#3 rule in movies

Any movie located in New York City will have a shot of the lead actor walking on a crowded sidewalk, looking all the more crowded by the use of a zoom lens that makes the other people seem closer and reduces the depth of field, or sharpness around the actor. See all rules.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

This is the other movie we saw over Thanksgiving weekend, and chose it because we love Wes Anderson and George Clooney. It was cute, and if you have kids who will watch a movie on the big screen, definitely take them. The violence is cartoonish and there is only one death, though the mean humans try very hard to kill all the foxes and all their furry friends. I've enjoyed every movie that Anderson has directed: Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998-my favorite), The Royal Tenebaums (2001-next favorite), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), and The Darjeeling Limited (2007)). He wrote them all, and this one he adapted with the help of Noah Baumbach (writer/director of The Squid and the Whale (2005) and Margot at the Wedding (2007), as well as co-writer of Zissou) from a story by Roald Dahl.

In the story, Mr. Fox is self-confident and cool, but he is super-cool, i.e. Clooney-ized, in this version. I wrote a lot about Clooney in my post about his last one The Men Who Stare at Goats. We're not sure why Anderson bothered to cast Meryl Streep (I wrote a mini-bio for Julie & Julia) as Mrs. Fox, as she didn't have a lot to do, but, hey, why not? In fact, the voice cast was impressive: Anderson regulars Jason Schwartzman (see I Heart Huckabees (2004), his cousin Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006), and Bored to Death now on HBO) as Ash Fox, Bill Murray (see Ghost Busters (1984), What About Bob? (1991), Groundhog Day (1993), Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), and Broken Flowers (2005)) as Badger, and Owen Wilson (great in Meet the Parents (2000) and Tenenbaums) as Coach Skip; plus Willem Dafoe (so many...I choose Wild at Heart (1990), The English Patient (1996), Auto Focus (2002), and Inside Man (2006)..he will have nine 2009 releases, including the controversial Antichrist) as Rat, Michael Gambon (to me he'll always be The Singing Detective (BBC-1986), and to others Harry Potter's Albus Dumbledore (forever)) as Bean (a human), Sofia's brother Roman Coppola as Squirrel Contractor, Garth Jennings (director of Son of Rambow) as Bean's son, Adrien Brody (loved Liberty Heights (1999), Son of Sam (1999), The Pianist (2002-won Oscar), and really liked Hollywoodland (2006), The Brothers Bloom, and Cadillac Records) as Field Mouse, chef Mario Batali as Rabbit, Brian Cox (Running with Scissors (2006), lots more) as Action 12 Reporter, and Anderson himself as Weasel. All this should please the adults and the kids won't give a rat's cuss. That's an amusing convention of this movie. There is no profanity, only the word "cuss," as in, don't cuss with me, and what the cuss? Our ticket seller saw fit to warn us that the animation was like nothing else he had seen. It is stop motion with handmade puppets. This wonderful 2-1/2 minute featurette will describe it for you. If you have time, I suggest you go deeper and watch some of the other videos linked on that site.

We enjoyed the movie and recommend it to parents to take their kids (the DVD is bound to be awesome, if they include the tech stuff), and for adults looking for something light and entertaining. I've added it to my list of Movies to Watch With Your Kids.

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)

Despite all the buzz and favorable word of mouth by people we know, Jack and I were not eager to see this, afraid it would be awfully depressing. But we left the theatre not drained but entertained. There was some humor and hope in this bleak tale of some of the saddest circumstances one could imagine taking place in our very own society. In case you've been hiding under a rock, I'll fill you in: in 1987, 16 year old Claireece Precious Jones is not only fat, she is pregnant, lives in Harlem with her sadistic abusive mother, and is having a hard time in school and in life. When it gets too rough, Precious escapes into her fantasy life, starting right at the beginning of the movie. And, though one would think she would give up, she doesn't. Earlier this week I happened upon David Letterman's interview with the star, Gabourey Sidibe, who is sweet and bubbly and said that watching the movie would make viewers happy about their own lives (here she is on Ellen, but be warned, there is a mild spoiler in the interview). That's when I began to relax about seeing it and I'm very glad we did. Now 26 years old, Sidibe had not acted before but has another project in the can and possibly a third in pre-production. Mo'Nique, best known for loud and predictable comedy, delivers the most amazing performance in the movie, as Precious' mother. Her voice is low and scary, because we know that she can blow at any moment. She is the winner of one of the 8 awards so far for this movie, and is a favorite for an Oscar nomination. Mo'Nique was in the only other movie that Lee Daniels directed, Shadowboxer (2005--a very good, very nasty and violent piece starring Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding, Jr.), playing a character named Precious. Daniels also was one of the producers of Monster's Ball (2001), which won an Oscar for Halle Berry. The rest of the supporting cast is good, especially Precious' young classmates, as well as Paula Patton (Deja Vu (2006)) as Ms. Rain. That's singer Lenny Kravitz as the male nurse, and, as you probably know, Mariah Carey as the social worker. Sapphire has written one novel and this is it, published in 1997, and Geoffrey Fletcher, who wrote the screenplay, had also not written anything before. If not for Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry putting their names on this project as executive producers a month after the Sundance awards, this movie would not be playing on 12 screens in my hometown. But it's really good and people should see it.

Maybe you know how we are about the end credits--we stay and watch them to the end. Jack & I were baffled yesterday because the closing credits faded in, and then, just as they reached full brightness, quickly faded out, making them difficult to read, nay, impossible when the practice here in the heartland is to turn up the lights during that time (and why are the credits in parentheses?). The opening credits, however, were clever, with phonetic spellings of the "street" pronunciations of the names and words. And, as usual, there are a few more songs in the movie than the 12 released on the soundtrack and the one listed on imdb (including Do It by Kravitz, perhaps from his next album--here's a link about it). Lastly, I must mention the disgusting food in the movie. It may cause you to crave fresh vegetables.

An Education (2009)

This is the first of three movies Jack & I saw over Thanksgiving weekend. We chose it because it was only playing on one screen, and a good choice it was. Winner of two Sundance awards in January, and nominated for 6 British Independent Film Awards, this engaging tale of a school-smart 16 year old in 1961 who falls for a man in his 30's was entertaining from start to finish. It's a British film, adapted by British Nick Hornby (he adapted his book Fever Pitch into a British movie of the same name (1997) about soccer, which someone else adapted into an American movie (2005) about baseball, plus two more of his novels were also adapted into delightful movies, High Fidelity (2000) and About a Boy (2002)), from a Brit's memoir (Lynn Barber), with a mostly British cast (more on that later), and directed by a Dane (Lone Scherfig). I love researching these posts, because now I realize that I have seen and enjoyed two of Scherfig's previous movies, both of which she wrote as well as directed: Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002) and Italian for Beginners (Italiensk for begynderetalian - 2000), the latter of which was the highest grossing Danish film ever, according to imdb.

In this one, (then) 22 year old Carey Mulligan is endearing and totally believable as the teenage Jenny, and American actor Peter Sarsgaard (some faves: Shattered Glass (2003), Garden State (2004), Kinsey (2004), Jarhead (2005), and Elegy) supremely flirtatious as the the beguiling older man. Special mention must be made of Alfred Molina (notables: Enchanted April (1992), Magnolia (1999), Chocolat (2000), Frida (2002) as Diego Rivera, Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), Spider-Man 2 (2004) as Doc Ock, The Da Vinci Code (2006), and Silk (2007)) as Jenny's father, as well as cameos by the wonderful Emma Thompson (Pirate Radio, Last Chance Harvey, more) and Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky).

Like Pirate Radio and A Serious Man, also set in the 60s, music does much to set the scene. Imdb lacks any soundtrack info, so I found a list for you. And like Pirate Radio, singer Duffy performs a song (I thought it was a cover but have been corrected by one of my readers). This is rated PG-13, so you adults can bring your teenage girls (I would suggest 15 as a starting point) and then allow some time to talk about it. But we have no reservations about recommending it to any adults who don't mind a movie that is violence-free.

Buzzmeter - early Oscar predictions

Here in the heartland many of the buzziest movies haven't yet opened. So watch for these, predicted by an LA Times panel of "experts." I gave you the Best Picture page first. Click on the line below the banner to switch to Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Actress (the website isn't bug-free, but it's fun to see what movies were chosen). Remember that some of the big categories will have 10 nominees this year, instead of 5. And, this just in (oh wait, apparently everyone else has known since March 2009): the next Oscar ceremony and telecast will be March 7, 2010, to avoid a conflict with the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.

Pirate Radio (2009)

Great fun for us boomers who loved the music of the 60s. This was originally called The Boat That Rocked, but released in the U.S. as the catchier Pirate Radio. For those of you who don't know, the movie is set in 1966 on and off the coast of England, when the British government forbade rock and roll on the radio, which spawned radio stations on boats, playing the music to which many of us came of age.

Writer/director Richard Curtis (writer/director of Love Actually (2003), writer of both Bridget Jones screenplays, Notting Hill (1999), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), and lots of stuff with Mr. Bean AKA Rowan Atkinson), based the movie on several actual pirate radio boats in the 1960s. Spoiler-ful trivia and origins here.

Philip Seymour Hoffman's (Oscar for Capote (2005), very good in Boogie Nights (1997), Happiness (1998), Magnolia and Flawless (both 1999), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), Doubt, and so many more) character, The Count, reminded me a bit of his character in Almost Famous (2000), in both cases a hip guy who will not bend to the establishment at the expense of the music. Hoffman has been touted as the star, but this is an ensemble piece. It really centers on Carl, played by Tom Sturridge (he was in the terrific Being Julia in 2004 with Annette Bening), a young man who has been sent by his mother, for reasons that become apparent later on, to spend time on the Radio Rock boat with his godfather, played by the always perfect Bill Nighy (Love Actually, two of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (as Davy Jones, with tentacles on his face), Notes on a Scandal (2006), and the very good The Girl in the Café on HBO in 2005). In the ensemble are two guys named Rhys. First is Rhys Darby (best known as manager Murray on HBO's Flight of the Conchords) who is a funny guy, playing one of the DJs, Angus (but I keep getting the names mixed up). Then, there is Rhys Ifans, an actor of great depth, who comes into Pirate Radio with a big hullabaloo, so to speak, about halfway through. Ifans was hilarious in Notting Hill, as the roommate in his underpants, scary-intense in Enduring Love (2004) (Nighy was in it, too), earnest and frustrated in Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002), and in this one his character is narcissistic and hilarious again, to name a few. Kenneth Branagh (actor/writer/director of a few Shakespeare adaptations (starting with Henry V in 1989) and others, actor/director of Peter's Friends (1992), Woody Allen alter-ego in Celebrity (1998), FDR in HBO's Warm Springs (2005), bad guy in Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), Nazi in Valkyrie), as the nemesis Sir Alistair Dormandy, is so pompous one thinks he will explode. His assistant has a funny name that made us smile every time it was uttered, and the trivia noted above refers to that funny name. The rest of the cast does a great job and there are notable cameos by my heroine Emma Thompson (acted in Last Chance Harvey, Brideshead Revisited, and more), who was married to Branagh 1989-95, and January Jones, pin-up girl and star of Mad Men on AMC. Jack and I enjoyed this a lot. Not as much as A Serious Man, set in the following year, 1967, but a lot.

I did some research into the music before we saw this yesterday, and thought I was all over it, as I had compiled a list of 40 songs (32 in the link above plus 8 more from the import CD). Imagine my surprise when, at the end, the screen filled with page after page of songs, changing way too fast for me (and I'm a pretty fast reader). But more detective work unearthed a list of the 60 songs in those streaking credits. Before you click, be aware that this list contains spoilers, describing the action on screen during each song. So I've put the songs in a separate spoiler-free post for those of you who are interested.

Almost forgot! There's a wee bonus at the end, after all the music credits.

Lorna's Silence (Le silence de Lorna - 2008)

I want foreign films to be embraced in our middle-America, middle-size metropolis, embraced enough that there will choices of screening times, especially my beloved matinees, which don't interfere with socializing, dinner, or sleep. I usually love foreign films, with their different pacings and locations, and the opportunity to learn new words in other languages. But I am sorry to report that neither Jack nor I liked this much (I did learn a few insults in French, but I've forgotten them already). Sorry because I seem to be agreeing with the hating reviewers instead of the judges at Cannes and elsewhere. And sorry because I really liked L'enfant (The Child), by the same Belgian writer/director brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, in 2005. Those Cannes judges especially liked the script, but we found the plot hard to follow, especially at the end. Even some self-professed Dardenne fans on the imdb message boards were confused. Albanian actress Arta Dobroshi is lovely and tortured as Lorna, who is caught up in a green card (it's probably something else in Belgium, maybe a blue card?) scam, and Jérémie Renier (L'enfant, In Bruges (2008), Summer Hours) is just plain tortured as the junkie, Claudy; and I hope to see more of them in different material. Sorry sorry sorry. To the theatres: please keep showing the non-blockbuster imports. I promise we'll buy tickets.

Good Hair (2009)

Chris Rock's documentary about black people's hair won the Special Jury Prize: US Documentary at Sundance early this year. Jack & I saw it this afternoon with seven other people, many of whom laughed and groaned along with us at the pain, time, and money spent on taming certain natural tresses and the businesses that thrive as a result. I can't give you an accurate demographic report, since some came in after the lights went down, but at least five of the nine of us were white boomers. Rock is a good host, keeping it low-key but always going for the laugh, and peppering the celebrity interviews with academics, scientists, and field trips. Before the movie was released last month, another documentarian began a lawsuit against Rock, claiming that she screened her festival-winning 2005 doc for him two years ago. You can compare the trailers for Good Hair and My Nappy Roots (warning: the Good Hair trailer has probably 2/3 of the gags from the movie in it). Of course Good Hair is funny. It's Chris Rock! I haven't seen the other movie so have no comment. This one is an interesting social/fashion commentary with plenty of wretched excess and some bad words, plus shots of Rock's adorable little girls.

Rudo and Cursi (Rudo y Cursi - 2009)

First time feature director Carlos Cuarón, brother of Alfonso (they co-wrote Y tu mamá también (2001), which Alfonso directed, and were Oscar-nominated for the screenplay, among much recognition) brings back together the stars of Y tu mamá, Gael García Bernal (good ones: Amores Perros (2000), El Crimen del Padre Amaro (2002), Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), a strange kid named Elvis in The King (2005), and King of Ward Three in Blindness) and Diego Luna (I liked Before Night Falls (2000), Frida (2002) and Milk; Amy liked Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004)) in this amusing tale of two soccer-playing brothers. Luna plays Beto, nicknamed Rudo, which means rough, and Bernal plays Tato, nicknamed Cursi, which means corny (translations courtesy of Carlos in an interview). Third time was a charm for us on this one. We tried to see it locally, but a scheduling snafu stopped us. It came out on DVD a week later. We took the netflix DVD with us when we visited Jon & Kathleen in September (there's your blog-check, Jon!), but fell asleep. So today we finally watched it. This is not your usual sports movie: you will see more of the soccer, excuse me, futbol, fans than you will of the game. It is, as Carlos says, about brotherhood. As far as we could tell from the subtitles, the language is colorful--lots of insults and hazing. I read about the soundtrack long before the movie was distributed in this part of the country (and knew the song "I Want You to Want Me," which Cursi sings in Spanish, but didn't know it was Cheap Trick). Perhaps Carlos needs some seasoning as a director, but it was still entertaining and worth seeing. Not for soccer players under 16, as it's rated R for language, drugs, and sex (not to mention gambling).

The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

This movie is not for everyone (almost nothing is). But we enjoyed its skewed, dry humor, particularly the interplay between George Clooney's self-important wacko Lyn Cassady and Ewan McGregor's naïve reporter Bob Wilton; and Jeff Bridges was hilarious as the hippie army guy Bill Django. Perhaps not a good choice for Veteran's Day (in fact, we saw it last week, but then I got a cold--almost all better now, thanks), because it spoofs the armed services and the men in uniform.

Based on the 2004 book by Jon Ronson (with screenplay adapted by Peter Straughan, adapter of the more slapstick How to Lose Friends & Alienate People), the movie begins with a notice that "more of this is true than you would believe." Here are my favorite performances by the three stars (yes, Kevin Spacey was in it--he did not star). For Clooney it would have to be the comedies Intolerable Cruelty (2003) and O Brother Where Art Thou (2000); I also liked the Ocean's series, especially the first one (2001), the romantic comedy One Fine Day (1996), and all three that he directed: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), and Leatherheads (2008). His next one, acting only, Up in the Air (2009), is generating a lot of buzz. McGregor started off with a bang with the excellent and dark Shallow Grave (1994) and then the even darker must-see Trainspotting (1996). Many of his other movies have not moved me, including the Star Wars I-III series (everybody who has written about this movie has pointed out that Clooney's group refers to itself as Jedi warriors), but I did like, and liked McGregor in Miss Potter (2006), Cassandra's Dream (2007), and Amelia. I am a Bridges fan, and especially liked his performances in Cutter's Way (1981), Starman (1984), Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), The Fisher King (1991), and The Door in the Floor (2004), among others.

This is the feature directorial debut by Clooney crony Grant Heslov (wrote/produced Good Night, and Good Luck, produced Intolerable Cruelty and Leatherheads, acted in those and a bunch of small roles). Observation: I'm pretty sure that only one female human has a speaking part in this movie (some goats of indeterminate sex bleated): Wilton's wife, played by Rebecca Mader (red-headed Charlotte on Lost; like McGregor, a Brit using an American accent here). There is an elderly mother in one scene serving tea, and she got screen credit, but I don't remember her saying anything. The reviews, by professionals and amateurs, have not been kind, even though no goats, kitties, nor puppies were harmed. If you want to go with the majority, avoid it. We had fun and laughed often.

A Serious Man (2009)

To paraphrase the rye bread ad campaign, you don't have to be Jewish to love A Serious Man. Jack isn't and we both loved it. And if you aren't, and/or you need a glossary of Yiddish/Jewish terms, I found one without spoilers. This is Joel and Ethan Coen's most Jewish movie so far (next they are expected to make The Yiddish Policeman's Union based on the novel by the talented Michael Chabon (Wonder Boys, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and others)). I've seen all the features co-directed and co-written by the Coen brothers, and this is my new favorite despite their winning the Oscar for No Country for Old Men (2007). Raising Arizona (1987) and Fargo (1996) are right up there, and each time I see clips from The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) on TV I like it better (not that I didn't like all the others, because I did!). 

This is a Job-like story, set in 1967, of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg, Tony nominee for The Pillowman on Broadway in 2005), a nerdy professor in Minneapolis, whose son Danny (newcomer Aaron Wolff) is preparing for his bar mitzvah. In fact, none of the stars of this movie is a big name, as they were in Burn After Reading (which, by the way, grew on me with time), but instead character actors whose faces are familiar, such as Richard Kind (Spin City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, small parts in lots of things), Fred Melamed (small parts, some uncredited, in a number of Woody Allen movies), Fyvush Finkel (Picket Fences, Boston Public; his part is the bearded man in the prologue), George Wyner (Hill Street Blues and lots more), Adam Arkin (also Picket Fences, as well as Northern Exposure, Chicago Hope, West Wing, and others; son of Alan), and newcomers such as Wolff and Sari Lennick (some L.A. theatre work) who plays Larry's wife. 

Joel Coen turned 13 in 1967 in Minneapolis, so clearly the Coens know a little something about bar mitzvahs then and there. Imdb has some interesting spoiler-free trivia about Joel Coen, and some spoiler-laden trivia about this movie that you might enjoy. The haunting score by prolific composer Carter Burwell (all the Coen movies and many more, including the excellent Kinsey (2004), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), In Bruges (2008), and Where the Wild Things Are) is well mixed with four Jefferson Airplane tracks from the 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow, Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun," The Art of Lovin's "Good Times," and a song by Russian opera singer Sidor Belarsky. The production design and sets are outstanding and worthy of nominations. I could go on about this but my time is limited, as we saw it on a road trip to Philadelphia, are now in New York, and it's about time to leave the hotel.

Jack & I were so impressed by the trailer that I gave it its own post. Seeing it will enhance your movie-going experience. And, as is my practice on babetteflix, I alert you to a small but amusing bonus at the very end of the credits. Don't leave early! This is a must-see movie. Its occasional slow pace is perfectly calculated for comic effect. Anyone with the patience for the pace is old enough to enjoy it.