Not for the faint of heart, this perverted (rated NC-17) story of a dumb family's hiring a hit man starts out funny and gets increasingly violent. Jack, Judy, Michael, and I ended up groaning and averting our eyes when we saw it yesterday, on the 77th birthday of director William Friedkin (won Oscar for The French Connection (1971); nominated for The Exorcist (1973); also helmed The Boys in the Band (1970); Cruising (1980); To Live and Die in L.A. (1985); the TV movie of Twelve Angry Men (1997) with Hume Cronyn; Jack Lemmon, and George C. Scott; and Rules of Engagement (2000), to name a few).
The cast is great. Matthew McConaughey (last in these pages in Bernie) looks quite comfortable in his big cowboy hat--he is from Texas, after all--and we quite believe him as the twisted title character. Emile Hirsch (covered in Taking Woodstock) gives us the necessary desperation of the idiot drug dealer, Chris, who starts the process. Thomas Haden Church's (profiled in We Bought a Zoo) Ansel is matter-of-fact in his acceptance of outrageousness, and, as his wife Sharla, Gina Gershon (deservedly won the MTV Best Kiss award with Jennifer Tilly in Bound (1996), her breakout role; I also liked her in The Insider (1999), Delirious (2006), and nine episodes of Rescue Me in 2007 and 2009, among others) is perfect as the leggy bottle-black-haired bimbo. But the scenes with McConaughey and Juno Temple (new to me, she had small parts in Atonement, The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), Greenberg, and more. Her parents are Amanda and Julien Temple, the English producer and director, respectively) as Dottie made our skin crawl, partly because we believed it when Dottie tells Joe she is 12. Actually, she's supposed to be 21, which Friedkin discusses in this interview with no spoilers. He delayed shooting until Temple's 21st birthday so it would be legal to have her (among others) get naked in front of the camera.
The opening credits put the screenwriter, Tracy Letts (he won a Pulitzer Prize for August: Osage County), who also wrote the 1991 play on which the screenplay is based, in front of the title along with Friedkin.
Although some folks will think of the 1963 hit song by the Rocky Fellers, and I can't stop humming the Quincy Jones instrumental, neither song is in the soundtrack by Tyler Bates (The Way, Californication). One track is available for your listening pleasure in Playlist 2 on the composer's website, or you can use this link to get to iTunes and listen to previews of each track.
NC-17 movies rarely do well at the box office, but critics give this 76% to audiences' 80 on rottentomatoes, which helped it inch up from 33 to 30 at the box office in its fifth week of limited release (only 60 screens). It's good, but hard to watch and hard to know who will like it.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Dark Horse (2011)
It's hard to recommend this story of an unlikeable, insecure, 30-something slacker who lives with his doormat parents and has but a tenuous grasp of reality. But Jack and I laughed in spite of ourselves at director/writer Todd Solondz' (covered in Life During Wartime) mean-spirited satire, although we do not get why many reviews used the word "sweet" to describe it. This spoiler-laden one from the New York Times, however, did not, and is eloquent. As usual, I'm glad I didn't read it before seeing the movie.
The lead, Abe, is played to petulant perfection by Jordan Gelber, whom Amy and I saw playing cheerful Brian in Avenue Q on Broadway eight years ago. His doped-up paramour Miranda is Selma Blair (she's had a lot of roles but the one as Vi in Solondz' nasty Storytelling (2001) is burned into my brain). Mia Farrow (co-winner of Most Promising Newcomer Golden Globe in 1965, she went on to Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Great Gatsby (1974), Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978), and a string of Woody Allen movies: A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982), Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Radio days (1987), September (1987), Another Woman (1988), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Alice (1990), Shadows and Fog (1991), and Husbands and Wives (1992), to name my favorites) and Christopher Walken (won the Oscar for The Deer Hunter (1978), nominated for Catch Me If You Can (2002), great in Annie Hall (1977), Pennies From Heaven (1981), The Dead Zone (1983), Batman Returns (1992), True Romance (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), Man of the Year (2005), and Hairspray (2007), for my faves) as Abe's saccharine mom and somnambulant dad, respectively, are classic. The elegant Donna Murphy (covered in Higher Ground) is good as the dowdy Marie, whose role expands beyond what one would expect, and Justin Bartha (Doug in both Hangover movies) is inexplicably listed first in the credits, though his character of Abe's successful brother is a small role.
Abe's cluttered junior-high bedroom is designed by Alex DiGerlando (art director on Morning Glory and The Beaver, production designer on Beasts of the Southern Wild and more).
No composer is credited and, as I recall from a week ago, the credits contain a long list of songs. However, imdb only prints one, and I can't find the list anywhere. Oh well.
Critics weigh in at only 75% and audiences gave it 53% on rottentomatoes. It's truly only for Solondz' fan base.
The lead, Abe, is played to petulant perfection by Jordan Gelber, whom Amy and I saw playing cheerful Brian in Avenue Q on Broadway eight years ago. His doped-up paramour Miranda is Selma Blair (she's had a lot of roles but the one as Vi in Solondz' nasty Storytelling (2001) is burned into my brain). Mia Farrow (co-winner of Most Promising Newcomer Golden Globe in 1965, she went on to Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Great Gatsby (1974), Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978), and a string of Woody Allen movies: A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982), Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Radio days (1987), September (1987), Another Woman (1988), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Alice (1990), Shadows and Fog (1991), and Husbands and Wives (1992), to name my favorites) and Christopher Walken (won the Oscar for The Deer Hunter (1978), nominated for Catch Me If You Can (2002), great in Annie Hall (1977), Pennies From Heaven (1981), The Dead Zone (1983), Batman Returns (1992), True Romance (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), Man of the Year (2005), and Hairspray (2007), for my faves) as Abe's saccharine mom and somnambulant dad, respectively, are classic. The elegant Donna Murphy (covered in Higher Ground) is good as the dowdy Marie, whose role expands beyond what one would expect, and Justin Bartha (Doug in both Hangover movies) is inexplicably listed first in the credits, though his character of Abe's successful brother is a small role.
Abe's cluttered junior-high bedroom is designed by Alex DiGerlando (art director on Morning Glory and The Beaver, production designer on Beasts of the Southern Wild and more).
No composer is credited and, as I recall from a week ago, the credits contain a long list of songs. However, imdb only prints one, and I can't find the list anywhere. Oh well.
Critics weigh in at only 75% and audiences gave it 53% on rottentomatoes. It's truly only for Solondz' fan base.
Monsieur Lazhar (2011)
Touching and fabulous, this opens in a Montreal schoolyard with 6th graders Alice & Simon gently flirting. Then Simon discovers his teacher has hanged herself in the homeroom. Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, takes her job and mysteries unravel. The children, Sophie Nélisse (a Drew Barrymore lookalike) and Émilien Néron, as well as many of their classmates, are terrific and most are making their debutshere. Lazhar is played by an Algerian comedian named Mohamed Fellag (although the credits say only Fellag) who plays it entirely straight.
This movie swept the Genie Awards (Canadian Oscars) with six awards: Best Picture, Directing (Philippe Falardeau--new to me), Adapted Screenplay (Falardeau), Leading Actor (Fellag), Supporting Actress (Nélisse), and Editing, and it was nominated for our Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film but lost to A Separation.
The music, by Martin Léon (composed for one documentary before this), is quite pretty, mostly piano, but hasn't been released. One track is available at various links on youtube and you can hear it here by clicking the arrow next to "01."
Uplifting, despite the tragedies, this is well worth your time. Make time to see it. Oh, and rottentomatoes critics rate it 97% and users 91%, among the best on the site.
This movie swept the Genie Awards (Canadian Oscars) with six awards: Best Picture, Directing (Philippe Falardeau--new to me), Adapted Screenplay (Falardeau), Leading Actor (Fellag), Supporting Actress (Nélisse), and Editing, and it was nominated for our Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film but lost to A Separation.
The music, by Martin Léon (composed for one documentary before this), is quite pretty, mostly piano, but hasn't been released. One track is available at various links on youtube and you can hear it here by clicking the arrow next to "01."
Uplifting, despite the tragedies, this is well worth your time. Make time to see it. Oh, and rottentomatoes critics rate it 97% and users 91%, among the best on the site.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
It's, well, dark. Jack, Amy, Zach, and I took some time out of our beach vacation a week and a half ago to see the Batman blockbuster and weren't disappointed. You most likely know that this is director/co-writer Christopher Nolan's final installment of his Batman trilogy, and no one is supposed to reveal the ending (you know I won't). I covered Nolan in Inception, referred to Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman) in The Fighter, Tom Hardy (the villain Bane) in Warrior, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Officer Blake) in 50/50, Anne Hathaway (Selina Kyle/Catwoman) in One Day, Marion Cotillard (Miranda) in Contagion, and covered Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. There are nearly 300 actors listed on imdb, so that's as far as I'll go.
As Amy drove to the movie I read aloud the some of the 98 trivia points, some of which were fun to know in advance, e.g. the mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, a former college football place kicker, makes a kick in the football game, shot at Heinz Field, home of the Steelers.
The special effects are good, the IMAX brings it into sharp detail (3D wasn't available, which was just fine), the gadgets and action scenes are first rate, the costumes and set dressing pretty great. There's a bit too much bare hand fighting for my taste (another trivia point is that Hardy based his voice/accent on an iconic bare hand fighter). Also, this movie is 12 minutes longer than the second one, The Dark Knight, which is 12 minutes longer than the first, Batman Begins (2005). I would've been happy with 12 or 24 fewer minutes of fighting. Towards the end I started losing track of plot details and references to the earlier installments: Zach had to explain them to me later. The script, perhaps at fault for my lapses of interest, was co-written by Nolan's brother Jonathan, who co-wrote with Christopher the scripts for The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight, and by himself wrote the short story on which Memento (2000) was based. The story is co-credited to Christopher and David S. Goyer (a number of movies I haven't seen, screenplay/story for Batman Begins, story for The Dark Knight, and screenplay for the upcoming Man of Steel, which has an enticing trailer that we saw recently).
With 87% from critics and 92% from audiences on rottentomatoes, this is, as of August 5, the second highest grossing movie of 2012.
Once again Hans Zimmer (last in these pages in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) provides the exciting soundtrack, heavy with timpani, low notes, and chanting. You can listen to all the tracks from the CD here, or, for true fans, there's an app for that, but it's not free.
You already know if this is your thing--action, intrigue, Batman. If it is, see it on the big screen.
As Amy drove to the movie I read aloud the some of the 98 trivia points, some of which were fun to know in advance, e.g. the mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, a former college football place kicker, makes a kick in the football game, shot at Heinz Field, home of the Steelers.
The special effects are good, the IMAX brings it into sharp detail (3D wasn't available, which was just fine), the gadgets and action scenes are first rate, the costumes and set dressing pretty great. There's a bit too much bare hand fighting for my taste (another trivia point is that Hardy based his voice/accent on an iconic bare hand fighter). Also, this movie is 12 minutes longer than the second one, The Dark Knight, which is 12 minutes longer than the first, Batman Begins (2005). I would've been happy with 12 or 24 fewer minutes of fighting. Towards the end I started losing track of plot details and references to the earlier installments: Zach had to explain them to me later. The script, perhaps at fault for my lapses of interest, was co-written by Nolan's brother Jonathan, who co-wrote with Christopher the scripts for The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight, and by himself wrote the short story on which Memento (2000) was based. The story is co-credited to Christopher and David S. Goyer (a number of movies I haven't seen, screenplay/story for Batman Begins, story for The Dark Knight, and screenplay for the upcoming Man of Steel, which has an enticing trailer that we saw recently).
With 87% from critics and 92% from audiences on rottentomatoes, this is, as of August 5, the second highest grossing movie of 2012.
Once again Hans Zimmer (last in these pages in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) provides the exciting soundtrack, heavy with timpani, low notes, and chanting. You can listen to all the tracks from the CD here, or, for true fans, there's an app for that, but it's not free.
You already know if this is your thing--action, intrigue, Batman. If it is, see it on the big screen.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
I Wish (Kiseki - 2011)
Poignant and sweet, this story of a 12 year old Japanese boy, living with his mother and grandparents, who yearns for his father and 10 year old brother who live elsewhere and plans to bring them back by wishing on a train is terrific. Real-life brothers Koki and Ohshirô Maeda, who also work as comedians at their tender ages, are delightful as the star Koichi and playful Ryu. The movie wasn't on our radar screen but we saw it was playing nearby and caught most of it a couple of days before leaving for our beach vacation 2 weeks ago. I say "most of it" because, maddeningly, not only did the theatre not warn us there would be no trailers, but when we walked into the 2:20 screening at 2:19 the movie was in progress and we didn't see at least two scenes that were in the trailer. I have ranted and been promised it won't happen again.
Now I'm reminded that I have seen and loved two other pictures by director/writer/editor Hirokazu Koreeda (AKA Kore-eda) and wrote about him and them in Still Walking (it and Nobody Knows (2004) are now available to watch instantly on Netflix. Do it!). Koreeda has said his inspiration for the story was a new Japanese bullet train that opened last year and that the English translation of the actual Japanese title Kiseki is "miracle."
The DVD release date hasn't yet been set and, in fact, the movie is still moving slowly around this country (here are some upcoming dates). If you can see it anywhere, do so, and save it to your netflix queue to savor when it's finally available. You don't have to take my word for it--on rottentomatoes the audience average is 84% and critics vote 92%.
Now I'm reminded that I have seen and loved two other pictures by director/writer/editor Hirokazu Koreeda (AKA Kore-eda) and wrote about him and them in Still Walking (it and Nobody Knows (2004) are now available to watch instantly on Netflix. Do it!). Koreeda has said his inspiration for the story was a new Japanese bullet train that opened last year and that the English translation of the actual Japanese title Kiseki is "miracle."
The DVD release date hasn't yet been set and, in fact, the movie is still moving slowly around this country (here are some upcoming dates). If you can see it anywhere, do so, and save it to your netflix queue to savor when it's finally available. You don't have to take my word for it--on rottentomatoes the audience average is 84% and critics vote 92%.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Savages (2012)
Often Jack and I enjoy movies for which we're not in the target demographic of Gen X males. This isn't one of them. Despite the mostly good acting, beautiful beach locations, and high production values, we found the story so sadistic and ugly that I fought the urge to walk out several times when we saw it three weeks ago. And violence in and of itself doesn't usually put us off. The story is about two guys, childhood friends, one a hippie botanist and the other an ex-Navy Seal, who share a girl, grow the best marijuana anyone has ever used, and then get mixed up with cruel Mexican drug lords. Based on the 2010 novel by crime/mystery writer Don Winslow, director Oliver Stone apparently optioned it before it was published and worked on the screenplay with Winslow and Winslow's regular screenwriting partner Shane Salerno.
The good acting comes from Aaron Johnson (most recently in Albert Nobbs) as Ben the botanist, Benicio del Toro (won an Oscar and more for supporting actor in Traffic (2000), nominated for 21 Grams (2003), won Independent Spirit Awards for The Usual Suspects (1995), Basquiat (1996), and 21 Grams, and was in the wonderful Fearless (1993), Swimming with Sharks (1994), Snatch. (2000), and had an uncredited cameo as "Celebrity" in Somewhere) as a very bad yet attractive guy, Salma Hayek (first came to my attention in the quirky Dogma (1999), then was terrific in Timecode (2000) which I kept meaning to watch again later because the screen is split into four parts with different parts of the story going on simultaneously and my brain couldn't handle it even though I wanted it to (whew!), the lead in Frida (2002) directed by Julie Taymor, and recurring roles in Ugly Betty and 30 Rock) equally bad and even more attractive, and John Travolta (I loved Pulp Fiction (1994), even though it had its sadistic side as well, and Saturday Night Fever (1977), both of which earned him Oscar nominations, loved Urban Cowboy (1980), Blow Out (1981), Get Shorty (1995), Phenomenon (1996), Michael (1996), Primary Colors (1998), and liked Grease (1978) and Hairspray (2007)) as a harried detective. However, Blake Lively and her character O (short for Ophelia? Olivia? I can't remember) left me completely cold, even though I liked her in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and The Town, and I felt the same way about the last third of the romantic triangle between Johnson and Lively, Taylor Kitsch (I never saw Friday Night Lights, John Tucker Must Die (2006), nor John Carter earlier this year), who plays the ex-Navy Seal inexplicably named Chon.
Director/co-writer Oliver Stone (covered briefly in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) still wants to be Quentin Tarantino, as he did when he made Natural Born Killers (1994), which was way, way better than this. It's not a total waste of time but we can't recommend it.
The good acting comes from Aaron Johnson (most recently in Albert Nobbs) as Ben the botanist, Benicio del Toro (won an Oscar and more for supporting actor in Traffic (2000), nominated for 21 Grams (2003), won Independent Spirit Awards for The Usual Suspects (1995), Basquiat (1996), and 21 Grams, and was in the wonderful Fearless (1993), Swimming with Sharks (1994), Snatch. (2000), and had an uncredited cameo as "Celebrity" in Somewhere) as a very bad yet attractive guy, Salma Hayek (first came to my attention in the quirky Dogma (1999), then was terrific in Timecode (2000) which I kept meaning to watch again later because the screen is split into four parts with different parts of the story going on simultaneously and my brain couldn't handle it even though I wanted it to (whew!), the lead in Frida (2002) directed by Julie Taymor, and recurring roles in Ugly Betty and 30 Rock) equally bad and even more attractive, and John Travolta (I loved Pulp Fiction (1994), even though it had its sadistic side as well, and Saturday Night Fever (1977), both of which earned him Oscar nominations, loved Urban Cowboy (1980), Blow Out (1981), Get Shorty (1995), Phenomenon (1996), Michael (1996), Primary Colors (1998), and liked Grease (1978) and Hairspray (2007)) as a harried detective. However, Blake Lively and her character O (short for Ophelia? Olivia? I can't remember) left me completely cold, even though I liked her in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and The Town, and I felt the same way about the last third of the romantic triangle between Johnson and Lively, Taylor Kitsch (I never saw Friday Night Lights, John Tucker Must Die (2006), nor John Carter earlier this year), who plays the ex-Navy Seal inexplicably named Chon.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Lightweight, a little sad, a little sweet, this apocalypse story is something we were eager to see, as we're Steve Carell fans (he was last in these pages in Crazy, Stupid, Love. and we saw him today in Hope Springs, but more on that in a while). From both of these it's evident that he wants to be taken more seriously, and in this one, though the situation is a dire one played for laughs, he does display the acting chops we knew he had, as the sensitive guy named Dodge, whose wife (played by Carell's wife Nancy) leaves him in the first scene. Disclaimer: we saw it July 1, almost six weeks ago, so I've outsourced my memory to the internet.
Keira Knightley (most recently in A Dangerous Method) isn't all that special as the ditzy Penny who accompanies Dodge on a road trip before the meteor hits--I would've liked to have seen someone funnier, but maybe director/writer Lorene Scafaria didn't see it as a comedy and that's why Knightley was cast. Scafaria's first produced script was Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and this is the second feature she wrote and the first anything she has directed. There is a funny recurring gag with the clueless housekeeper, played by Tonita Castro, and "Windose," a blue liquid spray-on window cleaner. Good cameos are to be had by Rob Corddry (Cedar Rapids, The Daily Show), Melanie Lynskey (profiled in Win Win), T.J. Miller (Our Idiot Brother, more), Gillian Jacobs (Britta on Community, cameo in A Solitary Man), and especially Patton Oswalt (last here in Young Adult). Martin Sheen (most recently in The Amazing Spider-Man) appears for an important segment in the third act. There are a lot of goofs, with spoilers, printed on imdb, and I will say that I noticed the one about the plane.
As I implied in my placeholder last time I tried to catch up (a losing battle), the deadly meteor is the same theme as the intense Melancholia, which we disliked intensely. This one isn't great art (we agree with the rottentomatoes averages of critics 52%, audiences 60%), but is mildly diverting, and will be coming out on DVD sometime this winter.
Keira Knightley (most recently in A Dangerous Method) isn't all that special as the ditzy Penny who accompanies Dodge on a road trip before the meteor hits--I would've liked to have seen someone funnier, but maybe director/writer Lorene Scafaria didn't see it as a comedy and that's why Knightley was cast. Scafaria's first produced script was Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and this is the second feature she wrote and the first anything she has directed. There is a funny recurring gag with the clueless housekeeper, played by Tonita Castro, and "Windose," a blue liquid spray-on window cleaner. Good cameos are to be had by Rob Corddry (Cedar Rapids, The Daily Show), Melanie Lynskey (profiled in Win Win), T.J. Miller (Our Idiot Brother, more), Gillian Jacobs (Britta on Community, cameo in A Solitary Man), and especially Patton Oswalt (last here in Young Adult). Martin Sheen (most recently in The Amazing Spider-Man) appears for an important segment in the third act. There are a lot of goofs, with spoilers, printed on imdb, and I will say that I noticed the one about the plane.
As I implied in my placeholder last time I tried to catch up (a losing battle), the deadly meteor is the same theme as the intense Melancholia, which we disliked intensely. This one isn't great art (we agree with the rottentomatoes averages of critics 52%, audiences 60%), but is mildly diverting, and will be coming out on DVD sometime this winter.
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