MY BEST TIMES AT THE MOVIES 2008
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. Because it moved me more than any other movie I saw.
IN BRUGES. Because I loved the black humor and the twists and turns the story took.
MAN ON WIRE. Because this documentary kept me on the edge of my seat, even though I knew how it ended.
THE READER. Because it explored the role of guilt in our lives, which I found interesting.
EDGE OF HEAVEN. Because the interlocking stories were fascinating.
TRANSSIBERIAN. Because it was a terrific thriller.
TELL NO ONE. Because it was a terrific thriller. In French.
TROPIC THUNDER. Because I laughed. A lot.
MILK. Because it is important.
DOUBT. Because the writing and acting were so good.
THE NEXT BEST
THE WRESTLER. Because although the story didn't grab me, the acting was heart-breakingly good.
GRAN TORINO. Because it was just fun to be entertained.
BANK JOB. Ditto
VICKI CHRISTINA BARCELONA. Because I loved how it showed our self-perceptions rule our actions.
Other worthies, for one reason or another (acting, special effects, etc): THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, CHANGELING, APPALOOSA, ELEGY, FROZEN RIVER, WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER
THE OVER-RATED
(I generally only see movies that get generally good reviews, and these were the ones where I didn’t get the adulation)
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED. Sure, Anne Hathaway was very good as a recovering addict, but Rachel's wedding was a pretentious bore.
BURN AFTER READING. Because the first half and second half were two different movies.
FROST/NIXON. Because I was kind of bored in spots, to be honest.
BOY THE STRIPED PAJAMAS. Because it is wrong to set up a completely false pretense to bring home the horror of the Holocaust; it is inherent in the event.
WALL-E. Yeah, the animation was great, but a best movie?
Monday, January 5, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
December 2008 movie reviews
THE READER. As the movie opens in 1995, Michael (Ralph Fiennes) is a German lawyer, divorced from his wife and not close to his daughter. He seems pretty repressed. Flash back to 1958, where a 15-year-old Michael takes sick on the street, and is helped by an older woman (Kate Winslet). When he recovers, he goes back to thank Hanna for helping him. Although she appears to be angry and unhappy, she seduces him (no resistance from him!). They have a months-long passionate affair, composed mostly of her initiating him into the wonders of sex, and him reading the classics to her. Because he has Hanna, he doesn't develop relationships with girls his own age. But then Hanna disappears from his life, and he is heartbroken. Forward to the mid-1960's where Michael is now a law student. And as part of his ethics seminar, during a war crimes trial, he discovers something in Hanna's past that is so unforgivable that he is overcome. So much so that he can't provide any assistance to her (even though he has information that might help her). Which leads to the question, if you discover that your first love, maybe even your greatest love, has done something so terrible, and in fact that person may even lack a moral center, how would that affect your relationships in the future? And how do you deal with guilt and shame at having loved someone who has done something so unthinkable? This may not sound like a very interesting movie, but I really really liked this one. Guilt isn't a theme you see often in movies.
DOUBT. Meryl Streep is Sister Aloysius, a principal in a mid-1960's Catholic middle school. Which she runs like a tyrant (the stereotypical scary nun!) - all the students hate and fear her. She thinks using ballpoint pens are a sign of weakness... Sister James (Amy Adams) is a young teacher, much more idealistic and loving. Into this setting comes a new priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who is full of life and wants to modernize the church. Sister Aloysius immediately takes a dislike to him, and tells Sister James to report anything out of the ordinary. When she does, Sister Aloysius becomes convinced that Father Flynn has been improper with a student. And she is determined to ruin him, or at least run him out of "her" parish. She is mean-spirited and he is caring and giving, so the viewer likes him over her, but the evidence...she may or may not be right about him. This movie is incredibly well written and acted, and leaves it to the viewer to determine what they think happened. Well worth seeing.
MILK. Sean Penn stars as Harvey Milk, first openly gay person elected to the SF Board of Supervisors. The movie covers Milk's life, pretty much from when he moved to SF from New York (at age 40), through his early failed attempts to get elected, to his triumphant election in the late 1970s. The movie includes other noteworthy events, including his role in defeating the Briggs initiative, which would have fired all gay schoolteachers in California. It also covers a bit of his somewhat messy personal life. It provides a lot more information than just his infamous assassination. Sean Penn is so good as Milk it is amazing. MILK is a very good movie, more than a biography. It's really important viewing for people who have no idea about the history of the gay rights movement, why it was needed, and its successes.
GRAN TORINO. Clint Eastwood may be 78, but he still can play the toughest guy in town. Here he is a retired autoworker and Korean War vet. His wife has just died, he is not close to his two sons, and he has no respect for his grandchildren. To call him a racist curmudgeon is to be kind. He refuses to leave the old neighborhood, even though it is declining, and becoming more diverse. So he doesn't get along with his immigrant neighbors. But when gangs try to intimidate him, they have met their match. This is a very fun movie, very entertaining. It is worth the price of admission just to watch Clint snarl "get off my lawn". You know he means it.
THE WRESTLER. Mickey Rourke plays Randy "The Ram", a star wrestler in the 1980s. But now he is a physically broken hulk of a guy, still doing wrestling in small venues. He lives in a trailer, but he can't even afford the rent on that. He has no friends other than other low-level wrestlers, and the neighborhood kids. But he perseveres. He likes a local stripper (Marisa Tomei). And he has a daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) he is estranged from. He may be a wreck, and the kind of guy that screws up his life, but you can tell he has a good heart. The story doesn't go anywhere I didn't see coming, and I really don't care to watch wrestling. But the acting is really superb, so it was worth viewing.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. Brad Pitt is Benjamin Button. Ben is born in 1918, but he is born old. That is to say, even though he is an infant, he has all the infirmities of old age (arthritis, cataracts, heart disease). His mother dies in childbirth, and his father abandons him. Coincidentally, he is taken it at the local old folks him, where he actually fits in. But as he grows, he gets physically younger. So, for example, he graduates from a wheelchair to crutches to a cane to walking unaided. He meets Cate Blanchett when he is old and she is young, and they have a connection. Eventually, they will be the same age. My main problem with the film is I didn't feel the connection they supposedly had. So I didn't find this movie as fabulous as some of the reviewers, but I did think it was good. It's written by the same guy that wrote Forrest Gump, and has much the same feel. The makeup and special effects for Brad Pitt are terrific.
CADILLAC RECORDS. Adrian Brody is Leonard Chess, who started Chess Records in 1950's Chicago. He recorded some of the great blues musicians, the ones who helped birth rock and roll. There's a little bit of bio of the most influential, including Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howling Wolf, Chuck Berry, and Etta James. There's not a great deal of depth to the movie, since it covers so many people, but the music is great, and I appreciated the movie for the nice little musical history lesson that it was.
FROST / NIXON. In 1977, David Frost (Michael Sheen) was a British talk-show host, and Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) was three years into his exile after Watergate. Frost decided that interviewing Nixon would make Frost's reputation, and pays Nixon $600,000 for 30 hours of interviews. This movie shows a little of the background of both Watergate and Frost’s career, and then the back-and-forth between the two characters, with Frost's team desperate for Frost to nudge Nixon into confessing his role in the cover-up. This movie is getting great reviews, but I thought it a little boring. I didn't feel the drama of the confrontation. Maybe younger people would get into it more (since I vaguely remember the actual interviews, I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat.)
PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL. Documentary. In 2003, Liberia had been entangled in a civil war for years. One woman, a social worker, decided she was tired of it, and she got up in church and asked the women to stand with her for peace. And some did. They did not take sides in the civil war, just protested for peace. And they eventually, at great risk to themselves, got the government and the various warlords to the negotiating table. It's not a great movie, because it's mostly talking heads and newsreel footage, but it is good, and an inspirational story.
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY. I don't generally like director Mike Leigh movies, but this one is rated tops both on Rottentomatoes and metacritic, so I thought I'd give it a chance. Here, 30-year-old Poppy is an elementary school teacher, unattached, living with a roommate in a small flat. She has very sunny personality, always trying to be positive. Unfortunately, the way the movie denotes her optimism and joy of life is to have her chatter on about the most inconsequential of things. The movie makes it clear she's not stupid, but the way she blithers on, you'd think she had an IQ of 20. I'd run screaming from her after about 5 minutes. The main "story" (such as it is in a Mike Leigh movie) involves her taking driving lessons with a miserable man. There are other episodes that have no relation to any other episode in the movie. The audience applauded at the end, but I was annoyed beyond reason with this. Mike Leigh directed movies are just not my cup of tea.
DOUBT. Meryl Streep is Sister Aloysius, a principal in a mid-1960's Catholic middle school. Which she runs like a tyrant (the stereotypical scary nun!) - all the students hate and fear her. She thinks using ballpoint pens are a sign of weakness... Sister James (Amy Adams) is a young teacher, much more idealistic and loving. Into this setting comes a new priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who is full of life and wants to modernize the church. Sister Aloysius immediately takes a dislike to him, and tells Sister James to report anything out of the ordinary. When she does, Sister Aloysius becomes convinced that Father Flynn has been improper with a student. And she is determined to ruin him, or at least run him out of "her" parish. She is mean-spirited and he is caring and giving, so the viewer likes him over her, but the evidence...she may or may not be right about him. This movie is incredibly well written and acted, and leaves it to the viewer to determine what they think happened. Well worth seeing.
MILK. Sean Penn stars as Harvey Milk, first openly gay person elected to the SF Board of Supervisors. The movie covers Milk's life, pretty much from when he moved to SF from New York (at age 40), through his early failed attempts to get elected, to his triumphant election in the late 1970s. The movie includes other noteworthy events, including his role in defeating the Briggs initiative, which would have fired all gay schoolteachers in California. It also covers a bit of his somewhat messy personal life. It provides a lot more information than just his infamous assassination. Sean Penn is so good as Milk it is amazing. MILK is a very good movie, more than a biography. It's really important viewing for people who have no idea about the history of the gay rights movement, why it was needed, and its successes.
GRAN TORINO. Clint Eastwood may be 78, but he still can play the toughest guy in town. Here he is a retired autoworker and Korean War vet. His wife has just died, he is not close to his two sons, and he has no respect for his grandchildren. To call him a racist curmudgeon is to be kind. He refuses to leave the old neighborhood, even though it is declining, and becoming more diverse. So he doesn't get along with his immigrant neighbors. But when gangs try to intimidate him, they have met their match. This is a very fun movie, very entertaining. It is worth the price of admission just to watch Clint snarl "get off my lawn". You know he means it.
THE WRESTLER. Mickey Rourke plays Randy "The Ram", a star wrestler in the 1980s. But now he is a physically broken hulk of a guy, still doing wrestling in small venues. He lives in a trailer, but he can't even afford the rent on that. He has no friends other than other low-level wrestlers, and the neighborhood kids. But he perseveres. He likes a local stripper (Marisa Tomei). And he has a daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) he is estranged from. He may be a wreck, and the kind of guy that screws up his life, but you can tell he has a good heart. The story doesn't go anywhere I didn't see coming, and I really don't care to watch wrestling. But the acting is really superb, so it was worth viewing.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. Brad Pitt is Benjamin Button. Ben is born in 1918, but he is born old. That is to say, even though he is an infant, he has all the infirmities of old age (arthritis, cataracts, heart disease). His mother dies in childbirth, and his father abandons him. Coincidentally, he is taken it at the local old folks him, where he actually fits in. But as he grows, he gets physically younger. So, for example, he graduates from a wheelchair to crutches to a cane to walking unaided. He meets Cate Blanchett when he is old and she is young, and they have a connection. Eventually, they will be the same age. My main problem with the film is I didn't feel the connection they supposedly had. So I didn't find this movie as fabulous as some of the reviewers, but I did think it was good. It's written by the same guy that wrote Forrest Gump, and has much the same feel. The makeup and special effects for Brad Pitt are terrific.
CADILLAC RECORDS. Adrian Brody is Leonard Chess, who started Chess Records in 1950's Chicago. He recorded some of the great blues musicians, the ones who helped birth rock and roll. There's a little bit of bio of the most influential, including Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howling Wolf, Chuck Berry, and Etta James. There's not a great deal of depth to the movie, since it covers so many people, but the music is great, and I appreciated the movie for the nice little musical history lesson that it was.
FROST / NIXON. In 1977, David Frost (Michael Sheen) was a British talk-show host, and Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) was three years into his exile after Watergate. Frost decided that interviewing Nixon would make Frost's reputation, and pays Nixon $600,000 for 30 hours of interviews. This movie shows a little of the background of both Watergate and Frost’s career, and then the back-and-forth between the two characters, with Frost's team desperate for Frost to nudge Nixon into confessing his role in the cover-up. This movie is getting great reviews, but I thought it a little boring. I didn't feel the drama of the confrontation. Maybe younger people would get into it more (since I vaguely remember the actual interviews, I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat.)
PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL. Documentary. In 2003, Liberia had been entangled in a civil war for years. One woman, a social worker, decided she was tired of it, and she got up in church and asked the women to stand with her for peace. And some did. They did not take sides in the civil war, just protested for peace. And they eventually, at great risk to themselves, got the government and the various warlords to the negotiating table. It's not a great movie, because it's mostly talking heads and newsreel footage, but it is good, and an inspirational story.
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY. I don't generally like director Mike Leigh movies, but this one is rated tops both on Rottentomatoes and metacritic, so I thought I'd give it a chance. Here, 30-year-old Poppy is an elementary school teacher, unattached, living with a roommate in a small flat. She has very sunny personality, always trying to be positive. Unfortunately, the way the movie denotes her optimism and joy of life is to have her chatter on about the most inconsequential of things. The movie makes it clear she's not stupid, but the way she blithers on, you'd think she had an IQ of 20. I'd run screaming from her after about 5 minutes. The main "story" (such as it is in a Mike Leigh movie) involves her taking driving lessons with a miserable man. There are other episodes that have no relation to any other episode in the movie. The audience applauded at the end, but I was annoyed beyond reason with this. Mike Leigh directed movies are just not my cup of tea.
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