Get Low (2009)

This is a beautiful movie and really well acted. I adored the art direction and the cinematography. However, I also thought the pacing was a bit odd. A good portion of the movie is slowly paced, which is appropriate for the building of tension and for the view of small town life. The main character is a hermit for God's sake! Things should not zip along like a Matrix film. Nevertheless, when tension did start building, I liked that bit of the story better than the quiet parts of the film. So, I thought the pacing was odd. Also, there were several story lines that were dropped by the end of the film; I assert they should have been edited out.

Nevertheless, I would recommend this movie. It is way, way better than average. How could it not be with Robert Duvall, Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek as the main characters? Duvall is the hermit who wants to attend his own funeral. Don't be confused by the trailer - this is NOT a comedy. There are funny parts and lines, but this is a tragedy in large part. Duvall's character wants to attend his own funeral to atone and ask for forgiveness. He is not there to party. And that is the best part of the movie.

Jane Eyre (2011)

Best. Jane. Eyre. Ever.

This Rochester smolders (thank you Michael Fassbender) and Mia Wasikowska is a fantastic actress and an amazing Jane. The supporting cast? How about Jamie Bell and Sally Hawkins for starters? Add a moody, dark and isolated Thornfield, and this picture is heaven.

Bronte fans and Jane fans - don't miss this.

Audition (1999)

This is a nice little Japanese horror flick, and I really liked it. A widower is whining to a friend in the movie or TV business that he feels he needs to get married again, but finding the right girl is so HARD. He wants a beautiful girl, who works and can cook, and has some "training", like a dancer or singer, because those women are generally happier. The word "obedient" is used at least once to describe an optimal female. That's already pretty offensive, but then the friend offers to use an upcoming audition for a movie / show that will likely never be made to find this guy a bride. What a couple of sweethearts.

Well, the guy finds his dream-girl (a little older than his son), and he decides to propose. It turns out he has really bad taste in women.

The first part of the film is way too sweet for me, but the build up was really great. And the Japanese like to confuse you with what is real and what is not. Plus they're so damn polite, even when cutting off your foot.

Adjustment Bureau (2011)

This movie is a lot of fun. It is a blockbuster type film - kind of. There are some really cool effects and lots of action, but there is also a love story, developed characters and ACTING. That isn't a regular blockbuster. I think think a guy could go to this and enjoy it, but his girlfriend will really like it too.

Matt Damon plays an almost Senator who meets the girl of his dreams (Emily Blunt) by chance. But then it turns out that he wasn't supposed to meet her - that nothing is left to chance. The reasons for this are easily explained: when mankind is left on its own, things really get fucked up. So the "chairman" has decided that he will take care of the paths and choices that we call chance.

Matt and Emily keep testing this theory, with interesting results. Because they are so good, I got really invested in a high-tech love story. Plus, we have Terence Stamp and Anthony Mackie - I love Anthony Mackie. Remember him from Hurt Locker?

I think you should go see this one in the theater - it's that fun.

Tamara Drewe (2010)

Wow - this movie is hideous. It is supposed to be a rollicking farce, I believe, but the main characters are liars or cheats or self-absorbed bores or all of the above. There are borderline scenes with a (self) sexualized 15 year old - more than a little disturbing.

There are a couple of decent characters. They are not the main characters, so I found myself waiting for the minor characters to get on screen. Overall, I would skip this - though I will now watch for movies with Dominic Cooper. He's adorable.

This movie has one of the worst, nastiest endings I've ever see. It really is billed as a comedy, but the film has the ending of a horror film or a Victorian tragedy. Just skip it unless I've made you really curious.

Micmacs (2009)

I was bored. This is another Jeunet film, with his artistic style, but it is about arms manufacturers. Or rather, the harm caused by bullets and land mines, etc. The unique cinematic style did not redeem a silly story and poorly drawn characters.

Sometimes a satire works, like with In the Loop, and sometimes it falls flat. I would recommend watching In the Loop instead, or a different Jeunet film, such as A Very Long Engagement.

Mesrine - Killer Instinct (2007)

There are some great gangster movies out there, and L'instinct de Mort (Killer Instinct) is up there. It stars Vincent Cassel as Mesrine, a one-time public enemy number 1 in France. And this guy is nasty.

Most great gangster films, in my mind, leave me feeling conflicted. In Public Enemies, Bonnie and Clyde and American Gangster, for example, I like the criminals enough to hope for their freedom, a getaway, at least at times. And for God's sake - Butch and Sundance? There was no conflict for me in that one. I wanted them to start over in Bolivia.

I was not conflicted in this movie at all. Mesrine is a nasty piece of shit, his friends are evil, and he deserves everything he gets. He is tortured in a Canadian prison, and that's just fine. It probably made him more evil, but crap, this guy was hardly going to move up the evolutionary ladder anyway.

This is a hard one to watch, but if you like gangsters and great acting, put it in your queue. There is a part 2 (Mesrine - Public Enemy Number 1) that comes out March 29. I'll be watching it.

La Cité des Enfants Perdus (1995)

I have all French films at home right now. Sometimes I understand so much French in a film, but with this one - City of Lost Children - it's like I never studied the language at all.

I hope that doesn't influence whether I like the film? I don't think it does. But I didn't like this one much. It is amazingly creative and well acted, and very imaginative, but I never want to watch it again. I had a stomach ache while watching it this one time.

Do you remember The Professional, Natalie Portman's breakthrough? I was nervous in that one, because there was so much sexual tension between Natalie's character and Jean Reno in the film. She was playing a 12 year old in the film, and Reno was a 30 or 40 year old hit man. It was disturbing, which was the intention.

In The Professional, as I remember it, Jean Reno's character is child-like in many ways, which was perhaps supposed to explain the relationship? I will watch it again. The same occurs in The City of Lost Children.

Here we have Ron Perlman playing One, a former whale harpooner and now a carnival strongman. He has a little brother, whom he found in a garbage can and adopted. The little boy gets stolen by a group of cyclops - type men who sell children to an evil scientist who wants their dreams. Sounds crazy? This is a Jeunet film (Amelie), and he specializes in alternate worlds.

One is aided in his search for his brother by Miette, an orphan now belonging to a gang of child-thieves. Miette is more of an adult than One, who adopts her as well and calls her "his angel" and tattoos her name on his arm. Hence my discomfort. Nothing untoward happens, but I was waiting. Those damn French.

This film has a following, and I can see why. Artistically, there is nothing close outside of animation. If you want something that will make you marvel, rent it. I, however, was creeped out by most of story - the relationships, the villains, the fleas.

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

Cecil B. DeMille directed this over-the-top production about the people and the behind the scenes activity in the circus. It has some decent acting (Gloria Grahame is my favorite) and many extended performance scenes that I found really boring.

This film won the Best Picture Oscar - and there had to have been a better picture than this in 1952. This movie is cheesy, melodramatic and it doesn't hold up well. If you only have a few hours and want to watch a classic, pick up anything by Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger or Hitchcock and you will be better served than watching this film.

Mary Poppins (1964)

I hadn't watched this in about a million years. It is the FAVORITE movie of a friend, so I put it in today. It is great in many ways, because Mary Poppins is an incredible character. Julie Andrews is awesome. But I like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang better.

Disney has a great formula for movies, and they still do. But why don't they make movies like this anymore?

Nurse Ratched

AFI makes these wonderful lists: top 100 movies, best heroes, best villains, etc. I agree that the best hero is Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

But I disagree with the top villains. Here is how AFI lists the top five:

1. Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
2. Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in Psycho (1960)
3. Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) in The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
4. The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) in The Wizard of Oz (1939)
5. Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

In my mind, Nurse Ratched beats the crap out of those other guys (and the witch). Dr. Lecter actually has ethics: he mainly goes after people who offend him. He is a villain that I adore - so smart and seductive in a reptilian way. I could probably beat the shit out of Norman if he didn't surprise me in the shower. Darth Vader is bad, but mainly he's a really bad dad. I'm not scared of Darth Vader. The Wicked Witch? She can't get wet! She's bad news, but not so bad ass.

And then there's Nurse Ratched. She picks the weakest of the weak - the patients in her mental ward - and uses her knowledge of their illnesses to pulverize them emotionally and drive them closer and closer to absolute insanity. I get a stomach ache for the entire play or movie or book - Ratched scares the shit out of me. She is pure evil.

If Hannibal met her, he would kill her and eat her. She is the baddest thing out there. Watch all five and tell me which one you would avoid at all costs.

Omar

OK - here's the deal. I think I'm in love with Omar. The fact that he's a gay stick-up artist who targets drug dealers (on HBO's The Wire) doesn't really change my feelings. He is the most amoral character I think I've ever seen, but he has ethics, and there is something very attractive about his ethics combined with his insouciance. I am about halfway through Season 2, and I love this show.

Tipping the Velvet (2002)

Lately I have had Sarah Waters all around me - and it's awesome! She wrote The Little Stranger, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. I read it in a couple of days because I could not put it down. In discussing it with CW, who recommended it, I realized that I missed a plot twist! Woo hoo! I love that.

My friend P raved about Fingersmith, which I finally saw and loved (see below).

And I just finished Tipping the Velvet - not as good as the other two, but definitely fun and different. It is a three part mini-series for BBC about the (mis)adventures of a young woman in 1890's England who falls in love with a female singer / male impersonator. When we meet Nan she is about 17, and doesn't even know that falling in love with another female is a thing - that's it's possible or that it happens.

The first episode is way too sappy - for me at least. Rachael Stirling, who plays Nan, is great, but I thought I would turn off the show or use the fast-forward button if the second and third episodes continued to be so syrup-y.

Anyway - they weren't. Nan ends up in London, where she impersonates a boy and starts hooking. Her customers are men looking for blow jobs or hand jobs from a young man. Then she gets into a sadistic relationship with an older, wealthier woman, and that's when things get weird. At this point I was hooked (haha). The end is too sweet again, but this is definitely a find if you like something a bit different, yet still well acted.