Title: Hugo 3D
Genre: Film
Grade: A-
Notable People: Martin Scorsese(Director), Ben Kingsley
Review: I really liked this movie a lot. The 3D was amazing and the cast is really good. The shots of Paris from the train station tower are wonderful and the clips from the early days of film are astonishing. Great movie for all ages; definitely a love letter from Scorsese to the movies. Must see in a theater.
Title: Double Feature- Moneyball/Ides of March
Genre: Films
Grade: B-/B
Notable People: Money- Brad Pitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jonah Hill……Ides- George Clooney, Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Paul Giamatti, Ryan Gosling
Review: cold winter day- went to a special two for one. These are both basic Hollywood films. Very good casts and the acting is good. Stories are both predictable and Moneyball was really long; you got to really like inside baseball stuff. Ides was more intriguing and Clooney directed. I’d save them both for video.
Title: The Skin I Live In
Genre: Film
Grade: A-
Notable People: Pedro Almaldovar(Director), Antonio Banderas
Review: I loved this movie. Spanish with sub titles. Almaldovar is brilliant and this movie is really haunting in a horror meets morality way. Banderas is striking and it is shot really well. Very dark, quirky and unpredictable. Run out and see it
Title: 50-50
Genre: Film
Grade: B+
Notable People: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick
Review: this movie was a sleeper. Went to see at the dollar theater and was really pleasantly surprised. Could be a tear jerker-and comes close- but it’s not. VERY emotionally moving film and I thought the acting was tremendous; subtle and complex characters. Rogen is mostly Rogen but with enough of an underlying twist to make it a new place for him. Oh and by the way- its the story of a young guy who suddenly finds he has potentially terminal cancer and how everyone around him handles that. Great turn by the long missing Angelica Huston as his mother.
Title: Martha Marcy May Marlene
Genre: Film
Grade: B
Notable People: Sam Durkin (Director), Brady Corbett, Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes
Review: This is a pretty strange movie- hard to decide on it. Can be very dark at times about a cult with some similarities to Manson- and a girls’ attempt to break away from it. Hawkes is subtle but mesmerizing as the Manson figure. Elizabeth Olsen is the sister of the infamous twins- and is going to be a big movie star.
Title: Tabloid City
Genre: Novel
Grade: A-
Notable People: Pete Hamill
Review: If you don’t know Hamill you should. He was part of the great 50s-60s crew at the NY Post with Jimmy Breslin and Norman Mailer- and is still around writing really good books into his mid 80s. This is the story of a few days in the life on an aging newspaperman in NYC- as the paper folds around him; taken over by the web. A number of other stories of the city are woven in between. Hamill loves NY and its denizens and it shows. A captivating read.
Title: The Way
Genre: Film
Grade: A
Notable People: Martin Sheen, Emilio Estavez
Review: This is an amazingly touching movie about the pilgrimage known as “the Way”- the Camino de Santiago- an ancient walk from the French Pyrenees to the Spanish Basque country; walked by thousands over a century. Sheen’s family is from the Basque region and he wanted to make this film for the last 40 years. It is directed , produced and written by his son, Emilio who has a small part in it as well. A breathtaking movie; emotionally connecting and spiritually profound. Don’t miss it.
Title: The Reserve
Genre: Novel
Grade: A-
Notable People: Russell Banks
Review: This is classically dark Banks novel that takes place in the Adirondacks in the 1930’s. A little hard to follow the back and forth in time- but a compelling story that mixes in historical characters and events- mostly set against the back drop of the Depression and the impending war with Germany. A book I found it hard to put down.
Title: Dedicated
Genre: Album
Grade: A-
Notable People: Steve Cropper
Review: This is the REAL thing. The greatest rhythm guitarist in R&B history (Booker T. and the MGs, the Blues Brothers) cuts loose and shows his stuff. An eclectic all star lineup of singers adds to the mix (Steve Winwood, Lucinda Williams, John Popper). The opening track is an instant classic. This is a legend at his best.
Title: Burn
Genre: Novel
Grade: B
Notable People: Nevada Barr
Review: The latest in the Anna Pidgeon series; she’s a national park ranger who gets into a lot of very sticky situations. Ms. Barr is also a lifer in the Park service so she knows of what she writes. Each book is in a different national park and the settings are really good. This one has the unusual setting of an urban park setting in post Katrina New Orleans. Good stories and characters, decent writing. Serial readers could get attached. Not her best effort.
