Fine but restrained film about a woman in Ireland who became pregnant out of wedlock in the 1950's and was forced to move to a home for unwed mothers and give up her baby for adoption. A BBC journalist, hears about her story and decides to do a series on her search for her child. In the process, he uncovers a rat's nest of dark secrets about the homes, including the fact that maybe babies died in their care and may have been buried without proper documentation. Yet, does Philomena still believe in the church? How can she?
Compelling but sometimes stodgy take on the Abscam scandal. Irving Rosenfield is a con-man, art dealer, hustler who comes into the orbit of an aggressive FBI agent, Richie DiMaso, who is convinced can and should snag corrupt politicians by having a fake Arab Sheikh offer them money for favors, connected to a casino to open in Atlantic City. Carmine Polito is the earnest but corrupt-- yes, there is such a thing-- New Jersey mayor who gets snagged in the process, causing Rosenfield a crisis of confidence. Rosenfield's partner is Sydney Prosser, and it is soon not clear to them or us who is conning who. In real life, the courts convicted several of the politicians but but with a lot of ambivalence about the methods used and this approach was not repeated. But American Hustle is really about deception and the confusion between real attachments and the art of using. This is a fine film, though it sputters along occasionally, an can be confusing at times, because the real life issues were confusing, and everyone involved, from Rosenfield to the police to the politicians to the FBI were tarnished by the experience.
Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner, Bradley Cooper, Louis C. K.
Ron Woodroof is an electrician by day and a good ole boy at night, riding bars, having extraordinary success with women, snorting coke, betting on bull-riders at the rodeo. When he becomes ill, he sloughs it off until, after he is accidentally shocked, doctors discover that he has HIV-- AIDS. He is outraged, of course, insisting he is not gay, while the doctors insist he has about 30 days to live. He tries to get into an experimental treatment program, is refused, and discovers he can acquire the drug AZT illicitly through various means. He hears about buyers clubs, organizations dedicated to acquiring experimental, unproven remedies for AIDS symptoms for people essentially without hope. Eventually, he becomes extremely knowledgeable about AIDS and travels around the world to buy cheap, unproven drugs for desperate AIDS victims who have nothing to lose-- and a lot of money to spend. The film downplays Woodroof's profit motive, as he did, and completely ignores the possibility the DEA is concerned that unscrupulous people may try to take advantage of people with AIDS by promising results that are unjustified by science-- which, in fact, happened with AIDS and happens all the time with incurable diseases. We are given to understand that Woodroof became so empathetic to Rayon and other victims of AIDS that he embarked on a selfless campaign to save lives-- including his own. Jennifer Garner is mysteriously cast-- she is no where near the class of the other actors. Perhaps related to the fact that her character has no corresponding real life model: she's made up out of whole cloth to give the film a romantic subplot.
Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto
Astute, warm interpretation of Louisa May Alcott's classic children's novel-- though here, it doesn't look like a children's story. Four daughters of an unsuccessful teacher, preacher, medic, struggle amid poverty to define themselves and root out their future lives. Meg is the family beauty and wants nothing more than to marry and have her own family; Jo wants to be a writer, likes horsing around with the boy, Laurie, next door, and moves to New York where she meets an educated German who mentors her; Beth contracts scarlet fever, and spends her days in domestic chores; Amy, the most self-interested of the four, is a budding artist who goes to Paris with her aunt. The men really have no existence in this melodrama, but Armstrong has found a warmth and richness in the story, expressed in cleverly devised sequences that feel natural and charming, and lovely settings, costumes and lighting. Marred somewhat by Bale's incessant whispering -- method acting, which, remarkably, seems anachronistic.
Winona Ryder, Clare Danes, Kirsten Dunst, Trini Alvarado, Christian Bale, Eric Stoltz
Unusually faithful adaptation of the Dickens classic, but somehow less impressive than the 1951 Alistair Sim version. George C. Scott plays the curmudgeon fairly well, but the rest of the case never quite impresses, except the Ghost of Christmas Present, who performs with wit and panache. A bit too much pathos in Tiny Tim, and actors routinely react to the line they know is coming rather than what the person should know at that moment. Nice sets and costumes, over-powering music that tells you how to feel at every critical moment. Filmed for TV, therefore 4:3 format.
George C. Scott, Frank Finlay, David Warner, Susannah York, Edward Woodward
If not for some wonderful bits by Will Ferrell (as when he unmasks a fake Santa), this is really an offensive, pedestrian take on Christmas spirit with the tired trope of the father who works too hard learning to spend more time with his adorable family. In this case, thanks to Lucy reincarnated as an elf, who creates havoc, acts childish and obnoxious, and is therefore supposed to be adorable. In movie-land, of course, when father quits his job to spend more time with this family, he is rewarded with even more success running his own business. Yet "Elf" is infested with product placements. It follows the convention of the infantile man who inexplicably attracts a gorgeous mate (Jovie), supposedly opening her to spontaneous experiences that enlarge her world. Once again, we are hectored about the "true meaning" of Christmas by a film that ultimately promotes consumerism and narcissism. It's just not that much fun to watch (unlike, say, "Love Actually", which I watched on the same day, and which also promotes a sentimental idea but with wit and inventiveness, and a leavening of sadness). That said, most of the acting performances are pretty good; the film-making is not.
Will Ferrell, Ed Asner, Zooey Deschanel, James Caan, Peter Dinklage, Mary Steenburgen
Misanthropic film about a drunken, corrupt Santa who, together with a dwarf accomplice, uses his job in department stores to scout out the security systems so he can return at night and rob them. Bill Bob Thorton is scabrous as Willie, even as he improbably strikes up a romance with Sue (Lauren Graham) while Marcus, the dwarf, begins to doubt his reliability. Some very funny scenes-- the cops chasing Santa as horrified children watch-- and his relationship with the chubby kid with no friends never becomes maudlin, while eliciting a smidgen of humanity from this fractured creep. Without a doubt, the most vulgar and cynical Christmas movie out there. And one of the most interesting.
Billy Bob Thorton, Lauren Graham, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Bernie Mac
Hannah Arendt is strikingly famous for a rather thin but resonant observation about Adolf Eichmann being "banal"-- that he represented the "banality of evil". This movie acknowledges the proportions-- saving that comment for nearly last-- but expands on Arendt's philosophy and experience rather audaciously: this is the most intelligent film of 2013, though certainly not the best. Part of the problem is that, like many biopics, the film-makers are somewhat in love with their subject, so they front-load the film with scenes that seem to justify her, or, at the least, make her suffering and sacrifice seem exceptional. All writers, philosophers, and artists are criticized, but when someone as controversial as Arendt is shown as a victim of criticism, audiences tend to forget that. Audiences tend to feel that she is being picked on unjustly. Still, Arendt seemed to be defending Eichmann-- which she clearly did not do-- by asserting that Eichmann and persons like him were not the cause of the evil of the Nazi regime, but merely cogs in the machine, a mindless bureaucrat who was, as he claimed, simply following orders. (Astonishingly, we now have evidence that it was never true: Eichmann's diaries show that he was an avid, passionate Jew-hater and Nazi true-believer). Martin Heidegger, who joined the Nazi party and spoke in favor of Hitler as Rector of the University of Freiburg, and where he led the expulsion of Jewish professors, maintained a good relationship with Arendt (they were lovers, once) to the end of his life.
Barbara Sukowa, Axel Milberg, Janet McTeer, Julia Jentsch
Erin Castleton's life kind of sucks. She is dumped by her social activist boyfriend and besieged by an endless stream of undesirables after her mother places an ad for her in the personals column. Meanwhile, plumber Alan Monteiro is having some bad luck of his own: his father has run up gambling debts and a gangster is demanding that he murder a blow-fish at the aquarium where he volunteers part-time while studying to become a marine biologist. It's clear from the start that they are destined to be together, but, in the meantime, we are entertained with a wildly disparate sequence of potential lovers and their shticks, their foibles, stratagems, all of which Erin nicely apprehends. They both fend off push people attracted to them, and they both encounter suitors with potential. The fun is watching how it plays out, and the sometimes caustic insights into human mating rituals. Interesting trivia: at the very end of the story, (spoiler alert) Erin stands up Andre whom she has promised to accompany to Brazil. Test audiences didn't like the bald admission of bad behavior, so they added a scene of him hitting on another passenger in the plane. Does that change the nature of Erin's action? No. But it allows the audience feel better about it. Somewhat appalling, really. 2 demerit points.
Hope Davis, Alan Gelfant, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Callie Thorne
Overbearing special effects ruin the decent story of Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarves attempting to retrieve a magical crown from the treasure house occupied by a dragon. Mainly an epic quest story with various adventures all of which lead to crisis fatigue: they escape every fix by the skin of their teeth to an extent beyond even the most generous benefit of a doubt, particularly when a few forest elves take on seemingly hundreds of orcs. Tiresome and eventually boring, except for a moment when Smaug first awakes in his lair. This is not a story any more: just a series of sensational anecdotes by an old blow-hard. The character of Tauriel, by the way, is made up out of whole cloth to provide the obligatory romantic subplot (she falls for Kili, who is conveniently wounded).
Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt
Overbearing special effects ruin the decent story of Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarves attempting to retrieve a magical crown from the treasure house occupied by a dragon. Mainly an epic quest story with various adventures all of which lead to crisis fatigue: they escape every fix by the skin of their teeth to an extent beyond even the most generous benefit of a doubt, particularly when a few forest elves take on seemingly hundreds of orcs. Tiresome and eventually boring, except for a moment when Smaug first awakes in his lair. This is not a story any more: just a series of sensational anecdotes by an old blow-hard. The character of Tauriel, by the way, is made up out of whole cloth to provide the obligatory romantic subplot (she falls for Kili, who is conveniently wounded).
Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage
Dismal Sci-Fi tale about a mad scientist who thinks he's god who develops a process for making creatures invisible. Every cliche in the book, including the painful, screaming transformations, the ravishing consciousnesses of power, the bad romance, the aggression, the cruelty to animals, the dissenting scientist who is inexplicably tied to the team. Intriguing, pain-staking special effects wasted on pedestrian story, and the ridiculous crisis upon crisis, magical recoveries ending. Why bother with errors of fact or plausibility? The one redeeming quality: the females are strong, decisive, and take matters into their own hands instead of waiting to be rescued.
Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth Shue, Josh Brolin, William Devane, Kim Dickens
Utterly dull installment in "The Hunger Games" franchise, manages the herculean task of making Jennifer Lawrence seem dull and lifeless. The plot is ridiculous, the dialogue is monotonous, and the characters would be flattered to be cardboard cutouts. Dreary and stupid. It's really kind of insulting that they don't even bother to count the number of arrows in Catniss' quiver. Is this a dystopian future or a mishmash of elements of other sci-fi thrillers tossed together without regard for unity, coherence, or artistry?
Jennifer Lawrence, Jena Malone, Woody Harrelson, Josh Hutcherson, Donald Sutherland
Mesmerizing series of intimate close-ups of Adele and Emma (neither of them wearing make-up) revealing Adele's journey into obsessive passion and discovery, erotic desire, rejection and despair, and endurance. Probably the most intimate film I have ever seen, pushing the boundaries of erotic performance to the point where I really did ask myself if it wasn't too much, too explicit-- if real love-making was not, perhaps, meant for the screen, for that is what you get: the slurping, groaning, grunting, slapping urgency of desire, in two extraordinary performances by Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos. (Seydoux has made it known that they were wearing prosthetic vaginas during the oral sex scenes.) Adele discovers boys at first, making some tentative explorations, and then she finds herself erotically attracted to a blue-haired woman she spots on the street. They meet again at a bar, strike up a friendship, then love, move in together, but Adele is young and impulsive and not sure she is ready to nullify her yearnings for men. As the movie persists over it's long running time, we see her teaching, socializing with her colleagues, yearning for more and more intimacy. There is a devastating break, and one of the most convincing performances of broken longing and despair I have seen from a young woman. Powerful performances that do, however, at times have the aimless, vague feel of improvisation (in fact, many scenes were improvised): when Adele is invited to join some colleagues for drinks after dinner, neither she nor the man seem aware of the need to actually arrange a specific time or place. And Emma's comments after making love in Adele's bedroom in her parents house sound trite. And Emma's paintings, which seem to be provoking a frisson of elite interest, appear to be decidedly mediocre. They diminish the power of the film at times, in comparison, say to Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's movies (like "Boy with a Bike") but, as a portrait of young desire, Blue is the Warmest Colour" is almost unparalleled.
Lea Seydoux, Adele Exarchopoulos, Salim Kechiouche, Mona Walravens
What is this obsession mainstream American actresses have with playing naughty women without really playing naughty women? That's the definition of "titillation"-- that teasing "aren't I sexy and daring and wild" posture without actually putting out anything sexy or daring or wild. So Jennifer Aniston plays a stripper who doesn't strip, just as Jason Sudeikis plays a drug dealer who never deals, or smokes drugs. They swear up and down the highway to Mexico but audiences are assured that while they express the dangerous and exciting fringe of social norms, they aren't going to actually do anything really dangerous or exciting. In the end, they are so uncool they even betray a drug lord to charming DEA agents. So we are given to believe that even though the entire plot is driven by their desire to cash in on a big drug smuggling enterprise, they are not really drug dealers: that unpleasant rich guy with the private aquarium is. A few genuinely funny moments-- as when David and Rose try to steal the keys from Don and Edie who think they're after some kinky sex, and when Rose teaches Kenny how to kiss-- but otherwise dreary, predictable, and tiresome. (And by the way-- there was no logic at all to their sudden desire to steal the keys. I still have no idea of what they thought they were going to do. Or why they couldn't leave without Kenny. Or why Why the weird double-standard? Because we like Jennifer and call her by her first name because we know all about her struggles and torments from People Magazine, and Jason Sudeikis is just like his SNL character, and they are both so funny and cute even though Aniston's face looks botoxed to death, and she doesn't have the slightest clue about how to move like a stripper. This movie is safe for white bread audiences and fans of Friends.
Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts, Will Poulter, Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn
What is this obsession mainstream American actresses have with playing naughty women without really playing naughty women? That's the definition of "titillation"-- that teasing "aren't I sexy and daring and wild" posture without actually putting out anything sexy or daring or wild. So Jennifer Aniston plays a stripper who doesn't strip, just as Jason Sudeikis plays a drug dealer who never deals, or smokes drugs. They swear up and down the highway to Mexico but audiences are assured that while they express the dangerous and exciting fringe of social norms, they aren't going to actually do anything really dangerous or exciting. In the end, they are so uncool they even betray a drug lord to charming DEA agents. So we are given to believe that even though the entire plot is driven by their desire to cash in on a big drug smuggling enterprise, they are not really drug dealers: that unpleasant rich guy with the private aquarium is. A few genuinely funny moments-- as when David and Rose try to steal the keys from Don and Edie who think they're after some kinky sex, and when Rose teaches Kenny how to kiss-- but otherwise dreary, predictable, and tiresome. (And by the way-- there was no logic at all to their sudden desire to steal the keys. I still have no idea of what they thought they were going to do. Or why they couldn't leave without Kenny. Or why Why the weird double-standard? Because we like Jennifer and call her by her first name because we know all about her struggles and torments from People Magazine, and Jason Sudeikis is just like his SNL character, and they are both so funny and cute even though Aniston's face looks botoxed to death, and she doesn't have the slightest clue about how to move like a stripper. This movie is safe for white bread audiences and fans of Friends.
What is this obsession mainstream American actresses have with playing naughty women without really playing naughty women? That's the definition of "titillation"-- that teasing "aren't I sexy and daring and wild" posture without actually putting out anything sexy or daring or wild. So Jennifer Aniston plays a stripper who doesn't strip, just as Jason Sudeikis plays a drug dealer who never deals, or smokes drugs. They swear up and down the highway to Mexico but audiences are assured that while they express the dangerous and exciting fringe of social norms, they aren't going to actually do anything really dangerous or exciting. In the end, they are so uncool they even betray a drug lord to charming DEA agents. So we are given to believe that even though the entire plot is driven by their desire to cash in on a big drug smuggling enterprise, they are not really drug dealers: that unpleasant rich guy with the private aquarium is. A few genuinely funny moments-- as when David and Rose try to steal the keys from Don and Edie who think they're after some kinky sex, and when Rose teaches Kenny how to kiss-- but otherwise dreary, predictable, and tiresome. (And by the way-- there was no logic at all to their sudden desire to steal the keys. I still have no idea of what they thought they were going to do. Or why they couldn't leave without Kenny. Or why Why the weird double-standard? Because we like Jennifer and call her by her first name because we know all about her struggles and torments from People Magazine, and Jason Sudeikis is just like his SNL character, and they are both so funny and cute even though Aniston's face looks botoxed to death, and she doesn't have the slightest clue about how to move like a stripper. This movie is safe for white bread audiences and fans of Friends.
Interesting, off-beat film about a lonely Italian American named Buddy who dreams of owning a bar so he can sing for his customers. He buys a derelict house but when he tries to evict the tenants he discovers that the woman is pregnant and broke. When the baby is born, her husband, a drunk, leaves her, and Buddy decides to be kind to her. Meanwhile, his wife and her friends and family oppose his dream and urge him to give up the house and the bar and keep to his day job. This is a writer-director's visionary film, and it has a heart, even if the execution at times is clumsy and stiff.
Kelly MacDonald, Michael Rispoli, Kathryn Narducci, Kevin Conway
Lawrence is a high-ranking functionary and top adviser in the British government, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, about to attend a G8 meeting in Iceland when he meets Gina, a Scot, at a cafe-- there's no place else to sit and she's sitting alone. He joins her and it is immediately clear that he is shy around women, reticent, and diminished as a man, whereas she is direct and challenging. Lawrence eventually summons the courage to invite her to dinner, and then to join him in Iceland, where she is shockingly opinionated about the concerns of the G8, and the determination of most of the foreign ministers to issue a bland, comfort statement instead of really taking on the issues of poverty and inequality. He in turn slowly uncovers more information about her past but can't bring himself to even kiss her goodnight, and is mortified when it appears that he has manipulated her into sharing his hotel room (whereas she seems shocked he didn't expect her to). The trick is to carry this off plausibly and "Girl in the Cafe" does pretty well, primarily because the roles are handled so well by Nighy and MacDonald, and the supporting cast.
Kelly MacDonald, Bill Nighy, Meneka Das, Anton Lessor
Based on the book by Solomon Northup who, living as a free negro in New York in 1840, was tricked into coming to Washington D.C. where he was kidnapped and sold as a slave. Northup quickly realized he had to conceal his education and literacy and pretend to actually be an escaped slave from Virginia named Platt to survive. The image of quaint, colorful plantations, happy-go-lucky slaves, and beautiful, cultured Rhett Butlers and spunky Scarlett O'haras... swept aside by the brutal reality of lashings and lynchings and brutality. Great movie. Fassbender is terrific, magnetic, riveting, as a lunatic, lascivious brute, who stands up to his wife after she viciously attacks a slave he favors. This film has to courage to show the co-opted slaves, a woman, Mistress Shaw, who happily runs a plantation with her white husband, now being served the very institution she has escaped, and a white man forced to pick cotton because he has drunk his fortune away, whom Northup hopes will help him get a message to his family. Beautifully filmed with long, lingering shots that elicit the flow and ebb of daily life on the plantation, its abuses and indignities, the way manners play into the master-slave relationship, as when Epps's wife uses Northup to fetch food supplies. More tellingly, the scenes with William Ford (Cumberbatch) preaching to his slaves compellingly suggest the role of religion in oppressive societies, to convince the victims of oppression that God himself ordains their submission.
Chiwetel Eijiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong'o, Paul Dano
Documentary about the artists, writers, architects, musicians, dancers, and others who lived in the apartments over Carnegie Hall for over 100 years until all were recently evicted to make way for office space. There was a battle and the tenants lost and the shame of it was that the spaces, the studios were wonderful, and the community of artists was extraordinary, including an astonishing array of characters and personalities, from Marilyn Monroe and Paddy Chayevsky and Marlon Brando to Bill Cunningham and Isadora Duncan, and countless others. The fun in this documentary is meeting the exotic residents, including a woman dancer who didn't seem to have any particular apartment-- she kind of squatted in the hallways. And photographer Editta Sherman, who just died several days ago at 100 years old.
Bill Cunningham, John Turturro, Editta Sherman
Controversial and odd drama of Karla Holmoka narrating her story to a psychiatrist charged with assessing her eligibility for parole, from her first meeting with Paul Bernado to his arrest and her negotiation of an extremely controversial plea deal with the crown. Prepon's portrayal is somewhat flat and uninvolved, which might be an interpretation, or lack of talent. It's hard to tell. In real life, Homolka was bizarre, asking detectives if she would be able to retrieve her perfume sample bottles and furniture after the trials, and describing rape and murders as if Paul were leaving his socks on the floor, again. The evidence clearly indicated that Homolka, at the very least, did nothing to stop Bernardo from murdering Mahaffey, French, and Tami Homolka, and may have been an active participant. Certainly a fascinating person, but, in Canada, the idea of doing any kind of serious film about her was politically impossible-- this was made in the U.S. Misha Collins, as Bernardo, doesn't do much better: it would have required a very good actor indeed to convince you that Homolka was wildly in love with him. The film touches on most of the facts of the case, somewhat inaccurately. The names of the victims were changed (Kristen becomes Kaitlyn). And we know that Karla and Tammi's parents were asleep upstairs at the time of her death, but they don't seem to appear at all when the ambulance and police arrive. Doesn't really make much of a point at the end, except to note that Homolka was denied parole because, in the opinion of the psychiatrist, she was remorseless and psychopathic. Yet "Karla" consistently offers her perspective on the abuse and her willingness (or unwillingness) to go along with the rapes and murders.
Laura Prepon, Misha Collins, Patrick Bachau, Sarah Foret
Ron Howard never can resist a good slog of orchestration to drive a point home or tell you how to feel, or some dialogue or narrative that explains the significance of that scene to the audience, but he also keeps things moving briskly, knows how to stage action, and sticks relatively closely to the facts in this dramatization of a year of intense rivalry between Formula One drivers Nikki Lauda and James Hunt. What actually makes "Rush" interesting is the contrast between the self-disciplined, rational Lauda, an Austrian, and Hunt's indulgent playboy lifestyle (he lost his first wife to Richard Burton). Lauda is the more interesting: he calculates risk as precisely as he can and even when the championship is on the line refuses to push his luck (as shown at the pivotal Japanese Grand Prix). In real life, incidentally, Lauda and Hunt were good friends.
Daniel Bruhl, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara
Action-packed dramatization of the disastrous intervention by the U.S. in October 1993: the incident that had a decisive impact on U.S. foreign policy for seven years, and beyond. The U.S. and the U.N. was trying to ship food to starving Somalis but most of the food was being intercepted and traded for weapons by local warlords, including Mohamed Farrah Aidid. After several U.N. soldiers were killed by Aidid, the U.S. sent in U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force commandos to seize two of his top lieutenants in Mogadishu (while Jimmy Carter was actually negotiating with Aidid). Two of the helicopters were shot down and 20 U.S. soldiers were killed in the ensuing actions. Not a trustworthy account: the film was made with the full cooperation of the U.S. military which was allowed to vet the script. A soldier who participated in the raid was excluded, for example, because of a later conviction for child sexual abuse. So, why? Action heavy, and not a moment in which the U.S. soldiers are not heroic, compassionate (towards each other), smart, and determined, and not a moment when the Somalis are not anonymous, interchangeable, disconnected, and savage.
Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Sam Shepherd
Eva and Albert are divorced, middle-aged, sensible people, willing to give each other a chance after meeting at a party. But when Eva realizes that the woman she is giving massages to is Albert's ex-wife, she accepts information and criticisms from her about Albert and the relationship is poisoned. Holofcener observes women with more rawness and honesty than most directors/writers, and her acerbic points about Eva's attempts to manipulate and "improve" Albert are well made. More importantly, she gets at the heart of this relationship: two people finding something wonderful later in life, and struggling, amid expectations and false perceptions, to forge something valuable to both of them.
Catharine Keener, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Toni Colette
Stunning cinematic achievement-- about astronauts working on the Hubble Telescope when a collision or missile strike causes several other satellites to explode creating a deadly cloud of debris that smashes into their path at 50,000 miles per hour. The camera sings, roving, looping, swirling, as Dr. Ryan Stone and Commander Matt Kowalski struggle to stabilize themselves and try to rescue the rest of the crew. The camera lingers meditatively on their predicament, stranded hundreds of miles above the earth, with only a faint hope of rescue, by traveling to the remains of the orbiting space station and taking a Soyuz craft to a Chinese space station and then descending in the Shenzhou spacecraft. Kowalski is a unique character, dedicated and efficient and amusing and stirringly cognizant of their predicament while persuading Stone to do what has to be done. Not without flaws-- one too many cliff-hangers by the end-- but courageous and daring. Cuaron deserves loads of credit for using the silence of space as part of the landscape, though he uses a lot of music, and, more cleverly, dialogue to cover the it. Too bad he didn't also include more respect for physics: at one point, Kowalski, tethered to Stone, continues to drag her away from the space station even though they had come to a stop-- at the end of their tether.
Sandra Bullock, George Clooney
There are only a few things really important to Jon: family, friends, his body, his ride, his pad, and his porn. When he meets the girl of his dreams, Barbara, he is ready for that long-term, faithful relationship-- except, he finds it a bit of a challenge to give up the porn, because sex with a girl is never quite as good as the fantasy. Surprisingly blunt and raw about the sex, the masturbation, the attraction of porn, Don Jon explores that gap between what men think and what women think men think, and what men think women think men think. Which makes this a potentially awful date movie. Barbara is not stereo-type: she knows she's beautiful but she is attracted to Jon and willing to do pretty well whatever he wants-- if he would only give up the porn. Jon goes to church, and confession, and is open about his sins, but just when you think he is beginning to stretch into the kind of man Barbara could be eternally faithful to, he stretches into something else. There is an echo of "Groundhog Day" here-- what really is love-- but with a perverse twist that I did not see coming at first. Surprisingly literate, authentic, and raw, for a "vanity" production (Gordon-Levitt wrote, starred in, and directed it).
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, Glenne Headley, Brie Larson
Extraordinarily clever and witty film about voice actors who provide the solemn voice-overs for film trailers, including, of course, the "iconic" (and clicheish) "in a world in...". Carol's father is one of the tops in the profession but has always discouraged Carol from pursuing a career in the same field-- partly because, "women don't do" those kinds of voice-overs. He encourages her to keep working on accents and to continue dubbing English onto foreign films. But when Carol gets a shot at doing the trailers for reboot of a major sci-fi franchise a la "Hunger Games", dad, Sam Soto, who has been promoting his own male protege, Gustav, gets competitive. Carol's sister, Dani, has her own gripe with Dad, who never listened to her or cared much about her own career or interests. She also responds to the romantic interests of a hotel guest who has aroused Carol's professional interest because of his unique accent. Carol's love interest in Louis, a sound technician, and a rarity: a male romantic lead who is actually likable. The film constantly plays with sound, with voices, with the rhythms and styles of patter and blather-- this film is way smarter and richer than I expected, punchy and brisk, and entertaining.
Lake Bell, Rob Corddry, Alexandra Holden, Fred Melamed, Michaela Watkins, Geena Davis
An extremely strong, compelling first half is followed by a sequence of utterly preposterous developments, character deviations, and shocking developments so silly they almost generate giggles-- does the mother really have that accent? And unflattering comparisons to "Psycho" and "Dexter". Two very young girls are kidnapped on Thanksgiving Day. One of the fathers, dissatisfied with the progress of the police investigation, takes things into his own hands. This part is suspenseful, believable, and heart-rending. And Loki's nasty relationship with his captain is striking and original. But then Villeneuve lets Alex Jones go soft and flaccid, litters the movie with gratuitous false leads and numerous holes (did the police really miss the hole under the car the first time they searched Jones' place for the girls? And why did Loki draw his gun when he went to inform Jones' aunt that he had been found and she doesn't answer the door right away-- he doesn't know she's up to something sinister-- only we, the audience-- does), and goes for spectacular, shocking revelations, and the movie falls apart-- I couldn't wait for it to end. Villeneuve obviously thinks he has something to say about fanaticism and religious belief and the capacity for evil, but he undermines everything with an ending that implies that Dover wasn't quite wrong to do what he did. And [spoiler] he has the gall to leave us with that most conventional of American endings to the thriller: the cheap satisfaction of the reunited family.
Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Viola Davis, Terence Howard, Paul Dano
Extremely archaic, stylized drama about an enlightened British scientist-- almost a Pythonesque character-- who invents a time machine in 1899 (the book was published in 1895)and sends himself into the future to assess the progress of man-- only to find bitter disappointment, and romance. There's a bit of fun there-- a flat screen tv shown in the 1966 segment-- and some stimulating imagination, but the overall effect is stilted and pompous. When George arrives in the far distant future to find contented Eloi frolicking in the sun and enjoying themselves, he immediately draws vast conclusions about their society and begins berating them for lacking initiative. Not a total waste of time but hardly an enduring classic, like "War of the Worlds" or the "The Day the Earth Stood Still".
Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Allan Young, Sebastian Cabot, Whit Bissell
Extremely archaic, stylized drama about an enlightened British scientist-- almost a Pythonesque character-- who invents a time machine in 1899 (the book was published in 1895)and sends himself into the future to assess the progress of man-- only to find bitter disappointment, and romance. There's a bit of fun there-- a flat screen tv shown in the 1966 segment-- and some stimulating imagination, but the overall effect is stilted and pompous. When George arrives in the far distant future to find contented Eloi frolicking in the sun and enjoying themselves, he immediately draws vast conclusions about their society and begins berating them for lacking initiative. Not a total waste of time but hardly an enduring classic, like "War of the Worlds" or the "The Day the Earth Stood Still".
Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Allan Young, Sebastian Cabot
Interesting documentary about an Egon Schiele painting called "Portrait of Wally" which was seized by a Nazi party member in 1936 in Austria from a Jewish collector, Lea Bondi, who then fled Austria. After the war, the family tried to retrieve the painting only to find that it had disappeared. Shortly afterwards, it appeared in an Austrian art museum. Then it disappeared into the collection of Rudolph Leopold. In 1997, his collection was presented in New York by MOMA and Bondi's family successfully "subpoenaed" the painting until a court could determine if it was stolen property. MOMA, which professed neutrality on the issue-- as it should-- was actually actively supporting it's return to Austria, as did almost every other notable museum. But it was clear that Rudolph Leopold knew the painting was stolen when he acquired it. Leopold was dead by then but his wife agreed to settle up by paying over $20 million to the Bondi family; then she insisted on making herself part of the ceremony to show the painting temporarily at the Jewish Heritage Museum in New York. There was something telling in her attempts to associate herself with Schiele's passion for Wally, his mistress, and the love of beauty and truth, all the while acting as if she had behaved decently all along, instead of accusing the Bondi family of philistinism and craven greed.
Lea Bondi
Interesting documentary about an Egon Schiele painting called "Portrait of Wally" which was seized by a Nazi party member in 1936 in Austria from a Jewish collector, Lea Bondi, who then fled Austria. After the war, the family tried to retrieve the painting only to find that it had disappeared. Shortly afterwards, it appeared in an Austrian art museum. Then it disappeared into the collection of Rudolph Leopold. In 1997, his collection was presented in New York by MOMA and Bondi's family successfully "subpoenaed" the painting until a court could determine if it was stolen property. MOMA, which professed neutrality on the issue-- as it should-- was actually actively supporting it's return to Austria, as did almost every other notable museum.
Interesting documentary about an Egon Schiele painting called "Portrait of Wally" which was seized by a Nazi party member in 1936 in Austria from a Jewish collector, Lea Bondi, who then fled Austria. After the war, the family tried to retrieve the painting only to find that it had disappeared. Shortly afterwards, it appeared in an Austrian art museum. Then it disappeared into the collection of Rudolph Leopold. In 1997, his collection was presented in New York by MOMA and Bondi's family successfully "subpoenaed" the painting until a court could determine if it was stolen property. MOMA, which professed neutrality on the issue-- as it should-- was actually actively supporting it's return to Austria, as did almost every other notable museum.
Powerful and important story about Oscar Grant, a black man who was shot and killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit cop in front of dozens of spectators, many of whom were filming the encounter with their cell phones. Fruitvale carefully reconstructs Oscar's last day, showing him interacting with his girlfriend (whom he has recently cheated on), his daughter, Tatania, his mother, who, we see in flashback, has been smartly disapproving of Oscar's activities, and a woman he helps at the supermarket. Oscar is shown as impulsive and angry at times, but also as a caring father and son and a popular friend. The rapport between Jordan and child actor Ariana Neal is extraordinary. There's no dazzling technique here, some hand-held work, but mainly the drama of loss, accentuated by convincing, rich relationships. A beautifully realized, affecting film.
Michael Jordan, Melanie Diaz, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Durand, Ariana Neal
Written by Pegg and Wright. Slightly unconventional and generally amusing story about five men facing mid-life crises who decide to relive an infamous (to them) pub crawl from twenty years earlier... only to discover that blue-blooded robots have taken over the town and are threatening to over-run humanity-- if only humanity would be reasonable about it. Lovely that they decided to have different actors portray the younger selves. Gary is a drunk of no discernible achievements; Andy is a lawyer who is on the wagon and at first refuses to drink; Pete is a car salesman; Steven is starting a relationship with a much younger fitness instructor; Oliver is a successful real-estate sales agent. They agree to go without too much arm-bending only to discover that the fate of the world rests on their ability to assert freedom and spontaneity over restraint, self-control, and achievement. Or not. Somewhat fun, somewhat trite-- why do we have to told over and over again endlessly that getting drunk and chasing women is far preferable to living a sane, responsible life?
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Eddy Marsan, Oliver Freeman, Rosamund Pike
Written by Pegg and Wright. Slightly unconventional and generally amusing story about five men facing mid-life crises who decide to relive an infamous (to them) pub crawl from twenty years earlier... only to discover that blue-blooded robots have taken over the town and are threatening to over-run humanity-- if only humanity would be reasonable about it. Lovely that they decided to have different actors portray the younger selves. Gary is a drunk of no discernible achievements; Andy is a lawyer who is on the wagon and at first refuses to drink; Pete is a car salesman; Steven is starting a relationship with a much younger fitness instructor; Oliver is a successful real-estate sales agent. They agree to go without too much arm-bending only to discover that the fate of the world rests on their ability to assert freedom and spontaneity over restraint, self-control, and achievement. Or not. Somewhat fun, somewhat trite-- why do we have to told over and over again endlessly that getting drunk and chasing women is far preferable to living a sane, responsible life?
Lovely, compelling, meditative documentary of a one-room school in France. Follows students and the male, middle-aged teacher through a session, picking up moments of humour and quiet sadness and conflict and the delicate, proper, but sometimes intimate relationship between teacher and students. There is a young boy who struggles with making letters and doing math, and two older boys who have conflicts, and a there is amusement and camaraderie (the teacher takes everyone tobogganing at one point). But what impresses the viewer the most is the intimacy of the portrait, the expressiveness of gesture and facial expression, and the humanity of teacher and students as they struggle through their curriculum. Unforgettable.
George Lopez
There a lot of similarities to "Say Anything" (smart girl, working-class guy, drinking parties), but the first hour of "The Spectacular Now" is far more convincing, subtle, and intense than anything Cameron Crowe has ever done. And then a terribly misjudged plot twist turns the story into a moral tract. It's not a complete disaster-- you really wish it would fly-- but this movie could have been so much better. Ponsoldt had the intelligence to film an exquisitely tasteful and unusually honest love scene-- why throw it away with a contrived near-tragedy? Worth seeing, if only to see two likable leads, who improvise a fair bit, and a relatively intelligent plot for the first half. Andre Royo and Bob Odenkirk from "The Wire" and "Breaking Bad" respectively make appearances, as Sutter's teacher and employer.
Shailene Woodley, Miles Teller, Brie Larson, Kyle Shandler, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Andre Royo
A really unusual film for Allen-- would you even know it was his if you didn't see the credits? Cate Blanchett is Jasmine whose husband, Hal, has just been busted for fraud for his business dealings. Some reviewers suggest Bernie Madoff as the model, but his downfall doesn't quite unfold like that. In any case, Hal was also cheating on her and had planned to leave her so Jasmine is now broke and single and forced to move in with her sister, Ginger, in San Francisco for a time. She does not cope very well with disaster until she meets a rich, budding politician. Ginger, in the meantime, perhaps influenced by Jasmine, has dumps her earthy boyfriend in favor of a gentler, nicer schmuck. Jasmine's discontent seems to rub off on her, but may be leading her to make the same mistakes. This is an intelligent, subtle, complex film that is too smart to just dump on Wall Street without exploring the complicity we all have with corruption and greed. And Cate Blanchett's performance is utterly without vanity, subtle, and rich.
Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin, Louis C.K., Peter Sarsgaard, Andrew Dice Clay
Wonderful, rich, intelligent documentary on life as a back-up singer, mostly in the 1950's and 60's, on many of the most successful pop songs of the era. Extensive interviews with legendary singers you never heard of, women like Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Claudia Lennear (who was featured by the Stones), and The Waters Family. Most of these women learned their chops in gospel choirs and a lot of them were children of ministers. They often sang lead as well as background, though never credited of course, and they were paid strictly by the session. In one instance, the Crystals were on tour while Phil Spector laid down a completely new track with the backup group and released it, all credited to the Crystals. Loaded with music and live video of performances.
Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Claudia Lennear, Darlene Love
Likable if diffuse "inspired by" account of an Australian aborigine girl group (modeled on the Supremes) which won a contest and got to go to Viet Nam to entertain the troops (we forget that Australia sent some). One of those films that beats expectations but really isn't anything special and wouldn't deserve a second viewing. The music is okay, the dance moves are okay, the story is a bit melodramatic, the characters are likable. It's nice to see realistic body types in this story, as well as leads who are not Hollywood glamorous but still fall in love.
Chris O'Dowd, Jessica Mauboy, Deborah Mailman, Miranda Tapsell, Sheri Sebbens
There is not a scene in the movie that surprises or tickles or inspires: because every shot is shrewdly calculated to provide the audience with exactly what they expect to see: Nixon being sneaky, Johnson being vulgar, Eisenhower being moderate, Kennedy being charming (and too young). We inexplicably skip Carter and Ford. Nixon's significant achievements-- China, the environment-- are ejected in favor or comments about ignoring the race issue. Okay, well the movie is about race, but in that sanctified, antiseptic way that white audiences will find safely reassuring: look how far we have come. But for that line about a white man being able to kill a black man with impunity, made in the 1950's! The scheme is apparent from the first scenes in which Cecil's mother is raped and father murdered by racist cotton plantation owners. Weak performances, very, very poorly directed (Daniels managed to make Cecil Gaine's attendance as a guest at White House gala confusing and tedious), and incredibly badly written. Every dialogue diagrams for the audience exactly what is going on, and arrives with the weight of SIGNIFICANCE. Hugely disappointing.
Forrest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Robin Williams, John Cusak
Directors and Writers co-wrote and directed. 14-year-old Duncan is morose, moody, sullen, and otherwise generally annoying as his mother drags him off to her new boyfriends summer home. Trent tells Duncan he is a 3 out of 10 as a person, just the first of many contrived and improbable unpleasantries unleashed by him; his daughter, Stephanie, is a vacuous prop who exists mainly to disapprove of Duncan, but a neighbor, Susanna, who is older than Duncan, presents the obligatory sympathetic other put-upon adolescent. It gets worse: Duncan, playing Chris Makepeace, meets the manager of a water park, Owen, who is funny and hip and understanding-- and, really, the kind of person who in real life is not who you would embrace as a role model. But he is so amusing in the way characters like him are only in films. He does the Bill Murray part from "Meatballs", except not nearly as well, and without the self-mockery that made Murray's character believable. It all wouldn't be quite so smarmy if the movie-makers didn't give you to believe that Duncan could really suddenly be the center of Owen's empathetic concern, as if he had nothing else going on in his life, and as if he wasn't really the narcissist these characters are in real life. He's got all the time in the world for Duncan, which Trent, of course, does not. The audience is manipulated on that score by seeing Trent accept flirtations from a very unglamorous Amanda Peet as Joan. A squirmy film that seemed awkward and clumsy at times and fundamentally dishonest. Shockingly, two of the more appealing characters were played by the writer-director duo, as likable staff at the water park. In the end, the predictable restoration of "family" is expressed by Owen and the girl he says is worth waiting for, Caitlin.
Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Amanda Peet, Allison Janney, Liam James, Anna-Sophia Robb
Lazy, pedestrian parody of Star Trek with the novel approach of focusing on the stars of the show as they attend conventions with their fans, their annoyances, jealousies, and frustrations, and their reaction when real aliens zap them up to a replica of their star ship and ask them to help in a war against an enemy race. One annoyance is the way they get the original Star Trek wrong: Captain Taggart's tag line is "never give up", which doesn't resonate with Trek's "explore new worlds", and invokes a lame thread of Americana Star Trek had the good taste to avoid. And the most Spock like character's tag line is something about revenge, which just doesn't seem as interesting as something that would be more of a parody Spock's rationalism. Just not really all that funny or fresh and certainly not very daring.
Alan Rickman, Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell, Missi Pyle
Compelling documentary about the five black youths charged and convicted of the Central Park Jogger assault and rape case in 1989. All of them, except one, "confessed" and all of them served time, and were eventually paroled. One of them encountered a prisoner who marveled at the fact that he was serving time for a crime the prisoner knew he hadn't committed-- because he had. Eventually, a DNA match was made and City officials ordered a re-examination of the case. The prosecutor continues to insist that she was right and that the new DNA evidence merely proves that there was at least one additional assailant.
Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, David Dinkens, Kevin Richardson, Angela Black
Superb drama about a kindergarten teacher accused of molesting one of his students, a young girl named Klara. We learn early on that the accusation is false: the drama is about how Lucas' friends, including his best friend Theo (Klara's father), react to the accusations. We see the entire community turn against him, refusing to even sell him groceries, while, increasingly frustrated, Lucas insists on clearing his name.
Mads Mikkelson, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Susse Wold
Loach specializes in sympathetic films about class and struggle and "Angel's Share" is true to form except for an unusual diversion: a caper. Robbie is in trouble with the law, and he's a new father, and he wants to make good-- if only all youthful thugs were so promising-- but his girlfriend's father hates him, and a guy name Clancy, with two thuggish friends, wants revenge after a judge sentences him to a mere 300 hours of community service for a savage beating. But unlike most caper films, "Angel's Share" has a soul, and a devotion to authenticity and rawness that ultimately make the characters more likable and interesting than the Hollywood counterparts. And it's constantly aimed at the relationships that help Robbie along when society itself seems ready to write him off. No compromise: they have real Scottish accents, making them somewhat hard to understand at times, and the violence is explosive and shocking. The caper itself is slight, but that's not what it's about.
Paul Brannigan, Siobhan Reilly, John Henshaw, Gary Maitland
Loach specializes in sympathetic films about class and struggle and "Angel's Share" is true to form except for an unusual diversion: a caper. Robbie is in trouble with the law, and he's a new father, and he wants to make good-- if only all youthful thugs were so promising-- but his girlfriend's father hates him, and a guy name Clancy, with two thuggish friends, wants revenge after a judge sentences him to a mere 300 hours of community service for a savage beating. But unlike most caper films, "Angel's Share" has a soul, and a devotion to authenticity and rawness that ultimately make the characters more likable and interesting than the Hollywood counterparts. And it's constantly aimed at the relationships that help Robbie along when society itself seems ready to write him off. No compromise: they have real Scottish accents, making them somewhat hard to understand at times, and the violence is explosive and shocking. The caper itself is slight, but that's not what it's about.
Written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, an enchanting portrait of a young, confused and confusing dancer in New York, at odds with her boyfriend who wants her to move in, and her girlfriend who wants to move out to Tribeca (leaving Frances unable to afford the rent), struggling in her career as a dancer, and just not very astute about social graces. Gerwig carries the movie as believably quirky, impetuous woman, fresh out of college, not really comfortable with romance-- she calls herself "undateable", and amusingly amused. Baumbach has the grace to surround her with believable, livable friends and acquaintances, and, delightfully, offers parents who behave like real parents, neither oppressive nor condescending or ideal. They wish they could help her more financially but she immediately parries this with "you've already done so much". She impulsively flies to Paris but this is not a lush Hollywood romance: she sleeps a lot and wanders around aimlessly, charging it all to a credit card she just got in the mail. A really interesting film, shot unfussily in black-and-white. It's nostalgic in a way, but not in a dreamy, delusional sense: it's too real and honest to lie to us about what is ahead for Frances, but I really want to see a sequel.
Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Michael Esper, Adam Driver, Patrick Heusinger
Adult in the real sense: a long dialogue between husband and wife mostly about themselves, their relationship, their future, their past, and how infatuation turns into love and then something else. This is the cinematic expression of "how come you stop making new friends around the time you buy your first large piece of furniture?". Really ambles along aimlessly for the first hour, betraying the fact that EThan Hawke and Julie Delpy just aren't that interesting. Not even to each other: it is very striking that neither of them seem particularly interested in the other, what they are thinking, what they want, how they feel. Both of them focus almost exclusively on what each of them gets out of the relationship. A lot of it has the feel of a sophomoric bull session, and even at dinner, with another writer (I kept being surprised that Jesse was a writer). The movie takes on a new life when they have a big fight before checking into a beautiful hotel for a romantic night. Unsentimental, intelligent and unusual. Hawke and Delpy get co-writing credits, but that's not a compliment to anybody.
Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Well, it was better than average, for a summer block-buster. Gerry Lane works for the U.N. and is on his way to the office one morning when some kind of zombie virus breaks out, rapidly infecting millions of people who go mad, start to rot, and aggressively try to bite others, infecting them. Lane has to fly around the world and meet with various colorful people and fight off zombies to find the cure. Predictable, but at least Forster keeps things moving along quickly so you don't see the seams quite as much as some other apocalypse porn features. I don't know if you would even need to say anything about he acting: not really required here. Just the odd homey scene with a tearful wife, and fear. Odd that the hero, in this paranoid porn thriller, works for the U.N. But he is vaguely military, and when we are introduced to a scientist (strike 1) with a British accent (strike 2) who is never shown hugging his wife and children (strike 3), we know he is going to die very soon.
Brad Pitt, Mirielle Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale
Tow boys, Ellis and Neckbone, encounter a strange man in a woods on an island in the river, near a boat they found earlier in a tree. The man, who calls himself Mud, insists he needs the boat, but he's willing to give Neckbone a revolver if the boys help him by bringing him food, and parts for the boat, including a motor. He's wanted by the authorities for something, and he wants to take his girlfriend, Juniper, away on the boat they close in on him. Fathers and sons are central to the story, from remote and disappointed to vengeful and violent, though Nichols has the good sense to avoid the most obvious cliches. Still reads as sophomoric in parts, especially in the relationship between Ellis and Juniper, which is shown as suggestive and romantic: adult women do not make goo-goo eyes to fourteen-year-old boys, Mr. Nichols. They know how to talk down to boys while being just nice enough to get what they want. And they know how to send them away when they sense a boy lingering beyond his utility. But then, poor Reese Witherspoon never does get much to chew on and remains an elusive, unmemorable presence here. Unforgivably contrived and preposterous in the end, but Neckbone is fun to watch.
Matthew McConaughey, Reece Witherspoon, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland, Sam Shepherd, Sarah Paulson
We are obviously meant to believe that Ida is a wonderful, beautiful, classy woman. We are told this by other characters all through the movie, but not once does the movie show us this radiant aura of breathlessly amazing beneficence. What we do see is a woman who seems to be constantly waiting for someone to come admire her, for her modesty, if not anything else. There is a moment during the inevitable wedding scene when a guest, Tilde, told that nothing is going to happen, asks if there will still be a buffet. The audience, when I saw this movie, chuckled: what an insensitive, rude, crass woman! A wedding has just been called off, and she just wants to know if she still gets to eat. Then the woman said, "We just want to have some information about what will be happening". And that nailed the film for me: we just want some information. Instead, "Love is All You Need" supplies the viewer with a cornucopia of cliches, tropes, and worn out concepts. There is not a character in this film that I did not find repulsive, from the doe-eyed Ida, constantly making wounded little doe-eyes at Philip and then feigning shock when he notices her, to her daughter who whines about not getting laid by her fiance before the wedding, to the military son who assaults her father at the rehearsal party (except there is no rehearsal) and we supposed to respect him for standing up for the doe-eyed mom. The worst conceit about this film is the way, in this trope, Ida must be perceived as innocently carrying on while that Phillip guy is so smitten with her that he can't help but pursue her. But the film itself is so clumsy, it doesn't even sell that conceit very well: she so transparently flirts with him that it's awkward and embarrassing to watch her hanging herself out for him to fish. I have come to the conclusion that Susanne Bier is projecting herself into this character. There can be no other explanation for the ridiculous scene where the faithless husband tries to seduce his wife back right in front of his young beautiful mistress. Nor can there be any explanation of why Philip would race down to the water to try to prevent Ida from swimming, nude. It was a bizarre scene. Not only can I not think of why he would do it, I can't even imagine why the writers thought he would do that. Not one interesting scene in the entire movie. The closest: the husband, having been caught having sex with his girlfriend in his own house when Ida comes home early, tries to make her feel sorry for him by claiming that her cancer has been hard on him too.
Pierce Brosnan, Stina Ekblad, Sebastian Jessen, Trina Dyrholm
Beautifully filmed story about a man who can't give love, and a priest who can't believe in God, and how both struggle to find an authentic emotional connection through awareness of naked human need. Exquisitely filmed with rapturous steady-cam shots of fields and the women dancing, cavorting, gazing with wonder at natural beauty. More poetry than narrative, with snatches of dialogue and voice-overs. Weirdly adult in the way complex, mixed emotions present themselves when a conventional Hollywood narrative calls for simplification and distillation. Never without nuance or subtlety or shadings.
Ben Afflect, Rachel McAdams, Olga Kurylenko, Javier Bardem, Tatiana Chiline
Embarrassingly bad performances by everyone in the film, but especially Redford and Sarandon as aging radicals trying to escape the past. Illogical, unbelievable, and often downright silly (Redford, at 75, as the father of an 11-year-old girl, and shacking up with Julie Christie in a remote cottage in the upper Michigan peninsula). Just one of many examples: the reporter, Ben, interviews Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) in prison with FBI agents watching through two-way glass. Was Ben clueless about journalistic ethics? The FBI monitors Jim Grant's brother, watches him go to a hotel, and immediately assumes that a fire alarm is a "diversion"-- an extremely feeble attempt to do "The Bourne Identity"? And why is there not a single mention of a single current news story? How could they ignore the financial crisis, the Iraq War, 9-11, the Patriot Act... and so on and so on? It's not the politics of this thing that is so bad-- though it is-- but the utterly contemptible and cheerless slop that passes for story, dialogue, and acting. Just terrible.
Robert Redford, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Shia Labeouf, Nick Nolte, Brit Marling
Psychological thriller-- and maybe a comedy-- about two sisters. One is a child star, Baby Jane, who sings love songs about her daddy and promotes a doll replica of herself, a spoiled brat, who, nevertheless, ensures that her sister Blanche gets a share of the spoils, if none of the attention. Cut to the future: Blanche is a cripple, living in a wheel chair, wholly dependent on bitter Jane. Blanche herself had the bigger career once Baby Jane's star faded, and she now has the money. Jane looks after her, dependent, and depressed, and craving a return to the stage. Not all is as it seems and it is a credit to the writing that the relationship is more complex than first described. Marred by the rather unbelievable inability of Blanche to get help once she realizes that Jane has become unbalanced-- she can't call out through a window? But otherwise well-written and, though I never liked Bette Davis, she does rather well here in a performance utterly free of vanity, if not self-indulgence.
Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Victor Buono
The first hour and half are kind of fun: Downey can be entertaining and Ben Kingsley was very entertaining. The plot doesn't need to be described: it's as preposterous as they get, illogical, improbable, and trite. But some scenes are witty and funny, especially with the boy, Harley, as when Harley, about to be abandoned by Stark, reminds him that his father abandoned him too. Stark glibly rebuffs him. The proportion of clever scenes involving acting and dialogue in the first half give way to brutal action sequences, fast cuts, very, very loud noises and explosions, and an infinite number of resurrections, and leaves the viewer numbed and bored.
Robert Downey, Ben Kingsley, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Don Cheadle, Stephanie Szostak
The first hour and half are kind of fun: Downey can be entertaining and Ben Kingsley was very entertaining. The plot doesn't need to be described: it's as preposterous as they get, illogical, improbable, and trite. But some scenes are witty and funny, especially with the boy, Harley, as when Harley, about to be abandoned by Stark, reminds him that his father abandoned him too. Stark glibly rebuffs him. The proportion of clever scenes involving acting and dialogue in the first half give way to brutal action sequences, fast cuts, very, very loud noises and explosions, and an infinite number of resurrections, and leaves the viewer numbed and bored.
Put two of the least convincing actors of their generation: Tobey McGuire and Leonardo DiCaprio-- on screen for most of a single movie and you have a very, very boring movie. Even Carey Mulligan-- who seems wasted, and not particularly interested-- can't inject any kind of dynamism into this lifeless pastiche of fashion and beer ads. Nick Carraway lives in a modest house that somehow manages to be right next door to a fabulous mansion, inhabited by the Great Gatsby. Why is he great? Nick can't really explain, ever, other than the implied reason that he thinks Gatsby is great because Gatsby thinks Nick is great. Nick talks about mysteries about Gatsby as if they were extremely compelling and fascinating, in the same way he introduces Daisy as if she were the most beautiful, sexual exciting woman you have ever seen. But both fall flat, at least partly because we are told how to react rather than shown why we should. Gatsby was never anything more than a 2-bit bootlegger and Carraway never makes much of a case for why we should think much more of him. The melodramatic accident at the end, which provides a convenient escape from the conundrum -- is so improbably that nothing that happens afterwards can escape being diminished in significance. Nor can the viewer escape the sense that Fitzgerald finds their lives shallow and trivial and meaningless but can't resist lavishing his shallow and trivial characters with the most amazing fashions and jewelry and wealth.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey McGuire, Carey Mulligan, Elizabeth Debicki, Joel Edgerton
Sad story about an elderly lady, Carrie Watts, living with her son and daughter-in-law in a small apartment in Houston who desires nothing more than to see her childhood home again, at least once, before she dies. Her daughter-in-law, Jessie Mae, is quickly irritated with Carrie's hymn-singing and bustling about, but genuinely concerned about her heart, and even more concerned about getting the pension check. One day, Carrie sets out on her own to go to Bountiful, by bus. She discovers that the bus and trains don't even stop at Bountiful anymore, but is undeterred. Her son and his wife borrow a car and set out after her, and a sympathetic sheriff detains her at the last bus station before her town, then kindly offers to drive her the last 12 miles. This beautifully written story brings to life several secondary characters with sensitivity and insight. The sheriff, the bus station manager, a woman on the bus-- all are fully realized, breathing characters, who behave plausibly and evocatively.
Geraldine Page, John Heard, Carlin Glynn, Rebecca De Mornay
Written by the intellectual giants who brought us "Transformers", this take on the Star Trek franchise may have the dumbest script ever, and features an Oprahfied Spock who cries, argues, bickers with his girl-friend, and has devolved into an utterly unremarkable character. McCoy and Scotty are a lazy self-parodies. Kirk is a spoiled punk who displays not one of the qualities you might think mark a man for leadership and command positions. The writers also seem to buy that an entire culture can be destroyed, if need be, so that Kirk can rescue his buddy Spock from a volcano, where he is delivering a bomb to prevent the volcano from destroying an alien civilization. They don't have timers in 2259? They routinely risk command level personnel to deliver packages? They flaunt federation rules but we're all supposed to go, attaboy, you lovable rogue you? Benedict Cumberbatch, as Khan, is the only actor in this flippant special-effects extravaganza who can act.
Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana
Quirky, leisurely portrait of a motorcycle cop who aspires to become a detective, and likes to ruminate on life and justice and meaning-- not unlike Perry Smith in "In Cold Blood". Blake is effective as John Wintergreen, who finds himself standing apart from his fellow officers when they try to plan evidence on a hippy, or beat up members of a commune. Astute enough to figure out a suicide is actually a murder, but unwilling to make the political compromises to advance his own cause. The ending is a rather blatant rip of "Easy Rider", with a curious long, long shot pulling away from a body on the road in Monument Valley, Arizona. Well acted, well written, dark, and not altogether satisfying. Certainly, much stronger artistically than "Easy Rider". In real life, Robert Blake claimed to be abused and exploited as a child actor, and had serious problems with substance abuse and family relationships.
Robert Blake, Billy Green Bush, Mitch Ryan
Malick's first film, inspired by the story of Charles Starkweather and his 13- year-old girl friend, Caril-Ann Fugate (some reports say 15-years-old) and their chaotic murder spree across Nebraska and Wyoming. Kit and Holly are shockingly blase about the murders of Holly's father and various other people who stood between Charles and his girlfriend, or escape, and explore the world like naive children. He dresses and looks like James Dean, and she wants to be wanted. Beautifully filmed and acted-- great performances from everyone--, languorous, subtle, and really quite shocking, precisely because it strikes out on its own path, following the jarring reality of Starkweather's story. In some ways, far more disturbing than a later, bloodier incarnation, Natural Born Killers, because Malick doesn't allow any melodrama: like the real Charles Starkweather, Kit is dispassionate and unemotional about his crimes, a bit of a braggart, a child, a killer, and even a bit charming when he realizes he's made an impression.
Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri, John Carter
The movie that stole from everyone. Highly reminiscent of "Moon"-- though not as good, but also of "Serenity", "Alien", "Space Odyssey", and numerous other sci-fi movies, about a human in charge of maintaining killer drones on Earth after a war has left it in ruins, even though the earthlings won. Jack's memory has been erased but he has recurring dreams about a woman he meets on top of the Empire State Building. When he sees the same woman in a crashed spaceship's pod, he begins to uncover shocking facts about the war and the cause of the earth's ruin, and must, of course, save the planets and its inhabitants from an evil entity. Stylish and aesthetically pleasing but dramatically dull and predictable. And Morgan Freeman, of course, plays the wizened old black dude. In real life, Olga Kurylenko is about 7 cm taller than Cruise.
Olga Kurylenko, Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough
Intriguing story about a contractor/stripper named Mike who recruits young Adam to join the club but becomes attracted to his serious, thoughtful sister, Brooke. Adam soon learns that there's money to be made, especially on the side, selling ecstasy, while Mike is carefully saving his money to get into something more serious and long-term. Brooke is the real story here: she is curious and charming but intelligent and perceptive and Mike knows she is worth more than the casual tarts he dances for and has transient relationships with. But she sees him as a shallow, aimless gigolo. There is the odd contrived sequence-- Brooke adjusts much too quickly to his redemptive acts-- but this is an intelligent, thoughtful film. Allegedly based partly on Tatum's experiences as an exotic dancer before he succeeded in film.
Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum, Olivia Munn, Alex Pettyfer, Cody Horn
Aside from a few scenes that seem deliberately mawkish or stilted, a well-made production about the life of Jackie Robinson, the first black player to break the colour barrier in professional baseball. The film follows Robinson from his recruitment by Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers, his test run in Montreal, and his introduction to the major leagues, to the derision and catcalls of many sports fans. Relatively honest -- by biopic standards-- (though there are questions about the famous Pee Wee Reese moment) and restrained, though the overbearing music hurts its cause especially at the penultimate moment. Funniest moment: when a player asks Robinson why he doesn't shower with the rest of the team. Weakest moments: Jackie's wife, Rachel, giving him advice and encouragement (the movie was authorized by Rachel Robinson).
Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Behaire, Lucas Black, Christopher Meloni, Alan Tudyk
Badly executed story about a dysfunctional couple whose son explodes in rage one day and kills 17 classmates and teachers and himself at college. One scene: Billy finally returns to work to find colleagues staring and whispering about him, and explodes himself, and gets fired. The scene is clumsy, predictable, and boring. Firstly, the colleagues stare and whisper so graphically it is almost comically. Secondly, the scene is so schematic it is actually dull. Wouldn't some co-workers have made an attempt at normalcy? Did Billy really not expect anyone to see him as a bit of curiosity? The film also leaves out any interactions with the police following the initial news of the shootings, and media is presented as a vague, blobby presence external to the action, vaguely intrusive, vaguely interested, vaguely even on the horizon, though the only times Billy and Kate ever see a TV set, it's showing pictures or video of their son, Sammy. I was disappointed at the lack of detail, the lack of insight, the way the film discovers nothing, and doesn't even believably diagram the stress a couple in this situation would feel.
Maria Bello, Michael Sheen, Meatloaf, Kyle Gallner
Scintillating documentary featuring interviews with five leaders of Shin Bet, Israel's secret service, on terrorism, security, and peace. The interviewees are remarkably candid and articulate and thoughtful. And the discussion of terrorism, war, and peace extremely provocative: what, they ask, has Israel really gained by assassinating Palestinian leaders, or imans, and by infiltrating terrorist organizations? All of them seem to drive to the conclusion that the only long-term solution is a Palestinian state, and that the settlements in disputed areas are a political disaster. It's more than just personal stories. The discussion sometimes rises to the level of moral philosophy deeply connected to real events, real individuals, always tethered to specific stories of terrorism and counter-terrorism.
Ami Ayalon, Ami Dichter, Yuval Diskin, Carmi Gillon, Yaakov Peri, Avraham Shalom
Slow moving and really somewhat boring story of one of FDR's mistresses and a particular weekend during which King George VI and Queen Elizabeth came to visit, to lobby for American support in the war, and establish personal relationships with FDR and his staff. Daisy is FDR's distant cousin and is "summoned" to Hyde Park to help FDR relax. But more is expected from her and she willingly becomes his mistress, believing Eleanor to be uninterested in Franklin, and unaware of other mistresses in orbit at the time. Really generally dull, oddly paced, George and Elizabeth are the most entertaining things in the movie. Daisy's letters and journals were discovered shortly after her death quite recently, so it's all a bit of a revelation, but that doesn't mean the film gives you any truth about FDR, Eleanor, or Hyde Park, for that matter.
Laura Linnea, Bill Murray, Samuel West, Olivia Colman
Dimitry Vasyukov directed a tv documentary on which "Happy People" is based. Herzog, always fascinated by tales of survival in the wilds, was entranced and had it re-edited and did the voice-over to product this elegant, exquisitely beautiful documentary on life in the wilderness of Siberia, an area larger than the continental U.S. We follow trappers as they set out in the spring to repair their cabins and traps, carve skis from scratch from trees, train their dogs, and stalk sable and fish. Herzog is a bit too entranced with the primitive beauty and simplicity of their lives-- the potential for disaster and great physical suffering is obvious, and the loneliness of the trappers' families is passed over-- but he is too charming a presence to not be enthralled with this bucolic world.
Lovely, quiet, unpretentious documentary about five people all trying to make it in farming, two couples in Ontario near Neustadt, and a single man in Saskatchewan. Beautifully filmed and patient, follows them through spring, summer, and fall, through the ups and downs and frustrations, and moments of downright grief as when Tarrah discovers that her lambs might have a contagious disease, or when Leslie and her husband survey the flooded fields after a hard rain. Reminded me at times of "The Farmer Takes a Wife", though not as ambitious.
Is this really by the same director who gave us, ages ago, "The Hanging Garden"? Stella and Dot are a lesbian couple living together in the U.S. somewhere when Dot's daughter decides it's time for a nursing home. Stella and Dot flee to Canada where they figure they can be married, making Stella Dot's legal guardian. One assumes the story intended Dot to be -- well, dotty-- but she isn't in this telling of the story. They pick up a hitchhiker along the way who appears to be Fitzgerald's avatar, a completely gratuitous gay sex object, stripping for the elderly women for some incomprehensible reason, skinny dipping, sleeping naked in the back of the pickup, and inviting them to his home where Fitzgerald recycles part of the plot of "The Hanging Garden". Really, really bad on every level, from the K.D. Lang music-- and other mediocre Canadian "hits"-- to the extremely poor direction and staging.
Olympia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker, Ryan Doucette
Delicate, subtle, and courageous: they actually play substantial segments of the late Beethoven String Quartets. Crisis for a well-known New York based quartet when cellist Peter Mitchell develops Parkinson's and announces he will have to retire. Turns out second violin Robert wants to be first violin and this is the moment he demands his dues. First violinist Daniel has fallen in love with Robert and Juliette's daughter, Alexandra, much to their disapproval. There are weak moments, as when the quartet breaks off a rehearsal like actors doing what is required for the narrative rather than devoted musicians-- but there is a core of sincerity here, an honest attempt to grapple with issues of aging and ego and love-- there is a raw, scintillating moment when Robert and Juliette acknowledge that Juliette never really loved Robert-- she married him because they were tied professionally- but they are pulled back together by their love of music. One wishes for Mike Leigh occasionally, but this is not a cheap, sentimental exercise in mutual self-admiration.
Catharine Keener, Phillip Seymour-Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Mark Ivanir, Imogen Poots
Brilliant, cutting, abrasive account of two pairs: a couple, Kate and Alex, who buy furniture from children of people who recently died and resell it at a considerable profit, and two sisters, Rebecca and Mary, who care for a cranky grandmother, Andra, whose apartment is coveted by Kate and Alex, who live next door. It is never explained why or how Kate and Alex will get the apartment: it is assumed by everyone that they are waiting for Andra to die, and this sets the tone for all the characters who are generally selfish and rude and unkind, particularly at a dinner party they throw for Andra and her grand-daughters. Kate thinks she's not mean-- she hands out large bills to homeless people and feels guilty about taking advantage of the people selling them their old furniture. And Rebecca may actually be the only decent person in the story. But the conversations are delightfully blunt and perceptive and revealing and it's astonishing to see people claw at each other in a way that seem both shocking and utterly familiar.
Catharine Keener, Oliver Platt, Amanda Peet, Rebecca Hall, Ann Guilbert
This movie is a poster child for why the subject of a film should not control it's production. It is a "true" story in the sense that the subject, Maria Belon, wrote her own account of the tsunami and her remarkable survival of it, and she oversaw the production of the film, consulting with the director and writer at every step, but it is surprisingly disingenuous and dishonest in it's selective depiction of her family's experiences. It seems rigged to emphasize her personal suffering, and her family's desperate love for each other and dedication to finding each other after the disaster. That doesn't mean it gives the viewer any kind of sense of what the disaster was like. Native Thais are never more than background color or effects: the world revolves around Maria, and every action seems calculated to emphasize either her physical agonies or how awful it would be for her family if she died. And even bigger problem: really poorly directed and acted, other than the impressive use of miniatures and cgi to simulate the tsunami. I have never seen Watts give as bad a performance as she does here.
Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Geraldine Chaplin
A fundamentally dishonest movie that sticks mostly to the facts, about Christian VII, the mad king of Denmark in the mid 18th century, who married Caroline Matilda, sister of George III of England (and daughter of George II), was deposed, and eventually marginalized, and remains the definitive story of Danish history, the one every Danish school child knows about. Caroline, neglected and lonely, took up an affair with Christian's doctor, Johann Struensee, who eventually ran the kingdom, for about a year, and implemented a series of enlightened progressive measures (he freed the serfs and ended censorship, among other things). Lavishly filmed, and Alicia Vikander is stunningly beautiful (and can act), and all very historical and monumental and all that, but gradually the melodrama and the narcissism becomes more and more pronounced and its all about how Caroline felt and poor sad Struensee and don't you just hate that constipated-looking Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. It loses interest in the most interesting part of all, the mechanism by which power shifts, the moves being made, the deals that are cut. We are told that Caroline's son would seize power later and re-enact most of Struensee's reforms. He did, but a few years later he turned reactionary and re-instituted censorship and repression.
Alicia Vikander, Mads Mikkelsen, Mikkel Boe Folsgaard, Trine Dyrholm
A fundamentally dishonest movie that sticks mostly to the facts, about Christian VII, the mad king of Denmark in the mid 18th century, who married Caroline Matilda, sister of George III of England (and daughter of George II), was deposed, and eventually marginalized, and remains the definitive story of Danish history, the one every Danish school child knows about. Caroline, neglected and lonely, took up an affair with Christian's doctor, Johann Struensee, who eventually ran the kingdom, for about a year, and implemented a series of enlightened progressive measures (he freed the serfs and ended censorship, among other things). Lavishly filmed, and Alicia Vikander is stunningly beautiful (and can act), and all very historical and monumental and all that, but gradually the melodrama and the narcissism becomes more and more pronounced and its all about how Caroline felt and poor sad Struensee and don't you just hate that constipated-looking Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. It loses interest in the most interesting part of all, the mechanism by which power shifts, the moves being made, the deals that are cut. We are told that Caroline's son would seize power later and re-enact most of Struensee's reforms. He did, but a few years later he turned reactionary and re-instituted censorship and repression.
Alicia Vikander, Mads Mikkelsen
Writer and director swapped roles and share credits. Strong drama about various people living under or about Israeli occupation and struggling to earn a living, pay bills, and provide medical care for an ailing mother. In some cases, these are good people forced to do bad things out of economic necessity, but there are also people who are loyal to a code or system that doesn't necessarily provide for humane outcomes. Things are set in motion when Omar's uncle refuses to pay "protection" money one week and shoots the thug coming to collect it. The family is suddenly draw into a serious quandary and may be forced to pay thousands in compensation-- money they don't have. Malek's mother is serious ill and has been released from the hospital because she can't pay for treatment. Malek steers Omar to a package of drugs left by Binj, who was killed in a police double-cross. Dando, an Israeli cop, is furious at the Arabs who murdered his brother who was in the army. All of them eventually crash into each others' orbits with tragic results. Similar in some ways to "Crash" but much better and more authentic, and, actually, more clever in the way that various story lines intersect and influence each other.
Fouad Habash, Nisrine Rihan, Ibrahim Frege, Scandar Copti, Ranin Karim
Writer and director swapped roles and share credits. Strong drama about various people living under or about Israeli occupation and struggling to earn a living, pay bills, and provide medical care for an ailing mother. In some cases, these are good people forced to do bad things out of economic necessity, but there are also people who are loyal to a code or system that doesn't necessarily provide for humane outcomes. Things are set in motion when Omar's uncle refuses to pay "protection" money one week and shoots the thug coming to collect it. The family is suddenly draw into a serious quandary and may be forced to pay thousands in compensation-- money they don't have. Malek's mother is serious ill and has been released from the hospital because she can't pay for treatment. Malek steers Omar to a package of drugs left by Binj, who was killed in a police double-cross. Dando, an Israeli cop, is furious at the Arabs who murdered his brother who was in the army. All of them eventually crash into each others' orbits with tragic results. Similar in some ways to "Crash" but much better and more authentic, and, actually, more clever in the way that various story lines intersect and influence each other.
Fouad Habash, Nisrine Rihan, Ibrahim Frege, Scandar Copti
Writer and director swapped roles and share credits. Strong drama about various people living under or about Israeli occupation and struggling to earn a living, pay bills, and provide medical care for an ailing mother. In some cases, these are good people forced to do bad things out of economic necessity, but there are also people who are loyal to a code or system that doesn't necessarily provide for humane outcomes. Things are set in motion when Omar's uncle refuses to pay "protection" money one week and shoots the thug coming to collect it. The family is suddenly draw into a serious quandary and may be forced to pay thousands in compensation-- money they don't have. Malek's mother is serious ill and has been released from the hospital because she can't pay for treatment. Malek steers Omar to a package of drugs left by Binj, who was killed in a police double-cross. Dando, an Israeli cop, is furious at the Arabs who murdered his brother who was in the army. All of them eventually crash into each others' orbits with tragic results. Similar in some ways to "Crash" but much better and more authentic, and, actually, more clever in the way that various story lines intersect and influence each other.
Fouad Habash, Nisrine Rihan, Ibrahim Frege, Scandar Copti
Alternately compelling and ridiculous, about a young widow, Cary, living in a picturesque small Connecticut town, who falls for her very young gardener, much to the consternation of her society peers and children. There are scintillating scenes of hypocrisy and gossip as her neighbors go wild with innuendo and salacious speculation, including a theory that their relationship started before her husband was dead. But then cue the melodrama, the fascist nurse, the wise, tolerant, progressive doctor, the unbelievable timing of an accident. But then cue the compelling, edgy scenes of her own selfish children doing what they can to sabotage their own mother's happiness. Standard horrible studio cinematography and sets, but it still works. Cary learns to disregard the approval and disapproval of society and follow her heart, long before the 60's made a public ethos of it, long before "Love Story", and "Goodbye Columbus". The son, after demanding that his mother give up her romance, brings him a special Christmas gift: a TV, upon which she can watch the parade of life go by without leaving her armchair. You couldn't write a more powerful condemnation if you tried, and I'm not sure the writer knew just how poignant that sequence would be.
Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Virginia Grey, Hayden Rorke
Tsotsi is a young gang-leader in Johannesburg, South Africa. In a dramatic opening sequence we see him casually murder a black businessman after his gang surrounds him and removes his wallet. But Tsotsi's life changes after he carjacks a Mercedes only to find a baby in the back. He impulsively takes it home, recruiting a neighboring single mom to help care for it. He begins to re-examine his life, the violence he engages in, and his relationship with his gang. He comes to terms with his tragic childhood, his mother dying of AIDS, and a brutal and indifferent father. If somewhat schematic at times, there is a freshness in the South African settings, the unusual secondary characters, (especially an angelic Terry Pheto as Mariam, the single mom who helps him) and the cinematography. A story of redemption that avoids the worst cliches and is populated with multi-dimensional characters. From a story by Athol Fugard.
Nambitha Mpumlwana, Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto
Based on a play by Ronald Harwood, a quaint, lethargic, rather pedestrian portrait of a group of retired musicians living at a rather lavish retirement home in England who know someone who has a barn and want to put on a musical. Maggie Smith is the diva, Jean, who-- for unknown reasons or logic-- moves into the home just in time to replace the best known performer and save the home. It's not very clear why any of the principles, except Cissy, perhaps, are even in a retirement home. They are all able and healthy and alert and randy. At one point it is suggested that at least one of them is broke. More appallingly, the quartet of the title are given a long, standing ovation when they appear on stage at the end, before performing. Why? Are they celebrities? Or is Hoffman applauding himself, for being a celebrity? The relationship between Jean and Reginald is ridiculously undeveloped and trite. The adoration of opera seems self-serving in the context of this self-congratulatory film. Worse yet-- it's all pretty boring. The credits reveal that many of the bit players were aging musicians but since the film suger-coats any real evidence of age, I don't get the point.
Maggie Smith, Tom Courtney, Billy Connelly, Pauline Collins, Michael Gambon
Boris is the ultimate cynic. A former physics professor (he claims he was close to winning a Nobel Prize) he has given up his life and marriage and moved to a small apartment downtown and earns a meager living teaching chess-- rudely-- to young children. One day, a runaway, Melody, begs him for money, and he takes her in. It appears to be a conceit of Allen's that she would fall for him-- rather than him hitting on her-- and that he would refuse at first. But eventually they marry and he teaches her about life. Inevitably, she begins to see other angles, and aspires for more experiences than he can offer. When her Southern Baptist parents arrive, separately, complications ensue, and lot of the comedy as they react to New York culture. There is one marvelous scene wherein Melody's father makes a shocking disclosure to a man he meets at the bar, which lifted the movie. Otherwise, really a rehash of "Manhattan" with that unfortunate vanity trope of the young girl lusting for withered old man. It's a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack. Not that it couldn't happen-- but Allen doesn't succeed in making it very believable here. Some scenes feel lazy but this is still a lot more fun that most Hollywood pap.
Larry David, Rachel Evan Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begly Jr.
Emily Taylor has murdered her husband Martin. The mystery in the first half of "Side Effects" is, did she do it because she was on a new psychotropic drug, or because she was angry at him? Was she sleep-walking. As portrayed by Rooney Mara, this mystery intrigues. Her performance-- flat, but nuanced and suggestive-- draws you into the puzzle of psychology and the raft of drugs that claim to cure our emotional ills, and the role of a psychologist in prescribing and treating people of whom they may actually know very little. And then the Hollywood production takes over and we are in a thriller that requires twist after twist-- because Hollywood has exhausted every plausible twist there is-- until the story becomes flatly ridiculous and we don't even really care any more. Good performances-- even by Jude Law, at first-- are rather wasted. Zeta-Jones is banal as Taylor's first psychiatrist, as is the plot by the time we find out more about her role in the tragedy. Promising story that dies quickly.
Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Catharine Zeta-Jones, Polly Draper, Channing Tatum
Riveting documentary about a woman named Joyce McKinney, a former Miss Wyoming, who stalked and kidnapped a Mormon missionary named Kirk Anderson in the early 1980's. She claims it was the church that kidnapped and brainwashed him and she was trying to get him to realize that she was the only woman for him and that he ought to accept her love and marry her. But the story keeps getting better and better as reporters uncover shocking information about Joyce's past, and Joyce herself offers strange explanations. Kirk wisely refused to be interviewed, so it's hard to assess his role, but, in court, he admitted that he was at least a partly willing accomplice to the sex weekend in Devon. Strange, strange, strange story. Worthwhile if only for the salacious discussion of the Mormon's magical underwear.
Kirk Anderson, Joyce McKinney
Riveting documentary about a woman named Joyce McKinney, a former Miss Wyoming, who stalked and kidnapped a Mormon missionary named Kirk Anderson in the early 1980's. She claims it was the church that kidnapped and brainwashed him and she was trying to get him to realize that she was the only woman for him and that he ought to accept her love and marry her. But the story keeps getting better and better as reporters uncover shocking information about Joyce's past, and Joyce herself offers strange explanations. Kirk wisely refused to be interviewed, so it's hard to assess his role, but, in court, he admitted that he was at least a partly willing accomplice to the sex weekend in Devon. Strange, strange, strange story. Worthwhile if only for the salacious discussion of the Mormon's magical underwear.
Superb, elegant, visceral dramatization of the activities of the Camorra crime syndicate in Naples in the Scampia quarter (where director Garrone lived for two months). Beautifully acted and filmed. Follows five tales of individuals caught in the cross-fire of organized gangs fighting for territory and the spoils of corruption. Toto (wonderful child actor Salvatore Abruzzese) delivers groceries but longs to move into gang life. The gangs do not condescend to children they can use. He is a beautiful boy who plucks his eyebrows but is eventually forced to choose his loyalties. Marco and Sweet Pea are two remarkable and ridiculously naive teenagers, in love, who steal guns from one of the gangs and eventually become a serious nuisance to them. They dramatize scenes from "Scarface"-- thus mocking the Hollywood glamorization of criminal gangs. Ciro delivers money to the families of incarcerated gang members but eventually decides to join their rivals. Pasquale is a tailor who sells his services to a Chinese sweatshop competing with the "owned" Italian sweatshops, with grave consequences. And Roberto is a decent college graduate whose father gets a job with Franco, in waste disposal. Franco happily accepts toxic wastes from cost-cutting companies and disposes it illegally in quarries and on the side of the road. All the stories are based on rigorously documented research by Saviano, who now lives under permanent police protection. Brilliant film. Robbed of an Oscar by
Salvatore Abruzzese, Simone Sacchettino, Gianfelice Imparato, Salvatore Cantalupo, Marco Macor
Limp translation of the iconic book by Jack Kerouac about a group of beatniks seeking drugs and greater meaning in life and sex while traveling across the U.S. Dean Moriarty is the charismatic center of this chaotic, amorphous social set, while Sal Paradise is the writer, the stand-in for Kerouac, observing all, and not, in this film, giving much shape to what he observes. Kristen Stewart is surprisingly adequate as Marylou, Dean's lover. This is not a dishonest version: Dean behaves, at times, like the self-centered narcissist he is in the novel, abandoning Sal to his dysentery in Mexico to pursuit his own interests elsewhere, and even Marylou eventually bails on him. But it never really takes on a life of it's own here, just kind of meandering along without much sense of why the beat generation mattered-- if it did.
Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Amy Adams
Oddly raw and authentic depiction of life as a football player (with the North Dallas Bulls standing in for the Cowboys) based on a book written by former Cowboys player Peter Gent. Not very kind to ownership or coaching and filled with the kind of odd details usually missing from Hollywoodizations of these kind of stories. Nolte is the aging receiver Phillip Elliot and Mac Davis is surprisingly good as his quarterback Seth Maxwell (loosely based on Don Meredith). With his career in doubt, he begins to consider whether there are more meaningful pursuits in life, perhaps like cute Dayle Haddon. Or something true or beautiful. The details of locker room rituals, the injections, the macho attitudes, the partying, all ring true. Truthfully, one of a handful of decent sports movies out there.
Nick Nolte, Mac Davis, Dayle Haddon, Charles Durning, Bo Svenson
Tight, well executed suspenseful recounting of the search and assassination of Osama Bin Laden, controversial for the clear suggestion that torture, though distasteful, was useful in the search, and helped save American lives. Jessica Chastain is seriously miscast as the self-validating CIA agent whose determination and guts led to the successful outcome. But this story is rigged to provide a scenario that validates the Bush Administration's lack of ethics. Well-directed, and exciting to watch, even when you know the outcome, and, in fairness, far more even-handed and realistic than a confection like, say, Argo, which didn't even make the effort. Be it noted that many U.S. officials closely tied to the intelligence effort deny that any useful information was provided by torture. And be it noted that the torture scenes were among the weakest, failing to overcome even modest skepticism about how anyone would know if any of the information obtained would be useful.
Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Reda Katab, Jennifer Ehle
Peter Jackson, gone mad with 3D CGI, provides us with another beautifully realized fantasy with memorable characters and scenes, a lovely story, and one incredibly overblown battle scene after another. Which is why both Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit remain kid's stuff, for all the marvels of computer graphics and swooping cameras, kid's stuff. Just one example: Gollum and Bilbo exchange riddles: if Gollum wins, he gets to eat Bilbo, and if Bilbo wins, Gollum must show him the way out of the cave. Only a child would believe that either of them has any reason to honor the results of the wager. Aside from that, and the utter absence of women (Galadriel doesn't really have much of an impact on anything) there is a well-developed narrative and mythology. And the story moves nicely along. And it's an absolutely brilliant children's story.
Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen
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