Greenberg

broderic on April 6, 2010

Somehow I’m trying to express my views on the Noah Baumbach film, Greenberg. I doubt I’ll get this right.

Greenberg stars Ben Stiller as the eponymous main male character trying to re-establish himself after being released from rehab. He house sits at his successful brother’s house in LA for the weeks his brother is away on vacation in Vietnam. He establishes a a rapport with his brother’s personal assistant, and they begin a slow-step, tango of a relationship that’s dysfunctional and redeeming. It’s just another indie film plot.

Now I state that Stiller is the main male character, but the personal assistant played by Great Gerwig is every bit the main character, too. She’s the second lead and it is through her that we learn of him. I would almost say she’s the lead. The film opens up following her story and it takes 20 minutes before we get to Stiller. All the while you wonder what is up with this girl. She’s a personal assistant, a glorified gopher, but it pays the bills and allows for the partying till dawn lifestyle she finds herself with.

These two find each other. Real quick and real sudden. And real. It had the audience gasping. “No way!” Very interesting if you think about it. I kept wondering how they each felt about the other. She would’ve just expected? He would’ve wanted it? Where did that come from?

The movie goes by just as every indie movie goes. Not much action, but plenty of character development. Stiller’s character gains something from her, but I don’t she gains anything from him except for companionship. She may understand him, but that understanding wasn’t built on seeing who he is, but who she is. She accepts him because he finally accepts himself.

I thought the early part of the movie was slow and uninteresting. The later part got to be better. Perhaps it was because the amusing scene when Greenberg confronts the youth. It really is scary on how he nails the fear and the awe inherent at looking at the next generation.

Decent movie for the time I was in the theatre.

3 of 5 stars.

Hot Tub Time Machine

broderic on April 3, 2010

Hot Tub Time Machine, a title of a movie in search of a story. The movie just wasn’t that good for film looking to break through the fourth wall with it’s nudge-nudge wink-wink. It wasn’t enough that John Cusak besmirched his 80s cool character status or even Craig Robinson not being funny, but Rob Cordry eating up entire scenes that was an effrontery.

Of course, I went to see this after hearing CapSwell’s short terse acknowledgement of it. I never know with that dude. It sounds good, but it may be bad.

This. This was bad.

2 of 5 stars.

Alice In Wonderland

broderic on March 26, 2010

About a week ago, I had caught Tim Burton’s rendition of Alice In Wonderland in Disney 3D. I don’t know what the difference but 3D doesn’t seem so cool if you don’t shoot it in stereo like Kirk Cameron did Avatar.

Did you know that it was rated PG? I didn’t. There’s some hacking and slashing at the end plus that hooka smoking caterpillar that make it seem less children-y and more teenage-ish. Except that the Alice story has been in the public domain for a long time now that there are plenty of dark interpretations of it. Let’s just say bringing really young kids to it can set a parent up for some seat squirming.

Or it could set them up for boring. Alice in Wonderland relies on Tim Burton’s hoary tricks at ghoulishness and on Johnny Depp’s weirdness. I couldn’t get past either and wish that the film ended sooner than it did.

But it didn’t end soon enough for me. And I blame Disney. They’ve churned out nothing but rehashes of their intellectual properties. I wish someone would make a better Alice tale rather than the sad suits of Disney.

2 of 5 stars.

She’s Out of Your League

broderic on March 18, 2010

She’s Out of Your League makes explicit the conceit of the Macho Chick Flick: “How does he end up with her?” It’s right there in the title. A hottie, 10, hooks takes out the nerdly 5, they hit it off, and believe that they are right for each other. Will they believe to make it right? Will their friends spoil it? Are they really meant for each other? And can a 5 make himself into an 8 to get close enough to dating a 10?

Of course, it rom-com land, they end up together. The reason to watch is to find out what their obstacles are.

I like Jay Baruchel. He starred in the underappreciated Apatow tv show, Undeclared. It reminded me of college at the U, and that was 7 years out ten years ago. Yet, he is pretty much annoying here. He’s too nerdly. No girl would dig that. When you think of him that way, then he was perfect for the role.

This movie falls into the Apatow, guy rom-com except that it didn’t have any of his repertoire company except for Baruchel. I kept trying to figure out which character would be played by an Apatow member. There’s a Jonah Hill/Seth Rogan guy, the fast talking friend. There’s a Jason Segal role and a Paul Rudd role. It seemed like the producers scrimped on the stars and with second rate actors.

Alice Eve is attractive. But she’s not the hottest girl out there. I wonder if that was the way it was supposed to be.

2 of 5 stars.

Shutter Island

broderic on March 6, 2010

Shutter Island is Martin Scorsese doing his thriller thing. It is based on a Dennis Lehane novel as if that means anything to you. Lehane did a few novels that have been turned into movies perhaps you’ve heard of Mystic River or of Gone Baby Gone. He’s a man of New England, and Scorsese is a man of New York. How does this affect any thing? I don’t know but my review is suddenly going off the rails into a different reality…

Shutter Island is about two federal marshals conducting a manhunt on the eponymous island mental institution looking for an escaped patient. She was supposed to have disappeared without a trace. The wardens have no idea what happened.

Unfortunately, it may take you awhile to figure out what the twists and turns in the movie’s plot. Or if you’ve watched a lot of movies, you’ll expect the unexpected.

Scorsese works in a genre that seems out of his interests. But, he did do the Val Lewton retrospective for Universal. And he does bring some of the extraordinary creepiness that was trademark of Lewton. In fact, the strangeness of the film reminded me of The Curse of the Cat People. It’s not what it seems which was the same for both films.

One thing: don’t watch with your psychiatrist mom she’ll know everyone’s crazy and complain that it’s just like work.

3 of 5 stars.

Seriously? Comic books?

broderic on March 5, 2010

I am surprised that the Pulitzer people deem comics worthy of serious consideration of an artform. They’ve given a Pulitzer to Art Spiegelman’s Maus and lately they’ve awarded the Pulitzer for fiction to an otaku. Since I am myself a comic book fan, I’m glad that they do think it worthy of praise. So I searched out the one Pulitzer winner dealing with comic books and men in tights, Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

It’s the story of the infancy of the comic book industry in the United States. It covers the beginnings of the super hero genre from the introduction of Superman to the first twilight of the industry in the Congressional hearings into juvenile delinquency in the 50s. It the story of two cousins who embark on a blaze of creativity bringing into being several superheroes. It is the story of immigration and assimilation into the United States as all stories of the populace of the American people is really about. It is the story of Jews in America, and the story about escaping who we really are. They are looking for their own übermensch — the Golem or Warsaw, an alien from the planet Krypton, the un-imprisonable Escapist — to do battle with the Germans.

The plot follows Josef Kavalier as he escapes the Prague ghetto before its demise by the Nazis, flees to America, and becomes a comic book artist. The plot also involves Sammy Clay, Josef’s cousin and collaborator, and Rosa Saks the bohemian girl in love with Josef.

Kavalier and Clay begin with their super heroes a few months after the introduction of Superman. They create the Escapist, the super hero who cannot be confined by any jail, box or ropes. He fights to free people from injustice, and at the time he fights the Nazis. He is Kavalier and Clay’s Jewish super man. They also created Luna Moth, a sensual lady crime fighter, inspired by Rosa Saks. These two super heroes are their most famous creations.

Kavalier is the artist. He sees the potential artistry in the comic book medium, and he attempts to break out of the squares of the format. Clay is the prolific writer. He has plenty of stories to tell. He writes all their stories. Brothers by their pen, they create what becomes legend. They mix with the early comics industry making friends and making legends.

The book is written like Kavelier and Clay were real comic creators. Mixing the real New York city in as part of the milieu. Gotham. Metropolis. Empire City. America.

I really liked this book. The comics creation part early was the boring stuff. The story afterwards of the two creators is the important interesting part of the book. It wasn’t they who created art, but art created them. They lived their lives open and free in reaction to being comic creators. It makes me want to be a creator myself.

A-

The Wolfman

broderic on February 20, 2010

Following the myth of The Wolfman, I should wait until the next full moon to write up my review. Except that if I did, I would wake up and find that I don’t remember anything about it. A week later and the story is the same. I don’t remember anything about The Wolfman.

Of course, if you had seen it, you’ll think that the curse would be infinitely terrible. That the fiancée of your dead brother mauled by a supernatural creature would fall for you. That your issues with your dad would turn out to be really big issues.

3 of 5 stars.

Adventures From My Netflix Queue: The Ramen Girl

broderic on February 6, 2010

Watching the weather and seeing the snow come down in bunches, it’s best to stay in doors. I’ve got nothing better to do, so I pop my latest Netflix into the DVD player. It’s early for this DVD almost a week and I’ve just put this in — a new record.

Today’s movie is The Ramen Girl. It has been in my queue for a year now always the bridesmaid but never the bride. I keep pushing in down, but since the movie stars the late, Brittany Murphy, I figured I would have to honor her memory by finally watching her flick. No disrespect to her and her memory.

The Ramen Girl is about Murphy’s character going to Japan to follow a boy who then dumps her. Stuck in a foreign land what is she to do. One night in the rain she follows her tears to a ramenya. There she tastes heaven and decides that she should be a ramen cook. The rest of the film is about her learning to cook ramen.

The best part of this film is that it explains the mystery of ramen. You think it’s all about the noodles, but really its the broth. I’ve got plenty of ramen in my cupboard, but I don’t really want the packet broth. If I can make a decent broth, those square dry ramen noodles may almost taste good.

So, Murphy attempts to become a ramen chef. It is hard life made even harder by the her lack of understanding Japanese. But she does learn. Little by little. Not Japanese, but ramen and the broth. Eventually, she gets to become the successor to her sensei, and learns about ramen.

After the movie, I had a bowl of arroz caldo. Not ramen. But I don’t think I do a good broth just yet.

3 of 5 stars

Post Grad

broderic on January 29, 2010

I was watching television last week and saw on Fox Movie Channel (they’ve got like 4 films they continuously show back to back to back to back) when they had a commercial break for the movie Post Grad. I thought hard about it and remembered that I did watch it. I didn’t write a review though so it’s as if I never saw it. And then I had to ask if I did see it.

That shows how much that movie was forgettable. The only cool thing in the movie was the belt buckles. Why’d I go see this? And when?

2 of 5 stars.

Adventures From My Netflix Queue: Linda! Linda! Linda!

broderic on January 24, 2010

While watching the Jets/Colts AFL championship tilt, I have some time to jot down some thoughts on this film. Usually, I would write a review for a movie that had moved me, good or bad. I liked Linda! Linda! Linda!, but not moved enough. I’m writing this just to ponder some of the comments I have read on the internet about the movie.

Comments about it being slow and boring. Hmm. What they are most likely criticizing is the static nature of the shots in the movie. The director, Nobuhiro Yamashita< eschews the normal medium shot-close up-reaction cross-cutting. What he does do is just set up the scene in a medium shot and let's it roll. In fact, I wanted to see the interaction between the characters: their reactions or their emotions, but was hardy treated to it close up. I can see that this static set up can make the movie seem slow, less dynamic, but it can't be boring. It's about girls doing rock and roll that can't be boring! Linda! Linda! Linda! is about rocking out. The movie’s plot is about a music club (K-ON!) upon loosing members still wants to participate in the fall school festival. They’re search gets them a lead singer, the Korean exchange student, who’s comprehension of Japanese gets her into hilariously awkward situations. They’ve got three days to come together as a band. The rest shows them practicing and going about their high school lives: preparing for the school festival, warding off love confessions, etc. It’s a fine movie culminating in the rocking cover of The Blue Hearts, “Linda Linda,” the namesake. It’s a movie that inspires the awesome episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, “Live Alive!” K-ON! also seems to be inspired by it. 4 of 5 stars.