November/December 2011

It's the wee hours of 2012 as I type my final movie blog of the prior year. I missed November, owing to various work, vacation and television obligations (including a seven-night cruise to Mexico and watching the entirety of Downton Abbey's second season). So I'm including both November and December in this installment.

NOVEMBER MOVIES


MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE (2011)—I was suckered into seeing this by Miami Herald critic Rene Rodriguez, who praised the film's supposedly masterful ending. I had a different take, which was, "What ending?" The movie—about a young woman who escapes from a commune where women are brainwashed into being sexual slaves—ends abruptly with no real resolution. And while I can appreciate that this is the point, I wanted something a little more than "Th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!" (7)


BUTTER (2012)—This is probably the first movie I've blogged about that was still unreleased by the time I got around to writing about it. I was invited to an advance screening of this one in Santa Monica in November, way before its official March 2012 debut. Full disclosure: Not only did I laugh out loud numerous times during this comedy, but a couple of the scenes were genuinely moving as well. That's why I'd like to be able to rate this wonderfully cast and superbly acted comedy a full-on "10." Unfortunately, too many illogical plot points prevented me from feeling fully satisfied by what should have been a home run in the spirit of Alexander Payne's Election, after which it clearly patterns itself. A savvy mix of outrageous, profane humor and tearful sentimentality, director Jim Field Smith's film is certainly the best movie ever made about the art of butter carving. In it, Ty Burrell (of TV's hit series Modern Family) is an Iowa-based champion sculptor who uses the titular dairy product; when political forces encourage him to bow out and give others a chance to win the blue ribbon, his power-obsessed wife (Jennifer Garner) blows a gasket and enters the competition herself to keep the family name on the trophy table. Enter Destiny (Yara Shahidi), a 10-year-old black foster child who discovers she's pretty darn good at butter carving herself, and takes on Garner. Here's where those pesky plot flaws start to rear their ugly heads. How does Garner learn this art practically overnight? Why is Burrell elbowed out of the running at all, when he clearly has no other serious competition? Worse yet: after Garner's character accuses Destiny of getting help from Hugh Jackman, why does anybody pay her any attention, when Destiny's solo handiwork was observed by an audience? I realize this is a comedy, but you've gotta have some logic or the house of cards just falls apart. Still, if you can somehow overlook some of the irritating and quite frankly lazy plot conceits, what's left is enjoyable enough, especially thanks to Olivia Wilde's over-the-top portrayal of a lunatic stripper, and newcomer Shahidi is a winning Destiny. Additionally, there are also humorous turns by familiar supporting players from comedy TV shows (Phyllis Smith of The Office, Kristen Schaal of Flight of the Conchords). Thumbs up for some hilarious bloopers at the closing credits mark. (7)


LIKE CRAZY (2011)—An apprentice carpenter (Anton Yelchin) falls in love with a pretty British student (Felicity Jones) studying in the States. When their intense love affair (i.e., great sex) prompts her to overstay her visa, complications obviously ensue. The actors give it their college best (ha-ha), but the movie feels largely improvised, which I gather it was. It's hard to sympathize with these dumb-dumbs, who should have known the government wouldn't take kindly to her breaking the rules. The moral of the movie seems to be that love, no matter how strong it is at the beginning, is doomed to fade. Whoop-de-do. (7)


TOWER HEIST (2011)—A comedy caper starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy as a couple of guys who try to swindle a fortune from a Bernie Madoff-like financier played by Alan Alda. Not bad, but should have been a lot funnier (and a little more plausible). Murphy's role fizzles way before the conclusion, but Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) does well in a smaller role. (7)


THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN, PART 1 (2011)—Penultimate installment in the vampire series created by Stephenie Meyer may be slightly better than its two predecessors, but it's still infinitely worse than the original film. Ally Sheedy lookalike Kristen Stewart finally marries vampire Robert Pattinson, and they honeymoon on a beautiful island that's very pretty to look at. Then she gets pregnant, and her unborn hybrid baby nearly kills her and (for reasons I couldn't completely understand) totally pisses off the wolf-men, who launch their own attack. I wasn't exactly bored, but there was rarely a time when I didn't wish I was watching the original Twilight. There's one truly magical moment when wolf-boy Jacob (Taylor Lautner) makes a mysterious connection with the baby Renesme, which will hopefully be elaborated upon in the series' final chapter, due next Christmas. (6)


ARTHUR CHRISTMAS (2011)—Some generations ago, Santa delivered toys on Christmas the traditional way, with the reindeers and the chimneys. But with the world population now in the billions, how can that possibly work? This animated entertainment purports to resolve the conundrum (an army of elves toil in front of computers and there's a big super-spaceship), but the film's explanation was, at least for me, more perplexing than the original question. But the wonky logic won't matter to kids—at least the kids I saw it with—and there's enough charm and action here to keep everybody interested. (7)


A DANGEROUS METHOD (2011)—A tremendously flat and dull film about Freud, Jung and a troubled female patient they first treat, then mentor. As the patient, Keira Knightley is a revelation—in the early part of the film, this striking beauty contorts her features in ways that are alarming and horrifying, and as we see her take control of her demons, she gives one of the year's best performances—too bad it's in one of the year's most boring films. (4)


JOSEPHINE AND MEN (1955)—The only archival movie I saw in November stars Glynis Johns as a woman who only seems to be attracted to men who need her. The moment they don't need her desperately, she completely loses interest. That doesn't sound like much of a plot, and it isn't, but the British-made Josephine sparkles with wit, good acting and deft direction. Co-starring Peter Finch, and directed by the legendary Roy Boulting. (8)

DECEMBER MOVIES


HUGO (2011)—Martin Scorsese directs a film for children about the importance of…film preservation? I found it to be a rather odd theme, but I guess that's what people like Scorsese care about. Based on the sort-of graphic novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, this amazingly photographed film introduces us to the title character, an orphan who lives behind the walls of a Paris train station and operates all of the building's clocks. As we learn about his backstory, he locks horns with a shopkeeper who turns out to be pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès. Their relationship is the cornerstone of a movie that should be more interesting to adults than children. I saw the film in 2D, but am hoping to catch it again in 3D—by all accounts, it's a richer and more rewarding experience. (8)


TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (2011) I've never enjoyed spy movies—I never know what's going on or who's double-crossing whom—but it is rare that I pass up an opportunity to see a VIP screening and hobnob with movie-industry folks. (Thanks to my friend Irene for constantly inviting me to these cool events!) Plus, it stars Gary Oldman, one of the best actors ever born. Unfortunately, this is spy a thriller with a plot so convoluted that I was practically catatonic with boredom trying to follow it. Forgive me, all you intellectuals, but in my private Hell, this is the only movie that's playing, forever. (1)


THE DESCENDANTS (2011) I don't make any secret about the fact that Alexander Payne is my favorite living director—I adore (and own) all of his previous efforts, from Citizen Ruth to Sideways, which are all loaded with drama, comedy, pathos and satire. The Descendants is a worthy addition to the Payne canon, even if it's not quite up to the level of quality of its predecessors. It's still a fascinating story, with a terrific lead performance by George Clooney as a Hawaiian attorney whose wife lies comatose in a hospital bed following a speedboat injury. Previously a neglectful husband and father, he pulls his family together while dealing with a startling revelation about his wife that comes to light after her accident. This is a movie that had me tearing up one second and laughing literally a moment later. This is easily one of the year's best films. Only debit: the movie never once lets you forget that it takes place in Hawaii, and beats us over the head with nonstop ukelele music. (9)


THE ARTIST (2011)—A dazzling and wordless triumph. In the late 1920s, silent films are about to become a thing of the past. But before talkies take over, George Valentin is everybody's favorite leading man. Aspiring actress Peppy Miller literally bumps into him, and her career starts to take off. The Artist tells both of their stories (as well as Valentin's adorable Jack Russell terrier), which seems far more compelling than what any of their respective movies are about. It's a wonderful surprise, with plenty of good old fashioned drama and romance; writer-director Michel Hazanavicius has taken something extremely old and turned it into the freshest film of the year. Like Hugo before it, it's a movie about movies, but this one has more heart and soul—and achieves it without color or spoken dialogue. Leading actress Bérénice Bejo is ravishing. The Artist is not to be missed. (10)


YOUNG ADULT (2011)—Juno writer Diablo Cody (retiming with director Jason Reitman) turns in another screenplay full of her trademark snark, but this one works only sporadically. Charlize Theron is perfect in the role of an attractive and single (but morally bankrupt) author of young-adult novels who abruptly decides to marry her high-school boyfriend, even though he's a happily married father of a baby girl. Arriving at her small hometown, she connects with an ex-classmate (comedian Patton Oswalt) she doesn't even remember. Will Theron succeed in stealing her ex-sweetie, or will her embarrassing and misguided plot backfire in her face? There are a few chuckles as the film shambles toward its inevitable conclusion, but constant movie companion Joan said it best: all the good parts were in the trailer. (7)


EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE (2011)—An extremely long and incredibly dull examination of a 10-year-old boy (Thomas Horn), devastated by the loss of his dad (Tom Hanks) on 9/11, and his odyssey to figure out the meaning of a strange key Hanks left behind. For me, the movie's main problem is that the boy—a social misfit who probably suffers from Aspergers Syndrome—isn't a fraction as likable as he should be in order for the audience to care about him; he tends to shout at people a lot and keeps rattling an annoying tambourine. The film comes to life briefly when an elderly mute neighbor (Max Von Sydow) enters the picture, and for a time, we enjoy the two of them attempt to solve the mystery of the key. But as soon as Sydow checks out, so too do we. The film's editors chopped out a subplot involving James Gandolfini, whose entire part ended up on the cutting room floor. What a pity that another 30-45 minutes of this bloated film didn't go with him. The dishonest filmmakers first depict the boy's mother (Sandra Bullock) as napping and neglectful, but unconvincingly ask us to believe she's a saint by the end of the picture. (6)


WE BOUGHT A ZOO (2011)—My low expectations for this sentimental family film paid off in droves. Based on the true story of a widowed father of two children who buys a dilapidated zoo with plans to refurbish it, the movie is overly simplistic and one-dimensional, but director Cameron Crowe has his heart in the right place, and gives the film enough sparkle, humanity and animal jokes to balance the massive levels of corn. (The two leads, Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, are two of our most attractive movie stars.) To my astonishment, I spilled more tears in this movie than practically any other in my life. We Bought Another Zoo, anybody? (9)


THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2011)—I am one of the few who haven't read the Stieg Larsson or seen the original Swedish film adaptation, which turns out to be a huge plus for viewers of this remake. Director David Fincher (Seven) is at the top of his game, having assembled a great cast led by the titular Rooney Mara as Lisbeth, the punkish, bisexual misfit who teams with Daniel Craig to solve a mystery for Christopher Plummer's character. It's pure story from start to finish, absorbing, violent, surprising and satisfying in numerous ways. Astonishingly, at 158 minutes, the movie could stand to be even longer, as one of its few debits is that the last 20 minutes seems a little short-handed and rushed. I would buy a longer director's cut of this marvelous piece of entertainment. Mara turns in what is probably the year's best performance by an actress—she makes her character detached, dangerous, pitiable, fiercely intelligent and ultimately sympathetic. Unfortunately, the movie is apparently tanking at the box office. (10)


WAR HORSE (2011)—Steven Spielberg's latest "serious" effort starts off as an old-fashioned sentimental story of a boy and his horse; it becomes alternately gripping, violent and suspenseful—but also unforgivably bloated. The horse is conscripted to help soldiers on the front lines of WWI, and the animal flip-flops on both sides of the battleground during various hours of the film to make the following points: 1. The horse is wonderful and heroic; 2. Regardless of which side you're fighting on, you're still a human being; 3. War sucks for everybody. At 2 hours and 40 minutes, the movie needs at least 40 minutes lopped out of it. There was enough here to keep me entertained, but its excruciating length is a major liability—when the horse isn't at the center of the story, the movie suffers. (7)


PUSS IN BOOTS (2011)—Entertaining and worthy Shrek spinoff focuses on the swashbuckling kitty, who joins forces with Humpty Dumpty and a female feline voiced by Salma Hayek. Lots of motion, humor and Spanish music, with a cool redemption subplot; it's mostly for kids, but it'll keep the adults entertained. I love how the poster plays with a popular cinematic cliché of a protagonist calmly walking away from an explosion! (8)


JANE EYRE (2011)—I have neither read Charlotte Bronte's classic novel nor seen any of the countless film or TV adaptations; this newest version is my first encounter with Jane. To my surprise, it seems more Dickensian than Austenian as a story (innocent youngster endures various hardships and runs afoul of evil, tortuous and cantankerous souls as he/she barrels toward adulthood). In the title role, Mia Wasikowska is picture-perfect as the not-especially-attractive Jane, yet somehow exuding a spiritual beauty and winning our hearts with her morality and ability to love. It's got me curious to check out other film and TV versions. Interestingly, I had intended my final film of 2011 to be Shame, starring Michael Fassbender (so coldly aloof as Carl Jung in this year's A Dangerous Method), but it was so relentlessly dull that I didn't make it past the first 45 minutes. Yet here is Fassbender again, turning in a fine performance as Jane's love interest, Rochester. (8)


MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2011

The Artist
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Descendants
Crazy Stupid Love
Moneyball
Real Steel
Midnight in Paris
Thor
Limitless
Win Win
Rio
Life, Above All
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
One Day
Colombiana
Contagion
Bridesmaids


2011 MOVIES I'M SORRY I MISSED

The Muppets
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
A Separation
My Week With Marilyn
Hanna
The Debt
The Tree of Life
The Devil's Double
Straw Dogs
The Way

2011 MOVIES I'M SORRY I SAW

Sucker Punch (half)
Take Shelter
Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence

FAVORITE PAST MOVIES I SAW 2011

I don't really discuss TV series in this blog, but for posterity's sake, I should mention that this was the year I began burning through several different series, all of them still going strong as of this date: Dexter, Breaking Bad and Homeland, in that order. And yet I still found time to watch a fair amount of old movies, both on DVD and in the theater. Here were my favorites:

Barney's Version (2010)
Blind Corner (1963)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Cash on Demand (1961)
Country Strong (2010)
Cry Terror (1958)
The Fighter (2010)
Grand Hotel (1932)
The Great Escape (1963)
The Greengage Summer (1961)
The Holiday (2006)
Holiday Inn (1942)
Hud (1963)
Kind Lady (1951)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Mark (1961)
Mister Roberts (1955)
A Night at the Opera (1933)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Rabbit Hole (2010)
Shane (1953)
The Silent Partner (1978)
The Snorkel (1958)
Sophie's Choice (1982)
The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
Super (2010)
Susan Slade (1961)
The Well (1951)

October 2011

With the new TV season in full swing, most of my movie viewing has been relegated to weekends in the theater, and my attention to archival films has been regrettably lacking. Overall it was a rather disappointing crop this month, but there were three delightful highlights.

FIRST-RUN


THE IDES OF MARCH (2011)—A political thriller involving Governor George Clooney's presidential campaign, which is being run by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ryan Gosling, the latter of which takes a lunch meeting with a rival campaign manager (Paul Giamatti) and starts to see his career unravel as a result; there's a subplot about a scandal involving Clooney and a pretty young girl (Evan Rachel Wood) he has slept with. The movie moves along nicely, with a few cool twists, but there are a few perplexingly illogical plot points that mar the film's overall flavor (spoilers ahead!). I found it absurd that Wood would commit suicide in the wake of an abortion to avoid dragging her religious family through a scandal—wouldn't that itself create a scandal?—and it doesn't make any sense that a simple lunch meeting would qualify Gosling for dismissal from the campaign. An interesting but flawed movie with one of those infuriatingly ambiguous endings. (7)


DIRTY GIRL (2011)—Juno Temple stars as a pretty but obnoxious high-school slut who's paired up with an introverted homosexual classmate (Jeremy Dozier)...and this odd-couple pairing results in an unlikely friendship as they both rebel against their respective unsavory family members. The leads to a good job, but too many dumb/silly conceits subtract from the narrative, especially a scene where tubby Dozier mesmerizes in a striptease competition. Dwight Yoakam appears as Dozier's father as a despicable character indistinguishable from the one he played in Sling Blade, and there's no sense of why Mary Steenburgen would ever have been attracted to this earthworm. This should have been a nice redemption story involving Temple, but the movie unfortunately settles for being less than it should have been. (6)


MARGIN CALL (2011)—A decent fictionalized account of the sort of greed-fueled behavior on Wall Street that led to this country's current financial crisis, although the filmmakers unfortunately don't attempt to dumb down the details so that birdbrains like me can understand the machinations of how worthless stocks get sold in the first place. (In one of the film's more memorable scenes, the trading firm's CEO (Jeremy Irons) implores the super-smart junior employee (Star Trek's Zachary Quinto) to recount what has happened in terms that even a dog could understand, yet I still didn't quite understand the explanation. Even so, the performances by Quinto and the always-dependable Kevin Spacey are first-rate. (7)


PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 (2011)—I am a major fan of the first two "found footage" horror films in this series; the third is basically the same gimmick, the only twist being that it's a prequel to the first two and filmed using somewhat more archaic recording equipment. But the gimmick of putting one of the cameras on an oscillating fan is brilliant. I felt incredibly cheated that 90 percent of the footage in the movie's trailer inexplicably failed to make it onscreen, and I lost patience with the plot about 10 minutes before the end. Still entertaining and creepy, but not as good as its predecessors. (8)


MONEYBALL (2011)—A consistently absorbing drama about real-life baseball GM Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and how he hooks up with a young whiz-kid to build a winning Oakland A's team based on statistical data, to the consternation of the team's professional scouts. This is a terrific sports movie for people who aren't necessarily sports fans—it's entertaining, suspenseful and even moving. (9)


THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2: FULL SEQUENCE (2011)—Writer/director Tom Six's original horror flick had some nice dark humor and an unthinkably perverse plot; in this "meta sequel," Part 1 becomes the "film within" Part 2, and eliminates any semblance of rational plot—it just strives to be brutal and ugly, and push the tastelessness envelope. It's got a wonderfully grotesque villain named Martin (Laurence R. Harvey) and is filmed in stark, striking black-and-white...but despite all of the torture and killing, there's none of the humor, suspense and drama that the first Centipede had. Six delights in throwing stuff at us that's patently implausible: for example, how does Martin, who is evidently mute, successfully ensnare the actress from Part 1 to fly from the U.S. to England for an audition (supposedly for a Quentin Tarantino film)? And stapling people together instead of using surgery is just preposterous. (5)


TAKE SHELTER (2011)—Suffering through this interminable movie makes me want to ignore good critical reviews for the rest of eternity; how did so many of them get hoodwinked by such a nothing of a film? At its center is a husband and father played by Michael Shannon, a simple guy who starts to suffer symptoms of schizophrenia. After he begins to hallucinate and have apocalyptic dreams involving storms, he gets a loan from the bank to rebuild his storm shelter, and begins behaving more and more erratically. Over and over, the viewer is shown bizarre things that turn out to be only another one of his troubling dreams. By the time we get to the movie's climactic "punch line," I no longer cared about the protagonist or anybody else in the movie. (5)


REAL STEEL (2011)—Hilariously, while I didn't care much for the previous film (which somehow racked up many excellent reviews), I absolutely loved this critically maligned popcorn movie, which is 100 percent pure (albeit predictable) entertainment, a cross between Rocky and Robocop. In the not-too-distant future, people attend fights between large robots of the rock 'em, sock 'em variety; the special effects on display here are positively outstanding. I felt like a kid watching a monster movie. Recommended for little boys of all ages. (10)


50/50 (2011)—Occasionally entertaining comedy-drama about an ordinary twentysomething (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who gets cancer, and the best friend (Seth Rogen) who provides a measure of comic relief and genuine support as he navigates his way toward recovery. There are some slow patches, to be sure—this film needs some real tightening up—but it's not a bad effort. I just wish the filmmakers had made me care more about their protagonist; Rogen pretty much carries the film on his shoulders. (7)

FROM THE ARCHIVES


KIND LADY (1951)—This is actually a remake of a 1935 Basil Rathbone thriller about a con man who enters the life of a kind, wealthy elderly woman and ends up holding her hostage in her own home while he and his criminal buddies proceed to rob her blind. Maurice Evans (who would go on to play Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes almost 20 years hence) is outstanding as the charming but sinister artist who has big plans for poor, dear Ethel Barrymore. (9)


THE GREENGAGE SUMMER (1961)—Stylish and imaginative drama of a group of British children who arrive in France on a holiday with the mother, who suddenly falls ill and must recover at a nearby hospital while the kids stay at a local hotel. Taken under their wing by the hotel's sole guest (fellow Britisher Kenneth More, who's having a fling with the hotel's proprietor), the children start to view their savior as kind of a father figure...except that he starts to develop a sexual attraction to the eldest girl (Susannah York), who is about to turn 17 and is blossoming into a lovely young woman. If this sounds like a recipe for disaster, it gets worse—turns out More may also be hiding from the cops. This film, based on a novel by Rumer Godden, was retitled Loss of Innocence for U.S. viewers and is a true gem, a forgotten classic that truly deserves to find a new audience. (10)

September 2011

As the summer rocketed to a close, so did my ability to watch nearly a movie a day, as my work obligations and the new TV season pulled me away from film. Of the eight movies viewed last month, only three were new. Here's what went down.


APOLLO 18 (2011)—The "found footage" horror genre that began with The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity continues with this lunar edition, which purports to tell of a secret U.S. moon landing some 40 years ago—as well as a secret USSR mission to boot. Both, as it turns out, ended extremely badly, thanks to some wicket creatures that are somehow living on our beloved satellite. While there are a few scares to be had here, most of the time you find yourself wondering (a) how and why they were filming all of this stuff (and from so many different angles), and (b) how any of the footage could have possibly been discovered. (7)


CONTAGION (2011)—Gwyneth Paltrow somehow contracts a mysterious virus that ends up killing millions of people all over the world. Her husband (Matt Damon) struggles to keep their daughter safe from both the disease and the marauding hordes who are stalking the streets and forcing the country into marshall law. The film adopts the interesting gimmick of introducing the action at Day #2 of the crisis, then letting the story unfold to its conclusion before flashing back to Day #1, where we find out how the virus got created in the first place. It's a compelling and nerve-wracking film with some nicely drawn characters, but without a truly touching and captivating human story. For me, the most moving sequence involves the fate of a scientist played by Kate Winslet. (8)


DRIVE (2011)—A man with no name, few words and excellent fighting skills helps a pretty woman who is threatened by a scary bad guy. Paging Clint Eastwood! Ryan Gosling is the modern-day antihero—a mechanic instead of a cowboy—who excels at fast getaways and kicking villains to death in elevators. Albert Brooks is a Jewish gangster who likes to slice people open with a switchblade. The two men cross paths in a dangerous ways. The pretty girl is played by talented British actress Carey Mulligan, who is totally wasted here playing a character who is sketchily written, to say the least. The film, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, contains enough action to keep men everywhere intrigued, but by the end you're still hungry for a movie. (8)


PICNIC (1955)—A watchable but at times embarrassingly dated adaptation of William Inge's hit play, featuring William Holden as a down-on-his-luck drifter who takes his shirt off a lot, arousing the carnal desires of a variety of women in a small town (notably Kim Novak). Holden is entirely too old to play the handsome young drifter, but apparently female audiences of the mid-1950s didn't agree. Susan Strasberg, as Kim's kid sister, has a very nice bit as an underage semi-tomboy. (7)


WOLF CREEK (2005)—I heard this Aussie horror flick described as "torture porn," and that's as apt a description as any. Three young attractive people on a road trip through the Australian countryside experience car trouble and get help from an affable trucker…who turns out to be a very, very bad man. The filmmakers turn the typical horror cliches on their heads, defying expectations and taking the characters' destinies in directions you haven't seen a million times before. This results in a scary but ultimately brutally sad denouement. Supposedly "based on actual events," but that's a bit of a stretch. (6)


A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1948)—If I accomplished nothing else this month, it was to scratch yet another Billy Wilder movie off my list. This post-WWII comedy takes us to war-torn Berlin, where an Army captain finds himself torn between an attractive visiting Congresswoman (Jean Arthur) and a ex-Nazi nightclub singer (Marlene Dietrich). There's a generous helping of humor, but it's not top-tier Wilder; still, Wilder at his most mediocre is better than most directors at their very best. (8)


RASCAL (1969)—I was in the mood to watch a wholesome Disney flick, the likes of which the Mouse churned out for decades. This one features Bill Mumy (the kid from Lost in Space) as a boy who adopts a pet raccoon whose mischievous nature gets both of them in predicament after predicament. Harmless family fun based on Sterling North's autobiographical book. (7)


A CRY FROM THE STREETS (1958)—Well-made, terrifically acted British drama (in beautiful B&W) about a female social worker whose job finding homes for orphans—and reuniting kids with their runaway parents—impacts her new romance with a young suitor in many ways. Featuring a bunch of very talented child actors between 5 and 8 years old. Only debit: a totally out-of-place musical sequence halfway through the film. (8)


CRY TERROR (1958)—Nifty thriller starring James Mason and Inger Stevens as a couple who, along with their child, are kidnapped by villains Rod Steiger (menacing as ever), Jack Klugman, Angie Dickinson and Neville Brand in an elaborate terrorism plot. Quite suspenseful for its time. (8)

August 2011

My basic plan for this month's archival series was to focus on "The Movies I Most Want to See." While I wasn't entirely successful in sticking to that mandate, I was able to run a red line through the names of a lot of movies I've been pining to see for quite a while. Meanwhile, most of the first-run films I saw were uniformly excellent. A very good movie month, with some excellent surprises and more winners than losers.

NEW MOVIES


RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011)—Although it has been widely described as a prequel to the Charlton Heston classic, that's not technically true—particularly if you regard the 1968 film in conjunction with the rest of the original series. Regardless, this "origin story" is a gripping, imaginative cocktail of storylines from various movies, from Charly (intelligence drug) to Escape from Alcatraz (prison break) and many others—but interestingly, nothing that even vaguely reminded me of the original Planet of the Apes! Most of the CGI ape effects are astonishing and completely believable, but not quite all. As with Avatar, a few of the animated warm bodies seem to lack weight. But that's a minor quibble—this was a suspenseful and involving summer blockbuster, whetting our appetite for the inevitable sequels. (9)


THE HELP (2011)—Kathryn Stockett's 2010 novel is a rich, fabulously imagined tapestry about racial bigotry and the human condition; I wish the film version could have made the same emotional impact. It doesn't, but there are fine performances from Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Bryce Dallas Howard. Although she's a fine performer, Emma Stone turns out to be one of the weaker links for me as the main character, Skeeter, who sets out to pen a book about racism in early '60s Mississippi. Unfortunately, the screenplay doesn't come close to equalling the source material; what's left is a moderately engaging story that ultimately left me pining for the feeling the book provided. (7)


CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE (2011)—The surprise of the year—maybe the decade. Steve Carell, so hilarious in TV's The Office, has never come close to equalling that performance on the big screen (I am not a fan of The 40-Year-Old Virgin or Little Miss Sunshine, his most critically acclaimed films). Crazy, Stupid, Love, despite having a crazily stupid title, is a comedy worthy of his talents; he plays a guy separating from his wife of many years (Julianne Moore), and struggling to re-enter the dating scene with the help of a younger male friend, played by Ryan Gosling. The supporting cast, which includes Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei and Jonah Bobo, are all marvelous, and Analeigh Tipton (playing a 17-year-old, but actually the same age as Emma Stone), triumphs in the role of a babysitter inexplicably smitten with Carell. (9)


ONE DAY (2011)—I had extremely low expectations for this, as it got a depressingly low 27% "fresh" on the Tomatometer. But Irene and I were both mesmerized by this story of Emma (Anne Hathaway), a British student whose relationship with a male friend, Dexter (Jim Sturgess) is traced over a 20-year period—each year, in fact, on the same date. That conceit, perhaps inspired by Same Time, Next Year, gives us great insight into the couple's dynamic, and the actors a wonderful chance to literally grow into their roles. I did not read the David Nicholls novel the film is based on, but he's done a great job adapting it. The film is full of romance, pathos, comedy, tragedy and even a bit of skinny-dipping. (9)


FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS (2011)—A trashy but acceptably entertaining rom-com, unbelievably predictable, but pushing most of the right buttons. A pretty girl (Mila Kunis) tells hot guy (Justin Timberlake) she only wants to be fuckbuddies. Guess what happens next! The film teases us by placing A-listers Andy Samberg and Emma Stone at the beginning of the movie, but those appearances turn out to be cameos. The leads perform very well. (8)


COLOMBIANA (2011)—This is an unashamedly enjoyable popcorn movie, starring "it" girl Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Star Trek) as an assassin who's killing off the bad guys who destroyed her family when she was a tot. It's pure action from beginning to end; Saldana is sexy and beautiful, and the bloodshed is copious. As one wag observed, "Revenge is a dish best served sexy." (9)


DVDs



THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE (1976)—Jodie Foster is the "little girl" whose dad never seems to be home, and Martin Sheen is a bad guy who kills her hamster with a cigarette. OK suspenser has some interesting moments; two years earlier, co-star Scott Jacoby had starred in a spiritually related thriller called Bad Ronald, a TV film in which he played an orphan living in a house under equally bizarre circumstances. (7)


X-MEN (2000)—With all of the hoopla over this summer's prequel (X-Men: First Class), I decided to dip my toe in the X pool and see what I've been missing. Although I'm not a superhero fan by any stretch of the imagination (I'm one of the few moviegoers less than enthralled with The Dark Knight franchise), I have enjoyed occasional forays into the genre (Superman II, Heroes). Although I saw X-Men a little less than a month ago, I remember almost nothing about it except that Patrick "Capt. Picard" Stewart and Bruce "Willard" Davison were in it. I recall thinking that Heroes, at least in its first season, did the same kind of thing, only much better. (6)


DEAD OF NIGHT (1945)—This is a famous horror "anthology" movie whose most famous segment features Michael Redgrave as a ventriloquist who becomes increasingly unglued when his dummy starts to take on a life of its own. Internationally acclaimed as being a superior horror film, and certainly the best "portmanteau," I found it decent but hardly worthy of its extraordinary reputation. (7)


ONIONHEAD (1958)—I have wanted to check out this Andy Griffith comedy since I was in college. He plays an Okie who joins the Coast Guard during WWII and is assigned to be a cook (although he can't cook). He learns how from the galley chief, grumpy drunk Walter Matthau, almost unrecognizable with lighter hair and a wearing an appliance to give him an overbite. The movie mixes comedic and dramatic elements liberally, throwing in some romantic entanglements and some unexpected drama, making it a worthy successor to Griffith's first big hit, No Time for Sergeants, although this follow-up was a box-office bomb. (8)


BLIND CORNER (1963)—Retitled Man in the Dark for U.S. audiences, this British crime drama stars William Sylvester as a blind pop-music composer whose wife, Barbara Shelley, is plotting to kill him. I will confess to wanting to watch this because beautiful Shelley is the star of my favorite movie, Village fo the Damned, and this shocker was made shortly after it. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it has a cool little plot twist I didn't see coming, even though it was recycled in one of my favorite TV movies, 1979's Murder by Natural Causes. (9)


FROZEN (2010)—Talk about a chiller! This one is literally ice-cold. Three attractive twentysomethings are unintentionally stranded on a ski lift…right before a snowstorm…and the resort has been shut down for a week. What to do, what to do! Suffice it to say that what does happen is very bad for all concerned. Some of it seems a trifle implausible, but if you just go with it, it's a decent shocker, reminiscent of 2003's Open Water, about some scuba divers accidentally left behind by their diving group by doing the same "inaccurate head count" that leads to the stranding of these skiers. (8)


CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY (1944)—Gene Kelly plays a charming cad, a chronic gambler who eventually gets sucked into a web of murder and intrigue, while trying to hide his dark side from new wife Deana Durbin. The story, told in flashbacks, is loosely based on a book by Somerset Maugham, whose stories and movies I've been working my way through since watching last month's Quartet, Trio and Encore. This is a pretty bleak movie considering the title, but not bad. (7)


JACK THE GIANT KILLER (1962)—Full disclosure: My viewing of this movie was much different than any of the others. As a big fan of TV's Mystery Science Theater 3000—the show where a bunch of smartasses make fun of the dialogue in bad movies—I have followed the careers of some of the cast since the show's cancellation with great interest. Mike Nelson and company crack wise during the presentation of bad movies; their new venture is called RiffTrax, and this is the second time I've seen one of their live presentations fed via satellite to a movie house (the first one was This Island Earth). The original film is actually a fairly decent fantasy-adventure for kids—I ate up this kind of stuff in my youth—but the shoddy special effects, awkward dialogue and gimcrack sets are all very much worth making fun of, which Nelson and his buddies do with a hilarity worthy of the Marx Brothers. I had a rollicking good time—hope they do more of these. If laughter were indeed the best medicine, nobody in Mike Nelson's world would ever get sick. Note: My grade of (10) is for the RiffTrax version, not the film itself.


THE SNORKEL (1958)—Teenager Mandy Miller suspects that stepfather Peter van Eyck has killed her mom, despite his airtight alibi (and "airtight" in this case has beautiful double meaning). In fact, Mandy's pretty sure that van Eyck also knocked off her daddy! And she's right: the film actually begins, Columbo-style, showing us the ingenious way the creepy German dispatches mummy, which completely stumps the police and has them telling Mandy she's nuts. Filmed in beautiful black-and-white, The Snorkel is a cracking good Hammer thriller with an incredibly satisfying finale. (9)


LOST (1955)—Retitled Tears for Simon for American audiences, Lost is the British story of a babysitter who leaves an infant in a pram unsupervised for a couple of minutes outside a local pharmacist…and when she returns, the pram and the kid have vanished. Was the kid abducted, kidnapped, or something else? The police try to keep the terrified parents calm as they look for clues and attempt to solve the case the old fashioned way. Keeps your attention throughout. (8)


LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA (1962)—A cool title for this movie might be May I Marry Your Retarded Daughter? Except that George Hamilton never really does figure out that Olivia de Havilland's offspring (Yvette Mimieux) isn't exactly all there, mentally speaking. A couple of years ago, I watched the 1966 Hayley Mills movie Sky West and Crooked (retitled Gypsy Girl in the U.S.—why do they keep doing that?!), in which she plays a pretty but mentally slow teenager who discovers love. This film, released a few years earlier, features Mimieux in a similar kind of role, although she has a much more carefree personality in this. Mama de Havilland is at first understandably concerned when a suave Frenchman (Hamilton—no joke) enters her life during a trip to Paris, but she she slowly starts to warm to the relationship. Light but enjoyable comedy-drama. (8)


A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1933)—Along with Duck Soup, one of the Marx Brothers' triumphs—simply hilarious. I'd really like to see this on the big screen someday. (10)


THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS (1957)—I continue to work my way through the filmography of director Billy Wilder, and I'm making great progress. Jimmy Stewart plays real-life pilot Charles Lindbergh, who made the first successful solo nonstop transatlantic flight between New York and Paris. Stewart, 47, was much too old to play the 25-year-old Lindbergh, but the film is otherwise perfect, recounting the ambition, ingenuity and considerable bravery that went into that flight. One of Wilder's best! (10)


JOY RIDE (2001)—From the Guilty Pleasure Files comes this low-budget thriller about a couple of brothers who run afoul of a scary truck driver during a road trip. Basically a cross between I Saw What You Did and Duel, the movie offers equal helpings of gripping suspense and laughable implausibility. (8)


TWICE TOLD TALES (1963)—Yet another horror anthology film, this one features Vincent Price headlining a trilogy loosely based on Nathaniel Hawthorne tales. The Scarlet Letter it ain't. (6)


THE FORGOTTEN (2004)—Here's a great setup: Julianne Moore, grieving over the death of her young son, is told by her psychiatrist and husband that the kid never existed—all her memories of the boy have been manufactured as a way of coping with the fact that the baby was stillborn. Is she crazy, or is there some bizarre conspiracy afoot? Unfortunately, the Big Reveal is so preposterous that I wasn't able to tell my friend Jay about it while keeping a straight face. The first half hour is great, though, and there's a wonderful jump scene involving Alfre Woodard that saves this from being a total waste of time. (6)


THE 39 STEPS (1959)—Occasionally, I end up watching a movie by accident and, well, this is one of those times. Originally, I was torn between watching the Hitchcock classic and a later version starring John Mills (one of my favorite actors). Well, guess what? I ended up downloading and watching an interim adaptation of John Buchan's novel directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Kenneth More as the typical Hitchcockian protagonist (innocent guy unwittingly caught up in a web of intrigue). It's reasonably entertaining, although I do regret not treating myself to the Hitchcock version. (7)


SUPER (2010)—Comparisons to 2010's Kick Ass are inevitable, as both movies are black comedies involving regular folks with no magical abilities nonetheless who strive to reinvent themselves as superheroes. Similar though they may be, I enjoyed both films immensely; this one features the great Rainn Wilson (The Office) and Ellen Page (Juno) as a short-order cook and a comic-book store employee, respectively, who transform themselves into The Crimson Bolt and Boltie. Like the similar spoofs Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Kick Ass, this film has a fun comic-book sensibility and a darkly wonderful sense of humor—as well as deliciously nasty Kevin Bacon as the bad guy and a great catch phrase, "Shut up, crime!" (9)


MANDY (1952)—Six years before The Snorkel (see above), Mandy Miller played the title role of a deaf child in this sensitive, touching and intelligent British drama. After discovering that their infant daughter cannot hear, Mandy's parents find themselves at odds about how to best care for her. Should they raise her at home, or send her to a special school for the deaf? By today's standards, the father's insistence that she not receive the proper care seems more than a trifle unacceptable, but the events of the film were well over half a century ago. All of the performances, including Jack Hawkins as the brilliant headmaster who helps Mandy, but isn't such a success with other adults. (9)