Hunger Games

Is it a criticism of reality television? Is it an indictment of the 1%? The allegory is slightly vague here, and it seems intentionally so. What sticks out in my memory is when Woody Harrelson is dispensing a last bit of advice to Jennifer Lawrence’s stoic contestant, “Look for fresh water.” Priorities, right? I never read the book, so I can’t comment on how closely it was adapted. But it’s an entertaining and thought-provoking sci-fi parable that probably would not have worked if it weren’t for the dumb-luck casting of Jennifer Lawrence. She brings a world-weary acceptance to the brutal hunger games, of which nobody ever seems to question the purpose. Yet.

The Raid: Redemption

It’s a super-violent, super-action-packed Indonesian martial arts movie, and it’s a lot of fun. The plot is something like: an Indonesian SWAT team tries to take down an Indonesian drug dealer holed up in a big, Indonesian building. One Indonesian SWAT guy, the good guy, knows the martial art that involves a lot of stabbing people and grabbing their legs and throwing them into things. (It might be called "Pencak Silat".) Anyway, it’s all really exciting and violent and there’s a lot of kicking and stabbing. A lot! Yay, violence!

Dose of Reality

A low-budget "Mamet" play set in a bar in which three people talk about their lives and stuff. It’s admirable for the tight budget, and certain twists come unexpected, but lead Fairuza Balk, MIA from the zeitgest for a while, acts circles around her co-stars, who always seem to be playing catch-up. This unbalance makes some sections of the movie tedious, and one wonders when the movie will get to the point. Still, I can see people getting drawn into this and being pleasantly amused by the ending.

Casa de mi Padre

Ya see, the joke is that it’s bad. Plenty of movies and TV shows have been made intentionally bad, as that is the central joke. I've liked some of them. I loved Black Dynamite. So that’s the whole deal. At times it’s funny because it’s bad. And at times Will Ferrell and company seem to be trying too hard to make it bad, if that makes sense. So it’s not a loving tribute to bad, but instead a criticism of bad, which is less funny, and therefore, more bad. So I guess I’m saying… it’s a mixed bad. (Hey-oh!)

Silent House

** SPOILER-RAMA **

At some point, after the questions have been answered about whether or not what the audience is watching is real or imagined, Silent House bravely plunges into psycho-sexual terrain. It could have gone horribly wrong. It comes close to being pretentious. But filmmakers dexterously walk a tightrope between realistic and thematic, and thanks to a daring and engrossing performance from Elizabeth Olson, the end result is a gimmicky but satisfying no-budget thriller.

John Carter

Well, first of all: they fucked up the title. It should be called "John Carter of Mars." And it’s not like it’s a bad movie. Lead actors are sincere and shapely. Creatures are animated skillfully. Landscapes, both real and computer-generated, are rendered beautifully. Costumes are inventive. So it’s not so easily explained why this movie landed with a thud. They say it’s the science fiction on which all other science fiction is based. So maybe that’s the problem. Maybe there’s just something about it that seems a little too familiar.

W.E.

Madonna takes the fascinating story of the love affair between Wallis Simpson and King Edward and bookends it with a modern-day story about a woman trying to find the courage to leave her husband. The segments featuring Wallis Simpson were gripping, emotional, and feature a great performance from actress Andrea Riseborough. But the modern day segments drag and suck power away from the historical romance. So it's a mixed bag. If the movie could be recut to only include the Simpson/Edward romance, Madonna would have a pretty good movie on her resume. But the dull modern segments, though they're not terrible, undercut the resonance of the whole movie.