Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

IMDb plot summary: A week in the life of a young singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961.
Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen. Starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, and Justin Timberlake.

Like so many movies by the Coens, I'm not exactly sure what to make of this. I like individual moments, but I'm not certain I can say it hangs together as a whole. My least favorite thing about the Coens has always been their ending choices, which frequently feel like they just abruptly stopped making the movie, rather than actually *ending* their story. That is definitely the case here, and I am once again left unsatisfied and a little puzzled about what I'm supposed to conclude from that.

There were a lot of things I did like about this movie, though. The dialogue through was interesting and snappy while still feeling realistic. (I particularly liked Carey Mulligan's extremely vicious interactions with Llewyn at the beginning -- beautifully written and acted.) The cinematography is gorgeous, especially the soft lighting choices during song performances. Very atmospheric. And, of course, the musical performances are great. I really enjoy folk music and loved getting so hear so much of it in this flick.

So... I'm torn on this one. I suspect this is a movie that will be helped by just sitting with it for awhile, but for now I'm disappointed enough by the non-ending that my opinion is kind of... "Meh."

3 stars.

Flickchart: #917 out of 2092, below Father of the Bride Part II and above Office Space.

War of the Buttons (1994)

IMDb plot summary: Rival gangs of young Irish kids enjoin in constantly escalating battles that ultimately entails the removal of the buttons from the clothes of captured losers. While the shenanigans cause obvious problems, the two leaders of the groups nonetheless develop a grudging admiration of the other and an estranged friendship.
Directed by John Roberts. Starring Gregg Fitzgerald, Gerard Kearney, John Coffey, and Darragh Naughton.

For a movie with the word "war" in the title, this flick is oddly free of conflict. Oh, sure, the kids are fighting throughout the entire thing, but there never seems to be that much actual animosity, and even the big climactic moment toward the end is weirdly low-key. I have to admit, I may have come in with a bias since I love stories along the lines of The Chocolate War and Lord of the Flies, but I was definitely hoping for a little bit more bite to the story. Instead, it's very pleasant and mellow through. It wasn't unenjoyable or anything like that, it just... kind of sits there and doesn't go anywhere or evoke, really, any emotion at all in me. I could watch it again someday and probably enjoy it just as much, but it's not going to stick in my brain.

3 stars.

Flickchart: #1207 out of 2091, below Small Time Crooks and above Fun Size.

Mr. Nice Guy (1997)

IMDb plot summary: A Chinese chef accidentally gets involved with a news reporter who filmed a drug bust that went awry and is now being chased by gangs who are trying to get the video tape.
Directed by Sammo Hung Kam-Bo. Starring Jackie Chan, Richard Norton, Miki Lee and Karen McLymont.

I'm not a huge fan of martial arts movies most of the time, but there is something about Jackie Chan that always makes him very likable, so I did find myself enjoying this pretty well. The flick moves along very quickly with not a lot of downtime and the fight scenes are fairly fun (I especially enjoyed the scene at the end where he's just calmly rolling over all the cars). It's pretty light on trying to make the plot coherent, but it's not trying to be any more than a fun action movie, so that's all right. Overall, not the type of movie I'd seek out on my own, but it ended up being kinda fun, and that IS what this movie challenge is all about.

3 stars.

Flickchart: #1265 out of 2090, below Crash and above The Hidden Fortress.

All's Faire in Love (2009)

IMDb plot summary: Two rival Medieval shows vie for supremacy in the world of Renaissance Faires.
Directed by Scott Marshall. Starring Christina Ricci, Owen Benjamin, Chris Wylde, and Matthew Lillard.

This is one of the most ridiculous movies I've seen in a long time... but it was SO MUCH FUN. In an odd way, it kept making me think of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead -- a campy, over-the-top comedy with a ridiculous plotline that is catering to a really specific niche of viewers. The plot is incredibly silly and the acting is very strange, especially from the side characters, but I laughed a LOT, especially toward the end. If you want something that's just pure goofiness with a pretty charming (if predictable) romance woven in, I definitely suggest you check this out.

4 stars.

Flickchart: #493 out of 2088, below Cloud Atlas and above Rock of Ages.

17 Miracles (2011)

IMDb plot summary: As part of the Willie Handcart Company, Levi Savage feared that leaving late in the season would lead to despair and death. What he came to find out is that for every tragedy, there is a multitude of miracles.
Directed by T.C. Christensen. Starring Jasen Wade, Emily Wadley, Jason Celaya, and Natalie Blackman.

(Spoilers ahead.)

This is one of the most tonally confused faith-based movies I have ever seen. It's certainly the most depressing one. I suspect it's supposed to be a triumphant, inspirational story about God taking care of his people, but there are FAR more tragic moments throughout than there are happy ones, and nobody really wrestles with the disconnect. Characters proclaim, "God will take care of us," and "God is watching over us," while around them people starve to death. It's a little hard to wholeheartedly celebrate one child's miraculous resurrection from the dead when less than 10 minutes later, two more children freeze to death in the snow.

I'm all about looking at both the positive and negative aspects of something, but I feel like this movie doesn't know it IS doing that. I genuinely think the filmmakers feel like this is an inspirational film, while, in actuality, my reaction watching it was more like a horror movie -- the kind where you're kind of surprised ANYONE is alive at the end because there sure is a lot of death throughout.

Can horror movie endings be triumphant and inspirational too? Sure, but those characters are driven, in many cases, by a desperate certainty that they're going to die but they still have to do SOMETHING, which means when they finally survive, there's an adrenaline rush. This movie is not at all the same thing. This movie has characters saying over and over again, "God will save us. God will save us. God will save us." And then someone else dies because there's no food, and people just keep saying, "God will save us," without even really wrestling with the fact that God clearly didn't save that little child, so why should *anyone* believe they'll make it through alive? Instead of showcasing the strength of their faith, it makes them appear as if they're in denial.

(I was PARTICULARLY bothered by the story of the old man who was essentially peer pressured into going along despite the fact that he worried he wasn't strong enough to make the journey. Well, turns out he wasn't. That was a particularly senseless, depressing death.)

The technical aspects of the movie are all decent, and the story was paced and told fairly well, so no problems there. I didn't even necessarily mind how depressing it was on its own -- I'm totally OK with very dark stories -- except for the fact that I don't think the movie was supposed to be like that, leading to kind of a jarring disconnect. I admit, I spent much more time being confused about that than I did thinking about anything else in this movie.

Flickchart: #1452 out of 2089, below Chinatown and above Unknown.

2.5 stars.

The Watcher in the Woods (1980)

IMDb plot summary: When a family moves to a country home, the young girls experience strange happenings that have a link to an occult event years past.
Directed by John Hough. Starring Lynn-Holly Johnson, Kyle Richards, Benedict Taylor, and Bette Davis.

I feel like this might be one I had to see growing up to really appreciate it. As an adult, I responded to it very much the way I did to ParaNorman -- I thought the concept of a horror movie for kids was fun, but the story had been told much better many times before.

The story's a pretty typical ghost story -- it's not bad, but it doesn't necessarily stand out in the genre. What DOES stand out, unfortunately, is the acting, particularly of the two girls at the center of the story. Both of them are pretty awful, with the older one reaching a point about halfway through where every emotion is conveyed through awkward yelling, even if the person she's talking to is standing just a couple feet away. As a kid, it would have been easier for me to overlook that, but watching it now, I winced a little every time she opened her mouth.

This is exactly what it promises to me: a ghost story for kids. And if I was a kid (and was not easily scared), I'd probably like it a lot. As an adult, it's much less compelling.

2 stars.

Flickchart: #1428 out of 2087, below The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and above No Reservations.

Enough (2002)

IMDb plot summary: On the run from an abusive husband, a young mother begins to train herself to fight back.
Directed by Michael Apted. Starring Jennifer Lopez, Billy Campbell, Tessa Allen, and Juliette Lewis.

(Some spoilers ahead about the ending.)

This movie is OK. My main issue with it is that everything gets needlessly complicated very quickly, without a lot of build-up. We go from "girl meets boy" to "girl and boy gets married" to "SUDDENLY BOY IS A PSYCHOPATH" without really giving us any sense of what the relationship and the characters before the guy was just randomly trying to kill her. As such, it's hard to really care about Lopez's character, since we never got a chance to know her before everything happened.

I'm also really skeptical about her being able to learn how to perfectly defend herself in the time she had... AND about all the special moves she learned being the exact ones she needed during the actual fight. Don't get me wrong, it's satisfying when she pulls it off, but not quite enough to make up for the contrived fight scene.

It's a good premise for a movie. I like the idea behind it. It just feels haphazard, like they filmed the script's first draft when it clearly needed a couple more rewrites to make everything come together.

2 stars.

Flickchart: #1587 out of 2086, below What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and above Detour. That is a little lower than it should be. I didn't *dislike* the movie so much as I just wasn't impressed.