Guest Blogger: Carrie Lynn Patiño: Mud (2012)

Another movie with a shirtless Matthew McConaughey? Well yes and no. McConaughey plays a character named Mud and does have a small scene in which he is indeed shirtless (I don't know if it's in his contract to appear shirtless in all his films just like I don't know if it's in Anne Hathaway's contract to show her breasts whenever she stars alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, but I digress); however the movie is about much, much more. It is a young boy's journey learning about life, love and trust. The main character is 14-year old Ellis (Tye Sheridan), a romantic at heart who believes in a love that is pure. That is until he learns that his parents are separating and that his "girlfriend" has been untrue.

Ellis and his best friend Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) hear about a boat in a tree on an island down river from their home in Dewitt, Arkansas. The boys take Ellis's boat to the island to lay claim on the treasure in the tree. They find proof that someone is living on the boat. That someone turns out to be 30-something Mud (McConaughey). Mud and the boys hail from the same neck of the woods and even share a common acquaintance—a recluse called Tom Blankenship (Sam Shepard).

As the unlikely relationship develops between the boys and Mud, we learn that Mud is waiting for his girlfriend, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), who Mud has known since she saved him from a Copperhead snake bite when he was 10. Mud tells the boys how Juniper is the most beautiful woman on Earth, that he loves her and she him. This prompts Ellis to help Mud reunite with his true love.

One afternoon while Ellis is searching for a reason to speak to the 17-year-old girl he loves named May Pearl (Bonnie Sturdivant), he sees a boy groping her. Ellis runs across the street and coldcocks the boy, a senior at May Pearl’s high school. May Pearl is impressed by Ellis’s chivalry and tells him to give her a call if he can find her number. At the same time, Neckbone spots a blonde woman that fits Juniper’s description. The boys follow to confirm that it’s her and deliver a letter from Mud. She seems happy but has a noticeable ambivalence as well. Ellis is elated that he is bringing the two soul mates together, especially after learning his own parents are separating.

When the boys visit Mud again, they report what happened with Juniper and that he is a wanted man. Mud tells them why he is  wanted. He then devises a plan to use the boat as his and Juniper's getaway, reneging on his deal with the boys. They strike a new deal and the boys help Mud get the necessary items to restore the boat and get it out of the tree which includes a visit to Tom. The relationship between these two men is uncertain but essentially Tom has helped raise Mud. Tom knows the reason for Mud’s return involves Juniper. He knows the mad love that Mud has for Juniper but believes she manipulates Mud and will be his demise.

Ellis has moments of clarity regarding love. He is hurt and betrayed by his dealings with women and with Mud. This leads to the climax where Ellis will see what Mud is really made of.

This film is beautifully shot and honestly acted staying true to the essence of the movie. You as a viewer really feel that you are part of the story because you can identify with characters portrayed because each one of us has experienced life, love and trust. And we have all made choices whether right or wrong, but ultimately without regret.

Carrie Lynn is a hip single mother of two. When she’s not working her fingers to the bone at three jobs, she’s rooting for the Chicago Cubs or taking in a rock show. Her favorite cocktail is a blackberry mojito brought to her by her favorite bartender at Ñ.

Springbreakers (2012)

James Franco as a cornrowed gangster? Young women financing a spring break trip by committing armed robbery? Could it possibly be good?

It is not. It is, in fact, awful. Yet, I can’t discount it altogether.

We meet three party-loving collegiates, Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine). I had difficulty telling the three—all blondes—apart early on. They stand around, engage in banal discussions and encourage their wholesome raven-haired friend Faith (Selena Gomez) to let loose.

They’re pumped to head to Florida for spring break but their bank accounts don’t match their enthusiasm. The downtrodden girls hang in the echoing dorm, abandoned by their peers. The blondes have a light-bulb moment. One borrows a professor’s car, they rob a restaurant and thus, finance spring break. You’d think that they’d return the car and be done with it. No, they torch and watch it burn.

They arrive in Florida and debauch with other spring breakers. All is going well until a party they are attending gets busted. They face several days in the clink when they are unexpectedly bailed out by Alien (James Franco), a rapper and drug dealer with an arsenal of weapons. He takes them back to a house party. The blondes are delighted. He takes a liking to Faith, who already uncomfortable in her surroundings, reaches her breaking point. She takes a bus home and that’s the last we see of her. (It’s so early in the movie, you wonder if Gomez decided that her brand could go only that far.)

Franco jumps into the role of Alien and is so over the top, you forget it’s him. The girls are smitten with the bad boy. Alien gets into his past and how he got to his heights of gangster-dom. His former best friend, Big Arch, also a gangster, warns Alien to stay out of his turf.

The movie rambles, meanders and takes a long time to get no where. We don’t find out what drives any of the characters besides basic hedonistic urges. It escalates to an unbelievable anti-climactic conclusion. Candy and Brit stay with Alien, cavorting and robbing. The lame dialogue, the annoying Hudgens and Benson and the empty plot plod along. It does possess elements perfect for cult-classic standing. It has stylized bits and cinematography that work really well. Pink ski masks, black light effects, slow-motion action and James Franco, especially James Franco, keep Springbreakers from being a zero. Alien deserves his own movie.

I can’t recommend Springbreakers to anyone who wants a plotted story with three-dimensional characters. It does have its moments, and under some conditions, like a midnight movie, bring it on.

Director: Harmony Korine

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 94 minutes

Scale: 3

Hævnen (In a Better World) (2010)

Danish director Susanne Bier starts Hævnen with a father and son in mourning, following the death of the family matriarch.

Following the funeral, pre-teen Christian (William Jøhnk Nielsen) and his father Claus (Ulrich Thomsen) relocate to Denmark from London. Claus will commute to London while Claus’s mother watches Christian.

On his first day at school, Christian witnesses a peer being bullied by a group of much bigger boys. The bullied boy Elias (Markus Rygaard) ends up in Christian’s class. The two learn they share a birthday, sit together and begin a friendship. After school, the bullies await Elias. Christian calmly comes to his rescue, gets a basketball pummeled at his face and ends up with a bloody mess of a nose. He goes home, escapes into his shoot-‘em-up video game. He tells his father nothing as their fractured relationship continues to worsen.

Christian returns to wield revenge and send a message to his opportunistic bullies. The school calls in Christian’s dad and Elias’s mother Marianne (Trine Dyrholm) who is upset; the school hasn’t done anything to keep her son safe from bullying and now they are accusing him of conspiring against the bully. Elias’s father Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) works abroad in Africa as a doctor in a refugee camp and is gone for long periods. He’s a pacifist and it has rubbed off on Elias who until Christian’s intervention took the violence.

On one of Anton’s visits back, he takes Elias and Christian into town. Anton gets into an altercation with a man at a park. The man lashes out at Anton. Christian seethes at the injustice and disrespect. He urges Anton to exact revenge. Anton explains that remaining calm is the right way; that peace wins in the face of violence, much the way he conducts himself against the barbarity he witnesses in Africa.

Christian cannot accept it. Already struggling with his mother’s death and feelings about his father’s behavior during her illness, his rage explodes and pushes him toward irreparable violence.

The movie examines the effects of bullying on friendships, relationships between fathers and sons, the expectations of men in society and interplay between bullies and victims. Bier is a master of digging deeply into the messy swamp of people’s compulsions, fears and desires. The acting is terrific, especially from the two young leads. Elias displays the emotive side of fear and confusion, while Christian portrays the middle-aged seething at life’s injustices from the perspective of a young man.

Director: Susanne Bier

Country: Denmark

Genre: Drama

Run time: 118 minutes

Scale: 4

Atmen (Breathing) (2011)

This offering from Austria presents a trifecta win: visually stunning, acting that makes you feel tremendous blows and unexpected highs and a profound character-driven plot.

Eighteen-year-old Roman (Thomas Schubert) is dead inside. He lives at a juvenile detention facility. His social worker/parole officer is frustrated that Roman keeps screwing up his go-sees. He’s up for another parole hearing and a job would help. He implores Roman has to care.

It’s still early days in our getting-to-know-Roman process when he hands his PO a job ad and declares that this is the job he wants—the reaction conveys all. This man who has been grumbling for Roman to get a job is dumbfounded and wonders if the serious Roman is joking.

Roman leaves very early for the first day of a trial work period at the mortuary. Roman takes in every experience as if seeing dead bodies for the first time. We learn that five years ago, he committed a crime that landed him at the detention center. At the new job, one of his co-workers alludes to Roman’s crime (we, the audience have yet to been enlightened) and hazes him.

Roman learns bodies are heavy, they stink and there is a process involved in this work. What shakes up the plot is the day he handles a corpse sharing his surname. We learn that Roman doesn’t know his own mother’s name. The mystery deepens.

Schubert, as Roman, carries Breathing. His loneliness is heavy and he shares this burden with the viewer. He’s sweet, he’s hard, he’s hurt. Breathing takes its time telling us the story. The dialog doesn’t bore us with filler. When Roman meets his mother Margit (Karin Lischka) for the first time, she’s testing a mattress at IKEA. They converse as if polite acquaintances. Their real conversation goes down in the IKEA cafeteria. It’s a darkly comedic yet gloomy moment. (Makes you wonder how many pivotal conversations germinate over Swedish meatballs or seafood salad?)

Another rich aspect is experiencing what gaining freedom looks like to a teenager who has been raised in institutions his entire life. Each outing—each train ride to work, each house he visits to pick up a dead body, each item in people’s home and even the inside of IKEA—is a rebirth. And, Roman’s expressions convey this. You experience freedom as Roman deconstructs it. It’s an incredible experience to capture for an audience. I watched it twice and no detail is there by chance.

One detail was opaque. Roman swims on his own in the pool at the detention center. The other boys don’t swim until he is done and I don’t know why. Does it mean they won’t swim with him or is there a reason he must complete his laps alone? Additionally, the European furlough system is shocking to an American used to our system where offenders are locked up and not released until the sentence ends and with little preparation for the outside world, employment and assimilation back into society.

Breathing is simple yet profound. The writing is strong and the cinematography is lush and impressive—many shots able to pass as exquisite photographs. It’s the acting, though, that will sock you in the heart. You feel Roman’s loneliness, his pain, his mother’s shame. You warm to the parole officer in the end because any of these characters could be you. I’m not a criminal, a parolee nor was I a teen mother but Breathing made me feel what they experienced.

Here’s a nice morsel. If you saw, the award-winning Austrian movie, The Counterfeiters, you will recognize the director of Breathing, Karl Markovics, who played the lead role.

Writer/Director: Karl Markovics

Country: Austria

Genre: Drama

Run time: 94 minutes

Scale: 5

Die Welle (The Wave) (2012)

Die Welle opens inside a car careening around corners while the driver belts along to a cover of The Ramones’ Rock and Roll High School. Mr. Wenger (Jürgen Vogel) is at the wheel. He’s on his way to school where he’s teaching a segment on autocracy. Wenger is a dynamic teacher but he’s disappointed because he preferred to teach anarchy. Wenger begins a discussion on dictatorships. When Nazi Germany comes up, the students make a collective eye-roll. Being Germans, they are exhausted on discussing the topic because it would “never happen again.” Couldn’t it though? Wenger counters and thus it begins.

The class discusses the attributes required for a dictatorship: uniforms, a code of conduct, discipline. The students begin wearing white shirts, they exclude those who dissent. The usual traits that help students excel, such as smarts and the ability to verbalize a point are ignored. Following the code is most important. And, what starts happening? A logo and a hand gesture are created. New members can join at the invitation of current members. They name their movement, The Wave. They graffiti. They use body guards. They tattle on dissenters. Students are dropping other classes to attend this one. In one week, the students have gone from being ambivalent to cult-like reverence for Wenger, who is drinking his own Kool-Aid. Sounds familiar? This is Hitler and Third Reich fodder. The sense of belonging and conformity appeal to most, except a few who are squashed. All in less than one week in Wenger’s class.

Within this week, the majority of the class is aggressively crossing lines with an anything-for-the cause attitude. One student takes things to the extreme with a gun and, while seeming plausible, it comes off as forced.

The movie was inspired by true events that happened in the Palo Alto classroom of history teacher Ron Jones in the late 1960s. He said the experiment results scared him deeply because of how fast and easily the students fell into the conformity when just days earlier they guffawed as they argued that history couldn’t repeat itself.

Director: Dennis Gansel

Country: Germany

Genre: Drama that plays like a thriller

Run time: 107 minutes

Scale: 4

Pariah (2011)

Pariah is a young adult coming-out tale. The moving story is told with documentary-like realism. It takes an unflinching look at the difficulties faced by teenagers coming out as gay to reluctant-to-accept parents.

Alike (Adepero Oduye) isn't confused about her sexuality. However, she has been dressing in pink and semi-fluffy to appease her church-going mother Audrey (Kim Wayans). She leaves the house with a hidden change of oversized clothes, her doo-rag and baseball cap with which she becomes her true self she can be once away from home. Audrey wages her low-simmer battle to keep Alike girlie and away from bad influences, like her best friend, Laura (Pernell Walker), a lesbian and Alike’s main support. Audrey doesn’t accept the unspoken truth about Alike. As she puts it, “God doesn’t make mistakes.”

Wayans is terrific as the overbearing, pushy mother. There were moments when I expected her to launch into the comedic Wayans territory. She’d make a certain face and, I’d waited for her trademark berserk expression.

Meanwhile, Audrey and Alike’s father, Arthur (Charles Parnell) are in marital discord, which makes Audrey focus on Alike to avoid the bigger issue she’s dodging. Alike's close relationship with her father saves her from complete parental alienation; that is, until she tries to come out to him.

Writer/director Dee Rees creates a confident teen character in Alike, who tries to be true to herself and keep her parents. Her solid network of lesbian pals and an influential teacher keep her moving forward. It’s heartbreaking to see her parents deny her in her efforts to be honest. Pariah depicts the harsh realities that occur after some teens come out to their families. I’ve read about teens being kicked out of the house and shunned after coming out.

In Pariah, Alike's biggest ally is herself. With her excellent grades and good friends, she creates options for herself. Sadly, life doesn’t always present bankable options like those that open up to Alike.

Great indie film. Check it.

Writer/Director: Dee Rees

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 86 minutes

Scale: 4

Margaret (2011)

I wanted to love it. Had no doubts that I would. Then, I saw it and everything changed.

The first hour wasn’t bad. Then, Margaret led me into perplexing tangents that dead-ended and left me disappointed and cold (the theater was freezing). It was a meandering mess that held me hostage for 2.5 hours.

New York teen Lisa (Anna Paquin, you know she will have at least one topless scene) is on a quest for a cowboy hat. While out and about, she witnesses a traffic fatality. Feeling complicit, she sets out to do right by the victim. As she gets more vested, the situation creates emotional turbulence. Her mother, Joan (J. Smith-Cameron), a stage actress. is having problems relating to Lisa’s increasingly explosive reactions. Joan starts dating Ramon (Jean Reno). Their budding relationship is boring and painful to watch; I didn’t understand the point of it. Even Joan seems uninterested. Lisa becomes increasingly desperate as she loses more control in her quest to do The Right Thing. Lisa’s father, Karl (director Kenneth Lonergan) is selfish and unsupportive. He’s just one more unlikeable character in this parade of many.

What happened? Margaret needed focus and editing. The story took on more than it could resolve, resulting in an unsatisfactory experience.

Director: Kenneth Lonergan

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Run time: 150 very long minutes

Scale: 2

Looking for Eric (2009)

An on-going discussion regarding the best movie watched in 2011, Looking for Eric is likely the one. This was a year of excellent movies viewed, including Up, Whip It, The King’s Speech, Mary and Max, Bridesmaids, Beginners, Boy (a very close second), Exit Through the Gift Shop (a near tie with LFE), Fish Tank and TiMER), so why does Looking for Eric stand out?

You experience every emotion as you watch. Looking for Eric delves into depression, camaraderie and friendship, love lost, complicated family issues, divorce, redemption, honesty, new love, violence, sports, lost dreams and discovering you can change a lousy existence.

Our postal carrier protagonist Eric (Steve Evets) is a broken man. Two failed marriages, two unruly step-sons and three decades of regret. Eric keeps his mess to himself, that is until he starts having visions of his favorite footballer—former Manchester United player Eric Cantona. Cantona pushes Eric to revisit the mistakes he’s made and share his struggles instead of keeping them to himself. He encourages Eric to own up, open up and make changes.

This is a complex and layered story as Eric holds onto a huge regret that he cannot surpass. He has a miserable relationship with his two step-sons, Ryan (Gerard Kearns) and Jess (Stefan Gumbs). The only sunshine in his life are his daughter, Sam (Lucy-Jo Hudson), his granddaughter, Daisy (Cole and Dylan Williams) and his favorite team Manchester United and footballer Eric “King Eric” Cantona. As the world conspires to push Eric out of his comfort zone with his step-son, Ryan, his first ex-wife Lily (Stephanie Bishop) who he hasn’t seen in 30 years and a local thug, Zac (Steve Marsh), who threatens his family, Eric will come out transformed but will he find himself and win back his life? (Tip: View with subtitles to ensure you don’t miss any of the good stuff. Otherwise, they speak 2 fast, 2 furious, and with very strong accents.)

Director: Ken Loach

Country: UK

Genre: Drama + Comedy

Run time: 116 minutes

Scale: 5

The Descendants (2011)

George Clooney will likely be crowned for his performance here. Despite not belonging to the diehard Clooney Fan Club, he deserves recognition. In the past, he’s struck me as beautiful but with little range. In The Descendants, he finds emotional range beyond what he gave in Up in the Air (which was good). His conflicts, his frustrations and his I’ve-no-clue-what-the-hell-to-do moments show us the black, the white and the greys.

Matt King (George Clooney) is a thrifty lawyer entrusted with pristine Hawaiian land that’s been in his family for decades and will soon be sold for development. His wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is on life support following a boating accident. Having been disconnected with the family (presumably working), he has little relationship with his two troubled daughters. Younger Scottie (Amara Miller) is a bully; Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) at boarding school is getting drunk and hitting golf balls (allegedly, she’s more troubled in the book).

The Descendants was adapted from the Kaui Hart Hemmings novel. I have it on good word that the movie was thinned way down. This is a story about a daughter and a father finding each other in the fallout of a failed marriage and the hard truths they uncover. The trust backstory isn’t as interesting as the dynamics between Matt and Alexandra and their sleuthing. (The magnificent Woodley steals the screen). It’s tragic. It’s funny. It’s also a wee predictable with a good dose of feel good. Scottie and Alexandra’s friend Sid (Nick Krause) are extraneous characters who contribute little to moving along the plot.

Co-writer/Director: Alexander Payne

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Run time: 115 minutes

Scale: 4

Footloose (2011)

Surrounded by teenagers slumped in their seats, making out and giggling, I sat in the nearly full small Mt. Vernon theater.

I remember little from the original except its intensity juxtaposed with manic dancing. This remake is predictable but it possesses an entertaining pulse. The male lead (played originally by Kevin Bacon) has charisma as does his wing-man.

When tragedy strikes small town Bomont, Texas, the city council enact a public dancing ban. The Reverend Shaw Moore (Dennis Quaid) is particular adamant as his son was one of the teenagers killed in the accident (the accident being the catalyst for the ban). This leaves his daughter, Ariel (Julianne Hough), crushed—she’s lost her brother and can no longer dance. The teens in Bomont are mental about public dancing—in parking lots and abandoned buildings. Good-girl-on-strike Ariel lies and gets what she wants. When Boston boy Ren MacCormack (Kenny Wormald) relocates to the small town after his mother’s death, he rebels against the Draconian rules, causing ire and decent in the Rev’s home. He sparks her interest but it won’t be that easy. He wants her, she’s dating the dumb rich hothead. (You know where this goes.)

Ren’s sidekicks, Willard (Miles Teller) and Woody (Ser'Darius Blain), are noteworthy secondary characters, especially Willard—he’s hilarious as the cowboy lacking the two-step gene.

Andie MacDowell as Vi Moore has a small role as the reverend’s wife who comes through for Ariel; I couldn’t take my eyes off her forehead, between her brows where a peculiar bumpy area looked like Botox gone wrong.

Footloose redux is fluffy and predictable, but if you have been stricken by the dance craze gripping our nation, you might be tapping your toes here.

Co-writer/Director: Craig Brewer

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Run time: 113 minutes

Scale: 2.75

Das weiße Band (The White Ribbon) (2009)

The black-and-white aesthetic of The White Ribbon adds an air of mystery and distance in this recounting of sinister events in a German village in the years before World War I.

The disturbing tale kicks off when a metal wire is rigged between two poles. The village doctor takes a life-threatening fall when his horse runs into said wire. The investigation grows cold—no witnesses, motives nor evidence. The next several incidents lead to the conclusion that someone is performing ritual punishments. Are the village children the perpetrators? The narrator has his own side story that allows for a bit of humor—a rare trait in a Michael Haneke film. It works juxtaposed against the intense main storyline. 

The White Ribbon has Haneke’s trademark theme—that we are all sadists. In fact, the events depicted are based on alleged incidents recorded in Germany and Austria in the 1920s and 1940s. The foreshadowing is clear—the German Reich lies ahead and many of these kids will end up in the Nazi movement. Is it coincidence that the white ribbon the Pastor makes his children wear when they are in need of moral cleansing is reminiscent of the bands the Jews were forced to wear during the Hitler regime?

The White Ribbon is engaging. Yet another Haneke ending without clarity is frustrating, especially after more than two hours.

Open letter to Michael Haneke:

Dear Mr. Haneke,

You are a master storyteller. I watch your movies with rapt interest. Despite their length, I don’t find myself clock watching which is different from how I behave at baseball games; they go too long and should end after the 7th inning. But, I digress.

My point is that unresolved endings mimic real life, but art offers us a break from that reality. Occasionally, I’d be delighted to see a decisive conclusion. That said, The Piano Teacher is a favorite with a reasonable ending. I refer instead to Caché, Funny Games and The White Ribbon. Your open-ended formula needs an overhaul. I don’t know if these children were culpable nor do I know if The School Teacher married Klara.

Despite my nitpicks, this movie was nominated for and won several prestigious awards. Check it out and see what you opine.

Writer/Director: Michael Haneke

Country: Austria

Genre: Drama

Run time: 144 minutes

Scale: 4

Entre nos (Between Us) (2009)

Entre nos is a character development film about immigration gone wrong. Based on a true story about a mother and her two children newly landed (presumably illegally) in New York from Colombia. They have reunited with husband and father Antonio (Andres Munar).

Mariana (Paola Mendoza) is devastated when Antonio abandons her and their children—10-year-old Gabriel (Sebastian Villada) and six-year-old Andrea (Laura Montana). Their lives downward spiral. They lose their apartment and must scavenge for food and money.

This uncomplicated story is poignant and positive. Despite not speaking English and despite the loss of stability, Mariana and her children navigate their impossible situation. They survive each crossroad with the help of several strangers. The movie postscript provides details on what happened to the real-live characters. (You don’t, however, learn what happened to Antonio and whether or not any of them ever saw him again.)

I loved the Colombian angle: the familiar accent, the Spanish lexicon and the food. In the bonus materials on the DVD, the directors detail the step-by-step instructions for on making empanadas. Yum-yum.

Co-writers/Co-directors: Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Run time: 80 minutes

Scale: 3.5

Fish Tank (2009)

Fish Tank is celluloid rawness. Fifteen-year-old Mia (Katie Jarvis) busts onto the screen gulping alcohol from any bottle she can get her hands on, head-butting a former friend for no apparent reason and trying to liberate a neglected horse. The moment her party-girl mom’s one-night stand catches her dancing in her council estate kitchen, Mia’s life changes.

Mia lives in a den of hostility with her younger sister Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths) and their critical mother Joanne (Kierston Wareing). The three are foul-mouthed and rage-filled. When Joanne’s new boyfriend Connor (Michael Fassbender) starts giving Mia the attention she’s starved for and encourages her dreams of being a hip-hop dancer, she puts her fury aside. She lessens her missions to chaos and destruction in lieu of the dancing, especially when a big audition comes her way. Just as it appears she’s getting on track a huge betrayal derails her. You don’t cross Mia Williams unless you are ready for her wrath. The dance scene shared by the three ladies at the end is priceless. A great movie without this scene but their connection utters the feeling they don’t state.

Brutal, cutting, unsanded—Mia is an animal I didn’t want to release. Get comfortable on the edge of your sofa for the maelstrom from which you won’t be able to turn. In the end, I was upset with Mia’s choice; I wanted her to return to school and expand upon her awakening. She’s a fighter but where will she end up? This is a genuine ending but I’m still mad at her for leaving.

Andrea Arnold also directed the brilliant Red Road (which was meant to be the first in a trilogy using the same actors).

Writer/Director: Andrea Arnold

Country: UK

Genre: Drama

Run time: 122 minutes

Scale: 5

The Kids Are All Right (2010)

I’m surprised there aren’t more movies about kids looking up their sperm donors. The best part of watching The Kids Are All Right is that I avoided reading or hearing anything about it beforehand so everything—from the secondary actors to the plot points to the ending were a surprise.

In a nutshell, siblings 18-year-old Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and 15-year-old Laser (Josh Hutcherson) seek out and meet Paul (Mark Ruffalo)the man behind the sperm that created them. When their moms Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) find out, they are threatened by Paul and worried about the kids.

(Spoiler Alert: Read at Your Own Risk!)

Pros
It’s funny: Great use of humor—quips, one-liners and verbal sparring.

Insightful details and characterizations: Joni and Laser are confident. They have real teenage moments and through these we learn what drives them. Their relationship with one another is strong and they are self-assured. The relationship between their moms Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) is portrayed with its blemishes and struggles. Paul (Mark Ruffalo) is affected by his relationship with Joni and Laser and he grows up.

Cons:
The ending: The way Paul is cut off from the Laser and Joni at the end was sloppy and offered no resolution. If this movie were longer, Laser and Paul would get likely be in touch again. They shared a connection but it would be difficult for the entire family to forgive Paul’s perceived “interloping.” I loved the idea of this blended family working out somehow.

Was Jules definitely gay? No way! I had difficulty believing that Jules was gay after her sex scenes with Paul. She was really into it MANY times over. At the very least, maybe she’s bisexual?

Co-writer/Director: Lisa Cholodenko

Country: USA

Genre: Dramedy

Run time: 106 minutes

Scale: 3.5

Savage Grace (2007)

Savage Grace is an uneven and slow slog. I’d go as far as calling it boring. It shocks you over and over but in between, the unsympathetic characters provoke anything but distaste, revulsion and confirmation that people with too much money are miserable wagons.

This disturbing mess tells the alleged true story of Barbara Daly Baekeland (Julianne Moore) and Brooks Baekeland (Stephen Dillane); the latter the heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. They have a son, Antony (Eddie Redmayne), who is doted on by his mother and ignored by his father. The family travel the world mingling with persons of high social caliber. Brooks is irritated while Barbara is in her element pushing Tony’s accomplishments onto the annoyed guests.

(Spoiler Alert: Read at Your Own Risk!)

Tony’s interest is mildly peaked when he meets hot Spaniard Blanca (Elena Anaya) but that doesn’t stop him from sexing it up with his male buddy (see picture). Barbara pushes Tony and Blanca to sleep together, but soon Brooks runs away with Blanca leaving wife and son behind never to look back. Tony is crushed by his dad’s abandonment and his “inheriting” his mother, her depression and her suicidal tendencies.

Many lurid events follow: Barbara takes up with a gay man. They  engage in a ménage à trois with Tony. Tony is numb as his mother’s keeper, confidante and sometimes lover. I wasn’t expecting the final scene where Barbara mounts her son, has sex with him and asks him if he came. When he says no, she gives him a hand job. Once done, they get up and contemplate what to order for dinner. Tony stabs and kills her. After nearly eight years in a psychiatric hospital, Tony is released and moves in with his maternal grandmother. Within a week, he stabs her. She survives but Tony goes to Rikers Island where within the year he’s dead by suffocation with a plastic bag (it was uncertain if it was a suicide or murder).

A fucking mess.

Director: Tom Kalin

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Run time: 97 minutes

Scale: 2

Blue Car (2002)

Meg (Agnes Bruckner) discovers her blossoming talent as a poet in AP English. It gives her respite from her duties as stand-in mom at home to her mentally ill younger sister as her single mom works to make ends meet since Meg’s father abandoned them.

The pressure gets to neglected Meg as her sister Lily (Regan Arnold) cuts herself, won’t eat and obsesses about morbidity. Meg finds solace in the attention of her English teacher, Mr. Auster (David Strathairn). She wins a contest and a chance to go to the regionals. As he mentors her writing, she develops feelings for him. I hoped that Blue Car wouldn’t go “there” to the realm of the student-teacher affair. You see it coming but for a long time, it looks as though it will be averted until it comes crashing.

The distance between the two girls and their mother grows. Meg hides more as tragedy strikes the family. She is determined to get to the regionals which leads to the movie’s crescendo. Meg’s brooding and sadness saturate the screen. I loved the process where how she writes her poem Blue Car. The way we are there with Meg’s emotions and reality is the strongest aspect of Blue Car. In need of attention and love, Meg she puts all her hopes and dreams in her teacher’s basket. He takes advantage of this, but she is metamorphosing. She has become a writer but Auster isn’t who she believed him to be. The ending brings her to a new understanding of how she fits in the world and what she needs to stand on her own.

Writer/Director: Karen Moncrieff

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Run time: 96 minutes

Scale: 3

To verdener (Worlds Apart) (2008)

Worlds Apart is a based on a true story about a devout 17-year-old Jehovah’s Witness and the choice that will define her future.

Sara (Rosalind Spanning) and her family are zealous in their faith. When her parents separate, they ask Sara and her young siblings, Elisabeth (Sarah Juel Werner) and August (Jacob Ottensten), to decide which parent will leave the family home. Around the same time, Sara meets older Teis (Pilou Asbæk). While they clash over her religious beliefs, they spar intelligently. His counterpoints ring some truth within her. They start dating. When her father and the church elders get wind of it, they urge Sara to get rid of him; Teis asks her to rethink it. Her older brother Jonas (Thomas Knuth-Winterfeldt) has already been shunned and it has destroyed him; Sara wants to avoid that fate. She hatches a plan to appease everyone, but it won’t be easy.

Worlds Apart is about painful decisions. Because it takes its time unfolding, you behold Sara’s sorrow and suffering. Her agony is palpable. In the end, everyone loses here. Worlds Apart injects you into this fractured family, torn apart by the very thing around which they’ve centered themselves. The Danish make beautifully deep movies and this is no exception.

Co-writer/Director: Niels Arden Oplev

Country: Denmark

Genre: Drama

Run time: 115 minutes

Scale: 4.5

The History Boys (2006)

Set in the 1980s with a soundtrack featuring New Order, The Smiths, The Clash, Echo and the Bunnymen and The Cure, The History Boys follows a group of boisterous young men preparing to present their A-levels in history for admittance into Oxford and Cambridge. What are A-levels, you ask? Wikipedia defines them as follows:

A-levels (Advanced Levels) are courses which are taken by British 16-18 year-olds who hold 'advanced' levels of intelligence. The courses are the way to get to university and thus set their proud owner up for a life of unimaginable riches, unimaginable luxury and unimaginable sex. All because you have A-levels.

In this character-driven drama, you get to know the gifted students in their hunger to achieve and learning about themselves. Main character Dakin (Dominic Cooper) believes his smarts and good looks will get him anything. Posner (Samuel Barnett) who has a crush on Dom and his verve. Teacher Hector (Richard Griffiths) loves drama and poetry and has the boys recite poetry or break into song, but this is no time for singing. The headmaster is worried that if they don’t get it, he won’t be able to clock any victories for his school. He brings in Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore) to fine-tune them to impress with new perspectives on history. As the young men work harder to excel, you start seeing a parallel: Just as in history with wars and battles, they want to win and conquer.

The History Boys plays like a live theater production (makes sense as screenplay was written by Alan Bennett and based on his award-winning play). Most of the film happens in the classroom. The banter is well timed. There are several short musical numbers and movie scenes providing meta drama. There’s also an element of pedophilia in the form of fondling. It’s happening isn’t betrayed but everyone knows about it. Is this another historical parallel? The ending is a shock and then reminiscent of the series finale of Six Feet Under. The History Boys is worth a view. The original Broadway production opened in New York in 2006 and won the 2006 Tony Award for the Best Play. Eleven of the actors recreated their Broadway roles in the movie. Barnett was nominated for the 2006 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Director: Nicholas Hytner

Country: UK

Genre: Drama

Run time: 109 minutes

Scale: 3.5

The 27 Club (2008)

The 27 Club is a study in sadness told in flashbacks during a cross-country road trip. Elliot (Joe Anderson) is reeling from the death of best friend and bandmate Tom (James Forgey) just after Tom’s 27th birthday. The two grew up like brothers in a dysfunctional home before finding success as the band Finn.

As Elliot starts on his road trip from LA to Joplin, Missouri, to take care of his dead friend’s last request, the alcohol, drugs and shock of losing his best friend prove too much. Hungover, he stumbles into a grocery store; following an altercation, the cashier calms a flustered Elliot. In turn, Elliot offers the cashier $10,000 to drive him “east.”

Elliot is strikingly reminiscent of a young, sleep-deprived Kurt Cobain while the straight-laced, nameless driver looks like a young Leonard Nimoy. For the late-bloomer driver, this journey becomes his coming-of-age experience. The two merely co-exist as Elliot wrestles his demons. Anderson’s Elliot emotes with his haunting expression—mirroring the pain and turmoil from within. It isn't until they pick-up hitchhiker Stella (Eve Hewson, daughter of U2’s Bono) that the two begin to bond. Although she recognizes Elliot from Finn, she doesn’t immediately acknowledge nor share the information.

The 27 Club contains little crescendo and ends quietly. While soulful, it feels like a freshman film effort, which doesn’t harm the story. The emotional journey through Elliot’s mourning is symbolically interlaced with scenic American landscapes to nibble on.

Writer/Director: Erica Dunton

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Run time: 84 minutes

Scale: 3.5

Noruwei no mori (Norwegian Wood) (2010)

Winning streak has ended.

Norwegian Wood is a coming-of-age story that delves into suicide and its effects on the survivors. Toru (Ken'ichi Matsuyama) and Kizuki (Kengo Kôra) are old friends. Without any indication, Kizuki kills himself. Toru leaves for university and runs into Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), Kizuki’s girlfriend at his death. The two become involved as they share their grief and indulge in sexual awakening. See, it’s the 60s. Naoko digresses and ends up in an asylum in the woods (is this how they treated the mentally ill back then?). Feeling a sense of responsibility and longing, Toru visits Naoko, as she progressively gets worse.

At university, he meets Midori (Kiko Mizuhara), the peculiar ray of light in this dark tunnel of suffering (Naoko’s roommate at the asylum also provides some odd humor). She likes him. He isn’t available because he is trying to do right by Naoko. Meanwhile, his roommate encourages him to take advantage of being young and single in the sexually liberated ‘60s.

Parts of the plot are compelling, but the experience goes on for too long. Scenes are uneven and plod together, but the landscapes are palpably beautiful. With several suicides and rare moments of levity cushioned between so much calamity and, at times, boredom, it’s difficult to sit through. I’ve watched more distressing movies that have ended too fast; something is missing here. The movie ends on a hopeful note that feels wrong.

Based on the novel by Haruki Murakami, the movie will likely appeal to the author’s die-hard fans. I’d love to hear how someone who revered the book felt about the movie. It’s possible that the story is too cerebral to capture accurately on screen.

Director: Anh Hung Tran

Country: Japan

Genre: Drama

Run time: 133 minutes

Scale: 2