Starbuck (2011)

We loved this screwball comedy about David, a 40-something Canadian loser who discovers his sperm has anonymously fathered 533 children, some of whom are searching for him. It's hilarious, creative, occasionally heart-warming, and we particularly liked David's outstanding collection of vintage T-shirts (old sports teams and more--Jack knew them all) and toys. Starbuck, the alias he used at the sperm bank in 1988, is the name of a Canadian bull who produced hundreds of thousands of calves by artificial insemination around that time. Patrick Huard (new to me, he's a comedian and has been in a number of movies that I haven't seen) is wonderful as the hapless David. Antoine Bertrand (also unknown to me) plays David's best friend and lawyer. This was a great choice for Mothers' Day!

Director Ken Scott (wrote six screenplays, directed one of them) co-wrote the original script with Martin Petit (a comedian, he makes his movie debut with this) and they did, you should forgive the expression, a bang-up job. When I took French in junior high and high school, I learned a Parisian accent. The Montreal accent is very different, e.g. I would pronounce pére, which means father, with the vowel sound as pair, but they say par. But then I've never been eager to omit the subtitles.

Besides the story and the laughs I was more absorbed in the wardrobe and set decoration than the music, but here's a list of songs, including one you can hear here. David Lafleche composes his first score.

This is another movie that the critics are overthinking, averaging just 65% on rottentomatoes. Audiences know better, rating it 82%.

First released in Canada at the end of 2011, it made a splash at a few random film festivals and didn't make it into American theatres until mid March 2013. We recommend you see it during its limited run now because the American DVD isn't coming out until July (although if you have a Canadian address you can get it from amazon.ca now). Apparently Scott has adapted his own script and will direct (or has directed) an American remake, Delivery Man, starring Vince Vaughan and Chris Pratt, to be released in October. I'm sure it'll be good. But do see this one first!

Festival Short Films (2013)

In order of Jack's and my mutual preference:

1. The Record Breaker (2012) was by far our favorite. A 28 minute live action documentary by Brian McGinn, it chronicles the career of Ashrita Furman, who holds the record for number of Guinness World Records and is, in the words of his father, the happiest guy he knows. Ashrita is the name given to him by his guru Sri Chinmoy, to whom Ashrita dedicates his Queens NY health food store, Guru Health Foods. We want to visit his store next time we're in New York. I would tell you where to see the short if I knew, but watch for it. There's nothing not to like. Here's his website and the imdb page.

2. Life Doesn't Frighten Me (2012) is a charming 14 minute scripted story about a pubescent girl in a land of clueless men. Gordon Pinsent (starred with Julie Christie in Away From Her (2006) and was in The Shipping News (2001), among many roles) plays the grandfather/guardian. This has won a few awards for director/writer Stephen Patrick Dunn and has an imdb page, from which I get a new winner in the Producers Plethora Prize. Because there are 37, mostly Associate, Producers, I suspect Dunn awarded the title to most of his contributors. Here's his fundraising page and here's the trailer.

3. Have You Got a Minute doesn't have an imdb page so I don't have data with which to refresh my memory. It has subtitles and involves a man asking for driving directions from a verbose passer-by. Cute. Much shorter than the other two as I recall.

4. Thumb (2012) is a farce about a competitive guy playing thumb wars with his girlfriend. Directed by Sarah Gurfield (I believe she is the only woman director in this group) and written by Kevin W. Walsh, it was funded on kickstarter and has an imdb page that doesn't remind me of its length. Noteworthy that the music is by Ben Toth who scored Liberal Arts.

5. Making It (2013) is a three minute animated short with narration taken from a StoryCorps oral history interview, in which a young Latino man, Noe Rueda, describes how he earned money to support his grandmother and himself. Absolutely charming. Here's its imdb page and an article about the filmmakers' continuing work with StoryCorps.

6. Punched shows a man and his young son on a light rail train helping a suspicious stranger get his ticket punched. Intriguing. No imdb cheat sheet to help me remember it but we liked it.

7. Double or Nothing (2012) has a script written by Neil LaBute, whom I know for his work exploring man's inhumanity to man. I loved Your Friends & Neighbors (1998) and The Shape of Things (2003), both of which he directed and wrote, as well as Nurse Betty (2000) which he directed from someone else's script. I mentioned his mean-spiritedness when I wrote briefly about Lakeview Terrace. And this 11 minute short, directed by Nathaniel Krause (his debut) is mean-spirited to the max (I found it uncomfortably so, unlike the four preceding), starring Adam Brody (most recently in Damsels in Distress), Keith David, and Louisa Krause (I don't know if there's a relationship). Here's the imdb page and the website, on which you can watch the trailer.

8. Closing Bell (2012) was nominated for a number of festival awards and won one for editing. We weren't all that impressed, but at least it was only five minutes long. Not a narrative, it has to do with Wall Street and greed. I think. Director / writer / producer / cinematographer / editor / production designer Janek Ambros has clearly been given a boost by it, as he has two more shorts and two features in the pipeline, one of each documentary and fiction. Here's the imdb page and here's the trailer.

9. Peter at the End (2012) stars Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite (2004) and Blades of Glory (2007)) as a guy with a big secret and a particularly obtuse set of friends and family. It's 23 minutes long and left us cold. Here's the imdb page.

We got to see this collection at the same festival where we saw First Comes Love in April.

First Comes Love (2012)

I was a little concerned that Jack would find this documentary about a 40 year old single woman's quest for a baby too much of a "chick flick." My worries were unfounded and he enjoyed it as much as I did, which was a lot. Filmmaker Nina Davenport details her own journey, including: beloved mother dies, emotionally closed-off father is left, where to get the sperm, childless-by-choice best girlfriend, how to date men afterwards, etc. Sorry if that sounds soapy because it's not.

Set to be aired on HBO in July, this is raw, funny, and honest, almost to a fault. I don't think many people will dislike it. It's not listed yet on imdb nor rottentomatoes, my usual sources for research. We saw it a film festival in early April when our baseball game two blocks away was rained out. We're glad we did. Watch for it on cable and later, I hope, on DVD. Here's her website.

Robot & Frank (2012)

Jack & I loved this netflix DVD starring Frank Langella engaging in hijinks in the future with a mechanical home health aide. Sweet, funny, and clever, it caught my notice when screenwriter Christopher D. Ford was nominated for Best First Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. Director Jake Schreier, who played keyboards with Francis and the Lights, makes his feature debut here. Langella (last blogged in All Good Things) is terrific as the retired burglar, along with Susan Sarandon (most recently in The Company You Keep), Liv Tyler (known to most as Arwen in the Lord of the Rings series, she was outstanding in That Thing You Do! (1996), Stealing Beauty (1996), Inventing the Abbotts (1997), Cookie's Fortune (1999), Dr T and the Women (2000), and The Incredible Hulk (2008)--the one with Ed Norton; she has the distinction of being nominated for both MTV awards for achievement and Razzie Awards for mediocrity for Armageddon (1998)), James Marsden (faves: X-Men (2000), Superman Returns (2006), Hairspray (2007), a series arc as Criss on 30 Rock, and Enchanted, which I published on the very first day of writing this blog, September 3, 2008), and Peter Sarsgaard (covered in An Education) as the voice of the robot, among others.

Schreier's former group provides at least one of the songs (listen here) and is also listed as composer for the project.

We saw it eight weeks ago but I still remember how much we enjoyed it (not in the minority this time--rottentomatoes' critics average 87 and audiences 76). The DVD can be borrowed from netflix.

Spring Breakers (2012)

SO WEIRD, but six weeks later I'm still thinking about this story of college girls on spring break who happen to meet a white rapper/drug lord. It starts with beaches, boobs, beer, and bongs, and then goes completely sideways. The viewer realizes that time isn't linear, and people aren't at all who they seem.

The rapper, who goes by the name Alien, is played by James Franco (last in the title role of Oz the Great and Powerful) with a gold grill across his teeth and corn rows in his slightly graying hair. The girls are played by Disney princesses Selena Gomez (she was born in 1992, this is the first time I've seen her in anything--) and Vanessa Hudgens (b.1988, it says she was in Thirteen (2003) which I liked a lot, but I remember only the stars), joined by Ashley Benson (, new to me) and the senior member of the group, though playing their contemporary, Rachel Korine (b.1986) wife since 2007 of director/writer Harmony Korine (1973). A cult favorite, Harmony (a man) doesn't play it safe. The only one of his pictures I've seen is Mr. Lonely (2007) which was odd but never boring, and Rachel was in it.

Interesting bit of trivia: the girls' college, supposedly in the northern US, was actually filmed at New College in Sarasota Florida, a stone's throw from St. Pete Beach and environs where the bacchanal takes place.

Imdb lists five songs but there's an album out on iTunes and elsewhere that includes some tracks by composer Cliff Martinez (most recently scored The Company You Keep).

This should be out on DVD in July, so check it out if you like weird, sick, and twisted set to rap music. It's not a comedy and definitely not for kids. Rottentomatoes averages are 66% from critics and 51 from audiences. It's hard to say Jack and I enjoyed it but we're not sorry we saw it.

Top of the Lake (2013)

This Sundance Channel miniseries is dark, creepy, and really good. Set in New Zealand, created/co-written/co-directed by New Zealand director/writer Jane Campion (last blogged in Bright Star) and Australian Gerard Lee, it stars American Elisabeth Moss (last blogged for a small part in On the Road), with what sounds to me like an authentic accent from down under, and Peter Mullan (most recently in War Horse), as a detective investigating the disappearance of a 12 year old girl and the girl's scary, drug lord father, respectively. Holly Hunter is in all seven episodes as an American guru of sorts, but is not a star. When I started watching it I had just written about cinematographer Adam Arkapaw in Lore and therefore noticed his credit in this one. His images are gorgeous.

Netflix subscribers should stream it. I think you'll be hooked.

Mud (2012)

This intense drama of two 14 year old boys and an adult fugitive on a Mississippi River island in Arkansas will not leave you cold. As the fugitive named Mud, Matthew McConaughey plays a lowlife, not as low as in The Paperboy, but lower than in Magic Mike, this time with a giant snake tattoo and his lip curled to reveal a chipped-tooth prosthesis. Young Tye Sheridan (the younger brother in The Tree of Life) is the true protagonist of the story, a romantic who believes in love. As his friend Neckbone (no explanation is given for the name) Jacob Lofland makes his acting debut. All three are outstanding, with support from Reese Witherspoon (profiled in Water for Elephants), Sam Shepard (last in Darling Companion) with a buzz cut, Sarah Paulson (covered in Martha Marcy May Marlene), Ray McKinnon (summarized in Take Shelter), and Michael Shannon (most recently in Premium Rush) in the strangest diving helmet ever.

This is the third feature (Take Shelter was the second) for director/writer Jeff Nichols, and he continues in his assured, quirky way. David Wingo, with help from Jeff's brother Ben Nichols, once again composes the fine music (here's an interesting article, and you can stream clips from the amazon page).

Some audience members clapped after yesterday's matinee, in agreement with Jack and me and most critics--it averages 98% critics and 87 audiences on rottentomatoes. Here's one spoiler-free review I particularly like.

You should see this, unless you, like Judy, have a morbid fear of that which she can only spell: S-N-A-K-E-S.

42 (2013)

It's a hit! We loved the bio-pic of Jackie Robinson and Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey who together broke the color barrier in American baseball in the 1940s. A moving story, good acting, beautiful production design, period details, and oh, those picture cars (here are some photos--my favorite is shown in 8, 12, and 27)! Chadwick Boseman (a relative newcomer, he has acted in a few things, written a play, and made a couple of short films) is properly intense as Robinson, Harrison Ford (profiled in Cowboys & Aliens) properly gruff as Rickey, and Nicole Beharie (was in Shame, though I didn't write about her) sweet but determined as Robinson's significant other Rachel. Among the 85 actors credited, the ones that particularly stand out for me two weeks after seeing the movie are André Holland (was in Sugar, another outstanding baseball movie, and Miracle at St. Anna, among others, and now plays a White House operative in the TV comedy 1600 Penn) as reporter Wendell Smith, Lucas Black (covered in Get Low) as Pee Wee Reese, Alan Tudyk (28 Days (2000), Knocked Up (2007), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), the original English version of Death at a Funeral (2007), and the neighbor in Suburgatory, among others) as Ben Chapman, and John C. McGinley (best known as Dr. Perry Cox in 182 episodes of Scrubs, he has 96 other titles in his credits, including six Oliver Stone pictures) as Red Barber (the radio announcer who made a baseball fan of my mother later in the 1950s).

Director/writer Brian Helgeland (won an Oscar for writing L.A. Confidential (1997) and also wrote Mystic River (2003), but I haven't seen the few others that he directed) spins an entertaining story that will keep you happily in your seat. Props (ha) also go out to Production Designer Richard Hoover and his team and Cinematographer Don Burgess (I wrote about him in Source Code).

Composer Mark Isham (last blogged in Warrior) has long been a favorite of mine. Here's a taste of the soundtrack (you can preview the entire album on amazon). Imdb also lists the songs.

Everyone who knows Jack and me knows we love baseball, albeit different teams. But loving baseball isn't a prerequisite for liking this movie.