Catch Up

She’s baaaack. I know, where would you be without knowing about ALL the movies I have seen in the last several months? I just searched my NetFlix Queue, Library Account information, and my brain to try to remember the few movies I saw in the theaters which, I think, were Moonrise Kingdom and Sleep Walk with Me. I’m annoyed with myself for letting my blog rest dormant for so long, but I will try to be better this winter. Of course, this list is really just for me. I always want to keep a list of all kinds of things: books read, witticisms, best TV shows, and what not. Therefore, keeping a public list is a way to keep myself more accountable. So I venture on keeping a list of ALL the movies I have seen. The list below is arranged from most recently seen and goes back all the way to the summer. Must sees will get a *****. All the other movies will merely get a snarky, reductive summary.

Friends with Kids -- kinda cute but ultimately dumb romantic comedy.
Next Stop Wonderland – You’d think a movie with Hope Davis and Phillip Seymour Hoffman would be good but this “smart” romantic comedy was also kinda dumb.

Sleep Walk with Me – Mike Birbiglia bio pic about his sleep disorder with help from This American Life’s Ira glass. It’ a likable movie, but I didn’t think it was a great one.

Drive – Come on, Ryan Gosling. What else do you need to know? He struts around intensely or should I say drives around in a strutting fashion.

Wallis & Edward – Madonna tells the oft told story of the king who abdicates his throne with and addition of an unnecessary modern-look-back angle.

Idiocracy – The comedic movie is kind of a mess but I appreciated the effort to show what a future of increasingly dumber and dumber people would look like. I think this movie makes same good points about our modern American society.

Bernie – I like Jack Black and I thought he did a good job as a real-life funeral director who waits upon the rich lady in town who is played by Shirley McClain. The highlight of this movie is definitely the real Texans who narrate the scandal in their kooky vernacular.

Moonrise Kingdom ***** love, love, want to see again from the man who brought you Rushmore but better than Rushmore I thought. So wonderfully weird!

The Hunger Games – read all three books this summer and was excited to see the movie. I also really like Jennifer Lawrence from Winter's Bone who plays Katniss. I guess I thought the movie was pretty good but ultimately don’t think it captured the books intensity and the main character’s coolness.

Higher Ground ***** -- I’m going to five star this movie even though I know that not all would enjoy it, but I thought Vera Farmiga’s role (she also directed) about a woman’s search for God in her life is so beautifully depicted (and does not denigrate a religious person as so many movies do) that it really makes this movie worth watching.

Flipped – cute little nostalgic romance between two preteens – now that I think about it, a romance between pretweens. That’s kind of weird.

Marley ***** I did write about this one already but worth repeating because it’s so awesome! “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”

Margaret ***** This lovely – tortured movie by writer director Kenneth Lonergan of You Can Count on Me (one of my favorite movies) is well worth watching. Anna Paquin plays a teen who really acts like a teen who encounters and has to learn to accept tragedy. The dialogue is so rich and compelling that I wanted to rewind and hear it again.

Sherlock Holmes – I got this at the library after watching the excellent PBS TV modern take on Holmes. This one with Robert Downey Jr. has a lot of flash but little substance.

Cinema Verite – is a fictionalized account of the making of a 70s PBS documentary called The American Family or one of the first reality TV shows. The movie stars Dianne Lane, James Gandolfini, and Tim Robbins who are kind of fun to watch in all their groovy 70s attire. The movie also sheds some light on the reality of reality TV.

Prime – a romantic comedy starring Merryl Streep, Uma Thurman, and as Streep’s son, the very cute Bryan Greenberg. Not great but not bad. Also, after watching this movie I got the HBO series How to Make it in America, also with Greenberg which I enjoyed.

We Bought A Zoo – I guess I kinda liked this sappy family drama. What are ya goin’ do?

Albert Nobbs – story of a cross dressing gay woman played by Glen Close during 19th Century Ireland. I found this movie just plain sad. Well acted but very grim.

Phew, feels good to be caught up!

Liven Up Yourself

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.”

Marley is a pretty straight forward biography of Bob Marley’s life, from being born of a white man in St. Ann Parish in Jamaica to his final treatments for melanoma in the mountains of Germany. This documentary doesn’t take many risks when telling us about the life of Bob Marley, but it does manage to infuse the movie with Bob’s irrepressible spirit. Or maybe it’s just that Bob’s lyrical music is playing throughout making it seem so joyous and sad at the same time. Knowing that this great man who had so much energy and musical genius, who had such an impact on not only the world of music but on issues relating to the poor and violence in his country, died at a mere 36 years old seems so very wrong and so sad. I couldn’t help loving Marley and don’t think it’s just because I love Bob Marley.

50 Best Movies on Netflix Instant from Paste Magazine

I thought this list was interesting. I particularly recommend Winter's Bone with Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games) and Half Nelson (Edgy teacher movie) with Ryan Gosling.

Tree of Life

I wanted to see Tree of Life, really I did. A person such as myself who likes to think she is up on all that’s cool, hip and now (in movies that is) should see Tree of Life. But it sounded kind of boring. So how did it stack up against my preconceived ideas? Well, it was kind of boring. Yes, it’s cool looking and all that – but on my small screen the awesome visuals could not make up for the inexplicable. For example: What is with the molten lava amid opera music? Views of space overlaid with whispered words — and then dinosaurs? I was like Wha? The whole experience reminded me of watching the animated Fantasia – a movie everyone praises for its loveliness, and I find torturous to watch (have I mentioned that I’m not a big fan of animation). Now, Tree of Life

has a narrative where a family is struggling after the death of one of their boys. There is good acting – I was especially drawn to the oldest as a boy who has an expressively sad face. But the director’s, Terrance Malick, decision to present the story with little dialogue where we merely get a glimpse on everyday scenes of their life, is frustrating. I think there is supposed to be a grand theme about the birth of life or some such thing, but man, I gotta have some plot!

Margin Call

Do you want to be annoyed/angered at the rich bastards who cavalierly rob the general public out of their meager dollars? Then Margin Call is the movie for you. Granted I don't understand half of what is going on about how the millions of dollars are blithely moved around by a phone call here or there, but I understood enough to be pissed off! Margin Call “follows the key people at an investment bank, over a 24-hour period, during the early stages of the financial crisis." (I quotes because I can't figure out how to explain this one) Stanely Tucci's character uncovers some major ef up that will apparently cost the regular Joe a financial crisis on the same day that he is getting fired for downsizing. Tucci's brilliant underling puts the pieces together and calls the big bosses, starting with high-powered characters played by Paul Bettany, Kevin Spacey, Simon Baker, Demi Moore (token female suit) and then the big, big gun Jeremy Irons. The big guns try to decide how to minimize the damage to the company before the public gets wind of the major ef up. At first I thought there was going to be a character who was going to act as a whistle blower – a heroic character whose conscience would get the get the better of him and he would risk all and call the newspaper and or some such thing but to no avail. These a-holes are way more worried about their own million dollar salaries than the impact their actions will have on society. Margin Call makes me want to occupy Wall Street!

Two Documentaries

Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
Documentaries can be so wonderful because there about real things and often tell stories that if they were fictional, no one would believe it. This is so true of Resurrect Dead. This movie tells the story of tiles, tiles that a mysteriously show up throughout the Eastern United States and South America.

(see a picture of one here) They show up on busy roads, smack dab in the middle of the road. Not only is this the story of cryptic tiles, but also it is the story of those who seek to solve the mystery of the tiles, in particular one man named Justin Duerr. While getting the answers to the mystery are worth watching this movie for, the portrayal of Duerr is another compelling part of the movie. He becomes obsessed in this kind of low key way. If an obsessed person can be low key, that is. I think this movie tells us something about the nature of obsession and what makes people pursue an endeavor that to others seems pointless. Suspense builds as Duerr and his companions get closer and closer to the answers of the tiles and while the answer may or may not be everything we hope for, we realize that the journey was pretty cool.

Project Nim
Project Nim is the story of one cute, sad, and abused little chimpanzee and the freaky folks who took turns trying to care for him. Nim starts out as a test subject in one university doctor’s effort to teach a chimp sign language. Nim’s first host family is a 7Os hippy mother who goes as far as to try to breast feed Nim but not discipline at all and Nim rules her strange household. The Doc in charge, who by the way previously had an affair with hippy mom, decides Nim needs a new home and finds a secluded mansion that he stocks with eager graduate students ready to teach Nim sign language. The egotistical doc has an affair with one of the students. Meanwhile Nim grows up gets violent and unruly. Finally, unable to care for him, the doc moves him again abandoning his language project. This time Nim is sent to a crazy place that houses chimps and does experiments on them. There’s more to Nim’s story and while I won’t give away the ending, it does end in a satisfying way, sort of. The movie is full of real people, most who turn out to be shmucks (from the documentarian’s perspective, of course) but a few turn out to be heroic in their small way.

Catch Up

Summer Vacation! A time when I can take a deep breath and slowly exhale! But before I can start watching a whole host of movies and TV series on DVD, I have to finally get around to writing about the movies I watched this Spring (some of these I actually watched as far back as January). Yikes.

So here they are:
Mildred Pierce: a two part HBO series that is a remake of a 1945 film of the same name. The title character is played by Kate Winslet as the mother who is both ambitious for herself and her daughter (Evan Rachel Wood -- she sure has played some freaky characters for such a young actress). I had heard the movie dragged but I liked it. I think it revealed what it might have been like to be a woman with ambitions in the 30s and 40s even though this particular woman was a tad off her rocker. Despite the craziness of some scenes or maybe because of it, this series was fascinating to watch.

50/50: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen play two randy young men about town. This movie starts out as a buddy movie but quickly turns toward a much more serious topic: cancer. Levitt’s character learns he has a rare cancer in his spine and has to learn to cope amid his hip-happening lifestyle. 50/50 is well acted and says something real about patients and friends who go through this diagnosis even if at times it seems overly trite on the topic.

Cedar Rapids – Ed Helms plays a lovable, naïve goof ball (similar to his Office character, actually) who is also a small town insurance agent who goes to the mid-sized town convention where he encounters all kinds of new experiences from silly to absurd. I was kind of ho-hum about this movie although it did have some original moments.

Secretariat – I did not see this movie when it first came out but was at the library so I thought what the heck. I liked it even if the script was full of cliché’s of the sports movie variety. Predictable but not the worst.

P.S. I Love You – dumb, sorry I watched it, but did watch the whole thing, so maybe it wasn’t that dumb. No, it was that dumb.

Like Crazy

– I had heard this naturalistic indie film about the romantic lives of two hipster-types was good. What I found was a painful trip through two not very likable characters kind of boring relationship. Did NOT like.

Zeigfield Girls (1941) – The CBS Sunday Morning Show profiled Heddy Lamarr who was a fascinating person: she was both one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood and a brilliant mathematician. After seeing this profile, I decided to watch one of her most famous movies, Zeigfield Girls. Every once in a while I like to watch an old movie just to remind me how far movies have come, especially in the way they portray women and minorities but in this film there are so many other fascinating weirdnesses for the modern eye. Heddy Lamarr plays a married woman who is forced to become a Zeigfield girl because she and her husband are near financial ruin. Her story is just one of many in the film of women who seek the dream of become one of these famous dancers. Others in this ensemble cast are the likes of Judy Garland, Lana Turner, and Jimmy Stewart.

Ides of March again

I watched Ides of March again. Such a great movie. It’s a movie that’s got it all. It’s got PLOT! It has political intrigue, character development, style, and, Ryan Gosling. What else do you want in a movie. I first saw it in the theatre and thought it seemed a little long, but today I watched it on DVD and found it trim and speedy (101 minutes, actually). This one belongs on my list of great political movies too!

Hereis my original blog entry:

Bad Teacher

“Hi, I’m a math terrorist with close ties to algebra; I have weapons of math instruction.”

“You are going to get your teachin’ on!”
-- Amy Squirrel from Bad Teacher

Bad Teacher almost reaches the heights of getting on my list of favorite edgy teacher movies – I mean it is hilarious in parts and shows the absurdity of middle schools and teachers and just teaching in general– Cameron Diaz as Elizabeth Halsey is quite funny as the bitchy, self-centered teacher who is indeed in it for summers off and nothing more. She shows movies all the time; she has a false drawer in her desk with booze and drugs; she doesn’t know any of her students’ names. My favorite part, probably because I’m an English teacher myself, happens after she learns that she could earn a bonus if her students do well on the state test. So when she finally decides to actually try to teach To Kill A Mocking Bird she gives essays where she writes on them “stupid” and “stupider” and worse and has her class visit the gym where she wails a basketball at kids who give the wrong answer.

But, unfortunately, Bad Teacher misses comedic perfection in a lot of ways. The screen play is not very tight with throw away scenes here and there and a shameful underuse of some great character actors like Molly Shannon, Jillian Armenante (I always she think she’s hilarious in anything she’s in), and Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family). Plus, the student scenes in the movie are not very well developed.

But even with all those flaws, I got some big laughs out of Bad Teacher, and, you know, I just might add it to the list.

Skateland

Skateland is a little indie flick with no big name actors that takes a stab at being the next nostalgic coming of age drama taking place in the early 1980s. It’s about a recent high school graduate Ritchie Wheeler who works at a roller rink and is stymied by indecision about his future. The sound track, Blondie, New Order and the like really brought me back to my high school years, and I enjoyed taking the wistful trip. It’s not a very original movie but it is well acted, especially by the lead actor Shiloh Fernandez who is not only adorable but has that je ne sais quoi quality. I predict future stardom for this young feller.

Win Win: Guest Entry

Friends Beth and Bruce both enjoyed Win Win as did I. Here are their thoughts on the movie:

I loved Paul Giamatti"s character and his wife played by Amy Ryan and the wrestler played by Alex Shaffer (an actual high school wrestler by the way), but I especially loved the friend of the main character played by Bobby Cannavale. I thought the movie was a good mixture of funny, real-life, and a little cheese. Bruce (former wrestler himself) said the wrestling practices were realistic and well done. I’m looking for a teenage wrestler to add to my family. Win Win was entertaining without being too preachy.

P.S.
I have been thinking about the title of Win Win. Both the wrestler and coach were kind of losers according to their own moral compasses before they met each other and then they influence each other into a win, win situation for both of them by doing what is right in the end.

This Means War -- Guest Entry

I went to Reese Witherspoon's latest with my niece while in New York. Her thoughts on the movie are below:

I thought it was a chick-flick gone good. The first ten minutes in I thought "here we go again, another predictable plot"...but it was refreshingly different. I really liked how they didn't have the movie move at such a linear pace but rapidly moved through time displaying highlighting scenes.
Both of the men were good looking and charming and made it difficult to root for just one. I personally found Reese a little annoying in the movie because I find her to act kind of ditzy in comedies...not authentic. But it was fun and I was pleasantly surprised!

Seeing the David Letterman Show

I was just in New York City visiting my niece and I had a list of things I wanted to do: a few of which were see either David Letterman or Jon Stewart’s show. The Daily Show , I learned, was very tricky to get into although my niece and I did give it a try by standing in a line outside of the studio before we learned from a young fellow in line that we needed to be already on a list – I guess it involves signing up on the Internet to get into a lottery, then going to stand in line at the approved time, and then maybe getting in. La di dah to you John Stewart, I say.

Getting into Letterman was easier. After doing a little research on the Internet, I got in a line outside the Ed Sullivan Theater at around 9 AM, filled out an application, and then had to meet a young page behind a partition who asked me a couple of questions: How long have you been watching Letterman? What is your favorite part of the show? I guess they were trying to find truly excited fans, so I pretended to be one. Don’t get me wrong, I am a true fan but had to fake the super excited part. I realized that I was lucky I showed up on a Thursday when they tape two shows, Thursday and Friday night’s show on the same day since my likelihood of getting on were increased. The lady behind the partition said she would call within the next couple of hours. I wasn’t sure if I should risk going on the subway since my phone would be out of reach but I gave it a try and headed toward the 911 memorial site. While I was in line, I got a call saying I was on and had to show up at 3:30 that afternoon.

When I got there before 3:30, I walked by the side door and saw a phalanx of photographers waiting for someone to come out – worried that I would be late – I didn’t wait to find out who it was but learned later it was Kristen Chenoweth who was on for the earlier taping. I ended up 3rd in a snake like line outside of the studio with some eager New Yorkers in front of me and some rowdy Australians behind me. We waited about a half hour only to be given a number and told to come back in an hour, exactly, and get in the same line in the same order. And they told us that once in the studio we can’t use the bathroom. So what to do for the next hour that does not involve drinking any liquids? We were told we could use the bathroom in the bar next door – I’d have to save that for right before getting back in line – a book store would have been nice but there was none in the area, so I walked around looking in windows, thinking about beverages.

Once back, too early it seems, I hung out with an older couple from Philly, who were nice and kind of funny – they were doing a little bickering so I tried to distract them by asking them questions. The husband told me about all the greats Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet etc. – he seemed luke warm on Letterman. This line now was inside the studio and seemingly lasted for over an hour, it maybe wasn’t that long. While in the line, we had to listen to a couple of pages, standing on a table blathering loudly over a microphone trying to get the crowd revved up. The pages trying- to-hard-to-be-funny pep talk was blaring while Philly guy talked over them about the greats – he got shushed a few times but didn’t seem to notice. Meanwhile some VIPs passed through some double doors – mainly they were younger, hipper, and better dressed people who didn’t have to listen to the annoying pages. Finally we too passed through those doors and got in a line behind the VIPs, a little more waiting and AT last we made it into the studio.

Once in the sparkly theatre with the elaborate set of New York behind the desk, the whole event ceased being annoying and was just plain cool. My Philly friends and I were in the front row, right behind the band. I could even rest my weary feet on the stage. First more pep talks but this time from an actual funny comedian who works for the show, then the band came in and they were great! They looked larger than life and sounded great --Paul dressed as quirkily as ever, and Felicia Collins wearing what looked like a black leather top hat with a long leather coat, right there in front of me. As we were informed, before the show Dave may take a couple of questions from the audience and then he will use that question to rip on that audience member during his monologue. Wouldn’t you know that the eager fellow who got his question in was from Minnesota. His rather long-winded question related to a time long ago when he saw Al Franken – Dave asked him if he voted for Franken and he said that he was a Republican which Dave then mocked during the monologue, and I believe compared him to Satan. The interesting thing about the preshow Dave is that he seemed warmer and friendlier than show Dave who never loses his biting commentary.

Wait, I haven’t even talked about the show yet, wow THIS is getting to be long winded. (somebody must be having a snow day) Anyway, the show consisted of monologue – rip on Santorum etc. --, Dave at the desk with some silly stuff, Top Ten, not a great one, and then highlight for me was the very cute Matthew Broderick who says he is almost 50 but definitely does not look it, and he also does not look all stretched out like he had plastic surgery. He was charming and great. Then a not very good comedian, I thought, and then the band “We are Augustines” singing “Chapel Song” who I really enjoyed.

So there you have it in too many words. Summary: it was annoying getting into the The Late Show with David Letterman, but being at the show was super fun!

The Lincoln Lawyer

Matthew McConaughey is a tough, street wise lawyer who is chauffeured about in a Lincoln town car. After a little set up where we get to know his tough guy character, the schmoozing with thugs and charming his ex-wife, played Marissa Tomei, we get to the meat of the movie. It’s a case about a wealthy playboy being accused of brutally beating a woman who he met at a bar that night. Ryan Phillipe is great as the the playboy who is smarmily suspicious. The case is the best part of the movie and worth the price of admission (or worth the trip to library in my case). It’s a likable movie with some cool twists, but probably not one that will stay with me.

Friends with Benefits

I heard this one was good – I heard that it breaks the romantic comedy mold. I heard wrong. I like a good romantic comedy, but this one seemed pretty tired (there were a few bright moments). I’ve liked Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis in other movies, but this movie did not live up to its hype. Strange fact about this movie, it has TWO flash mobs. WEIRD! And they were so forced and awkwardly placed in the movie. And I think the movie may now have killed the flash mob trend. At least I hope so.

My Week with Marylin

Michelle Williams is amazing. She embodies Marylin Monroe in this film that explores a week in the making of the movie The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), a somewhat cheesy film with Laurence Olivier and Marylin Monroe. The story is told from the perspective of a recent Oxford grad Colin Clark, played by Eddie Redmayne. He’s gaga for Marylin even though she is boozy and airy and seems barely able to feed herself, much less act much to the aggravation of her fellow actor and director Laurence Olivier played by Kenneth Branagh. Seeing Williams in this role is worth the price of admission in my opinion. My movie companions, on the other hand, found the movie a little boring and were tired of the infatuated Colin drooling every time Marylin came into the room. So there’s that perspective too.

My Week with Marylin

Michelle Williams is amazing. She embodies Marylin Monroe in this film that explores a week in the making of the movie The Prince and the Showgirl, a somewhat cheesy film with Laurence Olivier and Marylin Monroe. The story is told from the perspective of a recent Oxford grad, Colin Clark, played by Eddie Redmayne. He’s gaga for Marylin even though she is boozy and airy and seems barely able to feed herself much less act much to the aggravation of her fellow actor and director Laurence Olivier played by Kenneth Branagh. Seeing Williams in this role is worth the price of admission in my opinion. My movie companions, on the other hand, found the movie slight and were tired of the infatuated Colin drooling every time Marylin came into the room. So there’s that perspective too.

The Names of Love

I liked the concept of the film The Names of Love (the French title is Le Nom des Gens, The Name of People): a very French romantic comedy where the heroine is passionate about politics and her endeavor is to convert fascist men, or her view of a fascist man, by seducing one at a time. She even has a scrap book detailing her conversions. No Hollywood film would mix romantic comedy with a bit of fascism. Right away, though, she mistakes an old-fashioned man named Arthur Martin for a conservative – he’s actually a socialist (I don’t Hollywood even allows socialists to be in films). Anyway, a very screwball romantic comedy ensues. In some ways it is formulaic comedy but in many ways it isn’t at all. I liked it.

Beginners

I thought Beginners was going to be funny, light and bright – the interviews and promos emphasized the humor --, but in truth it is a really sad movie. I thought it was going to be primarily about the relationship between the newly out father and his son (Ewan MacGregor and Christopher Plummer) but it actually centers around the relationship between the son with a new woman (French actress Melanie Laurent) who tries to help him deal with the grief over losing his father. ( It was nice to see a film explore the grief over the death of a parent – I can’t think when I have seen an adult child mourning over a parent in a film before) The only humor in the film comes in the form of a Jack Russel Terrier the son inherits after his father’s death. Even though I am not really a dog person, I often enjoy pets in films (see Young Victoria ) Anyway the son carries on witty conversations with the dog and the dog leans in and listens intently – it’s cute. Again, this is the only light moment in the movie.

The movie is based on Mike Mills’ own story which I heard him describe in a Fresh Air interview and it is really quite fascinating. His academic father came out after the death of his mother. He tried to help his father negotiate the modern world and accept his father’s new young boyfriends. However, the story that Mike Mills told in the interview is more interesting than the story he told in the film. I think the way the film is set up which is all in flashbacks and centers more on his new relationship with a damaged woman than to me the more interesting relationship between the father and the son. Ewan MacGregor, Christopher Plummer, and Melanie Laurent are great in the main roles, but I think I still didn’t enjoy this movie very much. Maybe it is a case of Beginners not living up to my expectations.