Cutie and the Boxer

—“Cutie and the Boxer” is an interesting look at creativity, success, love, life, dependence and independence. If you missed it like I did when it was making the festival circuit, it’s available on Netflix and worth checking out.

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[2013. 82 min. Directed by Zachary Heinzerling. Featuring Ushio Shinohara, Noriko Shinohara, and Alex Shinohara.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/cutie-and-the-boxer-2013

August: Osage County

— “August: Osage County” held no surprises. It’s an excellent stage play given an excellent cast, but not really handled well as a film. The dialogue and dysfunction make it easy to see why the play was a Pulitzer Prize winner. It’s dark and funny, and Streep and Roberts are incredible—along with almost everyone else—but this is a play, not a movie. Whether it is a glimpse of our nation in decline or just of one family shrieking and loathing, if you like the theater, it is worth seeing.

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[2013. 121 min. Directed by John Wells. Written by Tracy Letts. Starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor, Margo Martindale, Sam Shepard, Dermot Mulroney, and Julianne Nicholson.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/august-osage-county-2013

Inside Llewyn Davis

—“Inside Llewyn Davis” works well as part of the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre, falling more into the tradition of “O Brother, Where Art Thou” than “No Country for Old Men”. It’s another tale with lots of parallels and references I probably missed, along with some I caught. It also seems to have lots of interpretations, so it gives you something that will churn over and over in your mind later. Above all, it is a gorgeous and well-acted film. There are some of the usual Coen landscapes, but what stood out was the color and the gray days, feeling more like soft fabric than crisp linen. Llewyn isn’t really a likeable guy. Even though his journey is filled with obstacles and life seems to treat him poorly, he treats most people poorly too and refuses to take much action that might make him happy. The artist in him needs the sadness and dejection to keep his music true, but by doing so, he does not progress. He refuses to change so he can succeed and the musical tastes of the nation move on. The music is wonderful and captivating thanks to Oscar Isaac’s performances and T-Bone Burnett’s hand at composition and production, and the script is just what you’d expect from the Coens. Definitely another of the many films to see before the awards season.

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[2013. 104 min. Directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. Written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. Starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, and John Goodman.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/movies/inside-llewyn-davis-directed-by-joel-and-ethan-coen.html

Her

— “Her” is a more interesting movie than I’d expected, possibly because Joaquin Phoenix tones down his usual acting just enough to make everything seem normal, even if he is in a relationship with an operating system. Most everyone in the film has trouble with relationships, in part because of pervasiveness of technology, and the film moves from one revelation about interactions to another, portraying love and loneliness in a Bluetooth world. It’s a sci-fi world, but it’s really awfully close to the present and, with Scarlett Johansson as the voice of the operating system, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to have a relationship with ”her”. This is really a very original film about our disconnect with each other as we increasingly relate with technology, and about our absolute need for love and connections. It’s flat out the most original romance of the year. Phoenix and Johansson are perfect.

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[2013. 126 min. Directed by Spike Jonze. Written by Spike Jonze. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and Scarlett Johansson.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/movies/her-directed-by-spike-jonze.html?_r=0

Saving Mr. Banks

— If I’d read something about “Saving Mr. Banks” before seeing the film, I might have been more prepared for it. Instead, I went expecting to see the comedic film portrayed in the previews but got two stories—one set in 1960’s Hollywood that is mostly fun, and another set in early 1900’s Australia that’s melancholic. It’s a little uneven and a slow development of a backstory, but Emma Thompson and Tom Banks are both so outstanding that the struggle between the two stories becomes less and less distracting. Besides, the film really is about struggles between personalities, struggles involving artistic temperaments and attachments, and the struggle to accept the past and embrace the present. There are many very good films out there right now and I like some of them more than this one, but I think “Saving Mr. Banks” is among those that shouldn’t be overlooked.

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[2013. 125 min. Directed by John Lee Hancock. Starring Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Annie Rose Buckley, Colin Farrell, Ruth Wilson, Paul Giamatti, and Bradley Whitford.]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/saving-mr-banks-review-the-affecting-story-of-how-mary-poppins-reached-the-screen/2013/12/11/a711137c-6275-11e3-a373-0f9f2d1c2b61_story.html

The Wolf of Wall Street

— Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are pretty much a golden pair and they both displayed their talents in “The Wolf of Wall Street”, a 3-hour look greed, corruption, and debauchery. The film operates in hyper-speed most of the time and midway through I felt like I'd become addicted to amphetamines myself, taken along for a mesmerizing ride without an ethical center. It is a very dark and oddly funny comedy with excess at every turn and also a very good if somewhat troublesome film. See it for DiCaprio’s performance and Scorsese’s manic touch, along with very interesting use of music.

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[2013. 180 min. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, and Rob Reiner.]
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-wolf-of-wall-street-review-leonardo-dicaprio-martin-scorsese-20131225,0,7779703.story#axzz2ob03fVID