Movie Review: "Touch the Wall" is a cool dip into Olympic swimming

Touch the Wall (2014, directed by Grant Barbeito and Christo Brock. U.S.A., English, Color, 102 minutes) Sports documentaries all seem to run on the same formula: a subject tries to accomplish their dream, usually over adversity. It's something we've seen in "Hoop Dreams" and the 2011 Oscar-winner "Undefeated". 

"Touch the Wall" goes along these lines, but it takes on a subject rarely the focus of a sports documentary: swimming. To make it more rare, it focuses on women's swimming.

Missy Franklin was just a regular high school student when Olympian Kara Lynn Joyce came to join her age group swim team of teenagers. The two formed an immediate bond as they trained and competed together leading up to the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Franklin and Joyce are the focus of "Touch the Wall", a refreshingly upbeat look at competitive sports. The bond between the teen-aged Franklin and the 20-something, four-time silver medalist Joyce isn't filled with the competitive nature when a seasoned vet works with a rising newcomer. Joyce and Franklin get along like sisters, having fun and being encouraging to one another. 

Even when one beaks away from the training team, the bond between them starts positive and strong.

The most touching scene in the film isn't just the reaction shots of Franklin wining her slew of gold medals at the Olympics, but at the very end, when she and Joyce are getting tattoos. It shows that sisterhood is stronger than any competition that comes between the two of them.

A film could be made on Franklin. The super infectious, always smiling hero of her home state of Colorado is incredibly playful and modest, and I enjoyed this documentary in part because of her. I didn't know anything about her before watching "Touch the Wall" because I don't watch the Olympics, but I was so enamored with her as a person and an athlete that it made "Touch the Wall" a good find.

"Touch the Wall" may not have broken new ground in regards to documentary style, but the subjects are incredibly likable.

Rating: B

"Touch the Wall" is available for pre-order on multiple formats at www.touchthewall.com

Who Will Win Oscar?

What a season it has been.

While last year's annual kudos fest for the best achievements in film were overly predictable, this year is way more uncertain. It looks likes the 2010 race when "The Social Network" was winning over all of the critics and the Golden Globes, but when industry professionals got their say the race drastically shifted in the eventual best picture-winner's "The King's Speech" favor.

Four years later and its looking to be the same story with "Boyhood" being the early favorite and "Birdman" surging near the end.

Will the epic achievement of "Boyhood" reign supreme, or will "Birdman" fly away with the top prize in the end?

Movie Reviews: Getting High on Adrenaline in 'American Sniper' and 'Inherent Vice'

American Sniper (2014, directed by Clint Eastwood. U.S.A., English, Color, 134 minutes) The story of the military's most lethal sniper is what we get fixated on in "American Sniper", which is just as much about post-9/11 patriotism as it is its titular character, Chris Kyle. Bradley Cooper gives his best performance to date as Kyle, who is portrayed as a lovable, modest and true incarnation of Captain America. After each of his four tours in the Iraq War we see just how he is slowly being broken down from everything he has witnessed and how with each tour he still stays focused on the task at hand: saving soldiers (killing the enemy).

The success of the film is because of its helmer, Clint Eastwood, who has done countless war films before this, but takes a sensitive approach to Kyle's story. There is plenty of gritty war violence which is beautifully balanced by the war's effects on his own mental health and his family's well being. Sienna Miller was truly effective as his wife, and my heart ached almost every time she had to cry, especially when she hears nothing but a hail of bullets during a phone call Cooper.

If anything bad to say about the film is that it felt very rushed in the beginning. Not staying long in one situation or another and rushing anxiously to the next moment. It found its footing in the second half, luckily.

Rating: B+

Movie Reviews: Great Actresses Highlight Sublime 'Maps to the Stars' and 'Deux Jours, Une Nuit'

At this year's Cannes Film Festival there were two actresses who generated a lot of buzz to win the best actress prize: Julianne Moore as a self-destructing actress in "Maps to the Stars" and Marion Cotillard as a woman trying to get her job back in "Deux Jours, Une Nuit (Two Days, One Night)". Moore walked away with the prize, but who's to say one performance was truly better than the other?

These are two different roles in two vastly different movies and the end result are two great films with strong empowered women driving them to greatness.

Maps to the Stars (2014, directed by David Cronenberg. U.S.A./Canada, English, Color, 112 minutes) No one can make a film more unpredictable and fluid than Cronenberg, and "Maps to the Stars" proves it. In this ensemble piece we follow the dark side of the Hollywood system. Julianne Moore is the driving force here as the washed-up, Lindsay Lohan-esque character Havana Segrand, who's trying to revamp her career. In her aura is her psychologist (John Cusack), his teenage movie star (Evan Bird), a limo driver (Robert Pattinson) and a recent L.A. transplant named Agatha (Mia Wasikowska) with mysterious motives.

All of the stars align in this unpredictable and totally engaging piece about the Hollywood machine, thanks in great part to Bruce Wagner's script and Julianne Moore's tip-top performance. Never have I seen Moore act like such a Hollywood wreck, and I enjoyed it so much. From an actress who has played so many dramatic characters, here she does a 180 as a partying, completely unstable product of overindulgence and a lack of  talent... like Lindsay Lohan. Equal parts haunting, funny and sad, "Maps to the Stars" balances a lot of characters and storylines flawlessly and with delicate care to each. You may not like some of the characters, but who in Hollywood is ever likable? At least this tries to explain it.

Rating: A

 

Movie Reviews: Xmas Day Releases 'Big Eyes' and 'Into the Woods'

Meryl Streep heads 'Into the Woods' on Christmas

Edit: 12/23, 9 p.m.
With "The Interview" now only playing in some 200 theaters this holiday season, moviegoers will have their fair share of movies to see on Christmas Day. From the film adaptation of the musical "Into the Woods", to the true story of a WWII vet in "Unbroken:, there is bound to be something for everyone at the box office.

In addition to the aforementioned wide releases, "The Imitation Game" will be expanding, "Big Eyes" will open to a few hundred theaters and "Mr. Turner" will open in select cities.


Big Eyes (2014, directed by Tim Burton. U.S.A., English, Color, 106 minutes) Margaret Keane, known for her portraits of children with big eyes, is the figure behind the aptly titled film directed by fan Tim Burton. Amy Adams stars as the painter and Christoph Waltz is her charismatic con of a husband, Walter. The film focuses on Walter parading around as the painter of the big eyed children, while Margaret quietly goes along with the plan... for 10 years. Not a great film, but it has its charms, mainly in the sumptuous production values and all of the paintings of the doe-eyed children we see. Waltz is extremely annoying as he overacts every comedic/dramatic moment, and Adams is endearing as always.

Rating: C

Movie Review: 'The Imitation Game' Imitates Many Like it Before

The Benedict Cumberbatch Club decrypts German messages in "The Imitation Game"

Weinstein Company

The Imitation Game (2014, Directed by Morten Tyldum. U.K./U.S.A., English, Color, 114 minutes) As I headed into the theater to watch this film I did not plan to like it. From one viewing of the trailer a couple of months back I knew it was going to be a run-of-the-mill historic cliche about winning the war against the Nazis. When I left the theater, I got exactly that, but with an (unnecessary) brief look at the history of LGBT rights in the U.K., and a stupidly forced love story. It was everything I was expecting and more... and not in a good way.

This is the true story of a group of codebreakers at Bletchley Park in England assigned to decipher German messages from a machine called the Enigma. The eccentric and arrogantly annoying Alan Turing heads the group who would eventually end the war by at least two years because of their successful efforts. Their accomplishments should be heralded, but not this film.

While critic reviews are positive and audiences at film fests give it its top honors, this cliche-ridden film is nothing different than what has been shown over and over again.

23rd Philadelphia Film Festival: Winners and Day 10

Even though the festival ran through Sunday, winners for the festival's 23rd turn were announced on Friday night before the closing night screening of "Wild".

The anonymous slate of jurors awarded the British production "The Duke of Burgundy" its grand jury prize in the narrative category. The film is about a young girl who becomes a housekeeper to a wealthy amateur lepidopterist and the sexual relationship that develops. The French ghetto drama "Girlhood" won the special jury prize and Yann Demange won the director gong for "'71", about a new soldier left behind in the turbulent streets of Ireland during the Troubles.

'The Duke of Burgundy'.

"The Overnighters" won for best documentary and one of the most talked about films of the festival, "The Tribe", won the archie award for best first feature.

"Crescendo! The Power of Music" won the Pinkenson Award for local feature.

The audience award will be announced after the festival.

To me the list of winners represented PFF's (unintentional) theme this year- stories told a million times before PFF are all of a sudden new and fresh just because we're seeing these films the first time.

Nice try, but originality was barely evident during this year's festival, and it shows in the prize winners.

As I digress, only to be amped up later in this post, I had only one more day of screenings that I attended, day 10 (Saturday). While I wasn't really looking forward to anything, I figured I'd make the most out of my badge.

Read about the festival's first four days here.

Read about festival days 7 & 8 here.

23rd Philadelphia Film Festival: Days 7 and 8

It was a dreary, miserable day before I went downtown for a couple of evening showings on the festival's 7th day. I had skipped screenings on days 5 and 6 because I have a legit job where film criticism isn't my primary focus. It's a nice hobby, though.

(Read about days 1-4 of the festival here)

Anywho, one of the films I was most looking forward to, and the one most difficult to squeeze into my schedule, was this year's Cannes jury prize winner "Goodbye to Language" - which tied with "Mommy", another PFF selection. Later on I would be checking out the German film "Stations of the Cross", and while the first few days were full of disappointment, day 7 was a total highlight.

Day 7- Visual Stimulants

The rain was a problem. Parking downtown can be a total asshole, and with the rain I figured I was going to be showered with no possibilities. Luckily, I found a spot about two blocks over with only 7 minutes before the screening started for "Goodbye to Language". I got a good seat and honkered down for whatever the hell was about to come my way.

23rd Philadelphia Film Festival: Days 1-4

It's here! The 23rd Philadelphia Film Festival is finally underway, and with a good slate of films from all over the world.

The over 100 selections have already had people lining up outside the theaters with their badges and tickets eagerly waiting to see some of the critically acclaimed films that have already made the rounds at international film festivals, from "Birdman" to "Mommy" and foreign language film Oscar hopefuls in "Force Majeure" and "The Way He Looks".

With so much to see, the Philadelphia Film Society, which coordinates the festival, proudly touts that during the 11-day festival you will "see something you'll never forget". Whether these be films that are great or so bad that you'll never forget it, PFF has a line-up that will guarantee some hits and definitely some misses.

Seeing as this was my first time attending a real festival with a badge - last year I bought tickets for four films - I was ready to start binge watching with long days and tons of experiences. There's nothing like spending a day at the movies seeing three or more films in a day. I thought it would be extremely tiring, but it was pretty enjoyable, even when every film you see is foreign and you have to stay awake to read the subtitles.

As I was highly anticipating many films, I soon found that only three days of movie watching I was watching a whole bunch of new movies with tired, redundant stories that brought nothing new to cinema. (Scroll down to the bottom for ratings)

Movie Review: "Birdman" Soars High on Talent

 

Riggan (Michael Keaton) and Mike (Edward Norton) square off in "Birdman".

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. USA, English, color, 119 minutes) Living in a time where thoughtless superhero action moves dominate the box office, is there any hope for those actors who have become icons after their starring role in the franchise ends?

Imagine Robert Downey Jr. 20 years from now after the Iron Man franchise is over and he's trying to break back into the acting world with a serious performance. Will he always be remembered as being Iron Man, or will people think he has real acting chops?

This is the basis for the comedy "Birdman", starring Michael Keaton as a washed-up actor trying to revive his acting career by writing, starring and directed an adaptation of Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" for Broadway.

Movie Review: 'Gone Girl' MIssing Any Sort of Originality

Gone Girl (2014, directed by David Fincher. USA, English, color, 147 minutes) As I sat and watched "Gone Girl" my feelings toward it went from intrigue to annoyance in about the first 10 minutes. Not knowing what the story was about aside from the straightforward title I was hoping the story would be as interesting as its vague title. Boy, was I wrong.

Directed by David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn, based on her 2012 bestselling novel, "Gone Girl" throws out any conventional sense of an atmospheric thriller, like Fincher's own "Zodiac", and gives us a film full of standard Lifetime cliches with a lot more bloody violence. OK, there's atmosphere, just no thrills.

On the day of their wedding anniversary, Nick (Ben Affleck) has come home to discover his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) is missing. After just one day, media attention on the case is full throttle with a tough-as-nails cop (Kim Dickens) trying to peg the apparent murder on Nick, and the public already throwing stones at the charmingly apathetic husband.

What progresses in a glacial two-and-a-half film is a standard exercise of what happens when a bored, rich white woman has nothing better to do with her time than concoct a whole mess of a plan that in the end served no purpose at all.

It may have an all-star cast and Fincher at the helm, but it doesn't take away from the fact that this is material perfect for Lifetime. The man is always bad and the woman is always good. There's nothing to get caught up in here, just waiting for the inevitable conclusion and seeing the cookie-cutter Lifetime characters stick to form (like the female cop who seems to be on a mission to make sure Nick did it).

One standout was Tyler Perry, who plays a celebrity-driven attorney representing Affleck's character. He provides some good laughs, and you know it's a bad film when he's the best part of it.

Save your time. Even a good director like Fincher can't save this run-of-the-mill story of the made-up problems of rich white people.

Rating: D-

'Birdman' To Open 23rd Philadelphia FIlm Festival, Full Line-up Announced

The Philadelphia Film Society announced today the line-up for the 23rd Philadelphia Film Festival, opening with Oscar-hopeful "Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance" by Alejandro González Iñárritu, and closing with another Oscar-hopeful in the Reese Witherspoon vehicle, "Wild".

The festival runs from Oct. 16 to Oct. 26 in six venues around Center City. Here is the complete festival program guide.

Over 100 feature length and short films will be presented in this year's set, ranging from the Cannes- heavy Masters of Cinema selection, to local fair in narrative and documentary features.

"Beginning with our Opening Night screening of the highly acclaimed Birdman through October 26th, our diverse collection of films, everything from prestigious world cinema hits to exciting new American indies will entertain, challenge and truly highlight some of the best cinema of the year," said society executive director J. Andrew Greenblatt in a press release.

Studio Releases New District 13 Citizens Posters for 'Mockingjay- Part 1'

With just over three months to go until the eagerly-anticipated "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1", Lionsgate has released six character posters of its District 13 inhabitants.

Leaders of the once uninhabitable District 13, President Coin, Beetee, Effie, Finnick, Haymithc and Plutarch, are all characterized against a bland concrete wall on the poster's far right side. District 13 was thought to be destroyed after the first rebellion in Suzanne Collins'  best-selling novels, best was revealed in the second book, "Catching Fire", that it will be used as a base to plan a second rebellion.

"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1" will be released nationwide on November 21.

Movie Review: Cheap Material Makes Up 'Yves Saint Laurent'

The iconic Yves Saint Laurent (Pierre Niney) dresses a model in an early scene of the movie.

Yves Saint Laurent (2014, directed by Jalil Lespert. France, in French with English subtitles, color, 110 minutes) Madonna said in one of her earliest hits, she's gonna dress you up in her love. Tackling one of the most iconic designers in the world, you'd think director Jalil Lespert would want to dress his audiences up in his love of the designer. Nope, just the opposite. "Yves Saint Laurent" is a disastrous mess that evokes a storyline on one of the many "Housewives" reality shows.

In just his early '20s, Laurent (Pierre Niney) took over as head of the Dior fashion house, eventually being let go and starting his own fashion line with his partner Pierre Berge (Guillaume Gallienne). What unfurls is a movie that repeats the same formula for about 100 minutes: fashion meltdown, fashion show, arguing with Pierre, jump offs (casual sex partners), and drugs. In a film that has great production values, it put its best asset, fashion, on the backburner.

How can you make a film about a great designer and not even focus on his iconic fashion? We only get glimpses of it and it's only during his fashion shows. In "Coco Avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel)" we get some of the drama of Chanel's life but it encompassed her style so beautifully into the story, how she changed society and ushered in a new wave of iconography in women's fashion. This film is trying to make haute couture out of thrift store leftovers. Sorry, try again.

The film could have used some alterations, like taking it in on the soap opera melodrama, and adding more of YSL's special touch. You don't go to a bridal shop and expect there to be no dresses in it, so why would I expect to see a movie about a designer and not see his fashions highlighted in it?

Rating: D-

Movie Review: Big Girls Don't Cry, But 'Jersey Boys' Do

Jersey Boys (2014, directed by Clint Eastwood. USA, Color, 134 minutes.) "Jersey Boys" isn't the typical Clint Eastwood film, or is it? Sure, no one would expect the Man With no Name who has been the epitome of masculinity to adapt a Tony Award-winning musical for the screen, but here it is, draped with all of that obnoxious chiaroscuro lighting that is typical of Eastwood's films.

The jukebox story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons won four Tonys, including best musical, when it premiered on Broadway in 2005, and, to me, is another cautionary tale of the politics and frustrations of the '60s music scene.

Young Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young reprising his Tony-winning role) is a babyfaced teenager from a Newark, New Jersey suburb who gets caught up in the bad boy Tommy DeVito and his musical group. Through mob connections and a brilliant songwriter, the boys from Jersey eventually become a staple of that generation's pop music. Eventually that all crumbles as the group falls apart when a mountain of debt, and tears, falls into their laps.

Maybe this was a better show to see on the stage, but there was something about this film that worked more as a comedy/drama and less as a high-energy musical. There were some performance scenes where your toe was tapping and  the audience would clap afterward, but that was few and far between. Previous Broadway shows adapted for the screen, like "Chicago" and "Dreamgirls", could do both, especially the former.

This brings me back to Eastwood. For a man who never directed a real musical before it shows. The choreography was pretty basic and repetitive, the sound mix he approved on the final cut was crazily uneven and he added an unnecessary encore performance as the credits rolled. Really? Do people even do a final medley as the credits go at the end? Without the music, it's a well-paced and interesting drama, but if the movie is about the music, don't make it seem like an extra lingering in the background.

Rating: C

On Netflix: Philadelphia tragedy 'Let the Fire Burn' and 'Mitt's' Presidential Runs

Let the Fire Burn (2013, Directed by Jason Osder. Color, USA, 95 minutes) The 1985 bombing of the MOVE compound in Philadelphia's Cobbs Creek neighborhood was the culmination of a tense standoff between the back-to-nature group and police, resulting in the deaths of 11 people, and the destruction of 60 residential homes. "Let the Fire Burn" is a well-crafted documentary that looks at the buildup to the MOVE/police interactions from the '70s to the standoff. Using only archival footage from newscasts, witness testimonies and the investigation hearings by the MOVE commission, this is a perfectly balanced look at happens when fights between a radical group and law enforcement reach a fever pitch. Pretty in-depth considering it didn't use any modern interviews, and a must-see for anyone interested in Philadelphia history.

Rating: B




Mitt (2014, Directed by Greg Whiteley. Color, USA, 92 minutes) Mitt Romney might be the focus of the Netflix-proudced documentary "Mitt", but he's somehow a secondary character. We follow Romney, but mostly his family, through his two presidential campaigns including the debates and sitting around for the election results. "Mitt" portrays its main character as its own MacGuffin. We hear so many opinions about Romney and what he needs to do to succeed, but we don't actually see the tactics to do so. With not enough interesting scenes or characters, "Mitt" is a bland look at an interesting man at the focus of the biggest story of 2012. "The War Room" this film is not.

Rating: C-

Delco-Based 'Foxcatcher' Wins Big at Cannes Film Festival

Bennett Miller holds up his best director scroll after Saturday's closing ceremony in Cannes. (Reuters)

An upcoming film about the relationship and subsequent murder of Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz by millionaire John du Pont on his 400-acre Delco estate earned a top prize Saturday evening at the closing of the Cannes Film Festival.

Director Bennett Miller won the prix de la mise en scène (best director) for his film “Foxcatcher,” a new drama starring Steve Carell as du Pont set at the millionaire’s Newtown Square estate Foxcatcher Farm, where du Pont shot and killed Schultz on Jan. 26, 1996. This led to a standoff with police that lasted two days.

Miller was feted with the award by a jury headed by New Zealand writer/director Jane Campion, with Sofia Coppola, Willem Dafoe and Gael Garcia Bernal serving on the nine-member jury. Cannes is noted for being the premier film festival in the world.

“Foxcatcher” is scheduled to be released in the U.S. on November 14.

Cannes Jury Awards 'Winter Sleep' Top Prize

Nuri Bilge Ceylan sits at the edge of the stage holding his Palme d'Or for 'Winter Sleep'

Getty Images

At over three hours long, and one of 18 films in competition, "Winter Sleep" might have been the longest film to show at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, but the jury didn't get a winter's nap watching it, showering the film with the coveted Palme d'Or.

The jury, headed by New Zealand writer/director Jane Campion and including Sofia Coppola, Gael Garcia Bernal and Willem Dafoe, awarded Turkish auteur, and Cannes staple, Nuri Bilge Ceylan with his first Palme during the closing ceremony at the Grand Théâtre Lumière Saturday night.

The 55-year-old director dedicated his Palme to those who have lost their lives in Turkey over the past year due to political conflict. "Winter Sleep" received rave reviews from its only official screening at the festival.

Movie Review: 'Enemy' Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Jake goes head-to-head against himself in the doppleganger thriller 'Enemy'

The second collaboration in a matter of months between Jake Gyllenhaal and Canadian director Denis Villenevue after "Prisoners," "Enemy" is so unforgivably bad, it makes their first effort together look like a masterpiece. There's nothing worse than having a good plot that doesn't build up to anything and seems stale from the get-go.

"Enemy" opens with a really weird sexual party a la "Eyes Wide Shut" where pregnant girls nakedly frock around and kill spiders with their stiletttos. Yes, I'm serious. The spiders come back periodically as larger than life symbols trouncing through Toronto for no reason. When that unnecessary sequence ends, we meet Gyllenhaal's first character, the melancholy professor Adam Bell, who discovers an actor named Andrew St. Claire (also played by Gyllenhaal) who looks just like him.

Obsessed to discover who this look-a-like is, Adam manipulates his way into Andrew's life, eventually meeting with him in private. They are, indeed, some kind of twin, sharing the same voice, facial/body structure and even body scars. A slow build up to that point in the movie, it develops split personality afterward and turns into a sexual "Parent Trap" for the last 30 minutes.

I'll leave you with that.