Manchester by the Sea - Movie Review

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (R) Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges, Kyle Chandler, CJ Wilson, Gretchen Mol, Tate Donovan, Kara Hayward and Matthew Broderick.
Written & Directed by Kenneth Lonergan.

★★★½

People deal with grief differently. Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) deals with his by not getting close to anyone. He works as a janitor for minimum wage, and he just takes the day one small job at a time. Fix the sink. Shovel the snow. Go to bar. Get in fight. Go home. Sleep.

Lee's miserable life gets interrupted when his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) dies, and he names Lee the guardian of his 16-year-old son Patrick (Lucas Hedges).  Lee doesn't feel emotionally equipped to deal with this new responsibility. He loves his nephew, but he was content to be Uncle Lee and no more.

The movie plays a bit with timelines. We see Lee when he was married to Randi (Michelle Williams), and we know there will be a big reveal as to what grief Lee was dealing with before his brother died. The movie is sprinkled with gallows humor that only people who've been through grief will understand.

I would be fine with Casey Affleck winning Best Actor for this. He does a really job of playing a man who's trying to suppress all of his emotions, and yet we can still see that inner struggle.

Oz the Great and Powerful - Movie Review

Starring James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zack Braff, Joey King, Bill Cobbs and Tony Cox.  Directed by Sam Raimi.

★★½

Sam Raimi does to Oz what Tim Burton essentially did to Wonderland.  He's created a magical world more concerned with special effects and set pieces than in creating a timeless tale, and so as the years pass, most will forget it ever happened.

Don't get me wrong.  I enjoyed a lot of it. I liked meeting new sidekicks, like the talking winged monkey and the Little China Girl. The 3D effects were well-done.  But...

James Franco is miscast as Oscar Zoroaster, a carnival con-man who gets swept up by a cyclone one black-and-white day in 1905.  He lands in the land of color, in a lake where the good witch Theodora (Kunis) happens to be walking by. She mistakes him for the wizard, foretold by prophecy (whose prophecy?) to free the land of Oz from the reign of the wicked witch.

This is a prequel to the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz moreso than a prequel to the books, and when it comes to Oz prequels, Wicked had a better origin story. This movie leaves itself room for a sequel that'd still fit in between this and when Dorothy arrives. Since this one ends all happy-fuzzy, maybe that movie will show the Wizard of Oz regress into the cowardly agorophobe who sends a young girl off to go kill the Wicked Witch herself.

I liked Return to Oz more.

My Week with Marilyn - DVD Review

Starring Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Emma Watson, Judi Dench, Toby Jones, Julia Ormond, Jim Carter, Dougray Scott, Dominic Cooper, Derek Jacobi and Zoe Wanamaker. Directed by Simon Curtis.

★★★

Never saw The Prince & the Showgirl, and I think my enjoyment would have been enhanced if I had. This movie is about the experience of filming that movie through the eyes of the third assistant director (Eddie Redmayne), a young man who enjoyed a week of a flirty relationship with Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) on the set.

Monroe had a rough time on the shoot, clashing with co-star/director Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). Olivier was king of the non-Method, and Monroe had to feel and believe her character's motivations for her star power to shine through.

The reasons to see this movie are Williams and Branagh. Williams captures the vulnerability and allure of Marilyn. Branagh was born to play Olivier and doesn't disappoint. The supporting cast have fun in their roles too, like Julia Ormond as Vivian Leigh. I was a little disappointed that Emma Watson (Harry Potter) didn't have much more to do than play the plain girl that our protagonist neglects.

Williams and Branagh were both nominated for this movie and deservedly so. It just happened to be in the year that Meryl Streep and Christopher Plummer were in the mix.

Meek's Cutoff - DVD Review

**

Starring Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson and Rod Rondeaux. 
Directed by Kelly Reichardt.

This has all the trappings of a critically-praised low-budget indie, and I'm as big a fan of low-budget indies as the next guy. Good acting, beautiful cinematography, a stripped-down story. This does a very good job of conveying what it must feel like to be part of a pioneer wagon train in 1845. Tedious and repetitive, with long stretches where nothing happens.

The movie is from the viewpoint of the female characters. If only the men are talking, we can only hear as much as the closest woman can. They're all following their guide Stephen Meek, who claims to know a shortcut to Oregon, but it becomes quickly apparent he has no idea where they are.

This movie most reminded me of Gus Van Sant's Gerry, which was about two guys who get lost in the desert, and nothing really happens. I hated that movie. This one at least has more people.

Director Kelly Reichardt also worked with Michelle Williams on the equally minimalist Wendy & Lucy.  That movie conveyed the despair of being poor in a rich country and made me feel for its heroine. We never get close enough to anyone here to care.