FilmFemme

Alliance of Women Film Journalists: 2008 EDA Awards

Published at: 04:01 pm - Friday January 09 2009

Hey, someone that I have never met actually found my blog! Her name is Jennifer and she’s the President & Founder of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, yet another professional group which I am woefully underqualified to join. However, since they were kind enough to email me (I’m a real blogger now!) I guess I’ll do a post on their 2008 EDA Awards. You may wonder what EDA stands for, so here is an explanation:

The EDA Awards recognize the amazing work done by and about women–both in front and behind the camera. The EDAs (Excellent Dynamic Activism) are named in honor of AWFJ founder Jennifer Merin’s mother, Eda Reiss Merin, a stage, film and television actress whose career spanned more than 60 years.

Ok, I don’t know why they couldn’t just be the AWFJ Awards, but whatever.

First, what I hate about these awards: Um, they are awards and who cares.

What I LOVE about these awards: They have cocktails named after some of the nominees, with the receipes right there on their website! Ooh, that is exactly my speed, AWFJ! Check them out here. I think I will be trying the Sumdog[sic]-tini.

Some awards commentary after the jump. If you care. Which you don’t. (more…)

Posted in: industry news, oscar buzz by FilmFemme No Comments

The Reader

Published at: 01:01 pm - Thursday January 08 2009

The Reader Poster Is it fair that a movie with a 15 year old girl taking an older lover that spent a good 15% of its runtime with the pair romping around in bed would have been chastised for such lewd portrayal of an inappropriate romance whereas The Reader is garnering critical praise across the globe because the 15 year old is a boy and his lover is a woman? Well, not really I guess. But, that’s not entirely relevant since that’s not the movie that got made.

Instead, The Reader tells the story of a Michael Berg (the young, German David Kross) who, when he falls ill on his way home from school, is cared for by the stern but kind Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet). Over the course of months, the pair develop an intimate relationship that is immediately sexual but also sweetly intimate. Of course, it is forced to end and Michael grows up with Hanna as a dear memory. When he encounters her later, as a law student, he is forced to face the fact that just because he has fond memories of her, he really knew very little of this complex older woman.

The first half of the film, with scene after scene of sensual intimacy is provocative and compelling. As Michael, Kross naivete is charming while his attractive qualities – a youthful smoothness in both his physicality and his mannerisms. He is unapologetically enthusiastic about his affections for Hanna. In her part, Winslet is cautious, but obviously taken in by Michael’s charms. Stern and sometimes unyielding, but ultimately genunie in her feelings for him.

The second half of the film was something I didn’t expect, to the point that I won’t give away Hanna’s secret. Suffice to say, an older Michael is played by Ralph Fiennes (his resemblance to David Kross is passing at best), while Winslet it aged (not so masterfully) with makeup effects. The story reinforces the true nature of their relationship and is touching, if not happy.

The Reader explores interesting themes of post-World War II Germany in a way that hasn’t been tested before and this alone makes it compelling. These underlying notions in conjunction with strong performances and delicate direction make for one of the better films to come out of the 2008 Oscar season.

Posted in: drama, oscar buzz, period?, reviews, romance by FilmFemme No Comments

Armchair Marketing: He’s Just Not That Into You

Published at: 12:01 pm - Wednesday January 07 2009

I’ve discovered the secret to blogging more often: Write Less!

The much delayed ensemble romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You, based on the book of the same name that has been dog-eared by cat-owning women across the world, is finally coming out February 6th. The poster went online today. Hmm…I wonder what this movie is going to be like…

Check it out, after the jump.

He's Just Not That Into You (more…)

Posted in: armchair marketing, best of, comedy, industry news, romance by FilmFemme No Comments

Doubt

Published at: 02:01 pm - Tuesday January 06 2009

Doubt Poster Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman? Based on a play? About molestation in the church? Wow! Sounds like it’s in the proverbial pretentious art house bag! Add in the doe-eyed Amy Adams as a nun and you’re golden.

Yes, all this and more got me in the door to what doesn’t exactly appear to be a very *exciting* film. Cast list and Oscar-season aside, Doubt was far from spectacular and I would even go so far as to call it mediocre.

Hoffman is Father Brendan Flynn, a liberal and jovial priest who is new to his parish in Queens in the 1960s. Streep is a hardened and humorless Sister Aloysius Beauvier who has not taken kindly to his arrival at the church and the adjacent school, which she runs. Tension between the pair builds and Sister Aloysius makes sure to warn the other nuns, including the gentle and suspiciously pretty Sister James (Adams) to watch out for him. Soon, Sister Aloysius suspects that Father Flynn has engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a young African-American boy who has had trouble fitting in at the homogenious school. There is much accusation and gnashing of teeth, but it is never made clear to anyone if anything improper has actually taken place, or if Father Flynn has merely become a victim of Sister Aloysius’s fickle tastes.

I can see how this story would be appealing: intrigue, Catholic molestation charges and two contemporary thespianic giants squaring off, but I think that Doubt fell prey to the same problems that plague so many stage-to-screen adaptations: it’s a small intimate story that is very difficult to translate into the kind of big spectacle that the big screen needs. Despite the dramatic prowess of the two leads, the characters came off as hollow caricatures. Hoffman was sympathetic and nuanced, but in the end, I just didn’t care what happened to him. Likewise, Streep was vicious and conniving, but when was the last time we met a nun we liked? Adams, who is not usually my favorite, shone strongy against this pair, naive, innocent and a beacon of goodness in a large hat.

It is possible that a more adept director could have coerced something more compelling and intricate out of the simple story that John Patrick Shanley put on the page, but more than that I don’t necessarily think this is a story for the screen. It dragged on too long, past the point of caring, no matter how much spittle and sweat flew from Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s brow. So when Hoffman got angry at a recent press junket because he was asked to reveal if he thought Father Flynn did, in fact molest the boy, was it because of artistic integrity? Or was he just being defensive?

Posted in: drama, oscar buzz, reviews by FilmFemme 1 Comment

Random Hulu Movie: Just Between Friends

Published at: 03:01 pm - Sunday January 04 2009

Just Between Friends Poster I used to love the Random Sunday Afternoon movies that would come on TV and I would have never heard of. Now that I’m too cheap to pay for cable, I’m left to get my random movies from the internet. Hulu to the rescue!

Just Between Friends is a cheesy melodrama from 1986. Holly (Mary Tyler Moore, who is disgustingly, distractingly THIN here. Please eat a sandwich, Mary. PLEASE!) is married to Chip (Ted Danson, ALSO thin) and meets Sandy (Christine Lahti, REALLY THIN, too!) at an Awesomely 80s Aerobics class. Despite the fact that Holly is a straight laced housewife and Sandy is a chain smoking field reporter, the two women become fast friends (see title) and Holly invites Sandy to dinner at her house (people always do this in movies…become fast friends and have impromptu dinner parties). So Sandy comes over, the ladies chat and then Chip gets home from the office (he’s a seismologist for some reason). ZOMG, SANDY HAS BEEN HAVING AN AFFAIR WITH CHIP! Needless to say, this makes for a pretty fucking awkward dinner party with a lot of hemming and hawing that was patently ridiculous. I mean, seriously, couldn’t the affair participants at least pretend to make chit chat? These people are bad at having an affair.

So then Chip goes off to a conference in Washington…it’s some like nuclear affairs protest or something…are seismologists involved in that kind of thing? Seemed weird to me. But anyway, after the conference, ZOMG CHIP DIES IN A CAR CRASH!

More hemming and hawing. Sandy and Holly grow closer. Holly buys the gym where she took aerobics classes (WTF is up with the weird suspender leotards that chicks wore in the 80s? Seems horribly uncomfortable. But the aerobics montages are actually really awesome.) Then, of course, Holly is cleaning out Chip’s office at the seismology place in Pasadena and ZOMG SHE FINDS PICTURES OF SANDY AND CHIP TOGETHER!

They stop being friends and there is a lot of bitchy and passive aggressive behavior. Loooove to see that. There are attempts from both sides at trying to be friends again, then ZOMG IT TURNS OUT SANDY IS PREGNANT WITH CHIP’S BABY!

ZOMG SHE DECIDES TO HAVE THE BABY!

ZOMG HOLLY STARTS DATING CHIP’S COLLEAGUE HARRY (Sam Waterston, who is actually really cute in this movie and the only one who is not painfully thin)!

ZOMG SANDY HAS THE BABY AND EVERYONE IS FRIENDS AGAIN!

I love Mary Tyler Moore, but when she’s just being a normal actress and not an adorable ball of comedic neuroses, I don’t really have any interest in watching it. The sad part is, this movie isn’t quite bad enough to be hilariously bad. It’s just kind of annoying and…pointless. Predictable, boring, poorly directed, but a shining example of what was wrong with 80s fashions, in case you needed another one of those.

You can watch it here: Just Between Friends on Hulu

Posted in: drama, hulu, Random Sunday Afternoon Movie, reviews by FilmFemme No Comments

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Published at: 12:12 pm - Monday December 29 2008

Though most reviews of The Day the Earth Stood Still may focus on the cheap-looking visual effects, the predictably wooden acting, the melodramatic and awful writing or the painfully obnoxious Jaden Smith, I think that it’s important to look at the brilliant comedic aspect of this sci-fi remake. Namely, Keanu Reeves speaking Chinese was hands down one of the funniest things I saw on film this year.

Posted in: action, reviews, sci fi by FilmFemme 1 Comment

2008 Women’s Film Critics Circle Awards

Published at: 02:12 pm - Wednesday December 17 2008

So, I was recently let in on a little secret. There is something called the “Women’s Film Critics Circle.” And like any good Film Critics Circle, they have annual awards that are handed out in December. But this caucus of women who write about film (not the only group like this, mind you) has some unique categories in which they deem “honors.” They also have some opinions that vary wildly from mine. Let’s review some highlights, after the jump. (more…)

Posted in: industry news, misogyny, oscar buzz by FilmFemme 2 Comments

What Doesn’t Kill You

Published at: 09:12 am - Tuesday December 16 2008

What Doesn't Kill You Poster Usually, when a movie comes out with a couple of star actors – especially two that I happen to be fairly fond of — I hear about it. And if I don’t, it’s normally a very bad sign, not only in terms of poor marketing and disappointing box office, but also in terms of the quality of the film.

So when I was browsing around looking for a movie to see on Saturday and saw a picture of Mark Ruffalo, had to dig around on Rotten Tomatoes for ten mintues just to figure out what movie he was in (and then saw that it was co-starring Amanda Peet and Ethan Hawke!) I wasn’t expecting the moon when we decided to go to the true crime drama, What Doesn’t Kill You (great title, eh?) But lo and behold, for once in all of my cynical grumbling, I was pleasantly surprised.

The film, written and directed by Brian Goodman (with writing assistance from Paul T. Murray and Donnie “NKOTB” Wahlberg) tells a fictionalized account of Goodman’s life (through the surrogate Brian Reilly, played by Mark Ruffalo) as a South Boston criminal, from stealing cigarettes to roughing up deadbeats and eventually his descent into a world of drug peddling, addiction and debt at the expense of his two sons and his long-suffering wife, Stacy (Amanda Peet). Always by his side and egging him on through these trials and tribulations is his best friend Paulie McDougan (Ethan Hawke). (more…)

Posted in: drama, indie, reviews by FilmFemme 1 Comment

Australia

Published at: 03:12 pm - Monday December 15 2008

As a teenager, I very vividly remember going to see Moulin Rouge. Even then, I was a budding film snob, but my adolescent heart was still fluttering with excitement, from the marketing, the music, the experience that it promised. And boy did it deliver. With Moulin Rouge, Baz Lurhmann put himself on my map (I know he was already on many others) and as such, I was truly looking forward to Australia, which reunited Luhrmann with Nicole Kidman and put her opposite the unfathomable hunkiness of Hugh Jackman. But, as you may have guessed by now, I was sorely disappointed.

Australia starts out OK. Kidman as Lady Sarah Ashley does look fantastic in the period costumes: high waisted trousers and hats galore. But after a beginning that drags on, reiterating over and over THIS GUY is evil and THIS GUY is good, once the story finally gets rolling, you’re not sure what to care about. First, Lady Ashley has to save her dead husband’s cattle business with the help of Hugh Jackman. Then she has to rescue a half-aboriginal boy who has been disowned by his white father. Then she has to use her wiles as an unconventional woman to take an untameable man. Then…oh god, I’m getting bored even summarizing this! The point is, there are just too many stories and TOO much packed into the movie. With an ungodly runtime of 2 hours and 45 minutes, I prayed for it to end at least 4 times…and even kept thinking it was going to. After all, he’s not going to try to pack *another* story in, is he? Oh wait. Yes. He is.

YAWN.

Oh Baz Luhrman, we know that an unconventional woman is all it takes to tame an untamable man. WE KNOW. Thanks.

Posted in: drama, reviews, romance by FilmFemme No Comments

Thanksgiving Guest Reviews: My 12 Year Old Cousin

Published at: 08:11 pm - Thursday November 27 2008

Home Alone

“Man, that kid is SMART!”

Shooter

“I thought the dude was gonna die, but then he didn’t.”

Must Love Dogs

[insert sound of him leaving the room]

Posted in: action, comedy, family, guest reviews, romance by FilmFemme No Comments