The Official Review Thread of 2014

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Sabin
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by Sabin »

Saw two movies I had little intention of seeing before I just ended up watching them...

The Interview (Rogen & Goldberg)
I keep seeing posts about people "doing their patriotic duty" and watching this film but I haven't heard much of what people think about it. After seeing the film, I know why. There's nothing to say. Were this a British comedy, people would speak about how no American film could be that brave and fearless. But if this was a British comedy, it would be so much better and see more possibilities in the subject matter, some of which would not be that funny at all. It's not funny. It's to the film's detriment that Randall Park is so sympathetic as Kim Jong-Un. I trust I'm not spoiling anything by saying the film doesn't end well for him and I just found myself looking at the screen. I like Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. I have nothing but praise for Superbad and This Is The End, but as I write this I realize that I also saw Neighbors this past week and I have just as little to say about that one. They need to take a second and do some second drafts.


Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)
This series fascinates me. I did not look forward to this or Rise. I enjoyed what I saw. I had/have no desire to see what comes next in the series. I remain impressed by the craftsmanship, by the tone, and by yet again the greatest special effects I've ever seen in a movie to be topped next year by something else. People are saying this is the best summer sequel since The Empire Strikes Back. But wasn't that movie fun? Which initially I found so impressive about this film becomes faintly oppressive as its portrait of mankind and ape moving inexorably towards war just seems kinda dull. It's hard to care when everybody is so huddled, scared, and mournful. The film lacks in wit and fun. My favorite scenes easily involve the evil Koba who when scoping out the human's weapons stockpile becomes cornered and to escape just acts like a dumb monkey. He returns later with the same act and then just murders them with a semi-automatic weapon. There's also a fantastic single shot (well, a green screen shot) of Koba inside a tank demolishing what the human's last stand. I don't blame the writers or the director. They are definitely aiming for something more interesting and fearless than your usual summer fare. Reeves also continues to demonstrate strong if impersonal artistic choices like starting and ending the film with a close-up of Caesar's eyes.

Not bad, but can we please use these resources on something else?
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anonymous1980
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by anonymous1980 »

STARRED UP
Cast: Jack O'Connell, Ben Mendelsohn, Rupert Friend, Sam Spruell,
Dir: David Mackenzie.

A juvenile offender prone to violent and angry outbursts gets transferred to an adult prison alongside his convicted father. It is in many ways, an exemplary but rather standard prison drama. But the performances of Jack O'Connell (who is going to blow up soon and I can't wait to see what he does next) and Ben Mendelsohn as the father-son pair make it the standard prison drama tropes rather special. The violence is of course shocking and harrowing and the circumstances surrounding it and rather bleak but underneath all the darkness, there is a spark of hope and humanity, particularly in the ending, which makes this stand out from most other prison dramas. I'm glad I watched this with the subtitles on. Those accents are heavy. It's not an easy watch but by the end you will be happy you did.

Oscar Prospects: Don't know if it's eligible but O'Connell and Mendelsohn deserve consideration.

Grade: B+
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by flipp525 »

dws1982 wrote:I think I saw someone (maybe you flipp?) mention somewhere that if Olive Kitteridge were eligible, it would probably change things in Best Actress. I agree with that completely. It's a big deal to invoke terms like "role of a lifetime" with an actress like Frances McDormand, who's been in so many major movies through the years, but I think this is definitely in role of a lifetime territory for her. She's really, really excellent in a role that is, admittedly, perfectly suited to her.

But best among the supporting cast, in my mind, is an actor I'd never heard of, Cory Michael Smith as a severely (suicidally) depressed former student of Olive's. His performance gets it all--the total aloneness and hopelessness, the way, in a time of deep depression, someone else's happiness is almost like an insult, the way a kindness (or the memory of a kindness from long ago) can be either no help or a literal life-saver. He easily tops any other supporting actor I've seen this year.
It was me, dws. I'm glad you thought the same of McDormand's instant-classic kind of work in Olive Kitteridge.

And thank you for reminding me of Cory Michael Smith's astonishing and heartbreaking performance. There definitely wasn't better male supporting acting than his last year. That scene in the car with McDormand is unforgettable.
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Sabin
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by Sabin »

I pretty much loved Jennifer Kent's The Babadook and I think other people love it too because it wears its subtext on its sleeve. Pretty hard to miss out on what it's trying to say. It's a metaphor for depression and the healing process. It's a horror film for people who (like myself) don't necessarily like horror films. That makes me doubt my affection for it a little bit, but Jennifer Kent's filmmaking is so good. She understands how to ratchet up tension so well, and she never uses it for cheap scares. It's always to convey the psychological prison of Essie Davis' Amelia. And because Essie Davis (Best Actress) is so, so good, because Jennifer Kent brings us into her mind so much, and because Noah Wiseman is such a dreadful little creature in the first act (he looks like Eric Stoltz in Mask), I can suspend my disbelief when Amelia encounters the creature at the midpoint and the film so clearly becomes a metaphor. We're not really supposed to take this creature seriously and the logic behind him is all effective window-dressing. But I don't really have the inclination to care because it's such a moving piece of work as well. Total winner.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by Big Magilla »

I rarely post in this thread as I tend to save my reviews for my DVD Report, but I just saw two films that won't be making the report any time soon.

Occasionally I buy a DVD blindly that is so bad I won't even give it away. Three times this year a film was so bad that it immediately went in the shredder after I finished viewing it. The earlier one was Darren Aronofsky's loathsome Noah. Both of this week's new releases suffered the same fate yesterday.

The Equalizer (Antoine Fuqua)

Fuqua's Training Day earned Denzel Washington his second Oscar so maybe he thought he owed the director something. With a screenplay by the guy who wrote Expendables 2, though, he should have had some idea that what he was making was not high art.

Washington is actually good in the film's early scenes before it deteriorates into a desecration of the 1980s TV series that provided a showcase for Edward Woodward, in which Washington takes out what seems like the entire Russian mafia in and around Boston. The gifted Chloe Grace Moretz is wasted as a teenage hooker whose plight causes Washington's actions.

Elsa & Fred (Michael Radford)

The Il Postino writer/director hasn't had much success since his dual Oscar nominations for that international hit. This dumbed down remake of the 2005 Spanish film about "old people" does nothing to improve his situation.

Christopher Plummer plays a grumpy old man. Shirley MacLaine plays a chirpy old lady. He has money, she has none. He is as honest as the day is long, she wouldn't know the truth if it hit her in the eye. Opposites attract. He discovers her devil-may-care attitude is a front, her kidneys are failing, she's dying. Instead of giving his annoying daughter (Marcia Gay Harden) and leach of a son-in-law (Chris Noth) $90,000 for their latest business scheme, he will spend the money on a trip to Rome for MacLaine so she can fulfill her fifty-year-old dream of cavorting in the Trevi Fountain a la Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita. Of course the trip to Rome doesn't cost $90,000 - maybe $9,000 considering it was last minute, but why should the math make sense when nothing else in the film does?

Plummer is actually quite engaging as the old geezer, but MacLaine, saddled with a hideous strawberry blonde wig, comes across as a semi-talented guy in drag impersonating the venerable star. The penultimate scene in the fountain in which Plummer joins MacLaine a la Mastroianni and Ekberg is more "oy vey" than "aw, shucks". It's quickly followed by a shot of a cemetery gate opening after which MacLaine's son (Scott Bakula) presents Plummer with a painting of the young MacLaine by Picasso. It seems one of her lies actually turned out to be true.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by Bog »

flipp525 wrote: A Kristen Stewart coat-tail supporting citation would be a great Oscar morning surprise. She's such a surprise in this.
I couldn't agree more with you...however I've kind of become a Kristen Stewart Homer in those non monster paycheck roles...this, Runaways, Welcome to the Rileys, Sils Maria, even On the Road feature some pretty damn fine acting at times or throughout.
dws1982
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by dws1982 »

I think I saw someone (maybe you flipp?) mention somewhere that if Olive Kitteridge were eligible, it would probably change things in Best Actress. I agree with that completely. It's a big deal to invoke terms like "role of a lifetime" with an actress like Frances McDormand, who's been in so many major movies through the years, but I think this is definitely in role of a lifetime territory for her. She's really, really excellent in a role that is, admittedly, perfectly suited to her. The entire cast is excellent--Richard Jenkins as her long-suffering husband, Bill Murray in a (fairly small) role in the last episode, John Gallagher Jr. as her son, as well as Zoe Kazan, Rosemarie DeWitt, Peter Mullan, and several other recognizable actors in smaller roles. But best among the supporting cast, in my mind, is an actor I'd never heard of, Cory Michael Smith as a severely (suicidally) depressed former student of Olive's. HIs performance gets it all--the total aloneness and hopelessness, the way, in a time of deep depression, someone else's happiness is almost like an insult, the way a kindness (or the memory of a kindness from long ago) can be either no help or a literal life-saver. He easily tops any other supporting actor I've seen this year.

Also watched Still Alice today. Moore has never been an actress who absolutely had to have an Oscar for me, but she's very solid here, and in a weak year, with McDormand not eligible, I'll be fine with her winning. I think what I liked best about the film in general was how, even though it focused more on her relationship with her younger daughter, the son and the older daughter were well-developed enough (and well-played enough by Hunter Parrish and Kate Bosworth) that you could've easily imagined it focusing on her relationship with them, and still being good and interesting. Baldwin and Stewart (and the actor who played the neurologist) were very good. Visually it's pretty underdeveloped, musically it's VERY overdone.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by flipp525 »

anonymous1980 wrote:STILL ALICE

Oscar Prospects: In addition to Moore, Baldwin and/or Stewart could get coat-tail nominations. Adapted Screenplay is also possible.
A Kristen Stewart coat-tail supporting citation would be a great Oscar morning surprise. She's such a surprise in this.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by anonymous1980 »

STILL ALICE
Cast: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Hunter Parrish, Kate Bosworth.
Dirs: Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland.

The plot sounds like a made-for-Lifetime, disease-of-the-week tearjerker: A respected and successful Columbia University professor/psychologist and beloved mother and wife gets diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer's. It's sad, tragic story and it could easily have been manipulative weepy. Though you may shed some tears here and there, the film is actually more honest and intelligent about it. It seldom tries to lay it on thick with the message and the sentiments and when it does, it tries to earn it. Julianne Moore is said to be the front-runner for the Oscar this year and with good reason: She's excellent in this. She's also supported well by Alec Baldwin, and surprisingly, Kristen Stewart who manages to not be a dull deadweight for once.

Oscar Prospects: In addition to Moore, Baldwin and/or Stewart could get coat-tail nominations. Adapted Screenplay is also possible.

Grade: B+
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by anonymous1980 »

MR. TURNER
Cast: Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Lesley Manville, Martin Savage, Joshua McGuire, Ruth Sheen, David Horovitch, Karl Johnson.
Dir: Mike Leigh.

I think I'm starting to be of the opinion that Mike Leigh's period pieces are better than his contemporary films. I loved this one. I know next-to-nothing about the film's subject, landscape artist J.M.W. Turner but I was entranced and riveted just the same. Unlikes a lot of historical biopics, this one does not feel at all like a historical lesson nor does it feel like it tries to hard to "inspire" or milk the story for maximum emotion. It's almost like a character study of an often unpleasant, deeply flawed but obviously an artistically gifted man. It's all fascinating and it has surprising humorous moments too. Timothy Spall is outstanding as the title character. Special mention should be made of Dick Pope's stunning cinematography which seems to often try to mimic the Turner's paintings and works themselves. It's stunning work. This is going to be one of my favorite films of the year. I loved it.

Oscar Prospects: God, I hope THIS biopic gets in over The Theory of Everything in Best Picture. Deserves nominations in Director, Actor. Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design and Costume Design.

Grade: A.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by anonymous1980 »

THE HOMESMAN
Cast: Hilary Swank, Tommy Lee Jones, Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter, Grace Gummer, John Lithgow, Meryl Streep, James Spader, Evan Jones, William Fichtner, Jesse Plemons, Tim Blake Nelson, Hailee Steinfeld.
Dir: Tommy Lee Jones

Tommy Lee Jones is a talented filmmaker as evidenced by one his previous directorial efforts, The Three Burial Melquiades Estrada. This is another Western, this time about a spinster who is tasked to transport three mentally-ill women to a place to better care for them with the help of a small-time crook. The film is well-acted. Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank shine. Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography is absolutely exquisite. It's worth seeing just for that. I was surprised by the third act twist but I'm not sure it completely worked which is, sadly, one of the film's flaws that prevent me from completely embracing it. It's a good film. It's a good effort but it falls short of greatness.

Oscar Prospects: I think the Cinematography should be nominated.

Grade: B.
The Original BJ
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by The Original BJ »

UGHUGHUGHUGHUGHUGHUGH.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by The Original BJ »

The Judge indeed is a bad movie -- it felt to me like it was made by filmmakers attempting to make a movie for grown-ups who had never actually seen films for adults before.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by The Original BJ »

In addition to being WAY too long, and full of painfully clunky writing (that late-movie rowboat scene is appallingly bad, starting with that clammy movie trope where a character responds with an out of the blue answer to a question asked days earlier, and ending with eye-rolling worthy mawkishness), this has got to be one of the lamest plotted courtroom dramas I've ever seen in my life.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2014

Post by The Original BJ »

Even the worst episodes of Law & Order have more plot surprise than what the writers came up with here. I kept waiting for some last-minute twist -- however ridiculous I knew it would be -- just because it seemed like the movie would HAVE to have more up its sleeve than what we got, but...nope. (And it's pretty poorly directed, too -- at one point the entire courtroom gasped at one of Duvall's witness stand revelations, and it seemed like that gasp had all the subtlety of an ensemble in a high school play making a meal out of their one directed moment.)
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