Men, Women & Children (2014)

5/5

Jason Reitman's latest film is an utterly absorbing, thought-provoking film. It is a movie about kids growing up and couples growing apart, about technology and communication, and about interaction and isolation. An ensemble drama, it follows several threads: a husband (Sandler) and wife (DeWitt) who start cheating on each other, a mother (Garner) who safeguards her daughter (Dever) from the dangers of the Internet, another mother (Greer) who seems to do the opposite, and a high schooler (Elgort) who gives up football for online gaming.

The topic of technology leading to isolation has been done before (the aptly-titled Disconnect tackles the issue exceptionally well). But Men, Women & Children is not about technology. It is about coming of age in modern society. And it teaches us all about that in devastating, funny, touching ways. The title tells you the focus of the film; it is about the individuals that make up society, not the technology. Each story feels heartfelt and true, rich with subtext and hidden meaning. The performances are subtle, with big names playing small roles. Despite restrained acting, the movie does occasionally veer into melodrama. But on the whole, it reflects life accurately in both tone and color.

People will talk about this movie for its depiction of technology, because everything is replicated with precision. The UI is spot-on, whether we're looking at Facebook on a computer or a text message on an iPhone. Even the sounds of notifications ring true to our 21st century ear. But Reitman takes it one step further. The way he shows technology is itself a comment on technology. Screens pop up and overlay the action with every bowed head. They may sit in the background, but they never go away. As audience members, we find our eyes drawn to the neighbors' Twitter feed instead of the protagonists' actions. Is this how we live now, looking down everytime we feel a buzz when something else is going on right in front of our very eyes?

The big problem with being so pixel-perfect is that it securely sets Men, Women & Children in this time and place. User interfaces and interaction metaphors change at an ultrafast pace, which may date this movie just 6 months from now. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think I'll have a very different perspective watching this movie 20 years from now. Not just because the change in technology will make this movie look and feel old, but because life will have happened to me. I will start to recognize the nuance in characters' motivations; I will be hit harder by the mistakes they make and touched more profoundly by the affection they show. And that's what this movie gets so right. That's why I can't wait to watch this movie again: 20 years from now and hopefully many times in between.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3179568/

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

3/5

Disney's Saving Mr. Banks is an expectedly heartwarming story about the creation of the Mary Poppins movie. Walt Disney (Hanks) has been trying for decades to woo P.L. Travers (Thompson) into giving them the rights to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the silver screen. Due to recent financial difficulties, she finally agrees to meet with the Disney songwriters (Novak, Schwartzman, Whitford) as long as she gets the final say in what ends up in the film. Upon first blush, she appears to be a crotchety old fart with a bug up her butt; she is senselessly rigid and unreasonable in her demands. But as the movie progresses she opens up, first to her chauffeur (Giamatti) and then to Disney himself. We discover what her childhood was like, why she wrote the Mary Poppins stories, and why she clings so closely to the words she put on the page.

Immediately after exiting the theater, I remember thinking how life-affirming and rewarding the movie felt. But looking back, it seems extraordinarily Hollywood-ized. Disney is basically advertising itself, which heavily limits how much we might believe that this was "based on a true story." If you've seen the trailer, there really is nothing particularly surprising about Saving Mr. Banks, from the saccharine atmosphere to the predictable storyline. After all, the ending "reveal" is so obvious they made it the title of the movie.

But the movie is not about twists and mysteries; it's about characters and their motivations. And there again the movie stumbles. Travers feels like an obstacle the entire time, who is eventually overcome by American bravado and intelligence, instead of a complex character with nuance and subtlety. Instead of framing the movie as a character study, Hancock directs it so conservatively that it loses the depth that Thompson worked so hard to infuse in her character. There is so much more to P.L. Travers than her childhood, but that is all we get to see. The movie rides on her ability to generate empathy within the audience members, and Hancock shoots himself in the foot by making her the enemy at the outset.

Now, that's not to say that this isn't an entertaining or enjoyable film. It very much is. It's delightful and funny too. And it will have you reaching for your tissue every once in a while. But it doesn't feel honest to me. It feels deceptive and inauthentic. And it's such a shame because so many fine actors deliver impeccable performances here. It's a good movie, but not as good as it could have been.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140373/

Men In Black 3 (2012)

4/5

Men In Black 3 is the sequel that nobody asked for and that everybody was surprised by. It offers an origin story for both leads that brings complexity and depth to the characters, making them more authentic and infinitely more heartwarming. You wouldn't expect that from a simple sci-fi action comedy--and you wouldn't expect for it to be done so expertly--but it gives us all that on top of everything else that makes the series so watchable. Past all the superfluous and silly special effects, past all the precisely-delivered one-liners, past all the action and excitement, the movie leaves an indelible mark in your memory because it plucks the heartstrings so powerfully. Honestly, seeing that finale just made my heart drop a little. How can you not feel something when you discover what turned Josh Brolin into Tommy Lee Jones? That small, perfect moment at the end is what makes Men In Black 3 the best of the series. And what makes me want to see it again and again.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1409024/

Brave (2012)

4/5

Pixar's Brave follows the coming-of-age of Scottish Princess Merida (Macdonald). Merida, like Jasmine before her, doesn't want to be a princess. She would rather live free in the woods with her bow and arrow like Katniss, but her mother (Thompson) wants her to be a proper princess. Frustrated by the seemingly endless etiquette training and suitor shopping, she runs off into the woods and makes a short-sighted wish that turns out to have terrible consequences. She must learn to fully appreciate her mother before her rash decision can be reversed.

What made the movie so disappointing is that I was expecting an unforgettable Pixar treasure and instead I got a run-of-the-mill Disney princess movie. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just had some pretty high expectations that were not met. Brave has more than its fair share of clever jokes and creative moments that elevate it past typical cartoons, but it doesn't have the same level of spit and shine that I've come to expect from Pixar's storytelling. In fact, I would say that it was fairly comparable to Disney's recent Tangled, which I enjoyed immensely. Brave is a terrific film. Just know what to expect when you pop the disc in.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1217209/

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

4/5

Stranger Than Fiction is one of those ambitious movies that tries to be every kind of movie imaginable. It's a romance-comedy-drama that's happy and sad and happy again with an impossible storyline treated in a strictly realistic manner. It manages to be emotional and meaningful without being sappy. It manages to be sad and touching without being depressing. It manages to be hilarious without being outlandish. It succeeds on almost every front, but it never really exceeds in any of them. It would never stand out amongst any movie that is solely romance or solely comedy or solely drama. Where this movie did exceed in was the acting and directing. Will Ferrell gives without a doubt his best performance here: quirky, cute, and lovable. I love Marc Forster movies because he always manages to elevate the script beyond the words and truly make it into a film.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0420223/

Love Actually (2003)

3/5

The flaw in this feel-good romantic comedy is that it focuses too much on its moral. It's about love's ubiquity, so all the subtleties and nuances and quirks in the relationships are brought to the forefront and shoved in your face. It is no longer subtle, nuanced, and quirky. Moments that would have been powerful had they been left understated were made blunt and therefore ineffectual. To speak of specifics, the movie starts in voice-over talking about how we can see that "love actually is all around" (where the movie gets its title from) if we look at all the people in an airport. There is one scene at the end of the movie that takes place in an airport, and could have been a stunning finale. Instead of opting to end on that note, however, the director decided to bring practically every character we've met in this interlocking tale (5 or 6 couples) into an airport one month later for no reason other than to beat into our brains his message. Not to mention the overpowering and ever-present music, which made a lot of the scenes candy-coated and Hallmark.

Luckily, there were some genuinely funny moments. There were some unexpected twists and turns that I liked (on the emotive and plot fronts). There was one scene that was actually incredible, where a woman goes upstairs after she discovers her husband's infidelity and starts crying, then comes back down and pretends everything is alright. (It felt a lot like the montage in Magnolia where all the characters sing along to Aimee Mann's Wise Up.) Another positive: Keira Knightley somehow surpassed what I thought were the boundaries of hotness. By a lot.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314331/