Drama

Ginger & Rosa

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  • Title: Ginger & Rosa
  • IMDb: link

Ginger & Rosa

Writer/director Sally Potter‘s Ginger & Rosa isn’t a bad film by any means, but it’s certainly more concerned with showcasing the talents of its actors (particularly its young leading lady) than presenting a compelling tale set in 1962 London against the backdrop of nuclear proliferation and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Elle Fanning stars as Ginger, the smart daughter of an irresponsible father (Alessandro Nivola) and demanding mother (Christina Hendricks). She’s also surrounded by a collection of equally pompous and pretentious role models (Timothy Spall, Oliver Platt, Annette Bening) who feed the girl’s interest in activism and rebellion without taking the slightest interest in what is going on inside Ginger’s impressionable young mind.

The calm in the storm for Ginger comes in the form of her lifelong best friend Rosa (Alice Englert). By far the more extroverted and promiscuous of the pair, Rosa continues to push Ginger into taking chances and having fun.

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On the Road

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  • Title: On the Road
  • IMDB: link

On the RoadAdapted from Jack Kerouac‘s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, On the Road follows the misadventures of young writer Sal Paradise (Sam Riley) who takes up with the charismatic Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund) for a hedonistic journey across the country that involves sex, drugs, the defining music and philosophy of the Beat Generation, and both Dean’s girlfriend Marylou (Kristen Stewart) and wife Camille (Kirsten Dunst).

Francis Ford Coppola purchased the movie rights in 1979, but spent decades unable to get the meandering period piece centered around a group of self-important characters off the ground. In late 2010 his patience was rewarded by director Walter Salles and screenwriter Jose Rivera who were finally able to bring the project to fruition.

On the Road is, at best, a mixed success. The relationship between Riley and Hedlund succeeds while Salles sprinkles in solid small supporting performances from recognizable actors such as Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams, and Alice Braga.

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Spring Breakers

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  • Title: Spring Breakers
  • IMDB: link

Spring BreakersHarmony Korine is a divisive filmmaker whose themes and characters are often are far more complicated then they initially appear but whose detractors often point to his limitless self-indulgence and gleeful exploration of his young stars; you shouldn’t expect anything less from the writer/director’s latest, Spring Breakers.

Korine knew exactly what he was doing in casting three attractive young Disney and ABC Family actresses (Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson) to star along with his wife (Rachel Korine) in this tale of four thrill-seeking college students and their week of danger and debauchery over spring break.

The director is certainly exploiting each of the young women’s good-girl image to make the movie more titillating (which, despite the four young leads spending nearly the entire time in bikinis, it’s really not) while allowing each actress a chance to push outside the limits of kinds of roles they are usually known for.

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Amour

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Amour
  • IMDB: link

amour-posterIf you have any personal experience with watching a loved one suffer a stroke or face the slow and debilitating end-of-life process writer/director Michael Haneke‘s Amour is likely to hit closer to home than you may like. Haneke’s tale is as simple as it is heartfelt, showcasing the strain of a stroke on the lives and the marriage of an elderly couple in their final months together.

Although there are cameo roles which include the couple’s daughter (Isabelle Huppert) and a former piano student (Alexandre Tharaud), Amour is really centered around the performances of Jean-Louis Trintignant as George and Emmanuelle Riva as his wife Anne. The entire film never leaves the walls in which the pair have made their home together which slowly becomes a prison for both of them when Anne suffers a second stroke.

Despite its success overseas, and several awards to its credit on this side of the Atlantic, Amour is only now slowly being released in the United States. You may have to search to find it, but despite its difficult subject matter it’s worth the wait.

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Quartet

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  • Title: Quartet
  • IMDB: link

quartet-posterQuartet, which marks actor Dustin Hoffman‘s first time behind the camera in the director’s chair, is a perfectly fine (if completely unremarkable) film.

Adapted by Ronald Harwood from his play of the same name, the plot centers around the goings-on at a British retirement home for musicians. Our leading foursome is made up of a stroke victim who has lost the ability to censor himself (Billy Connolly), an increasingly confused busybody dealing with the on-set of Alzheimer’s (Pauline Collins), and the buttoned-down Reggie (Tom Courtenay) whose life is thrown upside down by the arrival of the famous former fourth member of their illustrious quartet, his ex-wife Jean (Maggie Smith).

Most of the film is devoted into two stories. The first involves Jean trying to earn Reggie’s forgiveness and reconnect with the love of her life who she lost to a terrible mistake in judgement decades ago. Pretty much by the book, you can probably guess exactly how this plotline plays out.

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