July 2015

Fifty Shades of Grey
Stars - Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan
Plot - A virginal college girl falls for a billionaire businessman who is a little on the kinky side.
Thoughts - Anyone who knows me, knows that I was not a fan of the poorly written book. It's not even the fact that the writer seems to hate women, it's just that a fifth grader has a better grasp of the English language. I feel like director Sam Taylor-Johnson really wanted to make a better movie, but the source material just wouldn't allow for that to happen. Dakota Johnson is a star waiting to happen, but mostly this was just a bad, unsexy movie and Dornan has the personality of a rock.
Grade - D-

The Loft
Stars - James Marsden, Karl Urban, Wentworth Miller
Plot - A group of friends share a loft where they can take their mistresses, but when a woman turns up dead, they all suspect each other.
Thoughts - I mean, interesting idea. This movie definitely had potential, and despite being shot like some cheesy Telemundo soap opera, it actually kept me interested. Still, there were absolutely no likable characters and it was hard to care about the outcome with no one to root for.
Grade - C-

The DUFF
Stars - Mae Whitman
Plot - A high school girl finds out she is the Designated Ugly Fat Friend and decides to change her life.
Thoughts - Sure, this is a cliche filled high school comedy that pales in comparison to much better, classic teen movies. But I've always felt like the ugly fat friend, and I still feel like an outcast, so this movie hit a little close to home for me. Maybe I related to it a bit too much and maybe I'm being too kind, but I would recommend it.
Grade - B-

Southpaw
Stars - Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams
Plot - A boxer struggles to get his life together after a tragedy puts him in a self destructive tailspin.
Thoughts - Relatively speaking, this is no Raging Bull or Rocky, or even The Fighter. But I do love a good boxing movie, and I think Gyllenhaal is our best young actor, someone who constantly challenges himself and betters himself. He is so exciting to watch.  Even when the script feels overly sentimental or overly cheesy, his raw and devastating performance pulls everything together.
Grade - B

Dark Places
Stars - Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Corey Stoll
Plot - The lone survivor of a horrendous murder rethinks the testimony she gave which put her brother in prison for killing their entire family.
Thoughts - Mostly this movie just made me want to read the really great, perfectly plotted book by Gillian Flynn again. It's not that the movie is bad, per se, it just feels long and sluggish and boring sometimes. The book was a non stop page turner, but this adaptation is just okay. Come for Corey Stoll, though, who steals the show.
Grade - C

Trainwreck
Stars - Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Tilda Swinton
Plot - A hot mess journalist who likes a good one night stand falls for a nerdy and sweet doctor, even though she is a mess and incapable of loving or being loved and she is uncomfortable with intimacy and the idea that her sister is having babies A.K.A. the story of my life.
Thoughts - I was super excited for this movie because I RELATE, man, but I was slightly disappointed. I mean, I laughed, I cried, I fell even harder for Schumer. Still, it just didn't totally get there for me. I think all Judd Apatow movies are about 30 minutes too long and a little editing would have gone a long way. Still, the movie is funny and feminist and breaks rom-com conventions. It's probably the type of movie that will grow on me (like another Apatow movie, Knocked Up, which I despised the first time I saw it). Also, a nearly unrecognizable Tilda Swinton steals the whole movie. (Like, I'm seriously not even fully convinced that it was really her.)
Grade - B-

This is Where I Leave You

It blows my mind that a movie based on a book that is so profound, so brilliant, so almost life - altering can end up being so damn mediocre. But that seems to be were we are with the movie This is Where I Leave You based on the excellent novel by Jonathan Tropper.  It's not bad, per se,  and maybe if I hadn't read and been so moved by the book, I would even have liked it more.

This is Where I Leave You is about the Altman family who sit shiva for the seven days following the death of their father. Of course, they are all angry and lonely and a mess, and all of their past feelings and actions creep back up on them during this week where they are stuck together non-stop.  Jason Bateman plays Judd, the perfect middle son whose got his shit together until he finds out his wife is sleeping with his boss. Corey Stoll plays oldest son Paul, the responsible dickish one who is struggling to have a baby with his baby obsessed wife (who used to be Judd's girlfriend). Tina Fey is daughter Wendy, who has an asshole husband and unresolved feelings for her high school sweetheart (Timothy Olyphant). Youngest brother Phillip (played by a scene stealing Adam Driver) is the mess up of the family who is struggling to get his life together with the help of his much older, rich girlfriend Tracy (Connie Britton). Then there is mom Jane Fonda who has new boobs and a seemingly healthy response to the death of her husband.

Here is the thing. The movie wants to be as good as the book, and it desperately tries to fit 300 pages of action into an hour and 45 minute long movie. It all feels so rushed and jumbled and it feels like we don't even get to really get to know these characters. The script isn't very good and the jokes which are supposed to be funny are mostly just chuckle inducing.  Some of the drama feels cliche,  though it doesn't feel that way in the book at all. Most of the performances are pretty spot on. Bateman is a master at deftly switching between comedic and dramatic moments.  It's only Tina Fey who disappoints.  It seems that she is just in a completely different movie tonally.  If there is one person trying to make this movie better, it is Girls star and future Star Wars guy Adam Driver. He easily has the most fun character and he gives it everything he's got. He is a manic ball of energy,  elevating every scene he is in. It is scene blessing more so than scene stealing. It's just a shame that no one else can keep up with him. It would be a much better movie if anyone else brought the same bottled up intensity.

Overall, maybe the movie is better if you didn't read the book. It's not bad. It is quite heart warming and crowd pleasing and a fine depiction of a dysfunctional family. When the movie is good, it totally sucks you in... it just doesn't stay that good for that long. Mostly if you had the choice between seeing the movie and reading the book, pick the book and thank me later.

Grade: C+

Friday Top Five: Performances in Woody Allen Movies

Fun fact: Woody Allen has made at least one movie a year since 1982. And this doesn't even include the great, sometimes flawless masterpieces he made pre-1980. I've seen nearly all of them, and I love nearly all of them (I'm looking at you The Curse of the Jade Scorpion). Even mediocre Woody has something worthwhile about it. Woody has a new movie out in limited release right now called Blue Jasmine. Early word on the internet is that it is his best movie ever. Yes, ever. Plus, they are praising Cate Blanchett as giving the best performance in any of his films. I don't know that Blue Jasmine can surpass the flawless perfection of the trifecta that is Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Hannah and Her Sisters, but I am excited to find out. When I was brain storming ideas for this weeks top five, I thought about just making a list of his best films, but that seemed too easy. So I decided to make a list of the best performances in his films instead. And it was too hard! I came up with a list I'm not entirely pleased with. Among the performances NOT on the list are Dianne Wiest's Oscar winning role in Bullets Over Broadway, Martin Landau in Crimes and Misdemeanors and Mia Farrow in just about anything, but specifically, The Purple Rose of Cairo. So, here is this week's Top Five...

05. Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway in Midnight in Paris (2011)
It still absolutely flabbergasts me that Stoll was overlooked at the Oscars for his hilarious, balls to the wall performance as the brawling, drunken writer in Allen's best film in decades. It got a lot of Oscar love (director, film, screenplay, etc.) but none for Stoll, which is a shame, since he all but steals the entire movie away from people way more famous than him. He knows better than anyone the tone of the movie and plays Hemingway with such bravado, that is is nearly impossible to take your eyes off of him.
Best Quote: "I believe that love that is true and real, creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And then the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face, like some rhino-hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave... It is because they make love with sufficient passion, to push death out of their minds... until it returns, as it does, to all men... and then you must make really good love again."

04. Woody Allen as Isaac in Manhattan (1979)
Woody gets a lot of credit as a writer and director, but he is almost under appreciated as an actor. Sure, he specializes in a certain kind of character, all neurotic and fast talking, but he does those so perfectly well. Isaac is his best neurotic, dating a teenager, fighting his lesbian ex-wife for their son, falling in love with her best friend, all while portraying such humanity that we can't help but cheer for him. Plus, that opening dialogue!!!
Best Quote: "Chapter One. He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat. Oh, I love this. New York was his town, and it always would be."

03. Dianne Wiest as Holly in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Dianne Wiest is the only lucky lady to ever win two Oscars in movies directed by Allen. And this happens to be my favorite performance of hers, as Hannah's down on her luck, troubled, damaged, coke head sister who is having a really shitty time when it comes to life and love and just about everything else. Holly isn't necessarily likable, but thanks to Wiest, we love her even more for that.
Best Quote: " Well, naturally. She went to Brandeis. But I don't think she knows what she's talking about. Could you believe the way she was calling him David? "Yes, David. I feel that way, too, David. What a marvelous space, David." I hate April. She's pushy."

02. Sean Penn as Emmet Ray in Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Sean Penn is a revelation in this role. Before this movie, he almost entirely played tough brutes, but this movie showed just how versatile he truly is as a performer. His Emmet is not the nicest guy in the world, his actions are sort of despicable at certain points but Penn manages to bring so much humanity to this role. Plus, his final scenes will just make your heart explode.
Best Quote: "Wanna go to the dump and shoot some rats?"

01. Diane Keaton as Annie Hall in Annie Hall (1977)
The most iconic of all roles in Woody Allen films, Keaton absolutely mesmerizes as a ditzy Midwestern girl trying to make it in the Big Apple. We know her relationship with Alvy Singer won't end well, but we can't keep our eyes off of them as they fall in and out of love anyway. This may be the best screenplay ever written and both Annie and Alvy have tons of quotable dialogue. Plus, the chemistry between these two are just absolutely off the charts. Keaton more that deserved that Oscar win.
Best Quote: "Alvy, you're incapable of enjoying life, you know that? I mean you're like New York City. You're just this person. You're like this island unto yourself."