The Time Traveler's Wife

I had read bad reviews of this movie but still wanted to see it since I read the book. The Time Traveler’s Wife manages to take the exciting concept of time travel and make it boring. Even the ever radiant and cute Rachel McAdams, the time traveler’s wife, is not very interesting. In the book, the relationship between the wife and the traveler played by Eric Bana in the movie, is passionate, in the movie, enhhh. The best part of the movie comes when the cute little girl shows up, and that’s the last 20 minutes of the movie.

Adam

Hugh Dancy is Adam, a man-child who has aspergers. Rose Byrne is Beth, his new neighbor who is strangely fascinated by Adam and begins an awkward romance with him. A romance that starts with lines from Adam like, Were you sexually excited last night? The movie is funny and sad. I thought more sad than funny, but worth watching, mainly to see the great acting, especially Dancy. And I think the movie makers treated the difficult to understand condition of Aspergers with sensitivity and insight.

Greenberg

Noah Baumbach, maker of a The Squid in the Whale and Margot at the Wedding, gives us Greenberg, another look at and unhappy people and their ugly human qualities. While it’s not quite as funny nor is the plot as well-crafted as The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg, played by Ben Stiller, did get me thinking about aging and people’s futile grasps at meaning. Greenberg is so self-involved you want to slap him. He is house-sitting at his brother’s house while recovering from a nervous breakdown. He has nothing much to do but fills his day with meaningless tasks such as writing mundane complaint letters and making a dog house. He then decides to inflict his downer self onto Florence, his brother’s personal assistant, a victim who she allows Greenberg to verbally abuse her. Sounds fun, huh? Maybe not fun but revealing. The movie dissects a type of person who has no values, who is depressed, and lacks self-awareness, who may learn a little something at the end. If you like a character-driven movie, where the character is a jerk, then you may like Greenberg.

Movie Catch Up

I've been absent from my blog for quite a while. Some of that time I was in Ecuador and did in fact watch a lot of movies. A few on the airplane and a few of the unlicensed variety. Here's the recap:

Airplane movies: captive audiences who have nothing better to do than watch one the follow ennhhh movies!
Old Dogs -- This movie was actually shown TWICE on my way down and it is TERRIBLE! If I were Robin Williams or Jon Travolta I would try strike this movie off my resume. Super dumb!
My One and Only -- Renee Zellweger as aging beauty queen with two sons in the 1950s. This movie wasn't terrible but just kind of boring. I liked the sons played by Logan Lerman and Mark Rendell.
Hachiko, A Dog's Story: Richard Gere's character happens upon a cute little puppy from Japan in this heart warming tale about dog love. Right up my alley, not. But actually it wasn't that bad but it was no Marley and Me.

Movies from the streets of Quito, a.k.a pirated
The Blind Side: I can see why this movie is so popular. How can you not like that big guy Michael and root for his success?
Agora: The beautiful Rachel Weisz plays Hypatia, a Roman philosopher, astronomer, and atheist who studies at the ancient library at Alexandria. This movie was really fascinating and spurred a lot of Google searches.
The Lightning Thief: I enjoyed this "Kids" movie. Not having read the books, the teacher in me, liked the modern take on Greek mythology.
Invictus -- I forgot Invictus. The movie about a South African rugby team and Nelson Mandela. Very interesting and I enjoyed learning about what was going on in South Africa at this time. Morgan Freeman's Nelson Mandela is the price of admission. Not a great movie, I don't think but good.

Taking Woodstock and Wonderful World

Taking Woodstock
It starts pretty good. Goofy Demetri Martin as the beleaguered Jewish son to two nutty parents and owner of a rundown motel desperately tries to save his parents livelihood. You ask yourself, how does this kooky family become instrumental in the making of the great music festival Woodstock? The answer to this question intrigued me enough to want to keep watching until at some point, amid star cameos and drug induced hazy scenes, you realize this movie isn’t going anywhere -- the plot had gone seriously awry. It’s too bad really. So much potential, a movie directed by the great Ang Lee and about such an interesting subject. At least the beginning is pretty good.

Wonderful World
In Wonderful World Mathew Broderick plays a cranky failed musician who is brought back to life by two Senegalese visitors to his unhappy life. Remind you of anything? If you saw the much better The Visitor, which about a crank who is revived by some musician Africans. Just see The Visitor if this plot intrigues you. Oh wait, there is one reason to see Wonderful World, and that is the small role played byMichael Kenneth Williams, also known as Omar from The Wire.

Swedish Auto and New York, I Love You

Swedish Auto
What happens if you are stalking someone and then you find out someone is stalking you so then you stalk that person. Swedish Auto answers this question … lugubriously (how do you like that word? :) Lukas Haas plays a sad sack auto mechanic who is in love with a beautiful violinist so what’s a guy to do but follow her around town, meanwhile an abused waitress fancies the mechanic and hovers outside his abode. The waitress is played by the beautiful January Jones of Mad Men fame and she hardly seems like she could be a stalker. If you think this movie might be a light-hearted and wacky (as I hoped it would be) you would be wrong. Rather it’s a story about a bunch of surly down and outs who try to find moments of happiness in a dreary life. Sound fun, doesn’t it?


New York, I Love is a collection of short films directed by people like Mira Nair and Natalie Portman with a myriad of famous actors in brief pieces: Bradley Cooper, Andy Garcia, Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman (acts and directs), Orlando Bloom, Ethan Hawke, Anton Yelchin, James Caan, Julie Christie, John Hurt, Shia LaBeouf , Chris Cooper, Robin Wright Penn, and Cloris Leachman. This is part two of a series. Paris, Je T’aime which I wrote about was the first film. Like that film, this movie is a hodge podge of some good and some what the heck is goin’ on here? But I think Paris, Je T’aime seemed more connected to real people’s problems. New York, I Love You, begs the question: Why do I love you, New York? You are so crude and banal.

My Oscar Picks, 2010 -- The Results

2010,was not my year. I got stomped on. Congrats Deb.
Deb 15/24
Mary 9/24

Winners in Bold

X marks my picks. Possible points: 24
Deb's picks = O

Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker X O
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow The Hurt Locker X O
James Cameron Avatar
Lee Daniels Precious
Jason Reitman Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino Quentin Tarantino

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart O
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man X
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side O
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia X

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon in Invictus
Woody Harrelson. in The Messenger
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz in Ingourious Basterds X/O

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz in Nine
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Mo’nique in Precious X/ O

Best Animated Feature
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up X/ O


Best Film Editing
Avatar X/O
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Best Cinematography
Avatar O
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker X
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Best Screenplay, Adapted
Neill Blomkamp and
 Terri Tatchell District 9
Nick Hornby An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher Precious
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner Up in the Air X / O

Best Screenplay, Original
Mark Boal The Hurt Locker X
Quentin Tarantino Inglourious Basterds O
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman The Messenger
Joel and Ethan Coen A Serious Man
Peter Docter, Bob Peterson,
Tom McCarthy Up

Best Original Song
Almost There from The Princess and the Frog
Down in New Orleans from The Princess and the Frog
Loin De Paname from Paris 36
Take it All from Nine
The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart X / O

Best Original Score
Avatar X
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up O

Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus X
Nine
The Young Victoria O

Best Foreign Language Film
Ajami - Israel
The Secret in their Eyes - Argentina
The Milk of Sorrow - Peru
A Prophet - France X
The White Ribbon - Germany O

Best Documentary Feature
Burma VJ
The Cove O
Food Inc. X
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Best Documentary Short
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province O
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin X

Best Short Film, Live Action
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi O
Miracle Fish X
The New Tenants

Best Short Film, Animated
French Roast X
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death O

Art Direction
Avatar X/ O
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Makeup
Il Divo
Star Trek O
The Young Victoria X

Sound Editing
Avatar X/ O
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Sound Mixing
Avatar X O
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Visual Effects
Avatar X / O
District 9
Star Trek