IF I WERE YOU- 2011. Synopsis by Netflix. “In a bungled plot to pay back her husband’s infidelity, a jilted wife finds herself forced to star as King Lear in a spectacularly terrible production, with her husband’s younger lover playing the role of the king’s fool.”
3/15/13- Bad review in today’s NY Times and elsewhere. TRDB.
Add comment March 15th, 2013
SPRING BREAKERS- 2012. Synopsis by Netflix. “After four college girls rob a fast food joint to fund their spring break in Florida, they hit the road and wind up in jail and hungover. They’re bailed out by a deeply weird dude named Alien, who demands their help with his own criminal enterprises.”
3/15/13- This movie got an OK review in today’s NY Times and from others as well although it sounded pretty stupid from the description. TRDB.
Add comment March 15th, 2013
THE SAPPHIRES- 2012. Synopsis by Netflix. “The spirit and vitality of 1960s soul music are at the core of this film about a real-life Australian aborigine singing group and their bumpy career. Three sisters and a cousin are brought together as the Sapphires by a talent scout with a plan”
3/14/13- Excellent reviews all around. TRDB.
3/22/13- A poor review in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
8/19/13- Although one feels like they’ve seen this formulaic movie 100 times before it was still fun when the characters weren’t acting stupid. TRDB. Netflix.
Add comment March 14th, 2013
MY BROTHER THE DEVIL- 2013. Synopsis by Netflix. “As a 14-year-old Arab living in London, Mo is desperate to make friends and worships his older brother, Rashid, a gregarious local gang member. But Mo eventually makes an ill-fated play to fit in that changes both brothers’ lives forever.”
3/14/13- Great reviews. TRDB.
3/22/13- A very good review in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
10/6/13- An excellent depiction of the drug and gang culture, this time about the Egyptian Diaspora living in England. The movie is also about family and, in particular, brotherly love. Very good and I enjoyed it. TRDB. Netflix.
Add comment March 14th, 2013
HUNKY DORY- 2011. Synopsis by Netflix. “Minnie Driver plays a drama teacher who challenges her listless students to put on a pop-musical version of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” Set in 1976, the film features plenty of teen angst as well as the teacher’s search for a substitute Prospero.”
3/14/13- Early reviews are mixed but more positive than negative. TRDB.
3/22/13- The NY Times gave this movie an OK review today. TRDB.
Add comment March 14th, 2013
THE HAPPY POET- 2013. Synopsis by Netflix. “Director Paul Gordon also stars in this quirky indie offering as an earnest but penniless poet who tries to make a living by making a stand — that is, a food stand that only sells organic eats and caters to a mostly vegetarian crowd. His unconventional menu doesn’t appeal to everyone, particularly those hankering for a hot dog. But it does attract a regular customer (Liz Fisher) who just so happens to love poetry.”
3/14/13- Poor early reviews. TRDB.
Add comment March 14th, 2013
ADMISSION- 2013. Synopsis by Netflix. “While scouting applicants at an experimental high school, Ivy League admissions officer Portia Nathan discovers that the school’s founder is her former college classmate John Halsey — and that she may have a connection to one of his students.”
3/14/13- Mixed reviews at best. TRDB.
3/22/13- A barely OK review in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
11/4/13- A few bright spots in an otherwise weak story. TRDB.
Add comment March 14th, 2013
I KILLED MY MOTHER- 2009. Synopsis by Rotten Tomatoes. “Hubert Minel, a brash 17 year old, dislikes his mother intensely. He gauges her with contempt, only seeing her out-of-date sweater, her kitschy décor and the vile bread crumbs that lodge in the corners of her noisy mouth. Below the surface of these irritating traits, lie the ingrained mechanisms that his mother has always cultivated so dearly – manipulation and guilt. Hubert, confused and torn by a love-hate relationship that obsesses him more and more each day, wanders in and out of an adolescence that is both marginal and typical, combining artistic discovery, openness to friendship, ostracism, and sex. All the while, he is consumed by his all encompassing contempt for this woman he somehow once loved.”
3/13/13- A very good review in today’s NY Times. Other critics have liked it as well. TRDB.
8/29/13- Very difficult to watch the conflict between mother and son but the movie was well done and I enjoyed it. TRDB. Netflix.
Add comment March 13th, 2013
ELECTRICK CHILDREN- 2013. Synopsis by IMDB. “Pregnant by music? Rachel, a young teenager from a fundamentalist Mormon community, believes in immaculate conception, while her fundamentally religious family regards her condition as an intolerable transgression. The search for the child’s origins is a revelation for the 15-year-old.”
3/8/13- An OK review in today’s NY Times and from others as well. TRDB.
9/30/13- An interesting fable that held my interest. It’s different all right but worth seeing. TRDB. Netflix Streaming.
Add comment March 10th, 2013
DEAD MAN DOWN- 2013. Synopsis by Rotten Tomatoes. “Niels Arden Oplev, the acclaimed director of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, makes his American theatrical debut with the new action thriller, DEAD MAN DOWN. Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace star as two strangers who are irresistibly drawn to one another by their mutual desire for revenge.”
3/8/13- Poor review in today’s NY Times and in general. TRDB.
Add comment March 10th, 2013