The Women (1939)

IMDb plot summary: A study of the lives and romantic entanglements of various interconnected women.
Directed by George Cukor. Starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, and Mary Boland.

(Some spoilers about the plot and ending.)

There's a lot to like about this movie, but there's also a fair amount that rub me the wrong way. Our main character is unbelievably sympathetic and likable, and the scenes where she has to deal with her marriage falling apart were incredibly moving. Her story, at the heart of this movie, is well worth watching, and seeing her get some happiness at the end is satisfying for her sake, even if I'm uncertain that it'll last.

Where this movie doesn't work for me at all, however, is in many of the other women. Rosalind Russell's character in particular is just... everything I dislike in a character, man or woman. There's a lot of petty squabbling that doesn't make me laugh so much as it makes go, "Ugh. People are terrible." Because the movie includes a lot of these little scenes, it ends up dragging, especially in the second half when I *really* just wanted to get back to Mary's story. And I'm not sure I at all understood the technicolor fashion show that hijacked the film for a bit. What was that about? (I wonder if people who don't like musicals feel the same "Why would they put this here?" bewilderment when a movie has a single dance number out of nowhere...)

I didn't really pick up on the humor of this movie, as most of it came from the cattiness of the characters. What I liked was almost entirely the dramatic part of the plot, and that was tremendously satisfying. Other good things: having an all-woman cast was wonderful (I loved the creative ways they told the story through only the women), and the credits were imaginative and set the scene appropriately. I wish, however, that it included fewer subplots and was a little shorter.

3 stars.

Flickchart: #970 out of 2248, below Code 46 and above Runaway Jury. This is probably a bit too low.

The Killing (1956)

IMDb plot summary: Crooks plan and execute a daring race-track robbery.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Starring Sterling Hayden, Ted de Corsia, Marie Windsor, and Elisha Cook Jr.


This was pretty good. I have a tough time with noir, but I recently discovered it's detective-based noir I dislike most. Noir-style stories that aren't centered around detectives, such as Sunset Blvd., Double Indemnity, and In a Lonely Place, fare much better with me. I wasn't struck by this the way I was any of those, and I was fully aware throughout that this was someone TRYING to make a noir film -- a lot of the dialogue seemed almost like a parody of the genre. That being said, though, it's a good story, a thoroughly satisfying ending, and I particularly liked its short length. Maybe I'm just especially appreciative of these old shorter films because I'm getting tired of all the new releases that are like 2 1/2 hours long, but I admire a movie that stops when its story is done. So, not blown away, but this was solid.

3 stars.

Flickchart: #855 out of 2247, below Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium and above Rachel Getting Married.

The Double Life of Veronique (1991)

IMDb plot summary omitted because it gives away a fairly important plot detail.
Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski. Starring Irène Jacob, Jerzy Gudejko, Halina Gryglaszewska, and Philippe Volter.

I have not had great luck with French films thus far, so my friend Jandy recommended this one to me in the hopes I would dig it. It didn't quite work... but it almost did! I was really enjoying the first half, but in the second half I felt like I didn't know Veronique at all. It wasn't character-centered enough for me to enjoy it as that, but it didn't solve the "mystery" enough for me to enjoy that aspect either. It's directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski, who I've only seen a bit of before and really WANT to like him, but I haven't yet. I think he has amazing ideas that just never quite gel for me in the execution. Maybe I'm just missing something, and one day his movies will just click into place for me, and if that happens, I will definitely come back and rewatch this. As it was... I found it disappointing.

2.5 stars.

Flickchart: #1233 out of 2246, below The Deer Hunter and above Star Wars Uncut.

The Nights of Cabiria (1957)

IMDB plot summary: A waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.
Directed by Federico Fellini. Starring Giulietta Masina, François Périer, Franca Marzi, and Dorian Gray.

(Spoilers ahead for this, as well as some spoilers for La Strada and Jean de Florette.)

This was recommended to me based on my love for La Strada, which I watched for the first time a year or two ago. While this one isn't *quite* as heartbreaking as that one, it's pretty darn close. The final 15 minutes or so was so tough to watch, because I just knew how it was all inevitably going to end. (In fact, at one point in those 15 minutes I paused the movie to get a drink of water, and when I came back, I wandered all over the Internet because I didn't want to have to watch the ending.) I wasn't quite as engaged throughout the whole movie as I was with La Strada, but Giulietta Masina is unbelievably charming and likeable as Cabiria. As I write this review, it occurs to me that I had a very similar reaction to watching Jean de Florette earlier this year -- both have a character I desperately cheered for and whose downfall left me a little broken.

Overall, this is one of those movies that I'm definitely glad I watched but would probably not watch again any time soon, though I am curious to see how the emotional impact of the ending would go if I knew right from the beginning where it was headed.

4 stars.

Flickchart: #496 out of 2245, below Four Lions and above Widow's Peak.

The Ramen Girl (2008)

IMDb plot summary: An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a râmen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.
Directed by Robert Allan Ackerman. Starring Brittany Murphy, Toshiyiki Nishida, Sohee Park, and Kimiko Yo.

While the movie wears a little thin in the middle, this is overall a really charming little movie. The main characters are for the most part likable, and I do enjoy a good fish-out-of-water story, which this movie does well. The film gets bogged down about halfway through, stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of the main characters yelling with nobody understanding each other, but once it's over that hump it chugs along to a nice, satisfying ending. It's spotty but sweet.

3 stars.

Flickchart: #1128 out of 2244, below Ben-Hur and above The Dinner Game.

Killing Season (2013)

IMDb plot summary: Two veterans of the Bosnian War -- one American, one Serbian -- find their unlikely friendship turn tense with one of them reveals their true intentions.
Directed by Mark Steven Johnson. Starring Robert De Niro and John Travolta.

(Vague spoilers about the movie's plot, tone, and resolution.)

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. What seemed at first like a run-of-the-mill revenge film ended up being a decently thoughtful piece about war, violence, and guilt. De Niro is great in his role, Travolta is... not great in his, but not terrible. The script for this one is pretty solid, and at right around 90 minutes, it's not so long it wears thin. This isn't a brilliant movie, but it's much more than I expected it would be. Nice.

3 stars.

Flickchart: #949 out of 2243, below City Lights and above The Forbidden Kingdom.

Transcendence (2014)

IMDb plot summary: A scientist's drive for artificial intelligence, takes on dangerous implications when his consciousness is uploaded into one such program.
Directed by Wally Pfister. Starring Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, and Cillian Murphy.

I was so hoping the critics were wrong about this movie, but they weren't, and it makes me sad. It's such a great premise for a movie, and you can see where they were trying to make it good... unfortunately, it's muddled, confusing, and worst of all, boring. Seriously, how is a movie like this boring? All the moments for emotional involvement just... sit there, or cut away right before what should have been the payoff. It's incredibly frustrating to me when a movie that had so much promise falls apart so completely. I'll join in with the majority in saying this is one to avoid.

1 star.

Flickchart: #1837 out of 2242, below Mamma Mia! and above All the King's Men (2006).