Jackie - Movie Review

JACKIE (R) Starring Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, John Hurt, Richard E. Grant, John Carroll Lynch, Beth Grant and Max Casella.
Written by Noah Oppenheim.
Directed by Pablo Larrain.

★★★

This movie daringly focusses on the immediate after match of JFK's assassination, but it does so in a framework that jumps between that, and an interview she gave with Theodore H. White (Billy Crudup) a week later. We simultaneously feel the shock of the moment and the week-after dread, which is how memories work. It's a good job from the makers, but the success of this movie is hands-down because of Natalie Portman.

This is no straightforward biopic. This breaks down some of the worshipping walls around the Kennedys to try to convey what it was like for Jackie to remain poised even while dealing with death and the sudden loss of power. Her main shoulder to cry on belongs to her brother-in-law Bobby (Peter Sarsgaard), who as attorney general also has to deal with the politics of the smooth transition of power.

This movie made me want to look up the 1961 White House tour footage again. I've seen clips, but Portman's so good here, I wonder how close her impression really is. In fact, I would have no problem with Portman winning her second Oscar for this.

Maggie's Plan - DVD Review

MAGGIE'S PLAN (R) Starring Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph and Travis Fimmel.
Written by Rebecca Miller & Karen Rinaldi.
Directed by Rebecca Miller.

★★½

This winsome film has a rom-com premise but it's done in a Woody Allen/Noah Baumbach indie style that makes it feel different. Gerwig plays Maggie, a woman who's decided to get artificial insemination. But right after she does, a co-worker (Ethan Hawke) professes he's madly in love with her, and he leaves his wife for her.

The movie lives or dies on how charismatic you find Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha), and I thought she was fine, if familiar. I was most interested in Julianne Moore as the jilted ex-wife.

Frances Ha - DVD Review

Starring Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver and Grace Gummer.
Directed by Noah Baumbach.

★★

This precious little study of a young woman's arrested development is another example of 20-something girls who can be just as flighty and irresponsible as all those guy movies about the same thing. Hollywood is trying to tell us that the Gen-Y/Millenial crowd just doesn't know how to be adults.

She's 27, a dancing intern who's not a great dancer, bouncing from apartment to apartment, trying to "find herself," an Annie Hall-in-training, or someone who could wander in for a guest spot on HBO's Girls.  It's quirky, cute and tiresome, and I'm amazed so many critics liked it.  I think Baumbach's on his way to be the next Woody Allen, when critics seem to like all his movies, even the ones that aren't good.