At the Movies . . . Again

I had this blog written the other day and when I went to cut and paste it into a word document so I could spell check it, I cut and deleted it. So here I go again. Maybe they'll fix the fucking spell checking on this thing some day.

I watch a lot of movies -- maybe 30-35 a month. I watch DVD's faster than Netflix can send them to me, so I have to hit Blockbuster or the local video rental place once a week. Here's a hint: when you go to Blockbuster, start at the beginning of the alphabet. There are more watchable movies in the numeric's, A's, B's and C's than in the rest of the alphabet. I always seem to find something like Angel-A (or Angela) that I have never heard of which is really good.

In the past 6 days I have seen 6 movies, three of which were really good. Morgan Freeman was in two of them, but even he couldn't save the one that should have been really good. I'll start with the best.

The Namesake. I loved it. Not only was it beautiful to look at, it was smartly written. It's a story of contrasts -- New York and Calcutta; old world values and modern American kids. It's the story of an Indian couple who move to New York and have two kids. Their son, Gogol, is the namesake -- for the Russian writer Nicholi Gogol. Since the boy's name is Gogol Ganguli, he is embarrassed by it and wants to go by his "good name" Nicholas. As the movie progresses, he comes to learn the significance of the name Gogol in his father's life.

The cast is terrific. Kal Penn of Harold and Kumar fame is sincere and believable as Gogol. The mother Ashima is played by an Indian actress named Tatu and she is beautiful and strong and unflappable. I particularly liked the scene where the family visits Calcutta and the kids are seeing India for the first time. It was very realistic and fascinating. Rather than describe it further I recommend you see it.

10 Items or Less. I loved it. This is a little film, that was shot in 15 days, that I knew nothing about and was totally taken with. Morgan Freeman plays a has-been actor "doing research for a project" he might consider at a market in Southern California. Paz Vega is the Spanish immigrant who is the checker at the 10 Items or Less Lane. The movie is the story of their unlikely collaboration and friendship. They are both wonderful and the script is smart and very clever. From the moment Scarlet (Paz Vega) appears on screen I was totally taken by her strength, smarts and weariness. I immediately wanted to know this woman. And Freeman's character, called Him, is charming and disarming (are they the same thing?) and completely likable.

Scarlet is trapped with an idiot husband from whom she is separated and a dead end job. "Him" coaches her through a transformation to get ready for a job as interview as an office manager. You may have to suspend disbelief a little, but it's so well written you don't care. The final scene is the perfect ending. I also recommend it.

Adrift in Manhattan. I liked it. It’s the story of three lonely people whose lives intersect in Manhattan. Tommaso, played by Dominic Chianese who is best known as Junior Soprano, stole the show with is portrayal of an aging painter who earns a living working in a corporate mailroom and is losing his sight. He meets Isabel, played by Elizabeth Peńa, at work and a romance begins. Both characters have smart dialogue to deliver and play a mature couple falling in love with grace and supreme dignity. I loved them. Heather Graham plays Rose an eye doctor who is treating Tommaso and trying to cope with the death of her two-year old son. Billy Baldwin plays her estranged husband. Finally there is Simon a socially retarded teenager with an overbearing mother who begins to follow and photograph Rose after being attracted by her scarf.
The movie was unknown to me be fore I saw it and turned out to be a real find in the “A’s” at Blockbuster.

A Feast of Love. I didn’t like it. With Morgan Freeman, Jane Alexander, Greg Kinnear, Rahda Mitchell and Alexa Davalos, and a big name director, this should have been a better movie than Adrift in Manhattan. It's not. The plots of these two films have some similarities -- there’s a tarot reading in each of them – in that they involve the intersection of several lives. Freeman and Alexander are a college professor on leave and his wife who have lost their grown son to a heroin overdose; all the while unaware of his addiction. Kinnear is a sap with a heart of gold who gets dumped twice – his first wife leaves him for a woman and his second (Mitchell) for her long time lover. Alexa Davalos as Chloe is the heart of the movie and has more inner strength than any of characters around her.
I couldn’t buy the script and Kinnear seems way too goofy to attract Diane (Mitchell).

Payback: Straight Up – The Director’s Cut. Great movie. If you have seen the 1999 theatrical version of this Mel Gibson gritty hardboiled thriller, you know it a really good movie. The Director’s Cut is very different and is much closer to the novel The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake writing as Richard Stark. Gibson’s character Porter was double crossed by his wife and his partner in crime – gunned down and left for dead. His cut of the take was $70,000 and he wants it back – and not a penny more. Porter is without redeeming qualities – he’s a killer – but his doggedness and ferocity make him interesting. Lucy Lui and Maria Bello make their first appearances in a major film and both are good. Mario Bello, thanks to A History of Violence, is my current Hollywood queen. This version is so much darker and gritty than the theatrical version that I preferred it.

The Ten. A piece of absolute shit masquerading as a comedy. It features ten scenes which are somehow supposed to illustrate the Ten Commandments. Yuk.

Hope you enjoyed this and will see at least one of these movies.