REVIEW: Hanna

1 10 2013

When the score is the best part of a movie, you know it’s going to be a doozy.  Although to be fair, the score for “Hanna” is composed by The Chemical Brothers – and it is wicked awesome.  If you are a big runner or just like really energetic music to motivate you for whatever life throws your way, then pick up the soundtrack immediately!

Chances are, that soundtrack will be the only lasting impression “Hanna” leaves on the world.  It’s an action-thriller with a tinge of conspiratorial intrigue that comes up just short of everything it hopes to achieve.  Sure, there’s some cool cinematography and neat editing, but everything feels a little more awesome when it’s set to The Chemical Brothers.

No coincidence the movie comes from director Joe Wright, whose career could be summed up in one word: almost.  “Pride and Prejudice” almost worked as a moving Austen adaptation.  “Atonement” almost worked as a sweeping epic of love and forgiveness.  “The Soloist” almost worked as a touching biopic and an exposé of the plight of the Los Angeles homeless.  Jumping ahead, “Anna Karenina” almost worked as an innovative approach to the oft-adapted Tolstoy novel.

In “Hanna,” Wright crafts an ultra-stylish film that’s fun to look at yet falters on an emotional level.  It’s a nuts-and-bolts construction, not a heart-and-soul one.  Pity, because with some care and attention towards the performances and actors, there could have been one heck of a turn from Saoirse Ronan as the titular character.  Ditto Cate Blanchett, the Oscar-winner who could knock any role out of the park.

But as such, “Hanna” is really just there for neat smoke-and-mirrors type of stuff and some nice selections from The Chemical Brothers.  Check out the amazing club sequence from “Black Swan” if you want to hear their beats put to a worthy and compelling scene that will truly haunt you.  C / 2stars


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REVIEW: Jane Eyre

2 09 2013

“Jane Eyre” is not a movie in my wheelhouse, I’ll just go ahead and declare.  I am generally not a fan of Victorian-era literature adapted to film, even the ones that people think are good like “Pride and Prejudice.”  In general, I find period pieces and costume dramas to be stuffy and boring.

This “Jane Eyre” is a movie I was predisposed to hate, and while I wouldn’t go that far in my dismissal of it, I certainly didn’t enjoy watching it.  Cary Joji Fukunanga’s latest reincarnation of Charlotte Bronte’s heroine is at least a step up from the unwatchable “Sin Nombre,” but that’s about the brightest praise I can bestow upon it.

“Jane Eyre” is dull and low-energy from the start; I could feel my limited interest evaporating quickly within the first ten minutes of the film.  I kept watching mainly out of my own stubborn reluctance, but I should have stopped myself out of common sense.  I was hoping it might redeem itself (or my $2 on Amazon Instant Video), or perchance I could get a more thorough review out of it.

However, I saw everything I needed to see within a few scenes.  The costumes and sets are well-crafted, sure, but that’s to be expected.  Everyone would balk if the production values weren’t impeccable because that’s practically why these movies are made.  Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre and Michael Fassbender as her Mr. Rochester are suitably poised but as melodramatic and unentertaining as the rest of the film.

This “Jane Eyre” was a flat, boring experience for me … but again, this is not my kind of movie.  It wasn’t made to please people like me, so maybe it’s better that it did nothing for me at all.  C / 2stars


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REVIEW: The Young Victoria

1 09 2013

The Young VictoriaI know I’ve never been a fan of Victorian-era England costume dramas … or really 19th century tales of the royal or luxurious (see my less than thrilled response to “Bright Star” and my outright repudiation of “Anna Karenina“).  But believe it or not, I had actually been meaning to see “The Young Victoria” for quite some time now.  And it was not just to check the box off some virtual film bucket list; I think I genuinely wanted to watch it.  Going to London for the semester finally gave me the impetus to do so.

And after about 15 minutes, I was reminded of why I normally don’t care for these kinds of movies.  “The Young Victoria” has very little to offer save a spirited but hardly redeeming performance by Emily Blunt.  I’ve been a fan of the actress since she stole the darkest portions of my heart as the brutally sardonic Emily in “The Devil Wears Prada,” but the role is just one in a string that doesn’t recapture her triumphant entrance onto the Hollywood scene.  (It’s not even her best since then –  that would be her performance in “Your Sister’s Sister.”)

Jean-Marc Vallée’s film is a rather turgid spectacle of costumes and set design.  It has remarkably little drama, perhaps due to the rather strange narrative arc designed by screenwriter Julian Fellowes.  I’d argue the film’s emotional climax comes at about the 30-minute mark, and everything else afterwards feels like falling action.  Queen Victoria’s romance with Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) takes up the majority of the film, but there’s never any passion or tension being stirred up.  When the end finally rolls around, “The Young Victoria” just feels like a rather anti-climatic waste.  C / 2stars


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REVIEW: Miral

31 08 2013

I honestly refuse to believe “Miral” was directed by Julian Schnabel.  What part of this mess of a movie that becomes nearly unwatchable could have been helmed by the visionary directory who gave us the soaring, transcendent “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly?”  Someone please tell me who made this borderline unwatchable mess.

Gone is the style of that Academy Award-nominated beauty.  And I guess the heart, the narrative, and any sense of engagement went along with it.  The story of Miral, played by the gorgeous (and might I add talented) Freida Pinto, is one that lands without impact.  When I reread the Wikipedia summary of the film (because it was so bad that I can’t even remember what this movie was about), it could have sent a powerful message about love, education, empowerment, peace, or any number of important themes.  Instead, it just sloppily plods through events as Miral observes the devastation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The drama is terrible and was only minutely compelling when Vanessa Redgrave cameoed at the beginning.  If “Miral” is some kind of a political statement, it’s muddled and unclear.  I have no earthly idea what I was supposed to think or feel other than pure boredom.

I mean, this movie is not just forgettable the moment after you watch it.  “Miral” is forgettable as you watch it.  From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, Schnabel sure knows how to take his fans on a wild roller-coaster ride through his auteur’s journey.  C- / 1halfstars


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (August 30, 2013)

30 08 2013

“Football doesn’t build character,” says Coach Bill Courtney, “it reveals it.”  It’s one of many wise maxims uttered by the sage volunteer football coach in the documentary “Undefeated,” my pick for “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”  It’s a great watch during football season, an inspiring and rousing time for everyone.

Directors Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin did not win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature because they made a superb sports movie.  “Undefeated” is a football film with surprising insights that extend deceptively far beyond the field.  It’s got everything you love about “The Blind Side” without everything that I hated about “The Blind Side.”

The film brilliantly uses football to shine a light on problems plaguing inner-city communities such as this one in Memphis: poor education, lack of sufficient funding and facilities, absent fathers, and a lack of positive role models, just to name a few.  Over the course of the season, many of these issues come to a head, threatening to derail all the hard work of Manassas High’s fledgling and upstart football team.

With a quiet and understated lens, Lindsay and Martin catch Coach Courtney dealing with these the best way he knows how: with patience, understanding, and character above all.  Courtney himself grew up without the strong presence of his father, and he has chosen to pay it forward out a kind and generous heart.  It’s remarkable to see the way he and his team are able to overcome so many obstacles on the field and in their community.  Sure enough, we see all the heart and character laid bare before our eyes as promised by Courtney.


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REVIEW: Pariah

29 08 2013

There’s plenty to be admired about “Pariah,” a courageous movie about a courageous teenager.  The eponymous pariah, Adepero Oduye’s Alike, is such an outcast because she loves other women.  Though the movie comes from a post-“Brokeback Mountain” world and appears to be set it in one, the title is merited since African-Americans are shown to be one of the most hostile groups towards gays (at least at the voting booth).

Alike’s strict and rather conservative parents don’t like her dressing like a man or a butch, forcing her to find platonic friendship with people of her own sex rather than her openly lesbian friend.  The drama between Alike and her traditional mother, Audrey, is intensely raw and emotional.

But aside from the explosive confrontations, I didn’t find much else to be compelling about “Pariah.”  It’s clear that writer/director Dee Rees put some autobiographical elements into the film since she herself has dealt with society’s implicit stigma of inferiority on homosexuals.  This frustration comes out most clearly in the fights and arguments, which feel like natural expressions of exasperation in just wanting to be who she feels she is.

Yet otherwise, the movie just suffers from debut feature-itis.  “Pariah” lacks much of a real emotional pull towards any of the characters; though of course I felt a great deal of sympathy for Alike, I never felt compelled or drawn in by her struggle.  The story doesn’t really push forward with any momentum, somehow making an 86 minute movie feel much, much longer.

And it opens with Khia’s “My Neck, My Back,” which always gives me a tremendous case of the giggles.  I know that’s a bit of a stupid complaint, but that’s not the song you want stuck in your head while watching people miserably flail against a myopic society.  B- / 2stars


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REVIEW: The Lincoln Lawyer

28 08 2013

I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a sucker for a legal thriller.  Though I don’t watch any of the “Law and Order” series, I’m pretty much game to get involved in any movie that takes place in America’s criminal justice system.  “The Lincoln Lawyer” is not a particularly notable entry into the genre, but it’s compelling and entertaining enough to make for a good watch.

Matthew McConaughey stars as the titular litigator Mickey Haller, a slightly crooked lawyer in the mold of George Clooney’s character in “Michael Clayton.”  He’s caught in entangling web of alliances and often finds himself in tough positions as a result.  His bind in “The Lincoln Lawyer” results after taking on a spoiled brat of a client, Ryan Phillipe’s Louis Roulet.  He’s been accused of beating a prostitute and ropes Haller into a devious master plan that will keep him out of jail.  Unwilling to be made a pawn in anyone’s game, Haller and his investigator Frank Levin (William H. Macy), start pulling their own strings.

The story, taken from the novel by Michael Connelly, is engaging and engrossing, just as any good page-turner feels as you grip it.  But as is often the case with such airport magazine stand mass-market paperback books, “The Lincoln Lawyer” keeps the events rolling by sacrificing character development.  While McConaughey’s performance (one of the earliest in his much-heralded comeback) is decent enough to propel the movie, it could have gone from merely good to GREAT by adding a few more layers of complexity to Haller.  But all in all, “The Lincoln Lawyer” is fitting for what it is: a breezy legal drama.  B / 2halfstars


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REVIEW: At Any Price

26 08 2013

If a movie makes you feel anger, it has to be effective on some level.  The ability to generate some kind of feeling in the viewer means the movie is communicating something right.

In the case of “At Any Price,” it’s easy to get angry because Ramin Bahrani’s script, co-written with Hallie Newton, is a well-plotted story that takes a look at flawed people on their worst behavior.  Though the film takes place in the American heartland, far away from the excesses of Wall Street, thematic similarities to films like “Margin Call” and “Arbitrage” make for a shocking testament to how just how pervasive a strain of reckless greed is running through our country.

Dennis Quaid’s Dean Ripple may deal with seeds rather than financial derivatives, but the ethical dilemmas he’s faced with at the farm differ remarkably little from the ones that must be dealt with at the stock market.  Dean can cheat and get ahead of his competitors, who seem to be beating him at every turn, or play an honest game for better or for worse.  He ultimately drags his son Henry into his moral mire, though not without plenty of Midwestern soap opera-style family conflict.

Bahrani’s allegory is quite clever, but it’s a bit overloaded and overwrought.  It never ceases to amaze me how subtlety always seems in such scant quantities in film, and Bahrani’s heavy-handed direction manages to essentially cancel out the nuances of the script.  “At Any Price” did manage to make me feel emotionally empty as justice remains miscarried, but at what cost?  For Bahrani, that pit in my stomach came at the expense of the story’s quiet power.  B- / 2stars


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REVIEW: Prince Avalanche

25 08 2013

In the middle of the madness of David Gordon Green’s “Pineapple Express,” there’s a very bizarre and quirky 40-second montage that feels completely out of place.  Though I first saw that film as an unformed, relatively cinematically illiterate fifteen-year-old, I recognized there was something brilliant in the scene.  I didn’t know the director’s name, but I knew he had some artistic talent that was subversively bursting through the seams of this comedy.

Green’s latest film, “Prince Avalanche,” takes all the formalism present in that tiny “Pineapple Express” montage and make an entire film out of it.  The movie attempts to be both absurd and also rather aesthetically pleasing, succeeding far more at the latter than the former.  I will give Green that he can craft a good montage with editor Colin Patton and compose a good shot with director of photography Tim Orr.

But that’s about where my compliments for “Prince Avalanche” stop.  The script is dead on arrival, maintaining my interest for about as long as the aforementioned sequence in “Pineapple Express.”  It centers on two road crew workers, Paul Rudd’s Alvin and his girlfriend’s brother Lance, played by Emile Hirsch.  (I suppose I could pay the film another compliment and say it features the best Hirsch performance since “Milk,” but that’s not saying much.)

Alvin and Lance play out inane dramas on the road while staving off boredom or the problems that actually plague their existences.  To be honest, I couldn’t tell if Rudd or Hirsch cared about the conflicts of “Prince Avalanche.”  And if they didn’t care, why should we?  A few pretty shots of burnt back roads in Texas and a few quirks do not a good film make.  There are ways to make humdrum existence resonate; Green’s film really just generates yawns. C- / 1halfstars


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REVIEW: Admission

24 08 2013

Some movies do not fit neatly into categories.  For some, this means a refreshing streak of iconoclasm.  For others, however, it means a wavering indecision on the part of the filmmakers that can prove quite frustrating to watch.  Paul Weitz’s “Admission” is definitely more of the latter.

The film is not quite a rom-com, not quite a comedy, but also not really a drama.  It’s just a strange mix of tonal swings tied together by a story.  Despite the presence of the very funny Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, “Admission” has very little to laugh about.  And surprisingly, in spite of the loving glances they shoot each other in the film’s poster, their sexual tension remains a set of undeveloped hints.

Fey’s character is also extremely similar to the one she played in the 2008 romp “Baby Mama.”  The slightly uptight career woman experiencing regret about not settling down to have kids is quickly on its way to becoming as clichéd as Reese Witherspoon’s perfect belle having two men fight over her.  In “Admission,” she plays a strung-out Princeton admissions counselor dealing with mommy issues when a potential new admit could be the son she gave up for adoption back in college.

Even though I’m three years removed from the college admissions process, watching the Princeton committees debate the merits of applicants by reducing them to test scores and résumés still sent shivers up my spine.  It’s tough and rather disheartening to watch Portia try to fight for an unconventional candidate and face an insurmountable uphill battle the entire way.  The whole process is rather strung out and tense, and the overall mood left after the dust settles is one of depression.

By the end, “Admission” decides it most wants to be a drama after all.  And it actually does produce a decent conclusion, one that satisfies by not coming to any neat and tidy answers.  Because that’s what life is – anything but easy (just like getting into Princeton, apparently).  Better the film come to this tough realization than make us sit through a clichéd one that we’ve already seen in more defined and self-assured movies.  B- / 2stars


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F.I.L.M. of the Week (August 23, 2013)

23 08 2013

“I let the street speak to me,” says Bill Cunningham of his work.  A fashion reporter for The New York Times, Cunningham rides his bike around the streets of the city capturing the look and feel of the moment.  His column has been a staple of the “Sunday Style” section for decades.

Richard Press’ documentary “Bill Cunningham New York,” my pick for the “F.I.L.M. of the Week,” takes a look at the man behind the byline.  As it turns out, there’s quite a story behind the octagenerian reporter never caught without his simple coat and a camera.  He’s an enigmatic figure at the Times: no one knows where he came from, but many suspect he’s from a moneyed background.  Wherever his origins are, he’s as comfortable with the world of high society as he is with the fashion of the street.

Press does a great job in his documentary of laying out the significance of Cunningham and his column.  While many people dismiss fashion, it’s undeniable that Cunningham has provided the world with a guerilla-style documentation of the way we live.  If culture expresses itself in our wardrobe, then Cunningham’s column may be a defining artifact of the times.

But as “Bill Cunningham New York” ambles on, we observe that the subject is so devoted to his job that there’s actually very little Bill Cunningham for the film to document.  He truly is his work.  That’s a frightening thought for some people; for Cunningham, however, there could be no other way of life worth living.  He has no romantic history, just a love affair with fashion and society.  And Press makes sure that we not only understand and appreciate that passion but also take away a little of it ourselves.


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REVIEW: In A World

23 08 2013

In a world where the movies began to buckle under the weight of copious cliches, one movie dared to be different.  It was not a romantic comedy yet still had romance.  It was not a drama but managed to tackle serious issues convincingly.

While I might have made Lake Bell’s “In a World” sound like some kind of panacea, it’s really just a nice, simple movie that does a lot of things very right.  As a feature debut for Bell (who I only knew from her supporting turns in “It’s Complicated” and “No Strings Attached“), the film is certainly promising for many great things to come.  She makes no major missteps in her finely-tuned comedy, but it is rather safe and risk-free.

Bell also wrote the film’s script, which contains a smart and well-observed feminist critique.  In a summer where “The Heat” was the only major studio release with a female protagonist, “In a World” opens up a fascinating dialogue about sexism and male hegemony in the art of voice-overs.  While much of the film is industry-specific, Bell gives us plenty of food for thought about women in any workplace.  She even manages the current impasse for many women between symbolic affirmative action and equal judgment with finesse.

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REVIEW: No

22 08 2013

No Poster“No” has the look of the VHS tapes that I watched in high school Spanish, a campy educational telenovela called “Destinos.”  Pablo Larrain’s film is definitely informative and enlightening, but it’s meant to be taken far more seriously than any corny classroom staple.  His gripping political procedural finds beauty in its unseemly U-matic aesthetic, giving “No” a documentary-style feel of veracity and allowing us to get all the more invested in the outcome.

And I was already on board with the film’s subject, a display of how the language of public relations and advertising (a potential career path for me) can be used to save the world for democracy.  In the 1988 Chilean plebiscite, voters were offered a simple referendum as to whether they wanted to keep dictator Augusto Pinochet in power.  Each side received 15 minutes to promote their cause.

At a disadvantage since they had to change the established order, the “no” campaign brought on a creative mind from outside the political sphere, René Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal).  A successful advertiser that’s every bit as eccentric as the Mark Zuckerberg of “The Social Network,” Saavedra brings the language of his industry to the table and changes the game.  They are no longer selling a vote against the atrocities and crimes of Pinochet; they are selling a vote for happiness and a better life under a new regime.

While it’s now commonplace to see PR trump the issues in American politics (usually not for the better), Larrain takes a rather non-judgmental stance on Saavedra’s revolutionary “no” campaign.  It’s fascinating to watch the events unfold from a distance, although there were times I wished “No” delved more into the psyche of Bernal’s Saavedra.  As a result, it’s not exactly the most rousing political drama – but it’s definitely one to make you think about the way in which modern elections are conducted.  B+ / 3stars


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REVIEW: Side Effects

21 08 2013

Steven Soderbergh may have saved the best for last with his supposed final theatrical release, the chillingly cerebral “Side Effects.”  A successful re-teaming with “Contagion” scribe Scott Z. Burns, the film recreates all the unnerving hysteria of the 2011 apocalyptic thriller on a much more micro scale.  Soderbergh, acting as his own editor and cinematographer (under false names), creates a cooly fluorescent-bulb lit environment in which a crazy tale of criminal insanity can realistically unfold.

In this setting, Burns’ cat-and-mouse tale takes on an eerie and haunting dimension. His script is full of unexpected twists and turns, rife with crossed alliances and false appearances, and topped off with plenty of intrigue from the fields of psychiatry and pharmaceuticals.  His “Side Effects” starts off thoroughly convincing us it’s one kind of movie … and then pulls the rug out from underneath us, ultimately leaving us with a surprisingly different end result.

The suspense is amplified by a finely-tuned cast of performers, led by a viciously versatile turn from Rooney Mara.  Her character, the moody Emily Taylor, is a character playing multiple games simultaneously.  She’s mad, moody, depressed, longing, conniving, and manipulative – often all at once.  Mara commands the screen with the same force as she did in her Oscar-nominated role in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” although it’s a more quietly resolute performance that adds another layer of tension to an already taut film.

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REVIEW: Star Trek Into Darkness

19 08 2013

I’ve been wrestling over my angle on reviewing “Star Trek Into Darkness” for quite a while.  I really did like the movie, although not nearly to the extent as J.J. Abrams’ 2009 rebooting of the franchise.  Just because it is not as good does not mean it is not any good, and I certainly do not want to imply that.

It’s still a solid summer movie, full of impressive and fun action as well as a dastardly star-making villainous performance by Benedict Cumberbatch.  Once again written by the dream team of Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof, the story delivers in a big way.  No longer burdened with reintroducing the once-iconic characters to audiences, they can focus on weaving an allegorical tapestry of many moral issues facing the post-9/11 world.

I’m far from disappointed with the latest voyage of the USS Enterprise.  However, it never reached the levels of excitement that led me to declare it my second most anticipated film of 2013 back in January.  “Star Trek Into Darkness” is still a great movie, don’t get me wrong, but it’s definitely a notch below the giddily fun “Star Trek” from four years ago.  While that’s still light years ahead of summer blockbusters “Man of Steel,” J.J. Abrams heads into directing “Star Wars” on a bit of a down note.

He made a decently acceptable action film.  It just won’t be particularly remarkable in retrospect.  When I go back and think about summer 2013 a few years down the road, I suspect I might forget that “Star Trek Into Darkness” was even released (although writing that line in my review might change that).  B+ / 3stars


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