Demian Bichir (most recognized in America for his role as ruthless and corrupt Tijuana mayor Esteban Reyes in the Emmy Award Nominee Showtime series Weeds) is an undocumented Mexican immigrant named Carlos who works as a day worker, landscaping the yards of large yards in the affluent Los Angeles neighborhoods. He migrated from Mexico some 16 years ago after marrying. His 15-year-old son Luis (Jose Julian) is everything to him after his wife left him to experience a more exciting life in America that Carlos could not provide. A Better Life is exactly what its title suggests: a father trying to give himself and his son a better life.
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Take Shelter (2011)
The most overlooked performance by a lead actor in 2011 was Michael Shannon’s performance as the delusional Curtis LaForche in the Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories) bone-chilling drama Take Shelter. Though Shannon’s acting career began in 2001, and the first three movies he appeared in (Pearl Harbor, Vanilla Sky, and 8 Mile) each grossed over $100,000,000 at the box office, it wasn’t until 2008 when he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor after two jaw-dropping scenes as a mentally unstable man in Revolutionary Road.
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Reservation Road (2007)
Despite its 37% rating on www.rottentomatoes.com, I found Terry George’s (Hotel Rwanda, The Boxer) to be a thrilling and captivating drama about the loss of family, moral responsibility, and the guilt a human being can become rattled with when committing an unthinkable crime that you become more and more confident that you are going to be able to get away with. While this movie did poorly at the box office (just over $100,000…no, not $100,000,000), it stars three Academy Award nominees, including Jennifer Connelly, who won Best Supporting Actress in 2002 for A Beautiful Mind.
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Warrior (2011)
When I first saw the extended trailer for Warrior, the first Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) movie made into a drama, I thought for the first 30 seconds how stupid the movie WAS going to be. As the trailer progressed, the film began looking more and more interesting. As the trailer ended, I kept waiting to see the “Based on a true story” line because if this wasn’t based on a true story, it looked like a more intense MMA version of Rocky. The trailer gives the entire story away. Two brothers who have grown distant end up facing each other in the championship fight of an MMA tournament. If there had ever been a more predictable trailer, I would be interested to know what that is. Then when I saw that the biggest name in the movie was Tom Hardy (The Drop, The Dark Knight Rises), I was 100% convinced that the film would be terrible and flop in the theater. I was wrong on all accounts.
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Midnight in Paris (2011)
Not being the hugest fan of Woody Allen, I had convinced myself I would never see Midnight in Paris when 1) I heard that Owen Wilson was the star and 2) I saw the trailer for the first time. Woody Allen has never done much for me. I can appreciate how much he has contributed to Hover over the years. He really doesn’t take much of a break. More importantly, I like that he writes most of the screenplays for his movies if not all. And while there have been a couple of his films that I did like (most notably Annie Hall and Match Point), for the most part, I have found them to be rather stale. I know he has his die-hard fans who will see anything that he sees. I will most likely only see a Woody Allen movie if it earns a Best Picture Academy Award nomination. Hence, my review.
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