The New Year

Last year was not good for posts. This year should be different.

I've engaged myself in the 100 Movies challenge - I plan to watch 100 movies in 2014 that I have never seen before. They won't all be new, because I'm not made of money, but I'm looking at this much the way I looked at my reading habits two years ago. The year I decided to only read books I've never read before, I read a bunch of stuff I never would have and it revitalized the way I look for things to read. I re-watch a lot of the same movies, which isn't a bad thing, but it limits my exposure to new stuff and keeps me from watching all the things on my Netflix queue that "I'm totally going to watch someday." That day is now!

Before we embark on this journey together, I should mention a few things I saw that I haven't told you about.

The Hobbit

 

I was going to wait to review The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug until I saw it again, because I went to a late show and MAY have slept through a bit of the beginning. But I don't actually think I'll have a chance to see it again, so: my overwhelming opinion of this movie is that while it's still too long, it's an improvement on An Unexpected Journey in every way. You may recall I got a bit whiny when I reviewed the first Hobbit movie, because it was too long and paced poorly and tonally weird and a whole bunch of other stuff, but mostly because I expected better of Peter Jackson. Desolation is slightly shorter, composed better, moves more efficiently, and has better side characters than Journey. Every addition to the source material makes it better (including Tauriel, the lady elf and new queen of my life).

 

It also feels very much like the filmmakers have a better grasp on how they're combining their different material - the Necromancer storyline fits better with the dwarves' journey this time around (which, granted, is partially due to the fact that The Hobbit as a book gets steadily darker - but it still works better than moving between troll snot and high council meetings).

 

I STILL don't think it needs to be three movies, but I'm glad they're at least getting better as they go.

 

American Hustle

 

You guys. YOU GUYS. This movie was so good. I'm having trouble formulating a coherent review because I just want to tell you to go see it, but I'll try my best.

I love movies that respect their audience, and this one definitely does. The writing is so smart, which is particularly evident in the way it uses humor - none of the jokes are slammed in your face, and if you're not paying attention you might miss them, and they never detract from the seriousness of the subject matter. But this movie is FUNNY. It's also a great con film, and as everyone knows, the best part of a con movie is the reveal...which American Hustle TOTALLY nails.

It's also incredibly well-acted - the story, which deals with a pair of con artists (Christian Bale and Amy Adams) who get in trouble with an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) and agree to help him trap a politician (Jeremy Renner) in exchange for amnesty, is a completely serious, heavy story. And the actors never detract from that. But they are the reason the film goes from gut wrenching to wildly funny in the span of a few moments, without lessening the effect of either. Bale and Adams particularly have crazy chemistry with each other that makes them compelling to watch.

You know who else was compelling to watch? Jennifer Friggin' Lawrence. I am continually astounded that Lawrence is as good as she is considering how (comparatively) little experience she has - at this point, she has made four huge movies, and delivered critically acclaimed performances in three of them (she's excellent in Hunger Games, but that's not winning awards any time soon). The way she plays Rosalyn, Bale's disaffected housewife who is dumber than a sack of rocks, is so pitch-perfect that she completely steals every scene she's in.

 

Lest I wax fondly about this movie for 1200 more words, I leave you with this, Jennifer Lawrence singing Live and Let Die in full mobster housewife regalia.



Catching Fire

Before we get into Catching Fire, I want to say a few words about Paul Walker.

I unironically love the Fast & the Furious movies. I think they are tremendously entertaining films that know exactly what they're offering, and they do what they do very, very well. The chemistry between the actors has always been strong, and while they aren't the best examples of solid plots or coherent writing around, they are fun, exciting, and have a shitload of replayability. Paul Walker was a big part of that - while he wasn't the best actor around, he was solid and reliable, and always came across as charming and likable. Going back to that chemistry, he was great fun to watch with Vin Diesel and Jordana Brewster, and he made a good anchor for the films.

I didn't know much about him outside of that franchise, but reading about him postmortem has been enlightening. Apparently he was involved in marine conservation projects, and he drove actual race cars, and he has a young daughter. The fact that these things were never widely splashed on the tabloids, and the fact that I never had his personal life shoved in my face, tells me that he was a private, classy guy for Hollywood.

The death of anyone at age 40 is tragic. I mourn Walker, and Roger Rodas, the driver of the car. I'm sad we won't get to see Walker on screen again, and my heart goes out to his friends and family.

Now. The Girl on Fire.

I've been trying to start this review for a few days now, and I don't know why it's been so difficult - I liked the movie quite a bit. It's a very similar story to the first one (which was why Catching Fire was my least favorite of the HG trilogy), but the good parts are better and the bad parts have been mostly expunged. The shaky cam filming is gone (thank GOD), because this is not a story that needs to emphasize the tension. It's more brutal, more emotional, the new characters are better and the old ones get more to do.

One of the strengths of the novel that really gets emphasized here is that we spend more time with the other Tributes. In my review of The Hunger Games, I believe I mentioned the strength of the acting - that's a trend that continues, with Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair and Jena Malone as Joanna Mason as particular standouts. I was skeptical about Claflin, but he gets Finnick's smarm and sleazy smile while ALSO getting the good heart and strong emotional current under all the act. He makes Finnick's grief as real as his charm. Malone as Joanna is everything I ever wanted: tough, sarcastic, shoving her middle finger in the face of the Capitol and rolling her eyes through the whole thing. Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, and Woody Harrelson are all back with bigger, better rolls and impress just as much as last time.

Visually, you can tell that the studio got a bigger budget after the success of The Hunger Games. Everything looks better, including the rehashed fire effect on Katniss and Peeta's clothes at the opening ceremonies. The arena is more detailed, the violence is harsher, the costuming is better. If I had one nitpick about the cinematography, it would be that I wish we got to see more of the Capitol with an increased budget - there is a scene set in the President's mansion that hints at the extreme opulence, and I wish they'd really pushed the lavishness there.

The movie's biggest problem is that it's clearly there as set-up for the Mockingjay two-parter. It has the unenviable task of being the middle link in the story, where the backdrop has already been established but we're not to the payoff yet. Some trilogies handle this better than others (The Two Towers springs immediately to mind) and The Hunger Games struggles with this, especially because the movie doesn't linger too much on the rising rebellion in the districts. We have to hear about most of that secondhand, which makes the ending feel more inevitable and less like the big reveal they're clearly going for. But they squeeze in more than the novel did (there's a bit when Katniss and Peeta are on a train and see graffiti of her mockingjay pin fly by), and at the end of the day, I'm still looking forward to the story's conclusion.

Even if it is, completely unnecessarily, going to be two movies.

Chuggin' Along

So!  I have been dangerously delinquent on updating this blog.  I don't know if it was resolution fatigue or what, so I'm going to make a couple of preemptive statements regarding the future of this blog:

- Setting myself deadlines, it turns out, makes me not want to update.  SO.  Updates will go back to a "Whenever I feel like I have something to say" schedule.  Hopefully this will lead to an increase of words.

- Going forward, I am still going to try to keep to the "post reviews within 48 hours of seeing a movie" clause, because the fresher a movie is in my brain the better I can tell you all about it.

I'm playing with the idea of combining this blog and my book blog (Alternative Read) into one giant media entity, because then I can also flail all over about the tv shows I'm watching (spoiler alert: I get a lot of feelings about tv) and everything can be in one happy location.  I'm still trying to figure out what platform would best serve that purpose, so I'll keep you updated and, in the meantime, try to keep these things updated, as well.

ENOUGH ABOUT THAT, LET'S TALK ABOUT MOVIES.

Since last I spoke here, I've seen:

Mama.  I know, I KNOW.  Apparently I can't claim that I don't do horror movies anymore, because not only did I pay to see this in a theater, but I didn't actually have any nightmares after!  (I do have to make a studious effort to get it out of my brains if I think of it pre-bedtime, though.)  It was good!  Surprising no one, because Guillermo del Toro, duh.  Jessica Chastain and the little girls are fabulous - the girls especially do a great job of being creepy and endearing and feral and a whole bunch of other stuff.  The ending veers into melodrama territory, and is maybe a touch too overblown and tragic, but it's satisfying and ultimately makes sense.  I do confess to keeping my eyes glued on my knees during many of the scenes where you actually see the ghost, but: baby steps.

Fat Kid Rules The World, which: AWESOME.  This was one of the best YA books I read for my YA literature class in library school, and I was really excited when I found out that it got made into a movie and then successfully Kickstarted a distribution.  I got to see it when I went out to the American Library Association midwinter conference in Seattle, because someone from YALSA (the young adult division of ALA) e-mailed the director and said she wanted to screen it - he sent her a complementary copy and some awesome bumper stickers (proclaiming DON'T F*CK WITH THE FAT KID).  The movie, while obviously a slimmed down version of the story, captures the important stuff - and I felt like the people who made it really got the book.  It's about self confidence, self acceptance, punk rock, dealing with family issues, high school bullshit...all that teenage angst wrapped up in Troy, the titular fat kid, as he navigates what starts off as a pretty shitty life - but improves significantly when he gets involved with a drug addict/punk guitarist, Marcus.

Silver Linings Playbook, which was fabulous - the story itself has the skeleton of a typical rom-com, but the cleverness and sensitivity of the writing as well as the stellar performances elevated the whole thing.  Jennifer Lawrence, who I seriously want to be when I grow up (except that she's YOUNGER than me, which doesn't give me self esteem issues at all, thank you very much), is seriously charming - she's all broken edges and enviable hair and sharply witty remarks.  I like Bradley Cooper more and more, because I think he's very willing to step outside of his comfort zone and push his characters to the max; he does a whole host of things here that I haven't seen from him before, and it makes Pat's manic-depressive fluctuations believable, scary, and ultimately sympathetic.  Robert De Niro and Jackie Weaver as Pat's long suffering parents are also pitch perfect, especially Weaver, who plays Pat's mother with a quiet tolerance that speaks volumes even when she doesn't.

Warm Bodies: I don't actually have a whole lot to say about this one, which speaks plenty in and of itself, I think.  It was...ok.  A serviceable zombie movie with an interesting perspective.  I didn't like how many things happened because Reasons (like the big plot hook, shown in the trailer - zombies are coming back to life because of...love?  OK, sure.), and the pacing felt off to me.  The acting is charming, but all in all I could have waited for the DVD release.

My Oscar Predictions go up on Friday.  Are YOU watching?

HUNGER GAMES

Flawless Tribute Casting

Let's do this.

DISCLAIMER: I really liked the movie.  I liked it more than I liked the book.  If someone asks me which form they should imbibe, I will recommend the movie over the book.

WHAT THIS MOVIE DID REALLY WELL, AND WHY I THINK IT'S SUPERIOR TO SUZANNE COLLINS' ORIGINAL TEXT:
- Getting out of Katniss' first person, present tense perspective.  Not only does this mean we're not treated to the oddities of Collins' pacing, but it opened up a lot of opportunities for Director Gary Ross.  And he definitely took advantage of those opportunities - not being bound inside Katniss' head, we get to see the Gamemakers at work, and we get to see Haymitch at work, and we get to see the audience react to the events in the Arena (although I personally thought they could have gone way further with this; I would have loved to see some people watching from their homes and seeing how different people reacted to the Games on a more personal level).

- CASTING.  Oh my goodness, the casting and the acting in this film are flawless perfection.  Jennifer Lawrence is likable, charming, and fierce in ways that Collins' Katniss is supposed to be (I never got this from the character.  I did not like Book!Katniss.  I did not find her engaging, or interesting, or particularly intelligent; she's so reactionary that I didn't get why readers loved her so much.  If they were all reading her the way that Lawrence portrays her, I get it now.).  Lawrence hits her pitches at every turn, from the heartbreaking and desperate wail when she volunteers to save her sister, to sticking it in the eye (figuratively) of the Gamemakers when they refuse to pay attention to her.

I don't think I could ever say enough about the strength of the supporting cast, who Ross has wisely given more to do here than in the novel.  Stanley Tucci especially blows up in his expanded roll as the tv host Caesar Flickerman; he gives the impression of being on the side of these doomed children, while still being utterly a product of the Capitol.  Woody Harrelson as the alcoholic mentor Haymitch and Elizabeth Banks as the overly colorful and chipper District 12 wrangler Effie Trinket shine, particularly when they're fighting with each other.  Lenny Kravitz is superb as the grounded, deceptively laid-back Cinna, Katniss' stylist and number one supporter.  Donald Sutherland manages to make simply standing around and cutting roses look menacing.  The strength of these actors more than makes up for the occasionally stiff or silly sounding dialogue (a mainstay of book-to-movie adaptations, I'm afraid - not everything that's written down sounds good coming out of actual human mouths).

The biggest criticism I have is that Ross seems to have pulled the teeth out of the most vicious and problematic scenes; necessary to keep his PG-13 rating, I'm afraid, but in losing the hard edges of the novel we lose some of the urgency and the horror that Collins is trying to convey.  The cinematography seriously suffers from an overdose of close-ups and shaky-cam, which particularly weakened the opening scenes.  A few of the special effects were cheap looking.  There wasn't enough of an effort to explain the history of Panem and why, exactly, the Games are held in the first place (I'm hoping more of this comes out in Catching Fire).

The movie has other flaws, but they don't originate here - moments that were silly or stilted or poorly planned in the book are similar here.  But Ross has certainly done an admirable job of translating this gladiatorial event into a consumable film, and I'll be one of the first in line when he turns out the sequel Catching Fire.  Even if the dialogue is weak, you know it'll at least be exciting.

X-Men: First Class

You may remember from my Trailer Talk for X-Men: First Class that I was a LITTLE excited about this film.  Well, I saw it on Friday, and it did not disappoint.

I have been an X-Men fan for a long time.  I loved the first two films - I think X2 is one of the best superhero movies this side of Batman.  I didn't even hate the third one so much, I thought it was fun and a decent way to end the trilogy.  (I never saw Wolverine.)  One of the reasons I can enjoy the movies so much is because I'm not a stickler for continuity - I don't think you can be, and stay a sane member of the X-Men fandom.  The writers have played with the timeline SO much and SO frequently, and there are SO many continuities at play, that to put it all into a movie basically requires a lot of cherry-picking while doing the best you can to preserve the spirit of the characters.  This is why X-Men: First Class succeeds so very, very well.

The obvious stars here are Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy.  As pre-supers Charles and Erik, they are electric together and bring so much life to the relationship between the two characters.  I was always sad that the only real allusions to this friendship, which I believe is one of the most important and far-reaching in comics, in the previous films were pretty brief.  So I was extremely happy that it got explored more fully and to great effect here.

The action sequences are superb, and for once the "side-line" mutants all get a pretty strong spotlight.  The training montage is extremely well done, so that it doesn't feel stale at all.  The cinematography overall is extremely clever, and makes parts of the film feel like classic James Bond - appropriate, considering the Bond Girl-esque ensemble January Jones sports for most of the movie.  The 60's aesthetic works well, and the styling and costumes feel period-appropriate without being derivative.  The whole thing looks completely great.

Kevin Bacon was an excellent Sebastien Shaw, and my only real complaint about the villains is that I think there should have been MORE of them.  Here, Shaw is ostensibly representing the Hellfire Club and also mongering World War III.  Except that the Hellfire Club is FULL of wealthy and politically influential people, and I wish the filmmakers had portrayed it that way.  Shaw is certainly a good leader figure, but I had a hard time believing he could exert as much influence as he does without any kind of additional evil backing.

I'd like to take a moment to address some concerns regarding Ms. Jones, as well as Jennifer Lawrence, who inhabits the role of adolescent-Mystique with verve and aplomb.  Many people on the internets (at least, that I have come across) feel as though these roles have been marginalized, and two of the most powerful female characters in the franchise reduced to arm candy and and frivolous teenager.  To which I reply: well, yes.  But that doesn't mean they're not ALSO powerful females.  Jones as the chilly Emma Frost certainly holds her own with the boys, proving to be even a force for Charles Xavier to reckon with.  I agree that Lawrence could have used a scene or two to stretch her muscles and show some kick-ass, but this is not the same Mystique we get in later films.  It is pretty well acknowledged that she does a hell of a lot of inward thinking between know and then, and we get intimations of her changing views throughout First Class.

You can't afford to get too picky when it comes to continuity in the X-Men universe, but this film certainly does its best to be an honest prequel to the older films.  I think it hits that without jumping the shark into "reboot" territory - this movie slots right in to the timeline of those movies.  Right down to Xavier's mansion, which looks a hell of a lot like the set used in the trilogy even if it's not the identical house (I think it is, though) and the look of Magneto's helmet.  It's clear they paid attention and it pays off.

In summary, if you're willing to let go of the comic continuity (any of them) and just have fun with it, First Class is an incredibly well-acted and well-set summer romp.  It is definitely a step in the right direction for the franchise.

Also, if Marvel would like to make either He Reads Minds, He Broods Broodsomely: Together They Fight Crime or Michael Fassbender: Nazi-Killing Super-Spy Ultimate Bad Ass, I will be first in line for my tickets.