The French Dispatch - Movie Review

Starring Benecio Del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Lea Seydoux, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Timothee Chalamet, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Elisabeth Moss, Fisher Stevens, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton, Lois Smith, Henry Winkler, Cecile de France, Steve Park and Mathieu Amalric.

Written by Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness & Jason Schwartzman.

Directed by Wes Anderson.

★★½ 

There are plenty of actors I didn't even list above; the movie is bursting with recognizable faces. This ode to long-form journalism of a certain time is lovingly crafted by Wes Anderson, he of the very distinct flavor of films like Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom and Isle of Dogs. While there is plenty to admire here and be entertained by, it's one of his most self-indulgent efforts to date, and I doubt it'll convert any newcomers not already on board with his sensibilities.

The movie is basically three stories attached with the narrative device of a magazine similar to The New Yorker. The French Dispatch is edited by Arthur Howitzer Jr (Bill Murray), and he has dedication to his writers. We learn at the beginning that he has died, and in his will, he wishes publication of the magazine to cease, so in this final issue, we get the last articles by JKL Berensen (Tilda Swinton), Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand), and Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright).

The first story is the strongest of the three, about a convicted murderer (Benecio Del Toro) who happens to be a genius painter. The second revolves around a French student rebellion led by Timothee Chalamet, and the third is about the kidnapping of the son of the Commissaire (Mathieu Amalric). Toward the end of the second story, I was ready for it to be over, and toward the end of the third, I felt the same way. And with so many good actors, I have to wonder why they were willing to sign on when they only had one or two lines?

I'm trying to think of anthology movies I liked, and they tend to be horror (Trick R Treat) or from different voices (New York Stories). This is one I'm glad I saw but unlike the majority of Wes's films, I have no desire to see it again. In fact, the couple next to us said it was the worst movie they'd ever seen. But if Benecio Del Toro's story was on TV, I'd watch for a few minutes.

The Monuments Men - Movie Review

Starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, Bob Balaban and Dimitri Leonidas.
Directed by George Clooney.

★★½

This is an odd movie. All the ingredients are there to make a classic, a WWII heist thriller, a race-against-time, Over the Hill Gang type yarn. It just felt like key developmental elements were missing.

The Monuments Men was a real group but it was much larger than what the movie portrays. I understand narrative purposes for narrowing it down to eight conglomerate characters, but somewhere in there, director and co-writer Clooney forgot to make most of them characters.  Sure, Bill Murray, John Goodman and Jean Dujardin are good actors, but it's as though those men were told to just show up and "act" without anything to work with.

"George, what's my motivation?"
"Be more Bill Murray-ish."
"Thanks. Thanks for that note."

The opening scenes play like a "We're getting the band back together" montage like this is a sequel to something. Things like this made me wish someone besides Clooney had directed it, someone who could have stepped back and noticed these little problems.

The actual quest of the men is something we grow to care about.  Watching Nazis set fire to art brings the same visceral reaction of the books burning in The Name of the Rose, or the scrolls burning in Agora. Some much history lost.

The actors that come off best, mostly because they have something to work with, are Cate Blanchett as a French secretary working for the Nazis but really helping the underground resistance, and Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville as a recovering alcoholic who sees this mission as a redemptive chance to do something with his life. Kind of cool to see Lord Grantham hanging out with two of the Ocean's 11.

Random Movie Stuff - 10/17/13

- Director Brad Peyton will reunite with his Journey 2 The Mysterious Island star Dwayne Johnson for San Andreas 3D, an action thriller about a giant earthquake from the San Andreas fault.

- Keanu Reeves will star in John Wick, about a retired hitman who is forced back into action by a sadistic young thug (Game of Thrones' Alfie Allen). Bridget Moynahan, Willem Dafoe, Michael Nyqvist, Adrianne Palicki and Dean Winters co-star.

- Chris Pine (Star Trek) has signed on as the first of three new Horrible Bosses for the sequel, scheduled to open November 26, 2014.  Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis and Jamie Foxx will all return.

- Ty Simpkins, the kid from Insidious, has joined the cast of Jurassic Park 4, titled Jurassic World. It stars Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help) and Jake Johnson (New Girl). It's directed by Colin Trevorrow (who also worked with Johnson on Safety Not Guaranteed) and it's set to open June 12, 2015.

- Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman are reuniting with their Moonrise Kingdom director Wes Anderson in The Grand Budapest Hotel. It opens March 7. It co-stars Owen Wilson, Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody and Tom Wilkinson.

- The Maze Runner has been pushed back to September 19, 2014. Based on the book by James Dashner, it's set in a post-apocalyptic world where young Thomas (MTV Teen Wolf's Dylan O'Brien) finds himself with his memory erased in a community of boys trapped in a large maze. It co-stars Will Poulter (We're the Millers), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones), Kaya Scodelario (Clash of the Titans) and Patricia Clarkson (Shutter Island, The Green Mile).

Moonrise Kingdom - Movie Review

Introducing Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward.
Starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Harvey Keitel and Bob Balaban. Directed by Wes Anderson.

★★★★

Wes Anderson, God bless him, is a quirky director with a distinct style that puts his stories on a tightrope.  His movies can suffer from an overload of whimsy.  As long as human emotion can still break through, that's when he succeeds best.  I loved The Royal Tenenbaums, partly because the three genius kids still felt the pain of having such an unbearably dysfunctional dad.  I felt like The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou didn't quite work because the quirky overwhelmed the humanity.

Moonrise Kingdom succeeds largely because the emotions are real.  Granted, he still has that puppet-show style where most frames are set up like you're in the front row watching something unfold on stage, but the offbeat delivery doesn't hide or blur the humanity.  It centers on Sam, a resourceful khaki scout, and Suzy, an angry girl with binoculars.  They are 12 years old in 1965, and if Stephen King's taught me anything, it's that being 12 is a magical time, when girls aren't just those creatures with cooties who stand on the other side of class.  Sam and Suzy both feel like outcasts and are therefore drawn to each other.  They've hatched a plan, you see.

Edward Norton is Scout Master Ward, in charge of his troop and alarmed when he sees Sam has run away. He notifies Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), the law enforcement in these parts.  They come to learn Suzy's gone too and must notify her parents (Bill Murray, Frances McDormand).  We go back and forth watching the adults frantically, fruitlessly try to find the two lovebirds, and we watch Sam and Suzy survive in the wilderness, for Sam has been training for this.

Jared Gilman (Sam) and Kara Hayward (Suzy) have made their film debuts here, and they simply are their characters. The relationship and chemistry between them is sweet, unforced and natural.  Even in stylized Anderson-ville, everything works.  We want these two crazy kids to be together, even though there's no possible way they can just live in the woods forever.  Gilman has this straightforward nerdiness, and Hayward is like a rebellious Emma Watson.

We caught this at the $3 theater, so I imagine it'll be on DVD in a couple months. It's worth hunting down. Wouldn't surprise me if it gets a couple Academy Award nominations when the time comes.

Passion Play - DVD Review

l 1/2

Starring Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox, Bill Murray, Kelly Lynch, Rhys Ifans, Rory Cochrane and Robert Wisdom. Directed by Mitch Glazer.

The writer of Scrooged and The Recruit makes his directorial debut with this arthouse oddity that aspires to be David Lynchian but misses the mark by a wide, wide mile.

Mickey Rourke plays Nate Pool, a trumpet player on the run from a mobster named Happy (Bill Murray) that wants to kill him. One of Happy's henchmen takes Nate into the middle of the desert to kill him, but the henchman is gunned down by some Indians wearing all-white who say nothing and run off. And that's the last we see of them.

Nate wanders through the desert for hours and happens upon a carnival. Love those carnivals in the middle of nowhere. Alas it is not led by a dwarf named Samson; it's run by a mustache-twirling barker played by Rhys Ifans. As he wanders the grounds, he finds Lily (Megan Fox), a woman on display because she has angel wings, literally.

Nate rescues her, but Happy is hot on his trail, and once he learns of Lily's wings, he wants her for himself.

Glazer has some obvious talent, and the quirky cast does what they can, but what the freak is this movie trying to do? How can you have a plot like this and try to play it as straight as The Wrestler? It held my interest for a while, but it meanders halfway through until it sputters and dies with a laughable climax.