A whole bunch of stuff

Okay, I've been under a rock the last few months. Here's some quick hits.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Really good, see it.

Gone Girl

Actually saw it twice. I'm still not sure it really makes any sense, but reasonably compelling.

Whiplash

Entertaining and surprisingly funny, and most importantly sticks to its vision, even going as far as sort of taking the side of the main protagonist. It also makes the two leads realistically unlikable and reinforces the idea that obsessed people aren't that pleasant to be around in real life.

My only quibble with the drumming is that it waaaayyy overused someon eplaying so much their hands bled.

Hunger games Mackingjay Part 1
I actually think this book gets a  bad rap. Still not worth making into two films but moves pretty well for what it is.

Interstellar

Really strong opening hour or so that's almost undone by a ridiculous ending and completely unnecessary plot twist involving a cameo. Still ambitious and well worth seeing.

Boyhood/Lucy

The fact that this film exists is pretty remarkable. It doesn't quite live up to the hype but the fact that its essentially plotless and doesn't feel like a drag at almost three hours is quite an accomplishment. The biggest problem is that the actors who play the main character (and his sister) don't grow into their acting ability at the same rate as their physical growth. They're not horrible, but the relative lack of ability becomes more glaring as time passes (particularly as the film casts new friends that are older and better actors). That said I was never bored and left generally impressed.

Lucy, on the other hand, is a completely ludicrous sugar rush that actually sort of works. It's basically Scarlett Johannsen playing a mix of Bradley Cooper's character from limitless, her character from Her (there's a weird sentence), and Leon from the Professional. Director Luc Besson is smart enough to not take the premise that seriously and keeps the whole thing moving at a tight 88 minutes. Look, if you think about the plot at all it doesn't make any sense, but I really appreciate how they acknowledge this fact, ignore it, and keep things moving enough so you don't get many chances to reflect. It's not art, but I admire the economy and self-awareness. I'd be much more likely to watch it again than most of the bloated action films that typically come out in the summer.

Snowpiercer/22 Jump Street

Snowpiercer is a film that has gotten almost universally positive reviews (here's an example) but pretty much fails on every level for me. It's also tremendously odd and constantly veers between trying to be a super-intense action film and a cartoony satire. While there are elements that almost work (particularly on the satire side), the constant whipping back and forth in tone ended up ruining the whole thing. The 'serious' dialog is cringingly bad, and the acting is all over place - particularly in the more 'emotional' and 'intense' scenes. Given how farcical some of the satire is I almost suspected this might have been some big meta-commentary as well, but the last scene indicates that the filmmaker's intent was all too serious.

Obviously I'm in the minority here, but the whole thing is just a fiasco. Cabin in the woods did the mix of action and satire much more effectively. All that said, it is a really weird film, and its sort of amazing that it even got made. As a result I can't completely dismiss it but I can't see ever watching it again. (Though if you see it don't even start thinking about the plot, no part of it really makes sense).

22 Jump Street on the other hand is pretty much what I expected. Overly long, not all the jokes hit, but it works way better than it has any right to. The chemistry between Hill and Tatum is still fun, and the film definitely does not take itself too seriously. I don't need to see any more installments (and thankfully the film seems to agree), but the filmmakers deserve a lot of credit for getting two pretty entertaining films out of a really thin premise.

The Immigrant

Saw this before taking off for a couple weeks (world cup yo) so my impressions are a little foggy. This review calling it the greatest american film in years piqued my interest (especially because the AV club usually hates everything), but ultimately The Immigrant is probably going to end up being a film I respect but will probably never watch again. It looks great, and is impressively committed to sticking to its world, but I did feel that the 'metaphor' sign was flashing a little too brightly by the end (if the acting wasn't so solid it would have tipped into melodrama at around the midway point). Still, its a solidly made, ambitious film that is worth checking out. It may not redefine american cinema, but at least it makes the effort to be interesting.

X-Men: Days of future past

I'm going to be lazy and just link to another review that I think does a nice job covering the big issues in this film. I don't have a lot more to say so I'll continue my trend of laziness and just do bulletpoints.

1) The film is essentially the 2009 Star Trek, using time travel to completely wipe away everything that happened before. It was entertaining enough, but you can't help that feel the whole thing is a little pointless. I'm not sure if I prefer this approach, or the Spider Man tactic of just recasting and starting over (since I haven't watched either of the new Spidey films I guess its this one), but it does get a little tiresome.

2) Whatever enjoyment I get from the X-men films is the exact opposite of what I get from the Marvel Universe. In the Marvel films I really like the main characters, but usually find the plot and action sequences to be a bit tedious. In X-men I don't find the characters to be that interesting on their own (maybe because the films try to hard to make them walking metaphors) so my enjoyment has to come from the plot. Here I'd say it was about 70% successful. Good enough, but not anything I'm going to revisit anytime soon.

3) Most of the auditorium clapped at the end of my screening. I will never understand this.

Godzilla

Script - Meh
Acting - Underwhelming
Monsters - Good

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Oh you wanted more? Event though the answer is no, here's three more sentences.

1) The movie is watchable because it really delivers on the giant reptiles hitting each other.

2) Also there's some nice moments of humor with the news coverage.

3) Everybody's using this as an opportunity to rip on Pacific Rim, which I do't think is completely fair, its not like this was great art or anything either.

Fin

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Its getting to the point where I can pretty much write the same review for 90% of these Marvel films. Basically I, for the most part, enjoy the viewing experience but most of them have the same two big issues.

1) Ever since The Avengers, whenever one of the stand alone characters has to deal with a major crisis you immediately wonder why they don't at least place a phone call to some of their super cohort. Iron Man III sort of got around this by barely acknowledging the wider universe, but since Captain America's conflict deals directly with the potential dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D. it makes no sense that the other avengers wouldn't at least send an inquisitive text. I guarantee Hawkeye didn't have anything else going on.

2) My favorite part of the film is still just hanging out with the characters as they bounce off of one another and just go about their business. The big action set pieces, especially the end, just distract from this aspect (not to mention make me acutely aware of point #1), and end up being a little boring. I'd almost prefer it if the budget were cut and they made the conflicts a little more individualized. It'll never happen, but it would be nice. I guess what I'd really like is for Joss Whedon to make a TV show, with the Game of Thrones budget, to explore the world more deeply (this is part of the reason I'm so annoyed that agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't better).

Still, the fact that Marvel's achieved that hard part and made me enjoy being around the characters more that the action can't be sniffed at. I just hope that some of the future entries move beyond the current format and try something new (even if that means scaling down a bit).

The Grand Budapest Hotel

I'm all in on Wes Anderson so of course I enjoyed the film. Still, I'd probably enjoyed it the least of his recent offerings. Basically it works best as a screwball comedy, but whenever it tries to get serious the pacing really falters, and the stab at the profundity at the end really falls flat and feels tacked on. Its not that I don't think Anderson can effectively mix comedy and emotion (that was a poorly constructed sentence) - I just don't think he succeeds here.

Still, its worth seeing and I'm sure I'll watch it multiple times in the future.

Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars is probably the most flawed T.V. show that I watched regularly (at least on DVD).* The compelling well-drawn central character and witty writing was often offset by supporting acting that ranged from sub-par (piz) to laughably bad (Duncan). Still, the central relationships between Veronica and her father (as well as some great side characters - Dick and Vinnie to name a few) meant that more often than not I really enjoyed the show. The movie, for better or worse, embodies both of these qualities. First the good. It was a lot of fun seeing (most) of the characters again, and the dialogue and relationships settled right into the rhythms that made the show much fun. There are too many in jokes for a non-fan to understand** but anyone who enjoyed the show should have a lot of fun with it.

That said, there are two main problems with the film. The first rolls over from the show, the second is new. The old one is that for some reason creator Rob Thomas thinks that Veronica's romantic life is inherently interesting. The problem is that every one of her major romantic interests (including the two in the film) are decidedly less than compelling screen presences (to put it mildly). As a result its difficult to care much about the relationships.

Second, they've really heightened the villainy to almost cartoony levels. The original show was never a bastion of reality, but it never had anything as blatant as the upper class using the police department to run roughshod over any semblance of rights for anyone else. I get that they want to go big for a film, but still it was jarring.

So there you go. Just like the source material, the film is really flawed but I still enjoyed it. Put that on the poster.

*Fr those of you who will throw One Tree Hill in my face, I can only say - How Dare You
**Seriously someone who hasn't seen the show is going to have no idea of what's going on

The Lego Movie

The film has been universally praised and I can't really deviate from that. Its really clever, has good voice work (will arnett as batman in particular) and actually doesn't come off as overly commercial. Buuuuut, there is still something disconcerting about a well made film that at its core is still a 90 minute advertisement for a toy company. Its not that I think this sort of movie shouldn't be made, or that its corrupting the youth, but I don't know, its a little weird. Whatever, I'll leave you with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bdWgClU8vk

Wolf of Wall Street

This is an odd film. I'm not really going to get into the controversy of whether or not the film is glorifying its protagonists, Vince over at filmdrunk has a good take on all that. To me the movie was all surface, entertaining surface, but surface none the less. I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to feel about the protagonists (other than that they were incredibly lucky morons), and the stated point, from Scorcese, that the film is all about class and the financial system, was lost on me. I think the biggest problem is the movie just glossed over how they were actually so successful (we were just supposed to assume they were master salesman, what given what was shown wasn't that convincing) and what the actual effect on their victims were. We're told a about how much they stole, but it didn't have much gravity to it. Really it just came off as a a lot of spectacle, without much of a point. It is really funny at times, and well-executed, but its not a classic by any stretch of the imagination.

Also three hours is way too long for this story. Two hours would have been plenty (you can now say 'shut up grandpa').

Her (with a cameo by American Hustle and Inside Llewyn Davis)

Lets knock the cameos out first. American Hustle is a lot of fun and worth seeing (and I'm still impressed how Jennifer Lawrence is able to convincingly play so much older than she looks), and Inside Llewyn Davis is yet another Coen Brother's film that I respect more than I enjoyed. Take that for what its worth.

Her, on the other hand, may be one of the most impressive films I've seen in awhile. This is due to the degree of difficulty it has to overcome. Basically its the story of a man who falls in love with his operating system that's not only believable, but not creepy, without feeling forced. Its the kind of high concept that would be an absolute disaster in the wrong hands, but writer/director Spike Jonze pulls it off. I was so impressed with the execution that I didn't even worry about the film's flaws.* The two main performances are also key to the film's success. Joaquin Phoenix manages to believably play someone who's socially awkward without coming off as a loser, and Scarlet Johannsen uses just her voice to create a fully realized 'character' that you can sort of understand how someone could be attracted to 'her' (the meta-question is if we didn't subconciously know what Johannsen looked like would it be as believable? Whoa dude, deep, I'm so high right now.).

Its also a really clever piece of science fiction, not calling attention to itself, but still painting a nice portrait of what the relatively near future might look like. In particular we are apparently no longer subject to the tyranny of belts:

Every guy wore these pants in ever scene. I approve, belts are for suckers. Anyway, check Her out if you get a chance. Its not perfect, but its incredibly satisfying.

*I'll relegate them to a footnote. A lot of Phoenix's character's writing is kind of trite, and some of the big speeches border on college english major level insights. Also I'm not sure they quite stick the ending.  Still these are just quibbles.