Love and Other Drugs

Movies to See Right Now

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Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in The Fighter

Now is the time to catch future Oscar contenders on the big screen, especially crowd pleasers like True Grit, The King’s Speech and Black Swan.

True Grit is the Coen Brothers’ splendid Old West story of Mattie Ross, a girl of unrelenting resolve and moxie played by 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld in a breakthrough performance, and Jeff Bridges is perfect as the hilarious, oft-besotted and frequently lethal Rooster Cogburn. The King’s Speech is the crowd pleasing story of a good man (Colin Firth) overcoming his stammer to inspire his nation in wartime with the help of a brassy commoner (Geoffrey Rush). Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a rip roaring thriller and a showcase for Natalie Portman and Barbara Hershey.

I strongly recommend Rabbit Hole, an exquisite exploration of the grieving process with great performances by Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhardt, Diane Wiest, Sandra Oh and Miles Tenner. The Fighter is an excellent drama, starring Mark Wahlberg as a boxer trying to succeed despite his crack addict brother (Christian Bale) and trashy mom (Melissa Leo). Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, is also excellent.  All are on my list of Best Movies of 2010.

I Love You, Phillip Morris is an entertaining offbeat combo of the con man, prison and romantic comedy genres.  Red Hill is a stylish contemporary Aussie Western.  Season of the Witch is a bad Nicholas Cage/Ron Perlman buddy movie set among the plague, crusades and witch hunts of the 13th century.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. You can see the trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is In the Name of the Father. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include 12 Angry Men, I Want to Live! and Glory on TCM.

Updated Movies To See Right Now

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Black Swan: Natalie Portman is under a little too much pressure

It’s the Holidays – this is your best chance to see a few excellent films.   I strongly recommend Rabbit Hole, an exquisite exploration of the grieving process with great performances by Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhardt, Diane Wiest, Sandra Oh and Miles Tenner. True Grit is the Coen Brothers’ splendid Old West story of Mattie Ross, a girl of unrelenting resolve and moxie played by 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld in a breakthrough performance, and Jeff Bridges is perfect as the hilarious, oft-besotted and frequently lethal Rooster Cogburn. The King’s Speech is the  crowd pleasing story of a good man (Colin Firth) overcoming his stammer to inspire his nation in wartime with the help of a brassy commoner (Geoffrey Rush).   Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a rip roaring thriller and a showcase for Natalie Portman and Barbara Hershey. The Fighter is an excellent drama, starring Mark Wahlberg as a boxer trying to succeed despite his crack addict brother (Christian Bale) and trashy mom (Melissa Leo). Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, is also excellent. I Love You, Phillip Morris is an entertaining offbeat combo of the con man, prison and romantic comedy genres. For some delectable food porn, see Kings of Pastry.

Love and Other Drugs is a passable comedy.

There are some Must See films still kicking around in theaters this week: Inside Job and The Social Network. Both are on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

I didn’t pick a new DVD of the Week.  This is the time to catch up on the year’s best, such as Winter’s Bone, Toy Story 3, Inception, The Secrets in Their Eyes, A Prophet, Mademoiselle Chambon, Ajami, The Girl on the Train, The Ghost Writer and Joan River: A Piece of Work, all available on DVD.   For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include Arsenic and Old Lace, My Darling Clementine and The Producers on TCM.

2010 in Review: The Year of Lousy Comedies

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It’s not that weren’t ANY good comedies in 2010 – just not many.  And none made my list of the best films of the year.  The funniest movie was Iron Man 2, a comedy masquerading as a super hero movie.

Going the Distance and I Love You, Phillip Morris were good romantic comedies – a particularly meager genre this year.  Going the Distance was a rarity – a sweet, smart, funny and successful romantic comedy for adults.  Screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe tried a novel approach that respected the audience – creating characters like the ones we know in real life, who talk and act like real people do.  Instead of an implausible set-up, the conflict was the real problem of a bi-coastal romance.  The offbeat I Love You, Phillip Morris was a gay version of the con man, prison and rom com genres, and the risk paid off.

Once, we get past the three best comedies, there were the passable (but not especially noteworthy) Get Him to the Greek, Morning Glory, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Please Give, Get Low, Love and Other Drugs, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Youth in Revolt, Cyrus and Death at a Funeral.

The Locksmith, a funny little movie which won the low-budget award at Sundance, didn’t even get a theatrical release.

It was disappointing, because even the good 2010 comedies didn’t match up with 2009’s really funny and original movies:  (500) Days of Summer, Away We Go, Zombieland, The Hangover, In the Loop, Funny People and I Love You, Man.

This year, we had crappy comedies like Pirate Radio, Date Night and Soul Kitchen.   The worst movies that I saw this year were so-called comedies Tooth Fairy and Leap Year – two films that no one thought were good (but that I was stuck with on a long airline flight).   Not to mention that the most reviled movies of the year included the alleged comedies Sex in the City 2, Valentine’s Day, The Back-up Plan, Due Date, How Do You Know, Yogi Bear and Little Fockers.

So here’s the trailer for a non-lousy comedy (a romantic comedy, even), the original and funny Going the Distance.

Movies to See Right Now – Updated

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Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in Fair Game

The best of the recent films is Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. Morning Glory is a passable comedy, as is Love and Other Drugs.

There are some Must See films still kicking around in theaters this week: Inside Job, The Social Network and Hereafter. All three are already on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

The Town is hanging around theaters and, without strongly recommending it, I can say that it is a satisfying Hollywood thriller.  If you’ve seen the first two Lisbeth Salander movies from Sweden, then you should complete the trilogy with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

I have not yet seen Black Swan or I Love You, Phillip Morris, opening this weekend.  You can see the trailers at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD of the Week is Mademoiselle Chambon, the year’s best romance.  My top two American films of the year are now available on DVD – the indie Winter’s Bone and Pixar’s Toy Story 3. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include The Caine Mutiny, Annie Hall, Easy Rider and Stagecoach on TCM.

Love and Other Drugs

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Love and Other Drugs has the advantage of two winning leads and lots of sex.  Anne Hathaway gives a profoundly deep and textured performance as a smart and horny woman urgently living life to the fullest in a desperate race with Parkinson’s Disease.  Jake Gyllenhaal nails the role of a charismatic and relentless serial seducer. And the two of them have lots of sex.  Fully naked sex.

Unfortunately, Love and Other Drugs peters out into a Disease-of-the-Week movie, albeit pretty good for that forlorn genre.

One moment in particular illustrates how much better this film could have been.  Hathaway emerges from a Parkinson’s support group uplifted and empowered, while Gyllenhaal has just received an unvarnished description of living with Parkinson’s from the husband of a later stage patient.  We see what she doesn’t – that the two are no longer on the same page.  Peter Friedman plays the patient’s husband with an authenticity that will be recognized by anyone who has experienced caregiver fatigue.  It’s a great scene – but then the movie turns sappy.

Sadly, the overly broad comic relief attempted by Josh Gad as Gyllenhaal’s little brother merely distracts from the story.  So does the sappy score – beware soulful piano in the third act. And when a movie climaxes by having the boy race to catch the girl in the nick of time, it’s as much of a cliché to catch up to the bus as it is to pant up to an airport loading gate.