Bad Teacher: 2011 comedy directed by Jake Kasdan and starring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Jason Segal, and Lucy Punch. It doesn’t really matter what the movie is about, honestly. She’s a bad teacher. And this is a bad movie. Punch and Timberlake do a fine job, as does Diaz I guess, but it wasn’t funny or interesting or even watchable. I spent most of the movie trying to figure out if Diaz had work done right before shooting began, because her cheeks looked really weird.
Encounters at the End of the World: 2007 Herzog documentary about people who live in Antarctica. I’m sorry, I just can’t. The footage was pretty spectacular, and the rare moments when Werner shuts the hell up are beautiful and interesting. But they are rare, indeed. I tried muting it unless he was interviewing someone, but that was too much work so I stopped watching after an hour. I will continue to try, Mr. Herzog. Maybe you could help me out by giving that voice box a rest.
The Black Power Mixtape ’67-’75: 2011 documentary about the Black Power Movement directed by Garan Hugo Olsson. The movie combines found footage from a Swedish television crew with contemporary commentary by folks like Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Angela Davis, and Kathleen Cleaver. It’s excellent, especially if you’re interested in this period of American history. The footage is really interesting, since one rarely sees new footage from this era. And I liked that interspersed with the commentary about its historical significance are personal histories, what it was like to live in this time. Oh, and the music by Questlove is great. It’s just all really good. See it.
Paul: 2011 sci-fi comedy directed by Greg Mottola and starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, and Kristen Wiig. Pegg and Frost are British enthusiasts of all things nerdy, making their way across the U.S. to visit their favorite extra terrestrial-related sights. They run into a CGI alien named Paul (who of course is the alien from the Roswell landing) and they try to help him escape the government goons who are tracking him down. It was fine. If I didn’t have such a love for Pegg and Frost I might even have liked it. But this is pretty weak sauce, guys. It had cute and funny moments, but my expectations were not met. If you’re interested in the Pegg/Frost oeuvre, then watch Shawn of the Dead or Hot Fuzz or Spaced. I wouldn’t bother with the rest.
p.s. Jason Bateman, I didn’t buy you as the bad guy for a second. Try harder next time.
Hollywoodland: 2006 drama about the death of George Reeves, directed by Allen Coulter and starring Adrien Brody, Ben Affleck, Diane Lane, and Bob Hoskins. Brody plays a private detective, who naturally is down on his luck and drinks a bit too much and has an inappropriate involvement with his female assistant, because this movie could not be more predictable. Anyway. So this P.I. decides to launch an investigation into the apparent suicide of George Reeves, who you may remember from Adventures of Superman. He quickly uncovers Reeves’s affair with a powerful studio head’s wife, a quickie marriage to a money-grubbing moll, and a strained relationship with his mother.
Much like Mad Men, I found myself more interested in the costumes and sets than the storyline. It seemed to have potential at the outset, but the ending lacked teeth. It’s just OK. If you’re interested in Old Hollywood cover-ups, watch the documentary Girl 29 instead.
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| Just LOOK at that set design!! |
We Need To Talk About Kevin: 2011 drama directed by Lynne Ramsay and starring Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, and Ezra Miller. Full review to follow in an upcoming post.
Good Neighbors: 2010 Canadian thriller directed by Jacob Tierney and starring Scott Speedman, Jay Baruchel, and Emily Hampshire. Louise (Hampshire) is a reclusive waitress, Spencer (Speedman) is her snarky, paraplegic downstairs neighbor, and Victor (Baruchel) is the new guy in the building, an eager and often annoying elementary school teacher who just wants to make friends. When their neighborhood becomes the hunting ground for a serial killer, their shared curiosity in the case has some interesting consequences.
I immediately knew who the killer was. It’s so obvious as to almost be insulting. So I kept with it mostly because have I mentioned in the last ten minutes that I love Scott Speedman? Because I DO. I didn’t really think it would improve and then holy crap! Not at all the direction I thought it was going to take. The last 20 minutes or so got WAY interesting. I ended up liking it quite a bit, but that could be my Scott-colored glasses.
Hugo: 2011 adventure drama directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Helen McCrory. Hugo Cabret is a young orphan boy secretly living in the Gare Montparnasse railroad station in 1930s Paris. He makes friends with an earnest young girl, who is precocious in the way that children with perfect childhoods are in movies. They embark on a great adventure filled with mystery and clock-making and movie history and mechanical toys and cute dogs and old bookstores. *Le dreamy sigh* So yes, duh, of course I liked it. I watched the 2D version, as my bitter hatred of the current 3D trend would not permit viewing it in that most loathed format. And it was perfectly fine and enjoyable without simulated crap flying at my face.
The Cove: 2009 documentary directed by Louie Psihoyos and starring dolphin activist Ric O’Barry and his band of merry misfits. The film follows O’Barry as he tries to shut down dolphin hunting operations in Taiji, Japan. He’s thwarted at every turn by the local government, who is bent on keeping their primary industry intact. Nevermind that dolphin meat contains freakishly high levels of mercury and is usually sold disguised as other fish products, and the inhumane methods used to kill the animals. So O’Barry and the filmmakers assemble a crack team of marine biologists, professional free divers, and specialty film crews to break into restricted areas and use crazy high tech gadgets to finally document the dolphin hunt process in Taiji and inform the world.
I would like to defy the stereotype and say that even though I am female, I do not have a deep-seated twee obsession with this slippery mammal. And I was concerned it would be yet another uber-liberal documentary that wouldn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. Also, I eat meat. I eat cute little furry animals. I try not to eat meat every day, and I try to purchase meat that is raised and killed humanely, but I do eat it. I didn’t want another Michael Pollan situation on my hands where I was afraid to drink water for 2 weeks. But I caved. It won for Best Documentary at the Oscars and people kept telling me to see it and Netflix kept taunting me with it. Had I known it was going to be like a spy movie, I totally would have watched it sooner!
Judge Dredd: 1995 sci fi train wreck directed by Danny Cannon and starring Sylvester Stallone, Armande Assante, Diane Lane, and Rob Schneider. It’s the future, cops are now also judges who can inflict collateral damage and kill offenders at their own discretion, Stallone is framed by his former partner, Rob Schneider is annoying bla bla bla. Honestly, I confused this with Demolition Man, which is probably just as terrible but at least has Wesley Snipes. It was lame. Sigh . . . could my love for terrible action movies be waning?
To Kill A King: 2003 English historical drama directed by Mike Barker and starring Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, Olivia Williams, and Rupert Everett. The film explores the relationship between Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax in the wake of the English Civil War (was there really only one?). The Parliamentarians want the people to have a voice in government, the Royalists believe that King Charles I is ordained by God and can do pretty much whatever he wants. And here come the Puritans! Everett is deliciously bitchy as King Charles, and Roth is excellent as the pious, judgey Cromwell, the man who robbed England of pie and Christmas.
I have no idea how accurate the historical details are, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. Instead of focusing on glaring costume mistakes I was able to just watch the movie. Like a normal person. I also liked that I never fully sympathized with all of the beliefs or decisions of either Cromwell or Fairfax, so it was difficult to choose a side, which I think made it more interesting.
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