Jason Reitman was my favorite director to rise to prominence in the 2000s, with the triple whammy of Thank You for Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air. Alas, he couldn't maintain the momentum, leading to a series of less esteemed efforts. Tully looked like a partial recovery. I was also curious to see a second hit from writer Diablo Cody.
Middle-aged Marlo (Charlize Theron) starts the movie heavily pregnant for the third time, her other children being 8 and 6. Her rich brother (Mark Duplass) offers the gift of a night nanny, a concept she had never known before. At first she declines, but before long, she's too drained, and not just in the breast-pumping sense. Enter the title character (Mackenzie Davis), a 26-year-old nonconformist who proves quite competent at taking care of all infant nighttime needs other than nursing -- and goes above and beyond the call of duty for the family. Once Marlo gets past the discomfort of a rather intimate connection to someone she hardly knows, she values Tully tremendously.
Showing posts with label charlize theron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charlize theron. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
The Cider House Rules (1999)
I had expected not to write this review. It's not that I don't care strongly about this movie. It just features an extremely controversial subject that may very well make or break your opinion of and/or desire to watch it, and I'd hate to ostracize a good chunk of my readership by indicating my own position. Maybe that's why I never heard anyone talk about the movie outside the context of the 71st Annual Academy Awards. Still, it got me thinking, and those who haven't seen it ought to make an informed decision.
Based on a John Irving book, the story follows one Homer Wells from his infancy in a rural Maine orphanage to his young adulthood (when he's played by Tobey Maguire), ending shortly after World War II. He never gets adopted or formally educated, instead becoming an unofficial apprentice to orphanage director Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine), who also serves as an obstetrician -- and abortionist. Tired of this claustrophobic life, he leaves with two friendly customers, Wally (Paul Rudd) and Candy (Charlize Theron), who help him gain employment as the only White laborer at a cider house. When Wally goes off to war, Candy strays toward Homer. But Dr. Larch won't accept that Homer will stay away for good.
Based on a John Irving book, the story follows one Homer Wells from his infancy in a rural Maine orphanage to his young adulthood (when he's played by Tobey Maguire), ending shortly after World War II. He never gets adopted or formally educated, instead becoming an unofficial apprentice to orphanage director Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine), who also serves as an obstetrician -- and abortionist. Tired of this claustrophobic life, he leaves with two friendly customers, Wally (Paul Rudd) and Candy (Charlize Theron), who help him gain employment as the only White laborer at a cider house. When Wally goes off to war, Candy strays toward Homer. But Dr. Larch won't accept that Homer will stay away for good.
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
The Road (2009)
As long-time readers of my blog may recall, I like to set October aside for movies that befit Halloween one way or another. Unfortunately, the first disc I received this month was unplayable, so I searched my streaming list and found it sparse on anything like horror. This looked like my best bet.
You'd guess from the bland title that it was a road trip feature, but it seems to me that no actual road gets much screen time. It's a post-apocalyptic drama, which can't help taking on facets of a thriller at times. Neither the movie nor the Cormac McCarthy book on which it's based specify the cause, but we see plenty of dead trees, few nonhuman animals, and no signs of future tech. The protagonists, an unnamed man (Viggo Mortensen) and his unnamed son (Kodi Smit-McPhee, who later starred in ParaNorman), make a trek southward to survive a winter without fuel. Along the way, they must beware other people, who are likely to rob them or do much, much worse....
You'd guess from the bland title that it was a road trip feature, but it seems to me that no actual road gets much screen time. It's a post-apocalyptic drama, which can't help taking on facets of a thriller at times. Neither the movie nor the Cormac McCarthy book on which it's based specify the cause, but we see plenty of dead trees, few nonhuman animals, and no signs of future tech. The protagonists, an unnamed man (Viggo Mortensen) and his unnamed son (Kodi Smit-McPhee, who later starred in ParaNorman), make a trek southward to survive a winter without fuel. Along the way, they must beware other people, who are likely to rob them or do much, much worse....
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Oh look, LAIKA again. For once, I felt like seeing their work in a theater, and so did my dad. Maybe that's because the stop-motion animation studio is trying something different this time: a setting in feudal Japan. You can't really tell from my past reviews, but I'm kind of a sucker for entertainment set thereabout.
A woman, Sariatu (uh, Charlize somebody), and her eye patch-wearing baby barely survive a stormy sea voyage and then make a home in a cave. There is a village nearby, but they have no money for better lodging. About a decade later, Sariatu spends most of the day catatonic, but son Kubo (Art Parkinson) has grown precocious, making a name for himself by telling stories of his samurai dad Hanzo fighting the Moon King's forces -- while illustrating them with moving origami controlled by his magic string instrument, which nobody identifies by name, but I determined it to be a shamisen.
Little does he know how much truth there is to his stories, until the day he neglects his mom's rule to come home by nightfall. The Moon King (Ralph Fiennes, once again playing a main villain in a family feature) is Sariatu's father and can now detect Kubo. The king and his identical other two daughters (both Rooney Mara) will stop at nothing to bring Kubo into their celestial kingdom, which pretty much requires that they blind him and make him learn to enjoy killing Earth mortals.
A woman, Sariatu (uh, Charlize somebody), and her eye patch-wearing baby barely survive a stormy sea voyage and then make a home in a cave. There is a village nearby, but they have no money for better lodging. About a decade later, Sariatu spends most of the day catatonic, but son Kubo (Art Parkinson) has grown precocious, making a name for himself by telling stories of his samurai dad Hanzo fighting the Moon King's forces -- while illustrating them with moving origami controlled by his magic string instrument, which nobody identifies by name, but I determined it to be a shamisen.
Little does he know how much truth there is to his stories, until the day he neglects his mom's rule to come home by nightfall. The Moon King (Ralph Fiennes, once again playing a main villain in a family feature) is Sariatu's father and can now detect Kubo. The king and his identical other two daughters (both Rooney Mara) will stop at nothing to bring Kubo into their celestial kingdom, which pretty much requires that they blind him and make him learn to enjoy killing Earth mortals.
Friday, February 5, 2016
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Never before had I been half so surprised at an Academy Best Picture nomination. I hadn't seen this one yet, but I had seen Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, which didn't seem to belong anywhere near elite cinematic discussion. It wasn't badly done per se, just...out there. Possibly the ugliest (not grossest, most violent, or most depraved, but big on all three) movie I ever watched from start to finish, without any obvious connection with reality to make up for that. I figured that when you've seen one Mad Max entry, you've seen them all. Nothing short of the Oscars could bring me back for more.
OK, I suppose I should give the series some credit for realism by sci-fi standards. None of the premises are impossible under modern science. It's just a near-future dystopia in which punks and a few innocents race across the desert in search of scarce resources -- originally gasoline above all, now water. There are the sorts of deviations from physics you expect from action flicks, of course, but the part I find hardest to believe is that the bulk of survivors would gravitate toward a severe lack of taste in fashion, vehicles, and basic mores.
Having lost his family, Max (Tom Hardy, suitably replacing Mel Gibson) has become a slightly unhinged antihero, evidently trying not to care about anyone but himself. This does not stop him from getting roped into conflicts and taking the less blatantly evil side time and again. In this case, the enemy is a water tycoon called Immortan Joe, and the people in need of a champion are his involuntary harem.
OK, I suppose I should give the series some credit for realism by sci-fi standards. None of the premises are impossible under modern science. It's just a near-future dystopia in which punks and a few innocents race across the desert in search of scarce resources -- originally gasoline above all, now water. There are the sorts of deviations from physics you expect from action flicks, of course, but the part I find hardest to believe is that the bulk of survivors would gravitate toward a severe lack of taste in fashion, vehicles, and basic mores.
Having lost his family, Max (Tom Hardy, suitably replacing Mel Gibson) has become a slightly unhinged antihero, evidently trying not to care about anyone but himself. This does not stop him from getting roped into conflicts and taking the less blatantly evil side time and again. In this case, the enemy is a water tycoon called Immortan Joe, and the people in need of a champion are his involuntary harem.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
The Devil's Advocate (1997)
Still watching vaguely Halloweeny movies, am I? That comes of neglecting to rearrange my queue in time. It's also a movie I initially marked "Not interested," probably because I wanted to make time for something else, not because I expected to dislike it. Was it worth adding? I think so, but you'll notice that's hardly a strong answer.
Two years before Keanu played a super pseudo-messiah in The Matrix and three years after his turn as a heroic cop in Speed, he starred as law-abiding yet rather corrupt lawyer Kevin Lomax in DA (heh, appropriate abbreviation). Of course, the real draw for viewers must be Al Pacino as suspiciously named CEO John Milton, who takes a special interest in Lomax and his nigh inexplicably perfect track record. I hardly call it a spoiler that Milton creates steam by sticking his finger in holy water; the posters alone give a big hint to his identity, even if it takes Lomax most of the 2 hours and 24 minutes to catch on.
Two years before Keanu played a super pseudo-messiah in The Matrix and three years after his turn as a heroic cop in Speed, he starred as law-abiding yet rather corrupt lawyer Kevin Lomax in DA (heh, appropriate abbreviation). Of course, the real draw for viewers must be Al Pacino as suspiciously named CEO John Milton, who takes a special interest in Lomax and his nigh inexplicably perfect track record. I hardly call it a spoiler that Milton creates steam by sticking his finger in holy water; the posters alone give a big hint to his identity, even if it takes Lomax most of the 2 hours and 24 minutes to catch on.
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