Recently viewed films

[ice nine]

I thoroughly enjoyed Joss Whedon's re-telling of Wm. Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Beautifully shot in blackand white and all at Joss' house in twelve days, the movie is lighthearted and has some witty scenes. Nathan Fillione does a good character as a bumbling detective(who would have thought that Shakespeare created the team of two bumbling detectives/buddies?), Clark Gregg was funny as the father of the bride, and the relationship of Amy Acker's Beatrice and Alexis Denisof's Benedick is portrayed in modern day romantic comedy series. I am a Shakespeare novice and at times it felt as if the movie were in a different language, but I understood enough to follow the film.

[Jack of All Parades]

I, too, Ice Nine liked that movie- in particular the 'let's just make a movie aspect of it' the way they let those magnificent words and speeches just wash over you as a viewer.

Watched Side Effects by Steven Soderbergh last evening. If that is truly his last film then he is going out very much in command of his strong directorial and cinemagraphic skills[because he acted as his own cinematographer on the film]. Just a tight and twisty noir drama done inventively in the style of those ubiquitous pharmacological ads that fill the TV channels with their litany of 'side effects'. The red herrings are abundant and they are fun to follow. Soderbergh makes excellent usage of the same new age type of music that fills these types of ads and of the abundant dreamy images of people moping around their lives amongst the glit and glitz of Manhattan and Fairfield County, CT. The movie is a powerful attack on the primary theme of a good many of his movies- that abundance is bliss until you look underneath the veneer and see that so much is corrupted as always by basic greed, lust and jealousy. I loved watching this movie with its watery, dreamy texture and voyeur aspects. Rooney Mara as the troubled young wife is most watchable. She makes you want to protect her with her wounded, vulnerable, but quite fierce facial expressions. When the twists start, though, you are truly unprepared. Jude Law, as the psychiatrist initially duped, is commanding. His shifts from early compassion to final fury hold one's attention. This is flat out an excellent film noir with an evocative new age spin.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Interesting, I thought the Liberace one was to be his last, didn't know there was another to follow. Bet he changes his mind.

[Jack of All Parades]

Quartet, the first directorial effort by Dustin Hoffman. Lovely to look at with the stately old English Manor and its manicured grounds. Not much to watch with its rather cardboard characters who never really do come to life on the screen. The plot line is too familiar and the story lets you snooze a great deal of the time. The only one who has some life is the character played by Billy Connolly. His Lothario walks a thin line between comic foil and a lecherous old wolf on the prowl. Fortunately he stays on the comic foil side with some pithy and quite funny lines and comments and observations.

[Jack of All Parades]

A Royal Affair- a best foreign film nomination last year at the Academy Awards. A solid and well intentioned historical drama performed with some attitude and professionalism. It stars Mads Mikkelsen and Alicia Vikander, who I enjoyed last year in Anna Karinina, and Mikkel Boe Folsgaard. The attention to detail is almost lifelike as candles barely light rooms and the stench of 18th century Copenhagen is nearly palpable. It is an historical drama that feels alive- not wooden. The acting is professional and you feel a real tension between the two protagonists. One finds the relationship that is built between the Danish king Christian VII, a simpleton, and the German commoner, Johann Friedrich Struensee to be genuine. Most of all, I enjoyed the way the emergence of Enlightment ideas is presented. It is a living presence in the form of pamplets, books and letters being circulated throughout Europe. The words of Rousseau and Locke are on people's lips and invading their minds and they are threatening to the feudal powers that be. It is heady times as the notion of personal, individual freedom begins to make a headway in the courts of Europe and a Continent away. The scene where a letter received from Voltaire is palpable with this sense of new thoughts and possiblities. My one criticism would be the relatively wooden way that the opposing nobility is portrayed- they are almost straw creatures on the screen in their cliche presentation. But when you concentrate on the human story at the center of the movie it is very much worth watching.

[Jack of All Parades]

"No"- with Gail Garcia Bernal. An excellent film that brings dramatically to life McLuhans's maxim that advertising is the great art of the 20th century. In this case the successful campaign in 1988 to bring to an end the repressive rule of Augusto Pinochet in Chile after fourteen years. Bernal's adman's campaign of Chile- happiness is coming- vote No is cynically effective. What the movie fails to show however is that what ultimately comes to fruition may not be that much better than what was forced out as any student of twentieth century politics knows. This movie is sly and subversive in its approach to the narrative of history. It is also worth watching. The score, prominently featuring a piece by Sibelius, is most listenable.

[ice nine]

The Way Way Back is a nice, light-hearted film that is deserving of all the praise it is getting. Sam Rockwell stands out.

[Jack of All Parades]

"Fruitvale Station"- last night with my wife for my birthday. I needed a solid punch in the gut and this film delivered. I can only imagine what it must feel like to be a young black man in this country. I do not have to imagine any longer. This film solidly and subtly and tragically brings that information home. President Obama is correct- locks do get clicked, people do look differently at a young black man. This movie shows you why. Michael B Jordan gives a performance as Oscar Grant that needs to be remembered at Academy Award time. His is a flawed character- quick to anger, not the most responsible with time management, resentful but he is also a loving person, caring of his girlfriend, daughter, family and friends. He is a young man with some ambition who wants to do the right thing and be a solid citizen. In the scenes in the movie when he interacts with people outside of his race and he is treated with respect he responds with a warmth and sincerity that is infectious, just like the better nature of his character. That he is senselessly shot dead on a subway platform in Oakland on a New Years day morning while handcuffed and on his stomach on the ground for no provocation other than he was black and assumed to be a part of a reported altercation is horrendous. That there was no probable cause is clear other than an innate fear of a fellow human being. This movie does not moralize- it lets the story tell itself over a twenty four hour period. You can draw your own conclusions. For me it shows that the ugly divisions of race still pollute my country and that we are still not willing to have an honest dialogue about this issue. The predominately African American audience that watched the film with me last night could be heard muttering as the credits started to roll at the end and I was dramatically confronted with their pain, frustration and indignation. This film had done its job.

http://youtu.be/_y2vevmt9Xk

[Jack of All Parades]

I think I may have found my movie for this fall- it seems to promise some introspection as it appears to speak to some elemental fears I hold:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/201 ... andor.html

[martinfoyle]

Saw 5 films over the weekend, only one, Frances Ha, worth seeing again, and that still dragged a bit towards the end. Only God Forgives looks gorgeous, some gob smackingly beautifully composed shots, and a great Cliff Martinez score, of course, but overall quite forgettable. The Heat is fine, Melissa McCarthys obviously winging it a pace killer time & again. Red 2 was moronic fun bang bang stuff. Nice detail in The Conjuring, fair few scare the bejesus outa moments as well.

[Jack of All Parades]

Mud by Jeff Nichols. American cinema is alive and well in this director's capable hands. This is a joyous, raucas and dangerous movie which charts territory often treated in film with a deft, adventurous and spirited touch. And like last year's Beasts of the Southern Wild it introduces two unique and spirited children- Ellias and Neckbone played memorably by Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland. This movie is story telling on the grand scale of Faulkner, Welty, O'Connor and Twain- in fact the echoes to Huckleberry Finn resonate throughout the film. Its adult and sophisticated treatment of childhood and the changes that occur to children as they begin to mature is ennobling as those age old themes of coming of age, of men and honour and moral maturation are brought to life on the screen in a marvelous and almost mystical fashion on that island in the middle of the Mississippi. Matthew McConaughey, in the role of Mud, could not be better. All the actors do yoemen's work including Reese Witherspoon, Michael Shannon, and Sam Shephard. This movie is an exhilirating experience and it was so unexpected.

[Jack of All Parades]

This one came out of left field- standing at the Redbox kiosk and flipping through the new releases picked out What Maisie Knew on a lark vaguely remembering the Henry James novel from the latter part of the nineteenth century. Got it home and viewed it last night with my wife and it was as if the blinking lights went crazy and the slot machine paid off.

A tremendous film about the erosion of innocence. In this case the gradual realization by a young 6 year old of where she exists in the adult world- in this case the emotional and physical ping pong game her narcissistic parents[played beautifully by Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan] play with her. The outright selfishness of the parents is ugly and you literally experience it from young Maisie's perspective as camera angles and shots are consistently from her viewpoint. The young actress, Onata Aprile, is yet another child actor who is perfect in her role. She calmly absorbs the blows from the adult world around her- listens and aborbs- and then when the time comes she does the right thing and that final shot of her joyfully running down the boat dock is so reminiscent of Truffaut's final shot in the 400 Blows Maisie is fortunate that she has her back ultimately covered by the younger and newer spouses of her spoiled and selfish parents- Lincoln and Megan delicately played by Alexander Skarsgard and Joanna Vanderham. Perhaps because they are poor and vulnerable themselves, their empathy and natural, nurturing affection for this young girl is refreshing to watch and counters nicely the antipathy and ultimately callous attentions offered by the birth parents. The final scene with Julianne Moore and her daughter is earned and the wave of emotions that flood Ms Moore's face is shocking. You know she just now gets how she has hurt her daughter.

Watching with my wife was painful. I feel the movie rubbed some lifelong raw nerves in her psyche.

[Jack of All Parades]

A small streak of exceptional films continues having viewed Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine last evening with my wife. We both were excited by it as we exited the theater. It may very well be Allen's best work since Match Point and it is a scalding, cynical treatment of class and its snobbery and pettiness. Using the skeleton plot frame of A Streetcar Named Desire Woody has modernized the plot line incorporating the headlines of the last few years regarding the financial depression we all feel as families and individuals and the chicanery and outright theft of our financial security by the 1% and their minions. This movie is a subtle and stimulating discussion of class and unlike anything I have ever seen from Allen. Cate Blanchett , as Jasmine, is stellar. You want to loathe her character but you cannot because at strategic times throughout the film she shows the vulnerable human side of her character. You cannot stop watching her. She is mesmerizing. The affection and friction between Jasmine and her sister, Ginger, played beautifully by Sally Hawkins, is touching and infuriating all at once. When Bobby Carnavale, as the lout Chili who is in love with Ginger, enters the mix the scenes become explosive but never mean. It is the friction that results from two worlds rubbing up against one another. What you witness most memorably throughout the film is the pain of pretension and social class loathing. You also see first hand the trauma, in the form of Jasmine's delusions, that we are all experiencing today as we sink further away from the "American Dream". That final shot of Jasmine on the park bench mumbling to herself punches the viewer hard. I have never seen a film by him that uses the camera so well. He lingers long on scenes and lets them develop and his dialogue is spot on. This film is evidence of an American Master working near the top of his game.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Life in the old dog yet!

[invisible Pole]

Can't wait to see this one.
Reviews from Venice are more than enthusiastic.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do ...

[Jack of All Parades]

This is fun- many of those shots are memorable and do linger:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/201 ... ovies.html

[Otis Westinghouse]

I enjoyed that, but I wanted to know where they were from as I watched and then life was too short to watch it all again with the YouTube link telling us where they came from. I remembered A Serious Man, so my recentish memory isn't entirely gone.

[ice nine]

Still my favorite......'Field of Dreams'.

[Jack of All Parades]

"The Bling Ring"- Sophia Coppola's take on a real life recent crime spree. It is a flashy, vain, self-deluded study of a group of young kids in LA and their 'fame' obsessed lives fueled by social media and a glaring sense of entitlement. What the film ultimately gives you is the vacuous lives of both the protagonists and the people they preyed upon. Emma Watson, as one of the young thieves, is most watchable as she catches her characters vacuousness in a dead pan take. Leslie Mann, as her self help spouting addled mother, is equally good. The sad irony is that these very people are now idolized and even given credibility as they served as 'consultants' on the film. This movie is a telling indictment of the reality and famed obsessed programing that so predominates a great deal of what constitutes the cultural life of many young people.

[Poor Deportee]

"A Serious Man" was a fine film with one of the most unsettling opening sequences I can remember. Nice to have one's memory jogged.

As for the Coppola, thanks for the recommendation, Jack. The whole celebrity/consumerist matrix within our culture is pathological to a dire extent, and any film that studies this pathology is welcome in my book.

[ice nine]

Salinger is a well done documentary. His war years are well documented and future Salinger works, coming in 2015 and 2020, will be about characters in WWII and his Glass family. Other writers, some actors, Salinger's daughter, and his ex-wife are interviewed. The last portion of the film had to do with various assassinations where the assassins citied 'Catcher In the Rye'' as a big influence.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Is the film's sub-title How My Love of Salinger Drove Me To Kill People?

[Jack of All Parades]

"Now You See Me"- what a formulaic waste of time given its bones- magic and crime caper and stick it to the man theme. Just one long snooze- avoid with extreme caution.

[Jack of All Parades]

"Gravity" by Alphonso Cuaron in 3d last night with my wife:

There is a poem by Robert Frost which could easily serve as an epigraph for this film.
Desert Places

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it—it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less—
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars—on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

A long 18 minute single camera shot begins this film and in doing so grabs you with its perceived beauty and its frightening emptiness. One does not need space aliens or massive action in order to scare one's self. The imagination is most sufficient. Space is death and we are reminded immediately as the film begins that space is inhospitable to human life as we know it. It is also quite seductive as the George Clooney character, Matt Kowalski, ruminates. It is equally seductive in its allure toward 'easeful' death as experienced by Sandra Bullock's character, Dr. Ryan Stone. That dichotomy is what propels this movie in a manner that I have never experienced before in a movie theater. I witnessed movie history last night. My wife and I walked out shaken, humbled and exhilarated.

Clooney and Bullock work well together. But the movie is Bullock's and Cuaron's and his cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki's. The CGI effects are something I have never seen before and the usage of 3d is what I imagine it was designed for- so life-like that I always thought I was part of the action occupying the same space as Ms Bullock. I completely lost the sense of a screen and constantly felt like this was happening to me. That made it completely terrifying. This movie is propelled by ghosts[like a number of other cultural items I am enjoying this season] and the biggest one of all is the terror of nothingness. As a viewer you are pushed and pulled by the visual and aural sensations around you, going from serene observation of our home planet beneath one and the terrible, fast and random actions that are relentlessly assaulting you as you orbit Earth.

Cuaron has set the movie making bar extremely high. I have also never felt more tiny and insignificant as a part of the Cosmos I inhabit for my brief time. I remain very scared and wish that the 'gravity' by which my physical world is held together could give me more comfort. This film has shown me how tenuous that physical law is for us.