Movie Reviews 2013
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS: I expected this one to be good, but I did not expect near perfection in a movie. Tom Hanks is brilliant as the eponymous captain; why he got passed over for an Academy nomination makes little sense to me (even though all the other nominees were deserving, too).
A true story, it’s about a pirate abduction of a U.S.-flagged freight ship off of the Somalia coast in 2009. The movie brilliantly moves from the ship to a coastal Somalian slum, where we learn of the pressure put upon the locals to produce pirated goods and ransoms. The action scenes at sea and aboard the ships were outstanding; the terror imposed by the pirates palpable. The rescue seemed as real as if it were filmed during the actual event. Sure, you know how the film ends, but the same was true of Apollo 13 and countless other films you’ve seen, right?
The Minneapolis cab driver recruited for the role of the lead pirate, Barkhad Abdi, was quite believable; his nomination for a supporting actor award understandable. His pirate colleagues seemed as real as if they’d been cast from a Somalian village.
The emotion displayed by Hanks during the last 10-15 minutes of film should have ensured him an Academy nomination; perhaps his only downside was his New England accent seemed a bit forced coming from his lips. A must see.
9½ stars
12 YEARS A SLAVE: As I expected, and perhaps while I avoided it after its initial release, this one makes you ache.
I’m sure you know the biopic story: Soloman Northup (portrayed by Chiwetel Ejiofor, up for an Academy award) is lured from his New York home, where he lived with his family as a free man, to Washington, DC, where he was drugged, abducted and sold into slavery. Shipped to the south, he spent 12 years as a slave for various plantation owners, enduring the inhumanity of mostly brutal white men (and women).
The movie wasn’t flawless. It didn’t do a good job of letting you know where Soloman was, or when. The scenes of total racial harmony in the North simply didn’t feel right. And what happened to his family during his absence? And while it was clear that it portrayed slavery as wrong, the film seemed to be more about the injustice of Soloman Northup’s plight - a free man! - not of slavery itself.
This received nine Academy nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (Michael Fassbender, a brutal plantation owner), Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong’o, a fellow slave under Fassbender) and Best Director (Steve McQueen). I’m sure it will walk away with several.
This one’s a tough watch.
8 stars
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY: Meryl Streep as Violet Weston is a first class, certifiable bitch. Aggressive one minute, passive aggressive the next. And I can’t for the life of me figure out who could have played her role better than she did. And, as much as I enjoyed Amy Adams’ role in American Hustle, I gotta think her Golden Globes win over Streep was an upset.
Violet, stricken with mouth cancer, is a pill-popping matriarch of a family of strong personalities, which collects together after the disappearance of her husband, a well known poet played by Sam Shepard. I’d even put this incredible ensemble cast up against the strong fivesome of American Hustle, four of whom are up for Academy awards. Three completely different daughters, led by Julia Roberts in, perhaps, her best role ever, but strongly supported by Juliette Lewis as the floozy with the thrice-married fiancé (Dermot Mulroney) with the wandering eye and Julianne Nicholson as the mousy one about to run off to New York with her first cousin.
Then you have Violet’s sister, wonderfully played by Margo Martindale, and her husband Chris Cooper. Plus, Robert’s estranged husband, Ewan McGregor, and their daughter, 14-year old Abigail Breslin. The only sane one of the bunch is Misty Upham, the new cook and housecleaner hired by Violet’s husband’s in his last act of kindness toward his wife.
They all have their moments, and this dysfunctional family has plenty of secrets to reveal. But never count out Streep, who makes it clear that ‘nothing ever gets passed her.‘ Adams might have beaten her out of a Globe, but don’t bet against Streep at the Academies.
For the life of me, I have no clue how this movie found its way into the “comedy” section of the Globes. It’s dark, for sure, but a comedy? Is that why the critics panned it? This is a hard-nosed, troubling family drama with, of course, its share of laugh lines.
If you can’t handle dysfunction, stay home. Otherwise, this one’s a keeper.
9 stars
HER: I’ve gotta disagree with prevailing wisdom on this one - it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture this morning - but this was simply creepy.
Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly, a depressed, nerdy denizen of Los Angeles in the not-so-distant future; he’s employed writing letters for people (who, obviously, have lost the ability to put sentences together for themselves). He falls in love with the voice on his new operating system, a futuristic Siri; granted, it is the sexy, breathy voice of never-seen Scarlett Johansson, and her voice engages with Theodore in ways that make her close to human.
He’s depressed because his wife, played by Rooney Mara (Lisbeth Salander of the Swedish Girl trilogy), is divorcing him; even his building mate, Amy Adams, is depressing in her own relationship. No complaint with the acting, but the story line and characters just didn’t do it for me. Some interesting twists, nonetheless.
Is this what we and our children have to look forward to?
6 stars
PHILOMENA: Based on actual events, Judi Dench is outstanding as the forlorn Irish matriarch in search of the boy she unwittingly gave up for adoption 50 years earlier. But she comes up against a Catholic bureaucracy not that interested in helping the former sinner. So she employs the services of a down-on-his-luck journalist (the caustic Steve Coogan) who ‘doesn’t do human interest stories,’ but he eventually decides to make an exception with Philomena.
Sexually naive in her early 20s (1952), Philomena becomes pregnant and is sent to a Catholic home for pregnant women. (Note: Tracy’s birth mother was sent from New York to Los Angeles in 1953 to a Catholic home to give birth for the expressed purpose of giving Tracy up for adoption, so I was unsure how she would react to this movie.) But in Philomena’s case, she’s given daily, limited contact with her son for several years while she is forced to labor at the home under difficult conditions (part of her penitence). Then, much to her astonishment (later in life she has a different take on this), her son is whisked away by a rich American couple who have come to adopt another child - and take her son and a girl instead. We later learn that there was an Ireland-to-America Catholic adoption pipeline.
Fifty years later, Philomena admits to her daughter of the existence of her first born; her daughter matches her up with the journalist, and the two of them go on an adventure to discover the fate of her son. Great interaction - not always smooth - between the two.
It’s a poignant story, worthy of a trip to the theatre. It was one of eight films nominated this morning for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Tracy approves.
9 stars
LONE SURVIVOR (2013): Based on a true 2005 story, this film depicts intense, close combat fighting between a four-man Navy Seals unit sent in to take out a Taliban commander and a small army of Taliban commandos in the mountain country of Afghanistan (filmed in New Mexico). Mark Wahlberg leads the group of Seals, who unintentionally meet up with three goat herders in the mountains. Feeling that the mission had been compromised, the unit tries to abort, but the mountainous terrain makes moving around difficult.
The film builds from real-life scenes of Seal training activities in Coronado; as you probably know, the training of Navy Seals is as about intense as it gets. The men’s bravado carries over into the field as each soldier retains incredible loyalty to their mission and to each other.
This film is brutal. It’s difficult to believe that even Seals can survive some of the damage inflicted upon them as they attempt to escape an overwhelming number of well-equipped enemy combatants. War is hell; this film helps prove it.
8½ stars
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET: Leonardo DiCaprio is outstanding in this socially (un)redeeming biopic about a penny stock salesman/conman, Jordan Belfort, who eventually served 20 months in jail for various financial crimes (not the least of which was deliberately conning people into believing that the penny stocks he sold were for their benefit). But this film isn’t about his time in prison; it’s about his ostentatious lifestyle that makes him a target for the FBI.
This is a three hour, loud, lewd, drug-addled film that celebrates the conman’s debauchery, which appears to have infected an unregulated Wall Street during the go-go years of stock profiteering (early to mid 1990s).
Unfortunately, the depravity gets boring. How many prostitutes and cocaine and alcohol can you take in a three hour period? Perfect for the 18-year old crowd (which, according to imdb.com, really loved this film).
Jonah Hill, DiCaprio’s sidekick; Matthew McConaughey, his first mentor; and Margot Robbie, his sexed-up second wife, all are good in their roles, once again proving that good acting (and directing; done here by Martin Scorsese) does not necessarily equate into a good film. There are some very funny parts in this film, particularly a quaalude-fueled scuffle between DiCaprio & Hill, just not enough to overcome its tediousness.
(Note: For you How I Met Your Mother fans, DiCaprio’s first wife in the movie, Cristin Milioti, is about to become Ted’s wife as that show winds up.)
6 stars [imdb.com viewers currently give it an 8.7]
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY: Ben Stiller is a day dreamer; more than anything, he dreams about impressing a fellow worker at Life magazine, Kristen Wiig (in a rather subdued role for her). But how can a lowly photographic magazine worker bee impress the popular Wiig?
The magazine is about to close down, and Mitty somehow has misplaced a negative (remember those?) sent to him by Life’s ace photojournalist, Sean O’Connell, played by Sean Penn (whom we don’t see until the very end of the movie). Mitty needs to find O’Connell PDQ, so he ventures to Greenland, Iceland and the Himalayas, always a step behind the ever-moving Penn - but living the adventurous lifestyle he’d dreamt about.
The story is good, the cast is excellent, but the story drags, and you begin to lose interest. Which, considering the cinematography, surprised me. Worth a place on your DVD queue when the time comes.
[Note: This is a re-make of a 1947 film starring Danny Kaye; I doubt any of you saw that when it first hit the big screen.]
7 stars
ALMOST FAMOUS (2000): This one moved onto our Netflix queue when someone sent me a clip of musical scenes from various films, including this one (singing Elton John’s Tiny Dancer ). Tracy insists we had seen this movie before, but I did not recall a single scene (insert old age joke of your choice here).
It’s a biopic about a teenaged writer, played by Patrick Fugit, who “cons” a Rolling Stone magazine editor into sending him on assignment to follow a band on tour (the fictitious Stillwater; Billy Crudup played the lead singer/guitarist). Along the way he falls for a very cute band groupie, Kate Hudson (who wouldn’t?), and lives the lifestyle - sex, drugs and rock and roll - any kid his age would envy, even if for a short while.
Crudup’s uptight college professor mother, Frances McDormand, worries constantly while he’s on the road; his sister, Zooey Deschanel, of course, is encouraging in her role as the anti-establishment type.
Not a great film, but worth an escape if you enjoyed the music of the 60’s/70’s.
7½ stars
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS: This one’s a downer. Guatemalan actor Oscar Isaac does a great job as a down and out 1961 folk singer who’s recently lost his singing partner to suicide. Llewyn bounces from couch to couch, friend to friend to ex-girl friend (coldly played by Carey Mulligan, a favorite of mine), trying to resurrect his singing career. But can anything else go wrong? And can any folk singer of that time find success in Greenwich Village (great final irony, of course, courtesy of the Coen Brothers!)?
Fun, yet minor, help on the side from Justin Timberlake, John Goodman and Mulligan.
A fine independent film, worth a holiday visit to the theatre.
8½ stars
AMERICAN HUSTLE: Think ABSCAM when you view this one. While not exactly the same, it’s clearly based on that 1980 scandal that brought down a U.S. senator, Congressmen and a mayor.
The ensemble cast in this film is outstanding: Christian Bale is the hair-challenged, sleazy conman who gets caught and is forced to help the FBI try and nab a New Jersey mayor, wonderfully played by the pompadoured Jeremy Runner. He’s aided by his partner-in-crime, the lovely Amy Adams. Bradley Cooper is their hyper FBI handler, while Louis C.K. tries to reign in Cooper. Then, of course, there’s the scene stealer, Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Bale’s nutty wife (21 and so damn talented!). Even Robert De Niro gets a cameo role.
Along the way of this mad-capped effort, big fish are caught in the sting, but you have to pay attention; this film builds to its surprising ending.
This will be heavily represented at award shows next year; it’s already garnered seven Golden Globe nominations (film-Bale-Adams-Cooper-Lawrence).
Go see it.
9 stars
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY (2012): I was thinking of checking out the recently released Hobbit film, then realized i’d missed the first of the trilogy last year. So I made up for it on DVD, and it was well worth the 2:50 (probably better for my bladder seeing it at home!).
Ian McKellan as Gandalf and Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins (the hobbit, if you are unaware) are surrounded by a fun-loving bunch of dwarves as they battle to regain their homeland from the dragon Smaug. Along the way, they must deal with old enemies and questionable friends. A fun romp, beautifully filmed.
8 stars
SAVING MR. BANKS: Emma Thompson steals the movie as the prim and proper, yet constantly grumpy, P.L. Travers, who seems forced (yet not necessarily resigned) to sell the movie rights to her 21-year old novel, Mary Poppins, to Walt Disney (wonderfully played by an effervescent Tom Hanks), whose been trying to gain the rights for 20 years. But Walt is on the defensive as he battles the strong-willed Travers. As are those he’s assigned to help convince Travers that he’ll do the book justice. But she’s very protective of her nanny Poppins, and she desperately does not want Disney to Disney-ize her. Dick Van Dyke, a musical, dancing animated penguins? Heavens, no!
The problem is the premise of the movie is that the character Poppins is a result of Travers’ difficult upbringing and her unsettled relationship with her alcoholic father. So the film jumps back and forth between the past and the “present” (1961), and the past tends to drag the present down.
Not great, but the performances are well worth a holiday trip to the movies. It’s difficult to imagine Emma Thompson not being nominated for an Academy Award.
7½ stars
NEBRASKA: Shot in black and white, this is a slow-moving snapshot of rural mid America. Bruce Dern, in perhaps his best role ever, plays Woody, an aging, henpecked husband who doesn’t have much to live for - until he receives his publishers clearing house-like letter informing him that he had won $1 million (provided, of course, one of his numbers matches the winner’s list, a fact that he ignores).
Enter one of his two sons, Will Forte (of Saturday Night Live fame), who agrees to drive his old man (who wasn’t much of a father, it turns out) to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim his prize, even though Will knows it’s a scam. His other son, Bob Odenkirk (the lawyer from Breaking Bad), just became an anchorman in Billings, Montana, and he, too, plays a nice role in the drama. It’s capped off by Woody’s curmudgeonly wife, June Squibb, who may be in contention for a best supporting actress nomination.
Along the road to Lincoln, the two stop in Hawthorne, NE, to visit with Woody’s brother and family. Eventually the whole gang shows up there, along with Woody’s childhood friends and old drinking buddies, led by Stacy Keach.
Funny, heart-warming, sad; wonderfully filmed and acted.
9 stars
DALLAS BUYERS CLUB: In this biopic, Mathew McConaughey plays a smack-talking, drug-ingesting, womanizing, homophobic, macho Texan (did I repeat myself?) who is diagnosed with the HIV virus in the mid-1980’s. At first in denial - especially when given a 30-day death sentence - McConaughey goes on an offensive tear looking for remedies that are not necessarily FDA approved when he discovers that the one possible effective drug in the U.S. is only being used in clinical trials.
Not surprisingly, his personality changes as he maintains his health - and he begins to help others in the Dallas area purchase the smuggled drugs - seemingly always in a pitched battle with DEA and the IRS. He partners up with a fellow sufferer, a transvestite, wonderfully played by Jared Leto (a shoe-in for an Academy nomination), and their business takes off big time, Texas style.
Jennifer Garner is a doctor at the hospital where the two are treated, and she is a good foil between the medical researchers and the needs of their patients.
A worthy trip to an indie cinema near you.
8½ stars
CRIMINAL (2004): This one let me down. I’m a sucker for a good heist film, and with George Clooney’s name attached (as a producer), I figured it might have been a diamond in the rough. Not so.
John C. Reilly plays a con man (not well) who recruits a young, inexperienced newbie, Diego Luna, to help him with some penny-ante cons. Then, all of a sudden, the two fall into a high stakes con that plays out clumsily, helped by Reilly’s sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal.
This one just didn’t flow well.
5½ stars
GRAVITY 3-D: Perhaps someday movies will be filmed in outer space, although it’s difficult to convince yourself that this one wasn’t the first. Sure, there might have been technical glitches if you want to search the Internet, but overall this was a technological and animated masterpiece. Nothing seems fake (well, I did wonder why Sandra Bullock’s hair stayed flat in zero gravity situations).
This movie takes place almost entirely in space and almost entirely with just two actors: Bullock & George Clooney. Expect Bullock, who had the greater role, to receive numerous nominations for her efforts (not the least of which was withstanding claustrophobic spaces during the filming).
Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone (her dad wanted a boy), a medical researcher; Clooney is wise-cracking astronaut Matt Kowalski, the pilot for the mission. Soon after the movie begins, the mission is under attack from space debris, and the resulting chaos is harrowing.
I’ve never been much for 3-D, but this one made it seem right. Definitely do not wait for DVD; see it on the big screen.
9 stars
BEFORE SUNSET (2004): For those of you who figured it out on your own years ago and watched Before Sunrise when it was released in 1995, you had to wait nine years for the sequel; I only waited three months. Usually, the second film in a trilogy is the one lacking, but that clearly is not the case here.
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy (American Jesse & Frenchwoman Celine) picked up where they left off at that Vienna train station, when they vowed to reunite six months later. That didn’t happen, a key element of this film, but they spend the next hour or so pretty much like they had in Sunrise: walking and talking. Although this time it’s Paris, where Jesse is winding up his book tour – a book about that first evening/night/morning in Vienna – and Celine, who lives nearby, has come to see him.
The dialog here is as snappy and natural as it was in Sunrise, albeit perhaps a bit awkward this time: Hawke is married with a child, and Delpy is in a committed relationship. They both seem to be trying hard not to flirt, but their chemistry makes that difficult.
You should not watch this one unless you start with Before Sunrise. It’s definitely worth a trip back in time.
8½ stars
BEFORE MIDNIGHT: If you had to wait 9 years before the final film in the trilogy, I feel badly for you. Me, I had to go downstairs and cook up a batch of popcorn to segue from Sunset to Midnight.
This film takes a slightly different tact than the first two by including more characters – family and friends on a Greek island, where Jesse & Celine (Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy) are staying with a local writer and other friends. After having won acclaim for his first two books that recounted his two single days, nine years apart, with Celine, Jesse is branching out, and he loves to talk about his book ideas with his writer friends (note: while Julie is doing the dishes). At the same time, Celine is struggling with her own professional future and how to balance it with family.
Again, the movie revolves around dialog, and it’s still brilliant. But here there are cracks in the Jesse-Celine armor, and we see the two at odds as they grow into middle age. But their relationship is like looking at two people playing three-dimensional chess while I’m playing checkers. It must be exhausting for them, because it certainly was for me.
If you have not seen the trilogy – which I believe got better as the two aged - I suggest you get all three one weekend and see what you think. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Now, do I have to wait 9 years for the next installment?
9 stars
MUD (2012): A coming of age drama about two 14-year old Arkansas boys who stumble across a drifter (“Mud,” played by Matthew McConaughey) out on an island in the Mississippi River who is living in a boat the boys were hoping to claim as their own. The problem is the boat is 30 feet off the ground, wedged there during a recent storm.
The boys start to help Mud – who appears to be no threat to them – but the plot thickens as it becomes clear that Mud is less a drifter and more a fugitive. Reese Witherspoon is excellent as his former (current?) girlfriend who’s in town trying to hook up with him again.
Both boys were great in their roles, especially Tye Sheridan as Ellis, who’s trying to hook up with a pretty, older girl in town and seems fearless in pursuit of what he wants in life.
This one keeps you interested as it reaches a climax. And, yes, ladies, Mud does take his shirt off toward the end of the movie. You just have to wait for it.
8½ stars
SENNA (2010): If you liked Rush, you’ll love this. It’s the real thing – a documentary of the Formula Racing legend, Brazilian Ayrton Senna, who won the world championships in 1988,1990 & 1991. Ron Howard got to re-invent all of the action footage and story in Rush, but this documentary was spliced together with old footage of races, meetings and interviews, both after the end of his career and during his run as the greatest Formula One driver of all time.
Known for his daring speed and risky maneuvers – especially on wet tracks – Senna was the pride of Brazil. This is worth a look on DVD. Go see Rush to get in the proper mood.
8½ stars
RUSH: Hold onto your seats, as Ron Howard takes you around the track – and around the world in Grand Prix style - in a bio-pic starring two race car drivers from the Formula One series in the 1970s. Pretty boy Chris Hemsworth plays Englishman James Hunt, the go-for-broke, cocky playboy of the racing scene, while ‘rat-faced’ Daniel Bruhl plays Austrian Niki Lauda, the icy, racing perfectionist who shows a bit more dedication to the sport. Both, however, have arrogance and ego down pat.
Outstanding camera work overwhelms the main event, and for those of us unfamiliar with the real-life story, it’s quite a story. Worth a look on the big screen if you get a chance.
8 stars
PRISONERS: Ah, prisoners every where you turn, but the focus is on two young girls who go missing on Thanksgiving, turning at least one of the fathers toward full-time vigilantism in search of their kidnapper before it’s too late.
Hugh Jackman is relentless as he focuses in on one obvious target, a mentally challenged man who was seen in the area; he pulls along Terrence Howard, the other dad, as well as the two wives, Viola Davis and Maria Bello, as they try and goad the local cop, Jake Gyllenhaal, toward an arrest.
Great acting, even if the movie falls a bit short on the story line (especially as it reaches its climax). But this one will keep you interested even when common sense takes a detour.
7½ stars
THE SESSIONS (2012): Not having received great reviews, I figured this would be a middlin’ movie, with lots of Helen Hunt skin, so it lingered on our Netflix queue. Boy, was I surprised when it finally surfaced. This was a terrific story (true), with superb acting from John Hawkes, William H. Macy & Hunt.
Hawkes plays his role so well that you thought he was restricted to a gurney or iron lung his own entire life. Actually, he plays the role of a man who, stricken by polio when he was young, went on to graduate from UC Berkeley as an English major, then spent his life composing poetry with almost no physical use of most of his body (“most” being the operative word here).
Hawkes confides in his new parish priest, brilliantly played by Macy (the hippy dippy Catholic priest from Bezerkeley), inquiring whether or not it would be a sin to want to have sex outside of marriage. Eventually, with Macy’s as-a-friend blessing, he contacts a sex surrogate – Helen Hunt – who guides him through a part of his life that was missing.
Terrific supporting roles by a number of others, this movie will make you laugh and cry – and wonder why you haven’t accomplished as much in your own life. Good for Helen Hunt to show off her buff 49-year old body, too; we should all look so good.
Definitely worth a dvd rental.
9 stars
LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER: Strangely named, of course, because of the threat of a lawsuit from Warner Brothers, which owns the rights to a 97-year old silent film: The Butler. Back of the bus yet again.
This is not a great movie, but it’s moving in the right parts - and is a good historical reminder of race relations in the 1950s through 80s. We sometimes forget how brutal and nonsensical was the treatment of Black Americans within recent memory. Keep in mind it’s a Hollywood characterization of a true story.
Forest Whitaker as the long-running White House butler was believable, albeit somewhat boring - he did not think it was his mission to rock the civil rights boat. Oprah seemed over the top as his unstable wife, but she got raves from many quarters. But when you seem more interested in who was played whom - Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan being the most ironic (yet she did it well) - it affects the flow of the movie.
Worth a look on DVD.
7 stars
THE SPECTACULAR NOW: Another coming-of-age film, this one about a popular, confident and hard-partying high school senior dating a wall flower who is less than popular or confident. Their relationship, of course, changes them both, not necessarily for the better.
Like The Way Way Back and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (both of which were far better), this one avoids cringe moments that these films tend to engender. It reminds us that life is messy, especially young life. Some good acting by mostly unknown actors, worthy of a place on your DVD queue.
7½ stars
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN (2012): If you have ANY rock 'n roll in your blood, this is a MUST SEE movie.
You couldn't make this stuff up. The music of a forgotten, under-appreciated Detroit rock singer-musician from the 1960's - Rodriguez - becomes the music of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. And he never knew it. When two South Africans find him in Detroit in the late 1990s - they all thought he had committed suicide - they convince him to come to South Africa to play for his fans. What follows is astonishing.
Truth: Stranger than fiction.
By the way, it won the Academy Award this year for Best Documentary. Duh!
9½ stars
THE WAY WAY BACK: There are likely no Academy Awards in this movie’s future, but if you want a fun, smart summer movie, this might be it. It’s a coming-of-age comedy set on Cape Cod (where, incidentally, we vacationed this summer, so it was all very familiar). It works.
Liam James plays an awkward teenager stuck on a summer vacation with his mom (Toni Collette) and her belittling boyfriend (Steve Carell) and his snotty daughter. Their Cape neighbor, Allison Janney, is over-the-top funny, and her kids add to the fun. Carell’s Cape friends, Rob Corddry and a flirty Amanda Peet, complete the neighborhood ensemble. In the meanwhile, Liam finds an escape and unlikely friendship at a local water park, where he is treated more like a young adult; he flourishes.
You’ll laugh and, perhaps, cry. More important, you’ll be entertained.
9 stars
FRUITVALE STATION: It’s amazing how a movie based on real life drama (see Argo and Zero Dark Thirty) can consume you emotionally. You know the ending, but the suspense builds in ways you don’t expect. That’s true with this movie, too, which follows the last 24 hours in the life of Oscar Grant, the young (and troubled) African-American man “accidentally” shot to death by a BART guard.
Oscar been in and out of jail, and he’s hardly the model partner to his young wife and daughter, but he gets caught up in circumstances that spiral out of control. The director does an excellent job keeping this interesting and believable.
Worth a look.
8½ stars
TEA WITH MUSSOLINI (1999): This movie finally rose to the top of our Netflix queue, and it was worth the wait.
Maggie Smith leads an all-star cast - mostly females - of expatriates in the 1930s and 40s who prefer the good life and culture of Florence to their homes in London. But they’re caught there during the build-up to World War II, although Maggie insists that Mussolini has promised her (the widow of the former ambassador to Italy) their safety. And she has photographic proof!
Judi Dench, Lily Tomlin and Cher add punch to this fun movie about un-fun times, a semi-autobiographic look at the early life of the film’s director, Franco Zeffirelli.
7½ stars
BEFORE SUNRISE (1995): With the recent release of the third movie in this trilogy, I decided to go back and watch from the start. I wasn’t disappointed.
It’s a simple film about spontaneity and love - young, unrequited love.
Ethan Hawke meets a young, 23-year old French girl (Julie Delpy) on a train to Paris, although he’s soon to get off in Vienna where he’s catching a plane back to the States in the morning. After a connecting conversation, he asks her if she’d be willing to get off the train with him and spend the day and night in Vienna. Sure, why not.
This is a film about conversation and nuance - and Vienna. No car chases, no action, no violence. And it’s clearly a film “to be continued.” It was sweet.
8 stars
QUARTET: Another Maggie Smith (damn, she’s good!) film that inched its way up our Netflix queue. Lucky us!
Ms. Smith is about to enter a home for retired musicians, and the place is abuzz. Her former husband resides at the home, and fireworks are sure to commence with the arrival of the diva Smith. What follows is a sweet look at mature adults capable of dealing with conflict in a mature way. How unrealistic! Directed by Dustin Hoffman.
Put it in your queue.
8 stars
SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD: The world is on a collision course with asteroid Matilda, and Steve Carell finds himself on the road with his young neighbor (the always delightful Keira Knightley) in search of his long lost high school love.
An unusual movie, with a SciFi (err, SyFy) twist, sees Carell continues to grow as an actor. Worth a look at home.
7½ stars
I love a good heist movie, and this one is somewhat magical. Four ego-heavy magicians - Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher & Dave Franco (James’ brother) - are brought together to pull off a series of capers using their specialized magical skills, staying a step or two ahead of the law that’s on to them (Mark Ruffalo & Melanie Laurent, with help from retired magician Morgan Freeman). Sure, the “magic” in a movie is easily faked, but they pull it off.
Let the one-upmanship begin!
Worth a visit to a theatre; the pyro-technics might make it more fun on the big screen.
Can you say sequel?
8 stars
THE LINCOLN LAWYER (2011):
Matthew McConaughey plays a slimy lawyer (with a conscious, of course) who finds himself in deep doo doo as his representation of a wealthy young man turns ugly. Is he innocent, is he being set up or is he a victim of circumstance? The ever-lovely Marisa Tomei plays a prosecutor (who also happens to be McConaughey’s ex); while she has to recuse herself from the case, it doesn’t stop her from helping...well, who is she helping? William H. Macy proves his worth as Matthew’s lead investigator.
Glad we didn’t spend time at the theatre for this one, but it’s worth a place on your movie queue.
6½ stars
Rooney Mara (she of the American The Girl With... movies) plays a depressed, young, married woman who only slides further into depression after her hunky husband (Tatum Channing) is released from prison after having served four years for insider trading.
After an initial suicide attempt, she’s aided by a New York psychiatrist, Jude Law, who eventually prescribes anti-depressant medication. When the drugs don’t seem to be helping, Law consults with a Connecticut psych who had treated her previously - Catherine Zeta-Jones - who suggests a new trendy drug.
But Mara’s life keeps spinning out of control - dragging Law down with her - and things start to get weird. The police get involved, and Zeta-Jones insinuates that Law’s efforts are less than professional.
Sure, the movie is depressing, but it’s a complex, psychological thriller that’s worthy of a place on your Netflix queue.
7½ stars
42: This is a baseball movie meant for all, fans and non-fans alike. While at times it had a sense of being a made-for-tv movie (and just averted slides into corniness), it is a powerful portrayal of the racism that Jackie Robinson endured when Branch Rickey (GM of the Brooklyn Dodgers) decided to bring a Negro into the Dodgers organization - and eventually to the major leagues.
Chadwick Boseman did an excellent job as Robinson - and Nicole Beharie as his wife, Rachel - but it might be Harrison Ford who will win a statue for bringing the iconic Rickey to life.
I did find a few baseball-related technical errors in the film, which, frankly, I don’t understand why their baseball consultants don’t ferret out. Let me know if you catch anything.
Definitely worth a trip to the theatre.
9 stars
AMOUR (2012): A French movie (it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film) that accurately portrays the angst of having one’s spouse slowly deteriorate in old age after suffering a stroke. It was depressing and haunting watching the care-giving spouse (in this case, the husband) attempting to retain the dignity of his life partner as she succumbs to death - especially because my mother went through a similar situation for several years before my father died last September.
I saw this one with my mother just before the Academy Awards, and while not perfectly aligned with her own situation, she was amazed and moved by the realism of the film.
This is not an uplifting film, but an excellent one nonetheless; worth a look on DVD.
8½ stars
MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE (2010): Dumpy, near-illiterate, good old boy Gerard Depardieu is outstanding in this role as an afternoon park companion to 95-year old Margueritte as they share their similarities (few) and their differences (many) while feeding the pigeons.
Depardieu is haunted by the way his mother, teachers and peers treated him as a child, but he is tender and touching with those around him, including his hot bus-driver girlfriend, house cat and pigeons, barmaid, bar mates - and his mom. You marvel and how he and the sophisticated Margueritte find companionship. And where it leads.
Worth a look on DVD. In French, with readable subtitles.
8½ stars
QUEEN TO PLAY (2009): Another mixing of the classes movie in subtitles as middle-aged chambermaid Helene confounds those around her with her new-found interest in playing chess. Was it simply watching the good looking young couple on vacation playing on their veranda as they gaze into each other's eyes? But when she discovers a chess set at the home of reclusive American writer Kevin Kline (where she works part-time as a maid), she demands he teaches her how to play. A bit cheeky, perhaps? She discovers a new independence as her skill improves.
A slow-moving but enjoyable film that relies on the beauty of the surrounding countryside of Corsica and the simpleness of the characters. Oh, and their complexities!
7 stars
HALF NELSON (2006): Ryan Gosling is a mess as an eclectic junior high school teacher with a drug habit who has difficulty (duh!) keeping his life on track. He forms an unusual - and inappropriate - relationship with a young student who has family and emotional problems of her own. This film tries to explore so many topics that it fails because it seems blinded by its own creepiness.
This is no To Sir With Love, but I sill expect some will call it ‘gritty and sensitive.’ Oh, well.
6 stars
THE PAPERBOY (2012): Nicole Kidman can still play a sultry, sex-obsessed seductress with the best of them. Here she has a yen for a prisoner who appears to have been convicted with bad evidence - but that doesn’t make the guy, wonderfully played by John Cusack, any less creepy. The Everglades setting brings a Deliverance quality to the surroundings.
Matthew McConaughey is an investigative journalist egged on by Kidman to help free her man.
Some very good acting - the scene is set in 1969 - but the story gets too weird too often, and it’s difficult to understand motivations. Then, not surprisingly, it gets ugly...and violent.
5 stars
PARKER: I’m a sucker for heist films, so this one had promise. But the violence inflicted on the protagonist, Jason Statham, got to the silly stage; he just kept going in spite of gunshot wounds, stab wounds and broken bones. C’mon! And he was a bad guy with a conscious? Good things dogs liked him, too.
Jennifer Lopez did a good job as the down-on-her-luck realtor working to get a big commission - but then when she got involved near the end it became just another “oh really?” moment. Nick Nolte played Statham’s father-in-law, another bad guy with a conscious who was stunned to learn that the bad guys he set up his son-in-law with turned out to be...well, bad!
Save your money, and don’t expect much if you see it on DVD (which could be soon). But you can certainly do worse.
5 stars
My Best of 2013
*Captain Phillips - 9½ stars
42 - 9 stars
The Way Way Back - 9 stars
*Gravity - 9 stars
Before Midnight - 9 stars
*Nebraska - 9 stars
*American Hustle - 9 stars
August: Osage County 9 stars
*Philomena - 9 stars
*Lone Survivor - 8½ stars
Inside Llewyn Davis - 8½ stars
*Dallas Buyers Club - 8½ stars
Fruitvale Station - 8½ stars
12 Years a Slave - 8 stars [Academy Award Winner]
*nominated for Best Picture
My Best of non-2013 films:
Searching for Sugar Man (2012) - 9½ stars [Best Documentary 2012]
The Sessions (2012)
My Afternoons with Margueritte (2010) - 8½ stars
Amour - (2012) [Best Foreign Film, 2012] - 8½ stars
Before Sunset (2004) - 8½ stars
Mud (2012) - 8½ stars
Senna (2010) - 8½ stars
