Hitchcock

— Caught “Hitchcock” yesterday and enjoyed it but, in a year with many very good films, it just doesn’t make the cut, even if Anthony Hopkins' acting does. Helen Mirren is perfectly adequate and, even at that level, she can still hold her own. Sadly, the two, main female supporting stars are mostly terrible. The film covers a short portion of Hitchcock’s life but it is a fascinating peek, even if it is a little bumpy. I think movie addicts will find it of interest, and I now intend to find out if Hitchcock’s wife, Alma, was really as impressive as presented in the film, but I would have preferred a film with better acting, a little more subtlety, and a lot more fact than fantasy.

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[2012. 98 min. Directed by Sacha Gervasi. Starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Danny Huston, and Toni Collette.]
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/23/entertainment/la-et-mn-hitchcock-movie-reviews-critics-20121123

Anna Karenina

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[2012. 129 min. Directed by Joe Wright. Starring Keira Knightly, Juda Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson.]
— Remember that feeling during the first half hour of “Moulin Rouge” when you realized you were watching something so different, so clever, so interwoven that you were fascinated and liking it? Well, I had the same feeling about “Anna Karenina” – interwoven, not a musical but unfolding with a rhythm all its own, an attention to details and set design that gave it a flow, a tight and clever script that allowed it to move from stage to the larger world and back again, and good actors too, but somehow it fell a little flat in the middle and I lost patience with nearly everyone and wondered if screenplay writer and director had just run out of steam or if we were supposed to accept a slower pace as things unraveled as befitting the unfolding storyline. By the end, it hooked me back again, regaining my interest, and I think it’s something worth seeing and marveling at its theatricality, but by breathing new life into an old story, I think the characters lost their motivations and, with it, my sympathy.

http://www.focusfeatures.com/Anna_Karenina

The Sessions

— Some pretty funny lines in “The Sessions”. Enough to make you at first feel a little Catholic guilt about your laughter until you realize everyone in the film is a grown-up and upfront about what’s happening. There are many more emotions underneath this subtle, low-key film that touches your heart so gently you almost don’t realize you let it take hold of you. In my previous life I’d been familiar with “Breathing Lessons”, a wonderful film about the same person, Mark O’Brien, that won the Academy Award for short documentary. “The Sessions” moved me very much and the remarkable performances by Helen Hunt and John Hawkes deserve the bulk of the credit. It’s well worth seeing.

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[2012. 94 min. Directed by Ben Lewin. Starring John Hawkes, Hellen Hunt, and William H. Macy.]
http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/movies/the-sessions-with-john-hawkes-and-helen-hunt.html

Skyfall

— Sam Mendes directed two of my favorite films, “Revolutionary Road” and “American Beauty”, but I wasn’t sure he was up to handling the Bond franchise. “Skyfall” ends up being much more introspective than, but still just as robust as previous Bond films. Maybe it’s my recent job status change and related empathy with M and Bond as they struggle with the perceptions by cyber youth and politicians that they’re older and slower and less useful, but I really liked this film and its intricate plot and fine acting. Giving M more screen time and adding Adele’s theme song doesn’t hurt either. Favorite quote: “Youth is not a guarantee of innovation”.

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[2012. 143 min. Directed by Sam Mendes. Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, and Naomie Harris.]
http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Skyfall-review-M-is-for-mommy-figure-4020528.php

A Separation

— On the train back from Chicago I watched Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation”. Hard to believe it’s taken me this long to see it, but it was worth the wait. Seeing the day-to-day aspects of a society whose secular/religious pattern is so different from ours is part of the appeal, but it is the familiarity of the motivations that made me uneasy. Everyone must lie and there is no justice, only desperation. No one comes out unscathed and everyone is separate. Depressing but a very good film.

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[2011. 123 min. Directed by Asghar Farhadi. Starring Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, and Sareh Bayat.]
http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/movies/a-separation-directed-by-asghar-farhadi-review.html?_r=0

Lincoln

— Finally saw “Lincoln” and was fascinated by the script (I know, I know, I should have read “Team of Rivals”). Spielberg managed to convey the inside political story and Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, and Tommy Lee Jones were outstanding. Everyone deserves credit—including Tony Kushner—for a deceptively intimate, big-budget film. It also makes you appreciate the Republican Party’s roots.

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[2012. 150 min. Directed by Stephen Spielberg. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones and John Hawkes.]
http://thelincolnmovie.com/#http://thelincolnmovie.com?gallery&_suid=135410649229100266572931998747

Flight

— Went to see “Flight” and Denzel Washington does a great job in a film that’s interesting enough with one of the most linear plots of the year. The rest of the film lacks much depth and seems even more shallow given the nuances of Washington’s portrayal of pilot Whip Whitaker. Even so, it help my attention pretty much throughout the film and I've thought about it a few times since.

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[2012. 138 min. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Starring Denzel Washington, Nadine Velazquez, and Don Cheadle.]
http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/movies/flight-stars-denzel-washington-as-an-alcoholic-pilot.html?_r=0

Cloud Atlas

— “Cloud Atlas” is a wonderful--and exceedingly ambitious--experience. I was reminded of “Babel” and “Tree of Life”, two other very ambitious films that tried looked at the entire human experience. The direction of “Cloud Atlas” is part of its strength and downfall. The six storylines aren’t exactly related and, by jumping back and forth from story to story (sometimes more for cinematic reasons than anything else I could figure out), we can lose the emotional flow of the individual stories. Unfortunately, the larger idea that emerges is a little watered down as a result. About midway through, we begin to see more clearly the interconnectedness of the human experience across time. From one story to the next, good stands up against evil, planting a seed for the future, but evil’s seed is also planted and the push and pull resurfaces from generation to generation. I should say the acting is interesting in this film too, and often good enough to distract us from the prosthetics and make-up. I enjoyed the film and what it did and I think it was far more successful than I imagined it would be. Well worth seeing.

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[2012. 172 min. Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, and Lana Wachowski. Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, Keith David, James D'Arcy, Xun Zhou, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant.]
http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/movies/cloud-atlas-from-lana-and-andy-wachowski-and-tom-tykwer.html?_r=0