We're into August! I started going to the movies a lot this month. It will take some time to review them all.
Rolling Stones fan Tim and I talked about seeing Shine a Light at Lincoln Square in the spring, but the timing never worked out. I thus caught it on DVD about three weeks ago. I can't decide whether I'm glad I saved $15 (we would've seen it on IMAX) or whether I wish I'd seen this jumbo-sized.
1) Shine a Light (Aug. 8, on DVD)
U2:3D, a concert flick released earlier this year, prompted a “you are there” sensation, a desire to wave a lighter during “With or Without You.” Shine a Light, the latest performance documentary about the Rolling Stones, is … a nicely filmed live show. I suspect some of Mick and Keith’s impact was lost on a 13-inch television screen, but director Martin Scorsese - who has shot musical documentaries before (The Last Waltz, The Blues) and explored the Stones’ catalog in several of his feature films - doesn’t make the two nights at New York’s Beacon Theater in 2006 much more than a bonanza of moving cameras. Sure, Bill and Hillary show up (one concert is for Bill’s 60th birthday); Scorsese intersperses clips from Stones’ interviews in the 1960s and 1970s as well as pre-show chatter; and guest musicians from Jack White to Christina Aguilera enliven proceedings. It’s not enough to disguise the fact that we’re watching merely an above-average concert special.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
SU Grad Done Good
Vera Farmiga was in my ETS 226 class in the spring semester of my first year at Syracuse. Therefore, I'm very excited to see her in movies. Imagine, I'm now one degree closer to Matt Damon! If only she appeared in films in which she had meaty roles, or in flicks I liked.
5) Never Forever (July 30, on Netflix instant viewing. The No. 4 movie for July was the previously reviewed The Dark Knight.)
Never Forever can’t quite overcome its squeamish concept befitting a soap opera: Woman’s husband is infertile, he freaks out, she secretly pays another man to get her knocked up, she and sperm donor fall for each other. Vera Farmiga, perhaps best known as the shrink in The Departed, elevates Gina Kim’s tale of marital and maternal desperation as a tightly wound New York suburban housewife looking to placate her Korean Christian in-laws with the heir her husband (David McInnis) cannot provide. Farmiga’s cornflower blues pierce the screen with agony as Sophie tries to save her suicidal husband, with “all-business” numbness while propositioning Korean illegal immigrant Jihah (Ha Jung-woo) to father a child, and with unexpected tenderness as she and Jihah develop feelings for each other and the unborn baby. Farmiga’s intensity and heartbreak nearly save Never Forever from its more awkward moments. Alas, Kim tacks on an unrealistic, pat ending to her complicated story, as if trying to make everything more palatable to the mainstream at the last minute.
5) Never Forever (July 30, on Netflix instant viewing. The No. 4 movie for July was the previously reviewed The Dark Knight.)
Never Forever can’t quite overcome its squeamish concept befitting a soap opera: Woman’s husband is infertile, he freaks out, she secretly pays another man to get her knocked up, she and sperm donor fall for each other. Vera Farmiga, perhaps best known as the shrink in The Departed, elevates Gina Kim’s tale of marital and maternal desperation as a tightly wound New York suburban housewife looking to placate her Korean Christian in-laws with the heir her husband (David McInnis) cannot provide. Farmiga’s cornflower blues pierce the screen with agony as Sophie tries to save her suicidal husband, with “all-business” numbness while propositioning Korean illegal immigrant Jihah (Ha Jung-woo) to father a child, and with unexpected tenderness as she and Jihah develop feelings for each other and the unborn baby. Farmiga’s intensity and heartbreak nearly save Never Forever from its more awkward moments. Alas, Kim tacks on an unrealistic, pat ending to her complicated story, as if trying to make everything more palatable to the mainstream at the last minute.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
A Likely Top 10 Pick for 2008
The more I think about The Visitor, the more I like it. Thanks for the recommendation, Brooklyn Jen! Bride Jen, in town for her bachelorette weekend, really enjoyed this, too.
3) The Visitor (July 4; the first July film I saw)
A decade ago, I had a film professor who abused the term “little gem” when describing cinematic character studies, but The Visitor really earns the praise. With his first feature, The Station Agent, and now this follow-up, writer/director Tom McCarthy has become the go-to guy for intimate depictions of ordinary, aloof but lonely men. Here, stunted economics professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) discovers the power of music and connection through an illegal immigrant couple, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira), squatting in his New York apartment. Much of Jenkins’ performance comes from eyes and body language, with such winning moments as his bumbling, tender interactions with Tarek’s mother (Hiam Abbass) and his increasing integration into a drumming lifestyle. Eschewing the usual city depictions in favor of day-t0-day living in the parks, subways and later - sadly - a deportation center in Long Island City, McCarthy has filmed a delicate slice of wonder with some of the richest, deepest acting of the year.
3) The Visitor (July 4; the first July film I saw)
A decade ago, I had a film professor who abused the term “little gem” when describing cinematic character studies, but The Visitor really earns the praise. With his first feature, The Station Agent, and now this follow-up, writer/director Tom McCarthy has become the go-to guy for intimate depictions of ordinary, aloof but lonely men. Here, stunted economics professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) discovers the power of music and connection through an illegal immigrant couple, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira), squatting in his New York apartment. Much of Jenkins’ performance comes from eyes and body language, with such winning moments as his bumbling, tender interactions with Tarek’s mother (Hiam Abbass) and his increasing integration into a drumming lifestyle. Eschewing the usual city depictions in favor of day-t0-day living in the parks, subways and later - sadly - a deportation center in Long Island City, McCarthy has filmed a delicate slice of wonder with some of the richest, deepest acting of the year.
This Is Your Brain On Drugs
I graduated from high school in 1994, just like Luke and Stephanie in The Wackness. I may have grown up in Boston instead of New York, and I may have been only middle-class, but our lives shouldn't be that dissimilar.
I could not relate to these characters at all.
2) The Wackness (July 25; it's the third movie of the month, though)
A candidate for the worst movie of 2008, The Wackness is so bad that I refused to listen to mid-1990s hip-hop for a week after watching this hell. Writer/director Jonathan Levine uses full-length songs and cultural slang (Giuliani references, Forrest Gump ads, pagers) to advance the film in lieu of plot, dialogue and acting. Then again, the performances are so monotone (perpetually slack-jawed Josh Peck as dope-pushing high-school grad Luke) or absurd (Ben Kingsley, apparently Harvey Keitel's long-lost brother, as Luke's stoned shrink), and the storyline eventually so cliché (rich New Yorkers are messed up and bored!), that perhaps it's best to make Tribe Called Quest do the work. Only Olivia Thirlby, the best friend in Juno, manages to charm as the shrink's stepdaughter and Luke's forbidden-fruit love interest. She’s not reason enough for me to give up my Nas and Wu-Tang Clan boycotts, though - nor can she erase the image of Kingsley kissing flower-child Mary-Kate Olsen …
I could not relate to these characters at all.
2) The Wackness (July 25; it's the third movie of the month, though)
A candidate for the worst movie of 2008, The Wackness is so bad that I refused to listen to mid-1990s hip-hop for a week after watching this hell. Writer/director Jonathan Levine uses full-length songs and cultural slang (Giuliani references, Forrest Gump ads, pagers) to advance the film in lieu of plot, dialogue and acting. Then again, the performances are so monotone (perpetually slack-jawed Josh Peck as dope-pushing high-school grad Luke) or absurd (Ben Kingsley, apparently Harvey Keitel's long-lost brother, as Luke's stoned shrink), and the storyline eventually so cliché (rich New Yorkers are messed up and bored!), that perhaps it's best to make Tribe Called Quest do the work. Only Olivia Thirlby, the best friend in Juno, manages to charm as the shrink's stepdaughter and Luke's forbidden-fruit love interest. She’s not reason enough for me to give up my Nas and Wu-Tang Clan boycotts, though - nor can she erase the image of Kingsley kissing flower-child Mary-Kate Olsen …
Sunday, August 24, 2008
I'm Through June!
Thanks to a self-imposed deadline, I had to finish this review before I left for dinner. Next goal, by the end of the week: Write the three remaining July critiques.
P.S. Sandra, before you say anything, I'd like to note that my parents saw this before I did!
3) Wanted (June 29)
A carnival ride come to life, Wanted flaunts its comic-book origins with pride, daring a critic to mock the curving bullets or Angelina Jolie in a skintight leather catsuit balancing atop a speeding train. Yes, Wanted is over the top and then some, as if director Timur Bekmambetov (the Russian films Day Watch and Night Watch) decided to mash up Fight Club and The Matrix. He’s given us a Fraternity of assassins led by a grave Morgan Freeman, a snarky American office drone turned killer (a surprisingly effective James McAvoy, definitely NOT in Narnia), and rats and grittiness (reminiscent of a prior Angie flick, The Bone Collector). While lacking the fun/quality balance of Iron Man, Wanted revels in its kinetic energy, its Tarantino-like violence. As far as amusement-park attractions go, Wanted isn’t quite an Expedtion Everest, but a Musical Express.
P.S. Sandra, before you say anything, I'd like to note that my parents saw this before I did!
3) Wanted (June 29)
A carnival ride come to life, Wanted flaunts its comic-book origins with pride, daring a critic to mock the curving bullets or Angelina Jolie in a skintight leather catsuit balancing atop a speeding train. Yes, Wanted is over the top and then some, as if director Timur Bekmambetov (the Russian films Day Watch and Night Watch) decided to mash up Fight Club and The Matrix. He’s given us a Fraternity of assassins led by a grave Morgan Freeman, a snarky American office drone turned killer (a surprisingly effective James McAvoy, definitely NOT in Narnia), and rats and grittiness (reminiscent of a prior Angie flick, The Bone Collector). While lacking the fun/quality balance of Iron Man, Wanted revels in its kinetic energy, its Tarantino-like violence. As far as amusement-park attractions go, Wanted isn’t quite an Expedtion Everest, but a Musical Express.
This Review, However, IS Irresistible
As I've mentioned before, I love A.O. Scott of the New York Times. He tops himself here with his review of Meryl and friends. I laughed so loudly at work that people stared at me. Then I read parts of it aloud to my co-workers and made them laugh, too.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/movies/18mamm.html?ref=movies
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/movies/18mamm.html?ref=movies
How Can I Resist You? Well, I Did.
I've skipped ahead to July while I try to say five articulate sentences about my last June feature, Wanted. (One might argue that this would make for more articulate sentences than the entire movie had.) Anyway, after completing my first 4-mile race - on day three of a six-day heat wave, no less - I needed the cinematic equivalent of lemon merengue as a reward. I thought Mamma Mia! would fit the bill. Key word: "thought."
1) Mamma Mia! (July 19; actually, it's the 2008 second movie I saw in July)
Mamma Mia!, based on the Broadway celebration of ABBA songs, made me feel trapped at the world’s longest, loudest slumber party. I was embarrassed as Meryl Streep dithered around like a teenager about her daughter’s (Amanda Seyfried) three possible fathers while James Bond and Mr. Darcy … er, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth … attempted to sing and modeled leather vests. I puzzled over the math in Catherine Johnson’s screenplay (Streep and her lovers are at least 15 years too old for their roles) and wondered why director Phyllida Lloyd - who staged the theatrical version of Mamma Mia! - made the celluloid choreography look so gawky. Mamma Mia! isn’t total hell: Streep turns “The Winner Takes All” into this triumphant, Helen Reddy-esque siren call I actually applauded, and those darn ABBA songs continue to take up residence in my head. Mostly, though, I’m disappointed that Mamma Mia! couldn’t follow in the mid-July musical magic footsteps of last year’s Hairspray.
1) Mamma Mia! (July 19; actually, it's the 2008 second movie I saw in July)
Mamma Mia!, based on the Broadway celebration of ABBA songs, made me feel trapped at the world’s longest, loudest slumber party. I was embarrassed as Meryl Streep dithered around like a teenager about her daughter’s (Amanda Seyfried) three possible fathers while James Bond and Mr. Darcy … er, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth … attempted to sing and modeled leather vests. I puzzled over the math in Catherine Johnson’s screenplay (Streep and her lovers are at least 15 years too old for their roles) and wondered why director Phyllida Lloyd - who staged the theatrical version of Mamma Mia! - made the celluloid choreography look so gawky. Mamma Mia! isn’t total hell: Streep turns “The Winner Takes All” into this triumphant, Helen Reddy-esque siren call I actually applauded, and those darn ABBA songs continue to take up residence in my head. Mostly, though, I’m disappointed that Mamma Mia! couldn’t follow in the mid-July musical magic footsteps of last year’s Hairspray.
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