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| MATT AT THE MOVIES |
Matt's Ultra-Complicated Rating System:
GO! I can recommend this movie without reservation
CAUTION I liked this movie a lot, but you should check it out before deciding.
STOP! This movie is unworthy of your attention.
YIELD There is merit here; I just wasn't a big fan--and I'll tell you why.
GO! I can recommend this movie without reservation
CAUTION I liked this movie a lot, but you should check it out before deciding.
STOP! This movie is unworthy of your attention.
YIELD There is merit here; I just wasn't a big fan--and I'll tell you why.
| The Descendants OK. I admit it. I hate George Clooney. As a matter of fact, I AM jealous, if you have to ask. So handsome. So talented. So effortlessly charming. I get it. It's his world, an I'm just living in it. So when he comes off as smug and self-satisfied in movies like the Oceans movies, Up in the Air--and most recently, The Ides of March, it's been easy for me to say, "Yeah? So? Call me when he starts acting." Well, this is the call. He's acting now. I stand by my comment below that Rhys Ifans turns in the best acting performance I've seen in a 2011movie in Anonymous, but I have to say that I think Clooney is equally fine in this movie.. Academy Award voters who have been trying to find a reason to give him an Oscar for years finally have an MO. The Descendants in question are those of King Kamehameha who own 25,000 acres of prime real estate on the island of Kauai. Clooney is the trustee of the trust that controls the land, and what happens to it is his call. As he goes about the process of making his decision, his wife is injured in a speedboat accident off Waikiki. She's in a coma and isn't coming out. The movie deals with how Clooney's character Matt deals with these two events. In addition to Clooney, the rest of the cast is wonderful. They're mostly people you've never heard of, but you will hear about them in the future. Alexander Payne of Sideways fame has written and directed the movie in such a way that brings his vision to the screen masterfully. As I was waiting for the movie to start, I was thinking about how much I liked the way that Hawaiian values and lifestyles were brought to the screen in Lilo and Stitch and hoping that The Descendants could at least approach that standard. Mr. Payne and his accomplices have certainly done that, and moreover, they have created a movie that speaks to everyone who's lost someone who drove them crazy. (12/18/2011) With apologies to Mission: Impossible, and anything else that comes out between now and the end of the year, this is where I'm going to end my official movie-going for the year. It's been a terrific year at the movies, and I hope you'll click on the link above to check out the list of my favorite movies of 2011. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Six months ago (heck, maybe six hours ago) I would have told you that I couldn't think of one good reason to make this movie. The Swedes had already filmed the source material back in 2009, and I thought it was terrific. That movie and its two sequels were seen all over the world--with the possible exception of the United States, where I assume that folks were too lazy to read subtitles (or learn Swedish). But somebody thought that director David Fincher and a stellar cast could bring a depth to the material that might not have been in evidence in the earlier work. And damned if they weren't right. This version is both more stylish and more disturbing than its predecessor. Daniel Craig makes the journalist less of a blowhard than he was in either the book or the Swedish movie; Christopher Plummer and Stellan Skaarsgard are outstanding as patriarchs of Sweden's creepiest family; as always, Robin Wright brings a lovely presence to a role that was a cipher in the source material; and newcomer Rooney Mara is astounding as Lisbeth Salander. I had thought that Noomi Rapace had defined the role for the ages, but Mara brings a layer of insecurity and being troubled that give the movie a depth that it sorely needs in order to be more than a run-of-the-mill creep show. This is the most disturbing mainstream American movie since Silence of the Lambs, and it will be interesting to see if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences agrees. (12/18/2011) Young Adult The chief pleasure to be had from this otherwise cringe-worthy movie are the fine performances given by Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt as a couple of thirty-somethings who think they peaked in high school. To their credit, they were right. They did peak in high school. Theron was the head of the Mean Girls in the school and Oswalt was best remembered as the victim of a hate crime who faded from memory when he admitted that he was not gay. They meet in later years when Theron returns to the small Minnesota town to try to hit the reset button for her life by reclaiming the high school sweetheart she thought she'd always end up with (Patrick Wilson). The only problem with her plan is that the guy is now happily married and the father of a newborn. The story unfolds as she tries to persuade him to run away with her. As the story unfolds, she finds Oswalt in a bar, and he spends the rest of the movie serving in the role of a Greek chorus. This movie is from the team that brought us Juno a couple of years back, but it's nowhere nearly as fresh, original or entertaining as that movie. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is itself but a shadow of its more interesting and fun predecessor. (12/18/2011) My Week with Marilyn Don't hate me, but I loved this movie. Michelle Williams has never been my favorite actress, but she's Oscar-worthy in this story of the months that Monroe spent in Britain filming The Prince and the Showgirl with Sir Laurence Olivier. Death and scandal--and most of the drugs--are far in the future,and it is a time in her life when she is still exploring what it means to be the most famous woman on the planet. Williams gets close enough to "the look", but she never goes over the top with it. More importantly, she gives you insight into the joy and pain of being Marilyn Monroe. Someone in the movie--maybe Kenneth Branagh as Olivier--says that Monroe's gift is the joy that she provides to others. This movie makes you understand the truth of that comment, and darn if you don't feel some of that joy coming off of Michelle Williams as well. The cast is splendid, and while some of the characters --notably Arthur Miller--are thinly drawn, you don't notice that until later. This may not be a great movie, but it is a wonderful movie that reminds you why we fall in love with the movies in the first place. (12/11/11) Anonymous Oh, for a muse of fire! I always wanted to work that line into one of these review-ettes, and I figured if I didn't do it now for a movie in which it's actually a relevant line, I never will. Later this month, I'm going list my favorite movies of the year. Anonymous may or may not be one of them, but Rhys Ifans will definitely be representing the movie as the best actor in a movie this year. For those of you who don't know Rhys Ifans from Reese Witherspoon, Mr. Ifans was Hugh Grant's daft roommate in Notting Hill. Here he plays the Duke of Oxford who may or may not have had an affair and a child with Queen Elizabeth I--Vanessa Redgrave, in a wonderful performance--and he may or may not have written the plays and poems later attributed to an "illiterate" actor named William Shakespeare. I loved practically everything about this movie, especially Mr. Ifans. I --and you--might be a little confused by the way it jumped around on the time and space continuum, and while some--like me--might think that letting Derek Jacobi do the prologue on a Broadway stage is ripping off Kenneth Branagh's Henry V, those are small complaints indeed. I'm sorry I wasn't able to gush about the movie before it disappeared from most theaters, but if you do get a chance to see it, I think you'll like it a lot. (12/7/2011) Hugo Darn that Martin Scorcese. Just when you think his man-crush on Leonardo DiCaprio, whom he seems to want to cast in everything, is going to cost him his ability to make watchable movies, he goes off an makes a masterpiece. Yes, I said it. And I believe it. It's a masterpiece. It's got Paris. It's got movie history. Hell, it's even got a dog named Schatzie. I don't know why I would try to resist it. After being beaten about the head and shoulders with 3D in the last couple of weeks, I made a conscious decision to see this one sans the glasses. And while it might not be the way that Marty WANTS you to see his movie, I'm glad I did. Even if the glasses do provide a believable 3D experience, they shut out a lot of light. If you LOVE movies, you'll love Hugo. It's that simple. Ben Kingsley is Oscar-worthy. A couple of fine young actors carry the movie with panache--and are even capable of using the word in a sentence--and even a couple of hams like Sacha Baron Cohen and Jude Law find a way to be charming. Is Hugo sentimental? You bet. Is it TOO sentimental? I don't know. Maybe. All I do know is that it's one of the best movies of the year. (12/1/2011) The Adventures of Tintin (IMAX 3D Version) If you've read this much of the blurb, you've identified my greatest misgiving about this movie. Like its hero, the movie is a slight little thing, and it's amiable enough. But when you convert it to 3-D and plaster it on the side of a 10-story building, it becomes a great big thing--and not a particularly attractive thing. This is not a "big" movie and to treat it as such as Spielberg and company have done is not a service to the viewer--who in this instance paid about $16 to see it. (OK, somebody else paid for my ticket, but still....) My other major complaint is that in the original source materials--children's books--Tintin was French. Here he's Jamie Bell--and veddy English. Heck, why not just make him a California kid. (11/29/2011) Margin Call Kudos to Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons and the other terrific actors that made this recreation of the 2008 Lehmann Brothers scandal as realistic as possible and not get sued for it. To be sure, Occupy Wall Street -types will look at the movie and have their worst fears about the financial community confirmed. Many of the denizens of said community do indeed appear to have the morals of chia pets. But it's saved from being too cartoonish by the performers I've mentioned already and others who do an outstanding of bringing a slow motion disaster to life. (11/29/2011) Arthur Christmas No, it's not the Christmas sequel to that gawd-awful Russell Brand movie from earlier in th year. I saw this movie in Edinburgh, and I was kind of happy about it because it never occurred to me that a confection that is so very British could turn up in America. Yet, when I got home today, I noticed that it's playing in the theatre just down the street in Jackson. Take a standard Tim Allen Christmas movie--any of them--OK, maybe not Christmas with the Kranks--animate it and add the voices of some fine British actors like James McEvoy, Hugh Laurie and James Broadbent--and you've got it. It's --nice. Ordinarily, that would be damning with faint praise, but at Christmas, you take any bit of sanity (see next blurb) you can find. (11/29/2011) A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas Really? Am I the only one who didn't see this coming? H and K have settled into their roles as the Cheech and Chong of the 21st century. Somehow, I thought that when Kal Penn (Kumar) took the job at the Obama White House, maybe he'd raised his standards. Turns out he was only doing research for the next movie--i.e., this one. To dwell on any of the details of the movie would be to miss the point. It exists in the Harold and Kumar Universe, and if that's a place you--and you know who you are --are comfortable, you'll dig the movie. If not, you'll be smart enough to stay away. I have to admit to a couple of snorts of laughter--especially when a frustrated Harold shoots a gun into the air on Christmas Eve--with predictable results. Also, they poked fun at the 3D concept, which was fine with me. I have to admit that it was funny to see Neil Patrick Harris in the first couple of movies, but now I'm sorry to say it--and he--is getting old. There's enough drug humor to satisfy any Cheech and Chong--I mean, Harold and Kumar fan, so don't even think about letting a child see it. Otherwise, caveat emptor, dude! (11/16/2011) Immortals Throughout this movie, I kept thinking that I'd seen it before. It may or may not have been assembled from the out-takes from 300 and Thor. If you liked either of those better than I did, you'll probably like this one. (11/15/2011) Tower Heist How charmed are the lives of the LSU Tigers these days? The heist in the title of this movie (I'm not giving anything away) takes place in the middle of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The LSU Golden Band from Tigerland is nowhere in evidence, but the random "parade music" on the soundtrack is the LSU fight song ("Victory for LSU" by the immortal Castro Carazo, if you're wondering). It kind of comes from out of nowhere and distracts you for a moment from how ordinary the rest of the movie is. Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy have been better elsewhere; Matthew Broderick is completely wasted--and not in a good way. The only two people you want to see more of are Gabourie Sidibe, who shows comedic talent that was not on display in Precious, and Alan Alda, who has a couple of good Snidely Whiplash lines as the Bernie Madoff character who is the object of the heist. Tower Heist could have been written by folks from the "Occupy" movement (or perhaps some other juveniles) because the movie definitely reflects that vibe in a kinder, gentler way. Even if you're from Alabama, you'll have a few yuks. (11/11/2011) J. Edgar I guess it's a credit to this movie that even though I saw it three days ago, I still can't decide whether I can recommend it to you or not. If I were a more curious person, I'd go online and see what Clint Eastwood has to say about the factuality of this movie. He pussyfoots with the notion that Hoover had something to do with the creation of the Dewey Decimal System (He even takes Naomi Watts on a date to the Library of Congress to see it in what passes for action), and the use of fingerprints--which had been developed in France long before he turned up at the Justice Department. But most importantly, the movie dances around the idea that he was a closeted homosexual. Eastwood suggests that Hoover and FBI second-in-command Clyde Tolson were more than dinner companions, but steers clear of anything that looks like affection or sex. And maybe without hard evidence (sorry), that's all anyone can really say. When I heard that Eastwood had cast Leonardo di Caprio as Hoover, I groaned that Leo didn't have the gravitas for the role. I was wrong. He's not great, but fine. Judi Dench as his mother, Naomi Watts as his lifelong secretary, and Armie Hammer as Clyde are equally good. The movie has received a lot of criticism for its aging make-up. I don't think it will be nominated for any awards in that category, but I thought that di Caprio's was excellent and Naomi Watts' very good. Armie Hammer, however, is another story. He seems to have gone from 30 to 80 overnight. But that's a minor complaint about what otherwise is a solid achievement. (11/14/2011) The Way is a film by Emilio Estevez that comes as something of surprise as it covers territory that seems very personal to him. The movie lives at an emotional depth you probably wouldn't expect from a member of the Brat Pack. Emilio's dad, Martin Sheen plays a Los Angeles ophthalmologist in late middle-age who seems to be pleased with everything in his life--with the exception of his son, who is nearing 40 and seemingly unable to "find himself." The son's efforts in that regard take him to the Pyrenees in France, where he begins the traditional Catholic ritual of El Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) to the village of Compostela in Spain. It's an 800 kilometer journey that most people take on foot. The son dies on the first day of the journey, and when the father comes to France to collect the body, he makes the decision (against the better judgment of practically everyone) to finish the journey in his son's memory. Along the way, he encounters a Canadian woman who says she's trying to stop smoking, a Dutch glutton and an Irish writer. Individually, they're all pretty obnoxious, and all they seem to have in common is an inability to escape each other. But along they way, trust and friendship grows, and by the end, we enjoy their company. As much as I like the idea of this movie, I recognize that Emilio isn't exactly at the top of his game as a storyteller. For example, after the Canadian woman lambastes Sheen for being a smug baby boomer who probably loves James Taylor, sure enough, we get a country road montage set to Taylor's song. Others will quibble at the unabashed Catholicism on display. Still, I liked it quite a lot and heartily recommend it to anyone looking for an original story that entertaining and even a little uplifting. (10/29/2011) 3 (Drei) I think I'd have to say that this movie projects the next stage of family dynamics. A couple have been living together in Berlin for the past 20 years are now contemplating marriage. She's a journalist for what appears to be a really boring show about philosophy on public television; he designs art installations. (Apparently, it's a real job.) Out of the blue, they begin to discuss finally getting married and having children. While this is going on, they both meet a doctor named Adam and fall in love with him. Adam has yet to declare a major in the sexual revolution. He and his ex-wife have a teenage son (who is growing up to be a video game vegetable), and he's diddling his handsome young lab assistant-- in addition to Hanna and her husband. After about an hour and a half of examining their lives (which seem to be pretty empty), we discover that Hanna is pregnant, and naturally she doesn't know who the father is. The movie ends as we discover how these people plan to get on with their lives. There's lots of sex, including scenes of guys doing things to each other that I didn't think was even possible. It's interesting, but not remotely healthy. (10/27/2011) The Big Year is at least an original idea for a movie. These days, that's an accomplishment in and of itself. Beyond that, I don't think I'm ready to accept Steve Martin in old-man roles (yeah, that probably says more about me than it says about Steve, but hey, this IS mattisch.com. Steve can say what he wants on his own webpage.) The movie also features Jack Black as a 35-year-old schlub who somehow manages to get Rashida Jones to fall for him, and Owen Wilson as a self-obsessed dolt (I know them when I see them) who somehow convinced some poor woman to marry him in the first place and then proceeds to abuse the privilege. The movie, if you don't know, is about birdwatching--er, "birding"--and the eponymous "big year" involves a year-long quest to physically lay eyes or ears on as many species of birds as possible in a 365-day period. Prior to the beginning of the movie, the record had been 732. So we follow these three around the country (literally) for a year as they seek birds (many of which seem to be computer generated) and find themselves --or not. For a comedy, you won't laugh much in this movie, but there are a couple of good snorts. Check it out at your own risk. (10/24/2011) The Ides of March I liked this movie a lot because I really like movies about politics, I like the omnipresent Ryan Gosling, and I love that this movie was filmed in and around Cincinnati. George Clooney (who also directed the movie) plays a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President. (He's not good enough of an actor to play a Republican.) Gosling is his press secretary and alleged to be the."best in the business." Rival campaign managers Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman enjoy the political game way too much and don't really care too much about who gets caught in their crossfire. All of the principals--as well as Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei in smaller roles--are excellent. If you want to maintain your illusions about the purity of politics, this is not the movie for you. But if you're jaded and know in your bones that all politicians are no damn good, check it out. (10/09/2011) Moneyball Since leaving the theater, I've been wondering if it's fair to call Moneyball a sports movie. I guess it is, but calling it a sports movie seems to consign it to a kind of ghetto where it can be ignored or pigeon-holed. Moneyball is a sports movie like The Blind Side is a sports movie. I'd call it a movie about real people for whom sports is a big part of their lives. (But that sounds kind of lame, doesn't it?) You get my point. With The Tree of Life earlier this year and this movie, Brad Pitt is finally becoming someone who appears to be comfortable in his own skin. If you like sports--especially fantasy sports, you'll really like this movie; and I'm guessing that even if you don't care for sports, you'll probably like it anyway. (10/09/2011) Drive Can we say that Ryan Gosling is the new Emma Stone? He seems to be omnipresent. That's a good thing because he's a fine actor. He seems to be taking the roles that Edward Norton is probably too old for now. (If he turns up in the next remake of The Hulk, we'll know.) In Drive, he plays a character called The Driver, who-well, drives. By day, he's a grease monkey at a Los Angeles garage and a stunt driver for the movies. By night, he's a getaway driver for felons He develops a relationship with the attractive lady down the hall and her cute son. Her husband is just out of prison and-and-surprise, surprise--in need of a getaway driver. Drive actually bends the mold by making the convict/husband a decent sort who wants to go straight. I liked this movie, but I suspect that Fast and Furious fans will find it somewhat slow. (9/18/2011). Contagion Did you every black out for a moment during the first twenty minutes of a movie, and you're too proud to admit that you might have actually fallen asleep? That would have been me at about the 20-minute mark of Contagion. Everybody you love is in the movie--Gwynneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law. (OK, so maybe "everybody you love--plus Jude Law"--is in the movie.) Great cast. Good director--Steven Soderbergh. So why isn't it better? Probably because Mr. Soderbergh went to the dark side and used the movie not to point out the heroism of the those who treated the sick, comforted the dying and discovered the cure--but to point the finger of blame at greedy drug companies, incompetent governments and self-serving members of the press. And in the penultimate manifestation of cynicism, the movie is released on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Now that's a sickness. (9/12/2011) Apollo 18 This movie is alleged to have been edited from 84 hours of actual footage from an unsuccessful Apollo mission which failed to return in December 1974. If you noticed the illogic of the first sentence, you'll know why I had trouble with the movie. In short, the existence of the movie disproves its premise. But. if you can get past all of that, it's watchable. It's a cross between Apollo 13 and Alien. Without giving away too much, I'll say that the "assembled footage" format of the movie keeps you from building much empathy for the characters, but you sense that they're doing the best they can with the material available to them. (9/7/2011) The Debt I saw this movie on a rainy afternoon in which I went to see Sarah's Key after the end of this one. In between the two movies, I stopped in a third auditorium where The Help was showing. It was a wonder to see Jessica Chastain as a ditsy, 1960's-era Madison County airhead, as opposed to the tough, sophisticated Mossad agent I had just seen her portray in The Debt. As you may know, she also played Brad Pitt's wife in The Tree of Life a couple of months back. I can't imagine three more diverse roles for an actress, and I can't imagine an actress doing a better job in all three films. Ms. Chastain has already proved herself to be a fine actress, and I look forward to seeing here again in the future. In The Debt, she plays an Israeli agent who is one-third of a team which infiltrates East Berlin in the 60's and kidnaps a former Nazi who was known as the Butcher of Birkenau. During the course of the mission, things go wrong which have repercussions for decades and generations to come. Ms. Chastain's character ages to become Helen Mirren who is compelled to undertake an equally dangerous mission. Mirren is fine--as always, and as I watched I remembered my Academy Award trivia from the year in which Kate Winslet and the older lady both one Oscars for playing the same characters in the same movie (Titanic). Having seen Chastain and Mirren in action, I can see history repeating itself. (9/5/2011) Sarah's Key That movies like this continue to get made in the Age of Marvel Superheroes is a wonder to me. It's the story of a young Jewish girl who is rounded up by the French police in WWII and shipped off to a concentration camp. Before the police drag the family away, she tries to save her younger brother by locking him in a closet in the bedroom of their Paris apartment. (Hence the key.) The girl then breaks out of the camp and makes her way back to Paris to try to save him. And that's only one of the stories that the movie tells. The other story is of a French-American journalist--a fine Kristin Scott Thomas--who follows the girl's story in the present day while dealing with her own personal issues. Sarah's Key rises about chick flick fare and stands as a story about the best and worst in all of us. Even if you're a guy, you'll like it. (9/5/2011) The Help As a movie, The Help is kind of a mess. It goes on forever; the plot is all over the place; a lot of scenes don't seem to go anywhere; and Skeeter (Emma Stone) appears to be about fifteen years younger than her "best friends" like Bryce Dallas Howard. As a historical reference, it's not much better. Jackson may not be much of a city, but it is kind of a city. In the movie, the main characters live on a cotton plantation without telling you why, and girls like Skeeter didn't have trouble getting dates at Ole Miss. And yet, it's one of the best movies of the year. I say so if for no other reason that it explores race relations in a three-dimensional manner that is hardly ever done in movies, and almost never in mass entertainment. "Separate but equal" was a mantra in the Mississippi where I grew up in the 1960's, and The Help shows that the races were neither separate nor equal. In the movie--as in life--some children (not me, but some) had black women in their lives who were more than the help, they were the parents they wished they had. In turns, some blacks were still the Mammies and Prissys from Gone With the wind that they would have liked to have, oblivious to the notion that these women might have lives and aspirations of their own. As such, The Help is almost indispensable. You can bet that there will be Oscar nominations galore. It's a good bet that Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone and others are contacting gown designers already about what they'll wear to the ceremonies next winter. You probably won't want to see it twice, but you should definitely see it once. (8/10/2011) Cowboys and Aliens It's been a week since I saw this movie, I'm still trying to figure out what it means that the main takeaway from this movie is that Daniel Craig has a better rack than Olivia Wilde. I think it means that the director Jon Favreau knew that Daniel Craig is a movie star, and that the butts in the seats like me were there to see a bare-chested action movie, not a bare-breasted love story. And C&A is indeed long on action. Insects from space have invaded some gold-producing part of Arizona, and the local settlers are little more than a handy source of protein. At the beginning of the movie, Craig awakens in the desert, not knowing who he is or where he is. (Think of The Bourne Identity set in the Southwest.) He eventually comes into contact with friendly and hostile locals led by Harrison Ford (in a dreadful role) who set off in search of their lost love ones who had been abducted by the bugs. Along the way, they encounter gangs of bad guys and tribes of Indians with whom the townsfolk learn to set aside their differences to fight a common foe. It's a very "We Are the World" kind of thing, and frankly, it just feels like filler. There's a nice plot twist when someone turns out to be not who she appears to be. Otherwise, the movie is not much more than something to look at while eating popcorn. (8/08/2011) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 Is it really over? Somehow, I don't think so, but I'm willing to accept that for the present, the Hogwarts universe is as defined as it's going to be for a while. It's more than a little shocking that in the course of making several billion dollars over the course of the last decade, none of the Harry Potter movies have ever won an Academy Award. Doesn't that seem odd? Maybe that will change this year, but if it doesn't, it won't make a difference to anyone--including me. I wasn't a big fan of this series (I did like it much better than the Lord of the Rings movies, but that's saying nothing), but I do respect what it accomplished. While it was never my thing, I never felt that my intelligence was being insulted--which is the nicest thing I can say about movies that are primarily geared toward children. (8/01/2011) Crazy Stupid Love I think I may be losing my discerning eye for movies. I think I'm just so grateful for something that doesn't insult my intelligence that I'll give a pass to almost anything that looks competent. Having said all that, I really liked this movie. Because of a plot twist near the end that comes out of nowhere, it feels like The Sixth Sense of romantic comedies. And maybe it is. What was great about The Sixth Sense was that it was an incredible display of ensemble acting working with an inspired script. So it is here. Steve Carrell, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are splendid in this tale of love and marriage in the new millennium. It runs a little long for a rom-com, but I for one didn't mind. It's definitely a case of something taking as long as it takes, and I certainly didn't mind being left in the company of such a splendid cast. Try it. I think you'll like it. (7/30/2011) Horrible Bosses With apologies to the guys in The Hangover 2 and the gals in The Bridesmaids, I have to say that Horrible Bosses is the real Hangover of 2011. If you're looking for prurient humor, you can't beat Jennifer Aniston spouting raunchy dialog in a Tourets-like fury. This movie is a blatant repudiation of all the dreadful Good Girl roles that most people associate with her that it might actually usher her back to relevance.. Likewise, Jason Sudeikis, an actor who is new to me after doing a lot of television makes a splash her as any every-schlub who needs career counseling (and probably other forms of counseling as well) after his beloved boss dies and the boss's son (played by an unrecognizable Colin Farrell) makes his life miserable. Having said that, the real stars of the movie are Jason Bateman and Kevin Spacey who have been stealing movies as long as anyone can remember. They're great, and watching them here might make you think that sometimes there are new and interesting to see at the movies. (7/10/2011) Buck A couple of paragraphs down, you'll see where I state that The Beaver is the best movie of the year so far. I stand by the comment, but I'll amend it to say that Buck gives it a run for its money. Buck is Buck Brannaman, an Idaho cowboy in his late 40's who could have been the inspiration for The Horse Whisperer. Indeed, in the course of this documentary, Robert Redford is interviewed and states that Buck was a consultant on the set of that movie. We are led to believe that Buck's almost supernatural empathy for horses is somehow linked to his hellish childhood. His mother died when he was young and his father was a miserable bastard who beat him and his brother in order to whip them into shape (literally) as the first, only, and youngest blindfolded rodeo trick ropers. Buck found his way to grace as he and his brother were taken from the father and put into foster care with a farm couple whom Buck still thinks of as his real parents. Even if you don't have a bit of interest in learning about the psychology of horses, I strongly urge you to see the movie because I think you'll learn plenty about people. (7/5/2011) Larry Crowne is so sunny and cheerful that it almost makes you think that it wouldn't be so terrible to be fired by a bunch of mindless dolts who don't ...wait, I lost my thought. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts prove again why they're stars as they put a big ole happy face on Obamanomics. This is a parable of a middle-aged man who is released from his job at a big box store "because he didn't go to college" and rebounds by downsizing his home, car and lifestyle in order to attend community college, where he finds the meaning of life in the person of burned out teacher Julia Roberts. Which is fine. I think there's an element of people in our country who need to hear this message now. (Hell, I need to hear it.) I haven't seen any reviews for this movie, but I would guess that they're pretty good. Paradoxically, I think those same critics would have hooted derisively if the movie had been made while George W. Bush was president. (7/4/2011) Conan O'Brian Can't Stop The best thing I can think of to say about this movie is that although I don't really like Mr. O'Brian any better than I did before I saw it,, I certainly do understand him better. This is a very well made observation of the forty-something city tour that Mr. O'Brian undertook during the six-month period during which his severance agreement with NBC prohibited him from appearing on television. In addition to appearing frequently has he does on television as likeable and/or befuddled, he also appears in this movie as bitter and angry as he grieves over losing his job and holds his fans in contempt at times. It's a great look at a very interesting time in the life of an interesting guy. (6/29/2011) Beginnings If you're a frequent visitor to this page (don't worry, no one is), you know that Ewan McGregor is one of the few actors who can do no wrong. (See Best Actor recognition from 2010.) In this new movie, he plays a 30-something graphic designer in Southern California. His personal life is something of a black hole. His adored mother is dead; his 75-year-old father (Christopher Plummer) is out of the closet--AND dying of cancer. But he meets a young lady at a costume party, and love or something like it ensues. McGregor is excellent; Plummer, equally so. This is a lovely, warm, human story that I think you'll like. (6/27/2011) Tree of Life I certainly bow to Terence Malick as master film maker, but his latest work (despite winning the Palme d'Or in Cannes last month) is not one of my favorite. In telling the story of the life of Sean Penn (who, unless I'm mistaken, doesn't have one word of dialogue in the movie), he begins with the creation of the world, followed in close order by the rise and fall of the dinosaurs--and Brad Pitt, who plays the father of the boy who will grow up to be Penn. This may be Penn's story, but it's Pitt's movie. The chief pleasure to be had here is deciding whether or not Pitt's character (called "Father") is indeed a good father or not. I went back and forth several times during the course of the very long movie, and at the end, decided that at the very least he was a better father than the one I had. Mr. Malick goes out of his way to make a long movie seem even longer. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; but unless you're into the story, it can be painful. (6/26/2011) Cavern of Lost Dreams Werner Herzog is back and making movies about caves in France, where the earliest remnants of what we now call Man have been found. The cave has been preserved in its pristine state for over 30,000 years. Artwork on its walls reveal a remarkable sophistication and beauty. Curiously, the artwork in some places has been overtaken by stalactites and stalagmites that provide an additional element of beauty to the scene. The cave is covered in handprints, footprints and other evidence of early life. At one point, Mr. Herzog points out a human footprint next to that of a wolf and wonders whether the man and wolf were friends or enemies--or were the prints made thousands of years apart. It's a fascinating place, and Mr. Herzog brings it to life wonderfully. (6/25/2011) Bad Teacher I love you, Cameron, but this is sad. (6/24/2011) Mr. Popper's Penguins If you're a regular visitor to this space, you know that I frequently advise parents to keep their kids away from certain movies. Mr. Popper's Penguins proves that the reverse is also true. Based on a children's book, it is a movie that no one should venture into without someone under the age of eight who's more interested in penguin poop than you are. If you've been paying attention, you know that we always give Jim Carrey the benefit of the doubt in this space. He must have seen this movie as something in his Liar, Liar vein. While the vein might be familiar, the movie itself is not nearly as good. Unlike Liar, Liar or The Yes Man, there's just nothing here for adults. Sorry. (6/21/2011) Stephen Sondheim's Company So at some point in the past few months, an amazing group of performers had some time on their hands and decided to put on a show. The group included Neil Patrick Harris, Patti Lupone, John Cryer, Stephen Colbert and some big names on Broadway like Craig Bierko. The show they decided to put on was Stephen Sondheim's Company, and it played four performances at Lincoln Center this spring. The showstopper in the piece comes near the end when Patti Lupone belts out The Ladies Who Lunch. One of my favorite lines in that song is "Let's hear it for that invincible bunch, the dinosaurs surviving the crunch..." That line may also apply to the show itself. I've seen it onstage a couple of times, and on both occasions, it looked dated and very tired. In this instance, a decision to stage the work as a "concert" instead of a play provides the double benefit of toning the down the uninspired dancing and bringing out the best in the music. Of course, hiring a billion dollar cast doesn't hurt, either. The movie is a fairly straightforward recording of the concert,and frankly, you wouldn't want it to be more. I think it's already too late to try to catch this show in a theater, but I think you'll enjoy the DVD. (6/17/2011) Super 8 asks you to suspend a lot of disbelief from the very beginning (when a man crashes a truck into an onrushing freight train and lives to talk about it) to end (in which a couple thousand soldiers look all over a small Ohio town for a visitor and manage to look everywhere for him/her/it, except the suspiciously enormous cavern in the very middle of the town.) I went to this Steven Spielberg-produced movie, hoping for a mid-80-ish ET or Poltergeist summer movie experience. In actuality, it was more like a Stand By Me experience--not wonderful, but not completely disappointing, either. The young cast is agreeable, but only Elle Fanning is memorable. There were a number of things that didn't quite add up in the movie that I won't go into here. In the end, the movie is a pleasant summer distraction that goes down fairly easy. (6/14/2011) Midnight in Paris is 2011's disappointing Woody Allen movie. There seems to be one every year. Woody Allen (there is no one else to blame) makes some really key bad decisions that make you want to hurt him physically. First and foremost is hiring Owen Wilson to play the Woody Allen character. Owen Wilson. Really. Owen Wilson is the anti-Woody Allen. I'm sure Mr. Wilson was happy to take on the challenge of trying to play this role, but someone (talking to you, Woody) should have been smart enough not to hire him. Second, the movie opens with a sour scene in which the politics of the characters are established. Unfortunately, the only thing that gets established is that the moviegoer isn't going to have a lot of fun during the course of the next two hours. To his credit, Mr. Allen realizes that the real star of his movie is the City of Light. He photographs it gorgeously, and seeing those images of the sights of the city are the movie's chief pleasure. There's some foolishness about returning to the Lost Decade of the 20's, but in a movie that is all about surfaces, the story seemed moderately distracting. It occurred to me that this might be the first movie I've ever seen that would have worked better as a silent movie. (6/13/2011) The Beaver is the best movie of the year so far. Trust me, no one is more surprised to hear me say this than I am. Of course, you pass the time during the ads, the Coming Attractions and the first fifteen minutes of the movie wondering why director Jodie Foster would ask him to take this role and why in the world he would take it. But as the movie unfolds, you begin to appreciate that both decisions were brilliant. In all the hoo-haw about the train wreck that has been his personal life over the past five years or so, we've lost sight of the fact that he has always been one of the most accessible and empathy-inducing actors in the movies. Ms. Foster apparently remembers this from her Maverick days, and she puts those talents to their highest use in The Beaver. While he has frequently been as good as he is here, he's never been better. The difference between this movie and almost everything he's been in since The Year of Living Dangerously is that he's surrounded here by actors who are equally fine. In particular, Anton Yelchin as his son, and Jennifer Lawrence as the high school valedictorian the son has a crush on are outstanding. (We're going to appreciating Jennifer Lawrence's talents as an actor for a long, long time.) And of course, Jodie Foster as Mel's wife shines in a role that anyone would have trouble playing. Some will wonder if The Beaver will rehabilitate Mel Gibson's career. Frankly, I think the question is irrelevant. It--and the performances in it--deserve to be appreciated for themselves. (6/6/2011) The Hangover, Part Two Here's a paradox for you: The Hangover, Part Two is actually a better movie than Part I, but if had been made first, I doubt if there would ever have been a Part Two. Huh? Let me explain. I don't think anyone had ever seen anything like Part One. It defined raunch (and bachelor parties) for a generation. It was like Porky's that had gone nuclear. I don't know how many billion dollars it made, but a sequel was demanded. Rather than just repeating the formula of the first movie, the filmmakers decided they could do better and come up with something that--while hilarious--was somehow more, well human. And they did. It's very funny, but you're not sitting there staring at the screen and seeing things you'd never seen before. The situations are still ludicrous, but you know they'll be survivable. The characters are just a lovable (or obnoxious), but you know them now, and you know what they're capable of doing. You're not as spellbound or horrified, which may have been what made the first movie so successful. So sure. Take the trip. It's very funny. But know that you'll get home safe and sound. (5/30/2011) Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides I can't say that I had a lot of enthusiasm for seeing this movie. I barely tolerated the first one, hated the second one, and ignored the third one. But I figured that with Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly gone and replaced by Penelope Cruz, maybe there was some reason for hope that it had to be better. And it is. If there is has been a constant in movie-making in the past ten years, it's this: Penelope Cruz makes everything better. Vicky Christina Barcelona was low-to-middling Woody Allen until Penelope showed up, and there are lots of other examples. Here, she fills the roles of both Knightly and Bloom and makes the movie her own. And in a movie where Johnny Depp is on stage in full mascara during practically every moment, that's saying something. It kind of annoys me that such a breath of life has been pumped into this overstrained and lumbering franchise (meaning that the re might be more in the future), but aarrrrrr, I liked this one. (5/21/2011) Bridesmaids This movie has been selling itself as a Hangover for girls. Anybody going to the movie on that premise (God help them) is going to be very disappointed. There's a lot of depth and humanity here that was not in evidence in the earlier movie. It's certainly crude in places , but it's most definitely a chick flick--and not a bad one at that. The highlight of the movie for me was seeing the last performance of the late Jill Clayburgh as Kristen Wiig's mother. Miss Clayburgh was a luminous presence on the stage and screen (as she is here),and she will be missed. I stuck around through the credits to see if the movie would be dedicated to her. It wasn't, and I think that's too bad. (5/20/2011) Thor Marvel seems to have developed a business model of putting highbrow actors in its summer popcorn flicks. The most prominent example is Gwynneth Paltrow in the Iron Man movies. In Thor, which could only have been a problematic sell for them, Natalie Portman--of all people--steps into the superhero support network. And thank God for that. Without her (and to some extent Stellan Skaarsgard), Thor would have been pretty ordinary. Chris Hemsworth plays the title deity, presumably because he was either already blond, or could be made one. He's one of those characters that you like best when you see them in the middle distance, buckling swash or something. When the camera moves in for a close up, he's got nothing to say. And it doesn't help that the writers have made his evil brother Loki a more interesting character than he is. While this is one of the few movies I've seen in the past few years which seems to know what to do with 3-D, that's not saying a whole lot. There are things to see here, but it's really not much more than an excuse to buy a $4.50 tub of popcorn. (5/19/2011) Something Borrowed Wow. Do they really make movies like this these days? Young, rich, beautiful people in Lower Manhattan. John Krasinsky is young, Kate Hudson is rich, Ginnifer Goodwin is beautiful, and Colin Eggleston is all three. How young, rich and beautiful is he? At the end of the movie, his girlfriend--herself a young, rich and beautiful attorney who works 80 hours a week, is happy to pick up his laundry for him. Nothing in this movie feels remotely real. It's the kind of movie where John Krasinsky says on a Monday in July that he's moving to London "in the fall"--and by the end of the week, friends are visiting him at his very settled looking London apartment. Seeing young, rich and beautiful people being young, rich and beautiful should be its own reward. And I'm old, poor and homely enough to fall for it. (5/18/2011) Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family I admit it. I'm one of them. I'm a clinger. I drive a six-year-old car that has over 200,000 miles on it; I still wear a pair of black lace-up shoes that I bought at Pay less in 1971 to wear with my Ole Miss band uniform--and yes, I still like Tyler Perry's Madea, long after everyone else has had enough of her/him. Or I did, anyway. This latest installment, I fear, has cast me off from the Madea reservation. It's just too ghetto-gothic, too formulaic, too self-reverential--and frankly, just too much. In the process of trying to strike as hard as he can while he's hot, I think Mr. Perry is stretching himself too thin in terms of content. A scene with Madea on Jerry Springer makes perfect sense, but it's too easy, and frankly, it has nothing to do with the rest of the movie that surrounds it. Madea is one of the greatest fictional characters of our age. She--and Mr. Perry--can get me back. But I'd like to see them put some effort into the attempt. Having said all that, the ever-wonderful Loretta Devine IS divine in this movie as the quiet center of the mess/family that swirls around her. (5/3/2011) Water for Elephants Attention whoever is in charge of picking out scripts for Reese Witherspoon: GET BACK TO WORK! The woman's career is dying due to really, really poor choices of roles. (See How Do You Know at the bottom of this page.) Certainly, nobody expected much from Robert Pattinson, but we count on Reese to shine in the big roles. Making this tale of carney life in the Great Depression was always going to be difficult, and the director actually does a pretty job of providing an intriguing glimpse. The movie's big problem is the movie's big thing--the relationship between Reese and the high school vampire--that just doesn't work at all, and in all probability could never have worked with these two actors. I thought she would have known better, but there you go. (5/2/2011) Super isn't for everyone. Smarter people than I might even argue with some credibility that it's not for anyone, but I was fascinated in a train-wreck kind of way. Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) plays a very ordinary shlub who decides that crime must be fought by superheroes and that God thinks he's just the guy to do it. Due to his lack of superpowers, he takes a giant wrench as his signature weapon and beats the crap out of people with it. Frequently. Graphically. Brutally. Tarantino-esque. So much so that if you're at all squeamish about violence, you should give Super a wide berth. Although it does have its several moments of hilarity, under no circumstances should a child be allowed to see it. Of particular delight is Ellen Page from Juno as a comic book store clerk who sees herself as sidekick material--all evidence to the contrary, and Kevin Bacon as--well, Kevin Bacon. If you can stomach the violence, you're in for a treat. (4/20/2011) Atlas Shrugged, Part 1 I was fine with the title of this movie, until it got to the Part 1. With the possible exceptions of The Bible or Gone With the Wind, no book could require such canine fidelity as Ayn Rand's magnum opus. Ms. Rand's loyal readers would riot in the street if a film of her work did not capture every nuance of her work--not that her work was particularly nuanced. Judging from the applause at the end, I can verify that Rand fans in the theater like this film. The problem is that "the Rand fans in the theater" referred to in the last sentence numbered seven. If this is indicative of the movie's box office nationally, I fear that there will be no Parts 2 or 3. Which would be too bad. In addition to maintaining fidelity to the story, the film looks great and the writing pulls off the difficult task of softening Ms. Rand's overbearing dialog while making her points. Taylor Schilling makes a fine Dagny Taggert, and Grant Bowler is fine a Hank Reardon. Here's hoping that there will be a Part 2 in my lifetime. (4/16/2011) PS: At www.rottentomatoes com, a site where film reviews are aggregated, 5 percent of the critics like the movie. (One review actually says that only Fox News Channel watchers would like it.) Concurrently, a poll at the site indicates that 85 percent of audiences like the movie. I think that somewhere Ayn Rand is saying, "See? See? I told you!!") Hanna In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I have what might be a somewhat inappropriate middle-age crush on 17-year-old Saoirse Ronan. (BTW, it's pronounced SER-sheh.) This movie is kind of mess--just like Atonement and The Lovely Bones, come to think of it, but Ronan rocks it and makes it her own. She plays a trained assassin who happens to be a teenage girl--as if teenagers weren't enough trouble already. Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana are her parents--sorta, and they've been MUCH better elsewhere than they are here. The plot is such a muddle that even though I just saw it two days ago, I can't remember how it ended. (I do remember that there were a lot of dead people.) I just remember that SER-sheh was awesome. (4/11/2011) Source Code As I type this, I'm listening to a discussion on the Coast to Coast AM radio show between the host and a neurological scientist about how the viability of the science in this movie. The scientist says that since he really doesn't believe in alternate realities, so he's not much impressed with the movie's concept that the consciousness of an Air Force pilot can be inserted into a passenger on a train in order to identify the individual who planted a bomb which ultimately detonated and killed everyone aboard. Having expressed his disbelief, the scientist said he thought the movie was very entertaining. And so it is. Jake Gyllenhall transcends his recent spate of half-assed performances and is very believable as the pilot who finds himself in another man's body. The movie's best performance, however, comes from Vera Farmiga as his "handler" who directs his actions on the train from afar. Hers is the best performance in I've seen in a movie so far this year. I can't speak to the science, but I can say that I think this is a terrific movie. (4/2/2011) The Lincoln Lawyer is a pleasant surprise. I was expecting another grim Sahara-Surfer, Dude- Failure to Launch Matthew McConaughey movie. In other words, I wasn't expecting much. Instead, I found very good ensemble acting from McConaughey and his co-stars--Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe, Josh Lucas and others. What tipped me off early-on that this movie might exceed my expectations was seeing how this beautiful woman and these handsome men allowed themselves to be photographed looking like the dog's breakfast throughout the movie. Unretouched, they look pretty much like real people. Matthew is a lawyer of debatable virtue who patrols Los Angeles looking for improbably innocent rich people to defend. Tomei is his-ex-wife; Philippe his client; and Lucas the prosecutor. The movie has a great soundtrack that sounds like it might have been stolen from Jackie Brown. Check it out. (3/31/2011) Paul When I heard there was a movie about a funny-looking guy in Wyoming named Paul, I thought it might be about somebody I know. Nope. Turns out, it's about a couple of British slackers touring the American West and visiting sites associated with extra-terrestrials. Along the way, they actually meet one. His name is Paul, and he got the name because the spaceship he crashed in the 50's landed on a dog named Paul. The slackers and the alien are fairly humorous, but they are surrounded by the most cliched ensemble you can imagine. Drunk rednecks in bars--check. Bigoted religious fundamentalists--check. Daffy covert agents--check. They're all there, and none of them do anything you haven't seen a thousand times before. The proceedings are so grim that even the ever-reliable Jason Bateman can't pull it out of the muck. When Sigourney Weaver (whose career seems to be in free-fall) makes an appearance in what's clearly meant to be a moment of gleeful acknowledgment, it's just falls flat. (3/29/2011) Battle: Los Angeles Did you see Skyline last fall? It's the story of an alien invasion of Los Angeles--and not the Mexican kind. It featured a bunch of forgettable self-absorbed Angelinos running and hiding from the leathery monsters in their midst. Battle: Los Angeles is practically the same movie. Happily, however, the characters are a tad more memorable than they were in the earlier movie. This is probably due to better casting. In the new film, Aaron Eckhart plays the weary-of-it-all Marine who leads his small band of soldiers into the no-man's-land of Santa Monica to rescue potential survivors. Along the way, he encounters nasty aliens who look like a cross between the prawns from District Nine and the giant machines from War of the Worlds. (Their craft look exactly like similar vehicles from Skyline.) Thanks to better writing and the efforts of Mr. Eckhart, Rick Rodriguez and other good actors, we're more emotionally invested in who lives and who dies in this movie. It's no masterpiece--but it's no Skyline either. (3/14/2011) Take Me Home Tonight Are there any actors you'll watch in anything? Angelina? Of course. Matt Damon. Sure. I'd also put Topher Grace on that list. He's been in some really borderline movies (to say nothing of That 70's Show), but he's made every one of them better. When I think of Mr. Grace, I think of Win a Date with Tad Hamilton--despite the best efforts of Josh Duhamel, Ginnifer Goodwin, Nathan Lane and others who would like for us to forget it. (Mr. Grace has some scenes with an advice-giving bartender in that movie that I think are as touching as anything I've ever seen in a movie. But I digress.) He has the power to make a forgettable movie memorable--as he does in this movie. He's way too old to be playing this role, but when recreating the 80's, it's reasonable to conclude that everyone was too old to be acting they ways they did. There are some good moments, several likable characters and a killer soundtrack. It could be a lot worse. (3/13/11) Cedar Rapids When I was a kid, my father was a meat salesman, and every summer, he'd go to his company's (Wilson & Co.) annual sales meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (the home office). I never gave a thought to what he might be doing at the meeting. In reality, I assumed he drank, gambled and screwed around there as much as he did when he was at home--which was plenty. But in truth, I didn't think much about it. Now, Alexander Payne, the Midwest visionary behind Election and Citizen Ruth has uncovered the seamy truth about what happens when sales nerds go to Iowa--and it's hilarious--and a little creepy. Ed Helms, Anne Heche and John C. Reilly--three actors that I usually enjoy movies in spite of, as opposed to because of--put on a great show as insurance geeks away from home and on the make. They're all very good, and they make you care about a bunch of people that you really wouldn't want in your house. Sigourney Weaver's downward career spiral continues in a throw-away role as a Wisconsin school teacher. (Given the current political headlines from Wisconsin, this casting choice makes perfect sense.) With this cast and the folks who put the movie together, you an guess that it will be fairly crass--and you'd be right. But you also think that maybe it's just oddball enough to be really funny--and you'd be right there as well. (3/12/11) The Adjustment Bureau I never think of Matt Damon as one of my favorite actors, but he does appear in lots of my favorite movies. One reason may be that he's just in lots of movies, period. (True Grit and Hereafter were still in theaters when this movie came out.) But maybe it's because he's a really good actor and he chooses really good roles. The Adjustment Bureau is really not one of his better movies--chiefly because he has absolutely zero chemistry with Emily Blunt, whom he identifies as his soulmate after two unconvincing chance encounters. It's hard to believe that these two people can't live without each other because they do--for years and years. And because the central romance is unconvincing, the science-fiction fable that surrounds it sounds all-the-more contrived. That there are faceless bureaucrats out there watching and regulating our every move in life is a great premise, but its manifestation--to say nothing of its implications--just fall flat or are not explored. Too bad. (3/8/11) Unknown There is a scene near the end of this movie in which Liam Neeson and Aidan Quinn try to bludgeon each other to death. Very few things are as unattractive as a couple of 50-somethings trying to do things best left to Jason Stratham. Beyond that minor complaint, this is a terrific movie. If you've been seeing the coming attractions for the past six months as I have, you know that Liam Neeson is an American scientist visiting Berlin who has the bad luck to be in the back seat of a taxi that plunges into the icy Spree River and who spends the next four days in a coma. When he wakes, he finds that his identity has been assumed by another man, and that his wife no longer recognizes him. If you've seen any of the Bourne movies, you can guess what's coming, but it's still a good ride, made even better by presence of Diane Kruger as a freelance taxi driver and Bruno Ganz as a former Stasi agent. (2/28/2011) Vision: From the Life of Hildegard Von Bingen So who's Hildegard Von Bingen? If you spent more time at Starbucks, you'd know that she was an 11th century nun in Germany, who was left at the monastery to be raised by nuns. When she grew up, she wrote several hymns and songs that have recently come back into vogue in the form of coffee house background noise. This movie, by Margarethe von Trotta, informs us that in reality, Sister Hildegard was much, much more. She conducted useful research in to the uses of herbs and minerals, formed one of the first convents in Europe at Rupertsburg, and--of particular importance to this movie--was transfixed by mystic visions. The movie is not only gorgeously photographed, it takes a tougher look at Sister Hildegard than you might expect. Her visions are treated respectfully, but why is it that she always seemed to have them when she wanted something from the archbishop? Also, her reputation attracted to her acolytes whose motives might have been something less than sisterly. Even if the subject matter doesn't interest you that much, I think you'll appreciate the performance of Barbara Sukowa in the lead role and the effort and care that Ms. von Trotta has put into telling the story. (1/31/11) The Tempest A couple of weeks ago, I sat in on Julie Taymor's latest Broadway creation, Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. I can't tell you much about it, except to say that I'm pretty sure that the version I saw in previews will be nothing like what you might see if and when it ever opens. There is so much in the preview that I saw that needs to be thrown out that it's difficult to decide what--if anything--to keep. But I digress. So there was some trepidation as I entered the theater to see what's she's done with the play that most consider to be Shakespeare's farewell to the theater. Happily, all of the surprises were happy ones. Changing the gender of the lead role of Prospero (to Prospera) and casting Helen Mirren was inspired. Actors who have been insufferable in the past (yes you, Russell Brand--you too, Alan Cumming) are delightful, as are great actors who fill other roles like David Straitairn, Tom Conti, Alfred Molina and Djimon Hounsou. If there is a weakness, it would be the pair of lovers, played slightly by Felicity Jones and Reeve Carney (who--come to think of it--also underperforms in his role as Spiderman). This a straightforward telling of the tale, as they say, and Ms. Taymor uses effects effectively. I think you'll like it. (1/29/11) L'Illusionist To tell you that this movie is in French would be pointless. There's so little dialog that it could be in Aramaic, and it would be easy enough to follow. An over-the-hill magician from the music halls of Paris journeys to Scotland to find work wherever he can. First he performs in pubs in a small town in The Highlands, and then in the window of Jenner's Department Store in Edinburgh. Along the way, he attracts the attention and devotion of a young woman whom we first see cleaning rooms at the inn out in the sticks. Apparently, no one minds that she leaves for Edinburgh with him. Theirs is a relationship not unlike that of Jean Valjean and Cosette in Les Miserables. With what little money he has or can make along the way, he buys her nice shoes and clothes that help her attract the attention of a young man who is apparently the right sort of person for her. When the magician disappears near the end, he leaves a note saying, "There is no such thing as magic,"-- although it is clear that he has transformed her life. Did I mention that the movie is animated? (1/2011) |
2011 MOVIE REVIEWS
