***** Exceptional
**** Great
*** OK
** So So
* Blah
Amreeka is about a Palestinian mother who moves with her son
to America for a better life. The first half hour or so is about their life in
the Middle East with security checkpoints, surrounded by poverty, and really
ugly landscape. I know this is homeland for many, but eeeewww! what a bleak
place to live devoid of color and beauty. The rest of the movie is about the culture
shock (it's snowing when they get there) and struggles they face in a new
country riddled with anti-Middle Eastern sentiment. It was really good. ****
Beatrix at
Dinner The DVD cover calls it
"A Sharply Funny Comedy"...? What? The summary makes it sound like
some hilarious ruse where there is a laugh a minute. Even the cover photos have all actors smiling and laughing. Someone totally missed the
point or the cover writer didn't watch the movie! It is about a
Mexican-American masseuse, Beatrix (Selma Hayek), who does various energy modalities and has a gift for healing. She works with
cancer patients and on the side has a massage practice that caters to rich
people. One of her clients (Connie Britton) has an appointment right before an
important dinner party with her husband's sleazy business associates. Beatrix's
car won't start so the rich lady invites her stay for dinner...? That seemed
really unrealistic. They do keep saying how the masseuse is more like a family
friend since she helped heal the daughter who had cancer, but still
unrealistic. I know if I were in her shoes I'd feel very uncomfortable as a
freeloader, not dressed appropriately, etc. The dinner guests show up, talk
about raping lands and making mega bucks at the expense of the environment and
indigenous people, show off their African safari kills, and even ask Beatrix to
re-fill their drinks assuming she is the help. John Lithgow's character makes
one want to vomit he is so vile. Beatrix is pretty brazen in her opinions, lets
them know how disgusting their business dealings and recreational activities
are. It was a very uncomfortable movie right to the end. Definitely NOT a
comedy. Excellent performances by all. ***
Be Somebody is about teen idol Jordan Jaye who gets left behind
when he leaves his tour bus unbeknowst to his managers and handlers. A few of
his fan recognize him and the chase begins. He comes across pizza
delivery girl getting gas at a gas station who dashes him away and he spends
the weekend with her on vacation from his world tour. It was a sweet
friendship/love story. Really stupid title. ***
Bokeh is about an American couple who go to Iceland for
vacation only to wake up one morning and everyone has disappeared! The city is
empty. The infrastructure is still working: lights, water, electricity, for a
while anyway. Cars abandoned in the middle of the road are still in drive, no
one answering their cell phones, internet still working, but no activity since
the day before. Eventually they realize they are alone. He tries seeing the positive
side of their situation while she is stressed, homesick, negative and religious.
She was raised by a Christian minister so her outlook is decidedly apocalyptic.
Is it the rapture? She is bent on trying to make sense and find meaning. Are
they the only ones on earth not "chosen"? Are they bad? Why were they
left and not others? Trying to make sense of a senseless predicament only adds
to her negative attitude. It was a little slow, lacking in budget, and lacking
in plot diversions that would make it more interesting. Iceland looks beautiful. I constantly wondered
how they rid this town of people so they could film. Total silence. ***
The Book of
Henry This was a truly odd story
that veered dramatically away from the expected. I anticipated a cliché plot:
intellectually-gifted boy who does everything for his mother finds out the
neighbor girl (Maddie Ziegler from Dance Moms
growing up fast) is being molested by her step-father (Dean Norris) who is the
police commissioner with a lot of high-powered friends, concocts some wise plan
to bring justice to the situation, everyone lives happily ever after. Jeez, it took a turn for the worst right in
the middle of the movie. Totally unexpected. So weird and discombobulating, but
continued with the real theme. (Sorry I don't want to divulge too much). Most performances
were great. Naomi Watts was the mother. Maddie Ziegler dances in a talent show,
but her acting skills were wanting. The little brother was so adorable. ***
Brave is a Disney cartoon about a little Viking girl with a
Scottish accent who doesn't want to follow tradition and be betrothed to the
highest bidder. So she buys a spell from a witch to change her stubborn,
traditional mother and her mother ends up being turned into a bear. The cute
little girl with the wild red hair is adorable. Nothing special about the
cartoon unlike some Disney animated cartoons. Kids would like it. **
Collateral
Beauty is about a man (Will
Smith) head of a tech company who espouses the universal truths of how humans
all want love, need more time, and fear death. If business appeals to these
basic human needs, success happens. His six year old daughter dies and he's
drowning in grief, unable to function daily at work or in life. He spends his days at a dog park staring
aimlessly and his nights holed up in his dark apartment writing angry letters
to death, time and love. His business partners/associates (Edward Norton, Kate
Winslet, and Michael Pena) need his major stock holder status to be able to
function before the business goes belly up. When his lack of effort puts
everyone's job at risk they devise a plan. First, they hire a private detective
to watch him in order to find evidence of a mental breakdown and his letter writing activities are discovered. They hire three actors to represent death (Ellen
Mirren), love (Keira Knightly) and time (Jacob Latimore) to confront him. To
add complexity to the storyline, each of the actors is paired with an associate who is having his or her own issue with love, time or death. It was very interesting. All great performances and all-star cast.
****
Colossal with Anne Hathaway as an unemployed alcoholic who
moves to her parents' empty home after her boyfriend kicks her out of their
apartment. She runs into an old classmate who hires her as a waitress in his
bar where she continues to stay up all night getting drunk. And that's where it
stopped being somewhat sane. She can go to a
park at 8:05am in the morning, hung over, and somehow, magically, a monster
appears in South Korea killing everyone. It's controlled by her. She steps into
the playground and she's stepping on the city buildings of Seoul. Yeah, I have
no idea what this movie was really about. Someone told me with sci-fi you have
to be willing to suspend realism and accept the weirdness as if it is normal.
Hmmm...probably why I hate sci-fi. I kept hoping something would eventually
make sense or there would be an obvious metaphor so I kept watching, but
nothing. *
Everything
Everything is about a seventeen
year old girl who has some weird disease that makes all germs life threatening
so she has lived her whole life in a sterile environment never leaving the
house. She dreams of swimming in the ocean. Cute boy moves in next door and
makes her question her very bland existence.
The story had an enormous amount of potential, but failed miserably at
delivery. Everything, everything was wrong with it. First, if the main
character has to narrate (with illustrations!) for fear the audience won't get
it, then something is wrong with the script. Most of performances weren't very
good, very staged, lacking in proper interpretation of the situation, lacking
in human emotion and passion, bland like robot people. I'm going to blame this
on the bad direction and possibly inexperienced actors. The characters were poorly developed which
contributed to the boring performances and so many of the scenes were
unrealistic. How does a secluded teenager qualify for a credit card? She starts
getting deliveries from online stores and the mother's response is, "Oh,
that's such a nice sweater on you." Really? Who the fuck is paying for it?
How does she get on an airplane when she can't possibly have proper
identification? All this sidelining to keep the plot interesting was a waste of
energy when someone should have instead have spent more time developing the
story and characters. The dialogue was cliché and lacked passion. So many
scenes that should have been poignant or moving missed the mark. Even with all
my negative criticism, it was a great story. Just disappointing in
presentation. **
50 to 1 is about a long-shot race horse who somehow qualifies
for the Kentucky Derby and then wins it. Based on a true story, it was a pretty
clean-cut story that seemed like an after-school special. I figured they'd
throw some God talk in there, but it didn't get that mushy. ***
Ghost in the
Shell is a sci-fi about a
futuristic Japan and robotic enhancements to humans. The latest advancement is
adding human brains to robotic bodies to be used as advanced weapons. Major (Scarlett
Johansson) is the first successful experiment and she was programmed to believe she was a terrorist
attack victim who was saved through technology. Later she finds out she was a
runaway living underground, protesting the evils of technology, kidnapped by a
tech corporation, and had her brain removed. Great performances. Really awesome
futuristic sets. But I'm not a sci-fi fan...too much science for me. Sci-fi
fans would love it. ***
Gifted is about a precocious little girl who is very smart
living with her uncle because her highly-intelligent mathematician mother
committed suicide. He's trying to give her a chance to be a normal kid and
sends her to public school. Her boredom gets her in trouble causing the powers
that be to call her grandmother who sues for custody. It was a fairly
predictable plot. One turn of events was unrealistic, but they must have thought
that was a good idea to add some drama. Great performances by Chris Evans and
Octavia Spencer. ***
Hunt for the
Wilder People is a New Zealand
film about a delinquent foster child who goes to live with two country people
on their farm on the edge of the Bush. The woman is welcoming, loving, has a
habit of giving homes to all kinds of strays, and composes individualized birthday
songs while playing along on her little portable piano. Very sweet. Her
companion is a grumpy old man who doesn't want to be bothered. After a tragedy,
the government comes to get the boy to take him to juvie jail (he's been
through all the foster homes that will take him) and he's not having it,
running into the Bush with his dog Tupac followed the police, the military and
everyone else hunting him for the reward. It was delightful and heart-warming with
many LOL moments due to the outstanding writing. The kid was adorable. ****
The Keeping
Room is a near-the-end-of-the Civil War western about three
Southern women, two sisters and a slave, living alone on a farm trying to
survive. Two Union degenerates find their farm and the fun begins. It's very
violent, but realistic. Excellent performances. What a horrible time to live
especially for women. ***
Kidnap Halle Berry's six-year
old son is kidnapped from a park while she talks on her cell phone. She tears
off after them, loses her phone in the chase so she can't call for help,
speeding down the freeway following them for fear if she loses the car, she'll
lose her son forever. In the chase they leave a wake of car accidents and
general damage. She is in a car accident no less than three times as the chase
ensues, still able to walk after each one, unrealistic, but really good or the
story might have ended too soon. Then she runs out of gas, but the fun doesn't
stop there! Never a dull moment. ****
Maggie's Plan
is about a woman who wants to get
pregnant but doesn't want the drama of a relationship. Then she falls in love
with a married man who isn't happy in his marriage, he leaves his wife, they
have a child, and then she starts falling OUT of love with him. This is where I
got bored. I guess she talks the ex-wife into trying to take him back, but I
was too bored to care and turned it off. *
Nina is about Nina Simone, mostly her last eight years. She
was a mess. Great performances. Zoe Saldana was superb and unrecognizable.
Excellent music. ****
Personal
Shopper is about a woman (Kristen
Stewart) who is a personal shopper to a celebrity living in Paris. She's also a
medium waiting for her dead twin brother to prove there is life after death. Yeah,
I know. It was very weird and Kristen as usual is exceptionally tormented.
She's really good at playing tormented, but it makes one wonder if she can do
anything else. **
Planet of the
Apes I have never seen this series. The first, released in
1968, is definitely dated with obnoxious 1960s horror music, really bad
melodramatic performances focusing on emotional exaggeration rather than real
human behavior and dialogue, bad scriptwriting, bad everything. I know it's a
classic, and yes, I admit once again I have no patience for most outdated 1970s
movies especially when the make-up and costumes were so unrealistic. *
Repo Man 1980s movie with Emilio Estevan. I used to think he
was cute all dressed up in his Miami Vice suits, but I must have been too young
to realize what a horrible actor he is. It was about a kid becoming a repo man
and some alien driving around wreaking havoc. The FBI are in pursuit so they
place an order to have the alien's car repossessed. It was incredibly stupid.
Harry Dean Stanton was great. He's a perfect sleazy sales guy. *
Rise of the
Planet of the Apes I hated the above
1968 Planet of the Apes but someone
told me the new series is better. Hmmm...it's the prequel addressing how these
apes became smart : they were lab animals for an experimental Alzheimer's drug.
Great storyline! The special effects were more realistic as the apes didn't
look like they were just humans with masks. It was all pretty creepy. Great
storyline, but I just can't get into sci-fi. **
The Sea of
Trees is a very haunting, poetic
story about a man's journey to the suicide forest of Japan. After Arthur (Matthew McConaughey) arrives
and finds a suitable place to die, begins to take the pills, he sees another
person walking, lost, trying to find his way out of the forest to get back to
his family. Arthur stops what he is doing and tries to help, but they stumble
deeper into the trees, falling off cliffs, whisked away in flash floods, while encountering dead bodies
around every corner. We get flashbacks on why he's there. Excellent movie on
human relations, life, death, spirituality. This forest in Japan really exists
and averages 207 suicides a year. Some people change their minds and walk out. I
think it would be really weird to want to commit suicide surrounded by dead and
rotting bodies. I kept wondering, Don't
they smell? Still, it was a very thought-provoking movie. ****
The Show was about a reality TV show host (Josh Duhamel).
During one of those bachelor finales as the bachelor selects the woman he will
marry, the other girl shoots him then shoots herself. Josh has a bit of a
meltdown deciding he's tired of mindless, exploitive television. After much
discussion on liability and the assisted suicide legislation, his producers
decide to create a show where people commit suicide on camera. He decides
suicide might have a higher purpose and agrees to host if they sell suicide as
a celebration of life. Yeah, the justification is a little bent. During one taping the audience gets a little
bored with a death-by-car-exhaust because it's taking so long so they opt to
fake the woman's death on camera and have her die for real backstage. Unfortunately,
she changes her mind! Oops! She tries to fight her way out of the car but Josh
pushes her back in. She turns off the ignition, but he crawls in and turns it
back on effectively murdering her for the good of the show. It's all out of
control. A janitor at the television studio (Giancarlo Esposito) who is working
two jobs trying to support his family, loses both jobs - one of them because
Josh is an ass, and opts to go on the show so we follow his story throughout
the movie watching him struggle to find work and keep his house which is in
foreclosure. The theme is interesting and so true - society is hateful and
cruel and loves seeing misery. It's good for ratings. Watching the audience
cheer was disturbing. Great performances and great ending, but very gruesome. I
almost turned it off a couple times. There is just no valid reason for suicide
and so many of the contestants were leaving behind children thinking their
monetary winnings would give the kids a better life...? Without their parents?
Nope. Not buying that. ***
Southside
with You is about Barack and
Michelle Obama's first date. It's amazing a president and his wife can have such huge popular
appeal that Hollywood would make a movie about their first date! The best
president and first lady ever. I miss them. ***
Ten
Cloverfield Lane During some kind
of catastrophic power grid failure, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) took off
down the highway after breaking up with her boyfriend. She gets in an accident
and wakes up in an underground bunker out in the middle of farm land built by a
crazed, temperamental, touchy doomsday survivalist, Howard [John Goodman], who
tells her the world has ended. He's not sure if it's Russians or aliens or
whatever, but the air is contaminated and they will be living for the next year
or two underground away from danger.
She's not having it. I think being chained to the wall gives her pause. He
tells her she needs to be less combative, and a lot more grateful as he saved
her life from certain doom. Emmett, a young man, is also with them and can
attest to the atomic flash of light he saw before entering the bunker. Still
not convinced, she attempts a breakout only to be met at the door by a screaming
woman with blisters all over her face so she begins to believe his story. Just
when they start to settle in and accept their fate, a discovery makes her a nonbeliever
again and she convinces Emmett to help her escape. They make a plan and even build
a HAZMAT suit out of a shower curtain just in case, but it all goes wrong when
Howard gets suspicious. It's a wonderful plot as it bounces the audience back
and forth between believing and not believing and not really sure what to
believe right to the end. Outstanding performances. Great soundtrack. Title
graphics at the beginning were wonderful and the title repeat near the end was
awesome. I appreciate a movie where someone took the time to pay attention to
details. Excellent story. Outstanding, unexpected ending. Loved it. *****
Trading
Christmas I ran out of movies on
Christmas eve, took the DVDs I already watched to the library return bin and as
I'm putting them in, my hand caught on someone's returned DVD...I took it home!
I figured the library wasn't going to be
open for a few days so why not. I needed a movie. Yes, I steal stuff from the
library. LOL! I'm always saying how some
films are "Hallmark movies" as a somewhat negative criticism. Well,
this one WAS a Hallmark movie. It was good. Very clean cut G rating. It's about
a widow who's college student daughter decides not to come home for Christmas for
the first time and instead goes to Arizona with her boyfriend. The mother
decides she'll surprise her daughter in Boston (not knowing she left) and does
a house trade with a man. The woman's best friend decides to surprise her
friend who she thinks is alone for the holidays and ends up staying at the house
with the home swapper. The man's brother in Boston checks on his brother's
condo when the security alarm goes off and they meet. Romance is all over the
place....based on a romance book. It was sweet. Yes, I returned it to the bin the
next morning. ***
Unconditional
Love was a movie about a frumpy
housewife (Kathy Bates) who never takes risks and her love for crooner Victor
Fox (Jonathan Pryce) who sings Barry Manilow songs (I was humming Manilow songs
all night!). Her husband (Dan Akroyd) decides he wants more adventure in his
life and leaves her. She wins tickets to a talk show to meet Victor Fox but he
is murdered enroute. She decides be risky, to go to England to sob at his
funeral and meets his valet (long-time secret gay lover, the ever-charming Rupert
Everett) . It was funny and sweet with LOL moments. Then it got a little goofy.
Great characters and great cameos by Julie Andrews and Barry Manilow. ***
Watchtower is a foreign film with English subtitles out of Turkey
about a man who lost his wife and baby in a car accident. He takes a job as a solitary
guard for a lookout post watching the forests for fires. A pregnant young woman
leaves college to work for a bus station near this watchtower. Later we find
out the reason she left was because she is pregnant with her uncle's child after
being molested while living with him and his family. She has the baby one day
while working at the bus station diner. That was probably the most interesting [bizarre]
childbirth scene I've ever seen! She leaves the baby out by the garbage and
starts walking, stumbling, blood all over her skirt, in pain and in a daze. Our
watchtower guard just happened to be at the restaurant eating and sees all this
going on. He finds her walking, escorts her to the watchtower for some R&R,
makes her comfortable...dilly dallies. I kept screaming, THE BABY!! GET THE BABY! HURRY
UP before a dog eats it! Just
when I didn't think I could handle the tension any long, he does run down the
mountain to retrieve the baby. It was interesting for sure with themes of guilt
and conscience. I think I'd love a job being a fire guard living in a tiny
cabin on top of a mountain. Beautiful scenery. Tolerable performances. There were some extra long unnecessary views of
uninteresting stuff. Not ever sure of the point for such stagnation, but I find
that common foreign films. ***
