#39 The A-Team
This is one of the strangest things that's happened to me involving a movie in a long time: The A-Team was a movie that I'm almost positive I enjoyed. But when I tried to remember what happened--a single plot event, even--the only thing I could recall was a parachuting tank, and Jessica Biel walking out of a tent looking angry. That's it. I know who all the stars were, I remember thinking that Bradley Cooper was good, as was Sharlto Copley (the lead in District 9), and that Quinton Jackson did well with the Mr. T role. Other than that...nothing. I looked at the plot summary online, and nothing rang a bell. I talked to the people I saw it with to see if they could help jog my memory, and what they said wasn't the least bit helpful. A couple of still-shots looked familiar, but nothing Pavlovian. I can say I liked it, but I can't give it a higher rating than this if I've completely forgotten just about everything about it.
So in conclusion, I recommend the fun action-romp provided by the A-Team reboot...I think?
#38: Ondine
When I was just a wee-movie blogger, I remember very vividly the controversy surrounding Neil Jordan's The Crying Game. It was 1992, so I would have been 10 years old. I don't want to give anything away in case you have not seen it and are planning on it in the near future, but the taboo surrounding the film involved a big twist that some loved and some found to be dangerously inappropriate. I also remember hearing Boy George's smoky ballad of the same name at every turn. Although most of the general public didn't, BG claimed through pained vocals to "know all there is to know about the crying game." And I believed him.
Neil Jordan's latest stars Colin Farrell as an Irish fisherman named Syracuse who very early in the film, ends up trapping a young woman (Ondine) in his fishing net. He is convinced from the get-go that she is a Selkie (in Irish lore, a seal-woman) and has her stay with him on the boat. As she comes to stay with him, she forges a sweet relationship with his daughter from a past marriage, who also happens to be handicapped. As Farrell falls in love with the mystical Ondine and her siren song (which, incidentally, brings him a sh*t ton of fish each time she sings it) his daughter hopes for her to stay long enough to become fully human and heal her. But as the movie goes on, a creepy, ominous man shows up and as they try to protect Ondine from him, the truth is revealed about her.
So yes, much like The Crying Game, there is a big twist involving one of the protagonists. Here, it doesn't pay off in all that exciting of a fashion. It gets kind of an "Oh...okay, I guess," response. The movie has a quiet and dark aesthetic that still manages to be gorgeous--Ireland as a backdrop will do that. And although the plot is engaging, it tends to drag and almost sing you to sleep, much like Ondine herself does. If you like Neil Jordan's previous work--Crying Game, Interview with a Vampire, Michael Collins--it's worth checking out. Interesting concept, anyway.
#37 Greenberg
In 2005, a little Indie by Noah Baumbauch called The Squid and the Whtale blew me out of the water. It was a quirky story about the aftermath of a Brooklynite family's divorce, and apparently it's based somewhat on his childhood. It definitely feels personal and it's hilarious, tragic and real. The cast is just dynamite with Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels as the conflicting forces/opposite personalities, and a pre-Zuckerburg Jesse Eisenberg as the teenager caught in the middle.
The last half of that last sentence may have been the most Jewish thing I've ever seen.
And speaking of Jewish, Ben Stiller stars as the titular character in Baumbach's latest effort Greenberg. He's a total disaster; he takes over housesitting for his rich brother in Los Angeles after recently being institutionalized--the circumstances of which are not altogether clear. But what is clear is that it probably makes sense being that his neuroses and offensive demeanor are on constant display. Early on in the film, the family dog gets sick, and he screws it up. He cooks up an awkward relationship with the family's housekeeper, and screws that up. He spends a lot of time with an old bandmate played by Rhys Ifans, who's band Greenberg was of course responsible for screwing up.
But besides that, Roger Greenberg mostly complains. He complains as much as he possibly can. Some of this is quite entertaining--an ongoing theme are his thought-out complaint letters to various businesses--but most of it is brash and annoying. All the viewer wants to do is to tell him to shut up. For every funny sequence, another painfully awkward one was right around the corner. The supporting cast is pretty good and I laughed wholeheartedly a few times, but the story basically goes nowhere-we just watch Greenberg talk and think himself in circles as he tries desperately to connect with anyone and anything.
Til next time...
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