Tag: drama

Movie review: Dallas Buyer’s Club

**** Dallas Buyers Club (November 2013) – Theatre

Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner. A promiscuous, homophobic Texas cowboy is stunned by an HIV diagnosis during the mid-1980s, when that is most definitely a death sentence. He finds unlikely alliances among gay men as he fights for treatment options to prolong his life.

She says: Much less sad a film than I was expecting, given that it is about young men who are dying of an awful disease. But this movie focuses on their fight for life, and while not everyone survives (hardly a spoiler), the movie doesn’t wallow in those moments. It never goes for cheap sentiment.

The gaunt Matthew McConaughey is almost unrecognizable but very good in the lead role of Ron Woodroff, who is not always sympathetic, yet you can’t help rooting for him, even before the prejudice he encounters due to his diagnosis gradually causes him to evolve into a somewhat better man. Jared Leto, as his transsexual partner Rayon in the “buyers club”, is also very good, and I wish the movie had spent more time on his rather fascinating character.

The “buyers club” is formed when the medical establishment has nothing to offer these men. They look for alternative and experimental drugs and therapies, try them on themselves first to test efficacy, then sell them with no guarantees to people who have no other hope. The response of various officials—medical, legal, regulatory—to the club forms the crux of this film. Really interesting.

And often funnier than you’d think from that description!

He says: Wow! I liked that movie! About time. (Although it was disturbing just how good-looking a “woman” that Rayon was…)

Characters from Dallas Buyers Club

Movie review: Kill Your Darlings

This one was a split vote.

Kill Your Darlings movie posterKill Your Darlings  (October 2013) – Theatre

Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan. A look at Allen Ginsberg’s first year of university, where a friendship with classmate Lucien Carr brings him excitement, exhilaration, and turmoil, until a murder puts an end to it.

She says: I found myself caught up in Ginsberg’s journey from his troubled home life with his mentally ill mom to the freedom and excitement of university life. As Lucien Carr draws Ginsberg into his world of artists, drugs, and parties, you can see him flourish with inspiration—a sort of Dead Poet’s Society, only rather more corrupt. And it was nice to see the written word take centre stage: their big caper is to break into a library and steal some of the naughty books; their great goal is to “write something beautiful”. (Rating: ***)

He says: Oh my God, that was so boring. (Rating: *)

Movie review: Gravity

*** Gravity (October 2013) – Theatre

Gravity posterSandra Bullock, George Clooney. Astronauts Ryan Stone (Bullock) and Matt Kowalsky (Clooney) are out on a space walk when their shuttle is hit by space debris. Without connection to Houston, they have to figure out how to get back home.

She says: This movie was probably over-praised. Certainly the effects are amazing; you do believe they are in zero gravity the whole time. But the story is a little bit slight, the theme a bit obvious. It was certainly enough to hold my interest, and there are definitely moments of real drama. But I probably would have enjoyed it more if it hadn’t been so overhyped.

He says: I didn’t think that much of it. I agree with you that the effects were just amazing, and definitely stuff happened. I guess I just didn’t find it the most compelling story ever.

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And for those who have seen Gravity and have ever shopped at Ikea… I gave you, the parody video. (Not particularly spoiler-y if you haven’t seen the movie… But not that funny, then, either.)

 

Movie reviews: Blue Jasmine and Adore

*** Blue Jasmine ((July 2013) – Theatre

Blue Jasmine posterCate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin. Cate Blanchett’s Jasmine has to go live with her working-class sister Ginger after her wealthy husband is arrested for fraud.

She says: At first I thought Jasmine would be this annoying character to spend two hours with, but she develops layers as we witness her current plight and flash back to what brought her here. That the two sisters are so different is explained by each of them having been adopted, which works. It’s interesting to see past secrets revealed as Jasmine desperately tries to adjust to no longer being ultra-rich. By the end, we still didn’t know quite what will become of her. But we care…

What did you think of the movie?

He says: It wasn’t bad.

Adore movie poster** Adore (September 2013) – Theatre

Naomi Watts, Robin Wright. Two 40ish women, best friends, become lovers with each other’s sons, which gets complicated.

She says: This was billed as “porn with good acting”, but I dunno. I think porn would have a lot more sex and fewer scenes after characters looking angsty as dramatic music plays.

The acting was indeed fine, and everyone involved was quite attractive and thus appealing to look at, and the ocean-side setting was pretty. I don’t have a problem with the age difference, and the fact that there was a “son swap” was merely weird, not disturbing, but the movie made it clear that the women had known these boys since they were little babies. That made their later relationship kind of ookey, and you had to ignore that part to enjoy the storyline at all.

He says: I had too much trouble ignoring that part. The movie wasn’t boring. That’s the best I can say about it.

Netflix is for TV shows

My Netflix account remained sorely underused for a long time.

I was generally unimpressed with the selection of movies. Tunneling through to the US site helped—great to finally see Cabin in the Woods, which was a pretty clever, deconstructionist take on the horror genre, and fun to see Roger Daltrey play a gay man (albeit with no love scenes) in Like It Is—but overall, I’d still rather go to the Princess.

I’d be watching maybe one show a month on Netflix? So even though it’s only $8 a month, it still wasn’t great value for me.

So I was quite surprised the other day to discover that, somehow, I had watched every single episode of The IT Crowd on Netflix. That’s 4 seasons, folks. Now, it’s British show, so the seasons are much shorter than with American shows.

But still. I’ve clearly stepped up my Netflix usage. And it’s not because of the movies; it’s the TV shows.

The IT Crowd is hardly essential viewing. But it generally makes me laugh, sometimes quite a bit. So watching just one more episode was often appealing.

Orange is the New BlackI’m also finding the Netflix original series Orange is the New Black rather addictive. And Jean likes it too, which is a bonus. It focuses on a middle-class, white (race is very prominent in this series) woman who is sentenced to a year in prison after a youthful indiscretion catches up with her. It’s not Oz (in fact, that’s a direct quote from the series), thank God, in that it doesn’t have that intensity and violence. It’s much funnier. But it still makes it clear, lest I had any doubt, that I never want to go prison.

Most episodes end with Piper facing some new, unexpected dilemma in this very odd world (based on an actual memoir, by the way), so you really want to know what’s going to happen next. And it’s Netflix, so all episodes are available for… whenever.

As are all episodes of Friday Night Lights, and Louis, and House of Cards, and Derek, and Mad Men and… Yeah. With no commercials, and no download time. How TV should be?

Movie review: The Spectacular Now

***½ The Spectacular Now (August 2013) – Theatre

The Spectacular Now posterMiles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson. On the rebound, popular teenager Sutter Keely unexpectedly takes up with the decidly less popular Aimee Finecky, and the relationship develops in a way neither expects.

She says: Apparently we’re seeing all the indie movies about teenagers this summer. Like The Way, Way Back, this one also focuses on a teenage boy, but he’s three years older and couldn’t be more diffferent in character than Duncan in that movie. Sutter is charming and outgoing and fun and apparently at ease with himself—but appearances can be deceiving.

Sutter planned to just mark time with Aimee Finecky while trying to woo ex-girlfriend Cassidy back, but to the surprise of both of them, the relationship turns into something real and meaningful. This movie is hardly schmoopy and simple-minded, though. Sutter has his issues—including alcoholism—and his confronting them isn’t always pretty.

All the young actors in this are very good, and while certainly attractive, notably look less movie star-like than I can remember seeing in a long time.

He says: Yes, that had enough plot for me; I definitely got into the story. It just seemed to real, and that made the sad parts sadder. And I loved that open ending.

Movie review: Before Midnight

**½ Before Midnight (May 2013) – Theatre

Before Midnight posterEthan Hawk, Julie Delpy. Third in the series of movies featuring one day in the life of this couple. They are now in their early 40s and struggling with the stresses of children and ex’s.

He says: Whatever you do, don’t say I liked that movie.

She says: So, he did not like that movie. But it wasn’t because he found it boring, or badly written, or unrealistic. It wasn’t a quality problem.

It was that Céline drove him nuts.

He says: God! She was so irritating!

She says: It’s true; Céline was really irritating. See, in this installment, the couple spends an awful lot of time arguing. And I must admit that I also found myself more often taking Jesse’s side. Céline often did seem over-dramatic, stubborn, unfair… even mean.

But these are movies of talking. And she would have her moments of being to explain why she was responding as she was. The strain of having to deal with their infant twins while he was on book tour. The feeling that she had to take on more of the burden of care. And she’d kind of win me back. (And maybe someone with kids would be more on her side in the first place… I dunno.)

Overall, there’s no way for this one to be quite as enjoyable as the first two, which involved falling in love, then reconnecting. Staying together is just a more difficult theme. But it is explored effectively in this movie, if you’re brave enough to go there. And Greece does look really lovely in it…

Movie review: Secret Things

Secret Things poster*** Secret Things (April 2003) – Rental

Coralie Revel, Sabrina Seyvecou. Two young women band together to use their powers of seduction to take advantage of a wealthy, powerful man. Only to find the tables turn…

She says: By the time zip.ca sent this to me, I had no recollection of why I’d added it to my zip list, except for a fuzzy idea that Roger Ebert might have covered it. Reading the description on the envelope, I was expecting it to be kind of trashy, and kind of bad. But hopefully in a fun way.

And it did open on a big, erotic strip tease. But overall, it really wasn’t that trashy. It was definitely aspiring to be kind of arty, with all this religious and other symbolism. And despite all the nudity (attractive people of both sexes), it wasn’t all that sexy, either.

Also, it was French (with subtitles, though the translations weren’t always quite spot on). Another thing I wasn’t expecting.

But overall, I found it pretty interesting. A story of people using each other in often cruel ways, it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But I didn’t mind it at all, despite it being nothing like what I was expecting.

He says: Definitely more arty than trashy. Pretty girls, but not a very sexy movie. But yeah, it held my interest. Not a bad movie at all.

Movie reviews: Argo and Life of Pi

Just coincidentally, the last two movies we saw were Roger Ebert’s Number 1 and 2 picks for the year. (Also just realized that both have Canadian connections…)

Argo poster***½ Argo (October 2012) – Theatre

Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, Viktor Garber. Six Americans escaped from the embassy in 1979 at the start of the hostage crisis, getting refuge from the Canadian ambassador. This movie focuses on the American ruse used to get them out.

She says: We saw this late, so I was looking out for a diminishment of the Canadian role in this, anticipating the tension of watching the actual escape, though we all know it succeeded. I found the Canadian treatment not as bad as it might have been; it was at least clear the ambassador and his wife were putting themselves at risk in this venture. And the series of check points on the way out of Iran did, indeed, quite effectively build tension.

And it is a really interesting story, that I hadn’t known before, that a faux movie was the pretext used for them being there (as Canadians), and that the American involvement was long covered up for the sake of the remaining hostages. While I’m sure the facts were “Hollywood-ized”, it’s still good to know them. Unlike the fake Argo, this Argo was a well-made movie.

He says: It kind of got on my nerves that every point of the escape was a cliffhanger, down to the plane being chased. But I couldn’t help get caught up in it anyway. And I agree that the Canadian treatment didn’t seem that bad.

Lie of Pi poster***½ Life of Pi 3D (October 2012) – Theatre

Suraj Sharma, Gérard Dépardieu, Tabu. A young man leaving India with his family and their zoo animals survives a shipwreck, ending up with a Bengal tiger as a companion.

She says: I had not read the book, so really did not know what to expect from this apparently philosophical movie about a young man on a raft with tiger. How is that a movie? Do he and the tiger talk?

This sounds strange, given the premise, but the movie was a lot more realistic that I was expecting. For one, it’s not really a spoiler to say that the tiger doesn’t talk; the tiger is a tiger. And their time on the life boat is much more about the details of survival than I was expecting: how to get sufficient food, water, and sun protection, while not being eaten by a tiger. It’s certainly an odd story, but very compelling. The final riddle, of which story you believe, definitely stuck with us.

And the movie is gorgeous. My eyes are unbalanced, so I’m never sure if I see 3D as well as other people, but there’s no doubt I could see the depth in some scenes. The underwater cinematography was particularly impressive.

He says: I wasn’t sure about this one, but I ended up really liking it—the photography, the tiger story… I’m probably missing the themes, or whatever, but I enjoyed the movie.

Movie reviews: The Sessions and Blue Valentine

We saw two love stories, of sorts, recently. One is a current release about a man who spends most of his day confined to an iron lung, and thus is still a virgin at 38. The other is about the volatile relationship between a nurse played by Michelle Williams, and a house painter played by Ryan Gosling.

One of the two was really depressing. But probably not the one you think…

**** The Sessions (October 2012) – Theatre

John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, and William H. Macey. Journalist and poet Mark O’Brien, whose childhood polio has left him confined to an iron lungmost of the day, but who does have functioning genitalia, becomes determined to lose his virginity at age 38, with the help of a sex therapist.

She says: The trailer for this movie makes it look really funny, and much of it is, in the interaction between Mark and his caretakers, and especially with his open-minded priest, played by William H. Macey. But it is also really touching, especially in the relationship between Mark and his sex therapist, Cheryl. Cheryl (who is married) knows the pitfalls of transference and how to set limits on the sex therapist / client relationship, but her own emotional response makes these harder to maintain as the sessions (six maximum!) continue.

The sex in this movie is really beautiful, not because of amazing bodies or great cinematography, but because it really is an expression of intimacy and love. It’s triumphant.

He says: That was a really sweet movie. (And that’s all you’re allowed to quote me on.)

Scene from The Sessions

** Blue Valentine (December 2010) – Rental

Poster from Blue ValentineMichelle Williams, Ryan Gosling. A marriage at the end of its ropes is contrasted with the happy start of the relationship.

She says: The acting is good here, it’s very realistic, but it’s brutal watching two people who once loved each other just tear each other apart. Made for rather depressing viewing.

He says: I didn’t find anything good about that. I don’t care that it’s “well made”; there was just nothing to enjoy there.