2014 Top Movies

2014 Top Movies

• 4.0 Birdman
• 4.0 Gone Girl
• 4.0 Boyhood
• 4.0 Lucy
• 4.0 Chef
• 3.5 The Imitation Game
• 3.5 X-Men: Days of Future Past
• 3.5 Into the Woods
• 3.5 Interstellar
• 3.25 The Lego Movie

The Big Short

Plot: Prior to the 2008 crash, fund managers Michael Burry (Christian Bale), Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), and Mark Baum (Steve Carell) spotted the problems with mortgage bonds and tried to profit from it. The Big Short explains the reason for the 2008 financial crisis through the eyes of the three fund managers.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The Big Short is a dramatization of the 2008 financial crash through the eyes of three investors who saw it coming. Because financial crime is immaterial, director McKay keeps it lively with rock music, odd venues, characters addressing the camera directly, and odd-ball vignettes, for example, Margot Robbie gives a profanity-filled explanation of bond trading in a bubble-bath while drinking champagne.

The best part was the educational value -- I left with a better understanding of the 2008 crisis, and some knowledge of the gaps in today's system. It was interesting because it was true.

I liked how McKay cleverly worked technical definitions into the movie withOUT making it sleepy. Now I know what a synthetic CDO is, for example.

There was a great scene where bond rating agency manager talks wearing dark glasses as if she were blind. I appreciated the ironic humor. There were several gaps like this, some funny.

Compared to a real drama however, The Big Short,  comes up short. Why? The characters: they are motivated only by getting rich. The writers decided these people were abnormal and dehumanized them rather than humanizing them. They are depicted as anti-social or maybe Aspergers sufferers: even if this was been historically true, everyone has feelings and needs. Fewer characters with deeper backstories would have been more engaging.

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, Steve Carell

Directed by: Adam McKay

Written by: Adam McKay and Charles Randolph; based on the book by Michael Lewis

The Music: Great. The rock music and the regular soundtrack by Nicholas Britell. I especially liked the jazz piano in "Redemption at the Roulette Table." 

The Visuals: The fast moving visual style is distinctive. Nothing breathtaking

Rating: 3.0 stars: It is a two star movie that gets a 1/2 star bump because its educational, and another 1/2 star because of its social value and ambition. Am I being suckered by the Oscar buzz?

More: The Big Short shows the cause of the crisis was ignorance and greed at the banks. This fits with Hollywood tropes about evil corporations. The real cause was lax financial regulation, and privatization of bond rating among three for-profit rating agencies -- who were too dependent on their clients to be honest. Free market capitalism can only exist in a framework of well-known rules.

Even More: When someone tells you that a thing is too hard to understand, take the time to learn it. That is my take away from The Big Short. I remember a hundred stories on mortgage bond derivatives, and every one had a disclaimer about how hard it was to understand.

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Joy

Plot: Joy is the story of Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence), who invented a mop, endured a difficult ramp-up process, and tries to sell her stuff on TV. Joy needed to borrow money from family, cope with sick relatives, screaming kids, a divorce and a trouble-some father. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Joy is an estrogen-soaked success story that emphasizes perseverance, and high school aged girls should especially see it.

The script-writer emphasizes the hardship in Joy's life, and at times she is like the biblical hero Job, with everything going wrong repeatedly. It is humorous how terrible things are in a sitcom sense.

The biggest shortcoming is that the script feels concocted to create these frustrating experiences for Joy -- no one's life is really like this. The unreality breaks the dramatic tension. There are intentional situation comedy moments from the co-stars especially De Niro, who is almost a clown of a father. Jennifer Lawrence is in a drama, and the co-stars are in a comedy like My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

The highlights are all emotional turning points for Joy: Joy goes through a wringer, but it creates great moments for Jennifer L on screen. Definitely worth an Oscar nomination.

Even though there is a big cast of co-stars, only Bradley Cooper and Isabella Rossellini are something special.

Joy has its moments. I liked it, and I am glad I saw it. 

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Edgar Ramierez, Diane Ladd, Virginia Maden, Isabella Rossellini

Directed by: David Russell

Written by: David Russell; story by Annie Mumolo 

The Music: Several good songs from Mexican folk to classic rock. 

The Visuals: The only good visuals are of Jennifer Lawrence in different poses. For example,  drawing with crayons or sitting at her desk at the end.

Rating: 3.0 stars: A showcase for Jennifer L. The overall movie is only OK. It gets some points for a positive message especially for girls and young women. 

More: Which Joy is better Jennifer Lawrence's, or Amy Poehler's in Inside Out?

Clearly Jennifer -- she should get an Oscar Nom. On the other hand, Inside Out is the better movie.

Joy Mangano and Jennifer Lawerence

Even More: Here is a photo of the real life Joy, who invented her mop at age 33. More here.



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Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Plot: Years after The Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker is missing, and the Nazi-like First Order is attempting to take over the Galaxy. Pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) has a map to where Luke may be, and he gets attacked by First Order & Darth Vadar acolyte Kylo Ren (Adam Driver.) Scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley) finds cute robot BB-8 and meets an Imperial defector Finn (John Boyega.) They escape on the Millennium Falcon to take the map to the rebels, but soon run into Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca. Before the climatic battle, we see rebel base, an enemy super-weapon, and an X-wing fighter attack. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The Force Awakes is lots of fun, and cleverly written. It gives us two interesting new characters Rey and Finn, both underdogs and alone in the world. New villain Kylo Ren is a striver; he aspires to be evil, but is conflicted inside. I think will see a more angst from Adam Driver in the following movies.

Daisy Ridley plays Rey with subtlety, and there some great reaction shots. John Boyega's Finn is likable in part because of the character's history, but also because of the personable acting. Two good performances. Adam Driver is less good as Kylo Ren -- too stuffy.

The script got so many things right. It skip over details of the old story, and pick up key points with new characters. We have the old characters for familiarity, but they are not involved too much. The replacement of Darth Vader with another villain is hard, and we will see how Kylo Ren evolves.

The movie is more about friendship and sacrifice than it is about good and evil. The movies may be about the ascent of Rey, who begins as garbage picker, and who seems to have bottomless potential.

Force Awakens is as good as one could hope it to be, and so much better than Phantom Menace.

I want to see it again.

Cast: Daisy Ridley, Harrison Ford, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac

Directed by: JJ Abrams

Written by: Lawrence Kasdan, JJ Abrams, Michael Arndt; It will be interesting to learn to what extent they borrowed from the older Star Wars fiction for characters like Supreme Leader Snoops and Kylo. 

The Music: John Williams is back in the saddle at age 83 with a great score. John Williams has had some middling quality work over the years, but this was as good as ever. I love The Scavenger and Rey's theme. 

The Visuals: Great special effects

Rating: 4.0 stars: The highest rating is that I want to see it again. 

More: So who is the Supreme Leader Snoops? I am voting for former Emperor Darth Sidius. I think he's still alive and even more disfigured.

Major spoilers: Clearly the plot recycles elements from the previous movies. It starts with a droid with a secret, people search for the last Jedi master, towns folk are massacred by stormtroopers, we spend sometime in a bar, go to the rebel base, and finally go destroy a planet-sized super weapon.  In the middle, there is another villain confronting his father scene that ends differently.


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Spotlight

Plot: A team of newspaper reporters investigates systematic child abuse in the Boston Catholic Church in 2001. It shows the process of investigation and reporting along with reporters trying to cope with the emotional wreckage of the emerging scandal. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Spotlight is a heroic reporter story; it gets its energy from the emotional stress of priests abusing children. The reporters come off as heroes, and in this case they probably were.

The plot is all numbers, dates and documents. To make Spotlight work, it needed good actors, and these actors were fun to watch. Mark Ruffalo gave his character an intense, Alsperger's syndrome focus - hands in the pockets, head cocked, with an laser intensity stare. Stanley Tucci is always one of my favorites. Rachel McAdams and John Slattery both provide emotional resonance.

The best scene is when the reporters are gathered around a desk getting good news on the phone, and they all react to it in a different way. It is like a little wordless play.

Remarkably, all this interviewing and phoning and legal fights and paperwork is threaded into a story that is compelling and interesting: great directing by Tom McCarthy. The difficulty with the directing is the primary case for a 4 star rating.

I tend to believe that Catholic priests have been routinely having sex with children for hundreds of years, but happily in the 21st Century, it is being stamped out.

As a lapsed Catholic, I find the whole episode emotional retching. The clerical culture that allowed abuse for centuries isn't apparent to parishioners in the pews. The clerical culture is secretive to keep the illusion going, and it's mission is not congruent with the mission of the Church. In my view the resistance against female priests is also from the clergy, not the laity or the theology.

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Katon, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiger, Stanley Tucci, John Slattery

Directed by: Tom McCarthy

Written by: Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer

The Music: I never noticed the music. Was there any?

The Visuals: Almost entirely dialog. Nothing fancy.

Rating: 3.5 stars: A 3 star movie with an extra half star for the message. While the story-telling and directly may merit a 4, it just doesn't feel like to me. 

More: Here is the real Spotlight team.

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Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

Plot: Going Clear is a documentary about L Ron Hubbard and the Church of Scientology. It focuses former church members who talk about cult-like mind-control and physical abuse.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Going Clear is a straight-up documentary that is mostly interviews. Early on it keeps moving, and has interesting video to show during the narration. It a good story, but it bogs down after Hubbard dies and the abuse stories get repetitive. Famous Scientologists like John Travolta and Tom Cruise were profiled with tabloid-like focus.

I once-again realized narrow cults can be very powerful, and worse, this cult had lie detector that the faithful used on each other to enforce orthodoxy.  The Sea Org, serves as the clergy, and these people are barely paid, on the other had, the church collectively seems obsessively focused on money. Other charities with unpaid staff also have corruption issues. Paying workers fairly reduces this kind of corruption.

I enjoyed the first half hour or so, after that, it was like doing my third set of leg presses -- not fun any more. 

Directed, Written and Narrated by: Alex Gibney; based on the book by Lawrence Wright

The Music: As in many documentaries, the music is queued to how they want you to feel.

The Visuals:  The art design of the Scientology conventions was great: majestic.

Rating: 2.0 stars - might have made a better 20 minute segment on a TV news show 

More: Here is a link to Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard's Wikipedia entry.

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Creed

Plot:  Boxer Adonis (Michael B Jordan,) son of ex-champ Apollo Creed, finds ex-champ Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to train in him for big-time fights. He trains every he second that he is not with girlfriend Bianca (Tessa Thompson). After a few plot twists Adonis ends up at the big fight for the finale.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Creed is good fight drama. Adonis, Bianca, and Rocky are well-realized and likable characters. As the fight gets closer, Rocky and Adonis get closer emotionally too. Creed is more about the relationship than the fight, and there are only two boxing matches in the film.

When the fights come, they are as dramatic as ever with jaw-shattering punches, and high-speed punch exchanges. The final fight is tension-filled and exciting. 

One especially good scene was Adonis running in the streets of Philadelphia with the guys from the neighborhood hood doing wheelies on their street bikes. The rap song over the top made it all memorable.

The message of Creed is something about working hard can help you achieve your dream, and that having a dream is OK. There is a more subtle message about not needing to have money to be fulfilled.

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Sylester Stallone, Tessa Thompson

Directed by: Ryan Coogler 

Written by: Ryan Coogler, Aaron Covington based on the characters by Sylvester Stallone

The Music: I liked the music which were of three kinds, pop rap songs sampled for the action scenes, traditional orchestral music by Ludwig Goransson, and vocal music by Tessa Thompson singing as the character Bianca, and these were composed by Goransson. The best one is Breathe. The rap music was great during the actions scenes. Listening to the rap tracks at home wasn't the same. 

The Visuals: Creative and gritty visuals. The art direction evokes the mood of the first Rocky movie. 

Rating: 3.0 stars: I liked it. It was fun to watch, and more people oriented than expected. 

More: Creed succeed by pairing the underdog story back, and only bring two of the old characters back, Rocky and Adonis's mom. Creed benefits from moving the story to a black subculture because it is so different from the ethnic Irish and Italian cultures of the earlier ones.

Major Spoiler: Everyone may not realize that Creed ends just like the first Rocky did. The upstart fighter loses the fight but wins an emotional victory and the respect to come back and try again.

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