Whiplash (2014)

4/5

Whiplash is a phenomenal film about ambition and the lengths people will go to create something great. After beginning school as a first-year jazz musician in a prestigious music conservatory, Andrew (Teller) finds himself recruited into the awe-inspiring studio band. He soon discovers that his instructor, Fletcher (Simmons), is verbally and physically abusive to his students in the hopes that he will direct them to greatness. And Andrew pushes himself to his limits to earn Fletcher's respect. The plot grips you from beginning to end, even as it takes you down some unexpected turns, and concludes with a finale that is somehow simultaneously satisfying and ambiguous.

The movie is full of fantastic music--that's a given--but it is also full of fantastic cinematography and editing that elevate this movie past its constituent parts. The camerawork is stunning, whether grandly swooping into a complicated scene or using a simple rack focus, and is supplemented by dramatic lighting and singularly beautiful compositions. The editing was playful and precise, adding another dimension to the music on screen. I was truly flabbergasted at the level of cinematic technique on display in this film.

However, I found the message to be a little simplistic and a little overdone. The film tackles a fairly clichéd question and doesn't add all that much to the discussion. Still, this movie is such a joy to watch that it's hard to come up with anything negative about it at all. JK Simmons is absolutely incredible, always going one step past acceptable behavior to be both eminently entertaining and instantly horrifying. Watch this movie. You won't regret it.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582802/

Megamind (2010)

4/5

Megamind is a surprisingly clever and innovative animated superhero movie. It draws from a number of the classics, but synthesizes all that material together into something all its own (much like Hot Fuzz). It felt new, exciting, and hilarious. The comedy was fantastic. I normally hate Ben Stiller movies and Will Ferrell movies, but I was pleasantly surprised by the humor displayed in this film. Maybe it's the fact that I'm not staring at Will Ferrell's ugly face or protuberant belly (which he seems so proud of that he cannot wait to expose himself in any and every one of his movies), but I actually thought he did a terrific job here. And I especially loved the mispronounced words (even though I hated all those same mispronounced words in Zoolander).

One very strange thing about this movie is the voice acting. It was great, don't get me wrong, but I always found myself hearing the actor instead of the character. I was never able to separate the person on screen from the person behind the mic. It was always Will Ferrell is doing this, Tina Fey is doing that. I think part of that is the large amount of voice-over narration, where it's easy to recognize their voice because you don't see the animated character disguising it. All in all, however, that's a relatively minor fault and I would definitely recommend this movie. It was such a wonderfully unexpected joy to watch.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1001526/

Up in the Air (2009)

4/5

Jason Reitman's Up in the Air is a film that sidesteps your expectations and delivers something surprisingly moving. The plot follows a professional "termination engineer" Ryan Bingham (Clooney) as he fires employees for bosses who don't want to do it themselves. He takes prides in the number of frequent flier miles he earns and the freedom he enjoys by not tying himself to a home or to friends. On a trip he meets Alex (Farmiga) and they begin a casual romance. His paradigm becomes endangered when a new Cornell grad named Natalie Keener (Kendrick) proposes online employment transition, allowing them to save 85% on travel costs. Clooney is forced to take her with him on his next few trips to show her the tricks of the trade and why her online termination plan will never succeed.

The acting was fine, but some of the characters' interactions seemed a bit too forced and written. Farmiga's character was confusing for the sake of being confusing, to produce the illusion of complexity and to advance the plot, instead of feeling realistic and true. It took me a little while after seeing the movie to realize that the focus is not on Clooney and Farmiga's relationship. It is instead on Clooney's worldview, his vulnerability, and his transition into the future. And quite frankly, that's much more interesting than a movie about their relationship anyway.

The intro credit sequence was probably my favorite part of the entire movie. Never in my life did I imagine myself saying that for a series of aerial images of the American heartland with "This Land Is Your Land" playing in the background. But they made magic out of nothing, it seems. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie was never quite as good as those first two minutes. The comedy was brisk, producing some clever moments as well as some laugh out loud moments, but after a while it seemed to depend a bit too much on the use of swear words as punchlines. The movie is a good one, but understand that it may not be about the same thing you think it's about. Also, it just doesn't live up to the bar Reitman set for himself with his amazing previous films, Thank You for Smoking and Juno.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/

I Love You, Man (2009)

3/5

I Love You, Man is an above average comedy. It wasn't bad, but I expected much better given its stellar cast. Jason Segel was better in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (and How I Met Your Mother) and Paul Rudd was better in Role Models (and Knocked Up). The plot was just as forgettable as the characterization and acting. Despite having the gender of the main character's conquest reversed (as has been done countless times on various sitcoms), I Love You, Man's plot was exactly the same as every other romantic comedy. It started with the countless failed blind dates, then progressed to hitting it off with the perfect guy, and finally ended with the expected betrayal of trust and eventual redemption. I've seen it a thousand times before and it wasn't all that much better this time; the whole package was merely at an acceptable level of laughs. Watch it if you want a quick laugh, but don't expect another hit comedy.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155056/

Burn After Reading (2008)

4/5

Burn After Reading starts with Malkovich being fired from his job as a CIA analyst. His righteous irateness is immediately hilarious, but also becomes a part of his character as the film progresses. His job loss sends his wife Swinton to a divorce lawyer, and she copies his private files to a disc for her financial security. The disc is lost in a health club, where trainers Pitt and McDormand find it and try to use it to blackmail Malkovich. Swinton is also cheating on Malkovich with Clooney, who meets McDormand through online dating and cheats on both his wife and Swinton with her too. Oh, and Simmons is in there as the CIA head and voice of reason who verbalizes just how confusing and meaningless the entire movie was. If that simplification of the plot was too complicated to follow, then you might not enjoy this movie. But if you can wade through that morass, or if you just don't care about plot, then this could be the comedy for you. Why?

Because the Coens are amazing. Amazing writers, producers, editors, directors. They are amazing at everything they do. Burn After Reading is another comedic hit that further confirms my faith in their constant and consistent ability to impress. No matter the genre, be it a western cat-and-mouse chase or a doofus spy thriller, they manage to transform it into a dark comedy. And because of this, the film becomes its own unique creation, the world is completely new to us, and we have no idea what we'll witness on the journey the Coens take us through. The acting is spot-on, the writing memorable, and the mood flawlessly evoked. The shots are beautiful, the compositions precise, the movements natural. Everything the Coens put in this movie--from bizarre phrases to peculiar mannerisms--is put in with such conviction and certainty that you watch the movie with the feeling that this is so right. I can't even get into specifics, because I would just gush worthless hyperbole. If you love the Coens, this will not disappoint. If you don't "get" them, then this is not the movie to change your mind. But I'm so glad to be in the former group.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887883/

Rendition (2007)

4/5

Rendition is a skillfully-crafted and provocative thriller that puts human faces on the unjust way in which our system of laws can be used and exploited. A chemical engineer (Metwally) on his way back from South Africa is taken away by cops in an airport in DC and sent to a secret prison facility where he is to be tortured by non-US officials for information on a recent suicide bombing as a CIA analyst (Gyllenhaal) watches. His wife (Witherspoon) tries her hardest to find out what's happened to her husband, even going so far as to call up an old boyfriend (Sarsgaard) who works for a senator (Arkin). It turns out that the senator has connections with the woman (Streep) who authorized his rendition. When all laid out in just a few sentences, the plot does sound a bit coincidental and unrealistic. However, when you watch the movie, you see a film that is sympathetically acted, intricately poignant, and effortlessly believable.

The movie had a strong technical base off of which to build its narrative. The shots were beautiful, the editing well-paced, and the music heart-pounding. As a result of all three factors, the build up to the climax was palpably tense. And while the acting was spot-on, the writing and dialogue could have used a little work. Half the time they went out of their way to make what was going on explicit, while the other half of the time they assumed the audience knew what had happened or the characters correctly predicted everything that was going on, despite it all being classified top secret. These small errors aside, this gripping thriller based on the government's anti-terrorism policies is well worth watching.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804522/

Juno (2007)

5/5

Jason Reitman's Juno is the story of a precocious sixteen year old girl who accidentally gets pregnant and decides to give her baby up for adoption. This bittersweet comedy-drama glosses over some harsher realities of the scenario, but what movie doesn't omit aspects it feels are irrelevant to its purpose? This movie leaves out the more obvious, more serious tangents of unplanned pregnancies so it can transcend the specific situation and focus on more universal themes. It deals with love in an uncertain world, growing up and staying young, wanting what we don't have, and having what we don't want. There are no bad guys, only mistakes and regret. And second chances. And that's life.

Ellen Page's Juno is a marvel to behold. Even so, Reitman understands that this story is about more than just one girl, and so he allows all of the characters to breathe and fully develop. Every single one is perfectly offbeat. The complexity and depth and pathos the actors infuse their characters with is absolutely spellbinding. They are given a tender script and truly make the most of it. The editing is impeccably precise, both in terms of comedic timing as well as plot progression and pacing. No joke or scene is lingered on too long. The music is essential to the feel of the movie, and exists almost as another character in the story. Think of it as an omniscient narrator of emotions.

I was a bit disappointed by the cinematography. There was nothing wrong with it, but it just seemed like a step down compared with Thank You for Smoking. Also, I could've done with less voice-over narration and more Rainn Wilson. But honestly, these are not legitimate complaints because they only exist when people look for them so they can put something in the "cons" paragraph of their review.

This movie is a whirlwind experience of emotions; you have to sit and wait a couple minutes after the credits start rolling to fully appreciate what you've just seen. Even now, a day after seeing it, I can't get it out of my mind. Next to It's A Wonderful Life, this is the closest I can remember coming to crying out of pure happiness. For celluloid to lift your spirits to the rafters, what more could you ask for in a movie?

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0467406/

Thank You for Smoking (2005)

5/5

Thank You for Smoking is, quite frankly, amazing. It is one of the few comedies I've seen that I think can be considered a film and not just entertainment. What separates it from its comic contemporaries is that it's made with a love for the craft of filmmaking. There is a desire to fill every frame with beauty, to tell the story and jokes through moving pictures instead of words, to go above and beyond merely adequate and take full advantage of all the medium has to offer. The plot centers on Nick Naylor, spokesperson for big tobacco, as he fights lobbyists who want to put an image of skull and crossbones on cigarette packs. But that is not what the movie is about. It is about him being a father, raising a child who looks up to him like he's God. It is about argument, communication, and language. It is about people who change and people who don't; it is about coming to terms with one's purpose.

Every character is fully realized, thanks to excellent writing, casting, directing, and most importantly acting. And everyone is hilarious. I never found myself wishing the "funny" people would be on screen more, because they were all funny. The editing is incredible. Nothing is lingered on, our interest is piqued at every second, and the comic timing is flawless. The character and plot development unfold with ease and the most pristine pacing I've seen in a comedy since Charlie Chaplin. CGI is used subtly to accentuate the humor already there without drawing attention to itself. The dialogue is spot-on. Every joke hits with unerring precision. The camerawork and compositions are truly breathtaking, more evocative than most movies and on par with the best. Every single technical aspect is there in full force. And it is a fulfilling film, a satisfying one. After you stop laughing, you realize you learned something important, you gained more than just a quick euphoric feeling. You witnessed art.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0427944/

The Ladykillers (2004)

4/5

The Ladykillers is a truly hilarious movie, both while watching it and while remembering it. Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, J.K. Simmons, and Marlon Wayans are unforgettable. Their characters are off-the-wall on paper, but portrayed with such vivacity and honesty to make them fleshed out and believable. The story (crime), the cinematography (crisp), and the dialogue (black comedy) is undeniably Coen. The brothers Coen have practically outdone themselves in shot composition and camerawork; every frame of this movie is utterly pristine, precise, and pretty.

Even so, the story wraps itself up a bit too nicely at the end. The introduction to the characters, while extremely funny, felt conventional and uninspired. The dialogue, specifically from Hanks's character, is extraordinarily fast-paced. It could be argued that this somewhat diminishes your enjoyment on the initial viewing but it also gives huge replay value as you get jokes you missed the first time. I honestly don't have many more cons about this movie. It is exquisite.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0335245/