| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surveillance - R | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Sunshine Cleaning - R | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Gake no ue no Ponyo (Ponyo) (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) - G | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Nothing But the Truth - R | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Julia - R | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| The Spiderwick Chronicles - PG | Mark Waters' adaptation of the acclaimed young adult books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black is a surprisingly absorbing, enjoyable, and perfectly-tailored family entertainment for this decade. The plot: the Grace family moves from New York City to their great-aunt's (Joan Plowright) creepy old estate in the middle of nowhere, and must make a fresh start. The mother (Mary-Louise Parker) is trying to move on from her no account husband (Andrew McCarthy), who appears to be more interested in the new girl he's just moved in with than in his own family. The former Mrs. Grace must then take care of her three young teens all by herself. Freddie Highmore gives a terrific performance in a dual role as twin brothers Jared and Simon. Jared is the kind of kid who is lashing out, angry all the time, and who consequentially gets blamed for anything that goes wrong. His brother, Simon, is a bookworm, knows a little something about seemingly everything, and is a self-described "pacifist." How nice then that their fencing champion older sister Mallory (the lovely Sarah Bolger) is there to pick up the slack. The film doesn't take too long before strange things begin occurring - some objects appear to move on their own, while others disappear without a trace, only to reappear in a secret dumbwaiter hidden behind the wall (Simon's the sort of kid who knows what such a device is called). The trio of young siblings soon discovers a book written by their grandfather (the reliable David Strathairn), who disappeared shortly after its completion some 80 years ago. Turns out, the book is a passage-way of sorts to seeing a hidden world of fairies, goblins and ogres, and with the help of a kind little creature named Thimbletack (the voice of Martin Short), and a somewhat undependable sloth named Hogsqueal (the voice of Seth Rogen), the kids must keep the book out of the hands of the evil Mulgarath (Nick Nolte). Some moments will probably scare the bejesus out of kids who are younger than 8 or 9 years old, but that's up to them to decide; indeed, when Mulgarath takes his true shape, he looks something like a cross between King Kong and what you might expect an ogre played by Nick Nolte to look like. It's by sheer serendipity that I should watch this right after re-watching Spike Jonze's "Adaptation." (2002) again. Like Nicolas Cage in that film, if not precisely on the same level, Highmore here creates two distinct individual characters without a single trick of hair or makeup, or even much in the way of costuming - he's terrific. I also greatly enjoyed Sarah Bolger ("In America") as the tough, smart sister who gets caught up in her brothers' pursuits. The adults are all fine, with Joan Plowright managing to never talk down to the material, and Mary-Louise Parker even earning points in the rather thankless role of the disbelieving mother who means well but is clueless. It's worth noting that one of the co-screenwriters of the film is the great John Sayles, an independent filmmaker ("Lone Star," "City of Hope") with an eye for family-friendly magical realism ("The Secret of Roan Inish"). Without having read the books or knowing what part he played in the adaptation of them, I think I can safely attribute a good chunk of this film's intelligence and heart to him. As well, the committed A-list cast, the slick, fantastical direction by Mark Waters ("The House of Yes," "Freaky Friday"), some solid cinematography by Caleb Deschanel, and effective music by James Horner, combine to lift what could've been a low-rent modern-day "Lord of the Rings" knockoff out of the gutter and into the upper echelons of family entertainment. | November 24, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Spirit - PG-13 | Frank Miller's comic strip adaptation is a stylish mess, a grimly unwatchable parody, a colossal bore. | November 24, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Standard Operating Procedure - R | Errol Morris' powerful, angering documentary is not an expose of the criminal acts committed at Abu Ghraib military prison, as the cat's already out of the bag, but rather an absorbing examination of the meaning behind the infamous photographs which leaked out of the facility, causing an uproar over the apparent torture of prisoners. Several young American soldiers working in various capacities at the prison famously posed for photographs, with Lynndie England being the poster-girl, the face of humiliation and torture at Abu Ghraib, if you will. Interviews with England suggest that she, 20 at the time, was merely a cog in the machine orchestrated by her superior officer, over 15 years older than her, her boyfriend at the time, Charles Graner. Apparently, he was telling her how to pose and what to do and she was going along with it; indeed, it's said that all it takes for evil to succeed is for "good people" to just "go along." We get a mosaic of accounts from many of the soldiers, including a female officer named Sabrina Harman, whose letters home to her wife provide occasional narration and a would-be conscience juxtaposed with the horror and grotesquerie; indeed, she intended to turn the pictures she took over to the press or authorities but it was too little too late and she was ultimately punished alongside the rest of her comrades. Nobody above staff sergeant was ever imprisoned or found guilty of anything, and the film makes clear that although never shown in the photos, others were giving orders at all times - the soldiers did what they were told and paid the price. Errol Morris is maybe the best documentarian we have today. Having started with investigations of pet cemetary culture ("Gates of Heaven") and small town life ("Vernon, Florida"), he has since moved on to greater hights. Once having worked as a private investigator, his documentaries of late have had great success at achieving unique results, using the Interrotron - a device allowing Morris to be seen by and see his subjects while they look into the camera - to probe and search the frame for the truth. This device has worked to help get an innocent Death Row inmate out of prison ("The Thin Blue Line"); to probe into the personality of a Holocaust-denying creator of modern execution methods ("Mr. Death: The Rise & Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr."); to investigate the 11 life lessons learned by former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ("The Fog of War"); and now to gain a scintilla of understanding of what was going through the minds of the young men and women who became scapegoats for the unspeakable acts committed at Abu Ghraib. What Morris discovers is alternatingly disturbing, fascinating and heartbreaking. One of the year's best films. | November 24, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Tyson - R | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Vantage Point - PG-13 | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Vicky Cristina Barcelona - PG-13 | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| The Wackness - R | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| W. - PG-13 | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| WALL-E - G | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Vals Im Bashir (Waltz with Bashir) - R | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| War, Inc. - R | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Wendy and Lucy - R | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| What Happens in Vegas - PG-13 | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| The X-Files: I Want to Believe (The X Files 2) - PG-13 | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Zack and Miri Make a Porno - R | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| December Bride - Unrated | November 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| The Visitor - PG-13 |
Thomas McCarthy's brilliant but simple study of a lonely professor (a widower) who has an apartment he hasn't been to in years. In New York City for a weekend seminar, the Connecticut professor finds a couple of foreign squatters in his old apartment and lets them stay. The man is a Syrian drummer and his girl is a Senegalese jewelry maker who sells her wares in the Saturday market. They soon become good friends but a misunderstanding poises the Syrian for deportation. This is a powerful film centered on a lovely performance of few words by recurring "Six Feet Under" guest star Richard Jenkins. Hiam Abbass is wonderful as the Syrian's mother, who might want to help Jenkins' professor through his lonely life. Simply put, this is a wonderful film.
NOTE: This was deservedly nominated for a 2008 Oscar for Best Actor. |
November 24, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Taxi to the Dark Side - R | Writer-director Alex Gibney's Oscar-winning documentary is a horrifying, unblinking and appalling account, confirming your worst fears about the terrible, no-good, very bad things that your government is up to in the name of protecting "freedom." It begins with an inquiry into the mysterious disappearance of Dilawar, an Afghan taxi driver who was sold out by a paid informant, named as a terrorist, and taken to Bagram Air Base, an American prison facility in Afghanistan, where he was subsequently tortured to death. Your hard-earned tax dollars at work, no? Gibney ("Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room") then takes to looking into the scandal over the torture going on at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib - the site of the infamous photos leaked of US soldiers "interrogating" (read: humiliating) prisoners beyond the call of "duty." Gibney gives us interviews with several US officials and former officials, all of whom testify with remarkable candor and, in some cases, remorse about the terrible things they did, or allowed their subordinates to do in the name of "national security." In 2006, Bush signed his own pardon, stretching just to himself and his Administration, leaving the soldiers who were following orders out to dry, to be court-martialed and given jail time for "doing their job." To do such things to another human being is wrong, no matter the reason. Should the soldiers in question have disobeyed such orders? It would be easy for any one of us sitting here to diagree with their decisions to go along with it, but it would be hard to resist if we were only in their shoes. Something to think about. | November 24, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Starting Out in the Evening - PG-13 |
Andrew Wagner's deep, sweet, thoughtful film is a vision of the solitary life of writing as it opens up to the input of others. We first see him eyes closed, hands clasped in front of him, almost praying, sitting in front of his typewriter. Here is a man who is uncertain where to go next. His name is Leonard Schiller (Frank Langella) and he was once a decently famous author in New York who wrote four published books (and two unpublished ones) and has been working on his latest work for over ten years. Then, a breath of fresh air. Into his life comes Heather Wolfe (Lauren Ambrose of TV's "Six Feet Under"), an ambitious and surprisingly thoughtful young graduate student who has fallen in love with Leonard's work and wants to write a critical career-spanning piece on him for her Master's thesis. Leonard is at first resistant to her advances, but is soon agreeing to meet and discuss his work with her on a weekly basis. Leonard is not well after a recent stroke and is trying desperately to get his final work out in the world, and at first sees Heather as a distraction before coming to appreciate her company, as well as her appreciation of his work; there is no greater aphrodisiac to an artist than finding someone to love their work. Early in their discussions, Heather kisses his hand and may in fact be infatuated with him - does she love him or his work? We think we know where this will go - a May-December romance for the ages with all the care and meaning of a sexual fling, but it's more than that; how much more I will leave you to discover. Meanwhile, Leonard has a daughter, Ariel (Lili Taylor), a 40-ish pilates instructor who desperately wants to have a baby - so desperately, in fact, that she is currently having unprotected sex with her boyfriend to "trick" him into having a baby, although she sees him more as a means to an end, not as part of the actual life of the child. She once broke up with the love of her life, Casey (Adrian Lester of "Primary Colors") because he didn't want children and, it's hinted, all but forced her to have an abortion - a decision neither one of them could withstand the strain of. When he comes back into her life unexpectedly, will either of them have the fortitude to see their relationship through this time? The film was directed and co-written by Andrew Wagner, who made the semi-autobiographical pseudo-documentary about his troublesome family, "The Talent Given Us" (2004). This film, based on a novel by Brian Morton, is just slightly more dramatic and less like a documentary. The characters are all bright, intelligent, thoughtful and literate people who are well-spoken and well-read, careful about the words they use, goal-oriented but sensitive to the needs of others. Frank Langella gives the performance of his career as Leonard, a fiercely smart, uncompromising but kind-eyed old soul who is afraid to move forward in his life and yet doesn't precisely want to remain in neutral either, though his work suggests otherwise. Ambrose is strong as the young firebrand who catches his fancy and attracts his intellect, an intelligent and well-read romantic who thinks she wants to be close to the man whose work inspired her to be a writer; how close is too close is unclear. This could've been simply about these two intellectual writers with a massive age difference coming to terms with one-another and, perhaps, falling in love, but I also cared for Ariel as the self-doubting (perhaps, indeed, self-loathing) daughter who is aging too quickly and can hear her biological clock echoing in her mind, and Casey as the well-meaning and nice young man who loves Ariel but has always put his own desires and needs first - at no point including having children on his radar screen. These four people are searching for, in their own way, love and happiness and some of them go about it in the wrong way, and some of them may never be completely happy; their struggles are believable and absorbing, never punched up for dramatic effect. The results are oddly fascinating and utterly moving; one of the year's best films!
NOTE: Nominated for Best Male Lead and Screenplay (Wagner and Fred Parnes) at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards. |
November 24, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Snow Angels - R |
David Gordon Green's "Snow Angels" is a mosaical slice of life in a small town (filmed in Nova Scotia). It concerns the converging lives of everyone from a young dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant (Michael Angarano) to his sexy coworker (Kate Beckinsale), a mom in the midst of a separation from her deadbeat, suicidal husband (Sam Rockwell), the dishwasher's classmate (Olivia Thirlby), and the co-worker (Amy Sedaris) and her unfaithful husband (Nicky Katt). Green's fourth feature (after the superb "George Washington," "All the Real Girls" and "Undertow"; he has Judd Apatow's production "The Pineapple Express" coming in August!) is a powerful little movie based on the Stuart O'Nan novel. The only confusing thing is that it seems to be set in the 70s or 80s, yet Beckinsale has a very new looking cellphone at one point. Anachronism? Very good work on all accounts. |
November 24, 2009 | N/A |
3121 ratings
207 reviews
