Author: billc

Celeste and Jesse Forever

Bill C’s Review – 2.5 out of 5

Celeste and Jesse Forever is the story of a couple going through a divorce, trying to maintain their friendship while moving on with their lives. They clearly still love each other and at times would like to reconcile but seemingly never at the same time.

The movie stars Rashida Jones  (Parks and Recreation) and Andy Samberg (SNL), with Rashida getting more of the screen time showing a good range of her character’s ups and downs. Jones also co-wrote and produced the film.

The movie was moderately funny, which is probably a pretty good achievement for a movie about a couple going through divorce. I was expecting to care more about whether they ultimately got back together or not, but while I hoped that things worked out for them, it ended up not mattering to me whether or not ‘working out’ meant getting back together or just moving on with their lives. Overall this movie was OK, but I found it a little disappointing based on the good things I had heard about it..

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The Campaign

Bill C’s Review – 2.5 out of 5

I had high expectations for this Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis satire.  It’s a timely film taking on our sad acrimonious political environment where politicians don’t honestly talk about the issues and say whatever is necessary to get elected with two very funny actors.    While this had some good laughs I didn’t think the satire was biting enough and thought the filmmakers often went for the cheap laugh.

This film also lost a quarter of a point for breaking Bill I’s cardinal rule of film advertising by using the funniest moment of the film in the coming attractions/TV ads.

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Searching For Sugar Man

Bill C’s Review – 4 out of 5

‘Searching for Sugar Man’ played at this year’s SXSW.  I had heard a lot of good things about this documentary about early 70s musician Sixto Rodriguez but wasn’t able to make it to the screening.  I was looking forward to it’s opening in Austin this week and was listening to my ipod in shuffle mode when ‘Sugar Man’ (listen here) by Rodriguez started playing.  This increased my anticipation for the movie as I had no idea that I knew or had any of his music.

This movie did not disappoint.  Sixto Rodriguez, from Detroit, had two albums released in the early 70’s.  They were total flops in the U.S but somehow, unbeknownst to Rodriguez, became  incredibly influential and successful (despite some of the protest songs being banned from the radio) in South Africa during  apartheid.  Rodriguez was dropped by his record company and while his popularity continued in South Africa there were numerous rumors about his fate.  Two South African fans looking successfully search for Rodriguez.  While Rodriguez in many ways remains an enigma the story of what he did with his life both before and after he was found is fascinating especially considering what his life could have been if he had been successful in the U.S.  The music is good and it’s interesting to see the power that music can have (in this case in South Africa).

This is definitely worth seeing and I am now looking forward to Rodriguez coming to Antone’s in Austin this October.

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Killer Joe

Bill C’s Review 3.5 out of 5

Matthew McConaughey gives a very good performance as Killer Joe, a policeman by day and a hit man by night.  He is hired by a family that needs the insurance money from knocking off the mother/ex-wife.

Killer Joe is rated NC-17 due to violence and the rating is well earned.  This is a dark comedy with much of the comedy coming in the final third with McConaughey’s very polite but ruthless character. There are also good performances by Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon and Juno Temple.  The excellent  screenplay was written by Tracey Letts based on his play (he also wrote August Osage County) and is well directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection and The Exorcist)

It’s a good story with some good twists and surprises thrown in and if you don’t mind the violence you should check this out.

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The Queen of Versailles

Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

Sometimes documentary film makers get lucky and they are at the right place at the right time. In this case, the documentarian set out to make an entertaining movie about a uber- wealthy time share magnate, his much younger wife (by 30 years), and their family as they build the largest private residence in the U.S., a 90,000 square foot house to replace their already ridiculously large mansion. This probably would have turned into a decent and entertaining movie. But then the real estate bubble/financial crisis hit and this became a very good, very different movie.

As a result, the movie explores issues such as: class differences in the U.S.; how people/families handle pressure; the cultural phenomenon of many people in the U.S. living beyond their means (and these people had means); and the crazy growth of some businesses when banks made money so easy to get and how quickly those businesses crumbled when money credit was not available.

While how these people lived didn’t generate any sympathy, the people themselves were very interesting and you did hope things would work out for them. The coming attractions made me expect mostly comedy and there was plenty of that, but the downward trajectory of their situation made this much more of a downer than I expected. Very interesting movie and worth seeing if you like docs.

Bill I’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

I agree with Bill, it’s a captivating documentary, where the director, Lauren Greenfield, certainly lucked out when the economy tanked. Her cinema verite style is amazing, in terms of the access she gets and the way her crew must blend into the background because the people don’t seem to be playing to the camera at all, and it’s not scripted reality like you see on TV. There’s some sit down interviews, but 98% of it is just what happens. The husband and wife are not cliches: David Siegel, the 65 year old timeshare magnate is a self-made man, workaholic and sensitive to his many employees. He tends to ignore his many kids, and treat his oldest son as the executive employee that he is, certainly not as an affectionate father. The mom, Jackie Siegel, certainly loves the spotlight and her shopping, but is very down to earth, also rose from a blue collar background and claims believably that she loves her husband, will stick with him through thick and thin, and would be able to move to a 4 BR house without too much trouble. Contrast this character with the Cate Blanchett character in Woody Allen’s new film Blue Jasmine, where she is the opposite of Jackie Siegel. I laughed out loud when she is forced to rent a car at Hertz when visiting her childhood friend in upstate New York, and asks about the driver that comes with the car. This obliviousness shows how much she’s living in a different world, but she seems like a nice person, not a phony, and a good mother (albeit with multiple nannies!).

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Klown

Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

Klown is a tasteless, raunchy, sometimes touching and very funny Danish comedy.  This is basically a road trip movie with a river substituting for the road and a canoe being the mode of transportation. Casper and Frank’s plans for a canoe trip ostensibly for Casper to party are thrown into disarray when Frank decides to kidnap his girlfriend’s 12 year old nephew and take him on the trip to prove to her that  he is good parenting material.

Similar to Hangover the three meet numerous characters and get into comedic/raunchy situations along the way.  This even has a Hangover type ending (and the one place even I thought they crossed the line of bad taste for a movie).

This movie stars Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen and is based on the characters they created in their very popular Danish TV shows.

This movie is being distributed by the Alamo Drafthouse new distribution company so is playing in several Drafthouse theaters (and even ‘rolling road show’ as part of a canoe trip)  with a very entertaining pre-show.  It might be hard to find in cities outside of Austin however but look for DVD or streaming options.

Bottom line – if you don’t like tasteless (or subtitles) skip this. Otherwise it’s an entertaining comedy.

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The Dark Knight Rises

Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

The final entry in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is a good but not great finale. Set eight years after 2008’s The Dark Knight, this is a satisfying ending to the trilogy and ties up loose ends nicely. After the events at the end of The Dark Knight, The Batman has retired and Bruce Wayne has become a Howard Hughes-like recluse. However a new menace faces Gotham City and The Batman is lured out of retirement.

The new menace, Bane, is good but not nearly as entertaining as The Joker in the last movie. Bane has a contraption over his face to help him avoid pain. With it, my son thought he sounded like Winnie the Pooh, while I thought it made him sound more like Darth Vader. The two characters who I thought really stole the show were Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young, idealistic police officer and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman/Selina Kyle.  The Catwoman storyline was as interesting as the Batman one.

While they did tie up loose ends, I had forgotten most of the plot points about The League of Shadows and Liam Neeson’s character from the first film, Batman Begins.  Remembering that would have helped in following some of the plot. It was interesting how Nolan has weaved in some themes here about things like the Patriot Act and wealth inequality, but that should not wreck the movie for anyone, no matter where you stand on these issues.

The movie begins with a good action set piece aboard an airplane and there is some good action throughout.  There is also some that is just chaotic. The movie is long – 2 hours and 44 minutes – but went pretty quickly and was worth seeing.

Bill I’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

I agree with Bill C, good but not great film. It’s great in some respects: special effects, acting (also agree, Anne Hathaway is tremendous, and some other smaller characters also excellent, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine as always, Gordon-Levitt, e.g.). And Bane’s voice did sound like Darth Vader. His character is evil incarnate combined with an MMA fighter’s sensibility (what, no need for guns when you’re jacked like that?). Now let me outline where I was bothered, and it wasn’t in minor ways (some of these may be considered spoilers, but I will try to minimize what I give away): 1) Gotham is clearly NY City in this film, and I have no stomach to watch my city get terrorized and bombed once again. The Muslim jihadists will love this aspect, and after the Colorado movie theatre real-life massacre as well as innumerable accounts of innocents being slaughtered, I have no desire to see this dramatized in fiction for our entertainment. I felt the same way about Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards which has the Nazi social elite being burned to death trapped in a movie theatre while the “good guys” enjoyed their triumph. And this film takes a NY Giants-like football stadium and shows off it’s fantastic special effects while bombs go off and the players get swallowed up, we are supposed to be enjoying this vicariously. This was enough to sour me on this film. 2) I do not buy into its portrayal of New Yorkers, or any Americans actually, being subjected to a madman dictator/terrorist so easily. I bet this is what Osama Bin Laden dreamed about, tearing down Wall Street and major infrastructure, unleashing the masses of lower class poor people, and seeing our society turned into chaos and the rich people being thrown out on the streets. Maybe when the Nazis marched into Poland, but not here. Whoever wrote this crap and thinks we will think it believable is just patronizing us by assuming the movie going public will believe this scenario. 3) Hold NYC hostage and have the federal government reduced to delivering relief packages? Come on, where’s the effort to communicate with the captive New Yorkers, to infiltrate the city? There’s no way you can isolate the city like this. And the fact that Bruce Wayne, Robin and Commissioner Gordon all are aware of exactly when the ticking clock will expire is not also known by our army? What is this, Gerald Ford again telling NY to “drop dead”? That’s enough of my blowing off steam, but you can tell I was seriously bothered by these aspects of this otherwise great film.

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Breaking Bad

Bill C’s Review

I know – this isn’t a movie, it’s a TV show. I wanted to write about it anyway. For the last couple of months I’ve been watching seasons 1-4. I’m halfway through season 4 and season 5 begins this Sunday.

Breaking Bad is phenomenal television for those who like crime/drama and don’t mind a little language/violence. Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White, aka Heisenberg, an underachieving chemist who is teaching high school chemistry. After being diagnosed with cancer, Walter decides to cook meth to pay his upcoming medical bills and to leave a nest egg for his family when he is gone. Walter is the Julia Child of meth cooks. The show follows the metamorphosis of Walter as he goes from mild-mannered teacher/family man to ruthless/evil member of the drug trade. While his professed goal is to take care of his family, his life spirals out of control, his family life deteriorates, and his life is put at risk.  Despite his transformation to evil somehow you still root for him!

The show is sometimes funny, often dark, and always surprising. I love the pre-opening credit sequence which can be a teaser for something later in the episode or later in the season, or a commercial for one of the character’s businesses, or a music video about Heisenberg. Always tremendously original and, even if you can guess what is coming, you’ll always be surprised by how they do it. The show also does a great job of showing the backstories of some of the other characters in various episodes.

The cast is great. Bryan Cranston is awesome as Walter (previously from Malcolm in the Middle) and has won several Emmys. Aaron Paul plays Jesse, his former student and partner in crime, Jesse. Dean Norris is Walter’s brother-in-law and member of the Drug Enforcement Agency who also is hunting for Walter’s alter ego Heisenberg. Comic Bob Odenkirk is perfect as the sleazy lawyer. Giancarlo Esposito is also great in his understated performance as the drug kingpin. It’s amazing what he does with just his eyes…he is pure evil. It’s hard to believe that in 1982 he had a recurring role on Sesame Street! Other cast members are equally talented.

This is a show you should watch from the beginning of season 1 as you need to see the transformation of the characters to truly appreciate it.  .

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To Rome With Love

Bill C’s Review – 2 out of 5

I have been a long-time Woody Allen fan, going back to his early, early days where he just went for laughs with such movies as Bananas, Take the Money and Run and Play It Again Sam and with more seriously themed classics such as Annie Hall (one of my all time favorites) and Manhattan. But the last 20 years or so have been hit-or-miss (with a lot more misses). Unfortunately, following last year’s hit, Midnight in Paris, his latest movie is one of the misses.

To Rome With Love follows four unrelated stories all set in Rome. The movie keeps switching between the four vignettes and, while I hoped at some point they would be tied together, they never were. The stories were also not related in time. One took place in just a single day, but the others were longer, which made the back-and-forth editing seem strange.

The movie had some some funny moments (my favorites involved the opera singer) but the laughs were not sustained. Like most of Woody’s recent movies, this had a strong cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin, Greta Gerwig, Allison Pill, Judy Davis, Penelope Cruz, Woody Allen, Ellen Page (miscast I believe) and numerous Italian actors/actresses including Roberto Benigni. I enjoyed the performances by Penelope Cruz and Roberto Benigni but no one else really stood out. This was Woody Allen’s first performance on screen in several years and, while I’ve enjoyed his past performances, I think he should think twice before casting himself again. He played the father of Allison Pill’s character but would probably more appropriately have played her grandfather.

This is one Woody Allen movie that I would skip.

Bill I’s Review – 2 out of 5

7 cent fudgsicles, Raquel Welch, my ability to leap high on the basketball court, and Woody Allen movies. What do these all have in common? Right, they were all much better back in the day…way back in the day, just like Bill says above. I thought this movie was rediculous in terms of plot and believability. It worked for me in only a couple of aspects: as a paen to Rome (just like the book Eat, Pray, Love did for me, makes me want to go there walk around and eat the great food) and as an excuse to take in the beautiful Penelope Cruz doing what she does best. Other than that Woody has clearly exhausted his obsession with infidelity; only three of the four plot lines have infidelity as a plot device. Hey we know, Woody…”the heart wants what the heart wants”…its played out in every one of your movies now. Try something different. OK, he has a middle-aged Italian mortician who attains fame singing opera in the shower. That’s a funny idea, but how many minutes do we need to see him scrubbing away while he hits the high notes?

There are excellent actors here, all doing their best with this foolishness. But when is the last time you felt embarrased for Alec Baldwin? I did here, watching him play an all-knowing adult advising the young Jesse Eisenberg not to fall in love with his girlfriend’s best friend. Alex points out the obvious, time and time again, and most of it he’s supposed to be invisible to everyone but Jesse. Funny? I don’t think so and neither will you. Woody, maybe you should make like some of your favorite old-time Knicks and just retire.

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The Amazing Spider-Man

Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

While there was no real need to reboot the Spiderman franchise so quickly, this is a good, but not great retelling of the origin of Spiderman. The story is not exactly the same as the n the Tobey McGuire 2002 version and focuses more on the mystery over the disappearance of Peter Parker’s parents and his coming to realize the responsibility to use his powers for good. It’s fun to see him learn how to control his powers. For some reason in this version, Peter Parker is a high school genius and invents his string power instead of it being a natural byproduct of his gaining other powers. I didn’t think his super villain was the greatest but he got the job done.

Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spiderman and Emma Stone as his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, were good. Spidey has had different girlfriends over the years, so no use in retreading the same girlfriend character (Mary Jane Watson) from the earlier movies.  Since Garfield/Stone are an item off-screen, the couple had good chemistry on screen as well.

The special effects were good. I didn’t see this in 3D but could see how they could use this to good effect with him swinging back and forth all over the place.

This movie isn’t a must-see, but if you like the genre it is worth watching.

Note 1: Stay through the closing credits.

Note 2: The picture below has nothing to do with the movie. These people had their wedding reception at the Alamo Drafthouse and they were posing for pictures by the Moonrise Kingdom setup while I was getting ready to go into Spiderman.  I asked our waitress if they actually watched a movie as part of the reception. They did: The Princess Bride!

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