Martin's Musings

God bless Robert Downey, Jr. The guy has such a style about him, and he’s so good in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Without belaboring the point, I’ll just say this is a terrifically funny movie. I just wish I could remember more than a couple lines of dialogue. You see, Downey says all his lines in such a matter-of-fact, rapid-fire style that it’s all good and you’re laughing too hard to remember much of what’s been said. And fuck if I know what the movie’s actually about (the plot lost me about a quarter of the way in), but it’s just so much fun that you don’t care. I suppose the self-referential thing does get a little bit old — Downey’s narrator makes reference to the audiences in Times Square that are prone to talking back to the screen and to the multiple endings of the third Lord of the Rings film, among other topics — but whatever. There’s so much else to laugh at that this is just a minor quibble. In the end, I can’t quite decide what to rate this one, so I’m going to go with a B+/A-.

It takes someone who knows the New York Jewish culture to make a movie like Prime.

Which is to say that it is a really authentic-feeling, -looking and -sounding movie.

It starts with Meryl Streep, whose performance as a New York Jewish therapist is completely dead-on and perfect (surprise, surprise).

And the writing, by director Ben Younger (who also made Boiler Room, that loud and obnoxious stock trading movie a few years back), is filled not just with the expected gefilte fish and Manischewitz jokes, but with things like a Jewish mother putting red wine in the fridge, overly obsessive Jewish mother-isms like not giving your kids Q-Tips for fear of them being unsafe, the Bubbie — and small, subtle details like a mezuzah on the doorframe. Continue reading →

Welcome to the (doesn’t) suck.

Jarhead (in theaters November 4) is one of the best films I’ve seen all year. It starts out with a really tough first five minutes — you try not to cringe when Jake Gyllenhaal’s head is slammed against a blackboard — and then Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” starts playing, and it only gets better from there.

Here’s an easily digestible list of what I liked most about the film: Continue reading →

From its first frame, Shopgirl announces itself as sort of an elegant, high-minded — but pompous — filmed version of one of Steve Martin’s literary works. In fact, it’s one of the oddest films I’ve seen all year, and not the film I expected it to be based on the tv and print ads I’ve seen. Martin himself plays a character who isn’t as compelling as he’s supposed to be, and Jason Schwartzman (so good in Rushmore, but not as good in much else since) brings the film to life — then disappears for most of it. (Huh?) And Claire Danes is so plain looking — and acting — that you can’t quite understand why Martin’s character would find her so appealing. Still, Schwartzman’s performance is fun, and the film does have high aspirations that I’ll assume just went over my head. And Martin, who also wrote the screenplay, has included some pretty great lines of dialogue that come up unexpectedly, such as one that Danes says close to the end of the film that I can’t quote here for fear of ruining it for folks who haven’t seen the film yet. So in summary, I’ll give Shopgirl the benefit of the doubt and rate it a B–.

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.

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 →