A Solitary Man (2009)

We enjoyed this story of a vain, selfish womanizer who doesn't deserve the loyalty of his family (and one friend). The role was written for Michael Douglas, and it shows. Douglas' Ben has seen some hard times, but never seems to learn from his mistakes (ah, vanity). The scene in the preview, where Ben asks his daughter and grandson not to call him Dad or Grandpa so that he'll appear younger when he tries to pick up girls, really happened. Writer/co-director Brian Koppelman overheard someone say that line and it was the inspiration for his story. He was so taken by it that he finished the script alone, instead of with his usual collaborator David Levien (that's not a typo) on Rounders (1998), Runaway Jury (2003), Oceans Thirteen (2007), and others. They did, however, share directing duties.

Two people, one in print and one in person, said they disliked Ben so much they didn't have a good time. Jack and I don't agree with that; we don't have to like or feel a character is sympathetic for us to deem it a good movie. What a great cast, too. Joining Douglas (Oscar for Wall Street (1987), some of my other faves are Wonder Boys (2000), Basic Instinct (1992), Fatal Attraction (1987), Traffic (2000), and don't forget Falling Down (1993), where he played a scary stalker traveling the greater Los Angeles metro area) are Susan Sarandon (I wrote about her in The Lovely Bones) as Ben's ex-wife Nancy; Jenna Fisher (best known for The Office, she did some good comedy work in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) and Blades of Glory the same year) as their patient daughter Pam; the oh-so-talented Mary-Louise Parker (I could watch her in anything, but I particularly liked Grand Canyon (1991), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Sugartime (1995) in which she played Phyllis McGuire of the McGuire sisters, The Five Senses (1999), and, of course Weeds) as Ben's mistress Jordan; Imogen Poots (actually British, she is completely convincing as a Yank, she was in 28 Weeks Later (2007) and Me and Orson Welles) as Jordan's daughter Allyson; Jesse Eisenberg (I wrote about him in Adventureland and Zombieland) as college student Daniel; Olivia Thirlby (Juno (2007), Snow Angels (2007), The Wackness) uncredited in a third act role; and Danny DeVito (some of my quirky favorites: Get Shorty (1995), Drowning Mona (2000), Death to Smoochy (2002), The Oh in Ohio (2006)) as Ben's only friend. The screen chemistry between Douglas and DeVito is evident, whether or not you know that they were once roommates, Douglas produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), in which DeVito had a part, and they acted together in Romancing the Stone (1984), War of the Roses (1989), and more. I had a "who's that?" moment when Ben is talking to a girl who frequents the diner, the one he says eats like a lumberjack. The actress is Gillian Jacobs, who plays Britta on the TV show Community; she was also in The Book of Daniel, which was on NBC as well, before it was, regrettably, canceled.

Every time I think about this movie, I'm humming the song, written by Neil Diamond, released in 1966, and covered by Johnny Cash for his American III: Solitary Man album in 2000. The locations in Manhattan and the ones that are supposed to be Boston (Fordham University in the Bronx for the campus and City Island Diner, NY, for the diner) are quite nice.

This has an 82% rating on rottentomatoes and is well worth seeing (don't get it mixed up with A Serious Man or A Single Man, all good, all different). Afterwards, download the press kit from this link and read more about it.

Get Him to the Greek (2010)

Raunchy and funny, this spectacle has sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, and plenty of cringing. The character Aldous Snow from Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) returns, still a dissolute exhibitionist played by British comedian Russell Brand. Kristen Bell makes a brief cameo as Snow's ex-girlfriend Marshall, but his current squeeze is Jackie Q, a trash talking fellow exhibitionist, played to nasty perfection by angel-faced Rose Byrne (TV show Damages, Adam), who got the role after Emily Blunt dropped out. The lead is Jonah Hill as Aaron Green, whom Aldous calls "an affable nitwit," which description I quite like and will be using for some time. Most of Hill's previous roles, other than his uncredited cameo in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, have been affable nitwits. Writer/director Nicholas Stoller, who also directed Sarah Marshall, should get a nice payoff from this sorta-sequel. Rottentomatoes gives it 72%, and while the majority enjoyed it, the 28% really hated it. Russell Brand is a funny bloke (I'm looking forward to seeing him in the title role in the Arthur remake). Elisabeth Moss (Jack always fills me in on the West Wing regulars, which she was, but I know her better from Mad Men, of which I watched the first season, and Girl, Interrupted (1999)) is underutilized and a buzzkill (I hope intentionally so) in each of her scenes. There are lots of rock in-jokes and cameos, not to mention former rapper Sean Combs (whose breakout role was his second, in Monster's Ball (2001), a decidedly unfunny movie) playing Aldous' record producer (are we still allowed to call them records? They are recordings after all). For a change, the soundtrack listing is all on imdb, way more songs than are on the soundtrack record/album/CD/download.

Don't take your kids, don't go with your teenagers (you'll all be embarrassed), and keep your expectations low, and you'll probably have a pretty good time. And stay for the brief bonus at the very end.

Please Give (2010)

A funny, intelligent, and slightly twisted movie (all good), this stars Catherine Keener as the guilt-ridden owner, with her husband Alex (played by Oliver Platt), of a Manhattan used furniture store, and we loved it. I've long been a fan of director/writer Nicole Holofcener (Walking and Talking (1996), Lovely & Amazing (2001), and Friends with Money (2006)), all of which are must-see squirm fests starring Keener, and this one will make you uncomfortable as well. But maybe that will make you laugh, as we did. Keener's Kate is guilty that she is privileged when the homeless camp outside, guilty that her fine mid-century merchandise comes from dead people's homes, guilty that her daughter (Sarah Steele, who played Adam Sandler's and Téa Leoni's daughter in Spanglish (2004)) is acquisitive, guilty that she and Alex (I love Platt and wrote about him in 2012 and Frost/Nixon) are waiting for their old neighbor to die so they can break through the walls and double the size of their flat. These are not spoilers--it's all revealed in the first few minutes, after the opening mammogram montage. See? Awkward. Yet great with the accompaniment of the Roches rendition of No Shoes. The old neighbor's patient granddaughter Rebecca (perfectly executed by Rebecca Hall from The Prestige (2006), Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Frost/Nixon; she uses her native British accent only in the latter) is a lab technician who administers mammograms. Amanda Peet (one of many addictive parts of the former TV series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and she was in Igby Goes Down (2002), which my faithful readers know I loved), who said she begged Holofcener for years to cast her in something, plays Rebecca's selfish, tan sister. Watch for lots of cameos: by This American Life commentator/producer Sarah Vowell (here's her bio with a picture and here's a link to hear some of her brilliant essays in her own squeaky voice) (in an earlier scene Kate is reading a book by Vowell--I loved her collections Take the Cannoli and The Partly Cloudy Patriot); by talented character actor Kevin Corrigan (I wrote about him in Big Fan; he was in Walking and Talking); by Elizabeth Berridge, who has had a lot of roles (mostly TV) since playing Mrs. Mozart in Amadeus (1984); by Keener's younger sister Elizabeth, who plays Cathy; among others. As you might expect, with the mid-century furniture, the sets are wonderful.

Jack & I highly recommend this. After you've seen it, check out this spoiler-ridden link and the press kit.

The Secret in their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos - 2009)

This tightly-plotted thriller won the Oscar for Foreign Film plus 13 wins and 4 nominations from the Argentinean Academy in its home country and many more around the world. We thought it was terrific, as has everyone else who's told us they've seen it. There's a lot of profanity and the plot revolves around a brutal murder (with a woman's naked and bruised dead body in the beginning), so leave the kids at home. Juan José Campanella (winner of 37 awards including this Oscar) directed various episodes of House before and after adapting Eduardo Sacheri's novel with Sacheri. The movie flits back and forth between 1974 and 1999 (it's easy to tell, because of the hair length of Irene (Soledad Villamil, winner of four awards for this role) and hair color of Benjamin (Ricardo Darín, won three for this, eight for others, many credits in Argentina and a few others here). Most of the characters in the story exhibit great patience, especially one, but you will not be itchy to leave, at least not because of the movie. It trots along beautifully and we did not see the end coming. Check it out before someone gives it away.

No One Knows About Persian Cats (Kasi az gorbehaye irani khabar nadareh - 2009)

Jack & I really enjoyed this indie film about indie rock in totalitarian Iran. Winner of Un Certain Regard, the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 2009, it takes us through the underground lairs of Tehran as our heroes put together a band and try to get out of the country to play a gig in London. Other than the opening song, which makes the music producer (played by director/co-writer Bahman Ghobadi) wince, the music is first rate. Ghobadi made this in 17 days, without permits nor government approval, because it really is a crime to play rock music in Iran. That explains why the cameraperson played fast and loose with focusing. The two leads, Negar Shaghagi (a woman) and Ashkan Koshanejad (a man), are musicians playing improvised fictionalized versions of themselves. The soundtrack is killer, mixing traditional Iranian music with something you would expect to hear in an American arena. I just bought it on itunes, to support Negar and Ashkan, whose band is called Take It Easy Hospital (a number of other bands are featured in the movie and on the soundtrack). Here's the trailer. Now go see the movie.

Man Push Cart (2005)

This is excellent. Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi) is a Pakistani immigrant with a hard life. He's frustrated and rarely cracks a smile, despite meeting people who want to befriend and help him. The movie won a bunch of awards for writer/director Ramin Bahrani (he followed it with the wonderful Chop Shop and Goodbye Solo--I haven't seen his other one) and for Razvi. Cinematographer Michael Simmonds was nominated for Independent Spirit Awards for both Chop Shop and this, most deservedly. One warning, though: Get your room as dark as you can, because there are several very dark night shots of Ahmad pushing his cart through Manhattan before dawn. But the ones with city lights and daylight are spectacular. Also, there are no closed captions available on the DVD, so I, with my slightly impaired hearing, needed the sound turned way up.

Earlier that evening Jack and I watched an old Simpsons episode from 1997 where Homer's car was borrowed and abandoned between the World Trade Towers (here's the whole episode from a Dutch website). That silliness was a companion piece to this serious story. The movie soundtrack is by Peyman Yazdanian. I couldn't find a link to listen to his work on the movie, but from this one you can preview tracks from some of his other albums.

FLOW: For Love of Water (2008)

This disturbing documentary, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2008, shows the polluting and stealing of worldwide water by evil corporations, and encourages us lucky folks to stop taking it for granted. Scary and maddening, it has one bit of comic relief: a segment from Penn & Teller's wonderful Showtime series Bulls**t (I happened to have seen that segment and it's great--here's 13 minutes of it, much more than was in the documentary). I recommend both the P&T clip (warning for profanity) and the movie FLOW. This link will give you more on the movie, including the trailer. For the record, Jack and I drink filtered tap water at home and chilled tap water in restaurants (if it's funky, and sometimes it is, I'll ask for a lemon slice).

Manuela and Manuel (Manuela y Manuel - 2007)

This Puerto Rican farce features Humberto Busto (here he is dressed as a man) as the title characters (here he is as Manuela). Manuela is a drag queen, a dancer and singer, who spends her life in women's clothes, but agrees to help out her pregnant friend Coca and pose to her parents as the man who knocked her up. I believe that people deserve to be called by whatever pronoun that they desire, even when forced to wear a suit and tie. Director Raúl Marchand Sánchez, writer José Ignacio Valenzuela, and the other stars were not familiar to me. Jack and I didn't love it, but didn't hate it, either; also, I was distracted by technical difficulties in the screening, and Jack was distracted by the guy snoring behind us. The production numbers in Manuela's club were pretty great. I suspect I would have liked it a lot more had I seen it at home on DVD.

The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom - 2008)

First we had spaghetti westerns, then, one of my favorites, Tampopo, a noodle western, and now Korean writer/director Kim Ji-woon calls this his "kimchee western:" spicy, sour, colorful, and creative. A tad long (2:10) and quite bloody, it's nonetheless pretty funny and entertaining. Only one guy, The Good, wears a cowboy hat. He swings from ropes like Spider-Man in shanty-towns that crumble in the gunshots. From the opening train robbery (there's a steam engine--it takes place in Manchuria between World Wars I and II) to a spectacular shootout near the end, there's plenty of property damage, dental disparities (the three main characters have gleaming white teeth, and some of the lesser ones gray and mottled), and crazy people doing crazy things. The colors are bright and saturated and the music is fabulous, by Dal Palan and Jang Yeong-gyu, evoking, of course, Ennio Morricone, composer for The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly (1966), which I didn't see but have listened to the soundtrack many times. I'm not up to date on Korean movies, so the stars, Jung Woo-sung as The Good (AKA Park Do-Won), Lee Byung-hun as The Bad (AKA Park Chang-yi), both handsome hunks (the latter has a great haircut, too), and Song Kang-ho as The Weird (AKA Yoon Tae-goo), are not familiar to me. Note: the Korean standard is like the Japanese and Chinese, with family names first, e.g. Doe John, so I have observed that standard in this post, although imdb lists the names the other way, e.g. Ji-woon Kim. There are few women in the cast, with few lines and little purpose other than window dressing, but that's in keeping with the macho tone of the picture.

The soundtrack is available in Asia now (available as an import on amazon), set to come here later, and the movie will be released on DVD this August. It's a good time if you're in the mood for a violent spoof.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

A testosterone-fueled romp, full of battles, races, property damage, kick ass metal music, and curvaceous babes, this is a fun summer action movie. Geek-pleasing gadgets and special effects, lead character Tony Stark's charming arrogance, sidekick Pepper Potts' empowerment, and many more elements are why this is still #4 at the box office three weeks after its release. 

We saw this on a double date with Sally and Mike, and Sally likes to say, "I could watch Robert Downey Jr. read the phone book." He gives his all to the role of the conflicted Tony (I last wrote about Downey, son of the director of the iconic and hilarious Putney Swope (1969), in The Soloist). Pepper, played by the talented and decidedly uncurvy Gwyneth Paltrow (many to choose--I pick her Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love (1998), Sliding Doors (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Anniversary Party (2001) (she didn't do all that much--I just love that movie), and Running with Scissors (2006); can't say that I loved Two Lovers) has more to do here than in the first Iron Man (2008). 

Scarlett Johansson (favorites are The Horse Whisperer (1998), Ghost World (2001), Lost in Translation (2003), Match Point (2005), and Vicky Cristina Barcelona), on the other hand, can fill out a black leather catsuit to perfection. Sam Rockwell (I wrote about him in the undeservedly under-seen Moon) is a funny Justin Hammer, and Micky Rourke plays a villain who might have come from the imagination of his Randy "The Ram" Robinson from The Wrestler--same long hair, metal teeth, and shirtlessness, but with taut muscles, cunning, and a Russian accent. The Wrestler had a lot of metal music, too. 

Other supporting cast members include Don Cheadle (amazing in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), Boogie Nights (1997), Traffic (2000), Crash (2004), Hotel Rwanda (2004), and Talk to Me (2007)) whose massive talent is somewhat underutilized, Samuel L. Jackson (deservedly Oscar-nominated for Pulp Fiction (1994), he was wonderful in so many--my faves are Eve's Bayou (1997), Jackie Brown (1997), The Red Violin (1998), Black Snake Moan (2006), Lakeview Terrace, Soul Men, and he went uncredited for the same role, Nick Fury, in the first Iron Man), Clark Gregg (I wrote about him in Choke), Garry Shandling (It's Garry Shandling's Show, The Larry Sanders Show) as the Senator, and the requisite cameo by 87 year old Marvel comics writer Stan Lee (when the TV announcer says, "Larry King," and you can see that it's not Larry King, it's Stan Lee). The voice of Jarvis is Paul Bettany. 

Director Jon Favreau (also an actor, he had a few small roles before co-starring in Swingers (1996) with Vince Vaughn, then some bigger roles, then directed Made (2001), again co-starring with Vaughn, and went on to direct the first Iron Man) plays Hogan the driver. Justin Theroux, (actor in Six Feet Under and many movies, co-writer of Tropic Thunder) adapted the comic for the screen.

Thanks to reelsoundtrack for the entire song list and videos. The soundtrack music, by John Debney (of his 136 credits I choose Dick (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Evan Almighty, and Duma (2005)) is wonderful, too, and two clips are on the reelsoundtrack link above. Here are some more.

Wait for it! There is a bonus at the very very end. We had a good time with this and, if you think you will, you will, too.