Movie Roundup

I don't want to clutter this blog with too much non-poker content, but people who know me know that I am a pretty sick movie buff, and used to run a pretty decent movie reviews site. Here are some thoughts on a few movies that have come out in the past 12 months or so (yeah yeah, I'm running behind).

JUNO

Much and more has been written about JUNO, the winsome high school pregnancy comedy (is that not a genre? it should be) that can only be described as a collaboration between director Jason Reitman, writer Diablo Cody, and star Ellen Page. I'd been a fan of Cody's for a while, stumbling on her blog ("The Pussy Ranch") while she was just a Minneapolis stripper that had taken her unique story to the intertoobs, I bought her biopic ("Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper"), and I watched with elation as her storybook tale culminated in every first-time screenwriter's dream, an Oscar acceptance speech.

Every word of praise is deserved: this is one of the best High School comedies ever made. Every ingredient is in place. It's funny: the title character has an infectious, acerbic wit that keeps the laughs coming; it's touching: Juno's wit and candor masks a touching vulnerability; and I'd go so far as to say it has some importance, if for nothing more than as a social bellweather. The attitude that Juno (and by proxy, the movie) takes toward sex, pregnancy, and other important issues of teenage years, is refreshing, particularly in a movie where the primary theme is of innocence. "What was it like?" Juno's friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby) asks her: "Humping Bleek's bony bod?" "Magnificent!" is the refreshing reply, and I think it's the first time I've seen a teenage girl allowed to remark on having enjoyed sex.

The cast, from the leads all the way down to the bored receptionist at the abortion clinic, is perfect, and yet Ellen Page still manages to steal the show as Juno, a character not quite like any I've ever seen on screen, and that reminds me so much of so many of the girls I've known, and fell in love with.

4 stars (out of 4).

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

If there's one thing the Coen Brothers can be counted on for, it is their inconstancy, which is not to say that they are inconsistent in the quality of their movies but rather that they are absolutely inconsistent in the material they choose to put on screen. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is not quite like any movie the Coen Brothers have made before; it's possible that it's not quite like any movie that anyone's ever made before. I mean that in the best possible way.

One doesn't much get the feeling in interviews that the Coens like much to talk about themes and symbolism in their flicks, and yet, with a movie like this one, it's overwhelming enough to be impossible not to talk about it. Because while for much of its length this is a chase movie, a cat and mouse game, as Ebert is prone to say, a movie is not about what it is about: it is about how it is about it. NCFOM is about evil, and the attempts of a sheriff who is played by Tommy Lee Jones and for the length of the conventional movie seems a secondary character at best, to understand and explain it. That he comes up somewhat blank on that score, that he learns that a man like Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is not so much a product of the times (as the characters are wont to assume) as he is a force inexplicable, a nightmare.

This doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of this movie, but if I allow myself to continue I'll go on for pages and pages. This is a masterpiece of writing and direction, deserving of every accolade it received and then some, and the scene in which Sheriff Ed Tom talks with the man who was deputy under his grandfather will stay with me for a very long time.

4 stars (out of 4)

SAVED!

(okay, I know, this movie came out in 2004. Just getting around to it. So sue me.)

Speaking of high school pregnancy comedies, here's one starring Jena Malone, who you haven't heard of but who has the talent to be a star (she first caught my eye in the exceptional HBO movie "Cheaters", with Jeff Daniels, which fictionalized the true story of a High School math teacher who, fed up with the unspoken caste system of Chicago public schools, allowed and encouraged his team to cheat in the academic decathalon). She stars as the ironically-named Mary, a Good Christian Girl that goes to a Good Christian High School with the perfect Christian boyfriend. Only one problem: when the boyfriend confesses that he might be gay, she takes it upon herself to cure him by sleeping with him. Jesus can restore virginity, after all, and it's for a good cause.

The inevitable pregnancy that results helps to reflect those around her, which conveniently range from the uptight Jesus Freaks (Mandy Moore, having a great deal of fun in the roll, it seems), to the laid-back believers (Patrick Fugit, from ALMOST FAMOUS), to the non-believers (Macaulay Culkin, playing a paraplegic), to the Jewish rebel Cassandra (Eva Amurri) who is caustic and worldly, but the first to notice and empathize with Mary's condition.

The target of the movie is religion, where it effortlessly skewers the easy targets but remains soft on the tougher questions. There are quite a few good lines ("There's only one reason a Christian girl comes down to Planned Parenthood!" "She's planting a pipe bomb?") and the movie is not disingenuous in its exploration of the facets of faith, which stands it apart from a great many movies that explore similar territory.

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 4)