wonga's filmblog

TEN CANOES (B) - i liked it. i probably wouldn't have gone if i hadn't heard such good things about it first on FilmCouch. what's there not to like about lots of little people with no clothes on running around in the woods, building canoes, hunting, and telling stories.

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR (B+) - liked it a lot. Tom Hanks is at his best when he's funny and charming (instead of sentimental). very entertaining, and Philip Seymour Hoffman was awesome. don't know how the facts stack up but it's a great story. one of my favorite scenes is when they are shooting down Russian helicopters to the music of Handel; it's just perfect.

THE SAVAGES (B) - supposed to be an "adult comedy" but it's really not funny. i liked it but i'm not sure i'd want to see it again. i loved the opening surreal scenes from Sun Valley. there are moments in this movie that are absolutely perfect and it's well worth checking out. i could see the end coming but i liked it anyway. Laura Linney does find her inner dog person and gets an Oscar nomination but i don't see her winning.

SOUTHLAND TALES (B) - i'm not going to pretend that i know anything about what is going on in this movie! i did think it was really funny. the cast is fun to watch and the special effects, especially at the end, have to be seen on the big screen. i think it will turn out to be a huge cult film and down the road everyone will say that they loved it from the beginning.

wow - i am SO behind. before i list my top movies for 2007 here are some capsule ratings of movies i've seen in the theater the last couple months.

Into The Wild (B) - i liked this a lot, more than i expected. i put off seeing it because it didn't sound like something i would be interested in but actually it was very involving. i don't think the movie really makes him out to be a hero, he's just an unfortunate guy who screws up. cinematography was beautiful. loved the music. great supporting performances.

Wristcutters: A Love Story (B) - very original and different from anything else i saw this year (which is good)! incidentally, i have a black hole under the front seat of my car too.

Lars And The Real Girl (B) - very different kind of movie than you'd think from the premise. very heartwarming and sweet. unbelievable toward the end but still worth seeing.

Martian Child (D+) - poor screenplay that jerks the audience around. tries to be funny/quirky and fails miserably (i'm the only one i know who didn't like it, however, and everybody else around me was crying at the end - go figure).

Dan In Real Life (C) - i know a lot of people liked this movie but i didn't much! the family was so strange with all their "activities" and i thought the slapstick parts were not funny. i liked the actors but not the writing. 

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (B-) - i know, it's not historically correct, but i just loved watching Cate Blanchett and all the extravagant sets and costumes,  not to mention Clive Owen.

Ira And Abby (C+) - funny but ultimately somewhat forgettable.

The Darjeeling Limited (A) - i know this has gotten mixed reviews but i absolutely loved it. as soon as i saw Adrien Brody's long legs running in slow motion for the train i just knew that it was going to be a great movie. i like all of Wes Anderson's movies but this is now my favorite. my favorite scene: the three brothers are meditating with their mother when they conjure up a train-full of people, memories, and animals. not just quirky and funny but also moving and insightful.

Bella (B-) - this is somewhat of a food movie, which part i liked. i also liked the performances but the story was not very coherent and there were some stereotypes that detracted. i was the only one in the theater and what i remember most is that i had to go find the projectionist as the movie was out of frame and i couldn't read the subtitles.

August Rush (B-) - this movie was so weird, how could i not be sucked in. i did like the music and acting but the story was pure fairy tale or maybe science fiction, with alien-like people who communicated by music tones and read each other's thoughts with no need to speak. completely over-the-top corny and almost constantly improbable (including a black church that seemed to house homeless people and also had a gigantic cathedral pipe organ).

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (A) - this was so wonderful! i still think about it. it's not what i thought it would be at all from the previews. it was dream-like yet seemed so authentic. i felt almost like a time-traveler. i could see how people lived and things really looked back then, with scenes like pictures from a history book. it would have been the absolute perfect movie if there were completely unknown actors. everybody was so familiar - from other movies, TV shows, and just being famous i guess. anyway, i'm really looking forward to reading the book it was based on.

No Country For Old Men (B+) - this movie was a puzzle, to me anyway, and i don't think i'm the only one. maybe it's not supposed to be understood so easily. after reading comments about it from others i know i really need to see it again! great performances, especially Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones. i liked that it was such a quiet movie but that amplified every noise and whisper in the theater, mostly the people behind us who commented out loud about everything (they didn't like it). i'm notoriously squeamish but it wasn't that scary (to look at anyway)!

The Bible Tells Me So (A) - not perfect by any means but one of my favorite documentaries this or any other year. the stories of these families are completely engaging and by the end when everything comes together it is really moving. i wish more people could see it.

White Christmas (B) - it was fun seeing this on the big screen. i forgot how much fun Danny Kaye can be.

Enchanted (C+) - this was OK up until the end, when things got a little big and strange. i hope this leads to people who like Amy Adams watching Junebug (and that there's not a sequel).

Gone Baby Gone (B-) - everything about this was great except the story. the story was so improbable that it undermined the rest of the movie for me. and yes, Amy Ryan is fabulous.

Michael Clayton (A-) - i'm not much of a thriller person but i really enjoyed this. great character development and story. the music was somewhat intrusive but otherwise i loved it.

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (D) - i'm sure this is a masterpiece and one of the best movies of the year but it was so depressing and so soul-sucking that i couldn't wait for it to end!

Atonement (C) - this was such a huge disappointment. it's gotten awards and nominations, critics love it, and i was all ready to be caught up in the story and suffer along with these young lovers (just like The English Patient everybody said, which i love), but i felt - nothing! i kept waiting for something and then it was over. it was beautiful but all on "the surface," with no heart or whatever that special something is that makes you care. i haven't read the book but it must be better than this!

Starting Out In The Evening (A) - great underrated and understated movie that deserves more recognition. i really cared about these people. i loved seeing Lili Taylor portray someone other than a whacko and look actually beautiful doing it. Frank Langella was so great and the ending was just about the most perfect ending of any movie this year.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (C) - about what i expected, with uneven funniness (i did like the Beatles).

Margot At The Wedding (A-) - this has also gotten mixed reviews but i really liked it. Jennifer Jason Leigh is one of my favorite actors and i wish she worked more. the trailer (once again) makes it look more like a comedy than it is. very knowing about complicated family relationships and that family stuff you can't even put into words!

in 1970 our whole family piled in the car and did the vacation thing, driving to NYC, Washington DC, etc., (a big deal, since we lived in Colorado). one very memorable highlight was a stop at the Smithsonian/Air and Space Museum, where we saw the Apollo 11 capsule and rocks that the year before had been on the moon. this documentary brings all that back and how awesome it was. most of these Apollo astronauts are in their 70s now and i'm so happy that they've been given the chance to share their experiences and stories. great stuff, with footage that hasn't been available before.

this very funny movie has a subversive streak, on the surface being a typical teenage movie surrounding predicaments with obtaining liquor and getting laid, but underneath exploring universal themes of friendship, insecurity, etc. it really is a sweet movie (the R rating seems to be for language only, with no nudity) and it's also very much a cautionary tale with regard to the consequences of underage drinking. it's definitely a classic and i'm sure we'll soon see millions of McLovin T-shirts!

apparently this is a "lost gem" and i was lucky to see it. i heard going in that it was dark and depressing so i was waiting the whole time for the shoe to drop, which never happened. the whole story was the shoe dropping i guess! in summary, it's the story of Stan and his little family who live in a ghetto. he works in a slaughterhouse, hence the title. there's really no story arc, just observations of the family and their life. i think more than half the movie was children playing outside in what passed for a neighborhood. i read somewhere that it was hard to get the music rights, which is why it wasn't released before, but without the music it would have been an entirely different movie. highly recommended. 

(a collaborative review by JIMBELL and wonga). 

The Painted Veil (2006), one of the best movies of the year, is a wonderfully original and relevant story. It’s original because it’s a romance in reverse. When Walter (Edward Norton) and Kitty’s (Naomi Watts) new marriage sinks from neutral to adultery, we expect the whole thing to end dismally, but the husband and wife slowly mature and slowly grow closer together. The Painted Veil is relevant for the hope it touches in us that we, too, might earn such redemption.

When Dr. Walter Fane is home in England from China, he’s attracted to Kitty principally because she is pretty. Although she does not return his infatuation, she agrees to marry him because of subtle pressure from her family. She is shallow, easily bored, and used to luxury; her strengths are probably parties and social tennis. He is repressed, awkward, and unable to chit chat; his strengths are probably scientific research and concrete problem solving. They have almost nothing in common, their marriage does not magically blossom, and she has an affair with the British Vice Consul (Liev Schreiber) in Shanghai. Although she has the affair, the movie makes clear that they are both at fault. While arguing, he says (all quotations approximate), "I knew you were shallow but I’d hoped for something more," (to which she could have replied, "I knew you were an introvert buried in his work but I’d hoped for something more)." Actually, she replies, "If a man doesn’t have what it takes for a woman to fall in love with him it’s not her fault," (to which he could have responded, "If a woman doesn’t have what it takes to change a husband’s infatuation to real love it’s not his fault)."

When Walter announces that they are trekking into the interior of China to help in one of the areas hardest hit by the cholera epidemic, the complexity of his motivation exemplifies the depth of the characters in this story. Foremost, he wants to punish his wife by exposing her to hardship and disease but maybe, as he claims later in the story, his primary motivation is to punish himself. He despises himself for making such a mess of his marriage but he also has a humanitarian interest in helping where he is really needed and he has a scientific interest as a physician and bacteriologist. Both these motivations become prominent when he starts working in the remote village.

Things are at an icy stand-off in the marriage and there is no escape. She then starts to hear great things about her husband. For example, the kids at the Roman Catholic orphanage love him. He starts to see her becoming useful and doing good work—she is playing piano and leading games with the children at the orphanage. As the ice thaws, Walter sums up: "We were wrong to expect in each other what was not there." When they visit the local British Deputy Commissioner (Toby Jones) and his gamine Mongolian lover (fashion model Yu Lin), the common-law wife says the attraction to her husband is that "he’s a good man," and Kitty wonders, "What woman ever loved a man for his virtue?" She’s open to new ideas, she realizes this is a good one, and she embraces it. Their love grows.

Excellent music, fine cinematography, and great acting convey the story. The artistic care taken with this story manifests itself yet again in the final scene. Kitty and her 5-year-old son are shopping in London. Unlike an earlier scene, Kitty decides that buying cut flowers is not frivolous. They then bump into the Vice Consul and as the camera cuts back and forth between the son and the lover of five years ago you try to figure out if he was the father. You can’t -- which is the point -- and it doesn’t matter. In direct contrast to an earlier scene where Kitty was instantly enamoured with his ambassadorial charms, she now finds him sorely lacking compared to the memory of Walter.

hard to believe this is a debut movie for this director (Sarah Polley), who is also a pretty good actress! a story about someone who has Alzheimer's doesn't sound like a good time but it really is a beautiful and wise movie. it's not a disease-of-the-week movie but instead is a love story, with universal themes about life and what's really important. the music and cinematography were beautiful and i loved the quiet slow way the story unfolded. the acting was exceptional and i've already heard Julie Christie mentioned in oscar buzz but i was the most impressed by the man who played her husband (Gordon Pinsent).