DVD of the Week: 50/50

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who has reliably excellent taste in his choice of movie scripts) stars in this cancer comedy.  Yes, cancer comedy.  Seth Rogen plays his buddy.  And it’s funny.  Pretty damn funny.

Writer Will Reiser takes the story from his own bout with the Big C.   Reiser’s real life friend Seth Rogen helped him through the ordeal.

As usual, Gordon-Levitt is excellent.  And, if you’re out chasing skirts while bald and weak from chemotherapy, who could be a better wing man than Seth Rogen?

Anna Kendrick (so good in Up in the Air) plays the cringingly green psychologist assigned to help the patient face his 50/50 chance of survival.   Bryce Dallas Howard (excellent as the achingly fragile survivor in Hereafter) plays the girlfriend with the best intentions but neither aptitude for care giving or unlimited loyalty.  Angelica Huston plays not just another smothering mom.  They’re all very good – good enough to play against Gordon-Levitt and Rogen.  So are Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer (Max Headroom) as fellow cancer patients.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: much more than a fish-out-of-water comedy

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As you can see from the trailer, this story of aged Brits seeking a low-budget retirement in India looks like enjoyable fluff with a great cast.  I was expecting a fish-out-of-water comedy, but found much more than that.  Besides dealing with the culture shock issues (which are plenty funny), the characters each forge their own journeys of self-discovery.

Of course, the cast is a superb collection of British acting talent:  Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith,  Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton (Downton Abbey).  Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire is their genial and scattered host.

Nighy is especially brilliant as a guy trapped too long by his own profound decency.  Dench delivers an equally outstanding performance as a woman determined to make her own way for the first time.  In another acting gem, Tom Wilkinson follows a thread from his secret past and uncovers a moving revelation.

But those are just the highlights.  Go see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the rest.

The Five-Year Engagement: romantic comedy with authenticity

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In The Five-Year Engagement, a couple falls crazy in love as their careers are on the verge of taking off – she’s an academic, he’s a chef. She gets the opportunity to do a post-doc at the University of Michigan, so he shelves the opening of a San Francisco restaurant to follow her to Ann Arbor, where she flourishes.  However, he sputters and finally spirals into deep unhappiness.  Can their love overcome all?  [Yes – this is not Romeo and Juliet where everybody dies].

Of course, they have zany best friends and the usual maddening parents.  And a move from the Bay Area to Ann Arbor (depicted as perpetually snow-laden, with occasional parades of reveling frat boys) creates plenty of comic opportunities, especially as he shops his skills in cutting edge cuisine among the local eateries.

But the best thing about Five-Year Engagement is the authenticity of the situation.  There are no wacky plot devices; this story could all really happen – and is the narrative for some couples today.

Another plus is that Jason Segal and Emily Blunt are very good as the appealing couple.  Overall, the cast is excellent, although the Australian actress Jacki Weaver, who carried Animal Kingdom, is wasted in a one-note role as a nagging mother.

In fact, I feel guilty that I didn’t like Five-Year Engagement more than I did, but it did seem to drag in places.  Still, it’s a worthwhile romantic comedy.

 

Worst Movie Mothers

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Piper Laurie as Margaret White in CARRIE

Mother’s Day is coming up, so I’ll trot out my list of Worst Movie Mothers.   Piper Laurie played one scarily twisted mom in Carrie, but she’s only Number Four on my list.  Note:  some readers have found this list very unpleasant.

Movies to See This Week

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HEADHUNTERS

For sheer entertainment, I recommend the Norwegian dark comedy Headhunters, with Aksel Hennie as a smug corporate headhunter/art thief who panics when a high tech commando hunts him down.

The must-see movie in theaters now remains Monsieur Lazhar, the story of French-Canadian fifth graders recovering from a traumatic experience with their replacement teacher, an Algerian immigrant. It’s an emotionally compelling film that was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

Last week’s releases were middling.  The best of the bunch, the romantic comedy The Five-Year Engagement, is intelligent, authentic and leisurely with some chuckles.    The Hunter is a paranoid thriller, starring Willem Dafoe as a professional hunter sent to the primordial forests of Tasmania.  Pirates! Band of Misfits is a merely amusing offering from the masters of claymation, Aardman Studios (Wallace and Gromit); don’t pay extra to see it in 3D.

I haven’t yet seen the very promising The Exotic Marigold Hotel which opens this weekend. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick this week is War Horse, Steven Spielberg’s World War I epic.

 

DVD of the Week: War Horse

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War Horse is a sweeping epic that traces the journey of an especially spirited horse and its series of owners before and during World War I.  It’s not a critical spoiler to let you know that the horse survives, although its various handlers are all savaged by war.

It’s a movie that we could have seen in the 1950s – but a very, very good 1950s movie.  The story is sentimental, but neither simple nor dully plotted.  The movie is beautifully composed and shot, and many scenes recall John Ford’s use of landscapes and action.  The silhouettes and sky in the final shot are lit as in the similar climax of Gone With the Wind.

War Horse is also one of the better movies about World War I, of which the central fact was its massive, brutally stupid waste of lives on a thereto unimagined scale.  Along the way we see clear and accurate depictions of trench warfare, No Man’s Land, foraging, and the relative utility of cavalry, infantry, artillery, machine guns, and tanks.  Spielberg doesn’t distract us from the overall horror with unnecessary gore.

Movies to See this Week

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Aksel Hennie and friend in HEADHUNTERS

For sheer entertainment, I recommend the Norwegian dark comedy Headhunters, with Aksel Hennie as a smug corporate headhunter/art thief who panics when a high tech commando hunts him down.

The must-see in theaters remains Monsieur Lazhar, the story of French-Canadian fifth graders recovering from a traumatic experience with their replacement teacher, an Algerian immigrant. It’s an emotionally compelling film that was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

Last week’s releases were middling.  The best of the bunch, the romantic comedy The Five-Year Engagement, is intelligent, authentic and leisurely with some chuckles.  The Hunter is a paranoid thriller, starring Willem Dafoe as a professional hunter sent to the primordial forests of Tasmania.  Pirates! Band of Misfits is a merely amusing offering from the masters of claymation, Aardman Studios (Wallace and Gromit); don’t pay extra to see it in 3D.

You can skip Damsels in Distress, Whit Stillman’s misfire of an absurdist campus comedy.

You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick this week is Haywire, Steven Soderbergh’s rockem sockem spy action thriller, introducing the mixed martial arts star Gina Carano.

Headhunters: from smoothly confident scoundrel to human pinata

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The smug Norwegian corporate headhunter named Roger Brown (don’t ask) explains his motivation at the very beginning of the movie:  at 5 feet, 6 inches, his insecurity about keeping his six foot blond wife leads him to cut some corners.  As ruthlessly successful as he is in business, he feels the need to also burgle the homes of his clients and steal art treasures.  So the dark comedy thriller Headhunters (Hodejegerne) begins like a heist movie.  But soon Roger becomes targeted by a client with serious commando skills, unlimited high tech gizmos,  and a firm intention to make Roger dead.

Roger Brown is played brilliantly by Aksel Hennie, a huge star in Norway who looks like a cross between Christopher Walken and Peter Lorre. The laughs come from Roger’s comeuppance as he undergoes every conceivable humiliation while trying to survive.  As a smoothly confident scoundrel, Roger is at first not that sympathetic, but Hennie turns him into a panicked and terrified Everyman when he becomes a human pinata.

Headhunters is based on a page-turner by the Scandinavian mystery writer Jo Nesbo.   There are reports that Headhunters will be remade soon by Hollywood.  In the mean time, see Headhunters and have a fun time at the movies.