Drama

Melancholia

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

melancholia-posterIt begins, and ends, with the end of the world. The latest from writer/director Lars von Trier is a bleak examination at the lives of two sisters in the days before the arrival of a mysterious planet on a collision course with the Earth.

We begin with Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) who are late to their own wedding reception. At first this cute occurrence of a limbo driver not being able to navigate the narrow drive to where the event is held seems nothing more than a mildly diverting challenge for the new couple to navigate. We soon learn, however, that the newlyweds have all kinds of problems they will struggle through on this night.

Over the course of the evening Justine, already stressed by the wedding, is pressured by her husband sister to act normal, her boss Stellan Skarsgård) wants a slogan for a new campaign, her sister’s husband (Kiefer Sutherland) wants her gratitude for the gala he’s paid for, and her mother (Charlotte Rampling) is complaining constantly at the absurdity of marriage.

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Hugo

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

hugo-posterFor the first half-hour or so of Hugo you’re wondering to yourself why is Martin Scorcese directing a children’s story about an orphan who lives in a train station with a broken robot?

Don’t get me wrong, the characters are engaging and the look of the film (especially in 3D where the effects bring to mind a child’s pop-up book) are terrific, but the question still remains. And then this film about an orphan and his automaton becomes a story about a famous filmmaker and the celebration and preservation of old films, and you know exactly what struck the director’s fancy.

When we first meet Hugo Cabaret (Asa Butterfield) he’s living in the walls of the Paris train station. The son of clockmaker (Jude Law), Hugo was orphaned when his father died in a museum fire. Now all Hugo has to remember him is a notebook and a broken automaton his father was attempting to fix before his death.

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The Descendants

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Decendants
  • IMDB: link

the-descendants-posterOn the beautiful islands of Hawaii, Matt King’s (George Clooney) world crashes down when the real estate lawyer is hit with two bombshells at once. First, he learns that his wife (Patricia Hastie), who suffered a boating accident and has languished in a coma for weeks, isn’t going to get better. Her living will makes it obvious what will happen next, even if Matt and his two daughters aren’t ready for inevitable.

Things only get more complicated when breaking the news to his oldest daughter Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) Matt learns his wife has been having an affair and it’s this, not the daughter’s recently troubling behavior, which was the cause of the friction between mother and daughter in recent months.

Through his anger and grief Matt tries to keep his dysfunctional family together, deal with the outbursts of his younger daughter (Amara Miller) in school, and put up with Alexandra’s moron of a boyfriend Sid (Nick Krause), all while managing a complicated land sale that means millions of dollars for his extended family.

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J. Edgar

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: J. Edgar
  • IMDb: link

j-edgar-poster

For his latest film director Clint Eastwood teams up with Milk writer Dustin Lance Black to examine the life of one of the 20th Century’s most famous, and infamous, men ever employed by the United States Government – J. Edgar Hoover. Eastwood and Black offer us a Hoover who was a fascinating figure, a great American, and a deeply flawed human being unprepared to deal with his own paranoia, latent homosexuality, and the eventual wealth of power he possessed as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

As with many biopics, the story is told through a series of flashbacks as Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes over his experiences with a series of writers working on his autobiography. The film begins with Hoover’s early days with the agency, his promotion, and the ruthlessness he used to move the F.B.I. into the 20th Century by incorporating new techniques such as fingerprint analysis and forensics into police work and changing the image of government agents in the public’s perception. He also managed to blackmail a great many people.

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Take Shelter

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Take Shelter
  • IMDB: link

take-shelter-posterWhen a construction worker starts to have apocalyptic nightmares and hallucinations he becomes obsessed with spending his time and his family’s limited resources to build onto a fallout shelter in their backyard.

Curtis (Michael Shannon) is convinced that a storm, unlike anyone has ever seen, is approaching and the shelter is his only hope of keeping his wife (Jessica Chastain) and daughter (Tova Stewart) safe. He’s also well-aware that his problems might be linked to his family’s history of mental illness. His mother (Kathy Baker) was diagnosed as a schizophrenic at the age he is now. Are his visions real or is he too loosing his mind?

Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, Take Shelter works well because the lead character is able to admit the possibility that everything he’s experiencing may be nothing more than his delusions. But that admission doesn’t mean he’s not still at their mercy. Over the course of the film the gathering storm in his mind grows louder and louder until it finally erupts.

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