New York, I Love You

Directors: Faith Akin, Yvan Attal...
Writers: Jeff Nathason, Anthony Minghella...
Starring: Natalie Portman, Shia Labeouf, Bradley Cooper
Release Date: October 16, 2009
Length: 1 hour 43 minutes

In 2006, producers Emmanuel Benbihy and Tristan Carne brought us a remarkably beautiful movie about love in the city where anything’s possible. Paris Je T’aime was a collection of multiple five-minute films that showed love between all people. Now the same producers give us a movie about love in the city that never sleeps. This film includes 15 stories of love in the five boroughs of New York City. Extraordinary directors, including Yvan Ataal and Joshua Marston, directed New York, I Love You. Each director delivered a unique story that was interesting to watch. The downside to having a five-minute film is that the story and relationships between characters can be confusing or left unexplained. This was used to the filmmakers’ advantages for some films giving an effect of things that aren’t always, as they seem. For example, you could believe that two characters would be strangers, when, in fact, they are spouses. There were quite a lot of films that had that theme. Although the film kept a nice diversity of different stories, some of them seemed alike and by the end of the film I confused a lot of stories with each other for being so similar. I found that I enjoyed Paris Je T’aime much more than I enjoyed New York, I Love You. I partly believe that is because Paris, Je T’aime had a much wider variety of different stories, different styles of filming, and capturing different parts of the city than New York I love You. I might have also liked Paris, Je Taime more because I have been to New York and I have never been to Paris. The underlying theme for New York, I Love You was obviously love in all forms, love between siblings, or mother and child, or lovers, or even unrequited love. Some short films seemed to stray away from that theme, even if they were still enjoyable. Some stories just had a character living in New York. Most of the short films I really enjoyed and was intrigued by all of them, but when you put all the short films together - even when stringed together by the character played by Emile Ohana (a tourist of New York) – the film didn’t seem as amazing as an entire project. What I did like about New York, I love You was that the filmmakers seemed to capture different parts of New York City without the film shouting “Look, we are in Times Square” or “Look, we are in Soho.” To me, it was not a necessity to have every single famous area or building in New York shown in this film. There were obviously some stories I liked more than others, for example the film written, directed and starring Natalie Portman was fun to watch and a film with Orlando Bloom and Christina Ricci was also a nice story. There were obviously some duds in the movie, but how can a person honestly enjoy 15 different stories in a row. There are more winners than losers in New York, I Love You.

An Education

Director: Lone Scherfig
Writers: Nick Hornby, Lynn Barber (author)
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina
Release Date: October 16, 2009
Length: 1 hour, 35 minutes













Living in the time of 1961, the most a young girl of 16 could do was marry well or get a fine education. In London, England, Jenny Miller was facing the ladder. Jenny’s parents have enrolled her in an all girls private school and have set a plan for Jenny (Carey Muligan) to go to Oxford University. Buried in Latin, French and cello homework, Jenny is starting to question the point to all of this. One day while walking home from school, Jenny encounters a rich charming man named David (Peter Sarsgaard), probably in his mid to late twenties. He drives her home because of the pouring rain, and later Jenny finds flowers on her doorstep with a note attached from him. After he charms Jenny’s parents, David takes her out on a luxurious date with his friends Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Helen (Rosamund Pike) to the opera. Soon enough, the two are having a relationship with each other and Jenny is introduced to a life of wealth, luxury and fun. Knowing she has a future with David, Jenny contemplates whether she wants to continue with her old, boring lifestyle she once had which means continuing with school and going to Oxford.  Based upon the memoir by Lynn Barber, and adapted as a screenplay by Nick Hornby, An Education triumphs in displaying what little choice young women had in deciding what to do with their life, in this time. Newcomer, Carey Mulligan plays the character of Jenny with wit, strength and naivety that made the audience understand this character a bit better. Alfred Molina plays her father, and it is incredibly touching to watch him on screen. The character he plays is protective, sweet, but a bit of a pushover. Everyone’s eyes are drawn to him, when he speaks. Emma Thompson has a few brilliant scenes as the headmaster of Jenny’s school and Olivia Williams is very good as Jenny’s boring, but helpful English teacher. One more thing that’s comes across nicely on screen are the beautiful costumes. A film that takes place in London, England in the 1960’s means many chic clothes from the period of mod. The costumes not only looked fantastic, but also helped define the movie’s setting quite a lot. This is a poignant story that is not over-the-top, but never boring. It was simple enough for the audience to relate to, and yet interesting enough for audiences to imagine this girl’s life. German director, Lone Scherfig achieved in making An Education a wonderful film to enjoy and one can only hope she continues to make such great movies in the future.

This Is It

Director: Kenny Ortega
Starring: Michael Jackson, Kenny Ortega
Release Date: October 28, 2009
Length: 1 hour 51 minutes

One of the world’s greatest performers of all time had one last show for everyone to see, and because he died just before the performance, This Is It is what we unfortunately didn’t get a chance to witness. This footage was originally meant for a DVD of the making of the show. When Michael Jackson sadly passed, co-creator of the show, Kenny Ortega decided to turn this into a movie, so everybody could see what Michael still had to give to the world. The film opens with dancers at the auditions for the show, each individually talking to the camera about how much Michael Jackson has inspired them, and how much they love him, which was touching and interesting to see. This was obviously a film that did not display any of Michael Jackson’s personal life whatsoever, which I was thankful for because I honestly didn’t have quite an opinion on the matter. If you are looking for a biopic on Michael Jackson’s personal life with family and friends, look again. This film shows how his crew and producers and dancers, etc… became his family, and I was much more interested by that. This may sound ridiculous, but after seeing some of the rehearsals for certain numbers, it made me wish that if he hadn’t died and the show did go on, I would have really liked to have seen that concert. Some performances such as the rehearsals for Thriller and Smooth Criminal, made me feel like I was watching the concert and I was amazed.  At the same time though, with those incredible rehearsals, also came the ones where he was just singing on stage for three minutes by himself, which dragged for me. Many people might not realize this, but Kenny Ortega is truly a music and dance extraordinaire. A lot of young people only know him for High School Musical, in which case they may dislike him or love him. But I had no idea Kenny Ortega directed the film, not to mention, the co-creator with Jackson for the show. And only about a year ago did I find out he choreographed Dirty Dancing, which I loved as well. It is obviously incredibly sad about Michael Jackson’s death, but it is also sad to see how hard him and Kenny Ortega and everyone else worked, and what they were going to show the world with this amazing concert. Seeing this movie will definitely make you realize what a talented man Michael Jackson was, and what a shame it was that someone with that talent died so young, but in no way is this film a tearjerker. I was glad there was no montage of pictures or videos of him singing or laughing toward the end. This film isn’t completely like watching a concert, but it’s not exactly a documentary either. This made it hard for me to critique certain things, but I do know that I overall enjoyed THIS IS IT very much.

Couples Retreat

Director: Peter Billingsley
Writers: Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Dana Fox
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Malin Akerman
Release Date: October 9, 2009
Length: 1 hour 53 minutes

When married couples have lost their love and connection for each other and feel their relationship is not as it once was, what is the first thing they do? Usually, it’s divorce, but in this unreal world, their first thought is, “Let’s go to the Caribbean to fix our relationship.” When these 4 couples that are friends with each other show up to this unknown island of Paradise, they realize that jet-skis and snorkeling isn’t all that’s on the agenda for them. The humor in this movie seems like a 10-year-old wrote it. The unintelligent jokes seem like they are made for an audience full of adolescent monkeys. For example, are we really supposed to laugh at a sexy yoga instructor doing awkward and inappropriate body positions or a fat guy getting an erection? Also, how on earth are we supposed to believe that relatively unattractive 40-year-olds like Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau are married to gorgeous 25 year olds, like Malin Akerman and Kristen Bell? And speaking of these beautiful women, why didn’t they have any jokes written for them? All three of them acted to the best of their ability because they’re all great actresses, but most of the time they stood there getting mad at their husbands or making up with them. I used to like Vince Vaughn as a comedian very much with Old School and Wedding Crashers and when he had a small role in Into The Wild. But recently his movies like this and Fred Claus and Four Christmases have been cutting it short for me. The comedies of October just keep getting worse and worse, with The Invention Of Lying and Couples Retreat. If Hollywood’s humor can get any worse, I’m scared to know what the comedies of November will be like. I might have laughed once or twice in this film at the odd one liner, but only a 12-year-old boy could really enjoy this movie.

Where The Wild Things Are

Director: Spike Jonze
Writers: Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers, Maurice Sendak(author)
Starring: Max Records, James Gandolfini
Release Date: October 16, 2009
Length: 1 hour 41 minutes









Simplicity always works. And when it comes to turning a beloved children’s tale into a motion picture, simplicity is key. After almost 50 years, Where The Wild Things Are is being made into a movie. Most people haven’t been waiting for it to become a movie. In fact, most people probably didn’t want it to become a movie. But this film didn’t alter or upset my view of the book, and I don’t think it did to many others either. Acclaimed director, Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) took a big risk with this film. If he had done this film using more of his creations, more people might have gotten angry, but by being extremely faithful to the book, the film came off to me as somewhat boring at parts. The famous story is obviously about the young boy who imagines his own world full of creatures and incredible things, after having a fight and running away from his single mom (Catherine Keener). In this land he comes across, he makes friends and becomes king to a group of Huge, Ugly, Wild things.  At first, it seemed to me as though Spike Jonze was trying too hard to make it seem like they didn’t try hard at all, with the long pauses and almost handheld camera like shots. I realized toward the end of the film that the makers of the film did not actually try hard, and not in a bad way. I mean to say that they didn’t play up or overdo anything. They kept most of the story and special effects simple and easy to understand. A lot of people hated the idea of this movie, because they believed it to be too arty or indie and I myself came close to that response, but I believe if Spike Jonze or any other director had made this a CGI filled, 3D, IMAX, family blockbuster, it would have completely ruined everyone’s perception of the book. It is so incredibly inspiring when a children’s fantasy can evoke more realism to the screen than any other films that have come out recently.  The way these characters (including the wild things) speak to one another is unlike any dialogue I ever heard.  When I think about how people actually talk to each other in the real world, this film pops into my head. They speak so naturally, it almost seems as if the actors have improvised all their lines. Not only is the dialogue real, but also the story is easy to relate to and even the beasts themselves look and sound real. James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara and Lauren Ambrose deliver fantastic voice work as the main monsters. Ms.O’Hara, specifically was fun to listen to.  Max Records, who plays the main character, Max, was absolutely phenomenal and I think captured everyone’s view on the character from the book. Where The Wild Things Are is a book I never expected to come to the big screen, but Spike Jonze took on the challenge, and succeeded in making me enjoy this movie.

The Invention Of Lying

Directors: Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson
Writers: Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson
Starring: Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner
Release Date: October 2, 2009
Length: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Can you imagine a world where everyone tells the truth? Where no one can tell a white lie or make up anything at all? Does this world sound different and fascinating? Of course, it does. But unfortunately, this fascinating and interesting world does a bad job at translating to the screen. Mark Bellison is just another average citizen in this world that is overweight, has no girlfriend, and has just been fired from his job. Boo freaking Hoo, nobody cares. When Mark has no money left to pay for his rent (just another problem for us to sympathize over), he does something no one has ever thought of before. He alters the truth. Since nobody in this world knows what lying is, everyone believes everything Mark says. Therefore, as you can imagine, Mark gains power and wealth and popularity, when he makes up things about the after life. Jennifer Garner is cute as always, as Mark’s out of league love interest. The Invention of Lying has a great premise and an intriguing storyline, but it was wasted with a film that unfortunately seemed to be lacking effort when it came to the writing. After the first half hour of the film, I could tell I wasn’t going to like the rest of it. But, I really knew I couldn’t stand this film when there were random, unexpected cameos from celebrities like Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton and Jason Bateman. Tina Fey, Jonah Hill and Rob Lowe also had small parts in the film, and most of the laughs from the audience were generated from those three and the cameos. It’s sad when using eye-grabbing celebrities is what a director depends on for the film, because the script isn’t funny enough. You may be wondering why I went to see this movie in the first place. I went into this movie knowing that other reviewers did not enjoy it, but I thought it would be at least a bad movie that I could enjoy because truth be told, everyone in their movie-going life has laughed through some horrible films. Oddly enough though, I found myself extremely bored throughout this useless movie. I love just about every member of the cast, including Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner, but you could just say that they all got bad luck with the script. I enjoyed Ricky Gervais’s film that came out a year ago, Ghost Town, and this film may seem like the same kind of thing, but unfortunately The Invention Of Lying is about 5 steps down from where Ghost Town stands in entertainment value. Don’t go waste your 12 bucks. Go see something better.

Zombieland

Director: Ruben Fleischer
Writers: Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone
Release Date: October 2, 2009
Length: 1 hour 21 minutes

Be prepared to hear this. Somewhere in the near future, a virus breaks out, in which innocent civilians, like us, become disgusting looking, blood drinking zombies. As a movie premise, that may sound idiotic and ridiculous. But in fact, it is actually quite hilarious. As surprising as this may sound, Zombieland is one of the most enjoyable movies I have seen in quite a long time. The story is well thought out, it’s not too long, the characters are well developed, and the jokes are written with intelligent humor. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland) as a young man trying to travel across the U.S, to Ohio, where his folks might still be alive. Along the way he meets a tough, southern muscle-builder (Woody Harrelson), whose favourite activity is killing Zombies.  They team up together and on their way, they come across two money-stealing, game-playing sisters (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) on their way to California. The four of them embark on a journey together, that is not your typical road trip. Zombieland is a breath of fresh air, compared to some of the comedies/ sci-fi movies that have come out recently. Unknown director Ruben Fleischer somehow manages to create a perfect balance of clever comedy and exciting action sequences for this movie. I was worried the whole movie would be blood and guts and intestines and I would sit there closing my eyes, having gag reflexes for an hour and a half. But, I was pleasantly surprised to find out Zombieland was more character driven, then action driven. Although I did, weirdly enough, find myself laughing when the zombies would be shot multiple times, there was a good amount of interesting storyline for the characters as well. When I first saw the trailer for this film, I thought the casting was a bit odd, but it might end up working, When I actually saw the film, I realized the cast couldn’t have been better chosen. Jesse Eisenberg may seem to some people like a copy version of Michael Cera, but I find him to have more of a personality then Mr. Cera and is certainly much more interesting to watch on screen. I’ve never been a fan or non-fan of Woody Harrelson, but he fits in perfectly with this role and he’s quite funny to watch. I’ve always found Emma Stone very funny with Superbad and The House Bunny, and Abigail Breslin isn’t half-bad either, when she has a machine gun in her hands. It may seem as though this film was fabricated for teenage boys/immature men that like seeing people (more specifically zombies) having their heads blown off, but there is more than gore when it comes to Zombieland, a satisfying comedy.

Whip It

Director: Drew Barrymore
Writer: Shauna Cross
Starring: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig
Release Date: October 2, 2009
Length: 1 hour 41 minutes

Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, Whip It is essentially perfect. It stars the ass-kicking Ellen Page as Bliss, a girl who is letting her controlling mother (Marcia Gay Harden) run her teenage life with superficial beauty pageants, that do not interest her. She lives in the lifeless, boring town of Bodeen, Texas, outside of Austin. When Bliss discovers a tough Roller Derby League in Austin, she decides to put on her old skates and ditch the tiaras. Whip It is another one of those movies about finding out who you are and chasing your dreams, blah, blah, blah. Although the story was a bit clichéd, the cast couldn’t have been better picked. Ellen Page’s performance as Bliss was absolutely adorable and was played with an indescribable innocence that wasn’t used in Juno. I found it more interesting to watch Page in the role of Juno, because the character was much more original and interesting. The character of Bliss  - the awkward teenage girl that doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life and is being controlled by her mother - has been done a couple of times before, but it doesn’t hurt to watch it again. In many of the films Drew Barrymore produces (and directs in this case), she puts herself in a very small role. For Whip It, this is no exception, but it almost seemed as if her character, Smashlee Simpson, was unimportant and pointless. It felt as though her character either should have had more of a storyline or shouldn’t have been there at all. It was very inventive and original to use the base of roller derby as what Bliss wanted to achieve and wanted to dream for. I enjoyed every minute of watching this incredible place of tough hilarious women playing derby and what it’s like for them. My favourite scenes were when Ellen Page was with her hilarious coach (Darren Shan) and fellow teammates (Kristen Wiig, Eve, Drew Barrymore). The plot was a bit messy and at some points there was too much going on at once, so you felt confused. I don’t want to sound to harsh, but there were a lot of scenes and a lot of plot changes that were quite pointless (like Barrymore’s character).  Certain events would occur that would have no effect at all throughout the film, but these scenes would take up a good chunk of the movie. I enjoyed most of the film, but after three quarters of the movie, every unique feature in the storyline became clichéd and over-the-top. You wonder how a story so creative and different relies on clichés and things that have been done before, for the last 25 minutes. If it were up to me, I would have changed the ending to this film. But the disappointing finale to this film wasn’t enough to make me dislike Whip It, because overall, I enjoyed Whip It very much. The use of different characters and the interesting setting of this roller derby world really shine through to the audience. It’s easy to say Ms. Barrymore has something to be very proud of.