Movie Review: Nebraska

Nebraska: Before I even get started on this review let me start with this. All the Oscar hype is totally deserved. The premise of this film is simple enough "An aging, booze-addled father makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million-dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize." (From IMDB) What results from a simple plot of an old man believing he won 1 million dollars based on a piece of junk mail, is a beautiful, amusing, and heartwarming film. Directed by Alexander Payne (born in Omaha, NE) of The Descendants and Sideways fame, and starring Bruce Dern, Will Forte, and June Squibb, the film manages to make you fall in love with some of the most average people ever portrayed on the big screen (and probably the most real).

The choice to film in black and white brilliantly brings focus to the characters and their relationships, instead of their surroundings, which in the middle of nowhere Midwest, isn't much anyway. The theme of this film at it's heart seems to be that of family, not just the good, but the bad and the ugly side as well which we see as the old man, Woody, and his son encounter long lost relatives and old friends, on their doomed journey to collect Woody's winnings. The son (who knew Will Forte could be serious by the way?) learns things about his father he never knew which will change their relationship forever.

I'm not sure I can say enough positives about this film, especially without giving away some of the best scenes. What I will say is see this film, even if it's the only Oscar nominee you get to see this year.

Movie Review: The Great Gatsby

Over the Top as only Baz Luhrmann could do

Let me start of with a confession; I've never read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I know to many people reading this, that may make me unqualified both to review this movie, and possibly to even claim myself an author. However, I might say that it makes me uniquely qualified to review this film on its merits as a film and not as an interpretation of the classic novel.

Mr. Gatsby is an amazingly rich and over the top gentleman living in the richest area outside New York City in the biggest house and throwing over the top parties every weekend. Everyone seems to know of Mr Gatsby, but no one seems to actually know Mr. Gatsby. That is until Nick Carraway moves into the small, nearly forgotten cottage next to Mr. Gatsby's mansion. Nick finds himself intrigued by the man and the mystery surrounding him. He finds himself personally invited to Mr Gatsby's home and hears the story of his life straight from the man himself. Finding it all too much to believe, Nick finds himself swept into the world of Jay Gatsby and becomes part of Gatsby's plan to regain the love of his life, Daisy, Nick's cousin, whom happens to already be married to another very rich, but very unfaithful man.

Even if that is not exactly true, this movie at least feels very historically accurate. Knowing the amount that I do about the time period in which it takes place, I feel like the film has captured the imagery, mentality, and romance of the time in way that can be appreciated by our current society. It is also visually impressive and just plain fun to watch. With it's modern day soundtrack, and colorful dream-like montage sequences, and has Baz Lurhamnn's stamp all over it.

Leonardo DiCaprio's performance is as great as all of his other takes on classic characters and historic people that America (and beyond) knows and loves. There is just something about him that allows you to forgot the actor entirely and see only the character in a way that few others do quite as well. I was also fond of Elizabeth Debicki's performance as Jordan and Isla Fisher as Myrtle because of their ability to bring a strength and intrigue to female characters that were not the leading lady. In fact, they may have even overshadowed Carey Mulligan's Daisy Buchanan. I don't feel this is anything against Carey's performance, just that the character was a lot less interesting which adds to the dynamic of the romance between her and Gatsby. 

Whether you were a fan of the book or not, I think this film has something to offer most movie-goers.

 See It Rate: ***.5 (partly because everyone else you know will have inevitably experienced this film and you wouldn't want to be left out, would you?)

Movie Review: Warm Bodies

Young Love in the Zombie Apocalypse? Why not?

In a not so distant future, the majority of the world has been infected by a condition which essentially renders them mindless corpses surviving off the living. In this world our heroine, Julie, is the young attractive daughter of the Commander and Chief of what remains of the human world. She also happens to be one of the few, along with her alpha-male boyfriend and ditsy best friend, allowed outside the walls of the human city to collect the necessities for the rest of the survivors.

During one of these outings, unfortunate circumstances brings her face to face with our Zombie Heartthrob, "R." For some reason, which I won't spoil for you, he finds an attraction to her and decides not to ingest her brain. Instead, he saves her from the other would-be brain-eaters and takes her back to his "home."

In typical teen romance style, he charms her with his awkward geekiness and music collection, until she starts to see past the smelly corpse and into the soul beneath. As she does, R starts to find himself again.

I must admit to being pleasantly surprised by this film. The previews really just made me laugh it off as a wannabe box-office hit feeding off Twi-hards desperate for some new material. What I got instead was a clever film with somewhat tongue-in-cheek humor and a new twist on the Zombie Apocalypse. There was still plenty of cheesiness to go around, but I enjoyed every moment of it.

See It? Rating:  ***

See It? Rating Scale:
* Don't do it to yourself!
** Maybe worth a discount ticket
*** Enjoyable
**** MUST SEE