Marley and Me: DVD Review

March 29, 2009

The film starts off predictably cute as newly married couple John [Owen Wilson] and Jen [Jennifer Aniston] Grogan move to Florida and get a golden retriever puppy. Marley is an incorrigible pup which leads to two talented stars chasing a dog around or being dragged by the dog or just being plain silly for a good chunk at the start of the film. But suddenly, Marley and Me becomes a sweet film that focuses on relationships and life choices. John watches his friend Sebastian [Grey’s Anatomy hunk Eric Danes] globetrot his way to super-journalist at the New York Times, while he writes a column about life in and around Florida and with his dog. Jen gives up her successful reporter position because, “When I’m home all I think about is work and when I’m at work all I think about is home, and I don’t want to do anything 50%.”

Marley and Me rings true in its exploration of those decisions that we make and that where we may end up may not be where we expected but it is all about what we do once we get there. Plus, we can continue to change and grow whenever and wherever we are. And everything might be easier with the support of a dog [perhaps a cat too? as I'm not a "dog person"].

extras include: focus on all the different Marleys used in the film (22!), deleted scenes and a gag reel.

Grade: B+

Available on DVD March 31


Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg

March 28, 2009

Any writer has read the essential book on writing: Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, which provides wonderful advice and encouragement. When I saw that she would be at a reading at the Brookline Booksmith on Wednesday, March 25th, I jumped at the chance to hear her read from her new book which focuses on writing memoir:

Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir

[I had a miserable day on Tuesday and remained in a funk on Wednesday especially when I received bad and unbelievable news]

Regardless, I should attend many more book readings because as Goldberg said, “There’s nothing like hearing an author read what she wrote in her own voice.”

The book is like a workshop in that she gives you assignments to do. She suggested that we by several spiral notebooks to fill with our writing. Join a writing group –something I definitely know that I need to do/ should do– of course in my 30s I just found a book club to join and I am its youngest member!!! I know that to be a good writer one must write all the time. I feel like I do write often. I write for this blog, I write film and music review/ commentary and the like but it might be good for me to take Natalie’s advice and get a notebook and write for ten minutes each day on a subject from her book.

Writing is an athletic activity. It comes from the whole body, your knees and arms, kidneys, liver, fingers, teeth, lungs, spine- all organs and body parts leaning in with you, hovering in concentration over the page. And just like any other sport, it takes practice.
–Natalie Goldberg


Quantum of Solace: DVD Review

March 23, 2009

James Bond makes us Americans look bad again, which right now isn’t all that difficult. Daniel Craig makes an excellent Bond with his rugged good looks. This blonde Bond seems refined yet tough, sexy and cerebral. Directed by Marc Forster [Monster's Ball] and written by Paul Haggis [Crash] and Neal Purvis, Quantum of Solace keeps you at the edge of your seat with intense action and impressive chase scenes.

Bond goes after a guy who is trying to destroy a Bolivian water supply under the guise of conservation to get oil. Bond babe Olga Kurylenko is sultry and tough and a strong counterpoint to Craig but there is not enough sexual tension between the two. They really remain in the friend zone which is not what you want in a Bond babe. For the villain, Mathieu Amalric [The Diving Bell and the Butterfly] is a bizarre choice. He’s calculated and crafty but not scary enough for a dark alley encounter. There are lots of cool gadgets but I miss the scenes with some gadget-making counterpart of Q who explains everything to Bond. That is always a kick.

Despite some weak spots, Quantum of Solace is a fun, exciting roller-coaster ride complete with entertaining action and intrigue.

Grade: B

Disc Extras include:

Travel on location with producers, Director Marc Forster, cast and crew to Panama, Chile, Italy and London to capture the true Bond moments for Quantum of Solace. See the intense physical training for first-time action star and Bond girl Olga Kurylenko. Featurettes on the music so integral to a Bond film as well as on Director Marc Forsters.

Extras: C

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DVD Review: Bolt

March 20, 2009


Bolt attempts to question where fantasy and reality begin and end. Do they belong together? Can a fantasy turn into a reality? For Bolt [voiced by John Travolta], that is exactly what this dog wants. He has been the unknowing star of a sci-fi/action television show. To make it real, he does not know he has been acting. He thinks that Penny, [voiced by Miley Cyrus] the girl who he saves week after week, truly cares for only him. Bolt also believes that he has special powers which allow him to save Penny and to stop cars and people and bend bars and more. When he gets separated from Penny and ends up in New York, a jaded cat named Mittens [voiced by Susie Essman] sets him straight with the realities of being a plain dog without any special skills. She tries to get him to give up on the girl, but the devoted Bolt won’t be persuaded. He forces Mittens to travel cross-country to save Penny from what he perceives as a dangerous situation. While it lacks in the wham-bam! excitement, cleverness or humor of other animated films, Bolt succeeds in making the viewer cheer a bit for this semi-underdog to safely return to Hollywood.

Bolt will win over the youngsters and young at heart as this dog struggles to reclaim both the girl he adores and his own pride.

Grade: C+

on Blu-Ray March 22

on DVD March 24


Sunshine Cleaning: Film Review

March 18, 2009

The two Lorkowski sisters have a traumatic past and cope in their own ways: Rose [Amy Adams] is a workaholic; and Norah [Emily Blunt] is an unreliable slacker. Once a popular high school cheerleader (cannot believe that this still holds so much cache even today), Rose struggles to stay above water as a single mom with dreams of better things for her son and herself. In reality, someone as cheery and energetic as Rose [particularly as vibrantly played by Adams] should and would be running the entire cleaning company or have her real estate license by now. Norah is moody and brooding and kinda punk with the obligatory smudged eyeliner and funky second-hand wardrobe. She sleeps too late to get into work on time and half-asses her shifts as a waitress. The sisters fight but of course truly care for each other.

On somewhat of a whim and a lot of frustration, the sisters embark on an unusual enterprise: biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up. This forces them to handle the aftermath of suicide, body decomposition, as well as bodily fluids and other unexpected messes for which they are completely untrained and unprepared for but face with that little bit of hope and can-do spirit to potentially get them out of the slump that is their life. It is fairly predictable [and borrow elements from many other well-loved indie films] but the cast is great [including Alan Arkin as the girl’s eccentric, cranky father]. Sunshine Cleaning is that typical indie film that combines just the right amount of quirkiness with darkness, laughs and touching moments. What makes it worth the trip to the theater? Amy Adams and Emily Blunt make a fabulous acting pair.

STEELE SAYS: SEE IT IN THE THEATRE


The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: DVD Review

March 16, 2009

Miramax Filrms
Available on DVD

A story of a child growing up fast in Nazi Germany. A fantasy. Somewhere in between rests The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It is certainly not The Secret Garden where a sad, pale boy comes to life in a beautiful, immense garden right in his own backyard (one of my favorite stories as a youngster). Here we have a few things working against us: the boy’s father (David Thewlis) is a Commandant in Nazi Germany during WWII; the family moves to “the country;” the boy is not told that the “farm” he can just barely see out his window is in fact a concentration camp; his mother (the ever-fascinating Vera Farmiga) is having a nervous breakdown; and his older sister is becoming a Hitler youth as she nurses a crush on one of the soldiers working for her father (a perfect Nazi specimen: all blonde, blue-eyed, bitter tongued and violent handed).

So Bruno (Asa Butterfield) fancies himself an explorer and he finds the “farm” and a new friend. He at first ignores the barbed wire and the pajamas that everyone wears and the numbers on the pajamas. The boy soon explains the circumstances. Bruno is being tutored that Jews are the cause of all of Germany’s problems and he only gets more confused. How can all Jews be bad if he has a friend who is so nice out there right behind the house? It does not keep him away from his new friend Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) however but makes him want to see him more. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a huge stretch of the imagination and only an eight-year-old boy could be so innocent about the situations.

Grade: C+


Rachel Getting Married: DVD Review

March 8, 2009

After a decade in and out of rehab Kym [Anne Hathaway] returns home in time to steal attention away from her sister during her nuptials and between her teary, awkward atonement toast at the rehearsal dinner to hooking up with the best man who she met at an AA meeting to punching her mother [Debra Winger] in the middle of an argument about the death of Kym and Rachel’s much younger brother [who had been in Kym's care while she was high years before] she nearly succeeds.

The screenplay, by Sidney Lumet’s daughter Jenny, combined with direction by Jonathan Demme makes this a strong, insightful glimpse into a flawed weekend of one family. A family that has weathered its share of tragedy, pain, and misunderstanding and may or may not come together during this time of new beginnings. Hathaway’s layered performance is dark, moving, unapologetic and brilliant.

Grade: A-


Australia: DVD Review

March 6, 2009

review by Amy Steele

Australia is a truly disappointment as it should have been either more serious or full on campy. Instead, it attempted to be an epic and just didn’t really work. It wasn’t funny when it might have meant to be and it just wasn’t serious enough. I think Baz Luhrmann may have wanted Nicole Kidman to be the Scarlett O’Hara of australia_kissand she looked lovely and acted all stiff and prim and proper but just was too wound up the entire time. She never let her hair down, never let any feelings show even in the scene where she went to comfort the boy when his mother died. It was amusing and I don’t think there was that intent. And Hugh Jackman as the Drover was just the pin up boy here with that silly scene where he poured a bucket of water over himself. Please! If we want soft core porn we are not looking to get it from Hugh Jackson (except in our dreams). Why wasn’t it just in total slow-mo?

Wonder why it didn’t get nominated: it’s almost 2 1/2 hours long: is about race relations, stars Kidman and Jackman; focuses on WWII, has impressive cinematography. Perhaps because is is part comedy/part drama and . The landscapes and scenery of the Australian outback are breathtaking and beautiful and sweeping and exquisite.

Grade: C


Phoebe in Wonderland: Film Review

March 6, 2009

phoebe31

Phoebe in Wonderland  is a bittersweet and strange little gem with a talented cast. Elle Fanning is young Phoebe, a girl more comfortable in fantasy land than in reality due to an undiagnosed mental disorder that causes OCD. Her dark, depressed mom, Hillary, (Felicity Huffman) fights against motherhood and procrastination on her book about Alice in Wonderland. The film moves between Phoebe’s real struggles which impact her family and school and conforming, her dream world involving Alice in Wonderland and her ultimate realization of portraying Alice in the school play.

Phoebe’s unconventional theater teacher, Miss Dodger, (Clarkson) calmly draws the girl out by casting her as the lead in the school production of Alice in Wonderland. Around other children at school, Phoebe is shy and awkward but once she gets up on stage, she is focused and imaginative and brave. Miss Dodger encourages the young children to be freer and to open up in new ways on the stage. Phoebe admits to her psychiatrist that she wants to get away from the structured life in which she must live and the stage remains one place where fewer rules limit her. She can be happiest on stage.

Phoebe confides to her friend, another outsider, Jamie, who chooses to play the Queen of Hearts in the play: “Sometimes I get this feeling; this feeling of jumping off the edge of a roof…it’s what I feel like all the time with the things I do. I know I shouldn’t but I can’t help it. It’s like being on the edge of the roof all the time.”

phoebe1

Fanning exhibits intense emotional range in this role. It is impressive to see such a young actress be vulnerable. Her scenes are unsettling, touching, upsetting, sometimes painful. She can easily move from hurt to wide-eyed amazement and it is a delight to watch her on screen. Fanning is honest, open and raw with the material. Huffman is very good in this dulled down role as a frenzied mom who wants her child to be accepted label-free. She effectively shows stress, guilt, fear, exasperation and unconditional love.

As the film moves on it is evident that Phoebe wants to play Alice to be part of her mother’s world. Hillary, in turn, feels she is not being a good enough mother and not spending enough time with her two daughters. She resents her husband’s independence and  that he has been published and she is facing writer’s block because she has to “deal” with Phoebe’s issues each day. The family’s crisis takes hold and seems like it might ruin the dynamics until reasoning sets in.

Phoebe in Wonderland delves into serious issues in an imaginative way.

STEELE SAYS: SAVE IT FOR THE NETFLIX QUEUE


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