Some of the films I’ve seen last year and never got around to review.

Little Miss Sunshine

An incredible drama that will make you laugh and want to buy a yellow mini bus, just so you can push it and jump into it all the time. Isn’t it always that we keep on hearing about our biggest enemy’s success over and over just when we’re most fragile? Who would have guessed the dance Olive and grandpa were preparing was actually astriptease? Every seen will make you feel like you’re a part of something really special, like you’re a better person just by experiencing their journey. Reading taglines is one of my favorite things, and taglines for this film were quite unusual: ‘Welcome to hell.’, a line from the film that can be read Welcome to the family, ‘Where’s Olive?’, as they lose her at the gas station, ‘A family on the verge of a breakdown’, self explainatory, ‘Everyone just pretend to be normal’, a line from the film almost all families can relate to. I think I haven’t seen it, because it was advertised as a comedy, and I wish I have given it a try years ago.

I hate everyone.
What about your family?
Everyone.

Why did you try and kill yourself?
I tried to kill myself because I was very unhappy.
Why were you unhappy?
There were a lot of reasons, mainly though I fell in love with someone who didn’t love me back.
So that’s when you tried to…
Well, no, you see that was okay, except he went and fell in love with a colleague of mine: Larry Sugarman.
Who’s Larry Sugarman?
He’s the second highest regarded expert on Marcel Proust in the US.
Oh. Who’s number one?
That would be me, Richard.

Please don’t kill yourself tonight.
Not on your watch; I wouldn’t do that to you.

Grandpa?
Yeah?
I don’t wanna be a loser.
You’re not a loser. Where’d you get the idea you’re a loser?
Because… Daddy hates losers.
Whoa whoa whoa, back up a minute. D’you know what a loser is? A real loser is someone who’s so afraid of not winning, they don’t even try. Now you’re trying, right?
Yeah?
Well then you’re not a loser!

Mom? Dad?
What is it, hon?
Grandpa won’t wake up.

It’s an A. See? Right there?
It’s bright green. Dwayne, I think you might be colorblind. You can’t fly jets if you’re colorblind.
FUCK!
What happened?
He’s colorblind. He can’t fly.

Aww, that’s so sweet, and where’s your d now?
In the trunk of our car.

Okay. Everybody just pretend to be normal, okay?

I wish I could just sleep until I was eighteen and skip all of this, high school, everything
Do you know who Marcel Proust is? French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he’s also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he, uh, he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, those were the best years of his life, ’cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn’t learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you’re 18– ah, think of the suffering you’re gonna miss. I mean high school? High school– those are your prime suffering years. You don’t get better suffering than that. “

You know what? Fuck beauty contests. Life is one fucking beauty contest after another. School, then college, then work… Fuck that. And fuck the Air Force Academy. If I want to fly, I’ll find a way to fly. You do what you love, and fuck the rest.

Okay, you’re out. On the condition that you never enter your daughter in a beauty pageant in the state of California, ever again… ever.
I think we can live with that.

10/10

This is Where I Leave You

Funny, until the very forced and unnecessary ‘mom is a lesbian’ storyline.

6.5/10

The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Not as good as Now and Then, and a little better that The First Wives Club. Womenly and good, not even close to Steel Magnolias. The older generation made this film, Maggie Smith’s character is my favorite.

7/10

The Myth of the Fingerprints

The best Bart Freundlich’s picture so far. I honestly don’t like his other productions, other than the child film starring Kristen Stewart and Max Thierot, Catch that Kid, and I’ve seen all motion films he’s done, and The Myth is a highlight of his career. I will never understand why everyone needs to screw while all their family mememers are at home, or why does Julianne Moore’s character has screw the guy on the train, but other than that it’s an intriguing drama.

6.5/10

Titus

An extraordinary adaptation of one of the most maddening Shakespeare’s plays. Alan Cumming simply is Titus. I adore how you can feel how that it’s a play, as the producers don’t try to hide it, and you witness that empowering stage feeling. An absolute opposite of what Jessica Lange has done till that point. Even though Sybil was a strong character too, and some of her lastest roles are also similarly empowering, see American Horror Story.

7/10

The Assault

Simply good. I watch every single rape/sexual assault film, and this is 2014’s take on the case we’ve all heard off. It is a little far-fetched and lifetime-y, but as a whole, it’s a must see.

6/10

My Sister’s Keeper

A little better that I expected, and sad, but not good enough.

5.5/10

Evan Almighty

Funny film for kids of all age. I did not expect that catastrophic scene, and was disapointed when no one got hurt. It’s a kids movie, what’d you expect?

6/10

Violet & Daisy

Refreshing, covers the reaction of men to women in power very well. The scene where the younger assassin is being explained that the older one was gang raped just so she knows where her place is and Alexis Bledel’s character cries behind the dumpster is the most imporstants

4.5/10

Annabelle

I love doll/puppet horror films. Anything from those Goosebumps episodes that feature the puppet, through Chucky to Annabelle. I saw this film called Robert and I need to see it later this week.

6/10

The Purge 2 : Anarchy

A huge disapointment, the first one was such a masterpiece.

4/10

Deliver Us from Evil

Very mediocre.

2.5/10

Post Grad

So she gave up on her dreams to be with the guy, great, romantic comedies always make so much sense.

2/10

Mr Woodcock

One of the biggest disapointments in a long time. Thornton and Sarandon and such bullshit?

1.5/10

Congrats to Julianne Moore on winning a Golden Globe for her fantstic role in Still Alice. Here are the remaining Golden Globe nominated films this year. Plus Unbroken, which should have been nominated.

The Theory of Everything

…was everything. Eddie outshined everyone in the lead actor category. If he doesn’t win an Oscar, the Academy’s wrong. Felicity’s competition is too tight to leave her with a statuette next month. A beautiful story, like all of the nominated ones. I wish It could win best picture.

10/10

Boyhood

From the director of Dazed and Confused comes a story that feels like a teen film, but for some reason feels profound. Must me the 12 year shooting period? Nah, it’s the kids and Patricia and the directing and the coloring and the ‘Now it’s only death left scene’. It will probably win all best film awards.

9.5/10

The Imitation Game

My dad argues with me it isn’t historically correct, and I’m not in a posision to argue with a history fanatic. Benedict did a fantastic job. I love that it touched homosexual plot just slightly and wasn’t over excessive. I loved the casting and the flashbacks.

Six minutes… is that even possible?
No, it takes me eight. You’re finished?… Five minutes forty-eight seconds.
You said to finish under six minutes.

8/10

Unbroken

This film is incredible, It should get so much more recognision. So should Angelina Jolie. It’s her third picture and by now we can see she’s on the right way to being a genius director.

9/10

Whiplash

It could only be better if it was a true story. J.K. Simmons will win all the awards. Should have been nominated for best picture.

10/10

Big Eyes

With your Big Eyes and your big lies…
How come Lana didn’t win best song? And why wasn’t it nominated for best comedy? I have already seen it twice. I always loved Margaret’s Ulbrich’s work and wished this part of her life was portrayed. I am not sure if throwing the matches through a key hole was what actually happened, but It had me stunned. All the terpentine mentions for someone who was an oil painter and art major in high school and for whom terpentine was the one smell that stuck for months, I admired all the mentions. Christopher’s acting throughout the whole scene and the ‘I’ll have you whacked’ made this film my fourth favorite film this year.

10/10

Into the Woods

Doesn’t bring anything new to the famous musical, and barely anyone can sing and yet everyone would kill to be a part of this film.

I was raised to be charming, not sincere.

6.5/10

Selma

Good, but not 12 years of slave. All the bridge scenes are impressive, the story should have been more detailed and they should have defenitely strech it to Dr. King’s death. Unfortunately, it was boring at times. I truly thought a story this great could have been shown more significantly. And they definitely should have hired more famous black actors and not just Oprah, especially since they gave her only an episodic role.

7/10

Inherent Vice

This was without a doubt Paul Thomas Anderson’s most messed up film. I have worshipped Magnolia and Boogie Nights for years. Films like The Master, There Will Be Blood, Hard Eight or Punch Drunk Love were all mastepieces. And yet this one, I just could not swallow, even when Paul teamed up the Walk the Line duo Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

7/10

I don’t know what’s more scary, the fact that no teenager in the room new what prohibition is or how little of communist system they showed in the film. It felt like just another Harry Potter film. Remember how the kids had to hide in the woods in Harry Potter 6 part 1? Oh how surprised I was to see some links to WWII or communism for that matter. Remember what Donald Sutherland said in one of Hunger Games’s special features about the books perfectly showing Panem’s communist regime? The kids who sat there beside me saw just a good plot. They thought ‘omg, how did Susanne come up with the war-like stressful atmosphere. I can only imagine my father’s reaction to those reluctant kids. He would lecture them and probably smack the reluctantness out of them. Wasn’t Effie at the Capitol in the book? Didn’t she show up at the very end when the war started? At least this way they did not have to introduce too many new characters. How much weight did Josh Hutcherson and Jena Malone have to lose for this part? And since I’m slightly touching esthetics here, Julianne’s eyes are grey enough, they did not have to give her these awful contacts. I am very happy they did not censor the ‘Snow selling Finnick and other victors’ part. Julianne Moore was perfectly casted. Any other Alma Coin would annoy the hell out of me, especially after reading the book. She made her intriguing at least. At this point I may as well be routing for her, rather than for Katniss. At the very end when Julie was speaking, for a minute there I thought I was watching one of her speeches in Game Change. Alma Coin did not differ much from the book, but she sure as hell was not so talkative. Katniss did not stare at her and was not fascinated with her hair, in the film, Effie was. I was afraid they were gonna cut the first film off where the first part of the book ended, and unfortunately I was right. How are they going to fit everything from part two into one movie when the strory is so rich in details? The scene when they all run downstairs and the bombs go off was definitely most nicely shot. But what kept racing in my head was my sarcastic ‘of course she’s laying on the stairs and everyone is stomping on her, ‘take your time Katniss, you are the mockingjay”. The ‘Prim you came back for the cat’ scene was taken from the book, thank god. Snow’s granddaughter untying her hair was probably my favorite addition. And Julianne Moore was listed 6th in the credits, yes I counted. Lorde’s song in the credits will be downloaded later this week. Same with Jennifer singing The Hanging Man. When the Mockingjays are over she will definitely be approached by some record label. In loving memory of Phillip brought a tear to my eye, god, such a talent.

I cannot wait for the fourth part. With Prim’s fate and Julie falling off the balcony, the final part is going to blow our brains out.