Category: Film

Halloween Season Movies with Great Stories

Since Halloween is quickly approaching and TV is boasting hours of  every Friday the 13th movie ever made (who knew that they would reach the double digits?), I got to thinking about horror/suspense movies with really great stories.  Sure, I can go for a good thrasher – but when you combine that with a kick-ass story or a really good plot twist well…that’s a reason to have popcorn – with extra butter!  So, here’s my opinion of five great Halloween season flicks:

SPOILERS INCLUDED

5. John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) – This movie scared the beguses out of me. Plus, the story is actually plausible. The cold unexplored antarctic is the perfect backdrop for unknown alien-like things to happen, as well as the classic human foible of losing trust in our fellow-man in dire circumstances. Kurt Russell is at the peak of his most macho phase in his career and Wilford Brimley is well…Wilford Brimley – before he made all his friends in Cocoon. Plus, it’s kind of bloody and gooey and gross.

4. The Exorcist (1973) – Talk about gross. Linda Blair and the green pea soup has made this flick famous, but it’s also grounded in such strong storytelling that you’re left wondering if something like it could really happen. The priest and his mother issues is an added bonus. And Ellen Burstyn’s look of horror is classic.  I made the mistake of seeing it with my older brother (granted, I was like fourteen and it was a late night showing), and I kept my eyes covered almost the entire time. And I was awake all night. Watching it as an adult, I still feel like a kid and shade my eyes whenever she spews that soup. Gross.

3. The Others (2001) – Wow. The story of this movie is pretty fantastic. Although the pacing hits some speed bumps in the middle. I still don’t understand the appearance and then disappearance of the father/husband. And I’m still in doubt about the children’s “condition”.  I wish Kidman demonstrated a little bit more madness before the big reveal, but perhaps the  beauty of the film is her subtlety. Anyway, the story rocks.

2. Scream (1996) – The first one. Or should I say, the good one. This flick is funny! How many horror movies can you say are funny – on purpose? This is it! It’s so good that you can ignore David Arquette acting like a doufus – again. You’re so busy laughing that Neve Campbell’s famous “my life sucks so I must pout” look that she formed while on PARTY OF FIVE isn’t so annoying when you see her being chased by her crazy classmates.  And who can forget Drew Barrymore getting murdered within the first three minutes – that really starts things off with a bang!

1. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) – Classic! I saw this on the big screen while I was in college and saw the beauty of Roman Polanski’s directing. The camera angles in this film force the audience to comply. It’s powerful, powerful directing. Plus, Ruth Gordon is irresistible as the devil’s right hand helper. She makes the whole film. It’s a good story about entitlement and want and how having the devil’s baby is better than no baby at all, well…at least to Mia Farrow.

What’s your favorite Halloween season flick?

Please Give on DVD – Please Watch

Katherine Keener plays Kate, a Manhattanite wife and mother of a certain age who is facing an unsatisfying life in Nicole Holofcener’s, Please Give. Yeah, this theme is played over and over in Holofcener’s other work Lovely & Amazing, Friends With Money – also starring Keener – but it is because of Keener that the viewer doesn’t feel bored or frustrated with what could be an already played out story. Keener possesses the uncanny ability to portray bitchy with the perfect amount of vulnerability. It’s pretty miraculous and makes her the go-to-actor that she is.  Whether she’s playing the author Harper Lee opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote or the Bohemian grandmother girlfriend of Steve Carell in The Forty Year Old Virgin, Keener pulls it off with her delicately balancing emotions.

The incredibly underrated Oliver Platt (The Big C) plays her husband and the scenes the two have together are a master class in acting. They truly react, not act when they are together. It’s just too bad this movie was in theaters for about a second and then quickly disappeared. But the good news is that it’s now available on DVD. Netflix it today.

The Social Network – Don’t Believe The Hype

What’s the solution to getting dumped? Create a website where you can talk about people and never have to talk to them. That’s the lesson in the highly hyped movie The Social Network.

The movie opens with the now famous Mark Zuckerberg (nicely played by Jesse Eisenberg) getting dumped by a very pretty young girl, Erica (Rooney Mara – the new Girl With The Dragon Tattoo). You can’t help but think – this socially stunted, boardering on rude, incredibly awkward guy actually has a girlfriend? He actually found someone who wants to spend time with an emotionally halted nerd who’s obviously clueless when it comes to human beings (mainly girls), but a genius when it comes to calculus? Are the poor girls at Harvard that desperate? Eww.

The hype surrounding this movie is truly ridiculous. David Fincher (Benjamin Button, Zodiac, Fight Club) is a good director and Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, American President, A Few Good Men) is a decent screenwriter. But the combination of these talents does not automatically propel this movie to extraordinary. The acting is solid. But my biggest complaint is that Zuckerberg is at one moment a shy, awkward geek and the next is a sharp-tongued, assertive and aggressive tyrant. This is made possible by the incredibly unrealistic dialogue that has made Aaron Sorkin famous. The lines are cutting and entertaining, but totally unrelatable when it comes to character growth and transition.  This was a criticism for all those West Wing Episodes with the fast walking that was parodied on Mad TV. Hilarious by the way.  But then there is the greed and corruption that steps in the story with the appearance of Scott Parker, (Justin Timberlake) the founder of Napster that highlights the earning potential of the little website that talks at people.

Don’t get me wrong, I use Facebook. It’s been nice to let people know little snippets of what is happening in my life. But I also don’t have hundreds or thousand of “friends”. I think South Park explains and treats the issue best in the episode YOU HAVE 0 FRIENDS, more than I ever could in a blog post.

But I will admit, although an avid user, I am weary of social media. I am weary that these horny guys from Harvard – some of the brightest students in the country – didn’t want to work on their communication skills. They just wanted to find an easier way to talk about people and not to people. I am leary that this easy way out results in a blurred sense of right and wrong. Especially in the wake of Rutger’s University student, Tyler Clementi killing himself after his roommate posted footage of him being with another man on the Internet.  I know…I know…Rutgers University is reaching to prove my point.  But still…it’s worth thinking about…and still heartbreaking.

Don’t believe the hype that this movie is a journey in the revolution in communication. The Social Network is a story in just how far we have all come from actually speaking to others…now we just announce.

Wallstreet Money Never Sleeps – Let It Sleep And See Solitary Man Instead

Growing up with the motto of Gordon Gekko “greed is good,” it is a big disappointment that the sequel to Wallstreet – Wallstreet:  Money Never Sleeps is a murky mess.

The plot diverges on several points and never comes together. It can’t decide what kind of movie it wants to be – a revenge melodrama, a lesson on how bad Wall Street really is in its evil financial practices, or even on some levels…get ready…here it comes…a romance. Who knew?  Oliver Stone and a romance? Miracles happen. It’s almost as if the writers have a strong opinion of the story they want to tell, but then director Oliver Stone changes it so drastically that even the camera shots are disjointed and choppy.

Michael Douglas doesn’t get as near as much screen time as he deserves, having to share it with the upcoming Shia LaBouef who plays a hotshot trader Jake who conveniently falls in love with Gekko’s daughter, Carey Mulligan. Carey Mulligan spends most of her time sulking, which is such a waste (Netflix An Education – her Oscar nominated performance is…well…so much better than this).

LaBouef tries to play a tough cookie, but still comes off as a squeaky kid. Maybe in a few years when he sheds some of his boyish looks he’ll be able to play a believable man. Even now, I can’t help but see him as the kid in EVENS STEVENS and the movie Holes.

Yeah, Wallstreet: Money Never Sleeps deserves to do just that – sleep and be forgotten. Instead, Netflix Douglas’ stunner Solitary Man. This little movie showcases Douglas at his finest since Wonder Boys. And it actually has a story you can follow and believe in.

The Town – Go See Gone Baby Gone

I have to admit that I usually don’t go for a cops and robbers type of flick. But I do make exceptions – Ransom, Inside Man, and Gone Baby Gone. Speaking of Ben Affleck, (like my segue?) The Town is his latest toss of the hat into the directing arena. He also co-writes the script and stars as the lead character Doug. He’s a multi-tasker.  And he does it well. The movie has been compared to Scorsese’s The Departed (probably because the two movies both take place in Boston) and since the three people who read this blog (yes, that includes my mother) knows my position about Leonardo Dicaprio – then you can guess that I already like The Town much better.

Affleck brings together a great cast. There’s the stoic FBI agent Special Agent Adam Frawley (everyone’s favorite from Mad Men – Jon Hamm) and the quick to the draw best buddy to Doug  Jem (Jeremy Renner.  You remember him from The Hurt Locker). There’s the beautiful and gentle potential girlfriend Claire (Rebecca Hall from Woody Allen’s Vicki Christina Barcelona. Don’t blink or you might miss her in this movie). The real star is the incredibly underrated Chris Cooper (check him out in John Sayles’ Lone Star – perfection), playing the incarcerated father of Affleck. Amazing.

But there are exceptions to the great cast – okay I’ll just say it. Blake Lively. Ick. Playing the junky, drug-dealing ex-girlfriend Krista. Again. Ick. Her portrayal is cringe-worthy and unfortunately attempting a Boston accent and encircling her eyes with smeared black liner does not provide her with the added depth needed to make her mere seven minutes on screen tolerable. She is unable to portray lust, pain, or despair. She is too much of a girl in this part when it really requires a woman.

The story is basic. Good guys vs. bad guys – Hollywood loves a formula. The difference in The Town is how the city of Boston is another character in the movie. Affleck includes some establishing shots and the camera work actually bursts through some of the scenes. There is an amount of old-fashioned hoke in this film that’s absent from Gone Baby Gone, which is why for right now, I prefer Affleck’s first attempt as a filmmaker. But I’m excited to see what he does next.