Snake Feed (1997)

This short film feels incomplete as a short. It might feel incomplete as a feature as well, and I'm sure it was deliberate, but it was vague on what the story was for the first 15 or so, then didn't really deal with it the last 10. The best short films either tell a taut story or create a vivid atmosphere, and this did neither. 1.5 stars.

Interview (2007)

This movie desperately wants to be a tightly-written two-person dramatic piece. It brings to mind Sleuth or Bug. However, playwrights Anthony Shaffer and Tracy Letts knew how to write tense, succinct, contained drama. This one is absolute nonsense. I found myself laughing at the dramatic moments and rolling my eyes at the comedic ones. There are moments where I caught a glimpse of what the original could have been. (Apparently it's a remake of a Dutch movie, which I will have to keep an eye out for.) It's a wonderful premise, but Miller and Buscemi play it like some sort of insane melodrama. I never had any idea who their characters actually were or what they wanted, and they spoke their lines and performed their blocking like it was exactly that: lines and blocking. Not since The Boy In the Striped Pajamas have I so desperately wanted to love a movie and ended up hating it so much. 1 star.

Easy A (2010)

A sharp, witty romantic comedy with entertaining characters. Nothing to complain about with this one. Easily one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen lately. 4 stars.

Twist of Faith (2004)

I really like that they made a documentary about this, because this is a topic that needs to be talked about. However, the documentary itself didn't really answer any of my questions, was put together in a somewhat disjointed matter, didn't tell any sort of coherent story or create a solid enough atmosphere, and the ending was an abrupt transition away from what they were trying to say at the beginning. Obviously with a documentary you can't craft an ending the way you can in fiction, but it felt like the entire thing was dropped but they pretended it wasn't. Disappointing, because I was fascinated by the subject material. 2 stars.

Angels in America (2003)

This is a beautiful, horrifying, painful, wonderful story. It was an epic play, and this is an epic adaptation of it. (I'm delighted it was done as a miniseries... trying to put it all together into a single movie would have been catastrophic.) It's so hard to put into words what I felt as I watched this... The writing is amazing - witty and tragic. The characters are sharp and sad and so rich - every one of these characters would be a phenomenal opportunity for an actor. I love the sprawling, fantastic feel of the entire thing, playing with the line between reality and dreams. I'm running out of adjectives, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get a nice coherent reasonable review until I've had some distance from the play. I may downgrade this sometime in the future, but right now I feel absolutely confident in giving it 5 stars.

Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary (2010)

Aside from Nick Jonas, this is a very strong cast. Alfie Boe has easily become my favorite Valjean after this performance, Samantha Barks is a wonderful Eponine, Norm Lewis plays Javert in a whole new unique way than I've seen before, and Ramin Karimloo, while not in any way better than the gloriousness of Michael Maguire, is still a very good Enjolras. Matt Lucas is also one of the best Thenardiers I've seen - just the right mixture of comedy and repulsiveness.

Nick Jonas, however, is not a terribly good actor and, while he's not an awful singer, he certainly is out of place among these powerful voices. I was pleasantly surprised by his "Empty Chairs At Empty Tables," however - while he started off fairly wimpy, he managed to kick it up a notch halfway through and ended on a strong note. Good for him. Luckily, Marius is a fluffy enough character that it doesn't detract too much from the overall show. If you must choose between this and the Tenth Anniversary Cast, I would choose the latter, but both have their merits. Nicely done. 4 stars.

Solaris (1972)

This is one of the few situations where I actually liked the remake of this film better. Although I generally have no problem with long or slow-paced movies, this one was really difficult to sit through. (Anyone who features five minutes of a side character driving home in their movie needs to reconsider what scenes are helpful to the plot.) When the characters discussed what was clearly meant to be the "point" of the movie, it was preachy and unrealistic. It's a wonderful idea, but the pacing was so slow and the most important dialogue so heavy-handed... The remake chopped it down to the most compelling moments while still managing to maintain most of the beauty of the story. 1.5 stars.