Late Halloween Goodies...

I did a lot of Halloween stuff this year; so much that it didn't all get done on time!

Here's a music video I did with Pamela Machala and Rebecca Rego. I probably got a little too cutesy with the editing, but we had a lot of fun recording it, and the song is really catchy!

I did a couple short films this year, too. This first one is a mock nature documentary about our favorite orange gourd.

The second short film was a screw-ball comedy about a couple who have conflicting secrets on Halloween.

Yes, they're late, but let's be honest: Halloween doesn't last nearly long enough. So have another handful of seasonal goodies and enjoy the show!

Short Movie Reviews (In which I reluctantly admit that Ethan Hawke and Kate Beckinsale do some great work)

I've never been a big Ethan Hawke fan. Maybe it's his public persona, or maybe it's the roles he chooses, but I've always avoided seeing his films. But, like Tom Cruise with blockbusters, he's become an actor I reluctantly associate with high quality indie films. A short list of more-than-excellent films he's been in: Predestination, The Purge, Sinister, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, and, of course, Dead Poet's Society. I may have my reservations about him, but some great directors do not, most notably Richard Linklater. Linklater and Hawke have teamed up for seven films, by my count, and most of them have been amazing.

Probably their best collaboration has been the Before Sunrise series, which details the repeat encounters between Jesse and Celine (Hawke and Julie Delpy, respectively), each separated by nine years. I've seen these in completely the wrong order. I started with the most recent one Before Midnight (2013), which completely bowled me over-- despite the movie being just one long conversation, it was mesmerizing. So I decided to check out the original film, Before Sunrise (1995), which I was a little disappointed by. It's the same structure, but the discussion topics felt a lot more juvenile... but juvenile in exactly the way I was at that age. If I had watched that film when it first came out, I probably would've fallen in love with it. So, this week I finally finished the trilogy and watched the middle film, Before Sunset (2004), which I found to be nearly as brilliant as Before Midnight. I like dialogue, but I think a lot of films over do it, or try too hard to be clever, but this series manages to capture the charm and poetry of an inspired conversation-- the type you have with a new lover or a best friend, the kind that you never want to stop. I can't wait for the 2022 sequel, Before Noon/Dawn/Twilight/Tea Time/Whatever...

But Ethan Hawke's stamp of quality goes beyond Linklater films. He stars with Greta Gerwig and Julianne Moore in the lovably quirky Maggie's Plan (2015) about a young woman who poaches another woman's husband, then schemes to give him back. This is more your typical indie comedy, with quirky-rather-than-funny characters and plot contrivances, but Gerwig is always charming, Moore is very fun with a French accent, and Hawke is always best when he's playing a cad.

Gerwig is an indie film darling and has been associated with several great directors, too. One of them is Whit Stillman, who is one of the best writer-directors of dialogue in the business. His last film, Damsels in Distress (starring Gerwig) was a bit of a disappointment, but he's back in top form with Love & Friendship (2016), an adaptation of Jane Austen's novella, Lady Susan. Kate Beckinsale stars as Lady Susan and gives a riveting performance as a scheming society woman. Nothing I've seen her do before suggested she could be this nimble and convincing with dense dialogue (not even her previous collaboration with Stillman, The Last Days of Disco), but she whips out the words with gusto. The film is quick witted and cutting and I thoroughly enjoyed it-- probably the most fun I've ever had watching Jane Austen on screen.

Review: Hello, My Name Is Doris

Hollywood doesn't have many starring roles for older women, and when they come along, they're usually in stodgy prestige pics or extremely safe romantic comedies. It's nice to see a biting, yet touching, satire like Hello, My Name Is Doris come along, and it's glorious to see Sally Field nail the title role. 

She brings a lot of color and class to the shy Doris, who falls for her company's new, and decades younger, art director. The object of her affection is played by Max Greenfield, who's probably best known for his work on the sitcom The New Girl, but who I fondly remember from a small, recurring role in the teen detective show, Veronica Mars. Greenfield has a big, ingratiating smile that can put you at ease, and it's easy to see how Doris would fall for his character. We also get a wonderful supporting turn from Tyne Daly, another favorite actress of mine. From a casting perspective, this film knocked it out of the park!

It was directed by Michael Showalter, who's known more for wild, sketch-oriented comedies like Wet Hot American Summer, Stella and The State; so it's a bit of a surprise that he put out a comedy so restrained. But it really works-- there's a fire burning beneath the surface of this film that you just don't find in many like it.

I thoroughly enjoyed Hello, My Name Is Doris, and I think it's a film that will appeal to adults of all ages. Highly recommended.

Review: My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

In 2002, My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a surprise blockbuster. It earned $240 million at the box office, and ended up as the fifth top grossing film that year (ahead of Signs, Austin Powers in Goldmember and just behind Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). With that kind of haul, you would've expected a sequel right away; instead they attempted to follow it up with a sit-com version that fizzled out after 7 episodes.

I understand why they would go the sitcom route-- the sense of humor in the original and in 2016's My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is very much what you would expect from a sitcom. It's contrived and built on unlikely coincidences and communication failures that should be easy to work out; the only thing missing is a laugh track.

So the comedy is unsophisticated, but the characters are cute and charming, and that's all that really matters. Like the first film, it's got a strong sense of family and compassion that most films lack. I'm not sure if there's the same cultural yearning in 2016 for that kind of connection as there was back in 2002, but I think it's safe to say that if you liked the original, then you'll enjoy the sequel.

Movie Reviews: The Theory of Everything, Project Almanac and Obvious Child

Oscar has nominated The Theory of Everything for best picture, and I think it deserves the nod.  Of course, it revolves around the performance of Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking; he does an excellent job portraying an incredibly smart and charming man whose motor skills fail him; and kudos to the make-up and costume departments for making Redmayne look like the man himself.    Felicity Jones, who plays Hawking's wife, does an equally impressive job in a role that demands much more subtlety-- she stands strong beside Hawking throughout, but we can see the internal struggle that develops as a marriage expected to only last a year continues for decades.  But as compelling as the acting is, I think the real star is director James Marsh.  I know Marsh better for documentaries like Man on Wire, and he uses those documentary techniques to create a greater intimacy with these characters; at times we feel like voyeurs (let's be honest, we are!). He's also very inventive when approximating Hawking's thought processes-- for a film about a man in a wheelchair, it's quite stimulating visually.  I don't think it's going to win over those who dislike lofty prestige films, but for anybody who cares what Oscar thinks, you'll be thoroughly entertained.

I needed some counter-programming for all the Oscar-bait I've seen lately, and some sci-fi teen-sploitation like Project Almanac  fit the bill.  First off, if you're sick of hand-held cameras and fake documentary style, don't see this film.  But if you can stomach it, they do a reasonable job of explaining why there's always a camera there: they're making scientific breakthroughs, man!  This $h!t needs to be recorded!  So the film progresses as you would expect if teenage boys built a time machine (there are a couple token girls in the gang, but understand that this is about male adolescent wish-fulfillment and not the female equivalent).  They throw together some arbitrary rules about using the machine, but don't hesitate to use it as their own personal reset button.  Unlike most time travel films, the problems our heroes face aren't so much about the consequences of time travel (though there's a little bit of that); instead it's when the group dynamic changes that their headaches begin.  What's disappoint about this film is that it touches on some interesting ideas, but then breezes by them in order to forward the plot.  This is one of those films I suspect had a really good script to start with, but got doctored into shallow pap by the Hollywood revision machine.  But it is a fun diversion if that's what you're looking for.  Go see it with friends, then afterward discuss how you could've done it better.

I'll admit, I went to see Obvious Child because the trailer for it used the Paul Simon song of the same name-- it has the best drum sound ever!  But the movie is quite good beyond its Simonesque title.  Jenny Slate stars as a stand-up comedienne gets pregnant after what she thinks is a one night stand.  She plans to get an abortion, but as this man turns into a legitimate suitor, she has to weigh the wisdom of telling him about it.  The characters are very well drawn and the world the protagonist lives in is fully realized-- this movie feels honest and intimate while managing to be quite funny.  Recommended.

Movie Reviews: The Imitation Game, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and more...

The Imitation Game (2014) comes in with the annual rush of awards contenders, and it has all you would expect: a great actor playing an eccentric genius, a high stakes plot involving WWII, and an angle on contemporary social issues.  You'll laugh!  You'll cry!  Yes, it's a very well done film, but it is just as much a genre picture as all the superhero movies that come out every year-- there's nothing terribly ground-breaking here.  But it's nice to see one of the great minds of the 20th Century, Alan Turing, get his due.  If it looks like your cup of tea, I'm sure you'll thoroughly enjoy it.

I was a bit upset with the second Hobbit movie, The Desolation of Smaug... mostly because they ended the film with such an ill-timed cliff-hanger.  Now seeing the latest film, The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), I'm even more pissed off, because what would've been an awesome ending to the second film was an anticlimactic prelude to the third film.  Though I understand why Peter Jackson did it-- the scenes with the dragon are, by far, the best in the trilogy, and the rest of the third film couldn't help but be a let-down afterward.  There are some great sequences in this third and final entry, but like the other films, it feels a bit padded.  Don't get me wrong, this is a good film and it's a good trilogy, it's just easy to be disappointed when it doesn't match the majesty of The Lord of the Rings.  Maybe we'll get a fan-made edit culling the best parts of the three movies into one 3-hour film... I can dream, anyway.

I love a good romantic comedy; unfortunately, not many get made anymore (not good ones, I mean).  Maybe I'm not in the right demographic, but it used to be that Hollywood knew how to make rom-coms that appealed to guys as well as gals.  Definitely, Maybe (2008) really got me, though.  Ryan Reynolds plays a dad on the cusp of divorce who's beseeched by his daughter (Abigail Breslin) to tell her the story of how he and her mom met.  Instead of giving a straight-forward account, he tells her about three women he was involved with before getting married and challenges her to guess which one was her mom.  It's a neat premise for a film, and it plays out wonderfully; all the characters are well-drawn, their lives are layered-- it felt like this was a story about real people living in a real world with real complications.  I adored this film; highly recommended.

After seeing Nightcrawler a few weeks ago, I wanted to check out some other Jake Gyllenhaal films.  Unfortunately, I rented Enemy (2013), a metaphysical thriller based on the Nobel Prize winning novel The Double, by Jose Saramago.  Now, understand that I have a bachelor's degree in Philosophy-- I like Philosophy, I read Philosophy, I enjoy having philosophical discussions.  But I don't like how films like this get all portentous and what-not.  We get it: your film is pondering meaningful, important questions; just, please, crack a joke once in a while.  It doesn't help that this is the second doppelgänger film I've seen this year (the other one being the coincidentally titled The Double), which was similarly dour.  Go see John Dies at the End instead-- it's a much more entertaining way to bend your mind.

***

That's probably the last set of movie reviews I'll do in 2014.  But be on the lookout for my year end Top 10 list later this week!