"an education" is a true story based on the lynn barber book about an episode in her teen years in which she and all around her learned many different lessons. nick hornby ("about a boy") wrote the screenplay and did a good job of keeping the movie sweet by rounding off some of the edges in barber's book. "an education" is set in provincial england, on a street of row houses, about a middle class family who's sole focus in life is to get their bright, talented, only daughter into oxford. the sad result of all this good education would be a position as a teacher, civil servant or a good marriage. but the girl has bigger dreams of a life in paris, listening to jazz, purchasing art, reading existentialism and smoking fancy french cigarettes- above all, having fun. all of which seem like pipe dreams until older man david comes along and makes all these dreams come true.
carey mulligan is perfect as, jenny, the little girl who plays at being a young woman only to find herself a little girl again yet more grown up than her parents. she wears all of it very well. peter skarsgaard is one of my favorite actors plays the predatory charmer who almost has himself under his own spell. alfred molina as the spineless father is a little over the top. rosamund pike does a scary believable job as the vacuous and decorous girlfriend of david's hip business partner played by dominic cooper- love him!. emma thompson is dead on as the dead end head mistress of jenny's all girl school and olivia williams is convincing as the favorite teacher who wants more for her.
the clothes are wonderful, the hair and makeup are 60's funtastic. what's not fun is the stark reminder just how limited women's options were in the 60's. and how in their eagerness to see jenny married, which would, of course, make oxford unnecessary and thus negating her whole life's purpose, her parents failed miserably to protect and guide her.
if you don't see this in the theaters, put it on your rent list.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
pirate radio
a friend and i went to go see "an education" this saturday and mistakenly arrived at the theater an hour early. we ducked into the theater for "pirate radio" instead. an hour later we went back to "an education."
"pirate radio" is a big mess. it's set in 1966, when england has banned rock and roll from british radio stations spawning a fleet of ships off the british coast who's inhabitants spend their days broadcasting rock and roll, getting high, and talking about getting laid- all in the name of freedom. the other set in the film is inside the british governmental offices where politicians all but curl their handle bar mustaches while plotting to curtail these offshore activities- all in the name of decency. there's a subplot of a young man being sent to live on the boat with his godfather (nighy) and his quest to lose his virginity (women are ferried in regularly) and a secret sub sub plot that the godfather might really be his father, so it's meant to be a coming of age film as well.
"pirate radio" aka "the boat that rocked" is a waste of such a highly regarded and awarded cast which includes phillip seymour hoffman (truman), bill nighy(underworld, love actually), kenneth branagh( hamlet, henry 5) and rhy ifans (notting hill). the characters are too broad and we have absolutely no chance to warm up to them. as an audience we are dropped on the the ship in the night during a storm and immediately are shown everyone's worst side. and after an hour we had yet to be shown anyone's good side. the script has anacranistic dialog which is very distracting, the editing is clumsy and the directing seems without purpose.
don't bother. spend your money on the soundtrack- great selection of 60's music.
"pirate radio" is a big mess. it's set in 1966, when england has banned rock and roll from british radio stations spawning a fleet of ships off the british coast who's inhabitants spend their days broadcasting rock and roll, getting high, and talking about getting laid- all in the name of freedom. the other set in the film is inside the british governmental offices where politicians all but curl their handle bar mustaches while plotting to curtail these offshore activities- all in the name of decency. there's a subplot of a young man being sent to live on the boat with his godfather (nighy) and his quest to lose his virginity (women are ferried in regularly) and a secret sub sub plot that the godfather might really be his father, so it's meant to be a coming of age film as well.
"pirate radio" aka "the boat that rocked" is a waste of such a highly regarded and awarded cast which includes phillip seymour hoffman (truman), bill nighy(underworld, love actually), kenneth branagh( hamlet, henry 5) and rhy ifans (notting hill). the characters are too broad and we have absolutely no chance to warm up to them. as an audience we are dropped on the the ship in the night during a storm and immediately are shown everyone's worst side. and after an hour we had yet to be shown anyone's good side. the script has anacranistic dialog which is very distracting, the editing is clumsy and the directing seems without purpose.
don't bother. spend your money on the soundtrack- great selection of 60's music.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
paranormal activity
"pararnormal activity" is an e-ticket scary ride. oren peli, an israeli director, had an idea, $11,000.00, 7 days, and 2 eager fledgling actors willing to both act in and shoot his film. he got his film premise from unusual activity he experienced first hand shortly after moving into a house in rancho bernardo, ca, a burb of san diego. he researched, wrote and edited it all himself. he then screened his product at 2 horror film fests with such success and buzz that dreamworks came knocking. speilberg fully intended to give the story the hollywood treatment and completely remake it, but after viewing it he realized it was the perfect horror film just the way it was. the story goes that while watching a copy of paranormal activity in his home, the door to an unused extra bedroom shut and locked itself and a locksmith had to be called. steven returned his copy of the dvd in a garbage bag presumably to protect himself from the demon posessed disc.
peli capitalizes brilliantly on the very accurate premise that what you can't see is far scarier than any cg monster. a profitable fact witnessed by the maker of "the blair witch project"- i was actually freaking out over oddly arranged sticks! my dad's favorite scary movie was the 1951, "thing from another world" in which a polar station is terrorized by something they never see. he was very disappointed in the 1982 remake, "the thing", that actually shows the monster. In 1942, Val Lewton made the crazy sucessful, "cat people", in which all the scary monsters are seen only in shadow. some of peli's other influences were "the entity", also one of my favorites, in which barbara hershey is harrassed by an invisible being with the single purpose of terrifying her and "the others" in which nicole kidman and her children are spooked by spooks or is it the other way around? he prefers the film in which the story starts simply and the suspense builds. and that almost never happens anymore. horror films have turned into gorefests that aren't scary, just disturbing when you think how many people pay to see bloodier ways to torture and kill other people, ie: "saw 1-12". that's the scary part about these films, that people out there actually think that they are entertaining.
if you want a good scare, paranormal activity is the film for you. when i saw it, there were some very talkative teenagers in the theater, but shortly into the movie, it was dead quiet. there are a few spots that were titling the cheesy meter and i knew that the backstory wasn't true. yet, it scared me so much afterward i was afraid to go into my car alone, i stopped by a friend's house because i didn't want to go to my house alone, and i still sleep with the lights on. plus i'm writing this revew from the library because i don't want to think about this film at home or i won't sleep at all.
this is a dark ride.
peli capitalizes brilliantly on the very accurate premise that what you can't see is far scarier than any cg monster. a profitable fact witnessed by the maker of "the blair witch project"- i was actually freaking out over oddly arranged sticks! my dad's favorite scary movie was the 1951, "thing from another world" in which a polar station is terrorized by something they never see. he was very disappointed in the 1982 remake, "the thing", that actually shows the monster. In 1942, Val Lewton made the crazy sucessful, "cat people", in which all the scary monsters are seen only in shadow. some of peli's other influences were "the entity", also one of my favorites, in which barbara hershey is harrassed by an invisible being with the single purpose of terrifying her and "the others" in which nicole kidman and her children are spooked by spooks or is it the other way around? he prefers the film in which the story starts simply and the suspense builds. and that almost never happens anymore. horror films have turned into gorefests that aren't scary, just disturbing when you think how many people pay to see bloodier ways to torture and kill other people, ie: "saw 1-12". that's the scary part about these films, that people out there actually think that they are entertaining.
if you want a good scare, paranormal activity is the film for you. when i saw it, there were some very talkative teenagers in the theater, but shortly into the movie, it was dead quiet. there are a few spots that were titling the cheesy meter and i knew that the backstory wasn't true. yet, it scared me so much afterward i was afraid to go into my car alone, i stopped by a friend's house because i didn't want to go to my house alone, and i still sleep with the lights on. plus i'm writing this revew from the library because i don't want to think about this film at home or i won't sleep at all.
this is a dark ride.
Friday, November 6, 2009
the men who stare at goats
George Clooney and Ewan McGregor star in the latest version of a buddy picture or a road movie- a buddies on the road movie. Crosby and Hope meet Falk and Arkin in "The In-laws On the Road to Iraq". (I kept expecting Clooney's Falk to yell out to McGregor's Arkin, "Serpentine!!") The film is funny and imaginative. While watching it, I thought, "this is a good movie, I'm enjoying this." But when it was over I was left thinking - "eh." The ending was flat. And yet I really can't expect more than that because any road picture is about the journey not the destination, so this picture can be forgiven for it's dead end. Who can remember why Bing and Bob went anywhere? The point was for them to go.
If you've seen the trailer than you know the plot: the army experiments with creating psychic soldiers-real life jedi warriors- with a variety of successes. As a history student I read about these episodes and know that this is based in some truth. For instance- the U.S. only began these experiments because they found out that the Russians had opened a military psychic research division which they began only because they read and believed an article the French wrote about the U.S. doing it. This is true and illustrates the mental capacity with which we are dealing. And then we've all heard about the military's LSD research.
But the story isn't really the point, it's a boys club having fun. Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Robert Patrick and Stephen Lang are other club members who play their very one dimensional parts with lots of relish. Clooney has carved out a niche for himself playing this kind of zealous nut job on a mission. I have to say, as much as I love Ewan McGregor, the choice of him in this role was distracting. In this movie there was a lot of discussion about jedi warriors and Clooney's charactor told McGregor's character to find the jedi inside of him. Ewan played Obi-Wan Kenobi for chrisstsake. You don't tell Obi-Wan to find his inner jedi. It diverted my attention and pulled me out of the movie. Maybe they thought it would be ironic or funny, but no, it was annoying. Maybe one reference with a big wink to the camera would have been ok, but Clooney kept trying to teach Obi-Wan how to do jedi mind tricks!!! Big mistake in casting.
So, as a movie, The Men Who Stare at Goats, is not great. But for a laugh it does the job.
PS- For my animal sensitive readers, there are some incidences in which animals are threatened with violence but nothing is done on camera- it's all in reference. What I found more disturbing was all the footage of George W. Bush- much scarier.
If you've seen the trailer than you know the plot: the army experiments with creating psychic soldiers-real life jedi warriors- with a variety of successes. As a history student I read about these episodes and know that this is based in some truth. For instance- the U.S. only began these experiments because they found out that the Russians had opened a military psychic research division which they began only because they read and believed an article the French wrote about the U.S. doing it. This is true and illustrates the mental capacity with which we are dealing. And then we've all heard about the military's LSD research.
But the story isn't really the point, it's a boys club having fun. Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Robert Patrick and Stephen Lang are other club members who play their very one dimensional parts with lots of relish. Clooney has carved out a niche for himself playing this kind of zealous nut job on a mission. I have to say, as much as I love Ewan McGregor, the choice of him in this role was distracting. In this movie there was a lot of discussion about jedi warriors and Clooney's charactor told McGregor's character to find the jedi inside of him. Ewan played Obi-Wan Kenobi for chrisstsake. You don't tell Obi-Wan to find his inner jedi. It diverted my attention and pulled me out of the movie. Maybe they thought it would be ironic or funny, but no, it was annoying. Maybe one reference with a big wink to the camera would have been ok, but Clooney kept trying to teach Obi-Wan how to do jedi mind tricks!!! Big mistake in casting.
So, as a movie, The Men Who Stare at Goats, is not great. But for a laugh it does the job.
PS- For my animal sensitive readers, there are some incidences in which animals are threatened with violence but nothing is done on camera- it's all in reference. What I found more disturbing was all the footage of George W. Bush- much scarier.
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