Young Adult

First Hit: Theron fully embodies this depressed disillusion woman’s journey to the past.

There were multiple great and wonderful scenes in this film and a couple of the ones that I thought captured the depth of the character were: When Beth’s (played by Elizabeth Reaser) band, Nipple Confusion,  dedicated and played a song for Beth's husband Buddy (played by Patrick Wilson). This song was Mavis (played by Charlize Theron) and Buddy’s song in high school.

As the band and Beth played their heart out, Mavis’s face moves from one feeling to the another all encased with this semi stoic shocked looked. She was angry, hurt, and marginalized all in one place and time. All of these feelings were clearly transmitted to the audience.

Adding to the impact, her heart begins to beat so hard and strong with this pent up hurt and frustration and shock that that the gold heart necklace hanging around her neck starts to move with each beat of her heart.

Another amazing scene was the climactic scene where family and friends are at Beth and Buddy’s house for the baby naming party. Mavis goes off on everyone, especially Beth, noting that she thinks it should have been her and Buddy’s baby they were naming not Beth and Buddy’s.

A very rich scene carried off with pointed revealing clarity. I also loved her slightly off key singing of Buddy and her song over and over again as Mavis drove to her old town of Mercury, Minnesota to steal Buddy away from his current life and wife. The other strong story in this film is of another high school acquaintance named Matt (played by Patton Oswalt).

Matt had a locker next to Mavis but when they meet in an old bar, Mavis only really connects with who Matt is after he tells her that he was the guy all the jocks nearly killed because they thought he was gay (which he wasn’t). He is also caught in a life based on the past, but his is holding on to the pain of what was done to him by others.

These two continually meet up to share their depressed sadness with each other and the ore we watch them the more we know they are so very much alike.

Theron was amazing at embodying this depressed, alcoholic and living in the past character. The subtleties of her work through her expressionless and expressing eyes along with her body language was amazing. Reaser was perfect as Buddy’s wife. Confident in her relationship with Buddy and also with who she is made for a perfect character. Wilson was very good as the husband who really loves his wife and daughter along with being clear about what he was about. Oswalt was very strong as the guy who was holding on to his pain as a badge for his depressed introverted life. Louisa Krause played the hotel front desk girl so well she deserves a mention. Mavis’s Pomeranian dog was way too cute and deserves credit. Diablo Cody wrote a very strong crisp script. Jason Reitman directed this film cleanly and well getting the most of the script and actors.

Overall: I really enjoyed this film and realized at some time or another, people look back thinking that their high school days were where they were their best. This film shows you that this view probably isn’t true.

New Year's Eve

First Hit: I don’t know how Garry Marshall created such a vapid film about a great subject with great actors.

New Year’s Eve is a perfect subject and so many things can or don’t happen on that infamous night of nights.

Here we follow various people and their experience of this storied night. You’ve got Tess and Griffin (played by Jessica Biel and Seth Meyers respectively) in a race to win $25K for having the first baby of the new year against Grace and James (played by Sarah Paulson and Til Schweiger respectively).

You have Ingrid (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) who is a homely, afraid and not living her life. She breaks away, quits her job and hands her to do list to Paul (played by Zac Efron) who is a bike messenger. They climb on his scooter and he, being creative, finds ways to deliver all of Ingrid’s dreams in one night.

Then there is Kim (Sarah Jessica Parker) who works all the time and is very protective of her daughter Hailey (played by Abigail Breslin) who wants to be trusted to meet up with her friends. Kim tells her "no" but Hailey steals out of her room anyway and heads down town with Kim desperately following and trying to find her.

There is Laura (played by Katherine Heigl) a caterer preparing food for the most famous and luxurious New York New Year’s Eve party where the entertainment is being provided by her former boyfriend Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi).

Also there is Claire Morgan (played by Hilary Swank) who is in charge of the famous ball drop and who is linked to a dying Stan Harris (played by Robert De Niro). There are more many more stars in this movie but to be quite frank this is what killed the film. Too many actors vying for limited shallow parts having limited characteristics and story lines..

Biel had a couple funny lines as a pregnant wife. Meyers was mediocre as Biel’s husband. Paulson was the better pregnant wife as was Schweiger as her husband. Their story was more interesting. Pfeiffer was hard to watch as she played Ingrid too close to the chest. Efron was the best of all the actors and he made the film interesting. Parker was useless to watch and was uninteresting. Breslin was OK as the teenage girl wanting to experience her first New Year’s Eve kiss. Heigl was alright as the jilted woman. Jovi was more or less just being himself, a musician. Swank was in the worst role I’ve seen her in, in quite some time. De Niro gave the worst dying person act I’ve ever seen on film. His eyes were too alert and his actions too fast to be on his death bed. Katherine Fugate wrote a painfully soft, sophomoric, and generic script. Marshall’s direction shows he needs to retire. How can one direct so many wonderful actors (and there were more that I didn’t mention) into a wastefully sentimental uninteresting film.

Overall: This film goes for the easy sentimental story and in doing so made me wish it was over sooner than later.

The Artist

First Hit: An amazing film and a genuine joy to watch.

I’ve watched silent films before and although the acting can be superb the filming techniques of yesteryear are nothing like what can be done today.

In The Artist we get the best of both worlds. Although the director makes this film look and feel much like an old film, it also feels new, fresh and alive.

George Valentin (played by Jean Dujardin) is the silent screen matinee idol. He has a suave look, he is the hero of all his films, he gets the girl, and his dog is smart and a faithful companion. George’s home life is not good and he is very distant from his wife Doris (played by Penelope Ann Miller).

Doris sits around all day and draws mustaches and beards on pictures of her husband. She’s tired and bored. She is also put off by George’s suave arrogance which is noted when each time he leaves the house he gives a tip of his hat to the over life-size painting of himself hanging next to the door.

During one of his publicity conferences he runs into a young wanna-be actress named Peppy Miller (played by Berenice Bejo). Peppy finds herself as an extra in one of George’s films and they fall in love. In his dressing room he paints a mole on her right cheek and before you know it she is a star.

Studio head Al Zimmer (played by John Goodman) calls George into his office telling him he is going to start making “talkies” and George states that it will be a fad and he doesn’t want any part of them.

Subsequently, he makes his own silent film and it fails. The studio signs Peppy, makes and is successful with talkie films, and George slips into despair. He loses everything. All of this is in silence except for a dog bark and chair drag which come in a dream sequence.

The eloquence of the scenes, George’s smile, the magnetic chemistry with Peppy, all make this film magnificent in both the acting and its production values.

Dujardin is extraordinary as the silent film star. He lights up the screen with magnetic charm. Miller was very good as the stoic wife. Bejo is beautifully charming and a joy to watch. Her chemistry with Dujardin is palpable. Goodman is perfect as the old time bossy, yet soft, studio head. Uggie as The Dog was amazing. Michel Hazanavicius wrote the scenarios and minor dialogue and it was perfect. Hazanavicius also directed this film and he definitely deserves Oscar consideration.

Overall: This film will give the watcher a wonderful and intriguing look at what a good silent film was like.

Seducing Charlie Barker

First Hit: Very well acted film about an actor finding himself.

What happens when an actor gets caught up with himself and begins developing reasons why he won’t take some jobs while missing out on the jobs he wants.

After missing out on a particular job Charlie (played by Stephen Barker Turner) finds himself at a party where he resists speaking with a childhood friend Nick (played by Steve Cell) who may have acting work for him if he can let go of his “stuff” and meet with Nick. 

Charlie resists and instead he and his best friend Lewis (played by David Wilson Barnes) get engaged in a conversation with a very young and beautiful woman named Clea (played by Heather Gordon). Heather is a trip and likes to talk. She talks about everything; including that she thinks that the air and rain outside are surreal.

Charlie and Lewis laugh at her, are shocked at her belief system, and yet entranced by her beauty. Then she starts a long dialog about this woman she met who was a producer on a show who was like a Nazi. She goes on and on about this how horrible this person is and when she stops talking Lewis and Charlie tell her that they know this person; its Charlie’s wife Stella (played by Daphne Zuniga).

Back at Charlie’s and Stella’s they have a laugh at how this person labeled her a Nazi with felt pens. Clea has a way with her and when she finds herself facing Charlie again he has an affair with her. Charlie is lost, closed down and not productive in his work. He’s living off of Stella’s work, he needs to borrow money from her and he’s feeling lost.

The affair makes him feel alive again and emboldened. Stella comes home from work early one day and catches him having sex with Clea. This bedroom scene is one of the best written scenes that I’ve seen or heard all year. Each of the three make their point and depending on your level of awareness, they are each speaking an aspect of the truth. 

This drives Charlie out of his house and into a self-destructive mode. It is a great scene and is one of many in this film.

Turner is very good at showing the slide from arrogance about his place in life to street person. His inability to really take stock and see himself was perfect until the very end. Cell was perfect as the high charged quazi-friend who is caught up in his own success. Barnes is superb as a best friend who is also needy and looks for a way to take advantage of situations. Gordon is absolutely charming and perfect as a young lady who is crafty, smart, and sexy. Zuniga is a delight to see. It has been quite some time since I’ve seen her on the screen and she was wonderful. Theresa Rebeck wrote a very smart and crisp script and the dialogue she wrote for Clea was superb. Amy Glazer directed this film smartly and with purpose.

Overall: This film was a joy to watch but mostly it was the writing and excellent acting that made this film work.

The Descendants

First Hit: Very good acting, especially by George Clooney, but the link to the title is weak.

The Descendants are his relatives and the history of Matt King’s (played by George Clooney) family in Hawaii.

King is a lawyer and sole trustee for the family’s estate, which over the years has been broken apart. There is one huge parcel left and the family members (cousins, nieces, and others) are tossed as to what to do with this property. Some want it preserved and others want it sold for development.

Selling it has the benefit of making almost everyone rich even though most of them were rich enough but squandered their money already. However, storyline is not what this film is about.

What this film is about is how a man navigates a path through making major decisions honorably and all within a 1 month period of time. During the negotiations for the possible sale of this land King’s wife Elizabeth (played by Patricia Hastie) is in the hospital in a coma from a boating accident.

Matt and his wife had lost their path together and therefore there is regret. Their older daughter Alexandra (played by Shailene Woodley) is in a$35K a year school for girls that have drug problems and are in emotional trouble.

Their younger daughter Scottie (played by Amara Miller) has wild ideas and is difficult to handle. The story isn’t about “The Descendants”, it is about dealing with the real estate transaction and his extended family, his wife dying, discovering his wife was having an affair prior to the boating accident, his older daughter and how to help her on her path of discovery to a fuller life, and his younger daughter and how to bring her up.

Clooney is at the top of his game. His subtle expressions of pain, confusion, anger and sadness are top notch. Woodley is wonderful as the older daughter. The intensity and deep pain of catching her mom in an affair and having to share this with her father was extraordinary. Miller as the younger daughter brought the right level of cuteness and abandon required for the role. Nick Krause as Sid and Alexandra’s friend was perfect as the smart and smart-alecky boy who pushed the film along in a unique way. Beau Bridges as Matt’s cousin Hugh who wants the sale to happen was great to see again. Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon wrote a strong screen play that wasn’t afraid to accurately bring up strong situations (like Sid’s laughing at an old persons lost memory). However I’m wondering what the film would have been like without the real estate sale. It seemed like an also ran of the plot but also an odd focal point. Payne also directed this film and he got great performances out of all the characters.

Overall:  This was an actor’s film and they were up to the challenge.