Mini Reviews: 11/27/13

The Bad News Bears:  1976 comedy directed by Michael Ritchie and starring Walter Matthau, Tatum O’Neal, Jackie Earle Haley, Chris Barnes, and Erin Blunt.  Morris Buttermaker is an alcoholic former minor-league baseball player who is recruited by a local city councilman to coach his son’s little league team, the worst in the league.  Buttermaker recruits a few ringers to round out his motley crew, they slowly start improving, and set their sights on their archenemies, the Yankees, and the championship game.

It’s an awesome movie, even if you don’t like baseball.  It’s funny and weird; it’s like The Sandlot minus the saccharine nostalgia.  It deals honestly and openly with the competitive drive around parents living vicariously through their children – what happens when you preach the whole it-doesn’t-matter-if-you-win-or-lose trope and the kids get wise? The score suits it perfectly – a bunch of misfit kids fumbling their way through baseball games set to Carmen.  It’s a little offensive at times, and the last half hour is kind of depressing.  But totally worth seeing.  My favorite scene is when a pitcher is fed up with his coach and in retaliation he fields a ball and holds it to let the opposing team score– this goes out to every asshole parent or coach that cared more about winning than about how the game was played.

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid:  1982 mystery-comedy directed by Carl Reiner and starring Steve Martin and Rachel Ward.  Here’s the pitch:  it’s a comedic send-up and homage to 1940s noir, complete with costumes by Edith Head, score by Miklos Rozsa, and incorporating footage from 18 different noir movies.  Seems like it would be right in my wheelhouse.

Sounds darb, right?  Eggs in the coffee?  But it was a trip for biscuits.  It took my favorite genre and turned it into screwball – the worrrrst.  Even my love of Steve Martin couldn’t keep me interested.

Thor:  2011 Marvel superhero movie directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, and Stellan Skarsgard.  The alien race of Asgard (think Norse mythology) has existed in an uneasy truce with its enemies the Frost Giants, and they guard the peace of the Nine Realms, which includes Earth.  When Thor, the son of the Asgard king and his presumptive heir, makes a bold retaliatory stroke against the Frost Giants he is sent to Earth as a mortal until he learns humility.  Thor’s chaotic, scheming brother Loki uses this as an opportunity to seize the throne, and sends an automaton to kill Thor, thus catching Earth in the crossfire.  Meanwhile, Thor is attempting to avoid capture by government agents and win his way back to his kingdom, all while making eyes at Natalie Portman.  Those dreamy, dreamy eyes.

It’s fine?  Really I just wanted a refresher on the Avengers backstory.  Hemsworth is awfully pretty, Hiddleston is perfect as Loki, Kat Dennings is funny in her small role; it’s entertaining and light and requires no thought or effort. 

Pet Sematary:  1989 horror adaptation of the Stephen King novel, directed by Mary Lambert and starring Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, Denise Crosby, and Mike Hughes.  The Creed family – Louis & Rachel, their son Gage and daughter Ellie - has just moved to the small town of Ludlow, Maine.  They immediately befriend their elderly neighbor Jud, who shows them around their property, including a path through the woods to a pet cemetery.  A short time later, Louis is working at a university hospital when a young man is brought in with severe wounds and quickly dies.  That night the man’s ghost visits him and warns him about the dangers lurking in the cemetery.  When the family cat dies over Thanksgiving, Louis is distraught over how to break the news to his kids, and Jud convinces him to bury the cat in a hidden part of the cemetery – and the cat soon returns to the family home, but is somehow different.  Then a horrible tragedy occurs, and Louis is tempted to use the power of the cemetery again – but what will return from the cemetery if he does?

It’s okay.  It’s an interesting idea, and made me want to read the book, but the acting is mostly subpar, it’s not scary, and it went off on weird tangents too frequently.  Some of the side plots may have been left in because they had more significance in the book but seem like unnecessary distractions in the movie. 

The Central Park Five:  2012 documentary about the Central Park Jogger case, directed by Ken & Sarah Burns and David McMahon.  In April 1989, Trisha Meili was brutally raped, beaten, and left for dead in New York City’s Central Park.  Despite being only one of 3,254 rapes reported in the city in that year alone, it quickly gained national media attention due to the viciousness of the attack, and because Meili is white and a group of black teenage boys (Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Kharey Wise, and Yusef Salaam) were hastily charged with the crime.  Due to the trauma that Meili suffered she had no memory of the attack and could not identify the assailant(s).  The prosecution’s case against the five juveniles relied almost solely on their taped confessions, since there was no physical evidence linking them to the crime.  During the trial they all recanted their confessions, pointing out that they were held and interrogated for hours, were lied to by police, and did not understand what was happening.  They were all convicted and served out their full sentences.  It wasn’t until 2002 that another man confessed to the crime, which was confirmed with DNA.

           It’s a crushing, maddeningly upsetting documentary, and you should absolutely see it.  It’s understated, focusing mostly on interviews with the five men, all of who speak very openly and candidly about their experiences.  It was hard for me to imagine the tensions of 1980s New York, and I would have appreciated a little more of that historical context in the exposition, but that’s my only minor criticism.  It’s amazing.  Watch it.

 

Mini Reviews: 11/16/13

Six Degrees of Helter Skelter:  2009 documentary directed by Michael Dorsey, about the Manson Family murders.  It’s basically a low-budget filmed tour of the crime scenes.  It’s a little poppish and anecdotal, with a mildly kitschy tourist feel.  I suppose it would be interesting if you want to see the sights without making the trip to Los Angeles, but it couldn’t keep my attention.  Read the book instead.

Strangers on a Train:  1951 psychological crime thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker, and Patricia Hitchcock.  Tennis star Guy Hains (Granger) is riding on a train from D.C. to New York to visit his girlfriend, when a stranger approaches him in the lounge car.  Bruno (Walker) is an unpleasantly assertive trust fund brat who wants to hear just everything about what he’s read in the gossip columns – is it true that the great Guy Hains is trying to divorce his awful cheating wife?  Did you know that my dad’s a pain in the neck, too?  Gee, wouldn’t it be swell if we could pull off some kind of criss-cross murder?  I kill your wife, you kill my father, and there’s nothing to connect us because we’re total strangers.  Oh, what a lark!

Guy thinks Bruno’s pulling his leg until his wife is murdered and he’s being blackmailed into holding up his end of the bargain.  The police are closing in, his girlfriend’s aristocratic family is starting to ask questions, and Bruno gets more deranged by the hour.

It’s so brilliant.  An excellent thriller, definitely a must-see.  The acting is phenomenal, especially Robert Walker – the scene where he stalks Guy’s wife through an amusement park and follows her into the Tunnel of Love is amazing.  And Patricia Hitchcock – Alfred’s daughter – is delightful as the girlfriend’s kicky, morbid little sister.

Despicable Me 2:  2013 computer animated action comedy directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, and starring Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, Kristen Schaal, and Steve Coogan.  Spoilers ahead for those of you who haven’t seen the first (you should, it’s totes adorbs).  Former super villain Gru (Carell) has happily settled into fatherhood after adopting three young sisters, and is trying to make a living as a jam and jelly maker since he’s no longer doing the whole world-domination thing.  He’s pulled back into the life as a spy for the good guys, the Anti-Villain League, when a secret laboratory is stolen by a mysterious evildoer.  He’s paired up with undercover agent Lucy Wilde (Wiig), and must find the bad guy, keep his crush on Lucy under wraps, and deal with his oldest daughter’s sudden interest in boys.

            It’s super duper cute.  It’s silly and funny and light but not pandering.  I liked the first movie more, but it’s definitely worth watching.

The Avengers:  2012 Marvel superhero action movie directed by Joss Whedon and starring Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Rennder), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). 

Before I start with the plot summary, let me just say that it helps tremendously if you have a basic knowledge of at least some of the aforementioned characters.  Otherwise this may be lost on you.  I’ll keep it basic: when an alien race threatens Earth with total human enslavement, a government agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D. gathers together a group of superheroes to stop them.  The Avengers, as they’re being called, are a band with disparate personalities and motives: a god with a magical hammer, a doctor with some serious anger management issues, a femme fatale assassin, an arrogant rich dude with a weaponized suit of armor, and a clean-cut Strong Man adjusting to life in the modern era after being frozen for 70 years.  They have to figure out how to work together and trust each other and S.H.I.E.L.D., or the human race is doomed.

I really, really liked it.  The tension between the characters kept things interesting, it never dragged, it was funny with some semi-cheesy action movie banter, and I love pretty much everyone involved with it.  If you liked any of the associated movies then definitely see it, it brings all the threads together nicely.  And if you haven’t seen those movies this could be an interesting place to start.

Lawless:  2012 crime drama directed by John Hillcoat and starring Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Jessica Chastain, Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman, and Mia Wasikowska.  The Bondurant brothers are successful moonshiners in 1930s Virginia, and big changes are afoot: a foxy young woman with a murky past wants a job at their gas station, the youngest Bondurant, Jack, wants a more prominent role in the family business, and a slick, sleazy politician named Rakes wants a cut of their profits.  What’s a family to do but fight the government, fight each other, and fight for survival?  Or whatever.

I really wanted to like this more.  It seemed like a slam-dunk to me.  With the exception of La-Boof, I like all the actors.  And 1930s moonshiners – does that not sound badass?  I did enjoy some things:  Tom Hardy could not be more virile if he tried, Chastain does a great job with what she’s been given, Wasikowska is adorable, the costumes are drool-worthy.  But the things I liked were outweighed by the things that annoyed me: Shia’s accent was almost too thick to understand at times and not even remotely accurate, the sound editing was terrible, the character Banner came and went nonsensically, and Pearce was just way too over the top.

            It’s fine.  It’s okay.  It’s entertaining.  If you keep your expectations low, you may enjoy it.

Mini Reviews: 11/10/13

Maxed Out:  2006 indie documentary written and directed by James Scurlock, about the abusive practices of the credit card industry.  It posits that banks and creditors deliberately target people who are more likely to have issues paying off their debt, which leads to higher fees and profits for their companies, and that lawmakers have turned a blind eye to this issue. 

The interviews are almost unbelievable; for every person who didn’t read the fine print on their dizzying credit card agreement there’s another story of “liar’s loans” and NINJAs, like the disabled woman in a state nursing home who was sent an offer for a card with a $30K credit limit.  A particularly effective scene is the one that flips back and forth between debt collectors bragging and laughing about their tactics and the family of a woman who disappeared under mounting stress of unpaid credit cards and the calls she received.  Nearly everyone they interviewed either had relatives who committed suicide over their debt, or are contemplating it themselves.  Elizabeth Warren was interviewed when she was still a professor at Harvard, and her comments were particularly cutting:  "The best definition I have heard yet — and this is from a Vice President of MasterCard — is an individual who has a 'taste for credit,' i.e., someone 'willing to make minimum monthly payments — forever.' Now I know why, if I fail to pay off my balance in full, my credit limit is increased."

It’s devastating, but very well done.  Since this was released the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill was passed and then mostly trampled on, so there’s sort of been progress.  Kind of.  Not really.  See it, and then order your credit score.  For real.

The Bay:  2012 “found footage” horror movie directed by Barry Levinson and starring Kether Donohue, Kristen Conolly, Anthony Reynolds, and Michael Beasley.  The film opens with reporter Donna Thompson recounting the horrific events of a July 4^th weekend in a cute little town on Chesapeake Bay; events that have since been swept under the rug by the government.  Two researchers had warned the town’s mayor about disturbing levels of toxicity in the water, which he ignored like a good politician would (can you tell I’ve just about had it with the middle-school slapfight that is our Congress?).  What results is a deadly plague of parasites that attack in the water.  Which is, like, everywhere.  Soon people are dying in droves, the town is shut down, the CDC is moving like molasses, and the remaining survivors are on a race to flee the area before being infected.

It’s quick, the pacing is excellent, it’s a nice ensemble horror movie (which I feel like is hard to pull off), and it’s actually scary.  Because something like this could totally happen, right?  I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to watch it again, but it was decent.  Aside from Donohue, that is.  She’s supposed to be the sympathetic survivor reflecting on all this tragedy and she spends most of her time onscreen pouting at the camera and playing with her tongue.

Stark Trek Into Darkness: 2013 sci fi action film directed by J. J. Abrams and starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch and too many other awesome people to list here.  A meeting of senior Starfleet officials is attacked by a mysterious lone gunman, and Captain James T. Kirk convinces his superiors to let him chase after the dingus.  The remarkably strong and savage dingus, with a fake past and shadowy present.  When Kirk suspects some treachery afoot from within Starfleet command, he has to choose whether or not to trust this dangerous new potential ally.

                  Obviously I’m not doing the plot any justice with this summary.  I loved it, like I love most things Abrams.  Sure, it’s a little too hokey at times but I forgive it – the original series was built on hokey and I appreciate that it’s hung on to that a bit.  And it’s perhaps a little saccharine at times, yes.  But it’s a great action movie and I was more than willing to look past my minor quibbles and enjoy it immensely.  So.  If you’re into Star Trek then you’ve likely already seen it and formed your immutable opinion of it.  If you haven’t seen the newest incarnation of Trek, then I urge you to start with the 2009 reboot and go from there.  If you’re not into sci fi then you’ve probably already skipped this review.

Knuckleball!:  2012 documentary directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, following the Major League knuckleball pitchers R. A. Dickey and Tim Wakefield in their 2011 season.  The knuckleball is a pitch beloved by fans of the quirkier aspects of baseball; it is thrown to minimize spin on the ball which makes its movement wildly unpredictable, it is much slower than the typical fastball pitch (60 mph versus 85 mph), and it’s damn near impossible to hit if thrown correctly.  It is a gift and a curse – difficult to control, to catch, and for umps to call.

The documentary starts with how Dickey and Wakefield each used the knuckleball to save their pitching careers.  It covers the history of the pitch, and how managers and catchers have coped with it or not over the years.  There is a little club of current and former knuckleballers, kind of a support group, and they get together and tell war stories, recall the power hitters they’ve frustrated (eat it, Jeter), and give each other tips since pitching coaches typically can’t help them much.

I really liked this, but then I love baseball.  You probably don’t need to know much about the sport to enjoy this movie, but it probably helps if you like it.

House at the End of the Street:  2012 psychological horror/thriller directed by Mark Tonderai and starring Jennifer Lawrence, Max Thieriot, Elizabeth Shue, and Gil Bellows.  Sarah (Shue) and her teenage daughter Elissa (Lawrence) have just moved to small town, recovering from a divorce and looking for a fresh start.  They find a huge, gorgeous property in the woods, which they can afford because the nearest house over was the scene of a murder – four years earlier young Carrie Anne brutally killed her parents and then escaped into the woods.  She supposedly drowned in a nearby river but since her body was never found local legend says she still wanders the forest like an evil Nell.

Carrie Anne’s brother Ryan survived the massacre and still lives in the family home, a social pariah who the rebellious Elissa immediately finds herself drawn to.  He’s quiet and shy and secretive, and wait – hold on – who is that young girl he’s clandestinely taking care of in his basement?

           It’s decent, not amazing.  It was a bit meandering at first.  I couldn’t see where it was headed, but not in a fun way.  Ohhhh, but then the twist is interesting!  I probably only like it because I think Shue and Lawrence are awesome.  Give it a go if you’re looking for something lightly scary and not too heavy.