September Movie Reviews

Five stars means I love it so much I will watch it more than once, four stars means it was great but probably won't see it again, three means it was good, two means it was tolerable but not great, and one star means I probably turned it off before it was over.

Black or White is about a grandfather (Kevin Costner) who has custody of his granddaughter since her mother, his daughter, died in childbirth. His wife dies unexpectedly in a car accident and the little girl's African American paternal grandmother thinks she needs to come live with her and her big family. Octavia Spencer plays the paternal grandmother who is raising most of her relatives kids. Although she's a strong, capable woman, she has a blind spot when it comes to her crack-addicted useless son. Costner...hmmm...granted he was supposed to be drunk throughout the whole movie, but it was more like he couldn't quite get his lines right. His timing was off. Interesting how both legal teams were constantly working their case around racism, but it didn't have anything to do with racism. People love to hate and love to promote hate. If they would put as much effort into getting along and working together, the world would be a better place. **

The Deep Blue Sea is an English movie about a woman married to an aristocrat. She falls in love with a dashing young man and leaves her boring life, but he doesn't love her as much as she wants, he forgets her birthday so she tries to kill herself. Absolutely weird. It was exceptionally melodramatic and the high pitched screeching of violin music nearly drove me insane. Rachel Weisz has really awesome hair. Great 1950's London sets and costumes. **

Gemma Bovery is a French movie with English subtitles about a baker who is fixated on literature. He lives in a beautiful little French village where the author of Madame Bovary lived and wrote his book. When his new English neighbors move in with the last name Bovery he imagines the very attractive wife to be a Madame Bovary character. He assumes, like Madame Bovary, she is bored with her circumstances. When she starts screwing the gorgeous young man who lives in the nearby chateau, it only makes the baker more obsessed with her. It has moments of subtle humor and the scenery is gorgeous. I'd love to live in France. ***

Glory is about the 54th Massachusetts Colored Regiment led by Robert Gould Shaw during the Civil War. Although I first saw this movie when it came out years ago, I recently read a book on Shaw and the 54th.  War is disturbing anyway, but the way they used to just stand there, lined up, out in the open waiting to get shot is a bit shocking. That would take a whole lot of courage. Shaw was only 27 years old when he was killed in one of the battles and he was buried on the battlefield with his soldiers. Outstanding story and movie. *****

Night at the Museum was about a newly-hired night guard at the Museum of Natural History where all the displays come to life at night due to some Egyptian curse. I loved the plug on the benefits of learning about history. It's a kid's movie, but the pace was fast and unlike so many adult movies I've watched lately, I never got bored once! It has an all-star cast with Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke, and Robin Williams with Ben Stiller playing the lead character. It was all about conflict management and learning to work together. Great themes for kids. I love the T-Rex bones...he just wanted to play fetch. LOL! ****

Neighbors is about a fraternity that moves next door to a couple with a new baby. It was incredibly, repulsively stupid in every way possible EXCEPT Zach Efron is half naked most of the time. ***********

Redwood Highway is about an older woman who was put in a convalescent center by her son and is tired of everyone telling her NO all the time. So she walks 80 miles down the Redwood Highway to attend the wedding of her granddaughter. She reminisces about her own wedding, honeymoon, and memories as she makes memories with the people she encounters along the way. Outstanding scenery of the southern Oregon area which is spectacularly beautiful year round. It's a sweet, feel-good movie, maybe too sweet to be realistic or interesting. Can a son put his mother in a home without her permission? She was perfectly sane and healthy. Hmmm... Kind of reminded me of Wild and made me want to put a backpack on and walk long distance. I desire to make more memories. ***

Rewrite is about a famous Hollywood screenwriter, a "one-hit-wonder", who hasn't worked for a while because no one is interested in what he has to offer. He has lost all confidence in himself. As a way to pay bills, he gets a job teaching at a small, east coast college, but his "you can't teach talent" attitude and his cavorting with students old enough to be his children gets him in trouble. I like Hugh Grant. He's great at dry, sarcastic humor which was perfect for this story. He's aging (aren't we all) which I find disturbing. Celebrities aren't supposed to get old! It makes me feel old! He has such outstanding comedic timing and the lines he has in this movie are exceptional. Marisa Tomei is also great. It's heartwarming, and although it has a "teaching-is-a-rewarding-profession" theme, it is not sappy nor overdone. I enjoyed it. ****

Still is an English movie with the actor from Game of Thrones who plays Littlefinger. It's about teenage gangs: Are these hoods criminals or still children? One gang of thugs starts harassing this man, shoving excrement into his mailbox, calling him late at night and breathing into the phone, harassing him when he's walking down the street, banging on his door or screaming outside his house in the middle of the night, and leaving dead cats on his porch. I'm still not clear why he brought the bag INTO his house, dumping the rotting corpse into the bathtub, and then vomited uncontrollably. I realize it was just for effect or we'd never know there was a dead cat in that bag, but a sane person would have taken it to the garbage can to inspect the contents, with "inspecting the contents" not a requirement. He knew it was from the gang. He blows them off as just kids even though other kids in the neighborhood are getting killed by these sleazeballs, then their behavior escalates, and he takes action. And it's really good revenge action. He actually might have gotten away with it. It was a little slow, kind of depressing, but an interesting story. **

Unfinished Song is about a crotchety old man who doesn't seem to get along with anyone and who's cheerful wife sings in a choir because it brings her joy, probably the only joy in her life since she lives with him. Then she dies and he decides to join the choir. I like Vanessa Redgrave who plays the wife. It's incredibly sappy portrayal of grief which I found unbearable, but more irritating was the attitude of the man and his rude behavior toward everyone. Normally there is some epiphany, or disclosure behind the reason a character makes you want to hate them, but there wasn't. It was also extremely unrealistic to expect us to believe people who can't sing win a singing contest, but it was all about the sap with this movie. Realism took a back seat. **

Wild Tales is an Argentinian foreign film about revenge. Six very strange stories about people's perception of injustice and the last straw that pushes them over the edge. Some of it was rather funny, or sick, I guess, depending on how one looks at it. It definitely makes you think twice about ever being mean to someone as karma is a bitch. I liked the road rage story. The photography was at times outstanding, the way they framed shots, especially in the first couple stories. ***