Hey Y’alll!
For your full resolution TV viewing pleasure you can now download my dvds! Just go to www.maryctaylor.com/shop.html and download one or more today!
Check it out today! And keep animated!
-Mary Mary
You are currently browsing the archive for the @ the Movies category.
 |
| L.A. Screening Sat. Oct. 6 |
If you happen to be in the L.A. area this Saturday, Oct. 6th and are looking for something to do … my short animation, How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole, will be screening at 1p.m. at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as part of the Los Angeles Int’l Children’s Film Festival.
I saw this documentary today, In the Shadow of the Moon, where they interviewed the surviving members of the Apollo missions about what it felt like to be in the program and orbit and land on the moon. If ya dig this kind of stuff, you’ll definitely like this documentary.
 |
| In the Shadow of the Moon |
It’s tagline says “Remember when the whole world looked up.” As someone born shortly after this program, I don’t remember a time when we hadn’t traveled to the moon, but I also can’t imagine a time when the whole world felt like mankind had made an amazing accomplishment … not just Americans thinking that, but the whole world. This documentary brought that experience to a human level, interviewing those men who had actually experienced it and telling us, straight into the camera, what it felt like to be a part of it and to be right there doing it.
It’s awe inspiring and even funny at times, Mike Collins definitely has a great sense of humor about the whole thing and Buzz Aldrin talks about how he, well, relieved himself right before stepping onto the moon because it was the only spare time he would have for the next two hours. It was just very interesting and moving to hear first hand personal accounts of how it really was to be put to the challenge to get there and then actually do it.
Now, if we could only put that same type of knowledge and fortitude towards putting in place alternative types of energy.
Aw, Paris! The city of love! Aw, Paris, je taime! The compilation of some 18 short films all about the various sorts of love set in the city of love, Paris.
 |
| Paris, je t'aime |
It’s definitely a nice change of pace to go to the movies and see a series of short films because if I see a bad feature length film, I’m squirming in my seat for 2+ hours. However, with a series of short films, where there are undoubtedly going to be a few I don’t like, I only have to wait 5 to 10 minutes and it’s on to the next one.
With Paris je t’aime, however, the good shorts FAR outweigh the bad shorts. What’s particularly great about these short films is they are directed by some great and well-known directors of feature-length films, so it’s very interesting to see what they do with the short film format. Throw in the broad wealth of on-screen talent used and you’ve got an entertaining experience at the movies.
I couldn’t find a list of the short films, so please forgive my memory while going over a few of the shorts as it’s been a few days since I saw Paris je t’aime. Quite a few, good and bad, still linger. The bad ones, I’m glad they were short. The good ones, some very well-done complete stories and some I wanted to go on longer and delve into deeper.
Since I like bad news first, I’ll start with a couple of the ones I didn’t like so much. The one I didn’t get at all, was the one with the traveling hair products salesman. It just didn’t seem to have any story to it at all and the characters were very bizarre. Another was the vampire one with Elijah Wood. It was okay, but something about the story was just off for me. It seemed more about style (ala Sin City) then substance.
The good ones. The first few were really good and were some of the ones I wanted to go on a little bit more. But the few that just really stick with me are the last one about the middle-aged woman experiencing Paris on her own … just a brilliant character study. The one with Natalie Portman where she’s a young acting student dating a blind student and you see their entire relationship from beginning to end with a little bit of a predictable twist, but a good solid short film none-the-less. The Coen brothers short film with Steve Buscemi is hilarious! And the one I think I liked the most … which in the beginning I thought “what the hell is this?” was the one with the mimes … yes, mimes in Paris. I mean how could you have a series of short films all set in Paris without one about mimes! It was a very charming short!
So Paris, je t’aime! Go check it out! It’s a very refreshing change of pace.
Wow! Fantastic! Another great movie for the year!
 |
| Waitress |
Waitress is a charming, witty, and funny movie from the late writer/director Adrienne Shelly. It’s heartbreaking that she was taken from this world so early but she left us with a great film.
Jenna (Keri Russell) is a waitress at the local pie shop who is a genius pie-maker but is unfortunately in a very bad marriage. She is saving money to leave her controlling husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto) but unfortunately she finds out that she is pregnant and now believes she will never get away. Can Jenna find her way to happiness? That’s the question of the film, not just for Jenna but for many of the film’s characters.
The writing is very smart and funny and the actors deliver great performances. I loved all the names for the pies Jenna comes up with and the quirky romance between Dawn (Adrienne Shelly) and Ogie (Eddie Jemison) is hilarious!
I can’t rave enough about this film … it’s well worth the time and money! Go see it!
As a side note, a foundation has been set up in her name to support other women filmmakers … The Adrienne Shelly Foundation.
Recently, while browsing through my local video rental store, I came across a rare find …
Look Both Ways.
 |
| Look Both Ways |
It’s a rare find because it’s a little movie from Australia, directed by Sarah Watt, which combines film with animation and to find it smack dab in the middle of the U.S. is great!
The story begins with Meryl Lee (Justine Clark), who sees eminent danger everywhere … that is, in her animated imagination. While on her way home she is witness to a horrible accident where a man is run over by a train. Enter Nick (William McInnes), a newspaper photographer, who is there to shoot photos for the story and has just found out that he has cancer. The story is mainly driven by these two characters in the basic boy meets girl kind of plot. What’s interesting about the movie is that it’s really about how these two characters and the characters that surround them deal with their fears of death. And for the two main characters those fears are shown in a unique way.
Meryl is an artist so her fears are imagined in painterly animations. The visuals used to show Nick’s fears are a bit different. Being a photographer Nick’s fears are represented by quick montages of images, websites and articles he’s seen. Both techniques were a great way to show their fears to the viewer and really fit into the story well.
I highly recommend going to your local video rental store and checking this out. Support those women filmmakers, there’s way too few of them!
| Sweet Land is a sweet love story and one of the best movies I have seen at the theatres yet this year. It was one of those movies where I left the theatre saying to myself, “wow, now that was a good movie … a movie worth the money.” It had all the major elements working for it … a good story, good directing, and great actors!
|
| Sweet Land |
We begin at the end … Inge’s (Elizabeth Reaser) husband Olaf (Tim Guinee) has just passed away and we learn the story of how Inge and Olaf came together through Inge’s retelling of it to their grandson. Yes, it’s a tried and true method to begin a story, but it’s a good one.
It is the early 1900s, just after the first World War, and a young Inge Altenburg has traveled to Minnesota from Germany to marry Olaf Torvik, a Norwegian who has settled there. It was an arranged marriage, neither knew anything of each other, not even what each other looked like. She speaks very little english and apparently no one knew she was from Germany which makes it very difficult for them to get married as suspicions of anyone from Germany are still high. And so begins the story of how they come to know each other and how they overcome the obstacles that face them, together.
As I said it is a good story and combine with that the directing and acting and it really comes to life. Tim Guinee does a wonderful job of playing the shy, stubborn, hard-working, good-hearted Olaf. And Elizabeth Reaser does an equally wonderful job of playing the young, naive, stubborn in her own right Inge. What I also like about this movie is that while it is a love story they do a nice job of interweaving other elements in there … such as how suspicions and prejudices against any one from countries you were at war with linger to showing a bit of how farm life and living in a small community was and the dichotomy of socialism and capitalism.
My one criticism would be the inclusion of the older character Frandsen. The inclusion of the young Frandsen (Alan Cumming) makes total sense and helps the story. But I didn’t understand who the older Frandsen was until nearly the end. Apparently he became a bit senile in his old age and I guess Inge and Olaf were maybe taking care of him, but it was never explained. The older Frandsen character just was not needed in my opinion.
Sweet Land is not action-packed and it’s not overly dramatic, it’s just a sweet love story. I guess it made its rounds on the film festival circuit and is now playing in art house theatres so look for it at your local art house theatre or maybe on dvd soon. It’s worth it.
I just got back from seeing The Animation Show at Kansas City’s local independent movie theatre Screenland.
 |
| The Animation Show |
This was the first time I’ve been to see The Animation Show and I really liked it. It was a great ecclectic mix of animations. It’s hard to pick a favorite amongst them because each had some quality about it that I really liked. City Paradise had a very surreal quality about it that I enjoyed watching. Everything Will Be OK started out as a cute animation then turned kind of skitzo towards the end which was interesting and had some good chuckling points interspersed throughout. I really liked Collision with it’s mandala like graphics … very well done. Dreams and Desires had me chuckling throughout. And since I grew up in the age of arcade games like Pac Man, Centipede and the like … I really got a kick out of Game Over. The only one I didn’t really like and didn’t get was Rabbit, but hey … all animations don’t appeal to everybody.
There’s quite a few more great animations in the show too, so if The Animation Show comes to your town be sure to check it out.
Okay, I admit it … I’m a sucker for chic-flicks, but hey I’m a chic! And Music & Lyrics is one of the good chic-flicks! Hugh Grant plays Alex Fletcher, the has-been composer half of an 80s duo called PoP! He gets a second chance in the music business when the current pop queen, Cora (Haley Bennett), wants him to write her a song. But he’s just a composer … where will he find a lyricist? Enter Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) who just happens to be watering his plants that week and happens to be a good lyricist. Let the romance, fight, and make-up begin!
 |
| Music & Lyrics Poster |
This movie would not have worked at all if the music wasn’t right … and they definitely got the music right in this. The first song/video is PoP!’s hit song PoP! Goes My Heart. Perfect 80s synth-enfused 80’s video campiness. Then you’re brought into today’s britney-esque pop with the mixing of sex & religious spirituality with Cora’s Buddha’s Delight. And finally the lovely love song that the main characters write together Way Back Into Love. Different eras of music, but they all worked well to help bring the story together.
Grant and Barrymore have a good chemistry in this. Both are great in their roles … Grant with his witty remarks and Barrymore with her physical comedy. I found it a pretty funny movie overall and others must have too because I heard quite a few laughs from the audience. It kind of stumbles just a bit in the middle because I thought it was actually coming to an ending when, oh … no it’s just gearing up for the next act. But I would definitely recommend going to see this movie … it was a nice, fun movie and worth the full price.
Oh! And stay for the credits … there’s a funny VH1 Pop-Up Video take on PoP!’s Pop! Goes My Heart.
The basic plot is this … motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) sells his soul to the Devil when he’s a teenager in order to save his father from dying of cancer. Cut to 20 some odd years later and the devil is ready to collect … transforming Johnny into the Ghost Rider, a bounty hunter for the Devil.
The basic story is there, but it never drew me in. This is based off a comic book series, so I really think the director, Mark Steven Johnson, should have had more fun with that … play with the camera angles more! That’s one of the great things about comic books … there are these extreme angles drawn that creates great tension. There’s no real tension in this movie. I think Sam Raimi gets that with his Spiderman movies … and Mark Steven Johnson could learn from that.
I liked some of the character development with Johnny Blaze though. The whole bit of this dare devil stunt rider listening to the Carpenters and eating Jelly Beans instead of drinking alcohol definitely made me chuckle a bit. I also liked the other comedic points interspersed throughout the movie … I actually think those were the high points of this movie.
There wasn’t any chemistry between Cage and Eva Mendes … They were both great in their roles. I just think it had more to do with that there wasn’t much of a role there for Mendes and that the love storyline wasn’t allowed to develop much.
Being into motion graphics and animation … you didn’t think I was going to not talk about the special effects did you? Well, there are definitely some good special effects in this movie. The opening title sequence takes you for a little bit of a ride … it’s a bit stylized and I think they could have pushed it more in that direction to really give it some vroooom. But the first effect that made me go “Oh, that’s cool!” was when you see how the main villain, Blackheart, kills his victims. It’s like he drains the life out of them. The other effect that I thought was really cool was when the villain whose element is water makes his entrance. He morphs into his human form through water and his first shot at creating one of his eyes slips down off of his face. Very cool! The other effects were very good, but those were the ones that stood out for me.
Overall, the movie was okay. I wouldn’t pay full price to see it, like I unknowingly did today. But if you like to see the latest special effects in movies and like to see them on the big screen then go to the morning or matinee movie. Otherwise, wait for the rental.
I need to make a small comment about some mega-plexs lately. I went to see the 4:15 showing today, which used to be matinee price … now it’s full price and $9.00! Which for here in the midwest is a little bit pricey, especially for a 4:15 movie. They don’t list the prices in a very visible place anymore either … why don’t they list the prices up on the electronic board where everyone can see it instead of on a little placard somewhere by the register? Anymore, I feel like I need a daily ticker to keep up with the changing prices. It’s one price during the week, a different price in the morning, and different prices depending on what time of day you go on the weekends. Frankly, they’re starting to price me out!