Movie Review: Cold Creek Manor

Cold Creek Manor (2003) 

Directed by Mike Figgis 

Written by Richard Jeffries 

Starring Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Kristen Stewart, Stephen Dorff

Release Date September 19th, 2003 

Published September 18th, 2003 

Why does Hollywood seem to dislike anyone who lives outside of New York or Los Angeles? A number of recent releases show big city folk wandering off to the sticks to get away from it all and finding themselves terrorized by small town folk who don't take kindly to strangers (pause to spit tobacco). The horror films Wrong Turn and Cabin Fever both featured the scary backwoods redneck types, and the new Mike Figgis film, Cold Creek Manor, also recycles the cliché of the whacked-out redneck. That all three of these most recent examples are also less-than-stellar films should tell you something.

Dennis Quaid stars in Cold Creek Manor as Cooper Tilson, a documentary filmmaker and stay-at-home dad to two precocious kids (Kristen Stewart and Ryan Wilson). Cooper's wife, Leah Tilson (Sharon Stone), is some sort of executive, constantly jetting off to important meetings and missing her family. When their son is nearly killed by an angry New York driver, mom and dad decide that it's time to give up city life and live the ultimate yuppie fantasy of a beautiful country home.

In true money pit fashion, however, the couple chooses the absolute wrong house, a place called Cold Creek Manor. It's the kind of place that, when it's name is spoken, people look away in horror. Of course, the city folk are dense enough not to notice the many warning signs. One thing they can't avoid noticing however is the manor's former owner Dale Massie (Stephen Dorff), who, upon leaving prison, promptly breaks into the home and joins the family for dinner. As a courtesy for having sold off all of Dale's belongings, they hire him on to help rehab the rundown house.

Needless to say, Dale has some bad intentions toward his home’s new occupants and it's not long before the crazed redneck is terrorizing the family. Call it Cape Fear-light; we have definitely seen this whole thing before. The odd thing is, the trailer and commercials seemed to play up a supernatural element to the story. It's an element that is not in the actual film, where the melodrama is all too human.

Sharon Stone makes an obvious attempt to soften her image in Cold Creek Manor, playing a loving mother as opposed to her typecast sexpot roles. Unfortunately, Stone's performance in Cold Creek Manor only serves to highlight exactly why she has been typecast. Stone radiates the warmth of an icy river. Writer Richard Jeffries doesn't help much by giving her a weepy victim role instead of a fully fleshed out character.

Dennis Quaid is only slightly more effective as the father character but much of that is based on his cultivated career playing a wide range of likable good guys. Also playing opposite Stephen Dorff's well-played psycho gives Quaid the opportunity to bounce off of some good character work. Indeed, Stephen Dorff is the film’s true star. Though his character is not very well written, he infuses it with the necessary menace and smarminess to make it as believable as it can be within the ridiculously over the top story.

It might have seemed confusing to see such a mercurial director as Mike Figgis directing such a conventional thriller. The only reason I can see why he made Cold Creek Manor was to indulge his love of architecture. As he did in his little seen but well respected film Liebestraum, Figgis directs his sets better than his actors. You can see where this script would appeal to Figgis because it allows him to film a house of exquisite design. The house in Cold Creek Manor is in fact at times better shot than its stars, Ms. Stone in particular.

But great architecture does not make a great movie. Cold Creek Manor is too conventional, stereotypical and languidly paced to be a great movie, or even a good movie for that matter.

Movie Review Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain (2003) 

Directed by Anthony Minghella 

Written by Anthony Minghella 

Starring Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Jude Law, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman 

Release Date December 25th, 2003 

Published December 24th, 2003 

In 1997, Author Charles Frazier set out to tell a story that had been passed through his family for years. It was the story of his great uncle H.P Inman and his arduous trek home to North Carolina after deserting the Southern army near the end of the Civil War. In translating the story to the page, Frazier created an epic love story combined it with a Homeric odyssey and bathed it in Southern gentility.

Now in the hands of Director Anthony Minghella, Cold Mountain is a portentous, pompous, epic scale film and a sure bet Best Picture candidate.

Jude Law stars as Inman, a day laborer helping to build a brand new chapel for the people of Cold Mountain who are welcoming the arrival of a new Minister, Reverend Monroe (Donald Sutherland). With Reverend Monroe is his daughter Ada (Nicole Kidman), a well-educated, Charlotte-bred woman who has never done a days work in her life. Ada is a trained pianist, a writer and lives to serve her father. The attraction between Ada and Inman is immediate though inexplicable. The timing couldn’t be worse as Inman is leaving to join the Southern army to fight in the Civil War. They exchange photographs and a single passionate kiss. They promise to write and Inman promises to come back.

At war, Inman is witness to one of the bloodiest battles of the war, the battle at Petersburg, Virginia. The battle is legendary for the massive mistake made by the northern army who, after setting off a huge explosion underneath the southern lines, charged ahead into the crater they created. Once trapped inside the remaining Southern soldiers are able to pick them off one by one as they attempted to climb out of the crater. Inman watches most of the carnage until forced to jump in and save a friend who fell into the crater.

Afterwards, Inman is injured in a raid meant to kill the remaining Northerners trapped in the crater. While recovering, he receives a letter from Ada detailing her struggles since he left and asking him to come home. Inman immediately deserts and begins a very long walk home.

In the meantime, Ada is in grave danger of her own. With all of the able bodied men of Cold Mountain off to war and her father having passed away, Ada is left to tend the farm which she can't do. With only the kindness of an old couple played by Kathy Baker and James Gammon is Ada able to survive. At the old couple’s urging Ada takes in a woman named Ruby (Renee Zellweger), a force of nature personality who's as spunky as Ada is helpless. Ruby moves in and teaches Ada how to survive.

Zellweger's Ruby is at once the film’s most interesting and most problematic performance. On the one hand, it brings the film some much-needed lightness to balance the dreariness of the austere landscape and doomed love story. On the other hand, Zellweger continues to draw laughs even as she is supposed to be drawing sympathy. Credit Renee Zellweger for her ability to keep Ruby from going over the top but the adapted screenplay does her little favor with it's cornpone wisdom and forced passages that play up the character’s lack of education. The role was initially intended for an African American actress, the change is a wise one because as written the role would have been clearly racist.

As Inman makes his trek back to Cold Mountain he also meets some colorful characters, including a lecherous priest played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and a nasty little redneck played by Giovanni Ribisi. Then there is the odd cameo by Natalie Portman as a war widow trying to protect her sick infant and fend off the Union army creeping up on her doorstep. She takes in Inman during a heavy rainstorm and the two have an odd encounter that is chastely romantic but unnecessary. Portman's scenes drag out the runtime of the film and serve no purpose on Inman's journey other than showing what great chemistry Law and Portman could have together given more time.

Much has been said of the chemistry between Law and Kidman, including rumors of onset romance. However, in the film they share so few scenes that the chemistry is never really an issue. Ada and Inman don't fall in love with one another but rather the idea of each other. Inman headed off to war and the strong possibility of death and appears to grab on to the image of Ada, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, as a reason to fight and a reason to keep living in the face of great tragedy. 

As for Ada, Inman is at first simply an intriguing romance but in the course of losing her father and suffering on the farm, before Ruby arrives to help her, Inman is a savior. Inman is a knight in shining armor coming to her rescue. It is the idea of one another that matters, not the person themselves. It’s that idea which makes the film’s ending all the more poetic and fascinating.

I'm not going to give away anything, Director Anthony Minghella certainly never gives anything away. For most of the entire nearly three hour runtime of Cold Mountain, the audience has a preconceived notion of what will happen and Minghella alternately delivers it and subverts it. Switching perspectives from Ada to Inman, shifting the timeline from when Inman and Ada met to the current moment of their journey. The film is at once conventional and out of sorts and I dig that about it.

That said there is another element of Cold Mountain that I didn't like. Call it the Miramax effect or maybe just something about Minghella's affected filmmaking, but everything about Cold Mountain screams out at you to appreciate it whether you want to or not. There is an arrogance to it that says the film doesn't have to be entertaining because it's above that. It's like an obnoxious person who simply assumes that you like them regardless of how you really feel. Cold Mountain seems full of itself and arrives with an air that says “Award me.”

Is Cold Mountain a well-crafted film? Absolutely. Is it among the best films of 2003? No. Does it demand that you think it is? Definitely.

Movie Review: White Oleander

White Oleander (2002) 

Directed by Peter Kominsky 

Written by Mary Agnes Donaghue 

Starring Michele Pfeiffer, Allison Lohman, Renee Zellweger, Noah Wyle, Cole Hauser, Patrick Fugit 

Releasse Date October 11th, 2002 

Published October 10th, 2002 

In What Lies Beneath Michele Pfeiffer spends the first three quarters of the film giving the best performance of her career. A performance that was vulnerable and wrenching, combining madness and sanity with depth and sexuality. Then the film becomes a typical horror slasher movie with an un-killable and unbelievable villain that ruins the entire film. Now with White Oleander, Pfeiffer is allowed to complete the performance she started in What Lies Beneath and finally give the best performance of her career.

In White Oleander, Pfeiffer stars as Ingrid Magnusson, a talented but highly troubled artist and mother. Alison Lohman is Ingrid’s daughter Astrid, who quietly witnesses her mother's madness yet still worships her. After Ingrid is sent to jail for killing her lover, Astrid is moved to a series of horrendous foster homes but cannot escape the reach of her mother who fears that she is losing control of her daughter.

The first foster home Astrid is sent to belongs to a former stripper turned born again Christian named Starr (Robin Wright Penn). At first Starr seems merely strange and highly hypocritical, she is born again but lives with a married man, Ray, played by Cole Hauser. As the story proceeds we find that there is far more wrong with Starr than mere hypocrisy. As Astrid gets to know and like Ray, Starr begins to suspect that Astrid is trying to seduce him. 

As it turns out it’s the other way around. Though Ray never tries anything with Astrid the attraction is there and leads to a dangerous climax. Ray and Starr disappear and Astrid is sent to an orphanage where she meets a fellow artist and kindred spirit named Paul played by Almost Famous star Patrick Fugit. The tentative romance is a little rushed but the actors chemistry is good enough to cover any problems caused by the poor scripting.

Astrid and Paul’s relationship is short lived as Astrid is shuttled to another foster home. This time it’s the upscale home of an actress named Claire (Renee Zellweger) and her producer husband Mark ("E.R’s" Noah Wyle). Astrid quickly begins to enjoy her new home though trouble is obvious as Claire suspects Mark’s frequent travel is hiding something. And of course there is Ingrid who, without Astrid’s knowledge, has begun to contact Claire and would like to meet her. 

Astrid is quick to notice her mothers’ malevolent intentions but Claire is oblivious and once she is drawn into Ingrid’s web Claire is quick to crumble. With Ingrid’s prodding, Claire becomes more suspicious of Mark and distant from Astrid, leading to an emotional ending that is the film's emotional climax. Watching Pfeiffer and Zellweger play scenes together is remarkable. Both actresses are giving everything they have and it is a sight to see. 

The mother-daughter relationship is the film's centerpiece and Pfeiffer and Lohman work like clockwork. Trading lines of dialogue as if they had worked together forever, their characters come to life in each other's presence. Each actress brings the best out of the other and their scenes together are riveting and intense. Oscar should call on both of these actresses.

That’s not to say that the film they inhabit isn’t flawed. Indeed were it not for the strong performances the film would no doubt collapse under it’s clichés. There is only so much sadness an audience can endure and White Oleander lays it on pretty thick, forcing Lohman into situations that would lead most sane people to consider taking their own life.

White Oleander is certainly no advertisement for the foster care system as Astrid is dropped on the doorstep of people far too obviously damaged to be real. Robin Wright Penn’s Starr is an unmarried former stripper caring for three foster kids even before she takes in Astrid. Renee Zellweger’s Claire, while affluent enough to provide a home for a child, has a history of suicidal tendencies and taking in children as if they were pets, sending them back if her husband seems unhappy. Astrid’s last foster home experience is with a Russian prostitute who has her foster children sift through garbage for things to sell at flea markets or steal from other children she takes in.

The most glaring problem is the lack of a fully fleshed out male character to balance the female centric vibe. Patrick Fugit is great but his character is far too sweet and accepting to be believed and he doesn’t get enough screen time to establish a real presence. Nevertheless it’s the two lead performances by Lohman and Pfeiffer that make White Oleander easy to recommend. Forget the ridiculous chick flick label, great performances are great performances, no matter what the gender. Great acting deserves to be appreciated, and White Oleander is blessed with great acting.

Movie Review: Bee Movie

Bee Movie (2007)

Directed by Simon J. Smith, Steve Hickner

Written by Jerry Seinfeld, Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, Andy Robin

Starring Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock

Release Date November 2nd, 2007

Published November 1st, 2007

I'm a big fan of Seinfeld. That talky seemingly going nowhere about nothing style is just hilarious to me. Jerry has significantly lowered his profile since his legendary TV show made him the second richest television personality in America, right behind Oprah. Now Jerry is getting back to business and not being much of an actor, he's found himself a niche in animation. Bee Movie is the brainchild of Jerry and a few friends from Seinfeld. The story of a worker bee who leaves the hive and discovers a whole new world of possibilities is really just a collection of Seinfeld-isms masked by kid friendly animation.

When Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) discovers that he will be working the same job for the rest of his bee life he longs for an escape. He gets his chance when a squadron of pollen gathering jock bees invite him to fly outside the hive. What Barry discovers is that while most humans want to squash him, at least one human, Vanessa (Renee Zellweger), will defend his right to live.

Though bee law doesn't allow bees to speak to humans, Barry is compelled to thank Vanessa for saving his life. This leads to a friendship, and a puppy dog crush for Barry. Eventually, Vanessa leads Barry to another revelation, humans have been stealing the bee's honey. With her help, Barry decides to sue humanity for the return of the precious nectar they work so hard to create.

So, there is a semblance of a plot in Bee Movie. The whole thing about humans stealing honey from bees gives the film something to do while Seinfeld riffs opposite Renee Zellweger. The dialogue is a combination of classic Seinfeld fascinations (awkward introductions, pop culture, et al) and bee puns. Some of these meandering conversations hit with a good punchline, sometimes they thud like a bad pun. Still, everything is delivered in a good natured and pleasant fashion.

The animation of Bee Movie is in the Dreamworks style, reminiscent of both Shrek and Shark's Tale. Shiny surfaces, oddly shaped bulbous characters and bright colors. For Bee Movie yellow and black are, naturally, the dominant colors, especially in the hive. Outside, bright blue skies and gorgeous green grass standout as some remarkable, eye catching visuals.

Joining the fun of Bee Movie are a number of big name guest stars. It's like a sweeps episode of the Love Boat. Oprah Winfrey, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Matthew Broderick, Kathy Bates and Seinfeld's old TV pal Patrick Warburton each play key roles. Sting drops in for a brief, humorous cameo and Ray Liotta steals the movie in a terrifically over the top bit of self parody.

Jerry Seinfeld is so naturally funny that you will laugh while watching Bee Movie. You just won't laugh enough. Gags and one liners work well in a stand up act but in movies we long for characters with some depth and insight. We long for characters who aren't merely placeholders in search of the next setup and punchline.

Ratatouille is soon to come out on DVD and that film about a gourmet rat shows the potential of animation to create animal characters with depth, insight and more to offer than a few good zingers. Bee Movie is amiable and nice but compared to Ratatouille, it's superfluous and entirely forgettable. While some won't mind the trifle that is Bee Movie, deep down they will long for more. I know I did.

Movie Review: Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason

Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason (2004) 

Directed by Beeban Kidron

Written by Adam Brooks, Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies, Helen Fielding 

Starring Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones 

Release Date November 12th, 2004

Published November 11th, 2004 

When Renee Zellweger was announced to play British singleton icon Bridget Jones from the enormously successful book by Helen Fielding, the reaction was less than exciting for fans of the book. How could an American actress, from Texas no less, capture this essentially British character. Amazingly, not only did she pull off the accent and some serious weight gain, Zellweger went on to be nominated for an Oscar, a remarkable feat for a comic performance.

With that much success it is no surprise that there is now a sequel, it's also no surprise that that sequel is not quite as good as the original. It's called sequelitis and no matter how good the original film may be, few sequels can escape the sequel curse.

It's been five terrific weeks since Bridget Jones (Zellweger) landed the man of her dreams Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Five weeks, 35 glorious days, 70 spectacular shags. However, in every passionate relationship, eventually; you have to get out of bed and when Bridget and Mark finally get up and get dressed the problems begin.

At first it's little things like Mark's need to fold his underwear or his insistence that she quit smoking. Soon, it's bigger problems like Mark's stodgy stuck up lawyer friends and his surprisingly conservative politics. Then it's Mark's new assistant a leggy, gorgeous, 22 year old named Rebecca (rising star Jascinda Barrett).

Bridget's circle of friends, Shazzer (Sally Phillips), Tom (James Callis) and Jude (Shirley Henderson), certainly don't help matters by fueling her paranoia over Mark's new assistant. While Bridget's only married friend Janey (Lucy Robinson) raises questions about why Mark hasn't asked her to marry him. Then there are Bridget's wacky parents, flighty Mom (Shirley Dixon) and put upon Dad (Jim Broadbent), who shock Bridget by announcing they are renewing their marriage vows.

Finally one last big obstacle for Bridget and Mark comes from Bridget's job where, as a reporter for Sit Up Britain, she has become a celebrity for smiling her way through one humiliation after another. This leads to a big promotion but one big complication. Bridget will co-host a travel show that will take her all over the world but her co-host is her former boss, and lecherous boyfriend, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant).

That is the bare bones set up; but the plot in reality is contrived and episodic. Four writers including novelist and creator Helen Fielding, director Beeban Kidron, romantic comedy genius Richard Curtis (Love Actually,Four Weddings and a Funeral) and Adam Brooks, another rom-com vet who wrote this years charming tennis movie Wimbledon, all combine to give the film that to many cooks in the kitchen feeling. A lot of conflicting ideas come together to create a mishmash of good and not so good scenes. The final product is something that might make for a good sitcom but not a great movie.

Fortunately these writers are blessed with a cast that is to die for. Renee Zellweger is once again her Oscar-worthy self. Patterning her performance after Lucille Ball and the gals from Sex and The City Zellweger combines physical comedy with a terrific ability to win our hearts she makes this lackadaisical story and script work, to a point, because no matter what we absolutely love her.

For his part Colin Firth is likable but as his role is written he is somewhat hamstrung. His character is stuffy and rigid with little spontaneity. Opposite Zellweger's bubbly Bridget he looks even more stiff than he's written. Firth does what he can with the role but for the most part he is pushed along by the plot. Hugh Grant also suffers somewhat from plot manipulation but his charm and razor sharp wit make even his most strained moments work. The final fight scene between Firth and Grant is terrifically funny for the awful way the actors carry it off.

Fans of Renee Zellweger will find lots to love in Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason as will faithful fans of the book. For the uninitiated though the film will feel disjointed and overlong. The characters are often ridiculously lost and befuddled which leads to much audience confusion until the end when predictability and a touch of schmaltz rule the day.

Where the original felt fresh and vibrant this sequel is rote and simplistic. The various attempts at salvaging it by bringing on a different writer only served to muddy the waters. All of this seems like it may have been to much for first time director Beeban Kidron. The director often seems as overwhelmed by problems as Bridget herself and the only way out was to stick close to sitcomic formula.

Even with all that goes wrong I would not mind another Bridget sequel and I'm sure I'm not alone. Edge Of Reason does not fail because of Bridget the character who remains wildly, lovably, daft and it only benefits from Renee Zellweger's portrayal. It is the developments behind the scenes, the direction and scripting that went awry. Fix the script and keep the characters and you may just have another funny story to tell in the next Bridget Jones adventure.

Movie Review: Case 39

Case 39 (2009) 

Directed by Christian Alvart

Written by Ray Wright 

Starring Renee Zellweger, Callum Keith Rennie, Bradley Cooper, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane

Release Date October 1st, 2010 

Published November 15th, 2010

There was really no good reason for “Case 39,” the horror thriller starring Renee Zellweger, to have sat on the shelf for 3 years. The film is no game changing original in the genre but compared to the kind of horror flotsam that slips into nationwide release on a regular basis in the US, “Case 39” is harmless and forgettable enough that it should have passed through theaters without issue several years ago.

Instead, “Case 39” arrives with the undue burden of a heavy coat of dust that muddies the perception of the film's inherent qualities. It's fair for an audience to wonder what the studio saw in the film that made them want to hold it back and that thought leads to the fair perception that “Case 39” is a royal stinker which it is not.

Emily Jenkins (Renee Zellweger) is a social worker with a lot on her plate. She has 38 open cases of potential child abuse and neglect to deal with when her boss Wayne (Adrian Lester) drops a 39th case on her desk. Naturally, Emily is put off by the new assignment but being the dutiful investigator she is soon at the home of the troubled little girl Lilith (Jodelle Ferland) and her disturbed parents Edward (Callum Keith Rennie) and Margaret (Kerry O'Malley).

Though her visit turns up no direct evidence of abuse, Emily's instincts are that Lilith is being abused and needs more attention and care. She moves the investigation along off the books with the aid of a friendly detective, Mike Barron (Ian McShane), and eventually catches the parents in the action of trying to kill Lilith.

Lilith immediately connects with Emily, even as Emily tries to make clear she has no instinct for parenting. Soon, Lilith has convinced Emily to bring her home to her modest suburban abode and just as soon afterward things start going from serene to weird to drop dead terrifying for Emily and any one in her life from co-workers to Mike the cop to her potential boyfriend, Doug (Bradley Cooper), who becomes a particular target.

It does not take a triple digit IQ to figure out where this story is going. Director Christian Alvart (Pandorum, Antibodies) directs “Case 39” with all of the nuance subtlety of a jackhammer. Alvart's direction of Ray Wright's insultingly simpleminded script signals each twist and turn of the plot with heavy-handed music cues and dimwitted direction.

This would be surprising considering that screenwriter Ray Wright also delivered the clever and thrilling screenplay for the 2010's update of “The Crazies.” Then, one remembers that “Case 39” is going on 4 years old and well before Wright had truly developed his talent. The same could be fairly said about director Alvart who followed up “Case 39” with the dull but efficient sci-fi horror flick “Pandorum.”

Renee Zellweger remains a talented and compelling actress who knows how to draw an audience to her. “Case 39”sadly is just too dopey for even someone of Ms. Zellweger's talent to work around. The plotting is clunky and perfunctory. The supporting players, no matter that they are played by talented familiar faces like McShane and Cooper, are little more than cannon fodder and Jodelle Ferland while cute, cannot carry the burden of a plot that is so poorly drawn.

All of that said, “Case 39”is better, more professionally crafted, than much of the garbage that has been playing to empty theaters in the time that “Case 39” has been gathering dust. I could name at least 100 films far worse than “Case 39” that did not have to carry the burden of being abandoned by it's studio for three years. Is “Case 39” good enough that you should buy a ticket? Maybe not, but if you've bought tickets for such lesser fare as “Piranha 3D” you may as well pledge a little money to “Case 39.”

Movie Review: Cinderella Man

Cinderella Man (2005) 

Directed by Ron Howard 

Written by Cliff Hollingsworth, Akiva Goldsman 

Starring Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti, Craig Bierko, Bruce McGill 

Release Date June 3rd, 2005

Published June 2nd, 2005 

Legendary depression era writer Damon Runyon dubbed James J. Braddock 'The Cinderella Man'. Runyon, best known for his unique patois and shady underworld characters, found some things he liked about the Braddock story. There was the the underdog unlikeliness of the story and the sports setting, however, the square Mr. Braddock was not really Damon Runyon's favorite kind of character. Runyon may not have been taken much with Ron Howard's equally square biography of Mr. Braddock which takes its name from his writing. Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe, features some awesome boxing but the earnest sentimental drama out of the ring crosses quickly over to out and out schmaltz.

Russell Crowe stars as James J. "Bulldog" Braddock who in 1929 was a top ranked Light Heavyweight contender. Braddock was flush with success, cash, a beautiful wife named Mae (Renee Zellweger) and three gorgeous kids. Sadly however in a Jobian succession of ills, Braddock lost nearly everything in the stock market crash of 1929 and a subsequent hand injury that would eventually sidetrack his promising career.

In 1933 Braddock was forced from the ring by his injury and a series of bad fights, mostly ugly brutal losses, though to his credit Braddock was never knocked out. With bills piling up, winter coming and his family living in a dirt floor apartment, Braddock attempts to find work on the docks of New Jersey but there are more men than shifts and he and many others are often excluded.

Forced to beg his former boxing promoters for money, Braddock finds sympathy from his former manager and trainer Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti) who pulls strings to get Braddock his boxing license back and lands him an important fight at Madison Square Garden, playing punching bag to a new top contender. Braddock shockingly knocks the kid out and in so doing, he earns the admiration of fans for his gutty style and his obvious underdog status.

One fight leads to another and eventually Braddock has a showdown with the champion of the world, Max Baer (Craig Bierko). The champ is reputed to have killed two men in the ring, is much bigger than Braddock, and given Braddock's time away from the ring, there is much speculation that Baer might just make it three in ring kills. Braddock's wife Mae is certainly concerned, a bit of drama the film mines for dramatic tension near the end of the film.

Going in to Cinderella Man with no knowledge of whether James J. Braddock won or lost the championship fight lended a great deal of compelling drama to the film's boxing scenes which on top of the suspense, are extraordinarily shot by Director Ron Howard and Cinematographer Salvatore Totino. The boxing is by far the best part of Cinderella Man. The audience I watched with cheered and clapped at the end of each fight as if they were inside that smoky rundown gymnasium.

If the rest of Cinderella Man were as good as the boxing we would be talking about one of the best movies of the year. However the film's script by Cliff Hollingsworth and script doctor Akiva Goldsman is so achingly sentimental you have to fight your eyes to keep them from rolling. The non-boxing scenes overflow with the fairy tale goodness of James Braddock the family man. Braddock is treated with such a soft touch you can hardly believe he would have the will to punch someone, let alone become a boxing champion.

The only thing that keeps Cinderella Man from becoming a complete loss, aside from the boxing, are the performances of Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger and Paul Giamatti. This awesome cast of real pro actors handle even the most squeamish of squishy dialogue with just the right amount of earnestness and distance. This is a fairy tale underdog story that happened to come true so earnestness and sentimentality are to be expected, but without these great actors this may have well become a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV weepie.

I cannot say enough great things about the boxing scenes in Cinderella Man. Russell Crowe nails the pose, the athleticism, and the raw power of a real boxer while Howard directs around whatever deficiencies Crowe may have had. The boxing scenes are extraordinary and very compelling and really the most memorable thing about Cinderella Man.

It's not that the rest of the film, from the home life drama to the social drama of the depression era setting or the romance between Crowe and Zellweger, never works but that it's all a bit too safe. Despite the gritty ghetto setting and the dingy dive boxing arena, there is very little grit or dirt in Cinderella Man. Braddock was well known for his decency and honor, wonderful qualities but no one is perfect. Director Ron Howard portrays James Braddock as if he were positioning him for sainthood.

This earnest portrayal grows weary after a while and you long for some little bit of dysfunction, some flaw, anything that could shed some light on how this eminently decent gentlemen became a brutal warrior in a boxing ring. Certainly his desperate situation, the fact that he was fighting to feed his family, played a large role in his determination but what aspect of his personality drove him to be a championship contender in the first place? That element is missing from Crowe's performance and the film as a whole.

Director Ron Howard has never been known for his gritty storytelling. You expect Howard to indulge his crowd pleasing nature. He indulges a little too often in Cinderella Man but with the extraordinary boxing scenes and the power of his cast, Howard manages to keep Cinderella Man, at the very least, entertaining all the way to the final bell. It could have been a real contender but as it is, Cinderella Man is a bit of fluffy feel good entertainment.

Movie Review: Down with Love

Down with Love (2003) 

Directed by Peyton Reed 

Written by Eve Ahlert, Dennis Drake 

Starring Renee Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, David Hyde Pierce, Sarah Paulson, Tony Randall 

Release Date December 25th, 2003 

Published December 24th, 2003

Recipe for how to make a romantic comedy soufflé. Mix two parts attractive leads, two parts cute supporting players. Sprinkle in a mistaken identity, mixed messages and three parts romantic complications and let cook for no more than 90 to 100 minutes. The new romantic comedy Down With Love, starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, has all the ingredients of your typical romantic comedy. Spiced with a period look and a feel that freshens the formula, Down with Love rises above its recently undercooked genre.

Down With Love stars Renee Zellweger as small town girl turned big city writer, Barbara Novak. Barbara has just come to New York from her small town in Maine to promote her new book Down With Love. It's a book that instructs women to throw off the shackles of love and strive for a place in the male dominated workforce. It teaches women that they can live just like a man, have a career and sex without the distraction of love and it's various complications. With her editor and new best friend Vikki (Sarah Paulson), Barbara sets out to promote her book. To do that she must be interviewed by the biggest big city journalist of them all, Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor).

Catcher is described numerous times throughout the film as a woman's man, a man's man, a man about town, someone that is difficult to pin down. His editor and best friend Peter (David Hyde Pierce) has promised that he would interview Barbara, but he keeps putting her off until finally she says no to him. However, after Barbara's book becomes a hit, it's Catcher who must chase down Barbara. His ingenious plan is an expose about how Barbara doesn't live up to the ideals of her book; career over love, casual sex over marriage, chocolate over sex. Catcher pretends to be an astronaut and fools Barbara into falling in love with him, but at the same time he finds himself falling for her for real.

The film isn't as predictable as it sounds, the final 30 minutes especially holds a number of head turning plot twists so outlandish, they’re outright hysterical. I was going to complain about how preposterous these twists were until I finally got the joke. In Down with Love, Peyton Reed shows the ingenuity he lacked in his debut film, the cheerleader comedy Bring It On. Reed's period recreation of early sixties Hollywood is flawless from the Technicolor costumes right down to the painted backdrops that stand in for 60's New York. Props also to cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth for capturing the Cinemascope glory of the Doris Day-Rock Hudson movies that inspired Down With Love.

Though Zellweger and McGregor don't exactly set the screen on fire, they capture the chaste naughtiness that marked the film’s which Down With Love is modeled on. Zellweger and McGregor's best scene actually comes during the credits when they sing and dance, something each did quite well in Chicago and Moulin Rouge respectively. The film’s soundtrack, which includes the stars duet on "Here's To Love" also features a little Sinatra and Judy Garland singing the film’s title song.

Down With Love is the movie equivalent of chocolate, sweet and delicious and utterly superfluous. It's all so light it floats off the screen, but that is exactly what it should do. Down With Love is a sweet and cheesy bit over the top fun. It’s an improvement on the rote, romantic-comedy genre that in recent years has been repeating itself into oblivion.

Movie Review New in Town

New In Town (2009) 

Directed by C. Jay Cox

Written by C. Jay Cox and Ken Rance

Starring Renee Zellweger, Harry Connick Jr, J.K Simmons, Frances Conroy 

Release Date January 30th, 2009

Published January 29th, 2009 

I find as I grow in the job of film critic that I am getting a little softer. I am growing more tolerant of some things and less tolerant of others. In my fiery early years I likely would have torched a little movie like New In Town simply because I could. I wouldn't have done it merely for sport, I would have had good solid reasons for torching it. The point being that I would have walked into the movie with an attitude and perhaps been less tolerant of overly familiar elements of the rom-com. 

In fact, I have a number of good reasons to torch the film right now. But I am not going to. With experience I like to think comes wisdom and my newfound wisdom tells me that I would have been far too hard on this harmless forgettable little formula romance. Trashing New In Town for being a formula rom-com would be like squashing a bug with a rocket launcher.

Cute as a button Renee Zellweger stars in New In Town as Lucy, your prototypical fish out of water. The water here being New Ulm, Minnesota, a frozen corner of the world that is none too welcoming to a gal born and bred in Miami. Lucy has come to New Ulm to take over the management of a local food producing plant and fire half the staff.

If you can't guess that the hard hearted city gal falls for the small town charmers like Siohban Fallon's Blanche Gunderson or J.K Simmons as the crotchety plant manager, you just aren't trying. Throw in Harry Connick Jr. as the obligatory love interest and you can really say you've seen the movie just from knowing the cast.

Nothing in New In Town breaks the mold of your typical rom-com. This is where I would have started lobbing bombs in years past but not this time. Sure, I knew every step of this movie before walking in the door of the theater, the plot has all the depth of a 2 minute film trailer.  What experience has taught me however, is that with rom-coms, it's not about how cliched the story is but rather how enjoyably enacted those familiar elements are. A well executed formula romantic comedy can still be a good movie if the cast is likable enough to make you forget the overly familiar elements. 

New In Town succeeds, ever so slightly, due to Renee Zellweger being cute as a button with charm to spare. Zellweger is backed up by a charming supporting cast of veteran character actors capable of stealing a scene or two, especially the brilliant J.K Simmons, the conscience and the soul of New in Town and a guy who is impossible not to admire. The romance between Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. doesn't exactly set the screen on fire but, because of Zellweger, it has just enough charm for me to care about it. 

Now, it's highly likely that you will have forgotten about New In Town by the time you reach the parking lot after seeing it. But, while you are watching New in Town, I imagine that you will smile, you will laugh genuinely and a few times and the movie will never offend you with any low brow humor, stupidity, or insulting twists of the plot. It may be a formula rom-com but it is a formula rom-com starring a rising superstar in Renee Zellweger. Her appeal alone is enough to life the film to a mild recommendation from me. 

Yes, New in Town is a dumb little fairy tale romance that aspires to be nothing more than a minor distraction. That said, how can I trash a film for accomplishing exactly what it set out to accomplish? This review may not be enough to encourage you to see New In Town but I am not here to discourage you. The film will earn every dollar it gets this weekend.

Movie Review: Chicago

Chicago (2002)

Directed by Rob Marshall 

Written by Bill Condon 

Starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, Taye Diggs

Release Date December 27th, 2002 

Published December 26th, 2002 

The play Chicago dates back to 1924, a non musical play inspired by a pair of real life murder cases in which woman were accused of murdering their lovers. It was adapted for the screen two times, including a version called Roxie Hart starring Ginger Rogers. It wasn't until 1974 that Chicago the play became Chicago the musical. Bob Fosse and partner Fred Ebb took the story and added sensational song and dance, and Fosse's trademark raunchiness, to make a play that while popular, it wasn't initially the massive hit many had expected. 

In 1996 a revival of Fosse's Chicago, the musical was brought back to Broadway, but slightly tweaked. With a little less raunch and a slightly less cynical tone, the all new Chicago the musical was now a smash hit. The revival went on to earn 9 Tony Award nominations and win 7 Tony Awards over. Now, 6 years later, it is the revival version of Chicago that comes to the silver screen and unfortunately, they may have done better with Fosse's version.

Set in 1924, Chicago centers on a pair of scandalous murders that splash across the front pages of Chicago's trashy newspapers. One case is that of a chorus girl named Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones), who shows up at a jazz club for a performance a little late and without her dance partner. Velma and her sister Veronica were becoming famous for their double act, but on this night, it is just Velma on stage performing their signature routine to the tune of All That Jazz. We quickly realize as the police arrive that Velma has murdered her sister after finding her in bed with her husband.

In the audience on that night as Velma was taken away by the cops, is a starry eyed, dim bulb blonde named Roxie Hart (Renee Zellwegger). At the club with a man who is not her husband, Roxie is expecting her boyfriend will speak to the manager about putting her onstage to perform. Cut to a month later Velma is in jail and Roxie is still waiting for her man to make her a star. However, when he admits he made up the story just to sleep with her, Roxie shoots and kills him.

When Roxie's husband Amos (John C. Reilly) comes home from work she convinces him the man was a burglar and tries to get Amos to take the fall. However after Amos finds out that the burglar is a guy he knows he changes his tune and Roxie is off to murderesses’ row where she will share a cellblock with the celebrated murderers of the day, husband killers whose brief glimpses of fame have dimmed as the gallows loomed over them. Among those celebrated killers is none other than Velma Kelly. 

Though Roxie tries to insinuate herself into Velma's world behind bars, the two are not friends. Velma only sees Roxie as someone trying to take her spotlight. Roxie meanwhile, after being rejected by Velma manages to convince her idiot husband to hire Velma's high profile lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere). With this move by Roxie, it becomes a war between Velma and Roxie to see who can make bigger headlines and hold the attention of their glory hound lawyer the longest. Billy Flynn's only interested in whichever client is on the front page that day. 

Director Rob Marshall, a veteran of the stage making his film debut, crafts a quickly paced and exuberant film that combines the best of old time Hollywood glamour with modern panache and star power. Though unlikely choices for the leading roles, Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones's star quality helps to nail their temptress roles with surprisingly strong singing and dancing, aided no doubt by Marshall's quick cut style.

The biggest surprise in Chicago however, is Richard Gere. Forget surprise, Gere is a revelation. Though his singing could use some work, Gere's vibrant enthusiasm and energy carries you past any reservations you may have about his singing. In his best moments, Gere blows everyone else off the screen. In particular, a courtroom tap-dance near the end of the film is truly spectacular and in a film with a number of standout numbers, Gere manages to craft best performance of the film.

I have a few issues with this Broadway adaptation however, issues that keep me from fully embracing the film as a truly great movie. The first issue is the staging of the musical performance. All of the musical numbers are bound to Broadway style proscenium stages. Director Rob Marshall binds the movie to the stage and fails to take advantage of the dynamic film medium for staging. Marshall seems to think he is tied to the Broadway stage interpretation of each song.

Then there is the film’s tone, which wants to be bawdy comedy but can't go as far as it would like in fear of offending the family audiences. Adhering closely to the toned down revival version of Chicago, the film contains little of Fosse's raunchiness that marked his 1974 version. What Fosse's version did was frame the sensationalistic stories with bawdy comedy and a masterful turn of innuendo. There is little of that fun in this Chicago, save for Queen Latifah's "What Mama Wants.” The comedy in Chicago never finds a rhythm to match the music.

What made Fosse's version interesting, if not great, was its ability to drag the audience into the gutter with its characters. The raunchiness and the fearlessness of the characters was transgressive and exciting. With this toned down version of Chicago, you don't get the thrill that Fosse intended. Instead it's like watching the OJ Simpson trial, you can't help but admire the sheer audacity of Johnny Cochran, but you still hate OJ and you likely weren't rooting for him. 

In Chicago you can't help but admire Gere's Billy Quinn for his Razz Ma Tazz three ring circus, but Zellwegger's Roxie Hart is still a terrible person. This fact about Roxie is confirmed by the film’s only truly sympathetic character, John C. Reilly's Amos Hart. Sympathetic or just pathetic, Amos' big number "Mr. Cellophane" is the films one moment of emotional involvement. The rest of Chicago lingers somewhere in an uncanny valley of toned down dark humor, bloody murder crossed with big brassy musical numbers, all pitched to reach the back of the theater. It's a sloppy tone the film never wrestles into cohesion. 

Comparing Chicago to a similar but far superior movie such as Moulin Rouge would be unfair. Baz Luhrmann is a veteran filmmaker who is aware of all the tools available to him in the film medium. In Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann was working from material of his own creation in a realm he's comfortable creating in. Rob Marshall is still learning about the difference between directing a film and directing for the stage and I believe he has a bright future in Hollywood. Chicago is a good start, a flawed but brave attempt at a big screen musical that demonstrates Marshall's promise as a director while coming up short on the promise of the movie itself. 

Movie Review: X-Men The Last Stand

X-Men The Last Stand (2006) 

Directed by Brett Ratner 

Written by Simon Kinberg, Zak Penn 

Starring Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer, Elliot Page, Shawn Ashmore

Release Date May 26th, 2006

Published May 25th, 2006 

Director Brett Ratner is a hack. That is the reputation he has earned over a career of nine features including two Rush Hour films (and soon a third), Red Dragon, The Family Man and After The Sunset. Each of these are examples of the basic mainstream formula pictures that few would call innovative or relevant. Ratner is a mainstream showman who works only from studio approved genre templates and thus, the label of hack, is appropriate. 

Ratner's style is safe, conventional and boring. So it was quite understandable that when Ratner was hired to direct the third film in the X-Men series, X-Men The Last Stand, longtime fans gnashed their teeth and prayed to whatever mutant god that controls such matters that Ratner not be allowed to screw up their beloved franchise too much. The fans prayers have been answered, for the most part. Though X-Men: The Last Stand has plot holes you could drive a truck through and cringe inducing moments unsuitable to the franchise, Ratner has not screwed the thing up too bad. Actually it's not that bad at all.

X3 turns on the idea that a wealthy industrialist has discovered a cure for the mutant X gene. It's a revelation that rocks the burgeoning mutant community at a time when a tentative peace had come between mutants and humans. The President of the United States (Josef Summer) even has created a dept. of mutant affairs headed up by a mutant, Dr. Hank McCoy aka Beast (Kelsey Grammer). The cure while good for some mutants is a divisive and even deadly issue for others.

Standing against the cure is Magneto (Ian McKellen) who, with his brotherhood of mutants, including Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) and Pyro (Aaron Stanford), plans to use the cure as a rallying cry for mutants to renew the war against humanity. Then there are our heroes the X-Men. Conflicted and confused, most are opposed to the idea that mutants are in need of a cure but against any kind of war with humanity, the X-Men are caught dead set in the middle.

In the midst of the controversy the X-Men face an even bigger crisis. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), thought dead after the last major X-Men conflict, is alive but she is no longer the Jean Grey the team once knew. Her near death experience has released her secondary personality known as the Phoenix, a being of unimaginable and uncontrollable power and rage. With war on the horizon and Jean Grey an even greater danger than that war, X-Men The Last Stand is bursting at the seams with plot. 

Throw in the introductions of several long awaited X-Men characters and you can understand the herculean task that Director Brett Ratner endured in making X-Men The Last Stand. That X3 is as coherent as it is with all of that plot and so many characters is a credit to Ratner. Not that I can let him off the hook completely for the films many flaws but even the biggest Ratner hater out there must cut the guy some slack for the sheer massiveness of X-Men The Last Stand.

Where Ratner succeeds in X3 is in crafting some serious blockbuster action scenes. A fight with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Storm (Halle Berry) facing down Magneto's brotherhood, including Pyro and new members including the super strong Juggernaut (a massively muscled up Vinny Jones) and the empathic speed demon Callisto (Dania Ramirez), is terrific, fast paced action and a terrific lead up to the films most shocking moment.

The ending is the films strongest moment as Wolverine is forced to face off with Jean Grey/Phoenix as she prepares to destroy the entire planet. The scene is exciting and emotional incorporating massive special effects and the entwined histories of these two characters into one powerhouse scene. Predominant amongst the films flaws however, are the younger X-Men, especially Shawn Ashmore as Iceman. The dewey eyed teenage Iceman is an emotional cypher who lacks power and presence. Iceman's main plot function is as the opposing element to Aaron Stanford's Pyro but since Stanford is also an underwhelming presence their time together onscreen is forgettable at best.

The less said about Iceman's romantic triangle subplot with Anna Paquin's Rogue and Elliot Page's Kitty Pride (the girl who can run through walls) the better. I could go on for several more paragraphs picking apart the flaws of X-Men The Last Stand even though I honestly believe that the good outweighs the bad. Brett Ratner's work is not exactly a masters class in direction but it is competent and professional and even thrilling when it really needs to be. The performances of the leads Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry are as good as they have been in the first two films with Jackman's wit becoming more prominent each time out. His work here makes talk of a Wolverine stand alone franchise something to look forward to.

Kelsey Grammer even cuts a surprisingly strong action hero figure as Beast. Fans of the comics have long looked forward to seeing the blue haired monster Dr. Hank McCoy with his unique combination of super strength, agility and erudite intelligence. Embodied by Kelsey Grammer, Beast has the gravitas of Dr. Frasier Crane combined with agility and strength of a classic comic book character. If you can put aside the flaws and concentrate on the terrific performances and often exceptional action scenes and shocking surprises of X-Men The Last Stand you will have a great time. X-Men The Last Stand is big time summer blockbuster entertainment.

Movie Review Inception

Inception (2010) 

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Written by Christopher Nolan 

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine

Release Date July 16th, 2010 

Published July 15th, 2010 

“Inception” is the best movie of the year. Combining a mind melting metaphysical conceit with a wildly entertaining story, “Inception” from director Christopher Nolan is not merely some exercise in high minded, arty filmmaking, it's also a rollercoaster ride of emotion and action like little you have seen since the last time Christopher Nolan blew your mind with “The Dark Knight.”

”Inception” stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb, a globetrotting con man whose milieu is not seedy bars or corporate boardrooms but rather, the depths of the human psyche. Cobb can enter your mind through your dreams but unlike Freddy Krueger he's not here to kill but to rob you of your deepest, most well protected secrets.

With his team, including Arthur (Joseph Gordon Levitt), Eames (Tom Hardy, Bronson), Ariadne (Elliot Page) and money man Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe), Cobb sneaks into the subconscious of a corporate heir named Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy). This job however, is different from the team's usual theft of secrets, this time they are attempting an Inception wherein they planting an idea in Fischer's mind in hopes of influencing his future.

Complicated? It sure sounds complicated but under the skilled direction of Christopher Nolan and the guiding performance of Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception is only rarely mystifying. The story is elaborate and exceptionally well put together and even at 2 hours and 40 minutes it floats by like a dream, one you can't help but remember.

I am being intentionally vague as too much information could spoil the fun. I will tell you that Oscar nominee Marion Cotillard plays Cobb's wife and it's a performance that exceeds even the genius of her Oscar winning role in “La Vie En Rose.” The way Cotillard's character, Mal, is woven into the plot will blow your mind in the most unexpected ways.

”Inception” is exceptionally well directed and intricately plotted and features career best performances from DiCaprio, Cotillard, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Elliot Page. Rounding out this cast are veterans Michael Caine, Pete Postlethwaite and Tom Berenger, all of whom bring something unique and fascinating to this remarkable, epic dreamy adventure. “Inception” will require further examination and discussion but that can wait for the DVD release. For now, avoid the spoilers and experience “Inception” for yourself. We’ll talk more about it later.

Movie Review: Vox Lux

Vox Lux December 2018

Directed by Brady Corbet 

Written by Brady Corbet 

Starring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Stacy Martin, Jennifer Ehle, Raffey Cassidy 

Release Date December 18th, 2018

Published December 17th, 2018

Vox Lux is rarely the movie you think it is going to be. The plot indicates something arty and pretentious about the nature of pop stardom but the reality is something far more thoughtful and indelible. Writer-director Brady Corbet frames his pop music diva, played by both Raffey Cassidy and then by Natalie Portman, as the living embodiment of modern American culture. 

I get that that is a big notion but I feel the film pulled off really well. The single named character Celeste is a pretty strong metaphor for our times. Her recent, relatively young history is dotted with a tragic school shooting followed by a rocket ship to fame. She’s drug addled, possibly alcoholic, unstable, a single mother, and perhaps the best endorsement imaginable for mood elevating drugs. If that doesn’t craft a picture of America in the 2000’s, I don’t know what does. 

Celeste is basically a walking reality show with all of the cameras on her all the time and her fame obscuring her sense of any reality. Then there is the violence. In a prologue set in 1999, not so subtly the same year as the Columbine shooting, Celeste was the victim of a school shooter. While most of her classmates were killed, Celeste survived, though with a bullet permanently lodged near her spine. 

Her first act after leaving the hospital is to play a song on national television next to her talented sister, Ellie (Stacy Martin), the living embodiment of survivor’s guilt whose permanently attached herself to her sister’s side. Ellie was supposed to have been at school that day but she was home sick. For the next 20 years Ellie will be constantly at her sister’s side, even as much of that time she becomes her sister’s victim. 

Celeste has quite a temper and an attitude that you are not expecting. Portman lays on a thick Long Island accent and it really works to give the character a unique dimension. As a teenager, the character barely spoke above a whisper and with a halting and singular tone. Portman mirrors the halting tone but the voice is louder, harsher and weathered from years of smoking and a brutal touring schedule. 

No joke, you could discern a life’s journey from the way Natalie Portman modulates her voice and accent in Vox Lux. It’s an uncanny performance and one most actors could not pull off on their best day. Portman is electric in this role and backed up by the music of Sia, she pulls off pop super diva in a big way. I bought into Celeste the moment Portman stepped into the role, in the second act and by the time we reached the film’s concert climax I lost track of the star and was watching pop goddess on stage. 

Is the music good? That depends on your taste but that is entirely beyond the point. The point here is the presentation in all of its gaudy excess. I’ve never understood what exactly pop stars in concert are going for with these bizarre, other-worldly, stage antics but Vox Lux makes a unique case for how they come to be. At a certain point, performing the same songs, the same way, for months and years becomes stale and slapping on a new coat of paint with bizarre costumes and choreography is the only way to beat the tedium. 

The film doesn’t make the statement quite as bluntly as I just did but the message is clear. Even with the updated on stage presentation the stiffness of the performance comes through as if Celeste were performing by rote, mimicking in a way our own performance, our daily routines that we’ve got down to a predictable science. There is a deathlessness to the performance that comes through in Portman’s eyes, this has become so second nature for her that she could do it in her sleep and yet they still cheer. 

That’s not to indicate that the film has any opinions of Celeste or the kinds of people who flock to her brand of brainless entertainment. The film makes a strong case for why anyone would want to turn their brain off and just be entertained by the shiny lights and propulsive beats. The faux empowerment lyrics and empty love songs are a panacea for the audience and the performer who’d also like to just forget the world for a while. 

Vox Lux is a giant bullseye of a metaphor for our modern culture. Unstable, violent, unpredictable, obsessed with fame and money, gaudy and eccentric. The movie is a rather ingenious microcosm of our current state of affairs. That Vox Lux is not some kind of bloated, monstrous, obsessed with itself, mess of a movie is quite a testament to the talent of star Natalie Portman and  writer-director Brady Corbet who’s made one heck of a great feature directorial debut. 

Movie Review Smart People

Smart People (2008) 

Directed by Noam Murro 

Written by Mark Poirer 

Starring Dennis Quaid, Elliot Page, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church

Release Date April 11th, 2008 

Published April 10th, 2008

A terrific cast attempts to cover the flaws of an irritatingly self satisfied screenplay and amateur direction in Smart People. Working against type Dennis Quaid impresses but is left adrift while Oscar nominees Elliot Page and Thomas Haden Haden Church try too hard to leave behind their defining performances behind. Then there is Sarah Jessica Parker who essays the only interesting character in this movie but is undone by the movie itself when, late in the film, things go completely off the rails.

Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) is a brilliant but socially inept literature professor at Carnegie Mellon University. His wife died a while back and he has yet to even try to move on, every item of her clothing remains upstairs in a second bedroom that was her closet. Lawrence's daughter Vanessa (Elliot Page) has taken on most of the wifely tasks, cooking, cleaning and such, even seeming to raise herself in her father's pompous, intellectual image. While Lawrence awaits word from publishers on his latest intellectual screed on an obscure literary legend, Vanessa is waiting for word from Stanford and studying far too diligently for a perfect SAT score.

Their version of domestic bliss is upended when jerk Lawrence tries to retrieve his car from an impound lot and ends up falling after climbing over a fence. The fall causes a seizure and that means he can no longer drive. When Vanessa refuses to be his chauffeur she allows Lawrence's adopted brother Chuck to move in in exchange for becoming his driver. The situation is entirely unsuitable for Lawrence who has long ago tired of his brothers constant mooching and get rich quick scheming. Meanwhile, in the hospital Lawrence meets Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker), a doctor and former student of his whom he graded poorly but now he is desperate to somehow impress.

These four Smart People begin a series of collisions and disruptions of each other's lives that seem as if they should be entertaining. Instead, Smart People is a movie that just sort of happens and then it's over. It seems as if it should be funnier than it is. The talented cast makes you believe it is more charming than it really is. Director Noam Murro's competent direction contributes to the idea of Smart People as a smart movie. Further post film reflection however brings about the revelation that there really isn't much too Smart People at all.

Mark Jude Poirier wrote the script for Smart People but his real contribution to the film is a quote in the New York Times in which he marvels at the fact that Smart People is a movie where not much really happens. A film about nothing? Seinfeld this is not. Smart People is actually about something but figuring what that is would require us to spend more time with these rather boring, self absorbed characters. Lawrence's defining trait is pomposity and Dennis Quaid eats a good deal of screen time demonstrating that quality. Thomas Haden Church gets to be the funky, pot smoking uncle but it makes him no less self absorbed.

Elliot Page takes on the role of Vanessa as if it were a repudiation of her Juno character. Don't worry, the smartassy sing-song sarcasm is still in place but it comes with a character who is an overachieving young republican with no friends and a seriously odd obsession for the clothing of a casual Laura Bush. As for Parker, she doesn't come off as terribly self absorbed except when she is the victim of some seriously poor editing and directorial decisions late in the film. It seems that several important scenes that might explain some of her character's bizarre actions late in the film were cut for one reason or another. This leaves the character of Janet looking shrewish and off putting because her actions are almost entirely without motive.

Movie Review: Whip It

Whip It (2009) 

Directed by Drew Barrymore 

Written by Shauna Cross

Starring Elliot Page, Kristen Wiig, Marcia Gay Harden, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis 

Release Date October 9th, 2009 

Published October 8th, 2009 

As a kid I watched Roller Derby on Saturday nights. I never quite understood how the game was played but I loved the violence, the speed and the quirky humor. But the one thing that really stood out for me were the women. It was a mixed league where guys did a round then the ladies. I remember these women, some were giants and some were tiny and quick. It fostered in me a love of tough chicks. Whip It is a movie about the women I admired on Saturday nights. The bruisers and the speedsters. Beyond their toughness, director Drew Barrymore finds heart, humor and love while never losing that violent, attractive toughness that some call Grrl Power. Whateve they call it, I love it.

Elliot Page is the star of Whip It as Bliss Cavender. Trapped in a tiny Texas town where her overbearing mother (Marcia Gay Harden) forces her to compete in teen pageants, Bliss longs for something more. What that something more is, Bliss doesn't know yet. It finally becomes clear to her when, on a shopping trip to Austin, she spies girls on roller skates handing out flyers for Roller Derby.

Enlisting the help of her best friend Pash (Elia Shawkat), Bliss attends the match and it's love at first sight. When she hears about tryouts for her new favorite team, the Hurl Scouts, she pulls out her Barbie roller skates and hops aboard a senior shuttle to Austin and begins a secret life under her new name "Babe Ruthless".

All the roller girls have nicknames. There is Smashley Simpson (Barrymore), Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig), Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell) and Rosa Sparks (Eve) on the Hurl Scouts. On the other teams there is Eva Destruction (Ari Graynor) and the leagues top roller Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis). The names are part of the fun and bonding that give the film it's quirky heart.

Naturally, there is also romance in Bliss's new life as she meets and falls for a boy, a rocker played by newcomer Landon Pigg. While the romance blossoms and Bliss becomes a star there is inevitably trouble on the horizon. A requirement of this plot is her parents finding out and Bliss being separated from all that she loves. How Director Barrymore plays these scenes I will let you see for your self. I will say that while she cannot escape convention, Barrymore shows more skill with the expected scenes than a lot of mainstream directors who grow lazy in the face of convention.

The cast of Whip It is pitch perfect. Lead by the star turn of Elliot Page, leaving Juno behind growing into a movie. Alia Shawkat is a terrific comic foil with whom Page has great chemistry. The scene stealer however, is Kristen Wiig as Maggie, the heart of her team and just the right person to guide Bliss. Ms. Barrymore gives herself a remarkable role as well, one that requires her to put aside any and all star ego and just give in to pure excess. It's a very funny performance. Juliette Lewis makes a good villain, vulnerable but with the strength to kick the ass of anyone who takes notice of that vulnerability.

Marcia Gay Harden has not been this good since her Oscar winning role in Pollack. Her role is conventionally villainous but she short circuits that with humor and a painful longing that makes her sympathetic even as she is standing in the way of all of the fun. Paired with Daniel Stern as Bliss's sports addicted father, Harden is the perfect combination or harridan and heart.

Whip It is too predictable to go from a good movie to a great one but for what it is, it's a terrifically realized comedy with heart and humor and best of all characters we quickly come to love and care about. My memories of Saturday Night Roller Derby on cable are fuzzy now but I hope that behind the scenes things are something resembling this movie. I still love tough chicks.

Movie Review: V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta (2006) 

Directed by James McTiegue 

Written by The Wachowski's 

Starring Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt 

Release Date March 17th, 2006 

Published March 16th, 2006 

The most controversial movie of 2006 has arrived. V For Vendetta, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore, has been accused of subversion and supporting a terrorist agenda. The question then must be: Does V For Vendetta put forth a terrorist agenda? The answer, because this is such a wonderfully smart and complex film, is yes and no.

Yes, the character of V, portrayed by Hugo Weaving, uses terrorist tactics and his goals are most definitely subversive. However, in this dystopian vision of the future, V's reign of terror is aimed at a totalitarian government that can only be fought with guerrilla or terrorist tactics. Those who can think with both sides of their brain will understand this complex division of ideas. For the myopic and agenda driven however V For Vendetta is a threatening shot across the bow.

In the year 2020, England has fallen under the sway of a militaristic dictator named Adam Sutler (John Hurt). Exploiting a tragedy that killed hundreds of thousands in the early years of the 21st century, Sutler was able to impose his dictatorship by playing on the fears of society, especially fears of the kind of chaos that had thrown the U.S, in this vision of the future, into a wildly violent civil war.

The new English dictator censors all art forms and removed or edited British history to match the new dictator's worldview. However, one thing he cannot censor is a bizarre masked character calling himself V (Hugo Weaving). Hiding behind the grinning porcelain veneer of the 17th century English terrorist Guy Fawkes, V strolls the darkened streets of London righting injustice and launching masterpieces of violent uprising.

In the early hours of the 5th of November, the date that, in 1606, Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up parliament in what was called the gunpowder treason, V has hatched an elaborate plan to wake up the citizens of London to the tyranny of their government. But first V intercedes when he finds three of London's secret police, known as Fingermen, attacking a young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman). Saving Evey's life, V invites her to witness his symphony of violence that includes major fireworks and the destruction of the British landmark the Old Bailey courthouse.

Later, V tells a captive nationwide audience, in a pirate broadcast, that one year from that date, he will blow up parliament and invites everyone with an issue with the government's fear tactics to join him. In the meantime V will be exacting revenge on the men who turned him into a masked vigilante. A series of murders, all connected to the tragedies that lead to Adam Sutler winning power. Stephen Rea plays the head of the British police charged with finding V who, in the process, ends up uncovering more than he wants to know about his government.

Evey and V have a past that is linked in ways neither is fully aware of. Her parents and younger brother were victims of the plague that gave rise to the current government as was V. Evey (as played by the lovely Ms. Portman) gives the film its conscience and story arc. Her slow awakening to radicalism, and what some would call terrorism, is where the film finds its socio-political backbone. At first she questions V's tactics and motives, giving us in the audience a chance to do so as well. Once she comes around we likely already have but it makes for a few of the films big dramatic moments.

The cast of V For Vendetta is sprawling and spectacular from top to bottom. John Hurt perfectly embodies the vengeful power-hungry chancellor. His presence also offers the ironic humor of his having played protagonist Winston Smith in Orwell's 1984, now graduated to playing Big Brother. Stephen Fry appears, all too briefly, as a talk show host, Evey's closest friend, and a man with a deep secret that provides yet another deep and abiding principle that the writers Andy and Larry Wachowski wish to exploit.

Many nods to the British stage also mark this cast, from Timothy Pigott Smith as the Chancellor's hatchet man, to Rupert Graves as Rea's detective partner, to Roger Allam as an unctuous TV commentator who evinces more than a little Rush Limbaugh in his bombastic oratory.

Written by Andy and Larry Wachowski, V For Vendetta has the excitement of the Matrix films but with a bigger brain. Directed by Matrix second unit director James McTeigue in his feature debut, V For Vendetta is also as visually accomplished as The Matrix pictures--high praise for a first time director. I don't mean to imply that V For Vendetta is superior to The Matrix, though it is superior to the lackadaisical sequels.

What separates V For Vendetta is the ideas behind it. There are a myriad of interpretations of exactly what the Wachowskis were attempting to say with this picture. When V For Vendetta debuted as a graphic novel from Alan Moore, it was an allegory for the Margaret Thatcher administration in England in the '80s. Updated to our times some see this version of V For Vendetta as veiled attacks on either George W. Bush, Tony Blair, or both. If you want to follow that line you can, but V For Vendetta is not that simple to pin down.

Yes there are references to America's war leading to the chaos of this future society. Director James McTeigue also makes an obvious visual reference to the Abu Graib prisons in Iraq. But the film is more accurately an attack on a government out of control and the way absolute power corrupts absolutely. The films ideology could be compared with the logic offered by the National Rifle Association in America which posits that the people have the right to bear arms so that if the government ever became a threat the people could fight back.

V For Vendetta takes that theory to a particular conclusion as the people of Britain, lead by V, begin to fight back against the tyrannical leadership. Yes, V's tactics and ideas could be defined as terrorism. When V talks of how blowing up a building can be a revolutionary act you cannot help but make the queasy connection to 9/11. That however is not necessarily the context of V For Vendetta.

Taken specifically within the guidelines of the plot this line of logic from V is merely the only way for the people to fight back against a government run amok. Think of it in terms of North Koreans rising to blow up symbols of dictator Kim Jong Il, or the people of Iraq attacking Saddam's palaces and you have a better corollary to the mindset of V For Vendetta.

V For Vendetta is bathed in coolness from beginning to end. The reflected glory of rebellious writer Alan Moore should inspire fanboys despite Moore's disassociating himself from the film after reading the script. Then there are the Wachowskis, whose cache of cool remains intact despite the mixed results of the Matrix sequels and the brothers' personal stories which have made for some interesting tabloid fodder.

The film's outlaw spirit and exceptionally well-staged violence are the big draws and they do not disappoint. V For Vendetta is exciting, thought provoking and darkly humorous. The film encompasses the ideas of revolutionary politics and righteous martial arts violence in ways we have never seen before on film and that makes it at once relevant anti-establishment filmmaking and kickass blockbuster action movie.

If watching a movie can be a revolutionary act, then V For Vendetta could inspire generations. Not inspire them to blow up buildings, but rather to watch closer for the signposts of corruption and fear mongering, which many fear are already being seen throughout the free world. V For Vendetta is powerful filmmaking with the punch of social commentary wrapped in the popcorn goodness of the mainstream blockbuster. This is one of the best films you will see in 2006.

Movie Review The Darjeeling Limited

The Darjeeling Limited (2007) 

Directed by Wes Anderson 

Written by Wes Anderson 

Starring Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody, Angelica Huston, Natalie Portman 

Release Date October 26th, 2007 

Published October 25th, 2007 

Director Wes Anderson is spinning his wheels. Seemingly unable to make a movie with a point after the funny, insightful Rushmore and the quirky Royal Tenenbaums, Anderson's The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and now The Darjeeling Limited are masturbatory exercises in style and precociousness. Their saving grace is good natured humor but that doesn't make them any less shallow.

Admit it Wes fans; we were expecting something more here.

The Darjeeling Limited is the name of a fictional train route through a few small villages in India. On this train three American brothers, Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrian Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman), have gathered for a spiritual journey. Peter and Jack are under the impression that Francis, the oldest of the three, has brought them together to reconnect as brothers. In reality, Francis is leading them to a remote convent where their mother (Angelica Huston) has taken up residence.

The trip to see mom is the framing device for a series of revelatory moments for each of the brothers who slowly reveal their secrets to each other and come to terms with why they haven't spent much time together since their fathers death and an incident on the day of his funeral that sent them in different directions.

Director Wes Anderson seems to be stuck in a rut. After Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums he seemed destined for great things. In two consecutive features since; Anderson is caught up being overly precious and even cute in the way he toys with dialogue and with visuals. Some could fairly describe him as dicking around hoping to stumble on something insightful. He rarely finds anything in The Darjeeling Limited.

Arguably the most notable aspect of The Darjeeling Limited are the disturbing real life imitates art scenes with Owen Wilson. Just before Darjeeling was leaving the station, Wilson attempted to take his own life. The same thing happens to his character in the film who survived his own attempt at suicide. It's not Wes Anderson or the film's fault that such a coincidence happened but it does cast a pall over the otherwise good natured proceedings.

The true subject of The Darjeeling Limited may be a distinct sense of ennui. These characters are bored and so is Wes Anderson. In fact, so are we in the audience. Jason Schwartzman's Jack is plagued with ennui as evidenced in the short feature, Hotel Chevalier, that precedes The Darjeeling Limited. In this brief backstory we see Jack with, presumably, his girlfriend played by Natalie Portman. The two go through the motions of familiar interaction but the sense that they bother each other in order to stave off boredom is quite clear.

Adrien Brody's Peter deals with ennui by stealing or 'borrowing' his brother's and late father's things. His boredom isn't as plagung as Jack's and is also far less interesting. On the bright side, oldest brother Francis may have dealt with his ennui by attempting suicide, so the stealing is at least somewhat healthy by comparison. It's all very European and arty to make movies about characters who are disaffected, bored and longing but often in Europe those feelings are the run up to some kind of breakthrough or revelation.

In The Darjeeling Limited we get a cheap homage to revelation. The ending features the kind of ironic distance that was very much in style in the late nineties when hipsters had an allergic reaction to anything remotely earnest. This is not to say that The Darjeeling Limited isn't well crafted and oddly fascinating. It's just, for me personally, watching an artist drown in his own self satisfying disaffection is kind of boring.

Movie Review No Strings Attached

No Strings Attached (2011) 

Directed by Ivan Reitman 

Written by Elizabeth Meriweather 

Starring Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Cary Elwes, Kevin Kline 

Release Date January 21st, 2011 

Published January 20th, 2011 

It's becoming a modern movie affliction; movies that are more ideas than movies. "The Dilemma" is a good example: How do you tell your best friend that his wife is cheating on him? Good idea but that was all anyone seemed to come up with and the film flailed about hoping the cast would find something funny to do. More often than not, the cast never found anything.

"No Strings Attached" is another example of this affliction. The idea is simple: Can two people have a sexual relationship without feelings getting in the way? And, much like "The Dilemma," no one really thought of anything more beyond that idea and thus stranded a charming cast, lead by Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher, in a plotless mess where only occasionally does someone find something funny to say.

Adam and Emma met briefly in Summer Camp as teenagers when an awkwardly distant Emma attempted to comfort a sad Adam and he offered a clumsy teenage come on. They met again in College at a frat party when Emma asked Adam to a family function that turned out to be a funeral. You know how you invite strangers on dates to funerals, so funny. And they met again one year later at a random farmer's market where Adam got Emma's phone number right in front of his girlfriend, because our main character is a total jerk. 

Much would seem to stand in the way of these two bad-timing having folks getting together but when Adam gets blitzed after his girlfriend leaves him for his TV star father (Kevin Kline, in a shocking cameo) he ends up naked on Emma's couch and eventually in her bed. Emma is now a medical resident working ungodly hours in order to become a doctor; she has little time for a relationship. What she does have time for however is hook ups and booty calls and lots of them. Yes, Adam is given what we are to believe is the dream relationship for all emotionally stunted men 'Sex Buddies.'

So why is Adam so miserable? It turns out, in what would be an interesting twist in a better and far more thoughtful and unique film, Adam is not the typical immature boy-man that he might seem. Too bad he has fallen for an emotionally walled off nut case that could only exist in the pages of an under-written romantic comedy.

The eminent critic Mick Lasalle of the San Francisco Chronicle made an interesting point about Ashton Kutcher and his movies. To paraphrase Lasalle: Ashton Kutcher's been in a number of bad movies but he's never been all that bad in those movies. Indeed, Kutcher is an appealing screen presence who delivers more than what is on the page to his characters. He just chooses some truly horrible movies.

"No Strings Attached" is a pretty horrible movie in which Ashton Kutcher is, as usual, not that bad in. Ashton gives the character charm and a soulful, puppy dog quality. The problem is that the rest of the film is such a shambles. Director Ivan Reitman and writers Elizabeth Meriwether and Michael Samonek seem to have an idea for a movie but fail to deliver characters whose motivations from scene to scene are consistent and instead they rely on hit and miss sitcom jokes that hang off of the film's premise.

Poor Natalie Portman is the biggest victim of the hit and miss style of "No Strings Attached." Portman's Emma is called upon to be an emotional disaster reeling from one motivation to the next at the whim of whatever comic notion struck director Ivan Reitman in the moment.

At one moment Reitman finds it funny for Emma to invite a strange man on a date to a family funeral. In the next she's giving her phone number to a guy in front of his girlfriend. In the next she seeks a purely sexual relationship. Then she gets drunk and jealous. Then she tells him to sleep with other women and then she's jealous again. Each time Emma is led to look like a fool because no one bothered to give her a back-story that might lend context to her oddball behavior.

Making matters worse in "No Strings Attached" is a sensational supporting cast that drowns in the wake of the creators’ lack of any clue what to do with them. Kevin Kline as Adam's father is a heedless hedonist whose love of drugs and sex is supposedly funny because he's old. That's the joke, he's old. I imagine that Reitman thought hiring Kevin Kline was all that he needed to make this character work and that's not an unreasonable notion, but even Kline's charm can't get around how misbegotten Reitman's direction of No Strings Attached is. 

Lake Bell plays Adam's co-worker who clearly has a crush on him. Here, the film adds a strange sort of cruelty as nice guy Adam is asked to flirt with Bell's Lucy while pining for crazy Emma. If Lucy were a bigger nutcase than Emma or maybe just mean in some way then his behavior toward her might be excusable. Instead, Lucy and Adam have an uncomfortable and brief courtship before she is shuffled off into another character's jockey send off. 

The brilliant Greta Gerwig from “Greenberg” is wasted in the role of Emma's best friend, sweetly paired off with Adam's best friend Eli (Jake M. Johnson) in one of the film's many thrown away plots. And The Office star Mindy Kaling is brought in to deliver a few tart one liners that sound as if she wrote them herself. Kaling's character exists only for one-liners and to her credit they are the funniest moments in the film. 

There are parts as well for rapper Ludacris, Cary Elwes, and Juno's best pal Olivia Thirlby but nothing really of note. It seems at times that everyone in the cast was hired to inhabit a type and then jokes were written to play off of that type and then everything was cut together with fingers crossed that something coherent would emerge. 

Sadly, nothing coherent does emerge from No Strings Attached aside from a continuing sense that Ashton Kutcher has talent and really poor taste in material. Like us, Kutcher saw the potential of the idea of No Strings Attached but like the rest of the cast he is left hanging by a creative team that failed to develop anything beyond a premise and a couple of good one liners.

One last note, some Oscar pundits have wondered aloud if No Strings Attached were bad enough to be Natalie Portman’s “Norbit,” i.e the film that some believe sunk Eddie Murphy’s chances of winning Best Supporting Actor for his excellent turn in “Dreamgirls.” The answer is a simple no: “No Strings Attached” is not as bad as “Norbit.” Indeed, few movies have ever been as bad as “Norbit.”