May movie reviews

IRON MAN 2. I really like Robert Downey Jr., but with the exception of a minute or two here and there, I was bored out of my mind. Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell are the bad guys, Gwyneth Paltrow is back as Stark's right hand, and Scarlett Johanson arrives as an attorney for Stark Industries. Lots of explosions and battles. Just didn't engage me.

SECRET IN THEIR EYES. Winner of this year's Oscar for Best Foreign Film. It is about a former detective who is retired and has written a book about a 1970s rape-murder case he worked on. He has never been able to let go of how politics interfered with justice on the case. He asks his boss from from that time (she is now a judge) to take a look at the book for him. He was in love with her, but believing she was out of his league, he never acted on his feelings. The movie tells the two parallel stories, the rape-murder case that he has written about, and the now-older couple reconnecting. This is a very watchable movie - I like the way the stories just unfolded...

CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY. Documentary about Jack Abramoff, who is serving a prison term for his shenanigans as a high profile lobbyist in Washington. He took vast sums of money from both garment manufacturers in the Marianas Islands (so they could continue to exploit workers) and Indian tribes (to support their casinos). He wasn't content to make gobs of money; he got involved in kickbacks as well. The movie describes Abramoff's start as an ambitious young college Republican to his fall from grace, and also highlights the huge amounts of money that politicians need to get elected, and the inherent corruption in our system. The investigation into his actions eventually brought down several Congressmen. Depressing, and maybe too convoluted, but still interesting to me.

MOTHER AND CHILD. This is the story of three women: Annette Bening, who as a 14-year-old gave up a child for adoption; Naomi Watts, the child she gave up, and Kerry Washington, who desperately wants to adopt a child. Both Annette and Naomi was strongly affected by the adoption - Annette is a strange, socially clueless woman, and Naomi is an aggressively independent woman. They both avoid relationships. The acting in this movie is terrific (including the supporting cast of Samuel Jackson, Jimmy Smits, and S. Epatha Merkerson). Although I was never bored by the story, it took some turns that were all too predictable, and others that were just unbelievable. Too bad - there aren't all that many movies about women these days.

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP. Documentary based on the home movies filmed by Thierry Guetta, a Frenchman living in LA. He compulsively films everything. When he visits his cousin in Paris, noted street artist ( a step above graffiti) named Invader, Thierry becomes involved in the world of street art. He becomes more and more involved in filming street artists, and implies to them that he is making a documentary. But he really isn't; he is too disorganized. When he finally puts something together, his most famous subject, Banksy, a British street artist who has become a darling of the art crowd, is appalled at how bad the film is and takes over the making of the movie. And then the documentary focuses on Thierry, as he starts doing his own art. Interesting and entertaining, just on the street art portion of the film. But then the movie takes a little turn that I really enjoyed. Leading to questions about what is art. Don't want to give it away. Fun flick.