The Descendants

Ennh. I didn’t like it so much. It’s another movie that does not live up to its advertising. It has some good moments – the girls are great! The boyfriend is hilarious and there should have been more of him. It has all the elements for a great movie, but it just sort of limped along. My most persistent thought throughout the movie was, I want to go to Hawaii! Beee-u-TEE -ful!

Young Adult

Charlize Theron is great as Mavis, a depressed, narcissistic beauty who thinks she can cure her loneliness by returning to the small town she grew up and hook up with her old high school boyfriend. The boyfriend, unfortunately for her, is happily married and a new father. Once back in town she runs into another high school alum Matt, played by Patton Oswald, who is an equally big loser but in a very different way. The two, form a strange duo with Patton’s character acting as advisor to the willowy, stupid Mavis. There’s a feeling of unease that descended upon me as the movie moved toward its ending. Surely one of those cringe worthy painfully embarrassing moments was lurking around the corner. Some people can’t stand this movie recipe: lots of character study, only a dash of plot, a soupcon of humor, and some naked realism. I am not one of those people. I liked the mixture.

Two Movies in one Day

Today I went to Ides of March and was told that with my ticket I could also go to Moneyball for free. It seems excessive to go to two movies in the theater in one day I know, but what the heck. And I must say I enjoyed myself a lot. Both movies are good.

Ides of March has everything I like in a movie: politics, character-driven drama, and, of course, Ryan Gosling. And it is also unpredictable. In the beginning Ryan Gosling’s character is idealistic claiming he has to believe in the candidate he’s working for. Gosling’s character Stephen Meyers, is working for presidential candidate is the seemingly virtuous Governor Mike Morris played by George Clooney. The outcome, I thought, will be obvious: something will happen to shake his belief in the governor - - he will betray him (et Brutus, anyone?) and then come out the other side scathed but repentant having learned a valuable lesson. But, happily, the end came as a surprise when our dear campaign worker takes an unexpected turn, and it’s fascinating to watch. The movie is a bit too long, but overall a great story with great acting.

Moneyball, the movie I was not intending to watch (It’s rarely my first choice to watch a sports’ movie), was unexpectedly charming and equally as compelling – and too long in parts too! Why are movies these days always too long? Anyway that’s another topic. I liked Brad Pitt in this movie – He plays the general manager of the Oakland As who employs a nerdy statistician from Yale to help him hire unappreciated but potentially valuable players. The movie has its sports clichés for sure – underdogs get beat up but triumph against all odds, blah, blah … but the character that Brad Pitt plays, Billy Beane who is based on a real guy, is given more to do than give inspirational speeches and look pretty; he makes the character believable and real.

On a side note, the commonality between the two movies, besides being two well acted realistic dramas, is Philip Seymour Hoffman. In Ides of March he plays the campaign manager who’s jaded but has integrity and in Moneyball he plays the constantly pissed off manager of the As who’s made to look like a jerk. He’s good in both and his presence always a good sign in a movie, I think.