An Education

An Education - of 5

An Education is a look into the life of a sixteen year-old girl coming of age in early-60's London. Based off of Lynn Barber's memoirs, Nick Hornby's Oscar nominated adapted script is witty at times, often emotional, and fully engaging. Lone Scherfig's direction seemed to find the perfect tone for the film, and John de Borman's cinematography was beautifully shot with superb locations in London, Oxford, and Paris. The music is also outstanding and enjoyable blending jazz, rock 'n' roll, and the orchestral score flawlessly.

Carey Mulligan plays Jenny who is finishing her last year of high school and preparing for her Oxford education. But all her studying (much of it from her Father pushing her) has left her bored and wanting more from life. She dreams of exploring Paris, speaking French, going to jazz clubs, etc. Really, she longs for adventure. Mulligan channels Audrey Hepburn's ghost at times in the film, and that's not a slight. She was very deserving of her best actress Oscar nomination. She held together a certain subtlety within all the emotions felt throughout the film until a breaking point. I believe that is very hard to portray and not everyone picks up on it.

Jenny meets a much older businessman in David (a strong performance from Peter Sarsgaard) when he sees her in the rain with her cello. He offers her a ride in the hopes of not ruining the cello. This leads to a few more random meetings, and David brashly asks Jenny to an orchestral concert. David says he'll work it out with her parents. We quickly learn that he has a way with words.

The film really starts to move as you really don't know what to think of David. He seems innocent, but there's also a weird "What's going on here feeling?" as this thirty-something year-old man pursues this young girl. His charm does win you over, and as he helps Jenny to live the adventures she longed for, you begin to root for them even though their romance is unexpected and wrong in most people's eyes (mine included).

I can't go into much more detail as the movie begins to reveal more and more about David as Jenny learns about him, and our emotions are tugged every which way. Let's just say An Education is the perfect title for the film because there is a lot more learned than just in a school/university sense.

An Education deserved it's Best Picture nomination, and I recommend it. Be prepared for some tough scenes, but it is all tastefully done (refreshingly no gratuitous sex scenes or anything exploitative). It won't go on my "to buy" list, but I think I would like to revisit it from time to time. One last thing, keep an eye out for Carey Mulligan. She could really harness her young talent into an entertaining and promising career.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - of 5

Employing the voice talents of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, and Andy Samberg, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs was a fun little movie that could've been great if it wouldn't have gotten kind of weird at the end. The first half of the movie is quite funny at times, but it tends to taper off as the movie delves into more action/adventure territory.

Flint Lockwood (Hader) is an inventor that never seems to get his inventions to work right, and his father (Caan) is wanting him to join the family business bait shop. Flint never gives up on his dreams and accidentally builds a machine that somehow manipulates weather into making food fall from the sky. Incidentally, this saves the town Flint lives in as it's a tourist destination that had been dying in recent years.

This leads to alot of fun scenes with food falling from the sky and how fantastic that could be (when controlled). My favorite scene of the movie is when he builds a jello house to impress Sam (Faris). My girlfriend and I both agreed that we wish we could play in a whimsical jello house like that.

As the movie continues, all of Flint's newfound success leads to his ego beginning to build more and more into dangerous egomaniacal territory. The moral of the story is to not let your ego get so big that you can't control hurting people around you. While I liked the lesson learned, the ending kind of went off the deep end with food fighting Flint and his friends (cooked whole chickens fighting like ninjas, etc.).

If you've read the book, I've heard the movie veers quite far away from the source material so maybe prepare yourself to watch it as a totally different story altogether so you're not too let down. In the end, it's worth a rental but unless your kids love it, I wouldn't put it on the buy list.

Surrogates - of 5

Well this certainly had an interesting premise that sucked me in right away, but the execution didn't hold me at all. This is the world (or America?) in the not so distant future, and the majority of people have surrogate robots that go out into the world so no one has to ever worry about not "being safe" anymore.

After a murder happens, the first in fifteen years or so, Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) is on the case in hopes to catch the murderer. The movie starts to derail shortly after. It just becomes another run of the mill sci-fi thriller when the premise allowed for so much more.

I got the feeling that the budget wasn't allowed to get too high on this because at times it looked like a b-movie SyFy (Why isn't it still SciFi?! Things that make you go hmmm.) would show on a Saturday afternoon. I think in the hands of a Brian Singer or a Joss Whedon with a significant budget Surrogates could be a great movie with elements of Fahrenheit 451, social technology making us less social somehow, and paronoia intertwined with the sci-fi future and society.

Anyways, if you like sci-fi, I'd say it's worth a rental, but go into it with low expectations. I heard the graphic novel of the same name is really good. I'd like to read it and see if it's better than this average movie.

Up In The Air

Up In The Air - out of 5

I am quickly becoming a Jason Reitman fan. Thank You For Smoking, Juno (if a bit too "quirky indie" at times but that's more due to Diablo Cody's writing), and now Up In The Air have all been movies I have quite enjoyed. I really like his writing style and was rather impressed with his direction and cinematography choices with cinematographer Eric Steelberg in Up In The Air.

George Clooney is Ryan Bingham, a man who is hired by companies to fire their employees so the spineless higher-ups don't have to do it themselves. Apparently this is done when a company has a big layoff, and in this American economic climate, this movie hits home all too closely. Clooney, in an Oscar-nominated lead actor role, knocks it out of the park as the charming and disconnected Ryan. He has become a man surrounded by emotions, good and bad, and the human condition but never lets it get too close to him, nor does he let his family, coworkers, or women anywhere inside.

I love how the movie explores Ryan's isolation in our constantly "connected" world and his relationships, whether it be work, romantic, or family. It is all very intriguing, as it is something I think Western culture is really starting to struggle with, if we are even allowing ourselves to be aware of it. Of course, my hope is that we can change this disconnect we all seem to be feeling and not starve our relationships so badly as all we've got is love and each other.

Okay back to the review, the movie really takes off (no pun intended) when Ryan meets Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga in an Oscar-nominated supporting role) who he starts a "friends with benefits"-type relationship with that leads to some captivating chemistry between Clooney and Farmiga. Ryan then meets his new coworker, Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick also in an Oscar-nominated supporting role), who is trying to "modernize" their profession from having to fly all over the country to fire people via skype-like technology.

These three actors all deserve their Oscar nominations, and the way they all intertwine in a scene after Natalie was dumped by her boyfriend is perfectly done. As the movie strides along, Ryan's whole "disconnected from the world" attitude continues to be challenged, and he really starts to question himself. Up In The Air could be a taken as a pretty strong metaphor for life for us all as we continue on in our shrinking world, the American economic crisis, and maybe some self reflection sometimes.

There is one scene near the end of the film when Natalie fires an older man that really hits you in the face as far as what it would feel like to give a good amount of your life (and youth) to a company just to have them throw you out on the street. It's not a slight on capitalism either, maybe more just how out of hand we have all let this get.

This was well directed, written, shot, scored, and acted. Jason Bateman, Amy Morton, Melanie Lynskey, and Danny McBride are all perfect in smaller supporting roles, and cameos from Sam Elliot, Zach Galifianakis, and J.K. Simmons are all a nice touch as well. While it's not perfect, Reitman is still getting his legs beneath him I believe, Up In The Air is funny, dramatic, and thought provoking. I'm glad it was nominated for Best Picture this year, and I would be happy to see it beat out Dances With Giant Smurfs In Space (AKA Avatar).

I will be buying Up In The Air as soon as I can. I highly recommend it. It comes out on DVD next week March 9th so check it out.

Public Enemies

Public Enemies - out of 5

Let me start off by saying I like Michael Mann's directing and cinematography style, but all of his movies never really stick with me for some reason. And Public Enemies falls in that same category. There are some wonderfully executed scenes in this movie, but overall, it's just kind of average.

Johnny Depp continues to prove he is one of the best actors in movies today as John Dillinger, but Mann, Ronan Bennett, and Ann Biderman's script fell somewhat flat. Isn't a biopic supposed to tell us about a person/character? We really never learn much about Dillinger other than he liked to rob banks, but what was his motivation? his background? What made him tick? Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but I don't think we ever learn.

Maybe one of the best lines I've heard from a movie in a long time is an explanation to this. When Dillinger asks Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) to be "his girl" after they have just met, and she says she doesn't know him, he says, "I was raised on a farm in Moooresville, Indiana. My mama ran out on us when I was three, my daddy beat the hell out of me cause he didn't know no better way to raise me. I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars, whiskey, and you... what else you need to know?" I really love the line that starts with "I like baseball..." but is this enough to excuse the movie for a bunch of cookie-cutter characters?

Christian Bale did a serviceable job as the man who hunted down Dillinger, Melvin Purvis, but his accent was sort of strange at parts of the movie, especially when he first comes on screen. After that, his presence is felt throughout the film, and I appreciated his part.

I began to struggle every time a new shootout would start up as the movie went, which seemed to last entirely too long. It seemed like overkill with how ridiculous the audio was. Mann loves gun shots it seems. That brings up another point, I don't know if the DVD transfer was bad, but the audio on this movie was terrible. The dialogue was very very quiet and then the shootouts were extremely loud.

Also, since Mann decided to shoot with digital cameras, it looked somewhat strange at times, not film and not quite television. It looked kind of like what British television shows look like if you've ever seen them.

So I'd say Public Enemies is worth the rental, but lower your expectations and be prepared for a pretty bad movie technical-wise and an average movie story-wise.

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.