IMDb plot summary: The theory that it was in fact Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, who penned Shakespeare's plays. Set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I and the Essex rebellion against her.
Directed by Roland Emmerich. Stars Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, and Sebastian Armesto.
This movie is far from a great movie. It's melodramatic and very confusing with its constant shifting back and forth in time without much notice (I was 30 minutes into the movie before I realized one of the people I was watching was a younger version of the main character). However, despite all that, it was pretty fun. I'd hoped it would be even more outlandish in its story, matching up the best-known Shakespearean works with a specific political message the author wanted to convey, but this worked pretty well. I always enjoy seeing theater-centered stories, and this one created an entertaining hypothesis and built a fun little story around it. 3 stars.
Best Part: Shakespeare himself was a very fun character. I loved watching him on screen.
Worst Part: The final 20 minutes or so that were all about the politics and not even a little bit about the plays. I'm a theater person, I want to know about the plays!
Flickchart: #876, below 10 Things I Hate About You and above Sherlock Holmes.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011)
IMDb plot summary: Dispatched from his basement room on an errand for his mother, slacker Jeff might discover his destiny (finally) when he spends the day with his brother as he tracks his possibly adulterous wife.
Directed by Jay and Mark Duplass. Starring Jason Segel, Ed Helms, and Susan Sarandon.
Watching this right after Young Adult was an interesting experience, because it's also a story about somebody who never really grew up, although in a different way. This movie, however, is quite a bit more conventional and, though it's very pleasant and very charming, it never really takes off. Jason Segel and Ed Helms never really work for me as brothers (maybe I'm just too familiar with them as other characters). I enjoyed watching it, but I wouldn't put it on a list of favorites. 3 stars.
Best Part: All the elements of "destiny" coming together.
Worst Part: Could not have been less interested in Susan Sarandon's secret admirer story.
Flickchart: #705, below Corrina, Corrina and above Walk the Line.
Directed by Jay and Mark Duplass. Starring Jason Segel, Ed Helms, and Susan Sarandon.
Watching this right after Young Adult was an interesting experience, because it's also a story about somebody who never really grew up, although in a different way. This movie, however, is quite a bit more conventional and, though it's very pleasant and very charming, it never really takes off. Jason Segel and Ed Helms never really work for me as brothers (maybe I'm just too familiar with them as other characters). I enjoyed watching it, but I wouldn't put it on a list of favorites. 3 stars.
Best Part: All the elements of "destiny" coming together.
Worst Part: Could not have been less interested in Susan Sarandon's secret admirer story.
Flickchart: #705, below Corrina, Corrina and above Walk the Line.
Young Adult (2011)
IMDb plot summary: Soon after her divorce, a fiction writer returns to her home in small-town Minnesota, looking to rekindle a romance with her ex-boyfriend, who is now happily married and has a newborn daughter.
Directed by Jason Reitman. Stars Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, and Patrick Wilson.
In the first ten minutes of this movie, I told my friend who was watching it with me, "If this turns out to be a movie about how she has to go back to her small hometown and have a baby to be happy, I'm going to be annoyed." I could not have been more wrong. Young Adult takes all the romantic comedy tropes I hate most and turns them upside down, creating a much, much more interesting movie than I had expected. Charlize Theron does an excellent job playing the unbelievably self-centered, shallow popular girl and, even more fun, she never learns the error of her ways. She returns to her hometown just as shallow as ever, having learned only that people back home are jealous of her, and she is content with that knowledge to reform her life, now that she has confirmation that it is an awesome one. This movie is an excellent drama about a fascinating character, but it also made me laugh too - well done again, Jason Reitman! 4 stars.
Best Part: How every time I thought I knew where the story was going, something else happened.
Worst Part: You know, I'm sure there were moments, but nothing's really coming to mind right now. It all hangs together very nicely.
Flickchart: #220, below I'm Not Scared and above The Village.
Musical Theater Person Sighting: That, of course, is Patrick Wilson as Buddy.
The Woman in Black (2012)
(Very mild spoilers ahead.)
IMDb plot summary: A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.
Directed by James Watkins. Stars Daniel Radcliffe and Ciaran Hinds.
As a horror movie, this one is perfectly serviceable, with plenty of creepy atmosphere and acceptably scary moments. Daniel Radcliffe is not a terribly interesting protagonist, but he is at least believable, which is often surprisingly difficult to find in horror movies. The place where this movie really steps beyond generic is in its ending, which, out of nowhere, goes a completely different direction than I thought it would. At first I wasn't sure at all that I liked it, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that, even if it was a sudden transition, at least I'd *remember* this movie now. That ending moved this movie from a 2.5 to 3 stars.
Best Part: The ending.
Worst Part: How, out of nowhere, the main guy just knows what to do to reunite the mother and son. Are ghost reuniting rituals common knowledge in this time period?
Flickchart: #858, below Martian Child and above Single White Female.
IMDb plot summary: A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.
Directed by James Watkins. Stars Daniel Radcliffe and Ciaran Hinds.
As a horror movie, this one is perfectly serviceable, with plenty of creepy atmosphere and acceptably scary moments. Daniel Radcliffe is not a terribly interesting protagonist, but he is at least believable, which is often surprisingly difficult to find in horror movies. The place where this movie really steps beyond generic is in its ending, which, out of nowhere, goes a completely different direction than I thought it would. At first I wasn't sure at all that I liked it, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that, even if it was a sudden transition, at least I'd *remember* this movie now. That ending moved this movie from a 2.5 to 3 stars.
Best Part: The ending.
Worst Part: How, out of nowhere, the main guy just knows what to do to reunite the mother and son. Are ghost reuniting rituals common knowledge in this time period?
Flickchart: #858, below Martian Child and above Single White Female.
Loving Annabelle (2006)
IMDb plot summary: Annabelle is the wise-beyond-her-years newcomer to an exclusive Catholic girls school. Having been expelled from her first two schools she's bound to stir some trouble. Sparks fly between her and her teacher, Simone Bradley. Annabelle pursues Simone relentlessly until Simone must make a choice between following her heart and doing what's right.
Directed by Katherine Brooks. Stars Erin Kelly and Diane Gaidry.
I was pretty thoroughly unimpressed with this movie. I have no idea what it was trying to accomplish. Its plot reads like a thinly veiled excuse to show lots of lesbian sex, except there wasn't that much sex when it came right down to it. It could have been an attempt at a coming-of-age story, except the teenage character really never came of age or learned anything. It could have been a character study, except that characterization was never developed. It could have been a drama about forbidden/taboo love, except that the forbidenness of it is, oddly, never really discussed. It could have been a poignant LGBT movie, except for the fact that it painted all the lesbians in the story as sex-crazed and vaguely predatory for no particular reason. In short, it feels like a movie that was trying to go so many directions that it never made it to any of its goals. This script needed a bunch more rewrites. 1 star.
Best Part: Collins was an awesome character. Why did she pretty much never do anything?
Worst Part: How nobody seemed to ever address the fact that a teacher/high school student relationship is NOT OKAY. The fact that they are both female changes nothing.
Flickchart: #1442, below Johnny Tremain and above Mamma Mia!
Cape Fear (1991)
IMDb plot summary: A convicted rapist, released from prison after serving a 14 year sentence, stalks the family of the lawyer who originally defended him.
Directed by Martin Scorsese. Stars Nick Nolte and Robert De Niro.
I'm a big fan of the original movie, and much as I generally enjoy Scorsese, this one pales in comparison. It's not as creepy, the characters aren't as interesting (especially the father - Nick Nolte is no Gregory Peck), and the movie is rather obnoxiously scored, with a tendency to play melodramatically ominous music over fairly innocuous scenes. It's like watching a movie with someone who keeps yelling, "ARE YOU SCARED YET? ARE YOU SCARED YET?" It's not a *bad* movie, but I was expecting so much more, especially with Scorsese at the wheel. Watch the original and skip this one. 2.5 stars.
Best Part: I liked De Niro pretty well. He wasn't nearly as good as Robert Mitchum in the original, but he was kind of interesting on his own.
Worst Part: The music.
Flickchart: #917, below Stepmom and above Interstate 60.
Monday, September 24, 2012
The Seventh Seal (1957)
IMDB plot summary: A man seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.
Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Stars Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, and Nils Poppe.
This is my fourth Bergman film and ranks third out of all of them for me. It has moments that I absolutely love, and others that just don't set well with me, although I can't quite pinpoint what about them rubs me the wrong way. It probably says something that the two Bergman films I really, really liked were the ones most grounded in reality, without fantastical elements or dream sequences. Usually I respond very strongly to mixing fantasy with reality, but for some reason here it never quite works for me. It's a series of stories that I have trouble gelling together into one emotionally coherent whole, although I feel like a second viewing might help with that. 3 stars.
Best Part: I really liked the contrast in character between Jof and Jons, and the final two scenes highlighted that the best for me.
Worst Part: The scene with the smith and his wife was certainly entertaining, but it was one of the ones that felt really jarring in contrast with the rest of the movie.
Flickchart: Well, currently #889, but that's too low, mostly due to Cinema Paradiso being ranked too low. I'll have to do some rearranging.
Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Stars Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, and Nils Poppe.
This is my fourth Bergman film and ranks third out of all of them for me. It has moments that I absolutely love, and others that just don't set well with me, although I can't quite pinpoint what about them rubs me the wrong way. It probably says something that the two Bergman films I really, really liked were the ones most grounded in reality, without fantastical elements or dream sequences. Usually I respond very strongly to mixing fantasy with reality, but for some reason here it never quite works for me. It's a series of stories that I have trouble gelling together into one emotionally coherent whole, although I feel like a second viewing might help with that. 3 stars.
Best Part: I really liked the contrast in character between Jof and Jons, and the final two scenes highlighted that the best for me.
Worst Part: The scene with the smith and his wife was certainly entertaining, but it was one of the ones that felt really jarring in contrast with the rest of the movie.
Flickchart: Well, currently #889, but that's too low, mostly due to Cinema Paradiso being ranked too low. I'll have to do some rearranging.
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