Intel inside

The Imitation Game

Crit

So this Cumberbatch fellow everyone seems to be all gaga about, whom I'd scarcely seen before? He's really quite good as Alan Turing, sometimes referred to as "the homosexual who won World War II," though I think "the homosexual with Asperger's who won World War II and also invented the computer" would be more accurate.

A perfectly solid slice-of-biopic strengthened by the return to the sort of getoutatown-with-your-gender-limitations role that made me first love Keira Knightly. Yes, yes, I'm sure the process is vastly oversimplified for us not-mathematical-genius ticket buyers, but I'm even surer that failing to oversimplify would have been a fatal error.

Trailers

• The Woman in Gold--Based on the true story of a Holocaust survivor's quest to recover from the Austrian government of a Nazi-stolen portrait of her aunt . . . oh, a portrait by Gustav Klimt.
• Chappie--Another adorable robot story.

O, brother, who art thou?

Big Eyes

Post

Tim Burton's least weird film in . . . well, maybe ever . . . stacks the deck so effectively in favor of kitsch expressionist Margaret Keane that it's almost possible to believe that her paintings had artistic merit. Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz make it work, mostly. 

Top Five

Post

Chris Rock goes ethnically different Woody Allen, as has been widely noticed, but, as I've not seen mentioned, also snags a huge page from Preston Sturges,  specifically from Sullivan's Travels. 

And except for about 15 minutes at the start of the 3rd act, when it goes off the rails because the necessary romantic comedy complication takes the form of something that absolutely would never happen in the world of journalism of which the New York Times is the bedrock, he does fine things with that page. 

One of the film's many strengths is Rock's confidence in the script and in himself and Rosario Dawson--never better--to deliver that wonderfully talky script such that you never want them to shut up, except maybe to make out.

And the most subversive of Rock's many nods to his comedic ancestors of every ethnicity is the massacre of "Smile" by DMX, an in joke that is plenty funny even if you don't know that the music was composed by Charles Chaplin.

A nearly great film. Oh, but one thing: if you have zero sense of humor about JFK, you might want to go for your popcorn refill when Rock's Andre Allen (spoiler alert!) takes the stage at the Comedy Cellar.

Trailers

• Selma--Yes, of course, though I gotta say it seems weird to have Englishmen playing 3 key roles.
• The Age of Adaline--Looks like a distinctly inferior Benjamin Button.
• Fifty Shades of Grey--Opening on Valentine's Day, natch!
• Paddington--Looks awful.
• Get Hard--Wait, did I say Paddington looks awful?
• Unfinished Business--Wait, did I say Get Hard looks awful?
• The Boy Next Door--What was she thinking?
• Hot Tub Time Machine 2--Anything worth doing (which the first one was, marginally) is worth overdoing.

You are now in Bedford Falls

It's a Wonderful Life

(1946)

Decided I'd make no special effort to watch this, that if I missed a year for it, it was probably due for a rest. But damn, I'm glad I watched it: even with my attention distracted my email and Facebook, it was an extraordinarily rewarding screening. Damn, it's depressing; damn, it's inspiring.

Wishes are children

Into the Woods

Crit

Thoroughly enjoyed the whack-a-mole scavenger-hunt portion of the film, right up through the fake happy ending. The dark and complicated part that follows--which is, of course, most of the point--seemed too long, even draggy, and too light on the Sondheim lyrics that inject momentum whenever they're heard. Still, a perfectly acceptable Christmas afternoon screening.

Trailers

• Cinderella--This appears to be a straightforward live-action-and-special-effects version of the Disney classic (which made the Cinderella portion of the feature even more off-kilter, of course). Highlights seem to be Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother and . . . the awesome glass slippers (which, the FG assures Ella, and really quite comfortable).

Is the pudding still singing in the copper, Peter?

Scrooge

(1951)

First Dickens I ever read, in my high school library, was a dramatization of this, done, I believe, by the man himself. Between then (1969 at the latest) and this year, the only other Dickens I read was Bleak House. This year, though, I declared Dickens year and read a shitload of Dickens, including, in the pat 48 hours, the short story/novella that was adapted for this film. So now I know . . .

Well, first, I've never seen an earlier film adaptation of this, so I don't know whether the makers of this film deserve all the credit, but there are lots and lots of changes in the Ghost of Christmas Past segment, and all of them for the better:

• in the novella, Fan is explicitly younger than Ebeneezer; in the film, he is the younger, and his mother died giving him life, which makes a neat parallel with Fan and her son Fred--and her deathbed scene, the most sentimental scene in the film, is also missing in the text;
• Ebenezer's betrothed, Alice, marries and has a daughter in the novella, but no moviegoer wants to know that the protagonist has no chance at love, so here she becomes an unmarried do-gooder; we also have a scene with her before Scrooge becomes a dick, which makes his initial love more credible;
• all of the business stuff is new: Fezziwig's business failure; Scrooge's meeting Marley; Scrooge and Marley's power play to seize the business; Marley's deathbed scene--none of it is in the source text, all of it is critical to the film's depiction of who, exactly, Scrooge is.

Except for Scrooge declaring himself "too old" for redemption, the interaction with the ghosts of Christmas Present and Future are essentially as in Dickens's text--the film's main contribution being the addition of the tearjerking "Barbara Allen" to the soundtrack--but the filmmakers recognized better than the master that the key to redemption is the past.

God, what a grand film!

Reversal

Foxcatcher

Crit

Channing Tatum is Mark Schultz, Olympic gold medalist in freestyle Not Smiling; Steve Carell is John du Pont, a clueless Richard Cory with serious mommy problems. It's a marriage made in wrestling hell, and Mark Ruffalo is David Schultz, the big brother caught in the cross-hand. Look for an Oscar® nomination for Carell's prosthetic nose. No, but really, it's a queasy-making film with powerful performance.

Trailers

• a teaser for the Oscar®-nominated shorts, in theaters at the end of January.
• Red Army--Olympic hockey on the other side; a documentary.

People are jerks

Inside Llewyn Davis

(2013)

Guest blogger Laura Burrone:

Full disclosure, I’m an unashamed, full-on, complete fan(atic) of the Coen brothers and incapable of an unbiased opinion. Now that that’s out the way, what the heck was that? I want to like this movie, but about midway through the story it was clear that there wasn’t a likable character among them. Even the cat is not himself. It’s a dreary story, with music that makes you want to jump off of the Verrazano Bridge (a nod to John Goodman’s character), but only just so. You can’t take your eyes off this movie, and you can’t wait for the next song. How did they do that?

Maynard Ferguson, not Ulysses

Maybe they Coens have the perfect formula for movie-making. Take various parts of amusing, horrifying, and bewildering but always leave a delicious taste in the mouth and you have the secret to their success.