Liberal Arts (2012)

Genre: Comedy / Drama

Directed by: Josh Radnor

Starring: Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen, Richard Jenkins

Running time: 97 minutes

Jesse Fischer finds himself in his mid-thirties, newly single and bored with his job. One day, he gets a call from one of his former college professors and mentors asking him to come and speak at his retirement banquet. Jesse gladly accepts, since he sees the freedom of his college days as the best times of his life. During this trip back to his alma mater, he will meet a 19-year-old female student who will become attracted to him, forcing him to wonder about how he wants to live his life going forward.

Josh Radnor, of How I Met Your Mother-fame, directed this movie and played the lead role in it. In both situations, he did a very solid job. This independent film is loaded with charm. The pace is slow, but it slowly grows on you and pulls you in. There’s a big loss of innocence here, over a past being idealized, which stops you from moving forward. All of the characters felt so real, like I knew them myself. I must admit most of them reminded me of people I have met in my university days.

In a sense, Liberal Arts did hit close to home for me. The main character is about at the same as I was when I started asking myself some of those questions about getting older and letting go of the past. Real life in the adult world can be challenging, and it is a challenge that has to be faced head-on. Things were not so ideal then, nostalgia just tends to pain a rosier picture of any situation.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film. I am sure I will come around to watching it again at a later time and that I will get something else from it then. I highly recommend it.

Rating: ««««

Dead Man Down (2013)

Genre: Thriller

Directed by: Niels Arden Oplev

Starring: Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace, Dominic Cooper, Terrence Howard

Running time: 117 minutes

After the murder of his wife and daughter, Victor decides to infiltrate the criminal organization of kingpin Alphonse Hoyt, the man responsible for the crime. As he works towards his ultimate goal to bring that criminal empire down, his French neighbor Beatrice gets in his way. She witnesses him killing a man, and she threatens to tell the cops if he does not help her seek revenge on the man who caused her car accident, which left her severely disfigured and ruined her life.

The storyline of Dead Man Down is interesting enough and most of the international cast delivering the lines is doing it efficiently, but something is amiss. The storytelling is so very much uninspired. There are too many illogical plot twists and the film drags on and on for much too long. I found myself looking over and over again to see how much time was left; that is never a good sign. Then, the denouement comes and it is not as satisfying as it should be.

Dead Man Down is the first movie directed by Niels Arden Oplev after The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. With such an international ensemble cast and a good story, he should have made a much better movie. There were some good elements, but many faults make this film a non essential on any cinephile’s list.   

Rating: ««

The Guilt Trip (2012)

Genre: Comedy

Directed by: Anne Fletcher

Starring: Barbra Streisand, Seth Rogan

Running time: 95 minutes

I was looking for something light to watch with my wife on Saturday and The Guilt Trip was chosen. This 2012 comedy tells the story of Andy Brewster, an inventor trying to sell a new cleaning product. As he embarks on a sales trip, he decides to invite his overbearing widowed mother, with the secret mission of reuniting her with an old flame along the way.

Seth Rogan and Barbra Streisand show some very good chemistry on screen. The diva’s character is over-the-top and a little aggravating at the beginning, but she grows on you like she does on her son. It is interesting to see Rogan in another role than that of stoner loser. Here, he plays a very smart but uptight man who needs to learn how to relate to others if he wants to be successful in his job.

At the beginning of the movie, the humor fell kind of flat for me, but, as we went along, the cuteness and the humanity of the whole thing got to me. There has been many father and son and mother and daughter movies, but the mother and son relationship is an interesting perspective also. There were some funny parts, though no real laugh-out-loud moments. Overall, The Guilt Trip is a good light and sweet little movie that will make you want to call or hug your mother when it’s over for not being as overbearing as Barbra’s character…unless she is.

Rating: «««

Bachelorette (2012)

Genre: Comedy

Directed by: Leslye Headland

Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan

Running time: 87 minutes

Three women who all have very deep-rooted issues with alcohol, drugs and sex reunite for the wedding of one of their friends. The bride-to-be is the last one they expected to get hitch, as her weight issues have made her the butt of jokes all her life. The three girls will have to contend with their respective feelings about the black sheep finding love first as they try to organize a bachelorette party for her.

Bachelorette certainly has its moments, as it offers a good dose of honest humor, thus tackling some pressing issues in our society too focused on image and looks. By the end of it, though, it becomes a tad predictable and overly sentimental. On the way there, a few good jokes were thrown in, and it gave me a good chuckle.

The actors and actresses were all OK in their respective roles. Nothing to write home about, but nothing really bad either. Bachelorette is an entertaining movie for what it is, if you go in like I did with low expectations.

Rating: «««

L'Ordre et la Morale (2011)

Genre: Franco / Drama

Réalisateur: Mathieu Kassovitz

Distribution: Mathieu Kassovitz, Iabe Lapacas, Malik Zidi

Running time: 135 minutes

L’Ordre et la Morale raconte l’histoire des événements de 1988, où des indépendantistes kanaks ont tué quatre gendarmes français et pris plusieurs autres en otage sur l’île d’Ouvéa, en Nouvelle-Calédonie, un territoire français. Le Groupe d’intervention de la Gendarmerie nationale (GIGN) a été envoyé sur place pour négocier la libération des otages, mais, vu les élections présidentielles françaises qui approchaient à grands pas, l’armée de terre a aussi été dépêchée et les intérêts politiques ont rapidement pris le dessus sur les intérêts humains.

Plusieurs ont remis en question la version des faits telle que décrite dans le film. Je n’ai pas suffisamment étudié cette question pour juger de la véracité de ce qui nous est montré, mais, en prenant ce film pour ce qu’il est, j’y ai trouvé un très bon divertissement. Les acteurs sont tous très solides dans leur performance. L’action se déroule à bon rythme et nous garde en haleine tout au long du film. Ce film m’a même donné le goût d’en apprendre plus sur ce sujet particulier.

Mathieu Kassovitz, qui a réalisé le film, joue aussi le rôle principal, soit celui du capitaine du GIGN, Philippe Legorjus. Il rend très bien cet homme pris entre deux feux, entre son désir de négocier la libération de ses hommes et des autres otages et la nécessité d’être un bon soldat qui obéit aux ordres, même s’ils ne lui plaisent pas. Kassovitz réussit bien à nous faire sympathiser avec ce capitaine qui n’a d’autre choix que de trahir sa propre parole pour respecter ce qu’on lui a ordonné de faire.

L’Ordre et la Morale est disponible sous son titre anglophone (Rebellion) sur Netflix. Je le recommande fortement. Le film est quelque peu long, mais le temps passe très vite. Quand c’est intéressant, on ne voit pas le temps passer.

Note: ««««

Dark Shadows (2012)

Genre: Horror / Comedy

Directed by: Tim Burton

Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter

Running time: 113 minutes

This 2012 horror/comedy film directed by Tim Burton was based on a gothic soap opera of the same name that was on TV in the late 60’s. It stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, whose family moved from England to Maine to establish a fishing town and build their estate. Their maid, who is also a witch, falls in love with Barnabas, but he doesn’t reciprocate, because he is enamored with beautiful Josette. Scorned, the witch places a curse on the whole Collins family and turns Barnabas into a vampire, before locking him up in a metal tomb and burying him. Almost 200 years later, the sleeping vampire is dug up by mistake and goes on a mission to rescue his family estate, now in ruins.

Tim Burton has accustomed us to his own brand of cartoonish darkness, and he does stay true to that in Dark Shadows. The acting is pretty good here and the story is interesting enough. Johnny Depp is solid as usual, as he does seem to thrive in the Tim Burton universe. There are few odd plot twists and it is dragged out a bit too long towards the end, but this film was a good dose of fun. A few of the lines had me laughing out loud.

All things considered, Dark Shadows is a fun little movie. Nothing too fantastic or bad, just an entertaining flick while it lasts.

Rating: «««

The Source (2011)

Genre: Drama / Comedy

Directed by: Radu Mihaileanu

Starring: Leïla Bekhti, Hafsia Herzi

Running time: 124 minutes

The original title of this film is La Source des femmes, since it was produced in France, but, because I viewed it with English subtitles, I will review it in that language.

The Source tells the story of a group of women in North Africa who are forced by tradition to climb the mountain to a distant source to fetch water every day, all the while their husbands stay home, drink tea and discuss between friends. One day, after one woman falls and loses her child, the idea of a love strike comes up. So, the men will not get any affection in the bedroom before things change.

As they say, the man may wear the pants, but the woman decides when he gets to take them off.

This brilliant film covers a very important subject in the impact of religion and tradition on the treatment of women in certain areas of the world, and it does so with a good dose of humor. Some women are victims of violence because of their decision to impose a strike, but the focus is not put on that. We see the determination of a few to see that things change for the better for all of them. When people want to change old traditions, it is rarely accepted without resistance.

The acting is superb here on everybody’s part. Even though I didn’t understand the language spoken, I totally got the emotions conveyed. I first thought that the story dragged on a bit towards the end, but, when it got to the conclusion, I totally understood why it needed to last so long. It had to go where it needed to go.

Rating: «««««

Chernobyl Diaries (2012)

Genre: Horror

Directed by: Brad Parker

Starring: Jesse McCartney, Jonathan Sadowski, Devin Kelley

Running time: 86 minutes

Chris, his girlfriend Natalie and their friend Amanda are traveling together across Europe. They stop in Ukraine, to see Chris’ brother Paul, on their way to Moscow. While in Kiev, Paul convinces the three friends to embark along with him on an extreme tour with guide Yuri, who wants to bring them to an abandoned city on the edge of the Chernobyl Power Plant. Against Chris’ better judgement, they all go along, with another couple. This trip might just be a lot more than what they bargained for.

This is a very effective horror movie. A lot of modern flicks in that genre tend to go for the a-kill-a-minute formula. Here, the filmmakers build an atmosphere. You know that something is bound to happen, but they make you wait for it. They don’t give it all to you in one block, which makes the whole a lot scarier. You know that these people are not alone on the abandoned site of the Chernobyl disaster, but you are not quite sure what is lurking around them and you are on the edge of your seat, itching to find out.

The acting was even pretty solid here, which is another nice surprise considering it is a horror movie and that acting chops are not always considered when casting these. Nobody comes off as truly fake here, which amplifies the effect the eerie atmosphere provided by the filmmakers.

The story got a little weird towards the end, but, overall, Chernobyl Diaries is a very thrilling ride in the disaster horror genre.

Rating: ««««

Even the Rain (2010)

Genre: Drama

Directed by: Iciar Bollain

Starring: Luis Tosar, Gael Garcia Bernal, Juan Carlos Aduviri

Running time: 104 minutes

Even the Rain is the English title of a Spanish movie called También la lluvia. It tells the story of a Spanish movie director and his executive producer traveling to Bolivia in 2000 to shoot a film about Christopher Columbus’ conquest. Things don’t go as smoothly as planned because they find themselves in the midst of the Bolivian Water War, in which one of their local extras is an integral part. They now face a moral crisis and are torn between their desire to complete their project and the feelings of empathy for a group of native people fighting so hard for something that can seem so basic and easily accessible in other parts of the world.

Though I sometimes find subtitled foreign films difficult to follow, because it can be hard to watch the action fully and read at the same time, Even the Rain is such a beautiful work of art that it was a pleasure to take it all in. The acting was superb, the cinematography extraordinary and the message the film carries is powerful. I could not understand the language being spoken, but every actor conveyed the needed emotions in their eyes and in their whole faces.

Even the Rain certainly is not a light little film, but it is well worth the time and effort for anyone willing to embark on a thought-provoking ride. That final scene has remained with me for the past few days, such profound imagery in something so simple.

Rating: «««««

Lord of the Flies (1990)

Genre: Drama

Directed by: Harry Hook

Starring: Balthazar Getty, Chris Furrh, Danuel Pipoly

Running time: 90 minutes

This 1990 film is the second cinematic version of William Golding’s book of the same name. I remember vaguely this movie being showed to us in English class, in high school, and I was curious to see it again at this stage of my life. Before watching the remake, I saw the 1963 black-and-white original.

In the remake, a group of young military school cadets crash on a deserted island while flying back home. They have to learn to live without adult supervision, and rival factions forming amongst the group is bound to mean their demise if they are not rescued.

While the black-and-white original was really efficient at building an atmosphere of tension between the boys on the island, in the 1990 remake, the story just seems to be plodding along. A big issue to me is the actors. The kids in the 1963 film didn’t come off as actors reciting lines. They all seemed so natural. In the remake, the young ones are all mostly wooden in their acting and very amateurish in their performance. They come off as a bunch of high school kids rehearsing a play.

There are a few interesting elements in this one, like seeing that pig head on a stick with the flies in color, but, for the most part, I recommend watching the original and skipping the remake.

Rating: ««