From Time to Time (2009)

At the end of World War II, Tolly is sent to his paternal grandmother's estate so that his mother can focus on finding his father who is missing in action. It's just Tolly and three older folks (his grandmother, the cook and the gardener), but his world soon expands as he's visited by residents of the estate from times long past. As he digs into the history of the house, he finds out that he's not the only one who's seen them, but he seems to be the only one with whom they can actually interact.

It's definitely not a quality story or production, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It put me in mind of the types of "spooky" movies we used to watch at church lock-ins: family friendly with just a touch of the supernatural.

C+

Funny People (2009)

George Simmons -- mega-famous comic actor -- finds out he's sick and hires a fledgling stand-up Ira to serve as his assistant. With Ira's encouragement, George reconnects with his family, shares his diagnosis with friends from whom he'd grown distant, and even rekindles a relationship with "the one who got away."

Basically, it's not what I thought it was going to be: it's got depth. I think it's probably a somewhat honest peek at how easy it is to become isolated in one's own fame and to stop developing as a human once everyone's eager to get on your good side. The runtime is bloated, though.

B+

Accident (2009)

A team of four, led by "The Brain," choreograph elaborate plans in order to disguise paid assassinations as seemingly random accidents. When an accident befalls one of the team members during a hit and then his flat is burgled, The Brain suspects he's a victim of his own methods.

While I enjoyed this, I had a really hard time keeping everyone straight -- for a long time I thought The Brain was investigating the son of the team's final hit, but now I think he was after a different guy altogether. I was, honestly, pretty lost. It's difficult to be really into something that confused me this much.

C+

Paper Heart (2009)

Charlyne Yi plays herself making a documentary about a subject she doesn't understand: love. She and her crew travel around the country asking people for their takes on love. Early into the filming, Charlyne meets Michael Cera, who expresses interest in getting to know her better.

For the first portion of my watch, I thought this was an actual documentary that happened to have a director who looks remarkably like Jake Johnson. When I finally caved and checked on IMDb halfway through, I found that it was Jake playing the actual director (Nick), so I was still pretty confused as to whether or not this was a real thing. That was pretty annoying to me because, if it was real, I could be fine with all of Yi's quirks -- I mean, what can you do if that's really who she is? But, since I now know that it's not real, I'm just wondering what the purpose of the obfuscation was.

C-

2012 (2009)

The world is about to come to an end. Though world leaders have been given enough of a heads-up to build "arks" in which to ride out the worst of it and restart civilization, most of the population is unaware... until they're falling into huge cracks in the earth, that is.

I'm fairly sure that the intent here was to make a big old-fashioned disaster movie following several storylines, in the vein of Earthquake and Airport in the '70s. But this just wound up bloated and silly. Even the "cool" bits -- like the Washington Monument crashing to the ground or hundreds of people clinging to suddenly exposed skyscraper floors -- felt cartoonish rather than thrilling.

D+

Cold Souls (2009)

Paul Giamatti is playing “Paul Giamatti” as he struggles with finding a character he’s rehearsing. He hears about Soul Storage and thinks it may be the answer to his ennui. Basically, most of the soul is extracted and stored so that one can get on with living life without the pesky weight and potential darkness of a soul. But soullessness can be its own kind of pressure. Good thing there’s a soul catalogue through which you can rent the soul of anonymous donors!

This is a pretty out-there concept. In the words of Stefan: this movie has it all: soul-smuggling, shady contracts, misplacements and so. much. angst. That’s not to say it isn’t good and, as a matter of fact, I think it is. But there’s no resolution (how could there really be?) so it remains an interesting concept without a destination.

C+

Sunshine Cleaning (2009)

Two sisters, one a single mother having an affair with her married high school boyfriend and the other a perpetual screw-up still living with her father, stumble into the world of crime scene clean-up. And that’s about it.

This just felt so budget. There’s not really anything to be mad about, but I’m not sure why it exists.

C+

Pontypool (2009)

A small talk-radio crew in Ontario does their best to cover a sudden outbreak in their town, completely dependent on call-ins from eyewitnesses to tell them what’s happening.

This is genius storytelling: I was terrified by what I heard and imagined, just as I used to be while reading Stephen King in the dead of night. There’s a dip in the terror once the infection makes its way to the station's own doors and we can see the disease rather than having to picture it, but it’s still worthwhile.

B

Just Another Love Story (2009)

A man whose stalled car causes an accident that leaves a woman in a coma lies about being her boyfriend in order to get in to see her at the hospital. What he doesn’t count on his that her family -- already in the room -- has heard of but never seen her actual boyfriend Sebastian and is desperate for his help in bringing her around.

It’s like a thriller version of “While You Were Sleeping,” which I know sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it really does. It’s stylish to the point that I felt cool just for watching it.

A-

Guys 'N Divas: Battle of the High School Musicals (2009)

This is a good documentary in the same way that the drama teacher at Jeffersonville is a good playwright (trust me, if you’d seen the movie that would be HILARIOUS). I was hoping it'd be about the experience of theater, but instead there was no clear through-line and I often forgot which school was which. I DID, however, remember how glad I am to be an adult and no longer embroiled in the manufactured drama of high school relationships.

C-

Lymelife (2009)

Everyone’s miserable. The end.

D

O'Horten (2009)

A man retires after about 40 years as a locomotive engineer and has weird, though quite quiet, adventures over the next week or so.

He…

• sneaks into an apartment as a shortcut, only to be blackmailed by a young boy who lives there into sitting up with him until the boy falls asleep
• gets cavity-searched at an airport when he goes to meet a guy about selling his boat
• falls asleep in a sauna until the gym is locked up for the evening, at which point two skinny-dippers interrupt his solitary swim
• spends an early dawn riding with a man who insists he can drive with his eyes closed

His demeanor was always so mild that the bizarreness of his post-retirement days almost seemed commonplace. I was charmed, but I couldn’t help but feel that I’d also been on a ride with a driver who had no idea where he was going.

C+

Dead Like Me: Life After Death (2009)

This follow-up of a series I enjoyed immensely did nothing for me.

I can think of a few decent reasons to revisit this TV show, not the least of which would be to finally give some of our beloved reapers their "lights" -- to let them jump into the afterlife.  But I can't figure out why they made this sequel. It plays like a lame extended episode and it doesn't have Mandy Patinkin (not that I blame him).  It was good to see the old crew, but I would’ve frankly preferred them to have left well enough alone.

C-

The Escapist (2009)

A long-timer is determined to get out of prison to see his frail junkie daughter before it’s too late. To do so, he puts together the crew he needs in record time while trying to placate the big man on campus and the big man’s petty creep of a brother.  The escape’s planning is intercut with its execution, which is a storytelling choice that really pays off.

Gary was just in love with it -- more so after talking it through.  This was a tense thriller that was also, somehow,  poetry.

B+

Uncertainty (2009)

I don't know what the heck is up with this movie.

A couple flips a coin on a bridge, then run off in opposite directions and into two different realities for the same day -- both of which feature the couple. No explanation is ever given for this, although it seemed that they were discussing whether today was the day to do whatever this coin flip thing was about.  I might have been able to gloss over the weird beginning if either of the story lines were in the least bit compelling, but even though one reality concerns a found cell phone of blackmail and DEATH, somehow they weren't.

D-

Jennifer's Body (2009)

Nerdy girl and hot girl are BFFs, but one night the hot girl goes off with a smarmy indie band in their van and comes back evil. Well, eviler.

This is not a new riff on the teen horror movie, it’s just the same old stuff Diablo Codyfied. The science teacher has a hook hand for no apparent reason and there are a bunch of made-up words that we’re supposed to giggle at for their pop-culture cleverness. Yawn.

D

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

The Tournament (2009)

A decent idea: every 7 years the best-of-the-best assassins have a to-the-death competition with a huge cash prize (and premium betting for enthusiasts). This time, however, one of the contestants gets smart and removes the tracker that allows the bettors (and other competitors) to keep an eye on his movements and it’s ingested by a drunken priest.

There's lots of fun mayhem and action, but every time the reigning champion (Ving Rhames) is on-screen, everything slows to a drag.

C+

The White Ribbon (2009)

Shit goes down in a pre-WWI German village: a doctor is injured when his horse is done in by a tripwire, a rich boy is humiliatingly beaten bare-bottomed, a retarded child is nearly blinded and tied to a tree, an infant nearly freezes to death, and a woman falls to her death in a sawmill. There's also this everyday undercurrent of horriblenesses like incest, emotional abuse, and unfair accusations.

The mood is successfully oppressive, but no real answers are provided and that makes for a unsatisfying whole.

C-

Humpday (2009)

I am so surprised at how much I liked this movie. It took a while for me to get into it -- at first I was put off by the plot device of having a comfy life turned upside down by an invader. I also don’t really like the "dude...we’re soooo unsquare..." vibe of the California artist-types.

But then something profound happened. Two guys drunkenly decide to enter an arty porn film competition by taping two straight guys (them) having sex. The aftermath of the decision and their conflicting emotions surrounding it (am I too inhibited to do it? Is he living a more open life than I am?) were just fascinating. I believed it all and wound up just in love with the whole thing.

A-