Review: I Am Love

Review: I Am Love (Io sono l'amore)

Rating: ***1/2

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 81%

Suddenly this summer. a terrific film. Tilda Swinton has a lock on an Oscar nomination -- and she does it in Italian and Russian. In this film, she plays Emma, the Russian wife of a rich Milanese textile manufacturer. She has three grown children, but we're told little of her earlier life or her present state of mind. Through her nuanced and subtle performance, however, and scenes of a family gathering early in the movie, we learn all we need to know and fill in the blanks ourselves: Emma has given her life and her very identity to her husband and his family. She dissolves into the corners of her stunning, but cold, Milanese villa.

After she meets and begins an affair with her son's friend, Antonio, her life and her world open to color and sensuality. The rest of the story surprises, complemented by stunning cinematography and sophisticated editing. Not to be missed.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price

$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it

Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Rating: **

Nonna's Rating: $$

Rotten Tomatoes: 41%

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a prime example of what's wrong with this summer's movies. Clearly, a pack of studio executives (in this case, at Disney) got together and said, "Let's take the most beloved scene from Fantasia," (Mickey Mouse's silent celebration of Paul Dukas' symphonic poem, based, in turn, on Goethe's poem of the same name) "and turn it into a movie." Could the film be more derivative! (Yes, it turns out.) The iconic out-of-control mops and pails do make an appearance in the movie, but because that sequence lasts only a few minutes, much more has been added, all derived from yet more sources: Arthurian legend, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars (borrowing a moment so lifted from Episode IV: A New Hope that one of the characters feels the need to point out that the scene has been stolen from that movie).

My grandson Max also noticed how derivative the film was; in spite of that, however, he liked it (the special effects are rather good). So I'm going to recommend the movie to parents of older children.

Whenever I'm ready to pan a film aimed at kids, I say to myself: "Compared to Shortz," (which was pure agony to sit through), how bad is this film really? It's Citizen Kane next to Shortz.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price

$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it

Review: Inception

Review: Inception

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 86%

Some movies beg to be viewed twice: Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense come to mind. What we thought had unfolded as we watched these films, in the end, was very different from what had really happened. We watched again to notice the clues we missed the first time around. We watched again to make sense of the world contained in the space of a movie.

Inception seems to be such a movie. I indeed do want to see it again to try to make sense of it all, to notice the clues. My grandson Max and I had an intense discussion after we saw the film. We tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together and figure it out. We sorted out most of the plot, but there were still too many questions and loose ends. We consulted the myriad of Internet discussions of the film and discovered that our read of the plot was in line with the online explanations. Most of those loose ends, however, just weren't tied off.

Now, I have no problem living with ambiguity in a movie, but there's a fine line between creative ambiguity and sloppy storytelling -- and I'm afraid there's a bit of the latter in this film. I wouldn't lodge that complaint against Usual Suspects or The Sixth Sense. Second viewings of those films elucidated much tighter plots with no troubling loose ends.

Nevertheless, do see Inception. Movies have been so disappointing this summer. It's a relief to have one to recommend. Fine performances abound: Leonardo DiCaprio (Dom Cobb), Ellen Page (Ariadne), Joseph "I-hope-we-see-more-of-him" Gordon-Leavitt (Arthur), Tom Hardy (Eames), and the always reliable Michael Caine (Miles). DiCaprio plays a dream thief, skilled at stealing corporate secrets. His latest assignment is not to steal an idea, however, but to plant one in the brain of the rival of a corporate client: to complete a heretofore impossible inception.

The special effects in the movie dreams are not always as dream-like as one would expect. The most stunning scene actually appears over and over in the trailers: the streets of Paris fold over themselves in delightful fashion. My favorite dream movie, however, is still Peter Weir's The Last Wave.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price

$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it

Review: Cyrus

Review: Cyrus

Rating: *

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 80%

Movies have, for the most part, been horrible this summer. Reviews of these same horrible movies, however, have often been extremely positive -- glowing, in fact. Have critics joined a vast cinema-graphic conspiracy to lure us into theaters showing dumbed-down movies made with A-list stars and no redeeming artistic value whatsoever?

That may sound paranoid, but allow me to pan Cyrus, a well-reviewed movie starring Marissa Tomei, John C. Reilly, Catherine Keener, and Jonah Hill -- all fine actors who do what they can to redeem this film.

Reilly plays John, a schlub of a man, divorced from his wife seven years before but still working with her and still far too emotionally attached. She (Jamie) is about to be remarried and is far too involved in John's life -- she desperately needs to read Co-Dependent No More.

Molly (Tomei) almost inexplicably falls hard for John when she meets him at a party. How could this happen? Well, Molly has an adult son, Cyrus (Hill), a manipulative young man who has managed to discourage his mother from forming relationships with men his whole life.

(Warning: if you plan to see this film, don't read any more. Plenty of spoilers)

The relationship of Cyrus and Molly is creepily Oedipal. The movie always pulls back from the brink, but the "ick" factor is always looming. John's relationship with Cyrus quickly degenerates; he's on to him almost from the beginning. And then, about 90 minutes into the movie, Cyrus has some sort of miraculous epiphany and realizes he needs to change. Cyrus, Molly, and John all embrace and we are asked to believe all will be well for this reconciled family.

Hold on! John does admit that he's had a role in the crazy dance they're doing, but he seems unaware that his relationship with his ex-wife is just as inappropriate as Cyrus's with his mother. And Cyrus and Molly definitely need some sort of therapy. The movie ended abruptly, but it needed another act. Granted, watching them all go through the hard work of coming to terms with their nuttiness would probably have been boring, but, at least, it would have been honest.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it

Review: Despicable Me

Review: Despicable Me

Rating: *1/2

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 79%

Here I go again, not liking a movie generally praised by the critics. Despicable Me was such a disappointment. "Why?" you ask.

1. Bad plot: Will the three darling orphan girls find a home? Which villain will succeed: Gru, with his nefarious Eastern European accent, or Vector, a dweeby nerd who bears a striking resemblance to Bill Gates? Do we really care?
2. No real laughs and few memorable scenes: I kept stealing glances at Eli, my soon-to-be six-year-old grandson. He only laughed when Gru got blown up (he's a boy; he likes that sort of thing). Most of the time, he stared intently at the screen.
3. Wasted Minions: Minions are darling, little, yellow-bodied, blue-overall and goggle-wearing creatures who just beg to be marketed. They chatter unintelligibly throughout the film and I never understood what exactly they were trying to do at any given time. Could the animators not think of anything for them to say?

'Nuff said. I now use the rest of this review to apologize to Eli. Some time in the future, he may read this, and I want to let him know that I'm sorry I didn't take him to see Toy Story 3 as he originally requested. I'd already seen it, and, selfishly, I wanted to see something new, so we went to see Despicable Me. I wasted an hour and a half of his young life. So, I'm sorry Eli.

Do see Toy Story 3. See it twice.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it

Review: Winter's Bone

Review: Winter's Bone

Rating: **

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 94%

I am really swimming upstream on this one, but I cannot recommend Winter's Bone. I know it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. I know the acting and the recreation of life in the Ozarks is chillingly real. I know critics have loved it.

But I didn't.

It's the story of a teenage girl living well below the poverty line with her incapacitated mother and two younger siblings. Her father, a meth cooker, has jumped bail and they are in danger of losing their house and their land. The girl decides to search for her father and convince him to turn himself in.

Most of the critics have ended their reviews by saying that this unremittingly depressing movie ends on a hopeful, positive note. I did not hear that note. Instead, I saw a 17-year-old girl making choices that trapped her in a twisted world from which she would never escape. Yes, she was a survivor; she knew the code of the Ozarks: "Don't tell nobody 'bout nothin'." But can she survive for long? The meth cooking culture is too unpredictable, too randomly violent to navigate safely.

And, before you think I just can't handle depressing stories, let me recommend two other films far superior to this one: Precious and Frozen River, a movie that also depicts poor people in desperate situations -- but this one lets hope out of Pandora's Box.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it

Review: Please Give

Review: Please Give

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 88%

I saw Please Give yesterday. I was ready by the end of the movie to write a negative review. The main characters, Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) are naval-gnawing New Yorkers whose business is to buy "mid-century" furniture from the children of people who have recently died and then resell it at a substantial profit. They have a daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele), who is a typical zit-obsessed, rebellious, smart-mouthed teenager -- nothing unusual but well-played by Steele. They have an elderly neighbor, Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert -- Millie from The Dick Van Dyke Show). Her granddaughters visit her and run errands for her. One is attentive; the other is not. Her death is anticipated by Kate and Alex because they will buy her apartment when she dies, break through, and double their living space.

Yesterday, I saw the film as a slice of life story with a plot that didn't go anywhere. My friends who accompanied me to the movie and I went out to dinner afterwards and argued about Please Give for an hour and a half. I went out today with one of them for lunch and we talked for another hour about the film. It has become something of a perseveration for me.

In the movie, Keener's character gives money to every homeless person she meets on her street. She decides to become a volunteer and visits a retirement home and a center for mentally-challenged teenagers. She finds she can not deal with either of these groups emotionally and dissolves into a puddle of tears. Clearly, she is attempting to assuage her conscience. Her occupation bothers her. She recognizes that she preys on the desire of the children of the dead to avoid the pain of having to dispose of their parents' possessions -- and their memories. And she makes money from it.

Her attempts to give -- to the homeless and those in need of love and support -- are abortive because they are attempts to put band-aids over the deep open personal wound she is choosing to ignore. That's where the movie leaves us. We see no resolution, but we understand she needs to examine her own life and her own choices. She must take steps to change the way in which she engages the world. Her charity numbs her; she needs to deal with the emptiness in her life. Excuse me for being a priest here, but she needs God in her life. I don't see any other way out. The movie leaves her pretty much where she began. Yesterday, I found that frustrating. Today, I think that's exactly where it needs to end in order for us to see ourselves reflected in Kate's dilemma.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it