Hosive

at the movies is obviously movie reviews with homage to the original mass market movie reviewers siskel and ebert. thumbs up, thumbs down became a powerful marketing device but what made the two successful was insightful criticism that betrayed a love and understanding of the nuance of film. this is what i fed on as a youth and beyond.

my attempts will be more modest…pointing out some basic plot and themes WITHOUT giving away anything…i hate when reviewers do that so casually especially when they are only writing to showcase their cleverness.

i conclude the review using my personal measures of whether a movie is good: watch again? own? rental or theatre? and the more nebulous ‘magical’ rating. that’s how i communicate whether i really love a movie. i may also include whether my wife, theresa liked it. we have different tastes in movies and you can figure out who you’re more like. ps:watch the trailer at your own discretion…these advertising guys don’t care about blowing the plot for you.

che will be released in theatres in january in the states as not one but two movies. together, the movies are about four and a half hours. so file this under (almost)only in nyc: for one week only in ny and la, the two movies were presented back to back with a half an hour intermission….that’s five hour of movie epic bliss. or not.

the movies follow che during two military operations…the successful cuban revolution and the failed and fatal bolivian revolution. it details how a revolution is run in the day to day…and how it comes apart. the great lines of the film are in the trailers…..i’ll paraphrase: a true revolutionary is motivated by love….love of(insert idea or people)she is fighting for…without that love, it is empty. a true revolutionary does what is needed, goes where he is needed….its not just glory but its a lot of the dirty work.

these themes are shown in both movies…with love and true revolutionary fervor in the first and the lack of both by many of the fake revolutionaries in the second.

the power of these films is experiencing the day to day life and at close to five hours, it will feel like you are in the jungles with them for weeks. this is a unique experience…and not for everyone. in some respects, this is a true war movie and i think it only works on the big screen where you are forced to digest it all at once. the power and feel of the struggle is likely lost in translation to a viewing on television.

i doubt that i will watch this again but am glad i got to experience it at the ziegfeld. it was a phenomenal and brutal experience…with parallels to real war. if i did watch it again, it would be the first part only primarily to catch the quotes. i will likely fast forward the war and day to day operations.  i also doubt that i will purchase this movie. but i won’t forget it.

theresa would have hated this movie…which is why i kept her away. double or triple boring from theresa!

this is a modern fairy tale about a man who is aging backwards physically while his mind ages and matures forward and we follow this life from 1918 all the way to 2005 right around the time of hurricane katrina. benjamin’s life weaves in and around real historical events ala forrest gump….not a surprise as the two movies have the same writer!

the movie is about fate and destiny as there are some things you can’t control….and at the same time, its about the power of choice and how life can be rebooted time and time again; the theme of its never too late to do something else/new.  i liked how it presented both these themes and showed how they can be both true and work together. we as humans experience both of these realities flowing in our lives…though we usually lean toward one or the other as a dominant vector.

it was a beautiful journey…and i am partial to epics that go through many time periods…but ultimately a little disappointing. whether you like it may hinge on the big decision that benjamin button makes toward the third act of the film….i disagreed with his choice with a frown. if you agreed with him, you may like the film more.

the film has an everything must end(read: die)theme…and does not give much hope beyond that. i agree with roger ebert that charlie kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York does a better job covering the same territory.

i would watch the movie again but doubt that i would buy it. some of the visuals were better on the big screen but i don’t think its necessarily a must watch at the theatre.  the special effects especially brad pitt unaging are great and all the performaces are first rate. a good movie but not quite magical…but almost.

this is the story of two people brought together by a brief affair and their lives intertwining again when a nazi war crimes trial convenes.

there are a lotta boobies in this movie. just a warning. but if the nudity can be defended, it is mostly tastefully done. but that’s not the point of the movie(its still about nazis). there are two themes permeating….one is the power of the secrets we carry…the effects on our lives having carried those secrets. the other is the broken love we sometimes offer…often we offer a flawed version. there are limits to what we can give…can we accept what others present to us? will we always be dissatisfied? what will we give to others? sometimes, people in their damaged states only have broken pieces.

there are other issues…being a nazi movie…justice, morality, revenge….and an interesting detour exploring self righteousness…one of the law students asked why only a few are held responsible when everyone knew the evil that was happening? in a sense, anyone who knows and keeps quiet is responsible…which points the finger at us on rwanda, bosnia and the sudan. we feel better when we condemn ‘those animals’…but didn’t we know? why are we off the hook? and is that why we are quick to point and shout loudly?

i would watch this again…but not primarily for the boobies(i suspect that’s what you’re thinking)..but for the moving moments of devotion and love that these battered souls try to impart. i don’t know if i would buy this movie…definitely not at full price. i thought it was worth seeing it at a theatre but many will think its a rental.

i like certain kinds of chick flicks…definitely not the dumb kinds. and usually not the ‘marriage(or romance)is the meaning of life’ kinds. i prefer the powerful awakening of the feminine spirit and self discovery kinds. like fried green tomatoes, joy luck club, waitress or juno. there’s romance and love in these movies too but the feminine soul takes priority. and it seems that a high percentage of the ones i like take place in the south…what does the south do to women?

which brings us to the secret lives of bees. all the pieces should be there for me to like this movie…different generations, cross cultural, cross racial lines of women discover themselves as their stories and timelines intertwine. a great cast including queen latifah, dakota fanning, sophie okonedo, alicia keys, paul bettany and jennifer hudson. there’s beautiful scenery and poignant moments throughout. the big issues are all there: family, hope, racial justice, faith, religion….but it didn’t add up to magic. it felt like a television movie and not a theatre movie experience. what was lacking? perhaps the pacing was off?…perhaps the power at the critical moments in the scripts were not climactic enough for me? perhaps the metaphor of the bees life did not bring me to transcendence? not a bad movie…just not a great movie like the ones i listed above. the sum of its parts did not add up to more…to magic.

while worth watching once, i don’t know if i will watch it again. i will unlikely purchase it. but it is a good date movie to bring your girl to. theresa liked most of it in spite of finding dakota fanning annoying; an enjoyable afternoon at the movies with theresa…a respite from the busy northeast.

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as you know, my favorite movie of the season and the year, slumdog millionaire was filmed in mumbai, the site of recent terrorist attacks. here is the director danny boyle talking about his feelings when he heard about the tragedy.

stop! its best that you read my review before you watch the preview video to decide if you really want to..it may rob you of the best theatrical experiences of the year!

this is my favorite movie of 2008. please go if you like movies about destiny, hope, beauty, love, friendship in the midst of an ugly, dirty and brutal world. please stay away if you hate postmodern film making(with flashbacks and timeline movements back and forth, visual metaphors), foreign elements(takes place in bombay, mumbai…and people have accents and there are a few subtitles), destiny, hope, beauty, love, friendship in the midst of an ugly, dirty and brutal world.

i went knowing nothing except the incredible danny boyle(trainspotting, millions, sunshine, 28 days later) directed this and it got outrageously high reviews on rottentomatoes.com i even avoided the preview i posted as they always give away a few highlights ripped out of their emotional context. i won’t give much away except that it is the story of three friends in india as they grow up in the slums through incredible poverty and are follow different paths toward incredible wealth. they must decide their destinies…or is it more like they must receive their destinies?

the movie is also about the city of bombay as it transforms into the city of mumbai and it was creepy to watch this movie on the weekend that the terrorist bombings and shootings were happening. the movie casts light upon the racial, religious and economic tensions as the city redifines itself on a daily basis. changes are abounding with every dawn. of course, i love movies about cities because i think cities are alive and have souls.

we also saw the movie on a whim at the afi silver in silver spring. what a serendipitous choice as the theatre became one of our favorite movie venues! how often does that happen? its an old school restored movie palace with gorgeous details, ample space, terrific sound….its built for the love of movies and not the love of money. an appropriate place to see slumdog.

go see this movie! i will watch this movie over and over again. i will buy it in its most deluxe format!

one of the most innocently haunting movies i have ever seen. this is the holocaust through the eyes of youth…asking ominous questions that we as the adults watching know the answers to but the adults on the screen seem to deny. there are the horrfic details that we recognize but are mysteries to the children: the “pajamas” that the jews wear, the smoke from the chimneys, the stench from the “farm”, the disappearing family members.

in the midst of this horror is the beautiful friendship between the children of predator and prey.

i will not say any more as to not ruin your viewing…..but that this is not as brutal as schindler’s list or saving private ryan but raises the same important issues that will keep us from forgetting this holocaust and help us to see current holocausts in our midst that we need to immediately quell.

i do not know if i would buy this movie but i may watch it again…well, most of it. some parts, i may turn down the volume to and some parts i will need to look away and cry.

we get the big themes from the trailer without ruining the pleasure of watching this movie: “this is not your family” and yet “this is your family”: it is both joyous and painful to relive how familes work…the unconditional, tender love as well as the hurts we carry and inflict. the other tagline is that this is what heaven will be like…the gathering of beloved friends and family….but the movie also depicts the choices that we make that shreds that reality and possibility.

this movie is like attending someone’s wedding and seeing the ins and outs. the genius is how real this feels. the people are real. they act like how real people would react under joyous and tragic situations. these are regular people portraying regular folk. only anne hathaway feels out of place only because she’s well known but she is getting great reviews for this being the best work of her career. if you didn’t know her, she would be more real too.

another idie flick that is not for everyone. it is a direct contrast with anne hathaway’s other wedding movie to come out(video at the end)that one is about the wedding. this one is about marriage and family. the shell and the filling. the image and the reality. the ideal and the actual work needed.

i may watch this again but unlikely to purchase it. i love the music in the film though….and might get the soundtrack. it is world music…and life music…music for art and soul and not merely consumption and sales. the music comes from a place of celebration and having lived and felt. y’know, real music.

a final note on the asian actors who do a great job capturing what western asians are like. the irony is that western asians come across plastic to me. fake smiles. fake small talk. a mind bender that the actors accomplished capturing the reality of fakeness. or were they just being themselves. and why am i repulsed by western asians? is it the spectacle of asians acting white? is it that i think they are only acting?

i’ve read a few reviews that thought this was weird, convoluted, self indulgent or just stupid. i loved it! again….not a movie for everybody but that’s the kind of movie i like these days. if you liked other charlie kaufman stuff like adaptation, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, being john malkovich….than this is for you. if you look at those other movies with the reaction of weird, convoluted, self indulgent or just stupid, stay away.

the movie is wholly original….meaning there is nothing like it….but i know why people won’t like it: it tackles the issue no one likes visiting….how do we live in light of death? its a bummer topic. in addition, it has a weird timeline….we are never sure how much time has passed even as the characters age in front of our eyes. finally, it presents things in metaphors…..metaphors and real life exist on the same plane so there are many what the heck moments. to top it off, its got a title that most can’t pronounce.

but those are the things i love…..reality, the strangeness of time flowing and visual poetry….a different vision. charlie kaufman plants plot points and words and images that only make sense later on. there are more than a few “oh! that’s why that happened” or “oh! that’s what that meant”……it takes work to watch this film….so people won’t like that. but i need films like this. i need art.

the basic plot is a theatre director confronts the beginning of the end of his life with his marriage falling apart. when he receives a genius grant, he stages a massive play that takes the rest of his life….and the plot is about his life and life in general….so he watches his own life play out both in reality and on stage. it includes a life size set recreating new york city. it is insane! i love insanity! because life is insane.

biblically, this is a parable recreating the themes of ecclesiastes which i am preaching through at my church. it tackles the realities and absurdity of life with the same longings and questions.

i would watch this movie again…and i might in the theatre with theresa(i saw it without her on my day off)….the scenes of the recreated nyc are worth watching on the big screen….there are so many rich scenes and deep thoughts, musings and lines. i may even buy it to comb the landscape.

i thought of another reason why people may not like it……they deal with these issues already! and want escape….not more reality. but my hunger is for more reality.

if you liked this movie too, maybe we can be friends.

we went to see this primarily because of the michael cera appeal factor(juno, arrested development)with the promise of indie movie sensibilities and an indie music soundtrack. and good reviews on rotten tomatoes…it was the only of the recent releases with a 70% rating or higher.

its a postmodern teenage romantic comedy set in new york city…..but don’t walk away yet! this is not a gross out, t &a, sexploitation film.  the indie roots eliminate most of the cliches and capture the reality of teenage awkwardness, innocence and charm.

there are two interweaving plots: michael cera is caught between two love interests during one night in the city…and all the cool kids are trying to look for clues to find the location of a super secret concert given by a super cool indie band.

it works best as a nyc movie. i love movies where the city is a character or pervasive backdrop integral to the story. it helps that the movie is actually filmed in nyc as opposed to studio lots or worse….filmed in another city but trying to pass off as ny(see jackie chan’s laughable rumble in the bronx with mountains in the skyline).

we recognized neighborhoods, sites and restaurants….and those scenes are magical. i(always)joke to theresa during a nyc movie that i wish i lived there! its an enjoyable romp through my city with an audio tour of what the kids are listening to today.

however, i did not buy the romantic triangle as the tension point of the story….michael cera has a choice between a rich, intelligent, real, heart of gold girl who totally digs him and a spoiled, superficial, fake evil hearted two face who uses him. duh! i just didn’t see why there was any tension! i also didn’t buy that the asian guy was gay.

but i would watch this again….and i might buy the soundtrack. i might even buy this to have a movie that really captures a nice snapshop of the city in the early 21st century.

in my last movie post, i reviewed the disturbing indie film towelhead which i could recommend to….no one. or very few because of the disturbing issues it addresses. but i still think that the ideas put forth are worth thinking about.

here are a few videos to give you an idea about the nuances of towelhead for the majority of you who suspect that the movie will be too intense for you. the issues need to be discussed but the movie may not be the right starting point for most. this way, we can dialog without you feeling that i subjected you to something horrific. i don’t know if i could stomach the movie again myself.

here’s a video from the director’s perspective:

….the cast perspective:

and finally, the lead actress perspective: