December Movie Reviews

***** Exceptional
****   Great
***     OK
**       Tolerable
*         Horrible



Aloft with Jennifer Connelly was about illness and death and healing and trauma and...snow. Lots of snow. Too much snow. It was very abstract and slow. I kept hoping it was going to make some profound statement, but one never came amidst the spacey, over dramatization of events. **

Blind Date with Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, both actors I adore. This movie was exceptionally slow and boring about a married couple who role play blind dates. I lasted about 20 minutes before turning it off. I just didn't see where it was going. *

The Duff is a high school comedy about being a DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend). Now, I totally relate because I was a DUFF in junior high. Boys were always buzzing around my cute, skinny friends and I was on the outside looking in OR used by those boys to get the skinny (pun intended) on the girls. I was usually invisible while they were getting dates or making out less than five feet away from me as I sat there pretending I didn't exist. Being a DUFF is a sad situation, I know, but this movie was honest, sweet, with a good lesson on how to survive bullying. I liked it and I thought the [unknown] actors had exceptional comedic timing which made it not stupid and not boring. ***

The Elephant King is about two brothers who are fairly messed up in their own individual ways. One is living in Thailand on some kind of grant although the university is suing him for fraud. He drinks all night, sleeps all day, cavorts with prostitutes, and when he runs out of money, he boxes for some cash. The younger brother just got out of a mental hospital where he was under observation after attempting suicide. He goes to Thailand to visit and falls in love with a prostitute. It's all pretty messed up about family dynamics. The younger brother is played by Tate Ellington who I like. ****

Friends with Benefits with Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis is a sweet love story about two people who are tired of the games of love and they just want sex without all the drama. Their relationship is honest and awesome. Why do we play so many games which only screws everything up? ***

The Homesman is about an unmarried pioneer woman (Hilary Swank) who sets out in a jail wagon to take three women back east to their families who have gone insane due to the hardships of westward life. She comes across a man (Tommy Lee Jones) who was left lynched to a tree and agrees to cut him down if he will accompany her. The cast includes other notables like Meryl Streep, James Spader, John Lithgow and Hailee Steinfeld. A really great movie. Outstanding photography. So beautiful. Excellent performances. I'm surprised I've never heard of this movie before I saw previews on another DVD. It has a weird, unexpected shift in the plot which was a little discombobulating, but that shake-up made it that much more interesting as it didn't follow the typical Hollywood formula we expect. Great story. *****

Insurgent is the second installment of the Divergent trilogy featuring Tris Prior [Shailene Woodley] who rebels against the evil Jeanine [Kate Winslet] in an action-packed drama about a futuristic, walled civilization where people are separated into factions according to personality in order to assure peace in the society. It would be cool to be a divergent. Lots of action, lots of superhero-ness, cute boys, and a little romance. Loved it and Woodley's new short do. ****

Jimmy's Hall based on a true story about an Irish rebel newly returned from American after a ten year hiatus after being forced to leave due to nonconformist behavior in 1922. He re-opens his community hall so the people can come to dance, sing, box, read literature, and learn. The church hates it claiming Jazz is the Devil and education (even community recreation classes) must be preapproved to maintain the sanctity of the people. The priest claims they are all going to hell. LOL. The powers-that-be (church and nobility) band against Jimmy and the people fight back. Beautiful Irish scenery, lovely photography and they ride around on horse-drawn hay wagons. The thick Irish accents were a little difficult to understand. I would have preferred a better ending. It just kind of leaves one hanging without any closure. ***

Lambert and Stamp is a documentary about the rock band the Who and the two guys who managed them. Lots of archival film footage which is fun. The reason there is so much footage is Lambert and Stamp's initial idea was to find a rock band, make a film about them, and that film would be their break into the movie industry. They had no idea the band would cause such a sensation. I've never really known much about the Who so this was fascinating. ****

Last Love is a movie about grieving. I love movies about death. Michael Caine plays a widower living in Paris who meets a sweet young dance teacher who befriends him. He reminds her of her father who died and she reminds him of his dead wife when she was young. The views of Paris and the countryside are spectacular. It's always fascinating to me how films can hide all the dirt of a city and make it look like the cleanest, most unpolluted urban paradise on the face of the earth. Great movie. ****

Love and Mercy is about Brian Wilson, genius of the Beach Boys. It flips back and forth between those middle years of the Beach Boys success when he was just plain crazy and later years when he was over medicated and kept prisoner by his greedy, controlling therapist. Paul Giamatti plays the scary therapist and John Cusack plays the older Wilson. Both are brilliant. Great music. ***

Mommie Dearest with Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford is based on the autobiography by Ms. Crawford's adopted daughter. Lots of child abuse which was really disturbing, but beautiful costumes and a great story. I saw this movie when it came out in 1981 and it was just as disturbing then. Now it's a cult movie, viewed as a comedy. As I was watching it I kept thinking Boy, Faye Dunaway is really over acting, but in reality she was being Joan Crawford who was notoriously flamboyant. It's no wonder it ended up being a cult film, but it's still a great story. ****

Nicholas Nickleby is a novel by Charles Dickens featuring a very young and dashing Charlie Hunnam (of Fifty Shades of Gray fame) (I didn't even recognize him) (not that I saw Fifty Shades of Gray) (not to say I won't see Fifty Shades of Gray) (but I thought the book was horrid), Anne Hathaway, Christopher Plummer and a cast of well-known actors. There is an advantage to senility...this movie looks really familiar so I have a feeling I've seen it, but because I hardly remembered it, it was a pleasure to watch again! Love the language and the horror and the humor of Dickens' classics. I can only imagine how loved they must have been when first published and they continue to be timeless delights in any media. Good stories are difficult to screw up. *****

The Physician is a wonderful movie about early medieval medicine. The gorgeous Tom Payne plays the kid turned barber's assistant after his mother dies from an incurable "side sickness" (appendicitis?). He grows into a strapping young man then travels to Persia to learn "real" medicine from a Jewish master. It was an outstanding movie. I love historical fiction and this didn't disappoint. A little drama, a little wartime violence, a little romance, and lots of great sets and costumes. It almost makes one appreciate modern-day medicine. At least doctors don't take saws and cut off appendages without anesthesia or feed scared and helpless patients dog vomit as a cure. ****

Ride stars Helen Hunt playing a very protective mother who follows her college-drop-out son to Los Angeles and learns to surf. The story was OK, nothing spectacular. I think Hunt had too much make-up on or maybe she's just too skinny, but her face seemed very angular, weathered, and pinched. Her voice was unnaturally monotone, but maybe it's always like that and I've never noticed. Usually I like her in movies, but this time it just didn't feel very believable. ***

Santa Clause 2  Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas. It's the sequel to The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. In this one Santa has to find a wife by Christmas Eve or he stops being Santa. It's cute. The elves are adorable as is Lucy. Reindeer fart if they eat too much sugar. Kids would love it. ***

Testament of Youth is about World War I, based on the memoirs and book of the same name by Vera Brittain. Beautiful English countryside scenes, ugly war scenes, great acting. It's very melodramatic and romantic like WWI movies usually are. Jon Snow from Game of Thrones plays the heartthrob although I have to say I think he's sexier all wrapped in animals skins with a scruffy beard, long curly hair and a wolf at his heels. I hardly recognized him clean shaven and smiling. It was a little disturbing. ****

What If  features Daniel Radcliffe and the adorable Zoe Kazan as friends. He's given up on love due to his cheating ex-girlfriend and she's in a relationship. Their friendship becomes very close. It's that popular theme where the relationship develops naturally, honestly and comfortably instead of everyone pretending to be someone they aren't causing all kinds of drama. She's an animator so there are little cartoons around her when she is thinking? dreaming? I'm not sure the point of the cartoons. I would have liked them to be more than a random after thought of decoration, but maybe that's because I thought they were so awesome. The dialogue is delightfully witty and the story is charming. The only thing I didn't like about it was the title. ****

Where I Am is a documentary film about Robert Drake, a gay writer who was brutally beaten and left for dead while living in Ireland. He suffered brain damage which contributes to mobility and speech impairments. It's an atrocity the two young men who nearly killed him received only eight years in prison. They destroyed his life and career and they are walking around free enjoying their lives. It's so wrong. I would prefer "an eye for an eye" justice. On his visit back to Ireland ten years later, he tried to meet with the men, but they refused. Cowards. ****