On the movie spectrum, there are the awesome, award-caliber films on one end, the truly awful ones on the other end, and then, somewhere in the middle, there are the merely pleasant ones — movies with no great agenda other than to provide a diversion for a couple hours.
Dan in Real Life is one of those middle-of-the-road pictures, and it’s meant as no slight to call it pleasant.
Actually, the movie could have been much worse with less talented creative folks involved. Continue reading
It would be all too easy to dismiss Lars and the Real Girl as a quirky comedy.
After all, it’s a movie about a guy (Lars, played by Ryan Gosling) who buys a Real Doll and treats it like she is legitimately real and his girlfriend.
But Lars is much better than that description.
In fact, it’s one of my favorite movies of the year. Continue reading
In the opening scene of Gone Baby Gone, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) talks about how the neighborhood you grow up in is what makes you who you are. And clearly, that pedigree is all over Ben Affleck’s film.
I’m a Brookline kind of guy, and I don’t know Dorchester from anything, but this movie just feels, looks, and sounds authentic. (And for the record, yes, I know Ben’s from Cambridge, not Dorchester. Close enough.)
From the accents (though they’re stronger at the beginning than at the end) to the shots of the streets and people of the neighborhood, there’s no mistaking that this is a set-in-Boston movie.
Hell, Ben even gives a special thanks to Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz in the closing credits.
Gone tells the story of the search for a missing four-year-old Dorchester girl. Early on in the search, the girl’s frantic aunt hires Kenzie, an investigator who gets people to talk because he’s a local boy and knows the neighborhood and, most importantly, works independently of the police.
Kenzie works with his girlfriend, Angie (Michelle Monaghan), and the two initially feel like they are in over their heads because the cases they typically get involved with don’t ever involve the possibility of a dead body.
But they uncover some details the police weren’t paying attention to, and soon they’re also collaborating with two cops (including one played by Ed Harris) and their Chief (Morgan Freeman).
And that’s just part of it.
Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane (who also wrote the book Mystic River), and adapted by Affleck and Lehane with Aaron Stockard, it’s a layered plot with twists and turns that I didn’t see coming.
Acting across the board is excellent, from Casey Affleck on down. Clearly, working with his brother suits Casey (though he was also good in The Assassination of Jesse James …).
But Ben’s made a compelling movie that is a great compliment to Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, with its working-class neighborhood setting and missing person plotline.
It’s pretty exciting that the movie turned out so well, because I think deep down Affleck’s a good, decent guy (and he certainly has great taste in women), and he was due for something to turn out so well. I mean, you could say the guy didn’t really stretch himself, given that this is such a Boston-centric film. But Gone Baby Gone more than that, more than Good Will Hunting too, and it’s a very impressive achievement.
I’m giving Gone Baby Gone an A–.
The tagline for the movie Rendition is “What if someone you love … just disappeared?” Well, it seems apt to paraphrase it for this review: What if a movie starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Meryl Streep … one that dealt with a topical subject like torturing suspected terrorists … one where the two apparent leads apparently fell in love off-screen … suddenly disappeared? I mean, did you know the movie was being released this Friday? I haven’t seen a single ad, article, TV spot, or heard anything about it. It’s almost as if the New Line doesn’t even want you to know it exists.
Well, you should thank them. Rendition is actually a pretty awful movie. Reese’s Egyptian husband is taken into protective custody and shipped off to North Africa after he’s suspected of being involved in a terrorist bombing. Jake’s on the team that does the torturing, but apparently he’s conflicted about it (I say apparently because he doesn’t show any emotion at all). Streep is the apparently Southern CIA agent who orders and then covers up these torture interrogations, known as extraordinary rendition. (Oh, and I say apparently in Streep’s case because it took about half the movie for me to realize she was speaking with a twang in her voice. It’s definitely the worst accent she’s ever done.) Peter Sarsgaard plays an aide to a Senator (Alan Arkin); apparently, Sarsgaard’s character went to school with Reese’s. (Again, apparently because they don’t look at all like they’re the same age — in fact, Sarsgaard is five years older than Reese.) Oh, and did I mention that Reese’s character is pregnant and at one point when she goes into labor after a tense confrontation (you knew that would happen, didn’t you?), someone actually stops to ask her, “Are you alright?” And all this is without mentioning the film’s chronology of events, which is totally confusing and jumbled up just to make it seem more “artsy.” (And if you’re interested, Reese and Jake never once act together here. It’s like they’re in two different movies.)
Reese’s husband is the one being tortured, but really, it’s the moviegoers who are enduring the worst of it. I’ve definitely seen worse movies, but this one surely ranks as one of the worst of this year. No wonder you’re not hearing anything about it. I give Rendition a D.
Jesse James was like the evil Brad Pitt of his day, and with no US Weekly or Perez Hilton around to immediately document his exploits, his legend only loomed larger because of how stories of his crimes were passed on.
So it makes perfect sense that in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, James is played by the male half of Brangelina himself, Mr. Pitt.
In this very Terrence Malick–esque film, Robert Ford (the very good Casey Affleck) works his way into his idol’s gang and attempts to befriend James. But Ford learns that the legend and the man are two very different things, and soon he’s plotting against James to bring him down. Continue reading
You’ve gotta love Wes Anderson.
When he’s on, when he’s great — i.e.: Rushmore — he’s awesome.
About half of his new film, The Darjeeling Limited comes close to reaching the same comic heights of Rushmore (but in a very different way).
And the second half, well, it’s not bad, but it’s not as good either. Continue reading
It’s no secret that I’m a George Clooney fan, and have been for a while.
So the night that Michael Clayton opened, I was there.
And I’m happy to say, the man does not disappoint.
Here he plays — well, he’s a lawyer, but he’s the kind of guy that high-powered law firms have on staff to fix things in their clients’ favors, not necessarily to get involved in the actual law.
But Clayton’s feeling off his game lately thanks to a bad business decision and a messy divorce, and he says he’s more of a janitor, cleaning up messes.
Either way, he gets enmeshed in a case involving supposed environmental giant U/North and in assisting a colleague who is losing his grip, he finds all is not as it seems with his firm’s prized client. Continue reading
Just wanted to say I’m totally digging the trailer for Sweeney Todd, the new Johnny Depp–Tim Burton collaboration coming to theaters this Christmas. Longtime readers of this blog know I love the show, and the film adaptation looks dark and cool, albeit less musical than the show itself (but perhaps that’s intentional for marketing purposes). I’m hoping Depp’s performance is less Jack Sparrow Gone Mad than the trailer appears, but given that he’s rockin’ another English accent, comparisons are easy to make. (HollywoodElsewhere.com says it’s Depp’s “best performance ever.”) Anyway, check out the trailer for yourself and let me know what you think.
If it’s November, you know it’s time to bring out the big guns. And with American Gangster you get some real big ones: Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington and director Ridley Scott.
Washington stars as Harlem drug king Frank Lucas, and Crowe is Richie Roberts, the detective working to bring him down.
Don’t be expecting a two-man show, though. This one belongs totally to Washington. I’m not usually a Denzel fan, but here he’s so cool, so charismatic, such a badass, so bigger than life, that he damn near steals the movie all for himself. How appropriate.
Not that Crowe is lacking. It’s just that by comparison, Washington has the more showy role. Continue reading
Terrorism, at least on the surface, is a pretty senseless act.
It’s often marked by big, loud actions that do nothing more than disrupt an otherwise peaceful existence.
Though this analysis might be weak and simplistic, I find it an apt way to begin a review of The Kingdom because similarly, the movie is often big and loud, and on the surface, it’s pretty empty.
Kingdom tells how a group of FBI agents go to Saudi Arabia to investigate a terrorist bombing in an American compound by an Osama bin Laden wannabe.
It stars Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, and Chris Cooper, but none of those folks — not even my beloved Jennifer Garner — give a performance that makes much of an impact.
Jeremy Piven’s also in the film, but he seems totally miscast. He’s playing an ambassador, but I kept giggling every time he was on screen waiting for him to bust out an Ari Gold–ism.
Which is not to say The Kingdom is a bad movie necessarily. But it sets everything up and then in about 15 minutes it blows up into explosions, chases and gunplay, and then it’s over.
Essentially, it turns a timely setting into a convenient place for an action flick. And it’s a good last 15 minutes, but sort of a waste nevertheless.
So I’m giving The Kingdoma B-. Sorry, Jen.
Martin's Musings 