are best friends, who because they are not attracted to each other, have never hooked up.  But they are very close.  They see their married friends having varied success trying to cope with being parents and trying to maintain the romance.  So in movie-world style, Julie and Jason decide to have a child together but remain just friends.  Of course it is a ridiculous premise, but this isn’t just a simplistic romantic comedy.  The movie does actually show some of the challenges of relationships, like not being in the same place at the same time, or having romance crushed by real life challenges.  Great cast, including Maya Rudolph, Jon Hamm, Ed Burns, and Kirstin Wiig, this is cute enough if you don’t require your movies to be grounded in reality.

MONSIEUR LAZHAR.  This French Canadian movie (nominated this year for Best Foreign Film) is about a classroom full of kids trying to recover from a teacher’s death.  Because the school has not been successful recruiting a replacement, they hire Monsieur Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant.  He has different ways of doing things, which he, the kids, and the school administration find a challenge.  He also has his own tragic past, which helps him help the kids.  This is an OK movie, but I think typically movies of this type have an inspirational story that really grabs the heart.  This one was a little too low-key and subtle for my taste.

FOOTNOTE.  In this Israeli film, Eliezer has spent his life comparing versions of the Talmud, and was on the verge of publishing his ground breaking results when another researcher, as the result of a fluke discovery, beats him to it.  Meanwhile, Eliezer’s son, Uriel, has had great success in the same field, both in academia and the popular press.  Although the son is very considerate of his father’s feelings, the father is still very bitter.  When a mistake is made in awarding a major academic prize to the wrong person, it will have serious ramifications for their relationship.  Seen by some as a comedy, I smiled a few times, but mostly I saw the movie as one of a father-son conflict with no winners.  In  Hebrew, also nominated for Best Foreign Film.

December 2011 movie reviews

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.  Mikael (Daniel Craig) is a disgraced journalist who takes the job of investigating the disappearance 40 years ago of a teenage girl, a member of a powerful industrial family.  The patriarch of the family (Christopher Plummer) hires Mikael to finally unravel the mystery, and makes it pretty clear that he thinks someone in his crazy family murdered her.  So Mikael moves to the island where they all live and starts investigating.   Meanwhile, Lisbeth (Rooney Mara) is a computer hacker and investigator, and also a very tough woman with a past.  She has to report to a social worker, who revels in his power over her.   And she barely contains her rage (at first).  Early in the movie, their stories are only slightly connected, but Mikael will hire her to help him, and they eventually work together on solving the girl’s disappearance.  I hadn’t seen the Swedish movie or read the best-seller, so I really enjoyed following the mystery to its conclusion.  Really a well-done movie (and I gather different enough from the Swedish one to still be worth seeing if you saw the earlier one.)  It most definitely didn’t seem like a two and a half hour movie.  One of my favorites of the year.

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY.  George Smiley (Gary Oldman) works in British intelligence fighting the Cold War.  His boss “Control” (John Hurt) is convinced there is a double agent working with/against them.  The powers that be think he is paranoid, so Control and Smiley are forced into retirement.    Then a politician contacts Smiley to investigate the possibility that there is  indeed a Soviet mole in the upper echelons of the service.  Smiley slowly and methodically starts working to discover whether there is in fact a mole, and if so, who it might be.  (Candidates include Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds.)  I found the first half of the movie a little slow going, but the pace picked up, and the complexities of the spy’s life, where so much is not what it seems, and paranoia is everywhere, is fascinating.  Spying is mostly plodding work, no car chases or explosions here.  In the end I found this a very satisfying movie.  (I never read the book or saw the earlier mini-series, so that was probably good.)

THE ARTIST.  George Valentin is a major silent screen star, doing what appears to be a combo of swashbuckling and romantic roles.  He loves his life, and the adulation.  But when talkies arrive, he doesn’t adapt and finds himself on his way down.  Meanwhile, a young woman he supported on her way up becomes a big star.  Whether she can help him recover from his downward spiral is the gist of the movie.  This movie is making a big splash because it itself is mostly silent, and in black and white.  I personally didn’t find that annoying at all.  It’s not necessary to hear people talk to know what’s going on.  At about 90 minutes, I found it charming and entertaining. 

THE MUPPETS.  Gary (Jason Segal) is a big fan of the 1980’s Muppet Shows.  Coincidentally, his brother Walter is a Muppet, and despite their physical differences, they are very close.  When Gary decides to take his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) to LA to celebrate an aniversary, Walter tags along and insists they tour the old Muppet studios.  The studios are rundown and abandoned, and Walter overhears an oil tycooon’s plans to tear down the studios to drill for oil.  So Walter and Gary go on a quest to find Kermit, and then they all try to reunite all the Muppets (Miss Piggy, Animal, etc.) and put on a show to raise money and save the studio.  Sunny songs, some witty dialog, celebrity cameos, this is a cute movie, especially if you can channel your inner child and just go along with it.  Or if you were a Muppet fan back in the day.

BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER’S JOURNEY.    This short documentary covers the career of the puppeteer behind the Elmo Muppet.  Shy Kevin Clash has always been obsessed with puppets, so much so that he cut up the lining of his father’s raincoat to make one when he was young.  The movie covers his career path from putting on shows for the neighbor kids to a local TV kids’ show to Captain Kangaroo to Sesame Street.  I also learned a little more about the talent it takes to be a really good puppeteer.  This is really a sweet movie about someone whose dreams have come true.    When I wasn’t smiling, I had tears in my eyes.  It’s just so life- and decency-affirming.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL.  Ethan (Tom Cruise) and his team (Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner) are blamed when a proponent of nuclear war blows up the Kremlin.  The Russions are blaming the Americans and now the world is on the verge of armaggedon.  The MI team have been disavowed and must work on their own to stop the maniac.  I am fine with popcorn movies (see: Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and I liked this for about the first half (especially the action on the tallest building in the world), but then it started feeling bloated to me.  A too long car chase, a scene in a parking garage…  Despite some fine action scenes, I lost interest.  The crowd I was with seemed to like it, though (applause).

YOUNG ADULT.  Mavis (Charlize Theron) is a former prom queen (and mean girl) who has had some success in writing a series of novels for teenage girls.  But now she is down on her luck and drinking too much.  When she gets a announcement that her former boyfriend has had a baby, she decides to go back to her small hometown and win him back.  The fact that he is happily married doesn’t even give her pause.  Before she connects with the boyfriend, she meets a former classmate (Patton Oswalt), who had a locker next to hers.  He remembers her, but she doesn’t remember him.  Until she remembers he was the infamous victim of a hate crime that has left him disabled and bitter.  Knowing he doesn’t have a chance in hell of impressing her, he doesn’t have any trouble telling her how delusional she is.  I think he knows her better than she knows herself, but nothing he says stops Mavis.  Because this movie is by the director and writer of Juno, I think there is a tendancy for people to think this is a funny movie.  Yes, there are a few funny lines, but personally I don’t think nasty alcoholics are all that amusing.  Although well-made and especially well-acted, I wouldn’t call it entertaining.  Movies about really dislikeable people who do really appalling things just aren’t my thing.

September 2011 Movie Reviews

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)