Tag: movies

Movie review: Life of Pi

After making it back home from the Madison Theatre after seeing Wreck-it Ralph, I went back there with my friend Mary, while The Wife and the Daughter went ice skating. We saw Life of Pi, the fifth Best Picture nomination I’ve seen this season.

One thing is for sure – I don’t believe in God any more than I did; that’s a reference to a line in the film. If you have seen the commercial of the young man on a boat with a Bengal tiger, you find out early on that that guy survives, because he’s telling this whole back story to some writer guy. This is only occasionally interesting to me, the growing up at a zoo, though there is an important early scene involving the tiger, and another setup involving swimming.

When the zoo is being moved from India to Canada, and a storm hits that imperils everyone aboard, human and animal, then it gets rather interesting. The bulk of the film is this vegetarian Catholic Hindu trying not to become a meal for this powerful carnivore.

This lengthy segment is alternating tense and quite lovely, with the 3D surprisingly effective. The Daughter would have been quite unsettled had she seen it, even though the film had a PG rating.

I liked this movie more than I think it sounds; it just took me a while to hone in on it, not having read the book on which it is based. All the actors playing Pi were strong, especially Suraj Sharma as the Pi on the boat. It’s quite an interesting, nonlinear tale, involving a mysterious island. It’ll stick with me for a while, I believe.

Movie Reviews: Wreck-It Ralph, and Paperman

It’s rather clear that, in Wreck-It Ralph, Disney is trying to create that layered, interconnected universe that is typical of Pixar movies.

The local Police Athletic League was sponsoring movies at the nearby Madison Theatre Monday morning, $3 for kids, $5 for adults, and this included a small popcorn and a drink. There were three PG-rated choices playing: Life of Pi, which I thought might be too intense for the Daughter; Parental Guidance, with Billy Crystal and Bette Midler, which was the most attended, but not something I particularly wanted to see; and the animated Disney film Wreck-It Ralph. The cartoon won out.

There was an utterly charming animated short called Paperman, which was done with no dialogue whatsoever; one of the best pieces I’ve seen in a while. No wonder it’s Oscar-nominated for best animated short.

Wreck-It Ralph is about an arcade video game called Fix-It Felix; think Donkey Kong or maybe Mario Brothers. Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) wrecks and Felix (Jack McBrayer, sounding a bit like Kenneth from 30 Rock, only a little more confident) fixes an apartment building. At the end of the day, the folks in the apartment building fete Felix. Meanwhile, Ralph lives alone in the dump. How can a game’s bad guy get more respect, maybe become a hero?

Ralph leaves his game for another one and creates chaos, especially for Sgt. Calhoun (Jane Lynch, sounding like Sue Sylvester from Glee, if she were armed like Rambo). Ralph does have some accidental success – catch Dennis Haysbert in a cameo – but then ends up yet in another game, having to negotiate with little Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) and King Candy (Alan Tudyk). If Ralph doesn’t get back to his own game soon, it might be unplugged forever.

It’s rather clear that, in this film, Disney is trying to create that layered, interconnected universe, in this case, of arcade games, that is typical of the Pixar movies. It works well much of the time. One does not have to be an aficionado of video games to understand it, but it wouldn’t hurt. So adults, as well as children, can appreciate it. The art and voices are great, and it’s no surprise that the movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Picture. Check out the trailer.
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The movie started later than its scheduled 10 a.m. start time, and I managed to miss President Obama’s entire inaugural speech. Fortunately, I could see it online. It was a great speech, as Chuck Miller will attest. I particularly liked the “Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall” part.

Movie Review: Hyde Park on the Hudson

There is no shot I can recall of the Hudson River, sad, because the view of the river from Hyde Park is quite lovely.

The back story, part 1: The movie Hyde Park on the Hudson is based on the papers of some fifth cousin of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When she died at the age of 100 or so, it was revealed that FDR and Daisy had had a sexual and emotional liaison.

The back story, part 2: My family went to Hyde Park just this past summer, which is largely why The Wife and I decided to see this film this past Saturday, at the Spectrum 8 Theatre. The room was about 2/3s full.

The strength of this movie is in many of the details that it gets right, in no small part because it was filmed, in part, at Hyde Park. The look is right. The controversial anti-British cartoons after the War of 1812, which were on the bedroom walls when King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth, mother of the current monarch, came to visit in 1939, I have seen. It was the house of FDR’s mother (played by Elizabeth Wilson), and that Eleanor (Olivia Williams) was very uncomfortable being there was an open secret. The press was aware of Franklin’s physical limitations and yet didn’t report it.

One of the unfortunate aspects concerning the movie is that it came out after The King’s Speech (2010) and the characters of the monarchs will inevitably be compared with that movie, unfairly, since George’s stutter is only part of the story here. And this Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) was at least as good as Helena Bonham Carter.

It took a while for me to forget that it was Bill Murray as FDR, and while he didn’t mimic the 32nd President, FDR’s essence eventually came through. My favorite scene involved just Franklin and George (Samuel West).

Casting trivia: Elizabeth Marvel plays Missy, a major role in this film, and she’s good; she also played the minor part of Mrs. Jolly in the 2012 film Lincoln.

An odd choice: there is no shot I can recall of the Hudson River, sad because the view of the river from Hyde Park is quite lovely.

The real flaw of the film, though, is that the presumable core story, the relationship between FDR and Daisy, isn’t all that well-drawn, or interesting. Laura Linney, probably the greatest living American woman on film today not named Meryl Streep, is wasted here; her character is a cipher.

This is a small movie, mostly focused on one weekend in June of 1939. As a Presidential buff, I enjoyed enough of it that I’m glad I went, but it is by no means a great movie.

Movie Review: Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Lings Playbook tells an ultimately orthodox story in such an unorthodox manner.

It’s a rom dramedy! It’s a sports movie! It’s about anger management! It’s a floor wax! It’s a dessert topping!

I read all sorts of things about the new movie Silver Linings Playbook (except those last two, which are from an old Saturday Night Live skit). Still, I didn’t get much of a clear sense of the film beforehand, except who starred in it.

The Wife and I went to see the movie at the Spectrum 8 in Albany, our favorite cinematic haunt, Saturday past. Pat, Jr. (Bradley Cooper, who I had previously seen in absolutely nothing; never caught The Hangover movies) is getting out of a mental institution, after eight and a half months, following a violent incident. He moves back in with his parents (Jacki Weaver, previously nominated for Animal Kingdom; I hadn’t seen her in anything; and Robert DiNiro – HAVE seen him a few times, most recently in New Year’s Eve on TV). Pat wants to woo back his estranged wife, which is complicated by a restraining order.

He seems to have found an ally in his endeavor the friend of a friend (Jennifer Lawrence, who I didn’t see in Hunger Games or anything else) who has issues of her own.

The Wife and I liked the film, though it traveled from this character study – Pat dealing with a Stevie Wonder song that triggers untoward behavior – to an almost conventional film about winning the big game, of a sort.

Sidebar: we spent much of the conversation on the way home talking about what is “crazy” in this society and what is not. Pat Jr. may have been a bit disconnected from reality. But was it much worse than Pat Sr. being banned from the Philadelphia Eagles’ stadium, or his various superstitions concerning sports?

I think it’s getting so many positive reviews and so many Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Best Director, four acting categories, screenplay, plus) because it tells an ultimately orthodox story in such an unorthodox manner. Cooper is better than expected, and Lawrence has more range. Weaver and DeNiro may have gotten their nominations in no small part for one scene, which I won’t describe except that the Led Zeppelin song What Is And What Should Never Be was playing.

I liked the film, but I was surprised by the change in tone. Still, I think it is that turn that made it work for me. Yet, I’m not sure yet whether it was Best Picture material; I’ll have to see some more movies this winter.

Maureen O’Hara and the National Film Registry

Dance, Girl, Dance (1940), directed by Dorothy Arzner, pretty much the ONLY woman director in the studio era of American film.

Until a couple of days before Christmas 2012, I had never seen the 1947 movie Miracle on 34th Street. It features Maureen O’Hara as Doris Walker, who hires a new store Santa at Macy’s, then becomes concerned that he calls himself Kris Kringle and claims to be the actual Santa Claus.

The next night, while assisting Saint Nick, I stumbled upon the Independent Lens rebroadcast of These Amazing Shadows. I agree that “it’s a delightful, engaging documentary about America’s most beloved films and their preservation by the Library of Congress.” It starts with media mogul Ted Turner touting the colorization of movies, and the testimony before Congress by Woody Allen and others desiring that cinema receive better treatment.

Most of the program was about the movies in the National Film Registry. One is Miracle on 34th Street. Another is Dance, Girl, Dance (1940), directed by Dorothy Arzner, pretty much the ONLY woman director in the studio era of American film. The film costars Maureen O’Hara, who gives a great speech about men’s expectations of women entertainers.

Back in the fall of 2012, I saw the Parent Trap (1961), ALSO with Maureen O’Hara, though not on the Register. I’d never seen her in anything prior that point.

Incidentally, here’s a list of Some Films Not Yet Named to the National Film Registry.

Ramblin' with Roger
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