Movie Review: Alex Strangelove

Alex Strangelove (2018)
Starring: Daniel Doheny, Madeline Weinstein, Antonio Marziale
















I had some free time, and I've been on a bit of a Netflix teen dramedy kick, so I thought I'd check this one out. The basis for the movie is a pretty good one. Alex, a medium handsome, fairly nerdy kid explores a first love, Claire. Along the way, he chalks up his sexual hesitance to nervousness until he meets Elliott, a confidently gay young man, at a party. The two become friends and Elliott immediately questions Alex's sexuality. After some questionable relationship choices (he IS a teenage male after all), he finally comes to the conclusion that he is gay. Claire, his friend-come-girlfriend-come-friend again, cheers him on.

So, I'm touchy critiquing this, because I think it a SUPER positive thing to have teen movies showing characters questioning their sexuality and coming to terms with being whoever they are. I thought the movie showed great respect for his internal struggle and confusion, as well. However, the Claire character was still a manic pixie dream girl. She loved all the same stuff as him! She was super into the idea of sex and guided him through what he needed! We even got to see her topless for some reason! Then, after he angrily admits he likes someone else, catches him hooking up with another girl, and he admits it's Elliott he likes, she gets mad for five minutes and then forgives him and supports his sexuality. Now, the Elliott character seemed similarly only there to make him question his sexuality, so perhaps just secondary character development is the real issue here.

I thought the actors did a good job, and I'm happy to see gay coming of age stories. I'm just sad it has to perpetuate other problematic features along the way.

Post-Holiday Movie Wrapup

When I left work for the holidays, I made a plan to try and see an average of 1 movie for the 12 days I was off. It took 3 movies on NYE day and seeing one after a 2 day stint back at work (I count it because we went to see it while on holidays. but the machines at the theatre were broken), but I got it done. Can't remember the exact order I saw them, so I'm just going to go alphabetical.

American Hustle (2013)
Starring: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence















I went into this movie without knowing too much about it. In fact, now that I have no cable (and the commercials that come with that), that's mostly how I enter movies these days. If you're in the same boat I was heading in, here's the gist of it: an FBI agent uses two small-time con artists in an attempt trap some high-ranking government officials, but ends up having the tables turned on him.

Jeremy Renner is great as the New Jersey Governor (or young Joe Pesci?); Jennifer Lawrence is decent as the con-man's wife; Amy Adams is good as the con girl that plays a bunch of sides; Bradley Cooper holds his own as the FBI agent and Christian Bale is excellent as the con man. It all comes together into a pretty good movie. I'm sure it will be in the Oscar field, but I don't personally think it's the best in any field except maybe Bale for best actor. The movie came together in a fun way and Bale was great, so I'll give this a 7.75/10 (maybe 8)

Captain Phillips (2013)
Starring: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi














This is the story of Captain Richard Philips and his cargo ship that gets hijacked by Somali pirates. He and his crew put forth a heroic effort to stay alive, which results in the safety of the crew, but extreme peril for Captain Phillips. The coast guard and Navy SWAT get involved and there's a small B-story about trying to deal with the situation without violence. I think a few older actors are trying to make a push for an Oscar (McConaughey for sure, Hanks seems to want another one). Hanks did a lovely job in this one and Abdi was great as well. I didn't feel 100% emotionally drawn into the movie, but it was still good. I'll go 7.25/10

Fruitvale Station (2013)
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz

















This one was a heart breaker. Based on a true story, this tells the story of a young man who has done jail time and doesn't seem to be all that changed when he gets out. The movie takes place from new years eve through new years day as he has flashbacks of his troubled life and decides to make a change. As he is en route to his new years plans, the subway stops and his past catches up with him, the police racially profile him and it ends badly.

This was an emotionally gripping piece with excellent acting from Jordan. It makes me sad to know that racial profiling is still a thing, but it's important to know about it as long as it does. I thought this one was great, though I don't think it will get serious Oscar consideration. 8.25/10

Heartbeats (2010)
Starring: Monia Chokki, Niels Schneider, Xavier Dolan
















This is an interesting story of two friends (a straight lady and a homosexual man) that fall in love with the same easy-going guy. The original french title seems to make more sense (Les Amours Imaginaires). There were some great dynamics between the characters as they each tried to keep the guy for themselves. The love interest has no interest in being tied down and the result is every relationship becoming frayed, before the two friends eventually return to friendship in their hatred against the guy that spurned them.

An interesting, if not entirely original, forlorn love story told in the french language. I'll give it a 7/10

The History of Future Folk (2012)
Starring: Nils d'Aulaire, Jay Klaitz
















This one was very interesting. Bill is a married man who plays solo folk music in a spacesuit under the name 'General Trius'. His marriage is troubled and his music isn't entirely successful. It turns out, though, that his pseudonym is not a stage persona, but that he is in fact a General from the planet Hondo that was sent to take over earth. When another Hondo inhabitant is sent to take over the mission, the two abandon it and play music together as Future Folk and also save the world from an impending meteor.

The movie is a mock history of a real alien-themed band. It was a lot of fun and I definitely recommend it for fans of Safety Not Guaranteed or Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny. 8/10

 The Lifeguard (2013)
Starring: Kristen Bell, Mamie Gummer

















A very disturbing story of a woman who can't handle the cruelty she sees in her job and moves back to her home town and takes up her old job of lifeguard at the local pool. However, as she takes that job, it's not the only thing that returns to old ways. She begins hanging out with teenagers and even starts a relationship with one of them. This tears a hole in already strained relationships between herself and her family and friends and many disasters happen along the way.

Bell was good, but the movie fell flat a bit for me. I think if the missing piece (whatever that may have been) was there, this could have been a career-defining role for her. Not sure if it was her not fully committing or the direction falling short or a combination of things, but it didn't work for me. I'll give it a 6/10 for its effort.

 Runner Runner (2013)
Starring: Justin Timberlake, Ben Affleck

















The whole first half of this movie, I kept thinking 'I must have seen this movie before'. I hadn't, it just was not at all original. In fact, it felt a little bit like that Kevin Spacey movie '21' about card counting. I admire Timberlake's effort in the acting world, but I think he should maybe do less drama and more comedy? His appearances on SNL are always amusing, but is movies considerably less so. I was also disappointed by Affleck, who I think has made excellent career choices in the past few years (especially in direction of film). Oh right, plot. It's a student who has payment due very shortly if he wants to stay in school and has been banned from promoting gambling at the school. He decides he will play online to win his money, but loses in a fixed room. When he takes that to the owner of the site, he gets drafted by that guy to work for him. When he gets roped in, he learns he will be the scapegoat and has to yet again find a way to bail himself out. Meh. 5/10 from me and that's probably generous.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
Starring: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott
















An adaption of the 1939 short story of the same name (or a remake of the 1947 film, whichever way you look at it), the movie follows Walter Mitty, a daydreamer with a rather ordinary life. When the negative of the final cover of Life magazine goes missing, Mitty goes on an adventure that is even wilder than his dreams to try and recover it.

I thought the movie was a lot of fun. It was neat to see Wiig in a role that was funny without being over-the-top goofy. The movie wasn't spectacular, but it was a lot of fun and did make me want to go to everywhere he traveled on his journeys. Plus I went with my son, which always makes me view a movie in a more lighthearted way. 8.25/10 with a bonus .25 for using an Of Monsters and Men song during a scene where he was in Iceland.

 Side Effects (2013)
Starring: Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum
















Channing Tatum continues to surprise me. I think 'he can't possibly be a good actor, right?' But he usually does a good job. Is he elite? No, I don't think so, but he is definitely not a total slouch. In this story, a man gets out of jail to return to his wife, who then gets depressed. As a side effect from a medication prescribed by her new psychiatrist (Law), she sleepwalks and kills her husband. When the trial opens up, secrets begin to get uncovered by the psychiatrist, both about the patient and her original doctor (Zeta-Jones).

This one kept popping up in 'suggestions for you' on Netflix, so I gave it a shot. Somewhat predictable, it still provided a good amount of entertainment. I'll go 6.75/10

The Spectacular Now (2013)
Starring: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson
















A coming of age story with a dark undertone, The Spectacular Now follows Sutter during his final year of high school. He's a party guy who doesn't consider the future until his girlfriend Cassidy(Larson) breaks it off with him. He then meets Aimee(Woodley) who goes through the ringer with him as he figures out a lot about his life and himself.

Larson has her hands in some of my favourite films of the year (Short Term 12 was tops on my list) and although her role in this was not as large, her character drove the plot forward at important points. When I first saw the show Secret Life of the American Teenager, it was so stilted that I didn't think the actors could be any good. Woodley has proved me wrong over her last two movies and I see that continuing into the future. Teller did a great job as well. 8.25/10

 This is Martin Bonner (2013)
Starring: Paul Eenhoorn, Demetrius Gross

















This made me snicker a bit, because of the scene in Family Guy where Stewie says 'what's a Bonner?' (referring to boner), and that's become a running joke around the house.

This movie portrays a slice of the life of fictional character Martin Bonner. Bonner is a volunteer coordinator for a group that helps inmates transition into the world. Throughout the movie we learn he has left behind a life on the east coast to take this job in Nevada and he finds mutual support from a program member Travis.

Eenhoorn brings a great subtlety to this role and it works perfectly. The movie is a slow burn and quite effective. 8/10

 The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill

















Excess. That is the name of the game in this adapted true story of a stock broker's rise to the top and subsequent crash (though the crash is minimal, all things considered). Excessive partying, excessive drugs, excessive nudity, excessive run-time. It has it all. DiCaprio does a good job as the up-and-comer that becomes the kingpin and Jonah Hill gives what is probably his funniest performance to date. The excess was a bit too much for me, though. Not the individual things, but the many scenes that could've been cut a little shorter. Case in point: what I consider to be the best scene in the movie. DiCaprio and Hill's characters take these qualudes called 'lemons' that are supposed to be the most intense version of the drug available, but they don't seem to work. After 15 minutes or so, the drugs aren't kicking in and they take more. The scene gets really funny when DiCaprio heads to a country club to find an un-tapped phone to call from and the drugs kick in. He is forced to slide, roll and crawl his way back to his car before attempting to drive it home. That scene has many points it could have made little trims and it was the best scene. The rest of the movie had several points that could've been trimmed back and not been 3 hours long. That being said, it was entertaining for many parts and had several recognizable actors doing small roles that brought the whole thing together. Look at that, the excessive movie brought on an excessive review. 7.5/10

*BONUS SHORT

 The Arm (2012)
Starring: Jessica Hecht, Miles Heizer











  
I'll keep this short, in fears of writing more than the script length. The Arm tells the story of a boy who, along with his friend, meet two girls in a shop. While the friend starts getting intimate with the one girl, he starts text messaging the other girl. When the girl dies while text messaging with him, the family of the girl turn to him, thinking he was more invested than he actually was. When he gets roped in to speaking at her funeral, he realizes he didn't actually know anything about her. 4/5 (felt fitting to rate a short out of a smaller scale)

Random Movie Review: 12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men (1957)
Starring: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley
















Every once in a while I come across a 'classic' (or at least highly regarded) movie that I don't know much about. This one is top ten in the 'Imdb top 250' and on several other must-see lists that I came across.

The movie starts off in a courtroom during the closing remarks of the trial of a young man on trial for murder. The jury then goes in to the deliberation room to make a decision on his fate, which it is pointed out will be execution if the decision is guilty. The 12 men of the jury sit at a table and hold a vote to see where they sit. After 11 guilty votes, one man (Henry Fonda) says he isn't sure and thinks they should at least talk it over before ending the man's life. He presents his doubts about the case to the other men and the numbers slowly begin to swing. The more they question about the evidence and testimony of the witnesses, the more votes begin to turn from guilty to not guilty, until eventually there are just a few stubborn men left. At that point, you start to see the various why the stubborn men feel the way they do.

The movie takes a great look at prejudice of different kinds. The men of the jury are so quick to believe the young man is guilty because of his race, the part of town he lives in and events from his past. They are unwilling to allow for the chance he might not have done it and some take a good deal of convincing. The term 'reasonable doubt' is well addressed, as Ford's character explains how some things might not be so certain when you take a closer look at it.

I thought this was an excellent film and I am glad I stumbled across it. I am making a concerted effort to visit more old films, especially ones of this ilk. I give this an 8.75/10.

Random Movie Review: Broken English

Broken English (2007)
Starring: Parker Posey, Melvil Poupaud, Drea de Matteo

















Broken English follows Nora Wilder, a career-woman who can't find love on her own or through numerous set-ups from friends and family. All of this changes when she meets Julien, an intriguing French man. She falls for him, but stays behind when he leaves for Paris. As time passes, she decides she must go to find him, feeling he is the one for her. She meanders around Paris for some time with no luck before finally spotting him on her last day there.

I can feel the sense that Cassevetes was going for. The movie has a sort of drab beginning and takes on life when she meets this (overly) perfect man and begins to experience life in a new way. Sadly, the drab portion of the movie had better execution than the latter part. Overall, however, it was a good movie. Posey does a great job with the character, which is a bit of a departure from her normal roles. I'm not really certain this type of thing actually ever happens. Though I did hear in the news recently that some guy got directions from a woman in Ireland and is returning to try and spark a relationship a year later, not knowing her name or anything about her. Perhaps this is actually less ridiculous than that. 

Random Movie Review: Otis

Otis (2008)
Starring: Bostin Christopher, Ashley Johnson, Daniel Stern

















Otis is a disturbed man who lives acts out fantasies taken from actual events in his brother's life. To do this, though, he kidnaps and locks up girls in a special room under his garage and forces them to live out a prom night fantasy. However, Otis keeps screwing it up and not getting to the prom. When he kidnaps Riley Lawson and contacts her family, they decide to conduct their own justice. Much confusion is met, however, when it turns out that Otis' brother is the one who enters the house.

Watching this movie was a bit confusing; it felt like it was trying to be too many things at once. It looked like it might be trying to be the 'pretty girl slasher', but by casting Ashley Johnson (who probably has a no-nudity clause) as Riley, they removed the chance of having it be a film like Turistas. Then it felt like by casting Daniel Stern and Ilieana Douglas, they might be going for the silly horror (a la Shaun of the Dead), but then it wasn't well-written enough to pull that off. Lastly, they had just a shred of trying to be a thriller or horror film, which luckily they weren't trying too hard for, because it just was not going to work. Some of the actors were trying to be a bit silly (Stern and Douglas, Kevin Pollak was trying to be his serious self and Bostin Christopher was just not a good actor (as shown by his imdb list).

The heart of this movie was in the right place, I just think that the genre was too spread out and the direction wasn't all in the same place. I'll give it a 5/10.

Random Movie Review: The Magdalene Sisters

The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
Starring: Geraldine McEwan, Anne-Marie Duff, Nora-Jane Noone
















The Magdalene Sisters revolves around three young women who are sent to what amounts to a religious rehabilitation centre. Each from different families, Rose had a child out of wedlock, Margaret was raped and Bernadette, well she just like flirting with the boys. Each of their families decide they need to pray their way back into gods graces and are sent to the Magdalene Asylum. While there, they witness and endure many acts of humiliation and abuse. Many of the women at the asylum have given in to the situation, mostly due to having no other options. The three girls, however, never give up hope and eventually do get away.

This is a gripping tale of the feminist movement within the catholic church. There are a few scenes in particular that are very effective. In one scene, one of the staff has the entire group of ladies strip naked and points out various humiliating things about them (such as who has the most pubic hair, biggest/smallest boobs, fattest, etc.) In another scene, a girl who has slept with a priest and gets a poison ivy rash from a practical joke played on him repeats 'you are not a man of god' over and over again, going from strange to uncomfortable and eventually you just can't look away.  She gets sent to a mental institution to hush her up, where it is explained she eventually dies of anorexia.

I will leave out my stance on religion and simply say that this points out a situation that has in some form surely happened. NOT that it is the norm for religious families to send their family to places like this, nor am I certain whether you could find a place like this in today's world (this is set in 1960's Ireland). I also have never been to Ireland, so I suppose I can't comment on anything there, religious or otherwise. But I digress, this movie was enjoyable. I was pulled in and began rooting for 2/3 of the main three and had a mild fondness for the third. I will give this movie a 7.75/10. Not quite an 8, but it was pretty good and my enjoyment for it grows stronger as time goes on.

Random Movie Review: Sidewalls (Medianeras)

Sidewalls [Medianeras] (2011)
Starring: Javier Drolas, Pilar López de Ayala
















Sidwalls follows two lonely, Martin and Mariana, who live in buildings opposite each other. The title refers to the side walls of the tall buildings in Buenos Aires, which are blank boring walls that are often home to large, faded adverts and illegally installed windows for the apartments within. The walls parallel the 'everything in between' part of life, which for many can be dull and boring. The two characters hardly ever leave their apartments and seem destined not to meet until a random act brings them together.

This movie had a bunch of mini-themes, which I liked for two reasons. None of them were so big that they either had to be the root of the whole movie, or a red herring, they were just nice little plot lines. Secondly, they kept you involved in the movie in a cute and interesting way, without being annoying. They also found a way to make you root for two generally unlikable characters. Not perfect and wasn't particularly good quality in the picture, so I'll give it a 7.25/10.

Random Movie Review: 127 Hours

127 Hours (2010)
Starring: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn
















I'm assuming most of you that read this are aware of what this movie is about. I had intended to watch this movie for a long time, but couldn't bring myself to watch, knowing what he has to do to get himself out of his situation. I was assured again and again that the scene in question was not as gruesome as I feared and not to be worried. Let this be my warning: IT IS PRETTY HARD TO WATCH.

*WARNING: NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH 
Let me back up a bit. The film is the real-life story of outdoor adventure-seeker, Aron Ralston. In 2003, Aron takes off for an off-road biking/hiking/rock exploration adventure through a Utah Canyon. This type of adventure is normal for him, so he doesn't think to notify anyone where he is going. Along the way he meets two young women and shows them the thrill of a lifetime when they drop into water from a tight spot in the rocks. He takes off on his own again, promising to meet them at a party. As he runs through the canyon, he falls with a boulder and has his arm trapped against the side of the canyon by the rock. The remainder of the movie ticks away the 127 hours he is trapped, during which he films short messages to his family on his camcorder and becomes increasingly delirious from lack of water. His hallucinations are interspersed with scenes enacting memories. After filming his goodbyes, he slips into a hallucination of a young boy that he does not recognize, but feels is the son he does not yet have. With all of his remaining energy, he breaks the bones in his forearm and uses his cheap multi-tool to sever his arm. As mentioned, this scene is hard to NOT be gross, but it was certainly worse than I had heard (or maybe I'm just more squeamish than I thought.) The end of the film shows shots of the real-life Ralston with his now wife and kids, as well as enjoying skiing and other outdoor sports.

The movie itself was good, despite being in the middle of James Franco deciding he was the best thing to happen to film and/or tv. He did hold his own as basically the only actor onscreen for the majority of the movie. It was emotional and well done, but certainly not the perfect movie. I'll give it a 7/10

Random Movie Review: The Seduction of Mimi

 

The Seduction of Mimi (1972 Italian w/ English Subtitles)
Starring: Giancarlo Giannini, Mariagela Melato
















This movie was a strange one. Even though it was released in 1972, some of the scenes run with the fast-motion comedic stylings of the Charlie Chaplin era. This is all mixed in with other elements that are suited to the time (typical colour and structure, etc.)

Mimi is a union worker who decides to vote against the mafia candidate in an election. Though the election is supposed to be secure, the mafia tells him to get out and stay out. After abandoning Sicily and his wife, he takes residence with a communist in Turin and has a child with her. The mafia takes note of his work and makes him a supervisor back in Sicily. He has to keep Fione(the communist) and the child a secret, which is done for him in exchange for losing intimacy with her. When Fione gets pregnant, he knows something is up and repays her by sleeping with the wife of the man who got her pregant(this makes for a less than comfortable scene).

As I mentioned before, the blend of filming styles was a bit random and made me unsure of whether it was an hommage or they just used earlier techniques in certain situations for effect. Also, many of the scenes were monologues, which lose some lustre in translation for sure. Imagine watching Pacino's speeches in Scent of a Woman delivered in a dub-over or through subtitles. Surely the raw emotion can't be re-created that simply translating to and from any language. Keeping that in mind, I will upscore this movie a half point for parts I can't quite fathom, but believe were done better than they came across. 6.5/10.

Random Movie Review: Sophie's Choice

Sophie's Choice (1982)
Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol

















I think we've all heard of or know about what Sophie's choice in this movie was.  What I didn't know was that it wouldn't be revealed until much later in the movie than I would have thought. Having kids, I had to bring myself to watch this movie, but I thought I should since it's a 'classic'. Having just watched a war movie, then a post-war movie, I suppose I must watch a post-post-war movie, whatever that is.

Stingo, an aspiring writer moves into a New York City apartment and quickly encounters the upstairs neighbours Sophie and Nathan. The initial argument between the couple almost brings Stingo to leave. Instead, however, the couple apologizes to him and they quickly become friends. Stingo slowly learns about Sophie's struggles in Poland and how the couple met once she came to the USA, but Sophie holds back some information. After meeting Nathan's brother, Stingo realizes it isn't only Sophie that is holding back information. Nathan's claims to high education and research turn out to be paranoid schizophrenia. Stingo and Sophie escape to a hotel during a bout of rage from Nathan and Sophie reveals to Stingo that she was forced to choose between which of her children would live and which would die while in a concentration camp.

The movie has been parodied in pop culture on many different TV shows and movie scenes. The term Sophie's choice has become synonymous with choosing between two things (in most situations with satire/sarcasm. ie: 'I can't decide between the fish and the duck' 'a real Sophie's choice you've got on your hands'.) Not that making a hard choice is a new thing in literature or media or anything like that

Meryl Streep's acting was at its best in this role. One of those performances that if you didn't know who she was, you would certainly think she was actually a Polish women struggling to learn English. The inflection and pauses were great. As was quickly becoming evident at the time, Meryl Streep is one of the premiere actresses of the last four decades.This movie, combined with Kramer vs. Kramer and The Deer Hunter would prove to be a strong start to a long and illustrious career. The choosing a kid to die part unsettled me a little, but not enough to drop below a 7.75/10.

Random Movie Review: Europa Europa

Europa Europa (1990)
Starring: Marco Hofschneider, Julie Delpy, Solomon Perel

















Europa Europa follows a Jewish boy Solomon(Solly) and his family in Nazi Germany. After his sister is murdered by Nazis, he and his family move to Poland. When the war starts and the family gets split up, Solly decides to try to pass as a German to survive. He is a Russian-German translator for German soldiers and eventually joins the Hitler Youth. Throughout his journey, he runs into issues concerning hiding his Jewish heritage whenever there is a medical examination or any other situation where anyone might notice his circumcision. At the last minute during combat he runs across the lines onto the Soviet side and surrenders himself. Brought back to their camp, he's about to be shot until his estranged brother runs over to find him.

This is based on a true story, which makes it that much more astounding. I can't believe that as humans, we could ever do anything like what happened in that war(although not naive enough to think that's the only instance of such atrocity). I also can't imagine that anyone made it through, especially in such a way as this. I suppose group mentality can go a long way and I've never been in such a position and hopefully never will.

As a side note, the bottom of this poster appears to say that it gets four stars for being 1/2 of a harrowing true story. I enjoyed this movie and I always like war movies that tell a story to do with something other than the fighting part. Not that I mind war movies themselves, but there are so many of them that a change in pace is nice. I'll go 7.25/10 for this.

Random Movie Review: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007 French w/ English Subtitles)
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze















Whoa, I've started to compile a backlog of movies to review, so I should hop on that and churn out as many as I can this week to catch up.

This lovely drama-docu-biopic is based on the book of the same name (le scaphandre et le papillon, en francais), details the life of Jean-Dominique Bauby a hot to trot editor who suffers a life-altering stroke. The stroke sends him into a condition called 'locked-in', where he is able to think normally, but loses control of all bodily functions except the ability to blink his eyelid. With the help of a speech therapist who has developed a system to communicate using a board of letters sorted from most commonly used to least, he begins to be able to express himself again. He employs a very patient note-taker, Claude, who pain-stakingly dictates his story, which becomes the book.

The use of flashback and POV filming make this incredibly interesting and opens up a whole new cinematic style that is breathtaking. Parts of the movie were hard to watch and it did lag a bit in other times, but as a whole, it is quite enjoyable. A note on the Wikipedia page said that Johnny Depp was originally tagged for the role. I am so happy that quirky self-righteous guy was busy doing something else (note: I enjoyed his work before, but he either oversaturated himself or believed too much that he needed to be ever so quirky in every role and I gradually stopped caring).

As it stands, however, he did not leave his mark on this film and it gets a solid 8.25/10 from me.

Random Movie Review: The Savages

The Savages (2007)
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney

















This is not 'Savages' the new Oliver Stone film of mediocre reviews. It wasn't a great film either, but it definitely wasn't that one.

Wendy and Jon Savages are siblings from a broken family that have to come together to take care of their aging father when his wife dies and he is left with nothing and nobody to care for him. Each child feels as if they should care, but they weren't raised all that well and in turn don't feel like they owe him much care in return. They have become self-involved, generally failing adults, and now they're in charge of someone's well-being. They put him in a home and visit him, until he eventually dies. His death causes them to take a look at their own lives and re-evaluate.

This film came out right after Hoffman made the jump from excellent character actor to star of the film Capote. Perhaps wanting to bank on that, they paired him with fellow character/ensemble actress Laura Linney, hoping for a cult hit and some mainstream success (would be my guess). The disconnect of the characters makes it hard to care for anyone in the film, which in turn makes it a bit hard to latch on to. The acting was good; the two mains played their parts as well as they ever do. I guess I just felt there was nothing to pop for either character. Neither Linney nor Hoffman was given anything to run with, really. That being said, it was an interesting look at dystopian family life and the ways in which we are affected by our upbringing, and how we are forced to deal with that.

Imdb suggests Squid and the Whale for people who liked this movie, which I feel is apt, as I felt the same about each of these movies. Good, interesting - but not great. Let's say 7.25/10 on this one.

Random Movie Review: Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles

Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles (2005 Chinese w/ English Subtitles)
Starring: Ken Takakura, Shinobu Terajima

















Riding Alone For Thousand of Miles is a touching story about a man who goes to visit his estranged son who is dying and ends up on a journey to complete a project the son was working on when he became ill. Along the way, he meets a young orphan boy and feels a parental draw to him. His guilt over being a bad father to his actual son drives him to care for the young boy in a way he knows he should have to his own.

This movie pulls you in two ways, in that you feel sad for the man losing his son and a tug at the heartstrings over his bond with the young boy, but kind of not bad for him because he was not a good father to his own son. His attempt at making amends with his son falls short, but that does not stop him from pursuing the completion of his son's film. It seems to be a symbolic theme in Chinese film to have a course of action and fulfill it as if it were a debt to a greater power or karma. I can only assume it is taken from some sect of Chinese culture, though I admit to know nothing about that other than what I take from movies.

I'd put this in the same category as Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, though it wasn't quite at that level for me. I'll give this a 7/10.

Random Movie Review: The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others (2006 German w/ English subtitles)
Starring: Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Müle, Martina Gedeck

















In the time of the Berlin wall, Georg Dreyman is a writer/playwright in East Berlin whose plays star his beautiful and talented girlfriend Christa-Maria. Haupmann Gerd Wiesler, a member of the Statsi (secret police that monitor anti-socialism) is instructed by his boss to monitor the playwright. He discovers along the way that his boss is in love with the actress and that the lives of the playwright and his friends may not be entirely innocent after all. He becomes infatuated with their lives and even manages to change his hard-edged tune a little and becomes protective of them. He loses everything to protect them and it doesn't help the artists relationship in the end either. The wall falls and the entire secret policing goes away in the end anyway.

It's an interesting look at life during the Berlin wall era, something I can't even fathom. The other movie that comes to mind for me when it comes to the Berlin wall and its falling is Goodbye Lenin!, which is a more comedic way of looking at it.

I absolutely loved the performance of Coch and Müle (that surely sounds much more absurd anglocized than in native German where those similar english words may hold little or no meaning). The two of them stole the show for me, though Gedeck was enjoyable as well. I am probably rating foreign films a bit off from what I usually might (still undecided as to whether it is higher or lower), as I am just getting back into them after years of movies that the people in my household can tolerate. I think my overall feeling is pretty accurate with an 8/10 on this one. It didn't completely wow me, but it was very interesting and certainly quite an accomplishment as a feature debut for its director (maybe he took a wee step back with his next film The Tourist).

Random Movie Review: The Trotsky

The Trotsky (2009)
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire, Colm Feore
















A Canadian film dipping into the well of Canadian talent, The Trotsky employs the upstart Jay Baruchel as Leon Bronstein, a child of privelege, who decides he is the reincartnation of Leon Trotsky (whose last name was, incidentally, originally Bronstein). He beings by rebelling against his father's own company and then when he moves to a public school, moves to form a union giving the students a voice. In his journey, he encounters a powerful pricipal and his sidekick, meets an older woman he assumes must be his wife-to-be (as she has the name and approximate age difference as Trotsky's wife) and a group of students who he has to get on his side.

The movie centres around the struggle between apathy and boredom amongst teenagers. Bronstein believes they are apathetic and just need provoking and the principal believes they just don't care. Using the Trotsky plotline as a vehicle for this is an interesting idea, but carrying the two plots at times proves too much an undertaking and each story suffers a bit as a result. The love plot develops too quickly and is frankly a little hard to fathom (17/27 is a strange age gap no matter which gender is in which role). Not to say it wasn't interesting, I learned a bit about Trotsky along the way and enjoyed how the character felt the need to force the pieces into place. It just felt like each piece had to be hurried along to fit it into the span of the movie.

Without Baruchel, who I personally feel is proving he can hold his own as a strong supporting actor and the occasional lead role, and Feore, whose veteran acting presence is felt in anything he does; this movie would certainly not rise above the status of made-for-tv. However, they made it a viable movie and filled the holes in the plotline enough for me to give it a 6.75/10. I feel like a 7/10 is approaching 'great' and it's just not quite there, but close.

Random Movie Review: The Orphanage

The Orphanage (2007 Spanish w/ English Subtitles)
Starring: Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo

















The opening scene shows Laura, an orphan at an orphanage, being adopted. Years later, she returns to the orphanage with her husband and son Simon. Before long, Simon develops invisible friends and spends much of his time playing with them. A worker named Benigna visits them and reports that Simon is HIV-positive. After a fight, Simon disappears and Laura unearths the truth about what happened at the orphanage after she left so many years ago and how Benigna and Simon's 'invisible' friends are involved. Laura can only connect with the past when she acts out thigns from her time at the orphanage.
This movie was directed by critically-acclaimed Guillermo del Toro. I personally prefer Pan's Labyrinth, but I guess he didn't write this one and thus only his style was infused. I found the story a bit disjointed and it didn't have the creeping effect that I had hoped it would. It was a well-shot movie and the acting was decent, I suppose, though I did lose a little in translation, perhaps. I should say, I think some of the suspense may not have carried over as much. I did enjoy the storyline of the boy who was nearing death being able to see the dead and his parents thinking they were just invisible. It is a twist on the traditional 'only kids can see the evil/dead/monster' theme.

It was certainly not without enjoyment or suspense, but it didn't quite live up to what I thought it could be (not that I could put my finger on exactly what was missing). I will give it a 7/10.

Random Movie Review: Headhunters (Hodejegerne)

Headhunters (Hodejegerne) (2011 Danish w/ English Subtitles)
Starring: Ansel Hennie, Nikolai Coster-Waldau, Synnøve Macody Lund















I went to see this movie with my dad, because we used to go to movies every month or two when I lived in Toronto, but we don't get the chance as often these days. I had a day off work and he was heading down, so I thought I'd check out the one theatre that plays independent and foreign films here and see what was playing.

I'm sure glad I did, as I'm not sure I ever would've found this movie otherwise. Roger Brown(Hennie) is at the top of his game as a headhunter, but he feels it isn't enough to keep his wife Diana interested. He turns to stealing art to fund the life he thinks she wants. He eventually gets caught in an elaborate trap when he denies a man a job and attempts to steal an expensive piece of art from him. The plot thickens as you begin to wonder who all is involved with the conspiracy and who are the 'innocent' parties.

The main actor reminded me veery much of Steve Buscemi. He has a somewhat similar look (if not so bug-eyed) and at least in this role, acted with similar style. The antagonist (Clas Greve, played by Coster-Waldau) and the women in the movie have that Nordic beauty to them that I personally find alluring.

I don't get to the movies all that often these days, I usually end up watching them on my computer or at least on dvd, especially these types as I am the lone member of my house that likes them and that seems like a waste of money. It was an enjoyable, refreshing experience and the 8/10 I am giving it probably owes at least a half point to that experience.

Random Movie Review: Love and Other Drugs

Love & Other Drugs (2010)
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Oliver Platt, Judy Greer
















I've had a pretty good streak of movies to start this off, but oh boy does that end with this one. Usually I don't mind Jake Gyllenhaal, but his middle of the road acting was offset by the always terrible Anna Hathaway. There was a point, much like the hated-by-me Gwyneth Paltrow, where Anne Hathaway looked like she might be a promising young actress. Then, over time, she just flat-lined and that was that. I don't know if it was when she disrobed her t-shirt in Brokeback Mountain and set into motion her career of being topless, or if it was just that she was just never as good as she appeared.

You know a movie is going to be trouble when the opening credits plays the song 'Two Princes' and within 5 minutes, it has 'Macarena' (unfortunately, also later has 'Jackass', which I like)The movie is based around a womanizer who is not as successful as his brother or parents. His brother sets him up a job as a pharmaceutical sales rep and his life changes when he meets a female patient (Hathaway) in a doctor's office. I find her unbelievable as the sickly patient and she seems to overdo it in almost every way. The brother is a b-rate version of the fat Jonah Hill and comes off as such. The bright spots of the movie are the loveable Judy Greer as the secretary at the doctor's office and Oliver Platt as Gyllenhaal's co-worker. I wish there were more Greer, because she is waaay more likeable than Hathaway. I mean, she spent most of the movie naked and it wasn't even remotely enjoyable.

I was hoping it might be an enjoyable rom-com, but instead it just dragged along and I was happy when it was over. I'll give this one a 4/10

Random Movie Review: Rear Window

Rear Window (1954)
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly

















I was a little dismayed to find out that there was a remake of this movie with Christopher Reeve and Daryl Hannah. I guess the wave of rehashing old ideas started a while ago. Hopefully this means that this won't be on the long list of movies that they seem to drag out of the grave and beat to death. Even worse, it appears the Reeve version was post-accident and he lives in a house decked out with paralysis assistance. This means they were trying to find roles for him and thought they'd butcher a classic in the process. No disrespect to Reeve or his accident, but couldn't they just have done an original story instead of jamming his disability into this role?

But I digress. The original film, which is the one I watched, is quite good. Grace Kelly does a great job as the airy girlfriend who not only becomes interested in what is happening, but gets herself heavily involved. Stewart's character is a photographer known for getting the close-ups and daring shots that has broken his leg during a shoot and ends up holed up in a wheelchair with nothing to do but watch the world from his rear window. After watching a couple argue, he notices the wife is gone and a series of bizarre events leads him to believe he's killed her. He can't convince his detective friend and decides he needs some hard evidence to do so. When he sends his maid and girlfriend over to check it out, calamity occurs.

Hitchcock was long the master of suspense and this movie had a whole new technique. To have a movie shot almost entirely from the perspective of the window leads to characters moving in and out of screen as opposed to screen following them, as is the restrictions of watching anything from a window. The result is that L.B. 'Jeff' Jefferies (Stewart) only has the pieces of information he can gather from the shared yard and the rooms with the rear windows in the opposite apartment. He has to wildly extrapolate with that information and when his assumptions turn out to be truthful, he is left caught in his own apartment.

I enjoy the fact the camera rarely turns in on the apartment and never into any of the other apartments. It keeps the focus on the scenes unfolding in the opposing apartments.

It would have been interesting to be around in a time when cinematic techniques like this were being discovered. I guess we are watching the entire digital effects era turning over now, but these earlier accomplishments seem to involve much more creative prowess. Maybe I'm just generational-ly cynical.

Anyhow, this movie isn't perfect, but it is terrific. I will give it an 8.5/10