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Dec. 10th, 2012 12:57 pmNormally when I watch TV, I watch TV series rather than movies. But as the series I'm half-heartedly watching is Midsomer Murders, which is kind of crap and has two-hour-long episodes--I've been watching movies instead. Lots of movies.
Men in Black III - Solidly entertaining. Not as attention grabbing as the first, but not as crap as the second. It mostly made me realize how old Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are and how long ago 1969 was. (My mom resented that observation mightily.)
Casa de mi Padre - This is a Spanish-language Will Ferrell send up of a telenovela. And Will Ferrell does not speak Spanish. It's kind of brilliant, though. I thought it was hilarious. It has intentional continuity errors and fake sets and people standing in front of blank curtains and puppet animals. And to my untrained ear, Ferrell does a good job with the Spanish, though he speaks more slowly than anyone else, so I can actually understand him. The only drawback is the subtitles are small and white, and given the number of characters wearing white suits in this film, they are sometimes completely illegible. Not that you actually need to read them to get what's going on.
It's Complicated - This is the Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin movie where she has an affair with her ex-husband. I liked it quite a lot. It has some forced elements of farce, but the movie manages to progress without invalidating any of the characters, which is rare for a romance, which usually requires that people end up together no matter how they've been acting for the last two hours. Also, Meryl Streep is just mesmerizing to watch. I hope to have half that much grace at her age. The only thing I didn't like was that she, a divorcee with grown children, lives an enormous enormous multi-million dollar house that looks like a William Sonoma catalogue and has no hint of the host of maids and lawn and pool guys she must get in to keep it going. And she's getting an addition (which is how she meets Steve Martin, the romantic complication). I just keep thinking why? Why in god's name do you need an addition? You live alone and you already have enough house for ten people?
Kramer vs. Kramer - After It's Complicated, I looked for other Meryl Streep films (she is now officially one of my favorite actresses), and wouldn't you know, Kramer vs. Kramer is on streaming. This film--well, of Meryl Streep's movies, this one won't break you the most. But that's only because she was in Sophie's Choice. There's a reason SNL did a spoof of this called "Crymore vs. Crymore." But it is a brilliant, brilliant movie that deserves every single Oscar it got. ( spoilers ) This movie is such a product of its time, but unlike some others (like The Graduate), I feel like it still resonates today.
Capote - The Philip Seymour Hoffman one. This movie mostly made me want to read In Cold Blood. And not want to read it. It's making a very strong statement of the moral quagmire Capote gets in to, aiding the murderers in order to gain their trust and get material for his book, and draws a direct line between this event and Capote's alcoholism and eventual death. I'm not sure the reality was quite so clean a narrative, but it definitely makes for a compelling movie. I also had no idea that Capote grew up with Harper Lee.
The Conspirator - This is a Robert Redford directed film about the trial of the conspirators after Abraham Lincoln's assassination, particularly Mary Surratt, who was basically scapegoated and denied her rights to a civilian trial. James McAvoy plays the idealistic young attorney defending her. The reviews of this one said it was too cerebral, but I don't really see that. I thought that it tried to make itself so much a parallel to WHAT'S GOING ON TODAY, and a commentary on the Patriot Act and the fear mongering of the media, that it ends up not really feeling like it's about the Civil War. Also, it starts with McAvoy telling a joke that gets interrupted and WE NEVER HEAR THE END OF, and that irks me.
Howl - This is a biopic(ish?) about Allen Ginsberg, played by James Franco, and his poem "Howl." About a quarter of the film is framed as an interview with Ginsberg where he's talking about his process, which is interesting. A quarter is the obscenity trial, all verbatim from the transcripts, which is really interesting (and just absurd). But half of it is Franco reading the poem "Howl" with kind of crappy CGI psychedelic animation (SO MANY PENISES). And I have to say, I never studied the Beat poets in school and I'm glad I didn't, cause this poem speaks to me not at all. I shudder to think what I'd've written if I were forced to analyze it in a paper, cause my reaction is mostly, the fuck? How much peyote were you on? (Ebert's review of this is, amusingly, mostly about how he met Ginsberg that one time.)
Men in Black III - Solidly entertaining. Not as attention grabbing as the first, but not as crap as the second. It mostly made me realize how old Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are and how long ago 1969 was. (My mom resented that observation mightily.)
Casa de mi Padre - This is a Spanish-language Will Ferrell send up of a telenovela. And Will Ferrell does not speak Spanish. It's kind of brilliant, though. I thought it was hilarious. It has intentional continuity errors and fake sets and people standing in front of blank curtains and puppet animals. And to my untrained ear, Ferrell does a good job with the Spanish, though he speaks more slowly than anyone else, so I can actually understand him. The only drawback is the subtitles are small and white, and given the number of characters wearing white suits in this film, they are sometimes completely illegible. Not that you actually need to read them to get what's going on.
It's Complicated - This is the Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin movie where she has an affair with her ex-husband. I liked it quite a lot. It has some forced elements of farce, but the movie manages to progress without invalidating any of the characters, which is rare for a romance, which usually requires that people end up together no matter how they've been acting for the last two hours. Also, Meryl Streep is just mesmerizing to watch. I hope to have half that much grace at her age. The only thing I didn't like was that she, a divorcee with grown children, lives an enormous enormous multi-million dollar house that looks like a William Sonoma catalogue and has no hint of the host of maids and lawn and pool guys she must get in to keep it going. And she's getting an addition (which is how she meets Steve Martin, the romantic complication). I just keep thinking why? Why in god's name do you need an addition? You live alone and you already have enough house for ten people?
Kramer vs. Kramer - After It's Complicated, I looked for other Meryl Streep films (she is now officially one of my favorite actresses), and wouldn't you know, Kramer vs. Kramer is on streaming. This film--well, of Meryl Streep's movies, this one won't break you the most. But that's only because she was in Sophie's Choice. There's a reason SNL did a spoof of this called "Crymore vs. Crymore." But it is a brilliant, brilliant movie that deserves every single Oscar it got. ( spoilers ) This movie is such a product of its time, but unlike some others (like The Graduate), I feel like it still resonates today.
Capote - The Philip Seymour Hoffman one. This movie mostly made me want to read In Cold Blood. And not want to read it. It's making a very strong statement of the moral quagmire Capote gets in to, aiding the murderers in order to gain their trust and get material for his book, and draws a direct line between this event and Capote's alcoholism and eventual death. I'm not sure the reality was quite so clean a narrative, but it definitely makes for a compelling movie. I also had no idea that Capote grew up with Harper Lee.
The Conspirator - This is a Robert Redford directed film about the trial of the conspirators after Abraham Lincoln's assassination, particularly Mary Surratt, who was basically scapegoated and denied her rights to a civilian trial. James McAvoy plays the idealistic young attorney defending her. The reviews of this one said it was too cerebral, but I don't really see that. I thought that it tried to make itself so much a parallel to WHAT'S GOING ON TODAY, and a commentary on the Patriot Act and the fear mongering of the media, that it ends up not really feeling like it's about the Civil War. Also, it starts with McAvoy telling a joke that gets interrupted and WE NEVER HEAR THE END OF, and that irks me.
Howl - This is a biopic(ish?) about Allen Ginsberg, played by James Franco, and his poem "Howl." About a quarter of the film is framed as an interview with Ginsberg where he's talking about his process, which is interesting. A quarter is the obscenity trial, all verbatim from the transcripts, which is really interesting (and just absurd). But half of it is Franco reading the poem "Howl" with kind of crappy CGI psychedelic animation (SO MANY PENISES). And I have to say, I never studied the Beat poets in school and I'm glad I didn't, cause this poem speaks to me not at all. I shudder to think what I'd've written if I were forced to analyze it in a paper, cause my reaction is mostly, the fuck? How much peyote were you on? (Ebert's review of this is, amusingly, mostly about how he met Ginsberg that one time.)