In honor of its selection as Best Score from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association today, your Watercooler Musical Interlude this week is a selection from the soundtrack of Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Tried to get caught up on some of the animated films I missed earlier this year but which are making some end of the year noise. Thoroughly enjoyed Wreck-It Ralph, but couldn’t get into either ParaNorman or Rise of the Guardians to save my life. That’s not t say they’re not delightful, I guess I just wasn’t in the right mood.
I wasn’t in the mood for Judd Apatow’s This is 40 either. One hearty guffaw courtesy of Melissa McCarthy (in a scene where she describes exactly how horrible the lead characters are… and she’s right) and a couple of smiles inspired by some of the supporting cast, but otherwise this played like an extended Apatow home movie set to a soundtrack pulled from the Apatow iPod Shuffle. Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd should’ve divorced in the opening 30 minutes and just saved us all the trouble.
That’s all from me this week. Now it’s your turn. Has anyone seen anything worth talking about since last week? Lay it on me.
Filed under: The Watercooler
One hearty guffaw courtesy of Melissa McCarthy (in a scene where she describes exactly how horrible the lead characters are… and she’s right)
lol. I actually like Melissa McCarthy. Too bad the movie is mediocre (or so it sounds from your description).
She’s great in it. It’s the two lead characters who are so annoying and the sloppy lazy joke writing. Also, Apatow’s daughters need to stick to home movies instead of big screen ones.
I don’t know how you’ve felt about the last couple Apatow flicks (Funny People, Knocked Up), but if you liked those, you may still like this one.
I also like WRECK IT RALPH but not PARANORMAN not that Apatow. I am in an extreme minority with BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, which oddly enough left me cold, but the music is nice. I was rooting for Danna’s THE LIFE OF PI, but can’t argue this choice, and appreciate this interlude.
Lucille and I (and the whole family for the Burton and Sammy and Broadway Bob for another) watched the following this week:
The Central Park Five **** 1/2 (Saturday night) IFC Film Center
Hitler’s Children ** (Thursday night) Quad Cinemas
Wagner and Me **** (Sunday afternoon) Quad Cinemas
Edward Scissorhands (1990) **** 1/2 (Friday night) Jersey City Landmark Loews
At the very end of the documentary WAGNER AND ME actor Stephen Frye who narrated and was the central focus, proclaimed that he would “never surrender his hero to Hitler” even if he is a Jew and is well aware that the great German composer Wagner was a notorious anti-Semite, and by all accounts a reprehensible human being. Directed by Patrick McGrady, the wonderfully engaging documentary follows fanboy Frye to Nuremberg, the Marinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, and to Germany’s Wagner mecca, Bayreuth to give a scenic backdrop to some telling interviews with various authors of Wagner volumes and biographies, and with an elderly female Holocaust survivor who tells Frye that she would never submit to a five hour opera, especially one with so much noise. Frye is endearing throughout and periodically questions if as a Jew he is “doing the right thing” but in the end his irrepressible passion for Wagner’s majestic music wins out. It could be argued that the film includes a Wagner 101 crash course that might bore the real adherents, but it’s done with feeling and a ravishing burst of some of this genius’ most beautiful music. Frye may not be exclusive in his love for this titan of world culture, but he’s as genuine and as animated as anyone in the fan club, and it’s fun seeing his care-free, humorous yet intense immersion.
Celebrated documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and his daughter Sarah and husband David McMahon collaborated on THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, a mesmerizing powerful work about judicial malfeasance and the guilt shared by city officials and police, who issued false arrests and indictments that led to jail time for five young African-Americans and Hispanics in what then-Mayor Ed Koch dubbed “the crime of the century.” The crime was a vicious assault and rape of a jogger, who was dragged into the brush in the northern end of the Big Apple’s famed park space. Far less attention was paid when a serial rapist named Matias Reyes admitted to the crime, and the DNA evidence corroborated his admission. The film is a scathing indictment on injustice, prejudice and disregard for reparations in a city where fear and paranoia reigned supreme. It’s one of the most powerful documentary features of the last several years.
HITLER’S CHILDREN takes a look at the ways in which family members of high rank senior Nazi officers from Hitler’s inner circle struggle with the burden of carrying a terror-inducing surname. During detailed interviews, families such as Goering, Himmler, Hoess amongst others, share the feelings of guilt and responsibility that accompany them in their daily lives. The framework is noble but the exploration is all surface, relying on a manipulative score and predictable reactions from everyone connected to one of the world’s worst calamities, and one is left with little to ponder.
It was a great joy watching Tim Burton’s ever-endearing and imaginative EDWARD SCISSORHANDS on the 70 foot screen at the Jersey City Landmark Loews on the Friday night of the weekend holiday festivities and the kids were on Cloud Nine, what with the film being one of their all-time faves.
Craig, I’m not a fan of Apatow’s movies so this would no doubt be a bust with me. Plus it’s hard to like a movie whose lead characters are that annoying. Flawed lead characters that we still find something to sympathize with/relate to about them can be compelling; lead characters who are just plain horrible? Not so much.
Sam, agreed about Edward Scissorhands. One of Burton’s best and it still holds up today. That’s great that you got to see it on the big screen again.
Thanks Alison! My 16 year-old daughter in particular has always been in love with it, but with Depp in general as you’d expect. But they all are crazy for it. I agree it’s one of Burton’s very best films.
My movie date bailed on Life of Pi yesterday because of a 17-inch snowfall – what a wuss!
However, I did get to see Holy Motors and A Royal Affair — both of which I liked a lot.
Sam, I’ve heard great things about Central Park Five and I’ve noticed it’s already raked in a few critics awards. I’ll have to seek it out.
I’m still a little surprised you didn’t go for Beasts more. Not that it’s a bad thing either way, but I just would’ve expected for some reason that you’d warm up to it. I wonder if you’ve been tempted to give it another shot.
Edward Scissorhands remains one of my favorite Burton flicks.
Alison, I suspect a lot of miserably married people will identify with This is 40 and might therefore be entertained. I found it kind of excruciating.
Pierre, tell me more about A Royal Affair. I’ve heard it’s fantastic and I have the screener sitting on my TV waiting to be watched
Craig, A Royal Affair is, quite simply, a very well done period piece based in fact. It’s not sensationalized or over-romanticized. It doesn’t place too much focus on personalities and seems even-handed. The performances and production values are very good. Intelligent work that justifies its presence because of the historical relevance of the difficult transition from oppressive thinking to The Enlightenment — a subject matter that resonates even to today’s world. There’s a wiff of similarity to the family/political intrigue we saw in The Lion in Winter.
I’ll have to check it out for myself. The young woman Alicia Vikander made a good impression in Anna Karenina
She’s good here, too, as well as Mads Mikkelsen, who I’m familiar with only through Flame and Citron.
Mikkelsen is also good in his films with Nicolas Winding Refn- VALHALLA RISING and the PUSHER movies. He also made for a pretty good, albeit low-key, Bond villain.
I’ve had the ROYAL AFFAIR screener at home too. I’ve been tempted to check it out, but it’s 2 hours and 14 minutes long, so I’m a little reluctant to make that time commitment when I’ve got good movies sitting around that don’t require so much of my time. But now that I’ve started to hear some good buzz on it I might check it out.
A ROYAL AFFAIR is exceptional, and even contends for a year-end best of list.