Superb Scenes With Seanc

"Gentleman, there is no fighting in the war room."


Kubrick knew how to do war satire, no doubt about it. Strangelove is biting commentary on the absurdity of war while at the same time still being fun. This film reminds me of Mash in that way. What I think is great about these films compared to something like Tropic Thunder is that despite the absurdity of a lot of the characters actions they still feel somewhat grounded at their core. The other thing that I love is that despite the age of this film it still feels relevant, which is no easy task in a nearly fifty year old comedy.


Quite a few of the characters in Strangelove are fantastic, but for me the standout is Scott's general. Every scene that revolves around him in the war room is priceless. His lines evoked the most laugh out loud moments for me and his character is certainly the reason that I will enjoy revisiting this film. Sellers was also good especially when he is interacting with the soldier who storms the antagonists office. Their debate over the Coke machine may be my favorite comedic moment. Strangely enough the only character that was not enjoyable to me was Strangelove himself.


Again similar to Mash what I liked a lot about the writing in Strangelove are the moments where the characters are not concentrating on war despite the severity of what is happening around them. Scott's interactions with his character's secretary are a great example of this. As is the presidents phone conversations with the Russian leader. Strangelove was not all positives for me. Like many satires there are lulls that take you out of the film. In my opinion those moments here were Strangelove's speeches and when Kubrick is showing us actual acts of war. For me these moments kept this film from being truly great.


Overall I really enjoyed Dr. Strangelove, it is definitely my favorite Kubrick film to date although I have a few to see.

"I like to think people are about more than one thing."


Not a lot of films have the guts to take an honest difficult look at teen alcoholism. We get more party hearty teen films involving alcohol then anything else. The Spectacular Now is certainly taking a harder more stripped down approach to this subject. At many points it succeeds, but ultimately I think it lets its protagonist off the hook a bit. Maybe it doesn't let him off the hook, but we get a couple of situations that are in the film for conflict. In real life these situations would have criminal consequences but here they are swept to the side when they are no longer necessary to the narrative.


Sutter is the life of the party. He has a great girlfriend, and on the surface very little to concern himself with. After he gets dumped things begin to change for Sutter, or rather his deep rooted issues begin to bubble to the surface. He meets a new girl, Aimee (Woodley), who is not at all like the girls that he usually dates. At first it seems as though he feels sorry for her, but soon begins to develop true feelings for her. Because of her personality the audience, I believe, is meant to feel as though Aimee is going to make Sutter into the man he could be. The Spectacular Now does not go the traditional route however. The characters have an effect on each other, good and bad. Throughout the film we see them influence each other, not just the good of one rubbing out the bad. This is where I feel like this film succeeds where others fail. It is willing to take an honest look at how we change each other where other films of this nature would just choose the traditional path to redemption.


Everything does not come up roses for this coming of age tale however.

The Spectacular Now is hampered by a ho-hum script and wooden acting. I did have a moment when I thought that maybe the acting was less than because of the script or direction, I liked Woodley in The Descendants after all. That thought was quickly laid to rest, however, when Kyle Chandler shows up as Sutter's father. Chandler knocks it out of the park the couple of short scenes he is in. Unfortunately that left me feeling unfulfilled for what the rest of the film could have been.


The Spectacular Now is a nice film and worth the time. I think it will be forgettable though. Which is unfortunate because the potential for greatness was there.

"Pray for the best, prepare for the worst."

Prisoners is a fantastic looking well acted thriller. Villeneuve sets an unrelenting tone. Prisoners needs every bit of its two and a half hours to tell the story, but it never lets you relax for a moment. Outside of the first ten minutes there is no levity at all. The film is all tension and uneasiness. Prisoners takes a look at how far you would go to find your child if they were missing. It is not a new theme, and in my opinion has been done better. It is handled well here however, and is the best thriller I have seen thus far this year.


Jackman and Gyllenhaal are both great. There is a lot of tension between their characters, so their scenes together are the more memorable ones in the film. Villeneuve tells the story well. There are twists but I never felt as if I was simply being tricked. A couple of the twists were even fairly predictable but that did not take away from my enjoyment of the film. I can not over state how engaged my experience with Prisoners was. Every second felt vital which was very refreshing.


There are a couple of things that kept me from loving this movie. The first is some of the decisions made by the characters. I do not believe that I set my plausibility bar too high. If what is done in the course of a film seems to coincide with the values and personality of the character then I am on board. I feel like in Prisoners that this line was crossed on three or four occasions. I also was not a fan of Prisoners' script. Again I do not expect every film to be Kauffmanesque, I do think the dialogue in this film was flat though. Ultimately this will play a part in Prisoners being a forgettable film.


Prisoners is worthy of your time. We get very few well made thrillers, and Prisoners is certainly one. It looks fantastic, will keep you wondering, and has a couple of genuinely good performances.

"I think we just wanted to be part of the lifestyle. The lifestyle everyone kinda wants."


The Bling Ring is an uneven movie for me. At times I really liked it. At times it was like watching a bad MTV show. This is done on purpose, of course, but that doesn't mean it doesn't go on too long most of the time. The film follows a teenage ring of bandits. These kids learn when celebrities will not be in their residence and go to their homes. This is not just merely to rob them, but to live like them if only for a minute. Of course this becomes their obsession and quickly gets out of hand.


These kids are given no texture. We see them as spoiled brats and nothing more. Ordinarily this would drive me insane in a movie but I think it serves a larger purpose here. Coppola wants us to view them as they view the celebrities that they are violating. This comes across beautifully and makes the final third, when the ring gets their reckoning, the most enjoyable aspect of the film. Coppola also makes a couple of the robberies quite enjoyable with her directing decisions. My favorite example of this is when we are watching two of the teenagers robbing a mostly glass house. The camera is set a good distance from the home, there is absolutely no sound. We are watching the two figures run from room to room turning on and off lights and rifling through drawers. It is shot perfectly and a great example of how Coppola could have made this story more cinematic. We get a couple of small glimpses of that which makes it more frustrating when Coppola switches back to MTV mode.


Most of the film is five teens with nothing to say of any value, acting in very juvenile ways to music that if I never heard it would still be too soon. Mostly I think it is a movie that if you are a part of the MTV crowd you will get a kick out of it. If you think this behavior is abhorrent, you will feel the same way about the film. I think that is a shame, because Coppola is obviously a talented film maker. So The Bling Ring feels mostly like a missed opportunity.

The Kings Of Summer is a perfect mixture of comedy and drama. It's themes are serious but are handled with a real world levity. This film does wander into the absurd at times, but never feels stupid. I think that is because it genuinely cares about its characters. It feels like a Wes Anderson film in that way, but the visuals are far different than an Anderson film so that may be a faulty comparison.


The story centers around two boys who decide to build a house in the middle of the woods to escape their parents. Neither of the boys' parents are treating them in a neglectful or harmful way. They are simply two normal teenage boys that at this point in their life can see nothing but the worst in them. Of course this experience teaches them a little about themselves, the real world, and their parents. None of this ever feels forced or melodramatic in this film though.


The Kings Of Summer was a breath of fresh air for me. Maybe the only film this year that I have laughed out loud at, and this did not just happen once but multiple times. The characters are genuine and I enjoyed every minute I spent with them. Certainly one of the five best film I have seen in 2013 thus far.

One of the better films I have seen this year. Rush looks great and has great performances. It is an amazing true story and if what I researched is true does not embellish too much. If I have a gripe with this film it is with the script. At times it feels clunky, some of the themes are repeated multiple times by the characters. This causes some of the scenes to be less than organic. This is a small gripe though because Rush is doing everything else extremely well. Rush is a movie goers movie, it is hard to imagine many people not enjoying this film on some level.