Movie reviews
Jun. 22nd, 2014 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatFinished cleaning out closet, boxes from under my bed, and clutter sitting in bags around my bedroom. So, made a dent. And threw out a lot of stuff that I no longer need.
Goal is to tackle a different section of my apartment periodically this summer.
Also made a dent with netflix DVDs (that had been sitting on my tv stand for two weeks) and various saved TV shows on the DVR. I'm six episodes in on Orphan Black - is it wrong that I keep rooting for Helena to kill Rachel, and get annoyed whenever Sarah stops her? It's a fun show - but the cloning mystery is wee bit on the cliche side of the fence, not helped by crazy religious fanatics.
The movies, I saw:
1. August Osage County - After the father disappears, a family gathers to deal with the crisis and their own dysfunction. It is set around a funeral, and everyone in the family is screwed up. Some major talent in the cast - perhaps too much - Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Margo Martindale, Chris Cooper, Sam Shepard, Abigail Breslin, Dermot Mulroony, Juliette Lewis, (an unrecognizable) Ewan McGregor sporting an American Accent, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Julianna Nicholson.
Eh, I agree with the critics. Everyone is trying too hard (with the possible exception of Ewan McGregor, who just looks bewildered most of the time - can't say I blame him). And by the end of it - I had a headache from all the screaming, and didn't care one whit about anyone. (Except that thank god, I didn't have too see them much longer.) There is a lot of screaming and people ripping each other apart verbally in this movie. It is a verbally violent film - that is extremely difficult to watch in places, plodding in others. The director never quite manages to get me to care enough about the people on screen, so my attention wandered.
It's an example of why plays do not always work well on the big or even small screen, or the difference between material developed for a live audience and for the cinema. In cinema it is about visuals, in theater it is often about the delivery of dialogue and inter-action of characters. Also in theater, you need to exaggerate actions, dialogue, interactions - in order for the audience to feel it in their gut. A whisper can't be heard. Plays tend to be shorter, pacing is different.
This felt like a play that they were attempting, somewhat clumsily, to put on screen. With various actors playing the characters as if they were on the stage and needed to scream to the back row.
2. Enough Said
Better than August Osage County, but not as funny as I was lead to believe. I found it be cringe-inducing in places, and bittersweet verging on depressing in others. It's about a massage therapist (Eva played by Julie Louise-Dreyfuss) who manages to acquire a new client/friend (Catherine Keener) and a new boyfriend (James Gandolfini) after attending a party. Unfortunately Gandolfini (Albert) is the ex-husband of the new client/friend. Eva doesn't figure it out until the client attempts to introduce her to the daughter (Tessa) - whom she already met via the husband. Instead of being smart and announcing it then - the massage therapist pretends she doesn't know and it's not a problem until voila it explodes in her face.
There's a subplot about the daughter leaving for college soon, and the daughter's best friend (who is a dead ringer for a young Michelle Williams) attempting to adopt Eva as her mom, because her own mom is uncool and barely listens to her.
The theme is pretty much stated by the title - and reminded me a little of August, Osage County. The words and things people say to each other, increasingly critical and put-downs, over time have a derogatory effect. In both films, people deprecate each other and their relationships - not so much snarky as whiny, to the point in which they make themselves and each other miserable. Eva's relationship with Albert is sweet and tender until she allows his ex-wife's increasingly derogatory statements to poison it.
Instead of focusing on what she loves about him, she focuses on superficial things that had irritated the ex-wife and wonders if they should irritate her as well.
Both films were verbally violent and depicted how much damage can be wrought by a unknowing slip of the tongue or the critical/negative voice. In some respects, Enough Said was far more effective than August, Osage County - the characters were more likable and less dramatic. It wasn't told at quite the same fever pitch.
3. Normal Heart - saw on HBO last week. It got mixed reviews. And like August, Osage County is an adaptation of a play into a film. I think I may have liked the play better - the movie is plodding in places and overwrought in others. I lost track of it at times. In some respects, I prefer other films that I've seen on the AIDS crisis far more. This one - I felt much like August, Osage County - was trying too hard. I'm wondering if the play might have set a better tone and had less filler?
Goal is to tackle a different section of my apartment periodically this summer.
Also made a dent with netflix DVDs (that had been sitting on my tv stand for two weeks) and various saved TV shows on the DVR. I'm six episodes in on Orphan Black - is it wrong that I keep rooting for Helena to kill Rachel, and get annoyed whenever Sarah stops her? It's a fun show - but the cloning mystery is wee bit on the cliche side of the fence, not helped by crazy religious fanatics.
The movies, I saw:
1. August Osage County - After the father disappears, a family gathers to deal with the crisis and their own dysfunction. It is set around a funeral, and everyone in the family is screwed up. Some major talent in the cast - perhaps too much - Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Margo Martindale, Chris Cooper, Sam Shepard, Abigail Breslin, Dermot Mulroony, Juliette Lewis, (an unrecognizable) Ewan McGregor sporting an American Accent, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Julianna Nicholson.
Eh, I agree with the critics. Everyone is trying too hard (with the possible exception of Ewan McGregor, who just looks bewildered most of the time - can't say I blame him). And by the end of it - I had a headache from all the screaming, and didn't care one whit about anyone. (Except that thank god, I didn't have too see them much longer.) There is a lot of screaming and people ripping each other apart verbally in this movie. It is a verbally violent film - that is extremely difficult to watch in places, plodding in others. The director never quite manages to get me to care enough about the people on screen, so my attention wandered.
It's an example of why plays do not always work well on the big or even small screen, or the difference between material developed for a live audience and for the cinema. In cinema it is about visuals, in theater it is often about the delivery of dialogue and inter-action of characters. Also in theater, you need to exaggerate actions, dialogue, interactions - in order for the audience to feel it in their gut. A whisper can't be heard. Plays tend to be shorter, pacing is different.
This felt like a play that they were attempting, somewhat clumsily, to put on screen. With various actors playing the characters as if they were on the stage and needed to scream to the back row.
2. Enough Said
Better than August Osage County, but not as funny as I was lead to believe. I found it be cringe-inducing in places, and bittersweet verging on depressing in others. It's about a massage therapist (Eva played by Julie Louise-Dreyfuss) who manages to acquire a new client/friend (Catherine Keener) and a new boyfriend (James Gandolfini) after attending a party. Unfortunately Gandolfini (Albert) is the ex-husband of the new client/friend. Eva doesn't figure it out until the client attempts to introduce her to the daughter (Tessa) - whom she already met via the husband. Instead of being smart and announcing it then - the massage therapist pretends she doesn't know and it's not a problem until voila it explodes in her face.
There's a subplot about the daughter leaving for college soon, and the daughter's best friend (who is a dead ringer for a young Michelle Williams) attempting to adopt Eva as her mom, because her own mom is uncool and barely listens to her.
The theme is pretty much stated by the title - and reminded me a little of August, Osage County. The words and things people say to each other, increasingly critical and put-downs, over time have a derogatory effect. In both films, people deprecate each other and their relationships - not so much snarky as whiny, to the point in which they make themselves and each other miserable. Eva's relationship with Albert is sweet and tender until she allows his ex-wife's increasingly derogatory statements to poison it.
Instead of focusing on what she loves about him, she focuses on superficial things that had irritated the ex-wife and wonders if they should irritate her as well.
Both films were verbally violent and depicted how much damage can be wrought by a unknowing slip of the tongue or the critical/negative voice. In some respects, Enough Said was far more effective than August, Osage County - the characters were more likable and less dramatic. It wasn't told at quite the same fever pitch.
3. Normal Heart - saw on HBO last week. It got mixed reviews. And like August, Osage County is an adaptation of a play into a film. I think I may have liked the play better - the movie is plodding in places and overwrought in others. I lost track of it at times. In some respects, I prefer other films that I've seen on the AIDS crisis far more. This one - I felt much like August, Osage County - was trying too hard. I'm wondering if the play might have set a better tone and had less filler?
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Date: 2014-06-23 02:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-23 01:39 pm (UTC)Normal Heart was good in places...but just didn't quite hold my attention as well as the others did.
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Date: 2014-06-23 02:56 pm (UTC)Watched "Enough Said". It was okay. Reasonably enjoyable.
Never had any desire to watch 'Osage County.' It just LOOKS insufferable.
Watched an adaptation "Nicholas Nickelby" (I'm guessing it's several years old based on the age of Anne Hathaway in the movie). Only striking thing was the recast of a female character in the acting troupe to a male character in drag (actually that was amusing and sort of worked.) Otherwise, boy, Dickens could get away with amazing coincidences.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-23 07:58 pm (UTC)There's a new adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby? I remember the 1980s version with Roger Reese - who also played it on the stage. I loved that version and fell in love with Roger Reese. Yeah, Dickens got away with a lot of things in part because of when he wrote it and the format (it was the serial of its day).