Jeff, Who Lives At Home

— I have to admit I like the cleverness of the Duplass brothers quite a bit and “Jeff, Who Lives At Home” gives me the eccentric and intriguing characters I want, making me wonder exactly what defines a “grown-up”. The people in this film all have middle-class lives that might make you a little desperate and questing what we can do to find happiness. I’m not one to make every common occurrence seem special, but I do think everything may be interconnected. How the day’s events in this film relate and come together is fairly clever and ultimately pretty satisfying.

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[2011. 83 min. Directed by Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass. Starring Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon, and Judy Greer.]
http://www.jeffwholivesathome.com/

People Like Us

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[2012. 114 min. Directed by Alex Kurtzman. Starring Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Jon Favreau, and Michelle Pfeiffer.]
— Yesterday I finally saw “People Like Us” and liked it more than I expected. I was a little slow getting into it, but it ended up being a nice, heartfelt story of family and truth. I went hoping to shake the flashbacks my mind was having from “They Came Back” (“Les Revenants”), a DVD I watched over the weekend—definitely the most cerebral zombie movie ever made and worth your time to get a glimpse of undead who are nearly indistinguishable from the living, and the living’s reaction to having them back.

http://afflictor.com/2011/07/11/strange-small-forgotten-film-they-came-back-2004/

Martha Marcy May Marlene

— Watched “Martha Marcy May Marlene” today. Talk about a train wreck waiting to happen or, as Ann Hornaday said, “a textbook study in the inconclusive conclusion”. Well, as I think about it, maybe this ambiguity was acceptable in a filmic context, but I still groaned when the credits rolled and I was left there in limbo.

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[2011. 102 min. Directed by Sean Durkin. Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, and John Hawkes.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/movies/elizabeth-olsen-in-martha-marcy-may-marlene.html?pagewanted=all

Moonrise Kingdom

— No mistaking “Moonrise Kingdom” as anyone’s look at young love except Wes Anderson’s. A movie filled with gorgeous, perfectly framed, still images looking almost like retouched 1950’s postcards. And quirky, oh that doesn’t begin to describe these people, mostly seen from a low camera angle, more like you’re the house pet witnessing the eccentric characters who always speak in fully formed sentences a bit more matter-of-factly than they would in real life, and walking more like cardboard cutouts than humans. And they keep the viewers teetering too, with laughter coming unexpectedly half of the time. And it is funny, and heartwarming, and beautiful, but when it was done, I knew I’d enjoyed the craft of the film more than the story itself.

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[2012. 94 min. Directed by Wes Anderson. Starring Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton.]
http://www.moonrisekingdom.com/#home

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

— Well, yes, it may be geared toward seniors and it may be a little thin on plot. Yes too, it may be the anti-“Avengers” movie of the summer. But mostly it was funny, colorful, tale of adventure and reinvention. Probably doesn’t hurt that I’m part of its target demographic (although I’m part of the younger demographic!). Besides, I absolutely love Judi Dench. And it was nice to find a summer film without superheroes, cutesy kids, surround sound explosions, or three dimensions.

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[2011. 124 min. Directed by John Madden. Starring Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Dev Patel, and Maggie Smith.]
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-best-exotic-marigold-hotel-20120503

Shame

— Watched "Shame" yesterday and can't seem to shake it. So well done and yet, so, what's the word? Icky. Always unsettling when a good actor (Michael Fassbender) and a good director (Steve McQueen) make me feel voyeuristic much of time and the rest of the time the camera hold a shot for so long that I feel like I'm being forced to watch. Sparse on dialogue and really worth the journey.

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[2011. 101 min. Directed by Steve McQueen. Starring Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, and Jaems Badge.]
http://www.foxsearchlight.com/shame/

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

— Back from "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" and did enjoy it quite a bit. A nice, fun film based on the book by the guy who was almost as old as I am when he wrote it (it was his first book). I always appreciate late bloomers, much more than college drop-out millionaires.

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[2011. 107 min. Directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Starring Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, and Amr Waked.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/salmon-fishing-in-the-yemen-2012

The Skin I Live In

— Have only seen a few DVDs in the past month and only one struck me as really good, although “The Trip” and “Take Shelter” both came close. Much less successful were “A Dangerous Method” and “The Rum Diary”. “The Skin I Live In” was unsettling enough but not quite as dark as I would have liked. Still, Almodovar’s filmmaking was wonderful and the actors all did a fine job, leaving me with plenty of ideas and images rolling around in my mind.

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[2011. 120 min. Directed by Pedro Almodovar. Starring Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, and Jan Cornet.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/movies/the-skin-i-live-in-directed-by-pedro-almodovar-review.html?_r=0