Quite a few people recommended this story of a college women's a cappella singing group so Amy, Jack, and I watched it on-demand Christmas eve. We were not impressed. A few laughs here and there but oh, so dumb. Nominated for Favorite Comedic Movie at the People's Choice Awards and on some Best of the Year lists? Hmm. Anna Kendrick (last in these pages in 50/50) is a good actress but she is squandered here, though she really can sing (Tony-nominated for High Society on Broadway in 1998 when she was 13). She and Rebel Wilson (I don't remember her in Bridesmaids but she is a funny, overweight, outspoken, Australian kid) are the most redeeming parts of the movie. Brittany Snow (most recently blogged in The Vicious Kind) tries really hard. The rest of the girls are just annoying. Elizabeth Banks (People Like Us) is one of the movie's producers and she and John Michael Higgins (the inspector in We Bought a Zoo) mug furiously as competition narrators.
Director Jason Moore makes his feature debut after nine TV episodes of various series. Kay Cannon (co-writer of twelve 30 Rocks and two New Girls) also debuts adapting the book by Mickey Rapkin, himself a magazine writer/editor (GQ, Elle, Bon Appetit). All three of us watching would have liked it to have fewer stupid gags and more singing. It's probably not useful information, but there is a tiny little audio bonus at the very end and outtakes as the credits begin. Contrary to pattern, we don't recommend it but it's doing very well--80% critics, 84% audience on rottentomatoes and 24th at the box office after 13 weeks.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012)
We expected to like this because Edward Burns made it. But we weren't moved by the story of 7 adult siblings and their divorced parents and predicted almost every outcome. Burns (The Brothers McMullen (1995), She's the One (1996), more) directs, writes, and stars in what he doubtless hoped would be as popular as McMullen, bringing in two of the same cast members, Connie Britton (McMullen was her screen debut, since then she's known for Spin City, Friday Night Lights on big and small screens, and the new series Nashville--I've seen maybe 5% of all that) and Mike McGlone (also She's the One and some other things), to join Kerry Bishé (Argo), Heather Burns (no relation--Zach Galifianakis' girlfriend in Bored to Death), Caitlin Fitzgerald (Damsels in Distress), Anita Gillette (small part in She's the One and lots more) and Ed Lauter (one of the Scouts in Trouble with the Curve, many other small parts) as the parents, and others.
Everyone's family has drama at the holidays. Burns knows from big working class Irish-American families. Too bad this didn't bring anything new when we saw it a week and a half ago. Rottentomatoes' critics give it 64%, audiences 45. Wait for cable and play words with friends while it's on.
Everyone's family has drama at the holidays. Burns knows from big working class Irish-American families. Too bad this didn't bring anything new when we saw it a week and a half ago. Rottentomatoes' critics give it 64%, audiences 45. Wait for cable and play words with friends while it's on.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Skyfall (2012)
This, the 23rd James Bond movie, is still fun, with lots of chases, stunts, explosions, gadgets, and all we've come to expect from the series. Particularly good work involving motorcycles and trains. Daniel Craig at 44 continues doing many of his own stunts. Judi Dench at 78 is still M and Albert Finney at 76 has a cameo as a houseman. One of the recurring themes is that the old ways are the best, even though this is the first movie in which Q (Ben Whishaw (after he was in Bright Star he starred in the BBC series The Hour)) is younger than Bond. Craig was most recently in these pages in the American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Dench in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Check out all the different pearl earring/necklace ensembles she wears. Javier Bardem (last in Biutiful) is excellent as the smarmy villain Silva in dyed blond hair and dandy clothes.
There are pages and pages of trivia on imdb. Here are some of my favorites: It was promoted in a short film at the opening ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympics, directed by Danny Boyle from Scotland, in which Queen Elizabeth II said, in her first "acting" role, "Good evening, Mr. Bond." About a third of the budget, or $45 million, came from product placement, especially Heineken beer, but Bond still drinks a martini in at least one scene. It is shaken not stirred (no one utters the words) and poured from a bottle that says 1962 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the 007 franchise. The shooting locations are England, Scotland, China, Turkey and Japan, far fewer countries than planned, but plenty luxe. The title track, sung by Adele, debuted at #8 on the charts. It is the first Bond movie ever shot in IMAX, the format in which we saw it three weeks ago.
This is director Sam Mendes' sixth feature (I've seen them all and covered him in Away We Go) and first Bond movie. The script is credited to Neal Purvis & Robert Wade (Die Another Day (2002), Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace, and more) and John Logan (covered in Hugo, which earned him his third Oscar nomination). Curiously, Ian Fleming's name is nowhere to be found in the onscreen credits, even though he wrote the original novels and short stories.
High octane entertainment with beautiful locations and much suspense, still on big screens in this metropolitan area. If you're a fan you've probably seen it already.
There are pages and pages of trivia on imdb. Here are some of my favorites: It was promoted in a short film at the opening ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympics, directed by Danny Boyle from Scotland, in which Queen Elizabeth II said, in her first "acting" role, "Good evening, Mr. Bond." About a third of the budget, or $45 million, came from product placement, especially Heineken beer, but Bond still drinks a martini in at least one scene. It is shaken not stirred (no one utters the words) and poured from a bottle that says 1962 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the 007 franchise. The shooting locations are England, Scotland, China, Turkey and Japan, far fewer countries than planned, but plenty luxe. The title track, sung by Adele, debuted at #8 on the charts. It is the first Bond movie ever shot in IMAX, the format in which we saw it three weeks ago.
This is director Sam Mendes' sixth feature (I've seen them all and covered him in Away We Go) and first Bond movie. The script is credited to Neal Purvis & Robert Wade (Die Another Day (2002), Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace, and more) and John Logan (covered in Hugo, which earned him his third Oscar nomination). Curiously, Ian Fleming's name is nowhere to be found in the onscreen credits, even though he wrote the original novels and short stories.
High octane entertainment with beautiful locations and much suspense, still on big screens in this metropolitan area. If you're a fan you've probably seen it already.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Parental Guidance (2012)
The critics that savaged this lightweight family comedy were thinking too hard. It had Jack and me laughing a lot along with the packed house--it doesn't hurt that we both love baseball and there are a couple of subplots around various diamonds. Billy Crystal (my favorites of his movie acting gigs: The Princess Bride (1987), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), When Harry Met Sally (1989), City Slickers (1991), and Analyze This (1999); and don't forget he directed Mr. Saturday Night (1992), Forget Paris (1995), and 61* (2001)) stars as Artie, the befuddled grandfather trying to follow his Type-A daughter's many parenting rules. Bette Midler (I've been a big fan of hers since seeing her live in Berkeley in the early 1970s; my fave movies are The Rose (1979), Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Scenes from a Mall (1991), The First Wives Club (1996), Drowning Mona (2000), The Stepford Wives (2004), and Then She Found Me (2007)--I hated Beaches (1988), though mostly because of Barbara Hershey. And the script) gets off a few good lines as Artie's wife Diane but it's mostly Crystal's movie. It starts and ends with him. Really ends--there's a bonus after the credits. Midler does get to sing a song in the second act and not in a contrived way at all. Marisa Tomei's (last in these pages in The Ides of March) comic timing is pretty much missing but she's the straight man here, as the Type-A mother/daughter Alice. The kids, however, are terrific. I've been pleased every time I've seen young Bailee Madison (most recently as one of the only redeeming parts of Just Go With It) and here she is the eldest child Harper. The other two, Turner played by Joshua Rush and Barker played by Kyle Harrison Breitkopf, are quite good as well. Tom Everett Scott (the lead in That Thing You Do! (1996)) is Alice's husband with a little to do in the syrupy third act. Yes, of course, it's syrupy. Did you think someone would get "shunned" (you'll get that after you see it)?
Director Andy Fickman worked as Production Executive on two Midler pictures, Hocus Pocus and the TV-movie of Gypsy, so that's where he came from. Co-writers Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse are new to me.
As I said, critics hated it. 17% on rottentomatoes. We vote with the audiences at 68%. If you need a family-friendly activity, this will do fine. We heard quite a few youngsters giggling along with the adults today. But it would be okay to wait for video. The establishing shots of Fresno and Atlanta will work just fine on the small screen. And don't rush off before the bonus at the very end.
Director Andy Fickman worked as Production Executive on two Midler pictures, Hocus Pocus and the TV-movie of Gypsy, so that's where he came from. Co-writers Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse are new to me.
As I said, critics hated it. 17% on rottentomatoes. We vote with the audiences at 68%. If you need a family-friendly activity, this will do fine. We heard quite a few youngsters giggling along with the adults today. But it would be okay to wait for video. The establishing shots of Fresno and Atlanta will work just fine on the small screen. And don't rush off before the bonus at the very end.
Holy Motors (2012)
This movie is so weird. Jack and I agreed we didn't hate it but couldn't think of anyone to whom we would recommend it. That said, it's on many "best of" lists and has won a bunch of awards so far. This guy, Monsieur Oscar (yes, it's French), rides around in his limo, and each time he gets out, he is dressed up as a character, from an aged female beggar to a motion capture artist enacting a sex scene to a raving lunatic to a loving family man. We had no idea if there was supposed to be reality or not. Denis Lavant (the only movie of his I'm sure I've seen is Mister Lonely (2007), also very strange, in which he played Charlie Chaplin) is M. Oscar and I sure believed he was crazy. Edith Scob (Summer Hours) is his chauffeur and Eva Mendes (The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans) and Australian pop star Kylie Minogue each play parts in a tableau.
Forgot to say what we did like about it: it's wildly creative, we were surprised at every turn, and the sex scene is well done.
Sorry, but I don't remember much about the soundtrack (we saw it over six weeks ago) other than Minogue sings. Director/writer Leos Carax is new to me but not to the juries at Cannes. This won't be nominated as France's foreign language entry to the Academy Awards, however, because that spot has been taken by the very worthy The Intouchables.
To recap, I can't recommend it, even though many have loved it.
Forgot to say what we did like about it: it's wildly creative, we were surprised at every turn, and the sex scene is well done.
Sorry, but I don't remember much about the soundtrack (we saw it over six weeks ago) other than Minogue sings. Director/writer Leos Carax is new to me but not to the juries at Cannes. This won't be nominated as France's foreign language entry to the Academy Awards, however, because that spot has been taken by the very worthy The Intouchables.
To recap, I can't recommend it, even though many have loved it.
Django Unchained (2012)
Best Quentin Tarantino movie yet! This over-the-top story of a freed-slave-turned-bounty-hunter recovering his wife from her new owner has plenty of the signature QT grisly violence, but plenty of humor and cartoonishness to temper it. I had to put my hands between my eyes and the screen about five times. Her mother's daughter, Amy chose this as our Christmas day movie. I saw friends in the packed room before it started and asked, "Ready for a feel bad movie?" Rhonda said, "It's a love story!" and Judy's son Geof added, "It's about retribution and vengeance." They're both right.
With a cast listed on imdb of just over 100 you will see familiar faces and not recognize others whose names might ring a bell, but you will recognize the auteur himself (director/writer Tarantino is profiled in my post on Inglourious Basterds) with a silly Australian accent in the second act. Christoph Waltz (last in the blog in Carnage, he won the Oscar for Inglourious Basterds) brings back his Austrian accent to play Django's mentor, an articulate German dentist/successful bounty hunter named King Schultz. And his articulateness can be credited entirely to Tarantino, who wrote the part just for Waltz. Jamie Foxx (covered in The Soloist) may not have been the director's first choice for the title character, but he is riveting, even when the joke is on him (there's a great gag about wardrobe). Leonardo DiCaprio (most recently blogged in J. Edgar) and Samuel L. Jackson (last in The Avengers) have also been getting good reviews for their parts as ruthless plantation owner Calvin Candie and his trusted manservant (or house n-word) Stephen. Foxx told Craig Ferguson a few weeks ago that DiCaprio was so upset about having to use the n-word that Foxx had to calm him down.
Film student that he is, Tarantino references many masterworks, e.g. naming Kerry Washington's (profiled in Mother and Child) character Broomhilda von Shaft, hoping we will guess that she and Django are supposed to be the ancestors of John Shaft of the movie Shaft, played by Richard Roundtree on screens big and small in the 1970s and by Jackson in the 2000 remake. Perhaps I was the only one watching the movie thinking of the comic strip Broom-Hilda, even as Schultz pronounces it the German way, Brünnhilde. Here are some other references.
QT fans won't be surprised that there's a terrific soundtrack, available everywhere, featuring, among others, "spaghetti western" style songs by Ennio Morricone. I did notice that the iTunes version includes a bonus track of rapper/actor/director RZA's song from the end credit sequence. This link includes videos of some of the tracks in their entirety. One song that was omitted from the soundtrack that I definitely heard onscreen Tuesday is Richie Havens' Freedom, even though another song by that name is included.
Right now, 12:30am on Friday, after 3 days, this movie has grossed over $25 million. And it's 2:45 long. Rottentomatoes' current rating is 88% critics/92 audiences. You know who you are if you'll like it. If you've never heard of any of this, skip it.
With a cast listed on imdb of just over 100 you will see familiar faces and not recognize others whose names might ring a bell, but you will recognize the auteur himself (director/writer Tarantino is profiled in my post on Inglourious Basterds) with a silly Australian accent in the second act. Christoph Waltz (last in the blog in Carnage, he won the Oscar for Inglourious Basterds) brings back his Austrian accent to play Django's mentor, an articulate German dentist/successful bounty hunter named King Schultz. And his articulateness can be credited entirely to Tarantino, who wrote the part just for Waltz. Jamie Foxx (covered in The Soloist) may not have been the director's first choice for the title character, but he is riveting, even when the joke is on him (there's a great gag about wardrobe). Leonardo DiCaprio (most recently blogged in J. Edgar) and Samuel L. Jackson (last in The Avengers) have also been getting good reviews for their parts as ruthless plantation owner Calvin Candie and his trusted manservant (or house n-word) Stephen. Foxx told Craig Ferguson a few weeks ago that DiCaprio was so upset about having to use the n-word that Foxx had to calm him down.
Film student that he is, Tarantino references many masterworks, e.g. naming Kerry Washington's (profiled in Mother and Child) character Broomhilda von Shaft, hoping we will guess that she and Django are supposed to be the ancestors of John Shaft of the movie Shaft, played by Richard Roundtree on screens big and small in the 1970s and by Jackson in the 2000 remake. Perhaps I was the only one watching the movie thinking of the comic strip Broom-Hilda, even as Schultz pronounces it the German way, Brünnhilde. Here are some other references.
QT fans won't be surprised that there's a terrific soundtrack, available everywhere, featuring, among others, "spaghetti western" style songs by Ennio Morricone. I did notice that the iTunes version includes a bonus track of rapper/actor/director RZA's song from the end credit sequence. This link includes videos of some of the tracks in their entirety. One song that was omitted from the soundtrack that I definitely heard onscreen Tuesday is Richie Havens' Freedom, even though another song by that name is included.
Right now, 12:30am on Friday, after 3 days, this movie has grossed over $25 million. And it's 2:45 long. Rottentomatoes' current rating is 88% critics/92 audiences. You know who you are if you'll like it. If you've never heard of any of this, skip it.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Lincoln (2012)
Not just for history buffs, this story of the 16th President's fight for the constitutional abolition of slavery is a tour de force for Steven Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, and a cast of hundreds (four Screen Actors Guild nominations and seven for the Golden Globes so far). Great care is taken with production design, wardrobe, and lighting as well, and I imagine they won't be overlooked by the Academy either. Day-Lewis (first came to my attention in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), was Oscar-nominated for In the Name of the Father (1993) and Gangs of New York (2002), won for My Left Foot (1989) and There Will Be Blood (2007); I also liked A Room with a View (1985), My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Stars and Bars (1988), The Age of Innocence (1993), Nine, and especially The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005), which was directed and written by his wife Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Henry) developed a special voice as well as stooped posture to suggest that he is the President's 6'4" rather than his own 6'1". Field (her own two Oscar wins are in her profile in The Amazing Spider-Man) apparently begged for the role, and she has already been rewarded, as the passionate Mary Todd Lincoln. Jones (last in Hope Springs) steals all of his scenes in his dreadful wig (it's supposed to be). Dozens of the actors are recognizable--everybody wants to work with Steven.
Spielberg (most recently War Horse) loves his war movies and this is a good one, developed for about 12 years, bringing in facts from Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals in the middle of the process and then hiring Tony Kushner (the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, mini-series, and TV movie Angels in America and Munich (2005), the latter of which earned him and Eric Roth an Oscar nomination).
Director of photography Janusz Kaminski's (covered in War Horse) images are breathtaking and show production designer Rick Carter's (won the Oscar and his guild's award for Avatar, Oscar-nominated for Forrest Gump (1994) and War Horse, also designed the TV series Amazing Stories (1985-86), Back to the Future Parts II (1989) and III (1990), Jurassic Park (1993) and its sequel (1997), Cast Away (2000), War of the Worlds (2005), and Munich) sets and Joanna Johnston's costumes (Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), same two Back to the Futures, Forrest Gump, French Kiss (1995), Contact (1997), The Sixth Sense (1999), About a Boy (2002), Love Actually (2003), War of the Worlds, Munich, Valkyrie, Pirate Radio, War Horse) to good advantage. When I commented to Jack that Lincoln and many of the men wore shawls, he said, "The White House was drafty!" Also, he said, the scene of Lincoln's second inauguration is a careful recreation based on photographs.
John Williams, Spielberg's usual composer, once again delivers, with muted horns and strings of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Listen to the whole thing here if you can (I've had technical difficulties with youtube this evening but finally got it to work on my third and final browser, Firefox).
We saw this a whole month ago, but I remember to tell you that you must see it before the Oscars and you won't regret it. Allow plenty of time, though, because it's two and a half hours long.
Spielberg (most recently War Horse) loves his war movies and this is a good one, developed for about 12 years, bringing in facts from Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals in the middle of the process and then hiring Tony Kushner (the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, mini-series, and TV movie Angels in America and Munich (2005), the latter of which earned him and Eric Roth an Oscar nomination).
Director of photography Janusz Kaminski's (covered in War Horse) images are breathtaking and show production designer Rick Carter's (won the Oscar and his guild's award for Avatar, Oscar-nominated for Forrest Gump (1994) and War Horse, also designed the TV series Amazing Stories (1985-86), Back to the Future Parts II (1989) and III (1990), Jurassic Park (1993) and its sequel (1997), Cast Away (2000), War of the Worlds (2005), and Munich) sets and Joanna Johnston's costumes (Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), same two Back to the Futures, Forrest Gump, French Kiss (1995), Contact (1997), The Sixth Sense (1999), About a Boy (2002), Love Actually (2003), War of the Worlds, Munich, Valkyrie, Pirate Radio, War Horse) to good advantage. When I commented to Jack that Lincoln and many of the men wore shawls, he said, "The White House was drafty!" Also, he said, the scene of Lincoln's second inauguration is a careful recreation based on photographs.
We saw this a whole month ago, but I remember to tell you that you must see it before the Oscars and you won't regret it. Allow plenty of time, though, because it's two and a half hours long.
Life of Pi 3D (2012)
Disclaimer: I loved the Yann Martel book and got teary with joy each time I saw the trailer. So no big surprise that I loved the movie, as did Jack. Starring Suraj Sharma (a newcomer who just happened to accompany his brother to the New Delhi casting call) as 17 year old Pi and a computer-generated Bengal tiger, whose image may propel his creators to an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects. My most favorite part of the book was the tiger taming sequence and, I learned from the trailer, it is crucial to the movie. Irrfan Khan (coincidentally one of the stars of another favorite Indian-themed book made into a movie, The Namesake (2006); I also liked his work in Slumdog Millionaire) plays the adult Pi as thoughtful and hopeful. Apparently director Ang Lee wanted to cast Tobey Maguire as the writer to whom the adult Pi tells his story but test audiences were too distracted by Maguire's celebrity, and Rafe Spall (we liked him in One Day) got the part instead.
David Magee (adapted Finding Neverland (2004) and co-adapted Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) adapted the novel and his and Lee's (profiled in Taking Woodstock) risks have paid off.
The beautiful music by Mychael Danna (last did Moneyball) (click on the video box here to hear a 23 minute preview) (or listen to the entire soundtrack here, on a link that worked only in Firefox, not Chrome nor Safari) matches the magnificent images.
I predicted this would cause motion picture motion sickness (MPMS), due to the shipwreck and bobbing lifeboat, so took all the necessary precautions when we saw it three weeks ago. I advise you to do the same if you are so afflicted.
Nonetheless, I believe this is a masterpiece and you should see it in 3D if you can, and most definitely on a big screen.
David Magee (adapted Finding Neverland (2004) and co-adapted Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) adapted the novel and his and Lee's (profiled in Taking Woodstock) risks have paid off.
The beautiful music by Mychael Danna (last did Moneyball) (click on the video box here to hear a 23 minute preview) (or listen to the entire soundtrack here, on a link that worked only in Firefox, not Chrome nor Safari) matches the magnificent images.
I predicted this would cause motion picture motion sickness (MPMS), due to the shipwreck and bobbing lifeboat, so took all the necessary precautions when we saw it three weeks ago. I advise you to do the same if you are so afflicted.
Nonetheless, I believe this is a masterpiece and you should see it in 3D if you can, and most definitely on a big screen.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Hitchcock (2012)
Jack and I found thoroughly captivating this story of the great master of horror (Anthony Hopkins in a fat suit) and his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren has earned three nominations so far) and the making of Psycho (1960). Hopkins was last in these pages in Thor and Mirren in The Debt. No worries about Hopkins' 75 years showing through that makeup, even though in the trailer his age is given as 60, and Mirren at 67 can carry off being 60 (Alfred and Alma were born August 14 and 13, 1899, respectively) because she. Is. Awesome (I'll always love her expressing gratitude she hadn't fallen "ass over tits" at the 2006 Emmy ceremony). The cast of dozens is augmented by Scarlett Johansson (most recently in The Avengers) as Janet Leigh, Danny Huston (yes he is Walter's grandson, John's son, Anjelica's half-brother, etc...some of his best work includes 21 Grams (2003), The Aviator (2004), The Constant Gardener (2005), Children of Men (2006), and How to Lose Friends & Alienate People) as Alma's friend Whitfield Cook, Toni Collette (my favorites are listed in United States of Tara) as secretary Peggy Robertson, and Jessica Biel (Valentine's Day and the far better Easy Virtue) as Vera Miles, among many too numerous to expand. Jack and I did both gasp at the first appearance of James d'Arcy, because he looks so much like Anthony Perkins, which Alma pronounces "Antony." These trivia items tell you which other actors were considered for the role (and other roles).
Director Sasha Gervasi has been much awarded and nominated for a documentary we didn't see (Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008), and co-wrote Craig Ferguson's The Big Tease (1999) and shares credit for the screenplay and story of Spielberg's The Terminal (2004) with Tom Hanks. This time the 1990 book by Stephen Rebello Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho has been adapted by John J. McLaughlin (shared credit on Black Swan).
Normally I would always recommend the original Psycho music by Bernard Herrmann, but in this case it's Danny Elfman (most recently in Silver Linings Playbook) and I loves me some Elfman scores. You can listen to the whole thing in its entirety here, and its finale is the familiar theme from the Hitchcock TV show (here by itself)
If you know that you live where I live, you can see this at our own historic jewel of a neighborhood theatre, but Jack and I saw its opening screening two weeks ago at a 99 year old movie house in Berkeley. As we left I predicted an Oscar nomination for makeup and Entertainment Weekly says that will happen. It's also likely that Mirren will be nominated as well but there's a lot of competition this year and she has been much recognized in the past.
Movie buffs and those who like wonderful period details will enjoy this and we recommend it for all of my readers. Stay until the end of the credits for a brief visual bonus.
Director Sasha Gervasi has been much awarded and nominated for a documentary we didn't see (Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008), and co-wrote Craig Ferguson's The Big Tease (1999) and shares credit for the screenplay and story of Spielberg's The Terminal (2004) with Tom Hanks. This time the 1990 book by Stephen Rebello Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho has been adapted by John J. McLaughlin (shared credit on Black Swan).
Normally I would always recommend the original Psycho music by Bernard Herrmann, but in this case it's Danny Elfman (most recently in Silver Linings Playbook) and I loves me some Elfman scores. You can listen to the whole thing in its entirety here, and its finale is the familiar theme from the Hitchcock TV show (here by itself)
If you know that you live where I live, you can see this at our own historic jewel of a neighborhood theatre, but Jack and I saw its opening screening two weeks ago at a 99 year old movie house in Berkeley. As we left I predicted an Oscar nomination for makeup and Entertainment Weekly says that will happen. It's also likely that Mirren will be nominated as well but there's a lot of competition this year and she has been much recognized in the past.
Movie buffs and those who like wonderful period details will enjoy this and we recommend it for all of my readers. Stay until the end of the credits for a brief visual bonus.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Anna Karenina (2012)
A visual feast--likely to get nominations for wardrobe, production design, and cinematography--this early 19th century story of infidelity, jealousy, and social status is something you need to see on the big screen. The performances aren't bad either. Keira Knightley (last in these pages in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World) in the starring role lends the requisite amount of sweetness, ardor, and frustration (in the past I have agreed with a friend who said she didn't like Knightley for being too skinny, but I have come around); Jude Law (most recently in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) is properly starchy as her much older husband Karenin; and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (last in Savages, he has changed his name from Johnson as has his bride Sam Taylor-Johnson (she directed him in Nowhere Boy), who is 45 to his 22 years and bore his two daughters in the last two and a half years) tries his best to be smoldering as Count Vronsky with his pout and terrible blonde 'do (The New Yorker calls it "a disastrous wig" but the Daily Mail says it's dyed). Supporting work is contributed by Matthew Mcfadyen (Mr. Darcy to Knightley's Elizabeth in Pride & Prejudice (2005) with Joe Wright also as director, Daniel in the original (English) Death at a Funeral (2007), and John Birt in Frost/Nixon, to name some of my favorites), Kelly Macdonald (my faves include her first feature Trainspotting (1996), Two Family House (2000), Gosford Park (2001), Intermission (2003), No Country for Old Men (2007), Choke, and, for HBO: The Girl in the Café (2005) and 36 episodes of Boardwalk Empire as Margaret Schroeder) as Anna's brother Oblonsky and sister-in-law Dolly respectively, Alicia Vikander as Dolly's sister Kitty, Domhnall Gleeson (I liked him in Never Let Me Go and True Grit, even though I neglected to mention him) as her paramour Levin, and others too numerous to list.
To complete my coiffure comments, Knightley's black dye job is also without luster, but Vikander, mostly a brunette in her imdb photos, looks radiant as a blonde, and Gleeson's is a lovely ginger.
Every ad for this movie says, "From Joe Wright, the director of Atonement and Pride & Prejudice." I guess not everyone loved last year's Hanna, also directed by Wright, as much as we did. The screenplay, by the much-awarded Tom Stoppard (Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love (1998), nominated for Brazil (1985), Venice Film Festival Golden Lion for Rosenkrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)--for which he won the Tony for the stage version (I didn't see either version, nor his other 3 Tony wins and 3 nominations)), and the direction are perhaps the weakest link. Having not read the novel, both Jack and I were surprised by the soapiness of the plot, from the novel of the same name by Leo Tolstoy, considered a giant of Russian literature.
But oh! The wardrobe! Costume designer Jacqueline Durran's (Oscar-nominated for Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, nominated by her own guild for the latter, and won the BAFTA award for Vera Drake (2004)) sumptuous gowns and and complicated men's suits--in at least one scene Oblonsky changes coats several times to comic effect amid flying papers--are simply marvelous. I didn't remember, but I recognized Durran's work in the last sentence of my post on Happy-Go-Lucky, and she did the costumes for Another Year, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Wright's The Soloist as well.
And the sets/production design deserve their own paragraph. Before we went in I had read that the whole movie was shot on a stage. That's a slight exaggeration. But much of it is, including scenes with horses. Then, suddenly, it moves outdoors to massive fields covered in either snow or flowers, all the more dramatic after the confinement of the previous (here's an explanation with no spoilers). Production designer Sarah Greenwood and her crew (won their guild's award for Sherlock Holmes; Oscar-nominated for that and for Atonement and Pride & Prejudice; decorated Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, The Soloist, and Hanna) give us whimsical settings, some realistic, some not, all imaginative. Perhaps the director and screenwriter deserve a little credit.
Composer Dario Marianelli's (last blogged in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) moody symphonic score is, unusually, not my cup of borscht, other than the piano solos played by Marianelli himself. If he gets another Oscar nomination I'll be a bit disappointed. You can decide for yourself by listening to the whole thing here, until someone takes it down for copyright infringement.
Despite its shortcomings, you should see this for its magnificent images (props also to director of photography Seamus McGarvey (I loved The Winter Guest (1997), The Big Tease (1999), High Fidelity (2000), and The Hours (2002), among his many credits; he was also Oscar-nominated for Atonement). And in 130 minutes you can learn about this classic, the novel of which was much admired by such titans as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vladmir Nabokov, and William Faulkner.
To complete my coiffure comments, Knightley's black dye job is also without luster, but Vikander, mostly a brunette in her imdb photos, looks radiant as a blonde, and Gleeson's is a lovely ginger.
Every ad for this movie says, "From Joe Wright, the director of Atonement and Pride & Prejudice." I guess not everyone loved last year's Hanna, also directed by Wright, as much as we did. The screenplay, by the much-awarded Tom Stoppard (Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love (1998), nominated for Brazil (1985), Venice Film Festival Golden Lion for Rosenkrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)--for which he won the Tony for the stage version (I didn't see either version, nor his other 3 Tony wins and 3 nominations)), and the direction are perhaps the weakest link. Having not read the novel, both Jack and I were surprised by the soapiness of the plot, from the novel of the same name by Leo Tolstoy, considered a giant of Russian literature.
But oh! The wardrobe! Costume designer Jacqueline Durran's (Oscar-nominated for Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, nominated by her own guild for the latter, and won the BAFTA award for Vera Drake (2004)) sumptuous gowns and and complicated men's suits--in at least one scene Oblonsky changes coats several times to comic effect amid flying papers--are simply marvelous. I didn't remember, but I recognized Durran's work in the last sentence of my post on Happy-Go-Lucky, and she did the costumes for Another Year, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Wright's The Soloist as well.
And the sets/production design deserve their own paragraph. Before we went in I had read that the whole movie was shot on a stage. That's a slight exaggeration. But much of it is, including scenes with horses. Then, suddenly, it moves outdoors to massive fields covered in either snow or flowers, all the more dramatic after the confinement of the previous (here's an explanation with no spoilers). Production designer Sarah Greenwood and her crew (won their guild's award for Sherlock Holmes; Oscar-nominated for that and for Atonement and Pride & Prejudice; decorated Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, The Soloist, and Hanna) give us whimsical settings, some realistic, some not, all imaginative. Perhaps the director and screenwriter deserve a little credit.
Composer Dario Marianelli's (last blogged in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) moody symphonic score is, unusually, not my cup of borscht, other than the piano solos played by Marianelli himself. If he gets another Oscar nomination I'll be a bit disappointed. You can decide for yourself by listening to the whole thing here, until someone takes it down for copyright infringement.
Despite its shortcomings, you should see this for its magnificent images (props also to director of photography Seamus McGarvey (I loved The Winter Guest (1997), The Big Tease (1999), High Fidelity (2000), and The Hours (2002), among his many credits; he was also Oscar-nominated for Atonement). And in 130 minutes you can learn about this classic, the novel of which was much admired by such titans as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vladmir Nabokov, and William Faulkner.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
We liked this dramedy a LOT. Jennifer Lawrence is all but guaranteed another Oscar nomination playing a slightly unhinged woman who comes into the life of Bradley Cooper, recently sprung from the loony bin. Jacki Weaver and especially Robert De Niro are also good as his frustrated but loving parents. Lawrence was last in the blog in X-Man: First Class (we didn't see Hunger Games), Cooper in The Hangover Part II, Weaver in Animal Kingdom, and De Niro in Being Flynn. The trivia section tells us that Lawrence was far from being the first choice for her role--lucky break! Chris Tucker (co-star with Jackie Chan of the Rush Hour movies--I didn't see any) gets star billing for a fairly small part.
Director David O. Russell (profiled in The Fighter, which earned him a best director Oscar nomination) adapted Mathew Quick's 2008 debut novel into this movie which is averaging 90% from critics and 87 from audiences on rottentomatoes and is already racking up awards and nominations this fall.
Set and shot entirely in Pennsylvania (with minor geographical and other goofs) it has a subplot involving extreme Philadelphia Eagles fans and another with dancing.
The soundtrack has plenty of songs, some of which are on this release, and a score by Danny Elfman (most recently mentioned in Men in Black III), making up this one.
Make sure to see this before the Oscars (nominations announced Thursday January 10, award show on Sunday February 24).
Director David O. Russell (profiled in The Fighter, which earned him a best director Oscar nomination) adapted Mathew Quick's 2008 debut novel into this movie which is averaging 90% from critics and 87 from audiences on rottentomatoes and is already racking up awards and nominations this fall.
Set and shot entirely in Pennsylvania (with minor geographical and other goofs) it has a subplot involving extreme Philadelphia Eagles fans and another with dancing.
The soundtrack has plenty of songs, some of which are on this release, and a score by Danny Elfman (most recently mentioned in Men in Black III), making up this one.
Make sure to see this before the Oscars (nominations announced Thursday January 10, award show on Sunday February 24).
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Flight (2012)
So good. Denzel Washington rules in this powerful story of an alcoholic pilot about to "hit bottom" just as he saves his crowded plane from doing the same. The near-crash is harrowing and goes down in the first 10 minutes after some sexy time with Washington (profiled in Unstoppable) and Nadine Velazquez (best known, to me anyway, as the comely Catalina in 96 episodes of My Name is Earl) as Whip and Katerina, respectively. Another addict, Nicole, played by the fragile Kelly Reilly (last in these pages in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) comes into Whip's life and their stories intertwine. Don Cheadle lends support as a serious lawyer (not too far off from his most recent appearance in The Guard, though he can do insane, e.g. the Showtime series House of Lies). John Goodman (most recently in Argo) plays Whip's dealer Harling, and every time he appeared on screen, usually to Rolling Stones music, we laughed.
Speaking of music, director Robert Zemeckis (I've loved most of his work, e.g. Romancing the Stone (1984), the Back to the Future series (1985, 89, 90) especially the first and third, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Contact (1997), Cast Away (2000), and Forrest Gump (1994) which won him his Oscar) decorates this movie with excellent vintage tracks a la Gump (Feelin' Alright by Joe Cocker, Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sweet Jane by Cowboy Junkies, Sympathy for the Devil and Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones, Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers, What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, Goin' Down by the Jeff Beck Group, and With a Little Help From My Friends, by the Beatles). Plus there's a score by the prolific Alan Silvestri, Zemeckis' usual composer, whose music for The Avengers comes right before this in his vast resume. The soundtrack is available online here, but I don't expect it to stay up very long.
Writer John Gatins is new to me but this is his sixth produced screenplay and he has two more in pre-production or development. I walked into the theatre three weeks ago wanting to see the plane flying upside down. Turns out that part had my heart pounding and my eyes filling. Jack and I liked it a lot and expect it to garner an Oscar nomination for Denzel at the very least.
Speaking of music, director Robert Zemeckis (I've loved most of his work, e.g. Romancing the Stone (1984), the Back to the Future series (1985, 89, 90) especially the first and third, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Contact (1997), Cast Away (2000), and Forrest Gump (1994) which won him his Oscar) decorates this movie with excellent vintage tracks a la Gump (Feelin' Alright by Joe Cocker, Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sweet Jane by Cowboy Junkies, Sympathy for the Devil and Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones, Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers, What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, Goin' Down by the Jeff Beck Group, and With a Little Help From My Friends, by the Beatles). Plus there's a score by the prolific Alan Silvestri, Zemeckis' usual composer, whose music for The Avengers comes right before this in his vast resume. The soundtrack is available online here, but I don't expect it to stay up very long.
Writer John Gatins is new to me but this is his sixth produced screenplay and he has two more in pre-production or development. I walked into the theatre three weeks ago wanting to see the plane flying upside down. Turns out that part had my heart pounding and my eyes filling. Jack and I liked it a lot and expect it to garner an Oscar nomination for Denzel at the very least.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
The Sessions (2012)
Surprisingly upbeat and quite moving, this is based on the true story of Mark O'Brien, a polio victim mostly confined to an iron lung, who has sessions with a sex surrogate to lose his virginity at age 36. There's a lot of Oscar buzz on this for John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, both of whom were nominated for Independent Spirit Awards today. O'Brien published On Seeing a Sex Surrogate four years later (1990) in The Sun magazine (you can read the entire article here, but there are a few spoilers and it's explicit). That would explain why the working title of the movie was The Surrogate.
Hawkes (last in these pages in Contagion) has been quoted as saying he doesn't think it's interesting to see someone wallow in self-pity and his O'Brien is proactive in seeking out advice from therapists and a forward-thinking priest played by William H. Macy (profiled in The Lincoln Lawyer). Hunt's (won Oscar for As Good as It Gets (1997); my favorites include Twister (1996), Dr T and the Women (2000), Pay It Forward (2000), Cast Away (2000), What Women Want (2000) [big year for her!], A Good Woman (2004), and Then She Found Me (2007), which she also directed and co-wrote in her feature debut) Cheryl, the surrogate, starts off calm and businesslike (too businesslike at a time when I would have expected more sensitivity--now that I've read the article I see why the scene went that way) but is clearly nonplussed as events proceed.
Composer Marco Beltrami (Oscar-nominated for 3:10 to Yuma (2007) and The Hurt Locker; other work includes I, Robot (2004), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), and a lot of horror movies) gives us a lovely score with lots of violin. You can sample it at the amazon page.
Director/writer Ben Lewin has but a few credits (at age 65), none familiar to me, and I'm surprised no writing credit is given to O'Brien, who died in 1999. But this is the actors' movie and you should definitely see it before the Oscars.
Hawkes (last in these pages in Contagion) has been quoted as saying he doesn't think it's interesting to see someone wallow in self-pity and his O'Brien is proactive in seeking out advice from therapists and a forward-thinking priest played by William H. Macy (profiled in The Lincoln Lawyer). Hunt's (won Oscar for As Good as It Gets (1997); my favorites include Twister (1996), Dr T and the Women (2000), Pay It Forward (2000), Cast Away (2000), What Women Want (2000) [big year for her!], A Good Woman (2004), and Then She Found Me (2007), which she also directed and co-wrote in her feature debut) Cheryl, the surrogate, starts off calm and businesslike (too businesslike at a time when I would have expected more sensitivity--now that I've read the article I see why the scene went that way) but is clearly nonplussed as events proceed.
Composer Marco Beltrami (Oscar-nominated for 3:10 to Yuma (2007) and The Hurt Locker; other work includes I, Robot (2004), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), and a lot of horror movies) gives us a lovely score with lots of violin. You can sample it at the amazon page.
Director/writer Ben Lewin has but a few credits (at age 65), none familiar to me, and I'm surprised no writing credit is given to O'Brien, who died in 1999. But this is the actors' movie and you should definitely see it before the Oscars.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Independent Spirit Awards Nominations
Announced today. Ones about which I've written are linked. Ones I've seen and will post soon are starred*. And some day I might update this to my 2012 award winners and nominees.
Best Feature
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bernie
Keep the Lights On
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
Best Director
Wes Anderson - Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev - The Loneliest Planet
David O Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs - Keep the Lights On
Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Best First Feature
Fill The Void
Gimme the Loot
Safety Not Guaranteed
Sound of My Voice
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
John Cassavetes Award
Breakfast With Curtis
The Color Wheel
Middle of Nowhere
Mosquita y Mari
Starlet
Best Male Lead
Jack Black - Bernie
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
John Hawkes - The Sessions
Thure Lindhart - Keep the Lights On
Matthew McConaughey - Killer Joe
Wendell Pierce - Four
Best Female Lead
Linda Cardenelli - Return
Emayatzy Corinealdi - Middle of Nowhere
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Quvenzhane Wallis - Beasts of The Southern Wild
Mary Elizabeth Winstead - Smashed
Best Supporting Male
Matthew McConaughey - Magic Mike
David Oyelowo - Middle of Nowhere
Michael Pena - End of Watch
Sam Rockwell - Seven Psychopaths
Bruce Willis - Moonrise Kingdom
Best Supporting Female
Rosemarie DeWitt - Your Sister's Sister
Ann Dowd - Compliance
Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Brit Marling - Sound of My Voice
Lorraine Toussaint - Middle of Nowhere
Best Screenplay
Wes Anderson - Moonrise Kingdom
Zoe Kazan - Ruby Sparks
Martin McDonagh - Seven Psychopaths
David O Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs & Mauricio Zacharias - Keep the Lights On
Best First Screenplay
Rama Burshtein - Fill The Void
Derek Connolly - Safety Not Guaranteed
Christopher Ford - Robot & Frank
Rashida Jones & Will McCormack - Celeste & Jesse Forever
Jonathan Lisecki - Gayby
Best International Feature
Love (Amour)
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Rust & Bone
Sister
War Witch
Best Documentary
The Central Park Five
How To Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present
The Waiting Room
Best Cinematography
Ben Richardson - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Roman Vasyanov - End of Watch
Lol Crawley - Here
Robert D. Yeoman - Moonrise Kingdom
Yoni Brook - Valley of Saints
Piaget Producers Award
Mynette Louie - Stones In The Sun
Derrick Tseng - Prince Avalanche
Alicia Van Couvering - Nobody Walks
Someone To Watch Award (for directors)
David Fenster - Pincus
Adam Leon - Gimme the Loot
Rebecca Thomas - Electrick Children
Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction Award
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Pravel - Leviathan
Peter Nicks - The Waiting Room
Jasonyyyee Tippet and Elizabeth Mimms - Only the Young
Robert Altman Award (for ensemble acting)
Starlet
Best Feature
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bernie
Keep the Lights On
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
Best Director
Wes Anderson - Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev - The Loneliest Planet
David O Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs - Keep the Lights On
Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Best First Feature
Fill The Void
Gimme the Loot
Safety Not Guaranteed
Sound of My Voice
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
John Cassavetes Award
Breakfast With Curtis
The Color Wheel
Middle of Nowhere
Mosquita y Mari
Starlet
Best Male Lead
Jack Black - Bernie
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
John Hawkes - The Sessions
Thure Lindhart - Keep the Lights On
Matthew McConaughey - Killer Joe
Wendell Pierce - Four
Best Female Lead
Linda Cardenelli - Return
Emayatzy Corinealdi - Middle of Nowhere
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Quvenzhane Wallis - Beasts of The Southern Wild
Mary Elizabeth Winstead - Smashed
Best Supporting Male
Matthew McConaughey - Magic Mike
David Oyelowo - Middle of Nowhere
Michael Pena - End of Watch
Sam Rockwell - Seven Psychopaths
Bruce Willis - Moonrise Kingdom
Best Supporting Female
Rosemarie DeWitt - Your Sister's Sister
Ann Dowd - Compliance
Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Brit Marling - Sound of My Voice
Lorraine Toussaint - Middle of Nowhere
Best Screenplay
Wes Anderson - Moonrise Kingdom
Zoe Kazan - Ruby Sparks
Martin McDonagh - Seven Psychopaths
David O Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs & Mauricio Zacharias - Keep the Lights On
Best First Screenplay
Rama Burshtein - Fill The Void
Derek Connolly - Safety Not Guaranteed
Christopher Ford - Robot & Frank
Rashida Jones & Will McCormack - Celeste & Jesse Forever
Jonathan Lisecki - Gayby
Best International Feature
Love (Amour)
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Rust & Bone
Sister
War Witch
Best Documentary
The Central Park Five
How To Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present
The Waiting Room
Best Cinematography
Ben Richardson - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Roman Vasyanov - End of Watch
Lol Crawley - Here
Robert D. Yeoman - Moonrise Kingdom
Yoni Brook - Valley of Saints
Piaget Producers Award
Mynette Louie - Stones In The Sun
Derrick Tseng - Prince Avalanche
Alicia Van Couvering - Nobody Walks
Someone To Watch Award (for directors)
David Fenster - Pincus
Adam Leon - Gimme the Loot
Rebecca Thomas - Electrick Children
Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction Award
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Pravel - Leviathan
Peter Nicks - The Waiting Room
Jasonyyyee Tippet and Elizabeth Mimms - Only the Young
Robert Altman Award (for ensemble acting)
Starlet
Sunday, November 25, 2012
A Late Quartet (2012)
Loved this lush drama of a classical string quartet and their interpersonal tangles. Glorious sunny, wintry Manhattan (I wonder if the exteriors were shot on the same day with fresh clean snow in Central Park, perhaps the storm late in the movie shot the day before) and interiors that are Woody Allen-like in their opulence are alone worth the price of admission.
And then there's the cast! Christopher Walken (profiled in Dark Horse) for the first time in years gets to play a man of dignity, the recently widowed cellist Peter, who sets the plot into motion. He expresses volumes without uttering a sound. Catherine Keener (most recently in these pages in Cyrus) is the violist Juliette, who was adopted by Peter and his wife when she was orphaned at birth. She is spectacular as usual. The always reliable Philip Seymour Hoffman (last mentioned in The Master) is her husband Robert, second violinist--capable but not too confident, even after 25 years together. Then there's Mark Ivanir (known best to me for a recurring role on Royal Pains as Dmitry (he's had that name 4 times so far--he was born in Ukraine) and two episodes of The Riches, he was in Schindler's List (1993), small part in What Just Happened, and lots more) as the intense first violinist Daniel.
Never having played a stringed instrument myself, I thought it looked like the four were playing (and the two or three coaches per actor will be gratified to know that, as will the Brentano String Quartet, the New York Ensemble who actually played). The luminous Imogen Poots (A Solitary Man) shines as Juliet and Robert's headstrong daughter Alexandra. Beautiful Liraz Charhi runs in the park with Robert, and I enjoyed the cameos by cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey (I love her Indian green beans with three kinds of mustard) as the doctor and Wallace Shawn (his first role was in Manhattan (1979), his best known are probably My Dinner with Andre (1981) and Rex the Green Dinosaur in the Toy Story movies (1995, '99, 2010), and my favorites include The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), Radio Days (1987), The Princess Bride (1987), The Moderns (1988), Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), and Clueless (1995)) as another musician. The Sotheby's auctioneer is a real one and cellist Nina Lee appears briefly as herself (warning: if you click through from her page to the movie's website, the trailer is rife with spoilers).
The movie's title comes from the piece they are rehearsing to perform, Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14, Op. 131, regarded as one of the most challenging pieces a string ensemble can perform, composed shortly before Beethoven's death in 1827. Other music is composed by Angelo Badalamenti, best known for Twin Peaks and everything afterwards by David Lynch. And speaking of Lynch, his frequent collaborator, cinematographer Frederick Elmes (also Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth (1991), Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (1997) and Hulk (2003), Mira Nair's The Namesake (2006), and Brothers, to name a few), shot the gorgeous pictures inside and outside in the city as well as a horse farm somewhere else--still snowy. Even the interiors are in sun-drenched rooms.
Yaron Zilberman directs and co-wrote (just one documentary under his belt) with Seth Grossman (wrote and directed an award-winning short film, a feature with Ellen Burstyn, and has a comedy set to come out this year), basing the script on several real life quartets.
Nonetheless, I heartily recommend this, not just for musicians, even though it scored only 70% from critics and 76% from audiences on rottentomatoes. I know that Jack would have liked it, too, but he was otherwise occupied with his football team's victory today.
The movie's title comes from the piece they are rehearsing to perform, Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14, Op. 131, regarded as one of the most challenging pieces a string ensemble can perform, composed shortly before Beethoven's death in 1827. Other music is composed by Angelo Badalamenti, best known for Twin Peaks and everything afterwards by David Lynch. And speaking of Lynch, his frequent collaborator, cinematographer Frederick Elmes (also Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth (1991), Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (1997) and Hulk (2003), Mira Nair's The Namesake (2006), and Brothers, to name a few), shot the gorgeous pictures inside and outside in the city as well as a horse farm somewhere else--still snowy. Even the interiors are in sun-drenched rooms.
Yaron Zilberman directs and co-wrote (just one documentary under his belt) with Seth Grossman (wrote and directed an award-winning short film, a feature with Ellen Burstyn, and has a comedy set to come out this year), basing the script on several real life quartets.
Nonetheless, I heartily recommend this, not just for musicians, even though it scored only 70% from critics and 76% from audiences on rottentomatoes. I know that Jack would have liked it, too, but he was otherwise occupied with his football team's victory today.
Friday, November 23, 2012
The Day I Saw Your Heart (Et soudain tout le monde me manque - 2011)
Merveilleux! Another winner from France, about a woman struggling with her relationship with her distant father (just one of the meanings of the English title), it has lots of humor, some pathos, and a great deal of creativity, both visually and in the plot. Mélanie Laurent (last seen in Beginners) is wonderful as Justine Dhrey, the beautiful radiologist who resents her father for seeming not to care about anyone. Michel Blanc (dozens of roles, but not familiar to me) is quite funny as the father, Eli, oblivious to others' feelings.
Directed and written (with collaboration from Romain Lévy, who is cute in his role as Alex, and Cécile Sellam) by Jennifer Devoldère (she is sure to get more work after this), it has everything you want in a movie, including subtitles that will tell you to say joo-steen for Justine and ay-lee for Eli. The literal translation of the French title is "and suddenly I miss everyone," but, as I noted above, the various entendres of the translation serve this well.
Because the Dhrey family is Jewish, this has been making the rounds at American Jewish Film Festivals, and we were lucky enough to see it last week before its opening for a limited run. Be sure to catch it before it leaves. It's great fun.
Directed and written (with collaboration from Romain Lévy, who is cute in his role as Alex, and Cécile Sellam) by Jennifer Devoldère (she is sure to get more work after this), it has everything you want in a movie, including subtitles that will tell you to say joo-steen for Justine and ay-lee for Eli. The literal translation of the French title is "and suddenly I miss everyone," but, as I noted above, the various entendres of the translation serve this well.
Because the Dhrey family is Jewish, this has been making the rounds at American Jewish Film Festivals, and we were lucky enough to see it last week before its opening for a limited run. Be sure to catch it before it leaves. It's great fun.
Argo (2012)
Jack and I loved it. Ben Affleck directs and stars in this dramatization of an operation to get six hostages out of Iran in 1980. This one truly is both a drama and a comedy--there are plenty of laughs, a lot of action, and some nail-biting suspense. Be sure to see it, as it is a "best bet" for multiple Oscar nominations. As my friend Mike advised me, the scenes with Alan Arkin (profiled in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee) and John Goodman (covered in The Artist) are priceless. Affleck's last picture was The Town, which he directed, starred in, and co-wrote. He's terrific in this as Tony Mendez, the mastermind behind "the best bad idea we've got" to return the hostages safely home, showing us bravado, fear, resourcefulness, and even humor. The fast-paced screenplay is written by Chris Terrio in his debut (after a credit for "additional screenplay material" on something he directed 7 years ago) and based on an article by Joshuah Bearman, which was then optioned by George Clooney (one of the producers). Good supporting work from the hostages: Kerry Bishé (she looked familiar to me because she was in the final season of Scrubs), Rory Cochrane (with the biggest mustache), Christopher Denham (first and most recently in these pages in Sound of My Voice), Tate Donovan (he works a lot, most recently in 39 episodes of Damages), Clea DuVall (she does, too--here's a picture from Girl Interrupted (1999), but in this her hair is brown and her eyeglasses big, like everyone's), and Scoot McNairy (star of In Search of a Midnight Kiss); as well as Bryan Cranston (last mentioned in Contagion), Victor Garber (6 Emmy supporting nominations, SAG ensemble nominations for Titanic (1997) and Milk, other work on screens big and small), and many more.
So far this has won Hollywood Film Festival Ensemble of the Year and nominated for a People's Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic Movie (my list of winners and nominations is a work in progress with much progress yet ahead, but check back in case I get caught up after I write about all the actual movies).
We enjoyed the close-ups of old telephones and great picture cars of the period, among many aspects of the beautiful cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto (last discussed in We Bought a Zoo).
Imdb has given us a list of the songs, mostly of the period, that accompany the appropriate (suspenseful and middle Eastern-tinged) soundtrack by the prolific Alexandre Desplat (I mentioned him most recently for his soundtrack for Moonrise Kingdom). While writing I called up the movie's website and let it play in another window to get me back in in the mood 16 days after seeing it. Do make a point of catching this one. Oh yeah, it has been rated 95% by both critics and audiences on rottentomatoes.
So far this has won Hollywood Film Festival Ensemble of the Year and nominated for a People's Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic Movie (my list of winners and nominations is a work in progress with much progress yet ahead, but check back in case I get caught up after I write about all the actual movies).
We enjoyed the close-ups of old telephones and great picture cars of the period, among many aspects of the beautiful cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto (last discussed in We Bought a Zoo).
Imdb has given us a list of the songs, mostly of the period, that accompany the appropriate (suspenseful and middle Eastern-tinged) soundtrack by the prolific Alexandre Desplat (I mentioned him most recently for his soundtrack for Moonrise Kingdom). While writing I called up the movie's website and let it play in another window to get me back in in the mood 16 days after seeing it. Do make a point of catching this one. Oh yeah, it has been rated 95% by both critics and audiences on rottentomatoes.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Another placeholder, another 6 movies
Sing Your Song, seen 10/27. Fabulous documentary about Harry Belafonte. We learned a lot about his activism. He sings in the movie, mostly in old footage, including on The Smothers Brothers and Muppets shows. Imdb has given us this list of songs.
Seven Psychopaths, 10/31. Pretty darn funny story about some bumbling petty thieves and the big-time criminals whose paths they cross. With Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, and a ton of well-known cameos. Directed and written by Martin McDonagh, who brought us the excellent In Bruges.
The Paperboy, 11/1. Sultry story about low-lifes in the 1960s south. Jack hated it and I didn't like it much. Roger Ebert called it "trashy" in his positive review. With Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, David Oyelowo (you'll be seeing a lot of him soon), and John Cusack playing against type as a particularly despicable character.
My Best Enemy (Mein bester Fiend) 11/4. I had trouble laughing at this holocaust story (listed on imdb as both comedy and drama) about an Austrian Jew and a Nazi whose lives are intertwined, but that's probably just me. There were some funny moments and the rest of the audience seemed to love it. Starring Moritz Bleibtreu (Soul Kitchen, more) and Marthe Keller, among others.
Argo, 11/7. Loved it. Ben Affleck directs and stars in this dramatization of how his character helped get six hostages out of Iran in 1980. This one truly is both a drama and a comedy--there are plenty of laughs, a lot of action, and some nail-biting suspense. Be sure to see it, as it is a "best bet" for multiple Oscar nominations. As my friend Mike advised me, the scenes with Alan Arkin and John Goodman are priceless. See my longer post here.
Flight, 11/11. OMG. So good. This is a powerful story about addiction with Denzel Washington turning in an amazing performance with help from Kelly Reilly (Mary Watson to Jude Law's Doctor in the Sherlock Holmes movies) and others. Every time John Goodman showed up (usually to Rolling Stones music), we laughed. Director Robert Zemeckis decorates the movie with excellent vintage tracks a la Forrest Gump. I'm working on a song list for when I write more about this. I walked into the theatre today wanting to see the plane flying upside down. Turns out that part had my heart pounding and my eyes filling.
These placeholders are my only hope of staying current. When (if?) I write longer postings I will link these short blurbs to the completed posts.
Seven Psychopaths, 10/31. Pretty darn funny story about some bumbling petty thieves and the big-time criminals whose paths they cross. With Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, and a ton of well-known cameos. Directed and written by Martin McDonagh, who brought us the excellent In Bruges.
The Paperboy, 11/1. Sultry story about low-lifes in the 1960s south. Jack hated it and I didn't like it much. Roger Ebert called it "trashy" in his positive review. With Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, David Oyelowo (you'll be seeing a lot of him soon), and John Cusack playing against type as a particularly despicable character.
My Best Enemy (Mein bester Fiend) 11/4. I had trouble laughing at this holocaust story (listed on imdb as both comedy and drama) about an Austrian Jew and a Nazi whose lives are intertwined, but that's probably just me. There were some funny moments and the rest of the audience seemed to love it. Starring Moritz Bleibtreu (Soul Kitchen, more) and Marthe Keller, among others.
Argo, 11/7. Loved it. Ben Affleck directs and stars in this dramatization of how his character helped get six hostages out of Iran in 1980. This one truly is both a drama and a comedy--there are plenty of laughs, a lot of action, and some nail-biting suspense. Be sure to see it, as it is a "best bet" for multiple Oscar nominations. As my friend Mike advised me, the scenes with Alan Arkin and John Goodman are priceless. See my longer post here.
Flight, 11/11. OMG. So good. This is a powerful story about addiction with Denzel Washington turning in an amazing performance with help from Kelly Reilly (Mary Watson to Jude Law's Doctor in the Sherlock Holmes movies) and others. Every time John Goodman showed up (usually to Rolling Stones music), we laughed. Director Robert Zemeckis decorates the movie with excellent vintage tracks a la Forrest Gump. I'm working on a song list for when I write more about this. I walked into the theatre today wanting to see the plane flying upside down. Turns out that part had my heart pounding and my eyes filling.
These placeholders are my only hope of staying current. When (if?) I write longer postings I will link these short blurbs to the completed posts.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012)
Jack and I loved this grown-up romantic comedy co-written by and starring Rashida Jones as a career woman pulling away from her Peter Pan husband played by Andy Samberg. I wrote a little about Jones way back in I Love You, Man, then skipped right over her in The Social Network, The Big Year, and The Muppets. Had I gone that way I would have mentioned her funny stuff in Parks & Recreation. She wrote the screenplay with her writing partner Will McCormack (he played Courtney Cox's brother on the series Dirt and one of the tech guys on Brothers & Sisters; this is the first produced script for both of them) based on their relationship: better as friends than lovers. He has a cameo as a sleazeball friend of Jesse named Skillz. They also have in common that they come from show business families. His sister is actress Mary McCormack (whose husband produced Brothers & Sisters) and her father is Quincy Jones and mother is Peggy Lipton from The Mod Squad. Samberg (best known for 138 episodes so far of Saturday Night Live 2005-2012, he was in I Love You, Man and a few other things) and Jones definitely have chemistry as the about-to-be-divorced couple who want to remain close.
We saw this seven weeks ago as I was about to go out of town, planning to see another movie written by a woman that day, but at the last minute I chose this instead. I can't remember what the other one was, though. This one was directed by a man, Lee Toland Krieger (The Vicious Kind).
There are a lot of hip songs, listed here, on the soundtrack. Additional music is provided by Rashida's nephew (and Quincy's grandson) Sunny Levine with Zach Cowie.
Shot mostly with a handheld camera, this induces motion picture motion sickness (MPMS) on the big screen. Lucky for you, it isn't playing on any now and you'll be fine watching it at home.
We saw this seven weeks ago as I was about to go out of town, planning to see another movie written by a woman that day, but at the last minute I chose this instead. I can't remember what the other one was, though. This one was directed by a man, Lee Toland Krieger (The Vicious Kind).
There are a lot of hip songs, listed here, on the soundtrack. Additional music is provided by Rashida's nephew (and Quincy's grandson) Sunny Levine with Zach Cowie.
Shot mostly with a handheld camera, this induces motion picture motion sickness (MPMS) on the big screen. Lucky for you, it isn't playing on any now and you'll be fine watching it at home.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Farewell, My Queen (Les adieux à la reine - 2012)
We very much liked this beautiful costume drama about the spoiled Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger), her devoted servant (Léa Seydoux), and her best friend (Virginie Ledoyen), with both of whom she cuddles every chance she gets, at the end of the empire. Noémie Lvovsky has a wonderful turn as the head ladies' maid who speaks volumes wordlessly. Kruger (last in these pages in Unknown, but I didn't notice when I wrote about Inglourious Basterds that she was Helen to Orlando Bloom's Paris and Brad Pitt's Achilles in Troy (2004)) is very good as the petulant queen. If you saw Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006), with Kirsten Dunst as the queen at the beginning of her reign, you can well imagine her growing up to be this adult. Seydoux (quite the chameleon, she had one look as a blonde assassin in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, another in the modern part of Midnight in Paris, and yet another as the demure brunette in this one) convinces us of her devotion. Lvovsky has acted in, written, and directed a number of things, but I didn't recognize her all the while admiring her work as Madame Campan. Ledoyen's (I didn't see her in The Beach (2000) with Leonardo DiCaprio but quite liked The Valet (2006), among others) Duchesse is a frosty foil to Kruger's affectionate queen.
Director Benoît Jacquot (none of his many titles rings a bell, though this has been hailed as his "triumphant return"--strange, since he directed a 2010 release) and Gilles Taurand adapted Chantal Thomas' novel for the big screen.
It's been two months since we saw this. I was going to skip the music since I don't recall it. But then I realized it was scored by Bruno Coulais (most recently composed for Babies). Here's a clip from this one. Rottentomatoes' critics loved it, averaging 93%. Audiences not so much with 60. We did. It isn't yet out on DVD so save it to your netflix queue.
Director Benoît Jacquot (none of his many titles rings a bell, though this has been hailed as his "triumphant return"--strange, since he directed a 2010 release) and Gilles Taurand adapted Chantal Thomas' novel for the big screen.
It's been two months since we saw this. I was going to skip the music since I don't recall it. But then I realized it was scored by Bruno Coulais (most recently composed for Babies). Here's a clip from this one. Rottentomatoes' critics loved it, averaging 93%. Audiences not so much with 60. We did. It isn't yet out on DVD so save it to your netflix queue.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Jack and I were eager to see this teen coming-of-age movie and liked it very much. About a shy high school freshman who is taken under the wing of some offbeat seniors, it's heavier than the trailer might suggest, but the filmmakers are well up to the task. We're big fans of Ezra Miller (last in these pages in We Need to Talk About Kevin)--the one in the trailer with the football cheer, "Be! Aggressive! Passive! Aggressive!"--and he is wonderful as Patrick, the gay brother of Emma Watson's (after all those Harry Potter movies she was in My Week with Marilyn, with four features coming up, including the 2014 release Noah, ironically delayed due to Hurricane Sandy) Sam. She shows remarkable depth in this role. Though his character Charlie is by design less colorful, Logan Lerman (covered in My One and Only) owns the movie. The adults in the story have little to do for their big credits (Paul Rudd as the English teacher, Dylan McDermott and Kate Walsh as Charlie's parents, Melanie Lynskey as his aunt, and Joan Cusack in a short sequence at the end), even though some of their characters' actions are important.
Director/novelist/screenwriter Stephen Chbosky (pronounced sha-BOS-kee) began his career at age 25 in 1995, directing, writing, and acting in The Four Corners of Nowhere, which was nominated for Grand Jury prize at Sundance. He finished his novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, in 1999, then adapted Jonathan Larson's novel Rent for the big screen and executive produced a TV series Jericho before moving on to this one.
You should know that the movie is supposed to be set around 1990--this was revealed to us in dribs and drabs (e.g. a mix tape on cassette, a big giant cordless phone) but there are a few goofs which make it harder to be sure. There's plenty of great "old" music as well as the original score by Michael Brook (clips can be accessed from this link) and you can listen to excerpts from Brooks' compositions on the amazon page.
Rottentomatoes critics average 86% and audiences 95. Last week it moved from 16 to 15 at the box office and is still playing around town here. We saw it a week and a half ago. Good stuff.
Director/novelist/screenwriter Stephen Chbosky (pronounced sha-BOS-kee) began his career at age 25 in 1995, directing, writing, and acting in The Four Corners of Nowhere, which was nominated for Grand Jury prize at Sundance. He finished his novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, in 1999, then adapted Jonathan Larson's novel Rent for the big screen and executive produced a TV series Jericho before moving on to this one.
You should know that the movie is supposed to be set around 1990--this was revealed to us in dribs and drabs (e.g. a mix tape on cassette, a big giant cordless phone) but there are a few goofs which make it harder to be sure. There's plenty of great "old" music as well as the original score by Michael Brook (clips can be accessed from this link) and you can listen to excerpts from Brooks' compositions on the amazon page.
Rottentomatoes critics average 86% and audiences 95. Last week it moved from 16 to 15 at the box office and is still playing around town here. We saw it a week and a half ago. Good stuff.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Premium Rush (2012)
Awesome special effects of Joseph Gordon-Levitt appearing to bicycle madly in and out of Manhattan traffic kept us on the edges of our seats watching this inventive action movie about a messenger, his girlfriend, his rival, and a bad guy played by Michael Shannon (last in Take Shelter), who does crazy so well. The flashbacks, flash forwards, and cinematic thought processes add to the excitement. David Koepp (I liked his direction of Secret Window (2004), his script for Panic Room (2002) and his co-writing on Jurassic Park (1993), The Paper (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Spider-Man (2002), and Angels & Demons) directs and co-wrote the script with John Kamps.
Gordon-Levitt (I finished writing about Looper minutes ago) really did hurt himself making this movie, as shown in this clip, discussed on the trivia page, and shown during the credits of the actual movie. Maybe I'm wrong about it all being special effects! Co-stars include Dania Ramirez (series arcs in The Sopranos, Entourage, and more) and Sean Kennedy (his debut) who, like Gordon-Levitt, look great in bike shorts with chain locks slung around their trim midsections, as well as Jamie Chung (Lauren in The Hangover Part II, more) and Aasif Mandvi (most recently in The Dictator and Margin Call).
Composer David Sardy also wrote the music for 21 (2008), Jack's favorite Zombieland (which shares with this one producer Gavin Polone), and End of Watch, which I'll write up soon. Here's some good music from Premium Rush. Some of the songs used in the movie are listed here.
We liked this a lot more than the rottentomatoes folks (75% critics/68 audiences) when we saw it almost seven weeks ago. Those with more than a passing interest in Manhattan will also appreciate the maps and should save it to your netflix queue for its expected December release.
Gordon-Levitt (I finished writing about Looper minutes ago) really did hurt himself making this movie, as shown in this clip, discussed on the trivia page, and shown during the credits of the actual movie. Maybe I'm wrong about it all being special effects! Co-stars include Dania Ramirez (series arcs in The Sopranos, Entourage, and more) and Sean Kennedy (his debut) who, like Gordon-Levitt, look great in bike shorts with chain locks slung around their trim midsections, as well as Jamie Chung (Lauren in The Hangover Part II, more) and Aasif Mandvi (most recently in The Dictator and Margin Call).
Composer David Sardy also wrote the music for 21 (2008), Jack's favorite Zombieland (which shares with this one producer Gavin Polone), and End of Watch, which I'll write up soon. Here's some good music from Premium Rush. Some of the songs used in the movie are listed here.
We liked this a lot more than the rottentomatoes folks (75% critics/68 audiences) when we saw it almost seven weeks ago. Those with more than a passing interest in Manhattan will also appreciate the maps and should save it to your netflix queue for its expected December release.
Looper (2012)
Jack and I quite liked this well-crafted thriller about time travel in the near future, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing a young Bruce Willis, much the same way Josh Brolin played a young Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black III. Only here, in addition to imitating the voice, Gordon-Levitt's eyebrows and certain facial characteristics have been altered so that he resembles Willis. The acting (I last mentioned Gordon-Levitt in these pages in The Dark Knight Rises, Willis in Moonrise Kingdom) is first rate, with support from Emily Blunt (most recently Your Sister's Sister), Jeff Daniels (covered in Away We Go before he starred in the HBO series The Newsroom), Paul Dano (last in Ruby Sparks), an adorable little boy, Pierce Gagnon, and many more.
It's the third feature from director/writer Rian Johnson (I covered his second, The Brothers Bloom, in great detail) and, though none is in the hopper yet, I'm sure more are to come. This has fared well on rottentomatoes, with 93 from critics and 88 from audiences. Naturally, there are some veiled references to Back to the Future, just like in Men in Black III.
Nathan Johnson again composes the score for his cousin's movie and discusses some of his techniques in this video (confirming my guess that Rian is pronounced Ryan). I love this exciting track. Here is another. And here's a list of some of the songs used in the movie.
We saw this almost four weeks ago but it's still playing, having ranked 14 at the national box office last weekend. It has some gore, but if that doesn't bother you, you'll like it, too.
It's the third feature from director/writer Rian Johnson (I covered his second, The Brothers Bloom, in great detail) and, though none is in the hopper yet, I'm sure more are to come. This has fared well on rottentomatoes, with 93 from critics and 88 from audiences. Naturally, there are some veiled references to Back to the Future, just like in Men in Black III.
Nathan Johnson again composes the score for his cousin's movie and discusses some of his techniques in this video (confirming my guess that Rian is pronounced Ryan). I love this exciting track. Here is another. And here's a list of some of the songs used in the movie.
We saw this almost four weeks ago but it's still playing, having ranked 14 at the national box office last weekend. It has some gore, but if that doesn't bother you, you'll like it, too.
Trouble with the Curve (2012)
This predictable story with Amy Adams as a career woman and Clint Eastwood as her cranky baseball scout dad provided Jack and me with some entertainment after my team completely fell apart in the post-season. A little syrupy in the third act, it still had some good bits (nice Georgia locations, some standing in for North Carolina), leading us to agree more with rottentomatoes' audiences at 69% than its critics at 59, despite our distaste for Eastwood and his empty chair. We certainly appreciated the symmetry of another October baseball movie (last year it was Moneyball).
Written, in his debut, by Randy Brown, and directed, in another debut, by Robert Lorenz (a high level executive at Eastwood's Malpaso Productions), this will win no awards, but could be fun for die-hard baseball fans.
Written, in his debut, by Randy Brown, and directed, in another debut, by Robert Lorenz (a high level executive at Eastwood's Malpaso Productions), this will win no awards, but could be fun for die-hard baseball fans.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
The Master (2012)
Strong performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman as a smooth cult leader and Joaquin Phoenix as his angry protégé are among the strengths of director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson's sixth feature, likely to earn him (and them) more Oscar nominations. Anderson's oeuvre (Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007), and some shorts) is all pretty terrific and this is no exception, though Phoenix's (last in these pages in I'm Still Here) Freddie Quell is as hard to like as Daniel Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. Hoffman (most recently in The Ides of March) shines, as usual, as the intense Lancaster Dodd and Amy Adams (The Muppets and so much before) supports as his wife.
Cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. (Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth (2007) and Tetro, among others) shot the glorious images entirely in 70mm (or is it 65? I've read both) and production designers David Crank and Jack Fisk (won the Art Directors Guild award for Excellence in a Period Film for There Will Be Blood as well as being Oscar-nominated for the same work, and were recognized for The Tree of Life (we didn't like that movie but loved the production design) and Water for Elephants, among others) deserve recognition as well (Fisk is married to Sissy Spacek). Costume designer Mark Bridges (won the Oscar for The Artist and worked on, to name a few, all of Anderson's features, Blow (2001), The Italian Job (2003), and The Fighter) also does a great job with the 1940s and 50s wardrobe.
So far the movie has won the FIPRESCI Prize (International Competition), Best Director, and shared Best Actor for Hoffman and Phoenix, as well as a nomination for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. More to come, despite tepid audience response (59% average on rottentomatoes) but love from critics (85%). Those fascinated by the work can read a spoiler-filled review and blog post from the New Yorker.
Cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. (Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth (2007) and Tetro, among others) shot the glorious images entirely in 70mm (or is it 65? I've read both) and production designers David Crank and Jack Fisk (won the Art Directors Guild award for Excellence in a Period Film for There Will Be Blood as well as being Oscar-nominated for the same work, and were recognized for The Tree of Life (we didn't like that movie but loved the production design) and Water for Elephants, among others) deserve recognition as well (Fisk is married to Sissy Spacek). Costume designer Mark Bridges (won the Oscar for The Artist and worked on, to name a few, all of Anderson's features, Blow (2001), The Italian Job (2003), and The Fighter) also does a great job with the 1940s and 50s wardrobe.
So far the movie has won the FIPRESCI Prize (International Competition), Best Director, and shared Best Actor for Hoffman and Phoenix, as well as a nomination for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. More to come, despite tepid audience response (59% average on rottentomatoes) but love from critics (85%). Those fascinated by the work can read a spoiler-filled review and blog post from the New Yorker.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
Jack and I loved this documentary about Rodriguez, a folksinger/songwriter who was hugely popular in South Africa 1969-72 but then disappeared, and the two guys from Cape Town 25 years later who set out to discover what happened to him. Maybe you've read what they found, but, in case you haven't, I won't give it away here. I had no idea and was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out. His music, lyrics, and voice have some Phil Ochs, some Bob Dylan, and a sound all his own. I bought the movie soundtrack and a few more mp3s from Cold Fact and Coming From Reality (both 1970) to fill out the collection after seeing the movie today. Here is a link to some tracks from Cold Fact.
At Sundance in January it won the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize for World Cinema-Documentary and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in that category, and won five other awards so far. On rottentomatoes it averages 95% from critics and 96 from audiences. Wow. Thanks to Lucinda for recommending it so strongly.
See this movie. You'll love it. Then write me at babetteflix at gmail and I'll tell you how to hear more music.
At Sundance in January it won the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize for World Cinema-Documentary and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in that category, and won five other awards so far. On rottentomatoes it averages 95% from critics and 96 from audiences. Wow. Thanks to Lucinda for recommending it so strongly.
See this movie. You'll love it. Then write me at babetteflix at gmail and I'll tell you how to hear more music.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Samsara (2011)
Wowzers! I loved every minute of this wordless "documentary" with breathtaking photography and gorgeous music, shot entirely in 70mm film with notable use of time lapse techniques. Filmed in 25 countries, from a Van Nuys Costco store to a Namibian village, from the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to the Château de Versailles, from Philippine prisoners to the Bangkok "Ladyboys of Cascade Bar." I can be this specific because I found a link to the credits on the movie's facebook page. The credits are candy for the world traveler and the photography geek.
Some scenes teem with humanity, others have only landscapes. Some feature performance art, others show one or a few people simply staring at the camera. The title is a Sanskrit word that means the ever turning wheel of life.
The haunting music is by Michael Stearns (Baraka, more) and Lisa Gerrard (known for her vocals in the group Dead Can Dance, she worked on The Insider (1999) with Pieter Bourke, Gladiator (2000) with Hans Zimmer, and Ali (2001) with Bourke, among others) with Marcello De Francisci (nothing I've seen).
Other than a few advisories (for parents: the ladyboys display clothed sexual characteristics of both men and women and there's a short sequence in a factory making sex dolls; for vegetarians: a few scenes show meat being processed) this is highly recommended for yogis, meditators, photographers, world travelers, dancers, and/or wannabes of all kinds. Make a point of seeing it on the big screen if you can.
With Jack out of town following his favorite American football team, I spent 102 minutes today in meditation with this masterpiece. I didn't see the previous work of director/co-writer/cinematographer/co-editor Ron Fricke (he performed all those duties on Baraka (1992) and all but directing on Koyaanisqatsi (1982)) and co-producer/co-writer/co-editor Mark Magidson (performed those duties on Baraka) but now I want to even more.
Sitting with my head on the chair back, I let the images and sounds wash over me. I've missed a few yoga sessions and this felt like a make up class.
The haunting music is by Michael Stearns (Baraka, more) and Lisa Gerrard (known for her vocals in the group Dead Can Dance, she worked on The Insider (1999) with Pieter Bourke, Gladiator (2000) with Hans Zimmer, and Ali (2001) with Bourke, among others) with Marcello De Francisci (nothing I've seen).
Other than a few advisories (for parents: the ladyboys display clothed sexual characteristics of both men and women and there's a short sequence in a factory making sex dolls; for vegetarians: a few scenes show meat being processed) this is highly recommended for yogis, meditators, photographers, world travelers, dancers, and/or wannabes of all kinds. Make a point of seeing it on the big screen if you can.
Placeholder for 6 movies
Yeah, I was behind in blogging when I left town on September 22, and since then I've been home for about 10 non-consecutive days, so here are brief summaries in the order in which we saw them, which I hope to flesh out soon, randomly. Please don't judge me for quoting myself later--a gal gets only so much inspiration. As of tonight three* are still playing on first-run screens in this area and one** in a second-run movie house.
Farewell My Queen, seen on 9/5. Beautiful costume drama about the spoiled Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger), her devoted servant (Léa Seydoux), and her best friend (Virginie Ledoyen) with both of whom she cuddles every chance she gets. Noémie Lvovsky has a wonderful turn as the head ladies' maid who speaks volumes wordlessly. We liked it a lot.
**Premium Rush, seen 9/14. Awesome special effects of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bicycle messenger appearing to weave madly in and out of Manhattan traffic. An inventive action movie with Michael Shannon playing yet another crazy guy, this one evil.
Celeste and Jesse Forever, seen 9/19. A grown-up romantic comedy co-written by and starring Rashida Jones as a career woman pulling away from her Peter Pan husband played by Andy Samberg. We loved it. Shot mostly with a handheld camera, this induces motion picture motion sickness (MPMS) on the big screen. Lucky for you, it isn't playing on any now and you'll be fine watching it at home.
*The Master, seen 10/3. Oscar-worthy performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman as a cult leader and Joaquin Phoenix as his angry protégé. Amy Adams supports as the cult leader's wife. Beautiful photography, wonderful period (1940-50s) set dressing and costumes.
*Looper, seen 10/5. Joseph Gordon-Levitt again, this time playing a young Bruce Willis, much the same way Josh Brolin played a young Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black III. Only here, in addition to imitating the voice, Gordon-Levitt's eyebrows and certain facial characteristics have been altered digitally so that he resembles Willis. Good acting and well-crafted story about time travel in the near future--the third feature from director/writer Rian Johnson.
*End of Watch, seen 10/18. Pretty darn good, this veers wildly yet successfully between being a goofy buddy picture and a violent cop drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. There are some bloody images that will stay with you. It's also a serious MPMS inducer since a subplot is that Gyllenhaal's character is documenting his life with a hand-held camera. Apparently I was warned but didn't look at my notes before we picked something to see while we were out of town last week.
Completed full posts will be linked to the titles as I complete them.
Farewell My Queen, seen on 9/5. Beautiful costume drama about the spoiled Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger), her devoted servant (Léa Seydoux), and her best friend (Virginie Ledoyen) with both of whom she cuddles every chance she gets. Noémie Lvovsky has a wonderful turn as the head ladies' maid who speaks volumes wordlessly. We liked it a lot.
**Premium Rush, seen 9/14. Awesome special effects of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bicycle messenger appearing to weave madly in and out of Manhattan traffic. An inventive action movie with Michael Shannon playing yet another crazy guy, this one evil.
Celeste and Jesse Forever, seen 9/19. A grown-up romantic comedy co-written by and starring Rashida Jones as a career woman pulling away from her Peter Pan husband played by Andy Samberg. We loved it. Shot mostly with a handheld camera, this induces motion picture motion sickness (MPMS) on the big screen. Lucky for you, it isn't playing on any now and you'll be fine watching it at home.
*The Master, seen 10/3. Oscar-worthy performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman as a cult leader and Joaquin Phoenix as his angry protégé. Amy Adams supports as the cult leader's wife. Beautiful photography, wonderful period (1940-50s) set dressing and costumes.
*Looper, seen 10/5. Joseph Gordon-Levitt again, this time playing a young Bruce Willis, much the same way Josh Brolin played a young Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black III. Only here, in addition to imitating the voice, Gordon-Levitt's eyebrows and certain facial characteristics have been altered digitally so that he resembles Willis. Good acting and well-crafted story about time travel in the near future--the third feature from director/writer Rian Johnson.
*End of Watch, seen 10/18. Pretty darn good, this veers wildly yet successfully between being a goofy buddy picture and a violent cop drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. There are some bloody images that will stay with you. It's also a serious MPMS inducer since a subplot is that Gyllenhaal's character is documenting his life with a hand-held camera. Apparently I was warned but didn't look at my notes before we picked something to see while we were out of town last week.
Completed full posts will be linked to the titles as I complete them.
Arbitrage (2012)
This tight thriller about a magnate in over his head with his mistress, financial dealings, and family kept us engaged when we saw it 3 weeks ago. Star power is provided by Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling, and Tim Roth in the main roles as the magnate Robert, his wife Ellen, his CFO daughter Brooke, and the detective trying to prove Robert committed one of his crimes, respectively. Gere (my favorites: his first major role Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Breathless (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), of course Pretty Woman (1990), Dr T and the Women (2000), Unfaithful (2002), Chicago (2002), Bee Season (2005), The Hoax (2006), and I'm Not There. (2007), among others, proving he can do respectable, crazy, and combinations of the two) shows us Robert's desperation as he gets backed further into his corner. Sarandon (last in these pages in Jeff, Who Lives at Home) effortlessly plays a classy Ellen who would have every excuse to throw tantrums. Marling's (Sound of My Voice) Brooke gets madder at her father, but then she has more to lose. Tim Roth (at 51 he has 81 roles on his resume--my faves include Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994) in which he played Honey-Bunny's Pumpkin, and Everyone Says I Love You (1996)) made me laugh as his character slouched around asking probing questions in a flawless New York accent (he is British).
Nicholas Jarecki wrote one other screenplay before this and makes his feature directing debut here. He has a 2014 movie on imdb with no details, so he is expected to be a star. The moody soundtrack by the prolific Cliff Martinez (Contagion and more) can be sampled on amazon's page, and then there are lots of songs, listed on imdb.
Rottentomatoes' critics weighed in at 85%, audiences at 71. Jack and I vote with the critics. This is throughly entertaining.
Nicholas Jarecki wrote one other screenplay before this and makes his feature directing debut here. He has a 2014 movie on imdb with no details, so he is expected to be a star. The moody soundtrack by the prolific Cliff Martinez (Contagion and more) can be sampled on amazon's page, and then there are lots of songs, listed on imdb.
Rottentomatoes' critics weighed in at 85%, audiences at 71. Jack and I vote with the critics. This is throughly entertaining.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Liberal Arts (2012)
Sweet, Jack and I agreed after we saw it yesterday, but not a chick flick, he confirms. Josh Radnor's sophomore effort (ha!) about a 35-year-old falling for a sophomore at his alma mater is brainy, romantic, and even better than his first, Happythankyoumoreplease. He directed, starred in, and wrote both screenplays. Apparently this one got Sundance's first-ever standing ovation earlier this year but failed to win any awards. His character Jesse, presumably named after his long-time friend and producer Jesse Hara, can be summed up in this exchange: "Don't overthink it," she says. He replies, "You've got the wrong guy." Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) is perfect for the part of the 19-year-old Zibby joking with her older man. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the wonderful Richard Jenkins (mentioned most recently in Darling Companion) makes us feel Professor Hoberg's pain at his own aging and Allison Janney (last seen on the big screen in The Help) is very funny as the sexy Professor Fairfield. John Magaro (new to me) has a nice turn as a lost soul and Zac Efron (Me and Orson Welles) is adorable as a free spirited guy who hangs around campus (in my own checkered academic career, I spent time on several campuses, and there were many guys like Efron's Nat).
Anyone who has read any of the PR for this movie knows that Radnor went to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, a lovely, vernal campus northeast of Columbus near the middle of the state, set and shot much of the movie there and in surrounding areas. In fact, imdb lists only Columbus and Gambier as filming locations, but I distinctly remember seeing a credit for the New York crew.
Anyone who has read any of the PR for this movie knows that Radnor went to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, a lovely, vernal campus northeast of Columbus near the middle of the state, set and shot much of the movie there and in surrounding areas. In fact, imdb lists only Columbus and Gambier as filming locations, but I distinctly remember seeing a credit for the New York crew.
There's nice usage of classical music, and half of the 20 songs I counted at movie's end (16 are listed here--you can also preview those 16 here) are classical (9 of the official soundtrack are of that genre). As a singer I particularly appreciated the closing song of the credits, I Want a Kenyon Man, sung by the College's female a cappella group, Colla Voce, and that track is available for free download from a page on Kenyon's alumni site. The movie's soundtrack is credited to Ben Toth, better known as vocal coach to many stars, including Radnor for a performance of She Loves Me in New York after Liberal Arts wrapped.
This is thoroughly entertaining, better than rottentomatoes' numbers might suggest (critics averaging 69% to its audiences' 70). You'll enjoy the 97 minutes you give it.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012)
This wonderful documentary about the Chinese artist/dissident will leave you feeling grateful for America's rights to free speech and perhaps wishing, as I did, you had known about him all along. Director/writer/producer/cinematographer/sound recordist Alison Klayman is also credited as narrator, editor, and camera operator on a 2011 Frontline episode about Ai, but actually shadowed the artist from 2008-2011 for this one, her debut in every category. We can only hope she finds another subject about which she is as passionate for her next project.
Winner of the Documentary Special Jury Prize and nominated for the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, it deserves its high ratings on rottentomatoes (97 critics/89 audiences). Save it to your netflix queue for its eventual DVD release.
Winner of the Documentary Special Jury Prize and nominated for the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, it deserves its high ratings on rottentomatoes (97 critics/89 audiences). Save it to your netflix queue for its eventual DVD release.
Cosmopolis (2012)
Hated it. Robert Pattinson (first appeared in these pages for Water for Elephants) rides around New York in his limo, occasionally getting out, in pursuit of a bad haircut and, possibly, meaning to his life. There isn't any. Jack and I found it pointless, even though I have long been a fan of director/writer David Cronenberg (covered in A Dangerous Method). Rottentomatoes' critics give this adaptation of the Don Delillo novel 64% but its audiences are more in line with us at 47. Surprisingly, it was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes earlier this year. There's no accounting for taste.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Hit & Run (2012)
We liked this one a lot. It's a car chase movie combined with a romantic comedy between modern, evolved adults. I'm a big fan of Dax Shepard (Crosby on Parenthood, was in Baby Mama (2008) and more) and he wrote the script and co-directs with David Palmer, as they did on another project. Kristen Bell, Shepard's real-life fiancée, plays his girlfriend here. They talked about the movie on Jimmy Kimmel in this video. It's an independent movie made with a $2 million budget (that's low, believe it or not), half of which went to music rights (clips here). Shepard, a car buff, provides the awesome onscreen muscle cars from his own collection AND does his own driving. Don't try those fishtails yourself, kids!
Also in the cast are Joy Bryant, who plays Crosby's girlfriend on Parenthood, Tom Arnold as a dumb cop, and Bradley Cooper in unfortunate dreadlocks. This has gotten bad reviews (45% critics, 58% audiences on rottentomatoes). We still enjoyed it two weeks ago and you can now on the big screen or later at home.
It's just a few minutes before midnight, and I'm celebrating an anniversary. Four years ago today, 9/3/08, I saw Brideshead Revisited and wrote the first entry in this blog. As of today I have seen 502 distinct feature films in those four years. This is number 500 (still catching up, as usual). Including the 21 I saw before that date and wrote up after, 521 are summarized as of right now. See my index for the running total.
Also in the cast are Joy Bryant, who plays Crosby's girlfriend on Parenthood, Tom Arnold as a dumb cop, and Bradley Cooper in unfortunate dreadlocks. This has gotten bad reviews (45% critics, 58% audiences on rottentomatoes). We still enjoyed it two weeks ago and you can now on the big screen or later at home.
It's just a few minutes before midnight, and I'm celebrating an anniversary. Four years ago today, 9/3/08, I saw Brideshead Revisited and wrote the first entry in this blog. As of today I have seen 502 distinct feature films in those four years. This is number 500 (still catching up, as usual). Including the 21 I saw before that date and wrote up after, 521 are summarized as of right now. See my index for the running total.
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