Robert Duvall, Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek lead a cast of unforgettable characters in a just plain entertaining movie. It seems a cantankerous old backwoods hermit (Duvall) decides to throw his own funeral party while he’s still alive, and anybody who has a story to tell about him is invited.
Grade: A
George Clooney plays an assassin traveling through Europe, escaping danger and bedding women, and he is so impassive and cool he’s like a glacier. Unfortunately, so is the pace of the movie.
Grade: B-
The Switch is a funny but conventional movie with Jason Bateman as a likable neurotic in New York City and Thomas Robinson as the adorable 6-year-old who is his son through a switch in sperm donors. Yes, it is odd that the idea of sperm donation is used as a plot device in this movie and The Kids Are All Right.
Grade: C+
This is the warm, witty and wise story of a family struggling with issues of sexuality and responsibility. It’s livelier than it may sound, because the parents are lesbians, the setting is hipper-than-thou Southern California, and the protagonist who kick-starts the plot is the sperm-donor father of the two teenage children.
Grade: B+
Welcome to the bleak backwoods of the Missouri Ozarks, where the economy runs on cooking and dealing meth, and polite society rests on paranoia. This is powerful, authentic filmmaking, with little-known actors and a plain style that is so convincing you can hardly wait to escape it.
Grade: B+
Inception is worth seeing not only so you can join the conversation of what it means (I like the theory that it’s about filmmaking, with the DiCaprio character as director; and I like the idea that it’s cinematic jazz) but also to enjoy the dream-sequence visuals of folding cities, exploding café scenes and falling in ultraslow motion. It’s beautiful, thrilling and baffling.
Grade: A
An excellent script explores the relationships of mothers and daughters (male characters not so much) in this thoughtful, emotionally powerful film. All the acting is good, but Annette Bening really stands out as she takes her character through a transformation that is complete yet completely believable.
Grade: B+
This Oscar-winning film from Argentina (in Spanish, with English subtitles) tells a powerful tale of murder, romance and revenge. Unlike so many movies where crimes are driven by greed and solved by intellect, here motives flow from the heart and secrets are revealed in the eyes.
Grade: A
Andy’s going off to college, and the question of what will happen to Woody, Buzz and all his other toys makes this the sweetest and saddest Toy Story yet. As always, Pixar holds to the highest standards of visual wit and clever characters – I especially loved the Ken and Barbie dolls.
Grade: A+
Writer/director Nicole Holofcener, who wrote and directed Friends with Money, has created another morality play with more shades of gray than black-and-white lines. The excellent cast includes Catherine Keener as a Manhattan liberal trying to donate away her guilt, Oliver Platt as her pleasantly puzzled husband, and Amanda Peet as an evil bitch you can’t help but like.
Grade: B
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