Drama

Don Jon

/ / Uncategorized
  • Title: Don Jon
  • IMDB: link

Don JonWritten and directed by star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Jon is a romantic comedy presented from the male perspective that’s likely to appeal more to men than women. A film about how a man loves porn more than the woman he’s with is certainly a tricky topic for a date movie (while making certain aspersions to the emotional porn of romcoms and Catholicism along the way), but Gordon-Levitt manages to pull off the intriguing premise even if it looses steam when the film takes its inevitable dramatic turn.

Jon (Gordon-Levitt) really only cares about a handful of things in his life: his friends, his car, his apartment, his religion, and, even more than the bevy of beauties the man takes home every night, his porn. And he really takes his porn seriously. You might even go so far as to call Jon a porn connoisseur. Even when he begins dating the stunning Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), Jon is incapable at letting go of his true love which is always presented in a series of quick-cuts featuring the sound his Mac powering and various porn clips before the inevitable shot of a wad of Kleenex hitting the trash can.

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Austenland may be a fun place to visit, but…

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Austenland
  • IMDb: link

Austenland

Based on the novel of the same name by Shannon Hale, writer and first-time director Jerusha Hess (co-writer of both Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre) delivers a quirky, over-the-top, odd film that is more charming than it has any right to be. Showcasing how one may take fandom too far, Keri Russell stars as Jane Hayes, a middle-aged single woman with a lifelong obsession for the works of Jane Austen and a romantic life that has never lived up to her fantasies. Spending her entire savings, Jane books a vacation at an Austen-themed destination getaway where she might finally live out those fantasies as a woman from Austen’s era.

In the spirit of a Christopher Guest film that simultaneously celebrates and pokes fun at a particular niche, Austenland‘s premise could turned around any number of overzealous fans and the properties they embrace so religiously. However, anyone who has ever known a woman obsessed with Austen’s books may take a somewhat perverse glee in Jane’s realization that her time-period-appropriate assigned role isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

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Austenland may be a fun place to visit, but… Read More »

Mud

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Mud
  • IMDB: link

MudWhen two teenager boys in the Arkansas bayou discover a hermit named Mud (Matthew McConaughey) living in a boat stuck high in a tree after a recent flood it’s an encounter that will forever change all three of their lives. As a coming of age story, at its best Mud reminds you of Great Expectations or To Kill A Mockingbird as Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) get drawn into Mud’s world and learn hard lessons of life and love.

The themes of Mud keep recurring (perhaps a tad too neatly) as Mud’s troubled relationship with his ex Juniper (Reese Witherspoon) is mirrored with Ellis’ own early experiences with love and the impending divorce of his parents (Michael Shannon, Sarah Paulson) that threatens to destroy his home. Much of the plot deals with an old enemy (Joe Don Baker) of Mud out for revenge, but the real focus of the movie isn’t on the tension-building search for convict but on how Ellis and Mud’s experiences both change how they view the world and women.

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The Solid (But Far From Spectacular) Now

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  • Title: The Spectacular Now
  • IMDB: link

The Spectacular NowAdapted from Tim Tharp’s novel of the same name by the writing team that gave us (500) Days of Summer and Pink Panther 2, The Spectacular Now is a movie of great moments than never really lives up to the promise of the edgy indie coming of age story it so desperately wants to be. Much like last year’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (which is a stronger film), the movie rides a group of strong performances to just the right notes at times, but too often it also absent-mindedly gets lost in the melody.

Our story centers around Sutter (Miles Teller), a popular 18 year-old alcholic who begins hanging out with the shy and awkward Aimee (Shailene Woodley, who even without makeup is far too pretty and outgoing for the role) while trying to get over being dumped by his longtime girlfriend Cassidy (Brie Larson). Despite the cliched pairing of the cool dude with the uncool mousey chick who his friends can’t fathom why he would date (even though she’s the cutest girl in the entire movie), the story eventually takes darker direction (although not nearly soon enough for my tastes).

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The World’s End

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The World’s End
  • IMDB: link

The World's EndWhen writer/director Edgar Wright works with the combination of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost good, and often hilarious, things are bound to happen. Although it might not quite reach the levels of hilarity in either Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, The World’s End doesn’t disappoint in providing plenty of big laughs in a story about old friends, a robot invasion, and lots and lots of beer.

Pegg stars as Gary King, the former leader of a motley group who have all moved on with their lives. Unable or unwilling to grow up, Gary has been left behind by his former friends and is obsessed with a desire to recapture the glory days of their youth – especially a magical night where the five friends attempted, but failed, to complete the Golden Mile (drinking a pint of beer in all 12 pubs in their hometown of Newton Haven).

One by one Gary cajoles, lies, tempts, and pleads with his old friends (Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan) to join him for one more night of debauchery which is interrupted by old arguments and alien robot replicants.

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