***** Exceptional
**** Great
*** OK
** So So
* Blah
All Good
Things is about the
disappearance/murder of Katherine Marks, wife of psychopathic real estate mogul
David Marks. Great performances. Just goes to show we never really know a
person. The frightening aspect of this story is at the end David Marks is found
not guilty of anything and he's now living in Florida still in real estate. ***
Before We Go is about a woman who is
stranded in New York after getting her purse stolen then she missed her train
back to Boston. She meets a trumpet player who is busking in Grand Central
Station to avoid attending his friend's pre-wedding party where his ex-girl
friend is with her new boyfriend. He offers to help her somehow get her home
before her husband gets home and they spend the night going from one idea to
the next. Great story. Simplistically brilliant. Great middle of the night New
York scenery. ****
Casual
Encounters is about a man who is
dumped on radio by his girlfriend. His friends at work get him to join an
online dating site called Casual
Encounters for casual sex. He keeps telling them he is a one-woman,
committed kind of guy, but does it anyway. Then he falls for his co-worker. It
was an odd comedy, trying too hard, but tolerable. **
Cloud Atlas I avoided this movie for a long time because I'm not
fond of weird sci-fi stories nor movies that jump through time and this one did
both. Blah. It features many different storylines, two set in the 1800s, one in
1930, one in 1973, one in 2012 and maybe two more in the future. I think. I
don't know for sure as I couldn't keep track. The theme is love never dies and
is reincarnated with each death so the characters are reincarnated in each time
period. The make-up was fun especially when they changed a person's race. Hugh
Grant was a sleazy nuclear something in one scene and a tribal warrior in
another. That was fun. Susan Sarandon was an eighteenth-century noble woman and
then some kind of witch doctor. Halle Berry and Tom Hanks were all kinds of
people in love in each new life. But it was hard to keep track of all the
different storylines and the bizarre sci-fi stuff. ***
Dancing, A
Man's Game was a television
special in 1958 featuring Gene Kelly talking about dance. He starts out
comparing dance movement with sports including guests such as Mickey Mantle,
Sugar Ray Robinson, Dick Button, Johnny Unitas and Bob Cousy. From there he
demonstrates classical ballet, the history of tap dance, and modern dance. It
was interesting, although at times really sexist. Men always lead and women must
always follow, BUT women can do things men can't do...like birthing babies.
hehehe ***
Disfigured is about an obese overeater and a non-eating anorexic
who meet at a fat acceptance support group. The anorexic woman tries to explain
she sees herself as fat and needs support, but members become very hostile and
ask her to leave. The two embark on a friendship. This was a low-budget,
amateur film addressing body image and how we perceive and usually reject our
bodies no matter how they look. Judgment and negative feedback from others is a
non-stop influential factor. Everyone has an opinion on how an obese person or
thin person should live. The movie just barely hints at underlying emotional
causes for eating disorders/overeating and totally ignores any possible
physiological causes. I remember reading a study that indicated obesity might
be caused by a virus. Or I wonder if overeating is directly related to some
vital organ not working correctly (pituitary gland). Can it be a chemically-induced
effect? Something poisoning people that
shuts down a normal weight-regulating function? My experiences with
thyroid medication makes me wonder. I think throughout history obesity has been
blamed on personal eating and exercise habits assuming people just need to
practice self-control. Blame the victim mentality. The medical system has failed
miserably at searching outside the box and finding real solutions. (What is
new?) The writing was a little cliché and the performances were not good to the
point of irritation. but for all its faults, the movie does inspire dialogue
which is its redeeming factor. **
Gambit was about a Monet expert (Colin Firth) who works for a
horrid, abusive man (Alan Rickman) who constantly berates him for being wimpy,
spineless, and useless. As revenge he plans an art forgery and theft using a
Texas rodeo star (Cameron Diaz). It was silly and a little stupid. Diaz's Texan
accent was cute but I think she's getting too old to play cutesy sex kitten
type rolls. Firth was adorable, as usual, but the role was beneath him. **
How I Live
Now is a futuristic drama about
World War III. Sixteen year old Daisy (Saoirse Ronan) is sent to England to
live with cousins as the war begins. Yeah, hmmm...not sure why if the war is
breaking out in Europe her dad would send her to England Why not just say in
New York or send her to California? She resents and rebels, angry at her father
for wanting to "get rid of her."
Her cousins live on a really cool, yet dirty farm in the English
countryside and Daisy is a bit of a clean freak, washing her hands constantly,
refusing to eat gluten and cheese, sneezing around all the cats. (I identified
with her immediately...hehehe.) Their mother is some kind of government
employee who heads to Geneva. Daisy
falls in love with her cousin Eddy... her cousin? Hmmm... A nuclear bomb falls
on London and the enemy invasion begins along with an evacuation. The kids all
hide out in a barn until soldiers invade, separate the boys from the girls and
they yell to each other to meet back at the farm if they get a chance to
escape. Daisy and her young cousin Piper are sent to live with a couple and
work on a farm until the enemy soldiers attack and they take off with map,
compass and gun to find home. It was a great story although not very well
thought out at moments. Saoirse Ronan has the most beautiful eyes. Performances
are great. English countryside is outstanding. Can I move there now? ***
The Immigrant
is about a Polish woman in 1921who
arrives in New York with her sister after their family was killed in the war.
The sister has tuberculosis and is quarantined. A sleaze ball pimp (Joaquin
Phoenix) makes a deal with the immigrant officials and buys her right out of
Ellis Island so they tell her that her aunt and uncle's address doesn't exist.
Joaquin convinces her he's her only hope and then forces her into
prostitution. With no money, no family,
and no work, she eventually complies as she's desperate to get her sister back.
Excellent yet disturbing story. Wow. ****
In a Valley
of Violence stars Ethan Hawke as
a Civil War/Indian War veteran who is heading to Mexico with his dog to escape
his demons. He passes through a town and the town bully, who is the sheriff's
(John Travolta) spoiled son picks a fight with him, gets his ass whooped, and
then with a few of his cronies, goes after Ethan and shoots his dog. It's not
smart to shoot a man's dog. Ethan is out for revenge. It's one of those weird blood-driven
comedy westerns with incredibly dumb caricatures of cowboys, a serious
storyline and lots of violence. The female characters were especially offensive
and obnoxious: airheads with loud shrill voices. Ethan's character wasn't very
interesting...I was hoping he'd at least have superpowers or something
redeeming about him, but he didn't. **
Like Sunday,
Like Rain is about a woman who
dumps her loser boyfriend who has been treating her like garbage for too long.
She loses her job because he shows up and makes a scene and she moves out of
their apartment. With no job and nowhere to live, she takes a temporary job as
a nanny. The twelve-year old boy is incredibly smart, filthy rich, but doesn't
really relate to kids his own age. In one of the first scenes we watch as the
maid wakes him up, puts his robe on him and actually ties the belt for him! He
seems a little rebellious to this treatment, but his domineering mother (Debra
Messing) is enough to make anyone rebellious. Now I thought this would be some
typical Hollywood feel good movie about a spoiled brat tamed by a Mary Poppins
or something along those lines, but it wasn't. She treats him with respect,
admires his intellect, and maturity. He cooks gourmet meals for her, gives her
tours of the art museum, and plays his cello for her. They fulfill each other's
need for companionship and have the perfect relationship - if it wasn't for
their age difference. I also thought it
might get weird since he is a twelve-year old adolescent and his one friend
keeps saying his nanny is "hot", but it really didn't. Good story
about relationships. ***
Lion WHAT AN AMAZING MOVIE!!! It's based on a true story
about a five year old Indian boy who while helping his old brother work in the
middle of the night gets too tired. His brother has him sleep on a bench in a
train station and tells him he'll be right back. He wakes up, goes looking for
his brother, gets on a train, falls asleep again, waking up to find he's locked
in the car traveling for days to who-knows-where. He ends up in Calcutta,
doesn't even speak the language and joins the thousands of other homeless children
surviving on the streets. Lucky for him he
ends up being adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty years he's tormented by
guilt and memory which prompts him to use the latest Internet research tools to
check train routes, calculating speeds to determine location, and with bird's
eye maps search for the familiar landscapes of his former home. I can't imagine
the terror that little boy experienced losing his family. Sunny Pawar who plays
five-year old Saroo has got to be the absolute cutest. Dev Patel plays older
Saroo and I have to say I have never watched movie with him I didn't love. He's
awesome, talented, and so very gorgeous! Very heartbreaking story. Outstanding.
I can't believe it didn't win any Oscars, but it was up against a lot of
competition. *****
London River is set against the July 7th terrorist attacks in
London. An African Muslim man from France and a Christian woman from Guernsey
are each looking for their missing adult child. They come together when they
realize their kids were a couple.
Excellent performances. The story was a little slow at times but I think
maybe it was supposed to add to the drama. ****
Love's
Enduring Promise is a Michael
Landon, Jr. production so it's like watching a modern episode of Little House on the Prairie. It's about
a community of farmers and families who struggle. Katherine Heigl and January
Jones were the main characters. Lots of God talk. Beautiful scenery. ***
Magic Mike I've always meant to see this movie and am often
reminded as it's constantly being referenced all the time in the media. And it
features the best looking men in Hollywood: Matthew McConaughey, Matt Bomer,
Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello. It's about a unemployed nineteen-year old who
is sleeping on his sister's couch and works for one day as a temporary
construction worker for another construction worker's assistant... Mike
(Channing Tatum). After he gets fired, he runs into Mike at a nightclub and is
introduced to the world of male stripping. Very interesting. It's filmed in a
weird yellowy technicolor reminiscent of old porn movies. ***
Marion River is about a woman who goes home when her mother is
dying and lives in the family home with her two sisters while dealing with past
domestic abuse issues. Performances were great. The story was very intriguing
because they never quite tell you exactly what happened during their childhood,
just little hints throughout the story. ***
Mother's Day was a comedy about mother's of all kinds: divorced
mothers, step mothers, lesbian mothers, grandmothers, obnoxious mothers, and
even dead mothers. It had a star-studded cast with Jennifer Anniston, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts, Jason Sudeikis,
Timothy Olyphant, Jennifer Gardner, Margo Martindale, among others. It was really great, and this is coming from
someone who normally doesn't like anything having to do with Mother's Day. ****
The Private
Lives of Pippa Lee Robin Wright
is a housewife married to an older publisher and they just moved to a
retirement community. She's very docile, but was a bit wild as a young girl.
She starts sleep walking and often ends up at the convenience store where her
neighbor's son works. Wright's performance was outstanding. Interesting story.
***
Rules Don't
Apply is about Howard Hughes in
the late 1950s -60s. The soundtrack was awesome and the sets/scenery were
really spectacular. They used some kind of colored filter so the panoramic
views of Hollywood looked like an old photograph. The street views were amazing
special effects along with all the costumes, cars, and details. Interesting
story about one of Hughes's contracted starlets who is small-town religious,
sweet, and enthusiastic. Her mother is played by Annette Bening. All-star cast even down to the minor parts.
Warren Beatty who wrote, produced and directed the film, as well as starred as
Hughes, was excellent. I didn't like the
plot and how it panned out. Hmmm...***
Somewhere is about a celebrity...who has a daughter. I lasted through forty minutes of
excruciating boredom before turning it off. The daughter shows up for about 10
minutes then back to his mundane, directionless life. Maybe it would have
gotten interesting, but I wasn't seeing it. The first two minutes of him racing
his car around a desert race track set
the tone. I should have taken the clue then. *
The Station
Agent is about a man (Peter
Dinklage) who has a fascination with trains and works in a model train store.
His boss dies and leaves him an abandoned train station in the middle of nowhere.
He just wants to be left alone but the quirky town's folk won't go away. Bobby
Cannavale is hilarious, Patricia Clarkson is wonderfully weird, and Michelle
Williams is adorable. I didn't want it to be over. I wouldn't mind if someone
left me a train station although I don't know if I'd want the trains roaring by
in the middle of the night. You'd have to really love trains to tolerate all
that noise. ****
Tracks is based on the true story of Robyn Davidson's 1700
mile trek across Australia with four camels and a dog. Mia Wasikowska stars
with Adam Driver as the National Geographic photographer who meets her every
five or so weeks. Excellent story and performances. She was so dirty and sun
burnt and all that dirty, tangly, stringy hair hanging in her eyes - I think I
would have cut my hair off just so I wouldn't have to deal with it. It amazes
me she didn't have more problems. Every time a car with people drove up I kept
thinking they were bad people. She sure had a lot of courage to attempt this
alone as a woman. ****
Trouble with
the Curve was a baseball movie
about an aging baseball scout who is losing his vision (Clint Eastwood) and his
attorney daughter (Amy Adams) who helps
her father for a few days while struggling with their somewhat estranged
relationship. Justin Timberlake plays
one of the other scouts who was one of her father's recruits and ends up being
her love interest. Good story especially with a strong female character who
knows more about baseball than most men, but the performances were not good. Or
was it the dialogue? The script? It sounded like everyone was very carefully
reading their lines for the first time as if they didn't know their characters.
Especially Eastwood. He was tripping over words and I could hardly understand
what he was saying with that gravelly voice and his articulation issues. It was
as if he couldn't breathe when he spoke. Watching (listening) to him was
uncomfortable and he spent most of this time grunting and scowling. Even Amy
Adams seemed to pronounce each syllable too carefully like she was trying too
hard. She's normally an outstanding actress. Maybe it's bad direction? Even so,
for a baseball movie, it had a lot of heart which made it enjoyable.***
World's Apart
was good, but too abstract for
me. I like a simple plot. This is Greece with all its socio-political-economic
problems and there are three different, but interrelated stories with a second
chance theme and Eros, god of love. One is about a Greek girl who falls in love
with a Syrian refugee. Her father has joined a group that goes out and
harasses, beats up, and shoots immigrants claiming they are ruining the lives
of Greeks. The second story is about a Swedish woman who has been sent to
Greece to prepare a Greek company for a corporate takeover, slashing
departments and firing employees: globalization in the worst possible way. She
falls in love with one of the company's managers creating a conflict of interest.
The third story is about an older German man who begins meeting a married Greek
woman at the grocery store every week. She speaks just enough English to tell
him his country ruined her country and their family is miserable because of it.
None of the couples speak the language of the other person, but can
communication in English, although not always fluently. There was some message
about how emotion in speech is more easily understood than words. There was way
more symbolism and meaning than was comfortable. It's one of those movies where
I felt like my pea-sized brain was constantly missing the point which is always
frustrating. ***
The World's
Greatest Dad is about a father
(Robin Williams) with the worst teenage son you could imagine. He's a rude,
disrespectful, mouthy, belligerent, hypersexual bully who cares about no one
and nothing. His father is a failed writer teaching poetry at a high school.
His girl friend is another teacher who wants to keep their relationship a
secret but is dating the other English teacher who is far more popular. His
life is dreary and depressing. He's also a wimp who can't stand up to his
spoiled teenage brat, lets him mouth off, lets him be rude and disrespectful,
buying him whatever he wants. Bad, pathetic parenting at its worst. He finds
his son dead from asphyxiation while masturbating and stages it as a suicide
writing a heart-felt suicide note. The note ends up published in the school
newspaper and it starts a cult-obsession with this kid who treated everyone
like garbage and no one liked. He's now a martyr-like figure, idolized as a
celebrity of sorts fueled by this father's lies when he decides to publish his
son's fake diary he writes himself. Everyone thinks they misunderstood him and
now see him as the epitome of teenagery. It was very weird and the fact that
Robin William's committed suicide by hanging made it even more bizarre and
creepy. It was anything but funny,
although the promotion for it says it's hilarious. Hardly.***
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