Source Code (2011)

It's basically a thriller Groundhog Day -- guy has the same repeated 8 minutes on a commuter train to figure out where a bomb is, who put it there, dismantle it, and find out about a future target, all while navigating the other passengers who believe they're experiencing the sequence for the first time every time.

I thought it was a pretty good suspense movie that kept me guessing right along with the protagonist. I was satisfied by the conclusion even after it seemed as though there was no way to wrap everything up well.

B+

Solitary Man (2010)

Heretofore devoted husband and father, owner of a thriving business based on honesty, chucks it all for a life of hedonism when he finds out he's mortal.

It's an interesting concept that seems to have a hard time letting us beneath the surface of things, but I liked it anyway. I think I mainly liked it because of Michael Douglas's performance. Somehow I understood what he was doing -- even as I disagreed with almost every move he made. I'm not sure I got the intended message, but I got SOME message with some meaning...and that's not half bad.

B

Ponyo (2009)

What a weird-ass movie.

Fish swims away from home, gets found by a little boy, tastes the boy's blood, eats some ham, and decides to become a girl. For some reason, this causes the moon to get too close to the earth which makes the ocean rise...which means that the boy has to love fish-girl forever so she can become permanently real and the world won't be doomed.

I was not nearly high enough to get on this film's wavelength, but the animation is beautiful and the first section (in which the boy finds then loses his fish) is sweet as only a childish experience of love and loss can be.

B-

Joan of Arc (1948)

An in-her-early-30s Ingrid Bergman plays the teenage Joan of Arc...and the rest of the movie was thought out just about as thoroughly. The weapons are clearly spray-painted cardboard, everyone is slathered in pancake make-up and I've seen more convincing battle scenes in elementary school plays.

This was just a long slog through crap. I'm not giving it an "F" because the subject can't help but be fascinating despite being butchered.

D

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

I'd put this second only to Part 1 in a "Harry Potter movies best to worst" list...but the experience was pretty much ruined by the presence of a redneck couple and the way they yanked the arms of their runnin-around-makin-noise toddlers.

People. They're the worst.

A-

Pulp Fiction (1994)

When this movie came out, I became a little missionary for it -- dragging friends and (in a couple of instances) bare acquaintances to see it. It shocked me in the best of ways. It was, quite simply, the most exciting thing I'd ever seen in a theater. When Forrest Gump took the Oscar, my faith in Hollywood was tested for the first time (hey -- I was young).

So, by now, I've seen it at least 7 times...I'd guess it as closer to 11 though. I showed it to my younger son and, while he liked it, he was not wowed. I had to point out all of the stuff that he'd "seen before" started right here in Tarantino's masterpiece, a label I truly believe it deserves. Yeah, there are a couple of sequences that feel slower than I remember them (Marsellus lecturing Butch in the bar & Walken's very funny but too long monologue regarding the very uncomfortable piece of metal) but it still works wonderfully.

The cast is perfect. The dialogue is still wonderful. It's earned its place as a touchstone of cinema.

A

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)

I'm not sure this movie is any good, but it's definitely an entertaining one. This pretty much sums it up...

Nicolas Cage, as usual, delivers a hell of a performance. Say what you will about his personal quirks, the dude can ACT.

B

The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

A small town that has recently suffered the devastating loss of several of its children receives a visit from a lawyer eager to involve the families in a class action suit.

This is probably the third time I've seen this film and, I must say, it's still amazingly powerful. The cast does a flawless job of portraying their bereavement without making it seem false. The flashbacks to "before the accident" are heartbreaking in their everyday contentedness. What I saw this time around was different than what I remembered from the first viewings. The possibility of beauty and poetry and sadness exists in almost every scene and I think it's just too much to extract in one sitting.

An original, emotionally draining movie.

A+

The Housemaid (2011)

Tense and sad story of a lower-class and slightly simple girl being hired as a nanny/servant. She finds herself in the new world of a very rich young couple and getting drawn into the ugliness of their lives despite herself. Her fellow servant, a supposed ally, is both untrustworthy and an incredibly sympathetic character.

I had NO idea of how to interpret the last shot of the film (starting at 3:50 in the embedded vid below), which is a stand-alone art piece type of thing -- kind of like the final scene in Places in the Heart where everyone, dead alive and moved-on, partakes in a church communion. Why they gotta go and fuck wit my brain even more?



B-

Salt (2010)

Fun spy-chase movie that kept things hopping.

I didn't expect to like it, but there wasn't any time NOT to.

B

Skippy (1931)

It's kind of like an extended Little Rascals episode...except without the talented kids or laughs.

D+

Coco Before Chanel (2009)

Kept my interest despite some flaws in the telling -- mostly of the "how much time is supposed to have passed??" variety.

Audrey Tatou is quite good and I really enjoyed the peek at how the rich lived in France during this time as the American correlation is fairly well-known to me through film.

B-