An Artist with Emotions engages in Espionage and pleads Insanity before the Pageant while an Orphan in a War fights a Mouse from the Future in search of The Body

This is a list of the last ten films I've seen in the last 5 or so days....

The rating system:

***** = loved it

**** = really liked it

*** = liked it

** = didn’t like it

* = hated it

Films I’ve Seen Recently

My Kid Could Paint That (2007)

Directed by: Amir Bar-Lev

Rating: ***

Thoughts: This isn’t the best “put-together” documentary I’ve seen, but it does have an interesting subject. The documentary features 4-year-old Abstract artist Marla Olmstead (http://marlaolmstead.com). Parts of the documentary feel as though the director just sort of lumped them together and it doesn’t feel quite so cohesive. However, I was more interested in the topic of Marla, being an art history major. The documentary showcases the trials and tribulations of a so-called “child prodigy” (is she really, though?) in the modern art world. One minute she’s an international star and the next, thanks to a damaging story by 60 Minutes’ Charlie Rose, her family basically becomes pariah, as people question whether or not her father helped her with her paintings. Some people may see the documentary as possibly exploitive, some may feel sympathy for the parents as they are forced to deal with the hand that 60 Minutes dealt. But ultimately, I believe the documentary is about the search of discovering of what Modern and Abstract art is. Is it a huge scam perpetrated by the artists who are saying “F**ck you, I’m smarter than you” etc.? Or not?


 

The Air I Breathe (2007)

Screenplay by: Jiehlo Lee and Bob DeRosa

Directed by: Jiehlo Lee

Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Andy Garcia, Kevin Bacon, Forest Whittaker, Brendan Fraser

Rating: ****

Thoughts: This is probably not going to be a movie that everyone likes, and it was pretty much slammed by the critics, but I really liked it (and why I tend to ignore critics in the first place – to allow me to form my own opinion). The film is based upon an old Chinese proverb that says that breaks life into four emotional cornerstones – Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow and Love. Each of these emotions is not an isolated fragment but an element of the whole human existence and each are inextricably linked to one another. You can’t know Happiness until you’ve known great Sorrow, etc. Sarah Michelle Gellar (of Buffy fame) is amazing in this.


 

Se, jie (Lust, Caution) (2007)

Screenplay by: James Schamus and Hui-Ling Wang

Story by: Eileen Chang

Directed by: Ang Lee

Starring: Tang Wei, Tony Leung Chiu Wai

Rating: ***1/2

Thoughts: This film is probably best known for all the controversies surrounding its extremely explicit sex scenes (the film received the NC-17 rating from the MPAA), including China’s ban of Tang Wei on Chinese screens. She certainly seemed to get the short end of the stick. Where was the retribution against Tony Leung Chui Wai? It takes two to tango, as they say. But I digress. This film has a very beautiful soundtrack and equally beautiful cinematography. Tang Wei plays a student activist who, working undercover, seduces a Chinese intelligence official collaborating with the occupying Japanese forces during WWII (This is another thing that caused Tang Wei to be blacklisted – as her character behaves in an “unpatriotic” way in the end). It’s a very moving film that I enjoyed watching.


 

Flourish (2006)

Screenplay by: Kevin Palys

Directed by: Kevin Palys

Starring: Jennifer Morrison, Jesse Spencer

Rating: *

Thoughts: Couldn’t even finish it… I like Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer (being a huge House fan), so I thought I would give this movie a try… It suffers from a rather bad script…and an equally bad director…not to mention a HORRIBLE sound technician…. Though I will admit it was interesting to watch Jennifer play an insane character who is so different from her persona (when we actually get to see her...sorry…irrelevant ranting) on House.


 

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
 

Screenplay by: Michael Ardnt

Directed by: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Starring: Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, and Abigail Breslin

Rating: ****

Thoughts: This was a very entertaining film, in my opinion. The film is a perfect example of the “Golden Fleece” genre as the family hits the road to get Olive to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, only to grow closer together as a family. Abigail, who plays Olive, is adorable. Steve Carell plays a refreshingly realistic gay man (Seriously, how many films insist on having their gay characters shout out “Hello! I’m gay! Look at me!” and how many people actually act like that? Very few.).


 

December Boys (2007)

Based on the novel by Michael Noonan

Screenplay by: Marc Rosenberg

Story by: Ronald Kinnoch

Directed by: Rod Hardy

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Lee Cromie

Rating: ***1/2

Thoughts: This was an enjoyable, albeit occasionally slow-moving, film about four orphans who are taken on holiday to the coast of Australia. Quickly, they learn there is a couple in the village that is interested in adopting one of them and engage in a “competition” of sorts to win the couple’s affections. Radcliffe (yes, Harry Potter) is Maps, the oldest of the quartet of boys. There are those people who don’t think that Daniel Radcliffe will have a career past Harry Potter and spend plenty of time ragging on him, but, having seen him in My Boy Jack, this film and hearing the reviews of Equus (unfortunately, I will not be able to get to New York to see it), I believe they’re wrong. Radcliffe has come a long way since the very first Harry Potter film and he is clearly beginning to find himself as an actor. And I look forward to seeing what his future holds for him.


 

Platoon (1986)

Screenplay by: Oliver Stone

Directed by: Oliver Stone

Starring: Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Forest Whitaker, and (a young) Johnny Depp

Rating: **

Thoughts: Well, it certainly doesn’t take much to understand why my father (a Vietnam Vet) absolutely hated this movie (along with most of Hollywood’s version of events). This film which Stone says is based on his experiences, despite the very different accounts by those in his infantry – such as the author of Platoon: Bravo Company, Robert Hemphill. The solders of the film are portrayed…well, as monsters, really. Sure, there are a couple “nice” characters such as Charlie Sheen’s character (though his treatment of an amputee was a little sickening)…and Johnny Depp’s translator (who I found, incidentally, to be way more interesting than Sheen’s. I guess that’s why they cut so much of his part in the original theatrical release), and Sgt. Elias. Sure, the movie’s primary purpose is to entertain, but Stone’s film almost seems disrespectful to those who served. There are always two (or more) sides to the story, this is very true. Unfortunately, Hollywood seems to focus only on one side of the story – theirs.


 

The Secret of NIMH (1982)

Based on the Novel “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH” by Robert C. O’Brien

Screenplay by: Don Bluth, Will Finn, Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy

Directed by: Don Bluth

Starring: Derek Jacobi, Wil Wheaton, Shannon Doherty, Dom DeLuise, John Carradine

Rating: ***

Thoughts: This is a cute little animated film that I found once more. It used to be one of my favorites when I was a kid, or at least, I remembered it as I watched it. While the film is cute and I enjoyed it, it suffered slightly from something called “double mumbo jumbo.” First, we have super-intelligent rats thanks to lab experiments – okay, I can buy that – then all of a sudden we have a mysterious red jewel that holds special powers – and here’s where the double mumbo jumbo comes in. This jewel is a weak link because nothing is explained about it. It’s just there suddenly doing this amazing thing…


 

Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Based on the book “A Day with Wilbur Robinson” by William Joyce

Screenplay by: Jon Bernstein, Michelle Spitz, Don Hall, Nathan Greno, Aurian Redson, Joe Mateo, Stephen Anderson

Directed by: Stephen Anderson

Starring: Angela Bassett, Daniel Hansen, Laurie Metcalf

Rating: ****

Thoughts: This was a cute movie. :) The theme is about family. Lewis is a kid living in an orphanage after his mother leaves him at the doorstep when he was just a baby and he’s had over 100 interviews with potential adoptive parents who can’t seem to understand his inventive ways. After being inadvertently trapped in the future (temporarily), he learns what real family is and regains his lost confidence. The film, which was done by the Disney Animations Studios, is not quite as polished as Pixar (I’m thinking about the scenes involving the peanut butter and jelly), but it was still a very well animated film.


 

Stand By Me (1986)

Based on the novella “The Body” by Stephen King

Screenplay by: Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans

Directed by: Rob Reiner

Starring: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Keifer Sutherland

Rating: ***1/2

Thoughts: Not a bad movie. :) This is another very good example of the “Golden Fleece” genre with an emphasis on the buddies. The main focus is between Wil Wheaton’s character – Gordie – and River Phoenix’s – Chris. Both boys are having a difficult time with things as they’re growing up (Gordie’s older brother died in a car accident and his parents ignore him and Chris has to deal with the stigma of being a Chambers), but they help each other through it as they journey with two other boys on their quest for the body of a missing boy.