Movie with Abe: State 194

In case you missed it, in lieu of a review, I’ve written a blog entry on Awards Material, my blog for the Jewish Journal, about “State 194,” the new documentary about Palestinian statehood. It’s a well-made film that comes much closer than most to a balanced portrayal of the situation, and one that deserves a viewing, if a careful one. Check out the post here.

Saturday Night Movie Recommendations with Abe

Welcome back to a weekly feature here at Movies With Abe. I'm going to be providing a handy guide to a few choice movies currently playing in theatres as well as several films newly released on DVD. I’ll also aim to comment on those films I have not yet had the chance to see, and I invite you to add in your thoughts on any films I haven’t seen in the comments below. Understandably, some weeks will have considerably fewer releases to address than others.

Now Playing

The English Teacher (recommended): This light-hearted comedy featuring Julianne Moore as an English teacher who tries to mount a high school production of the play written by her former student is far from memorable, but it is perfectly enjoyable for the length of its 90-minute runtime. Now playing in L.A., and opening in New York next week. Read my review Teacher from Thursday.

Erased (anti-recommended): This brainless thriller posits that Aaron Eckhart’s scientist goes into work one day to discover that the life he thinks he’s living doesn’t exist. Predictable twists and turns reveal a surprising lack of coherence or satisfaction. Now playing at the Village East Cinema. Read my review Teacher from yesterday.

State 194 (mixed bag): This documentary about the Palestinian bid for statehood does a better job than most at achieving a balanced perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but ultimately still paints a lopsided picture of the situation. As a documentary, however, it is extremely well-made and strongly edited. Read my article from my Jewish Journal blog, Awards Material.

This week’s biggest release, Star Trek Into Darkness, is the next film I'm planning to see. A review will be up soon.

New to DVD

Nothing of interest this week!


New on Netflix Instant Streaming

30 Beats (mixed bag): This sex-filled drama jumps from character to character in its two-person scenes, following a chain of people through a heat wave in New York City. It’s a cool concept that boasts plenty of intrigue but not nearly as much actual depth.

Price Check (anti-recommended): This comedy starring Parker Posey and Eric Mabius doesn’t have much going for it, featuring unexceptional characters and a generally uninteresting plotline.

Movie with Abe: Erased

Erased
Directed by Philipp Stolzl
Released May 17, 2013

A good thriller may start out long before the action and the intrigue begins, or it may not wait until its middle act to shift into high gear. When a mystery needs to be solved and it seems like no answer is possible, there needs to be a path, if long and winding, to some sort of reasonable resolution. If a situation arises where no explanation makes any logical sense, a story is doomed to failure. That is exactly the case with the muddled, senseless events of “Erased,” in which mild-mannered Ben Logan (Aaron Eckhart) has to contend with his life being seemingly erased, forcing him to go on the run with his daughter.

This kind of premise has existed before, where someone goes into work and finds that his office isn’t actually there, his boss has never heard of him, there are no records of his employment at the company, and, most of all, anyone who could corroborate his story doesn’t appear to exist either. Ben’s discovery of his situation takes all of the predictable turns, as he continues to embarrass himself by assuring those dubious people he is speaking to that he is telling the truth, with all evidence failing to confirm his story. Rather than strengthen his character, all such scenes do is make him seem crazier and more unhinged.

Ben begins as a boring and unexciting character, and revealing that he used to be in the CIA doesn’t help matters much, because, his obvious skills aside, he’s not a very effective central character. His uncooperative and whiny daughter, played by Liana Liberato, is particularly irksome, and Olga Kurylenko’s double-crossing government villain is far from compelling too. The plot inconsistencies and glaring problems with the story weaken what is already an unimpressive effort. Ben’s life needed to be more interesting from the start, or he should have been just a bit cooler in how he managed to go on the run and stay one step ahead of his pursuers. Had Liam Neeson been cast in the lead role, this might have been a stronger film, but, that said, Eckhart is a capable actor and, like other dramatic performers, is entitled to one or two major flops that call into question why he would have selected such a project in the first place. Think of this as a less involving film than last year’s Nicolas Cage starrer “Seeking Justice” of about the same caliber.

F

Movie with Abe: The English Teacher

The English Teacher
Directed by Craig Zisk
Released May 17, 2013

Julianne Moore is a very prolific actress who has taken on a variety of roles over the past two decades. She has received Oscar nominations for dramatic work in period films like “Far From Heaven” and “The Hours,” and she has ventured into much more light-hearted comedy recently with “The Kids Are All Right” and “Crazy Stupid Love.” Moore is gracefully able to inhabit a role without stealing focus away from those around her, and it’s often that her lead character actually fades into the background rather than taking the spotlight. As in her 2005 film, “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio,” Moore portrays a simple woman living a simple life which is inexorably altered by events out of her control in the new film “The English Teacher.”

British actress Fiona Shaw begins by narrating the story of Linda Sinclair (Moore), a high school English teacher driven and fulfilled by her lifelong love of reading. When asked by her students if she has ever written anything, Linda emphasizes the importance of readers in the world in addition to writers. In her search for love, Linda grades all of the men she meets, with most disappointing from the very start. When Linda runs into a former student, Jason Sherwood (Michael Angarano), who has become an unsuccessful playwright, she falls in love with his work and decides that, despite its mature content, it should be staged as the high school play.

What ensues is a relatively predictable but still decently entertaining sequence of events which require minimal enthusiasm and energy from Linda. She is a tame character in a story that is prone to harsher language and less mild human responses. A transformative arc does exist for Linda, but ultimately she plays a passing part in her own story, which unfolds around her. Hidden under large glasses, Moore is sheepish but sweet, and her character is sympathetic if not entirely endearing.

The cast is full of familiar faces, including Nathan Lane as the dramatic theater teacher, Greg Kinnear as Jason’s father, and Jessica Hecht (“Friends”) and Norbert Leo Butz (“The Deep End”) as the school’s by-the-book principal and assistant principal, respectively. Director Craig Zisk, who has extensive experience directing comedy television, makes his feature film debut with this completely familiar story that, while it flirts with the inappropriate and the scandalous, is ultimately harmless and generally enjoyable, if almost entirely unmemorable.

B

Movie with Abe: The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
Released May 10, 2013

Director Baz Luhrmann has now made just five feature-length films over his twenty-year cinematic career. All of them are distinctly stylized and colorful, featuring extravagant characters, costumes, and sets. “Moulin Rouge” earned him an Oscar nomination and took home two other awards, while his most recent film prior to this, “Australia,” flopped, netting less than half its $130 million budget in ticket sales. Luhrmann’s latest effort, an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, has already exceeded that box office benchmark. This is a return to what Luhrmann does best, showcasing another time period lavishly, best described as an eye-popping exercise in excess.

The way that Fitzgerald’s story of a mystery millionaire and his curious neighbor in 1920s New York City translates to the big screen is visually mesmerizing. Its characters stand out from their backgrounds, and both boast decorative colors and details. The stark difference between the natural beauty of the Long Island waterfront homes and the bustling city is well represented in the strip of garbage-filled desolation that separates the two, and which all must pass through on a car ride or train commute into the city. The preposterously expensive parties that Gatsby throws are particularly astonishing, and it’s hard not to be hypnotized by the glamour of these people and their lives.

There is an extreme melodrama to be found in Luhrmann’s adaptation which is in keeping with Fitzgerald’s tale, and something that is portrayed to great effect by the actors within the film. Tobey Maguire exemplifies the passive but intrigued observer, while Leonardo DiCaprio easily assumes the part of the eccentric and charismatic title character. Two actresses prove especially hypnotic in their performances: Carey Mulligan as the lovelorn Daisy Buchanan, and Australian newcomer Elizabeth Debicki, who energetically inhabits the role of Daisy’s good friend Jordan Baker. Also in the ensemble are strong turns from Jason Clarke, Isla Fisher, and Joel Edgerton.

This is, all above else, a production. The human drama that exists between the film’s primary characters is central to the film, but its most compelling scenes are those that contain hundreds of supporting players, dancing, partying, or simply being to a truly catchy beat. The purposeful incorporation of anachronistic music gives the film a truly dreamlike and intoxicating feel, one that is at times alluring and at others off-putting. While the film often feels overdone, there’s something undeniably appealing and interesting about the characters contained within it.

B

Tuesday’s Top Trailer: Captain Phillips

Welcome to a weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Tuesday's Top Trailer. One of my favorite parts about going to see movies is the series of trailers that airs beforehand and, more often than not, the trailer is far better than the actual film. Each week, I'll be sharing a trailer I've recently seen. Please chime in with comments on what you think of the trailer and how you think the movie is going to be.

Captain Phillips – Opening October 11, 2013

In the absence of any new films seen in theatres this past week, I found this trailer front-and-center on the IMDB home page. Tom Hanks was for a while the kind-hearted everyman who starred in pleasant and inspiring stories laced with humor, and then he played against type in artistic films like “Road to Perdition” and “Catch Me If You Can.” What his character seems to represent in this film is a version of his old self at the start who becomes what might best be described as a far more resilient and impressive version of his “Da Vinci Code” character. Having director Paul Greengrass, who previously lensed a difficult piece of history in the most moving way with “United 93,” behind the camera, makes this frightening real-life story of Somali pirates all the more appealing. Mostly, though, it’s the plot itself that stands out as interesting. The uncertain start of the trailer conveys the abrupt shift from quiet calm to all-out panic as the pirates board, but there is a certain order that seems to be maintained which makes this story seem, from the outset, extremely compelling. In an age when terrorism is still fairly rampant, this story of mercenaries is sure to hard to watch, but, if all goes well, it will be yet another fitting tribute to those whose lives were irreversibly changed in an awful event from a talented director like Greengrass, with Hanks delivering his most powerful performance in years.

Saturday Night Movie Recommendations with Abe

Welcome back to a weekly feature here at Movies With Abe. I'm going to be providing a handy guide to a few choice movies currently playing in theatres as well as several films newly released on DVD. I’ll also aim to comment on those films I have not yet had the chance to see, and I invite you to add in your thoughts on any films I haven’t seen in the comments below. Understandably, some weeks will have considerably fewer releases to address than others.

Now Playing

I’ll have plenty to report next week for new releases. I’m hoping to see “The Great Gatsby” in the coming weeks.

New to DVD

The Rabbi’s Cat (mixed bag): This finalist for the Best Animated Feature Oscar is certainly an intriguing and original choice, but it’s just as odd a story as it is an inventive one. Worthwhile for its animation and its strange ideas, this film is an interesting if ultimately unfulfilling experience. Read more about it on my Jewish Journal blog, Awards Material.


New on Netflix Instant Streaming

Hit and Run (mixed bag): This comedy co-directed and written by and starring Dax Shepard is far better than his last effort, “Brother’s Justice,” and has a fun premise but gets carried away with its ridiculousness rather than stay solidly grounded. It still has its funny moments, and it’s decent light entertainment.

Thursday Theatre Review: ArcLight Sherman Oaks

Weekly to a returning weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Thursday Theatre Review. I had the chance to spend a few months in Los Angeles, and though I’m now back in New York City, it’s worth recognizing the good and bad theatres I attended while in L.A. There’s no perfect theatre, but there are a few things that can make or break a movie-going experience. In no particular order, this is a guide to movie theatres in L.A.

ArcLight Sherman Oaks

Location: Part of the Sherman Oaks Galleria, this Valley-set theatre is embedded within a pretty fantastic shopping mall. Parking is free for 4 hours with validation and then runs about $7 per hour after that.

Pricing: This is where it gets crazy. “Non peak” shows are $13.50, and if you come to see a movie on a weekend, a time when most people show up, it jumps up to $15.50, and that doesn’t even account for 3D, which on a weekend will run you $19.

Film selection: It’s mainly the big blockbusters, with a few more independent choices mixed in. I saw both “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Lincoln” here, and indie choices “Mud” and “The Place Beyond the Pines” are both currently playing in addition to more mainstream fare like “42,” “Iron Man 3,” and “Pain and Gain.”

Seating: Each auditorium is large, and, like other L.A. theatres, all seating is reserved before the film.

Bonus features: Because this is part of the ArcLight chain (which also has four other locations), you can become a member of the chain and save $1 off each ticket purchased online, among other perks.

Worth the trip? It’s not a bad location for those not in the heart of the city, but this theatre is expensive and often crowded, so it wouldn’t be my first choice if I had a pick of the theatres I’ve been to in L.A.