The Descendants & Beginners

The Descendants - I will fully admit this right now: I didn't like Sideways either. I guess "either" is a strong word. It leads you to assume that I didn't like The Descendants, which isn't entirely true. It's not that I didn't like it. It's just I sort of felt the same way about it as I do about every other Alexander Payne movie. It's good, solid story telling, acting and film making, but all terribly overrated. The Descendants follows Matt King (George Clooney - this is his best work ever, no joke), a Hawaiian lawyer who is dealing with selling his families pristine beach when his wife hits her head while boating and falls into a coma she may never come out of. To top it all off, he has two daughters: a 10 year old who sends nasty texts to her classmates and a 17 year old at a boarding school (a really, really superb Shailene Woodley) who is all kinds of messed up. Then, to make matters worse, he finds out his loyal and devoted wife was cheating on him and preparing to leave him for a real estate agent (a surprisingly well-rounded Matthew Lillard). So, Matt deals with his crazy daughters and traipsing around the islands to tell different friends and family members about his wife's condition. He meets with cousins of varying craziness to discuss proposals about selling the land. He deals with daughter Alex's annoying maybe-boyfriend (really, the only character that you want to punch in the face and guess what? Someone does!). Then he decides to track down his wife's lover, Brian Steer to confront him and maybe fight him, only to discover that he's a happy family man who never really loved Matt's wife the way she loved him. By this point in the film, if you're a little bored, don't fret, the fantastically underrated Judy Greer shows up to steal the whole goddamn movie (well, almost, Woodley is stupid good too). So, there you have The Descendants. It's great, sad story telling. The film making is amazing. There are two scenes in particular that are flawless: the spiral staircase scene and the scene where Alex begins to sob underwater which was my single favorite moment of the movie. The acting is surprisingly good all around. Clooney and Woodley will surely be nominated for Oscars for their complex, layered, flawless performances. Clooney is charming and flawed. He looks handsome and destroyed. Woodley is a revelation. I was a skeptic. I didn't think some teenybopper from some dumb ABC Family show could really be that good - but I will fully admit that I was wrong. She is so, so very good, just empathetic and full of sassy attitude, angry, depressed, sad, happy, sometimes all at the same time. Greer turns up around 3/4 through the film and all but steals it away from everyone else. But her role is so small, she probably won't get any nominations out of it. So, The Descendants is good, it's just not THAT good, the level of good that everyone is saying it is. It's slow moving. It's boring at times. It's too long (and that's coming from someone who LOVES long movies). Plus, there is way too much annoying voice over at the beginning. Still, The Descendants is worth checking out, because there is still a lot of good in there.
Grade: B

Beginners - Now here is a surprising little film. It all but came out of nowhere to tie with The Tree of Life to win Best Film at the recent Gotham Awards. I can't say I'm surprised. It's lovely, heartfelt little movie. It follows Oliver (Ewan McGregor, superb), an artist who is struggling with getting to know his dying father (Christopher Plummer, Oscar worthy) who, after being married for 44 years has come out of the closet as a gay man. Meanwhile, Oliver is also trying to take a page from his father as he attempts to start his life over and forge a relationship with a quirky, adorable French actress (Melanie Laurent). It's a simple, little story and could end up cliched in the hands of a lesser cast and filmmaker, but instead, Beginners is a different, original, funny, sad, heartwarming take on a tired genre. Writer and director Mike Mills is fantastic, adding humor and quirky little extras (a dog that talks via subtitles) to the film. McGregor, who has a lot of misses on his resume due to the crap he's been making for the past decade or so, is really, really great, as is the adorable Laurent. Their initial meeting is instantly classic. But, it's Plummer, who recently received his very first Oscar nomination at the age of 70something for The Last Station, who is mesmerizing to watch. Plummer is so good - alive even though is character is dying - that he should not only find himself nominated for a second Oscar, but also, probably winning.
Grade: B+