RickStarr11's Reviews

Love at First Sight (I) (2023)

10/10

27 April 2024

Having watched 4 other rom-coms in the past couple weeks, I realize how hard it is to make one that delivers on the promise, but without absurd Hollywood exaggerations at every corner, ridiculous and unreal plot contrivances, or, let's face it, bad acting, editing, or direction. This is a rare one that hits all the high notes without suffering the lows. Yes, OK, let's all agree that the ending of a rom-com is a foregone conclusion, and if "critic" reviewers would stop bemoaning that I would appreciate it. And yes, there's a meet-cute, but those actually do happen all the time, else the humnan race would have disappeared thousands of years ago.

The leads, Hadley & Ben, are a joy. Both restrained, charming, and competent, as is most of the rest of the cast, particularly Ben's Mom (Sally Phillips) and even the 4th-wall-breaker Jameela Jamil in a recurring, if ever changing role as Greek chorus-ine. The plot, such as it is, compresses a handful of plot hours into an enjoyable 90 minutes of screen time, and the editing, costuming, and casting all contribute to one of the most enjoyable rom-coms I've seen in ages. Yes, really, a 10. I wish more people would see this movie, if only to see how a good rom-com is made, and to see excellent performances by the two leads.

Special note: only on second viewing did I notice that Haley Lu Richardson is Executive Producer. Good show. You go girl!

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Secretariat (2010)

7/10

Classic Disney - for better and worse

12 October 2010

The Disney brand lives on in "Secretariat", a come-from-behind almost-all-true story of the famous Triple Crown Winner. The two leads are great: Secretariat's owner and trainer Diane Lane and John Malkovich respectively; James Cromwell is decent and Nelsan Ellis and Otto Thorwarth credible as the stable boy and jockey, but the rest of them - particularly the family and friends - you can put in a tub and sail away.

The story, of course, is well known; Secretariat turns out to be the greatest race horse ever (he even makes ESPN's "Top 50 athletes of all time" the only non-human to do so.) The true-to-the-story twist is that Secretariat turns out to be the consolation prize of a lost bet, but still triumphs over all obstacles and odds.

Actually, the story is as much about Secretariat's owner, Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) and how she, well, triumphs over all obstacles and odds. Funny, that. While there are some empty moments while the actors are on screen (the anti-war protests are just dreadful), there aren't when the horses take over, and the POV filmography at the horses' hooves is pretty darn good. The festivities at the actual Kentucky Derby last a week and the race is over in two minutes. I wish there was more screen time for the horses here, but at least it's a better balance than that.

Disney stays true to Disney rather than conduct fealty to actual history, however the changes are not earth shattering, and you will come away with a fair semblance of the real story, if not a perfectly accurate one. A nice tear jerker, very typical for the House of the Mouse, but worth the afternoon if you have an interest in a great sports story, a horse flick, or just like seeing more of John Malkovich's quirky side in an otherwise straightforward role.

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The Social Network (2010)

10/10

It made me mad at Oliver Stone

7 October 2010

This movie made me angry at Oliver Stone. I enjoyed "Wall Street 2" and went for his excuse that he didn't hang the bad guys up by their thumbs because (paraphrase) "it's hard to made a compelling moving about CDO's, CDS's and synthetic derivatives." So he turned in a treacly movie with a love story, and on the level of treacly Hollywood movies, it's good.

But "The Social Network" has an even harder task: to make computer coding somehow interesting, and just to handicap it, it's a true story. So you can't just make up a lot of crap, you have to follow certain real life plot points and still produce a compelling story. (And boy, does it.) It's true that there are no likable characters here (and how hard must it be to write a screenplay where there's no good guy - bad guy dynamic to bounce around?) but then there didn't have to be in Oliver Stone's film either. Heck, he could have made everybody purely evil (as the first Wall Street managed) and taken them down even while producing a financially successful film, but he didn't.

Meanwhile Aaron Sorkin writes dialogue that reverberates like a Gatling gun, all the better to showcase the brilliant but socially clueless Zuckerberg as he hurtles past, not through human relationships. The film doesn't have a car chase, an over-choreographed bar fight, or much more than a few seconds of implied sex, yet it's one of the most compelling movies I've seen this year.

There are times when you just want to agree with the first female in the film who tells Zuckerberg "You are an asshole", and you wait for redemption or payback which never comes. Yet you can't take your eyes off it.

"Wall Street 2" was a candy confection next to "The Social Network." That's too bad, because Zuckerberg is only one jerk, and Wall Street has thousands of them. Would that they had gotten a more insistent whipping.

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Green Zone (2010)

10/10

Terrific and terrifying, all in one

29 March 2010

Well, a few more people will see this one than 'Hurt Locker', but it will still be all the wrong people. Forget the political subtext, I wish the fighting internet keyboardists who champion invasion as a solution to everything could be chained to a chair so they'd see what it's really really like in a war zone; perhaps they'd be a bit less likely to thump their chests and try to solve every problem with the youth of the country.

Most of the people surrounding Matt Damon in the film are actual Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and the quotes go something like this: ""What you see us doing in this film is an accurate representation of what we did over there. It's what we experienced."

The 'Green Zone' story is that of the search for WMD in Iraq; US Warrant Office Roy Miller (Matt Damon) leads a squad sent on mission after fruitless mission; eventually he becomes suspicious that the 'reliable intel' is at best wrong, at worst fabricated. There are several 'real world' markers in the otherwise fictional story: the reporter for a national newspaper (in this case the Wall Street Journal) duped by the assured pronouncements of her inside source; the 30-year Iraqi exile coming triumphantly home only to discover that he is better known in Washington power circles than in Iraq; the mindless looting and rioting; the gas and water shortages; the increasing acrimony between rival religious sects; the hamfisted administration of the post-war reconstruction; the alternate universes separating the bikini- inhabited swimming pools inside the green zone and the privation and death going on just outside.

The film has been both lauded and criticized as "Bourne goes to Baghdad", and so it is, a taut thriller set in the aftermath of the Coalition's invasion of Iraq - and it has as many alternate realities as any Ludlum novel: friends who turn out to be enemies, enemies who turn out to be friends, and other permutations as well.

Yes, it's a potboiler, but it's fiction set within a universe that we all know, maybe a bit too well to call it escapist, and perhaps that's the reason for the disappointing box office. It can't be in the quality of the production, the great performances or the lack of suspense, all of which are at the top of the meter.

The Right blogosphere has blasted the film as all-but-treasonous, presumably because there are Americans portrayed with less than pure motives or who make idiotic decisions. Well, that's what happens in the world, and especially in the fog of war - and given what we do know about what happened, this seems a faint objection indeed.

I found it as riveting as any Bourne movie and better than most of the other sludge which emanates from Hollywood which they call "action" or "thriller". When there's a car chase or a gunfight, it's not from some scriptwriter's imagination, it's a depiction of what actually happened - and happens - (and happens now in Afghanistan), and it drives home the fallout of the political pursuit of power, damn the consequences. The film is assuredly not anti- American, or even anti-war. It is, however, anti-stupidity, a theme most people ought to be able to embrace, no matter what their politics.

As luck would have it, my wife and I stopped by Krogers on the way home from the cinema and at the card table out front where the Girl Scouts usually peddle cookies were two Veterans selling hats and pins and whatnot in a fund raiser for their organization. We gave them a donation. It was the least we could do, and it wasn't nearly enough.

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Crazy Heart (2009)

10/10

Jeff & Maggie - Crazy Good!

1 February 2010

There are so many things that should be - but aren't - wrong with this film it's hard to know where to start. Clichés? The broken down country/western singer. Who's a drunk. The chipper 20-something who falls for him. Who has an adorable 3-year old son. The hyperactive agent always screaming into the telephone. And the cigarettes, always the cigarettes, and the booze, always the booze.

And yet every one of them seems to unfold here for the first time. It's as though a magic cliché eraser has landed, and "Crazy Heart" alights from the projector as though you've never seen any of it before.

Jeff Bridges has been nominated for an Oscar four times before, this time he wins. Guarantee. It's not just a great acting performance, he *is* the performer on the downside of prime, singing for a pittance in bowling alley bars, shacking up with the Lulabelles who remember when he was famous, tossing down cheap scotch at every turn. This is not some tour-de-force "look at me" show, like Heath Ledger's masterful Joker, where you sit up and say "Wow! That's some acting!" This is one where you have to convince yourself that it's "acting" at all, it's so well done.

The only sad thing about this great performance is that it will overshadow that of Maggie Gyllenhaal, who seems perfectly miscast to have any interest at all in Bridges' "Bad Blake" character - and, needless to say, who does. She's wonderful, striking, convincing, in fact, but hidden in the mist of Bridges' great achievement. Smaller parts by Robert Duvall (who also Exec Produced) and Colin Firth keep the story alive and true as we follow "Bad" on his journey, stumbling down the path he has set for himself by his many bad choices, but with his undeniable talent.

Props to both Firth and Bridges, who sing all their own material, and to whoever decided to rescue this from the "straight to cable" graveyard after seeing the performances within. This is good stuff, great stuff, actually, and there's Oscar buzz about. Couldn't happen to a better bunch, and if every country/western song doesn't have a happy ending, it's nice that this one will, come ceremony time in March.

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That Evening Sun (2009)

9/10

Hal Holbrook is a treasure. So is this film.

23 January 2010

I've been looking forward to "That Evening Sun" for a while now, and not just because it was shot in the county and surrounding towns where I live here in Tennessee.

My anticipation was largely because of Hal Holbrook, an iconic performer I have seen in his one-man "Mark Twain Tonight!" stage show, and who appears in occasional guest shots on TV where things must move very fast, and less often in film, where things are allowed to proceed at a more measured pace.

I was not disappointed, the character study of Abner Meechum, the refugee from an old folks' home and renegade on his own property is rich, complex, and satisfying throughout. Admittedly it may not be a big stretch for Holbrook to play a cranky 80-year-old, but that doesn't lessen the impact of the performance at all.

Surrounding him is a cast of surprisingly strong players: the antagonist Lonzo Choat (Ray McKinnon) is an especially worthy and believable opponent, and supporting cast Pamela and Ludie Choat (Mia Wasikowska and Carrie Preston) likewise hit just the right notes, tugging this farm county family drama at precisely the right pace. I especially enjoyed Barry Corkin, perfect in the Wilfred Brimley-esquire good neighbor role, and a special mention for the cameo by Dixie Carter, Hal Holbrook's wife in the movie as well as in real life.

Where I saw the film, at a packed 1pm matinée, the audience laughed at several of the moments, self-reflective as they were of Tennessee rural life. I don't know that they would garner that kind of introspective appreciation in other parts of the country, but here, people know their country folk and can laugh with, rather than at them.

"That Evening Sun" is a simple yarn: Abner tires of life in a retirement home and returns to the farm he and his deceased wife occupied for most of their lives, only to find it occupied by a neer-do-well, but one with a property lease Abner's "guardian son" has approved. The story is more than the tug-of-war between owner and lessor, it is between hard-working- older and layabout younger, and between lives at noon and the sundown that inevitably follows. Taken from William Gay's short stories of Southern life, "I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down," it's the unraveling of a proud man in the twilight, as his own sun is setting, and his fight with the oncoming night.

Hal Holbrook is a treasure. So is this film. It's Indie with a capital "I", an armful of festival awards, and, one hopes, a long run ahead.

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Leap Year (2010)

Leap Year? Hey! it's not Leap Year!

10 January 2010

Warning: Spoilers

Ever since "Enchanted" the Missus has been in love with Patrick Dempsey, and me with Amy Adams, so here's twofer - with a story.

It was a while ago my wife wanted to go see "Made of Honor" principally because Patrick Dempsey (Dr. McDreamy on the TV, Robert in "Enchanted") starred in it, and even though it got very crappy reviews, I went. Of all the lame romcoms this was pretty much a 90 minute suckfest, with the plot visible to the naked eye from 10 miles away.

*Two Sentence Summary*: Tom chases any skirt he sees, but has a platonic friend in Hannah, who he almost slept with accidentally back in college. He doesn't realize he's in love with Hannah until she announces her engagement to someone else, at which time he becomes her "Maid of Honor" so that he can try to derail the impending nuptials in a reprise of the climax of "The Graduate". ("Made of Honor", "Maid of Honor", get it? Neither do I.)

Needless to say there is lots of hilarity with Dempsey standing in a dress, Dempsey picking colors for the reception tablecloths, etc. Imagine the fun!

When it was over I said to my wife "You owe me", and yesterday I cashed in my chit, taking my beloved wife to "Leap Year", even though it has gotten crappy reviews, because it stars Amy Adams, for whom I lust inappropriately.

"Hey!" I thought. "It couldn't be worse than 'Made of Honor'".

Well, when I'm wrong, I admit it. While there is much scenery to be appreciated (the aforementioned Miss Adams, and perhaps Matthew Goode if you're so inclined, and certainly Ireland, which we see not enough of), the things missing are an almost endless list, beginning with wit, charm, and surprise, and ending with direction, editing and soundtrack.

If you've seen the two minute trailer, you know the entirety of the movie, save the final 10 minutes, and I shan't spoil it except to say it's as predictable and pedestrian as the rest of the film. Every move is telegraphed, every plot twist so obvious (if not repeated from a dozen earlier comedies) that one wonders how a movie like this gets green-lighted, or how seemingly successful people sign on to such a project.

*Three Sentence Summary*: Anna has been waiting four whole years for Jeremy to propose and he hasn't, so she concocts a plot to surprise him in Ireland on "Leap Day", February 29th, when tradition holds that a woman can propose to a man rather than vice versa. Her flight from Boston is thrown off course by weather, and from that moment on she is thrown together by circumstance with Declan, a scruffy, unpleasant Irish lad who promises to get her to her boyfriend in time. Surprise, surprise, it doesn't quite work out that way, and the laughter from the hijinks that the unwilling couple endure are surpassed only by the kind of guffaws I remember while watching the Waltons.

It's really a shame, because even though we're technically even, the Missus insists that "I owe her", and to some degree she's right. At least "Leap Year" is full of Amy Adams, and that's OK for me, but for the rest of the world it's doubtless insufficient. And watching her walk though cow manure, vomit on someone, or endure endless rainstorms (which disappear as conveniently as the plot requires), even the good Miss Adams suffers a notch down in my estimation.

Did anyone not notice that they're releasing "Leap Year" in a year which is not a leap year? I don't know, maybe it's just that nobody was paying attention. To anything.

Sad, really. I like a nice light comedy once in a while. Maybe I should rent some of those 1950's Doris Day films I remember so fondly. Forty years later, they'd still be more original than this.

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