Hysteria (2011)

Thoroughly delightful, this story of the 1880's English doctor who invents the vibrator is pretty much flawless. Based on true events, with Oscar-worthy wardrobe, sets, and gadgets, it has good acting and story, too. Starring the cute-as-a-button Hugh Dancy (after I wrote about him in Adam I saw him in Martha Marcy May Marlene) as Dr. Mortimer Granville. Jonathan Pryce (first came to my attention as the hapless hero of Terry Gilliam's masterpiece Brazil (1985), was very good in Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), part of the award-winning ensemble in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), as the love interest in Carrington (1995), as Juan Perón to Madonna's Eva in Evita (1996), as Keira Knightley's character's father in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), and many more) is practical and matter-of-fact as Dr. Dalrymple, who utilizes "pelvic massage" to "help" women who seem irrational, therefore hysterical, to their men. This and the Greek word for uterus, hystéra, are the origins of the term hysterectomy, but it was the irrationality link that made hysteria such a negative term. Maggie Gyllenhaal (covered in Away We Go, then was in Crazy Heart) beautifully embodies (pun intended) the Victorian-era feminist, Dalrymple's uncooperative daughter Charlotte. Sweet Felicity Jones (Like Crazy) is also delightful as Charlotte's obedient younger sister Emily. Additional color is provided by Rupert Everett (my favorites include Another Country (1984), Dance with a Stranger (1985), The Comfort of Strangers (1990), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), The Madness of King George (1994), his biggest hit My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), An Ideal Husband (1999), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), and The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)) as Granville's friend (and son of Granville's patrons) Edmund St. John-Smythe (fans of Mad Men and others will know that St. John is pronounced sin-jin), and, as ex-prostitutes Fannie and Molly, Ashley Jensen (first came to my attention as Ricky Gervais' friend on Extras, then America Ferrera's friend on Ugly Betty and Jenna Elfman's friend on Accidentally on Purpose) and Sheridan Smith (she's done quite a bit of TV, none of which I've seen, but as a still from this movie is her profile pic on imdb I'd venture to say this is her break-out role--she's funny as the suggestive red-headed maid) respectively, as well as many of the other female patients.

Director Tanya Wexler is new to me, though she's made two other movies. She's the niece of cinematographer Haskell Wexler and step-sister of Daryl Hannah, among other Hollywood relationships. I suspect this one will put her on the map as well. The original story is from an article by Howard Gensler, a writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. Here's a nice article about him and the movie and here's a bad one about something else. Wexler then took the idea to the married writing team of Jonah Lisa Dyer and Stephen Dyer who ran with it and created the wonderful script. The spectacular wardrobe is by Nic Ede (Me and Orson Welles, more) and the lovely photography shot in Britain and Luxembourg by Sean Bobbitt (Shame, others).

Gast Waltzing, a native of Luxembourg with 58 music credits, is credited with composing the light classical music, Christian Henson (an Englishman with 83) with additional tracks, though they share the credit on amazon.

With 22 producers, this earns a tag for the producers plethora, but it doesn't win the prize.

It will be playing for at least a week here in town. Highly recommended by both Jack and me for mature, un-prudish audiences.

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Deeply disturbing and not for the faint of heart, this realistic story of a mother dealing with her demon son is powerfully well done and has deservedly earned quite a few wins and nominations, mostly for star Tilda Swinton and director/co-writer Lynne Ramsay. I first wrote about Swinton in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and then in I Am Love I called her an intense dramatist, which remains true of her portrayal of Eva. I saw Ramsey's Morvern Callar (2002) on DVD after reading that it had won many awards and wasn't all that impressed. Now I'm impressed (I think Jack is, too). Ramsey co-wrote the script with Rory Kinnear (his debut), from the novel by Lionel Shriver (née Margaret Ann). I'm certainly glad I didn't research the book before seeing the movie, because the climax is in every synopsis of the novel, from the jacket to the reviews, and you know how much I hate spoilers. However, after you see the movie, you might be interested in reading it. The first five pages are on the amazon page, and they're quite well-written. To be fair, the climax isn't a complete surprise, although certain elements are shocking, but my belief is that it's better not to know going in. Kevin is played by three terrific actors, with kudos to casting director Billy Hopkins (an amazing 212 credits on imdb) for the strong resemblances (see this PR photo--not a still from the movie, although all are definitely in character): toddler Rock Duer, elementary schooler Jasper Newell, and 19-year-old Ezra Miller, whom I covered first in City Island and then in Afterschool, which was actually made earlier. This kid is amazing and will be winning Oscars very soon. We wondered how John C. Reilly was going to do in something so dark. He's more than fine, although his character Franklin isn't as tortured as his wife Eva.

There's a lot of flashing back and forward in this movie, but you'll always know because Eva's hair lengths are quite different: long in her carefree single days, short during her early marriage and motherhood, and medium in the present. One trivia fact I learned tonight is that the opening sequence, in which she and her long braids are covered in something red that flows down the street, is that it is supposed to have taken place during the "war of the tomatoes" in Buñol, Spain. And speaking of superficial appearances, Swinton's eyes are unnaturally dark in this, compared with green here and gray here, especially for one so pale.

The music, with no clips available online, is composed by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood.

Swinton, a mother of twins, said, "I call this the feel-good film of the year, because parents will leave the cinema going, 'There but for the grace of God go I.' And people who don't have children will leave the cinema going, 'There but for the grace of God go I.' So it's a win-win situation, I reckon." Jack and I say it should not be watched late at night, but instead at a time when you can do or see something light-hearted and/or loving afterwards (we saw a matinee on Friday before a swim and dinner), but it's definitely worth seeing. Rottentomatoes' (spoiler alert in the review headlines) audiences agree, giving it 81% to critics' 76%.

Sound of My Voice (2011)

This trippy story of a journalist and his girlfriend who set out to expose a cult leader is REALLY good, especially considering it's a low-budget independent feature with muddy pictures and worse sound (ironic!). The plot is compelling, the acting great, the music outstanding, the editing crisp, and the ending just right. Brit Marling (Another Earth) stars as the cult leader Maggie, who leans in and whispers, pulling her followers towards her and driving me crazy because I had a great deal of difficulty making out her words in a screening room with a noisy hum emanating from the projector. Marling once again co-writes and stars, this time with director Zal Batmanglij, making his feature debut after one short, with another collaboration, The East, currently in post-production. Co-starring as the couple are Christopher Denham and Nicole Vicius, not newcomers, but new to me, and all three are terrific.

Batmanglij's brother Rostam Batmanglij, part of Vampire Weekend, composed the unforgettable mood music (I'm sorry to report that no clips seem to be available), and both are sons of Iranian-American cookbook author Najimeh Batmanglij. According to imdb, both Another Earth and Sound of My Voice premiered at Sundance in January 2011, although that one played here last August and this one began in theatres this April. Sound of My Voice may not have won any awards (yet), but it's definitely worth saving to your netflix queue (rated 74% by both critics and audiences on rottentomatoes). It's under an hour and a half, so you will likely stay awake. Just be sure to turn it up or put on the captions.

Men in Black 3 (2012)

How far technology has taken us! The IMAX 3D version of this high octane three-quel combines elements of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump with the unmistakable Men in Black stamp, i.e. that weirdo who owns the convenience store? He's really from another planet. Mick Jagger? He is too. As you may have gathered, if you hadn't read or seen it already, Will Smith's agent J travels back to 1969 to keep his partner K (Tommy Lee Jones) from getting murdered. The effects are all the more spectacular on the giant screen with the 3D glasses. I only hope you have time to see it this way before it moves to DVD (it will be in regular 3D for at least another week on at least 10 screens here).

Smith (profiled in Seven Pounds, which I didn't like) is back in form as the nagging, talkative, caring partner of the strong silent Jones (last in these pages in Captain America: The First Avenger), who may never have been in any clunkers. Then we have the fine, fine work of Josh Brolin (after I wrote about him in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger he was in True Grit) with a literally pitch-perfect Tommy Lee Jones voice impression for half the movie. Speaking of voices, any fan of Flight of the Conchords will recognize Jemaine Clements' (also in Dinner for Schmucks) voice in Boris the Animal, despite the intentional distortion. Only Clements could make such a despicable villain so funny. Michael Stuhlbarg (the lead in A Serious Man, a smaller part in Hugo, and Arnold Rothstein in 24 episodes of Boardwalk Empire so far) is adorable as a mutant named Griffin in the second half. Also appearing as agent O in the present and past are Emma Thompson (after I named my favorites in Last Chance Harvey she was in Pirate Radio) and Alice Eve (Sophia in the last four Entourage episodes) respectively, both playing women I'd like to meet. I wish I had read more before seeing this today, because then we would have looked for director Barry Sonnenfeld's cameo as someone watching the moon launch, and the cameo of seven-time Oscar-winning makeup effects man Rick Baker (for An American Werewolf in London (1981), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), Ed Wood (1994), The Nutty Professor (1996), Men in Black (1997), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), and The Wolfman (2010), four of which I've seen) as a "Brain Alien." Consider yourself alerted. Oh, and the guy in the Andy Warhol wig is Bill Hader, last mentioned in this blog in Adventureland.

Jack and I couldn't help but laugh at the mayhem (even when we were squirming at some particularly sticky grossness), and that's the intention of Sonnenfeld, who first came to my attention as cinematographer for Throw Momma from the Train (1987) because I was closely acquainted with that production, but he also shot the Coen brothers' Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), and Miller's Crossing (1990), as well as Big (1988), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), and Misery (1990). His signature camera move was the dramatic zoom. Then he moved into directing with The Addams Family (1991) and its sequel Addams Family Values (1993), and I loved Get Shorty (1995), the first two men in Black movies (1997, 2002), RV (2006), and the series Pushing Daisies, which had plenty of those zooms. The cinematographer this time around is Bill Pope (three Matrix movies and two videos (1999-2003), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2007), and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) who is definitely up to the challenge. Acrophobes beware, there are a number of dizzyingly high-appearing locations. Production designer Bo Welch (covered in Thor) may get an Oscar nod for the wonderful sets and gadgets from then and the future in Jones' house and elsewhere. The picture cars, which Jack noticed are mostly Fords, are terrific.

The snappy script is by Etan Cohen (not to be confused with Joel's brother Ethan Coen) who wrote 11 episodes of King of the Hill, the cult favorite Idiocracy (2006) which annoyed me, and Tropic Thunder, which we liked a lot, among others, and his writing credit is shared with Malibu comic writer Lowell Cunningham.

There are some good music tracks that were popular around 1969, but the list (I think we counted about 12) doesn't seem to be available. However, the Danny Elfman (see my post of 3 hours ago on Dark Shadows) score has been released on CD at your favorite music outlet, and you can listen to whole tracks starting with this. This is the first of the three Men in Black movies to have a single not performed by Smith--this time it's by rapper Pitbull, and, speaking of Back to the Future, it's called Back in Time.

In its second week of release, this is #2 at the box office, probably due to the fact that it's on the most screens, 4248, about 500 more than Snow White and the Huntsman and The Avengers, and not so much because of critics weighing in at 69% and audiences 75% on rottentomatoes. If you like this sort of thing, you'll love this and should see it on the big screen.

Bernie (2011)

This true story of a beloved, people-pleasing, nice guy who befriends a mean old widow and then commits a crime will have you laughing between the cringes and joining Jack and me in thinking that truth is stranger than fiction. With Jack Black (last blogged for The Big Year) and Shirley MacLaine (I forgot to do her list before publishing this) as Bernie and Marjorie, it also features Matthew McConaughey (profiled in The Lincoln Lawyer) whose career began with director/writer Richard Linklater's (profiled in Me and Orson Welles) sophomore work Dazed and Confused (1993), as the prosecuting attorney.

The small town details (it takes place in Carthage in east Texas) as provided by Houston-born, Carthage-raised, Austin-dwelling Linklater and co-writer Skip Hollandsworth, on whose Texas Monthly article they based the screenplay (he's had two other articles made into TV movies by others), are hilarious. Some of the people on screen aren't actors but people who actually knew Bernie and Marjorie. Two of the funniest are character actor Sonny Carl Davis (little parts in such classics as Melvin and Howard (1980), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Thelma & Louise (1991), and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)--okay, not a classic but I liked it a lot) as Lonnie, and a slim bottle blonde with a deep tan whose screen credit is someone McConaughey, probably Matthew's mother but not listed on imdb. Here's a short discussion.

Someone complained on imdb that everyone is giving away the ending ahead of time, so I changed my first line to "commits a crime." However, in order to read this list of songs, you'll have to scroll down past the spoiler about which he complains. I don't remember much about the score by Austin-based, Germany-born Graham Reynolds, but I enjoyed hearing Black himself singing 8 of the 23 songs listed in his nice voice.

With 27 producers, this isn't a winner of my Producers Plethora Prize. The reigning champion is Another Happy Day with 29. Also we have an instance of my Rule #11 at least once.

Critics and audiences agree with us here, giving it 90% and 87% respectively on rottentomatoes. According to movietickets.com, this will be here in my town for at least another week on at least one screen. You won't miss anything by seeing it later on DVD, but we recommend that you do see it. Stay or wait until the end for footage of Black visiting with the real Bernie.

Dark Shadows (2012)

Good, dark fun, this remake of the 1966-71 TV series might have seemed better had Jack and I seen the original, but we still liked it a lot. Director Tim Burton's (covered in Alice in Wonderland) fingerprints are all over it, with undead people, fantastic special effects, his baby mama Helena Bonham Carter (last in these pages in The King's Speech) in a supporting role as the psychiatrist Dr. Hoffman, and, at the top of the credits, in his eighth collaboration with Burton (to Carter's seventh), Johnny Depp (most recently in The Rum Diary) as 250-year-old Barnabas Collins. Michelle Pfeiffer (profiled in Chéri) and Chloë Grace Moretz (last mentioned in Hugo) can hold their own with Carter and Depp as the human mother and daughter Elizabeth and Carolyn who move into Collins' house in 1972. Supporting power comes from Eva Green (Isabelle in Bertolucci's The Dreamers (2003) and Bond girl Vesper in Casino Royale (2006)) as the devilish Angelique, Bella Heathcote (new to me) as the angelic Josette / Victoria, Jackie Earle Haley (he started acting in 1972 at 11, but is probably best known as Moocher in both the Breaking Away (1979) movie and TV series (1980-81) and as the convicted child molester in Little Children (2006), which earned him an Oscar nomination and some other wins), Jonny Lee Miller (Trainspotting (1996), Melinda and Melinda (2004), and a series arc as a motivational speaker on Dexter in 2010, among others), and, in cameos, Christopher Lee as Clarney and Alice Cooper as himself.

Burton clearly likes writer Seth Grahame-Smith, who wrote the novel and screenplay for the Burton-produced Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (coming soon) and is in the process of writing Beetlejuice 2 (coming later).

Another Burton regular, Danny Elfman (I wrote about him in detail in Restless, and have many of his soundtracks in my iTunes library, though none from his work with Oingo Boingo--I'll have to do something about that) provides the mood music, a few tracks of which are on youtube, though the musical stylings from the 1970s are what you'll remember best, and imdb has provided us with a list and the blog Indie Wire a few tracks. Supposedly one can listen to clips from the entire record on this link, but on my computer it has been buffering for 15 minutes. Lucky for me I have 141 instrumental cuts from Elfman to keep me in the mood while writing.

Because we were unfamiliar with the series, we totally missed that Jonathan Frid, who played Barnabas on TV, had a cameo as a party guest, in his last role before dying this April. Joining him in that scene were others from the series: Lara Parker, Kathryn Leigh Scott, and David Selby, who reported they were "treated like royalty" on the set.

Nit-picking imdb readers have submitted some anachronisms, but they didn't dim our enjoyment of this romp. Be forewarned that critics at 40% and audiences at 48% on rottentomatoes hated it. So who're you gonna trust? Them or us?