Despite the crummy weather, I only saw one movie this weekend: North Country, starring Charlize Theron. My review in brief: Good film, worth seeing. Acting’s good all across the board. Charlize may be Oscar-nominated again, I suppose, but she won’t win. The film gets a B+ from me.
Now I know I’m not writing Pulitzer Prize-level stuff here, but for the second time in three days, my blog has been quoted in the Boston Globe.
Today I’m in the “Sidekick” section writing about two movies I saw this weekend, Elizabethtown, which I hated, and Capote, which I loved. Check me out!
(Since “Sidekick” isn’t online, I scanned the quote; click on the image to see it bigger. And here’s a link to the first quote from Sunday’s paper.)
What a difference a day makes.
Saw a much better movie Sunday night: Capote.
It’s the story of Truman Capote during the time he was writing In Cold Blood. Capote is played by the always-reliable Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of my favorite actors, and Hoffman gives an awesome performance.
Capote’s a fey, completely self-involved man, who gets a bit too close to the story he’s writing about, yet retains his single-minded focus on writing the book that will change literature forever — something he knows (and doesn’t hesitate to say) even before he’s written a chapter.
Anyway, without going into too much detail, I’ll just say Hoffman’s great and I really liked this movie. It’s as good as Elizabethtown was bad.
I give it an A.
What a bummer when one of your favorite filmmakers makes a bad movie.
And yet, that’s exactly what Cameron Crowe has done with Elizabethtown. It’s miscast, poorly acted, overly long, and just not good.
If you’ve seen it, say it with me: the film is a fiasco.
Perhaps the only good thing about it is the soundtrack, which includes Elton John’s “My Father’s Gun” and one of my recent favorite songs, I Nine’s “Same in Any Language.”
But even despite that, I give the film a D. That’s D for disappointment.
It’s been a wet, wet, nasty weekend here, and for all the joking Friday night about winter officially beginning at 7:35 p.m. (when the Sox lost), the temperatures have actually dropped significantly, making it feel like summer is now officially over and winter is actually on its way.
Yuck. Continue reading
I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s a role model or even someone I idolize. He’s not even a man-crush. But George Clooney is someone I respect and admire.
It all started for me on September 2, 1997, a few days after Princess Diana died. Clooney held a press conference to call the paparazzi to task, saying it was their fault she was dead, that they were reckless, and not just in this case. The way he delivered his remarks that night — in a forceful and passionate manner, his words clearly thought-out — so impressed me that I was instantly made a fan, and I’ve never forgotten that night.
From that moment on, George Clooney was my hero. Continue reading
Saw Corpse Bride tonight. 
If you’re a fan of Tim Burton’s macabre style and you liked Nightmare Before Christmas (tho, in full disclosure, I never saw it), then this movie’s right up your alley.
The animation — stop-motion, as opposed to CGI — is cool, the songs are fun, voice work is good, and it’s real short, too (about 80 minutes).
In particular, I really liked how the land of the living was a dull, drab black and white, but the land of the dead was full of color and (ahem) life.
I give the film a B+.
Outside the auditorium, there were these little two-sided, newsletter-style booklets. One side had “Land of the Dead” and the other said “Land of the Living.”
Essentially, one half was about — well, you can probably figure it out.
But what was particularly funny was that in the “Living” section, there was an obituary for the “recently departed” and in the “Dead” section, there was an announcement of the “recently arrived.”
And in the middle of the two sections were the lyrics to the “Corpse Bride” song that is the showstopping number of the movie. Good stuff.
Anyway, Corpse Bride opens next week (Sept. 23). Go see it.
I got a lot of email about my posting last weekend about Junebug. The majority read like this: “You’ve seen 29 movies? What are the others? Which ones should I see?” So in an attempt to answer those questions, here’s my 2005 list so far, in order of when I saw the films, with the grades I’d give them. (Note that I saw Wedding Crashers twice, thus the “x2.”)
1. ELEKTRA (B-)
2. THE WEDDING DATE (C)
3. HITCH (B)
4. THE UPSIDE OF ANGER (B-)
5. SIN CITY (B)
6. FEVER PITCH (B/B+)
7. THE INTERPRETER (B-)
8. CINDERELLA MAN (A-)
9. CRASH (B+/A-)
10. MADAGASCAR (C)
11. THE LONGEST YARD (solid B)
12. STAR WARS: EPISODE 3: REVENGE OF THE SITH (C-)
13. BATMAN BEGINS (A-)
14. BEWITCHED (D)
15. MR. & MRS. SMITH (B/B+)
16. WAR OF THE WORLDS (B)
17. CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (B+)
18. WEDDING CRASHERS (B+) (x2)
19. BAD NEWS BEARS (C+)
20. MUST LOVE DOGS (C)
21. HUSTLE AND FLOW (B)
22. MURDERBALL (A)
23. DUKES OF HAZARD (C-)
24. RED EYE (D+)
25. BROKEN FLOWERS (B+)
26. THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN (B+)
27. THE ARISTOCRATS (B)
28. MARCH OF THE PENGUINS (B+)
29. JUNEBUG (C)
I suppose it’s cool knowing that I went to school with actors who have made it big.
I may not have been friends with all of these guys, but still, who doesn’t enjoy saying “I know him?”
These days, I can do that with a solid handful of folks. Continue reading
Saw Junebug today. It’s a southern-fried dramedy about a couple who go to North Carolina and decide to make a detour to see his estranged family. There was great buzz about Amy Adams, who was in Catch Me If You Can, and I’d heard good things about the film in general, so I finally checked it out. Continue reading
Martin's Musings 