Brave (2012, U.S.)

This movie was an altogether pleasant surprise. The previews really only give a glimpse of what it's really about (a welcome relief after Dark Shadows). I saw this with my mom, which made it even better because it's really a great mother-daughter movie. While a lot of the story is about girl power and Merida finding her way and being herself, it's also about Merida and the Queen listening to and understanding each other. It was really lovely. I hate to give away more of the plot, because it really was surprising, but suffice is to say there are clever lines, action, unexpected twists, lots of Celtic-ness, and bears!

The music was awesome. It sounded like the type of music you'd expect in an animated family film, but it also sounded very Scottish. It set the perfect tone. I also liked many of the other sound aspects, including the voice actors and effects. You can see little blue things by Merida in the poster; in the movie, they are will-o'-the-wisps that help lead Merida to her destiny. The noise that they made was really impressive—cooing, sweet, eerie, otherworldly. If I ever thought about what a will-o'-the-wisp sounded like, that would be it. Just a slice of how good the sound was. I also liked the animation. Merida's hair was like it's own character, and I loved her horse and little brothers and the bears too. I also thought the scenery, from glens to ancient stone circles, was that balanced blend of realistic and fake that works so perfectly in animated movies.

Obviously, I was impressed. I would recommend it for all ages, and especially for mothers and daughters and Celt-lovers.

Rating: 4.0

Dark Shadows (2012, U.S.)

Well, it's impossible not to like a Burton/Depp/Carter/Lee/Elfman lovefest, particularly with the additions of Eva Green and Jonny Lee Miller, but I almost came close here. I think the big problem was that there was so much hype for this movie, and therefore so many previews, that it seemed like I had already seen the whole thing before I saw it. (Did you follow that sentence?)

Maybe I'm worn out with the aforementioned lovefest, because acting, directing, music was all exactly as I would anticipate. I guess it's harder to be thrilled when you expect great things every time. So yes, it was great in a way, but it already felt old. So that was frustrating. I'm sure I'd recommend it, particularly if you were a fan of the show, a fan of the dream team, and haven't seen any of the previews. If it felt fresher, it would have been much more memorable.

Rating: 3.0

Puss in Boots (2011, U.S.)

Soooooooooo cute. I always thought that Puss in Boots was the best character from the Shrek movies, and now that I have two little orange fuzzballs of my own, I have to say I'm even more biased. Of course, the cat jokes were all hilarious to me (and to the friend I saw it with, who is not really a cat person). I laughed out loud several times. Antonio Banderas is such a good voice actor, and the rest of the cast was pretty good too. The plot was definitely weird. It involved Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, the goose that lays the golden eggs, Jack's beanstalk... it was bordering on ridiculous, but somehow it worked. The one negative thing I will say about it is that Humpty Dumpty is just creepy, in his looks, his mannerism, everything. I don't know why, but he made me think of a pedophile. So that was a bit off-putting.

I can't say enough about the main focus of this movie, however. Of course, that's Puss. He's one of those characters like Jack Sparrow who could salvage any movie. (Well okay, that's not a fair comparison, but I thought that was true of good old Jack until POTC4!) Totally worth it for Puss, Banderas, and funny cat jokes.

Rating: 4.0

Little Fockers (2010, U.S.)

I remember loving the first two movies in this series even though I'm not usually a big comedy fan. (Usually I find jokes too crude or racist or otherwise tasteless.) So I was looking forward to the third movie, because I figured they would keep coming up with fresh, funny material. I mean, we start with meeting the girlfriend's parents, we move onto the very different in-laws meeting each other, and then we go to the whole life with kids deal. There should be lots of humor about having kids! But despite the title of the film, that's not what the movie was about at all. The parts with the kids were the best, the funniest, the most touching... but they were few and far between. Mostly it was about Jack passing on the mantle of head of the family to Greg and about Greg earning extra money by promoting sex drugs for a sexy pharmaceutical rep (which of course leads to suspicions of infidelity).

I liked the actors, for the most part, but I felt like all the non-Jack grandparents (Danner, Streisand, and Hoffman) deserved much more screen time, because they were spot on and still funny. The same is true of the twin five-year-olds, who were clever, amusing kids. To quote another spot-on reviewer on IMDB, "Owen Wilson was on auto-pilot and Jessica Alba was in the film just because of her looks.Surely Alba should get a better agent because all she does is strip off in her films." Precisely. Wilson was the same old same old and Alba was just there to look sexy. Any attractive woman could have played the role, which is unfortunate because Alba really is a decent actress. Then there's the star. Stiller had a few good moments, but otherwise seemed pretty bland. Then again, that could have been the spectacularly boring script.

Because, oh yeah, the most important thing about this movie? It just wasn't that funny. It just felt repetitive and not fresh at all. It didn't do anything for these great characters who had been so well-written in the past. It was just unfortunate all around. I can't even think about it any more. I almost want to give it a 2.0 (didn't like it), but because of a few shining moments (like Jack's wife trying to get him to do a sex role play thing at Roz's professional suggestion), I'm bumping it up one.

Rating: 2.5

Rabbit Hole (2010, U.S.)

This film was very difficult to watch, but really quite superb. I suppose in essence it is a domestic drama, because it is about the state of a marriage following the accidental death of a young child. Howie wants to go to group therapy and watch home videos and maintain his son's presence even in his absence. Becca, who left her job at Sotheby's to be a mother and is stuck at home all day, would rather hide the physical evidence of their son's life, forgoing therapy. Instead, she finds herself following the teenager who hit four-year-old Danny with his car; eventually, they begin meeting. While each spouse is trying to heal in their own way, their marriage is suffering.

To begin with, the script was very well-written. It's obvious to me why the original play won the 2007 Pulitzer. (Side note: the writing definitely feels like a play with the minimal number of characters and simple settings, sort of like 2005's Prime.) Eckhart and Kidman were phenomenal, and they made already strong writing simply leap off the screen. Their broken moments, their fights, their falling away from each other, their tentative attempts at physical intimacy, their reactions to things as little as a broken flower in the garden or as big as the dog their son was chasing into the road that fateful day... simply incredible acting. I've always thought highly of Nicole Kidman, and I'm beginning to build quite a favorable opinion of Aaron Eckhart as well. (From dry comedy in Thank You for Smoking to the fabulous portrayal of Two Face in The Dark Knight, he's making quite the impression on me.)

I quite enjoyed the score as well, which was at times sad and at times hopeful, perfectly expressing the film's emotions and adding to a truly heart-wrenching story. Wonderful stuff.

Rating: 4.0

The Kids Are All Right (2010, U.S.)

I have some lesbian friends who told me this was a great movie, the first "mainstream" film they've seen that portrays same-sex parent families as families like any other, and I do agree with that analysis to some extent. To begin with, Nic and Jules and their kids Joni and Laser seem like any other family, eating dinner, playing Scrabble and ping pong, having fights, and getting ready to send the oldest child to college. In some ways, it seemed healthier than the average family—with two moms, there was much more communication, a very positive part of the family.

Of course, the main arm of the plot is a problem that would be much less common in a straight family—the kids search out and meet their sperm donor, who becomes a part of their lives and even starts an affair with one of their moms. (This part really threw me. She cheated on her wife with a man?! Horrible.) This created quite a soap opera feel without getting too trashy.

I loved a lot of this movie. There were some funny parts and some parts that made me tear up. I didn't care 100% for the way they treated Paul (the donor), acting like he purposefully broke up their family when meeting them wasn't even his decision (though he did act poorly quite often and was generally a self-centered big-head). Still, I thought it was a touching story about what makes a family and how we struggle though the tough parts because we love each other. Jules' monologue on marriage—"If only I read more Russian novels, I might..."—was especially priceless.

I liked the cast too. Julianne Moore is great. Mia Wasikowska (who I only know as Alice in Wonderland) was perfect as the older kid. And I don't know if I've ever seen an Annette Bening film, but perhaps I should make an effort. She was fabulous in this movie, and I loved her especially in this good ensemble.

Open-minded people will enjoy this family's story. I doubt closed-minded people would even watch it, and if they did they'd find something wrong with it, but I thought it was lovely.

Rating: 3.5

Post Grad (2009, U.S.)

This was a cute little movie. Alexis Bledel is a girl who has just graduated with an English degree and wants to get her dream job at her dream publishing house. She doesn't, and she has to deal with unemployment. Meanwhile, her best friend is in love with her and she starts fooling around with her much older Brazilian neighbor. So she loses her friend, another important thing in her life.

I thought it was both laugh-out-loud funny and touching. Michael Keaton as her father and Carol Burnett as her grandmother were especially hilarious. Without the comedy and the romance, her post grad life felt like a mix of my post-college and post-grad school experiences, which is probably part of why I liked it so much. I think any college graduate can relate.

Not many comedies can impress upon the viewer the important things in life—family, love, hard work, being happy with who you are and what you do. All that and a few laughs too. Good stuff.

Rating: 4.0

Death at a Funeral (2007, UK)

This one was different from the opening credits. I absolutely adored the score, which was fun and familiar sounding. It was cheerful and upbeat, yet slightly ominous at the same time.

Death at a Funeral is very British and an interesting ensemble drama. When a large family gathers for a funeral, there are all kind of interesting dynamics going on, from fighting couples to competing brothers to love triangles to hidden secrets that cause all kinds of trouble.

You'll laugh out loud, you might tear up a little, and your jaw will definitely drop multiple times. See it to believe it!

Also, I love Alan Tudyk. Love him.

Rating: 3.5

Toy Story 3 (2010, U.S.)

This was the first ever movie I've seen in 3-D. I don't know if I really liked that aspect of it. Mostly it just gave me a headache.

The movie, on the other hand, was great. I didn't think they'd be able to pull another story out of these characters, but they did. Andy's heading off to college and getting rid of his toys; the gang is donated to daycare, and it's a living hell.

Two big highlights were Buzz being set to Spanish-language Buzz, Barbie meeting (a very clothes-obsessed and shallow) Ken, and the aliens from the claw machine following around the Potato Heads ("You have saved our lives, we are eternally grateful!").

I was kind of back and forth about the ending. On one hand it was sweet and on the other hand it was way too sad and disappointing. Overall, it was the mix of funny and touching you'd expect from a Toy Story movie.

Rating: 4.0

Carolina (2003, U.S.)

This was a very sweet, funny, clever movie about family and finding your own identity. Of course, that identity is partially influenced by your family, but partly you.

It's also about finding (and more importantly recognizing) the things that are good for you. What you think you want isn't always what you really want or even need.

Aside from all the sweetness, it was really very funny. The writing was fantastic, truly. A girl who works on a dating show with a best friend who's a straight Jewish man working as a romance writer... brilliant! And anything with Shirley MacLaine is bound to be a winner. I have never known anyone like that woman for a laugh.

Rating: 3.5

How To Be (2008, UK)

I gather that this film was supposed to be pretty funny. And although I'm a bit of an Anglophile, it may have just been too British for me, because most of my laughing was in an "Are they serious?" type way.

Art is having an existential crisis, post break-up. He realizes that his family has never shown him much love and he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. So he hires a Canadian self-help guru to come to London and help him out, naturally.

Pattinson was pretty amazing as Art. He's sensitive and unsure of himself and awkward and an all-out misfit. (Then again, something tells me that this is the really Robert Pattinson, behind the heartthrob mask.)

Of course the ultimate message here was to be who you are and do what makes you happy. It was touching, and sometimes even funny. Just not my favorite movie of all time.

Rating: 3.0

Legends of the Fall (1994, U.S.)

There just aren't enough movies made about World War I. It's a good thing that the ones that are made are quite good. Legends of the Fall is a bit melodramatic, but it is still a wonderful story. It mixes pieces of war movies, classic westerns, family sagas, and romances. If it comes off a bit melodramatic and times, that's okay. After all, it is a very ambitious film.

They used several very interesting narrative devices. To begin with, I liked that the narrator was a character who was only on the margins of the plot, rather than one of the primary players. To supplement this narration, they also used letters written to and from various characters, which was quite effective. They also used something I would call a flashback, for lack of a better term. To give an example, Tristan gets noticeably upset and frustrated when he tries to free a cow trapped in barb wire. Even though they never show the scene again, it is clearly meant to remind the viewer of the scene where his brother is trapped in barbed wire during the war. These scenes are very well done.

I've always found Aidan Quinn to be a competent but unremarkable actor, and most of the other actors fell into this same category as well. Then there's Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt. They steal the scene from anyone they ever work with. Hopkins is an imposing patriarch, and Pitt completely embodies the magnetic, troubled middle brother. Even if the film was awful (as it could have been if the rest was the same as the cheesy final scene), they'd redeem it. Wow.

Rating: 3.5

The Cake Eaters (2007, U.S.)

After Adventureland, I decided I needed to check out some more Kristen Stewart films to verify whether she was as good of an actress as I thought. Well, if this film is anything to go by, she is going to be the actress of her generation.

The Cake Eaters is a family drama about the intersecting lives of two families. The measured revelation of secrets and lies and hopes and desires is expertly done. The pace may be a bit slow, but it is definitely compelling.

Although the story is an ensemble drama about various members of the two families, Stewart stole the show as a terminally ill fifteen-year-old girl with Friedreich's ataxia, a disease that ravishes her nervous system, slurring her speech and making her movements jerky. Watching her performance, you would think that she was truly affilicted with this disease in reality if you didn't know better. Her performance is not a mockery of the condition—it is incredibly sympathetic. Her quest to live a full life in the very short time she has left is beautiful beyond words.

It's hard to describe how powerful this film is. Even if you're not from a poor, rural family, it would be hard to watch this without feeling it touch something in your heart.

Rating: 4.0

Sunshine Cleaning (2008, U.S.)

I went into this movie thinking it would be more comedy than drama, but let me be the first to tell you that isn't the case.

The best thing about this movie is that the characters were so real. A lot of times, characters are so obviously "characters" rather than "people," but not here. This family consists of a single mom who works as a maid, her young (and very strange) son, her (even stranger) father, and her screw-up sister. Their mother died when they were a child. Other characters include a married cop who the older sister is having an affair with, a group of shallow women she knew in high school, and a one-armed vacuum salesman. Every single one is so believable.

Also, what an usual story. This family is struggling to survive, and the main character hears that cleaning up crime scenes is a lucrative business. She drags her sister, who has just been fired from another job, into the work, and Sunshine Cleaning is born. The older sister sees herself as someone who helps others in a small way when they're going through a tough time. How they both react to the business tells a lot about their personalities—and how their mother's death changed them both and their relationship with each other.

This one is definitely an original, and quite well done.

Rating: 3.5

Rachel Getting Married (2008, U.S.)

I only went to see this one because two of my friends wanted to see it. I never thought I would live to see the day when the following sentence would pour from my brain to the page, but here it goes: The best part of this movie was Anne Hathaway.

I know. Turns out that when she's not playing a flake, she does have the ability to play a character who's... not a fake. (To be fair, I did also think she was pretty good in Brokeback Mountain.) She plays a girl fresh out of rehab, reunited with her family in her childhood home for her sister's wedding. Hathaway portrays the myriad of emotions and reactions in an overwhelmingly convincing manner. Her interactions with her sister, parents, various friends and family members, and another former junkie are wrought with complexity. You can really get in her head.

Other than that, the film was one long snooze-fest. The family Rachel is marrying into is just too weird. As is the wedding. And the other guests. It seems to me that if you want your audience to relate to a character, you should make her surroundings and the other characters more familiar to the average viewer. There should be more "everyman" types and fewer of the unique crazies that overrun this one.

Really, that's all I can remember to say about this one. It was way too drawn out for what it was. A character study can only go on for so long. I was dying to leave the theater and go to bed by end, which hasn't happened to me in years. I doubt I would recommend this to anybody. (Although my two friends seemed to quite like it. So who knows, you may want to try it.)

Rating: 2.0

Speed Racer (2008, U.S.)

One guess why I watched this bit of silliness—yeah, that would be Matthew Fox. I love that man, and I loved him as Racer X. Add to that the brilliant, truly comic-book inspired score by Michael Giacchino, and the whole thing was worthwhile.

Don't get me wrong, this was a good family movie. The Wachowski brothers did a great job of creating this brightly-colored science fictional world, where car racing is a way of life. It was almost overwhelming to the point of distraction, all this color and such.

The movie's got great messages about family, fighting against the corrupt capitalist upper-class, doing the right thing, etc. The cast was really high-profile, which was a bit incongruous with this type of movie. (The last thing I saw Emile Hirsch in was Into the Wild, so seeing him now as Speed Racer was even stranger.) The plot was confusing at times, but it all became clear in the end.

As I seem to have really lost my gift for description, I think I'm going to give up on this review. Suffice is to say that for the type of movie this was, it was really good. Oh, and did I mention Matthew Fox?

Rating: 3.5

Mamma Mia! (2008, U.S.)

I didn't have very strong feelings about this film one way or the other, but there hasn't been much else to see in the theater this summer, and my ABBA-fan friend needed some serious cheering up, so I decided to take her to Mamma Mia!. I do not regret it at all.

I love musicals, of course. The '70s, on the other hand, I am not so fond of. Consequently, I've never listened to ABBA. Big mistake. All of the numbers in Mamma Mia! are catchy and fun—so fun that you might just want to run home and buy the soundtrack, like I did. The dance sequences are just absolutely ridiculous (and often hilarious), but they work really well. It's obvious that the script was written for the music rather than the music being written for the script, but it worked well that way.

Of course I have nothing but good things to say about the actors. Amanda Seyfried probably has a good career ahead of her, and she has a beautiful voice. Meryl Streep I like more and more as she gets older. Of course I love Colin Firth, and he was great. And I was so excited to see Stellan Skarsgård in a part where he wasn't a bad guy or some such (i.e. Bootstrap Bill)—actually, he was so adorable in this film I could just eat him up. Of the three "dads" in the movie, Pierce Brosnan was my least favorite. I've never been a big Brosnan fan, but he was still pretty good. I don't know about his singing though. Well, to be fair, his voice wasn't awful, but he sure does make funny faces when he sings. I think it's from trying to maintain an American accent.

So I don't know what else to say. Great music. Beautiful scenery. Fun dancing. Hilarious situational comedy. Stellar cast. Ends with a twist. Good, good stuff.

Rating: 4.0

Breakfast on Pluto (2005, Ireland)

Now these are the kinds of things I watch when my odd (but wonderful!) friends recommend films to me. We have Jeff to thank for this one.

Breakfast on Pluto is the story of Patrick "Kitten" Braden, whose mother abandons him after his birth—he is the illegitimate child of the priest in the small Irish village. He begins cross-dressing from a young age. He hangs out with other unusual kids—a bohemian girl, a boy with Down's Syndrome, and a future IRA revolutionary. He causes a lot of trouble in his Catholic school. In other words, he's just an odd duck. But he always, always stays true to who he is inside, no matter how much external forces threaten him or not take him seriously. (He continually has to tell people that he can take things seriously, but that they are too serious.)

So Kitten tells the story of how he sets out for England to find his long-lost mother, the strange things that happen to him along the way, and what he really finds in the end. It's about his character, and it's about his journey. That, combined with the interesting method of story-telling (he actually gives chapter titles and tells his own "autobiography") and the "big" themes (gender identity, cultural/Irish national identity), make this film unique. There are touching moments, funny moments, uncomfortable moments... It's just great.

And Cillian Murphy? Wonderful.

Rating: 3.5

The Bucket List (2007, U.S.)

This was one of those movies that I figured I would watch if the opportunity ever presented itself, but I wouldn't be crushed if I never saw it. This was mostly because I love Morgan Freeman and hate Jack Nicholson. Though the previews looked good, I couldn't quite get over that Jack Nicholson bit. So my mom wanted to watch this, so I watched it with her.

Well, the movie was okay. It had some slightly funny parts, some parts that were quite moving, and some Morgan Freeman. (Really, you can't say no to him.) Also Sean Hayes was in it briefly, and I love him too. But mostly, this movie could have used more of everything. More humor, more drama, more character development, more Morgan Freeman. Ha ha.

The ending was beautiful, however, and I thought it almost made up for the weakness of the rest of the movie. Overall, it was entertaining and a good little movie. Not an award-winner or anything, but good enough.

Rating: 3.0