The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012)

This Oscar nominee for best foreign film is very good, about the "Ups and downs, mostly downs," said Jack) of a Belgian musician couple. It played a week here, closing tonight. The very first scene shows Elise and Didier in the pediatric oncology ward with their little girl Maybelle, and then flashes back and forward to their cute meet, their immediate attraction, love affair (nudity and sex), professional music career (a first rate bluegrass band), and more. Be aware that the changes in time aren't always obvious. Didier, played by Johan Heldenbergh (he co-wrote the play from which the movie is adapted and had a small part in the excellent Moscow, Belgium, also set in Ghent, Belgium), is a scruffy bearded sort, passionate about everything in his life, who can't believe his good luck when tattooed blonde bombshell Elise, played by Veerle Baetens, falls for him. Turns out she has a beautiful voice and joins his quintet onstage at bigger and bigger concerts throughout the movie. Little Nell Cattrysse is terrific in her scenes as Maybelle, too.

It's been compared to Once (2006), Walk the Line (2005), and Blue Valentine. I can see why. One reviewer called it as tragic as a country tune. I see that, too.

The spoken language is Flemish, but the title is in English, based on the song Will the Circle Be Unbroken. All the songs, in fact, are in English. You can watch the trailer and listen to the entire wonderful soundtrack at this link, and at this one look up where and/or how to see it. We also appreciated the inventive cinematography.

Rottentomatoes critics at 80% and audiences at 87 are in agreement. Don't miss it. We can't predict if it'll win the Oscar because it's the first foreign nominee we've seen so far this year.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Jack and I craved a silly action picture two weeks ago and this sequel was satisfactory. With spectacular special effects and plenty of humor to mellow the melodrama (don't miss the obligatory Stan Lee cameo--this time involving shoes), it does have some battle scenes that drag on--that's when I take my bathroom breaks.

Everyone returns from the last Thor: Chris Hemsworth as heroic Thor, Tom Hiddleston as his sneaky brother Loki, Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo as their parents, Natalie Portman as Jane, Kat Dennings as Darcy, Idris Elba as the gatekeeper, Stellan Skarsgård as the scientist, and more. The subtitled bits left me cold (it was cold--they shot them in Iceland!) but I'm not a true fan-girl.

If you like the exciting music by Brian Tyler (last blogged in Now You See Me) there's a youtube playlist with a few commercials.

This movie is still in the top 50 at the box office after 12 weeks, averaging 65% from critics and 83 from audiences on rottentomatoes. If you don't need a big screen the DVD release is set for February 25. But don't leave or turn off the TV when you think the credits are over. At the very end two things happen which I'm sure will be important for the next movie in the series!

The World's End (2013)

Amy, Jack, and I enjoyed this crazy British comedy about four 30-something buddies recreating a bar crawl from their teens which morphs into something else entirely. This is the third part of a trilogy (Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007)) and the first that any of us had seen. We picked it on Christmas day because American Hustle was sold out, we returned home to find something on demand, and I recognized the title from someone's top ten list on NPR. All three were directed by Edgar Wright (last blogged in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and co-written by Wright and Simon Pegg (most recently in Star Trek: Into Darkness). All three include stars Pegg (his Peter-Pan-like Gary is quite funny here), Nick Frost (not so familiar to me), and Martin Freeman (the latest Hobbit, starred in the British Office, and blogged in Son of Rambow). Noted Irish actor Paddy Considine (my favorites are In America (2002), My Summer of Love (2004), and Cinderella Man (2005)) was in Hot Fuzz. I guess I should see the other two.

If we had seen the trailer we would've known what happened next and I'm glad we didn't. Rottentomatoes critics give this a resounding 89%, with audiences coming in at 73. It's out on DVD already. You'll know after 20 minutes if it's your cup of tea. It was ours.

The Invisible Woman (2013)

We were warned of the slow pace but I had no issue with this story of narcissistic 45-year-old Charles Dickens and his 18-year-old mistress Nelly Ternan. Jack's usual catnap, however, seemed longer and deeper than usual, which may or may not have been a coincidence. Directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes (I didn't see his directing debut Coriolanus (2011) and I last blogged about his acting in The Reader), it goes from dreamy to manic, just like Dickens, by then (1857) a beloved British author who craves his public's adoration. Felicity Jones (most recently in Hysteria) gives us a girl who has to grow up fast, despite a loving mother, played by Kristin Scott Thomas (last in Nowhere Boy), and sisters. I also enjoyed the performance of Joanna Scanlan (she didn't look familiar though I've seen a number of her credits) as the long-suffering Mrs. Dickens. With her lovely skin she doesn't look all that much older than Jones. However the actress was born in 1961, Fiennes in 1962, and Jones in 1983.

Some of you may know that Fiennes' name is pronounced Rafe (with a long A) Fines. He was named after his grandfather, also pronounced Rafe but spelled Ralph. He's said to be touchy about the correct pronunciation and wishes he had changed the spelling to Rafe early in his career so as to get folks to say it right.

The screenplay was adapted by Abi Morgan (most recently wrote Shame) from the 1991 novel by noted British biographer Claire Tomalin.

The luscious Oscar-nominated costumes were designed by Michael O'Connor (he did Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, among others, and won for The Duchess).

If you like a lovely costume drama, forget about rottentomatoes, its critics' 77% average, and its audience's 54, and hie thee to your neighborhood art house before the Academy Awards March 2.

Concussion (2013)

Jack and I liked this story of a lesbian suburban housewife who begins a double life as a New York high-class hooker soon after her son accidentally hits her on the head at a baseball game. Robin Weigert (last blogged in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, about someone else with an alter ego) is impressive as Abby (her hooker name is Eleanor--it's not the same as a stripper name) and Maggie Siff (I don't watch Sons of Anarchy but in addition to that and small roles in other things she had a series arc on Mad Men as Rachel Menken Katz, head of Menken's department store) is good as her gym friend Sam.

It's the feature debut of director/writer Stacie Passon and she and/or the movie have won Best First Feature-Special Mention at the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and an award at the Berlin International Film Festival and been been nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, Breakthrough Director and Best Actress at the Gotham Awards, and Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards (the latter will be awarded March 1). I had heard of producer Rose Troche, and liked very much her work directing Go Fish (1994), Safety of Objects (2001), and 13 episodes of The L Word (producing 18 and writing 6).

We missed the short theatrical run here but caught it on video over a month ago, as it's now available on iTunes and Amazon and the DVD will be for sale in about a week. Because it was so long ago I can't remember the music, written by Barb Morrison, but here's a sample in the trailer. I do remember enjoying the cinematography by David Kruta (his feature debut as head of the department).

Rottentomatoes critics at 75% are kinder than its audiences at 57. Whatever. We still liked it.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Despite all the bad press, Jack and I did enjoy this story of the real-life swindler Jordan Belfort and it's been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and Best Director for Martin Scorsese (last blogged in Hugo), which also earned him the same two Oscar nominations). Yup, it has a precedent-setting number of F-bombs and scenes of graphic debauchery, but that's what these kids in their twenties did when they became ridiculously rich in such a short time in the late 1980s and early '90s. Trivia: they used crushed B vitamins to stand in for the cocaine, which helped them act high. Leonardo DiCaprio (most recently in The Great Gatsby, nominated for this role) had been wanting to adapt Belfort's book for some time and he's one of the movie's producers. He puts everything he's got into this role of the arrogant reckless guy. Jonah Hill (he was in This Is the End after Moneyball) has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for this role, and I don't really see why, but he won't win this time either. With 134 actors credited and 119 uncredited I can only scratch the surface, but I will mention Margot Robbie (I did watch the now-canceled series Pan Am plus she had a tiny part in About Time) who is more, to paraphrase Roger Ebert, than her Wonderbra as Naomi. Rob Reiner (better known as a director, he won two Emmys and was nominated for three as well as five Golden Globes for his work in 187 episodes of All in the Family from 1971-78 as well as 63 other credits; this is his first feature acting gig in ten years) and an unrecognizable Christine Ebersole (a whole bunch of TV after her 20 episodes of Saturday Night Live, including 11 of Royal Pains) play Belfort's concerned parents, Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) is a broker who inspires Belfort and has a funny chest-beating bit that is the actor's own, Jean Dujardin (The Artist) is droll as a Swiss banker, and Joanna Lumley (best known to me for the British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous from 1992-2012) is regal and full of surprises as Naomi's Aunt Emma. Spike Jonze (director of Her) has an uncredited cameo as they guy who explains penny stocks to Jordan.

The other controversy about this movie is that the real Jordan Belfort, who has a cameo towards the end as a talk show host introducing DiCaprio's Belfort, is out of jail after 22 months and his victims have not been paid restitution. I've read many articles (including one, two, three, four) about this guy and it does make me feel bad. I can only hope, although Belfort wrote the book for which Terence Winter (25 episodes of The Sopranos and 48 of Boardwalk Empire) has been nominated for adapting, that the crook won't get royalties. He's not only not in jail, he lives steps from the sand in Hermosa Beach, near Los Angeles, and works as a motivational speaker. I guess there is a sucker born every minute if people pay this guy.

No composer is credited but 54 songs are listed on imdb, and you can listen to a 35-song playlist on youtube. The songs are great.

This isn't a documentary. It isn't an instructional video. It's supposed to be a comedy. And we did laugh, sometimes at jokes, sometimes at inappropriateness. Jack didn't take one single nap in its 2 hours and 59 minutes, which is also unusual. Rottentomatoes critics come in at 75% and audiences at 81. This is definitely not for everyone, but we had a good time.

Her (2013)

Jack and I loved this science fiction story of a lonely man in the near future who falls in love with his computer/smartphone's operating system (OS), and this morning the movie was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay (by director Spike Jonze), Best Score (by William Butler and Owen Pallett, occasionally of Arcade Fire), and Best Original Song ("The Moon Song" by Karen O and Jonze). And not just the Oscars. Her has won (this strict grammarian feels weird writing "Her has won..." just as newspapers did in 1963 when the ads for the Hitchcock movie said "The Birds is coming!") Best Picture and Director at the National Board of Review, Best Screenplay Golden Globe, and many more.

Joaquin Phoenix (last blogged in The Master) shines as the vulnerable Theodore Twombly and Scarlett Johansson (most recently as the bombshell with the body that won't quit for in Don Jon, for which she's now nominated for a Gotham Award) brings remarkable depth to the OS Samantha, who has no body at all. Of course, no one would be bringing any depth to anything without Jonze's vision of an artificial intelligence so sensitive that it could inspire human love. I will not tell you how it ends, and I didn't see it coming at first, but as the story meandered in that direction, I thought, Oh! That makes sense.

Other players help fill the screen world of a future Los Angeles where lots of middle class people live downtown in high rises and take subways (that's a fantasy!) (it was shot in LA and Shanghai), including Amy Adams (Oscar-nominated and more for American Hustle), Rooney Mara (last in Ain't Them Bodies Saints), Chris Pratt (most recently in Delivery Man), Olivia Wilde (last in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone), Portia Doubleday (Youth in Revolt), and Kristen Wiig (most recently in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) as the voice of SexyKitten. Oh yes, this is not for kids--it has some sex. And Jonze (last blogged in Where the Wild Things Are) himself does the voice of the foul-mouthed Alien Child video game character but takes another name in the credits. One thing I want to comment on is how Adams' frizzy hairdo reminded me of Cameron Diaz' in Being John Malkovich (1999), which Jonze directed from a script by Charlie Kaufman, another reality-bender.

I almost forgot. It's fascinating to note that Johansson was not originally cast as Samantha. In fact, Samantha Morton (profiled in The Messenger) recorded all of the dialogue, and later Jonze decided to re-cast it with Johansson and dubbed it all in.

My regular readers know I often track down the soundtrack to listen while I write. But I couldn't find any sites that weren't full of lyrics, which distract me. Here's the list of songs, with videos of some, and you can find the songs or the album elsewhere.

You don't need me to urge you to see this. The Academy already has, and rottentomatoes critics are averaging 93% and its audiences 87. It's a winner.

Oscar nominations 2014

Yeah, you've already seen the coverage. But here's the list. I've written about most of these. Check the index for my posts.

Best picture

12 Years a Slave

The Wolf of Wall Street

Captain Phillips

Her

American Hustle

Gravity

Dallas Buyers Club

Nebraska

Philomena

Best director

Steve McQueen -- 12 Years a Slave

David O. Russell -- American Hustle

Alfonso Cuaron -- Gravity

Alexander Payne -- Nebraska

Martin Scorsese -- The Wolf of Wall Street

Best actor

Bruce Dern -- Nebraska

Chiwetel Ejiofor -- 12 Years a Slave

Matthew McConaughey -- Dallas Buyers Club

Leonardo DiCaprio -- The Wolf of Wall Street

Christian Bale -- American Hustle

Best actress

Amy Adams -- American Hustle

Cate Blanchett -- Blue Jasmine

Judi Dench -- Philomena

Sandra Bullock -- Gravity

Meryl Streep -- August: Osage County

Best supporting actor

Barkhad Abdi -- Captain Phillips

Bradley Cooper -- American Hustle

Jonah Hill -- The Wolf of Wall Street

Jared Leto -- Dallas Buyers Club

Michael Fassbender -- 12 Years a Slave

Best supporting actress

Jennifer Lawrence -- American Hustle

Lupita Nyong'o -- 12 Years a Slave

June Squibb -- Nebraska

Julia Roberts -- August: Osage County

Sally Hawkins -- Blue Jasmine

Best original screenplay

American Hustle -- David O. Russell and Eric Warren Singer

Blue Jasmine -- Woody Allen

Her -- Spike Jonze

Nebraska -- Bob Nelson

Dallas Buyers Club -- Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack

Best adapted screenplay

12 Years a Slave -- John Ridley

Before Midnight -- Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater

The Wolf of Wall Street -- Terence Winter

Captain Phillips -- Billy Ray

Philomena -- Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope

Best animated feature

The Wind Rises

Frozen

Despicable Me 2

Ernest & Celestine

The Croods

Best foreign feature

The Hunt (Denmark)

The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium)

The Great Beauty (Italy)

Omar (Palestinian territories)

The Missing Picture (Cambodia)

Best music (original song)

Frozen: Let it Go -- Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom: Ordinary Love -- U2, Paul Hewson

Her: The Moon Song -- Karen O, Spike Jonze

Despicable Me 2: Happy -- Pharrell Williams

Alone Yet Not Alone: Alone Yet Not Alone -- Bruce Broughton, Dennis Spiegel

Best music (original score)

Gravity -- Steven Price

Philomena -- Alexandre Desplat

The Book Thief -- John Williams

Saving Mr. Banks -- Thomas Newman

Her -- William Butler and Owen Pallett

Best cinematography

Gravity -- Emmanuel Lubezki

Inside Llewyn Davis -- Bruno Delbonnel

Nebraska -- Phedon Papamichael

Prisoners -- Roger Deakins

The Grandmaster -- Phillippe Le Sourd

Best costume design

The Great Gatsby -- Catherine Martin

12 Years a Slave -- Patricia Norris

The Grandmaster -- William Chang Suk Ping

American Hustle -- Michael Wilkinson

The Invisible Woman -- Michael O'Connor

Best documentary feature

The Act of Killing

20 Feet From Stardom

The Square

Cutie and the Boxer

Dirty Wars

Best film editing

Gravity -- Alfonso Cuaron, Mark Sanger

12 Years a Slave-- Joe Walker

Captain Phillips -- Christopher Rouse

American Hustle -- Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten

Dallas Buyers Club -- John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa

Best makeup and hairstyling

The Lone Ranger -- Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa -- Stephen Prouty

Dallas Buyers Club -- Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews

Best production design

12 Years a Slave -- Adam Stockhausen and Alice Baker

The Great Gatsby -- Catherine Martin and Beverley Dunn

American Hustle -- Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler

Gravity -- Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard

Her -- K.K. Barrett and Gene Serdena

Best visual effects

Gravity -- Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug -- Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds

Iron Man 3 -- Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick

The Lone Ranger -- Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier

Star Trek Into Darkness -- Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

Best sound mixing

Captain Phillips -- Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro

Gravity -- Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug -- Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson

Inside Llewyn Davis -- Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Lone Survivor -- Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

Best sound editing

All Is Lost -- Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns

Captain Phillips -- Oliver Tarney

Gravity -- Glenn Freemantle

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug -- Brent Burge

Lone Survivor -- Wylie Stateman

Best short film, live action

Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me)

Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything)

Helium

Pitaako Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)

The Voorman Problem

Best short film, animated

Feral

Get a Horse!

Mr. Hublot

Possessions

Room on the Broom

Best documentary short

CaveDigger

Facing Fear

Karama Has No Walls

The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall

August: Osage County (2013)

We liked a lot this dysfunctional family movie that illustrates one of Jack's sayings: If you think your family's bad, look at this one. That said, some may be disturbed by its tribulations but we handled it just fine. Meryl Streep (last blogged in Hope Springs) and Julia Roberts (most recently in Larry Crowne) are terrific as the warring pill-popping mother and angry daughter, and the sisterly chemistry between Streep and Margo Martindale (last in Win Win) is good fun. Then we have Sam Shepard (Mud), Chris Cooper (The Company You Keep), and many more. Even though Roberts and Streep didn't win any Golden Globes tonight, they were nominated for them and the Screen Actors Guild awards (the latter also recognized the entire ensemble).

Adapted by Tracy Letts from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, the screenplay has received a few nominations, as did his adaptation of another of his plays into Killer Joe. Trivia: Letts plays Andrew Lockhart, the new head of the CIA, in Homeland.

Poor John Wells (director). Such a good writer on E.R. and Shameless, but his directing debut The Company Men had poor reviews, and the haters are hating on this one as well, with rottentomatoes critics averaging 65% and audiences only 75.

The talented Gustavo Santaolalla (On the Road) is the composer and you can listen to clips on the amazon page, though, as usual, the studio is promoting the compilation album, which has only three Santaolalla tracks.

Let the haters wallow in their hate and go see this locally, unless others' family squabbles send you screaming from the room.

American Hustle (2013)

Jack, Amy, and I loved this story of con men and G-men in an uncomfortable alliance for a sting operation, loosely based on Abscam. Acting, pacing, writing, production design, costumes, and, oh, that hair, are all first rate for director/co-writer David O. Russell's next project after his Silver Linings Playbook earned seven Oscar nominations. 

Christian Bale's (last in The Dark Knight Rises and before that starred for Russell in The Fighter) physical transformation is well-documented--he gained around 40 pounds to have Irving's paunch, herniated two spinal disks with the accompanying bad posture, shaved part of his head for the comb-over--but you have to see it to appreciate his portrayal of this middle aged swindler with a soft underbelly virtually as well as literally. Amy Adams (most recently in Man of Steel and before that On the Road) is a delight as the cunning Sydney, Bradley Cooper (last in The Place Beyond the Pines) delightfully vain and manic as FBI agent Richie, and Jennifer Lawrence may get another Oscar nomination, even though she won last year for Silver Linings Playbook. Jeremy Renner (last in The Avengers) was, for a time, slated to play Irving. But when Bale again became available, Russell wrote the part of Mayor Polito just for Renner. His hair is pretty funny, too. I could go on and on about the cast (you know I can) but since 68 actors are credited and 93 uncredited, I'll stop here. 

There's one unforgettable cameo, uncredited, that was originally a guarded secret, so I'll let you find out in the second act. And I will mention that Dicky Eklund, whom Bale won an Oscar for portraying in The Fighter, plays a street thug along with his brother Sean.

Russell co-wrote the script with Eric Warren Singer.

Here are couple of pages on the production design (team led by Judy Becker, Shame) and fashion (costume designer Michael Wilkinson did great work on Party Monster (2003), American Splendor (2003), Garden State (2004), Friends with Money (2006), and Babel (2006), to name a few) that I found interesting.

I counted 30 songs at the end of the movie. Set in the disco-era of the late 1970s into the early 80s, it has a lot of great tunes, 14 of which are on the official soundtrack plus one track by credited composer Danny Elfman (last blogged in Oz the Great and Powerful), a favorite of mine. You can hear the Elfman track here.

Rated by rottentomatoes critics at 83 and audiences at 80, this was our choice for the 2013 Christmas day movie but it was sold out two weeks ago. Amy and I saw it on the 27th while Jack was out of town and he went yesterday morning. You should see it too.

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Jack and I loved this story of an unlikable loser of a 1961 folksinger, starring the Coen brothers' distinctive filmmaking style of awkward humor and bad choices sprinkled with snow. Oscar Isaac (I don't remember him in Body of Lies nor Drive) shines as the title character and puts his Juilliard training to good use, performing his songs himself. First rate supporting help comes from a very angry Carey Mulligan (last blogged in The Great Gatsby) and a sweet Justin Timberlake (most recently in Bad Teacher) as Jean and Jim, an inscrutable John Goodman (last in Flight), and more.

Another trademark of Minnesotan co-directors/-writers Ethan & Joel Coen (last in these pages in True Grit) missing here is gore. And other than Llewyn's getting beaten up in the beginning of the movie, there isn't any. I don't think it's a spoiler to tell you that what follows is a flashback. I wondered why he wasn't hurt in the next scene and then forgot about it until the beat-up scene came around again--Jack whispered the reason.

Some of the accolades (dozens of nominations and 21 wins so far) are for the music. Almost all of the songs are listed on imdb, sung by the likes of Isaac, Mulligan, Timberlake, Punch Brothers, Marcus Mumford, Stark Sands (we saw him last year as one of the stars of Kinky Boots on Broadway!), among others. Inspired by the actual New York folk scene of the 60s, including a real life Jim & Jean (watch, if you like, a video with a short interview and listen to another song) and Dave Von Ronk (listen here and notice that Llewyn's album cover mirrors that of Inside Dave Von Ronk) who sings over the end credits and whose memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street also served as inspiration. Rolling Stone magazine points out other similarities and homages in this spoiler-filled article. But, to be clear, this isn't a movie about those people. It's fiction.

Starting Sunday, January 5, Showtime will be airing a concert movie called Another Day/ Another Time; Celebrating the Music of "Inside Llewyn Davis" with the Avett Brothers (Scott Avett auditioned to play Llewyn), Punch Brothers, Joan Baez, and more, as well as a documentary called Inside "Inside Llewyn Davis." I've set the DVR to record them during the day so I can catch lots of winter premieres tomorrow evening.

Rottentomatoes' critics are averaging 93% and audiences 75. We're with the critics.