: having a mixture of the serious and the comic
Well, well, happy Thursday, readers. Today is pretty much going to be a movie day:
New Movies Opening This Weekend:
Taken 2 I loved the first Taken, an exciting, impactful Liam Neeson action-er from the three years ago. I'm not really sure why they had to make another one. Neither are critics. (The first one was a surprising box-office smash.) This time around, we're in Istanbul, and not only is Liam's daughter (Maggie Grace) kidnapped again, but so is his wife (Famke Janssen.) Lots of action and scenes involving Liam disposing hordes of Eurotrash, no doubt. I'll see it, but critics are saying blah!
Verdict: Interested
The Paperboy Director Lee Daniels (Precious) brings Pete Dexter's 1995 novel to the screen - a hot mess of Deep South overheatedness, sex, murder, seduction, and white trash. Nicole Kidman is reputedly stunning as a piece of local trash, John Cusack is a dirty, hick-ish death row prisoner, Zac Efron and Matthew McConaughey are brothers working in their father's newspaper business. Set in 1969, it's a lurid mystery reminiscent of John Macdonald or maybe even Elmore Leonard. Some graphic scenes. Critics are all over the place on this one - there's energy, they write, but it's very, very ridiculous. Co-stars Macy Gray and Scott Glenn. And there is a scene where Nicole relieves herself on pretty Zac.
Verdict: Interested
Butter A political satire that, with Jennifer Garner doing a mild Sarah Palin impersonation, maybe a few years late, but nevertheles, it's getting decent, if tepid reviews. It's more of a gentle riff on Red State living, as various butter sculptors clash at a carving competition. Hugh Jackman is a pot-bellied used-car dealer, Olivia Wilde plays a goth hooker, and Ty Burrell and Alicia Silverstone also co-star.
Verdict: Mildly Interested
Frankenweenie Tim Burton's latest stop-motion animated romp, the film is about a boy mourning the loss of his dog and then scientifically bringing the dog back to life - ala Frankenstein - only to see his creation wreak havoc in his town. Critics like it. It's actually an expanded take on a short film Burton made in 1984. Martin Landau, Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder, and Martin Short are among the voice actors.
Verdict: Mildly Interested
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A new month means ten new films for my list of 200 Essential American Films. (This month's selections will take us up to 100.)
- The Descendants (2011; Alexander Payne)
About a year ago or so on this blog, I said that I thought this was a near-perfect movie. I still think that.
- Ed Wood (1994; directed by Tim Burton)
The best movie Tim Burton has ever made. A loving, kooky, eccentric, big-hearted, blackly funny tribute to the titular worst director of all time, played beautifully by Johnny Depp. One of the reasons this film is successful and easy to love is that Burton (shooting in glorious black-and- white) loves these losers so much. A coterie of colorful supporting players (Bill Murray, Sarah Jessica Parker, Vincent D'Onofrio chief among them) are spot-on, but, in his Oscar-winning performance, Martin Landau steals everything as the dying, up-for-anything Bela Lugosi.
- Hannah and Her Sisters (1986; Woody Allen)
Along with Crimes and Misdemeanors and The Purple Rose of Cairo, one of Woody's highlights from the 1980s, with a glorious cast (Oscar winners Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest, Carrie Fisher, Allen, Mia, Max von Sydow, Barbara Hershey), philosophical musings, and plenty of one-liners.
- Rain Man (1988, Barry Levinson)
I don't know how this film has held up for most people, but to me, it's a film that has gotten better with age. Maybe it just hits home more. Tom Cruise gives a superb performance, navigating his character's 360-degree aboutface with surefootedness, and Dustin Hoffman never slips out of character. What's most impressive is how un-sentimental the film is: there are no easy answers or solutions for Raymond Babbitt. And, yes, living down here in Shitsboro, a town without decent grocery stores or shops, I can agree that K-MART SUCKS!
- Rio Bravo (1959, Howard Hawks)
One of my two or three favorite movies of all time, Hawks' ode to male camaraderie and companionship, loyalty and courage pits sheriff John Wayne (at his most commanding), drunken Dean Martin, crippled Walter Brennan, and earnest young gunfighter Ricky Nelson, against a local bad guy out to spring his brother from jail. Simply wonderful.
- Sullivan's Travels (1942; Preston Sturges)
A masterpiece. Sturges, a master of slapstick and frenetic, rapid-fire dialogue, proved how great he was at the seriocomic with this tale of a director of fluff (the wonderful Joel McCrea) setting out across the American South to see how the other side lives - with the idea that he'll get inspiration for a socially-conscious drama. Veronica Lake is his companion. Full of symbolism and rife with ideas and truths, it's just a flat-out great movie. (Incidentally, the film McCrea's character is making - O Brother, Where Art Thou? - was, of course, the inspiration for the Coen brother's 2000 movie.)
This is Spinal Tap (1984; Rob Reiner)
The definitive mockumentary and a final word on the egoism of popular musicians, Reiner's comedy has so many memorable one-liners and sight gags, it doesn't really do to reproduce any of them here. It's a shame that Christopher Guest and his stock company don't make more movies.
This month's other selections:
- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
- Trouble in Paradise (1932)
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A performance today for the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time:
George Clooney
as Michael Clayton (2007)
I always thought Clooney was a charismatic, suave performer, but it wasn't until this smart, layered drama that I realized how superb of an actor he was. As a legal fixer engulfed in a corporate morass, Clooney beautifully underplays and yet projects a conflicted confidence and cunning. Like all great actors, Clooney acts with his face and eyes, and even as the film gets more and more complex, we have the actor to carry us through it all with weary, sometimes uncertain grace. Clooney is one of the actors made to play legal types - he's so smooth yet unafraid to get ruffled, and he just commands a frame, sometimes by doing very little.
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A pick for tonight. I'll have to go back and check, but I think I've picked the 4-0 Cardinals to lose every game so far. Hmmm. Well, I'm not sure how, outside of fantastic defense, they've won so far - especially over some tough teams (New England, Seattle, Philly). I think the 2-2 Rams are a solid squad, and they're playing at home. Sorry, Arizona, I don't dislike you, but I like the Rams right now.
St. Louis 19, Arizona 16
Be sure to check out my other blog later this afternoon or tomorrow morning, for I'll have a new post up! http://mybookylife.blogspot.com/
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