This year, the only nominee Apprentice Writer saw before Oscar made his annual picks was 'Up' - a thoughtful, entertaining, unexpectedly sad movie but well worth watching - so instead of glee or outrage at who took home the little naked golden men, here a collection of one sentence dispatches on movies that had the word 'comedy' attached in some form or other.
In Bruges Misbilled as a comedy, but after getting over that this was a gripping, offbeat, terrifically well-acted film that creates a frenzy to visit Bruges and a suspicion that Colin Ferrell's eyebrows are angling for a thespian career of their own.
The Brothers Bloom The kind of film that shouts 'Quirky!', starts out funny and ends up melancholy, Adrian Brody has never looked more soulful nor Rachel Weisz more dowdy but they work well together, especially in the best scene of all: double vehicle accident judging.
Imagine That Memo to Eddie Murphy: Roping in Thomas Haden Church and playing loving dad to an impossibly cute little girl DOES NOT make everyone forget you had to be forced by court to provide support for your own child - it makes the epic #reallifefail more glaring, and underlines that 'Invictus' should probably remain unwatched by this viewer due to anticipation of spending the whole time in disbelief that IRL Morgan Freeman plays the icon of ethics, Nelson Mandela.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past Lacking interesting dialogue, convincing acting and with a take on a familiar concept that was supposed to be fresh but fell flat, this bit of celluloid is best appreciated as an opportunity to ogle Matthew McConaghey, Jennifer Garner, and newcomer Daniel Sunjata; no need to turn on the volume.
Little Miss Sunshine Finally saw this extraordinary film with the stellar Toni Colette and Greg Kinnear and an out of character but utterly convincing Steve Carrell, and can't say enough good things about how smart, uncontrived, and engrossing the whole thing is. Every character thrown into personal crisis but somehow managing to emerge somehow triumphant, brilliant metaphor of increasingly decrepit bus, bullseye criticism of child beauty pagents by making it so clear that a 'regular' child has no hope in such competition and by taking that philosophy to the extreme to show a slippery slope. Yes, this is more than one sentence, but this film deserves more, and this viewer urges anyone who hasn't seen it to do so.
And then come back and share whether you agree or not!
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5 comments:
Love your take on Little Miss Sunshine - a superb ensemble film, can't really single anyone out because they're all perfect.
I agree that many films have trailers which suggest a comedy aspect, when really they're tearjerkers. That's the producers trying to make the most out of their investment. You'd think more people would get wise to this, but no.
A film like No Reservations with Catherine Zeta Jones and Aaron Eckhart should never have been billed as a comedic anything - that was a total weepfest!
I KNOW!!!! I was going to mention that very movie and didn't because it was older! What I HATED about No Reservations was that it was based on an excellent little German film, and the Zeta jones version sucked all the charm out of it.
I've seen all of the above and am nodding along with your observations.
As for this year's Oscars - I saw a good number of the top picks and though I completely agree that Hurt Locker was a riveting, thought provoking film, I didn't agree that it took best pic. Oh well... they haven't appointed me to the Academy (yet) so it's irrelavent - LOL!
Little Miss Sunshine was even better in the theater. Of course, I think every movie is better in the theater.
Wylie - which one did you pick for best picture?
Onion - Yes, I believe you, however my reality is I only see kids movies in the theatre these days *g*
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