Moneyball

** Spoilers galore **

I really got hooked into the first half of this. The “nerds rule” sentiment, hiring the chubby geek to crunch the numbers while Joe-Handsome tracks down the players was fascinating. I couldn’t wait for the equation to be solved; for the bad news bears to coalesce into the baseball powerhouse the geek hero predicted they would be. But Moneyball is based on a true story, so unfortunately they must be factual. Which is to say that, apparently, the whole thing was a fluke. Not really the best way to end a sports movie…

Drive

Drive feels more like a study than a movie. An exercise in film noir, running down a check-list of film noir ingredients but without any kind of emotional point. The filmmakers don’t seem to understand L.A. in a real way. All the particulars about L.A., Hollywood, and its residents seems to be hastily lifted from old detective novels. Yes, it's violent. No more than anything else. But the violence is frustrating because it's uncharacteristically brutal, lacking any kind of dramatic or ironic point. Nebulous plot, unmotivated characters, and not much driving for a movie called "drive." The only thing that makes it "artsy" is the weird, French carnival music that plays during some of the action scenes, which made me roll my eyes. And it’s replete with Dutch angles. I could practically hear the director screaming for more Dutch angels. It’s not all bad. It had potential. It was fun to see Albert Brooks as a stab-happy villain. And there’s a bitchin’ scene in an elevator. But… meh.

Contagion

Should be required viewing for anyone who doesn’t “believe in” vaccinations. It’s an excellent piece of sci-fi. A potent and realistic “what-if” tracking a badass virus, and the way people would react to it. The resolution is optimistic, but Steven Soderbergh and company aren’t afraid to dramatize the dickheads of the calamity, too, thus creating a strong cautionary tale NOT about how to treat a bad-ass virus, but about how to treat each other.

Warrior

Rocky meets Rich Man, Poor Man. It’s 1976 all over again. Nick Nolte’s even in it! Warrior is well-intentioned, with a big heart. The script is hokey, but it’s strongly directed and vigorously acted. The cinematography bugged me a little. There’s always something in the foreground -- a head, an object, a hand. It’s an attempt to give the movie a POV, to make it gritty and real. But it’s overdone by about 10%. Details about Mixed Martial Arts fighting feel well-researched, but the heavy hands of the filmmakers force-feed the griminess, which makes certain settings feel inauthentic. Overall, Warrior aspires for and mostly achieves deep emotion, which will make it well-respected, but doesn’t guarantee a long box office life.

The Debt

There are parallel stories here: one in the past and one in the present. The one in the past is the “A” plot, and the one in the present is the “B” plot. But it should have been the other way around. Because the “B” plot in the present has Helen Mirren in it, ready and willing wrap-up some unfinished business with an old Nazi. And that’s the fun part, watching the old Jewish Mossad agent grappling with the evil, arthritic Nazi. The stuff in the past, though necessary, drags on way too long. So bits of this were good. It’s like saying the main course was bland, but the desert was DELICIOUS.