Luce

Luce (2019)

Starring Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Octavia Spencer, Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Brian Bradley, Andrea Bang, and Norbert Leo Butz

Directed by Julius Onah

Written by JC Lee and Julius Onah

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle (2017)

Starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts, Ella Anderson, and Max Greenfield

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton

Written by Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham, and Marti Noxon
***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  In the 1970s, a family with four children moves from place to place as they live in poverty that is self-inflicted by an artist mother (Naomi Watts) and an anti-establishment, anti-government father (Woody Harrelson).  When the 1980s roll around, the children have grown and left their parents, but find themselves having to reconcile with their past.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

The Book of Henry

The Book of Henry (2017)

Starring Naomi Watts, Jaeden Lieberher, Jacob Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, Lee Pace, Maddie Ziegler, and Dean Norris

Directed by Colin Trevorrow

Written by Gregg Hurwitz

Summary (in 500 words or less):  When teenage Henry (Jaeden Lieberher) suspects the father (Dean Norris) of his next door neighbor friend Christina (Maddie Ziegler) of abusing her, he concocts an elaborate scheme in order to save her.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: D

Movie Review - Birdman

Birdman (2014)

Starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, and Lindsay Duncan

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Talk about overhyped Oscar bait.

Birdman is the story of Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) who, in the early 90s starred in a series of popular comic book movies in which he starred as Birdman, but has found his career in a downturn after he refused to partake in the fourth entry of the series decades ago.  Now, in an attempt to revitalize his career and make himself relevant, Thomson is adapting a Raymond Carver book -- "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" -- to the stage by acting, directing, and starring in the production, but is finding the process much more difficult and much less rewarding than he expected.

Of course the "meta" self-referential aspect of Birdman and how it relates to Michael Keaton's own Hollywood trajectory has been much discussed and that's certainly an intriguing aspect to director/co-screenwriter Alejandro González Iñárritu's film.  However, a film needs a little more substance than "meta" in order to work.

Birdman works best and is most interesting when it details the inner workings of putting on a Broadway show and how an actor's dramatic process works.  The script is good at not taking itself too seriously all of the time and the comedic jabs at the entertainment industry and the sometimes self-important Hollywood actors and drama critics are enjoyable.  Unfortunately, whenever the film focuses on Riggan's sense of worthlessness -- which is the key element of the film -- I found myself being bored and completely uninterested.  With his lawyer/agent (Zach Galifianakis) pressuring him to soldier on with the play in order to make much-needed money, his just-out-of-rehab daughter (Emma Stone) hating her job as her father's new assistant, his ex-wife (Amy Ryan) showing up to support him in his new Broadway endeavor, and his current girlfriend (Andrea Riseborough) sharing the stage with him and announcing that she's pregnant, Riggan's world is chaotic.  Despite the constant cacophony, however, there's not much there there.  The script tosses in an element of weird telekinesis thing with Riggan and various objects that I'm sure means something about the guy's emotional state, but just read kooky to me and not the least bit interesting.  (I could delve more into meaning if I desired, but I don't desire.)

Iñárritu presents the film as one continuous take and the technique is admittedly impressive and surprisingly not detrimental to the production.  Rather than stand out, the lack of cuts allows us to constantly be in the moment with the characters, giving a naturalness to the events of the film.  Despite this unique cinematic technique, I was thoroughly impressed with the fact that it never "felt" like a technique.  Kudos for that.

Kudos also to Edward Norton who is the most impressive member of the cast, taking on the role of Mike, a famous Broadway actor who joins Riggan's play at the last minute when one of the cast members is rendered incapable of performing.  Mike butts heads right away with Riggan, and Norton and Keaton's scenes together are the best in the flick.  However, Norton's so good that he makes Keaton look like a bad actor.  Then again, maybe that was the point.  I wasn't all that impressed with Keaton's Riggan, but maybe I wasn't supposed to be.  Maybe he wasn't supposed to be a fantastic actor after all.

I don't know.  I feel like there's so much I could say about Birdman, yet I've funnily enough got nothing to say about it at the same time.  The film is...interesting...but it's not the least bit riveting (a la Whiplash) or touching (a la The Fault in Our Stars) or simply entertaining (a la Gone Girl).  I didn't hate the experience, but I wasn't won over by any aspect of it.  While the behind-the-scenes moments provided a glimpse into a world we don't often see, the characters of Birdman didn't really intrigue me.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - St. Vincent

St. Vincent (2014)

Starring Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O'Dowd, Terrence Howard, and Jaeden Lieberher 

Directed by Theodore Melfi

St. Vincent treads familiar territory.  There's nothing that happens at the end of director-screenwriter Theodore Melfi's flick that you couldn't have telescoped from the first fifteen minutes.  However, the familiar story of a curmudgeonly old man who befriends an ostracized young kid only to have both their lives changed for the better is buoyed by some great performances and a charmingly funny script.

Bill Murray is the Vincent of the title, but the saint moniker is certainly questionable.  He's a cantankerous old man addicted to alcohol and gambling with a penchant for a certain Russian "lady of the night" named Daka (Naomi Watts) whom he just so happens to have currently knocked up.  Recently divorced nurse Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) moves in next door to Vincent with her young son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher) and Vincent reluctantly agrees to babysit the kid after an incident at school leaves Oliver stranded without his keys to the house.  Oliver clicks with the no-nonsense Vincent, and Maggie agrees to allow Vincent to continue to watch her son.  Needless to say, Vincent gets Oliver into some crazy situations while Oliver begins to soften Vincent's hardened exterior.

At the helm both directorially and script-wise, Theodore Melfi is perfectly adequate.  His script is sweet and gentle with three well-rounded main characters in Vincent, Maggie, and Oliver.  While the rest of the cast (the aforementioned Watts and Terrence Howard as a bookie, to name a few) are left to make the most out of more caricaturish characters (Chris O'Dowd succeeds the best at this as Oliver's schoolteacher who happens to be a hilarious priest), Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, and Jaeden Lieberher get some nice plot lines to build their acting around.

Don't get me wrong -- I truly enjoyed Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, but every role she's tackled in movies since then seems like a rehash of that same character.  Here, she's kind, sweet, and still funny as a good mom who's finding it difficult to transition to being husband-less.  I've recently been re-watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix and that show along with this role in St. Vincent remind me that McCarthy has what it takes to bring more than just hilarious raunch to the table.

Making his debut, young Jaeden Lieberher has the comic chops to stand opposite comedic heavyweights like Murray and McCarthy.  In his debut performance, Lieberher's Oliver gives a believable performance and is hopefully racking up additional roles in the future.

But St. Vincent is Bill Murray's movie.  While Murray's Vincent isn't necessarily an unknown character to anyone who's seen films like this, Murray brings a good amount of heart to the role that makes the title character into a more well-rounded individual.  His character goes through quite a few ups and downs (the "downs" of which get much more serious as the film progresses), but Murray does a great job of keeping that tinge of humor always believably present.  It's a nice role in a nice movie.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Diana

Diana (2013)

Starring Naomi Watts and Naveen Andrews

Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel

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

Everyone in America (and presumably around the world) is well aware of Princess Diana's relationship with Dodi Fayed, heir to the billionaire owner of Harrod's department store in London.  It was during this relationship when Diana's untimely death occurred in a car accident in Paris.  While Oliver Hirschbiegel's film is bookended with Diana's time with Fayed, the movie focuses on a relationship that is seemingly unknown to many Americans -- Diana's years-long coupling with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.  According to the film, Khan was the love of Diana's life and it was partly thanks to the media and tabloid frenzy surrounding Diana that this relationship was called off in the first place.

Hirschbiegel's film is admittedly a soap opera with nearly two-thirds of its runtime devoted to Diana (played by Naomi Watts) acting like a schoolgirl who has fallen for her first crush.  Still, despite the pettiness of the plot, there's part of me that enjoyed the fact that the film went in this direction.  Diana was quite possibly the most famous figure in the world and the movie tries to give us a more intimate portrait of a woman who was simply a woman and not some figure placed on a pedestal.  While the flick could've certainly used a little more focus and some significant trimmings, I didn't dislike it nearly as much as the critics who seemed to take great glory in trouncing this upon its release.

Granted, I don't know a whole lot about Diana, her mannerisms, or her way of talking, but I think Watts does an admirable job bringing the Princess to life and trying to humanize her a bit more than the tabloid culture allowed.  It's not Watts' fault that the film paints Diana in a lovelorn and lovesick light, but Watts certainly succeeds at giving us glimpses of the Princess as a woman who recognizes the power her status carries while also longing for some moments of normalcy.  It's her relationship with Hasnat Khan (Lost's Naveen Andrews) that centers her, allowing her to feel "normal" thanks to the fact that Khan doesn't treat her as royalty -- a characteristic which Diana finds utterly attractive.

I'm sure there is a better film to be made about Princess Diana, but Diana isn't a bad starting point for a cinematic look at the Princess that England swooned over in the 1980s and 90s.  Diana is a figure that is so highly regarded that no one will ever be pleased with her portrayal on the silver screen should anyone dare to make another film about her.  However, this rather intimate look at a very specific time in her life is acceptable enough.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Adore

Adore (2013)

Starring Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel, James Frecheville, Sophie Lowe, Jessica Tovey, and Ben Mendelsohn

Directed by Anne Fontaine

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

There's an uncomfortable feeling that permeates throughout Adore that I can't imagine anyone really finding kosher.  The story of two grown women -- Lil (Naomi Watts) and Roz (Robin Wright) -- going through a mid-life crisis is at its core.  Lil is a widow left with a son Ian (Xavier Samuel) after her husband dies who, despite nearly a decade without her significant other, hasn't quite moved on with her life.  Roz is Lil's best friend, has been married to Harold (Ben Mendelsohn) for two decades, and has a son named Tom (James Frecheville).  The two families have had their lives intertwined for years, but one night when Harold is away, that "intertwining" takes on new meaning as Ian and Roz have a passionate night of lovemaking only to be seen by Roz's son Ian.  Upset, Ian run to Lil...who ends up comforting him by sleeping with him as well.

Feeling a little skeezed out yet?  You should be.  The two women and their two sons decide that these relationships while admittedly a little odd are exactly what the doctor ordered -- they make the women feel young and also feel natural since they've all known each other for years.  That'd be one crazy doctor, however, to give the okay to the obviously psychologically damaging set-up that's going on here.

Oddly enough, however, I was actually moderately impressed at how the film takes its time exploring the two incredibly inappropriate relationships.  While the concept seems odd, the film makes the couplings feel like a natural progression (although, admittedly, director Anne Fontaine sets things up way too obviously in the film's opening act with sensual looks and simple caresses blatantly foreshadowing what is to come).  All of the actors sell the concept with Watts and Wright doing their best to try and make the audience feel less uncomfortable than the set-up inevitably warrants -- they don't necessarily succeed, but they come close.

Still, in the end, it all just feels rather silly.  There is an attempt at trying to get serious in the film's final act, but after two-thirds of frivolity and sexual shenanigans, I didn't buy into that aspect.  Adore was pretty roundly trashed by the critics upon its release and while I don't think it's deserving of a complete dismissal, it's just a tiny bit too icky to fully embrace.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Impossible

The Impossible (2012)

Starring Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, and Oaklee Pendergast

Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona

I might as well just start off this review by stating that The Impossible made a tear roll down my face.  There were many moments during this film that caused my eyes to well up, but the saline only fell down my cheek in a single droplet at the film's climax.  I don't know why it fell -- I knew the ending thanks to an interview I had seen with the real life family this film is based upon who were vacationing in Thailand when the horrible December 26, 2004, tsunami hit -- but director Juan Antonio Bayona, screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez, and the wonderful cast of actors who make up the Bennett family have created something so emotionally riveting that I found it impossible to not become invested in this story.

Expecting a relaxing and calming vacation in Thailand over Christmas week in 2004, the Bennett family made up of mom Maria (Naomi Watts), dad Henry (Ewan McGregory), and sons Lucas, Thomas, and Simon (Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, and Oaklee Pendergast, respectively) are lounging at the oceanside pool at their resort the morning of December 26 when out of nowhere a fairly strong breeze begins to kick in off the water and the birds suddenly take flight as fast as they can in the sky.  The giant wall of water came much too quickly for anyone in the Bennett family to be able to run away and instead they are simply pounded by the force of the ocean engulfing the Taiwanese soil.  Rather amazingly, Maria and oldest son Lucas are carried quite far by the water but somehow manage to stay together.  The first half of The Impossible deals squarely with their struggle of trying to stay alive in the hours immediately following the disaster and trying to find help for Maria who has both internal bleeding and a massive gash in her leg causing her to lose large amounts of blood.  A little over halfway through the film, we discover that Henry is still alive and he is with his two younger sons Thomas and Simon.  Henry is desperate to find Maria and Lucas alive but with each passing hour it gets more and more difficult to hold onto that hope.

Let me start my fawning over this movie with director Juan Antonio Bayana.  In what is only his second film (after 2007's The Orphanage, a horror film which I've seen but remember nothing about), he's crafted something rather fantastic here.  Of course, with the tsunami we're given some wonderful large scale special effects within the film's first forty minutes.  Rather amazingly, I never for one minute felt like I was watching Naomi Watts and Tom Holland in a water tank.  [I realize that sentence sounds obvious -- of course I shouldn't feel like they're in a water tank -- but that often isn't the case in films where it's sometimes quite obvious you're watching special effects.]   Bayana uses a variety of different camera angles -- from above and afar, underwater, close-ups -- to masterful effect creating an incredibly visceral and frightening experience for the filmgoers during this horrific sequence.  How these effects didn't get nominated for an Oscar is beyond me.

While Bayana effortlessly lenses special effects and also moves the film along at a great pace with nary a wasteful or unnecessary sequence, he also gets some absolutely amazing moments from his cast who make the most out of Sergio Sánchez's heartfelt and very strong script.  I don't even know where to start with the fabulous quintet of actors so I'll just begin with the only one who has garnered any awards buzz -- Naomi Watts.  I rarely, if ever, quote other people when writing my reviews, but Reese Witherspoon (of all people) crafted a lovely letter praising Watts' performance that totally sums up my thoughts:

"Your brutal physical performance, the ferocity of your mothering spirit and the soul touching moments where you hold on to life with every part of your being were incredible...such strength and absolute vulnerability in the same performance.  A mother who is determined to teach her son what if means to be a good person even when facing her own mortality...you have created a performance that will stand the test of time."

As if Watts's performance wasn't enough, Ewan McGregor brings quite possibly his best performance to the screen as a father determined to find his wife and son.  There's a moment when McGregor's Henry essentially loses hope and breaks down that is simply heartbreaking and shows us both Henry's strength and vulnerability.

Tom Holland's Lucas is actually the central male character and he more than holds his own opposite the tour de force performance from Watts.  At the start of the film, Lucas is your typical twelve year-old doing all he can to distance himself from what he feels is an overbearing and overprotective mother.  However, after the tsunami hits, Lucas and Maria's roles switch with Lucas needing to take on the role of caring for his injured mother.  There's a moment in the film where it hits Lucas that without his father as a protector, his role in life (at least at this moment) needs to change and Holland expertly conveys all that needs to be said without ever saying a word.

This role is Holland's first film and it's also the first film for the much younger Samuel Joslin and Oaklee Pendergast as Thomas and Simon.  Joslin, in particular, is given a scene in which his father tells the young Thomas that he must look after his brother Simon while he goes out to look for Maria and Lucas.  There's a look in Joslin's eyes that is just heartbreakingly real -- without words, we know Thomas is frightened, but willing to do what is necessary when tasked with something no seven year-old should have to undertake.

The Impossible is not an easy film to sit through even when one is aware of the characters' fates in the end.  The chills one experiences during the tsunami sequence, the uncomfortable squirming as the bruised and bloodied characters search for safety, and the gut-wrenching moments when unexpected reunions amazingly occur all combine to create one of the most engaging, exhilarating, and touching cinematic experiences I've seen in a very long time.

The RyMickey Rating:  A

Movie Review - Dream House

Dream House (2011)

Starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts

Directed by Jim Sheridan

Dream House tries to be a slightly more adult-skewing ghost story, but it unfortunately lacks any scares or tension and the "surprise" twists are telegraphed from the opening moments (and were apparently spoiled in the trailer of which I don't have any recollection).  After watching the film, I discovered that director Jim Sheridan (who crafted a slow and plodding film here) was at odds with the production company throughout most of the filming and neither he nor stars Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz agreed to do any amount of press for the flick upon its release.  They knew they had a stinker on their hands...and they weren't wrong.

Although I could easily spoil things for you as the movie doesn't attempt to hide its secrets, I'll simply state that Dream House revolves around a family who moves into a new home only to discover that several years ago the former owners were killed in a horrible fashion.  Seeing as this is an "attempt" at a horror film, it's no surprise that the events from the past begin to slowly wreak havoc on the events in the present as husband and wife Will and Libby (Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz) must do what they can to keep their family safe.

Ultimately, it's obvious that no one really had fun whilst filming and it shows onscreen.  Everything about Dream House feels heavy-handed, uninspired, and insipidly dull.  Despite an admirable attempt at creating a modern-day adult-centric horror movie, this venture doesn't work in the slightest.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - J. Edgar

J. Edgar (2011)

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Josh Lucas, and Judi Dench

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Oh, Clint Eastwood.  I'm gonna call you "Old Reliable" now seeing as how I can always count on your movies to be a total and utter bore.  J. Edgar lived up to that lofty (or lowly) expectation.  While it was perhaps slightly more interesting than Hereafter and Invictus thanks to its subject matter alone, Eastwood's flick just feels dark and heavy at every single turn from the acting to the brooding set design to the uninspired stuffy direction.  Somehow, though, despite the hefty feel of everything in the flick, there's an utter emptiness in terms of dramatic tension.

The saving grace of the film is that Eastwood and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black jump back and forth through time to various stages of the FBI creator J. Edgar Hoover's career and there's at least a bit of fun trying to pinpoint where in the timeline we are based off of the make-up caked onto Leonardo DiCaprio.  (It should be noted that a couple reviews I read panned the make-up in this flick, but I thought it was fine and sometimes quite good.)  However, the remainder of the flick's story much of which is composed of a ridiculously written romance between Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his secret paramour Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer) plays out like a silly soap opera complete with a hotel room slapfest (that ends in a smooch on the lips) with the requisite throwing of a glass against a wall followed by shouted sayings like "How dare you! But don't leave me!  I love you!"  

Hoover was a helluva guy.  Overly ambitious it seems, but strongly believing that everything he did (whether it be wiretapping Martin Luther King, Jr.'s hotel room sexcapades or claiming to have scoop on Communist ties to Eleanor Roosevelt) was done in order to strengthen his position and the FBI's position in the government.  Sure, on one hand he was attempting to overthrow radicals in the country, but on the other hand he was becoming that dictatorial presence that he so despised.  Add the cross-dressing (which is only lightly touched upon and done so in a rather horrifying Norman Bates-ish Psycho manner) and the gay aspect of the guy and there's gotta be a good story there.  It's just not present in the movie.

Leonardo DiCaprio was fine (although oddly uncharismatic) and did a pretty darn good job at creating six decades of a character through changes in movement and speech.  Naomi Watts was adequate in what amounted to a very plain role as Hoover's longtime loyal secretary Helen Gandy.  Her character was in the film quite a bit, but wasn't given a whole lot else to do beyond saying, "Yes, sir," which just ends up wasting many minutes of the 140-minute runtime.  Still, DiCaprio and Watts were the two bright spots here.  Armie Hammer (whose role in The Social Network landed him in spot #5 on last year's Breakthrough Star RyMickey Awards) was overacting quite a bit, playing his role of Hoover's gay confidante Clyde Tolson with never a smidgeon of believability.  The screenplay does him no favors as it makes Clyde love fashion and dress impeccably (not that those are necessarily inherent characteristics of a gay man, but the way the movie plays them up it most certainly is intended to be that way).  And let's not even get started on Judi Dench who seemed to be sleepwalking through this thing as Hoover's overbearing mother -- another role in which the screenplay does no favors to the actor playing the part.

The personal life of J. Edgar Hoover admittedly isn't all that well-documented so who really knows if he was gay or a cross-dresser.  The problem is that J. Edgar skirts around these issues incredibly awkwardly and while it takes stands (to a degree) as to whether these rumors were true, it never attacks them head-on and it creates a lack of drama because of that.  

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Mother and Child

Mother and Child (2010)

Starring Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington, Jimmy Smits, Cherry Jones, and Samuel L. Jackson

Directed by Rodrigo García

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

I'm usually a big fan of movies like Babel or 21 Grams that have distinct storylines that eventually converge or are revealed to be interrelated.  There's a similar tone on display in Mother and Child (the director of those aforementioned films, Alejandro González Iñárritu, executive produced this flick), but writer-director Rodrigo García has a difficult time creating believable characters.  Adoption (which is the underlying societal "issue" tackled in this drama, much like Babel discussed gun control and 21 Grams delved into drug addiction) apparently causes women to turn into harsh ice queens with a hatred for men, themselves, and children.  With nary another characteristic beyond "bitter" to describe the three talented actresses onscreen -- Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, and Kerry Washington -- the film becomes overbearing and almost a chore to watch.

We first meet Karen (Bening), a fifty-one year-old woman who is still living with the guilt of giving up a child for adoption thirty-seven years ago.  While she cares for her aging and bedridden mother, Karen has turned resentful.  Meanwhile, in some other city, Elizabeth (Watts), a thirty-seven year-old lawyer is starting a new job.  [Yes, the fact that Karen gave up her child thirty-seven years ago and Elizabeth is thirty-seven is not hidden in the film.]  We soon discover that Elizabeth (who has the exact same unpleasant acrid attitude as her biological mother) uses sex as a way to mask her hurt for her lack of a caring family growing up, going so far as to have an affair with her boss (Samuel L. Jackson) at her law firm.  Rounding out the trilogy of women dealing with the ramifications of adoption is Lucy (Washington) who is unable to have children with her husband and is longing to adopt.  While not quite as nasty as Karen and Elizabeth, Lucy isn't exactly a shining example of womanhood.

The biggest problem with Mother and Child is the simple fact that none of the three women are the least bit pleasant to watch.  They're all rather nasty.  Then, about halfway through the movie, these ice queens suddenly melt into loving, caring ladies.  The transition is so instantaneous in all three cases that it almost seems like I was watching two disparate films.  When you tack on a rather melodramatic final act, even the three lovely actresses who I've liked in many of their previous films can't rise above the flawed characters they're forced to portray.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

Starring Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Freida Pinto, Lucy Punch, and Naomi Watts

Directed by Woody Allen

Woody Allen keeps churning out the movies at a rate of about one a year.  Maybe if he took a tad more time between flicks, he'd come up with an actual plot because in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, the lack of any story and any comedy (and this certainly attempts to fall into Allen's comedy genre as opposed to his dramatic undertakings) makes this film flounder about aimlessly without ever going anywhere.

I guess I'm fibbing a bit when I say there's no story...there's just not a story here that anyone would find moderately interesting.  There's an older couple (Anthony Hopkins and Gemma Jones) who are recently divorced -- the husband finds himself a younger woman (Lucy Punch) who happens to be a prostitute, while the wife mopes around depressed.  They have a daughter (Naomi Watts) who's in a loveless marriage with her struggling writer husband (Josh Brolin) who has fallen head over heels for the exotic guitar player (Freida Pinto) who lives across the street.  There's not a doubt that these relationships were supposed to be played for a bit of laughs, but, with the exception of Lucy Punch (whose over-the-top hooker doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the character landscape of the flick but at least supplies the film's few moments of humor), there's nary a chortle to be had here.

I can take or leave Woody Allen's films (and I'd mostly leave them), but I keep watching his newer ventures (without delving into many of his earlier, more well regarded works for some reason) realizing that every now and then there's a diamond in the rough (example).  Not here.  It seems like the actors were well aware of this drab script because (with the exception of the previously mentioned Lucy Punch) none of them brought their A-game...although Allen certainly didn't bring his best to the table here either.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Funny Games (2008)

Starring Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbett, and Devon Gearhart
Directed by Michael Haneke

Side Note: I love the poster. And this one's pretty damn cool, too.

I'm sure I'm an awful person for saying this, but I loved this movie. This movie is sick, twisted, and I can completely understand why it would be reviled by the masses. For some reason, this sadistic remake made me tense and kept me on the edge of my seat, and with the exception of a minor quibble, there's really nothing bad I can say about this movie.

The story is incredibly simple. Two young men, Paul (a ruthlessly evil Michael Pitt) and Peter (a somewhat more nervous Brady Corbet), invade an upper-class family's vacation home, deciding to torture them with some perverse and vicious games.

Every actor here is stellar. Naomi Watts as the wife is heartbreaking here. Faced with some awful ordeals, she pulled me in and made me feel for her and her struggle. Tim Roth as the husband absolutely conveyed the notion that he is pained by the fact that he couldn't protect his family from these savage home invaders. There's a scene where he apologizes to Watts that really got to me. Young Devon Gearhart as the son had a difficult role in that I can't imagine it being easy to look scared nearly every second you're onscreen, but he performed quite well. And the two young adults committing the crimes were just plain scary...Michael Pitt, in particular, is one frightening guy.

The only problem here is that the first 20 minutes or so dragged a bit and was filled with some really silly dialog. Considering this is supposedly a shot-for-shot remake of an Austrian film by the same director, I can't help but think that if he copied the dialog directly from the Austrian version, it may have sounded better in a foreign language. Some slight change to the words may have helped. And, if it wasn't directly copied, they could've written Watts' lines a little better.

Still, that's a minor fault in this otherwise excellent film that utilizes some nifty directorial techniques that don't typically work in movies (there's a character that breaks the third wall and talks to the audience; there's a "rewinding" technique that was surprising and humorous; a few very long takes). And the way the movie unfolds was completely unexpected...it definitely doesn't follow the typical Hollywood "rules."

Now, the director apparently crafted this film to show that we've become desensitized to violence in films. Yes, I guess that's true (and is evident when parents bring their young kids to violent R-rated movies "as long as there's no nudity in them"...God forbid we see a boob...Heads getting chopped off, though, that's okay). But the funny thing is that the film is not incredibly violent itself. Yes, it's torturous to watch at times, but we actually don't see a whole lot of the violent acts -- a big chunk of the horror is heard, but not seen...and that's oftentimes worse.

Considering that the director said about this film, "Anyone who leaves the cinema [while this movie is playing], doesn't need the film. Anyone who stays, does." I mean, I guess he's insulting me since I really loved this movie, since he's stating that I've become so oblivious to violence in film. I'll take the insult.

The RyMickey Rating: A-

Movie Review - The International (2009)

Starring Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, and Armin Mueller-Stahl
Directed by Tom Tykwer

After watching all the movies I've watched this year, I can't help but think that they don't really make "smart" movies in Hollywood anymore. Sure, your indie filmmakers may produce small gems like In the Loop or Surveillance or Jerichow, but big studios seem to shy away from adult-oriented flicks anymore (not completely...but these flicks are few and far between). It's unfortunate because I feel like there's a market there (and maybe I'm the only person in that market), but they don't produce that stuff anymore...and when they do produce flicks that fit into that category -- like The International -- it's even more unfortunate (to me) when the flick can't deliver the goods.

Now, this movie wasn't bad by any means...it's just a little bit too convoluted for its own good. The story's too complicated to go into detail here, but essentially there's this European bank that is providing third world countries with weaponry and Clive Owen's Louis Salinger from Interpol and Naomi Watts's Elle Whitman from the NYC District Attorney's office are going to take them down (don't ask me why the NYC District Attorney's office is involved...it was explained at the beginning of the flick, but there was much too much unnecessary information thrown at me since then and I can't remember for the life of me the reasoning). On the whole, the plot is intriguing, but like I said, the writers throw in too much for their own good.

The movie took a while to get started. Thirty minutes in, I honestly was bored out of my mind. However, the film picks up steam at about the 45-minute mark and is certainly intriguing the rest of the way. There's some really great scenes -- one of which involves the Guggenheim Museum in NYC that was incredibly tense and wonderfully shot -- and these scenes make the film come alive in its second and third acts. I must say that even in the boring first act, the film always looked good...the film made great use of its European and New York City settings.

I found Clive Owen and Naomi Watts to be quite good here. Watts isn't really given a whole lot to do except stand around, but I'm starting to like Clive Owen more and more as an actor. He brings a machismo to the screen (you believe him when he's holding a gun), but he's absolutely a talented actor as well. And supporting actor Armin Mueller-Stahl (a name you may not be familiar with, but you'd recognize his face) was impressive.

There's certainly good here, but the lackluster story brings the flick down. It's going to fall into the "recommended for some" category...if you watch it, prepare yourself for a long initial 30-45 minutes before it picks up some steam.

The RyMickey Rating: C