“You just got your ass handed to you by a goddamned retiree! ” — Rebecca Pidgeon as Cynthia Wilkes in Red
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The Kids Are All Right (2010) I don’t doubt this movie drives right-wingers, evangelicals, and all the other homophobes crazy, but you know what? It’s a great film about family, full of heart, and for some reason it made me pine for California (okay, I just threw that in there to further yank on the haters’ chain). There are a couple of fairly explicit sexual scenes, and though the film is about family, it is not a “family film” in the Disney sense. That aside, The Kids Are All Right is a very likable film, one you will remember for a long time. |
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The Town (2010) I really liked this one. It’s sort of old-fashioned — it has a French Connection feel, as if it were filmed in the 70s. Really sharp dialog, cops and robbers, interesting personal drama and conflict, plus outstanding action and chase scenes. Solid work. |
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Salt (2010) Angelina Jolie, disguised as Rachel Maddow, takes on the Secret Service, the CIA, the FBI, the KGB, and various municipal SWAT teams to save the world … and she kicks all their asses. If you can swallow that, you’ll enjoy the movie. We have found our female Tom Cruise! |
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Paper Man (2009) Paper Man may have been great once it got rolling, but the first half-hour was so slow my wife and I simply lost interest. That, and the creepy vibe we were getting that the relationship between the mid-50s character played by Jeff Daniels and the teen-aged character played by Emma Stone was going nowhere good. |
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Red (2010) A totally silly movie with a great cast, fun to watch. The director kept the focus on the characters, not the outlandish plot, and that was just the right thing to do. Watching Helen Mirren wield a variety of machine guns was a hoot. Well worth renting. |
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Despicable Me (2010) Too bad we didn’t see this in 3D, as audiences were intended to, but even in 2D the animation and steampunk design were eye-popping. And that’s pretty much all the reason there is to watch an animated feature like this, to marvel at the design and animation. The story itself is best summarized by Gru himself: “Pah, a two-year-old could have written this.” |
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The Social Network (2010) Lives up to the hype, and then some. The American class system is on full display in this movie, especially during the scenes of Zukerberg’s time at Harvard, and that’s an education in itself, never mind the story of the creation and growth of Facebook. Smart, cynical (oh boy is it ever), lively, and interesting throughout — even the soundtrack is impressive. People still watch Network, though the times and technology it captured are obsolete. Ten or twenty years from now, I think we’ll still watch The Social Network. |
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Cyrus (2010) After watching the misleading previews and trailers, I was very pleasantly surprised. Cyrus, at first, is a deeply creepy villain, and the directors could have simply left it there and played it for laughs. Which is what I expected. Instead, the film is both funny and interesting, in a way that reminded me of Wes Anderson’s movies and even The Kids Are All Right. It’s genuine, wry, and … is there a less gaily-loaded word than sensitive? Well worth your time. |
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The Pianist (2002) Daily life in Warsaw in 1939 quickly turns sinister as restriction after restriction is placed upon Poland’s Jews, which you experience through the troubles of one middle-class Jewish family. From 1940 on, as occupying Germans force Warsaw’s Jews into what became known as the Warsaw Ghetto, and then as the Nazis begin to round up inhabitants of the Ghetto to ship them to the camps, the full horror of what happened there hits you in the gut. Ultimately, the movie follows the wartime life of one member of the family, Wladyslaw Szpilman, as he grimly survives, first escaping shipment to Treblinka, then escaping the Ghetto, then sneaking back into the now-depopulated and bombed-out Ghetto to hide and await the end of the war. I was glad Polanski included the Warsaw uprising, even if only as background scenery to Szpilman’s story, because not enough of us know about it. Polanski gives the tale of the Warsaw Ghetto’s Jews the full Dickens treatment, overwhelming you with squalid and cruel detail, and you almost want to say “enough,” until you remember it all happened … and much worse. |
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Captain Abu Raed (2007) My first Jordanian film (very likely the only Jordanian film I and most Americans will ever see). It starts off wistful and sappy (and unfortunately the musical soundtrack stays that way throughout), but about halfway through the story takes a dark turn, and by the end it has put you through an emotional wringer. Beautifully filmed, rewarding to watch. |