"Up In the Air" has it's feet on the ground...

Hello? Hellllooooo? Anyone out there? Sheesh. No posting since October. That's pathetic. It's not that we haven't all seen movies, somewhere...in the theatre, at home or on the telly.

Fine, I'll just have to muster up a review. Here goes.

Up In the Air

Director: Jason Reitman

Written by: Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Starring: George Clooney as Ryan and Vera Farmiga as Alex

Released 2009

REVIEW by CINEMAGIRL:

The film opens with aerial shots, the kind of shots we've all seen from the window seat of a 737. Immediately we are placed in the fast-paced, business travel world of Ryan Bingham, played expertly by the coy George Clooney.

Ryan takes us through the ropes of his life. He is a professional firer - the person companies bring in to lay off workers without getting their own hands dirty. He is an expert in his field, and an expert at business travel - even holding public speaking engagements on the matter. He urges his audience to abandon physical and even emotional attachments, because you can climb faster with a lighter pack.

He himself is home about a month out of the year at his tiny apartment, which is void of all personality and merely a prison for the man who loves to keep running.

After the film sets the stage and introduces the main character, he is thrown two curveballs. One - his travel may be curtailed. And two - he meets a woman on the road.

Ryan starts up a relationship with Alex (Farmiga), another business traveler spending her life in hotel bars and tabulating air miles. The two hit it off, and form a casual attachment while both being emotionally unattached. At the same time he is trying to convince his boss to keep him on the road and not tie him down - notably this idea came from the new girl, fresh out of college and lacking all experience in the field.

This film may feel foreign to contemporary movie-goers because it is done in such a traditional way - snappy lines, round characters who are both great and flawed, complex situations. Clooney could have easily been played by Humphrey Bogart or Gregory Peck. Bette Davis would've made a great Alex.

A nice touch to this film is the use of the recent unemployment in this country that ties this story to modern times. Reitman even cast real people who have been recently laid off to give testimonials. It was a nice, authentic touch considering the seriousness of the matter, and the fact that our leading man, or "hero" is in the job of firing people.

Farmiga is a natural as a globetrotting businesswoman, delivering lines with ease and authority. Clooney is charming as always and well deserving of his Golden Globe nomination. The film is full of funny, chuckleworthy moments, but it is telling that it is nominated for Best Picture Drama by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

I recommend seeing this film soon, while the issue of lay-offs is at the forefront of national news. It would be timeless anytime, but makes a bigger impact considering reality.

STORY: 9

ACTING: 8

LOOK: 7

OVERALL: 8

Current Golden Globe Nominations for this film:

Best Picture Drama

Best Actor (Clooney)

Best Supporting Actress (both Farmiga and Anna Kendrick)

Best Screenplay

Best Director

It's Halloween Movie Time!

Here are some of my favorite film tricks and treats, perfect for renting and scaring yourself for an evening around Halloween.

Posted by CINEMAGIRL.

This time of year I love renting scary and nostalgic Halloween movies. They get me in the mood for the holiday itself and feed my imagination's craving for the creepy.

Here are some of my favorite macabre flicks, rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the scariest:

The Exorcist: Dir. William Friedkin. (1973)

This is probably the scariest movie I've ever seen and the scariest ever made. Sweet little Regan (Linda Blair) becomes possessed by a demon, priests are summoned to perform an exorcism on the girl, pea soup flies. This kid (demon) is so crude, so disgusting, but so good!

Five howls on the scary scale.

Rosemary's Baby: Dir. Roman Polanski (1968)

More creepy than scary. This movie will not make you scream or jump, but it will mess with your head. Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) becomes pregnant after her struggling actor husband (John Cassavetes) makes a deal with the Satanist next-door neighbors. Special note: Actress Ruth Gordon won an Oscar for her portrayal of the dopey, nosey neighbor Minnie Castevet. She is so enjoyable to watch.

Three howls on the scary scale.

Halloween: Dir. John Carpenter (1978)

Michael Myers, clad in a workman's jumpsuit and a white-painted Captain Kirk mask, returns to Haddonfied to terrorize babysitters. Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curtis is at her best in this original version of the film, which is one of the highest-grossing independent films ever made. I love the shots throughout the film. The spooky POV shots of Michael peering in windows and through bushes, and the fact that he looks so darn scary, even in broad daylight. He's my favorite scary movie character of all time.

Four howls on the scary scale.

Feel free to list some of your favorite scary movies in the comments section and have a Happy Halloween!

Inglorious Basterds

As reviewed by skinnyblacktie

Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Brad Pitt, Til Scheiger, Daniel Bruhl, B.J. Novak, Eli Roth and Martin Wuttke

Tonight Chef Tarantino's special is a blood soaked, 'new wave' inspired 'macaroni combat' with a side of 3rd generation retribution. I recommend it. (I would include a hint of 'spaghetti western', but who wants that many starches in one meal?) We first meet 'The Jew Hunter' aka Col. Landis (Christoph Waltz) on a dairy farm in Nazi-occupied France in 1941. Through an exchange of feigned pleasantries with a French dairy farmer believed to be housing Jews, we learn hastily that Landis is very, very good at what he does. Polarized, yet with equal efficiancy and skill at their specific duties, 'The Basterds' come into play. Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), Sgt Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger) along with 'The Bear Jew' (Eli Roth) and company comprise an outfit of American-born Jewish men bread to do one specifically brutal job...kill Nazis (especially Nazis such as Landis). At this point a simple 'seek and destroy' plot could be rested upon, but things become a bit more complex when French cinema owner Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) meets Nazi war hero and movie star Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl) and the German movie star Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) becomes involved with the British government. Soon interweaving relationships build and fold, leaving the audience with a climax truly worth applauding.

Tarantino's 'Basterds' pace alternates between the booming escalation of a Phillip Glass piece and the slow humming build of an Old English tale. Each scene contains a peak and valley system which will take you to the edge of your patience, yet reward you with a summit of violence and emotion. The dialogue is sprawling, but filled with gem sentences and a fat diamond at the end of each journey. A true scale is established early on and whether you like it or not, it is a constant. The centerpiece of the screenwriting is the playful and clever anaslysis of dialect, be it German, French, Italian or American. All four dialects and accents (including a hilarious take on British stereotypes) are present and batted back through forth throughout the film. No actor plays with this aspect more than Christoph Waltz who utters all four during the course of the film with arrogance, courtesy and humor on the mind.

Tarantino's direction in the film is something to truly appreciate. His funniest film to date, 'Basterds' is a perfect blend of sophomoric profiling, dark humor and one-liners not previously experienced in Tarantino's films. He was not too afraid to allow the most popular (and most 'tough guy' casted) American actor in the film (Brad Pitt) to provide the most comic relief. Yet, through all of the conventional humor (very much unconventional to the director), Tarantino's stapled situational humor comes forth as casual as two men having a civil conversation while scalping a German S.S. Officer.

Cinematically 'Basterds' is as diverse as the motley array of language used in it. Quick cut scenes, hightlighted around the rims with gun fire, accompany stretched steady-cam shots. The camera takes us into the eyes of a western standoff and then above the studio set to remove the audience from the story for a moment and say,'this is a fictional movie, man...have some fun.' Standard Tarantino stuff applies here.

'Inglorious Basterds' is more than I could have asked for from a new Tarantino film. The plot is interesting without being too smart. The humor is enough to make you laugh at the gore and blood. The direction of pace and character is flawless. Tarantino's most talented film since 'Jackie Brown.'

Story: 8.5

Acting: 9

Look: 10

Overall: 9

R.I.P. King of '80s Cinema

John Hughes died this past week at the age of 59. He's known for writing, directing and producing dozens of popular films, such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club. Love him or leave him, his 1980s films shape the way we still view that decade. He had a way of capturing teenage desperation, boredom and humor like no other director has.

By CINEMAGIRL:

Here's my Top Ten Favorite Hughes' movies (whether produced, written or directed by the man):

10. Sixteen Candles
9. She's Having a Baby
8. The Great Outdoors
7. Home Alone
6. Christmas Vacation
5. Planes, Trains & Automobiles
4. Pretty in Pink
3. Uncle Buck
2. The Breakfast Club
1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off


*photo above of Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller

Away We Go

Directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty)

Co-written by Dave Eggers (author of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius)

Starring Maya Rudolph (SNL alum) as Verona and John Krasinski (The Office) as Burt.

Released 2009. Now playing.

SYNOPSIS: A thirty-something couple, expecting their first child, take a cross-country journey to find a suitable home to start their family in.

Review by CINEMAGIRL:

Verona (Rudolph) and Burt (Krasinski) are a youngish, committed - yet unmarried - couple unexpectedly expecting a baby. When the two find out that Burt's parents (Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels) are moving out of the country just before the baby is due, the couple sets off on a cross-country tour to find a new home in a new town near friends or relatives that will provide a healthy support system for the new family.

And so the adventure begins. Burt and Verona first stop in Phoenix to visit her former boss (Allison Janney), who is married (to comedian Jim Gaffigan) with two kids, and thrilled to death that the young couple might decide to live near them. However, the old boss and her hubby are total alcoholics and apathetic parents and their meeting at the local dog track leaves them unsettled, and questioning their own abilities as future parents.

Later, Burt and Verona venture to Madison, Wisconsin, to visit a childhood friend of his - a very outspoken, liberal, hippie-mama portrayed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Burt and Verona meet her at the college campus where she works as a professor and enter her office to find her openly breastfeeding her two children - an infant and one that's more than a few years old - in the middle of the room. The evening with LN (that's her name) and her husband - who have a "family bed" and aversion to strollers - unfolds into hilarity. The hippie couple becomes more and more outrageous and patronizing until the mild-manner Burt explodes in the most ridiculous way. (I thought this was the funniest part of the film.)

The film looks at the many ways there are to raise kids along the way, including stereotypes, pointing out the ridiculous in nearly each scenario.

A recurring subplot to the story is that Verona's parents are no longer alive. This comes up throughout the film and creates an emotional, dramatic angle for Verona to reconcile and the couple to deal with. It is handled gently without becoming overbearing.

The film is shot in a standard sort-of way. There are no dramatic angles or inventive shots. It's simply a nice story delivered in a direct way. The real stand-out of the film is the dialogue, co-written by Dave Egggers, known for his memoir "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" and his recent journalistic novels.

Eggers writes for Gen-X, using a natural tone that speaks directly to the reader, or viewer, rather than pandering to you or trying to make you feel stupid. His words, and that of collaborator Vendela Vida, were delivered well by Rudolph and Krasinski, two comically trained actors who work(ed) on two of the funniest shows on TV.

Overall, Away We Go is funny, entertaining, fresh and very well cast. I recommend seeing it in the theatre now or renting it later.

STORY: 8.5

ACTING: 8.5

LOOK: 7

OVERALL: 8

Orthodox Stance

A 90 min. documentary film about an Orthodox Jewish boxer who balances his sport and his faith.

Released 2008

Shot, written and directed by Jason Hutt

Screened this year at South Side Film Festival, Bethlehem, PA.

This interesting documentary follows Dimitriy Salita, a Russian-born Orthodox Jewish boxer, during the rise of his professional career.

Review by CINEMAGIRL:

Because of the strict observance of his faith, Dimitriy Salita cannot box on the Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. When he travels he must be careful to only eat kosher foods and to avoid using electricity or driving a car during the Sabbath. That means that even at a hotel where he is scheduled to fight a bout, he will turn off the lights, light candles, pray, and stay in for the night.

This documentary is shot in a verite style. You can tell that one camera operator followed Salita most of the time, shooting him with a small digital camera, capturing audio as the scenery would allow. The look of the film can be jarring at times, but the viewer can accept it because it is consistent throughout the film. Hutt, the director-cameraman, etc., followed Salita during his life's routine, to the Starrett City Boxing Gym in Brooklyn, the Chabad, training camp in the Poconos, to his home with his brother and even on trips to Vegas and Puerto Rico with his friend/religious advisor in tow.

Hutt was able to film the small moments that make characters real because he ingratiated himself into Salita's life. For instance, he was there to film Salita's brother Mischa helping him pick out a suit for a photo shoot, or capture a crushing rebuke fom his trainer when he discovers Salita is still two pounds overweight just two days before his biggest bout.

It is endearing watching Salita balance his personal life with his professional career. He is surrounded by a great cast of "characters" - from his trainer Jimmy that has known him and looked out for him since the age of 13, to Israel, the friend and advisor who travels with him and helps him follow Orthodox rules.

I would recommend renting this film or catching at future festivals.

LOOK: 7

STORY: 8.5

OVERALL: 8

'M' (1931)

As reviewed by Skinnyblacktie




Directed by Fritz Lang




Starring Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke, Theodor Loos and Gustaf Grundgens.

'Wer ist der Moder?" (Who is the murderer?) Screenwriters Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou ask this question through concerned parents and paranoia struck police men after a ninth child (Inge Landgut) is murdered within the past year. The wake of this social dynamic quickly curls up and slams down hard upon the criminal element of the community and foams over in the form of civilian justice (injustice). And so and so it goes, the criminals of the city devote their time to catching the murderer, not for the greater good, but so the police will stop harassing them as if they were child murderers.

Lang's work is beautifully shot. Numerous chase scenes from brick-walled cobble-stoned city streets to singular light based shots in sewer systems and hide-and-go seek suspense elements in buildings provide a visual suspense witch matches the powerful story.

The acting is a bit overly dramatic at points, but overall the emotion is dealt very well. Peter Lorre does a fantastic job playing quite possibly the first serial killer in a motion picture (sorry for the spoiler... I doubt you can pick Peter Lorre out of I line up...I couldn't).

'M' is a film of cause and effect. For every problem there is a solution...for every solution a motive...and contained within every motive is the benefit of someone somehow. There are no heroes...there are no villains...there are simply the viewers' personal answers to social questions. Buy the end of the film you will ask yourself 'Wer ist der echte Morder?'

Story-----9
Look-----9
Acting-----8
Overall-----9