So that explains it. A year ago, I noticed some strange graffiti on a wall near the Star Market in Allston. My post was picked up on Universalhub.com and Boston.com, and all kinds of people came to this site to see what all the fuss was about. Well, 12 months later, I’ve found out in the Improper Bostonian of all places that the supposed film criticism was not that at all, but a reference to a Demetri Martin joke. Well, I guess that explains it. And don’t I feel silly now.
Sometimes a movie is pleasant and all, but it just feels pointless. So it is with Sunshine Cleaning. The story of Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams), a young woman who starts her own crime-scene cleanup business with the help of her slacker sister, Norah (Emily Blunt), Cleaning was one of the finds at the Sundance Film Festival more than a year ago. The film was produced by the same folks who produced Little Miss Sunshine, and like that film, Cleaning also stars Alan Arkin as a cantankerous old man who has a good relationship with his grandchild. But a similar name and costar are really all these two movies have in common, and that’s probably why it took so long for the film to actually hit theaters. Cleaning has very little of the charm and emotion that Little Miss had, despite having Amy Adams in the lead. There’s a pretty creepy subplot involving Norah and the daughter of a deceased woman, and Rose just, well, I never really felt like I wanted to root for her. The movie’s not a total mess or anything, but it’s definitely not as quirky as it thinks it is. I expect the fate of Sunshine Cleaning will be much like the scenes Rose and Norah clean up, with nary a trace of it left in just a couple hours. I’m giving the movie a C+.
If you’re one of those people who think movies provide an escape in tough times, then by all means, stay far away from Watchmen. Based on the popular graphic novel (which Time magazine ranked as one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century), Watchmen tells the unconventional story of a group of superheroes who live in an alternate version of reality: the year is 1985, Richard Nixon is still president (he’s won a fifth term), and superheroes have been banned. No wonder most of them have a pretty bleak outlook on the world. Narrated by the most pessimistic of them all, Rorschach, the story centers on a looming threat of nuclear war with the Russians. What role will (or can) our heroes have in stopping this? And will they find out who is trying to kill them before it’s too late?
Not that there’s anything wrong with conventional superhero movies, but for some reason Hollywood thinks we want to see something on the flipside right now. Here’s the thing, though: even Hancock had some laughs and didn’t take itself soooo seriously. Watchmen is a super-serious affair, with a very downbeat tone, and some heroes who aren’t really fighting for good. I don’t have a problem with unconventional stuff like that, or with the fact that this is based on a comic book. But perhaps there’s a reason I couldn’t really get into the graphic novel when I tried to read it last year, despite repeated attempts. And I think that reason is that the story’s just not terribly engaging or compelling, and the characters are not very likable. For example, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre (Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman, respectively) are actually pretty lame.
Which is not to say the movie’s awful. The actors all make valiant attempts to wring some credibility from the material — Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach), for all his character’s pessimism, gives the most notable performance (even if his face is obscured by a mask for most of the film). And the dark look notwithstanding, there are some impressive visual elements in the film, including the neat opening credits sequence. (No, I don’t include Dr. Manhattan’s junk in the list of “impressive visual elements.” We see more of his thang than we did of Jason Segel’s in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I mean, really. I know it’s CGI, but can’t the guy at least wear a thong or something? Even the Hulk wears shorts.) Ultimately, I just didn’t find Watchmen to be as fun, cool, or enjoyable as I’d hoped. It’s much ado about nothing, and that’s why I’m only giving it a C.
Of all the movies coming out this year, few have excited me more than the new Pixar release, Up, because … well, watch the new trailer for yourself (preferably in HD) and you’ll see that it’s one of Pixar’s brightest and most colorful films ever. The balloons alone make this worth the price of admission. Up comes out May 29.
http://l.yimg.com/cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/fop/embedflv/swf/fop.swf
Forget that this video is entirely en Francais. Just watch Emma Thompson cringe and then rush on stage — in the middle of an awards ceremony!! — to try and help the totally clueless and very nervous French actress Julie Ferrier with her dress.
Sean Penn looks amused too, and there’s certainly a nervous, um, tittering coming from the audience.
I don’t have a clue what this woman is talking about (I don’t think she knows either), but this is pretty classic blooper-reel stuff.
I tell you, if the Oscars this year were anything like this, I might have enjoyed them more.
(Thanks to Jeff Wells for, ahem, the tip.) Continue reading
Joaquin Phoenix is such a great actor that it’s really a shame he had to pull that bizarre act on David Letterman a couple weeks ago. In his new film, Two Lovers, he gives such an impressive performance — just as he did in other films, including Walk the Line and Gladiator — that it’s hard to believe the actor and the rapper wannabe are one and the same person. Or … maybe that’s just proof of how versatile he really is.
In Two Lovers, Phoenix plays Leonard, who has moved back in with his parents in the decidedly unhip Russian Jewish neighborhood of Brighton Beach following his break-up with his fiancee. To keep busy and keep his mind off his heartbreak, Leonard works in his father’s cleaners, which his father is planning to merge with the owner of another cleaners. Actually, there’s another merger at work: Leonard is fixed up with Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), whose father owns the other cleaners. A relationship with Sandra promises stability, comfort, and emotional rescue. But that’s when Leonard meets Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), who has moved into the building where Leonard lives. Leonard is instantly drawn to the hip, beautiful, vivacious Michelle, and she sparks his personality. But while Leonard is crushing on Michelle, she is involved in a self-destructive affair with a married man. And we always want the ones we can’t have, right? The two women possess opposite qualities, and Leonard is attracted to them for different reasons. So he is faced with a choice: will it be love or lust?
As noted, Phoenix is really terrific here. He gives a sensitive, emotional, totally believable performance. He doesn’t hit a single false note. The two women are also very good, though Shaw certainly comes across better than Paltrow. I like how director James Gray films the Manhattan and Brighton Beach scenes differently, so as to emphasize how much more exciting Michelle’s life is. And I also appreciated how the film avoids the cliche of having the two women meet, thus forcing Leonard to make his big choice. What happens here happens organically, naturally. Is it an easy decision? No. But it’s a testament to the writing and to Phoenix’s performance that it all feels very real. I’m giving Two Lovers an A–.
(click on the link for my review)
1. CLOVERFIELD
2. U23D
3. VINCE VAUGHN’S WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW
4. JUMPER
7. CHICAGO 10
8. LEATHERHEADS
11. SMART PEOPLE
12. BABY MAMA
13. AMERICAN TEEN
14. HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY
15. MADE OF HONOR
16. 21
17. IRON MAN
18. INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
19. SEX AND THE CITY
20. YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN
22. WALL-E
23. HANCOCK
24. MAMMA MIA!
25. THE WACKNESS
26. THE DARK KNIGHT
27. STEP BROTHERS
28. SWING VOTE
30. MAN ON WIRE
31. TROPIC THUNDER
34. RELIGULOUS
35. NICK & NORA’S INFINITE PLAYLIST
37. W.
38. SEX DRIVE
39. CHANGELING
40. ROLE MODELS
44. MILK
45. AUSTRALIA
46. CADILLAC RECORDS
47. DOUBT
48. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
49. FROST/NIXON
50. THE WRESTLER
51. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
52. MARLEY & ME
53. GRAN TORINO
56. THE READER
A movie that explores guilt, secrets, and an illicit affair between an older woman and a younger man, The Reader certainly is provocative. The film tells the story of Michael Berg (played by David Kross and Ralph Fiennes), who meets Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet) in 1958, when he is only 15, and begins an affair with her that lasts a summer. Hanna is turned on when Michael reads to her, so he pleasures her by reading The Odyssey, Huckleberry Finn, and other books. Then one day Hanna disappears. When she resurfaces 10 years later, she is on trial for crimes committed when she was a guard during the Holocaust. Michael, now a law student, must grapple with what he knows about Hanna, and must decide whether to divulge a secret that could hold the key to whether Hanna is found innocent or guilty.
In her Oscar-nominated role, Winslet is quite good. Maybe not blow-you-away good, but she’s quite effective in the role of a mysterious woman who puts her personal pride ahead of all else. (She’s as good here as she is in Revolutionary Road). I wish she looked more believable, though; when Hanna is older, she still looks like the 33-year-old Winslet, just with a lot of obviously caked-on makeup. Kross is also very good, but it takes a leap of faith to believe his aging as well; he looks the same at 15 as he does at 25, and then at 35 all of a sudden he looks like Ralph Fiennes.
Makeup aside, The Reader is a very good movie and I liked it. I thought the premise could have been handled differently, in a way that would have been more dramatic, but the high-minded, quiet tone here reflects Hannah’s inner turmoil and Michael’s conflicted feelings well. I felt uncomfortable being sympathetic toward Hanna, and I think that’s more a problem of casting, because Winslet doesn’t make it easy to dislike her, no matter how good her performance is.
Also, since I saw The Reader so late, after the Oscar nominations had been announced, I couldn’t help but judge it with its accolades in mind. Would I have named it one of the top five films of the year? No. The Dark Knight should have gotten The Reader‘s slot. This is a good movie to be sure, but I’m only going to give it a B+.
Based on the the best-selling book of the same name by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, the film He’s Just Not That Into You tries to dramatize and explain — and make light of — the reasons why dating is so hard for so many people. We meet the wrong people. We believe lies. We get overeager and share too much about ourselves up front. We don’t read the signs. Etc. Etc. We’ve all done it or caused someone else to do it. Thankfully, the movie doesn’t remind us of all these stupid behaviors in grating, annoying fashion. Instead, it’s a surprisingly enjoyable time that won’t make men feel emasculated or ashamed when the lights come up.
To be clear, HJNTIY is less of a romantic comedy than romantic dramedy. Which is not to say that it’s unfunny. It’s just that more of the laughs come from watching the movie and saying to yourself, “I’ve done that” (or listening to people around you who say it), or from knowing that what the characters are doing is exactly the wrong thing to do (and, yes, hearing people who sit next to you call that out). The Altman-esque ensemble is filled with likable actors in likable, sympathetic roles — even Scarlett Johansson, who plays a seductress who tries to break up a marriage, while also trying to deflect the affections of a young suitor played by Entourage‘s Kevin Connolly. Think Love Actually, but set it in Baltimore not at Christmastime, and cast it with younger people, and you have the basic idea.
Much of the movie is told from the POV of Ginnifer Goodwin‘s Gigi, the prototypical single girl who keeps falling for the wrong guys and believing they’re more interested in her than they actually are. When a guy tells her he’ll call and then doesn’t, Gigi spends all day checking her voice mail and working herself up over why he hasn’t, and whether she should call him or do a “drive-by” at a place she knows he’ll be. On one such drive-by, Gigi befriends Alex (Justin Long), the manager of a bar, who advises her in blunt, honest style about how to understand men (essentially, he’s Behrendt’s stand-in). If you, like me, were a fan of the TV show Ed, then you’ll agree that it’s good to see these two back together again all these years later. The entire cast has easy chemistry, and while they all don’t interact with each other, the relationships on screen do seem believable.
Thankfully, HJNTIY avoids most of the obvious cliches of chick flicks: there’s no silly montage of bad dates, no gay best friend, no cheesy soundtrack, no sitcom-y cliches, no nothing like that. Which, I think, means that HJNTIY may not be a chick flick at all, given the conventional definition. Yes, some of the story lines do end happily, but not all of them, and it’s not like there’s sweeping music or guys running down the street to meet an impossible deadline or anything cliched like that to make you groan when they do. The women here are not swans in ugly duckling wardrobes, or put-upon sad sacks prone to clumsy antics, who are waiting for Prince Charming … and the guys are portrayed in equally imperfect fashion. This is essentially a lesson movie, but it’s one whose lessons go down easy.
Because dating foibles are something we can all identify with, and because it’s not just the women who are the victims here, HJNTIY is actually a movie that can be enjoyed by either gender. Could it be a tad shorter than two hours, 10 minutes? Sure. But the winning cast keeps things moving and the relatable storylines keep the action engaging. I’m into He’s Just Not That Into You so I’m giving it a B+.
So the Oscar nominations were announced today. Wanna watch the announcement? Here you go:
What’re my thoughts? Well, I’m not excited. For one thing, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is waaaaaay overrated. Some categories are largely as expected, based on previous awards nominees. Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, for example. But others had their share of surprises, and not good ones. The Reader, which I still have yet to see, got a slot for Best Picture instead of the very worthy The Dark Knight, which I was really pulling for and which had a legit shot at a nomination based on nominations by the Producers, Writers, and Directors Guilds. I’m also really really surprised by the omission of Bruce Springsteen and Jamie Cullum from the Best Song category for their contributions to The Wrestler and Gran Tornio, respectively. I was really looking forward to both performances on the telecast. And what’s with two of the only three Best Song nominations going to Slumdog Millionaire? I also think that not nominating Dark Knight for Best Score was a huge omission. And does Angelina Jolie deserve her Best Actress nomination (for Changeling)? No.
Truth be told, there’s nothing about the nominations that really gets me excited for the ceremony this year. At this point, it’s pretty safe to say Slumdog Millionaire will win Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay, and that Mickey Rourke and Heath Ledger will win too. Otherwise, I could really care less about Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress this year, and many of the other categories. I really hope Benjamin Button doesn’t win many of the 13 categories it’s nominated in. And more importantly, I hope host Hugh Jackman is good, because otherwise it could be a very, very, very long night for me when the awards are handed out on February 22.
Martin's Musings 