Blue Jasmine (2013)

Posted on December 1, 2014 by 4 Star Films

The emotionally unstable socialite Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) seems to think everyone in the world wants to listen to her talk and reminisce.

This film shares a resemblance to Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, and it can be know coincidence because Woody Allen knows his history. On her part, Blanchett ironically shines as Jasmine, a woman who was married to a swindler (Alec Baldwin), has a nervous breakdown and then finds herself penniless in San Fran on her sister’s doorstep (Sally Hawkins). Jasmine is a snobbish jetsetter who had all the possessions that money could buy and a successful hubby. However, pull out the rug from under her and what’s left is a needy hypochondriac plagued by bouts of loneliness. When she’s not jamming down pills chased by martinis, she’s feeling sorry for herself. She is also often prone to be unstable and throw tantrums. But by the end of this film she is all alone on a bench. No money, no family, not even any love life. Jasmine is a tough case because she is absolutely despicable and on top of that annoying, and yet we still have a small degree of sympathy for her. Allen’s film walks the tightrope between comedy and tragedy to great effect.

4/5 Stars

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Posted on November 29, 2014 by 4 Star Films

Starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet this fantasy romance opens with a man named Joel waking up in a funk. He boards a train and meets the free-spirited Clementine for what seems to be the first time.

The film then starts at the beginning where Joel and Clementine were actually lovers. They had a fight however, and Clementine paid for all of her memories of Joel to be erased. When Joel finds this out he too wants to have the procedure done. It takes place in his sleep and so he begins to see their romance in reverse order.

When he revisits some of the good times, he tries desperately to save some of the memories, but in the end they are erased. The film starts up again where it began with the pair meeting. They both discover tape recordings about their relationship and it causes them to become scared and confused. Joel asks her if they can begin again and Clementine is apprehensive that the same problems will creep up again.

However, they do decide to go through with it again because love is worth the risk. The non-linear, inventive story line by Charlie Kaufman is interesting and the rest of the cast was pretty good including Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Kirsten Dunst. Furthermore, it was interesting to see Jim Carey in a dramatic role. This is a solid romantic comedy with some interesting ideas about memories, but I feel it deserves another watch due to the confusing story arc.

4.5/5 Stars

Short Term 12 (2013)

Posted on November 28, 2014 by 4 Star Films

This is an extremely powerful film having to do with a short term living home for abandoned and troubled kids. Brie Larson, who is one of my new favorites, gives a wonderful performance that should get her more coverage in the upcoming years. Unfortunately this is a little known gem.

This film had a gritty and realistic aspect that I could relate to, because its director and writer Destin Daniel Cretton hails from San Diego, a place that I have seen quite a bit. Furthermore, he does not shy away from the tough issues, but he also shows a moving and beautiful flip side to this story. Short Term 12 can be hard to watch at times but it seems that what it really depicts is reality for many young people.

Like The Spectacular Now, this film seems to represent a desire of filmmakers with more humble means to make realistic stories full of hard hitting drama and in many ways truth. In my mind, it was well worth it!

4/5 Stars

Jurassic Park (1993)

Posted on November 26, 2014 by 4 Star Films

Jurassic Park was yet another smash hit for Steven Spielberg back in 1993 and it, as well as the animatronics, stand up pretty well over 20 years later. It might feel slightly underwhelming at times, but it definitely still carries the ability to entertain.

Without giving away too much plot, although most should have already seen it, Jurassic Park plays out like a modern-day King Kong story. John Hammond (played by actor/director Richard Attenborough) is a white-haired billionaire with an eye for spectacle. He has put his money to good use (so it seems) pouring resources into a new sort of attraction. This is no Disneyland and as such the stakes are much higher.

He calls upon the services of a paleontologist Dr. Grant (Sam Neill) and a paleobotanist Dr. Sattler (Laura Dern) to give the seal of approval on his grand endeavor. There’s also a nosy lawyer who is curious for the sake of his investors. Round out the group with an authority on Chaos Theory (Jeff Goldblum) along with Hammond’s grandkids and you have all you need.

These lucky few are the ones who get shipped out to a remote island off Costa Rica to see first hand the majesty of Jurassic Park. But rather like Frankenstein, Hammond does not know what he has created. What was meant to be good, turned sour all too quickly, except in this rendition of the story he gets a little help from a pudgy programmer who is looking out for himself.

There’s not much character development to speak of, but if you have real life dinosaurs terrorizing an island you do not need much else. Accompany it with a truly epic and iconic score from John Williams and you have something quite special and quintessentially ’90s. If kids did not want to be paleontologists before they undoubtedly did after Jurassic Park.

As Dr. Grant so aptly puts it, “Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?”

That is the general intrigue behind Jurassic Park aside from the awesome fact that we get to see a T-Rex, Raptors, and many other dinosaurs recreated. This is not necessarily a kids movie due to the intensity at times, but it definitely is meant for the young at heart. Those are the people who unashamedly love dinosaurs. But then again who doesn’t love dinosaurs?

4/5 Stars

Drinking Buddies (2013)

Posted on November 25, 2014 by 4 Star Films

Here is an interesting little film that while not great has a lot of interesting things to say. It is about relationships, friendships, and life in general. It really revolves around two coworkers who work at a brewery together and also are almost constant drinking buddies.

With this territory comes often complicated lines and boundaries because they both are invested in other relationships with a significant other. The buddy status remains only to be taxed as Kate gets dumped by her boyfriend and struggles through her coping process. The one who ultimately gets most deeply affected is Luke. For one he does not want to see his friend this way, but it probably does not help either that he has deep feelings for her, as a buddy or otherwise.

There is an insanely large quantity of beer consumed which is not surprising given the name. However, what I really found interesting about the film was the “buddies” aspect. It looked at relationships and friendship between the opposite genders through a seemingly real and genuine lens. Sometimes it can be difficult, complicated, awkward, and most definitely painful. It is not anything like a movie. I guess that’s why I was content that the film did not try to tie itself up in a neat bow.

All the matters is that Kate and Luke are buddies again. Sure, there may be some unresolved stuff for them to work out, but then again aren’t our lives always complicated like that? I know mine certainly is and I suppose I wouldn’t want it any other way. As long as I have my buddies to go through it along side of me.

3.5/5 Stars

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Posted on November 23, 2014 by 4 Star Films

Although he is not present you can hear and see the undeniable hand of Woody Allen behind this romance set in Barcelona. In a film that at times feels like a precursor to the more interesting Midnight in Paris, Allen takes on romance in another elegant city with two young Americans who have been transplanted there from their everyday lives.

Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is the practical one of the two with a fiance who is kind but by no means a romantic. Cristina (Scarlett Johannson) is the more adventurous type and she is intrigued by a forward Spanish painter (Javier Bardem) who invites them to spend a holiday with him. All the red lights are going off in Vicky’s head and she will not have it. But Cristina is interested enough to drag her friend along on this whim. They have a matter of fact narrator to guide their little tale of love and personal revelation. Enter Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) stage right and things gets a bit complicated.

This is a Film about love. A Film about people having their mini midlife crisis and a film about trying to figure things out. In that ways it is relatable and yet I have this uncomfortable feeling that Woody Allen is speaking to me veiled behind the worldviews of his characters. It seems like I can hear his voice obviously peeking out behind many of these characters so they lack interest. There’s nothing new and exciting. For instance, I liked Rebecca Hall, but to be honest her character is bland and she soon comes to realize that herself. It’s not just her either but the social circles she interacts in. The people are dull, middle class, American types. Cristina might have a little bit more mischief in her, but that does not necessarily make her all that interesting.

However, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz play a pair of characters who are perhaps the most interesting. Maybe it is just a result of playing artists but they are often difficult to read and do not make complete sense. They are both romantics but they are prone to violent passion or angry fights. That’s the dynamic Vicky and Cristina get thrown into and I doubt either one expected it.

The story ends like other Allen films as a quirky romance with touches of comedy and strange acts of fate. Vicky and Cristina leave Barcelona perhaps a little wiser but with little more figured out about life.

3.5/5 Stars

La Notte (1961)

Posted on November 21, 2014 by 4 Star Films

Here is a film full of glitz reminiscent of La Dolce Vita, a cast starring the likes of Mastroianni, Moreau, and Vitti, with a meandering plot courtesy of Michelangelo Antonioni and gorgeous black and white visuals.

This film is certainly not for the action fanatic because we are given very little. In fact the story revolves around a couple who have trouble communicating so even the dialogue seems sparse at times. The marriage is slowly going down the tubes and neither partner is ready to acknowledge it until the end when the wife finally does.

Moreau definitely had stronger performances like Jules and Jim because here she hardly talks and is highly misanthropic. Monica Vitti is more interesting in her role simply because she has more energy infused into her.

One of my favorite moment in the film had to be at the party where Mastroianni first sees Vitti playing a rudimentary shuffle board. We are watching just like he is except there is a strange sensation that something is doctored with the image. It turns out that we are only looking at the reflection and then the camera swivels to the right to actually show reality. It was one of the noticeable artistic shots that really stood out to me.

La Notte is a subdued film, more often than not, and so if you go expecting that type of pacing you start to enjoy the little pieces here in there that are given to you. By the end it is rather sad because the marriage not working. There is no huge fight, no bickering, just apathy and that is in many ways more painful to see.

4/5 Stars

The Best Films of Edward G. Robinson

Posted on November 20, 2014 by 4 Star Films

1. Scarlet Street
2. Key Largo
3. Little Caesar
4. The Woman in the Window
5. Double Indemnity
6. The Stranger
7. The Sea Wolf
8. The Ten Commandments
9. The Whole Town’s Talking
10. The Cincinnati Kid
11. Our Vines have Tender Grapes
12. All My Sons
13. Five Star Final
14. Soylent Green
15. Barbary Coast

Review: Airplane! (1980)

Posted on November 19, 2014 by 4 Star Films

In the wake of Jaws came another film almost just as riveting in its intense thrills and human drama. Let’s hear it for Airplane! Okay, well it may be the farthest thing from a real melodrama, but that does not take away from the good ol’ fashioned fun of it all. It’s quirky. It’s goofy. And it has the prototypical ZAZ humor laden with sight gags and boatloads of puns with an accompanying score courtesy of everyone’s favorite comic composer Elmer Bernstein.

The faux drama stems from former war pilot Ted Striker (Robert Hays), who has an aversion to flying due to his devastating experiences and a drinking problem to boot. Now all he does is drive a taxi, and it has cost him his love, the airline stewardess Elaine (Julie Hagerty), who lost all faith in him because he lost confidence in himself. Things used to be so marvelous when they first met in the throes of romance and yet…

Who am I kidding? This film hardly has any plot, but instead, it’s one big excuse for often childish, sometimes innuendo-filled, off the wall antics. Seriously though, Airplane! rifts off a lot of things from gushy romances, to disaster films, and old Hollywood serials. But this plane is only a vehicle for gags. There’s a whole scene about a little girl who is deathly ill just so Captain Oveur (Peter Graves) can say over the telephone resolutely, “Give me ham on five hold the mayo.”

Then there’s co-pilot Kareem Abdul-Jabbar moonlighting as Roger Murdoch. He eventually breaks out of character following the nagging of a little boy named Joey (You try dragging Walton and Lanier down the court)! Why is he even in this film? We don’t know and it doesn’t matter because it’s hilarious.

There’s a kiss parodied straight out of From Here to Eternity, an appearance by the always loud-mouthed Ethel Merman, and even a jab at incumbent president Ronald Reagan. And of course who else would know how to speak jive with the two African-American passengers but June Cleaver or Barbara Billingsley? I’m not sure which one is funnier.

What stands out most about this film is all of its old vets playing this insanely wacky film straight. From Peter Graves to Leslie Nielsen on the plane, to Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges down in the tower, their performances are priceless.

By the way, what ever happened to that guy in the taxi? If I’m not mistaken the meter’s still running.

4/5 Stars

“We have clearance, Clarence.”
“Roger, Roger. What’s our vector, Victor?”

The Best Films of Marilyn Monroe

Posted on November 19, 2014 by 4 Star Films

1. Some Like it Hot
2. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
3. The Seven Year Itch
4. All About Eve
5. The Asphalt Jungle
6. The Misfits
7. Bus Stop
8. How to Marry a Millionaire
9. Clash by Night
10. Don’t Bother to Knock
11. Niagara
12. Something’s Got to Give

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.