Venus in Fur
(“La Vénus à la fourrure")

— I’m always a little fascinated by movies about plays. The way “Venus in Fur” (Netflix) blurs the lines between the play and “real” world, and even between the players’ roles as control shifts and the director becomes the one directed, is particularly intriguing as issues of love and power surface. The resemblance of the main character to a younger Polanski is striking and knowing Vanda/Venus is Polanski’s wife adds another level to the thing. Even the idea of a movie about a play translated from the English to the French, about a German novel, is a bit convoluted, so it’s no wonder that, by the time the film was over and Thomas had surrendered himself, it was all pretty chilling but a little familiar too.

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[2013. 96 min. Directed by Roman Polanski. Starring Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric.]
http://www.timeout.com/us/film/venus-in-fur

Locke

— This was an unexpected joy to watch. The idea of one person inside his car and talking on the phone for an hour and a half wasn’t something I wanted to embrace no matter how good critics claimed the film was. I’m glad I decided to watch “Locke” (DVD) anyway. Watching Tom Hardy dealing with his life coming apart as he tries to hold on to the various pieces while doing the right thing is mesmerizing. It’s a well-written and well-acted film and deserves more attention than it’s received.

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[2013. 85 min. Directed by Steven Knight. Starring Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, and Ruth Wilson.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/locke-2014

Million Dollar Arm

— It’s nice to base a film on a true story, but this story was a little slow starting. Travelling from town to town in India trying to locate potential major league baseball pitchers should have been a preface, not a third of the film. The real story is the culture shock and adaptation, the homesickness, and the triumph of the two Indian players, along with their agent’s realization that love and family may be more important than money, conquests, and cars. Disney's "Million Dollar Arm" (DVD) was just so-so and much more suited for stumbling across while channel surfing than sitting down to deliberately watch.

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[2014. 124 min. Directed by Craig Gillespie. Starring Jon Hamm, PitobAlan Arkinash, Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mittal, and Lake Bell.]
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2014/05/16/review-million-dollar-arm-successfully-brings-sports-film-genre-to-india/

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

— “Birdman” was great fun. Really. I smiled and chuckled more in this film than I have in a long time. It’s fascinating to watch Michael Keaton as the aging has-been whose fame came from playing the superhero “Birdman”…and two sequels. Since then, he’s faded from the limelight and aged enough that it’s probably best he avoid spandex. Now he’s in existential crisis and putting on a Broadway play and hoping to get some respect for it. He kept me mesmerized, grateful this is a Hollywood satire that isn’t written for insiders. In fact, there are so many contemporary references that I sometimes wished I’d read a few more “People” magazines while waiting in the doctor’s office. It takes some unexpected turns but it definitely got me thinking about relevancy and reality. Go to see this one if you can!

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[2014. 119 min. Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis, and Naomi Watts.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/birdman-2014

Intersteller

— “Intersteller” is lucky to have time and space on its side since it’s really carrying multiple themes and juggling multiple storylines and dimensions to look at love, family, survival, environmental issues, and passive acceptance vs active discovery, on earth and in space. There’s something familiar about many scenes, almost but not quite an homage to things we’ve seen before, but the memories it brings toward the surface work well with the film. Sometimes we’re all too conscious that it’s playing with our heartstrings, but it seems to work and we don’t mind. The film itself is beautiful, perhaps helped even more because it avoids total dependence on CGI. Christopher Nolan has done an amazing job and the three hours flew by. Matthew McConaughey is perfect in the film, ably supported by Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain. This is a very good film and one that’s worth seeing in a theater.

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[2014. 169 min. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain.]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/11207268/Interstellar-review-a-feast-of-extraordinary-ideas.html

2 Guns

— This is a surprise since I expected a run-of-the-miller buddy bandit film with lots of blood, bullets, and repartee. “2 Guns” (DVD) is really much better than that. Washington and Wahlberg do a fine job, the script is decent, and the plot isn’t as formulaic as expected. It’s not a great film, but certainly more than an average one and up to the task of entertaining.

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[2013. 109 min. Directed by Baltasar Kormakur. Starring Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, Edward James Olmos, and Bill Paxton.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/2-guns-2013