SKYFALL (2012) movie review

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Elegance in action, the blond Bond returns with intentional swagger. He’s aging, and the underlying truism of this tale is that people age like wine, only improving upon acquaintance.

His word remains as good as his name, and “M,” as Dame Dench is called, stands poised for a bit of explosive field work of her own.

Ralph Fiennes joins up. But it is Javier Bardem who stuns, as usual. Out of his John Waynish trustworthy norm, Bardem pulls off a deeply paradoxical brash and hideous alongside the posh effeminate – a brilliant foe for our blessed patriot.

Looks may fade, but neither bullet nor brunette can take out a Bond.

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED (2012) movie review

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This film walks and quacks like an indie, taking indie flavored risks with an indie cast. It supports small budget dreams until a surprise ending.

 

 

It’s sweet and sour. At times I wanted the dialogue to be smarter, but then the quirk made it real, albeit vulgar and slow. Don’t get me wrong. It has some perfect moments of oddly likable chemistry.

 

 

The main characters, Aubrey Plaza from the show Parks and Rec and newcomer Mark Duplass were wonderful. I love the honesty and unpretentious swagger that they both maintain.

 

 

I expected more from Jake Johnson, best known currently as Nick on the show New Girl. In Safety, he plays the jerk who learns little and attempts to shepherd the innocent intern to walk in his ways. That whole story angle could have taken better turns, but it didn’t.

 

 

It was fun to see my friend, David Schultz in the film!

 

A would-be sweet film without fences. Anything can happen. Adventures worth taking are always risky, but I’m glad that this is just a movie.

 

 

 

 

PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER (2012) movie review

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This film wasn’t what I expected. Not at all.

It touched a nerve.

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”

This Garden State for the current generation definitely resonates with high schoolers, as so many students told me to see it.

The characters are strong-willed yet insecure – the same paradox so many live in. Each longs to be seen and known yet holds to the wall hiding truckloads of hurt. Voila: wallflower.

“I didn’t think anybody could see me.”

Stand out performances from each of these actors made the film. And, it was beautifully directed by its screenwriter who also wrote the original novel. That is rare.

This is a sad story.

Loyalty and friendship frames the classic parentless 90’s high school paradigm as these teens deal with life together. They give meaningful gifts to one another, and as they do, they give pieces of themselves. This is beautiful.

Paul Rudd surprises as the straight man. Remove his comedy and he inspires. Joan Cusack is always the favorite face to grace the screen, beautiful and trustworthy.

Two unnecessary elements stand out. No need for Rocky Horror scenes, which added nothing to the story, except to add to the already sexually charged atmosphere. High schoolers are hormonal. That’s a given.  Also, the scenes of drug use flowed with too much normalcy becoming distracting and disconcerting.

“I feel infinite.”

Despite those scenes, I felt known through this film. I left in tears wondering how I could write about a film that wrecks me so. This is real. The ache resounds. Somehow when pain is shared, we no longer feel alone. I can’t save anyone either, Charlie. But somehow as we share our messy selves with others, as we learn to love and to forgive, as we allow ourselves to be forgiven by God and everyone, we do, I agree, taste the infinite.

PROMETHEUS (2012) movie review

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Ridley Scott directs a perfect cast for this brilliant ride. Thrilling and intricate, the storyline intoxicates and lays foundation for the rest of the Alien films by the same director.

Alien (1979), staring my beloved acting coach Tom Skerritt and Sigourney Weaver, pulsed with trepidation, the stuff of true horror flicks. The magic is in the mystery, as they say. You wait for so long and see so little, but the heart races and pounds with increased dramatic irony because we don’t know what’s around that corner. This film holds back and reveals in the same widescreen way. It’s the stuff of true cinema, storm theory included.

It is Michael Fassbender‘s character, David, who throws the greatest wrench into plot give-aways and best guess-ables. He is the mimic, the learner, the emotionless android. It’s unclear until the end whether his character is friend or foe, hero or psychopath. He is, after all, the gateway opener, the translator, the well-studied journeyman, the outsider. His story is the most fascinating and most detailed. David would have been a fun character to write and act for these reasons. His character obsesses over Peter O’Toole‘s title role in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The parallels in place sync as they should, just as Damon Lindelof, writer of the Lost tv series, plans. Scott executes scenes with cinematic beauty and brilliance.

Oh, it’s gross. Don’t get me wrong. It wouldn’t be a precursor to Alien (1979) if it didn’t have its exploding heads, strange alien worms, an entire abdominal surgery, and a dangerous woman-with-ax sequence. It’s so classic it works. I can’t wait to see it again, and now I’ll know when to close my eyes.

Watch for: the halo crowning the virgin mother figure, the storm, the sly finger in the glass, and so much more. Stay alert. The clues are everywhere.

Retraction Note: My sincere apologies to the descendants of Peter O’Toole. I meant NO disrespect when I originally noted Sir Lawrence Olivier in the title role of Lawrence of Arabia. I’m afraid I did not do my homework. Thanks to the kind reader who set me straight.

THE WORDS (2012) movie review

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Ah, Blue Eyes and I go way back. Back when he was Will Tippin I rooted for him, and I called it. One day he’ll be a leading man. And here he is, film after film. This one somehow matches his unconventional repertoire.

The Words ends without resolve but walks us through three lives intersecting like layers of Inception-esque dreams.

Three writers. Storytellers.

Each risks love and loses.

One viewer may leave regarding this film as a simple exercise in modern plagiarism.

Another will argue over unnecessary plot lines. Why does Dennis Quaid‘s character’s marriage matter? How does Olivia Wilde‘s character fit into the story? Why does the old man (the beautiful actor Jeremy Irons) refuse the kind offers? How does Bradly Cooper’s character live with himself and his decisions?

Yet, another more hopeful sort, may ask the same questions but see the romance in a marriage that matters so much that a man is willing to question his decisions, write through his tragedy, and live on before he can become an old man with nothing but regret to keep him company.

Perhaps the moral of this story lies in this film’s underlying truth: that lies will eat us up. Pressure to give up integrity is constant and alluring, but we cannot find joy in life without redemption.  Fame and accomplishment are worth little without love.

Perhaps Olivia is the Jiminy Cricket of this tale, or perhaps she is the devil. Either way, she forces the teller of the tales to meet his characters face to face, to his shame.

It’s a fairly short film. Still, it’s one that I am left to ponder, rewatching scenes in my head as I carry through the everyday. Important or not, it is at least a well-told story. And, isn’t that what we’re after after all?

THE MASTER (2012) movie review

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I’ll admit it. I walked out.

 

It’s foul and endless. Pointless with a few poignant moments of beauty swallowed in so much sadness. It’s just the sort of film that makes me mad come Oscar season.

 

It will no doubt get nods galore. It may even win a few:

 

– for the director who dares shoot an entire film in 70 mm…

 

– for the actors who dare play believable cult leaders, boozers, and the women who love them.

I suddenly feel like the brave one though. I dared escape the dark theater when the screen looked too much like the ladies room of the YMCA on family swim day or when I heard enough language to take me back a trillion years to my time on the school bus. Those were the days …that I’d like to avoid reliving.

 

 

 

Brave retreat. Thai food. And home. The Master will not get my vote.

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (2012) movie review

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Beasts are rarely safe. They are wild.

Beasts of the Southern Wild is not a safe film.

It is a storm film about a little girl who lives with her father in a place called the Bathtub.

We see from the eyes of the little girl, the little hero, the one her dad calls “king” or “man.” Raised like a boy to survive in condemned swamp land, the father who means well can only teach what he knows. She relies on her imagination, her observations, and the memory of her mother for comfort and company. It is much like the film The Fall (2006) in that we see as she sees, dream as she dreams.

We hear her philosophies about the way the world works inside the universe. We hear with her the heartbeats of every beast she listens to.

She is precious, and we want her to have what she needs. This film shows her responses to neglect, alcoholism, fear, ignorance, poverty, survival, and death.

When we face our greatest longing, hold it tight, then let it go, do we know then that we are grown?  And when we face our greatest fear, stare it down, and find we are looking at ourselves will we crumble? Or will we recognize new strength in befriending these new selves?

There is a lesson that I feel I should have learned before this film from Achebe‘s novel Things Fall Apart, something about not thrusting my own cultural assumptions and expectations on another’s. But this film, though beautiful in so many ways, is very difficult to watch.

There are echoes of Where the Wild Things Are, but these beasts are real. She is a beast. Her father is a beast. The beast friends and fellow Tub-dwellers rely on alcohol and primal assumptions to drive courage. If these are the Beasts of the Southern Wild, then we must be the beasts of our own neighborhoods, simply trying to make the most of what we’ve got. Beasts are not tame, nor are they safe, but even beasts show love in their own ways. Disturbing and memorable,

…this is a story about a girl called Hushpuppy who lived with her father in a place called the Bathtub.

THE BOURNE LEGACY (2012) movie review

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Matt Damon spent the trilogy discovering his mad new skills and putting them to good use protecting himself from assassins while piecing together the puzzle of his broken memory.


Jeremy Renner knows his story, perhaps too well. He’s haunted by the known. He knows his skills, how he got them, and potentially how to keep them. Therein lies his quest.

This film opens with the flattened puzzle sans one piece – Bourne. So audience members begin to feel smarter than the best brains in the film. Then before we know it, we’re sucked in again to a parallel story. We are driven by curiosity and respect for the guy who can sense what’s coming and know how to take out any assailant with bare hands and the random makeshift weapon. It makes you wonder if the dreamers behind this series watched a lot of MacGyver growing up.

This film rides the rollercoaster of action sequences. Down time for Norton to strategize and yell at people. Renner running icy mountains. More Norton talk time. More Renner running, now in hotter climate. Add Weisz. Run. Talk. Run a ton. Out.

Bourne was never alone. The operations were endless. The interactions infinite. This is not the end of Bourne.

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL (2012) movie review

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“Someone once said, ‘It will all turn out alright in the end, so of it is not right, it is not yet the end.”

The casting is a delight from Dame Dench to Mr. Nighy. The scenery’s sublime yet honest. You will feel transported.
These guest are given honor from the moment they arrive, something they’ve sought and rarely found at home. Some take to the new setting, and some do not. Aging, though a theme, did not seem the center of the conflict. Finding love and contentment in whatever place and at whatever your stage in life did.

It’s a lovely few hours touring India with familiar british faces (especially if you are a fan of the BBC and of Downton Abbey, as I am). It’s unobtrusive. It’s not preachy. It’s not really a moral tale. Much of the humor is sexual and characters are not really out for redemption as much as a fresh start. At first it feels a bit Eat Pray Love-y in a less appealing setting, but it all grows on you as promised in the repeated line from the film,

“Someone once said, ‘It will all turn out alright in the end, so of it is not right, it is not yet the end.”

THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN (2012) movie review

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I was told to bring tissues. If only confusion made me cry…

The spoilers below are ponderances following this odd film.

In short: memorable characters say purposeless lines in search of little plot.

It was Benjamin Button for kids – not a compliment. The Greek playwright Euripides once said, “Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.” Though I consider this a futile quest, I followed his request and sought help and insight from the two brilliant minds in the picture below to review and discuss this film. Here are many of our questions:

Timothy –

  • Why the leaves on his legs? Leaves made of steel? Oh, well if Edward had scissors for hands…

    Why the endless arm stretching when the sun came out? If he lived in Arizonawould he just stand like that all the time? Is that how he gained his super strong leaf strength? Why did Timothy know so much? Was he from the future? WAS he a tree? They planted him. He sprouted. He knew them. Did he believe in God? Is that why the gardener turned gospel singer in the end? Did the fall season correllate with his leaf loss. Why did he gift his leaves? Some of his leaves turned color. Others didn’t. Why no warning that he was leaving…or should i say leaf… no. Sorry. Too soon.

    The Town –

  • Can you base a movie on a writing utensil? – Stanleyville, home of the pencil. Very small town. Does one factory a whole town make? Jennifer Garner works in a pencil museum without mention of the boredom factor…odd.
  • Who is the crotchety museum lady?  The boss of the town? Was that drawing scene way too creepy?  Too Titanic.  And why did the town erupt in cheers when the same woman said my favorite line from the film: “If this boy can grow leaves from his legs then we can make pencils from leaves!” What does that mean? How do those connect at all?The Director –
  • I can’t tell if this film was pro-adoption propaganda or a subliminal drug / anti-drug campaign. ???
  • What’s the lesson to be learned here? Stop crying. Get tipsy. Bury your hopes in the garden. And you’ll get a Timothy who matches all your dreams??? Please say no.
  • …the gardener singing in the choir at the end? Who was that guy? Was he ashamed of his…faith? of his…green thumb?
  • Shouldn’t Timothy have come from an egg or a meteor? Like Superman or Condorman?The Family –
  • …the odd sibling rivalry? “My kid’s better than your kid.” Does that really happen to that extent? Is anyone ever that cruel to adopted children? “Now that my accomplished musician kids have performed in their home recital, you get up here and perform little boy…” Cruel.
  • …the most inane marital spat caught on camera to date? “I’m not the worst parent in this house.” ” Yes you are.” “No I’m not.” “I’m the worst.” “No I am…”
  • Who lets angry grandpa with a nasty arm pummel all the little kids at dodgeball? Parents stood around and supported this guy who usually doesn’t get invited to these surprise family picnics…?
  • …family recitals?The Girl …I saved her questions for last…
  • Why would a mean, emo, teenage girl with no friends or family to speak of choose to spend all of her time making weird hippie tree art with kid she doesn’t know?

  • Is she only attracted to those that hurt her?
  • Could she not have been given just a few lines in the movie  so we could understand her purpose there? Her one line, “Duh,” just didn’t do it for me.
  • She obviously felt super kindred with him because of her unsightly but completely hidden birthmark…?
  • The boy is 10 years old, and he chooses to “love and be loved by her?”
  • She shows up carrying signs, “I’m with ‘0’?” It’s too much.

 

Little Timothy is sweet, guileless. He can’t help himself. Jen Garn & Joel Edgerton were great, funny.  Sadly, even the 0ver-explanatory framed narrative couldn’t offer connection in this very odd tale.