Hitting the Big Screen Aug 9 – Aug 15
Courtesy of Sony Picture Classics
Blue Jasmine
Directed by: Woody Allen
Rating: 3 out of 5
Release date: Aug 9, 2013
Woody Allen’s new movie Blue Jasmine stars Cate Blanchett as Jasmine, a once-wealthy socialite who flees from New York City to San Francisco after her financial-conman husband Hal (Alec Baldwin) loses everything. Jasmine starts having near mental breakdowns while she adjusts from her 1% life to the 99% one, complete with talking to herself. Allen uses these episodes as a clever way to segue to a flashback to show you her life as a wealthy socialite. This is a tough movie to watch because Cate’s performance is top-notch but your “enjoyment” of the film will come from your reaction to her neurotic character. The picture above is a perfect representation of her. The rest of the cast is pretty strong with Andrew Dice Clay turning in a fine performance as Augie, the ex-husband to Jasmine’s sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins). Louis C.K. has a few funny scenes as a lover for Ginger who is trying to break-up with her current boyfriend Chili (Bobby Cannavale) who doesn’t meet Jasmine’s standards. Jasmine struggles to get her life back on track with a new job and some classes about learning to use the computer. All in all an interesting movie, well-acted yet one that was very difficult to watch at times.
Courtesy of Radius-TWC
Lovelace
Directed by: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5
Release date: Aug 9, 2013
When you set out to make a movie about Deep Throat, the most famous XXX movie of all-time, you would expect it to be a sexy movie. After all, it was the 70’s and porn was as mainstream as it could get. Lovelace tells the sordid story of what happened to the movie’s star Linda Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried) during and after the film’s release. It is full of violence, prostitution, drugs and in the end – nothing to show for it except emotional scars and for Linda, living the rest of her life as the famous porn star. Linda meets Chuck (Peter Sarsgaard) who convinces her to make Deep Throat. Chuck then turns out to be a monster who abuses & threatens Linda. The movie starts to jump around in time to show how Linda left Chuck, turning against porn by becoming an advocate against it. She writes a book to tell her side of the story. The movie is almost in the 70’s and the film does a good job getting that period look down. Overall the movie never really goes for it, ultimately playing it too safe. Which is a shame as Seyfried was clearly up for the challenge while the movie’s story was not. Sharon Stone plays Linda’s ultra-strict mother in a performance that was a bit OTT yet done very well by an almost unrecognizable Stone. The movie is also available on VOD.
Courtesy of Sony Pictures
Elysium
Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Rating: 2 out of 5
Release date: Aug 9, 2013
Elysium stinks. I wrote a longer review here. Let’s not waste much time here when there’s another AMAZING sci-fi film which actually features Sharlto Copley as well.
Courtesy of the awesome Magnet Releasing
Europa Report
Directed by: Sebastián Cordero
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5
Release date: Aug 9, 2013
Europa Report is one of the best science-fiction movies to come out in the last few years. It blows away Elysium. The movie focuses on a small international crew that is manning the first human-flight to Europa, a moon around Saturn. The scientists believe they have found traces of life on Europa. The crew leaves on a multiple-year journey only to lose communications with Earth soon into the journey. This is a harbinger of trouble to come as the crew is beset with many problems. The tension and drama mounts as they approach Europa. Will they or won’t they make it? I don’t want to ruin any of the story by telling any more plot points. The movie does a fantastic job of focusing more on the science side of sci-fi. Instead of fancy CGI and things blowing it, Europa Report is an intimate, person-driven drama. The cramped space of the ship provides the perfect pressure-cooker for the astronauts. The cast includes many international actors such as the fantastic Anamaria Marinca, Michael Nyqvist, Michael Nyqvist, Karolina Wydra and the aforementioned Sharlto Copley. Fantastic movie that comes highly recommended. It is also available on VOD as well.
Other Movie Notes:
I really liked the raunchy comedy We’re The Millers. Here’s my full review of the movie which came out August 7th.
The Danish film The Hunt is still around. It is a gut-wrenching drama of a man accused of inappropriately touching a young girl. The small town quickly makes up their mind on his guilt which leads to some dark places for every involved. Mads Mikklesen (tv’s Hannibal) delivers a first rate performance of the man accused.
A kids cartoon movie Planes opens as well as the YA-directed Percy Jackson : Sea of Monsters.