June 8, 2012

• Movie Review Update – 6/8/2012

  previous reviews here.

   

  A Separation (2011) – Iranian film.  My single favorite movie from 2011.  I saw it the night before the Oscars, and it blew me away and laid the foundation for my disappointment in The Artist’s haul of awards that night.  A Separation is a small movie set in Iran about a small family that is splitting up.  The wife leaves, a housekeeper is hired, things happen… dramatic things.  This had the tension and drama of any of the best thrillers out there, except it’s all just about people trying to live their lives the best way they know how.  4 stars.

  Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2012) – documentary about Japan’s most celebrated sushi chef.  a man officially designated as a Japanese national treasure and the first sushi chef to get 3 Michelin stars.  This film is not for the hungry.  It’s loaded with great food porn, and gives you a peek into the life of a true artisan, so that’s all good.  But the film’s structure seems a little spread out for me, and doesn’t seem to have any aim other than to just show.  Great images, but poor writing.  3 stars.

  Me Dear Desperado (Korean) 2010 – Typical Korean romantic dramedy.  starts off funny.  gangster guy, straight-laced girl.  proximity then need then desire.  ends kind of seriously.  nothing special, very typical.  2 stars.

  The Raid: Redemption (2012) – Holy fucking shit.  fight fight fight!  I haven’t seen an amazingly choreographed, and constructed and ultimately breath-taking action fight film like that in….  4 stars.

  Young Adult (2011) – Charlize Theron fucking kills it again as the pushing 40, former high school queen, delusional alcoholic returning to her small home town to steal her ex-bf from his happy marriage and infant daughter.  I mean she totally nailed this role, like she always seems to do.  You’ll think you’ve seen this film many times before.  It looks like that familiar train wreck, and that’s by design, but this film completely breaks from the formula, and in doing so might leave some viewers unfulfilled.  You see, Theron’s character is totally hateable, but Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman, who wrote and directed respectively, feel some sympathy for her, but at the same time, they are quite real about that type of horrible person she is and don’t bullshit anything.  The film and its portrait of her are understanding, but unforgiving.  Ebert said, “As I absorbed it, I realized what a fearless character study it is. That sometimes it’s funny doesn’t hurt.”  4 stars.

  Fish Tank (2009) – Michael Fassbender is the is-he-or-isn’t-he-creepy boyfriend of this poor, wild, teenage girl’s mom.  She, the teenager, lives in a shitty part of town with nothing to do all day but start fights and practice dancing, and get leery looks from Michael Fassbender.  but does he just want to help?  3 stars

  The Descendants (2011) – Alexander Payne’s George Clooney film.  Clooney is a father of two young girls, one of whom is a bit of an asshole (but she has her reasons).  He has a wife in a coma and some very revealing news about her that throws his view of family into question.  Gorgeous scenery as expected in anything set in Hawaii, and it’s been a while cine I saw this, but I think it was a meditation on the importance of family and tradition.  Overall, a nice film.  Nothing that blew me away, but it’s a thoughtful effort that I appreciated.  3.5 stars.

  Hugo (2011) – Martin Scorsese’s film about a young scamp in a French train station trying to hold his shit together after his father died basically leaving him an orphan.   He discovers a secret!  But overall… meh.  I liked it much better the first time I saw it when it was called Cinema Paradiso.  2.5 stars.

  Crazy Stupid Love (2011) – Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone.  Steve Carrell is newly single, and gets help picking up the ladies from the pick up artist, Ryan Gosling.  a few other sub-stories floating around but this friendship is the centerpiece of this ambitious, flawed and overall pretty entertaining film.  3.5 stars.

  The Artist (2011) – Alas, dialogue could not have saved this gross caricature of a real movie.  Only a stellar script could have done it, and it didn’t have one.  All it had was a gimmick, photogenic actors and Harvey Weinstein.  2 stars.

  Another Earth (2011) – Brit Marling’s sci-fi indie breakout about an alternate reality where we discover another Earth (duh) that is identical to ours.  IDENTICAL.  interesting at least.  3 stars.

  Bellflower (2011) – Indie film about a shy hipster kind of guy in LA who meets a wild girl who makes things right for a while.  Interesting delivery but it turns out that delivery is just roaring bombast in service to the pretty simple and uninteresting concept of being a fucking mope.  Oh yeah there’s a ballsy car that spits fire.  2.5 stars.

  Green Lantern (2011) – You can’t make a movie about a superhero, especially an established superhero, and have its primary tension come from the play acting that he doesn’t want to be a superhero.  It’s a foregone conclusion!  Just skip ahead already!   2 stars.

  Melancholia (2011) – Lars Von Trier film starring Kirsten Dunst as a depressive trying to live a normal life all while a new planet named Melancholia is expected to make a dramatically close fly-by past Earth.  The two sound unrelated when I say it like that, but the film ties them in together.  Told in two halves, the film shows two sides of her depression, one side trying to muddle through depression on her wedding day, and the other facing the full weight of it as Melancholia’s fly-by draws closer.  The clear metaphor (there’s a reason why the planet is named Melancholia) seems a little mundane relative to the grand style of the film, but it’s still a gorgeous movie with some emotional impact.  3.5 stars.

  The Avengers (2012) – awesome.  4 stars.

  Headhunters (2012) – Norwegian thriller about a corporate headhunter who moonlights as an art thief, but finds that this time he stole from the wrong mofo.  That mofo being Jaimie Lannister from Game of Thrones.  Definitely good fun.  Nice surprise.   3.5 stars.

  The Machinist (2004) – Christian Bale looking like some Aushwitz victim.  Seriously.  He weighed liked 130 in this film about a guy who can’t sleep, and seems to be losing his mind.  Or is he?  It’s a tight little thriller type movie that’s careful with its secrets.  3 stars.

  Miss Bala (2011) – Mexican film about a Tijuana girl who aspires to be a beauty queen, but gets caught up in some horrific drug gang shit.  Bala means bullet in Spanish.  3 stars.

  The Myth of the American Sleepover (2010) – coming-of-age story about some very young high school kids on their last night of summer.  Everyone wants to be crazy and do grown up things like have sex and drink.   One of the few times you’ll see a movie about high school kids starring kids who are actually age-appropriate.  This film captures a lot of the naive aspirations of kids so might resonate there, but it’s also very unpolished not only in its amateur acting, but the way the whole film is constructed.  It wanders scatter-brain like without focus or patience.  It’s too bad because this one could have been really sweet.  2 stars.

  The Red Chapel (2009) – documentary about North Korea.  This is interesting because it’s made under false pretenses therefore might have different footage than you might have seen.  Basically some European filmmaker and his two adopted Korean-Danish friends go to North Korea under the disguise of some Korean diaspora trying to connect with their Korean roots in North Korea, but are really just there to get crazy footage then show what a fucked up place NK is.  Kind of dangerous for them, and an eye-opening experience.  You see their Korean handlers and North Korean landmarks and the special treatment they get.  Mostly stuff I’d never seen before including one amazing shot of them sneaking into the lineup of a full on mega-parade in Pyongyang.  The main guys, especially the director, were a little off-putting, but it’s pretty amazing to see what footage they got.   3 stars. 

  Downton Abbey: Season One – If you like Korean dramas, this is must-see viewing. It’s as simple as that.  4 stars. 

  The Walking Dead: Season Two – Way to burn almost all my good will, AMC.  Season one was amazing.  Season two was annoying.  2 stars. 

  Luck – who cares.

  • 4:34 pm
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