What I watched in May
1. Duck Soup- This was in one of Roger Ebert's "Great movies" list, but I didn't write about it because I didn't really like it. This was my first Marx brothers movie. I like the puns, but I've recently decided that I'm not really one for slapstick.
2. Sophie's choice- Wow, what an amazing movie! I actually believed that Meryl Streep was Polish. This movie has incredible performances from Streep and Kevin Kline. It's the story of a troubled couple and their relationship with a friend. Very interesting and definitely worth watching.
3. Blue Gold- A documentary about water, based on the book by Maude Barlow. Interesting, but not amazing.
4. Paper Heart- This movie had some cute parts, but overall it was generally annoying. The love story between Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera was staged. This really bothers me, because the movie is billed as a documentary. I didn't like the format of this. I want to see a documentary or I want to see fiction. A blend of the two makes me angry.
4. Klute- Jane Fonda is a prostitute who helps a detective solve a story. I rolled my eyes at some of the plot points, but I loved the way this movie was shot and I thought the acting was pretty good. There were just some cliches in the plot that annoyed me.
5. Invention of Lying- I love the premise of this movie. Ricky Gervais is the only person in the world who is able to lie, while everyone around him has to offer their thoughts without censorship. This results in some rather interesting plot points, but then the whole thing falls apart. There was a lot of potential here because of the interesting premise, but it was squandered.
6. Brigadoon- Gene Kelly discovers a mysterious village in the Scottish highlands and falls in love with one of its inhabitants. Excellent singing and dance numbers. This basically has everything that a person could want in a good musical.
7. James Dean- This was a made for tv movie in which James Franco stars as James Dean. Franco's acting is quite good, and you get to learn a lot about the life of James Dean, which was quite troubled. I really enjoyed this one.
8. He loves me, he loves me not- This was a fantastic movie starring Audrey Tatou in an extremely creepy role as a woman who is obsessed with her neighbour. I wish more people had seen this movie, because it's very creepy and creative.
9. Crazy Heart- I thought that Jeff Bridges was good, but Maggie Gyllenhaal was miscast in this film. In my opinion, she was too young and too pretty to want to be involved with an old washed up, drunk country singer. I thought the script was interesting and the acting was good, but there were things about this film that rubbed me the wrong way.
10. Kitchen stories- A Norwegian film about Swedish men who sit in kitchens observing the habits of Norwegian men. This movie would have been more enjoyable if I'd understood more things about Swedish/Norwegian relationships. I missed a lot by my lack of knowledge.