Stanley Tucci

DVD of the Week: The Hunger Games

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Jennifer Lawrence in THE HUNGER GAMES

I was impressed by The Hunger Games, a well-paced, well-acted and intelligent sci-fi adventure fable for tweens – and for the rest of us, too.

Since I apparently live under a rock, I was unaware of the source material, the popular and acclaimed young adult fiction trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The only reason I saw The Hunger Games was to accompany The Wife, who had read the first Hunger Games book. I hadn’t even seen the trailer, so I went in totally blind.

The story is set in the future, where several generations after a rebellion, an authoritarian government plucks teenagers from the formerly rebellious provinces to fight to the death in a forest. It’s all broadcast on reality TV for the entertainment of the masses. Children killing children – it doesn’t get much harsher than that.

Jennifer Lawrence plays the heroine, a poor Appalachian girl who volunteers to compete in place of her little sister. Lawrence starred in Winter’s Bone, my pick for the best movie of 2010. Here she carries the movie with her performance as an incredibly determined and resourceful girl. Her character is completely candid and unfiltered. This creates a moment that is all the more powerful when she has to pull off smarmy inauthenticity for an insipid TV interview.

Stanley Tucci is brilliant as the oleaginous reality TV host – it’s an Oscar-worthy performance.

The Hunger Games: the harshest reality tv ever

by
Jennifer Lawrence in THE HUNGER GAMES

I was impressed by The Hunger Games, a well-paced, well-acted and intelligent sci-fi adventure fable for tweens – and for the rest of us, too.

Since I apparently live under a rock, I was unaware of the source material, the popular and acclaimed young adult fiction trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The only reason I saw The Hunger Games was to accompany The Wife, who had read the first Hunger Games book. I hadn’t even seen the trailer, so I went in totally blind.

The story is set in the future, where several generations after a rebellion, an authoritarian government plucks teenagers from the formerly rebellious provinces to fight to the death in a forest.  It’s all broadcast on reality TV for the entertainment of the masses.  Children killing children – it doesn’t get much harsher than that.

Jennifer Lawrence plays the heroine, a poor Appalachian girl who volunteers to compete in place of her little sister.  Lawrence starred in Winter’s Bone, my pick for the best movie of 2010.  Here she carries the movie with her performance as an incredibly determined and resourceful girl. Her character is completely candid and unfiltered.  This creates a moment that is all the more powerful when she has to pull off smarmy inauthenticity for an insipid TV interview.

Stanley Tucci is brilliant as the oleaginous reality TV host – it’s an Oscar-worthy performance.

Margin Call: Will the greedy survive?

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This is a taut drama about an investment bank facing the financial collapse of 2008.  In his first feature, writer-director J.C. Chandor (whose father worked on Wall Street) successfully creates a pressure cooker of a tale.

The story is compressed into a critical 24 hours in the life of the company.  It is set in darkened offices lit only with computer monitors that are gleaming with menacing graphs and spreadsheets.

Stanley Tucci is compelling as the bean counter who discovers an existential threat.  Kevin Spacey (also always good) is the corporate lifer who must clean up the mess.  Don’t overlook the depth of Paul Bettany’s performance as an amoral and personally empty corporate climber who is in it only for the sport and for the adrenaline, using his bonuses merely to keep score.  Finally, in Margin Call‘s most superb performance, Jeremy Irons oozes menacing confidence and power as the CEO who do anything to save his company.

Unfortunately, Chandor cannot create acting range for Simon Baker and Demi Moore, who are out of their depths among the otherwise fine cast.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DqFRsPrns]