Friday, December 9, 2011

Movie Quickies

Haven't done this in a long time, mostly because the movies have been rather sucky. But, suddenly, I've seen some good ones...






Moneyball: I give this one an A+. Totally enjoyed this baseball film. I caught it in the Village at the Quad Theater, where it was still playing as of a week ago. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill are both really great. Philip Seymour Hoffman is fantastic as usual, in a supporting role this time. It's a really interesting look at baseball today.






Margin Call: This one gets an A from me. It's a bit of an odd movie, kind of a half-fiction, half-real look at the financial meltdown. But Kevin Spacey is great, as is Jeremy Irons as the corporate CEO. Heck, I even liked Demi Moore in this one! It moves fast and is very enjoyable. Even if you're not into business/finance movies, this one is very entertaining.









My Week With Marilyn: I'd give this is a B+. Michelle Williams really steals this movie as the title character. And Kenneth Branagh does a spot-on impression of Sir Lawrence Olivier. I caught this in Kew Gardens, followed, of course, by dinner at Mood, my local favorite restaurant there.






J. Edgar: This one gets a B- from me. Not bad, but could have been sooo much better. Clint Eastwood, who directed, chose to try to stuff way too much of this amazing person's life into two hours. This easily should've been a mini-series or HBO series of several episodes to do it justice. And Leonardo DiCaprio, while much better than I've ever seen him, still has his "Tom Cruise" moments -- you know, the one's where try as he might he is just not that great an actor. Sorry Leo!

3 comments:

  1. crossing queens blvdDecember 9, 2011 at 8:46 AM

    Two big thumbs up for "My Week With Marilyn" Loved it!

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  2. Recently did a trifeca of indies at the Angelika: The Artist, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Melancholia.

    All 3 are recommended, for different reasons each, although each are also quite YMMV based on taste.

    The Artist: a modern day black and white silent movie. It's fun, and the leads have a charismatic presence, but I can see people with shorter attention spans getting bored from the lack of dialogue.

    Martha Marcy May Marlene: really like this film due it's utter lack of exposition. You're dropped into the middle of it, and need to figure out what's going on, and who is who based on what's going on. Although the ads say it's a thriller, I'd skew heavily more towards it being a character piece. Might be slow going for some people, and the narrative structure might be confusing.

    Melancholia: Lars von Trier's best looking film to date, and like his other films it's broken people hurting other people. The film is mesmerizing in a voyeuristic way. However, this is a definite YMMV movie since I can see people viewing this movie as being way too pretentious, and the themes covered are depressing as hell.

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  3. Not sure if it's still playing anywhere but Devil's Double was the best movie I've seen this year.

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