(2009-US) d Joshua Goldin
Stars Matthew Boderic (Ben Sinder), Sanaa Lathan (Khadi), Michael K. Williams (Ibou), Jodelle Ferland (Sandra), Philip Baker Hall (The Man), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Cyril)
A bittersweet comedy about families, friends and a frivolous fight against corporate institutions, Matthew Broderick plays Ben Singer, a failed children's folk singer, a newly unemployed proofreader and an every-other-weekend dad to his young daughter, who prefers pretty much anything to listening to her dad's pessimistic ramblings.
Struggling in all aspects of his life, Ben's only comforts come from smoking marijuana alone and regular chess games with his smart and opinionated Senegalese roommate Ibou. When Ibou is suddenly struck ill and an insensitive municipal employee exacerbates the emergency situation, Ben pours his energy into a lawsuit against the city for depraved indifference. Ben’s life begins to turn around with the arrival of Ibou’s beautiful and sexy sister Khadi from Senegal, who moves into Ibou’s room in Ben’s apartment. As Ben suspects that it is his own cynicism corroding the beauty around him, he realizes that it’s all a matter of perspective.
I found this to be a Very odd movie. Ben was extremely negative and pessimistic. Nothing ever went right for him in his life. It had a nice ending where he ended up going back to his roots where he was happiest, singing children's songs (although he gives up on the love interest with Khadi). Although it was good, it wasn't great!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
2009/11/22 Cloud 9 (Wolke Neun) (R) (0/5) (Talk Cinema)
(2008-Germany) d Andreas Dresen (German with sub-titles)
Stars Ursula Werner (Inge), Horst Rehberg (Werner), Horst Westphal (Karl), Steffi Kuhnert (Petra)
This is a whistling-past-the-graveyard tale of two elderly Berliners taking a last chance at love.
This movie concerns Inge (Ursula Werner), a 67-year-old seamstress with soft features and a round, pillowy body. We see quite a lot of that body almost immediately — even before the film’s opening credits — when Inge delivers a pair of pants to Karl (Horst Westphal), a cheery customer almost 10 years her senior. Within seconds, Karl has approved the alterations, removed the pants and most of Inge’s clothing besides.
What follows is sex without benefit of shadows or filters or mood-enhancing music. Bathed in harsh, unforgiving daylight, Karl and Inge go at it with wordless urgency and visible joy, their eagerness tempered by neither flirting nor coyness. Facing the cinematic taboo of twilight-years nudity head-on and upfront, Mr. Dresen and his actors create an atmosphere of reckless vulnerability that’s immediately compelling and artistically intriguing. We want to explore this relationship further. So does Karl, but there’s the not-so-small problem of Werner (Horst Rehberg), Inge’s husband of 30 years. Lanky and gentle, and with an air of desiccated serenity, Werner thinks a fun night in is listening to vinyl recordings of steam engines. (He can name every model.) His love of locomotives, however, is no barrier to the couple’s fond intimacy and contented sex life; so when Karl comes calling, Inge fights the attraction even though she knows — as the audience does — that an adulterous montage of picnics
and skinny-dipping is probably only a scene or two away.
Filmed without gloss or glamour, using insistent close-ups and precisely calibrated framing, “Cloud 9” augments its modest narrative with unguarded performances and visual lucidity. Maneuvering around Inge and Werner’s cramped apartment, Michael Hammon’s camera patiently observes the quotidian rhythms of the long-married. Only in the throes of the affair, as the lovers cycle along bucolic lanes and run, giggling, through a rain shower, does the film lighten and expand; it’s as though we’re seeing color through Inge’s eyes and breathing air through her lungs.
Though shaded with hints of death and aging (Werner’s father is in a long-term-care facility), “Cloud 9” never becomes morbid. “Just enjoy it,” Inge’s married daughter (Steffi Kühnert) counsels when her mother confesses the affair. Even the ladies in the choir to which Inge belongs seem to notice and approve her new, coquettish glow. But the film is most perceptive when telegraphing the subtle transformations of Inge’s marriage, relying on Mr. Rehberg’s marvelously contained acting to deflect melodrama. Their union feels real in a way that’s all too rare in modern movies.
All the more disappointing, then, when what has been a celebration of last-ditch passion slides abruptly into a cautionary tale. Until that point the movie’s refreshingly unbiased tone allows us to make our own moral judgments, teasing us with the possibility that, occasionally, the scarlet woman can escape unbranded. I, for one, was rooting for her.
The film ends on a stark note where her husband ends up committing suicide, after he learns of the affair.
Overall, I did not like this movie... I think there was too much sex and not enough plot.
Stars Ursula Werner (Inge), Horst Rehberg (Werner), Horst Westphal (Karl), Steffi Kuhnert (Petra)
This is a whistling-past-the-graveyard tale of two elderly Berliners taking a last chance at love.
This movie concerns Inge (Ursula Werner), a 67-year-old seamstress with soft features and a round, pillowy body. We see quite a lot of that body almost immediately — even before the film’s opening credits — when Inge delivers a pair of pants to Karl (Horst Westphal), a cheery customer almost 10 years her senior. Within seconds, Karl has approved the alterations, removed the pants and most of Inge’s clothing besides.
What follows is sex without benefit of shadows or filters or mood-enhancing music. Bathed in harsh, unforgiving daylight, Karl and Inge go at it with wordless urgency and visible joy, their eagerness tempered by neither flirting nor coyness. Facing the cinematic taboo of twilight-years nudity head-on and upfront, Mr. Dresen and his actors create an atmosphere of reckless vulnerability that’s immediately compelling and artistically intriguing. We want to explore this relationship further. So does Karl, but there’s the not-so-small problem of Werner (Horst Rehberg), Inge’s husband of 30 years. Lanky and gentle, and with an air of desiccated serenity, Werner thinks a fun night in is listening to vinyl recordings of steam engines. (He can name every model.) His love of locomotives, however, is no barrier to the couple’s fond intimacy and contented sex life; so when Karl comes calling, Inge fights the attraction even though she knows — as the audience does — that an adulterous montage of picnics
and skinny-dipping is probably only a scene or two away.
Filmed without gloss or glamour, using insistent close-ups and precisely calibrated framing, “Cloud 9” augments its modest narrative with unguarded performances and visual lucidity. Maneuvering around Inge and Werner’s cramped apartment, Michael Hammon’s camera patiently observes the quotidian rhythms of the long-married. Only in the throes of the affair, as the lovers cycle along bucolic lanes and run, giggling, through a rain shower, does the film lighten and expand; it’s as though we’re seeing color through Inge’s eyes and breathing air through her lungs.
Though shaded with hints of death and aging (Werner’s father is in a long-term-care facility), “Cloud 9” never becomes morbid. “Just enjoy it,” Inge’s married daughter (Steffi Kühnert) counsels when her mother confesses the affair. Even the ladies in the choir to which Inge belongs seem to notice and approve her new, coquettish glow. But the film is most perceptive when telegraphing the subtle transformations of Inge’s marriage, relying on Mr. Rehberg’s marvelously contained acting to deflect melodrama. Their union feels real in a way that’s all too rare in modern movies.
All the more disappointing, then, when what has been a celebration of last-ditch passion slides abruptly into a cautionary tale. Until that point the movie’s refreshingly unbiased tone allows us to make our own moral judgments, teasing us with the possibility that, occasionally, the scarlet woman can escape unbranded. I, for one, was rooting for her.
The film ends on a stark note where her husband ends up committing suicide, after he learns of the affair.
Overall, I did not like this movie... I think there was too much sex and not enough plot.
2009/11/08 Serious Moonlight (R) (0/5) (Talk Cinema)
(2009-US) d Cheryl Hines (Comedy)
Stars Meg Ryan (Louise), Timothy Hutton (Ian), Kristen Bell (Sara), Justin Long (Todd), Cop (Andy Ostroy)
After she arrives at her country home for a romantic weekend getaway, things don't go exactly as planned for high-powered Manhattan lawyer Louise (Meg Ryan): Her husband of 13 years, Ian (Timothy Hutton), tells her he's leaving her for a younger woman (Kristen Bell). Soon Ian finds himself held captive by an oddly cool Louise, who explains that she won't release him until he commits to working on their marriage. And that's when things really start to go wrong. The unexpected arrival of an opportunistic young gardener (Justin Long) and Ian's impatient mistress only serve to complicate the crisis even further, while somehow forcing Louise and Ian to reckon with their past and realistically deal with their future.
There is a lot of "duct tape" in this movie!!! Ian gets tied to a chair, escapes, gets hit over the head with something at the door, and then he gets "duct taped" to the toilet seat. A majorit of this movie takes place in the bathroom!
Overall this film is very unbelievable. Meg Ryan plays a psychotic wife who does everything within her power to not let her husband leave. At the end there is a bit of a twist where the couple walks through the town and she winks knowingly to the young gardener making you wonder if she planned the whole thing, including the robbery, and it got out-of-hand from what she had initially signed up for. Although that was an interesting twist at the end, not everyone got it (until discussed afterwards).
I would not waste my money seeing this one (again!) Perhaps if, instead of Meg Ryan it was the actress that ties some guy to a bed (forget the name of that movie) - I may have liked it better. Meg Ryan usually does not play a psychotic person in movies, and it ruins my image of her as a kind, gentle soul.
Stars Meg Ryan (Louise), Timothy Hutton (Ian), Kristen Bell (Sara), Justin Long (Todd), Cop (Andy Ostroy)
After she arrives at her country home for a romantic weekend getaway, things don't go exactly as planned for high-powered Manhattan lawyer Louise (Meg Ryan): Her husband of 13 years, Ian (Timothy Hutton), tells her he's leaving her for a younger woman (Kristen Bell). Soon Ian finds himself held captive by an oddly cool Louise, who explains that she won't release him until he commits to working on their marriage. And that's when things really start to go wrong. The unexpected arrival of an opportunistic young gardener (Justin Long) and Ian's impatient mistress only serve to complicate the crisis even further, while somehow forcing Louise and Ian to reckon with their past and realistically deal with their future.
There is a lot of "duct tape" in this movie!!! Ian gets tied to a chair, escapes, gets hit over the head with something at the door, and then he gets "duct taped" to the toilet seat. A majorit of this movie takes place in the bathroom!
Overall this film is very unbelievable. Meg Ryan plays a psychotic wife who does everything within her power to not let her husband leave. At the end there is a bit of a twist where the couple walks through the town and she winks knowingly to the young gardener making you wonder if she planned the whole thing, including the robbery, and it got out-of-hand from what she had initially signed up for. Although that was an interesting twist at the end, not everyone got it (until discussed afterwards).
I would not waste my money seeing this one (again!) Perhaps if, instead of Meg Ryan it was the actress that ties some guy to a bed (forget the name of that movie) - I may have liked it better. Meg Ryan usually does not play a psychotic person in movies, and it ruins my image of her as a kind, gentle soul.
2009/10/18 North Face (Nordwand) (PG-13) (* * * * */5) (Talk Cinema)
(2008-Germany) d Philip Stolzl (German with subtitles) (Action/Adventure, Drama)
Stars Benno Furmann (Toni Kurz), Johanna Wokalek (Luise Fellner), Florian Lukas (Andi Hinterstoisser), Simon Schwartz (Willy Angerer), George Friedrich (Edi Rainer), Ulrich Tukur (Henry Arau)
Set in the summer of 1936, this is a true story of mountain climbers that want to achieve what no one has done before them and that was to climb up the North Face of the Eiger on the border of Germany and Switzerland. There is a competition between 3 or 4 teams to see who can reach the summit first from this side.
A journalist from a newspaper comes from the same town as 2 climbers that attempt the feat, and she is there to report on the outcome. They never made it, nor the other 2 climbers that went with them up the North Face.
This film had me sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time. Never a dull moment. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Stars Benno Furmann (Toni Kurz), Johanna Wokalek (Luise Fellner), Florian Lukas (Andi Hinterstoisser), Simon Schwartz (Willy Angerer), George Friedrich (Edi Rainer), Ulrich Tukur (Henry Arau)
Set in the summer of 1936, this is a true story of mountain climbers that want to achieve what no one has done before them and that was to climb up the North Face of the Eiger on the border of Germany and Switzerland. There is a competition between 3 or 4 teams to see who can reach the summit first from this side.
A journalist from a newspaper comes from the same town as 2 climbers that attempt the feat, and she is there to report on the outcome. They never made it, nor the other 2 climbers that went with them up the North Face.
This film had me sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time. Never a dull moment. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
2009/10/04 An Education (PG-13) (* * * * */5) (Talk Cinema)
(2009-UK) d Lone Scherfig
Stars Peter Sarsgaard (David), Carey Mulligan (Jenny), Alfred Molina (Jack), Dominic Cooper (Danny), Rosamund Pike (Helen), Olivia Williams (Miss Stubbs), Emma Thompson (Headmistress), Cara Seymour (Marjorie), Sally Hawkins (Sara), Matthew Beard (Graham) (Drama)
Set in the 1960s in England. Coming-age-story. Attractive, bright, 16-year-old Jenny is stifled by the tedium of adolescent routine; she can’t wait for adult life to begin.
One rainy day her suburban existence is upended by the arrival of a much older suitor, David. Urbane and witty, David instantly charms Jenny and introduces her to a glittering new world of classical concerts, art auctions, smoky bars, and late-night suppers with his attractive friends. He replaces Jenny’s traditional education with his own more-dangerous version. Just as the family’s long-held dream of getting their brilliant daughter into Oxford has seemed within reach, Jenny is tempted by another kind of life. Will David be the making of Jenny, or her undoing?
Every so often a performance comes along that is so captivating that it becomes an instant classic. Carey Mulligan's enchanting performance as Jenny is one of them. Channeling the spirit of a young Holly Golightly, she makes Jenny's character blossom on screen from a girl into a woman, and transforms herself from an actor into a star.
I really enjoyed this film and had gone to see it with my mom. The ending was a bit of a twist. Turns out her suitor is married so she obviously doesn't get the fairy tale life! She then has to work hard to catch up with school, and does manage to go off to college to study. It seems she attempts to forget her affair with the older man, and her trip to Paris with him - when she looks forward to going with someone a lot more her age.
Overall, I thought this movie was very good, and Carey Mulligan was amazing. I still don't understand how naieve her parents really were, and how gullible to this man's affections.
Stars Peter Sarsgaard (David), Carey Mulligan (Jenny), Alfred Molina (Jack), Dominic Cooper (Danny), Rosamund Pike (Helen), Olivia Williams (Miss Stubbs), Emma Thompson (Headmistress), Cara Seymour (Marjorie), Sally Hawkins (Sara), Matthew Beard (Graham) (Drama)
Set in the 1960s in England. Coming-age-story. Attractive, bright, 16-year-old Jenny is stifled by the tedium of adolescent routine; she can’t wait for adult life to begin.
One rainy day her suburban existence is upended by the arrival of a much older suitor, David. Urbane and witty, David instantly charms Jenny and introduces her to a glittering new world of classical concerts, art auctions, smoky bars, and late-night suppers with his attractive friends. He replaces Jenny’s traditional education with his own more-dangerous version. Just as the family’s long-held dream of getting their brilliant daughter into Oxford has seemed within reach, Jenny is tempted by another kind of life. Will David be the making of Jenny, or her undoing?
Every so often a performance comes along that is so captivating that it becomes an instant classic. Carey Mulligan's enchanting performance as Jenny is one of them. Channeling the spirit of a young Holly Golightly, she makes Jenny's character blossom on screen from a girl into a woman, and transforms herself from an actor into a star.
I really enjoyed this film and had gone to see it with my mom. The ending was a bit of a twist. Turns out her suitor is married so she obviously doesn't get the fairy tale life! She then has to work hard to catch up with school, and does manage to go off to college to study. It seems she attempts to forget her affair with the older man, and her trip to Paris with him - when she looks forward to going with someone a lot more her age.
Overall, I thought this movie was very good, and Carey Mulligan was amazing. I still don't understand how naieve her parents really were, and how gullible to this man's affections.
2009/09/13 Bright Star (PG) (* * */5) (Talk Cinema)
(2009-US) d Jane Campion
Stars Abby Cornish (Fanny Brawne), Ben Whishaw (John Keats), Paul Schneider (Mr. Brown), Kerry Fox (Mrs. Brawne), Eddie Martin (Toots) (Drama/Romance)
The drama based on the three-year romance between 19th century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats' untimely death at age 25.
Was a period film similar to novels by Jane Austen. Lead actor is a poet and his accent and words are sometimes hard to follow. Was a love story between a girl coming of age and a poet.
Stars Abby Cornish (Fanny Brawne), Ben Whishaw (John Keats), Paul Schneider (Mr. Brown), Kerry Fox (Mrs. Brawne), Eddie Martin (Toots) (Drama/Romance)
The drama based on the three-year romance between 19th century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats' untimely death at age 25.
Was a period film similar to novels by Jane Austen. Lead actor is a poet and his accent and words are sometimes hard to follow. Was a love story between a girl coming of age and a poet.
2009/12/26 Nine (NR) (* /5)
(2009-USA) - d. Rob Marshall
Stars Daniel Day Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Penelope Cruz and Sophia Loren.
Musical about the dramatic relationships of a famous film director. A has been.
He attempts to direct another film in which he has not yet developed any plot. All he has is ideas in his head about the various people that are a part of his life. The cast made me think that this would be a really good movie but it was a bit of a disappointment.
Stars Daniel Day Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Penelope Cruz and Sophia Loren.
Musical about the dramatic relationships of a famous film director. A has been.
He attempts to direct another film in which he has not yet developed any plot. All he has is ideas in his head about the various people that are a part of his life. The cast made me think that this would be a really good movie but it was a bit of a disappointment.
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