Review: Her

Warner Bros.

Her takes place in L.A. in a somewhat distant future where not only does everyone dress like hipsters (for some reason, or maybe that's accurate to reality?) but they all wear these little ear pieces seen above. It's a sort of blue-tooth that connects them to an operating system that is voice-automated which allows everyone to walk around essentially talking to themselves as they check their email, make phone calls, etc. Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is just like everyone else in this respect, but he's even more of a lonely and quiet guy when we meet him because he just went through a breakup with his wife, Catherine (Rooney Mara). So it makes sense that he would opt to purchase a new operating system that has intuition and basically functions like a human being except with the capacity to consume information rapidly like a computer. Theodore's "personalized" OS system names herself Samantha (Scarlett Johansson). As Theodore uses the OS system more and more, he begins to fall in love with Samantha and she with him.

These aren't any spoilers because the trailers tell you the same thing. At first glance it seems like a cheesy, pretentious, trite story written to make some point about our consumption and overuse of technology which isn't like director Spike Jonze at all. And since his return to acting, Phoenix seems determined to do only the most unusual and challenging roles. So, everything about the content of Her seems contradictory to the talented team and cast (including Amy Adams, Olivia Wilde, and Chris Pratt) involved in the film.

Review: Saving Mr. Banks

Walt Disney Pictures

Every year in cinema needs a Saving Mr. Banks. Coincidentally, the director of this film also directed The Blind Side which I would call the Saving Mr. Banks of 2009. Each year there's a film like this one starring a famous actor or two that is unabashedly sentimental if not overly melodramatic. The message is clear, the turns in the plot foreseeable, and the kleenex flows freely in theaters across the nation.

Still, I maintain that every year needs a Saving Mr. Banks. As good and challenging as movies like 12 Years a Slave and others can be to our senses, psychology, and understanding of different sides of human nature, reality, etc., you still need a break from them now and then. And when you're in the thick of awards season and an onslaught of such challenging films, Saving Mr. Banks is exactly what you need to enjoy some old fashioned sentimentality and film-making.

Review: American Hustle

Sony Pictures Releasing

American Hustle essentially unites director/writer David O. Russell's last two films, The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook. The combined cast includes Amy Adams and Christian Bale from Fighter and Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence from Silver Linings. Not to mention new-comers to Russell's casting, Jeremy Renner and Louis C.K. among others. In this way, you could say both films were a build up to the overwhelmingly acclaimed American Hustle.

But beyond the casting, we see Russell perform at his finest and witness a fantastic development of the kind of characters and storytelling we've seen him working towards these past few years. Both Fighter and Silver Linings feature characters at once at odds with those around them and uncertain about themselves and what they are trying to achieve. In the same way, Hustle features a cast of random characters on a mission that is more about proving something to themselves rather than any monetary or physical gain.

Review: Anchorman 2

Paramount Pictures

It's been 9 years, and through all those years we've been constantly teased by the possibility of a sequel to the highly successful and hilarious Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The move premiered at what was arguably the height of Will Farrell's career and made the likes of Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd even more popular with a wider audience. It's ridiculous slap-stick, crude, absurd, random humor followed closely on the heels of Elf and Zoolander and then was followed up by the likes of Dodgeball, Talladega Nights, and many others. But somehow, Anchorman always remained one of the most beloved among this style of comedy.

Suffice to say, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues had a lot to live up to. Its mega-marketing campaign (including Farrell appearing on a local news station in North Dakota as Ron Burgundy and appearing in a random photo holding a 40 oz beer and a box of donuts) drove the excitement and expectation to a dizzying degree and made it next to impossible for the film to not make a bazillion dollars no matter what critics said. What's more, a whole host of celebrities were slotted to appear in the film (or rumored to), many of whom are former SNL stars like Farrell and Rudd. So, how does the legendary Ron Burgundy and his band of misfit anchormen fair in 1980's New York trying to make it on the first 24-hour news station?

Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Warner Bros

As it so happened, the first Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey, came out before I decided to start writing reviews on my blog again. Thus, I missed my chance to lend my two cents in the form of a longer review, but since The Desolation of Smaug is the sequel to the said movie, I thought it would be best to give a very brief review of the first so as to set the stage for some comparison between the two films. For after all, a sequel is only as good in how it continues, expands, and enriches what the first began.

Over all, I thought the first film was quite charming, exciting, and endearing to those of us who have grown up reading The Hobbit or for those who have not. The visuals (especially in IMAX 3D and with the 48 ffps) were astounding and the lands, details, etc, were as rich as ever. It was fun to see bits and pieces of memorable moments from the books sprinkled throughout (for instance, the dwarves singing the wonderfully composed misty mountains song at Bag End, and Bilbo and Gollum's "riddle in the dark"), and even those that were ridiculously exaggerated but fun all the same (the stone giants come to mind). Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Richard Armitage as Thorin were very well cast, especially Freeman. Many fans seemed to have a problem with all the extra bits added to the story-line (Radagast, the giant, pale Orc with bad makeup, etc), and while it does make the movie feel a bit bogged down and distracted from the main point of the dragon, I for one don't mind them adding the extra content. Of course, they're doing so in order to stretch the book into 3 movies so they can make more money, but still, a movie is vastly different than a book and requires a lot more, obvious plot devices, problems, and development that is just common sense when you're reading. Because, after all, a book is made up of words, not images, sounds, music, dialogue, etc. My idea is that as long as the main point and plot points are communicated and enacted, I don't mind much what is added to or taken out of a movie adaptation of a book.

Review: Out of the Furnace

Relativity Media

The first trailers for Out of the Furnace had me really excited. A small-town American story of vengeance and family starring Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Sam Shepard, Forrest Whitaker, Zoe Saldana, and Willem Dafoe? Count me in! The settings and characters in the trailers looked like an awesome combination of the action and grittiness of Justified mixed with the sentimental, realistic portrayal of an old-fashioned, American life-style hearkening back to The Deer Hunter and following on the tale of a similar setting in Mud.

What's more, Out of the Furnace is director/writer Scott Cooper's follow up to his 2009 debut, Crazy Heart, which Cooper wrote, directed, and produced and starred Jeff Bridges and won Bridges the best actor Oscar. Out of the Furnace seemed to be heading in the same direction as Crazy Heart with intense characters, but this time around with more violence and a lot more at stake. The all-star cast also suggested hopes for Oscar season attention.

Review: Philomena

Twentieth Century Fox/The Weinstein Company

Going into Philomena, I thought I knew what to expect. A movie starring Judi Dench about a little, old Irish woman looking for the son who was taken away from her at the age of 16 and hasn't seen since sounded like a very melodramatic, touching piece of filmmaking that my Mom would love. So, of course I decided to see it with my Mom instead of Out of the Furnace (a review of that to come shortly!) because it looked too intense/dark for her. Besides, Steve Coogan co-stars as the reluctant journalist, Martin Sixsmith, who decides to help Philomena (Dench) search for her son in order to rebuild his recently shattered career, and I find Coogan generally very funny, entertaining, and a decent actor to boot. So why not?

I guess I should have remembered that Stephen Frears directed this one too. He's a veteran when it comes to drama, and not unused to grit and grim either as evidenced by Dirty Pretty Things and Dangerous Liaisons. But he's also accustomed to effectively portraying grief and subtle bewilderment as seen in The Queen, and Frears brings all of his talents together to deliver a very unexpected, more complex story with Philomena.