I thought that there are things about Like Crazy to admire: two appealing leads, an intelligent and authentic story, a realistic beginning to the relationship, and a fine falling-in-love montage.
But my wife and her gal pals loathed it. Why? Primarily because they didn’t care about any of the characters. Of course that makes sense, because if you don’t relate to the characters, you’ll never buy into the story. The key to the story is an impulsive and stupid decision by the female lead that leads to the separation of the lovers; if you don’t care about the couple when this happens, then she’s just stupid.
The gals also pointed out that the extremely talented Jennifer Lawrence didn’t have much to do in this film other than get dumped twice by the same guy. On reflection, they have a good point there.
Kristin Scott Thomas stars in another French film, this time as a journalist tracking the story of a girl during the WWII roundup of Jews in France. Her probe of events almost sixty years in the past becomes more and more personal, and profoundly entangles more and more people. It’s a compelling story, and no actor can portray intensity and doggedness better than Scott Thomas. Co-stars Niels Arestrup (A Prophet) and Aidan Quinn.
A team of three Mossad agents are charged with kidnapping a Nazi war criminal out of 1964’s East Berlin. One aspect of the mission remains incomplete, and the three must address it 30 years later. It’s a ripping yarn with some serious comments on the costs of both truth and untruth. Helen Mirren is brilliant as one of the team, as is Jessica Chastain, playing her younger self. Directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love).
Super 8 is a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. A group of small town kids in the 1970s are making their own horror movie when a spectacular train crash unleashes a space alien threat government disinformation. The real achievement in this film is the story of the kids – their speech, actions, fears and hopes are written to be utterly authentic. I can’t think of a movie that does a better job of depicting American 11 to 13-year-olds.
The special effects are top-rate, especially the train wreck and the alien creature. But the adult characters who propel the sci fi story are shallow and two-dimensional.
Nevertheless, director J.J. Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield) has created a very special coming of age film. I liked it.
I recently updated Movies I’m Looking Forward To, where you can see descriptions and trailers of upcoming films. I’ve included some Oscar bait coming out just before the end of 2011, including:
A Dangerous Method: David Cronenberg’s tale of Freud and Jung with Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbinder, Vincent Cassel and Keira Knightly.
The Iron Lady with Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher.
Coriolanus: Ralph Fiennes’ contemporary version of the Shakespeare play.
Carnage: Roman Polanski’s dark comedy with John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster, Christoph Walz and Kate Winslet.
There are some good choices on the long holiday weekend. Like Crazy is a romance, pure and not so simple.
J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood’s interesting take on J. Edgar Hoover’s twisted psyche has some fine performances, but draaaaags. In contrast, Margin Call is a taut financial meltdown drama with superb performances by Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany and Stanley Tucci. Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In is a beautiful and disturbing thriller – Out There as only Almodovar can do. The Ides of March is a fine political drama with Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and George Clooney. Drive is a stylishly arty and ultraviolent action film, also with Ryan Gosling.
On the lighter side, 50/50 is an engaging cancer comedy with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen. The raunchy comedy A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas is filled with lots of jokes and hilarious cameos by Neil Patrick Harris and Danny Trejo.
PBS is featuring the top rate British spy drama Page Eight on this week’s Masterpiece Contemporary.
If you can still find it, don’t miss Take Shelter, Jeff Nichols’ brilliant tale of a psychotic breakdown with Oscar-worthy performances by Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. One of the Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.
I haven’t yet seenthe The Descendants or Into the Abyss, which open soon. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
Want to curl up with some DVDs for the long weekend? It’s a great chance to catch up with some of the year’s best. Here are three from my Best Movies of 2011 – So Far: the wonderfully sweet Beginners, with Ewan MacGregor and Christopher Plummer, Incendies (the year’s best movie so far) and Errol Morris’ gutbustingly funny documentary Tabloid.
The Academy’s short list of candidates for the Best Documentary Oscar includes two films on my Best Movies of 2011 – So Far: Buck and Project Nim. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory from the HBO Paradise series also made the list. All fifteen films on the short list are here.
You’ll find director Clint Eastwood’s biopic of J. Edgar Hoover to be an interesting take on Hoover’s twisted psyche, if you can stay awake.
Leonardo DiCaprio is excellent playing Hoover over the course of 50 years. So is Armie Hammer (who played the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network) as Hoover’s long time companion Clyde Tolson. Judi Dench nails the role of Hoover’s nightmare mom.
Eastwood and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (who won an Oscar for Milk) see Hoover as a man tortured by the expectations of his scary mother, which keep him from physically completing his lifelong love affair with Tolson. That’s an interesting take.
Yet the movie drags. When your protagonist is arresting celebrity gangsters, solving the Crime of the Century, persecuting left-wingers and blackmailing Presidents, your story should pop and sizzle.
The movie also suffers from distractingly bad make-up on the older Clyde Tolson and the Richard Nixon characters.
