BEING JULIA

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Annette Bening: Julia Lambert, a well known London stage actress of the 1930’s
Jeremy Irons: Michael Gosselyn, her husband and theatre producer
Shaun Evans: Tom Fennel, an ardent fan of Julia
Juliet Stevenson: Julia’s dresser Evie
Michael Gambon: Jimmie Jangston, her deceased mentor
Lucy Punch: Avice Crichton, an aspiring actress

REVIEW
Although the movie gets off to a bit of a slow start (too much theatre) it’s worthwhile hanging in to see how things develop in the second half. The acting by Bening surpasses all the others.

CLASSIFICATION
for sexual situations and language

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
While in her dressing room talking about one particularly good performance back in the 30’s, her husband offers Julia a beer with a twist-top. These only appeared on the market in the 80’s.

THE POLAR EXPRESS

Animated Christmas story

BACKGROUND
Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks have collaborated before and have produced some really great movies (“Forrest Gump” for one) so you would expect something similar from this their latest joint effort. It comes close but no cigar.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Unlike any other movie I’ve ever seen, none of the cast has names; they are therefore identified below by their principle role in the film.
Tom Hanks: voice of the Train conductor
Daryl Sabara: voice of Hero boy
Nona Gaye: voice of Hero Girl
Jimmy Bennett: voice of Lonely Boy
Eddie Deezen: voice of Know-It-All Boy

REVIEW
The first half of the movie is terrific and evokes fond memories of Christmas’ past and deserves a 4* rating. But the second half needs serious editing. The story line is a simple one but the producers have padded it so the movie runs to more than an hour and a half. Instead of one exhilarating roller coaster ride we get to go on three. Once at the North Pole, twenty minutes is devoted to seeing a bleak cavernous empty workshop and another one of those roller coaster rides.
Another thing: the film is meant for children but several characters or situations are downright scary such as the hobo who rides on the train, the two children walking on the slippery rails over a deep chasm and the Ebenezer Scrooge puppet.

CLASSIFICATION


FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
When Hero Boy approaches the bedroom window, just before he begins to rub away the frost with his elbow we hear the satisfying squeak of a polished window. The timing of the sound effects team was just a little off.

Throughout the movie the number of train coaches varies: most often there are five but at times (going over bridges etc) there are as many as nine.

P.S.
Sony Imageworks uses the Motion-capture process to animate the film: this involves the performers dressing in skin-tight bodysuits with hundreds of infrared sensors covering their body and faces. These sensors relay the smallest nuance of movement back to a computer, where it's all translated into human motion.

However the technology is less than perfect and the results are not always completely realistic. Movement can be very stilted and because sensors are not placed inside the mouth or all along the lips, the formation of many words does not look right.

One other thing: even though this process tracks the movement of the eyes, it cannot provide them with the sense of life with the result they all seem to have that famous “thousand yard stare”.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Sports drama, true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Billy Bob Thornton: Gary Gaines, coach of the Permian Panthers
Lucas Black: the team's quarterback, 17-year-old Mike Winchell
Connie Cooper: Mike’s chronically ill mother
Derek Luke: star running back James “Boobie” Miles
Grover Coulson: Boobie’s devoted uncle
Garrett Hedlund: back fielder Don Billingsley
Tim McGraw: Don’s father Charles

REVIEW
Unless you’ve lived in a small town like this (Odessa, Texas) it is hard to imagine how important a high school team is to the entire community. Not only is the coach under a lot of pressure, so are the athletes themselves.

The movie raises a number of issues (racism being the biggest one) but does not dwell on them. Rather, the focus is on the team members and the game. With crisp editing and some hand-held shots we get the feeling we’re part of the action.


CLASSIFICATION
for thematic issues, sexual content, language, some teen drinking and rough sports action.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
During the game against Midland the announcer says “it’s second down with 3 yards to go”. The scoreboard shows the real situation: first and ten.

The Dial-A-Down marker used in the final game had yet to be invented back in 1988.

LOOK AT ME

Drama
Original title: Comme une image
In French with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Marilou Berry: Lolita, a twenty-year old singer and aspiring actress
Jean-Pierre Bacri: Lolita’s famous writer father Etienne
Virginie Desarnauts: Etienne’s beautiful second wife Karine
Gregoire Oestermann: Etienne’s assistant Vincent
Agnès Jaoui: Sylvia Millet, voice teacher at the music conservatory
Keine Bouhiza: Sébastien, an aspiring journalist
Laurent Grevill: Sylvia’s husband Pierre, a struggling writer
Michele Moretti: Pierre’s long-time editor Edith

REVIEW
This movie will appeal to those who enjoy seeing the intrigue of the Parisian literary world and the mean spirited, uncaring, aloof, dismissive, arrogant, selfish, boorish, insulting, cruel, difficult kind of people that wallow in the abject worship of their fans to aggrandise their own inflated sense of self worth. I do not get any enjoyment from that so I walked out part way through the movie.

Considered by some as social satire, the film does not tell us anything we don’t already know that there’s a lot of angry people out there. And there are too many words. A novel needs words - lots of them - but a movie needs far fewer. Apart from its other faults the movie is “too talky” and it just rambles on and on.

CLASSIFICATION
for brief language and a sexual reference.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
When Lolita and Sébastien are having dinner together with the fork in her right hand she is playing with her food and asks him a question. The camera angle shifts to get his response and now the fork is gone.

P.S.
This is a real family affair: Agnès Jaoui and her long-time partner Jean-Pierre Bacri not only star in the movie they wrote it and she was the director.

BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE

Documentary

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Carol Burnett
Carol Channing
Robert Goulet
Angela Lansbury
and about 100 more I kid you not

REVIEW
Unlike most documentaries, this one doesn’t have a story to tell. Instead it sets out to demonstrate by example (using all too brief clips of actual performances) and having people repeat one thing: That the era of the great Broadway shows is over. That should come as no surprise to anyone.

So rather than be treated to some of the highlights of that time we are subjected ad nausea to reminisces by those who were there. A missed opportunity.

CLASSIFICATION
for General Audiences

SIDEWAYS

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Paul Giamatti: Miles Raymond, an unpublished writer and eighth-grade English teacher
Thomas Haden Church: Jack Lopate, long-time friend of Miles and former soap opera icon
Sandra Oh: Stephanie, a wine tasting room employee
Virginia Madsen: Maya, a waitress in Miles’ favorite restaurant, The Hitching Post

REVIEW
Not your regular “buddy movie” with two guys out on their own for one week before one of them gets married. This movie actually takes the time for character development instead of jumping from one activity to another at breakneck speed. As we get to know the principal characters, it is easy to relate to them because we see something in them that reminds us of ourselves or someone we know. The pace is just right: no one is in a big rush (except Jack maybe) and the acting is superb.

But there is one other thing: the lousy ending. Although the director wraps up Jack’s final scene so that we know where he’s headed, he chose not to handle Miles in the same way. Failing to do so has resulted in my rating the movie ½* lower than it would have been. That should teach him!

CLASSIFICATION
for quite explicit brief scenes of couples making out plus a full-frontal scene of one of the participants and the frequent use of the f-word.

P.S.
An added bonus are the dazzling views of the lovely seaside coast in northern California’s wine country.

SURVIVING CHRISTMAS

Comedy (yeah right)

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ben Affleck: Drew Latham, wealthy, spoiled, loopy, advertising executive
Jennifer Morrison: Drew’s girlfriend
James Gandolfini: Tom Valcos, owner of the home Drew grew up in
Catherine O'Hara: Tom's wife Christine
John Zuckerman: their son Brian
Christina Applegate: their daughter Alicia

REVIEW
I will not mince words: this one is terrible.

A preposterous story line (rich yuppie pays a family $250,000 so he can spend Christmas with them) coupled with acting that is either terrible (Affleck) or the characters are ones you’d rather not see that much of in the first place such as Gandolfini who never cracks a smile and spends most of his time yelling at people.

A warning:
the movie is heavily advertised and promoted as a comedy: it is not!

CLASSIFICATION
for sexual content, language and a brief drug reference.

P.S.
Although Budweiser has paid for product placement the movie itself is enough to drive one to drink! We don’t need to be reminded of that by seeing a beer in practically every second scene.