Mama

I think there might be a good movie somewhere deep inside Mama, however, this finished product is certainly not it. Up until this point, Jessica Chastain's career has been flawless. I went to see this movie even though it looked ridiculous and cliche because I thought, maybe, just maybe, it might be interesting. After all, Chastain has made absolutely great choices up until this point. After seeing Mama, I have to ask - Why, Jessica, why??

Mama begins with two small girls whose parents die and they find themselves living in an abandoned cabin in the woods by themselves for five years. They turn feral and manage to survive because they have a protector looking over them named Mama. After five years, the children are found and go to live with their uncle (Nikolaj Coster-Waldeau)and his punk rocker chick girlfriend (Jessica Chastain, hence the short black wig). The girls are deeply disturbed and struggle to fit in with day to day life. Oh, and they may or may not have brought back Mama, a mysterious ghost like creature who wants to protect them, but also, sometimes, when the plot needs an extra boost, kill them.

The interesting part of Mama is the psychological study of these little girls. If the movie had delved more into that aspect, having Mama be some sort of creation of their pscyhe instead of stupid ghost, then Mama may have been an intriguing movie. But instead, the creative team went for cheap scares and a super ridiculous ending (like, probably the worst ending in the history of movie endings). Mama is not good. It's nonsense and ridiculousness and changing the intentions of the character Mama to meet the scripts needs every so often. The "scares" are cheap and pathetic. The characters are one dimensional. The only saving grace is Jessica Chastain, who is such a good actress that she tries to her damn best to make due with a terrible situation. She doesn't succeed at all, but at least someone in this huge mess of a movie is trying.

Mostly though, Mama is the first bad movie of 2013. My 2013 started off on a disappointing note and I've already got a contender for worst movie of the year.

Grade: D

Complete List of Movie Grades 2012

Next week, with the exception of a few Oscar posts next month, I move onward to 2013. 2012 is a tough year to follow, with so many really, genuinely great movies (I seriously loved 6 of the 8 Best Picture nominees I saw). So, here is a complete list of the movies I've seen this year, alphabetical by grade.

A+

A
Looper

A-
Argo
The Dark Knight Rises
The Master
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Zero Dark Thirty

B+
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
End of Watch
Killing Them Softly
Life of Pi
Magic Mike
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook

B
21 Jump Street
The Amazing Spider-man
Arbitrage
Chronicle
The Hunger Games
Lawless
Pitch Perfect
Prometheus
Ruby Sparks
Skyfall
Sound of My Voice
This is 40
Your Sister's Sister

B-
Flight
Friends With Kids
Lincoln
Lola Versus
Premium Rush
Savages
V/H/S

C+
The Avengers
Bachelorette
Being Flynn
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Contraband
The Impossible
The Innkeepers
Jeff, Who Lives at Home
Rock of Ages

C
The Deep Blue Sea
Goon
Haywire
Killer Joe
Safety Not Guaranteed
Silent House
This Means War

C-
Bernie
Girl in Progress
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Liberal Arts
Lockout
Safe House
Snow White and the Huntsman
Take This Waltz

D+
The Cabin in the Woods
The Campaign
Hick
The Lucky One
Project X
The Vow

D
The Grey
Les Miserables
The Raven
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Wanderlust
The Woman in Black

D-
Sinister
Ted

F
Damsels in Distress
The Devil Inside
Gone

Best of 2012: Best Films

Honorable Mention:
Chronicle - For proving you can be low budget AND mind blowing.
End of Watch - For giving us the best chemistry of the year.
Life of Pi - For being stunning, and reminding me why 3D isn't all that bad in the right hands.
Magic Mike - For being a movie about male strippers that is both fun and good.
Killing Them Softly - For being a beautiful, violent stunner.

10. Silver Linings Playbook - For being sweet and fun, romantic and silly, like the best screwball comedies (like a modern day Bringing Up Baby); and for that joyous dance scene, the one moment this entire year that had me grinning from ear to ear.
09. Moonrise Kingdom - For being so lived in and memorable, for being a sweet love letter to childhood when everything was innocent and sweet; and for inspiring my desire for saddle shoes.
08. Django Unchained - For being big and brassy and ballsy; for giving us that rich, memorable Tarantino dialogue and so many characters that live so vividly in our minds.
07. Beasts of the Southern Wild - For being a mystical fairy tale, beautiful and aching; for giving us the most scene commanding performance of the year in the form of a tiny, little dynamo.
06. The Dark Knight Rises - For completing a trilogy with an epic, exciting final chapter; for having a female character - in a world of so many tough guys - stealing the entire show.
05. Argo - For being exciting and thrilling and crowd pleasing, and above all, smart (we need more smart crowd pleasing blockbusters).
04. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - For making every misfit in the entire world feel like someday you will find a group of people to whom you belong; for perfectly depicting high school, first loves, and above all, friendship.
03. The Master - For being the most beautiful, challenging, thought provoking film released this year, hands down.
02. Zero Dark Thirty - For being the most controversial film of the year; for being intelligent and action packed; for that finale with the Navy Seals in which it feels like Kathryn Bigelow is controlling your pulse.
01. Looper - For being a movie that is smart, action packed, highly enjoyable, and emotionally stimulating; for being as close to perfect as we came during this year full of absolutely stunning films.

Best of 2012: Best Actresses and Actors

Best Actress
10. Kirsten Dunst in Bachelorette - For giving a snarky, sassy, fun mean girl performance.
09. Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games - For becoming the most famous girl in the world by playing a tough, take no prisoners, bad ass role model.
08. Noomi Rapace in Prometheus - For that abortion scene alone.
07. RoseMarie DeWitt in Your Sister's Sister - For playing a complicated character with charm and ease.
06. Rachel Weisz in The Deep Blue Sea - For turning an unlikable character into someone we actually care for deeply.
05. Naomi Watts in The Impossible - For showing the strength of a mother taking care of her son even though she needs to be taken care of.
04. Brit Marling in Sound of My Voice - For being beautiful, ethereal, wicked and so stunning you can't take your eyes off of her.
03. Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild - For commanding the screen in a way that no one else did this year, and for being a tiny little force to be reckoned with.
02. Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook - For proving she's at a point in her career where she can do any damn thing she pleases, for that scene in which she yells in Robert DeNiro's face, for the dancing!
01. Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty - For being utterly fearless, for playing an unlikable character and commanding we take notice of her poise, grace and feral determination.

Best Actor
10. Tom Holland in The Impossible - For showing raw emotion in his first film role.
09. Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained - For managing to be the bounty hunting slave hero of a Quentin Tarantino movie quietly and subtly, something I didn't know was possible.
08. Dane DeHaan in Chronicle - For coming out of nowhere to become the most exciting new actor thanks to his Magneto meets high school coming of age monster of a performance.
07. Joaquin Phoenix in The Master - For being completely unhinged, out of control and wild.
06. Richard Gere in Arbitrage - For playing such a snake with so much charm and charisma.
05. Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook - For making me forget about all his douchebag, frat guy characters with that Hemingway scene alone.
04. Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master - For being terrifying and compelling all at once.
03. Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained - For being born to speak Quentin Tarantino dialogue.
02. Denzel Washington in Flight - For reminding us why he's one of the biggest, most likable stars on the planet, and for being a joy to watch as a boozy, egotistical asshole.
01. Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln - For becoming Abraham Lincoln, absolutely and undoubtedly, for continuing to prove why he's a living legend worthy of every award and then some.

Tomorrow - Best Films of 2012!

Best of 2012: Best Supporting Actress & Actor

Best Supporting Actress
10. Kelly Reilly in Flight - For making the cliche junkie with a heart of gold feel more raw and lived in than anyone else in a very long time.
09. Charlize Theron in Snow White and the Huntsman - For being the fairest and bitchiest queen of all.
08. Susan Sarandon in Arbitrage - For being the devoted wife, until she decides to blackmail her lying, cheating husband.
07. Jacki Weaver in Silver Linings Playbook - For being the devoted wife and mother... no, for real.
06. Judi Dench in Skyfall - For proving that M is the only Bond girl that matters.
05. Sally Field in Lincoln - For the scene in which she gives it to Tommy Lee Jones real good.
04. Emily Blunt in Looper - For being equally terrified of and devoted to her son.
03. Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables - For that killer, heart breaking rendition of I Dreamed a Dream.
02. Amy Adams in The Master - For taking the least showy role and quietly stealing the show from the boys.
01. Samantha Barks in Les Miserables - For being the girl everyone can relate to, and singing On My Own in the rain, and actually being able to sing, and actually showing true, real emotion. And finally, for being the best thing about a terrible movie.

Best Supporting Actor
10. Matthew McConaughey in Magic Mike - For being completely fearless and having a blast in his most fun role of a stellar year for him.
09. Samuel L. Jackson in Django Unchained - For being an even nastier villain than the main villain.
08. John Goodman in Flight - For being the worst influence of all time.
07. Nate Parker in Arbitrage - For coming out of nowhere and being absolutely electrifying.
06. Ezra Miller in The Perks of Being a Wallflower - For taking what could have been a cliched gay teenager role and turning it into something so special.
05. Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln - For putting his money where his mouth is (and being the only amusing thing in a boring movie).
04. Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained - For playing his first villain so perfectly, walking the fine line between hilarious and terrifying.
03. Robert DeNiro in Silver Linings Playbook - For giving us all one more great DeNiro performance (see you can still be a great actor and make a comedy!).
02. Ewan McGregor in The Impossible - For being such a natural talent that it's almost like watching someone really live through this stuff, and for THAT SCENE, that one scene which will tear your heart out.
01. Jason Clarke in Zero Dark Thirty - For giving the single best performance of this year regardless of gender or lead/supporting classifications. For giving a ferocious, sexy, vulnerable, mysterious performance that just left me wanting so much more.

Wednesday - Lead Actress & Actor!

Oscar Nominations and Thoughts

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
THOUGHTS - Once you see the director category, it's pretty plain that Lincoln already has Best Picture wrapped up. Call it a day. There are at least five movies on this list better than Lincoln, but whatever.

Best Director
Michael Haneke - Amour
Ang Lee - Life of Pi
David O. Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
Behn Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
THOUGHTS - No Katherine Bigelow, no Ben Affleck?!?! WHAT?!?! Glad to see Zeitlin in there though.

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
Denzel Washington - Flight
THOUGHTS - Now I don't feel so bad about missing out on the Sessions since John Hawkes was replaced with Phoenix. But I've seen all these movies and this seems about right.

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva - Amour
Q. Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild (Sorry, too lazy to check spelling!)
Naomi Watts - The Impossible
THOUGHTS - This sounds about right. Happy to see Wallis in there. I'm calling it now - Watts is going to win this thing.

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin - Argo
Robert DeNiro - Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
THOUGHTS - I was hoping this category would have a few surprises - LEO! JASON CLARKE! EWAN! But, whatever. It's fine. Go DeNiro!

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - The Master
Sally Field - Lincoln
Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables
Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Jacki Weaver - Silver Linings Playbook
THOUGHTS - They must have loved Silver Linings, huh? I love anyone from Animal Kingdom, and Weaver in particular so I'm glad she bumped out Kidman for the final spot.

Other random thoughts - No Perks of Being a Wallflower in Adapted Screenplay and no Looper in Original and that bums me out. But I am ready to hear the phrase, "Academy Award Winner Adele" re: Original Song.

The Best of 2012: Director & Ensemble

Best Director
10. Andrew Dominik for Killing Them Softly - For making the best Tarantino movie not directed by Tarantino.
09. Rian Johnson for Looper - For being the most original writer/director working today.
08. Wes Anderson for Moonrise Kingdom - For continuing to create singular, definitive modern day masterpieces.
07. Ben Affleck for Argo - For proving that Gone Baby Gone and The Town were certainly no flukes.
06. Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight Rises - For finishing out his epic trilogy in bad-ass style.
05. Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained - For making a movie as bloody and violent as it is beautiful to watch.
04. Behn Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild - For making a gorgeous, wondrous fairy tale.
03. Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master - For continuing to not give a f**k and churning out the most divisive, but gorgeous, film of the year.
02. Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty - For making the most controversial and thrilling movie of the year (and having bigger balls than all the boys).
01. Ang Lee for Life of Pi - For taking a movie that sounds utterly ridiculous and unfilmable and creating a 3D masterpiece.

Best Ensemble
10. The Hunger Games
Elizabeth Banks, Wes Bentley, Woody Harrelson, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Toby Jones, Lenny Kravitz, Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci.
09. Looper
Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Pierce Gagnon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Piper Perabo, Noah Segan, Tracie Thoms, Bruce Willis.
08. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Judi Dench, Celia Imrie, Bill Nighy, Ronald Pickup, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton.
07. Silver Linings Playbook
Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, Anupam Kher, Jennifer Lawrence, John Ortiz, Julia Stiles, Chris Tucker, Jacki Weaver, Shea Whigham.
06. The Dark Knight Rises
Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Nestor Carbonell, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Mendelsohn, Matthew Modine, Gary Oldman, Juno Temple.
05. Moonrise Kingdom
Bob Balaban, Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Bruce Willis.
04. Magic Mike
Matt Bomer, Cody Horn, Gabriel Iglesias, Joe Manganiello, Matthew McConaughey, Olivia Munn, Kevin Nash, Alex Pettyfer, Adam Rodriguez, Channing Tatum.
03. Zero Dark Thirty
Kyle Chandler, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Mark Duplass, Joel Edgerton, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt, et al.
02. Argo
Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, Kerry Bishe, Kyle Chandler, Rory Cochrane, Bryan Cranston, Christopher Denham, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Victor Garber, John Goodman, Zeljko Ivanek, Scoot McNairy, Chris Messina, Titus Welliver.
01. Lincoln
Joseph Cross, Daniel Day-Lewis, Dane DeHaan, Sally Field, Walter Goggins, Lukas Haas, Jackie Earle Haley, Jared Harris, John Hawkes, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce McGill, Tim Blake Nelson, Lee Pace, Gloria Reuben, James Spader, David Strathairn.

Tomorrow - Oscar nominations! Next Week - Best Supporting Actor & Actress, Lead Actor & Actress!

Oscar Predictions

Oscar nominations are announced on Thursday so here is my yearly attempt at trying to guess what they will nominate in the main six categories.

Best Picture
-Best Picture can range anywhere between 5 and 10 nominees, so it's kind of difficult to guess the exact number. I'm going with 9.
THE SHOO INS
Argo
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
THE PROBABLES
Amour
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Moonrise Kingdom
Skyfall
FYC - The Perks of Being a Wallflower, maybe the best coming of age story ever filmed.

Best Director
Ben Affleck - Argo
Katherine Bigelow - Zero Dark Thirty
Michael Haneke - Amour
Ang Lee - Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
FYC - Behn Zeitlin, who brought to life one of the most vivid, beautiful stories of the year.

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
John Hawkes - The Sessions
Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables
Denzel Washington - Flight
FYC - Richard Gere, who charms and schemes his way through Arbitrage.

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard - Rust and Bone
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva - Amour
Naomi Watts - The Impossible
FYC - Brit Marling, who is devilish and entrancing in Sound of My Voice.

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin - Argo
Robert DeNiro - Silver Linings Playbook
Leonardo DiCaprio - Django Unchained
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
FYC - Nate Parker, who KILLS it in Arbitrage.
NOTE - I know the DiCaprio thing is far fetched at this point, but I have to hold out hope.

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - The Master
Sally Field - Lincoln
Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables
Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Nicole Kidman - The Paperboy
FYC - Samantha Barks, who gives the superior performance in Les Mis, and is arguably the only good thing about the whole mess.

Tomorrow - Top Ten Directors and Ensembles and coming soon reviews of The Impossible and Zero Dark Thirty!

The Worst of 2012

SPOILERS (probably)

10. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - This is mostly a harmless little movie. For much of the running time, the biggest thing going against it is that stars Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley have zero chemistry. And then the end happens. Carrell puts Knightley on a plane to send her to her family before the world ends. I thought, "Aw, what a sweet ending to a mediocre movie." Then the damn girl comes back and ruins it! I'm just anti-happily ever after, even during the apocalypse.

09. The Raven - What could possibly go wrong with John Cusack playing Edgar Allen Poe, you ask? Well, the answer is everything. The concept is the only interesting thing about the whole thing - a serial killer copying the work of Poe. The acting is all around terrible and Cusack, who I genuinely love, brings nothing to the role. It's just one long boring disaster of a movie.

08. Wanderlust - I get that this is the movie where Jennifer Aniston met Justin Theroux and they fell in love and lived happily ever after and all of that. So at least something good came out of the whole thing, because the movie most certainly is not good. It's just not funny, mostly awkward and and just plain predictable.

07. The Grey - Here's another case of the ending ruining a perfectly fine film. The Grey was actually a pretty interesting character piece. Except you saw the trailer a thousand times so you are waiting with bated breath for the big showdown where bad ass Liam Neeson kicks some wolf ass. Well, that never really happens. They size each other up and then... blank screen. The end. And while I normally love ambiguous endings, I wanted to see bad ass Liam Neeson kick some wolf ass.

06. Les Miserables - Believe me, I wanted to put this much closer to number 1. The rage I still feel after seeing this movie (weeks later!) surprises me. I can't remember the last time I had such a strong reaction to a movie. Samantha Barks and Anne Hathaway are the only reason this isn't number 1 or 2. Other than them, this is a dreadful, awful, boring opulent movie with random close ups for NO REASON and 3 hours of non stop singing songs that all sound EXACTLY THE SAME. I just need to think of the one bright spot in the whole movie - Barks singing On My Own in the rain - to calm down my rageful feelings.

05. Sinister - The scariest thing about Sinister is the Super 8 found footage, which is genuinely creepy. Other than that, Sinister suffers from what every mainstream horror movie suffers from - having to dumb down the movie and the scares so that the scardey cats who go to horror movies can be scared while those of us who were raised on horror movies roll our eyes at the lame "scares."

04. Ted - I know, I know. Everyone absolutely loved this movie. They thought it was the funniest thing of the year. I wasn't so impressed. I think I might have laughed once, maybe twice. This might be the most pretentious thing I've ever said - but the movie was just so low brow. I prefer my humor a lot darker than the stoner lite comedy presented here. Also, Seth MacFarlane annoys me, so there's that.

03. The Devil Inside - This movie made a ridiculous amount of money at the box office, but here's another one I just don't get. I can usually sit through any horror movie because most of the time they are so bad they are good. But The Devil Inside is just bad. Bad acting. Bad script. Bad plot. Bad everything!

02. Gone - To be honest, this movie was so bad that I did my best to shut it out and I don't even really remember all that much about it. I remember thinking that Amanda Seyfried is a bad, bad actress. But it probably had more to do with the terrible script than it did with her abilities. When it's so bad, you blocked it out, you know it's one of the worst of the year.

01. Damsels in Distress - And then there's this. I love Greta Gerwig so much that I really tried to get into this movie. But it's just so unwatchable. It wants to be Heathers, it wants to be the sort of movie that defines a generation but instead it's a terrible movie with dialogue that no real person would ever say. This movie is so bad that it is literally unwatchable. Seriously, don't even try.

Wednesday - moving on to much nicer things... Top Ten Ensembles & Directors!

DVD Mini Reviews

Starting Monday, I will be revealing my Top Ten Best and Worst of 2012 lists. For now, here are the last of the DVD's I've watched for movies released this year.

Safety Not Guaranteed
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, Mark Duplass
Plot: A group of journalists investigate a newspaper ad looking for a time travel partner.
Thoughts: Some parts of this comedy are really cute and Plaza is a great indie leading lady. However, for every sweet, funny moment, there are just as many cliches.
Grade: C

Bernie
Starring: Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, Shirley McClaine
Plot: A seemingly sweet funeral director may have a very surprising dark side.
Thoughts: Every one seemed to love this movie as it's made it's way onto Top Ten lists and received award nominations. I found it to be impressive only because they managed to get Jack Black to not act like an idiot for an hour and forty minutes. McConaughey is having some kind of year, though.
Grade: C-

Sound of My Voice
Starring: Brit Marling
Plot: Two investigative journalists infiltrate a cult where the members worship a woman who claims to be from the future.
Thoughts: I absolutely loved this movie and find Marling to be stunning. It's almost impossible to take your eyes off of her. A star is born.
Grade: B

Seeking a Friend For the End of the World
Starring: Steve Carrell, Keira Knightley
Plot: Two strangers who have zero chemistry take a road trip to find the man's long lost love before the world ends.
Thoughts: Like I said, Carrell and Knightley have zero chemistry. Still, parts of this are really cute. But the ending ultimately ruined it for me. If it had ended a few moments earlier, I would have given this a much better grade.
Grade: D

The Deep Blue Sea
Starring: Rachel Weisz
Plot: A woman struggles with suicide and depression after leaving her rich husband for another man.
Thoughts: I tried to watch this once before, months ago, and I couldn't make it past twenty minutes. Still, it does get better. Some of it is visually stunning and Weisz is perfection. Still, kinda boring.
Grade: C

Damsels in Distress
Starring: Greta Gerwig
Plot: A group of college students try to prevent suicide and also dance.
Thoughts: Seriously, painful and unwatchable.
Grade: F

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Starring: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy
Plot: A group of older people move to India to live at a once thriving hotel.
Thoughts: This movie is quite charming and sweet. Of course, Maggie Smith is the queen bitch of the world. Love her. (That's a compliment)
Grade: B-

Your Sister's Sister
Starring: Emily Blunt, RoseMarie Dewitt, Mark Duplass
Plot: A down on his luck guy manages to become involved in a love triangle with his best friend and her lesbian sister while spending a weekend at a secluded cabin.
Thoughts: A really winning, cute movie with a very likeable cast.
Grade: B

Arbitrage
Starring: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Nate Parker, Tim Roth, Brit Marling
Plot: A super rich man becomes involved in a hit and run case while dealing with a failing business / fraud.
Thoughts: A really taut, exceptional thriller / drama. Performances by Gere and Parker are electrifying and worth the rental alone.
Grade: B

Pitch Perfect
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin
Plot: A freshman in college becomes involved in an accapella singing group.
Thoughts: When this movie is at it's best, it's campy, wonderful fun, reminiscent of Bring It On. When it's at its worst, it's cheesy and silly. Still, the fun wins out in the end.
Grade: B

Silver Linings Playbook

I know that Silver Linings Playbook is flawed. Perhaps it's because, when I saw it, I still had a bitter taste in my mouth over Les Miserables. Or maybe Silver Linings Playbook is just a very likeable, very sweet, well meaning movie. But I sort of loved it.

Directed by David O. Russell, the story is about Pat (Bradley Cooper), a man who went a little nuts after he found his wife Nicky cheating on him in their home and was committed to a mental health institution in Baltimore. At the start of the film, his well meaning mom (Jacki Weaver) takes him out of the hospital and home to Philly, where he struggles to assimilate to normal life, while trying to win back his cheating wife who has a restraining order and zero interest. His father (Robert DeNiro in a refreshing role) is an Eagles loving bookie and his brother (Shea Whigham!!) is successful in every way he is not. Eventually he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), and she's a mouthy widow who speaks her mind and doesn't take any of his crap. The two eventually team up to perform in a dance contest.

It may sound cheesy, and parts of it are, but it's also a lot of fun, and just a really well meaning, sweet movie. The screenplay is great - it's equal parts hilarious and heartfelt. The chemistry between Cooper and Lawrence is so damn good, it's truly a pleasure to watch. My biggest problem with the film is that Tiffany being caught up on Pat seems like a major character flaw. She's this strong, independent woman who wastes her time and half of the movie chasing a man who couldn't possibly be less interested in her. He's in love with someone else, and uses every single opportunity to let her know that. Why would a young, beautiful girl waste her time on a man like that? I know, I know. I guess the answer is love, or whatever, but I just found that part of it sort of insufferable. I also didn't like how the movie started out so strong and became more cliched and commonplace as it went on. But the positive things about the film (like, it's not Les Mis!) and the performance, and just the overall likeability definitely outweigh these small problems.

I read this article from Paste about the 25 best performances of the year, and Jennifer Lawrence was on the list. And she deserves it! But I really liked what they said about her, which was something to the effect of, She can literally do anything she wants right now. And I think that's true. Post Hunger Games, she's probably the biggest star not named Kristen Stewart under 25 in Hollywood. Plus, unlike Stewart, she's got the talent to back up the stardom. Plus, she's drop dead gorgeous. She absolutely can do anything in the entire world next. As Tiffany, she comes on the screen like a bat out of hell, and elevates every single scene she's a part of. I hope she wins the Oscar in a few months because she's that good in this movie. Cooper is pretty impressive as well. I've never seen him play a character so well rounded before. He's been good in other movies, but this is his first real, fleshed out character with ticks and nuerosis, and Cooper nails it. Weaver, who WOWED in Animal Kingdom a few years ago, makes a meaningless part feel real and sweet. And DeNiro is back to form, playing the sort of character he should have spent the last decade playing. He's absolutely a joy to watch, and if Meet the Fockers made you forget what a great actor he is, this movie will remind you.

Overall, Silver Linings Playbook is definitely a crowd pleaser. It's sweet and funny, fun and just plain cute. In a year of dark, depressing, divisive movies, Silver Linings is a rare feel good love story.

Grade: B+

Les Miserables

I know that I'm not the best writer in the world. I wish I had more time to spend on writing reviews on here. Basically, I get 15 minute breaks at work and that's all the time I get. But I like writing and movies and so this blog is totally for me. If a few people stumble upon my reviwes, then that's fine too. Sometimes, when I write a review about a really great movie, I wish I was a better writer so I could properly convey certain things about the brilliance of said movie. But, I wish this was even more true when I want to write a review of a movie I hated. Because I wish I had the time, energy and talent to let everyone know why I hated Les Miserables so damn much.

I've never seen the stage musical of Les Mis, but I am a fan of musicals in general. In fact, besides horror movies, there probably isn't a genre of film I love more, guilty pleasures and all. I will make excuses for badly done horror movies and musicals more than any other type of film. Rock of Ages came out earlier this year, a musical that was average, at best. But no matter how bad that movie was, it is, at the very least, infinitely more fun than the borefest that is Les Mis. Maybe it has something to do with director Tom Hooper. This is two films I've seen him direct now, and both I absolutely hated while the rest of the world praised them to no ends. The first was 2010's Oscar winning The King's Speech which I found just as dreadful as this, and which took the Best Picture Oscar away from the greatest film of the last decade - The Social Network. I really did try to like Les Mis, which is basically the story of a bunch of poverty stricken prostitutes and slaves, trying to better themselves through a lot of songs. Like, A LOT of songs. Boring song after boring song after boring song. AND THEY ALL SOUND THE SAME!!! Eventually, we get to the real story, about the beginning of the French Revolution and the plot keeps fast forwarding years at a time so we can meet new characters and THEY could sing boring songs that sound like the boring songs the other characters just sang. And all of this is done with the use of incredibly annoying, disconcerting extreme close ups that literally made me want to scream at the top of my lungs.

And while I want to give this movie an F so, so badly, I can't do it. I can't do it because there are two, and exactly two good things about Les Mis. There are two good performances, and these two women get to sing the only two good songs in the entire play of seemingly 60 some songs (THAT ALL SOUND THE SAME) and then they die. The first is Anne Hathaway. She plays factory worker / single mom turned down on her luck prostitute Fantine. Fantine is about twenty mintues into the movie and only sticks around for about twenty minutes which is just enough time to cry and grovel and nail I Dreamed a Dream and then die, leaving the audience wanting more. (Although, she does show up as some sort of angel / ghost near the end which sort of ruins her performance for me, almost, although it's not her fault. I imagine it was the filmmakers way of saying, 'Hey, remember she was in this movie for 10 minutes what seems like 6 hours ago. Remember how good she was so give her an Oscar.') I'm not sure she is going to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress but if Jennifer Hudson can win it essentially for killing it singing And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going, then Hathaway has a shot. After Fantine's death, we have to suffer through a lot more crap - terrible singing from Russell Crowe, swoony doe eyes from Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Cater and her newest weirdo character (SIDE NOTE: If she ever wants to impress me again the way she impressed me in Fight Club, she's going to need to play some boring suburban housewife who drives an SUV and wears Cardigans and walks her dog and shops at Target), and Aaron Tveit who is too talented to be stuck playing "Guy in Red Jacket" and really should have played Marius, and Eddie Redmayne's bizarre handsomeness, etc. etc. Then finally we come to the second great performance, one I think I even prefered over Hathaway. Samantha Barks plays Eponine, a young girl who loves a boy who loves someone else, and she is fantastic as the girl who is a friend, sure, but maybe unloveable to the only boy who matters. She sings the single best song in the movie - On My Own and nails it, walking in the rain, whispering "I love him." She's perfection. And then she dies too and we are stuck with more boring songs (THAT ALL SOUND THE SAME) and more annoying close ups and more opulence that, I guess, is supposed to make us think the movie is epic when really it's just all too much.

There might be a good movie in here somewhere, but Les Mis needs a better director, and a better editor in order to find it. Mostly I just found the entire thing dreadful. And the worst thing about the whole thing is that after it was over, people in the theater STOOD UP AND CLAPPED! I had been imagining ways to fake a seizure or something in order to get the hell out of there, and people were giving it a standing ovation! It completely blew my mind, which is possibly why I've been so angry about this movie for the last few days.

I told myself I was going to be a less snarky, nicer person starting in 2013, but I guess I'm not off to a good start.

Grade: D