Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)

This sequel featuring the egomaniac 1980s TV personality has some laughs, lots of cringes, and some yawns and is something to watch in a few months when you're home with some drinks and can watch it for free on cable, especially for the last half hour rife with dozens of cameos.

Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, and Christina Applegate reprise their roles from the 2004 version, which I think I saw but don't remember. Ferrell once again co-writes with director Adam McKay (The Other Guys).

Rottentomatoes critics average 75% to audiences' 68. Jack liked it more than I did.

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Jack and I enjoyed, as we expected, this story of prickly writer P.L. Travers being wooed by Walt Disney to sell him the rights to her novel Mary Poppins. A New Yorker subscriber since the 1970s, I had read the long 2005 article (you can read it too!) so knew a bit of the story. Writers Kelly Marcel (this is her feature debut and next is Fifty Shades of Grey) and Sue Smith (new to me) fleshed out the plot for director John Lee Hancock (I've seen only The Blind Side of his four previous features) to include Travers' Australian childhood. Trivia point: Marcel wrote the first draft, which was on the prestigious Hollywood "Black List" of the best unsold un-produced screenplays of 2011.

In the 1960s-era cast Emma Thompson (last blogged in Brave) is brilliant as the tight-lipped adult Travers; Tom Hanks (most recently in Captain Phillips) endearing as Disney, who just happens to have been a distant cousin of Hanks; Jason Schwartzman (mentioned in Moonrise Kingdom and covered in Fantastic Mr. Fox) and B.J. Novak (last in Inglourious Basterds) are great as the songwriting Sherman brothers; as are Bradley Whitford (he's done a bunch of features but is best known as Josh Lyman on 154 episodes of The West Wing, 22 wonderful episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as Danny Tripp, and I'm enjoying him in the dumb sitcom Trophy Wife) as the baffled producer and Paul Giamatti (mentioned in 12 Years a Slave, credits listed in The Ides of March) as the sweet driver. In the 1910s sequences, Annie Rose Buckley is adorable in her feature debut as little Helen, Colin Farrell (last in Seven Psychopaths), inexplicably missing from the trailer, is powerful as Helen's beloved father Travers Goff, and Ruth Wilson (The Lone Ranger) is no slouch as Helen's mother Margaret.

John Schwartzman (half-brother of Jason, Oscar-nominated for shooting Seabiscuit (2003), he has other good works including Benny & Joon (1993), Edtv (1999), The Bucket List (2007), and The Amazing Spider-Man) keeps the picture Disney-lush with help from the production design and picture car teams.

Thomas Newman (most recently in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) gives us a lovely suite of music (preview it on amazon) mixed in with the Disney score and a few other tunes, including jazzman Dave Brubeck's 1957 version of Heigh-Ho.

Here are some more articles for enthusiasts to read: one, two, three, four--I can't vouch for all of them--but imagine there are spoilers galore, so read after seeing the movie.

Rottentomatoes audiences are in line with us, averaging 90% to critics' 81. This is not a totally feel-good movie (rated PG-13 for some disturbing themes), but we do recommend it. Don't rush out of the room when the credits begin, as you will be treated to some fascinating vintage photos and audio.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

I knew I would love this loose adaptation of the James Thurber short story about a meek man who fantasizes about being bold. Some friends and I decided that Thurber's protagonist, a henpecked married man, would be just plain pathetic now, and this one, played and directed by Ben Stiller (most recently blogged in Tower Heist) and written for the screen by Steve Conrad (The Weather Man (2005), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)), is merely painfully shy with his eye on a pretty co-worker, Cheryl, played by Kristen Wiig (last in Girl Most Likely), and a hero he admires played by Sean Penn (last in Gangster Squad). Conrad came to our university for a sold out advance screening and is a humble, nice guy with a lot of respect for the original Thurber material and a great sense of humor. That said, this is also an action picture with great special effects and beautiful festival award-nominated photography by Stuart Dryburgh (covered in Amelia). 140 (!) actors are listed on the imdb page but the only other one I want to mention is Patton Oswalt, a favorite of mine who was last blogged in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and here plays mostly a voice on the phone. It's not a spoiler to tell you who it is so you don't have to wrack your brain, as Mary Ellen and I did, to identify his voice.

Composer Theodore Shapiro (last in We're the Millers) is also nominated--no, the Oscar nominations are not out yet--for a varied score that goes from dreamy (featuring guitarist José Gonzalez) to pounding. Hear one track on youtube, preview the whole score on the amazon page and listen, if you wish, to the companion tracks.

Unfortunately Jack was out of town for the advance screening over two weeks ago. I was willing to see it with Amy and him yesterday when our first choice for a Christmas movie was sold out, but only two tickets were available for the three of us so we went home and watched a Pay-per-View (more on that in a later post).

Apparently Thurber didn't like the 1947 Danny Kaye version. Rottentomatoes critics feel the same about this one, averaging 47% to audiences' 77. We loved it and so did many of the people in the room earlier this month. I did not get motion sick after wisely moving toward the rear of the room, but did have to put my fingers in my ears at an unnecessarily loud music cue in a mountain scene.

All is Lost (2013)

This one-man show is very good, starring Robert Redford as a nameless 70-something solo sailor struggling to survive peril after peril in open water. It opens with "Our Man" reading from his journal and there are no more than a dozen words spoken after that. I covered Redford in The Company You Keep; director/writer J.C. Chandor made his feature debut with Margin Call; and Alex Ebert, leader of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, composes the haunting music, clips of which can be heard on the amazon page.

Rottentomatoes critics are more enthusiastic at 93% than its audiences at 70, but this is another to watch for awards season. That said, sufferers of Motion Picture Motion Sickness (MPMS) should sit in the back row or wait for the DVD release in mid-February.

Nebraska (2013)

We liked a lot this story of a father, on the verge of dementia, and his grown son on a road trip to claim a million dollar sweepstakes the father is convinced he has won. With deserved award-winning and -nominated performances by Bruce Dern (Oscar-nominated for playing Jane Fonda's husband in Coming Home (1978), he was also great in The Great Gatsby (1974) as Tom Buchanan, That Championship Season (1982), 29 episodes of Big Love (2006-11), and many more, among his almost 150 roles) as the father, Will Forte (I know him as cross-dressing Paul on 13 episodes of 30 Rock (2007-2012) and didn't realize he was on 158 episodes of Saturday Night Live from 2002-12, among his 59 acting credits) playing it straight as the son, June Squibb (her face was familiar but I would not have been able to tell you she was in 41 things, including Scent of a Woman (1992) and About Schmidt (2002)) as the mother, director Alexander Payne (covered in The Descendants), writer Bob Nelson (his first feature after two TV series), it also features cameos by Bob Odenkirk (last in The Spectacular Now) and Stacy Keach (the winner in this post, he's got 189 acting credits but nothing really calls out to me--I must be tired), and Rance Howard (father of Ron and Clint).

The beautiful black and white photography is by Phedon Papamichael (last blogged in This is 40) who is also someone to watch this awards season.

I said to Jack afterwards that all of the music seemed to be in 3/4 time. I found the soundtrack by Mark Orton streaming on this page and correct myself that most of it but not all is in waltz time--either 3/4 or 6/8. Very nice guitar work with other strings. There are plenty of songs listed on imdb as well.

Film fans should see this before the Oscars. Don't just take our word for it--rottentomatoes critics average a whopping 91% and audiences 89.

Go for Sisters (2013)

This tale of two old friends reunited on opposite sides of the parole officer's desk caused Jack to dub it "the most languidly-paced thriller ever" and had me checking the time before it was half over. More interested in character than plot, director/writer John Sayles (I haven't seen his two Oscar-nominated screenplays Passion Fish (1992) nor Lone Star (1996), but can vouch for his excellence in Return of the Secaucus Seven (1979), Lianna (1983), The Brother from Another Planet (1984), The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), Sunshine State (2002), and particularly Casa de los babys (2003)) has long been able to show us folks other than those from his own white privileged background, but this one suffers. Starring Lisagay Hamilton (last blogged in The Soloist) and Yolonda Ross (she's been in many projects I've seen but she didn't look familiar--she is nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for this role) as the officer and her friend, respectively, and Edward James Olmos (covered in 2 Guns) as a disgraced cop helping them.

Stalwart Sayles fans will want to see this, playing in limited runs around the country and available now for pre-order on the same site. Rottentomatoes: 65% critics, 45 audiences. No big surprise.

Delivery Man (2013)

This is a great story about a sperm donor who finds out he's fathered 533 children and Vince Vaughn and Chris Pratt are okay. But the original, Starbuck, was better and this copies everything. I repeat, everything (except the pro athlete plays basketball here and in the French Canadian version he played soccer). Maybe that's what happens when the director/co-writer adapts and directs his own script. The remake also suffers because it's been barely seven months since the original played in these parts. Critics at 38% and audiences at 56 on rottentomatoes reflect my opinion. Oh, and perhaps this is nitpicking (I've been picking more than nits anyway), but Vaughn (covered in The Dilemma), as the father, is a very tall fellow and the actors playing his brothers and father are uniformly not. Pratt (last in Zero Dark Thirty) pretty much phones it in as his best friend and lawyer.

Do yourself a favor and see the original Starbuck, now streaming on netflix.

More awards

Some are coming soon to the heartland. Some are marked with estimated DVD release dates. Some will live in obscurity. Too bad.

The National Board of Review Winners

Best Film: Her

Best Director: Spike Jonze, Her

Best Actor: Bruce Dern, Nebraska

Best Actress: Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks (DVD May 2014)

Best Supporting Actor: Will Forte, Nebraska

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, Fruitvale Station (DVD 1/14/13)

Best Original Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Adapted Screenplay: Terence Winter, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Animated Feature: The Wind Rises

Breakthrough Performance: Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station (DVD 1/14/13)
Breakthrough Performance: Adèle Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color (DVD 2/25/14)

Best Directorial Debut: Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale Station (DVD 1/14/13)

Best Foreign Language Film: The Past

Best Documentary: Stories We Tell

William K. Everson Film History Award: George Stevens, Jr.

Best Ensemble: Prisoners (DVD 12/17/13)

Spotlight Award: Career Collaboration of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio

NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Wadjda

Creative Innovation in Filmmaking Award: Gravity (DVD December 2013)

Top Ten Films (in alphabetical order)
12 Years A Slave (DVD February 2014)

Fruitvale Station (DVD 1/14/13)

Gravity (DVD December 2013)
Inside Llewyn Davis
Lone Survivor
Nebraska
Prisoners (DVD 12/17/13)
Saving Mr. Banks (DVD May 2014)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
The Wolf of Wall Street

Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order)
Beyond the Hills
Gloria
The Grandmaster (DVD out now)

A Hijacking
The Hunt (DVD 12/10/13)

Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order)
20 Feet from Stardom (DVD 1/14/14)
The Act Of Killing
After Tiller
Casting By
The Square

Top Ten Independent Films (in alphabetical order)
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (DVD 12/17/13)
Dallas Buyers Club

In a World… (DVD 1/21/14)
Mother of George
Much Ado About Nothing
Mud (DVD out now)
The Place Beyond the Pines (DVD out now)
Short Term 12 (DVD 1/14/14)
Sightseers

The Spectacular Now (DVD 1/14/14)

------------------------------------------------------------

The Gotham Awards nominations, more recognition for independent films:

Best Feature
12 Years A Slave (DVD February 2014)

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (DVD 12/17/13)
Before Midnight (DVD out now)
Inside Llewyn Davis
Upstream Color

Best Documentary
The Act Of Killing
The Crash Reel
First Cousin Once Removed
Let the Fire Burn
Our Nixon

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Ryan Coogler for Fruitvale Station (DVD 1/14/13)
Adam Leon for Gimme The Loot
Alexandre Moors for Blue Caprice (DVD 1/14/14)
Stacie Passon for Concussion
Amy Seimetz for Sun Don’t Shine

Best Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years A Slave (DVD February 2014)
Oscar Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis
Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford in All Is Lost (DVD 2/11/14)
Isaiah Washington in Blue Caprice (DVD 1/14/14)

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine (DVD 1/21/14)
Scarlett Johansson in Don Jon (DVD 11/31/13)
Brie Larson in Short Term 12 (DVD 1/14/14)
Amy Seimetz in Upstream Color
Shailene Woodley in The Spectacular Now (DVD 1/14/14)

Breakthrough Actor
Dane DeHaan in Kill Your Darlings
Kathryn Hahn in Afternoon Delight
Michael B. Jordan in Fruitvale Station (DVD 1/14/13)
Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years A Slave (DVD February 2014)
Robin Weigert in Concussion

For the third consecutive year, IFP is proud to present the euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant, a $25,000 cash award for an alumna of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs. This grant aims to further the careers of emerging women directors by supporting the completion, distribution and audience engagement strategies of their first feature film.
The nominees:
Afia Nathaniel, director, Dukhthar
Gita Pullapilly, director, Beneath The Harvest Sky
Deb Shoval, director, AWOL

Philomena (2013)

This remarkable story of an unemployed journalist helping a sweet Irishwoman find the son she gave up 50 years before skillfully mixes grief with laughter and cynicism with hope. Judi Dench and Steve Coogan make an entertaining odd couple and both have been nominated for (so far) BAFTA Awards (the British Oscars) for these roles. We all expect greatness (though not usually an Irish lilt) from Dame Dench (last blogged in Skyfall) but the range of Coogan's (most recently in What Maisie Knew) acting is growing by leaps and bounds. Coogan also co-wrote the snappy script (his second feature and first drama after lots of British TV comedy) with Jeff Pope (over a dozen other credits, none known to me), adapting the 2009 book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty Year Search, by Martin Sixsmith, which he had adapted from his newspaper article. This script won the Best Screenplay Award at the Venice Film Festival and is nominated for a BAFTA as well. We had not researched much less read the book, so we were surprised by a plot twist or two. You can easily find out the entire plot beforehand but I'm glad I didn't. Expect nice work from young Sophie Kennedy Clark as the young Philomena and a cringe-inducing cameo from Mare Winningham late in the third act.

The story brought me recollections of the brutal but brilliant The Magdalene Sisters (2002) which is about "fallen" Irish girls punished in a convent in the 1960s.

We expect nominations for director Stephen Frears (covered in depth in Chéri) as well. When the Oscars come around, you will want to have seen this. Don't just listen to Jack and me, trust the reviews at rottentomatoes (93 critics/92 audiences).

Kill Your Darlings (2013)

Today Jack and I enjoyed this tale of Allen Ginsberg and his future Beat Generation friends as wayward freshman at Columbia University. It opens with a murder that really happened. The great cast: Daniel Radcliffe (perhaps you've heard of Harry Potter?) as Ginsberg, Ben Foster (last blogged in Ain't Them Bodies Saints) as William Burroughs, Jack Huston (best known to me as the "half-faced" Richard Harrow on Boardwalk Empire, he's part of the famous Hollywood Huston family) as Jack Kerouac, Dane DeHaan (The Place Beyond the Pines) as Ginsberg's best friend Lucien, Kyra Sedgewick (less than one degree of Kevin Bacon--she's his wife--she's won a lot of awards for The Closer) as Lucien's mom (her jewelry gets its own credit at the end), Elizabeth Olsen (Liberal Arts) as Kerouac's girlfriend, Michael C. Hall (Dexter, Six Feet Under) as a pivotal character, and as Ginsberg's parents David Cross (Tobias Fünke on Arrested Development, Cross played Allen Ginsberg in I'm Not There. (2007)) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (most recently in The Spectacular Now, she's back to playing crazy and nobody does crazy like JJL). Every one of them delivers. 

The title is from an English professor's advice to his students, meaning that the words they have written are the darlings and the writer should edit/cut them ruthlessly.

Nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, it's the feature debut of director/co-writer John Krokidas and co-writer Austin Bunn. About half of the songs in the credits are listed on imdb, and the score by Nico Muhly (The Reader) is good too, but not available to stream or buy at this time.

Audiences and critics agree at 75% and 74% respectively on rottentomatoes. There are many darkly lit scenes so I recommend seeing this on the big screen before it leaves its short run here or wherever you are. 

2013 Independent Spirit Award Nominations

With the holidays comes awards season. And the Independent Spirit Awards are among my favorites. The show airs on IFC March 1, 2014, the night before the Oscars, and this year will be hosted by funnyman Patton Oswalt (last in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World). You can tell by the links below I've written about some of the nominees, missed a few, and am eagerly anticipating others making it to our neck o' the woods. If I have info on how to see these, it follows each title. (This year I don't expect to be making my OCD list of nominations and wins alphabetized by movie title. I'm glad I was able to catch up enough this week so as to continue the blog at all!)

Feature

12 Years a Slave (DVD estimated February 2014)

All Is Lost (DVD 2/11/14)

Frances Ha (streaming on Netflix now)

Inside Llewyn Davis

Nebraska

Director

Shane Carruth - Upstream Color (streaming on Netflix now)

J.C. Chandor - All Is Lost (DVD 2/11/14)

Steve McQueen - 12 Years a Slave (DVD estimated February 2014)

Jeff Nichols - Mud (DVD on Netflix now)

Alexander Payne - Nebraska

Screenplay

Woody Allen - Blue Jasmine (DVD 1/21/14)

Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater - Before Midnight (DVD on Netflix now)

Nicole Holofcener - Enough Said (DVD 1/14/14)

Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber - The Spectacular Now (DVD 1/14/14)

John Ridley - 12 Years a Slave (DVD estimated February 2014)

First Feature

Blue Caprice - Alexandre Moors - director/producer; Kim Jackson, Brian O'Carroll, Isen Robbins, Will Rowbotham, Ron Simons, Aimee Schoof, Stephen Tedeschi - producer

Concussion - Stacie Passon - director; Rose Troche - producer

Fruitvale Station - Ryan Coogler - director; Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker - producers  (DVD 1/14/14)

Una Noche - Lucy Mulloy - director - producer; Sandy Pérez Aguila, Maite Artieda, Daniel Mulloy, Yunior Santiago - producers (DVD 12/24/13)

Wadjda - Haifaa Al Mansour - director; Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul - producer

First Screenplay

Lake Bell - In a World… (DVD 1/21/14)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Don Jon (DVD 12/31/13)

Bob Nelson - Nebraska

Jill Soloway - Afternoon Delight

Michael Starrbury - The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete

John Cassavetes Award (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000)

Computer Chess - Andrew Bujalski, writer/director (streaming on Netflix now)

Crystal Fairy - Sebastiàn Silva, writer/director (streaming on Netflix now)

Museum Hours - Jem Cohen, writer/director

Pit Stop - Yen Tan, writer/director; David Lowery, writer

This is Martin Bonner - Chad Hartigan, writer/director (streaming on Netflix now)

Female Lead

Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine (DVD 1/21/14)

Julie Delpy - Before Midnight (DVD on Netflix now)

Gaby Hoffmann - Crystal Fairy (streaming on Netflix now)

Brie Larson - Short Term 12 (DVD 1/14/14)

Shailene Woodley - The Spectacular Now (DVD 1/14/14)

Male Lead

Bruce Dern - Nebraska

Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave (DVD estimated February 2014)

Oscar Isaac - Inside Llewyn Davis

Michael B. Jordan - Fruitvale Station (DVD 1/14/14)

Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club

Robert Redford - All Is Lost (DVD 2/11/14)

Supporting Female

Melonie Diaz - Fruitvale Station (DVD 1/14/14)

Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine (DVD 1/21/14)

Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave (DVD estimated February 2014)

Yolonda Ross - Go For Sisters

June Squibb - Nebraska

Supporting Male

Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave (DVD estimated February 2014)

Will Forte - Nebraska

James Gandolfini - Enough Said (DVD 1/14/14)

Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club

Keith Stanfield - Short Term 12 (DVD 1/14/14)

Cinematography

Sean Bobbitt - 12 Years a Slave (DVD estimated February 2014)

Benoit Debie - Spring Breakers (DVD on Netflix now)

Bruno Delbonnel - Inside Llewyn Davis

Frank G. DeMarco - All Is Lost (DVD 2/11/14)

Matthias Grunsky - Computer Chess (streaming on Netflix now)

Editing

Shane Carruth & David Lowery - Upstream Color (streaming on Netflix now)

Jem Cohen & Marc Vives - Museum Hours

Jennifer Lame - Frances Ha (streaming on Netflix now)

Cindy Lee - Una Noche

Nat Sanders - Short Term 12 (DVD 1/14/14)

Documentary

20 Feet From Stardom - Morgan Neville, director/producer; Gil Friesen & Caitrin Rogers, producers (DVD 1/14/14)

After Tiller - Martha Shane & Lana Wilson, directors/producers

Gideon's Army - Dawn Porter, director/producer; Julie Goldman, producer

The Act of Killing - Joshua Oppenheimer, director/producer; Joram Ten Brink, Christine Cynn, Anne Köhncke, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Michael Uwemedimo, producer

The Square - Jehane Noujaim, director, Karim Amer, producer

International Film

A Touch of Sin (China) - Jia Zhang-Ke, director

Blue Is the Warmest Color (France) - Abdellatif Kechiche, director

Gloria (Chile) - Sebastián Lelio, director

The Great Beauty (Italy) - Paolo Sorrentino, director

The Hunt (Denmark) - Thomas Vinterberg, director (DVD on Netflix now)

Robert Altman Award (Given to one film's director, casting director and its ensemble cast)

Mud  (DVD on Netflix now)

Director: Jeff Nichols

Casting Director: Francine Maisler

Ensemble Cast: Joe Don Baker, Jacob Lofland, Matthew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon, Sarah Paulson, Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Tye Sheridan, Paul Sparks, Bonnie Sturdivant, Reese Witherspoon

17th Piaget Producers Award

Toby Halbrooks & James M. Johnston

Jacob Jaffke

Andrea Roa

Frederick Thornton

20th Someone to Watch Award

My Sister's Quinceañera - Aaron Douglas Johnston, director

Newlyweeds - Shaka King, director

The Foxy Merkins - Madeline Olnek, director

19th Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction Award

Kalyanee Mam - A River Changes Course

Jason Osder - Let the Fire Burn

Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez - Manakamana

Joe Papp in Five Acts (2010)

This fascinating documentary about the former Joseph Papirovsky was another popular entry in this year's Jewish Film Festival, profiling the producer of New York's free Shakespeare in the Park (starting in 1956), Hair (1967), A Chorus Line (1975), For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (1975), The Normal Heart (1985), and much more. With Kevin Kline reciting Shakespeare quotes and footage of Olympia Dukakis, James Earl Jones, Martin Sheen, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, and others, filmmakers Tracie Holder and Karen Thorsen have a winner. Here's the trailer. I saw it several weeks ago and don't remember the music anymore, but imdb says jazz clarinetist Don Byron composed the music, so here's a fun track of his instrumental work. I don't know when the movie will be out on DVD, but theatre lovers should see it.

Wadjda (2012)

This wonderful ground-breaking movie, the first ever made entirely in Saudi Arabia, directed and written by a woman, is a hopeful story of a 10-year-old free-spirited girl who simply wants a bicycle. But in her country, girls don't ride bikes, they don't run, they don't speak loudly, they don't even appear in public without their black robes and head scarves. Yet Wadjda's scarf seldom stays put, her jeans and Converse sneakers peek out from under her robe, and her best friend is a bike-riding boy. In some countries the title is a translation of The Green Bicycle.

Haifaa Al-Mansour made a documentary, Women Without Shadows (2005), about women's roles in Saudi Arabia, and this is her fiction follow-up. The acting, especially by Waad Mohammed and Reem Abdullah as Wadjda and her mother, respectively, is first-rate. I also liked the music by Max Richter (last blogged in Disconnect). You can stream clips from the soundtrack on the amazon page.

The movie is still making its way around our country (here's a list of theaters, but I know at least one date is incorrect). Save this one to your netflix queue. It'll be worth it. And invite a tween girl who won't mind the subtitles to watch it with you. If you don't believe me, 99% (74 of 75) of rottentomatoes critics loved this, and 90% of audiences.

Behind the Candelabra (2013)

Jack and I loved this HBO movie based on the memoir of Liberace's boy toy Scott Thorson. Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are terrific and all 11 Primetime Emmy Awards are well deserved. Douglas (now 71, last blogged in Haywire) is believable as Liberace at 57 and Damon (now 43, most recently in Elysium), well, no one thinks he's 17 at the beginning of the movie, as Thorson was when he met the star in 1977, but his character's innocence and naïveté is well portrayed. Great support by Scott Bakula (The Informant! by the same director, and the sadly-cancelled series Men of a Certain Age, among others), Rob Lowe (some of my favorites: The Outsiders (1983), The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), About Last Night… (1986), Bad Influence (1990), and though I didn't see his 84 episodes of The West Wing, I saw and liked his 78 in Brothers & Sisters, his 5 in Californication, and his ongoing contribution to Parks and Recreation--LIT-trilly), and Debbie Reynolds (her Oscar nomination was for The Unsinkable Molly Brown and I enjoyed, among others, Singin' in the Rain (1952), Divorce American Style (1967), Mother (1996), and In & Out (1997)) almost unrecognizable as Liberace's mother with a Polish accent.

Although the excellent psycho-thriller Side Effects (sorry, I was on a blog break when I should have written more than two sentences about it) was supposed to be director Steven Soderbergh's last picture when it was released in February of this year, Behind the Candelabra came out in May, and he is, according to imdb, now in pre-production on a TV mini-series scheduled for sometime next year.

Check it out on cable or DVD for the story, the acting, the history (the times that were paradoxically both swinging and homophobic), the sets, costumes, makeup, and music--both the score written by Marvin Hamlisch just before his death last year (the movie is dedicated to him) and the songs.

Prisoners (2013)

This gripping thriller about a father desperate to find his disappeared daughter has already earned Hugh Jackman Supporting Actor of the Year at the Hollywood Film Festival. Jake Gyllenhaal is also no slouch as the detective trying to solve the case even as Jackman constantly acts out. Gyllenhaal was last blogged in End of Watch and I profiled Jackman in Les Misérables. Good support is provided by Maria Bello (most recently in The Company Men), Terrence Howard (covered toward the end of The Company You Keep), Viola Davis (last mentioned in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close), Melissa Leo (profiled in The Fighter), and Paul Dano (just in 12 years a Slave).

Like the last picture directed by Denis Villeneuve, Incendies, there's a twist at the end. Jack said afterwards he saw it coming. I had no idea. The script is the second for Aaron Guzikowski.  The music, by Jóhann Jóhansson, is scary stuff. You can stream it track by track on youtube, starting with #1.

With violence that caused me to shield my eyes, this is no chick flick; in fact, it's John's favorite movie of the year and he makes fun of chick flicks--you know, the ones with too much talking and not enough hitting. Rottentomatoes critics average 81% and audiences 88, so if this is your thing, you won't be disappointed. You should find it playing locally, since it's #22 at the box office after 10 weeks of release.

The Zigzag Kid (Nono, het Zigzag Kind - 2012)

The full house at the Jewish Film Festival was utterly charmed by Nono--a 12 year old Dutch boy, his search to learn more about the mother who died when he was one, and his goal of becoming an inspector (detective) like his father, all in the last two days before his bar mitzvah. With plenty of humor, a Henry Mancini-style score, and some wonderful picture cars, this movie is entertaining for everyone who can read subtitles, from middle-schoolers on up. The only actor familiar to us in the US will be Isabella Rossellini (no longer best known as the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini, she has a long list of credits, my favorites of which include White Nights (1985), Blue Velvet (1986), Siesta (1987), Wild at Heart (1990), Big Night (1996), Roger Dodger (2002), Infamous (2006), Two Lovers, and the animated My Dog Tulip), who plays a famous singer. I'm pretty sure she does her own singing. The music, by Thomas de Prins, can be previewed on the album's amazon page. Directed and written by Vincent Bal (he's Belgian), based on the book by Israeli writer David Grossman, this is highly recommended. Save it to your netflix queue, as it hasn't been released here yet.

Captain Phillips (2013)

Tom Hanks is fantastic as the skipper of a cargo ship captain hijacked by Somali pirates. Based on a true story, this is heart-pounding and vomit-inducing (more on the latter in a moment). Hanks (last blogged in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) may not get an Oscar nomination for this but his last scene moved me to tears. Newcomer of the year would be Barkhad Abdi as the main pirate. He had never acted before, nor had the others who play his fellow gang members.

Paul Greengrass (I didn't see his Oscar-nominated turn in United 93 (2006) (five years was too soon after 9/11 for me) but I did see at least one of his two Bourne sequels (2004 and 07)) keeps the action moving from a script adapted by Billy Ray (wrote/directed Shattered Glass (2003), and wrote the first Hunger Games (2012) (didn't see it) and State of Play) from the memoir by Rich Phillips and Stephan Talty.

And movement was my big problem. My regular readers know of my unfortunate affliction with motion picture motion sickness (MPMS). The camera never stopped moving, even before anyone boarded a boat. I was really uncomfortable and had to look away or close my eyes many times (perhaps I wept not only at Hanks' performance but with joy that it was over after 2 hours 14 minutes). It ended eight hours ago and I'm still not right. Those with my problem can see it on DVD in mid-January--still before the Oscars. Others should probably see it now. 94% reviewers and 93 from audiences on rottentomatoes.

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

This is a tour de force for the ever-evolving Matthew McConaughey as a 1980s AIDS patient working the system to survive. Jared Leto is also terrific as his cross-dressing cohort. McConaughey (last in Mud) gives us the complete transformation of the based-on-real-life Ron Woodroof, starting with the actor's loss of almost 40 pounds to play the emaciated part, and his character's maturing from a womanizing homophobic SOB to one who cares for others with his shared disease. Leto (what I've seen of his work is unforgettable: Winona Ryder's boyfriend in Girl, Interrupted (1999), the lead Harry Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream (2000), and one of the scary guys in Panic Room (2000)) lost 30 pounds himself and dons big-hair wigs, eyeshadow, platforms, miniskirts, and other garb of the fashion-backward 1980s to inhabit the desperate Rayon.

French-Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée (The Young Victoria) ably helms from a script by Craig Borten (his first) and Melisa Wallack (her third but she's new to me). No composer is listed, but the album (including a song from Leto's band Thirty Seconds to Mars) will benefit AIDS research.

Jack and I are thinking this is Oscar bait for McConaughey. Don't just listen to us--reviewers on rottentomatoes average 95% and audiences 93!

About Time (2013)

We didn't hate this fluffy story of a young man, his time travels, his love, and his family. Domhnall Gleeson (last blogged in Anna Karenina, he's the son of veteran Irish actor Brendan Gleeson) is sweet as the lead, Rachel MacAdams (most recently in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) also good as his love interest, and Bill Nighy (last in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) his usual dry self as the father who also has the time-bending gene. Tom Hollander (last in Hanna) has a cameo as a director we loved to hate. Director/writer Richard Curtis (covered in Pirate Radio) is forever billed as the director of Love, Actually, and this has that same tone: a little chick-flicky, but not by any means excruciatingly so. We saw an advance screening on vacation in Florida four weeks ago, so maybe it's been edited since then.

The composer is Nick Laird-Clowes (to stream some tracks search for Nick Laird on soundcloud), but it's mostly songs. Critics are lukewarm, averaging 68% to audiences' 85 on rottentomatoes. Definitely not a must-see, but a pleasant couple of hours for date night.

Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013)

This dreamy tale of two young adults in love and in trouble has deserved the several awards it has won. Casey Affleck (last blogged in Tower Heist) and Rooney Mara (before Side Effects I wrote about her in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) are well cast as the outlaw and his lady, with support from Ben Foster (most recently in The Messenger) and Keith Carradine (covered in Cowboys & Aliens) as the lawmen. Director/writer David Lowery is new to me, as is composer Daniel Hart, whose very cool soundtrack can be streamed here. Bradford Young (Pariah) won the Sundance Cinematography award for his beautiful photography. I don't think this one is as jumpy as Pariah, but, frankly, I don't remember, because Jack and I saw it over ten weeks ago. It will be released on DVD this coming December 7.

Fun trivia: the wording of the title is the director's misquotation from song lyrics and has no actual meaning. Somehow it fits with the 1970s Texas setting. Rottentomatoes reviewers average 82% and audiences 70 so you may want to watch this.

Blue Is the Warmest Color (La vie d'Adéle - 2013)

This smokin' hot (NC-17) story of a French girl discovering her lesbian sexuality has lots to recommend it but brevity is not one of its virtues. It could easily have been trimmed by an hour, even without cutting a moment of the graphic sex scenes, and would still have been over two hours in length. The two main actresses, Adéle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux, are quite amazing in their intensity. Exarchopoulos (new to me) plays the lead, whose name was changed from Clementine to Adéle because the director used footage of the actress as herself in which she was called by her own name, with gusto. Seydoux (whose chameleon abilities I mentioned in Farewell My Queen) transforms herself yet again to a "tomboy"(that's what Adéle's high school classmates call her) with no makeup and blue hair. Apparently, after winning the top prize, the Palme d'Or, at Cannes earlier this year and cuddling onstage with their director/co-writer Abdellatif Kechiche (The Secret of the Grain) when both actresses were co-awarded the prize for the first time ever, they turned around and turned on him, saying they were exploited and bullied into making the sex scenes, and some crew members backed them up (here's more detail with no spoilers). I don't think they'll be working with him again.

Kechiche and Ghalia Lacroix (has written with this director twice before and this is her fourth film editing job) adapted the screenplay from Julie Maroh's graphic novel, Le Bleu Est une Couleur Chaude, which literally translates to "Blue Is a Warm Color," but was translated by the publishers to Blue Is the Warmest Color, then the movie's French title means Adele's Life, once again dubbed warmest for English speakers. You can look at a few pages in English on the amazon page.

No named composer is in the end credits but I counted 23 songs today, only five of which are listed on imdb. On youtube there are a few video and music clips, including a sanitized version of the longest sex scene.

NC-17 often scares people off, not Jack and me. This is beautiful, moody, did I mention sexy? But be forewarned that it is entirely shot with handheld cameras and so induces motion picture motion sickness (MPMS), somewhat mitigated by the letterboxed subtitles but increased by the sheer length of the picture. Sit in the last row.

12 Years a Slave (2013)

Impeccably acted, beautifully shot, hauntingly scored, and dreadfully disturbing, this story of a free man of color kidnapped and sold into slavery is Oscar bait and reminds us never to forget the atrocities committed on our own shores some 150 years ago. The remarkable Chiwetel Ejiofor (last blogged in Salt) stars as Solomon Northup, a real man who wrote the book about his own experiences on which this is based. Lupita Nyong'o makes a spectacular feature debut as the unforgettable Patsey. Some of the notable slave-owners are Michael Fassbender (last in Prometheus), Benedict Cumberbatch (most recently in Star Trek: Into Darkness), Sarah Paulson (Mud), and Paul Dano (Looper) as a hired hand. Brad Pitt (Moneyball) has pretty good billing for three scenes late in the movie, albeit pivotal ones. That's probably because he co-produced. The poster has nine stars top billed. The last two are Paul Giamatti and Alfre Woodard with one scene each. I wish I had noticed the cameos by Quvenzhané Wallis (Oscar-nominated for Beasts of the Southern Wild) as young Margaret Northup--if she had any lines I don't recall--and Dwight Henry, who played her father in Beasts, as Uncle Abram--didn't spot him either.

When I wrote about British director Steve McQueen for his last movie Shame, I said "his next one looks interesting," and linked to the imdb page for this one. We predict some Academy action added to his existing 29 wins and 30 nominations. John Ridley (wrote the story for David O. Russell's script in Three Kings (1999) and TV shows both comedy and action, among other projects, including a Jimi Hendrix project coming out later) adapted Northup's book.

The lovely soundtrack is purportedly by Hans Zimmer (The Lone Ranger) but an album hasn't been released, even on youtube (here is a ten minute compilation which may or may not be from this movie). In fact, the "official soundtrack," "curated by John Legend" and available for streaming here, contains less than four minutes by Zimmer! Composer Nicholas Britell is credited with many more tracks.

Unlike the director of photography Sean Bobbitt's last picture, The Place Beyond the Pines, this one probably won't give you motion sickness--Jack and I sat in the back of a fairly small theatre just to be safe. But there are many dark and low-contrast scenes so we do recommend watching this on a big screen, not at home later on video. If you can stomach the violence (I was able to block most of it with my hand), you'll surely want to see it before the Oscars March 2, 2014. In case you don't trust my word on this, critics are averaging 96% and audiences 94 on rottentomatoes.

Populaire (2012)

We enjoyed this fluffy French meringue about a naïve 1950s secretary whose boss enters her in a speed typing competition for its humor, set dressing, and style. Déborah François (mother of The Child (2005)) is adorable and Romain Duris (last blogged in Heartbreaker) ably plays the boss. One could imagine their parts played by Doris Day and Cary Grant. Supporting help comes from Bérénice Bejo (romantic lead in The Artist) as a friend and noted French actress Miou-Miou (Jonah who will be 25 in the Year 2000 (1976) and the classic lesbian drama Entre Nous (1983), among her 89 credits) as Duris' mother.

Director Régis Roinsard and his co-writers Daniel Presley and Romain Compingt make their feature debuts. Roinsard's nomination for a César (French Oscar) for Best First Film should help him make a deal for another.

Apparently there have been speed typing competitions for years but we hadn't heard of them. As a piano student I seldom used the correct fingering out of laziness and avoided typing class in school in the 1960s so as to assure never taking a secretarial job. Then when I had one, briefly, I was a mess. Now I'm up to four fingers and one thumb on computer keyboards, fewer on mobile devices.

The rounded typewriters in the movie are things of beauty, as are the cars--Jack and I do enjoy technology from days gone by.

The music, by Robin Coudert and Emmanuel D'Orlando, is sweet Henry Mancini-style, well-suited to the period. You can listen to clips on the British amazon site, where Coudert's name is shortened to simply Rob. My favorite track, linked here in its entirety, is La machine à écrire by Gilbert Becaud, which is, in the movie, a big production number. It now supersedes Briony by Dario Marianelli from the movie Atonement and this one as the best typing song.

Sorry I didn't write about this when it played locally but we saw it on its last day almost two weeks ago. The DVD release date hasn't yet been announced but you can stream it on netflix right now. Rottentomatoes critics average 73% to audiences' 71 but we liked it. Note for parents: there is one sex scene with nudity (can't really imagine Day and Grant doing that, can we?).

Don Jon (2013)

This story of a young pornography-addicted man trying to have a relationship with a live woman is a hoot. The feature directing and writing debut of buffed-up star Joseph Gordon-Levitt (last blogged in Premium Rush), it has plenty of laughs, plenty of stars, and a good story with a beginning, middle, and end. Gordon-Levitt wrote the part of the love interest for Scarlett Johansson (most recently in Hitchcock) and was relieved she was able to take it, and take it she does, with a hilarious, gum-chewing New Jersey accent. Gordon-Levitt's Italian-American parents are played to perfection by Tony Danza (best known for his many TV roles starting with Taxi (1978-1983), he played the title role in a little Los Angeles stage production of Fiorello--I saw it and he can sing!) and Glenne Headly (profiled in The Joneses). Supporting strength comes from Julianne Moore (last in What Maisie Knew), a gang of guy friends, a stream of gorgeous women, and cameos by Brie Larson (last in The Spectacular Now) as Jon's sister and by Anne Hathaway and Channing Tatum (I could tell you what they do but that's not how I roll).

You can bet that I, a 60-something female, am not the target demographic for this movie, but I loved it, as did my friends (Jack was unable to meet us Friday so I can't tell you his opinion--I've urged him to see it!).

Nathan Johnson (most recently scored Looper) provides his usual interesting music (clips on amazon), along with a long list of songs.

Critics are averaging a solid 82% to audiences' 70 on rottentomatoes, and this was 9th at the box office last weekend in its third week of release. You don't need a big screen (expected DVD release in January) to enjoy the good, dirty fun.

Gravity (2013)

A special effects tour de force, this movie about two astronauts drifting in space after a collision would be better, in my opinion, with more story, but that's not stopping most people from loving it. George Clooney (last blogged in The Descendants) apparently helped with script and plays one of the astronauts but it's Sandra Bullock's (most recently in The Heat) show all around. Some of the time she's outfitted in spacesuits and some of the time she's in fetching underwear showing off hard work with a trainer on her glutes. The views of earth, even better than in Elysium, are quite spectacular.

Director/co-writer Alfonso Cuarón (his adaptation of A Little Princess (1995) was good, of Great Expectations (1998) less so, of Children of Men (2006) brilliant, and Y Tu Mamá También (2001), co-written with his brother Carlos, equally wonderful--Alfonso was Oscar-nominated for co-writing the latter two) directed the actors with their faces in lit boxes, had them move around to their marks, and then filled in the rest with special effects. The complexity of the project (of which the last tidbit is just a small part) made this a many-years-long production, with some of those years in zero financing, kinda like zero gravity. Carlos Cuarón (Rudo y Cursi) co-wrote this one with his brother as well.

We knew it would be scary, having seen the trailer many times. Jack agreed it was scary, but not as scary as Toddlers & Tiaras.

This is one picture where you might want to spring for the premium screen--we saw it last week in 3D IMAX. Those prone to motion picture motion sickness (I've made a the running list of MPMS movies) should sit at the back, though. And be prepared to put your fingers in your ears at the beginning and end. As I write, I'm listening to the soundtrack on youtube. Start with number 1, about which one poster commented it's "SO LOUD...then it just goes silent." That person thought it was a good thing. Jack and I felt assaulted by the volume. So be prepared. I'm glad that now I have my computer's volume control available because I'm quite enjoying the sounds by Steven Price, in his third feature film composing gig. The few additional songs are listed on imdb.

There's been a lot of Oscar buzz floating around Gravity so you should probably see it on as big a screen as you can while it's still playing at a theatre near you. That said, with rottentomatoes critics weighing in at 97% and audiences at 89, this is #1 at the box office in its second week, so see your indie films first and get to this before the end of the month.

Hannah Arendt (2012)

This bio-pic about the German writer who covered the trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann is very good, featuring a powerful and award-winning performance by Barbara Sukowa in the title role. I keep humming "don't know much about history..." because this taught me a few things. Sukowa isn't familiar to me even though she was in at least two movies I've seen, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001) and Romance & Cigarettes. Janet McTeer (last blogged in Albert Nobbs) lends some much-needed comic relief as author Mary McCarthy, Arendt's closest American friend. Jack and I knew the face of the actor playing New Yorker editor William Shawn, Nicholas Woodeson, but didn't know why. Research shows he was in Topsy-Turvy (1999), Hysteria, Skyfall, and more. I was touched by the portrayal of the sweet relationship Arendt had with her husband Heinrich Blücher (that made her Frau Blücher--ha!).

Director/co-writer Margarethe von Trotta has directed 14 features since 1975 but I missed them all. I could tell by the pacing, though, that she's a seasoned professional, and this project has added to her list of awards and nominations. Von Trotta shared writing duties with Pam Katz. I liked the music by André Mergenthaler but can't find any tracks online to share.

Arendt breaks my Rule #13, convincingly chain smoking and fully extinguishing her cigarette in one scene. It's a wonder the real Arendt made it to age 69 if she smoked as much as Sukowa does in the movie.

The movie is in English, German, and Hebrew (all translated in subtitles, except the word meschugge, which means crazy in Yiddish). Critics are averaging 88% and audiences 76 on rottentomatoes. Check it out at your local independent theatre.

The Family (2013)

We laughed watching this farce about a Brooklyn Mafia family acting up in witness protection in a French village, but I started checking my watch in the third act. I was more disappointed than Jack at the squandering of Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Tommy Lee Jones by director/co-writer Luc Besson (Léon: The Professional (AKA The Professional - 1994) (it was then-13 year old Natalie Portman's feature debut) and The Fifth Element (1997) were spectacular action pictures--I've seen no others, not La Femme Nikita (1990) nor the two Taken movies (2008 and 2012), which he co-wrote).

My favorite moment in the trailer is when Pfeiffer (last blogged in People Like Us) actually flinches at the explosion behind her, breaking my newest rule. But for most of the movie, she and De Niro (most recently in The Silver Linings Playbook) pretty much phone in impressions of their other mob roles. Jones (last in Lincoln) does the same as the patient CIA operative pleading with them not to blow their cover. The teenage kids, played by Dianna Agron (Glee, Burlesque) and John D'Leo (he was in The Wrestler and Wanderlust, among others, in parts too small to mention) have some good bits with rage and deviousness, respectively. You might recognize some of the actors playing their fellow mob men.

Besson and Michael Caleo (he wrote one other script which I didn't see) based their screenplay on the novel Malavita (often translated as Badfellas) by Tonino Benacquista, himself a scriptwriter (co-wrote Read My Lips (Sure mes lèvres - 2001), a wonderful thriller about a deaf woman pulled into crime). Martin Scorsese is one of the producers of The Family and, at one point, De Niro and Jones watch Goodfellas (1990).

The soundtrack includes 20 songs and an original score by Evgueni and Sacha Galperine, clips of which can be previewed on the album's amazon page. The brothers' website has longer clips, more interesting than the clips on amazon.

We saw this its opening weekend, in mid-September, and it's now thirteenth at the box office, despite averaging 33% critics and 47 audiences on rottentomatoes. I suggest waiting for it to air on free cable.

Rule #15 for movies and television

When a villain is responsible for an explosion, the camera shows him/her in the foreground walking toward the camera with the explosion in the background, and the villain seldom reacts to the loud noise. See the complete list of rules here.

In a World... (2013)

Outstanding! Lead actress Lake Bell makes her feature directing and writing debut with this hilarious yet thoughtful comedy about a woman trying to break into the boys' club of movie trailer voiceovers. I first noticed Bell in her recurring role as Sally in four episodes of The Practice, and 14 of its spin-off Boston Legal. Then I liked her as the bitchy trophy wife in It's Complicated. The script is rich with human interest, relationships, and jokes (she won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance for it), the directing is fluid, and her acting, as Carol, is just right. Michaela Watkins (last blogged in Wanderlust, she had a small part in Enough Said, which I failed to mention, and is in the new series Trophy Wife, which I haven't decided if I like yet and neither does my DVR, which has been erasing shows I want to save. Grrrr) departs from her usual one-note ditzes as Carol's sister Dani. Even more surprising is Rob Corddry (most recently in The Way Way Back) as Dani's husband Moe, in a fully-developed role. Fred Melamed (last in A Serious Man) is funny as Carol and Dani's arrogant father Sam, Demetri Martin (Contagion) is sweet as recording engineer Louis who has a crush on Carol, Ken Marino (was in and co-wrote Wanderlust) is equally funny and arrogant as voice-over artist Gustav, and Tig Notaro (she's a comedian and This American Life contributor--here is her page on the TAL site) and Nick Offerman (We're the Millers) are good as other studio employees.

The real "In a World..." man, Don LaFontaine, who died in 2008, is shown in archive footage over, for a change, the opening credits. You may enjoy a funny bit he did on the Jay Leno show. Look for cameos from Eva Longoria, Geena Davis, and Cameron Diaz (uncredited near the end). And apparently Bell does the voice of Sam's agent. At under a million dollars, this is a "low budget" movie that was completed in 20 days.

Oh, almost forgot the negative reference to Ohio: Rule #8.

There are lots of songs and a nice soundtrack by Ryan Miller (Safety Not Guaranteed), 18 minutes of which are available for your listening pleasure on youtube.

Critics average 91% and audiences 84 on rottentomatoes. We loved this today. You will, too.

Enough Said (2013)

Jack and I loved this comedy about dating, divorce, and communication. It's not a laugh riot but pure entertainment for those of us north of the 18-35 demographic. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is marvelous as the insecure divorcée Eva who has great chemistry with Albert, played by James Gandolfini in his penultimate role before he died at 51 a few months ago (he was last blogged in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and his final movie is expected to be released next year). Louis-Dreyfus started on Saturday Night Live (1982-85), made her film debut in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), worked again with Woody Allen in Deconstructing Harry (1997) as Judy Davis' alter-ego while she racked up six Emmy nominations and one win for 172 episodes of Seinfeld (1990-98) plus four SAG award wins and more, then her 88 episodes of The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006-10) earned her four Emmy nominations and one win, and she just won her second Emmy for the lead actress in the HBO series Veep. Catherine Keener (recently in A Late Quartet), who is a regular for this director (more on that in a moment), is the perfect choice as the poet Marianne who turns out to be Albert's prickly ex-wife. Top-notch support comes from Toni Collette (last in The Way Way Back) as Eva's best friend Sarah and Ben Falcone (he's worked a fair amount but so far is best known for his small role in Bridesmaids and being Melissa McCarthy's real-life husband) as Sarah's husband, among others.

Director/writer Nicole Holofcener (won the Robert Altman Award for an ensemble picture at the Independent Spirit Awards for Please Give, among other wins) just keeps getting better at making movies about complicated relationships between modern, grown-up, if not always mature, urban folks.

Kudos to costume designer Leah Katznelson for the fabulous wardrobe, including funky masseuse outfits worn by the petite Louis-Dreyfus. Oh, and an inside joke for Seinfeld junkies: the actor who plays Eva's ex-husband, Toby Huss, dated Louis-Dreyfus' character Elaine in one 1997 episode of Seinfeld.

Twelve songs are listed on imdb and the composer is Marcelo Zarvos (Friends with Kids). You can preview clips from his dreamy score on iTunes. I would have considered buying it, but its 35 minutes are divided into 29 tracks, which isn't so dreamy.

You don't need to take my word(s) for it--critics have averaged 95% and audiences 82 on rottentomatoes. Be sure to see it, even though one friend said it made him want to never have a relationship again!

Salinger (2013)

This interesting documentary on the fascinating and private writer has a few slow spots but overall Jack and I liked it much more than the majority of critics (who didn't). With a few photos of the camera-shy subject, the movie is filled out with lots of interviews, many who can speak with some authority on the man, footage of the time periods covered, and some over-arching music (lugubrious for sad parts or loud and strident for WWII). A number of famous and not-so-famous actors and writers also weigh in briefly. Director Shane Salerno (co-writer of Savages) made the acclaimed doc Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs (1991) when he was 18, and this is his second, with other writing gigs along the way.

Here's my personal story. In May of 1970, when American colleges went on strike against Nixon's invasion of Cambodia, I jumped at the chance to ditch my campus and traveled up to Dartmouth to stay with my then-boyfriend Lewis. He and his friends were as anti-war as I, and we canvassed in the area around the Connecticut River to convince people that our way of thinking had merit. One nice lady we met near Cornish NH said, "You kids should go see J.D. Salinger. He lives right over there up the hill." So the two of us knocked on his door and he invited us in! To prove the point made by two people in the movie who said Salinger thought every person's story was important, he encouraged Lewis to talk about his own challenge, which was that his father was upset about the strike, and was considering withholding Lewis' college tuition (that ultimately did not come to pass). I don't remember much else--1970 was a LONG time ago--except that when I introduced myself as Babs, which was my nickname at the time, he said, "Oh. Babette," which did blow me away since most folks assumed my name was Barbara. After seeing this movie and seeing the youth of the women to whom Salinger was attracted, I imagine that the reason he didn't flirt with me was probably that he respected Lewis too much to do so, and possibly I was so naive I might have missed the signs if there were any. But I did recognize the outside of that house in Cornish when we watched the movie on Wednesday.

The author Salinger died in 2010 at 91, before Salerno had finished editing the documentary, causing Salerno to return to several interviewees and flesh out their stories and, of course, changing the ending. If you loved any of the great author's work, you should see this.

Elysium (2013)

We enjoyed this taut, violent, science-fiction tale of class warfare with a ripped Matt Damon, a tense Jodie Foster, and a fitting follow-up to director/writer Neill Blomkamp's District 9. In a dystopian 2154 all of earth is a slum and the rich live on the titular space station a short rocket ride away. Damon (last in these pages in Promised Land) is believable as Max, the man with nothing to lose and everything to gain. I commend the casting director on choosing Maxwell Perry Cotton (Rachel Griffiths' son in 82 episodes of Brothers & Sisters) as the young Max. Foster (most recently in Carnage) is perfect as the uptight French-speaking executive Delacourt, a role that was originally written for a man. Speaking of language, it's nice that so many are spoken, reasonable that all of future slumlike Los Angeles would speak Spanish, but odd that the characters sound like teachers, i.e. they speak Spanish so slowly and carefully I could understand them and my Spanish isn't good at all. Alice Braga (covered in On the Road) is sweet as Max's love interest Frey, as is Diego Luna (last in Casa di Mi Padre) as his buddy Julio. Unrecognizable from his mild-mannered role in District 9 (other than his native South African accent) is Sharlto Copley as contract killer Kruger.

Composer Ryan Amon provides appropriately suspenseful music in his feature debut, You can listen to the entire soundtrack, over an hour long, at this link. And there are plenty of songs, including the string quartets on Elysium. I commented to Jack that they had better music--rap, techno, and the like--on earth.

The cinematography by Trent Opaloch (District 9) is a serious inducer of Motion Picture Motion Sickness (MPMS). Not only is the camera operator clearly running without a steadicam, sometimes it seems that the camera is being shaken just for fun, like a dog's toy. I had to move to the back row and still look away to the exit sign occasionally.

Elysium is doing well, seventh at the box office after five weeks, with critics averaging 68% to audiences' 65 on rottentomatoes. There's a high body count and plenty of gore, so this isn't for the faint of heart. Jack and I aren't particularly squeamish, so we thought it was pretty good.

We're the Millers (2013)

We expected to like it some but laughed a lot all the way through at this farce about four losers pretending to be a clean-cut family to score a big payday importing marijuana from Mexico. Jason Sudeikis (last blogged in The Campaign) leads the pack as the small-time weed dealer, then he recruits his neighbor who happens to be a stripper, played by Jennifer Aniston (last in Wanderlust), then a local runaway played by Emma Roberts (last in The Art of Getting By), and lastly a naive teenager whose parents are away, played by Will Poulter who is now 20 years old. When he was ten he was wonderful in Son of Rambow (he's on the left in this photo), and, by the way, he's 100% British but his character Kenny in We're the Millers is 100% American. Kenny, being the sweet boy he is, doesn't get a makeover like the others do. More laughs are provided by supporting cast members Nick Offerman (last in Smashed), Kathryn Hahn (also in Wanderlust), and Ed Helms (last in Jeff, Who Lives at Home).

We were pleasantly surprised that a script with four writers (it was begun by the writing team of Bob Fisher & Steve Faber (Wedding Crashers (2005)) and then continued by Sean Anders & John Morris (Hot Tub Time Machine)) could turn out as well as this one. That's a credit to the cast and to director Rawson Marshall Thurber (I didn't see Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) nor The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (2008)). He's no relation to humorist James Thurber--I checked with sources who know.

There are two collaborators on the soundtrack--Ludwig Göransson (most recently blogged for composing Fruitvale Station) and Theodore Shapiro (last for The Campaign)--plus the usual long list of songs.

Critics are not as enthusiastic as we are, averaging 47% on rottentomatoes to audiences' 76, but the studio must be happy that it was fourth at the box office last weekend in its fifth week of release.

There isn't exactly a bonus but a blooper reel at the end credits is pretty funny and includes a musical gag. This is R-rated (for sexual innuendo, language, drug material, and brief nudity played for laughs) lightweight entertainment, with almost no violence (though some is threatened) and a satisfying ending.