The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2010)

I read the book and it was wretched. The film only improves on the source material by removing Blomkvist's bed-hopping and a lot of meaningless details (sandwiches? again??), and by giving us a glimpse -- although it comes rather late -- of how Lisbeth became dysfunctional. The movie was also surprisingly nudity-light for such explicit subject matter including bondage, rape, torture, and murder.

Still, there's no two ways about it: this is a distasteful story with an unrepentantly unlikable heroine. I don't know that I can heap kudos on it for simply improving on such a crappy book. I mean, it still pretty much sucks.

D+

Easy A (2010)

OK, it is just a well-done teen movie, not a masterpiece -- but I just loved this: smart, funny, and just all-around entertaining. Reminded me strongly of Clueless (a good thing, in my opinion).

Exactly what I was hoping for when I sat down to watch it.

B+

A Film Unfinished (2010)

This is a documentary cobbled together from actual footage taken for use in German propaganda films.

The pieces that showed life in the Warsaw Ghetto are amazing and horrifying, but the movie was simply not put together as effectively as it could have been -- and when you've got material this powerful, that's a true shame.

A diary device is introduced but then employed far too sparingly to have bothered (perhaps four or five "entries") and the timeline was out of order. Also, I'm sorry to say, The Pianist showed me the same world. Yes, I know that a cinematic production with actors is far different from raw footage with actual people -- but it took a bit of the shock out of these images to have seen it in any form previously.

C+

The Missing (2003)

Single mom on the prairie loses her elder daughter to human-trafficking Indians and has to enlist her estranged father (who ran off to play Indian when she was a kid) to help find her.

There were times that the movie seemed almost OK, but it mostly just seemed like cliches with a dose of mysticism. Since it was directed by Ron Howard, even the "kidnapped to be sold into sexual slavery" story was somehow sanitized.

C-

Cyrus (2010)

This is an inventive little film that feels like it doesn't take things quite far enough...though I don't know that I would've enjoyed it if it had.

Jonah Hill plays Cyrus, a grown-up son still living with his mother (Marisa Tomei). When she starts dating John (John C. Reilly) -- though Lord knows why she does since he's a mess when they meet and only seems to get more psycho the next couple of times they see each other -- things get weird. Or weirder, I guess.

The son and mom have a way-too-close relationship that is never fully explained. Is the kid developmentally disabled? Is he a sociopath? Had she created him with a misguidedly "open" parenting style? It was interesting, but stopped short of being anything beyond that. Felt just slightly underdone.

C+

The Horse's Mouth (1958)

Annoying movie about an annoying artist who, though talented, makes a nuisance of himself at every turn by, among other things, vandalizing, harassing, squatting, and thieving.

I usually adore Alec Guinness, but everything from his gait to his voice was grating here.

D

Conquest (1937)

I quite enjoyed the first third or so of this movie. During it, a former Polish peasant turned countess (to a much older count) worships Napoleon, but is alarmed to find out that he is interested in her romantically. When her country asks her to indulge him for their sake, she obliges and falls in love.

But then things get very blah moviewise. It's never downright bad, but it did take me a couple of weeks to finish up the watching as I stopped being interested in how things were going to conclude.

C+