Author: Irwin

The Heiress (on Broadway)

Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5

Not a movie but I wanted to review it here anyway as it’s definitely worth going to see. This Broadway play is a remake, but I was unfamiliar with the story, so unlike with most movies I had seen no previews, read no reviews (it’s still in previews, so not yet reviewed by critics, maybe this is a first!), and only heard Jessica Chastain talk about it recently at a NY Times Talk. She made it sound interesting, and gave her perspective on approaching a challenging role, which is the title character, a 20 something daughter of a rich doctor, living in a luxurious house right off Washington Square Park in NY City in 1850 (apparently stethescopes had just been invented). The good doctor (played fantastically with nuance and sophisticated nastiness by David Stathairn) sees his daughter (Catherine, superbly protrayed by Chastain) as worthless, charmless, plain (shades of Jane Eyre) and unlikely to attract a decent suitor if not for her inheritance. He has raised her waiting hopelessly for her to transform into her supposedly perfect, saintly mother, who died in childbirth. Catherine cannot win his respect and has never succeeded in trying to be the perfect daughter, leading to low self-esteem and feeling unworthy of love. Enter Mr. Right, Morris (a spot-on Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey, but without his English accent), who’s immediately smitten with her, but has no way to qualify as a suitor in the father’s eyes, given his lack of money and prospects. I won’t give away any more plot, but it kept my attention and has a perfect ending. Also worth mentioning is Judith Ivey as Catherine’s doting aunt, who serves to lightern the mood and lends a perfect counterpoint to the her brother, the dour doctor.

After the show I got a chance to meet the wonderful and beautiful Jessica Chastain, who was as nice as anything to the fans. If you’d be interested in reading a more insightful, in depth, review, see here: http://technorati.com/entertainment/article/jessica-chastain-dan-stevens-david-strathairn/

 

Favorite Sitcom Characters

And now for something completely different. Here’s my all-time favorite sitcom characters, respond with yours:

  1. Ralph Kramden (Honeymooners)
  2. Archie Bunker (All in the Family)
  3. Fred Sanford (Sanford & Son)
  4. Barney Fife (Andy of Mayberry)
  5. Ed Norton (Honeymooners)
  6. Lucy Ricardo (The Lucy Show)
  7. Louie DePalma (Taxi)
  8. Cosmo Kramer (Seinfeld)
  9. Hank Kingsley (Larry Sanders Show)
  10. Herman Munster (The Munsters)
  11. Gilligan (Gilligan’s Island)
  12. Maxwell Smart (Get Smart)
  13. George Costanza (Seinfeld)
  14. Edith Bunker (All in the Family)
  15. Cliff Huxtable (Cosby Show)
  16. Homer Simpson (The Simpsons)
  17. Granny Clampett (Beverly Hillbillies)
  18. Jethro Bodine (Beverly Hillbillies)
  19. Latka Gravas (Taxi)
  20. Newman (Seinfeld)
  21. Quinton McHale (McHale’s Navy)
  22. Dick Louden (Newhart)
  23. Eddie Haskell (Leave it to Beaver)
  24. Fonzie (Happy Days)
  25. Beavis (Beavis and Butthead)
  26. Al Bundy (Married with Children)
  27. Jack McFarland (Will and Grace)
  28. Ted Baxter (Mary Tyler Moore)
  29. Rob Petrie (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
  30. Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore)
  31. Carla Tortelli (Cheers)
  32. Norm Peterson (Cheers)
  33. Cliff Clavin (Cheers)
  34. Felix Unger (The Odd Couple)
  35. Oscar Madison (The Odd Couple)
  36. Radar O’Reilly (M*A*S*H)

Seven Psychopaths

Bill I’s Review – 3 out of 5

Is this a nutty, inconsistent, bloody, misogynistic movie? Yes it is! Is it also great fun, with classic moments and lines from Christopher Walken and Woody Harrelson, and an unpredictable plot that makes this the ultimate meta-movie? Yes! The main character, played as an alcoholic straight man Colin Farrell, is struggling to write a movie script and all he has to start with is a great title (same as this movie), and his BFF (nutcase Sam Rockwell) does all he can to help him out, including identifying real-life psychopaths he can fit into the script, while he goes about his dog-napping sideline to help his other buddy, Walken, pay for his wife’s cancer surgery. Need I mention this is a comedy? The cast is terrific, including I have to mention again the ultimate Christopher Walken, Tom Waits (I recognized him, after not seeing seen him since 1976 when I approached him back stage at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre), Harry Dean Stanton (not too many lines of dialogue for Harry, in fact, maybe none) and Gabourey Sidibe (also not many lines, but stuck in an unforgettable scene with ultra-gangster Woody). And fans of Boardwalk Empire will enjoy seeing two stars from that series in the opening sequence (the dude who plays Rothstein and the young Jimmy Darmody). I don’t think they needed much time on the set given the short screen time they are given. It’s a meta movie because the psychopaths in the movie become the psychopaths in Colin Farrell’s script. Be sure to sit through the ending credits (the first minute) to see the perfect ending. If you are squeamish about bullets and knife play, or don’t get the humor in the over the top misogynism (it’s tongue in cheek!), then go see Here Comes the Boom), but if you are true fan of Bill and Bill, check this out!

Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

I finally saw this movie and just wanted to add a few quick thoughts:

– I want to complement Bill on a really excellent review.  Not only is the review insightful, but I learned the meaning of a new word, misogynistic!

– While all the actors were great, I thought Sam Rockwell stole the show.

– If you like this movie, go rent In Bruges by the same director.  I liked Seven Psychopaths and recommend it, but I liked In Bruges even better.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Arbitrage

Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5

Richard Gere plays a cool billionaire wall street mega-dealer akin to today’s private equity and hedge fund super stars; in fact he could be the same guy from Pretty Woman, just 30 years later, but none the worse for wear, on the surface. His perfect family, perfect society wife (Susan Sarandon) and perfect girl on the side (Laetitia Casta, who started as my all-time favorite Victoria’s Secret model, and is fine here as a French “struggling artist”) all make for a perfect storm, that I won’t give away here. The story gets tense real fast and Richard has to do some fast thinking and acting to keep his world from crumbling. The surprise for me is Brit Marlling as Gere’s daughter and heir apparent in the business.

The other break out performance is by Nate Parker,

as Gere’s unwilling clean-up guy, nowhere near as experienced as Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. Nate puts a face on the collateral damage done by deals gone bad, while Gere and his ilk just write another check. Compelling movie!

Sister

Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5

This film is about the relationship between a skeletal 12-year-old, Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein, in a great, charismatic yet naturalistic performance), a theif/hustler amid the rich in a French ski resort and his beautiful, sad, older sister, Louise (Léa Seydoux, in an equally compelling performance) who can’t hold a job any longer than she can hold a man or whatever money that falls in her hands (often from young Simon).  A secret is uncovered to the audience abruptly and is stunning when you think about it, making their story even more touching. There’s some funny scenes, some mostly off-screen violence, and lots of empathetic juxtaposition between two people struggling to get food to eat every day while surrounded by the well-to-do who don’t even notice them. The political aspects are powerful yet subtle, and this is not a movie that today’s teenagers will flock to, but I am confident that the readers of Billandbillmovies will appreciate this artful film.

Red Hook Summer

Bill I’s Review – 2 out of 5

Do the Right Thing is an iconic movie to me, and Spike Lee has made several other excellent films such as Malcolm X, 25th Hour, Clockers and Inside Man. Red Hook Summer is like going back in time to when he was a beginner. She’s Gotta Have It was a fun, in your face piece of film making and in several ways Red Hook Summer reminds me of this, but with less fun and much less fresh, but mostly with the amatuerish aspects. For example, having characters making speeches, either to each other or to themselves/God/the camera. Red Hood Summer has two “actors” playing 12-13 year-old’s, a boy and a girl, bonding during a hot summer in Brooklyn, and they don’t act as much as shout their lines, probably right after memorizing them. Neither was believable to me as a young teenager in their situations. Speaking of which, why would a normal, seemingly well off young mother send her only son from their comfortable middle class neighborhood up to live with her estranged father living in the projects, with all the violence and drug dealing that comes with that? It doesn’t make any sense, and no reason is given, especially when the kid pleas with his mom to come home. The father is the main reason I enjoyed watching this film, and is portrayed by Clarke Peters (also excellent in HBO’s Treme) in an extraordinary performance. The Red Hook mileu is the other interesting character, but the plot is boring until it’s not, at which point its cringe-worthy manipulation ticked me off. Spike plays your emotions to the max, instead of organically letting the plot evolve. I couldn’t wait for this movie to end, and when it did I looked around to commiserate with my fellow film goers, except the other two people in the theatre had already left. I suggest you skip this film unless you are a Spike Lee afficianado, and don’t mind sitting through a mediocre movie. Hey, Woody Allen fans do that all the time.

10 Years

Bill I’s Review – 3 out of 5

A ten year high school reunion, reminiscent of The Big Chill, and populated by some terrific actors, most of whom are much better looking then your typical high school reunion attendees. Channing Tatum, his real-life wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Rosario Dawson, Kata Mara, for example. The story is ho-hum until the end, when a very cool musical moment strikes gold, just watch Kata Mara.

Otherwise, pleasant and fun to watch, drags a little in the middle, without much of anything too emotional happening.

End of Watch

Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5

It starts out as a cop buddy movie, like we’ve seen hundreds of times on film and on tv, but there’s a realism here that differentiates End of Watch, infused by the ultra realism, by the hand held camera (a technique that was irritating to me at times) and especially by the fine acting of Jake Gyllenhall and Michael Pena, as the aforementioned buddy cops. They have developed a closeness after years as partners that’s like a married couple, a comedy duo insulting each other non-stop and at the end, the core of an extended family that encompasses each other’s wives and families. The plot is not about much more than the day-to-day routine and unpredictable violence and risk they encounter and face head-on like soldiers on the front, reminding me of patrolling Taliban infested villages not knowing when a civilian is your deadly enemy or a victim that needs to be rescued. The tension builds into a climax and then an anti-climax that I both liked and wondered about, from a film making perspective, which I won’t explain here to avoid giving a spoiler. Overall, a terrific film, but not for the faint hearted. And Jake proves he’s one of our greatest actors, which I have believed since he starred in Brothers.

 Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

I thought this was a pretty good movie that with a few changes could have been a very good movie. This easily could have been a film adaptation of a Joseph Wambaugh novel–it has all the same elements–although it wasn’t (check out The Choirboys if you want to read one of Wambaugh’s best). A large part of the movie is just everyday police life. End of Watch initially focuses on two partners and daily police life, showing how they deal with other members of the precinct, how they bond with each other, and how they often spend more time and, at times, are more dependent on their partner than their significant other.  Much of their day is spent just cruising in their patrol car but that is punctuated by times of great personal danger or witnessing some truly horrific acts. This movie does a good job of showing that dichotamy and how they deal with it. At the end of this part of the movie you really care about these guys. The last part of the movie deals with the ramifications of of them having unwittingly ticked off the drug cartel.

The partners are played by Michael Pena and Jake Gyllenhaal. They both give terrific nuanced performances showing the ups and downs of their personal and professional lives.

I did have three quibbles with the film:

1) In an early scene, the cops are in a car chase. When they stop the car, the bad guys get out and start shooting. Instead of shooting back from behind their cruiser, the partners jump out from their car and charge at the bad guys with guns a-blazing. No way! But I will say that most other parts of the movie seemed realistic.

2) Bill mentioned the hand held camera. If it had just been Jake Gyllenhaal using a camera, I probably would have been ok with it. But one of the bad guys was doing this too, and not just filming them hanging out, but also planning their crimes. Too much.

3) Bill also mentioned a part at the end. I won’t go into detail either but I thought the director manipulated the move audience unnecessarily.

Despite these things, I still thought the movie was definitely worth watching.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

 

Favorite Actors

Bill I’s Note:

For a change from movie reviews, how about listing your favorite actors? My favorite male actors in no particular sequence:

Philip Seymour Hofman, Gary Oldman, Ciaran Hinds, Bill Nighy, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeremy Renner, Liam Neeson, Denzel Washington, Benecio Del Toro, Mark Wahlberg, Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamotti, Harvey Keitel, Sacha Baron Cohen, Robert Downey Jr., Jonah Hill, Kenneth Branagh

My favorite female actors:

Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt, Anne Hathaway, Rachel Weisz, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Charlize Theron, Rooney Mara, Michelle Williams, Bryce Dallas Howard

I’m sure I left out some, and realize it’s obvious there are terrific actors not on this list such as Meryl Streep and Dustin Hofman, but I was going from who I have seen in the recent year or two and loved.

Please post your favorites in the comments below…

Bill C’s List

I like this idea for a topic and for the most part I like Bill’s list with a few exceptions.  Instead of putting my entire list I’ll just list some additions and any I’d leave out.  I know I’m forgetting some. I also tried to keep to the last couple of years. and these are not in any order

Actors: Matthew McConaughy, Marc Duplass, Seth Rogen, Michael Fassbender, Edward Norton,  Steve Buscemi, Sean Penn, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Franco, Brendan Gleeson, Jeff Bridges,  Josh Brolin.  Mark Wahlberg and Ciraran Hines wouldn’t make my list.

Actresses: Emma Stone, Frances MocDormand, Greta Gerwig, Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdam, Amy Adams. I don’t think Bryce Dallas Howard would make my list

The Master

Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5

This ain’t no Boogie Nights! Paul Thomas Anderson, who wrote and directed The Master, is one of the most innovative, thought provoking film makers, but he also can make your skin creep, your mind wonder, and your head to scratch (?), but he won’t make you yawn. I don’t normally do this, but this quote from Leonard Maltin’s review says it better than I can: “The Master provides a challenging, alternately rewarding and frustrating experience unlike any other I’ve encountered this year. I’m sorry I couldn’t fully embrace it, but in the long run I’d rather watch Paul Thomas Anderson aim for the fences and miss than slog through sheer mediocrity.”

Start with the story: it’s not Scientology but you can imagine it certainly may have been inspired by Scientology, focusing on a compelling, charismatic author (Philip Seymour Hofman, whom I would go see if all he did was eat breakfast), self-styled scientist, who creates a movement (here called “The Cause”) which attracts followers through some supposed fact-based beliefs about time travel, past lives, attaining the perfection that once was our nature, all gained through “processing”, which is a combination Freudian confrontational therapy combined with almost hypnosis, to first remember, then re-imagine past events that must be confronted (sample question during this processing: “Did you ever sleep with anyone in your family”…asked 5 times in a row to see if the answer changes). The plot beyond this is centered around a drifter/loser/oversexed weirdo played by Jauquin Phoenix (who will rival Hofman for an Acadamy Award here, just a unique, unforgetable character he’s created), and his relationship as an acolyte/enforcer/son with The Master (Hofman). There are sexual undercurrents between them, although Hofman is clearly closely monitored by his powerful wife (Amy Adams, who’s perfect).

The visuals are incredible, as I expect in a PT Anderson film, but the music was too creepy for me, although I guess it accomplished its objective to set the mood in many scenes. Overall, while I was transfixed by the characters, the acting, the events, and visuals, I wasn’t emotionally involved, it’s not tremendous fun to watch and there was no real build up to any sort of climax. So it’s not a “great” movie, but certainly a great piece of film making that deserves to be seen.

Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

I saw The Master at the Alamo Drafthouse early this afternoon and they lost my food order. It finally came with 20 minutes left in the movie at which point I said I didn’t want it any longer. If this had been a lesser movie, I would have been totally ticked off but this movie was so engrossing I just shrugged it off and had a big dinner.

Bill’s review does a good job of summarizing what’s going on in the movie but what made this movie so mesmerizing were the performances by Hoffman and Phoenix. Just the stuff Phoenix did with his body and facial expressions was amazing. Hoffman was equally great…he can even sing!

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes