HBO Movie: Temple Grandin

When Temple Grandin cleaned up at the Emmys a few weeks ago, I was intrigued about Claire Danes' biopic.  While I haven't seen all the other nominees in the categories they won, this is one of the best movies I've seen this year.  There aren't many movies where you just sit there when the credits start playing, thinking about what you've just seen and most of those include a tragic death or world-saving battle.  So it was all the more remarkable when it happened at the end of a movie about a still-living autistic woman who redesigned slaughter houses.   Claire Danes plays Grandin, from her early college days through graduate school in the late 1960s and 1970s.  She was diagnosed with autism as a toddler when she hadn't spoken by age 4, and her mother (played by Emmy winner Julia Ormond) fought like crazy to keep her daughter around and prevent her from losing out on a "normal life" - her mantra is something like "different, but not less". 

Claire Danes with the real Temple Grandin

We meet Grandin when she's arrived for the summer at her aunt's cattle ranch before going on to college (an idea that scares the crap out of her because there are so many people she doesn't understand and who don't understand her).  Catherine O'Hara is her understanding aunt who tries to help her figure out how to approach college.  One day when they're inoculating the cattle, Temple see this machine that holds the cattle still, calming them before their shot.  She realizes this could work for her too - the calming effect of a hug without actually having to touch another person.  When she arrives at college, with her own "hug machine", the university says no way (they think it has something to do with sex) until she does a scientific study showing that it helps most people feel calm, not just her. 

This sets her on a path of scientific inquiry - because she "sees in pictures" abstract thought is something really difficult (like learning a language or creative writing).  But the absolutes of science appeal to her nature and disposition, particularly because of the autism.  She continues after college at the University of Arizona studying animal husbandry and life sciences.  She is in a stockyard when she starts wondering why some cattle moo louder than others, and starts studying their behavior.  Because she can relate images together, she pieces together reasons for different cattle behavior, like moving in curves and not wanting to walk downhill.  She can relate to what scares them because she's particularly sensitive to sights, sounds, and textures.  She tricks her way into the stockyard for her masters thesis, and when she graduates she's asked to re-design a cattle "dip" (where they dip the cattle in a debugging liquid).  The old designs had a high mortality rate (from drowning) and would take more time and more people to run them than the design Temple creates which plays to cattle's own behaviors.  She finds a way to make cattle willing to enter the dip because they feel safe.  Ultimately, she figures out how to do the same for slaughterhouses, creating humane ways to herd the cattle right up until the moment they die.  Throughout all her schooling, her high school science teacher, David Strathairn, supports her vision, describing every step of her journey as "another door to walk through".  Visualizing walking through a door helps Temple actually do the next step in her career. 

The movie helps us get into the mind of Temple by showing some of the constant pictures she sees, and how they might relate.  It does a good job explaining her place on the autistic spectrum without having lots and lots of monologue.  She's actually quite aware of her own issues with the world, which is where the movie comes to an end - when she realizes she's a terrific candidate to educate the world about what it means to live with autism.  I'm not doing the movie justice, but you'll have to take my word that it's not cheesy, it's not cliched, it doesn't oversimplify her life too much, and yet, it still tugs on your heartstrings and gives your outlook on life a boost.  5 of 5 stars/lambs

Movie Meme Day 3 - Favorite Oscar-nominated movie from most recent ballot

In the interest of full disclosure, I have either purchased or been given the following movies that could also qualify for this post: Sherlock Holmes, Inglorious Basterds, Julie and Julia, Up, The Blind Side and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. However, I'm choosing the best one and my favorite, though potentially a movie I might not see again - The Hurt Locker.  I will actually steal from my previous review of this movie.

Most people know it's about a group of soldiers in Iraq, and directed by now Oscar Winner (and heroine of divorced women everywhere) Kathryn Bigelow (James Cameron's ex-wife) and that it's on lots of best-of lists. That was all I knew when I saw it. Here's a bit more: Jeremy Renner (I loved him on the now canceled "The Unusuals") is the lead actor playing a bomb tech brought in to lead a unit. He's a bit of a loose cannon, though it's not explained why, which is a nice change. He's just been a very successful bomb tech (obviously, he's still alive) and has used his methods of basically not being afraid to get him there. The unit he's joined, with Anthony Mackie (left in the photo), who likes to follow all protocols and make sure everyone is very safe (hard to fault him there - they're in Iraq disarming bombs) and Brian Geraghty who seems to be suffering a lot of stress, possibly because he works with bombs. The trio is called in to disarm IEDs and remove explosive things from all over Baghdad. It's got to be the worst job in the army - so stressful and if you mess up, you'll die, and likely you'll kill all the people around you. But Renner has found an inner strength to survive doing the job, and his team struggles to find their own methods to work with him.

There are lots of smaller scenes that have little to do with their bomb job that give depth to the story of the war, without ever mentioning the reasons, the patriotism, the enemies, the allies, etc. In reality, this story could take place during a war waged for any reason in almost any place. Obviously, it takes place in a city in a desert, but all the specifics of the war are left out of the story. Our bomb trio meets up with a group of British soldiers, but the only thing to identify them as from an allied force is that they have British accents, and mention they're on the same side. I really liked this fact about the movie. It's about the soliders, not the war. Yes, you're scared almost every time you see them go out to disarm a bomb, and most of the tension of the film comes from that idea, and not the overwhelming stress of winning or losing the war, but rather a small, specific, extremely important task. The directing of the movie is terrific, giving lingering views of everything they do without ever losing focus on the story. In addition, the acting is extremely capable, believable, and draws you in to care about each one.
Very good movie - go get the DVD. 5 of 5 stars/lambs

New Release: The Kids Are All Right

One of the things I miss most about living in New York City (other than friends and family and City Bakery) is the availability of limited release movies.  A quick trip for work gave me the chance to catch The Kids Are Alright, which was the basis of the Reel Insight podcast a few weeks ago on Julianne Moore, so I was pretty excited.  That and word of mouth and reviews were stellar, and I'm very happy to say it totally lived up to the hype.  A perfect combination of comedy and drama, this movie defies a single genre category.  I'll give you a good description and perhaps someone can give me the best category.  Two women, Nic (Annette Benning) and Jules (Julianne Moore) are in a committed relationship, and have raised two children, Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (John Hutcherson).  Each mom gave birth to one of the kids, using the same sperm donor, so the kids are half-siblings.  Now Joni is 18, about to head off to college, and Laser convinces her to contact the sperm bank to find out about their biological dad.  It starts off with Laser sort of needing a better male role model, like the dad of his loser friend Clay.  However, once they decide to meet Paul (Mark Ruffalo), it's Joni and Jules who realize they might have been missing something.   Nic is a doctor and supports the family, but is a bit of a control freak.  Jules is more of a free spirit and wants to start her own landscaping business.  Paul, too, is a free spirit who didn't finish college, but now runs his own restaurant and organic farm.  There are 3 major story lines through the movie: Laser's relationship with Clay (which Nic and Jules suspect might be more than friends), Joni's relationship with Paul, blossoming with someone who might be a good role model outside of the rigid life she's led so far, and finally Jules relationship with Paul after he hires her to landscape his yard.  Then the overarching story is what does it mean to be kids in a family with two moms.  Each relationship is filled with humor and drama, as all relationships can be.  I won't describe everything that happens, but will say that there aren't really any spoilers.  It's the kind of movie where the details don't actually spoil the overall story, which can only be experienced as a whole.  One of the funniest moments is when Laser walks in on his parents having sex and watching gay MALE porn.  They sit him down to talk and the only question he has is why they were watching guys.  Nic starts with it's a private thing, but Jules is more practical and says something along the lines of "Lesbian porn tends to be two straight acttresses pretending to be gay, and it's just not realistic."  This is hysterical because Nic is trying to shush Jules and Laser doesn't want that much detail, but it's also a nod to the people watching the film acknowledging that Annette Bening and Julianne Moore are not in fact gay women, but actresses pretending to be gay.  The whole movie is sophisticated enough in the dialogue and acting skills of the whole cast to be able to interact with the audience just a little bit like that.  Yes, there is some commentary on what it means to be gay, definitely lots of commentary on relationships.  When Paul turns out not be a good father figure and Joni confronts him with the simple "I wish you'd been better."  It sums up his character just about perfectly.  And he's the perfect person to play it - not too earnest, not too needy, not too cute (just right in my opinion) and not too together.  Overall, the five major players in this movie were perfectly cast and gave funny, dramatic performances.  It was the subtle differences that made you momentarily aware this was just a standard family, like when the kids would say "The moms are going to freak out" rather than Mom and Dad are going to freak out.  I think the fact that it was just so smooth made it really easy to relate to the family unit even if it's a kind of family unit with which some might not be intimately familiar.  I left loving the movie and wanting to see it again.  Easily the best movie I've seen in 2010.  I'd be surprised if this movie doesn't have some awards buzz.  5 of 5 stars/lambs

One last thing, the title is "All Right" rather than "Alright", which I think is the idea that kids are figuring things out about gay marriage, parents, relationships, etc. and that things are moving in the right direction, but that's just my own opinion. 

DVD Review (without a DVD): The Hurt Locker

I really wanted to see The Hurt Locker. I actually missed my chance on a plane (yes, it was showing on a plane in October!) because I fell asleep too soon. And when it was released this week, I already had my quota of DVDs from Netflix and want to see them all, so I used something I hadn't really taken advantage of before - Amazon Video on Demand via Roku. It was $3.99 but I got to see it on my TV when I wanted to, the day it was released. All movies need to have this available - lots don't, the digital rights are tied up somehow.

Anyway, perhaps because I was so thrilled that something slightly complicated worked so easily, I really, really enjoyed The Hurt Locker. It's been out in the world for so long that I'd heard good things, but this was the first way I actually had access to it - it was nominated for LAST year's Independent Spirit awards (it was first shown at the Venice Film Festival in 2008!). Most people know it's about a group of soldiers in Iraq, and directed by Kathryn Bigelow (James Cameron's ex-wife) and that it's on lots of best-of lists. That was all I knew when I saw it. Here's a bit more: Jeremy Renner (I loved him on the now canceled "The Unusuals", he's on the right side of the photo) is the lead actor playing a bomb tech brought in to lead a unit. He's a bit of a loose cannon, though it's not explained why, which is a nice change. He's just been very successful bomb tech (obviously, he's still alive) and has used his methods of basically not being afraid to get him there. The unit he's joined, with Anthony Mackie (left in the photo), who likes to follow all protocols and make sure everyone is very safe (hard to fault him there - they're in Iraq disarming bombs) and Brian Geraghty who seems to be suffering a lot of stress, possibly because he works with bombs. The trio is called in to disarm IEDs and remove explosive things from all over Baghdad. It's got to be the worst job in the army - so stressful and if you mess up, you'll die, and likely you'll kill all the people around you. But Renner has found an inner strength to survive doing the job, and his team struggles to find their own methods to do the job.

There are lots of smaller scenes that have little to do with their bomb job that give depth to the story of the war, without ever mentioning the reasons, the patriotism, the enemies, the allies, etc. In reality, this story could take place during a war waged for any reason in almost any place. Obviously, it takes place in a city in a desert, but all the specifics of the war are left out of the story. Our bomb trio meets up with a group of British soldiers, but the only thing to identify them as from an allied force is that they have British accents, and mention they're on the same side. I really liked this fact about the movie. It's about the soliders, not the war. Yes, you're scared almost every time you see them go out to disarm a bomb, and most of the tension of the film comes from that idea, and not the overwhelming stress of winning or losing the war, but rather a small, specific, extremely important task. The directing of the movie is terrific, giving lingering views of everything they do without ever losing focus on the story. In addition, the acting is extremely capable, believable, and draws you in to care about each one.
Very good movie - go get the DVD. 5 of 5 stars/lambs

Dreams do come true!

A few weeks ago, there was a meme circulating about the time and place in TV or film you'd most like to live. One of my choices was the world of Jane Austen. Now, it actually was made into a British TV series last year on BBC called "Lost in Austen". It's 4 episodes, but on DVD now it just runs as a single event, with no obvious breaks. The idea of stepping into the world of Austen is brought to life when Amanda Price's (Jemima Rooper, from "Hex") favorite literary character, Elizabeth Bennett, has stepped through the wall of her attic, into Amanda's 21st Century bathroom in Hammersmith, London. Amanda steps through to see if it's true and becomes stuck on the other side, in Longborn, from Pride and Prejudice. She's wearing a leather jacket and jeans, but manages to explain her ensemble as "otter hunting garb". She follows the story of P&P, trying to make things come out the way the book she loves has foretold, but her presence in the story (and Elizabeth's absence) starts changing things. It's a wonderfully funny and heartfelt retelling of P&P from the perspective of one who loves the novel. The actors are familiar with Alex Kingston (Dr. Elizabeth Corday from "ER") and Hugh Bonneville (Bernie from Notting Hill) as Mr. and Mrs. Bennett. The other standout was the infamously wonderfully Mr. Darcy played by Elliot Cowan, who bears a remarkable resemblance to the late Heath Ledger. His brooding, lovelost portrayal of Mr. Darcy is constantly compared to Colin Firth's performance, and it does hold up well. Overall, a terrific rental for any who like British comedy or Jane Austen. 5 stars/lambs

Milk review

It's been quite a few days since I've seen Milk, but I wasn't sure I had anything new to say except to expose my own ignorance about events that preceded my birth. First, I loved the movie. It's a great biographical history of Harvey Milk, as well as some of the first major events of the gay rights movement (pre-AIDS, which was interesting historically, certain arguments weren't used or brought out that prevailed after AIDS became prevalent). Sean Penn was wonderful. From the trailers I expected him to be playing a character very similar to his in I Am Sam, but the trailers do him a disservice. He's much more up and down in energy, politics, and relationships than the snapshot shown quickly in trailers. The supporting cast is also pretty amazing (though I don't think Josh Brolin deserved his nomination this year - perhaps it's a make-up for last year). Given how the move through Milk's life in different ways and we barely hear their names, it was remarkably easy to keep track because they just made an impression. Emile Hirsh, James Franco, Diego Luna, and Alison Pill (the oldest daughter in Dan in Real Life which I just saw again) were all good, individual characters that helped Harvey fight for what was right. I had a lot of trouble watching all the hate that they battled for equal rights, and can't really believe we're still fighting some of the same battles, but at least the people fighting today have a little more info on how far they have come. 5 LAMBS/stars

DVD Roundup

I'll start with a movie I've reviewed before, and just recently watched several times on DVD - the incomparable Juno. Lately I've not been interested enough in most of the movies I've seen to bother with any additional material on the DVD, but as I wrote before, there's just something about Juno that you want to know more about the actors or characters. The gag reel on the DVD is terrific, as you'd expect from these amazing comedic actors - with Jason Batemen making fun of Arrested Development. Also, the deleted scenes were perfectly edited out, but great additions to the DVD. Still a 5 star movie.The second movie I saw on DVD is Ed Harris' Appaloosa, a standard western with several very classic male stereotypes very well played by Harris, Viggo Mortensen and Jeremy Irons, a somewhat unique female character (either a horribly played character by Renee Zellweger or a horrible character well-played, I can't really decide) and a story that starts out great but falls off the rails. To get other perspectives, here's the link to the LAMBs opinions back when it was in theaters. Harris and Mortensen are legal guns for hire that have arrived in Appaloosa to rid the town of the notorious bad guy Randall Bragg (Irons). They make the rules and eventually get enough evidence to arrest Bragg, and spend a lot of time keeping him alive and arrested long enough to stand trial. Meanwhile, an odd young woman, Mrs. French (Zellweger) arrives in town looking for a man. She hooks up with Harris who thinks he loves her and the movie sort of follows her hooking up with any dominant stallion-type man who might protect her. What I meant by somewhat unique about her character is that rarely have we seen women so subtly switch between men. She's certainly a whore trying to live respectably, but doesn't bother with the niceties of breaking up with one man while pursuing another. Not a very stereotypical female character in westerns. The main reason to watch Appaloosa is Viggo Mortensen. He has a weird facial hair situation that seems appropriate to the time and place, but it's his subtle loyalty to Harris' leader and his own sense of right and wrong appearing to lead him too. I'd give it 2.5 stars/Lambs, for poor editing (should have been about 20 minutes shorter) and Zellweger's bad acting.

DVD Roundup

Given the current climate of films at our local cineplex, I've been checking out a few more DVDs. And luckily, I really haven't been disappointed at all. Two very, very different, but equally enjoyable movies have arrived in the mail recent. The first is The Counterfeiters (Die Falscher) which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for 2007. The tagline for the movie on IMDb is, "It takes a clever man to make money, it takes a genius to stay alive", but that barely describes the depths of this movie. Salomen "Sally" Sorowitsch is imprisoned by the SS prior to WWII for counterfeiting IDs, passports, and even the American dollar. He works in the prison camps for a while, and then is sent to a concentration camp once the Holocaust is underway. However, the officer of the SS (now a leader in the concentration camp schemes) searches for him (it's always amazed me the records the Nazis kept of their horror) and brings him to join Project Bernhard. It's in the middle of a concentration camp, but the inmates have soft beds, showers, lots of food, and even a ping-pong table for weekends. In return, they have to counterfeit the British pound and eventually the American dollar. In the largest counterfeiting scheme in history, the Nazis intend to fuel the war effort by flooding the currency market with perfectly forged currency. As our hero Sally was the best there is, he's brought in to be sure perfection is achieved. He's a bit of a smarmy, little, soft-spoken weaselly guy that only looks to survive. He does everything he's told. However, the other key player in Project Bernhard is Burger, an expert in the technology needed to make the dollar, but who refuses to collaborate with the Nazis. Imprisoned for printing anti-Nazi propaganda, Burger continues to sabotage the efforts to produce the dollar. He constantly makes the argument that it's better to die than to help them, while Sally represents the surviving at any cost argument. The acting throughout is superb, with every character winning your affection and dislike repeatedly. This is a terrific movie that focuses on a single element of the Holocaust and the different methods, arguments, and morals that go into fighting for what is right. I loved the whole film. 5 of 5 stars/lambs.

The other movie I saw on DVD, coincidentally, takes place just prior to WWII also, though in London. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a movie made from a book written by a woman ahead of her time. Frances McDormand plays Miss Pettigrew, a destitute former governess searching for work. She stumbles upon Delysia LaFosse (Amy Adams) in need of a social secretary, and manages to work her magic to get Delysia the lead in a new play. She moves among the elite of London society for the day, attending a lingerie show and a party at the club where Delysia performs her final night. During this day, our straight-laced Miss Pettigrew meets the 3 men who claim to love Delysia - Phillip, the producer of the play, Nick, the owner of the club and her caretaker, and Michael, the penniless piano player who wants to take Delysia to New York to start fresh. The movie attempts to be a '40s style farce with mistaken identity, misunderstandings and love triumphant. It does a very good job of achieving them all. It's a cute romp about living in a man's world and still trying to find love and be yourself. Very cute 4 of 5 stars.

WALL E and Robot Love

Everyone's been writing about how great the new Pixar movie Wall-E is, and I won't be any different. It's sort of the animated love-child of Star Wars (only Episode 4) ET: The Extraterrestrial, that was raised by 2001: A Space Odyssey. Our hero Wall-E is left on Earth for 700 years to help clean up garbage left by a Walmart-esque explosion of consumerism. All the humans have left to tour the galaxy in a luxury space ship until all the WallEs are finished cleaning. Wall-E creates massive buildings of garbage and finds little treasures along the way (reminded me of Ariel in The Little Mermaid collecting her human thingymabobs and whatchamakalits). He particularly likes a video of Hello, Dolly and his greatest aspiration is to hold hands with someone he loves. Since he's alone on Earth with only a cockroach, he just continues dreaming. However, a space probe lands on Earth, and EVE gets out. She seems to be searching for something, and she and WALL-E meet and try to communicate (though in the constant struggle that is technology upgrading, they don't quite speak the same language). However, WALL-E falls for our giggly EVE. He shows her his treasures (a light bulb, a Rubik's cube, etc.) and even a plant he discovered. She shuts down and waits for transport, because she's obviously been looking for plant life again. They end up on the human space ship where people have stopped walking (they are carted around all day and waited on by robots). The robots haven't quite taken over, but you can feel HAL wanting to reprimand Dave from time to time. Of course since the movie is Pixar all things work out well, but the climactic fight scene is awesome. You want humans to figure out they've lost something, and you want Robots to find love. It's a great movie that everyone should see. Little kids will love it. My heart nearly melted toward the end when a very little kid in the theater wondered aloud to his mom, "Will WALL-E be okay?" It's a testament to the heart-warming qualities of the movie that I didn't want to kill the kid for talking at the theater. No special circle of hell for me...WALL-E saved me. 5 LAMBS/stars