Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
This is what going to the movies is about (or, at least, it should be, but is so often not the case). Grand in scale and execution, what this movie does best is that it so completely creates a new world-- even within our familiar one.

Clocking in at over 2.5 hours, it is almost impossible not to disappear into it, and isn't that what truly makes watching movies so great? To be able to escape into another world, but then come out the other end with key messages for our own, is really what makes movie-going such a wonderful experience.

Benjamin Button is not the best film of the year in the traditional, overly-critical sense: it is overlong, and a bit too cold with its title character (even after watching his whole life, I still felt like I needed to know more about him).

But where it succeeds so brilliantly is its truly epic feel. I only wish that more movies provided such a complete, all-encompassing sense of escapism. You literally disappear into this film. So, no matter its nit-picky shortcomings (it still is quite brilliant in performances, direction, and certainly special effects), it would be hard not to come out full of emotion. Not many dry eyes after such a superb ending.

It says so much about themes literally everyone can relate to: family, discrimination, age, time, and love. It will make you want to hold on to your loved ones and never let go.

This movie is not so much a film as an experience, and too few movies have been able to accomplish that these days.

| Add to Netflix Queue

Review: Twilight

This post is a guest review from my sister Sarah, age 13, who is a fan of the Twilight book series.

Twilight (2008)
"As a fan of all the Twilight books (except for Breaking Dawn for its disappointing end to the series) this movie resulted in just the same disappointment. The whole point of the Twilight books was to tell of a powerful love story that you'd get so caught up in you would miss the writing quality of an amateur, Stephanie Meyers, but in the movie, it's the exact opposite. All you notice from the opening scene of Bella Swan driving to the airport to the ending credits, is the cheesy lines and terrible casting. At one point Edward even says 'Hold on tight, my little Spider-Monkey.' There is even a 'car chase' in a Ford Focus.

The crowd for opening night laughed regularly throughout the movie at its absurdity. If you have not read the books, you will not understand a majority of it. For example, you would not understand why for about an hour of the movie Edward plugs his nose whenever around Bella, as well as many other parts of the movie.

For those that have read it, it also feels off. In the book, Edward was the perfect representation of the perfect guy (if he was a vampire I guess...). In the movie, he just came off creepy and pedophile-like. The parts that may be your favorite in the book, like the meadow scene, were slaughtered with forced lines. In the book, Edward is supposed to be beautiful, graceful, and mysterious. In the movie, however, his makeup was caked on so much you wondered why they did not just cast Marilyn Manson.

= ?
Whenever Jasper came onto the screen, the crowd burst out laughing at his constant look of confusion that resembled a pale Raggedy Ann Doll on drugs. And for those of you that read the books, as far as I know, Edward's talents were strength, speed, and reading minds-- when was he ever able to crawl up the side of a tree?

If you'd like a laugh, buy a ticket. If not, don't waste your money.

This pretty much sums it up." - Sarah, my sister, age 13

Add to Netflix Queue

Review: Role Models

Role Models (2008)
Despite its entirely misleading advertising campaign, Role Models is definitely not a kid's movie. Full of crude humor, vulgar sex references, and other usual antics of the modern male comedy, this is certainly not something you want to take your kids to see.

However, it is not fully an adult comedy, either. The film spends a lot of time showing strange kids being, well, kids. In a lot of ways, much of the movie is a study of the strange dramatics behind Live Action Role-playing. It also makes sure to teach us "valuable lessons." Because of this, it can often feel like a kid's movie, even though I would never want a child of mine to see a movie where the adult mentor teaches the ten-year-old kid how best to evaluate "boobies" and takes him to a raging party to spend some valuable time together.

Of course, I would be taking it too seriously if I actually took offense to these events. It is, after all, a silly comedy and in a lot of ways it succeeds that way. However, the movie overall is embodied in one of the young boys (played by the oft-obnoxious Bobb'e J. Thompson): it looks like a kid, it has the emotional depth of a kid, but it has the mouth of a teenage boy.

Role Models suffers from not taking one genre and sticking to it. But, overall, it was much funnier than the trailers would lead you (or, at least me) to believe. Also, Rudd and William Scott (usually a part of the support cast), hold the film delightfully well as its leads. Definitely a surprising film (even if only because I had low expectations to begin with) and worth seeing for any Rudd-enthusiast.

| Add to Netflix Queue

Review: Happy-Go-Lucky

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
It is so rare to watch a movie that motivates you to look at your life in a different way. Even rarer still is a movie that makes you want to take a more positive outlook on life, instead of the other way around (seriously, how dark and dreary are our "serious" films these days? not that I'm really complaining, since I'm a glutton for a good tragedy).

"Happy-Go-Lucky" is about the different ways that people live their lives: some, like an abused boy in Poppy's class, have psychological choices made for them. But, if we're lucky, we have a choice. Everyone's worldview is different-- heavily influenced by their environment, but also individually-crafted. When someone's bike gets stolen, they might shout or curse, or call the police. What does Poppy do? She shrugs her shoulders and says with a smile, "I didn't even get to say goodbye!"

Poppy (played brilliantly by Sally Hawkins) has chosen to be happy; others choose to be angry, or to be sad, or to be something in between, but Poppy wants to be happy, and wants others to be happy, too.

In the beginning she is someone that annoys most of us. With her effortless optimistic and constant energy, she was obnoxious enough to make me roll my eyes more than once. Doesn't everyone just hate people like that? Why are they so happy?

But stick it out, because by the end you might understand why Poppy is happy. In other films, you might expect there to be this "hidden side"-- this dark and painful interior that is masked by a bubbly expression and charming wit. What is radical about this film is that that simply isn't the case. You have to see just how complex this character truly is, but it is not in the way you might expect.

Mike Leigh has made a character study for a film, peeling back the layers of this optimistic schoolteacher until we see that, more than just being peppy, she is a truly good person and genuinely cares. Honestly, how many people can we say that about, both in real life and in Hollywood? In one scene she approaches a homeless man who is sitting alone outside, shouting incoherently to himself. He repeats the same things over and over, then pauses only long enough to say, "You know?" Poppy listens intently and replies sincerely, "I know." She was probably the first person to talk to him in days-- weeks, even-- and she not only talks; she listens. Poppy wants to be happy, so others will be happy.

If only it were that simple.

At exactly the same moment that we (the viewers) are all thinking it, Poppy's roommate Zoe suggests, "You can't make everyone happy." Poppy's response? "But there's no harm in trying, is there?"

And really, is there?

See this movie immediately-- not because it is a particularly funny comedy, or even all that warm and fuzzy, but because it is a brilliant, inspiring portrait of a genuinely good person. When was the last time you saw a movie like that?

And afterward, when you are feeling short-tempered or put-upon (which I know I feel daily on my commute), you will be asking yourself, "What would Poppy do?" That lasting impression is the mark of a great movie. I cannot recommend it enough.

| Add To Netflix Queue