Devil (2010)

Five people trapped in an elevator are being picked off one by one.  That sounds like it could be good, but it's really not.  There's too much voiceover legend surrounding what happens ("my mother used to say...") and having the action viewed by an audience makes what's going on feel temporary instead of like it's everything.

It's not scary.  Bad move for a horror flick.

D

Anthony Adverse (1936)

Infant Anthony is dumped anonymously at a convent by his mother's husband after she dies in childbirth (not his kid).  He's apprenticed out to a businessman -- who just happens to be his grandpa --  when he's 10, falls in love with the cook's daughter, becomes a slave trader in Africa to collect a debt for his boss/gramps, has an affair with a native while there and loses his woman since he dilly-dallies there for 5 years, almost gets killed by his old housekeeper who stood to inherit if he was dead, finds his woman (and kid!) in France but Napoleon's got his eye on her, and sails away to America without her but with his kid at the end.

It's got a huge scope and keeps things hopping just by having SO MUCH story packed into less than 2 1/2 hours...but it doesn't feel like it amounted to much in the end.  I wasn't invested in anyone's fate.

C+

The Happy Ending (1969)

A bored housewife turns to booze, pills, health clubs, and excessive shopping to distract herself from her empty marriage and wandering husband.  When she disappears to the Bahamas for a desperate getaway, a gigolo talking about his (fake) work utters the words "very sad.  very nothing."  Perfect summation of this movie.

D+

Argo (2012)

My father is full-blood Iranian who came to the US for college and ended up staying.  So, even though I was just a kid in middle school, I remember the hostage crisis.  I remember the yellow ribbons, the "Iranians not welcome" signs on restaurant marquees, and I remember making childish jokes (better not make me mad or I'll hold you hostage, haha!) at the expense of my race to show which I side I was on.  But I never knew the why or the particulars of the how.

Argo does a great job of filling in those details.  It showed me just how scary things got for Iranian citizens and just how frightening it must have been for my father watching the events unfold on the news, knowing his mother, siblings, and their families were there in Tehran.  But it's not only informative, it's interesting, exciting and even supplied a few laughs.

My criticisms are 1) too many extreme close-up and dizzying camera work -- I actually got slightly motion sick and 2) the climax was unnecessarily Hollywoodized.  Earlier this month, there was an interview with Tony Mendez, the CIA agent played by Ben Affleck, and he said that the only tense moment at the airport was when their passports were gathered and taken to a back room for several minutes.  They had no idea what the hold up was but, when the man emerged with their passports, he was holding a just-prepared cup of tea.  That would have been suspenseful, funny, and accurate all at the same time.  Why make up a series of events that felt familiar and false?

One other note -- I leaned over to Gary during the film to tell him that Alan Arkin will be nominated for this performance.

B+

Jimmy Carter Man From Plains (2007)

I've long been an admirer of Jimmy Carter: for a believer and a reasonable, thinking member of society like myself, he's nothing short of a hero.

This documentary covers the book tour for his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.  Although the film is unnecessarily stylized -- the datelines were often almost part of the scenery and, therefore, easy to miss and the music was sometimes confusing and distracting -- Carter's personality shines through.  He comes off as smart, decent, hardworking and fearless.  He also rarely loses his temper and is an always-gracious guest even when interviewers clearly haven't bothered to do their homework.

My opinion of him held fast and I'm happy to have him representing both Christianity and America.  I really should read some of his books.

B+ (more for the subject than the presentation)

The Reckless Moment (1949)

When a woman finds her daughter's much-older lover dead near their home, she fears her daughter was responsible and covers up the crime.  Her troubles are just beginning as, once the body is discovered, she's contacted by blackmailers in possession of love letters from her daughter to the deceased.

This is a quick-moving, desperate little movie that almost doesn't take a breath.  James Mason is particularly good as one of the bad guys who is obviously falling for the woman he's supposed to be strong-arming.

B+

Catfish (2010)

Nev, a New York photographer, strikes up an online friendship with Abby, an 8-year-old painter in Michigan who adapted one of his photographs. Two budding filmmakers (one is Nev's brother) see the documentary potential in the relationship and decide to see where it goes. Soon Nev has exchanged facebook messages, phone calls, packages and texts galore with the family and actually embarks on a long-distance never-met-her romantic relationship with Abby's older sister Megan.

Enough little inconsistencies start to build up that the documentary trio begin to wonder what's actually real, e.g. Nev can't ever speak directly to Abby, songs that Megan records and sends to Nev turn out to be YouTube rips that are easily discoverable, and Abby's first gallery show can't be found listed anywhere online. So they decide on a surprise visit to the family.

The movie was a bit spoiled for me as the DirecTV info blurb contained the phrase "supposedly 8-year-old girl" causing me to be skeptical throughout. Heck, I'm still kind of unsure about the whole thing even with what looks like proof that it really happened. It's definitely fascinating and cautionary -- another reminder (a la Trust) that everything's suspect online -- but it's also somehow exploitive, especially when considering the "innocents" in the family. Not everyone there could have agreed to being in the doc.

B

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

If I'd seen this movie 12 years ago, I could see giving it a B+ or so for charming originality.  But since I saw and loved the Royal Tenenbaums, I can't help but yawn at how derivative this is -- especially the character of Suzy (aka mini-Margot).  Suzy's depressed and arty, just like Margot.  She's got a hurt hand, reminiscent of Margot's missing fingertip.  She has a romantic encounter in a tent.  She cakes on the eye makeup.

Wes Anderson is talented, but he needs to get himself a new schtick.  With him, it's the same thing over and over again -- it doesn't matter if the characters are winning or the story is sweet.  The mannered delivery and the stagey direction just makes me feel like I'm looking at the same thing from a different angle.  He's like Monet and his waterlilies...only movies are closer to books than paintings.  Variations on a theme just feels lazy in this medium.

C+

The Brothers Bloom (2009)

I was a little worried, during the opening "flashback to childhood" scene, that watching this would send me into quirk overload as the scene was narrated in rhyming couplets...but I needn't have been concerned.  Just about everything in this film was inspired and delightful.

Two foster brothers have a knack for the long con.  One brother dreams up ever more elaborate cons while the other simply dreams of an "unwritten life."  The next (and last, of course) mark is Penelope -- a lonely recluse who collects hobbies and doesn't know that what she really wants is adventure.  When the brothers show up and give her a glimpse of the fun she could be having outside of her mansion, she jumps in with both feet.  I mean, seriously.  How cute is this doodle paper??

The ending was surprising and satisfying.  It's simply one of the best times I've had watching a film in a good long time.  I might have to buy this movie.

A

Captain Blood (1935)

Dr. Peter Blood is falsely accused of treason when treating an injured rebel and sold into slavery in the West Indies.  He spars with the young woman who "buys" him, escapes, becomes a pirate, and finds the lady again...this time to fall in love.

It wants to be thrilling and rollicking, but the carnage is bloodless and the banter is dull.  Watchable enough but, for all of the action and turns of fortune, it feels by-the-numbers.

C+

Chronicle (2012)

Three high school boys encounter something in an underground cave and discover over the next several weeks that they've got some telekinetic abilities.  With practice, their powers evolve.

I really got into this movie.  The three guys weren't friends to begin with -- one's a loner who's regularly bullied, both at home and at school; another's a too-mature-for-you philosophy-spouting cousin to the first; and the third's a popular kid running for a class presidency he seems to have sewn up -- but their newfound power binds them together.  The intense and fast friendships of that age along with the brutality of the social game felt really true-to-life.  I also really liked the understanding that the powers would be viewed/used differently by the kids.  Of course the heretofore loser would need to push the boundaries of his new strength while the others are happy to just have fun with it.

Great idea handled well, even though the climax went on a little too long (and why didn't the kid who needed money just SMASH AN ATM??).

B+

The Valiant (1929)

This is an odd-duck of a movie.  It's barely over an hour long and steadfastly keeps the viewer in the dark -- even after the credits roll.

Paul Muni earned his first nomination for his portrayal of a man who turns himself in for murder moments after committing it, but refuses to explain other than to say that the guy deserved it and he'll take his chances in front of God on the day of judgment in the afterlife.  He won't even give his name, going with "Dyke," a name he Keyser Soze'd off of a calendar in the police station.  Meanwhile, a small family a thousand miles away wonders if the mysterious murderer in the papers might be the son who left home 15 years prior.

The acting is barely there and it's kind to call the production as a whole "stiff," but I can't help but appreciate the film's choice keep its secrets.

C+

The Runaways (2010)

Young Joan Jett just wants to rock but "girls don't play electric guitars."  When she sees producer Kim Fowley on the street, she blurts out that she doesn't want any guys...she wants to start an all-girl rock band and he understands immediately that this is the right idea at the right time.  They spot Cherie Currie in a bar and pick her up as their singer because she's got a good look; bonus that she's only 15.

The story seems like it should be much more interesting than the movie allows it to be.  There's a hazy/rushed feel to the whole thing -- things happen fast and with little fanfare.  Suddenly they're a scrappy little road band and then drunk and sometime-lesbians then high and and stampede-causing stars and addicts and crashing down.  Maybe it's a deliberate choice to show how fast the fame rocket goes both ways?  Whether or not it's on purpose, it made the story feel like a sketch and I never really felt like I knew where the characters were coming from at all.  We barely spent any time with the other three members of the group -- I mean, the extremely recognizable Alia Shawkat was in the band and I didn't even realize it until I looked at the credits afterward.

C+

Cimarron (1931)

Yancey Cravat: adventurer first, activist second -- husband and father...30th?

Mr. Cravat drags his wife and young son to the boomtown of Osage, OK, where they become prominent figures in the community until his feet get itchy again and he disappears for five years.  He breezes into town to defend a prostitute, give his support to his son's love for a native Indian, and put in a bid for governor...until his wanderlust kicks in again.  This time, he's gone for a couple of decades.  What happens the next time he shows up?  He dies.

"Sprawling" is the right word for this but, oddly, so is "plodding."  So many years are packed into so short a time that it's hard to ever really get a feel for who these people are and it winds up feeling rather tedious.

C-

Sounder (1972)

Poor black family in the early-’30s south is happy despite their poverty. Out of desperation at his children’s hunger, the father steals some meat from a nearby smokehouse and gets sentenced to a year of hard labor. The mother and her three children have to “crop” in his place and keep their spirits up in the process.

The power of the story is all about time and place.  Blacks were less than whites, women were less than men.  There’s not a whole lot of character development here, but it’s affecting despite its sparseness.

B

End of Watch (2012)

Partners in the LA police work a hard neighborhood and get themselves marked for death by the cartel.  The best thing about this movie is the vibe of real friendship between the guys and the way that each is both decent and hard.  No, wait, the BEST thing about this movie is Anna Kendrick as the new girl in Officer Taylor's life -- she’s a delight and we see immediately why he’d be smitten.

The worst thing about the film was the handheld cam conceit.  Sure, they did a good job making the shaky footage acceptable through explanation (one of them is taking a film class and this is for a project), but then why must everything jiggle before our eyes when the footage ISN’T being filmed by the cops?  And how many semesters does this college elective class span anyway?

The story boils down to a fairly standard hard-edged cop story, elevated by the relationships - realistic mostly for the everyday mundaneness of them - and the way we become participants in their lives. Still, I may be spoiled by quality cop shows like The Wire and The Shield.  Several seasons getting to know characters is going to be way more effective in making the audience care than what can be achieved in what is, basically, a single "very special" episode.

B+

Splendor in the Grass (1961)

Rich Bud and poor Deanie are teenagers in love in late-’20s Kansas.  So what's the problem?  Well, his blowhard dad wants something better for him (with a little bit of trash on the side to keep his desires satisfied) and her nervous mother wants to make sure she is sufficiently shamed for having “those kinds of feelings.”

I can see why the relationship wouldn't survive these obstacles, but the fact that Deanie's sanity snaps, causing a two-and-a-half year (!) stay in a mental sanitorium, doesn't really wash.  This movie was both too shrill and too dull to achieve the weight it apparently thought it carried.

D+