Saturday, April 30, 2011

Fast Five



In 2001, I was eleven years old and I went to the movies with my friends to see The Fast and the Furious. I liked it. It captured a boy's imagination with its adrenaline-fueled car chases, its testosterone-inspired characters, and of course it had a hot woman by the name of Jordana Brewster. That furthered the career of Vin Diesel to make him a household name and Paul Walker was also getting noticed. The film's director, Rob Cohen, took Diesel off to go make an action movie called XXX, but the studio wanted another F&F film so they got John Singleton to make 2 Fast 2 Furious. Even then, when I was still too young to even accurately judge a movie, I thought that sucked. Diesel wasn't around to grunt and punch people and therefore my pre-teen mind thought it wasn't as cool as the first. Then came The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift which even now still has little to do with the series (despite a few recurring characters). Either way, Tokyo Drift's writer (Chris Morgan) and director (Justin Lin) got put in charge of the franchise and once Walker and Diesel's schedule matched up, they went ahead and made Fast and Furious. Now that was a cool (in that pre-teen sense) movie (and THAT had Jordana Brewster). Well, now Lin, Morgan, Walker, Diesel, oh and Jordana Brewster, are all back for Fast Five. The pre-teen imagination I once had gets to come to the forefront of my brain once again.

The film opens with a muscle car flipping over a bus. The thing about that is (and this is how American action movies seem to work), as long as something looks slick and youthful, we buy into it. We still like it even if there can be those cliche cuts and shots and even that "action-yelling" (you know, when someone goes "woo" or "damn" or "gotcha"... Michael Bay likes to take that to the next level like in Transformers 2 aka "BOOM-Holy Shit! The Movie"). That is what American action movies have become. I would love for films like Die Hard or The Dark Knight to be the typical blockbusters, but everything is quintessentially MTV-itized and that is what Fast Five is. Take the think-tank from MTV and ask them to write Ocean's Eleven with a few more cars.

I compare it to Ocean's Eleven because of the large ensemble, but I call it MTV-itized because there are macho guys, hot chicks, crazy destruction, and death being cheated. Oh, did I mention The Rock/Dwayne Johnson is in this one? So yeah, this fulfills genre expectations even for a franchise that it actually does pain my snobby self to admit I have a soft-spot for. Very absurd movie. The stupidest amount of fun I've had so far this year.

Oh, and like your typical blockbuster, there is a scene after the credits... or technically halfway through the credits. A marketing strategy I'll never understand.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Movies I Watched in April

*- Means I've seen it before

Amadeus (1984, Milos Forman)
The Big Lebowski (1998, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen)*
The Conspirator (2011, Robert Redford)
Fast Five (2011, Justin Lin)
Hanna (2011, Joe Wright)
I'm a Born Liar (2002, Damian Pettigrew)
Shoah (1985, Claude Lanzmann)
Source Code (2011, Duncan Jones)
Super (2011, James Gunn)
Wild Grass (2009, Alain Renais)
Your Highness (2011, David Gordon Green)

TV!

An update. Some shows ended and a few began. These are all the shows, I'm currently watching. Some are obviously on hiatus.

30 Rock (NBC)
The Big C (Showtime)
Boardwalk Empire (HBO)
Bored to Death (HBO)
The Borgias (Showtime)
Breaking Bad (AMC)
Californication (Showtime)
Camelot (Starz)
The Chicago Code (FOX)
Community (NBC)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
Damages (DirecTV)
Dexter (Showtime)
Eastbound and Down (HBO)
Entourage (HBO)
Episodes (Showtime)
Fringe (FOX)
Game of Thrones (HBO)
Human Target (FOX)
Hung (HBO)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)
Justified (FX)
The Killing (AMC)
Mad Men (AMC)
Men of a Certain Age (TNT)
Modern Family (ABC)
Nurse Jackie (Showtime)
The Office (NBC)
Parks and Recreation (NBC)
Rescue Me (FX)
Shameless (Showtime)
Sons of Anarchy (FX)
Southland (TNT)
Spartacus: Blood and Sand (Starz)
Treme (HBO)
True Blood (HBO)
United States of Tara (Showtime)
The Walking Dead (AMC)
Weeds (Showtime)

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Conspirator



Robert Redford's (Ordinary People, Quiz Show) new film, The Conspirator, tells a portion of an important historical event that I'm not all that familiar with. We all know about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by radical theater actor John Wilkes Booth, but I wasn't aware of the trial held against his co-conspirators. I enjoyed watching this film and then going online to research what it got right and what it altered for dramatic reasons. The film seemed to stay true to the themes and ideas that were batting around the heads of these characters, while still changing things just enough to keep us, the audience, interested.

Now I'm going to do one of those summary thing I do where I tell you who all the players are mainly to brag about all the actors I recognized.

Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) is the mother of John Surratt (Johnny Simmons), who was the right-hand man to Booth (Toby Kebbell). When Surratt is arrested alongside another conspirator (Norman Reedus), she pleads innocent because she claims to have actually had no knowledge of the plot to assassinate Lincoln and other cabinet members. Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) is assigned her case and hands it to the main character of the film, Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), because Johnson has some connections to the South. It is important to understand that the country had just come out of a civil war, slavery had been abolished, and one of the most beloved leaders in its history had been slain. The public was crying for blood and Aiken has to measure vengeance against justice and vice-versa. His wife (Alexis Bledel) and friends (Justin Long and James Badge Dale) watch from the sidelines as Aiken comes to side with Ms. Surratt and even they feel betrayed by Aiken who had served his country in the war. Aiken finds himself up against a ruthless judge (Colm Meaney), an intense prosecutor (Danny Huston), lying witnesses (Shea Whigam, Stephen Root, Jonathan Groff), and even the Secretary of War (Kevin Kline).

Okay, now that I'm done showing off (I swear I didn't use Wikipedia... okay, maybe for the names of the characters) let me just say, what a well-acted film. Wilkinson and Huston are at the top of their games as the defense and prosecution lawyers. McAvoy's change in heart is also so believable (I'm reminded of when I first saw him in The Last King of Scotland where his character's opinion on a dictator changed over the course of a film). Look at the scene where he first visits Surratt's daughter (Evan Rachel Wood, don't think I forgot about her) and then a later visit. Just those scenes alone which were probably filmed in the same day, are so radically different and yet true to what we've seen of Aiken so far. The story this film presents is just fascinating, whether it is accurate or not.

What didn't I like about it? Well, I found Wright to be too awkward (best word I can come up with at the moment) of a character. She kind of just stares and screams and then gets quiet. I just couldn't find much sympathy for her until the final moments of the film. Basically, I sided with her because Aiken did. By herself she just seemed to strung-out (as if she was smoking what they were smoking in Your Highness). Certain elements also felt very theatrical and staged. Not the courtroom scenes, they were superb. The scenes outside of the court, they felt very heavy-handed as if to over-bluntly say "this is soooo violating the constitution and that is a horrible thing and our country really screws up every so often." It just didn't always feel fair and balanced and this critique actually goes against some of the real history. According to some articles I've read, Huston's character actually also sided with Aiken on how wrong it was to hold a military tribunal for civilians. In other words, characters were over-villified and of course with Aiken trying to represent the ultimate good, that leads to cliche distancing of himself from his wife.

Ultimately, I can overlook these flaws because of how fascinating the subject matter is. I think more liberal-minded people might look at this and find it less heavy-handed than I did because it does remind me of events that unfolded in Guantanamo Bay. I just suppose I wanted to know more definitively whether or not Surratt was actually a conspirator. Then again, like most truths, the public only knows part of it.

Your Highness



Your Highness immediately jumped to my least favorite movie of the year slot. It makes The Green Hornet look like someone actually put more thought into that than this new film from writers Danny McBride and Ben Best (Eastbound and Down) and director David Gordon Green. I can't believe it, I'm actually hating on something David Gordon Green has made. The man mastered coming-of-age in George Washington, romance in All the Real Girls, tragedy in Snow Angels, and hilarity in Pineapple Express (I've yet to see Undertow). Well, at least he kept the tradition going of each new movie being different than his last.

The story of Your Highness follows two brotherly knights, Thadeus (Danny McBride) and Fabious (James Franco), as they try to rescue a princess named Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel) from the evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux) before he impregnates her and has some dragon-baby. They are joined by several character actors on their journey (Toby Jones, Charles Dance, Damian Lewis) and they also encounter a warrior played by Natalie Portman.

The film is just constantly immature. I'm not even sure what the joke is. Is that a joke when they say "fuck" and "shit"? I think so, mainly because the actual jokes just fall flat and are poorly written. The movie relies on shock instead of genuine humor, even when it tries to parody other movies. This is even worse than a bad Mel Brooks movie. I don't even like the movies they are parodying. Those aren't even good.

I found myself just sighing at all the trashiness. At least the women in the film looked beautiful as ever. They were more pleasing than the actual story. Hey, kudos to whoever put together that reel at New York Comic-Con that made me want to see the movie in the first place. They actually edited it to look like this might've at least been fun.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Hanna

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Hanna has one of the most eye-catching openings I've seen in a while. A girl hunts a deer and after she wounds it, she coldly utters, "I just missed your heart." This is our first glimpse of Hanna (Saoirse Ronan), a teenage assassin trained by her father, Erik Heller (Eric Bana). Erik has raised Hanna to one day kill Marissa Weigler (Cate Blanchett), a CIA agent whose connection to the Hellers isn't as apparent as one might think. In fact, even after the film is over, one questions just what exactly is the history between Erik and Marissa or Marissa and Hanna. This is a film where the extent of relationships are left open to the audience to interpret This includes everything from Marissa's relationship with a hit-man named Isaacs (Tom Hollander) that is dispatched to deal with Hanna to who exactly are Erik's associates that are keeping his secrets. Like any good thriller, we can never be sure who knows what and when you have this genre meet with the talents of a director like Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, The Soloist), the result is quite poetic.

I could explain all of the fairy tale symbology and what this means for the movie, but I'd actually like to view it again before I delve deep into it. Obviously, Hanna's story starts off in an idealized world, the fantasy-world similar to the world where a girl walks alone in the woods and three pigs try to kill her (yes, I realize I'm mixing up my fairytales on purpose). Then she meets the real-world and is forced to grow up. Whether it is seeing the good in people like Rachel and Sebastian's (Olivia Williams and Jason Flemyng) family or the evil of Isaacs and Marissa as they go after every living connection to Hanna, Hanna gets hit bluntly with both sides of a world that we can assume she has been censored to. Yes, her father showed her love, but he also trains her to do things no adolescent should do.

Wright brings in his understanding of all the elements of the cinematic experience and there are scenes that I can think of that best describe each of them. The cinematography and color-scheme in the old man's house, the editing during the escape from the desert complex, the thumping score by The Chemical Bros. during the fight in the container park, and the sound when Hanna turns on all the electronic appliances in a room... There is a moment for all the elements of a film to shine. This also wouldn't be a Joe Wright film without a long take and this one featuring Bana walking and fighting was damn impressive.

As for the performances- Ronan, Bana, Blanchett, and Hollander all shine. They do a great job embodying their characters. I think of a sequence that actually features all four of them (when Hanna meets up with Erik in Berlin, but Marissa and Isaacs are right on their trail) and I'm just damn impressed with the right tone of emotion they can elicit in the middle of an action scene.

In all honesty, there was something that kept me at a distance. Maybe because the film is an exploration of a character that I've rarely seen, but then again, it's a character-type that films have been having fun with as of late (the young kid who can kick-ass). Not to say I didn't feel any emotion, I was just more impressed with how technically astounding this film was. It ranks as my favorite U.S. theatrical release of 2011 so far and as one who got to see footage of it at New York Comic-Con back in November, this didn't disappoint.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Sidney Lumet (1924-2011)

One of my filmmaking heroes, Sidney Lumet, has passed away. As pretentious as this sounds, the man is everything I wish I could amount to (as if anyone would ever come to having a filmography like his). He knows everything there is to know about the filmmaking process, but most importantly of all, he was an "actor's director." He knew how to take a performer and have them appear as part of a visual image and illicit emotion from different generations of filmgoers. Lumet was already well-versed in live television when he went on to direct his first film, 12 Angry Men. He continued to make some fantastic movies, but he fit right in with the New Hollywood era of the 1970's, despite having been established beforehand. I'm going to talk about my favorite films of his, what they mean to me, as well as what the meant to audiences. Once again, I sit here a little saddened that we won't see another Lumet offering of social realism, but if anyone from the film industry could have passed on from this world knowing that they've left us with such memorable pieces of art, I hope Lumet's family and friends take comfort in the fact that he has left everyone with such landmark accomplishments in his craft.

12 Angry Men (1957)

"Suposin' you talk us all out of this, and the kid really did knife his father?"


On the set of 12 Angry Men, after the first couple of days of shooting, Henry Fonda (who was also the film's producer and was financing it out of his pocket) looked over the first time director's shoulder at the dailies and said "It's brilliant."

Fonda could've been talking about any number of things when he saw the footage. To start off, Reginald Rose's terse screenplay was based on his play (Rose was also producing the film out of his pocket alongside Fonda) and it is not just a courtroom drama, it's actually a thriller. On the hottest day of the year, twelve men debate over the law in concerns to a boy's fate. The film opens with us just hearing the judge explain the concept of reasonable doubt as we see the jurors reacting. They go into the deliberation room and they all say he's guilty except for one juror (#8, played by Fonda), a dissenter who creates tension with his heroic personality. Juror #8 is a true hero. As the film proceeds in real-time, we come to learn that he picked up on elements of the case that might create reasonable doubt (the switch-blade scene).

Throw in the cinematography of Boris Kaufman (On the Waterfront), masterful editing, and twelve simultaneous character arcs... you have one of the finest directorial debuts of all time. What a cast (Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec, and Robert Webber). They all are so believable in defending their points of view whether it is wanting to leave the room to go to a ballgame or actually sticking to pure logic.

Still, no matter what, I go back to that racism scene. Where one juror says the defendant committed the crime because that's "how his people are." The other jurors all silently get up and face away from him until one juror (who actually still feels that the boy is guilty) looks up at the racist juror and tells him to "shut up and never speak another word." It takes skillful directing to make that believable.

Serpico (1973)

"The reality is that we do not wash our own laundry- it just gets dirtier."


After making a few more films (The Pawnbroker, Fail-Safe, The Fugitive Kind, A View from a Bridge, Long Day's Journey Into Night), Lumet teamed with one of the stars of the New Hollywood era, Al Pacino (fresh off the success of The Panic in Needle Park and The Godfather) and tackled the true story of a police officer who fought against corruption in his own department at the risk of being betrayed by his comrades. Lumet and Pacino both came from a theater schooling so they loved to rehearse and although he might get frustrated with Pacino (because Pacino would remain in character all day), the two ultimately enjoyed the experience and would work with each other again in two years on Dog Day Afternoon. Come to think of it, Pacino had such a successful 1970's and two of those success were with Lumet.

With Serpico, Lumet creates inspiration out of a truly gritty and down-to-Earth story. It is a character study of a man facing a lot. Serpico himself is flawed, but he still tries to overcome his issues so he can try to make a difference. Ultimately inspiring, Pacino's portrayal of Frank Serpico remains a high moment of his career.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

"Only by interrogating the other passengers could I hope to see the light, but when I began to question them, the light, as Macbeth would have said, thickened."


In between making two films based in emotionally-gripping social realism, Lumet directed an adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel that was a nod to older types of mystery films. Featuring an all-star supporting cast (Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Michael York, Vanessa Redgrave, Jacqueline Bisset, Richard Widmark, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Martin Balsam, Rachel Roberts, Wendy Hiller, Denis Quilley, Colin Blakely, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and George Coulouris), the film is an old-fashioned whodunit where a murder takes place on a train, making everyone on board a suspect. Enter Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) who attempts to solve the crime (the film led to a sequel called Death on the Nile, but Finney's portrayal here remains the best version of the character).

Lumet has worked with a ton of characters before in 12 Angry Men and in terms of every person having a story-arc, this is no exception. Here, everyone over-acts like they would in an older film and thanks to the style of cinematography, it all feels like one of those Golden Age of Hollywood movies. The scene where Finney's character gathers everyone in the car and then tells them all to be quiet as he points out who the culprit is... how expertly gripping that ends up being.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

"Sal, Wyoming is not a country."


The film opens with such naturalistic shots of New York City. They are necessary. They establish that is a film set in New York, but not the New York of Woody Allen or Martin Scorsese, a New York that is actually perhaps more real than one is used to seeing on film.

Now, Day Day Afternoon is about two men (Al Pacino as Sonny, John Cazale as Sal) who take a bank hostage and demand money. Things start to go wrong and a hostage negotiator (Charles Durning) shows up. Now, for those that haven't seen the movie, stop reading, because I'm going to spoil a huge surprise; the surprise that everyone talks about when they see this film. It turns out that Sonny is stealing money so he can pay for his gay lover's sex change operation. Now, today we might be accepting of such a plot-twist, but imagine being back in 1975. One might not readily say "oh... so this street-smart, Vietnam vet, married man is gay... I can identify with that." Thing is and the reason why the movie is not the least bit controversial, is because we do identify with Sonny.

Much like the public and the hostages themselves, we see how Sonny is willing to do anything for someone he loves. We get swept up in the emotion, the excitement, and even the humor. Like 12 Angry Men and Murder on the Orient Express, this film is mostly constricted to a small area (a bank and the sidewalk). Lumet and screenwriter Frank Pierson craft such a thrilling and moving film and it all takes place in a familiar setting, but it's that familiarity that Lumet plays with. We want to see the bank-robber fight the authorities and go out shooting. Lumet and Pierson masterfully play with our expectations by actually grounding this in a reality we are familiar with.

Network (1976)

"I don't know how I feel. I'm grateful I can feel anything."



I've yet to see film go back-and-forth on how sentimental it can and cannot be. Network follows a newscaster who is fired because let's face it (and this is true even now) no one watches the news. So instead, on his last day on air, Howard Beale (the amazing Peter Finch) gets up in front of the cameras and starts shouting about everything that is wrong with the world. Beale's insane rantings makes him get re-noticed and his honest descent into madness actually makes a lot of sense when you see how he views the world and how right he is.

Lumet and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky then smoothly go behind-the-scenes and show us Max (William Holden) and Diana (Faye Dunaway), two people who manage the show. They are having a cheerless love affair and the scene where they break up may rank as the film's strongest and most beautifully directed moment. The film deals with so many ideas and is at times chilling, but no moment is ever placed into the category of a singular feeling. So much is said through these characters and yet we truly form our own conclusions about this movie despite how it predicted the downfall of widespread quality television. There are also some fantastic supporting turns from Ned Beatty, Robert Duvall, and Beatrice Straight.

The Verdict (1982)

"I've no sympathy for you."


While rehearsing for The Verdict, Lumet and the actor Paul Newman were riding in a car after a day's work and Newman knew something was up with Lumet. Newman asked what the problem was and Lumet said that during rehearsals, Newman was holding back. Newman mentioned that he struggled with alcoholism, like his character Frank Galvin, and was having a difficult time handling the subject matter. Then on set, come a very important scene, Newman said, "Fuck it, let it all show." The scene was when Newman's character sips from a shot glass as he shakes.

This is my favorite performance by Newman. He conveys this man who is just screaming on the inside and that scene where sips and shakes remains one of the most unintentionally haunting cinematic moments I've ever experienced. Screenwriter David Mamet worked with Lumet to provide the director with another deeply flawed man. Alongside Jack Warden, Charlotte Rampling, James Mason, and Milo O'Shea, Newman truly does let everything he is feeling show under Lumet's skillful direction. The film might be slow moving, but its hardened take on a malpractice lawsuit makes it the Michael Clayton of its time.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

"Right now, I got to get into character."



In 2005, Lumet accepted the Academy Award for Life Achievement. This was his first Oscar despite having been nominated for 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, The Verdict, and for his screenplay for Prince of the City. Normally in the film industry, lifetime achievement awards are given to those whose best work is behind them and they don't really have much more to say. Leave it to Sidney Lumet to win that award and then end his career in 2007 with one of his most gripping films.

The film follows two brothers (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke) who need money so bad that they decide to rob their parents' jewelry store. When the mother (Rosemary Harris) is killed, the father (Albert Finney) goes on a path of vengeance while the brothers try to cover up the accident. Hoffman and Hawke have chemistry that makes you feel as if they really are brothers despite not looking much alike of course. Finney gives his most heartbreaking performance since Big Fish as a man who just wants to find the truth, but might not like the answers. The other stars of the film (Marisa Tomei, Amy Ryan, Brian F. O'Byrne, Michael Shannon) alongside the stars I just mentioned, achieve a level of depth that is a trademark of Lumet's characters. The film just grabs you and doesn't let go.

Written by first-time screenwriter Kelly Masterson, it's suiting that such a well-crafted film be both Lumet's last and another man's first. Lumet also authored a phenomenal memoir called Making Movies that is a must-read for everyone. I hope people take the time to really dig deep into this man's filmography. It's full of experiences that you shouldn't just want to have, but you need to have. Lumet found something that many filmmakers struggle to find- an accurate representation of humanity.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Super



It's often said that there are no new stories. That is pretty true, especially when it comes to movies. Filmmakers just give everything a certain flair that presents their "take" on the archetypes and themes that one expects from certain stories. This film's writer director, James Gunn (Slither), doesn't have that much of a new take on the superhero genre. In fact, what is accomplished here was done by Matthew Vaughn on Kick-Ass.

Now, Gunn is a guy who plays with audience expectations (whether it was Slither or PG Porn) and his work becomes an ironic commentary on those expectations, but sadly, Super just turns into more of a doom-and-gloom (even nihilist) sort of film by the end where everything turns R-rated for the sake of being R-rated. I know recently I gave Battle: Los Angeles and Kill the Irishman a so-so response despite them being District 9 and Goodfellas-lite, respectively. Perhaps I've seen too much imitation lately for me to be so forgiving of retreaded stories. In this case, it's the "regular-guy-puts-on-costume-fights-crime-and-movie-gets-violent" story.

The film does have good genre-based performances from Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, and Kevin Bacon... they all reflect a certain metal instability very well. Similar to Battle: LA and Irishman, the performances were the only parts of the film that I really walked away with and admired.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Source Code



The premise to Source Code is very interesting. Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon) and written by first-time screenwriter Ben Ripley, U.S. Army Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up on a train across from a woman named Christina (Michelle Monaghan). He has no idea how he got there. He walks into the bathroom and sees that his face is not his own. Suddenly the train blows up. Colter awakes inside a machine called the source code created by Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) and overseen by Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga). The machine allows Colter to go back to a real-life train explosion that took place earlier that day and interact with reality to determine who the bomber is. He can't alter reality, its like a simulation. He needs to find out who the bomber is because another attack will happen later that day from the same terrorist.

Like I said, the premise was very fascinating and I was heavily anticipating this. Although since Jones didn't co-write this like he did his directorial debut, I was keeping my expectations a little in check. Jones's visual style was there and this film does deal with a character somewhat isolated from what is really going on, but like I expected, the film falters with its script. All of the supporting characters are very one-dimensional. Christina might've been interesting, but we see her personality reset every eight minutes (the length of Colter's time in the source code). Gyllenhaal on the other hand, remains the emotional connection one has to the story. I actually really enjoyed him in this; he's carried films in the past whether he is the lead or part of ensemble. Not to say he completely fails, but he doesn't have much backing him up both in terms of a supporting cast and in how the story ultimately develops.

Without getting into spoilers, the final ten to fifteen minutes of the movie also felt very unnecessary. Like Moon, the ending is optimistic and it isn't that I disliked that, I just don't like how it's structured after Colter's mission kind of wraps up, so to speak. Like I said, the film is a fun and intelligent science-fiction thriller, it just really drops the ball when it comes to evoking any emotions in me at least up until the end.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Movies I Watched in March

*-Means I've seen it before.

Battle: Los Angeles (2011, Jonathan Liebesman)
Beyond Belief (2007, Beth Murphy)
Burden of Dreams (1982, Les Blank)
Hollywood Shuffle (1987, Robert Townsend)
Kill the Irishman (2011, Jonathan Hensleigh)
The Last Metro (1980, Francois Truffaut)
Limitless (2011, Neil Burger)
My Night at Maud's (1970, Eric Rohmer)
My Voyage to Italy (1999, Martin Scorsese)
A Serious Man (2009, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen)*
Stromboli (1950, Roberto Rossellini)
The Thin Red Line (1998, Terrence Malick)*
Two in the Wave (2010, Emmanuel Laurent)
Win Win (2011, Thomas McCarthy)