Where The Wild Things Are

I've been excited about seeing Where the Wild Things Are for quite a while now. There's been all kinds of fighting between the filmmakers and the studios, apparently, that has delayed the release of the film well beyond its intended release date. A friend of mine who is a reliable sort of fellow reports that there is a totally different cut of the movie that had to be scrapped because it was too scary for children (apparently, kids, ran screaming out of the test screenings). The final product is still pretty scary, and I liked it a lot.

Where the Wild Things Are is, essentially, a romp through the imagination of a troubled boy named Max. After a rough day with his family, he runs away and becomes kind of the Wild Things on a far-off and magical island. There is quite a bit of tension, danger, and humour on the island while Max and the Wild Things build a fort (that can only be described as wicked-awesome) and try to keep out the sadness. Throughout the film, Spike Jonze's direction is excellent and the visuals are absolutely stunning. The only criticism I might have is that the whole film felt like a compilation of vignettes and moments, rather than a cohesive whole. Perhaps that is a result of Jonze's background as a music video director combined with the fact that the book of the same title is really short.

This film is not appropriate for toddlers or very young children. It is, however, an ideal movie for children from about grade 3 to grade 8. More than this, I think it's a pretty realistic look at what it's like to be a child of that age.

Final grade: A-

Away We Go

Away We Go, the latest effort from American Beauty director Sam Mendes, is quite good. It's a fun story about two average oddballs who need to decide where to live once their baby is born. They visit a number of candidate cities including Tuscon, Arizona, Madison, Wisconsin, and Montreal, Quebec to visit friends and family and to try out each place to help them make a decision on where to hang their hats. Along the way, they get into a number of hilarious situations and pontificate on their crises of impending parenthood.

This film is part roadtrip movie and part romantic comedy. In both modes, John Krasinski is utterly charming and nails every bit of comedy thrown at him. In particular, the scenes on the train, in the car in Wisconsin, and at the college professor's house all made me nearly fall off the couch. It's nice to see Jim in a non-Jim role. In fact, Krasinski's performance in this movie made me want to be a better person. I think that says a lot, but I'm not sure exactly what.

At any rate, it's a pretty good flick with a bunch of really nice moments, even if there are some hints of pretension.

Final grade: A-.

Julie and Julia

The second of two Amy Adams films this week was Julie and Julia. I'll tell you what I didn't like about this film first: not much. It's really nice. There's nothing edgy or innovative about it, it's just a really nice film. It's charming in a fairly conventional way with really safe narratives and humour (my favourite scene is one where Amy Adam's character is wrestling with the idea of killing a lobster while "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads is playing in the background. So good!).

The film is about a woman, Julie (played by Amy Adams), who cooks her way through the Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) cookbook as a means of self-improvement. Along the way, the film traces a parallel storyline between Julie's and Julia's initial ventures into cooking. Interestingly, the film manages to show the women as being strong and feminine while showing their husbands as being supportive and masculine. If not for the cooking, see the film for it's delicate and real take on gender roles in (a healthy and stable) marriage.

I'd recommend this film to almost anyone. If you're not charmed by Streep's portrayal of Child, you're possibly without a soul or, at the very least, your heart is made of stone. Alright, I don't really mean that, but she's excellent, as usual.

Final grade: A.

Sunshine Cleaning

The first of two Amy Adams movies this week, Sunshine Cleaning left me feeling uneasily good. I felt good because of the happy ending, but I also felt uneasy because the happy ending is somewhat bittersweet or perhaps not as happy as the filmmakers wanted it to seem.

As usual, Adams is magnificent. I'd like to overlook the period in her career where she was identified by her "princess" qualities and focus more on her great roles in Junebug and Doubt. Sunshine Cleaning is another performance to be reckoned with. Adams plays a self-defeated maid in Albuquerque, New Mexico who tries to rise above her situation by starting her own bio-hazard cleaning service. As you are probably thinking already, this premise is original. The relationship between the sister she starts the company with, her son, her married "secret" boyfriend, and her failure-of-industry father all feel totally real, even if the premise is a bit out-of-left-field. Nothing is overplayed, all the performances are subtle and believable, and even the monologue near the end doesn't feel forced or contrived.

The film, as far as I know, was made by many of the same people who made Little Miss Sunshine. If there's any weakness in this film, it's that they seem to be trying to recreate some of the magic that existed for them in that previous effort. Otherwise, this is quite a nice little film.

Final grade: A-

Death Wish 3

Can I dignify this film with a review? Perhaps not. I'll keep it short. Death Wish 3 is a ridiculous movie. By any standard imaginable, it's horrid. So much so, that it might become brilliant again. I watched it at a Stag Party I attended last week. The groom-to-be selected it. His brother thinks that it's so ridiculous and crazy that it actually crosses the line from B-movie cult classic into high comedy. I'm not sure.

Seriously. I've never seen anything this bad good strange.

Final grade: F, unless it's ironic, in which case, A++.

Fast Times At Ridgemont High

Maybe it's because I'm not a high school student in the early 80s, but I didn't like Fast Times At Ridgemont High all that much. My dad, however, has made me aware of most of the hilarious dialogue by constantly quoting it all through my childhood, which is excellent in hindsight.

Sean Penn gets top billing, playing a moronic surfer dude who's constantly high and will likely flunk out of high school. The problem is that he's not in the movie all that much. If anything, Judge Reinhold has the best and most memorable performance.

The whole thing felt messy and unfocused. The themes that it touched on (love, dating, teenage angst, adolescence) were treated nicely, but the comedy wasn't super strong and the style was haywire for no reason. There was also the obligatory lame-o-teen-comedy nudity that was completely uneccessary. Ugh. I had higher hopes.

Should I start grading these films? I think so. I'll give this one a:

C

The Hangover

The Hangover is the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time... for good reason. This movie is really, really funny.

The story is pretty simple: four guys go to Las Vegas to have a bachelor party, get really loaded, pass out, and wake up the next morning with killer headaches and a missing groom. Stylistically, what's great about the narrative is that none of the drinking or night-time hi jinx are shown. Instead, the guys are forced to piece their evening back together through a series of clues that they stumble upon in sequence. Hilariousness ensues.

All in all, the writing is really solid, the gags all work, and the performances are excellent. While I've been unimpressed with Bradley Cooper in other flicks, he plays "the cool guy" really well in this one and Ed Helms is terrific as "the nerdy guy". The show-stealer, however, is Zach Galifianakis (pictured above). Man alive, he's hilarious in this movie.

Any guy who's had "guy time" experiences will love this movie, I think. That being said, it's not a family film by any stretch (but neither is "guy time", am I right?). Congratulations to these guys on putting together a truly funny comedy. It's been a while since that's happened (I'm looking at you, Will Ferrell).

Che (Part 2: Guerilla)

In an earlier post, I reviewed part 1 of Steven Soderberg's epic biopic Che. A little while ago, I was able to rent part 2. It struck me as odd that Che (Part 2: Guerilla) was to be released on a separate DVD. After all, part 1 ends in a peculiarly abrupt way. It seemed to me that part 2 would just pick up right where part 1 left off. It did not.

Part 1 follows Che's advertures in Cuba during Castro's communist revolution. It is a successful mission that develops Che as a revolutionary leader. Part 2 picks up a few years later in Bolivia where Che attempts to realize the same results that he experienced in Cuba but fails to do so. All in all, the film is about four and a half hours long, parts 1 and 2 combined.



Che is a very detailed, slow-moving film. Many of the reviews that I have read criticize the film for being too plodding and spending too much time in the jungle without really exposing the "face that launched 1000 t-shirts". I respectfully disagree. I found the entire thing totally fascinating. The "plodding" through the jungle is not wasted on the viewer. Throughout the film, Che's style of leadership and ability to handle precarious, dangerous, and stressful situations is developed and put on display for the audience. It is a beautifully shot, interesting film with solid performances. Be prepared to read subtitles, though, if you don't speak Spanish.

Raising Arizona

I consider myself a fan of the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan). They've made some of the best films of all time and are likely the best filmmakers in America today. As a result, I figured I would check out one of their earlier efforts, Raising Arizona.


In short, this is a crazy movie. Nicholas Cage is believable (shocking, I know), Holly Hunter is so good, and John Goodman is really something else. Cage's charater, Hi, is a total loser who can't successfully stick up a convenience store and winds up in jail repeatedly, where he meets Hunter's character, Ed, who is a corrections officer. Later, they get married and try to have kids but cannot conceive or adopt. As a result, they decide to kidnap their child from a family recently blessed with quintuplets, ie: more than they need. Insanity and comedy ensues.

Check it out if you dare.

The Soloist

It's amazing to me that The Soloist was not in wider release. When I saw the previews at SilverCity before every movie for about a month, I figured I would be able to watch it on the big screen. Instead, because of the film's limited release, I had to rent it. Either way, it's pretty darn good. I would not be surprised if it cleaned up a number of award shows next year.

The actors' performances in this flick are quite strong. Jamie Foxx is good, but Robert Downey Jr. is really great. The narrative is about an L.A. Times reporter who stumbles across a virtuoso string player on the streets of Los Angeles. The musician is homeless and, as it turns out, schizophrenic. The reporter takes it upon himself to write a series of articles about the situation and to help the musician reclaim his life. The film itself, however, is more about homelessness then it is about music or even about the characters.


There are a number of tensions in the movie that make it work quite well. Tensions between the narrative and the theme, poverty and affluence, charity and exploitation, and delusion and reality. The actors are quite good, the script is excellent, and the music is quite enjoyable. Aside from a couple of unnecessary montages, The Soloist is a pretty solid film.