Tag: movies

Movie reviews: 45 Years; Anomalisa

I recommended Anomalisa to a therapist friend of mine, but it surely is not for everyone.

45yearsWith the Daughter away on a ski trip, even though she doesn’t ski, it was an opportunity to see not one but TWO movies at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany, pretty much back to back: 45 Years and Anomalisa.

While they are quite different films, they have a few things in common. They were both nominated for Academy Awards, they’re both about male/female romantic relationships which involve sex scenes, and neither would be categorized as a feel-good movie.

45 Years

A couple has been married for four score and nearly five. They were going to have a big party a half-decade earlier, but Geoff Mercer (Tom Courtenay) had undergone heart bypass surgery. So they, mostly his wife Kate (Charlotte Rampling), are planning the gala when Geoff gets a letter about someone in his distant past.

At first, she takes in the news and tries to be supportive. But as he shares new revelations, and she digs for even more, she starts doubting the very foundation of their relationship.

Both lead performers in 45 Years are strong. Charlotte Rampling has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and I’m a bit surprised, because it’s a very internal role in a restrained movie.

If I was a little impatient with it – the most significant reveal comes 2/3s of the way through – it’s probably because it was based on a short story, and that at 95 minutes, it still felt too long. I wouldn’t say it was boring, but certainly, it is slow and subtle.

Still, it generated an interesting conversation with my wife about how much of one’s past one tells a new lover, and when.
ANOMALISA

Anomalisa

There were two reasons I wanted to see the stop-motion animated film Anomalisa:
1)It was put together by Charlie Kauffman, who has made films I liked, such as Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
2) It was nominated for Best Animated Film

One has to get used to both the animation style and the voice choices of Anomalisa, which eventually made sense to me. By happenstance, we ran into a friend of ours, who saw the film at the same time. She asked afterward, “I don’t know what that movie was about.”

On the surface, it tracked successful writer, Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis), in Cincinnati to talk about customer service. Yet he has a difficult time relating to other people, even those he meets who are undoubtedly using his techniques.

He looks up his old girlfriend, whose hate-filled letter from over a decade ago he still holds onto. He obligatorily calls the wife and kid back in Los Angeles.

Then he meets someone he finds extraordinary, Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), though no one else, certainly not herself, would agree with this assessment.

The couple sitting behind us walked out in the middle of the film, because Michael is not a likable guy, or maybe because of the sex scene.

I’ve subsequently have become convinced that he has a mental illness, tipped by the name of the hotel, the Fregoli. I recommended this film to a therapist friend of mine, but it surely is not for everyone. My wife disliked it intensely.

February rambling #1: the earth is not flat

Bob and Ray’s Slow Talkers.

EqualityEquity_300ppi.IISC

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s response to rapper B.o.B’s rant insisting that the Earth is flat and we’ve all been lied to.

How 37 Banks Became 4 In Just 2 Decades.

Rebecca Solnit: Men Explain LOLITA To Me. And Amy Biancolli on what women want.

White America’s ‘Broken Heart’.

Weekly Sift: Back to Ferguson.

Say — you want a revolution?“Changing presidents or even changing minds isn’t enough. A real revolution has to change a lot of people’s political identities.”

On Antonin Scalia: On The Death Of A Brilliant Public Servant and Don’t tell me not to be glad.

The Daily Show’s Jessica Williams Shuts Down Beyoncé’s Super Bowl Haters.

Voting in the USA, from overseas.

The Great Dictator Speech – Charlie Chaplin + Time – Hans Zimmer (INCEPTION Theme).

Why People Who Are Scatterbrained Are Actually More Intelligent. Well, duh.

The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy. Missing, though, is Bob and Ray’s Slow Talkers. Mr. Bob Elliott died at the age of 92; an appreciation of the duo.

Joe Alaskey, R.I.P. at age of only 63. Boy from Troy, NY made good.

Stupid Phrases for People in Crisis. Or, more politely, the unhelpful things one ought NOT to say.

In Defense of Artist Glenn Brown.

Now I Know: The Crack Tax and Unchecked Baggage and D-N-Nay.

An unfortunate incident on a Friday in the dead of winter.

Why Do Some People Say “Yuge” Instead of “Huge”?

The explanation of the chart below:
JEOPARDY.wildcard_info

Music

Coverville 1111: Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond Cover Stories.

Jaquandor: songs from the movie High Society.

Muppets: Does Dave Grohl Drum Battle Trump Animal vs. Buddy Rich? No, it does not.

Jed Clampett Rocks Out (Beverly Hillbillies Clip).

What’s the point of music? Ask Peter Gabriel.

New Ways Into the Brain’s ‘Music Room’.

NY State Senate’s Bowie resolution.

45s doohickey.

sjw
(Definition of SJW)

Google alerts (me)

That’s the Way of the World – Earth, Wind and Fire.

Today we have trolls.

[Top image per IISC.]

Movie review: Carol

The movie Carol is adapted from the Patricia Highsmith novel “The Price of Salt”,

carol-rooney-mara-cate-blanchettI hated reading the audience reviews of the movie Carol before seeing it. My wife went to see it one day before I did at The Spectrum Theatre in Albany, and she told me how this older couple at the cinema complained how s-l-o-w the film was.

Interesting that the audience reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, which often find the film too understated, are quite a bit less favorable than the critics. But we agree with the bulk of the critics, who thought this was a fine, subtle, sensitive film by director Todd Haynes.

When the situation is boy-meets-girl, there’s a broad tableau of reactions that are possible. But when it’s girl-meets-girl, in the 1950s, even in New York City, there’s a lot more at stake, with more nuanced responses required. The alluring Carol Auld (Cate Blanchett) wants to buy a present for her little girl when she meets the young sales clerk, and aspiring photographer, Therese, “not Theresa?” (Rooney Mara) at a department store.

The relationship between Carol and Therese is all quite chaste, though Carol’s friend Abby (Sarah Paulson, who I didn’t recognize right away) sees the potential for more. The relationship between the two woman is confounding to Therese’s boyfriend. Meanwhile, Carol and her estranged husband Harge (Kyle Chandler) have their own tussles, trapped in a loveless, convenient marriage.

Some have predicted an Oscar for Mara. I wonder, though, because it’s not a flashy role, but rather quite controlled, like much of the film, which is the antithesis of an action flick.

The movie is adapted from the Patricia Highsmith novel “The Price of Salt,” and I know not how close the film is aligned with the book. I do know that the film look of elegance has garnered it several Oscar nominations in the technical categories.

Movie Review: Room

I heard people sobbing for joy halfway through the movie Room.

room_movieThe Wife and I saw the movie Room more than a week ago at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany. Yet I have had a difficult time writing about it.

One reason is that the less one knows, going in, the better the story. What I will say is that the film is based on the 2010 novel by Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue, though it does not adhere entirely to the source material.

I had thought, incorrectly, the story was derived from the Cleveland captivity story that came to light in 2013. I believed that in particular because Room, the movie, takes place in Akron, and I recognized those Ohio license plates.

While I’ve seen only three of the five nominees for Best Actress, I’m willing to cede the Oscar to Brie Larson, who was excellent as Joy, kidnapped for seven years. Just as good, though, is young Jacob Tremblay as Jack. The movie falls apart if one doesn’t believe that the boy was born in captivity, living in Room that his mother tries to make as “normal” as possible.

Room has been nominated as Best Picture, and rightly so. It has understandably reviewed extremely well.

I’m glad I saw the movie in the theater. While the subject matter was tough, it never felt exploitative. I thought the way the film compared the impact of the captivity on the captives, versus how it affected Joy’s parents (Joan Allen, William H. Macy). The black woman cop, played by Amanda Brugel, was great.

I came out of the film feeling exhilarated that someone could put together two disparate sides of a coin and make it work so well. I heard people sobbing for joy halfway through the movie. The Wife, conversely, thought it was too intense for her taste, though she thought it was very well made.

My feeling is to see Room, preferably in one sitting, optimally on the big screen, for I believe watching it in pieces will alter its impact negatively.

Charlotte Rampling is 70

One of those Oscar nominees this year was Charlotte Rampling, as Best Actress in the movie 45 Years

charlotte ramplingI’ve been watching Charlotte Rampling in films for years but learned more about her this past month than ever before.

She was featured in an interview on CBS Sunday Morning in January 2016. I had always assumed she was French, because she has lived for most of her adult life, and she’s known as “La Legende.”But she, in fact, an English actress.

Charlotte Rampling had a sister who had committed suicide, someone she was very close to; they even were in a singing group together. She and her father conspired to keep the method of her sister’s death from her mother, which led to Rampling’s nervous breakdown, a depressed state for nearly a decade. But now she’s back, and better.

When asked about the controversy about the fact that, for the second year in a row, there were NO performers of color in the four acting categories in the Academy Awards, Rampling called that criticism “racist to whites” in comments on France’s Radio 1. She later clarified, “I regret that my comments could have been misinterpreted. I simply meant to say that in an ideal world every performance will be given equal opportunities for consideration.” That is something that, in a perfect world, one would not argue.

One of those Oscar nominees this year was Rampling, as Best Actress in the movie 45 Years, which is about a “marriage suddenly destabilized as the couple approach a landmark anniversary.” It is on the list I’d like to see, as it’s scheduled to play at The Spectrum Theatre in Albany.

What HAVE I seen of her films?
Swimming Pool (2003)
The Verdict (1982)
Stardust Memories (1980)

Seriously? That’s it? I would have guessed that there would have been more.

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