Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The September Issue
I was expecting the film The September Issue to ride that same emotional wave of fear and admiration, cresting with occasional panic. Anna Wintour, is after all, the inspiration for the diabolic boss who wears Prada and torments underlings, designers and bosses alike until they quiver like fat-free jello in an earthquake. Instead of focusing on the Conde Nast-y, the film focuses on the busy and perilous intersection of fashion and media at which Ms Wintour finds herself directing traffic; continuously keeping the flow moving forward and helping those around her avoid calamitous crash and burn accidents. As though it weren’t hard enough to put out a magazine that people want to buy month after month, she is an industry lynch pin, cementing deals between talented designers and retail firms, giving designers manufacturing, production and yes- even runway show advice. And the film is balanced enough that you can see, as with a rainbow fading into sunlight, the blurry edges of Ms. Wintour’s difficult reputation, but appreciate all of her brilliance.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The Ugly Truth
Katherine Heigl stars as control freak Abby, a career minded news producer (much like Heigl’s uptight anchorwoman in Knocked Up btw), who nurtures conventional, idealistic, romantic notions about relationships. Chauvinist and men-are-after-sex-proponent Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler) enters her life when she is forced to produce his show, The Ugly Truth, and an amusing battle of the sexes begins as Mike bets Abby that he can help her win over her gorgeous, “perfect on paper” (and on her checklist) neighbor- if she follows The Rules (so to speak) of his playbook. Yes, it’s an ugly truth, the characters are more caricatures than deeply developed characters, and there are no big revelations about love or about relationships in this movie. But the real Ugly Truth is that Hollywood makes very few laugh-out-loud from start to finish and hold-your-sides funny movies. The great news is, The Ugly Truth IS one of those few.
Two Lovers? More like Two Very Boring Hours.
Here’s the quick and (dirtier than anything in this movie) math: if in love, Two Halves don’t make a whole, then three half-assed characters certainly don’t make Two Lovers. Or a very good movie.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Harry Potter 6: The Vanishing Cabinet ate the climax!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Ice Age 3; Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Transformers 2; Revenge of The Fallen
Monday, June 8, 2009
Up!
Pixar has done it again: released a film with incredible rainbow saturated graphics, a storyline with the unexpected twists and turns of an airplane in turbulence, and some very endearing characters. Up is a spirited tale of two unlikely travelers, a grumpy old man living in the past and a well meaning, but inept, chocolate hoarding young boy searching for a father figure. Together, they float to South America in a house pulled by thousands of balloons, where they take on the jungle, a pack of talking dogs, and a murderous, ferociously competitive explorer. Along the way, they teach each other a great deal about love, life, and loyalty. Humor “a-bounds” especially within the dog pack; from the curiously high pitched tones ascribed to vicious Doberman Alpha, to the lovable furball Dug’s attempts to kidnap “the snipe”, to the continuous squirrel induced lapses in the dog pack’s concentration. But the film isn’t all easy laughs, as sadness and regret are the engines to the house, dirigible and the story. However, there is just enough sweetness, redemption and friendship mixed in so that, like the plethora of helium balloons that pull up the house, the film is truly…. Uplifting.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Marley and me
Friday, May 22, 2009
Wolverine
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The Cake Eaters
Kristen Stewart, of vampire girlfriend fame (Twilight), stars as
Sadly, unlike in Kristen Stewart starrer Twilight, the romance in The Cake Eaters is often hurried, making it lack the agonizingly built up tension of the former film, and instead feel half-baked. And since it is tough to identify with the characters and understand why they come to care for each other so quickly, the film feels rather like a metaphorical bundt cake with a collapsed emotional center. However the film is worth watching for Kristen Stewart’s transformative performance alone; she is surprising, nuanced and utterly convincing- slurring her speech and artfully managing to make the simple act of walking seem an unimaginably difficult feat.