THE HUNGER GAMES

The first blockbuster of the year has arrived with the highly anticipated adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. Set in a dystopian society demanding an annual sacrifice of 23 young adults, this story at once evokes Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and George Orwell’s 1984 while maintaining its palpable originality.

Every year, a male and female teen from each district of the fictitious nation Panem is selected by chance to participate in the blood sport known as The Hunger Games. Framed as a post-apocalyptic gladiator contest for honor as well as a punitive sacrifice to the state, the contestants engage in a hunt to the death. The event is closely followed on Panem’s form of television and the populace watches with as much zeal as dread. The winner is the lone survivor who becomes a national hero.

The story focuses on the struggles of Katniss Everdeen, a young lady who becomes the female contestant from her district. Katniss is a promising contestant as she is a skilled archer, a courageous spirit, and a cunning strategist, but there is also a great liability in her abundant compassion.
Jennifer Lawrence carries the film in the role of Katniss. She maintains a delicate balance of strength and vulnerability with great skill and no affectation whatsoever. The supporting cast is equally impressive and includes luminaries such as Donald Sutherland, Woody Harleson, Lenny Kravitz, and one of my favorites Stanley Tucci.

Devotees of the book should be pleased with this screen adaptation, not surprisingly as author Suzanne Collins co-wrote the screenplay and was one of the Executive Producers. If you haven’t read the other books in the series, by the end of the movie, you will be hard pressed not to delve into the rest of this saga.

There is much to like in The Hunger Games, but is it appropriate for your Brownie daughter? To be clear: this is a movie about children hunting other children. Some of the children enjoy torturing and killing their peers, some reluctantly accept their fate and try to deal with this nightmarish situation, but all experience, at one point or another, sheer, unadulterated terror. There is a variety of nasty ways in which the contestants die and no one, not even the lone survivor (whoever that may be) remains unscathed. After watching The Hunger Games the hunting of Bambi's mother will seem like Breakfast atTiffany's.

The Hunger Games; I give it 1 Samoa

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

Gil and Inez are a modern young couple vacationing in Paris prior to their upcoming wedding. While Inez enjoys Paris to a point, Gil, a struggling novelist, is madly in love with this beautiful city. Inez enjoys trendy dance clubs, fancy restaurants, and private museum tours with her self-absorbed friends. Gil longs for the simple pleasures of walking through the boulevards, parks, and old shops, and if it rains, so much the better for Gil.

One night Gil has a wonderful stroll through an old Parisian neighborhood, but finds himself hopelessly lost. While sitting on church steps, he contemplates how to find his hotel. As the church clock chimes midnight, Gil is invited into an antique car which inexplicably slips back in time to the Paris of the roaring twenties. There he meets the great artists and writers of the day and before long Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein take a keen interest in his work. Gil easily returns to the Paris of his era, but he can go back in time by waiting at the church steps at midnight if he wishes to return to the twenties. While much of what happens is comfortably predictable, the story is full of surprises too.

The film is thoroughly enjoyable. An excellent ensemble vividly brings this story to life, but the most powerful character is Paris herself. Beautifully photographed in day and night, sunshine and rain, Paris through the ages develops her own intoxicating persona. Part comedy, part surreal dream, part romance, part philosophical treatise on art and existence, Midnight in Paris is first and foremost a love letter to a great city.

People of my generation may well appreciate the sustained shots of various Parisian scenes. The music of the period is excellent, and the story is irresistible. When telling a story that prominently features historical people of great accomplishment, one runs the risk of failing to reach the brilliance of the luminaries in the story. Happily, Midnight in Paris rises to the occasion and presents the likes of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Cole Porter (to name a few) in a context that is on par with their greatness.

Incidentally, when writer/director Woody Allen doesn’t perform the lead role in his films, I get a big kick out of the actors playing the Woody Allen character. Larry David was a natural choice in Whatever Works. In Vicki, Cristina, Barcelona, Scarlett Johansson transformed the Woody Allen character from a nebbishly neurotic man to an exquisitely feminine, neurotic woman. Owen Wilson, takes the Woody Allen character in Midnight in Paris to new heights. He captures the neurosis, but adds leading man gravitas mixed with a very human vulnerability. He may not be as funny as Woody Allen, (nor as excessively gorgeous as Scarlett Johansson for that matter), but he is funny enough, handsome enough and adds a layer of plausibility and authenticity that anchors the fantastical aspects of the film.

In a time when Hollywood churns out films with the goal to be the top grossing film on opening weekend, Midnight in Paris is a refreshing alternative that reminds us of the great movies of the past as well as a magnificent Paris from the past.

Be that as it may, is Midnight in Paris appropriate for your Brownie Daughter? While there is not a single utterance of foul language, nor a single frame of explicit sex, frank, polite conversation regarding sex is peppered throughout the film. A stroll past a winsome line-up from the demimondaine may stimulate an unwanted comment or question. Other than that, your real concern is boring your daughter to death. Unless your daughter has a familiarity with if not interest in the likes of Cole Porter, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dali, etc., or a highly developed attention span, or a strong affinity with Paris, she will hate the film and hate you for forcing her to watch it. Why not take away her cell phone while you’re at it, and you will have earned her unending resentment.

Midnight in Paris: I give it 2 ½ Samoas.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2

The long anticipated conclusion to the Harry Potter

series has finally arrived. You all must know the story by now, and if you don’t, you have a lot of reading (or movie-ing) to do. This is as good an adaptation of a novel as you are likely to find and arguably somewhat improves upon J. K. Rowling’s logorrheic style of the final three books in her otherwise most excellent saga.

The film presents a classic confrontation between good and evil. The story abounds with mythic structure and imagery all beautifully realized by the ensemble of British theatre royalty (minus Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Michael Caine) and the splendid mise en scene. It is a satisfying conclusion by any measure.

(Spoiler alert, as faithful as the film is to the book, there is one inexplicable scene where Harry sings “I Believe in You” while staring at his reflection in the Hogwarts lavatory while Draco and the naughty Slitherin boys chant “gotta stop that man”).

While Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is an excellent movie, is it appropriate for your Brownie daughter? There is excessive violence in this film. Not only is the violence graphic; it is also personal thereby making it that much more emotionally potent. You have to watch characters you care for suffer. Also, complex issues regarding the soul and the afterlife are presented. Some of these may conflict with your personal religious beliefs, but even if this is not an issue for your family, the scenes have the potential to create anxiety in a child. The film is suspenseful to the point of menacing, and Harry and his friends are put in real danger. If your daughter has emotional attachments to Harry or any of his loved ones, she may very well experience the terror the characters feel in the movie. One further caution: This film marks the conclusion of a very popular series. At film’s end, everyone has to say goodbye to characters they have grown attached to and with no further hopes of a new story coming to the screen in a year or so. This too may become the source of profound sadness for your daughter.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - I give it 2 Samoas

BAD TEACHER

Elizabeth Halsey is a super-hot, superficial gold digger who can’t wait to retire from teaching middle school. Her rich fiancé is her ticket out, but as the film begins, said fiancé (with some encouragement from his overbearing mother) figures out Elizabeth’s true colors and unceremoniously dumps her. Left broke and with no choice but to return to her loathsome teaching job, Elizabeth returns, tail between her legs, to JAMS! (John Adams Middle School) until she can find a way out. So begins Bad Teacher.

The film is a study in inappropriate behavior as Elizabeth is as insensitive as she is self-absorbed. She drinks too much, she has her students watch movies in class, she smokes marijuana on school property, she curses like a truck driver (with no disrespect meant to those who drive trucks), and exudes an alluring sexuality which could wake the dead. While she is not stupid, her dissipation makes her a horrible human being and one wonders how she ever became a teacher in the first place (perhaps a prequel might address that conundrum, but if we are fortunate it will remain a mystery).

Bad Teacher has an elegantly simple action: Elizabeth tries to ensnare another unsuspecting wealthy man, in this case, the independently wealthy substitute teacher Scott Dellacorte (Justin Timberlake). She is convinced that the key to success is expensive breast augmentation surgery. She exploits her position as teacher and tremendous physical appeal to raise the 10 grand she needs for the surgery. She raises money through tips and bribes from desperately foolish parents, an x-rated school car wash, and a sure-fire plan to win the ludicrous cash money prize the school gives to the teacher whose class has the highest state exam scores. Her rival is perennial best-teacher Amy Squirrel, who is competing with Elizabeth for both the money and the affections of Mr. Dellacorte.

While sophomorically crude, one wonders if the crudeness is the object of the movie or the object of the movie’s satire. While Elizabeth is a horrible teacher for so many reasons, good teacher Amy Squirrel is no prize either. While her classroom demeanor is appropriate and her dedication to students sincere, she is clearly driven by as many if not more demons as bad teacher Elizabeth. And while Elizabeth is crude and offensive, you more or less know where you stand with her. Amy Squirrel is surprisingly comfortable lying, stealing, and conducting business in public Men’s Rooms. While on the surface she appears to be driven to be an excellent teacher, she is merely compulsive. The rest of the JAMS community is so overwhelmingly insipid that bad teacher Elizabeth, in many respects, is a breath of fresh air.

Bad Teacher makes many biting criticisms about public education particularly the absurd emphasis placed on standardized test scores. This could be an excellent satire, but unfortunately it promises more than it delivers. While the movie is filled with hilarious moments, neither the script nor the direction are developed enough to reach its full potential. Even excellent performances by Cameron Diaz (whose attraction waxes as she gets older), Judy Punch’s Amy Squirrel, or the brilliant John Michael Higgins as the ineffectual Principal Snur, can’t lift Bad Teacher form a collection of funny moments to the cohesive and insightful satire the film aspires to be.

All that said, is this movie appropriate for your Brownie daughter? Probably not since the film was made to appeal directly to your Weblos or Boy Scout son. Make no mistake; you will be exposing your daughter to an onslaught of foul language and inappropriate behavior. Naked breasts appear in long shots on more than one occasion and there is a scene of fully clothed dry-humping which is fully pornographic. Furthermore and perhaps most damaging, it reinforces the basest sexual stereotypes and the most superficial human aspirations. If you take your Brownie daughter to see Bad Teacher, you become a Bad Parent.


I give it 1 Samoa.

BRIDESMAIDS

Poor Annie: her artisan cake shop recently failed and her boyfriend subsequently left her. Her current job stinks, her roommates are freakish, her mother participates in AA even though she is clearly not an alcoholic, and she sleeps with a handsome man who teats her like a whore. Her only constancy is Lillian, her best friend from childhood. If Annie has fallen on hard times, Lillian’s fortunes are rising as she

becomes engaged to her wealthy, banker boyfriend. Lillian asks Annie to be her Maid of Honor, but it all goes sour when Beth, one of the bridesmaids, strives to take control of all the wedding plans and even displace Annie from her “best friend” status. Beth is everything Annie is not: fabulously wealthy, confident and well connected. Yet Beth craves what Annie has, an authentic intimate friendship with Lillian.

As Annie gets to know Beth and the other bridesmaids, the entire process becomes a hilarious competition between Annie and Beth. It is a competition that Annie is losing almost from the instant it begins and continues to propel Annie’s downward spiral. The only positive thing in Annie’s life is a blossoming friendship and romance with a kindly police officer, but even that sours when Annie is incapable of responding to his genuine kindness and respect.

Bridesmaids is a comic study in human indecency coupled with a really bad case of Murpy’s Law. All the bridesmaids are suffering from loneliness, yet they are unable to bring any measure of comfort to each other, because they are wallowing in their own denial and self-absorbtion. This parade of dysfunction can be hysterically funny, but the laughter never goes critical (as they say in nuclear weapons parlance). The laughs are there but they simmer rather than explode. The cast, headed by Kristin Wiig (who also co-produced and co-wrote the film with Annie Mumulo) is superb, and the script tells a well-developed story that has the courage to hold no punches in its outlandish humor, disgusting imagery, and heartbreaking tenderness. I suspect the laughter is capped because of the Chekhovian tension between the comic eccentricity and bittersweet reality of the characters. There are just enough laughs to keep you from crying and just enough sadness to keep you from laughing with gusto. All in all, a satisfying evening.

Kristen Wiig is exquisite as Annie. Her vulnerability and femininity are sustained throughout the many physical and emotional indignities she is forced to endure. Maya Rudolph also gives an excellent performance as Lillian. The talented ensemble, which features many familiar faces from other NBC Universal ventures, is as funny as it is affecting. The late Jill Clayburgh plays Annie’s eccentric, but loving mother in what turned out to be her final screen performance. Jon Hamm makes an uncredited appearance as Annie’s narcissistic lover. Hamm makes a wonderful douche bag and it is impressive to see such an extraordinarily handsome actor render himself ugly just by being a loathsome cad. Now that’s a real actor!

While there is much to like about this film, is it appropriate for your Brownie daughter? The film is full of foul language and many comic sexual situations which are no less intense because of their humor. The film comprises several scenes involving the nastiest of bodily functions which give Slumdog Millionaire a run for its money in terms of its repulsiveness. Perhaps most damaging is exposing your daughter to so much adult angst at such a tender age. Let your daughter enjoy her childhood so that there is a glimmer of hope that she does not grow up to be like any one of the ladies from this film.

Bridesmaids. I give it 2 Samoas.

The Dark Knight

To say The Dark Knight is a comic book movie is to say that The Godfather is about olive oil importers. This gem is a complex philosophical polemic that is layered with compelling mythopoeic imagery and penetrating philosophy, and as the title suggests, it is also a rich medieval tale replete with evil villains, a vulnerable populace, and a powerful but ultimately unknowable hero. There is an abundance of archetypical characters and classical themes no less ambitious than the struggle of good verses evil, stripping away one’s mask to reveal one’s true character, the sacrificial lamb, the impotence of the State, and a parade of ethical dilemmas too numerous to discuss here. The Dark Knight at once recalls The Grail Legends, Shakespeare, Dante, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, Disney’s The Scarecrow of Romley Marsh, and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. And yet the movie remains an original creation and sustains itself with excellent photography, vigorous screenwriting, superb acting and a healthy dose of fun.

The story is simple enough. Batman is called upon to keep Gotham (a city that has a strong resemblance to Chicago) safe from organized crime and the Joker, a villain who is as eccentric as he is deadly. But the movie takes us on a journey through twisted labyrinths where no one is sure who is good or bad, who is right or wrong, who is truthful or deceitful, and who is alive or dead. While Batman strives to capture the Joker, the Joker and one of Gotham’s citizens strive to reveal the identity of Batman. To say more is to reveal exquisite surprises and reversals that are best experienced in the theatre. Let it suffice to say The Dark Knight is a wild ride that is sustained for well over two hours.

As you probably heard, the late Heath Ledger gives a superb performance in the role of the Joker. His Joker invokes both Vishnu and Iago, while maintaining the suavity of Noel Coward and the seductiveness of the devil from Saint Matthew’s Gospel. In the Joker’s shadow, it would be easy to miss the seamless performances of Michael Caine as Bruce Wayne’s Butler Alfred and Gary Oldman as Lieutenant Gordon, but that would be a shame. Actually the entire ensemble is excellent. They play the style credibly while preventing their performances from devolving into a pastiche.

Director and Screewriter Christopher Nolan deserves accolades for even attempting so ambitious a film. Some might plausibly argue that his ambitions are not fully realized, but I give an “A” for effort and believe that he succeeds in bringing mythology and euhemerism to a modern audience through the medium of film. That he does so with such clarity and vivacity is stunning.

For as much fun as the movie is, you should be warned that it is extremely brutal, menacing and ultimately sad. This in no way resembles the television Batman with Adam West running around in his Batman underwear and Ceaser Romero (who looked a lot like today’s Mary Tyler Moore) as the Joker. You should expect as many tears as thrills and this movie demands you rise to its level. It is well worth the effort as you will be rewarded with a stimulating movie that is full of surprises.

I loved The Dark Knight, but is it appropriate for your Brownie daughter? Sure, and when you get home why not make her watch The Deer Hunter, Marathon Man and Shindler’s List. . .just to cheer her up.

Not only is the film violent on an operatic scale, but it is violent in a very personal way. Characters you care about are maimed and murdered. People are tortured both physically and emotionally. Even a little boy is victimized by the overriding brutally that is this film.

Human disfigurement figures prominently in this movie as well.

And if all this isn’t emotionally damaging enough for your daughter, she will be subjected to 2 hours of philosophical discussions that will surely make her hate reading and critical thinking for the rest of her life.

Why don’t you take her to see Kit, An American Girl Story or the Jonas Brothers in concert instead?


The Dark Knight. I give it 1 ½ Somoas!

Browny Dad

SEX AND THE CITY

The much anticipated Sex and the City movie has finally arrived and is on course to achieve summer blockbuster status. Here’s the short review. It is a movie only to the extent that it is shown in a movie theatre and projected on a screen. It is little more than an elongated episode of the beloved HBO television series. Fans of the show should love it, but I wouldn’t expect it to win converts from its detractors.

I fall into the latter category. In the four years since the popular series ended, our heroines, Charlotte, Miranda, Samantha and Carrie have not matured one iota. They continue to live shallow, decadent lives, not so much in their sexuality (as the title might well imply) but in their absolute self-absorption, and disconnect with adult responsibilities. They want for nothing and so invent problems to sabotage their otherwise enchanted lives. In their world, love is expressed through shoes, or jewelry or closets. Authentic affection is interpreted as presumptuous control. Bikini waxing is not merely a grooming option, but a sacrament of obligation. The characters are in an arrested state of adolescence and by film's end nothing has changed. Expect sequels as competent writers can tease out endless variations using the established formula.

I’ve been accused of being a curmudgeon and told that Sex and the City is meant to be light hearted adult fare, nothing more. I don’t see it that way. While there is a hint of farce, there is no irony and there is no satire. Furthermore, the movie, like the television show, attempts profundity through the musings of Carrie Bradshaw. Like everything else in the movie, Ms. Bradshaw’s brand of wisdom is as childish as it is facile and offers no authentic insight into anything.

I could respect it if it was infused with wicked satire in the spirit of Desperate Housewives. I could respect it if it was peppered with Shavian irony (read George Bernard Shaw’s play Heartbreak House. . . no seriously read it. . .I’ll wait. . .). There is the occasional laugh, but it is mostly shallow and pretentious. Bah!

For all my bluster I admit that I watched the HBO show from time to time, and for the most shallow reason: Kim Catrall might be in various stages of undress. But at least my shallowness is transparent. I am a shallow man, but I own it!!!!!!!

I will give the producers this much credit: The actors turn in fine performances and the writing, as always, is finely crafted. They did a superb job of transferring this tv show to the big screen with well-defined, consistent characters and dynamic plotting. Maybe that’s what irritates me most of all; that so much talent produced something so flimsy and hollow.

As I said, if you liked the television show, there’s no reason why you won’t love this movie, but is this movie appropriate for your Brownie daughters? Well unless you want your daughters to embrace the values of the idle, the childish, and the self-absorbed you might want to skip this one. You should also be aware that there is a fair amount of sex in this movie. There is explicit nudity, bodies engaged in all manners of physical love, threesomes, dog masturbation, pregnancy, sushi, potty talk and lesbianism. Now I’m good with all that for me, but I’m a shallow man. On the other hand, this is probably highly inappropriate for your Brownie daughters regardless of the presentation at your school's mandatory "Family Health Night."

Sex and the City

I give it 1 Samoa!

Browny Dad