a) The Interview
After all the hoopla, which mostly turned me off of wanting to see a movie that seemed kinda sketchy to begin with, they put it up on Netflix for free and I was like fuck it, I'll watch it. And maybe I had just set my expectations so low they had to be surpassed, but I actually enjoyed it. Mostly what I liked was that Franco's character was a pretty unique comic creation, really one of his first impressive performances after a few years of being just insufferable. Like the other Rogen/Goldberg action comedies, it's overlong and gets bogged down in the 'action' component in the second half, but it's at least better than This Is The End.

b) Obvious Child
The club of SNL women that Lorne Michaels didn't like too much or know what to do with is an interesting one with some big names (Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman) and some pretty good recent entrants (Casey Wilson, Michaela Watkins). One of the many ladies Lorne didn't like as much as Kristen Wiig, Jenny Slate, kind of had a big acclaimed breakout performance in this. And it really is something, just because she has to embody the script's delicate balance between really loose, filthy comedy and some pretty raw emotions. The whole thing dances on that weird line and then sticks the landing, I kinda loved it. Hoping Gillian Robespierre gets to direct some more flicks or get a TV show or something.

c) God's Pocket
One of Philip Seymour Hoffman's final films, and I wish I could be more enthusiastic about it. Strange story. It was adapted from a novel, written by a newspaper writer who was beaten up by an angry mob over a column he wrote. In God's Pocket, Richard Jenkins plays a newspaper writer who (spoiler alert) gets beaten up by an angry mob over a column he wrote, and he's also a creep who takes advantage of a woman who asked him to write about her recently dead son. Oh, and the son is one of the most viscerally unlikable characters I've seen in a movie in a long time, and he dies offscreen, and I still have no idea how the movie wanted me to feel. The whole thing left an odd aftertaste.

d) Bears
I love this movie so goddamn much. John C. Reilly narrating the whimsical (and sometimes scary!) adventures of a mama bear and her two cubs. His fucking voice, man, he was really born to narrate adorable nature documentaries. I want like 10 more of these. About pandas, lions, whatever, go for it. Take my money, Disney.

e) My Summer of Love
I adore Emily Blunt and have generally thought that she's picked almost nothing but good movies and never been less than exemplary in them. So it was high time I watched one of the first British movies that really kickstarted her career. It's one of those movies where two girls fall in love and then one of them is really intense about it and one of them isn't so much and is maybe just dabbling in bisexuality and thinks the other one is kind of crazy...I guess I'm mainly thinking of Lost And Delirious and a subplot in Election, but I dunno it seems like a weird motif that has popped up in fiction more than just there and plays into some kind of negative stereotype. This one was at least pretty well done, though, thought the acting and the plotting of it all was pretty smartly done.

f) Graffiti Bridge
I have listened to the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack a fair amount and it's kinda one of my favorite lesser Prince albums, lot of fun songs on it. The movie is definitely a different story, though, watching a Purple Rain sequel with early '90s bearded Prince and all his New Power Generation backup dancers and shit is just surreal and hilarious and the performances almost make me like the songs less. I mean, Purple Rain easily could've been a disaster but by some wonderful twist of fate became iconic and perfect in its own way, but you can't just make lightening strike twice like that. Funny to finally see that Tevin Campbell video that used to be on MTV back in the day in the context of the movie. There's one funny scene where Morris and Jerome face off while "Dueling Banjos" plays in the background, I didn't expect that.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 09, 2015 at 11:22 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.