Spring movie-going
Mon, Apr. 7th, 2014 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scarlettinaI have been seeing movies lately . . . a lot of movies. What have I seen?
The Grand Budapest Hotel: Wes Anderson's eccentric, entertaining, and star-studded adventure in which one Gustave H., concierge at the beautiful, remote Grand Budapest Hotel, and his loyal lobby boy Zero, race across across Europe in a plot involving a priceless Renaissance painting, Zero's coming of age, and Gustav's wild and interesting philosophy of life, love and the art of the concierge. It seems like everyone is either in this cast or makes a cameo--though the film could have stood another couple of women in key roles. Nevertheless, the movie is an energetic romp with, admittedly, a dark undertone. The tone never undermines the film (at least not for me), but Anderson's presentation of this mannered, matter-of-fact caper in a world where World War II is increasingly inevitable and where old world ways and values are slipping away is engaging and engagingly odd.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Deeper, more complex, and just as action-packed as its predecessor, this Cap film shows Steve Rogers trying to come to terms with the world in which he finds himself: a morally relativistic America with science fiction technology and a scarily believable shadow government--70 years after he was frozen in the Arctic with his war-era ethics intact. Scarlett Johannson is smart, thoughtful, and tough as Natasha Romanov, Anthony Mackie plays Sam Wilson, the Falcon, with conviction and an appealing warmth (and he is, by the way, absolutely gorgeous), and Chris Evans brings real depth to, well, a comic book hero. The script gives him room to breathe and think and feel deeply, and he takes advantage of that. I kind of hate that he's decided to quit acting after his stint at Cap is over; this guy's got chops. Samuel L. Jackson is still the biggest bad-ass in the movies. The flick is good, serious fun.
Tim's Vermeer: Tim Jenison, a video engineer and inventor, decides to investigate how the great Johannes Vermeer created his beautiful paintings, paintings that are remarkably realistic--photo-realistic when carefully examined--in an era of specific technique and relatively low technology. His research, exploration, and ultimately his proposed solution to this problem produce a technique that is ingenius, painstaking, and may ultimately answer the question he asks in ways that few could have predicted. Using this technique, he produces a painting, and the film follows that process. Acting as documentarians are his friends and associates Penn Jillette and Teller, with a story of art and technology that I found really fascinating as a casual student of art and art history. Recommended.
Veronica Mars: It's the sequel to the TV series that Mars fans have been waiting for, the Kickstarter-funded film with high-end TV chops--because that's what it is: an extended TV episode with cinematic pretensions. I enjoyed the film, but as I noted on Facebook, I didn't really buy the end. One doesn't cross the country for a nearly Ivy-league education in a world-class city and set up housekeeping with a steady, smart boyfriend and then abandon it all Just Like That with nary a second thought in exchange for the miserable small town one spent one's life trying to escape (in large part, for a man). As so many have said, it's fan service from one end to the other--and not a bad mystery, either--and it's fun. But the self-aware Veronica we came to know in the series seems compelled to make the choices she makes not out of her own needs but because of the fans. I enjoyed the movie and, at the same time, was a little frustrated by it, by the constraints of TV showing up on the big screen. The filmmakers left enough open ends that sequels could follow should the opportunity and the funding present itself. I think I might have preferred this as a wrap-up, though--maybe one last breath of bad judgment on our heroine's part before she takes up a more adult life, making more adult choices. I would have preferred to see Veronica escape Neptune's gravity rather than embrace it.
Anita: A documentary about Anita Hill, her groundbreaking testimony provoked by the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and about how Hill changed the conversation about women in the workplace. It's a fascinating chronicle of the events of the time, both compelling and appalling stuff and, at the same time, terribly relevant given what's happening in state capitols across the country with regard to women's rights. Really good doc; I recommend it.
Also seen recently--before the Oscars aired so I'd have reference points for the nominations--but not noted:
12 Years a Slave: Harrowing, brilliant, one of the most important films of that last ten years.
August: Osage County: Another kick-ass performance by Meryl Streep and, predictably, another Academy Award nomination.
The Grand Budapest Hotel: Wes Anderson's eccentric, entertaining, and star-studded adventure in which one Gustave H., concierge at the beautiful, remote Grand Budapest Hotel, and his loyal lobby boy Zero, race across across Europe in a plot involving a priceless Renaissance painting, Zero's coming of age, and Gustav's wild and interesting philosophy of life, love and the art of the concierge. It seems like everyone is either in this cast or makes a cameo--though the film could have stood another couple of women in key roles. Nevertheless, the movie is an energetic romp with, admittedly, a dark undertone. The tone never undermines the film (at least not for me), but Anderson's presentation of this mannered, matter-of-fact caper in a world where World War II is increasingly inevitable and where old world ways and values are slipping away is engaging and engagingly odd.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Deeper, more complex, and just as action-packed as its predecessor, this Cap film shows Steve Rogers trying to come to terms with the world in which he finds himself: a morally relativistic America with science fiction technology and a scarily believable shadow government--70 years after he was frozen in the Arctic with his war-era ethics intact. Scarlett Johannson is smart, thoughtful, and tough as Natasha Romanov, Anthony Mackie plays Sam Wilson, the Falcon, with conviction and an appealing warmth (and he is, by the way, absolutely gorgeous), and Chris Evans brings real depth to, well, a comic book hero. The script gives him room to breathe and think and feel deeply, and he takes advantage of that. I kind of hate that he's decided to quit acting after his stint at Cap is over; this guy's got chops. Samuel L. Jackson is still the biggest bad-ass in the movies. The flick is good, serious fun.
Tim's Vermeer: Tim Jenison, a video engineer and inventor, decides to investigate how the great Johannes Vermeer created his beautiful paintings, paintings that are remarkably realistic--photo-realistic when carefully examined--in an era of specific technique and relatively low technology. His research, exploration, and ultimately his proposed solution to this problem produce a technique that is ingenius, painstaking, and may ultimately answer the question he asks in ways that few could have predicted. Using this technique, he produces a painting, and the film follows that process. Acting as documentarians are his friends and associates Penn Jillette and Teller, with a story of art and technology that I found really fascinating as a casual student of art and art history. Recommended.
Veronica Mars: It's the sequel to the TV series that Mars fans have been waiting for, the Kickstarter-funded film with high-end TV chops--because that's what it is: an extended TV episode with cinematic pretensions. I enjoyed the film, but as I noted on Facebook, I didn't really buy the end. One doesn't cross the country for a nearly Ivy-league education in a world-class city and set up housekeeping with a steady, smart boyfriend and then abandon it all Just Like That with nary a second thought in exchange for the miserable small town one spent one's life trying to escape (in large part, for a man). As so many have said, it's fan service from one end to the other--and not a bad mystery, either--and it's fun. But the self-aware Veronica we came to know in the series seems compelled to make the choices she makes not out of her own needs but because of the fans. I enjoyed the movie and, at the same time, was a little frustrated by it, by the constraints of TV showing up on the big screen. The filmmakers left enough open ends that sequels could follow should the opportunity and the funding present itself. I think I might have preferred this as a wrap-up, though--maybe one last breath of bad judgment on our heroine's part before she takes up a more adult life, making more adult choices. I would have preferred to see Veronica escape Neptune's gravity rather than embrace it.
Anita: A documentary about Anita Hill, her groundbreaking testimony provoked by the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and about how Hill changed the conversation about women in the workplace. It's a fascinating chronicle of the events of the time, both compelling and appalling stuff and, at the same time, terribly relevant given what's happening in state capitols across the country with regard to women's rights. Really good doc; I recommend it.
Also seen recently--before the Oscars aired so I'd have reference points for the nominations--but not noted:
12 Years a Slave: Harrowing, brilliant, one of the most important films of that last ten years.
August: Osage County: Another kick-ass performance by Meryl Streep and, predictably, another Academy Award nomination.