virtualmom

George Clooney! Men Who Stare at Goats

 Saw a screening of Men Who Stare at Goats last night right before soccer.  Here is the synopsis I received about the film:

In this quirky dark comedy inspired by a real life story you will hardly believe is actually true, astonishing revelations about a top-secret wing of the U.S. military come to light when a reporter encounters an enigmatic Special Forces operator on a mind-boggling mission. 

Reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady (Academy Award® winner George Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of “Warrior Monks” with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy's thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. Now, the program's founder, Bill Django (Oscar® nominee Jeff Bridges), has gone missing and Cassady's mission is to find him. 

Intrigued by his new acquaintance's far-fetched stories, Bob impulsively decides to accompany him on the search. When the pair tracks Django to a clandestine training camp run by renegade psychic Larry Hooper (two-time Oscar® winner Kevin Spacey), the reporter is trapped in the middle of a grudge match between the forces of Django's New Earth Army and Hooper's personal militia of super soldiers. In order to survive this wild adventure, Bob will have to outwit an enemy he never thought possible.
The Men Who Stare at Goats was inspired by Jon Ronson's non-fiction bestseller of the same name, an eye-opening and often hilarious exploration of the government's attempts to harness paranormal abilities to combat its enemies. 

I was so hoping to LOVE this movie, but I didn't.  I laughed out loud several times and the premise was certainly goofy and unique-BUT...something was missing.  The preview audience DID NOT APPLAUD at the end, which always happens when they like a movie.  Woman next to us turned to us and asked if we liked the film and before we could answer she admitted that she fell asleep a couple of times during it!  

Sneak Peak: Precious based on the book PUSH by Sapphire

 I am so excited to see Lee Daniel's new movie, we are lucky enough to go to a screening of it on Thursday.  Through living in Manhattan, we know Lee.  He once told me a great story about how one critic gave his last film a terrible review - first at Thanksgiving listing it as the 'turkey of the year' and then at the year's end listng it as the worst movie of the year!  

Well I can't help but think about that critic now and how Lee persevered.  Precious is Lee's most highly praised film yet.  This film won not only the Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival this year but also the Audience Award there!  These are the two BEST awards a film can receive there and to get both of them--WOW!!!  

The movie was produced by Oprah and tells the story of a 300 pound girl living in Harlem who is pregnant(for the second time) with her absent father's child, she is illiterate but going into the 9th grade.  Believe it or not, it is a story of hope.

Can't wait! 

Michael Moore's Latest!!!! Capitalism: A Love Story

Get in touch if you want to play HOOKY on Wednesday and see this on OPENING DAY with me at the Angelika Film Center.  It is playing every half hour starting at 11:00 a.m. 

500 Days of Summer

S. has been home from camp for the last week and she can't really hang out with friends since she has a cold.  So to keep busy we have been watching movies, both at home and at the theater. We saw the George Hamilton story, My One and Only, on Tuesday night and yesterday we went to see 500 Days of Summer. Surprisingly I liked both of them.  500 Days of Summer is catered to a younger audience but I really liked it. It tells of a boy falling in love with a girl, he is completely in love, she on the other hand, is in like.  She doesn't feel that he is 'the one'.  She is very clear about how she feels, but he just doesn't see her point of view because he only sees their relationship from his perspective.  At the end of the 500 days, he finally gets it, he sees that she really did not feel the same way as he did.   For one reason or another, the way the film was made--made sense to me.  The storyteller did a good job!  

Beaches of Agnes - A Must See Movie!

Agnes is an avant garde 80 years old and she is a delight.  Her imagination is child-like and brilliant.  A true creative genius and total inspiration.  I need to own this movie on DVD and watch it when I get discouraged! WOW! What a treat!

The Reader with Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet

Another preview I was fortunate enough to see this week was The Reader, starring Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet. This was another film I really enjoyed(though not as much as Frost/Nixon).

I did not know what the movie was about before I went to the theater. It starts out with this love affair(or lust affair) with a young (15 yr. old) boy and an older woman. She teaches him about sex. They have a great time and he is so innocent about his love and feelings. Actually let me stop here and say that the age difference did not bother me one bit, but some viewers may be upset. I was enjoying their relationship, the young actor who plays the boy version of Ralph Fiennes was really good. Anyway, it turns out that Winslet's character is convicted of heinous war crimes of killing Jews and is sentenced to prison. Meanwhile the boy grows up and still has feelings for her but he is conflicted. He sends her tapes of him reading books to her, this is something they used to do together because she is/was illiterate.
I am not explaining it completing right but the plot thickens and the story is good. You walk out with questions. My friend Ellen and I sat at Starbucks afterwards and rehashed the movie and discussed what the filmmaker was trying to say.

Frost/Nixon: The Movie--WOW!!!!

Last night I went with Alison to see a preview of the soon to be released movie version of the Pulitzer Prize winning play, Frost/Nixon. I had been told last year that if you only see one Broadway play for the year-it should be this one. Unfortunately I missed the play. So, when I got the email about the movie, I was pumped up.
It has been a while since I've gotten really psyched about a movie. This one was just great!
Don't let the title stop you from going. The movie is not just about the interview, which to some might not be a compelling enough reason to go. The story behind the interview about the two men involved is riveting. How Frost got the interview, why he desperately wanted the interview, how he struggled to sell it, why Nixon agreed to it, and why Nixon wanted to appear publicly really made for great drama! Add great acting to that and well--what a treat!
By the way, Alison, our former(boo-hoo) neighbor and now just good friend is really young--she was born well after the event so I was wondering if she would appreciate the movie and subject matter and the answer is yes--she loved it too!

Sean Penn's Into The Wild

Came home from the P.S.41 Auction last night(which by the way, was superb!) and finished the end of Into the Wild, Sean Penn's movie. This movie effected me, it was well made and I loved it. As the viewer, you really felt the boy's suffering, and then his freedom when he took his own path. He met many interesting people on his journey to Alaska with whom he developed special and meaningful relationships. You just wish that he stayed with any one of them instead of heading to his ultimate doom.
Sean Penn is soulful and deep(or at least I think so) as shown from releasing this film. Give us more good films like this! Two Thumbs Up. I am going to watch it again before returning it to Netflix!

New York International Children's Film Festival-2

Ladies can you imagine being 6 feet tall at 12 years old? Oh and I forgot to mention, pretty and a slender size 4? I am describing Gerren, the central figure in America, the Beautiful--one of the films we saw last weekend at the New York International Children's Film Festival. I am 43 years old and I never made it past 5 feet tall-so it is really hard for me to imagine being 6 feet at the young age of 12!
Gerren was/is indeed a rarity and leave it to someone to recognize her specialness and then go ahead and abuse her! She was found or discovered by a talent agency in Los Angeles. Luckily Darryl Roberts, the documentary filmmaker responsible for this great film, also found her and followed her fast ascent into the supermodel world. As he puts it in the film, this was a new supermodel LOW--using a 12 year old beauty to model clothes geared for the older female consumer. As if beauty wasn't already hard enough to attain, now we have to try to emulate a 12 yr. old???
Darryl Roberts made this film and he told a good story. He succeeded in making a strong point about how fashion and beauty products are sold in this country and how demeaning our advertisers are to average females!!! We are bombarded daily with images of tall, thin, and young beauties, making it hard not to criticize or cut ourselves down just for being who we are.
Films like these need to be shown across the country in middle schools and high schools to teach our children about the cruel reality of advertising!
I hope this movie gets broad distribution just like Supersize Me did!!!
After my kids saw Supersize me--they never wanted to go back into McDonald's!
Here is a youtube video with Darryl Roberts-he did a great job with this film!!! Kudos to him!

Falling Slowly, Best Song Oscar and HOPE

I love the song, Falling Slowly, from the movie Once, which won the Oscar for the Best Original Song for a movie last night. The voices of the two musicians sound so nice together in the duo, it is very romantic. Perhaps seeing the movie helps bring on that feeling.
The guy in the duo, Glen Hansard, gave a nice acceptance speech and told briefly of their remarkable success; they made the film for under $100,000 in 3 weeks of shooting with a bunch of hand held camcorders! If you have been reading my blog, you'll know that I love this kind of story! In essence, it is the story of 'little guy wins'.
The theme in the acceptance speeches was of HOPE. A very powerful positive outlook of always hoping and believing and never giving up. My sister's middle name is Hope, she never liked it as a kid(I think she does now) but I always liked it. So much so that I borrowed it from her and used Hope as my daughter's middle name!