#11 - An Education

Me and Tim Approx January 7, 2010

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Directed by: Lone Scherfig

Written by: Lynn Barber (memoir) 

                  Nick Hornby (screenplay)

Starring: Carey Mulligan 

              Peter Sarsgaard 

              Alfred Molina

Plot Synopsis:
An Education is set in the 1960s in a suburb of London. Carey Mulligan plays the mature (read arrogant) 16/17 year old Jenny. She works hard in school and is very bright with a promising future ahead of her. Her parents, especially her father, push her to succeed and lead a better life than they did. Her aspirations are aimed at Oxford. That is until a boy comes along and she throws her whole fucking life away to become his happy little housewife. Peter Sarsgaard is the much older David who swoops into her life all romantic and charming with promises of an exciting life of travel and culture and decadence. So when David proposes to Jenny she decides to give up going to Oxford with her parents blessing, but to the dismay of her teacher. Why would a woman need college when she has a man? Am I right gals? But when Jenny finds out David is made of lies she realizes she might have made a tiny mistake in giving up her dreams.

Review:
I have no idea what kind of person Carey Mulligan is. She's just starting her career and this is the only thing I've seen her in, so for all I know she could be a total hag. But probably not. She's probably a very delightful person and obviously a wonderful actress. She brought so much to the character of Jenny. Who, although arrogant and painfully naive, is so full of life and passion that you only want good things for her. We should all have such ambition and thirst for adventure. That being said, I was happy to see her get her comeuppance and come to her senses. I'm sure everyone dreams of meeting someone more exciting than themselves. Someone who can show them the world. But I think that's because most people are too scared or lazy to discover it on their own.

I'm trying to think of a way to describe this movie. It wasn't sad or shocking or even educational (Do you see what I did there? I'm so clever.). I'm going to say it was romantic. I don't mean that in the kind of romantic things that happen between two people sense. I mean romantic like the ideas and hopes and views of one person. Someone who has beautiful daydreams and believes in love. Jenny is a very romantic character who wants so much to experience life.

I'm just rambling about nothing really, aren't I? I assure you that a lot happened in this movie and it was very entertaining and the characters were all very interesting and I think you should see it. I really enjoyed it. 

#10 - Broken Flowers

I watched this on January 7, 2010 all sad and alone.

I know I haven't been updating. I also know no one cares. But this isn't for you it's for me. I am determined to force myself to do this. I know it's silly and seemingly pointless but I really want to have the discipline to actually finish all the millions of stupid projects I start. Me doing this has nothing to do with movies. It's a way to get me to write and think and be productive and not fall victim to laziness and I just can't seem to maintain a normal blog. Okay momentary neurosis over. Sorry about that.

 

         Watch the trailer

Directed by: Jim Jarmusch

Written by: Jim Jarmusch

Starring: Bill Murray
              Julie Delpy
              Jeffrey Wright

Plot Synopsis:
Bill Murray is a man-whore who finds out he has a bastard son. His girlfriend Julie Deply leaves him and as he's wallowing in his own self-righteous-patheticness he gets a mysterious pink letter from a former lover telling him he knocked her up and now their 19 year old son is trying to find out who his father is. With the help of his wacky neighbor, Jeffrey Wright, he attempts to find out who sent the letter. Murray aka Don Johnson goes on a quest to visit 4 of his old girlfriends and potential letter writers. Each one being more eccentric than the last. All of this fucks with his brain and he ends up going crazy. Okay I embellished a little there, but it does have a very awkward ending that makes him out to be sad and creepy.

Review:
It was aight. I love all the actors in it so I enjoyed it. The story was okay..... I don't know. It was kinda a little too goofy at some parts. Maybe goofy isn't the right word - Zany? Tilda Swinton looked fucking gorgeous. I would have liked more of her. I think maybe I didn't get this movie. If there was a point I missed it. Murray's character doesn't really grow or change or discover anything about himself. In the end he's just as sad and narcissistic as he was in the beginning. The only person that acts like a real person is the boy at the end. None of the other characters are believable which sort of leads me to believe that the crazy of these women is all just Don Johnson's fucked up version of them. Maybe that's why this woman never wanted her son to meet his insane father. Maybe there is no son at all. Maybe I'm reading too much into it and I should just take it at face value. Who fucking knows? Like I said it was aight.

#9 The Core

I (sort of) watched this on January 6, 2010. I wasn't paying much attention because I was painting, I think, so I just had it on in the background. There is something you should know about me, I love bad movies. Bad movies are my guilty pleasure. It can't be any bad movie though it has to be the right kind of bad movie. Movies like Armageddon or  Cellular or The Core. So I guess mainly action movies that are suppose to be good but are hilariously bad. 

Watch the trailer

Directed by: Jon Amiel

Written by: Cooper Layne

                 John Rogers

Starring: Aaron Eckhart

             Hilary Swank 

             Delroy Lindo 

             Stanley Tucci

Plot Synopsis: Okay so let me just write the things I remember off the top of my head without looking up the summary on imdb. A bunch of birds start smacking into buildings and cars and people. (This is the best part of the movie.) Then some monuments get destroyed by earthquakes? This is due to the Earth's core and it's lack of spinage. So some rouge scientist who specializes in something puts all the pieces together and contacts some government people or something. They put together a ragtag team of badasses to go on some outlandish mission to save the Earth. Their plan is to nuke the Earth's core to get it spinning again and Hillary Swank is there for some reason.

Review: This is a bad movie. It's terrible. It's like a bad Armageddon and Armageddon was bad. (Armageddon is the perfect bad movie by the way). I wasn't paying much attention so I don't remember the extent of the bad. But I'm sure it's boring and tedious. I like the parts where it tries to be emotional cause it's kind of embarrassing which makes it funny. Or the parts where it tries to be funny because it's cheesy which makes it funny. There isn't much to say. This is a bad movie and unless you're a masochistic bad movie perv like me there is no reason to watch it.

#8 - Up In The Air

I think we watched this on January 6, 2010.

 Watch the trailer

Directed by: Jason Reitman

Written by: Walter Kirn (novel)
                 Jason Reitman
                 & Sheldon Turner

                 (screenplay)

Starring: George Clooney

             Vera Farmiga

             Anna Kendrick

             Jason Bateman

Plot synopsis:
George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a traveling salesman. What he sells is you out of a job! That was terrible, let me start over.... Ryan Bingham's life is his job. He works for a company that other companies hire when they need to downsize and are too chickenshit to do it themselves. So he flies all around the country firing people. He lives out of a suitcase and he loves it. Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick)  is young and way too proactive. She comes up with an idea to fire from the comfort of their home office via video conference instead of flying around and doing it on person. Bingham is horrified by the idea of staying in one place so he objects to this saying it will never work. He teams up with Natalie to go on a firing expedition to show her why her idea is stupid. Along the way he meets a pretty lady who also has a fetish for flying and falls in love...awwww....sorta. And there's some shit about his sister getting married somewhere in there.

Review:
I don't think there could possibly have been a more appropriate movie to come out in 2009. Our economy is shit and everyone is either out of work or about to be. It deals with the ever climbing pile of sleaze and bullshit that is corporate America. (profit over people) The cold collected way we're all suppose to behave in this charade that is the workplace. In the movie companies are outsourcing their firing to another company to keep it all nice and professional. But even the firing company itself can't escape the monster we call capitalism as they attempt to eliminate the only piece of humanity they offer, which is a human presence. They'll save money on flights and hotels if they can just fire people over Skype. It's so efficient and soul-less. Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) Is the brain behind this innovative new venture. She is smart and ambitious and arrogant and naive and foolish, you know human. Kendrick is perfect in this movie. I can't even believe that she hasn't done much else beside this and Twilight. She's up for best supporting actress at the Oscars and she so deserves it. (This Sunday I can't wait! I'm aware of how big of a lame I am)

The whole movie is about not getting personally or emotionally involved with anyone. You should just concentrate on achieving your goals and getting ahead in life. Clooney is of course charming in this movie like he is in every movie but he's not douchey he's kind of humble. His character, Ryan Bingham, is a loner and he thinks he doesn't need anyone to make him happy. That is until he finally finds someone that does, Alex Goran, Vera Farmiga's character. Clooney and Vera have amazing chemistry by the way. The way he feels about her makes him rethink his philosophy on life and realize that he doesn't want to be alone anymore.
 If everyone just works for the benefit of themselves and ignores the rest of the world our society will crumble, but then again I'm a godless commie so I have to say things like that. But, even with that being said, I'm a loner who doesn't like to get close to people so I found Bingham's life of perpetual travel rather appealing. Okay, In short, I loved this movie. I can't wait to see what Jason Reitman will make next.            

#7 - The Visitor

I watched this by my lonesome on January 5, 2010.

Watch the trailer

Directed by: Thomas McCarthy

Written by: Thomas McCarthy

Starring: Richard Jenkins

             Haaz Sleiman

             Danai Gurira

             Hiam Abbass

Plot synopsis:
A grumpy old white guy makes friends with a charming young foreigner.
Walter is a college professor who leads a lonely existence. He has to go to New York for a conference or some shit. When he arrives at the apartment that he owns but never visits he finds Tarek and Zainab living there. They were victims of a scam or something and thought they were renting it legally. Walter invites them to stay because he is just that lonely. Walter has a love for music and Tarek is a musician so they build a friendship off of that and Tarek starts teaching him how to play the African drum. One day in the subway station Tarek gets arrested because it's post 9-11 and he's Syrian. Walter finds out that Tarek is an illegal immigrant and is being held in an immigration prison. Tarek's mother shows up unexpectedly at his door, worried because she hasn't heard from her son. Walter and Tarek's mother forge a cute relationship as they bond over Tarek's horrible situation.

Review:
This had the potential to be a very average meaningless movie but thankfully it wasn't. The relationships aren't exactly believable but so what. The characters are all extremely likable so you care about what happens to them. The story of Walter and his sad little life is simply used as a way to meet and get to know these characters and is ultimately unimportant. What makes this movie good and important, and it is important, is what happens to Tarek. This is the only movie that I've seen or at least that I can currently recall that deals with these issues. The issues of racial profiling, abuse of power, the loss of rights, and the hysteria about illegal immigrants in a post 9-11 America. More than anything though, this movie is about empathy. Which there seems to be a great lack of  today in America. Probably in the rest of the world too but I don't really know or particularly care because I am after all American. Fuck Yeah! In summary go watch The Visitor, it's enjoyable.

#5 - The Hurt Locker

We watched this somewhere around January 3, 2010. I'm was going to make Tim write this one but then he didn't so now I'm doing it. Wasn't that a great story?

Watch the trailer

Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow

Written by: Mark Boal

Starring: Jeremy Renner

             Anthony Mackie

             Brian Geraghty

             Guy Pearce

Plot Synopsis:
So there's this guy, Sgt. James, who is some bomb defusing specialist. He joins Sgt. Sanborn and Specialist Eldridge in Iraq after their former team leader was killed attempting to defuse a bomb. James comes in as the new hotshot team leader who plays by his own rules. He's the classic renegade with a heart of gold type. While the other two are basically scared shit-less and want to go home, you know, like any sane person would be in that situation. James doesn't seem to know or want any other life. He even seems to get a high off of defusing bombs. The movie follows the three of them as they go on a few missions and get themselves in some pretty sticky situations. Zany

Review:

The Hurt Locker is (probably) the best movie of the year. I'd be very happy if it got Best Picture at the Oscars. Is it nominated for Best Picture? Hang on let me check......Yes, yes it is. So is Up In The Air. Hmmmm that was also a very good movie. Okay so it's between those two for the best movie of 2009 in my opinion.
Anyway - review: Really Fucking Good!
If you haven't seen it yet then I kinda hate you. It's that good. It's not some big actiony war movie. It's much more personal and psychological, showing some of the different effects war can have on people. Some people (Sanborn) try be logical and treat it like a job. Some people (Eldridge) let it get to them and become emotional and fragile. While other people (James) see it as a drug. That's not to say he necessarily enjoys it, he just seems to get a rush from it. He's good at defusing bombs and he knows it. This is a very tense movie. The directing is brilliant. Long quiet scenes help build the suspense and paranoia. We're only given small glimpses into these characters backgrounds and personal lives. We don't need any more than that. We get to know them through their actions and behavior. We don't even need to fully understand them or what makes them tick. We just need to see how they handle these given situations. It's gritty and beautiful.

#6 - Mala Noche

I (Andrina) watched this without Tim on January 5, 2010. Netflix instant streaming is mankind's greatest achievement.

Watch the trailer

Directed by: Gus Van Sant

Written by: Walt Curtis (story)

                 Gus Van Sant

Starring: Tim Streeter

              Doug Cooeyate

              Ray Monge

              Nyla McCarthy

Plot synopsis:
Mala Noche is based on an autobiographical story by Walt Curtis and takes place in Portland, Oregon. Walt ,who is kind of an asshole, is a convenience store clerk and totally gay for Johnny, a illegal Mexican immigrant who doesn't speak English, and is also kind of an asshole. Johnny is weirded out by Walt and refuses all of his advances. Walt ends up having sex with Johnny's friend Pepper, who is yet another asshole. Johnny goes missing, Pepper gets sick, Walt remains an asshole....and some other shit happens.

Review:
Everyone in this movie is an asshole. I don't care what happens to any of these people because they are all selfish and arrogant. The acting is bad. The pacing is tedious. I have no idea how much time is going by. I could give a fuck less about the story. This is one of Gus Van Sant's first movies so I don't want to judge it too harshly. It feels like a first movie. I didn't expect anything amazing going in so I wasn't necessarily disappointed by it. But I'd definitely watch it again. I'm a sucker for black and white photography. I'm an even bigger sucker for hard shadows, high contrast, and dramatic lighting and focus. This movie is fucking gorgeous. Every shot would make a beautiful photograph. It's not for everybody but for me it's a complete visual-orgy-gasm. So if you ever watch it just watch it with the sound off. I will end this some stills from the movie so you can relish in the beauty.

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