Review: The Ides of March

The Ides of March (George Clooney- 2011, The United States)

The Ides of March premiered at the Venice Film Festival to a mild reaction.  European critics claimed the film was not surprising and a look at the obvious corruption in politics.  A few weeks ago the movie opened in the United States to more positive reviews and the film's chances of Oscar nominations were reignited.  Overall I agree more with the European critics that The Ides of March is a rather predictable and bland film. 

The performances are strong by all actors in the film.  Ryan Gosling gives another strong show in a year in which he shines in many films (Crazy Stupid Love, Drive).  George Clooney, Marisa Tomei, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Evan Rachel Wood, and Paul Giamatti also all give worthwhile performances.  Sadly, they are just strong and nothing more.  None of them are great and none are perfect.  The problem with the movie lies in its subject matter which in turn hurts the actors' ability to excel.  Nothing in the movie becomes electrifying and nothing creates tense situations.  Because of the lack of verbal conflict none of the roles of the actors become particularly noteworthy and their roles seem easy to have mastered.  Conversations between characters all seem boring and rather insignificant.  No tension is made during the movie and the audience feels like spectators to something that is rather insignificant and common.

This feeling of insignificance and predictability is not aided by Clooney's direction.  His lack of style and pizazz made the film feel more bland and more of a chore.  Notably he also shows his lack of knowledge in the American political system.  Maybe it is not a lack of knowledge, but more of a innocence and ignorance.  He overemphasizes corruption in some areas and then underemphasizes it in others.  His innocence also creates a purity in his characters' political ideologies which  do not exist in the American political system.  Many times the progressive presidential candidate of the movie would use lines that a conservative American politician would.  He also makes assumptions about the American political process, such as stating partisans would vote in the other party's primaries, which simply are unfounded or disproved.       

The problem with The Ides of March is its inability to push the envelope.  It doesn't go far enough.  There are too few encounters between characters and the film lacks a dialgoue which could have created great scenes and electrified the film.  Instead the movie wallows in a lack of adrenaline and tension. 

The film's Oscar prospects still seem strong, but nothing for it is set in stone yet.   The academy loves Clooney and he could get a supporting acting nod.  Gosling could get an acting nomination as well.  We will see if the movie holds up in the next few weeks, or if The Descendants, starring Clooney, will take all the air out of the room as the "Clooney" film of the year.   

Grade: C+

Review: Tales from Earthsea

Tales from Earthsea (Goro Miyazaki 2006- Japan, 2010- The United States)

Studio Ghibli is the most renowned animation studio in the world.  Some of the major films of the studio include Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl's Moving Castle.  Unlike other animation studios where multiple directors make their own films and there are really no directorial traits (such as in Pixar), Ghibli has two major directors which both have their own significant directorial styles.  These directors, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, started the studio in the 1980s.  While Miyazaki is far more prolific than Takahata, both directors have made great films.  They both are aging and have tried to bring a new director into the studio in order to have someone to leave as the leader of the animation company when they both pass.  They had been unable for some time to find the next generation director for the studio until recently.  This did not come however from the directorial debut of Goro Miyazaki, Hayao Miyazaki's son.  It instead came from the debut of Hiromasa Yonebayashi with the film Arrietty (which will be released in the US this upcoming January).

But back to Goro Miyazaki.  His directorial debut came in the form of Tales from Earthsea, a bloated overlong homage to the works of his father and Isao Takahata that I managed to finally see recently.  The movie was delayed for years in its US theatrical release because of a dispute with TNT which held US rights to the t.v. mini-series A Legend from Earthsea.  Both are based on the the original novel series by science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin. 

The film itself is bogged down by a bloated plot.  The movie runs too long and there is a long middle stretch of the film which is very boring.  The movie should have been edited better in order to avoid its poor structure and unevenness  Most of the film is rather unoriginal as well.  While homages are fine, there is a difference between one or two homages in a film to nearly copying entire parts of other films.  Two major homages/copies are from the films Horus: Prince of the Sun and The Adventures of Puss in Boots, both early works of Takahata and Miyazaki.  The villian in the movie is also rather unspectacular and one dimensional, something very uncharacteristic in a Ghilbli film in which there are usually no black and white bad guys.  The animation on the other hand is rather gorgeous in parts, thanks to the Ghibli animation staff which is the best in the world.  Too bad the script and the plot don't hold up to the animation.

While overall it is a bad movie, there are sparks of brilliance in this movie from Goro Miyazaki.  He needs to learn more as a filmmaker.  His newest film, Up from Poppy Hill, was released in Japan this past summer.  Its US release may come next year in 2012 or early 2013 (so in order to not conflict with the awards potential of the Arrietty.).  Hopefully Poppy Hill shows an increase in quality from Goro.  Early reviews are much more positive of this new movie and hopefully it is a positive step forward.  

Grade: C

Also, here is a graded list of the Studio Ghibi theatrical films:

A
Castle in the Sky (Hayao Miyazaki)
Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata)
Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki)
Kiki's Delivery Service (Hayao Miyazaki)
My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki) *technically released before the official foundation of the studio*
Only Yesterday (Isao Takahata)
Pom Poko (Isao Takahata)
Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki)
Porco Rosso (Hayao Miyazaki)
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)

A-
Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumo Kondo)


B
The Cat Returns (Hiroyuki Morita)

B-
My Neighbors the Yamadas (Isao Takahata)

C
Tales from Earthsea (Goro Miyazaki)

Also, here is the trailer for the upcoming Arrietty

Review: Real Steel

Real Steel (Shawn Levy- 2011, The United States)

I had seen the trailer for Real Steel probably twenty some times in the last six months to a year leading up the the film's US release.  Every time I saw the trailer for the movie I shook my head in disgust.  Every time I thought, don't we have enough robot movies and aren't there too many movies about fighting?  It seemed that Real Steal would be a mix of movies like The Fighter and Transformers, but on a smaller scale.  And that is a good analysis of the movie.  It is not as good as The Fighter and the robots aren't as cool as those in Transformers.    

The movie itself isn't great, but it isn't horrible either.  The movie is a good movie to take kids to, because of its overly cliched plot and stereotypical child actor who plays a kid who is much older than his years.  Since when do kids that are ten act like they are sixteen?  Casting may have been the problem here, or maybe there was a larger problem of writing.  The other main character is played by Hugh Jackman.  His character is nearly as problematic as the know it all child.  Jackman's character is unlikeable and pretty much an ass.  Both characters make for a movie in which the leads are wholly uninspiring and unlikeable.  

Also many supporting characters seem just to have been put into the movie in order to take up screen space.  Most are undeveloped and really pointless to the movie. All the supporting characters attend the final fighting tournament and all seem to be wedded to the plot and tournament, yet they don't actually have any stake in it from what we had seen earlier in the movie.  The lack of development makes the film weak.

A robot of Atom is introduced in the film which fights in a tournament.  Atom is a weak old robot.  Somehow we are supposed to believe he can actually defeat the big and technologically advanced robots.  The movie is not Rocky and robots, unlike Rocky, are not likeable.  To show how a robot, which has not emotions or humanity, can defeat big robots by using humanity, is absurd.  Also, there is the issue to whether Atom can actually understand humans or only mirror them.  This is not explained at all and we are left guessing about this the whole movie.

Overall Real Steel is rather weak, but not a entirely bad film.  Despite all its flaws it is still enjoyable and somewhat likeable.  It has good graphics and and underdog story which help save it from its despair.

Grade: C 

Review: Restless

Restless (Gus Van Sant, 2011- The United States)

In his new film, Restless, Gus Van Sant pays homage to Hal Ashby and his film Harold and Maude but he adds a warm heartfelt twist on the subject matter.  Many of the plot devices are similar in both films.  For instance, in Restless, a young man Enoch, played by Henry Hopper, crashes memorials and funerals.  At those events, he meets Mia Wasikowska who seems at first to be a crasher as well.  The two grow fond of each other and it is revealed that Mia Wasikowska's character has cancer.  The plot lines between the two movies are similar, but Restless seems to be a more complete and serious film.  The movie is also much warmer, compared to Harold and Maude which has a lot of dark comedy.

The critics have overall been negative towards Restless.  I really do not see why.  Maybe they don't like the unoriginality of the film with his homage to Harold and Maude.  The negative opinions of the film led me to be expecting less of the film.  Instead it turned out to be an unexpected delight.

Restless tackles serious themes including suicide, life, death, and love. It has a timeless feel to it and it will probably be a film that will be more liked by young people.  It feels like a fairy tale in this regard.    Also of note, it plays somewhat like a hipster film as both the main characters played by Hopper and Wasikowska seem to be hipster-like.  I definitely recommend this film, and it is one of the better movies in an above average year in film.

Grade: B+/A-

Review: 50/50

50/50 (Jonathan Levine, 2011- The United States)


There isn't much to say about 50/50 besides it is a really good movie.  I came out of the movie with a smile on my face, knowing that I just watched a touching and heartfelt film.  Jason Gordon-Levitt gives a great performance as a young man who is diagnosed with cancer.  I was enamored with his performance and it is one of the best of the year.  Seth Rogen, who is virtually playing himself (the character is based off of him in real life), probably gives his best career performance.  Angelica Huston Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anna Kendrick are also both good in their supporting roles.  Huston actually may give one of the best supporting roles of the year as the mother of Levitt's character who has to deal with a son with cancer and a husband who has Alzheimer's.  Also to note is Philip Baker Hall who gives a good comedic performance in a small role.  

The film successfully blends comedy and drama. It especially feels truthful.  The script is based off a true story experienced by writer Will Reiser.  This is probably why the film really moves viewers.  It is not artificial, it was instead experienced.  Levine, Reiser, Levitt, and Rogen have created a movie about cancer that feels candid while remaining charming and touching.

Grade: A-

Review: Potiche

Potiche (Francois Ozon, 2010-France, 2011- The United States)

Francois Ozon is one of my favorite working directors.  I was unable to see Potiche when it hit theaters earlier this year in late spring, but I was finally able to catch up with it last week.  Ozon is one of the true auteurs working today.  From each of his flims you can point out his style, traits, and themes and tell that the film is his.  He has two distinctive but similar styles that he has used throughout his filmography.  The first is a darker and edgier style with dark themes usually about sexual repression which can be seen in films such as See the Sea, Swimming Pool, Criminal Lovers, Time to Leave and The Refuge.  The second style is one of flamboyant camp which features an art design of bright colors and costumes which is noted in films such as 8 Women, Angel, and Water Burns on Dripping Rocks.  These two styles do cross.  For example, in Criminal Lovers there is a love scene that takes place in the woods when a lot of forest creatures are making love in a campy way.  The rest of that flim though is rather dark.  Potiche falls into the second category as it features camp, bright colors, bright costumes, and some dancing and singing.

The flim itself is fun.  Catherine Deneuve gives a great performance as the matriarch of the Pujol family.  The rest of the cast is star studded as well with famous French figures such as Gerard Depardieu and Jeremie Renier playing major roles in the film.  There are no problems with acting around and like most Ozon the acting is somewhat over the top to create a comical tone.  At the same time the performances are heartfelt in emotional scenes.

Potiche is Ozon's most political film.  The plot centers around a union strike at the Pujol family factory.  Mr. Pujol (played by Fabrice Luchini) is not willing to cooperate with the union and Mrs. Pujol instead steps in.  Besides the obvious union-politics plot, Ozon takes a look at feminism and whether Mrs. Pujol should be the potiche (trophy wife) or if she should take a stronger role in family and run the factory.

Potiche is fun, enjoyable, and light comedy.  Ozon hasn't quite made a masterpiece with Potiche (he might have made one in See the Sea) , but he has a made a strong film that continues upon his directorial style.     


Grade: B+

Review: Dream House

Dream House (Jim Sheridan, 2011- The United States)

Jim Sheridan's career has sure been on a down lately with Get Rich or Die Tryin, the mediocre Brothers, and now the poor Dream House, but his filmography suggests better with The Boxer, My Left Foot, In America, and In the Name of the Father.  To his credit though, Dream House's failure is largely not his fault.  Apparently producer Morgan Creek did not allow him to edit the film and he instead left the project. Sheridan also actively pushed the DGA to remove his name from the film.  Undertstanably, he, nor the stars of the film (Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, or Elias Koteas), promoted the film in the recent weeks before its premeire.  That being said, the film isn't a total failure and it still has many bright spots.

Sheridan was able to create a strong feeling of tension in the first half of the film.  Very little actual occurs and there are no real scary parts of the film.  Yet, I, at the very least, was glued to my seat in anticipation of something to occur.  While nothing ever really does occur, the twist of the film is about halfway through it.  If you had seen the trailer, you know exactly what the twist was.  Maybe without the revealing trailer, the film would be better.  But already, a few days after seeing the movie, the trailer has all but disappeared from my mind, and I am just remembering the film.  The twist though, isn't all original, as its something that Scorsese did much better in Shutter Island.

Even if you can get over the twist, the real flaw of the film is the ending.  Two bad guys are presented in the last ten minutes or so and their character archs are very flat.  I'm pretty sure with better editing, Sheridan would have made this part much better.  Also, there are random parts of the movie which are simliar to The Shining.  The two little girls in the movie are not at all similar to those in The Shining, but there are weird sequences when the girls are shown dead and holding hands with the house crumbling (see the poster for this image).  These sequences do little to the film and are very few.  The film isn't an all out horror film, more of a psychological thriller.  These sequences would have probably been edited about by Sheridan, if he had gotten the chance.


Even if the movie was disavowed by Sheridan, his trademarks show through.  The movie is a family drama and relates to the tensions that build in the family.  The pacing and style are similar to his most recent work in Brothers.  Also, similar to Brothers, the trailer gave away most of that film too.  Maybe he needs better luck, not only with the production companies, but with the material shown in hte trailers.  Importantly, the acting is very strong in the movie too, which allows it to succeed when the editing does not.


Dream House is much better than the 6% on rottentomatoes shows.  It is not a great film and not even a particularly good film, but it is not really a bad film either.  It instead sits in the middle and could have been a much better film if Morgan Creek had let the four time Academy Award nominee and auteur Jim Sheridan fully direct his film.


Grade: C


Here is more on the fall out between Sheridan and Morgan Creek: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/10/jim-sheridan-dream-house-rachel-weisz-daniel-craig-reviews.html

Mini-Reviews: Moneyball, The Dilemma, The Conspirator, and Miral

Moneyball ( Bennett Miller, 2011- The United States)

 

Bennett Miller's sophomore feature is certainly not a slump.  The film is strong all around and Brad Pitt gives a great performance as Billy Beane.  Jonah Hill gives a good supporting performance and in the few minutes of screen time he has, Philip Seymour Hoffman shines.  The script by Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian is strong, but slightly flawed.  The daughter character seems completely unnecessary and annoying.  The character might be a flaw of the screenplay or maybe a product of poor final editing.  Also, the film is overly sentimental, but I'm not sure this is a negative because baseball itself is an overly sentimental sport.  Importantly, while he may not be getting the press of Sorkin or Pitt, Miller directs the heck out of Moneyball and gives us a good notion that he will remain a strong prestige based director.

Grade: B 


The Dilemma (Ron Howard, 2011- The United States)

The Dilemma is an utter and complete disaster and easily the worst film I've seen of 2011.  That being said, it is important to note that the movie may not be a failure for Ron Howard.  Rumor is that he had little say in his direction which is indicative of Vince Vaughan's producing credits.  Howard's recent films have flopped at the box office, with the exception of the Angels and Demons/ The Da Vinci Code franchise, and these failures led Universal to be much more stricter with Howard leading to rise of Vaughan's role in the film's production and direction.

The movie stars Vince Vaughan with Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Wyder, Channing Tatum, and Queen Latifah in supporting roles.  Vaughan, James, and Latifah are absolutely dreadful in their respective roles.  Vaughan is again playing himself as a over-talkative moron.  The editing and screenplay are both rather appalling as well.  Supporting characters seem to pop up mid film and there is little explanation for their role in plot points.  This could have been fixed with better editing.  Also, a subplot of Vince Vaugahn's character going through gambling cold turkey is suddenly thrown into the movie and is rather uninteresting.  The dialogue is a mess as some of it rests on gay jokes and sex.  For example, one quote from the Queen Latifah's character is "I want to have sex with your words. I want to band you brain" and another is "That's why my lady wood is so strong".  These quotes show the inability of the film to rely on actual humor or drama and instead rely on stupid dialogue and completely unlikeable characters.  The movie was not funny at all, even though it tried to be.  It wants to be a bromance at one point, a comedy at another, and a relationship drama the rest of the time.

Ron Howard should have walked out of this movie based.  I'm not sure why he didn't.  If he didn't like the way it was going and the need for Vaughan's cash backing, he should have left.  Ultimately the film only made 48 million dollars in the US, and 69 million dollars worldwide.  It cost 75 million dollars to make.  Yet again Ron Howard has another box office failure.  Maybe he should have stuck to his guns and directed a good movie (or a movie he wanted) instead of caving into studio pressure.

Grade: F

The Conspirator (Robert Redford, 2011- The United States)

Robert Redford's The Conspirator premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2010 to mildly positive reviews.  It picked up a distributor thanks to its cast and director but it was not positioned to run for the Oscars and instead dropped into late Spring.  This maneuvering quieted all of the buzz on the film and most prognosticators quickly wrote the film of its list.  It finally was released earlier this year to again average reviews.  All in all, The Conspirator is just that, average.  Nothing in particular stands out about the film.  It provides some insight into law, politics, and history, but even that isn't much.  Redford, being the activist that he is, tries to compare the situation of Mary Surratt to the Guantanamo Bay precedings.  These comparisons are apt and don't come across as too heavy handed.

The film also features a strong cast including Patricia Clarkson, James McAvoy, Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood, among others.  All are good in their roles, but none really stand out and none of the performances are too memorable.  If I had to choose one however, Patricia Clarkson does gives some emotional gravitas to her character of Mary Surratt.  The film somewhat reminded me of The Crucible because of its themes and its style, but The Crucible has something which sets it apart from this movie: great acting from Daniel Day-Lewis, Joan Allen, and Paul Scofield.

Grade: C+


Miral (Julian Schnabel, 2010- France, 2011- The United States)


In Miral, Julian Schnabel tries to present an unbiased view of the Palestinian situation in the Middle East.  Ultimately he fails to do so because of poor editing and a bad screenplay.  The plot takes twists and turns interesecting the lives of four women who are all very much connected, most being related to each other or having spent long periods of time with the others.  There is no real main character, even though Miral, play by Frieda Pinto, is the title character.  At the same time, the movie is not an ensemble work either.  It opens with the line "My Name is Miral", but then progresses directly toward the character of Hind.  Two other major charactes are introduced before we meet Miral.  Instead, a flashback structure would have been much more efficient and may have created more emotion investment into the characters.

There are too many plot lines beside the four main women characters.  The character of Miral is introduced about halfway into the film.  After that there are too many random sidetracks and diversions that do no justice to the plot or character development.  Some of these deviations are political or making some social comment.  While they may not be overly offensive to the political situation, they are notably heavy handed and unnecessary to the film.  These many plot lines also make the film overlong.  With proper editing and better writing, Schnabel could have made a better film, but instead followed up The Diving Bell and the Butterfly with a wholly mediocre and poor effort.  


Grade: C-