2009 Summer Movies

Summer always means lots of action-adventure mega movies, and this summer will be no exception with films like Angels and Demons, a new Terminator (like anyone needs that), and a "reimagining" Star Trek movie. Luckily there are some summer movies that pique my interest.

These look especially good:
Julie and Julia, loosely based on one of my sister’s favorite books about a woman who spends a year cooking recipes from Julia Child with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.
Cheri, Michelle Pfeiffer in a drama set in 1920’s Paris from director Stephen Frears
Away We Go, John Krasinksi and Maya Rudolf play a couple who are expecting their first baby and travel around the US visiting friends while looking for a place to live. The movie looks like it could be good and the fact that David Eggers wrote the screen play entices me.
Taking Woodstock, a look back at 1969 and the birth of Woodstock with Emil Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, and comic, Demetiri Martin.
Whatever Works, a Woody Allen film with Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood.
500 Days of Summer, potentially good romantic comedy with Zoey Deschanel.

Or maybe these comedies will be good?
Funny Peoples, Judd Apatow's film that stars Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman ...
Land of the Lost, with Will Ferrel
Year One, Jack Black as a cave man

Or this action pic?
Public Enemies directed by Michael Mann with Johnny Depp as John Dillinger -- looks like it could be good.

The Wrestler

I never liked Mickey Rourke as an actor. He has a smarmy quality that I find makes him unpalatable to watch. I never liked him in Body Heat. I never liked him in The Pope of Greenwich Village or Rumblefish, and I especially never liked him in the creepy 91/2 weeks. So I was surprised by how good I thought he was in The Wrestler – his acting seemed authentic and understated. I actually rooted for his character Randy the Ram to make a go of it despite the fact that he is a sorry excuse for a father and looks like a grotesque freak. I hoped that he would quit his horrible job of being battered about by other professional wrestlers and live a life of ease with the always likable Marissa Tomei. The movie itself is pretty predictable, but it is something to see Rourke in this role.

State of Play, the miniseries

State of Play is in theaters now with Russel Crowe, Ben Affleck, and Rachel McAdams. The movie is based on a BBC mini-series by the same name. I was very interested in this movie, loving a good newsroom story as I do, (see side bar for great newsroom movies) but thought that first I should see the miniseries. So I did. The BBC version is a 6 part series with great stalwart British actors such as Bill Nighy, and new on the scene super cute actors like James McAvoy. It tells the story of a friendship between a politician and a journalist and a murder of the politician,s lover. It’s a fast paced drama with intrigues around every corner and a team of journalists working together to solve the mystery. Kelly McDonald plays the Scottish cub reporter who is so darn cute (I can see Rachel McAdams in this part) and is great in the part. Bill Nighy as always is hilarious as the newspaper editor. This movie was pretty darn entertaining. It took a while to get used to the accents but in the end very enjoyable. I am now very curious about how they will make this 6 hour min-series into a 2 hour movie, Hollywood style. I’m sure it will not be as good, she said cynically, but I still want to see it.

Lost in Austen

I was so thrilled when I learned of Lost in Austen, the BBC miniseries. I mean who more than I, a devoted Jane Austen fan, would enjoy a fantasy trip to the world of Pride and Prejudice. Oh the possibilities, you could befriend the beloved Elizabeth, or tell off some vile character like Mrs. Bennet, Lady Catherine, or Mr. Collins. And indeed the 4 part miniseries indulges many of these fantasies; it thrusts 21st century Amanda Price into the Regency world where she navigates her way around ridiculous situations and the tried and true problems of time travel.
However, somewhere along the way this fantasy trip falls flat. Maybe it is because it tries to do too much. And more importantly it lacks what is best about Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth (she’s been catapulted to the future in place of Price’s character). The story goes too far and then doesn't offer explanations for many goofy plot turns. Why, for example, is Darcy taken to the future and then back in regency England and then forgets all about it? Also, Amanda Price doesn’t seem to have a central goal in the miniseries. She tries to manipulate the events in the story based on her knowledge of the novel and puts herself into a number of circumstances for comical reasons, but she never achieves her stated goal: to try to preserve the novel’s outcomes.
And the Darcy isn’t very good. That’s always the problem with any remake of Pride and Prejudice. Who can compete with Colin Firth’s version? (although I thought Matthew MacFadyen who was just seen BBC’s Little Dorrit, was a good Darcy) . One good point of the movie was the Mr. Wickam played by Tom Riley -- I liked the twist taken with his character and the clever way it was shown that our prejudices may have been wrong about him – plus the actor was much more interesting to look at than Darcy.
Overall, I thought, bummer, I wish it could have been better. But maybe there’s hope, and BBC will put Amanda Price into Persuasion where she will interact with Anne Elliot and tell off Anne’s awful sister Elizabeth.

Sabrina

An old favorite on TCM today. Gosh I love Audrey Hepburn. She has such a likable quality. What is it? She seems so genuine and angelic at the same time. She makes you root for her but not envy her. The problem always with this 1954 original version of Sabrina (it was remade in 1995 with Julia Ormond, Harrison Ford, and Greg Kinnear) is Humphrey Bogart. He and Hepburn just do not go together. An otherwise very good romantic comedy dashed because of this poor casting decision. But of course, it’s worth watching just to see the lovely Audrey Hepburn, but this movie is not as as good as say, Roman Holiday.

Doubt

I finally saw Doubt after having read about it, seeing actor interviews about it, and catching the Oscar hype. etc. So of course that colors the way you see a movie. Also, I watched it with my Catholic parents, coloring the view even further. My dad's reaction was, "Is this all it is about?" My mom hated that one of her favorite actresses, Meryl Streep, played such a negative character. Besides my mom enjoying some of the music (she sang along to a favorite hymn: "Holy God, We Praise my Name") and thinking that they did show a good side to the Catholic church in the movie -- we don't see the stereotypically awful harsh world of the Catholic church that is often portrayed in the movies -- she got bored with it. Indeed it was slow. The movie seemed like a stage play that maybe should have stayed on stage. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams were also very good in the movie. Hoffman's homilies were probably some of the more interesting parts of the movie. And the part that is in doubt? Well, it seemed kind of ridiculous in the end. It seemed like a nun who is always looking for evil and when not finding proof of it, invents it.

Frozen River

Frozen River is a little movie that probably nobody would have seen if it weren’t for the fact that Melissa Leo was nominated for best supporting actress for her role as Ray Eddy, a woman who is struggling to get by while trying to raise two children. To do that she makes a drastic decision to help another down on her luck character, Lila Littlewolf, smuggle people over the border between New York State and Canada by a Mohawk Indian Reservation. It’s a stark, cold splash of water on the face movie. One that you can sense from the outset is going to have a train wreck of an ending. Unpredictably, when the train wreck finally happens, it’s not as bad as you could imagine. For a movie that is about hardscrabble people with hardscrabble lives Frozen River is surprisingly uplifting. And the Oscar nominated Leo is fantastic (I remember loving her on Homicide, Life on the Street). Her son in the movie, Ray Eddy, is appealingly played by Charlie McDermott. And Misty Upham as Lila Littlewolf, is also great, deserving of a nomination as well, I thought.