Crying at the Movies

I’m a movie-crier. At least I’m upfront about it. But don’t get me wrong; I sob at movies. I’m more likely to cry in the actual theater, but I’ve been known to also jerk a tear or two on my living room sofa. (Just the other day, “Love Actually” had me crying into my coffee. That damn scene where Liam Neeson plays the Bay City Rollers at his late-movie-wife’s request. But here's a scene that doesn't make me cry.)

Here are some movies that are sure to bring the tears:

1.      UP--The life montage in “Up” just about ended me. I’d read about it, I braced myself, and still sobbed. I tried to hide behind my 3D glasses, but my boyfriend knew. But it was so sad…

2.      Atonement—not to wreck a surprise or anything, but there’s a plot-twist and a death at the end of Atonement, the adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel.  I loved the book, but completely forgot about the ending. The death caught me off guard. Cried buckets.

3.      Marley and Me—Oh my god, the dog died. The dog died. The dog died and they had the six year old mourning the dog’s death. There are no words.

4.      Finding Neverland—I don’t even remember what’s so sad about the end of this movie, but I remember vividly weeping with my mom when we went to see it. (Maybe it’s genetic, the movie-crying.)

5.      The Notebook—this is a solid good-cry standby. I know exactly the scene at the end which makes me cry.

So yes, I cry. I cry like the characters are my best friends and family members. And it’s okay. It’s okay because it means I can suspend that disbelief enough—even as a hardened Media Studies grad student—to really put myself into the film. After the hundreds of films I’ve seen over my life, I can still and react like it’s reality.

Who Doesn’t Like the Clooney? Anyone?

 

In Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” George Clooney makes a professional firer absolutely likeable. Clooney’s character Ryan Bingham, crosses the country weekly to pink slip employees for weak kneed bosses. His main joy in life is in the serenity of not knowing anyone he spends his days traveling with; he’s really jazzed about snagging Frequent Flyer miles and flirting with fellow travelers of the fairer sex.

Yet he’s imminently likeable. But then again, he’s the Clooney.

I’m pretty sure everyone loves George Clooney. With his connections to Italy, Rosemary Clooney, Brad Pitt, and general movie stardom, Clooney covers all sorts of demographics. Even a bad movie would be made redeemable if it starred the Clooney.

That said, “Up in the Air” is not a bad movie. In fact, it’s frequently funny and entertaining. Clooney supplies much of his trademark zing, and is ably supported by Anna Kendrick as an uptight upstart and Vera Farmiga as a business woman who catches Bingham’s eye. Kendrick completely holds her own, and has  much presence in her scenes with Clooney.

The best sequence of the movie involves Clooney, Kendrick, and Farmiga’s characters crashing a convention party. (A lot of the humor in “Up in the Air” is better for people who have been to conventions. It often divinely captures the ridiculousness of convention-tedium.) The second best has to be a touching family wedding.

Overall, “Up in the Air” pretty much lives up to its Oscar-season buzz. The end feels a little loose, but the performances more than make up for any ambiguity.

Go see it. The Clooney wants you to.   

The Clooney Files (For more Clooney Information) 

Article about BU professor

So, uh, this pretty much outlines why film criticism is important.

link to article "Movie Criticism Before (and After) Blogging"

Ninja Assassin

I like to think that I will see a wide range of films. I generally am not a fan of calling something a “boy” movie or a “girl” movie. I believe we can all enjoy a good disaster movie and that John Hughes’ oeuvre has life lessons for everyone. (Just try a little tenderness, gentlemen. Just try.)

But then my boyfriend convinced me to see Ninja Assassin—the most boy-tastic boy movie ever created. (I’d made him see New Moon—during its opening weekend, natch.)

Ninja Assassin was pretty alright, if nothing else than in that “my boyfriend made me see it” type of way. From an aesthetic standpoint, I saw some blood shed in ways I hadn’t before. The most impressive deaths included disembodiment in a Laundromat and a man sliced shoulder to hip by a ninja’s sword. Talk about your sharp knives.

Story-wise, Ninja Assassin is about an orphanage that turns childless parents into efficient assassins. Think the Artful Dodger teaching death rather than light thievery. Raizo (played by Korean pop star Rain) was done wrong by the orphanage and teams up with a plucky Europol researcher (Naomie Harris) to end the killing.

Ninja Assassin was downright entertaining, in a spurty, blood and lots of guts type way. The ending dragged out a bit and supplied one of the corniest anatomy lessons ever, but overall, was worth the price of admission. Even for a boy movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M_VZ2TdIgk

(Just another relaxing ninja day.)

Everybody’s Fine

I didn’t so much want to see Kirk Jones’ Everybody’s Fine so much as I already felt that I had.

(Every damn movie I’ve seen for the last three months has featured a trailer. I finally gave in and used my MJR rewards free ticket for a 10:20 show. I had a free popcorn too, so major score.)

For those of you who possibly haven’t seen the trailer—featuring Drew Barrymore looking positively Cover Girl fabulous—Everybody’s Fine revolves around a retired father (Robert DeNiro) visiting his four children shortly after the death of his wife. The jig is up relatively quickly that everybody is not in fact fine. Barrymore plays the dancer daughter Rosie; Kate Beckinsale is ad exec Amy; and Sam Rockwell plays rumpled percussionist Robert. The film is based off of an Italian film.

Technically, Everybody’s Fine is capable but drags a bit in the back half. There are some weird dream sequences that go a bit too dark for this mainstream of a film. We don’t really see enough of the strife to get pulled in; we see only the cover up and it quickly becomes frustrating.

The performances are decent, with the exception of DeNiro. DeNiro, being DeNiro, is pretty fantastic. The man can act. The best part of the film are silent snapshots of DeNiro’s character making his way in the mundane world of retirement.

I’m not sure if I would exactly pay to see Everybody’s Fine. The back half revelations were downright depressing. But overall, it was, you know—fine.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh7H92iE2V0

Are you there internet? It’s me.

Okay, so blogs are kind of weird for me. I had a Livejournal back in the day, but I don’t particularly Twitter or Tumble or even really chat on Facebook. This is a step for me. I’ve always aspired to write about movies, but grew up and was trained in the editor/built in response system. I like the feel of knowing immediately if I’m way off the mark.

But movies are worth it. For movies, I’m going to blog.

I realized it was time for me to give in to the blogging when I tried to search for movie themed blogs. There weren’t many. And there really weren’t many good ones.
I think the issue is with the medium. Movies, I believe, inspire far more of a loss of perspective. (It’s part of why they’re so groovy.) The talking heads are ten feet tall, and so as observers and consumers it’s hard to remember that we can and should have an opinion on quality. More of us have to talk intelligently about movies.
Let’s be honest, there are some disturbing trends in the movie world right now. There are too many crappy romantic comedies and too many big budget movies with everything except for an ounce of quality.

This is not okay, people! The movies affect society and we cannot sit idly by watching crap. We are what we watch.

So here goes…