The Place Beyond the Pines (B)
Solid, but simply wades in its own despair far too much for me to be entirely engaged, The Place Beyond the Pines is good, but I can only take so much sadness for the sake of sadness before I begin to lose interest.
Downtrodden lives span a generational narrative in The Place Beyond the Pines, a film made with the utmost of competency and a story that’s hard to enjoy.
Seven Psychopaths (C+)
Seven Psychopaths was a disappointment, no doubt, but I’ll take a disappointment like this anytime over what Anna Karenina and The Impossible ultimately delivered. At least this one has one of the most enjoyable performances from Christopher Walken I’ve seen in some time and Sam Rockwell energetically describing what his idea of the best finale to a movie would be is worth the price of admission.
After In Bruges four years ago, my hopes Seven Psychopaths would be able to live up to Martin McDonagh’s feature debut were through the roof. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough story to go around as five minute bursts of comedy can’t sustain the nearly two hour running time.
Cloud Atlas (B+)
There isn’t a person I talked to in Toronto that didn’t at least congratulate Cloud Atlas for its lofty ambition. There were disagreements over its overall story, which I felt was extraordinarily limited considering the 250+ year narrative scope. Of course, that is sort of what it’s trying to say, but it could have just as easily been said in 90 minutes rather than 163. Nevertheless, it remains entertaining enough to be worth the watch and then some.
Cloud Atlas is ambitious beyond measure and yet relatively narrow in scope when compared to the size of its interweaving of six separate narratives. Yet, it remains a film that must be seen on the big screen to appreciate all it has to offer.
Silver Linings Playbook (A+)
My first “A+” of the year went to a film I fully expected to be rote and average. The footage I saw from the teaser reel in Cannes was underwhelming and safe and then David O. Russell knocked out socks off.
David O. Russell delivers a knock out with Silver Linings Playbook as Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper bring to life a pair of characters in what will certainly be one of the best films of 2012.
The Company You Keep (C+)
Robert Redford sure can assemble a cast, but his films lack energy. They sit there and talk at you rather than engaging you. I can’t tell if this is a lack of interest in the material or what, but I can say this one felt more like a new media hit piece than the Weather Underground thriller it claimed to be.
I think it’s fair to say Robert Redford isn’t a big fan of new media as his Weather Underground thriller The Company You Keep spends just as much time propelling a story of intrigue as it does poking fun at the news gathering techniques of the new age.
Hyde Park on Hudson (D+)
Just plain bad. Hyde Park on Hudson is all over the place and while I seem to be the largest detractor that I’ve seen, unlike Anna and The Impossible, this is the one that people seem to be at least in some kind of agreement with me.
Hyde Park on Hudson is cluttered, messy and despite my greatest ability to dissect its meaning… pointless.
The Impossible (D+)
Anna Karenina remains the most disappointing movie of the festival for me, but wow does The Impossible give it a run for its money. Yet, like Anna, this one is getting a lot of praise as well and has people talking Best Picture. I’m not so sure, but we’ll see.
After 2007’s The Orphanage I couldn’t wait to see the latest film from Juan Antonio Bayona, but after 20 minutes the emotional air was sucked out of the feature. 20 minutes after that it had devolved into a melodramatic mess that couldn’t recover.
