Movie #27: Away We Go

Her Take: I saw this movie for the first time at the theater. It is an indie darling of a film. It felt just as powerful the second time, bringing tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat even though I’d seen it before. Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski are a couple expecting their first child in three months. Rudolph’s parents are dead. They go to visit Krasinski’s parents and find out their moving to Brussels for two years before the baby will be born. So, they decide to go on a trip, visiting friends and family all over the country to find a place that feels like home. What ensues is an awesome collection of vignettes featuring Allison Janney as an insane motormouth who talks shit about her own kids and Maggie Gyllenhaal as a crazy liberal feminist who won’t use strollers because she doesn’t want to push her kids away from her. The scenes featuring Gyllenhaal are over the top and hilarious. Not every scene is funny. There are some tender moments between Rudolph and her sister discussing their parents’ death. A couple in Vancouver discusses their five failed attempts at having children. Those scenes are pretty powerful. Overall this movie feels genuine and awesome. There are a lot of movies out there that are indie for indie’s sake and get too pretentious for me. This did not feel like one of those films. I give it 5 stars. Check it out!

His Take: There is a risk this movie takes. And that risk is of being too indie. Being too pretentious. I think casting John Krasinski is what perfectly keeps the film in check. He is soft and understated, but with just enough quirkiness to keep the film from losing its indie cred. I’ve loved watching him for years on The Office and have developed a slight man-crush on him. He is at least in good company. My other man-crushes include Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ryan Reynolds. Rest assured, should I ever get the opportunity to make movies I’ll be casting all three in a buddy-cop movie. It might even include a dog. Wait. Scratch that. Have you seen Turner and Hooch? Rough. I love how this movie is about searching for a home. I love that it comes from the perspective of the unborn child. When they do finally make it home, it makes me cry. It is pretty powerful, and the music is well cued. I love that it handles questions that I’ve always had about people who have children. It is very human, especially when they visit Canada and their college friends who cannot have children of their own. Plus, I don’t know if you’ve ever slept on a trampoline at night before or not, but this movie knows what’s up. Its got it. Now all that is left to be said….how come I never thought to wear goggles to my self defense classes? 4.5 out of 5.

Movie #26: Apocalypse Now Redux

Her Take: Perhaps it is because I am not a dude, but I have to admit I wasn’t really taken with this movie. Apocalypse Now is Francis Ford Coppola’s re-imagination of Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness in the context of the Vietnam War. We watched the Redux version, which adds 49 minutes of movie that was cut out of the theatrical release. As a result, this film felt incredibly long. We watched the two halves on separate nights. The basic plot is that Martin Sheen is sent into “the shit” to assassinate a rogue colonel, played by Marlon Brando. Lots of things occur along the way. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great scenes in this movie. The scene where Laurence Fishburne is shot and killed while listening to an audiocassette from home, his mother’s voice telling him to come home in one piece. The scene where Martin Sheen meets Col. Kurtz for the first time. Still, the movie altogether did not really grab me. It felt too long, too stylized, too something. Still, I think I can muster 3 out of 5 stars.

His Take: Where to begin? (I originally typed “Where to being?” and found it oddly appropriate a typo.) Autobiographical? OK. The first time I saw this was with my best buddy, and it would have been circa the 7th or 8th grade; which, by itself is plenty without this huge beast influencing one’s mental attitude. His dad had actually done tours in Vietnam, and things didn’t go so well for him resulting in his eventual suicide a while after being back in the States. To have seen this right around the time that we were beginning to formulate our identities as men is a pretty daunting exercise. To be able to say I feel we both made it out of our teenage years well adjusted is most likely even more daunting. But in general the whole scene, phrase, and philosophy of “absolutely never get off the boat, goddam right, never get off the boat” has stuck with me all this time. It was years later, when I read Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, I began to understand how Vietnam reflected the darkest parts of our nature, especially as Americans, that we sometimes find ourselves susceptible. There are numerous reasons to count this classic among best of the best, but the most important to me is a reminder to always be aware and wary of our dark depths. That there is a battle that wages within each of us, and that battle is between good and evil.
Also of note is Laurence Fishburne’s screen debut, Robert Duvall with his famous, “Charlie don’t surf!” and the morose death party that gives Captain Willard his grim assignment that includes a youthful Harrison Ford, and every second Marlon Brando is on screen. Brando shines even more once you realize the history behind his performance. This movie has a weight to it that few others do. It is elegant in its implementation right down to the choice of music. The fucking thing begins with The Doors’ “This is the End.” I think the actors in this movie may be too young to understand exactly how powerful their performances are, or maybe it is Coppola’s deft handling of their talents, or maybe they were and will always be just that gifted. I love the scene with the French family as it is stubborn stagnation sticking to its guns dichotomized with acceptance of the carnal pleasures of sex and violence. I don’t see how any Westerner could get away without experiencing this. Perfectly shows the Western dilemma without being encumbered by Western guilt so typical of modern movies. Still as beautiful now as then. 5 out of 5.

Movie #25: Antitrust

Her Take: I think the ridiculousness of this move can be best summed up by this phrase: “Murdered for code.” Yea. This movie is about Gary Winston, a loose amalgamation of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Except (?) he’s evil. Ryan Philippe is Milo, a Stanford graduate who takes a job for NURV to help program code for their new project Synapse which will connect all mobile digital devices worldwide. Or something. As he begins working, he becomes suspicious of where Gary gets his inspiration to solve coding problems. Then Milo uncovers a criminal underground at NURV and tries to expose it to the world. I know Britt loves this movie, but it is a little silly. I love the scene where Milo finds out someone in the DOJ is working for NURV. The camera does these hilarious quick cuts between Milo’s wide eyes and a photo on the wall. It’s kinda funny. Anyway, the movie is entertaining at least, so for that I will give it 3 stars.

His Take: OK. So I have to admit it. I am a nerd. A geek. A technoweenie. I’m pretty sure I would get kicked out of the club(yes that is the Lamer’s Guild, for all you non-technology geek movie fans out there) if I didn’t at least have Hackers in the collection. That of course is how it all starts. You find Hackers in the $5 bin, oh glorious glorious $5 bin. You begin wondering what other movies out there can satisfy your technolust. A quick google search and another trip to the $5 dollar bin and you end up with Wargames, Sneakers, and Antitrust in the collection as well. This one definitely has its issues. It is more a thriller attempting to make a political statement about technological economies than an actual movie about computer hackers. Though there is enough in here to make it worthwhile. My personal favorite is the “code poet” tshirt Teddy wears that he obv got from Thinkgeek.com. I’m enjoying the bat-shit crazies Tim Robbins is playing later in his career, and I love going around saying, “The compression is great. Who’s doing this?” So in conclusion, you take the thriller out and what you have left left is…well…not a lot. But it should be enough to geek out over. (I bet the grammar geeks are going to love that last sentence.) 3 out of 5.