Joshua Marston’s (The Forgiveness of Blood) Maria Full of Grace is one of the best foreign-language films I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, I watched this movie on the heels of another foreign language film (A Girl Walks Home At Night), which, despite the 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, I thought was an incredibly dull film and one I had no interest in reviewing. So I was a little uncertain about watching another subtitled movie the next day, but I am happy I gave it a fair chance. It’s a great movie that tells a heart-wrenching and believable story.
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A Walk on the Moon (1999)
I somewhat have an affinity for Viggo Mortensen (The Road, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring). His movie Eastern Promises (the only film he has received an Academy Award nomination for) was the first movie I ever reviewed for my blog. It wasn’t the most straightforward movie to review and one that I would like to see one day again and then read what I wrote for that first review, but that will be something that comes later. He’s a solid actor who seems to do fewer and fewer movies each year, but when he’s on his A-game, there aren’t many who are better. I had never heard of A Walk On the Moon before it showed up as a Netflix recommendation. I quickly threw it in the queue, and I’m glad I did. In addition to a fabulous performance by Mortensen, this was a solid movie with one of the significant foundations of human life at the forefront. It’s the most surprising movie I’ve seen this year, and I may have to reevaluate my 1999 top 10 list. I’m guessing this movie won’t be quite good enough to get on there, but there might be a chance. Maybe this review will be the deciding factor.
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Big Eyes (2014)
Every once in a while, I’ll see a preview for the first time that I think I will have absolutely no interest in seeing. The movie looks either cheesy, too lame, too weird, etc. But then the film earns a solid rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and I’ll read what a couple of critics who liked the movie have said about it. And then I’ll watch the same trailer again and try to watch it with a different set of eyes. And between my first and second viewing, something convinced me to give the movie a chance. With Tim Burton’s (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands) Big Eyes, my chief complaint was that the film would be a little too weird for me. However, after a couple of weeks, I convinced myself I would see that movie. I hoped that I could catch this one in the theater (generally speaking, I am far less distracted in a theater than I am at home. But then again, I’m Captain Obvious with this statement). However, Big Eyes grabbed my attention from the get-go and held it through the 1-hour 45-minute viewing.
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St. Vincent (2014)
Theodore Melfi’s St. Vincent, his first full-length feature film, is a movie I should have probably liked a little more than I did. Unfortunately, though it did it better than many of its predecessors, it follows a very familiar been there, done that approach. It’s no wonder that, despite some great performances (especially from its lead), it got lost in the shuffle and ultimately got shut out from any Academy Award nominations. There is only so much you can do with portraying a down-and-out lead character who hits rock bottom and then has to fight to be again. In some flicks, we see these characters have bottomed before the movie begins (Crazy Heart, The Dark Knight Rises), and in others, the characters hit rock bottom throughout the film (The Wrestler, Shame, Leaving Las Vegas). St. Vincent is more like the latter, and while some might like it better, I thought it came nowhere close to any of the five movies I mentioned in the previous sentence. While Bill Murray (Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation) gave his best lead performance in over a decade, the film offered nothing that I hadn’t seen before, and I liked the avenues that each of these five movies mentioned earlier.
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Top Five (2014)
The short. Skip Birdman. See Top Five. It’s the same movie with a couple of exceptions. Top Five has humor, is much more realistic, and you can relate more to it. It also isn’t the most over-hyped movie n the last five years. In fact, despite its 88% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and lots of word of mouth on the street, it still surprisingly didn’t do all that great at the box office (just $23 million domestically). I did not see this movie in the theater, though it tempted me. Perhaps the most significant thing going against the film was its release date. It opened on December 12th, right in the middle of when all of the big-time award movies were in the theaters. As a result, it got lost in the shuffle. If the studio could go back in time, they might have released this movie in August.
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