A strong contender for stylish thriller of the year, STOKER has a lot of creepy moments, and the good cast leaves an unsettled feeling that permeates the film. It works as a mystery about the arrival of a strange man (Mathew Goode) who is the unknown brother to the recently deceased father of Mia Wasikowska and the disturbed wife, Nicole Kidman. Both needy lonely women become attracted to "Uncle Charlie" for different reasons, and I think there is more than a passing resemblance to Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT here, right down to the name Charlie, as it slowly dawns on the girl that her uncle may not be who she thinks he is. The pacing may be leisurely at first, but it builds nicely as we know more about her life, her mother and begin to realize that certain people in her life are disappearing at an alarming rate. The Korean director Park Chan-wook has made a number of creepy, fascinating films including SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (2002) and OLD BOY (2003) (which is being remade this year by Spike Lee, with Elizabeth Olsen and Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Brolin) and gives the film an impressive style. GRADE------B+
I've been reading some not so polite reviews of the new film by Paul Weitz who did the marvelous dramedy ABOUT A BOY (2002) so I went in with low expectations, but I chuckled and laughed a lot throughout his new film ADMISSION, another dramedy with some charm, subtly and wit. Tina Fey gets a lot of the best lines, but Paul Rudd grounds the film and makes a great "straight man" and Lily Tomlin makes the most of her small role as Tina's militant feminist mother. The plot has Fey, who has worked for 16 years as a snooty admissions officer for Princeton, trying to get a special young student into the university, partly because he may be the child she gave up for adoption many years ago. The film tries to say alot about the changing direction of "families" in today's society. GRADE------B
There are great special effects, and the art and set direction are splendid, and the cinematography very sharp. The cast is certainly game. The only awkward aspect of the new film OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL is that it is trying awfully hard to be faithful to the continuing story of THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) (as well as the current Broadway smash musical WICKED) that you spend a lot of time following the mechanics of its plot, squinting your eyes in disapproval if any of the action might contradict the popular Judy Garland version. Fortunately the plotting is pretty faithful and leaves the future story accessible to the history presented. Still, it requires a lot of explanation and talk talk talk, and at the screening I saw, the 20 or so youngsters in attendance became restless and bored several times. But never fear---soon would arrive a tornado, flying monkeys, wicked witches or Munchkins to recapture their attention. By the end, I was satisfied with this prequel. GRADE---------B
A sleeper in the best way, the new zombie comedy WARM BODIES is a new take on the crowded theme of the walking dead. These new zombies apparently can be warmed up and healed by love, unless that is, of course, they are so far gone that their skin has already been burned to a crisp. It's a clever comedy with some big laughs. GRADE------B
The new Romanian film BEYOND THE HILLS deals with religious (and as a side-bar, sexual) hysteria in a rural convent. When a young woman comes to visit her best friend at the nunnery, sexual tensions make the priest resent the new comer, and drive the friend into rebel mode as she tries to convince her nun friend to leave for the big city. The leisurely paced film slowly builds tension, and the ending is disturbing, as we know what we've seen, but the "outside" world has a different take on the troubled convent. GRADE-------B-
The new documentary SUSHI: GLOBAL CATCH gives strong evidence that the current sushi popularity is largely responsible for the diminishing supply of fish, especially tuna, in the world's oceans. I've seen this argument before, most effectively in the disturbing film THE COVE (2009), but it is well worth seeing again. GRADE------B-
The following were viewed on DVD during the past 2 weeks.
The classic film-noir NIGHT MOVES (1975), released after his masterworks of MIRACLE WORKER (1962), BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967), ALICE'S RESTAURANT (1969) and LITTLE BIG MAN (1970), proved that the talented director Arthur Penn was no fluke. Gene Hackman is a private eye hired to track down a runaway girl. After he finds her he realizes that a can of worms has been opened that infects just about everyone he's been in contact with. Fascinating characters and and plot twists, and a great symbolic ending that reminds me of CHINATOWN (1974). GRADE----------A
The best foreign language film Oscar went to the Japanese film DEPARTURES (2008), a gentle, lovely film about a young man who, with his wife, returns to his hometown after the loss of his beloved job as cello player for a symphony, and the death of his mother. The only job he can find--an undertaker's assistant. The film is very funny and warm, and becomes strangely beautiful as it delves into the ceremonial aspects of comforting the grieving while attending to the dead. This film packs a big emotional punch by the final scene. GRADE--------A
I saw the Ghibli Studio's film PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997) upon is original US release, and I remember really liking it, but watching it again recently, I can honestly say that I didn't recall a single scene from this film. It felt like I was watching it for the first time. The unusual, creative visual animation is all there, and the theme, very symbolic for the need to go "GREEN" and save the forests before they are extinct is still timely. Maybe the film is so odd and bizarre with the different creatures (like little white forest ghosts, white horrific wolves, spirit creatures that look like bucks with antlers gone wild, etc) that my mind couldn't conceive to remember it. Weird, but engrossing to watch. GRADE------B+
Last but by no means least, is the sentimental, atmospheric, emotional adventure film DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS (1949) directed by Henry Hathaway. Lionel Barrymore mugs it up as the old grandfather captain on a whaling ship who has been fathering his grandson --a young Dean Stockwell in the finer points of shipboard life. He has some conflicts when a new younger captain (Richard Widmark) tries to teach him new ways. Talky and a bit tedious at first, but once they get to whaling at sea, it becomes rather engrossing GRADE------B
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