MaestroReviews

Deb and I are artists, painters actually. We go see films as often as once a week. That's right, we go to the theater and sit in a dark room with strangers to see movies. We rarely rent. We like "little" movies, foreign and documentary films. We try to stay away from mainstream and blockbusters whenever possible, but a couple sneak in each year. We seek out the obscure. We try to avoid violent movies, and that really limits our choices, most film makers seem to think violence makes a story interesting.
I try not to give anything away in the reviews, but offer an honest reaction.
We rate them 1~10, 10 being highest.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Museum Hours



Deb 9    Me 9

If you like movies you might not like this, but if you like art, you’ll love it. First off, it slowed me down, put on my brakes so I could absorb each beautifully created shot. The whole thing was shot unsympathetically in Vienna. I was there in a November and this captures the grey gloom perfectly. The movie explores a new relationship of two people dealing with their past and present through art, some of it at a museum, some of it in their environment. It was really a refreshing and interesting (albeit slow) movie. No chase scenes, no blood, no action. Just respect, affection, and a sincere appreciation for art. Every shot is a beauty, you see art in everything.

Monday, August 26, 2013

In A World

Deb 8     Me 8

I don't know why but I was really looking forward to this and in the end I was very happy to have seen it.This is one of those film where one person is in charge of just about everything. In this case its a gal named Lake Bell who wrote, directed and stars in this little gem. At first I was taken by what I thought was bad acting, then I decided it was the direction, then suddenly, magically about twenty minutes in the problem went away and the rest flowed like ink. The reason I stuck with it during the mis-cue part is that its a great story and just overall appealing. I liked it more and more as it developed. There's a lot of nose humor, some more subtle than others and it covers a lot of social taboo bases quite well. Definitely enjoyable.

Friday, August 16, 2013

The Spectacular Now

Deb 10     Me 9

Really a neat little movie. Again, some of these young actors blow me away. The young folks here are high school age so not really that young, but they do a great job. Now older, Jenifer Jason Leigh does a great job in the short time she is on screen. Its sort of a coming of age movie, but deals with specific issues. Both protagonist have the same hole in their family tree but fill it in different ways, with different attitudes and goals. One of the players is trapped in the idea of living in the now while most everyone else plans for a future. 
There are a lot of themes here that are dear to my heart so I dug seeing them presented from an outsider point of view. When I was a kid I read every Nietzsche book I could find and found a central or recurring theme of self-overcoming. Perhaps if I read other books I'd find it there too, but you find that in a lot of movies, sometimes overt, sometimes presented in subtle ways. You can find it here too and if its a theme you like, you might like this movie. There are holes, it aint perfect, but very well done and interesting. I had to pee from the get go and never found a spot in the movie that would allow me to be torn away from the screen for even a minute.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Prince Avalanche

Deb 0   Me 2

Many movies are based on books and you usually hear people say the book is better. Anything must be better than watching this movie. The trailer was inviting and featured the only half ways interesting scenes from this boring piece of crap. There are only a few story elements and they are vague and undeveloped at best. There could be some sort of story about two people bonding in isolation of their work, but who'd care. There are attempts at some arty scenery shots but they fail too because there is no way to save this thing. It must be hard to make something this bad. Student films are usually convoluted and filled with symbolic imagery that confused and boggles the imagination, but you always leave thinking that they tried.  This movie feels like no one made any valid attempt at any kind of movie making and it just sinks lower and lower and each minute trudges by. Go get a colonoscopy instead.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Blue Jasmine

Deb 9    Me 8

Another Woody Allen movie. They got to a point where they just wore me out, then came Midnight in Paris which turned my head around. Then To Rome With Love switched me back off. This one is somewhere between for me. He has mastered looking into personality types and presenting them in analytical depth with varying degrees of entertainment. But what he does well is make his characters familiar, these are people you know by the time the film ends. You may not want to know them, but they become part of your vocabulary. One thing has stood out in recent movies, the Rome movie, Before Midnight and this one are all shot in exotic locations to no benefit of the film. There are a few location shots that fix you to a certain location, but the rest of the time could be any sound stage in the world. I don't get why the extra effort to shoot in say, Greece, when there's only a few moments of uniquely Greek things that could come from stock shots. I dunno. But back to this one, Kate Blanchett was just great, leading an all star cast that included Bobby Canavale, an under appreciated actor of great strength. Alec Baldwin is always a treat and Louis CK just makes me like all the film makers choices. This is kind of a profile movie, not always happy, but insightful, funny and even enlightening.

Now You See Me

Deb 10   Me 6

This is a smart movie featuring the art of illusion but includes several interesting themes. Since I'm reluctant to give away any spoilers I'll talk about other elements like the cast. Woody Harrelson is his usual treat, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine add credibility. Mark Ruffalo's look is at best Peter Falk and at worse Burt Reynolds, but does a fine acting job. Most of the others are strangers to me except Jesse Eisenberg who starred in The Social Network. Now this shows what a sap I am; I so despised the character he played in that movie that it taints my opinion of him instead of the role he played, so it distracted me from enjoying what was a pretty great little movie. A movie filled with spectacle, suspense and an interesting story, definitely worth spending an evening with it.

Twenty Feet From Stardom

Deb 10      Me 10

I really like these kinds of documentaries. This one is about the back-up singers who are just twenty feet from the star on stage. This follows a handful of incredibly talented people who have helped shape the sound of rock and pop music since the early 60s. I was just blown away all through this movie, even got a little goose bumby for a minute. A good indicator of how significant these people are is how many "stars" generously pay tribute to them with intelligent and sincere observations, including Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen and Mick Jagger. It is interesting to me to see what artist in other disciplines go through in their field of expertise, art is never an easy road. Emotional rewards have to satisfy the artist because the financial rewards are always twenty feet away. This is a very well crafted and interesting film and I'm glad to have seen it on the big screen.