Movie Make-out

Män som hatar kvinnor (“Men That Hate Women”)
aka The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Directed by Niels Arden Oplev
Starring Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Sven-Bertil Taube

Two months ago, we learned that there would be an English-language film adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is the first in a planned trilogy of novels knows as the Millenium trilogy. At the time I said that I hadn’t read the book yet and that there was no work on when the original Swedish-language film adaptation would be released by Music Box Films.

Luckily, we now know that it will be going into wide release on March 19 and I got to see a preview of it last night. And I have to tell you perfectly honestly:

The executives at Sony Pictures are nuts for wanting to remake this film. Read more

Valentine’s Day

Directed by Garry Marshall
Starring Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx and more

Despite only having been a New Yorker for six years, I think I embody some of the more stereotypical traits of one. It all started at the Valentine’s Day pre-release screening at the AMC Lincoln Square where I’d found the perfect single seat. It was located right in front of the wheelchair seating area, which is perfect for me because when you’re as short as I am, you really don’t wany anyone tall sitting in front of you. One guy was holding a seat next to him and there were open seats on either side of us. However, no matter how often we were asked, we refused to move over to put two empty spaces next to us because, hey—! If you’d wanted good seats, you should have gotten to the theater early.

When the guy’s friend returned, we started griping about the people who’d expected us to move, rude people in movie theaters who can’t stop yakking through the feature, people who leave their cell phones on ring mode—or worse, who send text messages during important scenes.

When the lights went down and the opening credits rolled, I mentally prepared myself for the kind of schmaltzy romp that often marks this kind of romantic comedy. What I saw instead was a credits sequence that immediately reminded me of L.A. Story, one of my most favorite movies of all time.

And that’s when I fell in love. Read more

Up in the Air

Directed by Jason Reitman
Starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman and more

With the economy just recovering from its second most epic meltdown of the modern age, I’m sure you’ll be wondering if going to see a movie where the protagonist fires people for a living is the smartest choice for your evening’s entertainment. And that’s where you’d be right.

Directed and co-written by Jason Reitman, Up in the Air is not an easy movie to watch. It follows the story of one Ryan Bingham, a “career transition consultant” whose job is to travel all over the country and do what every frightened Human Resources department is afraid to do: fire a whole lot of people all at one time. The job requires one to be impersonal, but engaging; compassionate, but uncaring. It’s requires the finesse of a salesman and the consummate skills of an actor.

Of all the leading men in all the world, Reitman did not choose wrong when he picked George Clooney to play this role. Watching him walk over a dozen people through the stages of grief that follow when they hear they’ve lost their job is almost mesmerizing because Clooney is just so damn charming when he does it. (It’s also interesting to note that according to the San Francisco Chronicle, most of the people depicted being fired were real-life people who had been unemployed and were asked to share their stories of what they wish they could have said to the person who’d fired them.)

He’s also very charming when he picks up a woman named Alex (played by Vera Farmiga) in a hotel bar who travels just as much as he does, and just like that classic scene in Jaws (which Kevin Smith borrowed in Chasing Amy) the two bond over which frequent flier programs are the best, tossing out cards and comparing bonuses the way Quint and Banky compared their scars.

It’s because of what Bingham does for a living that Clooney has to engage the viewer right away and make him and his motivational speaker theories of how a life lived without encumberances is the best life to lead palatable—even enviable. It doesn’t hurt that Clooney’s reputation as a lifelong bachelor helps reinforce the notion that Bingham will never settle down, will never be happy with a stable life, and that’s the way he prefers it.

And that’s another problem with this movie. Read more

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Directed by Grant Heslov.Starring Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey.

If you are a skeptic in any way, shape or form, the I feel that I am honor-bound to tell you that you may hate The Men Who Stare at Goats.

But let me back up for a bit.

Based on the non-fiction novel by Welsh journalist and documentary filmmaker Jon Ronson, Goats tells the fictional story of a journalist named Bob Wilton (played by Ewan McGregor) who goes to Iraq in search of a story to prove to the coward within himself that he matters in the world.

But his journey really begins before he even thinks of going to Iraq when he is confronted by his own skepticism in the form of a “nutcase” named Guy Lacey (played admirably by Stephen Root) who claims that not only can he stop the beating heart of a hamster, but that he was once a part of a secret platoon of psychic warriors that operated within the U.S. army out of Fort Bragg.

What follows is a great non-linear tale full of characters and situations that you have to keep reminding yourself is based in reality, which is why being a skeptic may be detrimental towards getting any bit of enjoyment out of the film. Read more

Moon
Directed by Duncan Jones.
Starring Sam Rockwell and the voice of Kevin Spacey.

I’m hesitant to say anything about Moon. Even to go as far as to say that the film is amazing. I’d prefer to avoid this if only because half of you will end up at, “Well this is the jacktard that thought Wild Hogs was good” and you’ll hold my poor taste against a movie that doesn’t deserve it. The real reason I’d rather avoid telling you anything good or bad is that the less you know about Moon the more you’ll enjoy it. I walked in not having seen the trailer or read the synopsis, knowing nothing beyond it being Sam Rockwell alone in space and I was completely taken by this haunting, quiet journey that subtly reminds us that not all sci-fi movies have to feature explosions, one-liners or light sabers to pack a punch.

Were it that easy for me to say, “Iiiiiit’s GRRRRREAT!” and you’d run off to the theater… we’d be done here. But if I must get into it… Giving away no more that the film’s trailer is willing to, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) wakes up on the moon. Day 1 of a 3-year mission to harvest natural resources as part of Earth’s corporate takeover of the closest bit of available real estate. By the end of the first week Sam comes across the rare but beautiful “moon traffic accident” where he rescues an injured astronaut… who just so happens to look exactly like him.

This isn’t so much the film’s big surprise as it is the trailer’s. In the film, the reveal of double trouble is just the launching point for the speculation to begin.

Like any great episode of The Twilight Zone, Moon goes right for the delusional paranoia, ably messing with your head, forcing you to ask all the right questions. Is the double a ghost? An evil twin? How long has he really been up there? Does Earth even still exist or is the moon base’s artificial intelligence computer (well-voiced by Kevin Spacey and expressed via emoticons so you can tell when he’s being sarcastic) perpetuating a lie to keep up the spirits of the moon’s latest permanent resident?

Dude, I told you to just go see it.

I was hesitant to say any of this because half the fun of Moon is asking these questions of yourself. You should allow a good mystery to unravel before you instead of just waiting for it to hit the bullet points of the trailer. The truth is that the trailer and the film are not without their fair share of predictability. Chances are that you’ll figure out what’s going on before the characters in the film do, unless of course you’ve already seen the trailer and have bounced all the possibilities through your noggin by now. Why do that to yourself? Why rob yourself of a good mystery — especially a mystery in space! I mean, how many of those are we seriously going to get in our lifetime?

Moon should hold up either way. Good material can transcend predictability. With an outstanding performance from its sole performer (voices, flashbacks and video phones don’t count — okay, they do but still… props to Rockwell for talking to himself for practically 2 hours) and an absolutely stellar score that eerily whisks you through what could have been a very silent, somber void of a film, Moon presents a solid new vision that reminds us how strong this genre can be.

Moon launches into limited release today — June 12, 2009 — and will gradually widen in the coming weeks. Check the Sony Pictures Classics Moon page for specifics. It’s rated R for language.

Joe Dunn is the creator of Joe Loves Crappy Movies, Another Videogame Webcomic, and a thousand other fantastic online comics, as well as one of the co-hosts of The Triple Feature movie podcast.