Somewhere (2010)

Empty life of a Hollywood star is much different when his tween daughter visits...making the days he spends without her meaningless.

I was uncomfortable with the double life he was leading and a little skeeved out by the string of women in and out of his bed, especially because he's a dad with an "on the cusp" daughter.  But that was the point, I'm guessing, and I certainly had no difficulty getting it.  So, even though the movie was hard to take, it wound up being a very real picture of how being able to have whatever you want can rob you of your ability to identify what it is that you really want.  That's a pretty deep and meaningful lesson from a rather shallow lifestyle.

B 

War Horse (2011)

Terrible. Awful. Laughable...but NOT because it meant to be funny (the intended comic relief bits fell flat).  This came off like a movie for about ages 10-14. And it could've been so much better as an animated effort because in live action, everything just FELT cartoony and all "Magic Horse-y"and that’s totally the wrong vibe.

I just hated it. The only reason I'm not giving it an “F” is that it was pretty and the officer who bought the horse from the farm was interesting, though far too short-lived.

D

Freakonomics (2010)

This documentary is a collection of vignettes with the various segments written/directed by different people. I haven't read the book, but Gary assures me it's much more competent.

Some portions of it were somewhat diverting, but it never seemed to finish a subject; most felt just halfway explored.  Also, many of the conclusions drawn -- like overly ethnic names can hurt an otherwise decent resume -- were just "duh."

Basically, it felt like a high schooler's research paper on which the teacher would have scribbled comments like "interesting!" "good visual aid!" and "more sources needed" in the margins.

C-

Flawless (2008)

Demi Moore slaps on some horrible old-age make-up and tells some reporter chick, as part of a "Women Who Led" series, the story about how she and a janitor stole a vault full of diamonds from their employer back in the ‘60s. First of all: the janitor came up with the entire plan and carried the whole thing off (she simply procured the vault combination) and secondly: it’s boring as hell.

D

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)

Borderline Asperger’s kid loses his father in the twin towers and finds a key among his dad’s belongings. To keep his father's memory going, he devises a mission to find the key's lock -- much like the expeditions his father crafted for him while still living.

Everything was a bit too precious, the worst offender being “The Renter,” a mute but wise old man who lives with the boy’s grandmother.  For some reason, this guy thought tattooing "yes" on one palm and "no" on the other was a better idea than simply nodding or shaking his head at the appropriate time.  And speaking of doing things the hard way...all of the potential lock-holders were found in the phone book, so why didn't the kid simply call them rather than mapping out three years' worth of personal visits (that would probably be getting fairly out-of-date just months into the quest)?

Predictable and manipulative.  My eyes welled even though my heart didn't want them to...I HATE that.

C

Speak (2004)

I started watching this months ago and stopped, I think because it was too soon after I’d read the book and I was getting hung up on “THAT's not how she looked” and “it didn’t happen that way.” Now that the book has faded, though, I thought this movie stood on its own very well.

A high school freshman goes from lively, happy, and good grades to a depressed, withdrawn loner struggling through classes. Of course there’s a reason, but she simply cannot speak about it -- and, eventually, reduces all speech to a minimum.  Powerful and important, especially for junior-high and high school viewing.

B+

Circumstance (2011)

It's current-day Iran and two friends going through a rebellious phase fall in love.  The fact that the friends are both female is a problem.  Throw in a newly fanatical Muslim big brother and it's going to blow up into much more than a problem.  This is a vivid reminder that, no matter how far we’ve come in the West (and we’re still not actually THERE yet), much of the world is still lagging behind in tolerance.

Heartbreaking.

My only complaint: I had a hard time keeping the two similar-looking girls straight (no pun intended).

B+

Meek's Cutoff (2011)

Three families of pioneers and their guide, desperate for water, capture an Indian and keep him prisoner in hopes he’ll lead them to it.

Deliberate and tense, with an ambiguous ending. I’m not quite sure I enjoyed it, but the feel of it was definitely right.

B-

The Robe (1953)

The soldier who nailed Christ to the cross loses his mind until he becomes a follower of His teachings.

A story of power and forgiveness and martyrdom...OK but ultimately an overdone melodrama.

C+

Wilson (1944)

A rather square overview of Woodrow Wilson’s campaign for and subsequent service as President. The movie tells a decent story of Wilson as a humanitarian/great leader, but then just sort of fades at the end.

B-

The Eagle (2011)

A great-looking, by-the-numbers redemption story.

Channing Tatum really shouldn't be allowed to do more than model and dance, though.  He's purty but wooden.

C+

The Descendants (2011)

Orange-haired lady in the theater bathroom: What did you think of the movie?
Me: Honestly?  I expected it to be better.
OHL: I expected it to be funny.

So my initial reaction was that this was kind of a letdown.  I didn't like the daughters.  I didn't like the mother in the coma.  I didn't like the best-friend couple.  I didn't like the extended family.  I thought I didn't like the movie.

But afterward, as Gary and I rehashed it over burgers and a shake, it just got better and better.  I'd start with a criticism that would somehow turn itself into a compliment as it was spilling out of my mouth.  Elements that had seemed annoying suddenly revealed themselves to be true rather than irritating.  A reaction became measured rather than nonexistent.  We wound up kind of loving it, which surprised us both.

Maybe we just shouldn't have seen it when we were starving...

A

The Tree of Life (2011)

Not exactly a pretentious piece of crap, but it’s DEFINITELY pretentious.

Huge parts of it seemed like bigger-budgeted versions of those "how life began" films you see at a science center or a presentation of “our amazing oceans.” And the parts that weren't universe/nature based were disjointed.

The whole thing was a gorgeous chore.

C+

Margin Call (2011)

Something happens in an office where a bunch of people just got laid off, but there was this unnecessary vagueness to what was going on for way too long. It just got frustrating. And then we find out it's basically the old news that it's a financial institution realizing they're overextended and on the brink of collapse so they need to grab what cash they can before everyone else figures it out and can no longer be duped into buying something worthless.

There was a clinical feel to the entire thing.  I didn't care about anyone and I felt like one of the people who wasn't high-level enough to be told exactly what's happening.

C

The Ides of March (2011)

Held my interest the entire time, but it didn't really seem worth making a movie out of the story.  The "glimpse behind the political scenes" only showed me things I already knew existed.  Manipulation, cover-ups, deals, blackmail -- it's all here and done well, but who cares?  It just felt like a well-done episode of some decent television drama.

B

Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)

Three American secretaries in Rome -- one a 40ish Girl Friday for a reclusive author, another just finishing up a stint in an office and heading back to the states, and a newcomer to take over the spot being left by the second -- find love...but not without a few bumps and misunderstandings along the way (of course).

Some surprisingly serious passages, but fine.

B-

Dinner for Schmucks (2010)

Simply terrible/ridiculous/unbelievable/couldn't take it. Steve Carrell is a talentless hack and this movie made me hate him more than I hate Jim Carrey.

D-

It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)

Kind of a younger cousin to Beginners -- the stories are nothing alike, but the storytelling is quite similar.  When the main character goes into voice-over, there are a lot of visual aids; there were actually a few things that were nearly identical in the films (this is what it looks like when she cries/this is me telling her how beautiful I think she is).  I like that kind of thing a lot.

But Beginners did it better -- possibly because it felt like a little less was at stake: a teenager being stressed out vs. a man and his gay father both confronting years of being careful rather than happy.  But I liked it regardless.  There was a bit of "Takin' Over the Asylum" style wackiness as our hero checks himself into a mental ward and engages with the residents.  Though I've seen this type of thing many times, it thankfully didn't veer into caricature.

B

Beginners (2011)

I'd read a bit about this movie and was expecting to absolutely hate it; I'd already planned to break it up into 20 minute segments to make it more bearable.  But I was charmed (and able to get it all seen in one sitting).

It's like a poem or a picture book -- just beautiful.  And although Christopher Plummer has been getting all of the attention as the elderly father only coming out of the closet once he's a widower, in my opinion this movie belongs to "other" story track.  Watching the son fall in love without understanding exactly what to do with it once it's past the exciting, early stage was both lovely and sad.

B+

Warrior (2011)

An estranged family of men, two brothers and their father, find themselves in each others' lives again as the siblings prepare to fight in a "winner take all" Mixed Martial Arts competition.

All are driven by desperation -- one brother needs the money to keep his family in their home, the other to provide for the family of the brother-in-arms he feels he failed in battle, and the father (Nick Nolte) is aching to be forgiven for destroying his family through alcoholism.  

It's a brutal movie with a marvel of a last act.  The final MMA match is savage and cathartic.  I was afraid it would end in cliche, but the integrity of the story held through the last shot.

A

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2012)

Every bit as fascinating/maddening as the first two films covering the Robin Hood Hills murders.  It also does a really good job of "catching up" viewers who are new to the subject (e.g. Gary, who watched this with me but hadn't seen the first two installments).

So the "West Memphis 3" are finally free, but they'll never get back the years they spent in prison.  Whether or not they're guilty (I don't believe they are), there's no debating that the investigation was mishandled, and very little room for argument that the prosecution came anywhere close to proving their case.  Seeing the thinning hair and new spectacles on the convicted three alongside their boyish figures at the original arrest and trial was startling.

I grieve for the three murdered children, but also for a community that can throw away three MORE young lives just for the illusion of justice.  I truly hope Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelly will be able to find their way as adults in a world without metal bars.  They deserve piles of cash and, more importantly, apologies.

A-

Moneyball (2011)

I don't follow -- or even care about -- baseball, but this movie was fascinating.

Pitt plays real-life Billy Beane, manager of the Oakland As, trying to build a team with a fraction of the cash that other teams have.  With the help of a college grad packing an algorithm, he focuses on hiring the, surprisingly affordable, guys who get on base rather than the guys who are hot commodities or ticket sellers.  Smart.  I liked it.

Reminded me a bit of The Damned United in that I didn't know a fig about soccer when I saw that film, but it made the business of the game fascinating.  Also, knowing nothing at all about the sport meant that I got the added bonus of being truly surprised by the outcome of each big game!

B+

The Song of Bernadette (1943)

This beautiful little story of a poor, simple girl who simply believes what she sees and is obedient to it despite heavy opposition from family, city leaders, and the church can't help but be interesting.  But that doesn't stop this movie from being extremely heavy-handed, too long, and stuck with the blandest of leading ladies in Jennifer Jones.

Here's a much better Song of Bernadette video:


C+

Unstoppable (2010)

Due to some truly stupid human error, there's a runaway train barreling toward a treacherous curve on elevated track in the middle of a city, which will surely tip the train and cause major damage/death.  Everything that can go wrong does, and there's the usual bureaucratic idiocy and red tape for no reason and, hey, let's toss in a guy who's new to the job but thinks he knows everything (uh...he doesn't).

I didn't hate it...but I still think I should have.

C+

Unknown (2011)

Man in Berlin for a conference gets into a car accident and it seems, when he wakes up from a short coma, everyone else has somehow suffered amnesia where he's concerned.  It had me rolling my eyes for most of the movie as everything seemed so convoluted.  It was obvious that he was being tricked somehow, but why?  And how could it possibly make any sense?

I was happily surprised that the story came together seamlessly.  I couldn't have predicted that the riduclousness on the screen would eventually be proven reasonable, but they pulled it off.  Amazing that 3/4 of the movie could be saved by the last fourth (usually it's the other way around), but there ya go.

B

Our Idiot Brother (2011)

Rudd is sweet as the titular brother whose honesty and good-samaritan tendencies land him in jail and then into the homes of his mother and sisters.  He then proceeds to mess up their well-ordered lives with his complete lack of guile.

This is one of those "the screw-up is the only one who actually has his life together" stories.  Of course, I say that and then can't think of a single example of a prior movie that falls in that category -- but I'm sure there is one since it felt like I'd seen this before.

Likable but obvious.

B-

The Fall (2008)

What a lovely film.

It reminded me a bit of A Little Princess, in that we have a storyteller whose tale becomes a part of the film.  In this case the narrator is Roy, a stuntman convalescing from both a crippling fall and a broken heart.  The listener is young Alexandria, also recuperating in the hospital due to a fall, but with the advantage of mobility since it was her arm that was hurt.

There's the part of the story that is the epic tale that Roy weaves for Alexandria.  We hear the words Roy speaks but see what Alexandria visualizes.  The characters have the same faces as people from her life and her interpretations (sometimes changing on-the-fly) are our illustrations.  For example: when Roy makes one of the characters an Indian, he refers to a "wigwam" while Alexandria sees a man from India in his palace.  The visuals are simply stunning.

And then there's the "real world" half of the movie, in which Roy is suicidal and depressed and Alexandria simply wants to cheer her new friend up.  Oh my word -- it's magic.

A

Robin Hood (2010)

I guess this is what would be called a "genesis" movie: how Robin Longstride went from honest soldier to outlaw.  It stops there, however -- we don't get any of those colorful robbing from the rich scenes.  That'd be fodder for a probably pretty decent sequel.

There's a whole lot going on here and dozens of characters to track, but it never felt overwhelming.  The look and feel was right, the faux history made sense, and the romance never took over the story, instead going for organic rather than manipulated.  I thought everyone did a heckuva job with their roles.  If this political history stuff was more my movie thing, I'd recommend it pretty highly.

B

Glorious 39 (2011)

A young British woman, adopted as a baby into the family of a member of Parliament, stumbles onto a plan to make a deal with Hitler to avoid going to war.

There's a real tension to the story as we begin to understand, along with her, that there's real danger here.  But it all seems to be too much.  People are being blackmailed and, when that fails, killed...that I can believe.  But driving someone insane?  And out of love?  It was just too weird.

All of the "whats" were explained by the end but I still had quite a few "what the hells" left unanswered.

B-

Fair Game (2010)

Naomi Watts plays Valerie Plame, a real-life CIA operative who was outed by the government, seemingly just to get back at her husband for writing a piece criticizing the government.

I remember watching this event unfold and how I felt, at best, annoyed on her behalf.  Although I of course can't know how accurate the film is, it seems logical that an undercover agent would have operations in progress that would be jeopardized by revealing her true identity.  That this seeming act of "oh yeah?  well take this!" childishness could do more than simply rob a woman of her job and a family of their privacy but was okayed anyway demonstrates the dangers of having so few holding so much power.

I went from annoyed to downright sick at the renewed realization that we allowed a group of lying bullies to play games with our country for years and years, playing upon our fears and patriotism to get their way and have us cheer them for it.  I don't know if I would've done what Joe Wilson did, but he's one man.  And I believe he's a brave one.

OK.  Back to the movie.  Great job of explaining what was happening and why it mattered.  Seemed to do a good job of getting the audience on its side (since I was already there I'm guessing at that).  Could've worked harder at showing us the far-reaching damage incurred by the revelation -- the fact that this facet seemed somewhat marginalized helped to sell its accuracy/lack of sensationalism though.

B