This was a bizarre film with a message that gets slightly muddled.
Gloria (Anne Hathaway) returns home after getting kicked out by her boyfriend (Dan Stevens). At home, she finds her old childhood friend, Oscar (Jason Sedeikis) who takes pity on this former party girl and offers her a job at his bar and provides her with some furniture for her parents' empty house.
At first, you root for them, even though Gloria has her eyes set on the underdeveloped Joel (Austin Stowell), a friend of Oscar's.
Oscar's bar is getting more customers than ever because of this incident of a monster in Seoul, South Korea. What's even weirder, Gloria is the monster, thanks to a bizarre lighting strike as a child. Who knows why the monster shows up in Seoul. She feels guilty having no control over its actions, which is why she stops drinking. And then Oscar also walks through the park to keep Gloria from tripping and discovers that he's a robot, also appearing in Seoul.
I thought nothing of that until Gloria picks Joel to sleep with over Oscar, which makes him angry and downright abusive and controlling to Gloria. He destroys his bar when Tim (Stevens) shows up, wanting Gloria back. He becomes a complete asshole, basically overnight, though in the flashback, you learn that he wasn't nice to Gloria, destroying her model house. And he threatens to kill people, by going into the park and stomping his feet, if Gloria doesn't listen to him.
The finale is decent. Gloria somehow scrapes the money together and flies to Seoul, which means that the monster appears in her hometown, wherever that is. The monster picks up Oscar and he gets scared and then the monster just tosses him away. Gloria walks away, unscathed. Gloria overpowered the jerk.
Now, she had already figured out that Oscar was upset with how inconsequential his life was, how he never left his small town. He feels small, it's that simple. At least that's what Gloria believes, I feel that it is because she picked Joel over him, sexually. Oscar was nice before that, but when he sees Gloria arrive with Joel, his demeanor instantly changes.
But Tim is also a jerk, albeit in a different way. Instead of being happy that Gloria finally has a job he believes that being a waitress is beneath her. I'm just grateful that Gloria ended up alone. No man is better than a bad man.
While this film does have a good ending, with the controlling evil being taken out, I feel like someone should have seen Gloria and Oscar beating up each other in the park before and intervened. Not even Joel or Garth (Tim Blake Nelson), Oscar's other friend, did anything to stop the nasty actions from occurring.
I just feel like this film should have gone differently and been better because I felt that the talent was largely wasted. Grade: B-
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Sunday, August 13, 2017
As Good as It Gets (1997)
Despite the amount of Oscar nominations, this film received, it really isn't anything spectacular or extraordinary and Jack Nicholson (whom I like as an actor) is grossly miscast.
Nicholson is Melvin Udall, a curmudgeon with OCD but you feel no sympathy for him as he callowsly tosses his neighbor's dog down the trash shoot. He brings his own plastic silverware to his favorite diner and he's basically an all-around jerk.
It isn't until his neighbor's agent, Frank (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) rips him a new one and forces him to care for the dog he abused that Melvin starts to change, slowly and he still does stupid crap throughout the film. And then the dog starts copying Melvin's traits of not walking on the cracks on the sidewalks that Melvin truly does start to warm up. He is even nicer to his favorite waitress, Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) whose life is troubled by her chronically ill son. But when Carol misses work, Melvin does use his greater financial means to hire a private doctor just so Carol can come back to work.
He also agrees, albeit incredibly reluctantly, to take his injured neighbor (Greg Kinnear) to visit his parents because Simon (the neighbor) needs money. He nearly blackmails Carol into coming with them and she agrees. Though Simon is gay, he and Carol hit it off, having an odd sort of brother-sister relationship. Melvin finally gives Carol a compliment, saying that because of her, he takes his medication, he wants to be a better man because of her and then he ruins it by saying that maybe if she had sex with Simon, things would start looking up for him. She walks out, as he deserves.
Only, then, she becomes Simon's muse. Simon has been pretty depressed since his apartment was robbed and he was attacked, not wanting to sketch anymore, but Carol inspires him. And she poses for him, which creates an awkward morning as they act like they had sex in front of Melvin.
Simon won't need his parent's financial assistance as he has some artwork again, but he also has no place to live. So Melvin lets him move in and Simon urges him to mend the fences with Carol which is what he does. So it ends happily, which I like, and yet, this film didn't do much for me.
Nicholson and Hunt do not have great chemistry, something this film desperately needed and Nicholson should have been closer to Hunt's age. And someone with OCD should be portrayed differently, with sympathy instead of coldness. The TV show Monk is a far better example. Still, the three leads are very good though I would have liked to have more scenes with Hunt and Kinnear as those two are truly enchanting. Grade: B
Nicholson is Melvin Udall, a curmudgeon with OCD but you feel no sympathy for him as he callowsly tosses his neighbor's dog down the trash shoot. He brings his own plastic silverware to his favorite diner and he's basically an all-around jerk.
It isn't until his neighbor's agent, Frank (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) rips him a new one and forces him to care for the dog he abused that Melvin starts to change, slowly and he still does stupid crap throughout the film. And then the dog starts copying Melvin's traits of not walking on the cracks on the sidewalks that Melvin truly does start to warm up. He is even nicer to his favorite waitress, Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) whose life is troubled by her chronically ill son. But when Carol misses work, Melvin does use his greater financial means to hire a private doctor just so Carol can come back to work.
He also agrees, albeit incredibly reluctantly, to take his injured neighbor (Greg Kinnear) to visit his parents because Simon (the neighbor) needs money. He nearly blackmails Carol into coming with them and she agrees. Though Simon is gay, he and Carol hit it off, having an odd sort of brother-sister relationship. Melvin finally gives Carol a compliment, saying that because of her, he takes his medication, he wants to be a better man because of her and then he ruins it by saying that maybe if she had sex with Simon, things would start looking up for him. She walks out, as he deserves.
Only, then, she becomes Simon's muse. Simon has been pretty depressed since his apartment was robbed and he was attacked, not wanting to sketch anymore, but Carol inspires him. And she poses for him, which creates an awkward morning as they act like they had sex in front of Melvin.
Simon won't need his parent's financial assistance as he has some artwork again, but he also has no place to live. So Melvin lets him move in and Simon urges him to mend the fences with Carol which is what he does. So it ends happily, which I like, and yet, this film didn't do much for me.
Nicholson and Hunt do not have great chemistry, something this film desperately needed and Nicholson should have been closer to Hunt's age. And someone with OCD should be portrayed differently, with sympathy instead of coldness. The TV show Monk is a far better example. Still, the three leads are very good though I would have liked to have more scenes with Hunt and Kinnear as those two are truly enchanting. Grade: B
Sunday, August 6, 2017
Their Finest (2017)
It is ironic that this is the more or less the first film I've seen since the excellent Dunkirk as this film ties in well to Dunkirk.
It is London, 1940. Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) needs a job, considering her disabled husband, Ellis (Jack Huston) isn't making any money off his paintings and keeps threatening to send her back to their former home in Wales because they can't afford the rent. Fortunately, she finds one, writing for the Ministry of Information, bringing the war to the people. She first starts out by writing short, informative films getting the British citizens more involved with the war effort. And then they stumble upon the story of two British twins who stole their father's boat and sailed to the French coast of Dunkirk to rescue the soldiers stranded there. Now, the story is lie, they never made it because of engine failure but because Catrin needs a better paycheck she lies to the Ministry. And then they fictionalize the story anyway. They make the twins, younger, more attractive and with actual personalities. They add a love interest and then, to drum up American interest, an American journalist which gives the love triangle its third point.
The actual characters are also interesting. There is the stick in the mud but talented writer Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin) and the aging actor who still wants to be young, Ambrose Hilliard (the always great Bill Nighy) along with his Polish agent Sammy (Eddie Marsan) who always brings his loyal dog with him. Unfortunately, Sammy dies replaced by his equally interesting sister Sophie (Helen McCrory) who finally calls Ambrose out, stating that he is too old to play the hero and she won't keep out of work actors on her pay role. There is also Phyl Moore (Rachel Stirling) who hints at being a lesbian and the lone American soldier Carl Lundbeck (Jake Lacy) who might be a great soldier and a pretty face but can't act.
The story is also very meta, with a love triangle with the actual characters along with the film characters. Tom clearly likes Catrin, but she's married, or so we're led to believe. When she returns for his own big break, she finds him literally mid-sex with someone else. She leaves him on the spot, but at least he lets her keep the apartment. And, they're actually not married. Just shacking up together. She had to buy her fake wedding ring herself.
My main problem with the film is that just after she and Tom finally share their first kiss, he gets killed by a large camera light falling down, literally crushing him to death. That kiss was a long time coming, with Tom struggling to write the proper ending to the film after he and Catrin (really Catherine) had an argument so she ended up writing the ending, and fixing things between her and Tom. And then he dies. He died far too soon after their first kiss, such a betrayal and in front of her very eyes. That was my sole problem with the film. Such a shame.
She also suffers from writer's block but Ambrose encourages her to get back in the field, as she has been given an opportunity that she cannot waste. So she goes back to work.
While the real life characters don't stray into stereotypes, the fake film isn't that lucky. They try to have the male hero fix the broken boat propeller though, in the end, one of the twins does it. The audience loves the film and Catrin will continue writing. She's lucky, I wish I could catch a break like that. However, I would not want my country to be at war with bombs falling all around me and people that I loved dying every day. As one of the characters said, life really is too short to waste it.
Seeing this film is not a waste. Grade: B+
It is London, 1940. Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) needs a job, considering her disabled husband, Ellis (Jack Huston) isn't making any money off his paintings and keeps threatening to send her back to their former home in Wales because they can't afford the rent. Fortunately, she finds one, writing for the Ministry of Information, bringing the war to the people. She first starts out by writing short, informative films getting the British citizens more involved with the war effort. And then they stumble upon the story of two British twins who stole their father's boat and sailed to the French coast of Dunkirk to rescue the soldiers stranded there. Now, the story is lie, they never made it because of engine failure but because Catrin needs a better paycheck she lies to the Ministry. And then they fictionalize the story anyway. They make the twins, younger, more attractive and with actual personalities. They add a love interest and then, to drum up American interest, an American journalist which gives the love triangle its third point.
The actual characters are also interesting. There is the stick in the mud but talented writer Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin) and the aging actor who still wants to be young, Ambrose Hilliard (the always great Bill Nighy) along with his Polish agent Sammy (Eddie Marsan) who always brings his loyal dog with him. Unfortunately, Sammy dies replaced by his equally interesting sister Sophie (Helen McCrory) who finally calls Ambrose out, stating that he is too old to play the hero and she won't keep out of work actors on her pay role. There is also Phyl Moore (Rachel Stirling) who hints at being a lesbian and the lone American soldier Carl Lundbeck (Jake Lacy) who might be a great soldier and a pretty face but can't act.
The story is also very meta, with a love triangle with the actual characters along with the film characters. Tom clearly likes Catrin, but she's married, or so we're led to believe. When she returns for his own big break, she finds him literally mid-sex with someone else. She leaves him on the spot, but at least he lets her keep the apartment. And, they're actually not married. Just shacking up together. She had to buy her fake wedding ring herself.
My main problem with the film is that just after she and Tom finally share their first kiss, he gets killed by a large camera light falling down, literally crushing him to death. That kiss was a long time coming, with Tom struggling to write the proper ending to the film after he and Catrin (really Catherine) had an argument so she ended up writing the ending, and fixing things between her and Tom. And then he dies. He died far too soon after their first kiss, such a betrayal and in front of her very eyes. That was my sole problem with the film. Such a shame.
She also suffers from writer's block but Ambrose encourages her to get back in the field, as she has been given an opportunity that she cannot waste. So she goes back to work.
While the real life characters don't stray into stereotypes, the fake film isn't that lucky. They try to have the male hero fix the broken boat propeller though, in the end, one of the twins does it. The audience loves the film and Catrin will continue writing. She's lucky, I wish I could catch a break like that. However, I would not want my country to be at war with bombs falling all around me and people that I loved dying every day. As one of the characters said, life really is too short to waste it.
Seeing this film is not a waste. Grade: B+
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