A quick note about this and all of my yearly movie review lists… I tend to judge these things by their own standards, especially when I know what I’m getting myself into. If I happen to stumble across a film by happenstance, this usually goes out the window (as was the case with “Bridgend” and “In the Dark Half”).
So when I go to see “The Rover” for instance, based on what I saw in the trailer, which was a bleak, tension-filled, futuristic indie thriller. I don’t necessarily expect high art, so I don’t judge it accordlingly. I expect what I saw in the trailer and the quality of the execution of that expectation is how I judge a film.
Not that complicated, of course.
Now on to the show…
This middle part of our review-athon is entitled:
THE B-ROLL
(B-cause I said so)
Nebraska…
is like it’s main character, played by Bruce Dern, stubborn, cranky and quiet. Of the belief that he’s won a sweepstakes, Woody Grant wants to go across the state to Lincoln to collect his prize. And so his son, played nicely by McGruber hisownself, Will Forte, is charged with getting him there. An interesting story of what family is and appreciating it, warts and all, for the true value of having one.
Grade: B+
Fury…
is a genuinely bleak look at war from inside the cockpit (canopy?) of a Sherman tank during the dying days of WW2. If you don’t already know that war is hell, then you’ll learn watching this one. Fine work here by all involved. This one more fits the title “Rock”.
Grade: B+
Carnal Knowledge…
is a classic, based on a screenplay by cartooning legend Jules Feiffer, is directed by the late, great Mike Nichols, and features the life-long friendship of Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) and his good friend Sandy (Art Garfunkel) as they each seek out happiness in life. More tragedy than comedy, this one’s still entertaining and it doesn’t hurt that it features the talents of Candice Bergen and Ann-Margret. Beware the turn this one takes, it’s a doozie.
Grade: B+
Wild…
features Reese Witherspoon on a kind of quest to forge herself into the kind of woman her mother would be proud of—into the kind of woman she was before her mother was taken from her by cancer. Before she lost the love of her life. Definitely not an exercise in pity, this is a woman taking stock of her faults, and pushing through them via a brutal hike and lots of looking inward. It’s also about that journey and the people she meets on the trail to triumph.
Grade: B+
Bernie…
puts Jack Black in the middle of a Richard Linklater comedy and that Tazmanian Devil spins the tale into gold. Told in documentary style, the true story of Bernie Tiede and Marjorie Nugent is unveiled to black comedic effect. Not enough is given for Shirley MacLaine to do as the old biddy, but Jack is picture perfect as Bernie, her put-upon charismatic funeral directing friend. Thanks to the friend who praised it a few years back in a recommendation--I knew I'd be seeing this one at some point anyway--but it's always good to hear a good word.
Grade: B+
Halloween…
rolled around and so did a showing of the Carpenter classic at the local theatre (Carmike) and so I had to give it a look-see on the big screen! And what is interesting about watching a movie thirty, nearly forty years later is how different the world was back in those days. No internet, no cell phones, no cable. That world truly did work differently. Still, first of the slasher flicks (kinda, sorta as we could go back to Psycho or even earlier…) and I guess I should edit that a bit to read “teen slasher flick”. Anyway, it holds up pretty well—even with an incredibly low body-count it gets the job done.
Grade: B+
The Rover…
lets you figure things out as you go along, but here’s the gist: the world’s gone to shit in the near future and the rule of law is out the window. Guy Pearce plays a man whose car is stolen and so he goes to get it back. And that’s that—the story unfolds from there. Riviting stuff.
Grade: B+
X-Men: Days of Future Past…
combines the one X-Men film that felt like the X-Men with the franchise that came before—you know, the one that sould’ve been titled “Wolverine and Some Other Mutants for Background Decoration”. In any case, Quicksilver steals the show and the movie in one scene--shame so few characters get to shine like this. So, better than the franchise, not as good as the stand-alone one.
Grade: B+
Last Exorcism Part II…
worked for me in much the same way the first one caught me by surprise. A great deal of the credit for that has to go to Ashley Bell—the only carry-over and the main character in both films. This exorcism picture is not like the others. Nope.
Grade: B+
Edge of Tomorrow…
is my favorite Cruise film in quite a while. A straight-up sci-fi action film in which a D-Day type counter attack against an invading alien force proves disasterous. From that point, D-Day repeats itself over and over again for Cruise’s character and he must find a way to use this ability that he stole from the enemy to change the fate of humanity. Emily Blunt carries quite a bit of this one as the legendary warrior nicknamed "Full Metal Bitch".
Grade: B+
Enemy…
has that queer quality one likes in a good art-house thriller—the feeling that the world you’re in is very different from the everyday—that things could keep twisting around until reality breaks. In this twisted treat, Jake Gyllenhaal finds himself face-to-face with his own doppleganger—an small-time actor who is identical in every way to himself, a college professor. Soon they find themselves delving into each other’s lives. And so the screw turns ever stranger...
Grade: B+
In the Dark Half…
is a movie I remember seeing and yet the synopsis I’m reading here online doesn’t quite match my memory of it. Oh well, it’s a good low budget drama with a bit of the supernatural thrown in. A teenage girl and a father whose son has died are sorting out their lives. And there the twain do meet.
Grade: B+
Locke…
is a man driving all night to London straight from work at a construction site that has reached it’s pentultimate moment. This man (Tom Hardy) must deal with his professional and personal life on the phone to both places all during this drive. He’s a conflicted and complicated guy with issues and trouble coming and going. A fine performance by Hardy, who is the only one on screen the whole time.
Grade: B+
About Cherry…
in which we follow the life of a jaded teenager played by Ashley Hinshaw as she descends into life in modeling and adult film—though she certainly thinks of it as a way to lift herself up—considering the life she’d been living. An interesting twist on this old theme with good work by Lili Taylor, Dev Patel, James Franco and Heather Graham (it’s about adult film, Ms. Graham is in it, naturally).
Grade: B+
The To Do List…
takes the talent of Aubrey Plaza, a young comedic actress who deserves more of the spotlight than she currently holds, and combines it with a twist on the teen sex comedy. Take a nerdy high school valedictorian and give her reason to agressively seek out the other sex in the same way so many boys coming-of-age films have in the past. Quirky and smart and also a throwback, it’s edgy enough that it works fairly well.
Grade: B
Stoker…
is one of those films that just didn’t live up to the trailer. And that’s nothing against the film, just praise to the tease of a properly made trailer! Still, it’s a neat thriller full of atmosphere and inuendo and loads of suspense. And it also happens to be a kind of coming of age story. India Stoker’s father has just died tragically and she discovers an uncle of whom she was unaware. Enter infatuation, suspicion and mystery. Young Mia Wasikowska carries the weight of this picture with help from Matthew William Goode and Nicole Kidman as the absentee mother.
Grade: B
Grand Budapest Hotel…
is Wes Anderson’s tale of the glory days of a hotel—featuring a most pleasing concierge and his junior lobby boy as they get caught up in an inheritance and murderous intrigue! A nifty tale that, while satisfying, doesn’t quite satisfy as much as it could in the capable hands of this director.
Grade: B
Amazing Spider-Man 2…
falls into a sophomore slump as what could have, should have been a powerful film falls just short. It’s not the acting or directing that are at fault, but script. But then, when you’re dealing with the story that ended the Silver Age of comics, you might want to get the story right. Jamie Foxx is good as Electro, DeHaan is intense as Harry Osborn—it’s just that the story suffers from too much.
Grade: B
Boyhood…
is a very ambitious project—following the life of one character and his family for twelve years in episodic little slices from boyhood to college. And yet, like quite often with Linklater, I’m still waiting for a story. I don’t see a real vision at play other than a documentarian’s curiosity to visit occasionally and collect these little random bits. I know he can tell a good story, but this is one that doesn't quite measure up to the ambition of the idea.
Grade: B
Joe…
takes a hard living young man who is constantly at odds with his drunken, abusive father and puts him under the wing of his boss, a hard drinking and troubled loner played by Nicolas Cage. Certainly, Joe isn’t the ideal role-model, but in this case he is far and away the one man this kid can count on to do the right thing. A dark, gritty piece of lower-class living that doesn't blink.
Grade: B
A Walk Among the Tombstones…
adapts one of Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder (Liam Neeson) novels to film for the first time. Imagine your typical private detective—guilty past, skilled investigator, strongly built and relentless—and you’ve got Scudder. Hired by a drug trafficker whose wife was kidnapped and brutally murdered, Scudder must track town the perpetrators before they kill their next victim.
Grade: B
The Drop…
is another Tom Hardy film. The bartender in his cousin’s pub where mobsters use it as a holding place for nightly earnings, Hardy’s character is happy to keep things as they are—quiet. But when his cousin (played by the late James Gandolfini) decides to rip off the mobsters by staging a robbery,his own life is threatened.
Grade: B
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies…
asks the question what happens when the great and terrible dragon that has ruled over land and massive amounts of gold for years has been killed? And that answer is: Everybody wants some. Men and Dwarves, Elves and Orcs, honor and oaths, friendship and greed all play key roles. A servicable finale.
Grade: B-
Snowpiercer…
has me at a disadvantage. I get that the concept is that they mistakenly froze the planet, I get the concept that this rich guy built this crazy train to ride around and party in, but what i don’t understand is why somebody else in this whole-wide frozen world wouldn’t simply burrow underground and wait out the freeze. Thus no need to careen on frozen tracks through the snow, a mere mechanical mishap away from the death of the species. So the classest statement the film tries to make has a mighty hard time overcoming the lack of logic in it’s basis with me. Still…
good performances, well made, yadda-yadda-yadda.
Grade: B-
Interstellar…
spreads blight and turns the world into a dust bowl as the planet begins to shut down it’s ability to sustain life. Meanwhile, Matthew McConaughey’s character is drawn in and drafted to pilot man’s last hope for finding another suitable world. I get the feeling that, like M. Night Shamalan, the Nolan boys need a script doctor to tweak the plot and smooth out the rough patches as this thing came out dumber than it should have. Still, it’s heart is in the right spot…
Grade: B-
St. Vincent…
casts Bill Murray as a cranky, crafty, horny war veteran who finds his world put upon by new neighbor played by Melissa McCarthy and her little boy. Jaeden Lieberher is a gifted young actor and holds his own against Murray as their relationship is the focus of the story. Add in Naomi Watts as a pregnant Russian dancer/hooker, Terrence Howard as a bookie and Chris O’Dowd as a Jesuit Priest and the quality of the project speaks for itself. While well made, it stumbles in the end.
Grade: B-
Cold in July…
takes one of Joe R. Lansdale’s old yarns and tells the tale. Michael C. Hall’s character kills a home invader and it puts he and his family on the radar of the dead man’s vengeful father—played by Sam Shepard. Throw in Don Johnson as a private eye and you got yourself a decent southern gothic thriller.
Grade: B-
Oculus…
features a neat concept—a twist on the haunting tale. It is a mirror that haunts siblings who blame it for the violent demise of their parents. Now adults, the brother is released from an institution as his sister has gathered investigative tools to study and destroy the antique known as the Lasser Glass that infects and twists the mind of anyone who gazes into it.
Grade: B-
Silent Scream…
is a low budget slasher film from 1980 about a college gal who finds room and board off campus in an old boarding house ran by a mother and son. The mother is played by Yvonne DeCarlo in one of her last roles and it also features the talents of Barbara Steele. Only they aren’t the focus of the film. A different and atmospheric tale but limited in script.
Grade: B-
Starter for 10…
is your typical young adult/coming of age film and yet it stands out a bit because it features an interesting setting (1985 and Bristol University) and some of the best young British actors going today: James McAvoy, Rebecca Hall, Benedict Cumberbatch and Alice Eve. Still too typical.
Grade: B-
Only Lovers Left Alive…
proves eternity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Vampires Adam and Eve are old souls and they are jaded and tired and bored with the world as it exists today—Adam so much so that he’s considering suicide. Having married centuries ago, these days they live seperately and live quiet lives among the living. These past-their-prime vampires don't like where the world is going--they think we've ruined the damned thing. Taken that bright shiny world and wiped our asses with it. Though Jarmusch makes it interesting getting to the point, he, of course, does take his time along the way.
Grade: B-
Godzilla…
is another one of those movies that the trailer betrays by exceeding it in quality. I would much rather see a movie where Bryan Cranston pits his intellect against the great and terrible god-lizard than the disaster movie with cameos by the title character that we got. Still, the little we see of him is powerful and what Bryan Cranston gives is a fine performance, so…
Grade: B-
The Skeleton Twins…
has trouble figuring out what it wants to be at times. With riffing talents such as Bill Hader and Kristen Wigg, it’s understandable that the director would give the two comedians some leeway, but a lot of that could’ve really taken the film off track. Luckily, the comedy works well to counteract the drama of two dysfunctional twins in the process of giving their lives a good hard look.
Grade: B-
Monuments Men…
does the job of documenting this group of art saviors during the dying days of World War II and it does it pretty well, but it’s missing something. The talent is on the screen, the subject is compelling, but it’s missing some vital piece that would put it over the top. Maybe the script just doesn’t get there. Still, fun and educational for the kidies!
Grade: B-
Lucy…
exposes Scarlett Johansson’s titular (hee-hee) character to a powerful chemical that instantly begins to evolve the woman further and further throughout the movie—gifting her with abilities including telekinesis and telepathy and the ability to see wavelengths of the spectrum beyond those of normal folks. A spiffy concept to be sure, but it gets bogged down in the criminal organization that is after her and the action that follows. That doesn't prevent this Luc Besson’s story from being worth a watch, though.
Grade: B-
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For…
is the featured story in this anthology set in the noir world of Frank Miller’s Basin City. Ava Lord is the titular (hee-hee) dame portrayed by Eva Green—a cunning and ruthless gal who goes through men like a hot knife through butter. It’s Josh Brolin’s Dwight who, after having been framed by Ava, decides the gal is worth killing for. Marv is back in his own little show-opener and Nancy wraps the collection up with a tale that leads straight out of the last Sin City picture. Unfortunately, overall the magic has dimmed a bit on the Sin City thing as these stories weren’t up to the quality of those told in the first film and few performances match that beat-poetry pace of the original. Besides, if you want the pure stuff, go pick up the comics—that's where the real magic resides.
Grade: B-
Stay tuned to this channel for the final part of the puzzle--coming up next!
