Movie: The Kids are All Right
Director: Lisa Cholodenko (and writer with Stuart Blumberg)
Cast: Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple, Mark Ruffalo as the donor, and Mia Wasikowska (from In Treatment) and Josh Hutcherson as their teenage children.
Language: English
Release Date: July 2010
Should You See it? I am not normally a fan of comedies. But I would definitely go see this. Superb acting, realistic sets, and a sensitive approach to potentially emotionally charged issues.
In a Nutshell:
Bening and Moore are a happily married couple. They have a house in the 'burbs, 2 teenage children, and a healthy outlook on life. Oh, if I forgot to mention it before, Bening and Moore are two women and the couple is a lesbian couple. But, after all, it is 2010. The children seem quite happy--the couple has the usual worries: they don't like the kid the son hangs out with; they are wondering if their daughter is having sex; Moore seems unfulfilled with her role in life; and Bening is busy being a doctor with too many patients.
As the film begins, Laser (the 15 year old son) is pushing Joni (the 18 year old daughter named after Joni Mitchell) to try to learn who the sperm donor is. Of course, they find the clinic, the donor is called and he agrees to meet with them. Cool, he thinks. Cool, they think. The mothers--not too happy about upsetting their perfect little situation. On to the scene appears the character of Ruffalo. He seems to be just the foil for this family--he grows organic veggies, sleeps with various women, and rides a motorcycle. Just the thing any middle class, modern family, wants to enter their life.
You will find yourself laughing at many of the incidents that transpire as the film progresses. But of course, things are not always perfect in the perfect little family. You need to see this film.
So, if you are looking for some refreshing ideas, go to see this. And remember. It is 2010. So you might see some scenes that movies of the past would not show so graphically.
Now, full disclosure. I have a lesbian daughter and a granddaughter who has a sperm donor. She is too young to ask about meeting him right now. But I am open for anything in the future.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Inception
Movie: Inception
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb, Ellen Page as his Architect, and Marion Cotillard as his dead wife
Language: English
Release Date: July 2010
Should you see it? I rushed to this film opening day. There had been so much hype about it I thought I should see it. I must confess. I am not a sci-fi fan. However, this film is a knockout in terms of its visuals. From bridges bending upwards and around, skyscrapers coming down on themselves, and other incredibly sensational visual effects, you should enjoy this movie for these reasons only. Now, the plot does not make any sense at all to me. Cobb somehow steals ideas from others dreams and then gathers together a cast of characters to occupy these dreams. I wasn't sure whether they were sent to people through IVs or radio transmission, but somehow people populate these dreams. So, if you love visuals, then go see it. If you care about plot and story line wait for something else to come along.
In A Nutshell: Nolan (of Batman movies fame) works with an incredibly over-ambitious script. Cobb's character is an international thief. In his supposedly last gig, he enters others' dreams in order to steal something. Cobb gathers a team of people to enter the someone else's dream. Page, as the Architect of the dreams, builds elaborate sequences through which the team travels. The plot is even more intricate than this--if you want to follow it in detail you really have to pay attention because you are never quite sure whose dream you are in. And sometimes it seems as though you are in reality.
So I recommend--just sit back and enjoy the filming, the light, the amazing special effects. I predict the film will win awards for these things--but for a meaningful story, don't count on it.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb, Ellen Page as his Architect, and Marion Cotillard as his dead wife
Language: English
Release Date: July 2010
Should you see it? I rushed to this film opening day. There had been so much hype about it I thought I should see it. I must confess. I am not a sci-fi fan. However, this film is a knockout in terms of its visuals. From bridges bending upwards and around, skyscrapers coming down on themselves, and other incredibly sensational visual effects, you should enjoy this movie for these reasons only. Now, the plot does not make any sense at all to me. Cobb somehow steals ideas from others dreams and then gathers together a cast of characters to occupy these dreams. I wasn't sure whether they were sent to people through IVs or radio transmission, but somehow people populate these dreams. So, if you love visuals, then go see it. If you care about plot and story line wait for something else to come along.
In A Nutshell: Nolan (of Batman movies fame) works with an incredibly over-ambitious script. Cobb's character is an international thief. In his supposedly last gig, he enters others' dreams in order to steal something. Cobb gathers a team of people to enter the someone else's dream. Page, as the Architect of the dreams, builds elaborate sequences through which the team travels. The plot is even more intricate than this--if you want to follow it in detail you really have to pay attention because you are never quite sure whose dream you are in. And sometimes it seems as though you are in reality.
So I recommend--just sit back and enjoy the filming, the light, the amazing special effects. I predict the film will win awards for these things--but for a meaningful story, don't count on it.
The Girl Who Played With Fire
Title: Girl who Played with Fire
Director: Daniel Alfredson
Cast: Noomi Rapace plays Lisbeth Salander (of dragon tattoo fame) and Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist
Language: Swedish
Release Date: September 2009 (in Denmark) and 2010 in US
Should you see it? I have to say, I was very disappointed in this 2nd in a 3 part series. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was definitely much better. There were the requisite violence and sex scenes. But they seemed formulaic to me. Salander's character was not really developed nor was her relationship with Mickael ever made clear. I know when things aren't going well for me when I catch myself looking at my watch. Film runs just over 2 hours.
In A Nutshell: Stieg Larsson, the ultra-successful Swedish mystery writer (who died a few years ago), tries to shock you wish extremes. Salander--a diminutive figure dressed as a Goth--is on a search for what turns out to be her long lost father. Blomkvist--a writer who works for Millenium Magazine--follows up on the violent killing of a freelance writer and his PhD girlfriend. Both were investigating the sex trade business and apparently were killed for it. Salander and Blomkvist seem to go their separate ways as they try to solve the mystery.
I felt the film had many gratuitous scenes that really didn't make sense in terms of the story. Rather it seemed as though the film was building on the reputation of the first in the series and didn't do much to make the character development or plot very meaningful.
I would save my money and see something else.
Director: Daniel Alfredson
Cast: Noomi Rapace plays Lisbeth Salander (of dragon tattoo fame) and Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist
Language: Swedish
Release Date: September 2009 (in Denmark) and 2010 in US
Should you see it? I have to say, I was very disappointed in this 2nd in a 3 part series. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was definitely much better. There were the requisite violence and sex scenes. But they seemed formulaic to me. Salander's character was not really developed nor was her relationship with Mickael ever made clear. I know when things aren't going well for me when I catch myself looking at my watch. Film runs just over 2 hours.
In A Nutshell: Stieg Larsson, the ultra-successful Swedish mystery writer (who died a few years ago), tries to shock you wish extremes. Salander--a diminutive figure dressed as a Goth--is on a search for what turns out to be her long lost father. Blomkvist--a writer who works for Millenium Magazine--follows up on the violent killing of a freelance writer and his PhD girlfriend. Both were investigating the sex trade business and apparently were killed for it. Salander and Blomkvist seem to go their separate ways as they try to solve the mystery.
I felt the film had many gratuitous scenes that really didn't make sense in terms of the story. Rather it seemed as though the film was building on the reputation of the first in the series and didn't do much to make the character development or plot very meaningful.
I would save my money and see something else.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Athanasia
Title: Athanasia
Director: Panos Karkanevatos
Cast: Greek (except Manuel, her father, played by an American?)
Language: In Greek with occasional English dialogue (possibly dubbed)
Release Date: December 2008
Should you see it? Perhaps. You will learn a great deal about the culture and the difficulties faced by Greek women who live in a culture dominated by tradition, expectation, and the rule of men.
In A Nutshell:
Delicately weaving the present and past, Karkanevatos tells the story of a young Greek-American woman--Angela--who returns to Greece to search for her true father. But the story is really about her mother--Athanasia--and the trials she has endured growing up on a small Greek island.
The movie begins in New York with scenes of pizza and bagel shops near an overhead train. An middle aged couple--Manuel and Athanasia--are met by their daughter Angela who takes them to their granddaughter's birthday party in a house in the suburbs-- the dream of many immigrant families. You feel the tension in the home and sense that Athanasia is brooding and absorbed in her own inner life. She is not especially happy about her daughter's marriage, but that plot is not taken further.
Shortly thereafter, Manuel (a photographer) meets Angela and shows pictures from the past. He also tells her that someone else is her real father. She seems astounded. I never understood the reason Manuel reveals this information at this point in time, but perhaps I missed something. Almost immediately Angela decides she needs to return to Greece and learn the real story about her father--and of course her mother. Manuel decides to accompany her, leaving Athanasia (played by the beautiful Stavroula Logothettis) home.
There seem to be hints that something is not quite right with Athanasia. In a very strange scene, she comes to pick up her grandchild after school. The child says she is not her grandmother. The administrator cannot find a note saying anyone else would pick up the child. She then calls the mother Angela (who happens to be in Greece) on her cell phone. Angela gives permission. But Athanasia gets lost walking the child home. I think the director/writer was trying to show us Athanasia's confusion but this is not developed either.
The action then moves back and forth between the current time period and some thirty years earlier (the time of Angela's birth). Marina Kalogirou plays the young Athanasia with sensitivity and passion. She is a quiet actress, using facial expressions to show that she has accepted her fate. In a tradition unknown to me, when the eldest child marries, the family gives away the home and surrounding land. This family has next to nothing, but when Athanasia's older sister Georgia marries Hristos, Georgia receives the family home--it is actually a single room built into the rocks of their village. Athanasia and her father trudge through the village, with all their belongings in a small sack carried by the stoic, resigned Athanasia.
Can you guess what happens? The father throws himself into the waters and Athanasia, having no place to go, comes calling at her sister's hut. Well, of course, they take her in. And this can lead to nothing good. Reminiscent of Tennessee Williams, "A Streetcar Named Desire," (Blanche DuBois comes to stay with her sister Stella and Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski, after the ancestral home is lost. Stella is pregnant. Stanley rapes Blanche, etc.), this movie follows an almost identical plot.
I will leave the ending for your movie-going pleasure. But eventually Angela learns the truth and seems to accept it.
Now, this isn't Tennessee Williams. But the insights about the struggles faced by the people of this small village offer some new ideas to mull over. The direction is sensitive, the scenes are realistic, and the two women who play Athanasia are quite strong actors.
So, if you find this film playing in your area, you might give it a try.
Director: Panos Karkanevatos
Cast: Greek (except Manuel, her father, played by an American?)
Language: In Greek with occasional English dialogue (possibly dubbed)
Release Date: December 2008
Should you see it? Perhaps. You will learn a great deal about the culture and the difficulties faced by Greek women who live in a culture dominated by tradition, expectation, and the rule of men.
In A Nutshell:
Delicately weaving the present and past, Karkanevatos tells the story of a young Greek-American woman--Angela--who returns to Greece to search for her true father. But the story is really about her mother--Athanasia--and the trials she has endured growing up on a small Greek island.
The movie begins in New York with scenes of pizza and bagel shops near an overhead train. An middle aged couple--Manuel and Athanasia--are met by their daughter Angela who takes them to their granddaughter's birthday party in a house in the suburbs-- the dream of many immigrant families. You feel the tension in the home and sense that Athanasia is brooding and absorbed in her own inner life. She is not especially happy about her daughter's marriage, but that plot is not taken further.
Shortly thereafter, Manuel (a photographer) meets Angela and shows pictures from the past. He also tells her that someone else is her real father. She seems astounded. I never understood the reason Manuel reveals this information at this point in time, but perhaps I missed something. Almost immediately Angela decides she needs to return to Greece and learn the real story about her father--and of course her mother. Manuel decides to accompany her, leaving Athanasia (played by the beautiful Stavroula Logothettis) home.
There seem to be hints that something is not quite right with Athanasia. In a very strange scene, she comes to pick up her grandchild after school. The child says she is not her grandmother. The administrator cannot find a note saying anyone else would pick up the child. She then calls the mother Angela (who happens to be in Greece) on her cell phone. Angela gives permission. But Athanasia gets lost walking the child home. I think the director/writer was trying to show us Athanasia's confusion but this is not developed either.
The action then moves back and forth between the current time period and some thirty years earlier (the time of Angela's birth). Marina Kalogirou plays the young Athanasia with sensitivity and passion. She is a quiet actress, using facial expressions to show that she has accepted her fate. In a tradition unknown to me, when the eldest child marries, the family gives away the home and surrounding land. This family has next to nothing, but when Athanasia's older sister Georgia marries Hristos, Georgia receives the family home--it is actually a single room built into the rocks of their village. Athanasia and her father trudge through the village, with all their belongings in a small sack carried by the stoic, resigned Athanasia.
Can you guess what happens? The father throws himself into the waters and Athanasia, having no place to go, comes calling at her sister's hut. Well, of course, they take her in. And this can lead to nothing good. Reminiscent of Tennessee Williams, "A Streetcar Named Desire," (Blanche DuBois comes to stay with her sister Stella and Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski, after the ancestral home is lost. Stella is pregnant. Stanley rapes Blanche, etc.), this movie follows an almost identical plot.
I will leave the ending for your movie-going pleasure. But eventually Angela learns the truth and seems to accept it.
Now, this isn't Tennessee Williams. But the insights about the struggles faced by the people of this small village offer some new ideas to mull over. The direction is sensitive, the scenes are realistic, and the two women who play Athanasia are quite strong actors.
So, if you find this film playing in your area, you might give it a try.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
In A Nutshell:
Directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg follow her for some 14 months in the year of her 75th birthday (2008). This movie, a docu-biography, is funny, poignant, and sad. Born of Jewish parents in New York, Joan started to perform stand-up comedy in the 1970s. By the 1980s, she had become the permanent guest host for Johnny Carson. After her husband committed suicide in 1987, her career went into decline. She has had her ups and downs, but strives to continue to perform--even today. She paved the way for such comediennes as Sarah Silverman and Kathy Griffin. Well, this is the official story.
Funny--you see her perform in various venues around the country--and I think her humor is still as sharp as ever. What seemed shocking some 30 years ago is taken for granted today. She laughs at others as well as herself.
Poignant--here is this woman, rolling in money, who says I need the money, I need to work, why don't I have more engagements. Yet she lives in a large apartment in New York, tries her hand at many things (including designing jewelry for QVC and appearing on the Celebrity Apprentice show with Donald Trump), and having numerous face lifts and other work done on her appearance.
Sad--you get the sense that she is very much alone. Her daughter plays an important role in her life, but the relationship is questionable. She fires her manager after a number of years. She is almost--but not quite--a has-been. She doesn't need the money--she needs the adulation.
So many have said that the only time comedians are happy is when they are performing. I suspect that is true for her as well. This very revealing and intimate look at her life is a reminder to all of us that maybe we need to learn when to "give it up".
Directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg follow her for some 14 months in the year of her 75th birthday (2008). This movie, a docu-biography, is funny, poignant, and sad. Born of Jewish parents in New York, Joan started to perform stand-up comedy in the 1970s. By the 1980s, she had become the permanent guest host for Johnny Carson. After her husband committed suicide in 1987, her career went into decline. She has had her ups and downs, but strives to continue to perform--even today. She paved the way for such comediennes as Sarah Silverman and Kathy Griffin. Well, this is the official story.
Funny--you see her perform in various venues around the country--and I think her humor is still as sharp as ever. What seemed shocking some 30 years ago is taken for granted today. She laughs at others as well as herself.
Poignant--here is this woman, rolling in money, who says I need the money, I need to work, why don't I have more engagements. Yet she lives in a large apartment in New York, tries her hand at many things (including designing jewelry for QVC and appearing on the Celebrity Apprentice show with Donald Trump), and having numerous face lifts and other work done on her appearance.
Sad--you get the sense that she is very much alone. Her daughter plays an important role in her life, but the relationship is questionable. She fires her manager after a number of years. She is almost--but not quite--a has-been. She doesn't need the money--she needs the adulation.
So many have said that the only time comedians are happy is when they are performing. I suspect that is true for her as well. This very revealing and intimate look at her life is a reminder to all of us that maybe we need to learn when to "give it up".
Mme. Chambon
In a Nutshell. Mme (Veronique) Chambon, a teacher in a small French town, encounters Jean, the father of one of her students. While you learn early on that he is in construction (a man's man), married, and loving and thoughtful to his family (he gently washes his aging father's feet), you know very little about Mme. Chambon. She is quite regal in bearing with a beautiful long neck, regal features and gently quiet. She apparently moves from town to town taking positions as a substitute teacher. In a seemingly innocent encounter, she asks Jean to help her fix a window in her apartment. The contrast between the two is obvious: she is cultured and he works with his hands; she plays the violin and he is drawn to her music but knows very little; she appears beyond his grasp but he is strongly tempted by her. There are more questions raised than answered, but I think that makes for an interesting time at the cinema. Is she an innocent or a temptress? Is he a solid family man or one who will stray? Why must she move from place to place, never able to settle down? I won't reveal the ending here, but you should not miss this small, beautifully filmed and intimate film. In French with English subtitles.
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