Tag: Drama

50 Years, 50 Movies (2014): The Grand Budapest Hotel

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

I will turn 50 in November of this year, so my project for 2023 will be to watch and review one movie from each year of my life.  The only qualification is that it has to be a movie I’ve not reviewed previously.

 2014

Top Grossing Movies of 2014:

  1. Transformers: Age of Extinction
  2. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
  3. Guardians of the Galaxy
  4. Maleficent
  5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

Best Picture Oscar Nominees and Winners:

  • Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
  • American Sniper
  • Boyhood
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel
  • The Imitation Game
  • Selma
  • The Theory of Everything
  • Whiplash

Other Movies I’ve Reviewed:

Title: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Release Date: March 7, 2014
Director: Wes Anderson
Production Company:Fox Searchlight Pictures | TSG Entertainment | Indian Paintbrush | Studio Babelsberg | American Empirical Pictures

Summary/Review:

The Brattle Theatre is running all of Wes Anderson’s movies and as I only had time for one, I chose Grand Budapest Hotel as the one with the best reputation.  I have mixed feelings on the Anderson movies I’ve seen as I really loved Moonrise Kingdom, hated Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Isle of Dogs all fall somewhere in-between.

The movie is nested in several framing devices but the main plot takes place at the titular hotel in a fictional Eastern European country in 1932.  Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes) is a skilled concierge who befriends and mentors the young lobby boy Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori).  F. Murray Abraham narrates the film as an older Zero.  The movie captures the grandness of Golden Age Hollywood films with a story that is homage/parody of spy thrillers, prison escape stories, war movie, and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World/Cannonball Run-style ensemble comedies (there should be a name for that genre).

If it’s hard to describe Grand Budapest Hotel, it’s because I’ve not seen a movie quite like it before, not even in other Wes Anderson movies (although perhaps Jean-Pierre Jeunet could’ve made a movie like this).  Fiennes is excellent playing someone who is so studiously refined but can also be disarmingly crude.  Revolori is perfect as the straight man that Fiennes plays off of. The main cast also includes Adrien Brody as Gustave’s rival, Willem Dafoe as a hitman, and Saoirse Ronan as Zero’s girlfriend.  The ensemble also includes numerous famed actors, some in no more than a cameo but nevertheless significant, including: Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Owen Wilson.

Like all Anderson movies it is beautifully shot, with bold colors and designs.  The sets are amazing, particularly the mid-century modern appearance of the decaying Grand Budapest Hotel in the 1960s framing story.  The costumes are also brilliant.  But all this beauty would just be twee showmanship if not in service of a story.  And this story is essentially one of duty, loyalty, and friendship in the time of rising fascism feels timeless and relevant.

Rating: ****

50 Years, 50 Movies (1993): The Piano

~ Liam ~ 7 Comments

I will turn 50 in November of this year, so my project for 2023 will be to watch and review one movie from each year of my life.  The only qualification is that it has to be a movie I’ve not reviewed previously.

 1993

Top Grossing Movies of 1993:

  1. Jurassic Park
  2. Mrs. Doubftfire
  3. The Fugitive
  4. Schindler’s List
  5. The Firm

Best Picture Oscar Nominees and Winners of 1993:

  • Schindler’s List
  • The Fugitive
  • In the Name of the Father
  • The Piano
  • The Remains of the Day

Other Movies I’ve Reviewed from 1993:

Title: The Piano
Release Date: 15 May 1993
Director: Jane Campion
Production Company: Jan Chapman Productions | CiBy 2000
Summary/Review:

I saw The Piano when it was released in US theaters some 30 years ago and absolutely hated it. Revisiting it now that I’m older – and hopefully wiser – seems like a worthwhile thing to do, especially since it has been added to Sight & Sound’s 2022 list of greatest film’s of all time.

Holly Hunter stars as Ada McGrath, a Scottish woman in the mid-19th century who chose to stop speaking as a child and expresses herself by playing piano.  Her father arranges a marriage for her to a colonizer in New Zealand and she is sent there with her 11-year-old daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and her piano.  Ada’s relationship with her new husband Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill) starts off poorly when he refuses to have her piano transported from the beach where they landed, and never improves.

Instead, a local handyman, George Baines (Harvey Keitel), a British man who has adopted Māori customs, acquires the piano.  He agrees to return it to Ada if she gives him “lessons,” which mainly involve him watching her play with increasingly sexual actions on his part.  I think what bothered me about this movie 30 years ago is that George’s predatory and harassing behavior leads to Ada falling in love with him.  On this rewatch things are more nuanced than I interpreted them the first time, but it’s still creepy and unpleasant to watch.  Add to that the cruelty and abuse Ada suffers at the hands of Alisdair and this is a difficult movie to watch, indeed.

Campion’s direction is strong and the film is beautifully shot taking advantage of New Zealand’s natural beauty.  It struck me on this watch how stuck Alisdair and his relatives are in maintaining their British customs and habits despite them being totally inappropriate for the environment.  Paquin is terrific and earned her Best Supporting Actress in her performance as the decidedly odd child Flora. I’m glad to see she is still acting as an adult and was even reunited with Keitel in The Irishman. My final thought is that this movie is much better than I judged as a younger viewer, but I don’t think it deserves to be among the greatest movies of all time.

Rating: ***1/2

50 Years, 50 Movies (1997): Eve’s Bayou

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

I will turn 50 in November of this year, so my project for 2023 will be to watch and review one movie from each year of my life.  The only qualification is that it has to be a movie I’ve not reviewed previously. 

1997

Top Grossing Movies of 1997:

  1. Titanic
  2. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
  3. Men In Black
  4. Tomorrow Never Dies
  5. Air Force One

Best Picture Oscar Nominees and Winners of 1997:

Other Movies I’ve Reviewed from 1997:

Title: Eve’s Bayou
Release Date: November 7, 1997
Director: Kasi Lemmons
Production Company: ChubbCo Film | Addis-Wechsler
Summary/Review:

This Southern Gothic melodrama is told from the point of view of 10-year-old Eve Batiste (a strong performance by an adorable Jurnee Smollett) who experiences life-changing realizations about her family in the summer of 1962.  Eve grows up in a prosperous family because her father Louis (a nuanced performance by Samuel L. Jackson) is the most successful Black physician in Louisiana.  Louis is a hero to his family and community but the adoration goes to his head and he is frequently unfaithful to his wife, Roz (Lynn Whitfield).

The film begins with two incidents that begin to shake Eve’s world.  One is witnessing her father canoodling with a neighbor and the other is the accidental death of an uncle, the third husband of her aunt Mozelle (Debbi Morgan) to die.  Mozelle has the gift of sight, able to see glimpses of other peoples’ futures (but not her own).  Eve is also developing this gift and they have unsettling premonitions about the family’s future. On top of everything else, Eve’s older sister Cicely (Meagan Good) begins behaving strangely and isolating herself.

The crux of the movie revolves around an incident that is seen differently by everyone involved, leading to tragedy.  The movie questions what we can know about our perceptions of reality and memory especially contrasting the perceptions of a child and an adult.  As a character study, this movie oddly reminds me of A Streetcar Named Desire, although the circumstances of that film (white/working class/urban) are almost exactly opposite of this one (Black/prosperous/rural).  It’s an impressive debut for Kasi Lemmons, who has most recently directed Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and a great performance by Smollett who is now more well known as the star of several TV shows I haven’t ever watched (but maybe I should?).

Rating: ****

 

Boston Movie Festival: Children of Invention (2010)

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to my first monthly “film festival” where I watch a bunch of movies on a theme.  This month, in honor of Patriots Day weekend I will be watching a bunch of Boston movies, also known as “Film No R.”  There are so many movies set/filmed in my hometown that I made a list on Letterboxd.  I probably will never watch all of them, but this weekend I’m going to check of some of the more prominent movies I’ve missed.

Title: Children of Invention
Release Date: March 12, 2010
Director: Tze Chun
Production Company: Syncopated Films | The Complications | Impact Partners |  Sasquatch Films
Summary/Review:

Elaine Cheng (Cindy Cheung) is a single, immigrant mother from Hong Kong who is evicted from her home along with her young children Raymond (Michael Chen) and Tina (Crystal Chiu).  A friend is able to set them up to live in a model apartment in a complex that is not yet open to residency in the suburbs of Boston.  Elaine works hard and is recruited by a multi-level marketing company which she hopes will help her earn the money to get out of their precarious situation.  Of course, it’s a scam and Elaine is arrested, fearful of her immigration status leading to her being separated from her children so she does not mention them to the police.

Raymond and Tina prove to be resourceful and resilient as well as adorable.  The make a plan to go into Boston and take money out of the bank which they will use to buy supplies to build Raymond’s inventions and sell them for a profit.  Things don’t go to plan and anyone with a nurturing instinct is going to feel a lump in their throat watching these kids on their own.  This is the type of movie that will make you hate capitalism if you don’t already.  But it’s also a gentle and beautiful naturalistic film with a good performance by it’s young leads.

Rating: ****

Boston Movie Festival: Shutter Island (2010)

~ Liam ~ 1 Comment

Welcome to my first monthly “film festival” where I watch a bunch of movies on a theme.  This month, in honor of Patriots Day weekend I will be watching a bunch of Boston movies, also known as “Film No R.”  There are so many movies set/filmed in my hometown that I made a list on Letterboxd.  I probably will never watch all of them, but this weekend I’m going to check of some of the more prominent movies I’ve missed.

Title: Shutter Island
Release Date: February 19, 2010
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Company: Phoenix Pictures | Sikelia Productions | Appian Way Productions
Summary/Review:

Adapted from a novel by Dennis Lehane, Shutter Island is set in 1954 at the fictional Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island in Boston Harbor.  I’m going to start off by being the pedant who points out that none of the drumlin islands in Boston Harbor has sheer rock cliffs rising from the sea (those scenes were shot in Acadia National Park and California).  However, much of the rest of the film was shot in locations throughout Eastern Massachusetts, so I’ll give it a pass.

The film begins when U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) on the ferry to the island.  They are investigating the disappearance of a dangerous patient. Teddy reveals to his partner that he has ulterior motives for visiting the hospital which he believes is also holding an arsonist responsible for the death of his wife and is conducting mind experiments on the patients.  The hospital, lead by Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley), appear to be hiding something. A hurricane causes chaos to breakout on the island.  Meanwhile, Teddy is haunted by memories of liberating Dachau as a young soldier as well as his late wife Dolores (Michelle Williams).

The movie maintains a good sense of mystery and menace, and features a strong performance by DiCaprio.  On the down side, there are a number of twists that are just corny, although that’s typical of Lehane’s work in my experience. There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense, some of which can be chalked up to the unreality of the scenario.  But when the mystery is revealed, I also wondered why certain characters would have done what they did under those circumstances.  So, it’s a flawed but entertaining film.

Rating: ***

Boston Movie Review: Now, Voyager (1942)

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to my first monthly “film festival” where I watch a bunch of movies on a theme.  This month, in honor of Patriots Day weekend I will be watching a bunch of Boston movies, also known as “Film No R.”  There are so many movies set/filmed in my hometown that I made a list on Letterboxd.  I probably will never watch all of them, but this weekend I’m going to check of some of the more prominent movies I’ve missed.

Title: Now, Voyager
Release Date: October 22, 1942
Director: Irving Rapper
Production Company: Warner Bros.
Summary/Review:

Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is a “late child” in a prominent Boston Brahmin family who is shy and reclusive as a result of the upbringing of her domineering mother (Gladys Cooper).  Charlotte’s sister-in-law Lisa (Ilka Chase) fears for her mental health and introduces Charlotte to the psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains).  He recommends that Charlotte spend time at his sanitarium in rural Vermont, and after her stay there to take an extended cruise to South America.  This helps Charlotte develop her independence and self-confidence.

On the cruise, Charlotte meets Jerry (Paul Henreid), a married man whose wife is controlling and abusive in a way similar to Charlotte’s mother.  They have an intense, but chaste, romance before they each have to return home, vowing to never meet again. Spoiler:  they do, but not in a way that you would expect.  Back home, Charlotte begins to assert herself with her mother and surprise her family and friends with her new looks and confidence.

This movie feels radical for the time it was made in the way it focuses on mental health and particularly the problems of women.  While romance is central to the films plot, Charlotte does not find her happiness in a man.  In fact, not being able to “have” the man makes her stronger.  The relationship between Charlotte and Jerry’s daughter Tina (Janis Wilson) is very sweet although it’s unsettling that Charlotte hides her past from Tina. I feel that they have an uncomfortable conversation in their future.

This is a more classic Boston story, with it’s focus on the Brahmin elite and the city’s tradition of strong, independent women.  Allegedly, the movie featured some location filming in Boston, something that pleased Massachusetts native Bette Davis. However, I feel like all the scenes set in Boston were interiors that could’ve been on a set, so I guess I missed the location shots somehow. At any rate, I enjoyed this movie and found it surprisingly uplifting for a melodrama.

Rating: ****

90 Movies in 90 Days: Little Fugitive (1953)

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

I’m kicking off 2023 by trying to watch and review one movie every day for the first 90 days, most of which will be 90 minutes or less.

Title: Little Fugitive
Release Date: October 6, 1953
Director:  Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, and Ruth Orkin
Production Company: Little Fugitive Production Company
Summary/Review:

JOEY – I’M NOT DEAD. GO TO THE PARASHOOT AND WAIT. – LENNIE

Joey (Richie Andrusco) is a 7-year-old growing up in a working class neighborhood in Brooklyn who likes Westerns and loves horses.  When his widowed mother has to go away to care for his grandmother, he’s left in the care of his older brother, Lennie (Richard Brewster).  Lennie’s friends don’t like having little Joey tagging along.  So the play a prank that makes Joey think he’s killed Lennie.  Then Joey runs away to Coney Island and pretty much has the best day of his life.

The plot is minimal, but this movie delights on it’s naturalistic, largely unscripted performances by non-professional child actors.  Morris Engel developed a special camera that could be strapped to the body allowing the directors to film on location amid crowds of daytripping New Yorkers. It’s also a great document of Coney Island in the 1950s, when the parachute jump still worked and before Fred Trump demolished many of the amusements for real estate development.

It’s a form of neorealism that feels lighter and funnier than the movements in Italy and France and makes me wish a larger American neorealist movement grew out of it.  But François Truffaut loved Little Fugitives and said it inspired The 400 Blows! But really the most mindblowing thing about this movie is that my father was a 7-year-old in a working class neighborhood in 1953.  I wish he were around so I could watch this movie with him and ask him if he recognizes anyone.

Rating: ****1/2

90 Movies in 90 Days: The Breadwinner (2017)

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

I’m kicking off 2023 by trying to watch and review one movie every day for the first 90 days, all of which will be 90 minutes or less.

Title: The Breadwinnner
Release Date: November 17, 2017
Director: Nora Twomey
Production Company: Cartoon Saloon | Aircraft Pictures | Guru Studio | Jolie Pas | Melusine Productions
Summary/Review:

Cartoon Salon and director Nora Twomey (The Secret of Kells, My Father’s Dragon) bring the unique visual style used in films based on Irish folklore to a story about recent history in Afghanistan.  Set in 2001, under the rule of the Taliban, 11-year-old Parvana (Saara Chaudry) is the middle child in a poor family living in Kabul.  When her father is imprisoned the family faces starvation due to the laws that require women and girls to be escorted by a male relative any time they are in public.

With no man in the family, Parvana cuts her hair and wears the clothes of her deceased older brother Sulayman in order to make money and bring home food for the family.  Adopting the name Aatish, she meets another girl Shauzia disguised as a boy named Deliwar (Soma Bhatia) who shows her the ropes on finding jobs.  The movie has a storytelling element as well as Parvana tells an ongoing story of a boy on a quest to save his village from an evil Elephant King.  The stories are vividly animated in a style that stands apart from the more lifelike depiction of contemporary Kabul.

It’s a beautiful film that depicts a grim side of humanity but with the inspiration of Parvana’s perseverance.

Rating: ****

50 Years, 50 Movies (2022): The Quiet Girl

~ Liam ~ 1 Comment

I will turn 50 in November of this year, so my project for 2023 will be to watch and review one movie from each year of my life.  The only qualification is that it has to be a movie I’ve not reviewed previously. 

2022

Top Grossing Movies in 2022:

Best Picture Oscar Nominees and Winners in 2022:

Other Movies I’ve Reviewed from 2022:

Title:  An Cailín Ciúin
Release Date: 12 May 2022
Director: Colm Bairéad
Production Company: Inscéal  | Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland | TG4 | Broadcasting Authority of Ireland
Summary/Review:

Many’s the person missed the opportunity to say nothing and lost much because of it.

The title of The Quiet Girl echoes that of The Quiet Man, the quintessential Hollywood fabrication of Ireland.  Unlike the John Wayne movie, The Quiet Girl is made in Ireland and the dialogue is primarily in the Irish language (Gaeilge). One of the interesting aspects of the movie is the code-switching the characters do between their native tongue and the English forced upon the country through imperialism.

Set in 1981, the movie tells the story of Cáit (Catherine Clinch), a nine-year-old in a large family in rural Ireland.  Cáit’s father (Michael Patric) is an alcoholic and a layabout while her mother (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh) is overextended with caring for the children, including a toddler, and expecting another baby soon. Neglected by her parents and teased by her older siblings as “the weird one,” Cáit has no outlet but to run away and hide.

Cáit’s parents decide that until the baby is born, that she should live with her mother’s distant cousins on a farm three hours away in County Waterford.  They are strangers to Cáit, but Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley) warmly welcomes her into their household with more affection than we’ve ever seen from her parents. Seán (Andrew Bennet) is reserved at first, but eventually he and Cáit form a strong bond working on the farm together.  It’s clear that Cáit is blossoming from being loved for the first time, and that Eibhlín and Seán are finding something they were missing as well.

This is a beautiful and gentle story and it uses the language of film to portray the perspective of a child, with all the wonders and horrors that entails.  I actually felt so angry early on because the way Cáit’s family treats is atrocious and inexcusable. But I felt even more emotional at the acts of kindness and love when Cáit finds her true family with Eibhlín and Seán.

Rating: ****1/2

 

90 Movies in 90 Days: Old Joy

~ Liam ~ 6 Comments

I’m kicking off 2023 by trying to watch and review one movie every day for the first 90 days, all of which will be 90 minutes or less.

Title: Old Joy
Release Date: January 2006
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Production Company: Film Science | Van Hoy/Knudsen Productions | Washington Square Films
Summary/Review:

Old Joy is an early feature film written and directed by Kelly Reichardt, creator of Wendy and Lucy and First Cow. Like those later films it is a quiet character study set in the Pacific Northwest. Mark (Daniel London) and Kurt (Will Oldham) are a pair of thirtysomething men who reunite for an overnight camping trip. The movie also stars Lucy as Mark’s dog Lucy!

Mark is married and a homeowner with a full-time job and anxious about becoming a first-time father.  Kurt continues to live a freewheeling countercultural life that Mark once shared in.  The movie is a reflection on how friendships grow apart and grieves for the lost past and possibilities.  It’s a very well-made film, but be warned that it is also slow-moving.

Rating: ***