Trailer: Maleficent
Posted on November 14, 2013 at 3:28 pm
Angelina Jolie looks magnificent as Maleficent in the forthcoming Disney movie about Sleeping Beauty’s evil fairy.
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Dallas Buyers Club
Posted on November 7, 2013 at 6:00 pm
Matthew McConaughey lost nearly 40 pounds to play Ron Woodroof, a good-time party animal and homophobic Texas cowboy who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and given a month to live. This was in the early days, before safe and effective drugs to treat HIV and AIDS were available. “We’re surprised you’re even alive,” says the doctor (Denis O’Hare). A kinder-hearted doctor (a beatific Jennifer Garner) suggests a support group to talk about his “feelings and concerns.” This is not what he is looking for. “I’m dying and you’re telling me to get a hug from a bunch of f***?” He is the kind of guy who might pray for help, but would talk to God in a strip bar.
Woodroof, who had never shown any special interest in looking past the momentary thrills of rodeo riding, drinking, drugs, and sex, suddenly found he had courage, determination, and a fierce life force. He found that his ornery and rebellious personality perfectly suited him for taking on the medical establishment and the law. At the time, it was illegal to sell non-prescribed drugs but it was not illegal to give them away. And Texas happens to be across the border from Mexico, where the drugs he wanted were available. So he began to smuggle medication from Mexico and give it to members of the “buyers club” he set up. They paid a monthly “membership fee” and then the drugs were “free.”
McConaughey, pared down to nothing but grit and sinew, gives the most recent in a series of performances of sensitivity and scope that show how wrong Hollywood was to relegate him to forgettable romantic comedies. And the immensely gifted Jared Leto, always seemingly on the brink of a breakthrough since his days on “My So-Called Life,” is heartbreaking as Rayon, a trans woman who begins first a business relationship, then a friendship with Ron and finally becomes his family. There’s no winking at the audience, not a hint of “look how brave I am to be dressing in women’s clothes.” Leto, who lost a lot of weight and removed all of his body hair, did more than transform himself for the role. He stayed in character throughout the shoot. It is a reflection of his achievement in transforming himself into a character who was also transforming that one of the film’s most jarring images is when Rayon has to dress in a man’s business suit. It is understated but devastatingly clear that for Rayon, men’s attire is cross-dressing. We see how lost Rayon is, how far from herself, and how great a sacrifice she is willing to make to help the members of the Dallas Buyer’s Club. Rayon is no saint, but Leto gives her dignity and grace and he shows us why Woodroof and Jennifer Garner’s beatific doctor would be so devoted to her.
For Woodroof, the scene that shows how far he has come is when Rayon is insulted by one of the men from his rodeo days. As frail as he is, Woodroof can still put the guy in a headlock to insist on an apology, knowing that this means he can never go back to his old friends. But it is just a recognition of what he has already known. His diagnosis has moved him to another country, and one in which he found the shared retrovirus is a stronger bond than any he had ever made before.
The film wisely makes it clear that the symptoms of a fatal disease do not include a complete personality transformation; indeed, it is the qualities that got Woodroof into trouble that are the keys to his success in finding a way around the rules. More important, with nothing left to lose, Woodroof finds for the first time that he has something to give.
Parents should know that this movie includes constant very strong language, explicit sexual references and situations with nudity, drinking, smoking, and drug use, themes of fatal illness and sad deaths, and some fighting and tense confrontations.
Family discussion: How does the diagnosis make Woodroof feel differently about his life? What makes him change his mind about Rayon?
If you like this, try: the documentary, “How to Survive a Plague”
Thor: The Dark World
Posted on November 7, 2013 at 6:00 pm
I always say that superhero movies are defined by their villains, and “Thor: The Dark World” has a lulu in Tom Hiddleston‘s Loki, who was not as vanquished at the end of “The Avengers” as we thought. Thank goodness. Loki, the eternal trickster of Norse myth, is imprisoned by his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins) at the beginning of the story. But a once-in-5000-years celestial line-up brings on an attack by the Dark Elves, let by ninth Dr. Who Christopher Eccleston and “Oz’s” Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and soon Loki is freed. Chris Hemsworth continues to bring all the requisite charisma and some welcome wit to the heroic Thor and Hopkins is nicely magisterial as the one-eyed Odin, but it is Hiddleston who is clearly having a blast as a god who lives for chaos and brings a jolt of pure devilish pleasure to every scene he is in.
That is particularly welcome because all those scenes in Asgard can get rather ponderous. And the movie begins inauspiciously with some Tolkein-ian mumbo-jumbo about the battle with the Dark Elves and some icky black smokey-stuff that has some important power and a bunch of parallel universes. Who cares — let’s get to the good stuff already.
Meanwhile, back on earth, the world’s most beautiful astrophysicist, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), is wondering whether her super-boyfriend is ever going to call. Her colleague, Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) is running around with his pants off, and sometimes with the rest of his clothes off, too, and her intern (Kat Dennings) and her intern’s intern are helping her investigate some very strange gravitational anomalies. All of this, except for the boyfriend part, relates to this once in a quinti-millennium astrological line-up that opens up portals or melts the boundaries or some crazy thing that lets the parallel universes seep into each other. Jane gets slimed by the black smokey stuff and Thor whisks her away to Asgard. I wish I could say it was a side effect of the smoke that has her more concerned about the significance of meeting her boyfriend’s parents than a scientific inquiry into the nature of the home of the Norse gods, or understanding the life-threatening nature of the Dark Elves’ smoke. But no.
Pantlessness aside, there are some genuinely funny moments, including a surprise appearance by one of the other Avengers and a mid-battle trip on the subway. The fight scenes are strong, well staged by “Game of Thrones” director Alan Taylor, and there are some predictably cool special effects. Rene Russo is fine as Frieda and there are not one but two extra scenes in the credits. But the reason to see the movie is Loki — he should get his own movie next time around.
Parents should know that the movie includes extended comic-book-style action violence with some graphic images, characters injured and killed, a hand chopped off, fatal stabbing, some strong language, and comic nudity (nothing shown).
Family discussion: How does Thor compare to other superheroes? Did you like the touches of comedy or find them distracting?
If you like this, try: “The Avengers” and the first Thor movie.
Coming Soon: The Veronica Mars Movie
Posted on November 6, 2013 at 8:00 am
The Kickstarter-funded Veronica Mars movie is coming at last!
And I have a t-shirt to give away! Send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with Veronica in the subject line and tell me your favorite character from the series. Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only.) I’ll pick a winner at random on November 15. Good luck!
Last Vegas
Posted on November 2, 2013 at 11:57 am
Oscar-winning actors are a precious commodity, usually doled out no more than one or two per movie. But in this AARP-version of “The Hangover” crossed with “Ferris Bueller,” there are five, and the greatest pleasure of this film is in watching the evident pleasure they take in each other. They appreciate each other, they trust each other, and they challenge each other. Morgan Freeman, Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, and Kevin Kline play the “Flatbush Four,” lifelong friends who grew up together in Brooklyn, the kind who cheerfully call each other unprintable insults but who are always there for each other. Remember the end of “Stand By Me.” when Richard Dreyfuss says, ” I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?” These are those guys, 58 years, a few spouses, some medical issues and a grudge later.
Billy (Douglas), with a fake tan, a hair color that does not occur in nature, and a girlfriend a third of his age, impulsively proposes in the middle of a eulogy. So, it is time to get the gang back together for a blow-out of a bachelor party in Las Vegas. There’s Sam (Kline), marooned in retireeland, Florida, and horrified by water aerobics and dinner at 4:30, and, generally, being old. Archie (Freeman) is living with his worried son (Michael Ealy), who smothers him with care and caution because he is recovering from a stroke. And Paddy (De Niro) sits in his robe all day, surrounded by photographs of his late wife. Sam and Archie are immediately on board with the idea of a wild weekend, especially after Sam’s wife presents him with a condom, a tablet of Viagra, and a reminder that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” They persuade Paddy to come by not telling him the purpose of the trip. Paddy is still hurt and angry at Billy for a betrayal that of course will be revealed, though by that time it hardly matters.
The Flatbush Four hear a nightclub singer named Diana (Oscar-winner number five, Mary Steenburgen, bringing warmth and wit to the movie) and they immediately like her very much, especially Paddy and Billy. As the big night approaches, they are determined to party like it’s 1945. And each one will learn something or decide something that will change his life when he gets home.
Listen, the plot developments are older than the stars. Fun to see old guys live it up in nasty, racy Vegas! Time to settle old scores! The jokes are even older than that. But these old pros get such an evident kick out of each other that they are able to find some honesty in what could otherwise feel synthetic. And the chemistry between them cannot be faked. We know these guys. We know their faces and have watched them get older for many years. Seeing them enjoy each other’s company is great company for us to be in.
Parents should know that this movie was originally rated R and then changed to PG-13 on appeal. There is some strong and crude language (one f-word), a lot of drinking, sexual references and non-explicit situations, and girls in very skimpy clothes and bathing suits.
Family discussion: Who changes the most? How did the four men end up so unsatisfied with their lives?
If you like this, try: the other comedy films by these actors including “Analyze This,” “A Fish Named Wanda,” “Bruce Almighty,” “Melvin and Howard,” and “Wonder Boys”