Category Archives: Movies

The Descendants

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3 stars (maybe 3.25 stars?)

(released 2011)

George Clooney stars as a man dealing with the imminent death of his wife, trying to reconnect with his two young daughters and make peace with the the shortcomings of his marriage.

Featuring a thoughtful script which slowly reveals the true (and somewhat surprising) natures of each of the main characters, the film starts off with a refreshingly unsentimental depiction of a family dealing with loss, but by the end, earns its emotional final scene.

I think this film deserves to be called “inspired” (which would earn it 3.5 stars) but on the other hand, I don’t think it’s amazing or inventive enough that I would want to re-watch it (which means it only rates 3 stars).  Maybe I will have to start using an intermediate 3.25 star rating after all.

WOLF CHILDREN

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3 stars (out of 4)

Released 2012

A single mother with limited financial and social resources struggles to care for her family.  All the while, she has to protect the family secret, that her two young children are part-wolf.  Early in the film, we see her facing the challenge of finding a suitable environment to raise her son and daughter in.

As they grow older, the kids must come to terms with their unusual situation and find their paths in life.  And their mother finds herself torn between wanting to protect them and allowing them to make their own decisions, their own mistakes.

Despite the element of fantasy, WOLF CHILDREN tells a realistic story that any family can relate to.  The animation is excellent, as expected.  One highlight for me:  the kids were actually really adorable, especially Yuki.  She was rambunctious, and she had a loud and cute voice to match.


ARGO

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3.25 stars (out of 4)  Quality-wise, I think it’s considerably better than a standard 3 rating, but it’s not the sort of film that I’d feel inclined to watch again, so it doesn’t quite make a 3.5.

Released 2012

  • Based on the true story of the covert (and unconventional) operation to rescue six American embassy personnel during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1980.  “ARGO” was the title of the fictional movie production that was used as the cover, and now, it’s the name of the real Hollywood movie documenting that mission.
  • Immersive and thrilling.  Was on the edge of my seat despite already having a general idea of the eventual outcome.
  • Feel-good message of Canadian-American diplomatic cooperation.

 

Add:  I just watched this film and entirely agree with you! – Bini

LOOPER

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3 stars (out of 4)

Released 2012

Joe works as a looper, that is, a hitman for the future mafia.  They send their hits back in time to be offed so the bodies will never be found.  Eventually, Joe has to take out his future self (to complete the loop).

Looper is an enjoyable time-travel action-adventure film.  It doesn’t stand up to any kind of logical scrutiny, but that’s a given for any time-travel story.  Taken as a fun ride, it’s just fine.

I’ll just comment that the one scene where the main character’s girlfriend is topless adds nothing to the movie.  Worse, it’s awkward and not even sexy.  That’s just bad fanservice.  The poor actress had to take her clothes off for nothing!  In contrast, the love scene later in the film manages to be more sexy, even though the characters remain fully clothed.

Friends with Kids

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2.5 stars (out of 4)

Released 2011

After seeing how having children has strained the marriages of their friends, platonic friends Julie and Jason decide to have a baby together first and then continue looking for their respective future spouses after.

The first half of the movie was quite amusing with witty banter between the likable leads, but the second half degenerated into predictable rom-com territory.

Happy-Go-Lucky

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2.5 stars (out of 4)

Released 2008

Essentially a character study of a cheerful, single, British schoolteacher as she encounters various situations/characters which test her mettle.  Not a whole lot happens in this movie, but the main character does have an interesting and unique take on life.  Directed by Mike Leigh.

Easy A

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3.5 stars (out of 4)

Released 2010

I actually watched this movie about a year ago, but recently re-watched it and thought I would post a rating on it since my recent reviews have been so uniformly negative.

Emma Stone is winning and full of personality in this perfect vehicle for her talents.  Excellent, witty script where even the minor characters (her parents, her best friend) are interesting.

Carnage

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2 stars (out of 4)

Released 2011

I knew I wouldn’t like this movie, based on a scathing review I read when it was first released, but, hey, it was on Netflix, and I was curious to see how bad it could be, given its all-star cast (Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly) and director (Roman Polanski).

Well, I finished watching it, but only just barely – I thought about turning it off several times mid-movie.  The story was adapted from a play and is about two couples whose meeting over a fight between their sons quickly descends from stilted courtesy to yelling and hysterics.  The whole thing unfolds in the living room of one of the couples, mainly because at every reasonable opportunity to end the increasingly useless meeting, the characters decide to keep talking.  I might have forgiven that narrative device, if the dialogue had felt more real and if there were more interesting revelations about the characters.

Martha Marcy May Marlene

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Poster of Martha Marcy May Marlene

2.5 stars (out of 4)

Released 2011

This is an independent film which made a splash at the Sundance Festival and won accolades for its star, Elizabeth Olsen (sister of the famous twins).

A young woman, Martha (Olsen), escapes from a cult and is taken in by her estranged older sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson).  As Lucy tries to understand the strange behaviour and haunted manner of her uncommunicative sister, the story is told in flashbacks to Martha’s time with the cult, cutting back to her awkward adjustment to Lucy’s upper-middle-class lifestyle.

I thought the film did a good job of first showing some unsavory aspects of the cult (living in poverty, women being totally subservient to the men) and then showing why it might have appealed to a lost soul like Martha.  Elizabeth Olsen is a very natural actor, but I wasn’t blown away, since haunted/crazy isn’t generally that hard to do.

This movie was building up to a 3-star rating, until it suddenly ended without any kind of resolution.  When stories end like that, it always makes me suspect that the writer could not figure out a good ending and so decided to leave it up to the audience to figure one out for themselves.  There are rare instances when the story is actually better served by an ambiguous ending, but most of the time (as in this one) it just feels like laziness.

Young Adult

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2 stars (out of 4)

Released 2011

Charlize Theron stars as Mavis, a former high school mean-girl who goes back to her hometown with the misguided plan to “free” her high-school flame from his current wife and baby.

The film presents Mavis as the ultimate loser in her adult life – ashamed of her job as a ghost-writer, divorced, lacking real friends, slovenly, emotionally immature, and yet still wanting everyone to be envious of her.  It also sets her up as an object of ridicule, instead of trying to explain or explore why she turned out this way.  Even her parents are presented as nice people who are taken aback and saddened by her bad behaviour.

The whole film felt like rather gratuitous wish-fulfillment made for (and by?) people wanting revenge on their high school tormentors.