In the Dark – Rachel Getting Married

Genre:  Drama

Tagline: there isn’t one…but if it there were it would be in the form of a song played by a cool instrument.

Ebert gave it: 4 stars

I’m used to seeing Anne Hathaway being happy go lucky, doing her little comedies that are fun and light hearted where she gets the guy in the end. I’m also used to having a little sister who sometimes gets on my last nerve but that would never do anything that would seriously hurt my feelings if she could help it. This movie was full of things that I was not at all used to.

Rachel’s getting hitched and her sister gets a pass out of rehab to attend the festivities. (see not so normal) It’s great that the sisters can put the past behind them and have some fun on the joyous days leading up to the big one, or it would be great but these two  girls fight like cats and dogs for their father’s attention, and he honestly doesn’t know how to give them the attention they need. Kym used to be a model who got hopped on drugs and can’t quite find the words, or the right time to say sorry for the hurt she caused, and her sister’s wedding rehersal dinner isn’t really the time. Rachel has everything going for her with a great husband entering the family, but also has strange ways to win fights by making announcements. She also has a bitchy bff who takes the maid of honors place and rubs it in the sister’s face. Oh the sisters’ doesn’t have a steady family either, her parents are divorced and her mom can barely be bothered to attend the wedding.

In the Dark – Changeling

Genre: Drama

Tagline: To get her son back she did what no one dared.

Ebert gave it:

How do you know when a movie will get an Oscar nomination and the director will be a front runner when the nominations come out? Well, besides the Golden Globe nominations already coming out…? When Clint Eastwood is the director, the movie has a powerful and emotional plot and there is a strong female lead (I know Mystic River didn’t have the last one…but 3 strong males is good enough). Eastwood likes to direct movies about women who don’t give up, women who have something to fight for and movies that twist and turn to keep you on an emotional rollercoaster and the ending in the dark.

In the Dark-Milk

 Genre: Drama

Tagline: His life changed history. His courage changed lives.

Ebert gave it: 4 stars

Milk, does a body good. The movie does your body, your mind, and your soul good too. A movie about a politician who not only made changes while in office, he changed minds while running for office.

            Harvey Milk is reaching a pivotal age and feels like he hasn’t accomplished anything in his gay life, so he moves to San Fran with his younger, super fine boyfriend (James Franco) and opens a camera shop. However, the community doesn’t welcome them with open arms. Life as a gay was dangerous, and Milk thought the only way to change it was to get elected and make some changes. After many failed attempts he finally sees success. We see that the road to change doesn’t always leave the hero in a happy personal life. While his career skyrockets and his community becomes more and more friendly and open minded, Milk finds himself failing in his personal life. Lucky for Harvey, some of his best friends are the ones aiding in his success.

            The story is amazing and uplifting, but I found it sad that it wasn’t that long ago that there was so much hate in the world against people who are in love. It’s a load of bullshit if you ask me. The best part? Milk was a politician, he was a friend, a business owner, a lover, a fighter, a leader – none of those things are defined by race, gender or sexuality – if you didn’t think it before, how could you not after seeing this. It doesn’t matter, we’re all in this together.

            After seeing Sean Penn portraying Harvey Milk there is no doubt he will own a little golden man for his mantel. Penn is by far one of the most diverse actors of our time, the guy can play psychos, politicians, gays, straights, killers, mobsters, stoners – and every time he blows us away. There is one point in the movie that was so raw and moving that made me say shit, he’s got it in the bag. Mark my words, Best Actor. But Penn isn’t the only amazing actor, and certainly not the most surprising in the film. Franco who plays the hunky boyfriend is great at showing the struggle of sitting in the shadows of a difference maker while still being madly in love. He has some resemblence to Heath Ledger though, and that totally freaked me out. But most surprisingly was Emile  Hirsch. I only hope that this is the beginning of this kids career, he stole the show. After the credit rolled he is the supporting actor I remember the most. Jaw dropping. It proves actors do their best work stepping outside their comfort zones. Oh and we all know Josh Brolin was great, he rarely isn’t…

            

I give it 5, yuppers, 5 flasks. If you are feeling down about the human race or you just want to feel uplifted and want to see how one man changed so much go see Milk. Even if you don’t want to do any of those things, go in honor of Harvey Milk, who touched so many lives, opened so many minds and never gave up his fight or his hope. 

In the Dark-Valkyrie

 Genre: Drama/History

Tagline: Many saw evil. They dared to stop it.

Ebert gave it: 3 stars

Tom Cruise lost my respect a long time ago. It really has nothing to do with the Scientology  shit, it’s more about how he jumped on the couch professing his love for a women he keeps locked up under his key. It could be possible that Tomkat’s careers were over, never to be nominated or paid to see again (then again when was the last time Cruise made a decent movie?) However Tom put some work into this one. I heard about Valkryie a while ago and swore I wouldn’t see it as a boycott to his mental imbalance and refusal to medicate but while home over the holidays my dad  wanted to see it – so to the theatres we went.

            I knew nothing about this plot, or any of them actually, to kill Hitler. One, I didn’t pay much attention to my history teachers and two there haven’t been many movies made on the unsung German heroes during the Holocaust. Sure we’ve seen nice guys like Schindler, but so many flicks show every German mustache and accent as a Nazi.Valkryie is the exception.

            Cruise plays Colonel von Stauffenberg, an army guy who doesn’t agree with the way Hitler runs his country, but proves dedicated to his country. After being injured while in the field he is invited to attend a meeting of other Germans, who all had chances to be in Hitler’s inner circle but turned down the opportunity. They begin the dangerous planning of the assassination of the psychotic ruler. With most members having military background they know killing Hitler won’t stop anything, he has another crazy ready to step in. Instead they rewrite Valkryie, a military plan for the army reserves to step in and take over other bases around different countries, to take over the SS if Hitler were to die. After an explosion the plan goes into action and we really see how many German heroes there could have been.

            The thing I loved about this movie was that we got a look at another side of the Hitler story. Cruise did push for this to get made, and I was pleasantly surprised with his performance. (then again only a crazy person could play someone crazy enough try and kill another crazy person…that’s a lot of crazy, I know). I was also impressed to see a serious performance by Bill Nighy (who has apparently made many serious movies that I haven’t seen or haven’t recognized him in) who made me laugh in as the old rocker in Love, Actually. And although there were few German accents used I didn’t feel it was anything that altered the effectiveness of this film.

My rating:              

With no love story and plenty of plot this movie easily scores 3 flasks, and maybe even another swig for good measure. If you are one who likes war movies, and loves seeing things from another point of view Valkyrie will not disappoint. 

In the Dark – Doubt

Genre: Drama

Tagline: based on a play? no there isn’t a tag…

Ebert gave it: 4 stars

Philip Seymour Hoffman can play just about anyone, including a priest. Meryl Streep went from playing a promiscuous woman to a nun. And Amy Adams takes her doe eyes and takes to the classroom. And so we have Doubt.

            Father Flynn is a good priest, he has good sermons and he is a great role model and mentor to the boys of St. Andrews. But Sister Aloysius Beauvier, who runs the school with an iron fist (not even allowing ball point pens) doesn’t like him. He wants to sing nontraditional Christmas carols at the Christmas programs, he writes with ballpoint pens, he is loose in his ways and she smells a scandal. Unfortunately for her she is a woman with no power in the church – I mean really, who can trust a nun? But with the young Sister James as her eyes in the classroom she might just have a case to make.

            Written originally for the stage, Doubt still has a theatre vibe and I mean that in the most positive way. When I was a young girl wanting to be an actress I always said I would only do live theatre, that’s where the energy is. There is something special about seeing your audience, feeling their reactions and being able to, in turn, react to them. You can’t do that when you are in a studio or on location. There’s no energy on a soundstage, and the rhythm gets ruined if you get to say cut every ten minutes. But the energy, the passion Streep and Hoffman speak with is amazing. I’ll admit Adams lacks in this, mainly from inexperience I would think. Streep not only has the stage passion behind it she does a great accent – and she doesn’t look so hot doing it. But her character is so much more complicated than the surface lets you believe and it’s hard to hate her as much as you’d want to.

            As a spiritual but not so religious person I’d like to say I knew almost every hymn sung. Also Doubt is a movie you can enjoy and understand if you frequent the movie theatre more than you do church (especially in the economy). It’s not so much a struggle of God and Man as it is a struggle of power between Woman and Man. I found it interesting and repulsive that the hierarchy is so split that a nun can’t go above a priest’s head, she can only go above her own and when you didn’t do anything wrong that doesn’t help much.

My Rating:

Go see it, two amazing actors are in it, do it or a nun will slap your hands with a ruler, unless that nun is Amy Adams…and if she did she’d probably apologize right afterwards.