C

The Martian

Video posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2015)

Aside from Alien and Blade Runner, Ridley Scott’s films don’t excite me. So, it should come as no surprise that The Martian didn’t do it for me, either. I didn’t hate it, but I definitely found it lacking. It aims for blockbuster status, which it achieved—good for it. Like far too many blockbusters, though, The Martian is an average Hollywood film at best.

Matt Damon stars as botanist/astronaut Mark Watney, a member of the Ares III mission to Mars. To Scott’s credit, he gets right down to business from the very first scene: while the crew is collecting soil samples, a violent dust storm kicks up out of nowhere and knocks down a sattellite (or something). Watney is struck with debris and pushed out of sight. His crew mates take him for dead. He’s not, we learn once the dust settles (no pun intended) and Ares has already left Mars.

Based on Andy Weir’s 2011 novel of the same name—which I didn’t read—the story seems to lend itself naturally to drama, suspense, and action. Somehow, The Martian is oddly low on all three until the last half hour or so. The story moves along and Watney faces his share of obstacles, none of which are a surprise. He approaches them all with a MacGyver-like ingenuity (duct tape literally does fix anything). I won’t ruin the ending, but all it got out of me was a shrug. Eh.

Mars to Houston: what is Kristen Wiig doing in this movie? I laud her efforts to expand her horizons, but she’s not there yet. She can’t do drama. She sticks out like a sixth finger.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, The Martian has its positive aspects. The shots on Mars (actually Jordan) are realistic and downright stunning. Damon is excellent: he single-handedly saves The Martian from slipping into a black hole. Good thing, because the success of the entire script rests on his shoulders. He gives Watney sympathy and relatability. I like his character. His constant talking to himself to act as narrator easily could have gone south fast but he makes it work almost unnoticeably. To lighten the tone, he adds a believable sense of humor that I didn’t expect considering the plot. I now understand the Golden Globe “best actor in a comedy” thing. The disco hits are a nice touch that effectively augments this subtle comic relief. Overall, though, I expected something a lot more interesting.

(ArcLight) C

http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-martian

Tom at the Farm [Tom à la ferme]

Posted on by moviebloke

(Canada 2015)

As psychological thrillers go, Tom at the Farm is a notch above average. It’s got a plot I haven’t seen before: Tom (Xavier Dolan, also the director) schleps from Montreal to rural Quebec for the funeral of his dead boyfriend, Guillaume, who grew up in the French Canadian equivalent of a hick town. Big shock: Guillaume didn’t tell his mother (Lise Roy) he was gay, a secret his dark and sexy but tres psycho older brother, Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), aggressively guards. After the funeral and some mixed signals from Francis, Tom is pulled into farm life with his new “family”– and a bizarre sexless S&M relationship with Francis that creates a major sense of foreboding danger.

Tom at the Farm does a nice job building up suspense, and the homoerotic overtones add to the tension. The problem is, the story isn’t believable, even for a thriller. Maybe that’s because the characters’ motivations aren’t adequately explained; it feels like something was left out. Worse, the slow and steady buildup between Tom and Francis doesn’t lead anywhere; despite all the tension– sexual and otherwise– it fizzles like a dud firecracker. We leave with no sense of what either character is about or what makes him tick, and only a vague notion of what their whole thing is about. A film with such potential that ultimately fails to deliver leaves one with the frustrating and disappointing cinematic equivalent of blue balls.

(Home via iTunes) C

http://tomatthefarm.com

Pauline [La patota]

Posted on by moviebloke

(Argentina/Brazil 2015)

I left Paulina perplexed. It starts off well: smart lawyer girl (Dolores Fonzi) unfulfilled with her budding cateer in law decides to leave Buenos Aires to teach in a remote underdeveloped village– much to the dismay of her elitist father (Oscar Martinez), a judge. Not only does she face culture shock and adjustment pains, but she is raped due to a case of mistaken identity. Paulina, however– as she tells her incredulous boyfriend (Esteban Lamothe)– must deal with it her way.

Paulina contains some great heated exchanges between her and her father, and Fonzi and Martinez both approach their roles with skill and gusto. That said, the story is broken up and not entirely chronological, which makes it confusing and a bit hard to follow. What really lost me was what happens after the rape; Paulina’s reaction goes beyond idealistic to weird and unbelieveable– I’ll leave it at that. Unfortunately, the audience was RUDE and DISTRACTING, compounding my frustrations. The whole experience warranted a great big “whatever.” I missed Project Runway for this?

(AMC River East) C

Chicago International Film Festival

https://www.facebook.com/LaPatotaFilm

Do I Sound Gay?

Posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2015)

An informative and amusing exploration of the “gay voice,” that effeminate and often annoying over-the-top stereotypical way that so many gay men speak—and that one man (David Thorpe) wants to change. Thorpe looks to speech therapy and academia but mostly pop culture for answers, enlisting gay celebrities like Dan Savage, George Takei, and Tim Gunn along the way. Their responses reveal the conflicted attitudes gay men hold toward masculinity and identity.

Despite its merits, Do I Sound Gay? ultimately underwhelmed me. It provided useful tidbits of information, but nothing solid or groundbreaking.

(Gene Siskel Film Center) C

http://www.doisoundgay.com

I Am Chris Farley

Posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2015)

A nice tribute to nice 90s Saturday Night Live alum and Tommy Boy star with nice commentary from family, friends, and celebs like Bo Derek, Lorne Michaels, Dan Akroyd, Mike Myers, David Spade, and Adam Sandler (among many others). And ‘nice’ is the problem: I Am Chris Farley does a nice job of giving some background and insight on what a nice guy Farley was, but unfortunately it digresses into a weird sanitized nostalgia. I imagine most people, like me, wanted more details about the events leading up to his untimely death at age 33, something touched on in a superficial and sweeping manner that turned it into the proverbial elephant in the room

Still, it did show some of his best skits (the Chippendales audition with Patrick Swayze and Matt Foley, motivational speaker, to name two). I guess we have to settle for that.

(Music Box) C

http://www.iamchrisfarley.com

https://youtu.be/6StPxZcaOIg

I Am Big Bird: the Carroll Spinney Story

Video posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2014)

I Am Big Bird: the Carroll Spinney Story delivered what it promised: the life story of Carroll Spinney, who became an unlikely icon as Big Bird (not to mention Oscar the grouch). We get tidbits about his artsy mother and crabby father; his fascination with puppetry as a child; his chance meeting with Jim Henson; and nearly quitting Sesame Street during its first season because he didn’t fit in with the cast. We get archival footage and a healthy dose of nostalgia without going overboard. We also get new information; I never knew Spinney was supposed to be a passenger on the ill-fated Challenger mission in 1986, or that he has an understudy. It all adds up to a winner.

Despite everything right with this documentary, however, I left wanting more from it. I don’t know what I expected. Maybe more gossip? Dirt? A drug problem or behind-the-scenes sex? Something. I know, this is Sesame Street we’re talking about, so I accept my disappointment in the lack of any sleaze as my issue. Considering its subject matter, though, I Am Big Bird could have been more fun.

(Gene Siskel Film Center) C

http://www.iambigbird.com

Welcome to Me

Video posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2014)

What happens when a middle-aged bipolar lady (Kristen Wiig) on disability wins $89M in the California lottery and buys her own talk show about herself? One would expect hilarity to ensue, but the opposite happens: Alice Klieg makes a bigger, sadder mess out of things. Money really does change everything. Can she repair the damage?

I love Kristen Wiig, but she can go overboard on stupid. That’s what happened here: Welcome to Me is stupid but not all that funny. While the subject matter is darker, the ending is neat and predictable. It tries to make a grand point about mental illness—I suspect—but the effort falls flat. Here’s to the next project.

One big positive: the supporting cast. James Marsden and Wes Bentley as the scheming Ruskin brothers and a surprise appearance by Tim Robbins as Alice’s therapist are nice touches. Joan Cusack as Dawn, the cunty producer annoyed by Alice from the outset, is by far the best character—and probably the best performance here.

According to her bio on IMDB, director Shira Piven is the older sister of actor Jeremy.

(Music Box) C

http://www.welcometomemovie.com

Cinderella

Video posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2015)

What’s to say, really? Kenneth Branagh’s reboot of the classic cartoon was pretty much what I expected, Disney milquetoast and all. Lily James makes a good Cinderella, and Cate Blanchett makes an even better evil stepmother. Two things I enjoyed: the backstory the original did not tell and the prince’s (Richard Madden) junk showing through the white tights he wore in every scene. Helena Bonham Carter, downright magical as the fairy godmother, stole the show; her scene was by far the best if only for how giddy it made me.

(AMC 600 North Michigan) C

http://movies.disney.com/cinderella