A Spoonful of Memories

Saving Mr Banks centers around the last few years where Walt Disney tried to obtain the rights to P.L. Travers's series of books about the nanny Mary Poppins, and while this may sound like a mundane subject, it's pretty much a soap opera and a trip through regressive therapy, all in one fell swoop. If the movie tells the truth, Mary Poppins was more than the product of an active imagination in Ms. Travers's mind. She is tied up with memories of the author's life as a girl in Australia, most importantly her relationship with her father (played quite charmingly by Colin Farrell, weirdly enough), a relationship that hit a little close to the belt for me, if truth be told. But that's for another therapy session. The person that Ms. Travers becomes is the product of these experiences, and it makes for quite a sorry person indeed. If truth be told, if it wasn't for Emma Thompson's amazing talent portraying her, I would have wanted to haul up and smack her after a while. She's an unhappy, bitter woman who is not swayed by the type of sentimentality that Disney churns out. She's afraid that Mary Poppins will become a frivolous joke for Disney to exploit, and she's got a lot of evidence to support that fear. Once I understood her story and her life, understanding started to replace irritation for me, and I found myself rooting wholeheartedly for her. The introduction of the song "Let's Go Fly a Kite" to her makes for a beautiful epiphany and opening of self that is wonderful to see. Emma Thompson's acting is superb, and she truly makes P.L. Travers a character to root for, when all logic is telling one not to. Again, if the movie is truthful, Walt Disney's only sins were smoking and being too cheerful. Maybe a bit too flip, but I think there's a real issue with Disney making a movie that involves Walt Disney and the Disney company. I do feel that Disney is whitewashed a bit, from his downhome charm to getting possibly the most loved actor around, Tom Hanks, to play him. Hanks is quite good, but his part is a little weak. He's basically a foil and a sounding board. I don't claim to know much about Disney's life as a whole, other than the more salacious things that have gone around in the last few years, but I don't see him as a father figure, even though he's set up as one in this. It's not to say that Hanks isn't wonderful, but I've got just enough cynicism to have doubts about the shininess of his character's halo. I suppose that this makes it sound like I didn't like the film. I did, quite much actually. It's charming and emotional and knows how to pull at the heart strings, and I'm a sucker for that. Besides the two leads, there are great performances by Paul Giamatti, Bradley Whitford, B J Novak, and Jason Schwartzman. There's plenty of charm to go around. Still, the cynic in me doesn't allow me to think that Disney magic can cure all ills, physical and emotional. In the end, however, I shed a tear or two, and I more than bought into the idea. Call me a sucker.

Space, man... Space...

First off, I'm just going to say this - I don't have a frickin' CLUE how they shot this without actually being in space. Alfonso Cuaron is a great filmmaker, but with this, he either sold his soul to the devil, or he is a magician. The effects are AMAZING. AMAZING. I even paid $17.00 to see it in 3D on an IMAX screen, and I won't do that for, well, anything. For all the hoopla surrounding the effects, this is a well-made, emotional film. You probably know the story by now. Sandy B. playing an astronaut stranded in space, trying to get home. Georgie C. plays the veteran astronaut helping her out (By the way, there has never been an actor better suited to playing a veteran astronaut than George Clooney.). Chaos ensues. Crap happens. But one of Cuaron's great gifts is that he always remembers that, no matter what bells and whistles he wants to throw into a picture, the characters and the story always come first. Inbetween the chaos and the danger, there are small moments of silence and peace that really put the story together. Bullock's character has built-in baggage that gives her story an emotional heft beyond just wanting to see her live. She and Clooney have an easy chemistry that gives the story some humor and flavor. And no matter what you think of Sandra Bullock as an actress (I happen to think she's da bomb, FYI), any expectation you have will be shattered by her performance in this. It's by far the finest work of her career. Clooney's quite great, as he most always is. I'm hoping that, because this is coming out relatively early for awards season, it won't be overlooked by whatever overblown 3 and a half hour movie ends up getting all the nominations. It should get noms across the board, from sound to acting to directing. I really can't recommend it enough.

I wanna goooooooo...

I'll just get this out of the way first - Austenland is not a very well made movie. It's structured poorly and written badly. And that hack who wrote Twilight produced it. Really, there's nothing for anyone except Jane Austen freaks and chicks who like guys with British accents. Luckily, I fall into both those categories. Lucky you! Mostly, this movie is a romcom and a love story to Jane Austen fans. Jane (yes, that's the lead character's name) is an Austen addict who bankrupts herself to go to a gaudy Austen theme park in England, and she embraces it at first until she realizes that she can't really tell what's real and what's being acted out. Really, that's it. It's based on a cute book, though. Read the book! Keri Russell (Felicity, bitches!) does a cute, ditzy turn as Jane, and she has a meet-cute with Bret Mackenzie (of Flight of the Conchords and the coolest Muppet songs ever written - he won an Oscar last year!), and a meet-Darcy with JJ Feilds (whom I recognized from his preformance on a Northanger Abbey rendition made a few years back - I need help). The traditional love triangle ensures, but I say Bret wins just by charm alone. Jennifer Coolidge gets to ham it up as the resident comic relief, and James Callis (of Battlestar Galactica fame)is a hoot as one of the actors. (Even though, yes, the character's gay, movie writer. No need to shove it down our throats.) The actors make the movie what it is. Anyhoo, it's all over the place. I can't wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone, but it's funny and cute and has a great joke revolving around Nelly's "Hot in Heeere" song. Enough said.

Abra Cadabr....oh, who gives a crap?

So, finally saw "Now You See Me" (or is it Us?  Eh, who cares?) on video, and while I found the movie to be at times entertaining, mostly it was just utter crap.  But, being the supposed academic I would like to be, I did find myself asking many questions when the film was completed.  Among them are:

1.  Is Jesse Eisenberg just a really good actor who gets constantly typecast as the arrogant assmunch, or is he just a gigantic d-bag in real life and can't act worth a crap?  I found myself hating Facebook after watching him in "Social Network" (Yes, I know, I put the link to this on FB.  Shut up.)  And now I kind of hate magicians because he played one.  Gallagher must be very disappointed.

(By the way, did you know he played the main love interest in one of Woody Allen's movies in the last few years?  Who made THAT wise casting decision?  That's like making, well, Woody Allen a love interest.  Sorry Woody, that pedophilic train left the station a loooooong time ago.  But I digress.)

2.  Did Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine need to pay off bookies, so they had to take this film?  Their roles are negligible, especially Caine's, and I can't imagine either one of them read the script and thought, "I gotta have me some of that!"  Mr. Caine, I've seen pictures of your beautiful wife.  GO HOME, and leave this nonsense to lesser actors.

3.  Mark Ruffalo is a great actor, and I mostly wanted to see this film because of him.  This man played The Hulk onscreen, and yet this is the movie where he decides to overact his face off.  I would have thought that playing a giant green monster would have brought out the jazz hands onscreen, and yet he's surprisingly subtle in The Avengers.  With this movie, he's doing everything but swinging from the rafters.  I guess my question is: Mark, what gives, man?

4.  You know how you saw adds for this movie and how it looked like Woody Harrelson et al were the stars of it?  Au contraire, mon frere.  Their roles are almost non-existent, and their characters are written so paper-thin, you could shine a light through them.  So what does it say about a movie when the marketing for it is better than the actual film?

5.  And last, while I realize movies are just...movies, not real life, WHO COMES UP WITH A PLOT LIKE THIS????  No one in their right mind could formulate a plan this elaborate.  Look, I know that I'm trying to assign reason to a medium where Supermen fly, vampires sparkle, and Kristen Stewart could be paid a fortune to be onscreen, but come ON, people!  I like my stories twisty, not spine-crackingly stupid.

In short, it's fine.  Just don't go into it thinking you're going to get any more out of it other than the occasional good moment and two hours worth of MST3K jokes out of it, and you'll be, well, not satisfied, but at least...  Eh, I don't know what you'll be. 

"We are the true love gods."

I have a serious, serious jones for Joss Whedon.  I also find Shakespeare pretty darn awesome, too.  So when I found out Whedon was adapting "Much Ado About Nothing" as a movie, I pretty much did a major happy dance.  And while it's taken a while for it to show up in my town (twelve thousand showings of Fast and Furious instead, BTW), I'm happy to say it was well worth it.

Let's face it, Shakespeare can be kind of difficult to interpret at times.  He was a chatty fellow, and could have done with a hobby, in my humble opinion.  So the language of his plays can be hard to follow, but credit Whedon for staging the movie in a way that helps to keep up with the action while not sacrificing the words.  The movie's intimate, as it takes place over what would seem to be no more than a week in one house (Whedon's house, actually, and I want it).  While the language is kept intact, everything else, from the costumes to the setting to the gadgets, is modern-day, which helps keep it fresh, which with this play is pretty important as it has a lot of absurdity to it.  They fake a girl's death to shame her would-be husband, for goodness' sakes.

(Speaking of which, what is it with the friars and their obsession with fake death in Shakespeare's plays?  Romeo and Juliet's friar comes up with the oh-so-bright idea to fake Juliet's death to get her out of marrying Paris.  Good call, padre.  And the friar in this one also comes up with the idea of Hero's death.  Yeah, Claudio was an idiot and treated her wrong, but jeez, talk about tough love.  Anyhoo...)

Whedon's always been good and finding the fine line between dramatic and absurd, and that continues in this.  There's lots of physical humor and visual gags that really help the story move along.  He also does a great job in incorporating the setting for maximum effect, whether it's humor, romance, or darama.

The cast includes many members of the Whedonverse, and they don't disappoint.  Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof bring the same chemistry they brought to "Angel" for Beatrice and Benedick, and the language just trips off their tongues.  Everyone else is also great, especially Clark Gregg and Reed Diamond.  But it's Nathan Fillion and Tom Lenk, in pretty small roles, that steal their scenes.  They have the idiotic thing down, and it's pretty wonderful to watch.

All in all, this was a great little film done with love, and a great palate cleanser for the bloat of the usual summer-film fare.

 

You are getting sleeeeeeeeppppyyyyyyy...

So, this is what you need to know going into this movie, Trance.  James McAvoy is in it.  Oh wait, that's not it.  Well, he IS in it, but that doesn't help the few of you who do not lust after him.  Anyway, James (X-Men First Class, Wanted, Becoming Jane, my dreams) plays an auctioneer in an art house who gets caught up in the theft of a Goya painting that a nasty man, played by Vincent Cassel, tries to pull off, and has to employ the services of a hypnotist, played by Rosario Dawson.  That's all I'm telling you, because to tell you any more would give away the film. 

Actually, now that I think about it, it probably wouldn't give anything away.  This is one of those films where you need a score card to keep up.  Think Usual Suspects on acid.  Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting, 127 Hours) directs it, and he brings his usual style and feeling to the film.  The colors are spectacular, and everything has a dreamy quality to it, which is appropriate, given that you are dealing with memories, both real and imagined, to make up the bulk of the film.  Probably the strength of the film is the complexity of the characters, which I would imagine that would have been the draw for these actors.  No one is really as they seem, and that helps keep you off-center and paying attention.

It's also violent, which I put out there for anyone who's a little put-off by that.  It's not Drive-violent, but it's got its moments.  It also helps to pay attention to the little details, because they all come back in some fashion later on in the movie.

Ultimately, I think the movie's criss-crosses and double-crosses kind of weigh in on themselves, ultimately hurting the film.  I love a good twisty mystery, but this one got a little extreme.  Still, the acting's good, the story keeps you invested for most of it, and I got to see James McAvoy's naked heiney.  All in all, a movie worth seeing.

To Boldly Go, blahblahblah....

You know what makes any movie better?  Benedict Cumberbatch (Benny C to his buds).  Also Chris Pine's eyes.  But mostly Benedict Cumberbatch.  In fact, I shall compose an ode to him:

Oh Benny C, I love you so.
You are the cat's meow.
Your accent, your stare, your almost 'fro.
You just make me say wow.

Uhm, okay, I'll stop now.

He's good in Star Trek, really.  And everyone else is.  And there's a great Kirk/Spock bromance.  And it's just cool.  That is all.  Go see it!

I can't do anymore.  The muse has left me.  Count yourselves lucky.