While We're Young

First Hit:  Uneven and the up moments happen more often than the down moments.

There are moments of insight, like when Josh (Ben Stiller) says that he’s been too focused on himself (his ego) and how he’ll be seen in the world instead of just doing the work.

He’s a documentary film maker that is 8 years stuck in a project. He’s an idealist and caught in his idealism. His wife Cornelia (Naomi Watts) has a famous documentary film maker father Leslie (Charles Grodin) and this adds all sorts of complications for all three of them.

Josh and Leslie strike up a friendship with Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried) who are almost 20 years younger than them. They enjoy the aliveness of this young couple and spend lots of time with them. But is the relationship really what it is perceived to be? That is the question Josh needs to figure out.

Stiller is OK, there is something about his intensity that worked for and against him in this role. Watts is far better and watching her learn hip-hop was funny and wonderful. Driver is strong as the guy who will bend the truth and look honest doing it. Seyfried was very good and her ability to be seen in the film this well as the fourth character shows her strength. Grodin was great as the crotchety, yet kind, documentarian. Noah Baumbach wrote and directed the film. There are strong moments as well as moments that needed to be cleaned up.

Overall:  It was enjoyable enough and there are some funny bits in this film that make it entertaining.

Desert Dancer

First Hit:  Poignant in time, a bit melodramatic, but overall a beautiful story.

Based on a true story of Afshin Ghaffarian (Reece Ritchie) an Iranian young man that wants to dance.

Dancing is illegal in Iran and the morality police will beat and jail you if you are caught. He goes to school at a school called “Saba” the one place he can be creative along with his fellow students. Upon going to the University in Tehran he joins up with others who defy the government. They start a small dance company and he’s also joined by Elaheh (Freida Pinto) whose mother was a dancer before the revolution. Her mother never danced again and numbed herself with drugs just as her daughter is doing.

The scenes of the students and the general public marching in support of a challenger to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,  were intensely palpable. Watching the protests of a rigged election was even more important in that this was what happened. Afshin gets caught in one of these protests, is identified as a dancer and during a beating becomes an escaped fugitive.

Ending up in Paris, he makes his mark and stands up for himself. The best scenes in the film are Elaheh’s routine when she first encounters the dance group’s makeshift studio, the desert performance, and Afshin’s Paris performance.

Ritchie was very good at times and at others seemed too western in behaviors and feel to have been born and raised in Iran. Pinto was really strong and I felt her performance was the best of the group. Her sadness of her life felt very real. Makram Khoury as Mehdi his teacher at Saba school was excellent. Jon Croker wrote a good screenplay. Richard Raymond did a good job of creating some of the intenseness of the time in Iran and some of the shots in their practice studio were very effective.

Overall:  Although this isn’t a great film, it is a wonderful story.

Women in Gold

First Hit:  Although a bit methodic it was an interesting story and one deserving light.

The Nazis took private property as their own during their invasion of Austria. In the case of this story they stole a famous Klimt painting called “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” or the “Woman in Gold” from Maria Altman’s (Helen Mirren) childhood home.

The subject of this painting was Maria’s aunt Adele who lived with them in her family’s Austrian home. Maria fled to the United States and her family was either killed by the Germans in a camp or died on their own. She wants “what is rightfully” hers. She hires an old family friend’s son Randol Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds) who is a lawyer whose family also suffered under the Nazi’s rule in Austria.

Working together they end up suing the Austrian government for rightful ownership of the paintings the Nazi’s took from her Austrian home. It seemed that the aim of telling of this story was to do this through emotional righteous digging, guilt, and the wrongness of the Nazi’s and not on the depth of the characters. Not that this way of telling the story wasn’t good however, it skimped on what might have been a more amazing story.

Mirren was strong and was effective enough, although I found her back and forth on the willingness to pursue this case to be oddly off-putting. Reynolds was bland, and it may have been because whom he was portraying might have been meek but it would have been better if Reynolds mined the character further. Katie Holmes had a minor role as Reynolds wife and her part, like the film, didn't fully engage me. Alexi Kaye Campbell wrote this from stories by the real life Altman and Schoenberg. It is a wonderful story that could have used more depth. Simon Curtis did a good job of directing what was given to him.

Overall:  This was a satisfying story that could have been deeper.

Danny Collins

First Hit:  I really enjoyed the film mostly because of the music followed closely the characters.

Danny (Al Pacino) is an aging rock and roll star that sings his and other’s old songs to an aging audience that love his old songs. It is just for the money.

He’s still into drugs and drinking while seeing the irony of having a young fiancé. She’s with him for the money and drugs. On his birthday his manager Frank Grubman (Christopher Plummer) gives him a letter written to him by his all-time hero, John Lennon.

Frank bought this 40 year old letter for Danny after tracking it down to a collector. Danny is overwhelmed by the gift, and decides he needs to change his life. So he moves into a hotel in New Jersey being managed by Mary Sinclair (Annette Bening). They have great banter and the chemistry is palpable. Besides getting rid of his drugs and trying to write new songs, he wants to visit his son Tom Donnelly (Bobby Cannavale) whom he’s never met.

His son doesn’t care one iota about him and wants him out of his life. His daughter Hope (Giselle Eisenberg) is ADHD and through her Danny tries to find a way back into his son’s heart. This film is about the difficulties of redemption, forgiveness, growing, and letting go.

Pacino is pretty good, and although there are times I felt he was over milking the part, other times he appeared clued into the role and was creating a wonderful character. Bening was wonderful. She was a great foil for Pacino’s role. Plummer was fantastic. Cannavale was superior as the son who was both angry and happy to meet his father. The star of this film was Eisenberg. She was amazing. Dan Fogelman wrote and directed this film. His use of the John Lennon music was absolutely perfect. The other stories that make up this film were strong.

Overall:  I thoroughly enjoyed the film and it was the music that got me fully engaged.

Serena

First Hit:  This dark film is well acted but is a downer to watch.

Pemberton (Bradley Cooper) is a young good looking man who has some family money that is tied up in land both in Brazil and the Smoky Mountains. He’s been logging the Smokey Mountains for revenue and is stripping the landscape by cutting down all the trees.

Even though this is the time of the great depression and jobs and money is scarce, there are people who don’t want the mountains raped of the trees for profit. He sleeps with an employee that brings his food. He heads back east and meets strong willed Serena (Jennifer Lawrence) who was alone in the world because her family didn’t survive a fire in their home.

She is strong independent and there is immediate chemistry. They marry and he drags her off to the Smoky Mountains. She clashes with Pemberton’s right hand man Buchanan (David Denik) because of her intellect and strength. Pemberton’s former housekeeper is now pregnant with his child and jealousy ensues. The film is about how their world collapses.

Cooper is good as Pemberton. There is nothing extraordinary about his performance. Lawrence shows, yet again, why she is an up and coming actress. She carries this film and makes it interesting. Denik is very good as Pemberton’s right hand man who tries to double-cross his boss. Ana Ularu is effective as the woman who has Pemberton’s child out of wedlock. Christopher Kyle wrote this slowly paced, mediocre and dark screen play. Susanne Bier directed getting a lot from Lawrence.

Overall:  This film did not seem like there was enough for the actors to really expand their abilities and more fully engage a story.