Martin's Musings

Films like Clint Eastwood’s latest, J. Edgar, really trip me up.

You see, J. Edgar, which, yes, tells the story of J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is an ambitious, often well made film with some impressive acting.

But it’s also not one I felt much attachment to after the lights went up.

Days later, I felt more obligated to write a review than compelled. When movies don’t hit you on an emotional level after the fact, and don’t drive you to go home and write about them, then that’s kind of a bummer, even when they’re good movies.

That’s the predicament I find myself in with J. Edgar. Continue reading →

Watching the new film Like Crazy, it’s hard not to think that on at least a few levels, this is the movie (500) Days of Summer wanted to be. That is, a love story for young people, many of whom feel like they’re too cool for conventional Hollywood romances, and that those films just don’t speak to them. But whereas (500) Days had stars with indie cred (Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel), a hip soundtrack, and a contemporary aesthetic, it was just a little too self-aware to be as beloved as it so wanted to be.

On the other hand, Like Crazy tells a more realistic story of young love. Its stars are less well known (for now, anyway), the action unfolds without the hipster accompaniment of the Smiths, Feist, and Regina Spektor, and its natural aesthetic (handheld camerawork, completely improvised dialogue, etc.) make for an almost too obvious counterpart (despite a twee trailer that features music by Stars and Ingrid Michaelson). But is it a better movie?

In Like Crazy, two college students, American Tom and British Anna (Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones), fall for each other hard and fast. When the school year is over, and Anna must return to the U.K. (per the limitations of her student visa), she decides to disregard the law (and the advice of her parents and lawyer) to stay with Tom. This gets her barred from the U.S., and puts a real strain on the relationship (to put it mildly). Is the bond between these two strong enough to survive time and distance apart?

If you’ve ever been in a similar relationship, then you know just how challenging the situation can be, and how painful. Like Crazy doesn’t shy away from this, focusing on all the minutiae that can eat away at a couple (missed calls, ignored or poorly timed text messages, etc.), and presenting more-available options for both characters (X-Men: First Class‘ Jennifer Lawrence and Charlie Bewley, of the Twilight movies). I won’t spoil whether Tom and/or Anna remain loyal, but yeah … over the course of four years, it’s tough to be separated from the one you love.

Drake Doremus, Like Crazy‘s director, based the film on his own true life experience, and he’s clearly rooting for these two to make it. If only I could root as hard as he is. After a while, the initial spark that burns so brightly (between our heroes and the film itself) fades. Watching Like Crazy, I felt like Tom and Anna themselves had given up, so as hard as they try to make things work is as hard as I had to try to believe that they actually wanted to be together. In the end, I just didn’t buy it. And once I made the decision to not root for Tom and Anna to make it, I couldn’t wait for the movie to end. Like Crazy only has a 90-minute running time, but its last third makes it seem even longer.

Which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy parts of the film. Like Crazy is frustrating, but it features a totally likeable and winning performance by Jones that announces her as an actress to watch (just like Martha Marcy May Marlene did with Elizabeth Olsen). Adorable, modern, real, and almost the anti-Zooey (in that she doesn’t have that dorky/cute thing going for her), Jones is a big reason why Like Crazy works when it does, particularly in the first third. Even though the film lets her down, Jones is someone viewers can easily fall for. Chances are good we’ll have plenty of other occasions to do so in the future.

For now, though, Jones is in a film that, like (500) Days of Summer isn’t as good as it wants to be. I’m giving Like Crazy a B–.

If Law & Order, with its ripped-from-the-headlines plotlines, was ever made into a movie, it might be a bit like Tower Heist. The film tells the story of a bunch of luxury residence employees who plot to steal from the Bernie Madoff–like jerk who has defrauded them and left them without pensions. No doubt, the film will be like a wish-fulfillment fantasy for so many moviegoers. But here’s my wish: I wish Tower Heist was a better, funnier movie. After all, the cast is top-lined by Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy, and it also includes Casey Affleck (no stranger to funny heist films, having been in all three of the Oceans movies), Matthew Broderick, and Alan Alda.

Actually, if you want to see a robbery, then this is the movie you want to see, because it’s Gabourey Sidibe (yes, Precious herself) who steals the thing right out from under Stiller, Murphy, et al. Playing a Jamaican cleaning woman, Sidibe delivers her lines with perfect deadpan and impressive comic timing. She’s a hoot. What a difference a couple years makes in her choice of big screen roles.

Tower Heist does have its moments — the plan comes together and is impressively staged during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade — but the whole thing is far-fetched, even for someone like me who can typically suspend his disbelief pretty easily. Put simply: I expected more from the film overall. Like Madoff’s victims (though to a much much much smaller degree), you may feel defrauded too. I’m giving Tower Heist a B–.

Creepy, unnerving, well acted, and just plain ole beautifully made, Martha Marcy May Marlene is a must-see movie that you won’t soon forget.

That’s mostly because of the subtle, heartfelt, and heartbreaking performance by Elizabeth Olsen (who has the unfortunate luck — for now, anyway — to be best known as Ashley and Mary-Kate’s younger sister).

It’s the same kind of performance that made Carey Mulligan a star in An Education two years ago.

Thanks largely, but not completely, to that fine work, MMMM is one of the year’s best movies. Continue reading →

Attractive to look at but not particularly exciting to watch, The Rum Diary finds Johnny Depp in one of his more personal projects, one that won’t likely find a large audience — and deservedly so.

Based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson, a close friend of Depp’s, the film tells the story of writer Paul Kemp (Depp), who relocates from New York to Puerto Rico, where he hopes the lifestyle will be less stressful and the drinks more plentiful. There, he meets Sanderson, a shady businessman (Aaron Eckhart), who involves Kemp in a deal of questionable legality. As if that’s not enough, Kemp is distracted by Chenault, Sanderson’s beautiful fiancée (Amber Heard, sexier and more alluring here than she ever was on The Playboy Club). Continue reading →

Cancer isn’t funny.

Anyone who’s been touched by the disease knows this.

And yet, sometimes the only thing you can do to cope is laugh. That’s the crux of the new movie 50/50, the story of Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who at 27 learns he has cancer.

The film was written by Will Reiser, and is loosely based on his own experience — both with the disease and with his best friend Seth, who had a hard time dealing with it too. Continue reading →