New Release: The Lincoln Lawyer (minor spoilers)

Sometimes there are great movies because the acting is amazing.  And sometimes the story is so unique it blows you away just by expanding your mind a little bit.  Sometimes a movie is just so beautiful you just have to respect it as great.  However, The Lincoln Lawyer is none of these things, but it's still a great movie, which is why I saw it 3 days ago and the review is just coming now.

Matthew McConaughey is back to his serious fare (his shirt only comes off once I believe).  He plays Mick Haller, a defense attorney whose office is in the back of his town car, driven by Earl (Laurence Mason) because Mick lost his license (it never says, but I'm guessing for driving under the influence of something).  Mick  has a relationship with the local bail bondsman, Val (John Leguizamo), who throws him some lucrative cases.  That is how Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillipe) comes into Mick's life.  He's been accused of beating up and attempting to rape a woman.  He claims innocence and even guesses she might be a gold-digger looking for his money, since his mother's LOADED.  Mick takes the case (for a lot of money) and gets his investigator Frank (William H. Macy with lots of scruffy hair) to help and get all the dirt.

Mick's biggest worry is that he'll represent someone and not be able to tell whether or not they are truly innocent.  Most other attorneys (particularly for the defense) don't care about that - they just put on the best case they can to defend their client.  Mick wants to be sure it's also the best thing FOR his client.  However, Mick's as slick as they come - he gets bikers to do some dirty work by promising to represent their members, if he's not paid, he'll let you rot in jail, he cons his clients out of money.  But at his core, you still have to wonder which side he'll come down on when it actually matters.

His ex-wife (Marisa Tomei) is a prosecutor and obviously still in love with his charm and aging boyish looks.  They have a daughter together and these relationships show us the cracks in Mick's armor.  He has to represent dangerous clients, but always know that is family is safe.  And until he meets a pretty boy with a lot of money, he's never worried about it.  Louis Roulet is someone he has NEVER had to work for, and doesn't play by the same rules.

The legal issues being discussed are really great - what do you do if you know your client is much worse than he's being accused of?  How do you bring justice to his victims when you're bound by attorney-client privilege?  The movie takes us on this whirlwind tour with Mick, and you NEVER see it coming.  Very well made movie.  The entire audience gasped during one of the climax scenes.  Great movie theater experience.

The music and the close-ups make this movie feel real.  I've never been to Los Angeles (the setting) and I can't say I've listened to much rap or "gangster" music in my life.  But whatever the director (Brad Furman - hopefully going to do more great things) did, I felt like I knew these people, and these characters.  They weren't cliched (okay, asking his black driver Earl to get him a gun was both racist AND cliched) and the music worked perfectly to bridge the gap between scenes.

This is probably evident from the trailer alone, but being able to come up with a title as unique and simple as The Lincoln Lawyer is not a common occurrence these days.  Mick wants to be just and a little bit noble - like our former president, but he also does all of his business from a Lincoln town car.  I will say, having a title that drives (pun intended) you into the story is something I gotta say I like.

A note about the marketing of this movie - they got it right on the money.  The trailer shows you what the movie's about, but doesn't give you the best lines or scenes.  One scene from the trailer is not even in the movie, but is exactly a tone the movie uses.  Several of the scenes are much more complex than the trailer lets you in on.  For a nice change, you can find out whether this movie will interest you (it should), but not have a clue about the film itself.

Finally - 4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

New Release: Rango and The Adjustment Bureau

There's not a lot to say about either because both benefit from only knowing what the trailers showed you.    So there won't be any spoilers.

Rango is the story of a terrarium chameleon who has to survive for himself and wanders into a town called Dirt that is experiencing a water shortage.  He gets deputized to keep the peace, and of course wanders into the corruption going on, but wants to rise above it and do something important.  They add all of the elements you'd expect with a chameleon in the desert - escaping bit predators, the sun, heat, water, etc.  But what makes this movie something more than just another kids animated feature comes in 2 ways.  First, the animation is a jump above.  The detail in all the scales and whiskers and whatnot on all the desert creatures bests anything that's come before.  And second, the story is more complex than necessary for just a children's movie - it approaches many of the old westerns without going into cliche.  The dialogue is sharp with Johnny Depp's standard delivery reigned in a bit.  My only problem with it was the strange use of props.  In an early scene Depp is escaping an eagle by hiding in a standard glass bottle.  Then later, each of the desert creatures carries a bottle or can or vase perfectly scaled to their own body size.  It left an odd feeling for me - it would have been one thing if all the items they use are really "human" sized things OR the creatures are considered human size and their possessions equivalent.  Just  bothered me. Overall, a really good movie that can only be appreciated with multiple viewings.  4 of 5 stars/lambs

The Adjustment Bureau also felt a bit like a throwback to an older version of cinema (and maybe it was just the fedoras - Fletch said the Adjustment Bureau guys should team up or face off against the bowler hat guys from The Thomas Crowne Affair and I finally got the joke seeing the whole movie!).  The movie starts us with David Norris (Matt Damon) screwing up his first NY Senate bid, and conceding the election.  He meets straight talking Elise (Emily Blunt) in the bathroom before the speech and he realizes he's become a little different than the man he intended to be.  There are also these guys in fedoras following them around,

Anthony Mackie (from The Hurt Locker) and John Slattery (from Mad Men) seems to know something about what's going on.  And from the trailer we know they having something to do with controlling people's destinies.  And, it is NOT David and Elise's destiny to be together - though they have other plans.  The movie explores whether we have free will and our life is made up of only an accumulation of our choices or if there's a predestined plan that you cannot escape from.  The Adjustment Bureau makes sure to keep you on their boss's plan.  It's a terrific love story, with a really well paced plot and doesn't overdo it on the details of how the Adjustment Bureau really works.  I liked that it makes you think about your own life if there really might be a group of people attempting to get you to a particular destiny and therefore, everything you do or people you meet will help you get there.  It kind of explains why my clumsiness hasn't killed me already - I must have more of a plan ahead.  4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Roundup: Pirate Radio and Get Low

I didn't expect to enjoy Pirate Radio because in general I'm not a great audiophile and 60s British rock, other than Beatles doesn't ring my bell.  However, as I suspected, I'm way overgeneralizing my taste in music, and there was a ton of great music to enjoy in this.  Pirate Radio tells the real story of illegal radio stations that broadcast Rock and Roll in the 1960s by having their "station" on a ship in the North Sea.  Bill Nighy owns the boat, and at the beginning he's bringing a friend's son, Carl (Tom Sturridge) on board to give him a new start.  On board are all the DJs, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost, and a bunch of British comedic actors whose names I didn't know, but were pretty funny.  They eventually bring a famous DJ Rhys Ifans to save them after they lose sponsors.

We see some of the story through Carl's eyes - the drugs, the sex, etc., but it's fairly uneven.  As a second storyline, we meet Kenneth Branagh and Tom Davenport as government ministers tasked with making the Pirate Radio stations illegal.  This takes them more than a year to figure out laws they can pass or rules to set up for a good reason that will stop the radio stations.  They're basically assholes, but it's funny watching them try.  Overall, it's a good movie, if incredibly uneven in its story telling.  But at least there's pretty great music over it all.  3 of 5 stars/lambs

Get Low should have been present in some form on Oscar night - sadly it was only present at the Independent Spirit Awards for First Feature and Supporting Male (Bill Murray).  I loved this movie.  Robert Duvall stars as Felix Bush, a curmudgeon living out in the woods by himself in 1930s Tennessee.  His is notified of the death of a friend, and it seems to spark the desire to find out what the world thinks of him.  It's obvious he's been alone for a long time, enough that legend has built up around him that's as much fiction as fact.  He tries to get the minister (Gerald McRaney) to throw a funeral before he dies so he can find out what people would say, but he won't do it.  However, a young assistant at the local funeral home, Buddy (Lucas Black) overhears this and realizes the business it could bring to the failing funeral home run by Frank Quinn (Bill Murray).  So they offer to set up the "funeral party" for Mr. Bush.  While in town, he runs into an old friend (maybe the only person to have really known him), Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek).

Everything is going smoothly for the party, but Felix wants to get someone who knows everything about him to tell the truth about it.  Whatever is in his past is too hard for him to talk about, and he tries to find an old friend to do it for him.  I won't reveal the secrets that come up, but the movie tells the story really well, not giving too much weight to the secret or the past, but reminding us that we all carry them with us.  I really liked all the acting in this movie - particularly Lucas Black.  I first saw him in Crazy in Alabama with Melanie Griffith.  She's over the top, but he's pretty amazing, and now he's grown up to be a pretty powerful screen presence.  4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Roundup: Babies and Departures

I didn't intend to watch movies about birth and death, but that's how it turned out.  And both were actually more entertaining than their descriptions would suggest.  Departures won the Oscar for foreign film in 2009.  From Japan, it's a story about a cellist, Daigo, without enough talent to make it his career.  When he loses his job, he and his wife return to his hometown and the house his mother left him.  Daigo searches for work, and finally finds a job assisting a man, with "departures".  The job itself isn't explained for a while, but it pays really well, so he doesn't ask too many questions.  From the movie, it seems that most people in Japan are cremated, so there's not much need for skilled undertakers, but there is still a ceremony like a wake where the family watches as the deceased is respectfully and carefully cleaned and prepared for "casketing" (being put into a casket that is then burned with the body).  However, as in most cultures, working with dead bodies isn't exactly a prestigious career choice, and his wife finally finds out what he does and leaves.  However, Daigo is able to see the beauty in the ceremony as he gets better at it and the families continue to thank him for what he does.  It's a beautiful movie with very compelling characters - Daigo has struggled his whole life with his father's abandonment, and even more with never being the best at anything, and finally, what it means to be a grown-up.  His wife tries hard to be supportive, but can't get past her own ideas about things.  A terrific and thoughtful movie about how people handle death, from respect to distaste and beauty.  4.5/5 lambs - definitely deserved the Oscar!

The second movie focused on the other end of life.  Babies is a documentary following the first year of life of 4 very different babies - one in Namibia, Mongolia, Tokyo, and San Francisco.  The movie has almost no dialogue (no subtitle either for the other countries), but has lots of music that helps give an upbeat tone to the film.  When it was initially released, I remember it being criticized for not being deep, not offering criticism about the different lives of these children.  What I found was that it wasn't a movie about comparing and contrasting the different cultures and criticizing one over the other, but rather showing that a baby is a baby is a baby.  At least for these babies, the first year of their life was fairly similar.  Obviously, when choosing what to put into the film it was easy to pick moments that looked similar - they each had a moment with their cat, some with siblings (talk about bullying!), with their parent being playful, feeding, learning to walk, trying to speak, etc.  And the movie might not be deep by offering critique of how babies can thrive growing up naked in the dirt as well as with baby yoga and swaddling.  But I think it would have been the lesser for trying.  It's a simple look different babies, in all their cutest, tantrums, and loving.  3.5 of 5 stars/lambs

Belated Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows review

*Spoilers ahead*

Since I originally missed the first 12 minutes or so of the new Harry Potter, I wanted to be sure I saw the rest before I wrote my review.  And it turns out I was right to do so (I'm biased, I know).  My first opinion of the film was that it was much funnier than the first 6, with dark parts.  This was because I walked in just as the funnier parts were starting.  Yes, there was action, but watching lots of people transform into Harry was pretty funny - and Fred and George's humor was hysterical.  However, after seeing the very sad and then scary scenes that actually show before the humor, the movie is set up to be very dark, with few moments of levity to lighten the load.  Watching Hermione erase her parents' memories, and then watching the DeathEaters at Malfoy manner kill the Muggle studies teacher, you know you've been set up for a very dark film. 

My opinion of the rest of the film was well talked out in Episode 23 of the Reel Insight podcast.  In summary, I thought the acting was much improved over the previous incarnations, particularly Emma Watson's Hermione.  This could be because she wasn't forced into false laughter (which always bothered me) and the seriousness between all the characters made for better acting.  There were jump in your seat moments when the snake appears in Godric's Hollow, and what were they thinking moments with the silver body paint in Ron's nightmare, but overall, the movie flowed fairly well from moment to moment (with a slight dragging section in the middle, but I didn't mind that part, the good acting helped).  I did have a problem with the ending - it didn't feel even a tiny bit complete, but nor did it feel like a cliffhanger (the only acceptable Hollywood ending without resolution).  I think they needed to do a bit more with Dobby's funeral to give a feeling of completeness, but since the story was already running so long, they just stopped.  Oh well, I'll enjoy watching it again in preparation for Part II.  My score remains as previously stated 4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

Harry Potter review delayed

If you've listened to Reel Insight Episode 23 (and why haven't you?) you'll know that I had a horrific time trying to get into NYC to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  While we talked about it and such, my review will wait until I've seen it in its entirety.  However, my rating is 4.5 of 5 Lambs/stars, just so people know how I found the overall flick. 

"Every Creation Myth Needs a Devil": The Social Network

I'm slow to get a review done, but I wanted to be sure to add my opinion to the noise about this movie.  It was a well-made movie that showed a really terrific story that may or may not be completely accurate about the founding and development of FACEBOOK.  Mark Zuckerberg (played BRILLIANTLY by Jesse Eisenberg) was obviously an extremely awkward college student (he's fairly clearly some version of autistic or Asperger's) who doesn't care a lot about the niceties of friendship or business.  He allegedly partners with a group of guys to create a website for Harvard that would be exclusive.  The movie makes it seem like he took a kernel of their idea and created a much better one with the investment from a friend.  Eventually he squeezes out the investing friend and makes himself a bajillion dollars. The Social Network flashes between the two court cases when these guys sue him back to the actual events.  It's very well composed and the acting is superb.  If they continue with 10 Best Picture nominations, I predict this will definitely get one.  And so far, Jesse Eisenberg has done of the best acting performances of anyone this year, and will deserve a good look come awards season.  There will definitely be a writing nomination at some point too.  Not really anything new to add to the many other reviews of The Social Network, but I saw Zombieland the next day and now have a new-found respect and admiration for Eisenberg that nearly wipes away Adventureland.  4.5 of 5 lambs/stars

What I learned from Inception

There are all kinds of movies that defy a description.  To say that Inception is Christopher Nolan's movie about a guy who can infiltrate people's dreams to extract secrets on behalf of industrial espionage is like saying the Statue of Liberty is a tall, green, woman who stands on an island in New York City's harbor.  Both are true, but neither description captures the experience of seeing them.  So, to avoid selling it short, I'll just describe what I learned from watching the movie. 

1.  Leonardo DiCaprio's acting skills continue to improve, particularly when his hair doesn't become an issue. 

2. The experience of falling and then startling awake is more universal than I expected. 

3.  Ellen Page has risen above her previous role as a smart-alecky teen.  She can also be a smart-alecky young adult.  Also, she can show emotion and do a great job as DiCaprio's conscience. 

4.  I still love Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  See The Lookout and (500) Days of Summer. 

5.  Ken Wantanbe was terrific in The Last Samurai (best part of the film) and somehow forgot how to enunciate - I think it missed almost half of his dialogue.

6.  Physics is what keeps us from walking up walls, and that you can't fall in zero gravity, but that an elevator might help.  Seriously, the special effects were terrific, particularly JGL's fight scene, but I think they missed a terrific opportunity for seriously trippy effects. 

7.  Marion Cotillard has added bad-ass to her skills at morose and annoying. 

I really, really liked the movie, I promise.  Imaginative, gripping, mysterious, and thoroughly rewatchable, if only to understand all the things you missed before.  4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

Musical Mondays! RENT

First and foremost, Rent is a Broadway musical.  I was really excited when I heard they were bringing this Pulitzer-prize winning show to the big screen, but nervous because I wasn't sure how it would work.  Would they just do a filmed version on the stage, or actually make it a legitimate film.  They found a good middle ground, taking the elements of staging and movement from the stage, but incorporating elements that are only possible on film, such as dream sequences, memories, etc. while the music was going on.  Rent is a rock opera, which usually means all the dialogue is sung, between actual songs.  For the film, they took some of the dialogue-type music and made it a spoken rather than sung, though not for everything thank goodness or it would have lost some of the characteristic charm of the stage production. The biggest thrill for seeing the film is that they used nearly the entire original cast (Rosario Dawson replaced an actress who was pregnant, though possibly also for big-name status).

In case you missed this phenomenon in the late 90s, here's a sum up of the story.  Mark (Anthony Rapp) and Roger (Adam Pascal) are roommates on the lower east side of Manhattan called Alphabet City (the avenues in that section are no longer numbered like 5th Avenue, but become Avenue A, B, C, D) in 1989, Christmas Eve.  Roger has HIV and wants to write a song he'll be remembered for ("One Song, Glory"), and Mark is an aspiring documentary filmmaker.  Their former roommate Benny (Taye Diggs) wants to collect their rent since he just bought their building and some others ("Rent").  In exchange for deferred rent, he wants them to shut down a protest that's brewing against the neighborhood changes, organized by Mark's ex, drama queen Maureen (Idina Menzel).  Maureen's new girlfriend, Joanne (Tracie Thoms) can't get the sound equipment set up for the concert, and Mark shows up and they lament dating Maureen ("Tango Maureen").  Another former roommate, Collins (Jesse L. Martin) and his new "girlfriend" Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia) - both HIV+ -  arrive to help out.  To get everyone out of the apartments, Benny cuts the power, and neighbor Mimi (Rosario Dawson) goes to ask Roger to help her ("Light My Candle" - my favorite song when I first saw it).  The protest goes off well ("Over the Moon") and Mark sells his footage of it to the news.  Roger and Mimi also realize they're both HIV+ and that they can make it work (.  The end of the first act is the best scene of the whole show "La Vie Boheme", where the whole group sings about the bohemian life they lead, open minded, with lots of cultural and pop references (here are the lyrics).  The movie then does a  bit of a good cheat, with music overlaying some fun images of the week between Christmas and New Year's.  The second act has more problems, with Angel getting sick and dying ("I'll cover you"), and Roger going away to write his song, and Mimi and Benny getting together, and Joanne and Maureen getting engaged (different from the play) and then breaking up ("Take Me or Leave Me").  Meanwhile, Mark has 'sold his soul' to take a job for a sleazy TV show, working for Sarah Silverman's Alexi Darling.  It's a really small part, but she brings a non-entity on stage to life well.  Even though it's a story about coming of age in a time of AIDS, poverty, violence, gay and straight, and all, it's still a Broadway musical, and things work out pretty well by the end.  The final song in the play is "Seasons of Love", but the movie puts it right at the beginning, and not as part of the movie, just all the characters standing in their own spotlights, in costume, on stage singing.  The music is revived at the end of the movie while they watch Mark's documentary about them all over the past year.   The movie does a good job bringing it to life a brilliant play and musical without losing the feel of the original work.  Also, having the original cast makes the voices really familiar if you're only familiar with the soundtrack.  I loved the play - I saw it my sophomore year of college on Broadway, then again my senior year, and once since college.  And I watch the movie now at least annually to be reminded of the overarching messages the music provides, which became the tagline for the film: "No Day But Today", meaning you never know what's going to claim you in the future, live for today.  Stage version 5+ of 5 stars, film 4.5 of 5 stars for it's originality at bringing a stage play to the screen.

DVD Round Up: Precious and Whip It!

I was eager to see Precious now that it's out on DVD, as it never came to a theater near me. Given all the love, and ultimately two Oscars (Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay) this movie has received and knowing how dark the subject might be, I was nervous that it couldn't live up to expectations. Clarice Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is a 16-year-old near illiterate teenager in Harlem in the 1980s. She's pregnant for the second time by her father, and blamed for this by her mother (Mo'nique). She has used her ability to day dream to escape the horrors of her home life and maintains a self-contained hopeful inner life. She's kicked out of school for being pregnant, but offered a chance at an alternative school that seems to help at-risk or troubled girls get their GED. The teacher, Paula Patton, gives her hope that life could get better and when her son is born, Precious decides she's had enough of the abuse her mother doles out. It's pretty violent watching them fight, and you're never sure what will set Mary off. Mo'Nique's performance was definitely Oscar worthy, both for the quick transformations she makes when the social workers come by, and the halting confession she gives at the end trying to explain why she is the way she is. It's a pretty terrific movie, and the acting performances are exceptional, down to the smallest parts. It's not an easy movie to watch, but it is a very good film. 4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

Whip It! was another movie that never came near where I live, but finally arrived thanks to Netflix. This is Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, and Ellen Page's first big film since her Oscar nominated turn in Juno. She does attempt to rein in the smart-alecky attitude from Juno but you can see it emerging as she gains confidence by joining a roller derby team - The Hurl Scouts. She lies about her age and joins Drew and Kristin Wiig and becomes the new star of the team. Juliette Lewis is the star of the rival team, and attempts to shut down Page by outing her age. Page has been lying to her parents about what she's doing. Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Stern play her parents who want her to excel at Beauty Pageants, but Page is eager to do something a little more risque with her life, but doesn't want to hurt her parents. Like most of the characters in this movie, there's no commitment to a single story or idea, and it makes for a muddled mix of coming of age, sports triumph, teenage rebellion, and taking charge of your future. Good, but not great. 3 of 5 stars/lambs

Two newish releases and two DVDs: The Good, the Bad, and the Meh...

A week of vacation thankfully brings lots of movie viewing, not much of high quality though. I saw Valentine's Day and Crazy Heart in theaters, and Post Grad and The Boys are Back on DVD. I'll start with the good, and then you can skip down to the others you're actually interested in.

Crazy Heart was really terrific. Jeff Bridges is definitely going to win his long-deserved Oscar and in my opinion totally deserves it. I really liked this movie, though my movie-viewing partner wasn't convinced. Bridges plays Bad Blake, a semi-washed up, boozy, greasy, charming, talented country musician. He's playing in Santa Fe, and as a favor to the piano player he agrees to an interview by the local music reporter, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Since he puts the moves on everything, he flirts with Gyllenhaal, who seems attracted to him, but is smart enough to know what a one-night stand she'd be. She also has a young son she's concerned about leaving for long. However, Bad Blake is incredibly charming beyond his former star status and she succumbs. However, Blake has to keep touring as he's mostly broke. His former protegee, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell) asks him to open his show, and to write some new material for him to record. They obviously have a tumultuous relationship, but Farrell does a good job seeming sincere in his admiration for his former mentor. This is definitely a cliched movie about what happens to an alcoholic while he attempts to hit bottom, and the people who love him and watch him go down trying not to go with him (Gyllenhall does the best job I've ever seen of the woman in these type of movies - she stays strong and only gives him the single chance he deserves to change his ways and then she leaves). However, because Bridges is so charismatic and charming, I loved watching every minute he was on the screen. And finally, the music is absolutely fantastic. In general, I don't care for watching long scenes where a pretend character sings the pretend songs that made him famous that he sings forever (Walk the Line and Ray were different because I already knew the music and it was the representation of the real artist that was interesting). However, probably because these songs were written or produced or influenced by an actual amazing musician, T-Bone Burnett, the music is a joy to hear and watch performed by Jeff Bridges, Colin Farrell and unknown others. It's great music. There's a line from Bad Blake in the movie that goes something like: "All the great songs sound like you've heard them before" and that basically describes the music. They're good because they resemble the greatest songs of country music. I really liked this movie, 4.5 stars/lambs (missing the .5 for being really cliched about addiction and famous people).

However, Valentine's Day just barely lived up to the hype created around it. While there were some story lines I really enjoyed - Julia Roberts and Bradly Cooper, both on the airplane and on the ground; Anne Hathaway as an adult entertainment provider (by phone) and Topher Grace; and Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Garner as friends and the final scene of the movie. The others were either boring, terrible acting, or both. I hated Taylor Swift every time she was on screen (she's a terrific musician, but NOT an actor), and you could see Taylor Lautner (not an oscar-contender himself) cringing in all their scenes together. The other teenage couple were just boring in their attempt to have sex on Valentine's day. And the Mcpair of Patrick Dempsey and Eric Dane were just boring, cute but boring. Jessica Biel's story line about hating Valentine's Day came across more pathetic than empowered, but her relationship with Jamie Foxx was interesting. This ensemble rom-com is MUCH better than last year's He's Just Not that Into You", but it's not as perfect as the casting would suggest. Removing some of the stories and increasing the depth of others would have made for the perfect Valentine's Day treat. 3 of 5 lambs/stars

So you've had the Good and the Meh for this post. There's not much to say about the bad, particularly Post Grad which I actually fast forwarded because NOTHING happened and it was incredibly boring. The cast is pretty impressive with Alexis Bledel, Zach Gilford (I love Friday Night Lights so I'll forgive him this attempt to hit the big screen), Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch and J.K. Simmons. Sadly, Bledel graduates from college, has trouble getting a job, is too arrogant to take anything that will make money and lives with her parents. Gilford is in love with Bledel and doesn't want to go to law school until she loves him too, but his dad, Simmons, is forcing him out. Keaton is crazy and Lynch is funny, but that's the entire movie. 1 lamb/star

The Boys are Back is slightly better, just not great. Clive Owen plays a recently widowed sports reporter father in Australia who has to figure out how to raise his 5-year old son. However, he's also got a 14-year old son from a previous marriage that he realizes he's abandoned. His attempts to be a working father are heart felt and well intentioned, but of course don't work. This movie has been done in other place and in other ways where child-rearing is left to the children and the dad's theory of no rules always back fires. The actor who plays Owen's older son Harry, George MacKay, could have been Ron Weasley if he'd been older when they started. Totally looks the part so I had trouble taking his angst seriously. However, it's not terrible, just Meh. 2.5 of 5 lambs/stars

An Adrian Brody Two-fer: The Brother's Bloom and Cadillac Records

I'm not a fan of Adrian Brody, yes he did a good job in the Pianist and deserved his Oscar, I'm sure all can agree that doesn't automatically make one a good actor. I saw The Brothers Bloom because I do like Mark Ruffalo, and Cadillac Records for Jeffrey Wright and the music. Luckily, Brody does nothing to prevent either movie from being really terrific entertainment.

The Brothers Bloom finally puts Mark Ruffalo into a character different from others he's played - a scummy not so great guy, and he obviously revels in it. He plays Brody's older brother, Stephen, and the pair of them have been con men since childhood. However, now Brody, called Bloom - I never figured out the title, since they have no last names, one is Stephen (Ruffalo) and one is Bloom (Brody), but it doesn't seem important. Anyway now Bloom wants out of their life, and Stephen talks him into one more con with their silent partner in crime, Rinko Kikuchi (Oscar nominee from Babel). They decide to try to con a rich lonely eccentric woman, Rachel Weisz, who learns hobbies of all sorts and falls into their con with ease. However, this is the last time I fully understood what was going on. A complicated series of cons take place, some with Penelope's (Weisz) help and some for other reasons. It's a great movie with funny dialogue and a morose looking Brody all the way through. Ruffalo and his ideas for cons are funny, and the supporting cast is terrific - Rinko is wonderfully funny while saying almost nothing (maybe she doesn't speak English well, but they used it to perfection. 4 of 5 stars/lambs

The other movie I enjoyed despite Adrian Brody's presence was Cadillac Records the story of real-life Chess Records and its artists. Started by Leonard Chess, a Jewish man in Chicago in the 1950s trying to make a better life for himself, he starts a club where black musicians play, and he meets Muddy Waters and Little Walter, and goes on to set up a recording studio and does all he can to get their blues music on the air. It's mostly the story of Muddy Waters and the evolution of music from blues to rock and roll. Jeffrey Wright is Muddy, recording music and learning to love the life it provides. Chess does take some advantage of his artists, but placates them by providing new a Cadillac constantly. Chuck Berry (Mos Def) and Etta James (Beyonce) sign with Chess Records and obviously become stars. There's competition between artists for attention from the small studio and who makes the most money. It's really interesting from a historical perspective as I didn't know Chuck Berry spent so much time in jail, and how badly taken advantage of and abused many black musicians were (the Beach Boys stole an entire song from Berry and changed the lyrics, only compensating him later after he sued). The music is wonderful and all the acting is terrific. Even Beyonce stretches her acting chops a bit - not in who she plays, Etta James was a terrific singer, but had tons of attitude and a huge hurdle to overcome her start in life (a prostitute and white politician). Nearly all the characters are eventually inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but there's an obvious tone of too-little-too-late when it comes to really appreciating artists from the beginning as human beings not just commodities. Excellent movie. 4.5. of 5 (and available on Netflix Watch Instantly for those interested).


Oh, and a PS - Don't watch Two Lovers with Joaquin Phoenix and Gwenyth Paltrow - it's awful. Worst movie of 2009.

Random round-up!

Last weekend, it was snowing and cozy by the fire, so I watched a bunch of movies, the first from a Netflix DVD, and the others from the Netflix Watch Instantly feature on Roku. All were surprisingly good movies, perfect for a quiet weekend.

Away We Go stars SNL alum Maya Rudolph and The Office's John Krasinski as expectant parents. They've moved to be near his parents for the birth of their baby, only to be told his parents - Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels - are moving to Belgium. Untethered by either family or jobs, they decide to find a new place to live near people they know. Thus begins a journey of some of the most extreme characters ever. Allison Janney is a vulgar ex-boss in Tuscon, Maggie Gyllenhaal is an over the top mother in Wisconsin, and Melanie Lynsky is a perfect mom of lots of adopted kids in Montreal. We watch Rudolph and Krasinski's voyage to find a place to live, as well as discover what kind of parents they want and DON'T want to be. Their dialogue provides most of the humor of the movie, quick and sharp, as they discuss the crazies they thought they might want to live near. I thought it was a really good, very original movie, carefully constructed to avoid cliche, but almost misses the mark. It could easily have been really boring, but the strength of the cast makes the movie thoroughly enjoyable. 4 of 5 stars/lambs

The next movie we watched is How About You, a movie Netflix recommended to me and they were right and I enjoyed it. It's about an Irish assisted living facility run by Kate. She's struggling to keep it together when her long-term residents scare off any potential new clients coming to visit. Her ne'erdowell sister Ellie, comes to mooch off of her and gets a job helping clean the home. When their mom gets sick at Christmas, Kate has to leave to take care of her, but can't find a place for 4 residents who have nowhere else to go (they've been banned from other homes). Ellie says she's stay and take care of them for the holidays. The residents are a hoot. Vanessa Redgrave plays an aging actress who remembers a terrific career that never was, and dances around demanding more olives for her martinis and making people jump to her whim. Two sisters - Imelda Staunton and older sis Brenda Fricker - live at the home to escape their childhood struggles (slowly revealed during the movie) and harp on any perceived slight from the staff. Fricker even makes Staunton wear an eye patch after Ellie throws a piece of toast at her. The final person to complete their holiday quintet of lonely hearts is well known British actor Joss Ackland (I spent most of the movie trying to remember where I'd heard his voice before), a widowed, former alcoholic judge. None of them are friends and none of them will give an inch to make life easier for Ellie. Ackland insists on breakfast in his room at 6 am, the others want specific foods at the regular breakfast time. They all run around making life hard for Ellie, but as it takes place at Christmas, you can figure out that all will end well, and it does. A small heartwarming movie with lots of character. 3.5 of 5 stars/lambs

To follow up this sweet charming movie, we watched a French film about a former prisoner trying to find her way in the world after her release. I've Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime) stars Kristin Scott Thomas as Juliette, just getting out of prison after 15 years and moving in with her sister's family. I won't spoil anything about what she was in prison for, which is slowly revealed throughout the movie, as other people reveal what they think they know about what happened and how they treat her because of their misconceptions. However, the movie isn't really about her reintroduction to society, but to her family and friends. She has been silent for so many years that they don't know her or anything about what happened to send her to prison. The movie is terrific - you'll just have to believe me. The story they tell will sit with you and make you think a lot about what you might have done differently if you'd been in Juliette's situation. 4.5 stars/lamsb

The final movie I only saw to try to prove that Emma Watson (Hermione from Harry Potter) can act. Sadly, she can't act any differently than Hermione's personality allows, even in a non-Harry Potter movie. Ballet Shoes is based on a children's chapter book that follows three orphaned little girls who grow up in 1920s London and to help the family that raised them they join a theater academy and each go on to different fields, acting, dance, etc. It was a decent movie for little girls, but not terrific acting or a good story. 2.5 stars/lambs

Ballet Shoes
I've Loved You So Long
How About You
Away We Go

The Blind Side: Review

The following review explains a lot of what I like about the movie, and thus might contain spoilers, but as it's a true story (or based on one) of a currently living, well-known individual, if you don't already know much of it, you're a little behind anyway.

Insight's Rules for adapting a true story for film:

1. Most viewers know how it turns out - that's not the interesting part, focus on how he or she arrived at the point everyone knows about.

2. If the end point is good, find whatever needed to be overcome to arrive at the good. If the end point is bad, focus on what good was lost to reach the bad. DON'T pretend something is good or bad if it isn't. To relate to audiences it has to be something EVERYONE knows to be good or bad, and not just in relative terms.

3. Very few things in life continue on an all up or all down path. Most stories are filled with ups and downs, make sure those count.

4. If you want people to like your movie and not just respect it, don't end a very sad story with a single moment of happiness, you have to prove to people that watching the whole sad story was worth it to them, and not just the real person who is now happy (I'm looking at you The Pursuit of Happyness).

The best movies based on true stories use these rules, but the stories they adapt for the screen have more than the sum of these parts, usually a main character worth caring about. The best movies have an entire cast you can find a reason to care about. Sandra Bullock's new movie, The Blind Side, is based on a true story of a young black boy, Michael Oher, in Memphis who has fallen through the cracks of his family, his community and the state, but has figured out a way to take care of himself. He's lucky enough to have a friend who helps him get into a private school, where he can barely be bothered with classes or sports. However, he isn't bitter or mean, he's just quiet and accepting of anything that comes his way, both good and bad. When he's spotted walking down the cold street at night, Sandra Bullock's Leigh Anne Touhy, brings him home for a warm place to sleep, without the realization that there are kids who attend her children's school who have nothing and no one to help them. His story is heartbreaking, both to Leigh Anne, and to the people watching it unfold. We watch as the Touhy's are changed by having Michael in their lives, and how his life is changed, even if he's still the same person he always was. It's a pretty funny movie as we watch Michael learn to play football, and Leigh Anne's tough love of the entire world as she struggles to be a good person. Sandra Bullock is terrific as a tough-ass southern woman making things happen. She takes life seriously, but knows that she is lucky to have everything she has, and is happy to have Michael in their lives. It's mostly their story, but her family, Tim McGraw as her husband, and her two kids, play a huge part of making a family that includes Michael. Of course, since Michael ends up playing for the Baltimore Ravens, there's a lot of football in the movie too. That is part of the ups and downs. While everyone assumes a big guy like Michael should be a natural at football, he takes a while to learn the basics, much to everyone's frustration, and amusement. Overall, this is a terrific movie, and obeys all my rules, so you leave feeling wonderful about life, even if you can't forget that it doesn't work out for everyone. 4.5 stars/lambs.

A Christmas Carol 3D: Review

I know I haven't posted a lot lately - not a lot of great movies in my little town. Luckily, Veteran's Day provided a chance to travel to a bigger theater, and they had 3D!!! I know, I'm WAY behind on figuring out this was way better than Captain EO's version of 3D back in the 80's, but I was not expected for how amazing the new version of A Christmas Carol could be. It was more faithful to the original text by Charles Dickens, in that it was scary - the spirits weren't benevolent aides in Scrooge's search for his own soul, but a Dickensian version of "Scared Straight". They had a tinge of the goofiness of Disney's animated version with Mickey Mouse, but mostly the story was strict in its interpretation of the story. Jim Carrey was terrific - I'm not even sure how many different characters he played throughout the movie, but he was joined by Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn, Gary Oldman, and Cary Elwes (hard to see the Princess Bride actors together again). Watching the scenes come to life felt like you were actually looking through a window at it. It made me wonder how the same thing would look in 2D, and it definitely wouldn't be as good - just not as magical as the whole ghosts and spirits visiting demands. There weren't lots of things jumping out of the screen, they just made each scene contain depth and substance in a way 2D just can't. I really liked it. 4.5 of 5 Lambs/stars

DVD Round-up

Over the weekend, I saw two new DVDs from Netflix. As it's a bit of lull in the DVD season for movies I missed, but wanted to see so there were a few older ones that popped up at the top. The first was Bonneville, a lesser known movie starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, and Joan Allen as friends from Idaho who decide to travel to California. Lange's husband has died and his daughter from a previous marriage is threatening to take away her house if Lange doesn't return the dad's ashes to Santa Barbara. They decide to drive in a 1966 Bonneville convertible. Lange had promised to spread her husband's ashes around the world they'd traveled together, but doesn't want to lose her house to her step-daughter. She does find a way around her problem, but her friends help her get to Santa Barbara on time. There are fun adventures like any road trip movie, but given their age, the adventures are a bit less disgusting and more fun than a college version. The acting is impressive, the writing decent and the story compelling. A solid film to like, 3.5 of 5 stars/lambs

The second movie I saw is one of the best sports movie I've ever seen. The Express stars Rob Brown (Finding Forrester) as Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy (the award for best collegiate football player). He grows up in Pennsylvania in the late 1950s and attends Syracuse University (Go Orangemen!) at the urging of former player Jim Brown. He tries to keep his head down and stay out of trouble, but ultimately can't escape the influence his star playing has on the African-American community and the civil rights movement. The year he leads his team to the Cotten Bowl game in Dallas he (and the other two black players) are not allowed to enter the hotel where the team is staying as it's a segregated hotel. His coach, Ben Schwartzwalder (played really well by Dennis Quaid), often runs into Davis' drive to further both his own career and the cause of civil rights. While the movie could step into broad statements and make a hero out of a small person, but even after researching some of the interviews done about the historical accuracy of the movie it seems that Ernie Davis was as amazing as the movie slowly explains that he was. The acting is good, and the games are shot in a way that's easy to follow both the course of the game and the deeper meanings when certain tackles occur (some of the Texas players find more pleasure beating on the successful black players rather than winning the game). It's a terrific film, and I highly recommend it. 4.5 stars/lambs

The Time Traveler's Wife: Review (minor spoilers)

Obviously, if you've already read the novel upon which the movie is based, this review won't contain any spoilers. However, if you've not read or heard anything about it, this might reveal a bit more than you'd like. Here's the summary of what I thought first, then I'll add specifics. I really liked it. The Time Traveler's Wife is a wonderful love story with a bit of a fantasy (or futuristic) spin. 4.5 of 5 stars/lambs, not quite perfect, but there were elements of the book I similarly thought weren't great and the movie was wonderfully faithful to the book.

Now, the specifics of what I liked and why. Eric Bana stars as Henry DeTamble, a research librarian who has one small anomaly, he un-willfully travels through time. He can't control where or to when he goes or even when he'll return to normal time. When he's in his 30s and 40s he travels back in time and meets a little girl named Claire. Claire spends her life growing up and becoming friends and ultimately falling in love with Henry, even though he only visits as an older man and infrequently. However, they meet when they're both in their 20s. Claire has known him her whole life, but in his 20s, Henry has not yet met Claire. That's sort of where the movie starts, and then follows Claire's life in real time, with flash backs and forwards following Henry. As I'd hoped, the movie is much easier to follow than the book, which just gives you dates and the characters ages to keep you oriented, while the movie gives you actual images of each person at a given age to compare (they grey Henry's hair, cut Claire's hair, etc.). We follow Claire and Henry through falling in love, marriage, and children, all the while struggling with how to understand and deal with Henry's "condition". While I never picked up on the underlying messages in the book, the time travel and the love story is too strong, the movie does a terrific job, mostly with the acting, of introducing greater themes the material is exploring. The idea that the person you love could have a disease, disability or "condition" is one that many if not all couples will someday deal with, and we get to watch as Claire (a wonderful Rachel McAdams) struggles with trying to hate the "condition" and not the man. I think she reaches an equilibrium and questions whether it's fair have to love someone with this condition and how you can get through it. Okay, that was the weightier theme that I really liked. The other issue they do a terrific job of demonstrating is the concept of fate and choice. If Henry will eventually always go back in time and meet Claire, does she really have any choice but to fall in love with him when she meets him again as an adult? If he knows the house they will eventually live in, does he have to search until he finds that house, or can he choose whatever he wants? They do a good job of explaining their paradigm of time travel in the film. It's a great love story too, Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana have great chemistry. Also, the supporting characters of Ron Livingston (currently in "Defying Gravity" on ABC which is a great series so far) and Stephen Tobolowsky as Dr. Kendrick who helps the couple figure out how to keep their fetus from time traveling before it's born. I cried very hard at the end, and that's all I'll say. Terrific movie for anyone who likes love stories, sci-fi, fantasy or great acting.

Julie and Julia, parallel adventures that are nothing alike

The best chick flick offering this year finally opened. No, I'm not talking about The Ugly Truth (though I still want to see that), but rather a grown up movie that has nothing about trying to get a guy to notice you, but rather about two women trying to do something to make their lives feel fulfilled. Julie and Julia stars Amy Adams and Meryl Streep, respectively, learning to cook, and figuring out how to make cooking a part of their lives and selves. Julie lives in present day New York City working in a cubicle for a post-9/11 government division going nowhere. She has lunch with her college friends and finds her life inadequate and unlike the one she imagined when leaving college and reaching 30. To challenge herself she chooses to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in a year. We watch her attempts and misadventures and she discovers what I think most people do when jumping deep into cooking - many things are very hard, and some things won't taste good, even if they are in a cookbook. Meanwhile, the movie also follows the real Julia Child (portrayed with wonderful whimsy and panache by Meryl Streep) as she attends cooking school and ultimately attempts to get her cookbook published. It's a wonderfully funny movie, with heartfelt performances and witty dialogue. There were no slow or boring moments and remarkably few cooking montages. I remembered liking the book, and feeling Julie's anxiety when she had to cook aspic or live lobsters after racing home from the other side of Manhattan to a tiny Queens apartment. The movie finds that anxiety in both Julie AND Julia's lives and we get to ride through it with them. The chemistry in both marriages, with Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina, was both believable and enviable (neither traits easy to master in on-screen love) Excellent movie! 4.5 stars/Lambs

DVD Review: Role Models (more reasons to love Paul Rudd)

My brother recommended Role Models which came out on DVD recently, starring Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott. He thought it was hysterical, and usually I believe him, very much so in this case - I loved it. It's not particularly high brow, but it does take a fairly usual concept - hating your job and letting life pass you by, and having to deal with the consequences - and does some unique stories with it. Rudd and Scott represent a sports drink and one day Rudd goes off the rails and they end up having to serve community service at a Boys and Girls club sort of place, run by the hysterical Jane Lynch. Scott is partnered with a young Bobb'e J. Thompson, with a foul mouth and obviously used to male influences leaving him. Rudd is teamed up with Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin' from Superbad) who enjoys live-action role playing games. They both struggle to get the boys to trust them, and work through their own issues, eventually fighting with each other. Ultimately they all work it out on the "battlefield" and come together (to form the nation of Kiss-My-Anthia - dressed like the band Kiss) to fight against some bad-ass players (the hysterical Ken Jeong as the King). There are lots of laugh really hard out loud moments. I thought it was better written and more believeable than much of the Judd Apatow franchise, with fewer potty jokes and a lot more humor. Watching Scott explain to his kid the great art of "boobie-watching" nearly had me in tears. As always Jane Lynch is just a hairs breath from over-the-top but always on the funny side. 4.5 stars/Lambs

Oscar nominations review: Doubt

The most nominated film for acting awards this season is Doubt. Meryl Streep (Best Actress), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Best Supporting Actor), Amy Adams and Viola Davis (Best Supporting Actress) all give terrific performances adding depth and nuance to the plot. Streep's principal nun, accuses Hoffman's priest, indirectly, of behaving inappropriately towards a little boy (Davis' son). The majority of the movie deals with how a person's character gives credence to whether or not they are capable or able to commit horrible acts. Streep's sister Aloysius is mean, a dragon of a teacher, very much of the old-school church. She's suspicious of Hoffmans' new ideas and enthusiasm which she eventually taints with a possible crimes and sees all his behaviors as suspicious. Adams is the young nun who has more optimism than maturity and faith in the goodness of people rather than the suspicious nature that comes with experience (as Streep's character has in spades). About half the people I know think he did it, but I'm still on the he didn't do it (he did something in the past that's still following him, but not this). The acting is supurb throughout and was worthy of all it's nominations. I'd love to see Viola Davis win, and would be fine with Meryl taking another one (Even if means Winslet doesn't win again). 4.5 Lambs/Stars overall too.