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.

Golf in the Kingdom

First Hit: A feeble attempt to deliver a powerful and life changing book.

The book “Golf in the Kingdom” by Michael Murphy was one of those books that took a life philosophy and laid it on top of the sport of golf.

I loved this book and have, over the years, given away over 30 copies to people who really like golf.

Unfortunately, it is a difficult story to put on film and in fact Clint Eastwood, has had an option to make this into a film for years and could not do it.

The other unfortunate event which prevented me from seeing this film fully was that the theater (The Rafael) needed to change the projector bulb (as the announcement, at the bottom of the screen, stated during the entire film) was at least 50% dimmer than it should have been.

Despite, this I was hopeful during the entire film that it would come together and provide the amazing truths the book offered. Nope, little or nothing was forthcoming and I ended up being sad and disappointed at the way the story line came together and this included the use of an Oregon coast golf course as a stand in for Burning Bush in Scotland.

Scottish links courses do not have the kind of trees that were everywhere in this film. Not only was the screenplay week, the constant cutting from the one game of golf, to a dinner, to a search for Seamus McDuff to Shivas Iron’s cottage was confusing.

Mason Gamble played a young Michael Murphy and was OK but clearly not embodying someone on the path of learning. David O’Hara played a weak Shivas Irons, the wise teacher of golf and life. Malcolm McDowell played a wise Julian Lange and showed acting and character skills with the rest of the acting crew lacked. Susan Streitfeld wrote and directed this film and overall it was a very mediocre attempt.

Overall: This film lacked cohesiveness and a storyline which it desperately needed.

Shame

First Hit: A deep and dark film about a very difficult subject.

The difficult subject is sexual addiction.

How does a director take on this subject and keep it R rated? Probably not and therefore this film does have a NC 17 rating.

The rating comes because of the sex acts and full frontal nudity. However, the sex isn’t arousing, or at least I didn’t find it so, I found it factual and clearly making sex the object of Brandon’s (played by Michael Fassbender) deep driving dependence.

Like other things people become dependent/obsessed/addicted to, sex is very difficult because it is linked directly with others. The addicted person often requires partners to fulfill their addition. Here we find Brandon, using the internet to masturbate to, picking up strangers, and his life is clearly being driven by where he is going to get-off next.

He’ll masturbate in the restroom at work, he’ll hire hookers to come to his house, and he’ll lure unsuspecting women into uncaring sex. To live with this, he has to be smart, calculating, unencumbered and it is best that he is all alone in the world.

He is all these except he has a sister Sissy (played Carey Mulligan) who, in an early scene where we hear her phone message, we can tell is also troubled. Brandon ignores her messages. Sissy shows up to stay with him for a few days because she has nowhere else to go.

Immediately the audience knows that there is painful shameful history between them. Either they know something about the other or there is personal intimacy (incest). We never really know.

We watch their interaction and it is touchy, intimate, explosive, and caring. She is a cutter, he has a sexual addiction, they both want a different life, they do the best to hide their shameful ways.

Fassbender is phenomenal as the intelligent, deeply troubled and addicted to a natural human act, man. His performance was fearless and powerful. Mulligan has fully graduated from playing young girls to showing some real range as Sissy, a confused, wounded, caring woman. Her version of "New York, New York" was haunting and felt as though it walked a very fine line of god awful and genius. Lucy Walters as a woman on the subway was amazingly entrancing. Nicole Beharie, as Brandon’s office mate Marianne, was perfect at drawing out Brandon into almost humanness. Abi Morgan and Steve McQueen wrote a powerful and intense script. Steve McQueen did an amazing job of presenting this very disturbing powerful subject.

Overall: This was a difficult to watch, emotionally deep and thoughtful film.

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.

My Week with Marilyn

First Hit: I really liked this small snippet view of Marilyn’s life.

I remember viewing a few early films with Marilyn in them and wondering how much of what I saw on screen was an act or was it just her.

“My Week with Marilyn,” if anything, added to my belief that she was mostly being herself and not a particular character. Michelle Williams plays Marilyn as I would have perceived her to be. Smart but in a childlike way; difficult to work with because of her stage fright and performance fears; and quirky because her beauty created situations of which I think she was ill prepared to deal with.

This film takes place during a week of filming “The Prince and The Showgirl” with Sir Laurence Olivier (played by Kenneth Branagh). During this time the studio has hired a young man as 3rd Assistant Director (gofer) named Colin Clark (played by Eddie Redmayne).

Colin befriends Marilyn and it is his story that this film is representing. Clark wants to be in films and although he comes from a wealthy family, he will do anything to work in films. When he gets hired on this film to work with Olivier and Monroe he is in heaven. However, he quickly realizes that this is a difficult art which can be made more difficult by quirky people.

Monroe, famous for her stage fright, showing up for work hours late, and flubbing her lines, infuriates Oliver who is also directing the picture they are in. His anger and not so gentle put-downs of Marilyn’s foibles create even more tension which pushes Marilyn deeper into despair.

This is where Clark gets his chance; he’s young, sympathetic, and bends to Marilyn’s requests for companionship even though she is married at the time to Arthur Miller (played by Dougray Scott). This is the story about Clark and how he grew to know that when Marilyn was on her game she captivated people, but when she was off her game she frustrated and disappointed people, including him.

Williams was fabulous as Marilyn. For me she captured all that Marilyn’s screen persona was about while giving a glimpse as to who Marilyn was. Branagh was perfect as the arrogant English Sir Laurence Olivier who felt that Hollywood filmmaking and acting was more of learned craft and that actors needed to study the way he did. Redmayne was great as the wide-eyed naive young Clark who was confident enough of his character and charm that Marilyn might actually leave her life for him. Scott was dark and broody while succumbing to Monroe; it's what I would have pictured for Miller's character. Julia Ormond was simply charming as Vivian Leigh, Olivier’s wife. Emma Watson was very engaging as the costume girl Lucy that Colin first wanted to date until Marilyn captured his attention. Adrian Hodges wrote the script from a book by the real Colin Clark. Simon Curtis captured the beautiful scenes, sets and Williams as Monroe in a way that made the story come alive.

Overall: I enjoyed this film and its glimpse at an iconic film star.