January 14, 2010

• Movie Review Update 1/14/10

  previous reviews here.

  Sunshine Cleaning (2008) – amy adams, emily blunt, alan arkin.  a struggling single mother finds a new niche for her house cleaning career: cleaning up crime scenes.  watch it for the extremely charismatic cast more than anything else.  it’s light hearted for the most part and emily blunt’s character arc hints at some deeper (more interesting) stuff, but not enough imo.  still the film isn’t terrible by any means — mainly due to the latent watchability of the three main actors, like i mentioned — and might be pleasantly surprising if you have low expectations and didn’t go out of your way to see it.  3 stars. 

  Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) – legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog’s signature film.  german period piece set in south america.  a spanish warrior suffers delusions of grandeur after he commandeers a river expedition.  quite frankly…. meh.  while it’s shot gorgeously in the wild jungle, the character development is annoyingly disjointed.  the existence of the far superior Apocalypse Now renders this film completely useless.  2 stars. 

  State of Play (2009) – russel crowe, rachel mcadams, ben affleck.  affleck is a war hero congressman trying to de-stinkify the shit blanket he’s under after his female staffer is found dead.  crowe and mcadams are reporters following the shit stink to the very end.  it’s based on a british mini-series that possibly should have stayed that way.  it’s an intriguing story involving politics, scandal, the free press, etc. that seems worthy of some extended treatment.  i’m naturally inclined to like stories like this, especially when Tony Gilroy is involved with the writing, so for my personal entertainment factor i’ll give it a 3.5, but as a film, i’m not sure it’s more than an average 3 stars.  btw, Robyn Wright Penn also stars and i’m happy to note that the princess bride appears to be aging extremely gracefully.  she’s still damn pretty while not hiding her age. 
   
  Up (2009) – grumpy old man, boy scout, flying house, etc.  the scenes leading up to and including the montage in the beginning are so well defining and touching.  i’m not sure i’ve seen a more economical fifteen minutes in any other movie this year.  by the end of the montage, which is still well in the beginning of the film, i already felt like i knew the character and wanted to give him a hug.  but the film doesn’t end there, thankfully.  adventure is the best aspect of some films, but it was actually the filler here, imo.  talking dogs and little fat kids are fun, but not awesome like the emotional scene towards the end where i very nearly lost my shit in explosive fashion.  again, hooray for kid movies that don’t condescend.  4 stars. 

  Inglourious Basterds (2009) – brad pitt leads a band of jewish american soldiers whose prime directive is to kill nazis mercilessly and in the most gruesome manner possible.  their plan to assassinate the nazi hierarchy unknowingly dovetails with the plans of a jewish french theater owner who seems to have plans along the same design.  tarantino is the king of dialogue.  he writes fun dialogue and he coaches his actors to deliver it entertainingly.  those two skills are the bada and the bing to his brand of awesome filmmaking.  don’t be fooled here by the precedent and the ads.  this is NOT a bang-bang, shoot em up WW2 film.  it is almost entirely scenes of dialogue that skillfully wind moments of suspense like a spring, building a movie with snare drum’s tension.  no one but tarantino could have made this film.  4 stars. 

  Extract (2009) – jason bateman, mila kunis, ben affleck.  made by mike judge who also made Office Space and the criminally unknown Idiocracy.  jason bateman owns a food flavoring company that is being victimized by the opportunistic thief played by the oh-so-hot mila kunis.  decent movie but didn’t move me either way.  i’m sure i’ll forget about it completely in a few weeks.  2.5 stars. 

  World’s Greatest Dad (2009) – robin williams stars in this movie made by bobcat goldthwait (remember him?).  this film caught me by surprise in a good way because it’s been a while since i’ve seen a dark comedy done this well.  robin williams plays a high school teacher/failed writer/dad whose teenage son is a complete and total worthless, perverted (yet very funny) asshole.  can’t say much more about the plot without spoilers, but suffice to say that it walks that fine line between comedy and brutality very well and even wraps it up with a strong ending.  3.5, or maybe 4 stars. 

  A Christmas Tale (2008) – french film about a dysfunctional family reunion.  the mother needs a bone marrow donor and the excommunicated son is one of the only available matches.  very typical family reunion type film with the bickering and drama, but this one stands out because of the casually honest, vicious and strangely benevolent way they all speak to each other, which makes for some pretty endearing entertainment.  it’s not often — even in a film about a dysfunctional family — where the mother tells her son that she never really liked him, and i’m not really sure if she’s joking or not.  3 stars. 

  Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) – wes anderson’s latest film based on Roald Dahl’s (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) book.  a middle-aged fox is reliving his youth stealing from his human neighbors.  all that quirky charm that’s trademark wes anderson is in full display here without any of the distracting schizophrenic deviations.  the stop-motion animation is deceptively functional and detailed.  (you can see the chests of some characters rising and falling as they stand there breathing.)  it’s also very cute to look at.  in fact, cute is a good word to describe the whole production straight down to the music and voice acting that has an adept’s ear for comedic timing.  it’s a cute, funny, quirky movie, which is exactly what i expect from wes anderson.  4 stars. 

  An Education (2009) – an over achieving, sheltered high school student and her family are bedazzled by her older, wealthy boyfriend.  written by Nick Hornby.  set in 1960s england, this film starts out with a fantastically smart and charismatic character and ends up with a strong social critique.  carey mulligan, apparently england’s katie homes lookalike, is quite engaging as the oxford-bound jenny who gets blinded by the posh life she’s not leading.  her character is a refreshingly mature film teenager though not unrealistically so, and managed to trap my attention throughout mainly just by being a curious yet decent person.  a rarity?  i’d be interested to see how women react to this film, written by a man, about a young girl.  this film was exceptionally written and acted well, which is all it set out to do.  4 stars. 

  Up in the Air (2009) – george clooney, vera farmiga, anna kendrick.  clooney travels around the country as a mercenary hired to fire people.  he’s a master road warrior who prefers being alone on an airplane over being on the ground complicated his life with messy stuff like human interaction.  old age, a threat at work and a road love interest all conspire to make him reconsider his life of clean, simple solitude.  from the word Go, you know this is a message movie.  it’s all too familiar not to be.  or is it?  if so, what’s the message?  even though it’s a perfectly capable, entertaining movie, it’s not the “awesome” film many critics are describing it as.  good, not great.  mainly because the vast bulk of the film isn’t all that new or insightful even though it really wants to be.  i still think it had some balls though and recommend it, with lowered expectations.  3.5 stars. 

  Avatar (2009) – previous thoughts here.  4 stars. 

  The Road (2009) – viggo mortenson, charlize theron, some kid.  the earth is scorched, there is no civilization and the soil doesn’t seem to yield any fruit.  viggo walks the land with his son, trying to fend for the kid, while instructing the kid to kill himself if he ever died.  that’s the kind of movie it is.  bleak.  every ounce of it.  bleak and grimy seems to be director john hillcoat’s specialty after the especially dirty looking The Proposition.  he does it exceptionally well here because viggo looks like a fucking strung out crackhead.  you could probably say that for the earth in this film too.  it looks like a fucking strung out crackhead.  hillcoat makes you feel it too, from the torn shoes and constant cold to the hordes of roaming cannibals that are constantly hunting for new food.  the world isn’t a pretty place, but what an ideal situation for a little bit of goodness to shine.  viggo’s abundant love for his son, strong enough to save the last bullet for his son in case the shit really hits the fan.  cormac macarthy’s book was apparently written in dedication to his son, an expression of love in the only way he knows how.  4 stars. 

  • 3:15 pm
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