The East

First Hit:  Interesting, thoughtful, and stayed with me long into the next day.

The premise of this film, for me, was three fold: It was about activism, social responsibility, and personal responsibility.

In this context, the film gives viewers the ability view these three concepts in their own way. The scriptwriters’ and director’s personal biases aren’t overtly being pushed on the audience.

They state a set of facts about what a company is doing or has done, then what “The East” intends as punishment and why. They are an eye for and eye group. The East is a group of younger people who found themselves, for personal reasons, working together to do “Jams” which are the payback sessions for the large corporations. An oil company executive’s home is vandalized by having oil pumped through the vents.

As the Jams get more intense, the prices get higher. The film moves through this story by having Sarah (Brit Marling) get in to and then spy on this activist group. One of the opening scenes after she is with the group gives you a wonderful view of what the group hopes to achieve – it is about eating.

The security company Sarah works for, puts her and other company agents in harm’s way by inserting them with activist groups to find out what companies the activists are going to attack. Then, her boss pitches security services to mitigate activist actions to said companies. It is a rather interesting way for the filmmakers to share the story and give the audience the opportunity to better understand responsibility – theirs and a companies’.

Marling is sublime as the agent who hides her life from her boyfriend, boss, and groups she infiltrates. All the while, the audience understands her dilemma, position and stays engaged with her character. Alexander Skarsgard (as Benji) was perfect as the leader of the group, although they portend to not have a leader. His excellence comes from an insecure sureness that juxtaposes his mission. Ellen Page (as Izzy) is fantastic. Her pointed intelligence stands out as she continues to grow as an actor. Tony Kebbell (as “doc”) was strong as a strong member of the group. Zal Batmanglij and Marling wrote this very strong and thought provoking script. Batmanglij’s direction was superb in its execution.

Overall: I liked this film and it had me thinking about my actions and being responsible for them – just as all of us need to do.

To Rome With Love

First Hit:  Mediocre Allen film with some funny moments.

Over the last few years Woody Allen has created a few wonderful works based in Europe: “Midnight in Paris”, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, and “Match Point”.

Part of what made these films work is that Allen isn’t a character in them. It appears to me that his best work, these days, is when he isn’t a character in his films but when his focus is strong writing and directing.

Here Jerry (Allen) and his wife Phyllis (played by Judy Davis) are in Rome to meet their daughter Hayley’s (played by Alison Pill) fiancé Michelangelo (played by Flavio Parenti). In another story, John (played by Alex Baldwin) is coaching Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) about whether he should or will have sex with his live-in girlfriend Sally’s (played by Greta Gerwig) close friend Monica (Ellen Page) who is visiting them from Hollywood.

In another story, Millie and Antonio (played by Alessandra Mastronardi and Alessandro Tiberi respectively) are on their honeymoon in Rome and she wants to have an affair with an Italian film star while her new husband is attempting to fend off Anna (played by Penelope Cruz) a whore who’s been fully paid for.

Lastly, there is a story about the fleetingness and stupidity of fame with Leopoldo (played by Roberto Benigni) who all of a sudden finds himself the darling of the media until one day it stops, just as it started, suddenly and without reason.

Of the four major stories, the one with Jerry attempting to get Michelangelo’s father Giancarlo (played by Fabio Armiliato) to sing opera on stage after Jerry hears him singing opera in the shower are the funny bits. We discover that Giancarlo can only sing well when he is in a shower, so Jerry stages major operas with every scene with Giancarlo singing on stage in a portable shower.

Allen is mediocre and, for the most part, probably needs to quit being in front of the camera. Davis is good as Allen’s wife who puts up with her husband’s predilections. Pill is OK as Allen and Davis’ daughter. Parenti is a level above as the protective left wing fiancé. Baldwin is nothing interesting except when he says lines which reflect his real world woes. Eisenberg has no wings here and is retrained. Gerwig is OK but doesn’t seem engaged in the role. Page is supposed to be the femme fatale, but I found it hard to see her as described (sexy). Mastronardi and Tiberi are fine as the distracted honeymooners. Cruz came across as overtly trying. Benigni is somewhat mindless in this misplaced character. Armiliato was the best thing in the film. Being able to hold together a shower signing opera man was very good. Allen wrote and directed this very mediocre film.

Overall: This film was mostly lifeless and without a strong story – just a mash of four poorly constructed ones.

Inception

First Hit: Beautifully and visually arresting but overly complicated, long and too many gun fights to make it really work.

I don’t think films need to be seen multiple times to understand them better. Films need to create the story in a way which allows one to move (pulled) into the story with thoughtfulness.

I don’t want a lot of rethinking of what I just saw, wondering how it conjoins with the part I’m seeing now and if it makes sense with the beginning or where it might be going. Good films can be complicated. A good complicated film allows the complicatedness to unfold in such a way that the audience trusts the story and director to make sense of it all which they invariably do.

There are films I will see more than once (Memento and Sixth Sense to name two) looking to see if I missed story line clues along the way which revealed an earlier ending or a plot twist which I misunderstood, but after seeing it again, I realize it was just a well-made film.

I don't see films more than once just so I can understand the film. If after seeing a film I have this thought that I have to see the film again to understand it, then in my book, the director has failed. Inception is such a film.

Christopher Nolan over complicated this story and film to make it seem intelligent. He didn’t have to. The story is already intelligent. I understood the story, but it's the execution which is flawed. I knew early on why Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) felt guilty about his wife’s death. It was obvious, the early hints at tokens and them being personal along with the longing angst.

One knew early on it wasn’t his token which he was carrying. Nolan tried to make this a pivotal part of the film but it didn't work that way. It became a weight. At 148 minutes it was laboriously long and could have used about 30 – 40 minutes of trimming. Cut out the multitude of gun battles (why were they there and what did they add?) in which only one person on the “good team” gets shot. How can people miss their target at 2 feet distance, (Think about this: I’m at the window of your van with a really big gun, you’ve got 6 people in your van and pull off 15 shots and I don’t hit anyone – not likely) especially if they are hired killers?

Much of the gun battle stuff doesn’t make sense nor does it add to the intrigue of the film's concept. Just because a person is in a dream doesn’t mean they cannot get shot; if one guy gets shot (and he did), then all can get shot (and they don't).

On the plus side, the exploration of dreams at multiple levels is interesting. The concept of inception or implanting an idea and having it take hold and grow is in someone's mind is interesting. Another really good segment in the film was the part in which Cobb hires Ariadne (played by Ellen Page) as the dream architect.

The initial scenes where she is learning how to be a dream architect are extraordinary. Page (as Ariadne) is just the right kind of person to push dream boundaries with a particular amount of intelligence and risky youthful exuberance.

DiCaprio is alright here but from an acting standpoint he hasn’t grown and his standard character is getting worn out. Page is wonderful especially at the beginning of the film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as DiCaprio’s side kick is great as the solid piece of the team. He brought great energy and clarity to the film. Nolan did direct some great scenes with interesting pictures, but the story (by Nolan) was overwrought with needless gun fights (real or imaginative) and took away from what might have been a real psychological thriller.

Overall: Not an impressive film and certainly doesn’t live up to the hype of the previews or press.

Whip It

First Hit: This was very entertaining and brought back fond roller derby memories.

I use to like watching roller derby on television. There were teams called the Bay Bombers from San Francisco and from LA there were the T-Birds. And then there was the voice of roller derby in Southern California. His name was Dick Lane (voice of the LA T-Birds) and he would yell out with a particular inflection “Whoa, Nellie” when a skater would do something wild or get whipped out from the pack.

Ellen Page plays Bliss Cavendar a lost young girl who is forced into beauty pageants by her once beauty pageant maven mother (Marcia Gay Harden).

Bliss works at a local diner, wears combat boots on her own time, and with her best friend Pash, they keep looking for ways to leave their small hometown outside of Austin Texas. Seeing a flyer to a roller derby contest in Austin, Bliss and Pash drive over and watch the contest.

Bliss falls in love with the idea of roller derby and with a singer in a band who happens to be watching the same contest. Bliss goes home and decides to drag out her old Barbie skates and, with practice, ends up making the Hurl Scouts, a team that always loses.

There she meets Smashley Simpson (played by Drew Barrymore), Rosa Sparks (played by Eve), and Maggie Mayhem (played by Kristen Wiig). All the teams play in the same building every Friday night and the Hurl Scouts are absolutely the worst and they are proud of it.

However with Bliss’s speed, by listening to their coach, and executing his plays for the first time they start winning games. They actually win enough to challenge the perennial champions headed by Iron Maven (played by Juliette Lewis) in the playoff match which is on the same night as the biggest beauty contest in Bliss’s home town.

Faced with a major decision, a missing boyfriend, and an alienated family life, Bliss must make some hard choices.

Ellen Page is believable, strong and wonderful to watch as Bliss (AKA Baby Ruthless). Drew Barrymore as Smashley Simpson was good but better was her direction of this film as she got the feel and touch just about perfect. There was the sporting aspect and kept it fun as well. The updating of roller derby as it might be today was probably as good as one could get. I was overjoyed to see Juliette Lewis back on the screen. She’s been mostly involved in her band but it is always great to remember she has acting chops. Jimmy Fallon is the voice of the roller derby as "Hot Tub" Johnny Rocket and although he wasn't Dick Lane, he brought an effective style to the genre.

Overall: This was a very enjoyable film and had the grit of a sports film and the touching sense of a coming of age film.

Smart People

First Hit: Although billed as a romantic comedy, it seemed more of a drama with some good acting.

There are four really good parts in this film and they're handled admirably by Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church.

This mix of brings together a dynamic set of characters in a movie that has an underlying dull tone. Quaid plays a professor who has lost his wife and his drive for living an engaged life. He is cynical, lazy, non-caring, and buries his sadness and hurt by just checking out.

When someone approaches him in his field of expertise, he quickly sizes them up and cuts them down as being unworthy of this time. His daughter, played by Page, is lost in her own way. She is the family glue while also attempting to be perfect.

She's a perfect Republican, Student, and by filling in for her deceased mother she's the perfect daughter. She is also a cynical wise cracking friendless lonely girl who doesn’t want anyone to interrupt their household until she heads off to college.

Quaid gets hurt in a fall and because of the injury has to be driven everywhere he goes. Paige doesn’t want to do this and brings in Quaid’s brother Church who is a drifter and loner that is always broke and finds scams for jobs. He gets the job of driving for Quaid, moves in and causes havoc, and misses many of his appointments to pick up Quaid. While at the hospital Quaid is treated by Parker who was a former infatuated student of his and is now a physician. They begin to date which causes an upheaval in the household.

Overall: The acting was very good and the characters interesting but I would have like more on the Parker and Quaid relationship and less on the Page and Church relationship.