The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Yes, Jack and I like the popcorn movies, and this is one of them, where our hero graduates from high school, kisses his girlfriend, is nice to people, and battles a new villain (anyone who says the movie is all about three bad guys has been smoking something from Colorado). Andrew Garfield (last blogged in the last installment The Amazing Spider-Man) seems to genuinely enjoy his super powers, unlike conflicted Tobey Maguire, who had the title role in 2002, '04, and '07. Emma Stone (most recently in Gangster Squad), reportedly still Garfield's real-life main squeeze, returns as Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man/Peter Parker's main squeeze, and their chemistry is still evident. Jamie Foxx (last in Django Unchained) joins the action as a milquetoast electrician named Max, as does Dane DeHaan (Kill Your Darlings) as Peter's friend Harry. Paul Giamatti (most recently in Saving Mr. Banks) has a funny cameo as an angry Russian truck driver, and Marvel Comics' Stan Lee shows his face early on, at Peter and Gwen's graduation.

The entire soundtrack, by Hans Zimmer, can be streamed from youtube. Critics have averaged 53% to audiences' 71 on Rotten Tomatoes, but this is the fourth highest-grossing movie on the charts today in its fourth week of release (we saw it two weeks ago). It has its own following, many of whom know to watch for a Stan Lee cameo and wait for a bonus during or at the end of the credits (this one is odd--it's a trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past, now playing, apparently a contractual obligation between studios).

If you're a fan of the web-slinger, you'll like this. If not, there are plenty of other choices around.

Under the Skin (2013)

Baffling. The story about an "alien seductress" in Scotland isn't linear, which isn't necessarily bad, but we just didn't get it. Director Jonathan Glazer's debut, Sexy Beast (2000) was so good, as was his sophomore effort Birth (2004), which, like this one, he co-wrote, so I fully expected to love this. Not one bit, despite the best efforts of Scarlett Johansson (last in Captain America: The Winter Soldier) as this movie's sexy beast. We saw it about a month ago and I am somewhat dim on the details.

My regular readers know that I like to track down the movie's score and listen while I write. Here it is, by violinist Mica Levi. Irritating. I think I'm getting a headache and I was fine ten minutes ago. I've switched to a mix of jazz and classical to finish this post.

Loved by critics (86% on Rotten Tomatoes to 64 from audiences), nominated for four British Independent Film Awards (director, actress, sound design, music) and more, this is one Jack and I can't personally recommend.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Another fun summer action movie from the Marvel Comics franchise, this one features Cap acquainting himself with the modern world after his suspended animation and, what a shock, fighting crime. Chris Evans brings the same charming combination of determination and casual humor to the title role as he did in Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. Samuel L. Jackson (last blogged in Robocop) and Scarlett Johansson (most recently in these pages in Chef) return as Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, while Robert Redford (last in All Is Lost) and Anthony Mackie (most recently in Gangster Squad) join up as the Defense Secretary and a new wingman for Cap, respectively. The obligatory Stan Lee cameo occurs in the third act, where the comic book creator plays a befuddled Smithsonian security guard.

Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFreely (covered in Captain America: The First Avenger) reprise their duties with a new pair of directors, brothers Anthony and Joe Russo (lots of TV, three other features).

My favorite item on the imdb trivia page is the "catch-up" list, describing which things Cap must learn to join the 21st century, varying by country. Scroll down until you see the longest one, with twelve bullet points.

Henry Jackman (last blogged in X-Men: First Class) provides exciting orchestral music, and you can listen to the entire score on youtube if you so desire.

Rotten Tomatoes critics and audiences are loving this, too, averaging 89% and 94.

It's been six weeks since Jack and I saw this, the day before we saw Draft Day (coincidentally also shot mostly in Cleveland, Ohio), so I may be leaving a lot out. I won't forget to tell you, however, that this goes on my list of movies that cause MPMS (motion-picture-motion-sickness). Take precautions.

Belle (2013)

Jack, Scott, Brian, and I loved this gorgeous and moving costume drama, based on a true story about an illegitimate bi-racial daughter of an 18th century white English nobleman raised by her grand-uncle and -aunt.* The plot includes much discussion of slavery (Belle's mother was an African slave), which was outlawed in England before the American Civil War. Gugu Mbatha-Raw (whom I deemed "radiant" in Larry Crowne) shines in the title role of the proper, yet outspoken and passionate young lady. The ever-reliable Tom Wilkinson (after blogging about him in The Lone Ranger I mentioned his brief appearance in The Grand Budapest Hotel) and Emily Watson (most recently in The Book Thief) are Belle's guardians, and Sarah Gadon (I don't remember her in Cosmopolis, nor as Mrs. Jung in A Dangerous Method) is sweet as Belle's cousin, raised as her sister. Matthew Goode (last in A Single Man) makes an impression as Belle's compassionate birth father, and Penelope Wilton (most recently of Downton Abbey and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) and Miranda Richardson (last blogged in Made in Dagenhem) are fabulous as the spinster aunt and a reprehensible potential mother-in-law, respectively.

*Note on wording: as a person whose nieces and nephews have children, I prefer the term grand-aunt to great-aunt and have decided I'll use it from now on.

Apparently there's been some dispute about the screenplay, credited solely to Misan Sagay (an Englishwoman of color, she's credited with one other movie which I haven't seen). Sagay definitely wrote the first draft or two, inspired by a real painting (detailed in this video which may contain spoilers--you will get to see the painting in the movie, or here if you like) and then director Amma Asante (ditto, ditto) wrote quite a few drafts after that, including the shooting script. But the Writers Guild found in Sagay's favor.

Yes, this is a costume drama, and the wardrobe (oh, those gowns, those hats!) may earn an Oscar nomination for Anushia Nieradzik (I've seen only Circle of Friends (1995) of her 88 credits).

The beautiful orchestral themes by Rachel Portman (last blogged in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan) can be sampled in this youtube clip and the soundtrack's amazon page.

Rotten Tomatoes critics at 84% and audiences at 89 are enjoying this too. See for yourself as it plays locally.

Note to my regular readers, I've added a new penultimate (it means second to last) paragraph to my post about Chef, so go back and look, please!

Chef (2014)

Yummy. Tears of joy, and maybe hunger, wet my face watching this story of a high-class restaurant chef going out on his own and connecting with his adoring ten-year-old son for the first time. We had a lot of fun, along with the opening day crowd. Jon Favreau wrote, directs, and stars (last script was Couples Retreat (missed it in 2009), last directing job was Cowboys & Aliens, last role was a small part in The Wolf of Wall Street, last role I blogged was a cameo in Iron Man 3) in a triumphant return to his indie roots. Emjay Anthony (the TV show Rake and movie It's Complicated, among others), who'll be 11 next month, is sweet as the boy. Sophia Vergara (was just in Fading Gigolo) and John Leguizamo (started out with acclaimed variety/stand-up comedy shows Mambo Mouth (1991) and Spic-O-Rama (1993), then movies To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995), Summer of Sam (1999), played Toulouse-Laurec in Moulin Rouge! (2001), had small parts in Miracle at St. Anna and The Lincoln Lawyer, among many credits, with five more due for release in 2014) are in it all the way. Bobby Cannavale (most recently in Blue Jasmine), Dustin Hoffman (last role blogged in Barney's Version), Scarlett Johannson (most recently in Her), and Oliver Platt (last in The Oranges) lend their considerable talents to the first act. Robert Downey Jr., no doubt honoring his Iron Man comrade, has a nice cameo in the middle.

Favreau's script hums along with lots of good jokes, lots of 21st century technology--the chef learns about Twitter from his son, accompanied by an amusing graphic--and a truly satisfying plot. We had not seen the trailer. If you can avoid it, do so. Some of the best bits are in it.

In addition to the scrumptious food stylings (it's not often I wish for smell-o-vision), this is also a road-trip movie, and features music from the various parts of the country visited. No composer is credited: it's all songs. Jack especially wanted me to mention the musicians in the Austin, Texas sequence: Gary Clark Jr. (listen to tracks here, and if the first song doesn't pull you in, keep going because he has a lot of styles--free download available from the site). And here's the poignant Al Green song from the marionette sequence.

Don't go running out of the room when the credits start! There's an excellent bonus, featuring Los Angeles chef Roy Choi, an executive producer of the project, giving Favreau a lesson in kitchen technique, during the music credits. Usually I read the music credits carefully, but this time I had ascertained the night before that there were lots, and maybe all, on imdb, as noted in the link above.

This is in the Producers Plethora category, with 24. It's also going to be #20 in the Food Movies list that I started soon after beginning the blog in the fall of 2008. Don't just take my word for it, Rotten Tomatoes critics are coming in at 87% and audiences at 88, even though it's playing on only 72 screens so far. For fans of statistics, it ranks third in average theatre box office right now, after Godzilla and The Immigrant. Get to those, too, but see this one first! It may be rated R but I find it suitable for any child who's allowed to hear some profanity.

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

I loved this romance between centuries old vampires who've learned to live in the modern world, though I generally dislike vampire movies. Director/writer Jim Jarmusch (I also loved Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Down by Law (1986), Mystery Train (1989), One Night on Earth (1991), Dead Man (1995), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), and Broken Flowers (2005)) is a champion of outsiders, and what better outsiders than those who sleep in the daylight and come out only when it's dark? Tilda Swinton (last blogged in The Grand Budapest Hotel) and Tom Hiddleston (covered in The Avengers in between Thor movies) have a dark chemistry, her paleness and joy contrasting with his darkness and depression, in their roles of Eve and Adam (named not for the bible but for a Mark Twain story, as explained in this shaky video of a film festival interview). Mia Wasikowska (most recently in Albert Nobbs), John Hurt (covered in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Anton Yelchin (last in these pages reprising Chekov in Star Trek Into Darkness) add to the plot, which has a surprising amount of humor. Jarmusch's love of music and music history is woven throughout every scene and speaks to his choice of the motor city as the setting for most of it.

Jack wasn't as enthusiastic as I, but here's what we both liked a lot: the desolate Detroit and Tangier (Morocco) locations including the beautiful but run-down house in which Adam lives; the spectacular set dressing, as Adam is a collector of 20th century technology, including historical guitars, turntables, vinyl records, amps, televisions with rounded screens, and a 1982 Jaguar XJ-S (identified courtesy of the Internet Movie Car Database or imcdb); all the other history; the hipster music; and the ironic jokes.

The moody music by Jozef Van Wissem & SQÜRL is outstanding and can be streamed from this link as well as purchased from most retailers. Rotten tomatoes critics average out at 85 and audiences 81. Check this out at your neighborhood art house and let me know if you concur.

Draft Day (2014)

Heaven for Clevelanders and/or Browns fans and highly entertaining even for someone like me who had no grasp of the machinations of the NFL draft. We loved it. Kevin Costner (last blogged in Man of Steel) gives us the harried Browns general manager who has just taken over the job from his late father, while dealing with pressures from his girlfriend, played by Jennifer Garner (I saw none of her 105 episodes of Alias but did love her performances in Juno (2007), Valentine's Day, and Dallas Buyers Club), and his mother, played by Ellen Burstyn (profiled in Another Happy Day). This is not to mention pressure from his boss, played by Frank Langella (most recently in Robot & Frank), and his team's coach, played by Denis Leary (covered in The Amazing Spider-Man). Chadwick Boseman as an Ohio State football player turns in a nice follow-up to his Jackie Robinson in 42. It's a big cast, with more uncredited than credited actors on imdb. Some sports figures play themselves but I'm a baseball fan, not football so much, and can't remember who.

Ivan Reitman (last directed No Strings Attached) is at the helm here, working from a script by Scott Rothman (his first) and Rajiv Joseph (story editor and two episodes of Nurse Jackie and one episode of something unfamiliar to me).

Director of Photography Eric Steelberg (Juno, (500) Days of Summer, Up in the Air, Young Adult, Labor Day: all but Summer directed by Reitman's son Jason) provides awesome aerial photography establishing the various football stadiums. We also appreciated the imaginative gimmick of moving split screens in this plot with a lot of phone calls.

John Debney (covered in Jobs) wrote a good score, which you can preview here.

The movie was originally going to be based on the Buffalo Bills until the filmmakers discovered it's cheaper to shoot in Ohio, possibly spurring an egregious goof, when the team's owner gets from Radio City Music Hall to the stadium in magically short time.

Rotten Tomatoes critics are lukewarm, averaging 62%, but its audiences (perhaps self-selected with gridiron buffs in the majority) liked it better at 72%. When we saw it a month ago we thought it was good fun, and not just for the football.

Noah (2014)

This is okay, with special effects and all, but we expected more, especially from director Darren Aronofsky (last blogged in Black Swan). We didn't expect a comedy from the guy, but weren't pulled in as we have been by his previous work. Here Noah (Russell Crowe, most recently in Man of Steel) is an unyielding father of a vegetarian family ("Father, why do they eat the animals?" "Because they think it makes them stronger.") who gets intractable in the second act (or is it the third? We saw it over a month ago). Jennifer Connelly (most recently in The Dilemma) is his mostly-patient wife Naameh, Douglas Booth (new to me) is older son Shem, Logan Lerman (last in The Perks of Being a Wallflower) is younger son Ham, and Emma Watson (after co-starring with Lerman in Wallflower she was in The Bling Ring) is adopted daughter Ila--the latter three are portrayed by cute kids at the beginning, and the older ones are quite attractive as well. Ila/Watson cries a lot. Ray Winstone, who played bad guys in Sexy Beast (2000) and The Departed (2006), among many credits, is a meat-eating (natch) bad guy trying to get on the ark.

My favorite sequence is the story of Genesis in 3 minutes and 33 seconds, especially the part showing evolution from fish to lizards to furry creatures to primates. It's on youtube!

Clint Mansell once again scores for his regular collaborator Aronofsky, as he did for Black Swan. You can stream the entire soundtrack (if you have spotify) from this link.

Jack had read that a full-scale model of the ark was docked in New York City's harbor for a while, but unfortunately we missed it when we were in that city a few days before we saw the movie. Here's a video about the ark's construction.

We're not really with the rottentomatoes critics this time at 77%. More like their audiences at 46. So now that you can see the best part (I just pushed my chair back and watched the clip in a darkened room on full screen), go ahead and wait for netflix or free streaming and skip Watson's tears and the grimaces of Connelly and Crowe. Perhaps get the DVD of the light-hearted flood story Evan Almighty instead.

Bears (2014)

Jack and I throughly enjoyed the fifth Disneynature documentary, this time focusing on a mama brown bear and her two cubs, called Sky, Scout, and Amber by upbeat narrator John C. Reilly (last in these pages in the truly dark We Need to talk About Kevin). As in the last one, Chimpanzee, the animals are anthropomorphized and adorable, except when they're scary. Though some of the big bears are said to be hunting the cubs, we don't see them get hurt. The only creatures in real danger are the salmon that the sleuth of bears scarfs up hungrily.

Everyone likes this one: 91 from critics and 80 from audiences on rottentomatoes.

Le Week-End (2013)

This delightful story of an English couple in their early sixties celebrating their anniversary in Paris isn't all joyful but it's all good. And, though I laughed when in the first scene Jim Broadbent is burping, grimacing, and tapping his chest, rest assured it's not a variation of Rule #1. Broadbent (last blogged in The Iron Lady) is up to his usual high standards as stressed-out professor Nick enjoying his high-maintenance wife Meg, played marvelously by Lindsay Duncan (I must have seen her in Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) and About Time, but I couldn't quite place her. She's also done quite a lot of TV. She's 63 now and is gorgeous). Jeff Goldblum (after I wrote about him in Morning Glory I mentioned him in The Grand Budapest Hotel) has a small but pivotal role. There's quite a lot of eating in the movie (it's Paris, after all), and one scene tickled me when the camera is trained closely on Goldblum's face as he eats and talks with his mouth full. Not disgusting, just noteworthy.

Director Roger Michell (after I covered him for directing Morning Glory we saw and liked his Hyde Park on Hudson) has worked before with writer Hanif Kureishi (I did like My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987) a lot) but I haven't seen the ones on which they collaborated.

The lovely music by Jeremy Sams (not his first job with Michell) can be previewed on the amazon page.

Lucky for me, I speak a little French, because there are no subtitles that I recall from seeing it ten days ago. Obviously the filmmakers knew that not everyone would understand everything, so perhaps those lines weren't important.

Jack couldn't make it but Mary Ellen and I enjoyed it a lot. She plans to see it again. For a change, the critics are in agreement with me, averaging 89% on rottentomatoes, but audiences, not so much at 56. Try to catch it in its last three nights locally.

Fading Gigolo (2013)

Jack and I loved this comedy of two friends who team up as a male prostitute and his pimp. John Turturro stars, and wrote and directed it and Woody Allen plays the pimp. This is Turturro's fifth outing as writer/director (I had a love/hate relationship with his third, Romance & Cigarettes, the only other one I've seen, and wrote about it). No ambivalence here. It's absolutely delightful. Turturro (just among his winning or nominated movies, I thoroughly enjoyed Five Corners (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Quiz Show (1994), Grace of My Heart (1996), Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001), O Brother Where Art Thou? (2001), The Good Shepherd (2006), Margot at the Wedding (2007), What Just Happened, and a series arc on Monk, not to mention his work on many Coen Brothers and Spike Lee joints), who had a small part in Allen's Hannah & Her Sisters (1986), clearly learned a thing or two from Allen's best work. We have stunning Manhattan locations, fabulous jazz music--more on that in a moment, luscious horny women, Hasidic Jews, and Allen himself as a wisecracking dirty old man on Zoloft. Sharon Stone (my favorites include her small but memorable part in Irreconcilable Differences (1984), her most famous Basic Instinct (1992), Sliver (1993), Casino (1995) which earned her an Oscar nomination, The Muse (1999), one act of If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000), Broken Flowers (2005), and a series arc on the Showtime series Huff) (and her first credit is "Pretty Girl on train" in Allen's Stardust Memories (1980)) and Sofia Vergara (best known as Gloria on 120 episodes of Modern Family, she has other comedy credits, including Chasing Papi (2003) and Big Trouble (2002)) are perfect tens, with looks, brains, and empathy. Then Vanessa Paradis (Heartbreaker) and Liev Schreiber (last blogged for playing LBJ in The Butler) are the repressed but emotional Hasids. Plenty of other supporting actors, some cameos, and some adorable kids round out the cast. Probably my only complaint is that it wasn't easy to understand some of the names, so I'll print them for you: Turturro's character is named Fioravante (he works in a flower shop and takes a pseudonym halfway through), Vergara's is Selima, Paradis's is Avigal, Schreiber's is Dovi, and Allen's girlfriend's is Othella (an obvious literary reference to their racial difference). Turturro's son Diego, whose mother is Katherine Borowitz (she's uncredited as the "English Lady Newscaster"), plays one of the Hasidic boys, named Shimshon (he's the one with the copious orthodonture).

The rich cinematography is by Marco Pontecorvo (new to me, he has plenty of credits here and in his native Italy). In addition to the extravagant set dressing, the images of the flowers added a lot, too.

The jazz song Canadian Sunset by Eddie Heywood and Norman Gimbel, performed in the movie by tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons (listen here), resonated with me because my big brother Bob played it on the piano when I was very young. Ammons also performs My Romance by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart (here's a track from the same 1960 album, sorry about the ads) and that's a song our mother loved, in a version sung by Ella Fitzgerald. I bought both tracks on iTunes tonight, as well as two short instrumentals by co-composer, with Abraham Laboriel, Bill Maxwell, After the Massage and Meeting in the Park. To round it out I purchased Neph by Trombone Shorty and Sway by Dean Martin. These songs will give you an idea of the underlying tone of this movie.

Haters gotta hate, say Jack and I, as rottentomatoes critics average 56% and audiences 51. Ignore them. We usually do.