MOVIES: Crazy Heart (2009) and Blue Valentine (2010)

A few weeks ago, I went and saw the movie Blue Valentine by myself in the theater.  It’s a great film, just like everybody’s saying it is (though, personally, I thought Ryan Gosling was in way over his head), but man, it bummed me out so completely, so to the core, I couldn’t even write a review of it.   I kept trying and I kept failing.  And so, I’ve finally given up.  This is the only review you’re going to get from me:   Blue Valentine is devastatingly sad.

(But hey, Ebert’s review of that film is so spot-on, in my opinion, it’s really the only one you need.  His line, “Dean thinks marriage is the station; Cindy thought it was the train” is the most  spot-on and thoughtful summation of any movie I have ever read. Damn that Ebe — he’s still got it.)

I mention Blue Valentine because this film made me think of it again the other night.  You see, Crazy Heart is also a movie about a failed relationship that made me feel tremendously sad.  But it was a different kind of sadness, in part because while it doesn’t have what anybody would call a “happy” ending, it ends with a sense of hopeful futures for both characters.  It might take some time, but you know they’re going to be okay.

As you’re probably aware, Crazy Heart is the story of a country singer, Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges, who won an Oscar last year for this role) who started his career with tremendous success but has been going downhill pretty much ever since.  When we meet him, he’s in his 50′s, grizzled and grayed, and he hasn’t written a new song in years.  He’s been making the rounds of pathetic, filthy bars in small towns, mostly drinking his way through life while cursing the success of the kid he once mentored, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), another country star whose career has recently exploded.  Blake feels Sweet hasn’t been grateful enough for the boost he once gave him, and he’s been harboring a grudge, rooted in shame and jealousy, for a very long time.

When Blake heads to another small town for another lame performance, though, he meets a music reporter, Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who wants to interview him for the local newspaper, in the hopes a big story about the once-legendary Bad Blake will finally get her the recognition she wants as a serious music writer.

Blake agrees to the interview, in part because he’s flattered such a pretty girl knows who he is and is excited to talk to him, and he and Jean have several encounters over the next few days while she asks him questions and he mostly doesn’t answer them.  Then one night, after a show, they end up sleeping together, and it’s pretty much all over for both of them — somewhere between the questions and bed, they’ve fallen in love.

The problem is that Jean has a young son and Blake is an alcoholic with a big chip on his shoulder, something Jean struggles to tolerate around her boy.  Though they fight for months to keep the relationship going, when Blake gets drunk while watching her son and then loses  him in a shopping center, it’s all over.  Jean kicks him out, and he slinks away, devastated and humiliated — and finally hitting the rock bottom he so sorely needs.

The movie ends about a year after their break-up, and while I won’t tell you the details of what happens, in the final scene, the two meet at a concert and update each other on their lives.  It’s immediately, painfully clear that Blake still loves her while she’s mostly moved on, and their facial expressions and body language in this scene were almost unbearable to watch.  The weight of that loss for Blake, coupled with the complexity of loving someone deeply who is clearly happier without you is just — oof.  It’s just oof, I tell you.

Yet, though we end knowing they aren’t going to be moving forward together, those last minutes of the film also make it clear they’re both definitely going to be moving forward.  And that’s where the sadness of the circumstances becomes more bittersweet than agonizing.

All in all, this is a beautiful, moving film, with great music, powerful acting, and really wonderful cinematography.  I highly, highly recommend it.   Brace yourself for a bit of a bummer, though, and whatever you do, don’t double-feature it with Blue Valentine unless you have a very, very strong heart.

[Netflix Crazy Heart | Buy it | Prequeue Blue Valentine]

Blue Valentine:
Genre: Drama
Cast:  Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams

Crazy Heart:
Genre:  Drama
Cast:  Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Tom Bower

New Boyfriend is Up!

Do you like food?  I don’t!  But this guy sure does!

Go check out the write-up, then come back here to comment, swap recipes, tell me you don’t think cheese is weird at all, explain what “tempering an egg” means.  Whatever!

http://megwood.com

BOOK: The Serpent’s Tale by Ariana Franklin (2008)

This book is the second in Franklin’s series set in the Middle Ages and starring Sicilian “death expert” Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar (whew!).

In the first novel, Mistress of the Art of Death, Adelia was sent to England at the behest of her king to help King Henry II solve a series of brutal child murders.  After the case was resolved, King Henry asked (demanded, really) that Adelia remain in England in case her skills were ever needed again.

Since then, she’s been working as a medical doctor in the fens, helping the poor and caring for her illegitimate child, the daughter of Rowley Picot, former Crusader, Adelia’s lover in the first book, and now one of the king’s bishops (which is why he wouldn’t/couldn’t marry Adelia).

As this book opens, Rowley has come to Adelia for the first time since their child was born to ask for her help in solving a murder.  Still bitter over having been dumped, despite the fact she likely wouldn’t have married him anyway, Adelia at first refuses.  But when Rowley tells her a civil war is brewing because of the crime, she can’t say no.

What’s happened is that Henry’s infamous mistress, Rosamund Clifford, has been murdered — poisoned by toxic mushrooms given to her cook by a mysterious stranger.  Henry is convinced his estranged wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine is to blame, and he’s begun readying his army — as she readies hers — to take her down.

Rowley, though, is convinced the queen is innocent (or murder, anyway) and he desperately needs proof to prevent the war — a war he knows will devastate the nation.  But if it wasn’t the jealous wife, then who?  Someone who wants civil war?  In that case, why?

This is another engrossing mystery from Franklin, full of great characters and packed with history.  Though I found it a little needlessly drawn out in places, even the unnecessary parts of the story are a pleasure to read, offering insight into the roles of women in the Middle Ages, class structure of the era, and the development of forensic science and the study of death.

Looking forward to the next book in the series, and highly recommend both the ones I’ve read so far!

[MYSTERY]

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MOVIE: Cyrus (2010)

Okay, fans of Cyrus, what did I miss?

For months, I’ve been reading reviews of this film, the first “mainstream” hit by the Duplass “mumblecore” brothers, most of which raved about its quirky comedy and delightful story.  Finally, it came out on DVD, so I rented it last weekend and goaded my husband into watching it with me (he’s not really much of a movie lover) by telling him everybody I knew had said Cyrus was hilarious.  He was gonna love it.  Funniest movie ever.

Things started out well — John C. Reilly plays a seven-years-divorced sad sack (his specialty!) named John who hasn’t had a real girlfriend since his smart, cool, and gorgeous wife (Catherine Keener, her specialty!) walked out on him.

John and his ex have remained friends, and one day she walks in on him masturbating (which makes her FREAK OUT, a reaction I found kind of odd, I confess — she’d never seen  his naked dingle-dongle before?) and decides he’s been alone long enough.  She orders him to come to her house that night for a party and he reluctantly agrees, then spends the entire night getting schnockered and hitting on every woman in the room.

Outside peeing in the bushes, he meets a lovely woman named Molly (Marisa Tomei, decidedly more laid-back about naked penises — I like her already).  She’s charmed by his goofiness and they end up spending the night together.  He pretty much declares his love for her immediately, but Molly’s not as quick to get so close.  Why?  Because, as John finds out a few days later, she’s got a 21 year-old son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill), still living at home.

Molly and Cyrus have an incredibly close relationship — a little weirdly close from John’s perspective (for example, Cyrus likes to hang out in the bathroom while his mom takes a shower).  And it’s not long before Cyrus begins trying to sabotage his mother’s new relationship, in an attempt to keep her all to himself.

There are some truly comic moments in this film, mostly stemming from John C. Reilly’s wonderful facial expressions, but a lot of the humor had to do with the somewhat-creepy undertones of an incestuous relationship between Molly and Cyrus — something I found a little hard to laugh at with much gusto.

Even worse, though, while the raging war between John and Cyrus seemed authentic — John struggling to hold on to the first love he’s felt since his marriage, Cyrus desperate to maintain his comfortable (emotionally) status quo — the sudden resolution of that conflict at the end felt completely out of the blue to me.  Rushed.  Not quite right.  I kept expecting one more scene — PSYCH! — but no, that was it: a sugary-sweet, totally pat kind of ending.   Well, points for catching me off guard, I guess, but not for much else there, I’m afraid.

I wish this film had given a little more time to character development and not tried so hard to be funny instead.  Had we really gotten to experience Cyrus’s transformation — coming to terms with his fear of growing up, realizing he’s hindering his own mother’s happiness — the ending would’ve been really moving instead of so emotionally stunted.  Ten more minutes, a little more internal battling, just more oomph somehow, and this could’ve been a much stronger film.

Instead, we’re mostly just left with the uneasy chuckle that comes from seeing a photograph of a mother breastfeeding what looks like a teenage boy.  Which.  Er.  Ha ha?  Hmm.  Not so much.

Comparing this film to the two other Duplass movies I’ve seen — The Puffy Chair and Baghead – I definitely see a lot of growth, both in terms of their writing and in terms of their film-making skills in general (though why this film was using shaky-cam, I have no idea — it didn’t add anything to the feel).  They’re getting there (and damn, Mark Duplass himself sure is adorable — I loved him in Humpday and one of the reasons I wanted to see this film is because I’m thinking about a Boyfriend write-up on him later this year).  But they still have a little way to go.

Looking forward to seeing what they do next (together or alone).  And as for this one, as I said earlier, most people seemed to think it was the shit.  What the hell do I know?

[Netflix me | Buy me]

Genre: Comedy?  I guess?
Cast:   John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener, Matt Walsh

MOVIE: And Everything is Going Fine (2010)

I never saw Spalding Gray live, and I’ve always regretted it.  Oddly, the first time I ever noticed him was in The Killing Fields, and it wasn’t until a few years later that I learned acting in films wasn’t his primary gig — that instead, what he did was what he called “poetic journalism” or “autobiographical monologues.”  For 90 minutes at a time (usually), he’d sit at a table and tell stories about himself, sometimes calling people from the audience up onto the stage with him to “interview” them and swap stories  interactively.

A lot of these monologues never made it onto film (or, more specifically, they were filmed but never distributed to the masses), but the ones that did were all brilliant.  Swimming to Cambodia (about making The Killing Fields) and Gray’s Anatomy (about his foray into the health care world after a rare eye disorder started to take out his vision) are probably the most famous of those.  But even catching him periodically on talk shows was always an incredible experience.

This film, directed by his long-time friend Steven Soderburgh, is a compilation of clips from various monologues and talk shows, organized to tell, chronologically, the complete story of Spalding’s life.  Knowing what we know about his death — for those who don’t know or have forgotten, Gray committed suicide about seven years ago — makes this an extremely difficult film to watch.  A lot of Gray’s monologues talked about his experiences growing up with a severely mentally ill mother (she committed suicide herself at age 52), and his own struggles later in life with bipolar disorder.  Hearing him talk about the fear he suffered through when he himself turned 52, for example — convinced he was going to kill himself that year too as part of his mother’s legacy — was almost unbearable in retrospect.  Hard any time, of course, but so much harder knowing he finally lost that fight years later.

And yet, this film is also laugh-out-loud funny at times, too.  Of course.  Because that was Spalding Gray — he was this amazing mix of sadness and joy.  He used his stories to make sense of the chaos in his life, and his willingness to share even the worst parts of himself with the world (he was, after all, also a sometimes-quite-awful narcissist) spoke to a quiet courage heightened all the more by this film’s focus on the most painful parts of his psyche.

Soderbergh has said he was afraid to go see Spalding after he was in a serious car accident that resulted in terrible chronic pain and brain damage for Gray — he was afraid Gray would lose his ability to sort out that chaos and would become suicidal, as he did, and he was afraid that urge to give in to the depression would rub off on him in some way.  This film was his attempt to apologize to Gray, he has said, for not being there at the end.  Mr. Soderburgh, I think you did a fine job.

The final clip in this film is of an older Spalding Gray, sitting outside talking while a dog in the distance starts to howl.  He listens.  He chuckles.  He talks but is interrupted by the dog’s howl again.  He listens some more.  He chuckles again.  The last line of the movie is Gray describing that howl, a pained smile wistfully flitting across his face:  “It is a lamentation.”

I can’t seem to remember the title of this film — every time I’ve told someone about it since seeing it last Friday, I’ve had to just refer to it as “the new Spalding Gray movie” — but I don’t think I’ll ever forget that last line.

Recommended.

[Prequeue at Netflix | View trailer]

Genre:  Documentary, Theater
Cast:  Spalding Gray, directed by Steven Soderbergh

Winter TV: Week Two

Here’s what’s new this week on the tube.  Also, in terms of last week’s stuff, I’m TOTALLY in love with both Downton Abbey and Showtime’s hilarious UK-meets-LA series Episodes.  Off the Map, while every bit as  inane as expected, was actually still kind of fun to watch — pure guilty pleasure (plus, Caroline Dhavernas — I know I keep saying this, but I LOVE HER, and I’m over the moon seeing her with a regular gig again).  The Cape, on the other hand:  over and out.  And I still haven’t had a chance to watch Lights Out, but will get to it this week for sure.  What did you guys think?  Hit the comments and let me know!

Monday, January 17

Being Human — SyFy, 9-10pm — This series is a “reimagining” of a successful BBC show about a vampire, a ghost, and a werewolf, all three roommates in their 20′s, struggling to keep their true natures a secret from the world.  It sounds pretty cheesy, but I’m game to give it a shot.  I haven’t seen the BBC series, but it’s available on Netflix, and undoubtedly better than anything Americans can come up with.  I’ll check both out soon and let you know what I think.  Could be fun!

Harry’s Law — NBC, 10-11pm — This is the latest legal series from David E. Kelley.  I’m a total sucker for Kathy Bates, and the premise, about a patent lawyer who abruptly loses her job and is forced, late middle-age, to start all over in a new direction, seems both appealing and timely.  Nice to see a gray-haired lady lead a show, at the very least, right?  The commercials haven’t totally knocked my socks off, I confess, but I have my fingers crossed Bates will be enough to make it fun.

Skins – MTV, 10-11pm — This is another “reimagining” of a BBC series, and this time, I HAVE seen the original and I’m here to tell you, you ought to too.  I first sought it out after seeing Slumdog Millionaire and wanting to watch Dev Patel in more stuff (he’s in the BBC series, though only for the first season, I think), and I was hooked pretty quickly on it.  The BBC version is a brazen, authentic  look into the lives of a bunch of troubled high school kids — a hard-core partier, a girl with an eating disorder, etc.  I can’t imagine the Americanized version being anything but ridiculous, I’m afraid.  No interest whatsoever in this one myself.  Not when I can watch the original any time I want on Netflix streaming.

Thursday, January 20

Perfect Couples — NBC, 9:30-10pm — Meh, rom-sit-com.  Yawn.

Fairly Legal – USA, 10-11pm — The latest USA Network series is a legal show about a professional mediator who, naturally, is great at conflict resolution on the job, terrible at it in her own life.  USA series can be pretty hit or miss for me, but when they’re good, they can be pretty fun.  This one doesn’t look like it’s going to be on the same level of Psych, but if its more or less at Royal Pains level, I’ll happily climb on board.

Did I miss anything?

MOVIE: Case 39 (2009)

I’m not really a huge fan of the “evil child” horror genre, in part because once you’ve seen The Omen and The Bad Seed, there isn’t anywhere to go but down.  It’s very rare that anybody tries to do anything new with that story, and even when they do, they aren’t often successful (for example, I appreciated the idea behind the twist at the end of Orphan more than I appreciated the actual execution of that twist).

– NOTE:  SPOILERS BELOW (though if you have any brains, you will read on so you’re never tempted to rent this movie yourself) –

This movie, unfortunately, is about as boringly straight-forward as flicks in this genre tend to be.  Which is too bad, because despite the fact Renee Zellweger is, in my opinion, a painfully terrible actress, the movie itself started out pretty entertaining.  It began far more like a thriller than a horror film, for one thing, and even though I knew the evil-child thing was coming, there was a point during the first hour when it seemed like the filmmakers might actually be taking things in a new direction.

And then, bam!, they didn’t.  Man, I hate it when that happens.

The movie’s about a social worker, Emily Jenkins (Zellweger), who becomes obsessed with helping a little girl named Lilith she believes is being abused by her parents (one of whom is Callum Keith Rennie, Due South fans).   There’s no physical evidence, so Jenkins can’t do anything official, but her gut keeps telling her something is terribly wrong.  One night, she gets a call from a terrified Lilith that suddenly cuts out.  Panicked, Emily grabs her cop buddy, Mike (the awesome Ian McShane — and what the hell was he doing in this, by the way?) and heads over to Lilith’s house, only to find her parents have trapped her in the oven and turned it on.  Horrified, Emily and Mike save the girl and her parents get sent off to the local mental institution.

Emily petitions to get custody of Lilith, who seems like a sweet, quiet, damaged little girl in desperate need of saving.  But then weird things start happening — and soon, Emily’s friends start dying (one of whom is Bradley Cooper, Alias fans).  When it turned out those people were all getting phone calls “from a man” before committing what looked like a series of bizarre suicides, I had this moment where I thought maybe Lilith was innocent and either some actual man was following her around killing off anyone he perceived might harm her or, at the very least, she was possessed by a demon and therefore had no control over what was happening.

That might’ve been an interesting twist, I thought.  Especially having the evildoer be “just zis guy, you know.” (No, not Zaphod Beeblebrox). (<– joke only Douglas Adams Über-Geeks will get.)

Alas, that’s not where the movie goes.  It goes right where these movies always go instead.  And that lack of originality, coupled with Zellweger’s absolutely astonishingly lame performance, results in a movie you should never, ever spend ANY money on.

You’re welcome.

[Netflix it | Buy it]

Genre:  Horror
Cast:  Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane, Bradley Cooper, Callum Keith Rennie

BOOK: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I don’t know how this happened, exactly, but I somehow managed to get into my late 30s without ever having read this book.  Which is odd, because I absolutely devoured the Lord of the Rings trilogy several years ago (about a year before the films came out) and fell madly in love with Middle Earth and all its various creatures (especially Samwise Gamgee, obviously).  Why I didn’t follow all that up with Bilbo’s book, I have no idea.

Of course, the story is great.  It’s obviously great.  I remembered a lot of it from the animated film I saw about 100 times as a kid, which I assume means that was a fairly acceptable adaptation.  But I will say I was kind of surprised by how not-great the writing is.  Compared to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in any case.  It definitely seemed more like a children’s chapter book than the trilogy did, and maybe that’s how it was supposed to be, too.  I dunno.  I’m sure Tolkien fans will school me on this in the comments.

In any case, you certainly have to read this novel if you haven’t already.  It’s required.  And I’m off to reread the trilogy again next, so if you don’t see many book reviews up here for a few weeks, that’ll be why!

[FICTION, FANTASY]

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Favorite Movies and Books from 2010!

It’s finally here! My annual write-up listing my favorite GOOD movies, GOOD-BAD movies, and books from the previous year!

Juuuust in time for all your holiday shopping needs! (Wait, you guys do give gifts for MLK Jr. Day, right? RIGHT?)

Go check out the lists and then come right back over here so you can tell me about everything I forgot to mention!

http://megwood.com

And hey, you guys? Thanks for another great year, I mean it.  I have the greatest band of readers and blog commenters in the world.  I’m sorry I totally sucked at giving you Boyfriend write-ups in 2010 — I totally, TOTALLY plan to redeem myself in your eyes this year. I’ll be starting with the first Boyfriend write-up in about a week. It’s almost done, I swear!

I know! It’ll be like a MIRACLE and EVERYTHING!

MOVIE: Devil (2010)

I still remember the first time I saw the preview for this movie.  It was last September, at a screening of horror stinker The Last Exorcism, and the reason I remember is because the audience’s reaction to it was kind of hilarious.  As the trailer began to roll, a hush settled over us all — we were all horror fans, after all, and horror fans always get kind of excited about previews for new horror films.  We sat there, watching it unfold, nodding with a sort of “Huh, that could be good” motion, when suddenly M. Night Shymalamadingdong’s name appeared on screen and, in unison, every single one of us groaned:  arrrrggggh!

And then we all laughed, because we’d literally all groaned at exactly the same time for exactly the same reason, and it was kind of funny.  (Okay, so maybe you had to be there.)

Back when Devil was in theaters, there were a few times I was tempted to go see it, only to think back on that trailer and opt for something else instead.   But, I was home sick after Christmas for a few days, and when I saw this was available on pay-per-view, I figured why not.   And you know what, dudes?  I ended up really enjoying it.

Though, in my defense, I did have a fever of 102.4 at the time.

Scary movies set in isolated spaces, like this one about five people trapped on an elevator (with Satan!), are a favorite of mine.  Trapping small groups of people together in stressful situations often results in fairly interesting psychological effects (think The Shining), and that can make for pretty good suspense.

While this movie definitely has some ridiculously bad elements (oh, must there always be a foreign person, usually Hispanic or Eastern European, who spins us a hokey yarn about religion?), overall, it’s, you know, not terrible.  For what it is.   Which is a film co-written by Dingdong, after all.

In short, if you like horror movies about small groups of people being picked off one by one by an unseen force of evil, you should do okay here.  Well worth a rental, at the very least, and it’s always nice to see Caroline Dhavernas from Wonderfalls, even though she was completely wasted in this film, which is a crime.  A CRIME, I TELL YOU.

(p.s. I have a huge crush on Matt Craven — have I ever told you that?   I think this might be his year on the Boyfriend of the Week site.  Let’s see how long it takes me to get around to the research.)

[Netflix it | Buy it]

Genre:  Horror
Cast:  Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O’Hara, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Matt Craven, Caroline Dhavernas