Sound of My Voice

Brit Marling - who wrote and starred in Another Earth, which I really enjoyed earlier this year - strikes again with Sound of My Voice!  This film centers upon Peter and Lorna, a couple of wannabe documentary filmmakers, as they infiltrate a local "cult" led by a Maggie (played by Marling), a young women who claims to come from the future.  Their motives start out as investigatory and expository, but they morph into something else, eventually causing a rift between the couple, and having much larger potential consequences. 

Sound of My Voice was a well-done film, with an interesting story that keeps you guessing until the very end.  Is Maggie really from the future?  Or is she just a fraud?  The ending was a tad abrupt and left me wanting a bit more, even though it does provide some answers.  I really enjoyed Sound of My Voice and I hope Brit Marling keeps coming out with more films.  8.5 out of 10.

My Name Is Joe

 

Joe is a rough-around-the edges recovering alcoholic with a troubled past.  Almost a year clean, he manages a young men's soccer team and does what he can to scrape by in his depressed neighborhood in Glasgow.  He gets a new lease on life when he becomes romantically involved with Sarah, a kind-hearted social worker/nurse.  But Joe's helpful nature gets him into trouble with the local mob (not really a mob but I don't know what else to call it) and he finds that perhaps he has not been so successful in shedding the demons of his past.  My Name is Joe was a really good film, although it was very depressing.  I was really rooting for Joe, as he was such a genuinely kind person.  I could see his fall from grace coming, but that didn't make it any less sad when it happened.  I guess this is fairly typical from director Ken Loach.  This was a moving story with great acting.  8 out of 10.

This Is 40

I'd been seeing previews for This Is 40 for ages, it seems, and I was really looking forward to it.  I am a big fan of *most* of Judd Apatow's work and I thought the characters of Debbie and Pete were funny in their debut in Knocked Up.  And I tend to like Paul Rudd in just about everything he does.  I had already seen that This Is 40 was getting pretty lukewarm reviews, but I went in with an open mind and a forgiving outlook - sort of expecting that it wouldn't be a "great" film but still expecting to enjoy it.  I mean, heck, I gave American Reunion a 7/10 earlier this year mainly because I had a soft spot for the class of 1999.

Unfortunately, the lukewarm reviews were right: This Is 40 just wasn't very good.  I think the biggest issue is that it's severely lacking in the plot area.  The basic plot is that Debbie and Pete are both turning 40 in what seems like the longest week ever known to mankind.  But while the actual plot was lacking, there were WAY too many unnecessary subplots - e.g. Debbie thinks one of her employees is stealing from her store; Debbie and Pete both face issues with their dads; one of their daughters has raging hormones; Pete has high cholesterol but refuses to stop eating cupcakes (side note - maybe that would be more believable on a less fit-looking man).  Supposedly the family is struggling financially, but it's difficult to feel much pity when they're driving around in a Lexus and BMW, living in a mansion that costs probably $2 million, and going on impromptu romantic getaways to Laguna Beach in the middle of the week. Which reminds me - for a couple that claims not to be having much sex, they sure seem to have a lot of it to me.

Another issue is the acting.  I don't think Leslie Mann is a good enough actress to pull off a leading role like this.  She strikes me as a bit "one note" - I think she's much better in smaller, memorable supporting roles (I remember feeling the same way about Andy Samberg when I watched him in Celeste and Jesse Forever a few months back).  I thought the Apatow girls were pretty limited in their acting abilities as well.  I mean, I get it, they're Judd Apatow's real life family, but they're just not that great of actresses.

I have seen a lot of mediocre movies that start off as enjoyable and then just lose steam as the movie progresses.  This Is 40 isn't one of them.  From pretty much the very beginning, it established itself as a mediocre movie.  And while there were some genuinely funny moments sprinkled throughout, it just wasn't very funny on the whole.  Maybe I've outgrown hemorrhoid and colonoscopy humor.  I'm actually surprised that This Is 40 is hovering around 50% on the "tomatometer" - I'd expect even lower.  I almost feel guilty writing such a bad review because I really do appreciate Judd Apatow's work and will almost certainly continue to watch it in the future.  But the bottom line is that this is a not very good film about not very likeable people.  Better luck next time, Judd.  4 out of 10.

Silver Linings Playbook

You know what?  Today is December 21, and all year I have been torturing myself to come up with suitable synopses in my movie reviews.  In the review I just wrote, I used the "official" synopsis instead - I don't know why it took me so long to think of that.  I could have saved myself a lot of grief this year!  On that note:

Life doesn't always go according to plan. Pat Solatano has lost everything - his house, his job, and his wife. He now finds himself living back with his mother and father after spending eight months in a state institution on a plea bargain. Pat is determined to rebuild his life, remain positive and reunite with his wife, despite the challenging circumstances of their separation. All Pat's parents want is for him to get back on his feet - and to share their family's obsession with the Philadelphia Eagles football team. When Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own, things get complicated. Tiffany offers to help Pat reconnect with his wife, but only if he'll do something very important for her in return. As their deal plays out, an unexpected bond begins to form between them, and silver linings appear in both of their lives.

I really liked it.  I thought Bradley Cooper was great and I found it refreshing to see him in a likeable role.  It was funny in a quirky way, and I think the comedy held through to the very end.  The characters of Pat and Tiffany were both flawed but I really liked them together and was rooting for them to get together.  And also (!!!) Silver Linings Playbook is kind of a dance movie in disguise, which automatically gets it points in my book, as anyone who knows me can vouch that "dance" is my favorite genre of movie.  Overall, really enjoyable.  8.5 out of 10.

John Dies at the End

 

We caught a special showing John Dies at the End, the new movie from the director of Bubba Ho-Tep (which I watched a few months back); it will be officially released early next year.  It's a horror comedy, I guess?  The plot is hard to describe - so I'm just going to paste the same synopsis that I keep seeing online:

It's a drug that promises an out-of-body experience with each hit. On the street they call it Soy Sauce, and users drift across time and dimensions. But some who come back are no longer human. Suddenly a silent otherworldly invasion is underway, and mankind needs a hero. What it gets instead is John and David, a pair of college dropouts who can barely hold down jobs. Can these two stop the oncoming horror in time to save humanity? No. No, they can't.

John Dies is every bit as strange as it sounds, and quite honestly I'm *still* not even sure of a lot of the otherworldly details.  At first, it was striking me as sort of Ghostbusters meets Dude Where's My Car, but then it just kept getting more bizarre and my comparisons didn't really hold past the first 15 minutes.

I can see John Dies being a cult classic for fans of the genre, but it didn't really do it for me.  There were definitely some funny moments and some scary moments but overall I thought it was silly and rather confusing.  5.5 out of 10.

Hitchcock

Hitchcock tells the story of the conception and filming of Psycho in 1959, with a focus on the somewhat discontent relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma.  Honestly, I don't have that much to say about it because I didn't really like it that much.  Neither the acting nor the directing were bad, but I was just left with an overwhelming feeling of "so what?" after the movie was over.  Maybe Hitchcock film buffs will like it more than I did, or who knows, maybe they'll like it less since they may have a more critical eye for the factual details.  Either way, from me, Hitchcock gets a big fat 5 out of 10.

It's A Wonderful Life

 

Somehow, I've made it to the ripe old age of 31 without seeing It's A Wonderful Life.  Well, actually, it's not all that shocking if you think about it - I'm not really a Christmas person, and I tend to avoid "old" movies (much to my husband's chagrin/hatred).

But I went, and it was good.  A charming story of an extraordinarily kind man who spent his life doing good for others, often at the expense of his own wants and needs - until he reaches the end of his rope one snowy Christmas Eve, and those friends and neighbors he'd been helping all along get to support HIM for once.  Very enjoyable, and there were lots of happy tears from me at the end.  8 out of 10.

Goon

 

A hockey comedy starring Stifler?  Yeah, didn't think this would be my cup of tea.  But my husband suggested Goon to me when I was leaving on a trip and looking for airplane entertainment.  He predicted I'd give it an 8, and that I might even cry.  

Seann William Scott plays Doug "The Thug" Glatt - a mild-mannered dude of slightly less-than-average intelligence, with ham-size fists that can crack skulls.  He works as a bouncer in Boston, until one night he attends a hockey game and lands on TV after punching out a player during the game (but for good reason!  The player used a homophobic slur!).  The footage impresses a local hockey coach, who invites Doug to come join the team, never minding the fact that Doug doesn't know how to skate.  He does well and ends up being recruited as an "enforcer" on the Halifax Highlanders - where fame and fights await him.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Goon, given my lack of interest in and knowledge of hockey.  It held my interest the whole way through.  I kind of loved the character of Doug and I thought Scott played him perfectly.  The character was extremely sensitive - despite his hockey successes he was still yearning for approval from his very traditional parents.  My heart broke for him when he presented his mother with the "game puck" (is that what it's called?) and she left it on the table :( :( :( I also found him utterly charming in his courting of a young woman, played by Alison Pill.

I will say, however, that Goon is pretty gory.  I found myself trying to shield my screen from other people on the plane, lest they see me watching a movie with copious amounts of blood falling in slow-motion onto the ice.  But hey, I guess that's what happens in hockey.

Anyway, the hubs was right - I'm giving Goon an 8 out of 10.  I didn't actually cry but I'll admit that I came pretty darn close!