A Few Others

Originally I was thinking I would write a list of all the other movies that I have seen in the past few months but after checking out my Netflix DVD activity and racking my brain for the movies I saw in the theater, I could only come up with the following few: What's happening to Mary? I'd like to say she is spending more time in contemplation and reading but that would probably not be true.

The Sessions: strange little film that I saw because the lead actors were nominated for a Oscar, so I wanted to see it. It is from the perspective of a poet who is also living in an iron lung and trying to find love. It is nice film and it gets you thinking. As a side note, it also has a rare positive film depiction of a priest.

Enough Said: Another rarity, a romantic movie about oldish people, or maybe that's a trend now? thinking of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Anyway, Enough Said does a good job of depicting the issues people have when after failed marriages and empty nest fears, they struggle to find companionship. I love Julia Louis Dreyfus and she is almost perfect in this movie but was sorry that she was made to behave in a really immature/ insecure way in this movie, and I can't decide if it was realistic or not. No spoilers here, but it is kind of appalling. Also, James Gandolfini is great as the lumpy paramour.

Hello I Must Be Going: another little film about a recently divorced woman in her 30s regaining her confidence in the arms of a 19-year-old. Other the age disparity twist, the movie is pretty conventional. It has though a nice performance from Melanie Lynskey who I was reminded was the young New Zealander opposite Kate Winslet in Heavenly Creatures when she was just 15 years old. That was a great movie!

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.

Cyrus

For at least the first ½ hour of Cyrus, I had a frozen grimace on my face. Embarrassing and disgusting things kept happening. Would the big goofy depressed John (John C. Riley) win over the beautiful Molly (Marissa Tomei)? Yes, inexplicably. Would he then be able to win over Molly’s strange man-child son, Cyrus (Johan Hill)? Well, not sure. A lot of things don’t seem to make sense in this movie. Least of all why Jaime (Catherine Keener) continues to support and listen to John’s paranoid ranting even while she is planning for her wedding. I know it sounds like I didn’t like this movie, and sure there were parts I found unlikeable, but it definitely held my interest and had moments of sweetness. Yeah, and that grimace, it reappeared on and off throughout the movie.

More Travel Viewing

In flight viewing:
Long flights mean lots of strange viewing of movies and TV shows that you may never get a chance to see otherwise. I tried a French, Little House on the Prairie style TV show, and a Curb Your Enthusiasm-like show – BUT much less funny. And the following films:

Another Year – I never even finished this movie because the plane landed, but I wanted to finish it! I’m going to wait until it’s on Netflix instant play. Another Year is a Mike Leigh film, the director known for having his actors improvise the dialogue after months of studying the character. This film is about a British couple whose house is the center of the social life for friends and family, and they are some dysfunctional friends for sure, especially Mary played by Leslie Manville who is flighty and ridiculous and lonely. The movie is in four episodes – one in each season of the year. As I am writing about this I am even more curious to find out what happens in the last scene but worried after I read, “The last scene is quite devastating.” Yikes, what could that be about?

Inception – probably not the best film to watch on an airplane, especially when there are many distractions surrounding me, the food cart, the dude next to me buying duty free big bottles of alcohol etc. Anyway, I tried my best to figure out what Leonardo was doing as he was flying around different dimensions or what cute Ellen Page was doing as she was falling to the ground in slow motion in a smart white parka outfit. I know people say that the LOOVE this movie but I didn’t get it. It seemed like it had one trick that they kept replaying, but as I said, I was distracted.

Post Travel Viewing
My Life in Ruins – A friend from work recommended this movie --another romantic comedy from Nia Vardalos of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame. And since I just visited Greece and am in love with all things Greek (the Parthenon, feta cheese, tziki sauce, priests with high hats) she suggested My Life in Ruins. I really enjoyed the tourist element of this movie – it is obviously filmed right at the amazingly beautiful ancient ruins in Greece, and there were some funny moments in the film but the romance is a little dull. I definitely recommend it for those who just got back from Greece though. It was full of all the wonderful things I liked about Greece.

Tamera Drew – British movie about a writer’s colony and the village surrounding it. Very underwhelming.

Winter's Bone and Georgia O'Keefe

Winter’s Bone is a little movie about a group of impoverished people living in the Ozarks whose life is corrupted by a community of scary kin who cook meth. In the center of this mess is a girl whose father is missing and his failure to show up for court will lead to the family losing their land. Ree (played by previously unknown to me, Jennifer Lawrence) is responsible for her younger brother and sister and her mute and sketchy mother. This amazing girl, Ree, stomps through the treeless winter hills with a stubborn purpose while encountering some seriously freaky people, one of whom is her own uncle, her father’s brother. At first it is hard to tell whose side her uncle(played by John Hawkes from Deadwood), strangely named teardrop, is on. But Ree unflinchingly carries on – trying to figure out what has become of her father. I liked this movie for a couple of reasons: Ree is interesting to watch and it not obvious where this movie is heading– happily no Hollywood blueprint to follow.

I also recently saw the Lifetime TV movie, Georgia O’Keefe. You’d think a movie starring two heavy hitters like Jeremy Irons and Joan Allen would be impressive, but it was actually kind of bland. Still, I enjoyed learning about the artist and her older lover, the photographer, Aurthur Stieglitz, who according to this movie was kind of a jerk. Despite interesting fodder for a movie, Georgia O’Keefe fell flat.

Please Give

I’ve thought a lot about Please Give since I saw it. Am I one of those people? By one of those people I mean liberal, socially conscious, but down deep caught up in meaningless grasps for stuff: property, furniture,decorative items, spray tans etc. (Well, I know I am not interested in spray tans!) The movie revolves around a married couple who buy and sell used furniture, waiting for old folks to die and then visiting their New York apartments looking for treasures. Meanwhile the couple played by Elizabeth Keener and Oliver Platt hope to expand their New York apartment after a cranky old lady next door dies. Perhaps, the one genuinely giving person in the movie is one of the old lady’s granddaughters, Rebecca played by Rebecca Hall (you may recall her from her great role in Vicky Christina Barcelona) who cares for her grandmother despite having to listen to her demeaning comments every time she visits. All in all, Please Give is a very thought-provoking movie.

In the Loop

In the Loop, the sometimes hilarious British political satire, makes politicians out to be ridiculous boobs. Tom Hollander as Simon Foster is hilarious as the foot-in-his-mouth minister to the Prime Minister and his boss, played by Peter Capaldi, swears a blue streak and is mean in a very funny and belittling way. The action moves to Washington where we get a look at some boobs on the other side of the pond. They are all trying to start a war or stop a war or be neutral on the war. You definitely hope that our political system works a lot better in real life.

At times In the Loop is a little bewildering -- the British accents and the political maneuverings move around in circles -- but it is well worth seeing if for nothing else than for some good laughs.

I almost saw Into Temptation

Patrick Coyle, director and writer of Into Temptation, was in Duluth to discuss his Minnesota-made movie. The movie was at the Zinema, our town's great new independent movie theater. At the start of the movie, the director sat on the aisle steps. The movie begins with Father John listening to a parishioner in the confessional complain about her husband. Then . . . skip . . .skip . . .skip. The disc kept skipping like a bad movie night in your living room. Coyle ran out to see what was happening and then returned apologizing and saying he would pop over to his car and get another disc. A director who has an extra movie at the ready seemed handy and kinda weird. Then after a few minutes of disc 2, skip, ... skip,... No director appeared to apologize. The audience sat for about 20 more minutes before starting to file out of the theater. We got our money back but wondered what the deal was. It's too bad too since the 30-40 minutes of the movie I saw (parts from the beginning, middle, and end, by the way) was pretty good. Jeremy Sisto (of Law and Order and Six Feet Under) plays a gentle Catholic priest who tries to help a woman who has confessed that she plans to kill herself. But what actually happened at the Zinema last night? Who knows?

An Examined Life

In An Examined Life 7 philosophers speak about the meaning of life while walking through a particular city scene. When I went to the movie I had no idea what it was about, and slowly came to the realization that it was a well-filmed, hour and a half philosophy class. Sound interesting? Surprisingly it was. But this unique movie going experience took some getting used to. You had to put on your student hat. Spicing up the instruction is the witty Cornell West who frames the movie by appearing three times and entertaining with his snappy though somewhat incomprehensible banter.

As an aside, I am thrilled that my smallish city has gotten a new independent movie theater called the Zinema where I saw this quirky film. Now I don't have to travel to see new off-beat movies.

Big Fan

Big Fan tells about a crazed Giant's fan whose run in with his favorite player, QB Quantrelle Bishop, turns ugly. Paul, played by Patton Oswald, who is surprisingly good, loves his dear Giants so much that he calls into a sports’ radio talk show after each game and reads his enthusiastic thoughts about how AWESOME the Giants are while his mom yells at him from the next room. He and his equally nut-job friend watch Sunday’s game while sitting in the parking lot with a TV plugged into their car battery. The disturbing incident involving the QB, is what leads to the rest of the events of the movie, so I won’t tell them here, but suffice it to say that his reaction to the bizarre events are unexpected and squirm producing. In fact, that is one of the things I liked about this movie. It is unpredictable. You do not know what is going to happen, and I kept wondering if we were going to get a gratifying Hollywood ending. It’s no joy ride, just so you know. Paul is a sad, aggravating character whose actions defy reason. Also, there are way too many long, intense, music-filled scenes that are supposed to show us some grand theme? Emotion? Not sure, but these scenes seemed gratuitous. Despite these flaws, Big Fan makes an important statement about how our society can make idolatry into the reason for living. And that’s the really disturbing part.

Sunshine Cleaning

Sunshine Cleaning seems like it is going for a Little Miss Sunshine vibe -- quirky regular folk who are striving to better their lives in unexpected ways – but this Sunshine movie isn’t near as charming or fun as that other one. Sunshine Cleaning even has an adorable weird kid and a curmudgeonly Alan Arkin, though he is not quite as caustic as his character in LMS. The movie definitely has great actors, besides Arkin, Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, and Steve Zahn. Adams and Blunt play two sisters who try to make some big cash by cleaning out the homes of someone who just died. It’s pretty gross. Both roles are interesting and well acted and Steve Zahn who I love! Only has a minor and not very interesting role. The movie seems like it should be really good but unfortunately it’s just so-so.

Hodge Podge

I have actually seen four movies in the last week, but haven't been keeping up very well with ye olde blog. So here's a quick synopsis starting with last Friday night when I was watching a DVD with my niece Holly . . .
Charlie Wilson's War: Holly could barely pay attention to this political movie, what with all the texting and facebooking. I tried my best but also was a little distracted by the world of the Internet. And quite frankly it was a tad boring. I thought the concept, a war started in Afghanistan by huge American egos, was fascinating and learned a something, but I had trouble sustaining my attention. Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour Hoffman were good in it, though.
Rachel Getting Married: I dragged Holly and three friends to this movie and regretted it. One friend said, "I never would have seen that movie if I knew what it was about." All four found it to be a real downer. Yet, I wanted to see it -- you know my penchant for anything Indie. Sure it was depressing and odd all at the same time. Oh, and irritating, note the bizarre dishwasher filling competition, and you will wonder what the deal is with these psuedo-intellectual weirdos. Yet, I thought Anne Hathaway was really good in it, and there were some genuine moments in the film and some really good music. Oh, and some annoying music too. The genuine moment came in the cold way Hathaway's mother played by Debra Winger politely dismissed her daughter as she left the reception -- that was painful to watch. So sorry friends for putting you through that, but you know.
In Bruges: is a violent black comedy with Colin Ferrel, Brendan Gleeson, and Ralph Fiennes, and it really was violent, but also funny. I couldn't imagine how a story of three paid assassins who have a strange holiday in Bruges, could possibly be funny, but it is. Worth seeing. and Bruges is incredibly beautiful.
Jodhaa Akbar: Finally, today I saw a 16th century, three hour Hindustani epic with subtitles. How does that grab you? Well, if you want to learn a little about Indian history in a toned down Bollywood style, you might like this, but I doubt it.

One Year Anniversary of Mary's List

I am pleased to say that Mary's List has been around for a year, and I achieved my goal of posting at least once a week, sometimes more. After reviewing my blog, (while I was adding labels so you, the reader, could search my blog) I noticed a few trends. First off, apparently this was the year of Ryan Gosling--I have seen more than a handful of movies featuring him. Second, I watch my fair share of movies in French. Finally, I watch a lot of "independent" movies, whatever that means. Actually, I think it means "arty" FILMS and believe me it does not always mean they are good. Probably, I read a review or saw a preview of spme little known film and thought I MUST see it. I guess, I keep trying to find that perfect movie. And I will keep reporting my findings. Thanks for reading, Mary

The United States of Leland

In my effort to see more and more Ryan Gosling movies, I watched The United States of Leland that came out in 2004. The movie has several other great actors such as Kevin Spacey, Don Cheadle, and the young talented Jenna Malone, but despite such talent, the movie is a muddle of story lines just started and not ending anywhere. From the beginning of the movie we find that the young Leland, Gosling, has inexplicably killed a special needs child. Leland seems lost and detached but also gentle. Gosling gives him a sort of airy-like quality which helped me become invested in the question of why he would kill. Don Cheadle's character is also interesting in the movie but his character seems a little mixed up. Worth seeing for all, probably not. For Ryan Gosling fans? Probably!

Weird romance meets the G8 conference

I found another odd movie at the library. (You gotta love your local library!) It's called The Girl in the Cafe, and it is strange in that it is about a May-December romance and discussions of world poverty with the back drop of Iceland and the G8 conference. Bill Nighy, a great comedic actor who was was the aging rocker in Love Actually, plays Lawrence who works in finance for the British government and is trying to push for more aid to 3rd world countries, meanwhile he meets Gina, played by Kelly McDonald (beautiful actress who pops up in your odd British comedy now and again) in a cafe and a really odd, hesitant romance begins. It seems odd they are together and stranger still that she becomes an activist of sorts right in the middle of their tryst in Iceland. I'm glad I saw it but not necessarily worth seeing if your movie watching time is short.

I'd like to start some kind of ratings system for movies I see, but not sure how to go about it. Any thoughts, loyal readers :) All 2 or 3 of you.