Adam

Adam - out of 5

Written and directed by Max Mayer, who only had one movie under his belt before this (1998's Better Living), has made an emotional and different take on a "romantic comedy/drama" with Adam. Adam (Hugh Dancy in an understated should-be-nominated-for-awards performance) is a mid-thirties man living with Asperger's Syndrome, which is a form of autism. The syndrome is defined by medterms.com as:

"Asperger syndrome is a pervasive developmental disorder that is characterized by an inability to understand how to interact socially. Typical features of the syndrome also may include clumsy and uncoordinated motor movements, social impairment with extreme egocentricity, limited interests and unusual preoccupations, repetitive routines or rituals, speech and language peculiarities, and non-verbal communication problems."

Adam's father, who helped him with everything in life, has died at the beginning of the movie, and the rest of the movie is Adam transitioning to life on his own for the most part. He does get some help from his father's friend, Harlan (Frankie Faison), but it's more in a "just when he really needs help" way. According to the syndrome, Aspies (as I have found they call themselves) have intense interests, and Adam is obsessed with space. Sometimes these interests affect him so badly he can't communicate.

But soon after Adam's father's death, a woman moves into Adam's building, Beth (Rose Byrne), that catches his interest. Beth takes an interest in Adam as well, and an unlikely friendship that leads to romance begins. I usually don't really like Rose Byrne, but I think she did a wonderful job coming across cute, graceful, and somewhat tormented due to her father's corporate legal problems.

The writing in this movie is funny, romantic, and heartwrenching all in one, and one of the best scenes in any "romantic comedy" I have ever seen includes Adam, Beth, and an astronaut suit. I can't say anymore without spoiling the scene.

From what I've read online, this film does a great job portraying someone with Asperger's syndrome without being exploitative. Some people on message boards and such have said it wasn't a good representation, but they seem to be in the minority. This syndrome is still being examined and studied, and I find it all very interesting. As much as we don't like to admit it, we are emotional beings, and someone who lacks the mental capabality to understand their own, much less someone else's emotions, is fascinating to me, and I think Max Mayer's Adam did a fantastic job at walking that line.

As the film plays out, Adam's syndrome effects his relationship with Beth in funny, sad, peaceful, angry, struggling, and blissful moments. Adam will definitely have your emotions all over the place if you empathize at all with the characters. This isn't exactly a tear jerker, but it's not exactly a touchy-feel good movie either. Go into it expecting to feel something though (unless you have no heart at all).

Definitely worth a rental. I doubt I'll be buying this, but I could see repeat viewings of Adam in my future.

Moon

Moon - out of 5

Another 2009 movie with a first time writer/director (co-written by Nathan Parker), Moon is an excellent debut by Duncan Jones, who happens to be David Bowie's son. It seems I've been struggling with modern sci-fi movies lately (District 9, the travesty that was the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, Transformers), but this one really hit me write in the face in a good way.

According to Jones, he wrote this specifically with Sam Rockwell in mind as the main character, Sam Bell. Sam is pretty much the only onscreen character as others are seen through video messages and such while GERTY, Sam's support robot voiced by Kevin Spacey, is his only on-moon company. Rockwell deserves a best actor nomination for his performance here in Moon. He explores every inch of the space he is given and hits almost every emotion humans have in the hour and thirty-seven minute running time.

Sam is near the end of his three year contract working for LUNAR Industries on the moon alone (with GERTY) extracting HE-3, which has become the new energy source for the world's transportation. As he gets closer to the completion of his contract, some strange occurrences begin to happen to Sam, and he begins to probe GERTY for more information on his work and soon journey home. I can't go into much more detail without spoiling the movie but follow the movie closely as there is a lot of information thrown at you that's so subtle it may take repeat viewings (I watched the commentary and noticed plenty with their help).

Don't go into this expecting ridiculous action and effects as this was made on a mere five million dollar budget (an award winning achievement in it's own right), but the in-camera effects, models, and slight use of CGI all blends amazingly. Some of the moon shots are just insanely well done even though it was so simply shot.

While it's not perfect (first time writer/director, limited budget), this taps into something in our humanity that will have you questioning and pondering moral conflicts of our future. Go along with it, let your emotions flow with Sam's, get into his head. It's one of the best sci-fi movies I've seen in some time and is one of my favorite movies of 2009 at this point.

I wish I could have seen it in the theater. Moon is definitely worth the rental, and I think I'll be buying it someday.

9

9 - out of 5

It was a good year for first time writer/directors to get their work out to the masses, but it seems that fact makes it that much harder to make a splash in the world of film-dom. Just like most things in life, the first attempt is going to have it's good, it's bad, and it's mediocre.

9 is Shane Acker taking his short film of the same name into a full length feature, and while he seems to have a wonderful grasp of cinematography and beautiful animation, the story falls a bit short. I do like that he fought for a PG-13 rating to not dumb down his vision because there aren't very many "adult animation films" it seems, but it felt like he could've fleshed out the plot a bit more.

The voice talents of Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, and Crispin Glover work quite well with their numbered "rag doll" characters. The dolls have somehow been given life by a scientist who, years ago, made the first "intelligent machine that can make lower forms of intelligent machines" that turn against humanity and eradicate them/us from the earth.

Maybe it's the whole "machines turned on us" plotline that bothers me because it has been done quite a few times now, and while I think it was an interesting idea to have these dolls trying to save a semblance of life, something about the movie didn't make it more than a one time viewing and move on.

I do think there's something very interesting about numbers, and I wonder what the significance of the nine dolls mean. I never really got interested enough to look deeper into it so maybe that's my own fault so maybe take that into mind if you do watch this.

As far as the ending, it really made me go "okay... [scratches head]" and then forget about the movie twenty minutes later. So I'd say it's worth a rental especially for the exquisite animation, but don't be surprised if you find the story lacking.

District 9

District 9 - out of 5

This is going to be a short review because there is way too much to spoil in this movie if you haven't seen it.

Basically, I thought it was a very interesting idea that was hurt by director/writer Neill Blomkamp's lack of experience as he's only done smaller movies and shorts previously to this film. There's a bit too much juxtaposing going on it seems. I didn't really like any of the characters except the "main alien," but maybe that's what they were going for.

Personally, there's alot of weird stuff that happens in this movie, and instead of being all "Wow, this is a great sci-fi story with an interesting socio-political point," I'm left wondering what they were thinking as using these plot devices to move the story along. I wish they would've found a better way to do just that.

Maybe modern sci-fi just isn't working for me anymore, and I'm not the audience for this movie. Or maybe my expectations were too high going into it after all the critical and fan praise it received.

Either way it's worth a rental, but I'm glad I didn't see it in the theater.

Extract

Extract - out of 5

Mike Judge has always had an interesting take on humor from Beavis And Butthead to King Of The Hill to Office Space to Idiocracy, but this just didn't work. All of the elements are here: Mike Judge's writing and directing, check; a star studded cast, check; what seems like a good budget, check... so what happened?

Joel (Jason Bateman) is the owner of an extract business who is starting to wonder who he is anymore. Struggling with a wife who he's never intimate with (or really talks to for that matter) (Kristen Wiig) and worrying about selling his business leads to lots of really, really stupid decisions by Joel.

Cindy (Mila Kunis) is a con-woman who decides to take the recent "work incident" at Joel's business to get her hands on as much moolah as her soon-to-be-settlement-rich mark, Step (Clinton Collins, Jr.) has by seducing him and hoping to manipulate him into a lawsuit and reaping (or stealing) the benefits. As Cindy starts working as a temp at Joel's business, he begins to think of his lack of sex life with his wife and starts to consider Cindy's manipulation as flirting and an "in" for sex with her.

Yes, this is the plot of this movie... Anyways after a bad idea to take some horse tranquilizers from his "good friend," Dean (Ben Affleck), there's some plan about getting a gigolo to try to have sex with Joel's wife, and if she does it, he'll feel better about cheating on her with Cindy.

So stupid decision after stupid decision is made by stupid characters that aren't really funny at all and then it ends. J.K. Simmons as Brian was the only thing funny about the movie. He had some great lines.

Who casts Gene friggin' Simmons as an actor for cryin' out loud?!

In other words, don't waste your time.