Alright folks, it seems that my muse of Internet Movie Review Blogs is speaking to me on this week and making me want to get all the movies I've been meaning to review out of my system. Instead of writing a separate review for each, I'm offering the Reader's Digest Condensed Version of four movies I've seen over the past month and never got around to reviewing.
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Anna Karenina
Joe Wright directs and Keira Knightley stars in this beautiful, if not super-memorable, adaptation of Tolstoy's tragic novel of forbidden love in late 19th century Russia. The most notable aspect of this film adaptation is that most of it is filmed on a stage, and the characters exhibit theatrical actions and expressions. The symbolism behind this artistic choice is a bit heavy-handed (it's like Anna is on stage! Everyone is watching her every move and judging her!), but the sets and costumes are undeniably striking.
The acting is pretty good: Knightley's Anna is appropriately tragic and beautiful. I haven't read the book, but Knightley portrays Anna as someone who is very paranoid and jealous. She actually gets away with taking a lover (Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Vronsky, her younger suitor) and her husband forgives her; but it ends tragically anyway when she suspects Vronsky of having another mistress. The agony leads to Anna's fateful decision to throw herself under a train (hopefully that's not a spoiler to anyone).This adaptation of Anna Karenina is also notable because it spends time letting the viewer get to know smaller, supporting characters, such as Anna's goofy brother, Oblonsky (Matthew Macfayden) and lovesick Levin (Domhnall Gleeson). This makes the whole production feel grander and more well-rounded, rather than focusing narrowly on the Anna/Vronsky/Karenin love triangle.
4 out of 5 stars
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Cabin Fever
Randomly, I decided to watch this small-budget horror film, directed and written by a pre-Hostel Eli Roth. I heard the film was very original and scary because instead of the typical ax-wielding psychopath, the teens in this film are menaced by an extremely contagious flesh-eating bacteria as they camp out in redneck-infested hills.
I wasn't all that impressed. In addition to the constant refrain of "Don't be gay" and "What are you, a faggot?"--language that some may argue is par for the course in a schlocky horror film, but I think is just lazy and offensive--the characters and their predictably dumb actions are weak and two-dimensional. The message of the movie is that when the shit hits the fan, these supposed "friends" turn on each other immediately in order to save their own skins. Maybe they're the REAL monsters! Whoa man...whoa. I like the idea, but I don't think it was executed well.
2.5 out of 5 stars
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Queen of Versailles
This documentary about an extremely wealthy couple, Jackie and David Siegel, who are in the process of building the largest home in America right when the Recession of 2008 hits, is not as damning as you might expect. If this film had been directed by Michael Moore, the spend-happy Siegels would have been offered up as a sacrifice to angry Americans who barely make ends meet. Instead, it's directed by Lauren Greenfield, a talented storyteller and photographer (check out her book Girl Culture), who shows the Siegels in an honest and sympathetic light.
David Siegel, owner of the largest time-share company in the world, doesn't appear to be in the same sociopathic category as the Bernie Madoff. Siegel genuinely believes that he has helped most of the people he's met--from customers to employees to politicians (he claims that George W. Bush won the presidency due to his "not quite legal" influence. Hmmm...). He mentions his kids as being the greatest accomplishment of his life. The sad irony is that for all his money, success, and his large family and young, attractive wife, Siegel doesn't appear to be a very happy man. When the movie nears its conclusion, he says that nothing makes him happy these days except finding a solution to his problem (losing his largest time-share resort in Las Vegas to the banks). The guy is pretty much the embodiment of "mo' money, mo' problems".
Jackie Siegel is not what you would expect of a trophy wife 30 years younger than her husband. She's pretty intelligent, for one thing, with a degree in computer science. She's clearly addicted to shopping, and she hoards tons of junk she doesn't need, from three different games of "Operation" to furry designer pants. But you can see how she got that way: she was a beautiful, intelligent woman who married a rich, older man and slowly, over time, lost touch with how most people live. She treats her maids and her kids' nannies kindly, but doesn't seem to get the irony of the nanny who practically raises Jackie's kids sleeping in a 10x12 room while the family members all have palatial suites. So she comes off as freakishly shallow and tacky, but I don't think she's a bad person.
Still, ignorance (and how ignorant can the Siegels truly be?) is no excuse for their insane excesses. This family literally has more money than they know what to do with, and they don't understand how to manage it and their property and possessions very well. When the going gets tough financially, David Siegel attempts to sell some of his property--but no seems interested in buying a $100,000 private jet in the middle of a recession. The family ends up materially wealthy and cash poor, having to fire the help and let their mansion deteriorate as David Siegel frantically tries to save his Las Vegas resort because he's too prideful to give it up. The family is sympathetic, but it's hard to take their losses seriously when it appears that they may actually be better off with less than they currently have.4 out of 5 stars
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Gangster Squad
Sadly, Gangster Squad is one of those films that show all the best scenes and lines in the preview. You would think that a noirish film about a secret squad of cops taking down a mobster in 1940's LA and starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, and Sean Penn would be a pretty good time. You'd be wrong. Gosling and Stone are pretty to look at, and the movie is crammed with amusing 40's slang ("Who's the tomato?" Gosling asks his buddy, referring to Stone. Later, Stone says to Gosling, "I bet you have a ducky story about the war.", etc). But overall, the whole thing seems fake. The film is supposedly "inspired by true events", but the idea of a group of six cops attempting to take down a powerful mobster's entire empire is...unlikely. The dialogue is often laughable (Brolin's pregnant wife tells him, "You're a kind man. You don't talk much. You're a demon in bed." to explain why she's glad she married him. That line makes me cringe so hard.) And the ending is tied up in a nice bow that's a little too convenient and perfect. Gangster Squad isn't a *terrible* movie, it's just a "meh" movie.
3 out of 5 stars
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