Mini DVD Reviews

I've been catching up on some of the movies I missed in theaters now that they are available to rent. Here are some mini reviews on the (mostly good!) movies I've watched recently:

The East
Stars: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgaard, Ellen Page, Shiloh Fernandez
Plot: A woman goes undercover to infiltrate an anarchist group who attacks corrupt businesses in interesting ways. She finds herself questioning where she stands on their practices after a while.
Thoughts: I think Marling is an incredible talent. If she wanted to be, she could be a huge Hollywood rom-com star much like Julia Roberts. She is so strikingly beautiful. But, she wants to write her own work, and much like her previous self-penned films Another Earth and Sound of My Voice, The East is flawed but intense, smart, thought-provoking and enjoyable.
Grade: B

The Purge
Stars: Ethan Hawke
Plot: It's the future in America and there is no crime and no unemployment and everyone is happy. Why? Once a year, the government picks one night where you can do whatever the hell you want - murder, included.
Thoughts: I was interested in seeing this movie because I think the premise is pretty spectacular. It's such a great idea, but the execution is not particularly good. The script has so many plot holes that it is laughable and the characters act in ways that only characters in horror movies act, bad decision after bad decision.
Grade: D+

Before Midnight
Stars: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Plot: It's nearly a decade after Jesse and Celeste reunited in Paris and now they are a couple with twins and on vacation where they do a whole lot of talking and fighting.
Thoughts: I love this trilogy of movies. I think it's such a beautifully written ode to love and lust, and while the first one was the best, Before Midnight is excellent as well. Of course, if you don't like movies that are super talky, then this probably isn't for you. But the epic fight Jesse and Celeste have in the hotel room just about rivals any fight in any Marvel movie released this year.
Grade: B

Lovelace
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard
Plot: The true story of Linda Lovelace, a young girl who falls for the wrong man and becomes the biggest porn star in the world.
Thoughts: Well, Peter Sarsgaard absolutely kills it. He is so damn good that it almost makes this mess of a movie worth it. The problem? Well, for one, as a movie about porn, it's not sexy in the least. And secondly, I have recently decided that Amanda Seyfried is just not that great of an actress. I'm not sure whey she keeps getting so many high-profiled gigs (okay, I do, she's gorgeous), but the talent just isn't there. Unless she is terribly miscast in every movie. I guess that's possible.
Grade: C

Disconnect
Stars: Jason Bateman, Paula Patton, Alexander Skarsgaard
Plot: Interwoven stories tell the tales of how we no longer make any personal connections in this world, everything filtered through social media, and how we are all so desperately lonely, just trying to find someone to connect to.
Thoughts: I'm not sure why no one has been talking about this movie. I saw one preview months ago and thought it looked good, but have heard virtually no word of mouth on it. I'm not sure why, because it's sort of, almost brilliant. It's the best movie from this year that you've never heard of and I highly suggest everyone rent it immediately.
Grade: B+

Only God Forgives
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Kristen Scott Thomas
Plot: A man seeks revenge on the people who murdered his brother.
Thoughts: This movie was infuriating and frustrating on every level. It was directed by the same person who made Drive a few years back, a movie that was super stylish and so, so good. Only God Forgives, however, is all style over substance. It looks amazing, and is possibly the most beautifully shot film of the year, but it's pretty much just an hour and a half of people being moody and looking cool and barely saying anything at all.
Grade: D

Stuck In Love
Stars: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Logan Lerman
Plot: A family of writers deal with love and loss and heartache.
Thoughts: This movie isn't spectacular in any way, but it's a very nice, good movie. It's not something I can pick apart at all - maybe it's a little too cliche. It's just such a nice, feel good, harmless, funny, cute movie that I couldn't help but fall under it's spell. Also, Lerman is adorable.
Grade: B

Frances Ha
Stars: Greta Gerwig
Plot: A twenty-something woman in New York City tries to make her life a little bit less of a mess.
Thoughts: I've been wanting to see this movie for months and I'll say - it was worth the wait! Frances Ha is officially my favorite movie of the year. It's a love story about two best friends and I think it's so refreshing that men are basically an after thought. It's a great little black and white movie about friends growing apart but struggling to stay together and growing up and getting your shit together. I can't say enough about it, other than - go watch it now! So great!
Grade: A

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The best thing the Hunger Games movies could have done is getting such wonderful character actors to play pivotal supporting roles. It adds an air of importance to your film when you have such heavy-weights as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci and Jeffrey Wright playing your small, but important characters. And, of course, The Hunger Games struck gold when it cast Jennifer Lawrence as lead Katniss. Lawrence may be the most famous and coolest girl on the planet right now, and she's got all the talent to back it up.

Catching Fire picks up where The Hunger Games left off - Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) managed to win the Hunger Games by claiming to be in love although vicious President Snow (Sutherland) doesn't buy it for a minute. The two are about to embark on a victory tour of the districts and President Snow threatens Katniss, telling her she must prove their love to everyone or the people will continue to believe their joint win was an act of defiance and revolt. Of course, they somehow make the stirring revolution grow strong and soon President Snow and games-maker Plutarch (Hoffman)are crafting something special for the games Quarter Quell - a champions round, where all the participants are past winners, meaning, they are all proven killers and it will be even harder for Katniss and Peeta to make it out alive this time around. Among the new / old contestants are scene-stealers Jena Malone as ax-wielding wild child Johanna and Sam Claflin as charming, handsome, complicated Finnick. [Side Note: Why do characters in YA novels/movies have such weird names??]

Good news first: Once the movie gets to the actual games, it is fast-paced, action packed, intense and just plain fun. Bad news? It takes about an hour and a half to get there. That's an hour and a half of talking and scheming and plotting and lying, all while anticipating that awesome clock inspired Quarter Quell. Yes, the first half of the movie is sort of on the boring side. Yes, it could have been edited down greatly and still been effective. Yes, Effie's (Elisabeth Banks) AMAZING outfits nearly make up for the whole thing. But Catching Fire is a mostly good movie. Director Francis Lawrence took over directing duties this time around and ha managed to make a more clear, more straight-forward, more effective film. Of course, the movie suffers from the same thing that book suffered from - being the middle book of a trilogy and that's rarely ever a good thing, although its also not its fault. It's tasked with introducing new characters and new ideas, but never really going anywhere with anything (because, you know, there's a third book to tie everything together - this is just a placeholder). And that's not a bad thing, but it's also not necessarily a good thing either, especially that awful cliff-hanger ending. But again, not the movies fault in the least.

Mostly Catching Fire is a successful film. My own personal problem has to deal with recently reading Divergent, a book with a main female character who is both bad ass and complicated. She also is far from likable and manages to get her hands dirty a whole lot, which makes her journey more compelling. Katniss doesn't ever really get her hands dirty. Sure, she talks the talk, but she has other people who manage to save her from getting too involved in things like killing other people. She's a nice clean-cut hero for girls to look up to, someone strong but who never actually does anything too bad. Still, she's a way better role model for girls these days than Bella from Twilight, so I guess that's progress.

Grade: B

Friday Top Five - Giving Thanks

Obviously I have many things to be thankful for, but since this is a blog about movies, in this post I'm giving thanks for all things cinematic.

05. Bargains!
Ever since I saw the mediocre movie Prisoners, I've been wanting to watch a movie similar but so much better: David Fincher's (my favorite director)2007 masterpiece Zodiac. So I've been searching everywhere for it and finally found it at Barnes and Noble. It was $9.99. But it was also 50% off. Plus, I'm a member so I got an extra 10% off. So I ended up buying this movie for something like $3.50, which equals out to about a dollar an hour (shit is brilliant, but long!).

04. Good Movies!
If you want me to break down my grading in its most simple of forms, here goes: A = great, B = good, C = average, D = bad, F = terrible. So, in 2013 I have only given out 2 A-'s. That's a little disappointing except when I think about how many B's I've given out. A lot! There may not be many great movies this year, but there are a lot of good movies! Everything from downright dramas (Mud) to indie horror movies (You're Next) to movies about legendary baseball players (42). There are movies that will make you laugh (The Way Way Back), cry (Fruitvale Station) and do a bit of both (The Spectacular Now). So, yes, with a little over a month to go, I'd say 2013 was a pretty good year for movies.

03. Xavier Samuel
Seriously. Click on the link. And you're welcome.

02. That I live in a world where Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese are still making movies on the regular
Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese have made some of the most classic movies of all time. They are both getting up there in age. No one would blame them if they wanted to retire and take up golf or read more books or whatever. But they are both churning out borderline masterpieces this far into their career. Allen still makes a movie a year. Sure, they aren't all amazing, but as recently as 2011, he made one of his best movies (Midnight in Paris). Plus, this year's offering (Blue Jasmine) is one of the good movies I was referring to in #4. It's still securely in my top ten list. Then there's Scorsese, who altered the course of how I would think about him forever in 2011, by making a masterpiece that was also a kids movie (Hugo). [Seriously, the guy that directed Goodfellas!]. This year, he's made The Wolf of Wall Street, which is my single most anticipated movie of the year. Both of these guys were in my top ten in 2011, and it looks like they might both do it again this year.

01. Girl Power
A few years ago, an actress you probably never heard of named Brit Marling was sick and tired of the roles she was being offered - ditzy blonde, the girlfriend, the horror movie victim. So, what did she decide to do? Write her own roles! What followed was a career as an actress/writer/producer that led to movies such as Another Earth, Sound of My Voice, and this year's The East. Not to be outdone, Greta Gerwig got in on the writing scene too, co-writing and starring in France Ha (which is on its way to my house as I type this). Then there are the girls on the small screen, too. Mindy Kaling proves you can love boys and fashion and celebrity gossip and still be smart and funny. Lena Dunham is currently the showrunner/writer/star of the most love it or hate it show on TV, Girls. I personally love it, and don't see anyone writing more interesting, flawed female characters anywhere in all of Hollywood. As a semi-feminist, I'm pretty stoked to see these ladies (and I'm sure there's more, but it's early and I'm tired and can't think!) are changing the landscape of how women are seen in Hollywood.

12 Years a Slave

If ever there is a movie getting a lot of buzz, it's this one. Not only are people saying it's the best film of the year, but also that it's one of the best films ever made. While I agree that this film had the potential to be a masterpiece, I don't quite think it's there. That's not to say I don't think it's a pretty damn good movie. But I also think all the hype is just a tad on the hyperbolic side.

12 Years a Slave is based on the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in New York who accepts the job offers of two seemingly nice white men who want him to travel to Washington D.C. and play fiddle for their circus. Instead, they get him drunk and sell him into slavery. After his seemingly never ending journey into the South, he goes to live with a plantation owner who is as nice as plantation owners can be (Benedict Cumberbatch). But after a violent run-in with his overseer (Paul Dano), he is sold to another plantation owner where the master (Michael Fassbender) is as violent and nasty as you can imagine.

Directed by Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame), 12 Years a Slave is raw, gritty and unflinching. It's an emotional, devastating depiction of slavery, a subject that hasn't ever really been tackled well on film. Sure, it's a terrible subject matter but so is Nazi Germany and there is at least one iconic movie about that subject matter. It's a beautiful, artistic film that is also heart-wrenching. McQueen directs the hell out of this movie, and I'd say he's our second shoo-in for Best Director at the Oscars next year. In fact, there's a good chance that this movie could win ALL the Oscars next year. It's that devastating, and beautiful and the performances are that sensational.

Some of the actors don't have very much screen time at all (Dano, Brad Pitt, Sarah Paulson, Paul Giamatti), but still manage to give great, three-dimensional performances. This movie is very likely to get three nominations in Oscar acting categories. First, obviously, there's Chiwetel Ejiofor in the main role of Solomon. He is in just about every scene and he quietly carries this entire film on his shoulders. His name may be difficult to pronounce, but everyone should probably learn it because this guy is amazing in this movie. He is absolutely unforgettable and heartbreaking, strong and mesmerizing. Then there is newcomer Lupita Nyong'o as put-upon slave Patsy. I've been hearing a lot of buzz about her performance, but I wasn't all that impressed at first. However, there are a few key scenes near the end where she absolutely blows it out of the water. But, best in show, however, goes to Michael Fassbender who is so good I'm not even sure I can find the words to adequately describe just how good he is. He is a gift to this movie, because when he's on screen, the movie is so much better. His performance is a force of nature, menacing and maniacal, but somehow still almost likable. He manages to convey nearly every emotion while on screen, and the movie is so much better because he's a part of it. This is, in my opinion, the single best performance of the entire year. That's just how sensational he is, and he deserves every award you can possibly imagine, and probably a few more that we may need to invent just for him.

So, it seems like I'm praising the hell out of this movie, right? The acting is all great, featuring THE best performance of the year. The director is a rock star. I even want to praise the score, which is jittery and anxious and perfect. So, what's the problem, then? Because I wasn't as over the moon about this movie as I should be, I guess. It's not that it's difficult to watch, although it is. It is unflinchingly violent and horrid and hard to watch, but it should be. It's about the darkest time in this history of our country. It's just that there are a few moments that keep this from being a masterpiece and they are all the more obvious because this is such a great movie, with such potential to be a complete game changer that it's sort of disappointing that someone didn't reign in McQueen's more pretentious moments. For instance, there is about a two minute close up of Solomon's face where he is simply standing still, doing nothing, that is completely off putting and serves no purpose other than to be "artistic." There are a few moments like this, where the shot is held for far longer that it needs to be. This sort of stuff typically doesn't bother me, but, like I said, this movie had the potential to be a game changer and all these little self-indulgent moments take away from what it could have been. If they had edited about twenty minutes out of this, it could have been something near perfection. Instead, it has to settle for being just a damn good movie, which isn't so bad.

Grade: A-

Friday Top Five: Leonardo DiCaprio

I'm alive! Thanks to inventory at work, I've worked something like 130 hours in the last two weeks (that's only a slight exaggeration) and as a result, I didn't want to look at words or numbers or computer screens or anything, really. I just wanted to sleep. All the time. Plus, I haven't had an opportunity to watch many movies, obviously. But I'm back and ready to talk Leonardo DiCaprio, who had a birthday on Monday and who stars in December's The Wolf of Wall Street, which is my most anticipated movie of the year. A lot of people still don't take him seriously but he's grown quite nicely from pretty boy to one of the best actors of his generation. All those films with Scorsese certainly helped, I'm sure. Usually when I make these lists, I feel sort of bad because I know they are not all-inclusive. I made a baseball movie list a few months ago, and obviously I haven't seen EVERY baseball movie. But I have seen every Leonardo DiCaprio movie ever made. (I'm sorry, but I've been in love with him since Growing Pains, the early-90s, which is longer than I've loved anything). So, I feel like my list IS sort of the all-inclusive Leonardo DiCaprio top five!

05. As Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries (1995)
An early indicator that DiCaprio wasn't just a pretty face. Sure, in the years that would follow, he'd become super famous as a romantic lead in Romeo + Juliet and a movie you may have heard of called Titanic, but he started off gritty as hell, starring in this underrated movie about a street kid turned hardcore drug user turned poet. It's easy to see in this early film why he would become one of the biggest actors in the world. He's magnetic. You can't take your eyes off of him and his performance as a messed up kid with dark thoughts about death and dope.

04. As Frank Wheeler in Revolutionary Road (2008)
I know Kate Winslet got all of the attention after this film, and she's remarkable in it, but DiCaprio is just as good. Maybe it's because the two of them still have buckets full of chemistry, even all these years after Titanic. But regardless, they both give powerhouse performances as a couple with a very complicated relationship in the 1950's. Leo's portrayal of Frank makes him more sympathetic, and because we care about his character so much, we forgive him all the things he does wrong. He's so intense in this absolutely devastating drama.

03. As Frank Abagnale Jr. in Catch Me If You Can (2002)
DiCaprio's movies aren't typically fun. He does a lot of dark and intense, so it's sort of refreshing to see him having a ball playing a super charming con man in Catch Me If You Can. It's a vivacious performance, full of personality and charisma. It's the perfect role for someone who is as much of a chameleon as DiCaprio, as he gets to jump from role to role in the movie. Sometimes he's a doctor, than a pilot, always hiding who he really is. It's a wonderful performance that DiCaprio absolutely nails.

02. As Arnie Grape in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993)
One of the great injustices of the Academy Awards was back in 1994 when Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive beat out DiCaprio for playing a mentally handicapped character in this film. He was so young when he made this movie and it's stood the test of time as one of his absolute best performances. He is incendiary, lighting up the screen, as the heart and soul of this film. If anyone ever deserved an Oscar, it was DiCaprio for this performance, where he said the hell with looks and glamour and gave a perfectly stripped down, emotionally raw performance that is simply incredible.

01. As Billy Costigan in The Departed (2006)
In 2006, Leo starred in two films: The Departed and Blood Diamond. He was Oscar nominated for the wrong one. Maybe it was because The Departed was chock full of great performances, that voters didn't think he stood out. But that's ridiculous. He more than holds his own against the likes of Jack Nicholson, stealing scenes and hearts. He's an undercover cop posing as a street thug. He's dark and gritty and violent but all of that is killing him inside, and his scenes with Vera Farmiga show how vulnerable the real Billy really is. This is seriously DiCaprio's best role ever (and the pinnacle of his hotness - I got into a Twitter fight with someone who said he was hotter in The Beach - whatever!). It's hard to think he could ever top this, but I'm patiently awaiting The Wolf of Wall Street, hoping he can, and can finally win that Oscar he most certainly deserves.