Inside Llewyn Davis is an enjoyable movie—dare I say, an easy movie. After the other movies I’ve seen this season, it was a nice change. Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t a pretty movie or a happy movie. But it’s basic. It’s also basic done very well. It doesn’t have a grand statement on life;…
Big. Loud. Fast. Vulgar. Cheap. Depressing. Flashy. Pathetic. Ambitious. Empty. Yes. I saw The Wolf of Wall Street. And yes, it was all that and more. Late last summer when I was looking for new books to read, I decided to check out those due out soon as movies. Wolf was one such book. But…
The summer was full of “coming of age” movies, telling the tales of those turning the page from the teens toward adulthood. But Frances Ha finds the real time of coming of age to adulthood—those years in the late 20s when’s so many truly figure out how to settle into the person they’ve become. The…
Having loved the book, I was intrigued to see how the movie would tell Liesel’s story. As with most adaptations, pieces were left out, blended, added, discounted, and hidden. But my experience reading the book was so recent, I was easily able to fill in many of the gaps (e.g., I giggled when Mama first…
This movie entertains. And that, surely, is its aim. After all, enough seems “off” with the science to me (even if it is awfully pretty) that it cannot have intended to educate. But this is not a documentary. It is a drama. And yes, it entertains as a good drama should. I often felt myself…
What an interesting book written by a gifted writer! I told a friend that I was reading Bonk, a book about the science of the study of sex. She, an academic, heard in my description that I was reading a book about gender or relationships or some such. Me, too much of a literalist, explained…
I didn’t like Sutter, the character who is the male lead in The Spectacular Now. But I got him. I didn’t want Aimee, the female lead, to like him as much as she did. But I understood her doing so. And the path he takes her on is anything but spectacular in the positive way.…
If I Stay brings a deep, poignant look at a life on the edge—the edge of living and the edge of ending. Although written to cover just a day or so in Mia’s life, most of the story involves Mia thinking back on her past, brief as it is for this girl, just a high…
What started many of these Summer 2013 coming of age movies? It was Mud, which opened early this past summer. I got around to watching it only this past week. When I think of Matthew McConaughey, I tend to think Rom-Com. But in retrospect, I suppose that’s not completely fair. He was in The Paperboy,…
The World’s End, to me, wraps up a summer of Apocalyptic-themed and “coming-of-age” movies quite nicely by blending the two genres. You’re probably saying, “But isn’t The World’s End about a lot of middle-aged men? How can this be coming-of-age?” I reply, “Who said everyone comes of age in their late teens? Sometimes it takes…
It seems that so many people have strong feelings about Woody Allen. I do not—in either direction. Even without any bias, I was intrigued with his latest film, Blue Jasmine. And I’m glad I saw it. Like so many of my other movies this summer, this was on my radar based on it being “on…
Moving. That’s the best word to describe my perspective of The Butler. (Lest it be confused with anyone else’s The Butler, I’ll call it Lee Daniels’s The Butler at least this once. There. Done. (Alas, Lee Daniels is only one person and not multiple people named Lee Daniel, so I will not call it Lee…
Too many big comedies with trailers shown for months before the movie’s release reveal too many, if not all, of the truly laugh-out-loud moments. And yet sometimes, something looks funny enough—with enough talent—that I’m willing to take that risk. My gamble paid off as, thankfully, We’re the Millers does not fall into that camp. Although…
Blackfish did not go as far as I expected it to go in one aspect. But for that, it went just far enough. And having seen the preview at least four times, I had a feeling what I was in for; what I left with was more than I expected. Blackfish tells the tale of…
Stories We Tell made me look within—and around—at indeed, the stories we write and craft to explain our lives. As Sarah Polley explores her family and its secrets in this documentary she directs, so too, surely, does the audience. How would your family explain the story of your life? How would you and your siblings…