The Best Movies I've Seen This Year

1. Hugo, 2. Melancholia, 3. The Artist, 4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, 5. The Descendants, 6. Jane Eyre, 7. Tin Tin, 8. Moneyball, 9. The Guard, 10. The Help,

Honorable Mentions in No Particular Order

A Better Place, Carnage, Dangerous Method, Albert Nobbs, Sarah's Key, Another Year, Barney's Version, Beginners, Win Win, Margin Call

Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%

Audience: 74%

Martha Marcy May Marlene is a disturbing movie. I realize I'm not going to be particularly analytical, logical, or objective about this film. It's well made and well acted, a psychological thriller that does not belong to the realm of "this-could-only-happen-in-the-movies." What is particularly disturbing is the ordinariness of the of the main character, a young woman who slips in and out of a "family" which, at the beginning, has somewhat benign similarities to what might have been the early days of the Manson family. Evil resides at the center of this film. Not evil as depicted in the devil movie genre or evil as portrayed in thrillers about murderous psychopaths, but elemental evil: the darkness we might all be capable off; the darkness we choose to rise above. If you watch it, be with someone you can talk to afterwards.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: Anonymous

Rating: *

Nonna's Rating: #

Rotten Tomatoes: 47%

Audience: 61%

I love a good Elizabethan romp with great costumes, plenty of dancing, and a touch of the Bard. But I was wary of this movie. It dug up the theory, long-buried by reputable scholars of English Literature, that Shakespeare didn't write his plays.

I decided to go to the movie with an open mind. After all, Shakespeare himself embellished and shuffled historical characters in his own plays -- and we still love them. At first, I was caught up in the Elizabethan fun. I kept reminding myself that it was just a fiction, but then, near the end of the film, there were truly preposterous revelations about the Earl of Oxford and Elizabeth I that simply burst the fragile bubble that the movie had become. It was, in short, a waste of time.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: The Ides of March

Rating: **1/2

Nonna's Rating: $$

Rotten Tomatoes: 85%

Audience: 75%

Ides of March is well made, but you've seen it too many times before. Watch The Candidate again with Robert Redford to see it done extremely well the first time. In spite of that, individual actors' performances are excellent. George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and the always amazing Paul Giamatti do a fine job. I'm afraid though, that films about political shenanigans can't keep up with the real life circus in Washington and the Governor's mansion in Illinois.

I must note, however, one magnificent scene late in the movie which takes place at a Roman Catholic funeral service. The church used is actually Episcopal -- Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, MI. And the fine actor playing the R.C. priest (although he has no lines and just sits there looking R.C.) is my friend Gary Hall, former Dean and President of Seabury Seminary.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: Contagion

Rating: *

Nonna's Rating: #

Rotten Tomatoes: 84%

Audience: 62%

What were critics thinking when 84% of them gave this film a positive review? It's embarrassingly bad in spite of considerable star power: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, and Elliott Gould! It's the story of a lethal virus which first appears around Hong Kong and which Gwyneth manages to bring to the U. S. on a flight from Hong Kong to Chicago. So, we watch some stars die and some survive. Too often the story line strains credibility. It's a mess.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: Moneyball

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 94%

Audience: 87%

PACR ("pitchers and catchers report"). It's music to my ears. I do love the game of baseball, so it's not surprising I loved this film. However, my movie buddy Linda also loved it, and I doubt she's ever watched a game from beginning to end. Only Aaron Sorkin could write dialogue about statistics that would be absolutely fascinating. Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland A's, and Jonah Hill as Peter Brand, his statistician, are the heart of the film and deserve their Oscar nominations. Phillip Seymour Hoffman's performance as Art Howe, the team's manager, is spot on and largely ignored by the critics. It's a delightful film, filled with true wit.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: Sarah's Key

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 73%

Audience: 84%

Until this film, I had never warmed to Kristin Scott Thomas's acting, but she delivers an excellent, convincing performance in this movie. Based on a popular novel I have not read, the story revolves around Julia Jarmond (Thomas), an American journalist who discovers and investigates an old secret guarded by her French husband's family. The shameful story involves the removal of Jews from Paris in 1942 by French police in response to a Nazi decree. Julia's investigation leads her to discover truths about herself as well as truths about the secret.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: The Guard

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Audience: 82%

A story about murder, blackmail, and drug-trafficking set in rural Ireland and replete with humor and surprises. Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is the marching-to-his-own-drummer cop, and the always watchable Don Cheadle is straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett. It's a marvelous film, although, I must confess the Irish accents had me straining to catch the nuances of the dialogue. I'm looking forward to being able to watch it with English subtitles. Gleeson very much deserved his Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for this film.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: The Debt

Rating: **1/2

Nonna's Rating: $$

Rotten Tomatoes: 76%

Audience: 68%

This espionage thriller about Mossad secret agents moves back and forth in time to tell the stories of three operatives. The plotting and the story are passable; what makes it truly worth watching are the two sets of agents: when-we-were-young (Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, and Marton Csokas) and when-we-were-much older (Helen Mirren, Ciaran Hinds, and and Tom Wilkinson).

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip it

Review: The Woman in Black

Rating: **

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 63%

Audience: 66%

I'm not a fan of haunted house or horror films. I just don't get a kick out of being scared. I was hoping this one would change my mind. It didn't. Daniel Radcliffe plays a Victorian father of a little boy mourning the death of his wife. He's a solicitor and is sent to a remote village to settle the affairs of a deceased client. The moody Victorian setting is fine and Radcliffe does a decent job playing a serious, if rather small, adult. Other fine British actors round out the cast. But Radcliffe spends most of his time walking around the client's brooding, cobwebbed mansion. Every once in a while, his strolls are punctuated by some ghost or other's white, bloody face with dripping black eye makeup. This is always accompanied by dramatic and loud music. It was boring and not at all scary.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip it

Catching Up on Reviews

I've neglected this blog much too long, but I haven't neglected the Regal, 7 Bridges, Yorktown, or Glen theaters. So, I'm going to offer some thumbnail reviews. I must confess I don't even remember a few of the films on this list very well. Better forgotten. Here goes: