Ted (2012)

Sometimes I say that a movie isn't meant for our demographic (old white people) but we liked it anyway--this isn't one of those. The story about a man-child whose teddy-bear is alive and rules his life would have made a cute short or SNL skit but at 106 minutes, it's too long by an hour and a half. Jack and I have no objections to crudeness nor foul language--this is just dumb. Mark Wahlberg (last mentioned in The Fighter, for which he earned an Oscar producing nomination) and Mila Kunis (Black Swan), with help from Joel McHale (one of the stars of Community, he was also good in The Informant! and The Big Year) and Giovanni Ribisi (The Rum Diary), try very hard but they can't redeem this.

Seth MacFarlane (creator, writer, and voice of the male Griffins and more on all 188 episodes of Family Guy, started as a storyboard artist on a few series, then did some acting and worked on some other series, including American Dad! and The Cleveland Show) makes his live-action directing debut here, taking credit for the story, sharing screenwriting credit with Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, who worked on Family Guy, and providing the voice of Ted. Ryan Reynolds had the right idea--he appears onscreen twice, doesn't have a line, and his name isn't in the end credits (though the fine folks at imdb put him in anyway). MacFarlane does have fun putting down iconic actors (one of whom has a supporting part as himself), other movies, and "white trash girls."

For the record, Jack is a Family Guy fan, but he didn't much like it either, and commented that a too-long fight scene is a Family Guy staple. Rottentomatoes clocks it at 68% critics and 82% audiences, and, as of last weekend, when we saw it, it was third at the box office in its fourth week out. So millions of Americans have voted with their tickets, but we felt differently. To quote men on film, hated it.

The Do-Deca-Pentathalon (2012)

This story about a pair of 30-something out-of-shape brothers competing in 25 events of their own choosing had us laughing through most of it. Directed and written by siblings Jay and Mark Duplass (last mentioned in Jeff, Who Lives at Home), it's funny and raw. Jack said, "Maybe soon we'll see a movie that didn't involve Mark Duplass," since this makes five in two months.

Starring Steve Zissis (small roles in Jeff, Who Lives at Home and the Duplass brothers' feature before that, Cyrus) as Mark and Mark Kelly (some things I haven't seen and four episodes in four seasons of Mad Men, but you wouldn't recognize him--compare this photo to the next two in the slideshow) as Jeremy, they are a most unlikely pair of jocks sprinting, swimming, shooting baskets, playing pool, and more. But their determined grimaces are priceless. We also liked newcomer Reid Williams, who plays Mark's 10-year-old son (with hair down to the middle of his back), Jennifer Lafleur (small parts in the Duplass brothers Baghead (2008) and Jeff, Who Lives at Home) as Mark's wife, and Julie Vorus (a lot of community theatre, no other movies) as Mark's and Jeremy's mother. The women's characters aren't fully developed but I never said it was a masterpiece--critics average 75% although audiences 85% on rottentomatoes. An article written when the movie played at the South by Southwest festival says that this was shot before Cyrus (released in 2010) and edited after Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011). Another article tells us that this one was released as video on demand (VOD), including iTunes and amazon, ten days before it hit big screens.

If you do see it on a big screen, it's a mild MPMS inducer (though not nearly as much so as Beasts of the Southern Wild) with some jerky camera movements, so take a seat in the back. I can think of a lot of people who will enjoy this lightweight competition. Maybe you're one of them.

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

Fantastic, both literally and figuratively, this story of a 6 year old girl who lives in squalid poverty in a Louisiana flood plain with her sick father (mother is out of the picture) is unexpectedly beautiful, though Jack and I were grateful not to have smell-o-vision. Winner of four awards at Cannes and two at Sundance, including cinematography, among others so far, this is definitely one to see.

Quvenzhané (pronounced kwa-VEN-zhen-ay in one ad, her nickname is Nazie but I don't know how to say that) Wallis was five when she auditioned, even though the filmmakers requested six and older (she's eight now, in the fourth grade in Houma, Louisiana, southwest of New Orleans) and she blew everyone away with her strength and resolve, just like her character Hushpuppy (see this clip of her with Jay Leno). More than half the cast is from the bayou country--see the imdb trivia for other fascinating nuggets with no spoilers. "Katrina" is never uttered, but "the storm" comes. The prehistoric beasts of the title are called aurochs (OR-uks) but the ones in the movie, which required a big special effects team, look more like super-sized boars.

Director/co-writer/co-composer Benh Zeitlin makes his feature debut with this picture and, wow, is it strong. Co-writer Lucy Alibar wrote the play on which the movie is based and she has a cameo.

Dan Romer is the other composer of the outstanding music, and you can listen to clips on the amazon page (it's also available in iTunes) and two whole tracks (one, two) are on youtube so far. I expect more will be posted shortly.

The only bad news is that this movie was shot mostly with handheld cameras and it gave me motion-picture-motion-sickness (MPMS--my running list is here). If you, too, are sensitive to this, sit in the very last row and look down or at the wall from time to time. I don't want to advise anyone to wait for video,  though, because it's so good and likely to earn a bunch more nominations and awards.

Don't Change the Subject (2012)

This is an upbeat documentary about suicide--believe it or not--and it's really good. Mike Stutz's mother killed herself in 1979 when she was 45 and he was 12. He not only directs and produces but also talks on camera about his experience and interviews other people whose loved ones took their own lives, as well as a couple of folks who survived their own suicide attempts and a bunch of comedians. There is also animation and footage of a multi-generational dance troupe who developed a dance number on the subject.

I got to see a preview of it in early June when Amy was home and had a deadline to write a feature about it for the free weekly for which she interns. She had a password to watch it online. Both of us wrote down versions of the following while watching it: in the Day of the Dead they say you die three times--first when your heart stops, then when you're put in the ground, and third when the last person who can tell a story about you is gone from the earth. If you want to read her coverage, write me and I'll send you the link.

I suspect it might cause MPMS (motion picture motion sickness) but I'm not sure because we watched it on a laptop.

When it gets a distributor and/or gets to this neck of the woods I'll put up a fresh link to this post. If you happen upon it screening near you, definitely check it out.

The Intouchables (2011)

Magnifique! This movie about the bond between a quadriplegic French aristocrat and his caretaker from the ghetto had the packed preview house laughing hysterically and occasionally sniffling, but way more the former than the latter. Omar Sy (pronounced see, has 37 titles on his resumé, but the only one I know is Micmacs, which we loved), playing Driss the exuberant Senegalese caretaker, beat Jean Dujardin (The Artist) for the Best Actor award at the Césars (the French Oscars), for which this movie earned eight other nominations, losing to The Artist for many of them. Sy was the first black actor to win that award. Oh, and the man can dance, as he cuts loose in one scene. As Philippe, François Cluzet (profiled in Paris), beautifully displays the man's boredom and anger changing to acceptance and finally regaining his sense of humor and adventure. Philippe's apparent bottomless pockets also make it fun, with the castle he inhabits, the cars he used to drive, and the excursions he can provide. Props (ha!) to the production design and the location departments. Oh, and like Micmacs, it breaks Rule #2. No Eiffel Tower.

As a directing/screenwriting team, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano have worked together on three other features but I didn't see them. This will certainement put them on the map. Speaking of mixing French and English, I'm baffled as to why the distributors tacked the English word the in front of the French intouchables, which naturellement means untouchables. I leave the English preposition in place only because of my practice of using what's on imdb. It makes about as much sense as trusting wikipedia, but that's how I roll (and sometimes I make changes to imdb using the handle babetteflix). Nakache and Toledano take sole writing credit, but this is actually based on a memoir Tu as changé ma vie... (You Changed My Life) by a similar caretaker, Abdel Sellou, a white Algerian.

When we saw it last week rottentomatoes was weighing in at 77% critics/92% audiences. It's now slipped to 76% from critics. But as it moves into wider release (now in 83 theatres in this country) I expect that percentage to creep up. After nine weeks in its native France, it became the second highest grossing movie in that country, behind Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (Welcome to the Sticks - 2008). Time will tell if it surpasses it.

The soundtrack, by an Italian, Ludovico Einaudi, is lovely, and you can listen to most of it beginning from this link, which also has some of the songs, including those by Earth Wind & Fire and Nina Simone.

Now Harvey Weinstein has optioned the story to remake it in English. I'm sure it'll be great. But you MUST SEE the original when it gets to a theatre near you! Yeah, it has subtitles. You can read. Just go.

The Perfect Family (2011)

Here's another good one, a comedy with Kathleen Turner as a suburban matron who fears that her unconventional family--recovering alcoholic husband, philandering son, and lesbian daughter--will keep her from winning Catholic Woman of the Year. We liked it a lot. This is one of those roles where people will say Turner (my favorites are Body Heat (1981), Romancing the Stone (1984), Prizzi's Honor (1985), The Jewel of the Nile (1985), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) for which she was Oscar-nominated, The War of the Roses (1989), Serial Mom (1994), The Virgin Suicides (1999), and a series arc as a vulgar agent in Californication in 2009) is "brave," for being unglamorous when she used to be such a babe (she turned 58 last month and looks it in this movie). Whatever--she's very funny. Jason Ritter (I enjoyed him in Mumford (1999), Happy Endings (2005), the series The Class (2006-07), The Education of Charlie Banks (2007), Good Dick, and the series Parenthood) and Emily Deschanel (with similar blue eyes to her younger sister Zooey, her filmography is shorter, but she plays "Bones" on the series of that name and it's had 7 seasons so far) are very appealing as the son and daughter and I liked Michael McGrady (a long resumé but I don't recognize him) as the husband. Sharon Lawrence (mostly TV, from NYPD Blue through Monk and beyond) plays the competition for Catholic Woman of the Year and Richard Chamberlain (faves are 191 episodes of Dr. Kildare (1961-66), The Last Wave (1977), Shogun (1980), and a series arc on Brothers & Sisters) a smarmy priest.

This is the feature debut of director Anne Renton and co-writer Claire V. Riley, and not of co-writer Paula Goldberg, though she's new to me. There are plenty of laughs and the ending isn't a surprise, although, as I recall, it seems unlikely that the last sequence could have all happened in the time it's supposed to happen. Whatever. Still cute.

I think I liked the music but saw this almost four weeks ago and there aren't any clips of the score by Andrew Kaiser. The movie's website does list all the songs in the "ABOUT" section of the official website.

This is doing poorly on rottentomatoes, with 48% from critics and only 40% from audiences. It came out on netflix 4 days after we saw it, so you can put it at the end of your queue if this sounds like something you'd like. Competition is fierce nowadays!

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Every 4th of July, Jack and I go to a big, splashy action movie before the big, splashy fireworks display. This year we went to Spider-Man with Michael and Nick and enjoyed it immensely, even without springing for 3D nor IMAX. Andrew Garfield is adorable as smart-ass, intelligent Peter Parker, and the chemistry with his real-life girlfriend Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy is evident onscreen. Garfield (last in these pages using his natural English accent in Never Let Me Go--though born in Los Angeles, he moved to London as a toddler with his English mother) at 28 seems younger than Tobey Maguire (who was 27 when the first one was released), maybe because of the smart-ass thing, and the humor goes a long way in making this altogether entertaining. We didn't miss the 3D, although I could guess what it would have been like when Spider-Man is swinging successfully around New York. We could have done with maybe a tad less unsuccessful swinging--we get it, he's learning how to do it. Also, why would the Midtown Science High School have dumb jocks, including one named Flash? That makes no sense at all. I know, I know; it's not a documentary. I'm just sayin'. Garfield and Stone (see The Help) met on this movie, and they're cute together, believable as awkward teenagers. Martin Sheen (most recently in The Way) and Sally Field (we like her, not only in her Oscar-winning performances in Norma Rae (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984), but also in The Flying Nun (1967-1970), Sybil (1976), Absence of Malice (1981), Punchline (1988), Steel Magnolias (1989), Soapdish (1991), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), and, of course, 110 episodes of Brothers & Sisters (2006-2011)) are lovable as Peter's Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Then the very talented Rhys Ifans (profiled in Greenberg) gets to play the megalomaniac Curtis Connors with a computer-generated missing right arm. He apparently did a lot of his own stunts. Jack and I have long been Denis Leary (my favorites are The Ref (1994), Operation Dumbo Drop (1995), Suicide Kings (1997), Wag the Dog (1997), and the TV shows The Job (2001-02) and Rescue Me (2004-11)) fans, so were happy to see him as Gwen's dad, hard-boiled police Captain Stacy. There are dozens more credited and uncredited actors here, but the one that really matters is the mandatory Stan Lee (co-creator of the comic book, which was originally called The Amazing Spider-Man, with Steve Ditko) cameo as a clueless school librarian, which is hilarious, as always.

Director Marc Webb had only one other feature under his belt ((500) Days of Summer) but the pacing and blend of melodrama and action are pretty good. In addition to Lee and Ditko getting credit for the Marvel comic book, the story is credited to James Vanderbilt (yes, that family; he adapted the script to Zodiac (2007) and a few others), and the script to Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent (won Oscars for Julia (1977) and Ordinary People (1980), nominated for Paper Moon (1973), worked on a lot of TV in the 60s, then wrote or co-wrote scripts for, among others, The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), Nuts (1987), White Palace (1990), the story for What About Bob?, scripts for Hero (1992), Unfaithful (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), and Spider-Man 3 (2007)), and Steve Kloves (Racing with the Moon (1984), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Flesh and Bone (1993), Wonder Boys (2000) for which he was Oscar-nominated, and all eight Harry Potter movies). That's some Hollywood royalty going on.

While writing I've been listening on youtube to tracks from the score by James Horner (among his 335 music credits on imdb, he won two Oscars for Titanic (1997): the score and My Heart Will Go On; was nominated for eight: Somewhere Out There in An American Tail (1986), Aliens (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Braveheart (1995), Apollo 13 (1985), A Beautiful Mind (2001), House of Sand and Fog (2003), and Avatar;  and composed for 48 Hrs. (1982), Testament (1983), The Dresser (1983), Cocoon (1985), Volunteers (1985), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), The Spitfire Grill (1996), Iris (2001), The Chumscrubber (2005), and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, to name some that I liked). Perhaps not royalty, but this guy works and they really, really like him, too.

Audiences weigh in at 84% vs. critics at 74% on rottentomatoes. I expect this has a built-in audience and you don't need me to tell you to see it. It's been out only two weeks and is still second at the box office on the most screens in America: 4318 (the next is the Ice Age sequel at 3881). There are so many good movies out now that you may have trouble choosing. If you don't care about 3D this will be playing for a long while and you can go see some of the artier ones first. You should, however, see it on a big screen for the effects.