Begin Again

— I tend to like Mark Ruffalo since he’s always playing a likeable, fuzzy guy, who’s pretty enlightened. He’s in that character again in “Begin Again”, this time paired with Keira Knightley also very capable, even if her career is not quite as consistent. This is a mostly fun film with pleasant enough people singing in New York and overcoming life’s obstacles. A couple of times I felt like there wasn’t quite enough script or that transition scenes relied too heavily on iPod playlists. I liked the film and I liked the characters, but writer/director John Carney should have kept his focus on surviving within and outside of relationships, instead of also trying to make a statement about greed in the music business.

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[2013. 104 min. Directed by John Carney. Starring Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Adam Levine, Hailee Steinfeld, James Corden, and Catherine Keener.]
http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/begin-again-review

The Immigrant

— Marion Cotillard helps almost any film and this one’s pretty good anyway. The film has a feeling that it’s from another era, with its noble but down on her luck leading lady who must lose a part herself to survive and the man responsible for both her downfall and her salvation. It’s a carefully crafted film that develops more like a novel than a film and ends with as much a sense of resignation as of hope. I’m not really familiar with James Gray, the director, but this is his fifth film and it’s good enough to make me ready to check out one or more of the others.

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[2013. 120 min. Directed by James Gray. Starring Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jeremy Renner.]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/the-immigrant-movie-review/2014/05/21/347920e4-df65-11e3-9743-bb9b59cde7b9_story.html

Jodorowsky’s Dune

— I had 9:00 p.m. tickets for “Jodorowsky’s Dune” (DVD) at the True/False Film Fest last March but, being tired from having watched three films already that day and knowing bad weather was on it way, I skipped out. I must just not have realized how interesting a film it actually is. Somehow I’d let the stench from David Lynch’s “Dune” affect me. Instead, this is a interesting look at the “Dune” that was never filmed but came oh so close. With a remarkable group of people signed on to the project (Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, Orson Welles, Jean Giraud, Dan O’Bannon, Giger, and others) charismatic cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky created an adaption of Frank Herbert’s book that was visionary, artistic, and doomed. Even so, the case is made that its storyboard rippled throughout Hollywood, ultimately affecting science fictions films like “Star Wars”, “Alien”, “Contact”, “Blade Runner”, “The Matrix”, “Terminator”, and more. Also of interest is Jodorowsky’s steadfast belief in his vision remaining unaffected by the business of Hollywood which ultimately resulted in his vision never being realized.

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[2013. 90 min. Directed by Frank Pavich. Featuring Alejandro Jodorosky, Michel Seydoux, H.R. Giger, Chris Foss, Brontis Jodorowsky, and Richard Stanley.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/movies/jodorowskys-dune-from-frank-pavich.html?_r=0

Still Mine

— “Still Mine” (DVD) is a good look at an aging couple dealing with the complexities of Alzheimer’s and concerned children, in a world with increasingly inflexible local regulations and codes. The husband is stubborn and stoic, remarkably capable, and hiding a strong heart. There’s something celebratory about the film in spite of the fairly realistic look at the interactions between young and old, and between tradition and progress. This is a good film and, although it probably only appeals to a small audience, it appealed to me. James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold are both incredible.

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[2012. 102 min. Directed by Michael McGowan. Starring James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/movies/in-still-mine-a-couple-in-their-80s-resist-aging.html?_r=0

Snowpiercer

— “Snowpiercer” is a solid sci-fi film in a summer of superhero and robot films. Chemical efforts to cool the globally warmed earth have turned it into a global wasteland and everyone who’s survived is on a train that constantly circles the earth. A class system exists with luxury cars where everyone’s pampered at the front of the train while the riffraff in the rear cars live in squalor. We join the train 18 years into the trip, and another coup attempt is about to take place. This is a ride worth taking, with action and quirkiness and social conscience. Chris Evans proves he can be more than Captain America and Tilda Swinton is perfectly cast. It’s Joon-ho Bong’s first English feature but if you saw either “Mother” or “The Host”, you know he’s more than competent. If you like science fiction films, see it.

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[2013. 126 min. Directed by Joon-ho Bong. Starring Chris Evans, Kang-ho Song, Ed Harris, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, and Jamie Bell.]
http://www.indiewire.com/article/review-was-snowpiercer-worth-the-battle-for-the-directors-cut

Jersey Boys

— The music carries the film version of “Jersey Boys”, as you would expect, and thanks to the Four Seasons’ hits, it’s an enjoyable film…but it could have been better. The stage play tells the story from each person’s point of view, providing a collage of truths, and the film does the same thing, with characters talking directly to the audience, but with inconsistent success. The story focuses on the squeaky clean public persona juxtaposed with the real, behind-the-scenes truth. Throughout the film, you get the feeling you’re watching from afar and are too much an outside observer. When songs are performed, we sometimes see them from the perspective of a television camera alternately viewing the studio audience and the performers—the impact a live, stage version would have had loses its intimacy and is reduced to a flat and distant rendition. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the film’s music and was tapping my toes and mentally singing along with every song, but this film isn’t among Clint Eastwood’s best efforts. If you go, stay for the credits since they play over the final number which seems to come much more to life than any of the previous songs.

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[2014. 134 min. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Starring John Lloyd Young, Vincent Piazza, Eric Bergen, Michael Lomenda, Mike Doyle, and Christopher Walken.]
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/jersey-boys-20140619

Obvious Child

— The audience for “Obvious Child” was 95% female, but I knew I wasn’t in for a “chick flick”. These were mostly middle-aged and older women who had grown up on “Our Bodies, Ourselves“ and “The Feminine Mystique”. I was decidedly uncomfortable for the first minutes of humor about bodily functions, having assumed young boys had the corner on jokes about flatulence and underwear stains. For that matter, I’m not used to vagina jokes either, but eventually I was smiling too, even if I was groaning at the same time. Jenny Slate does a great job as a stand-up comic dispensing “real world” humor, and when her boyfriend dumps her, she loses her job, and she finds out she’s pregnant, we laugh uneasily at every awkward moment and comment. Even her decision to terminate the pregnancy walks a line between poignancy and shtick. There’s something very honest about the film and it’s the first film I’ve seen to depict abortion as an option that may not leave psychological scars for life. Half of the film fits in the romantic comedy tradition, but the other half—the part that seems to me to go a little too far past the line of good taste—sets it apart and probably makes it worth seeing.

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[2014. 84 min. Directed by Gillian Robespierre. Starring Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, and Gaby Hoffmann.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/obvious-child-2014

3 Days To Kill

— “3 Days to Kill” (DVD) was vaguely worthwhile, but it seemed to work a little too hard at keeping a broad audience, sprinkling an action thriller plot with too many tender moments as a dying CIA agent tries to reunite with his wife and daughter. Luckily, Kevin Costner can still pull off moments requiring vulnerability, wit, machismo, seduction, or humor, but there’s just not much for him work with. The director, McG (yes, that really is the name on the credits), has directed for television, but that has clearly not prepared him for the task of directing a feature film unless it’s destined to quickly be picked up by TNT or USA. Be glad you didn't pay to see this in theaters because it's really mediocre.

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[2014. 117 min. Directed by McG. Starring Kevin Costner, Hailee Steinfeld, and Connie Nielsen. Story by Luc Bresson. Screenplay written by Adi Hasak and Luc Bresson.]
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jun/22/3-days-to-kill-review-cinema-shallowest-auteur-surpasses-himself