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.

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.

Catch Up

What? Is it November already? School started and I became engulfed by work, work, work. I hardly got a chance to go to any movies or see any at home. Poor me. I thought about abandoning this List altogether – I mean really what’s the point? But, I guess there must some point because here I go with a few brief thoughts about the movies I saw in the past few months.
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold: This Morgan Spurlock documentary examines the pervasiveness of advertising in our world today. Even though this is a topic that has always interested me, I did think the movie revealed anything that new or interesting.
Everything Must Go: Will Ferrel plays a sad sack kicked out of his house and living in his front yard. There’s a cute kid a beautiful woman (the lovely Rebecca Hall) and a meager plot and yet I liked it, but not wowed.
Barney’s Version: life story of an unlikeable guy (Paul Giamatti) doing unlikeable things, blah.
The Conspirator: I like historical fiction and historical movies. The tale of one woman who was associated with the assassination of Lincoln sounds pretty good, eh? Despite having super cute James McAvoy, this movie too, is kinda blah.
I also watched Dexter season 4 (creepy), Treme, Season 1 (Not the Wire, but good), Lark Rise to Candleford (BBC miniseries, schlocky)

A Serious Man

A Serious Man, the Cohen brother’s forage into a 1960s Minneapolis Jewish community, is serious! And the movie asks some serious questions about a man’s worth. Larry Gopnick is put through the mill while facing moral dilemmas like should he pay for your wife’s boyfriend’s funeral, change a student’s grade for money, lust after his neighbor’s wife. He lets everyone kick him around throughout the movie until, it seems, after he gives advice to his even more hapless brother and says, “Sometimes you have to help yourself.” I said yes, Larry, help yourself! So towards the end of the movie he seems to gain a little more strength, but since it’s a Cohen Brother’s movie, he keeps getting slapped around. A Serious Man gives a lot of food for thought while being mostly drudgery to sit through.