Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance

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+ Best Romcom of the Year

A hard-to-resist poster for Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight

Magic in the Moonlight is master filmmaker Woody Allen's (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)) 49th (!) movie.

In 1920's Southern France, a nihilistic skeptic, who is famous for his own Chinese magic act, travels to debunk a young spiritual medium, who is enchanting a wealthy family there.

Allen makes it all seem so easy in a film like Moonlight: As usual, he uses 'new' (in his oevre), great actors, who elevate themselves or present new sides of their talent in his hands. Here, kudos must go to both leads: Colin Firth (The King's Speech (2010)) is perfectly dry, sarcastic and thick-headed and makes audiences laugh and chuckle over Allen's priceless lines time and time again. Emma Stone (The Help (2011)), - more fortunate than the already highly respected Firth to be 'found' by Allen, despite the often dubious films she acts in, (The House Bunny (2008), Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Movie 43 (2013), Gangster Squad (2013) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) to name a few) is irresistible, and appears as if she was made of marble at times, seemingly glowing from within. She makes a charming and believable opponent to Firth.
Of the secondary players, Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom (2010)) is a sweet delight; SPOILER Simon McBurney (The Last King of Scotland (2006)) is good as Firth's real opponent; Eileen Atkins (The Hours (2002)) is tactful and funny as Firth's aunt Vanessa, and Hamish Linklater (The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (2014)) is funny as Stone's serenading dullard suitor.
Without spoiling much in the crisp plot, let me just say that Allen circles familiar territory in Magic in the Moonlight to say the least: Namely, whether life is abandoned of anything besides hard science; in other words, is there an afterlife and a God? Unable to answer these ever-present 'stones-in-the-shoe'-questions, Moonlight goes on to credibly indulge in the one pleasant thing that we can say for certain exists:
Romance.

Emma Stone and Colin Firth on another poster for Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight

Professionally filmed by Iranian cinematographer Darius Khondji (The Immigrant (2013)), Moonlight also pleases with its marvelous locations by the French Riviera and beautiful, very well-crafted period costumes (by Sonia Grande (Midnight in Paris (2011))) and cars.
This film is a gift with its stimulating, smartly devised story. One of the year's true wonders.

Related posts:

Woody Allen: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] To Rome With Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart 
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship With Alvie Singer
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs 

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 26.7 mil. $ (and running)
= Uncertainty
[In all likeliness, although the cost of the film is not known, Moonlight has some way to go still before it breaks even, and therefore looks like a minor flop so far.]

What do you think of Magic in the Moonlight?

Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-constructed but inconsequential English cul-de-sac

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The slick poster for Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream

QUICK REVIEW:

Two brothers in London get a request for help from their rich uncle: Kill a man, and I will give you the money that you need. They murder the man, and for the one brother, things go well from there ...
Writer-director master Woody Allen (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)) knows his craft, and there is no formal bumps in the road: Cassandra's Dream's great men; Tom Wilkinson (Valkyrie (2008)), Colin Farrell (Minority Report (2002)) and Ewan McGregor (The Impossible (2012)) are class actors, although the latter two seem a bit old for their characters.
The problem is that Allen just doesn't work as a storyteller of this kind of Anglo-Saxon ode of Men and Guilt. The way he teases us about the murder is top stuff, but as a the morality tale that the film aims to be, it is a misfire. And after the recent, painfully bad To Rome With Love (2012), Cassandra's Dream is probably Allen's least successful movie quality-wise, (which says a lot about how high the quality of his many films generally is.) Bottom-line; save this film for almost last, if you are delving into Allen's wonderful body of work.

Related review:

Woody Allen: To Rome With Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy 
Celebrity (1988) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart 
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship With Alvie Singer 
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor)

Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor are just brothers (unfortunately) in Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 22.5 mil. $
= Flop
[An original Philip Glass score, - which is rare for Allen, who hadn't commissioned an original score since Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972), didn't help attract enough audiences to this almost dull movie.]

What do you think of Cassandra's Dream?
Who, on the other hand, tells a good, Anglo-Saxon morality tale?

Control (2007) - Ian Curtis' youth, love and music as the front man of Joy Division

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+ Best Music Movie of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year: Anton Corbijn + Best B/W Movie of the Year

The stylish poster with Sam Riley cigarette-in-mouth for Anton Corbijn's Control

QUICK REVIEW:

Control is a music drama biopic based on Joy Division front singer Ian Curtis' life from 1973-'80, when he took his own life. 
The movie covers him from the assembly of his first band Warsaw, to his early marriage and child, the building of Joy Division, perhaps the most important post punk band of all, the music, the success, the mistress, his epilepsy and finally, his suicide. His struggles with love most of all, perhaps, is the center here.
I love the music of Joy Division, though being a fan is not a prerequisite for watching or enjoying Control, which is very well-produced; especially the cinematography (by Martin Ruhe (The American (2010)) is excellent and at its best moments poetic like Curtis' lyrics. 
The English reality portrayed in Control is incredibly crude and dreary, - similar to Hamburg in the film's Dutch director Anton Corbijn's (The American (2010)) newest film, A Most Wanted Man. (2014). The script is also rather stiff and hard, at times tragicomic. It deals with hard topics.
Control was Corbijn's debut feature. He comes from a background in photography and music videos and has had a long history with Joy Division in this role. He is now in post with his next movie, Life (2015), about a photo-shoot with James Dean for Life Magazine.

Related posts:

Anton Corbijn: 2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
A Most Wanted Man (2014) - Hamburg anti-terror spies in lean, serious picture

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 4.5 mil. euros
Box office: 8.1 mil. $
= Minor flop
[Corbijn put up half of the budget himself and won considerable critical praise and prizes for Control, including a BAFTA for the film's writer. His next film was the low-budgeted George Clooney-starring The American, which had a better commercial result, making 67.8 mil. $ on a 20 mil. $ budget.]

What do you think of Control?
Other good movies about punk bands?

The China Syndrome (1979) - First-rate handle on a nuclear plant accident thriller

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The classy original poster for James Bridges' The China Syndrome

QUICK REVIEW:

Jane Fonda (Klute (1971)) was Oscar-nominated for playing the career-woman who report 'soft news' for an LA TV-channel, when she and her idealistic camera-man, (a long-haired Michael Douglas (Falling Down (1993)), who also produced the film), by accident witness a near-catastrophe at a nuclear plant outside of town. - That sets a row of events in motion.
The China Syndrome is a catastrophe thriller that is SPOILER missing a catastrophe. Still it undeniably falls into the generic category: It is made on a tightly written, Oscar-nominated original script by Mike Gray (Wavelength (1983)), T.S. Cook (Attack on Fear (1984)) and co-writer/director James Bridges (The Appaloosa (1966)), a tightly carried out low-action suspense picture, and its freshness and nail-biting quality is still 100 % there today.
The power struggles and the lightning-speed media world, which the film also exhibit and implicitly criticize, are just as recognizable and despicable today as they were then. Jack Lemmon (Grumpy Old Men (1993)) was also Oscar-nominated for his intense performance here. 
- The China Syndrome is solid suspense!
The film was based on several nuclear plant accidents, and it came out at a time where the issue was a big concern around the world. Moreover, just 12 days after the release of the film, the big Three Mile Island Accident on a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania made it even more eerily contemporary. That was the worst accident in US nuclear plant history, and you can read more about it here.

I know what you're thinking: Could the syndrome be that Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas' hair is growing them together into one being? This poster for James Bridges' The China Syndrome certainly makes you think so

Watch the original trailer for the movie here

Cost: 5.9 mil. $
Box office: 51.7 mil. $ (US only)
= Huge hit
[The film most likely also enjoyed large success outside the US, where the nuclear debate was running just as high at the time in the '70s, - ideal for a film such as The China Syndrome. It had 424,927 admissions in Sweden, indicating this to be the case.]

What do you think of The China Syndrome?

Capote (2005) - The writing of one of the 20th century's finest non-fiction crime novels comes to life

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+ Best Biopic of the Year

Gorgeously colored poster for Bennett Miller's Capote

QUICK REVIEW:

In Capote, we follow the New York socialite author Truman Capote's (Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958)) journey to the middle of nowhere, Kansas, and his 4 year long involvement with a quadruple murder case and especially one of the imprisoned murderers, Perry Smith.
Capote is a masterly told crime biopic drama about a very exciting period of a very unusual, American writer's life. Philip Seymour Hoffman (A Most Wanted Man (2014)), - winning his only Oscar for the part, - is perfect in the title lead and gets solid support, especially from Clifton Collins Jr. (Pacific Rim (2013)) as Perry, but also from Oscar-nominated Catherine Keener (Begin Again (2013)) and Chris Cooper (American Beauty (1999)).
Only the somewhat unrefined alternation between cold images and preemptive pathos in the film's beginning seemed less auspicious to me. But a very strong film nonetheless, directed by Bennett Miller (Moneyball (2011)), whose coming film Foxcatcher (2014) is attracting quite a lot of buzz.

 

Related post:

 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 49.2 mil. $
= Huge hit
['Sleeper' hit with a long American run (October 2005-April 2006), fueled by outstanding reviews and Oscar-attention; good reception overseas as well, (US box office only accounts for 28.7 mil. $ of the total gross.)]

What do you think of Capote?
Other films of condemned men that you can recommend?

Pet Sematary (1989) - Stephen King's awful horror turkey

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A grisly ghoul and an eerie cemetery on the poster for Mary Lambert's Pet Sematary

Pet Sematary [I can find no reason for the misspelling of 'cemetery' in the title] is an adaptation of Stephen King's 1983 novel. It is the first adaptation that he wrote the screenplay for himself, and he has stated himself that Pet Sematary is the only one of his novels that he finds scary personally.
The story is about a family that are moving into a house in Maine, when tragedy strikes: First, SPOILER their cat dies, and later, their baby son. They live close to an Indian burying ground (of course), where supernatural powers dictate that the buried don't stay buried.
I love King and wild 80's horror movies, (wild horror movies in general, really), but Pet Sematary is just a really poor movie, for numerous reasons:
First of all, the casting is very poor, and the no-name actors in the film are in this case no-name actors for a reason. The husband and wife, played by Dale Midkiff and Denise Crosby, do not match each other; although the actors are only two years apart, she looks almost like she could have been his mother, and Midkiff, who is the lead in the film, really can't act. I never once bought that he was married to her, or that he was the father of those kids. Bruce Campbell (The Evil Dead (1981)) was attached to star as the husband, but for some reason didn't.
Perhaps he was onto the fact that the film was to be shot on a really terrible script, and that King, living just 20 minutes from the shoot, and being one of the most prestigious and rich writers in the world, was gonna sit heavily on the production and the following of his terrible script. He even cameos in the film as a priest. One perhaps has to get used to the fact that King has written at least this one terrible script, but if you don't believe it, just watch Pet Sematary, and you'll see; it's a fact. The film is full of utter nonsense posing as profound mythology, uninventive plot points and idiotic dialog.
It is directed by Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary II (1992)), who hasn't wrung good work from any of her actors here, the children included, who you'll mainly feel sorry for, (along with the animals), because they appear in Pet Sematary without fully consciously having agreed to do so.

The details:

The movie is surprisingly gory, and it does establish an eerie atmosphere a couple of times, mainly due to Elliott Goldenthal's (Heat (1995)) score, which may be the only thing about the film which isn't wholly inept. There are large sets that have been painstakingly constructed, it seems, but they are not filmed or exposed right, and the effect of them doesn't arrive.
Other good horror-professionals that might have ended up doing the film, - and may have made something worthwhile out of it, - are Tom Savini (Night of the Living Dead (1990)), who (wisely?) turned down directing it, and George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead (1978)), who (luckily?) dropped out, as it was delayed.
Pet Sematary concludes with a Ramones track called Pet Sematary, which was made in honor of King, a big Ramones fan, and got nominated for a Razzie as Worst Original Song, but also became one of the band's highest charting hits. Most Ramones fans hate the song, though.

Related reviews:

Stephen King adaptations:  1408 (2007) or, The Haunted Hotel Room
The Shining (1980) - Kubrick's descend into madness is a timeless masterpiece
Carrie (1976) or, Don't Bully the Strange Girl!

Watch an original trailer - ripped from a VHS! - here

Cost: 11.5 mil. $
Box office: 57.4 mil. $ (North America only)
= Huge hit
[Sold on King's pre-existing, hard-to-beat brand, Pet Sematary lured millions to see it, and some of them even, evidently from online threads, treasure it. Its sequel Pet Sematary II (1992) stars Edward Furlong, was poorly received by critics and fell far behind Pet Sematary's success with only 17 mil. $ in domestic receipts on an 8 mil. $ budget. The franchise was thus killed off early.]

What do you think of Pet Sematary?
Other Stephen King movies that are terrible?

Citizen Kane (1941) - The cold elephant on the shelf

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Marvelous artwork on an original poster for Orson Welles' Citizen Kane

QUICK REVIEW:

Build up as a mystery concerning the meaning of media mogul Charles Forster Kane's last word spoken, before leaving the world and his crumbling empire behind, the word "Rosebud."
Citizen Kane, hailed as the greatest film ever made time and time again, is a technically astute and innovative, especially with its deep focus shots and elaborate, wide-ranging plot structure, and its revelation in the end, which cements the sad end of Kane's existence, and works as an almost violent punch. The film also impresses as inspired by especially newspaper magnate Randolph Hearst's derailed life, much to his dissatisfaction and fury. - He tried to get the film shelved or destroyed and to wreck its writer-director-producer-star Orson Welles' (The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)) reputation. Hearst banned his papers from mentioning or advertising the film, and he even made theaters cancel screenings of Kane, worsening its revenue potential. His dirty tricks didn't work in the long run, as he is known as the film's main inspiration now (more than any of the other inspirations, which are also known and can be read about in Kane's enormous Wikipedia-page here).
Still I have always felt that Citizen Kane is a film which is hard to approach and essentially cold. The basic story is that striving for personal success above everything else is a road to misery. - And that makes for two very cold hours of imperial, gloomy movie magic here. The characters feel very alien to me, and the gloom of the film's premise never sinks in as forcefully as I believe it should. Perhaps I am too dazzled by the technical and narrative refinements of the film; it feels full of hard edges and slightly hostile to me.
Citizen Kane, a dreaded, great, albeit overrated, film.

Related review:

Orson Welles: Mr. Arkadin/Confidential Report (1955) or, The Mysterious Past of the Great Gregory Arkadin

Watch the original, over-long, super-indulgent trailer for the movie here

Cost: 0.8 mil. $
Box office: 1.5 mil. $ (US only)
= Flop, though some uncertainty
[For RKO Radio Pictures and Welles' Mercury Productions, who produced the film and gave Welles an unheard of level of freedom on it.]

What do you think of Citizen Kane?
Can you relate to this review?

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) - Precious, pleasant vignette sit-down with some wonderful people

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best B/W Movie of the Year

Checkered coffee table with neat character pictures inserted, for Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes

QUICK REVIEW:

Coffee and Cigarettes consists of a row of human meetings over coffee and cigarettes (d'uh), carried out by a string of cool celebrities: There's vignettes with Cate Blanchett and a fictional cousin, Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan, RZA and GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan meeting Bill Murray, Jack and Meg White of The White Stripes and Iggy Pop and Tom Waits, among others. Eleven scenes in all.
Writer-director Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man (1995)) elevates the precious and random qualities of human meetings in some beautiful situations here in this little gem, which is based on three short films that Jarmusch had already made in 1986, '89 and '95, (called Coffee and Cigarettes, Coffee and Cigarettes II and Coffee and Cigarettes III), which are all three incorporated into this feature.

Related posts:

Jim Jarmusch: Broken Flowers (2005) - Hip search for son and self with Jarmusch and Murray

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Iggy Pop and Tom Waits in their segment of Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 7.9 mil. $
= Uncertainty
[But probably a hit, with nice numbers overseas especially; the film only made 1.9 mil. $ of its revenue in the US. Coffee and Cigarettes was probably a very affordable film, seeing as 3 of the 11 scenes in it were already shot as previous shorts, and the rest are simple sit-down scenes of celebrities who are friendly admirers of Jarmusch and may even have appeared as favors, however; we don't know for sure.]

What do you think of Coffee and Cigarettes?
What is your favorite Jim Jarmusch movie?

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) or, Just Plain Narnia

♥♥♥♥♥

 + Best Family Movie of the Year + Best Fantasy of the Year + Best Adaptation of the Year + Best Blockbuster of the Year + Best Poster of the Year 

The adventurous, beautifully crafted poster for Andrew Adamson's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

QUICK REVIEW:

During the Blitz in WWII in a London suburb, a flock of 4 siblings are sent to stay in an old house, which contains a wardrobe that is a portal to the strange country of Narnia. Here, an evil witch and a lion named Aslan rule.

The adaptation of C.S. Lewis' (The Pilgrim's Regress (1933)) 1950 book seems perfectly suited to Disney, who have co-produced the film with Walden Media, (whose biggest hit this still remains.) It is, in my opinion, Disney's most distinguished job to adapt novels and themselves come up with stories such as this one, to spin gripping and highly entertaining stories with good, Christian morals, (Lewis' authorship is highly influenced by his side-career as a lay-theologian and convinced Christian.) The cast and crew carry out the ambitious project in the most exquisite fashion.
Narnia, which also has two lesser successful sequels, (Prince Caspian (2008) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)) offers sweeping CGI and practical effects, - it won the Best Make-Up Oscar for its remarkable achievements in this area, - some sweet kids in the leads, and an evil Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)) as the witch:

Tilda Swinton is great as the evil witch in Andrew Adamson's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a highly recommendable adventure fantasy movie that appeals almost equally to kids and adults alike: It is a magnificent film full of wonder, awe, originality, ideas and sound values, blighted only by the smallest of weaknesses. - Without question one of the best films of the year.
It is directed by New Zealand-born Andrew Adamson (Shrek (2001)), who, amazingly, took on Narnia as his first live-action feature.

Related post:

Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: The best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  

Top 10: Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

Aslan the lion, - voiced by Liam Neeson, - and Skandar Keynes as Edmund Pevensie in Andrew Adamson's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Cost: 180 mil. $
Box office: 745 mil. $
= Huge hit
[3rd biggest global smash of 2005; Walden Media's biggest hit to date; Disney's 5th largest opening to date (the biggest at the time); Narnia also impressed with 12.4 mil. DVD copies sold by 2008, accruing an additional 353.5 mil. $. This wholesome, mainstream-adventure that especially appeals in Christian markets the world over won both the hearts and minds of critics and audiences alike, in a way which none of its two sequels were able to.]

What do you think of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?
And of the two sequels, if you have seen them?

The Cooler (2003) or, Lady Luck for Bernie

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Las Vegas Movie of the Year

William H. Macy looks doubtfully out at us in delicious neon on the poster for Wayne Kramer's The Cooler

QUICK REVIEW:

Bernie is a 'cooler' [a person whose bad luck 'cools' off winning tables] in a second tier Las Vegas casino, but as he falls in love with a lovely waitress, the customers begin to win, and his boss Shelly becomes furious.
The acting between William H. Macy (Fargo (1996)) and Maria Bello (A History of Violence (2005)), with an Oscar-nominated Alec Baldwin (It's Complicated (2009)) as the pit-bull-like boss on the sideline, is strong, - and it's also The Cooler's main attraction. The film also has some nice secondary performances, especially from Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas (1990)) as a heroin-junkie-singer.
The drama is strong and realistic in this romantic gangster dramedy, and it walks a fine line in dealing with the uglier sides of life without overdoing it and turning dour.
The film is co-written and directed by South-African filmmaker Wayne Kramer (Running Scared (2006)). I would probably have taken The Cooler in a different direction, but in Kramer's hands, the lady luck-theme is given the floor and SPOILER we receive a happy ending.
Lovely movie.

 

Related posts:

 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 4 mil. $
Box office: 10.4 mil. $
= Even-Steven

What do you think of The Cooler?
Other recommendable gambling-movies?