Drama

Joe (2013)

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I’ve slammed Nicholas Cage for the atrocious Rage (among others), so it’s only fair to laud him when he’s good. And he’s good in this. As good as I’ve seen him since Leaving Las Vegas. All the performances are nearly note-perfect, especially Tye Sheridan as Gary. Given his performances in this and Mud, he looks like he’s going to have a hell of a career ahead of him. And I have to say I can’t remember hating a character as much as I hated Gary’s father, Wade, played by Gary Poulter. What makes this even more amazing is that Poulter isn’t even an actor, but a homeless man, who—sadly—died shortly after the film was completed. I have to think that a lot of the characters used were local non-actors, too, but (because?) they were so incredibly believable. Continue reading →

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (2014)

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Every once in a while, I come across one of those films that, whether I enjoyed it or not, I think “how am I going to write about this one?” This is one of those films. It’s a quirky film that is at times sweet, funny, but also heartbreakingly sad. And I know that if I recommend it, there are going to be at least a few people out there who will see it and hate it. One look at the reviews at IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes makes it clear that it’s a polarizing film. Most people seem to either love it or hate it. Continue reading →

Maggie (2015)

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What would you sacrifice for your child? That’s a question that keeps cropping up in Maggie, the feature debut by director Henry Hobson. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Wade is the father of the title character, and has more to deal with than prom dates and puberty.  Maggie has been bitten by one of the infected, and is slowly going through “the turn.” The authorities want the infected to be able to spend as much time as possible with their families, but the threat of “quarantine” and what happens there is always looming. This is not your usual zombie pic. It’s not about killing zombies in lots of nasty and cool ways. It’s a film about watching a loved one suffer, and being able to do little to stop it. It’s an entire movie about that emotional aspect of the zombie genre that most films address with maybe one or two quick scenes. This could just as easily have been a drama about a father trying to deal with his daughter’s terminal cancer, for example. Continue reading →

Woman in Gold (2015)

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How DO you solve a problem like Maria? If you’re Austria, you do it in court. This is a movie that shouldn’t work. It’s overly sentimental, it doesn’t quite seem to know what kind of film it wants to be, and we essentially know from the beginning of the film how it will end. And yet I found myself completely engrossed and often moved by it. The story itself is fascinating—Maria Altman was a young Jewish woman when she fled from Nazi Germany to the U.S., leaving behind her family’s fortune, including a Stradivarian cello, and—more importantly—a painting of her aunt by the artist Gustav Klimt. The painting was stolen by the Nazis, and eventually became known as “Woman in Gold,” since they whitewashed all hint of Aunt Adele’s Jewish background. Continue reading →

Stop the Pounding Heart (2013)

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I don’t really know what to make of this film, honestly. I found myself absorbed in it, but I think I would be hard pressed to recommend it to the general viewer, or even explain WHY I was so absorbed. It feels like a documentary, but also like a scripted film. There are no “characters,” per se. All those in the film appear as themselves, but at the same time, they seem to behave so naturally, as though they aren’t even aware of the presence of the camera. If they’re acting, they’re as good as any actor out there. It gives the film this amazing ring of honesty and purity, with no intrusion by the director, which lately seems rare among documentaries. Continue reading →

Aloha (2015)

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I was prepared not to like this one, but as it turned out, it was a decent watch. A lot of the negativity I had heard had to do with Emma Stone’s character, Allison Ng, who is one-quarter Hawaiian. Some people were up in arms that a little white girl was playing a Hawaiian. How dare she?! Of course, there is no “real” Allison Ng (the character was based on someone director Cameron Crowe knew. A redhead, no less), Continue reading →