The Kids Are Alright

A great movie about lesbians and how they raise a family. But how many bad movies about lesbians have you seen? Well for me, not too many.

This movie is about two lifelong partners Nic, played by Annette Benning, and Jules, played by Julianne Moore, who have children from the same sperm donor. They seem to have a happy little family, but as the kids approach adolescence they want to know who their father really is.

It turns out their dad is this hip, restaurant owner, Paul (Mark Ruffalo) who turns out to be so cool, I needed a jacket to finish watching the movie. However, this persona of the laid back hipster comes to destroy the family. Mark comes in and basically screws up a somewhat good family environment, regardless of the same sex marriage issue. And ruins everything. The funny thing is, that he's so incapable of thinking anything he does is not cool, that he doesn't realize how disastrous his actions are. As a result the who family dynamic is thrown off, until everyone realizes they really care about one another. It's a really good movie, but only worthy of a rental. I would have seen this in the theatre only because of the Oscar hype and the oral sex scenes which are actually funny. Good movie.

-M

Inception

What an incredible movie even on the small screen. Okay, you're going to need a Thomas Guide and a GPS system just to follow the plot line, but let me give you a brief overview.

Cobb, played by Leonardo DeCaprio, is basically a thief who works to steal your thoughts in dreams. This reminds me a bit of the movie "Dreamscape" with Dennis Quaid, from the 80's where characters would invade your dreams and kill you.

Regardless, Cobb has a bit of "Extraction" go awry and so the client named Saito decides that he wants to conceive of an idea and implant it into the mind of a competitor. The idea is call "Inception", hence the title of the movie, and if Cobb is able to instill this idea in the target it will change the history of energy forever.

However, Cobb is still troubled by the suicide of his wife, Mal, played wonderfully by Marion Cottard, who cleans up nicely after "My Vie En Rose". In his dreams Mal shows up and sabotages his plans consistently. As a result he hires a new architect, Ariadne, played by Ellen Page, who does a great job. She designs a dream world for their new target to move through for the Inception.

Cillian Murphy plays the target, Robert Fischer, who is set for the inception. As the movie progresses they devise a series of dream layers in order to set up the inception. The fascinating part is how many layers of dreams their seems to be and how they contrive to plant this idea in Fischer's dreams. It is an incredibly complicated idea, with so many dream layers that at one point I thought, "Am I watching the movie "Inception", or am I dreaming I'm watching this movie."

Great movie, in or out of the movie theatre, and definitely worth the rental. Especially on Blu Ray which is phenomenal. Definitely rent it.

-M

Winter's Bone

A wonderful movie which takes you inside the world of the hill people of the Ozark mountains and really gives you a sense of the culture. The main character Ree played by Jennifer Lawrence is wonderfully portrayed and the supporting actors are phenomenal. She searches through the whole move for her lost father and encounters all kinds of scary "relatives" along the way. Beaten, threatened and finally she finds out exactly what happened to her drug "cooking" father. Great story line and it really pulls you in to the culture.

It is a small movie which no doubt will win many critics awards and deservedly so. The acting is great, the cinematography is wonderful and the story is interesting.

It does such a good job of portraying the scary culture of the Ozarks so much so, that I would never want to visit there let alone live in that type of environment. My "relatives" aren't always inclined to beat or kill me, so I'll stay where I'm at thank you.

-M

A Single Man

This is a beautiful movie. If you can deal with the subject matter, mainly gay lovers, then this movie is worth seeing. I personally thought this was the best movie of 2009. I saw Avatar and that was amazing, but as far as a serious and well made movie, this was the best of the year.

Colin Firth plays a professor at a small community college in Los Angeles who just lost his lover to a car accident. He is traumatize and contemplating suicide when he meets a number of interesting characters as he battles with his loss. Julianne Moore plays his best friend and is a great supporting actress in this movie, carrying some great scenes and witty dialogue.

For a first time director, Tom Ford does a great job of making this movie look like a fashion ad for the 1960's. Every shot is flawless and the colors are magnificient. Definitely rent this one if you can handle male nudity. If you can't, Broke Back Mountain is an alternative, or maybe The Hurt Locker.

Whip It!

I admit it. I like Drew Barrymore movies. I'm not ashamed that I watched Fever Pitch and enjoyed it. And this movie is no different. It's a good little story about a young girl, Bliss (Ellen Page) living in a small town in Texas and struggling to break out.

Her parents are completely dysfunctional and while her dad wants her to be a football player, her mom wants her to win beauty pageants. Geeze, no wonder the kid's confused. All the acting in it is good really with the exception of Drew Barrymore who's character is a stoner and really just not essential to the plot. I think if the character were a little different it would have been funny.

As the movie progresses, Page discovers roller derby is her way to express herself and so she lies and then tries out for the worst team, the Hurl Girls. She finds herself surprisingly good at skating and takes to it with passion. There's a romantic lead thrown in which really isn't terribly romantic. I think they hired a guy from a band who should have stuck to music rather than try to act. The whole movie is more like a coming of age story on roller skates. Page is still her self deprecating self but not as acidic as she was in Juno. Good movie for a date night at home.

-M

She's Outta My League

I thought this movie would be a cute little romantic comedy and that's pretty much what it was, and nothing more. The lead character played by Jay Baruchel is very likeable as is Alice Eve, but it's not really that great of a movie.

First of all the film's premise is really not all that believable. Not because she's hot and he's not. No, the real problem I had is that it takes place in Pittsburg! Pittsburg?! A hot girl like that in Pittsburg? No...I don't think so. Don't get me wrong there are beautiful women everywhere, but they never stay in the town they're born in, and if they do stay in a town like Pittsburg, they're fat and pregnant by the time they're 26 years old.

Yeah that's my biggest problem with the movie.

Now all you steel town lovers, don't be pissed at me. (Actually, Pittsburg is a big financial hub now). It just doesn't make sense, and then the fact that her boyfriend is a big time pilot, who flies in Pittsburg. No...not working for me.. Alleghany Airlines became US Airways years ago and moved to Nashville, so don't pull that crap with me. That's compeletely unbelievable. Other than the setting the support characters are funny, and there are some good parts. Alice Eve is devastatingly beautiful, but it's definitely a rental...even in Pittsburg.

-M

Castle in the Sky

Sorry it's been a while since I reviewed anything but this movie is definitely worth the rental. Another brilliant film from Hayao Miyazaki and this one was made almost 25 years ago! It is the very first film ever produced by Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli and it is brilliant as are most of his films.

Like all of Miyazaki's films this one has an environmental theme, with the lead character Sheeta being kidnapped for her pendant which radiates a special blue light. She is descended from the original rulers of Laputa (Castle in the Sky) which is a legend much like Atlantis is today. However this legend supposedly still exists, and Sheeta must find the Castle in the Sky too fulfill her destiny.

With the help of her new found friend Pazu, Sheeta escapes the clutches of the army and a group of pirates and sets out to find Laputa. It is also Pazu's dream to find the city as well since his father first photographed Laputa years ago. As the two friends set out to find the Castle in the Sky, along the way they are pursued by both pirates and the army each trying to steal the pendant from Sheeta for themselves. How it ends I'll never tell...

The two lead characters are again wonderfully crafted and the whole movie has that great Miyazaki future and past feeling. When you see his movies you are definitely transported to another world entirely. This movie is great for parents and kids alike. Rent it for its beautiful imagery, its great story and its wonderful theme about the power of love.

-M