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Tribeca Review: Departures
Thanks to PopSugar, who is attending some Tribeca Film Festival screenings and writing reviews for me this week!
Departures won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar this year, and when I caught it last Friday at the Tribeca Film Festival, I quickly saw why it deserved the honor. The Japanese film centers around a man named Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a cellist who moves back to his rural hometown with his wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) after his orchestra in Tokyo is forced to shut down.
Last Chance Harvey: Realistically Adorable
Last Chance Harvey tells a basic, simple story of a burgeoning love and one that, in a rare instance, isn't about hard-bodied youngsters. Not so much a May-December romance as, say, October-December, it features two of cinema's most esteemed living actors in a narrative that is all the more lovable for its straightforwardness and simplicity. Simple, basic, straightforward .
Bride Wars: Trite and Joyless
Movies about weddings can be so fun and girly and sweet. It's easy to get swept up in the sparkly rings and the hunt for the perfect dresses and the cream-colored towering cakes. Plus, at the heart of Bride Wars there's also this relationship between two BFFs and I'm all for movies with an emphasis on the strength of female friendship.
Revolutionary Road: A Scenic and Unsettling Journey
When I first read Revolutionary Road, I thought it might be too multilayered to make a good movie. But I held out hope that Richard Yates's 1961 novel of suburban discontent could really triumph visually, with its lush '50s setting, dark humor, the awkward embarrassment of characters realizing life hasn't turned out the way they planned, and the quiet resentment that breeds.
When I heard Sam Mendes was directing with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio starring, I really yearned for this movie to be great — which probably explains why I was somewhat disappointed by an otherwise thoughtful film.
Slumdog Millionaire: A Frenetic Tale of Heartbreak and Joy
Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire isn't the kind of movie that sits back and waits for you to fall in love with it. It doesn't give you the chance to refuse. From the opening minutes, it washes over you, sucks you in, and spins you through a whirlwind of colors and sounds and emotions.
The Spirit: A Flashy Story Lacking Soul
From dime-store digests to lush graphic novels, the comic-book genre has fully established itself as part of high culture. Along with the literary upgrade have come equally artful films, including The Dark Knight and Sin City. But for all its highbrow hopes, The Spirit plays like a B movie.
Valkyrie: Shallow and Underwhelming
While there are a zillion World War II movies out there already, I kept an open mind going into the Tom Cruise star vehicle Valkyrie. Sure, this is a movie that has been dogged by bad press from start to finish (even due, in part, to the fact that Cruise is a Scientologist) but I can see that there is a fascinating movie to be made out of a German resistance movement involving Nazi officers in Adolf Hitler's inner circle.
High-ranking, aristocratic officers attempting to assassinate Hitler?
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Not Quite a Fairytale
The notion of youth being wasted on the young is a compelling one, without a doubt. It inspired a famous Mark Twain quote, which in turn inspired an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, which has now lent its name to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a film starring Brad Pitt as the title character, born old and destined to die young.
Marley & Me: Sweet, Just as Expected
In many ways, the movie Marley & Me is itself like a sweet little squirmy puppy. It's good natured and earnest, funny and cute. It turns out to be pretty much exactly what you expect if you've seen the trailers and/or read the book on which the movie is based: Literally a story about a crazy, uncontrollable dog whose life impacts a young couple's marriage in unexpected ways.
Wendy and Lucy: Pretty, Poignant, Kinda Boring
As a simple story about a young woman having a hard time of it, Wendy and Lucy is a bit irritating at times. But after viewing this quiet little movie directed and co-written by indie darling Kelly Reichardt, I sat with it and mulled it over for a few weeks. Only then did I realize how effective it is at capturing the bitter realities and melancholy that exists for those who live at or below the poverty lines and on the edges of our society.
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