El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

(spoilers!)

6 years after the finale of Breaking Bad we got the sequel focusing on Jesse Pinkman. I was worried how it will turn out, given how perfect the last shot of Jesse in the series' finale was. A lot of people are complaining that El Camino wasn't necessary. No, it wasn't. But that didn't make it any less enjoyable.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

Ted Bundy is one of the most famous American serial killers. In addition to the fact he killed so many women and in such a horrible way, he was one of those criminals who became pop-culture icons. The media was crazy about him, the women were falling in love with him and even after he was convicted, the media circus didn't stop. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (the title comes from the words the judge used to describe Bundy's crimes) takes a very interesting approach to Bundy's story in that it is told with a lot of restraint, not focusing on the nature of the crimes, but instead depicting how Bundy manipulated everyone around him.

Enemy (review + analysis)

(I'm starting  a new series, or to say more accurately, I'm creating a new label for the posts in which I ramble psychotically try to explain movies. It's called DECIPHERED and by clicking on it you can check out my other attempts at analyzing films)
One of the highest compliments I can give to psychological thriller, a gigantic puzzle of a movie is that I read about it extensively after seeing it, trying to put it together. I think it's now been 4 days I read about this one. And I'm still confused about some things.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

59/100 (129 min, 2011)
Plot: A nine-year-old amateur inventor, Francophile, and pacifist searches New York City for the lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father, who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Director: Stephen Daldry
Writers: Eric Roth (screenplay), Jonathan Safran Foer (novel)
Stars: Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock

If things were easy to find, they wouldn't be worth finding. 

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" deals with a subject that so far was a misfire when it comes to movies - 9/11 did not prove to be a material for good films. With the exception of "United 93" Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" and "Remember me" were disappointing. The success of Daldry's picture, which despite mixed reviews went on to score two Oscar nominations including the one for Best Picture may soon bring in a lot of movies based on the most shocking attack of last years. Is it a good thing? "Extremely loud and incredibly close" while being better than most movies on that subject still remains at many moments, a bad film.

Daldry is a very good director, but even he can't make a miracle happen. The story based on a novel by the same title is the main problem with the film. It unsuccessfully tries to mix what is real with what appears to be a fairytale - young boy finds a mysterious key in his father's closet. Before his father died in WTC he was the closest person to him - the boy, Oscar, is peculiar to say the least and his father was the only person in the world who knew how to communicate with him. He planned curious trips for Oscar, treasure hunts and elaborate expeditions, during which Oscar was going around New York trying to find out what his father hid for him. After his death when Oscar finds the key he is certain that this is one of his father's gifts for him and he is determined to find out what key opens.

Eden Lake

(91 min, 2008)
Director: James Watkins
Writer: James Watkins
Stars: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender and Tara Ellis

oh, Children!

Stephen Taylor (Michael Fassbender) invites his girlfriend (Kelly Reilly), a kindergarten teacher Jenny, to spend the weekend in Eden Lake, a paradisaical and remote place in the woods. However, his true intention is to propose Jenny. While camping at the lake shore, they are disturbed by a gang of loathsome boys leaded by the punk Brett. The next day, the couple realizes that they have been robbed and are stranded in the woods without their car. While walking through the forest trying to reach the road, Steve and Jenny meet the gang and they are brutally attacked. Steve is captured by the youths while Jenny is seeks a way out of the woods with the criminals chasing her.

I want to say upfront – I love kids. I want to have three myself. Whenever I turn on the news and I hear something bad happened to a child I instantly have tears in my eyes. But as I sometimes wonder about my future kids' possible names and how would they look like I always think of infants and kinder garden kids, never about the time when they start to rebel. Teenagers are hell, no matter where they are and who raises them. But hell has many different shades - there is a difference between smoking cigarettes in school bathroom when they are fifteen and torturing strangers when they are twelve.

“Eden Lake” tells a story that can happen to anyone and that is the most petrifying aspect of the film. When you're watching it you think that something like this cannot possibly happen in today's world, but then you start thinking and you come to the conclusion that sadly it is, in fact, our horrible reality – that children like those in the movie can be seen anywhere around us. Stephan and Jenny are a normal couple – she's sweet, loves kids as she is kinder garden teacher. He is trying to look like a macho in front of her, but as he wants to propose, he takes her for romantic weekend at the lake.

Eat Pray Love

(133 min, 2010)
Director: Ryan Murphy
Writers: Ryan Murphy (screenplay), Jennifer Salt (screenplay), Elizabeth Gilbert (book)
Stars: Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem and Richard Jenkins

Real problems? Banish!

A married woman (Julia Roberts) realizes how unhappy her marriage really is, and that her life needs to go in a different direction. After a painful divorce, she takes off on a round-the-world journey to "find herself".

"Eat Pray Love" is a boring version of "Under the Tuscan Sun" - here, same as in the movie with Diane Lane after emotional turmoil and personal drama a woman leaves everything she knows and starts her journey through strange land. Except this time, the main character is not interesting nor nice enough for the audience to sympathize with her. I never liked Julia Roberts, the only movie she didn't annoy me in was "Notting Hill" and that was probably thanks to how good the movie was, not to her. This time her character is already irritating, so casting Roberts didn't help.

Here is a woman who is successful, has nice husband and then hot lover, yet she still doesn't have enough. I don't have half of that and I'm content. And what about people who are sick, who have actual problems, not a bunch of high school meaningless crap? Well, I guess this is the kind of movie where real problems are forbidden. Roberts makes feeble attempts at acting and her prayer scene has got to be the most embarrassing moment of her career. Surprisingly, her character and performance aren't the biggest fails of the movie - that honor goes to many failed attempts of making the audience laugh, usually involving Liz's ex husband (Billy Crudup, for whom I felt genuinely sorry when he had to say all those pathetic lines).

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

(114 min, 2007)
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Writers: William Nicholson, Michael Hirst
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen and Geoffrey Rush

It's not love that conquers all. It's strength.

(spoilers ahead)

Nine years before „Elizabeth – Golden Age' premiered people all over the world got to see 'Elizabeth' and they all fell in love in Cate Blanchett – fair, porcelain, redhead with such force in her and so much acting talent everyone were knocked off their feet. Because Blanchett is, in fact, so interesting, she can carry a film all by her own. She can even make it a very good film, solely because of her performance. But one thing I cannot stand is when the movie has story, has characters and has brilliant actors. But what it doesn't have is soul.

The first part of the movie dealt with how Elizabeth became a queen, as a young girl, in love with someone who she cannot marry for political reasons, dealing with religious conflict her father and her sister (Bloody Mary – when will we get a decent movie about her?) provoked. The second part shows us mature Elizabeth with even bigger problems – despite two story arcs similar to first part, Elizabeth has to deal with great Spanish Armada and assassination plot that ends up in difficult decision to sentence to death royal blood, Mary Stuart.

Cate Blanchett is asked to do many things here. She is asked to portray a woman, who was one of the greatest rulers in the the history of the word, asking a simple pirate to kiss her. She is asked to portray her as jealous and vain. I was disgusted by some of the scenes, but not by Blanchett, nor by the character but how poorly the writers showed it and handled it. There is neither consistency here, nor respect for characters. Blanchett is too good for the movie and her performance, even in such poor circumstances is so powerful and similar yet in many subtle details different from her work In 'Elizabeth'. She has amazing moments – the speech she gives to her troops before the battle and when she shows how wonderfully temperamental Elizabeth really was - “I, too, can command the wind, sir! I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare when you dare to try me!”. Not to mention the murder attempt where the shooter is staning in front of her with a gun and she just stands her in all her might and glory. I was surprised he actually took a shot, I don't think many people would.

What stuns me is that he story structure ad character development is poor but the dialogues are beautiful, there are so many memorable lines from the movie but my favorite is without any doubt “We mortals have many weaknesses; we feel too much, hurt too much or too soon we die, but we do have the chance of love.” spoken by Clive Owen.

Elegy

(112 min, 2008)
Director: Isabel Coixet
Writers: Nicholas Meyer (screenplay), Philip Roth (novel)
Stars: Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz and Patricia Clarkson

The biggest surprise in a man's life is old age.

(spoilers)

David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) is growing old. He's a professor of literature, a student of American hedonism, and an amateur musician and photographer. When he finds attractive Consuela (Penelope Cruz), a 24-year-old Cuban and his student, he sets out to seduce her.

Isabel Coixet makes the most beautiful movies about dying. “Elegy” is based on the novel “The Dying Animal” by Philip Roth – it is centered around older man who is aware of his age and how fast the life is running away from him. Kepesh is self-centered, hedonistic and arrogant man who at first just wants to sleep with Consuela. But with time he will be enchanted by her – in the first few weeks he will treat her as any other trophy – he adores her, calls her “work of art”, is jealous of her, follows her. He behaves as “child being possessive of its toys”. But it's only after losing her, because of his fear, immaturity and the lack of courage to face the real world consequences of being with someone, he will realize how much she meant to him.
The character of David is not very likeable, but because of terrific work from Ben Kingsley you really want to know what will happen to him and at some points of the movie, you wish what will happen is good. He may be egoistic, but which one of us isn't. He is frustrated with the passing time so he creates his life to be as pleasurable as it may be. Can he blamed for that? No. At least he is being honest – he leaves his marriage when it stops working out for him, which is not a good thing, but at least it's an honest thing. But he doesn't realize he escapes one prison to build another one, one he will not even know he's locked up in – his own illusion of control. He creates the “perfect” relationship with his friend Caroline (amazing Patricia Clarkson), with whom he was sleeping for the past 20 years. It works for him and for her too. But this haze, this illusion of things working out must perish at some point and it does. That's when David and Caroline have their first real conversation – real because they don't hide they fears and regrets, because they finally are honest to each other.