2014 @ The Movies Archives - January

Below is a monthly compilation of my 128 2014 film reviews originally published on Facebook:

January 3 2014 through January 31 2014:

1st movie of 2014 "Dallas Buyers Club" at the Moxie of course! All around amazing acting and a great script that never dissolves into sappy mush. I especially liked the small random moments that punctuate the story like the butterfly sequence and the disrupted masturbation scene. Special thanks to Mike Stevens for showing Miyazaki's "The Wind Rises" trailer and Shelley Scanlon for putting up with our confusing payment and card punching sequence :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs1kpGNSRVka

2014 @ the movies take 2: "Mandela a Long Walk to Freedom" Yes, Mandela was a great man, but the biopic only timidly touches on the complexities of the man to favor the myth. The all thing ends up being very high-school-class friendly with some very bad curly white hair wigs and a sappy score. Gosh, I miss me some Stringer Bell!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAglZjX3HOk

2014 @ the movies take 3: "Inside Llewyn Davis" rarely failed dreams looked so beautiful. Struggling for recognition is tough when people can't even pronounce your first name. Even tough the script is brilliant, the actors impeccable and the directing masterful, this film should be nominated for best sound design & mixing - each door slamming resonates with the story like a perfect note of humorous despair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXMuR-Nsyl

2014 @ the movies take 4: "Her" First of, Scarlett Johansson expresses more with the slightest inflection of her voice than Tom Cruise & Keanu Reeves in their entire acting career. Second, if you dug Jacques Derrida's "Of Grammatology" (De la Grammotologie), rejoice: the movie version just came out! Spike Jonze explores this broken tool that makes us: language. I know I should write poster blurbs and trailer voice overs. There is so much going on in this film, my brain feels small an inadequate. Repeat viewing coming up..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzV6mXIOVl4

2014 @ the movies take 5: "August: Osage County" It's like the Oklahoma version of "Nebraska" - you will laugh and regret it a second later and laugh again or maybe cry. This is "ensemble cast" done correctly for those of us who miss Robert Altman. A special mention for Benedict Cumberbatch who will break your heart. This film probably needs a shelf of acting Oscars, though. See, Terry Miller Barakat, I didn't even whine about the cheesy Hallmark ending credits. Well, I kind of just did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hd_uO72h1s

2014 @ the movies take 6: "Lone Survivor" The proposition of me seeing this motion picture had it not been nominated for best sound editing and sound mixing was dubious at best. Now, I have to say this cliché-ridden fare is definitely punctuated with moments of intense acoustic prowess. Unfortunately, they do not make up for the equally intense platitude of the plot and acting. Mark Wahlberg has the range of a basic stovetop with two settings: [^_^] (fun) and [*=*] (not fun). I hope the actual late Navy SEALS the film is dedicated to were not cinephiles, for it is a sad cinematographic homage they are celebrated with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoLFk4JK_RM

2014 @ the movies take 7: "Frozen" Yes, another Oscar contender I had to sit through. Right off the bat, I cannot stand singing cartoons, but that's my problem. However painful the singing parts, I am kind of glad I saw this. For one thing the Mickey short "Get A Horse!" that precedes it is a small marvel of politically incorrect 30's humor teleported to 2014- very odd. More on that when I see it again at the Moxie as part of the Oscar animated shorts series - thank you Mike Stevens. Frozen is very a chatty ride for fleas with ADD. Even though it is about the advent of the coldest winter imaginable, the slow stillness of frozen land is surely absent from this cavalcade. I got the fact this winter is a metaphor for the woes of the human heart that can hurt the most beautiful sisterly friendship. Nevertheless, the topic of climactic changes cannot be completely metaphorical in 2014, Walt! Under this perspective, Frozen presents a world where a character, Elsa, controls the weather. There is apparently no other natural force at play. When Anna finally understands how to control her deadly winter powers, she creates an unnatural environment where snowmen never melt and people can ice-skate outdoors in summer (because the first thing town folks want to do after the harshest winter on record is ice skate!!!). This is very disturbing, like the ski slopes in Dubai. This added to the fact that her kingdom is courted by a bunch of politicians with foreign accents including a villain obsessed with trade and a handful of others who do nothing except sounding very French and I think Spanish or Italian - it must be the EU!! What a mess! Kids, stay home and re-watch Totoro!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbQm5doF_Uc

2014 @ the movies take 8: "The Invisible Woman" Yet another contender (best costume design) on my slate. This is a very elegant film, aptly acted and directed. The most interesting part for me was the portrayal of Dickens as the first literary super-star in the modern sense - that he surely was. It's a film about the pitfalls of celebrity more than a biopicky love story. The scene at the horse race track is the best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDMHb3GetIc

2014 @ the movies take 9: "Oscar Animated Shorts 2014" - a great selection this year. "Get a Horse" is still strong on a 2nd viewing (it also fronts Frozen). I still love how inappropriate it is : Mickey in the nude, Clara-belle constantly flashing her udders and the fact that the whole things is an extended violent torture scene for Peg-leg. A side note: notice Horace wearing a Captain America shirt in his 2014 3D incarnation, a reminder of whom owns Marvel Comics. The French "Mr. Hublot" is gorgeous albeit a tad longish. "Feral" is powerful, but too experimental to get an otherwise well-deserved gold dude. The Japanese entry "Possessions" has some superb moments, but is plagued by a clunky character design for the protagonist, and the same theme was tackled way better in "Spirited Away." Weirdly enough, my fave of the lot is not even nominated: "Blue Umbrella" the best Pixar effort since Wall-E…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws54EoxJQU8

See you in February!