Barbie
Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling

What to say about this meta-movie? It could have gone wrong in so many ways. As it is, it's imperfect and a little confusing (yes, a Barbie movie confusing) at times, but - overall - it's magical. Pure entertainment. Hat tip to director Greta Gerwig.

Entertainment with a message, but Entertainment with a capital "E" first and foremost.

The movie begins with a brilliant take-off of the 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith scene to introduce Barbie - a smiling Margot Robbie with looong legs - and then moves into BarbieLand, which is full of Barbies and Kens (and Alan and Midge...).

The movie takes shots at everyone: capitalism, the patriarchy, Barbie herself. Sure, she can be a doctor or astronaut . . . as long as you have a 26-inch waist and permanently arched feet.

It's made about $1.4 billion to date worldwide, and there's a lesson for Hollywood: Sure, have your sequels and comic-based films, but the public will flock to watch something different that's well made.

 - Originally reviewed: 12/29/2023, 2:35 pm

Crazy Rich Asians
Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh

This should have been called "Snobby Entitled Asians."

Really.

I watched this about three days ago, and the further I get from it, the more of a parody it seems.

A Rom-Com that had its moments (Awkwafina was her typical out-there character - and almost avoided the rom-com trap (you know how it's going to end about 15 minutes into the movie) - but just ...yuck. For the most part, the "crazy rich Asians" are a bunch of selfish, self-centered individuals.

While the movie addresses a lot - wealth divides, cultural issues (Chinese vs. Chinese American, for example) - there is no real weight to the resolution of these issues: Just a culture of excess.

I rented this because I thought it might just be a fun, dumb movie (think 27 Dresses), but nope.

Just a little gross. Was surprised.

 - Originally reviewed: 09/18/2023, 12:10 pm

The Outside Story
Stars Brian Tyree HenrySonequa Martin-GreenSunita Mani

Basically the story of an introverted guy -- almost agoraphobic -- who works at home as a video editor in his Brooklyn apartment. Long story short, he manages to lock himself out of his apartment, and so he has no choice but to get to know his neighbors: The piano prodigy who lives above him and her horrible mother, and a top-floor neighbor who is in the midst of a threesome with a couple from Oslo, a pregnant woman next door -- and an older woman who has recently lost her husband but wants to try out online dating.

Combine that with altercations with a prickly cop (Sunita Mani, from Mr. Robot) who writes parking tickets just to stick it to folks, and it's an interesting examination of life in a neighborhood.

I don't know where it was filmed, but it pretty much all takes place in Brooklyn (?) on a beautiful autumn day. Nice atmosphere.

Oscar material? Nah. Just good character actors in a slow-arced, not overly-complicated indie vibe film.

Glad I ran across it.

 - Originally reviewed: 08/10/2023, 7:39 pm

Good Night Oppy
Director/Writer: Ryan White

This 2022 Prime Video documentary isabout the twin Mars' landers that bounced (remember that touchdown technique?) on separate sides of the Red Planet in 2004: Spirit and Opportunity (Oppy).

Each rover had an expected duration of 90 days: Spirit lasted just over six years until wheel issues ended its mission.

And Oppy - the focus of this documentary - lasted almost 15 years! That's an endurance record that stands to this day.

The documentary is presented in an interesting format: It mixes live footage/photos, animations of how Oppy moved and what it saw on Mars, and contemporary interviews of the program's principals (many featured in the live footage from years ago). The interviews added some backstories that a normal live film and voice-over narration sometimes miss. Mad Oppy even "more human."

For space nerds only, this 1h 45m documentary is a good look back at the remarkable pair of rovers. It's not as polished as some science documentaries, but it's still a feel-good film of (mainly) Oppy, that plucky little rover that just kept going and going…

 - Originally reviewed: 12/16/2022, 8:04 pm

The People We Hate at the Wedding
Starring: Allison Janney, Kristen Bell, Ben Platt

Amazon Prime movie. Can I have my Prime money back?

This movie is a bad version of Love Actually meets Four Weddings and a Funeral. Mainly British, some Americans, vignettes that intersect.

The cast is great, the writing is good...but...

Confusing (lots of family issues/members to connect) at the beginning, and sorta over the top at the end(ish).

I applaud the effort to tie together - and accept - racial, gender, and marriage differences, but they seem to have bitten off more than they could chew.

Had promise!

 - Originally reviewed: 11/28/2022, 6:53 pm

The U.S. and the Holocaust
Ken Burns, 2022

Watched the most recent Ken Burns' documentary over the past couple of weekends on DVD (three discs, six hours). Searing, unsettling and - as usual - chock full of amazing photographs and movies, with a surprising number in color (still and video).

One of Burns' finest efforts.

One thing that I had not noticed about Burns' work before is the US-centric nature of his documentaries. I just hadn't really realized this before. Sure, much of his work is on American-centric issues: Baseball, Prohibition, The Civil War. But look at the title of this documentary: not The Holocaust, but The U.S. and the Holocaust.

The same is true for his other not specifically US documentaries: The War (WWII) and The Vietnam War. Each film includes background and the actions of other countries, but the emphasis is on what these events meant to Americans.

Interesting.

 - Originally reviewed: 10/25/2022, 6:40 pm

Funny People (2009)
Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan, Leslie Mann

After the first 20-30 minutes, I thought the movie should have been titled "Unfunny People."

Then there was a twist and I stuck with it ... and it was awful.

Let's put it this way: The responsible adult in the 2.5 hour snooze fest was a younger (27 years old) Seth Rogan. And he plays a young stand-up who leans into fart jokes.

And with a cast of a thousand cameos, mostly one-line of dialog by dozens of real-life comedians.

 - Originally reviewed: 10/10/2022, 3:48 pm

My Name Is Pauli Murray
Documentary of Pauli Murray

A documentary of a previously little known, self-described "queer Negro woman" whose life is getting more and more traction as the years go by, and - especially - as Supreme Court Justice Breyer has announced his imminent retirement (Jan. 2022) and President Biden has reaffirmed his commitment to putting a Black woman on the court.

Murray was a lawyer, activist, priest and poet who influenced both Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who was interviewed on-camera for the documentary) and Thurgood Marshall, among many others.

Murray - born in 1910 - was remarkably ahead of the times: She denounced segregation, embraced LGBT+ rights, decried gender inequality ("Jane Crow," in her words) and, in 1977, became the first African-American woman ordained as an Episcopal priest.

Her entire bio is a list of "firsts";: Sole female at Howard Law School (first in her class), first African American to receive a Doctor of Juridical Science degree from Yale Law School; co-founder of NOW (National Organization for Women). She's one of the most famous women you've never heard of - but that seems to be changing.


The documentary (2021) is well done, with most of the narration either by Murray or in her own words. It reminded me of a Ken Burns documentary, with a remarkable amount of archival material - photos, film and audio clips.

Well worth checking out. One of the things that stuck with me were the old pictures - probably from just before or after I was born (1959) with "Whites only" signs on buses, white/black entrance signs. What was/is wrong with us?

 - Originally reviewed: 01/28/2022, 6:59 pm

Hemingway
Ken Burns

Recently watched Ken Burns' latest documentary, Hemingway.

Like all Burns' (with Lynn Novick) ) work, this was meticulous, well done and had some incredible (old) photography, both stills and movies..

While Hemingway is one of my favorite authors, and Burns/Novick probably my favorite documentarians, this one just didn't do it for me. Mind you, well done and a deep dive on the controversial author, it seemed, surprisingly, empty. Don't exactly know why.

It's a three-part documentary (two hours for each segment:

• A Writer - learning his craft, working as a journalist, and becoming a very successful writer - first short stories, and then the early novels.


• The Avatar - A better name for this section should be "The Myth" - Hemingway was as much a myth as he was a writer: Big game hunter, traveler, consummate alcoholic, rubbing elbows with other famous writers, actors and - especially - other women.


• The Blank Page - The later years, the destructive behavior and the decline of his abilities, with some notable exceptions, the great A Moveable Feast (published posthumously).

The first part was my favorite; this era is when the Hemingway I like was doing his best work, and gathering experiences (ambulance driver in the First World War) that would help fuel future works.

The third part was interesting as it really showed how Hemingway's later life was - full of booze, erratic behavior, womanizing and so on. A lot of what was presented was new to me, and I've read a lot about Hemingway.

Burns/Novick are scheduled to come out with a Frank Lloyd Wright documentary in April 2021; high hopes for this one, as well. Hemingway and Wright are somewhat similar characters: both womanizers, 20th Century giants in their respective fields, and - especially - both held themselves in higher regard than others did.

 - Originally reviewed: 06/14/2021, 8:27 pm

One Thousand Acres
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jason Robards

Based in the Jane Smiley book, it's King Lear in Iowa farm country during the Carter Administration.

But the movie muddled the novel.

I read the book, and the gaps were hard to miss. What was done well - the daughters' relationships - was, again divorced from the book.

The book (the movie is rarely better) started well, stalled in the middle and then basically exploded (in a dark way) for the last 75 pages.

This movie - with great actors and some notable moments - might be better if one had never read the book.

Overall, disappointing. Not a bad movie, but nothing to recommend (the book? - read)

 - Originally reviewed: 04/05/2020, 5:12 pm

Mike Wallace Is Here
Starring: Mike Wallace

Released in January 2019, I watched this last weekend (Romy brought home from the library).

It was not what I expected, even though I had never heard of the documentary.

Wallace was one of the most famed - and feared - TV interviewers. I expected to hear stories of people who fled the building out the back door when Wallace and the 60 Minutes crew pounded on the front door and so on.

While it did touch on some of Wallace's big interviews/incidents - Ayatollah Khomeini, the General Westmoreland lawsuit, the stalled "insider" tobacco interview - it was more about Wallace himself.

How he got to the style he deployed ("a prick") through the beginnings of 60 Minutes to interviews of Wallace himself, often deflecting as irrelevant questions he had asked of others.

Again, not what I was expecting. Wallace doing his thing is, to me, much more interesting than trying to find out just who Mike Wallace is.

Not bad, but not good - disappointing.

 - Originally reviewed: 02/02/2020, 1:36 pm

Eighth Grade
Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson

I heard a lot about this movie, about how it accurately depicted an 8th grader's last week in school.

It was...just OK.

The lead actress - Elsie Fisher - was phenomenal. Zits and awkwardness and all.

But it just didn't work for me - she befriended a high school senior and they "hung out" together. Maybe girls do that, but - at that age - even a YEAR is a huge gap, much less four years.

But I'm not the audience - probably teen and tween girls (or women in general). I'm not that.

To me, not a BAD movie - and it had its moments - but nothing special.

Kind of disappointing.

 - Originally reviewed: 11/20/2019, 7:44 pm

Molly's Game
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner

Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut, and it's a nice - at times hard-to-follow - story, but ultimately not that compelling.

I guess part of the appeal of her - Molly Bloom's - story was that she wouldn't sell out her clients. Sort of like the D.C./Manhattan Madame(s). The whole "whodunit?" factor.

Beyond that, not much.

But I enjoyed the beginning, about the nexis between Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson, and how 4/10ths of a second can really make a difference - as in, choices, results have consequences. As they did for Bloom.

That resonated, and was probably pure Sorkin.

 - Originally reviewed: 07/23/2018, 8:31 pm

Loving Vincent
Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman (directors and writers)

A movie unlike any other - 65,000+ frames of oil paintings help tell the story of the life and death of the artist Vincent Van Gogh.

The backstory was an individual attempting to get Vincent's last letter to his brother (Theo) into the right hands - but it devolves into the circumstances surrounding Vincent's death (suicide/homicide?) and those who were close to him.

The backstory is all a way to present - in the most unique way possible - the art of Van Gogh and others: Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne... and other canvases that I'm too stoopid to recognize.

Very well done; the sound was a little muddy; but brilliant art. It's one of those things that one watches and says, "Obvious, but why didn't anyone do this before?"

The one odd thing about the film was that it's a 2017 movie - in 4:3 format. Perhaps to save some painting time (remember, 65k+ frames...), or - since it's a project out of eastern Europe, 16:9 is not the norm, so let's reach out to everybody. I dunno.

Very well done, and - again, so different (in a good way) - that it amazes.

 - Originally reviewed: 07/07/2018, 8:20 pm

The Post
Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg (director)

This was a movie that I expected: Solid, well acted but...but that's it.

I didn't realize that the Pentagon Papers were so close to the Washington Post (family owned) going public. That was new to me.

Who gets to play Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks here; Jason Robards in All the President's Men)?.

Yeah Robards wins.

A movie that tried to get the incestuous nature of the press and politics - and half did same.

Interesting.

 - Originally reviewed: 07/04/2018, 8:15 pm

Lady Bird
Starring: Greta Gerwig (director) Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf

A coming of age movie, with a decidedly female slant. Mother/daughter issues.

As a man, I was kinda left out of the loop - except that Lady Bird went to a Catholic high school - I went to a Catholic grade school (and there were "catholic" moments in the movie).

Brilliant movie - the best parts are the unremarkable parts, especially Lady Bird's interactions with her father, best friend, and - especially - her mom.

A touching - but not maudlin - tale of growing up, growing apart, and - finally realizing how you might want to re-bond.

It's also a well-photographed (signs etc.) love letter to the director's hometown of Sacramento, CA.

Goofy, poignant, real - this movie hits all those marks. This is Gerwig's first big directorial release (she also wrote the movie); I'm looking forward to big things from her in the future. Hey, no pressure...

 - Originally reviewed: 04/11/2018, 9:18 pm

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell

This is a sad, funny, disturbing, all-to-real movie.

It's a tragic-comedy, filled with real people who are imperfect, damaged and - in some cases - broken.

Brilliant acting, and a story that I only guessed one part of - and that was a red herring. Good writing.

Frances McDormand is both the Queen and anti-hero of this movie - she is profane, honest, unvarnished.

One of the better movies I've seen recently.

 - Originally reviewed: 03/27/2018, 8:13 pm

All the President's Men
Starring: Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards

We re-watched All the President's Men this weekend (12/2017). In just under a year of Trump (investigations, allegations, charges and guilty pleas), this seemed a good choice.

I haven't watched this movie in decades - came out in 1976, so I probably watched it first on VHS (DVDs first came out around 2000 or so).

The movie - all 139 minutes - holds up. It's a lot of doing the boring work of journalism - calling, confirming, squeezing people to get some fact ... yeah, sounds boring.

It is.

But the movie presents it all in a way that makes the mundane - in this case - seem compelling.

It succeeds.

The book is (obviously?) better, but if you've read the book (All The President's Men) or not, the movie still captures the essence of the book, which is, simply - we found something bad in government, reported same.

And - to a certain extent - changed history.

 - Originally reviewed: 12/18/2017, 8:25 pm

Arrival
Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

This movie was disappointing in that it got great reviews, but wasn't - to me - great.

Amy Adams was up for an Oscar nod (Best Actress) for this film (didn't happen), and I don't understand why. She's a solid actress - loved her in Julie and Julia and American Hustle - but here she was just adequate. Sorry to be harsh.

And Jeremy Renner as a theoretical physicist instead of a psychopath? Bad casting.

And the movie is, at best, adequate, as well. Many holes: why did the planned explosion happen???, what is the chamber with the aliens?, and the sorta sudden way the "language" of the interlopers was "understood" is - upon a single viewing - not clear.

Interesting premise; not the standard Sci-Fi, and it did have some issues one can debate after viewing (in particular, the timeline - the movie contains flash forwards and backwards??). That is fun.

Overall, not as good as I expected (based on reviews/word of mouth), the holes in the movie infuriate, but left one with "discussion points."

If you can keep talking about a movie after watching it: Victory!

 - Originally reviewed: 04/03/2017, 9:07 pm

Manchester By the Sea
Starring: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler

A very powerful, very real movie that...disappointed.

Great reviews, some great performances (Casey Affleck - Oscar Winner was good; Michelle Williams was better).

But, ultimately, meh.

Yes, great tale of love and loss, mistakes and regret and so on...but nothing that really tied it together.

I can see how the various characters were formed/changed/unable to adapt, but - frankly, I just didn't care. (On the movie level - the depths that many of the characters have sunk to invites compassion, understood.)

 - Originally reviewed: 04/03/2017, 8:44 pm

The Martian
Starring: Matt Damon, Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig

First off, excellent movie. Two hours and twenty minutes, and I didn't care. Got into the story.

Hard movie to classify -- comedy (no), drama (yes, mainly with comedic elements).

This was one of those movies where, "OK, let's watch this some people have said it's good" - but a really good movie.

Without spoilers - Matt Damon's character is left behind on Mars (yeah, the planet) because he's assumed dead.

He's not.

Survival/rescue ensues.

But very very well done about Damon's character, as well as those on the ground - tosses politics in, which ... is realistic.

Again, long movie, don't care....

 - Originally reviewed: 05/01/2016, 6:53 pm

Brooklyn
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters

In 1950 or so, a woman in Ireland who wants a better life for her sister arranges passage/job for sister in America - in Brooklyn.

The woman arrives, survives harrowing homesickness, and finds love.

And then there's a twist (no spoilers here!).

A very quiet, well-done movie. Saoirse Ronan deserved her Oscar nod for here role as Ellis, the small-town Irish girl thrown into the turmoil that is NYC.

No cars explode, no ships sink, no one is mysteriously murdered. Just a character study (of Saoirse Ronan's character), as well as a comparison/contrast between small-town Ireland and NYC.

Complaint: It was a little too quick for her to discover love (with an Italian), and - with the exception of an 8-year-old, really doesn't experience any discrimination that probably was the norm back then (either from Italians or Irish). Odd, but it's a movie. Have to pack a lot into less than a couple of hours (111 minutes; didn't seem that long).

Will I watch again? Probably not; it's not that type of movie.

But I'm glad I watched it this first time.

 - Originally reviewed: 04/30/2016, 5:41 pm

Spotlight
Starring: Liev Schreiber, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, John Slattery, Billy Crudup, Stanley Tucci

Based on a true story, how the Boston Globe (newspaper) uncovered and reported on priests' sexual abuse of, for the most part, children.

At more than two hours, a movie just telling a tale might seem like a snoozefest, but I didn't want it to end.

Extremely well done - this is a "Hollywood Movie" in the best sense - it's a weird tale that, you'd think, couldn't translate well to the screen.

But for all the ink-stained notebooks, phone calls and other dogged journalistic tools shown - it makes you believe in the process. And is compelling. And Boston is a Catholic City - makes the take down that much more painful/truthful.

 - Originally reviewed: 04/21/2016, 5:50 pm

The Big Short
Starring: Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Marisa Tomei, Melissa Chessington Leo, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell

Based on a true story, about a small group (unrelated) who realized that the housing market was going to implode - so they shorted it.

A little hard to follow financially (for me), but it was well done to keep the math to a minimum.

Very well done (esp. Bale), and it makes you angry about how this all - based on true events - happened, and how the douches who baked the whole scheme are still untouched: They made money; they avoided prosecution. Ah, yes - the American Dream.

And at the same time, the "little people" (underwater mortgages etc.) have been hurt.

 - Originally reviewed: 04/21/2016, 5:39 pm

Trainwreck
Starring: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Colin Quinn

I had low hopes for this flick - Schumer is the Queen of 2015 comedy - but....

Yeah, ROM-COM.

But done well. Not great, but funny.

It ended at expected, but took a slightly different road to get there, which was fun.

And LeBron James stole the show in his very limited screen time. Just perfect.

 - Originally reviewed: 02/10/2016, 7:54 pm

Birdman
Starring: Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts

Great LOOKING movie (filmed as one long shot), but - to me - meh.

Yes, there a lot of layers to this onion of a movie (Keaton, film superhero only lives when he's a celebrity; Norton is an actor who's real life is only when he's on the stage...), but just not that great.

Emma Stone - Micheal Keaton's daughter in the film - got an Oscar nod for this. Why (and I like Stone)? Keaton got a nod, but ... OK.

This is a film for film aficionados, and that's fine, but it's not that memorable a movie.

The ending - no spoilers here - is interesting: Open-ended. Frustrating and fun.

 - Originally reviewed: 12/13/2015, 5:11 pm

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Starring: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Costner, Peter Andersson

Let's call this a "prequel" to the Tom Clancy novels-to-movies franchise -Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games - and so on.

It shows how Jack Ryan got into the CIA; OK, that works.

It shows how Jack Ryan met and eventually wedded his doctor wife. Nah, doesn't work. Anne Archer works as his doctor wife in the later (chronologically) movies; I just can't see Keira Knightley as a doctor in this flick.

Oddly, Kevin Kostner works in this movie - he's kind of the James Earl Jones character (Navy/CIA).

NOT as good as any other Tom Clancy-based movies, but not bad. Watchable. Not repeat watchable.

 - Originally reviewed: 04/16/2015, 7:56 pm

Bourne Legacy
Starring: Albert Finney, Edward Norton, Jeremy Renner, Joan Allen, Rachel Weisz

Another of those movies that look good in the trailer, but the trailer has all the "good" parts.

Given the star power in this film, it's a sad waste of talent.

This is just an attempt to do another Bourne movie, but without Matt Damon. Pretty flat, to me.

And the movie allegedly stars Albert Finney & Joan Allen - the former is in a YouTube video in the movie; Allen has literally 2/3 lines (questioned by reporters as she gets in car). I'm guessing these were outtakes from "The Bourne Ultimatum" just cut into the film.

Weakest Bourne movie of the (to date) four, by far.

 - Originally reviewed: 04/16/2015, 5:59 pm

Blue Jasmine
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin, Andrew Dice Clay, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C. K., , Peter Sarsgaard,

Flashback filled, this tells the story of two sisters (both adopted) - Blanchett and Hawkins - who have had very different lives.

It's a story of entitlement, wealth, examination of "what matters" and more.

Blanchett won an Oscar for this performance, and it seems well deserved. She plays a high-society wife, scorned wife, clueless divorcee and more with grace and painful humanness.

It's a Woody Allen movie, but a bit different from his stock movies - but well done, with an ending that many may find incomplete: But sometimes that's the way things go.

Huge surprise - Andrew Dice Clay was in this movie, and he was actually pretty good. The same role (Blanchett's former brother-in-law) could have gone to many (kind of a "blue-collar loser" stereotype role), but Dice Clay performed well. Credit where credit is due.

 - Originally reviewed: 03/01/2015, 5:20 pm

Obvious Child
Starring: Mainly, Jenny Slate

Very much not a mainstream Hollywood film, yet polished and with some non-indie actors.

Donna (Slate) is dumped by her boyfriend, hooks up with a (not her type) guy, and..gets preggers.

Not a Rom-Com (though, at times, I feared it was running that way....).

A good - funny - movie about what it's like to be single in New York City (or pretty much anywhere else). And you're income is ... day to day.

It was REAL - what it's like to be in that position, what will parents, friends think...this is real, how can I possibly support this life? and so on.

Well done.

I - an old male fart - enjoyed this.

Women of a much younger age might well appreciate it even more.

 - Originally reviewed: 02/08/2015, 9:07 pm

Her
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson (voice)

Very interesting movie - set sometime in the future - a man (Phoenix) on the cusp of a divorce finds love with a software program - an assistant (Johansson).

His relationship with the program follows - with some interesting twists - the path his broken marriage has/had taken. First date mentality, getting to know each other more, sex drops off after the Honeymoon period and so on.

And this is juxtaposed with a real first date - with Olivia Wilde - that is a counterpoint for his "dating" his virtual assistant.

Lot going on - Spike Jonze, the writer and director - has left us with a lot of questions in this movie. And that's good!

One of the reasons that I wanted to see this is to see if they got the tech correct - some home runs, some wiffs (why do you need a key for your mailbox?). Overall, pretty spot on - if one ignores the whole battery issue. (In this movie, devices last forever - no charging).

One other note: The women in this movie - Adams, Wilde - are remarkably make-up free. I guess that's the nod to "in the cloud" events: Reality is more than the specific event/presence.

 - Originally reviewed: 02/08/2015, 5:19 pm

The Lego Movie
Voices: Frankly, everyone

Fun, smart, silly movie.

A CGI-animated film that is designed to look like a film created by stop-action Lego blocks. Really.

Nice story within the story, as well.

And nods to all sorts of literature and movies: 1984, The Matrix, Ghostbusters, Star Wars...I really had no desire to see this, but I'm certainly glad I did. I'll have to see it again sometime, just to try to catch some of the things going on at the edges. There seemed to be a lot of that, like in Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas."

Watch the credits, and yes, well done. (Actually IS stop-action animation of Legos - took almost a year to make.)

Believe me: "Everything is Awesome."

 - Originally reviewed: 12/24/2014, 9:39 pm

The Fault In Our Stars
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe

Rom-sob - Teen(s) sick, gunna die...

But well done - and yes, there is a twist.

Whatev.

I liked - and would recommend - but will I revisit? Nah. Will tweens (esp. women) re-watch? Yeppers. Hot guy, empowered woman.

Overall, good watch. Some fun wordplay in the dialog - it's mainly a movie about relationships, so not big on special effects. Words - and Woodley's & Elgort's performances - make this movie.

One complaint - I found Willem Dafoe oddly miscast. He has a small - but pivotal - part, as a washed-up writer important to Woodley's character. It's so small, he never really gets you buy into his character, you just watch him and think "Hey, that's Willem Dafoe!".

 - Originally reviewed: 11/29/2014, 9:55 pm

Planes, Trains and Autombiles
Steve Martin, John Candy

Somewhat sophmoric in the genre of Animal House, vs. some of Steve Martin's other more intelligent movies, such as L.A. story, this is still worth watching at some point of your life.

Starring Martin and John Candy (OK, that explains the sophmoric feel...), it's got some great sight gags (the all but not-a-car rental car) and some holiday travel trueisms (everyone in a hurry; everyone want's to be waited on now).

Great movie? No. Worth renting or buying for occassional viewing? Absolutely (I just purchased this some time again, but just now gotten around to re-watching it. Which is fine).

 - Originally reviewed: 11/24/2014, 9:39 pm

12 Years a Slave
Starring: Chjwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o

Visceral. No other good word.

Based on a true story of a free man in New York who is sold into slavery in pre-Civil War America.

Painful, brutal, inhumane and probably highly accurate.

Best Picture of 2014, and I concur (I missed a couple, saw most this year).

Hard to watch - it really doesn't make almost anyone look good. Obviously this goes for the slave traders, plantation owners and overseers. But this also includes the slaves, who turn blind eyes to all manners of injustice and immorality. Yes, this is in an effort to survive, but still depressing.

 - Originally reviewed: 11/22/2014, 6:36 pm

American Hustle
Starring: Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner

Synopsis: Two small-time grifters run afoul of an aggressive FBI agent. To minimize their potential penalty, they agree to help the FBI pull down bigger fish.

And then everyone gets in over their heads...

Oh - and Jennifer Lawrence is the crazy estranged wife who believes she is controlling everything...while she is blowing everything up.

Great 70's style (explosion at the wig factory!!), slow start but amazing ending.

Not what I was expecting, but totally worth a watch. Great performances by all, but Lawrence and Bale (Lawrence is Bale's estranged wife) really shine.

 - Originally reviewed: 08/11/2014, 8:35 pm

Lincoln
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis and just about everyone else in Hollywood

This Steven Spielberg film depicts the waning days of the Civil War, and Lincoln's effort to both end the conflict and bring Congress on board with the 13th amendment, which would codify what the president's Emancipation Proclamation had declared (ending slavery).

I had heard that his movie was about a president who was willing to negotiate with his opposition party in Congress. While true, I saw the film depicting more as a moral issue for Lincoln, who was unsure of the historical legality of his proclamation (which is just an executive order) and wanted to make certain that slavery was ended once and for all. To Lincoln, this was the time, it was the right thing to do, and he'd do anything to get everyone on board (including bribery etc) - his own presidency be damned.

It was a very good movie, with a great performance by Day-Lewis (for which he won his third best actor Oscar), but not the movie I was expecting. Which isn't a bad thing.

Will I watch it again (always a good test)?

Probably, but not for some time and not frequently. But definitely worth a first watch.

 - Originally reviewed: 06/22/2013, 10:22 am

We Need to Talk About Kevin
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, John C. Reilly

This is a story - told in disjointed flashbacks - about the bond that never was formed between a mother (Swinton) and her son, Kevin (played by three actors; Miller is the high schooler).

As shown, it's a troubled relationship, with Swinton resenting the boy for taking away her life of traveling and just living; and the boy - even at a very early age - sensing that resentment and giving in back to her as pure hatred.

It's a nuanced hate, however - in front the the father (Reilly, in a small role), Kevin is all smiles and "thanks!" - but alone with the mother it's just insidious.

Without giving too much away, Kevin ends up destroying the lives of many, including his own and the rest of his family. Swinton is inconsolable, a veritable zombie of her former self (which, once the baby was born, wasn't much).

Romy didn't like the movie in that a child that damaged could not function well in school and so on. But I see the movie as how Swinton's character sees the past, focuses on the bad things Kevin had done to hurt her. This is both self-flagellation and a coping mechanism: See how bad he was? It wasn't just that I was a bad mother!

I liked it - don't want to see it again anytime soon, but it was a challenging movie, one that made you work to make sense of what was going on. That's exhausing after awhile, but it's nice to see such a movie occasionally.

Filmed well, too: The use of red, the barren nature of the house they lived in - they were there 16 or so years and it looks like they just moved in.

And Swinton - as always - is captivating. Just one look at her and you can palpably feel the level of her exhaustion with life.

 - Originally reviewed: 03/30/2013, 9:27 am

Mean Girls
Starring: Tina Fey, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Neil Flynn, Amanda Seyfried

Like Clueless, this movie is a not great but a touchstone pic.

I'm not the target audience of the movie - for tween females, I'd guess - but it's still a sorta stupid but fun movie.

Formula movie - in this case, high school boy meets girl/girls bond[not] with others - that exceeds the formula.

Written by Tina Fey; any questions?

 - Originally reviewed: 01/29/2013, 8:29 pm

Legends of the Fall
Starring: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond

Second time around on this movie; I think I liked it better this time.

A story of family, loss, guilt (Pitt is unable to prevent his younger brother from dying in WW!) and how circumstances change everything.

Julia Ormond comes to the Montana ranch of a father (Hopkins) and his three sons (Pitt, Quinn and Henry Thomas). She is to marry the youngest (Thomas) but he goes off to war before they are wed. With Thomas gone, both Pitt and Quinn are attracted to the woman, both for different reasons.

Hard to really sum up the book in a short review like this; there is so much going on that is not said.

Beautifully photographed (outside of Calgery, CA, just east of the Rockies). It's worth a watch for that alone.

 - Originally reviewed: 12/31/2012, 9:54 am

Lawless
Starring: Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce, Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Jessica Chastain

A story about Moonshiners in Appalachia before/after Prohibition, this was a (sadly) pretty boring movie.

Yes, there's the one holdout, the crooked government official (Guy Pearce, in a very androgynous role) and so on and so on.

Just not that much fun.

The soundtrack - on the other hand - is great. Movie? Not so much.

But - Jessica Chastain, as Rose(?) - is remarkable. Small, understated but powerful performance.

 - Originally reviewed: 12/09/2012, 8:26 pm

Too Big to Fail
Starring: (everyone)

Let's get beyond the obvious: This made-for-TV (HBO) is filled with stars. Amazing.

But what's more amazing is that the story is very well told - another movie about the housing, subprime, derivative or whatever meltdown of 2008. Bottom line, no one saw this coming.

Not the companies that would be bailed out (AIG, for example).

Not the companies that were allowed to fail (Lehman Brothers).

Not the government entities/personnel that we all entrusted to, uh, make sure stuff like this didn't happen.

While I don't disagree with the decisions Paulson - and others - made in real life (I don't necessarily like some, but sometimes there's only a bad choice and a really bad choice...), but this movie - to me - highlights that the choices were made because the hand was off the tiller for so long. It could be due to deregulation of financial firms (signed under Clinton; championed by the right), of which Paulson was a big part. Or it could be due to, well, people are idiots. Why would real estate drop? Nah...

Good movie; I can't vouch for the veracity of its contents. If even close to the truth, well, be very afraid.

 - Originally reviewed: 08/05/2012, 8:42 pm

Young Adult
Starring: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson

This is the movie I was expecting - an essentially dark movie with a veneer or comedy - but it disappointed. It just wasn't as good as I had expected.

I had higher hope for it as it once again brought together director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody, who collaborated to such success with Juno.

This was no Juno.

It was a good movie in that the character development of Charlize Theron had a nice arc, and you could - eventually - see how she ended up where she was today: Essentially, she never left the glories of high school even though she's in her 30s.

Patton is in a similar situation, but his lot in life was set when he was a geek in high school, and - without giving anything away - this led to events that really leave him with few options other than to continue to be the sad outsider.

The ending is ambiguous, and I like that - does Theron's character grow up, or does she continue to circle the drain even faster? Can't really say.

 - Originally reviewed: 04/26/2012, 1:46 pm

Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times
Director: Andrew Rossi

The title pretty much outlines the documentary, but found this to be a very strong film about journalism, particularly in the face of online media.

The documentary - to me - tries to make the case for traditional, dead-trees journalism. And it succeeds, to a degree.

Beyond the portrayal of NYT journalists trying hard to be truthful (and it showed the good and bad side of same), it never really knocked new media (online) off its perch as the heir apparent. Yet it did show the good - hard - work done by papers such as the NYT to get stuff right, and how little Gawker.com does same. Interesting.

At the end of the day, I still think newspapers, CDs and DVDs are doomed to digital. Books, I believe, may survive in some marginal capacity (kids' books? - but look at what the [x]Pads can do today - imagine tomorrow!).

Brave new world my friend, and this documentary is a good look at the world that is going away, however painful that is to many.

2/15/2015 update: Re-watched today (after the tragic death of NYT's media columnist David Carr) - great documentary.

 - Originally reviewed: 04/08/2012, 7:41 pm

Singles
Starring: Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Matt Dillon

This Cameron Crowe-directed film has, of course, a lot of great music (not as good as Almost Famous) and an incredible cast.

It's been 20 years since its release, and I just watched it for the first time this past weekend. Worth watching.

Not a great movie, but fun - about the lives of a bunch of 20-somethings living in Seattle. Talking, falling in and out of love/lust and so on. I kept thinking of "Friends" watching this. I swear it must be an influence for the TV series.

I've been to Seattle a couple of times, so the location shots were fun, and the general tone of the movie made it a nice - but not remarkable - watch.

I'll recommend this flick, but not push too hard on same.

 - Originally reviewed: 04/03/2012, 6:08 pm

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The
Starring: Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig

Based on the book by the same name, an investigation into the disappearance of a niece of a Swedish industrialist throws an investigative reporter (Craig) together with a hacker/goth misfit (Mara).

It's an odd mix, but no where near as odd as the family of the industrialist (Christopher Plummer), all of whom have skeletons in the closet and all of whom are suspects.

Mara steals the movie - as a 23-year-old ward of the state, she has endured mishandling, shall we say, in the past and it continues to the present. She is much older than her age, and the way she interacts with those in world around her is a decided departure from normalcy.

This could almost have been four or five movies - there's that much going on. I really enjoyed this, and now I'm looking forward to the second part of the trilogy, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest."

 - Originally reviewed: 03/25/2012, 2:33 pm

Moneyball
Starring: Brad Pitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jonah Hill

I heard a lot of good things about this movies, but I found it just "entertaining" and no more.

It was probably hard to pull a movie out the (Michael Lewis - of "The Blind Side") book, and - to me - they didn't succeed that well.

I like baseball, I like Brad Pitt and so on, but this was never anything more that just kind of fun.

I remember reading a review of the book when there was talk of a movie about the book, and that - the article - was fascinating, describing in more detail than is possible on film what the Oakland A's did to have the tremendous year it had.

This did change baseball, a point made in the movie, but still rang a little Hollywood, rather than inside baseball.

 - Originally reviewed: 02/05/2012, 2:27 pm

Ides of March
Starring: George Clooney, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Ryan Gosling

A taut, campaign-trail thriller, the plot is the main star - it keeps you guessing as to motives and what direction it's going.

And saying the plot is the star is high praise, considering all the stars in this movie, most of whom deliver compelling performances.

A deeply cynical movie, showing politics for what it probably is: Where one does and says anything to get elected. Things happen, people get hurt, but the campaign just rolls over these minor inconveniences and steams on to hopeful victory.

And all but the candidate are interchangeable. One intern/campaign honcho leaves, another just slides into the slot.

Apt title, for just about everyone in the movie gets stabbed in the back at some point during the film. Et tu, Brutus?

 - Originally reviewed: 02/05/2012, 2:19 pm

The Lovely Bones
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci

This movie, based on the book by the same name by Alice Seybold, begins as the book does, with narration by the protagonist: "My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."

Whoa - we're in for a feel-good movie!

I have not (yet) read the book, but I knew the subject matter and was a little hesitant to pick it up, but whatever. Give it a shot.

I thought it was great. It's an almost non-linear book, and one told from two points of view: From her perch in (almost) heaven, and from those she has left behind (family, friends and her killer).

Susan Sarandon, who plays Susie's grandmother, gives a great performance in very little screen time. That said, I didn't quite get the anguish of her father - Wahlberg - from his performance that reflected his character's intensity/anguish as Susie's narration outlined. He was OK, but nothing great.

Tucci, playing a pedophile, was his usual brilliant. Pedophile, hit man (The Pelican Brief), gay fashion designer (The Devil Wears Prada), statesman and solid husband (Julie and Julia) - this guy can act!

It'll be interesting to see how it compares to the book - the movie, directed by Peter Jackson, has a lot of Lord of the Rings type fantasy sequences. I'm guessing fans of the book will say Jackson went with CGI at the expense of more character interaction - which, who knows, might be true - but the 2-hour+ movie was very satisfying to me, despite the distasteful subject matter.

And the girl - she is only 18 years old this year - who played Susie (Saoirse Ronan) was great. Very believable and vulnerable yet - at the same time - strong and wise beyond her years.

Glad I picked it up.

 - Originally reviewed: 01/29/2012, 12:48 pm

Once
Starring: Marketa Irglova, Glen Hansard

This movie is a love story - boy meets girl etc.

But it's not a traditional Hollywood love story. It's a story about love of music.

A very quirky, low-key, surprising arc of boy meets girl and what happens after that - I don't want to give up too much.

This is the second time I've seen this movie; since it was so unconventional, the first time was much better, but I still enjoyed it.

 - Originally reviewed: 01/16/2012, 11:08 am

Biutiful
Starring: Javier Bardem

What's this movie about?

Based in Barcelona, Spain, it's about life, love and loss - and the brutal consequences of action/inaction.

Bardem - in an incredibly understated role (even for him)- is the father of two children. He's basically a human trafficker, poor, paying off the police...yet he still has legal custody of his children from his wife. So, she's a mess...and a factor in the movie.

This is an art-house movie (with subtitles, warning!!!), but good on so many levels.

And weird/unexplained on so many levels. Is he the human trafficker with the heart of gold? Can he really communicate with the dead? What is the resolution to it all?

One of those movies that sticks with you, makes you wonder what this or that means. Very very good.

 - Originally reviewed: 11/13/2011, 9:53 pm

Ratatouille
Voiced by: Patton Oswalt, Peter O'Toole and others

A Pixar film, probably the weakest of the franchise - and I didn't like The Incredibles, so it's not like the animation aways carries the movie.

That said, the animation was just incredible. What they can do with really difficult objects - water, raindrops, hair, fire - is just incredible. But the story was weak.

Basically, a rat wants to be a cook and - long story - teams up with a loser in a fancy Paris restaurant and makes this loser a famous cook (and he gets the girl, too, of course).

The villain in the movie - the food critic - was right out of Despicable Me, and the supporting characters just weren't that interesting.

Also, the movie clocked in at almost two hours - that's long for a movie a lot of kids will want to watch.

 - Originally reviewed: 11/01/2011, 12:13 pm

Fair Game
Starring: Naomi Watts, Sean Penn

This is the true story - but not a documentary - about how/why members of the Bush administration outted a covert CIA operative, Valerie Plame (Watts).

According to the movie, this act was in retribution for the opt-ed Plame's husband, Joe Wilson (Penn), wrote contradicting key facts laid out by the Bush administration to justify going to war in Iraq.

The movie was well done, but nothing really remarkable beyond being reminded about how cavalier the decision to go into Iraq seems to have been. And the pettiness for striking back at Wilson by undermining his wife. According to the movie, this outting put lives at risk. Whether that's true or not is probably classified, but still, it's a distinct possibility.

It spins the Bush White House as an administration as fraudulent, child-like and paranoid as Nixon's. And that's not a compliment.

 - Originally reviewed: 11/01/2011, 12:06 pm

Bridesmaids
Starring: Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig

This had such promise - hey, the female version of The Hangover.

Nope: it sucked.

Sorry.

Had its moments, but not funny, not worth blogging about and so on.

I'm a guy, who watched same with a woman.

Both agree. Ick.

 - Originally reviewed: 10/25/2011, 9:45 pm

Adjustment Bureau, The
Starring: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt

Star-crossed lovers meet The Matrix, this movie was better than expected.

Damon is a politician; Blunt a ballerina. They meet - fleetingly - and there's an indelible bond. A few years later, their paths again cross, and they pretty much fall in love.

But that's not part of "The Plan," and so the members of The Adjustment Bureau (angels, a force, minions of some deity refered to as "The Chairmen" - whatever) try to pry them apart.

Cat and mouse, all through New York City, from the Brooklyn Bridge through Yankee Stadium to the Statue of Liberty.

Not a great film, but a fun flick that plays with your mind. Nice diversion.

 - Originally reviewed: 10/03/2011, 10:43 am

Julie & Julia
Starring: Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Meryl Streep

A cubicle-dweller (Julie) working in Manhattan (post-9/11) decides to cook all Julia Child's recipes in a year, and blog about the same.

A little too long (two hours +), but a fun movie. The cuts between Streep in Paris etc and Adams in Queens was annoying, but worked (much like Alison Lurie's Foreign Affairs). You'd just get invested in the one character, and then it'd cut to the other...and then you'd get invested in same...etc...etc.

Based on two true stories, I wish it had more about Julia Child - I know of her, but not much else.

Not great, but worth watching. Fun. And Streep nails Child. Damn she is good!

 - Originally reviewed: 09/24/2011, 10:29 pm

Blue Valentine
Starring: Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling

This is a very difficult to watch movie about a couple falling in and - ultimately - out of love.

Williams is a smart, driven woman who wants to be a doctor. Gosling is just drifting along. They meet, marry and after a six or so years things just fall apart.

Williams' character (Cindy) is - after marriage and child - still driven; Gosling's character (Dean) is just happy being a husband and a dad. Ebert has a great line about this dynamic in his review of the movie: "Dean thinks marriage is the station. Cindy thought it was the train."

Brilliant synopsis.

Told with a series of flashbacks, some of which require one to read between the lines - it's a tough watch. Well made, well acted - especially by Williams. But you just don't want to watch what happens. It's too painful; too real.

The one thing I didn't get from the film was how Cindy always thought - up to the end - that Dean had such potential, that he could do anything. I didn't see anything to suggest that.

 - Originally reviewed: 08/20/2011, 3:47 pm

Love Actually
Starring: Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Laura Linney, Alan Rickman and many more

As the title says, this smart little film follows several intertwining thread (some lightly; some deeply) of love at some level: Unrequited love, has the spark gone love, crazy love, lustful love, love that will never be consummated.

Populated with many well-know stars, this movie moves at a brisk pace and offers some real insights into how hard love is.

This is a light movie - this isn't art, and it doesn't try to be. I just takes a sometimes serious (infidelity?) and sometimes light (Milwaukee is Babe Land?) look at the this thing called love.

Great soundtrack, as well.

 - Originally reviewed: 08/20/2011, 3:36 pm

Revolutionary Road
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet

Set in the mid-1950s, this tale of suburban life is an examination of what is success, of what is happiness.

DiCaprio is seduced by money and the trappings of success: house in the burbs, two kids, the occasional nookie with a younger co-worker. He hates his job, but he's oddly content.

Winslet, his wife, wants to make a change, to try something different that'll potentially make them all happy - more for DiCaprio's sake than her own. In the end, Winslet's quiet desperation leads to changes that other characters are unwilling to even address.

Very intelligent, very depressing. I'm not a fan of DiCaprio (he was good in "Aviator" and "The Departed"), but he works here. And Winslet - with two heroic performance in 2009 (the other won her an Oscar for "The Reader") - is cementing her status as one of the best actresses of her generation.

 - Originally reviewed: 08/02/2011, 5:09 pm

Sideways
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh

With Church's wedding coming up, the divorced Giamatti - a vinophile - decides to take the groom-to-be for a tour of the wine country in Southern California.

However, once the trip begins, it's apparent that Church has a very different idea of what this last getaway will entail. He just wants to party; Giamatti just wants to drink.

Church is the guy who really doesn't have a lot going for him - he's an ex-soap actor who is now reduced to doing commercial voice-overs. Yet he always lands on his feet - he's coated in Teflon.

Giamatti the the exact opposite: An English teacher pretending to be a writer (who can't get his book published), divorced, he is really just a wine lover to give himself an excuse to drink. He stops by to visit his mother just so he can steal money from her.

I re-watched Sideways this weekend, and I remembered it as funnier. It does have some great comedic moments, but overall this is a very sad movie.

In one of the best scenes in the movies, Giamatti explains to Madsen why he loves pinot noir, and as he discusses the grape etc, you realize he's not talking about the wine/grape, he's talking about himself. Very poignant.

 - Originally reviewed: 07/18/2011, 11:59 am

Black Swan
Starring: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis

Wow. One weird little film.

Natalie Portman is the ballerina who wants perfection. Her mom - Barbara Hersey - is living her life through Portman's. Very unconventional mother/daughter relationship.

What is real - and what is not real - both in the movie and to viewer is essential to the film. At end, what really happened?

Portman gives an Oscar-worthy performance as the woman-child who slowly dissolves under the pressure of the "White/Black Swan."

 - Originally reviewed: 07/03/2011, 8:53 pm

Absolute Power
Starring, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood

I just re-watched this film for the fourth or fifth time: Just a very watchable movie.

At bottom, a movie (from a novel) about trust, relationships and family. And doing the right thing.

But layered on top of this is a murder mystery (known to the viewer, but not the police), political intrigue, a master thief (Eastwood) and the latter's very tenuous relationship with his daughter (the always totally believable Laura Linny).

More sentimental than Eastwood's earlier work, this is more in tone with Gran Torino and True Crime.

Lot of star power in this movie as well - Gene Hackman, Judy Davis and Ed Harris, to mention just a few.

 - Originally reviewed: 06/18/2011, 4:22 pm

Messenger, The
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Ben Foster

I'm not even certain what this movie was meant to mean, but it moved me.

The movie was - at base - about the individuals (Harrelson/Foster) who notify the next of kin (NIK) about the death of their soldier son/husband/etc.

I don't know; I'd rather be in Iraq being shot at than having to - day after day - deliver this news to the relatives of those who were shot at and not missed. And - of course - the relatives of soldiers who open the door and see the two officers...these relatives already know what the news is (but emotionally refuse to process same; completely understandable).

And the movie showed the cost on the messengers - this should require battle pay. Hard to watch at parts, and is was FICTION.

This is not the movie I expected; it still stuck with me. Harrelson, especially, is brilliant here.

It's not an anti-war movie, but it does bring down to the human, day-to-day level, the cost of war. Powerful; complex.

 - Originally reviewed: 06/05/2011, 8:50 pm

Station Agent, The
Starring: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale

This is a quirky little movie from 2003 that I always meant to see, but just now yesterday got around to viewing.

This is a very quiet movie, about (mainly) three broken people - Dinklage, a dwarf; Clarkson, who lost a son; and Cannavale, who is destined to spend the rest of his life driving his ill father's food truck. Somehow, they - and some other miscellaneous oddball characters - bond.

Again - this is a very quiet film, where dialog is used only to help the viewer read between the lines. The dialog and actions seemed very real.

Took me awhile to get to this, but it was worth the wait.

 - Originally reviewed: 05/31/2011, 4:03 pm

Waiting for Superman
Davis Guggenheim, Director and co-writer

This documentary stakes a basic premise - that for all the problems the US's public schools have, they are fixable, and the solution is to have great, high-paid teachers.

The teacher's union, however, clings to the past and wants to remain the same - meaning most teachers get tenure after two years. So even if they are terrible teachers, they stay.

And the kids suffer.

While the movie did speak to parents getting involved with their kid's schoolwork and so on, that was the main take-away.

It'd be interesting to have discussion about this with a teacher. Get the other side of the story - because the movie did show charter schools that didn't have union contracts (or different ones; not sure) that allowed a bad teacher to be replaced. So it's not like this is just a theory; there are schools in poor areas like Harlem that are turning out huge number of college-bound graduates.

Very interesting flick; almost two hours long and I really didn't want it to end. Watch; discuss; do something about it.

 - Originally reviewed: 05/28/2011, 3:10 pm

Despicable Me
Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin, directors

This is a strange little animated movie that is not great, but it just works.

Highly formulaic story line (bad guy brought back from the dark side by cute little kids - trust me, I've spoiled nothing), but is saved by wonderful animation, unbelievably imaginative characters and attention to detail.

The weapons used in this movie would make Wiley Coyote salivate - from freeze guns to squid shooters, and rockets galore.

This is a "rent it" movie. Good fun for all ages, but not something I'll return to again (as I will with just about any Pixar title).

 - Originally reviewed: 03/27/2011, 4:47 pm

Social Network, The
Aaron Sorkin, adapted screenplay

This was definitely a Sorkin movie - the shotgun dialogue - but the director (David Fincher) really made the movie with interesting choices of cinematography and the non-linear plot (although that could have been Sorkin, as well).

I know of Facebook and some of the backstory, but I'm not really in a position to say how accurate it was. The tech parts were, for the most part, spot on (except that Zuckerberg had an AT keyboard. I don't think so...).

Good watch, but not something I'll watch again any time soon, if at all. I've seen it. That's that.

 - Originally reviewed: 01/29/2011, 5:08 pm

Run Lola Run
Starring: Franka Potente

This is just what the title says: Lola (Potente) running.

A German film, it won the audience award at Sundance in 1999.

Basic outline of movie: Lola gets a call from loser of a boyfriend; he's screwed up and - unless he can come up with a lot of money in 20 minutes, he'll probably be killed. Lola promises to get to him - with the cash (somehow) - in that time period.

Most of the movies is Lola running through the streets, trying to fashion a plan. She runs a LOT.

There are three sequences, all beginning the same (the phone call and her running out of their apartment). Yet each of the three sequences have very slight differences, and those differences make all the difference in the world to Lola and those close to her.

Oddball, artsy film. Not one you'll watch time and again, but I enjoyed.

 - Originally reviewed: 12/26/2010, 4:51 pm

Whip It
Director, Drew Barrymore

A somewhat formulaic film (rebellious teenager going against parent's wishes/winning them over in the end) is saved by some low-key performances by many of the key performers.

Ellen Page - always great - stars in this film about a high school student trapped in a "nothing" town outside Austin, TX, whose mom puts her on the Beauty Pageant circuit, while Page gets interested in the somewhat underground roller derby scene in Austin.

Not a great movie, but very watchable. I think the movie - based on a book of the same title - left out much and made some of the situations somewhat "huh?" (ex: her best friend was accepted at very good colleges; never got that she was bright from the film). I think the screenplay/editing could have been done better.

Rent. Don't buy. But Page is a force with which to be reckoned....

 - Originally reviewed: 11/06/2010, 10:10 pm

Up
Voices: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, John Ratzenberger

Similar to Wall-E, this is a two-part movie. Except in Up, the first part is very brief and very touching - describing how a married couple met (as children), lived their lives up through the death of the wife.

The husband (Asner) decides to take the adventure he and his wife had always wanted; this is complicated by the addition of a scout, a talking dog (long story) and a giant bird. Oh - and a flying house.

Brilliant animation (as usual for Pixar) and a good story. Not my favorite Pixar film (probably the first Toy Story), but I'll probably pop the DVD in occasionally just to watch Part I.

 - Originally reviewed: 10/31/2010, 8:46 pm

Up In the Air
Starring: Vera Farmiga, George Clooney, Anna Kendrick

I watched this - for the second time - this weekend, and I enjoyed as much as the first time.

Directed by Jason Reitman ("Thank You for Smoking," "Juno"), this is a low-key funny film that's not a comedy.

Clooney is a road-warrior who travels to fire people (how apropos in our current job market) and is not a "people person." He meets his female equal - Farmiga - and things get interesting.

Without giving away much, he changes(?) over the course of the flick. But it's not false - done well.

Very well done. The second time around was better than the first (I got the "loyalty" issue).

NOTE: Reitman actually cast some folks who had been fired to play the fired folks, and encouraged them to ad lib their responses. Interesting.

 - Originally reviewed: 10/26/2010, 8:46 pm

Ghost Writer, The
Director, Roman Polanski

I've mixed opinions about this film - It's extremely well done (duh - Roman Polanski), I enjoyed, but I have no desire to see it again.

And the shot that Ebert gushed over - the passing of the note (doesn't matter if you haven't seen it): When it began, I said to Romy "He's trying to get artsy!"

But it was a nicely understated film with a couple of twists. Great cast, and I loved that the lead character (Ewan McGregor) has no name - he's "the ghost[writer]." Nice touch.

 - Originally reviewed: 08/31/2010, 9:27 pm

Green Zone
Starring: Matt Damon

Another "Why are we at war in the Middle East" films, this is about a squad in Iraq detailed to find the WMDs that are spelled out in intelligence docs...but are not there.

Based on a true story; still left slanted. Whatever.

Just wasn't that good a movie. I like Matt Damon, and he was good here. But that's not enough.

Like "The Hurt Locker" (which I still think is overrated but, crap, give any of those soldiers over there whatever they want. Not pretty...), it showed how crazy it is for the US to be in the Middle East - and for the most part - the US doesn't "get" the Middle East.

Bottom Line: I'll never watch again nor recommend. Questions?

 - Originally reviewed: 08/19/2010, 9:11 pm

Memento
Director, Christopher Nolan

Guy Pearce stars in - and is riveting in - this movie that just messes with your mind.

Displayed in reverse chronology; the story (at one level) of a man (Pearce) out to get the killer of his wife.

Pearce's character - as a result of the trauma of his wife's brutal death - has left him with no ability to remember anything post her death. He relies on Polaroids, notes, tattoos to help him keep his life in order.

Second time I've seen the movie - loved both times - but I think this is a flick you should get on DVD and watch Saturday and then again on Sunday - I'm certain I'm missing some nuanced issues.

Who is the good guy/gal? Bad guy/gal? What is real, what is not real? One of (too few) movies that prompt discussion about what really happened and so on.

Highly recommended.

 - Originally reviewed: 08/01/2010, 9:30 pm

Inland Empire
David Lynch, Director

Showcasing a stunning, understated performance by Laura Dern, director David Lynch perhaps "out-Lynches" himself.

What's it about? As with many Lynch productions, that's not easy to say. It's a movie (or two) within a movie, and it's hard to keep track of what pieces are from which layer.

It's three hours long, but doesn't drag, even though it is a very slow-placed movie for the most part (portions of frantic edits, surreal imagined (?) scenes supplement the slower, Lynch-like portions).

I just finished watching it a couple of hours ago; it's still playing in my head, and predict it'll play there for some time. That kind of sums up the movie for me.

 - Originally reviewed: 07/17/2010, 3:59 pm

The Blind Side
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron

Not a great movie, but a well-done (for the most part) flick that hits most of the right notes.

It's a little predictable, but that's the remarkable part of the movie - in the first half-hour or so, I could have dictated the entire rest of the move.

*Yawn*

Except it's based on a TRUE story.

Worth a watch; Bullock - whom I like - won an Oscar for this role, but she wasn't that great. Good; not great. Playing, in some ways, the same "smart and sassy" role as Julia Roberts in "Erin Brockovich," Bullock pales in comparison.

There was a lot of material that had to - I'm guessing - be tossed to make a less than 12-hour movie (takes place in Memphis; wealthy white couple and kids pretty much just take in and accept a homeless black juvenile stranger, for example).

Flaws, but good - not great - movie.

 - Originally reviewed: 07/10/2010, 9:57 pm

Superbad
Starring: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen, Christopher Mintz-Plasse

Perhaps "SuperMediocre"- at best.

I dunno, I've seen this movie a dozen+ times before. Dork dudes lust after hot chicks, strange events occur, dork dudes almost/do get hot chicks.

Yeah.

The "McLovin" bit is shout-worthy, but this movie left me cold/tepid otherwise. I just couldn't get into the whole "separation anxiety" issue that's part of the core of this movie. Not - in my experience - a guy thing.

Oh - Michael Cera: In this flick and Juno, he's about as convincing as an Eggo "Waffle."

 - Originally reviewed: 06/28/2010, 8:29 pm

500 Days of Summer
Starring Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I saw this today for the second time (both on DVD); I can't believe I didn't review it after the first view.

Brilliant: Off-beat, true, quirky, unconventional, understated, non-linear. I could go on with the adjectives. This is a movie about a boy and a girl that the opening narrator explains "is not a love story."

I think I enjoyed it more the second time around; the structure is so unconventional that it makes it hard to predict, so the second time around one can focus on what is happening, instead of extrapolating what will happen.

Clever special effects (not explosions, but - well, see it). Architectural drawings and so on.

Bonus: Awesome soundtrack. Purchased same, as well as a Regina Spektor CD (she has two songs on the soundtrack).

 - Originally reviewed: 06/20/2010, 12:21 am

The Hangover
Starring Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms

Finally got around to seeing this 2009 hit.

Pretty damn good.

Good setup: Four guys go to Vegas for a last weekend of fun before one of the four gets married. What could go wrong?

They wake up the next morning, and no one can remember what transpired the night before. And the groom is missing. And there is a live tiger in the bathroom. And a baby in the closet.

Could have been bad, but they pulled it off. Nice, offbeat comedy.

 - Originally reviewed: 06/13/2010, 9:24 pm

Sunshine Cleaning
Starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt

Quirky and off-beat, Sunshine Cleaning never really gets anywhere, but it's an interesting journey.

Adams, playing the unwed mother of a handful of a son, goes into business as a crime-scene cleanup service. She employs the help of her sister, who is an unmotivated loser who's still living at home with their dad (Alan Arkin).

As the movie progresses, you begin to get a look into how the characters have arrived at this point in their lives.

I liked it - it was a downer, but really spoke to truth, about how things are and how people get where they are.

Arkin was the only disappointment - he plays (minus the heroin) the same character he played in Little Miss Sunshine.

 - Originally reviewed: 04/18/2010, 3:17 pm

Capitalism: A Love Story
Micheal Moore, writer/director

Yep, Micheal Moore taking on capitalism - specifically, the collapse of Wall Street (and how that affects Main Street).

Yet Moore - in hyperbolic ways, in quiet discussions with Catholic clergy (what would Jesus do?) and members of Congress (eep!) - suggests that capitalism is something we can't repair or regulate, but need to remove. He, at one point, equates it with child labor. Some - at that time - said that we (the USA) could regulate so it would be safer for children to work in factories. Fewer hours, higher pay, safety standards.

Moore - and most people - scoff at this: OK, it's now OK for an 8-year-old to work 8 hours at a textile factory??

Socialist talk!

But he does a good job of stating his point (complete with over-the-top Moorisms); interesting film. The extras should be viewed, as well. Dig a little deeper into various areas.

 - Originally reviewed: 04/11/2010, 8:31 pm

The Contender
Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen

A political drama/thriller in the vein of "American President" or West Wing.

A liberal love story - with bad (very) guys on the conservative side.

Not a great movie, but a good one (with a couple of twists). But a good political drama with a person (Joan Allen) that's never been - to me - in a bad movie.

Like West Wing, it kind of makes you hope that how DC operates (for the good guys [whomever they are] ). Probably not, but we can hope

 - Originally reviewed: 04/05/2010, 10:34 pm

The Reader
Starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross

The story about a young man's affair with a woman twice his age in Germany is hard to describe without giving away too much. Fiennes and Kross play the older and younger men, respectively; Winslet plays her character at all ages.

Extremely well done, and Winslet is brilliant: She won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance, and I can't argue with that. Not a "feel-good" movie, but one well worth watching.

 - Originally reviewed: 02/28/2010, 6:05 pm

Garden State
Zach Braff, Writer and Director

Starring Braff and Natalie Portman, this quirky (and not in a Scrubs way) and unconventional movie isn't great, but a great first movie for Braff.

Basically about finding oneself and becoming something larger than oneself, the movie was very understated and characteristically dysfunctional.

Not for all tastes, but I had long wanted to watch it (it came out five years ago in 2004!). Worth the wait.

 - Originally reviewed: 12/27/2009, 10:09 am

Bottle Shock
Randall Miller, Director

A movie in the vein of "Sideways" - about wine, about Napa Valley.

Based on a true story, basically outlining (in a wildly strange way) how Napa accidentally got on the map for good wine (competing with the French) and setting the stage for non-French wineries everywhere to operate on a somewhat even ground.

I.e. Quality is the differentiation, not location (i.e. France).

Not a great movie, but fun. Quirky.

It's "Sideways" meets "The Dish."

Worth a watch - and I don't say that a lot.

It helps to be into wine - in the very slightest way - to enjoy same. Helps. Not necessary.

 - Originally reviewed: 11/01/2009, 12:39 am

Proposal, The
Anne Fletcher, Director

Another one in a long list of "hey, I have to marry someone - anyone - to get my Green Card" movies.

This one is about as unpredictable as a glacier, and about as fast-moving.

I like both Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock (the stars), but come on.

Scenery was beautiful - allegedly in Sitka, AK. Turns out it was all filmed in New England, so it's all matte paintings. Super.

Has its moments, but I'll never rent again.

 - Originally reviewed: 10/31/2009, 6:15 pm

Gran Torino
Clint Eastwood

I really enjoyed this movie.

Slow? Yes.

But it had to sort of be the same, otherwise you wouldn't buy the connections that are made.

I like Clint Eastwood a lot; I like his non-"Dirty Harry" more than the Dirty Harry movies, but he's always good.

 - Originally reviewed: 06/20/2009, 10:07 pm

Roger and Me
Director: Michael Moore

Powerful, painful, funny, not really going anywhere.

But - today (2009) resonates even more.

 - Originally reviewed: 03/08/2009, 6:10 pm

Sicko
Director - Michael Moore

Is it one-sided? Yes.

Is it sensationalistic? Yep.

Does it cherry pick item to get the biggest bang for the buck? Of course.

But the discussion of how the U.S. - the richest country in the world - can't provide the same level of basic health care as less-affluent countries for those who need it the most (i.e. the un-rich) is breathtaking.

Really makes you think, and makes one somewhat ashamed to be an American.

 - Originally reviewed: 05/03/2008, 3:14 pm

Departed, The
Martin Scorsese, director

One of the better movies I've seen over the past couple of years.

What a cast - Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin - and they all mesh to make this tale of the two(?) sides of the law work, and work well.

Filled with trademark Scorsese elements (apeture fade in out; killer soundtrack), the movie - while longish by today's standards (2.5 hours) - goes along at a good clip and you almost wish it would never end.

Highly recommened

 - Originally reviewed: 05/06/2007, 3:37 pm

Beerfest
Jay Chandrasekhar, director

Well, this is not one for the Oscars.

It's Animal House meets Fight Club, mixing in drinking games we all did in college.

Not bad, but - for an over-the-top comedy - it just didn't have that many laughs. Stereotypes, tits and ass, implausible situations and so on.

Not a waste of time, but not a productive use of same.

But it's Saint Patrick's day, so a movie celebrating beer is appropriate.

 - Originally reviewed: 03/17/2007, 9:08 pm

Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl
Gore Verbinski, director

The first the Pirates of the Caribbean films, this unorthodox pirate romp is visually stunning and great fun.

There is a nice plot to it all, and Johnny Depp (of course) steals the show as a foppish, pragmatically indifferent pirate captain.

While it contains many of the essential elements of a pirate movie - parrots, peg-legs, swordplay, "arrgh!!" speak and so on - it's almost a genre unto itself, one that just happens to be about pirates.

I resisted, for whatever reason, seeing this for too long (released in Dec. 2003), but now I want to see part two next weekend!

Highly recommended.

 - Originally reviewed: 03/04/2007, 3:33 pm

Shopgirl
Anand Tucker, director

Based on a Steve Martin novella, this adaption - starring Martin, Claire Danes and Jason Schwartz - is a disaster.

Maybe it was trying to be true to the book (I haven't read), but there were too many "What the hell...." moments, too many voice-overs by Martin to explain what was obvious, and no true explorations of the characters.

I like Martin and Danes, but I'll never watch this again, that's for sure.

This has the flavor of the movie Martin succeeded with - L.A. Story - but everyone stumbles badly here. (I take that back - Danes was pretty believable.)

 - Originally reviewed: 01/30/2007, 8:31 pm

Da Vinci Code
Ron Howard, Director

Wow, did this suck! I'd heard bad things about the movie, but I thought I'd give it a shot - Howard has done some good movies (Apollo 13), and Hanks is a favorite.

And I had read the book, which - while not well-written - was a good read. Good beach book, let's say.

But nothing compelling here at all. Even the extra disc of special stuff sucked.

Highly unrecommended.

 - Originally reviewed: 01/07/2007, 7:26 pm

Thank You for Smoking
Jason Reitman, director

Highly entertaining, spot-on movie about the lobbying industry and how it spins issues.

Aaron Eckhart plays the head spokesman for Big Tobacco, and he plays it so well you almost root for him. The scenes with his son are painfully accurate, such as when he explains to his son that he (Eckhart's character) doesn't have to be right, he only has to show that other side to be wrong. That means, for the argument, that he is right.

Well done, nicely tongue-in-cheek without going over the top. Enjoyable, but it makes you think, at the same time.

 - Originally reviewed: 11/24/2006, 2:27 pm

About a Boy
Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz, directors

A Hugh Grant vehicle in which Grant plays the character he always plays: The boorish, self-centered womanizing cad.

But it's way more than that. At times just a comedy, it's also filled with pathos, insights into "how did we get here and why?" and what relationships mean.

It's about, on many levels, the human conditions.

Understated, very funny and with great performances all around, About a Boy is difficult to classify but enjoyable to watch. It's based on a book by Nick Hornby, who also wrote the John Cusack vehicle, High Fidelity.

Music, by Badly Drawn Boy, works extremely well with the movie.

 - Originally reviewed: 10/22/2006, 10:24 am

Syriana
Stephen Gaghan, director

A very complicated, very interesting, very involved and - ultimately - very disappointing movie.

The movie was about the stability of the Middle East and the behavior of the companies/governments that use the oil from its fields. The message was simple: Nothing is as it seems. The people who run this don't, this that seems like white is black, doublespeak is the language of all, and it all comes down to the almighty buck.

Could be compelling, but - as presented here - it was just overkill and (possibly intentionally) confusing. I thought Three Kings (also with Clooney) did a much better job of showing how the craziness in the Middle East was oil/money/power based - with that religious wildcard, of course.

 - Originally reviewed: 10/15/2006, 4:11 pm

The Dish
Rob Sitch, director

This is not a great movie, this is not a classic - it's just a really well made, beautifully filmed story about that time in our history when we raced for the moon.

The story is set in Australia, which was (and still is) home to the radio dish that handles spacecraft communications when North American dishes can't see the object.

Quirky characters, a strong cast - mainly of unknowns - help elevate this tale of how Parkes Radio Telescope participated in the Apollo 11 program from a pretty boring premise to one that is a compelling watch. This is not The Right Stuff or Apollo 13 - it's closer to October Sky.

 - Originally reviewed: 09/17/2006, 5:31 pm

United 93
Paul Greengrass, Director

I almost passed on watching this movie, simply because the subject matter - a fictionalized account of the 9/11 hijacking that crashed due to passenger intervention - seemed to recent and real to be anything but exploitive or painful.

But I watched, and - while painful - it was very well done and extremely powerful, and not at all in an over the top way.

The use of no-name actors was the key, to me: If one of the stewardesses was Julia Roberts or a passenger was Al Pacino, it would have broken that illusion of something terrible happening to real people.

Not a comfortable movie, but very well done.

 - Originally reviewed: 09/09/2006, 5:46 pm

Forrest Gump
Robert Zemeckis, Director

I finally purchased this DVD, and it's a great movie on a number of levels: 1) Special effects magic; 2) The stor(ies) of the Boomer generation encapsulated in the main characters' lives; 3) Wonderful music, and intelligent use thereof; 4) Just a nice, not too-sweet love story.

Hey, any one of those four apply to almost no movies coming out these days; this has them all...

 - Originally reviewed: 08/12/2006, 4:15 pm

Almost Famous
Cameron Crowe - director

A based-on-fact fictional tale of writer/director's Crowe's teen years as a Rolling Stone journalist. This is not a classic, but a sweet and bittersweet look back at rock and roll, coming of age, journalism and love.

It is!

Always a compelling watch - this was from my own DVD collection - in a very lighthearted, completely enjoyable way.

Kate Hudson steals the movie as Penny Lane, the consumate Band-Aid, and Frances McDormand (as always) brings a neurotic brilliance to her role as the mother of the young Crowe . (Don't take drugs!)

 - Originally reviewed: 07/26/2006, 6:52 pm

The Weatherman
I like Nicolas Cage; I like enigmatic movies. This has/is both.

I still didn't like it; didn't quite get it.

It was fine to watch; had some funny moments, but I will never watch this movie again.

I guess I was expecting something different - the trailers show Cage roaming the city with a bow and arrow. And in this movie, he is very much a man on the edge - I kept waiting for him to go postal and start firing those arrows. Never happened.

Shot (exteriors) in the Chicago area, where I'm from, so that's fun, but - overall - unimpressive.

 - Originally reviewed: 07/09/2006, 7:47 pm

Walk the Line
James Mangold, director

The story of the early life of Johnny Cash, up to the time when he finally married June Carter.

I don't know much about Cash's life, and nada about Carter's, but this was an extremely well-done movie, with outstanding performances by Joaquin Phoenix (Cash) and Reese Witherspoon (Carter). The amazing part is that the actors did the singing for the movie, and - at least for Cash - Phoenix nailed it.

Begins - and ends - in Folsom prison.

One quibble - the sound was a little muddy, at least to me.

 - Originally reviewed: 07/03/2006, 3:47 pm

Brokeback Mountain
Ang Lee (director)

This movie has gotten a lot of press (and launched a thousand jokes), and has been labelled a gay cowboy movie. Many dismiss this, but, at heart, it is a gay cowboy movie. Sorry, it is.

But it's much more than that - it's a great tale with tremendous performances and beautiful scenery and a story line that broaches hard questions without implicitly asking them.

At bottom, it's a tragedy - a love story, a story of forbidden (at many levels) love. Forbidden by one's mores, by society, but what one has been trained to do/not do say/not say.

 - Originally reviewed: 03/19/2006, 3:53 pm

Good Night, and Good Luck
George Clooney (director)

An extremely well-made, well-paced and unbelievably well-filmed (B&W) film.

David Strathairn give a quiet, understated perfomance as Edward R. Murrow, who - with producer Fred Friendly (Clooney) - decided take on the reckless accusations of Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the 1950 communist paranoia.

I don't know if this film would play as well in other years; the parallels to McCarthy and his communist vendeta and the current War on Terror resonate today - a decade from now, maybe not.

I found the atmosphere of the film its strongest point - B&W done as well as (or better than) Woody Allen, the sets, the constant smoking and scotch-drinking: It was the 1950s, and this is a great snapshot of same.

 - Originally reviewed: 03/12/2006, 11:53 am

Broken Flowers
Jim Jarmusch (director)

I like Bill Murray.

I like artsy-fartsy movies.

I like enigmatic movies.

I like all not being spelled out, some questions remaining.

This was all, but it left me cold.

I get the gist of the film, where Murray's character is traveling to try to find out if he has sired a child a couple of decades ago - but it's really a story about Murray's character trying to find himself...OK.

But this is about two hours of my life I'll never get back...

 - Originally reviewed: 02/26/2006, 8:37 pm

Million-Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood, director

I seem drawn to the not feel-good movies. This, the tale of a white-trash woman who dreams of becoming a title-holding boxer, starts depressing and goes downhill from there.

It's an interesting movie - I especially like the way everything was not all wrapped up neatly at the end - but not as good as I expected. Three stars maybe - but maybe that's because I'm not a fan of boxing. Solid performances all around, especially by Hillary Swank, but not a movie I'll return to any time soon.

 - Originally reviewed: 02/05/2006, 1:45 pm

March of the Penguins
Luc Jacquet, director

Well done, but - given all the buzz about this movie - a disappointment.

My review: A really, really well done National Geographic-type special, about an animal I knew little about, filmed extremely well under what must have been brutal conditions.

But that's it. I borrowed the DVD; I doubt I'll ever watch it again.

Maybe all my Disovery/History channel watching has tainted me...

 - Originally reviewed: 01/15/2006, 6:20 pm

Three Kings
David O. Russell, director

About a disillusioned bunch of soldiers in the Gulf War, wondering just what they accomplished over there. To them, it seems the so-called successes they've had have not really helped the people as a whole.

Oh - and this is about the first Gulf War, early 1990s, not today's (2006) Gulf War.

Dark comedy with very stylish cinementography; it probably resonates more today than when it did upon its release in 1999/2000, if for no other reason than the deja vu factor.

 - Originally reviewed: 01/15/2006, 3:41 pm

Fahrenheit 9/11
Michael Moore

Is this biased? Yes. Does it just portray one side of the story and attempt to belittle the other side(s) of the story? Sure. Does it dwell on just one part of a bigger story? Yep.

Is it exceptionally well done? Yes. Are the clips presented misrepresented? No.

Should this movie infuriate the World? Yes.

Yep, this it your standard Moore film, but an interesting examination of one facet of the war in Iran: His take on just why we invaded liberated Iraq.

Why?

It's the OIL, stupid.

Agree or disagree, the movie raises a lot of points that are difficult to push aside, and - as I've mentioned - it's done very well. Over the top at times, too maudlin at times, but that's my bias.

Lot of facts that are hard to ignore behind the curtain of Moore's ham-handed handling of some aspects of the film. Watch. Discuss. Be informed.

 - Originally reviewed: 08/15/2004, 11:58 am

Mystic River
Clint Eastwood, Director

Well, not the feel-good movie of the year, but a great story well told and with some great acting.

Sean Penn and Tim Robbins both grabbed Oscars for their (very different) portrayals of of individuals on the fringe and on the edge.

Between this movie and Good Will Hunting, I really don't have a burning desire to move to Boston...

 - Originally reviewed: 07/26/2004, 6:56 pm

Big Fish
Tim Burton

It took me awhile to warm to this movie, but I ended up enjoying it.

Not a great movie, not one I'll watch again for some time, but with a sweet, funny and thoughtful story line. And great imagination.

Actually, this is a movie that works better as a preview - its got some great, three-second-long shots that would translate well to previews/commercials and so on.

 - Originally reviewed: 05/03/2004, 8:14 am

21 Grams
I was expecting a drug movie - the 21 grams was the clue - but this movie, while having some drug use, is not about drugs.

It's about the intersection of three people (and - peripherally - the people associated with those three) whose lives accidently intersect, told in a series of out-of-sequence vignettes (some brief, some extended).

Not a feel-good movie; not a great movie, but very, very good. Sean Penn again demonstrates that he's one of the finest actors out there.

 - Originally reviewed: 04/12/2004, 1:01 pm

The Pianist
Roman Polanski

Well, this is not your feel-good movie of the year, that's for certain.

While a certain amount of gravity and declaration of seriousness goes with a Holocaust story such as this, this movie earns the accolades it did receive. One of the better movies I've seen in the last few years; Brody is impressive and the history lesson compelling.

My one nit to pick is the message - in reviews and on the Blockbuster box - that it was the protagonist's (a famous pianist) love of music that helped get him through this terrible time. I just didn't get that from the movie - yes, he loved music, and his celebrity as a musician got him some breaks, but this movie is - to me - simply a tale of survival in horrific times.

 - Originally reviewed: 02/23/2004, 1:03 pm

Chicago
This film - a cross between All That Jazz (another Fosse creation) and Moulin Rouge - was highly entertaining but, untimately, not memorable.

As a modern musical, with rapid, MTV-style edits and a blur between thought and reality, it is extremely well done and fun, but the story itself is weak. But, hey, it's a musical, no War and Peace, right?

 - Originally reviewed: 02/22/2004, 10:32 am