Movie Recs as of 3/7/11
Monday, March 7th, 2011 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retsukoCedar Rapids: Every movie with Ed Helms in it needs to have a scene where he sings. I mean, he steals the show each and every time he does it. In this case, it's a parody of "O Holy Night" where the lyrics have been changed to life-insurance-relevant words and the scene (his friends have set him up to sing at the convention talent show without telling him) starts unfolding on a horribly awkward note--will he or won't he sing? How could they have done this to him? But then he starts singing... and it's comedy gold. It's the turning point of this sweet and funny movie, where our hero realizes that maybe, just maybe, he doesn't need to worry quite so much about the decisions other people have made for him. What matters is what he decides to do. The rest of the story, with its careful depiction of the consequences of this decision, is well paced and smartly acted. This movie isn't "in your face" funny the whole time, but it's well-written and excellent for what it is. Seek it out before it leaves your art house movie theater!
The Adjustment Bureau: I enjoyed this movie very much, but there are so many questions left over! The problem is that these questions can only be answered by talking to characters in the movie, which is of course, an impossibility. For example: if Elise wasn't supposed to be with David, why not just kill her? The AB appeared to have no qualms about killing off non-important characters in their efforts to keep our heroes apart. Also: If the AB was going to level with David early on about who they were, why didn't let him know exactly *what* his important destiny was from the get-go, instead of making vague threats and empty promises? And another one: if human beings can't have free will all the time, why bother giving it to them at all? Oh, and: why did the AB rely on such outdated technology and seem, for the most part, like the Keystone cops? Further: If the Chairman can rewrite the Plan at any point, why couldn't she/he/it have written it from the beginning to avoid this whole problem?
Despite these questions and a whole lot more, it was a good film. There is some loving photography of New York City landmarks and gorgeous interiors. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt do have very, very good chemistry together and in the hands of lesser actors, this movie wouldn't have worked at all, since there are all these preposterous questions (see the cut). I also enjoyed Anthony Mackie, who played his part with a nice subtlety and light touch. I do wish more men wore hats like that, if only because I'll be thinking about them and doors from now on.
In the movie tradition of angels watching over us, however, I really do prefer Wings of Desire, which has a beautiful and poignant quality that no other film I've seen has ever managed to duplicate.
Kings of Pastry: For a movie that's supposed to be about a "cutthroat baking competition" in France, this movie has surprisingly little in the way of personal bickering and drama. All of the candidates for the prestigious prize support each other completely and there is absolutely no yelling in the kitchens--a welcome change from American reality cooking shows, where drama and sniping are the current sine qua non. On the other hand, this means that the conflict in the story is relatively muted and the film feels a little flat. The moment of greatest dramatic impact is when one competitor's 3-foot-tall spun sugar masterpiece, constructed days in advance, falls apart. The chef staggers backwards and barely manages to hold back tears, and the judges of the competition, instead of shaking their heads and making frowny faces, rally around him to urge him to persevere and not give up. It's nice to see people supporting each other in such a charged and complicated endeavor... but it's also a little strange, since no one else gets the same treatment. I would have filmed this movie a bit differently, myself, but that's probably just a matter of taste.
The Adjustment Bureau: I enjoyed this movie very much, but there are so many questions left over! The problem is that these questions can only be answered by talking to characters in the movie, which is of course, an impossibility. For example: if Elise wasn't supposed to be with David, why not just kill her? The AB appeared to have no qualms about killing off non-important characters in their efforts to keep our heroes apart. Also: If the AB was going to level with David early on about who they were, why didn't let him know exactly *what* his important destiny was from the get-go, instead of making vague threats and empty promises? And another one: if human beings can't have free will all the time, why bother giving it to them at all? Oh, and: why did the AB rely on such outdated technology and seem, for the most part, like the Keystone cops? Further: If the Chairman can rewrite the Plan at any point, why couldn't she/he/it have written it from the beginning to avoid this whole problem?
Despite these questions and a whole lot more, it was a good film. There is some loving photography of New York City landmarks and gorgeous interiors. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt do have very, very good chemistry together and in the hands of lesser actors, this movie wouldn't have worked at all, since there are all these preposterous questions (see the cut). I also enjoyed Anthony Mackie, who played his part with a nice subtlety and light touch. I do wish more men wore hats like that, if only because I'll be thinking about them and doors from now on.
In the movie tradition of angels watching over us, however, I really do prefer Wings of Desire, which has a beautiful and poignant quality that no other film I've seen has ever managed to duplicate.
Kings of Pastry: For a movie that's supposed to be about a "cutthroat baking competition" in France, this movie has surprisingly little in the way of personal bickering and drama. All of the candidates for the prestigious prize support each other completely and there is absolutely no yelling in the kitchens--a welcome change from American reality cooking shows, where drama and sniping are the current sine qua non. On the other hand, this means that the conflict in the story is relatively muted and the film feels a little flat. The moment of greatest dramatic impact is when one competitor's 3-foot-tall spun sugar masterpiece, constructed days in advance, falls apart. The chef staggers backwards and barely manages to hold back tears, and the judges of the competition, instead of shaking their heads and making frowny faces, rally around him to urge him to persevere and not give up. It's nice to see people supporting each other in such a charged and complicated endeavor... but it's also a little strange, since no one else gets the same treatment. I would have filmed this movie a bit differently, myself, but that's probably just a matter of taste.
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Date: 2011-03-07 11:59 pm (UTC)Thanks for the rec on The Adjustment Bureau! A friend mentioned he was going to see it, and when he described the premise to me, it sounded ridiculously silly--then I saw it had Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, two actors who I adore and who usually pick good projects, so I was wondering if I might like it after all. A positive review from you is usually a good indicator that I'll enjoy something, so I'll make a point of trying to see that soon, since it's playing in my favorite local theater.
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Date: 2011-03-08 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 11:00 pm (UTC)The best fanwank I have for why they didn't just kill Elise is that she's important in her own right, and that her dancing career is significant to The Plan, just like David's political career. There's nothing in the movie to actually suggest this (the threat to her career is only deployed as an emotional attack on David), but it would sort of work. As long as we're assuming some people matter more to God than others. (The theology of this movie is really not well-thought-out.)
I adored the dancing, which was just gorgeous to watch, and I liked that Elise had her own dreams and career goals, even if those dreams and goals were always being discussed by other characters, instead of by her; I appreciated that the thing that made David walk away from Elise wasn't a stock cliche that she'd end up dead if he didn't, but that her promising career would be tanked. That's...actually a really realistic sort of relationship concern, very down-to-earth, very not-action-flick. (Of course, now I want to know what's going to happen with both their careers--does the plan being re-written mean that they both still get to excel, or do they still settle for less? How much less? Being a senator isn't exactly chicken feed; is Elise still doomed to teach dance to six-year-olds? Did God take care of poor Adrian and the nameless maid of honor back at the courthouse, or do Elise and David have to go awkwardly explain why Elise vanished from her wedding without a word?)
Oh, and on a final note, while I think Damon was note-perfect as an aspiring young politician, I was amused to realize, somewhere near the end of the movie, that we had absolutely no sense at all of his actual politics (except for that one, throwaway bit about investing in solar panels). They completely nailed the form and image of a political campaign while omitting the substance, and I didn't even notice. There's probably something damning in that.
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Date: 2011-03-09 04:25 pm (UTC)Indeed! I think if they hadn't acted so well, I would have been very annoyed by the logical inconsistencies with the plot and timing. Come to think of it, this is one of the few films that I've seen recently where I didn't think, "why didn't they edit 20 minutes out of this?" Every minute did count, and every shot linked up nicely with the others.
The best fanwank I have for why they didn't just kill Elise is that she's important in her own right, and that her dancing career is significant to The Plan, just like David's political career.
This makes sense; we did that article on her in the NYT, and the implication seemed to be that she was the next Twyla Tharp or Martha Graham. Which is awesome, and makes me wish she'd been able to talk about what dancing meant to her in the course of the story. Oh, wait, too busy running through doors! ;)
The theology of this movie is really not well-thought-out.
... yeah. I read an interview with the director on i09 yesterday where he said he'd made everyone at the AB men because he planned to have a scene with a female God. But then as they were shooting, he decided this scene would be a little preposterous and wrote it out of the script. I understand that revisions and rewrites are par for the movie writing course, but in this case, I kind of wanted to shake some sense into him. (Female AB agents wearing fedoras and suits would have been awesome.)
I adored the dancing, which was just gorgeous to watch, and I liked that Elise had her own dreams and career goals...
I couldn't believe that Emily Blunt was that good after just a six week course and weekly lessons! She made it look natural and easy! (Why, yes, I am nursing a little crush on her at the moment. Why do you ask? ^_^;;)
When the threat was made that she ended up teaching 6-year-olds, I kept waiting for the revelation that the reason would be that in being with him, they'd had a child/ren, and so she'd given up her career for family purposes.
They completely nailed the form and image of a political campaign while omitting the substance.
That was so carefully constructed... even the signs for his campaign just had colors, no slogans or anything that might link him to one party or the other. Even the opening montage with all the famous political figures was perfectly balanced to show Dems/Repubs equally. Some screen writer is to be commended for her/his light touch.
Anyway, yay! Much awesomeness! I just wonder what Philip K. Dick would have to say about it.
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Date: 2011-03-09 05:28 pm (UTC)I did notice the lack of female agents, and briefly wondered about that. And then forgot completely. Yeah, it's a pity; since there ended up being no God scene, I would have preferred to have co-ed agents. (Androgenous, sexless agents would also have been cool, in that old angels-have-no-gender vein, but I realize that it's tricky to pull that off when you're using live human actors, so I don't fault them for not trying.)
Get OUT. Emily Blunt wasn't already a dancer? She was so good, I just assumed she already had a background in dance. I know she had a dance double, but I saw enough of definitely-Emily dancing to be hugely impressed with her.
It's probably better that the film stayed politically neutral; it's not a political movie, after all, and there's no reason to think it'd have any interesting or profound political message (I don't mean this as a complaint, but I don't think this is an especially insightful movie--note the lack of depth on the question of free will, the flippant theology); trying to sneak real substance in there probably would have derailed the David-as-a-politician thread.
Oh, side note--I saw this in the middle of a weekday, so the theater was very empty--I think there were about 7 people total--but I was kinda surprised that I was the only person who ever giggled or laughed for the entire movie. There were funny bits! My fellow audience members had no joy.