Category Archives: Now Playing

Apr 21 2012
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Now Playing, Reviews, The Big Picture

Now Playing: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

❆ ❆ 2 1/2 Mittens ❆ ❆

Spoilers!!!

Like The Hunter, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a film based on a novel that seems to have lost something in translation. I desperately wanted to love this film, as I’m a big fan of both Emily Blunt and Ewan MacGregor. Add in some angsty self-discovery and some making-cute and you’ve basically won me over. Except, there was so little make-cute! Sure there was the initial comedic tension of opposites attract, but there’s no big kiss, no overwhelming romantic swooning! The only sex scenes aren’t even between the main characters and Ewan MacGregor’s is the opposite of sexy. I guess not everything we see him in can be Young Adam hotness, but still.

Overall it was a sweet film and I enjoyed the fishing part of it more than I thought I would. Plus, the political machinery of Kristin Scott Thomas is brilliantly wrong. But…I just didn’t get the satisfaction I was hoping for after two hours of hoping for a happy ending. It was like getting a banana split for desert and only eating the banana part.
I want my emotional whip cream and cherry, y’all!
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Apr 21 2012
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Now Playing, The Big Picture

Now Playing: Cabin in the Woods

❆ ❆ ❆ 3 1/2 Mittens ❆ ❆ ❆

 

So, I saw Cabin in the Woods almost a week ago and have been reading tons and tons of stuff on the web about it and talking to other friends that have seen it, but I haven’t been able to write a review. I think that’s because if I really talk about what I thought, I will spoil the film. Yes, I know I do that sometimes, but so much of the awesome of this movie relies on it being unspoiled. It’s clear it’s about sacrifice from the opening credits (and trailer) and that it’s not just a simple “big bad” horror film. There are people running the show and weird electric boundaries and elevators and… well, I can’t tell you and what else without giving too much away.

I will say that if you like Joss Whedon’s self-aware style of genre-tv and film, you will love this. It’s so much more an exploration of tropes (both horror and myth and religious) than a “scary movie.” In fact, I didn’t find it very frightening, beyond the concepts behind the titular cabin in the woods and the weekend that spells doom for the young, beautiful archetypes who stay there. In some ways, Cabin in the Woods feels like an extended Buffy episode, but without the character development that many episodes give you. It also felt like a conversation about films more than an actual film. Like, I really enjoyed the conversation the film was having and that it sparked amongst viewers, but I’m not sure I can say that it’s a good movie.

Still, I highly recommend going and seeing it. It’s definitely a fun time at the movies. And an even funner time for Whedonites like myself and others who like to geek out over tropes and archetypes and other annoying film study words like that.

PS If you want a film that is both a satire of genre films and a great movie, watch Shaun of the Dead. It is spot-on all around.

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Apr 21 2012
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Now Playing, Reviews, The Big Picture

Now Playing: American Reunion

❆  1 1/2 Mittens ❆

American Pie came out the year I graduated high school, 1999. It was the beginning of modern film’s r-rated comedy boon that eventually led us to The Hangover and I remember feeling very uncomfortable by the film when watching it… My parents were pretty strict about censoring inappropriate content so it took a few years for me to be unashamed watching things like Jason Segel and his penis getting dumped in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

American Reunion, unlike its predecessor, is not the beginning of a new era. Rather, it is clearly the end. Stale jokes based on objectifying women, masturbating, and parents having sex lives distract from the only part of the film with any resonance, what has happened to these characters as they grew up. You know, like how we grew up and became adults. It’s mildly touching as a “going back to who we were” film, but fails as a contemporary comedy. The plot is too focused on Jim and the kid he used to babysit and on Stifler being a jerk who just wants to be loved. Yes, those are the two most charismatic actors in the film, but it undermines what made American Pie so sweet at its core: the friendships of these young men.

Overall, it’s definitely a rental if you are curious and nostalgic about the Class of 1999. If you want a good time, I recommend passing as I honestly don’t think I chuckled out loud once.

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Apr 21 2012
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Now Playing, Reviews, The Big Picture

Now Playing: The Hunter

❆ ❆ ❆ 3 Mittens ❆ ❆ ❆

The Hunter is a film that has all elements I normally like: exotic zoology, faceless big bad corporation, emotionally repressed killer who finds love and family, mystery, and Sam Neill’s real accent. And yet? It doesn’t work. It almost works. But almost in a film like this is enough to make it seem like a worse movie than it is. That being said, I’m planning on reading the novel (by Julia Leigh), as I feel that many of my complaints (emotionally odd reactions, lack of internal motivations, etc.) are resolved naturally in a novel.

Still, Willem Defoe is excellent as always and the scenery is beautiful. I just wish it had been either louder or quieter or slower or faster or, like the Tasmanian Tiger it focuses on, made of somewhat incongruous parts that are beautiful when put together.

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Mar 25 2012
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Now Playing, Reviews, The Big Picture, Well Read

Now Playing: The Hunger Games

❆ ❆ ❆ 3 1/2 Mittens ❆ ❆ ❆

(SPOILERS!!!)

This weekend, the hotly anticipated film adaptation of the newest YA novel sensation, The Hunger Games, opened to gazillions of dollars and confirmed that Katniss Everdeen is Hollywood’s next big thing. And, as an avid (and pushy!) fan of the dsytopic series, I obviously went to see it. I admit that I was extremely nervous, despite long supporting Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. She was exactly as I imagined Katniss to be in Winter’s Bone and, despite being older, curvier, whiter, and blonder than our literary heroine, I felt like she could capture the essence of “The Girl on Fire.” I was not wrong. Jennifer Lawrence’s performance, though beautified to fit Hollywood standards (come on, she’s supposed to be stinky and smelly and burned and have blood coming out of her ear, not have eyeliner on!), captures the hardness and determination of Katniss with just the look in her eyes and the set of her mouth. Well, as much as the script, co-written by original author Suzanne Collins, allows her to… but more on that later.  Continue reading →

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