Mini Reviews: 8/21/13

The Loneliest Planet:  2011 drama written and directed by Julia Loktev and starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Hani Furstenberg, and Bidzina Gujabidze.  Alex and Nica are young, seasoned travelers, very much in love and trekking through Georgia (country, not state) on a bright new adventure.  They hire a local guide to take them backpacking through the Caucasus Mountains.  Nica is spirited, vivacious, and keen to learn and do things on her own!  Needs no help!  And then Alex fails her in a split-second moment of weakness and their relationship is suddenly thrown into question.

I hated this movie.  I knew from the synopsis that something terrible would happen to change their relationship but when that scene FINALLY arrives it doesn’t seem as earth-shattering as I’d been expecting.  Especially after all that build up.  It’s insufferably slow – they could have accomplished the exact same thing in 30 minutes, so it’s strikes me as masturbatory.  A poor excuse to use the word “meditative.”  Fuck meditative, it was boring as hell.  And REALLY with that ending?

Red Dawn:  2012 action movie directed by Dan Bradley and starring Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.  A group of young adults in Spokane, Washington wake up one morning to find that their town has been invaded by North Korea.  As the grown-ups around them begin to either cooperate with their new overlords or die fighting, they scatter into the woods and decide to start a rebellion.  Jed, a U.S. Marine on leave when the invasion occurred, starts training his brother and their friends in guerilla warfare, and they call themselves The Wolverines.  After some successes and setbacks they hook up with other Marines – what, are they just like everywhere? – and learn that only the coasts have been hit, leaving a huge stretch of unconquered land now called Free America.  Their plan is to find the enemy’s secret weapon, which would allow the crippled U.S. command to rally their remaining forces and launch a counteroffensive from the Midwest.

                I really liked it!  Sure, the plot is ludicrous and I find Josh Peck obnoxious and it got a little maudlin at times.  But it has The Hemsworth.  And Hutcherson in his small role is proving he can handle movies beyond the Hunger Games franchise.  It was chock-a-block with action sequences, it wasn’t afraid to kill off major characters, and it didn’t get too wrapped up in its own patriotic fervor.  If you’re looking for something fluffy, give it a shot.  I’m totally going to watch the original now, how have I not seen it yet?

The Boys From Brazil:  1978 British-American thriller directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, Lilli Palmer and Jeremy Black.  Elderly Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman learns that former SS Officer Josef Mengele, the infamous Auschwitz Angel of Death, has been holding top-secret meetings In Paraguay where he lives in exile.  Lieberman follows up on a related tip and begins investigating the mysterious deaths of civil servants in the U.S. and Europe – all of whom have adopted children that look remarkably alike.  What is Mengele up to, and can his mysterious plan be stopped in time?

It’s a little preposterous, but I still liked it.  Peck and Olivier are both amazing, even if they do lay it on too thick at times.  It was tense and interesting and kept me guessing until the very last scene.

Butter:  2011 comedy directed by Jim Field Smith and starring Jennifer Garner, Yara Shahidi, Ty Burrell, Olivia Wilde, Rob Corddry, Ashley Greene, Alicia Silverstone, and Hugh Jackman.  When 10 year-old Destiny visits the Iowa State Fair with her new foster parents and sees the butter sculptures, she falls in love with the craft and they encourage her to give it a try.  Turns out she’s a natural.  Meanwhile, the reigning butter champ has been pushed into “retirement,” much to his wife Laura’s displeasure.  Destiny and Laura enter the county prelims and it is on like Donkey Kong.  But how could Laura ever hope to defeat the tiny phenom?  Especially when Destiny is being helped by a stripper looking to humiliate Laura’s husband into paying the money he owes her.

It’s like Election but not as good and without the bite.  Corddry is hysterical as the foster dad, and his rapport with Shahidi is adorable.  And it’s nice to see Silverstone.  The cast all around was pretty solid.  It was a good effort, but far too predictable. 

Heartburn:  1986 drama directed by Mike Nichols, written by Nora Ephron, and starring Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Stockard Channing, Jeff Daniels, and Milos Forman.  Rachel is a food writer, Mark is a political columnist, and after they meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and have a speedy courtship they marry and buy a fixer-upper.  Their relationship seems solid, if a little rocky due to travel for work and the endless renovations on the house.  Then during her second pregnancy Rachel discovers evidence of an affair and must decide whether to stay with her husband and try to make things work or leave with her children.

         I am not doing this movie any service whatsoever with that plot summary.  It is so quietly, heartbreakingly good.  The acting is phenomenal, of course.  It’s funny and dotted with little devastating moments and it’s all too real.  It is definitely a movie that will appeal primarily to women, but it is not a Chick Flick in the least.  It makes me miss Ephron.

Mini Reviews: 8/5/13

Kids:  1995 drama written by Harmony Korine, directed by Larry Clark, and starring Chloe Sevigne, Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Pierce, Harold Hunter and Rosario Dawson.  A teenage girl tests positive for HIV and spends the day trying to track down the 16 year-old lothario who gave it to her, hoping to prevent him from exposing anyone else.  The surrounding plot is a mess of teenage drinking, drug use, violence, sex, and rape.  At its low points it’s a glamorization of asshole behavior disguised as harmless rebelliousness, meant to shock and titillate viewers into ignoring its utter lack of substance.  In the very few moments of redemption it’s a study in ‘90s urban teen life, poignant and heartbreaking.  But for me those moments were too sparse.  I tried to view it through the eyes of my high school self, to no avail.  I don’t know if I’m too square to appreciate this movie or if it’s really a total pile of shit.  Probably a little bit of both.

The Imposter:  2012 documentary directed by Bart Layton.  In 1994, 13 year-old Nicholas Barclay disappeared from San Antonio, Texas.  Three years later, authorities call his family with amazing news – he’s been found alive.  In Spain.  What follows is an account of how a French con man named Frederic Bourdin impersonated this missing boy, fooling U.S. and Spanish authorities and even the Barclay family – despite being in his early 20s and looking almost nothing like Nicholas.  Yeah . . . how did he manage to convince the Barclay’s?  HOW, INDEED. 

It’s a visually gorgeous movie with unexpected twists that kept me on my toes until the very end.  The reenactments were a bit much at times, and the ending was kind of unsatisfying.  Even though the lack of resolution made me feel weird, I still liked it a lot.

Margin Call:  2011 indie drama directed by J.C. Chandor and starring Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Demi Moore, and Stanley Tucci.  Junior risk analyst – no seriously, stay with me – Seth starts an ordinary workday by watching his boss get fired in a mass layoff.  His boss then quietly palms him a USB drive and says he should “be careful.”  By the end of the day Seth has discovered that his firm is holding a serious amount of toxic assets and is about to suffer a severe loss.  He takes it to his supervisor and the dominos start to fall.  People are fired and rehired when it’s determined they have value to add or secrets to protect, severance packages are doled out, fingers are pointed, people are unceremoniously thrown under proverbial buses, and the world of international finance braces itself for collapse.

I think this would have been more shocking like 10 years ago.  None of this is surprising even though it’s clear that’s what they were aiming for.  If you’ve paid any attention to the global recession then none of this will be new to you.  The acting is pretty solid, only a few empty shirts.  It’s decent, not great.

The Watch:  2012 sci fi comedy directed by Akiva Schaffer and starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, and Richard Ayoade.  Evan is a hyper-productive citizen of Glenview, Ohio, where he manages the local Costco.  When the night security guard at his store is murdered and the bumbling local authorities take little interest in the case, he decides to form a neighborhood watch.  He teams up with a construction worker looking for some Quality Dude Time away from his family, a high-school dropout looking for redemption after failing to pass the police academy exam, and a recent divorcee looking to impress the ladies with a semi-dashing volunteer gig.  And then I guess they accidentally stumble across some aliens.  I honestly didn’t make it that far into the movie.

                  It’s crap, and I’m honestly surprised.  It was written in part by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the same duo responsible for Superbad, Pineapple Express and This Is the End.  I freaking love Richard Ayoade, and Ben Stiller is slowly redeeming himself to me with movies like Tropic Thunder and Greenberg.  But ouch, this.  It wasn’t funny, even Vaughn looked tired with his own schtick, and after 30 minutes of hoping it would turn around I gave up.

Chernobyl Diaries:  2012 horror film directed by Brad Parker and starring Jesse McCartney, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Devin Kelley, and Jonathan Sadowski.  A group of Americans visiting Kiev decide to go off the beaten tourist path with an “extreme tour” of Pripyat, the abandoned town in the shadow of Chernobyl.  They team up with Uri, their local guide, and another intrepid tourist couple, and head to the Exclusion Zone where they enter through an unmanned checkpoint.  After exploring the creepy deserted apartment complexes they return to their van that night to find that the wiring has been chewed through.  There’s no hope of fixing their ride, their radio calls to the military go unanswered, and they’re starting to hear strange noises outside the van. 

At first I thought it might be an interesting twist on the zombie genre – a nice premise, poorly executed.  It provided a few little jumps, and considering the material the acting was solid all around.  So much more could have been done with this idea, and it just sort of fizzled out by the end.  I’d say give it a shot if you come across it randomly, I wouldn’t seek it out.

The Day of the Jackal:  1973 thriller directed by Fred Zinneman and starring an large ensemble cast including Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale.  It’s the summer of 1963.  A French militant organization called OAS is livid after the liberation of Algeria.  Their first attempt to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle in retaliation was a massive failure, and now they are underground after the capture and execution of several OAS leaders.  They decide to hire a hit man known only as The Jackal and he begins his preparations.  Meanwhile, French Intelligence has discovered the outline of the plot and is feverishly working to prevent the assassination.

This is such a good thriller – it has a nice balance of tension, surprise, and dry humor.  And I loved that the movie skips back and forth between The Jackal and the French deputy commissioner on his trail.  The juxtaposition is excellent:  the Jackal – a slight, blonde, dashing assassin – as he commissions a custom rifle, works on his disguise, and scouts the perfect location; and Claude Lebel – quiet and lumbering, with basset hound eyes – as he tracks down leads, uncovers OAS moles, and races against the clock to save de Gaulle.  It’s the detective thriller versus the spy movie, all in one.

Maybe when this was made a history lesson wasn’t necessary, but as a modern viewer I needed it.  That being said, I loved it.

 

If you like Pretty in Pink, try Some Kind of Wonderful.

To my five faithful readers:  I’m really trying to get an entry in every week now.  I am.  So in an effort to expand beyond the Mini Reviews I’ll be trying a few new things, including “If you like this, try that.”  Warning:  this post will contain spoilers for Pretty in Pink and Casablanca, two movies I should not have to provide spoiler warnings for because you should have seen them already.  The fuck is wrong with you.

People who love Pretty in Pink seem to fall into two categories:  those who love it unconditionally, and those who love it in spite of the ending.  I would be in the latter group, and I’ll even go so far as to say that people who wanted Andie to end up with Blane are assholes.  There.  One could make the argument that PiP has a very Casablanca ending:  Duckie (Rick) pushes Andie (Ilsa) back into the arms of Blane (Laszlo) because it’s what she really wants and what’s best for everyone.  Dogshit.  PiP is a 1980s John Hughes teen dramedy, not a serious 1940s noir.  I want my happy ending, dammit.

Thankfully, I have Some Kind of Wonderful.  Released only one year after Pretty in Pink, at the time it was regarded by most as a slapdash remake.  And it totally is.  But – and here’s where I kind of spoil the surprise - with the ending I yearned for.  The plot for both goes like this:  attractive teen misfit from the wrong side of the tracks falls for a popular yuppie, they try to make a relationship work despite the disapproval of the yuppie’s snobby friends, the misfit’s bestie carries a torch for them and tries to persuade them that the yuppie is no good, relationship derails – and from there the plots diverge.  So give SKoW a shot, you’ll probably like it.

My totally perfect version of the movie would of course combine my favorite characters from each – so who would win the side-by-side character face off?

                                                 Keith vs. Andie

They’re both hot gingers, sure.  But while Keith has that scruffy blue collar gearhead thing with his piercing blue eyes that are so piercing you don’t even notice his butt-chin, Andie totally takes the first round.  She’s gorgeous, self-possessed, wicked smart, and even though she pulls the occasional Teenage Girl Shenanigan and creates the most hideous prom dress this side of Laura Ashley, she’s more likeable than Keith – who’s more dreamy, oblivious, and goofy.

Watts vs. Duckie

It’s a tie, my friends.  While I realize this may seem blasphemous to diehard PiP fans, I ask you to hear me out.  Duckie is the embodiment of style meeting silliness, he’s a giant heart and you feel every slight and rejection right along with him.  But Watts wears amazing fringed gloves.  She’s a 
drummer.  She has a kicky tomboy haircut and a dye job I wish I was brave enough to pull off even though it would look terrible on me, who am I kidding.  Instead of openly pining like Duckie, she patiently bides her time, and when she does confront Keith it’s more heartfelt and honest and direct than “That’s a major appliance, that’s not a name.”  She tries harder to hide her jealousy – though like Duckie she also tries the I’m-with-someone-else-now psych out.  But what puts Watts over the top is when she takes that proverbial bull by his redheaded horns and teaches him how to properly kiss a girl.  You know.  For “practice.”

Amanda vs. Blane

Who cares.  Honestly.  Does anyone watch Pretty in Pink for BLANE?!  They’re both a little vapid but stand up to the Cool Kids and do the right thing in the end, whatever.  Both only exist to serve the needs of and provide drama for the main character.  That’s it.

Hardy vs. Steff

It’s so not even close on this one.  Hardy is brutish and boorish and stupid and way too easy to hate.  Oh, but Steff.  Steff Steff Steff.  Sure, you hate him.  But you also want him or want to be him, just a little bit.  He’s more complicated than Hardy, clearly has some self-loathing going on, and practically secretes sex appeal as he contrives to keep Andie and Blane apart.

Duncan vs. Iona

Duncan really gives it a good try as the surly punk with a heart of gold, but Iona simply cannot be bested.  Her costume changes alone put her on another level.  Even when she eschews her roots and starts dating a guy named Terrence and wearing blazers, you can’t help but love her even more.  Duncan is great, but a bit one-dimensional.

So my Frankenstein’s monster version of the movie mash-up would go like thus:  the plot of Pretty in Pink with the ending of Some Kind of Wonderful and Andie, Watts – it’s 2013, let’s have some LGBT representation! – Blamanda, Steff, and Iona.  BLAMMO.  Are you there, John Hughes?  It’s me, AJ.  Let’s do this shit.

Mini Reviews: 6/23/13

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Escape From Alcatraz:  1979 thriller directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood, Fred Ward, Patrick McGoohan and Larry Hankin.  The movie is based on a true story:  Frank Morris is sent to Alcatraz after successfully escaping from several other prisons.  After a few months of witnessing the vindictive cruelty of the warden, he decides to pull another daring escape attempt with the help of a few friends. 

It’s like Shawshank without all the sentiment and fine voice-over work.  Eastwood is a total badass, and Larry Hankin is great as the perhaps cowardly but well-meaning Charlie Butts.  McGoohan overdoes it a bit as the warden – I mean, you half expect him to start twirling a fake mustache in sinister glee – but it doesn’t distract too much from the rest of the movie.  It’s a solid thriller and a great example of Eastwood’s mid-career non-Western work.

Tremors:  1990 sci-fi horror comedy directed by Ron Underwood and starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross and Reba McEntire.  Handymen Val and Earl have had their fill of Perfection, a small former mining town in Nevada.  They hit the road to seek their fortunes elsewhere, and happen upon a few dead bodies.  What they first believe is a mass murderer run amok turns out to be a giant burrowing worm creature.  With the help of a local seismology grad student, they must figure out how to save the surviving residents of Perfection from total extinction.

            It’s a cute, funny monster movie.  Everyone is hilarious, particularly Gross and McEntire as the survivalist couple – turns out it’s super handy to be buddies with the well-armed in situations like these.  I was skeptical at first but it’s worth seeing when you’re in the mood for something light and a little twisted.

The Thing:  1982 sci fi horror film directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, and Donald Moffat.  After a strange and violent run-in with members of a Norwegian research team, an American contingent on Antarctica goes to investigate the neighboring outpost.  There they discover a frozen husk where the outpost used to be and the corpse of a vaguely human-looking creature with two faces.  One of the biologists determines that a dog the Norwegians had been trying to kill is actually an alien life form capable of perfectly imitating whatever host it takes over – and suddenly it’s impossible to tell who is really themselves, and who is an alien in disguise.

It’s a really amazing scary movie and I’m annoyed with myself for not seeing it sooner.  It’s tense and it keeps you guessing.  Plus Kurt Russell couldn’t be more bearded and manly if he tried – though seeing Wilford Brimley without a giant mustache is weird and wrong.  Definitely see it.

Bernie:  2011 dark comedy mockumentary based on a real Texas murder case, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey.  Bernie Tiede is a cherished citizen of Carthage, a small town in Texas:  he’s the local assistant mortician, active in the church, friends with pretty much everyone – including the much-maligned widow Marjorie Nugent.  After her husband’s death, she and Bernie quickly become inseparable.  They travel together, lunch together, do EVERYTHING together; to the point that Nugent’s near-abusive need for attention consumes Bernie’s life.  One day Bernie snaps and kills Nugent, and once he’s found out it’s up to the local district attorney to see that he’s convicted.  Problem is, nearly everyone in town either believes Bernie is innocent or thinks Nugent deserved what she got.  Will sweet, lovable Bernie be punished for his heinous crime?

I liked the faux documentary approach a lot, I thought it worked really well.  There was perhaps a little too much exposition, but that’s the only flaw I found.  McLaine, Black and McConaughey are all spectacular.  Definitely worth a try.  Also, can I just say officially how pleased I am with the evolution of McConaughey’s career?  I haven’t seen everything he’s been in since 2008, but what I have seen I’ve been super impressed by.  If you get the chance, check out his interview with Terri Gross on Fresh Air, it’s pretty adorable.

The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story:  2004 TV movie based on the disapperance of Laci Peterson, starring Dean Cain, Sarah Brown, Tracy Middendorf and Tom O’Brien.  Just shut up, OK?  Yes, it is a made-for-TV movie that aired on the USA Network.  Yes, it stars Dean Caine.  Look, it was on Netflix Instant and I wanted to watch something salacious and stupid and that’s exactly what I got so don’t judge me.

Kuffs:  1992 action comedy directed by Bruce A. Evans and starring Christian Slater, Tony Goldwyn, Milla Jovovich and Leon Rippy.  George Kuffs has just left his pregnant girlfriend and hit his brother Brad up for a loan so he can mine for gold in South America or some nonsense, when Brad is killed.  In a freak display of responsibility he decides to take over his brother’s Patrol Special police franchise, a civilian auxiliary police force in San Francisco – I had no idea this was a real thing.  Anyway, George must keep his brother’s business afloat, find his brother’s killer, play nice with the actual police, and redeem himself to his ex-girlfriend.  Slater is charming as ever and Goldwyn is pretty great as the Straight Man, but the plot is ludicrous, there are all these weird sound effects and the constant breaking of the Fourth Wall is kind of overdone.  I’d skip it, unless you happen to catch it on TBS or something. 

Why is there a dog?  Why is he addressing the audience about the dog?  What the hell is this movie?

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol:  2011 action film directed by Brad Bird and starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Paula Patton.  Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is a top agent for the IMF, a CIA-like agency working for the U.S. government.  His superiors send him and his new team to the Kremlin to get info on a bad guy, codenamed “Cobalt.”  When the Kremlin explodes during their mission, the President activates a “Ghost Protocol,” which disavows the IMF but secretly allows them to escape custody so they can hunt down Cobalt, who was responsible for the attack.  Now they’re totally alone in the world with very few allies, and they’re being pursued by multiple government agencies and Cobalt’s associates, all while trying to bring him down before he starts a nuclear war.

            As far as action movies go, it’s fairly solid.  It’s perhaps a bit too long, and there are definitely references to the earlier films in the franchise so it may help if you’ve seen them, but I haven’t and didn’t find it difficult to keep up.  Cruise and Patton are just kind of there, but Renner and Pegg are fantastic and more than make up for the uneven acting of their costars.  Though, Renner’s character arc is a little predictable because why would you put him in an action movie and have him play a pencil pusher?  Whatever, he’s great.  And I’d like to give a little nod to Lea Seydoux, who played the assassin Moreau brilliantly. 

So, these magic suction gloves are totally gonna work, right?

Mini Reviews: 6/16/13

Scarface:  1932 gangster movie directed by Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson and starring Paul Muni, George Raft, Osgood Perkins, Boris Karloff and Ann Dvorak.  If you’ve seen the 1983 remake with Al Pacino then you’re already familiar with the plot:  Tony is the muscle for Johnny Lovo’s gang in Prohibition-era Chicago, and he decides to expand his boss’s territory and then take it over in a gutsy power play.  Good news is he has his best friend Guino to help with the dirty work; bad news is Guino has his eye on Tony’s wild younger sister.

So you know that inevitable retribution montage that takes place in most gangster movies?  This is like a whole movie of that: shoot some guys, take over their bootlegging business, get hassled but ultimately released by the cops, repeat until dead.  Despite its predictability it’s an excellent movie, and a must-see if you like any of the classic gangster movies that followed it.  Dvorak could’ve taken it down a notch, but other than her incessant shrieking the acting is decent all around.  I love George Raft in this.

People don’t menacingly flip coins anymore, have you noticed? 

Savages:  2012 crime thriller directed by Oliver Stone and starring Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Benicio del Toro, Salma Hayek and John Travolta.  Chon & Ben are pot-growing prodigies living in Laguna Beach with their lithe young mutual girlfriend, O.  When they refuse a buyout offer from Mexican cartel leader Elena, O is kidnapped and they go to crazy, dangerous lengths to get her back.  It’s an interesting, if not entirely successful take on your typical drug movie.  John Travolta is semi-compelling as the corrupt DEA agent, and del Toro is terrifying as the cartel hatchet man.  It had promise, but it’s too long and really started to drag at times.  And the ending is straight-up annoying.  It’s just okay.

Witness for the Prosecution:  1957 English courtroom drama directed by Billy Wilder and starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton.  Barrister Wilfrid Robarts delays his retirement when he’s offered an intriguing defense case:  Leonard Vole is accused of murdering a rich elderly woman, and when Leonard’s cold, calculating wife is called as a witness for the prosecution (get it?) the physically ailing Robarts must use his considerable wit to prove that his client is innocent.

Um, it’s amazing.  If you like courtroom dramas or even Law & Order, I encourage you to watch it.  Pretty much anything by Wilder is a good bet.  The acting is spectacular, I absolutely loved the back and forth between Dietrich and Laughton, and Elsa Lanchester is adorable in her small role as Robarts’s nurse – you may also recognize her from a bit part in Mary Poppins as a pissed-off nanny or as the Bride of Frankenstein.  The only underwhelming performance is that of Power, who comes across as weak and melodramatic, but it makes him more realistic as a totally unwitting pawn, I guess?  Talentless or talentless like a fox?  TWIST.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance:  1962 American Western directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles and Lee Marvin.  U.S. Senator Ranse Stoddard and his wife Hallie have returned to a small town in the Wild West called Shinbone to attend a funeral.  Stoddard proved his mettle and rose to the political top after beating a local bully named Liberty Valance decades ago, and when he shows up to pay his last respects to an apparent nobody the local journalists get curious.  Stoddard is cajoled into recounting how he knew this roustabout, and why he was so important to the Senator and Hallie.  It’s a classic American Western film, so if you like that sort of thing you should watch it.  Personally I thought it was a little over the top and the only reason I made it all the way through is my unconditional love for Stewart.

Django Unchained:  2012 American Western written and directed by Quentin Taratino and starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kerry Washington.  A bounty hunter scouring the Antebellum South for his prey frees and partners up with Django, a slave who can identify the men he’s looking for.  They quickly become friends and go into business together, and after much travel and training they set out to find and free Django’s wife, who is owned by a particularly cruel plantation owner.  It’s entertaining but I have the same problems with it that I have with all Tarantino movies:  it’s an hour too long, just over the line of acceptable goriness, and prone to long philosophical rants.  But I appreciate that I always have to think about his movies; they’re not the kind of fare you can watch, immediately process and forget.  There are lots of great cameos and clever, brilliant use of music – of course.  And he’s on this interesting trend of very neatly defined Good Guy v. Bad Guy, as opposed to his earlier work where there’s a bit more ambiguity.

                  To sum up:  if you like Tarantino, then see it.  If you don’t, then don’t.

War Games:  1983 Cold War sci-fi thriller directed by John Badham and starring Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, and John Wood.  Young teen hacker David is scrolling through phone numbers in California in an attempt to get access to a new computer game when he comes upon a computer that won’t identify itself.  On it he finds a list of games like chess and checkers and GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR, and when he hacks in he unwittingly sets off a series of War Games.  With the help of his feisty girlfriend he must track down the computer’s creator and break in to NORAD to convince the military that this is all a big misunderstanding before they retaliate against the U.S.S.R. for real.

It’s a really great, fun ‘80s movie.  Despite the tension and running around and close calls it’s still a fairly light thriller.  I have no idea if any of the tech stuff he did is possible but it’s still cool.  And this is Sheedy and Broderick at the peak of their awesome.  Definitely see it or watch it again.

Zero Dark Thirty:  2012 thriller directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring an excellent ensemble cast including Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle and Kyle Chandler.  Maya is a young, driven, and hyper-focused CIA officer involved in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.  Over the course of nearly 10 years she tracks down leads, visits black-ops sites that use torture to obtain information from prisoners, makes enemies and allies and frenemies, has no social life whatsoever, works and works and works to find her quarry.  Along the way colleagues are killed, she’s beset with bureaucratic roadblocks and political maneuvering that she lacks the savvy to counteract – an administration haunted by the WMD kerfuffle that led to the Iraq War is going to need more solid proof than one woman’s instincts.  And then a raid is authorized, and she gets to witness the death of the man she’s been tirelessly hunting.

Look, it’s riddled with inaccuracies both minor and really fucking major.  It’s been described as advocating or even fetishizing torture as an acceptable method of interrogation, which I think is true.  And the film’s claim that it is “based on firsthand accounts of actual events” is such a gross exaggeration that it’s laughable.  All that being said:  it’s an amazing political thriller.  It’s really outstanding.  The acting is brilliant all around, but Chastain really just nails it.  It’s tense, with the occasional twinge of humor to lighten the tension, it’s interesting, and the pace is perfect.  I LOVE this movie, mostly because to me the theme at the end seemed to be this:  Now What?  Mya, as a metaphor for the entire intelligence community, has dedicated all of her efforts to finding ONE GUY.  And now he’s dead.  So now what?  Al Qaeda is still around.  Terrorist attacks still occur.  As one faction weakens, another gains strength – AQAP, anyone?  So where do we go from here?

           I totally get the uproar over Bigelow’s interpretation of events.  But if you still think that fictional movies supposedly based on true events are accurate, or even that documentaries are telling you the whole story, then you’re not an informed movie-goer.  And I guess perhaps most of us are not, and won’t take five minutes to look into the facts before forming their opinions, and that’s why Zero Dark Thirty should take some heat.  But whether you end up loving it or hating it, it’s definitely worth watching.