Friday, December 28, 2012

Mini Reviews: 12/28/12


Tiny Furniture:  2010 dramedy written and directed by Lena Dunham and starring Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham, Jemima Kirke, Merritt Wever.  Aura returns to New York from her sheltered existence at a liberal arts college with a film degree, a dying hamster, and a romantic life gone a shambles.  Her successful artist mother barely notices she’s returned until Aura drinks all of her wine, her precocious younger sister clearly hates that she’s back in the picture, she has no social life and no prospects.  But things are looking up?  Her YouTube-video-art career could take off at any moment, she lands a hostess job at a nearby restaurant, and there are several useless men around for her to make mistakes with.
I hate all of these people.  Perhaps that’s the point.  I’ve never seen Dunham’s HBO show Girls, and I’ll admit I don’t really get her shtick yet.  She’s terribly clever and insightful and writes these obnoxious characters brilliantly, but that doesn’t translate into me liking the movie.  But I will keep watching her stuff until I get it or get sick of it.


The Cat’s Meow:  2001 drama directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Kirsten Dunst, Eddie Izzard, Edward Hermann, Cary Elwes, Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Tilly.  The film delves into the great Hollywood legend of the death of Thomas Ince, a silent film mogul who is thought of as the Father of the American Western.  In 1924 William Randolph Hearst gathers a group of friends, partiers, and hangers-on for a little yacht cruise; the party includes his mistress Marion Davies, Charlie Chaplin, risqué novelist Elinor Glyn, starry-eyed columnist Louella Parsons, and actress Margaret Livingston.  The debaucherous weekend is full of intrigue, plotting, old secrets revealed and new secrets kept, paranoia, wild declarations of love, and the death of Ince.
                  The acting is pretty solid all around, and I especially loved Izzard as Chaplin.  If you like stories about Old Hollywood or murder mysteries of the Agatha Christie persuasion, give it a shot.


The Pruitt-Igoe Myth:  2011 documentary directed by Chad Friedrichs about the rise and fall of the Pruitt-Igoe urban housing complex in St. Louis.  Using this particular case as an analogy for the decline of the post-World War II American city, it starts with the grand plans by St. Louis officials to rid their business district area of the nearby blight of tenement buildings by moving the residents into new clean, modern, high-density housing.  Decrepit buildings gone, new buildings bringing construction revenue to the city, better housing for low-income families: has to work, right?  So what went wrong?
                  The movie features interviews of a wide range of former Pruitt-Igoe tenants, sociologists and historians.  It’s a little heartbreaking, and absolutely fascinating – assuming you’re interested in modern architecture, the history of post-war flight to the suburbs, or urban sociology.  I enjoyed it immensely.


Arachnophobia:  1990 horror-comedy directed by Frank Marshall and starring Jeff Daniels, John Goodman, Julian Sands and Harley Jane Kozak.  Ross Jennings (Daniels) is a physician who just moved his family from the big city to small town California.  As they’re settling in, seemingly healthy neighbors begin dying, and Ross suspects something strange is afoot.  Could it be . . . spiders?  It’s a cute and fairly suspenseful “scary” movie, not gory or too tense, but with a lot of action and a little humor.  John Goodman is hilarious as the overzealous exterminator Delbert McClintock.  I really liked it.


The Tents:  2012 documentary directed by James Belzer, about the history of New York Fashion Week.  It starts in the early 1990s when the Tents concept first came about, and features interviews with a rather diverse mix of designers and editors:  Betsy Johnson, Zac Posen, Tommy Hilfiger, Tracy Reese, Richie Rich, Michael Musto, Joe Zee, Nina Garcia, Russell Simmons, etc. 
                  It was fine.  It was interesting to hear about the start of NYFW, and nice to hear from the people they interviewed, but I was never on the edge of my seat.  If you like fashion documentaries, give it a shot.


Conan:  2011 action fantasy film directed by Marcus Nispel and starring Jason Momoa (aka Khal Drogo), Ron Perlman (OF COURSE), Stephen Lang, Rose McGowan and Rachel Nichols.  I resisted this movie for a long time, out of my respect and love for the campy original movies starring The Governator.  Then I learned that this isn’t a remake, it’s a new interpretation of the Conan character.  So I went with it, and I’m so glad I did.
Conan seeks revenge for the death of his people, tracking down the warlord Zym and his evil sorceress daughter Marique, who are themselves tracking down a woman from a particular blood line so they can perform a ritual to bring Zym’s wife back from the dead.  Or whatever.  I mean, it’s just atrocious.  I love sci fi and camp and fantasy and crappy action movies and this has it all:  narrated by Morgan Freeman, plot holes, ridiculous one-liners, Rose McGowan with a weird hair line . . . if you enjoy terrible action movies then absolutely see it.  It’s pointless, mindless entertainment and I giggled the entire time.


Rise of the Planet of the Apes:  2011 sci fi film directed by Rupert Wyatt and starring James Franco, Freida Pinto, Andy Serkis, John Lithgow, Brian Cox and Tom Felton.  Franco plays Will, a promising young scientist at a biotech firm searching for the cure for Alzheimer’s.  When testing on chimpanzees leads to a mutation, Will ends up bringing a baby chimp home to raise as a pet.  As the chimp, Caesar (Serkis), grows up, Will notices an amazing level of human intelligence in him.  But when Caesar goes nuts on a neighbor who threatens Will’s father, he is forcibly taken to a monkey sanctuary.  He befriends the other “prisoners” and convinces them to rise up against their human overlords. 
It was surprisingly good.  I pretty much enjoy anything involving Andy Serkis, the acting is solid, it’s interesting and suspenseful.  It’s not necessary to see the original before seeing this one.  Make sure you catch the credits.


Bhutto: 2010 documentary directed by Duane Baughman and Johnny O’Hara, about the life of Benazir Bhutto, the polarizing former Prime Minister of Pakistan.  Whether or not you agree with her politics or tactics, whether or not you believe the charges of corruption against her family, Bhutto is a fascinating figure, and this is an excellent documentary.  It features interviews with her family members, her supporters and detractors, and gives a great overview of Pakistan’s political history and her family’s contributions to it.  If you like political docs or have an interest in Middle Eastern politics, check it out.


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