Movie Review - The Phenom

The Phenom (2016)

Starring Johnny Simmons, Paul Giamatti, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Allison Elliott, and Ethan Hawke

Directed by Noah Buschel

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

A surprisingly serious sports film, The Phenom looks at the effect of immediate superstardom on a young baseball player thrust into the spotlight of the pro sports world.  Johnny Simmons is Hopper Gibson, a high school pitcher who decides to skip college and head straight to the pros when he's drafted by the Atlanta Braves.  Moving up the ranks rapidly, Hopper succeeds initially in his pro debut, but falls apart during a game throwing five wild pitches in one inning.  Unable to get his act together, the Braves send him to sports psychologist Dr. Mobely (Paul Giamatti) where Hopper's past rocky relationship with his mentally abusive father (Ethan Hawke) hints at the young ball player's current lack of confidence.

While The Phenom is admittedly a little slow, it gives a unique perspective for a sports film that we don't often see.  The focus isn't on the inevitable "big game" (or, frankly, any game at all), but instead on the mental highs and lows that come part and parcel with being a major league sports player.  Johnny Simmons is captivating as the title character whose cocky assurance as a high schooler (viewed in flashbacks) morphs into lots of self-doubt as he makes his way to the pros.  Considering that a huge chunk of Hopper's emotional arc occurs inside his head, Simmons succeeds at cluing the audience into exactly what his character is feeling.  Paul Giamatti is also good as the quiet, calming voice that helps Hopper try and become a bit more mentally stable in terms of his presence on the field.

Although The Phenom isn't lensed in any great fashion, writer-director Noah Buschel gives us a different spin on a tired genre.  The insular emotional nature of this piece is a difficult one to tell via a visual medium, but Buschel certainly succeeds on that front.  It's not a perfect film, but it's a good one nonetheless.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Cymbeline

Cymbeline (2015)

Starring Ethan Hawke, Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich, John Leguizamo, Penn Badgley, Dakota Johnson, and Anton Yelchin

Directed by Michael Almereyda

Text from the opening moments of Cymbeline tells us the following about one of Shakespeare's lesser-known tales:  For years Cymbeline (Ed Harris), King of the Briton Motorcycle Club, has maintained an uneasy peace with the Roman Police Force.  The Queen (Milla Jovovich), Cymbeline's second wife, has her own agenda.  But she's losing hope that her son Cloten (Anton Yelchin) will pair up with the King's only daughter, Imogen (Dakota Johnson).  Without consulting her royal parents, Imogen decides to marry Posthumus (Penn Badgley), Cymbeline's penniless protégé.  The marriage triggers the King's rage, setting in motion a series of disastrous events.  But fortune brings in some boats that aren't steered...  I presume that the unsteered boat is Iachimo (Ethan Hawke), an acquaintance of Posthumus who sets up a wager that if he can prove to have taken Imogen's virginity he'll win a coveted ring of Posthumus's, but if he doesn't succeed, he'll have to give Posthumus money and a sword.

Quite frankly, Cymbeline feels like an amalgamation of many of Shakespeare's other works and the placement of this particular film adaptation into modern times as is written and directed by Michael Almereyda simply adds to the confusion in tone.  After we grow accustomed to the Shakespearean language (which always takes a little bit of time), the general plot of the play/film lays itself out somewhat clearly.  However, the ultimate problem with the flick is that the character of Iachimo seems sorely out of place and, seeing as how his bet with Posthumus is the integral cog to setting the plot in motion, this causes issues.  Attempting to steal a woman's virginity may have been radical in 1600s England, but by placing this story in a modern setting, this key plot point seems ludicrously childish and silly.

Although Dakota Johnson and Penn Badgley are actually quite good (and given the cast they may not seem at first glance to be the members who would really shine), nearly everyone else feels as if they're overacting, upping the dramatics in order to make us feel like we're watching "SHAKESPEARE" in ALL CAPITALS!  While I'll always appreciate a Shakespearean cinematic adaptation for simply existing, this one just doesn't work.  Being unfamiliar with the play itself, the fault may lie moreso with the original work than the film, but as it stands, there are cinematic problems running rampant here as well.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Boyhood

Boyhood (2014)

Starring Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater, Marco Perella, Brad Hawkins, and Zoe Graham

Directed by Richard Linklater

I appreciate the experiment of Boyhood, but the movie itself feels oddly unimportant given its cinematic uniqueness.  Then again, I that's the point, is it not?  Let's place a camera into the life of a boy and follow him through twelve years of his life -- whether that life be full of excitement or not.  A cinematic reality show, if you will, with a fake story to go along with it.  I say that and I ponder just how different this is from something like the Real Housewives franchise that has been going on for years and years.  That's an unfair comparison, however, as Boyhood at least feels steeped in reality unlike the hair pulling and cat calls of those overly privileged women.

Seeing it so late in the game, I'd already heard the critical lauds heaped upon Boyhood and I must admit that I was slightly disappointed as the film began.  That being said, as the film progressed across its nearly three hour length, I found myself becoming oddly more involved in the lives of Mason (Ellar Coltrane), his sister Sam (Lorelei Linklater), and his divorced mother and father Olivia and Mason, Sr (Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke).  There is something compelling about the simplicity of life and watching it unfold like a home movie onscreen.

As a younger child, Boyhood focuses on Mason's parents a bit more than the kids and while it's perfectly believable that Olivia would fall one alcoholic loser and maybe even two (which she does), these particular scenes that support the bulk of the first half of the film feel the most forced, obvious, and acted.  Perhaps it's because they stand in such stark contrast to the mundaneness of the rest of the film (which I say not with a sense of disdain, but with fondness).  However, as the film advances through Mason's life, Mason himself becomes more interesting as he discovers the person he wants to be.  Granted, I would never be friends with Mason and I'd quite frankly find his philosophical meanderings, drug usage, taste in music, and bleakness rather obnoxious, but it's admittedly interesting to watch a "real" person age through life and find himself.

Director Richard Linklater didn't quite know what he was getting when he cast Ellar Coltrane and his own daughter Lorelei at such a young age and the emotional results of those choices are a little suspect at times.  Though neither Coltrane nor the younger Linklater are disappointing, there are times during which these two are needed to "act" that feel admittedly forced.  Coltrane fares a little better, but then again it's his character's story so he probably should win out amongst the two younger stars.  The young man is particularly at his best during his scenes in eleventh and twelfth grade when he falls for the lovely Sheena (Zoe Graham) -- these moments rang most true and proved to be a nice capstone to Mason's story.

Patricia Arquette has been racking up awards left and right for this performance and while it certainly isn't bad in any way, shape, or form, I found the role oddly bland.  Yes, her Olivia makes questionable decisions when it comes to men, but beyond that her character isn't given a whole lot to do.  I wanted some touching scenes between her and her children, but I never got them.  Ethan Hawke, on the other hand, I found much more compelling as Mason's father.  Perhaps it was the "father-son" dynamic that Linklater wanted to explore a little more, but in the private moments in which Masons Jr. and Sr. talk to one another, Hawke exudes a sense of profound caring for his cinematic son, imbuing in him a sense of purpose, individuality, and identity.  I'm not quite sure Hawke was playing anyone but himself -- it kind of felt oddly similar to his character in the Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight series -- and I think his character has the least amount of emotional growth, but his work is really solid here and slightly under-appreciated.

It is true that what Richard Linklater has done here is create a compelling piece of art.  Its uniqueness, bravery, and ballsiness can't be understated.  Would I have liked a little more oomph?  Yes.  Would I have skipped over the seven to twelve-year-old years and maybe just crafted a two hour movie from a teenage perspective?  Perhaps.  However, the "epic" nature of Boyhood has to be commended in some ways.  None of Linklater's works blow me away in terms of his directorial flourishes or techniques, but as a writer and storyteller, he's intriguing in what he wants to bring to the cinematic medium.  For that, he must be commended.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Before Midnight

Before Midnight (2013)

Starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

Directed by Richard Linklater

There are two absolutely fantastic scenes the bookend Before Midnight, the third film in the Richard Linklater-directed series that periodically cheeks in on the lives of Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), a couple who met and spent only one night together while touring Vienna in their early twenties (in the film Before Sunrise) and then rekindled their love nine years later in Paris (in the film Before Sunset).

The first of these scenes has Jesse and Celine -- who after the events of the last film are now a couple raising twin girls -- driving a car through Greece while on vacation talking about some of the more mundane aspects of their lives.  This long take immediately tells the audience that Jesse and Celine have become much more familiar with each other since the last film's conclusion, with their conversations shifting from the more esoteric as we saw during their courtship to more grounded, based in reality-type dialog ("Should I take this new job?  What about the kids?").

The second of these scenes occurs after a long day of meeting with friends and watching over their kids as Jesse and Celine have been treated to an evening at a posh hotel kid-free by their Greek comrades.  Upon their arrival, the two want nothing more than to forget about their kids and spend the night ravaging one another with lovemaking.  However, Jesse's fourteen year-old son who spent the summer with his father in France and then vacationing in Greece calls Celine to tell him that his plane home to the States landed in London.  Celine says something very casual at the end of the conversation that Jesse takes as derogatory toward his ex-wife and this somewhat innocent remark causes the night to spiral out of control with Jesse and Celine yelling about how they've given up so much for one another, feeling like they've left part of themselves behind ever since they finally took the plunge and got together nine years ago.

Both of these scenes epitomize all that is great with the Before... series of films -- crackling, real-life dialog that never once feels forced or out of place, coming from a natural place of real emotion and story.  Thanks to the performances of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy and the fact that we've followed these same characters across a unique twenty year cinematic journey, we can't help but feel we're watching a real-life couple deal with the positives and negatives of a relationship.

Unfortunately, the problem with these two fantastic scenes is that they make the rest of the film pale in comparison.  Unlike the previous films in the Before... series, Before Midnight invites several other couples into the picture as Jesse and Celine vacation in Greece.  (On the surface, I get this -- Jesse and Celine are older now with kids and their lives aren't strictly revolving around one another like the previous two films.)  We get a particularly long scene at a dinner table in which these couples discuss the differences between men and women that pretty much boils everything down to the stereotypical "men think with their penises, women think with their hearts/brains" thing we've heard hundreds of times before.  This is actually a theme that runs throughout much of the film's scenes that aren't strictly Jesse/Celine moments and it really makes it seem as if we're watching two different films.  For a flick that contains this childish "been there-done that" base look at the Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus concept to also contain some of the most realistic and intimate looks at communication in a relationship seems oxymoronic.

Still, the final scene alone of Before Midnight is worth the price of admission alone and elevates the film (to a level it may not be worthy of being elevated) thanks to the stellar writing of director Linklater and stars Hawke and Delpy -- it's that fantastic.  Although Midnight couldn't quite match the ease and charm of Sunset, I look forward to checking in on Jesse and Celine again in nine years as this original cinematic series continues (at least I hope that's in the works).

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Before Sunset

Before Sunset (2004)

Starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

Directed by Richard Linklater

In preparation for one of my final movie viewings of 2013 films, I needed to catch up on the story of Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), two thirtysomethings who met nine years ago on a train and spent a glorious night in Vienna talking about their life views, falling in love, and then having to go their separate ways.  The story of twentysomething Jesse and Celine was detailed in the 1995 film Before Sunrise and while I enjoyed that film even a second viewing had me facing the same issues -- Jesse and Celine were putting on too many aires to impress one another to make me care deeply for the characters.

After watching Before Sunset, I can't help but think that my "issues" with the characters in the first film were perhaps the point.  Jesse and Celine were fresh from college then and trying to impress each other with their recent "book" knowledge while also trying to show just how learned they were with real world issues.  Nine years later, these superficial attempts aren't as necessary as nearly a decade has shaped them into different people (Jesse is married with a kid!) who wouldn't necessarily be as impressed with their twentysomething selves.

Instead, Jesse and Celine reflect on lost love and "what could have been."  This nostalgic reminiscing was more appealing to me and I found myself enjoying the company of these characters more than I had previously.  Hawke and Delpy are charming with one another and Delpy almost takes center stage here as her Celine is given a bit more of an emotional arc to work with over the course of the film's quick eighty minute mini-travelogue of Paris.  And the final scene -- I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear.  I look forward to the third chapter of this unique film experience.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - The Purge

The Purge (2013)

Starring Ethan Hawke, Lena Headley, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane, Edwin Hodge, and Rhys Wakefield

Directed by James DeMonaco

The concept behind The Purge is interesting enough.  As the opening credits state, we are transported to America 2022.  Unemployment is at 1%.  Crime is at an all low.  Violence barely exists.  With one exception.  Once a year, the government has enacted a twelve-hour period known as The Purge in which citizens can commit any crime they want and not be charged -- murder included -- in order to get out their aggressions and frustrations.  For the wealthy, elaborate alarm systems are an affordable option and many have had them installed in their homes in order to protect themselves on this one night a year when chaos runs rampant.  For the Sandin family, this should be just like all the other Purges that have come before seeing as how father James (Ethan Hawke) sells elaborate and expensive home protection systems and has had such a system installed in his family's home.  However, after his son allows a homeless man who was being pursued by a bunch of twentysomethings into their home in the midst of the Purge, chaos breaks out for the Sandin family.  When the group hunting down the man -- for no reason other than to simply to release their primal urges and frustrations -- discovers that the Sandins have given the man sanctuary, they'll stop at nothing to enact revenge.

The problem with The Purge is that despite a premise that offers appeal (on a horror movie level), the story itself is abysmally written.  Characters appear and disappear simply out of convenience.  Murderers stop and talk to their victims prior to attempting to kill them giving others ample time for someone to stop them.  There's a plot device in the film's opening act in which the Sandin daughter's boyfriend attempts to kill her father that's brushed by the wayside and forgotten about as the film progresses.  And the ending -- for anyone who's seen this, can they honestly explain the motivation behind the "twist" in the film's final minutes?  I just found myself laughing.  And therein is the film's problem.  It can't capitalize on an unique premise.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Sinister

Sinister (2012)

Starring Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Michael Hall D'Addario, Clare Foley, and Vincent D'Onofrio

Directed by Scott Derrickson

It's not often that I come out of a movie and wonder why in the world it needed to be made.  I'm aware that even the really bad ones have an audience.  Sinister isn't even bad...in fact, it's fairly effective in that it made me uncomfortable quite often which is typically a goal of horror movies.  However, there's an overarching air of unease here that negates the "fun" one often associates with the adrenaline rush of scary movies.  Still, I have to give the film credit because although I may never want to see it again, it successfully told an incredibly disquieting tale.

One would think based off my description above that Sinister falls into the realm of "torture porn," but that's not necessarily the case.  Instead, it's a regular horror flick mixed with a bit of the ever-so-popular "found footage" genre, the latter of which is the cause for most of my distress over the film.  The story revolves around Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke), a popular true crime author who moves his wife and two kids into a new home in order to research his new book revolving around the unsolved murders of a family of four who were hung from a tree in their back yard a few months prior.  What Ellison fails to tell his wife, son, and daughter is that he's moved them into the very house where the murders took place.  Upon unpacking, Ellison goes up to the attic and finds a box of old Super 8 movies and a projector.  Curious to see if the films involve the home's previous owners, Ellison begins to watch the movies, but discovers that each reel shows the murder of a family in heinous ways. Ranging in dates from the 1960s all the way up to the 2011 hanging murders that occurred in what is now his backyard, Ellison begins to work on discovering the connection between all these crimes.

My qualms with the film are difficult to explain, but I'll attempt to here.  When you watch most horror movies, there's ideally a nervous tension that sets in despite the fact that most of what you watch isn't really in the realm of possibility.  In Sinister, the videos of the murders depicted simply felt too much like actual snuff films.  I sat there watching the movie thinking that someone could duplicate what was seen and that's what made me tense -- not necessarily the actions of the movie itself.  I realize fully that this is irrational and in many eyes this would deem the flick a success.  Filmmaker Scott Derrickson created something so believable that it made me nervous...and kudos to him for that.  He's just made something that I never wish to see again and that, quite frankly, I'm not sure needed to be filmed in the first place.

[I fully realize the above paragraph makes very little sense, but I've yet to pinpoint an adequate explanation for my issues with the film.]

Despite this completely irrational issue (hey, at least I recognize when I'm being a fool), Sinister proves to be a solidly crafted horror movie with a decent performance from Ethan Hawke as writer Ellison Oswalt who slowly finds himself being completely caught up in the horrors he's witnessing from the horrific home videos.  Sinister is successful in most aspects, but it made me uncomfortable and the fact that it wasn't enjoyable to watch is what knocks this down a few notches despite its recognizable quality of mastering several techniques of the horror genre.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - The Woman in the Fifth

The Woman in the Fifth (2012)

Starring Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Joanna Kulig and Samir Guesmi 

Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Let me be honest and upfront here with this one...I'm not quite sure what I watched with The Woman in the Fifth.  The story begins rather straightforward -- or so it seems -- when struggling American writer/college professor Tom Ricks (Ethan Hawke) moves to Paris to be closer to his daughter whom his ex-wife has taken away from him (perhaps not without justification).  After a rough first encounter with his ex and an even rougher ride on a Parisian bus, Tom finds himself with his luggage stolen and hardly a penny to his name.  In a more industrial (read: grittier) part of town, Tom wanders into a bar/coffee shop/hotel run by Sezer (Samir Guesmi) and convinces him to allow him to reside there for a bit.  While essentially stalking his ex-wife and his daughter, Tom wanders the streets of Paris and meets an American bookshop owner who convinces him to come to a literary party he's throwing.  Tom obliges and while at the party he meets Margit (Kristin Scott Thomas) and is instantly drawn to her.  They begin a torrid affair...and that's when things start to unravel for Tom.  Not only may Margit not be who she says she is, but Tom himself may not be the man he always thought he was.

There's something utterly intriguing about The Woman in the Fifth that had I watched it on another evening I might have found pretentious.  But, for some reason, I found myself fully involved in the goings-on of the plot.  That said, I'm still not fully sure of what actually happened in the movie.  What starts as a rather normal, formulaic film ends up being a bit more of a mindf*ck than I was expecting.

Ethan Hawke anchors the film with a strong performance as the beleaguered dad Tom who only wants to spend time with his daughter...so why won't his ex-wife let him?  We in the audience don't know the answer to that and Tom doesn't seem to know either, but Hawke does a nice job of creating a bit of a sense of mystery, while at the same time crafting a full, well-rounded character.  Kristin Scott Thomas has a pivotal role, but it's a much smaller one than I'd been led to believe it would be.  Margit is a mystery and remains one even after the film is over and because of that, Scott Thomas is never quite able to create a persona with which we can identify (which I realize is likely the point, but it leaves us feeling rather cold about her character as a whole).  There's also a nice performance from Joanna Kulig (whom I recently saw in this film) as Sezer's employee and lover who begins to fall for Tom to perhaps disastrous consequences.

The Woman in the Fifth is an odd film and one that I can't recommend to all, but what it does is leave the viewer with a sense of mystery that lingers quite a bit after watching it.  And sometimes a movie that doesn't answer all the questions it poses is as thought-provoking as one that spells everything out for you.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Daybreakers

Daybreakers (2010)

Starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Neill

Directed by Michael and Peter Spierig

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Oh, lowered expectations, how you please me at times.  Now, it's not like Daybreakers is a masterpiece, but it's an enjoyable B-movie style vampire flick that brings an entirely new premise to the screen that proves to be moderately intriguing in its uniqueness.

It's 2019 and us humans have all but been obliterated by vampires.  While there are some rogue groups of homo sapiens out there, for the most part, the fanged monsters have taken over the earth.  They seemingly live just like humans -- drive cars, have jobs, wear normal clothing -- but they just need a blood supply to survive.  However, since they've managed to eradicate nearly the whole human race, the vampires are attempting to find a blood substitute and hematologist vampire Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is leading the charge.  (Side Note:  Between this and Twilight, do all vampire protagonists need to be named Edward?)  Edward actually despises his need for human blood and hates the "farm system" his employer, the wealthy Charles Bromley (Sam Neill), has set up to both collect and sell the "product," so when he meets Elvis Cormac (Willem Defoe) who says he has a way of turning vampires human again, Edward is undeniably fascinated.

The story of Daybreakers really sold me.  I mean, maybe it's been done before, but this was fresh and extremely interesting to me.  Co-directors and co-screenwriters the Spierig Brothers definitely brought something new to the table.  Their somewhat-dystopian vampire society was brought vividly to the screen by both their visuals and their story.  Granted, the dialog is sometimes straight from B-movies of yore and the acting falls into one of two categories -- over-the-top (Sam Neill and Willem Defoe) or mind-numbingly muted (Ethan Hawke) -- but neither distract greatly from the overall tone of the film.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Before Sunrise

Before Sunrise (1995)

Starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

Directed by Richard Linklater

At the request of a long-standing loyal RyMickey's Ramblings reader, I popped in the Before Sunrise dvd the other day.  For months, said reader has been on my case about needing to watch this movie.  It's one of his favorite movies of all time (maybe #2...definitely top 5?) and I simply had to check it out, I was told.  Granted, while I wasn't head over heels in love with it (it's tough to live up to that hype), it's a very good movie, a lovely romance, and has the ability to make anyone get sentimental, mushy, and long for the kind of romantic relationship we're witnessing onscreen.

The story of Before Sunrise is incredibly simple.  Two twenty-somethings, an American named Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and the French Celine (Julie Delpy) meet on a train traveling across Europe.  They get off in Vienna and decide to spend one romantic night together in the city before Jesse has to catch a plane back to America in the morning.

That's it.  Nothing more.  The general plot of the film can be condensed into less than fifty words.  However, what the film lacks in plot (and I don't mean that derogatively) it makes up for in charming dialog and an overall sense of romance.  As Jesse and Celine talk about everything from art to religion to a fear of flying to sex, they get to know each other better than most couples who have been dating for months.  As they talk, they both begin to realize that they're quickly falling in love -- something neither of them expected and something they're both hesitant to admit since this romance can be nothing but a whirlwind because of Jesse's impending departure to the States.

The amazing thing about the movie is how everything seemed so natural.  Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are both great, completely embodying these characters.  There's a simplicity to both their performances and neither grandstands or feels the need to be showy (this same exact statement could apply to the film as a whole itself).

That said, if there's one fault in the film, it's this.  I'm not a fan of college kids attempting to show that they're smarter than they really are by speaking eloquently about poetry or art -- I get that you know one poem or know a lot about one artist to try and act all impressive around the opposite sex, but let's be honest.  You only learn that stuff to try to pull off that you're smarter than you look.  It's just pretentious.  There were moments in Before Sunrise that were like this and I can't stand it when college kids act this way.

Beyond that, however, this is a solid film that has only grown in its appeal in the twenty-four hours since I watched it.  I imagine that with a repeated viewing or two, this one will likely rise up in the rankings.  And I'm looking forward to watching the sequel Before Sunset sometime in the near future.

The RyMickey Rating:  B
(Original Rating:  B+; rating revised 9/3/14 after a repeat viewing)

Movie Review - New York, I Love You (2009)

Starring Jacinda Barrett, Rachel Bilson, Orlando Bloom, Hayden Christensen, Julie Christie, Bradley Cooper, Chris Cooper, Drea de Matteo, Andy Garcia, Ethan Hawke, Shia LaBeouf, Cloris Leachman, Robin Wright Penn, Natalie Portman, Christina Ricci, Qi Shu, Eli Wallach, and Anton Yelchin
Directed by 11 Directors of Varying Talent

I certainly haven't seen many short film collections, but it seems a difficult, unenviable task to assemble an anthology such as this. There's bound to be some works that are better than others and, when placed next to these intriguing shorts, all the other shorts pale in comparison. That's the case in New York, I Love You where you'll find three really good short films, but the other seven or so fall flat (or, at the very best, are simply adequate) and bog the film down.

Let's start with the good:

• My favorite segment was by director Allen Hughes starring Bradley Cooper and Drea de Matteo as two lovers who are contemplating the ramifications of their one-night stand. The short jumps back and forth between the two actors as the story is told through a voiceover depicting their thoughts and flashbacks to their sensual night before.
• Another winner was a segment starring Ethan Hawke and Qi Shu, directed by Yvan Attel. Hawke spends five minutes trying to bed married gal Shu whom he meets smoking on an NYC sidewalk. Little does he know that she's able to one-up him in the end. Later in the film, there's a segment starring Robin Wright Penn and Chris Cooper that appears to be very much the same story with the woman, Wright Penn, taking over Hawke's role. As I was watching it, I couldn't help but notice the similarity and I wondered to myself, why would they allow two shorts in this film to have such a similar storyline? Little did I know that they were directed by the same guy.
• The only other segment that I really enjoyed was directed by Joshua Marston and stars Cloris Leachman and Eli Wallach as an elderly couple celebrating their anniversary by returning to a memorable NYC landmark for them. Quite funny and beautifully acted by the two folks.

Unfortunately, after that, everything starts to go downhill. The segment Natalie Portman directed about a young girl and her father was alright (and starred one of my first crushes, Jacinda Barrett -- "Real World"er turned actress), but it wasn't anything special. And the segment that Portman starred in about some odd relationship between a Yiddish woman and an Indian man was awful.

In fact, the first three segments of this movie (of which Portman's starring role occurred in the middle) were awful. Starting the movie with the reteaming of Jumper stars Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson was a huge mistake. Bilson's a beauty to look at, but she can't act and Christensen was horrendous. And short #3 about Orlando Bloom as a composer was not good, either.

I haven't even discussed the obnoxiously pretentious segment about remembering one's youth starring Julie Christie and Shia LaBouef. The way it was filmed, it felt like I was watching some really expensive perfume commercial. Ugh.

The acting was all over the place -- some good performances (both Coopers, Hawke, Leachman, and Wallach) and some awful ones (Christensen, Bilson, Andy Garcia, Anton Yelchin) -- as was the direction.

Despite the fact that there were some good segments here, it just didn't work for me. And it certainly didn't seem to showcase New York City to me at all. In fact, the city came off as kind of drab.

The RyMickey Rating: D+